Posted by Darren 'Doom Dude' Finch at 11:24 AM

Category: Adventure

The only sign of life is a rambling man in the general office, who refuses to open the door and will only speak to you through the thin slats of a ventilation grate. His terrified raving about disappearances and a hunter in the night does nothing to allay your fears that something is wrong, and that the overall shroud of tension draped upon the air is one of death and horror. Overcome your dread and use your brain; there is a way out of this.

Posted by Darren 'Doom Dude' Finch at 2:53 PM

Category: First Person

Posted by Darren 'Doom Dude' Finch at 9:35 AM

Category: First Person

Posted by Darren 'Doom Dude' Finch at 9:12 AM

Category: First Person

One of the Axon vehicles is an air combat vessel called the Cicada. This craft isn't really going to do much damage to other air vehicles, but one of its coolest abilities was inspired by military attack helicopters. Basically, it is equipped with a weapon that can home in on any land target and automatically fire rockets at hit that exact spot. Even if you fire rockets in completely the wrong direction, they'll spin round in mid-air to bombard a certain target.

Posted by Darren 'Doom Dude' Finch at 6:49 PM

Category: Role Playing

Improvements to the original include attention to some of the more strategic elements, like properly outfitting your characters and creating the right formation to maximize your parties’ abilities. The combat itself is frenetically paced with bright lights and effects flooding the screen.

Posted by Darren 'Doom Dude' Finch at 2:11 PM

Category: Role Playing

Posted by Darren 'Doom Dude' Finch at 7:24 PM

Category: First Person

Another thing that's worth noting is that all the "monsters" in the game are not really monsters, but humans, either in the early or the later stages of their Adam transformation. The idea here is that humans are much scarier than monsters - at least that's what the Irrational guys seem to think.

Posted by Darren 'Doom Dude' Finch at 2:05 PM

Category: Massively Multiplayer

August 24, 2006 (BELLEVUE, WA) — ArenaNet® and NCsoft® today announced that Guild Wars NightfallTM, the next game in the award-winning and critically-acclaimed Guild Wars® franchise, will be available in stores worldwide October 27, 2006. The news was announced today from the Guild Wars FactionsTM World Championship in Leipzig, Germany.

In this third Guild Wars campaign, players must fight to hold back the night as a mad ruler attempts to free an outcast god and bring darkness to the continent of Elona. But players won't fight alone. Guild Wars Nightfall introduces new customizable Heroes who level up, follow player instructions in combat, and use skills and equipment of the player's choosing. These Heroes will follow the player through savage coasts, ancient monuments, and poisonous deserts during an epic story that spans twenty missions and hundreds of quests. And for the ultimate one-on-one challenge, competitive players can choose to enter the new Hero vs. Hero Battles, where they group with a custom team of Heroes and fight against other players from around the world and their customized groups of Heroes.

Guild Wars Nightfall will be available in both Standard and Collector's Editions. The highly-coveted, limited run, Collector's Edition will include the Guild Wars Nightfall game as well as a Making of Guild Wars Nightfall behind-the-scenes DVD, a collector's art book, collectible skill pins, a character mini-standee, a poster-sized map of Elona, the Guild Wars Nightfall soundtrack CD, and more.

Guild Wars, an instant bestseller worldwide upon its release in April 2005, and Guild Wars Factions, the number one game in both North America and Europe earlier this year, are global online roleplaying games. Guild Wars Nightfall continues the tradition of inviting players to immerse themselves in an epic storyline centered in a vibrant fantasy setting. Eager fans can get the Guild Wars Nightfall Prerelease Bonus Pack in stores on September 15, and the Guild Wars Nightfall Standard Edition and Guild Wars Nightfall Collector's Edition on October 27, 2006.

Posted by Darren 'Doom Dude' Finch at 3:48 PM

Category: First Person

Simply jaw-dropping' is the only way, without resorting to expletives for emphasis, that we can describe the action we've just clapped eyes on in an utterly amazing new Unreal Tournament 2007 trailer that's been released.

Posted by Darren 'Doom Dude' Finch at 10:26 AM

Category: Role Playing

The situation is desperate: The orcs have beaten King Rhobar’s troops and are ruling the most important parts of Myrtana, enslaving the human population. Only the tricky inhabitants of the south and the wild barbarians of the icy north are holding against the orcish domination.

Posted by Darren 'Doom Dude' Finch at 9:09 AM

Category: Strategy

Posted by Darren 'Doom Dude' Finch at 1:48 PM

Category: Strategy

There are no health bars here either. Instead you'll have to rely on the remarkably thorough visual damage modeling to tell just how bad off a ship is. Perhaps the coolest feature of all is that you can target specific areas of a ship. Wherever part of the enemy ship your cursor is over when you issue a fire order is the part of the ship your fleets will try to hit. This opens the door for some sophisticated tactics. Do you try to take out a small weapon on the top of the ship or do you aim for the middle of the ship where, even if you miss a little, you're still likely to do some damage? The way this all works so naturally is truly remarkable.

Posted by Darren 'Doom Dude' Finch at 6:55 PM

Category: Role Playing

Posted by Darren 'Doom Dude' Finch at 6:48 AM

Category: Role Playing

Posted by Darren 'Doom Dude' Finch at 11:46 AM

Category: First Person

The sentient stronghold is truly a wonder to behold, mixing both an interior that would be typical to any traditional alien craft, cold and metallic, with layers of living, slimy, and wet organic material. You can see where Prey resembles Doom 3, whose engine lends itself nicely to Human Head’s own design. But much of the monotony found in Dooms’ levels are gone, replaced instead by visually compelling and fairly diverse environments.

Posted by Darren 'Doom Dude' Finch at 9:39 PM

Category: Role Playing

Discover a new breed of action game powered by an enhanced version of Valve’s Half Life 2 Source engine. Set in the Might & Magic universe, players will experience ferocious combat in a dark and immersive fantasy environment. Become an expert warrior, mage or assassin, using a vast array of devastating weapons, against huge and vicious creatures in a deep and captivating fantasy.

Posted by Darren 'Doom Dude' Finch at 12:59 PM

Category: Role Playing

If you've never played DS2 before, you can now do it with all the benefits offered by the expansion, which is the strongest reason for playing this. However, none of the new features are compelling enough to replay the whole story from the beginning. While the new features make the gameplay more fun, the story leaves a lot to be desired.

Posted by Darren 'Doom Dude' Finch at 11:33 AM

Category: Role Playing

The Collectors Edition contains a bonus CD with 1 exclusive multiplayer character skin, 4 exclusive single player weapons and 26 minute Making-Of documentary with Arkane, Kuju and Ubisoft, exclusive soundtrack CD, grained paper map of the multiplayer world, and a Heroes of Might & Magic V demo.

Posted by Darren 'Doom Dude' Finch at 10:27 AM

Category: Music

Posted by Darren 'Doom Dude' Finch at 1:50 PM

Category: Role Playing

Adam: Our core graphics team is composed of 10 people, which isn’t all that many if you think about how huge a project like The Witcher actually is. The team is subdivided into five departments: locations, characters, animation, technical art and concept art. To be honest, I am really proud of the people I work with; it’s not everyday that you manage to create such a coordinated, functional and productive team from scratch. It’s really important to have a cohesive team, as graphics is more often than not regarded as one of the most direct and obvious ways of impressing and attracting potential players. Our department is here to make sure that The Witcher will at least catch the eye.

Posted by Darren 'Doom Dude' Finch at 7:51 AM

Category: Role Playing

It's a short demo. For its file size, especially. You can burn through it very quickly. But if you burn through it, you don't really appreciate it for what it is. It's a game. You're meant to play with it. And when there are as many options for amusing distraction as Dark Messiah, play really is the word.

Posted by Darren 'Doom Dude' Finch at 8:27 PM

Category: First Person

Posted by Darren 'Doom Dude' Finch at 2:44 PM

Category: Role Playing

In Dark Messiah of Might and Magic, players will be introduced to the world of Ashan, the new setting for all future Might & Magic games. Ashan is a dark and unforgiving world, scarred by a bloody history and threatened by an apocalyptic prophecy: the Dark Messiah.

Posted by Darren 'Doom Dude' Finch at 8:59 AM

Category: Hardware

Posted by Darren 'Doom Dude' Finch at 11:33 PM

Category: Action

In terms of gameplay, it's as if Robert Rodriguez decided to direct a "Desperado"-style remake of Max Payne, minus the comic book noir concept. Players will duck, dive, and return fire through sandy Mexican villages and lush Latin jungles. The stealth aspect of the game seems to be largely back burner, and at least in the preview levels, can be bypassed by anyone willing to lay down a curtain of lead and press on through sheer force of gunpowder. Ammo conservation, a tool by which stealth gameplay could be heavily encouraged, is a non-issue. Not only does every slain foe cordially relinquish his stash, but boxes of ammos and spare weapons can generally be found in the obvious places, such as medicine cabinets and on top of rocks.

Posted by Darren 'Doom Dude' Finch at 9:48 AM

Category: Massively Multiplayer

An enthusiast with the online handle Jackpot649 nailed the zeitgeist in his response to the About.com query: "I'm a guy, but if I gotta look at an avatar all day, I'd sooner look at a female avatar. Plus, people give you more free stuff."

Posted by Darren 'Doom Dude' Finch at 8:58 AM

Category: Role Playing

New York, NY – August 4, 2006 – 2K, a publishing label of Take-Two Interactive Software, Inc. (NASDAQ: TTWO), today announced Dungeon Siege II: Broken World, the official expansion pack to the award winning action role playing game, is now available for PC at retail stores in North America.

Developed by Gas Powered Games, Dungeon Siege II: Broken World brings closure to the epic storyline begun in Dungeon Siege II. In an all-new single-player campaign, the maniacal Dark Wizard has ravaged the fantasy world of Aranna, and players must put an end to his evil machinations. Additional expanded offerings include two new multi-class characters, the return of the Dwarf as a playable race, more items to discover and a newly enhanced tactical-combat system.

Posted by Darren 'Doom Dude' Finch at 6:35 AM

Category: Role Playing

One of the challenges for players to even get to the point of coming to the conclusion that the orcs might present a good option is to be noticed by the large humanoids at all. At the beginning of the adventure, the orcs will want nothing to do with the main character. Seen as merely one of the many new slaves, players will need to prove themselves in combat arenas to gain the respect necessary to grow closer and more useful to the invaders. Thankfully, the combat system in Gothic III looks more complete than we've seen in the previous games.

Posted by Darren 'Doom Dude' Finch at 1:05 PM

Category: Strategy

ParaWorld takes place in a bizarre parallel dimension that seems one part Dinotopia, two parts Arthur Conan Doyle's The Lost World, and a little bit of Jurassic Park thrown in for good measure. In this world are three human tribes who live, work with and fight against a variety of dinosaurs and each other.

Posted by Darren 'Doom Dude' Finch at 8:07 AM

Category: Role Playing

Unlike the first two games, which took place on a small island that functioned as a penal colony, Gothic III takes place on Myrtana, the world's large mainland continent. We were told that Myrtana boasts a huge land area, at least 7.5 square miles of handcrafted landscape. It seems that things aren't really going well in Myrtana these days -- unless you're an Orc. A horde of them has invaded from the north and conquered and enslaved the human population.

Posted by Darren 'Doom Dude' Finch at 12:31 PM

Category: Massively Multiplayer

August 1, 2006 (BELLEVUE, WA) — ArenaNet® and NCsoft® today announced a brand new retail package which will soon give Guild Wars® players their first look inside the exciting upcoming release, Guild Wars NightfallTM. The announcement comes on the heels of the Guild Wars Nightfall PVP Preview Event where players were able to create characters using the new Nightfall professions.

The Guild Wars Nightfall Prerelease Bonus Pack is expected to hit store shelves on September 15 and will feature:

• Guild Wars "Play Now" key for a 10-hour/14-day trial* of Guild Wars PropheciesTM and Guild Wars FactionsTM.
• Guild Wars Nightfall Bonus Key, providing one additional character slot for a Guild Wars Nightfall account, as well as two exclusive items for the new professions—a Firey Sunspear of Shelter for the Paragon and an Icy Soulbreaker of Enchanting for the Dervish
• Mini strategy guide, concept art, screenshots, in-game renders of characters and items, preview trailer, wallpapers, lore, quick reference card, music, and more!

Guild Wars Nightfall takes place on the continent of Elona, Land of the Golden Sun. It is a nation comprised of three great provinces; The island province of Istan is the home of a vibrant people who live among the monuments of an ancient empire. The military province of Kourna, under the command of its great leader, Warmarshal Varesh, hugs the shores of the mighty river Elon. And in the rugged lands to the north, the Princes of Vabbi rule from their opulent citadels. Elona is a land of wealth and power, protected by its champions, the Order of the Sunspears. In Guild Wars Nightfall, Elona has fallen under the shadow of an evil, outcast god. Against the encroaching desolation of an infernal realm, the people of Elona will need more than a hero to save them, they will need a hero to lead them. . .for nightfall is at hand.