Big W: Excercising Release Date Ignorance Since 2004

It’s great to know that, despite being a land of restrictive and backward classification laws, Australian’s can get their triple A titles before the rest of the world due to incompetent retailers.

Rumours abound today that the highly anticipated Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 may be on shelves early at Big W retailers around the country.  A new catalogue begins today that advertises MW2 for AU$82, which is a good price to begin with, but it is a little early for the game’s official November 10th release date.

Most people would naturally assume that since the catalogue runs through to November 11th, the listing is simply advertising the game’s price in advance.  However, reports have come in from the Xbox Australia forums that pre-order customers have been told thay can come in from today to collect their copies.

Understandably this has lead to a great many Australian gamers promising to be at Big W tomorrow to check it out.  No actual confirmation of a broken street date yet, but if there is you can bet Mark will be there, attempting to bull-rush a pack of equally eager fanboys.

Take a look at the source of the rumour, and the catalogue in question!

Oh, and in related news, here’s Modern Warfare 2′s official trailer.  Hope you like pretty explosions and Eminem, dear reader.

It was a dark and stormy night...

There’s nothing like a good franchise, when it comes to developing games.  Although the game is very well put together, I couldn’t shake the feeling that if ODST had not been prefixed by Halo 3, it wouldn’t have sold half the copies it did.  Which would have been a pity, because although this game certainly does take advantage of the fact that it’s fan-base has been established for well over five years now, it’s certainly the most interesting thing they’ve done with the franchise for a long time

For the campaign of Halo 3: ODST, players take control of the squad’s newest member: “The Rookie”.  For contextual reasons unknown, although possibly due to some sort of hilarious military hazing ritual, Rookie never speaks or removes his helmet.  He may also have to do the rest of the squad’s washing up and laundry, although the game doesn’t let you stay on your drop ship long enough to find out.  The action takes place somewhere around the end of Halo 2 in the series’ chronology.  The ODST squad is being deployed to take out the Prophet of Regret’s ship, which is hovering above the African mega-city of New Mombasa.  The squad’s new commanding officer, a Naval Intelligence officer called Dare, has other plans however.  Instead of assaulting the carrier she directs the squad to new coordinates inside the city, a move which essentially saves the entire squads lives as Regret’s carrier jumps to slipspace and destroys all the attacking dropships.

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There for but the use of an inhibitor station goes Nathan

My wife picked me up a copy of Resistance 2, part and parcel of buying me a PlayStation 3 console. This was to be my first foray into the PlayStation 3′s game catalogue, and to be truthful, I ended up somewhat undecided on if the game was good with bad elements, or bad with good elements.

Players take the role of Nathan Hale, a super soldier assigned to the elite “Sentinel Squad”.  For anyone jumping into this series for the first time, like I did, trying to figure out just what the hell is going on at the start of this game can be a little bit of a task, but here goes.  Resistance is set in an alternate history Earth in the 1950s.  In this history Russia was over-run by a force known as the Chimera, the many-eyed humanoid enemies you’ll encounter during the game.  Using superior technology and brute force, the Chimera succeeded in taking over most of the Earth.  Only a few protected areas are now safe for mankind.  Originally thought to be caused by a virus, experiments were undertaken to attempt to counteract the Chimeran transformation.  Hale, as one of the original test subjects, has acquired the Chimera’s strength and fortitude but has to be constantly dosed with an inhibitor drug to avoid his complete transformation.  It’s later discovered that the Chimera are actually an alien species, who can simply transform humans to make them their footsoldiers.

Still with me?  Yeah, me neither.  Personally I think that you probably need to have played Resistance: Fall Of Man for the plot to make much sense, in much the same way that Halo 3 would make absolutely no sense if you hadn’t at least played Halo 2.  In a nutshell, Chimera are bad ugly aliens who shoot at you an awful lot, and their leader Deadalus (who used to be a test subject just like Hale) is attempting to kill every human on the planet.  If I’m just joining in for the sequel, well, I’ll consider this enough.

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Frequent readers will already recognise the fact that both me and Mark are avid fans of co-op games, and that we just LOVE pushing our interests onto anyone who’ll listen!

With that in mind, I highly suggest that everyone check out the new trailer for Operation Flashpoint: Dragon Rising over on Giant Bomb.  It shows off a lot of the neat co-op features the game will offer, and best of all, IT ACTUALLY LOOKS LIKE IT WILL SUPPORT SPLIT-SCREEN!

So it’s already a hit in our books.

No footage of any dragons actually being shot yet, but I’m sure there’ll be a trailer for that part soon.

Sneak a peek (and fuck you, I’m a dragon)

Such utter fail.

“darkestofdays.exe has encountered a problem and needs to close.  We are sorry for the inconvenience.”

Well, that was a tremendous let down.

Click “New Game” and nothing but an error. At least, it would have been funny had I somehow got this happening:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rwte0GQ8puo

*sigh*

*** UPDATE ***

Apparently, the version of the demo they released was naffed. Alas, a new one has come out, and downloading will ensue.

A post-post demo review, perhaps? Wait and see.

The logo looks like its outta Doctor Who.

Yep, I know what y’all are thinking. How can one do a review before playing a game?

Easy. I’m going to list all my hopes and dreams, after seeing the trailer (which I just saw).

Okay, from the trailer, this is what I took away:

• You are some sorta dude from the future.
• You’re being instructed in all manner of firearms so you can deal with events and battles that take place in the, wait for it … past.
• The weapons range from American Civil war to WW1, modern combat as well as beating the shit outta Roman centurians with a shotgun. A fucking shotgun, son.
• Sweet.

Okay, so I may seem a little excited, and I’m installing it now. As we speak.

And a quick whip around of Google Images also shows this gem.

Yeah, I’m kinda salivating. Dylan (one o’ my housemates) has talked this game up on the drive into work for a few days now, so I’m quite keen. 50 seconds to copy it onto my machine now.

10 seconds…

Loading the installer.

So, the trailer not only references historical weapons like the Springfield musket, the Gewehr 1898, and some futustic rocket launchers, assault rifles … and something like a gauss cannon … shit.

Almost installed…

And I’ve checked “Yes, I want to play Darkest of Days now.”

Back in a while.

Needs moar power armour

As promised via their Twitter feed, South Peak Games has announced the open beta release of upcoming shooter Section 8.  The open beta keys are limited, first come first serve, so anyone who’s interested should head over to the FilePlanet listing to register their details.  It’s a pretty CPU-intensive game, however, so don’t worry yourself if you’ve got anything less that a 3gHz P4.  Here’s the full specs:

• OS: Windows Vista SP1 / Windows XP SP3
• Processor: Pentium 4 3Ghz or higher
• RAM: 1GB XP, 2GB Vista
• Memory: 6 GB free hard drive space
• Video Card: NVIDIA GeForce 7800, ATI X1800 or better with DirectX 9c, Shader 3.0, 256 MB

If you get in to the beta, you’ll be testing out the game’s online multiplayer mode over two different maps, and a selection of weapons, vehicles, deployables and equipment.  The full game is due out for PC and Xbox 360 in September.

Also in Section 8 news, South Peak recently released a promo video that talks a little bit about the game’s story, main character and factions.  Check it out on YouTube, thanks to GamingBits.

My gods.

I, as you may have guessed, really like FPS games. If done well, it’s a great format that immediately immerses you in an environment, and can surprise you with every turn.

And this is exactly what Bioshock does. At every place it can. As often as the story allows.

I’m going to be honest; this game is fucking awesome. There is only a single point where the game faltered, and I’ll get to that one later. But apart from this small hiccup, I’ve been dumbstruck.

The art direction is sublime. Set in the 50′s, and in a city under the sea, the art deco inspired architecture is wonderful, and sets an excellent scene in which the game plays out.

And this is just the start.

Would you kindly ...

The story constantly takes twists and turns. Some really subtle things, things you don’t notice until they are pointed out. (Oh, Note: I’m not actually through the game)

Shite, I’m aware I’m blabbering on. I don’t care. Damn, son. Not sure I can actually talk this one up enough. *reaches for the thesaurus so I can praise it further*

Okay, the single pitfall. I found myself completing the one level, and I had to find the bathysphere (round submariney type thing). And I must have gone back to try and find where I was meant to go, as the map / navigation system (an arrow directing you on the route) wasn’t showing. Turns out I had to backtrack (read: consult the internet) to get back on route. And this may have entirely been fixed in patches.

A caveat: I’m tired today. So I’ve rambled. But fuck I love this game. I really, honestly look forward to finishing this one. Seriously, buy the shit out of this game if you haven’t already.

Oh, and Bioshock 2. WANT!

Dr Dre isn't the only one who's strapped with Ghat

QUICK PLUG: Before I begin this particular review, I’ll drop some props to Colin Robinson and the fine folk over at GamerLimit who put this game up for grabs in their cover art contest. Many thanks!

Zeno Clash is a first person shooter style game produced by independant studio Ace Team. It’s a game very much in the vein of the BioShock titles, where the story elements, setting and visual-direction really set it apart from the rest of the genre.

The plot is a little difficult to describe, as Zeno Clash takes place in a completely original world called Zenozoik. Players take the role of Ghat, who regains conciousness after a fight in which he killed his family’s parent Father-Mother. He shows no remorse over the fact, so assumedly he had his reasons, but realises that he has to flee the city to escape his siblings’ vengence. Accompanying Ghat is Deadra, a female who assists his escape, and from then on assists Ghat in combat. The events leading up to the fight with Father-Mother are then retold in a series of flashbacks.  Many of the flashbacks also contain small clues to allow the player to piece together the full story.  Not everything gets explained, and the ending is rather open-ended, but it’s definitely well told.

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Wheeeeeeeee!

Its funny; when you pick up a first-person shooter in the bargain bin, and even considering its proud and deserved heritage, you can’t expect too much. The fine and subtle art of console FPS is so much a hit-and-miss affair. But seriously, it is awesome. Really awesome.

Okay, it has it’s problems. Most of the jerry enemies are either too weak, or too strong. The last three types of enemies are far above and away tougher than than the rest, which by comparison seem like kids with super-soakers.

Oh, and melee attacks and using the pistol as a weapon are useless.

Now, all the pitfalls are out of the way. It has so, so many winning factors.
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