While I always enjoyed swinging with a mouse instead of a toggle stick, the PC versions of Tiger Woods were getting the shaft on features for a few years. I’m very glad to see that Tiger’s coming back in such a “PC” way.

A very interesting development. This is no doubt to cater more to the console audience, as the Sam & Max games have been appearing places like XBLA and WiiWare. But as I recently expressed in my Broken Sword 3 post, I’m not married to the point-and-click control scheme in adventure games, as long as the alternative is well implemented. I’m not gonna lie, I do enjoy leaning back in my desk chair with a gamepad from time to time, when playing an appropriate game.

Dude, E3!!

The big surprise of the week for me wasn’t Will Wright “leaving” EA or the surfacing of Assassin’s Creed 2. No, it was the announcement of a new Painkiller game. Though it isn’t being made by the original game’s developer People Can Fly (who are now owned by Epic Games), it’s hard to imagine that a team (albeit one with no trackrecord to speak of ) using the same tech and the same gameplay framework could go wrong. Add co-op to the mix, and I’m on board.

Here in this video is an invaluable look at what id Software was like in 1993. Doom development was wrapping up with sound creation and performance optimization. It’s surreal to watch this video with the knowledge of what the shotgun will really sound like while watching John Romero play with placeholder sounds from Wolf 3D SNES. They had no idea yet.

GameTap is going through some major changes, mostly for the better from what I’ve gleaned from these blog posts. The GameTap client can serve as something of a hurdle for people. The ability to use shortcuts or launch from a website will make things much more accessible.

As for the changes, the main link above will give you a high-level description of what will be happening. These supplementary links are to blog posts that give more specific information on how games will download and play, what will happen to your current save states, and new subscription plans. Pay special attention to the subscription post if you’re a current or potential subscriber. I recommend signing up, as I have, for the $60 annual billing so that you lock your account in before the deadline.

I’ve always been more of a Quake man, but I can definitely appreciate what Unreal Tournament has brought to the table. Partly due to its sub-par server browser and interface but mostly due to its lack of a playerbase, I haven’t been able to get into UT3. That all seems to be fixed with Patch 4 and the Titan Pack. They both fix, change, and add a ton of stuff — maybe even an ass-ton. Check the link and decide for yourself. Also check out the new Betrayal mode. It takes one of my favorite things in the world – Instagib – and puts a fun twist on it.

I’ve found that reading these novel tie-ins greatly enhances my experience with the video games. For example, reading Mass Effect: Revelation before playing Mass Effect made me very familiar with the races and key locations in the galaxy, as well as some backstory on the antagonist’s agenda. I also have a greater appreciation for the Halo universe since reading The Fall of Reach. For these reasons, and the reasons mentioned earlier this week, I’m excited to get this Dragon Age fiction into my hands and then into my brain.

It’s about time. For a while there it seemed like EA didn’t want my money, what with the way they didn’t put Burnout on Steam.

Way back in April of 2008 I made a post talking about some of the games I was most looking forward to in 2008. Later, in November, I made another post reflecting on that list, what I’d actually gotten to play, and what I my impressions. Right now is that time of year just before games start getting announced en masse; GDC is just a few weeks away, and E3 has been moved to June this year, up from July last year. There are some PC games that we’ve known about for a while now which will probably be coming out this year, so I think I’m ready to share my list for 2009 right now.
Continue »

As I’m sure you’ve been conditioned to know, Spore was released this last Sunday, September 7th. I really wanted to play it on release day. Normally I don’t worry about this too much unless it is a game that I am especially excited for. If I recall correctly, the last game that I was determined to play on release day was The Orange Box in 2007. I downloaded it through Steam at midnight as soon as it became available. It was incredibly convenient and it made me happy to be a Steam customer. Things are not always this easy, however, especially when it comes to games published by Electronic Arts.

My experience in obtaining Spore inspired the message of this post. EA: I want to buy your games. Please make it easier on me.
Continue »