Category: Gaming


If I try to recall the time when the first Force Unleashed was being hyped, I can’t seem to remember them showing this level of badassness. It was only recently that I got my PS3, and the game didn’t look all that convincing to spend money on it right away. I ended up putting it on the back burner but eventually bought it real cheap and it turned out to be a decent game.

The sequel on the other hand is a totally different story. From the first trailer I knew I was going to buy it day 1. To make matters worse, the Collector’s Edition is now being introduced to the world.
It will include:

  • 3 exclusive challenge maps
  • an extra Starkiller skin
  • a lightsaber crystal
  • 2GB Starkiller themed flash drive with bonus content
  • artbook

Based on my previous encounters with CE items, I’m a little concerned about the quality of the packaged goods. For example, the steelbook is never steel, it’s just shiny plastic. And the images in the artbooks usually look nice, but the whole thing stinks of mass production (bad paper quality). And the bonus features aren’t that appealing either. But damn it, I must have it.
One little difference I noticed between the PS3 and the 360 versions is that the 360 version has 2 disks. I say that in a negative way, because if you ever owned a 2 disk CE, you are familiar with the impossible task of getting the disks out.

Once again the Fatality lovers can rejoice, because Ed Boon is working on a new Mortal Kombat title. After Mortal Kombat vs DC Univerese, Boon said that they will be returning to the original style of  MK in their next title, and sure enough the trailer seems to prove just that.

I do admit that I pretty much sucked in MK vs DC, and the challenges were horrible, but that won’t stop me from buying. Unfortunately, we’ll need to wait till 2011 to get our hands on it.

Apparently Portal 2 will not be making it’s debut in 2010, because Valve is pushing it to 2011. I must say, I’m quite disappointed. After the cancelled Portal 2 E3 event and the fake Half-Life 2: Episode 3 promo, die-hard Valve fans just can’t seem to catch a break.

Of course they are not made up of morons over at Valve, they probably had a good reason to do so. That still doesn’t make me feel better though.

I’m a huge sucker for adventure games, Monkey Island in particular, but there aren’t as many of  them around today. Yesterday Steam announced that they are selling Jolly Rover, a brand new addition to the adventure game genre with a demo included for the faint hearted.

Like many of the classics, Jolly Rover puts you in the boots of a wannabe pirate, and yes, the game is featured with dogs. Now, my favourite Monkey Island game was the 3rd one (didn’t have proper English skills for the first two) and Jolly Rover is kinda like the rehash of that in the beginning. Both start with the lead character being captured by pirates and is forced to escape his quarters to progress. This first act in both games’ demos.

Jolly Rover brings a few pop-culture elements to the play, like collectible items and a hint system, so newcomers don’t feel overwhelmed. As in the predecessors, the humour is a key element, though at times it seemed to be a little overdone. I’m also a bit unfriendly of the art style, it’s not that sharp or clean to what i’m used to.
The options menu is a bit underdeveloped as well. No resolution setting or shortcut keys to access your inventory, etc. At least I wasn’t able to find them.
All in all, I recommend the game to anyone who likes an adventure.

AdventureGamers review

New Driver game

A very cool video was put on the interwebz, the teaser for the new Driver game. If you are over 20, I’m sure you played with the original and remember the game’s “initation”. You know, the garage scene where you had to complete a series of test under a minute to qualify.

Well, the teaser does everything to bring back those memories.

You can compare it with the original:

By the way, what is up with all the title resets recently? Medal of Honor, Aliens vs Predator, and now Driver? This can’t be healthy.

Apparently DICE thinks their game is doing just fine. I for one think that it got boring as hell after two weeks because of the lack of maps.

Battlefield Bad Company 2 is a wonderful game, but it just doesn’t have the amount of maps to keep it interesting. We’ve been down this road before, releasing a map that shipped with the original game, but wasn’t available in all the game types. This time the VIP Map Pack 3 will broaden the playlist with two new rehash maps: Nelson Bay (SQDM) and Laguna Alta (SQR). This is a very lame strategy, and to make it worse, you need a VIP code to get it, the rest will need to buy it.

The consoles are going to get the update on June 9. At this point the PC release details are not set in stone, but it’s not dated for the same day, only as “soon”. I suspect there will be another map pack around September with actual new maps, because that’s when the new FPS titles are starting to come out and DICE will probably try to take the wind out of their sail (if they are not dumb). Till then, the game will remain on my shelf, uninstalled.

ePAM 1.02 in the works

At the end of May, I started working on a new version of the CoD2 Competitive mod. To what end is still a valid question, as I don’t think many people were using the timeout feature I implemented in the previous version, but to be fair it wasn’t really user friendly.

ePAM 1.02 will break the traditional server-side only model CoD2 and PAM had since the beginning, but hopefully for the better. The new version will give everyone the ability to call timeouts via the ingame quickmenu, but this requires the player to download the mod.
I got a few mails requesting that I make the mod like in CoD4, where people could use the quickchat menu to call a timeout, but I said that would make the mod client-side and could potentially break the game. Luckily when searching for a way to prevent the game ending bug (which is also fixed in 1.02), I’ve also found a way to make the timeout calling more user friendly and more like in CoD4.

The mod is still in beta testing, you can download it here: ePAM102b

Currently it only works with CB mods (playing official matches with this can get you in trouble). You can also call a timeout by typing “\openscriptmenu asd timeout” in the console (with this method you don’t even need to download the mod), or by binding it to a key. Please post any bugs in the comments. The final version will of course come with proper documentation, in the meanwhile you may ask questions here.

*Update*: if you haven’t noticed, the final version is available.