Maximum PC game RSS Feed

Microsoft: Windows 7 to Bring Glad Tidings for Gamers

Pulkit Chandna — Mon, 23 Feb 2009 18:55:16 -0600

Will Windows 7 bring glad tidings for gamers? Chris Lewis, VP of Interactive Entertainment Business for Microsoft EMEA, certainly believes the new OS will keep gamers happy.

"It's all good news - it's even more robust, it's quicker relatively, and the early testing cycles are proving very promising overall,” an excited Lewis told Gameindustry.biz in an interview. He said the company will divulge more details later this year.

Lewis didn’t forget to reassure gamers that Microsoft remains committed to PC gaming. “Ultimately we're a Windows and PC company at heart,” Lewis accentuated Microsoft’s commitment to its roots.

Image Credit: Article Inspector

Netflix Claims to Have Fixed Mysterious Streaming Video Glitch

Paul Lilly — Mon, 08 Dec 2008 08:05:16 -0600

Last week several Xbox 360 and Roku set-top box owners complained of loss of quality and irritating delays when firing up a movie through Netflix's streaming download service. At the time, the glitch had Netflix stumped, but now it appears Netflix has identified the problem and fixed whatever was causing the issue.

"This was a temporary issue that we believe we have resolved," Netflix wrote on its blog site. "Working with our content distribution partners and key carriers, we made some specific changes that should restore everyone's experience to where it was before - high quality streaming."

However, there might still be work to do. Netflix posted its update on Friday, December 5th, but users throughout the weekend were still reporting lingering issues in the comments section.

Image Credit: Neflix

Dolby Announces New In-Game Voice Tech to Boost Immersiveness

Paul Lilly — Thu, 18 Sep 2008 15:02:22 -0500

Dolby isn't necessarily looking to improve the quality of your voice while chatting in-game, but it would like your vocals to interact with the gaming environment in a more realistic fashion. That's the idea behind Dolby's Axon technology, a tool the company introduced today at the Austin Game Developers Conference in Austin, Texas.

The basic idea is that this new tool will make it possible to enable surround panning and distance attenuation, so that your character will sound different if, say, he's behind a wall or closed door as opposed to both you and your teammate standing next to each other in the same room. Think of Creative's EAX technology, only this time it's applied to your voice.

Voice fonts come part of the package too, so if you choose a female avatar, you can sound the part no matter what body organs you may or may not have in real life. And according to Dolby, its Axon software has been designed to consume very little bandwidth, capable of supporting thousands of users per server and able to scale across multiple servers.

No customers have yet been announced, and it's consumer interest that might ultimately decide how many developers jump on board. With the increasingly popularity of Skype and stalwarts such as Teamspeak, is the prospect of customized and realistic in-game chat enough to convince gamers to turn off their third-party voice-chat programs?

Hit the jump and let us know what you think.

Image Credit: Dolby

Maximum PC's Guide to Friday at 4:00 PM

Benson Hong and Reed Porter — Wed, 17 Sep 2008 11:15:00 -0500

It’s the final hour—the last stretch in your race to freedom. Paper footballs litter your desk and paper basketballs surround the trash can. Yet even after these sporting events have ended, the little hand continues to hold a grudge against the 5. It’s high time you find a more efficient—and less obvious—way to pass the time.

Consider this your go-to guide against workplace stagnation. We’ve spent dozens of hours scouring the Internet in search of the most enjoyable and alt-tabbable browser-based games. They require no installation and, best of all, are 100 percent free. When the boss man walks by, you can easily switch to that budget report for accounts payable—he can’t fault you for grinning like a fool at a spreadsheet!

Indestructo Tank AE

[Action] Who says a 5-ton vehicle can't do flips?

If you haven’t experienced the previous versions of Indestructo Tank, then this anniversary edition is a stone-cold must play. Enemy fire drops on you from copters overhead, but rather than run from it, you want to place your rough-and-tumble tank directly in its path! Each explosion will propel your vehicle skyward, allowing you to take out the enemy units while in flight!

The longer you remain airborne, the more experience points you earn. Use the points to purchase more—yes MORE—enemies to help you catch some gnarly air. Move fast, as your limited fuel supply will dwindle and leave you stranded in enemy territory. Down for some team play? Tag team with a buddy and play the co-op mode in which the enemy has developed a missile that can destroy the Indestructo Tank! Have your friend control the Indestructo Copter and destroy these missiles before they destroy you! http://tinyurl.com/5vps9a

Scorching Earth

[Puzzle] Pyros, rejoice! You’re rewarded for lighting fires

Scorching Earth is sort of like tic-tac-toe blended with chess—but different! Your goal is to burn the land on a level until you reach the score limit. Moving from square to square, you gain burn points by burning land, but you must also spend these same points spreading your fire. Weighing your options, you must work around obstacles while preventing your fire from burning out. http://tinyurl.com/5vw3y8

Mr. Bounce

[Circus Arts] Keep your eye on the ball

Imagine the simple pleasure of bouncing a ball—then multiply that by about 100. Because in this digital bouncefest, your fun won’t be hampered by space constraints, surface issues, or lost balls—except for those you fail to anticipate. Bounce your ball hither and yon to the game’s body-thumping techno beat. Slow-motion and trajectory projection help you keep the ball in play, even as you face increasingly difficult bouncing challenges. http://tinyurl.com/6d5x2z

Warlords: Call to Arms

[Strategy and Defense] Pop on your strat hat and pull down your try face, this game’s no walk in the park

This game won’t win any awards for graphics, but its mechanics and gameplay are rock solid. In this fast-paced strategy romp, your goal is to overrun the enemy with your army. The more units you push into their base, the closer you come to capturing the level. A surprising amount of tactical planning is required to know how and when to deploy your men; thankfully, there’s an included strategy guide. The units are also well balanced, so no one character is constantly wreaking havoc.

It’s also worth noting the game’s exceptional sound. It’s fully directional left to right, based on the location of each battle, and surprisingly crisp. Each unit also has a unique spawn sound. Playing through the campaign mode is quite fun and distinct for each race. We put this tactical time-waster at the top of our list. http://tinyurl.com/2v9kyx

Skywire 2

[Skill] Do you have what it takes to be a chairlift operator?

Navigate your passengers to safety as you travel through treacherous terrain in your sporty, red three-seater chairlift. Robotic camels, spinning flamingos, and antsy parrots stand in your way as you furiously attempt to smash your Up and Down arrow keys at just the right moment to avoid these menacing obstacles. A safe passage will result in happy passengers, but run-ins with baddies will eject your human cargo from the lift. Can your fingers handle the challenge? http://tinyurl.com/59zoum

Bowman 2

[Skill] Bowman is back

The original Bowman excited fans with its two-player turn-based archery combat—now it’s back with even more features and fun. With the new Critical Hit setting and Bird Hunting mode, this just might be the perfect game for Dick Cheney. Challenge a buddy to a game of arrow-slinging or play against the computer and watch your opponent fall to your feet in bloody defeat. Calculate your shots carefully, as each turn may be your last! http://tinyurl.com/ygy2qz

Twizzle

[Puzzle] Twists and turns may make me churn, but Twizzle can never hurt me

A good sense of direction is needed to succeed in this mind-boggling brainteaser of a minigame. Navigate your way out of the center of a circle while multiple concentric tracks lead you in conflicting directions. New elements are introduced as you advance through 17 levels, and exploring the outcome of these obstacles is half the fun. What may start out as a seemingly simple task can turn into a hair-ripping, keyboard-smashing, mouse-jamming escapade—in other words, jolly good fun! http://tinyurl.com/6hkugn

Next: Six More Productivity Boosters!

Age of War

[Action] Flash-based RTS? Hell yeah!

In this 2D RTS minigame, you build up your defenses and train units to push into the enemy’s base. For every unit slaughtered you receive money and experience. After enough experience is gained, you can evolve, acquiring tougher and more powerful units. The constant need to balance between defense and offense makes this game fun for more than a few plays. http://tinyurl.com/2cbkcw

Epsilon

[Puzzle] Exploring the wonderful world of wormholes

Do other dimensions exist? Will a wormhole lead us there? This game won’t exactly answer these questions, but it will make pondering the possibilities loads of fun. This flash-based mind exerciser can be seen as a parallel to the popular Valve game Portal. A portal-physics game, Epsilon thrusts you into the space-time continuum with the ability to stop and reverse time as well as manipulate gravity. Successfully arranging the wormholes will yield you tokens and entry into new and increasingly challenging levels. Think quickly, though, as one missed portal could leave your shiny orb stranded in a timeless abyss. Complex time fields, gravity tricks, and advanced mechanics will keep you on your toes. Play through the five different stages to reach the end and you just might discover something new. http://tinyurl.com/5rlo6y

The Last Stand 2

[Zombie Shooter] Pump lead into a zombie onslaught...for survival of course

In this graphically detailed shooter, you scrounge for supplies during the day and mow down zombies at night. To search for supplies, survivors, and weaponry, you click various buildings from a sort of architectural blueprint of the town. Once the sun goes down, it’s time to set up shop and slaughter the incoming hordes of infected creatures the good old-fashioned way—with guns and chain saws. http://tinyurl.com/5n75sc

Dino Run

[Survival] Escape extinction as you run from the end of the world!

You play as a puny dinosaur who’s on the run from the end of the world. Dashing through each level, you have to gather eggs and bones that can later be used to upgrade your attributes. We love how Dino Run’s pixelated graphics give this online game a unique look and feel. Don’t be fooled though, while the old-school graphics make the game seem simple, it’s harder than it looks and can get pretty competitive in multiplayer mode.

In multiplayer, you level up as you race. In doing so, you not only improve your character’s abilities but also get to adorn Dino with new colors and hats. The game’s extremely high replay value and quirky style are rivaled only by the amusement felt while leaping through the game’s landscape. This is a flash game that can be picked up and enjoyed by even a novice online game player. www.pixeljam.com/dinorun

Typeracer

[Racing] Multiplayer Mavis Bacon

It’s an unlikely premise, but in Typeracer, you race by, er, typing. Putting your fingers to the test, you’ll compete against others in a word-per-minute sprint. You’re given a notable passage from a film, book, or song. When the light turns green, your fingers better be flying, because the first person to finish without any errors wins. http://play.typeracer.com

Quick! View the New Max Payne Trailer Before it's Gone!

Paul Lilly — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 15:05:52 -0500

A new trailer for 20th Century Fox's upcoming Max Payne movie has been leaked on the web, but if you want to see it, you'll have to be quick. The trailer's already been pulled from YouTube, but at least two other sites are still hosting the teaser.

The PG-13 flick opens October 17 and stars Mark Wahlberg as the main character (can anyone else picture Mickey Rourke playing the part 10 years and 50 pounds ago?), with a supporting cast that includes the likes of Chris O'Donnel, Beau Bridges, Mila Kunis, and Ludacris. Wahlberg looks to be a good fit for the videogame icon gone Hollywood, and here's hoping he can atone for his performance in The Happening.

Catch the trailer here or here while you still can.

Image Credit: 3D Realms

Assassin's Creed

Norman Chan — Tue, 27 May 2008 12:24:31 -0500

The death-defying urban acrobatics of free running—seen recently on the big screen in the Casino Royale remake, The Bourne Ultimatum, and Live Free or Die Hard—are replicated to great effect in Assassin’s Creed, an action-adventure console port that puts you in the nimble shoes of a 12th-century assassin. Light feet and tremendous upper-body strength, rather than overwhelming firepower, are your greatest assets as you scale walls and barrel across rooftops in one of the most refreshing games we’ve played.

As the assassin Altair, you are charged with executing nine high-profile targets spread across three Middle Eastern metropolises. Hunting down these ruthless slave traders and hedonistic rulers is no easy task—you must first complete a series of mini-quests to acquire information about your target. Eavesdropping and pick-pocketing missions test your patience and ability to blend into dense crowds, while eliminating tower guards and racing across rooftops challenge your ability to vault across the tops of cities with finesse.

We were entranced by the free-running aspect of the game and spent hours exploring the highly detailed open world. Climbing the tallest peaks of each city let us survey breathtaking vistas—gorgeous visuals justify the game’s high system requirements. Mouse and keyboard control let us deftly navigate the world with ease, but we found the gamepad to be more intuitive when complicated sword fighting was required. The story—an unraveling conspiracy—featured enough twists to keep us interested but became secondary to the unrelenting action.

It’s not often that we come across a game that not only introduces revolutionary gameplay mechanics but does so without compromising a sense of fun. Assassin’s Creed does for action-platformers what Grand Theft Auto III did for driving games—infuses a wondrous sense of exploration and open-endedness into the genre. We can’t help but admire its ambitious design and adore its killer execution.

No BS Podcast #56: The "Whale Versus Wail" Edition

The Maximum PC Staff — Fri, 22 Feb 2008 21:10:52 -0600

This week, Dave, Will, Gordon, and Andy spend hours upon hours dissecting all the hot news from this week's Game Developers Conference. We also chat about all the fun stuff we're doing in the Lab--including media streaming and virtual machines--and answer your crazy reader questions!

We sincerely appreciate crazy reader questions.

To learn more about our Intel-sponsored LAN parties, mosey on over here.

Do you have a tech question? A comment? Just need someone to talk to? Email us at maximumpcpodcast@gmail.com or call our 24-hour No BS Podcast hotline at 877.404.1337 x1337, operators are standing by. Also, get your game on with the editors of Maximum PC by joining our Steam group or Facebook Page.

Modders and modding aficionados, check out Mod Shop: submit and vote on the coolest mods around—and win prizes!

Subscribe: http://feeds.feedburner.com/maximumpc/1337

Maximum PC's 2007 Gaming Awards

The Maximum PC Staff and Norman Chan — Tue, 19 Feb 2008 13:05:37 -0600

Boy howdy have the past 12 months been an eventful time for gamers! With a spate of unbelievably good titles—and a fair number of lemons—we had one helluva time deciding which games to pick and which to pan. So let’s get on with the business of presenting this year’s honors! Or just go straight to the Game of the Year!

Special Achievement for Opening New Doors in Gameplay

Portal

Within four short hours of gameplay, Portal reminded us of a time when game developers could afford to take chances. By eschewing the run-’n’-gun mechanic that’s integral to first-person shooters and replacing it with a series of increasingly difficult physics-based puzzles, Valve created the first new game genre in years: the first-person puzzler. This new gameplay mechanic, combined with a subversive and irreverent sense of humor, not to mention the best baddie since Bowser, makes for an experience that appeals to newbs and hardcore gamers alike. And by selling Portal as an itsy-bitsy part of The Orange Box, Valve proved that taking a chance on something new doesn’t have to be risky.
http://orange.half-life2.com, ESRB: T

The Best of the Bargain Bin

S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl

The premise: brilliant. Mutants surround the nuked-out husk of the defunct Chernobyl power plant, where you must travel to do stuff that saves people, and… OK, we weren’t paying attention to the story, but we loved the setting. Unfortunately, no combination of quality settings could get this game to run at launch, especially if you were cursed with Vista. Luckily, six months later, the game has finally been patched to the point where it will run on most rigs, making it worthy of reconsideration.
www.stalker-game.com, ESRB: M

The Been There, Done That Award

Unreal Tournament 3

If Unreal Tournament 3’s gameplay feels strikingly similar to that of its previous iteration, it’s because UT3 is pretty much the same game wrapped in a fancy new graphics engine. Not that we’re complaining, since Epic arguably achieved deathmatch perfection with its 2004 classic. We’re more peeved that we waited so long for UT3, only to find several of our favorite multiplayer modes missing, including Assault and Onslaught.
www.unrealtournament3.com, ESRB: M

The Hiroo Onada "Keepin' the Fight Alive" Award

Medal of Honor: Airborne

Like the famed Japanese soldier who did not surrender his post until 1974, Medal of Honor: Airborne desperately holds to the notion that gamers still want to play WWII-era shooters. Armed with a new parachuting gameplay mechanic and sheer force of will, MOH: Airborne defies its anachronistic shortcomings and delivers a fairly gripping shooter experience. We salute its zeal and conviction, even if less honorable gamers haven’t given it the recognition it deserves.
www.ea.com/moh/airborne/index.jsp, ESRB: T

Best Multiplayer

Team Fortress 2

In a year chock-full of great multiplayer experiences—Supreme Commander, Call of Duty 4, and World of Warcraft: Burning Crusade, to name a few—the Best Multiplayer Award was a contentious subject among the editors. After much debate (and some name calling), we eventually settled on Team Fortress 2. It not only captured more of our collective multiplayer time than any other game but also brought us night after night of pure joy. TF2 delivers in every way that’s important—allowing you to torch an entire scout rush with a pyro, build a turret that takes out the whole other team, or simply heal your pals so they can keep fighting. With nine very different classes, each with its own specialty and Achilles’ heel, there are literally thousands of strategies to master in the game’s six maps. And at no time did the limited selection of maps feel limited. Oh no. The game’s sublime balance and exquisite design would have made a single map sufficient—as long as it was 2fort.
http://orange.half-life2.com, ESRB: M

We Paid $10/month For This?

Hellgate: London

We have no problem paying monthly subscription fees for a good MMO. But Hellgate: London is neither good nor an MMO, based on the common definition of a “massively multiplayer online” game. Hellgate’s gaming experience is a bitter pill—and the voluntary $10-per-month subscription model is pure poison.

Pony up, and you’ll be treated to awesome features like “hardcore mode” and increased in-game storage space. Neat as it is to pay for a means to permanently die, we’d much prefer new weapons, classes, enemies, and achievement rewards and PvP—all more promises than reality at this point.
www.hellgatelondon.com, ESRB: M

The Timmy! Award for Inspiration in Gaming

Shadowrun

We love console gaming, but it’s time to face facts: The gamepad simply can’t compete with a mouse and keyboard in first-person shooters. The gamepad can be precise or fast—but not both at the same time. Shadowrun’s fast-paced combat leaves us with a deep appreciation of the, umm, handicaps our console-bound brethren must endure. Sure, we were annoyed when we out-circle-strafed our enemy and they accused us of “hax,” but now we know what Fatal1ty feels like when he plays commoners. And believe us, it feels good.
www.shadowrun.com, ESRB: M

Evil This Good Leaves Us Longing for Dungeon Keeper 3

Overlord

Chugging through Overlord brings back fond memories of one of the greatest minion-commanding, good-smiting games ever to come to a PC: Dungeon Keeper. While you control a complete—and completely menacing—being instead of just a disembodied hand, Overlord nevertheless reinvigorates the best elements of the classic DK series: wry, dark humor; silly, smelly monsters; and oodles of replayability.

It takes time—and a big ax—to control a good land afoul with armies of diversely powered imps. Once you’ve rebuilt your domain and found a mistress, you’ll be an evil fanboy for sure—just like all the Dungeon Keepers of yore.
www.codemasters.com/overlord, ESRB: T

The Hobson's Choice Award

Call of Duty 4

Choice. As gamers, we’re frequently presented with choices, both good and bad. And generally, choice is a good thing for gamers. But some games eschew the whole choice thing, instead creating intensity the old-fashioned way, with scripted events. Call of Duty 4 represents the pinnacle of choiceless gameplay, building one experience upon the previous one until you reach a climax so unbelievable, you really have to play the game to appreciate it.
www.callofduty.com, ESRB: M

The Top of the Mountain Award for Extreme Dewness*

Peggle

The concept is simple, really. Peggle is digital pachinko, with crazy powerups, a trippy cast of characters, and an unrelentingly cheerful theme that would be pure saccharine if it weren’t executed with such unrelenting earnestness. With hours played soaring into the thousands, we blame Peggle for more lost productivity at Maximum PC HQ than anything else this year.
www.popcap.com, ESRB: E

*The Top of the Mountain Award for Extreme Dewness is in no way affiliated with Mountain Dew or Spike TV.

We Would Have Been Even More Excited if it Came Out Last Year

Gears of War

We’ll admit that by the time Gears of War finally arrived on the PC, we’d already beaten it twice on Insane difficulty and unlocked most of the multiplayer achievements on the Xbox 360. And can you really blame us for caving? With so much hype surrounding the visceral shooter, we crossed the PC fanboy picket lines and drank the sweet console Kool-Aid. But more steadfast PC gamers needn’t fret—the PC version’s extended campaign and additional multiplayer maps are a worthy consolation for your admirable resolve.
http://gearsofwar.com/, ESRB: M

We Love the Smell of Napalm in the . . . Well, Anytime.

World in Conflict

We’ll say it: There’s nothing more fun than calling down airstrike after unholy airstrike while playing World in Conflict. Although “playing” is perhaps the wrong word to use. Fighting to retake the upper chunk of the United States is more a matter of “turtling” than anything else. And we can’t get enough of it.

Light artillery, heavy artillery, napalm, fuel air bombs, laser-guided missiles: This game drips chaos with its massive amounts of targetable air ordnance. You can’t help but smile the first time you toss a nuclear missile in a multiplayer match. We cackled with glee.
www.worldinconflict.com, ESRB: T

The Most Anticipated Game of 2009

Crysis

Long development times and delayed release dates are something gamers have grown accustomed to with many of today’s high-profile games. And most of the time, an extra six months or a year of waiting is a small price to pay to ensure that Triple-A titles are polished and tested for bugs. With Crysis, the problem isn’t that the game was released before it was ready—the conundrum is that Crytek released a game before our PCs were ready. Screenshots of Crysis running at max settings taunt us like a photo of Albert Pujols—both are emasculating reminders of our inadequacy. Sure, we could enjoy Crysis’s nerve-racking stealth gameplay without the next-gen graphics, but that’s a disservice akin to driving a Rolls-Royce without leather seats. We’d rather wait a year until our systems are worthy enough to play the game in all its glory. www.ea.com/crysis/, ESRB: M

We'd Have Been Pissed About the Crap Port if the Game Didn't Suck So Much

Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock

Take away all of the port problems in this game—crazy system requirements, unoriginal content, lack of crossover leaderboards between the PC and Xbox 360 versions—and what do you get? A game that’s just not fun.
It’s the same ol’ button-mashing rhythm game reskinned with a snazzier interface. Sure, you get new songs, but the difficulties have been cranked to finger-bleeding levels. And it’s not even a gradual ramp up; if you make it past the game’s crippling battle modes, the final chunk of five songs will rain blood on your fun parade.
www.guitarhero.com, ESRB: T

What Can Brown Do For You?

Enemy Territory: Quake Wars

In many ways, Enemy Territory: Quake Wars is a drastic departure from the deathmatch origins of the classic id Software franchise. But even with its startling team- and objective-based design, we are comforted by the familiar earth tones that saturate almost all the game’s maps. The terra palette is deeper now for sure—bronze, sienna, and hazel now blanket the tawny battlefield—but when the dust settles, brown is brown. We wouldn’t have it any other way.
www.enemyterritory.com, ESRB: T

Fail

Halo 2 for Vista

We’ve come to love the occasional port from the console world—after all, Gears of War turned out OK. But releasing Halo 2 for the PC almost three years after the Xbox version shipped is silly. It’s bad enough that after all that time the game was essentially the same as the original Xbox edition, but Bungie added insult to injury by tying this 3-year-old, last-gen console port to Vista. Instead of ratcheting up the Halo experience for an audience that may not have been previously exposed to it, and potentially selling some more consoles and copies of Halo 3, the publisher added a few achievements and required a wonky OS.
www.microsoft.com/games/halo2/, ESRB: M

Game of the Year (February 16, 2007 - August 20, 2007)

Supreme Commander

Oh, how we love Supreme Commander. Its lightning-fast pace and emphasis on balancing economy and massive unit production makes for an entirely new kind of strategy game. Where most RTSes have focused on smaller and smaller conflicts, Supreme Commander is strategy writ large. Instead of taking 10 units to battle, you command 1,000 minions on a map 10 times larger than those of any other RTS. Now that’s maximum!
www.supremecommander.com, ESRB: E10+

The I'm a Lumberjack and I'm OK Award

Crysis

Forget the gorgeous graphics and repetitive combat for a moment and remember your first time. It’s just you and your machine gun, alone in the jungle. You tentatively lift your rifle, gently nestling its butt against your shoulder. Your finger caresses the trigger as you align the target in your sights and slowly… slowly… slowly pull the trigger. Bang. It’s over.

If you’re like us, we’re sure you’ll never forget your first time. Your first time shooting down a tree.
www.ea.com/crysis, ESRB: M

Best Lyrics in a Closing Credits Song

"Still Alive" from Portal

Capping off an absolutely magical game with this hilarious ditty (specially written for the game by Jonathan Coulton - look him up!) is the win. We’ll let the lyrics speak for themselves.

This was a triumph!
I’m making a note here:
“HUGE SUCCESS!!”

It’s hard to overstate
my satisfaction.

Aperture Science:
We do what we must
because we can.

For the good of all of us.
Except the ones who are dead.

But there’s no sense crying
over every mistake.
You just keep on trying
till you run out of cake.
And the science gets done.
And you make a neat gun
for the people who are
still alive.

I’m not even angry...
I’m being so sincere right now—
Even though you broke my heart,
and killed me.
And tore me to pieces.
And threw every piece into a fire.
As they burned it hurt because
I was so happy for you!

Now, these points of data
make a beautiful line.
And we’re out of beta.
We’re releasing on time!
So I’m GLaD I got burned—
Think of all the things we
learned—for the people who are still alive.

Go ahead and leave me...
I think I’d prefer to stay inside...
Maybe you’ll find someone else to help you?
Maybe Black Mesa?
That was a joke! HA HA!! FAT CHANCE!!

Anyway this cake is great!
It’s so delicious and moist!

Look at me: Still talking
when there’s science to do!
When I look out there,
it makes me GLaD I’m not you.

I’ve experiments to run.
There is research to be done.
On the people who are still alive.
And believe me I am still alive.
I’m doing science and I’m still alive.
I feel fantastic and I’m still alive.
While you’re dying I’ll be still alive.
And when you’re dead I will be still alive.
Still alive.
Still alive.

http://orange.half-life2.com, ESRB: T

Next: The Game of the Year!

Game of the Year

Bioshock

“A man chooses, a slave obeys.” With those six words, THQ Boston opened the door to a new era of gaming. Ken Levine’s team built a gorgeous undersea world, filled it with interesting and believable characters, invites you to kill said characters using a perfectly balanced combat system, and then uses the game to do more than simply tell a tale. Unlike every other game we’ve ever played, BioShock uses the medium’s interactivity to explore concepts in a way that is simply impossible in films and books.

While other designers would have taken the underwater wonderland that is Rapture and driven the player through increasingly difficult mazes, Levine uses the framework he built to explore objectivism and free will with the player as an active participant. By allowing the player to choose whether to save or harvest the Little Sisters, but not whether to kill Andrew Ryan at the game’s climactic moment, Levine forces players to make difficult ethical choices, while confronting them with the fallacy of free will in games.

Sadly, the final act of the game doesn’t match the brilliance of the first two parts, and the “big finish” is an offensively clichéd boss battle. Even with its flawed third act, BioShock represents everything that we want to celebrate with our Game of the Year Award. Bravo.
http://www.2kgames.com/bioshock/, ESRB: M