PC PC GAMES

Finishing recording Sunday night and then editing is taking quite a toll. So I will switch release to Monday night / Tuesday morning. Hope you guys are not to disappointed, but it is quite a bit of work to edit the podcast and I want it to sound OK. So… sometime today I should upload.

On the bight side… you might be able to listen in live sometime down the road. Working out the details of that might take a little while, but we will see

Oh… and why the gif? … just because..

You might have heard me talk about it… you might have seen me play on LIVE STREAM. If you like RTS and for some reason don’t have CoH yet… dude… $4.99!

Overview: Company of Heroes

The Most Dynamic Battlefield Ever Seen
Company of Heroes is a WWII Real Time Strategy game that brings to life the journey of the brave men of Able Company as they fight across Europe in the greatest war mankind has ever known.

From the studio that brought you the blockbuster games of the year Homeworld, Impossible Creatures and Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War comes the next revolution in action strategy.

Experience the Cinematic Intensity
From the opening shots of the D-Day invasion of Normandy players will find themselves immersed in a rich singleplayer campaign.

Experience the cinematic intensity, courage, and bravery of the heroes that defined a generation, set against the backdrop of the most dynamic battlefield ever seen in a game.

Essence Engine
Relic’s next generation cutting-edge engine provides graphics quality and a physics driven world that is unprecedented in an RTS.

Environmental Strategy
Real-time physics and a completely destructible environment guarantee no two battles ever play out in the same way.

Destroy anything and re-shape the battlefield in your image. Use buildings and terrain to your advantage, or deny them to the enemy.

Living Soldiers
Advanced squad AI brings your soldiers to life as they interact with their changing environment, take cover, and execute advanced squad tactics to eliminate all enemy opposition.

Multiplayer
2-8 players MP competition via LAN or Internet. Go online with friends and join in the ultimate battle of Axis versus Allies.

Let me just start by saying that I am a pretty big comic book fan. What with having a couple thousand comic books in my possession, I have a pretty good handhold on these things. Spider-Man and Batman have always been my favorite superheroes since the early 70′s when I started collecting as a kid. And before I begin to sound biased because I have a distaste of anything labeled Marvel “Ultimate-insert-crap-here”, I really did try to like this game. But for me it just felt like a giant kick to the groin. In fact it’s more like two kicks to the groin between Activision publishing this game and Marvel Comics allowing Editor-in-Chief Joe Quesada to take the reigns and let his “creative” staff take 70 years of history, throw it in the shredder and rewrite it. After all, isn’t that why Marvel published the “What-If….” series years ago?

But between my disdain for all things “Ultimate” in the Marvel line-up and being biased of most superhero games, nothing could prepare me for this suck-fest.

The story takes place with the Ultimate Spider-Man story arc, the black goo symbiote that would become Peter Parker’s new spidey suit until Peter rejects it and the symbiote then merges with Eddie Brock to seek revenge on Peter. And this is where the story gets too confusing and convoluted. First, Mary Jane has to sew your butthole shut (yes, I said butthole). You then race Johnny Storm testing your spider swinging abilities for no reason at all. Then you will witness Wolverine get bested by Venom for no reason at all. Then as Spidey, you take on the Rhino for no reason at all. Then Silver Sable shows up. Then Nick Fury and SHIELD show up. Then Beetle frees the Green Goblin and steals a sample of the Sandman. Then….Jesus Christ, the confusion just never ends!!!

You need a good 'ol Spidey spanking you naughty girl!

This suck-fest really kicks in overtime when it comes to control and playability. Now a lot of you know that I have a thing about using keyboards for gaming since I’m a huge retrogaming screwbag and like using gamepads. And in games like this one, the gamepad really is the way to go. But controlling Spidey is a full-time job in and of itself. The controls never respond in any manner that you direct it. First he swings, then he slams into a wall and just falls. You’d think that jumping would be able to incorporate webslinging and wallcrawling. But no, the silly trolls at Treyarch decided that was just too much for Spidey to handle. It goes hand-in-hand with walking and chewing gum I suppose. But Spidey is a superhero. Superheroes CAN walk, run, beat up the bad guys and unwrap chewing gum with their toes all at the same time. Apparently asking for that was just too much of an effort for Treyarch. Spidey had better controlling action in previous games.

There is one minor good point that I can give this gold-plated turd. Treyarch used cel shading, which I can say really added to the effect of a living comic book. The presentation was spot on for recreating that comic book feel. It’s just too bad that artifacts appear on almost every cinematic screen. I have tried this game on three different computers with three different VGA cards and the artifacts appeared the same on each one. Minus the artifacts, the graphics were pretty good and stayed consistent with the Ultimate Spider-Man series artwork.

As you can tell, I hate this game. It ranks up there with having a doctor stick his greasy finger up your backside. No, it’s worse than that. It’s like having your grandmother slip her tongue in your mouth and drop her dentures down your throat. I’m just hoping that someone has played this game on the Gamecube or PS2 and can say something better than what I just did.

And the polished turd award goes to.....

So let’s wrap this crap-cube up:

Graphics: 4.5 Minus the artifacts that appear in some scenes, the graphics are pretty good. Fans of Marvel’s Ultimate universe will appreciate the artwork.

Audio: 4 The voice acting is pretty good and surprisingly better than most of the Spider-Man games in the past.

Control: 1 Just bite me. You read the review.

Fun Factor: 2 I can’t say it wasn’t cool to swing around, but I can’t say that this game is worth the $10.00 I paid for it at a local discount store either. A person can find better things to do like chew on their toenails in front of the TV. Wait, I think I hear the suck police coming. WEEEEEE-EWWWWWW!

Now please excuse me as I go pour bleach in my eyes to get rid of the image burned into my retinas and shoot scrubbing bubbles in my mouth from swearing while Spider-Wad confusingly met his doom every 5 minutes.

GAME OVER – Thank God!

P.S. – And did I mention you can play as Venom in this game too? What? You don’t care? Me neither!

Thanks to all the people who just read this and feel like they just lost 5 minutes of their lives that will never come back. It’s not like all those saved minutes on your cell phone. They’re gone buddy!

So here is a game you don’t need any brains for…. hehe, pun intended! For this price it is well worth the price of admission. I had a couple hours great fun and a couple cheap laughs. So go get it! Here is the description:

Fight your way through the streets of a zombie infested city to save the survivors of a disastrous chemical accident that changed most of the city’s population into mindless brain hungry monsters. Time is your enemy and your car is your weapon as you race through the streets smashing everything on your way including fences, phone booths, street lamps and hordes of zombies. When the gruesomely mutated zombies become too much to handle, buy a new car or get more guns and upgrades installed. You can earn more money for finishing side quests, making kill combos and searching for hidden prizes. Game play is unrestricted and the player can freely roam through the dark streets, alleys and backyards searching for the best shortcuts or hidden power ups.

Now if you want to spend a couple more hours playing a “Semi-Retro” game, then get the Commandos Collection for the same price. They are very different kind of games. As a matter of fact I can’t think of anything that is similar that has come out in recent time. I always wondered why they didn’t continue. Here is the description for Commandos:

Commandos: Behind Enemy Lines is a real-time tactics game set in World War II that puts you in command of a small squad of elite troopers. Send them behind enemy lines on a series of hazardous missions, and bring them back alive. Clever strategy has never been so furiously action-packed. Study the enemy’s movements, develop a careful plan, synchronize your men, and launch them on a swift and fierce attack using all your power and skill.

Here is some gameplay video, so you know what it looks like:

Hey guys. We are growing rather quick. Just wanted to check if you guys would be interested in a forum. Should we have one, should we just answer comments on posts? Give us a shout and let us know!

On another side note… if you have not yet PLEASE rate us on ITunes. It helps a great deal for other people to find us. I hope you already shared with your friends about us.

Don’t forget that this is YOUR SITE. By gamers for gamers. So if you have something to say drop us a e-mail or leave a voice-mail. If you think you have something to say let us know. I hope to have the one or the other of YOU guys on the podcast sometime down the road. You can share a game review or other PC game related info.

TR’s latest system guide is up. A great read, especially if your looking to build a system soon.

http://www.techreport.com/articles.x/18747

I know Curl already mentioned the Spring Sale. But Dirt 2 for under $10 screams instant buy! Even if you are not a big racing fan it would be fun to get some people from the pcpcgames community together for some races. So GO BUY IT!

Because of some of the ads I take the live automatic stream down. It will be in the side bar without the auto start. That way you can find the channel but won’t be bugged by the adds popping out of the blue. My apologies to all that where bothered!

This looks to be week 1 of their Spring sale. Tons of titles at really low prices. Most notable on the list are Fallout 3, Dirt 2, Neverwinter Nights 2 Gold and Stalker: Clear Sky. All of which I would recommend.

http://www.direct2drive.com/promos/spring-sale/

Some of those are even cheaper than a movie ticket.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 1:56:54 — 26.8MB)

If you have been playing Warhammer Online we want to hear from you! We all talked quite a bit about what happened with the billing fiasco. This has to be the biggest game to real life impact I have seen in a long time. So we where all very surprised to hear about your issues and how a long time publisher can fail so much. We feel they are failing in their response to the fans of the game, what do you think?

Of course we can’t help but have our weekly UBI rant… are you tired of it yet? But here is the list:

• Just Cause 2
• When do you let your kids play what?
• Starcraft 2 Price and Collectors Edition
• C&C 4 expected disappointment
• UBI rant of the week… and then some
• Modern “Knife War” 2
• Some Apple talk… not sure why?!
• Massive Warhammer billing fail!!!
• Windows 7 SP1 (not really news)
• Video Card issues and a look at FERMI
• PAX East Gaming Panel talking about the future of PC gaming (FAIL Panel)
• Serious Sam HD 2
• Just Cause 2 DLC
• GameTap talk
• Mount and Blade
• Another “I wanna be that Guy” victim
• FEAR 3 trailer

Splinter Cell: Conviction CE drops $10 in price due to faulty USB drives

Ubisoft: DRM Will “Evolve” & The Bluesnews comments!!!

More Modern Warfare Senior Staff leave

Activision countersuit

Warhammer Online ‘billing error’ results in massively multiplayer overcharge

Warhammer Player cannot pay for meal due to billing error!

Nvidia overcooks cards!

PAX East Panel: Future of PC gaming

Mount & Blade: Warband Demo

http://www.gametap.com/

There is a lot of people that are looking forward to this. What it has going for it it is Bioware (EA being involved is a little scary) and it is Starwars. But they seem to have the formula right. We wait and see I guess.

This is a very informative article posted on MSN’s frontpage today:

http://www.slate.com/id/2213124/?Gt1=38001

So, the StarCraft 2 prices have been anounced. What do you guys think, is $60 too much for a Blizzard game we waited for 10 years? Drop a line and voice your opinion. Oh… and if $60 is not enough for you can get the limited edition for $100

……my poor old Commodore 64 just died today. We shared some really good times together. Please pay your respects.

R.I.P.  little guy. You were a fighter in the world of PCs. 

R.I.P.

Found this great video on College Humor’s website that I think you will enjoy:

http://www.collegehumor.com/video:1932178

A lot of people ask me “why do I retrogame? There are so many games with  better graphics and more realistic content. Besides, who wants that old prehistoric stuff?” I mean, let’s face it. With today’s technology, you can play online against people from all over the world or on a private LAN with a few of your buddies and the graphics are far and beyond the older systems. You can choose to game on a PS3, the X-Box 360, the Wii. Or you can just stick with your PC as your favorite gaming platform of choice.

Retrogaming is defined as the following per Wikipedia: Retrogaming, also known as classic gaming and old-school gaming, is the hobby of playing and collecting older computer, video, and arcade games. These games are played either on the original hardware, on modern hardware via emulation, or on modern hardware via ports or compilations. Participants in the hobby are sometimes known as retrogamers in the United Kingdom, while the terms classic gamers, or old-school gamers are more prevalent in the United States. Similarly, the games are known as retrogames, classic games, or old-school games. Retrogaming is often linked to, although not the same as, indie gaming, the hobby of playing games that are not published by any conventional publisher. Additionally, the term old-school could apply to a newer game, but with features similar to those of older games, such as “old-school RPGs”.

I think to better understand retrogaming, you have to start at the beginning and understand the culture that surrounded the public. Some people consider retrogaming starting with the arcades, while others may consider the Commodore 64 or 128 as a starting point. Still yet, others may go back to when the old 386 and 486 computers began to come out with 8MB of RAM and 128MB harddrives that could hold dozens of MS-DOS games. It all depends on what generation you came from.

I choose to start my idea of retrogaming by going all the way back to Pong in 1972. Pong first appeared on the Magnovox Odyssey and later by Atari, of which was owned by the grandfather of video games, Nolan Bushnell. Now we all know what Pong is, so there really is no explanation needed here.

With the 70′s came a time of some great events such as the blockbuster movie Star Wars, the first test flight of NASA’s space shuttle Enterprise, the TRS-80 – one the first affordable home computers, and the U.S. and Soviet Union coming to terms on the spread of nuclear weapons. It wasn’t until 1977 that a gaming console called the Atari 2600 came out. Sears department stores sold the same unit as the Sears Telegames Cartridge System. Mattel soon followed with the Intellivision and Coleco presented the Colecovision. People were amazed at the whole concept of video games and the video game craze was ablaze. It was the 70′s and the sign of advanced technology was just beginning.

Next came the 80′s. And with it came a whole new generation of gamers. Clothes changed from bell bottom pants and disco shirts only to be replaced with florescent jams and Ocean Pacific shirts. Everyone wanted the Don Johnson look from Miami Vice. John Lennon was shot and killed. President Reagan was shot and wounded. People traded in old appliance colors of olive green, brown and goldenrod for white and beige. The CD became the choice for music, replacing the vinyl albums and cassettes. As the video game craze began to develop, games that were once only found in niche corners of the local convenience store were now appearing to the masses in the form of arcades. Arcades appeared in almost every mall in America and some were just walk in outlets off the street. Companies like Namco, Midway, Atari and Nintendo started to make waves with games like Pac-Man, Galaga, Space Invaders, Dig-Dug and Donkey Kong. There seemed to be no end in site when everyone became crazy with Pac-Man Fever. 

But then something drastic happened. Around 1982 to 1983, the video game market collapsed. The game console market became flooded and people started to divert their attention toward personal computers. Commodore and Atari began to compete for bragging rights by swaying people to buy home computers for doing daily tasks such as home finances while still having the ability to play games as well. Software companies began to lose publishing control when Atari decided that programmers did not deserve credit for their games such as musicians and actors. Arcades soon followed suit and began to close their doors.

It wasn’t until 1985 that video games would come back into peoples lives with the 8-bit Nintendo Entertainment System. With such games as Super Mario Bros., people became interested in the games with better graphics and music. There was still the simplicity factor, but more advanced than the older systems. Atari tried to compete unsuccessfully with the 5200 and 7800 series consoles. Sega also tried to compete with their 8-bit Master System. Towards the end of the 80′s, Nintendo introduced the first cartridge based handheld system called the Gameboy. The Gameboy would turn out to be another huge success for Nintendo. Sega soon introduced the first 16-bit gaming system known in the U.S. as the Genesis and NEC introduced the Turbografx-16 in North America.

We now enter the 90′s. And again a whole new generation of gamers. People were trading their American cars for more economical Japanese models at a massive rate. The Berlin wall had just previously fallen. The Soviet Union was once again named Russia. Home computers were becoming more and more advanced at a quicker pace. The first recordable CD-RW drives began to appear at the cost of $1000 or more. This would become the era of the 32-bit, 64-bit and 128-bit generations. Nintendo would finally enter the 16-bit arena early in 1992. But in 1994, Sony would soon unveil the first CD-based game console called the Playstation (PSX) after a failed attempt to partner with Nintendo on a CD add-on for the Super Nintendo. The PSX introduced early 3D gaming. Sega also introduced the CD-based 32-bit Saturn. In 1996, Nintendo, along with the help of Silicon Graphics, created the 64-bit Nintendo 64. Choosing to stay with a cartridge based system, it fell short of toppling Sony. It was now 1999 and Sega introduced the first 128-bit gaming console called the Dreamcast to compete against Sony. Even though the PS2 didn’t come out until 15 months later in 2000, the Dreamcast failed to overtake the competition with Sony and succumbed to a bitter defeat.

Now why did I just cover all of that? Well again, depending on what generation you’re from, you all believe in a different opinion of what retrogaming is. My opinion starts with Pong and ends with Sega’s Dreamcast. Others may argue that, but with each generation of gaming technology and systems, there is a bit of nostalgia of the times that can be placed with it. And with that nostalgia, it brings to light the enjoyment we once had and have forgotten while growing up with video games, whether it be hanging out in the arcades with your friends or just playing your first home gaming system with your family. There can be special memories associated with anything we may do in the present. No matter how old and simplistic the technology was at the time, there is no denying that those games that were once so fun to play back then, are still just as fun to play today. We should all take a stroll down memory lane to remember the good times growing up while playing those old video games from each era. And we mustn’t forget that the past technology is what has pushed us to where we are today. We owe a great deal to the early pioneers of video gaming.

Game over.

Now you too can expiriance being knifed and wonder why so many hackers love MW2. Here is the STEAM news:

Beginning this Thursday, April 8, gamers around the world can play Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 multiplayer free of charge during a special Free Weekend promotion on Steam. The definitive online experience, Modern Warfare 2 returns with a host of new perks and enhancements. Those who wish to enjoy every moment of the Modern Warfare 2 multiplayer Free Weekend may pre-load Modern Warfare 2 multiplayer now. There is no obligation to participate.