With the release of Guild Wars: Eye of the North around the corner (31st of August), I think the time is right for a little screenshot festival to get everyone pumped to return to the continent of Tyria once more. You could think of this as an extended Screenshot of the Week feature, with an armada of screenshots focusing around a single upcoming game. Don't expect any elaborate background stories or game descriptions, just a bunch of cool pictures and artwork from the new GW:EotNfansite kit with a couple of accompanying phrases.
But before all that - let's first go into why GW:EotN is the subject of choice for this second (UT3 sort of had one earlier) screenshot festival. There are many reasons, for instance the fact that I'm finally pumped for a new Guild Wars game again after seeing the stunningE3 trailer. Additionally my Guild finally regained activity yesterday, with 5 out of 7 members online for the first time since Guild Wars: Factions(over a year ago). I also finally managed to complete my first two Fire Island missions (Prophecies campaign) along with my co-leader yesterday. And last, but not least, there's the fact that this blog is getting many hits from Guild Wars fans googling for Eye of the North screenshots, which I didn't have, until now...
Yes, that's the logo
The Norn are truly huge - and certainly no smaller than any Charr warrior!
As you face off against new enemies - you'll also gain new allies!
The Eye of the North is a truly iconic presence in the world...
Gwen seems to be capable well beyond merely playing a flute nowadays...
Dinosaurs appear to have escaped from Jurassic Park into Tyria!
Balthazar remains the coolest looking God of them all!
You'll be fighting these bastards once more, at long last!
Looks like a great place for an underground feast!
Artwork of Balthazar's statue - hope there's a place like that in-game!
Now that's a nice bridge - Asuran design perhaps?
Let's hope this doesn't turn out to be an enemy...
Norn settlements are impressive, to say the least!
A beautiful river scene - if only it looked like that in-game!
One of the new Heroes - a beautiful Norn warrior named Jora (also featured on the boxart)
You might not have noticed, but I made a couple of changes to the site. I've moved around a few of the items in the sidebars and changed others to better suit the design and I've also removed a few unnecessary features (such as the slow-loading mybloglog bar). A new blog has been added to the blogroll as well - you'll really want to check this one out: Aelon.net. It's a general gaming blog which hosts an armada of sizable entries ranging from first impressions to just general gaming-related articles. It might not be very frequently updated, but the entries it does have are always worth reading!
Many new PC games are released every month, but which ones are truly worth purchasing? I'll be giving an answer to that question every month, with this recurring 'Most Impressive Games' feature. The games mentioned in this feature aren't necessarily enjoyable for all, but they're certainly the best games that were released that month. This particular entry is quite a bit late, but filled with a large quantity of long-awaited and otherwise decent games released in the month of June. You can expect the one for July to be up by the end of the month, although it'll likely be a fair bit less lengthy, because June was a particularly good month.
June 2007
Colin McRae DiRT The best received game released in June was this racing game. It's by far the prettiest racing game you can play on PC, with incredibly realistic and cool damage models and a load of options to play the game however you like (including realism sliders) and multiplayer. If you're into racing games - which I am not - then you'll definitely want this one, although you'd best make sure that your system is hefty enough to handle it...
Overlord Likely the most anticipated game of the lot, which turned out surprisingly different from what gamers had been lead to believe. This fantasy 'RPG' will have you controlling hordes of minions who rampage across the terrain, while you either look back at it from a save distance - or participate in the carnage. Unfortunately this carnage is usually directed at evil creatures, rather than at innocent villagers, and as such it might be a tad disappointing if you expect to become the evil lord of some virtual domain. In spite of that it holds up as a most enjoyable game - and you'd do well to at least give the demo a spin. (note: official site is here)
Parkan II Ordinarily this kind of 'poorly' received game wouldn't have made it to my list, had it not been one of a truly peculiar/rare genre. An uncommon mix of space sim and first person shooter is what makes up the bulk of your gameplay here and while it sounds great, looks great & comes at a budget price... it's apparently bogged down by repetitiveness, bugs and dated combat. Might be your thing if you're a space sim nut, but even then there are better options (X3 Reunion) - still could be worth checking out if you're into this sort of thing.
Shadowrun Similar to the previous game, this kind of poor game (at least on PC) ordinarily wouldn't have made it to the list. Shadowrun did make the cut because of the immense public attention it's received as the first implementation of Microsoft's online cross platform gameplay. I'll be brief on this one: don't waste your money on it, there are countless better shooters out there. It's cross platform gameplay also fails miserably, as PC gamers are nerfed into oblivion so that Xbox 360 players can be on par with them. If you don't care about all that and still want to frag along your Xbox friends, then be prepared to pay loads of money for twice the recoil Xbox players have and an aiming disadvantage (Xbox 360 players get friggin' auto-aim).
Space Empires V Contrary to the previous two games this is a long-awaited game which has proven well worth the wait. The Space Empires' series has gained fame for being a quality 4X Space Strategy franchise and part V is a worthy successor. Perhaps most interesting about this game of space-based Civilization is that it runs on near-ancient machines (as low as a P3 500 mhz!) ensuring that anyone can play it. It's also available for a very soft price on Steam. If you're uncertain whether this is your kind of game: do give the demo a try.
Sword of the Stars: Born of Blood The expansion pack to Sword of the Stars - a game fairly similar to the previously mentioned Space Empires V. As any expansion pack should, this one offers plenty of new content as well as a new playable race and several cool new game mechanics such as trade routes and diplomacy. If you're a fan of the original, then you'll definitely want to add Born of Blood to your collection.
Some of you might recall a two month old entry regarding a Japanese online Gundam game called Universal Century.net. I stated how it'd be great if we were to receive an English version of this game in the West. Unfortunately it was recently revealed that Namco Bandai has decided to pull the plug on this project later this year. The reasons are as of yet unknown, but this pretty much guarantees we won't be seeing anything of the sort here in Europe or the States. It's a shame really, because the concept of an open-ended online Gundam universe is truly appealing and would be something well worth paying a subscription fee for.
In similar news it seems that fans of Starsiege: Tribes will now finally be left in the dust, as Sierra is terminating support for it (and 20 other older titles) as of the 16th of August. This means you will likely no longer be able to play this freely downloadable game (since slightly before the release of Tribes: Vengeance) online in the near future. All other Sierra products mentioned were rather uninteresting, but you can find a full list here in case you're interested. However before you lose all hope: a similar thing happened to Microsoft's popular online space simulation game Allegiance, but this was later redistributed as a free release with community-run servers and still remains popular to this day. With some luck Sierra might allow a similar move on the part of the Tribes community.
It's been quite a while since the release of Windows Vista and DirectX 10 capable video cards, but we have yet to see any true benefit from this 'great' new technology. Certainly a couple of games 'support' DirectX 10 already, but none of them really came with any great performance enhancements or truly revolutionary visual effects. Fortunately for those gamers who've spend their hard cold cash on the latest DX10 cards: that is all about to change. Two days ago a new trailer for the widely-anticipated RTS World in Conflict was released - and it promises quite a bit for those fortunate enough to own a DirectX 10 capable PC.
It's a fairly lengthy video which introduces the special effects Massive Entertainment has in store for those gamers with systems that support DirectX 10 - and contrary to previous implementations these innovations are genuinely impressive. Aside from that a couple of non DX-10 related features, which are equally impressive, are detailed as well. And of course you get to see a lot of high quality in-game (yes, it does look like that in-game) action shots, which will have you browsing on to your favorite online shop to pre-order, right after reading this entry of course ;)
So here's World in Conflict in a nutshell: it's the cold war era - and contrary to actual history, things escalate and Russia invades not only Europe, but also the United States of America. In the singleplayer campaign you'll be attempting to push back the Russian invasion of the USA, but the real meat of the gameplay lies in multiplayer. Contrary to traditional RTS games you'll have to choose a class (Air, Infantry, Support or Tank) and will generally only utilize 3-8 units on small sections of the map as you are forced to cooperate with your teammates to defeat the enemy. Think Battlefield as an RTS and you're pretty much spot-on - and it should be available in stores worldwide in September. Sound cool yet? Well it should.
Now let's begin with an overview of the video shall we? The entire thing is narrated by Martin Walfisz (president and founder of Massive Entertainment) who basically explains what the cool new shiny features are. He begins with arguably the coolest feature of all - and one that is not limited to DirectX 10 - which is ground deformation. That's right people: aside from being capable of annihilating any building, tree or plant in the game, you can also blast craters into the ground. Aside from being a cool graphical feature, it also impacts the gameplay - in that units require line-of-sight. So an infantry unit inside a crater won't be able to see past the crater's edge, tanks inside a crater can't shoot directly at tanks further down the hill, and so on.
Next are some really cool DirectX 10 features, beginning with soft particles. Now the smoke effects in World in Conflict are amazing already, but with DirectX 10 they look and behave significantly more realistic. If you send your squadron of helicopters flying through the smoking remains of a building, that smoke will clear up realistically according to the manner in which the helicopter flies through it and then form back up again, it looks really great. Another cool visual gimmick is the addition of global cloud shadows - which basically means you can see the shadows of clouds overhead moving very realistically across the battlefield when you're playing in DirectX 10. Doesn't sound that impressive? Just wait until you see it in action in that trailer! It's really one of those things you never thought you were missing, until you see it in action and you're like "wow, that really does make it look so much better".
Another visual effect added in for DirectX 10 gamers is that of the 'God rays', courtesy of volumetric light effects. It's probably not something you're likely to notice very quickly (unless you frequently play as an Air commander - like I do), but it's a truly beautiful visual gimmick that aught to have DX10 card owners looking up at the sky quite a bit more than usual. Yes, these have been featured in games before, but they've certainly never looked this beautiful.
The best DirectX 10 feature is saved for last - one that aught to have dual monitor gamers and Supreme Commander fans alike rejoice. That's right: World in Conflict will allow you to have the game on one screen - and your mega-map on the other, although it's only available in DirectX 10 mode. This kind of setup will prove very useful for those lucky few with dual monitors and DX10 capable PCs, because in an intense World in Conflict multiplayer game you really do want to know what's going on across the battlefield at all times.
So there you have it: finally a game that truly sports some genuinely interesting features for DX10 gamers - and I'm certain it won't be the last. If you'd like to see the trailer for yourself then scroll on down to the embedded Gametrailers.com video. Now if only that game were to come out a bit sooner...
My apologies for the rather lengthy absence (pretty much all of July), but I had been rather busy as of late and couldn't really attend to the blog for a while. There's no need to worry - this blog isn't going anywhere! Starting today I'll be catching up with some of the great things in gaming that happened during the past month, of which there are plenty (thanks E3!). The Game Drone itself will also undergo a slight change, as I'll be reorganizing the 'weekly-recurring' items to become bi-weekly or monthly items. You might also notice a few more smaller entries appearing on this blog.
In the near future I intend to release the articles I promised nearly a month ago: namely my impressions of the Enemy Territory: Quake Wars beta test and my review of the Razer Barracuda headset. You can also expect a bunch of other articles, including my World in Conflict beta test impressions and an entry on hardware upgrading. So by all means, do stick around! I'm not going anywhere this summer, so I can continue posting throughout August into the latter half of this year.
Now on to where we left off earlier this month: the headset poll. It's been running for several weeks now and hit a whopping 10 votes *yay!*. I guess not a lot of people are interested in sharing their hardware - or financial situation - with the world. Ah well, it still looks like my initial assumption was proven correct: 9 out of 10 voters had a headset. For the less mathematically gifted amongst you: that's 90% - quite the majority. It seems that a certain Xbox fan (I've even forgotten where I read that silly Shadowrunreview) has been proven wrong: most online PC gamers do own headsets. Okay, so my sample size might be a tad small to accurately draw this kind of conclusion, but you've got to make do with what you've got right?
Another assumption I had silently made was also proven correct: a lot of online gamers with headsets don't really use them. 5 out of 9 people with headsets said they didn't actually use it all that much, which goes a ways to explain why a random newbie Xbox Shadowrun player might think PC gamers don't own headsets. After all, if most people with headsets don't even use them - then how many of the people who do use them actually use them to talk over in-game VoIP? Probably not that many. In fact, most PC gamers I know (including myself), would very likely never use in-game VoIP options. We're either on TeamSpeak servers with a bunch of friends, or enjoying the happy silence of a muted server, or perhaps just so used to typing everything that VoIP really just seems like a bother. Anyway, we're veering off-topic so I'll save the rest for a later article... on to the new poll of the... eh, 2 weeks!?
"What's your upgrade status?" is the question you can answer these coming 2 weeks. With the current hardware prices it's a very good time to upgrade your PC, so it'll be interesting to see who has already upgraded - or will in the near future. If you care to elaborate on your choice then please do respond to this entry! Better yet: if you've recently upgraded, or about to, how about you respond with the hardware of your choice? It'd be interesting to see what kinds of hardware are the most popular picks right now: NVidia or AMD(ATi)? Intel or AMD?
And with that out of the way, the time is right for me to announce my own upgrade. That's right, my pretty glowing Antec P160 case (which you can admire in this post) will soon be outfitted with entirely new hardware! With recent games (Neverwinter Nights 2, World in Conflict beta) becoming more and more demanding and the massive price drops on hardware as of late - I thought the time was right for a complete system overhaul. Consisting of a new Intel Core 2 Duo E6750, ASUS P5KC motherboard and Geforce 8800 GTX video card (along with accompanying RAM, Harddisk & PSU upgrades) - this will truly become my greatest gaming monster yet and that at significantly lower cost than my current system. Don't worry, over the coming weeks I'll be certain to highlight the nature of my upgrade - and I'm certain you'll be surprised at how 'little' it cost me to assemble this behemoth.
Well now, that's quite enough talk for today - now go have a great summer day (if you're not living in the U.K. that is, there's some nasty rain over there). I'll see you all tomorrow for some more new The Game Drone entries - until then make sure you have your say in the latest poll!
Just like last week - it's been rather quiet on this blog as of late and I didn't get around to providing another News of the Week item until now. The next one aught to be slightly late as well, but after that this item should be back on track (and hopefuly the rest of this blog as well). Anyhow - on to the usual intro!
The Game Drone might not be just another gaming news blog, but I do touch on the most interesting PC gaming-related bits of news every week in a feature known as 'News of the Week'. It's a regular feature on Thursdays every week (well not so much this week) - and all previous (and other news-related) entries can be accessed by selecting the 'news' category in the right-hand menu. Enjoy!
Week #22 (June 25th - July 2nd)
Well it's only been 7 days since the last News of the Week item this time! That's better, even though it should've been online a bit earlier. Anyhow some of the great news you can read about this week includes the Guild Wars: Eye of the North price and release date, the upcoming Supreme Commander expansion pack, a new mmorpg called Dead or Alive Online and a new Soldier of Fortune game. There's also a small segment on Universe at War: Earth Assault's new cross-platform multiplayer gameplay and the unfortunate demise of UniversalCentury.net.
Game Announcements Remember Guild Wars: Eye of the North? Today ArenaNet and NCSoft have decided to share a final release date with us, as well as the pricing details. It looks like this first (and probably last) expansion for Guild Wars will be released on the 31st of August and will cost about 35 euro (or $40 in the US). A lot earlier than I had expected, but hopefully ArenaNet will still decide to share a nice beta event with the current player base. (GuildWars.com)
Some of the more console-oriented gamers amongst you might have heard of the popular fighting game series Dead or Alive from TECMO. Apparently it's creators have opted to follow the modern trend in game development - so we'll be seeing Dead or Alive Online appear on PC's worldwide, sometime in the future (no release date was mentioned). Anyhow - it looks like this won't just be a direct port from it's console-brethren but a game designed after popular online PC games, which makes it sound a lot like TECMO is merely developing yet another World of Warcraft-clone. (Worthplaying)
Do you remember the name UniversalCentury.net? It looks like this interesting Japanese Gundam-based mmorpg will shut down. Apparently BandaiNamco has put up a notice stating that service for this game will stop as of the 15th of December. Too bad, hopefully it was successful enough to warrant launching a similar online title though, because I'd love to play a better-looking and refreshed version. (Gunota Headlines)
THQ has announced a new stand-alone expansion pack for the popular RTS Supreme Commander entitled 'Forged Alliance'. It's a move very similar to Dawn of War's (another THQ game) most recent expansion Dark Crusade which was also a stand-alone release, but offered full compatibility with it's predecessor. This new expansion pack will add one hundred new units, a new faction, new multiplayer options and of course many new maps as well as a new singleplayer campaign. Fans won't have to wait for long, because it's currently set to release this November! (Worthplaying)
Soldier of Fortune finally returns as Soldier of Fortune: Pay Back. This time it will also be released on the PS3 and Xbox360 - and Raven Software won't be developing it. Instead Cauldron is working on this title, hoping to release the game later this year. Hopefully this doesn't mean the series will be ruined, although it certainly looks that way - ah well, the original was the best anyway. (Worthplaying)
Cross-Platform Strategizing... It sounds like a crazy idea, but apparently SEGA and Petroglyph are seriously attempting to add cross-platform multiplayer gameplay to their upcoming Universe at War: Earth Assault strategy game. This means the game will utilize Microsoft's LIVE multiplayer, which interestingly is supposed to work under Windows XP as well, even though the LIVE software does NOT support Windows XP (as of yet). Ah well, it doesn't seem like playing a strategy match between a PC and a Xbox 360 user would be even remotely interesting anyway. There's simply no way a player with a controller can keep up with a mouse-using gamer in a strategy game. Anyway - this futuristic RTS aught to be available this Fall for PC and early next year for Xbox 360. (Worthplaying)
The usual Free Gaming... This week we have FilePlanet's trial promotion for the recently released mmorts/rpg Dreamlords. A game in which you can build your civilization through a mere browser window, while heading in-game to accomplish quests and conquer new territory with your forces. A pretty interesting concept - and now you can try it 6 days for free, here. Note: be certain to head there with Internet Explorer, because FilePlanetstill doesn't support proper browsers (Firefox).
Another FilePlanet promotion which seems interesting is that of the UpShift: Strike Racer beta test. Contrary to Dreamlords this is a beta test and will be a free game upon release, like the other Gpotato games (such as Space Cowboy Online). Anyhow it's concept is similar to Auto Assault in that you drive an upgradable car which can destroy things. Seems pretty cool, so head over here for a preview, and here to sign up.
With the release of Guild Wars: Eye of the North around the corner (31st of August), I think the time is right for a little screenshot festival to get everyone pumped to return to the continent of Tyria once more. You could think of this as an extended Screenshot of the Week feature, with an armada of screenshots focusing around a single upcoming game. Don't expect any elaborate background stories or game descriptions, just a bunch of cool pictures and artwork from the new GW:EotN fansite kit with a couple of accompanying phrases.
Yes, that's the logo
The Norn are truly huge - and certainly no smaller than any Charr warrior!
As you face off against new enemies - you'll also gain new allies!
The Eye of the North is a truly iconic presence in the world...
Gwen seems to be capable well beyond merely playing a flute nowadays...
Dinosaurs appear to have escaped from Jurassic Park into Tyria!
Balthazar remains the coolest looking God of them all!
You'll be fighting these bastards once more, at long last!
Looks like a great place for an underground feast!
Artwork of Balthazar's statue - hope there's a place like that in-game!
Now that's a nice bridge - Asuran design perhaps?
Let's hope this doesn't turn out to be an enemy...
Norn settlements are impressive, to say the least!
A beautiful river scene - if only it looked like that in-game!
One of the new Heroes - a beautiful Norn warrior named Jora
