2 posts tagged “pc”

Sorry I haven't been posting anything lately, I've just been overwhelmed with work at school what with finals coming up. But starting next week I get 6-7 weeks of sweet, sweet vacation.

It hasn't all been work, as procrastination is a tool reserved for kings, and I come from a long line of lazy nobles (Ok, maybe not. I'm really the only lazy one). I've been gaming during my down-time, and I've got a lot of games left to play.

First up, I've been trying to finish Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory, which I've been playing on my 360. I started it in January, and promptly fell out of play even though I loved it. It's been good, clean, spy-infused fun.

This brings me to the next game: Splinter Cell: Double Agent. It came out recently, and since I loved Chaos Theory so much, I figured I had little to lose. Well, I've played through a couple missions now. I'm going to clue you into something right now: I'm not a really good gamer. I suck hardcore at a lot of games. Anyway, so I picked up this game, and when I started playing, I immediately felt like I was trapped in an alien world; an environment that was not entirely unfamiliar, yet not familiar enough to call home. The controls are different, and there are some different features. The AI has been significantly beefed up, and I'm only playing it on Normal difficulty. I had some trouble figuring things out at first since I skipped the tutorials, which I admit would have been rather helpful. I eventually picked up the hang of things, got in some satisfying kills and knockouts, and promptly got killed. A lot. I don't know if it's just me, but Normal difficulty seemed hard. I've heard stories of people trading the game in at retailers not long after the release because they finished the game so fast. That means only one of two things: A) These people are inhuman super-gamers, replacing normal gamers with their doppleganger offspring in order to overthrow us, or B) I just suck that bad. Whatever the case, it's still a fun game, though I hope I start enjoying it more the further I get in.

Next, I picked up Neverwinter Nights 2, on accounts of my brother and father purchasing it. I hoped to make use of the much-discussed online collaborative play, and that I did. That was, of course, after quite a few hours of being unable to connect to the game server my brother was hosting, since I grabbed the game update and he had not. So, the next day we figured things out, got things up and running, and we were playing together. Well, more like lagging together. I've read on some forums that Xfire is what is causing the lag the people are experiencing in multiplayer mode, but we've yet to play without it (we've only played that once, so far). I've been enjoying the singleplayer, as I haven't played this kind of turn-based PC RPG since Baldur's Gate, and have missed it so. It's quite different, and the camera can be annoying at first, but I've still been having fun. The meat of the game is the campaign creation tools, so some day I may tinker with those, and maybe download some other player-created games.

Finally, we've got the game on everyone's mind that isn't Guitar Hero II (since it doesn't come out for the 360 until next year!), and that game is Gears of War. There's not much I can say about this game that hasn't been said on a thousand blogs and game sites already. It's fun, it's pretty, and Dom dies a lot. Rather, he doesn't die, he just gets exhausted from being such a freaking pansy. If anyone dies, then the game ends. Why's that? What if I want Dom to die? Maybe he slept with my girlfriend, or gave me a pack of gum laced with Locust pheromones. Whatever the case, sometimes I'd just like to get through the level on my own if one of my friends isn't around for co-op play, without the dead weight holding me down. Again, I haven't played much, since I have so many other games to play, but I definitely look forward to sitting down to some Co-Op soon.

Unfortunately, I won't have my current computer available when I go home for the break, so I'll have to wait until January to play NWN2 after next week. I will, however, have my Xbox 360, and I may be able to procure a Wii, so I don't think I'll be bored anytime soon.

Oh, and maybe I'll be able to post here once in a while. Maybe.

Good day, Internet! It is Thursday, and that means it's the weekend. Well, for me anyway. You suckers get stuck with another day of the week. You know, I think I'm just going to squander the day, just to rub it in. Of course, I'll have to be visited by the ghost of a dead celebrity or something, who will take me on an inspirational and spiritual journey detailing the wrongs of goofing off. Ooh, or maybe it's a talking Dinosaur! No, Denver! Denver the Last Dinosaur. Yeah, that'd be rad.

Oh, 80s!

Anyway, there's a little news on the wire. You know the one I'm talking about.

• Unfortunately, reports that the Wii would output at 720p, putting it on par with many 360 and PS3 games, are untrue, according to a story at EuroGamer. The output resolution will apparently max at 480p.
• Nintendo World is upon us, which sounds like the eve of destruction in some bizarre acid-trip movie (Beware the Ives of Nintendo! The Nintendonians are invading! Ohno, Nintendo is coming for us! We better hide, or we'll be destroyed in a most excruciating manner!) This event, loosely resembling the late Space World Expo, is actually a series of shows touring the Japanese nation in different cities, showcasing the latest in Nintendo gaming products. With the highly anticipated launch of the Wii just weeks away, this will be one of the last instances where someone gets to touch the wild, undomesticated Forbidden Fruit before it becomes standard, everday household fruit (My analogies are flawless. Do not attempt to delude yourself into thinking otherwise). As you may guess, what I'm looking most forward to are the new Super Smash Bros. Brawl characters reported to be unveiled at the show. One (me) can only hope that this announcement occurs at the first show, as opposed to one of the later shows, causing me to spasm uncontrollably until the secret is revealed.
• In order to fully grasp the reality of the demand for the Wii, you could imagine a family of bears who are craving sweet, sweet honey at the end of their winter slumber. These creatures have not eaten for months, and their level of hunger causes a state of delirium in which they confuse human-people for their tasty snack- effectively mistaking little Suzy for a bottle of SueBee. What we have on our hands here is a bloodbath. The lesson, you ask? Bears are dangerous, and can attack at any time. Seriously, though, anytime a retailer opens up pre-orders for the Wii, they sell out lightning-quick, much like my super-human reflexes. The latest example is Wal-Mart, whose online store experienced just such a phenomenon, selling out in just a few short hours.
• Wii rhymes with 'pee.' We get it.
• Bioware has announced a new PC-exclusive RPG titled "Dragon Age." Games For Windows, the magazine previously known as Computer Gaming World, featured the game on the cover to their latest issue, which means you can go to your bookstore, newsstand, or literary haven of choice and read more about it there. For an idea of what the games all about, imagine, if you will, the developer of Baldur's Gate, Knights of the Old Republic, and the upcoming Mass Effect (it's a stretch, I know). Now, imagine that this developer is creating a new game called "Dragon Age" and that's all you really wanted to know anyway. There. Are we clear? Good. Seriously, though, from what little I've read about it so far, it sounds pretty damn cool. We're mixing Baldur's Gate style pause-game, issue commands style combat, Mass Effect style almost-real-time conversation, D&D style role playing (think classes and game rules. Momma didn't raise no Barbarian! Well, unless of course you roll up a Barbarian, in which case I hate you forever!). Oh, and you can do cool stuff like run between the legs of the humongous creatures, climb up on their backs, and more. From the looks of it, the game will feature multiple stories to allow, nay, encourage repeating the game.

That's it. That's all I've got right now.

Articles:
Nintendo reconfirms Wii 480p (EuroGamer)
Nintendo World 06 - The Wii Lineup (Kotaku)
Nintendo World 06 - The DS Lineup (Kotaku)
Wal-Mart Wii preorders sell out (Gamespot)
Games For Windows featuring new Bioware RPG - Dragon Age (1up)
And just for kicks... (YouTube)