It was chugging and making strange noises beforehand, but the F.E.A.R expansion demo did her in. Strange colors, trangles reminiscent of an Asteroids arcade machine, and an unbootable computer were at the funeral. Rest in peace, old friend. :(

I stumbled upon a superior Nvidia 7800. I've been loving it so far. In addition, for some reason other things that previously wouldn't work with the old card installed work perfectly fine now. It's wierd, but maybe it's all for the better. 

I actually beat it last week, around the time when it first came out.

It took me about four hours, and I finished it in one sitting. It totally lived up to my expectations, and the wall-walking and other innovative features really shined and made this game into something unique. The weapons are alive (literally) and the creatures feel like something you'd encounter upon a disgusting, organic planet.

One innovative thing that didn't awe me as much were the portals. They looked very cool, but they are, at their purest essence, doors.

Early in the game, there's some cool stuff when you interact with a portal, such as seeing yourself as go through a series in a continous loop, or having a barrel fall over with a portal on one side, through which a creature runs out and attacks you. Later on, though, they just become some a standard doodad that you must move through to progress through the level, and they lose their fun, wierd touch.

The game was also fairly easy. I often found myself rushing into rooms and clearing out the enemies inside with hardly a scratch! Of course, I understand that the difficulty varies from player to player, and it may not be just me. Perhaps Cherokee will give me a challenge.

The multiplayer is similar to Doom 3's in the fact that it feels out-dated. I just couldn't find it fun. There's some portals to run through and some ceilings to be walked on, and a vehicle to be operated, but that's about it. The standard man-to-man combat is pretty dull and, with the only game modes being Deathmatch and Team Deathmatch (at the time), it feels like a round of Quake.

All this aside, it's definitely better than the previous games using the engine, and definitely worth a shot if you're into alien-killing. (And who isn't?)

I'll admit: I've played some pretty scary games in my lifetime. To list a few, F.E.A.R, Silent Hill, System Shock - ask any other gamer, and you'll likely get the same list from them. However, I have come upon something that makes all of these titles seem like a T-rated platformer.

It's called "Afraid of Monsters." And by far - even with the not-so-scary name - it's the most terrifying game I've ever played.

This game was not made by a big company, and was not backed by a big publisher. The creator did not hire any horror movie masterminds to think up some scary moments and horrifying monster designs. Afraid of Monsters was made by one, single guy, and off the engine of Half-Life. Yeah, you'd never expect it, but this masterpiece is a mere mod.

The scares are absolutely genuine. I'm not going to spoil a single one, because you never, ever see them coming, and that's the beauty of it all. They mess with your mind, and in some cases leave you wondering what the hell you just witnessed / heard / encountered. Hell, on many occasions I have not wanted to continue further into the level - I simply exit the game out of terror, and that is something no game has made me done before.

And dear god - the "zombies" in this game are downright horrifying. They are the scariest monsters I've ever fought against in any video game.

If you're looking for something to tide you over in your wait for the F.E.A.R expansion, or you just don't want to sleep tonight, go ahead and download it here. If you've already got Half-Life (and you probably do) then it's totally free.

So I got into World of Warcraft again, and this time it was for the worse. In total, scattered within the past one-and-a-half months, I've poured about 72 entire hours into this game; three entire days. (Not three days straight, mind you.) Yeah, that's not too big compared to what those big WoW junkies play, but that time could be used doing better things!

The worst part is, (for most of the time, anyway) I'm not even having fun. I'm just trying to get my character up to level 60 as fast as possible so I can get up to my friends' level. It feels like a damn chore! And as soon as I get on, I know I'm gonna be in there for hours on end, and I end up doing so. To boot, my willpower when it comes to quitting is terrible.

So now after Patch 1.9, I've been looking back and seeing the error of my ways. After countless downtimes and laggy sessions, I'm finally realizing I've had enough and (hopefully) I'm gonna be quitting soon.

Of course, this has happened 2 times before, only not this much. Not 72 hours of gaming time in total! What makes this game so damn addictive I'll never know, but whatever it is I hope to never encounter it again. It's the beast.

I'm gonna have to uninstall this game and then give it to somebody to hide in a place where not even I will ever find it again! :P Let's hope it doesn't turn out like one of those movies where 2000 years in the future they dig it up and unleash it's evil powers again...assuming WoW doesn't have 3500 expansion packs at that time.

2005 wasn't a great year to look back on, with all it's horrors. (Tsunamis, hurricanes, etc.)

I suppose you know what that means...2006 has to be better! :P

Happy New Year, GameSpot! :D *passes out on table*

So I got the game for Christmas. So far, I'm having one hell of a fun time with it. So it's not the brightest crayon in the box, and the voice-acting isn't top-notch, but I will say that I'm having a lot of fun with it.

I suppose it comes down to what you see in a good game. Do you see graphics and audio as key in a game? Or do you simply look at the concept, or fun-factor?

Unfortunately, I can only recommend this if you saw the original movie and liked it. Even though I can barely remember the original and can't call myself a fan, there is little here for non-fans to appreciate. (I suppose the game simply appealled it because it seemed it was in my alley; giant war against giant aliens in giant scales, and killing them with giant guns.)

I'd give it a 6.8/10, unofficially. This isn't some big, final review as I'll be writing one later. (That about 2 people will probably read. -_-)

And one other thing: why must everybody trash game developers who make one bad game? After checking on the GameSpot Community reviews made for it, it looks like nobody's giving the developers a second chance. How can you possibly open the door to a new generation of game makers when you utterly discourage them for making one bad game? Bungie made Brute Force, and that was a failure, but were forgiven for Halo. What if they made Brute Force first? Quite frankly, Halo would certainly not be the game it is today. (Hell, I'd bet you the entire Xbox project would have gone belly-up!)

Either way, we can't spend all of our time playing our Halo, GTA, and Half-Life sequels. We'll need a new generation of "super games" and we need some more future-game developers to be encouraged. Not to say Strangelite (SST's developers) will be the bearer of a game-giant, but maybe someone else.

I remember seeing Starship Troopers when I was younger. In my eyes, I thought it was really good.* It was, in fact, one of the first sci-fi movies I've watched. I also recall thinking "how awesome would it be if they made a game based on this?" And they did; however, it was a real-time strategy game, and at the time I totally sucked at everything that didn't have a gun in the lower-right corner. Yes, I passed on it.

However, many years later, we have what could be considered my dream game. Starship Troopers? Check. Wars on alien-infested planets? Check. Hundreds of said aliens to kill? Check. Fighting alongside your space buddies to riddle their bodies with bullets? Hell yes.

I was totally excited for this baby. It was right up my alley. It had everything I'd want in a game! When the Troopers developers released a demo, I was the happiest guy on Earth, but when I actually played it I was shocked. Could this miserable chunk of bug guts actually be called a game? Because all I saw was crappy graphics, all I heard was washed-out sound, and all I really interacted with were grey-clad soldiers with nylons over their faces holding what appeared to be giant rectangles. The gameplay was so linear, and the overall effort put into this demo was terrible. It seemed like I was playing a washed-down early alpha of Halo. I was angry, at the best, after seeing all the awesome videos and screenshots around this game.

I sort of avoided talking about it until later, when the developers released a second demo. I shrugged my shoulders and, bracing myself, I downloaded the demo. Now what would I feel? Well, to my surprise, I was pleased at what the developers did to this game in such a short amount of time.

The utter-crap I had played earlier in the first demo was almost totally gone, and it was like a whole new game. New weapons, an exciting environment, and more balance was the tip of the iceberg. Unfortunately, this isn't enough to save the game. Sure, it was still pretty bad, though you must say, it could've been Half-Life when compared to the first demo I played a few months before.

As a Starship Troopers fan, I'd love to relive my memories of the movie in the game form which I waited for all these years. The developers could've done so much with this game, and made it not seem like Halo with a side order of suck. But hey, nothing will stop me from knowing how much I'd love to stand my ground at Outpost 29 alongside fellow marines. Yes, this game may not be as good as the next game, but it sure is fun. Simply put, yes, I'm going to buy this game. (As soon as I can find it in stores, that is.)

No, I'm not crazy. :)

* Had I saw it today I would've disliked it. :D I've seen so much better to this day as far as sci-fi goes.

I got my OXM today. I played the Battlefield 2 demo on it. Had I been playing Xbox more, I would've loved it. But now I don't get any excitement out of it, and out of Live.

So I'm moving on, away from consoles. PC is where it's at now. It's got everything that I would possibly need if I wanted a game for me: FPS, RPG, MMO or RTS. Do consoles have that? Only two.

I don't know when I'm going to unsubscribe from Live. But I'll definitely save a lot more money. After playing Area 51 on Xbox I lost faith in consoles, and then after playing Area 51 PC I realized how much better shooters were on PC. The graphics, gameplay and overall appearance stood out to me, and that's why I hung up the joystick.