A very telling and well thought out post by Andy. I’ll be leaving my comments over at his site for continuity when this thing hits the fan 
Archive for the 'Gaming' CategoryPage 3 of 13
If you don’t buy The Orange Box this year you are quite literally INSANE. Comprising of Half-Life 2, Episode 1, Episode 2, Portal and Team Fortress 2 makes for INSANE value for money. There is not a better deal out there. Buy it now!
Team Fortress 2 I have been playing excessively since the beta first started and would say it’s worth it for that alone. Multiplayer shooters have come out at that price individually before - Shadowrun anyone? But this is on another level to that particular game as there is something for every type of player from casual (medic, engineer) to the hardcore (soldier, spy) and it’s so much fun.
I finished Episode 2 yesterday and as usual the quality is sky high. Valve is all about polish polish polish and this instalment just shines. The plot was explained much better this time around and definitely gave off a middle of the trilogy feeling what with the not so happy ending. Alyx remains the most convincing in game character I have ever seen and, by your side or not, much of the story rests on her convincing performances. I hope Episode 3 isn’t far away but Valve being Valve they could make us wait another 16 months for the next instalment.
Last but not least is Portal which I completed in one sitting. Compelling, original, funny, twisted and more. We all knew the technology was there to make for a great puzzler but they went a step further and crafted something with character and depth. Also being set in the Half-Life universe (at Apature Science, Black Mesa’s rival) is a great idea and it would love to see some overlap in Episode 3 down the line.
Good work Valve! I look forward to the next box whatever colour it is.
Jim over at RPS has an excellent write up on the potential of a “World of Evecraft” style game. I totally agree.
Gordon Brown and David Cameron - leave the games industry alone unless your are going to get off your arses and support it financially like you do the film business. The latter of which has brought us such timeless classics as SAW and HOSTEL.
The British Medical Association - before you open your mouths why don’t you read ACTUAL FACTS AND STATISTICS about MMA before regurgitating the same crap the sensationalist main stream media wrote 2 years ago. The argument is so far beyond ‘human cock fighting’ now you make yourselves look redundant and obsolete.
…finished. Evil ending 
I went for the PC version in the end. Ran like a dream on my HD 2900 XT fully maxed out.
This one is driving me crazy. As an owner of an Xbox 360 and a PC with a DirectX 10 compatible video card I can’t decide which platform to get Bioshock on. The hype has reached such a high level this week that I just can’t wait to play it. I have already preordered the 360 version but now I’m thinking I should get the PC version instead. I like achievements and I like relaxing on the sofa but at the same time I want the best graphics possible with room for future expansion. If I can make my mind up I then need to choose between regular edition, steel case edition and bid daddy figurine edition. Ahhhh!
On no now it’s on Steam as well!
Yes there was a PC based Blade Runner game released in 97. Not many people played it but I did. It was awesome and now PC Gamer have finally given it a new write up. The authenticity, the scope and the feel of the game was very unique. I always felt like I was doing real detective work rather than simply clicking on the correct pixel (or in this case voxel) to find up the next item. The branching stories and multiple endings meant that you could replay this one several times over. I did last year, and once you get over the somewhat dated graphics it still holds up as a very deep game.
Shouting “enhance” at the screen has never been so much fun.
Finally, the studio is asking that Epic be forced to surrender all profits garnered by Gears of War as a result of misconduct.
And the reason,
“That advantage was nowhere more evident than at E3 2006, where Gears of War was awarded ‘Best Game in Show’ and garnered nothing but laudatory press,” the suit reads. “By contrast, Silicon Knights–one of the only other developers to publicly display a playable demonstration of its game–saw Too Human roundly criticized in the videogame press for its technical problems and generally unpolished appearance. The damage to Silicon Knights caused by Epic’s misconduct was manifest, because E3 attendees were able to compare Too Human with another game running ostensibly the same game engine, Gears of War, with vastly superior results.”
So it all comes back to E3 2006 again. First they blamed the press now they blame the engine. I seem to remember another Unreal Engine 3 game called Rainbow Six: Vegas coming out in late 2006 and being very successful. Funny that.
This game has been in and out of development for 8 years. Something tells me they have bigger issues internally than they care to admit.
Yes it’s true Sony had a complete turn around from year and pulled out the best press conference of the big three at E3 this week. They provided fresh details on some of their well known titles (Killzone 2, GT5, MGS4) as well as making a few interesting new announcements that might shake things up a bit (UT3 and Haze timed exclusivity, Echochrome anyone?).
This left Microsoft a close second due to their focus solely on their 2007 line up. While they do have the best line up of games this year (Bioshock, Mass Effect, Halo 3, PGR4) the press event didn’t announce enough new stuff to get people genuinely excited about 2008. They do have Fable 2 and Too Human amongst other things waiting in the wings so it seemed strange to leave them out. The only thing that genuinely surprised me was the Resident Evil 5 trailer. Oh and that guy who came on to tell us about ScreenIt and Madden MUST GO NOW. He reminds me of a too slick used car salesman who has been on way too many marketing courses.
As for Nintendo. Well I hope all those ALPHA MOMS enjoy Wii Fit. I can see as each year goes by Nintendo moving further and further away from what their competitors are doing. Almost makes me wonder if they need to come to E3 any more.
![Futurama - The Beast with a Billion Backs [2008]](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/511PW90lDhL._SL75_.jpg "Futurama - The Beast with a Billion Backs [2008]")
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