Though according to the explanation, decrease in experience also begins to recover when doing activities that don’t earn experience.

Its seems like to me Square-Enix is failing to see how MMO players play MMO’s, and then to limit that very same system seems rather ridiculous to me. Planning to charge full price for a game that you can only play some of the time seems rather atrocious. Is it just me or is this disconnected with how people actually play games?

As an MMO player what are your thoughts on this system? Want to discuss it? Head over to forums and let us know your opinion.

We’re celebrating one year of podcasts as Mixmoff, Aevan, and Dr. Scares are joined by Mephianse and Kragg. We run down some of the top clips from shows past, and pontificate on what the future holds for Fall Damage (Hint: Pretty much the exact same thing.)

Have you noticed a decline in the quality of games recently released? Are you left wondering where all the good games have gone every time you step into the electronics section of your local store? Do you wonder WHY it seems like we’ve been getting the same mindless gun-fight, breast filled game, time after time?

Hint: It’s Your Fault.

This Shit is SRS BUSINESS

Things aren’t going quite how you wanted them to? You’ve come up against an opponent who has learned to perfect the techniques of completely owning you, and there is nothing you can do about it? Have you died one too many times? Are you spending far too much time trying to figure out a seemingly innocuous puzzle and as the moments tick by, you can feel your intelligence dropping?

Do you react to these things with anger? Does your vision blur and suddenly all you can do is start screaming obscenities at the TV/Monitor? Have you ever broken something of yours in a hissy fit over something that has occurred in a video game? Have you turned into a raging douche bag whenever you get a controller in your hands?

There was a day when you once looked forward to popping in that game cartridge and delighting in the challenge that it presented when things were difficult. So you can’t seem to time that jump just right to get your antagonist over that gap? Surprise fireballs? One health potion too short for that boss battle? Sure, things were frustrating but in those days, when things got to be difficult … we didn’t start calling our opponents fucking fags. We persevered, we tried harder and if all else failed; we called the help line. And after all that, when we finally accomplished our goal, victory was -sweet-. Not laced with malice and revenge.

Video games are supposed to be about having fun, and enjoying the medium that has been carefully crafted and put before the mindless masses. All of you piss ant, whining, cry baby, little boys who can’t handle one head shot too many are simply failing at the basic core of gaming. You’re no longer having fun when you sit down and are instantly stressed out because there is a potential that some anonymous person on the internet has a chance of being better than you.

OMG THE PIXELS

Do you think there is a difference between the 360 and the PS3 regarding how various games look? When a game is to be released, do you scour the internet looking for screen cap comparisons so you can decide which version is worth buying?

You’re all idiots.

There are nominal differences between the next gen consoles [wii excluded], and every person who tries to prove to the other side that their system is better based on that reason is wasting not only their time, but ours as well. It’s not the pixels that matter in a game, no matter how strongly you argue the point. Game play drives a successful game and enjoyment of that game play will drive it even further.

A video game can look like shit, or have minimal artistic value and if it is fun to play then none of those things will matter. Grainy pixels composed all of the games of our childhood, and those games are timeless because we enjoyed them based on story, characters and game play.

The reason behind all of this pompous behavior could be that this generation of gamers are nothing but spoiled brats. They’ve been given everything on a shiny platter and fuck anyone else if they’re forced to subject themselves to anything less. I can assure you that if you were to put a copy of Legend of Dragoon or Secret of Mana in front of any of these ignorant twats, they would shun them in disgust because they’re not ‘pretty enough.’ And lets not forget that OMG… they’d have to read the dialogue, but that’s an entirely different conversation.

You’ve all stopped enjoying your video games the moment you put more attention into the pixels of what you’re looking at, instead of losing yourself in the action or the story. Georges Seurat would be disappointed in all of you for forgetting the very basics in pointillism based art. Once you step too close and start counting the specks; it is no longer a masterpiece, but rather just a canvas covered in spots.

BEWBS. NEED MOAR BEWBS.

Your lack of a girlfriend is showing.

There is more to a game than how well an avatar’s breasts jiggle, and I can assure you that any potential female companionship that may have been in your future is out the window the second you start drooling over an animated woman. If there is one thing in the gaming world that could clearly separate the virgins from those in stable relationships, it’s how quickly they click links that proclaim “Top Ten Video Game Boobs.”

You know who you are, and it’s pathetic.

I get the draw to pornography, I do. You are men and you have needs and occasionally those needs are aided by some sort of visual stimuli. Is it too much to ask that you don’t demand it be part of what qualifies a game as enjoyable? You as a gender are the majority of this market, much to my chagrin, and when the masses of testosterone filled gamers proclaim that they want breasts that are large and jiggly… we are the ones that have to suffer through that shit in games we might have otherwise enjoyed.

There are actually people in game developing studios that put time and effort into this. Let that sink in for a moment. If you weren’t all a pack of mindless, hormone driven, twats; those people could be dedicating their time to things that actually matter in a game. Remember that last game that you played that was so-so and you would have liked it better if it only had more of _____, but eh.. it had boobs so you supposed that it was alright?

That is YOUR fault.

Angry, pixel counting, horny, teenage boys are ruining the video game industry.

Let’s face it, developers are going to play into the demands of the market that puts the most money forward, and that group is a bunch of morons. With the way things are going, the only game that will be made in the future is one where a topless woman stands there while you point and click to get her breasts to jiggle; and it will SELL.

It will sell because you will all grow sick of having to think to overcome a challenge, you will all grow tired of having to try in order to improve your skills, you will grow frustrated when a developer puts their heart and soul into a game that redefines game play but isn’t as pretty as you wanted it to be.

And when that destroys the video game industry, you will only have yourselves to blame.

The new pricing for Xbox Live Gold membership hit the internet yesterday, and immediately a wall of grumbling went up from Camp Green. In the US, the new pricing shows an across the board increase; up $10 on the annual option.

Before you join the grousing too heartily, consider a few things.

1) It’s still the best service available.

The most common complaint seen so far is that the PS3 offers online gaming for FREE, so where does Microsoft get off charging at all, let alone charging more for their service? But there’s a reason we’re not all switching en masse to playing multiplayer primarily on the PSN. On XBL it is just easier to navigate, easier to communicate, easier to organize a group. Even Playstation’s paid option (PSN+) doesn’t offer the most needed features like cross game voice chat and static parties that makes Live the best.

2) Nobody pays full price.

With all the promotional offers and near constant discounts at Walmart or Amazon, almost no one currently pays the full $50 a year for Live. Sure this price increase will mean those discounted prices will rise some as well, but not for a long time. There’s already a sale on cards for $40 right now. Known price increases like this result in arbitrage in the marketplace, with patient opportunists snatching up product at a low price, and reselling for a slight profit once the prices are raised. We should continue to see significant discounts on XBL cards well into the new year.

3) This is good business.

It’s tough to separate our hobby from the business behind it. I know I often argue for how the artistic and creative aspects of this industry should outweigh the dollars and cents. But in this instance, we’re talking about the price of a service. We’ll find out soon if the market will bear this price increase, but my educated guess is that it absolutely will.

4) This is a preemptive move.

There’s extra subscription budget out there, but for how long? With more and more gamers paying for subscription services, it will get harder to make a price change like this in the future. Activision has been quite verbal in recent months about its desire to generate subscription revenue from its titles and their online play. No doubt this entered into Microsoft’s decision to try to capture some more of this revenue before gamers had one more subscription in their budget.

I’m not telling you not to complain… that’s 100% your right as a consumer. Just remember, if Microsoft has to choose between listening to your mouths or your wallets, they’ll choose wallet every time.

Lewiston, Idaho circa 1987, I receive my first Nintendo Entertainment System. The box reads that it puts you in control of incredible fun! Boy they had no idea. The first game I played on it was Super Mario Bros. I was hooked day one, the moment I pressed that power button and heard that familiar theme I was a NERD.

Of course most children of the 80′s had an NES and gaming had finally gotten BIG. Sure atari, magnavox and several other companies had tried before and it lead to the infamous video game crash. Ninja Turtles, Transformers, Thundercats, Pizza and Nintendo. Thats what it meant to be a child of the 80′s. Every friday I would rush down to the local TR Video to rent a video game for my weekend. Back then you had to rely on the box art and the back of the game to decide if it was good enough. There was no internet to rely on, the only way to know is if you got Nintendo Power, and at the time my father couldn’t afford it so I had to rely on word of mouth and my imagination. Let me tell you that it didn’t always work out that way. Some box art was horrendous!

Fast forward to 1992. The Sega Genesis was out in 1989 and advertised it did what Nintendon’t. But I was unable to get my hands on one. I had only been able to play it a few times with the majority of my time with Sonic the Hedgehog. That year in ’92 I got my first SNES. I played Super Mario World until my thumbs bled. This was the life.

Gaming was a social thing. You were always playing with your friends, either at the local arcades or at each others house. Calling each other asking what your newest high score was or how far did you get on Mega Man X. Video gaming had turned into not just a fun diversion, but a way of life.

Soon after came the CD systems, Sega CD, Philips Cdi, and the Sony Playstation. Things were changing. Games were about more then just saving the princess and getting high scores. They had moving plots and storylines. You would be invested in the game and its characters. There was blood. The ESRB was formed to tell you what you SHOULDN’T be playing if you were a kid. It wasn’t just for kids anymore. Games were also taking longer to finish, with games like the final fantasy titles and other rpgs taking somewhere between 20-40 hours to complete.

The internet was a young and new thing, and little did we know that it would take the world by storm. With PC gamers being able to play games online

I could do little but imagine what the future would hold for gaming.

Fast forward to 1998 and the Dreamcast was released as the first console to be online-ready out of the box. Despite its short lifespan, the Dreamcast was widely hailed as ahead of its time, and is still held in high regard for pioneering online console gaming.

You no longer had to be in the same room, heck the same state to play with your friends. It only grew from there, online gaming became THE market with Xbox Live and now Playstation Network. Gaming is rarely about getting together with friends anymore, and more about pwning noobs and teabagging them. It seems a lot of fun has been drained from video games. Anti-heroes and dark environs are the cup of tea. Video games have been argued as an art form, and while I agree, I sometimes yearn for a simpler time when it was all about saving princesses and getting high scores. Where people got together and had all-nighters on the couch with pizza. When it was about having fun. So next time you’re bored and have nothing to do call some friends over, dust off that old NES or SNES and have FUN.

This week Aevan falls victim to wine allergies as Mix and Scares talk trash on Bioshock 2, God of War 3, Kinect and Move, and the upcoming release calendar.

Alongside major announcements of Resistance 3 and Mass Effect 2 coming to PS3, Sony also unveiled the newest iteration of the Ratchet and Clank series at GamesCon in Cologne, Germany today. The upcoming platform adventure game from Insomniac Games will feature 4 player online co-op play, with a choice of Ratchet, Clank, Quark, or Dr. Nefarious as playable characters.

Today Square Enix announced a new third person shooter exclusive to the 360. Gun Loco takes place on a distant prison planet where the forgotten inmates fight amongst one another in an anarchic society. Gameplay description is surprisingly vague, but so far it’s looking like Twisted Metal…. without cars.

Featuring unique third-person, sprint-action shooter gameplay, players can assume the roles of a variety of unique and memorable characters in a game that redefines the run-and-gun shooter. While pursuing and being pursued by their opponents, players must make use of the sprint-action play by running, jumping, ducking and vaulting, using the environments to their advantage.

Ok so maybe Brink meets Twisted Metal… without cars.

This week’s live show goes of the rails before it even starts. The gang talks (intermittently) about Starcraft II, World of Warcraft, Bioshock 2, and Just Cause 2. Scares manages to spill beer everywhere AND get his internet service contract canceled all in one show. Mixmoff and Aevan Carry on through some listener questions (without actually answering any) and announce some upcoming fun times related to the impending Level 50/1 Year Anniversary show!

The PSP sequel to the PS3 masterpiece Valkyria Chronicles is set to hit the North American PSN store later today. Due to be released at the end of the month, Valkyria Chronicles 2 marks a shift to handheld play with the stated intent of reaching a broader audience.

If you just can’t wait to experience high school kids fighting against ethnic cleansing by taking turns running towards each other and shooting around one another’s heads, now’s your chance to give it a test drive!

Shinji Mikami is probably best known as the brains behind the Resident Evil series, but he’s had his influence on more motion oriented Capcom franchises in the past like Viewtiful Joe and Devil May Cry as part of the highly revered and sorely missed Clover Studios. Vanquish is his first game with Platinum Games, the Bayonetta developer he helped found in 2006, and it looks to take that frenzied motion up a notch.

Set in the near future, Vanquish imagines the US and Russia in a fierce battle for Earth’s remaining natural resources. Not content to keep this war cold, Russia wipes out San Fransisco with a space laser. Now only one man can storm the space station and save the day! Pro tip: It’s you!

Vanquish will release on October 19, 2010 on PS3 and Xbox 360

Video games are generally complex in the amount of stuff that has to go into them.  Its not just digital renderings, or bump mapping or sprites.  But at the same time its not simply plot, or exposition or character development.  Its a unique medium in the sense of how many elements have to be combined to produce a finished product.  After a public release, these elements are usually explored ad nauseum.  Most review outlets break down a game this way:  story, gameplay, lasting appeal, sound design. This is the 12 and half foot pole we use to gauge critical success. But what’s missing?

Even in fandom this exists.  “Oh yeah man, the graphics kick ass.”  “Eh, the button mashing got kind of receptive.”  “That story was ridiculous”.  All of this is fine and no doubt important, and its also something I’ve focused on the majority of my time obsessively hashing over the medium.

I think there’s an unsung hero in the creation of a video games however.  One who, much like Neo… fights for us.  The thing is, its a fine line with this hero.  If done right its actually way more important of an element than lasting appeal, and maybe even more important than gameplay.  If done incorrectly, however, it becomes much like the pussy Neo from the last two movies, disturbingly shortening “Trinity” to “Trin” or saying things like, “I just love you too damn much”.  Its at this point that it becomes woefully apparent that something is horribly horribly wrong even though it might not be plainly obvious as to what that wrongness is.  You see… its absolutely critical that this hero not call Trinity Trin.

I’m talking about the environment here.

I can almost hear it, “Whaaa??  Environment more important than gameplay?  You’re the pussy, pussy!”

Yeah yeah yeah, but hear me out.  The other day on the podcast we were talking about a strange phenomena where we lose interest in games for whatever reason.  The thing is, its not just bad games that this happens with.  It can very easily be games that are critically well received.  Games like Red Dead Redemption.  This game in particular has been a tough nut for me to crack because I know how much I should like it.  Its got the pedigree, production, the financial backing — all of that.  In those categories I listed above it pretty unanimously ranked highly across the board.

And yet, so far, I honestly haven’t really liked it all that much.  In fact, its been kind of a chore to play.  At first I was excited about it partly because it was a new high profile game released in March and partly because I hadn’t bought a video game in like… 2 whole months.  I think it was because of these factors that I tricked myself into liking it.  I mean, I really really wanted to like it.

I played online once and that turned out to be a giant bowl of “meh” soup, so most of my time with it has been focused on single player.  Even though I fought with myself tooth and nail for it not to be true, this has turned out to be a pretty “meh” filled salad as well with some “bleh” croutons sprinkled on top.  And I love croutons.  Maybe it has something to do with how I’m coming at it, or where I am in my life or some other such hippy bullshit, but I honestly don’t think so because, you see, its happened before.  I’m looking at you GTA IV.

During the show my cohort Mixmoff pointed out that the open world in Red Dead was almost a detriment to it.  Sure it was gorgeous and wide open, and wow! pretty sunsets (yawn), but it almost detracted from the game the developers set out to make.  Yeah ok, they wanted to put together the best wild west simulation the world had yet seen so all of us bed ridden nerds who can barely support our own weight can act out our own Paul Newman fantasies, but they wrapped it up in a bucket of seriousness with a side of singular purpose.  This dude, John Marston has had his family held for ransom by the federales, who task him with the daunting mission of hunting down his former gang mates and bringing them to justice, dead or alive.  Once this task is accomplished, he can have is family and his life back.

But you know… run around wherever you want and kill coyotes and lasso horses and stuff.

*cough*

You see, the problem is this is a game — and when tasks and objectives like that are given, you’re encouraging the player to complete them.  Which is fine… as long as you don’t wrap your game in a bucket of seriousness with a side of singular purpose that makes these tasks seem ridiculous in context.  Well, my wife and children are held ransom and the only thing I need to do to grant them freedom is hunt down a a couple of no good bandits, but hell yes I have time for some Five Finger Filet!

What does this have to do with environment though?  I’m glad I asked.  A critical point for my understanding of this phenomenon is when I tried to juxtapose it with a similar game that did work for me.  The game I came up with was Fallout 3.  It takes a relatively similar approach in that you have daunting task set before you in a wide open world which you can explore at your leisure.  There are tons of side quests, and a lot of ways to get distracted from the main objective.  So how does it succeed where Red Dead Redemption failed?  The difference in my opinion, is how the environment is used to tell the story and reinforce the metaphors of the game.

I mean, come ON

The world of Fallout 3 is a wasteland.  Not just physically, but emotionally as well.  The inhabitants of the world are changed forever and left without hope.  Some are even horribly and grotesquely mutated.  The sun may sometimes shine, but its not the bright yellow sun of a bygone summer’s day filled with sprinklers and laughter, its a harsh bleating light that only helps to illuminate the desolation and decay.  This is a dead world.  As you, the player, explore it looking for missions or just hunting down random outlaws the enviornment you traverse helps to constantly re-enforce these extremely important themes.

On of my favorite parts of the game was the Oasis quest line.  Only with this level of scrutiny do I now realize why.  Its the one area of the game where the environment really dramatically changes.  The sun is actually brighter here.  The grass is… well shit, there’s grass!  Who cares what color it is!  I actually got a fleeting sense of hope here.  The juxtaposition was absolutely incredible, and it merely came from switching a few environment textures.  Thats a powerful tool to have at your disposal.

In Fallout 3 the decaying vastness is critical to the story because it reinforces the sense of loss and abandonment, but in Red Dead Redemption the openness of the unsettled west becomes more of a distraction.  Marston’s motivation is extremely singular, so all the wide open environment does in this case is detract from it.  That’s a problem.  The more critical underlying issue here is that its thematically incorrect, and as a result it begins to ring false over time.

It’d be an interesting experiment to breakdown some critically well received games and see how much the environment is used to impact the package.  Two that jump to my mind are Silent Hill 2 and Shadow of the Colossus.  Talk about using your environment correctly to impact the overall product.  Mein Gott…

I get that video games are a relatively new medium and I’m absolutely thrilled with where they’re going, but as they get more technically and thematically complex, its important to realize that certain aspects can’t be just shoe-horned in anymore.  The story in a lot of cases cannot take a backseat to gameplay, and environment is absolutely critical to the type of game players will experience.

So don’t call Trinity Trin, for the love of all that is holy.

Mix and Scares keep it simple this week, spending the majority of this miniscule episode talking about what causes the occasional burnout on games halfway through. In specifics they reference The Force Unleashed, Red Dead Redemption, and Final Fantasy 13. Also there’s a lot of discussion about working out and eating processed and encased meats.

Today the positively hilarious guys over at Zombie Cow Studios released their latest game, which features a crack squad of contraceptive-capped marines delving deep into people’s most disturbing orifices, blowing up all kinds of nasty naughty diseases.

It also happens to be free, so you can go grab it right now and not have to pay a penny!

Warner Bros Interactive Entertainment gave word today the the upcoming sequel to Batman: Arkham Asylum will be entitled Batman: Arkham City. You may now begin a long daydream sequence where you imagine the Batman franchise embracing its Batdance past and hiring Prince to remake Erotic City as a theme song.

Or maybe that’s just me.

In a recent interview with GamesIndustry.biz Valve’s director of Business Development Jason Holtman shed some light on the developer’s Mac gaming push. In order to increase the product offering for Steam users on Macs, Valve is providing some of their own development code.

…we’re going to release some our graphics code for the GL layer that gets people there faster. So our Steamworks partners will have access to some of the hard work that we do to get our games up on Mac, and they’ll be able to incorporate that into their games, and our hope is it gets them there faster. Because that’s the real hard work in making Mac version is doing that graphics work, so we’re going to help people along by giving them some of our code.

Score another win for Mac gamers, and Valve’s golden-haloed PR department.

We’re just over a week away from the launch of Monday Night Combat, the third person arena shooter that’s not trying to hide its inspiration drawn from Team Fortress 2. In this 14 minute walkthrough from Uber Entertainment, we see a match of MNC’s “Crossfire” mode. Crossfire is described as follows:

Crossfire
Crossfire is Monday Night Combat’s six versus six competitive mode over Xbox LIVE. Both teams try to protect their Moneyball while trying to destroy the opposing team’s Moneyball. Both teams have streams of robots that march mindlessly towards the enemy Moneyball and will jump on it and bring it down for players to destroy once they are escorted there. There are four Crossfire arenas.

There are two categories of robots and eight total robots. Breach Bots follow a set path from their spawner to the enemy Moneyball. When they get there, they jump on the Moneyball and breaching the shields, making it vulnerable. Eliminator Bots pick an enemy Pro and go after that Pro until they die and then move on. If there are no Pros, they attack enemy turrets and then the Moneyball. Robots can be spawned by players at their own spawners for a cost. The type of robots spawned depends on what class spawns them.

Of particular note in the video is how money is earned and upgrades purchased during active gameplay. Immediately after respawn, the developer takes a moment to upgrade various weapons and talents of his character. Unlike TF2, where class changes are common as a change of pace, it appears changing class late in a game of MNC might put you at a disadvantage.

Monday Night Combat launches August 11th on XBLA for 1200 MS Points.

The following system message was sent to Xfire users today in response to Viacom transferring the rights to an undisclosed company:

“Xfire was bought by new owners today. Most of the team that has built Xfire over the last six years is leaving. We enjoyed working for you for the last 127 releases and wish we could stay to create the next 127. Good bye, good luck, and game on. — The Xfire Team.”

The site and service has been up and down today, and users are on edge as to what the future may hold for the PC gaming service.

UPDATE: Apparently the new owner is Titan Gaming, the four year old company best known for tournament organization. Titan’s been trying to compete head-to-head with Virgin Gaming as of late, and this looks to be their attempt to work in a communication platform with their existing tournament structure.

Today EA announced a new game coming Fall 2010. As you can see in the trailer above, Create looks to be a playground challenge type game obviously inspired by LittleBigPlanet. Lacking in the trailer above is any cute adorable face of this engine, a la Sackboy and company.

“Create uses families’ imaginations to develop new ways to play together that are both fun and challenging,” said Harvey Elliott, VP and General Manager at EA Bright Light. “We wanted to design a game where the entire family can explore, decorate, and solve challenges where no solution is wrong and the only limit is the imagination.”

For those new to the industry, the keyword here appears to be “family”.

This week Mixmoff and Dr. Scares are joined by special guest host Jonah “Spambot” Gregory from WingDamage.com The gang talks about the idiocy of console fanboys, backlog games like Resident Evil 5 and the Force Unleashed, and they run down the list of games due to be shown off at GDC… I mean GamesCom… at some conference or other in Germany.

Speaking with GamesBeat:

We want to go beyond the desktop to mobile and other venues for gaming. What gamers want is to play games on different screens. We are not big on the iPhone. We make social games and monetize them through our own platform. Apple wants to control its own platform. We are betting heavily on Android because it is more open and they are working on providing a great experience. We are looking for other opportunities like that.

With an estimated 7.7 million Android phones sold last year, a number that was doubtless dwarfed this year, the Android Market is a major player in mobile game sales. A concentrated effort to expand and improve the level of games on the market could be a boon for gamers and indie developers alike.

Let me set a scenario for you. A very real and very deadly scenario soon to be played out in NIS’s upcoming PSP RPG “Z.H.P. Unlosing Ranger vs. Darkdeath Evilman” due out this winter.

In the year 20xx… a lovely prophecy told of a baby who would be the catalyst for bringing an unprecedented danger to the world. The people called this infant ‘Super Baby’ and heavily pampered her as their savior.

However that would not last long. Since the baby grew so famous, so fast, the ‘Demon General Darkdeath Evilman’ has kidnapped her.

Undefeated since first appearing, the Demon General, Darkdeath Evilman has cut down every single hero to date. On the other side we have a hero, also undefeated and said to even be immortal. The invincible Absolute Victory Unlosing Ranger!

If the Super Baby dies at the hands of Darkdeath Evilman, the world as we know it will end!

NIS seems to have a special understanding of exactly what the western audience finds hilarious about localized text from Japanese games. This is almost like Engrish of the second degree; oddball translation thrown in intentionally to craft some sort of theater of the absurd. It may not hit home with everyone, but I think I’ll go find my PSP now…

It seems like just last week Gamestop CEO J. Paul Raines was chirping on about finding new online ventures for the gaming mega-chain, and today he may just have it. Gamestop announced today that they have purchased one of the premiere flash-gaming communities: Kongregate.

GameStop CEO J. Paul Raines,
“Kongregate advances GameStop’s digital strategy by providing a gaming platform for casual, mobile and browser games that can be promoted and played by our existing gamers. We welcome the Kongregate team to the GameStop family.”

The move marks a dramatic step away from Gamestop’s current e-commerce website structure as they push to provide social functions and free flash gaming. One feature I’m hoping they retain is Kongregate’s amazing achievement system which has helped to develop a loyal userbase of 10 million monthly players.

In this gameplay video from the floor of Comic-Con, we get to see a few of Rad Spencer’s new moves (including jumping!) If you pay close attention, you’ll hear the pitch for a new contest being held at Capcom-Unity where you can remix a track and have it included in the final game.

The game definitely looks like a step-up visually from the previous version, which was nothing to sneeze at in its own right. Look for Bionic Commando: Rearmed 2 to swing its way onto XBL and PSN early next year.

Space Marine, the visually interesting but unfortunately named smasher/shooter from THQ isn’t just for consoles anymore. A press release went out this morning confirming the upcoming game set in the Warhammer 40,000 universe will be making its way to the PC as well.

Combining intense melee and ranged combat, Space Marine puts players into the boots of one of humanity’s elite soldiers, genetically engineered and equipped with state of the art weapons and armor. Players are dropped right into the action as they battle to defend an Imperial Forge World, from an invasion by the savage and brutal Orks, using the most devastating weaponry mankind has at its disposal.

Jonathan Dowdeswell, General Manager of Relic Entertainment commented: “The loyal PC audience is incredibly important to us here at Relic so we are delighted to be able to announce the PC version of the game.”

Space Marine will be released worldwide for Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 system and PC in early 2011.

Rumored for months, the crossover fighting games by two of the genre’s heaviest hitters were announced at Comic-Con this weekend.

Our biggest question after hearing the rumors was a simple one: 2d or 3d? Looks like we have our answer… and it’s both.

Capcom’s handling the Street Fighter X Tekken version, and it will be rendered lovingly in the waterbrush painted style of Street Fighter 4. Namco hasn’t shown anything of the Tekken X Street Fighter doppleganger, though word is we’ll see that game presented in Tekken’s familiar 3d setup.

So which one will you be getting? And will the Mortal Kombat franchise ever regain enough of a semblance of credibility to get their own shot at Capcom?

Have you ever read an article on a website or a thread on a forum about a console or a game for a console you don’t have?  Have you then made a blanket statement slamming said game or console because, basically, you don’t have it?  If you answered yes to these questions, then you, my friend, are an idiot.

But that’s obvious.  I mean, if you posted something as nonsensical as that on an internet medium hiding behind your anonymity its probable you were also mawing down on Cheetos and alt-tabbing to check on your stealthed Rogue in Astranaar, waiting to gank lowbie newbs.  Because, I mean, they deserve it right?  Newbs…

But there is a more common form of idiot hiding amongst us.  A much more nefarious one.  One who likes to disguise themselves in large words and false bravado.  One, who, with their keyboard as their sword, cuts through any opinion that differs from their own like Marty McFly through a field of nursery pines.

You may have experienced someone like this.  You may have been minding your own business, browsing an internet message board and come across a thread for a new DS game you have some interest in.  You casually, and maybe even innocently click the title and proceed to scroll through anonymous thoughts.  And soon enough, sure enough, you come across a post with no more content then something like “The DS is for kids.”

“Huh…” you may start thinking to yourself.  “I’m not a kid though…”  And you’d be right!  (assuming you aren’t a kid of course… unless you are, and uh… then… you’re wrong!)  Now, we don’t know whats going on in this person’s life or head to make such a statement.  Maybe they have adult acne, maybe they get beat up on the way home by a group of neighborhood kids.  We don’t know.  What we do know is that they’re an idiot.

Another form of idiot hiding in the bush, waiting to pounce on your innocent statement about how you love the level editor in Little Big Planet is the one who may refer to the Playstation as the Gaystation.

Clever.

BUT — it gets better.  Because assuredly another idiot will eventually pounce back on this statement with a derogatory comment about Microsoft and retort how XBox Live at $49.99 a year is an absolute rip-off and the PSN totally OwNZ because its like, free y0.  And within micro internet seconds, they will be insulting each other’s mothers.

There have been a few other people in history who liked to use blanket statements that are more or less bashing and hating on other groups without any logic or rationale besides the fact that they are different from them.  I’ll let you *ahem* use your imagination figure out who that may be.

Here’s the thing friends.  (Notice the softer switch in nouns as I’m about to make my point)  If you’re reading this you most likely play video games.  So as a gamer, the thing to realize is that when there are more players in the industry competing for your dollar — YOU’RE THE ONE WHO WINS.  If there was only one player in the industry, the medium would stagnate.

If Sega never came along and challenged Nintendo’s market share we may have never gotten shoulder buttons.  If Sony had never come along, we may have never gotten analog control because Nintendo wouldn’t have been challenged to raise the bar, and we definitely wouldn’t have gotten Twisted Metal.  Without XBox we may be exchanging friend codes forever.

So I get it, video games and their respective console counterparts are expensive.  Really expensive.  You have to make a choice sometimes about which one you pour your hard earned cash into.  After doing so, you want to make sure you made the right decision.  Well, are you having fun with it?  Then you made the right decision.  And really, in this console age, you can’t go wrong.  All three of the major players as well as the handhelds have really great content to offer.  Lots of great content.

So don’t be an idiot, idiot.

Oh, and PC gamers.  Get off your horse, and if you need a ladder you can borrow mine.  Its really high.

Anyone who played Heavenly Sword knows Ninja Theory are masters at creating vibrantly beautiful action-packed games. This Enslaved gameplay video fresh from the floor at Comic-Con simply serves to educate the rest of the populace.

Enslaved: Odyssey to the West is due out on October 5th on PS3 and 360.

If the sheer number of posts about the game are anything to go by, Alien Swarm is taking Fall Damage by storm these days. Now fresh from PC Gamer we get this video, with a few nifty console codes that transform the top-down isometric view into first person.

For those who can’t squint their way to 20/20 vision, here are the codes from the video:

You have to go to Options > Keyboard > Enable developer console. Then hit ` (to the left of 1) and type:

firstperson
asw_hide_marine 1
asw_controls 0

Despite inFamous 2 being one of my highlights from E3, the redesign of Cole was definitely a lowlight. Sure the original character wasn’t exactly… original. But after spending dozens of hours churning out a true superhero a lot of gamers felt let down seeing the “new and improved” Cole MacGrath Sucker Punch was trotting around. The character had gone from gruff messenger to frat boy faster than you could grind a train rail.

So imagine my excitement today to read IGN saying that they were handed some super secret RE-redesign photos of Cole, and he’s looking a lot more like the previous game. No images are leaked for public consumption as of this point.

Now that we’ll only have to deal with an entirely new voice actor, inFamous 2 may start to feel like a sequel instead of a spin-off.

This week the crew talks about all the great changes they’ve made to the site before talking about Limbo, the extension of Demon’s Souls server support, and XBL/PSN’s value to developers. Additionally we talk more about the search for a new member of the Fall Damage crew!

Sega was apparently pretty pleased with the sales of their first bundle of Genesis/Megadrive games they released for PC gamers, and are getting ready to drop another hot steaming load of retro goodness.

For $2.99 a pop you’ll be able to snag classics such as Kid Chameleon, Eternal Champions, Bonanza Bros, Columns, and Ecco Jr.

“This is another stunning selection of Genesis classics – we’re happy to be bringing back more of these great memories our fans are asking for,” said Haruki Satomi, Vice President Digital Business at SEGA of America. “By bringing these 16-bit titles back for the first time to PC as downloads, SEGA once again shows how to make timeless masterpieces accessible to anyone at anytime”

This week as promised Valve has released Alien Swarm for free, and it is pretty much the best thing to hit Steam since Left 4 Dead 2.

There. I said it.

Despite the fact that it is incredibly short out of the box, (just a single campaign that took around two and half hours on Hard) it is an incredibly fun four player co-op zombie survival alien blasting experience played from a top down perspective. It also happens to be incredibly pretty to look at (it’s built on the latest version of Source, even newer than Left 4 Dead 2′s version) and comes with the easiest map creator in the world. Expect to see literally hundreds of custom maps, campaigns and mods in the coming weeks following its release. I personally can’t wait to see Left 4 Dead campaigns work their way into this title – zombies and all. That would be so much fun I don’t even know where to begin. Not bad for a free title, eh?

So we have a completely free, professional quality downloadable title (that is shockingly similar to the $15 downloadable Alien Breed: Impact), which also comes with the entire source code and the latest version of Valve’s Source Development Kit.

Everybody with a PC should must download this on Steam (it is completely free), and experience Valve once again raising the bar in the gaming industry. I honestly can’t recommend this game enough. Did we also mention that it is free?

Alien Swarm on Steam

Atlus announced today that the online servers for Demon’s Souls (winner of several Fally awards last year) will remain active in North America until at least March 2011.

In celebration of the announcement, there will be a “Pure White Tendency Event” in the game for the next couple of weeks. This makes the game dramatically easier for new players, and opens up areas in several levels that one can only reach by attaining Pure White Tendency in the given level.

“We are proud to maintain our commitment to the Demon’s Souls online community by extending our support for the game’s servers, allowing current and new players to continue to enjoy the game’s vast online feature set,” stated Aram Jabbari, Manager of PR and Sales for Atlus. “One of the highest-rated, most talked about games of all time, Demon’s Souls is defined by its groundbreaking online functionality. No other game better marries suspenseful, claustrophobic solitude with unprecedented cooperative and competitive multiplayer connectivity. Each game world, each individual’s adventure, can be bridged with those of others’, making for one of the most startlingly grand yet deeply intimate RPG experiences ever created.”

This is great news for me personally, as at my rate it will take at least this long to actually finish the game.

Limbo launched today on XBL from Playdead Games and I was thrilled to have a chance to sit down with it. Almost everyone I know has had at least one eye on this gem since it was shown off at E3 last month. It’s been compared (much to its credit) to Braid, the former darling of indie gamers everywhere. After several hours of play I feel fairly confident I’ve seen what this game has to offer, and anyone with a passing interest in visually stunning puzzle-platformers is doing themselves a grave disservice if they haven’t plunked down the 1200 MS Points yet.

It’s hard to go too in depth with this game without spoiling much of what makes it so affecting. You play as a nameless and more or less faceless boy who awakens in the woods on the wrong end of some very scary business. The game does an amazing job of building tension, a rare trait in a game where death happens often and with little to no repercussions. You genuinely don’t want to see your little character chopped in half by a bear trap or smashed by a piston, even if the game autosaves at almost every intersection. You rarely lose any progress due to death, but it’s something you develop a healthy fear of nonetheless.

The biggest concern voiced thus far with Limbo is its length and replay value. Most of the puzzles in the game are fairly simple once you uncover the trick, and so subsequent playthroughs seem unlikely. Couple that with reports of a scant four hours of gameplay and its price tag becomes questionable. But if you’re looking for a game with a unique charm that brings flashbacks of games like Braid and Out of this World, you’re not going to regret your time spent in Limbo.

Rating: ****½ (4.5/5)

Ten years after American McGee creeped us all out with Alice, he returns to the series where he made his name. Alice: Madness Returns has been announced by EA and Spicy Horse games, and the launch trailer is everything you’d expect.

Alice: Madness Returns takes place 10 years after the conclusion of the original game, with Alice struggling to recover from the emotional trauma of losing her entire family in a fatal fire. After spending a decade institutionalized in an insane asylum, she is finally released to the care of a psychiatrist who just may be able to help her conquer the nightmarish hallucinations that still haunt her. Alice embarks on a mission to root out the true cause of her family’s mysterious death, jumping from a gloomy and stark London to a rich and provocative Wonderland.

So there you go, your run of the mill happy-go-lucky kids game.

from blog.us.playstation.com
For those of you PlayStation Eye owners or future PlayStation Move owners, this trailer gives you a better look at exactly how our own Freemotion technology will work when tracking your entire body without any controllers. As you can see, we always find it’s best to let loose when playing the game, and dressing up in your favorite ‘bad-ass’ outfit is something we definitely recommend. As far as weapons go, the single-player experience is currently controller-free, and players can use their own inanimate objects to take down enemies with much more style!

Ow my everything. The first 15 minutes of playing this game when it’s still fun will be so glorious.

I know I’m about a week late on this, but where were preorder bonuses like this back in ’91? Preorder Sonic Colors from Gamestop and you get the nerdiest and thus coolest preorder bonus of all time: a hat that mimics Sonic’s iconic spikes.

Wait, what’s this game about again?

However, before Dr. Eggman completes his evil plans, Sonic discovers his mysterious theme park in space. When he arrives, Sonic finds he is also able to use these alien powers and is ready to help!

So the game’s $49.99 to preorder and assuming you have to open it to get a voucher for the hat, you could probably turn around and sell it immediately for ~$30. It’s a reasonable price to pay for that hat assuming I’m not actually required to play that game.

The back and forth between games industry Nostradamus Michael Pachter and the developers of the Call of Duty series continued today, as the Pach-Man adjusted previous statements that Acitivision would need to start charging for online play in the mega-series.

“I don’t want to call out any of the blog posts or tweets or statements to IGN as untruthful,” he told GamesIndustry.biz today.

“Rather, I think that they probably are true: Activision won’t require people to play for multiplayer, but I think that they will find a way to offer a premium experience for a fee, whether that takes the form of subscription, pay-as-you-go, microtransactions for virtual goods, tournament fees or some combination.”

This is how you make an industry prediction, folks. You give enough options (some already in existence) so that sheer odds dictate your chance of being right approaches 1:1.

In other news, I’m going to go out on a limb and predict future COD games will feature fully customizable weaponry, multiplayer map editing, persistent environments, guns that shoot bullets or some combination.

*presumably

Paramount isn’t taking the upcoming Top Gun PSN game lightly, if recent press releases are anything to rely on. The aerial combat title took to the air in a special event on the USS Iwo Jima as it was docked for the 23rd annual New York Fleet Week.

Details look good, with the storyline for the game being written by the original movie’s screenwriter, Jack Epps, Jr. So you’ll get more Maverick, Goose, and Iceman action to take to bed or lose forever.

KEY FEATURES:

* Talk to Me Goose: With all-new dialogue and storyline written by the film’s screenwriter, Jack Epps, Jr., players talk trash with Iceman, Merlin, Slider, and the rest of the flyers from the film.
* You’re a Hell of a Pilot. Maybe Too Good: Feel the need for speed! With arcade controls, players defy the laws of gravity as they dodge enemy planes using inverts, dives and spins.
* Too Close for Missiles, I’m Switching to Guns: Players go up against the best as they outmaneuver and shoot down bogeys using short and long range missiles and Vulcan cannons.
* This is the Real Thing. This is What You’ve Been Trained for: Top Gun features three single player and five multiplayer modes.

Top Gun comes to PSN, Mac, and PC this summer….. so any time now, really.

Mention “stereoscopic displays” to your average gamer and their eyes will roll back in their head as they begin to argue how little they want the coming 3D revolution. Recently a couple patents filtered through to the interwebs that show a very different way of looking at stereoscopic technology (ba dum dum).

Sony’s newest stereoscopic patents describe a way to use the technology to screen share a gaming experience with a buddy without cutting your display in half. By displaying each player’s screen in alternating frames synchronized with that player’s individual pair of glasses, each player could stare at the same screen, and see their game and theirs alone.

Check out the patents and marvel at an actual decent reason to wear those ridiculous goggles.

Stereoscopic Screen Sharing Method and Apparatus
3D Shutter Glasses with Mode Switching Based on Orientation to Display Device

via BrokeMyController.com

Zed Entertainment announced today the inking of a new deal that will bring games based on the various Monty Python skits and movies directly to your iPhone. No word yet on the actual content of said games, but my money’s on a Black Knight dismemberment minigame.

Zed will release a cross-category content portfolio based on the comedy Monty Python franchise across all mobile platforms including iPhone. Monty Python recently celebrated its 40th Anniversary and remains an iconic brand with multi-format success across TV, movies and more. The movies Life of Brian and the Holy Grail generated over $300m in DVD sales alone, with both regularly featuring in all-time movie top tens.

The Circus will be flying into town on mobile Q3 2010 with exclusive games, apps, personalization content including video clips from the classic series and movies.

Now we get word in The Street’s interview with GameSpot’s CEO Paul Raines that the retailer is studying Netflix’s model for digital distribution.

We are looking at other successful multi-channel stories like Netflix. The technology is clear — what’s not clear is the chronology. We are getting a good picture of how to balance digital and physical content.

As digital distribution continues to chip away at the brick and mortar retail chains it is going to be exciting to see what companies like GameStop do to stay relevant.

Alien Swarm was once a nifty little mod for Unreal Tournament 2004. Apparently Valve thought it was nifty as well, and a couple years ago they gobbled up the development team and put them to work on Left 4 Dead and now Portal 2.

In the meantime, they were also rebuilding Alien Swarm in Source… and now Valve’s releasing it on Monday July 19th for free.

On Monday, July 19th Alien Swarm is going to be released for free via Steam.

In addition to the game, Valve will also release the complete code base for Alien Swarm. This includes updates to the Source engine SDK and full Steamworks integration. If you’ve ever thought about developing a mod on the Source engine with Steamworks, this release provides more insight and examples for using Steamworks in game production.

Please visit www.alienswarm.com for more information.

The gang eventually overcomes their deep-seeded desire to do a podcast about saturday morning cartoons of the 80′s and actually talks about video games! On the topic list: OnLive, Deathspank, Diablo 3, and @Gamer magazine.

Some intrepid internet-goer has made exactly that… Zelda 2 – The Adventure of Link as a FPS. Check it out at http://3dnes.blogspot.com/

Making the game
This game was incredibly fun to make. I am a fan of the original NES game and love its innovations and clever game design. But as we all know, Zelda games are long and complex. When starting this project I had to choose very carefully what I had time to accomplish if this game was ever to see the light of day. As a result I decided to remake the beginning of the game up to the end of the first boss. This seemed simple enough, but I knew it would be a challenge. This is the result of my learning programming for the first time and a labor of love making this game in 3D.

Mixmoff, Dr. Scares, and Aevan are back on the case! They talk Valkyria Chronicles, God of War 3, Just Cause 2, and… Oblivion?

They also run through a few listener questions and list off their current gaming backlog.

We interrupt your regularly scheduled podcast to bring you… absolutely nothing! We’re taking a week off because everyone’s had a crazy week and we all needed a breather. We’ll all be back for the live video show next week on Wednesday July 7th.

See you then!

Dubbed “The Silver Lining” the game successfully negotiated their way out of a cease and desist from Vivendi 5 years ago, only to get smacked with another this February from new license holders Activision.

Now comes word that Activision actually rescinded their Cease and Desist order and has granted Phoenix Online Studios a non-commercial license to release the game for free. Activision, fresh off their Puppy-Killer Tour 2010, has done something kind of nice for gamers!

Something tells me there’s going to be some internal pressure to release this game before the next C&D shows up on their doorsteps!

via Joystiq

With an eye towards skepticism I installed the OnLive application today after receiving my “Founding Members” invite. After an extensively error-filled install process, I booted up OnLive for the first time.

Surprisingly the application chirped at me almost immediately because I was running on WiFi. Wireless is apparently unsupported in the initial service launch, but for understandable reasons. In this stage so much of OnLive’s success will be based upon their ability to diagnose and fix connection issues, and WiFi adds a layer of complexity that they just don’t need right now.

Once I plugged in to a wired connection the application sprung to life. It’s really quite shiny, with a menu navigation structure that just sings. Finding what I was looking for never took more than a few clicks, and everything is hubbed nicely from the main page.

But do the games work? Surprisingly yes.

We were understandably doubtful of the promises OnLive was making when they were first announced. 720p HD streaming games on almost any computer? Surely not. There’s going to be so many artifacts, video lag, controller lag… it can’t work.

This crow tastes mighty fine right about now.

I hopped in to the Borderlands demo, and it looked as good as I remember it on the PS3. I scooted over into Just Cause 2, and again it’s working smooth. No noticeable controller lag. Only the tiniest bit of video blurring in the full motion video. Holy crap folks… it really works.

I then hopped back out to the menu to get a look at the other sections of the application. That’s where I found the “Arena”. Imagine a wall of video screens… hundreds of them. All of them showing gameplay from different parts of different games. Each one of these screens is someone else’s game, and you can select any of them and watch them play live! It’s a great way to get a sneak peek at games before buying.

And the buying options are pretty robust as well. The prices seem to be standard PC pricing, with Just Cause 2 running at $49.99. They also have what amounts to rental options. A 3 day pass to Just Cause 2 would cost $5, and 5 days would cost $7.

It’s yet to be seen if OnLive can keep up this level of performance once the service starts to fill out a bit more, but for now I’ve never been so thrilled to be wrong.

Mixmoff, Dr. Scares, and Mephianse slog through another episode running down the final E3 conversations. We also update on the forum D&D game and then Mixmoff runs off to finish his chinese food.

Dear YDKJ Fans,

We told you so.

Love,
Jellyvision

P.S. More THQ/Jellyvision YDKJ partnership news to come. Stay tuned!

The last we’d heard of the You Don’t Know Jack franchise it had been reincarnated as an almost-daily flash game (and it was 2008.)

Fans of snark-filled trivia games, the time to rejoice is now.

Tecmo Koei announced today the 4 games they currently have in development for the Nintendo 3DS. These are arguably 4 of the company’s 5 strongest franchises. (Where’s my 3DS Fatal Frame?)

TECMO KOEI EUROPE LTD. is proud to announce their platform support for the upcoming NINTENDO 3DS™. The company has commenced development on four titles, all of which will bring a new dimension to their best-selling franchises. The titles are:

* DEAD OR ALIVE™ 3D (working title)
* SAMURAI WARRIORS™ 3D (working title)
* NINJA GAIDEN™ (working title)
* DYNASTY WARRIORS™ (working title)

The recent formation of Tecmo Koei represents a bold new direction for the two gaming companies, Tecmo and Koei, who boasts a portfolio of award-winning interactive entertainment products across various platforms. Utilizing the combined strengths of both companies and the latest in innovative technologies, Tecmo Koei is committed to fully re-imagining the worlds of these beloved franchises on the NINTENDO 3DS.

Details on the four titles including release date, pricing, rating information will be available at a later date.

Found on NeoGAF via our pals at EvilAvatar.com this is a nifty way to stop the timer in the Crackdown 2 demo that launched on XBL yesterday.

1. Start the demo.
2. Choose your agent and his colour up until you press A to “deploy agent”.
3. Disconnect from the internet. I personally pulled out the ethernet cable in the back.
4. Quickly press A after disconnecting from the internet. When trying to join the game is should pop up a menu saying that friends can’t join because you’re online or something.
5. Hit B to cancel.
6. Reconnect to the internet and start up another game.
7. Demo time remaining will be stuck at 30 minutes for as long as you don’t start any races or things like that.

In advance of releasing their newest BF:BC2 DLC EA and DICE (AFAIK IIRC) have dropped a new trailer for Onslaught.

It looks good. Watch it. Agree.

UP

If this new trailer just released by Atlus is anything to go by (and it usually is) Trine 2 takes it to another level. The visuals in the newest iteration seem to pull us even further down the rabbit hole into the glorious world of 1970′s blacklight posters.

According to our contact at Frozenbyte, Trine 2 is due out Spring of 2011.

It’s insanity galore as Mixmoff, Aevan, and Dr. Scares are joined by the entire crew of Evil Avatar’s Shotgun Podcast. In a mashup like no other all 6 hosts run through their highlights (and lowlights) of E3, and everyone finds their Bizarro-world analog. As a special exclusive for Fall Damage listeners, hear several seconds of footage you can’t hear anywhere else!

Exclusive content that could only happen here, on the Fall Damage Podcast.

According to USA today, Microsoft’s motion controlled system formerly known as “Project Natal” has been redubbed “Kinect”.

Push all thoughts of modern day erector sets out of your mind, because the USA Today info springs all types of obnoxious branding in your facehole.

Among games in the works:

- Kinectimals lets you train and play with 20 different virtual cats, including a lion, cheetah and tiger.

- Joyride, a racing game, lets players use their hands to hold an imaginary steering wheel — pull your hands toward you and push back out for an acceleration boost — and their bodies to execute jumps and tricks.

- Kinect Sports has six activities including boxing, bowling, beach volleyball, track and field, soccer and table tennis. To serve a volleyball, you mimic the real motion; in soccer, you can kick the ball or do a header.

- Kinect Adventures includes a river-raft time trial and obstacle course, playable by up to four players. On the raft, playing as a duo, you and a partner must lean one way or another to steer. Jumping helps the raft reach special areas for extra points.

- Dance Central, in development by MTV Games, brings a So You Think You Can Dance experience home.

- Star Wars characters and iconic Disney favorites will be featured in separate new games being developed at Microsoft in conjunction with LucasArts and Disney.

You may remember Joyride up there as the kart game the Fall Damage crew was discussing on the show a couple weeks ago that vanished off the face of the planet after its reveal at E3 last year.

What are your thoughts on the name change?

This week Mixmoff, and Dr. Scares are joined by forum fanatic Trefoilknot as they answer a barrage of listener questions, talk a little about the forum D&D game, and trade E3 rumors.

I can’t imagine a better piece of news. Back to the Future, the best movie property to get brutally abused as a game series, is getting the episodic treatment by the masters themselves: Telltale Games! After bringing adventure games back with their refreshing new episodes of the Sam and Max and Monkey Island series, now we get to see what they’ll do with Back to the Future and Jurassic Park.

Scares, get your raptor dance ready.

Connors said the games, which are in the early stages of development, would tell new stories extending the “Back to the Future” and “Jurassic Park” lore. He teased that the “Back to the Future” games may include a DeLorean ride back to the 1970s while the “Jurassic Park” games would be intense and add new backstories to the series’ man-versus-dinosaur mythology.

“The games are going to exist within these worlds,” said Connors. “I wouldn’t call these games sequels per se but a new interpretation of their worlds for a new medium. For one generation, it’s an introduction to these series. For another generation, it’s a thing they can look back on and something they can share warmly with their family and friends.”

This week Mixmoff, Dr. Scares, and Aevan answer some listener questions, name the new Listener of the Week/Month, and talk about Red Dead Redemption and Jake Gyllenhaal’s abs.

This week Mixmoff and Dr. Scares are joined by Mephianse as Aevan takes the week off. The crew talk about why “gamer” is still a term with negative connotations as well as excitement over Red Dead Redemption, Insomniac working with EA, and the possibility of a Ico/Shadow of the Colossus HD re-release!

Graaaaaggghrgrgaggggaggghggegegrh. Ahem… in this show the crew is joined by Kragg from Evil Avatar’s Shotgun podcast. We talk a little about the forum D&D game, a lot about what differentiates the Sims and Farmville, and much rage is shared over pixel-counters trying to ruin every damn multiplatform game out there. Also we try to take call-ins and it breaks the show about 12 times.

This week Mixmoff, Aevan, and Dr. Scares interview the last man standing in Halo 2: Apache N4Sir. They also talk about where the evolution towards multiplayer gaming has brought the industry, Steam on Mac, a particularly intriguing Sleep is Death experience, and EA’s one time online ticket.

Mac users, your time has come. Steam is out on Mac now, and it offers cross-platform play with the PC community.

As a kickass side note, Portal is free until May 24th. Just for the hell of it. You rock, Valve.

Portal used to cost money. Until May 24th, it’s free. End of story.

Well, technically speaking, there are some strings attached. Fortunately, they’re entirely decorative. We just like the way they look, swaying in the gentle breeze created by a million people simultanously fainting from shock at the news that Portal is free. Now you have no reason not to try Portal.

“I have a reason,” some of you are probably typing into an angry email. “You see, sir, I own a Mac.”

Well guess what: For the first time ever, Portal is also available for the Mac.

“Capitol news! But the excellent puzzle adventure Portal won over 40 Game of the Year awards; Surely it must cost at least five or six hundred dollars.”

You’d think that, especially since it actually won over 70 Game of the Year Awards. But, like we keep saying, Portal is free. Free on the Mac. Free on the PC. But only until May 24th. So you only have a few days to decide if your free copy of Portal is worth the price we’re currently charging – which is you ever-so-slightly moving your index finger just barely enough to click the big red “download” button right there to the left.

It’s time for the team’s monthly live show, where we apparently sacrifice audio quality for interactivity! The crew talks Splinter Cell, Resonance of Fate and Arkham Asylum before giving away a free copy of Sleep Is Death and ending the show with their very first call-in segment.

It’s finally happening.

The word dropped today that Rockstar games would be releasing 3 sets of DLC for its upcoming spurs and spittoons gunfighter Red Dead Redemption. The first of these packs is slated for July, and will be free.

One of three downloadable content packs, the ‘Outlaws To The End’ Co-Op Mission Pack features six all-new multiplayer missions full of outlaws, epic gunfights, and revolution for 2-4 players. The ‘Outlaws to the End’ Co-Op Mission Pack offers additional multiplayer XP rewards and brand new Achievements and Trophies to unlock. These six explosive and epic missions will play out across the game world, including:

“Walton’s Gold”
Walton’s Gang have taken control of a mining camp rich with gold. Fight through the camp and load your mine cart with as much gold as you can carry and get out as fast as you can – Walton’s boys have rigged the place to blow.

“The River”
Ride a raft down river, taking out rebel encampments along the way until you reach the rebel stronghold of Nosalida and a final epic battle for the town’s massive weapons caches. Watch out for Gatling gun-equipped enemy rafts.

“Ammunition”
The Mexican Army has the town of Tesoro Azul under siege. Storm the gates under heavy cannon, Gatling gun and sniper fire to destroy the Mexican artillery placements.

So what’s Rockstar’s real plan here? Do they want to entice you to buy future DLC’s by giving you one taste for free? Or are they simply dangling the carrot of free DLC out there to keep Red Dead from ending up in the used games section of your local retailer?

The gang is all back together, with funky new technology! We spend an inordinate amount of time talking about the indie game/game engine Sleep Is Death, and tell you how you can earn your own free copy! The hosts also break down another top 5 focusing on the most frustrating parts of otherwise good games. It’s also rumored that this is the longest level of Fall Damage in recorded history!

Is there a Doctor in the house? No? OK we’ll just plug in Cruz and hope for the best. Aevan, Mix, and Cruz talk a little about the state of PC gaming, a little about EA’s paid demos, a little about the deluge of DLC coming this week, and a LOT about the odd search traffic the site’s been getting. We also continue Top 5 week with our top 5 upcoming games.

This week Aevan and Dr. Scares battle the unknown all alone, though Mixmoff’s spirit has apparently infected their minds. They talk more Final Fantasy 13, and how a multi-console marketplace is simultaneously wonderful and devastating for gamers.

Another live show, and this one features Scares sounding like the voice of God! We had a slight issue with a certain Dr’s sound not being muted in all the right places. OOPS. Anyway we talk about Final Fantasy 13, Fable 2, Team Fortress 2, and our top 5 games of all time!

This week we find out all about Aevan’s past as a traveling sideshow worker! We also talk about alternative gaming input sources and the precedence Sony is setting by removing the Other OS feature from the phat PS3′s with Firmware 3.21.

The crew puts bitches in their place (not really).

The crew finally has the long awaited Wii discussion, and we get to the root of Aevan’s disdain for everything Nintendo. Pro Tip: It’s Heather’s fault!

The gang’s back to talk Sony’s Move at GDC, Final Fantasy’s evolution (or lack thereof), and why Aevan is anxious about Portal 2.

The pieces finally fall into place on the video show as the team discusses Heavy Rain, Bioshock 2, Darksiders, the shakeup at Infinity Ward, the PSN outage, and Portal 2!

This week the crew talks Heavy Rain and what makes a game more than just an interactive movie. Then Aevan runs off and hides her virgin ears as Goji comes on to go all spoilerific on Mass Effect 2.

The Fall Damage crew is joined by Cruz and forums fanatic Mephianse this week as they discuss the DLC/DRM showdown, if there’s a WRONG way to play Mass Effect, and whether OnLive can work as promised. There’s also plenty of hot blue alien sideboob.

This week Fall Damage goes back to its Audio-only roots, though that may be the only thing we haven’t changed! We discuss the Heavy Rain demo (and story in games as a generality) as well as DLC… the scourge (or savior) of modern day gaming!

That is all.

Technological failures abound, but the Fall Damage team prevails and provides some killer convo on Assassin’s Creed 2, Mass Effect 2, and Bayonetta. As the video stream goes off the rails, Mixmoff, Aevan, and Dr. Scares (with a little Cruz for good measure) power through to provide you the entertainment you’ve grown to tolerate love!

Two weeks ago I find myself deep in thought pondering over a question that was posted on our forums – “What is your personal greatest achievement in gaming?” After serious consideration and headaches, I could only come up with a single answer. I have absolutely no idea.

The successive migranes, however, did make me realise a dark little secret of my past as a gamer, specifically a gamer who prides himself on his knowledge of classic gaming and the wealth of experience under his belt.

 I had never beaten a Megaman game.

Currently, some of you are in the process of a spit-take thing and screaming “BLASPHEMOUS HEATHEN!” into your monitors, and rest of you are probably thinking that this isn’t such a big deal. Sure you never finished one, but at least you tried, right? Well yeah, I tired, but that leads me to an even darker retro gaming secret. I had never beaten a single Megaman boss.

That’s right, I had never taken down a single Robot Master. I always found it ubelievably difficult to even make a dent in the health of my artificial foes. Since my last attempt at any of these formidable foes, however, I have made some pretty large leaps in my gaming prowess (More specifically, I have become ‘The Guy’ in this time). So why then, was I completelely unable to work my way through a single tiny speck of what some of my best nerd friends consider to be their favourite franchise?

It was time to rectify this sacrelige against my kind. So I set out to both answer this question, and to repair the damage to my past. It was time to embark on a holy crusade, and these past two weeks have been quite an adventure for me. What started out as picking up the first two games in the series just to see what all the fuss was about quickly escalated into something much more audacious. What started as mere curiosity transformed into a fantastic journey across ten years (and one time paradox of a revival) of one of gamings most beloved franchises. I saw the good, the bad, the downright ugly, and the various stages of experimentation the series has undergone to shape Megaman into the character as we love him today.

 Upon starting the first game in the saga, I decided to do something that normally – with any other game – I just would not do. I looked at an FAQ, but only for a single purpose – the reason I have never gotten past a single boss in this blasted franchise before – which Robot Master do I go after first? I felt pretty dirty at first, it felt like cheating, but in retrospect I understand that this is perfectly acceptible. It’s no different from recess in elementary school, telling your friends that no matter how hard you try you can’t get past a certain part of a game, and they tell you something as simple as “Oh, you’re supposed to do Bomb Man first, that’s the best way to beat Guts Man!”. This to me is acceptible, it just tells me where I need to start. For the most part since then, I have only used this to figure out where I’m supposed to start, or if I get to a certain boss and I can’t figure out his weakness I’ll go look up his character on the MMKB and just read what his weakness is. If I don’t have that weapon yet, I’ll try another boss. Otherwise, the first game was fairly simple, quaint adventure, easy to see that Capcom were unsure of quite how they should build the game with the difficulty curve being so very erratic. Some of the sections of the game were unnervingly empty and easy, whereas others contained completely ludicrous traps and pitfalls that I am honestly surprised I survived. I did almost end up breaking my teeth on my controller for the first appearance of the Yellow Robot, as it was so unbelivably unfair that I seriously yelled in frustration a few times. I was also a little taken back first when I realised that Megaman did not have the ability to charge up his shots early on (I didn’t realise that ability was gained in Megaman 4).

So with that one down, I figured I’d give Megaman 2 a run since it appears to be the game most fondly remembered and referenced by fans. What a contrast this game was to the original. Stages were a lot more detailed, a lot more colourful, and a lot more enjoyable. The Robot Masters had a lot more personaility this time around, too. I would rate them as my favourites in the series purely based on their character design. The only problem that really stuck out about this game was its difficulty – the game is way too easy, even on the ‘Difficult’ setting. On Normal difficulty the game can be finished in a relatively short amount of time – my second playthrough for the Anniversary Collection recently took me less that two hours.

Megaman 3 was a bastard. Some percieve is as the best in the series, with the introductions of Rush and whatnot being great innovations. I percieve it as pure evil.

Megaman 4 was probably one of my favourites mainly due to the perfect balance of difficulty the game presents. It is never too hard or too easy, Capcom appeared to have learned from the mistakes they made in Megaman 3 (in particular one section where you are forced to use Rush Jet in 3 is beyond difficult, and if you fail once you may as well waste the rest of your lives because you have no way of gaining the ammo to try a second time) and they had taken a lot of player feedback for how the game should feel and play out. It may not have been the best game in terms of features or originality, but it was definitely a game I had a lot of fun playing.

Megaman 5 was almost a complete joke due to the fact it was so ridiculously easy for the most part… except the fortress bosses were a little bit of a pain for me due to forgoetting to pick up the ‘G’ fo get Megaman’s Beat weapon (the robot bird). All in all though, it took me the smaller part of a night to finish this game. It was a little boring by comparison.

The sixth game in the series is somewhat of a paradox. The difficulty was almost non-existant once I found the jetpack powerup in the game, as pitfalls and spike no longer posed a threat, but I really did love everything about the game. It appears that Capcom really tried hard in creating fresh, new ideas for the series and the evidence is clear in this game. The Rush transformations this time around are replaced with suit upgrades for Megaman – namely a jetpack and a suit that greatly increases the power of the Buster but reduces its range along with a punch that can destroy walls – and it really makes a difference in how the game feels and plays. Sure it didn’t take very long to finish, but I oved every second of this game.

Part 7 was a chance for Capcom to push the series in an entirely new visual direction, replacing the tiny blocky style of Megaman with bright, large and colourful 16-bit graphics backed by the Super Nintendo. Unfortunately, the game was far overshadowed by the X series by this point, so it ended up being lost sitting in the shadow of its more mature-themed brother. The game was fairly easy, and it followed the classic formula of the older games perfectly. It was said to see the series sputter out at this point however, Capcom were trying to build even further on the idea of the Rush Suit upgrades, even if the suit transformation made the game an absolute cakewalk this time around. I will say however, the final form of Wily in this game was probably the one I had most trouble with in the entire series.

Megaman 8 was not really an enjoyable experience for me. Sure it looked great, attempted a lot of new and interesting features and had a decent plot behind it, but something about it just did not feel right. It didn’t feel like a part of the series it was in. Sure it had the basic concept of ‘go blow up these robots, take their powers, then go beat up more robots’, but it ust didn’t feel like classic Megaman.

I never got a chance to play Megaman and Bass due to not being able to find it in town here, but that is a project for a later date anyway, right before I start the Zero series.And there we have it, ten years’ worth of a classic series in the bag. I started out my adventure to Bomb Man’s house on Friday the 22nd of January, and put Wily’s eigth scheme of terror to rest on the evening of the 31st. During this time, I did also pick up Megaman 9 on Xbox Live Arcade, which I should have finished sometime this week, and so far I am very impressed with how true to the classics they have made the game, although the difficulty is right up there with Megaman 1 and 3 in the sense that the game hates you and everything that you stand for. However, for now I have decided to dig in to the X Collection, of which I finished the ball-smashingly hard-by-comparison-to-the-end-of-the-original-series Megaman X last night.

The entire series has very quickly become a firm favourite for me. I feel absolutely ashamed that I have never dug into the Megaman franchise before now. I have absolutely loved everything I’ve seen so far, and I am already starting to tear through the future timelines Capcom have presented to us. My hat goes off to Capcom for creating one of the most loved and most wonderful franchises I have had the good fortune to experience. Here’s to 20 more years of the Blue Bomber!

So here’s my answer, whoever asked that question on the forums (I have just spent the betterpart of half an hour trying to find that post, so whoever knows who it was, please let me know so I can credit them here). This is my single most proud moment in gaming. I played through the entire classic Megaman series in less than two weeks after never having played through any of them before! And I leave you with this, the single greatest Megaman related media on the entirity of the internets… (Warning: Naughty words rife throughout.) 

Post title image credit to M Sipher of DeviantArt.

A few short weeks ago, Silent Hill composer Akira Yamaoka ended his 16 year relationship with Konami. It appears he won’t be filing for unemployment anytime soon however, as Famitsu broke word that he has officially joined on with Suda51′s team at Grasshopper Manufacture. (via 1up)

Those in the know will remember Suda51 is currently in the works alongside Resident Evil mastermind Shinji Mikami to create an as yet unannounced horror title for the Wii, PS3, 360, and PC.  With the music of Yamaoka now behind this new venture, it looks like survival horror fans have something to be very very excited about!

To get an idea of how it’s looking these days, here’s a random snippet from last week’s show.  Mass Effect 2 goodness starts about a minute into it.

What does this mean for my excitement level for the most salacious game of the season?  Oh, it’s sky-rocketing.  Most hack-and-slash games that have come out lately have all been well and good, but they haven’t been complete.  Demon’s Souls lacked Content Creation; Bayonetta lacked both.  The entertainment factor was there, but going above and beyond expectations with additional content besides new levels or new abilities was something they all seemed to fall short on.

For just a couple extra dollars to add a little more meat to my bone, I am definitely going to look into Trials of St. Lucia.  [and you should too!]

Mass Effect 2: where else will you see aliens singing Gilbert and Sullivan?

To watch the full video, check out the looping version running now at justin.tv/falldamage

*inside joke

Mass Effect 2 is big. Oh, you may think it’s a long way down the road to the chemist, but etc., etc., more thinly veiled references to the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy.

Joking aside, that is the very first thing that has struck me about this game. It’s huge. It’s immense. It is heaving and pendulous, one might even say GROTESQUELY large. There’s just so goddamn much to DO in this game that the mind reels, and seems wary of ever truly accomplishing everything. And with the titanic avalanche of free DLC promised via the game’s Cerberus Network update system, to say nothing of further planned paid DLC, this is a game that I fully expect to be playing well into the middle of the year.

I’ll not wax poetic about the details of the plot: as with the original Mass Effect, the plot is sublime, if not even moreso than the original. The writing chops Bioware exercised the first time around have only grown more polished with the passage of time, and the characters feel much more 3-dimensional and grounded than before… an impressive feat considering the cast of ME1. There’s old faces, new faces, old faces you really don’t expect to see, and a whole host of surprises in store, none of which I’ll spoil. In addition, the dialogue system used to communicate with the rabble of the universe and your crew alike has been significantly beefed up, with more cinematic camera direction, and perhaps my favorite new game innovation, Interrupts, which let you throw out an OBJECTION! in the middle of a conversation and put mofos in their place, with either a heroic or sadistic bent, pending upon how much of a Space Jerk your Commander Shepard is.

The gameplay, too, is significantly improved. The RPG elements have been streamlined a great deal, and the game is much more of a shooter than ME1, which is a welcome change. Your squad is easier to direct, with you now being able to issue orders to individual teammates; the cover system is much improved, and far more useful; the weapons have been completely overhauled, favoring traditional ammunition systems in the form of expendable heat-sinks for your weaponry, and the introduction of heavy weapons, SMGs, light machine guns, and a whole host of other nasty little implements of death and destruction. The heavy weapons, incidentally, replace the grenades of ME1, which were fiddly, impractical things anyway, so no love lost on my part.

There’s far more to say, really there is, but the simple fact is I don’t want to stop playing long enough to actually spend time SAYING it. There will be more in-depth updates on the game’s content throughout the week, but for now, I’m charging back into the fray. HUZZAH!

It’s a super special week on Fall Damage, as the entire show was streamed LIVE to our raving fans via our Justin.tv page!

This week Mixmoff, Aevan, and Dr. Scares talk Demon’s Souls, Bayonetta, Hexen, Mario Kart Wii, The Saboteur, and Persona!

You can listen along in the classic audio-only fashion, or you can watch the full recorded show at any time by going to the forums and clicking the “Stream” tab at the top of the page!

Scares mentioned it yesterday, but we’ve made a handful of bonus announcements regarding the Level 20 event tomorrow.

Most notably, we will be broadcasting the podcast LIVE as it’s being recorded. If you visit the forums, you will now see a “Stream” tab along the top of the page. Click that and you’ll see a nifty little popup video player. Click it on Saturday, January 23rd at 10:00CST, and you’ll be listening to the newest show, LIVE.

So join us in the Forums chat tomorrow at 10CST for this killer event. If it works, maybe we’ll look at doing this for all shows going forward. If it doesn’t, well at least you’ll have a story!

And I literally think nothing could be more apt. If you haven’t read the subtext (which would make sense because I haven’t really given any, unless of course you’ve read the title and can… I DIGRESS) level 20 is cursed. We tried recording last night, but Mix’s power didn’t come back until midnight.

And then, tonight… blessed tonight. Everything looked good until 5pm rolled around and all the freaky Illinois people got home from work and simultaneously fired up the internet porn, and Mix’s power went down again.

So, what does that mean for you, dear listener? It means:

Fall Damage Presents:

A Very Fally Breakfast

A one time only special engagement

With your hosts Aevan, Mixmoff and Dr. Scares, convening at the ripe hour of 10am CST on Saturday January 23rd, 2010.  Join us in our Chatroom and lets eat eggs together. Most likely it will look like this:

For those of you who have not yet signed up for the forums, there’s been a few big things of note happening over there the last few days. Of specific note is the new Listener of the Week Questionnaire which anyone can fill out and email in to be considered for the award!

Additionally, please contribute to the Listener Question thread if there are specific things you’d like us to discuss on the next show!

And coming this week, we will be polling the community on what our next step will be for the podcast and community. If you want your voice heard on the future advancement of the Fall Damage agenda, then register for a forums account today and speak up!

With the beginning of this new decade in this, the 21st of our modern centuries, on the date of twenty and six with the stars of Orion acting as a sign post… it will begin.

The hype machine is in full gear for the Mass Effect 2 launch and I, humble as I may be, am doing everything in my power to fuel those flames with my unceasing fandom (wah wah). This game, if you somehow dug a hole and managed to fall in it, is the continuation of Commander Shepard and crew’s odyssey through space putting things right that once went wrong, and hoping each time that their next leap…. wait…

Its being touted as the Empire Strikes Back of the Mass Effect saga, and that can only be a good thing.

Unless that elephant alien is Shepard’s father… that would just be weird.

Regardless, enjoy the launch trailer:

I’m currently using up what precious little laptop battery power (and cell phone battery power) I have left to notify you. How special do you all feel?

I’m not certain it was sabotage, but who would have the most to gain from a postponement of the show? All signs point to current Listener of the Week Trefoilknot, looking to extend his reign of terror.

At this link you will find a mashup of the original Nintendo staples Super Mario Bros and Tetris. Flawlessly executed by Newsgrounds user SwingSwing, the game makes so much sense it’s ridiculous.

Give it a try!

I mean, it would be completely irrational for them to have finished all three parts at the same time with minimal effort and they’re just releasing them spaced out like this because they’re a bunch of no good, lazy, bastard, suits who are just in it for the padding of my wallet. Right?

According to February’s edition of Game Informer, the prequal to Halo: Combat Evolved, brings us back into a world of Spartan III’s and all the joys that are had in saving the world while still being completely and utterly expendable.  There are a few notable differences though.

Instead of being just a singular bad ass that is charged with the duties of being the only hero awesome enough to finish the job, Halo: Reach brings us an entire team of Spartans and their squad called Noble Team. You play as Noble 6, the newest member of Noble Team. The leader is Carter-259, gender equality is portrayed by the female Spartan Kat-320, Jorge-052 is heavy weapons specialist and the only Spartan II on the team, Emile-239, and Jun-266 star as canon fodder or “red shirts”, I am sure.

You and your bad ass squad will be going to Reach, a planet that is falling to the hands of the invading Covenant.  The rest of the mission seems pretty clear from here.  Don’t die, save the world, get little to no recognition for it.  A few things that will bring this game out of the typical Halo world will be the darker art styles, battles that support up to 40 AI and 20 vehicles [the original only supports 20 AI, for comparison sake], new weapons [the Marksman Rifle and Needle Rifle, which read like ownage via bullets], Melee Assassinations, and new Armor Up abilities that will allow a player to choose between powered up abilities like Sprint or Camoflauge.  There are new enemies to look out for, as well.  [Lizard faced bipedals that travel in packs.]

From a technical stand point, you can look forward to motion capture having been used in all the cinematic scenes, and 20-40 dynamic light sources at any given time.  Translation: The game is going to be pretty. 

There are a few hommages to Halo: Combat Evolved, so don’t think that you won’t see anything you haven’t already seen before.  The health bar damage will be the same as the first game and a few of the more memoriable weapons will be turning up from time to time.  Regardless, though.. Halo: Reach is proving to be able to stand on it’s own in a series that seems like it’s already done everything it could.  With Multiplayer remaining untouched in the perfection that it is, and the single player starting to sound like it’s going to blow all the other Halo games out of the water; it really leaves me hoping for one thing.

Please be less lame when it comes to your commercials, Bungie.  If this game is going to be as good as it sounds, the overdramatic stylings of advertising are going to be unnecessary.

This week Mixmoff, Aevan, and Dr. Scares discuss The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks, The Sims 3, Phantom Dust, Dark Void, Dragon Age: Origins, Wii Sports, and Magnetis. They dive into discussion on Sony and Microsoft’s upcoming motion controllers. Stay tuned until the very end of the show, as the hosts are joined by a VERY special guest who will be the future host of several Fall Damage Sidequests!

In what has become a DD tradition, it seems that when games reach a certain anniversary, the developers decide that they no longer want to rip everyone off.  I shouldn’t say Rip Off, really… most games are priced fair for the amount of fun you get out of them and the delight that they  bring to otherwise meaningless existences.  World Of Goo was the first game to do this [that I am aware of] and now it seems that the makers of Crayon Physics Deluxe has decided to follow suit.

Pay A Penny?  Pay A Billion Dollars?  

Well, that’s up to you and your moral compass, but either way it’s going on until January 15th.

It’s a new year, and Mixmoff Aevan and Dr. Scares are back with a brand spanking new episode of Fall Damage!

This week we have an interview with RetroAffect, the developers behind the upcoming Puzzle/Platformer Snapshot! Also we talk ModNation Racers, Silent Hill: Shattered Memories, Eufloria, and Aevan finally weighs in on Uncharted 2. We also take a moment to warn you of the treachery of a certain Demon’s Souls NPC, and in the community segment you will finally learn the origin stories behind the hosts online handles!

Designed and written by the same team that brought you Dragon Age: Origins, the Awakening expansion pack offers a brand new area of the world to explore known as Amaranthine, featuring an epic story that will allow players to unravel the secrets of the darkspawn – and their true motivations! Players will face a range of horrific and terrifying creatures including an evolved, intelligent breed of darkspawn and other menacing creatures such as the Inferno Golem and Spectral Dragon. Dragon Age: Origins – Awakening provides exciting new ways for players to customize their heroes and party, including the ability to re-spec their character attributes, allowing even greater customization and replayability. Featuring an increased level cap, new spells, abilities, specializations and items, plus five all-new party members, players can continue their adventures from Dragon Age, or begin with a brand new party.

Dragon Age: Origins – Awakening, BioWare’s next thread in the Dragon Age: Origins tapestry, occurs following the events of Dragon Age: Origins and puts players into the role of a Grey Warden Commander entrusted with rebuilding the order of Grey Wardens. In addition to rebuilding the ranks of the Grey Wardens, you will be tasked with uncovering the mystery of how the darkspawn survive after the slaying of the Archdemon dragon. How players choose to rebuild their order, resolve the conflict with the mysterious “Architect,” and determine the fate of the darkspawn are just some of the many intriguing moral choices that will shape each player’s heroic journey. Players will be able to import their character from Dragon Age: Origins or start out as a new Grey Warden from the neighboring land of Orlais.

The expansion will be priced at $39.99 and drops March 16th on 360, PS3, and PC.

It’s evident developers walk a tight rope in this generation. We complain of “sequelitis”, but once a winning formula is found it’s dangerous or even reckless to deviate from that success. A single failure can topple a small developer, and can cause even a powerhouse like Capcom to feel very uncomfortable.

Our pastime of choice has become big money, but that means developers are less and less likely to take the chances to truly innovate. Hopefully the burgeoning scene of indie and download-only games will keep us awash with fresh ideas to help propel the industry forward!

Here they are, the first annual Fallies!

With our winners for:
Best Action/Adventure
Best Shooter
Best RPG
Best Platformer
Best Puzzle Game
Best Download-Only Game
Best Story
Best Setting
Best Gameplay
Best Online/MP Experience
Best Soundtrack
Best Voice Acting Performance
Worst Character
Best New Character
Best Supporting Character
Best Lead Character
Best New IP
Developer of the Year
Quit of the Year
Crit of the Year

Despite the fact that we mentioned it in a podcast a while back, I still don’t think enough people have been introduced to the wonderful world of Spelunky. I have become completely addicted to the game as of late, and I think more of you out there in internetland should do the same.

Spelunky is a fantastic little indie game developed by Derek Yu, a fairly well known independent developer who’s other titles include Eternal Daughter and Aquaria. Obviously heavily influenced by classic games like Spelunker, the game revolves around exploring an expansive underground cave complex whilst collecting mass quantities of buries treasure, fighting snakes and giant spiders, and rescuing Hysterical Dames. The main selling point of Spelunky for me however, is the completely random nature of the game. Every time you start, the entire game is randomly generated so no two playthroughs will ever be the same. There are some small factors that remain constant, such as the amount of starting items you have and the ‘theme’ of the current level you are on (1-4 are simple brown caves, 5-9 are an underground jungle, etc). You also only have a single life in the game which can make the game a little difficult, although a large amount of the fun in the experience is seeing just how the game will play out the next time.

The game is completely free to download, although Derek does have an Xbox Live Arcade version planned for release in the near future. So what are you waiting for, head over to Spelunky World and download it now!

I started Fall Damage with the sole intention of talking about video games with some friends. It’s developed into a fun little podcast that keeps getting more and more fun with every episode.

I decided to launch these forums with the intent of being able to communicate more freely with our listeners, and to make a gaming community where people weren’t total jerk-asses for no reason. So be prepared: be a total jerk-ass for no reason and I will smite thee. I might even smite thee WITH a reason. I guess what I’m trying to say is that we’re not a fan of jerk-asses in general.

The members of this community are not simply “listeners” of the podcast… instead your thoughts and opinions (and heck maybe even voices) will be heard on the podcast itself. This show will be as interactive as you want it to be! If you want to tell people how overlooked a certain game was, just post a new thread about it. Make some good points, and we’ll talk about it on the show. Make some great points, maybe we’ll have you on the show to talk about it!

Additionally, from this point forward Listener of the week will be chosen from THIS community, not from the Steam Group. So if you’ve been wanting to be in the running, but don’t have Steam…. now’s your chance!

I look forward to seeing this community grow into a solid group of gamers of all colors, creeds, and consoles. So without further ado, the doors are open to the Fall Damage forums!

Note as you watch this that Shine, the kid playing Gouken, is 15 years old, and up against one of the best Akuma players on Earth. We believe Shine’s mom drove him to the tournament.

I’m going to go cry in a corner over my copy of SFIII Third Strike now.

 In case you haven’t signed into Steam today, and Fall Damage was your first stop in the journey around the internets; I’d thought you’d like to know about the massive sales going on on right now.  Games %60 – %80 off, bundle packs for less than $3?  You bet your sweet candy-ass it has all of that!  In addition to the sales that are going on until January 11th, Steam is also having special price sales every 40 hours or so.  You can pick up Mirror’s Edge for just $4.99, or S.T.A.L.K.E.R for just $1.99!  

There is bound to be something for everyone, so even if you don’t find something for yourself.. maybe you can get that last minute hard to shop for gamer gift out of the way in time for the Holidays! Go! Shop!

This week we’re rocking a full third dozen hosts! Oh wait that’s math… nevermind!

Mixmoff, Aevan, Dr. Scares, and Cruz talk about Dante’s Inferno, PixelJunk Shooter, Trash Panic, Valkyria Chronicles, and consoles of the past! We also announce the categories for the Fallies: our year of the end awards show set to air December 31st!

*There’s a slight issue with static at certain points in this episode.  It was edited out as much as possible, and should only be a minor annoyance.

What he has against Laotians I’ll never know…

A game that has been mentioned on several occasions as being down right awesome, is now just 9.99!  For a scope of how amazing that deal is, The Last Remnant usually goes for a cool 39.99 on Steam.  That is a 75% discount!  Crazy!  I will personally recommend this game to everyone who visits this website and listens to our podcast, not only because of the ridiculously low price, but also because of the amazing game you’ll get for it. 

The powers of the Remnants slowly began to change the world’s balance.
A rift slowly formed between those who ruled and those who obeyed.
This was the dawning of a new era — an era of countless frays that would be brought upon the world by those enslaved by their own lust for power.

A thousand years later, the journey of one young man begins.

Featuring an enthralling story, countless characters and an intricate battle system, Square Enix brings the RPG experience known as The Last Remnant to the PC.
Discover new strategies in the improved battle system.

I will also recommend finding yourself a way to get your 360 controller to work with your PC before you tackle this beast, as it will improve your gameplay experience 10-fold.  You have no excuses now, people!  I have 9.99 in change between the floor mats of my car and the dark untold crevices beneath my couch cusions!  Go buy it, play it and allow yourselves to be Wow’d by The Last Remnant!

In my opinion, the purported YLOD fix will work, but it’s a band-aid fix in many situations. Eventually a malfunctioning board will catch up to you, and a new machine is probably the only reliable fix.

It took me officially Way Too Damn Long, but a hole in my budget opened up long enough to let a copy of Borderlands slip through, and I’m really wondering why I didn’t get this sooner.

Right now I’m about 75%-ish through my first playthrough. I’m playing the Soldier class; since he is a planet-hopping mercenary with a hip urban attitude, I have named him Deltron. I’m currently at Level 32 with a Support Gunner class mod, closing in quickly on 33, and for the moment I’m mostly focusing skills on physical endurance, dealing good damage with all weapon types, and getting the most use out of the deployable turret. My only complaint is the lack of any ‘alternate’ character models, since while I do love my Soldier’s skillset, I still feel awkward not playing a girl, and I’ve found I’m pretty terrible with the Siren(stealth is decidedly NOT my forte).

It’s interesting, as I play through this, to note just how damn greedy I am. I’ve reached a point in the game where I effectively have more money than I could EVER need, as healing items are relatively cheap, and buying weapons/shields is a really rare thing, since the general selection is usually meh and the ‘special buys’ are pretty much never anything useful to me. Despite this, I still OBSESSIVELY pick up everything I see, cart it back to the vending machines, and sell it off. At this point I’m up to something like $2,000,000+, and I literally have no idea what I’m going to do with it all. I have noticed the selection improves as I level up, so maybe by the time I’m on to the New Game+ I’ll have a use for my vast supply of wealth. As for actual gear, between farming the chests in New Haven and just grabbing random drops, I’m set up pretty well for the moment. Just for personal reasons I’d love to find a Revolution, because carrying a gun named “Glorious Revolution” is goddamn awesome.

Overall? I’m having a blast with this game, it’s the most fun I’ve had all year. Dragon Age may have a better narrative, but Borderlands is DECIDEDLY more satisfying to actually play. Definite belated thumbs-up: as soon as I get enough money to afford a wireless adapter for the 360, I’ll be looking forward to blasting around Pandora with friends.

Also, apologies for my recent absence from the podcasts: real life has been seriously ganging up on me lately, and I’ve either not had the time or not had the energy to put anything together for the show. Rest assured, however, I’ll be back in action soon, hopefully with plenty of new stuff to talk about!

Today Valve announced the first piece of downloadable content for Left 4 Dead 2, and it really feels like they know exactly what their user base wants.

The new campaign, ‘The Passing’, will be set after the events of Dead Center from Left 4 Dead 2, and will feature our old favourite characters Bill, Francis, Louis and Zoey metting up with the four new survivors from L4D2.

Valve also mentioned that there will be a new melee weapon added to the game, along with a new firearm, and a new ‘campaign challenge’ game mode. Could this be the 8 player campaign mode us fans have been pining for? We’ll keep you up to date on news as it appears. Words cannot express how excited I am to use the original characters in Left 4 Dead 2.

So, Mixmoff has forced me into updating the general public about his vain attempt to get his PS3 working again. As you can see, he has managed to completely destroy disassemble the console fairly well so far, let’s just hope he can figure out how to put it back together and somewhat resemble what it is supposed to be. And maybe, just maybe, if you listen real hard, you might be able to hear anything he’s saying.

The amount of thermal compound used on the CPU and GPU in that refurb machine is beyond sickening. Considering I build and service PCs by day, seeing this just makes me want to take whoever thought that was a good idea out back and show them just what really happened to Old Yeller.

Just in time for the holidays, my 60 gig PS3 has just bit the bullet! After a sudden self-reset I am now faced with the dreaded Yellow Light of Death on the refurb model Sony sent me about 6 months ago.

Out of warranty, and disinclined to spend another $150 for a temporary refurb replacement, I will be attempting to fix this one myself tonight. Maybe I’ll even livestream the process tonight right here on Fall Damage!

The basic plan? Yank a million pieces out, wipe off the old thermal compound, heat the shit out of the motherboard, and apply new thermal compound. Yeah there’s some other more delicate steps in there, but I’m not one for delicacy. For $30 I may just be able to fix this beast yet. I won’t sit idly by while my recently purchased copy of PixelJunk Shooter goes unplayed!

I’ll keep you all appraised of my impending success or inevitable failure!

It looks like the new Team Fortress 2 update has just gone live, and it seems that the Soldier and Demoman will indeed be competing with each other.

Along with the new weapon being revealed each day for each class, a la the Spy vs Sniper update, the class with the most kills against the opposing class  (Soldier > Demoman and vice versa) will be getting a super special top secret weapon at the end of the competition.

So get to the killing people, make my Demoman proud and kill some Soldiers for me!

The War Update (TeamFortress.com)

So those of you who regularly keep track of TeamFortress.com, Valve’s development blog for the wonderful class-based multiplayer title will have seen the webcomic teaser posted yesterday linked form the following phrase;

Friendship ends in one day.

So what could this mean? The most likely answer is a Soldier vs. Demoman update, just like the Spy vs. Sniper update from earlier this year. Some other theories are floating around out there at the possibility of only one of the two classes getting the update, dependent on class popularity from how much they are played since the announcement, or through a poll. There has always been one outlandish theory of the engineer getting an update… yeah.

It’s also awesome to finally see The Administrator in person, although I almost feel like I’ve seen her before…

Mixmoff, Aevan, and Dr. Scares return for another week of wit and wonder (and a lot of puns about boobs.) This week they discuss Demon’s Souls, Magna Carta 2, Infinite Undiscovery, and Gravity Crash. Also featured on this show is an interview with Chelsea from Proper Walrus, makers of the great new iPhone game Tipoli

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Once upon a time during a podcast, I was asked what game I had played that had eluded to a  sequal but never delivered.  My response to this inquiry was quite simply; Portal.   A fantastic game unlike anything we had all seen at the time, and one that had us all quoting it for months after the hype died down.  The ending to this game was very open for more with the main character being alive, outside and [lo and behold] with portal gun in hand. 

My imagine immediately started working out possible tie ins to Half-Life 3, an inevitability in the Valve franchise.  Could it be that Gordon Freeman would happen across our poor lab rat, Chell, and together they would take on Aperture Science and Black Mesa in Co-Op awesomeness?  Arguements were posed that it would be too difficult to manage, and that perhaps my dream would have to stay… just a dream. 

Then I stumbled [a handy journalism tool] upon something that hit the web back in 2007.  Nearly three years ago, there was a mind and an idea to find a way to put the portal gun into Half-Life 2.   What is this insanity, you say?  Freeman, with a portal gun!?   Oh, it is true my friends and not only is it true and possible but it eludes to a future concept that might already be in the works behind a cleverly hidden cloak. 

So much time has passed for Valve to take this idea and run with it, and I would think they would find themselves edging into foolishness if they didn’t.  You would gain all of the Freeman fans, and all of the relentlessly-quoting-the-cake-to-be-a-lie Portal fans together in one big little guy takes down the big corporation battle for freedom!  Even if they didn’t manage to find a way to braid together the concept with the idea of a two-player co-op [see Resident Evil 5], there is no reason not to include the portal gun in another Half-Life game. 

Seriously, look at how awesome this could be.

All of us here behind the scenes at Fall Damage believe that all great developers get their start with nothing more than an idea, a dream, and a passion to see it through..  To celebrate and honor this ideal, we will be bringing you new games that we’ve found through our adventures.  Hopefully, this will mean that we will do our small part to see up and coming developers reach the rank and prestige of companies such as Level 5, Valve and Naughty Dog.

This week I would like to introduce you to a marvelous little game called Tipoli.  It’s a one button iPhone game with huge potential and unlimited fun brought to our eager hands by Proper Walrus and published by Divide By Zero Games.  If you are craving something indubitably addictive and you just happen to have an iPhone at your disposal than there is truly no reason not to go and get yourself a copy of Tipoli.

The good news gets even better once you hear that for the first week Tipoli is only 99 cents in the apps store!  Yes, you read that right.  Only 99 Cents, People.  So go out there, support those big time dreamers with even bigger ideas, and who knows what wonderous things we might see from them in the future!

Oh, and for those who want the game but just can’t be bothered searching for it?  [I know, the internet is a scary place. o_o]  Here is a direct link for download!  Or, if you want to read more about the developers themselves, and the process that Tipoli has gone through to become what it is now; here is a link for your reading enjoyment! 

And because writing a whole article with piles of information would mean that I’d have to pretend to be an actual journalist, keep your ears open for a future podcast [fingerscrossed] hopefully interviewing one of the Proper Walrus team!

Normally 29.99, now just 7.49!

Tomb Raider: Underworld represents a new advancement in exploration-based gameplay. As fearless adventurer Lara Croft explore exotic locations around the world, each designed with an incredible attention to detail resulting in breathtaking high-definition visual fidelity that creates a truly believable world and delivers a new level of challenge and choice.

As always Steam is pumping out the deals that keeps them ahead of the digital gaming crowd, and this weekend is no different.  Have you been craving a little Lara Croft action?  Were you scorned by the atrocity of Tomb Raider: Anniversary, but delightfully surprised by Tomb Raider: Legend?  Underworld will put you somewhere in the middle if that was the case.    A beautiful game in its own right, that lacks during certain moments.  Tons of fun to play, if you’re not looking for too much out of a new Croft adventure and just want something… typical.  

Worth 29.99?   Definitely not.  Worth 7.49?  Oh, very much yes and thank you Steam for being ever vigilant in selling games for the price they actually warrent.  [sometimes.]

Randomly lurking on the Gearbox forums today, I noticed a juicy piece of news. It seems that Gearbox has filed a new trademark document for something entitled ‘Borderworlds’. Pretty much seals the deal for a sequel, or maybe even a massive expansion/DLC pack for the original game that moves the focus to multiple different worlds (okay, I’m dreaming here, but it could happen!).

Borderworlds Trademark Status

This week Mixmoff, Aevan, and Dr Scares conduct a killer interview with Pro Gaming Tour founders Frost and BiggK. Then they cover Dragon Age: Origins, Left 4 Dead 2, MAG, Lucidity, Primal, and the video game mechanics they wish the could forget.

During my morning lurk on the PC digital distribution websites, I stumbled upon the Direct2Drive 24 Days of Christmas Sale, where each day this month will see a different game on sale until Christmas Eve. Today’s sale is The Witcher Enhanced Edition Director’s Cut for 50% off, making it $19.99 until tomorrow morning.

However, I noticed something else very interesting. Mirror’s Edge appeared as being on sale for $4.95 according to their main page, which I jumped all over because I forgot to pick it up on Steam this weekend. However, after clicking the link, the price in the checkout was $19.95. Suffice to say, I’m a little disappointed. I wanted Mirror’s Edge for $5 D:

Still though, keep an eye on their website for the coming deals this month. Here’s hoping they have some awesome stuff coming up!

EDIT: Looks like they fixed it finally, about an hour after I first saw it. Mirror’s Edge is listed at $19.95 now. Sad day.

SECOND EDIT: Looks like this is going to happen every day of the sale, The Witcher is still listed for $19.95 until you get to the checkout. This amuses me greatly.

This week for the traditional mid-week sale, Zeno Clash is 66% off on Steam, allowing you to pick up this absolutely bizarre Source engine-based indie gem for just five of your US dollars and ten of their percents.

Zeno Clash is what I can only refer to as a ‘first-person-brawler’, with a lot of obvious inspiration taken from games like Streets of Rage and Final Fight in terms of gameplay mechanics, and some kind of crazy psychotropic substance induced fever dream for the setting. It’s also quite good, so I recommend taking a peek if you have five bucks burning a hole in your pocket.

You can head over to the Steam Store page and pick it up for $5.10 right here.

Apparently, this is no joke.  This is the actual piece of crap trailer that they are using to advertise the new King of Fighters movie.   Could it be worse than Mortal Kombat?  Could it be worse than that nightmare of a Chun-Li movie?  Dear God, I think it might be.  It looks to completely ignore all semblance of a story line that the original series had.  Am I wrong about this?  I’ll let you, the readers, clarify. 

Leave your comments, folks.  Are you ready to burn your eyes out too, or could it be passable as an enjoyable film if you just pretend it has nothing to do with KOF?

Mixmoff, Aevan and Dr Scares break down Assassin’s Creed 2, Peggle, LittleBigPlanet, New Super Mario Brothers Wii, Battlefield Bad Company 2, God of War 3, and are joined by BossGoji to talk about movie homages in video games!

Just to warn you, this show is mostly unedited because we want to spend time with our families darn it!

This just-in: Capcom has confirmed three new characters for Super Street Fighter 4, and teased at a fourth. Final Fight vets Cody and Guy, along with Street Fighter Alpha fan-favorite Adon, are going to be in the game when it drops, and promotional material has hinted that everyone’s favorite ninja from Street Fighter 3, Ibuki, will be returning as well.

Does this open the floodgate for other fan-favorites from the Alpha and 3 series? I’m rooting for Karin and Dudley, myself, but only time will tell.

Okay, so that title makes this seem a little more mean than it actually is. There is currently a Q&A session going on between Shigeru Miyamoto and Satoru Iwata over the release of Super Mario Bros. Wii, which is posted for everybody to read. Iwata has been asking many questions on the history of the development of the Mario games, and it’s quite an enjoyable read.

Head over to the first page here, and you will find links to each subsequent page at the bottom.

After finally playing through Uncharted 2: Among Thieves, I find it only fitting to write my own single word review.

“Masterpiece.”

In response to the review we commented on previously, I only recall two quick time events used in the entire game, and those are only when fighting a certain type of enemy, and only if they manage to grab you. Plus, these two events require pressing the two standard melee attack buttons at times that make perfect sense, so instead of really being QTE, the button icons on the screen are more just informing you that you can start your regular attack inputs – these two enemies just have a different attack animation so you may not have understood it was time to mash buttons.

Outside of the playground ridicule we have going here, Uncharted 2 really is Naughty Dog’s magnum opus, the PS3′s crown jewel title for the system, and a milestone in gaming, interactive fiction and even cinema. Whilst not perfect (due to some incredibly frustrating control issues to do with the cover/dodge system not doing exactly what you want when you tell it to, and the jump targeting doing some odd things on occasion), this game is a shining example of everything a big-budget video game developer should hope to achieve. I can’t wait to see what Naughty Dog has in store for us next, be it a third Uncharted (which is an absolute given at this point), a new game in the Jak series (YES PLEASE), or a new IP altogether. This is a company that fully understands gaming as a medium, and Uncharted 2 is proof of their enlightenment.

Long story short – Uncharted 2 is a masterpiece. If you have a PS3 and $60, you need this game.

* …there was no such thing as automapping, and if you wanted a map of the dungeon you had to DRAW AN ACTUAL MAP?

* …copy-protection came in quiz-format, rather than DRM fuckery?

* …you didn’t realize that Nintendo Power was NOTHING but advertisements?

* …the manual would have all the story crammed into it to save space on the game cartridge?

* …the manual would lie to you on purpose?

* …the GAME would lie to you on purpose? (‘Get a silk bag from the graveyard duck to live longer!’)

* …big-head cheats were the grand summit of easter eggs?

* …there actually WASN’T a Cow Level?

* …Samus being a girl was shocking?

* …no matter what game you were playing, the ‘water’ level or dungeon was always the hardest?

* …you actually thought Sheng Long might be real?

I can’t be the only who remembers this stuff. What stuff do you guys miss about old games?

Do gamers need more Dragon Age? From all corners of the internet the answer seems to be “Oh God YES!”

Bioware has heard your cries (and heartily anticipated them) and wiill be releasing another packet of DLC this holiday season. From the Press Release:

Return to Ostagar, BioWare’s next thread in the Dragon Age: Origins tapestry, summons players to a new quest in which they will return to the fateful battleground in Ostagar where the Grey Wardens were nearly wiped out. Players will discover King Cailan’s top-secret political agenda and go behind enemy lines to revisit a place that many feared had been lost to history.

Political intrigue for less that $5 on the XBL and PSN? Count us in!

The post will be up on Sunday (LAN going on longer than expected!), have a good weekend guys!

Mixmoff and Aevan welcome new co-host Dr. Scares for their longest show EVAR. Left 4 Dead 2, Modern Warfare 2, Okami, Section 8, Final Fantasy VII: Crisis Core, and Drakengard 2 are all on the menu, and we walk through some of the best gaming deals for Black Friday!

The mild spoilers contained herein reference dialogue in the finale for the final campaign of Left 4 Dead 2. As much as the story in the game is fairly transparent, there is one present. It’s nothing critical or major, it was just something fairly interesting. Read on, but don’t be upset if I spoil the surprise!

So last night, the group I play with and I finished up the last campaign – The Parish – and we made a very interesting discovery. Numerous times in the original Left 4 Dead through the graffiti on the wall in the safe rooms, there were references to ‘carriers’, people who are immune to the infection but still carry it, causing people who are not immune to catch the nasty rage-inducing disease. This was never really expanded upon, and it was never clear if the four survivors in the first game were carriers or just had a full immunity. During The Parish campaign in Left 4 Dead 2, there are points where fighter jets will fly overhead, bombing seemingly random targets, yet as the campaign progresses, it becomes more than clear that these military planes are targeting you.

Once your team reaches the finale (which honestly to me looks like a slight reworking of the Lake Pontchartrain Causeway that I have driven across once or twice which really improved the atmosphere for me), one of you will use a walkie-talkie to contact the military who seem to have raised road blocks to stop people from crossing the bridge. The conversation goes something like this:

(I’m going with Ellis for this one): Hey, anybody out there?

Radio Voice: Hello? Are you a survivor? Tell me, are you immune?

Ellis: Immune? Well I ain’t infected or anythin’ if that’s what your askin’.

Radio Voice: Tell me, have you come into contact with any infected?

Ellis: Yeah we fought a buncha zombies!

(Radio Voice talks to Second Radio Guy): Do you hear that? Are you equipped for ‘carriers’?

Second Radio Guy: Affirmative.

Then the Radio Voice tells you to get across the bridge as fast as you can, and the bridge escape finale begins.

I find this extremely interesting, and it leaves me wondering just what happens next after the chopper carries the survivors away. Are they taken to a safe zone with other carriers? Are they experimented on in horrible research facilities to get a cure out of them? I really want to know, and I am surprised that this game could have such a cliffhanger at the end. It also lends to the fact that carriers are being targeted by the military to take them out before they can escape on their own and cause any more damage, only letting them live if they can get them into a controlled environment.

I would love to see this expanded upon in further expansions or downloadable content for the game, as Valve look like they’re really trying to build a sense of narrative into the survivors experiences this time around.

I’m here to talk about Steve Blum and his many clones.

Perhaps best known for his role as Spike Spiegel in the dub version of anime classic Cowboy Bebop, I am absolutely CONVINCED he is goddamn stalking me in this game. He plays two party members(Gorim, who goes on to become a merchant in Denerim after the dwarf noble origin story, and Oghren, everyone’s favorite dwarven berserker/dirty old man), I’m convinced I’ve heard him voicing random NPCs, and I will eat my damn hat if he isn’t elsewhere in the game.

Admittedly, it’s not QUITE as bad as, say, Quake 4, where he voiced fully half of all the unnamed NPCs without even changing the pitch of his voice, but I am still rather freaked out to hear Spike’s voice coming out of multiple major characters.

For those of you who don’t already know, Left 4 Dead 2 is unlocked as of last night at 1AM CST. So everybody that pre-ordered the game now has no reason not to have played it yet, and everybody that didn’t pre-order it has no excuse not to own it at all.

Due to how late it was, I only had the chance to play through the first campaign – Dead Center – last night, and I have to say I am overjoyed at what a fresh, new and exciting experience Valve have created for the second game. It feels enough like Left 4 Dead for it to be familiar territory to seasoned players of the classic co-op zombie apocalypse masterpiece we all know and love, and it’s different enough for the original game to still be a completely playable experience after this new release.

Expect more feedback later on this week from all of us here at Fall Damage!

What are you still doing here? GO PLAY LEFT 4 DEAD 2!

Did you ever play Destruction Derby on the PSX?

If you did, you’re probably in the same boat as me, wondering why the hell there has not been a current-gen update for the series in years. If you didn’t, then you really missed out. It’s not a game I would suggest running out and picking up today, as you’re probably going to be sorely disappointed by the dated visuals, terrible physics and awful collision detection, but it’s a real shame you didn’t get to play the game back then. The mod I played this week really brought back fond memories of a time when me and my best friend in high school used to sit in my room playing Destruction Derby 2 for hours seeing how badly we could break the physics and launch the cars or make them do things that really shouldn’t be possible. Short but sweet this week, with the full write-up after the cut.

Another entrant in the Make Something Unreal Contest, Unreal Demolition is a mod that essentially combines the deathmatch spirit of Unreal Tournament with the brutal demolition of games such as Destruction Derby, featuring several modes ranging from simple hit-and-run style deathmatch through to a vehicle-based version of soccer, all without using any weapons. The vehicles are equipped with a turbo boost that last a few seconds before needing to recharge, the ability to make a small jump, and a self-righting mechanism (that can also be used to do random barrel rolls).

The five game modes are Classic Demolition, Team Classic Demolition, King of the Hill, Sumo, Stunt, and Demo Ball. I’ll give you a quick rundown of how they work.

Classic Demolition is the standard Destruction Derby style gameplay. You drive around and smash into opponents with the intent to destroy them, but instead of a Last Man Standing style as with most demolition derby themed games, UD goes for an Unreal style deathmatch approach. Once you do enough damage to somebody to destroy them (or use the turbo boost ability you have to crash into them full force, taking them out instantly), you gain a point, and they will respawn a few seconds later. The first to whatever point limit the server has set is the winner. This mode can get incredibly chaotic with large numbers of people, and makes for a rollicking good time.

Team Classic Demolition is the same as Classic Demolition, though players are divided into two teams. The first team to the score limit is the winner.

King of the Hill is a fairly interesting take on the mode, where most games will have a single ‘hill’ point that needs to be controlled by a team, UD has ‘hill zones’ that spawn randomly across the map with players scoring points for staying in the zone for as long as possible. The player with the most time logged in the hill zones at the end of the round is the winner.

Sumo is probably my favourite mode in Unreal Demolition. Players are placed in a small arena, usually on the top of a mountain or surrounded by some kind of dangerous substance likely to kill instantly. In this mode, players are invulnerable to smash damage, so the object is to knock your opponents off of the platform by any means necessary. This mode generally provides the biggest laughs in my experience, especially when an opponent comes charging at you full force only to hit nothing but air and fly straight off the edge of the arena due to you making a well timed press of the ‘jump’ button. Play is standard Last Man Standing, where players are eliminated until only the winner remains.

Stunt mode is basically a mode where players drive themselves off of ramp to get as much air as possible and pull off tricks such as barrel rolls, spins, flips etc. You score points based on how many ticks you pull off, and you have to land the trick perfectly to get points for it. I didn’t enjoy the time I played Stunt mode, as it just seemed a little under developed and either way too easy, or far too frustrating. There didn’t seem to be a happy medium between epic success and massive failure.

Demo Ball is a mode I honestly didn’t spend too much time with, as I never had a chance to try it with more than a handful of players, and it is definitely a mode where only a large server would have any chance at a decent game. Demo Ball is essentially soccer, but with cars instead of standard human players. Two teams, two goals, and one ball. The team who can knock the ball into the enemy goal the most times before the round is over or when the score limit is reached wins the match.

The gameplay in Unreal Demolition is extremely satisfying, successfully plowing through and destroying an opponent vehicle feels just strong enough to convey the feeling of tearing through heavy metal at high speeds. The physics are also great fun, with decent enough use of the PhysX present in the UT3 engine to make everything feel insane and silly whilst still following the rules of gravity. The vehicles also feel heavy enough for their size, so they’re not too floaty or sluggish.

Visually, the mod really isn’t all that spectacular. Of the small amount of maps available, most of them look great, with one or two exceptions that are easy on the eyes. However, the game uses stock textures and models. It would have been really nice to see new car models instead of the Scorpion buggy (come on guys, you could have even remodeled it without the gun that isn’t even used in the mod), and it would have been nice to see some new custom texture work. I also would have enjoyed custom sounds. The fact that everything is still stock makes me feel it could have just been additional gametypes versus a whole new mod with its own executable . These issues are minor however, and doesn’t make the mod any less fun.

My biggest concern for Unreal Demolition, however, is that all progress on the mod seems to have halted. The most current news posts I can find are on their ModDB page, as opposed to the official website for the mod, and even the ModDB page doesn’t feature the most current version (the MSUC phase 3 submission) which can be found on the Make Something Unreal website. It would be sad to see this mod die out, as it does show so much promise as long as the team gets to work on custom content. It’s quite fun, and I would love to see it develop into something bigger, especially with the release of UDK (though that may prompt a name change if it ever goes commercial).

I recommend if you have a little time and a few friends who want to try something new, it wouldn’t hurt to give Unreal Demolition a try. You can grab the latest version of the mod from FilePlanet here, or view the ModDB page here. You can also find the official website here.

Ironically, considering Aevan talked about Overlord 2 on the podcast this week, it seems that Overlord, the expansion pack and Overlord 2 are 75% off this weekend! This means you can pick up all three games for the insanely low price of $8.75!

Also, Crysis and Crysis Warhead are 50% off each… but Crysis sucks, despite looking fancy.

Image borrowed from Gamewallpapers.com

So last week, when wading through the vast list of submission for this year’s Independent Games Festival, I took notice of an interesting little game called Symphony. I was a little apprehensive about posting about it here, as Empty Clip Studios, the development team working on it, have not yet released any sort of playable code with which to try the game out. However, I’m breaking down just to tell you all how excited I am for this game.

I adore obscure music games – generally game that take music and do something interesting with it, or games that use music as an integral part of the gameplay experience. Bear in mind, I really don’t enjoy the Guitar Hero games as they really don’t do anything outside of the norm, but I’m thinking more games such as the fantastic Audiosurf, Vib Ribbon, REZ or Gitaroo Man. Symphony is set to be one of those games that I just know I’m going to adore, as it takes your own music files from your computer (everything from MP3s to Ogg Vorbis files) and plays them in the background for a vertical shooter. The interesting thing here, however, is that the enemies you are shooting at will materialise from the music that is being played. The amount of enemies increases dependant on the tempo and amount of instruments of the song, and it looks like a large amount of fun. Also, as you destroy enemies they leave behind items that you collect to increase the size and firepower of your ship.

It’s definitely a game to keep an eye on, and you can follow the development on the Empty Clip Studios website here.

Mixmoff and Aevan kick it old-school this week as they talk Gay Tony, Ratchet and Clank, Modern Warfare 2, Dragon Age, Beaterator, Ninja Blade, and more. This show also features a special guest editorial segment by open casting call respondent Dr. Scares!

Looks like those who are lucky enough to own a copy of the sublime Borderlands will be getting treated to a vacation on The Zombie Island of Dr Ned on the 24th of this month. It will be available on PS3 and Xbox 360 for $10 (no word on the PC version or how much it will cost yet, much to my dismay).

As excited as I am for the DLC, I am wondering if this new fad for zombie-themed content is going to end any time soon. I know the sheer popularity of Left4Dead is most likely the cause for this, but guys, srsly, there is such as thing as too much.

Also, sorry about the radio silence here at Fall Damage over the weekend. It’s been very busy around here the past few days, what with my day job and the release of Dragon Age and Modern Warfare 2 (more on those soon).

If I do get a chance however, I may still post a belated entry over the weekend if I can get the group together.

I will also be starting an indie game spot over the next few days, so keep checking for an update!

Do you love Mass Effect as much as our Podcast Hosts do, but you haven’t had the finances to spare for the 20 dollar game?  Have no fear, mere mortals!!  This weekend Steam [who you all know I love, worship and generally hump when I can] is hacking the price in half just for all you special little snow flakes.  I know I’m snagging it up so I can have my own copy on my own computer instead of constantly having to share Cruz-Face’s.  You should too because there’s really no reason not to.  SO GO BUY IT, support steam, support Bioware…support the collective.

Requirements are minimal… you just need to have interesting things to say about video games, and you need access to Skype (which is free.) Additionally you need to be able to set aside up to 2 hours on a Wednesday evening (usually 6:30p to 8:30p CST) to record the show!

To apply to join the show, simply record a couple minutes of your thoughts on a recent game you’ve played, and email it to mixmoff@fall-damage.com!

Also if you look to the right sidebar you will find a new way to interact with the show! Call our Google Voice number and leave us a voicemail, and we’ll try to work it into the next show! Either call us at (209) 7-DAMAGE, or click the Google Voice widget in the sidebar and enter your phone number to be connected to the show’s mailbox!

Mixmoff Cruz and Goji are on tap this week to talk about Mass Effect, Torchlight, Super Robot Wars, and the terror of Video Game Movies. We also answer a listener question and announce the big Level 10 surprise!

Last night, I downloaded a copy of Torchlight, on the recommendation of a number of sources, most notably Penny Arcade and my girlfriend. I was expecting it be a fun little romp, a cute little hack-n-slash to keep me sated until moving on to bigger and better games. So I booted it up, figuring “oh, I’ll just play for a few minutes then go watch Mythbusters.”

“A few minutes” turned out to be 3 straight hours.

To say that this game is “addictive” is to understate the narcotic power of its lures. Games are often compared to crack cocaine in jest, but here it is not sufficient to describe the level to which it consumes your senses.

Torchlight is perhaps better described as the gaming equivalent of black-tar heroin: it dulls the senses to all but the euphoric daze felt as one scavenges through the corpses of foes, picking the choicest morsels from the fountains of loot that cascade from their bodies like grotesque pinatas. Your perception of time distorts, as minutes stretch into hours stretch into days and conceivably weeks, months, years… even when not riding the high of the experience, it dominates your thoughts. It consumes you, controls you, it makes you know you are a junkie from the moment that first hit begins to flow through your veins.

How does it accomplish such feats, even when games as classic as Diablo II have left me cold in the end? Attentiveness to the genre’s problems. Runic Games has even gone a good ways towards solving the major annoyance of the genre, namely that of having to leave loot behind.

Inventory space is no longer at a premium, since your pet has their own inventory you can use as a secondary pack. You can even send your pet back up the surface to sell the contents, letting you easily cherry-pick the good stuff and toss out the bad WITHOUT having to worry about missing out on a few extra gold from the junk pile. Not being forced to waste a town portal and time spent actually playing on dumping the vendor trash means this game is already far superior to Diablo II’s single player experience, and the pet is actually a damn useful and downright lovable sidekick, it’s strange transmutative reactions to fish notwithstanding.

Character growth is pretty basic, if you’ve ever played an action RPG or MMO ever you know what to expect. This was made by a bunch of the Diablo guys, so expect upgradeable stats and skill trees, though mercifully the skill trees in Torchlight are based entirely upon level, not a minimum number of points in a “prerequisite” ability. No wasting points on things you know you’ll never use.

Visually it’s a gorgeous game, with a luridly cartoonish and chunky style that manages to be charming without ripping off WoW too much, with a nifty steampunk aesthetic permeating the experience: I’ll just say my character is a sharpshooting black-haired bombshell who slings around an enchanted blunderbuss while wearing a red leather corset and leave it at that. Graphically-speaking, even with the settings turned all the way down for my clunker of a PC, it still manages to create some nifty looking particle effects and lightshows with minimal lag. And if your machine is a TOTAL piece of junk, there’s always the Netbook Mode option to save your virtual memory from choking on its own tears.

It’s a shockingly fun timewaster, and for $20 there’s not a whole lot of reasons you shouldn’t own this game. And with the demo easily available it’s no trouble to give it a try before you commit.

So don’t worry… after all, the first hit is free.

In the spirit of Video Game Blogs / Podcasts the world over, I thought I’d kick off the first ever Top Five List [Yet To Be Named] with my thoughts on the very best in video game music.  I am not talking the annoying little diddy’s that get stuck in your head for days, so people call them popular and add them to their sites.  That’s like saying Nickleback deserved to be number one based on sales because senile old grandmas bought the CD’s for their grandkids for Christmas.. much to the children’s dismay and inevitable suicide.  No, this list is songs that you remember because of how they made you feel when you listened to them and listening to them now… you remember that one moment in the game when you thought to yourself…  ‘my god.. this game is amazing.’

Fair Warning: Spoiler Alert [if you've lived under a rock.]

Number 5: FallOut 3 – Let’s Go Sunning

Stepping out into the world of the Wastelands, seeing nothing before you but ruins and the remains of what was once a great society, can only ever be absolutely punctuated by the soothing sounds of sweet jazz. An upbeat melody in a downtrodden world that sings to you soft words of a better time when people were living without their flesh rotting off their faces. It elicits a sensation of longing for that history, a desire for something better…and the ultimate realization that we’ve all completely fucked ourselves in the end.

Number Four: Legend of Dragoon “Requiem”

In the history of video games there will be several great deaths, and with those great deaths come great laments to remember our favorite characters by. Requiem is the Theme of Lavitz, one of the coolest and most bad ass friends your main character will ever make in a game. From the moment you meet him, you know that he’s far superior to anything you could ever hope to be, and simply basking in his glory is a gift from the high heavens. You also know that he’s destined to die, because your best friend always dies. Game Developers Hate You.

Number Three: FFVII Aeris OMGDEAD

Speaking of Characters Dying… I don’t think there is really anything I have to say about this one. We all remember the first time we played Final Fantasy VII, and we all remember that feeling we had when we realized all those accesories, weapons, and gil we gave to Aeris was gone into oblivion with the pointy end of a very large sword. We also remember the heart breaking feeling as her theme starts to play, and the materia makes it’s first depressing little ‘ting’ on the floor. This game teaches you never to love anyone, ever.. and it’s a good thing Cloud got the message or he wouldn’t have been nearly as emotastic as he was in Advent Children.

Number Two: Metal Gear Solid 2 ‘Main Theme’

Not a single person who has played through the entire Metal Gear Solid series, can listen to this song [in its various forms] without thinking of the triumph and challenge that you felt as you/Snake fought against Metal Gear, an evil twin, a tortured past and an all too quickly closing future. It makes you feel like you can always fight to see another day, regardless of how ancient and senile you’ve gotten over the years. Bullets will always fly, innocents will always be harmed, and there will always be heros that will be there to wage the battles through the passing decades for the ultimate right. War may have changed, but damn it all if this song doesn’t make you feel like simple things such as hope, honor and courage, have not.

Number One: Shadow of the Colossus ‘The Opened Way’

It is so very hard to pick just one song from this soundtrack, and I mean that with every fiber of my being. Every single song can pull a serious emotion from you as you remember the first time you battled the massive Colossi and came to the realization that you…not them… might be the bad guy. Peaceful and harmless creatures, though very large and intimidating, do nothing by exist until you come along with your sword and stab them to death. Did you question every moral lesson you were ever taught as you tried to reassure yourself that you were doing this for the right reason, that it was for the greater good.. or that they were monsters and didn’t deserve to live? Add that to the absolute Epic-ness of the battles themselves; how you tensed when you gripped onto their fur or a small ledge and hoped to all the higher powers that you didn’t fall eight thousand feet and have to climb all the way back up again. The victorious [and often regretful] feeling you got when they finally fell, crumbled and wasted away into a cloud of black mist? -That- is the reason this song gets the top spot. …but you’re still a horrible person for murdering all those cuddly Colossi. I am telling PETA on you.

I found this game on the internets roughly a year ago.  I was immediately entranced and drawn into the concept.  I watched the video.  I looked up the site.  I waited with baited breath and then…  …nothing.   Over a year later and no more word on when it will be released, if it will be released, how they are working on it… nada.  It’s sorely disappointing to see a game that has such an artisitc and inventive way of throwing you into an immersive world just vanish off the face of the earth. 

The Unfinished Swan is a first person …something? that throws the player in an all white or all black world. They are encouraged to throw paint around to reveal scenery, messages and clues on how to progress. Why more people haven’t heard of it, or why this game hasn’t caught on fire to the point of people begging for its release, who knows…

The last update to the games blog stated that the company has done all their hiring and all they have left to do is finish the game. That was in October of 2009, so I suppose there is a little bit of news on the gamefront.. but still!! The masses want more! …well, I mean me…

Check out the video and bask in the glory!

The Unfinished Swan – Tech Demo 9/2008 from Ian Dallas on Vimeo.

Just Remember Kids; The Ponty End of the Sword Goes Into The Other Man

Recently during a bit of a back and forth Question and Answer session, Miyamoto [the brains and awesome behind Nintendo] was asked some rather interesting inquiries regarding the future of the Wii’s motion controls and how ir will play into the next Zelda title.   Was that one long run on sentence?  Could be. 

This was his response…

“We’re implementing it so that players can feel like they themselves are holding the sword. In the previous Zelda (Twilight Princess) the targeting was based on the IR pointer. This time however, we’ll be using MotionPlus for a variety of more convenient targeting systems that will allow for more pleasant gameplay.”

Will this mean more slashy slashy instead of stabby stabby?  Can I spin around and see Link do the same thing while fantastically brandishing his shiny weapon?  I suppose it doesn’t really matter in the end how advanced they bring forth the technology of the Wii-mote.  Where one exists there will be ridiculous add-ons to attach and broken Tv Screens the world over.  [But now you'll really feel like you're IN THE GAME, when you shatter your parents precious flat screen.]

So the trailer for Disney/Bruckheimer’s Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time was released this week, and I have to admit I am completely taken aback at how genuinely appealing this looks for a licensed video game movie. Jordan Mechner himself is working on the movie, so it would be hard for them to make too many mistakes. It also looks as if they are going with an original concept based on ideas from the entire Sands of Time trilogy, which is fine in my books – it gives them less to completely screw up.

I’ll be watching this closely leading up to its release. Could this be the first ever Hollywood movie based on a video game that is actually good (and by good, I mean something that its source material could be proud to be associated with)?

If only I was this good at fighting games. Oh well, back to Eternal Fighter Zero for me.

Alas, poor Frankenbox, you served me well. You arrived broken, we fixed you; your drive malfunctioned, we replaced it; your fan got borked, we built a new housing out of washers. You were more machine now, than… uh, machine, twisted and evil. But at long last, the unutterably shitty firstgen Falcon chipset within you finally gave up the ghost once and for all. Considering I bought you for around $150 and you lasted for about three years, I honestly can’t say a bad word against you. Sleep now, my child… rest eternally.

So! The review is on standby: I’ve got a brand-spanking new 360 on the way with the shiny new Jasper chipset, which is reportedly free of all the unfortunate issues of the Falcon and Zephyr models. With luck, I’ll be able to put up my review over the weekend, and I apologize for the delay.

Trying to get into the PC gaming scene can be daunting. You’ve probably heard stories from friends about the latest great PC release on Steam, or how games like Left4Dead and Team Fortress 2 are far better on PC than their console counterparts, or maybe you’re just looking to get into the latest big MMO like Aion or a new expansion for World of Warcraft. The problem is when looking for a new PC that is going to be able to play these games well, you’re more than likely not going to have any idea where to start and it’s more than a little frustrating to end up spending over a thousand dollars on something that can barely even tolerate two year old games set to minimum graphical quality.

Hopefully, with this article I can help you find something that is going to help you get into this scene and play most PC titles at the maximum quality settings, for well under a thousand dollars. Full article after the cut.

So you may already have a PC that you use for gaming, though you’re sick of trying to slog your way through Fallout 3 on the lowest settings at a barely passable fifteen frames per second, or gearing up for an important raid with your guild in WoW’s latest instance, only to have to quit because the game has slowed down to an absolute crawl, displaying little more than a slideshow of things that may have happened more than five minutes ago. I’ve been in this boat too, I played through Doom 3 when it came out at five frames per second, barely enjoying the atmosphere of the game due to the fact that everything was juddering around at a snails pace. These days I peruse PC games in much the same way as I do console titles. No longer do I worry “Is my computer even going to run this?”, now it’s more of a case of  ”Which system would I enjoy this more on? Is the multiplayer going to be worth getting the PC gaming group I’m in involved? Can I use this with my 360 controller on my PC because 99% of the time, it’s going to look a hell of a lot better on the computer.”

The first thing you need to know is that for the most part, you absolutely, completely do not want a PC from a company like, Dell, HP/Compaq, Gateway, eMachines, Acer, etc. etc. You’ll end up paying way too much for a machine that will only barely play the games you want to play, if at all. These companies have more of a home media entertainment focus for their machines and they have very high profit margins on the systems they sell. These companies do make ‘gaming machines’, but they’re usually fairly low end and again, overly expensive.  The company I would recommend avoiding the most is, believe it or not, Alienware. Yes, Alienware machines will play anything you throw at them for at least a few years, but you are going to pay through the nose for a system that contains low quality parts that literally cost two thirds of the price they’re selling them to you for. Laptops are something else to avoid for the most part. Notebooks are great for everything except gaming. There are some respectably priced companies out there that sell great notebooks however, but they’re large, heavy and by default expensive (laptop parts aren’t cheap).

Another point of note this early on is if you feel adventurous enough to build, or if you feel safer having it built for you. To be completely honest, building a PC is far less difficult than say, putting together a piece of furniture from Ikea. Nothing can plug into where it shouldn’t go, almost everything is colour coded and again, nothing can plug into where it shouldn’t go. Heck, it’s easier than building something out of LEGO. But there are great choices for both building and pre-built systems. I’m not going to tell you how to build a system in this article, as that’s an extensive article for another time. Many resources are available online for building, and they’re really not that hard to find. If you aren’t interested in building, skip ahead to the last two paragraphs of the article for my pre-built recommendation.

If you’re looking to build, your best resource for parts is probably going to be a website like Newegg or Tiger Direct, both sites are very highly respected by parts buyers and they usually have the lowest prices you’re going to find out there. However, before you start rushing through a website buying the first part you come across, make sure you know what you’re going to need. Every computer is comprised of a few key elements – the case (which everything goes into) the motherboard, the CPU (Processor), RAM (memory), optical drive (disc drive), PSU (power supply), and hard drive. This being a gaming system, you’re also going to be shopping for a decent video card to put on that motherboard.

Now, let’s get some common preconceptions out of the way. You don’t need an i7. You don’t need more than four or six gigabytes of RAM. Anybody who tells you that you need this stuff is either an idiot, or in marketing. Hardware these days is FAR ahead of software in terms of power. The only case where you are going to need higher end hardware is with the video card, but you can still get away with a decent mid range card that will bring almost any game to its knees. Anyway, I digress. Let’s take a look at some ideas for parts for a decent low cost gaming system.

For the motherboard, there really isn’t much you need to know surprisingly. I would suggest going with an AMD motherboard (and consequentially, an AMD processor will come next) as they are less expensive than Intel, and you get more bang for your buck. Sure, Intel has the market on the higher end of the spectrum, but AMD have processors more than twice the power of Intels lower end for sometimes as low as half the price. So, for the motherboard I would recommend going with the Gigabyte MA785GM-US2H. That may be an awfully confusing name for some of you, but Gigabyte is a really nice brand – I use a Gigabyte board in my own home system, and that particular board will run any recent AMD processor you can throw at it. It also support up to eight gigabytes of RAM, but you really wouldn’t need that much for a long time. Not bad for $80.

Next, for the CPU, there are an awful lot of options, and there’s a couple things you do need to consider here. Since we’re going with AMD, you need to decide how much you’re willing to spend for price versus performance. The main decision is going to be between whether you want a triple or quad core processor. The amount of cores on a CPU is essentially multiple processors running at once – the more cores, the more different tasks on a computer can be distributed between them. As of right now, there are select few games that effectively use more than three cores, with some actually performing better with only three – although this probably won’t be the case for too much longer. So, if you want to save a little money and just go with a triple core processor for now – which is still a really good idea – you could pick up the AMD Phenom II X3 710 for$109, or the slightly faster Phenom II X3 720 for $119. If you want to go with a quad core, then I would recommend the Phenom II X4 940 for $165, and whilst a couple of high end options are available, there is really going to be no significant difference with the higher speeds at this point.

Memory is another simple decision. Although marketing strategies by a lot of the bigger hardware companies would have you believe that  you have to buy ‘eXtremE Super Awesome DDR OC Mega Cool Badass Edition’ memory, you really just need a couple sticks of cheap reliable memory. A brand I have been using for years and I have been very impressed with is Super Talent, they make really reliable memory and they carry a lifetime warranty. You can get a 4GB kit (two 2GB sticks) here for $90, and that should have you set for a good long time (there is absolutely no reason to go any higher than that for gaming purposes – at least 95% of the games in existence can only ever address 2GB of RAM for use).

Optical drive is all preference, and you can get a really cheap decent DVD burner anywhere these days, but here’s a nice one for $29. Can’t really go wrong there at all. It comes with Nero 8 Essentials burning software too.

Hard drives are all about preference. By this, I mean how much you are actually going to need a lot of storage. If you’re like me, you’ll easily fill a terabyte in a few weeks to a couple months with games and mods (my Steam folder itself is scarily huge – it has an entire 320GB hard drive dedicated to it). But, I will list a couple choices here. Seagate 500GB – $55. Seagate 1TB (1000GB) – $90. Also don’t buy into the whole ’10000RPM’ drive fad. They’re not worth the extra money and are more prone to failure.

The marketing for power supplies (or PSUs) makes me physically sick. There is honest to god absolutely NO reason why any person would need a 1000W power supply. The part of the system that is going to draw the most power is the video card, and I have seen systems running two of the more powerful cards on the market (nVidia GTX295s if you were wondering, which two of them is equivalent to four video cards) using a 650W PSU. For a system like we are looking at here, I would probably recommend a 550-600W PSU. Here’s a really nice 550W for $60.

The most daunting process in all of this is trying to find an effective video card that is going to be able to play the games you want to play, and play them as well as you want to be able to. A common misconception with people shopping for video cards is that the most important aspect of a card is how much memory the card has on it. Time and time again in my line of work I have seen people looking for at least a 1GB card, only to be upset at the poor performance of the card in practice. As an example, my old video card was an nVidia 8600GT with 256MB of memory. I tested another card I had – another 8600GT with 1GB of memory, and the 256MB card FAR outperformed the 1GB card. The most important aspects you need to look for are the ‘core clock’, and the ‘memory clock’ – the higher the better. Now, you may also see some lower end cards with higher clock speeds than more powerful cards, this is due to the fact that the more powerful cards also use what is known as ‘stream processors’. The way you need to look at this, is by thinking of these and individual cards all working together at once in parallel. This puts less stress on the card, essentially making it perform far more effectively. This may all seem like confusing jargon, but just look out for a good combination of clock speed and stream processors and you’ll find a decent card. The card I use in my system (which for any of you who watched my Borderlands live broadcast will understand still provided a fantastic framerate whilst broadcasting a live in-game video feed, which is extremely system intensive), is an nVidia GTX260 Core 216. You can find one here for $180 – a fantastic card for an extremely reasonable price. XFX also have a lifetime warranty on their cards too, as long as you register it on their website.

Alright, so we have the components for a really nice gaming system here for $550 on the low end, and $640 on the higher end. With a system identical to this, I am running games such as Red Faction Guerilla, Aion, Borderlands, Left4Dead 2, the newer Call of Duty games all flawlessly at the maximum quality settings. As I have said, you really don’t need to spend thousands of dollars for a great PC gaming experience. I’ll also let you in on a little secret – I haven’t upgraded this PC in around two years, except for the new video card earlier this year, so the other belief that you have to constantly upgrade to keep with the times is also defunct. You may also think that spending the money to upgrade the video card seems a little pricey, but you also have to understand that PC games are usually $10+ less expensive that console games, so a purchase of at least 18 games over the course of two years more than pays for the upgrade in how much you have saved versus console games.

Now, we are still not finished with building the system, there are still two more of the most important components. The first would be the case – the part that all of the components are fitted into.  I really can’t tell you what you need for a case as it all depends on how you want the system to look. The one important thing to keep in mind is to be careful what brands you end up choosing. I highly recommend Coolermaster and Thermaltake as their cases are usually visually appealing and extremely easy to work with, and Antec cases may look really nice but are extremely frustrating to work with. Also, don’t be fooled by marketing stating that you need additional cooling. I just use the stock fans that came with everything I use and I have never had an issue with overheating. The case I use, which I enjoy for its simplistic and professional design, great price and awesome air flow, is the Coolermaster Centurion 5 for $45. You can also get one with a window if you really want to, for $65.

And last but definitely not least, the operating system. To be able to play all these games, you need something to run them in. You can pick up Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium for $107. Far less expensive than any version of Windows has been in the past, and I can vouch that all of these games work in Win7 (and an extensive back catalog going back as far as at the very least the original Fallout from 1997), as it’s what I happen to be using. If you have a copy of Windows that hasn’t been used on any other system, or if you have a multi-system license you can use those, but I strongly suggest using either Windows Vista or Windows 7 for DirectX 10 and (soon) DirectX11 compatibility. You also don’t need anything more than Home Premium for a gaming system, unless you are a business or large corporation that requires better back-end networking infrastructure features, remote desktop protocols or a UNIX application backend. I’ll give you a hint: you don’t need any of these things.

So, right now, with the entire computer, case and Windows we are at $702 on the low end, and $812 on the high end. A fantastic price for a snappy home computer system, media center, and fantastic gaming system that should carry you for at least the next five years with only a small upgrade here and there. I’ll leave the little extras to your own decisions, but remember to try not to overspend on the unnecessary. For instance, my mouse cost me $20 and my keyboard cost even less than that.

Now, for buying pre-built systems, Newegg still has some great deals on what you can buy. This particular system here, whilst not as good at least in the graphics department of the system we were looking at building, takes away the work of doing it yourself for about $760. The parts used in the system are generally of a little lower quality than what you can buy separately (just as the parts used in systems from big name companies are, I would actually wager the parts used in CyberPower’s systems are definitely higher quality than those), and the performance is definitely going to be lower than what you can get out of a custom build, but it is still a much better decision than paying through the nose through places such as Dell/HP/Acer etc. for systems that are not intended for gaming.

So there you have it! I hope this article has been informative, and I would love to know if anybody ends up going with a system based on my recommendations.

By day, DestinedCruz works in PC service and repair for a local business, and builds many systems a week for everything from large local businesses, to people just like you looking to play the latest and greatest games. If you have any questions, drop him an e-mail at the address in the side panel on the right hand side.

It seems as if one of my biggest hopes in gaming is about to be fulfilled, as a new teaser site has appeared. If you dig around enough on the page, you will eventually be linked to the trailer posted here.

American McGee’s Alice was one of the most unique and well made games of the past decade, and I can’t wait to see what McGee has in store for us for a sequel.

Let’s just hope he’s actually working on this one, and avoid the Scrapland fiasco (in which American McGee didn’t design or create anything to do with the game, yet his name was used to help generate hype for the game).

Arc The Lad: Twilight of Spirits PS2
Army of 2 360
Brave Fencer Musashi PSX
Dark Cloud PS2
Dark Cloud 2 PS2
DOA 2 PS2
Fear Effect 2 PSx
Heart of Darkness PSX
Infinite Undiscovery 360
Jak 2 PS2
Jak 3 PS2
Kingdom Hearts 2 PS2
La Pucelle Tactics PS2
Phantom Dust Xbox
Resident Evil 5 360
Resident Evil Code Veronica X PS2
Resident Evil Directors Cut PSX
Shadow Hearts PS2
Silent Hill 2: Restless Dreams Xbox
Summoner PS2
The nightmare of Druaga: Fushigino Dungeon PS2
Xenosaga PS2

Done? Good.

I’ve often wondered when, exactly, gaming culture became like this. Goodness knows when I was a kid, my school friends and I didn’t hang out on the playground with our Gameboys talking about “noob pussies” or engaging in macho back-patting. At worst we’d accuse someone of scrubbing with Sagat in Street Fighter 2, and that was a serious point of offense, not a requirement for entry. We damn sure didn’t sling around sexual or racial slurs; hell, we took turns playing Super Mario Land. What were we going to do, call Mario a dago fairy?

The whole thing’s galling, particularly to… well, someone like me. I’m not going to make this a blog about my issues or anything, but as someone who is MtF transgender, a lesbian, and takes pride in being at least mildly classy about her hobbies, it still shocks me how stunningly dumb advertising and marketing seems to think my primary entertainment demographic is. Newsflash: girls and gay people play Halo too, idiots. In your rush to cater to a group whose business you’ll have anyway just by virtue of producing games what have shooting in them, you’re pissing off a rather large chunk of people who might otherwise have given you money.

As a sidenote, I will be rather annoyed if Dragon Age doesn’t have any gay romance options. C’mon, Bioware, you’re on a good streak with Mass Effect. Keep it going and give the gay guys something, too, in the interest of equal time.

I told myself that this week I wouldn’t do yet another mod that involved zombies, demons, or anything in the same vein…

Damnit.

In my defense however, it IS Halloween, so I guess one more mod featuring zombies would be keeping in the spirit of things. And hey, this one also features fabulously dressed cowboys. So juice up the truck, grab some ammo, load up the booze and let’s kill some zombies! Western style.

Shotgun Sunrise is – again – a survival modification for Half Life 2, but this particular mod really plays like no other I have found. Taking place on one map – an Old West style town that has been overrun by zombies, two teams of players must complete a set of objectives to successfully escape.

Upon first connecting to a server, you are given a small menu to choose your ‘class’ of cowboy, essentially just choosing which of three weapons you would prefer to use out of a Winchester rifle, a pump-action shotgun or a double barrel shotgun. This also determines what kind of fabulous clothing your cowboy will be wearing. They also get hats.

The two teams in the game are comprised of Survivors – players who are trapped in the town with only a six-shooter and a hatchet to defend themselves, and the Rescuers – players who have to drive their pick-up truck into town to rescue the survivors. Once Survivor players make it to a certain radius around the truck, they are switched to the Rescuer team and are given the weapon they chose at the beginning of the game. If a player on the Rescuer team dies they are moved back to the Survivor team. If a Survivor dies they have to wait a few second to respawn, and if all Survivors die during this time the game is over. I personally find this to be one of the biggest features of the mod that sets it apart from others that I have played. It is a Jailbreak-esque style of gameplay used in a very different setting.

The objectives you are required to complete are also outside of the norm from what you would expect from a survival based game – although quite frankly, they make complete sense and I don’t know why other games haven’t gone this way before. The objectives are based on a very simple premise – there are three things necessary in a zombie apocalypse. Plenty of ammunition, vast amounts of booze, and a vehicle to escape danger.

Once you have your fabulous, hat-wearing band of outlaws assembled, your first stop in the zombie-ridden town of Sunrise is the local gun store. Once you’re in there, head downstairs and you’ll find a precious crate stuffed with ammunition and Tommy Guns. However, since coming down the stars in this building causes them to collapse, you’re going to need to find another way out. A few sticks of dynamite later (and a few accidents discovering that they have a ridiculously short fuse time) to blow a hole into the wall hat lets you escape into the mines that run under the town – take a buddy with you by the way, as one of you is going to have to carry the crate whilst the other fends off the ravenous fast zombies that populate these caverns. The mines lead over to the far end of town, so have somebody run the truck over to the mine entrance so they can pick you up. Once the ammo crate is thrown onto the truck, the Rescuers can use the Tommy Guns to help fend off the shambling hordes of the undead.

Alright, now we’ve got some ammo, it’s time to find the booze! Drive the truck over to the distillery on the other side of town (then have a few more accidents with dynamite attempting to blow the doors open) and make your way into the Booze Vault where you will be greeted with a very extravagant display of a giant barrel of booze descending from the heavens (well, an elevator at the top of the room, but we can dream). Then it’s time to set up the keg to dispense the alcohol from the truck, which can be used to heal yourself if you need to.

Alright, now we have the booze, it’s time to blow town! Let’s ri-oh, wait. The truck is now so overloaded with guns and beer, that it doesn’t have enough power to get itself moving. Now it’s time to trek across town to the Shotgun Electrocombobulatory Power Facilitron to get a big-ass generator to hook up to the truck. Once this generator is hooked up to the truck with some hardcore do-it-yourself wiring, it’s ow time to blow town! Drive that truck through the town gates and park it in the back of the Last Train Out of Town and let’s get out of here! YEEEEEEEEEEEE-HAW!

The zombies in Shotgun Sunrise are fairly standard, slow-moving affair cut-and-pasted from Half Life 2, just minus the headcrabs and given Western-y cl0thing. The development team are working on new zombie abominations to add to the game, such as the F***ing Hardcore Evil Zombie Bull, the Zombie Plant, Zombie Spider, and Zombot (or Zombie Fruit F***er Prime). It’ll be interesting to how these work in future releases, as the lack of variation or challenge form the zombies can cause you to just end up ignoring them after a while.

The town of Shotgun is very well made, with some obviously good talent behind the mapping for this mod, with a lot of little nooks and crannies that look like special care and attention was put into creating them. It’s also huge, which is no easy task for creating a Source engine map and keeping things running smoothly. There are some missing textures in a few places, most noticeable of which is in the Booze Vault, which has garish reflective bright pink walls (the missing texture colour for Source engine games). I’m sure in near future releases this will be taken care of.

The real fun of this mod, however, is on my next point. The truck, which an absolute blast to drive around the town. Games of Shotgun Sunrise will almost always end up with players spending at the very least half an hour burning around the town, boosting up the sides of hills and trying to fly off of the makeshift ramps they can find around the city. It is also very important to sound the horn whilst doing this, a sort of ritual every time you manage to get the truck to take off. There is also a huge jump before getting to the train that in every game I’ve played, we at least spend ten minutes or so seeing what kind of crazy stunts we can pull off.

In its current state, Shotgun Sunrise isn’t any more than an hour or two of fun, but you’ll have an absolute blast during this time. The design direction for the mod is also worthy of applause, as Impromptu Games obviously have a great sense of humour, and their ideas for the mod are some of the most fresh and original I have seen in a while. It is also just possible that they also have epic dress sense.

I highly recommend giving Shotgun Sunrise a download, and grabbing a few friends to join you in a quick blast through the Old Western Zombie Apocalypse Town of Shotgun. Also don’t forget your fabulous clothing. You can grab the mod from the ModDB page here.

I understand that this was a fairly short article this week, but Borderlands managed to eat up almost all of my time. I also promise that next week, the mod will have nothing at all to do with zombies! I’m thinking something more… vehicular.

UPDATE: It seems we’ve heard of the head of Impromptu Games, LaCabra before. Apparently he was the guy who had Gabe Newell fly out to Australialand to show him Left4Dead 2 and why the boycott was nothing but paranoid fear and silly doubts. Coincidentally, I completely agree that Left4Dead 2 is so vastly different from the original after playing the demo, they’re two very different games that pretty much run parallel to each other, but I digress. Just thought this was some interesting news worth sharing!

Take last night for instance, my group and I decided to jump on Team Fortress 2 to get the new achievements and hats for the Halloween Event that Valve have running over the weekend. We jumped around a few server until we found one we liked. I am still finding it hard to believe who I met playing on the server before I got there.

Charles Wenzel.

For those who may not remember or know, Charles Wenzel is the guy who made zm_actualtetris – the map I reviewed for last weeks Thank Mods It’s Friday!

Much laughter and geeking out later, I now have a new Steam friend. It’s a small world we game in.

Mixmoff and Aevan are joined by a special guest this week, blog author DestinedCruz! Discussion of Left4Dead 2, Borderlands, Small Worlds, and MAG (thanks for the beta key NavalHawk75!) We also answer a listener question and run down the big games still to come this year!

This video was uploaded to the Youtubez back in the year 2007, but it doesn’t change how absolutely ownage the sniper is.  I can only imagine the level of focus and concentration needed to keep a hand that steady in order to make shots that fast.  The amount of training [see: lack of anything better to do than play TF2] must have been absolutely off the charts.  I envy you, Mr. Sniper and for that… you make me feel inadequate.

Music – SOJA – Dub Atmosphere

“My faith in the gaming industry has officially been destroyed. Fuck the industry, and fuck the indie knockoffs that think they’re producing art. Video games aren’t even close to being ‘art’ until someone can prove to me that they can outdo movies, images and novels.”

That was a comment sourced from an artists journal on [SITE REDACTED]. It was in response to dissatisfaction with Bioshock’s ending, a disappointment I share. But the writer goes on to condemn games as an entire MEDIUM over this slight, and that… well…

I would first like to note that if the ending of Bioshock destroyed your faith in the gaming industry, you pretty clearly didn’t have any to begin with. But moving on… this vexes me, because it’s the kind of attitude that gaming fans have had to deal with for awhile. “It isn’t art because it’s not like a movie or a book!” Well… of COURSE it’s not like a movie or a book, you fucking idiot. It’s a GAME. And the notion that any medium has to “outdo” any other medium to attain legitimacy is, flatly, bullshit. Also, I love that the person in question cited “1980′s movies” as something better to do than games. Yeah, because Sixteen Candles has sooooo much narrative depth, as compared to brainless schlock like System Shock 2.

Do you know when games are at their most artistic? When they’re just being games. The whole stumbling point of the industry is neglecting the gameplay in favor of “art,” to the detriment of both. Take Killer7, for example. At least in my humble opinion, it falls flat as a game, and even flatter as art, coming across as a nonsensical, ludicrous mishmash of badly shoehorned-in design elements. Why? Because it tries to be something it isn’t, and as a result it’s not good at either.

Compare something like… Eternal Darkness. It used the elements of the game world to fuck with the player: the environment going wonky, statues turning to face you, even faked system errors. It told it’s story by using the gameplay to create an oppressive sense of wrongness about the whole experience, it made you question every single thing you bumped into. Does that not qualify as “art”?

Or going beyond that, take the simple, flawless joy of a game like Super Mario World. The satisfaction of it comes in just being in the moment, in negotiating the platforms through learned skill, in play. It doesn’t attempt to drag in a hundred disparate elements to cater to some silly notion of legitimacy, it simply IS. And it’s damn near perfect.

Saying a game has to outdo books and movies is ludicrous, because if they’re trying to be those things they’ve failed from the start. If you go to a Chinese restaurant and spaz out when you find they don’t serve pizza, your disappointment isn’t the fault of the restaurant. And you should probably reevaluate why you went out to dinner in the first place.

Games don’t need to outdo books or movies. Games are games, and there is art and beauty just in that.

At Nintendo’s press conference in Tokyo today, they announced a new handheld to be sold alongside the DSi – the DSi LL.

The DSi LL has a larger screen – 4.2 inches over the original 3.2 inch screen – which essentially almost doubles the viewable screen area of the DSi. Nintendo are gearing this new version of the DSi for customers who are looking to use the system for web browsing or media, as the larger screen area means larger fonts can be used for webpages and the like. However, the resolution has not changed form the original DSi, so this size increase doesn’t necessarily make things look any better, but it would definitely make things easier to see!

Personally, I think it’s time I started looking into picking up a DSi finally. I think I’d really enjoy that larger screen as my eyes get tired easily with my DS Lite’s tiny images.

1) As I mentione before, it didn’t run the entire time because one guy got sleepy.

2) From what I can see from our progress, at level 30 and playing for something like 15 hours, we are nowhere near close to finished with the game. It is far more huge than I even slightly imagined.

I’ll be talking more about this with Mix at the end of the week, so be sure to check back and listen to the update this weekend!

My journey around the internets brought this little marvel to my attention.  Considering the timing needed to kick a ball, let it travel, and still hit the mark dead on at the right pace… I’d say these chaps aren’t half bad.  Of course, by half-bad I mean, better at life than I will ever be. 

Have you seen anything in the world that boggles your brain?  Let us know by clicking our names over there —>.  [or send us an email the non-lazy way via theshow@fall-damage.com .   Pretty sure that's the right email address....]

So, the Borderlands action isn’t going the full time as planned, as one of the guys bailed for being ‘too tired’, and will be back later on in the day. I’ll be back in the action at around midday!

So, Borderlands is officially out on PC today. What am I doing to celebrate? Well, let me tell you…

As some of you may know, and most of you do not, I will be spending tomorrow starting at around 6-7pm CST and then at the very least the next 24 hours following that playing Borderlands LAN’d with three friends in the town I live in. In this time, we hope to at least make it through the main storyline and spend a lot of it exploring, finding random loot and generally making the most out of what appears to be the most Dangerously Addictive Game Of The Year. It will also give me more than enough information with which to discuss the game with Mix later on this week.

I also plan to have a live broadcast showcasing the event, providing Xfire devs have updated their software to accommodate. I may also be broadcasting the Left 4 Dead 2 demo earlier on in the day tomorrow (probably sometime after 1pm CST up until we start on Borderlands) based on the same criteria. Stay tuned folks!

One more quest. One more gun locker. One more shop update.

“One more” never really means “one more” on the world of Pandora, a world where every nook and cranny might hide something amazing.

If Borderlands has managed to prove anything, it’s that Gearbox understands how to build a loot system. They lure you in with the promise of millions of randomly generated weapons, and they snap the trap close the first time you open a gun locker and find something truly rare. Maybe you snagged a pistol that sets enemies aflame. Maybe it was a shield that sets off a shock burst when depleted. Whatever the prize, you’ve unwittingly entered the REAL game of Borderlands… and your life is no longer your own.

This isn’t to say Borderlands doesn’t have a solid main quest or interesting NPC’s. In its own right, the game is chock full of characters that make it a giggle-filled experience and “kill this guy, flip this switch” quests we’ve all grown to know and tolerate. But Gearbox has built a game around the randomized gun tables, and that’s where the true danger lies. Every enemy has the potential to drop the next best gun ever. Every building has the potential of holding a gun locker, which you’ll soon be able to spot from 500 yards away. You’ll find yourself pulled deeper into farming this world for its loot, which is wildly appropriate given the motivations of the game’s heroes: locate and plunder the mythic Vault of Pandora.

The game is not technically perfect. There are occasional slowdowns in 4 player co-op, and occasionally quest markers don’t populate correctly. The game could also benefit from an integrated trade mechanic as in Diablo. Currently you can’t show off your weapon stats without dropping them on the ground for anyone to snag, and trading relies on the honor system. But Borderlands is still my dark horse candidate for GOTY simply because it is the most fun, most addicting, most enthralling game I’ve played in years.

This Thursday on the Fall Damage podcast, we’ll round-table on what exactly makes Borderlands such a treat. This article is just the tip of the iceberg, so make sure and tune in for the full…. iceberg.

As I write this, I wonder what I could be finding if I was playing right now. Are my friends online farming Sledge’s Safe House right now? Next time we play, will they be using weapons that significantly outperform mine? Maybe I have time for just one quest….

Sometimes the best mods are mods of mods that already exist… mods….

Do you like puzzle games? Do you like survival themed games? Do you love guns? Do you love crowbars? Do you love squashing your friends beneath giant stone blocks to the sound of Russian folk music? Then this particular map for the Half Life 2 mod Zombie Master, which is essentially a mod for Zombie Master itself may be just the bout of insanity you are looking for! Whilst today’s feature may be short and sweet, it’s completely worth the subject matter. Full write-up after the cut.

Zombie Master is a survival horror modification for Half Life 2, in which one player it designated the ‘Zombie Master’, and must spawn zombies in on objective based maps for a team of survivor players to deal with and hold out against until they reach the end of the map. In today’s feature, I will not be talking about any of this, except maybe the survivors. I’ll leave a full write up of Zombie Master for another time, but for now I am going to take some time to talk about a specific map for Zombie Master that changes the way the game plays significantly, and always provides absolutely hilarious results. That specific map is known as zm_actualtetris, or to my friends and I ‘Zombie Master Tetris’ (creative, I know), with the zombies that the Zombie Master usually spawns in being replaced by giant stone blocks in the shape of the famous puzzle bricks we all know and love.

For the survivor team, play begins on a small stone platform, looking out toward a transparent walkway that stretches off into the distance. A turn to the left reveals four crates containing pistols, ammunition and crowbars for you and your team mates. There is also a melon. Once you and your team have prepared for the arduous task ahead, you must venture out onto the walkway, and I strongly advise looking up, because it is very possible that a giant blue S-shaped block may be hurtling toward you at great speed.

For the Zombie Tetris Master, you will begin staring at a giant wall of glowing orbs with a vertical line of Tetris blocks floating next to them. Each of the orbs on this ‘wall’ are what you must click on in order to drop a block on the unsuspecting survivors below. Vertical orientation decides the style of block that will be dropped, and horizontal orientation determines where the block will drop from. All of the blocks are stackable, and follow pretty realistic physics (using the Havok physics that the Source engine is coded with). The blocks also pass through the transparent walkways that the survivors traverse to make it through the stage, so to catch survivors with clever physics based traps you will have to stack them to reach higher areas. Bear in mind however, that the left and right sides of the map are ‘safe’ areas for the survivor team, with invisible walls that stop the blocks from reaching those sides. Each of the blocks also uses a certain number of resources from a counter that sits in the bottom left corner of the screen. You resources regenerate over time, and you get a fair amount back for successfully ‘eliminating’ (read: crushing) a survivor player. Be careful not to waste resources, as you can really screw yourself over later on if you don’t keep an eye on it.

The blocks available are as follows (with their resource costs):

-Square block, teal in colour. (100 resource)

-Lightning block, green in colour. (at least that’s what ‘d call it! It looks like a lightning bolt… 100 resource)

-T-block, grey in colour. (150 resource)

-S-block, blue in colour. (150 resource)

-The stupidly long and painfully cheap L-block, hot pink in colour. (200 resource, but oh so worth it when you need widespread crushing death)

You have to be very tactical in your decisions of which blocks you should use. It may seem like a great idea to just start throwing L-blocks down, but they will eat through your resources very quickly. An often used tactic of mine (which is never met with a particularly joyful response), is to pile up a line of T-blocks on the opposite side of the stage form the survivors, and then use a square block or S-block to bring the whole tower toppling down across the stage. Very effective, and gives you some nice debris to build on later if necessary.

The objective for the survivor team is to simply make it to the top of the stage, and then to the very end of the last walkway. As you work your way along each floor, you will come to a wall at the end that you must climb to reach the next level. There are four levels in all, and it is not going to be easy with all of those blocks blocking your path and/or hurtling straight down toward you. Luckily, the weapons you picked up at the beginning of the stage can be used to destroy the blocks to help clear a path if something is blocking your way. However, this can be a very dangerous thing, as randomly smashing a block that just happens to be in your path without paying attention to what may be above it may cause a fatal landslide of puzzling death to come crashing down on you and your friends, although this is usually met with uproarious bouts of laughter. Blocks always take the same amount of damage from the weapons – four hits from a crowbar or eleven pistol bullets is enough to remove a single block. A great tactic (that is more than certain to annoy the hell out of the Tetris Master) is to have one survivor stay at the bottom level and remove blocks as they fall so they do not pile up too high, which can effectively make travel less hazardous, and only a single player is needed to reach the end for the survivors to win. However, the fact that the stage is more open gives the Tetris Master an easier time in just hitting the survivors straight on with a falling block. Survivors camping in the spawn are generally met with a nasty surprise, as another orb will appear at around a minute in just above the spawn area. Clicking this orb (which costs 250 resource) will basically fill the spawn area with pure pain, causing the players standing around here to take damage over time until they either finally leave, or die.

The most fun from Zombie Master Tetris comes from games that end up with giant walls with piled blocks of varying different shapes, and single players trapped in a small pocket of this physics based hell trying to decide what block is ‘safe’ to remove next (even though it is usually never safe). I have experienced some of the most entertaining moments in gaming in spectator mode for this mod, watching as a single player is being so very careful to inch his way forwards without causing a giant collapse of stone destruction, only to be smashed in the back by a block that had been jarred loose from hitting another block recently falling on top of it.

As far as problems go with zm_actualtetris, there can be one or two annoying bugs that crop up from time to time. The physics every so often tend to misbehave and a block might land and stop perfectly stable at an impossible angle (like a square block standing on a corner), although it doesn’t happen all that much. Sometimes when survivors are picking up weapons at the beginning, it can be possible to ‘accidentally’ pick up two crowbars, which can be an issue with a lot of players and one person ends up without one. There are also never enough pistol bullets to go around for everybody.

Graphically, the map really isn’t all that great. The textures used for the walkways and walls is the mattress texture from Half Life 2, although the blocks are textures exactly as you would expect giant stone Tetris blocks to be textured. And could it hurt to just put ladders on these climbable mattress walls? There isn’t really much to complain about however, the visuals are completely simple just to keep the game as simple as it needs to be. People running away from giant falling Tetris blocks doesn’t need normal mapping or high polygon models. The music really gets you in the mood to play some Tetris, but the famous theme can get grating after a while.

In all, whilst Zombie Master Tetris may not be the kind of game you would play for weeks at a time, it can be great amounts of fun to grab a few friends and play for a night ever so often. It is pretty much the only way I myself even play Zombie Master at all these days, as I find this alone the best thing about the entire mod (which is why I chose this to talk about specifically). The group I play with will spend a night or two once every couple of months just playing zm_actualtetris (usually to Aevan’s dismay, as I will be laughing and yelling fairly loud), and it has become one of staple games for the whole group. So go grab the mod and the map and give it a try!

Again, you can grab Zombie Master here, and zm_actualtetris4 here (thanks to DraconicDon for quickly hosting the map on FileFront for me at such short notice, the old FileFront link for it was broken).

Also, once I get home this evening I’ll have another gameplay video for you folks to watch, but I don’t have access to those at work, sadly.

BossGoji is back from his party in space to join Mixmoff and Aevan as they discuss Borderlands, Brutal Legend, Saints Row 2, and bring back Level Builder: Open Worlds.

*Apologies for the occasional static noise in the first few minutes, we had a minor mic issue. It rights itself fairly quickly!

It has recently been brought to my attention (that and Aevan beat me to it last night, but I’m taking all the credit!) that mod-turned-retail mutant/zombie/cyborg smasher slaughtering co-operative survival horror first person shooter Killing Floor is going free for this weekend only! Now hang on a moment, before you think this is positively the best deal ever, this means that you can play the game for free this weekend starting tomorrow through the rest of the weekend. After this period is over, you have to go buy the game (which I highly recommend, it is quite good).

This free weekend deal is coinciding with the new downloadable content for the game, which includes three new maps and seven new weapons, marking this as the largest expansion yet for the co-operative survival horror game. Better yet, you also get to play this new content over the weekend!

So grab five friends, a shotgun and a bag of grenades and get ready to weld those doors shut!

Killing Floor (Steam Store page)

PS3 users from all over are experiencing several game-breaking issues including their friends not showing up in the in-game friends list, 30 minute freezes when opening the online public game list, and lag-filled experiences if they do manage to connect. In this author’s experience, my in-game friends list consists of only 1 person, someone I unfriended months ago.

Considering the game is being sold on the promise of a seamless drop-in/drop-out co-op experience, this kind of lack of thorough QA is hard for PS3 users to accept, and they are responding quite vocally on the Gearbox Forums. Gearbox did not respond when asked for a timeline on the patch they are no doubt scrambling to compile.

Update from Gearbox:

Scott Velasquez (a Gearbox Software Engineer) has posted the following in the Gearbox Community thread on this issue:

Update on the North American PS3 Friends Interface issue:

We’ve identified the problem and are working on a fix.
Believe it or not, the friends feature was heavily tested by Gearbox and 2K. However, this particular issue we found could have never manifested itself in our or 2K’s test environments.

We’ll find out very soon if the issue exists for the PS3 International versions of the Borderlands. If it does, we’ll hopefully have a fix implemented before it affects those customers.

We are doing everything we can to get this problem addressed as quickly as possible. Thanks to everybody who provided us with tons of information.

Update 2:
Fix’d!

Gearbox has worked very quickly with its partners to identify and resolve the issue users have been reporting with the PS3 version of Borderlands relating to friends lists on PSN

We are very pleased to report that using PSN friends lists with the game should now work properly for all PS3 customers. The fix has been released invisibly and should work automatically for all PSN users on the PS3 platform. No special action is required by PS3 customers to apply the fix – just play the game and you’ll find that everything works fine now. We thank you all for your patience and for making us aware of the issue!

So PS3 Informer (don’t click that you’ll just encourage them!) posted their one-word review of Uncharted 2, which was simply “QTE”.

Now we here at Fall Damage have been longstanding opponents of Quick Time Events (note that’s 3 words ) in all their trappings. However to say this is in any way shape or form a major factor in Uncharted 2 is stretching the truth. This author can only remember 2 or 3 encounters that required QTE’s of any kind. And even these were the most forgivable types of QTE’s imaginable.

We’re not talking about segments where a single timed button press causes you to tear an opponent’s head off and mail it to his family. The segments in question feature situations where Drake is either thrown to the ground or grabbed and lifted from his feet. In either instance, hitting the prompted button (square) causes Drake to punch his opponent. This only makes sense, because you’ll have been using square to punch consistently throughout the game.

It’s less of a QTE, and more a reminder that you still have the ability to interact in a very cinematic scripted sequence.

This game deserves a lot more than a one-word review.. but we’d have simply gone with “Perfect.”

So, now that Borderlands is officially out on consoles as of today (read: I get shafted until next week), it would be a fitting time to show you exactly why you need to buy ‘the best f***ing game ever made’.

IGN in collaboration with Gearbox created this wonderful (and badass) reason to buy the game. I think it gets the point across fairly well.

SPOILER ALERT! If you are planning on playing the Fallout 3 DLC The Pitt at all, or do not want to have anything about it spoiled for you, DO NOT READ THIS NEXT SEGMENT. SPOILER ALERT!

This weekend, as any of you who watched my live stream know, I played through Fallout 3′s DLC The Pitt, in which you follow a transmission from a group of slaves in jeopardy somewhere in the city of Pittsburgh. The DLC was surprisingly good for an inexpensive expansion, but I’ll save that discussion for another time. My concern with The Pitt was with the morality choice you are given at the end of the DLC.

The basic story of The Pitt goes like this: You receive a distress call from the people of the former town of Pittsburgh with a sob story of people being kept as slaves and forced to work the steel mill, and a horrible plague is turning people into monsters. Your job is to infiltrate their ranks, work your way up the food chain to the head of the Raider operation there and steal the cure so the people can be freed. Simple right? Steal the cure, fight the raiders, free the slaves. Evil is punished, good job. Or you join the raiders and become an icon of oppression that all other raiders and slavers can look up to. However, the option you are given is nowhere near as black and white as one would assume.

After working your way up to an audience with Ashur, the ‘Lord of the Pitt’ and hearing the slaves side of the story, he informs you that the man who called you for help has not been telling the whole truth and wants you to kill him. Ashur then runs off to take care of some rioting that starts up, and you’re left to take a look around. Upon further inspection of the area you can get into Ashurs safe and fine some audio logs apparently left for his daughter once she has grown up. These logs reveal a story of how Ashur found the city in ruin, with carnivorous beasts and cannibals running amok. He talks of finding a working steel mill in the city, and how he needed workers to work in the mill so the city could have a bright future in devlopment – a ‘chance to build something new in a world of leftovers’. He mentions how the disease here tends to leave people sterile, so once the current generation dies off, so he had to seek outside help for recruitment, stating ‘by force if necessary’ (so yeah, he’s kidnapping people as slaves, which is a bad thing).

Later in these audio logs, he speaks of his daughter ‘being the cure’ for this disease, her holding a natural immunity from this horrible affliction. Wander this area a little more, and you’ll meet Ashur’s wife – a very nice lady who wants you to meet her baby girl. After hearing everything the lady has to say about the baby, how they are looking for a way to share the cure with everybody in The Pitt, and how she is taking great care not to harm the child, I am left with a decision: Do I kidnap the baby to give the slaves the ‘cure’ they are clamouring for along with something they can ransom for they freedom, or let the baby be so Ashur’s wife can develop a cure for everybody and bring with it the prospect of rebuilding civilisation and a future with no more need for slavery? My personal feelings of what would be the better moral decision in the long run – if not instantly gratifying – is to let things be as they are. The future of The Pitt is actually extremely bright with this cure laying here, waiting to be shares with everybody.

If you thought the same as I did, you would be wrong.

Leaving the baby in her crib and not kidnapping her is apparently the bad moral choice. As soon as you leave without the baby, every slae in the area is instantly hostile to you, trying to carve you up with their foul axe buzzsaws, and defending yourself leads to loss of karma. Handing this child over to the slaves as a bargaining chip so they can turn out/fight/kill the raiders effectively is apparently the right thing to do. I don’t care how much of it seemed horrible and wrong to begin with, but if the future of this place is for Pittsburgh to be rebuilt and turned into a bastion of hope for this harsh wasteland, it looks like you’re going to have to break a few eggs to make the perfect omelette.

This frustrated the hell out of me, as the incredibly deep woven plot surrounding all of this turned out to be an absolute black and white choice in Bethesda’s morality system coded into Fallout 3. Instant gratification wins out against the prospect of a hope in a dying world. Since I don’t want that particular character to be any less than the epitome of good in the game, I reloaded a previous save and kidnapped the child, causing me to have to kill Ashur and his very nice lady of a wife in the end.

So screw you, Bethesda. As much as I love what you have done with Fallout 3, and as much as The Pitt was an otherwise amazing expansion to this awesome game, I can’t help but feel you just earned Evil Points on my morality system. Let’s hope things are a little more clearly defined for choices in Broken Steel when I start that next, or if you have attempted another deep choice to make there is something a little more than just right or wrong.

More Vesperia? YES PLEASE!

During a developer discussion held by Namco Bandai, the question was asked “Will you be making a Vesperia 2?” The general manager’s reply, quite simple and yet so vague. “It appears that [within the company] there’s a desire to make part 2. We’re thinking about it.”

Thinking about it? Come on. Do you have any idea the amount of bank that you will get if you go through with this? Tales of Vesperia was [without a doubt] the best game in the Tales of.. line. Yes, that is even taking into account Tales of Symphonia which follows at its heels in a very very close second. Bring back Yuri Lowell! Bring back Flynn Scifo!

Of course, if you’re right there with me..screaming at your screens in excitement over this possibility, prepare to wet yourself with this bit of news. Apparently, there is an animated film that prequals the game called Tales of Vesperia: First Strike. Is this the first I am hearing of it? Yes. Do I live under a rock? Possibly. It released in Japan October 3rd of 2009, but there is no word [not even a whisper] of an official US release.

This makes me sad inside, but that sadness is quickly dampened by the knowledge of how great the internet truly is.

Lately it’s been Mass Effect and the newer Fallout 3 DLCs. Check back periodically for this live broadcast to see what I’m up to. Click the ‘power’ button in the lower left hand corner to start the stream.

Why aren’t there more games where you play as the Predator?

Sure, there is the fantastic Aliens vs Predator games, and possibly a few other random games where you play as The Predator in some fashion, but I want to know why there are zero to none which just feature you as a single, invisible hunter, stalking your prey and then mercilessly offing them. It gives you a great feeling of superiority, knowing that they can just tell you’re nearby, ready to strike at any moment, but they never see that final moment coming. I’m sure many people feel the same about this, but there is even a surprising lack of mods that utilise this idea, and an even greater lack of them that do it well. The hilariously fun Half Life 2 mod, The Hidden: Source, is one such shining example of a mod that does it remarkably well. Full write-up after the cut.

There’s a small group of people I play PC games with. It’s what we do all the time, play games. I get home, get on Ventrilo and we decide what we’re going to do for the next few hours. Quite often, Aevan will jump on too. Be it Left4Dead, Team Fortress 2, Saints Row 2, Sacred, D&D Online, etc. etc. We play everything.  There isn’t much I do online that doesn’t involve this group, and we usually end up sticking to a couple games for about only a week or two before moving on to something else. However, one game we have gone back to time and time again is The Hidden.

The Hidden is a fairly simple concept. Two teams, the IRIS – a crack military squad trained in hunting down and intercepting escaped test subjects from Infinitum Research, and The Hidden – said escaped test subject from said research institute. The major difference between this and most team based game types however, is that the Hidden team is comprised of only one player, as opposed to the IRIS team which supports up to eight. Rounds are played out in standard team deathmatch fashion, with the team that eliminates the other declared the victor. This may sound like a completely unfair advantage in favour of IRIS, but you first need to know exactly what the Hidden is…

The official story for the mod on the website talks of genetic experiments through DNA manipulation on human test subjects in order to create the ‘perfect covert military agent’, most notably in the area of ‘Biologic Light Refraction’ – a process that could potentially render a human subject almost completely invisible. Along with their previous testing in increasing reflex time, improving strength and stamina et cetera, this makes for one deadly individual indeed. However, due to a ‘gross miscalculation’, something went horribly wrong and the most recent subject – codenamed ‘Subject 617′ – was left with severe synaptic trauma (massive headaches) and managed to escape from the facility, killing anyone in his way. The IRIS (Infinitum Research Interception Squad) team have now been dispatched to find Subject 617 and bring him in by any means necessary.

So, this leaves us with a person who is faster and stronger than the average human, has the ability to pounce large distances and can ‘cling’ to walls (though he cannot climb them), has the ability to see the ‘auras’ of nearby living beings, and is almost completely invisible. Light is refracted around 617′s body, so it is possible to barely make out a distortion effect around him, but he’s pretty damn hard to see. And now that we have his abilities covered, what tools does he have at his disposal for taking down his pursuers?

The Hidden has a total of two weapons he can use against the IRIS team – a knife and three grenades. Whilst this may not seem like much, these weapons are surprisingly effective. With the knife, 617 has two attacks. Primary fire is a simple slash that does a decent amount of damage (and also heals you slightly whenever you hit an IRIS player), and the secondary fire is a very satisfying instant kill attack known as the ‘pigstick’.  Now again, this could sound a little unfair or ‘broken’ – an invisible character being able to instantly kill other players – but one thing you need to know is this move has a little over a second for preparation once you use it. 617 pulls the knife back with both hands and plunges it forwards – which if it makes contact causes the body of the IRIS agent to explode in a shower of gore – and also makes a fairly loud growling sound, alerting anybody nearby to your presence. So unless you’re absolutely sure you can make a killing blow without being filled with lead the instant you attempt it, it is not always the best decision. It can be absolutely hilarious/terrifying if you are an IRIS player looking at a team mate, only to watch them explode sideways out of nowhere as a result of this attack. Although the explosions can be fairly amusing and effective with the pigstick, this does bring with it one major drawback. Subject 617 can use his primary knife attack to heal himself when it hits, as I have stated before, but this can also be used on the body of a dead opponent a few times to get a few small heals after they have died. While incredibly useful, this can only be used on bodies that are still intact, rendering exploded corpses useless. You can also carry bodies around and nail them to walls and ceilings using a combination of the pounce and pigstick, providing a hanging meal for the Hidden and a terrifying warning to the IRIS. Subject 617 can also pick up physics objects strewn throughout maps and launch them at opponents, making for a quick ranged attack that does a little damage.

The grenades also come with an element of strategy to them. Whilst a single grenade for the most part will not outright kill an opponent at full health, it will deal a very large amount of damage, leaving them with just enough life left to take one or two regular knife slashes. Grenades are also extremely effective for groups due to the obvious explosion radius this weapon produces – one particular moment recently when I was playing, the IRIS team were goofing around, standing on top of each other to form a ‘totem pole’. One grenade toss later I had scattered all of them and left all but one with next to no health left, resulting with a bout of laughter from all involved. The fact that you only have three grenades also means you have to be very careful with how you use them – using a grenade for a single IRIS member is usually considered an absolute waste when you could save it for a time when everybody is grouped together (which happens more often than you would think). The grenades also have a shell shock effect to them, causing player vision to blur and have their sound replaced by a high pitched inner-ear style ringing for a few seconds. This time can be used to take one or two out before they regain their senses.

I mentioned before that Subject 617 can cling to walls and ceilings, which is probably the absolute most useful ability in your arsenal as the Hidden. Almost every map is designed to put this ability to excellent use, with plenty of rafters, high ceilings and walls to hide on, waiting for your unsuspecting prey to walk beneath you. It is extremely satisfying to drop down behind a player that has no idea where you are and take them out in a single strike, leaving you to pounce back to the place you were hiding in. Quite often, IRIS players never think to look right above them in these situations and the surviving members will lunge into a paranoid bout of spraying gunfire in all directions around them hoping to catch you.

The last ability that Subject 617 has in his arsenal is the ‘Aura View’. With a press of a key, the Hiddens view switches to a negative colour effect for the area around him, and at first glance does not appear to be very useful at all (it in fact makes it much more difficult to see anything). However, the useful part of this ability is that it will show you the location of human players in the map, even if they are a few rooms away up to a certain amount of walls between you. This view also shows what state their health is currently in – dark green being full health, with colours changing progressively to dark red which means they are dangerously close to death. Coupled with the hiding ability from the pounce maneuver, this is extremely useful in planning out your attacks against your would-be captors. It is a tremendous amount of fun to play as the hidden, if a little daunting at first with all of this new movement available, and the sheer power available to you with the attacks you have coupled with the invisibility gives you a great feeling like you could take on the entire world. Though whilst subject 617 may be powerful and stealthy, he is also extremely fragile. A well placed shotgun blast to the head can take out the Hidden instantly for the most part, and he really can’t take that much damage form other weapons. Play the hunt right, however, and you can easily gain full control over your foes, manipulating them to your will until you have each one on their own and within your grasp.

It is also ridiculously fun to use the speech menu when playing to taunt IRIS players. The Hidden can say phrases such as “I’m heeeeere!” or whisper “Look up…” to add the feeling that the hunter is just playing with his prey before causing it to explode from a well placed stab to the back of the head.

So, it’s a blast to play as the Hidden, but what about the boring old marines? Not to worry, the team behind The Hidden: Source have done a fine job in making team IRIS fun and interesting to play. Whenever you join a server, instead of being assigned a faceless random character model to play as, you are given a list of IRIS members to choose from – each with their own names and back stories (I always pick Jamar Swope, if anybody was wondering). You then get to pick one of the two classes available out of assault (more weapons to choose from) or support specialist (can give other team members ammo and can carry more support items), and finally choose your weapon loadout – one primary weapon, a pistol and a support item.

The weapons available for IRIS for the most part are your standard shooter fare of assault rifle, sub machinegun, shotgun, pistols. However, there are some fun little additions for the rest of the equipment available. One of the most notable is a gun known as the ‘Less-Than-Lethal Launcher’ or ‘Very-Extravagant-Name for a Tranquiliser’. The gun does not do much damage right off the bat, at at first glance only appears to fire green paintballs, but if one of these paintballs makes contact, things turn into pure hell for Subject 617. His vision becomes blurred (even more so for every successive time you manage to peg him with one of these), and his health starts to deteriorate until the blur effects wear off. It also makes a very distinctive ‘pewff’ sound (not to be confused with pew-pew) every time it is fired, and believe me that sound will instill eternal hell bound fear into any Hidden player.

Aside from picking your weapon loadout, you are also able to pick one item from a list of additional equipment. The items are as follows;

-A flashlight, which obviously will illuminate dark areas, but for the most part is fairly useless.

-Night Vision Goggles, which enhance light in dark areas so you can see much more clearly. Much more useful than the flashlight.

-A laser aiming module which can be used on any weapon, so you can actually see where you will shoot (there is no crosshair). It also is pretty good at showing you if the Hidden is in front of you.

-A shot of adrenaline which makes you run crazy fast for about 30 seconds, your vision is blurred when you do this, but it can really get you out of a pinch at the most intense of moments.

-’Sonic Trip Alarms’, which look kind of like a laser trip mine, although they are supposed to show the Hidden on your radar if he passes through the beam.

These items are interesting and diverse enough to match anybody’s play style. For instance I love carrying the night vision goggles with me for the most part as I seem to be able to notice the hidden much easier whilst using them, whereas other people have a harder time when they are active. Most of the other guys I play with use the Laser Aiming Module top help them spot where the Hidden is when he move into their sights. I also tend to use the Sonic Trip Alarms for unintended uses, after you place them they become solid objects in the game world, so I use them as makeshift platforms to climb up to vantage points to camp and watch for Subject 617. More often than not it just gets me killed faster…

Teamplay is also a huge factor in this game, as you constantly have to be watching each others backs to make sure the Hidden doesn’t sneak up and catch one of you unawares. For the most part, it is always better to stay in groups as a single player on their own is an extremely easy target. You do need to be careful not to group up too close together though, as it most often fatal for most of the team if you are clustered together in what my group refers to as ‘Grenade Formation’. The team communication is well done, with in game voice chat, character speech binds and standard text chat all offered, and this can also add to the atmosphere of the game. If a player is killed off by the Hidden, they can no longer communicate with the rest of the IRIS members at all, so calls to see if a player is still alive after hearing something horrible will be met with radio silence and the gripping fear that you may now be all alone.

The maps in the hidden are a wonderful mix of executive buildings, rooftops, creepy underground laboratories, trainyards and even a derelict mansion. All of these maps have wonderful places for the Hidden to climb around and hide out to stalk his prey, and most of them just ooze atmosphere to provide some frightening settings for the human players. The map work is very well done, with a great combination of well done architecture and physics objects strewn throughout the maps, which reminds me that you should be on the lookout for the Xbox that is hidden in every stage. Nothing is more terrifying than turning the corner of a hallway and seeing a giant last generation Microsoft console flying toward your head.

With all this great fun in The Hidden: Source, I do have to bring up a couple of glaring issues I have with the mod. The most frustrating of which has become known in the group I play with as ‘Black Screen’. Usually after playing for a map or two, after the transition to the next level some sort of graphical hiccup will occur, and at any moment in gameplay where motion blur is supposed to be rendered (shell shock from a grenade, the effects of adrenaline or from the Less-Than-Lethal Launcher), the screen will just turn completely black. This has happened to me on all three of the systems I have played The Hidden: Source on, and it happens to everybody else I know that plays the game. It can really ruin the experience when you get hit by a grenade explosion, only to be completely and utterly blind for the next few seconds and have no idea where you are moving or aiming. It can be even worse for the Hidden, after getting hit with the tranquiliser and having his location completely exposed without knowing where to escape to. This can really ruin a game, and required closing and re-opening the game to fix it. I have also managed to fix it simply by starting to record a video in Xfire, but for those who don’t use Xfire this doesn’t really help. The other problem I have is that they haven’t freaking updated this mod in two years. The creator, Ging apparently has been working on the new version this entire time, but due to team members dropping out or other issues, not much progress has been made. It’s more of a selfish concern but I would like to see much more out of this mod.

In all, The Hidden: Source is a fantastically well done mod, and an absolutely hilarious time with a group of friends, and whilst the issues that it has can be extremely frustrating I do highly recommend the game – especially for play at a LAN party or with a group of friends you play a lot of games with online. I really wouldn’t know about the public experience, and I have never tried it on a public server, but I assume it would still be a great time with strangers!

And once again, for making it through my Holy Crap Wall of Text (Trademarked by Aevan), here’s a video of a typical Hidden round. Bear in mind Xfire’s encoder ruined my audio synch again by the end, and I get killed WITH A FREAKING PISTOL, but you do get to see the totem scattering I mentioned, and an Xbox!

Come for the witch transformations….. stay for the bazooka tonfas (at 0:34!)

Lurking the Steam store today has revealed a very exciting little piece of information, it seems as though Red Faction: Guerrilla is on sale for one day only THE WHOLE WEEKEND! Down from the regular price of $39.99, the latest game in the series is on sale for $29.99. I highly recommend picking this game up, as it was one of the best games I have played all year. Incredibly addictive full realistic physics based destruction which lets you destroy pretty much anything you can find, with buildings and other structured all breaking down and crumbling in very impressive detail. The story and characters may be extremely transparent and cliche, but who cares when it’s this much fun? Volition knew that when they were making this game, nobody is going to play it for the story. The multiplayer is also a fresh take on the standard shooter fare with deathmatch and capture the flag modes, but with fully destructible structures which add a whole new element of strategy.

Go get it now right here.

I absolutely, one hundred and twenty percent did not get this wrong and have to edit this news post after finding out this was a weekend deal. That is all.

Mixmoff and Aevan discuss Eternal Sonata, Uncharted 2, Dead Space, Bayonetta, and Sword of the New World. We also dive into some listener questions and work out the pronunciation of Aevan’s name!

A large part of my childhood just died.

Take one *sniff* step, and then again *sniff*
Come on, it’s time to go! Do the *sniff* Mario!

A sad day indeed. For those of you who may not know, Captain Lou Albano, aside form being some kind of famous WWE manager, he also charmed the hearts and souls of millions of children around the world by playing the part of Mario on the Super Mario Brothers Super Show!!

You shall be missed, Captain Lou.

Head over to their website today and for the next six days, and you can name your price for World of Goo. Yep, that’s right! You can offer to pay a penny, a hundred or even $7524.81, and World of Good can be yours! But really guys, let’s try not to be cheap here.

Looks like the website Xbox360Achievements.org has the new list of achievements online for Left4Dead 2, and it seems Valve have it down again for the amount of ludicrous stuff to do that you would usually never think of but provides hilarious results. The ones that especially grabbed my interest however, are ‘Sob Story – Navigate the sugar mill and reach the safe house without killing any witches’… does this mean part of one campaign is going to be full of Witches? Scary stuff. And the other is ‘CL0WND – Honk the noses of 10 clowns,’ which sounds justifiably epic. Head over there and check ‘em out.

Also, I want to prove that I’m stronger than Moustachio.

So you say you love the weekly Fall Damage podcast, but that’s just not enough podcasty goodness for you?

Well we hear your cries of despair and we are taking immediate action! This week we’re starting an occasional secondary podcast to run alongside the main one. Called “Burst Damage” podcasts, they will be significantly shorter than the main show and happen much more sporadically.

But the biggest departure is that Burst Damage podcasts will be done solo. One week you may hear me run down a full review of a game we just couldn’t fit in the main show. The next week maybe you’ll hear Aevan rant about micro-transactions or in-game stores. Think of it as DLC Bonus Content for the Fall Damage experience!

Expect to start seeing these bite-sized solo shows appear from week to week, right here on Fall Damage!

I just spent around an hour playing through a very cool little indie game entitled Star Guard. Harking back to a simpler time, when stories were simple and gargantuan space monsters were little more than a pile of red squares, Space Guard sees you having to guide a Space Man through The Castle to defeat The Wizard.

Head to the website here and check it out. It’s free, and will cost absolutely nothing.

This week is a special “All about Uncharted 2″ show, following Mixmoff’s attending of the Sony Uncharted 2 Special Screening event.

Mix, Aevan, and BossGoji talk extensively about the gameplay, characters, and development of Naughty Dog’s upcoming mega-blockbuster title.  There’s some interesting inside info you don’t want to miss!*

*Unless you don’t have a PS3 like Aevan and Goji

Speed kills coming down the mountain
Speed kills coming down the street
Speed kills with presence of mind and
Speed kills if you know what I mean
- “The People That We Love,” by Bush

I was not a Sonic fan.

Allow me to quantify this. The only Sega system I have ever owned was a Game Gear, though I’ve been lucky enough to live in a household that had a Dreamcast and have played it extensively. When I was growing up, I was a Nintendo kid: early on, the NES and SNES of my cousin Mark was bequeathed upon me following his death, beginning my lifelong obsession with all things gaming.

Even now, that SNES (though utterly nonfunctional from years of possibly abusive overuse) remains a treasured possession.  It currently occupies a space on one of the end-tables by my bed; a bizarre conversation piece serving as testament to my wasted youth.  But lacking the resources to have both the dominant systems of the era, I got dragged by circumstance into that first and most bitter of the console wars: Sega vs. Nintendo, Genesis vs. SNES, and perhaps most importantly, Sonic vs. Mario. While history paints the outcome as quite apparent, and perhaps inevitable given Sega’s constant fumbles(the abysmal Sega CD, the unjustly maligned Saturn, and the rightfully mourned Dreamcast), at the time it seemed a very real possibility that the Blue Blur would crush the world’s favorite Italian stereotype into the ground.

I never had an interest in checking to see if the grass really was greener on the other side. Despite my love of all things furry, Sonic simply didn’t seem interesting to my young mind. Hell, I didn’t even care that much about Mario, to be frank: I’ve never even owned a copy of Super Mario World. As far as I was concerned, Nintendo’s flagship character was(and to my mind, remains) Kirby. The console war was something I thought about only vaguely: my side had been picked by chance, and I was kind of okay with whatever happened as long as I got to keep playing. At some point in my teen years I picked up Sonic Adventure for my Gamecube and found it a fun diversion, but nothing warranting the hype: I simply couldn’t see why people cared about a hyperactive ground mammal with a bad dye-job.

Ironically, it would take one of the biggest disasters in console history to make me see why people cared about Sonic, and to make me care as well.

I could discuss the hype about the 2006 next-gen Sonic the Hedgehog game, but to do so would be pointless in the extreme.  I didn’t pay attention at the time, and I didn’t care.  Rather, let’s talk about “Let’s Plays”.

In spring of 2008, a team of Something Awful forum goons (pokecapn, medibot, KungFuJesus, IlluminatusVespucci, and My Name Is Kaz) set out to play through the entirety of Sonic 2006 in a two-day marathon in order to properly document just how bad the game was.  Since its initial release, it has become one of the most popular Let’s Plays on the internet.  Showcasing the game’s massive load times, glitchy physics, and absolutely horrid story, it’s a testament to the quality of pokecapn and his crew that they could make such a game even watchable.  I watched it on the recommendation of a friend, and have since recommended it to others.  You may find it in it’s entirety at: http://lparchive.org/LetsPlay/Sonic2006/

But while watching, something stirred inside me.  A sort of perverse fascination.  “Sega put effort into this game,” my mind said.  “Even accounting for all the awfulness, you can see hints of what could be a really good game in here.  Some of these sections look really fun, and even through all the crap the players are praising it a little!”  I couldn’t look away, nor could I keep my mind from asking the same question over and over.  A question asked by historians in the aftermath of every monumental collapse and failure in human history.

“How did this HAPPEN?”

After that, I dove into the Sonic franchise headlong!  I had already played and mildly enjoyed most of the earlier 3D games (SA1, SA2, Sonic Heroes) , but within the space of a few months I played to completion every Sonic game I could get my hands on.  Sonic become something fascinating to me, a study in the slow decline of a gaming franchise.  In order to satisfy my questioning brain, I had to understand just how it all went so wrong.  Eventually, within the past couple weeks, I realized what it was I had to do.

In the early morning of October 5th, 2009, I stepped into a Blockbuster Video and (after more than a little trepidation) walked to the game section.  Earning a raised eyebrow from the cashier, I walked out of the store holding a copy of Sonic the Hedgehog for the XBox 360.  My mission over the following week would be a simple one: play through as much of the game as I possibly could before giving up completely in frustration.  I figured I’d do pretty well: after all, watching the LP must have prepared me in some way for the ordeal, right?

Oh, what a simple, childish fool I was.

The first thing that strikes you about the game is the load times.  Even playing with the game installed to the 360 hard-drive it took about 20 minutes between startup, title screen, mode select, opening cinematic, the game’s hub world, and all the intervening load times between those things before I even got to an actual level. For a franchise that has, from day one, predicated itself upon the concept of “fast,” this sort of thing was a rather visceral kick in the gut.  The game loads constantly, often for seemingly no reason.

There were more than a couple memorable instances where I would attempt to talk to someone giving out a side-quest, be taken to a loading screen, hear them give me three lines about what I’m supposed to do, ANOTHER loading screen, do the sidequest (which in some cases would take less than 30 or 40 seconds), get YET ANOTHER loading screen, have the quest NPC tell me I did a good job, get the mission results, and then one final loading screen before getting kicked back to the hub level.  That’s about five or six real-time minutes to get thirty seconds of actual gameplay.  The only reason I can possibly fathom for this (a notion first suggested by medibot during the LP) is that the game’s engine simply can’t handle real-time alterations to the structure and layout of its levels, and thus every single loading screen represents a full-scale state transition. To say this is lazy programming is a world-class understatement: while the game was rushed out the door to make it’s release date, that’s hardly an excuse for load times as bugfuck insane as this.

And don’t think that the load times will be compensated for by stunning scenery or anything.  While the game is gorgeous, whatever illusion of immersion there might be is immediately shattered by the realization that 90% of the objects in the game world are either completely insubstantial.  They’re either surrounded by invisible walls or else subject to the game’s infamously effed-up physics engine.

The game makes use of the Havok engine, but the only times you’ll ever notice the physics system are when it’s doing something hilariously stupid or being the direct cause of your death. Boxes and crates and barrels will shatter into hundreds of little pieces and then skitter across the landscape as they get awkwardly hung-up on random pieces of geometry.  Enemies too are subject to the whims of physics as they clip their way through the ground.  And nearly every death at-speed is accompanied by the most depressingly funny death animation of all time.  Sonic is supposed to go ragdoll when he kicks the bucket.  Instead, it seems as though dying simply drops him back to his idle animation.  This means that if you die in one of the game’s Mach Speed sections, you’re treated to Sonic casually sauntering in place while rotating around his center axis.  It’s like the world’s most retarded breakdance.

The Mach Speed sections are the perfect example to showcase the game’s control problems.  The normal controls are bad enough, with a horrendously sensitive control stick that will fling you off to your death in one of the game’s many bottomless pits or damaging chunks of scenery at even the lightest touch.  But it becomes even worse in Sonic’s prime gameplay gimmick: the Mach Speed zones.  Here not only are the controls even more finicky, but the buttons for jumping and using the ring-collecting Light Dash seem to pick at random whether or not they want to work; jumping might make you jump, or it might temporarily remove your ability to move laterally, and nine times out ten when the Light Dash does work it’ll send you straight into the scenery.  Did I mention that the Mach Speed zones are forced forward-scrolling where touching anything that is not explicitly a breakable object, a powerup, or a completely flat surface counts as taking damage?

And keep in mind: I’ve only talked about how awful Sonic’s gameplay is so far.  There are eight other playable characters, and actually finishing the game requires you play as all of them.  For the sake of brevity, I’ll just say the the only two characters that aren’t tremendous pains in the ass to play are Rouge (can climb the scenery and hurl metric tons of explosives at-will) and Blaze (the only character with a double-jump.)  While I appreciate the nod to girl power, I would’ve appreciated a finished game even more.

The load times, physics, and horrendous control issues are further exacerbated by a rather glaring omission, namely that the game has no autosave feature.  Did you forget to save after clearing that Mach Speed zone with only one life?  Better hope you’re not going into another level right after, because if you die, guess what?  You’re doing everything over again.  Keep in mind, this is a game released in 2006 for the 360 and PS3, consoles that include fairly generous hard-drives as standard.  I can’t even think of another 360 game that doesn’t have checkpoints of some kind in the event you game over.  It’s an absolutely egregious lapse in game design.  But hey, that’s just gameplay, right? Maybe all this trauma is worth slogging through for the plot.

Short answer: no. Long answer: KILL ME.

To say that the plot has the consistency of fanfic is insulting. Fanfic is better than this: at least fanfic is crafted by people who, ostensibly, actually like the characters and setting.  For Sonic 2006, the plot was apparently crafted by people who felt that “disturbing interspecies romance” was the most appropriate choice for a game meant to change the perception of Sonic as a franchise held onto only by creepy fannish types.  Indeed, the plot centers around the budding romance between Elise, fledgling royalty of a Venice-like European nation by the rather retarded name of “Soleanna”, and everyone’s favorite chili-dog munching hedgehog.

While that’s disturbing enough on it’s own, this is aggravated by the fact that Elise is a rather realistically rendered human being, and Sonic is the same Felix the Cat-inspired, floppy-limbed cartoon animal he’s always been.  The end result is that every single scene of the two together looks like an awkward Photoshop, almost like someone editing Garfield into a Playboy photo shoot. Even weirder is that Eggman/Robotnik is rendered in a style halfway between Elise’s photorealism and Sonic’s cartooniness, making him look out-of-place and bizarre everywhere.

The plot doesn’t get any less brain-melting from there, involving Shadow the Hedgehog as a government operative working with Rouge to take down Eggman, and the telepathic newcomer Silver the Hedgehog traveling through time to assassinate the “Iblis Trigger,” namely Sonic.  Apparently, Sonic’s twisted little tryst with Elise somehow causes the apocalypse, which begs the question of how Silver actually exists since Sonic and Shadow apparently die during said apocalypse and are the only anthropomorphic hedgehogs in the world.  What, did he spring forth from Zeus’ head or something?  In any case, the real instigator of all these shenanigans is Mephiles, an evil copy of Shadow (I thought Shadow already WAS the evil copy?), who is a shard of a being known as Iblis, which is itself a shard of Soleanna’s ancient god or something and oh who the fuck cares, this thing is turning my synapses into powder.

The only bright spot in what I will loosely refer to as “the story” is voice actor Dan Green’s scenery-mulching turn as main antagonist Mephiles, who is so brain-bustingly, sleazily, obviously evil that he makes Hannibal Lecter look like a reasonable man and a fine chef.  His performance is so hammy that I actually burst out into gut-laughs whenever he took to the screen.  Of course, this quickly returns to wall banger territory when you realize that every single event in the game is predicated upon Mephiles (who is, let me reiterate, the most obviously evil character I have ever seen) convincing goody two-shoes Silver to go back in time and kill Earth’s most famous hero.

Are you SHITTING me?! A mentally challenged four-year-old could tell Mephiles is evil, and yet you are telling me that Silver (who is a fucking telepath) can’t see through him?  Put this in different terms: imagine if Satan told Mother Theresa to go back in time and kill Superman.  Gah, this writing makes my mind and my soul hurt.

All these poorly-imagined plot threads come smashing together in a clusterfuck of epic proportions involving time paradoxes, poor imitations of Solid Snake on Shadow’s part, and an ending that literally retcons the events of the game out of existence.  Yes, the actual ending of the game states that the game never happened, which is little mercy after having to slog through it.  Even the game itself wants to pretend it didn’t happen.

But despite a frustrating non-ending, terrible writing, and gameplay so awful my brain wants to curl up in a corner of my skull and cry itself to sleep, I can’t bring myself to write this game off as a complete failure.  As breif as they may be, there are parts where you can see the shadow of a good game lurking somewhere under the skin of this unholy abomination.  The boss fights against Eggman and his various robots are all quite fun.  As standard for the Sonic series, the music is fantastic.  It is overall quite apparent that somebody cared about this game.  So again, the question remains: “how did this HAPPEN?”

Firstly, it was rushed out to meet a release date, namely Sonic’s 15th anniversary as a franchise.  Had they actually sat on the game for another few months and hammered out the bugs, we would’ve had a much better game.  The plot would still have sucked, but who play’s Sonic for the plot?  Secondly, in the rush to meet it’s release date, a key piece of input was ignored: the playtesters.  The protests of unplayability and myriad bug reports were roundly ignored by the Sega higher-ups, who apparently preferred to release an obvious beta than admit they couldn’t make their original release date and actually have a playable game.  Blind, unthinking haste was what made this game a tragedy.

Has Sega learned from their mistakes?  Well, having also played Sonic Unleashed (the latest game in the series) I’d say that yes, they have.  Perhaps they have not learned quite enough, but they’ve learned.  And really, that, more than anything, should be Sonic 2006′s enduring legacy: once you hit rock bottom, there’s nowhere to go but up, and that when it comes to making a game, there’s one golden rule that should always be kept in mind.

Speed kills.

It is literally impossible to find a video game based movie that’s actually good, so what if somebody made a movie based on a futuristic video game that doesn’t actually exist? Personally, I think it would be the only chance we’re ever going to have for a good movie in this ilk.

Well, Jarett Lee Conaway has made just such a movie. It’s only a short movie, mind, clocking in at around twenty minutes, but I was thoroughly entertained throughout. The acting is a little off (although I personally found it to be spot-on), and the story is very cliche, but the production values were amazing and the effects were really well done for a short movie. Plus, I happen to be a ridiculously huge fan of 2D fighting games, so this is like my perfect future depicted right here.

Jarrett has the movie posted on his Vimeo page, but you can also watch the movie embedded right here on Fall Damage after the cut.

Get  your shiny headed assassin faces over to Steam this weekend and pick up any or all of the Hitman games for %50 off!  That’s right, any or all.  You can pick them up individually for half off or buy the entire collection for..get this… half off!   It puts the games at a cool $5 each, which is something you can really shoot for.

What would you do for a million dollars?

That’s a pretty hard question for me to answer, and I’m fairly sure I’m not allowed to go into the details of the kind of things I would do here. HEGI and his small group, however, have decided to make a kick-ass survival horror mod for Unreal Tournament 3 for Epic Games’ Make Something Unreal Contest. Full write-up after the cut.

Make Something Unreal was started in collaboration with Epic Games and nVidia back in 2004. It offered aspiring designers a chance to win a grand prize of $1,000,000, a high performance PC and a commercial license for the Unreal Tech engine. In the past, this has actually given birth to two fantastic mod-to-retail games, those being Red Orchestra and Killing Floor respectively (and ironically both of those were by Tripwire Interactive). It also causes crazed modders to put out some of the highest quality and incredibly entertaining, interesting and unique mods you’re likely to find, and it is always worth browsing through the contest submissions for each phase to find something truly awesome.

This year, I have discovered a little gem known as The Haunted, a mod which in the most base sense could be classified as ‘co-operative survival horror’ with a larger focus on the survival aspect as opposed to the horror. Gameplay is actually very reminiscent of the later Resident Evil games, using an ‘over the shoulder’ third person perspective with which you have to hold down the right mouse button to go into an aiming mode before you can shoot. In the latest update, powerful instant-kill melee attacks have been added to the game, further increasing the new Resident Evil feel. The Haunted contains four different modes of play – Survival, Hunt, Battle and Demonizer – the former of which tend to play considerably different from the latter two, whilst still being exactly the same game.

Survival plays like a bizarre hybrid of Resident Evil 4, Killing Floor and Left4Dead. Up to four players are charged with the task of defending against hordes of demons which are spawned by an AI similar to the Director from Left4Dead, starting off with simple ‘Wendigo’ demons that just run straight for you in an attempt to scratch at you, and zombies that will leap for you once they get within a certain range. As time progresses the monsters get considerably more varied and difficult, ranging from smaller demons that throw scythes at you from a distance, to hulking brutes with clubs that can shake the ground and stun you, to demonic assassins with flaming claws that have the ability to charge forwards and instantly behead you with a well placed attack. There are also some oddball designs designed to take down camping players, such as spiky balls that roll full-speed at players and explode when shot, or swarms of hellish bats that aim for players who try to camp in high places. Each of the demons in the game also has an alternate ‘Special Attack’ mode they can go into, which can cause for some very intense moments when this happens, such as when the Iron Jack – a large man with a bear trap for a mouth the spews fire – causes his own head to explode and then begins to spew fire and molten rock out of the spot where his head used to be. It’s a real sight to see this happen, but you’d better start running fast to get out of this guy’s way.

When setting up Survival games, the host player chooses a certain amount of rounds to play through – which increase slightly in difficulty with each round if players manage to survive the previous one, the amount of time between rounds, and the starting difficulty for the game. By default, a game lasts three rounds with 15 minutes per round, which seems to be the most entertaining setup I have found so far. I usually knock the difficulty up a couple of notches and by about 12 minutes in it usually comes to the make-or-break point, where survival or failure is really decided. Something you should know about this game, however, is that death is not final, but players do not respawn instantly either. When a player dies, a large floating rock known as the ‘Soulstone’ appears at a random spot on the map. Players who are still alive have to find this stone and destroy it – either with a melee attack or one of the many weapons in the game. Once the stone is destroyed, that player will return to the game. If you are playing on your own, you also needn’t worry – once your health falls below half and as long as you are the only player in the game, a stone will appear that will restore you to full health when destroyed.

Hunt mode plays pretty much identical to survival, but with rounds being finished after reaching a certain score to make things a more competitive style survival game with players aiming for the largest number of kills. However, players still need to work together to make sure they can actually make it to the end of a round.

Battle mode is where things really get interesting. This game type supports up to eight players – up to four players play as the survivors and, as an interesting twist,  up to four players play the role that the AI would play in standard survival, gaining the ability to spawn in the various demons that chase down the human team. All of the monsters that appear in survival are available to spawn by the demon team, but they cost a number of resource points depending on the power and abilities of each individual demon. The resource points are shared between the players on the demon team (although the amount of resource does increase exponentially to accommodate the number of players), and the points are regained either over time, or they are also increased with successful attacks against the human players. Rounds this way are played in much the same way as survival, either with the survivor team succeeding by lasting  until time runs out, or the demon team winning by eliminating the other team. This mode reminded me a lot of the popular ‘Zombie Master’ mod for Half Life 2, in which a team is pitted against one player designated the Zombie Master, who spawns in zombies at certain points throughout maps in order to take down the survivors. The main difference with The Haunted however, is that demons can be summoned anywhere, with a certain ‘safe’ radius around human players where they cannot be spawned. Another really interesting part of battle mode is the ability spawn in as whatever demon a player chooses. The player controlled monsters have no extra abilities or large advantage over the AI controlled, but it can be a lot of fun to play as the demons yourself, and a human controlled player is always more effective than a bot. It’s also much more gratifying to get the killing blow on a survivor yourself versus just watching your minions do it for you, and I believe you gain more resources for scoring a kill this way, though don’t hold me to that.

Demonizer mode is by far the most interesting, and in some ways the most entertaining mode in The Haunted. The game starts out in much the same way as survival, with four players trying to survive against the demonic legions coming after them. The twist in this mode, is that as each human player dies they do not return to the game as a survivor. The AI hands control over to this player and they are moved to the demon team, where they then try to take out the surviving players in the same style as with battle mode. Play continues until either time runs out, or all of the players have been ‘Demonized’.

With all of this demon hunting going on, I’m sure you’re wondering exactly how you get to go about killing these foul hellish aberrations, and The Haunted goes for a very unique approach  in terms of weaponry that is available. All players start out with four weapons, a knife, pistol, shotgun and a sub-machine gun. You only start out with ammunition for the pistol (and the knife, obviously), but one of the first demons a player kills will drop an ammunition crate to give ammo for the shotgun and SMG. Item drops are unique to each player also, so there is no fighting over who is allowed to grab the ammo! Once this first crate drops, another will not drop again until one of your weapons is out of ammunition, and event hen it usually only take about one to three kills for another to appear.
As players kill demons, a bar in the upper right corner of the screen with a picture of crossed swords next to it will start to fill up, and once this bar fulls, the next monster you kill will drop a green crate with the same sword icon painted on the side. Pick this up, and whichever weapon you are currently using will be upgraded to something more powerful, and the bar in the corner of the screen will reset and start to fill once more. Each weapon has four different upgrade levels, and HEGI really came up with some very interesting ideas for the weapon upgrades. The weapon upgrades are as follows, along with an experience multiplier toward your next upgrade that you are awarded for using each;

Handguns:

-The first upgrade to the basic semi-automatic pistol is a 3-round burst automatic pistol called the Cerberus. A little more useful than the basic pistol, dispatching enemies a little faster, but each single bullet isn’t any more powerful than the standard pistol. +10% XP

-The next pistol upgrade is a tasty one indeed – your bog standard, run-of-the-mill, always awesome .357 Magnum Revolver, named the Vendetta. This baby will almost always score a kill with a headshot on around 80% of the demons chasing you, and usually takes out the remaining fifth of the population with a second shot. +10% XP

-The fourth level for handguns is  a .50 Magnum called the Jericho. This baby tears through almost anything with a faster rate of fire, higher clip size and slightly lower damage than the Vendetta. It also sets things on fire. Fire is good. +10% XP

Shotguns:

-Level two for shotguns awards you with a sawn-off double barrel shotgun, that whilst having a terrible amount of ammo and only two shots before each reload, his gun is incredibly powerful and hits in a very wide area in front of you. Really good crowd control, great damage, but make sure you’re ready to run the hell away when you need to reload. Normal XP gain.

-The next step for the shotguns is the Auto Shotgun. This little street sweeper eats through almost anything fairly easily, blowing weaker enemies away in all directions and provides decent stopping power for the big guys. One of my staple weapons, always reliable. Normal XP gain.

-The fourth and final shotgun is a real beast called The Arsonator. This howitzer of an automatic shotgun spews lethal burning incendiary rounds charged with the very fires of Hades (okay, I may be exaggerating here, but this thing is freaking cool). Sets everything on fire. Kills everything very quickly. Possible to set yourself on fire if you’re not careful. Normal XP gain.

Full-Auto:

-First up for the automatic upgrades is the Commando Rifle. Completely standard military assault rifle. It does decent damage, is pretty damn accurate and dispatches most demons fairly effectively. It’s just not all that interesting. Normal XP gain.

-Next we have the Heavy Assault Rifle. This is a pretty powerful heavy automatic gun that mows down groups nicely, has a pretty big clip size and makes nice loud bangs. Again, not all that interesting, but it is nice to feel like you’re firing off something really powerful. Normal XP gain.

-Last but not least for the automatics is the Machinegun. This baby comes with a few hundred rounds of slugs that tear through enormous groups of demons with remarkable results. This puppy doesn’t need to reload at all and will general turn everything it goes through into meaty chunks. Incredibly powerful, fantastic crowd control and just an all-round crowd pleaser. It may not be as fun and interesting as say, the Arsonator, but my, is it effective. Normal XP gain.

And finally, containing the most entertaining weapons of all, the Melee:

-The second level of the basic knife is a chainsaw, and everybody loves a good chainsaw! It is very satisfying to just hold this out and chew through the weaker demons of the game, but it is far too dangerous to risk using this on the more difficult enemies at such close range. +25% XP

-The third melee level is probably my absolute favourite weapon in The Haunted, The Witch Hammer. This horrible, gruesome, wretched weapons is a sight to behold. A whirling mess of blades that chew through enemies, spinning them around the end of the weapon and throwing limbs and gore in all directions. This weapon is obscenely powerful and an absolute sight to behold, but you do still have to be careful about getting in close range when using it. +25% XP

-The final level for melee upgrades is a weapon called the Glaive. Very reminiscent of the focal point weapon of last years incredible failure DarkSector (a game I hardbor a special resentment for, as I was very excited for it), just without the post launch aiming. The Glaive is an oddity in the sense that it isn’t technically a melee weapon – you have to throw it to use it, and it goes a decent mid-range distance. The powerful part of this weapon however, is the fact it will instantly behead and kill any demon you throw it at, and then continue to slaughter anything that it catches on its return path. However, you are incredibly vulnerable to attacks whilst it’s in the air, unless you can get a couple of melee kicks in to push monsters back. I’m not the biggest fan of the Glaive myself, preferring the ridiculously evil Witch Hammer for my close quarters ruination. -50% XP

-Also worthy of note is that the basic knife actually gives +75% XP per kill. This is extremely useful early on, as the knife can behead the weaker enemies in one slice if you’re good enough.

On top of the wonderful cast of characters available as weapon upgrades, there are also a few more weapons hidden throughout the available maps in secret areas. Aside from your typical grenade launcher, flamethrower and sniper rifle – which do pretty much exactly what you would expect them to, there is a fun little addition called the Nitrogen Thrower. This device launches slugs of what I can only expect is liquid nitrogen, instantly freezing anything it hits which can be then easily broken with a well placed bullet or melee attack, which brings me to the next point of note…

In the more recent updates to The Haunted, HEGI and his team have added standard hand-to-hand melee attacks into the game. A quick tap of the melee key and you character will perform a roundhouse kick that will knock enemies back. Combining this keypress with different directions will yield different attacks which all do little damage but are helpful in getting you out of trouble at short notice. However, if you hold the key down for a few seconds an indicator at the bottom of the screen will start flashing until it turns white. After it has changed this colour, release the key in combination with a direction to pull off one of the game’s many impressive instant-kill melee finishing moves. One of these attacks will always kill any monster it connects with, but it will almost always only kill one, and knock others in the area back. These moves are very entertaining to pull off and awesome to watch other players performing them. They really make you feel badass whilst trying to hold off the hordes. The Haunted also gives you the ability to roll out of danger, with a quick double tap of a direction causing your character to tuck and roll, negating any damage. You can also reload whilst rolling, which the creators heavily encourage.

Another great piece of the action is the environmental hazards that exist in each of the three maps available with the game. In the map ‘Stronghold’ – a map themed around a great ancient castle, either the AI or human players on the demon team can trigger a dense fog to fall over the map, obstructing the view of the survivors and allowing them to only see a few feet in front of them. In the map ‘Forsaken Canyon’ – a map that looks strikingly similar to some of the later windy canyon areas from Resident Evil 4, a lightning storm can be called upon which causes extremely powerful lightning bolts to strike the map at semi-regular intervals. These bolts tend to completely decimate whatever they hit, so run for cover! On ‘Forgotten Temple’ – a map based on a dark temple, the entire map turns a deep burning orange/red colour and powerful meteorites fall from the sky causing massive damage and fires all over the map. Again, FIND COVER.

Graphically, this mod is really head and shoulders above almost any other I’ve seen. A great amount of detail has been put into every aspect of this mod. It appears as though almost nothing from the original UT3 stock artwork remains, with all new models, textures, effects, music and sounds. Everything exudes a very professional quality, although I am not a big fan of the new loading screen animation HEGI has used in the latest version. It looks very out of place and gaudy in comparison to the old loading screens that showed an image of the next map, or a picture of one of the demons. Things look even better in version 2.5 – the latest version of the mod, with texture detail increasing a great amount and a number of old issues being fixed or removed. The architecture in the new map – Forgotten Temple is especially wonderful, depicting an ancient and horrific keep with many gargoyles and demonic artifacts placed throughout the level.

A number of new balancing changes have also been made with the latest version of The Haunted, such as better weapon and damage balancing, and also some resource and gameplay tweaks to make the game more enjoyable overall when playing on the demon team.

In all, The Haunted is what I see as an incredibly well done, polished, professional grade modification to Unreal Tournament 3. A total conversion in the most complete sense possible. Absolutely nothing but the menu structure from UT3 remains. Sure, you still shoot guns and make things explode, but many games that aren’t UT3 allow you to do that out there today. I used to have some gripes with The haunted in previous versions, but those have essentially been taken care of. As a mod, I really have nothing bad to say about this game, except maybe that there is a great lack of available maps (a third was added at the release of version 2.5). HEGI and his team have done an incredible job, and I can’t wait to see what they have in store for us by the next phase of Make Something Unreal.

If you have UT3 at all, if you enjoy the regular game or not, I highly recommend grabbing The Haunted form their ModDB page here. I really can’t stress it enough, this mod is truly something else, and it needs a strong community to back it. I really wouldn’t be surprised if HEGI makes it all the way to the grand prize with this one. Keep up the good work, guys!

And now, for you exceptional people who Survived this wall of text, I give you a little video I made of the Witch Hammer in action. Be warned, the audio may be a little off sync due to Xfire’s new broken encoder…

Neverdaunt: 8-bit is a wonderful looking new MMO with a very interesting twist. Instead of the standard fare of running around medieval/cyberpunk/urban/alien worlds killing Bazillions of monsters grinding experience/gold/fish, Neverdaunt: 8-bit takes the approach of allowing players to build their own 8-bit worlds to their own desires, all with a delightful retro 8-bit theme.

There is, however, a catch.
Once you have built your perfect 8-bit themed ‘Cell’, you can switch to what is called ‘Static Mode’, in which you have to defend your Cell from other players. This may sound like a stupid idea, but it one of the key ways in gaining the game’s currency of ‘Tokens’. Every ten minutes your Cell is in Static mode, you gain one Token. Get Tokens, buy more Stuff, build up your Cell and so forth.

The game looks very interesting, and the graphics are unique and interesting. The game is in beta right now, so head over to their website and give it a try! Hope to see you there!

Last night, Valve announced a new multiplayer mode for Left4Dead 2 entitled ‘Scavenge’. From what I can gather, this new mode appears to play out like a cross between the Survival and Versus modes from Left4Dead, but with a fun twist. More details after the cut.

Rounds begin on one of the six unique Scavenge maps the game will contain when it ships on November 17th, with the Survivor team tasked with retrieving sixteen gas cans which are randomly placed throughout the map, then using them to fuel up generators. The Survivors are given 120 seconds to retrieve the canisters, with 20 additional seconds awarded every time they manage to add fuel to a generator. During this mad dash to scavenge these items, the typical survival fare of infected hordes will charge at you, along with the new Special Infected being thrown in to make things more chaotic.

Sound like a welcome addition to the the regular co-operative Survival mode from the original game? Well, Scavenge takes it one step further by having the Special Infected player controlled, as with the Versus mode from Left4Dead. Aside from the standard task of being a general nuisance and aiming to kill off the Survivors in this mode, the Infected team also have the ability to destroy the canisters after they have been picked up at least once.

Scores are tallied by how many canisters have been successfully returned, and the team who has the highest score in at least two rounds at the end of three is deemed the winner. If rounds end in a tie, the team who collected said amount of cans in the least amount of time wins.

Sounds like an absolute blast, and a welcome faster-paced addition to the staple Campaign and Versus modes already in Left4Dead. Myself, I really want a Versus Survival either included with Left4Dead 2 or added to the original game through DLC, but I’m just a dreamer.

This goes out to anybody on our Steam list too. I will be tied up on the 27th and 28th for 36 hours of constant Borderlands action at a LAN party with some friends, but I am completely open to adventure afterwards!

In speaking with Jacob Minkoff, one of the designers at Naughty Dog, some interesting facts came to light regarding Youtube SDK integration.

Uncharted 2: Among Thieves ships with a “Cinema Mode” that allows players to save, edit, and share gameplay videos, but in development this mode also offered the ability to upload directly to Youtube from within the game.

“At one time there was a build with the Youtube API in there,” Minkoff stated. He then went on to explain that the Youtube API takes 11Mb of system RAM to run. Deemed to be too much of a demand on resources, this feature was eventually cut in favor of smoother gameplay.

Playing the full build of the game, it’s tough to argue their decision. The game runs absolutely beautifully. But this isn’t great news for anyone hoping for Youtube integration in future AAA games.

For more info on our conversation with Minkoff, make sure to listen to this Friday’s podcast for the full breakdown of the Uncharted 2 Theater Event!

Square-Enix have recently released a new trailer for their forthcoming Wii RPG set in the Crystal Chronicles universe, Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: The Crystal Bearers.

It seems an interesting decision for Square to take a typically multiplayer centric series and set a single player game in the same universe, but if the game is half as awesome as this trailer is then it looks like they may have a winner on their hands. The combat looks unique and interesting, the story definitely looks epic, and the voice acting has that wonderful over-the-top Saturday morning cartoon energy to it. Also, chicks in bikinis.

Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: The Crystal Bearers is due out November 12th in Japan, December 26th in the US, and February 2010 in PAL territories.

PlayDotA.com posted some very exciting news for fans of the Hero-based tower-defense inspired incredibly popular mod for Warcraft III.
It seems the leader of the development team for Defense of the Ancients, ‘IceFrog’, has been signed on to lead a team at Valve Software. No details have been given as of yet regarding exactly what the team he is leading are going to be working on, but here is what IceFrog himself had to say on the matter;

I have some really awesome news I’d like to share with you guys. I am now leading a team at Valve! I finally have all the resources needed to do some very exciting stuff that you guys will love. I look forward to revealing more specific details when the time is right.

Exciting stuff! Every time Valve picks up a developer like this, it always leads to fantastic results. If it weren’t for Valve’s ninja headhunting tactics, we wouldn’t have gotten to experience such delights as Portal, Team Fortress 2 or Day of Defeat. I can’t wait to see what comes from this!

Image shamelessly pilfered from the PlayDotA.com Fan Art section.

Anybody who happens to be a fan of last years wonderful re-boot to the Prince of Persia series is in for a treat today, as this weeks Deal of the Week on Xbox Live Arcade is Prince of Persia: Epilogue. Epilogue continues after the *SPOILER ALERT* catastrophic mistake at the *SPOILERS OVER NOW* end of Prince of Persia, offering around three hours of additional gameplay.

It is currently on sale this week for 560 Microsoft Points as opposed to the standard 800. Unfortunately, I am completely SOL as I have the PC version of the game, and Ubisoft have stated that the PC version will not be getting this DLC.

Let’s be honest, it’s been a slow weekend.

I’m going to take the path of arrogance here and say that Capcom released a new trailer that actually shows the new characters AND gameplay footage for Super Street Fighter IV simply because I complained about the last one.

It can be my own little fantasy world where I’m best friends with Capcom and they care about my opinion. Kinda like Mix, Aevan and Frozenbyte Inc.

I love horror games.

Let me rephrase that, I love well written, tripped out psychological holy crap what the hell did I just see out of the corner of my eye WHAT WAS THAT SOUND horror games. The kind that make you afraid to be in dark places alone for at least a week after playing them. Silent Hill 2 and 3 did this to me, the phenomenal Penumbra series did this to me, and for a time at least, Korsakovia did this to me. Full write-up after the cut.

Korsakovia is a new mod for Half Life 2 by UK group The Chinese Room, makers of the cult hit Dear Esther. Set in the fragmented mind of a man named Christopher, who is suffering from Korsakoff’s Syndrome – a disease with which patients are unable to develop new memories and also suffer from severe amnesia. Patients are also known to invent new memories to ‘fill in the gaps’ for memories they have lost. The prologue for the game mentions that he was found in his apartment by paramedics after a failed suicide attempt with severe burns on his hands. It is also mentioned that the paramedics were unable to find his eyes, and that they believe he may have eaten them.

The premise for this story is a fantastic concept and one that I think would usually be extremely hard to pull off, but this is the area Korakovia truly excels. The script, voice acting and art direction used here are all top-notch, making for a very immersive story wrapped up in a truly frightening atmosphere.

Christopher’s journey in Korsokovia sees him wandering the fragmented pathways of his mind, through the hallways of the psychiatric ward he is staying in, the apartment complex that used to be his home, and a warehouse which he refers to as ‘the place where they make the pieces’, all leading up to a truly spectacular finale that is an incredible sight to behold. During this time, Christopher is also pursued by dark entities he refers to as ‘The Collectors’, clouds of dark mist that appear to be set on hunting him down in his own mind.  All the while you are exploring this broken world, conversations between Christopher and Dr. Christine Grayson – a consultant neurologist attending to him – are played back in segments broken up by static, with some really mind-ruining dialogue later on in the game. They seem innocent enough at first, typical doctor-patient exchanges, yet later on they spiral into twisted confabulation which makes you question what the truth behind this distorted tale.

Myself, I’m still unsure what of the events in Korsakovia ever actually happened, or if the entire thing was just another memory Christpoher invented to fill in his dark, lonely existence. Multiple times throughout the game, references are also made to ‘The End of the World’, in past, present and future tense. My own interpretation of this is a cataclysmic event that erased Christopher’s memories, the time his mind was fragmented, and the inevitable conclusion that it is all going to start over again.

Another area Korsakovia succeeds in is atmosphere. Everything from the lighting, level design and incredible sound work come together to portray a psotively chilling experience. The game is also easily one of the most psychologically terrifying and twisted games I have ever played, with some situations what literally had me yelling out loud, trying to run to safety, and some areas that generally had me twisting my face in abstract horror over new revelations or bizarre locations. Only a few games have succeeded in giving me chills like this, and many other games have tried and failed miserably by trying to make the player jump with cheap ‘tension scares’. The single biggest thing that increased the level of atmosphere to insane porportions, however, was that not once during Korsakovia did I ever feel like everything is going to be okay. Quite the opposite, in fact. This game carries a heavy level of forboding through its entirity.

Unfortunately, despite Korsakovia’s great strength in terms of setting and atmosphere, it is not without major flaws. It would have been nice if The Chinese Room took a leaf from their own book with Dear Esther, and did not try and add a combat element to this game. Whilst The Collectors were terrifying enough at first – the first one I came across literally had me running up and down hallways screaming trying to escape its wrath – later on in the game they just become a frustrating chore to either avoid or beat into nonexistence with a crowbar. Two friends and myself also encountered an extremely annoying bug later on in the game where some of the clouds would not be rendered, so we’d be getting attacked by unseen enemies whilst trying to get through the game’s few platforming segments.

Another major issue I had with the game was a lack of direction at a couple of points, the worst being in the large warehouse at the beginning of the second chapter, where I honestly could not figure out where to go. A friend and I actually ended up stacking boxes to get on top of a caged walkway and walked over the top, dropping into a little opening at the end. As it turns out, there is an almost completely unnoticeable ladder hidden in the corner of the enormous room. The two chapters before the epilogue also contained the same ‘puzzle’ that was more than a chore to complete, and ended up being more of a hindrance causing players to spend far too long in one chapter than a fun way to progress the plot.

Although Korsakovia was – in my personal opinion – a  masterpiece in storytelling and design, despite its strengths I cannot give a strong recommendation much more than to just give it a try. However, if you believe you can muscle through Korsakovia’s annoyances, you will be pleasantly surprised with what it has to offer beyond the gameplay. Also bear in mind that The Chinese Room are not finished with their work on the mod, so hopefully they’ll get the kinks worked out and make it a more enjoyable experience further down the road.

Korsakovia can be found in its ModDB page here, or you can head to The Chinese Room’s homepage here.

TMIF is a new weekly feature where I will talk about a new mod every Friday. Stop back next week for a Haunting experience!

This week is a self-proclaimed awesome train wreck with fireworks… and ninjas.

Crit or Quit:
Aria of Sorrow, The World Ends with You, Eat Lead, Zombie Apocalypse, Touhou 6, Chaos Legion, Lost Planet 2

Level Builder
This week we break down “leveling up”! E.V.O., Demon’s Souls, Devil May Cry, and (of course) Fallout 3.

End Game:
We take a moment to focus on some of our favorite games from the developer Level-5!

The Nintendo Tech Support forums are currently flooded with posts from many unmodified Wii owners reporting that their console will no longer function since the update, stating that their console has been modified and will not boot anymore.

If you happen to be one of the unlucky who has had this issue happen to their mod-free system, Nintendo have issued a statement on the forums that you can send in your system for a free repair. Whilst the free repair is all well and good, this really sucks that the innocent users have to suffer because of a select few who have decided to circumvent the system.

I wish I knew who that hunter was. He was a true hero and a patriot.

You can watch Aevan and I fumble our way through the full Crash Course campaign on our Justin.tv page, or just hit play on the video in the right sidebar.

Square Enix showed a new trailer for Final Fantasy XIII this week at TGS, and it sure looks fancy. The only problem was, the trailer was in Japanese, so those of us that don’t speak the language have no idea what’s going on.

Lucky for us, Gametrailers have added English subtitles and have given us something we can try and follow along with. I myself still have no idea what’s going on, and what the hell a l’Cie or a fal’Cie are supposed to be, but it sure does look pretty. I’d also like to have seen the pseudo-realtime battle system from Final Fantasy XII make a return, but it appears as though the popular ATB (Active Time Battle) system made famous by Final Fantasies IV through IX is being used this time around, with a strong focus on intense cinematic action sequences.

Now when exactly are we going to see the game stateside, Square Enix? Can I see that at the end of a trailer sometime soon? Pretty please?

Once again, mad props to the folks at Dustloop for all the new info!

Capcom today released a new trailer for their upcoming standalone expansion/sequel/Super Enhanced Champion EX Alpha Edition to Street Fighter IV. Whilst the trailer actually shows zero to nothing in terms of actual gameplay, it is a beautifully rendered fight between Ken and Ryu performed in much the same way as the original Street Fighter IV trailer. More details after the cut.

As far as details go for this enhanced edition of the game, it appears as though eight new characters are being brought to the roster, with old favourites T.Hawk and Dee Jay (Max OUT!) as headliners, along with a new female character named Juri. No real details have surfaced as of yet on the rest of the ‘New Challengers’, however. Capcom have also stated that this version of the game is running on a completely new engine, although from what I have seen so far it really doesn’t look any different to me.

Along with the new engine, there are apparently a majority of gameplay tweaks and enhancements for Super Street Fighter IV to create a better gameplay balance and more enjoyable experience, which I see as a great thing, as even though I am a huge fan of 2D fighters I was not a huge fan of vanilla SF4.

The new edition should be out early next year for Xbox 360 and PS3, with no word on the PC version. The game will also have a lower price point than the original as it is not a true sequel for the franchise.

If only that were true for every other game in the series

The DLC is available for free to PC users on Steam, or for 560 Microsoft Points on XBOX Live.

Urgent news from the word of Albion! Today Lionhead has released “Fable II: Game Episodes” which gives Gold Xbox LIVE account holders the ability to download and install Fable II one episode at a time. To tease the product to those of you who haven’t had the pleasure of experiencing it, they’ll let you have the first hit for free!

“As an incentive for those curious about the adventures that await them in “Fable II,” Microsoft Game Studios is making the first episode free to download. In this initial episode, players are introduced to the vibrant world of Albion where every choice has a consequence, and are able to experience childhood and the trials of being a young adult. Players can then choose to purchase additional episodes on Xbox LIVE at their own pace.”

Fable II: Games on Demand is available in LIVE enabled regions around the world excluding Japan and Korea

* DRASTIC upward tier-shift for Tager thanks to improved speed and range on moves like Atomic Collider and Sledge Hammer
* Rachel has been nerfed pretty well, putting her somewhere around middle-tier now
* All existing characters get new moves; Rachel gets a new Distortion Drive, Ragna gets a DYNAMIC ENTRY! dropkick, Arakune gets a new curse attack, and Carl gets some kind of projectile, possibly sending him into God Tier contention; those are the only ones known so far
* A brand new HUD, new stages, and updated graphics

Apparently it’s already hit arcades in Japan, and will come out sometime in 2010 for PS3 and 360; rumor has it that it’ll be DLC for those who already have the game, but only time will tell.

I (Mixmoff) will be attending the Rosemont event, as well as competing in the tournament. Win or lose I’ll bring back my take on the full release game (at least what they let me play!)

If you’re headed to the October 6th event, send us an email and I’ll make sure to look for you at the show!

Aevan returns to join Mixmoff and BossGoji for another week of Fall Damage!

Crit or Quit:
Uncharted 2, Brutal Legend, Earth Defense Force 2017, Tales of Monkey Island

Level Builder
This week we break down “achievements and trophies”!

End Game:
All three hosts hit the “Reset Button” to forget the worst games they’ve ever played!

50 Games, $5 Each For The Next 5 Weeks

To celebrate the 5 year anniversary of Direct2Drive, they will be releasing a massive list of game titles up for download for just $5 each.  That’s right, for the next 5 weeks they will release a new list of titles out of a total of 50, that you can proudly own for just 5 dollars.  A few examples are games such as Assassin’s Creed Directors Cut, Bioshock, Neverwinter Nights and so very many more. 

They are also holding a contest of sorts, to win all 50 games!  All that is needed is that you purchase one game, enter and wait for  your chance to win!

The only question that remains in all of this money saving excitement, is why the hell are you here reading this…when you could be there buying all those games?!

I couldn't have said it better myself.

As much as I would love to say that my opinion of Trine remained more or less unchanged from the first podcast; I simply cannot bring myself to give it a glowing review that the demo had instigated.  My first impressions were that it was going to be different, fun and leave me feeling like I’ve just played with something that no one else has ever experienced before.  Sort of like my roommate in college after finding that bottle of cheap tequilla. This is all well and good in the demo because it drags you in and leaves you wanting more; exactly what a demo should do!  I only wish that the game itself had lived up to my expectations.

It’s difficult to find a place to begin with the things that could have been better in Trine.  I could wish for more backstory, but then it takes you out of casual puzzle game and drifts longingly into well thought out RPG.  I could wish for a better leveling system that left a little bit more of a challenge, but what fun is there to be had in making a game that actually makes you think?  I found the first few levels to be intriguing because you had to put effort into figuring out the best way to acheive your goal, but after you level the Wizard enough  intended puzzles are no longer puzzles.  Why should I use the several cleverly placed physics objects in the room, when I can just create my own platform and bypass the need for thought?  The enemies are repetative and lack a challenge as well, all easily killed in one or two hits by a well swung sword or four arrows shot all at once from a bow.  The mini-bosses leave a great deal to be desired when they can be killed by standing just above its eye level on a conjured platform, pinging it with arrows as it helpfully turns its back to you.

I think that the biggest let down in the game was the ending though.  It is almost as if the creators had fashioned the last level first, and then realized after it was done that they didn’t have the time / ideas / manpower to make the rest of the game as well thought out and challenging.  Not to say that the game wasn’t entertaining, because it was, but not for the price tag that was slapped on it.  Would I pay $15 or $20 dollars for Trine for a couple  hours of mindless adventuring?  Absolutely.  For everything that it had faulty with it, it was still a good game.  The concept was intriguing, and I generally liked the basic idea of it but I think there is a great amount of room for improvement.

Which is fantastic with the rumors of a sequel coming out.  Where?  When?  Who knows, but the talk on the curbs of the information superhighway no doubt confirm that there will be more Trine in the future.  Will I let a few minor disappointments keep me from playing the second game in this intriguing series?  No, and neither should you!  For all it’s faults, Trine still has its virtues and I would gladly recommend it to anyone who is looking for an idle time waster.

Get your game socks on kids, the deals are in full swing for this weekend and the week that follows.  As always, I direct your attention to Steam where you’ll find the best sales this side of sale-town.  For this weekend only, you too can be the proud owner of your very own copy of The Secret of Monkey Island for just $4.99.  This is the remake, folks.  Voice acting, better graphics, the same dry humor and raw wit that made you fall in love with [and simultaneously groan at] the original SoMI.

If the point and click thing isn’t your sort, then fear not.. there is always more!  Until the 21st, Steam also has Garry’s Mod on sale for a very delicious price of $4.99 as well!  Now that’s something I could really bit into and then gently gnaw on until all the juices are turned to spit.  Garry’s Mod, for those not in the know, is a sandbox plethera of awesome.  Build your own levels, invite your friends into custome games and do it all with models from such classics like Team Fortress 2, Left 4 Dead, and Half-Life.   Zombie Tetris is always a favorite of mine, but feel free to explore the possibilities now that the price has been reduced!

Additional Sales, Specials and Deals on Steam

Twin Sector $26.99

Darkest of Days $35.99

Unreal Tournament Black $8.99

Unreal Deal Pack $16.99 [includes: Unreal 2, Unreal Gold, Unreal Tournament 2004 Editor's Choice Edition, Unreal Tournament 3 Black and Unreal Tournament Game of the Year Edition.]

Additionally, in honor of National Talk Like a Pirate Day (which is tomARRRRRRRRow) Telltale Games is giving away the first episode of the new Tales of Monkey Island series for free! This is a one day only giveaway, so check out Play Like a Pirate for your copy!

Wicked bear guitar solo at 3:37.

Crit or Quit:
BlazBlue, Trine, Prototype, Kirby’s Adventure, The Beatles: Rock Band, and Darkest of Days

Level Builder
This week we break down “world maps” and discuss what games have done them well, which have done them poorly, and what developers can do to improve them in the future.

End Game:
Mixmoff and BossGoji hype up the two games they’re most looking forward to in the coming months: Borderlands and Dragon Age: Origins

Sell, Zombie, Sell!

James Brooksby, studio head at Doublesix was quoted recently as saying,

“We’re ecstatic at the 3.00 upgrade because not only have our sales gone up 40 per cent since the update but for me personally it’s what I’ve been calling for and looking forward to for a long time.”

Of course the gaming press has decided this means the new look XMB icons must be pushing this sales increase. Instead, what we really have is a developer who is either being a bit foolish, or mildly disingenuous for Sony’s benefit.

If you want to point a finger at what could have caused this sales boom for Doublesix’s Burn Zombie Burn, you need to remember what else has happened since September 1st. PSN game sales should, by all rights, fluctuate in sales numbers along with the fluctuation in sales of the PS3 itself. The new PS3 Slim and the $100 price cuts have resulted in a dramatic uptick in PS3 sales. Isn’t it more likely this is the primary reason Doublesix is seeing more purchasers?

It’s possible that having the new store icons nested in the XMB will increase the sales of games featured. However this particular bump is something that can be attributed to a price change for a complementary good…. the PS3 itself.

Source

“License great music” is obviously highlighted and underlined on Page 1 of Harmonix’s Rock Band playbook. In The Beatles: Rock Band they went nuclear by grabbing the catalog of the most celebrated band in the history of music. With a coup like that, the competition probably would have been content to rest on their laurels, but that’s not how Harmonix does things.

From the redesign of the familiar note bars to the trippy interstellar performing environments this game has presentation perfected. The choice to allow up to 3 microphones so you can sing harmonies was the kind of inspired addition that has made this developer the kings of music games.

But for all that’s right with this game, there’s one glaring omission that simply makes this game LESS fun to play than its predecessors… and the blame can doubtless be laid at the feet of licensing.

There I was plucking away to Get Back. The band was firing on all cylinders. Pitch perfect singing. Flawless drumming. We were a sight to behold!

Then I made the mistake that ruined this game for me when I decided I wanted some reverb on my solo. I flicked the effects switch on my guitar…..

..nothing.

The effects switch is one of the most engaging parts of Rock Band. Sure you’re not playing the music, you’re just kind of pushing buttons in rhythm to the song. But the effects switch gives you distinct ownership of the notes you’re keeping time with, and makes you feel like you’re actually playing music. When your game relies so heavily on how it makes the player “feel”, ripping away an expected feature can be all it takes to break the illusion. No more was I George Harrison, unfettered by the bonds of mortals. Now I was just a guy at a friend’s house pushing buttons on a plastic controller.

The whammy bar gets neutered of it’s usefulness as well. A similar issue can be found on the drums, where drum fills are no longer your prerogative. Overdrive on drums is achieved only by hitting a well timed cymbal crash. This is perhaps an even greater omission, and it makes the drumming feel stagnant and unengaging.

It’s hard to say who’s to blame for these issues. My gut tells me it’s a licensing issue, with the rights-holders uncomfortable with the idea of gamers changing the sound of these songs to suit their fancy. Likely it would have been a deal-breaker if Harmonix had tried to stick to their guns, and this game couldn’t have been made any other way.

Later in the night, we swapped out the disc for Rock Band 2. I was immediately aware that I was having more fun playing songs I didn’t like than I was playing the Beatles tracks. Maybe Harmonix needs to rewrite their playbook.

Another Excuse to Stay Indoors

As of September 9th, 2009, the DnD based MMO, Dungeons & Dragons Ebberon Unlimited, has gone from pay to play to free unlimited play.  This is good news in a world of wallet emptying MMO’s that I am sure many gamers around the world are thrilled to hear.  The only downside to the free-to-play MMO is that there is a small micro economy where you will have to pay to unlock certain races, classes and a host of other features by purchasing Turbine points.   If you would prefer not to take the easy route and pay for your upgrades, it is possible to earn your Turbine Points by doing quests and earning rep. within the game.

Another way to enjoy the full experience would be to take part in the monthly subscription program and become a DDO VIP.  The cost is $14.99 per month but it will allow you access to all the content that DDO has to offer.

You can sign up for your free account Here, and join the rest of the world in dice rolling, level grinding, dungeon crawling fun.

The second game in Sony’s “Play. Create. Share.” arsenal impressed us at this year’s E3 with it’s impressive track-building system. ModNation Racers promises to usher in a new era of kart racing frenzy in 2010. And just in time, too… I’m looking at you M&M’s Kart Racing.

Now with 100% less chance of breaking or losing installation disks!

 Charge up those light sabers and prepare yourself for a battle against the Dark Side.

In a recent announcement by Lucasarts, it has been confirmed that the Jedi Knight series of Star Wars FPS’ers will be coming to Steam sometime next week.  It will include both Jedi Knight’s Mysteries of the Sith and the Dark Forces expansions.  

Direct2Drive is also reporting the release set for September 16th.

Courtesy of FrozenByte we are giving away a free full copy of the 2.5d platforming adventure Trine on Steam! To enter for your chance win just follow 3 simple steps:

1) Register here on Fall-Damage.com to enable you to enter comments on this post
2) Visit our iTunes Store Listing and rate our podcast (preferably 5 stars!)
3) Leave a comment to this post saying you’ve rated our podcast, and you will be automatically entered into the drawing!

On September 17th we will randomly select an entrant as the winner, and announce that winner in the September 18th podcast!

We’re back with Level 2 of Fall Damage, with your hosts Mixmoff and Aevan. Listen to hear how you can win a free copy of Trine!

Crit or Quit:
Battlefield 1943, Sacred 2, Nation Red, Quantz, Osmos, and Time Gentlemen, Please

Patch Notes:
Starcraft 2 pay to play? Left2Dead DLC, Website news, This week’s release calendar

Level Builder
This week we break down “character creation” and discuss what games have done it well, which have done it poorly, and what developers can do to improve them in the future.

End Game:
Mixmoff and Aevan give their picks for what retro games should get remade on modern consoles.

Fall Damage: Level 2 – The Phat Loot Show

Braid is 66% Off at Steam!

If you’re in the mood for a good bargain, head over to Steam and check out Braid. 

It’s on sale this weekend, and this weekend only, for just $4.99.  That’s a whole 66% off the original price, folks…and you can’t beat that with a crowbar.

A few short days after the leaked Japan launch date for Final Fantasy XIII, Square-Enix held its premiere party to give the official word. Japan will get its collective mitts on the next belt-laden RPG on December 17th, with early word of a US launch to follow between March and May 2010.

Square-Enix reps also announced that game’s theme song will be performed by Sayuri Sugawara. Which sounds like the best imaginable reason to post a J-pop video here!

Tonight we bring you the premiere episode of Fall Damage, with your hosts Mixmoff and Aevan.

Crit or Quit:
Shadow Complex, Last Remnant, Trine, WET, Tomb Raider: Underworld

Patch Notes:
Playstation Firmware 3.0, GTA Ballad of Gay Tony trailer, This week’s release calendar

Level Builder
This week we break down “morality systems” and discuss what games have done it well, which have done it poorly, and what developers can do to improve them in the future.

Boss Battle:
Mixmoff and Aevan battle it out whether or not you should be excited about Left4Dead 2!

Fall Damage: Level 1 – The Launch

I’ve arrived at my destination…Electronics. I wisked past the iPod display and the marked down 32″ Vizio HDTVs.

“Do you need help finding anything?” asked a rotund, goateed young man from behind his mound of soon-to-be-stocked boxes of merchandise.

“Nah, I’m good…thanks”, I replied. The fewer people who know about this, the better.

I turned the corner right next to the small clearance end-cap. There they were, in all of their discounted glory. Dead Space…$19.98. Resistance: Fall of Man…$14.98. Prince of Persia…wait, it’s all the way down to $9.98?! All of these have gotten great reviews. I should think about this, though. I haven’t even begun the main quest line of Oblivion. There’s are two more islands to explore in inFamous. Chapter Five of Valkyria Chronicles has been staring me in the face every night.

Ten minutes and $26.77 later, I was back in my car, pulling out of the Target parking lot. The guilt had already started to set in.

Firmware 3.0 dropped on the Sony Playstation 3 late Monday night, and it has sent a ripple of discord through some of Sony’s most hardline fans. Seemingly without reason Sony has decided to make some drastic visual “improvements” to the previously minimalist XMB, but it’s not all bad news!

But the biggest complaint seems to be the redesign of the friends list. Gone is the minimalist vibe of the old XMB, ushered out in favor of a wall of gray-glass. Sony is obviously trying to better use the screen space available in the friends list, but this solution leaves a lot to be desired. And speaking of utilizing screen space, after initially installing the firmware I sincerely thought my screen resolution had been reset to 480. What is with these giant icons and fonts? Is Sony trying to appeal to the baby-boomer demographic now?

There are some bright points, however, as the firmware brings two major improvements and a handful of minor, less-impressive tweaks. The first and perhaps most noteworthy improvement is the addition of dynamic themes. The animated sackboy theme is great, and brings some welcome depth to the XMB interface.

Perhaps even more welcome to PS3 users is the new option of using multiple audio outputs. With this feature you can quickly transition from listening to full digital surround sound through your stereo system via optical, to simply using the TV’s sound via HDMI or AV-multi without leaving your game to change your audio settings.

Other features are of less usefulness and include browser copy/pasting, the somewhat pointless and arguably intrusive “What’s New” section (which replaces the Information Bar) and the new message box/user area in the upper right corner.

Keep your eyes here. You won’t want to miss this!

We here at Fall Damage think all of today’s greatest rock stars need to take a moment and bear witness to this. Suicide doesn’t just hurt those you love, it also guarantees you won’t be around to stop hideous licensing deals!

Below you can see my favorite of these new ads, and the other one can be found at the Playstation blog.

*taps microphone* Is this thing on?

Fall Damage will soon become your favorite podcast, assuming you like great humor, video gaming, or are directly related to one of our hosts.  We’ll start releasing weekly, with the first episode coming soon! While you’re waiting, take a listen to our snazzy intro music.

Snazzy, eh?

And me? You can call me Mixmoff, though I doubt you’ll be able to take yourself seriously if you do.