Gamer's Aspect

Duke Nukem Forever delayed until June, no one is surprised

2011-03-26T15:56:00.003+01:00

So the inevitable delay for the newest caretakers of Duke Nukem Forever was finally announced. At least it's only for one more month and the game is slated for release in June.

Only one more month, right? Right?

Sony NGP not as powerful as the PS3, Pants safe from fire

2011-03-04T07:01:00.009+01:00

Not long after it's unveiling there were rumours circling Sony's upcoming portable device the NGP and how it was as powerful as the PS3. Sony platform research manager David Coombes explained it during the GDC with this lovely qoute:

"Well, it's not going to run at 2 GHz because the battery would last five minutes... and it would probably set fire to your pants."

So there you have it. If you were previously contemplating buying the Sony's next generation portable device when it came out but were worried that you would spontaneously combust, you can now put those fears to rest.

[Source: Gameinformer]

LG halts PS3 imports to Europe, consoles seized by Dutch police

2011-03-01T03:55:00.013+01:00

In the latest developments regarding a legal twist between LG and Sony concerning a patent of the Blue-ray technology the Korean company has managed effectively stop the import of all Playstation 3 to Europe.

LG won a preliminary injunction (big legal word!) against Sony in the civil court of justice in the Hague earlier this week to the. This has led to the seizure of all PS3's in the coming 10 days, but it could be extended further.

The injunction to stop the import of the consoles covers all of Europe, but as Schiphol and Rotterdam are the main cities for import for this particular product Dutch police is now stockpiling the merchandise as it arrives. Theoretically LG could file for having these machines destroyed, but there's no indication of it thus far. More than likely LG wishes to have Sony pay them compensation for violating intellectual property.

People believe that the current warehouse stockpiles of PS3s will last for 3 weeks or so before they run out so if you were thinking of buying one, now might be the time to do so before they become scarce.

[Source: Ars Technica]

Profanity ahead!

2011-02-04T08:03:00.001+01:00

Hail to the King baby!

2011-02-04T08:02:00.001+01:00

Deus Ex: Human Revolution Extended Trailer.

2010-12-14T10:39:00.003+01:00

An extended, or "Director's Cut" trailer for Deus Ex: Human Revolution has come up on IGN, check it out below!

More Deus Ex: Human Revolution Videos

Always struck me as very interesting that they chose to make a prequel rather than a sequel.

Retailers threats with Steam ban.

2010-11-11T12:41:00.003+01:00

The article, here: http://www.mcvuk.com/news/41746/Retail-threatens-Steam-ban

What I can make out from the article is simply this:

Basically retailers have now realized that people still buy PC games, just not off of their miniscule, expensive and horribly supported shelves... and now they're pissed at Steam for filling the void that their fuckups created in the first place. As for other digital services not going too well - mayhap it could be because they goddamn suck and no one has even come close to Steam in functionality, design and accessability?

Seriously, stores and competing digital destributors have their failure on their own heads. As they are incompetent they have to whine and try to fucking crowbar themselves into the market somewhere in some greed-driven frenzy, desperately wanting a piece of the cake that Steam has been bakin' for some time.

All this does is making me want to buy more Steam games.

Contest, two videos!

2010-11-09T11:19:00.002+01:00

With the chance of winning an iPad! Two commercial videos have been posted, below, with more information!

Visit them, and check the uploaded videos out!

Ace Combat: Assault Horizon

2010-08-10T15:07:00.001+02:00

A trailer for Ace Combat: Assault Horizon has recently hit the net. I usually don't give a crap about flight simulators, or games in general involving airplanes, but this just kicked me in the teeth. It looks brutal in every sense of the word.

Check out the trailer. Perhaps there is something to look forward to here.

Borderlands adds achievements on Steam

2010-08-08T17:41:00.006+02:00

A few days back an new update arrived for Borderlands. Other than a note about added support for some Logitech brand equipment the only update is that you are now able to get achievements!

Unfortunately for those of you with a boxed copy, the achievements only works if you have the Steam version installed. So those of you with CD's out there are still out of luck.

There has also been talk with Gearbox about wether or not they'll be adding any other Steamworks support for the game (multiplayer anyone?). Sadly, this seems not to be the case. This does however point in the direction of a more Steam friendly version of the forthcoming Borderlands 2, something I bet a lot of people will enjoy.

No matter what the case, it's great to see ongoing support for a game almost a year after it's initial release. With yet another DLC on the horizon, things are still looking pretty good for this post apocalyptic shooter.

It has taken Forever.

2010-06-09T12:27:00.005+02:00

Earlier this week the homepage of Valve sported a cryptic message, only for a few minutes, but enough for the fans to catch it.

This possibly inclining 6.18.10 - that is the 18th of June 2010. What confused the fans even more was the presence of the EA and Take Two loggos. However, once a fan downloaded the picture off Valves homepage, minutes before it was taken down, and set to mixturing some with the contrast and settings of it, he realized that there was something else hiding in the darkness:

It is now rumored that Valve is to buy the rights to the Duke Nukem games, something that is bound to produce a lot of happy pandas. The notion of having Valve, masters of level design and (considering Team Fortress 2) gaming humor, making the game we've all been waiting for is nothing short of brilliant.

Now, just for the sake of nostalgia, the teaser trailer released so long ago:

Video Games | Duke Nukem Forever | Teaser HD

XBox 360 | Playstation 3 | Nintendo Wii

Let us see what tomorrow's going to bring. We've got no bubble gum what so ever, and there are plenty of asses out there.

BBC2 Kill Statistics.

2010-05-26T13:23:00.003+02:00

Earlier this week the statistics for Battlefield: Bad Company 2 killings were revealed. As expected by the community, the M60 is the most used weapon out there. Not surprising considering the effectiveness of the M60 - Magnum Ammo combination that most use for extreme stopping power online.

Naturally, these are statistics over Normal servers. Hardcore servers demand a completely different loadout. Enough ranting, take a look for yourselves just how you and your fellows get killed out there!

To be honest I had expected far more sniper kills, but considering just how bad most Recon soldiers are at their job, perhaps that's not too surprising. Regardlessly, this may shine some light in how the spray-and-pray people actually raise in ranks.

Untill next time.

Ash.

WoW Auction House exporting to your browser and iPhone

2010-05-19T22:25:00.012+02:00

Blizzard just gave the word that the beta for the remote auction house for World of Warcraft is now available on selected servers. This means that not only will you be able to access the auction house from your favourite browser through the WoW Armory, those of you lucky enough to have an iPhone or an iPod Touch will be able to use your handheld device to purview your autions as well.

The remote auction house allows you to browse the auction house on you character's server and get real time updates on any auctions you have placed. While these features will be available freely Blizzard will also launch a service with the innovative name "Remote Auction House" that will not only let you passively watch the auctions, but also place bids, create new auctions from items in your bag as well as collect gold earned from your auctions.

This service will have a separate cost of 2.99$ for every 30 days, however during the beta they are available for free. The beta however is only available on a few select US servers, but Blizzard has already stated that more servers are to be included soon.

For those interested in the app for your Apple handheld device, note that is merely an updated version of the mobile armory. For those of you who do not yet have the app, follow this link to get it for free from iTunes App Store.: World of Warcraft Mobile Armory

As of date the following servers are included for beta testing:

Anub'arak
Blackwater Raiders
Bladefist
Cenarion Circle
Cenarius
Darrowmere
Echo Isles
Fenris
Hyjal
Korialstraaz
Lightbringer
Maiev
Misha
Ravenholdt
Shu'halo
Sisters of Elune
The Forgotten Coast
Uther
Vashj
Winterhoof

[Source: Remote Auction House Beta Test]

Upcoming Dragon Age: Origins DLC let's you play as darkspawn

2010-05-06T00:12:00.011+02:00

Bioware announced today an upcoming DLC coming to their latest fantasy RPG Dragon Age: Origins where you get the chance to take a darker path than offered in the original game. The DLC plays out as an alternate story line and explores what would have happened if the main character died before becoming a grey warden and instead have Alistair commanding the troops of the ancient guardian caste.

You will get the change to take up the role of a hurlock darkspawn and fight for the opposing side. As a commander of sorts it will be your task to rally your fellow monsters and take ransack Denerim as you wage war upon Ferelden. No mentions so far of encounters with dwarven enchantment wiz-kids.

The Darkspawn Chronicles as the DLC will be called is going to be released later on this May.

[Dragon Age: Origins DLC]

The Humble Indie Bundle now live

2010-05-05T23:37:00.011+02:00

One interesting aspect of the indie gaming scene is the concept of "pay what you want" where you choose yourself how much you would like to pay for a title. Recently five developers banded together and has now released a complete bundle of five different games with just this payment option, but for a limited time. The Humble Indie Bundle as it is called consists of World of Goo, Aquaria, Gish, Lugaru and Penumbra.

As if picking the price tag yourself wasn't enough, The Humble Indie Bundle is also DRM-free and works on all three major PC platforms (PC, Mac and Linux). You even get the option to decide how much of the money goes to charity, in this case being the EFF and Child's Play. You also have the option to choose to give all of it to either the developers or the charity organizations.

A single of these titles alone would be a bargain with at this "price", and with all five of them in one package you will be hard pressed to find a better deal if you're even slightly interested in these games. You will need to hurry up though, as the deal closes in less than 6 days as of writing.

[The Humble Indie Bundle]

StarCraft II Facebook integration announced

2010-05-05T23:14:00.015+02:00

Earlier today Blizzard announced that they will be bringing Facebook integration. So far they have only told us that you will be able to add your friends from the social network site to your friends list on Battle.net.

Seeing how StarCraft II introduces Real ID, the beforehand hinted feature of tracking friends across multiple Blizzard games, it seems likely that World of Warcraft and probably even Diablo III will gain the same treatment.

The integration will be tested out in the beta "in the near future" with more features to be announced at a later date. So who thinks their Facebook page might start to get spammed with stats about your friends latest bunker rush?

[BATTLE.NET® AND FACEBOOK INTEGRATION ANNOUNCED - Blizzard Entertainment]

High Heels and Halos - Bayonetta Review [PS3]

2010-04-27T17:13:00.011+02:00

Did you ever wonder what would happen if you gave a witch the skill of ten martial artist masters, four guns and a catsuit and then set the forces of heaven upon her in a gory battle? Bayonetta gives you the opportunity to explore this scenario from the perspective of the witch.

Bayonetta is the latest of games from Hideki Kamiya (Devil May Cry) and Platinum Games (Mad World) published by Sega (Sonic). Landing on the Xbox360 and PS3, Bayonetta follows it's creators' roots as a full blown spectacle fighter. That is, a game where you beat people (or monsters) in spectacular and (sometimes literal) eye gushing displays of violence and/or finesse and bravado. Half the reward of fighting is how it looks and feels and realism takes a back seat while you enjoy the show.

Sex Appeal

Let's get one thing straight though: Bayonetta is the probably the most sexist, revealing and obviously flaunting AAA game to come out this year (or indeed that last decade or so). The main character wears revealing outfits and uses such suggestive gestures and mannerisms that they would make most chain mail bikini models blush and seem considerably plain.

Its virtues are twofold: it goes beyond the titillating and pretentious reverie and into the absurd and almost humorous territory. The main protagonist is a sex devil, and the game doesn't try to hide it. So if you're offended by partial nudity and various warm bean brews I'll save you some time and tell you that this isn't a game for you. If you however find the concept of using pole dancing as a sort of deadly attack amusing, read on.

Its second virtue is that the game doesn't rely on this. It's merely a choice of style.

I'm here to kick ass and lick lollipops. And I can do both at once.

Bayonetta is the main protagonist the game derives it's name from. Like so many other video game characters she finds herself lacking her memory except for but a few key pieces: she knows how to fight, she knows she's a witch and she knows a good deal of magic to boot. She rather soon finds herself being forced to fight the armies of the heavens as angels repeatedly tries to slay her and drag her into hell.

Oh, and she knows how to make magical lollipops that can heal or otherwise boost her powers. Go figure.

The story in it's whole is rather confusing, with various plot holes and probably won't make sense until you've beaten the game. Even then a second play through may be a good idea to get the whole picture. Many will probably like the overarching story, but what Bayonetta does well not only with the story but as well as most battles are the set pieces.

Bayonetta feels very much like a Japanese anime most of the time. From the quirky characters and humorous cutscenes to the over the top action in impossible scenarios. If you've ever seen an anime where the characters are fighting on a falling plane or exploding volcano it then comes close to some of the experiences in Bayonetta. In the opening sequence alone you're fighting on a falling clock tower against a horde of angels. What is really astounding is that it manages to pull this off quite well and then continue to exceed itself in grandeur and scale as the game goes on.

Hit Me Baby One More Time

While Devil May Cry franchise was indeed (in?)famous for being exceptionally hard and punishing on the player, Bayonetta seems to take a bit more lenient approach. The game is good at giving you feedback for when you're doing something right. Using the right type of combo will create bigger effects such as summoning a giant stiletto heel to crush your enemies. Dodging at the exact right moment will activate "witch time" where all your enemies will move in slow motion and let you dish out some due punishment.

To further accommodate learning the developers made the loading screen part of the experience as it works as your private training room. You have full control over the character and can train on any moves you have access to. Here you can find a list of combos as well as clearly see how you're executing them. It's a neat trick to make the loading times seems shorter and give you a good reason to hold on to your controller.

While the battles are indeed rather difficult for most players even on the "Normal" setting and you will most invariably die many times during the learning curve, the game is rather forgiving when it comes to save points.

Practically between every single battle you can expect to have your progress saved and in some cases such as the larger boss battles you may even find checkpoints being reached halfway through. While you're allowed to jump back in to your last checkpoint at any time if you die this will in the end affect the final score of the level. If you wish to unlock all items and climb the points ladder you'd better learn to stay alive.

Console comparisons

Showing off your high scores might end up being a local matter though as the online leader board rarely seemed to work on the PS3's I've come across.

While on the matter of hardware platforms, there has been rumours that the Xbox 360 version of the game has more vibrant colours as well as quicker loading times. Even if you install the game on a PS3 it seems to still have slower loading times, and seeing how the game was developed on the 360 and then later ported over to Sony's console this seems rather plausible. As I have been unable to compare it with it's Xbox counterpart I cannot verify the rumours and give you a definitive answer on this, but if you find yourself in possession of both systems I would recommend going for the Xbox 360 version.

The Verdict

Bayonetta is probably among the best of it's breed and it could very well take the throne depending on personal taste. The flowing combat with dramatic and over the top action nails the feeling of larger than life with a musical score that suits the setting perfectly. If you're interested at all in fighting games I'd heartily recommend picking this up as it's a vast improvement to many other titles in it's genre.

Pros:

Easy to learn, hard to master
Forgiving save points
Plenty of unlocks for longevity
Spectacular set piece battles
Great musical score
Amusing and intriguing story

Cons:

Intriguing but in the end annoying platform parts
Camera not always focusing on the action
Leader board not functioning properly
Confusing story

Blur

2010-03-10T12:46:00.000+01:00

Blur by Bizarre Creations (they guys behind Project Gotham racing) has opened its doors to a online beta on Xbox 360.

Video Games | Blur | Multiplayer Beta Trailer

XBox 360 | Playstation 3 | Nintendo Wii

Having played a fair bit of the beta unlocking all the cars, there is about 10 or so to try, with 6 tracks and 4 game modes to test out the beta is pretty good and shows off the game very well.

Now to get into the beta you first need a 360 and a xbox live account, if you dont have gold they throw in a 48-hour xbox live gold code when you get your beta key also.

Secondly you need to get a beat key.. As the beta has already started it may not be too easy to get a hold of one but you can try GiantBomb for one (you need a giantbomb user account though, its free to sign up though) Simply go to this site: http://www.giantbomb.com/blurbeta/
Log in to your GiantBomb user acocunt or sign up
Get your key then follow the instructions on the page for the next few steps.

In the end you have to make a blur account and then they email you the xbox download code which you just redeem on the xbox to download the beta. (its about 1.5gb)

Its something cool to check out and play around with and its a pretty fun racer game with a twist and certainly one to keep an eye on.

The Beta started on the 8th of March, and there is no confirmed time on how long it will be up but beta's don't last forever so you might as well try getting your hands on it if you want to give it a shot.

Review: Killzone 2

2010-02-22T18:14:00.020+01:00

I wasn't part of the initial storm of people who bought a PS3, mugged some poor sod outside Game in town, and ran home to play Killzone 2 on its release. I was poor at the time, I still am, but thanks to some awesome friends and a bit of whining I now have a PS3 - and I have played Killzone 2 from start to finish.

When it comes to FPS games I am the kind of guy who sits down and plays them through in one go. I'd do this with any games I come across, but FPS games have the decency of being short enough for it to actually be doable. I played Killzone 2 on the Veteran difficulty, on my first playthrough, and this is what I have to say about it:

Summed up, Killzone 2 is not remarkable, and certainly not the "Answer to the 360's Gears of War", it is in fact not even good. But it is a decent shooter with at least functionable controls, albeit one that suffers from way too many bugs and other problems along the way.

Before I even got to choose difficulty, I had found something that bugged the hell out of me with this game. The main menu is positively seizure inducing, moving with an erratic flickering and in-out of focus handling that would leave anyone with half a brain with a horrible headache if searched through for too long. Never the less, starting a new campaign solved this issue fairly quickly by taking me away from it.

Now I'm not sure if I was just severely unlucky with my game, but mine suffered from several issues that became all the more obvious during the cutscenes. Music could suddenly drop out, leaving the heroes of the game hurling down on their incredibly ineffective troop-transport pods in complete silence, save for a few exaggerated "WOA" and "HOLY SHIT" from the voice actors. While watching them defy physics while plummeting to almost-certain death without even as much as a sound did make me laugh, it also irked the gamer-side of my being.

Once on the ground, I finally got my first taste of a PS3 FPS, and I must say that the controls were suprisingly good. The cover system, while not generally wanting the same as me many times, -did- work and managed to deliver a compelling "hide - look up for pot shots and hide again" gameplay style which I have always imagined war would be like. In this sense, with the murky brown-grey environments of the generic next-gen shooters, Killzone 2 manages to make its war feel war-like. Naturally it must then also contain a vehicle section, a take-out-the-AA-guns section and some tougher-than-thou enemies to fight, which Killzone 2 does deliver, but not in any way that makes it stand out. I must say that while I had to grin and bear all the way, the game was a decent one up untill the rocket-heavy bullshit ending fight which took me a while to complete.

The actual shooting is competent, the guns carrying a quite nice feel to them, in particular the standard-issue assault rife you get during your first mission. Having said that, most cutscenes usually result in your arsenal getting switched into a pre-set one, making you lose whatever you've picked up on your way there. A rather huge minus for me, as I like bunkering up on enemy guns. Having the scraps you pick up replaced with a full mag and some weapons from back home each time you walk through a bloody doorway kind of removes the feeling of the war being as dire as it tries to be.

Praise being out of the way, I will instead have to bring up the points that hamper this game and keeps it from becoming more than a run-of-the-mill shooter. First off we have face animations, who are on par with Assassin's Creed 2, if not worse. Enemies and friendlies alike can spawn in plan sight, right before your nose, and if you're unlucky they'll put the butt of their rifles to your face while they're at it. The AI when entering a new area, in particular when climbing up, down or over debris makes it look like they stuck the motion sensors to a middle-aged man taking an afternoon stroll. It's done casually, with little regard for anything else except a seemingly desperate attempt to avoid breaking a hip-bone, and while this animation is playing the hitboxes rarely function as they should, bullets aimed at the enemy's abdomed resulting in headshots, headshots resulting in nothing, etc.

Enemies can at times, but in particular your AI partners can be seen sliding across the floor stiffly, as if on an invisible skateboard. During the few pauses one gets in between action, the "Eyes where the enemy is located" function of your AI partners can sometimes get some critical error, resulting in you taking a bit of a distance to your friend as his head starts spinning around The Exorcist-style, his facial expression still unchanging though. This coupled with your friendlies' constant need to shout one-liners and to brainlessly run into heavy machinegun fire doesn't really hamper the game as much as it could, seeing you're doing all the work anyway, but it destroys the immersion with a merciless effectiveness. Environment you have passed earlier on may, if you look back, seem to strangely fade away, and especially if you zoom in you will notice them slowly loading back into view. A clever way to save processing power, no doubt, but still an annoyance.

With the exception of all your team-mates trying to be Cole Train, some invisible walls that doesn't let you jump over debris or small fences, and your Commanding Officer having a god-damned cheese grater as neck protection, the game's overall design is fairly alright. The exception being that the Helghast must be sharing their Tactical Officer with Half Life 2's Combine, seeing their almost identical need to stack explosive barrels around key-points suchs as bridges, narrow passages and behind heavily fortified machine-gun nests, all for your shooting pleasure.

...Masochists, the entire bunch of them.

Killzone 2 is a stellar example of game makers having the ambition to create something epic but ending up copying long drafts from other games, and in the end not executing them better than the originals, all the way from the Halo-esque drop sequence in the beginning, to the Gears of War train scene, to the more than annoying boss battle by the end. It is a piece that holds some beauty, and clearly displays the will to make an impact on the player.

Yet Killzone 2, while not a terrible game, cannot honestly be called anything more than mediocre.

- Asrahn

Review: Torchlight

2009-11-18T03:09:00.000+01:00

Torchlight it will be appealing to a very specific market, its not here to reinvent a genre or bring anything new to the table. Torchlight simply aims to please those who loved Diablo.

With Diablo 3 seeming so far away (2011), Torchlight comes at the perfect time (For the price you can pick it up on steam for its a bargain!) The game at its most basic level is a point and click action rpg with a heavy focus on good old loot, colour coded loot to be exact, with items varying in quality (White ==> Orange). Loot quality is very simular to that used in most modern day RPG games.

The game starts you off in the first and only town Torchlight (Sounds like Diablo yet?) The town of Torchlight contains several NPC's some of whom are your basic quest givers along with several merchants and a storage facility. The town sits on top of the large dungeon in which you will spend nearly all of your time inside, however this single dungeon features a large number of different levels, and every 3-4 levels the tile-set of the dungeon will change so it never feels as if your just revisiting the same place again and again. With each tile set change so do the enemies change, you will face a set type or theme of enemy for each tile set, you will face a large number of enemies on each level and some pretty large bad ass bosses thrown in for the extra challenge and of course the rewarding loot.

Torchlight does stick very close the Diablo formula, but its not a bad thing its a very good formula! However Torchlight wasn't made on the largest budget and is not a game that sells for top dollar. On steam at current its going for £14.99 which is a great price for a great game, but the price does reflect what your getting. The storyline is weak to say the least, it feels as if it was just thrown in to give you another aim other than just mindlessly killing in order to gain better loot (although without the storyline killing for loot is viable enough!) The story revolves around a thing called Ember and how this magical ore is corrupting many of the things in the world (if it seems like im be brief on the story I'm really missing much out, that is basically what the story of the game is), the story is rather crudely progressed through use of a journal style narrator, which works but it just feels old fashioned in this day and age. The side quests, once completed once do repeat over and other simply sending you to a new looking zone or just offering a new reward, the list of faults could go on, but they are minor really especially when you consider the reason you really bought it.

Torchlight is a fix till Diablo 3 comes. Or at least a minor one.

Moving on from the story aspects lets get into the part where the game actually works well, the classes and game play. Torchlight features three classes: The Destroyer, The Alchemist and The Vanquisher.

Each class has its own individual talents of which there are three talent trees. However the class you choose does not limit you to what armour or weapons you can use throughout the game, as each time you gain a level or fame (gained by killing certain "larger" mobs and completing quests) you will gain a skill point to spend in your talent tree and also attribute points. These attribute points can be spent in any of the characters "stats", and all the classes have access to these stats, so you can chose the more melee oriented class and spend his points in "magic" if you wished, sure most of your talents would become useless but you are not limited by the game to how you chose to spend your attribute points.

Another feature of the game is the mandatory pet which every character must have, although you may not be a fan of pets in games this one is a god send. It requires very little attention, if it health drops to 0 in combat it will simple flee, causing it to run around aimlessly until a certain percentage of its health has returned, at which point it will just jump right back into the fight (although it then tends to flee again as it still gets battered up). The best feature of the pet is that it has its own inventory, with all the loot you will be getting your bag space will soon fill up. However instead of having to drop some loot on the ground to pick up a better piece you can move some of your inventory over to the pets. Now I'm sure your thinking then surely the problem of a full inventory is just being delayed, well the best part of the pet is you can instruct it to return to the town and sell all of the items in its inventory to a merchant in town and return with the profits. Upon sending the pet to town you can continue to play and a small countdown will appear on the pet window and when it reaches 0 your pet will return and you will gain a lovely amount of gold for your sold items.

Now on a whole Torchlight is a fun game that you can spend hours playing. However if you do play it stay clear of any of the difficulties under hard, as they are just far to easy and you will find yourself defeating some of the harder bosses in a few strike and you will rarely face any encounter that challenges you and you are left feeling like you should have to do more than what the game asks you to do.

One thing I wish the game would have is a co-op mode, even if it was a max of 2 players it would improve the game so much and add to the experience greatly.

So to cap it off Torchlight is worth it, and if your a fan of Diablo and want a more "updated" version of what basically is Diablo. It has its flaws like every game does but Torchlight is certainly worth picking up and for the price its a bargain to be honest!

(first review done....Hopefully it was adequate and worth a read)

Review: Dragon Age Origins

2009-11-18T02:05:00.011+01:00

Summed up, Dragon Age: Origins stands as a shining example of a modern role playing game done right.

Its story and gameplay is crafted for it to be easy on the eye, a gentle massage for your brain, and there is still a lot to gain from diving deeper in the storyline, exploring the colourful character's respective backgrounds - and not to forget spending hours just plowing through the finely detailed lore section of your in-game notebook. There is just so much to get, that if you fall for the game as I have, there are days of material to experience.

Gameplay wise you are presented with a fair amount of options. The three races you can choose are human, elf and dwarf, male or female makes no difference, and then it's all about class choices and, interesting enough, a choice regarding your background. Certain backgrounds are limited to certain races, and I found with slight disappointment that humans only have two different background choices, the second of them only avaliable if you play as the Mage class. Regardless, the idea itself is a nice touch that actually affects how people will react to you later on throughout the game, as well as provide for some interesting dialogue choices.

Regarding classes, the three base classes are Warrior, Rogue and Mage. These three eventually branch out into different specializations, counting a total of
4 unique choices. Two specialization points are acquired at level 7 and level 14 which thus enables a smaller variant of cross-class choices. Personally
I completed the game at level 22, having played roughly 50 hours and with a "36% of Dragon Age completed" status. I immediately jumped onto my second
playthrough, this time as a Mage instead of my previous Warrior. I got fully used to being very squishy about an hour later, having painfully experienced
that my loincloth and a robe alone aren't capable of stopping blunt or sharp metal.

Added to the trees of each respective specialization and class is also a crafting system, counting a number of traps through trap making, potions through herbalism and poison through poison making. Given enough time and care these can prove valuable for your continued adventuring, should you choose to spend your precious skill points to level them. Levels are acquired the usual way, through the completion of quests and the deaths of your enemies. Combat by the way, feels very nice and action filled - you keep finding yourself sighing deeply in relief when pressing the space button, thus being able to pause the game to assess the situation does not feel like a break in the action but rather a well-deserved breather, a chance to turn the situation to your advantage. Granted, there have been some points where the environment is just in the bloody way, but that can easily be circumvented by zooming out into a certain overview look which I have heard is unique for the PC version of the game.

Excellent voice acting and a fine execution of cut-scenes threads the game together in a nice cinematic fashion, one that actually gives the characters personality, and somehow compells you to actually care about them. I have as an example for the first time in my life grown attached to an elf, whom's cocky demeanour and sarcastic comments are just too witty and funny to ignore. Sure, he turned on me later on in the game as I didn't care enough for him to befriend him more closely, but I still liked the knife-ear while it lasted.

My favorite character though is a man called Alastair. I won't spoil too much for you, but I can pretty much say that he's the best Paladin-esque character ever concieved. Yes, it's the awesome guy here on the right.

Wrapped up, I could say that if you liked Mass Effect, you will love Dragon Age (in comparison) due to its enhanced dialogue options, dynamic and improved combat and just the cheer scale of it. I've played this game for hours, and I will keep doing so for what I reckon will be quite a long time. Admittedly the scale of the game also invited a few bugs to be present, but it's never so bad that you can't get past it, so it's overall easy to disgregard them all together. While the graphics aren't the best seen this generation, the engine does its job by delivering a compelling atmosphere through lightning and shadow effects that are just spot-on.

Dragon Age: Origins is one of the few games that has managed to tear me away from the ever-present giant World of Warcraft, and I aint complaining one bit - especially not while watching my mage setting everything and everyone on fire, all the while his portrait features someone who looks like he desperately needs a straight jacket.

If you're looking for a good roleplaying game, Dragon Age: Origins is almost guaranteed to satisfy your needs.

Dawn Of War 2 Chaos Rising - Dev Talk

2009-11-17T17:29:00.000+01:00

Something for you Dawn Of War fans out there. They actually touch on the corruption idea here, and it sounds pretty damn cool! So far atleast.

I hate gamespot but it was much easier to embed the vid off gamespot than it was Giantbomb(Giantbomb still are 100 times better).

The beginning of the end!

2009-11-17T14:24:00.000+01:00

What happens when you get a Swede and Irish together! fail will occur! An most likely the french will get insulted at some point!

Shin out!

More on Dawn of War 2: Chaos Rising.

2009-10-30T14:47:00.000+01:00

Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War II -- Chaos Rising at IGN.com

Just came across this trailer on IGN. If my eyes are not decieving me, I believe I can see Plague Marines amongst the chaos forces. This coupled with the news of a Librarian commander, and Chaos and Tyranid heroes added to the Last Stand mod, just makes me squeal like a little girl.

Man, I love this expansion already.

Your slavery to the false Emperor, ends today!

2009-10-03T18:36:00.001+02:00

The Great Enemy is here!

Let us see what Relic's gonna bring :>

Dawn of War 2: Chaos Rising

2009-09-23T03:01:00.000+02:00

As expected, the forces of Chaos shall join us. The biggest bets were between them and the Imperial Guard, but seeing they excluded them crazies for the Tyranids in DoW2 I actually had my money on Chaos all along.

More information to be found at http://community.dawnofwar2.com/index.php

Now, to wait for release information :>

Thoughts on Brütal Legend.

2009-09-18T10:42:00.000+02:00

Brütal Legend, created by Double Fine studios and our own, most brilliant Tim Schafer, will hit the shelves October 13:th this year. You play as the roadie, Eddie Riggs (as displayed on the game cover) and the game will feature everything in between good old hack'n slashing to strategy elements and a very RPGesque upgrade system for your various weapons. I admit that the metal theme is what got me hooked from the very beginning with, the general art style and great pieces of dialogue being the reasons soon following. Let's cut a long story short however.

Due to my pre-ordering of Brütal Legend I was blessed with a CD key, or as they like to call it nowadays "activation code" for trying the demo out early. Needless to say, I had my 360 start chewing up bandwidth on my already strained 8mbit line untill it eventually managed to download the 1.3gb large demo. Quit Army of Two immediately upon the notice, and started the demo.

I was actually shocked to find that even something as simple as the menu, before you even start the game, was probably the best designed menu I've seen up to date. You'll understand what I mean if you get the game, simple. Regarding gameplay I actually found it very enticing, use your axe to chop up dudes, use your guitar to send them flying or stun them using various pyrotechnics, drive your badass car (called the Druid Plow, for the record) and just go along with the flow of the game. The control is very responsive, easy to learn and pretty quick to master with a targeting system ala Zelda: Ocarina of Time and a dodge function that really works well. Different axe/guitar combos are at your disposal as well naturally, some certain techniques required to break through the enemy's pesky blocking whenever they think saving their heads is a better idea than to have a stab at Eddie.

To the right, Tim Schafer. If it hasn't already come across properly then yes, the demo met my expactations, exceeded them even by delivering a game that is not only humorous in the storyline sense but also very fun to play due to a very functionable and tight control scheme.

I can say with a slight twinge of pride that I don't regret my pre-ordering, and that I am now looking forward to the game even more than I did earlier.

I'll see you all in Rocktober!

Machinima at its greatest.

2009-09-13T12:41:00.000+02:00

Pillar - Frontline

The music video aint finished as you may have noticed. The guy's busy with other projects, but fething hell I hope he completes this at some point. Almost, -almost- makes me want to roll an orc instead of tauren.

But noes, a Tauren on a mechanohog will just be too epic to pass up on. That, and I have a brother coming along :>

Tropico 2: Pirate Cove

2009-09-13T12:20:00.001+02:00

Just recently I found this old game that Janeva gave me on my birthday a few years ago. I remember installing it, then whiping my harddrive the day after due to various reasons, and the game fell into oblivion. Yesterday I found it again, and thought "What the hell, why not?" considering it gave me vibes of having been fun back in the day. So I put it in, and what do you know, it was really damn fun.

Fer ye landlubbers, it be called Tropico 2: Pirate Cove.

It's old, it's pure fun, harder than Gears of War's endboss "RAM" - Hardcore version at times, and you play as a pirate! A pirate king, in fact. If you fail to see what is great about this game up to this point, you are fail. Why?

Because you ARR!

Sorry, had to get it out of my system.

Tropico 2: Pirate Cove employs pretty neat game mechanics with systems for building, resource management, keeping your pirates in check (IE: Happy), keeping your prisoners in check (Read: Scared), sending out boats on raids, exploration or whatnot as well as wide array of diplomacy opportunities. The game is practically packed with options and quite honestly I haven't had the opportunity to try them all out.

Up to this point however, Tropico 2 stands as a pretty solid, and just plainly fun game that I could probably invest a nutlot of my time into. Sure, it's hard as deep frozen meat, but that's kind of the charm with it as well. It's a game that belongs with the old school ones, where you are forced to actually get better at the game to get anywhere.

Now if you excuse me, I have some french trading posts to plunder!

"
Arr! What be that steerin' wheel by yer crotch!?

Arr! It be drivin' me nuts!
"

A new beginning.

2009-08-09T15:07:00.000+02:00

While I really like spewing random nonsense on my other blog I thought that it'd be a good idea to open up a window to what is mainly my gaming side.

You see, I have other ambitions, other ideas for my life than eventually reaching a degree in psychology. One of those would be to become a game reviewer, for while I may appear as highly cynical and sometimes outright rude in my demeanour I actually carry a genuine and almost unhealthy love for games in the deepest pits of my mind - it's in there, pitted together with the need to eat and sleep.

It is amongst my firmer beliefs that games are the ultimate rorschach test. Every finished product, sometimes even before they are finished, undergo a scrutiny so extreme it is rarely, if ever seen in other communities. It is science on a small scale, psychology on a grand one, whenever a game is released.

Whenever someone puts in the CD (or by all means, mounts the .iso file) for the first time, it is done with at least a tiny speck of preconceived opinion of the game you are about to try out, no matter who you are.

When installed and being ran, the game undergo test after test, its makers undoubtedly trying to rub the player's senses in the right way, sometimes very successfully, and sometimes the rubbing just goes the wrong way. Some people say that whether you like a game or not is entirely up to taste - I have to disagree.

Sure there are games that some people just find themselves incompatible with, but it is the almost preemptive opinion you built before playing that will, not wholly, but very much indeed decide whether you will think of the game as a good experience or not. Hence why I consider hype to be a dangerous thing, for even the most terrible of products can sell in copious amounts providing the company behind it has enough money for the necessary advertisement and publicity. I have lost count of how many times I've talked to people who at first utterly loved a game, then after a second playthrough started noticing faults. Suddenly they realize that the product perhaps wasn't all that great after all - indeed, I have experienced such myself on many occasions.

I must add that I naturally have experienced it the other way around as well. Giving a game a second or even a third and fourth chance can redeem your initially bad reception, sometimes even make you move it from your dark-corner-shelf to the stand right next to you on your desk.

Alas, essentially the only products I have a hard time liking can be wrapped up in a category that is a combination of "hype" and another category I call "one-timers", and I call this new unholy category "Surge games":

Games that force you to rush through the storyline, not caring for side-missions or anything of the likes - sometimes because the story is actually genuinely interesting, but mostly because the content is actually pretty bland, and you need that much more of it for it to actually be exciting. I could make a huge list of Surge games that I own, games that I have only played once, thought "Well, that was pretty nice" and then put on the shelf to never play again. Games that I have gone through once, perhaps played for days in a row, only to never touch again because there just aren't anything in them that you can't experience elsewhere, in a better and more interesting way. Games that just aren't great, but not terrible either.

I have played through many a game, high on adrenaline, for hours and hours at a time, only to put down the controller afterwards with a bland taste in my mouth - admittedly sometimes because I've been struck with the fact that such a wonderful experience is over, but when this happens it is mostly because I devoutedly think there should have been more. I honestly consider Surge games to be a terrible waste of potential.

Just one more mission, one more showdown, another even grander "last stand", one more railshooting sequence or by all means, one less escort mission, sometimes any one of these would have been enough to make me lean back and contently sip at my coke afterwards, controller still in hand.

- and maybe, just maybe, make me pick that particular game once more from my shelf during that rainy saturday night.

Heck, I can imagine the difficulties game creators face. An interesting storyline, game mechanics that actually are worth the name, adequate controlls, reaching certain heights that are high enough to be exciting but still does not make the rest of the game seem bleak, replay value, but most importantly the game must acquire an identity - something that connects the player and the game, be it a game mechanic like Gears of War's excellent cover system or just the plain feeling of Sid Meier's excellent Civilization games. Hell, music and sound effects can sometimes be enough to make me come back again and again. It's about having that certain IT, the (as our beloved Yahtzee says) immersion; things game makers can only acquire through devotion and the brilliance of their minds.

But I digress, I am drifting from my original point. The things you experience when you play a game are unique for that time, at that particular point, and for you and only you. Predetermined positions aside, even if the things you experience may actually not be there in the game, on purpose or not, it does not make what you feel any less real - and for me, that is enough to keep on playing.

Sorry for the inconsistent rant, just needed to get it out of my head. What I really wanted to say here is that I'll use this blog for any opinions that are related to games, be it reviews or calling bullshit on something.

Free from politics and everyday problems, this blog shall be about one of the many joyful bits of life.