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

Category: Role Playing

Dark Messiah does an even better job of handling the first person combat. I was able to let off power attacks and block with ease. Being that Dark Messiah runs on the Source engine, the gameplay looks smooth and it’ll run on most any machine out there, which is a big plus.

Posted by Darren 'Doom Dude' Finch at 7:28 AM

Category: Massively Multiplayer

So the focus in Nightfall is less on constantly battling and more on adventuring in a beautiful and vibrant world. Nightfall will introduce traditional-style quests, complete with traps and puzzles. The idea is to feature not only combat, but also interactivity with the environment. These quests are being designed for groups, but you can still pursue them even if you're playing by yourself. That's because of another nifty new feature in Nightfall: heroes.

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

Category: Role Playing

"Oblivion has these really good character archetypes for evil," says executive producer Todd Howard. "It has the Dark Brotherhood: You get your outfit, you feel like an assassin, you feel like an evil guy, [and] you role-play like an evil guy. We [didn't] have the opposite end of that. There [was] very little reward for being a goody two-shoes."

Posted by Darren 'Doom Dude' Finch at 7:19 PM

Category: First Person

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

Category: Role Playing

Aventuria is a fantasy world that players will quickly recognize: we have elves living in harmony with nature and working mysterious magic, cantankerous dwarves that are as adept with the wrought iron as they are with the battle axe, a variety of human races, dangerous mages, wild orcs, honorable warriors, thieves and warriors. Some of the more exceptional races of Aventuria include the beautiful, battle-hardened Amazonians - who worship Rondra, the goddess of war - the Gyalskans - a fierce tribe of barbarians who practice animal magic - or the Thorwalians, a people resembling the Vikings, who call upon the god Swafnir to guide their fierce dragon boats.

Posted by Darren 'Doom Dude' Finch at 9:52 AM

Category: Strategy

The developers hereby provide you with the one tool that has been used for creating official maps and missions for ParaWorld, but since they included a elaborate documentation, even beginners should be able to start creating own maps and testing their skills as map creators.

Posted by Darren 'Doom Dude' Finch at 9:40 AM

Category: Movies

Film maker Peter Jackson says that preliminary work and script doctoring on the Halo film he's executive-producing is going well, and he's got nothing but admiration for young director Neill Blomkamp, despite his relative lack of feature experience.

Posted by Darren 'Doom Dude' Finch at 9:38 AM

Category: Role Playing

There are no mounts, although there are some teleportation portals to jump you around. There is some scaling of difficulty as you level up, but it's not global, like it was in Oblivion. There are plenty of areas you won't want to go until you're powerful enough. And there are places you can backtrack if you want an easier time whupping weaker creatures.

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

Category: Massively Multiplayer

As you advance through the game's storyline, you'll have opportunities to recruit adventurers (controlled by other players) and henchmen (computer-controlled allies). These alliances are temporary, usually long enough for you to finish a few quests or missions. The story also includes opportunities to recruit long-term allies: heroic non-player characters who play an ongoing role in the story. Completing specific quests allows you to recruit these unique heroic NPCs, commonly known as Heroes.

Posted by Darren 'Doom Dude' Finch at 3:09 PM

Category: Developer

• Assassins Creed
• Far Cry 2
• Far Cry PSP
• Far Cry Wii
• Lost
• Naruto 360
• Open Season
• Prince of Persia 4
• Rainbow 6: Vegas
• Rocky PSP
• Splinter Cell Conviction
• Surf's Up
• Star Wars PSP
• Shaun White Snowboarding
• Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
• Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles GBA

Posted by Darren 'Doom Dude' Finch at 3:46 PM

Category: Role Playing

The story of Dark Messiah of Might and Magic starts 20 years after the conclusion of the events described in the Heroes of Might and Magic V campaign, which revealed the first steps towards the realization of the Demon Messiah’s prophecy.
In Dark Messiah of Might and Magic you will see the prophecy begin to come true, and you will have to take steps in order to prevent the rise of the demon messiah.

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

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 8:36 AM

Category: Role Playing

But hacking away mindlessly with our sword was a sure-fire way to get killed in a hurry. Awareness of our environment and body position was crucial to survival. For example, while handling a weapon, we could easily see what Sareth had in store for our enemies by observing the way he held it. We could even see our feet if we looked down, something that we don't normally see in this type of game.

Posted by Darren 'Doom Dude' Finch at 4:07 PM

Category: Role Playing

Beyond all the nifty lore and background stuff, Elveon is a third-person combat game with a little infusion of RPG elements. It's not due out for almost a year, so the developers haven't nailed down every final detail yet. For example, they're considering making the Xbox 360 version more action-oriented, while giving a bit more role-playing depth to the PC game. Vague, eh? The PC-based demo I checked out, however, fell squarely into the action category.

Posted by Darren 'Doom Dude' Finch at 7:30 AM

Category: Role Playing

Set in the richly detailed Mage Knight universe, players take on the role of one of five guardians, warriors sworn by oath to seek out the heart of evil plaguing the land and stop it no matter what the cost. Guided by the magical and mysterious race known as the Solonavi, the guardians embark on an epic journey to rescue their world from the hands of an army of pure evil determined to bring about the Apocalypse.

Posted by Darren 'Doom Dude' Finch at 7:32 AM

Category: Role Playing

The more creative thing about fighting in general is that it pays to have environmental awareness. While enemies can be killed or affected by basic combat and magic, there are lots of objects laying around in the level that can be used to amazing advantage. One of the basic attacks is a kick that can be used at any time. This kick has the added effect of pushing an enemy back with some good force. That means kicking an enemy can push them over the edge of a chasm, into a fire, or onto one of the many spike racks nailed around the walls.

Posted by Darren 'Doom Dude' Finch at 6:59 AM

Category: Role Playing

Gamers will play throughout a 25-hour main quest, numerous side quests and two multiplayer modes, player-versus-player and co-operative. With four races to choose from, nine skill sets encompassing more than 130 individual skills, over 100 monsters, and advanced 3D graphics, Silverfall replenishes the RPG genre with a memorable hack-and-slash action adventure.

Posted by Darren 'Doom Dude' Finch at 7:53 PM

Category: First Person

Deep within the Arctic circle lies the Ark, a high-security private DNA bank and bioresearch facility built on the shores of an icy coastal inlet. The GDF have tasked the Ark facility with decoding the Strogg genome. The Ark has recently reported a success in reverse-engineering Strogg biotechnology which might even allow a reversal of the Stroggification process.

Posted by Darren 'Doom Dude' Finch at 2:30 PM

Category: Role Playing

Combat is easy to learn, but difficult to master. The Gothic series defaults to a third person perspective so the player can easily fight multiple enemies at once without losing track of who is attacking from where. The WASD keys control character movement while each mouse button (left and right) is a different type of attack. Combining mouse button clicks in different orders results in different combination attacks and holding the right mouse button activates the block function and special attacks. Naturally different weapon types have different attacks and combos as well. All in all, it’s a very intuitive and fun fighting system.

Posted by Darren 'Doom Dude' Finch at 3:03 PM

Category: Gone Gold

Austin, TX, September 12, 2006 – Aspyr Media, Inc., today announced that the North American version of the highly anticipated RTS ParaWorld has gone gold and will hit store shelves in late September. ParaWorld features a rich single-player campaign with a compelling storyline, as well as deep, well-balanced multiplayer gameplay. ParaWorld also puts a singular twist on the real-time strategy genre with its revolutionary new unit management systems – the Army Controller and Army Builder. In addition, the title places gamers in command of one of three unique warring factions, each in command of a ferocious arsenal of massive, weapon-wielding dinosaurs and other armed prehistoric beasts.

Posted by Darren 'Doom Dude' Finch at 1:44 PM

Category: Gone Gold

At 02:20 this morning Gothic 3 has been shipped to Sony Austria for replication. This means that after more than three and a half years of time development has been finished. Gothic 3 is scheduled for release on October 13th in various European countries.

Posted by Darren 'Doom Dude' Finch at 2:37 PM

Category: Massively Multiplayer

September 12, 2006 (BELLEVUE, WA) – Announced today by ArenaNet®, developer of the wildly-popular franchise Guild Wars®, the studio's latest game Guild Wars NightfallTM will make its debut in a massive event open to anyone and everyone who would like to play. The event will take place September 22, 2006, beginning at 12:01am PDT and running through September 24, 2006 at 11:59pm PDT.

The Guild Wars Nightfall World Preview Event will feature previews of the new environments, new missions, and new battle arenas. The event will allow players to create Nightfall-specific characters from the six core professions as well as the two new NightfallTM professions, the Dervish and the Paragon, and try out new Nightfall skills. The entire Istani province of the new realm Elona will be open for player exploration, and players will be able to view the first Nightfall in-game cinematics. In addition, two new arenas will make their debut, the Sunspear Arena and Churranu Island.

For an added bonus, the November 2006 issue of PC Gamer magazine, due in stores a week before the event, boasts a Guild Wars Nightfall cover story, and includes an access key for an exclusive, in-game, Gray Giant miniature. The Gray Giant will be useable during the World Preview Event, and then may be reactivated with a Guild Wars Nightfall account upon release.

Posted by Darren 'Doom Dude' Finch at 11:22 AM

Category: Gone Gold

SANTA CLARA, Calif., (September 12, 2006) – Leading video games publisher and developer NAMCO BANDAI Games America Inc. today announced that its fantasy action role-playing PC game, Mage Knight: Apocalypse™, has gone gold and will be available in stores beginning September 26. Featuring a richly-detailed universe, epic single player campaign and co-operative modes, Mage Knight: Apocalypse is the debut title launching from NAMCO BANDAI Games America Inc.’s PC division.

“NAMCO BANDAI Games is very excited to bring our debut PC game to market this September,” said Makoto Iwai, Senior Vice President of the Development Group for NAMCO BANDAI Games America Inc. “The Mage Knight: Apocalypse team has done an incredible job of capturing the epic Mage Knight universe into a visually stunning and compelling gameplay experience."

Based on the best-selling collectible miniature game from WizKids Games, Mage Knight: Apocalypse allows players to assume the role of one of five warriors sworn by oath to seek out the heart of evil plaguing the land and destroy it no matter the cost. Aided by the Solonavi, a mysterious and magical race, the guardians commence a quest to rescue their world from the clutches of an evil army determined to bring about the Apocalypse. As the forces of chaos rise, a creature of unimaginable destructive power is unleashed to lead the enemy: the Apocalypse Dragon, a seemingly unstoppable five-headed horror. In order to combat this monstrosity, players must rally support from all of the land’s factions and recruit brave heroes to battle for their cause. The future rests on the shoulders of these noble adventurers, and the ultimate clash for battlefield supremacy is about to begin.

Posted by Darren 'Doom Dude' Finch at 9:23 PM

Category: General

• US remembers 9/11 five years on
• The last person pulled from the towers
• Video: Americans Drawn to Ground Zero

Posted by Darren 'Doom Dude' Finch at 8:23 AM

Category: Action

Each item found in MK has three sockets, in which certain stones can be placed to increase that weapon's stats. These stones interact with each other in peculiar ways; for instance, a Death stone and a Fire stone will not only add Death and Fire damage to a weapon, but they may add a small percentage of a chance to cause fear as well. The best thing about the system is that, at least in the preview version, the stones can be removed from the item should you find a better one later, so that stones can be reused indefinitely.

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

Category: Role Playing

There’s an option to roll up new characters or to simply reuse the ones from DS2; it generally makes sense to just keep with the ones you know (and have already equipped). Newly rolled characters start at a pretty high level, so starting over doesn’t really promise much in the way of more gameplay. A new player race, dwarf, is available, but race means very little in this game past low levels, and this is all high level play. Don’t worry, you’ll see plenty of dwarves in the game, so not creating one won’t detract from the experience.

Posted by Darren 'Doom Dude' Finch at 6:59 AM

Category: First Person

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

Category: First Person

A witty twist of real historical events puts the Swastika on the White House and has the Nazis planning a nuclear strike on Manhattan. Players will take up arms in the resistance, and fight a guerrilla war with what has become the most evergreen of video game enemies.

Posted by Darren 'Doom Dude' Finch at 1:37 PM

Category: General

• Fortress Forever releases its first 'real' video
• Gaming Generation Have Different Approach to Learning
• Uwe Boll pummels first critic in boxing match
• No 1080p PS3 Games At Launch
• Microsoft and Nintendo Comment on the PS3 Delay
• PS3 Lowers launch numbers....AND sticks it to Japan!!!
• Has DVD Playback Been Removed from Nintendo's Wii?
• Wii Demo Kiosk video
• Angry Gamer says: Dear Sony, It's Over
• Extreme Shortages for Playstation 3 Launch

Posted by Darren 'Doom Dude' Finch at 12:35 PM

Category: Developer

Thus far, no specifics on the games Green Monster might create have been revealed, other than technical requirements that indicate Emergent's GameBryo engine (used in Bethesda's recently released RPG The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion) may be the firm's game engine of choice.

Posted by Darren 'Doom Dude' Finch at 5:27 PM

Category: Role Playing

As a Witcher, you are a member of a brotherhood founded long ago to protect people from werewolves, the undead, and a host of other beasts. You earn a living picking up odd jobs, protecting the populace from the unknown, and exterminating the occasional monster.

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

Category: Role Playing

Posted by Darren 'Doom Dude' Finch at 8:40 AM

Category: Entertainment

• Witnesses tell of freak death of Steve Irwin
• Australia's 'Crocodile Hunter' dies in stingray attack
• Crocodile Hunter Steve Irwin Killed

Posted by Darren 'Doom Dude' Finch at 11:16 AM

Category: First Person

"Gears of War" thrusts gamers into a deep and harrowing story of humankind's epic battle for survival against the Locust Horde, a nightmarish race of creatures that surface from the bowels of the planet.

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

Category: First Person

Posted by Darren 'Doom Dude' Finch at 5:59 PM

Category: Role Playing

Yes, European women are beautiful, and I think the “no booth babes” restriction at this past E3 caused a mass exodus of costumed models to Leipzig. Some of the outfits were umm… neat… and… tasteful… but I’m engaged to an equally beautiful North American chick, so I spent most of the show looking at the floor.