The winter sale on Steam, extending through January 2nd, is ridiculous. BioShock is $4.99. BioShock is one penny less than five goddamn dollars.
I can't be bothered to find a New Year's related video so here's a couple clips of someone using a truly bizarre sound replacement mod for Valve's Left 4 Dead.
God bless us, everyone, and snap into a Slim Jim.
-K.
Wednesday, December 31, 2008
New Year's Eve Video: Left 4 Dead - Macho Madness
Wednesday, December 24, 2008
Christmas Morning Video: MST3K - Santa Claus Conquers the Martians
So here at work instead of getting Christmas Eve off we got President's Day, but that isn't stopping a large number of employees from taking the day off anyway, which includes my boss. So while I'm stuck here by myself until noon, and with the odds of me actually posting anything during the Christmas break being slim, enjoy this ridiculously large post of a festive episode of Mystery Science Theater 3000 with me and watch as Joel and the bots take on Santa Claus Conquers the Martians.
"I want to decide who lives and who dies." "...Oh, I don't know."
-K.
Friday, December 19, 2008
I'll Be Watching You
Just a heads-up that flawed-but-great FPS game S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl is now only $4.99 on Steam this weekend. If you don't already own it you can't beat that price.
-K.
Thursday, December 18, 2008
Well That Was Sudden
More sad news for the game industry as UK-based developer Free Radical, famous for the TimeSplitters series, is kaput. The studio started with a core group of ex-Rare guys, with the experience of N64 megahit Goldeneye behind them, they created TimeSplitters, an FPS with a similar forumla as a launch title for the PS2, which was met with great success. I don't believe you can chalk this up to a weakened economy as the two sequels were not met with equal enthusiasm, the greatly underrated Second Sight (It should hopefully still be a free title on GameTap, go check it out) went largely unnoticed, and the oft-delayed PS3-exclusive FPS money pit Haze became the death blow for the company. Not a huge loss, but rather sudden and surprising.
-K.
Thursday Morning Video: Dinner for Five
I don't really watch television, outside of an episode of Cash Cab or whatever else is on DiscoveryHD if I have nothing better to do, at least not a show that I am already aware of in which case I will be watching it online or purchasing it on DVD. Like any other human being I prefer to go about my life on my terms, and not have my entertainment time beholden to a rigid schedule, which is unfortunate for a show like Dinner for Five. I would always watch it when it was on, when I would remember that IFC was an actual network with shows on it, but it often slipped my mind, so much so that I had forgotten it existed until about a week ago and was long since over. The premise is simple: Director/actor Jon Favreau (Swingers, Made, Iron Man) sits down with four other celebrity guests for dinner and candid conversation, often both funny and revealing. Thankfully there are a handful of episodes on YouTube so I'm going to share one with you, where Jon sits down with Bruce Campbell, Rob Zombie, longtime producer Roger Corman and comedian Faizon Love. There's also another link to a different episode with Louis CK, Eddie Izzard, Will Ferell and Illeana Douglas in the Stuff You Should Like column on the right.
-K.
Friday, December 12, 2008
Play This Now: Savage 2
Much like my recommendation to check out Overlord, thanks to the pile of new titles I still have not been able to crawl out from under, Savage 2 is a game I have not spent much time with. Or any at all. I did play the first game off-and-on for a bit, and found the concepts and gameplay solid, so a sequel can only be better, right? It's an ambitious hybrid fantasy title, a team-based online multiplayer FPS-RPG-RTS, or TBOMPFPSRPGRTS. From what I'm hearing the player base had been somewhat lacking, but now that the game can be had for the low price of no dollars hopefully it'll give the title a boost. As long as you hold no prior engagements (Like, say, still not finishing Dead Space or Far Cry 2), free should always be a very strong motivating factor to give a professionally-developed title a whirl.
Link, S2 Games' Savage page
-K.
Thursday, December 11, 2008
Tuesday, December 9, 2008
Carefully Orchestrated Chaos
So I picked up the PC version of Grand Theft Auto IV on Steam over the weekend, and I've probably spent more time fooling with the replay editor than I have the game itself. I know this'll screw up the format but it'll get pushed down soon enough. I present a progression of knowledge in the form of violent acts:
-K.
Friday, December 5, 2008
Struggling Publisher Struggles Financially Due to Struggling Sales in Struggling Quarter of Struggle
Variety's Ben Fritz recently posted this article, which probably doesn't need any elaboration past the headline: "Midway has 50 days to come up with $150 million." So unless Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe does insane business toute suite we can probably expect Midway to file for bankruptcy in January. Surprisingly, the game appears to have been met with critical success and admirable sales, but obviously not enough to save the company.
For an alternate take on the game, listen to this bit from the recent Idle Thumbs podcast, which features Gamasutra's Chris Remo delivering a dramatic musical performance of an e-mail sent to Shacknews' "news tip" address.
-K.
On Work and Waking
1. Denial: "That's not my alarm. It simply can't be 6:30 already."
2. Anger: "I hate this crap, it's stupid that there's such a thing as 6:30 AM. This job sucks."
3. Bargaining: "Maybe I'll call in sick, or say I have a dentist appointment and come in late. Maybe I'll say I have a dentist appointment in the afternoon and leave early. Maybe I'll say I have two dentist appointments on the same day."
4. Depression: "I'm sad now. I'll have to listen to Justin. He talked about a single YouTube video for an hour yesterday."
5. Acceptance: "I need the money."
Thursday, December 4, 2008
Reflection
I wonder how many times I'm going to post something that includes the term "struggling publisher."
Thursday Morning Video: New Ghostbusters: The Video Game trailer
So because Vivactard is looking to harbor a series of franchises that can be milked yearly they dropped several IPs that didn't fit their model, including the upcoming Ghostbusters game. Looking to turn things around, struggling publisher Atari picked it up, looking to release it this summer. There's a pervading sense of dread that this game will ultimately be disappointing, but until it drops in June let's enjoy the first in what will probably be a handful of new trailers until then:
-K.
Tuesday, December 2, 2008
Pleasant Surprises and Embarrassing Stumbles
Maintaining a near-constant diet of video game news means that I can only remember so much, and many stories or unreleased titles get buried and sink to the bottom of the useless information heap I call my brain. Black Mesa: Source is a mod for Half-Life 2 that was announced shortly after the game was released, which is already four years old, promising a complete remake of the original Half-Life, not just the straight port to the Source engine that Valve made. Naturally, like any other ambitious mod that doesn't produce any news for years, I assumed it had died off, never to see the light of day. Then they go ahead and release this teaser trailer a couple days ago:
I'm excited, it looks and sounds like they've remade almost everything from scratch, eager to see if they've drastically changed a lot of the levels.
Also in a bit of not-as-awesome news, struggling publisher Midway, the company from whose rich history gave us Mortal Kombat, Spy Hunter, NBA Jam and countless great pinball machines (Through their Bally and Williams lines), has had the controlling stake of their company sold off to a single investor for the grand total of... $100,000. The lucky investor will also be inheriting about $70 million in debt, but still, yipes.
-K.
Wednesday, November 26, 2008
Play This Now: Night of the Cephalopods
And now to round out this flurry of pre-Turkey Day updates, because I simply can't be bothered to take the time to update while I'm at home, is finally a new Play This Now. Night of the Cephalopods is a fairly straightforward top-down shooter with a Lovecraftian theme, but has an interesting auditory twist: Many of your characters actions are accompanied by a voice-over narration. It's an interesting experiment that is still early in its development, as there's only about half a dozen screens to explore and can be finished in just a few minutes. But it's worth taking a look at just to see a new, unique mechanic at work, and following as the author promises to continue his work on the game.
Link, notc.zip
-K.
Thursday Morning Video (Early Edition): Sumotori Dreams
Not another MST3K short today, but these videos are infinitely more obscure and do require some set up. Sumotori Dreams is a very small program that can't necessarily be called a game, much less even a tech demo. The premise is supposed to be two large, blocky creatures duke it out sumo-style, and the first to fall to his knees is the loser.
Thanks to some automated character physics that can best be described as "wonky," it doesn't really work like that:
The second video is without sound, so I recommend playing Elvis Costello's I Can't Stand Up For Falling Down over it.
The bouts last mere seconds, but that's not the highlight of the game, obviously. From what I understand, after victory is decided, the two misshapen characters attempt to shift themselves into position to face each other and bow, marking the end of the battle. Either by confused programming or a mad genius, this tortuous process is the most entertaining part of the game.
Engorged in a Feast of Digital Entertainment
The constant assault on my visual and auditory senses is mercifully beginning to wane. Though I still have yet to finish Fallout 3, even after dumping 60 hours of my life into it. Now that Bethesda has finally announced that they will be releasing the dev tools and as well as going into detail about the three DLC expansions they have planned for the coming months I don't think I will be able to escape the game's death-like grip any time soon. And I still have yet to really return to Dead Space or Far Cry 2. I see them sitting there by my side, calling out for attention, only to be ignored. The release of Left 4 Dead does not help, as I feel secure in saying it is one of the finest multiplayer experiences ever crafted. The standard co-op campaign gameplay is pretty great, but surviving the Versus mode, taking on human-controlled opponents, has it's own unique, palpable tension. Conversely, doling out the punishment as one of the special boss zombies has it's own incredible thrill.
I did play through Gears of War 2 with Chris, which was a safely fun experience. I say safe because. obviously. it did not have the same initial impact of the first title, which is to be expected, as it simply iterates on the formula that works really well. Where it tends to fall apart is when any of the characters decides to open their warbleholes and deliver what is supposed to be dialogue. A stronger focus on Epic's part of improving the cut-scenes and including more exposition did not help this weak point. Thankfully it does not get in the way of actual gameplay, and it is not as aggressively stupid as to include a button where you celebrate with your bro. I will probably be picking this up for myself at some point.
And I still have yet to play Mirror's Edge or Episode 2 of Penny Arcade's opus. Also, I think Chrono Trigger for the DS drops today as well. Shit.
-K.
Thursday, November 20, 2008
Thursday Morning Video: Mystery Science Theater 3000 - Here Comes the Circus
Another MST3K short. Look, it's all I've been watching lately.
-K.
Important News Alert
It's hard to believe that Half-Life turned ten years old yesterday, and harder to believe that there's anyone with a PC that does not already own the game. But in case you do not, to celebrate it's first decade of existence Valve has offered their debut masterpiece for 98 cents via Steam until noon PST today. So if you want it you better jump on it quick.
-K.
Thursday, November 13, 2008
Thursday Morning Video: Mystery Science Theater 3000 - Mr. B Natural
Another MST3K short, been watching a lot of these lately.
So since I decided to try to cut down on caffeine I haven't had anything with it in about a week, and my body doesn't seem to be responding well to the change. I've been taking more naps lately.
-K.
Friday, November 7, 2008
Poorly Timed Releases
Though I made initial headway into Far Cry 2 and Dead Space, since Fallout 3 arrived it has consumed all the attention I can spare. I'm about 38 hours into the game and have reached the level 20 experience cap (Which I didn't know existed until after I was at level 19) and I think I'm maybe midway through the main quest. But without the reward of further character advancement some of the combat and exploration has lost some of its appeal. I can understand why the cap is there; I have amassed quite an arsenal and I am already pretty much a walking death machine, I can only imagine how broken and imbalanced it would seem if I could continue to make my character even more deadly. Though I think it should be stressed that I am criticizing a game for getting a little stale after thirty-eight hours of playtime.
The release of Gears of War 2 today does not make things more convenient, neither does the release of Mirror's Edge in five days nor the full version of Left 4 Dead in ten days. I may hold off on Mirror's Edge until the PC version but found the demo that was released to be compelling, the controls simple enough that falling to your death or missing a jump will almost always be the result of poor timing and not control confusion or lack of responsiveness. By all accounts it seems that Gears of War 2 improves on all aspects, and I really enjoyed the original, but that's another game I may have to put off for a while.
The official demo for Left 4 Dead has been released a few days early to those that pre-ordered the game, and you would be safe to assume I was one of those. I'll have more to say about the game later, but I'll throw this up for now:
-K.
Thursday, November 6, 2008
Thursday, October 30, 2008
Quick Impressions of Games I Haven't Finished
Dead Space - Someone merged Doom 3 and System Shock 2 and remade it using the Resident Evil 4 format. And it works really well.
Far Cry 2 - Not as mind-blowing as I hoped it would be, but once you get over the initial hurdles of almost instantly respawning enemy checkpoints and lots of driving there's a fairly deep and engaging free-roaming FPS game here. A good tagline would be "S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Lite, done right." Also it sometimes falls victim to shoddy dead-person-physics as well.
Fallout 3 - Yes, the people who have been saying "Oblivion with guns," especially in a disparaging fashion over at No Mutants Allowed, are not far off. It's got bugs, but it's not exactly like the originals didn't have them either, though the lackluster animation from Oblivion has carried over. In the end, though, there are ghouls and mutants, colorful characters, and pitch-black humor; This feels like Fallout, and it's very good.
-K.
Thursday Morning Video: Fallout 3 - When Physics Goes Wrong
There was a man with a minigun trying to kill me so I shot him in the head, this was the result:
-K.
Tuesday, October 28, 2008
No Time for Love, Indie Games
So far the start of nearly endless big name releases has been a good one, kicking off with the latest Brothers in Arms game (If that counts), Hell's Highway, which was excellent. I'm now hip-deep in Far Cry 2 and Dead Space, which have both also been high-quality experiences. But since the train has now pulled into and come to a complete stop at Crazy Town Release Station, I've had very little time to survey what's new on the indie or purely free front, hence the lack of genuine Play This Now updates. If FedEx doesn't let me down, there should be a copy of Fallout 3 waiting for me when I get home, which means you should fully expect this trend to continue.
I have heard, though, through various news outlets, that the Pikmin-esque medieval fantasy game Overlord is available for free via GameTap. Granted I can't really give a very glowing recommendation towards it because all I played was the demo before it released, but I did enjoy that, and free is an extremely agreeable price tag. Basically you're a big, evil bastard running around with a big, evil bastard sword doing big, evil bastard things with your small, evil bastard goblins at your command, Pikmin-style. Where could that go wrong?
Also, keep an eye out, Penny-Arcade Adventures Episode 2 is supposed to release tomorrow, I believe.
-K.
Friday, October 24, 2008
Open for Business
Good Old Games, the absolutely DRM-free classic games service I've spoken highly of in the past, is now out of beta and completely open to the public. Even to those shifty, suspicious-looking people from that country. You know the one.
Go ahead and pick up Jagged Alliance or Giants if you're looking for a cheap distraction.
-K.
Thursday, October 23, 2008
Max Payne Not Okay, Says Internet
Ouch.
I have not yet seen the film, but all indicators seem to point to it being a complete mess. The worst part about a failure like this is that it serves only to embolden Roger Ebert's and his fellow critics' dismissive attitude towards the medium as a valid art form. You'll see plenty of review blurbs that simply say "It's a video game movie, so you know it's not good." The problem isn't video game movies, it's the people making them and the people choosing which properties to give the film treatment in the first place. I could have told you, even at a young age when there were rumors of it starring Schwarzenegger, that Doom was not going to be a good movie. Fighting games are almost completely devoid of story to begin with, but the more popular franchises (Street Fighter, Mortal Kombat and even Dead or Alive) get live-action counterparts. I understand what drives these decisions; the games are well-known, big sellers, not necessarily if it has a compelling story. This is why the Halo movie has not been snuffed out yet and there's a Gears of War film on the way.
All I can do is sit back and dream about what it would be like if a studio like Pixar were to make a Grim Fandango movie.
-K.
Thursday Morning Video: QI - Outtake
Another not-terribly-long video, an outtake from one of my favorite shows, QI.
-K.
Thursday, October 16, 2008
Thursday, October 9, 2008
If I Had a Million 1200 Dollars
So a few weeks ago someone backed into my car while I was asleep and to their credit they were kind enough to leave a note and take responsibility. The damage does not appear significant, to me at least, but since the cost to repair it would include replacing the driver's side door the estimate I got came to the tune of about $1200, which I have opted to take in the form of a check. I've had the car for about 16 months now and it's already got almost 110,000 miles on it so it's not like the resale value is going to be tremendous when I'm done with it. Unlike before I will not be using this money to purchase another pinball machine (Not even a Neo-Geo arcade cabinet), but rather apply the bulk to my credit card, which will already be seeing considerable use this month and the next.
My dismissive attitude towards the PlayStation 3 is not something I have really kept hidden, and most of that is really the fault of the Sony's PR department going out of their way to tell people that, and this may not be verbatim, we don't need games to get you jerks to buy our crap. And they certainly delivered on that statement. Outside of big releases like Metal Gear Solid 4 and the recent LittleBigPlanet (Of which I was also dismissive but word-of-mouth is beginning to spread and I'm slowly starting to take notice), there isn't much the system has to offer that I could not consume elsewhere. So, obviously, it's not a platform that is on my radar. But while I'm pondering how I'm going to divy up this cash, last night a friend of mine tells me about Sega's Valkyria Chronicles, a PS3 exclusive.
From what I've been able to discern from various media which I have spent much of the morning consuming it is a turn-based real-time strategy action RPG, in which you get to control each individual unit's specific movement and attacks in real time. This same friend spent some time in the Land of the Rising Fun and talked about getting his hands on it during his visit, telling me it is exactly the kind of game I'd get really into. From the looks of it, he's right. Goddamn it.
-K.
Thursday, October 2, 2008
Friday, September 26, 2008
Play This Now: Fallout
Well, I was hoping something would jump out at me by this Friday and boy did it ever. Since the news was made that Turner Broadcasting was looking to sell off their online video game distribution service GameTap or just pull the plug on the entire thing, it's been sort of up in the air about what the fate of the platform would be. Who knew we would look to the French to step up and take the reins? Paris-based Metaboli has agreed to keep the service alive, and, in a decision that had to have been a very calculated move against soon-to-launch Good Old Games, they are now adding the original Fallout to the collection of free titles, a game which GOG is currently offering for $5.99 to the early beta testers.
Anyway, Fallout, one of the most popular RPGs of all time, the game that spawned my love for nuclear apocalypse long before I saw any of the actual films the game was heavily influence by, and also the game that spawned one of the most rabid fanbases filled with more complete fucking raisin cakes than you will ever see. I really don't need to go into detail, do I? If you like RPGs, if you like sci-fi, if you like dark humor, if you like turn-based games, if you like post-apocalyptic atmosphere, if you like guns or just if you haven't even played motherfucking Fallout before, you're doing yourself a grave disservice by not grabbing it right away. All you need to do is download the GameTap client from the link below, you don't even have to set up an account or anything. It's engrossing, it's huge and, now, it's free. What more do you need?
Download, gametap_setup.exe
-K.
Thursday, September 25, 2008
Curses, You Know My Weakness: Stupid Crap
Sort of hot on the heels of my stupid Fallout 3 purchase comes the news that EA's upcoming third-person sci-fi horror shooter Dead Space will be dropping an "ULTRA LIMITED EDITION" that is both ridiculously priced and includes tons of useless crap that I find hard to resist.
Goddamn it, video game companies, you can't space this shit out? Dead Space is releasing October 14th, then Far Cry 2 (Which also has a stupid limited edition in a wooden box) hits October 21st, then Fallout 3 hits October 28th, then the first half of November will see the release of both Mirror's Edge and Left 4 Dead. Please stop making limited/collector's editions of things, I'm going to spending enough money as it is.
-K.
Wednesday, September 24, 2008
Play This Now: Gang Garrison 2
Putting this up early because I had nothing to update with on Friday, hopefully I'll dig something else up for this week as well.
Probably the most entertaining entry in TigSource's Bootleg Demake Competition, Gang Garrison 2 is a 2D side-scrolling "demake" of Valve's Team Fortress 2, complete with all nine classes and online play. I'm sure most of you will find it immediately reminiscent of Soldat, except much more fun (I wasn't particularly fond of it). Though it's still very much a work-in-progress with only three maps, lack of any chat functions, the engineer can't currently build anything, lag issues and some crashing bugs, but hopefully they'll continue to iron things out and make it grow long after the voting ends and the competition is over. Even though I could fire up actual Team Fortress 2 I've been playing this quite a bit these last two days, because, providing you can find a server, it's really easy to jump into. Give it a shot and keep an eye on its progress, it's free and it'll take no time to download at all.
Download, gg2b19.zip (5.57 MB)
-K.
Tuesday, September 23, 2008
Kyle's Passive-Aggressive Moving Company
One of the reasons I was more than happy to escape the clutches of retail was so I wouldn't have to suffer the indignities of cleaning up after assholes, children and sometimes assholes and their children or ridiculous customers who demand I give them discounts based on coupons they left at home or countless other examples. There are times, though, albeit rarely, that compare to the soul-crushing experiences of Spencer's Gifts.
My mornings here usually consist of a couple offices moves; Disconnecting an employee's system, moving to their new office, and hooking it up again. Occasionally, when there's a combination of Building Services not being included in the move and the employee has some small stuff they would like to transport, I agree to take it for them. Today I had a fellow who had me carry the entire contents of his former cubicle. It began with him asking me if I could take a couple books, then he also asked if I could take two small bean bags, then he began putting more crap on my cart without asking. I use the word crap very deliberately because it included:
- An empty jar of Planter's peanuts
- A handful of thumbtacks
- $0.08 (One nickel and three pennies)
- His empty satchel, which I assume he carried in himself
- Two pink balloons
- ...Two pink balloons
-K.
Friday, September 19, 2008
Thursday Friday Morning Afternoon Video Thing
UPDATE: The site I mention below seems to be a little stubborn now, but it works after a few refreshes.
So I haven't updated in a while, mostly due to a combination of sleep deprivation and (constant) lack of creativity, also a lack of tracking down any decent free games. I did want to share this with you, since it's technically a video, but somewhat interactive. I want to point you in the direction of the site for NOLAF, the National Organization for Legislation Against Fun, a funny, thoroughly produced and truly bizarre viral marketing program for, get this, Tostitos. I guess it worked because within an hour of viewing the site in its entirety I purchased a bag of the corn-based snack. It must've been a lot of fun to create, and I wish I had the money or drive or energy or talent to create something along these lines, because I could see a similar format being expanded upon to create a kind of old school, FMV-based adventure game. Something like the classic Pandora Directive.
Check it out, but by all means do not enjoy it.
-K.
Friday, September 12, 2008
Ye Olde Game Shoppe
So I finally got into the beta for Good Old Games, which is basically exactly what I've been pining for recently; A Steam-like service for old games. I don't know why an online store needs a beta, but who knows. What Valve does with their service is admirable, most recently putting up the entire X-COM collection and the first two Oddworld games, but a service that focuses entirely on just bringing you these titles, retooled to function with XP or Vista, reasonably price (It looks like most everything is $5.99) and absolutely no DRM, is especially appealing. I logged in for the first time yesterday, picking up Shogo, Fallout Tactics and Descent 3 (Plus the expansion) for a little under $20. I kind of regret Shogo, because at the time it was a pretty fun shooter from a still fairly new Monolith Productions, but it has not aged well. Also I had some technical issues with the game, so it's not perfect, but part of the service is continuing to address these problems. They plan to have a new release every week, and if they can keep it up I imagine I'll be talking about the service fairly frequently.
On an unrelated note, I finally updated the Stuff You Should Like, on the right column, after months of neglect.
-K.
Thursday, September 11, 2008
Thursday Morning Video Triple Play
Because I am nothing if not generous and the vastness of the internet is such that having a backlog of funny videos is a silly concept, I am going to assault you with a collection of hilarious things from the internet. I hope Ian McShane narrates more funny things in the future.
-K.
Wednesday, September 10, 2008
Making Like Chow Yun-Fat
So after completing Max Payne I almost immediately installed Max Payne 2: The Fall of Max Payne and played through that again. Now I've been playing around with a few mods and remembering that, when it comes to dicking around and making screenshots, it's got high marks in that regard as well.
Tuesday, September 9, 2008
Cheers and Jeers
Cheers: So as part of the big Vivactard merger, as we discussed earlier, it saw them dropping licenses left and right, as if they were loose change falling out of the pockets of a man desperately trying to get to catch a train on time. Coincidenally enough it was the train heading to Moneytown, but I digress. This has allowed Monolith to re-acquire the F.E.A.R. brand so that their upcoming sequel will now be appropriately titled. Good for them.
Jeers: After almost nine months working here and reading the site regularly, my employers have seen fit to block access to Penny-Arcade. PvP, VGCats, and Ctrl+Alt+Del all remain perfectly acceptable, confirming, once again, that there is no rhyme or reason as to what sites are deemed unfit for workplace surfing. I did not link the latter two sites because you should not view them, and would make much better blocking candidates because they are unfit for any surfing.
-K.
Saturday, September 6, 2008
Play This Now: Urban Brawl (Action Doom 2)
It warms my heart when clever nerds get together to create something new out of old technology. More often than not it results in little more than great big face lifts, like Tenebrae for the original Quake, while technically extremely impressive does nothing to change or improve actual gameplay. But occasionally you get something like Urban Brawl, the stand-alone prequel to a Doom 2 mod I was previously unfamiliar with (and bears very little resemblance to this). What they've produced is basically an old school 2D beat-'em-up in 3D with the Doom engine, with an art style I could only describe as a poor man's Frank Miller with more color. It also offers branching paths with multiple endings, though, much like an old 2D game, it does get brutally difficult at times. You might also have to look past the not-so-great voice acting and writing that makes Max Payne's hammiest lines seem straight out of a Steinbeck classic, but if you can you've got a unique and admirable (and free!) time-waster.
Download, action2.zip (56.9MB)
-K.
Friday, September 5, 2008
In Space, No One Can Hear You Frag
It's an extremely slow day here at work and judging from the game sites, the ones that aren't blocked, a slow news day as well. So what I'm saying is boredom is really the only reason I'd bring this up. Apparently the country that brought you melting humans in Parasite Eve, the country that brought you over-the-top violence in The Killer and Hard Boiled, and the country that brought you the runaway smash-hit of human atrocities in the Holocaust, have banded together to say no to EA's upcoming Dead Space. No, they said vehemently, no we do not want your fictionalized destruction of aliens on our turf, not at all, and I say good day, sir! This just goes to show that whenever Japan and Germany decide to team up on any issue it does not produce anything good, and the inclusion of China is equally as startling.
Anyway, I haven't been enjoying too many free games lately, there are a couple on my radar and if any of them stick out I'll be sure to throw up a Play This Now for this week.
-K.
Thursday, September 4, 2008
Video Games!
So I've been continuing my trend of playing older games, making my way through the first two Quake games once again. Then I jumped several years forward to Max Payne, mostly inspired by the latest trailer for the film, and Tron 2.0, which I do not have to give a reason to play again, so I'm getting closer to the present. Both the latter titles hold up surprisingly well, though shootin' dudes, whether they are digital constructs or over-acting mobsters, will never get old. Spore comes out soon, and I have not absorbed any related media since the epic Robin Williams E3 disaster from a while back, and my interest has definitely waned. Like LittleBigPlanet, I am not actually sure in what way it is a game but hopefully by not building myself up to any crazy expectations I can only be pleased by what releases.
Speaking of video games, which I do non-stop, I wanted to shed some light on this story. Now neither of these properties I would think would be a fantastic fit for an MMO, but they stopped work on a Firefly MMO to work on a Buffy MMO? They stopped work on a Firefly MMO to work on a Buffy MMO.
They stopped work on a Firefly MMO to work on a Buffy MMO.
They stopped work on a Firefly MMO to work on a Buffy MMO.
What the fuck is going on?
-K.
Thursday Morning Video: Saturday Night Live - Hibernol
Every time I come down with a cold I think about this fake commercial, back in the ancient times when Saturday Night Live still produced comedy instead of pain and despair. If this were an actual product I would purchase it without hesitation. Or I guess I could just drink a full bottle of NyQuil.
-K.
Friday, August 29, 2008
Play This Now: Zafehouse v1.5
Zafehouse is a very simple game that was created as Kotaku's Game-a-Day event a while back, so the presentation isn't exactly going to blow your pants off, as the screenshot would suggest. But it is a game that I wish we would've seen more of by now: Zombie vstrategy. The goal is to manage a group of survivors until help arrives, and that means finding other survivors, gathering supplies and holding on to safe structures. It's turn-based in a way, where you split survivors up into raiding parties, and those assigned to secure structures, and then let it play out. Each turn represents an hour, with the objective being to survive for 60, and you fail if all survivors die or you lose control of all the buildings. Each structure provides a constant stream of supplies, whether it's medical kits, ammo or water, and the longer individual survivors last they gain perks. Zombies really take a back seat to it being more about party and supply management, but it's a fun and tough little distraction. Now where's my Jagged Alliance game with zombies?
Download, Zafehouse_1.5.zip (65 KB, requires .NET Framework 2.0)
-K.
Thursday, August 28, 2008
Thursday Morning Video - Rockwell Automation's Retro Encabulator
They're ripping up the concrete directly outside our door here at work. These next two days will be maddening.
-K.
Tuesday, August 26, 2008
Take a Look at the Lawman Beating Up the Wrong Guy
So because my life is a never-ending rollercoaster of intrigue and danger I spent the weekend watching all sixteen episodes of Life on Mars. Hopefully BBC America will start airing it again this Fall, around about when ABC starts airing the not-so-hot-looking remake of the series, because it's very much worth watching. It's about a present-day detective named Sam Tyler, who gets struck by a speeding car and wakes up in 1973, so it's that old story again. While he's there Sam works alongside his callous and bull-headed superior Gene Hunt, solving crimes that often involve people connected to Sam's life and in some ways represent his struggle to stay alive in the real world. It's styled like a 70's cop show wrapped in a hard sci-fi candy shell, it can get a little sentimental at times, but it's extremely entertaining.
Here's a couple clips, the cold opening to an episode from the second season and the intro itself:
-K.
Friday, August 22, 2008
Play This Now: DOSBox 0.72
Today was busy, and now I finally have a little time to update, right before I leave.
I've been on a bizarre old game kick lately, and so this week's Play This Now isn't going to highlight one game in particular but rather an application I've been using a lot of recently. DOSBox, in case you aren't aware and as you could probably guess, is a DOS emulator. Many years ago it would've seemed like such a silly concept, but since Microsoft, in their infinite wisdom, decided to strip Windows of DOS functionality entirely after the introduction of XP, it's now necessary. Like Mount&Blade it is continuously being updated and improved, with so many classic titles now running at full compatibility. If your knowledge has been lost to time or you never were particularly DOS-savvy, you can make use of a handy front-end like DOSShell to make your retro life a little easier. Now you're ready to play so many of the non-Windows titles a certain site has to offer. Here's a few choice selections:
Strife - A relatively obscure and under-appreciated FPS masterpiece, for the time at least, that had gameplay elements you wouldn't see again until Deus Ex several years later. Mostly it got lost in the tidal wave that was Quake. I don't know why I'm sticking this here, because even though you can run it perfectly fine in DOSBox, it works even better with ZDoom.
System Shock - The forerunner to one of the greatest games of all time, the original might not have aged particularly gracefully, but it's still fun to see what it was like and how much it compares to the sequel. It is, however, a game that was in dire need of being able to edit the controls.
Crusader: No Remorse & Crusader: No Regret - A pair of atmospheric, isometric shooters that puts you in the bright red armor of an elite soldier with vengeance on his mind. The game also encourages you to shoot everything. It's another game where the controls definitely seem antiquated, but get your head around them and you've still got a pair of solid action games.
Quarantine & Quarantine 2: Road Warrior - Before Grand Theft Auto, before Carmageddon, even before Interstate '76, there was Quarantine. The non-linear post-apocalyptic auto-combat cab-driving action game(s) you've always wanted. Press E to eject your passengers.
Wasteland - Another grandfather to an epic franchise, Wasteland was the game that would later spawn the Fallout series. Still fun to play after all these years.
Blood - This shooter was the debut game for Monolith Productions, which established a mix of wanton violence and absurd humor that would sort of become the hallmark of their titles.
Now there's some entertainment.
-K.
Thursday, August 21, 2008
I Throw Away Perfectly Good Money
I just purchased this because I am stupid and I am more than willing to throw heaps of cash for stupid things I don't need that are in addition to a stupid thing I don't need. If there is a Hell I'm sure there is a specific place for special spendthrifts. Those of us who will be huddled together in fear, clutching our Rockstar duffel bags and Big Daddy figurines, eyes wide with terror as they make us tread a never-ending sea of Septim coins. So take note developers: if you want me to spend even more money on a game I have high interest in, include a bunch of silly bullshit.
-K.
Thursday Morning Video - Talkboy Commercial
This is saying something extremely disparaging about the parents, or really the kids, if the sound of a husky-voiced narcoleptic is enough to fool the young couple.
-K.
Saturday, August 16, 2008
Play This Now: Mount & Blade
If I had to create a list of things that I enjoyed in games the top entires would doubtlessly include big, stupid powerful revolvers, dynamic and easy to use cover systems, and shooting people in the face with a crossbow while on horseback. I realize that last one sounds a bit esoteric, so thank god for a game like Mount & Blade. It has been a long time since I last played this developing indie action/RPG, it has grown quite considerably, and impressively, during the interim as they inch ever closer to version 1.0, and it's more fun than ever. The game begins with creating a character and then you are unceremoniously dumped into the game world on horseback, free to do what you please. Want to roam the countryside looks for bands of murderous nomads to put down? Go ahead. Feel like training and defending a small village from a group of bandits? Sure, Seven Samurai it up. And if you're like me, you'll turn around and pillage and raze it yourself. Want to wander from city to city trading different goods trying to maximize profit? You should probably be playing something else, but you can still do that too. The beta is free and does contain the full game up to this point, but without purchasing a license limits the characters you create to reaching level 8, at which point you will have to create another. But even then you should find more than enough to do with multiple characters and playthroughs.
Link, Mount&Blade download page at Taleworlds.com.
-K.
Thursday, August 14, 2008
Thursday Morning Video: Giant Bomb - It's a Website
It's a website. About video games. Also holy crap this takes up a lot of space, but all I can see from here is a big black box because Giant Bomb is officially blocked here. My attempts to resize it to fit better may be breaking it, but I won't know until I get home.
-K.
Friday, August 8, 2008
Play This Now: Choke on my Groundhog, YOU ROBOT BASTARDS
With the release of Geometry Wars 2 on XBLA which I've been playing a lot of lately, this similar twin joystick shooter (Or with a mouse and keyboard, should you desire) hit at the right time and has the added bonus of something else I like: killer robots. Being a Doctor Who fan sort of goes hand in hand with enjoying the idea of murderous machines, whether it's the long running Daleks or Cybermen, or simply one-offs like the clockwork droids or the robot from the charmingly awful episode simply titled Robot. Choke on my Groundhog, YOU ROBOT BASTARDS (I think I would've just gone with the latter portion for the title) not only has you annihilating cold, heartless foes but also has a sort of time travel mechanic in which if you die you start back at the beginning but you get a buddy to help you -- yourself. It replays what you did from that previous life, with the benefit being bonus firepower. Check it out, it's free.
Link, groundhog_r05.zip
-K.
Thursday, August 7, 2008
Thursday Morning Video: Monty Python - Mens' Olympic Hide and Seek Final
Another classic Monty Python sketch. Also, please don't look at the comments below, because it will hurt you inside.
Also Rockstar announced that Grand Theft Auto IV will indeed be coming to the PC, and relatively soon, hitting shelves November 18th. I also need to update this with something else.
-K.
Thursday, July 31, 2008
That's Vivactard-ed
So now that the merger of Vivendi, Activision and Blizzard is now complete they're cleaning house and getting things organized, and that means dropping some franchises and titles in development. Two of the titles on the chopping block are Ghostbusters and Tim Schafer's (Psychonauts, Grim Fandango, Full Throttle) Brutal Legend. This doesn't mean that they're halting production, but that they will no longer be publishing them, so I'm sure they'll easily find homes elsewhere. I can understand dropping Tim's title, it's a bit of a gamble, because even though he makes fantastic games they don't really put up huge numbers, but motherfucking Ghostbusters? Are you kidding me?
Sony Pictures, who owns the license, issued a statement saying the game will be released "one way or another," though this would probably push the release back into next year. I fear that they may decide to shuffle it off to Sony Computer Entertainment, a move I'm surprised they didn't make in the first place. If this takes place, the game, especially when Sony's hurting for good exclusives in light of the Final Fantasy XIII fiasco, would almost definitely make it a PS3 exclusive.
-K.
Monday, July 28, 2008
They Are Making a Sequel to Tron
They are making a sequel to Tron.
-K.
P.S. Holy shit, they are making a sequel to Tron.
Saturday, July 26, 2008
Would You Kindly Buy This Game?
The Weekend Deal on Steam is currently the PC version of BioShock for half price, at a very, very reasonable $14.99. Even if you've played it before, the PC version is perfectly fine, and I can't think of a reason not to throw a little more cash their way.
-K.
Thursday, July 24, 2008
Thursday Morning Video Thing: Mr. Show - Change for a Dollar
Hey, look, it's actually a sketch this time.
-K.
Tuesday, July 22, 2008
An Explosion of Useless Information
Even though I've got a link to it off to the side, I thought I'd throw it up here that Giant Bomb has officially launched. They're going to be another news and reviews site, but the bigger portion of it is an interesting sort of video game wiki or IMDb equivalent, with pages dedicated to games and then breaking off into locations, concepts, character, developer and individual pages. It's run by a quartet of ex-Gamespot editors, notably Jeff Gerstmann, who you may recall, if you're a nerd, was the longtime editor who got fired for giving Eidos' Kane & Lynch a bad review. They've got an entertaining podcast as well, so if you like video games it wouldn't be a bad site to check out from time to time.
Also, Chris bought Call of Duty 4, and we played it online before (and after) attending the midnight showing of Alien at the Tivoli (Which was awesome, but hot). That reignited the spark and I went out and bought it yesterday, and spent about two hours shooting guys in the face with an M60 and also screaming in frustration at the TV. Thanks a lot, Chris.
I'll just edit this in here, the complete series of Spaced finally came out on DVD here in the States today, I saw it advertised on Best Buy's site for $40 and I highly recommend picking it up.
-K.
Saturday, July 19, 2008
The Evolution Will Not Be Televised
I'm sure many of you have heard about it by now, but in case you haven't, you have until midnight this Sunday to check out Joss Whedon's latest offering Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog starring Doogie Howser and Mal Reynolds. It's slow to really get going and not the greatest thing he's ever made, but Whedon's goals are admirable enough, I just don't know if this is the kind of franchise to try to jump start these heady ideas of what the medium should become into motion. Things pick up when Fillion finally appears, but it really just made me want to go back and watch through Firefly again, which is not the kind of sentiment that urges me to rush out and buy Dr. Horrible merchandise.
At any rate, I'd still recommend checking it out, while you still can (For free, at least).
Friday, July 18, 2008
Late Thursday Morning Video Game Trailer: Max Payne E3 2001 Trailer
With all the hubub surrounding E3 I chose to overlook regular content updates, though I often choose to overlook them with startling regularity. There wasn't much juicy information to glean from the news sites last night, not to me, anyway. Perhaps the journalists in question are just spending time convalescing from the near round-the-clock festivities, making the long treks back to their dark headquarters, and I imagine we'll see quite a lot of E3-related content and hands-on footage in the coming days. I'll probably sift through the rubble over the weekend and come up with another collection of the small nuggets I deem awesome to post next week. There was one big announcement in BioWare finally coming out and saying, after months and months of rumor and speculation, that they are working on a new Star Wars MMO. Specifically, a Knights of the Old Republic MMO. I'm not hot on MMOs so it'll probably get a pass from me, unless they come up with something extremely compelling. Overall, though, the event did give us some exciting and entertaining insight into games I was already looking forward to and put a few on the map that I hadn't really given much attention, and I'm sad to see it's already over. I am a nerd, by choice and hopefully someday by trade, so there is a palpable excitement and feeling of suspense with this convention, not knowing what preview or screenshot or video may soon drop into laps, and rejoicing at things that we hope will not suck. I hope it's still around next year.
At any rate, to close out E3 week, I thought I'd put up one of my favorite game trailers ever. Though it's starting to look pretty dated, here's the Max Payne trailer that debuted at E3 in 2001. This is how you sell a game, not with an entirely gameplay-less CG trailer. Make it cinematic, make it in-game, and then show some awesome action from the game itself.
Also this bit of a blunder on Ubisoft's part is both sad and entertaining.
-K.
Thursday, July 17, 2008
Highlights of E3: Day Two
Apparently last night's EA-sponsored, Rock Band-themed after-party featured an unannounced live performance by The Who, I guess as sort of a tie-in since the The Who's "Best Of" song pack for Rock Band went online last night, which seems like it was pretty rad. They were originally supposed to be bringing to full album of Who's Next to the game, but I guess after a few months of waiting Pete Townsend and Roger Daltrey came out and said "Yeah, we sort of lost the master tracks for a few of those songs." They've still got "Baba O'Riley" in there, so it's all good. Not much to talk about announcement or press conference wise, other than Shigeru Miyamoto saying that they are making another Pikmin game, which is something I've been waiting to here for a long time. Now with the show:
- Destructoid offers more hands-on impressions of Fallout 3, reinforcing my feeling that the presentation just sucked and the game itself, in a much richer context than simply showing combat alone allows, will still be awesome.
- Shacknews goes hands-on with Resident Evil 5, coming away with some fully expected palpable enthusiasm.
- It's annoyingly shaky-cam, but Evil Avatar sister site Co-Optimus offers up some footage of them playing Left 4 Dead, and I really want to play it.
- Post-apocalypse seems to be the order of the day, with id's Rage, Bethesda's Fallout 3 and Gearbox's Borderlands, and I'm very fine with that. The Brothers in Arms-developer trotted out the game, its first public appearance, by putting on a lengthy presentation of the FPS/RPG hybrid, and it looks really good. You can read some of the major features they're promising here, and the presentation itself is split into three parts, here's Part #1, Part #2, and Part #3. The most important thing to bring up, I think, is that it looks like you can wander around the world and play through the entire game in co-op.
- Capcom presented some gameplay footage of Airtight Studios' third-person shooter Dark Void, and I'm looking forward to it. Running around shooting guys on the ground looks very much like Gears of War except while wearing a jetpack, and I'm okay with that. Though you can jack UFOs and go dogfighting with them, which should be great considering these are the guys behind Crimson Skies. I'm digging the sort of darker version of a 40's serial aesthetic that they're going for, and the "vertical combat" also looks pretty sweet.
- I played a little bit of Baldur's Gate II a while ago and it was not as completely horrible as I remember it, so maybe BioWare's so-called "spiritual successor" to that celebrated franchise Dragon Age: Origins will be better received by me, but based on this gameplay footage I'm still on the fence.
- Lastly, here's a poser: It's E3, you've recently announced your new game, but you don't really have anything to show off yet and you don't have the resources to hire a team to make a CG trailer, what do you do? My answer is don't go ahead make a trailer anyway. But those small inconveniences did not stop a reformed Apogee Software from releasing a trailer for their upcoming handheld-only Duke Nukem Trilogy. Seriously? Why did you even take the time to make this? I've seen fake YouTube fan trailers a million times better than what I just saw.
-K.
Sham Bam Bamana
So they're finally making another Sockbaby movie, which if you haven't already you should check out the previous installments. I am hoping Doug TenNapel is on board for this again, and I have to admit that I enjoyed the trailer but they lost me at one point. If you'd like to guess where, I'll give you a hint: It rhymes with Jon Heder. Also, isn't that some kind of remix of the Johnny Quest theme they're using?
Thanks to Theron for the heads-up.
-K.
Wednesday, July 16, 2008
Highlights of E3: Day One (For Reals)
I guess, even though it was listed as a date on the official schedule, Monday was a "pre-E3" day and not considered to be the actual first day of the event. Even though Microsoft held their big press event and lots of publishers showed off their games on Monday. Anyway, here's the poop from yesterday:
I'd talk about the highlights of the Sony and Nintendo press conferences, except the problem is that there really weren't any. Sony's video download service launched late last night and they showed off Killzone 2 and Resistance 2. Sony's Jack Tretton also brought out a new game that they described as an MMO MAG (Massive Action Game, or something to that effect) and I guess they're calling it "MAG." He's saying it will support up to 256 players in one match, which sounds like a clusterfuck, and went on to say this kind of game hasn't been done before and wouldn't be possible on any platform except for the PS3. He didn't really give any reasons why you couldn't do it on the 360, because I'm pretty sure you could, and I should mention it has been done before, by the same company he works for, no less.
The reps from Nintendo spent a lot of time talking about the casual market, the importance of trying to cater to the female market, backing that up with some enthralling charts and graphs showing that Nintendo DS ownership is nearly split right down the middle between men and women. They talked about Wii Sports 2 being included with the new "MotionPlus" peripheral which is a new controller attachment that is supposed to create more realistic and accurate 1:1 motion with the controller, which is kind of something it should've had to begin with. Also they announced a new DS-exclusive Grand Theft Auto game called Chinatown Wars, set in Liberty City, but did not show off anything from the game itself. Capcom also stated that Dead Rising will be coming to the Wii, but still no PC version or mention of a sequel.
And now, flashing lights and pretty pictures:
- More media and an official trailer for the new Ghostbusters game can be found here. The game itself does not look particularly great, but it's very hard not to be excited knowing that the original cast is involved and that Harold Ramis and Dan Aykroyd are writing the script and are being very hands-on with the development.
- Shacknews has a new preview of Valve's Left 4 Dead, which has gone through a big facelift apparently, and Rock Paper Shotgun has some hands-on impressions. Also here's some raw footage of the game. Since last we saw it they've redesigned the characters, changed some weapons and commented about two-player split-screen for the 360. For a while now the game has supposedly been content complete and is going through the rigorous Valve playtesting wringer, and as much as I'd like to play it now the quality of The Orange Box speaks volumes about how valuable that process is.
- Shacknews also has some hands-on impressions of Bethesda's Fallout 3, which leaves me a little more hopeful about it than their demonstration video left me feeling. Like what many have been saying is that what made the Fallout games great was not the combat but the dialogue and atmosphere, but that's not really something you can show off effectively in a five minute presentation.
- Ubisoft's Far Cry 2, which is not being developed by Crytek, is something that I've been looking forward to for quite some time, and even though it bears the title it has little resemblance to any of the previous titles (Which apart from the PC original were kind of crap). Set in Africa, they're promising a non-linear adventure in which you explore a 50km open world space, trying to seek out and eliminate an arms dealer known as The Jackal, and along the way you'll take on side missions so you can buy bigger and better guns. They put out an official trailer and some new media, and just for kicks, here's an interview with Ubi's Clint Hocking from a couple days ago.
- EA also showed off a trailer and some walkthrough footage of their upcoming third-person horror-themed shooter Dead Space, which to me sort of looks like they're trying to combine Doom 3 and Resident Evil 4, with a splash of System Shock 2. I'm really hoping they can pull it off, but while what they're showing off here is interesting, it's not terribly impressive.
- Raven has finally come out of whatever dark basement they've been laboring in and showed off a teaser trailer for the new Wolfenstein game. I know everybody and their mom loves to bitch about how played out and stale World War II games are getting, but I've always maintained that as long as it's a good game I'll play it. I played through Return to Castle Wolfenstein again recently, and barring the forced stealth sections, it still holds up relatively well. I'm completely down for another game where I get to kill Nazis and zombies.
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