To all those people who bought Vista to play the vista-only DX10 titles, sucks to be you!
(And I almost was one of you, I have to admit)

Falling Leaf Studios, who make compatibility software, have decided they're going to make all those vista only games like shadowrun and halo2 run on XP. Their system will be released in the next few months, and will convert all the DX10 calls to openGL equivalents to run within XP. this may slow things down a bit, but it'll still be playable on a high spec machine.

A game cracker group, Razor1911, have beaten them to it and already released a cracked version of Shadowrun that does away with the DX10. The crack is only 5mb in size. I don't think its even technically illegal since you have to own the game first, this just allows u to play it on XP. Confusingly, the source I read specified that in the cracked version only "single player vs bots or multiplayer" is available. However, there is no single player campaign in shadowrun, its a multiplayer/bots only title AFAIK, much the same as the battlefield series (minus the new one)

Tags: games

Theres a lot of chatter lately about the banning of manhunt over here and in the UK. This has so far amounted to a lot of bitching about why we have such strict censorship over here, often with the obligatory comparison to book burning in nazi germany.

The reason manhunt has been banned over here, the real reason, In my opinion, is that our games rating system doesn't work. The code of age ratings so strictly adhered to with DVDs is only very laxly enforced with games. I've seen 11 year olds buying Vice City and San Andreas more than once, without so much as being asked what age they were. In the US, there's no need to ban the game, as an AO rating will both ensure that no minor gets it, and also that the big name stores don't stock it (walmart and target won't stock AO rated games at all, in order to preserve their precious family image)

Over here, however, an 18 rating on a game means very very little. And in the case of manhunt, its just not acceptable for children or even teenagers to get their hands on this sort of thing. To be honest, I was amazed that the first manhunt game didn't get banned. There was a big kerfuffle about it at the time, but it just got the normal 18 rating like everything else.

People rant against rockstar like they're the devil incarnate, and to be fair they've stirred up their fair share of shit to go with that label, but they've also made some great games, one of which, Vice City is among what I consider to be the greatest games of all time.

Rockstar are just like rockstars. They're jerks, but they're talented jerks.

Tags: games

This is a work in progress Pre-Alpha build of call of duty 4.

Pre-Alpha.

and it looks as good as that fake killzone trailer!

http://download.gametrailers.com/gt_vault/t_cod4_bogrescue_gp.mov

Tags: games

3D Realms has announced a new IP in conjunction with Recoil Games.

It looks very exciting on paper. It's a post-apocalyptic character driven story about mother nature fighting back against mankind. No screen shots or anything but it will be based on UE3. We've got the following info / quotes on it

" the main focus of the game will be on human interaction, with a conversation mechanic said to rival that of Mass Effect"

"You play as a young chap in the epicentre of the outbreak, along with a team of four mates each with their own back stories, motivations and secrets."

It will also feature team mechanics similar to HL2 and have no cutscenes.

I can't wait to read more about this!

Tags: games