Way, way, back when I used to play Counter-Strike and Day of Defeat frequently on Steam, I found out about a Half-Life mod that my friends were talking about. The mod was called Natural Selection. What is Natural Selection you ask? Well my friend, it’s like Alien vs. Predator, only it’s not a movie, and it doesn’t suck.

Natural Selection is a mix of strategy and first person shooter, as often you find that unless you plan how you attack, and you play how you play with your teammates, you’ll die almost every time. Going back to the AvP comment, it essentially is the same thing, you can play as a human or an alien. Your abilities develop as you level up from successful kills. As a human you use technology to better yourself, as an alien you use natual ablilties that grow as you play. Once you reach the commander possition for the human side, you command 5 soliders together, and this alone offers a real unique experience as far as first person shooters go. Aliens evolve to include ablilites like cloaking and additional tracking methods, and along with those ablilites come a change in shape. You start off as a kind of headcrab, then evolve to run on walls, fly, and become big enough to eat human soliders whole (1 HIT KILL!).

The graphics are a bit outdated, but as far as gameplay goes, Natural Selection is very original, and completely free. They’re also working on a Source version of the game which I hope turns out to be better than the original. This game really represents the whole theme of “learn to adapt and evolve, or die out”.

Tired of killing creatures such as goblins, elves, druids, etc.? Then do I have a game for you. Fallout 2 is a game that’s totally revolutionary; with a post apocalyptic world, violence, and a lot of side quests.There’s an infinite amount of things to do in this game, which will make you want to play through it several times.
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Now I’m going to take you back in time –  12 years to be exact — to the year 1997. The company in focus is Blizzard Entertainment. Blizzard at this point in time was fairly new to the game creation scene, and I’m sure many of you may remember such titles as The Lost Vikings, Rock and Roll Racing, or the PC strategy game Warcraft: Orcs and Humans. To say the least, they were still in the infancy stages.

When Blizzard went to make Diablo, they had hired Condor Games in 1995 (give or take) to do the job for them. Eventually in 1996 they had acquired them, and Condor games became known as Blizzard North; all the while they kept toiling away, creating a game that would be a great hit. Let’s fast forward to the game; I’ll save the Blizzard Entertainment History Lesson for later.
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Ever since I finished F.E.A.R. 1, I’ve been itchiny myself to get into F.E.A.R. 2. Now I have! Well, I’m not sure I really feared Alma in the first place, more feeling sorry for her then fear. So let’s pick up where we left off with the previous article. F.E.A.R. was something to behold in it’s time, but as time went on, it seemed to be less and less impressive, there’s no real fault to cause that, it’s just how technology advance. The main question I asked myself while playing F.E.A.R. 2 was how much like F.E.A.R. 1 was it?

F.E.A.R. 2 starts out half an hour from where you finished in F.E.A.R. 1, so there is a great continuation in the storyline from another point of view. I personally admire the approach from a different angle, but it handicaps the story. The story in F.E.A.R. 2 is much like the first, in the way that it essential is the first. The whole storyline from F.E.A.R. 2 is essential F.E.A.R. 1 but without a backstory, and that really ticks me off. There isn’t much new content to low and behold.
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CPL, CAL, MLG, WGS, TWL, ED, i38.. stop me if you’re getting bored already. Here, I will attempt to provide you all a little insight into what ‘Pro’ gaming actually is, the people– the money (or lack thereof), the fame and the failures.

2009 is the year, and we’ve got teams all over the bloody shop. MeetYourMakers, Fnatic, Complexity 20ID, Salvo, Dignitas, 4K, Reason and the list trails off into the ether with some successful.. and some less successful pro gaming teams. What does this mean? Does this mean professional gaming is now viable as a career? Can you earn money for headshots in todays world? Will I ever stop name dropping? How many commas can I write before you close this tab? Hit the jump to find out. (continue reading…)

Gentlemen, the king of the tactical warfare genre (sue me, I made it up. And yes this is the only game in the genre.) has returned. The Total War series from Shogun to Medieval has laid dormant for some time. And now, with an all new fresh lick of paint and many many gameplay additions and changes, Empire Total War is here. With the full release just around the corner (March 3rd, nevar forget etc)  get your tactics on up in the demo.

Packing heat at a whopping 2GB (this is a demo after all..) the two missions included are guaranteed to be beefy with corpses littered atop what was once a perfectly good corn field I’m sure you can’t wait.

For those of you fuddy duddies who are still sitting at home, tin-foil hats firmly upon their heads– the demo only comes in STEAM choo choo flavour, so don’t bother looking because unfortunately gentlemen, you cannot find it.

Look forward to some demo impressions within a couple of days once I’ve had time to explore every nook and cranny and stick my head into every orafice.

A link for the lazy

It’s not enough to simply win a match in Left 4 Dead.  No, you have to take it one step further, “secure your ultimate victory” some might say.  The true mark of a pro is one who can not only beat the other team, but cause them to ragequit as well.

Yes, ragequit.  If you can induce the other team to quit the match out of sheer rage, you are a true pro.  Some might say that intentionally attempting to cause such a hostile action is unsportsmanlike, but I would argue that polite, sportsmanlike conduct has no place outside of gaming leagues.  Indeed, this is the raw, unfiltered Internet, full of angsty preteens (playing an M rated game), social outcasts, and that guy who always quits after playing as Infected.  No, they deserve it, so troll away.

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Gentlemen. I have been to the mountaintop. And upon that same mountaintop I was spoken to- nay, TOUCHED! By the hand of hand of gaming. I crossed my chest from the W, to the S to the A and D and a voice told me that digital distribution is truly the future, and to put faith in those who deliver me from the tyranny of evil shovelware. That voice comes back to me today as I gladly inform you of the Steam Sale this weekend.

Get this fellows. I-Fluid, Multiwinia, Trials 2, Gravitron 2, and Eets all in ONE pack. For the price of £6.95.  80% off. EIGHTY PERCENT.

Just a quick summary for those who have no idea what the hell these are and why they need them. First up, Multiwinia is the fantastic sequel to the wonderous Darwinia, something of an RTS lite. I-Fluid is a lovely little casual game wherein you control a drop of water trying to get to the end of various fun levels attempting to avoid absorption from various substances, such as the dreaded meat. Trials 2 Second Edition is just that, a trials motorbike game. Racing and flipping has never been so fun. Gravitron 2 is the game designed to make you mutilate your keyboard with your face, you know those games where you control a spaceship.. in a cavern and across planetary surfaces (I wonder why these retro games use a goddamn spaceship to explore planets.. on the inside.). Annoying it may be, but it’s really- really fun and wondrously rewarding when a level is done. Eets is a cute little casual game that can only really be described as Lemmings meets The Incredible Machine.

Buy them, get them, play them.

Who doesn’t remember Goldeneye on the N64? Well except for those who never played it. Answer: Almost no one. I’m sure that most of you that played Rare’s Goldeneye back in the day remember the good times in the campaign and in multiplayer, and with a good purpose too. Goldeneye was one of the most revolutionary console first person shooters ever released. Not only that though, the game was outrageously fun with friends.

Now that Microsoft owns Rare, and you have Banjo Kazooie on Xbox Live, with Banjo Tooie coming in April, you’d expect there would be some kind of project happening regarding Goldeneye, like there was a project involving Perfect Dark. If you did expect it, you were right, if you didn’t..  well there were plans. Sadly the project was started then aborted due to some shit regarding Nintendo having a sore ass wanting some funds out of it. Of course that has come and pass, and even though I really wish it had happened, there’s not much a person can do about it.

Let’s move on now to Goldeneye Source, a clever remake of Goldeneye made by some fine gentlemen using the Source engine. The beta has already been released, and frankly from what I can see, the remake is amazing. Only multiplayer at the moment, but hell, even that is awesome. There is some speculation that singleplayer may be worked upon in the future, and if this is made true, then my dreams will be fulfilled.

My only worry about this project is that Danjaq, LLC and United Artists Corporation have exclusive rights to the James Bond franchise, and in the past there has been some legal issues with obtaining rights to the franchise. Not to mention that Rare owns intellectual rights to the game itself.  I can tell you this much though, if these gentlemen were to pay royalties to the folks over at the UAC, they’d be paying a pretty penny. Anyhow, here’s to hoping that Goldeneye Source continues grow and develop into more than it already is, and here’s hoping that I buy Half-Life 2 sometime to access it as well as other mods.

Preface

Everyone has an opinion. There’s a rude saying that compares opinions to a part of the human anatomy that practically says one’s opinion is worthless. So why read any reviews? If you’re not a terrible cynic you may be able to pore through a handful of reviews, develop and understanding for what sort of lens the reviewer sees games with and define some sort of truth from the fluffy words of praise or harsh criticisms that would have no tangible value.

You might be thinking, “Get to the review already!” or “Stop wasting my time and give me your score!” but without a preface you may not understand the “lens” I see games through and how to get what you need from my opinions. If you really can’t stomach anymore though feel free to jump ahead and read the review.
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