It is by now an Agreed Fact that I am interested in 00s first-person shooters. Such an Agreed Fact, indeed, that when a friend was clearing out his collection of old PC games, he offered me first refusal on claiming any of it. Among the classic titles I recognised, one stood out that I did not: Pariah.
An Unreal Engine 2 game by Digital Extremes? The people who worked with Epic on the original Unreal Tournament? You don’t have to ask twice.
Continue reading “Blog 839: Pariah”
So, Crysis.
I was in town a couple weeks ago and splurged a fiver on Crysis: Maximum Edition, which contains Crysis, Crysis Warhead and Crysis Wars. Since one third of that triad is multiplayer only, it is absent from the following.
I had been looking forward to Mass Effect 2 for a long time.
I remember when Mass Effect was all the rage. I heard it was an XBox exclusive that would never come to PC and stopped caring immediately. That was a long time ago.
Then it came out on the PC. Jack was all “lol this is teh awsum”, so I bought it hardly shy of release day.
Luckily there were no such shenanigans for ME2. A pre-ordered Collectors’ Edition arrived last Thursday morning, a day before true European release. Despite being unable to get my DLC entitlements due to the internet fiasco, ME2 did not require internet activation and I was able to get started… While I wasn’t raging at BT tech support people.
Very minor spoilers may ensue, but I don’t explicitly discuss plot details so you should be okay.
I got Borderlands with crimbo money. I bumped into Jack in Waterstone’s, then we picked up the last two copies from the Game in the Buchannan Galleries. For ten pounds apiece less than the Game on Sauchiehall Street, for some reason.
I have to say, it is a thoroughly enjoyable game. It is a breath of fresh air in a world of serious business. It’s so lovable.
I was initially skeptical because of its comedic nature, though. I read a preview that said it was hilarious fun, but only really if you’re playing cooperatively — and that’s quite a serious downer for me, a dedicated loner. Then I discovered it was all very stylised, with huge comic-book black borders around things, and I somewhat switched off (because I do tend to be into the whole serious business jig). Kilbirnie decided to get it, so I waited on his opinion (because we all know how well he can be trusted, right?). He said it was good. People on the internet said it was good. Since at least a few people I knew had it for the PC, that meant that I had good backup for cooperative play as a last resort.
Assuming one of us could get it port forwarded.
Theoretically, this is a festive blog — because it was many crimbos ago that I found the delightful Unreal Tournament waiting for me under the tree.
This is funny because that was way back when my parents were all “can’t let that Robbie have those violent shooter games, he’ll grow up to be a very nasty man” — and then they got me one of the bastions of computerised brutality. Also fun to note that I’m a lot less angry now than I ever was, after years of fragging bots. Coincidence?
Spurred on by my returning mouse control skills, I’ve been playing all three installments’ singleplayer campaigns. This is a little unusual; I’d usually spend large spurts on a single title (both on the campaign and randomised Deathmatches) rather than quick-fire slamming through them all.
This puts me in a very good position to objectively compare and contrast all three titles… Continue reading “Blog 374: Three Wise Tournaments”
Some of you might remember me crying about my recent performance in first-person shooters; long story short, my aim wasn’t what it used to be, and not just from lack of practice.
“What has happened to me? Have my wrists grown slack from old age? Have my once razor-fine reflexes been dulled by too much programming? Did I sell my pinpoint accuracy to the devil in exchange for the ability to dance?”
— Rao Dao Zao, Blog 346: Aim
Rao Dao Zao 