Posted by Darren 'Doom Dude' Finch at 6:13 PM

Category: Role Playing

• Fixed an issue where form IDs were not being marked as free properly, causing objects to disappear in game.
• Fixed a crash caused by bad form IDs.
• Fixed an issue where the game would try to use form IDs that were either restricted or not available yet.

Posted by Darren 'Doom Dude' Finch at 12:12 PM

Category: Action

Before shaping Adam and Eve, God made a major blunder by creating a completely screwed up version of man. This first entity was banished for all eternity into a parallel universe called "the box." Understandably, this imperfect version of man wasn't thrilled at the prospect of being caged forever. Such punishment clearly pissed 'it' off. So, without hesitation, he continually tries to return to Earth.

Posted by Darren 'Doom Dude' Finch at 6:33 PM

Category: Role Playing

Whatever hero the player adopts, he must come to the aid of the gods he worships. He will come to realise that behind the chaos that is threatening his world lies Seth, the Egyptian god of darkness and evil, who has returned from the kingdom of the dead. The hero must therefore undertake an epic journey across the various epochs and myths. He will fight a multitude of monsters of all shapes and sizes, and even overthrow a few gods, on his way to preventing Seth establish his wicked reign.

Posted by Darren 'Doom Dude' Finch at 7:34 AM

Category: Hardware

Posted by Darren 'Doom Dude' Finch at 2:23 PM

Category: Role Playing

One thing is certain, the Shivering Isles are a very different place from what any Oblivion player is used to. The entire realm seems alien and you can see the content struggle between Dementia and Mania taking place in the very environment surrounding you.

Posted by Darren 'Doom Dude' Finch at 9:06 PM

Category: Role Playing

One cool discovery I came across was the ever-handy trap. You can buy a standard steel bear trap for fairly cheap from a merchant. Combine some venom from a snake and perhaps the deadly properties of a boar tusk and you have a potent weapon. Lay down a trap and then start a fight with some jerk guard who would normally cream you. When he charges, back up so that he runs into the trap. While he struggles to pull himself free of the poisonous contraption, you can lay some serious smack down.

Posted by Darren 'Doom Dude' Finch at 9:37 PM

Category: Science

"We have estimated that the mean temperature of this 'super-Earth' lies between 0 and 40 degrees Celsius, and water would thus be liquid," explained Stephane Udry of the Geneva Observatory, lead author of the scientific paper reporting the result.

Posted by Darren 'Doom Dude' Finch at 12:08 PM

Category: Hardware

The uncluttered design of the P6N SLI Platinum provides easier access to the various buttons, connections, and headers on the motherboard. The downside is that some features that are present on the the nForce 680i chipset are missing such as two SATA and a second LAN connection. However, two IDE connections are provided and a floppy drive port is neatly tucked away at the bottom of the motherboard.

Posted by Darren 'Doom Dude' Finch at 10:50 AM

Category: Action

When it hit stores in early January, Lost Planet: Extreme Condition may not have been an insta-classic along the lines of Gears of War, but it was certainly a strong release, with its solid single-player campaign and fast-paced strategic online play. The impending PC release will not mess with that successful formula, instead focusing on refining the experience, especially from a visual standpoint.

Posted by Darren 'Doom Dude' Finch at 8:20 AM

Category: Action

In tribute to this and to celebrate and commemorate the continuing development of the Tomb Raider franchise and its central character, Crystal Dynamics are developing a new Tomb Raider adventure for Lara. Inspired by the original Tomb Raider video game; Lara Croft Tomb Raider: Anniversary faithfully preserves the elements which made the original Tomb Raider game such a classic.

Posted by Darren 'Doom Dude' Finch at 3:32 PM

Category: Role Playing

The central element of Elveon's story is the search for the rumored paradise--the city of Nimathar--and the divine tower--Starspear--which, in legends, represents the portal between the material and the divine realms. The gods, who once dwelled in the material world have left back into the divine realm and the elves who were once united are now scattered into many different cultures and fighting wars against each other. Many elvish rulers dream to find Nimathar and Starspear to claim the powers of the divine portal and re-introduce an era of greatness to their race, but none of them has yet succeeded.

Posted by Darren 'Doom Dude' Finch at 7:42 AM

Category: First Person

After your plane crashes into icy uncharted waters, you discover a rusted bathysphere and descend into Rapture, a city hidden beneath the sea. Constructed as an idealistic society for a hand picked group of scientists, artists and industrialists, the idealism is no more. Now the city is littered with corpses, wildly powerful guardians roam the corridors as little girls loot the dead, and genetically mutated citizens ambush you at every turn.

Posted by Darren 'Doom Dude' Finch at 4:02 PM

Category: First Person

The Jericho squad is a kick-ass team of supernatural soldiers that was formed during World War II to investigate the Nazi obsession with the occult. You play Captain Ross, the leader of this squad, who can inhabit the other members at will and take control of their bodies. There are six members in total, split into two subsections called the alpha and omega squads. Every member has two weapons and two supernatural abilities, as well as a mix of physical strengths and weaknesses.

Posted by Darren 'Doom Dude' Finch at 5:04 PM

Category: Role Playing

Blood Magic is a third-person RPG where the weapon of choice is magic, set in a richly detailed medieval fantasy world, allowing the player a wide variety of choices both in individual quests and character development. Blood Magic is different from most other popular RPG titles in that the player characters are all of one type: Mage. There are over a dozen different fields of magic, allowing players many choices for specialization.

Posted by Darren 'Doom Dude' Finch at 1:19 PM

Category: Hardware

With the launch today of the GeForce 8600-series we finally get our hands on the new G84 GPU which sits at its heart.

Naturally, this chip is based on the G80 that powers the all-conquering 8800 range of cards. But NVIDIA hasn't been so crude as to simply hack away at the their flagship GPU until it's small enough to fit into the lower transistor budget; they've taken the opportunity to massage it to improve efficiency and implement new features.

Posted by Darren 'Doom Dude' Finch at 3:24 PM

Category: Hardware

The front of the 930 should be easily recognized as a Cooler Master chassis. Using their popular wave look, Cooler Master has produced an elegant and relatively simple looking case with its only stand out feature being the black center door that hides the four bay hot swap drives. To the right of this door is the generous I/O panel that includes 4 USB ports, a lone firewire port as well as the obligatory headphone and microphone jacks.

Posted by Darren 'Doom Dude' Finch at 9:17 PM

Category: First Person

This year, Valve will once again revisit the world of Half Life 2 and continues the ongoing story of Gordon Freeman as he fights for survival in the post-apocalyptic world. Gordon was summoned to this world by the mysterious "G-Man" and, joined by his companion in arms Alyx, they will encounter a new cast of enemy, both alien and mutant as they make there way through the countryside of this war-torn world.

Posted by Darren 'Doom Dude' Finch at 11:36 AM

Category: Developer

As a result of the new deal, Bethesda is the sole owner of the Fallout IP - and will be licensing rights to the MMO game to Interplay.

Posted by Darren 'Doom Dude' Finch at 7:46 AM

Category: Role Playing

In September 2003, when we had decided on our new game concept (a role-playing game rather than an action RPG) we thought we knew what we wanted to achieve. Time showed we knew less than we thought.

Posted by Darren 'Doom Dude' Finch at 11:41 PM

Category: Action

Our time with Anniversary was limited to its first handful of levels, which comprise a massive network of caverns, ruins and traps hidden away in the Peruvian Andes. Right off the bat, though, the new game deviated from the old, beginning outside of the ruin on a snowy cliff, at the top of which was a massive gate that would eventually lead to the lost city of Vilcabamba.

Posted by Darren 'Doom Dude' Finch at 8:18 PM

Category: Comic Books

"B.C.," populated by prehistoric cavemen and dinosaurs, was launched in 1958 and eventually appeared in more than 1,300 newspapers with an audience of 100 million, according to Creators Syndicate Inc., which distributes it.

Posted by Darren 'Doom Dude' Finch at 10:45 PM

Category: First Person

This isn't a shooter where you can run into town guns blazing, treating your enemies with contempt. In Arma, one bullet normally equals death, or a condition very close to it. You'll learn to hug cover, keep your head down, run across open roads, flank enemies and cover squad-mates. In short, it requires a great deal of patience and understanding of basic real-life combat strategies.

Posted by Darren 'Doom Dude' Finch at 8:51 PM

Category: Hardware

I didn’t have any problems using the mouse doing daily tasks, but the mouse took a while to get used to while gaming. I found out that the sensitivity was high enough to have my entire palm when I was playing regularly and to use my fingers to control quick movements. The grip is a nice addition as well.

Posted by Darren 'Doom Dude' Finch at 2:07 PM

Category: Hardware

As expected, AMD has taken the axe to Athlon 64 X2 and Sempron prices yet again. The company has also removed a handful of processors—mainly sub-$200 90nm Athlon 64 X2s—from its price list, suggesting that it is discontinuing the chips. Even prices for AMD's FX-70-series processor pairs have gone down a notch.

Posted by Darren 'Doom Dude' Finch at 8:00 PM

Category: Strategy

The game is fast and furious, very easy to pick up and play and yet challenging because of the exceptionally well designed missions. Much of the units are back to what they once were, and Tiberian Sun seems almost wiped out of the existence. There are no signs of hover tanks, cyborgs or cheap Star Wars rip-off Mammoths anymore.

Posted by Darren 'Doom Dude' Finch at 5:37 PM

Category: Developer

"My prediction is that the game console in the vein of the PS3 and XBOX 360 is going to either undergo a massive rethink or go away altogether. The Wii has the perfect design for a console that doesn't pretend to be a PC and is geared more toward casual gamers than hardcore gamers.

Posted by Darren 'Doom Dude' Finch at 9:10 PM

Category: Massively Multiplayer

So in Guild Wars 2 we want to have a big "persistent world" where you're out running into other people as you play. You could be fighting a dragon attacking a tower for instance, and other players will choose to come to your aid, rather than having you shut off from other players in your own instance of the world. Although some elements of the game will remain instanced - like in Guild Wars - such as dungeons, because it's cool and natural for them to be.

Posted by Darren 'Doom Dude' Finch at 9:47 AM

Category: Role Playing

It's been almost a year since The Elder Scrolls: Oblivion launched its way onto our Xbox 360's and PCs. It immediately garnered significant critical acclaim, and wound up winning GameSpot's award for Best RPG of 2006. Since it's been released, though, it's also been the subject of plenty of modifications, both from its fan community and from its developers.

Posted by Darren 'Doom Dude' Finch at 3:45 PM

Category: General

The two men were in an Infiniti that collided head-on with a GMC Yukon around 2:30 a.m. PST, said Lt. Paul Vernon, a police spokesman. The driver of the other car was under the influence of alcohol and was driving without a license, Vernon said.

Posted by Darren 'Doom Dude' Finch at 3:24 PM

Category: Role Playing

Arx Fatalis, the critcally-acclaimed RPG from Arkane Studios, developers of Dark Messiah of Might and Magic, is now available for purchase via Steam. Through April 10, Steam customers may purchase Arx Fatalis for $7.95, a 20% discount off the regular price.

Posted by Darren 'Doom Dude' Finch at 7:01 AM

Category: Hardware

This case is 100% clear and comes in a low profile cube. Two levels offer easy installation of components, and it even has some extra room for watercooling gear. The UFO Acrylic Cube case also comes with two clear 120mm fans with blue LED's. If you plan on showing off your prized hardware in this clear case, I would suggest getting some hard drive enclosures and nice optical drive to compliment the other hardware, as everyone will be able to see everything.

Posted by Darren 'Doom Dude' Finch at 5:01 PM

Category: Role Playing

While it isn't immediately apparent, this game is a Diablo-style RPG, with strong influences from Guild Wars, Dungeon Siege, Baldur’s Gate, and, well, just about every other game related to the genre. The game starts with your hometown being overrun by bad guys (undead trolls, mostly), and, in a tutorial, you take control of the town’s archmage (whose name is, by the way, Archmage – one of many indications that originality will be an issue here). The player can do no wrong with the firepower of an (the?) archmage, but after crushing the trolls, you’ll meet the game’s villain, who crushes Archmage and you, and possesses him.

Posted by Darren 'Doom Dude' Finch at 3:08 PM

Category: Hardware

Biostar is currently offering its T series of mainboards for gamers and enthusiasts. The letter T probably stands for Three as this series features a three-sided package of innovative technologies in BIOS, hardware and software. It is this mainboard series that has raised users’ interest towards Biostar recently.

Posted by Darren 'Doom Dude' Finch at 2:40 PM

Category: First Person

Visually Stalker is well too do, lets not forget this is an open-world environment we find ourselves in so I can forgive not having the most ground breaking graphics for efficiencies sake. Actually the weather is a fantastic touch, watching as the wind blows dust about is almost eerily real; fires raging at bonfires don’t look too superficial either. Details on character models are a little less impressive but they pass without drawing any sighs of disappointment.

Posted by Darren 'Doom Dude' Finch at 10:03 PM

Category: Role Playing

Posted by Darren 'Doom Dude' Finch at 2:10 PM

Category: First Person

Chris Remo: Each Quake Wars map is rooted in the Strogg conflict depicted in Quake II and Quake 4, with Quake Wars effectively serving as a prequel to those games. Though Quake Wars is multiplayer-only, it contains multiple campaigns, which in this case are themed groups of maps dealing with various areas of the war. Valley, the first map we played, is set around a Strogg attempting to contaminate the water supply of the Global Defense Force and turn infected humans into Strogg.

Posted by Darren 'Doom Dude' Finch at 6:42 PM

Category: General

Before proceeding, remember that no list is perfect. I've undoubtedly missed a few characters, for whatever reason. So feedback, suggestions and additional nominations for the list are welcome (via feedback e-mails or the Forumz), as this list will be an organic feature that we'll continue to add to and augment over time. Hopefully, we'll someday soon have enough solid, well-drawn female characters that we can get up to 100 entries.

Posted by Darren 'Doom Dude' Finch at 4:28 PM

Category: Movies

Yes, apparently the Invisible Woman has been taking full advantage of her powers to show up on the Vancouver set au naturale, and though most of the cast and crew rarely even notice, our secret spy photographer was able to take a few quick snapshots before being escorted off set by security. (At least that's what he told us when he sold us these pictures for a pretty penny.)

Posted by Darren 'Doom Dude' Finch at 2:42 PM

Category: Role Playing

Posted by Darren 'Doom Dude' Finch at 11:07 AM

Category: Role Playing

The game is set in a fantasy version of medieval Earth. Modo, an immortal from another realm, has been exiled here by his people, sentenced to live out a 100-year human life while retaining all of his memories but none of his considerable power. At the end of the exile period, he would be allowed to return to his native realm, but Modo has other plans. By the age of 40, the human version of Modo has learned enough of Earth's magic to become very powerful once again.