Stop the press and be careful of low flying pigs, hell froze over: Duke Nukem Forever, the long awaited and never to be expected “When its done” game of 3D Realms seems to be alive… Borderlands developers Gearbox Software have taken over the development of the game and its alive now like it wasn’t for at least 10 years. At this weeks PAX convention they showcased the game in a playable demonstration (because lets be honest, do we trust demoreels about this game anymore? Nah…) which can be seen here in this UStream.
So yeah, seems its time to kick ass and chew bubblegum sometime in 2011!
What can I say about this game? When it first had its great initial release in 1995 it was included in an Amiga magazine(!) as a demo disk(!!) Yes, those were the days where we actually bought demos. The difference between this demo and any other demo which you played for 10 minutes and then forgot: This disk actually did not leave my diskdrive for an hour or so. Yes there was only one level/battle included and the AI wasn’t too sharp but the principle did capture.
15 years and several incarnations later the pink warriors are back with a vengeance: Team 17‘s newest release is called Worms Reloaded and is an enhanced version of the XBox 360 Worms 2 Armageddon. Its out exclusively on the online distribution platform Steam and uses their online play system which is a good thing seeing that Worms is and always was one thing, a multiplayer game.
So what’s it about? For people who really never heard of it here is a little synopsis. Worms is about, you guessed it, Worms. But they are not the peaceful sort of Worms, digging in dirt all day and getting squashed by careless pedestrians on a rainy day. No, this kind of worms is armed and dangerous!
You typically play on a computer generated landscape in 2D. At your hands are a myriad of weapons like Bazookas (the mainweapon in the game), grenades, airstrikes but also tools like pneumatic drills and blowtorches for digging bunkers and passages. There is a singleplayer mode with different challenges like going from A to B using your tools and weapons or simply eliminating the enemy, a bodycount mode which is about eliminating as many enemy worms as possible and the classic battlemode against the AI, which is (you guessed it) about eliminating your enemy team.
But the really interesting part of the game is the multiplayer as this is what the game principle was developed for. There is hardly anything more satisfying then raiding your buddies team with an airstrike or hitting their last worm standing with a baseball bat into the water (quoted by a sarcastic baseball fanfare played on an oldschool stadium organ).
Another strong and fun point in the Worms games always were the customization options, its fairly easy with a bit of artistical skill to make an image as a customlevel that can be played by the creator and anyone having that custom level in the right folder. Also the landscape generator is easy to use and provides the player with an endless ammount of playgrounds to keep the little pink buggers busy.
So yeah the game is fun. Period. Are there bad things?
Well there are some things that can take a bit of fun away from the game. It seems some people have still issues starting the game up, Team 17 stated that they will take care of the bugs in the next days (date of this review 28th of August 2010). A few bugs like slowdowns already have been tackled, I was not able to run the game on High settings before the first update a day ago, now it runs smooth as butter in 1920*1080 even on my low end onboard Geforce 8300 chip which usually has 800×600 as the maximum usable resolution for modern games.
Some people also complain about changed game physics as for example the Ninjarope which now behaves much more realistic then in previous games, but I think this is mainly meant to make people try different strategies then the ones they are used to.
So yes is it worth the money? Clear answer: It is. It costs below 20 Euros/US Dollars depending on your country, thats not much if you compare it to other fullprice titles which cost up to fifty and more bucks, Worms reloaded costs about as much as a trip to the cinema for two people without popcorn & cola and thats a damn good price for a fun game like this. You can however check if its for you as Team 17 released a demo which you can download at the Steampage for the game.
So what are you waiting for? Worms Reloaded gets a big fat thumbs up from our blog.
Massively multiplayer online games like World of Warcraft have systems in place to reward players for taking a little time away from the game, but few if any have directly penalized players for playing too long.
Here’s how the whole thing works. Once you begin training in a class, you have eight hours in which you can earn full experience. Once those eight hours is up, the amount of experience you earn will lower over the course of seven hours. At the end of those seven hours you will no longer be earning experience.
if you find this intresting the whole thing can be found at: Kotaku
Many players of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 were surprised to find their Steam accounts banned this past weekend by Valve’s anti-cheat software, more succinctly known as VAC. Valve president Gabe Newell says that was mass banning a mistake and offered an apology to those affected.
In addition to restoring players’ access to the game, Valve is giving players a copy of Left 4 Dead 2 and one to gift to a friend, along with an explanation of how even players exhibiting good behavior were hit with the banhammer.
Today 2K Games announced that if you pre-purchase MAFIA II via Steam, the normal or digital deluxe edition, you will get Mafia 1 for free to play in the mean time.
Along with this new info 2K announced that Mafia II will not use Games For Windows LIVE as initially planned but, will utilise SteamWorks for online gameplay, liederboards, digital rights managment, steam cloud and achievements.
The original Mafia gained a cult following in the gaming world as being one of the best open world crime games next to Grand Theft Auto.
Today Capcom Europe announced that Inafune-san is working on Mega Man Universe for the 360 & PS3. the latest entry in Capcom’s long-running Mega Man series, will be a revolutionary take on the seminal classic, setting course for a new chapter in classic gaming.
Mega Man games are beloved by fans all over the world. Since their debut in 1987, Mega Man has remained a videogame icon, having starred in more than 140 titles over the last 22 years. The connection he’s made with pop culture at large has extended beyond games and into cartoons, toys, clothing, comics, and more. Part of that popularity is driven by the series’ ability to evolve over time yet consistently retain the addictive gameplay experience that sets Mega Man games apart.
For the next chapter in this legacy of excellence, Capcom aims to deliver the most creative Mega Man experience yet. In Mega Man Universe, imagination is the star of the game.
“We are thrilled to finally be able to announce Mega Man Universe,” said Kenji Inafune, Head of Research and Development Management for Capcom Entertainment. “This game will break the mold and challenge the conventional wisdom of what a Mega Man game can be. When fans finally get to see it, I believe they’ll envision their most far-out Mega Man dreams coming true.”
Inafune is committed to helping craft a Mega Manexperience that meets the highest expectations of Capcom fans. Most recently Mega Man 10 echoed this fact when its classic design and compelling gameplay made it one of the most sought after digital downloads of the year. Gamers can expect Mega Man Universeto bring the core experience fans want while delivering on the promise of innovation that Capcom is known for.
Welcome to the American old west, the year is 1911 and the times are changing, welcome to the world of Red Dead Redemption. You play as John Marston, a former outlaw. When his wife Abigail and son Jack are taken by the government in exchange for John’s services having no other choice he must go out to hunt down his former gang members dead or alive and burry his past behind him.
You will traverse a huge part of America and even go beyond the border to a civil war thorn Mexico. There are 3 big areas in the game New Austin (Texas based area) that you start in, Nuevo Paraiso (Commonly called Mexico within the game) and West Elizabeth (I think based on New England or West Verginia) each filled with towns, gang hideouts, camps, farms, and a lot more that I will try to cover as best as I can.
1st I want to talk about Story missions, they are the meat of the game and yet barely even scratch the surface of the game. There is a lot of variety you will be doing things like herding cows, capturing horses, night guard watching, horse racing, chariot racing, plain gang shootouts, helping smuggle TNT, hunting animals, high jacking trains and more. The best thing is even if you are doing a very similar mission it never feels repetitive. Before and after a mission there are quite large dialog sciences, and even when you are riding on you’re horse the speech conversations sometimes seem to drag on but mostly they are interesting to listen to.
The horse riding is easy but it took me a while to get used to it. You tap the A button to make you’re horse go faster and than you hold it to maintain your speed, the thing is if you make you’re horse too frustrated by kicking him to go faster he will eventually kick you off the settle. If you are riding with NPC’s or Online with your gang you just hold (A) and the horse automatically maintains the speed and even turns a bit for you so you can listen to the conversation and not worry about getting off track.
Once you are done with the story missions (or when every you don’t want to do them) you can go and do other things like, playing poker, blackjack, liars dice, go watch a move (there quite entertaining), pick flowers, search for hidden treasures, go hunt animals (you can skin them and sell these on the local market for money) play a round of Horse shoe toss or 5 finger filet (always fun) and if you are lucky you might meat strangers that want favours from you such as (finding other people, gathering flowers, buying properties from them and more). Than there are random events, you might be in a town and some stranger asks you “Hey mister my horse has been stolen” you can than chose to go help him or leave. If you help him you earn fame and reputation. Wandering about can also lead you to a gang hideout, if you clean this out you earn money, fame and how knows you might find some nice weapons and other loot on the way. Also another thing is than an NPC can challenge you to shoot down 5 birds in a row, race or even a standoff like in the old west movies, also you may want to check the local sheriff’s office for wanted posters.
With such a huge world to explore there are bound to be a few bad things that come with it. And yes there are, let’s say you are hunting bears and you have 5 bear skins collected, you die, than you start off at you’re last save point with no bear skins. You have camping equipment with you that you can save you’re game with but that means having a 6 hour time skip. So all random events and animals may be now in different places. Another thing that bugs me is you don’t have the ability to swim, as soon as you go head deep into water you die and sure there is texture pop in and other stuff but that is to be expected from such a huge game, and it does not ruin the experience.
Wild west games are far and few between these days and if you want a cool experience there is no better game to play this year than Red Dead and I didn’t even touch the multiplayer yet wich is a game on it’s own. If you own an Xbox 360 or PlayStation 3 pick this game up, you won’t regret it and for PC players, rumour has it Rockstar might bring it out to PC in autumn this year.
Take me down to the Paradise City… when you are playing Burnout Paradise you will hear this song over and over and over… even if you like Guns’n Roses usually it will clog up your ears in a little while and you wish the song was never recorded. But then it kind of fits what is to come. I will refer to the “Ultimate Box” PC version in this little review, though the game generally is the same on all platforms available.
Burnout Paradise is the latest game in the Burnout series, originated from the Playstation 2 system. It is made by Criterion games who also are producing the latest Hot Pursuit title that was introduced at E3 this year. It is an open world game, much like Games as for example Grand Theft Auto or Driver which let you freely roam a city/area without having to stick to levels or racetracks.The most prominent difference between Paradise and the aforementioned games: This is a pure racing/stunt game. No running around and killing people, no cutscenes with gangsterbosses who hire you to drive their minions to a bankrobbery and escape from the police… this is just pure fun and about going wild on the streets so that the game also can be enjoyed by younger audiences. The cars also have no driver, which might be a bit irritating but leaves you with the good feeling that no actual person gets hurt, and there will be a lot of accidents in this game!
Paradise City is compromised of several landmarks, there are races and events on every trafficlight and all the player has to do is to drive up to a crossing and push the brake & gas buttons, then the event gets started. Those races range from simple “Go from point A to point B” contests over stuntruns that require you to rack up points by doing jumps, flatspins and similar things up to Marked Man or Takedown races which have the objective to trash as many opponents from the streets as given or (in the case of Marked Man) to avoid your contestants while they try to shove you from the street. Prices are generally new cars and an upgrade to your driving license which ranks from the beginner status up to the Criterion Elite license which is the highest goal you can achieve in this very comprehensive game.
Apart of the regular missions described above there are also side missions like for example trashing all red Burnout signs in the city, breaking through yellow fences, discovering new hidden areas which can be used for stuntruns and similar things.
Ofcourse as any other modern racing game Burnout Paradise features an online mode that enables you to race with your friends or just random people playing, there are missions available that the host can start or you can just have a fun time trying to crash each other from the road.
Ofcourse, where so much light occurs there have to be shadows. While it was originally and mainly was conceived as a console game (XBox 360 and PS3) the game has been ported to PC but the surface still is the one from the console versions, which can be irritating at some times. The menu is being operated by the F1/F2 keys (page back and forth), the exit option was hidden in there so some people (me included) had a hard time finding it firstplace. Secondly, the title track… while I like classic rock I never was a big Guns’n Roses fan and Axl goes on your nerves after a while when he wishes to be taken down to Paradise City, “where the grass is green and the girls are pretty” EVERY SINGLE TIME you start up the game.
Another point is that Criterion apparently does not plan at the moment to release some of the downloadable expansions that are available for the console versions. Though I personally can live with this I would surely like to see Big Surf Island appear in my game some time though.
But this seems like nitpicking taking in the sheer size and ammount of vehicles which the regular version of this game already includes. I personally love this game, it has a lot of surprises and secrets to discover, the online play is fun and the scenery is just gorgeous to watch… from the downtown harbor area in the west to the mountains in the east there is a lot of stuff to see. If you liked the other Burnout games or Driver/GTA and always found the racing aspect more fun then the story then check this game out! It is available for 10 Euros here so I suppose it can not be much more expensive in other countries. Steam also sells it and there is always the EA store which you can buy it from directly in front of your PC.
