video games

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While we’re waiting for Star Wars: The Old Republic (and BioWare is now taking applications for closed beta testing if you’re into that sort of thing) maybe this’ll satiate your appetite in the meantime. About five years ago Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic II came out but instead of BioWare doing the follow-up to their original game, work was contracted out to Obsidian. Now don’t get me wrong: Knights of the Old Republic II was a superb game (“some” people, ahem, even claim it’s better than its predecessor).

But even the most casual players found that there were obviously things… wrong… with KOTOR II. Some more tech-savvy folks went looking through the game’s CD-ROM discs and found huge chunks of content that Obsidian had intended to put into the final version, but for one reason or another chose to instead yank it out. But ...

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Whoever is responsible for all of those #@&% banner ads for Evony needs to be dragged out into the street and shot hung from the nearest telephone pole by his circular reproductive units with piano wire.

Seriously.

No, I haven’t played this game. But I have heard from numerous sources that it is terrible. And the thing about Evony being “free forever” is a fraud: to achive anything in the game will likely microtransaction you into bankruptcy.

But that hasn’t stopped the developers of Evony from running a publicity campaign that could be called full-bore faulty advertising, if not increasingly desperate. There is no “queen” to save (nor is there “your lover”, My Lord).

I have tried numerous times to keep the Evony ads from popping up on this blog. They keep creeping in, like so many filthy cockroaches…

Want to see how badly the idiots behind Evony want ...

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For a good while today many fans of the Gears of Wars video game series were taken aback by reports that Epic Games president Michael Capps had remarked at the Tokyo Game Show that the next installment in the series would have to wait for the next generation of consoles: putting it around 2011-2014. Which would be an awfully long wait.

Happily, it seems that things are more positive regarding the further adventures of Marcus Fenix and Delta Squad. Capps has since clarified his statements:

After the event, Capps told Eurogamer that if there is another Gears of War in the the next four to five years, it would appear on existing platforms. If it’s based on the next Unreal Engine though, it’ll have to be for next-gen hardware: “If we ship a game in the next few years, it’ll be Unreal Engine 3. If we ship a game

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I had a gut feeling this morning after posting the story about BioShock on Windows for $5 that good news was imminent…

Mark your calendars: February 9th, 2010 will herald the release of BioShock 2: the sequel to 2007’s mind-rattling first-person shooter. It will be an international debut across Xbox 360, Windows and PlayStation 3.

From the official press release from 2K Games…

Currently in development for the Xbox 360 video game and entertainment system from Microsoft, the PlayStation3 computer entertainment system, and Games for Windows LIVE, BioShock 2 will deliver two unique, yet intertwined experiences that form the perfect blend of explosive first-person shooter combat, compelling storytelling and intense multiplayer action.

Set approximately 10 years after the events of the original BioShock, the halls of Rapture once again echo with sins of the past. Along the Atlantic coastline, a monster has been snatching little girls and bringing them

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The Windows edition of BioShock – a video game so profound that many consider it to be an entirely new form of high-brow literature – is now on sale for five bucks at Direct2Drive. If you’ve a Windows-based machine and haven’t experienced the majesty and horror of the sub-Atlantic metropolis that is Rapture, here’s your chance to go in deep for a handful of scratch. It’s just one of the games that Direct2Drive is offering at slashed cost to celebrate its fifth anniversary as an online game delivery service. I don’t have to tell you how terrific a deal this is, so go get BioShock… would you kindly?...

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Today finally sees the release of the much-anticipated The Beatles: Rock Band from Harmonix and MTV Games. The latest installment in the popular Rock Band music game series lets you and up to three friends re-live the career of the Fab Four from Liverpool right in your living room!

I don’t have the game yet (it’s available for all three major consoles) although I am looking forward to getting it at some point. However, for those of you who have bought it already, I’ve been wondering about something ever since this game was first announced…

Does The Beatles: Rock Band let you play the “John has a girlfriend” concert? Does a digital avatar of Yoko appear onscreen and break up the band all over again? Will your game data get erased when the Beatles go their separate ways?

(Probably not, but that would be so funny if it did 🙂...

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Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, LucasArts and BioWare’s 2003 role-playing game, has just become available for purchase on Steam. For $9.99 you can download and play what many deem is not only the greatest Star Wars game ever, but has been wildly praised as one of the finest computer games of all time.

Set four thousand years before the rise of the Empire in the film series, Knights of the Old Republic depicts a “more civilized age” for the galaxy. Unfortunately a Sith Lord named Darth Malak is leading a vast army of Sith against the Republic and especially any Jedi that happen to get in the way of his conquest. The game begins with the player’s character waking up on a Republic ship that has fallen under attack by the Sith. And what happens from that moment on is entirely up to you: the ...

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It came out this past Tuesday and I bought it then from the nearby Gamestop. I’ll post a full review when I finish the game.

But until then, believe the hype: Batman: Arkham Asylum is very, very, VERY good. I’ll even say that without completing it yet, it’s already my personal choice for best video game of 2009.

Don’t even think about whether you want this game. Because you do. You really do. The inmates are running the asylum… and you’re trapped with them. And when said inmates include the Joker, Riddler and Killer Croc among many others, there can be no doubt that you are in for a hella scary (and thrilling fun) stay....

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BioShock 2 may have been pushed back to next year but that’s not keeping 2K’s PR team from going to some extraordinary lengths of viral marketing for the much-anticipated game. This past week a mysterious note appeared on the game’s teaser site listing numerous beaches around the world and a time to be there… which was yesterday morning.

This was the scene at Australia’s Bondi Beach, where BioShock fans found dozens of wine bottles (from Arcadia itself) washed up on the shore. Within each bottle was one of several posters from Rapture, including this advertisement for Andrew Ryan Industries. Kotaku has photos of more discoveries. And wouldn’t you know it, but the Rapture wine bottles are already fetching a pretty price on eBay.

BioShock 2 is due sometime next year. Hopefully sooner than later....

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