Misc

Valve have announced the release date for Crash Course, the latest piece of DLC for their zombie smash Left 4 Dead, as next Tuesday (September 29th). Unlike last April's Survival Pack, however, this will not be free, instead costing a reasonbly priced 560 Microsoft Points. Ostensibly an all new campaign set after the original's No Mercy, Crash Course promises to maintain the basic gameplay options familiar to L4D fans (Single/Co-op/Versus), as well as providing an update for the original game.

In other Valve-devolped, zombie-based multiplayer FPS news, the demo for the controversial sequel Left 4 Dead 2 is due for release on October 27th. However, no other details have been revealed. The sequel has proven to be something of a contentious issue amongst die-hard Valve devotees, with many suggesting that the release of a follow up so soon after the original goes completely against Valve's ethos of care and commitment to all of their games post release, and view L4D2 as nothing more than an add-on with a full-game price tag. As such, it will be interesting to see if this demo will actually manage to heal the rift.

Left 4 Dead 2 is released on November 20th.

The following story is based on real events. That’s the kind of quiet claim that might make the hairs on the back of your neck stand up. Mostly it’s something reserved for films, but here it applies to a game, or rather, a real-world event that involved one.

Making an advert for a game or console is almost as difficult as developing the product itself. A misjudged commercial could ultimately decide whether a game's fate. When done well, though, game adverts have the ability to transcend their purpose, and become as iconic as what they are selling. Here are five examples that got it totally right:

After a disappointing delay back from its original release date in June, Champions Online recently opened it's doors to the pre-ordering and FilePlanet using public for open beta testing.

Emerging from the deepest depths of Korea for European consumption in 2007, Maplestory is a massively popular MMORPG, with over fifty million players worldwide.Inspiring everything from Anime and fan art to a range of snacks. Whilst being extremely popular, the game is also very different from its online siblings, boasting unique visuals and side scrolling gameplay, while retaining many of the classic elements that make the genre so popular. With the recent release of the expansion pack, Knights of Cygnus, the time seemed right to look at what makes the game such a fan favourite.

After the initial, coma inducing tedium that comes with installing any downloadable PC game, it quickly becomes apparent that Maplestory is much more, and in some cases much less, than an ordinary MMORPG title. Visually the game looks like a cross between an upscale anime and the psychedelic imaginings of an overactive twelve year old splattered across the monitor. Colourful players roam across 2D backgrounds reminiscent of an early Megadrive title, interacting with surprisingly detailed characters and items, while a retro digital soundtrack will either serenade them or drive them insane. This style will instantly put a lot of more mature gamers off, but for those willing to look past Maplestory’s out of retirement presentation, a deep and engrossing MMORPG experience awaits.

Because we ALL go a little crazy sometimes!

Given that the majority of computer games are set within fantasy realms, and given the slightly crazy storylines that develop within, it’s no surprise that every so often a total nutcase is thrown up from the twisted minds of the developers. True, most computer game characters are a little nuts, but these guys take insane to a whole new level! Here is a selection of my personal favourite crazies.

Ten years ago, turn based RPG action ruled the gaming world. Titles such as Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest had gamers craving multiple discs, turn based battles and logic defying haircuts. Not only were these games massively popular with both their fan boy audience and casual gamers but, in the case of Final Fantasy, were some the best games of their generation. Due to the fact that the majority of these games originated from Japan and shared similar themes, the genre was affectionately crowned the ‘JRPG’. Hours were chalked up, bosses were beaten and potions were thrown, all in the name of this eccentric and engrossing brand of gaming.

It’s no exaggeration to say that in its golden age, the JRPG really was the most popular gaming genre of its time. There’s not a gamer in their twenties that hasn’t at least heard of Final Fantasy VII and almost ten million of those gamers bought the game.  This giant fan base has inspired everything, from the standard geek fare of cosplay, to the big budget heights of films and energy drinks. This success allowed other JRPGs to break into the mainstream, with Pokémon becoming a global Gameboy phenomenon and Square going on to release a host of other Final Fantasy titles, each gaining commercial and critical success.

No other form of entertainment has the ability to suck up so much of our free time and make hours pass by like seconds. Most people who read this will agree that they have spent more time blowing their games wide open, than on more worthwhile pursuits such as....gardening.
In honour of the countless hours of entertainment gaming can give I have compiled a list of the five most life consuming games and have taken a look at what makes them so addictive.

1. World of Warcraft:   It would be wrong to start any list of life consuming games without paying homage to the worldwide MMORPG phenomenon that is World of Warcraft. Since its release in September of 2001, Blizzard entertainment’s “pay to play,” open world RPG has gone on to have over 11 million monthly subscribers. While perhaps the entire MMORPG genre could be given a rightful place in this list, no other game of its type has sucked people in quite as much as Warcraft. With numerous expansion packs to extend the games already limitless lifespan and horror stories of people dying at their computers after playing marathon five day sessions, Warcraft is probably the most worthy of the five games in this list to be labelled life consuming, literally.

Game Hub has recently looked at the impact that the internet and online gaming has had on the way we play games.  Digital distribution of games together with cloud gaming have and might shake up the games industry in a big way, but in this 3rd part in the series, we're looking at how the internet has changed who we play games with and how it has changed our personal and gaming identities through clans and guilds.

If and how we can define ourself through video games is really made possible with multiplayer gaming. Before 'the internet', gaming was, at most, only a 4 player pursuit and multiplayer aspects of games limited.  Gleaming rays of hope of what was to come came from games like Goldeneye, but the ability to identify yourself as a member of a group of gamers was stunted.  Moving into online gaming, FPS's and MMORPG's are the genres most commonly associated with clans and guilds and both allow the player to identify themselves and associate themselves with an organised group of gamers and as a member of that clan or guild.

Different species and character groups within MMORPG's mean identity within a game can...

Physical media and dedicated gaming consoles, we are told, are dying breeds.  And the prime suspect for their expected demise is “The Cloud”.  Cloud Gaming is on it's way and may shake up the gaming world for all of us so I'm taking a look in to this to see exactly what it is, and what it means for the gaming community.

The Cloud is already present in most of our daily lives. Every time you check your Hotmail, Yahoo or Gmail emails via a web browser, you're accessing, retrieving and interacting with them stored in The Cloud. Most internet users have also interacted with The Cloud when using Google Docs in which your docs, spreadsheets and presentations are all edited online without ever being saved or used on your PC itself.  The analogy of 'The Cloud' is the 'place' where the files you view and use online are stored and means not only do we save our hard drives from the abuse of saving thousands of emails and documents, but also that we can access them anywhere on the world.

Looking at gaming, Cloud Gaming is set to cause one of the biggest shake ups of the way we play games since the early 1970's when the first dedicated gaming consoles hit the shelves.  The “Cloud Gaming” generation will not own physical media nor will they store video games on a hardrive. Instead, they'll connect via the internet to central servers, on which the games are stored and the processing required to run them takes place.  With all of the processing and media storage happening remotely, the only hardware the user will require is a PC with an internet connection and a 3rd party box to manage the flow of information from PC, through the internet to their servers, and then to receive that information back and translate it onto your TV or monitor.  With the industry leaders currently claiming to have all but eliminated latency (down to 1 millisecond), the gamer's interactions with the servers through the internet is planned to be as seamless and quick as interacting with a console in the same room.

Visit any amusement arcade, bowling alley or anywhere with video arcade machines in the late 90's and you'll remember that one of the most popular games was the then newly released Silent Scope. For anyone thats been living in a cave in the Outer Hebrides, Silent Scope,made by Konami, was innovative in that you used a rather cool chunky looking gun with a telescopic sight to play the game. It was new, fresh and very original. Ok , the gun aspect wasn't as the excellent Operation Wolf had brought us that a few years previously but the new bonus of using a scope to pick out your targets from a distance made the game so much more different and exciting
 
Well this year Silent Scope makes a return on a somewhat unexpected format on the iPhone from Apple. Thats right, you as the worlds top marksman are back to save President of the USA and his family who have been abducted, yet again, by bad guy terrorists. Boo etc. So its time to dust off the sniper rifle and head back out to the rooftops of Chicago and start popping heads.
 
The multi touch technology of the iPhone is central to the gameplay of Silent Scope with players tapping the screen to fire. The game boasts different levels of difficulty, various modes of gameplay with both an arcade and training mode where players can perfect their sniper skills before hitting the arcade mode and tackling the game proper.
  Read More  »