Tell Us How You Really Feel: Battlefield 3-Single Player

Let’s face the honest truth here, who plays games like Battlefield or Call of Duty just for the single player? There are a few out there, whether you don’t have Internet or maybe multiplayer just isn’t your thing. But does that mean we as reviewers should turn a blind eye when the single player is so glaringly bad it makes us want to break the copy of the disc in two because the multiplayer is that good?

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CitiesXL 2012

It’s been over 8 years since SimCity 4 was released by Maxis. Die hard fans will also mention SimCity Societies, which wasn’t created by Maxis but by Tilted Mill Games, released in 2007.  It’s been a while since we have seen something as complex as SimCity, and something as innovative as SimCity Societies released in the genre. I would like to introduce all you city builders out there to CitiesXL 2012, released by Focus Home Interactive. It was released as an Expansion to CitiesXL 2011, but for those of us that don’t have that, it was also released as a stand alone game.

How does this city simulator stand up against the behemoth that is SimCity? You know how to find out by now.

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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.

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Darkspore

There was much building anticipation, for the late evolution of Spore, the brainchild of Maxis maven Will Wright, and Publisher EA.  Whether or not those longs delays, and lofty hype played a part in the game’s mixed reception remains up for debate.  Maxis took things in stride, regrouped, and applied what they learned to Darkspore, a new breed of action-RPG, by their definition.  In this year’s crowded action-RPG, dungeon crawling market, will Darkspore stand out, or just fade into the shadows?

The Storyline

If you are a Star Trek fan, than I guess you could retitle this game Darkspore : Away Team.  In essence, replace the Enterprise with Crogenitor, and replace your favorite captain, with yourself.  You take the helm, and, as you progress through the game, you unlock any of 25 heroes.  Building your team, you take up arms, against the evil Darkspore–creatures corrupted by the darkspore infection.  In this science fiction universe, you have limitless ability to customize and spec out your squad, sending them to different planets to investigate, and eventually eradicate, the Darkspore infection.  Each chapter and planet finished, offers new insight into the Darkspore, their motives and origins, and the course of actions you can take against them.

The Gameplay

True, there is great narration, between levels, to fill in the storyline of the universe, but it only serves as the wallpaper for what is a really addictive game.  At the beginning of the game, you have  a mere 3 heroes unlocked to fill the slots of your team, which only consists of 3 slots.  All of the 25 heroes come in 5 alignments, and belong to one of three classes, all of which I will explain in the quote balloon below.  Once all are unlocked, new enhanced versions of past heroes can be purchased, offering you a chance to get greater and more effective versions of your favorites, for the later levels and difficulties.  The game has three difficulty levels, and includes seamless co-op and, later, PvP modes, for alternate play.  At any time in the game, you can choose to bring outside help into your game, either from your friends list or through open matchmaking.  This is the crux of why, even DRM free, the game must have a constant internet connection to play.  Single player and multiplayer are completely interwoven, and everything from one facet carries over to the other—characters, items, customization, etc., and, as such, requires that added security to keep out griefers.  The game plays as a standard dungeon crawler; take your 3 hero team from one end of the map to the other, and survive the final encounter.  If only it were that simple, it would be a boring game.  Each game, item/bonus locations change, better loot fuels countless replays, and replaying a level is drastically changed by the game’s enhanced AI.  The game randomly chooses groupings of enemies from within all the alignments, and changes their strategy on the fly, making replays for better loot, much more interesting, and forcing the player to constantly be aware of their team makeup and strategy.  In addition, you gradually unlock the ability to chain longer groups of missions together, giving you more chances for higher level loot, should you survive the 4 or 5 level chain.  Co-op play, of course, also rewards much better items and weapons, with each player ‘rolling’ for each item uncovered.  The hero editor is just as much of a timesucker as the main game, offering an unending level of detail manipulation and customization, as well as different paint level customizations.  While inventory slots can be precious, it’s a pretty cool feature to be able to turn any item into a detail piece–stat perks are negated, but it offers many more options for your heroes to stand out.

Alignments -

Plasma – Masters of fire and electricity

 

Bio – Summoners and users of plants, poisons, animals and life-force drains/attacks

 

Cyber – Mechanical heroes attacking with bullets, explosive projectiles and energy

 

Necro – Harbingers of death, using fear and darkness to steal souls and twist reality

 

Quantum – Manipulators of matter, time and space

Classes -

Sentinel – Typical tank character type, high defense, high-damage offense, usually melee, slow movement

 

Ravager – More balanced stats, usually very quick, better ranged, but there are some melee versions

 

Tempest – These are more your ranged, support class characters, team stat buffs, etc; powerful but weaker

The Verdict

If I am to be brutally honest, there are things I would like to see done differently, within the game.  Each hero has a printed backstory, but there is lack of connection and depth to their characters.  Environments do get recycled quite frequently, and many items do get a bit repetitive, within that alignment’s theme and overall appearance.  I would also, definitely, love to see more heroes available to be unlocked; granted, there is a huge amount of game time available, if you are to get familiar with all of the ins and outs of each of the 25, but more is always welcome, right?  Now that I have aired those thoughts, I would remind you that none of them takes away from what is a fantastic and highly addictive game.  Certainly, the levels have a knack for eating away the hours, you may finish a five level grind, and notice that it’s getting late.  If you think that’s where your night finishes, beware that the statement “I just want to equip a few items”, can also turn into an hour or more of playtime.  All told, Darkspore definitely exceeded my expectations, and I am anxiously awaiting the announcement of any available DLC containing new locations/heroes. The games addictiveness will keep you glued to your seat long enough to grow your own spores.  If you are looking for a change of pace, from the normal fantasy universe, dungeon-crawler, then Darkspore is the perfect addition to any PC gamer’s library.

Bulletstorm

People Can Fly and Epic Games has brought us one of the most over the top, foul mouthed shooters to come out this gaming generation.  I realize the game will not be for everyone, due to the fact that it will give some the urge to kill and rape people in real life according to Fox News.  O k maybe not, but regardless it is still a extremely violent game with a dialogue that would make a sailor blush.  But with all that said, I still had a blast playing it.

You play as space pirate Grayson Hunt who is followed by his best bud Ishi Sato.  After finding out they were tricked into killing innocent civilians by their commanding officer General Sarrano, in which Hunt and his crew believed they were killing murderers and other scum of the world.  So it is no surprise that Hunt and Sato want their commanding officer dead.  Years later Hunt and Sato’s plane crashes on a planet called Stygia. Which is run by ruthless disgusting mutants that look like something out of the Hills Have Eyes movies.  After the crash, Sato is injured pretty bad and Hunt must track down a energy cell from an escape pod to put into Sato’s brain to save his life.  I’ll let you experience the rest to find out what happens, but the story is not whats going to make you keep coming back to Bulletstorm.  It’s the ridiculous extreme gameplay that awaits you after you arrive on Stygia.

One of the first things you’ll notice right away is how beautiful the game looks.  The environments and lighting truly looks stunning, and I was quite surprised.  Bulletstorm also does a good job of changing up each section of the game, so that you never get tired of seeing the same scenery over and over.  Aside from the eye candy, Bulletstorm is a very fast paced game.  You will constantly be blowing stuff up and kicking your way to the next area of mutants.  The variety of blood thirsty enemies you face will also change up quite a bit as you make your way through Stygia.  Some guys you can take down with a couple blows, while others will make you think in more creative ways to take down.  But the combat in Bulletstorm is the games bread and butter.  The game feeds on collecting Skillshots.  Skillshots are points that you collect by killing enemies in gruesome and unthinkable ways.  For example using your surrounding environments is a good way to collect points.  Some areas of the game will have things like cactus’s or flesh eating plants that you can kick those ugly buzzards into to gain some serious skillshot points, and not too mention saving some ammo.  Fairly early on in the game you come across a device that slips on your hand called a Leash.   Its basically just like it sounds, if you point that at a enemy it will shoot them towards you in slow motion and will allow you to do whatever you want with them.  You can simply shoot them and move on, but it is much more fun and recommended to think of creative ways to take them out.  This is some of the most fun the game has to offer.

In a game where brutal gun firing combat is what you’ll be spending much of your time on, the weapons would be a pretty important part in a game like Bulletstorm. You will be allowed to carry up to 3 weapons at a time.  Your always equipped with your basic assault rifle that really resembles a Lancer from Gears of War minus the chainsaw. One of my favorite weapons in the game was the Flail gun.  It’s a chain that shoots out thats equipped with two bombs at each end that wraps around your enemy then with a single press of the RT, it rips most bodies in half.  I found this to be extremely useful during some of the tougher enemies in the game like some of the bigger bosses.  The drill bit weapon was also a blast to use, that will instantly implode your enemy into the nearest wall, killing them with one hit.  But the shotgun is the weapon I had in my arsenal throughout the entire game.  It was great for close quarter shootouts and it was equipped with 4 barrels instead of 2 and as you would imagine it literally tore people in half and made for a nice rack up in Skillshot points.  There are a total of around 8 different weapons you can use in the game, and you upgrade each weapon with the points you collect with Skillshots.  Each time you come up on Dropkits, you can buy ammo for your guns, add a secondary fire onto them or swap out one of your guns for something new.  But whatever your weapon of choice may be, Bulletstorm is sure to have everything your sick little mind desires.

But Bulletstorm has more than just a campaign mode.  If you played the demo, then you got a little taste of the Echoes mode.  These are levels pulled from the single player that last anywhere from 4-6 minutes, and basically all your trying to do is get through each section not so much quickly, but how many Skillpoints you can accumulate.  At the end of each level you are graded on how well you performed.  It also has a leaderboard attached so you can see how well your friends did during their run.  Echoes mode isn’t the highlight to Bulletstorm, but it does make for some fun if you just want to hop on for 20 minutes or so, and anytime you can compete against your friends, it always adds for some replayability.  Anarchy is the cooperative multiplayer mode in Bulletstorm.  It pits you and three of your buddies against 20 waves of enemies, and as you would guess each wave increases in difficulty.  To complete each wave you have to rack up enough skillpoints to advance.  Anarchy will have the most lasting appeal because it’s the mode that you can play with your friends.  If you can get 3 of your buddies together, you will no doubt have an absolute blast.

By no means is Bulletstorm a “perfect” game.  One example is the games controls.  I am not saying they are bad, in fact after a little while you will pick up on them fairly quickly because of how much they resemble Gears of War.  But if your like me who’s brain is wired to the Call of Duty controls, it will take some time before you are running, sliding, and pulverizing your enemies in a smooth manner.  I also had instances of getting stuck onto objects which is very annoying when your under heavy gunfire.  At one point it happened during a pretty intense boss battle and I nearly almost died because of this.  I would say it only happened maybe two or three times but it always seemed like it came at the worst of times.  The game’s story and characters is also not much to write home about.  You will really care less about both as you make your way through the 6-8 hour campaign, depending on what difficulty you play on and how many times you die.

At the end of the campaign I was satisfied with my time with Bulletstorm.  The single player is a decent length and with the Echoes and Anarchy mode on top of that I would justify this game being a 60$ purchase, not too mention having a chance to jump in the Gears of War 3 Beta early.  But if the single player is the only thing that interests you, I would say give it a weekend rental.  But definitely give it the time of day, Bulletstorm puts some of the fun back into the FPS genre.

This review was based on the Xbox 360 version.

The Weekly Byte for 9/13/2010

New Releases

Tuesday, 9/14 -

• Painkiller Pandemonium – $19.99 – Collection of all the Painkiller games
• Patrician IV – $39.99 – Medievil  Strategy game

News Bytes

Beenox continues it’s trend of awesome PC ports! Known for handling many past PC ports, Beenox has spread it’s wings and made their own, so far well-reviewed game, Spider-Man : Shattered Dimensions.  A game which did not see a PC release, how ironic?  Well, take heart, true believers, Spidey has been confirmed to be swinging onto PC’s everywhere, later this year!  No dates were given, but the information comes directly from an Activision source, so stay tuned for more details as we expose this web of intrigue!

Breaking news, EA has grown a heart, and ears?! In a stunning revelation, EA’s Need For Speed World will now be completely free.  Yes, no catches, no strings, players can go well beyond the original level 10 cap, previously hitting the E-brake on free players.  In their press release, the game’s developers have said that they have been listening closely to the community feedback, in-game and on the forums, and have decided this will be the best option, for the game.  Oh, but you already paid $20 to unlock the full game?  Fear not, speed racer, EA will be granting you some pretty sweet rides, for rent in the game, so check your inbox for those codes, they should be going out shortly!

King Graham finds a Silver Lining. For those King’s Quest fans out there, Phoenix Online has announced that Episode 2 of it’s fan driven continuation of the PC classic, will be up for download, for free, this Saturday, September 18th.  For those not familiar, the firs Episode became available in July, and has been well received.  Phoenix is a group of completely independent fans of the King;s Quest franchise, who were unhappy with the last game in the series, and wanted to faithfully continue the lore and storyline of the game, with episodic content.  If you’ve ever played a King’s Quest game, you owe it to yourself to check out The Silver Lining!

Steam taking a page from Microsoft?! Relax, Steam fans, this, actually, isn’t a bad thing.  Steam has announced that they will be doing a Steam Wallet system online, now, similar to what XBOX LIVE does with Microsoft points.  Steam members will be able to add money to their Steam Wallet, in increments of 5, 10, 25, 50 and 100 dollars.  This will not replace the existing option for instant purchases, but will supplement as a way to keep credit, in your account, should you be saving for a release, or have some extra money you want to save as Steam credit.  Personally, I think it’s a great idea, especially for parents who’s kids game on Steam, they have money they want to spend, but nothing to spend it on?  Drop it into the Steam Wallet and they can use it later!  Same goes for an anticipated game release, or someone anxiously awaiting one of the lauded Steam sales.  Now if only Microsoft would take a step back and add instant purchases to XBL…….

Ubisoft serves up a well-concealed wrist knife to the throat of PC players. Well, PC gamers may already be frustrated with Ubisoft, not only because, it seems, all their new releases have hit the $60 price point, but also because of the, well known and invasive, always on DRM scheme, employed by all new releases.  Well, we can add another trending dagger to angry PC gamer’s hands – the fact that none of Ubisoft’s AAA titles has released alongside their console counterparts.  Splinter : Call Conviction saw a delayed release, as did Assassin’s Creed II, and now Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood will follow suit.  Console assassins get their bloody hands on the game on October 4th, but the PC iteration has been pushed back to next year’s first quarter.  Am I the only one that thinks this is a knife to the heart of any excitement for the game’s PC version?

Geared Up

Speaking of game delays, Ubisoft should take a page from Arrowhead Studios, on delay announcements.  I know this isn’t a typical entry, for my Geared Up section, but I wanted to shake things up, and I was impressed enough, by this trailer, that I thought it would make a great feature here.  In a mailing we received from Magicka publisher, Paradox, they have announced both a website for the game, and a delay, humorously presented  in a game trailer.  Even if you are not interested in playing Magicka, an action-adventure RPG, I would still highly recommend viewing the trailer, here, just for the humorous approach that Arrowhead Studios has taken.  It must have taken some time to throw the trailer together, and it’s impossible to be mad at the delay after watching the trailer.  For those that are interested in the game, the official website can be found at www.magickagame.com, and you can expect to see the game early next year (they are pulling a Blizzard – when it’s done).

The Weekly Byte for 8/9/2010

New Releases

• Thursday, 8/12 – Puzzle Quest 2 on Steam for $19.99 ($17.99 by pre-order before then)

News Bytes

Torchlight will be lit, again, in Spring of 2011!!! Runic games has blindsided us by announcing that their next project is not a Torchlight MMO, but a full on, Torchlight sequel, featuring online co-op, among other innovations.  Runic has mentioned that the outcry for co-op, and the huge success of Torchlight have made the next logical step seem more plausible as a sequel with multiplayer, rather than a dive directly into the MMO space.  Great idea to work out the kinks for the MMO and the fans are certainly happy with the announcement! Look for more information to come, very, very soon, here at Everyday Gamers, about Torchlight II, but for now, here is a summary of the new features to look for :

1. New Classes, 4 total, only the Railman ( melee/Tank) and Outlander (Ranged/Light Magic) announced, so far.
2. Player characters will now be customizable as male/female, and some appearance features
3. New pets announced, although Dogs/Cats will return, no animals heard yet, but Runic wants each pet to have some unique features/attributes/skills
4. The ‘Identify’ spells/scrolls will not return, the mechanic has been abandoned
5. Wide open, outside areas spanning multiple towns/lands, featuring day/night cycles and weather effects
6. Random, non-quest related, events will also be expected
7. Online Co-op with a minimum 4 players, no ceiling announced yet (6-8 estimated)
8. Co-op loot fights non-existent, only you will see your own loot drops
9. Sadly, Runic has confirmed that the 3 classes from Torchlight will not be playable, but will return as NPC’s, in the game.

Players Zerg-rushed stores for Starcraft II purchases! Record breaking sales numbers, for Starcraft II, show the game sold 1 million copies on day one, and reached 1.5 million sales within the first 48 hours of release.  These amazing numbers have made Starcraft II the fastest selling strategy game of all time.  Pretty good for an exclusive game on a dead platform, right?  If you are a big Starcraft fan, stay tuned for our review, coming very soon.  Also, look fora Spoilerific Spoiler-filled Starcraft Podcast, set to come sometime within the next month!

Maximum cloak. According to EA financial reports, Crysis fans will go without a nanosuit this Christmas, as it seems Crysis 2 will remain cloaked until the first quarter of 2011.  It is going to be very interesting to see how the game performs on consoles, as well as in a new environment, but now the game faces a crowded Spring lineup, as well.  EA, alone, has five titles planned for that time period, and I’m sure we’ll see a few more, thanks to the success of some of the 2010 launches, in that timeframe.  Is it wrong that I am more curious for Darkspore than I am Crysis 2?

Have you ever danced with the devil in the light of Arkham City? No, I never heard of Arkham City, either, but gamers will know it well after next fall.  Batman : Arkham City will be the follow up to one of the most lauded licensed video games ever, Batman : Arkham Asylum.  We already know to expect appearances from Two-Face and Catwoman, thanks to covers on Game Informer, I would hope to see more revelations made soon with GamesCom and PAX Prime right around the corner.  The game’s story will be penned by Paul Dinni, the writer from B:AA.  Judging by the name, we can expect to see Batman terrorize thugs across a more open environment, but we will have to wait to see.  Develpers have also teased more Batmobile segments, and I’m sure fans would enjoy a jet boosted ride through the streets of Gotham, as long as it’s not a high-def Spy Hunter sequence(or a super disappointing end-game sequence, harumph!).

Have you been dying to pay for your Quake? Quake LIVE has been in free Beta since 2/2009, but now it’s a full-blown game with subscription options.  I know, I didn’t realize it was still in Beta either, but relax, the free option is still there, if that’s what you prefer.  More committed fraggers can choose between a Premium option at $24 per year and a Pro option, at $48 per year.  The Premium package includes a Freeze-Tag Mode, many exclusive maps, clan creation and the option to join up to 5 clans.  Pro tacks on the option to start your own game server, as well as bringing three non-paying Quake friends into any of the premium content games.

Speaking of shooters, Star Wars Farcry? Maybe we can expect a new Republic Commando, thanks to the new staff member at Lucasarts.  The prime creative mind behind Farcry 2 and Splinter Cell games, Clint Hocking, has defected from Ubisoft to Lucasarts.  Obviously, Mr. Hocking has not revealed the projects he will be handling there, but speculation abounds.  There is enough to keep him busy with the collaborative push behind The Old Republic and Force Unleashed II, but this gamer hopes that his experience in the stealth/FPS realm will be applied to the Star Wars franchise.  May the Force be strong with him in his new endeavors!

Rumors of Dragons abound. Apparently, a listing on Gamestop.com, has everyone talking about Dragon: Age Origins, again.  A listing for an Ultimate Edition of last year’s RPG breakout was shown on their site with an MSRP of $59.99 for 360 and PS3, and only $49.99 for PC—but no details on the contents.  Not a bad deal if the full expansion, Awakening, and all of the DLC packs are included!  The bundle is set for an October 12th release, this year, and could be a great pickup for those that held out from early adoption.

E3 2010: EA Rewards Gamers With “Gun Club”

EA will introduce a sort of rewards program for gamers who pick up there games new.  Some of the perks include early access to news, demos, beta’s and more.  You can visit Gunclub.EA.Com for more information.

E3 2010 Podcast Ep. #2 – This Is It?

Listen is as Eric Bouchard discusses the events of the day and how Microsoft did not live up to its own hype.

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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.