March 26th, 2009

Dude, box art!Sid Meier’s Pirates! is the 2004 remake of a game by the same name originally released in 1987 for the Commodore 64 during Sid Meier’s tenure at MicroProse. Arriving first on PC, this Firaxis-developed remake of Pirates! was later ported to the Xbox, the PSP and Mac OS X.

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.
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March 7th, 2009

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.

June 13th, 2008

When I first considered tackling the vast library of GameTap games for our cheap gaming feature, the first title that popped into my mind was Beyond Good & Evil. Subsequent deeper considerations unavoidably retrieved the same result. It grabs you by the soul. I’ll try and restrain repeating the “propaganda”. So, with news of the sequel on its way, let’s discuss the original.

Released in late 2003 to positive reviews, the game nevertheless sold rather poorly. It was a new franchise with an image that didn’t grab gamers’ attention… until later. Through word of mouth alone BG&E steadily grew a base of adoring fans long after it was considered a financial failure.
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