I sympathize with those CS 1.5 players who refused to accept change; Steam had earned a reputation for being buggy, ugly, and for being a drain on system resources. These sentiments were so strong that their echoes can still be heard in backwater message boards today. But Valve, like Microsoft, believed in their service; they forced upon their customers a necessary change — they insisted on progress. That’s to be commended. Unlike Microsoft, however, Valve brought about change without forcing players to buy a new system or to buy a new game.

I also sympathize with those Xbox Live players who don’t get to continue playing Halo 2, a game for which anyone playing today (in addition to service fees) would have bought several map packs. They — just as the 40,000+ people playing CS 1.6 instead of CS: Source as I write — still play Halo 2 either because they love it, or because they can’t afford a new system that runs the newer games.

Closed multiplayer systems are why I and so many other PC gamers are apprehensive when we hear StarCraft 2 won’t have LAN or Direct IP support, or that Modern Warfare 2 won’t support dedicated servers. Whether we have the resolve to not buy these games is irrelevant: our apprehension is valid. These games — despite our service payments, our buying DLC, and our loyalty — can and will be taken from us, and they won’t all have a “WON2.”

See my Bearly Commentary article for my thoughts on this news.

It took some time to get all three items, but I’ve gone to more trouble to get worse free stuff. It helps that you don’t have to input valid info. Worth it.

This skin is amazing. Opera should really make it an official option when version 10.5 is final.

Good or not, 3D Sonic has never made sense to me, so I haven’t played a new Sonic game since Sonic & Knuckles. I’m ready for this new game to be good; I love 2.5D. I only wish Sega had mentioned a PC version in their announcement.

Best headline of the week. Also, California is coming.

I love Black Box’s developer diaries, especially since they’ve affected a more casual, less scripted tone.

FlatOut 2 is a racing game that offers something for everybody. Single race, stunt or derby modes will best suit the dabbler. Just pick a mode, a track, a vehicle, and get to racing, death-defying, and destroying your way to victory. There is nothing to unlock, to buy, to sell or to upgrade. Some prefer to earn their keep, though, so for the arcade-racing purist there is a full career mode complete with the aforementioned unlocking and shopping as well as classes, cups, tournaments and special events. FlatOut 2’s modes can also be taken to multiplayer games via party-play (local), Internet (where a healthy group of people can still be found playing), or LAN. No matter your poison, FlatOut 2 is always all about the mayhem with its destructible environments, brutal crashes, tons of debris, and AI-controlled drivers that are not afraid to get their hands dirty.

I’m not a racing enthusiast by any stretch, but I can get down. I enjoy Forza, PGR, a bit of DIRT and a whole lot of Trackmania. I’ve even embarrassed myself by trying to play SimBin’s games. So when I saw the FlatOut games begin to drop in price on Steam, I decided it was time I gave the games a look.

I should preface by saying that I played using keyboard controls, though my Xbox 360 gamepad worked just fine when I tried it.

I began at the beginning with the original FlatOut. While fun, it definitely felt like a game from 2004 (mostly with regard to its physics), but I recognized that there was something to it. Not satisfied, I tried Ultimate Carnage, the most recent installment in the FlatOut series which was reportedly the victim on a shoddy port. This game was also fun, and the physics had come a long way in three years. While I didn’t experience prohibitive performance issues myself, I didn’t let that stop me from trying FlatOut 2. This is the “Baby Bear” of the bunch; FlatOut 2 is just right. It doesn’t have as much of the shine that Ultimate Carnage does, but it still looks great, the physics feel good, and the performance is markedly better. On top of that, it’s half the price. FlatOut 2 is the one to get, folks.

FlatOut 2 is available on Steam for $9.99.

Though the same whimsical spirit familiar to players of the previous entries of the Broken Sword series is present in The Sleeping Dragon, certain gameplay aspects differ greatly when played on PC, mostly due to the fact that it was designed with gamepads in mind. This is not a 2D point-and-click game as the previously-featured Broken Sword 2: The Smoking Mirror is. Rather, players control the 3D incarnations of George Stobbart and Nico Collard using arrow keys for movement and WASD to interact with other characters and the environment; the mouse doesn’t even come into play. Regardless of this deviation from convention, Broken Sword 3: The Sleeping Dragon has just as much of what fans have come to love from the series in the way of interesting puzzles, quirky characters, humorous dialogue and a great cast of voice actors. Except Beatrice; she’s fired.

It’d be easy to crap all over Broken Sword 3 as many fans have, but I’ve found that I have more of an affinity for Broken Sword’s characters and stories than for the core gameplay mechanics that they’re laid on top of. That’s not to say I don’t enjoy playing the Broken Sword games, whether it be a 2D point-and-click or a 3D adventure game, because I do. Neither control scheme is poorly implemented, and the elements that I care about most are present either way, so I don’t think it’s fair to be angry at whatever changes have been made. I don’t feel betrayed. I will say that playing with a gamepad will feel more natural than using a keyboard, but don’t let it keep you from playing if you don’t have one.

Broken Sword 3: The Sleeping Dragon can be purchased from GOG.com for $5.99 with guaranteed XP and Vista compatibility. A sample of the game’s soundtrack can also be downloaded for free from the Broken Sword 3 page at Revolution Software’s website.

Sid Meier’s Pirates! is a genre bender of a game featuring aspects of real time strategy, turn based strategy, simulation, stealth, exploration, adventure, and even some even light role-playing elements. Though Pirates! could be described as an amalgam of “mini-games”, that would be selling it short. There’s more depth to it than that, and everything is tied together nicely by the main character’s objective which is tracking down the evil Marquis de la Montalban who has enslaved his family. Activities such as sword fights, ship-to-ship naval battles, upgrading ships, turn-based land battles, trading with port merchants, capturing cities, and earning fame and fortune surpassing that of nine historical pirates are the locus to reaching this goal.


Available in HD

It has been years since I sank a bunch of hours into Pirates!, but I spent some time with it recently to capture some video and refresh myself for this post, and I can safely say that it holds up. At just $9.99 from Steam (or for “free”, if you’ve got a GameTap subscription), Sid Meier’s Pirates! is a game that no one should ignore.

I have been wanting to write a post addressing certain issues for quite some time, but I could never collect my thoughts well enough to put together a case to present. So during this year’s E3 I made a point of listening to responses from both the gaming community and the gaming press via forums, comments, blogs, and podcasts.

It is apparent to me that the press is not happy about where E3 stands as an event. I haven’t been able to discern whether or not if, overall, they are dissatisfied as games journalists or simply as gamers, but I am not sure that it matters. I don’t know that they have much reason to be upset either way.

Maybe it’s because I am not the type of person who enjoys being a part of a huge crowd and a big to do, but I never saw the point of the spectacle made at past E3 events during its “glory years”. I just wanted to know about games. That kind of spectacle is obviously in the past now that the show has become an invite-only event for press, but there is definitely an outcry lamenting the passing of the old show’s format. Many complaints are from the very people that were the most vocal in wishing for a smaller, more controlled show after 2006′s event. Now they don’t see the point in flying out to LA in the first place because there isn’t a party with booze, skydivers and tits around every corner. Things like that aren’t going to exist without public attendance, and with public attendance, the press isn’t going to be able to cover games, which is what they’re there for in the first place. Remember two hour long lines to get a shot at a Wii station? I was never there, but I remember watching people over a live stream online. It didn’t look fun. Most people had lost their voices by the end of the week. I almost felt guilty for consuming the news being delivered to me over the web.

Now the show floor is docile. The press can make their appointments and get to see and/or play most of the games that are there and they don’t even sound like they want to swallow a bottle of pills during their wrap-up shows at the end of the week. Unfortunately, those shows are riddled with complaints about how Microsoft can’t decide on their target demographic. Well, guess what? they’re running a business. They want to sell consoles to anybody that they can. I personally don’t feel ignored by Microsoft. They showed me Gears of War 2. They have Halo Wars coming as well as another alleged Bungie Halo project. They even shelled out for Final Fantasy 13. I’m still being catered to, so I’m perfectly alright with them making an experimental Banjo game as well as Lips.

I hear complaints that Sony is playing catch-up with shooters, movie downloads and community features, but a few months ago I heard the same people complaining that they WEREN’T playing catch-up. I can’t defend their other business practices because frankly, I’m a long way away from purchasing a PS3 for use as a gaming system, but give them a break when they deserve it.

I hear complaints that Nintendo is targeting the casual market exclusively. Really, who didn’t see that coming? Cover the games for what they are like you’re supposed to; Nintendo isn’t doing anything unexpected. Everything deserves equal coverage. Just like Nintendo’s entire market isn’t just casual players, your website and/or magazine’s entire market isn’t just the hardcore. Don’t alienate our parents. You’re trying to maintain and grow a reader-base just as much as the big three are trying to maintain and grow a player-base.

Maybe I’m being too much of an idealist when I think everybody should just be happy with what we get. That we should just take it in stride. Or maybe I’m just not as offended as everybody else seems to be because I enjoy the openness of the PC platform for much of my gaming time and only visit consoles for games in very specific genres. Either way, I have to say that, as a consumer and a person who has been gaming every day for the last 18+ years, I am walking away from viewing E3 coverage very excited for the future. It doesn’t matter to me that a bunch of executives made asses of themselves on stage while trying to make their games seem fun, innovative or exciting. I’m not reading or watching to be entertained by men in suits or to see a party going on that I can’t or don’t want to attend. I don’t care how empty the show floor was or if there was little to no general public awareness of the show outside of the building due to lack of “signage”. Why would they waste money making their presence known? It’s a press event; “signage” would just attract the very public that they are trying to keep out. Maybe that causes the event to be not so worth the mainstream press’ time, but if we have to use tits and skydivers to get their attention so that we can attain some kind of artificial feeling of legitimacy, we’re doing something wrong in the first place. There’s a deeper problem.

Or maybe it really is the fault of Microsoft, Sony, and Nintendo. Maybe they should cater only to the limited market that is the “hardcore” or “otaku” crowd. It has kept them afloat financially up to this point, but I’d personally rather see them maintain the balance that they’ve been struggling to hit by appealing to a casual audience as well. Let them perfect that. I want to see the market expand. That’s the ultimate way to obtain legitimacy, if that’s what we’re after.

But if we go that route, do we really even need E3? I say yes. It’s important to have a press-only event so that blanket coverage is possible. Rapid-fire coverage is a fun time for consumers. If all of the game companies’ “megatons” aren’t revealed there, that’s okay. Something always gets revealed that wasn’t supposed to. This year we had a KOTOR MMO and a new Pikmin game. No Kid Icarus? Most of the press were meeting rumors of the revival of that franchise with a resounding “meh” during the lead-up to E3. Afterwards, Nintendo is chastised for its absence. I’m willing to wager that if it had been shown the response would be “tell us something we don’t know”, just as the responses Microsoft received were due to their leaks. We have unrealistic expectations, people.

I don’t think I am wrong in saying that our own press has become a little bit jaded and that their priorities have deviated. I feel like the current attitudes are doing our industry a bit of a disservice, but I also don’t think the gaming community is helping matters much by jumping on the bandwagon. I want to ask everybody to reflect on what I’ve said here as well as our industry, our hobby, and our culture for a moment and ask yourself what you really think about where we are right now and where we’re heading.

Geometry Wars: Retro Evolved was released originally as a mini-game within Project Gotham Racing 2 for the Xbox. Chances are good that you’ve played at least one iteration of GeoWars. However, you may not have known that it is available on the PC, and for less money than anywhere else.

The premise is simple: shoot the shapes. Also, try not to slip into epileptic seizures. You play by moving an androgynous spaceship-like entity around a grid, all the while attempting to avoid as well as destroy any shapes that come flying at you. Collide with a shape and you die. As time goes on, you rack up points and the game becomes increasingly hectic. Extremely hectic. I find the game to be very difficult, but that doesn’t keep me from coming back to it from time to time. It also won’t keep me from recommending it to you. Even if you suck at it, you’ll have fun with it. It’s worth every penny.

Geometry Wars: Retro Evolved can be purchased on Steam for $3.99. Alternatively, it can be purchased on Xbox Live Arcade for 400 Microsoft Points ($5), or played through Project Gotham Racing 3 on Xbox 360, which I would imagine could be found for fairly cheap by now.