Tag Archives: Games

Game Review: Batman: Arkham Asylum

I just played the demo of this game on the Xbox 360 and im just stunned, from the first screen of the demo its just so authenic to the recent Batman movies from the music to the great story and atmosphere. I rarely bother with demo games for the Xbox 360 but from the 2 mins this game started it was obvious that this game was something else.

Before i played the game i heard good things, but i like to sample a game first and “Batman: Arkham Asylum” is a superb game which is both fun and looks great.

Check out the review from gamespot.com;

Anno 1404-A superb Game

anno1404titleIts not often that a game comes along and grabs you by the balls and keeps you entertained for more than 20 minutes but thats exactly what Anno 1404 does. Its quite simply a must have PC Strategy game which some amazing graphics and is so enjoyable you will get lost playing it, and thats a good thing.

The game puts you in charge of building a small colony and works it way up. Now the thing about this game that i loved that it was so easy to get started into, i started straight into the campaign and the game teaches yous lowly how everything works. The game features various characters that ask you do to certain tasks or quests that range from building, getting supplies or finding spies.

The building are wonderfully detailed and the sea just looks amazing.  I remember a few days ago i was losing gold in the game and going into debt big time, but i realised that id have to build up some peasant houses and meet there needs and tax the ass out of them of course to this succesfully meant building a cider orchard and lots of Taverns. The game narrows down peasants needs to getting drunk and having a chuirch to go to which made me laugh.  The game has sea-battles as you can build your own shipyard,trading routes.

This one of the best games ive ever played and id recommend it to anyone. Its a total joy to play and keeps busy all the way.

Official Website: http://anno.uk.ubi.com/

Official Trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O36-q_w5SEY

Rating: 9/10

anno1404Anno-1404Anno-1404-Photo

PC Gaming,too much hastle these days.

Its the weekend and id thought id relax by playing some new games. First up is the game “Americas Army3” which is FREE yes you heard me Free and you can get on steam.

Americas Army:
This game was made by the US Army for whatever reason maybe to brainwash americans into joing to US Army. Anyway the game doenst work at the moment which the developers claim is due to “overwhelming demand” on the games servers.

Last night i spent about 40 mins trying to get the game to work but it just crashes when you try to do the training. So a big sarcastic thumbs up for a company releasing a game that doest work.


Ghostbusters:

The second game that failed is Atari’s “Ghostbusters” a game that looks great fun. However the PC version of the game has some serious problems, the installer for the game seems to take forever and i mean that, its still running after about one hour now and from what ive read on the forums around the net there are some problems installing the game.

So another PC Game fails, PC Gaming is such a hassle these days. I was searching for a solution and i found a quote that sums it all up really;

Post by Maxszy
This is why I don’t PC game anymore. The issues that go along with it like this, are so “pull your hair out” frustrating that it just…ugh.

Though I suggest checking your windows updates and so forth. Could be something to do with that.

Link

The so called fix from Atari makes things even more confusing;

Install on drive other than drive C:

This game will only install correctly on drive C: unless workaround is followed.

Install on drive other than drive C:

  1. Use the custom install option to select the destination you would like to install Ghostbusters on your PC.
  2. Once the installation is complete please re-run the installer. This time select the C: drive as the destination location. The second install should only take a few seconds.
  3. When the second install is complete, copy the 7 files created in the “C:\Program Files (x86)\Atari\Ghostbusters” folder and paste them into the “Ghostbusters” folder you originally selected for your custom install.
  4. You will then be able to run the game normally.

Fallout 3 Crashes all the Time – Solution

Fallout 3 is a great game but it can suffer very badly from crashes if you installed any codec packs. I recently bought the DLC pack “Operation Anchorage” and the game crashed all the time on me and was unplayable. This happened in the Orignal game as well but it wasnt as bad. Anyway after some searching i found this tip on a forum that has solved the problem for me;

Fallout 3 does seem to have a conflict with FFDShow codecs. You have to
either uninstall them from your system or add fallout3.exe to FFDShow
audio and video decoders exceptions list. Although you may not know it,
FFDShow codecs may be present on your system if you have installed
codec packs such as CCCP (Combined Community Codec Pack).

How to add Fallout 3 to FFDShow decoder exceptions list

1. Launch the ffdshow video decoder configuration window. You may
access this through the start menu. If you have installed any codec
packs, check the start menu entries of those. If you can�t find it on
the start menu, right click the ffdshow video decoder (red) icon that
appears on the taskbar when a supported video file is playing, and
select �ffdshow video decoder� option from the menu. ffdshow_icon

2. Tick the �Dont use ffdshow in� checkbox if not already checked

3. Press the edit button that is next to the text field. A new dialog
box will pop up. Press the Add button. The �Add incompatible executable
file� dialog box will be displayed. Browse to the Fallout 3
installation directory and locate fallout3.exe file. Select it and
press open. Close all dialog boxes currently open by pressing ok.

(OR you can simply type fallout3.exe at the end of the text field next to �Dont use ffdshow in� checkbox)

4. Repeat steps 2-3 in ffdshow audio decoder configuration (the blue
icon in taskbar) window as well. It is important that you add
fallout3.exe to both ffdshow audio and video decoder�s expections list.

Source:

WOTLK-More of the same, with a few new quests and level 80

Its over a month now since WOTLK launched and ive seen just about everything there is to bar the Raid Boss encounters and ive come to the conclusion that its just more of the same with a few new quests. Bare in mind that i play a lot of WoW and ive 8 level 70’s, yeah thats a bad sign of addiction i guess which ive beaten. But i just dont get the whole level 80 thing, i put a lot of time and effort into the last expansion TBC with my main warlock toon and my 7 alts and now im expected to do some of that all over again? Im sorry but its not good enough that Blizzard raise the bar again with another level cap and more quests and more gear. I dont want to do that all over again. I guess my problem is that i may have too many alts and i dont know what one to be my main or it could be that im just sick of the same crap Blizzard spew out each time.

My Guild was kind enough to give me a chance to raid in 25 man Naxx a few weeks a go and it despite my rogue being a sorta of Alt/Main with Epic Level 70 T4 gear and PVP S2 Weapons i was bottom on DPS. I didnt expect to be top but the humilation of being bottom was enough for to make me quit raiding once again. I didnt have the level of gear the rest of the raid had like Tier 5-6 and Sunwell Plateau gear but i got the idea of the Boss fight quickly but that doesnt matter if your “DPS” isnt in-line with everyone elses which really is why i hate WoW raiding.

I wanted to be a Healer in WOTLK and i respecced to Holy with my priest from the start and i did at least 9-10 runs of “The Nexus” and “U.K”. I healed quite well with no wipes being my fault until i tried to Heal “Azol-Nerub” in “Dragonlight” where i just couldnt heal the group at the 2nd/3rd boss, and dam did we try. But in the end it felt like it was my fault, if i remember right we had at least 3 melee including tank which made things very hard to heal. So i respecced to shadow and leveled solo till 80 where i just dont know what to do yet again. The leveling of tailoring seems very difficult which is my only hope and the only hope that a “casual player” can get the gear they need to be useful in raids without the crazy timesink.

Im writing this post after thinking about it for a few weeks and because i got rejected from a “PUG Heroic” for being “UnderGeared” which has made me so angry i cant explain it.

Stalker:Shadow of Chernobyl – A Game with more atmosphere than most…


This game i got when it came out over a year a go i think it was April 2007 and i never got into it.  Ive been meaning to play it for a long time but because of certain other MMO game i never did. The progress i made in the game was lost each due to the game sving
its “Saved Games” in the windows drive instead of “My Documents”
Folder. From the few levels i did play i knew this was a good game
maybe up the standards of “Half-Life 2” in terms of atmosphere at least.

STALKER the movie and short story:
The game is based on a Russian Short story called “Roadside Picnic” which was made into a movie called “STALKER” back in 1977. The Movie which the game is based on has 3 people going into the “Zone” anymore would be spoiling it. The making of the movie is very interesting as it basically resulted in the deaths of the actors and director due to the places they had to visit while filming it.

From Wikipedia;

In an interview on the MK2
DVD, the production designer, Rashit Safiullin, recalls that Tarkovsky
spent a year shooting a version of the outdoor scenes of
Stalker. However, when the crew got back to Moscow,
they found that all of the film had been improperly developed and their
footage was unusable. The film had been shot on experimental Kodak stock with which Soviet laboratories were unfamiliar.

Even before the film stock problem was discovered, relations between Tarkovsky and the first cinematographer, Georgy Rerberg,
had been in serious deterioration. After seeing the poorly-developed
material, Rerberg left the first screening session and never came back.
By the time the film stock defect was found out, Tarkovsky had shot all
the outdoor scenes, and had to burn them. Safiullin contends that
Tarkovsky was so despondent that he wanted to abandon further
production of the film.

After the loss of the film stock, the Soviet film boards wanted to
shut the film down, officially writing it off. But Tarkovsky came up
with a solution: he asked to make a two-part film, which meant
additional deadlines and more funds. Tarkovsky ended up re-shooting
almost all of the film with a new cinematographer, Aleksandr Knyazhinsky. According to Safiullin, the finished version of
Stalker is completely different to the one Tarkovsky originally shot.

The central part of the film, in which the characters move around the Zone, was shot in a few days at a deserted hydro power plant on the Jägala river near Tallinn, Estonia. The shot before they enter the Zone is an old Flora chemical factory in the center of Tallinn,
next to the old Rotermann salt store and the electric plant—now a
culture factory where a memorial plate of the film has been set up in
2008. Some shots from the Zone were filmed in Maardu, next to the Iru powerplant and the shot with the gates to the Zone was filmed in Lasnamäe, next to Punane Street behind the Idakeskus.

Many people involved in the film production had untimely deaths.
Many attribute this to the long and arduous shooting schedule of the
film as well as toxins present at the shooting locations.

A Flawed Master-piece:
However it must rank as one of the hardest games ive played.  You can die so easily that you must basically Run->quicksave->shot->Quickload (if you die). Not to mention the fact that the NPC enemies can kill you so easily they seem to have incredible aim and accuracy something that makes you wonder what the hell kind of guns your character has, as it takes a lot og shooting to kill most of the enemies in the game. It feels at time

However the game is great i still connsider it an “Almost “perfect” game but it sure has its flaws.  Its way too hard.  I can quite figure out if its because ive never played the game properly , the R.P.G gameplay part to it kinda frustrates me.

Heres a video of the game that i made just to showcase the “Atmosphere” in the game. Note the sounds are very eerie and atmospheric.

STALKER:S.O.C – Atmosphere 1 (HQ Video and Audio)

World of Warcrack: Coming Back

There are some amazing games coming out between now and x-mas thats its impossable to choose what ones to buy. Probably the most exciting is the World of Warcrack Expansion pack Wrath of Litch Pin and yes they are delibate mistakes in the aid of being funny.

Anyway the big 3.0.2 patch is out for WoW at the moment which is the one before WOTLK hits so id thought id come back to WoW for a bit. I got an urge to try level my level 34 Dwarf paladin of all things. I cant explain it, one minute i was playing Warhammer Online with my Dwarf Rune Priest and 30 min later i was back in Wow after two months.

I always told myself that i wouldnt come back till there was new content while i cant see much in the patch notes except a “wall of text” abour boring class changes all i see is the “hair-cut” feature something that will keep the boredom away till WOTLK no doubt:p

The big 3.0 patch was something worth investigating at least for the moment. I kinda feel embarrassed returning to WoW like a long lost relative who ran out on his family i return with cap in hand so to speak. Theres still feck all to play for till the 14th of November and “Wrath of the litch king” but ill have a “poke” around i guess.

PVP is still the only thing i can be bothered with and out of my 7 alts ive yet to decide what one will be my “new main”. Its got to be the Priest or Rogue really also i like my Dwaft Huntard but theres piles of hunters around.

The other problem is wheter or not id like to raid ever again and the odds of that in the guild im in isnt very good. Odds are ill leave and join a small friendly guild with some people i know maybe or quit Wow again for good this time never to return.

Ive no idea if i want to raid ever again but thats a long way off and if WOTLK doest have something more than TBC all over again im off. If i get addicted again im screwed unlikely i see what Wow is now and how utterly boring it can be. Time will tell as they say.

Valves Steam Game Prices – A Rip off or Buyer Beware?

My Previous post singing the praises of steam may have been a little early. I was looking around the play.com website at game prices and my jaw dropped on the huge price difference between buying the game via play.com and getting a physical copy of the game in your hand and buying it via steam and getting a download version.

As i write this post im kinda discusted at the pricing on Steam it seems greed has taken hold over Games Publishers. Two examples of this price difference are the games;

Age of Conan:

Stalker – Clear Sky:

Thats quite a difference really on average its €12 more expensive on steam. Of course this not be Valves doing, Valve has to make a profit too so who knows the overhead of selling games via Steam. I cant quite understand this, Digital Downloads are suppose to at least be in line with the retail price and certainly not mroe expensive due to the fact that you dont get a Physical copy of the game

(Prices Correct as of 6-oct-2008)

World of WarCrap’s 9 million subscribers Rant

Just a post i posted on shacknews about Wows 9m players.

The whole 9million figure is suck a crock of crap.

Firstly there not 9m active accounts.
Secondly and speaking for myself here alot of people are sick to death of wow. You hit the level cap and can either
1) Raid (no thanks id like to half a life) or
2) PVP (ok sounds good but didnt i just do AV 10 mins ago?)

So if your a casual player which i ended up as due to hating raiding and its insane time sink and demands. 4 hours of sitting in front of your PC and falling asleep after 30mins isnt fun.

PVP is all theres left and doing 4 battlefields over and over just for the sake of a few items of gear gets tired after while so you roll a new class and rince and repeat. When i quit wow i had 7 alts (insane yes i know) and since ive tried AoC and left and now im still finding my way in WAR im taking my time and not rushing it through like i did in WoW.

I hope WAR can succeed heck even AoC but as long as they know they cant beat WoW from the start then theres hope. Id love to see Blizzard get some competion from another MMO lord knows they need it.

http://www.shacknews.com/laryn.x?story=54530#itemanchor_18043455

Games you cant get into – Stalker:Shadow of chernobyl

Ive had this game for about a year now and ive never really gotten “into” it. Its a First person shooter PC game thats a cross between FPS and a RPG game. I find the RPG part of it a real turn off having to loot enemy corpses all the time and you die so easily its just dam frustrating. A game where you die very easily is not a game i want to play. Perhaps im playing it on a too high difficulty (2nd highest)but i just wanna throw the game out the window when i get killed.

Im looking for a new game to get “stuck into” ive got Crysis WArhead ready but i wanna “save” it fr another time to be honest. Ive got a tonne of games that missed out on over the past two years due to World of Warcraft that i wanna try and get through some of them.

The “Prequel” to Stalker is out and i cant and wotn play it till i get i finish the first one at least. “Call of Duty 4” is the only PC game im still playing regualry at the moment with some “Warhammer online” thrown in as well.