Gaming: Alien vs Predator

STORY TRAILER

This is the latest storyline trailer by Rebellion on Alien vs Predator. Just when you thought the game had no storyline, well, this trailer will put the naysayers to rest. Lance Henrikson continues to spook and whoop us with his fatherly mercenary type voice and I (as a fan) welcome it. Who else is better suited to play the role of Bishop other than the man himself? Oh man, I can't wait for this game to come out. The gaming world needs its AvP goodness back.

Gaming: Torchlight review up on Kotaku

So the review for Torchlight is up on Kotaku, which you can check it out. The reason why I specifically point out to Kotaku is because I find their review system refreshing and doesn't force any of their opinions on us, the user. They try to give a neutral review by giving the pros and cons and leave it at that. I think it is quite effective in their attempt to not make biased reviews, which most review sites seemingly do (often as of late).

Personally though, I find the game addictive. At first I tried the demo of the game via STEAM and before you know it, 2 days have passed and I had already made 6 characters. The demo has some restrictions, which are a character level limit and dungeon limit. I proceeded to buy the game so I can continue my excursions. And now, I play that in between my Dragon Age gaming as a temporary break.

What I like about the game is that it has everything that you would want in an action RPG. The graphics are colourful and easy on the eyes, the skill system is complete and allows freedom for a number of builds, and the storyline is simple enough (but engaging) that it doesn't interfere with the real gist of the game: getting better items. More details on the game can be found at the Kotaku review, which I am at an agreement with the points. A good start for Runic Games.

One more thing though, this game allows modding since they released the editor. The modding community is small but already churning out a lot of mods. I believe these mods will increase the lifespan of the game. Already I have used some of those mods, mods that change your pet cat to a tiger, have enemies use random weapons instead of fixed, a respec mod, brighter map mod, etc, etc.

Gaming: Dragon Age Origins Collector's Edition

November 3rd 2009 has arrived (I know that was yesterday but I was lazy) and I manage to snag my copy of Dragon Age: Origins Collector's Edition from The Software Boutique. Got some goodies as a pre-order bonus and I went home contented. Above are the content of the stuff. On the floor are the T-Shirt (large size) and the poster. On top of it are the contents of the boxed retail pack, yes it is wood. In the middle is the cloth map, above it is the plastic sleeve (top left) and on the right of it is the front lid of the retail pack. On the left side of the cloth map is the DVD retail pack and on the right is the back of the wooden retail pack. All in all, pretty sweet.

Unfortunately, my DVD drive can't read the installer DVD. However, it could read the bonus DVD with video content. I proceeded to test the installer DVD on a notebook and lo and behold, it could be read. So I am going to buy a new DVD drive. Hopefully I can play the game by today.

Gaming: Leaked L4D2 Trailer

Apparently there is a leaked L4D2 trailer that has made its rounds in the net. It's still hot since the news was from yesterday. I am not sure if it is really leaked or one of Valve's insidious plans ... Anyway, enjoy the vid.

Gaming: Aliens vs Predator

I have always liked the Aliens and Predator franchises. The original movies for both rocked and made their own niches in the market. Unfortunately the recent movie attempts are something less to be desired. However, fret not, the game is coming soon and it looks awesome. Rebellion have released the latest Alien trailer for their AvP game and it showcases some alien gameplay. Watch and don't pee in your pants ...

Video Games | Aliens vs Predator | Alien Terror Trailer

XBox 360 | Playstation 3 | Nintendo Wii

Gaming: Mass Effect 2 dated

One of the most anticipated PC games of next year has finally been dated by Bioware. Mass Effect 2 will be coming out in North America on the 26th of January 2010. Europe will be getting it 3 days later (29th). Hopefully, it reaches the shores of my country somewhere in between that. I can't wait to play Mass Effect 2, continuing the adventures of Shepard from Mass Effect 1. Hopefully, Dragon Age will keep me entertained until then.

Gaming: Dragon Age Character Creator tool

The interface

And so I installed and played around in it. There's not much you can do. You can muck about some graphical options but that's about it. Other than seeing what the character creator can do, there's nothing else. So I don't have much to comment about. The interface looks straightforward and after you have chosen your gender, race, class and background, you can only change the facial appearance of your character. There are sliders but it is quite simplistic. Just another tease before the full game comes out.

The main menu

A cute female dwarf

Gaming: Dragon Age character creator is out!

Just when you can't get enough of Dragon Age: Origins, there is more! Bioware just released the character creation tool to the masses! Presumably, you can download, install and create your characters as if you owned the game. The only downside off course, is that you can't play the game yet since it is only the character creator. Fortunately, at this point, any freebies by Bioware on their game is a warm welcome. I am downloading it as I type this so I will update this post when I have installed it and tried it.

Gaming: Champions Online

My characters, L-R: Pendekar Keramat, Durjana, Penjejak Neraka (Main), Flame Lord, Kesatria Angkasa.

My latest MMO foray has been Champions Online. As one of my articles from before, I was testing City of Heroes and I found that although the character creation was fun, the game itself was slow (IMO). So when Champions Online decided to come out to Open Beta phase, I was compelled to test the game. Suffice to say I was happy with the game and was planning to subscribe after a the first month of the game going live has passed.

Why not immediately? As any MMO gamer know, the first month of any MMO is usually frought with constant bug fixes and rebalancing. So I do not want to experience that. Not to mention there will probably be a lot of server down time as they apply new patches. That was my original plan anyway. However, my friends bought the game for me when my birthday came. So, being impatient, decided to subscribe even though my original intent was just to test to see if the cd-key was valid or not. Not that I don't trust my friends but more to make sure that the product works.

The game is now into its second month and it is still undergoing massive patches and fixes. However, the frequency is starting to slow down as they manage to fix the majority of the game breaking bugs. Unfortunately though, I seem to be experiencing a very weird network problem with the game. I am fine when I play the game alone but when I team, I get bad rubber banding which makes it unplayable. This situation is worsened since my main character has reached level 27 and most of the missions from that point requires teaming. In light of this, I decided to level up my ALTs to 20 so that I can decide whether to keep or scrap those characters.

Cryptic is trying to fix the network issues some users are having. I hope they fix it soon. In the meantime though, I am still having fun with the game. It is amazing how different the game can feel by what travel power you chose!

Gaming: Dragon Age Origins - A Living World trailer

Dragon Age: Origins is coming in next month and I can't wait! The only downside is that the game will reach my side of the world a week later than the release date which is 3rd of November 2009. In the meanwhile, just to whet our appetites, Blur studios have released a new cinematic trailer for the game and it is looking sweet. I think it is safe to say that the star of the trailer is the spider lady!

Gaming: The Road Rash that never was

So EA is saying that they are reviving some of their old games and most of us were thinking of their golden era greats. One of them was Road Rash! Man that game rocked when it was on the Sega Genesis (Megadrive for the Japanese version). It was the ultimate beat-em-up motorcycle game. I still remember playing that game for hours on end, hitting the nitro and see all the other bikes pass by ... only to hit a cow crossing the road and fly over a few kilometres only to hit the hard ground a few seconds later. Man, that was awesome. Anyway, a vid was leaked on the Road Rash that was presumably on production but halted.



News source: Kotaku