Gameinformer Overview – November Update 2011

This months Gameinformer cover features Transformers and the Fall of Cybertron. It’s a huge month for the online gaming community as Call of Duty Modern Warfare 3 is released within a week as well as a few other large titles in the upcoming months.

Read more

Draft Dodging This Fall

This fall many companies have organized a strategic assault on gamer’s wallets, as is always the case in this time of year.  Amidst the near three digit release list for the 2011 holiday season, two titans have squared off—Modern Warfare 3 and Battlefield 3.  Some gamers have enlisted in one side or the other, some will try to straddle the fence and serve tours on both sides, while others have defected from one side to another, because of combat trauma suffered in Section Beta of one side or the other.  On the PC front of this war, the battle also stems from who will get you to enlist in their tour of duty Origin vs Steam.  While the battle rages on for who will enlist the most members, I believe I will be among the draft dodgers this fall.

Read more

Weekly Byte for 6/1/2010

New Releases

Tuesday June 1st

Alpha Protocol – $49.99, The Espionage RPG

Sims 3 Ambitions – $39.99 – Meticulous career control for your Sims

News Bytes

• DRM Alert!!! So this week, we have good news and bad news on the DRM front.  First, the good.  A Blizzard representative was quoted saying that Anti-piracy efforts, on the PC platform, are an outright waste of resources that would be better devoted to making better games.  They acknowledged that piracy and software cracking teams were exponentially greater than the developer teams, and that anti-piracy measures are futile at best.  They seem to believe that, if correctly implemented, Battle.Net will offer enough features to lure players into wanting to play with a legitimate, paid copy rather than a cracked torrented one, and isn’t that what we have been saying here at EDG?  Make the game better and continue to innovate, and the majority of players will gladly pay for the experience.  On the downside, Namco Bandai, while echoing the futile sentiments of anti-piracy measures, have said that they are choosing to support the “always on” DRM scheme that Ubisoft has flung at us, like plague ridden bodies over a castle wall.  They admit that it is not the best scheme, but it is the best option for them, at this time.  So how will Test Drive’s new game and The Witcher 2 be affected?  Only time will tell.  However, if you are a Test Drive fan, head over to the Test Drive Unlimited 2 site, or click here, to apply for the game’s beta.  Keep in mind, that while Blizzard’s statements are a remarkable breath of fresh air, Battle.Net 2.0 still requires a log in for single player gameplay—-although it would appear that an offline mode, a la Steam’s offline play, should be an option.  Keep your eyes peeled for the EDG SCII Beta preview, coming soon—–and keep at those Zerg rushes, the Beta has been extended until June 7th!
• Were you one of the lucky 25,000 first gamers to jump into OnLive’s pre-order? Were you looking forward to the free first 3 months that were promised?  Well, that’s not the deal anymore!  Take heart true believers, OnLive has not taken away, but upped the ante to one year free AND one free game.  Sounds like a great deal no?  Also sounds like an attempt to attract attention from their competitor, Gaikai, who has been drawing much attention of their own with their pricing structure and network of server sites.  It will be interesting to see this clash of the titans, and the news they unveil at E3!
• Need For Speed World Online prepping pit crews. The official launch date of the online racing MMO will be July 20th, with beta access for pre-orders.  The new iteration in the NFS universe will allow free play until level 10, after which a $19.99 ‘Starter Pack’ purchase will be required and will up the level cap to 50.  Also available with a pre-order is an exclusive car, early access and a power up pack.  I assume there won’t be any balancing issues with the exclusive content, but then again that statement would assume that there is enough of a NFS following willing to make the jump into MMO territory and play long enough to uncover these balancing issues.
• More Call of Duty ups and downs, as Treyarch announces that they are solely committed to the Call Of Duty franchise. Sure, it’s good news, but it’s also worrisome if they are not cautious to avoid the same pitfalls that Infinity Ward fell prey to.  On another front, Black Ops details are hitting like tracers lighting up the night sky.  Apparently, we can gladly move on from World War II as the new game’s setting will span across multiple fronts such as the Cold War and Vietnam.  Joystiq aired a developer interview, withe Treyarch’s Dan Bunting,  here, but if you are reluctant to read it, I will post the highlights here :

1. True to Call of Duty form, you will control multiple characters across many frontiers in the 60′s and 70′s timeframe, enclosed in a single, over-arcing storyline.
2. Four player co-op and two player split screen has been announced, along with a beefed up COD4 graphics engine.
3. DLC was not addressed, a PS2 port was confirmed DOA and a Wii title, handled by another team within Treyarch, will be enrolling for active duty.

• Heavy Rain will not be storming onto the PC. Well, we can put this rumor to rest apparently, although, even with the mixed reviews, I can say I would still like to see Heavy Rain get ported over.  In a large list of games supporting Nvidia’s PhysX technology on an Nvidia website, gamers spied that Heavy Rain would be supporting the technology that shined in Arkham Asylum, among other titles.  Without a game announcement, this seemed like an accidental announcement for an interesting PC port.  Unfortunately, the PhysX guys have declared this a mere typo and corrected the website.  True, this does not completely rule out the game’s weather conditions changing direction to the PC, but it makes it a lot more skeptical, for now.

Geared Up

Well, I can thank our own, Patrick Adams, for this week’s ‘Geared Up’ entry.  I was a little uninformed with last week’s discussion of Nvidia’s current 3D PC technology, so what better way to get caught up than to get up close and personal right here!  The 3D kit currently retails on NewEgg for $199.00, with a copy of James Cameron’s Avatar for the PC.  As I mentioned, the tech runs best on a monitor with a refresh rate of 120Hz, but it is not required.  This particular kit only includes the software, glasses and IR transmitter to transmit the image up to 15 feet wirelessly to one or multiple sets of glasses.  It’s the LC lenses in the glasses that are the key to the whole technology.  The lenses flicker at a rate far beyond the eyes detection, allowing the images corresponding to each eye to be seen as 3D by the wearer.  Like our console wireless controllers, they are charged by USB to be ready for use in-game, but I found no details on how long they could be used before requiring an additional charging.  Sure, this only creates the illusion of 3D, but judging by the spectrum of reviews, it can be excellent—-provided you have the tech to pull it off.  I have been able to find prices for 22″ monitors starting at $249 and climbing online-which is probably not unreasonable if you are in need of a replacement monitor, but seems expensive if you already have a good resolution reliable monitor and are upgrading for the sole purpose of 3D support.  One of the interesting features that I came across, that one might not think of, is the ability of Nvidia’s 3D tech to create it’s own crosshair in any title supported.  Why in the world would they do that, you ask?  Well, in case the game did not adapt it’s built in crosshair to the 3D support, Nvidia does the work for them so that your crosshair will not disappear behind objects and enemies rendered in 3D, causing targeting difficulties.  If you are curious about the technology and it’s presentation, check the links below.

For a video of the unboxing and product review, look here.  Also, many associated videos can be found on the right.

For a full list of supported games, as well as links to product descriptions, check Nvidia’s page here.  I have to say, the list of supported titles is absolutely staggering, and I can easily see myself dusting off many of these games when my budget catches up with the falling prices of the monitors and tech.

Weekly Byte for 5/17/2010

Release List

Tuesday, 5/18

• Split Second – Retailing for $39.99, simultaneous console release
• Shrek Forever After – Movie Tie-in, $19.99
• Dragon Age : Darkspawn Chronicles DLC – $5.00

News Bytes

• Has another PC version been leaked by box-art? Gears of War was unofficially announced when PC Gamer ran a ‘Gaming on Vista article prior to the OS release, showcasing Games For Windows store displays with Gears Of War boxes bearing the shiny new Games For Windows LIVE logo on top.  Oooops.  Well, now it seems Fable III has broken in similar fashion, as boxart provided by Microsoft to Games Press had the “Only on 360 and Windows” golden stamp on the case.  The picture was quickly pulled down, but I know what I’ll be looking for this E3!  There have been many teasers of great PC announcements to come from LA next month, so it should be a wonderful time to be a PC gamer!  Now the question remains, will we see a retro port of Fable II?
• On the positive side of the Call of Duty turmoil, it seems Treyarch has given credit to PC players’ complaints. When Treyarch head, Mark Lamia was asked about the upcoming Black Ops PC port, he confirmed that dedicated servers would, indeed, be supported.  In a very obvious politically worded statement, Lamia denied any reasoning to not support dedicated servers, but stated that steps would be taken to protect the experience to provide a similar experience to that of consoles, while still providing the positive features unique to the PC platform.  Gee, I hope they continue Infinity Ward’s tradition of Modern Warfare 2′s acclaimed PC specific features like mouse support and voice chat.
• Torchlight in a Perfect World? Announced today, was the purchase for $8.4 million dollars made by Chinese MMO developer, Perfect World.  With Perfect World now retaining a majority share of Runic Games, it will be interesting to see what agreements are made for the already planned Torchlight MMO.  Will this be an acquisition of support to add resources and leave the game alone, or will Perfect World be muscling their way into the creativity process of the already breakout success of the single-player dungeon crawling franchise? Apparently, we have two years to wait until we see the final product, but keep your eyes for more details.  Also curious, is the nature of Runic Games previous MMO attempt during their days as Flagship Studios–the Hellgate : London multiplayer experience.  Hellgate offered both free and paid options for their MMO multiplayer, it will be interesting if Perfect World will not only disturb the creative process, but also the pricing structure to recoup some of their investment.
• Isaac spreads the PC love. Like many high school relationships, the PC port of Dead Space 2 has been on again off again more times than we care to know.  My favorite aspect was the denial of the port by EA, immediately followed by the statement’s of Ziff Davis being more surprised about the cancellation than the fans(which he quickly retracted).  Well, now we can breathe easily—-at least until next year when Visceral’s sequel officially creeps onto consoles and PC.  EA PR has, once again, confirmed that a PC version will hit shelves Q1, next year.

Geared Up

I decided to take a different turn on ‘Geared Up’ this week.  Instead of trolling the internet looking for some cool gaming accessories, peripherals or case mods, I decided to feature some of the gear I prefer to use in my own gaming exploits.  Please keep in mind, that I have paid for all of these items, and do not receive any samples, review products or incentives from the companies that produce these products, they are just the peripherals I have grown to prefer.

Mouse Pad – Gaming on the go, my mouse pads take a fair beating being trucked around in my laptop case and tossed around from lap to desk to wherever.  When my most recent one died, I decided to table my skepticism and try out the Rocketfish ‘Gaming’ Mousepad.  I have to say, I am certainly impressed.  The pad features two differently textured surfaces mounted on either side of an aluminum plate, sized 18.4″ x 13″.  One side is textured for speed, the other for control, and it holds up nicely.  Of course, be careful to place this in your bag where it will not scratch your machine, if you choose to travel with it, but it’s easily recommended at the price point of $19.99, as I’m sure it will outlast and outperform it’s cheaper alternatives.

Mouse – Razer Diamondback 3G, Red.  Sure, it’s not the latest or the greatest, but this Razer series is tride and true in it’s performance.  Newer and more sensitive models are available, but for a current retail of $40, this is a great mid-ranged model that performs well.  The Diamondback is equipped with a 3G infrared sensor, capable of a maximum of 1800 DPI.  With it’s drivers installed, it also has 9 programmable buttons and on the fly sensitivity options.  I personally only need one button to map my ‘Melee Attack’ to, but it’s always nice to have the extra features if need be.  I also prefer to turn the mouse sensitivity to it’s highest setting, and lower the sensitivity in each game to it’s lowest to achieve the smoothest movement, but that’s one of my quirks.  Razer has since made multiple wireless mouse options, but I prefer the gold plated corded one to a wireless option anyday.

Headset – Funny enough, I stumbled upon this headset not for my gaming needs, but my podcasting needs.  That being said, I can once again sing Razer’s praises in this category with the Carcharias headset, still retailing for $79.99(Thankfully I found it for significantly less).  The only downside is it’s lack of Surround Sound support, but the Carcharias excels in everything else.  The padded earcups are velvety soft, and dare not irritate or chafe your ears during the longest of gaming sessions.  The sound is crisp, and is relayed through two, gold-plated 3.5mm jacks that plug into your headphone/mic jacks.  The boom mic will swivel up to be tucked away, or to switch to the other ear for headset reversal, and the braided cord with volume and mute controls reaches a whopping 10 foot length.  As with the mouse, there are better options out there, but I can’t find any faults with these mid-range products—they outperform anything priced comparatively.

Modern Warfare 2 Gameplay Trailer

With a few small teases being recently released as a build up, a more complete trailer for Modern Warfare 2 has been revealed. Complete with story details and all, this new piece of media features similar but slightly improved graphics, extended cutscenes and what appears to be an S.A.S hero who resembles Sev from Killzone 2. Check it out.