Posted by Darren 'Doom Dude' Finch at 11:00 PM

Category: Role Playing

The protagonist is Geralt, an expert slayer of monsters. The title of the endeavor refers to his profession. In fact, he's the most renowned practitioner of his gruesome craft, a swordsman specifically selected while still a child, then subjected to intense training plus a series of mutations that transformed him into an unequalled master of the blade as well as a very capable magic user. He's not invincible though. In a fistfight, for example, he's as likely to fall as any average man. And when play begins, his mortality is exposed; he's very weak and can't remember much at all, including how he arrived at his condition.

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

Category: First Person

As is becoming the trend for most first person shooters, the game will feature a variety of vehicles which will allow you to move Sam around the vast landscapes a little faster. In one level, set in a giant world full of massive insects and flowers taller than skyscrapers, you can actually ride a huge ant – should be interesting.

Posted by Darren 'Doom Dude' Finch at 1:32 PM

Category: Action

Pirates of the Caribbean: The Legend of Jack Sparrow will be released in concurrence with the upcoming sequel to the movie franchise. However, it will be more closely related to the first movie. In it, players get to hack and slash their way through a multitude of stages as either Jack Sparrow, everyone’s favorite rum-guzzling pirate, or Will Turner, (almost) everyone’s favorite straight-man.

Posted by Darren 'Doom Dude' Finch at 8:43 PM

Category: Role Playing

Deeper in the dungeon we encountered a trap set by the goblins who were silly enough to be standing right below it. Creeping closer, the developer grabbed a piece of food from the goblins own campsite and throwing it at the trip wire, the trap is sprung on the goblins themselves.

Posted by Darren 'Doom Dude' Finch at 8:54 PM

Category: First Person

One of the biggest criticisms we received from Rune was that the most interesting part of the game was in the middle, when the player starts to fight other Vikings. We didn't include enough cool stuff at the start of the game.

In Prey, there is an great density of gameplay throughout its entirety, so not only is the start of the game interesting, but the player will constantly be seeing new and cool stuff throughout.

Posted by Darren 'Doom Dude' Finch at 11:19 PM

Category: Role Playing

Right off the bat I could tell something had changed, because the first companion I allowed to join my party kept talking to me. Later, as I built my party up to four characters, the companions often commented on what was happening, and sometimes they even talked among themselves. I even saw a couple of doors that could only be opened by particular companions.

Posted by Darren 'Doom Dude' Finch at 10:21 PM

Category: Role Playing

As with the first game there are a ton of NPCs to talk with in the game and NPCs will actually chat randomly with each other. The demo showed one scene in a village where two characters chatted and you learned more about a threat to the land that you might be able to help out with.

Posted by Darren 'Doom Dude' Finch at 8:11 PM

Category: Action

Crystal Dynamics was extremely aggressive about emphasizing the differences between their Tomb Raider and some of the recent, ill-received sequels like Angel of Darkness. The combat sequence really showed off the change in attitude, with Lara's melee prowess weakened and the "wild animal" enemies completely replaced with human enemies.

Posted by Darren 'Doom Dude' Finch at 9:03 PM

Category: Action

Posted by Darren 'Doom Dude' Finch at 10:17 PM

Category: Strategy

In ParaWorld's singleplayer campaign, three scientists from "our" world--an American, a Dane, and a Hungarian--discover a way to cross over to the ParaWorld. They soon discover a conspiracy that threatens the alternate planet, and being heroic sorts, are unwilling to let it continue. Over the course of more than fifteen combat-focused missions, each of which are divided into five or six sublevels, you'll organize the barbarian tribes into an organized, effective combat force.

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

Category: General

Guild Wars takes a bold stab at the genre by eliminating the monthly fee and giving players either a chance to quest to a higher level or begin Player vs. Player combat immediately with a high level, pre-designed character. The choice is yours, but either way you win.

Besides the lack of a monthly fee, Guild Wars also challenges many of the tried and true conventions of MMORPGs as it sets out to not only break the mold, but obliterate it as well.

Posted by Darren 'Doom Dude' Finch at 7:44 PM

Category: Role Playing

People in this business rarely applaud heartily after a game demo at E3. But it happened after we saw Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion in action at Bethesda’s heavily guarded mini theatre. Oblivion is quite simply the most gorgeous and impressive game, yours truly encountered at this year’s expo. Actually, it surpassed the Killzone PS3 presentation, which has sort of become the high watermark this year (regardless of whether it’s “rendered” or not –Ed.)

Posted by Darren 'Doom Dude' Finch at 10:48 PM

Category: Role Playing

As the knight charged we saw the combat system in action. One press of a button swings the melee weapon and holding down the button results in a charged attack. The combat animations were greatly improved over Morrowind and are no longer represented by short choppy motions.

Posted by Darren 'Doom Dude' Finch at 10:47 PM

Category: Role Playing

The attack system is also pretty interesting. Instead of auto-attacking (where you click once to engage combat, after which you swing automatically) or Diablo-style clickfests, The Witcher uses a timed system. When the mouse pointer over the enemy turns green, you click. If you click when it's not green, you mess up your combo and don't do as much damage as you could have.

Posted by Darren 'Doom Dude' Finch at 10:46 PM

Category: First Person

Posted by Darren 'Doom Dude' Finch at 7:39 PM

Category: Role Playing

Todd Howard: We're in the final phases of development. Most of the content is in the game, and we're trying to polish it all up. We'll show off all the major features of the game behind closed doors at E3. It's a hard game to boil down to a short demo, but I think we've got something people will enjoy and hopefully come away with a good idea of what we're tying to accomplish.

Posted by Darren 'Doom Dude' Finch at 10:38 PM

Category: Role Playing

Michal Kicinski: It has always been our primary goal to create a new quality of PC RPG gaming - an amalgam of epic storyline and complex character development system joined with spectacular fight sequences. We humbly believe that we're on a best track to achieving this goal.

Posted by Darren 'Doom Dude' Finch at 9:53 PM

Category: Massively Multiplayer

I will come right out and say that this game is the most enjoyable online experience I have had to date, and I don’t plan on stopping play any time soon. And did I mention there is no monthly fee?

Posted by Darren 'Doom Dude' Finch at 6:37 PM

Category: Hardware

Sonos miraculously simplifies whole-house audio. You don't need to be a computer expert, you don't need to be an electrician, you don't need to know someone who is either, and you don't even need to hire an installer. Plus you don't need anything pre-wired. Sounds too good be true, doesn't it? But the Sonos system was really that simple to setup and start using.

Posted by Darren 'Doom Dude' Finch at 12:36 PM

Category: First Person

According to the devs, UT2007 is going to be a larger shift than UT2004 was from the original Unreal Tournament. Everything has been written from scratch with the highly popular Unreal Engine 3.0, new physics engine, and presumably brand-new netcode that takes advantage of stitching maps together and streaming information from the server to the client.

Posted by Darren 'Doom Dude' Finch at 6:31 PM

Category: Role Playing

But it doesn't stop there, because for everyone at the show who doesn't get to see the demo, as well as all of you that don't get to go to the show at all, we wanted to have a really amazing trailer that showed some killer gameplay footage.

You'll get a better view of the Dremora when the trailer goes up next week.

Posted by Darren 'Doom Dude' Finch at 3:29 PM

Category: Role Playing

Posted by Darren 'Doom Dude' Finch at 8:41 PM

Category: Role Playing

The first thing that needs to be said is that Guild Wars is not an MMO. There's a lot of misunderstanding going around, but GW is an online RPG that blends elements from Diablo-style online multiplayer, while integrating some MMO elements. The cities and certain dungeon entrances are basically hubs, but once you exit those areas for the wide expanses of desert, rolling hills, and snowy mountains, you'll be flying solo, most of the time.

Posted by Darren 'Doom Dude' Finch at 7:06 PM

Category: Role Playing

• Monsters less aggressive in some areas of the game.
• Magic items appear at a more even rate.
• Ice magic now holds opponents longer.
• Exploit reselling single use scrolls and lockpicks can no longer be abused.
• Boons from relics at Talendor adjusted.
• Additional spells added for specific types of magic.
• New heraldries added for specific quest bonuses.
• Players may skip voice-over/text dialogues with NPCs.
• Screen resizing issues in the User-Interface fixed.
• Bargain skill works correctly for reselling items.
• Occasional guild inventories not showing up in MP now fixed.
• Pain Sting (nether spell) now fixed.
• Flickering on load screen no longer occurs.
• Occasional hang under MP in Fargove Slums now fixed.
• Order of the quests at the Celestial Order in Fargove adjusted.
• In the Shadow Ruins, the Blue Athena Statue now drops the Shadow
  Crystal even after failing the chess puzzle.

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

Category: Role Playing

Fight your way through a forgotten Roman city, deadly dungeons of the Saracen empire, discover long forgotten islands, ruins and catacombs on a search for a secret hidden on the ground of an ancient underwater fortress. Test your fighting skills, overcome the hordes of darkness and discover that victory must be paid with blood, pain and even your very own soul.

Posted by Darren 'Doom Dude' Finch at 2:17 PM

Category: General

Clive Barker adds, "Demonik will be an intense gaming experience. I'm having a lot of fun enriching the game's mythology and polishing the characters till they shine. And, of course, adding a little bit of Barker darkness. Demonik promises to be a game that you will play with clammy palms."

Posted by Darren 'Doom Dude' Finch at 8:53 PM

Category: First Person

As mentioned, Pariah has a good mixture of outdoor and indoor locations and these do tend to vary in theme quite a bit. They also vary in quality, and it appears as though some were simply rushed. Likewise, while the graphics are on the whole quite eye-pleasing, some glaring glitches are present. In the most obvious example, the water/forcefield effect is just plain broken – if you look at a forcefield or reflective water head-on, you can actually see your weapon and hand being drawn on the surface.

Posted by Darren 'Doom Dude' Finch at 11:03 PM

Category: Massively Multiplayer

Also, if you are not fond of PvP combat (player-versus-player), be forewarned – this is a game that is PvP-centric (as in lots of it), and even if you choose not to indulge in the robust PvP aspect, you will still have to fight other players for the right to advance early in the game (Ok, it’s one battle, and that will be addressed in a moment).

Posted by Darren 'Doom Dude' Finch at 10:52 PM

Category: First Person

Posted by Darren 'Doom Dude' Finch at 10:22 AM

Category: General

Which would you rather play, a computer game that takes forty hours to complete or one that lasts just a few minutes? Don't be too quick to answer. The former asks for a serious time commitment. The latter says come and go as you please. One is a ball and chain. The other is a “Get Out of Jail Free” card. Well, it's not exactly that bad but considering all of the things you have to do today, which type of game do you really have time for?

Posted by Darren 'Doom Dude' Finch at 9:36 PM

Category: Role Playing

Toronto, May 4, 2005 - DreamCatcher Games, an award-winning publisher of PC and Console games, today announced D.W. Bradley’s Combat RPG, Dungeon Lords, has shipped to retailers across North America.

Dungeon Lords blends the depth of an epic Fantasy RPG with the flexibility of an FPS-style control system. Gamers journey through a hugely expansive land of wilderness, towns, dungeons and crypts and engage in real-time tactical combat with a variety of foes including snake women, deceitful goblins and mischievous skeletons. Players must carefully master Arcane, Celestial, Rune and Nether magic, as well as wield hundreds of powerful weapons, in order to defend the kingdom.

“DreamCatcher is excited to send Dungeon Lords out to retail,” said Byron Gaum, Product Manager for Dungeon Lords. “We appreciate the support and patience of D.W. Bradley’s fans, and we’re confident they will be happy with the result.”

With upwards of 40 hours of gameplay, the game features an abundance of personal missions and quests. Players may customize an extensive variety of skills and special abilities for the hero, including race and class specializations. Players will choose from seven playable races comprised of humans, elves and dwarves as well as a number of non-human “demi-goth” races including the Urgoth, Wylvan, Thrall, and Zaur. The simple and intuitive design will suit RPG and action fans alike and supports cooperative multiplayer for up to eight players.

Dungeon Lords is designed, written and developed by award-winning computer game author, D.W. Bradley (Wizards & Warriors and three of the legendary Wizardry titles) and Heuristic Park, Inc., The game has an ESRB Rating of ‘T’ for Teen and retail price of $39.99 USD. The game will ship to European territories in May with a ‘12+PEGI.’

Posted by Darren 'Doom Dude' Finch at 11:19 PM

Category: First Person

The sets are open, free, and varied. The action fails to match them, though. Pariah consists almost entirely of sustained run-and-gun, but the firefights never quite spring to life. Enemies appear in small detachments, scattered across landscapes or clogging passages. They hold their positions with some effectiveness, and are deadly when massed, but rarely move or attack with purpose.

Posted by Darren 'Doom Dude' Finch at 11:56 AM

Category: Role Playing

Posted by Darren 'Doom Dude' Finch at 6:25 PM

Category: Role Playing