PC News and Game Reviews

Hi folks,

Dawn of War was an excellent game. It has helped push the stubborn mule that is the RTS genre along a bit. By providing solid balanced game play, backed up with an impressive new graphics engine, it was the game C&C generals threatened to be! The choice of universe was excellent, as the large scale battles of 40K look excellent rendered on the DOW engine.

But alas like all greats, one can pick holes. The single player campaign was too short and did not allow much variation. You could only play the marines….what happened to the other 3 races? From day dot of RTS there has always been a “good” campaign VS a “bad” one…….what happened here?

In response to our complaints, Relic is fast developing an add to rectify these issues. At makethisgame both myself and other members have touched on the inherent problems of add-ons. By their nature they bring to mind the term: “reinventing the wheel”. Developers usually milk the life out of a product by bringing out add-on after add-on……which eventually turns people off the title in the first place!

That said this new add-on has some potential. For one it introduces a new race. Relic claim to have listened to the online community for input on the fact there were not enough races. Well they did not listen to me. Who wants to play the crappy Imperial Guard….I want Genestealer hordes!! In addition to a new race (only one?) there are new units for the established races….although there is no talk of them yet….I live in hope that Terminators with lightening claws will feature in the new game (At last an answer to the Chaos Possessed Marines?).

If I said it once, I’ll say it again: “Eye candy in games can ONLY take you so far”. Relic have decided to dump up the visuals (because that’s obviously what DOW needed??????). New death moves will be added…which is a nice feature, can someone tell the Relic programmers to allow until to still take damage while they are “death-moving!”

All in all I do look forward to this add-on. I would prefer this title to break into a new setting and maybe introduce a space hulk add-on (I know there are MOD, I want a big money backed flashy game!)

It says a lot about a product when you put it in your shop window, or to be more precise, the whole doorway and first 15 feet of game stands. Row after row of shiny green cases each telling me that I should get on the X box band wagon.

The X Box is very much established now. The generous head start that the PS2 was given has been eroded, even the latest PS3 announcements are foot notes to a mere game release on the X Box. In fairness, the PS2 has stood the test of time and Sony are now harvesting the solid foundation laid by the original console plus some innovative marketing (the third place). Many of the latest titles are still multi-console giving at least some parity with the X-box, despite its newer technology. Consequently the store had its PS2 wall, less distinct but equally rippling with titles.

Somewhere down the back were the PC games, new releases lumped with the budget games, on their rocking chair dreaming about better times. Where are the days when the most sophisticated, stunning and innovative games could ONLY be played on the PC? When consoles were for children, training them Conan like, for the day they would push their own PC wheel? If you walked into any games shop now under orders to buy the five most compelling titles for PC, how long would it take you to decide. Would you even care about your fourth or fifth choice. How many games are you looking forward to, that are non sequels or mods? What has happened to quality, the very raison d’etre of being a PC gamer?

Corrupted by the dark powers at microsoft. It’s perfectly logical. An X-box is a mid range PC that is almost idiot proof. It’s also a quarter the price and the games ALWAYS work. It is also far more likely for a non gamer to take a mild interest by buying an x box plus a handful of games instead of splashing out 1500 quid on a PC before they even get near the games. Are there more Xbox users then PS2 or PC gamers in Ireland? Doesn’t matter. but are they buying more games. That’s all that counts. Churn the products. If its mildly successful, develop it and bring out its better looking sister on the PC, or its retarded half wit brother on the PS2, under a different name. When was the last time you saw an ad for a PC only game? A distributors ideal is to only market games that are multi-platform, logical y enough to save costs. But consoles themselves are individually marketed for the purpose of playing games. PCs are marketed, but are placed in the family convenience segment or in the office equipment medium. When was the last time Dell commented on the quality of Games their PC can support or HP used anything other then portability and internet potential to sell a lap top?

Our only hope is that the next generation of consoles meet or exceed the high standards set by the PC. Is this technologically feasible? Not unless your idea for a portable console is a 3 foot high buzzing monstrosity. Even then, it would be probably too much to ask that it could be upgradeable as the technology marched onwards. Games don’t wait for the platform to catch up. Or do they?

What a ticket that would be for Microsoft. You walk in one day, pay 500 euros for the top of the range Xbox two (X Squared anyone?) only to see a game advertised on TV that night with little white writing on the bottom of the screen saying you must have the latest plug- in to play this game. Another trip to the shops, another 100 quid to start playing. Oh and you must subscribe online to keep playing or Valve will come around and kick your dog. Inlay card passwords are coming back too……

So what do I have against the X-box that I don’t have against the PS2. Well it’s the foul offspring of Microsoft for one. They are big players in the PC industry, now they are playing the console and PC market against each other. At what point do they decide to use their products to direct PC gamers into the console market? PCs were never intended to be games machines, so if the leading software manufacturer decides to limit the extent that games can be played on the PC, driving PC gamers to buy a console to feed their addiction, you can be sure that a far portion of those gamers will buy an x-box. Make money on both sides of the deal. It might sound drastic, but do developers really want to have to make multiple versions of the same game? Not if they are part of the Microsoft group of companies.

I am also sick of the dross that the PC Usurped technology in the X-box has allowed them to churn out like video game diarrhoea. Lower standards, higher price. The number of developers that can now spin their PC game off on the X-Box platform with relative ease (and sadly vice-versa) has increased exponentially with the advent of near cross-compatibility. Its not that I am anti-progress, I just know that a portion of the price you pay for a worthwhile is an element distributors charge for the other dross that doesn’t sell. Its an insult to your intelligence to assume otherwise.

Keep an eye on the PS3, our last hope to bring balance to the market…

In a recent discussion with another member of this site i began to think about why i like playing games from my old Amiga or even my Atari 800XL. The more i thought about it the more it made sense. Video cards have become ultra powerful, bringing graphics to our screens that we could only have fantasised about in recent times. However with the increase in powerful graphics rendering processors there has been a steady decrease in the creativity of old.

My view on this is that with all this power at their fingers, game makers are going for the WOW effect rather than the good old fashioned enthralling adventure. It is true that as any media matures it is stifled by a lack of originality partly due to the fact that most angles have already been covered. I would also concede that many games were quite simply designed from the start to be reliant on great graphics, such as beat ‘em ups or sports simulators.

What i really miss is a game that you find yourself deeply involved in for hours so much so that you realise you’ve forgotten to eat or sleep! A game that can totally suck you in and hold you there, captivated by its sheer originality and attention to detail.

So, have video cards really killed the originality of computer games? Why can’t we have something as ground breaking as Civilization? As immersive as Frontier or quite simply as fun as Monkey Island? Maybe you think differently? Let me know . . .

New video card releases are always eagerly awaited by the gaming masses……as unfortunately we still get wowed by eye candy….even if the game is total tripe.

Nvidia have announced the release of a new GPU (Graphic Processing Unit for the layman) this month. They have stated that the new chip will be similar to the chip powering the Playstation 3. Even if the visuals improve….as no doubt they will…….will the games be anymore enjoyable to play than R-Type or Turrican 2?

Lets wait and see………

Word around the camp fire is that Infinity Ward (have?) are about to start work on a new title…..COD 3. Thats just what we need in today’s market……another WW2 first person shooter! That said, the scripting mayhem of the first Call of Duty title took linear game play to its boundaries. I know the game was exciting to play…….but at some points I felt I was acting….and when replaying parts of a level having been gunned down I was almost waiting for certain events to occur to allow me to progress.

It is indeed a hard one to get around…..but for the time being FPS need to be scripted to some extent. Despite the slogans on the back of many a box….bot AI is atrocious. They frequently get stuck…run into walls..etc….and just look totally un-human! That said I would rather avoid another FPS on rails………FORGET HOW GOOD THE GAME LOOKS AND MAKE SOMETHING DIFFERENT!