And so the final DLC, and the remaining achievements, finally fall in Fallout. Into The Pitt was a bit confusing, as part way through you have to make a decision, and it isn’t obvious which is the “good” choice, and which is the “bad” choice. I ended up doing both, playing a bit to see, then reloading the save of the better of the two outcomes. It’s a shame I’m so powered up now, as nothing – not even the …
Over on That Newsgroup Wot I’m In, we were talking about whatever the first proper FPS game was. Back before Wolfenstein, before Doom, before Faceball 3000. I think we pretty much established that if you widen your definition of “First Person Shooter” enough, then Atari’s Battlezone was one of the very first. Apparently there were older, but none that many people really remember. Anyway, part of the discussion threw up the old Incentive Software “Freescape” games. Although technically adventure, puzzle, …
You know the £20 Rule? That one where I pledged I wouldn’t pay more than £20 for a game? It’s great, isn’t it? It used to be a £25 Rule, but I made it harder. I’ve spent three years sticking to it too, and I’ve done really well – only breaking it once (but thanks to Game screwing up my payment for Fallout 3, I ended up not breaking it). But now I have a confession. On Thursday last week, …
Fallout New Vegas, the next Fallout game, is out soon. Just over a month, in fact. So I thought I’d best get back into Fallout 3 and mop up the two remaining DLC quests, the first of which being Mothership Zeta. I’d actually bought the downloads a while back, when they were on offer, but decided not to play them so that I could eke out the Fallout 3 “experience” over the course of the huge wait before New Vegas. …
If you’re one of those people with a brain that spots faces in inanimate objects, you’ll love this bearded jester I saw this morning.
I never bothered with the other Bioshock 2 DLC, as the online stuff never really appealed (although I did play online a few times). A completely new story, though? Couldn’t resist. Once more, they managed to find bits of Rapture that hadn’t previously been visited (it’s a big place, clearly), and like in the main Bioshock 2 game you’re a Big Daddy. It’s pretty much more of the same, really – just with new locations, story and some new weapons …
Amazing. Just utterly amazing. It’s a totally new, but totally retro, video game that plays fantastically, and is even better than the games it apes. I won’t spoil it all, but I do need to say how much I enjoyed spotting references to other games in this one – both in the levels, and the items you can buy. I love that sort of stuff. If you haven’t already, buy it now.
Embarrassing fact: This game was one half of a compilation tape I got as a kid. You can see a copy of the original inlay over there. Thing is, I didn’t know that Bouncing Berty and Eskimo Capers were, in fact, two different games. I always referred to the Eskimo game as “Bouncing Berty in Eskimo Capers”, and hated my poor gaming skills as I was seemingly never good enough to get to the “pyramid level”. Then, one day many …
I’ve not read the comics. I’ve not seen the film. But, after seeing just a handful of screenshots a few weeks ago for the game, I knew I’d want it. So confident was I, that I didn’t even bother trying the demo – I stumped up my 800 Microsoft Moon Pounds and bought the full game. And I was right – I love it. It’s a great mix of River City Ransom, Guardian Heroes, Streets of Rage, and that Puffy …
These mock-ups of some recent games as they might appear in the 80s and 90s are amazing. And not just amazing – in many cases they’re actual games I’d really want to own. I also like how they’ve been imagined – Bayonetta as a bullet-hell shooter, and Brutal Legend as a point-and-click adventure game. I’d like SNES Pikmin and Super Mario Sprint made first, please! See the rest here.
I was one of the lucky ones to get a free code for this, since The Times cocked up and allowed their “subscriber only” offer to be accessible to all and sundry. I’d just played the demo too, and was about to buy it anyway when I realised I had enough other games to be getting on with so would wait for a price drop. Ten minutes later – free code! You’ll be noticing that there’s no “Tomb Raider” in …
Pete Cooke was one of the “heroes” of 8-bit game programming. He had a talent for slickly presented games, and many of his creations also had some sort of Easter Egg built-in. In the case of Zolyx, the best Qix clone for the Spectrum, he included an entire Game of Life routine. For no reason. You can play with that if you like (pick Freebie from the menu), but I suggest you get stuck in to the game proper – …
Who doesn’t like piloting expensive war planes, weaving through buildings and shooting missiles up the backsides of other expensive war planes? Nobody, that’s who. Here’s a trailer for the latest Ace Combat game from Namco Bandai. Which does all of the above: Press release: Fighter fans, now is your chance to marvel at the latest in the ACE COMBAT series www.acecombatassaulthorizon.com ‘ACE COMBATTM ASSAULT HORIZON’ PREPARES TO TEAR THE HEAVENS APART NAMCO BANDAI Games Europe kicks the tires, lights the …
We’re currently in the process of migrating servers from Server 2003 to Server 2008, which is proving a right old pain for various reasons. This morning’s headache was reinstalling a load of network printers on the new 2008 install that worked perfectly well on the 2003 install. 64-bit 2008, by default, only installs printers with the 64-bit 2008 and (for some printers, it seems, but not others) the 32 and 64-bit Vista/Windows 7 “User Mode” drivers. The old-style 2000/XP/2003 drivers …