Tuesday, June 21, 2011

Star Control II: The Ur-Quan Masters

The Ur-Quan Masters is probably one of the most fascinating space games I have ever played.

You start out as some guy on with a space ship and fly back to Earth only to be greeted by a probe vessel of the Ur-Quan. It tells you to stay where you are to get taken into custody since your ship doesn't have a license plate or something. If you disregard this and instead try to enter Earth's air-space you will find that it's enveloped by a red shield that won't let you through so you ask on the space station near Earth why you cannot enter Earth only to learn that the Ur-Quan enslaved all of humanity. The commander of the space station asks you if you want to free humanity from the Ur-Quans' grip and of course you agree. This is where the fun starts.


The commander asks you to go to different planets to gather minerals (which you can trade for space credits) to upgrade your ship and buy smaller ships for fighting other ships. He also wants you to find allies for your cause, since there are quite a number of oppressed races that hate the Ur-Quan. You talk to a lot of people, and being disrespectful isn't always the best course of action.


Battle is being controlled simply with the arrow keys to steer and ctrl to shoot. Many different space ships offer different attack power and maneuverability. A ship is considered destroyed when all crew members are dead.

What I like is the huge lore. The captain fills you in on the different races and their function in the big war that happened before. The races you meat can either be very silly or threatening. Travelling through space is fun because there are a lot of places you can travel to, so finding a certain race by chance is especially exciting.

Definitely a good game, and the best part is that it's FREE!

Sunday, June 19, 2011

PVK II

Hi everyone! Sorry for the long absence, but I had to take care of some problems and couldn't really write that much, but now I hope to get back to writing as usual!

Let us talk about Pirates, Vikings and Knight II. It's about three teams from different time periods that are after precious booty. Each team has their own classes, so the Knight team has a heavy knight who is rather slow, but can deal a lot of damage in melee or an archer who can shoot enemies with bows and crossbows.






Further classes will be added with subsequent updates. The dev team is going for 6 classes per team, and the next update will add one more class for Pirates and Knights.

Game modes include "Last Team Standing" "Booty" and "Trinket Wars". Booty makes you go for other team's treasure chests while protecting your own while Trinket Wars gives a member of your team an item to hold. Enemies killed in the vicinity of this trinket carrier count towards your points. Whoever reaches a certain amount of points first, wins the round.

The game is rather entertaining, but requires Steam and a copy of a source game like TF2, CS:S or Half-Life. Check here for a full list. Otherwise, the game is free!


If you are interested in this game, check out the devteam's page!

Tuesday, June 14, 2011

Moonstone



Let us talk about Moonstone. An Amiga game from 1993, now abandonware, it puts you and your friends into the role of one of four knights whose goal is collecting the keys to the village to obtain a Moonstone and become a god. This can be done alone or with up to three other people.

You fight all kinds of monsters and even your own friends. Every so often, a lair gives you a key. Four of these keys give you access to the fight with the guardian, a milestone in each playthrough since you need to defeat it to get the Moonstone.


The variety of enemies is rather colourful. You face the humanoid-like Troggs, mudmen who can instantly drag you in the mud and ratman who can hang you with their tail until you face the dragon, which has unbelievable riches if you defeat him. This brings me to the graphic violent this game displays. Every way you die is a rather brutal one, whether it be burnt, smashed or beheaded.
From moonstonetavern.co.uk:


Luckily, you have a wide selection of attacks you can use to fend off your foes. You can use a stand horizontal swing, a powerful overhead swing, a lunge attack and you can even throw daggers and block.

Several items and scrolls can be bought to make the life of a knight easier. A dragon talisman for example lets you take less damage from the dragon's firebreath, a crystal orb lets you see what treasures a lair has for you, and a magical ring increases your life capacity. You can also upgrade your sword and armor and increase either your STRENGTH, CONSTITUTION or ENDURANCE stat.

If you want to try it out yourself, check http://www.moonstonetavern.co.uk/emulation.htm
The game is free to download now and a user provided a trouble-free solution in case you do not want to tinker around with the amiga emulator.

Sunday, June 12, 2011

E3 Nintendo conference


Nintendo showed us the Wii U! As you can see from the trailer, it's a controller for the Wii with a touchpad on it. If this idea is good or not has yet to be seen, but I am rather sceptical about it. Here are some technical facts from the Nintendo Press Kit:


Furthermore, several new games (working titles) have been announced by Nintendo:

-Animal Crossing (3DS)
-Luigi's Mansion 2 (3DS)
-Mario Kart (3DS)
-Paper Mario (3DS)
-Star Fox 64 3D (3DS)
-Super Mario (3DS)
-Mario Party 9 (Wii)
-Kirby (Wii)

Saturday, June 11, 2011

E3 Sony conference



Sony was definitely one of the big highlights this year.

The NGP actually got a proper name: The PSP Vita. And the thing is a beast:

-6-axis motion sensors
-dual analog controller
-camera at the front and in the back
-1 OLED touch screen
-1 touchpad in the back
-4-core ARM Cortex-A9 CPU
-200 MHz SGX543MP4+ GPU

Furthermore, the Vita comes in two versions: The Wi-Fi version and the 3G version, respectively priced $249 and $299.


They also announced some games for the PS3:


-Resistance 3
-Uncharted 3
-NBA 2012
-Medievil moves
-Infamous 2
-Starhawk
-Sly Cooper Thieves in Time
-Bioshock Infinite
-RUIN
-Street Fighter cross Tekken

Friday, June 10, 2011

E3 Ubisoft conference

Here we go, the Ubisoft conference!


Apart from Mr Caffeine, they actually had a few games to show too! They started off with Rayman Origins, a Rayman game that comes without the Rabbids and goes back to the 2d platforming we all loved about Rayman.

They also showed a new the trailer for the new Farcry 3, which looked very pretty and actually intense. You are a guy stranded on an island full of crazy people with guns and you have no means to escape.

The next game they showed is the new "Brothers in Arms: Furious 4", which I can only describe as a mix between Inglorious Basterds and Team Fortress 2. Although it was only a trailer, I think the concept sounds rather exciting and I will definitely look out for it.

Of course they also announced a Rabbids game for Kinect.

In spite of that, they also showed a demo for the new Assassin's Creed:

Looks very promising, I love the series!

Thursday, June 9, 2011

E3 EA Conference

EA too had a lot to show this year:

One of their first titles to present was the new "Need for Speed: The Run". Basically, it's the racing game serious we all know, but this time you can leave the car and run away should you get chased by the police. Quick-Time Event are involved too. Might be a good addition or could be horrible. Time will tell.

Further games are a new Fifa, a new Madden and the new SSX Snowboarding (which admittedly showed some insane stunts).

Of course they also showed new Sims content, but in an unexpected way: Going with the social networking trend, they presented The Sims Social, which sports simplified graphics (think Habbo Hotel) and enables you to visit another person's house. This could widen the Sims audience even further.

A rather interesting game seems "Kingdom of Alamur: Reckoning", which might be an interesting RPG:



 There was also Overstrike. Looks like a shooter, but with good humour. See for yourself:



And of course they showed a demo for the upcoming Battlefield 3. It looks absolutely stunning. I can't wait to buy it!

Wednesday, June 8, 2011

E3 Microsoft conference

Microsoft were working on improving the Kinect and developing more Kinect compatible games. They showed family-friendly games such as "Sesame Street: Once upon a Monster" and "Disneyland Adventures", both co-op games. They also showed how Kinect can make a photo of a person and turn this photo into a 3d avatar. The same can be done with objects like plushies to bring them into the game.

"Ghost Recon: Future Soldier" will use Kinect to fire a weapon by doing a motion, like you're actually holding a weapon. I find it difficult to explain, so I will show you a video of it instead:


I think it looks quite interesting, but I am not sure if aiming a gun like this wouldn't be too difficult.

Furthermore, Microsoft unveiled the new Halo 4, developed not by Bungie but a different team. They only showed the teaser so we don't have too much information about this. They also plan on re-releasing Halo: Combat Evolved in HD, with fully upgraded graphics!

Another game is the new Gears of War 3, where they delivered a gameplay demo during their conference:


These were the big highlights for me! Stay tuned for the other developers' summaries!

Tuesday, June 7, 2011

E3!!!!

E3 is almost over, but they delivered quite a show! I will write about it soon but it's just so much! Stay tuned!

Monday, June 6, 2011

E3 starting in a few hours!

Microsoft's E3 conference is starting in a few hours! I can't wait to see what their presentation is like and I will voice my humble opinion on it after it's over! Stay tuned!

Sunday, June 5, 2011

Spelunky!

Spelunky is a popular freeware indie platformer by Derek Yu. If by any chance you haven't heard of it, I made a video to show what it looks like:



While I'm not very good at this game, I shall try and reach the end and post about it if that happens!

Saturday, June 4, 2011

Konami's E3 Conference

Last night Konami put their pre-E3 conference online. People had the chance to catch a glimpse at upcoming Konami games. Here's a quick summary of what happened:

They of course talked about Metal Gear Solid 3 for the 3DS and showed a trailer for it. I looked slightly better than the PS2 version from what I could see, but of course it is not a new game at all. I'll probably get it anyway, since I'm a huge MGS fan.

They also showed their new Pro Evolution Soccer 2012. While I'm not a big fan of football, the graphics seemed nice and it looked like it will certainly appeal to football fans.

After that, they described their new game, Never Dead, whose trailer was shown at last E3 already. You play as an immortal guy who continues to live even after getting his head and limbs cut off and he's able to reattach them. Konami mentioned this would be utilized to get through places where a full-sized human wouldn't be able to go normally. I think it might be worth looking out for this game, it could be great.

Then Konami showed a trailer for the new Silent Hill Downpour, and mentioned that they will re-release some older Silent Hill titles with updated graphics.

The big announcement they made after that is their new service "TransFARring", and that's not a typo. Since they plan to re-release Metal Gear Solid 2 and 3 along with Peace Walker in HD for the Playstation 3, players will be able to transfer their savegames from PS3 to PSP (and later NGP) and vice versa. It seems they have put some considerable effort into this and might be worth keeping in mind if they plan to do this with their other games.




One of the last things they mentioned is that they are working on a new engine for their games, but haven't said too many details about it.

And that's pretty much it! It certainly put me in E3 mood and I can't wait to see what the other developers have to offer.

Friday, June 3, 2011

Stronghold



My little brother found this game called Stronghold the other day. I only heard little about it and started playing it without expecting much, but I was proven wrong.

In this RTS, you have fewer individual units that cancel each other out in a rock-paper-scissors like gameplay. Archers shoot pikemen down before they get too close, while macemen are a little tougher and should be attacked by crossbowmen. Furthermore, you have a number of specialty units like engineers, who are able to build catapults, and diggers, who dig tunnels to make destroy fortifications.

As the lord of you stronghold, you are expected by your people to bless them with low taxes, a lot of food and religion. Doing so will increase the number of people who move in your stronghold which you can use to staff farms, quarries, mines, etc. with. You also need manpower to build units to defend your castle with.

The campaign starts of rather easy, explaining what to do and what to build. The game becomes more and more difficult later on which could make the player try different strategies if he isn't too successful with his current one. A change from a macemen-heavy army to an army that consisted solely of archers helped me in several missions.

I hope I was able to give you a rough idea about the game.

Thursday, June 2, 2011

Big Money Rustlas

My Bro Simon brought the Juggalo movie "Big Money Rustlas" over yesterday. Wasn't as bad as I expected, but still very bad. The concept of glocks in a western seemed kind of appealing though.

Team Fortress 2

Anyone for Team Fortress 2? Only server my bros go to is the one with the mario kart map, and I hate it.

All I want is a decent 2fort server, why can no one deliver on that one?

Sup dudes

Just opening up the hut for the bros.

Get in a get your eyelids shocked.