Category: Games

Games

Happy Halloween

Check out this year’s list of scary game demos. Remember, lights are for sissies:

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Condemned Demo: Utilize brutal and gruesome weaponry to dispatch sociopaths who lurk on the periphery of humanity in First-Person Shooter Condemned!

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F.E.A.R. Single-player Demo: Along with its F.E.A.R. Expansion Demo, expect to be crying for your mother when you meet creepy little freakshow Alma face-to-face.

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Silent Hill 4: The Room Demo: How about a little visit to Silent Hill, the creepiest place on earth. Also play our Silent Hill 3 Demo – a psychologically disturbing experience.

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DOOM 3 Demo: Demonic forces from hell? Check. Spooky demented research facility on Mars? Check. DOOM 3 a horrifying experience? Double check.

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Resident Evil 3 Demo: The faceless evil of the Umbrella Corporation is loose on the streets in the form of mutated undead. Kick their ass in this Resident Evil 3 demo!

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Undying Demo: As Magnus Wolfram, master of the occult, discover a dying family whose degeneration threatens the fabric of reality in Clive Barker’s Undying.

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System Shock 2 Demo: After waking up from cryogenic sleep aboard a spaceship filled with dead people, fight your way for survival among “The Many” in System Shock 2.

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Aliens Vs. Predator 2 Single-Player Demo: Three diverse and bloodthirsty species battle for survival in Aliens vs. Predator 2. Beeping of your equipment may be the last thing you hear.

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Sanitarium Demo: Spiraling upwards out of the void, you open your eyes and struggle to comprehend your environment. Welcome to Sanitarium.

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American McGee’s Alice Demo: The Wonderland that you knew from childhood has gone horribly wrong. Demented cats, disgruntled playing cards and little girls with knives – Oh my!

If you missed last year’s list you can find it here. And don’t forget to check out GT’s Top 10 Scariest Games.

Games

Xbox 360 Dashboard Update Tomorrow

Yup, the new dash update is almost here. Here are some of the big changes:

Expanded HD Display and Video Playback Options

  • With 1080p resolution, you now have the ability to enjoy both game and video content in the best high-definition resolution currently available.
  • Expanded video playback options increase the ways you can enjoy video content on Xbox 360. It is now possible to stream WMV video from a Windows PC running Windows Media Player 11 or Windows Media Connect.
  • You can now play video files from data CDs and DVDs, as well as from storage devices like USB 2.0 flash drives and Xbox 360 Memory Units.
  • Xbox 360 will support 50hz HDTV display modes, providing a much greater choice in how you watch DVD and HD DVD content.

Xbox Live Arcade Enhancements

  • Keeping up to date on Xbox Live Arcade games is now even more convenient with the ability to automatically download newly released Xbox Live Arcade trial games. This eliminates the need to manually search for new downloads on Xbox Live Marketplace each time a new game trial is released.
  • With the fast enumeration of games, see the games in your Xbox Live Arcade collection appear almost instantly. Get in and play right away.
  • With so many games to choose from, Xbox Live Arcade added new sorting options such as “Recently Played” and “By Category.” These enhancements make managing Xbox Live Arcade collections faster and easier than ever.
  • A new expanded friends leaderboard within Xbox Live Arcade lets you compare yourself directly against friends and view leaderboard details of your top 10 friends.
  • A new expanded Achievements View within Xbox Live Arcade lets you view your full Achievement details for your Arcade games including descriptions, icons, allotted Gamerscore, and more, right from the Xbox Live Arcade dashboard interface.
  • The “Play Now” launch feature has been streamlined. Selecting “Play Now” after downloading a game in Xbox Live Marketplace now bypasses Arcade and takes you directly to the game.
  • Xbox Live Arcade now offers a “Tell a Friend” feature. Select this from the game info screen to send any friend on your friends list a message telling them about the Arcade game.

XNA Support

  • Amateur game designers will be able to test and play the games they create using XNA Game Studio Express on Xbox 360 systems when it launches later this year (separate download and subscription required).

These features are just some of the enhancements gamers and developers can expect as part of the fall update.

Check out the complete list of updates here.

There is some pretty cool stuff on that list, but I love that they added the ability to stream WMV videos. Also, the ability to play video files from data CDs and DVDs is just awesome. Now I can watch RvB episodes (among other things) on my TV without having to burn them to a disc.

I am also pretty happy that they are updating the Xbox Live arcade area of the dashboard. That section definitely needed some updating, especially when you have multiple arcade games.

The update will head your way after 0200 PT Tuesday morning. If this whole ‘update’ thing is new to you, don’t worry…it’s quick, free and painless. Next time you login into Xbox Live you’ll get prompted to receive the update…it’s that easy. There is no way to force the update (and, regardless of what you have heard, it’s not geographical based.) So sit back and relax and it get ready for the update sometime after 0200 PT Tuesday morning, October 31st.

Games Video 2

GT’s Scariest Games

With Halloween fast approaching, many gaming sites are busy writing their Halloween features. Gametrailers just came out with their list of the top 10 scariest games of all time. While their list is far from perfect, I do agree with a few of their picks. I was happy to see that System Shock 2 made the list, though I would have given it first place. I am also happy to see that F.E.A.R. didn’t make the list. While the combat in that game was cool at times, it wasn’t scary in the slightest. Anyway, if you are looking for some scary games to play this Halloween, check out GT’s list and then head over here to check out last years list of scary game demos.

Games

Pirates vs. Publishers

1up.com has a pretty good article up that looks at different methods of anti-piracy (mainly StarForce) and whether or not they are effective. I have been boycotting any game that is using StarForce for quite a while now, which is why I was extremely happy when Heroes of Might and Magic V dropped it. The article does a pretty good job of pointing out reason why everyone should boycott it, and gives arguments against using copy protection at all. I don’t advocate piracy, I believe it severely hurts the game industry, but anti-consumer products like Starforce are unacceptable as well. Here is a small excerpt taken from the article:

Space Rangers II is a fun game that integrates old-fashioned gameplay with a well-designed and cool setting. But is it worth the risk of your having to reformat your hard drive, your DVD drive failing to function, or your system just not recovering from the uninstall when you’re done with the game? Your friendly local videogame store — which is probably only one or two of those things — isn’t likely to mention that you can buy the game entirely online and avoid all those risks, without even having to leave home to pick it up or waiting for a delivery. Copy protection and digital distribution are changing the contours of gaming’s landscape, but what’s actually going on?

Lock it all down!
Copy protection’s specific methods are kept secret by necessity in order for the manufacturers to have a product to sell, but the majority of games’ copy protection schemes revolve around requiring that the game’s disc be in the drive when the game is played. While considering how outrageous it would be to require the disc of Photoshop or Word to be physically present to run those pieces of software, let’s look at the three main venues of hacking a protected piece of software that need to be guarded against for software protection to work. One-to-one copying, emulation of the protection software, and straight hacking are the key things a copy protection manufacturer needs to guard against. If someone can copy the game disc freely, easily generate the code necessary to gain the program’s trust, or run the game without the disc in the drive, then the copy protection software has failed.

The goal isn’t to encourage people to be honest, or to drive innovation in the hacker community, or to be an irritant because you’ve lost your CD and want to play. The goal of a publisher in picking a copy protection service is to make more money by selling more copies. The logic is that if it’s impossible to pirate the game, then people have to buy it if they want it. Why doesn’t that work?

If your copy protection is StarForce, then it doesn’t work because people are boycotting your copy protection. StarForce, which installs a hard-to-remove driver onto your computer, has an unproven but generally accepted track record of causing computers to slow down — at best. Some reports have complained of permanently damaged physical drives or hard drives. The company’s $10,000 prize contest required a user to travel to their offices in Russia and demonstrate StarForce’s causing damage to a computer to claim the prize, and the official site mostly used the contest to help sell related products.

StarForce is merely the worst example of the impact copy protection has on the consumer and the publisher, where it actually drives people to not purchase a piece of software they might buy otherwise. When Ubisoft put out its public beta of Heroes of Might & Magic V, the inclusion of StarForce sent the fan community into as big a fit as the gameplay issues. Add in such general class act behavior as posting links to pirated copies of unprotected programs to demonstrate the necessity of copy protection, and it’s easy to see why Ubisoft, Aspyr Media, and CDV Software have replaced StarForce with programs like SecuROM and TAGES. What’s hard to understand is how why the argument for the necessity of copy protection wasn’t addressed instead — the argument that led to the infamous StarForce company post that linked to the pirated file torrents.

1up.com: Pirates vs. Publishers

For the rest of the article click here. For more reasons to boycott StarForce, visit here.

Games Reviews 1

Saints Row

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Welcome to Stillwater, a modern American city full of great food, commerce, and unrestricted gang warfare. With the 3rd Street Saints, Vice Kings and the Carnales waging a city wide turf war for supremacy, there has never been a better time to visit.

The game opens up with your customized character getting caught in the crossfire of a gang war. You are saved by Julius, the leader of the 3rd Street Saints, and are recruited into his gang in an effort to clean up the streets. The first couple of missions serve as a sort of introductory sequence that teaches you the mission structure of the game and introduces you to some core characters. The game has three different story arcs, one for each rival gang, for you to tackle in whatever order you would like.

After each story mission you must build your respect before you will be offered the next one. There are numerous ways to build your respect, but the easiest way to do it is to take on various side missions located throughout the city. These missions range from drug trafficking to street racing. The activities get harder as you complete them, maxing out at level 8 and awarding you a prize such as unlimited shotgun ammo at your crib or taking less damage in car crashes.

Almost all of activities are pretty fun, but the two most enjoyable are probably mayhem and insurance fraud. In mayhem, you are tasked with going to a certain area of the city and causing as much damage as you can within a certain amount of time. You are always given a few weapons with unlimited ammo and bonuses for destroying certain targets. Destroying everything in sight with a rocket launcher on mayhem’s level 8 is one of the most enjoyable moments of the game. In insurance fraud, you attempt to throw yourself in front of traffic to collect money from lawsuits. You earn bonuses based on things like air time, hitting police cars, and the number of witnesses.

Besides those side missions, there are a few other ways of gaining respect. Robbing any store you want will give you a small amount of respect. Tagging over other gang’s graffiti will also net you some respect. To help you speed up the time it takes to earn respect, you can spend your money on clothes, jewelry, and tattoos for your character. These items give you respect bonuses when you complete missions. Overall, the side mission system works pretty well. It creates a good pacing for the game, preventing you from blowing through the missions in just a few hours.

Besides allowing you to unlock new missions, as you gain more respect you will be able to recruit more “homies” (up to three at one time). “Homies” are friendly gang members which will help protect you by shooting out of car windows while you drive and following you around on foot. They do a pretty good job of helping you kill whoever is attacking you and hardly ever get stuck on objects such as trees. When they die, you have thirty seconds to revive them before they are permanently dead. At first this sounds like it would make the game too easy, but the “homies” are not overly effective, and don’t take too much to kill. If you had to go find new ones every time one of them died, it would become pretty frustrating. So having 30 seconds to revive those that died turns out to be pretty convenient.

When you are not building up respect, you will literally be taking back the city block by block. Completing a story mission in a certain area of the city will put that area under the control of your gang. Controlling areas of the city actually has some impact on the gameplay. You will see friendly gang members patrolling the streets, providing you a safe area to run to if you are being chased by police or enemy gang members. Controlling different districts also gives you money every day that you can get from your safe back at your crib. The more territory you control, the faster you gain money. You also get new save points as well. The game allows you to save whenever you want, placing you at the closest save point from where you saved when you reload the game. So controlling more save points is definitely nice. Sometimes rival gangs will attack territory that you control, at which point you need to stop whatever you are doing and rush there to help push back the attack. If you wait too long, you risk losing your territory. This is a nice touch, and makes you feel like you are just one small part of a larger turf war.

The story missions themselves are pretty well designed and not overly difficult or annoying. There were many missions in Grand Theft Auto 3 and Grand Theft Auto San Andreas that I personally found extremely annoying and simply not fun to play. While the missions in Saints Row are challenging, I didn’t run across any annoying missions like those in the GTA games. I always felt like I was making progress. The cinematic sequences for each of the missions are pretty well directed. The voice acting is great as well. The storyline turns out to be memorable and one of the highlights of the game.

While playing the game, it’s safe to say that you will be doing a lot of driving and shooting. The game features tons of cars, all with rock solid control. While none of them are real licensed cars, they all look different from each other and handle differently as well.

There is a pretty good selection of weapons in the game as well. Most of what you would expect to see is here, including pistols, machine guns, rifles, rocket launchers, grenades and more are present. The shooting controls are vastly improved over those of Grand Theft Auto, allowing you to control the player like you would in a first person shooter. You won’t find any lock on targeting here. This goes a long way in making the firefights much more intense and fun then those in GTA.

The game features other big enhancements over Grand Theft Auto, the most important of which is the map system. At any point during the game you can bring up the map to set waypoints and locate new activities and missions. You can sort the map by stores, activities, missions, strongholds, and cribs to make finding locations very easy. The on screen minimap will show you the most efficient route to your waypoint or next objective, which makes navigating around the city a breeze. This is especially helpful during fast car chases.

Another small but significant improvement is the ability to shoot enemies in cars through the windshield. So instead of having to fill the car full of lead to get it to stop, you can instead take out the driver with one well placed shot to the head. This is extremely useful while in car chases. Since you can drive and shoot at the same time, it’s not that difficult to shoot the driver of the car chasing you through his windshield.

Besides those gamplay enhancements, Saints Row is also packing some amazing visuals. The entire city of Stillwater is rendered in glorious high definition. Everything in the world is extremely detailed. The game also features pretty good looking lighting and real time weather effects. The cars in the game look excellent, especially the way they crumple on impact. When cars explode, they send pieces of metal and tires flying everywhere. The frame rate is mostly pretty solid, though it can take a dive at times when there is a ton going on. However, this never hindered my enjoyment of the game.

The biggest criticism that you could have against the game is its lack of originality. In my opinion, there is nothing inherently wrong with a game copying another, especially when it manages to improve on its inspiration. The fact that Saints Row sticks pretty close to the Grand Theft Auto formula means that inherits many of the good qualities of the GTA series, making Saints Row a pretty good game in the process. Since it does manage improve upon GTA in many aspects, it’s worth while for fans of the GTA series to play it. It’s probably fair to say that if you liked Grand Theft Auto then you will enjoy Saints Row. If you found some aspects of GTA annoying, as I did, then it may turn out that you like Saints Row even more. In my opinion, Saints Row is the best game of its kind to be released. When GTA 4 comes out later on it may vary well topple Saints Row, but until then, Saints Row is the king of free roaming action games.