Gamespot has posted its review of Gears of War for the PC. They give it a hearty 9 out of 10 ‘Editors Choice’ and, well, basically praise it up a whole lot. Despite all the praise, they do expound on some negatives, such as the new chapters having a different feel than the original ones, the system requirements are immense to run it the way it was meant to be run, and difficulty is not exactly balanced yet in some areas.
Author - Jerry Paxton
Gamasutra has posted their large interview with Turbine Executive Producer Jeffrey Steefel and Director of Communications Adam Mersk, both part of the Lord of the Rings Online team. In case you don’t know, the Lord of the Rings Online is a popular MMORPG from Turbine, Codemasters, and Midway. The two speak on the recently released expansion, Defenders of Eriador as well as their future plans (possibly even a console launch).
Steefel claims:
‘We launched back in April of 2007, and we’ve grown the game [in size of world]. Once we have the stuff that we just showed you, the game will have grown in size over 20 percent. We’re already the number two Western-developed MMO that’s subscription-based — basically number two to WoW’.
However, he doesn’t specify exact numbers or where he gets that information.
NintendoWiiFanboy has posted their review of Battalion Wars 2 for the Nintendo Wii, giving it a final score of 9 out of 10.
From the article:
‘Battalion Wars 2 is a very competent squad-based shooter. And, it has just about everything that fans of first-party Nintendo games are looking for. With compelling gameplay that effectively uses the control scheme, all of the action in this game is fun throughout. It even has an enjoyable online mode, although it’s fairly limited.’
BBC News is reporting that the body of Pharaoh Tutankhamen has been placed inside a climate-controlled case inside his tomb in the Valley of the Kings.
From the article:
‘The event comes 85 years to the day after the pharaoh’s tomb was discovered by British explorer Howard Carter.
Until now, only about 50 living people have seen the face of the boy king, who died more than 3,000 years ago.
As experts lifted Tutankhamun from his coffin they briefly set aside the white linen covering his remains, revealing a shrivelled black face and body.’
RogueSynapse is building a fully functional arcade game/cabinet after the one seen in The Last Starfighter. It seems as though Atari was actually creating such a cabinet during the time of the movie’s release but it was never finished. With some ingenuity, however, the team at RogueSynapse has completed the game and even is allowing it to be downloaded from their site so you to can use it in your arcade cabinets.
1up is reporting that Majesco will release ‘Mega Brain Boost’ for the Nintendo DS this January which will combine three Bran Boost games in one cartridge! That means that Brain Boost: Beta Wave, Brain Boost: Gamma Wave, and a third installment not-yet revealed will be packaged at a reasonable price.
From the article:
‘By packaging three distinct games within one game cartridge and pricing the total package at $19.99, we’re offering a great deal of value to consumers looking for quality entertainment,’ said Ken Gold, VP of marketing at Majesco. ‘Each game within Mega Brain Boost offers a completely different set of fun, yet challenging, brain training problems designed to enhance mental acuity.’
Recently, Razer released their latest gaming mouse, the Lachesis. Unlike their Death Adder (a great mouse to be sure), the Lachesis is an ambidextrous-designed mouse. It features a much lower profile than the Death Adder, opting instead for what seems to be a nod to the design of it’s ancestor, the Boomslang. It’s flared head definitely points to this being the case as does the placement of the sensor. The Lachesis’ sensor is set much farther back than on the Death Adder, and on the Boomslang of old it was the same way, albeit a ball instead of a laser. The buttons of the Lachesis are very ‘crisp’, with a heavier tension than usually needed on Razer mice to click them. One of the biggest problems on the Boomslang was what we affectionately called ‘razer error’, which ocurred when picking up the mouse to place back on the pad after moving too far. When doing so it was not uncommon to brush the buttons with your forefinger, causing them to depress…causing the giving away of many a position to the enemy…With these higher-tension buttons, brushing over them will not be enough to set them off.
A problem does exist with picking the Lachesis up, however, and that is the side buttons are exactly where your thumb goes to pick the unit up. This can cause them to depress as they are not as high-tension as the primary and secondary buttons. I suggest not assigning anything important to them.
The Lachesis features a 4000dpi 3G laser sensor with a 1000Hz polling rate. When turned up full it will traverse a 1920×1200 display in no time flat and will do so not only quickly, but smoothly too! Performance in Bioshock was excellent, but when used in simple desktop applications we felt the need to turn down it’s sensitivity a bit. During gaming, the mouse consistently provided great performance, and even with the v1.00 drivers, we found it to be a joy to use.
All things being considered, the Lachesis is the best gaming mouse brought out by Razer to date, and that is high praise considering the popularity and capabilities of the Death Adder. It is a lesson in remembering the past, as it’s callbacks to previous mice make this the Boomslang for the next generation.
Joystiq has reported that Famitsu has reviewed Assasin’s Creed, giving it a high 37 out of 40 score! That is one point lower than they gave to Halo 3 and Super Paper Mario.
From Wikipedia:
The environment is completely interactive, from the people to the historically accurate cities. These cities are populated by many people, and the way the player controls Altaïr affects how the bystanders around him react to his presence. For example, when going through a crowd, if the player lightly moves someone out of the way, it will not have a significant effect. However, if the player throws someone to the ground and kills them, the crowd may unite against him and he will then have to find a way out. Similarly, if the player shoves a person aside, they may shove him back. If he climbs walls, civilians will gather around, attracting unwanted attention from guards.
Joystiq is reporting that the next-gen Turok game is coming to PCs next year as well! The PC version will release next spring and is being converted by Aspyr Media, complete with multiplayer mode supporting 16 players.
From Wikipedia:
Turok will be the latest installment in the first-person shooter series of video games based on Acclaim Entertainment’s comic series under the same name. The game is currently scheduled to be released for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 on February 5, 2008. It is being developed by Propaganda Games and published by Disney Interactive Studios under the Touchstone banner. A game demo has been confirmed by Propaganda and is expected to be made available for both consoles sometime before the games release.
Joystiq is reporting that EA is predicting shortages of the Rock Band bundle through the end of this year. Quoted in the article, EA president John Riccitiello said that Rock Band
bundles may be tough to come by for a while. ‘We won’t be able to put
up enough inventory to meet the demand of this fiscal or calendar
year,’ Riccitiello told the investors, adding that those who don’t buy
at launch ‘won’t be getting one for Christmas, unless you know someone
at one of our retailers.’