Posts Tagged ‘PC’

Dungeons & Dragons: Daggerdale – the good, the bad, the button mashing

Thursday, May 26th, 2011

Since most of us here at BG come from a heavy pen and paper Dungeons and Dragons background this was a title that peaked our interests a few months back. This franchise is well overdue for a revamped series that is accessible in multi and single player scenarios. Atari and Wizards of the Coast seem to know this but can they bring our dice rolling fantasy to our console/PC and do it justice? Lets see…

The Bad
I want to end this on a good note so just let me get the bad stuff out of the way. I’m not going to fill you in on a story background, this is a ‘hack and slash’ game. The story seems sort of back seat to you runnning around looting barrells and killing goblins. We all could expect this from an ‘arcade’ type game. So don’t expect heavy dialogue (just heavy dwarf grunting), and missions like – go kill these guys here, go destroy that mine shaft there, escort this fella over here so he can make you a new shiny sword..etc. Very lack luster, but like I said, I don’t care much about that here, what I wanna know is if it’s fun for me, or worth my time to invest the 1200 microsoft points to satisfy my RPG fix on our occasional sober weekend nights.

Im a stickler on customization of my character, I will spend much too much time making my toon. Like hours if I can’t get it right. Outfitting and gear are a big part of RPGs for me. That was my first big dissappointment here. You get to pick one of four basic D&D Class/Races. Elf rogue, Dwarf cleric, Human warrior, and a Halfling mage (with corn rolls). No hair or face options, just what you see is what you get. They could of given us a few Male/Female options atleast. Big minus for me…

This was suppost to be a transfer of 4th edition rules right? Well at 3rd level I seem to have acquired 145hp (If I remember I should have around 25hp). The weapon damages are all accurate why wouldnt the players HP reflect that also? Maybe too many dots or since it’s not turn based combat they decided to give us a nice cushiony buff. Probably for the better, but still… D&D nerds will notice their numbers not adding up.

Button mashing. The combat is lots of hitting ‘X’ over and over with the slight special attack thrown in there…somewhat repetitive. It does work, and well we all kinda figured we’d be spamming and spamming to see how much we ‘crit’ for, or how much our ‘backstab’ hits at. It would of been nice to include some tatics here and there, and maybe multi-ing it with friends could lead to flanking mobs, or kiting strategies to handle some of the swarms of mobs that are hurled at you. Respawns of critters seems to be fast also, for those who are into blind ‘XP farming’.

The Good
Once you get past the button spamming and getting over the “I wanted to play a female dwarf to see if she could have a beard”, this game has some nice appeal for the BusyGamer. Quick runs with your friends, levelling up and searching for new gear I will never get tired of. The weapon and armor merchants have random items that are level based, they do change between saves it sorta seems, since I was frequently returning to vendors to see what they may have added. And these items reflect well on your character, better swords glow, bows have fire around them that do ‘fire damage’, and armors change your appearance accordingly. This is do like. When I upgrade my weapon, it should make me feel ‘upgraded’. I see that instead of adding character options, they just added a ton of different loot.

Blood and stuff. The fighting animations are very stylized. Nice blood splats and poision clouds from deadly arrows were a nice touch. Fireballs look like fireballs. Ice spells keep you rooted with ice shards coming out of the ground. It’s good to see the power of these smaller DL’d games be used, and they didn’t skimp on the effects.

The level maps are pretty big. I found myself really looking at the UI map of the cave areas to see what spots or treasure chests I may have missed. They are well marked with quest givers, vendors, and objectives so you wont get lost and caught back in a horde of respawned baddies.

Levelling seems adequately rewarding, not too fast, actually seemed a bit slow, but over all will make the game a good 12hrs or so to finish. Which is pretty fat for a DL.

The Overall
Good if you want a quick jump in and loot some mobs and try to get some upgraded gear. Good if you like a game that you could probably have fun with over XBLive with your buddies while drinking a beer at the same time. Good if you like attention to detail with some nice casting and magic item effects, that reflect well on your playing style, and good if you understand this is not a Dragon Age, or even Baulders Gate caliber of game. Bad if you want good story, indepth character customization, combat tactics, turn based strategy, or a game that requires you to think a whole lot more than past your ‘X’ button. It’s a quick ‘hack and slash let’s see how fast we can dps this mofo down’ type of game, and that’s exactly what I think WOTC and Atari set out to do.

Sony’s DC Universe MMO getting heroic sales

Monday, January 24th, 2011

(Gamespot) – Sony Online Entertainment’s massively multiplayer online role-playing game DC Universe Online is proving to be a massive success for its maker. According to the publisher, the title has used its superhuman strength to become SOE’s fastest-selling game ever.

The news comes via the Twitter post of SOE president John Smedley, who said the game is evaporating from store shelves.

“Working on out-of-stock problems for DCUO,” he said. “It’s out [sic] fastest selling game ever. Should have more inventory in Monday.”

Smedley also used the social networking space to tout Steam sales figures. Smedley said DC Universe Online was #1 in sales on Steam last week. He did not offer further specifics as to how well the PS3 iteration is selling.

Set within the DC Comics world, DC Universe Online lets players create a superhero or villain and fight alongside or against iconic comic book characters, such as the Joker, Batman, Superman, and others. It was developed under the creative direction of famed comic book artist Jim Lee.

Fable III, coin purses included

Thursday, October 14th, 2010

Fable III for Xbox 360 and PC appears to be quite generous on the prostitutes that will be roaming the towns, male and female, as depicted here in 2 pages of the new Fable III artbook.

The Art of Fable III book will contain images of uniforms, posters, characters and enviroments featured in the game. And maybe a few coin purses here and there. Yep we said it. I was wondering how much ‘play-style’ from Fable II would be incorperated in the third installment of the series, and judging by the pics I’d say that you will still be prompted to use ‘protection’ upon every endeavor.

And we always need that in our fantasy life too right? Of course. And need a bigger pic for your desktop – click away pervo.

Onlive has launch date, should consoles be scared?

Friday, March 12th, 2010

OnLive goes live in the lower 48 states on June 17.

(Gamespot) – One year after it was unveiled at the 2009 Game Developers Conference, OnLive finally has a launch date. Company CEO Steve Perlman announced yesterday at his keynote address at the GamesBeat mini-conference at GDC 2010 that OnLive will go live on June 17. The service will initially be available as an application for the Windows and Mac operating systems, with a micro-console that can be attached directly to HDTVs to arrive later on in the year.

OnLive’s launch will be limited to the contiguous lower 48 United States and will cost $14.95 per month. According to the OnLive Blog, the first 25,000 thousand people to sign up will have the service fee waived for three months. (To apply, sign up on the official OnLive site.) Multi-month pricing and other promotions will be announced prior to the service’s debut.

OnLive’s monthly fee does not include the purchase price of games themselves, which can be rented or bought from publishers directly at a lower-than-retail price. Publishers supporting the service with PC titles include Electronic Arts, Take-Two, THQ, Ubisoft, Epic, Atari, Codemasters, and Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment. At the DICE Summit last month, Perlman demonstrated both Crysis and Unreal Tournament 3 running on the service with minimal lag.

The June launch will only be the start of the OnLive rollout. The service will offer 1080p high-definition gaming at 60 frames per second starting in 2011. An international launch is also planned for an undetermined date.

For those unfamiliar with OnLive, the service aims to offer lag-free PC gaming via the Web. The company claims that since the heavy lifting of graphics processing will be done on the service’s servers, it will offer high-definition gaming on any PC or Mac, regardless of graphics card or CPU speed.

The addition of the micro-console will also allow the service to be streamed directly onto televisions, without the need for a standard game console. Perlman sees this as a positive because OnLive games will not be tied to increasingly antiquated consoles. He promised that the OnLive servers would receive graphical upgrades every six months in order to provide the latest PC graphics.

Alan Wake Uncovers Art And Writes Exposition

Friday, February 19th, 2010

"It was a beautiful place. I told myself I could rest here."

(VG247) It has been years since Alan Wake was first announced and now the official cover art has been revealed with the beginning of the game being leaked to the Internet. Though the cover art looks like a stereotypical scary movie poster, the artists give the right impression; making the consumer wonder what is in the dark. The writer for Alan Wake, Sam Lake, likes to believe there is actually a big screen release possibility for future stories involving the world of Alan.

Developed by Remedy Studios and published by Microsoft, the game is due out in late May; the 18th for the Americas and the 21st for Europe. We probably won’t see a demo until the beginning of May, but I’ll be looking forward to it.

From GameBlog.FR, the video leak reveals a few early spoilers for those who want to keep all the secrets under wraps but should be a good video to watch for those that are on the fence about the game. During the six minute video, Alan shows up to the creepy small town, Bright Falls, that is just waiting to reveal its inner demon. Ironic name for a town like this, eh? Watch the 5:42 leaked video below:

Sony Steals GTA4 Content

Saturday, January 30th, 2010

Coming to PS3 and PC - March 30th

Coming to the PS3 and PC, both downloadable episodes for Grand Theft auto that were once exclusive to the Xbox 360 only are now coming to computers and a Sony console. March 30th, they’ll both be available for the expensive price of $20 per episode or if you want to get the Grand Theft Auto: Episodes From Liberty City, you can pick it up for $40.

Officially announced via @RockstarGames, Rockstar later posted an article on the official website putting this announcement into more detail. The Lost and the Damned, the first DLC, tells a the dark story of Johnny Klebitz with this biker gang. The story seemed to be weaved in with the original story of Niko Bellic. The Ballad of Gay Tony is lead by Luis Lopez, moving through the fast-paced nightclub lifestyle with a little bit of base-jumping on the side.

In an interview with Kotaku, Rockstar representative Sam Houser said this: “It’s been a long time coming, but we are proud to finally deliver Episodes From Liberty City for the PC and PlayStation 3. We appreciate the patience of our PlayStation 3 and PC fans worldwide, and we look forward to putting the games in your hands this March.”

Rockstar says there’ll be new activities that weren’t playable before, but the question arises: is this new content that isn’t available for the previous versions of the DLC or is it just new for the PS3 and PC? I guess we’ll have to wait for March 30th to find out.

Borderlands gets a raise, in level cap!

Monday, January 25th, 2010

Over at the official Borderlands forums this weekend, Gearbox dropped some news on us indicating that there would be a new DLC on it’s way to the Xbox 360 marketplace and Playstation Network.

Gearbox says that the new DLC for Borderlands will be the “biggest we have made”, and the team is working on a new update for the game as well. Neither the update nor the DLC have a release date at this point, but are saying more info will be coming shortly.

The last two DLC’s for Borderlands, ‘Mad Moxxi’s Underdome Riot’ and ‘The Zombie Island of Dr. Ned’ have proven to be smash hits for rpg shooter fans, adding a whopping 15 hrs of game time to the already very lengthy game (for the BusyGamer that is). And Moxxi’s Underdome still challenges us over at BG every time we fire it up, it being one of our top mulitplayer titles to date.

[Official Borderlands Site]

EA Sets Stage for World Domination With RISK: Factions for XBLA

Wednesday, January 13th, 2010

Now taking over the world through your Xbox 360s!

Being a fan of the original board game, I was extremely happy to hear about a RISK title being released for this current generation of consoles. Unfortunately, I remember as well the terrible iterations of electronic versions being put out on the PC during the 90′s and the PS2 version, Global Domination, that just drove me insane. Please EA, don’t screw up this version! (Press Release)

Globally Popular, Strategic Game of Conquest in Development for Xbox LIVE Arcade

REDWOOD CITY, Calif.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–The EA Play Label of Electronic Arts Inc. (NASDAQ:ERTS) today announced that it is bringing Hasbro’s (NYSE:HAS) globally popular strategy game, RISK, to Xbox LIVE® Arcade (XBLA) in early 2010. Featuring outlandish factions, a unique art style, new gameplay twists and off-beat humor, RISK: Factions promises to challenge and captivate both new and seasoned RISK fans on their quest for world domination.

“For the past half-century, millions of RISK fans have been consumed with ruling the world, underscoring the board game’s enduring appeal,??? said Chip Lange, Senior Vice President and General Manager of EA’s Hasbro Division. “We’re now going to bring that masterpiece experience to life and add other amazing layers of XBLA-style gameplay that will take conquests to a new level, including the ability to battle players from around the globe for the first time, truly giving new meaning to the phrase ‘world domination’.???

(more…)

Practice yer pirating, no monkey business.

Thursday, July 9th, 2009

monkeyisland

(Press Release) – Arrrrr! Polish up your swashbuckles and grab your sword, because legendary pirate Guybrush Threepwood sets sail today on the first all-new Monkey Island® adventure in over a decade. Telltale’s highly anticipated game series, Tales of Monkey Island, begins now at www.telltalegames.com for PC with “Launch of the Screaming Narwhal,??? the first chapter in an epic five-month adventure created by the same team responsible for acclaimed episodic series’ including Sam & Max, Wallace & Gromit’s Grand Adventures and Strong Bad’s Cool Game for Attractive People. The first Tales of Monkey Island chapter is expected to release for WiiWare™ in the coming weeks as well.

The saga begins with a heated battle involving the brave but often bumbling Mighty Pirate™ Guybrush, his beloved wife Elaine, and their nemesis, the demon pirate LeChuck. When the showdown goes up in flames, Guybrush finds himself marooned on a strange island with winds that always blow inward. How will our hero manage to escape this meteorological anomaly? What has become of LeChuck and Elaine? And what’s the story with the infectious voodoo pox that’s spreading across the Caribbean, causing Guybrush and other pirates to act like unruly hooligans? These are just some of the many questions posed in this first chapter of what will become one of the most rollicking and rip-roaring entertainment experiences of the summer.

Dave Grossman, Telltale’s design director and a designer/writer for the original Monkey Island games says “I was laughing my eyepatch off on a daily basis while we were first cooking up Monkey Island at Skywalker Ranch, but if you’d told me then that it would become a classic, and that twenty years later I’d be working with a killer all-star piratey crew to spin an epic new tale and bring the series to a whole new generation of players, I would have said… well, probably, ‘Look behind you, a three-headed monkey,’ but then I’ve always been a bit weird that way.???

Tales of Monkey Island will unfold over the next five months, with each episodic chapter raising the stakes on Guybrush’s quest to eradicate the insidious Pox of LeChuck, reunite with his wife, and vanquish his rival. Much like the best television and films series, the story becomes deeper and more engrossing with interweaving threads building to twists and surprises in the grand finale this fall.

Customers who order from Telltale’s online store during the first week of availability can choose any other Telltale episode of their choice to include free with their purchase. Visit www.telltalegames.com/monkeyisland to get into the adventure now. Additional Tales of Monkey Island details, gameplay trailers, and a playable demo are also available at the site.

Ready to play Doctor?

Monday, June 8th, 2009
Maybe this time it's Lupus.

Maybe this time it's Lupus.


Looks like House is getting his own game for the PC, Nintendo Wii, and DS in time for the holidays. Legacy Interactive has a history of detective adventure games such as Emergency Room: Code Red.

The game slated for December 2009 (Wii to arrive next year) is to consist of five cases for House and his team to solve, which will involve actual medical procedures, as well as questioning patients, and breaking into their houses (just like on tv).

There wasn’t a whole lot more expressed about the game other than there will be ‘actor voice over stand ins’, but were actually matched up really well.

[Source]










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