Dirt started as a rally racing game, hence the name. It had a really good model… no turbo, relatively realistic driving physics, and decent graphics. They kept expanding into the other genres, such as Gymkhana, stadium, and others. Dirt 2 was a pretty good success, and Dirt 3 came out relatively quietly – most received their copy as an afterthought when buying a new ATI video card. I thought they’ve been good the whole way, they really didn’t add too much craziness, which is refreshing. Simulation racing is hard to come by, and Shift 2 didn’t do it any favors.…
Sum Sum Summa Time
It is days like this that remind me that summer is just as much a gaming season as winter. I avoid the polarization and increase my gaming repertoire. There are several new titles as of late, and I have played a few of them. Here are my general impressions: Diablo III – Yes, you’ve heard it bandied about. It’s set the record and beyond. If you don’t have it, a friend does – 3.5 million on the first day and that does NOT include the 1.2 million Blizzard drummed up with their WoW promotion, NOR the millions in the Korean…
Review: Call of Juarez: The Cartel
It’s really as bad as you’ve heard. From the very first screen you are alerted to its crappiness. The text itself is circa Mortal Kombat – giant and pixellated. It looks so dated. It really feels like a modern Sega CD – it hardly even looks 3D. I barely got through the first level. I bought it for $5 – shipped from the UK for the amazing price of $2.49 – gotta love Amazon. I figured there must be at least SOME saving grace, story, anything. From what i saw the story tries really hard to be in depth (remember,…
It Hertz More Then It Should
So I’ve taken a break from the 3D for better 2D. 120hz is what I’m talking about. I suppose if I put on VSYNC it should now try to do 90? 120? BF3 was surprising. I had been playing with vsynch in order to prevent tearing, but I disabled the 3D, put the glasses in their nice felt bag and tonight was all about the 120hz Battlefield 3. Enabling 120hz for Games There are several steps which you need to do in order to switch between the two modes. One of which is the hertz (naturally). For Nvidia it is…
My 3D Aventure in Digitopia
I was accused of trolling for posting what I found while testing a few games with 3D Vision. I don’t take umbrage but it reminded me that this is the first time round for some people. The History Before I address the fad aspect of 3D let me say I am no stranger. It has come a long way since the geForce 3 I had about 10 years ago. It worked, and I guess it never went away, even the test screen for the glasses is the same today as it used to be with a couple extra dynamic lights…
Why I Will Never Play Mass Effect 3
I most likely won’t play, and certainly won’t buy Mass Effect 3. It’s not that I don’t want to, I really do. I just do not have what it takes to play the game. I have failed countless times at the original. I just recently went back to it after a push by my friend who is a big fan of the series. I resumed my last game from January 2011, my first save game date? November 2008. I don’t think there’s any danger of spoilers so here goes: I’m a Spectre, Captain of the Normandy – went right to…
Grand Theft Auto 4 mods – ICEnhancer+
So ICEnhancer 2.0 was recently released, and to celebrate here is everything you need to get started modding Grand Theft Auto to look better then god ever intended. Behold the power of Grayskull: Patches: You’ll need 1.0.4.0 or 1.0.7.0 to apply these properly. 1.0.4.0 is advised as it’s most compatible. Install the original version, then you only need this one to get to 1.0.4.0. Graphics, Textures, and Lighting: ICEnhancer 2.0 Brightness and contrast most gamers prefer ICEnhancer 2.0N Natural Lighting (coming soon) Add Ons: Traffic Load V3 (ASI) – Sick of seeing the same old cars all over the place?…
World Rally Fever on GOG!
If you were a fan of the original Worms you may have gone to the Team 17 website. On there they had a demo for this game – World Rally Fever. It was interesting because it was very Rad Racer NES type but it had better graphics, and it was more detailed then any game I had played before, especially a racing game. I liked to used to try and hit the sheep. Check it out on Good Old Games (GOG) – Coming soon!
Review: FlatOut3 Chaos and Destruction… of a Francise
Video: Video has Bloom turned off, motion blur turned off First impression: ugh. I am shaking my head in disappointment. I would have put the first and second FlatOut as two of my favorite games. I’m a huge racing fan, and a bigger car crashing fan. This game really was the best of both worlds. However number 3 is Jack’s utter lack of surprise. They’ve taken well made race tracks, nicely finished cars and damage models, impressive AI and boiled it down to an impossible arcade fiery mess. Not to say it’s difficult, it’s just bad; a blurry, cluttered mess. Monster trucks,…
Video: Portal 2 Opening
Cleaning out my video directory to free some space. Here’s the beginning to Portal 2 – pretty amusing even if you’re not familiar.
Review: Mafia II
Screenshots: Video: I had originally played this on Onlive, I gave it the 30 minute trial. I don’t exactly remember it starting how it did. I seemed to be going through many more story points then before, but I bet I skipped them in the interest of time the first time around. I was really pleasantly surprised. I got this game after all the holiday game download sale hooplah. I had seen it on Steam, Onlive, Amazon – all had it on major sale, but saw them come and go. However, upon checking up on it on Amazon, the price…
Video: Games of 2011
A great summary of the games this past year: Get More: GameTrailers.com, Game of the Year Awards 2011 – Game of the Year, PC Games, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360
Review: Driver San Francisco
Ok, I loved the original driver. It was an entirely new genre at the time. Sure you had a driving around car game, but once GTA III hit anything where you drove and crashed was “just another GTA”. They’ve always been one to spin a story but this latest one is entirely out of the box. It was not what I expected at all. Sure, plainclothes policeman in a muscle car, but there’s a big twist to this one. After a crash attempting to apprehend an escaped convict you’re jumping from body to body. Think Quantum leap meets Messiah (if…
Batman: Arkham City – Review
initial impressions – very smooth animation. More then anything else I was amazed at how fluid the animation is – when he’s climbing, soaring, or fighting with handcuffs on… it’s fabulous to watch. The graphics are very nice as well, the lighting is a huge improvement, and ambient occlusion is especially apparent with all the dark shadows around. I’m still not 100% sure on the story, there is a lot going on, and it’s all very compartmentalized into a single building for a single purpose, no more so then Asylum was, but it’s more noticeable due to the open nature…
Video Review: NFS The Run
Here is the intro / first levels of gameplay. It’s interesting because (like many NFS games) it’s nothing like its predecessor. Cars control more realistically. It’s still not a simulation feeling, and you’re restricted to bumper, hood, and behind view. I prefer far behind or windshield view (a la SHIFT) but the hood works well enough. 360 controller worked out of the box. It controlled more like the older games, which is a good thing compared to the latest Hot Pursuit. You can’t go full speed into the corner counting on a powerslide to save you, but it’s still nowhere…
Video: IGN – Battlefield Tips
I watched this prepared to be all snarky but it had some good info… for people who have never played Battlefield before. It does bring up a good point about not getting in the helis/jets if you don’t know how to fly them. It’s just common courtesy. In any case if you’re wondering why you keep getting kicked, or want to point some noobs in the right direction, check this out: More Battlefield 3 (Limited Edition %2D%2D Physical Warfare Pack) Videos
RAGE – First Impressions and Review
First impressions: Setting – Fallout 3 Story – Fallout 3 Jumpsuit – Fallout 3 Enemies – Fallout 3 Hunters – Fallout 3 Mutants – Fallout 3 Textures – Fallout 3 Wasteland – Fallout 3 Vehicles – a plus FPS Mechanics – a plus Control – a plus So just hopping into it briefly I get much the same feeling as I got with Fallout. Everything is a mess, and there are many reused textures. It’s hard to make a post-apocalyptic world. I don’t deny that. However – the mechanics of the shooting was uniquely id. It felt like no other…
Game Review: Off-Road Drive **updated**
Don’t get me wrong, I love driving games. I love offroad, I loved Dirt and all its successors, they finally made Rally racing fun for me. Off-Road Drive on the other hand is the most frustrating “racing” game I’ve ever played. I got stuck in the mud repeatedly, and not like “oh, just spin your wheels and get out…”. No, it’s a “simulation” so I’m going to simulate getting my truck stuck in the mud. Thereby, I need to make sure I’m in low gear and I have the right combination of differential and slip on which tires and… It…
Battlefield 3 PC Beta
Here is some great information about the new engine (Frostbite 2) that powers Battlefield 3. Battlefield 3 Blog: Frostbite 2 Engine Presentation It is very impressive in demos. The Beta does not quite realize the quality of the demos, but there is some clipping and collision that needs to be worked out. You can still lay prone halfway into a wall, for one. There is a small list of fixes already slated but overall it’s very true to the original. I have it running at 2560×1600 max and I’m not seeing anywhere near the quality of the demo videos, though.…
Deus Ex: Human Revolution
My initial impression: Looks ok. It seems like another Duke Nukem where the idea and gameplay were ported from their 90s originals, but their roots are showing in these sequels. There is lots of details (papers, coffee mugs, detailed computer screens, interaction with faucets, etc) so far in the first level but I notice a different level of textures between objects, people, and the surroundings which breaks the otherwise immersiveness of the story and camera work. The “cover” is awful so far, but I think that’s primarily due to defaults conflicting with my mouse configuration but I never seem to…
SplitSecond PC – It’s Almost Too Exciting
My initial impression of the game was that it was way too arcade for my tastes. I saw things blowing up, and a bunch of sliding around the “racetrack”. My first impressions weren’t too far from that. It’s an arcade racer, there’s no denying that. You can’t really focus very well on driving well when stuff is blowing up all around you. You end up veering left and right and taking your chances with spinning out to avoid the explosions of which will get you… if you’re close enough, so you just try and stay far enough away even if…
The Witcher 2
Some screenshots to start. Things I want to get into – graphical glitches (patch 1.3) – control / camera – why can’t I jump on this stump? There are two pictures of the puddle. I’m not really seeing it in the screenshots but his foot went through a 2D puddle and I could see his foot clearly underneath the puddle on the ground… not a big deal, but make sure all the ground around something is higher then the plane of the puddle. To be fair it’s at the start of the game, so hopefully they got better with the…
iCE for Grand Theft Auto IV and Episodes from Liberty City – Up Your Realism
I am a big fan of Grand Theft Auto. I’ve had every one since the original top view on PC. It’s not that I like stomping on babies… I just love crashing cars. I like demolition derby games too, so the added story and other tasks just make it all the better and with GTA III onward, I love the real word feel to it. You can just as easily drive along with traffic as weave through it trading paint with all the cars along the way. It’s always the best test of new hardware, and when a new one…
Dirt 3
If you’re a fan of racing games I highly recommend Dirt 3. I had a ton of fun with Dirt 2 – and it gets better (for the most part) with 3. Plus: + Graphics + Level Design + Better AI then Dirt 2 + Better Reward / XP System then Dirt 2 + Integrated YouTube to upload replays Minus: – The control feels a little looser then Dirt 2 – More arcade feeling IE: If you lose a tire, you should not be able to go another 3 laps and finish 3rd Overall I’d recommend it, but don’t pay…