IMBACORE

id Tech 4's Open Source Release Imminent

2011-11-13T16:27:00.007+08:00

This is old news but Rock, Paper Shotgun has released an article discussing the imminent open source release of id Tech 4. For those of you who are in the dark, id Tech 4 is the game engine that powered Doom 3, the first game to have specular highlighting and bump mapping, elevating PC gaming to a whole new level.

Image taken from the id Tech 4 Wikipedia page

Imagine: freeware PC first-person shooters with Doom 3 graphics. The engine may be ancient now but this release will surely open the creative floodgates of indie developers.

The link after the jump.

>>>Read the article about the PC game engine release here

How to Solve the RAGE Texture Streaming Pop-in Bug

2011-10-13T02:55:00.049+08:00

[UPDATED: October 15, 2011]

id's latest PC FPS game was an unplayable mess the first time I started it--the screen only displayed bands of color. I quickly fixed this problem by quitting the PC game, closing all other applications, and restarting RAGE. The second try produced an incrementally better result: I could play the first-person shooter but the stutter was so bad (despite FRAPS displaying a rock steady 60 frames per second). I also got my first taste of the RAGE texture streaming pop-in bug. After a bit of researching about the problem and tweaking I finally solved the texture pop-in glitch.

This RAGE Texture Streaming Pop-in Bug tweak guide worked for several people. Click the pic. (You need to check other parameters though; see below.)

The solution after the jump.

[DISCLAIMER: As each PC configuration is unique, I cannot guarantee that what worked for me will work for you. I cannot give you tech support if something goes wrong. Follow the steps at your own risk.]

[Guide too long for you? CTRL+F for "SUMMARY." It's best that you read the entirety of this RAGE tweak guide though as you might have a more powerful PC and might want to place higher values.]

My initial search for a solution led me to Nvidia's "How To Unlock Rage's High Resolution Textures With A Few Simple Tweaks" article. In it, it details how to minimize the RAGE texture streaming problem. It also laid in direction on how to maximize the graphics. Seeing that my PC only has these specs:

CPU: Core 2 e7400 2.80Ghz
Motherboard: MSI P45 Neo3-FR
Memory: Kingston 2Gb DDR2-800
Videocard: 9800GT

I realized that they were just above RAGE's minimum PC requirements. I then decided to use the guide to tone down my graphics in a bid to reduce the stutter and the texture streaming problem.

I know. It's maddening.

The guide discusses how to make a configuration file in RAGE. It lays down instructions how to convert a Notepad file into a .cfg file that users should then place in:

Steam\steamapps\common\rage\base

For a system with video card that has 1.5GB RAM, users should be able to use RAGE'S 8K textures and should put this in the .cfg file:

vt_pageimagesizeuniquediffuseonly2 8192
vt_pageimagesizeuniquediffuseonly 8192
vt_pageimagesizeunique 8192
vt_pageimagesizevmtr 8192
vt_restart
vt_maxaniso 4
image_anisotropy 4

You should read that guide first and then come back here to see what I did with the outline parameters.

Done reading? Good. Let's proceed.

Seeing that my video card has only 1GB of memory, I opted to use 2/3 of what was suggested (8192 X (2/3) = 5461.33). The nearest multiple of 1024 to 5461.33 is 5120. I used that and replaced the first four lines with:

vt_pageimagesizeuniquediffuseonly2 5120
vt_pageimagesizeuniquediffuseonly 5120
vt_pageimagesizeunique 5120
vt_pageimagesizevmtr 5120

However, the saved games wouldn't load so I reduced the figure further to 4096, which now works for me. [UPDATE: I've now gone back to using 8192. See "SUMMARY" below for further updates.]

Now for the other parameters.

Onward!

In RAGE's October 8 update, the game's developers made available several Video options that were previously hidden. These are Vsync, Texture Cache, and Anisotropic Filter. The last renders the lines:

vt_maxaniso 4
image_anisotropy 4

obsolete. (I set the Texture Cache option to Low and tested the game with and without the above lines. There was no difference.)

I also disabled GPU Transcode and removed the following lines from my Rageconfig file (I had previously included these):

vt_useCudaTranscode 1
vt_cudaBudget 10.5

After deleting the above, the game became noticeably smoother; turning around didn't cause me to grimace anymore.

Previously, it was as painful as having been plopped on your ass by a rifle round.

Finally, regarding this line:

"Automatically adjust vt_maxPPF based on the number of available cores."

I find it dubious that the game now automatically detects your system's cores; adding the line:

vt_maxPPF 8

for my dual-core system really upped RAGE's performance level. If it automatically detected my CPU has having two cores, why the performance increase when I added that line?

SUMMARY:

This used to be my final configuration:

vt_pageimagesizeuniquediffuseonly2 4096
vt_pageimagesizeuniquediffuseonly 4096
vt_pageimagesizeunique 4096
vt_pageimagesizevmtr 4096
vt_restart
vt_maxPPF 8

Following a fellow RAGE player's discovery (Trooper321) that this tweak guide allowed him to play the game with 8K textures, I followed suit and discovered that my system can run the game with those textures. (Nvidia should have been clearer about which cards can run 8K textures---my video card only has 1GB of video RAM.) Here's my final configuration:

vt_pageimagesizeuniquediffuseonly2 8192
vt_pageimagesizeuniquediffuseonly 8192
vt_pageimagesizeunique 8192
vt_pageimagesizevmtr 8192
vt_restart
vt_maxPPF 8

(See Trooper321's RAGE tweak guide HERE)

Copy-paste that into a Notepad file and save it as a .cfg file with the filename "RageConfig" (without the quotes). I'd suggest you play it safe and test the 4K textures first. When everything runs smooth, you can then scale up to the 8192 value. It should, of course, look like this:

The file should be placed here:

Two things though:

1. I left the root directory blank as you could have installed Steam in a directory other than Program Files

2. As has been mentioned, your PC may be more powerful than mine; work your way up the parameter values and see what works for you.

I've also made the following adjustments in the Nvidia Control Panel:

If you're using Windows XP, I would also suggest that you follow the tweaks outlined in Black Viper's Windows XP Super Tweaks. The Indexing Services tweak could also help your RAGE be more stutter-free.

My settings (currently not using anti-aliasing; the game doesn't seem to like Windows XP. Setting AA to 2x results in a barely noticeable stutter that hurts the eyes nonetheless. I'll be purchasing another 2GB of RAM and see if it will help):

Patch of Tech-PC also suggested that upping the Texture Cache shouldn't present a problem for my rig.

Before applying the above, I was dismally playing the game at 640 resolution. Now I can run the game with my screen using the 1024 resolution option. Hopefully this tweak guide will solve the RAGE texture streaming bug for you. Textures popping in should be a thing of the past.

Finally, below is a gameplay video. It got compressed twice so apologies for the quality. The vid also loses audio and video synchronization midway; that should teach me not to play games while the video editor is running.

And no, the video isn't messed up; the character here is dangling by his ankles. ;)

Warhammer 40K: Space Marine Review

2011-09-08T23:27:00.043+08:00

[Updated Dec 23, 2011]

I first heard of Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine in some video game forum that I can’t remember. My first reaction to the news was: “Relic Entertainment is moving away from its highly successful RTS line? It’s a hoax!” And for a time I did think it was. The Dawn of War series is a successful PC strategy product line. Its games have pulled off what dozens of Warhammer 40,000 games before failed to do—draw in legions of fans and newcomers alike. For Relic Entertainment to wander off from this unprecedented trend was, for me, an odd decision.

Fast forward a couple or so years later, and I just finished Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine on the Normal and Hard difficulty levels. In both playthroughs, I had to grudgingly admit that Relic Entertainment did pour in an awesome amount of effort to bringing the “hoax” to life. It is a solid game in more ways than one. However, Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine does have its flaws. This Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine review, made by a fan, discusses the pros and cons of the game. More than a Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine review, this article also discusses what Relic Entertainment should have done to more fully immerse Space Marine players into the Warhammer 40K game universe.

"No more micromanagement! Hallelujah!"

The full review after the jump. Warhammer 40K: Space Marine puts you in the role of Captain Titus, an Ultramarine who leads one of the numerous strike forces tasked with staving off an Ork invasion in one of the Imperium’s forgeworlds. For most of the game though, the only Space Marines you see are Leandros and Sidonus, two characters with contrasting personalities. The former is a newly christened marine who insists on following rules to the letter while the latter is a grizzled veteran. Though at first you might think that these dissimilar personalities would introduce enough conflict to the story to make it interesting, the game will disappoint players in this aspect as the interplay among the three is so bland as to make it uninteresting. Thankfully though, the action is more than enough to keep you glued to the screen.

While it’s immediately apparent that the developers meant for Space Marine to be a melee-oriented game, they haven’t left out the shooter aspect in it. In Hard mode, you would have to thin out the ranks a bit before thundering in with a chainsword, power axe or a warhammer. You first start out though, with a large nondescript knife and a bolter but these get swapped out later for better weapons. There are four types of bolters in the game and each is a clunky but solid-looking boxy affair. I like how Games Workshop has brought out the “forgotten technology” feel of the Imperium’s weaponry. The upgraded bolters are the very epitome of that design direction: huge, unwieldy, but their shots sound powerful; firing them feels like you’re really dishing out rounds that can punch out exit wounds the size of plates. Later in the game, you will get your hands on two types of plasma-based weaponry, two types of sniper weapons (the lascannon and the stalker bolter), the powerful melta gun (a short-range shotgun type of weapon that fires a plume of superheated substance) and the vengeance launcher. The last is what struck me as odd; its smooth red-and-silver body looks as though it belongs in a Quake game rather than the Warhammer 40K universe. I did some research and I was right—before the game, the vengeance launcher—which fires grenades that can be remote detonated—is non-canon. However, rumor has it that Games Workshop will be making it as.

"What do you mean the shoulder plates make me look fat?"

The shooter element of Space Marine is only a secondary aspect though—melee is where it’s really at. Like most hack-and-slash games nowadays, successive swings form a combo and Relic Entertainment’s game is no different. Click four times and Titus will form a four-hit combo that ends with a devastating swipe that sweeps in a wide arc, decapitating most foes. Click F (the default button in the PC version) after one to three attacks and Titus ends with a move that stuns enemies. Stunned foes immediately display a QTE (quick time event) icon above their heads and if you press E (the default execution button in the PC version), Titus makes a brutal coup de grace, killing them. What makes this whole thing unique is that every Execution replenishes Titus’ lifebar with a considerable amount of health. However, Executing an enemy triggers a rather lengthy 2.5-second animation and in that time that you’re busy tearing apart an Ork’s head or burying a power axe into a Chaos Space Marine, his fellows will be busy trying to rip your armor apart. This mechanic allows for frenzied action (apparent in the Normal and Hard difficulty levels)—should you Execute an enemy and hope the animation finishes and heals you up before his fellows kill you or should you continue cleaving away and hope you finish them all before your flagging health hits zero? This design decision makes for hectic action sequences as you roll, dash, cleave, Execute, and shoot the endless hordes the game throws at you. Quick thinking and quicker reflexes define the core action of Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine.

As impressive and addictive as this is (and it IS!) some people may be bothered by two things:

1. As implied above, there is no way to cancel an Execution animation. An ill-timed Execution could mean your death and not the enemy’s. I’ve always believed that one of the elements of what makes a video game addictive is its level of control. I’ve discussed this in how Area 51, a freeware PC first-person shooter, handles grenades in your inventory. Space Marine hits this same problem with its Execution system; you simply do not have control once the animation starts.

2. Seeing that the combo system is limited and that Titus can’t jump, the PC game’s melee system basically is a one-trick pony: you dash in, whale away at everything and if the enemy eats away your armor and start to chip away at your health, you start to search out the best way to Execute something without exposing yourself needlessly to enemy attacks. And while this is addicting, it could have used some more variety shown in other melee combat games like say, Darksiders.

Rooster Teeth gave their Red vs Blue series an apocalyptic twist.

Speaking of one-trick affairs, this is Space Marine’s biggest flaw; the game basically pits you against wave upon wave of enemies while slogging your way through its levels. Though there are sequences that do break up this repetitiveness, I wish the developers put in more of these. For example, there’s a part where you get to man an Imperial Guard Valkyrie’s heavy bolter turret as you soared through the skies. It’s a very entertaining sequence. Why they didn’t put in two or more segments akin to it is beyond me. Rolling across a vast landscape in a Land Raider for example, or fighting alongside a Dreadnought that shakes the ground every time it takes a step would have been awesome. Complaints aside though, Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine is definitely one of the better melee games I’ve played in quite a while. It’s also the first one to render this many enemies to take on; the first time you see a wave of gretchin, bomb squigs, and Slugga and Shoota Boyz, you can’t help but be impressed of what Relic Entertainment has done here.

Unlike several hack-and-slash games, Space Marine has a dearth of puzzles—which is actually a good thing. The Warhammer 40,000 universe is all about war, bloodshed, and wanton genocide. Introducing puzzles meant for pointy-eared, effeminate, sword-and-wooden-shield-toting elves would have only watered down the action. This is an action game through and through. This is about killing aliens and purging the unclean.

An action game, no matter how good its mechanics are, would suffer significantly if its artificial intelligence is lacking. So how does Space Marine’s AI fare? Truth to tell, it’s unimpressive but it gets the job done. Warhammer 40,000’s Orks are Orks; they’re bloodthirsty creatures, shouting “WAAAGH!” wherever they go. The game’s AI serves this role well: Orks, except for the Shoota Boyz, invariably charge at you en masse. Shoota Boyz just hang back and well, shoot. They skip several steps sideways when you shoot at them but aside from this, they just stand there and take whatever damage you dish out. Nothing impressive there but it definitely gets the job done.

Ah uzed to be a weirdboy like youz but then me knee took a warhammer...

What really bothers me is the part where you get to encounter Chaos Space Marines. Most of these will be carrying ranged weaponry and so initially you won’t find anything amiss with their AI. However, as the game progresses and you encounter more of these, it will begin to dawn on you that they really don’t give the impression that these are former elite troopers of the Imperium. While they are more mobile than the Orks—they’ll actually run for cover—they just don’t act like elite troopers. F.E.A.R.’s Armacham Elite do a better job at this. Chaos Space Marines wielding melee weapons behave much like Ork Slugga Boyz, adding to the disappointment.

Your companions fare no better. There were only a few times in the game that I felt I was fighting with a squad. Leandros and Sidonus behave like slow-moving invincible turrets with low-caliber weaponry. They can still kill enemies but they do it at a significantly slower pace than you. The Space Marines are supposed to be a close-knit cadre of elite killing machines. Except for a few segments here and there, this game doesn’t give you the feeling that you’re fighting with coordinated battle squad.

Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine’s boss battles are few and far between and what handful there are are nothing to be impressed about. In fact, the last boss fight is a QTE fest, something that, while realistic (you couldn’t realistically go toe-to-toe with the last boss considering what he is), left me a bit disappointed. This is something that bothers me; Games Workshop had two decades to expand and hone their lore. Relic’s failure to capitalize on that rich a storyline perplexes me much like Day One Studios’ palpable indifference to some of the deeper aspects of FEAR’s. (See my FEAR 3 review here.) Giving Warhammer 40K: Space Marine more boss fights and enemy types would have deepened the game’s immersion greatly. If they didn’t have the time, casual references to the other races would have sufficed; an abandoned Eldar temple here, an uttered line about the Tau there and it would have immersed the player more into the Warhammer 40,000 universe. As it is, Warhammer 40K: Space Marine barely skims the surface of what Games Workshop has created.

Lascannon to the head: exorcism, Games Workshop style

To continue this line of discussion, the very first Dawn of War game featured Orks and then Chaos in the course of its singleplayer campaign. Do all Warhammer 40,000 games have to feature the popular races all the time? Why not Chaos and Tau? Or Chaos and Tyranids? Orks and Dark Eldar? While this borders on nitpicking, this trend of spotlighting Orks and Chaos in the first game of every Warhammer 40K PC game series is starting to become formulaic.

Also where are the awesome quotes? It would have been cool if Relic gave players the chance to do taunts by pushing a hotkey or two. Bellowing “Show me what passes for fury among your misbegotten kind!” in multiplayer would have been awesome.

Multiplayer

[Note: I will provide a separate review for the Exterminatus and the CTF game modes in the coming weeks.]

Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine does have a multiplayer component that’s split into two modes: Seize Ground and Annihilation (basically Take and Hold and Team Deathmatch, respectively). While the two modes are very entertaining, they don’t have much in the way of what makes the game appealing: to be an elite, nearly invincible supersoldier who can take on waves of monstrosities by the lonesome. In the multiplayer component, you’re up against other space marines, who have the same hit points and armor values as you and who—needless to say—are significantly better than the singleplayer campaign’s AI opponents. This devolves the MP component into just another shooter as both sides jockey for flanking positions to optimize firing arcs. (While the Assault Marine class is a melee-oriented one, the action is just different from the singleplayer campaign. Because you’re up against similar Joes, here, you’re just another ordinary dude who would seek cover every time you find yourself in a situation where you are badly outgunned.)

I've nothing to say about this screenshot except that I'm awesome.

The game’s archaic weapon designs also don’t improve matters; Space Marines move slowly even when they’re running and bolters aren’t the most efficient weapons if you figure in rate of fire, handling, and accuracy. To make matters worse, the Assault Marine class is somewhat overpowered compared to the other classes. Find yourself in a situation where there’s a lot of open terrain and you can be sure that in the next eight or so seconds, death will come at you from above. Assault marines can, of course, be countered, but it takes expertise to successfully evade one.

It should be brought to light that there is no server browser; the matchmaking system is peer-to-peer. This might prove problematic for people who are living in regions where there are too few Space Marine players.

Taking all the above into account, the game’s multiplayer is great but it’s not something I would play every day for weeks on end. (It’s being actively patched though so things might change in the future.)

The game’s other (technical) aspects are impressive but not overly so. Below is a breakdown.

Graphics

The amount of particles Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine throws at you is impressive; Orks erupt in globules and buckets of blood, dust swirls away at swings of your melee weapons, and plasma rounds detonate with such ferocity that you can almost smell the ozone.

On the other side of the coin, closer inspection reveals the graphics to be inferior to games that use bleeding edge game engines. Also there isn’t much in the way of bump mapping. As a result, the cutscenes strike me as being too CGI-ish. They’re not cartoony but they definitely don’t raise the bar.

Red carpet cleaning Imperium style

The game’s environs are, however, convincing; forgeworld Graia shows signs that it has been recently ravaged by an invading force. There’s no signs of civilians though, something that greatly detracts from the whole picture. Also, the game could have benefitted from a more diverse level design; Space Marine only has basically two: the surface, which features dust-covered urban rubble and canyons; and facilities, which feature sterile surroundings that are predominantly gray. The latter are relatively unimpressive; while the surface levels feature a more vibrant color scheme and dust that get kicked up in battles, the facility levels don’t have anything going on.

Audio

Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine’s audio gets the job done and more. The Orks’ “WAAAGH!!,” their death screams and shouts of agony, your chainsword’s keening wail, all these give players a cathartic and immersive experience. The music also shifts to a more ominous tone whenever you get embroiled in a skirmish, adding to the immersion.

Relic’s effort to bring the Warhammer 40,000 universe into the hack-and-slash genre is a success. While the game stubbornly sticks to its core action mechanics from beginning to end, there’s no other game that gives you the opportunity to wade into seemingly endless waves of Orks and Chaos Space Marines.

Lock and load soldier of the Imperium—in Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine, your belief that the “Emperor protects” will be severely tested.

Half a league, half a league onward! And into an outpost held by a solid wall of Imperial Guardsmen scurried the orks and squigs.

--------------------------------------------------

Tilt: 7.5 - The game shipped with a flicker bug that has since been fixed. The storyline presents a premise that isn’t something to be impressed about. The developers didn’t delve too much into the rich material that the Warhammer 40K universe has. Overall, though, the game is a fairly hiccup-free experience that’s worth checking out.

Gameplay: 8.0 – Fluid combat that’s only tarnished by the game’s stubbornness in sticking to the same core mechanics from beginning to end. Warhammer 40,000 though, presents the players with all the brutality that the Games Workshop codices envision the far future to be. Multiplayer is weaker relative to the singleplayer component but it still delivers.

Graphics: 8.0 – It’s definitely not bleeding edge but what you find here is definitely impressive. Blood spray every which way, debris scatter in the heat of battle, and hulking adversaries paint the events ravaging forgeworld Graia with a realistic intensity. It’s just marred by the console-ish feel of the game’s engine.

Audio: 8.0 – Nothing to complain about the audio; meaty bolter reports, ear-shattering death screams, and martial themes really place you in the thick of battle. Vox-casters though would have lent the game a better score; SMs sound more awesome with them.

Replayability: 7.5 (Note: This will be adjusted soon as I release my review about the two new game modes.) A limited Easter Egg system in the form of digging up what happened to the forgeworld by recovering servoskulls encourage players to replay the campaign a couple of times. The game though, is a boon to those just simply seeking a cathartic experience; hacking away at hosts of adversaries never gets old. Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine’s first two multiplayer modes are bland affairs; they’re not something you would want to play again and again as much as the leading multiplayer games today.

A chainsword--Jason Voorhees wants one for Christmas

Overall: 7.8

Super Monday Night Combat Going Free to Play

2011-08-31T01:14:00.004+08:00

I just recently heard that Super Monday Night Combat is going free to play. While I haven't gotten any specific details on the sequel's features, it's (needless to say) going to draw heavily from Monday Night Combat, a class-based, PC third-person shooter that fuses multiplayer online battle arena (MOBA) elements (most notably DotA's) into the core gameplay.

Here's a gameplay video I made myself:

Links to other downloadable freeware PC shooters after the jump.

>>>Click here for more freeware downloadable PC first-person shooters (FPS)

Downloadable Free PC Full Version Third-Person Shooter CrimeCraft

2011-08-24T04:27:00.007+08:00

More and more developers nowadays are considering the microtransaction model in powering their ventures in the video games industry. Vogster Entertainment has just launched its third-person shooter CrimeCraft on Steam as a downloadable full version freeware PC game.

While the game may not have the appeal of free FPS that have jumped in the Call of Duty bandwagon, it does have several innovative twists, some of the most prominent of which are its atmosphere and background. CrimeCraft is the very first free to play MMMO shooter that has a post-holocaust atmosphere, replete with gameplay modes that revolve around gang wars. While some may say it's a Fallout clone, I've the feeling this shooter game is more of a Grand Theft Auto type sans the sandbox component.

I might try this game out in the weeks ahead.

More free to play full version PC shooters after the jump.

>>>Click here to see more downloadable free PC full version shooters

Deus Ex: New Vision Graphics (Textures) Modification Pack Released

2011-08-16T04:19:00.006+08:00

I guess I started playing Deus Ex at the right time---after four years of development Deus Ex: New Vision, a graphics mod pack that overhauls the first-person shooter's textures, has been released.

Znokiss---the gamer responsible for gathering all the graphical enhancement mods for Deus Ex---has even updated his "Ultimage Tutorial" for the Steam version of the PC game. The downloads he has supplied includes Deus Ex: New Vision. The tutorials also packages everything so as to be user-friendly; all one has to do is to follow the step-by-step instructions that Znokiss has supplied.

The graphical overhaul the tutorial brings to the game is nothing short of amazing.

The link to the tutorial---and my own tweaks to the FPS-RPG hybrid---after the jump.

>>>This link leads to the Deus Ex Graphics (Textures) Modification Pack tutorial tutorial. It also contains tweaks that I've added.

League of Legends - Kayle Rework in Upcoming Patch

2011-07-24T00:03:00.005+08:00

So I just saw this:

Now that I've completed my rune page (in my second account; I didn't migrate my first), the developers of the freeware strategy game decide to rework her. With Righteous Fury now enjoying a bumped up base damage but suffering from an AP ratio nerf, the Magic Pen runes I've invested in aren't as potent anymore.

Still I'm quite glad they made this. I've been a Kayle player ever since I started playing this freeware PC RTS and my complaint with her last rework was that she was so dependent on her teammates to carry for her early to mid-game. Unlike other heroes like Tryndamere or Rammus who can still turn the tide of a match even when their teammates suck, Kayle just couldn't do anything to own the field by her lonesome in the early stages. This rework should fix that.

League of Legends tips and strategies after the jump.

>>>See my League of Legends Tips and Strategies article HERE

Deus Ex: Human Revolution Deviating Gameplay Types Trailer

2011-07-23T11:34:00.006+08:00

I've been doing a Deus Ex marathon in the hopes that I can finish both Deus Ex and Deus Ex: Invisible War before the 3rd installment in the PC first-person shooter series comes out. The thing I love about the Deus Ex games is their deviating gameplay scheme---each of their levels offer different ways for a player to beat it, whether it be silent takedowns or a full-on guns blazing approach.

Here's a trailer:

"The level design in deus ex human revolution support many different approaches."

This PC FPS game is going to be awesome.

Hopefully, Deus Ex: Human Revolution is going to be the second game I will review. Imbacore's taking a new direction; I'm going to review modern, retail games too, not just freeware PC games.

For the first of these, see my FEAR 3 review.

Deus Ex 1 Graphics (Textures) Modification Pack

2011-07-18T12:30:00.022+08:00

[UPDATED: August 16, 2011]

[UPDATE: The Deus Ex: New Vision graphics mod has been released. The link below includes this updated version.]

So I just installed Deus Ex in the hopes that I can finish both Deus Ex: Game of the Year Edition and Deus Ex: Invisible War before Deus Ex: Human Revolution hits the shelves. This PC first-person shooter's graphics, is, of course, sub-par with today's standards so I hunted around for Deus Ex 1 graphics mod packs.

I found this:

Znokiss' Ultimage Tutorial (Graphic and texture mods for the Steam version of Deus-Ex)

[Warning: The preceding link takes you away from this site. Furthermore, the above Deus Ex texture graphics mod pack isn't mine. Install at your own risk.]

[Update: Some people have complained that the mod doesn't work. Installing the Visual C++ 2010 runtime fixes the problem.]

Before and after screenshots and my own tweaks to the PC texture mod after the jump.

The graphics bundle brings bloom and bump mapping to Deus Ex's obsolete engine but I think the gamma level is way too low. Also, the bump mapping and the saturation levels are overdone in my opinion:

BEFORE:

AFTER:

I'm going to find a way to tone down the shadows, bump mapping, and saturation. Otherwise, I'll have to play without the ENB mod. Some of its effects are just too jarring for me.

UPDATE:

Found the fix. According to Steam forum member SillyCon, you have to tweak several parameters in the enbseries.ini file. These are:

[EFFECT]
...
EnableReflection=1
...
EnableWater=1
EnableShadow=1
DepthBias=0
...

[COLORCORRECTION]
DarkeningAmountDay=10
ScreenLevelDay=60
ScreenLevelNight=20
DarkeningAmountNight=-10
...
GammaCurveNight=3
...

[SHADOW]
ShadowFadeStart=40
ShadowFadeEnd=80
ShadowAmountDay=60
ShadowAmountNight=30
ShadowScreenLevelDay=60
ShadowScreenLevelNight=20
...
FilterQuality=2
ShadowBlurRange=30

I also managed to find the parameters for the saturation and the bump mapping levels (which were too unrealistic for my tastes). These are:

[REFLECTION]
UseEnvBump=0
EnvBumpAmount=0
EnvBumpOffset=0
ReflectionFlip=0

[COLORCORRECTION]
ColorSaturationDay=-1
ColorSaturationNight=-1

The saturation parameters seem to only accept whole numbers so I settled for "1"s. A "-0.65" would have been more to my liking. A pity. (The higher the number the more saturated the colors become; setting "5"s results in a psychedelic show.)

I'll see tomorrow if I can solve the chrome effect. I find that shiny rock walls don't make for a good immersive experience.

F.E.A.R. 3 Review - A Player's Feedback

2011-07-14T09:55:00.061+08:00

When it was announced that Day One Studios was taking in John Carpenter and Steve Niles on their development team, I knew I had to get FEAR 3. Did Day One and these two horror masters create a PC shooter game that’s worthy of the PC first-person shooter franchise? This FEAR 3 review details what they did right and where they floundered.

A summary of my FEAR 3 review:

The good:

Innovative multiplayer features
Top-notch, solid first-person shooter experience
Guns sound just right
The "lean" system is back and has been improved
Story expands on the relationship between the Point Man and Paxton Fettel
AI has been improved relative to FEAR 2
Level designs are great but not phenomenal
Replica forces now (generally) look more like those in the first FEAR

The bad:

Singleplayer campaign is too short
A lot of plot loopholes
Multiplayer connectivity issues plague quite a handful of players
Shipped with a jitter bug (fixed)
Least scary of all the FEAR games
AI still inferior relative to FEAR 1
Bland graphics relative to today's standards

The FEAR 3 review after the jump.

Out of all the FEAR games, this latest installment to the PC horror shooter series had the most hype surrounding it. The developers touted new features such as “Divergent Co-op” and “generative scares.” And while these do bring innovative features to a genre swamped by derivative gameplay, it’s clear that their execution could have used a bit of tweaking here and there.

The biggest change I’ve noticed was that the game has been designed to be a multiplayer-centric game. The first time I saw the score page after I finished the first level, I was stupefied. The phrase “favorite son” appeared on the bottom portion of my screen. For a split second I had surreal visions of Engrish making its way into an American PC game developer. “Why is the game flashing ‘favorite son’?” I spluttered. Without spoiling anything, suffice to say I realized hours later that this would be an important part when playing a complete campaign playthrough with a friend.

And play with a friend you will, if you are to experience the full spectrum of gameplay options FEAR 3 offers. The Divergent Co-op system throws in a second player into the fray, one with abilities unique from the first’s. As everybody probably knows by now, that second character is Paxton Fettel, the first PC game’s antagonist. I don’t want to spoil how he managed to assume an incorporeal form but he’s now a ghost in the sequel. The Paxton Fettel player will be able to utilize a wide range of attacks. These are:

Psychic blasts
Possession
Telekinesis
A short-range attack that literally crushes enemies

These atypical methods of advancing through the game’s levels are what give the system its “Divergent” tag---while the Point Man player can run, gun, throw grenades, and activate bullet time, the second player can wield paranormal powers to help the first player. It’s just satisfying to experience Paxton Fettel levitate a soldier while the Point Man uses the vulnerable target as a wall to throw his grenade at, bombarding the hapless trooper’s teammates with shrapnel. Or the Point Man could aid a dying Fettel find refuge by engaging bullet time. While it also slows down the ghost, SloMo does buy time for the second player to get his bearings and run for the nearest cover.

Beam him up Scotty.

The other prominent feature this PC horror sequel touts is the “Generative Scares” system. Rather than scripted sequences, FEAR 3 scares players by generating random paranormal appearances.

Unfortunately the above features do introduce several problems. The “Divergent Co-op” and the “Favorite Son” systems necessitate that the campaign be short enough so that two players can finish a playthrough at a reasonable amount of time. There’s just little point in the latter if players make the campaign an on-and-off affair; chances are, later sessions will be played with different friends, making the system a detached, impersonal event. Thus, FEAR 3 is only 4-7 hours long, depending on the difficulty and the gameplay preferred by the participating players---players who prefer a run-and-gun style while playing on “Easy” should blaze through the campaign while tactically-inclined, cover-hugging players on “Insane” would beat the playthrough in 7-8 hours. Compared to its prequels, FEAR 3’s cut-down campaign is a jarring shock.

The “Generative Scares” system also suffers. While it does have its uses---I did jump a couple of times at unexpected sightings---I find that it is largely ineffective. It’s a cool feature but it's not as good as scripted events. Sure, scripted ones will lose their potency after one or two playthroughs but the generative scares are just too bland in my opinion; Alma appears beside you for a second or two and then vanishes. It’s creepy but not as frightening as a scripted event complete with a music clip and other sound effects.

To make a point, FEAR: Perseus Mandate was panned by several fans but it was scarier than FEAR 3:

To be effective in horror, one has to infuse a game with an element of uncertainty. When players realize that these sightings are just that, sightings, they soon lose their fear of them. To be honest, I was completely disappointed with all the John Carpenter-Steve Niles hype. As a “The Thing” fan, I expected much. I don’t know what happened. Maybe there was a miscommunication? Was it all hype? Ideas couldn’t be coded into the game? All I know is that sadly, this is by far, the least scary of all the FEAR games. (Except for the FEAR 2: Reborn DLC; that game didn’t even try to be scary.)

Even Paxton gives the game's horror aspects a thumbs-down

The horror in FEAR 3 suffered. This is one game where the line “don’t fix what isn’t broken” applies. Where are the voices? Paxton Fettel’s “What’s the first thing you remember?” and Harlan Wade’s “You will be a god among men” certainly lent the first game an ethereal, sinister tinge. Gone too are the trademark discordant piano chords. Why didn’t they implement those with the “generative scares”? Certainly, the jarring music would have made people jump.

Several major characters are missing too. This is another disappointing point. One would think the writer-director duo would have capitalized on the rich pedigree of the franchise but instead, they released the game with a plethora of loose ends. Let’s hope a slew of DLC gets released in the coming months to give the series a proper closure.

On a positive light, FEAR 3 does delve into the relationship between the Point Man and Paxton, bringing to light what happened between (and to) them before the first Syncronicity Event. This story direction surprised me; I didn’t expect that they would delve that far back into the canon. Kudos to Day One and Niles for this.

But what’s a FEAR 3 review without a discussion of the PC first-person shooter’s technical aspects?

First off, the audio. As has been mentioned in my FEAR 3 First Impressions review, I am very pleased with the gargantuan leaps Day One Studios has made regarding the weapons’ sound effects. FEAR 2’s SMG was such an aural nightmare that to this day, I still frown whenever I think about it. FEAR 2’s Andra submachine gun’s weak SFX really jars you from the experience. Fortunately, FEAR 3’s weapons sound just right; even its submachine gun feels powerful (while not being overly so).

The prison is one of the game's better levels.

FEAR 3 is also one solid shooter. While not as intense as the particle-heavy firefights in the first PC FPS, it does offer players a gameplay experience that’s several notches above its immediate prequel. The reintroduction of the lean mechanic certainly trumps FEAR 2’s gameplay.

My first FEAR 3 review already discussed that the lean mechanic has also been improved upon by the introduction of a Mass Effect/Gears of War cover system. With this, players can “snap” onto walls, crates, and boxes. They can then push the forward button (or any of the strafe buttons) to pop momentarily out from cover, squeeze a burst of fire, and then quickly duck back in. Day One Studio has also improved upon this aspect by introducing mechanics that allow players to:

Jump sideways into nearby cover
Vault over and advance
Vault over and immediately turn around, effectively taking cover on the other side. (This is useful if you find that the AI has outflanked you.)

Yes, FEAR 3’s AI knows how to flank again, thanks to some of the game’s level design that allows for such maneuvers. Though the AI is still significantly weaker than that of the first FEAR, this improvement is a very welcome one. Superior audio, competent AI, an innovative cover system----this FPS game does deliver an awesome first-person shooter experience that ranks right up there with some of the best ones.

There are however, flaws.

In an odd twist of design decision that’s anathema to the horror industry, Day One Studios has implemented a regenerative health system. I suppose it goes with the cover system---in order for a game with a cover system to be challenging, damage inflicted by enemies must be ramped up. Failing to do so would make the game a cakewalk for experienced players. This increased difficulty, in turn, entails that the developer employ a convenient way for players to replenish health. It’s a tricky situation that requires balance. In this regard, the shooter game’s developers stumbled----introducing a regenerative health system does away with the sense of imminent death that most horror shooter gamers love. This is also one aspect that takes away FEAR 3’s scare factor; how can you be afraid of things that wish to hurt you when your lifemeter is always full?

Kudos to Day One for making the Replicas in FEAR 3 look more like the clones we know from the first game...

The cover system and regenerative health system combo also has an impact on the gameplay. Sure, the AI does flank. Sure, it throws grenades, vaults over obstructions to get away from you, runs from one crate to another, takes cover, and pops in and out of it. However, the AI also takes advantage of the cover system.

This is supposed to be good right?

In a way yes, it does show that the AI is competent. However, throw in the fact that you have regenerative health and they do not makes every firefight one-sided. I would have rather that Day One mixed and matched their AI behavior---some might doggedly seek cover, while some might actively run from cover to cover and advance on your position. This combination would have made for effective fireteams that shower you with suppressing fire while their teammates slowly advance to your location. The regenerative system would have been rendered weaker. Still useful, but weaker.

As it is, the firefights in FEAR 3 boil down to “shoot-take cover to regen-shoot again” affairs. Don’t get me wrong, the game IS difficult---difficult enough that I would say this is the ONLY FEAR game that makes the use of SloMo a necessity (another high point for the developers by the way)---but I just couldn’t shake the feeling that the AI is immensely outclassed in every firefight.

Take note however that some players have launched a handful of “why is this game so difficult?” threads, making this aspect a very subjective point.

The game’s graphics isn’t bad but it’s not something that would win awards. There are levels that exhibit good texturing (like the corridors of brick walls and that Rio de Janeiro level) but most of the game has this flat feel to it; walls and floors for the most part look too smooth. This flatness even becomes more apparent in the cutscenes where the characters look almost like something Pixar would have rendered. Paxton Fettel looked more dangerous in the first game. To the developers' credit though, the Rio and the prison levels were some of the most impressive I’ve seen. I just wish the developers created more of those; the later levels really just didn’t present the AI with flanking options. Those that did were able to pull it off only because of the large numbers of mall booths, conveyor belts, and crates---things that don’t make for diverse levels.

...while a thumbs-down is in order for this mech, which brings back memories of Harmony Gold .

FEAR 3 also has the most innovative suite of 4-player multiplayer modes and they’re great fun. These are:

F***ing Run --- An aptly named mode, this has players running from a massive cloud wall that kills anything it touches. The catch (of course) is that the players have to run through a gauntlet of enemies. If a player goes down, he can be revived by his teammates.
Soul Survivor --- Similar to other “zombie infection” games, this has players ganging up on one player who’s tasked with “turning” the other players. Of course, there are also AI-controlled baddies running around.
Soul King --- A deathmatch-style mode that has players killing other players and AI-controlled soldiers alike for possession of souls. The player with the most souls at the end of the time limit wins. The catch is that if you are killed, you will drop the souls you’ve collected, making the last minutes of a match a hectic, tense experience.
Contractions --- A 20-wave survival mode that has players barricading a safe house. Each successive wave brings in more difficult enemies. After each wave, players can go out and forage for ammunition and guns. They also have to fix the barricades lest the next wave find weak points that they can storm through.

Me and several Armacham Elite friends

Unfortunately, as of this time of writing, I have---along with more than a handful of players----time and again experienced problem with F***ing Run and Soul Survivor---the game runs into a “Game Cannot be Launched. Players do not have the required content” error. Seeing that this game doesn’t have a DLC yet, this is clearly a bug.

The multiplayer matchmaking also doesn’t work for some players. It can easily be circumvented though by joining a FEAR 3 Steam group and doing manual invites. The community is friendly enough so this shouldn’t be a problem.

FEAR 3 is a bundle of hits and misses. This becomes apparent if you visit forums where large divides separate groups of fans. One one side there are those who praise the game for being one solid, awesome shooter that’s worth playing again and again (and it IS); on the other, there are those who lament the fact that the franchise has taken a nosedive where the narrative and the horror aspects are concerned.

Your enjoyment of the game depends on which side you mostly gravitate towards and if you’re willing to ignore its bugs and shortcomings. As it is, FEAR 3 is still one satisfying first-person shooter that’s worth taking a look.

Ratings:

Tilt: 7.0 - Connectivity issues hurt the game. The FEAR universe is a good place to romp in and kick butt.

Graphics: 7.0 - Bland (but not abysmal) graphics in most of the game's levels impairs the game's aesthetics; some of the textures (the zombies for instance) are downright terrible.

Audio: 8.0 - Though the music of the original FEAR is going to be missed by many, the sfx for the weapons are great.

Gameplay: 8.5 - FEAR 3 is one rock-solid shooter.

Replayability: 9.0 - Innovative multiplayer modes ensure that you'll keep this in your hard drive for several weeks, if not months.

Score: 7.9

How to Fix the Jitter Bug in F.E.A.R. 3

2011-06-27T23:19:00.010+08:00

A lot of people have complained about F.E.A.R. 3's jitter bug. It causes the PC first-person shooter to stutter when players strafe. Looking---and even whirling---around doesn't replicate the bug; it's only when a player moves from sideways that it becomes apparent.

While currently there's no proper fix for the stutter bug afflicting F.E.A.R. 3, I've stumbled upon a temporary solution that alleviates the nausea-inducing jitter.

The temporary fix after the jump.

Many gamers have observed that the glitch is not a performance problem per se---in fact, lowering graphics settings WORSENS the problem. Of note is vsync; disabling it increases the jittering found when strafing in the PC first-person shooter.

The last yielded the temporary solution for the bug---it seems the game is having problems with higher framerates. Since enabling vsync sets a ceiling on your framerates equal to your monitor's refresh rate, lowering your monitor's refresh rate and turning on vsync will alleviate the problem.

>>>See my FEAR 3 First Impressions review HERE

To reiterate:

1. Set your monitor's refresh rate to a lower figure (60hz if your eyes can take it; CRT monitor users will have a headache after prolonged use at this frequency)
2. Enable vsync (found under the Options > Video Settings menu).

There's also another fix that might work: forcing the game to run on DirectX 9. It worked for some but under Windows 7, forcing DirectX 9 disables AA.

Here's how to do it:

1. On the Steam menu, right click on F.E.A.R. 3.
2. Click on "Properties" on the resulting pop-up menu.
3. Under the "General" tab, click on "Launch Options."
4. Type "-d3d9" (without the quotes on the resulting field.
5. Click OK.

You might want to try either or both of the above fixes and see if they solve the problem. Lowering my monitor's refresh rate solve the problem for me.

Please take note that I've mentioned the words "temporary" and "alleviate." This won't solve the the jitter bug in F.E.A.R. 3 but it definitely will minimize the stuttering when you strafe.

Hopefully, Day One Studios will release a patch in the coming days.

F.E.A.R. 3 Screenshots

2011-06-25T10:02:00.004+08:00

I'm currently uploading F.E.A.R. 3 screenshots.

The link to the album after the jump. (The page contains screenshots of several PC games too.)

See the F.E.A.R. 3 screenshots HERE

FEAR 3 Review – First Impressions

2011-06-24T05:25:00.020+08:00

[UPDATED (July 14, 2011)]

[I've published my FULL F.E.A.R. 3 Review. Click HERE.]

The developers of the third installment in the PC horror first-person shooter have addressed several things that bogged down FEAR 2. This FEAR 3 review will cover my initial thoughts about the improvements made. These are:

The cover system is back
The submachine gun now sounds right
Level designs have been improved
Return of the REV powered armor mechs

I was planning to wait and release my review after I’ve finished the PC game but I’ve read several reviews and forum rants and praises that may be misleading for some. This has prompted me to make a "First Impressions" FEAR 3 review.

Since this is a "First Impressions" article, I will of course, make a full critique after I finish the game.

I don't think the game is short. Three hours in and I still have yet to see any serious plot development.

The FEAR 3 review after the jump.

First off is FEAR 3’s submachine gun.

The new submachine gun feels powerful without sounding over the top. It’s very satisfying to fire and it even sounds better than the first FEAR’s RPL. Kudos to Day One for rectifying the horrible mistake that was the Andra.

Tactical Firefights

The developers of the PC game have reinstated the cover system---and then some. In addition to leaning, they’ve copied Mass Effect’s cover system, allowing players to pop in and out of cover to take potshots at enemy troops. They’ve also included vaulting and have innovated by implementing a dive feature; pressing space while strafing and in cover causes you to dive to whatever cover is nearby.

Level Design

While most of the levels I’ve ran were mostly corridors, there were a lot of places that allowed the AI to flank me. I’m very happy with this development as FEAR 2 only presented me with enemies that didn't try to maximize their firing arcs. In FEAR 3, ATC forces successfully flanked me a handful of times.

Weapon and Enemy Design

While I’ve yet to encounter Replica forces, FEAR 3 this time has a more cohesive design scheme with the rest of the series. The guns now conform to the art style utilized by FEAR 2; bulky black-grey affairs with touches of color here and there. In my opinion, these are more appealing than the monochromatic guns of the first FEAR.

>>>See my "How to Fix the Jitter Bug in F.E.A.R. 3" article (includes steps on how to go about forcing DirectX 9 in FEAR 3)

The ATC forces are different from the guards in FEAR 1 but I don’t really find them disturbing as much as the Variant VIIs, which deviated radically from the clones present in the first FEAR (see my FEAR 2 Cons Review).

What really struck me as impressive is the developers’ decision to include, once again, REV powered armors in the game. In a series that has drastically changed in art style, these one-man ambulatory weapons platforms have always been the staple. Monolith and Day One should have included more of these “constants” though --- a series always needs them. BioShock has its Big Daddys. Metal Gear has its main characters swathed in form-fitting black outfits. The weapons and the mechs are a start though and maybe the developers have decided that the design scheme of the first game is the odd man of the bunch (seeing that FEAR 2 and 3’s firearms look more alike than those of the first FEAR’s.)

UPDATE: The PC release currently suffers from stuttering/jitter problem. No one has posted a solution to but a patch should hopefully be in the works. That or Day One Studios will suffer a major reputation problem.

I’ll expand on this once I finish the campaign. (I will also review the campaign---without giving away spoilers of course.)

A F.E.A.R. 2 Cons Review Made by a F.E.A.R. Fan

2011-06-22T23:45:00.020+08:00

With the PC horror shooter F.E.A.R. 3 being released to the rest of the world this June 24 (UK release according to the games’ Wikipedia page), I’ve decided to release a rundown of disappointing aspects in the horror series’ second chapter. These are:

The sound effects of some of the weapons
The anemic special effects
The sub-par AI
The odd design choices (levels and Replica armor)

[UPDATE: I’m not located in the North America region but oddly enough, the F.E.A.R. 3 Steam page reports that the game is “available now.”]

I’m a hardcore fan of the PC first-person shooter series---I’ve bought all the games in the series including the DLC. I even finished the first F.E.A.R. game without using SloMO---while on Extreme Difficulty. And while I’m not a walking encyclopedia when it comes to F.E.A.R. lore, I am very familiar with the nuances of the first F.E.A.R. game.

Playing at Extreme Difficulty with no SloMo

The full review after the jump.

One of these is the excellent sound effects for all of the weapons in the game, something which PC game sequel failed to replicate.

Cardboard Audio

“WTH?!!” was what I uttered when I first used F.E.A.R. 2’s Andra FD-99 submachine gun. The thing was had such an anemic sound effect that it reminds me of a sheet of thick cardboard being ripped apart every time I hear its muffled reports. Compare the Andra’s sound effects with that of the Sumak RPL Submachinegun’s (from the first PC game) and you’ll see what I mean. The latter---even with its low firepower---still felt satisfying to fire; the former caused me to grimace every time I used it.

Gun Fu

John Woo films heavily influenced the first game. In fact, lead designer Craig Hubbard has been quoted as saying “[Our plans are] to make combat as intense as the tea house shootout at the beginning of John Woo's Hard-Boiled.”

I don’t know where this went.

F.E.A.R. 2 has been regarded mostly as a solid shooter, but it doesn’t give you the sense of chaos that the first game conveyed to its gamers. Sure, things still explode and disintegrate in impressive ways in F.E.A.R. 2 but the level design and most of the ranges that firefights take place in are too large to suck in the player in a maelstrom of body parts, wood chips, powdered concrete, and flying sheaves of paper that the first game was able to bombard gamers with.

While certainly the large fighting grounds are a very welcome addition after the first game’s claustrophobic (and monotonous) office environs, the devs should have made steps to emulate F.E.A.R.’s particle-heavy firefights.

Level Design and AI

The level design and AI too, don’t seem to mesh well. Back in 2005, I liked watching the replicas try to outflank and outmaneuver me by running from cover to cover, taking lengthy routes in the hopes of pulling off a sneak attack, and crawling through tight spaces. In F.E.A.R. 2 these aren’t evident. Perhaps they dumbed down the AI or the level design just didn’t present opportunities for the more advanced tactics I listed above. Whatever the reason, this dearth of emergent behavior takes down F.E.A.R. 2 several notches.

The way the levels were constructed also took a hit. Though the sequel exhibits graphics that are way beyond the original game’s, F.E.A.R. 2 is basically one gigantic corridor crawl. The first PC game had some limited backtracking involved and it took you along convoluted paths. The sequel for the most part had some levels that are relatively uninspired.

The last two aspects are what bother me most.

Replica Design - F.E.A.R. 1 vs F.E.A.R. 2

With both events in F.E.A.R. 1 and 2 occurring almost at the same time, why do vastly different-looking Replica soldiers appear in the original and the sequel? The ones who laid siege to the Armacham HQ, the Perseus compound, and the Origin facility look significantly inferior to those who patrol the facilities in F.E.A.R. 2 (the Bio-Research Facility, the Wade Elementary School, etc). This design scheme that the F.E.A.R. 2 clones exhibit whaled away at what little suspension of disbelief I had encased myself in. These clones are supposed to be owned and created by the same company so the wildly deviating armor and weapon designs, for me, come out as unrealistic, even surreal.

Maybe because they’re Variant VIIs, some might argue. But the developers should have peppered the sequel’s levels with the older clones here and there. As it is, sometimes I felt I was playing a game from a different series, something that’s definitely unflattering.

Fast forward to today and the folks who developed F.E.A.R. 3 may have realized this belatedly, having reinstated some of the original clones:

Taken from IGN's F.E.A.R. 3 screenshots section

Combat Chatter

And what happened to the combat chatter? Monolith developers were into something when they---intentionally or not---emulated Halo’s combat chatter. In that Microsoft game, the Covenant grunts gave me the feeling that I was a one mean SOB every time they whimpered or shrilled “He’s everywhere!!” In the first F.E.A.R. game some of the combat chatter was not unlike Halo’s. The military clones would have fits of panic and scream “We need reinforcements!!”, “He took out the heavy!!”, or simply refuse to follow orders from their superiors when it’s clear you outclassed them. There you were, facing squads of supersoldiers yet every time you instill panic and fear into them. It was very satisfying.

In the sequel to the PC game, this doesn’t happen. The Variant VIIs are too stiff in their comms, calmly relaying to their comrades the changes in the battlefield. Some might argue that the clones patrolling the Harbinger facility are improved versions. The point is valid. Yet, I couldn’t help but feel as if I’ve purchased a heavy metal LP and then found out that my favorite band has transitioned into alternative music.

I don’t know what happened there. They nailed it right the first time but then proceeded to pry loose most of the nails that would have forged the series into one kick ass, cohesive whole.

Here’s hoping that when I fire up F.E.A.R. 3, the devs have rectified the mistakes they’ve made with the sequel and bring back the series to its award-winning roots.

EA Games Not Launching After Origin Update

2011-06-16T17:41:00.012+08:00

So after the first Origin update my EA game---Mass Effect 2---refused to work. The game wouldn't launch when I clicked on its icon on the Origin UI. The screen would flicker for a bit and then a Microsoft error box would pop up. No crashing occurred. The game just simply failed to launch. I scanned the EA support forums and found out many users have the same problem.

The solution after the jump.

The solution is simple. Either:

1. Click on the game's shortcut (on your desktop or the Start menu) or:

2. Navigate to the game's folder and click on its icon there (directly under its root directory or under its "Binaries" folder).

(Note: With Mass Effect 2, click on the "MassEffect2" exe file and not the "MassEffect2Launcher." Doing so launches a window that displays several options including "Play" and "Configure." It's odd but sometimes, it displays the "Game cannot launch because of a misconfiguration. Please reinstall your game and try again" error when you click on the "Play" button. Launching the configuration tool then killing the app fixes this problem as clicking on "Play" once again will launch the game. If your Mass Effect 2 still won't launch, I have an article about the "Game cannot launch because of a misconfiguration. Please reinstall your game and try again" error.

Mass Effect Performance and Graphics Tweaks List

2011-05-29T10:55:00.021+08:00

Mass Effect is a shooter-RPG hybrid that's a first of its kind. Some might argue that other shooter-RPG hybrids came before it (like the classic System Shock 2 and the more recent S.T.A.L.K.E.R. games), but the RPG aspects of those were watered-down affairs at best. Bioware fused the RPG aspect of Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic with third-person shooter dynamics that can match most PC games today, creating the first shooter-RPG hybrid that strikes a perfect balance between frantic, cathartic gameplay and superb storytelling.

However, it didn't hit the ground running for me. Right out of the box, it struggled to deliver surround sound and had problems with anti-aliasing settings.

The Mass Effect performance and graphics tweaks I used after the jump. (The performance and graphics tweaks I used also solved the audio problems that plague Mass Effect.)

Note: No one "owns" these commands as they are common knowledge. However, Koroush Ghazi of Tweakguides.com has compiled many of the most useful Mass Effect performance and graphics tweaks and provided parameters and explanations in his Mass Effect tweak guide. For a more thorough rundown, I would advise you to visit the above page as the list below is just my personal "quick scan" reference (read: these are settings for my PC; these are not for ultra-low-end systems), just in case my hard drive suddenly goes postal.

The .ini files that hold the listed parameters can be found at (on Windows XP systems): My Documents\BioWare\Mass Effect\Config. Make sure to take note of the individual files ("BIOEngine.ini" and "BIOGame.ini") and categories ("[Engine.GameEngine]," "[D3DDrv.D3DRenderDevice]," etc) as various entries appear multiple times in the folder. As always, please make backup copies of the files you are going to edit.

BIOEngine.ini

[Engine.GameEngine]
bSmoothFrameRate=TRUE
MinSmoothedFrameRate=22.000000
MaxSmoothedFrameRate=75.000000

**Increases the maximum allowable framerate from the default cap.

DepthBias=0.12

**Graphics tweak; enables dynamic shadows. The last patch disabled them (many gamers complain that enabling Dynamic Shadows from the in-game menu doesn't work).

ModShadowFadeDistanceExponent=0.000000

**Graphics tweak; the game won't cull shadows even if the objects casting them are far away from the player.

[D3DDrv.D3DRenderDevice]
DisableHWShadowMaps=False

**Performance tweak; makes the video card render the game's shadows (instead of the CPU).

[SystemSettings]

Trilinear=TRUE
SkeletalMEshLODBias=-1
ParticleLODBias=-1

**Graphics tweak; heightens the quality of textures and particles.

[ISACTAudio.ISACTAudioDevice]
MaxChannels=64
TimeBetweenHWUpdates=15.000000
MinOggVorbisDurationGame=20
MinOggVorbisDurationEditor=4
TotalAvailableChannels=62
//DeviceName=Generic Software
DeviceName=Generic Software
ReserveChannels=2
UseEffectsProcessing=False

**Audio tweaks; the above list fixed the sound bugs (glitches) on my system. (If you are not using a Realtek HD sound solution, the above might not work for your system. Please see Tweakguides' Mass Effect tweak guide or go to the official Mass Effect forums.) Note that "//DeviceName=Generic Software" is an added line. Without this, the fix won't work.

BIOGame.ini

[BIOC_Base.BioActorBehavior]

AllowFriendlyCollateral=TRUE

**Gameplay tweak; enables friendly fire.

[BIOC_Base.BioPawnBehavior]

m_bAllowPhysicsOnDeadBodies=TRUE

[BIOC_Base.BioPawn]

m_fCorpseCleanupFirstAttemptTime=25.0

**Gameplay tweak; increases the time (in seconds) before the game culls dead bodies.

Underhell Gameplay (First-Person Shooter Half-Life 2 Mod) Video

2011-04-27T22:59:00.003+08:00

My Underhell review now has a gameplay video. Click here.

Links to other freeware first-person shooters after the jump.

>>>Links to other free PC FPS HERE

One of the Best Free Half-Life 2 (FPS) Mods: Underhell: Prologue

2011-04-22T20:41:00.051+08:00

[UPDATED: Now has a gameplay video. Click HERE.]

I tried out Underhell: Prologue (hereafter known simply as "Underhell"), a Half-Life 2 mod that promises a horror-tinged first-person shooter gameplay experience on the PC. While what I went through was not exactly what I was expecting from this free PC FPS, this is one of those free PC shooter games that you should definitely try out.

The full review after the jump.

Underhell is, oddly enough, two PC games in one --- the main game where you run around gunning down terrorists in traditional first-person shooter fashion and an RPG-ish aspect where you go around this house collecting keys and clues in an effort to uncover memories that the protagonist has buried deep in his subconscious. While my main complaint about this PC mod is the almost non-existent connection between the two aspects, each is definitely riveting.

First and foremost, Underhell---like the PC game it modifies---is a first-person shooter (FPS) game. In it, you play as Jake Hawkfield, a SWAT operative who just lost his wife. The game begins when terrorists attack a nearby hospital and Jake's unit is called in to storm the edifice.

In terms of immersion, Underhell really delivers --- the mod's graphics is decent and the terrorists' death animations are convincing. Blood splatters on walls, smoke billows out every time something explodes, and plaster and chunks of concrete fall off from pillars that are under a hail of gunfire. The developer also included the awesome ability to kick objects and your opponents.

I think the developers borrowed models and sound files from several PC games as the terrorists remind me of Counter-Strike: Source. There are also sound clips that remind me strongly of Splinter Cell and Far Cry. These do not detract from the overall experience though as borrowed assets are not uncommon in free PC mods.

>>>This site reviews free, legal-to-download PC first-person shooters (FPS). See more of them HERE.

The game also resembles F.E.A.R. What with the parking lot level's prevalent blue-green hues, the ramps, and the chunks of flying concrete, I couldn't help but be reminded of Monolith's award-winning PC shooter game. Whether or not it is intentional, I have no complaints about this parallelism; though it may resemble F.E.A.R., it does so without feeling like a rip-off. Anyway, this is immaterial; with so many games coming out, drawing parallels among them is unavoidable.

"[I'd open the gate myself but] I think I need a specialist for this one."

Even with all these high points, Underhell wouldn't be mistaken for a retail game. While the textures are good, they'd be heavily criticized if they appeared in a modern retail PC game --- there are some parts (especially in the shopping mall) where walls appear too flat. Also characters in the game tend to be too dark; in areas with dim lighting, hostages and fellow operatives look like moving masses of pure black with no signs of gradients whatsoever. (Turning up the gamma levels didn't help, the environment ended up looking heavily desaturated.)

>>>This website has a Facebook page. It contains more Underhell pictures. Click HERE.

The audio is superb. While the shotgun uses the vanilla Half-Life 2 sound clip, the SMG is very satisfying to fire. It sounds like something I would expect from a real submachine gun. Then there's the background music. This free first-person shooter has an original soundtrack. A musician by the name of Tom Stoffel created the OST, which really immerses you in the action. The only low points were two saxophone-heavy tracks that reminded me of the B-movies of the 80s. Aside from that I have no complaints about the excellent scores. (This falls in the realm of the subjective really; I just don't like sax-heavy music in my action films or games.)

"The House" phase of the game is something of an oddball for me. I installed Underhell thinking that it's a PC horror-action hybrid, but it turns out that the developer separated the "horror" and the "action" bits. "The House" phase of the game delivers the former in spades. In it, you uncover clues to the death of your wife. It also has these dream segments where you delve into your subconscious and unearth the past. Due to its relatively short length, divulging more details here would ruin the experience so suffice to say, I ended up grumbling "Oh dear God, I didn't know there were Amnesia: The Dark Descent bits in this one!!" And it is similar to that PC horror game --- you go around interacting with objects (sans the slide-the-drawers-out-with-your-mouse physics) and go traipsing into VERY dark places.

Warning: The above gameplay video has spoilers!

The major complaint I have against this freeware first-person shooter mod is the almost nonexistent connection between the two major segments of the game. You could play the shooter aspect without ever completing "The House" segment. This is a bit distracting for me as I found I could go back to the house even after I finished the shooter segment. (The discovery is surreal given that by the game's end, your character will be in another locale entirely.) It would also have helped if the developer placed the game's "tutorial button" (the blackboard) on a more accessible place. I ended up learning about the melee attack midway into the game.

Still taking all these into consideration---superb audio, satisfying shooter action, disturbing horror segments---Underhell is one mod you should try out.

>>>Get Underhell: Prologue HERE.

Review of other freeware games can be found under "Categories" on the upper right.

Downloadable Free Full RPG Game: Elder Scrolls 2: Daggerfall (Skyrim Prequel) Mod

2011-04-22T02:14:00.008+08:00

A ModDB member, LuciusDXL, has started making a mod for the Elder Scrolls: Skyrim prequel Daggerfall. Titled "DaggerXL," the mod aims to port the game to the Windows environment. It will:

"fully emulate the game of Daggerfall and then optionally enhance it by refining existing features and adding new gameplay elements that were originally intended. The game will make use of hardware acceleration providing higher resolutions, color depth, greatly improved visibility, better texture filtering, enhanced performance and more. "

While the the mod is still in development (the developer is planning to release v0.20 in the next few days at the time this was written), you can download the full version of the freeware Elder Scrolls role-playing game from the Daggerfall official site.

The links to the game and the modification webpage after the jump.

It's shaping up quite nicely.

>>> Download the free full RPG game HERE.

>>>The freeware PC RPG mod's ModDB page

Mass Effect 2 (Dragon Age 2 Freebie) the Game Download -- "Game Cannot Launch" Error

2011-04-18T22:40:00.016+08:00

So a friend of mine gave his copy of the PC game Mass Effect 2. (He already bought the PC game when the Dragon Age 2 promo hit the Internet.) I immediately claimed the free Mass Effect 2 download from the Mass Effect 2 site. A night later, I ran into a Mass Effect 2 launch problem.

"Game cannot launch because of a misconfiguration. Please reinstall your game and try again," Windows complained. I groaned. I surfed for a solution and found several forums where people were complaining about their Dragon Age 2 freebie. I found the fix.

Picture taken from the official Mass Effect 2 site

The solution after the jump.

[Note: Your problem might have a more simple solution. Please refer to my "EA Games Not Launching After Origin Update" article and check the solution there. If trying that doesn't crack it for you, navigate back here and try the fixes below.]

Your Mass Effect 2 launch problem, in all probability, might be the result of the following:

1. You have configured the EA Download Manager---Origin---(or Steam) to install games in a directory you have specified (not the default one).

In this case, go to the Mass Effect 2/Binaries folder and find a file labeled "EACore_App.ini." Open it with Notepad. See if the paths specified there follow the correct directory path that you have specified.

Picture taken from the official Mass Effect 2 site

2. The game is being blocked by your Operating System's firewall.

In this case go once again to the Mass Effect 2/Binaries folder and find a file labeled "eacoreserver." Double click on that. A window should pop up asking you if would like to unblock or keep blocking the game. Click Unblock.

This should fix your Mass Effect 2 launch problems. If the above solutions do not work, please consult the Mass Effect 2 site forums.

Credit: I first read about this fix for the "Game cannot launch because of a misconfiguration. Please reinstall your game and try again" problem from DrPlote, a Mass Effect 2 site forum member.

Free Classed-Based PC Shooter Global Agenda's "No Elves" Ad Campaign

2011-04-16T00:54:00.004+08:00

I found this series hilarious.

>>>More freeware PC third- and first-person shooters (FPS) HERE

These beat another PC shooter's aggressive ad campaign by nearly a year.

The link to the downloadable free PC shooter after the jump.

>>>Don't like PC shooters? Freeware strategy games HERE. Freeware RPGs HERE.

>>>The freeware PC classed-based third-person shooter Global Agenda's official site

Freeware Classed-Based PC Third-Person Shooter Global Agenda

2011-04-15T02:20:00.025+08:00

Yep, you read that one right. This just in: Hi-Rez Studios has released their classed-based third-person MMO shooter Global Agenda as freeware. The PC MMO shooter game is now free to play and while the restrictions placed on the free2play players are a bit on the heavy side, they are not by any means game-breaking.

So far these are the only things that I find to be potentially disruptive:

Access the Auction House
Access In-Game Mail
Less restrictive chat capabilities
No ads for in-game voice
Ability to create Agencies

MMO players availing of the free to play option can still participate in PvPs (Player vs Player) and PVEs (Player vs Environment) sessions.

I think he just tased me bro!! (Image taken from the Global Agenda official site; link shown below)

>>>More freeware PC third- and first-person shooters (FPS) HERE

The full list of the free to play restrictions and the download link of the freeware PC classed-based third-person shooter game after the jump.

From the freeware PC shooter's wiki page:

Free to play

* No Level Restriction
* Ability to earn all of the game’s current items without spending real money.
* Access to all of the game’s current playable content, including:
o Sonoran Desert Open Zone
o Special Ops PvE (1- to 4-person Co-Op)
o 10v10 Mercenary PvP
o 4v4 Arena PvP
o Double Agent PvPE
o 10-person Defense Raids (including the new Dome Defense Mission coming in version 1.4).
o Agency vs Agency Gameplay (AvA)

(Image taken from the Global Agenda official site; link shown below)

Elite Agent - One-time purchase of $19.99 (£13.99 GBP, €15.99 EUR)

* Earn End-of-Mission XP at twice the rate of a Free-to-Play user
* Earn End-of-Mission Credits and Tokens at twice the rate of a Free-Play user
* Earn End-of-Mission Elite Loot upon winning an instanced PvE or PvP match
* Choose which PvP game types you would like to play when queuing for Mercenary PvP.
* Access the Auction House
* Access In-Game Mail
* Less restrictive chat capabilities
* No ads for in-game voice
* Ability to create Agencies
* Higher Login priority

>>>The freeware PC classed-based third-person shooter Global Agenda's official site

>>>Don't like PC shooters? Freeware strategy games HERE. Freeware RPGs HERE.

Defense Grid: The Awakening: Two Free Tower Defense (TD) Maps

2011-04-14T11:55:00.005+08:00

The most recent (April 14) patch release by Hidden Path Entertainment adds two new maps for their critically-acclaimed PC tower defense game (TD), Defense Grid: The Awakening. One is Portal themed and---get this!---features GLaDOS (well just her voice anyway) while the other has got something to do with this whole PC games bundle that's being featured on Steam.

I don't get this whole potato thing.

That's GLaDOS talking right there.

And who the hell is Tony?

Anyway, the patch changelog and links to pictures of the new free PC tower defense maps after the jump.

Defense Grid April 2011 Portal 2 ARG Updates:

Two free new and original Defense Grid Levels with new voice acting and story.
Portal's GLaDOS invades the network and brings a new style of level design to Defense Grid.
New computer console off the main menu. Poke around in the old computer archives, try out puzzles, and learn some DG back-story.
Tesla towers now recharge faster and do more damage.

April 13 update:

CHAS level is now unlocked for everyone!
Recruiting is still important, so keep it up.
Tony has one more trick up his sleeve
Three more clues to find

>>>See reviews of more free PC games (legitimate to download full version games) HERE, HERE, and HERE (free PC FPS games, free strategy games, and free RPG games respectively)

>>>Defense Grid: The Awakening gallery HERE

Freeware PC First-Person Shooter (FPS) Mod Black Mesa: Source Xen Picture Surfaces

2011-04-13T12:01:00.008+08:00

I am not really sure about this but Black Mesa: Source forum member Rx33gundam posted several screenshots of the project.

[UPDATE: this from Raminator, one of the devs/forum admins:

It's not actual media or a hoax. It was a texture test that Abe did on his own, we're not using any of those assets in Black Mesa. Our art direction for Xen is drastically different.

While it's not actually going to be used, it's still from one of the developers. Here's hoping they finish it.]

What is Black Mesa: Source? Why should I care? The rundown after the jump.

>>>Information about the freeware PC First-Person Shooter (FPS) mod Black Mesa: Source HERE

Freeware Real-Time Strategy (RTS) Game Battletech - MechCommander Gold Resources

2011-04-13T11:09:00.007+08:00

I just learned from Alexgophermix that he's hosting a Mechcommander resource page. Fans of the PC incarnations of Fasa's tabletop turn-based mech game should have a blast poring over his Mechcommander page. Contents include save files for the freeware Real-Time Strategy (RTS) Battletech game, allowing players to skip to the missions they like; a list of Inner Sphere mecha; how to install the freeware PC game in serveral PC operating systems (Linux and Windows 7 and Windows Vista); and map editor tutorials.

>>>See my review of the freeware Real-Time Strategy (RTS) Battletech game MechCommander Gold HERE

The link to the page after the jump.

>>>Freeware Real-Time Strategy (RTS) Game Battletech - MechCommander Gold Resource Page

Nvidia 270.51 Video Card Graphic Driver Benchmark Software Results

2011-04-12T13:06:00.006+08:00

Tested out Nvidia's 270.51 video card graphic driver.

Image quality (IQ) improvements in PC games---both strategy and shooter--- are nothing to write home about. Performance also took a hit with my video card graphic driver benchmark software results showing smaller figures.

The Nvidia 270.51 video card graphic driver benchmark software results after the jump.

(Some things to note with this Nvidia video card graphic driver test run: 1. I started using the freeware X3: Terran Conflict benchmark demo 2. Lightsmark 2008 conked out; I need to reinstall the video card benchmark software 3. Since logging in to Steam takes a minute on my PC, I decided not to use it anymore. Moreover, this will be the last time I'm going to use Lost Planet as a video card driver benchmark test, as it shows the same figures every time.)

>>>The Nvidia 270.51 video card graphic driver benchmark software results HERE

Download Warcraft 3: The Frozen Throne Patch 1.25b (Widescreen Resolution)

2011-03-13T22:46:00.005+08:00

Nearly a decade after it released Warcraft 3, Blizzard still churns out updates for its seminal PC real-time strategy (RTS) game from time to time. This update should be news to PC RTS gamers; among other fixes, the Warcraft 3 creates a widescreen resolution option in the PC strategy game's Video Options sub-menu.

The full update changelog and the download link after the jump.

-Warcraft III will now write its registry keys on launch.
- Widescreen (stretched) resolutions should now be available in the Video options.
- You can now purchase items from shops while Hexed.
- Scroll of Town Portal will no longer be consumed when casting fails when used at the same time that your Hero is Hexed.
- Hex will no longer extend the duration of Metamorphosis.
- Hex will no longer disable mana or health regeneration of Heroes.
- Wisps Detonate ability will no longer drain mana from Heroes while under the effects of Potion of Invulnerability.
- Fixed an issue where players were able to ally with opponents when alliances were locked ("share hack").
- A gold exploit with buildings has been fixed.

>>>Download Warcraft 3: The Frozen Throne update 1.25b here

>>>See more Warcraft 3: The Frozen Throne strategy tips and resources (where to place NGL One professional map files to view Warcraft III: Frozen Throne replays, micromanagement resources, gameplay videos, links to important strategy articles, etc) HERE. (Scroll down to see more.))

Star Wars - The Old Republic Timeline Videos

2011-03-06T17:20:00.012+08:00

So someone gave me Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic as a gift. Got hooked really bad and played the PC role-playing game non-stop every chance I got. It's old but the engine still does the game justice:

>>>Want free PC role-playing games (RPGs)? Click HERE

I've since finished the game and I am currently in Star Wars gaming hell as Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic: Sith Lords (the sequel) isn't on Steam.

Now I've known some months back that Bioware has been developing Star Wars: The Old Republic, an MMORPG based on the franchise. I browsed YouTube and came upon the Star Wars: The Old Republic Timeline video series, a 13-part video collection that covers several important points in the history of the Old Republic --- even Malak's (before he joined the Sith) battles against the Mandalorians. Knights of the Old Republic fans will be amused to know that the series even mentions Carth Onasi, a major character in the first game.

The first part of the Star Wars: The Old Republic Timeline video series after the jump.

Batman: Arkham Asylum PC Demo HD Playthrough (Complete)

2011-03-04T11:55:00.003+08:00

I got curious about this game as it garnered "9.0+" ratings all over the Internet (not to mention the impending launch of Batman: Arkham City). I downloaded the demo and gave it a whirl. It's awesome. I've never played a game with gameplay mechanics like what this PC third-person (beat 'em up? Stealth game?) has.

It's hard to describe Batman: Arkham Asylum as it blurs, breaks, and melds the barriers of several genres.

The awesome, 1-part, 18-minute HD (high-definition) video game playthrough after the jump.

Freeware Real-Time Strategy (RTS) League of Legends Philippines Releases Tier 3 Runes

2011-02-28T12:02:00.007+08:00

Freeware PC real-time strategy (RTS) game League of Legends Philippines now has Tier 3 runes.

Links to more freeware strategy games after the jump.

>>>Click HERE for more freeware PC strategy games

Warhammer 40K: Dawn of War Demo Cutscene

2011-02-24T10:34:00.004+08:00

I got nostalgic and downloaded the demo of the popular PC real-time strategy game. The free demo contains a single massive level and an impressive cutscene.

The video after the jump.

>>>Click HERE for freeware PC strategy games

New F.E.A.R. 3 Video Showing Paxton Fettel as a Playable Character

2011-02-15T09:09:00.002+08:00

I don't know if I've gotten this right but according to a source, Day One Studios just recently announced that Paxton Fettel can now be played in the single player campaign in F.E.A.R. 3.

The PC first-person shooter gameplay video after the jump.

Steam Launches a Massive 50% Sale for ALL Warhammer 40K: Dawn of War RTS Games

2011-02-11T01:46:00.006+08:00

This is the reason why I love Steam:

"Offer Ends Thursday at 4pm Pacific Time. *Excludes Dawn of War II: Retribution"

>>>Interested in free legal-to-download PC RTS (real-time strategy) games? Click HERE

The link to the Steam sale after the jump.

>>>The Warhammer 40K: Dawn of War PC strategy games sale

F.E.A.R.: Reborn Intro and Mech Gameplay Video

2011-02-06T13:58:00.006+08:00

I posted a new video on YouTube showing the DLC's (downloadable content) introduction and the entire part where you get to mow down enemy troops using an EPA (Elite Powered Armor; cheesy I know). The battle might be one-sided but further into the game you'll be forced to leave the mech behind.

For those who are curious, I play the game at 1152X864 resolution, all settings maxed (except for the anti-aliasing, which I set to only 4x).

The video after the jump.

>>>Click HERE for more gameplay videos

League of Legends' Kayle

2011-02-02T03:26:00.004+08:00

All my friends hate this hero. I like Kayle though; popping an ulti on the team's DPS in the middle of a 5-versus-5 skirmish, and eliciting "FUUUUUU---!"s from the opposing team make for great lulzfests.

People stuck with the late 80s "all-video-games-are-super-mario-brothers-clones" mentality should really wake up. LISTEN TO THE COMMENTARY AND WIDEN YOUR HORIZONS. More than two decades have passed and if you think things have stagnated in the industry, you might want to rethink your location; living under a rock does have its disadvantages.

>>>Click HERE for more freeware PC strategy games

>>>Click HERE for League of Legends tips and strategies

Nothing after the jump.

Fallout Fan-Made Films

2011-01-30T19:41:00.004+08:00

One of my friends posted the free short film "Fallout: Fallout: Nuka Break" on her wall on Facebook. The free movie is a joy to watch, as the Fallout fan-made clip combines action and humor, something that is, in my opinion, hard to do in a post-holocaust setting.

>>>Want to see Half-Life fan-made short films? Click HERE.

Two more free Fallout fan-made films after the jump.

The Effects of PC Video Games Withdrawal

2011-01-23T17:25:00.002+08:00

No I'm not stopping. I've just been busy this week that I haven't really sat down and played a good round of Half-Life 2 (still have to finish Half-Life 2: Episode 2) or X: Beyond the Frontier (a PC space simulator game).

I posted this on my FB account:

Today I put a red ant inside our microwave oven.

[Guttural voice] "Little ant, today, I would like to play a game."

After 2 min, I opened the thing and found a tiny black smear. I smiled but then gaped in amazement - a red ant raced past and crawled underneath the oven.

Me: "Whoa. Déjà vu." My wife: "What did you just say?" "A red ant went into the oven, and then another scurried by that looked just like it." My wife: "Switch! Apoc!"

Nothing after the jump.

UPDATE: Half-Life (Unofficial) Movie: Beyond Black Mesa

2011-01-22T03:15:00.006+08:00

[UPDATE 2: I added a short review of the film. You can find it after the jump.]

Just a few hours ago, I wrote about the impending release of "Beyond Black Mesa," a short fan film.

Beyond Black Mesa is a fan film inspired by the Half-Life series, a collection of first-person shooter games for the PC.

Just in case you're not a gamer, here's an eye-opener on what Half-Life is:

>>>Click HERE for a guide on how to improve Half-Life 2 graphics and performance on your PC

The 11-minute fan film after the jump.

Well, it's incredibly short, the Headcrab Zombies aren't Headcrab Zombies but hey, with a limited budget and a skeleton crew, they did exceptionally well; the pacing, the mise en scène, the music, the sound effects --- they all come together as a cohesive whole, creating a fan film worthy of the Half-Life label. So long as you don't expect District 9 quality from an 11-minute film made on a limited budget, Beyond Black Mesa will stun you.

Freeware Real-Time Strategy (RTS) League of Legends Philippines Goes into Open Beta Phase

2011-01-21T23:24:00.010+08:00

The Philippines will finally have a League of Legends server tomorrow that's accessible to the general (Filipino) public. Garena has announced that on January 22, League of Legends Philippines will go into Open Beta. This is exciting news as this freeware real-time strategy (RTS) is the brainchild of Steve "Guinso" Feak and Steve “Pendragon” Mescon, two people who had a hand in creating Defense of the Ancients (DotA) All Stars, the highly popular Warcraft 3: The Frozen Throne mod.

Free-to-play goodness coming your way

>>>What is this PC freeware multiplayer strategy game all about?

>>>More freeware PC strategy games HERE

The link to the League of Legends Philippines official site after the jump.

>>>The Garena League of Legends Philippines official site

Half-Life (Unofficial) Movie: Beyond Black Mesa

2011-01-21T12:34:00.006+08:00

Some months back, I wrote about two fan-made movies based on the popular Half-Life PC first-person shooter series. While the one made by the Purchase Brothers went off the grid some years back, the folks behind "Beyond Black Mesa" have persevered. They're going to post their short film tomorrow (Jan 21, 2011) on their site.

The teaser:

The full-length trailer:

The link to the Half-Life-inspired movie after the jump.

>>>See the Half-Life-inspired movie HERE

Currently Playing List - Imbacore's Best PC Games for Dec 2010

2010-12-30T00:24:00.006+08:00

[Note: This post is not meant as a universal "Best PC Games for December 2010" article. I just want to show the PC video game purchases I made this month.]

So Steam has been going on a video game sale warpath this month. I bought several PC games both classic and modern.

In order to meet whatever gaming mood takes me, I've picked PC games from different genres.

My choices after the jump.

Tower Defense:

Defense Grid: The Awakening

>>>Want a freeware tower defense game? Click HERE

First-person shooter-RPG hybrid:

Deus Ex: GotY Edition
Deus Ex: Invisible War

>>>Click HERE for freeware first-person shooters (free to play FPS)

Space Simulator Shooter:

X Superbox (which contains X: Beyond the Frontier, X: Tension, X2: The Threat, X3: Reunion, X3: Terran Conflict)

>>>There's a free to play space simulator shooter. Click here to see my Star Wraith: Shadow of Orion sci-fi game review

Role-Playing Game:

Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic

>>>Interested in free to play World of Warcraft clones? Click here to see my Runes of Magic review (one of the best WoW clones)

Link to the Full Version of the Freeware PC RTS (Real-Time Strategy) Game Ground Control

2010-12-28T14:34:00.011+08:00

Thanks to Deals4Downloads, I recently discovered that in my Ground Control review article, the link to the freeware strategy game led to a nonexistent webpage. I've already fixed this; the article discussing how to acquire the full version of the free PC RTS game now has a link leading to a working Fileplanet download page.

Please take note though that downloading the game now requires you to register with their free download manager service, Comrade. (For more information about Comrade, please click HERE.)

>>>See my review (and the download link) about the freeware PC RTS (real-time strategy) game Ground Control HERE

(Nothing after the jump)

Nvidia 260.99 Video Card Graphic Driver Benchmark Software Results

2010-12-25T23:05:00.004+08:00

It has been a long time since I did modified and WHQL driver benchmarks but finally I found the time to test Nvidia's most recent WHQL release. I also included Tweakforce.com's Xtreme-G version of the same Nvidia driver. Both performed well in my benchmarks, producing richer, crisp colors than earlier Nvidia video card drivers. They exhibited inferior frame rates compared to version 196.21 but their image quality is well worth the framerate drop. (The Xtreme-G version performed marginally better than the vanilla WHQL driver in the tests though; its FPS rates were better by a couple of frames in several of the runs. Not substantial but still worth mentioning, given that modified Xtreme-G drivers produce superior image quality.)

The Nvidia 260.99 video card graphic driver benchmark software results (both WHQL and modified) after the jump.

The Nvidia 260.99 is one of the more impressive drivers I've tested. In the Lost Planet performance test, I was able to discern splotches of green in some of the aliens' carapace, something I didn't notice in earlier video card driver runs.

>>>See the Nvidia 260.99 video card graphic driver benchmark software results HERE (The link leads to my benchmark results page, which shows benchmark software results of Nvidia graphic drivers I've installed and tested.)

Half-Life 2: Lost Coast Gameplay Videos and Tweaks

2010-12-13T23:20:00.014+08:00

I tried out this freeware DLC first-person shooter (free if you own Half-Life 2 or The Orange Box) and got a surprise. While I've read that this free PC shooter game is incredibly short (it is; it's only 38 minutes or so), I didn't expect this Steam game to be so graphically arresting.

>>>Click here for the tweaks I've made to the PC shooter game to improve frames per second and overall PC first-person shooter performance.

The village of St. Olga is located on the shores of a large, idyllic cove flanked by moss-encrusted granite cliffs. Entrenched on one is a Byzantine monastery, looking so much like a sword thrust into the rocky spire like a weapon from the Arthurian legends, a bastion of hope looming over the rustic town.

Unfortunately, Combine soldiers have built a Headcrab Shell launcher, an alien device that launches metal pods into densely populated areas. Inside the pods are (tada!) Headcrabs, alien organisms the size of melons that look like gigantic ticks. These parasites pounce on any human they find, transforming their hosts into Headcrab Zombies.

It's, needless to say, your job to destroy the infernal machine.

Me playing the the free Steam shooter game on my PC:

The second video and tips on how to improve PC performance and the various tweaks I made to improve the graphics in the above video after the jump.

Interested in improving your PC's performance? You should know! It enables you to save up on CPU and memory resources so you can enjoy stutter and hitch-free gaming (or enable you to record HD videos while experiencing a flawless PC shooter gaming experience)! Click here for tips on how to improve your frames per second (FPS) and overall PC gaming performance.

Twitter Today: Nov 15, 2010

2010-11-16T23:16:00.014+08:00

I've been busy these days playing so many freeware strategy games that I'm behind my schedule. The last time I made a proper review was when I discussed Cursed Treasure, a Flash-based free tower defense game.

To update followers on what's going on in the PC gaming industry, I've decided to launch "Twitter Today," (hopefully) daily updates on what PC gaming experts/websites are saying.

The very first IMBACORE Twitter Today after the jump (A guide on how to play a League of Legends hero! Tribes Universe! All Points Bulletin! Can you say "it's raining MMOFPSs!"?):

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Tribes Universe - The Tribes series just refuses to die. After a slew of lackluster jetpack-based (and other FPS-Z) games, up comes the news that a new MMOFPS is being developed, this time bearing the name of the franchise. (Kudos to Gamespot member MatrixKing giving me a heads-up.)

F.E.A.R. 3 - Launch date revealed: March 22, 2011. The developers of Armored Core are manning the helm this time. Let's hope the horror PC FPS doesn't get buried under a ton of walking tanks designed like those of Mechwarrior's.

Gamespot's Call of Duty Black Ops Game Guide - "Full campaign walkthrough, multiplayer tips, and more." 'Nuff said.

IGN's The History of Halo - For the game's 9th anniversary, IGN delves into the history of the bestselling franchise.

Gamespot's Call of Duty: Then and Now - Gamespot goes back through time and compares screenshots of four of the best selling Call of Duty games: Black Ops, World at War, and Modern Warfare 1 and 2.

TenTonHammer's League of Legends' Sona Guide - The gaming website just released a guide on how to play Sona, a new "ranged support" hero in the RTS League of Legends (a PC strategy game made in the vein of Defense of the Ancients)

All Points Bulletin - This MMOFPS made waves this year --- the tragic saga of an overhyped game that flopped on its release. Now it's even making more ripples across the gamingverse --- its new publisher is making the game free to play!

InstantAction.com Closes

2010-11-13T12:21:00.006+08:00

And with it dies a spiritual successor of Tribes 2, a (now) freeware PC multiplayer game. It's sad as I was hoping Fallen Empire: Legions would attract a large following of gamers looking for free, competitive first-person shooter games.

The empire has really fallen. This time though, there will be no legions to rise from the ashes.

The news after the jump.

>>>See Gamespot's article about the shutdown here

>>>More free PC first-person shooter games HERE

>>>Honing your APM more your thing? See more freeware PC strategy games HERE

>>>Or would you rather play free PC RPG games?

Heavenwarz' Supreme Commander Replay Videos With Commentary

2010-11-03T00:33:00.010+08:00

One of the things I like about Supreme Commander is that it doesn't require as much APM (actions per minute) as other PC strategy games nowadays. While I'm not bashing Warcraft 3, there are days when I want to play a strategy game that really depends on strategy and not on how fast your fingers fly across the keyboard.

Supreme Commander, with its slow-moving units and maps that span kilometers, fits this type of gameplay. Add to this a futuristic theme and lumbering super units that tower over everything else, and you've got a PC RTS that will make your eyes bug out.

The following are replays uploaded by Heavenwarz (the second part can be found after the jump). The videos have commentaries detailing what each player's role was and the scenarios that unfolded that forced them to switch tactics.

Giant robots, the push for air superiority, covert tactics, in-your-face assaults --- the whole thing is beautiful:

Part 2---and a commentary about how to do a rush---after the jump.

A Supreme Commander rush replay:

Imbacore Tweet: Nov 2

2010-11-03T00:30:00.003+08:00

This new batch of mice have improved pathfinding. I lay down traps, they take another route. IceFrog should hire whoever made the patch.

Nothing after the jump.

Supreme Commander Intro

2010-11-02T01:33:00.004+08:00

Spent three hours this afternoon pulverizing metal, shattering optics, and melting silicon Chris Taylor style.

The scope of Supreme Commander's battles is just staggering. I'll do a skirmish video one of these days. In the meantime here's the intro vid of the spiritual successor of Total Annihilation (I tweaked this video using VirtualDub):

Nothing after the jump.

How to Install System Shock to a Windows XP (32-bit) PC

2010-10-29T00:11:00.030+08:00

System Shock 2, a sci-fi survival horror PC game released in 1999, has been widely acclaimed as one of the greatest games of all time. However, installing the video game to a Windows XP-powered PC can be scarier than parrying the mad swings of a cyborg-zombie. These are some of the horrors it throws at you:

A black screen whenever you press ESC to save your progress
A frozen title screen (mouse not moving on the main menu)
System Shock 2 moving too fast
Stuttering
The Shoot - Use Modes Bug --- your character looks up at the start of each game (unresponsive mouse)

The guide after the jump.

Note: It's plain impossible to guarantee that one PC procedure that worked for one will always work for others without hitches. DO THE PROCEDURE AT YOUR OWN RISK. I WILL NOT GIVE TECH SUPPORT NOR WILL CLAIM ANY RESPONSIBILITY IF SOMETHING ADVERSE WILL HAPPEN TO YOUR COMPUTER.

Here's the procedure on how to install System Shock 2 to a Windows XP-powered gaming PC (this guide has been made under the assumption that you have uninstalled System Shock 2 and have already cleaned all traces of the game from your registry):

1. Copy-paste the "Shock" folder in your System Shock 2 CD into a directory of your choice. (No need to install the survival horror game from the CD).

Stop here and you will, in all probability, still experience: the black screen bug in which every time you press ESC, you will be greeted with a black screen, making the game unplayable if you aren't fond of the PC game's quick save feature (alt + s).

2. Install the SS2Tool, which provides (among other fixes) the DDFix tool, another godsend of all SShock 2 fans. If you follow the instructions in the link provided, it should eliminate nearly all the bugs mentioned in the list above. However:

Stop here and you will, in all probability, still experience: a frozen title screen where your mouse will be unresponsive, making the PC game's main menu just an attractive wallpaper.

3. Locate ddfix.ini and CTRL+F for the line "MenuUpdateDelay=" (without the quotes). Change the value (the default is 14) to 25. The System Shock 2 "Title Screen Freezes" bug should be fixed. (Kudos to Kolya and Wef, who provided the fix.)

However:

Stop here and you will, in all probability, still experience: 1.) The "Shoot and Use Modes" bug that renders the game unplayable; your character will still shoot his weapon even if you are in the PC game's Use Mode. 2.) Your character looking up at the start of each game, then freezing. You can walk around but your mouse will be unresponsive, making the survival horror video game unplayable.

4. Install the SS2 Modmanager, a freeware utility that lets you launch the sci-fi game's mods from a single UI. However, the utility comes with a nifty feature: under its "Tools" menu, you will find the fix for the System Shock 2 shoot-use modes glitch:

This eliminates the System Shock 2's "looking up" bug. However, this can be solved easily by ESCaping to the PC game's main menu and then going back to the game by pressing "Continue."

Hope this solves your problems. Have fun and good luck.

System Shock 2 Intro (PC Sci-fi Survival Horror)

2010-10-28T13:08:00.010+08:00

I wasn't able to post the guide I promised last night [EDIT: I've already posted the guide. Click here: "How to Install System Shock to a Windows XP (32-bit) PC."] so here's something to tide you guys over: the intro to one of the best PC Sci-fi Survival Horror games of all time, System Shock 2. (Tweaked with VirtualDub. I may have bumped up the brightness too much though.)

Bought this one for a little over a dollar. :D Some dude RMA'd his disc thinking the CD was busted.

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Nvidia Forceware Version 260.89 (BETA) now out

2010-10-11T23:26:00.002+08:00

I just learned from Tweakguides that Nvidia has just released a GeForce/Ion driver. Please take note that this version, 260.89, is a beta so install at your own risk.

The download link after the jump.

>>>Nvidia GeForce/Ion driver official page

Realtek HD 2.53 now out

2010-10-11T23:22:00.003+08:00

Realtek has just released version 2.53 of their HD drivers.

The link after the jump.

>>>Realtek HD official webpage

Dwarf Fortress - How to Irrigate a Farm (Stopgap Solution to Produce Mud)

2010-10-04T03:13:00.015+08:00

Have you just started out in this freeware strategy god game? Do you need a Dwarf Fortress guide on how to irrigate a farm in an instant? Check out the video below. It is perhaps the simplest, most unimaginative way to make a farm in this freeware sims-like god game, but it helps in a pinch.

There are of course, more complex and efficient ways of doing this but for beginners who are wishing to create a farm quick in this free sims-like game but can't find mud, this should be helpful.

Links to more guides and free-to-play PC games after the jump.

>>>More freeware PC strategy games HERE

>>>Free PC first-person shooter (FPS) games HERE

>>>Freeware PC RPG games HERE

>>>TinyPirate's Dwarf Fortress Tutorials

>>>CaptnDuck's Dwarf Fortress Video Tutorials

Dwarf Fortress 101 Tips

2010-09-27T22:42:00.024+08:00

So I decided to give the freeware god game Dwarf Fortress a try. While there are a number of handy Dwarf Fortress tutorials out there for this freeware Sims-like game (like CaptnDuck's Dwarf Fortress Video Tutorial series and TinyPirate's The Complete and Utter Newby Tutorial for Dwarf Fortress), I decided to make a list of questions I've puzzled over as a DFort newbie. Hopefully, someone will find this guide made for Dwarf Fortress beginners useful.

CapnDuck's Part 2 of his Dwarf Fortress Video Tutorial series

The list after the jump.

Dwarf Fortress is like a free-to-play Dungeon Keeper. While I've never played that other sim god game, both games involve you constructing underground strongholds, providing the inhabitants with decent accommodations, and laying down traps for invading hordes. This observation barely scratches Dwarf Fortress but I'll soon make a review of this freeware strategy sims-like game if it proves addicting.

Q: The tilesets are great! They greatly imoprove the UI. However, while I can make out the dwarves and bodies of water, I can't make heads and tails out of some of the in-game objects and symbols. Is there a helpful list showing the tilesets' symbols and what they mean?

A: On the game's main menu, press "k." You will see an X appear. Move this over the object you want to identify and the info screen will show you what it is.

>>>More free-to-play PC strategy games HERE

Q: How do I quickly designate rectangular areas to be dug out?

A: Press "d" for designations (the game pauses at this point) then press "d" again for the "mine" task. An X will appear. Move the X to one of the corners of the area you want to mine. Press enter. Move the X away from the square you just designated as the "start point." You should see a flashing icon appear. Move X to the opposite (farthest) corner of the area you want your dwarves to dig out. Press Enter again. Press Escape to go back to the main menu. Press Space to unpause the game and you should see a dwarf go to the designated section.

KaleGotRice's video about Stonesense, a Dwarf Fortress utility that enables players to see an isometric view of their dwarven strongholds

Q: I want to make an underground farm but I can't seem to find mud. How do I make an underground farm without mud?

A: Dig around. You're sure to find underground rivers or pools of water. (Unconfirmed but it's what DFort forum veterans say. Kudos to Laurin!)

Q: How do I construct a wall? According to the wiki, I have to press "b" then "c" to go to the construction menu but the button presses lead me to a different menu.

A: The menu is case-sensitive. It says "b" then "C", not "b" then "c."

Q: I can't seem to rename my fortress and/or my group of dwarves. How do I do this?

See above. Press "F" and/or "G." (For the Fortress and the Group respectively.)

This is all for now. Will add more as I play.

Possible or Impossible? GamePro Scrutinzes Aspects of Halo: Reach

2010-09-22T23:39:00.003+08:00

Jetpacks, plasma weapons, and one potential spoiler --- GamePro scrutinizes several aspects of the Halo universe and consults real-life engineers and physicists on whether or not these can be replicated with our current technology.

The link after the jump.

>>>GamePro's article

>>>Freeware first-person shooters HERE

FEAR 2 Multiplayer Gameplay Videos

2010-09-20T12:54:00.004+08:00

Uploaded two videos to YouTube last night; "FEAR 2 Multiplayer Gameplay - Fun w the Laser" and "FEAR 2 Multiplayer Gameplay Team Deathmatch."

The laser owns. Here I made a 4-kill streak with it:

The "FEAR 2 Multiplayer Gameplay Team Deathmatch" video after the jump.Playing at 250-300+ms ping:

Half-Life 2 Video by Marco Spitoni (Beowulf CGI Artist)

2010-09-20T00:08:00.004+08:00

Here's another fan-made video of the video game series Half-Life. This time, it's the father of all fanvids; this one's done Marco Spitoni, a CGI artist who worked on the film Beowulf. You gotta watch this. It's awesome.

Teaser trailer from a new animated short fan movie project by Marco Spitoni, based on the game Half-Life by Valve.

This is a non commercial project and contains concepts and designs which are intellectual properties of Valve Corporation. The Lambda logo is a registered trademark of Valve Corporation.

Nothing after the jump; Civil Protection took them all away.

Freeware Flash-Based Tower Defense Review - Cursed Treasure

2010-09-19T12:33:00.022+08:00

So I got hooked to this tower defense demo that I downloaded from Steam.

Defense Grid: The Awakening is a sci-fi TD game that pits you (and a talkative AI) against hordes of aliens bent on stealing "cores." Fail to stave off the invaders and the defense grid shuts down. I got so addicted to the concept that I searched the Net for the best Flash-based tower defense game.

>>>Strategy games not your thing? Click here for freeware PC FPS games

Almost all sites agree that one of the best is Cursed Treasure: Don't Touch my Gems, a free-to-play strategy game developed by Iriysoft. And while its Flash-based nature renders it unable to compete with Defense Grid: The Awakening, the game does pack enough features to hook anyone into beating all its levels.

I did. After two gaming sessions.

The review of the freeware strategy game---and a gameplay video---after the jump.

The tower defense niche is a saturated one. No Flash developer would expect his game to attract a significant following if it doesn't have features that elevate it from the competition. In addition to sporting graphics that make it tower (no pun intended) above its peers, Cursed Treasure does have innovative features:

- Three types of towers - while this is nothing new, the skill point system (see "Skill Point system", below) brings a twist to the usual tower defense. Orc towers ("Dens") throw projectiles. An orc tower can be upgraded either to increase its critical chance or become a ballista (slow; splash damage). Undead towers ("Crypts") unleash spirits to harry invaders. They can be upgraded to cause fear or to generate mana (see "Mana-based skills", below). Demon towers ("Temples") incinerate foes by emitting a continuous beam of eldritch energies. They can be upgraded to become spires that reduce the armor of creeps or towers that abandon the focused beam for a more devastating (but slower) explosive attack, which damage all within its blast radius.

- Skill point system - you can assign three skill points after each level. These grant you incremental improvements like gold generation, lower mana consumption, and critical chance and damage improvements.

- Mana-based skills - you have three of these. The first one clears trees, allowing you to build towers on otherwise unavailable terrain. The second one greatly increases your tower's rate of fire for a brief amount of time. The last one calls down a volley of meteors, killing all but the most hardy of minions within an area.

- Minions with skills - Cursed Treasure features minions with skills. Bards have haste spells, priests heal themselves, warriors have damage reduction attributes, and rogues have a 5-second invisibility skill.

This freeware strategy game wraps all these with an impressive user interface. The art style is distinct and the music and the sound effects are powerful --- my wife got creeped out by the demonic laughter every time I upgraded the temples. The minions---warriors and bards alike---bawl out like newborns every time the undead towers strike fear into them, drawing out sadistic chuckles from me.

The amount of time I poured in the two gaming sessions it took to finish the game however, was nothing to be amused about.

Play this addictive game. On a weekend. Yes, a weekend.

>>>More freeware strategy games HERE
>>>Play Cursed Treasure: Don't Touch my Gems here

FireFall, a Freeware PC Multiplayer FPS, to be Released by 2011

2010-09-13T22:42:00.010+08:00

This is news to Tribes fans. Scott Youngblood, one of the designers of the multiplayer shooters Starsiege: Tribes and Tribes 2, has teamed up with former WoW lead Mark Kern to launch a free-to-play squad-based MMOFPS.

>>>Free PC FPShooter games HERE

Preliminary screenshots show an art theme that's not unlike Borderland's (and do I see a tinge of Fallen Empires: Legions in there?). The freeware PC shooter also has vistas of landscape common in games with jetpacks and vehicles. I'm not sure about the latter but the jetpacks well, with Scott Youngblood in the Red 5 bandwagon (and the giveaway title), FireFall will be more or less a jetpack-centric game. And what's there to complain about? In the multiplayer PC shooter niche, almost all games involve people running about on foot. FireFall's forebears might have been heavily skill-based but any deviation from the on-foot combat norm is always a welcome breath of fresh air.

Links and resources after the jump.

>>>FireFall's official site

>>>GameSpy's FireFall article

>>>IncGamer's FireFall article

Two Half-Life 2 Mods you Should Look out for

2010-09-11T22:42:00.041+08:00

Back in 1998, when first person shooters all revolved around dreary hunts for key cards to unlock levels, a start-up company called Valve Corporation released its first product and so forever changed the FPS industry. Half-Life and its expansions---Blue Shift and Opposing Force---did away with the key cards-centric gameplay and introduced players to an unprecedented plot-centric approach. No longer just mindlessly blasting through levels, Half-Life players were immersed in a catastrophic event involving trans-dimensional beings, zombies, and black ops marines^*.

(^*It makes you wonder what game developers were doing with the first-person shooter genre before Half-Life arrived. The Wing Commander series had sci-fi simulation fighter games that really had meat to them. The key cards might have been too shiny to resist.)

>>>Free first-person shooter games HERE

The mods and links (Atomic PC's exclusive review of Black Mesa Source, links to both mods' official sites, and Operation: Black Mesa's official trailer) after the jump.

Blast From the Past Using Today's Technology

Fast forward to the present and nearly all video games have taken whole chapters from the way Half-Life was structured. Games now have more eye candy settings than you can whale at. However, only a few surpass Valve's epic story about trans-dimensional invaders and a science facility's struggle to contain the catastrophe.

It's not surprising then that several individuals have started projects aimed at resurrecting the Half-Life experience using today's technology.

The Mods and why you Should be on the Lookout for Their Release

One of the Half-Life 2 modifications is Black Mesa Source, a FREE mod that rebuilds the very first Half-life from the ground up using Valve's Source engine. Thought it still is in the bug-testing phase, all you need to play it (when it comes out) is own a Source-powered game like Half-Life 2 or Counter-Strike: Source.

>>>Tactics and strategy games more your thing? Click HERE.

Cra_py Half-Life: Source it's not

Most people found Half-Life: Source to be a disappointment. Once this mod launches however, you won't need to shell out 10 dollars for a bland overhaul; what media the mod developers have churned out are awesome as evidenced by this trailer:

Another Source-based free first-person shooter project is Operation: Black Mesa, a freeware project (again, provided that you own a Source game) that is recreating Half-Life: Opposing Force. The developers have recently made a media release, assuring fans that the project is still ongoing.

A video showcasing Operation: Black Mesa's effects and creatures:

>>>Atomic PC's exclusive review of Black Mesa Source

It's pretty understandable that after the above August 31 review (and the fact that one of the project's devs mentioned a 2010 release), the Black Mesa Source forums are once again abuzz with activity.

Operation: Black Mesa videos:

Weapons

Concept art

>>>Black Mesa Source official site

>>>Operation: Black Mesa official site

How Avast! 5.0 Antivirus can be Temporarily Disabled

2010-08-29T23:30:00.014+08:00

This is crazy but exactly two years ago and I mean EXACTLY two years ago, I wrote a guide on how to temporarily disable Avast! That handy guide showed a simple procedure to end several antivirus processes in the Windows Task Manager, freeing up memory and improving game performance for gaming PCs. While the procedure was easy, it still was unwieldy, forcing PC tweakers to locate eight or so antivirus processes on the Task Manager interface. Fast forward to the present and Alwil Software has greatly streamlined their freeware antivirus product, presenting a spiffy UI and enhanced tweakability.

Want to know how to temporarily disable Avast! 5.0's real-time shields to free up memory space? Click the link below:

NOTE: Disabling your anti-virus software is a risky affair. I'm only posting this for my personal reference. Do the procedure at your own risk. (It does however, free up your system resources while gaming and will greatly improve performance. I promptly undo the procedure everytime I finish gaming however. )

On the UI, under "Real-Time Shields", Avast! 5.0 now presents users nearly all the processes under a single list, doing away with the need to hunt down all seven from the Windows Task Manager:

You can then choose to stop each Real-Time Shield individually.

There's a quicker way to do this though. Right click on the Avast! 5.0 icon on your task bar. It will show you this pop-up screen:

Under Avast! Shields Control you can now choose to disable the Real-Time Shields. For gaming purposes, I suggest you pick "Disable until computer is restarted." This way after gaming, you can then restart your gaming PC, activating all the real-time shields.

The above process though leaves "AvastSVC.exe" and "AvastUI.exe" running, two process that gobble more than 25Mb of memory. These processes can't be found on the "Real-Time Shields" menu and can't be stopped just by clicking "End Process" on the Windows Task Manager.

In order for you to disable the two, go to "Settings" then click "Troubleshooting":

Once there, uncheck "Enable avast! Self-defense module." This will allow you to disable the two services. Go back now to the Windows Task Manager, choose the processes and click "End Process." Done!

Note: After gaming, I restart my PC, which will cause Avast! to run again. I then go back to Avast!'s Program Settings and uncheck "Disable Avast! self-defense module." I never forget to do this as it's dangerous to leave it checked. Also, I do not surf the Net if Avast! is in any way disabled.

Quake Wars Demo Gameplay Video

2010-08-23T13:10:00.000+08:00

I spent most of yesterday getting some R&R after attending two birthday bashes. I got nostalgic and decided to try out the Enemy Territory: Quake Wars demo. Happy to see it still has a robust community.

Quake Wars still lives! I played in a server filled to the brim with REAL people and won a "Best in Light Weapons" award.

After the jump: the awesome behind-kicking vid filled with Lacerators, tanks, railguns, and kablooey!s that will drive Michael Bay go running off crying to his momma.

Click the line below to see the vid:

About the Freeware Games on my Site

2010-08-19T22:45:00.024+08:00

[UPDATE: Thanks to blogger Alexgophermix, I just learned that EA has revamped their Command & Conquer Classics page. Links to the free games now redirect to the Command & Conquer: Last Decade PC games package. This doesn't change a thing though. Command & Conquer, Command & Conquer: Red Alert, and Command & Conquer: Firestorm are still free games. Reputable sites like Gamespot still host the full versions of these PC freeware classics.]

Some visitor just complained about Firestorm not being free. His complaint reads:

"that link u said was free to download command and conquer game,, is not free man. it asked u to join gamespot or watever the site is and asks for a credit card number.. dont lie about that stuff"

First off, the link I provided in my "Free Full Version PC Strategy Games News: Command & Conquer: Tiberian Sun and Firestorm Released as Freeware" article, directs you to the OFFICIAL EA Command and Conquer Classics site. Clicking on any one of those games redirects you to the official host of that game, which is Fileplanet, not Gamespot.

"Freeware downloads commander!" in all caps. In yellow font. On the header. On the OFFICIAL EA Command & Conquer Classics page.

Second, any gamer who has downloaded a fair share of patches, mods, and the occasional freeware knows that downloading files from Fileplanet and Gamespot requires you to register first and that the REGISTRATION PROCESS FOR BOTH SITES IS FREE.

There are two types of servers: the free public ones and the ones for the subscribers. Choose any one of the free ones (take note of the queue times).

Third, Fileplanet now also requires you to install COMRADE, their very own download manager that connects you to other players. It's a bit like Steam's auto-updater, the old Gamespy or Xfire. AGAIN, THE SERVICE IS FREE.

From the FIRESTORM WIKI PAGE:

"As of February 12, 2010, Electronic Arts has made the game available to download for free in order to promote their latest game in Command & Conquer series.^[2] This version of Tiberian Sun was extracted from The First Decade compilation by Electronic Arts, and has been found broken, as it fails to play the Nod introduction movie, among other newly introduced bugs with the EA's release of The First Decade."

This site does not condone piracy. All games reviewed here are freeware (unless otherwise noted like the retail games I've bought or the demos I've reviewed) --- they are legal to download. My December 20, 2008 article draws out my stance regarding piracy.

Please google and check the facts first before laying down accusations.

Thank you and happy gaming.

Online PC Multiplayer Shooter Booster Trooper Review

2010-08-17T23:23:00.013+08:00

Last weekend, Steam temporarily released Booster Trooper for free. I gave it a test run and while it reeks pretty much of Soldat, a freeware online PC multiplayer shooter, the sci-fi trappings, the physics effect, and the 2.5D look give this game a more polished feel.

My Booster Trooper user review after the jump. Unlike most multiplayer games today, Booster Trooper is not a class-based game. Nonetheless, it does offer players quite an impressive arsenal to tweak their pre-spawn loadouts with:

Main Weapons

Assault Rifle - Default weapon; high rate of fire; maximum range; low damage
Shotgun - Single-shot; standard shotgun mechanics: high damage output at close range but effectiveness ramps down steeply as the range between combatants widens
Chaingun - High rate of fire; maximum range; high damage; very slow startup time
Sniper Rifle - Self-explanatory
Rocket Launcher - single shot; very low reload speed; massive damage

Secondary Weapons

Pistol - Didn't get to use this one
Handcutter - close-range melee weapon; high damage

>>>Don't want to bother with Steam? Click HERE for free (legal to download) PC multiplayer shooters

Explosives

Grenade - Self-explanatory
Shredder - Sticky grenades that act as mines with short fuses; they detonate after three or so seconds if no enemy comes near them

In addition there are several special weapons that spawn regularly in specific locations in each map.

What surprised me with this one---given the technology it uses---is that beyond the jetpacks (which let players fly around for short bursts before needing to recharge) and the mix of 2.5D side-scrolling action with modern graphics and physics effects, Booster Trooper is a no-frills CTF/fragmatch multiplayer game in the spirit of Soldat and Quake. Why they didn't introduce innovative tweaks like a Tribes-like ski effect (with maps riddled with slopes), deployable turrets, and classes ala Team Fortress or Alien Swarm is something that seems such a waste.

I also do not like the way the soldiers cry out when they get hit. The cries are anemic and somewhat annoying (and disturbing) to hear. This aside, the other audio aspects of Booster Trooper are awesome: weapons are very satisfying to shoot, jetpacks sound as they should, explosions reverberate, and there's something really addictive in hearing a rocket being chambered.

Booster Trooper is not something that I would play for more than two hours each day but I think this is how the designers wanted it to be. A solid, impressive PC multiplayer shooter that's a perfect escape if you want a quick 20-minute gaming fix. Wham! Bang! Thank you ma'am!

I just lopped off and cauterized one side of your torso with the mother of all lightsabers.

Half-Life 2 (Unofficial) Movie Trailers

2010-08-15T16:50:00.010+08:00

Scrounged up some fan-made videos. These are top-notch and can almost fool you into thinking they were made by some major studio.

The Half-Life 2 fan-made movie trailers after the jump.

Beyond Black Mesa:

Things I found amusing/meritorious:

- Adrian Shephard is the main character of a Half-Life expansion
- A strider! In a low-budget trailer!
- They have it down pat:

The grenades' trademark red glow
The resistance armband
The "caste" graffiti in the final frames of the trailer

>>>Click HERE to see Half-Life 2 console command CVar tweaks that I use

Escape From City 17 Part One:

Things I found amusing/meritorious:

- Like in the game, there are structures/objects in the film that have highly-saturated hues. Kudos to the art director/cinematographer.

They have it down pat:
- The firearms and CGIs are perfect, including the PA system
- Like in the game, Combine soldiers emit this high-pitched sound when they die

>>>Interested in free (legal) first-person shooter single- and multi-player games? Click.

Half-Life 2 CVar Console Command Tweaks

2010-08-15T11:06:00.026+08:00

When Half-Life 2 was launched, it was plagued with performance and stutter problems. Five years later, console commands and patches have fixed these --- I've bought a copy of The Orange Box, and my experience has so far been flawless(except that to my chagrin Gordon Freeman still feels more "glidey" than other FPS protagonists, albeit less so compared to how he moved in the first Half-Life; nausea-inducing, that one).

Being the tweak monkey that I am however, I still scrounged around for Half-Life 2 console commands and PC performance tweaks and found hundreds of CVars on the web. I picked several, applied them, and when I fired up my newest first-person shooter game, well, the changes are nothing to write home about but hey, anything to elevate a flawless experience into a cathartic romp stomping Xen transdimensional beings and Combine soldiers right?

The Half-Life 2 console commands that I use---and how to apply them to the Half-Life 2 exe---after the jump.

No one "owns" these commands as they are common knowledge. However, Koroush Ghazi of Tweakguides.com has compiled many of the most useful Half-Life 2 CVars and provided parameters and explanations in his Half-Life 2 tweak guide. For a more thorough rundown, I would advise you to visit the above page as the list below is just my personal "quick scan" reference (read: these are settings for my PC; these are not for ultra-low-end systems), just in case my hard drive suddenly goes postal:

Performance

+mem_max_heapsize 1024 - memory-related performance tweak; see the Tweakguides.com HL2 tweak guide

+cl_forcepreload 1 – Forces the game to preload everything during loadup times, eliminating stutter but lengthening the loading process.

+ai_expression_optimization 1 – Forces the game not to render NPC expression that you can’t see. (Much like that Doom 3 cull command)

+ r_threaded_particles 1 – Multi-thread-related tweak; see the Tweakguides.com HL2 tweak guide

+ r_threaded_renderables 1 - Multi-thread-related tweak; see the Tweakguides.com HL2 tweak guide

+ mat_queue_mode 2 - Multi-core-related tweak; see the Tweakguides.com HL2 tweak guide

>>>Interested in free (legal) first-person shooter single- and multi-player games? Click.

Audio

+ snd_mix_async 1 – Audio tweak; see the Tweakguides.com HL2 tweak guide

+ dsp_enhance_stereo 1 – audio improvement tweak

Graphics Improvement

+ mat_picmip -1 (I checked the console and the “highest”---lowest on the number line---Half-Life 2 setting for this tweak is “-1.”)

+ mat_parallaxmap 1 – Graphics tweak; see the Tweakguides.com HL2 tweak guide for a thorough explanation

Miscellaneous

-novid – eliminates the intro Valve movie, speeding up startup load time

+sv_autosave 0 – eliminates those annoying autosaves that shatter immersion

I linked all these into:

-novid +mem_max_heapsize 1024 +sv_autosave 0 +cl_forcepreload 1 +ai_expression_optimization 1 +r_threaded_particles 1 +r_threaded_renderables 1 +snd_mix_async 1 +mat_queue_mode 2 +mat_picmip -1 +mat_parallaxmap 1 +dsp_enhance_stereo 1

I then inserted the line into Half-Life 2's "Launch Options" (accessible by right-clicking the game's title and navigating to Properties > General > Set Launch Options) in Steam:

Freeware PC Multiplayer Game Alien Swarm Gameplay Videos

2010-08-03T13:42:00.018+08:00

[UPDATED: All seven gameplay videos of the Alien Swarm campaign "Jacob's Rest" are now up.]

Alien Swarm gameplay videos of a "Jacob's Rest" campaign run with three other players. The freeware multiplayer game is a top-down PC shooter powered by the Source engine.

Here's the first one:

>>>Want to see the specs of the budget gaming PC used to run this free to play squad-based multiplayer game?

The rest of the gameplay videos after the jump (I'll upload the last two Alien Swarm gameplay videos later).

Part 2:

>>>Shooting alien filth not your thing? See free PC RPG games HERE

Part 3:

Part 4:

>>>This game not tactical enough for you? See free PC strategy games HERE

Part 5:

Part 6 (of 7):

Part 7:

>>>Still can't get enough? See more free PC FPS games HERE

First Starcraft 2 Reviews

2010-07-29T23:59:00.003+08:00

So judging from the flood of Starcraft 2-related articles ("Starcraft 2 Review in the Pipe", "Where are the Starcraft 2 Reviews?", etc) that have been popping up like mushrooms, people are very excited to read about whether Blizzard has surpassed the first Starcraft in terms of gameplay, multiplayer aspects, and presentation.

As of this writing, I found two so far.

The Starcraft 2 reviews after the jump.

NZGAmer.com's Starcraft 2 review - focuses more on several of the multiplayer aspects, particularly problems that SEA players may encounter

Bit-tech's Starcraft 2 review - discusses the game's units and upgrades and its multiplayer aspects among other things

>>>Starcraft 2 sold out in your local malls? Want to play some freeware (read: legal) PC strategy games while waiting for the shelves to replenish? Click HERE

Alien Swarm Gets its First Update

2010-07-22T10:13:00.002+08:00

Updates include:

Fixed weapon switch key in the 360 controller config
XP and level are stored in the Steam Cloud
Fixed duplicate rows in the "Find Public Games" screen
Reduced screen shake when you have high ping
Fixed dedicated server always starting in LAN mode
Fixed custom item button binds not displaying properly on HUD
Fixed full network updates causing duplicate client ragdolls to spawn
Added console commands to change game access on the fly (make_game_public and make_game_friends_only)
Fixed welding icon sometimes getting stuck above player's head
Fixed HUD elements being cut off in ultra wide resolutions
Removed cheat flag from a number of cosmetic console commands
Now firing, meleeing, or reloading while welding will break you out of the weld
Fixed spectators earning achievements
Fixed infinite ammo exploit
Fixed XP exploit

Nothing after the jump.

3rd-Person Shooter Alien Swarm Released as Freeware on Steam

2010-07-20T01:54:00.022+08:00

Alien Swarm, a class- and squad-based game that embroils players in a space marine-vs-alien bugs fragfest, is finally out. What's more, this multiplayer PC shooter is now free to play, the only catch is that you must have a Steam account. The game is powered by the Source engine so expect impressive graphics and physics. (Examples of Source-powered games: Half-life 2 and Counter Strike Source.)

"Alien Swarm is a game and Source SDK release from a group of talented designers at Valve who were hired from the Mod community. Available free of charge, the game thrusts players into an epic bug hunt featuring a unique blend of co-op play and squad-level tactics. With your friends, form a squad of four distinct IAF Marine classes."

Links on where to download Steam and the 3rd-person shooter game after the jump.

>>>More free (legal) PC shooters HERE
>>>Free PC strategy games HERE
>>>Free PC RPGs HERE
>>>Get Steam HERE (registration required).
>>>Get the game HERE

Nvidia Fixes GeForce/ION 257.21's Profile Bug, Releases GeForce/ION 258.96 (Beta)

2010-07-18T22:26:00.008+08:00

Nvidia's release last June 15, v257.21, was an excellent video driver in terms of image quality. However, it had some flaws in the form of a game profile bug --- some users complained that the GeForce/ION driver didn't save the game profile parameters they set in the Nvidia video driver's control panel. A few days ago, Nvidia released a beta, GeForce/ION 258.96, and from what I've read, the driver doesn't seem to have the profile bug that its predecessor had. Will test this out tomorrow.

The download link after the jump.

>>>See Nvidia video driver benchmark results here

Get the Nvidia GeForce/ION video driver HERE. Please take note that this is just a beta (but hey, if you've been reading the forums---and my post above, WHQL drivers have bugs. :P). Also please remember to choose your video card and the OS you're using in the drop-down fields that the webpage supplies.

Freeware Strategy Games Update: UFO: AI v2.3 Released

2010-06-22T23:19:00.013+08:00

The developers of UFO: AI, a freeware turn-based PC strategy game, have finally released the long-awaited version 2.3 of their endeavor to replicate the gameplay of X-Com (albeit with a storyline that's unrelated to the PC classic). I've been following the development of this free turn-based game for two years now and for this version to finally surface is exciting news. The gameplay of its predecessors has been perfect except for two glaring flaws: the lack of an ending and aliens not being able to launch attacks on your headquarters. This freeware version fixes these and more.

This game may be based on an ancient game engine but its gameplay aspects are nearly unparalleled even compared to retail games (small surprise given that the game it tries to emulate has been hailed as one of the greatest games of all time by several reputable websites). I'm even more psyched with this news than Mektek's freeware release of Mechwarrior 4: Mercenaries.

Classics: The game engine that put doom and gloom in Romero's heart coupled with X-Com gameplay = epic. (Picture credit: UFO: AI official site)

The link to the freeware game after the jump.

>>>Download the free PC turn-based strategy game HERE

>>>Free PC FPS HERE
>>>Free PC RPG games HERE
>>>More freeware strategy games HERE

How to Install Mechwarrior 4 Using Mektek's MTX

2010-06-17T07:24:00.028+08:00

A lot of people have been asking me about how to install the free PC shooter game Mechwarrior 4: Mercenaries. The problem lies with MTX, a software developed by Mektek to act as a "centralized distribution and patching point" for the downloadable PC games it distributes.

While it proves buggy for some, the predominant issue lies in the somewhat lengthy procedure the software requires. Gamers who don't usually tinker with their PC may find the process confusing.

If you are sure you've done things right and you're still experiencing problems, please go to the official forums and post your questions there; you'll get more detailed answers. Please take note that I am in no way connected with Fasa, Microsoft, or Mektek. I did not develop MTX. I'm just another gamer who's putting out guides and reviews in the hopes of helping other people.

However, if you're just simply curious or confused about how to install Mechwarrior 4: Mercenaries using Mektek's MTX, read on.

A friendly Bushwacker scans the terrain for enemy mechs

>>>I hit my head with a rock and can't remember what Mechwarrior is . Give me a quick recap on the history of the franchise.

The guide after the jump.

Before reading the guide, I would like to point out two things:

1. This game is really free. Microsoft cleared Mektek to release Mechwarrior 4 as a downloadable free PC simulator-shooter/strategy game.

2. As mentioned before, I am in no way connected with Fasa, Microsoft, or Mektek. I did not develop MTX. Install at your own risk. If you encounter problems using the software, I cannot offer technical support.

Ok with those two things cleared up, here's the guide:

1. Download and install MTX from HERE.

2. It will ask where you will put your Mektek games. I chose the same folder where I've installed MTX:

2. Since I've heard a lot of people were experiencing problems with MTX in downloading the free PC game, I used Mektek's torrent links:

As of this date the latest FULL install is v.0021.

Downloaded using uTorrent):

(Don't mind the patches, I thought I'd be having problems patching with MTX but it turned out downloading the patches using uTorrent was unnecessary.)

3. I put the downloaded .mtx file in a folder I created:

(Don't mind the second and third files; those are the aforementioned patches.)

4. Launch MTX and click Open File.

5. Find the free Mechwarrior 4 .mtx file that you downloaded.
6. MTX will copy the .mtx file.

7. Once it has finished, wait for it to patch the free PC mech shooter.

You can launch the game from your Start menu.

Enjoy!

>>>More free PC FPS HERE
>>>Free PC RPG games HERE
>>>Freeware strategy games HERE

Gamespot's Dead Space 2 Trailer (Gameplay Video)

2010-06-16T10:11:00.002+08:00

Gamespot has released a gameplay video of the much-awaited game Dead Space 2, a continuation of Isaac Clarke's oddysey against a virulent race of zombie-like aliens who infect and morph other species.

The video after the jump.

I don't know but IMHO, I don't agree with the design. The necromorphs shown here are just too "clean" with none of the exposed viscera the first game displayed with sadistic abandon.

Nvidia WHQLs GeForce 257.21 Video Drivers

2010-06-16T00:36:00.002+08:00

Quite excited about this. I've been testing out drivers ever since Nvidia Forceware 77.xx and this is the first time a driver got rolled out with a version number higher than 200. Ill test this one out in the next few days.

The link after the jump.

>>>Get the driver HERE

Free WoW Clone Runes of Magic - How to Tier a Weapon Using Random Fusion Stones

2010-06-13T16:47:00.020+08:00

I made a guide on how to tier a weapon in Runes of Magic, a World of Warcraft clone made by Runewaker Entertainment:

A more detailed version of the guide and links to other freeware games can be found after the jump.

(Before reading this guide, please read the help section in your Arcane Transmutator page. You can access this page by doing the following:

1. Click "B" to access your inventory.
2. Click on the treasure chest icon (found on the lower left).
3. On the Arcane Transmutator (henceforth referred to as "AT"), click on the question mark.)

This is a tutorial for tiering a tier 3 weapon to a tier 4 one.

Here I've already bought: 1. nine tier 3 cloth belts from the Obsidian Stronghold cloth merchant and 2. nine random fusion stones from the wizards at West Varanas (also I've already produced three tier 3 mana stones by fusing three of the belts with three of the RFS):

This is done by placing one tier 3 belt and one RFS in the AT:

The result, as mentioned before, is a tier 3 mana stone:

We need three of these as, as mentioned in the help section of the AT page:

(Tier Y Mana Stone) x (3) = 1 Tier (Y+1) Mana Stone. (So Tier 3 Mana stone + Tier 3 Mana stone + Tier 3 Mana stone = Tier 4 Mana stone.)

Here's me having fused all the base components. The results are three sets of Tier 3 Mana Stones:

Combining the sets to form three Tier 4 Mana Stones:

Why do we need three Tier 4s? Again, as mentioned in the help section of the AT page:

3(Tier Y) + Tier (Y-1) Weapon/Equipment of your choice = Tier Y Weapon/Equipment of your choice.

(Simply put, 3 fusion stones of the same tier fused with a Weapon/Equipment of your choice will yield the same equipment with the same tier as that of the Mana Stones you fused it with.)

Placing my Tier 3 weapon with the three Tier 4 Mana Stones in the AT:

Checking the preview window before confirming:

The entire process summarized in a spreadsheet:

I used to hate them but my manager taught me they are at the very least, a necessary evil. Thanks Li! :D

>>>How does this game fare against World of Warcraft?
>>>Freeware first-person shooters
>>>Freeware strategy games
>>>Freeware PC role-playing games

IGN's Halo Personality Quiz

2010-06-03T11:30:00.005+08:00

Durn. It's a spoiler of sorts. Who's Jorge-052? IGN's Halo Personality Quiz tagged me as a Mexican minigun-touting bad a$ who's "a teddy bear at heart" lol!

Take the quiz after the jump.

>>>The quiz HERE

>>>Interested in getting free first-person shooters?

ContraBandJazz's Rendition of "Jungle"

2010-05-10T20:50:00.001+08:00

This is awesome:

After the jump it still is! >:)

Lost Planet: Extreme Condition Demo Review

2010-05-10T20:17:00.018+08:00

[A few days ago, what with the impending release of Lost Planet 2, I downloaded the demo of Lost Planet: Extreme Condition. Graphics-wise, the game is so good that I decided to write a review about it.]

Playing Lost Planet is like watching a King Kong movie but with the following deviations: instead of being set in a tropical jungle, the game is set in a snowy world; instead of featuring a titanic ape, it features massive and implacable carapace-armored leviathans called the Akrids. Think Cliffhanger and Starship Troopers combined.

The full review of the demo of Lost Planet: Extreme Condition after the jump.

Better late than never.

Lost Planet shares more in common with the Sylvester Stallone movie than frigid tundras and deadly avalanches --- the game employs the staple of movies set in snowstorms and mountains - a grappling hook. Though it's just a mundane addition to Lost Planet's gameplay, it does add to the game’s list of features. The grappling hook enables the player to save himself from a fall, climb ledges that are otherwise unreachable, and really immerse the player in the role of a rifle-wielding, ice climber. Really, every dude who wants to climb mountains should get both.

Lost Planet’s bag of tricks is small but what gimmicks it has are impressive. Far from being a one-trick pony, the game pits players not just against slavering, squealing aliens but human opponents as well. Known as Snow Pirates, these mercenaries pack energy guns, grenades, sniper rifles, rocket launchers --- and mechs.

This is where the game really shines. Anyone who has fantasies of being an Ellen Ridley, controlling an exoskeleton while mowing down alien spawn and gigantic alien bosses will be in for an adrenaline-laced treat with Lost Planet. And it doesn’t stop there. The mechs have modular loadouts. You can attach gatling guns and rocket launchers to your walker --- or remove and walk away with them.

That’s right. You can slog through the snowy wastes carrying the mother of all chain guns.

Fancy lugging a mech-sized sidearm and blazing away at advancing alien hordes? I thought so.

Stage 5. Snow Field.

Lost Planet is easily one of the most gorgeous graphical powerhouses I have come across. Combining the almost monochromatic whiteness of its snow-covered levels with saturated hues of its in-game objects, Lost Planet presents a solid color scheme that’s surprisingly impressive for a game that mostly takes place in bleak, arctic environments.

The engine powering Lost Planet is very impressive; never has a game presented me with such volume of particles. Imagine this: you’re trudging through a blizzard, sheets of snow swirling around you, and suddenly, from the incline above you, an Akrid the size of a large SUV bursts bellowing from the drifts. As the 1000-pound leviathan comes thundering toward you, you let loose with a rocket, which explodes against its hide, causing ichor to shower every which way. This move however, causes an avalanche, and you scurry for a promontory to hide behind while the alien rolls into a disc and whirs furiously towards you through the blinding blizzard and cascading boulders. Think about that. Most of the time, there’s so much going around that you’ll begin to think your video card will melt under this heavy a load.

Bugged.

Indeed, Lost Planet deserves a “9” in the graphics department. However, its gameplay leaves something to be desired. The fault lies in its anemic AI and its difficulty level. While the Akrids’ lack of tactics can be attributed to an alien mindset, the game’s insipid AI shows glaringly in the behavior of the Snow Pirates --- these guys just occasionally dive for cover but that’s it. They don’t flank, rarely scatter when you throw a grenade at them, and they don’t provide as much suppressing fire to aid their teammates than in other games like, say, Far Cry. For a game released in 2007---years after F.E.A.R., Metal Gear, and the No One Lives Forever series got released---this quality in artificial intelligence is unforgivable. This AI deficiency---and the resulting mark down in difficulty---is what ultimately shatters Lost Planet’s bid for total gaming immersion. Players will be awed by Lost Planet’s graphical prowess but it will be a detached awe.

While Lost Planet: Extreme Condition paints a realistic picture of a corporate entity's endeavors to tame a colony in the outer reaches of space, its technical shortcomings effectively render the game as just a window players can gaze through. It’s a bit sad because if the developers had polished the AI aspect of the game, Lost Planet would have been a portal that would have absorbed players into a story of humanity’s struggle to terra-form an alien world crawling with massive insectoids that put King Kong to shame.

Lost Planet Demo Playthrough

2010-05-09T14:35:00.003+08:00

What with Lost Planet 2 coming this May 11, I decided to give the demo the prequel a shot.

Part 2 after the jump.

How to Download Mechwarrior 4: A Workaround of MTX, the Download Client of Mektek

2010-05-09T14:14:00.003+08:00

How to Download Mechwarrior 4: A Workaround of MTX, the Download Client of Mektek

Mektek crumpled again so I think it's high time I discuss this workaround of Mektek's flawed download client. (While Mektek has said that MTX can still download Mechwarrior 4 even if their server goes down, I stopped using it when I discovered there was no Pause button anywhere in the client. I could be wrong though but I'm going to try the thing again only after I get some answers from their support forums.)

Tateru Nino of Dwellonit.com has devised a way to get the game and get it working without using MTX. The link after the jump.

NOTE: The link below takes you outside of Imbacore. I have never tested the procedure myself and have posted this for friends who are desperate to get a copy of Mechwarrior 4. It's not also a guarantee that you can get Mektek's future patches if you use this procedure. It also involves a registry tweak, something that's potentially dangerous if you don't follow it directly. Use the procedure AT YOUR OWN RISK.

>>> See Tateru Nino's article on how to download Mechwarrior 4: Mercenaries for free without using MTX HERE.
>>>More free PC FPS HERE
>>>Free PC RPG games HERE
>>>Freeware strategy games HERE

Gamespot on id Software's Latest Game Project, Rage

2010-05-05T23:28:00.010+08:00

I'm quite excited about this. Not about the game itself, but the ramifications that will come with its release. About five years ago, I got introduced to Doom 3, my first glimpse into game engines that utilized bump mapping and specular effects. For me it was a milestone; it eradicated the bygone era wherein surfaces were mostly flat and textures were just images pasted on flat sides of video game objects. Doom 3 brought a whole new dimension in video game immersion.

And then John Carmack announced that the game's engine (id Tech 4) will eventually be released as open source. This news is just mind blowing. I've been playing freeware games for years now and mostly all are powered by Quake 2 graphics or even engines that are more ancient. For id Tech 4 to be released as freeware, well just imagine the slew of free games that will flood the Internet.

It is my hope that the release of Rage---id Software's current project that is powered by id Tech 5---will hasten the release of Doom 3's engine.

I mean what's not to like about this news? Freeware games with this level of graphics:

Woot! (Credit: id Software )

Rage video:

The link to the Gamespot article after the jump.

>>>Gamespot's updated impressions on id Software's Rage

MechWarrior 4 Update: Mektek Takes More Than 100,000 Hits, Crumples but is now Live Again

2010-05-05T03:01:00.009+08:00

Right after their announcement of Mechwarrior 4 being released as freeware, the Mektek site took more than 100,000 hits from eager fans --- and promptly collapsed under the torrent.

News from Battletech.com and Mektek after the jump.

I've noticed just this afternoon that Mektek is live once again. Aside from apologizing to the public about the buggy state of MTX, the site's download client, the people at Mektek have released news that they will soon be releasing a separate downloadable Mechwarrior 4 client that can be downloaded without using MTX.

The details from Battletech.com on what happened several minutes after the Mechwarrior 4 release.

Want more downloadable free full version PC games? Check out the links below:

>>>More free PC FPS HERE
>>>Free PC RPG games HERE
>>>Freeware strategy games HERE

gPotato's Final Verdict on the Aika Online IP Ban Issue

2010-05-02T16:10:00.005+08:00

Nearly a month ago, I wrote an article about gPotato's reply to my query about the IP ban that restricted the free MMORPG game to North American players. The issue incited an uproar as they made the announcment a day before their planned IP ban, restricting the game to North American players only.

Is this warlock doomed?

The final update regarding the Aika Online IP ban issue after the jump.

>>>gPotato's final update on the Aika service restriction HERE
>>>More free PC FPS HERE
>>>Free PC RPG games HERE
>>>Freeware strategy games HERE