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.
(continue reading…)

After nearly half of century of development and the synergy of growing technology, video games have become a major part of modern society, an interactive form of entertainment. Separating itself from moving pictures, sequential notes, and walls of words; gaming is unique as it combines all three of these mediums, maybe even fourth, the sweaty test of endurance, with the rise of the Wii. But with all these ways one can entertain oneself, what do we call people who read books? Readers? Who enjoy music? Listeners? How about movie goers? Watchers? At least we have a definite term for people who play sports – athletes.

What am I getting at is the term “Gamer”. Does the culture as a whole really accept to call themselves “Gamers” and not “one who plays video games?”. I truly and always have hated the term “gamer” (and don’t bother pointing out that this place use to be called gamerblag). There are many reason why I might hate the term or maybe I just hate the people who use it.
(continue reading…)

Geralt’s back, and this time he looks sharper than ever in this debut trailer of the upcoming PS3/Xbox 360 title The Witcher: Rise of the White Wolf. Announced as a console port of the 2007 PC sleeper hit, The Witcher: Rise of the White Wolf aims to immerse the console player in the dark and mysterious world of the original, and at the same time offer a new experience via a new engine and a new action-based combat system. (continue reading…)

No, that’s not Generic FPS #3219413980473, that’s Frank in The Punisher: No Mercy killing someone. Generically.

There is little one can do to screw up the making of a game about Marvel’s The Punisher: you give Frank Castle a huge assortment of guns and things to kill people with, you give him a LOT of people to use aforementioned weapons on, and give it lots of over-the-top, unrelenting violence that the Punisher comic series has been known for. Volition Inc, the people who made The Punisher for the PlayStation 2 back in 2005 did this perfectly – with Frank not only being able to shoot up the bad guys as much as he likes, but also deal with them in creative ways, one of which involves shoving someone, feet-first, into a woodchipper. Sure they obscured these torture/interrogation sequences with black-and-white film grain effects, but it didn’t change the fact that it was DAMN AWESOME.

And now we see where Frank is headed in this side of the seventh gaming generation. Produced by Zen Studios, the guys behind hardcore classics such as Pinball FX for the Xbox 360, Flipper Critters for the Nintendo DS and Rocky and Bullwinkle for the Xbox 360, The Punisher: No Mercy is a no-frills first person shooter with the titular character doing what he does best: shoot bad guys to death.

As you can see from the video, the first-person shooter gameplay does look solid. Zen Studios seem to have a good handle on what constitutes an okay FPS – serviceable guns and effects, varied environments, visible damage and death animations for those who you use the weapons with, etc. Although, for the record, the violence does look a bit half-hearted, and the weapons themselves doesn’t seem to be packing as much punch as we’d like.

But the main problem here is that – well, consider this the opinion of yours truly – the first-person perspective gets rid of the fact that you’re the Punisher, and instead relegates the brooding hardass into someone you’d only be seeing in cutscenes. Mind, I’m all for immersion, making you feel like you’re the character you’re playing as and all, but I’m sure people would want to see the Punisher doing stuff that no other superhero would even DARE to do, rather than just re-play the same SHOOTAN GAEM scenario they could get from other games. It’s the Punisher’s main draw – he’s an entity of his own, uncompromising and hard-set on his path to revenge – and we WANT to see him fuck someone’s shit up. We don’t want him relegated to a gun and a pair of hands floating in our TV screens. We don’t need to imagine or be fooled that we’re the Punisher, because he’s just that hardcore. Zen Studios, please please PLEASE take a page out of the book that Volition wrote. You’re making a Punisher game, not a generic FPS game. We want the sharks, the woodchippers, the curb-stomps. We want Frank. The game being a PlayStation Network downloadable is no excuse.

You can view the trailer here.