You all remember all those crazy ads on the site for that online game EVONY? Well, I had them removed from our ad roll – you’re welcome – as the controversy around the game grew. As it turns out, an anti-EVONY group has posted evidence linking the game to a Chinese gold-farming ring as well as several other kinds of shenanigans.
Author - Jerry Paxton
CCP Games has released a new trailer for their upcoming EVE Online expansion: Dominion. Dominion will see what CCP considers EVE Online’s ‘end game’ come to play, more often known as Alliance Warfare. It will also see a completely overhauled Sovereignty system as well as the obligatory new quests, ships, items, etc. You can see the full features page at the game’s official site.
A company we always keep up with in regards to their latest gaming peripherals, Razer, is having a special free-shipping sale now through the end of the weekend on everything in their store. This includes their newly-announced Imperator gaming mouse. The free-shipping sale is good not only in their US Razer Zone store but also their European and Chinese stores as well.
Spike TV has unveiled some of the new footage from the upcoming video game based in some way on TRON LEGACY, the forthcoming film from Walt Disney Pictures. The full gameplay footage will be revealed LIVE during the 2009 Video Game Awards on December 12th at 8pm. Of course, we will have a crew there LIVE blogging the event, so stay-tuned!
Cryptic Studios has released a new Starship Tactics video for their upcoming MMO, Star Trek Online. Big reveals in this video – not only do you see the battle section of a saucer-separated ship in action but also how boarding parties work in the game. Star Trek Online is due out on February 2nd, 2010 on Windows PCs.
HISTORY:
Founded in 1995, BioWare hit the mark with PC gamers by way of their 1998 RPG, Baldur’s Gate. They, and Black Isle Studios, followed this up with an expansion as well as a full-blown sequel in 2000 and went on to develop some of the best video games in existence. For instance, BioWare developed both the Neverwinter Nights and Mass Effect series of games.
After Neverwinter Nights, however, BioWare’s RPGs tended towards the action variety as PC developers the world over tried to keep up with the faster-paced games making their way onto console platforms. In business, you give the people what they want and the cold, hard truth of it is that there are a multitude more console gamers than PC gamers these days (not counting the hybrids, of course, such as yours truly). In 2004 as fans found out that Baldur’s Gate III: The Black Hound, being developed by Black Isle Studios, had been canceled they returned their attention to BioWare for classic-RPG salvation. BioWare has answered their call with Dragon Age: Origins. They have said that this title will appease both types of core gamers and I finally got the chance to check out the PC version in order to see if it really lives up to its promises.
STORY:
The kingdom of Ferelden is potentially in the midst of what Grey Wardens call a Blight. Basically, this is a situation where a twisted and evil group of beings known as Darkspawn wage an all-out genocide against humanity as well as the rest of the races in the land. Grey Wardens are a group of individuals who fight the Darkspawn and are imbued with some mystical powers. Your part is played as an initiate Grey Warden who must battle the Darkspawn as well as perform some other pretty huge tasks, such as uniting a slew of conflicting races as well as restore the proper order in some instances of political coups!
While the basic story in Dragon Age: Origins may sound familiar, I promise you that this game is murky – VERY murky. You will be forced with making some very tough decisions and, in some cases, the decisions you are offered are all negative and it will be your job to choose the option you feel best. The great thing about DAO is that it really does not judge you for actions that could be considered ‘bad’. Sure, there are consequences in the way the world unfolds around you, but you are never labeled as one thing or the other based on those actions. Likewise, the amount of human drama which takes place in this game rivals some episodes of the re-imagined Battlestar Galactica. This is a mature game with mature themes, and will readily appeal to the group of gamers who grew up with classics such as Baldur’s Gate. Most of us are in our thirties now and able to ingest such content – yay for maturity!
GAMEPLAY:
DAO has a varied play styles depending on your preferences. If you like, you can play the game in a 3D isometric view of the world and your party. Moreover, you can also set the game to auto-pause at the beginning of combat. This will give you time to assign actions to your party members before resuming real-time combat. This play style warmly reminds me of those classic RPGs while also dazzling me with popping 3D effects and details. It truly was the best of both worlds and his how I prefer to play.
You can also choose to zoom the camera all the way in behind the character you are controlling at the moment and play the game like a modern MMO such as World of Warcraft. I see this view lending itself more towards the younger crowd who grew up mainly on console titles, however it still works very well on the PC. The experience is definitely more intimate in this view and it is easier to lose your perspective on combat (you may want to use the auto-pause to help with this) but you ALSO get the benefit of seeing a lot more of the gory details and effects!
The rest of the controls are easily picked up by anyone who has played an RPG, MMO, or shooter in the last five years. Right-click to attack and move, left-click to select something. You will find the traditional inventory screens as well as skills and ‘paper doll’ interfaces work seamlessly and are very user-friendly.
GRAPHICS:
Dragon Age: Origins features detailed characters and vibrant combat and magic effects. It also features blood. Lots of blood. In fact, blood is a recurring theme in the game, from the box art to the loading screen you will find blood spray and spatter. Also, a key point in the game revolves around the blood of the Darkspawn. You will not be surprised, then, to find out that after combat your characters will look like they stepped out of an Ed Gein dinner party. They are covered from head-to-toe with the blood of their enemies. The effect is really cool at first but, when you find out the blood stays with your characters as they go about the rest of their business, it is off-putting. Walking around an unsuspecting village, talking to citizens, all while drenched in blood just appears strange. You expect the NPCs to ask you, ‘Hello, why are you and those three other characters drenched in blood?’.
Aside from vibrant magical effects, you will also find that DAO features its share of combat finishing moves and other gory moments. The blood and heads really start flying in heated battles – this is easily the goriest game BioWare has made to date. Well done – it looks amazing!
SOUND:
The spectacular soundtrack of DAO was composed by Inon Zur, veteran composer of games such as Fallout 3 and Baldur’s Gate II. Here, Zur is at his best with sweeping sounds and musical climaxes. Aside from the game’s soundtrack, the sound design team has done a wonderful job with the environmental noises as well as the sounds of combat.
It needs to be mentioned that the voice work in Dragon Age: Origins, is almost too solid for its own good. You will begin to think that all games should have a voice cast this talented, which will then ruin your experience with these other titles. Actors such as Claudia Black, Tim Curry, and even Kate Mulgrew will grace your ears with their incredible performances. BioWare and EA really pulled out all the stops with their casting on this one.
ORIGINS:
Unlike most classic RPGs, the amount of character customization available to the player is more limited than they will remember from older RPGs. In DAO, you will find three races to choose from, each with only a couple of class picks as well as a couple of background options. Your decisions when first creating your character will decide what origin story you play-through first. An origin story is like a training campaign – more than that, it sets up your character’s back story and really puts you in his or her mindset.
Some of these origins are noble, while others start you off as a cold-blooded killer… Like I said, this game is murky. Each of these origin stories takes a good couple hours to complete, so be ready to put in the proper time to get your maximum enjoyment from the game. This, being a more classical RPG, has a huge amount of story options for you to take on. Prepare to spend about 40 to 50 hours on a thorough play-through!
CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT:
Once your character begins leveling up, you will have to choose where to spend your skill points. You will be able to choose from several disciplines and skills to increase your proficiency in. Character development is fairly straight-forward and it is really fun to plan out how your want your party members to develop.
Like the Baldur’s Gate series, your party members will often communicate amongst themselves and, in some cases, squabble about random stuff. Your decision as to what party members to bring with you will also affect how their interactions go. Like-minded characters tend to get along better, etc.
TACTICS:
A big gameplay point BioWare has added a new AI feature called ‘Tactics’ to DAO. Basically, this allows you to setup your AI to perform certain actions or skills based on varying criteria. For instance, you can set a magic user to heal if health goes below a certain percentage. A player who has more levels into the skill ‘Combat Tactics’ will be grated additional tactics slots to fill out. Unfortunately, for the less hardcore gamers this system might be overwhelming. Thankfully, you can use preset character tactics (like Aggressive, Defensive, Ranged, etc) to make this aspect of the game easier.
CONCLUSION:
Dragon Age: Origins is an incredible deep role-playing game experience that is accessible by both PC and console gamers alike. It features a rich story, excellent voice acting, and crisp visuals that will keep you clamoring for more, even 50 hours into the game.
As most of you probably know, Electronic Arts shut down one of its brightest development houses the other day – Pandemic Studios. This was the developer being the Mercenaries series of games as well as the upcoming The Saboteur. Thankfully, most of their core IP teams were moved to other places in the EA realm. Many were not, however. In this edition of G4’s Sessler’s Soapbox, Adam says goodbye…
I remember testing these cans out at CES 2009 and I was pleasantly impressed with them at the time. They had the crisp high-hats and head pounding lows, while feeling very comfortable. I remember being very impressed with the Silencer technology which, when paired with a Creative Fatal1ty sound card, intelligently cuts out the background noise to provide a very clear voice for online VOIP or in-game voice chat. When I was handed this headset by out intrepid editor, I was frothing at the mouth to get home and try them out in the real world.
I will preface this by saying I’m an extreme audiophile, I’m just not in the tax bracket to afford the type of hardware I would wish for. That doesn’t mean my ears are any less snobbish when listening to the run of the mill speakers that are poorly powered and balanced. When I put the cans on for the first time at home after installing the software, I immediately turned on a game and cranked it up into the ear bleeding range. Even in the extremes, the speakers hold themselves together maintaining clarity. The wonderful world the over-ear cans create is very deep and layered. I was able to hear ambient sounds over the BAM, POW, CRASH of Batman: Arkham Asylum, this brought a smile to my face. I went from game to music and tested a playlist I have specifically designed to test new audio equipment. It ranges from classical to acoustic singer-songwriters and rock to rap. Each song came across admirably and I was continually impressed that these retail for $99.
Comfort is a major issue with me and headphones. I’m above average in height and apparently I have a huge head (both metaphorically and physically I’m told). Only headphones that were in the astronomical price range would ever feel good being worn for more than even a few songs. For me, on-ear cans are simply not an option, I’ve never once been able to find one comfortable enough to wear for more than a few minutes. In fact, I would prefer to have comfort over the highest end speakers you could fit in a headset. Putting these on for the first few minutes is a real joy. They are very light, and fit well over my gigantic ears. Normally around the fifteen minute range I start to get annoyed with any normal headset. I went for a long-term session and clocked in about four hours playing Dragon Age: Origins. The only minor discomfort I felt was from the pad that rests on the top of your head. Creative – are you listening? For the next iteration of this headset, make the pad at the top both wider and more plush. I will marry someone over there for that.
The construction is as good as you can get for the price tag. It’s plastic in most places, the part you slide out for more room is of course metal. I also like that it doesn’t have notches, you can infinitely adjust to any increment. I have purchased headphones before that one notch was too small, the next too big – simply not a worry here. They rotate at the actual cans to make sure the plush padding around your ears is always flush. I would have liked to have seen some metal here. If you look at pictures of the headset, you will see right at the point that the speakers attached to the top a plastic wishbone. I can see in some frustrating situations that the headset could get ripped off a ‘pwned newb’, or tossed at the wall in a rage. I can see that point being the weak spot.
Any good gaming headset needs a good mic. This one is nice, actually. I was able to clearly be heard by anyone either over VOIP programs like Ventrilo or TeamSpeak, but also on in-game voice chats. There was one exception to this, however and it’s one of the headset’s key selling points. When I had the Silencer technology turned on, people constantly asked me to turn up my settings, or ‘swallow the mic’. Unfortunately, all my mic settings in Windows and in the Creative control panel were fully maxed out. The mic itself will pretty much rest just a couple of inches away from your mouth, right where it’s supposed to be so that wasn’t the issue. There may be a firmware or driver update that will fix this, so if there is please let us know so we can correct this right away. I tried recording myself with the Silencer on and off, I can see that being of some use, but how often does a gamer record himself? I suppose it will happen from time to time, but this still needs work in my opinion. Otherwise the mic works fine, it’s connected by a rubber casing that will never break and will of course move up and away if you’re not using it.
I have a fundamental problem with USB headsets. They can be fussy, this one is better than most, but still has its anomalies (mostly because of Windows). Also, I have a perfectly good sound card in my system and I would like it to continue to take clock cycles away from my CPU to handle sound. Even if the Creative card helps the headset in processing power, it’s still communicating via USB which means it will go through the ‘South Bridge’ of your motherboard (most of the time) and on through your CPU. If you have the Silencer technology going, or if the card is helping in some other fashion, it’s going down to the PCIe bus and back again. Gamers typically want to squeeze every last frame-per-second out of their rigs, and this is aimed at gamers to a point. I understand the convenience of being able to plug the headphones into the front panel of your case, but if you have that option 9/10 times you also have the speaker jacks. When I’m playing a game, I can remove the headphones and the default audio device will switch back to the sound card automatically. Unfortunately, the game/music/movie doesn’t know about that as a sound source cannot be swapped like that unless you restart the process. That’s no big deal, but when dealing with a game and having to save then shut it down then restart just to switch from speakers to headphones or back, it’s annoying.
All in all, this is a great pair of cans. I enjoy their fidelity, ease of use, and comfort. What else do you need? I think if Creative gives a version of these with speaker jacks (even if they have to lessen the software that comes with it), improves the Silencer technology to let the voice still get through with volume, and gives a better pad at the top, they will be a force to be reckoned with for ages to come.
CM Storm – you may know them as Cooler Master’s new gaming division. Putting out peripherals and accessories with serious attitude, we recently gave their Sentinel gaming mouse some very high marks. Being new to the gaming mouse market, we were shocked that they got things so right on their first time out. Now we get to take a look at their new Sniper Black mid-tower gaming chassis.
DESIGN & FEATURES
According to the Sniper Black’s official product page, the design of the chassis was inspired by ‘military weapons’. While I am not sure about that entirely, I will say that the design reminds me more of gritty, sci-fi military weaponry than a modern-day SCAR-H or M16A4, but I digress… The point is that the Sniper Black just looks mean. Anyone who sees you with it at a LAN tournament will be impressed. In fact, the Cooler Master HAF-922 is very reminiscent of the Sniper Black in style, and they both looks like they could be related to the same bad-ass gaming case progenitor.
Being a sizeable mid-tower, the Sniper Black’s dimensions measure out to 22.3”(d) x 10”(w) x 21.7”(h). Furthermore, the Sniper Black weighs in at 23.42 lbs stock. This is mainly due to the unit’s steel skeleton. Now, not all of the Sniper Black is steel – some of it is a tough ABS plastic and some cheaper-quality metals for the ‘mesh’ areas of the case, which run down the bezel and a good portion of the side-panel.
Where most gaming chassis will have one or two 200mm case fans, CM Storm has chosen to include three of them here. That’s some serious air-flow, and coupled with a 140mm rear exhaust fan and clever vertical heat-dissipating design, it will ensure that your components stay cool. This ‘vertical’ system ensures that the fans which draw air into the case are located on the side and lower half of the case whereas the exhaust fans are placed on the upper half and rear. This takes advantage of a dominant feature of heat, in that it likes to rise naturally. Some cases like to draw air in from the top – fighting heat’s natural tendencies. If you need even more air-flow, there is room for an additional 140mm fan at the very bottom of the chassis.
The three 200mm fans are all tied to the Sniper Black’s control center which can be found on the upper-front of the chassis. On this control center you will find not only the power and rest buttons but also a rotary fan-control speed knob and an LED control (the 200mm fans all have blue LEDs on them to illuminate the chassis). Other nice features of this control center include a microphone, headphone, and eSATA inputs as well as four USB ports and a FireWire port to boot. It’s one of the most full-featured control centers I have seen on a gaming chassis.
INTERNAL DRIVES
Utilizing the 5.25” drive bay locking system found on the Cooler Master HAF series, the Sniper Black can be equipped with up to five 5.25” drives and five 3.5” drives. Installing and removing these drives could not be easier thanks to the previously-mentioned locking system which requires no screws to keep things in place.
COMPONENT INSTALLATION
Installing components into the Sniper Black chassis is really straight forward. Some of you may be a little put off by the drive locking mechanisms or the bottom-mounting PSU, but give yourself a little bit of time and you should be fine. CM Storm has really put a lot of thought into just how much physical room is necessary to install modern components and it shows. Even our GTX 280 fit inside with no issues. Also, cable management in the Sniper Black is much easier to pull off thanks to the raised motherboard tray. Behind it, you will find about a half inch of breathing room with which to braid your cables about. It is also worth noting that the Sniper Black features a totally screw-less install. This means that you need no tools to put your components in the chassis other than your hands.
Those of you who buy this case will undoubtedly be using a non-stock CPU cooler, perhaps even an all-in-one, liquid-cooled solution. There is roughly 7-inches of clearance between the CPU and mesh side-panel, more than enough for most aftermarket coolers, including the Thermaltake SpinQ and Cooler Master V10 models! Even better is the fact that the motherboard tray has a large square notched-out for bottom-access to the CPU cooler pegs. This means that you will be able to install the cooler without having to fully-remove the motherboard from the tray.
CONCLUSION
The CM Storm Sniper Black gaming chassis retails for roughly $160 dollars right now from online retailers such as Newegg. While this may be pricey for some, if you are looking for an exceptional mid-tower gaming chassis with some of the best air-flow around, you would be hard-pressed to find a better solution. Couple this with the Sniper Black’s user-friendly features and picking this one up is simply a no-brainer.
Cryptic Studios has been releasing a lot of media for their February 2nd-bound MMO, Star Trek Online, as of late and today they add the game’s official box art to this list.
Drink it in, gamers… Its elegance… Its implied actions… Stuff that geek dreams are made of right there. Live Love and Prosper!