I got my 80GB PS3 yesterday and immediately downloaded the demo for Star Wars: The Force Unleased to try it out. I must say that even though I don't have an HDMI cable yet (I'm buying it later today) and have to run in 576i the graphics are really impressive. It proves my point that the screen resolution isn't at all as important as the physics rendering and general texture mapping.
My PSN-id: BionicSlanger
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It's been almost a year since my last contribution to GameSpot. A year full of turmoil, disappointment and cause for grudge.
It all started last x-mas when the company I've worked for for eleven years and watched grow from five people (including me) to about a hundred and fifty decided that they needed to cut down on employees to survive financially. I mistakenly though the board would handle it fairly in terms of order but no, without any consideration to length of employment at all they fired people with whom I'd been working closely for six-seven years and they kept people who were still on probation.
This, along with other circumstances, like re-organizing and implementing (enforcing) a development model/process that none of the engineers were accepting, made me consider working for another employer. This was a HUGE step for me since this was my first real place of work and my co-workers had become sort of my family in some ways.
I procured employment as a software engineer at another company and after the summer I started working there, new work place means new rules, processes and tools. Which basically meant learning everything all over again, but in a different way, which in turn left very little time to do anything else.
By now I've settled into my role in the company and I'm finally getting some order in my life so I'll be present more on GS from now on.
I finished the fight.
The prophet of truth is dead, the index is destroyed, the flood has been annihilated and Master Chief has gone into cryo stasis.
"Wake me up when you need me"
Those were his final words before stepping into the cryo chamber. It didn't take as long as I hoped it would. But then again I haven't pushed the limits in a game like I did with Halo 3.
I started playing this Saturday when I came home from a business trip, the game was waiting for me on my kitchen table. It's the first game my wife has ever bought but she must have known how much I wanted it. I played the campaign on Normal (next time I'll challenge myself) and I've played approximately 1.5 hours a night the past four days. So maybe six-six and a half hours to complete the campaign, it's a little too short when you take the price tag into consideration.
I left out the multiplayer parts since I don't like the way it's handled, I think you should be able to play online with Live Silver. But that's another rant that I wont get into now.
I dabbled a little with the Forge tool yesterday when I finished watching the end credits and the final cut scene but since I was alone it wasn't as much fun as it could be.
Tonight I'll replay the campaign on a more challenging level.
I was very excited last week when they announced The Orange Box on Steam.
I don't really have any interest in Team Fortress 2 or Portal but I figured since I want to own everything related to the Half-Life franchise I might as well buy the whole pack.
What irritates me something enormous though, is that I had to pay full price for it even though I already bought the Silver Package of Half-Life 2 and Half-Life 2: Episode One previously, both off Steam. I thought there would be some kind of price reduction when the buy was completed, but noooo.
Is that a good way to reward loyal customers? It pisses me off.
No, it's not a misspelling and it has nothing whatsoever to with Harry Potter. Last week I bought an XBox 360 and yesterday I bought Gears of War.
I've been looking forward to this game for years now, ever since I saw the first announcement a few years back, long before the 360 was released.
The 360 I bought was bundled with Perfect Dark Zero and Kameo: Elements of Power which are also two great games that have been on my most wanted list for a while. At the same time I also bought a few games for the old XBox that I haven't had the opportunity to play: Ninja Gaiden, Fable - The Lost Chapters and Jade Empire. I've played Fable and Jade Empire on the PC (as I've written in previous blog entries) but I've always wanted to play the original versions, and Ninja Gaiden have been a long time favorite of mine.
I also added some Microsoft Points to my XBox Live account and bought Castlevania: Symphony of the Night and Prince of Persia C1assic (css bypass) from XBox Live Arcade.
Great news on 
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Tomb Raider: Anniversary Pre-order Starts Today
May 29, 2007, 3:30 pm - Eric Twelker
Lara Croft Tomb Raider: Anniversary is now available for pre-order and pre-load for $29.95. The game will be available on June 1 throughout most of the world and on June 5 in North and South America.
Inspired by the first Tomb Raider videogame, originally released in 1996, Lara Croft Tomb Raider: Anniversary is a new 2007 adventure for Lara that faithfully preserves the elements which made the original Tomb Raider such a c-l-a-s-s-i-c (sorry, censor bypass).
Click here to pre-order Tomb Raider: Anniversary today.
I preloaded yesterday and now I'm just waiting for them to unlock it for me so I can start playing.
Finally a game that is released in Europe prior to it's USA release. Can't wait to relive this game.
Lately I've been totally obsessed with Jade Empire, every moment of free time I get is spent in front of the computer, playing what has grown to be the most appealing and immersing RPG I've ever played.
When BioWare first announced it I was thrilled, finally a martial arts action adventure role-playing game developed by the best in the business. But then I was sorely disappointed when they would only release it for the XBOX. I couldn't be happier when the Special Edition was announced for the PC.
The long-awaited PC version of Jade Empire retains the great story and setting of the Xbox original, but the streamlined combat and core design haven't aged quite as gracefully. Full Review >>
The Good:Complex story and characters rank among BioWare's best; pretty graphics and superb voice acting bring the gameworld to life; alignment system is well designed and adds replay value.
The Bad:Simplistic combat is unexceptional and unfulfilling; limited character-customization options make leveling up unexciting; only a scant few additions over the xbox version.
GameSpot
Let's just say I agree to disagree. But since I haven't played the XBOX version I can't really form an opinion.
Seagulls flutter above and the floor boards on the lower levels of the pier creek as the bald-headed man steps into view. His face looks like it has been chiseled from granite and the only distinguishing mark he has is a bar code tattooed in the back of his neck. He looks up at the broken down house above as the waves splash beneath him. We know him only as 47.
As he climbs to the upper level he spots an ice cream truck. The sign on it says "Freshly made for you" and they have many flavors including Rocky Road and Butter Pecan.
At the end of the pier there's an abandoned amusement park. There's a car parked in front of the gates with a sticker that says "Andrew Chiesler Attorney at Law". The door on the driver's side is open and there's a pool of blood in the front seat. There's also a large puddle outside the car with drag marks leading towards the entrance. He follows the trail and quickly disposes of a patrolling gang banger who gives him attitude at the gate.
After letting himself in he follows the blood to the gift shop. Two punks are guarding the shop's exit but they are easily distracted by the toss of a coin. He then enters the theatre in the opposite building and spots the lawyer, he's bound and gagged and tied to a pony ride, begging for his life. The man responsible for the bondage stands in front of him with a tank of gasoline in his hand, he pours it all over him and sets him on fire. While his screams fade and the arsonist lights his cigarette on his burning corpse our man emerges from the shadows and pulls out his fibre wire, making the process short with his assailant. He tucks the dead man's gun in his waist line.
He climbs a trellis onto a balcony and from there he crosses over to another balcony leading into a room with nothing but a coffee table and a worn down sofa. There's a shotgun leaning on the table which he grabs as he enters the next room. Two guys are playing cards but they don't even have time to get up before he puts their light out with two blasts from the shotgun and he stashes their bodies in suitable compartments, then he hides in the closet.
A disoriented third man dressed in a lab coat enters the room asking for help and when his back is turned he gets a taste of the fibre wire. His clothes and key card come in handy and our man calmly walks past several armed guards on the walkway heading toward the control room. In a supply room he finds a crate with baking soda in which he hides his gun enabling him to get past the security guard with the metal detector outside the control room.
He looks a bit like a plain-clothes Sam Fisher when he takes out the guard in the elevator hanging from the roof hatch. He walks over to the fuse box and pulls some plugs out leaving the adjacent room, which is a drug lab, in total darkness. He quietly sneaks through the laboratory where four girls waring nothing but bikinis and mouth cover work under strict supervision of three gang members.
No one notices him as he enters the men's room on the other side of the lab where a thug is relieving himself. He sneaks up from behind and by using him as a human shield he quickly disposes of the four men in the next room before scattering his brain matter all over the floor. I can't help to shrug a bit over the carnage portrayed before me.
He climbs a tower in the next room and grabs the Dragunov from the suit case in the corner. The three men who are guarding the premises outside are neatly disposed of by use of the sniper rifle. He exits the building and enters the office building across the court yard.
A pretty blond turning out to be his intended victim's secretary is having a conversation with one of the guards. When she is called into his office the guard walks over to the window to grab a smoke, he has no time to regret this mistake before he is pushed out of the window.
There's a bottle of cola on the secretary's desk, he sticks a poisoned syringe through the cap and retreats to the closet and waits. It doesn't take long for the poison to take effect and the girl crumbles behind her desk in agony. He enters the office of his intended victim and when he's shown the photograph of 47's employer's dead son and is told that it's the last thing he'll ever see he starts to plead for his life "Please...haven't I suffered enough?" He gets a bullet in the back of the head and is left to bleed all over the carpet grasping the photograph in his hand.
On the walkway outside the window of the office he finds an explosive device and a remote detonator. He climbs through the window on the other side of the building. He's on a landing overlooking what seems to be a storeroom turned bedroom and the leader of the drug ring is on the bed watching as a stripper is strutting her stuff in front of the bed. A couple of thugs stand beside the bed enjoying the show. He plants the explosives on a winch which on detonation causes a scaffolding to com crashing down from the roof killing three of the men instantly. He then takes care of the drug lord in what for him is an unseemly fashion, by use of a machine gun spraying him with at least eight shots.
When he leaves the room the mission is over and a tabloid is displayed with a big headline reading:
Hoodlum massacres 17!
The article itself describes every horrid detail of the veritable slaughter that took place on the pier that day when 47 reentered my life with the demo of Hitman - Blood Money, I can't wait to play the full version of this game.
I finished Tomb Raider Legend for the PC last weekend and today I bought it for the PS2. I must say I was a tad disappointed at the rather abrupt ending of the game. The last save I had said 68% and I figured I had at least three or four hours left of the game. But after the somewhat difficult boss fight the credits were displayed. The percentage probably just said how much of the game I had completed and was not related to my progress at all. I missed a lot of the artifacts on my first run of the game.
The graphics in the PS2 version are nothing compared to the PC version but more than holds its own when it comes to the console's standards.
I played the PC version with my Nostromo n52 and my Razer Diamondback and the controls were solid and simple, but it was still refreshing to try it out with the Dual Shock.
I only made one attempt on Bolivia today but I think I'll have the game beaten by next weekend. Until then...
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