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Warning! The following review holds heavy spoilers for Halo 3 and the series’ storyline in general. If you haven’t played the game yet and care a bit about its narrative, I highly recommend you NOT read the below text. Otherwise, you are most welcome to click the link below and crawl into my parlor.
Nowadays, in the near-constant, almost grinding hunt for something awesome to watch – be it a movie, a trailer or what not - I usually end up finding myself revisiting old videos from yesteryear; videos that in one way or another, inspired in many different ways a variety of childhood memories and daydreams. One of these videos is the original Battlefield 1942 Intro movie, a classic that has against all odds withstood the test of time.
The Cinematic was made nearly 5 years ago, in the by-gone era when Team Fortress Classic was still relatively well-known and the Pentium IIIs were slowly starting to be retired. While CGI was hardly unheard of then, to see such quality in a game’s intro cinematic was rare – rarer still was the game ever good enough to back it up (at least, in terms of how it played). What caught the viewer most about the trailer though, was the music. The simple, constant beat and rhythm it possesses can lead most persons – even those normally unfamiliar with the series – to recognize where it’s from. I still have the soundtrack – a precious gem closely guarded in the shallow – yet murky - depths of my MP3 player.
The freaky little girl’s back and she’s meaner than ever. Ladies and Gentlemen, F.E.A.R.: Project Origin has been announced. You can find the exclusive debut trailer from GameTrailers.com here.
Unlike the expansions FEAR: Extraction Point and the upcoming Perseus Mandate, Project Origin is planned to be a true sequel to the FEAR franchise. It’ll start approximately just before the ending of the first game and will be told from the viewpoint of a different character than the Pointman – right now it looks like a Delta Force member going by the name of Michael Beckett. The main story of the game, according to Monolith, is to focus on the central character of Alma – something which they intend to expand on with more sequels down the line. However, what is a fair bit more interesting than this, is the relation between Project Origin and that of Extraction Point, along with the fallout that’s happened between Vivendi and Monolith.
If there is one line that I were to choose to show awesome in all of games, those simple words from General Sturnn would easily fit somewhere in the top five. Although there are, indeed, many more memorable quotes to be had from many, many other games, there’s just something incredibly unsettling, yet at the same time slightly amusing about those words – something which most individuals acquainted with Warhammer 40,000 and the Imperial Guard in particular should know. The quote is from Dawn of War, one of the most insanely fun games I’ve had the pleasure of playing (at least in Single Player mode) and more specifically, from its second expansion pack: Winter Assault. Granted, the fact that I haven’t had the opportunity to play Winter Assault just yet is a black, horrible sin from my tarnished record - one, that will be soon wiped out, thankfully.
Now your probably asking yourself, why is Singh mentioning a really, really old expansion to the Dawn of War series, especially when its probably better to review or write something about the somewhat newer expansion, Dark Crusade? But bear with me here. The main point is the news that Relic has announced a new expansion to the Dawn of War series, aptly titled Soulstorm. Articles can be found here and here.
Ahoy thar me harties!
Aye, before you start readin’ this post, I’d recommend headin’ o’er t’ har and read up a bit on the most important day (okay, it isn’t but my mind likes t’ imagine it is) o’ the entire year: International ‘Speak like a pirate’ day, shiver me timbers! (not t’ be confused with the International ‘Speak Like the Goddamn Batman’ day or the far more local ‘Walk like I’’e been kicked in the balls by M$’ day which Enoon has been celebratin’ for the past few weeks). Due t’ the utter awesomeness o’ Pirates, I was goin’ t’ ask for a guest speaker t’ come in today, but it seems the Pirate-ninja feud sort o’ intensifies at this time o’ the year meanin’ their all out busy kickin’ ninja ass. So fer now its all me! YARRR!
*coughs as he’s kicked in the nads by several TAP members*
Okay, okay, fine! Onto more serious matters then. I’ve been rather quiet recently for several reasons. I finally got an Xbox 360 and my recent time has been divided between working, studying, writing and playing GoW, WiC, SoTS, PGR3 and a few other games.
We had already brought you news and screenshots earlier about the upcoming expansion to this year’s hugely successful C&C3: Tiberium Wars, which has been aptly named “Kane’s Wrath“. And now, we have an official trailer to go with the news as well, which can be found here.
Kane is an icon in a sense, and probably one of THE most enigmatic villains in all of gaming; one whom this expansion will teach us more about. The expansion is set both before and after Tiberium Wars, detailing everything from the beggining to Kane’s legacy and CABAL, to beyond the ‘ascension’ we see at the end of Tiberium Wars. The expansion will also add in several new units to both sides (it seems that the tick tank is returning in a fashion, as are the disruptor tanks of yore); while it’s most definitely confirmed that the Scrin will be involved in some way or the other.
Although in a way it’s not too good either. One of the qualities of Kane as a villain is the sheer amount of mystery that surrounds him; the fog that conceals not just his motivations, but the circumstances that led him to where he is now. To lift that fog is an anticipation that runs through the blood of many a C&C fan. Yet..yet there is that tiny bit of doubt…that tiny hint of fear that what one sees isn’t the grand masterplan that one would’ve imagined.
Such unveiling and disappointment has been seen in many other games before; where a previously cool, unique and somewhat strange villain is turned into nothing more than a tool or something incredibly shallow. But then, on the other hand there have been unveilings which have been awesome. Examples dont easily come to mind right now; but they are there, and the feeling still hangs over one’s self.
Either way, this one little gamer hopes that EA pulls it all off just right, and that the final legacy of the Messiah and Tiberium lives up to his expection - if not surpasses it. Until the game is released though, we’ll just have to wait and see.
No, this isn’t a spambot, nor is it an ad for that matter. You heard the topic right - there’s free stuff to be found on the internets, and now with 150% more legal awesome!
What I’m referring to, of course, is the announcements from both Ubisoft and EA, releasing some of their games to the public for FREE! That’s right, you heard it. FREE! (oh God was there ever a more glorious word?!)
To be more specific, EA has announced that the Windows XP version of Command & Conquer: Tiberium Dawn (the same one found in their C&C Pack, “The First Decade”) is now freeware, and is available for download in celebration of the 12th anniversary of the series. More details and download links can be found here.
This is a higly welcomed move - C&C Tiberium Dawn was pretty much what pushed the modern RTS era into what it is today. While older veterans may know that the system actually originated from the old Dune 2 games, C&C is pretty much what made it the standard. To see it free and legal - and most importantly working in xp - really brings about a tear to this old retro fool.
However, its not the only game that’s gone freeware. Ubisoft has also released three of their titles - albiet, ad-supported - on FilePlanet for subscribers. The ads are supposedly given only on loading and menu screens, but it may depend from game to game. The three games in this case are Far Cry, Raving Rabbids and Prince of Persia: The Sands of time. You can find the article on it here.
The direct download links to the files can be found here:
Raving Rabbids
Farcry
Prince of Persia
And to clarify: from the looks of it, you need just a basic account on FilePlanet to download PoP and Farcry, while Raving Rabbids doesn’t seem to have public servers (just yet anyway). With a little bit of searching, one may be able to find mirrors for the games as well. Or you could just them get them off the torrents at GameUpdates.org.