yeah I used the same inconvenient truth joke everyone keeps using, get over it.

Far Cry 2 is starting to piss me off, because I can't go anywhere on the map without being attacked about 6 times by the guys at checkpoints.

A (very) simple mod would fix this problem. Either the checkpoint spawn points could be removed, or more ideally the guys manning them could be replaced with those faction type guys from Pala. This would be ideal. You'd pass through the majority of checkpoints unharmed, or you might go through too fast and run over a guy, incurring the wrath of the other soldiers.

Unfortunately, Ubisoft didn't see fit to release a Dunia SDK, and therefore no mods can be created. There is a map editor, so its possible someone could edit the game files and remove all the spawn points, but this wouldnt be distributable since it would a) be huge, and b) consititute a pirated copy of the game.

Tags: games

For all the reasons you've read already. There's nothing I can really add to the wealth of online reviews out there. I loved Far Cry (unlike most people) but it was seriously flawed. Far Cry 2 has corrected these flaws. ALL of them. Just for fun, lets do a list.

- No stupid plot involving mutants and invisible freaks
- Voice acting that doesn't make you laugh / grit teeth / want to stab yourself
- No more unrealistic weaponry
- No more stupid banter from AI bad guys

More than that, Far Cry 2 corrects many flaws of FPS games in general. It does things right that so many have failed to do.

- No more load times. The only loading screen is when you start the game
this is a godsend. I can't stand the action being interrupted by load screens. I hate them. they should have been eliminated when we moved to CD-ROM
– More realistic health kits
ok sometimes pulling a bullet out of your wrist involves a little more hoopla than we see here, but its certainly a start
- Hands
A few games have started to do this, but Far Cry 2 has done it better than most. Picking things up is almost fun.

Tags: games

yes, another top 10 list. This is more for me really, looking forward to a lot of stuff at the mo

Coming Soon
Fallout 3, Dead Space, GTA IV, Left 4 Dead, HL2 : Ep3, Mirror's Edge

Here already
FarCry 2, Stalker : Clear Sky

A Long Way Off
Deus Ex 3, DNF, Rage, Borderlands, Fable 2 (on PC), Operation Flashpoint 2

Tags: games

No, it's not the review score I'm giving it. I haven't even played the damn game yet.

I bought it on steam 5 days ago to avoid the SecureRom bullshit (and added paddy tax) that comes with the boxed version.

It's currently trundling along at 10.5 KB/s, at around 74%, up from 68% yesterday.

I've been downloading it for 5 fucking days.

I've blogged in the past about how convenient steam is, about how it brings something to the table that piracy can't, and encourages people to buy games rather than pirate them. Now, I'm beginning to question my beliefs. I would have had the pirate version (assuming there is one, and I'm SURE there is) downloaded about 6 times by now. But here I am still waiting for my legitimate version to come down the tubes.

I have a 2mb connection which runs great for everything else. I've tried all the tricks – firewall rules, deleting the clientregistry.blob, downloading that MS TCP tool and deleting TCP connections – it never goes above 17 KB/s.

This is madness. MADNESS! In these days of bit-torrent, how come they can't build a distributed system for downloading this stuff? It should be easy! I can't be the only person in ireland download Far Cry 2 over steam. Can't we all just download a different piece each and get them off each other? Can't we then authenticate those pieces with a central server?

Of course, between work and moving house and all, I wouldn't have time to play it even if I did have it downloaded, but its the thought that counts.

Tags: games

Tags: games

Recent posts on my favorite games blog (besides this one) have brought me back to that sess pool of tragic hilarity, Deep Shadows. They have a new section up for their upcoming project, 'The Precursors', which I have quoted at length here.

Please note, any wayward? ?question ? marks?, mipslelings, or poor implements of grammar-ness are in the source material!

From http://www.deep-shadows.com/en/projects.php

Precursors. The Creators. The Legend of the Galaxy. We can only guess who of the existing races carry the genes of the Progenitors? The Worlds are endless? Beautiful, unique and dangerous. Some of them are inhabited, the others serve only as the shifting bases for the smugglers. Some worlds are in the infancy of their development evolution, while others have already collapsed.

Only when you yourself travel through these worlds, you will see burning seas and frozen skies, then you will realize the power of nature. Only then you will see corrupted politicians, unselfish patrons of the arts and brutal despots, then you will realize the truth of the society. Only then you will deep into unknown sectors of the Galaxy, face the unknown abnormalities, fly in the comet?s tail and plunge into some accidental portal ? then you will realize the endless depth of the Space.

But this is just the future. And it?s still unknown what will this journey be like ? but we can say it for sure ? such journeys will be unforgettable.

That about sums it up for me.

Only then you will deep into unknown sectors of the Galaxy, face the unknown abnormalities, fly in the comet?s tail and plunge into some accidental portal ? then you will realize the endless depth of the Space.

It’s those ‘unknown abnormalities’, and ‘accidental portal’s that make deep shadows games worth their weight in gold. or maybe potassium.

then you will realize the endless depth of the Space

So deep, the space. that no person can hear you to scream into it.

Tags: games

Where to start.

I wasn't expecting much from hellgate, so I shouldn't really be disappointed by the impressions I got from the demo, and yet I am. It's just depressing, to see yet another example of a game that could have been incredible, amazing, fabulous – ruined seemingly by a lack of effort or common-sense on the part of the developers.

I start my game, plagued by tooltips despite having checked the 'disable tooltips' option on the character creation screen. First thing that happens is I get a 'video' message from some lost guy called murmur. This video comprises of a picture of him, and some text appearing on my screen detailing his predicament. "Thank goodness your're here!" he seems to cry "I'm stranded!" and "Maybe we can make it to holborn station together!"

I find Murmur about 100ft in front of me, past some ambling zombies who never seem to bother me and are easily side-stepped. Stranded indeed. When I talk to the scared, frightened murmur, he looks non-chalant, waves at me every five seconds, and seems to come on to me saying things like "its a big universe – if it doesnt work out maybe we could relocate" or "well aren't we just full of questions!". Not exactly terrified behaviour, but we'll forgive that. Also his lips don't move when he talks.

He's been on a critically important mission with some templar who were butchered. He suggests we go and retrieve the information they died to obtain, about some guy called fawkes. Murmur has now stopped waving and has begun to bow ceremoniously ever five seconds.

I notice as I run down the streets that fragments of windows reflect a street which bears no resemblance to the one we're on. More zombies are on the streets, walking like John Cleese in the python silly walks sketch. No, Really.

We find a half dead templar knight. "The mission!" he cries "it must not fail!" "the doctor – fawkes. dr fawkes" "listen, his device…" "you must bring word to lann" "give him fawkes communique! he must find the device" "go to covent garden station, give fawkes communique to lann" "he'll understand. He'll find the doctor …use the device" "there's still hope. always hope… always ho…"

He Dies.

I am filled with questions. Who is fawkes! Could he be a doctor of some kind? Might he have some kind of device on him by any chance? And was I supposed to bring anything to anyone?

I try to ask murmur to see if he can clarify any of this. He won't let me look directly at him, and keeps side stepping around me like he's trying to hide.

We go to holborn station. Inside I find murmur, even though he's supposedly following me. Now he's leaning against a wall, beside a big ad for nVidia, picking his nose repeatedly. When i talk to him he lurchs forward, and gesticulates wildly while saying "wanted to talk didja mate?"

I swear to myself thats the last time i'll converse with that irritating twat.

I walk further into the station, find various guard types, a camp shopkeep, a boy called 'joey' with a wooden leg (really) and a woman with the BIGGEST breasts I have ever seen in a computer game. In that statement I'm including lara croft, all the female characters from dead or alive, tekken, tao feng, everything.

Seriously. As the old adage goes, when in doubt, include a female character with boobs bigger than basketballs. I talk to the top heavy heroine and discover she has the voice of a 60 year old woman.

I stop playing hellgate, decide not to buy the game and begin writing this post.

Tags: games

I've been looking forward to Crysis for a long time. As the spiritual sequel to Far Cry, one of my all time fave games, it's obviously and exciting prospect. But now, with all my attention focussed on Crysis, I've been totally blind-sided by FarCry 2, the ACTUAL sequel to FarCry.

First off, a little history. Crytek and Ubisoft parted after farCry, for whatever reason (i'm going to go with endless cheap knock-off sequels to far-cry that sucked). Ubisoft kept the brand name, and Crytek took their engine and redeveloped it for another tropical shooter, Crysis. Meanwhile, ubisoft seemingly continued with the trend of cheap knock-off sequels, announcing FarCry 2 to very little fanfare and a bit of skepticism.

However, it seems now that the team put together for FarCry 2 took a good long look at everything that made the first far cry great, ignored all the shitty sequels, and threw away all the stuff that made FarCry a bit stupid at times.  

At the Leipzig Games Show (which I'm SO going to next year – if i can get in) They demoed FC2 behind closed doors, with no video equipment allowed. Here's some of the sexy details, via Joystiq. 

• They've chucked all the stupid stuff – namely the Mutants – And they've kept what made it a great game, (at least up to about the third or fourth level).
• Immersive Gameplay, Realism and Exotic Settings.
• This time around, it's set in the african savannah rather than on a tropical island (because everyone's doing tropical islands now).
• The world is 50 sq. km, unrestricted (go anywhere) with no load times.
• Jungles are all procedurally generated, interactive, and full of destructible trees (all the rage these days).
• The player's map is in-world so when you pull it out you need to find good light to read it.
• The map shows 1 sq. km, or 1% of the world. 1%!.
• No health packs, instead they'll have 60+ first aid techniques you can do (more on that later)
• Full Day / Night cycle and weather system. Wind will affect fire, windmills, and trees but probably not bullets.
• Weapons : You buy weapons in the game from arms dealers. There are about thirty weapons in the game.

Some stuff that happened in the demo.

In short, this game sounds like it's building up to be as revolutionary as the original, even without the original team.

Tags: games