Well, Arch Enemy's got a new singer, the previous singer from the band "The Agonist". Apparently Angela Gossow
had enough and moved on. Well, they scored the motherload. Alissa White-Gluz is even hotter and still brings
the hellfury with her death metal vocals. This album "War Eternal" sounds highly promising. Cha-ching. Sold!
You're a hacker; the elite, hired to go in, running and acquiring whatever programs you need, steal the data and any bank info,
and bail out, signal integrity intact. Well... Good luck with all that! If only it were that easy...
868-HACK is an iOS game based off a kickass original freeware game titled "86856527". What's even more
astounding about it is it was originally completed in just 7 days during a one-week rogue-like game jam.
Superbly Cyberpunk in it's design aesthetic. At first, the game seems impossible. It is, afterall, a rogue-
like. You're meant to die over and over again until you grok how the game systems work and exploit them
perfectly. Then, after a few addictive plays, you start to grasp what's being asked of you and start
getting strategic about your moves. Then, you make a few runs where you're a hair's breath away from the end.
At least, this is my personal experience with it.
It's a great coffee-break game. A full game lasts maybe 10-15 minutes. There's no side-quests. There's no
fluff, no bullshit. It's just you against the system. Hacking your way into whatever megacorp to "stick it to the man".
The game plays as a turn-based strategy game. You move one grid location at a time, run any software you want,
examine your options, and the enemies make their move. You encounter all manner of obstacle; the hellbent
software out to do you in. Daemons, Viruses (oh gawd, the fucking viruses!!! Anti-Virus to the rescue!),
Hidden files, Glitches (which don't obey the normal rules of software). It seems on the surface to be such a
simple game, but boy is that an illusion. The depth is in the intricate subtlety. Every move counts. A single turn
can make the difference of a run to the very end, or an instant death. The game is that delicately balanced.
It all dances on a razor's edge.
And, it's awesome. Living Tron. Good proper cyberpunk flare meets rogue-like gameplay. Good for kicking around for a few minutes,
with no big commitments. If you're anything like me though, it'll become an obsession. Your eyes close to sleep
and all you see is green lines, the soft glow of the gamegrid, and another rabid Cryptog bearing down on you!! Gaaahhhhh!
Hard-Rockin 80s Until the Day I Die Posted December 30, 2013
It's hard for me to not get all teary-eyed and wistful about the great music of the 80s. If that wasn't enough on it's own,
MTV just came out and bands were figuring out how in the hell they make something funny enough to be memorable.
So, that basically means the following : Over-the-top guitar theatrics? Check. Girls with big hair in tube-tops
and mini-skirts dancing provocatively? Check. Guys with candy-floss poofed hair? Check. Neon? Check. Spandex? Check. Pure unadulterated 80's cheese?
Check. And if you managed to box that up into a cereal, I'd eat it every god-damned day for breakfast.
All the good stuff I remember as a kid growing up in the 80's.
This is an unapologetic love-letter to my childhood. If you don't like it, you probably didn't grow up
during the 80s, or your sister found your Cabbage Patch Doll collection or something, so go read another fucking blog!
Just Because You're Paranoid Doesn't Mean They Aren't After You! Posted December 30, 2013
Ok, with this year coming to a close, I think it's high-time for yet another Warren Spector masterpiece. Some would argue this being his swan song, given that
the game's gotten onto just about everydamnBest100Gamesever list
and ended up with a Game of the Year Edition, from, guess what? Curing cancer.Inventing air.Electrocuting gun-control advocates with car batteries.Starting a porn empire. Being the Game of the Year.
Put simply, Deus Ex is an old-school, plot-driven, choice-heavy RPG played FPS-style with a Cyberpunk theme. So, think Megacorps, hacking,
long leather shiny trenchcoats, sunglasses 24/7, and the enmeshment of man and machine Borg-style, just snazzier-looking. What made this game fun was the
storyline, character development, and the sheer importance of choice that this game heaps upon you as a giant gift; like one of those cakes where the dancing girl jumps out. Those ones.
It's primarily a RPG, so, yes, you develop your character through the use of augmentations that give certain abilities.
But I'll come back to that in a minute. Because what really does the job here is the story.
Terrorists, bombings, anti-terrorist agency, conspiracies... so far it
sounds pretty standard tinfoil hat conspiracy theorist meets NSA meets the Matrix. But you get the cool plot twist of agents in the
government being behind a
planned mass murder of the population (Sometimes I wonder if this would be such a bad thing) and
some other stuff that I don't want to spoil for you, especially if you're a Deus Ex virgin. I don't want to
be that douche.
The story takes you along, learning how these things are occurring, traveling the world to gather intel,
and trying to save the race pretty much. There is a lot of NPC interaction, and how you talk to people
can effect if they help you. Chock full of good dialogue with an exception made for some of the dialogue in Hong Kong. I don't know if
it was meant as a joke or what, but some of those conversations leave you feeling as though you
just watched a badly translated anime film where All Your Base Are Belong to Us.
Now onto the gameplay itself. You have a vast array of tools and weapons
available, including lockpicks, emp grenades for disabling bots and other electrical fields, and tools for
bypassing security computers. But if you want to just blow the crap out of stuff, you can do that too. Choices my good chap!
Enjoy killing anyone in your path, go for it. Feel like trying a different approach and just
incapacitating them like stealthy Ninja with some moral streak, you can do that also. The choices and methods add a fun and unique style to
this game that you don't normally get in a game with a FPS perspective. Of course, this isn't to say there aren't ramifications for choices.
You can blow the hell out of everyone, Rambo-style, but you're not going to get to do that too
often in Deus Ex, and you'll probably end up paying for it in one way or another.
You get those augmentations that I mentioned earlier and you'll encounter a number of them throughout the game, and each aug
leaves you a choice as to how to use it. Once implemented though, you are stuck with it for the rest of
the game, adding an element of replability to see what would happen if you picked the other choice. You've got Run Silent, Speed Enhancement, Combat Strength,
or Microfibral Muscle, just to name a few. A couple of the other augs do leave you with harder decisions,
such as Radar transparency from all electric sources, or Cloak from all living enemies? Both are good. And the game
gives you a bunch of these sorts of choices.
The bottom line is Deus Ex continually keeps being mentioned in lists of best ever games for good reason. Find out why.
We'll be watching you!
Yar Mateys! Get yer sea legs ya scurvy dogs! Pirate Metal Ahoy! Posted October 29, 2013
Well, it's officially Halloween and normally I'd throw up some badass evil-sounding music that fits the part
for the holiday. But, 1. I already posted the good options for that earlier, 2. There's only so
many good options for that stylistically and 3. Enough people go as damn pirates for Halloween that I can totally justify
it (sexy pirate wench anyone???).
Ok ok. I'm taking liberties, but this music is fucking awesome, so sue me.
Borrowing just about every possible option from legendary pirate metal bucanneers Running Wild, the best god-damned
band ever if I don't mind saying so (though their comeback albums have about as much wind in their sails as an
asthmatic squirrel blowing through a straw at them). Let's see here : The name of the band Blazon Stone
is a Running Wild album. The name of the album is "Return to" tacked on yet another Running Wild album. And the
riffs blow the door off anything Rock'n (now known as Dusty) Rolf has put out in the last 6 years; capturing all the
mach-speed surge of the best-of-the-best albums by them, notably "Death or Glory", "Pile of Skulls", and "Black Hand Inn".
Ok, they're frickin' amazing.
So, Happy Halloween from your evil breathren here at EvilSoft. And you don't even have to go to the local mall with a
fake parrot duct-taped to your shoulder with your friend walking a bit behind you doing the voice for it and making
a girl run away and cry when she asks you to make the parrot talk again, you tell her "Rawt! She's got junk in the
trunk!", and her boyfriend laughs, to enjoy it. Not that this has ever happened or anything...
Happy Halloween, EvilSoft-style. Posted October 29, 2013
If there is a game company that specializes in horror games, that honor far and away belongs to Frictional Games.
They're well known now for Amnesia : The Dark Descent (though the outsourced sequel is said to suck hairy johnson).
And modern lists of scariest games ever include that usually right at the top (now adding Outlast to the list).
Prior to all that hub-bub was their fantastic Penumbra series.
Using a term that means literally "Nearly Shadow", an obvious reference to the light fading, the game of course
thrusts you into dark hostile environments, and lures you through a horrific story by alternatively drawing you in and then kicking you in the ass against your will. You're not totally abandoned,
though the game will make you wish you were. Unlike Amnesia, you do have the ability to attack but you suck ass
at fighting, making running the usually smart option. The game's more cerebral than Amnesia as a general rule. It's bigger on implications of
horror than outright jump-scares. Trust me, this is a good thing.
The game uses a custom-made 3D engine, well-titled
as the HPL Engine, a direct nod to H.P. Lovecraft, the undisputed father of modern horror.
It works extremely well, showing off dark decrepit creepy environments readily. The story starts with a nearly direct rip off of Lovecraft's
"At the Mountains of Madness" with you trapped in the arctic, looking for shelter.
From there, it diverges into it's own story rapidly.
I'm hesitant to reveal too much as I don't want to spoil the experience
for you, because that experience is awesome. But, suffice to say it stands amongst the likes of Amnesia without batting an eyelash.
Let's put it this way. If turning all the lights out, the speakers up, and working your way through mind-bending puzzles and torturous nerve-wracking
events that the game throws at you, all while drenching yourself in an evocatively-told horror masterpiece sounds like a Halloween
well-spent, then you'll fucking love this game. The end.
Razorwyre : How New Zealand says Hello via Metal Posted August 29, 2013
Taking cues from the best of German Hard Rock and Powermetal and hailing from New Zealand (I'm betting even
Luxemberg has some metal bands at this point. Wow... Nope!)
enter Razorwyre. These guys sound like a
mix of old Helloween and Accept.
Not a bad thing by any stretch of the imagination. These guys only have one album and EP out at the moment,
but with promise like this and song titles like "Fight or Be Fucked", hopefully there will be a lot more in the coming years. Time will tell. In the
meantime, rock out to this great band. Horns straight up!
Syndicate's a pretty straightforward game. You control an elite tactical strikeforce of 4 guys who you send in
to complete missions in a vast cityscape. Now, even if that's all it was, it'd still be pretty cool. But the ante
is upped by the fact that it's a dystopianCyberpunk future ruled by Megacorporations and their well-placed greed.
Your guys aren't just a bunch of joe-schmoe dipshits either. You get to Borg-out the crap of these guys, doing all
sorts on non-ethical experiments to upgrade your guys Universal Soldier-style. Your guys are too dumb? Start a
research project to upgrade their brains and install new ones. Too slow? Do the same for their legs. The list goes
on. It's awesome.
Of course, what you get to do on the missions is what really makes it great. The aforementioned cityscapes
are teeming with life. Life that you get to destroy in true ruthless fashion. And it doesn't get any better
than setting hordes of people on fire and watching them run around screaming and flailing. Then there's the Gauss
gun which cuts down swathes of people. Then there's unique weapons like the Persuadertron. People attacking you
because you killed their friends? Use this on them and they join your side instead, running amuck and causing bedlam.
It's so awesome. It doesn't really matter if it's essential to kill them. You do it pretty much because you can.
Rough day? Here's your release.
The game will never win any awards for instilling deep values in
children. But that's exactly what makes it so good. I mean, deep values? Fuck that shit!
The game even made it to a list of the best violent video games of all time because "few games have
ever been so keen to have their protagonists murder civilians, burning them with flamethrowers, blowing
them up with rocket launchers and simply mowing them down."
This was back before stupid soccer moms helicoptor-parented their kids and waged idiotic campaigns every
time something even mildly politically incorrect flashed in front of their sacrosanct soon-to-be-entitled emo pansy kid's eyes. To hell
with that! Save that crap for the damn dirty hippies and libtards. Let them cry oceans. Time to get
some!
New Wave of Thrash Metal : Part 1 Posted June 27, 2013
2013's looking to be a good year for metal. With Black Sabbath and Ghost (I am fucking not calling them Ghost BC. Maybe Ghost BS, but not BC) releasing new albums and rap music slowly dying off,
things are looking brighter day-by-day. With digital distribution easing entrance into the market, anyone with a guitar
has pretty much picked it up and pumped out an album through Garageband.
Now, to anyone with even half a brain, the implications of this are scary; millions of tweenwave emo idiots cranking out
complete hazardous garbage that they deserve to be strangled with their guitar strings over. The flip-side is that
with a greater amount of albums and bands coming out, even amongst the dross, there's quite a few good bands
coming out. One style notably, is good ol' fashioned thrash metal.
Now, just to be clear, I'm not talking yet another metalcore band or some Swedish buttlick "we sweep-pick until
the cows come home" nonsense. I'm talking straight, no-BS, classic thrash metal done today.
There's way too many of these bands, like Municipal Waste (award should be given for "Best Video Ever") and Warbringer, to catch them all Pokemon-style in a single blog entry, so this is going to be an
ongoing thing. I find 'em, you get 'em. It's that simple.
Ahhh... The Terminator franchise... Back before Bethesda Softworks got their groove on with the whole Elder Scrolls series,
they were one of very few companies to actually get a license to create games using that IP. Pretty much every other
company took a giant dump on the Terminator name (though it's hard to beat Christian Bale in this department), but,
to give Bethesda proper credit, they actually got it right.
There were only a few games worth mentioning; Terminator : 2029, Rampage, Future Shock, and Skynet.
Terminator : 2029 played like an old orthogonal RPG. It's also worth noting that it's hard as nails. It's probably
the weakest of the group, but that's not to say it's not worth playing.
Terminator : Rampage attempted to capitalize on the whole Doom FPS craze of the early-to-mid 90's. It did this to
pretty good effect. I mean what's not to like about running through office buildings after the shit's already hit
the fan, hunting for ammo and weapons, fending off HK's, Seeker Bombs, and T-800 Endoskeletons to find components
of a super weapon that was in development to destroy the heart of Skynet? Fucking nothing, that's what.
Terminator : Future Shock / Skynet is where they really hit their stride though. Utilizing Xngine, one of the first
full 3D engines available and the first entrant into the now-standard Mouselook, which they also used to great effect in Daggerfall, they really captured what it would
feel like to be a resistance fighter, running for your life, and fighting Terminators and cybernetic organisms from
Skynet. These two form more of a sequel package, with the bonus of Skynet allowing you to play Future Shock in highres.
These games in particular really allow you to explore large maps in a fairly nonlinear fashion, stocking up on supplies,
rumaging through buildings, and reveling in the amazingly created post-apocalyptic setting that the creators
managed to form. It really does feel like you're in one of the burning battlefields of the future. They nailed it.
All-in-all robots and technology are often annoying, thanks largely to the fact that they're created by annoying humans
with their equally annoying human frailties. So, it's a fantastic form of catharsis to smash the hell out of said
tech via pounding a Terminator or 2.. 20.. 200.. 2000 into a bent-up pulverized mess. Hard day at work? Crush a bunch of Terminators.
I promise you you'll feel better.
For Future Shock / Skynet, simply run the .bat file included and it'll do all the hard work for you. Dosbox
and everything are already included, so just unzip and play away! Skynet is the sequel, so you'll want to start
the game and select Future Shock from the bottom of the menu. Once in the game, go to Options->Details->640x480
to run in highres. That's it. Super-fricking-simple.
Before the advent of the Golden age of Triangles and the GPU's that powered them, pretty much anything went for alternative rendering techniques.
Whether it be Ray-Casting used in Wolfenstein 3D and Doom or Ellipse-rendering. Whatever. If was weird and new
developers were willing to throw it at the wall and see if it stuck. In the case of NovaLogic they went with
tech that few others outside the medical community have used, with the notable exceptions of the great Action RPG "Outcast" and "Minecraft". That being Voxels or "Volume Pixels". This technique's
capabilities are still being explored, even being used indirectly to help texture id's newest game "Rage" via it's
Mega-Texture technique. Cool stuff you say, but how does this relate to the actual games? Well good question.
NovaLogic had a love affair with Voxels and thrust them into every damn game they made. Basically Voxels excel at rendering organic looking outdoor scenes. The downside is they're purely CPU-intensive
which means they look better the more clock cycles you throw at them. They can also look extremely pixelated at the
low resolutions they were rendered in at the time they were originally used. Later games in the series allowed for
mods to alleviate this. Luckily, this tech was paired with fun straight-forward arcade-like simulations that didn't
burden the player the way some games do.
For Comanche, the game is based on the stealth helicoptor that was the basis for the one used to infiltrate Osama Bin Laden's
place, assuming that actually happened. Weird angular panels made the radar bounce off masking it from radar. Not to
say this makes your mission easy or aything. Far from it! Just that using stealth and staying out of direct sight
is your main priority to stay alive and complete the short but sweet missions.
For completeness' sake, NovaLogic also released an A1 Abrahms simulator titled "Armored Fist", letting you play the other side of the equation
from Comanche. Both had their fun in different ways. If you like them you can pick up the newest ones for dirt cheap.
Let me just sum it up and say Comanche is the closest thing to flying Airwolf or Blue Thunder you're going to find.
Bolt Thrower; Combining Warhammer 40,000 motif and forming a band around it, you're pretty much going to come up with the
most metal band ever. Puts hair on your chest, even if you're a woman. Makes you hungry for red meat covered
in your enemy's blood. Makes you grow extra testicles. Best listened to in the nice glowing warm light of machine
gun fire bursts. Good background music for bathing in the guts of your fallen opposition. Goes swimmingly with pounding mortyr fire.
Hymns for total victory. No prisoners.
If you can find anything more metal than this, then I challenge you... Bring it on! We'll do war!
Got Caught Stealin... Once. Posted January 6, 2013
Ahh... Good ol' Looking Glass Studios. Creators of the thinking man's First Person Shooter. Deep, immersive
games that make you forget about the clock until you cringe when you remember you've got to get up for work the
next morning and it's now pushing 5am. Yeah, tomorrow's going to be a sick day I think. Quality through-and-through. What's their Persian flaw then? It'd
have to be the fact that nearly every game they decided to reinvent themselves. Sometimes this fucked up gloriously
in an earth-scorching fireball
as in Terra Nova or the
horrible torture device that is the control scheme of System Shock. Their design
philosophy was something like "Let's throw this at the wall and see if it sticks, explodes, or maims an employee".
But, when it worked, boy did it work.
Thief is one of the better examples of it actually working. Compared to RPG-like games like System Shock
and the seriously fantastic RPG series Ultima Underworld, Thief is far more stripped down. But they took that stripped down
core and sharpened it into a weapon. All that RPG stuff? Yeah, toss that in the dumpster. What's left?
Hmmm... Just walking around. Now what? Ok, let's crank up the AI, make sneaking a priority, take into account
the amount of light available and the noise you make, have mission objectives that need to be met, and have you
loot and kill along the way. Yeah, that sounds about right. That's Thief in a nutshell. Sounds pretty simple
right?
Wrong! They combined these factors together into something truly awesome. For one, you don't need to do the mission
objectives in the order they're listed. Nice nonlinear play that doesn't mollycoddle you like a retarded child. Mind you,
this is not Doom. The frontal assault will get you roundly crushed pretty much every time. Time to be
inventive. Find the secret entrance. Scale a wall and go in through the back. Discretion is the better part
of valour and all that sneaky stuff. Oh yeah, don't forget to stab some guards in the back or club them with a blackjack while you're at it. Just be
quiet about it, damn it! Get your head back in the game. What, do you want to give us all away or something? Shhhhh!
Living Proof That There's No Such Thing as Too Much German Metal Posted November 30, 2012
If you ever were in the mood for a good solid Judas Priest in their glory days replacement, look no further than
Tyran' Pace. Frontlined by the wailing vocalist
Ralf Scheepers who started it as an unapologetic
Judas Priest ripoff band, arguably even influencing the direction Priest went in later. Just full-on balls-out
German speed metal. Later Ralf started the great band Primal Fear that cranked the dial up even further, but
there's something to be said for the classic metal sound of these guys ala old Scorpions. Raw guitar sound with enough room in
the sonic envelope to fit audible bass into. No Wall-of-Guitars sound here. Have a go! Warning : Dangerous to drive to (Read as "Fun").
If you've ever asked yourself what would happen if Doom and a Flight-Sim hooked up and produced a beautiful
baby bastard child, I present to you... Hold for the curtains opening... What're these things broken?......
Descent.
Descent was released after Doom, but years beforeQuake and was the first full-3D Texture-mapped environment. Yes,
That means the good stuff; floors over other floors and huge environments. It also means the bad stuff; terribly hard to navigate
labyrinthine levels with an equally retardedly difficult to use map. But brave those elements and you've got
one hell of a game. Games of this era were typically advanced and this would be no exception.
Case-in-point : The various mini-bosses you fight are like legless mechs with this lumpy cam sound like a late 60's/early 70's
muscle car. In car terms, the lumpier (read as "blub blub" sound) the cam, the greater the horsepower.
Watch this and listen. And these mechs follow that rule. The nastier they are, the lower frequency the sound.
Ok, they just sound frickin scary, all right? Of course it helps that the AI in this game was also downright devious. In fact
the developer Parallax toned down the AI when they patched the game because it was just too god-damned hard.
Enemies pull hit-and-run tactics. They'd hide until you came out and surprise attack you. They'd charge you. You name it. If it sucks for you the player, they'd do it.
And the first mech-boss I was mentioning earlier... Oh dear god! You'd hear his horrible low-frequency rumble, he'd slowly appear,
and instantly, he's got a Smart Missile lock on you forcing you to fly away for dear life. Once you managed to get a hit
on him, he'd turn invisible, teleport somewhere behind you, and get missile lock again. And this is on the second-easiest difficulty setting labelled "Rookie".
Beating him is a genuinely nerve-racking experience. But what an accomplishment! Watch the video included where this guy makes short work of it.
Sadly, this will probably not be you. Not being a pessimist, just stating facts. This game will teach you the meaning of the word earn. You will earn your victories. No free lunches here.
The game has an innate quality of something that's a work of genius. Like most works of genius it has it's flaws. Yes, it's hard to play somewhat due to actually
being able to move and rotate in all 3 dimensions at once. Really, the only way to do it well was the
SpaceOrb 360 controller which was probably otherwise the weirdest controller ever.
Imagine for a moment a black rubber tennis ball attached to a joystick. That's it. That's the end. You're right that
it sounds bizarre and people will invariably say "What the fuck is that??" if you break one out. But when they play Descent
before and after with it they will understand why you shelled out $100 for one. It makes playing Descent as natural as
breathing. But, it's still doable with keyboard and mouse. Even better with a good flightstick. Either way though...
You just can't seem as savvy as SpaceOrb players. It was literally made for games like this.
Descent spawned 2 sequels, a number of level packs, and even a commercial level editor, but ultimately faded out of the
mainstream only to be picked up in spiritual successor terms by the game Forsaken.
Try it out, especially in high-res. You'll be addicted. Trust me.
If there is a more appropriate choice of metal band for Halloween other than maybe King Diamond, I don't know of it.
When your name is a combination of hell and the best frickin holiday ever, you've got to bring your A-game musicianship-wise.
Fortunately, they do just that in typical German style, with perfect solos, great riffs, and quality lyrics.
Best of the breed guitarist Kai Hansen and legendary singer Michael Kiske help that formula out a bit. Among the top-tier of power metal bands.
Their mascot is a pumpkin-headed dude. Oh, and they even have a song about Halloween. Yeah, beat that!
Ah, the 80's. A time where cranking up the dial on everything was par for the course; guitar-playing and operatic
vocals notwithstanding. Of course, like anything, there were loads of crappy wanna-be's. But those that could, did it
ridiculously. I'm talking 5-octave ranges or get the fuck out. Of course, lyrics played a huge backseat to the
musicianship. In fact, when I asked Warrel Dane directly what the album "Refuge Denied" by Sanctuary was about, his
exact words were "NOOOOTTTHIIINNNGGGG!! It was just 80's metal bullshit. The second album is where I got my brain".
Still, there are rules. Rules like : 1. Thou shalt sing about dragons minimum twice an album with a full song devoted to them
if possible. 2. Barring rule 1, mages are an acceptable replacement. 3. Everything must contain lightning and fire
in the descriptions. 4. Swords are another good subject. Include many depictions of them cleaving evil in epic war or being
swung while riding on dragons, preferably by a mage. 5. If it's not already clear, fantasy is your friend. Theme your
albums in that direction. 6. Barring rule 5, SciFi is an ok replacement. But only if it has spacemages and cyberdragons.
7. Don't forget spacelightning and space fire. Forget that these things are completely unfeasable. In fact, forget
reality altogether. 8. Read LOtR or other notable fantasy series like Elric of Melnibone, The Black Company, or other
Dungeons and
Dragons novels at nearly all times. Take notes. Base entire albums on them. Consider doing a
side-project about them if possible with other famous muscians from other famous bands who base their albums
on the same things. 9. Read an memorize this list here.
and Rule 10. All notes must be above the staff and any that aren't must be contain vocal grit. These are the rules. Write them down.
Many of these are works in progress, so improvements can and often will come along if any parts are clunky or
just plain wrong as of now. But, as they are, many of these are just plain amazing. So, without further ado,
I... hearby... release.. the clones!
If there was ever a combination that was a figurative match-made-in-hell, and I mean that in the good way, it is old-school 80's video game soundtracks,
metalled up. Seriously, best combination ever. Better than sex. Yes, I went there. Can I really mean it?
Depends on the sex. Let's just say they're blacker than the blackest black, times infinity. Then double that. Add two. Spin in place.
Pat your head and rub your stomach. What do you mean no? Oh, forget it! How about this; When Nathan Explosion said they will make everything metal, he definitely meant video games first. Right after coffee.
Yes, indeed these songs go to 11.
Listen to these glorious 3.5 hours of metal goodness. If this doesn't
bring you back and get you all teary for the golden years when games and metal were practically one in the same, then nothing will. Volume up!
Well, let me start by saying happy 4th and all that happy crap, assuming you're a US citizen and all.
So, not missing a chance to be appropriate, I present to you, sage reader, quite possibly the best WW2
strategy game ever made.
What's this, you say? WW2? Isn't that some war some old fogies or ancient race fought aeons ago with
walkers and faded into some history book that high school students are forced to write boring reports on?
You mean there's no deserts or terrorists to deal with? Huh??? None of the above. COD fanboys go home! There's
the door. Don't let it hit you in the ass on the way out. Ok, now that they're gone...
This was the last real war the USA fought, and may ever fight. A real adversary, strong, intelligent, and
full of fight. Just the kind to make us up our game and wield some real war strategy to gain that precious
victory. The kind where the fate of the world does really hang in the balance, not just on wallets at
the gaspumps.
This game, Combat Mission : Beyond Overlord uses all of that. Like many strategy games, you play the field
commander, overseeing and orchestrating your battle plans to sweet fruition.
Unlike other strategy games,
this is conducted in a very unconventional and different way.
Say hello to simultaneous execution. No, this is not the result of a bad hit of acid or eating cheese too
late at night. Basically, what it means is both sides issue their orders, one-at-a-time, like most
turn-based strategy. But none of this is acted on until you click the big Go button, both sides' orders are dealt with at the same time through AI, and you watch your plans go
awry from any number of unexpected events. Didn't account for a potential ambush on a march order, now your
guys are pinned down with morale busted. Didn't send in a spotter to see what lies in the crossroad ahead,
now your tank is brewed up from a well-placed Panzer hit.
Didn't utilize cover, now your forces are sending
in bodybags by the truckload. Yeah boys, play time's over.
Now, I know what you're thinking... This sounds harsh and brutal. This game hands you a shitstorm and expects you to handle it. Well...
That's partially true. The other half of it is, if you didn't make such a tactically blunderous move to
begin with, you wouldn't be breaking out the mops for your guys' guts. This game expects you to think ahead
to what the grand overview of your actions is supposed to be, taking into account all that could and often
does go wrong, and do your best with it. The glorious upside of all this responsibility? Real strategy
actually applies and learning from your mistakes and applying that knowledge is hand-rubbingly oh-so-satisfying.
Since your forces are controlled by fuzzy-logic AI, same as the computer, your men will do their best to
carry out their orders as you gave them. They are, in the end, well-trained troops, indoctrinated by all
that bootcamp... er, code. Whatever... Anyways! So, all your troops do is respond offensively or
defensively to whatever happens dynamically, sticking to the plan you laid out best they can. So, you ask,
how does one succeed with such touches of reality playing part?
By really planning ahead and considering what you'd do if you were your enemy. By letting a certain number
of troops remain on opportunity fire. By using cover and considering morale. Through solid knowledge of
available units and their strengths and weaknesses. And lastly, by not treating your troops as cannon-fodder. Every last
one of them will be necessary to complete your mission. And there's a ton of missions! And, for any history
buffs, you can recreate your favorite stories from history in the included editor, giving ridiculous amounts
of replay value.
You get
as much time as you want to create your plan, and that Go button executes all of a single minute of
actual game time which you can rewatch to your heart's content, from any angle possible. It's like your own
private war movie and this game has a way of making you break out in a sweat when things go off the rails and bursting into cheers
when things beautifully come together. Gritty. Palpable. The good stuff.
The newer versions of this game upped the ante by adding better graphics, but they change very little in
terms of gameplay, and this is frankly a good thing. Even in spite of the graphics (you had to know this was
coming), the gameplay is solid, even if the controls are somewhat clunky and proprietary. RTFM! The graphics can be
updated by quite a bit via the mods link below, though I doubt anyone actually bothering to play it will much
care. Anyways, quite the good game to play on this holiday with "Band of Brothers", "Patton", or "Saving Private Ryan" playing in the background
sans fireworks. That is, unless tanks and mortar shells count.
Hail from Poland. All hail Vader! Posted May 30, 2012
Making sure I don't miss any European countries representing themselves as their country's bastion of metal to the world, it was
only a matter of time before I got around to Poland. If I haven't gotten to whatever country you can think of, hold your horses and give me time!
Anyways... Since Morbid Angel decided to follow in the footsteps of Marilyn Manson, there was nothing left in the field of death
metal to fill that void. That being beautiful, harrowing, wicked, and melodic riffs done like only Trey Azogthoth can.
That would be fine if Morbid Angel was an industrial band to begin with, but they're a frickin' death metal band.
Apparently someone forgot to remind them before they got back together and put out their last abomination (meant in a bad way) of an album.
Well, worry not. Enter, Vader. With a name lifted straight from the big-bad in Star Wars, you know these guys would have
to musically do the equivalent of destroying an inhabited moon with this fully operational death star! Er, I mean, kick some
ass with their appropriately pointy guitars. Whatever... Just listen, ok?
Dies ist gut, nicht Scheiße, du Katze Bauer! Posted May 30, 2012
Before the advent of 3D cards and all that zazz, we played with squirrels and rocks, and we were glad! Wait wait...
Too far back. Let's start over. Before id Software created their swan song Doom and set the world on fire
with a graphical arms race extraordinaire, they were cracking holes in 3D spaces, albeit in a cludgey fashion via tackhammer and toothpicks.
How you say? Same as they did later with Doom, just with far more restriction. I welcome you to Ray-casting.
Basically, for each line of the screen, you cast a single column out until it hits a wall, calculate the distance and section
on the wall, and scale that strip accordingly. If all this sounds excessively technical, then all you need to know is
, for it's time, this meant ground-breaking graphics with a mandated 90-degree orthogonal angle between walls.
Looking back now, the graphics are a bit clunky, but that doesn't stop these games from being a ton of fun. Think of it like this :
Imagine your favorite 8 and 16 bit arcade games got together with a modern first-person shooter and had a group orgy with
a little irreverence for lube. Lives, treasure, loot, and plenty of gratuitous violence thrown in. Yeah, it's great!
Great enough that many companies started requesting licenses for the Wolf3D engine for their games. This happened
enough times that it became an inside joke at id and "Let's do another $50k xcopy" was John Romero's response to any new requests.
Even id decided to put out a store-only version about the Spear of Destiny, which was reputed to pierce the side of Christ
and yield victory to whoever possessed it. The game was much more fast-paced and had a boss every 5 or so levels instead of every 10. Wolf3D and SOD got promptly
banned in Germany for it's use of the Horst-Wessel-Lied nazi theme song.
I'm sure the Third Reich would've been proud, but let's just say Germany was not having it. That, or the rampant amounts of swastikas (borrowed straight from the Thule Society),
and Hitler's face plastered everywhere. Yeah, can't see what problem they'd have with that... Bunch of weirdos.
The spin-offs were pretty damn good too. Good ol'-fashioned run-and-gun in first-person style. Granted, they hadn't gotten
their mouse controls very refined yet, so to-this-day the best way to play is a Gravis pad or other
4 button joypad of some sort. Even with just Keyboard and mouse, the game was rockin! And the aforementioned
spinoffs were no slouch either. WW2 in arcade form not your style? How about a scifi theme ala Corridor 7 or Blake Stone? How about
a Die Hard direct plot ripoff in Operation Body Count? You've got options. Even the games like 8-Bit Killer done intentionally in this
style were a solid night of fun. If you want to crank it up a notch, try out some of the tools below to alter
the graphics or make new levels. Taking a look back on good ol' Wolf3D, it captures one aspect that many games these
days are sorely lacking in : straight fun minus all the ultra-serious bullscheiße.
Fans of Helloween and Gamma Ray know Guitarist/Original singer Kai Hanson's exploits all too well. Barely a German Power metal band can be mentioned
without citing his prodigious influence. All his bands have his signature guitar style. Which is to
say they are drenched in awesomesauce; Guitar-edition with a hint of cilantro, with the iWail and iShred set to maximum volume on an infinite loop.
Which makes Iron Savior Hell-rocking World-Warring
German Power Metal aka Eating brautwurst in a beerhall filled with beermaids
while sitting on a live electric chair cranked to 11. Jawohl!
The force is strong with this one. Posted February 29, 2012
Let's be honest. Any real geek worth their scifi book collection would jump, potentially maim a few people,
or burn down a church at the opportunity to fly a Tie Fighter from Star Wars. Among all flying things, they easily
make the coolest noises; that RRrrrrreeeeeaaaaahhhhhhhhh sound that kids work so hard to perfect.
The fact that they're led by badass Darth Vader only adds to it. So, you can imagine the Star Wars geek level of freakout
when LucasArts finally got around to making a space flight sim X-Wing where you fight Tie Fighters in vicious dogfights
of pure epicness. Then, to up the ante, they soon after released Tie Fighter where you can finally fly a
Tie Fighter and take out the stupid rebel scum and make them pay for blowing up your boss's Death Star, forcing you to have
to now commute through space traffic to work. Payback's a bitch suckers!
The movies don't do this aspect justice at all. These are the dogfights that all
dogfights should be measured by. Dozens of ships on each side. Lasers of every color flying everywhere. All this with
fantastic Star Wars tunes pumping in the background. PC Gamer voted it one of the best games ever for good reason. If you have even the least
inkling of like of the Star Wars (original)
trilogy or flight sims then you simply owe it to yourself to play these masterpieces of gaming.
When Dave Lombardo left the world infamous Slayer, everyone wondered where such a drumming legend would go off to.
After all, how to you follow up being in one of the most awesomely evil thrash metal bands of all time?
Well, Grip Inc is one good way. Capturing the savage groove essence of bands like Sepultura with the same unbridled raw
aggression, Grip Inc is a Thrash fan's wet dream. Brooding great guitar work, nasty gritty vicious vocals by a singer who later committed
suicide, and, of course, one of the all time greats in metal drumming, Dave Lombardo. Not so good for driving. It'll
probably make you start seeing point values on people (old ladies in walkers are 100 points by the way). That said, it is good for a game like Heretic where running
down enemies no-holds-barred is par for the course. Enjoy, and have a wickedly metal new year!
After the fantastically deep Ultima Underworld 1 and 2,
Warren Spector getting fully caught up in his new System Shock series,
and Ultima designer Richard Gariott's involvement with the advent of the new MMORPG craze, no one was around to carry
the bright torch into a new game. French company Arcane Studios took it upon themselves and decided to take on that responsibility. Unable to secure the rights to an actual
Ultima license, they went and developed the awesome spiritual successor under the title Arx Fatalis.
All the good parts of Ultima Underworld now coupled with a decent
3D engine, Arx is a fantastic straightforward kicakss-quality RPG with no bullshit or nonsensical fluff. Just what the world needs more of.
This sounds complex, and, frankly it is. At first... Let's just say that RTFM wouldn't hurt. There's a lot of subtlety and nuances to this game that make
it stand out to a staggering degree. But, trust me when I say it quickly becomes intuitive by a few levels in. Like
an old leather glove that fits to your hand just right. There's really nothing that needs altering in this game. The
formula is simply perfect. It's major critical failure at the time it was released was just that it was way too
much game for the PC's of the time to handle. Back in 1994 it came on CD-Rom, incorporated reflections, shadows, a
destructible environment, dynamic music that changed based on what you were doing seamlessly. It came packaged with
a pair of red/blue 3D glasses for a stereoscopic views that's only since been added to modern games and movies.
And it actually fucking works! Not stopping there, they also had a "Magic Eye" stereogram mode, if you can even
see those, much less view them in real-time 3D during a fast-paced game. And none of this says anything about the
wailing awesome gameplay. Wailing awesomeness that only people with a couple thousand dollar PC could even play respectably which
doesn't really lend to market saturation.
You start out with literally no spells. You quickly grab the ones contained in red jars throughout the level
that allow you to possess mana, create a castle, and shoot a fireball. New spells are released by flying over certain
parts of the level, encouraging exploration. The downside? This also tends to release traps and other monsters.
But more to kill I say! Meanwhile, each level typically contains villages that can also be possessed adding to your
overall mana pool. As your mana pool increases, your castle reaches capacity and must be expanded up to level 7
to store more. The villages prosper if left alone and expand, eventually getting an archer army to protect it.
Attack them and the archers come after you and you're tagged as "the bad guy". Your castle has balloons that go to
collect possessed mana in the world. Normally mana is gold to show it's neutral. As you posses it, it turns to your
wizard's color, and assuming your castle is not full, they'll go very nicely pick it up for you. Not to say
they'll succeed. If they get destroyed along the way by monsters or bastard enemy wizards, then they drop their mana
ball to be possessed by the aforementioned douches.
And, honestly, if there's ever been a game with enemy AI that makes you want to crush it into the ground, it's
this game. For the fact that the enemy wizard AI can and will do exactly the same devious sort of shit
that you would. And it will piss you off when it does! And killing them is no small feat either. As long as
any wizard has a castle, any death causes them to respawn at the center of it. So, killing them is this process of
attacking their castle, taking it down a level, causing all the excess mana to spill out onto the ground, you frantically
flying around to posses it, the enemy scumbag doing the same, and repeat. This is, of course, until you piss off the
enemy AI enough and he declares vendetta on your ass, and comes after you to do the same exact thing. It sounds
tedious, but it is oh-so-satisfying when you finally grind a wizard down to nothing and pulverize him with a Meteor
spell right in the smacker, and the game reporting that he has died. It is seriously an accomplishment.
These are the main parts of the game, but it's not everything either. The game has so many small details that add to
it, like forests which burn down due to fire spreading, touchy villagers who will quickly refute you mana if you
even so much as accidently attack them during a heated firefight that lobs a stray fireball into their midst,
triggers that open up new spells and enemies as you fly around. And, when the game says "World Restored, Press
Space To Continue", you're maybe a third done with the level in actuality. There's tons more to do, and the good
stuff, new spells and enemies, typically only open up far beyond the point where it tells you you're done, so don't
tap that key too quickly!
It's all a dizzying array of things to take into account simultaneously. It's pretty much a strategy game played in
action format and the closest thing done similar to it to this day is the great game Sacrifice. But it becomes immersive fast, with you jolting after looking at the clock and finding you
just spent 3 to 5 hours in a row playing this fantastic game, it's now 4am, and calling into work sick is a veritable certainty. Of course, that time will be well utlilized to play more (duh!).
Simply innovative in every possible way. Not to be missed!
A technical note or two :
- This game works best in DosBox with the sound settings of Sound : Soundblaster / Music : Soundblaster Compatible.
- In the game hit R to switch to high-res, and F4-F7 to turn the various options on.
Ah, Black Metal. It comes in so many flavors; all dark and vicious. Of the more melodic sort enters Netherbird.
Hailing from Sweden, they add that Swedish Death Metal quality to black metal ala Dimmu Borgir, producing a
necrotic black-feathered offspring that's just as good and arguably better. And, wisely, the band was nice enough to just flat-out give all their albums
away, figuring people would just loot them anyways. So, enjoy, free-of-charge (as usual), this awesome death-harbinger in bird form.
Links : Netherbird blog (includes albums in both MP3 and WAV formats)
In the early days of computer RPG's, prior to the advent of 3D rendered landscapes along the lines of Morrowind,
Oblivion, and Arx Fatalis, there were, of course, the standard 2D representations that the Ultima series made
famous. As the programmers got more inventive, they started to peak holes into 3D views. Not with their fingers,
that doesn't actually work unless you're one of those Dim Mak masters. But let me tell you, they faked it pretty well. The hitch? You only got to move in
orthogonal (90 degree) increments.
Now, this sounds pretty restrictive, but these guys worked veritable wonders with it. For your lack of ability to move how
you want, you got some damn good puzzles and hella-fun stories to play through. And the gameplay value has yet to
really be topped. This started with the legendary series Dungeon Master. It later was copied by Westwood studios
for it's series of Dungeons and Dragons RPGs titled Eye of the Beholder, The Might and Magic : World of Xeen,
the amazing Lands of Lore series, peaking with the utterly orgasmic Wizardry series, and ended with the pathetically lackluster Stonekeep; living proof that
improving graphics does not at all improve actual gameplay. The gameplay was compelling enough on it's own that
Dungeons and Dragons PC game company even made a random game creator called Dungeon Hack. Capable of creating some devious
and simultaneously fun dungeons for a random night, no plot even needed.
In the "Huh, what?" virtually-unknown category came contenders Captive, Xenomorph, Anvil of Dawn, and even
a dip into the Terminator franchise with the game Terminator 2029, which is known to chew up seasoned players and
spit them out ala cartoon chewing up a box of nails and shooting them out machine-gun style. Even the well-known
Warhammer series adopted this style of gameplay with the also bitchin-tough Space Hulk, combining it with a timestop
strategic gameplay, where you could give your guys orders to carry out. This is of course, before the AI comes in,
raining gailforce on your parade and forcing you to reconsider your strategy. All in a great day of knuckle-biting
fun!
Even Raven Software of famed Heretic and Hexen series got their start by copying the Dungeon Master formula via Black Crypt.
This style of gameplay is popular enough to this day that one guy even extended the Dungeon Master series named directly Dungeon Master Java, replete with
level editor. And there's the nice iPhone RPG simply titled The Quest.
Both great with gobs of fun to be had. Even Minecraft directly borrowed from this game lineage, and it's creator Notch indirectly admits it. So, have yourself a nice chill night with any of these fine entries into the RPG
Hall of Fame. Once you do, you'll start to find the errand-boy spoonfed standard-faire of modern RPGs downright insulting.
It's the peak of summer and to celebrate the awesome weather here, here's my personal playlist of soaring, wailing shred-happy
guitar-work that is fantastic to listen to on a bright sunny day. All these guitarists deserve mention :
Vinnie Moore,
Andy Timmons,
Tony Macalpine,
Reb Beach,
Joe Satriani,
Edu Ardanuy.
All world-class shredders. Mostly unknown except by guitar nerds. Get yourself a Corona with a lime, a pair of sunglasses, and crank this stuff up!
Now that hell's frozen over officially and Duke Nukem Forever has come out, it's not difficult to see where
Duke draws his influence from. That being previous 3D Realms games such as Duke Nukem 3D, Redneck Rampage, and
Shadow Warrior.
Duke had his fair share of interactivity, but Shadow Warrior ninja-kicked this up a notch and threw a few
shurikans into to to nail it to the wall. Cool challenging puzzles that DNF borrowed directly like a closed-off
room where you can use a remote-control car to bring the key to one small opening just to name one specific example.
The list goes on and on... These games are all about these little experiences they give to you, not about "beating the boss
and saving the day" like the typical borderline-gay one-dimensional emo superhero.
Also, Shadow Warrior, like Duke and Redneck Rampage, has another quality that's sorely lacking in most modern FPS's;
That being a sense of humor. Like DNF and Duke Nukem 3D that came before it, Shadow Warrior doesn't even attempt to
take itself seriously. Unlike most modern shooters where you've been tasked to "save the world" and it all rests squarely
on your shoulders, these Build Engine games turn that on it's ear and proceed to unload a can of whipped cream in it, then
laugh mockingly and run away. If you're saving anything, you're either doing it for selfish reasons, like Duke's car
getting shot up, or in this case, an 80's movie plot with an ex-bodyguard going after his previous corrupt boss.
Standard fare, not-so-standard-fare fun.
As if this extremely polished FPS wouldn't be good in it's own right, the whimsical
little jokes and references just add to the fun factor. Something that can't be said of ultra-serious, ultra-expensive,
ultra-graphically-intensive, and ultimately ultra-boring games like Cysis. Throwing 50 spoilers, body-kits, and custom whistling exhaust
on a Lamborghini does not make it more fun to drive. All the physics in the world can't make up for infusing a game
with some good ol'-fashioned fun. Which is the point of games, isn't it?
Now, most people think computer chess and their ass arriving on a silver platter for dinner comes to mind. And that's just
Joe-Average Chess Engines. But, these chess engines are so badass that they make Gary Kasperov cry and then kick his puppy to drive it home!
I will tell you this though. play against these, and every other Chess game will seem like a frolicking hopskotch through a field of daisies
on a bright summer day. The upside of this is that playing these will make your Chess game go up in a hurry. And, while it's fun
to kick your friend's and family's collective butts in Chess, you'll be challenged to find a more skilled opponent to
push your brain against. To that end, there's these free interfaces which use these Hal-9000 engines; Notably WinBoard and Arena.
Arena is far easier to set up but has slightly less overall control. Winboard gives you totalitarian control, but at the expense of complexity.
To help you out a bit, I've already spent a few weeks getting all these things packaged up nicely for you, so, for the most-part,
you can just download them and have happy good times getting run over by these ridiculously high-powered engines like a M1 Abrams Tank going over a worm. That said,
let me make a few notes so you don't get too stuck :
- These engines work off of what are called Chess Fonts. Basically they're standard True-Type fonts that Windows uses
but, in this case, the GUI interfaces for the chess engines use them to display all the pieces. To install these Fonts,
you just unzip the .TTF file and copy them into the Windows\Fonts directory. Windows will say "Installing Font" for all of 2 seconds
and it'll be done. Yeah, it's really that easy.
- WinBoard has a weird way of dealing with multiple user accounts on Windows and it basically forces you to deal with it.
It's not nonsensical, but just overblown a bit. Like you and your roommates really want drastically different chess interfaces.
But, anyways, in the Winboard download below there is an "Application Data" folder with a few files. You need to find your
Application Data directory (In XP under your "Documents and Settings\[User Name]" directory. In Vista under Users\[User Name]\Appdata\Roaming)
and dump these files in there to get the look above by default. Some more info here.
Unless it's the band Suicidal Tendencies. Let's be frank... Being whiny, emo, apathetic, butthurt, downtrodden, and crying in buckets is not going
to solve a damn thing. So you've got to give a band like Suicidal credit when they capture that crowd and dump a proverbial
bucket of cold water over their heads lyrically and manage to add some awesome thrashy riffs, solos, and funny campy videos on top of that.
At least, sometimes they do. The rest of the time they get pretty whiny. So, here's the best songs I've found by them, sans nancy-boyishness. Enjoy!
After the success of Wolfenstein 3D, id briefly considered doing a direct sequel in the form of Wolfenstein 2.
Being that their previous creative Director Tom Hall
was now at 3D Realms/Apogee, Tom took it upon himself to have id outsource the work to them.
Then mid-drift, id pulled the plug on the project to concentrate on
the release of Doom, and the project metamorphised into something unrecognizable. You can see the influence
of Wolfenstein 3D, with Nazi-esque guards and whatnot. But then, there's all the whacky randomness. Things
that just make absolutely no sense, like Gravitational Anomaly Disks, God Mode where the guy mumbles as he
kills people with full-on deity handpower, Dog mode, and a Shrooms powerdown. I am not joking. And of course, you need to add some
robed koolaid drinking cult to kill (the Koolaid didn't work).
And, the boss fights are pretty memorable too. Most especially the NME aka "Nasty Metallic
Enforcer" who looks like a dirty trashcan with wheels, but makes a sound that will be tatooed on your brain forever
after, like a robotic gyro turning quickly. Right before it proceeds to hand your ass to you on a silver platter.
It's the most bizzare and insane fun you'll probably ever have playing a first person shooter.
So, last month was Frenchy-French month, and this month, we're going Greek. No, that doesn't mean this blog goes in your butt. It means
that this Wagnerian opera-level epic band Firewind hails from the land of Socrates.
Kostas Karamitroudis, figuring rightly that noone could pronounce that name, changed it to Gus G.
From there, Gus G., influenced by the uber-shredder Joe Stump while at Berklee, used Firewind a vehicle to showcase his jaw-dropping guitar work,
becoming a more serious project and evolving into 6 awesome power metal albums. All the band members are strong here, but Gus really stands out
to a profound degree. So much so, that he has filled in for the mighty Michael Amott of Arch Enemy and Carcass legend in concerts, and is now filling
the very large boots of viking guitar god Zakk Wylde. Solid full-speed power metal with a dash of virtuosity thrown in for good measure.
Dark Forces Finds Your Lack of Faith Disturbing Posted March 29, 2011
After the game Doom came out, the clone wars began. No no, not the Star Wars Clone Wars. The First-Person-Shooter
clone wars. Most were total crap. To not have mind-blowing graphics is completely acceptable. But, to have less gameplay value than a busted rock is just plain pathetic.
If this is the best that some of these people can do, I am not impressed. Honestly, you'd be better off dumping a box of Cheerios on the ground and playing
with them. Far more entertaining than these. However... There were definitely some that not only were as good as Doom
(John Romero is screaming blasphemy right now), but even exceeded the core run-and-gun "electrocuted cat running over velcro"
lightning-fast gameplay of Doom. Dark Forces was most definitely among them.
Dark Forces started out as an idea to grab some of the pie opened up by the venerable id Software. Originally
it was intended to even license the Doom engine, but that idea very quickly ended and the team went on to make their own that
added a lot of features not seen in Doom. Rooms above rooms. The ability to look up and down. Atmospheric effects like fog.
Polygonal models. A flashlight in 1995! But all this wouldn't mean a thing if it weren't for one aspect.
Star Wars universe. There is simply no feeling better than forcefully planting a Stormtrooper firmly on his plasticy ass right after he says
"Hey! You're not authorized to be in this area!" blaster-style. Seriously, it never gets old. If it did, you're doing it wrong. Then there's the later epic boss fight between
you and Boba Fett before you take his damned jet pack for your very own!
Psyche! But you do fight Boba Fett in what's one of the best, albeit short, boss battles ever.
And to call the forced fistfight with a Kell Dragon memorable is like calling a nuclear bomb an effective means of clearing out an area.
And the whole time, you're using weapons to mow down en-masse all the baddies from the movies that you know and remember; that is of course, if you're cool,
unlike this guy.
Then there's the little touches that just add to everything. The raging scream as you fall to your death. Robot mice that comes out of the wall that you can shoot for their batteries. That's right!
Mouse. You've got my batteries. Give 'em up bitch! Ovehearing smatterings of Stormstooper conversations before you rush in and lay waste to them all! Awesome Star Wars soundtrack bristling with intense rushed-forward energy.
Fantastic story unfolding of Darth Vader's plan to build an army of Dark Troopers; AI Robotic troopers that will hand your ass to you on a silver platter, complete with that little cruddy piece of garnish.
Badass real-man silent-type main character with cajones. The kind of guy who probably has a Stormtrooper tied up in his closet to punch when he's having a bad day.
Then, to make matters even better, it continues with the equally fantastic Jedi Knight which starts out with a Han Solo-esqe
deal gone wrong, some guy dead on the bar table and another running away for his life. We all know Han fired first, so it's
equally satisfying later when you run into Gweedo and get to mow him down with extreme prejudice. Then the bartender mentioning to get out because you always cause trouble
and the endless list of Easter Eggs like Sam from Sam and Max making a cameo are frickin' great.
The list of good things I'd have to say about this game would fill a phone book, so instead of me blathering on like an idiot, I'm going to just
tell you. It's all... simply perfect. Go download this ASAP and give it a play. Go on! Carpe ludus! Stop drooling and Seize it!!
Daisuki Ishiwatari : Metal To Drive the Speed of Light To Posted February 27, 2011
This guitarist, game designer, and artist
of the famed Guilty Gear and BlazBlue series makes wailing metal that makes you want to drive down windy roads at mach speed
while breathing fire and shooting lightning bolts out of your eyes. It has that sort of breaking out and pushing harder
than you ever have before feel, while somehow managing to not blow an o-ring. In fighting game terms, if the last combo hit 3 times,
this time you need to hit 6, and drain your opponent's life to negative in a mouth-dropping blur; just to catch that look of crushed hope in
their eye, right before they toss the controller at the ground.
Put another way, this music sounds like guitars exploding and shooting out more guitars, while throwing guitars at the wall.
A 50-Megaton nuclear explosion of guitars! Literal proof that you can never have too much guitar!
The Elder Scrolls : MMORPG's Without All the Annoying People Posted February 27, 2011
The Elder Scrolls series stands out as one of the all-time best RPG's ever to grace the PC with it's prescence.
Deep, engaging, emersive gameplay. This series has all the good stuff of any MMORPG, minus all the stupid and annoying people.
Not to mention, some douche isn't going to come along and player-kill your character (but the AI will be all too happy
to do it for you).
You start out being able to pick your race and class, old-school D&D-style, or, alternately, you can take a quiz that
helps assign a class based on your values. Either way, you start in a dungeon (as usual), and have to fight your way out,
going up levels the whole time, and getting some crappy rusty swords, that are nonetheless badass. At least, until you later,
40+ hours into the game, acquire some +18334 Sword of Genetically-Modified Biotechnological Warfare Cyborg Termite-Slaying,
which then turns the game into your own personal bloodbath. Rawr! Power!!!
These aren't very good games at all to attempt to beat. Grinding through them as fast as possible takes all the fun out of them,
like some wicked killjoy evil clown that just popped your balloon.
What they are good for is a steady diversion to come back to time and time again. You can seriously milk these games
forever. Why pay for a costly life-vampire WoW account when you can get these games for free and just play them to your heart's content,
kill a few hours, and call it a day?
The series peaked with the stunningly epic Morrowind, which was modded and expanded to all getout, due in large part to giving away the world editor with the game.
Messing with a game has never been made simpler. Well... In Epic RPG proportions anyways. As large as the gameworld in Morrowind is, it's less than 1% of the
size of the world in Daggerfall. Don't let that fool you though. The game is huge and humbles people to their knees who throw around the term epic with reckless abandon.
If your neighbor thinks his pimped Honda replete with 2x4 wing is epic, this will smack him in the mouth with unbridled new levels of epicness. Did I mention it's epic?,
It is stillsold for ~$10. It is indeed that good.
Oblivion saw the series start to wind down the bath drain in a blood-frothy death spiral. All the non-linear goodness washed away by uber-shiny
graphics which contributed absolutely nothing to the gameplay. Seriously, even the boards are shiny in that game. Go outside sometime,
and attempt to find yourself a shiny board. Enough said. I rest my case. Of course, there is the Morroblivion Mod, which turns Oblivion into Morrowind
using the Oblivion engine, if you own both games. Skyrim comes out this November 11th. Let's just say
I'm dubious whether it's going to be more of the same dumbed-down formula that Oblivion delivered in coffin-covering spades. Let's hope not!
All that said, I have one extra copy of Morrowind GOTY Edition kicking around to give away to whoever first asks me.
Supplies are limited (there's one). Act now! You snooze, you lose. Don't blame me if you find yourself crying into your pillow at night over missing out on this.
The French gave America wine, cheese, The Statue of Liberty, and helped us fight for and gain our independence
from Britain during the Revolutionary War. But... Metal?!?
Who would've thought the French could be metal?
Let alone kickass metal? Well, there's a first time for everything I suppose.
And these guys deliver asskicking in spades. Amazing dark and melodic progressive metal. High quality stuff
all the way.
It's a good way to kick off a new year with some awesome metal that surely the Elder Gods (in France) have
created. You're probably supposed to drink wine while you listen to this, but, shh! I didn't tell you that...
Let's face it. Old-school 8 and 16-bit console games were the best. NES, SNES, Sega Master System, Genesis, Turbo Grafx 16 (most underrated system ever),
Neo Geo, Gameboy. It was the era where gameplay trumped graphics,
which always forced the game designers to be interesting, fun, whimsical, and inventive. None of this "All flash, no cash" or "Style over substance" bullshit here.
This mentality led to
a golden age of console games where fun was the highest priority. And most gamers with some broad realworld experince
would agree that these games, to this day, are among the best. Sure, there's been a resurgence of rerelease of these
games and their like through Virtual Console (Wii), XBLA (Xbox 360), PSN (PS3), and iPhone/Android. And, of course, there's
the purist ideal option of getting your hands on the actual console and cartridge, rubbing the contacts with alcohol,
and playing on the real-deal, complete with nostaligic frustrating "watch helplessly as you fall to your death for the 15th time in a row into a bottomless pit/Run into enemy shot/Oops! Touched the spikes!"
(yeah, I am talking about Super Ghouls and Ghosts) slow-down problems.
But, for many people, having the ability to get all your gaming in via PC is arguably even more ideal. This is one of those
gray areas morally, because, obviously if the company is still making money off it, pirating it is cutting into someone
else's profits, which they rely on to keep their business going. But, assuming you own the cart and just want the convenience
of having all your games in a single place, or, if you're a pirate, and just don't care about all that messy crazy morality stuff, then emulators
are king. So, to avoid any potential legal nonsense (aka "The 8th Circle of Legal Hell"), I'm only listing the best of the best sites for the emulators themselves.
You're on your own for getting the actual roms. I'm not going to baby you and list rom sites here. But, trust me when I say that's not even remotely difficult. You're
more likely to go outside, pick up a rock, throw it at the ground, and miss, than to not find roms for all the old-school systems.
It is stupid-easy.
Also, to celebrate Nintendo's contributions to gaming history, here's a documentary on them.
You begun with primal viciousness.
You ended with a frosty cold night's embrace.
Your unbelievable range of musical focus is legendary!
Your fingers burn your fretboard with unmatched intensity.
You fought your cancer with epic metal might!
And fell prey to your own ironic namesake.
You will be remembered, oh dear metal brethren.
This month, your contributions are recalled,
on the anniversary of your death.
Live on, oh metal brother!
In Death, your name is immortalized!
Arcanum : Of Steamworks and Magick Obscura Posted December 3, 2010
With a name that means "Deep Secret Wisdom", Arcanum
is arguably Troika's crowning achievement. Considered by many to be even better than his extremely highly-regarded Fallout
series and the Baldur's Gate series, garnering a rabid underground following and claiming an extremely difficult to achieve
90% and Editor's Choice Award out of PC Gamer in 2001, an 80 in Mobygames,
and a Gamespot rating of 8.5 (out of 1767 votes!). Arcanum
is a nonlinear masterpiece of isometric RPG gaming.
Set in a nontypical Steampunk fantasy setting, the world, previously
dominated by magic, has undergone a fantasy-equivalent of an industrial revolution, adding primative technology to the world.
There's an inherent tension to the mix, weaving through the entire story-arc. People prioritizing the old ways (The tight-assed Republicans of the world)
don't like the new Obama-esque technological new ways and vice-versa. You know they really secretly want to do each other
one day and then go to war complete with broken bottles and chains the next.
The game plays almost exactly like Fallout and
Diablo, allowing the player to move around by selecting with the mouse. There's a ton of skills, spells, and character classes to upgrade
the characters with, allowing for a massive amount of replay value. This is one of those games you can play 5 times and have
each pass play out differently. There's some malignment regarding bugs, polish, and balance factors that are mostly fixed by patches
on the linked sites below. Let's be honest though, no game is perfect, and there's always going to be naysayers and gripey
bitchy people crying with their god-damned bleeding hearts about various inane crap. That said, the good far outweighs the bad here
providing for an Ultima 7-like gameplay experience that ends up being a more than worthwhile experience. It will not be time wasted
for you, that much I can say with certainty.
Musical Prelude to a Post-Mortem Posted November 30, 2010
Coroner is one of those underrated gems, that when you find you just want to show off to everyone, knowing
that if you didn't, they may never find this band of their own accord. Seriously, this would likely even be
the case with me if it wasn't for Headbanger's Ball in 1989 playing the video for "Masked Jackel", exposing me to the
world of European metal. Ex-roadies of Celtic Frost, these wicked-talented guys struck out on their own, doing more
with 3 members than most bands can with 5 (let alone Slipknot with 9). These guys have enough talent in one finger to
push planets out of alignment with their metalness. Amazing neoclassical stuff with no compromises in brutality
or the thrash quality of their work. Take a quick tour here. You'll hear it. Great stuff to wheel fresh corpses
around to.
X-Com.
That really should be enough said. X-Com's a game that melds macrocosmic and microcosmic strategy into a whole
that people are trying to outdo even to this day. In X-Com : UFO Defense you play a corporation that's attempting to
dominate the alien forces that are secretly spying on Earth (and probably abducting rednecks and conspiracy theorists).
You start out with a view of the planet Earth and start by locating where the UFOs are landing. You start with 3 ships
that you have to send in to capture the UFO. Once you get one, you switch to a 45-degree offset view with individual
troops. In turn-based fashion, you proceed to send your guys in to kick alien butt and chew bubblegum. Though, more
typically, you get your ass whipped by a bunch of aliens with mind-control devices and ray-guns. Eventually,
once you get your tactics proper, you capture and kill all the aliens in the UFO, grab one of their bodies for a autopsy,
and grab some loot in the form of hyper-complex alien technology to research and equip in further missions.
Just good
tactical stuff. So good, in fact, that it still comes in #1 of the best games of all time.
Check it out and break off some cold hard alien justice! You know you want to be a hero. That's why your mom still has the picture
of you as a kid in your Superman underoos on the fridge. All your friends know. Don't kid yourself. It's
ok. We like you anyways...
A note with these versions : X-Com : UFO Defense is setup to run straight in Windows. X-Com 2 will need to be run in Dosbox.
Do that and you'll be fine.
There is a guy in metal who single-handedly represents the spirit of Halloween in a way unmatched by any contemporaries.
And that guy is King Diamond. His songs have all the good stuff you'd expect from a good horror novel. To list all
the aspects would require a frickin' encyclopedia, so instead, I just threw together a playlist of 6 videos that will sum it up better
than words could possibly attempt to. So, here you go. Cozy up to them. Best served with tea with just a little bit of blood.
Lists of the top 10 scariest games
(List 2,
List 3,
List 4) routinely mention one game in particular :
System Shock 2. The reason is easy.
It is, quite simply, a badass game. High-Octane Nightmare Fuel.
Most games are content to throw an unexpected enemy or two at you and call it a day. On a scale of candy-ass to I-eat-live-frag-grenades-for-kicks,
this game definitely ranks at the later end of the spectrum. The game draws from some of the scariest movies ever like
Event Horizon and
The Thing, setting a stage for grand horror that
other games have been trying, mostly unsuccessfully, to capture in the same way. Dead Space
and Bioshock both rip this game directly,
but not to the same level of effect. The game's purpose is this : System Shock is a series formulated with the single goal of scaring
the shit out of anyone who plays it. That's it. That's all. The best thing about this game? The sound. This game easily has the
best implemented sound of any game ever made. Doom III really tried to borrow from this game's unbelievable use of sound to create
terror and failed miserably. It really is that good.
You start out on the Von Braun, a direct nod to the German scientist who
helped design the rocket that put Neil Armstrong on the Moon, the first faster-than-light starship. As you'd expect with any great
new-fangled technology, things go horribly horribly wrong. And then some. And then some more. As if technology that peeks holes in
space ala-HP Lovecraft wasn't toying with the fringes of space and time enough, you
have an evil AI named Shodan (Ripped from the Harlan Ellison (Creator of the Terminator mythos via Outer Limits (Original Series) episodes "The Soldier" and "Demon With a Glass Hand") story "I Have No Mouth But I Must Scream")
hellbent on smashing you like the meddlesome bug you are. Of course, you're just trying to stop it, not because you are a
Schwarzenegger-esque one man army, but because that's the only chance of you surviving. Yeah, your situation is that bleak.
If you really want the full effect (read as : you are a man), I recommend playing this game at night in the dark at full
volume (or headphones). Wear diapers. I will not be held accountable. You have been warned.
Ok, since this month is my birthday, I'm going to be totally unashamed in just flat out promoting my all-time favorite band ever, Running Wild. Four words : Pirate themed metal band. Seriously, there's not enough good things I can say about this band. They've got it all metal-wise : Rebellion (who was more a rebel than freaking pirates? Who? Noone, that's who), amazing melodic riffs, great lyrics (yes, despite being a German band, they do sing in English. Though, I did find out the hard way while seeing them live in Germany that they don't speak in English between songs. Minor issue though... Not complaining.), and 13+ consistent albums. Their music ranges in between hard rockin' stuff like old Motley Crue and fast as lightning Iron Maiden, and usually a bit of both for good measure. All their stuff is good. You could not go wrong to pick up any album by them on any given day and go to a random song and give it a listen. Best band ever! Good enough, that the ex-members went off and created their own spinoff band X-Wild. Unfortunately, they closed up their plundering and pilaging ways in 2009 after the singer/guitarist started his own pussed-out new band Toxic Taste (an apt name), which promptly tanked, and means what's out is all we're ever going to get. It's ok if you get choked up about this. So, for you folks, my kickass readers, I whipped up my personal favorites into a playlist. Enjoy while Running absolutely crazy Wild! Flick the parrot off your shoulder, don your eye-patch, drink your tankard of rum, and raise your fist! Fuck yeah metalheads! Yarrrrr!!!
What A Horrible Night To Have A Curse... Posted August 8, 2010
In a direct nod to Castlevania, the bitchin' American Melodic Death Metal band Black Dahlia Murder, wrote a song to commemorate their love of video games. Metal and games. There is no finer combination. Rockin'! (Note, that you are morally obligated to play Castlevania II : Simon's Quest while you listen to this).
So, uh... yeah! New Maiden comes out August 16th and the entire album is scifi-themed. No, I am not playing with your emotions. Would I do that? Seriously, I don't even think there's anything more I need to say. Feel free to start drooling...
"Platform Hell" is oh.. about fist-fighting polar bears difficulty. "Masocore" is more like naked fist-fighting a bunch of hungry great white sharks that really do have frickin' lasers on their heads. "Platform Hell's" only commercial foray was the Japanese Mario 2. Most people who have played the 2D Mario games
know the second Mario, and have probably thought it's a little weird of a departure from the formula, but
probably have not given it another thought. Well, the truth of the matter is what we got was a port of "Yume
Kojo: Doki Doki Panic" with Mario characters replacing the characters from that game. What Japan received was a
redone Super Mario Brothers with the level cranked up to bastard. I mean.. You've played games, but a game that literally hates you and your whole family?!? Figuring the American market was too fragile
for this kind of bitch-ass-hard difficulty, they gave us the watered down version and kept their beast for
themselves (I theorize they were calling us wusses for that whole pesky Nagasaki thing); at least until Super Mario All-Stars came out and it was released as "The Lost Levels".
Beyond that,
for free, the best example of "Platform Hell" is "I Wanna Be The Guy" with Megaman 2 intro music. IWBTG is
difficulty of slapstick proportions. "Crows developing cold-fusion"-Ridiculous would be a good way to describe it. Everything tries to kill
you. At one point the moon in the sky comes after you. You probably thought it was just a harmless background image.
And then... You're toast! IWBTG spun off an number of sequels, all equally hard, if not harder.
Watch these videos and judge for yourself. The default minimum difficulty is Medium which will label all your
saves to "Wuss" and give you a pretty pink bow in your hair. They go up to "Impossible" which aparently only a handful
of people in the world have successfully completed. I wonder if these people have jobs. It only has a single save point which
comes and attacks you. If you don't kill it, you can't save at all. Yeah... Have fun with that one...
So, in celebration of both platform games and the origin of these games here's a documentary hosted by Tony Hawk on the History of games called "Video Game Invasion". The guy Eric Zimmerman in this I actually shared a cab with at the GDC I went to. Pretty frickin' cool if I don't say so myself!
Oh! And before I forget... here's enough platform games to keep you busy for over a month. I claim no responsibility to any loss of productivity, signifigant other, mobility, pet antfarm, job, or other stuff due to these.
For goth metal, picking the best comes easy as pie : Nevermore. Starting in the ashes of the band Sanctuary, 5+ octave singer Warrel Dane
took the remains of his band when his amazing guitarists and drummer jumped at the then-booming Seattle grunge scene (it's ok if you
throw up a bit in your mouth when I mention that), and with then-tour-used-only God-Guitarist Jeff Loomis, formed what would go on to be a gothic and technical metal masterpiece, Nevermore.
Since then, they've put out 6 untouchable albums. Well, make that 7 this coming June 8th, when their newest album is due out. Dark. Brooding.
Viciously angry. Sorrowful. Elegant. Beautiful. Snarling. Death and ecstasy combined. All are good adjectives of this soon-to-be-released album. Give it a listen, I'm sure you'll agree. All I have to say, is Poe would be proud.
To this day, when I look back at the landscape of western RPG's, few satisfy with the likes
of Ultima. The series ended with the somewhat maligned Ultima IX, dumbing down the depth of the series a bit, but nonetheless, a great game in it's
own right. You see very few 3D RPG's these days with an entire world of hand-placed items, right down to each individual fork. And the dungeons
(isn't this the point of these games?) are nothing short of wicked and devious. The whole series, most notably Ultima Underworld I and II, Ultima VI,
Ultima VII (providing the base for Ultima Online), and Ultima IX, are just some of the best RPG's you could ever hope to play. So, throw your dice in
closet and break out about 300+ hours to finish the notables I mentioned. You're going to need it!
Chris Poland : Best thrash guitarist ever Posted May 4, 2010
Looking back at the history of various guitarists in thrash metal, there's a number of clearly memorable shredders out there : Dimebag Darrel, Chuck Schuldiner (one of my personal favorites), Marty Friedman, Dave Mustaine. The list goes on. But one of the most unnoticed, and ironically most melodically dangerous, was ex-Jazz guitarist Chris Poland. Between his noteworthy stint with Megadeth on thrash metal "Went down in history" albums "Peace Sells" and then later "The System Has Failed", he went off and recorded a solo album that's wall-to-wall guitar wailing; chock-full of melodic hooks and catchy rhythms. Just an amazing album for fans of scorching solos and mind-bending fretwork. Shred!
Post-Apocalyptic Gaming Goodness Posted May 4, 2010
There's nothing that brings out that pure sense of inner glee like the death of the better part of the world's population. Of course, that could just be me though. Post-apocalyptic movies rank right up there in lists of top scifi movies ever. Weirdly, post-apocalyptic games, especially good ones, have been few and far between. I have yet to see one that better captures the raw "fighting to survive" aspect like Fallout 1.
You start out in a bomb shelter who's water supply unit has malfunctioned, forcing you to go out, after years of isolation, into the radiated wilderness to locate another chip. Right away, you're sucked into a land where hordes of idiot mutant rednecks are looking to bend you over, Deliverance-style, just for your guns, ammo, and 5 minutes of fun. The game, like real life, is unforgiving, morally ambiguous (killing children gets you the childkiller label), and forces you to make choices that end up being the lesser of two evils. It's gritty, obdurate, hardened. Not for the faint of heart. But for those who have their twigs and berries still attached, it would be difficult to find a more believable and memorable RPG.
To get Fallout 1 going, download, install, and before running, install the 1.1 Windows patch from here. If you have trouble running or the screen blacks out, go to the install directory, and right-click on FALLOUTW.EXE and go to Properties. Click on the Compatibility tab, and check the box next to "Run this program in compatibility mode for : " and "Run in 256 colors". Be sure to also grab the "Fallout1 Hi-Res Patch" patch, install, and in the Options screen, click SCRN at the top, and change the resolution to any known resolution (1024 x 768 for instance). Happy non-radiated-to-death and cornhole-intact gaming.
Domine : Italian Metal about Elric of Melnibone Posted April 2, 2010
Fantasy series don't get much more evil than Elric of Melnibone; a story about an indifferent albino emperor
of a dying kingdom, forced to use magic and potions to keep his strength up, who, through a pact with the Lord of Evil Arioch, finds an evil entity black sword;The black sword that every other fantasy series copies, but fails miserably; later betrays his own people to their absolute destruction, and gets swept into the epic hands of fate as a pawn in the the gods of evil's giant worldwide chessgame.
The sword, called Stormbringer, that has influenced countless bands and games and controls Elric more than he controls it, leads it's wielder on a series of unparalleled dark epic fantasy.
Well, now power metal fans get an entire band devoted to this completely outstanding series. And for fans of both metal and fantasy, this gets the devil's horns straight up!
The start of Tactical Strategy Games Posted April 2, 2010
Any fans of the great series Advance Wars (and, technically Famicon Wars before that)
should know, or at least heard of, the amazing tactical strategy games Military Madness for Turbo Grafx 16 (known outside as
Nectaris). For those that have been living under a rock,
since gaming arrived, or those who only play games with the latest "flash and dazzle" (aka Trendy Gamers), these games are like Chess on steroids. Great games to push your brain against, or better still,
have a friend over and play hotseat against each other. Pure intellectual fun.
And, in the best combination of metal and gaming I've quite possibly ever come across, I found this guy's Metal rendition of the Metroid soundtrack. Geek metal. Awesome...
Heathen - Badass technical thrash Posted March 10, 2010
Great old thrash from it's heyday. The twin guitar solos are the stuff of soloing legend. These guys just released a new album that's 110% metal from end-to-end. Check that out ** Here **
System Shock Posted March 10, 2010
System Shock would be one of the greatest games ever in gaming history if it were not for the totally contrived and worthless control scheme. Sometimes I seriously think it was designed as a psychological test to see what a human's stress threshold is. But, despite that, I'd heard so many good things about the underlying story and the scenes that the game puts you through that make it like being thrust into one of the greatest scifi stories ever told, that I came up with the most hackneyed control method I've ever even heard of anyone attempting.
Basically, I'd grab a gamepad and use it for movement in the left hand, and use the mouse to interact with things with the right hand. It's sounds ridiculous, but it did work well enough for me to get through a good portion of the game. But all that is changed now. Enter (after 16 years from it's initial release) The Mouselook Patch.
I have narey a clue on how this was programmed. Either this guy had the source code to the game or, in a scary display of hacking ability, he actually went in and hexedited the machine code to add support for this. I really don't know as it stands, but the end result takes this game and cranks up it's playability by 10. It's game designers clearly took notes from Star Trek : The Next Generation (one of my all time favorite shows) as evidenced by the cyborgs ("Q Who" ), AI gone horribly wrong ("Arsonal of Freedom" and others), and *Spoiler* Destroying a laser by putting up the shields and firing it ("Contagion" ). All this is carried out in first-person as if you're the person living through the story. Hard game, but one of the greatest ever (It later led to and was the spiritual successor to BioShock).
So, in typical fashion, I bequeath this unto you, the gamer :
Also, for a limited time (until id asks me to take this down), I'm offering Doom 1 Mousepads and Mugs ** Here **. Get one while you can and show what a fan you are!
Gun Barrel : German Metal to kick ass to Posted February 9, 2010
To hear some more by this kickass band, go ** Here **. Especially the song "Wanted Man". Check it out. And then go kick someone's ass. Trust me! Better than therapy...
Best site for Indie Games Posted February 9, 2010
This is one of the best sites for sampling Indie Games. You can sort by various categories, so it's easy to find something you'll like. If you play one game a day, you'll be busy for the next year straight.
Doom++ Posted January 27, 2010
Ok, I have to add an update to the previous entry. Tonight I found ZDoom which is literally so good that I had to come back and list a link to it. It has literally none of the problems WinDoom has (though WinDoom is kickass). A note, if you do use WinDoom, is you must delete the file frontend.dbg and set the options Video Mode to 640x480, Check "Use Mouse", and Check "Start Doom and Close Frontend". If you don't, the mouse won't work and my key redefinition will be nonexistent. You'll still need to download the WinDoom link to get Doom and Doom2 wad files. Happy asskicking!
Ultimate damned doom of doomy doom Posted January 25, 2010
Well, it is now 2010 but despite that, I still think one of the best games ever made was Doom. So I spent way too much time over the past week locating a working copy of WinDoom and then modifying it so it actually works. This was, for the record, a royal-pain-in-the-ass. (Begin technical discourse) For one, the front-end has no ability to redefine the keys which necessitated me manually going into the INI file itself and messing with the key-values by raw trial-and-error. Oh yeah, good times! And to make matters worse, the key values don't correspond to any known normal key values, either scan codes, Windows Virtual Keys, or DirectInput key values. (end said discourse). So, anyways, I finally got them to work, and here they are for you to enjoy in all their glory. WSAD for movement, Q for Open. Easy stuff. Run by either clicking on Doom or Doom2.bat. That'll bring up the frontend and you just have to click Run Windoom to run. Best part : Doom can run in more than twice it's normal resolution of 320x200. Metal...
In other news, I also found the MOTHERLOAD of Doom and Doom 2 levels and add-ons. I offer no support on these, so you're on your own if you want to screw around with them. I personally recommend the Doom 2 level voidshp2. It's hard as fuck, so be forewarned. I'll give $10 to anyone who can show me them beating the level with 100% everything in Ultraviolence (PrntScn will save a .pcx screenshot). I'm totally serious. I've done it, though I was on top of my game at the time, and it took me 1 hour and 45 minutes. So, here you go. Fuck productivity!
Merry Thrashmas Posted December 11, 2009
Ok, I was going to put a link to just a motherload of Megadeth that I found, being that I consider this officially to be Duke Nukem month and Megadeth did 2 sweet songs for Duke's soundtrack. But since I also found that the kickass Thrash Metal band Powermad, arguably the most underated thrash band in history, is basically giving away their brilliant 2 albums for free, I figure I'll just drop a nuclear bomb full of metal on you. So here you go, and don't say I never gave you anything you greedy damn metalheads! Merry fucking xmas, or *cough*, Thrashmas! Oh, and by the way, barbed wire does count as tinsel. Tell your spouse I said it's cool.
Hail To the King! : Enhanced Duke Nukem 3D (Not needed if you use the HR patch) JFDuke3D (Not needed if you use the HR patch) Duke Plus (Not needed if you use the HR patch)
Thrash Metal Documentary Posted November 8, 2009
Unfortunately this is in Swedish (though all the band interviews that you probably actually care about are in English) and the part 2 is hacked up due to the best quality one being taken down due to copyright restrictions (skip to 1:40 video 2 in the playlist and then watch video 3 until 3:00 to get the whole content), but otherwise, a great documentary! Metal!!
Halloween game : Blood Posted October 31, 2009
Happy Halloween from your evil friends at Evil Soft. Blood is end-of-life (but technically still subject to copyright). Play in DosBox.
Halloween Metal Posted October 14, 2009
Ok, since EvilSoft's main purpose is creation of the combination of Horror, Metal, and Games, this is my personal scary metal music for Halloween. There's more scary atmospheric music out there, but this is distinctly a metal Halloween mix. Enjoy! And don't forget the blood... \m/,
