Category: Gaming

Any gaming post.

Team Fortress 2 details emerge

(via TechEBlog)

250px-Team_Fortress_2_Group_Photo.jpgIn developement for almost as long as Prey and Duke Nukem Forever, Team Fortress 2 is probably one of the most anticipated, least known about game on the gaming horizon. Valve has just released a brief gameplay video showing the current state of the game.

Just like its predecessor, in Team Fortress 2 players will be able to choose to play as one of several archetypal classes at the start of a match, each with its own unique strengths and weaknesses

Head over to Wikipedia for more information on the development and vaporware view of this game:

Team Fortress 2 is the long-anticipated sequel to the original Team Fortress mod for Quake being developed by Valve Corporation. It is a multiplayer team-based first-person shooter with strategy elements. The game has been through various concepts and designs: in 1999 the game appeared to be deviating from the original Team Fortress by heading toward a more realistic and militaristic style of gameplay, and the design metamorphosed further over the game’s seven-year development. The final rendition of Team Fortress 2 currently appears to bear more resemblance to the original Team Fortress design, and sports a distinctive, cartoonish visual style.

The lack of information or apparent progress for six years of the game’s supposed development caused it to be labelled as vaporware, and it was regularly featured in the top 5 of Wired Magazine‘s annual vaporware list among other ignominies.

[tags]Team Fortress 2, Vaporware, Valve software[/tags]

The Vidco Copy Cart – old school video game piracy

(via RetroThings)
copycart.jpg

I actually knew someone who had one of these Atari 2600 cartridge copying things (well, I knew someone who knew someone who had one, but I actually saw the thing in action at my friend’s house). Plug an original Atari 2600 cartridge in one end, plug the erasable and reuseable copy cartridge in the other, push a button, and you have a copy. See – videogame piracy is not new. It’s just taking more clever hackers to make it possible for all you grubby little pirates to steal games. 🙂

[tags]Atari 2600, Atari VCS, Retro-gaming piracy[/tags]

Rumor: Assassin’s Creed coming to XBox360 and PC

(via Joystiq)
I’ve just finished reading the preview of Assassin’s Creed in a recent Game Informer magazine.  If the game works out to be as good as it sounds, this will be one of the best games in the coming year.  Of course, Trespasser sounded to be the same thing, and look how it turned out.  I hope this is available on the PC or XBox 360, since I never expect to buy a PS3 (or at least, not until the PS4 is released) – I can only afford one next gen box, and I guarantee it won’t be the most expensive one.

So, the Joystiq article in full:

A handful of European gaming sites (1, 2, 3), likely originating with French site Xbox-Gamer.net, have “confirmed” that the mystery of Assassin’s Creed’s exclusivity has been solved: it will be making it’s way to both the Xbox 360 and PC, as well as the previously announced PS3 …

… at least, according to an off the record comment (where’s the reps name?) made to Xbox-Gamer.net at the recent IDEF 2006 expo held in Cannes. There was no information regarding any timed exclusivity for Sony’s console. We all have our suspicions (hence the mystery) regarding Assassin’s Creed’s multi-platform prospects, but an unsourced comment made by a random Ubisoft representative is hardly confirmation (we’ve contacted Ubisoft for official confirmation). Until it shows up here (which it hasn’t) we’re enormously skeptical. And we dance …

I can’t track down good links for this game other than the final one listed above (dang firewall blocks lots of good stuff), but this is a game worth looking up on Google and reading about.
[tags]Assassin’s Creed, Consoles, PS3, XBox360, Gaming[/tags]

Flipper Critters DS video

(via 4ColorRebellion)
Flipper_Critters_picture_00.jpgI love pinball. I want a pinball machine for home, but haven’t found a decent one at a price I can/will pay. While searching for that pinball deal, I resign myself to PC based pinball simluators. While this provides entertainment, it’s missing the tactile experience one gets with real pinball. Going the other way, however, is Flipper Critters – a Nintendo DS game coming out in Europe later this year. Sure, it too is missing the whole actual experience of pinball, but dang it, at least we get portability. I’ll probably pick up this game if it makes it to the US (or if I can find an importer with the game at a reasonable price). Wondering why? Well, check out the video. Looks good to me.

p.s. Video link originally from and screenshot stolen from NintendoGal.

[tags]Nintendo DS, pinball[/tags]

Nintendo sends President Bush a DS and Brain Age game for birthday

(via Engadget)

As a “Happy Birthday” gift, Nintendo has sent a Nintendo DS Lite to the President and the game Brain Age.  For those not familiar with the game, Brain Age is a game which supposedly helps improve mental function and delays age related memory loss.  This seems like an attempt at a humorous slap at President given the reputation he has in the media.  A bit bold for Nintendo, though, even if intended as a good-natured jab.
[tags]Nintendo, Nintendo DS, Brain Age[/tags]

Nintendo DS browser missing some “essentials”

(via DS Fanboy)

The latest bit of info from IGN concerning the Nintendo DS browser (based on Opera, by the way), indicates it will be missing some features considered essential by some.  Which essentials?  Well, the browser won’t support Flash media, viewing PDF or video files, nor playing back sound.  Also, you will not be able to save images for later viewing.  But you can save bookmarks.

I have to say, for me, the missing features are nowhere near essential to me.  I install a Flash blocker extension in every Mozilla install I do for myself anyway, and if I want to view PDF files, I’m more likely to try to get them in rocketbook format for viewing on my EBookwise ebook reader or look at them via my PC anyway.  I often browse with sound turned off, so I’ll not miss that, and most videos are not worth viewing anyway, so I doubt I’ll notice that missing, either.  So for me, nothing essential is missing.

[tags]Nintendo DS, Opera browser[/tags]

Hero MMORPG free play

(via Joystiq)

Not sure what to say about this one, so I’ll take the lazy method and steal Joystiq’s content tonight:

Martial arts-inspired MMORPG Hero Online has announced that an open beta will begin on June 30 and last for at least a month. For those of you tired of WoW and the others, this is a good chance to get your feet wet in something new. Since it seems there are so many new MMOs coming out, who knows if this thing will last. But hey, can’t argue with free, can you? For those not in the know, the game features the following:

  • Hero is created by martial art novelists.
  • Player characters learn many skills and forms.
  • Hero utilizes a reward system that keeps track of how many monsters a player kills from log in to log out.

Honestly, looking over the site and features, the game seems to be a bit slim in the content department. Has anyone here been playing the closed beta? If so, what are your impressions?

Come on, now! Who wouldn’t want to at least try a martial arts based MMORPG? This could end up the ultimate show of Real Ultimate Power!

That said – I’m signing up for the open beta, and will almost certainly try this game out when its final release comes.

[tags]MMORPG, Real Ultimate Power[/tags]

Prey Limited Edition announced

(via Joystiq)
I missed this when it first came out, but I’ll post it anyway for any other folks who might have missed it as well.  3D Realms has announced the Limited Edition of Prey, now available for pre-order.  For a mere $10 above the standard edition, you get Prey on DVD, a shiney metal box, a book of artwork, and two (three for pre-orders) pewter figurines.

Prey is one of the few shooters I’m interested in trying.  I didn’t get into Half-Life all that much, and still haven’t tried Half-Life 2.  I have SiN episode 1 (it was $8 at Circuit City on Sunday – possibly all this week), but haven’t installed and tried it yet.  And I haven’t even wanted to play Doom 3 after trying it for 5 minutes on my brother’s system.  But Prey just sounds cool to me.  I may have to order this one.
[tags]Prey, Limited Edition gaming, DVD games[/tags]

Multiplayer Oblivion alpha released

(via Joystiq)
This is the kind of information you pass along as soon as your hear about it.

multites4-quest-box.jpg

While Xbox 360 players will be out of luck, PC Oblivion fanatics can now travel through Cyrodiil together. A computer science major at Charles Sturt University has just released an alpha version of MultiTES4 (“Multiplayer [for] The Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion“). The alpha release is very, very minimal right now (two players running around, cognizant of one another but with no synchronization and limited participation options). Not bad for a one-man team, though.

The programmer, known online as the_FERRET, has been working on the project for just over a month (he started May 7th). The next release is promised to include eight-player action with some simple forms of deathmatch and maybe capture the flag — keep an eye out on the official forum for more information. You can download the mod via the official page here.

Must. Play. Mod.

Too bad I only have one system at home capable of playing the game. This would be awesome fun to play with my older son sometime.

[tags]Multi-player Oblivion, Oblivion, Gaming mods[/tags]

Joystiq’s top 10 gaming top 10 lists

Mocking all the recent top 10 gaming lists, Joystiq has posted its top 10 list of top 10 lists.  Here are a few of the list items that I liked.

So, check out the top 10 list of top 10 gaming lists, and then check out the lists themselves (if that makes sense to you).

[tags]Joystiq, Top 10 lists, Gaming[/tags]