Category: Gaming

It’s that time of year. Were it not for gems and a few well placed downloadable releases, we would be drowning in boredom. Fez and Trials Evolution have saved the sanity of most people (though neither really tickles my fancy), Skullgirls has woken fighting gamers from their slumber, and World Gone Sour has at least put a smile on my face. But Everything else, for me, is just trying to catch up on old titles. Games I got tired of playing I’m giving another go (still having a hard time getting through Alice: Madness Returns, though…), and games that I got distracted from with too much other stuff going on I’m finally getting back to (Halo: CE Anniversary Edition).

But this is that time of year, and I hope you’ve noticed the pattern by now, where everyone bunkers down, gets tight lipped, and doesn’t discuss much. News stops breaking, games stop releasing, and we’re stuck playing mediocre-at-best titles for a few months while everybody out there tries to wait until PAX and E3 to “blow your mind” with their brand new game! Big and small studios alike, we’re stuck waiting for the next big thing.

Although, I must admit, this year is more promising than the last several. Fans of the first Prototype will have something to play again, soon. Max Payne is bringing bullet-time back in vogue (here’s hoping the film noir style pays a visit, as well). Minecraft will find a new home on the Xbox 360 and Starhawk will keep PS3 owners flying high. And every person who owned a PC during the 1990’s probably remembers playing some iteration of Diablo and may just be excited to hear that the third installment is finally about to arrive. Although it’s certainly not a drought of gaming, many of these titles do appeal to niche audiences. Here’s hoping that something is coming down the line for you.

In a recent interview with GameSpot, Cliff Bleszinski called on-disc bonus content an “ugly truth” of the gaming industry, adding “When you’re making a game, and you’re getting into a ship cycle, there’s often three or four months where the game is basically done. And you have an idle team that needs to be working on things.” Oh, CliffyB, how you’ve led us astray.

It’s because of events like this that people will continue to find ways to exploit that content (after all, their community did not take the news lightly). Charging $20 for some characters that were on the disc all along, as though you put in some additional hard work after the game released and then charged us for it seems absolutely insane. But was the precedent set long before video games and DLC became common place? Continue reading “20 things as bad as paying to unlock "DLC" that's already on a disc”

I’m downloading my latest GoG.com purchase as I write this. I realize I missed yesterday’s gaming post (with good reason), so I figured I would make for it by letting you know that one of the best games of all time is now available for a less-than-a-pizza $5.99.

What makes it even better? It’s big. It’s not just the version that originally had so much video content it had to span four CD-ROMs, it’s the version with DVD quality video, that had to span two DVDs. This was the first time, without a doubt, that you were literally playing a movie – you couldn’t blame pixelated video for your ability to suspend disbelief. Wing Commander IV is beautiful, and I would’ve paid any price for it from GoG – finding all of this hotness packaged into a six dollar download? Just makes it that much sweeter. So head on over to GOG and go blast some Border Worlders.

A fan project that ran for nearly ten years recently came to a close… or perhaps it’s only just begun. However you want to look at it, Wing Commander Saga is now available for download at multiple major gaming websites. There is even a torrent available for a no-waiting, download now kind of experience.

The game was made in the open sourced Free Space 2 engine, and has been polished more and more as the years went on. Since the root engine is so old, you can play it at max resolution on a current gen system and easily maintain an over-30-frames-per-second average. It’s now a full blown Wing Commander game in every sense of the word except legally. There is such strong fan support behind this that if EA, the current holders of the Wing Commander name, tries to shut these guys down, there will be an outcry from the fans. The projects been well publicized for the better part of a decade, they knew it was coming – if they try to step in now that it’s been released? It’s too late. But I won’t rain on anyone’s parade. Head on over to WCSaga.com and check out the details!