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Final Fantasy XI Beta for Xbox 360 07:58 pm
- Elias 'Mithan' Doulias
- Consoles: Xbox 360
(17 comments)
This isn't news per say, but more of a reminder for Xbox 360 owners that you can get into the Final Fantasy XI Online Beta by getting the February issue of the Official Xbox Magazine. It is supposed to be on news stands on Jan 17, but I have heard many people have already found copies, so if you are interested, check out your nearest 7-11, Chapters or wherever you buy Magazines from.
Age of Conan Screenshots 07:56 pm
- Robert 'Apache' Howarth
- Games: Action / Adventure
(6 comments)
FunCom released some new screenshots of Age of Conan which look um...leafy or something. I dunno, I'd rather see a little bloodshed myself. Enjoy:
(Click to Enlarge!)
Oblivion Quickie from CES 07:51 pm
- Robert 'Apache' Howarth
- Games: Role-Playing
(2 comments)
1Up posted some quickie impressions of The Elder Scrolls IV Oblivion from CES:
This game aims to let the player feel not only immersed in the game world, but also tied to it in an integral way. Your actions will determine future events, and have lasting impacts. For example, during the demo, we learned that the character had accidentally set a villager on fire earlier; after that, when he tried to go join a guild that he had joined in every previous demo, the guildmaster told him he was not welcome. There's a way to fix this, of course -- you can pay a fine, or do something to rehabilitate your reputation so that other villagers will think more kindly of you. This little sequence underlines the importance of your behavior and choices throughout the game, but in a more subtle and less obvious way than having a morality bar, like Fable, or the dark side/light side dichotomy of KOTOR.
25 to Life Gone Gold 07:46 pm
- Elias 'Mithan' Doulias
- Games: General News
(2 comments)
25 to Life has gone gold and will be in stores on January 18 for the PC, Xbox and PS2. The game allows players to play as Cops or Street Thugs and has been extremely controversial since its announcement. For more information, check out the official 25 to Life site.
The PS3 is Far from Done? 07:20 pm
- Robert 'Apache' Howarth
- Consoles: PS3
(24 comments)
The Inquirer managed to weasel out some details on how the Playstation 3 was shaping up at CES and according to their Sony sources, the console is far from done. Long story short, even if it was finished tomorrow, there would be no working silicon until March. Tack on another four or five months of debugging and it could start production. IF it was close to done now (which it appears it isn't):
THE PS3 WAS at CES after all, but it was only a mockup. It looked good, very good, but if you dug under the surface, it came up hollow. The good part is that they were shiny, and that is about it.
The problem is that people working on PS3s tell me that it is far from done. Several companies are hip deep in hardware debugging as you read this. Not that it is hugely surprising, after all, it isn't out yet, but one would expect that the hardware is nearly finalized and the bulk of the work is on the games right now.
Half-Life 1 DM Included with Aftermath 07:13 pm
- Robert 'Apache' Howarth
- Games: Action
(5 comments)
Word from Planet Half-Life is that Valve intends to re-release Half-Life 1 deathmatch in the Source engine with the upcoming Aftermath expansion. I'm not sure if they'll be using Half-Life 1 or 2 weapons, but it could be a lot of fun. I could be wrong, but I don't believe TFC will be included.
HellGate London Diary 06:33 pm
- Robert 'Apache' Howarth
- Games: Action / Roleplaying
(0 comments)
PC.IGN conjured up a new developer diary for Flagship's HellGate: London. The topic this evening is the day in the life of some undisclosed dude. On the bright side, there are three new screenshots.
Rise of Legends Screenshot 03:16 pm
- Robert 'Apache' Howarth
- Games: Real-Time Strategy
(5 comments)
Big Huge Games released a new screenshot of the week for Rise of Nations: Rise of Legends:
(Click to Enlarge!)
Prey > Gears of War? 02:45 pm
- Robert 'Apache' Howarth
- Consoles: Xbox 360
(15 comments)
The Xbox 360 IGN guys are getting rowdy making a bunch of predictions for 360 games in 2006. In it, they talk about Grand Theft Auto 4, Knights of the Old Republic 3, the HD-DVD Drive and more. Here's a snip about them thinking Prey will be a better game than CliffyB's Gears of War:
While you're thinking about that, consider Human Head Studios and 3D Realm's Prey, a first person shooter with a few very interesting features. Prey lets you control Tommy, a Cherokee who's had his girlfriend stolen by a mysterious alien force. From what we've seen so far, the game takes place aboard the alien craft with a distinct biomechanical flavor. Much like in Gears of War, you'll face off against freakish alien creatures. Unlike Gears of War, you'll have a variety of unique ways to dispatch them. In many of the game's environments you'll have to grapple with changes in gravity, as well as an entire Spirit dimension you can enter to perform stealth kills and access otherwise blocked areas. Though it's a first-person shooter, Prey is far from mindless, and may in fact prove to be more entertaining and more innovative than Gears of War hopes to be.
Thanks 3D Realms.
Stubbs the Zombie Demo 01:40 pm
- Robert 'Apache' Howarth
- Games: Action
(2 comments)
To further tease that this game is nearly impossible to find in a store, Wideload Games has released a demo (with developer commentary) for the Halo engined Stubbs the Zombie in "Rebel without a Pulse" which comes in at 230 megs. Download a copy from: 3D Gamers, FilePlanet, Boomtown, WorthPlaying, Gamershell, GG Mania, 3D Downloads or FileNuts.
Here are a few screenshots captured from the demo. As you may have noticed, they use a grainy 50's style filter, which makes it look like a campy B movie. Overall, it's pretty entertaining. There's a MDK style atmosphere and personality is aplenty. In case you didn't know, it's a third person action melee game:
(Click to Enlarge!)

Video Game Laws and You 12:20 pm
- Robert 'Apache' Howarth
- Games: General News
(4 comments)
The Rocky Mountain News looks at the state of anti-video game legislation around the land as last year some 80 bills were introduced to try to restrict sales to minors. Some of which were thrown out by courts as they were deemed unconstitutional. Long story short: California: fighting injunction; Michigan: gave up; Illinois: Mostly gave up. Arnold Schwarzenegger's film career has been one of legendary body counts. So when the actor-turned-governor signed a bill into law that restricted the sale of violent video games, the irony was not lost on gamers.
Those players thought they had the last laugh when a federal judge placed the California law on hold last month, but the fight to drag video games through the same trial by fire that movies, music and even comic books have had to endure is far from over.
Dangerous Waters and Space Empires IV Deluxe on Steam 11:56 am
- Robert 'Apache' Howarth
- Games: General News
(0 comments)
Valve announced that Dangerous Waters ($39.99) and Space Empires IV Deluxe ($19.99) will be heading to Steam on February 7th. You can pre-order the games starting beginning January.
Guild Wars Factions Announced 11:50 am
- Robert 'Apache' Howarth
- Games: Action / Roleplaying
(10 comments)
ArenaNet today officially announced Guild Wars: Factions which they aim to release in the second quarter of 2006. "We're excited to be offering this free preview of Guild Wars: Factions to players throughout the world," said Patrick Wyatt, co-founder of ArenaNet. "Factions is a huge step in the continued evolution of the game, and I think gamers are really going to be excited about the new features they're going to see!"
Thanks Guild Wars Slovenija.
In related news, GamingSteve interviewed Jeff Strain about it.
SiN Episodes Preview 11:48 am
- Robert 'Apache' Howarth
- Games: Action
(0 comments)
Gamespy wrangled up a preview of Ritual's SiN Episodes: Emergence from CES:
Visually, Emergence is phenomenal. The main section of Emergence, demonstrated on the CES showroom floor, took place in a capsized oil tanker as Blade searches for a weapons dealer. Lighting and graphics textures have the future-gone-awry feel that the first SiN captured so well. The game uses the Source engine, so the physics are similar to Half-Life 2, although Ritual has made some modifications and tweaks to the engine to give it a personalized touch. The studio has been adamant about making the experience as interactive as possible. As in Doom 3 (and very much like the original game), players can interact with consoles within the environment. Throughout Ritual's testing, the team has been analyzing where most gamers seem to play around in the game world and they're adjusting elements of these areas to make them even more interactive.
ET: Quake Wars @ CGW 02:22 am
- Robert 'Apache' Howarth
- Games: Action
(12 comments)
This month's issue of Computer Gaming World sports a hands-on look at Splash Damage's Enemy Territory: Quake Wars. Obviously, we can't post scans, but here are some game highlights:
- Human Classes: Field ops (fire support/machine pistol), Engineer (defense and support/shotgun, mines & traps), Soldier (duh/machine gun, LAW rocket launcher), Medic (support/ assault rifle &grenade; launcher) and Ranger (sniper).
- Strogg Classes: Tank (your basic stormtrooper/Bosonic Orb gun), Oppressor (heavy weapons and lightning gun), Constructor (engineer/nail gun, EMP charges), Meditek (medic/unknown weapons) and Infiltrator (sniper/rail gun).
- Just from looking at the screens, Marines have tanks, helicopters, mobile radar, anti-air guns, mechs, fast attack hover fighters and amphibious assault vehicles. They don't talk much about the Strogg, but I assume they will have similar units. Except they ARE the vehicles. I think...
- Strogg have an anti-gravity jetpack type unit.
- id is looking to bring ET to other properties, possibly Doom.
- No plans to support bots, although there are some single player training missions.
- There's some sort of XP/ranking system similar to Battlefield 2.
- As far as tech stuff goes, they are using the Doom 3 engine. But a lot of the changes to make Quake Wars more of a multiplayer friendly experience has been done in-house over at Splash Damage. Expect 32 player games.
There's also around ten new screenshots to drool over as well. Sexy stuff. In semi-related news, Splash Damage (located in London, England) is looking to hire a new gameplay programmer, level designer, media artist and artist to work on the game.
Top 10 Best Selling Games in Japan 01:59 am
- Robert 'Apache' Howarth
- Consoles: General News
(18 comments)
Here are the top 10 best selling games in Japan for the week starting 12/26:
1) Brain Training 2 (DS) Nintendo
2) Animal Crossing: Wild World (DS) Nintendo
3) Mario Kart DS (DS) Nintendo
4) Kingdom Hearts II (PS2) Square Enix
5) DS Training For Adults: Work Your Brain (DS) Nintendo
6) Front Mission 5: Scars of the War (PS2) Square Enix
7) Mario & Luigi: Partners in Time (DS) Nintendo
8) Gentle Brain Exercises (DS) Nintendo
9) Tamagotchi Connection: Corner Shop! (DS) Bandai
10) Pokemon Mysterious Dungeon: Blue Rescue Force (DS) Pokemon
[Insert Xbox 360 or lack thereof comment here]
AMD Athlon 64 FX-60 Reviews 12:45 am
- Robert 'Apache' Howarth
- hardware: General News
(9 comments)
No huge in-depth reviews yet (many are light on the gaming benchmarks) but early results aren't too shabby. High points include: pretty much everything. Low point: It's f'n expensive! Right now, it's almost the same as the FX-57 for games, but down the road performace will improve once software catches up.
Game Reviews 12:30 am
- Robert 'Apache' Howarth
- Games: General News
(4 comments)
Is it me, or do CGW's action and shooter 2005 nominees really stink? No F.E.A.R. or even Call of Duty 2... Talk about a top-10 WTF moment. Wake up and smell the shaders! Update: All is well in the universe as they have been added. Chalk one up to the side of good.
In Other News... 12:15 am
- Robert 'Apache' Howarth
- In-House: In Other News...
(30 comments)
Some dudes were here to clean the carpets yesterday, so I took off and caught Tarentino's new movie Hostel. If you listen to the hype, it's supposed to be the bloodiest, most disturbing flick ever, but just one scene made me do a double take. I won't say which, but white bodily fluid was involved (grin). Great movie though -- if you like the nasty stuff -- it's worth checking out. It started off like a typical teen Eurotrip adventure (they're in Amsterdam smoking teh weed and meeting girls) but daaaamn. As soon as you forget it's supposed to be a scary movie, the shit hits the fan. I can't wait for the unrated DVD version.
Today's question:
Most disturbing moment in a game?
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