--------

* AB reads a walkthrough
AB: 5 - Save often. If you think there's a risk of being killed, save. If you enter a new area that loads, save. If you haven't saved in awhile, save.
AB: . o O ("If you sneeze, save. If an NPC talks to you, save. If the Time Since Epoch is evenly divisible by 2, save.)
shodan: If you've just saved, save

--------

* AB reaches the point where he can't pick up any more 10mm ammo
AB: 150 rounds
AB: JC probably sounds like someone dumping money into a coin sorter whenever he runs.

--------

AB: The Smuggler wants you to rescue his pal, Ford Schick.
AB: Ford Schick's character model is based on Warren Spector.
shodan: . o O ( * AB finds Warren Spector. <Warren> Ah, I'm so glad you're here! They're-- * AB whips out his shockprod and zaps Warren Spector. <AB> That's for designing a game for consoles *first*, and then *porting* to a PC! )

--------

AB: I'm just amused by how intruder-friendly the security cameras (among other things) are in the Deus Ex universe.
AB: I mean, here we are, only in the year 2006, and our security cameras are silent.
AB: Apparently this "silent camera" technology becomes a thing of the past by the year 2052

--------

* AB amuses himself by standing directly behind an NPC while chatting with him
AB: * AB right-clicks on the NPC. <NPC> *pivot* <NPC> Blah blah blah. <NPC> *pivot*
AB: * AB right-clicks on the NPC. <NPC> *pivot* <NPC> Blah blah blah. <NPC> *pivot*
AB: * AB right-clicks on the NPC. <NPC> *pivot* <NPC> Blah blah blah. <NPC> *pivot*
AB: Etc.
shodan: <NPC> Woah... gettin' dizzy...

--------

AB: I'd forgotten that Deus Ex keeps track of how many times you've saved your game.
AB: * AB saves his game. <Deus Ex> You've saved your game 108 times since starting. And you're only on the 3rd mission. <AB> SHUT UP!

--------

* AB sneaks around the sub base
* AB finds a door with a switch.
AB: <Sign> MECH STORAGE AREA. NO ELECTRONIC DEVICES.
* AB opens the door.
AB: <TankBot> Oho! *blamblamblamblamblamblamblamblamblam*
AB: . o O (<JC> Okay, okay! Sheesh! * JC turns off his cell phone. <TankBot> Thank you. * TankBot stands down)

--------

* AB discovered a handy use for the "Super Strength for picking heavy shit up and stuff" aug
AB: Picking up the ubiquitous exploding barrels and putting them in strategic locations.
AB: (Like, say, right behind a security bot.)
AB: <JC> Here. Hold this for a sec, wouldja? <Bot> ?

--------

AB: <UNATCO soldier> They've got hostages in the subway! They've boobytrapped the platform!
shodan: . o O ( What're they going to do, hijack a train? )
shodan: . o O ( "Take this train to Cuba!" )
AB: <UNATCO soldier> If only there were some... * UNATCO soldier makes an exaggerated finger quotes gesture <UNATCO soldier> ...alternate method of getting in to that subway! * UNATCO soldier very obviously and significantly glances down at the steam grating right next to him
AB: <UNATCO soldier> Yep! Probably would be PRETTY EASY to take out those terrorists if we had some ALTERNATE method of entry! * UNATCO soldier glances meaningfully at the steam vent again <JC> ...
shodan: IF! ONLY!
AB: <JC> How about this steam vent here? <UNATCO soldier> You tell me, nano-boy. You're the ninja.

--------

shodan: <soldier> They've boobytrapped the platform, and they've taken hostages! <shodan> Hostages, eh? Well, that's their problem. * shodan tosses a couple LAMs down the stairs
shodan: <shodan> . o O ( Dumbasses shouldn't have gotten 'emselves kidnapped )

--------

AB: <Tracer Tong> We've got to deactivate that bomb in your head! This will be a very tricky procedure! We may not m-- <JC> Yeah yeah, get on with it. They're not going to kill me in the middle of the game. Nobody on the planet is going to seriously think I'm in any danger, so let's avoid the bogus "suspense".

--------

shodan: I never did manage to find Gunther's killphrase
shodan: Or rather, the other half of it
AB: I did.
shodan: Killing him was a pain, he's pretty badassed
AB: Definitely remember ganking him with his killphrase in the French Cathedral or wherever it was.
AB: <JC> Laputan machine <Gunther> ! <Gunther> I AM NOT A MACHINE! <Gunther> *urgle* *slump*
shodan: heh
shodan: I think I only knew the "machine" part
shodan: <Gunther> I KEEL YOO! <shodan> Yeah, hang on a sec, chief. Let's play a game! When I say "Machine", what immediately comes to mind?
shodan: <shodan> (blank) Machine? Any ideas? Can I get a hint?
shodan: * shodan whips out a dictionary. <shodan> Aardvark Machine? Abbot Machine? Acorn Machine?
shodan: * Gunther chases shodan in circles around the cathedral. <shodan> Aaaaah! Copy machine! Soda machine! Answering machine! Rube-Goldberg Machine! <Gunther> You're /way/ off

--------

* AB maintains the practice of completing all the listed secondary objectives first before tackling the primary objective.
shodan: That'll show 'em
AB: Primary Objective: None
AB: Secondary Objective: Find the cannister of Ambrosia in Castle Clinton
AB: * AB dicks around before tackling the castle, and runs into the subway situation.
AB: <Infonet> *dee-dee-beep* Primary Objective: Free the hostages. <JC> Okay, time to take on the castle. * JC --> Somewhere else <UNATCO soldier> Where you going?
shodan: heh
shodan: <JC> Well, they're hostages. It's not like they're going anywhere any time soon. I've got some other stuff to do.
AB: <Infonet> Primary Objective: Free the hostages from the subway <JC> Oop, gotta go pick up my dry cleaning.
shodan: "That reminds me, I've got a... food... in the oven, or something."
AB: "I left a child on the sidewalk on fire."

--------

* AB enters the Hell's Kitchen portion of the game.
AB: I think this was my favorite part of the game.
AB: My mom's dad was a preacher. And I grew up in a fairly religious household for several years, until my mom discovered marijuana and partying.
AB: So when I was a kid and first heard that there was a section of New York named HELL'S Kitchen, I was all shocked and stuff.
AB: . o O (That's the word HELL in there! Can they DO that?)

--------

* AB is amused by the UNATCO agent standing there, leaking copious amounts of blood everywhere, and saying "We've got the situation under control."
shodan: 'tis but a flesh wound!
AB: * UNATCO troop squirts blood all over the pavement at a rate of about 2 liters per minute. <JC> Might wanna have that looked at, soldier. <UNATCO troop> The area is secure. <JC> That's not what I-- Never mind.
shodan: <UNATCO troop> Don't worry, JC. I'm plot-related, so I can't actually die. (but this really, /really/ hurts!)
AB: <UNATCO troop> Permission to speak freely? <JC> Certainly, corporal. <UNATCO troop> AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGH! AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGH! OMG OMG OW OW OW! AAAAAAAAAAAGH! <JC> Feel better? <UNATCO troop> Yes, sir. Thank you, sir. * UNATCO troop collapses at JC's feet <JC> Good man. Carry on. * JC walks off.

--------

* shodan couldn't hope to kill Gunther in a fair fight
shodan: Him and his stupid flamethrower
AB: . o O (<shodan> So I killed him in an unfair fight! Hah!)
shodan: Yeah :)
shodan: When you walk into the cathedral, it triggers him running up to you, giving a chance to use the killphrase, then he opens up on ya.
shodan: But before then, he's just standing there.
AB: . o O (<shodan> So I stuffed a LAM down his pants and made WAKKA WAKKA noises.)
shodan: If you stand in juuuuuuuuust the right spot, there's like, one or two pixels of him visible if you use your sniper rifle, and he won't respond if you hit 'im.
shodan: Three or four sniper rounds into the tip of his nose did the trick. :)
AB: Hah.
* AB prefers the killphrase method
shodan: Yeah, I just never learned it. :)
shodan: Well, *I* knew what it was.
shodan: *JC* didn't know what it was. :)
AB: . o O (<shodan> Well, *I* knew what it was.)
AB: . o O (<shodan> But shouting it at the screen seemed to have no effect.)
AB: . o O (<shodan> "Laputan machine" <Gunther> hmm-hhm-hmmmm <shodan> "Laputan machine." <Gunther> Doo-dee-doo <shodan> LAPUTAN MACHINE! <Gunther> Ho-dee-do-dee-do. <shodan> DAMMIT! Stupid game!)

--------

AB: <Paul> Okay, I'll meet you down at the police boat. <JC> Why don't you just walk down there with me? <Paul> You have to go to the bathroom. <JC> No I don't. <Paul> Well, uh. You're probably not going down there right this second. So I'll meet you-- <JC> Come on, let's go. <Paul> I...uh...can't. <JC> Why not? <Paul> Game doesn't have the subroutines built in to let me follow you.
shodan: heh
shodan: <Paul> I mean, I *want* to come with you, but... can't seem to uh, remember how my feet work.

--------

AB: <Sick Woman> Spare five credits for someone who's got the grey death? <JC> Sure. Here you go. <Sick Woman> God bless you.
AB: <JC> ...
AB: * JC taps foot, looks at watch
AB: <Sick Woman> Yeah? <JC> So, like, aren't you supposed to dish with the secret info now that I've been all compassionate and shit? <Sick Woman> Spare another five credits for someone who's got the Grey Death? <JC> Sure. Here you go. <Sick Woman> God bless you.
AB: <JC> ...
shodan: <Sick Woman> Spare five credits-- <JC> Look, I've already given you a total of 725. When are you gonna tell me something useful? <Sick Woman> Spare five credits? <JC> HERE! SHEESH! Now tell me something already!
AB: Yeah. I think I gave her about 30 credits before concluding that the game developers were just being sneaky and fucking with me.

--------

* shodan hasn't played deus ex in a million years
AB: It's still just like it was when you played it the last time!
shodan: <guard1> What's with these gas grenades? "Prolonged exposure may irritate bronchial passages"? What's that supposed to accomplish? <guard2> Might as well give 'em cigarettes.
AB: <Anna> Are you going to wear those sunglasses during a night op? <JC> My vision is augmented. <Anna> It's still makes you look like an amazing dork.
shodan: <JC> They're surgically implanted to my ears. Can't take 'em off.

--------

* shodan recalls one amusing silly-AI moment in deus ex
shodan: (Well, one of many)
* shodan was in some locked room (unlocked the door, went inside, relocked it).
shodan: At some point, enemy soldiers are supposed to run in. One generic NSF guy runs in, *SMASHING* through the door, a locked cabinet, and a couple of crates before running up to me
shodan: (I was /wondering/ how I was gonna open that cabinet with no lockpicks; thanks dude!)

--------

AB: * JC finally goes in to Manderley's office after thoroughly exploring the rest of the UNATCO facility.
AB: * JC explores Manderley's office, reading the paper, books, random datacubes, etc
AB: <several minutes go by>
AB: <Manderly> That's where YOU come in, Paul.
* shodan snerks
shodan: * Paul and Manderly wait patiently for JC to come two centimeters closer to trigger the dialogue
AB: I'm not sure which amuses me more: the idea that Paul and Manderley just sit there gape-mouthed while JC casually rifles through Manderley's office, or the idea that Paul and Manderley are like those animatronic exhibits at Disneyland.
AB: * JC wanders through Manderley's office, edging past some very wooden/plastic looking replicas of Manderly and Paul * JC accidentally bumps a switch on Manderley's desk. * Manderly swings slowly around like a robot, his voice starting out very, very low and slow, like a record being played VERY SLOWLY. <Manderley> t-t-t-h-h-a-a-t's where you come in, Paul.
shodan: heh
shodan: Mouths open, they do their line, mouth jerkily closes
shodan: * paul's arm falls off for no readily apparent reason
AB: Mouth opens and closes like a ventriloquist dummy, with minimal synchronization to the spoken words.
AB: <JC> . o O (huh.)

--------

* AB snerks
* AB wanders through the little shanty-town thingy in Battery Park in the second mission for Deus Ex.
AB: In one building, a UNATCO trooper is standing there. In the next building over, just on the other side of the wall, is an NSF terrorist.
shodan: heh
shodan: . o O ( Both of them certain the area is secured )
AB: *nod*
AB: * JC sneaks up and accidentally knocks over a box <NSF Rebel> Hey! You hear something? <UNATCO Soldier> Nope. You? <NSF Rebel> Yeah! Sounded like...HEY!

--------

AB: As much as I dig the Deus Ex storyline, there are some spots in the exposition that are funny.
* AB just re-watched the intro to remember one of the bits.
AB: <Walt Simons> We have other problems. <Bob Page> UNATCO? <Walt Simons> Formed by executive order after the attack on the Statue of Liberty. They-- <Bob Page> Why did you bother mentioning that? I *know* when and why they were formed. <Walt Simons> Exposition. Filling in the game players so they'll know the background. <Bob Page> Ah. Yes. Carry on.
shodan: <Simons> I'm not actually talkin' to you. I'm talking to /them/. * Simons looks directly into the screen
AB: <Page> No! You'll break the Fouth Wall! You'll doom us all! * Page lunges at Simons in slow motion

It was unique in that it did not ask you how you wanted to do something in a level, but what you wanted to do in a level. True, it did occasionaly shunt you down a way you didn't want to go but on the whole it's still incredible.

The voice acting was superb, especially Tom Hall's Walton Simons, one of the greatest video-gaming villains ever made. He was calm, calculating and the dark mirror of your character. In one scene you can sneak into a detention centre and watch him interrogate prisoners. One of them backtalks him and he whips out a sawn-off and starts shooting. If he spots you he simply says "You saw nothing".

The graphics weren't great at the time and look crap today but there is a mod project called HDTP (high definition texture pack) which aims to greatly update the graphics.

But I can hear you asking "What truly makes it a great game?"

The action. While in most modern FPSs we see characters take hundreds of bullets, drink some juice and feel fine (or as Call of Duty 2 brought in, recovering from a bullet to the cranium by sitting behind cover for a moment or two) in Deus Ex your character will get ripped apart if you aren't careful. Headshots truly are lethal, and your character will die if he takes one.

So with so much vulnerability you become cautious and plan your approach, carefully waiting for you crosshairs to come close together so you can finally get that headshot. And when you miss, it's always incredible fun to improvise your way out of the ensuing fire-fight.

However, Deus Ex 2: Invisible War was terrible. It was set even further in the future than the original DX, and the dev team from the first didn't work on it. Not only that, it was consolified, so all the graphics were awful and the levels tiny, due to the consoles' crappy specs.

DX3 is currently in the works, and they already have forums up for suggestions and comments.

One of the worst things done this year was the lack of reasoning for most of their picks - You mainly get a hammed up summary of the game. Such as the first line of the Gears of War summary: "So! Macho! He's gotta be, so! Macho!". Yeah, quite. You retards.

Anyway, here's Part 1of my PC Gamer Top 100 Reflections, 1-20.

20 System Shock 2

The 5-20 bracket is effectively the Silver medal category of games, and in this respect you have to wonder how a game of this caliber fell so low. System Shock 2 was the definitive horror shooter a genre only really brought to modernism in the sub-par FEAR games. SHODAN was ranked as one of their favourite villains of all time and yet they obviously don't respect the game as much as they should.

This game is still an utter masterpiece even now, a remake needs to happen.

19 World in Conflict

I played this game, it's basically just Act of War a few years later with all the base building taken out. I don't see whats even remotely special about this title, it's been done and quite often not much worse.

18 The Longest Journey

Won't pretend to know what this is, anybody?

17 Anachronox

Ok, i'm not doing well :P Never hear of it, but I have heard good things.

16 Armed Assault

Understandable in the Top 100, but simply not special enough for this bracket imo.

15 Galactic Civilizations 2

The GalCiv games were ambitious and brilliantly aimed at the Sci-fi TBS market which is the safe haven of many power nerds, myself included. Sadly there aren't many in the rest of the run up. I couldn't help but think that this game lacked the interactivity of it's ancient predecessor Master of Orion. Then again, this game is vastly more complicated.

14 Thief 2

Thief is one of those brilliant games you keep going back to ... Not because you think you can squeeze that extra gold piece out of the last level ... But because you want to fucking see the last level! The Thief games are on that shelf you all have of games you want to beat ... But genuinely can't.

13 Eve Online

Is anybody else of the opinion Eve is what you get when you finely craft a game engine ... And forget to put the actual game in? I know there's a million screaming mathematicians who're explaining to me exactly why it's better than every other game in at least 40 billion different ways ... But my God ... That game was dull. Like work ... Without the wages.

12 Bioshock

How. Did. This. Ever. Outrank. System. Shock. 2.

*Sigh* It's still a great game, but you know it's true.

11 Civilization IV

I will admit, Civilization IV is probably the best incarnation of the series on quite some time. There is a problem with it though ... It lacks any real je ne sais quoi if you know what I mean. The old ones were new and completely revolutionary ... Then the next incarnations just added more and more content. The only thing really new here is the inclusion of Religions. *Shrugs*

10 UFO: Enemy Unknown

This game shares something in Common with Thief ... I've played them both plenty of times over my many years of Video games, but I have never finished a game. Hell, I don't even get to a decent level of research most times. Isometric Alien Invasion ... Never got better.

9 Planetscape Torment

Never played this ... I kinda regret it.

8 Hitman Blood Money

Is anybody else thinking "Why this and not Hitman 2?". I found after Hitman 2 the character and the plot became so diluted I couldn't help but think it was rubbish. Most of the levels were either frustrating or pathetically easy. Hitman 2 felt like a nice balance and it certainly felt much more poetic.

7 Oblivion

I fucking hate this game. I. Fucking. Hate. Games. Although, I will admit that the prospect of modding this game makes it definitely worth a look. A brief one through sun glasses though.

6 Portal

Should've been number 1 and I whole heartedly mean that.

5 Medieval II Total War

I haven't played this ... Because I let the first one and Rome steal hundreds of hours from me. I love these games, but I always thought that the games don't play out realistically enough in combat ... Which is peculiar considering thats what this game is supposed to be all about.

4 World of Warcraft

What can I say ... This doesn't surprise anybody. Blizzard still owns 10 million subscriber's souls and I'm one of them. I can't help but feel that they could be doing more ... But they insist on making three games at a time. Crazy fuckers.

3 Half Life 2

If you haven't played this game then you should, then you should go on the internet and download the top 20 most downloaded mods (don't miss Garry's Mod for 1,000s of hours alone). Then you should buy the Source multiplayer pack. Then you should go out and pick up Half Life 1 and do exactly the same again. Then you should download Poke 646, that mod is awesome.

Then you should realise you just spent about $40. Thats fucking it.

Best Engine ever made, by the best developers in the industry and you don't even have to pay out of the nose for it.

2 Deus Ex

Deus Ex is utterly timeless and every gamer I know has been forced into playing it at some point ... And they loved it. Every god damn one of them and who wouldn't? You play a cybernetically enhanced special agent who travels across the world to uncover and eventually topple a deep running global conspiracy involving aliens, AIs and nasty guys called Majestic 12.

It's enthralling ... But not only that, it featured non-linear level design to encourage you to do all those little tricks you've been practicing. And just in case you were doubting my fandom ... NSF001, smashthestate. Bitch.

1 Team Fortress 2

See, now this confuses me. Not only is this game a multiplayer game ... But it hasn't really done anything to write itself into the history books. It has a daring style ... And it's brilliant fun ... And I will be playing it for years but what is it really?

It's Team Fortress ... Painted up to look pretty ... With the grenades taken out.

*Shrugs* I love it ... But #1? I don't know.

Games Missing from this Top 20

Syndicate, Theme Hospital, Total Annihilation, Half-Life, Call of Duty 4, Psychonauts, Defcon, Starcraft, Diablo 2, Warcraft 3, Unreal Tournament, Red Alert 2, Grim Fandango, Monkey Island, Age of Empires.

Yes, I know I just listed 15 games and most of them are either offensively poorly ranked or not on the list at all. Would you believe that Command and Conquer 3 is on the list at 68 ... But Total Annihilation isn't on it at all. That is fucking wrong.

I've had enough, this is probably the second worst Top 100 they've ever done. Get in the guys who actually played the games when they came out. Sheesh.

Regards,
JamesR.

I've tried to get the guys together a few times to make a Top 100 but it always falls through, who's interested in maybe shooting for a Top 30? We could sit down and do it some time before I move.

Is interactivity to mean "I take an action the system reacting revealing a little bit more of the artists work" and nothing more? How is that any more powerful or expressive than covering a Picasso with a curtain and requiring that I slowly draw it back?

We have had hundreds of years of art as the single vision of an auteur, the nature of games provides a new medium for that that form of art, one that is interactive. But it also offers much more besides. It offers the possibility for a form of art unlike any we know today, a form that is truly subjective, explorative and multi-dimensional.

Will Wight doesn’t offer truly shared authorship, he offers a toolset in which I can be expressive, he gives me a canvas, paints and a brush, then encouraged me to create. It’s not really shared authorship as all I experience of his vision is the restrictions he places upon mine. None of my acts affect his core work in any way, I might create to my hearts content but underneath everything of mine his vision remains. It's a form of creativity and expression largely unlikely any I've had before, but it is not shared creativity or expression.

Grand Theft Auto IV is flawed, but it (and more specifically games like Deus Ex [Ion Storm Inc / Eidos Interactive; 2000]) point towards an expressive medium when I can define my reading of a character and see how that interacts with and affects the original creators reading of that character and their world. It points towards the possibilities for the creation and exploration of truly subjective representations of characters and places. A medium where a creator can define a world and I can modify the actions of a character within it, witnessing the consequences of those actions and their affect on the world itself, and thereby start to learn and understand more about both that world and its creator, and myself. A medium, an art form, where I can truly explore the vision of the creator in a way not possible at any other time in history.

Addendum:

In the same way that I don't envision such a medium leading to the redundancy of literature, or cinema. I don't feel that having such games will make other different types of games any less important; which I guess in some way might make me a cop out.

Emil Pagliarulo went to the Bethesda Games Fallout 3 forum and left a few enlightening posts, let's start with armor in Fallout 3:

I know it's been mentioned in some preview or other that all the apparel (armor and clothing) is a single suit. Headgear is separate. There are a LOT of apparel options, and yes, there are are some pieces of clothing that give stat boosts, so if you decide to wear clothing and not armor, you'll still get a discernible gameplay benefit.

I've seen some apparel/headgear combinations I never wood have imagined (some which involve a big pre-war lady's sunhat...)

And real time combat:

For us, balancing the combat is very much a "feel" thing. It's something that takes a ton of playtesting (involving the entire dev team), and determining what feels right for everyone. It's all about finding that nebulous perfect balance between player skill and character skill.

In run-and-gun, melee feels a lot like melee in Oblivion. If you connect with the weapon, you hit. There's no die roll to determine that. But your character's skill, as well as the condition of the weapon, determine the damage done.

In run-and-gun, ranged combat is... I dunno. I'd say it feels a lot like Deus Ex 1. Accuracy is affected by player skill and weapon condition -- so if you've got, say, a really high Small Guns skill and a perfect condition assault rifle, your aim will be dead on. Low Small Guns and crappy assault rifle, and you'll miss more. The skill and condition also affect the damage you'll do.

With most ranged weapons in run-and-gun, you can also go into an aim mode, which zooms you in and increases your accuracy. With Melee and Unarmed weapons, the player will block instead of zooming in.

Based on all the feedback we've gotten, it feels really solid now.

Of course, V.A.T.S. is its own story completely...

I'd say for combat, I generally go 70% V.A.T.S., 30% run-and-gun (but that's different for everyone, really).

Finally level scaling:

I'd say that:

a.) because of the issues some people had with Oblivion's leveling
and
b.) the fact that we've really been focusing on the importance of overall game balance...

...this is something the dev team has come back to time and time again during our playtests, and is something we're still tweaking. We've finally gotten it to a level that we feel really good about.

So basically, if you do the main quest path and adhere strictly to that, there are some areas that are set up to match your level, so you don't get your ass handed to you unfairly while just naturally playing the game. But certain paths and locations are more difficult, by design.

It's also the case that the farther you wander out into the Wasteland, the more you're taking your life into your own hands if you're not prepared. I mean, hey, a Deatchlaw's a Deathclaw.

And, um, yeah -- no Raiders in Power Armor.

Okay, I'm just blaming my procastrination on Valve's content delivery system, but damn it's a time sink.

It all began with playing System Shock 2, which if you don't know, is a damn fine FPS-RPG game from several years back. Getting your hands on a physical copy is like finding a piece of the True Cross, in my experience, but it's available... elsewhere. Now, on playing this epic sci-fi horror thriller hacking awesomesauce game, I started to yearn for other such genre staples, like Deus Ex.

Plus, y'know, it was damn fun playing at 3 am with the lights off and headphones on.

So, I go looking for Deus Ex. Wikipedia handily tells me that the game of the year version is available for purchase on Steam. So, I install Steam, and buy it. Much fun and fustration is had playing the first level a couple of times in different playstyles to get used to it again.

Then I remember. "Hey, I have my old Half Life box somewhere, I wonder what happens if I put the code in?" So I did, and got a ton of games for it, from the expansions to the multiplayer stuff. Cool, I figure, and I start to mess about on all those old classics again, dreading that every step in HL1 takes me closer to Xen, and getting some cool mods downloaded. (Such as, to my embarrassment, the Dragonball Z mod Earth's Special Forces.)

It's at this point that I remember that Steam has Audiosurf on it. Audiosurf, for those unaware, is an example of Rez meets Tetris meets any song on your hard drive plus cool vizualizations and synasthesia. I downloaded the Demo, played around five or so songs that were allowed, and when the demo time limit came up?

I bought it. Just like that. Much eye hurt and rapid mouse movements followed as I started playing through some of my favourite tracks among other things like getting slaughtered in Multiplayer games and eyeing the game mods section of the Steam Store.

Dystopia and Age of Chivalry were responsible for me buying The Orange Box on Monday. Well, that and the fact it has -Portal- in it.

Now, I went to open the actual game when I was in KFC, indulging in a guilty pleasure of Popcorn chicken, and I realised... HMV hadn't removed the security tag. The security tag that was over the indentation to get into the game box, and had a strip going along the back to prevent the case being opened. And with my train due in 10 minutes, no time to head back into the City centre. Damn.

But the blood of Rogues and Thieves pumps through my veins, and with the help of two screwdrivers and an animalistic determination to get my game, I circumvented it!

I know I'm a little out of date, but Half Life 2 is pretty, very pretty. Currently enjoying the rather run down setting that is City 17. Portal is... well, Portal, you can't say anything more than that, and maybe 'It makes me tingle in happy places'. Completed, and now struggling my way through the Advanced and Challenge Missions.

Team Fortress 2 is surprisingly fun for a non FPS Multiplayer fan like me, but I'm not that great on it, so it's reallly a case of just practicing and trying to get used to playing such games.

I also later picked up Garry's Mod, but it currently doesn't work due to a Source update, but it's getting patched. I want to start floating TF2 characters again on balloons and then doing some target practice.

So, that's the cause of a current lack of updates. Normal service will be resumed soon, I promise!

Conheci um site em 2002 que se chamava FalhaNossa, que indica os erros dos filmes. Muito embora, acho que a maioria dos erros apresentados nos filmes são conceituais, e são mais a interpretação pessoal do que realmente um erro.

O grande lado deste site, não importando o que é erro ou não, é a percepção das pessoas em encontrar detalhes estranhos ou mesmo absurdos,curiosos nos filmes. Um jogo de 7 erros dinâmico. Mas de jogos, não encontrei ainda quem o fizesse.

Então vou listar alguns erros, não digo erro de gráficos ou polígonos, (estes seriam os erros conceituais ou estruturais), e sim erros mesmo. Como falha de lógica, fisica e outros detalhes. E listar os dez melhores games.

Erros Games:

• Em quase todos os jogos, senão todos. A municação do inimigo (que é comprovadamente limitada pelo jogador) não acaba nunca;
• Os chefões que em muitos casos é uma variação de um soldado comum tem o quadruplo de resistência e força que o personagem normal. (Em muitos casos, são humanos)
• O superman em todos os jogos é morto por uma barra, um pedaço de pau, um tiro de qualquer pessoa na rua;
• Em alguns jogos com o Mercenaries,Splinter Cell e Hitman, podemos com uma metralhadora atirar na cara do soldado e ele não morrer;
• Já aconteceu de no jogo do WCW vs NWO do nintendo 64, os oponentes (companheiros de luta) se baterem, sendo que o jogo não permite mirar a si mesmos. (E eles faziam isso)
• O NPC (No-Player Controll - Não é controlado pelo ser humano) ser um ás do jogo. Bate em tudo, mas basta ela ficar do nosso lado, e vira uma múmia paralitica. (Exemplo: Diablo GF do Final Fantasy VIII, Luke ou Wedge Antilhes do Rogue Squadron);
• Nos jogos Resident Evil (Todos sem excessão) não importa se você é membro da S.T.A.R, se é Rambo ou uma pessoa normal, irá enfrentar os zumbis do mesmo modo. (Falo isso,porque eles dão importância de um grupo especial, e não faz nenhuma diferença esta informação) até no REVIL 4 tem alguma melhora de golpe baseado em botão dinâmico (Aparece um botão na tela, e você aperta), mas não melhora em nada;
• Nos jogos Silent Hill limitam tanto o personagem, que um papagaio manco pode nos bicar. Foge da realidade - ninguem só bate com uma chave de fenda na mão, sem ela não faz nada? No SH 5 - Origins, houve uma inovação neste quesito, mas não faz diferença alguma, já que quando você da um soco - os monstros agora são aprendizes do Jet Li;
• O computador age como um deus - ele tem o mapa do jogo na cabeça, ele sabe onde você está sem ao menor rastro de para onde você foi. (Ex: Hitman Contracts se você atirar em um segurança, no final de um corredor, não importa se você tem 20 saídas, ele vai direto para você sem demora).

Lista dos dez melhores games:

1.Freedom Fighters -

• a)Música - 100.0
• b)Jogabilidade - 96.0
• c)Sons - 100.0
• d)História - 10.0
• e)Cenários - 96.0

2.GhostHunter

• a)Música - 100.0
• b)Jogabilidade - 96.0
• c)Sons - 100.0
• d)História - 96.0
• e)Cenários - 100.0

3.Hitman Contracts

• a)Música - 55.0
• b)Jogabilidade - 80.0
• c)Sons - 96.0
• d)História - 98.0
• e)Cenários - 100.0

4.Hitman - Blood Money

• a)Música - 100.0
• b)Jogabilidade - 96.0
• c)Sons - 100.0
• d)História - 90.0
• e)Cenários - 100.0

5.Phantasy Star Universe

• a)Música - 100.0
• b)Jogabilidade - 100.0
• c)Sons - 100.0
• d)História - 100.0
• e)Cenários - 98.0

6.Legend of Zelda: Twinlight Princess

• a)Música - 100.0
• b)Jogabilidade - 70.0
• c)Sons - 100.0
• d)História - 100.0
• e)Cenários 100.0

7.Dungeon Siege I

• a)Música - 100.0
• b)Jogabilidade - 90.0
• c)Sons - 100.0
• d)História - 100.0
• e)Cenários - 100.0

8. Deus Ex

• a)Música - 100.0
• b)Jogabilidade - 100.0
• c)Sons  - 100.0
• d)História - 100.0
• e)Cenários - 99.0

9.Flight Simulator 2002

• a)Música - 0.00 (Não tem)
• b)Jogabilidade - 95.0
• c)Sons  - 100.0
• d)História (no caso simulação) - 100.0
• e)Cenários - 60.0

10.King Kong

• a)Música - 100.0
• b)Jogabilidade - 100.0
• c)Sons - 100.0
• d)História - 100.0
• e)Cenários - 100.0

Legenda das categorias:

Música - Trilha sonora, músicas dos estágios ou músicas de situação (Ação, parado, vitória, derrota).

Jogabilidade - Facilidade dos controles, movimento da camera, acessibilidade dos recursos do jogo, aprendizado dos comandos simples e complexos e controle do personagem mediante o ambiente e situação.

Sons - ruídos,barulhos de complemento, onomatopéias,sons das pessoas,aparelhos,natureza.

História -  A trama, o tema e gênero. O desenrolar da história, o envolvimento dos personagens e o jogador. E principalmente se existe uma alternativa para vários finais ou vários caminhos durante o jogo.

Cenários - Ambientes 2D/3D, iluminação, cenas de vídeo, construção dos personagens (Orgânicos e inorgânicos). O mundo virtual no geral.

Noticias:

Blender Brasil prorroga prazo para o Contest do Mascote do Blender Pro

Galeria da 3D1 atualizada (Minha parte preferida)

1° Temporada do Amazing Stories (Histórias maravilhosas) 24 episódios (4 DVDs)

Obs:

A loja eletrônica submarino é segura. (Link do Amazing Stories)

I finally beat a game for the PS2.  An amazing game, at that :)

Game-play wise, it was good. Story-wise, it was very intricately woven with some astonishing revelations. It actually reminded me of an old PC game I was very much enamored by... Deus Ex.

I think the thing about the game that surprised me as much as it did, was Snake's reason for living, in the purest sense.  For those that haven't played it, I won't ruin it, but I will say that I was pleasantly surprised.

Now it feels like I at least won't be in the dark when MGS4 gets it's playtime. I may start into MGS3 and potentially MGS1 prior to playing #4, but we'll see how time goes. Lots of house work and yard work this week won't be leaving me much game time.

Deus Ex was a computer game created by the now-defunct ION storm that came out during the aforementioned impressionable period of my life. This game isn't aesthetically pleasing by any stretch of imagination. It's gritty, ugly, in a very superficial and unintended kind of way. It is based in imaginary near-future where nanotechnology and artificial intelligence are just coming into full gear among the financial and political turmoils of a new human age. Conspiracy theories based on some real-world conspiracy fads play an important role in the setting and the plot, and there are lot of techno-jargon thrown around in one of the numerous conversations within the game world which might add to its depth. Any way you look at it, Deus Ex is not a work of art, and it was never meant to be. Deus Ex as a game was designed to be immersive. Immersive as in realistic within the confines of the plot and available technological means to execute that plot. Whatever the Deus Ex was meant to be, it did its job and it did its job fantastically. Deus Ex took itself just serious enough to be immersive.

I played and finished Deus Ex numerous times since the day it came out. The game had the semblance of a virtual world, just enough to be a better game, not enough to be a real virtual world, which was actually a good thing. I'd figure out a number of different ways to achieve the objective of the specific stages and the game as a whole, each of those paths gradually beginning to encompass different processes that the designer of the game probably never intended in the first place-a first form of truly emergent game play on digital medium. I can still remember a number of quotes and conversations from the game by heart, not through any diligent study, but simply through repeated exposure stemming from the interest in the world itself. And to be perfectly honest, while I was aware of nanotechnology and its growing prominence before playing the game (I was a little precocious for my age), I began to truly comprehend what such technology could mean to the world and the people in the far future by seeing it applied within the virtual world built and maintained by fictional premises. It would not be far from to truth to say that my interest in 'industries' of biology and other fields of science (with my current 'official' pursuit being plasma physics, which is an entirely different field altogether) began with my introduction to this game... I place much emphasis on the term 'industry' because it was through the application of the idea of technology within a virtual (no matter how absurd it might be compared to the real) world that I began to grasp the requirements of science and its true impacts in the modern human civilization of rapid prototyping and mass production. Yes, I've come to learn that science effects the human world as a whole, just as the hand of economy reaches into the deepest pockets of the remotest corners of the globe, and such permutation of ideas and information might have a reasonable pattern of causality behind it, forming a system of sorts. All this at the first year of high school, all this because I've seen it applied in a limited virtual world whose goal was to entertain, perhaps mindlessly.

People talk of the web 2.0, the web based virtual reality (like the second life) all the time, perhaps without grasping what it truly means. To me, the change on the web and its technical and semantic updates are merely superficial effects of the real change that is taking place right now. The real change we are about to face at this moment, is the change to the nature of the human network. I find that I'm using the term human network more often these days. The human network had been present since the very first moment of human civilization (perhaps even before, going back to the start of the human species) and has the same mathematical and sociological properties of networks that more or less remains the same on some compartmentalized level. The changes we are seeing in the emergence of the web 2.0 ideas and virtual realities merely reflect the technological advances applied to the same ever present human network that had been in place for as long as anyone can remember. At the core of the web 2.0 is the idea of user interactivity. What happens when there is a freedom of interactivity between millions and billions of people? The medium providing the room for interactions itself begins to take on closer resemblance to the concept we call 'the world.' Forget reality. What is a 'world?' What satisfies the definition of a 'world?' The core of a 'world' as it stands happen to be a place where people can interact with the very components of the world itself and with each other. In that sense, if our reality somehow forbid certain type of interaction between us and the 'world', it would cease to be real.  The world as seen from information perspective, is a massive space/concept/thing for interactivity, and interaction between the 'things' within the world builds and evolves the form of the world itself.

The web 2.0 in that sense, is the beginning of a virtual world that builds upon human interactivity rather than superficial (though still quite important) reliance on resembling the physical characteristics of the real. And the real change being brought on by the advent of the web 2.0 thought to the general population is the enlargement of the perspectives of the real world brought on by interactions with other human nodes within the virtual world. I am not suggesting that people are somehow becoming more conscious. Just as I have demonstrated with my old experience with the computer game Deus Ex where seeing certain kind of ideas applied to a virtual world left an impression of impact of such ideas on a rapidly prototyping, global world, the population of this world is becoming increasingly aware of the true global consequences of their and others actions and thought. It is the awareness that in this highly networked world, science, industry, economics and politics all walk hand-in-hand as 'ideas' and its currencies, a single change in one sector of one corner of the world giving birth to certain other events on the opposite corner of the globe in entirely different field of ideas. It is the beginning of the understanding of the malleability of the human world and its thought.

I've started with remembering my experience with an old computer game, and came to the talks of virtual reality, the human network and the changes of the world. I hope I didn't confuse you too much. This is what I call 'taking a walk', where I begin with one thought and its conclusions and apply them to different yet related thoughts to arrive at interesting ideas. In case you are wondering about the game itself, it seem that they are giving it away for free now. Go grab it and spend some time with it. It's still fun after all these years.

Deus Ex

Set in a dystopian world during the 2050s, the central plot follows rookie United Nations Anti-Terrorist Coalition agent JC Denton, as he sets out to combat terrorist forces, which have become increasingly prevalent in a world slipping ever further into chaos. As the plot unfolds, Denton becomes entangled in a deep and ancient conspiracy, encountering fictional recreations of organizations such as Majestic 12, the Illuminati, and the Hong Kong Triads throughout his journey.

Deus Ex: Invisible War

Invisible War takes place twenty years after Deus Ex, in a world being rebuilt after a catastrophic event called The Collapse. Following a terrorist attack that destroys the city of Chicago, the player assumes the role of Alex D, a trainee at the fictional Tarsus Academy, whose support is sought by several organizations. As the game progresses, the player learns of conspiratorial factions which seek to drastically change the world. Invisible War was designed to allow player choice in both plot and gameplay, with branching plot lines and emergent gameplay elements.^[6] This freedom of choice was widely praised by critics.^[7][8][9]

Invisible War is set twenty years after Deus Ex, and is based on the premise that a combination of all three of the original game's possible endings occurred.^[17] The actions of JC Denton in Deus Ex caused the world to descend into a period of war and economic depression known as "the Collapse",^[18] during which several factions built themselves into world powers. These factions include the World Trade Organization (WTO), which converted many of the world's remaining metropolitan centers into highly regulated city-states; The Order, a religious order which created a new world religion from elements of all major religions and sociopolitical principles;^[14] the "Knights Templar", who advocate the complete prevention of biomodification; the "Omar", a society of heavily biomodified humans possessing a group mind, which runs a global black market, and wishes to become a transhuman race through biomodification;^[19] and ApostleCorp, which seeks to help JC Denton achieve his goal of biomodifying every human on Earth, and thus equalizing the race. While JC Denton is seen by the public as a threat to society, these organizations seek to use or eliminate his power to rebuild the world in the way they see fit.^[10] In keeping with the series' conspiracy theory theme, several of the major factions are revealed to be secretly connected — the Knights Templar originated within The Order, while the WTO and The Order are separate branches of the Illuminati.

Deus Ex 3?

(stylized pyramid with eye)

More:

Half Life 2: Anti New World Order Video Game

Battlefield 2: Special Forces - Fight FOR the New World Order (!!)

Apocalyptic Video Game Features Global Government Takeover

Let's get something out of the way first; Deus Ex 2: Invisible War is a great game...but no, it is not as good as the original Deus Ex.  Ok, so maybe I won't actually be courting any controversy with that comment, especially considering that the majority of fans and critics alike seem to agree with me in this regard.

Invisible War takes place twenty years after the events of the Evil Wombat's Official Greatest Game of All Time (Deus Ex, keep up people!), and things have gotten rather post-apocalyptic.  Due to the wonderful storytelling tool that is ‘retconning', all three of Deus Ex's possible endings occurred simultaneously, and the world is now up the proverbial creek as a result; nations have collapsed, disease is running rampant, various shadowy and nefarious organisations are being all shadowy and/or nefarious, and JC Denton (the protagonist and hero of the original game) is nowhere to be found.

The player steps into the unisex shoes of Alex D (gender can be chosen this time around), a student at the Tarsus Academy for gifted youngste...err, potential secret agents for hire.  Soon enough the academy - oh, and the entire city of Chicago - is levelled by terrorists, and the player is thrust into a world of shady conspiracies and difficult questions of morality.

Deus Ex 2's storyline and setting are pretty interesting, and the fact that the concepts of good and evil are left entirely up to the player to decide (unlike the original game, which had distinct "good guys" and "bad guys", albeit not in the traditional sense) is very different to most games; none of the potential organisations that can be joined are remotely angels, but none of them are evil in the traditional sense either.  This moral ambiguity is perhaps the most important single feature of the game, and is one that is pretty much timeless in terms of storytelling and gameplay due to just how thoroughly it is executed.

Timeless, however, does not necessarily mean awesome.  While unravelling the real motives behind the various factions is definitely enthralling, the lack of any real moral compass prevents the story from being as emotionally satisfying as that of the original Deus Ex.  The factions themselves are also a little clichéd; Greedy mega-corporation? Check; anti-technology religious nuts? Present and accounted for; genetically modified people that are no longer really human? They're in there too.  It's a shame that, after the (relatively) original storyline of the original game, the developers felt the need to fall back on more traditional sci-fi concepts for the sequel; even worse, this rather more traditional sci-fi story also clocks in at being significantly shorter in length when compared to the original game.

Gameplay has been significantly "dumbed down" (I prefer "streamlined") for Deus Ex 2, but this is not really that bad a thing; in fact the elegance of the new bio-mod interface (which is now the sole way to customise character abilities) and the removal of the more traditional RPG points-style interface of the original is a welcome step in making gameplay more seamless.  Many fans probably disagree with my feelings on this, but to me the interface of IW is much more in line with more modern FPS hybrids (such as Bioshock), and the streamlining that has occurred places the focus firmly on the plot. 

The gunplay, stealth mechanics, and other basic gameplay elements are also much improved from the original, and feel a great deal more realistic when compared to the stilted and often jarring combat of its predecessor. The simplification of the tile-based inventory system, as well as the use of a single, universal ammunition, however, has significantly removed much of the tactical consideration from combat; where once the player had to choose whether they would lug around the rocket launcher at the expense of various small arms, now it is possible to carry pretty much every gun in the game at the same time, which has the dual effect of reducing realism and making combat a tad easy.

It's not all doom and gloom, however. In some good news for the modern day gamer, the once steep system requirements for Invisible War are now easily achievable on even a basic computer, and a quick download of the hi-res texture pack (Google it) will have the game looking surprisingly good for its age.  

However, the (once) fancy graphics come with a bit of a price (or more specifically, IW's simultaneous development on the RAM-limited Xbox); unlike the original, which often had huge, open, and sprawling levels, IW will have  the dreaded loading times at what appear to be 30 second intervals.  There are no buts about it, the areas of Invisible War are miniscule in size, and this really takes away from the sense of scale and freedom that the game needed to completely pull off the potential of its complex setting.

It's a funny thing reviewing a game like Invisible War, even in a retrospective review like this one.  On the one hand, it is the unfortunately inferior sequel to one of the most loved games of all time, and as such it is all too easy to point out flaws and nitpick until even Warren Spector would disown the game; on the other, it is definitely a brilliant game, and is definitely still worth a play despite being over five years old.

With graphics that have stood up well, a surprisingly relevant storyline (conspiracies, globalisation, and terrorists ahoy!), gameplay elements that are at once both simple and deep, and of course a rather superb price point, (I've seen it for under fifteen dollars) means that Deus Ex 2: Invisible War is a worthy purchase for those wanting to spend some time in a dark, amoral world, even with the numerous flaws; the fact that Deus Ex 3 is now on the way means that there is really no excuse not to get both games out and give em a good working over.

The Dentons will thank you for it, although the Illuminati might be a little pissed; it depends on which endings you choose really.

How I would have rated it on release: 8/10 (If this wasn't the sequel to Deus Ex it would have merely been called a brilliant example of a hybrid FPS; as it is, this game is still terrific, albeit with some flaws that detract from the experience.)

How I would rate it now: 7/10 (While it may not look as hot graphically, the game has aged surprisingly well, and the conspiracy-laden storyline is even more relevant in these turbulent times; the tiny areas, aggravating flaws, and frequent load times, however, are even more annoying in this day and age.)

- Tim Sweeney

Alec Jacobson, skilled swordsman.

You can't fight ideas with bullets, oh really?

Maggie Chow, weak woman.

The annoying kid.

Silly old man.

A bomb!

Easily the most brilliant single-player game ever. The more serious youtube video's also show much of the game I've completely missed and I already completed that game several times. I guess I should complete it again when I find the time for it.

OH, and just an FYI if you were lured here by the headline... I had a free chicken biscuit for breakfast from McDonald's and I'm probably going to have a chicken sandwich for lunch... because Mickey D's is giving away free chicken sandwiches all day with the purchase of a beverage.  Thought you'd like to know.

Exactly one week from today I will have seen the next Indiana Jones movie... I'm going Wednesday night at midnight if anyone else is interested. In honor of that... I took this quiz with horrible grammatical errors and misprints... which is the only reason I believe I was 1 shy of a perfect score:

Take the Ultimate Indiana Jones Quiz

I suppose next they'll tell me that drinking doesn't really improve your ability to drive:

6 Most frequently quoted bullsh*t statistics

I didn't watch any of these clips because I was busy watching the clip in the next link, but I'm sure these are funny:

10 Funniest Star Wars moments

This is why I didn't watch any of the Star Wars clips... I was um... distracted... (after watching this for the 15th time you may get a little bored... walk away from it and come back later, it really holds up on entertainment value):

Well endowed women in bikinis riding giant bouncy balls in slow motion

Another case for not having children... ever:

3 year old has NEVER slept

A "desire path," is an interesting thing that's created by human beings. They are created by animals too I guess, but they don't build sidewalks. When people will walk across one section of grass so often to shave a few seconds off of a stroll it wears away the grass... leaving what is called a, "desire path.":

Desire Path photos

I used to be 200lbs. I dropped a good portion of that... I've recently gained some back... and the fact that I am compelled to buy this and it makes my philtrum moist from licking makes me realize I will soon be pushing 2 hundo again:

Pancake puff maker

A friend of mine has just started up a blog... if you are politically minded at all he's a sharp guy who will either make you want to hug him or incite you to riot:

Deusexeverriculum

The greatest thing to ever happen to youtube... Playboy is conducting a model search for the 55th anniversary... and decided to accept submissions through youtube... brilliant:

55th Anniversary Playmate search

I'm going to add two brilliant lines to this list... while they wouldn't technically fit into the list... they are relevant. 1) The Crow - Michael Wincott - "Quick impression for ya. Caw! Caw! Bang! Fuck I'm dead!" and 2) the Brian Bosworth classic Stone Cold - Lance Henriksen - "I leave you with the last words of my father, which were, "Don't son, that gun's loaded!"":

Top 10 Pre-death monologues in film

To think, I've been going around treating women well, taking them to dinner, buying them drinks, actually being interested in what they have to say... all of that has been in pursuit of seeing their nipples. There has to be an easier way! Now there is... according to the makers of this fine product, "Getting a woman's shirt off has never been easier!" Ladies will line up for you to hold your measurement device up to their boob and present them with a sticker:

Nipple Gauge

1. Goldeneye - N64

This game pretty much turned me into a gamer. I have vague memories of the NES, SNES, and Genesis, but the N64 was really the console that turned me into the person I am today. And as we all know, Goldeneye was a flagship game for that illustrious system. I still remember my tiny 6 year-old arms opening up this masterpiece of an fps on christmas day and going on to play my older brother and various friends in split-screen for years to come. This game not only made shooters on consoles viable, but also was the exception to the movie-to-game rule. To come out as one of the best games of all time on top of those feats is truly amazing. But most importantly, this game turned me into a hardcore gamer and set my preferences for years to come.

2. Perfect Dark - N64

Simply put, this is my favorite game of all time. As the spiritual successor to the famed Goldeneye, this game set a standard for console shooters that a lot of games haven't lived up to even today(Why was dual wielding such a huge deal in Halo 2 when it was done 5 years earlier?) The multiplayer combat was refined to such a tightly balanced optimization that it boggles the mind. The AI option was a great way to make a match more intense in addition to 3 other pals, and the ability to program the behavior of the bots is just insane considering the generation this game came out. It had more weapons than one could ever dream of and they all proved useful in some situation or another. The number of customization options and the number of stats tracked is indescribable. The levels were great. Most importantly though, it was just pure fun. I still remember the franticness of throwing poisoned knives at foes through the chaos of an n-bomb...good times. But that's just the multiplayer! The single-player campaign featured a great story(At least I remember it that way, the details are blurry now) and the highly-tuned AI provided a great challenge. It hurts me to say that I've never beaten my favorite game-- I could never get past that final boss. Perhaps being 9 years old had something to do with that. I need to beat that before I die. But yeah, this game was about as close to perfect as I've ever seen.

3. Grand Theft Auto III - PS2

When I was trying to decide what to move into the next generation with(Let's forget my Dreamcast) I was really leaning towards the Gamecube based on my experiences with the N64. But after playing this revolutionary title at a friend's house, I knew the PS2 was the way to go. Unfortunately, that ended up being my least favorite console of that generation, but that's not important. This game was amazing because it was like nothing before it. The very concept of being able to do what you want, when you want was foreign to me when it came to video games. To be able to heal up with a hooker in the back seat of my stolen car full of illegal firearms and then proceed to murder her with a baseball bat seemed pretty damn cool to an 11 year old- hell, it still seems cool! There was nothing particularly great about this game, just that the sum of it's parts added up to a new kind of freedom that's been copied ever since. GTA3 will forever hold a place in my heart for that(Not so much for the others though).

4. Halo 1 and 2 - Xbox

After I bought my PS2, and my Gamecube, finally, I came around to the best console of the last generation. And the first game I bought for my box-that-rocks was Halo: Combat Evolved. Perhaps its mechanics weren't quite up to the lofty standard of Perfect Dark, but there was something about the combination of solid shooting, crazy-fun driving, and a hero for the ages that made this game a classic. The Master Chief is one of the all-time greatest video game characters, and when you take the wheel of a hog loaded up with ODSTs you really feel like a super-soldier bad ass. Halo 1's campaign was probably the best I've ever seen in an fps with a perfect balance of wide-open vehicle levels, dark corridor crawls, and intense combat the entire time. The story was superb and I really liked the dash of horror. That said, the Library was garbage. Halo 2 took the concepts of Halo 1 and ran with them. It expanded on them and refined them. Unfortunately, that only carried over to the multiplayer. The single-player had a decent story, but it was a drag to play through. The multiplayer however, was and still is the best online console experience there is. I can't count how many hours I've lost to my first xbox live experience. If it wasn't for the cheaters and little kids the online would be flawless. As a whole, I've played through the Halo franchise multiple times and intend on giving it a few more goes before I kick the bucket.

5. Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic - Xbox

Now if you haven't noticed by now, my list is kind of shooter heavy. Well that's because I'm a bad person who didn't like RPGs until this game(Dark Cloud may have come first, but this kind of takes the cake). I often regret missing out on so many classic RPGs of the past simply because I had nobody to introduce me to the genre. But I managed to seek this game out on my own and it introduced me to an amazing world that I remember fondly today. I've been in love with western RPGs ever since but none has quite matched the stellar experience that was KOTOR. Combine one of the most fascinating and fully fleshed out fictional universes in the world(Star Wars) with the ability to play the role of a bad ass of the up-most proportions, add a dash of an incredible story with a twist for the ages, and mix thoroughly with addictive leveling up, and you have the formula for a captivating RPG. The amount of work that went into making interesting and fun quests, believable NPCs, real character relationships, and fun, intuitive combat make this one of the all time great RPGs. Let's hope for a KOTOR3!

6. Deus Ex: Invisible War

Maybe it's not as critically acclaimed as every other game on this list, but it should be. Unfortunately, I've never played the original, so I don't really know if this sucks in comparison. What I do know, is that if the upcoming 3rd one is anything like this awesome adventure, I'll be a very happy gamer. This game had solid mechanics all around and featured many of the same traits that made KOTOR so great. I especially liked the portrayal of the seedy underworld with black market Omar dealers. The NPCs were great, and the story was really exceptional too. Customization options were terrific as well. But what really makes this game stand out in my memory is the moral greyness and the "there is no right or wrong" approach. I really wish games would follow Invisible War's example here. Too many games today only feature extreme sinner or saint type choices, and that really doesn't make one think about his actions too much. Not to mention, giving achievements for absolute devotion to one moral side is a terrible idea because it taints your logic while making important choices. That's why games should take Deus Ex's approach and provide like 4 very different endings that are all simply a result of your ROLE PLAYING choices. As Ash Williams once said, "Good, bad...I'm the guy with the gun." Also, the secret developer quote room was hilarious!

7. The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion - Xbox 360

What can I say? This is the first game that truly felt "next-gen" to me. It had a massive and believable world that felt very lived in. It had an insane amount of NPCs(although many were very shallow) and fostered real relationships with a few of them. The quest variety was incredible, with the guilds seeming like games unto themselves. There was great enemy variety. There were consequences for your actions. There weren't a whole lot of limits. But where this game really shined was just in the way it played. Riding your stallion through the immensely detailed wilderness as day changed to knight and running into all sorts of foes in a very real feeling first person melee combat was indescribably fun. And there was more than one way to play it. Up-close and personal, from afar with the bow, using magic, avoiding fights through stealth, etc, etc...This game was just sooooooo deep! How many games let vampires prey on while you sleep so you begin to develop into a creature of the night as well!?! As I lit my torch and walked into a dark and dreary dungeon, this game just felt like a session of D and D.

8. Bioshock - Xbox 360

This game was a major step forward for story telling in games. I'm not saying this game had the best story of all time, but it did introduce a deep and engaging story to a mainstream audience. You could attack a goal in any number of ways and it almost played like an RPG without level-ups. The shooting was adequate and everything looked great. Man, did it look great. More games should take place under water. That place really looked like it was falling apart. Too bad there was nobody normal left- just a bunch of splicer junkies. But they're people too! But what made this game great was it was as deep as you wanted to make it. Collecting all the extra audio-tapes really gave me a greater sense of the already terrific story. The characters were fleshed out and could make you feel for their cause even if it was a little despicable. The world had it's own ecology. This game just added up to a great experience that could feel very much like a good book if you weren't having so much fun gunning down big daddies all the time. The only real down fall was the illusion of moral choice(Two choices? Come on 2k) and a sort of anti-climatic ending. The franchise holds promise though. And with the man who designed the best level in the game(Fort Frolic) heading up Bioshock 2, I'm already stoked.

9. Portal - PC

The only PC game to make my list, mostly because the Orange Box is the only PC game I've ever owned. Simply put, portal had a vision of what it wanted to do and did it flawlessly. The puzzles are both challenging and rewarding, making for a very addictive experience. On that merit alone this is a great game. But what pushes this over the top into the territory of best games of all time is a little lady by the name of GLADOS. Well, she's really more of a computer network, but she'll feel like a person to you...a very evil person. Throughout the course of Portal, GLADOS provides zinger after zinger with her adorable sarcasm that just hides her love for you. "But wait, she tried to kill me!" you say. Well, it's kind of a love-hate relationship she has with her test subjects. Why else would she be promising cake? Oh that illusive cake! But anyways, my point here is that Portal is probably the funniest game I've ever played because of a black humor that no other game touches. I hope that's not the case for long. Hopefully this franchise has some potential for the future.

10. Call of Duty 4 - Xbox 360

We began it with a shooter, so we'll end it with a shooter. It's hard to think of a war game as being a memorable masterpiece as most are just recycled concepts living in the same old decade like the old hippie you see talking about his day at Wal-mart. Call of Duty 4 is different. First off, it's campaign is not so cut and dry. For once, America is not the world's savior. We're actually portrayed as a country at war; we do our best to act on what we believe is right but maybe we're making a decision we'll regret. After a nuclear bomb goes off, I'd say the fictional America of CoD4 probably does regret that decision. This moment of the game had an opportunity to be very poignant as well, as the very character you play as dies. However a total lack of dialogue or character building makes it impossible to care. Still, the campaign was different and refreshing while providing Infinity Ward's staple intensity in combat. This intensity carries over to the multiplayer which is probably the deepest since Perfect Dark(But I still have yet to see a game surpass that masterpiece's depth). Simply put, it's addictive. That's all I can say. It's fun and addictive. Go play it.

So in conclusion, those are probably my top ten favorite games. 5 shooters, 3 RPGs, a puzzle game, and an open world game. I think that reflects my preference for FPSs and RPGs pretty well, and shows that I'm a fan of all games as well. I think the order of the games also shows my growth as a gamer. I'd certainly say RPGs are the tell-tale sign of a true hardcore gamer. And on a console to console comparison, I've become much more selective of what I buy with each console I've owned. The only non-AAA title I own for my 360 is Madden 2006...damn you Madden. I've also observed a pretty good balance between each generation, but I have a feeling that games are getting better and we will begin to see more classics in our own generation. So to wrap things up, I can't really tell how this list will change in the future, but I think it represents the state of me as a gamer and the state of the current gaming industry pretty well. All we can do is keep on gaming and see what gems fall into our disc trays.

Kurzvorstellung: Die Welt nach Kontinenten - Teil I: Europa, Afrika, Nordamerika

Europa: Die Festung

Der nicht enden wollende Flüchtlingsstrom aus den Kriegsgebieten Afrikas macht dem alten Europa schwer zu schaffen. Über die Länder der EU verteilt finden sich große Flüchtlingslager, in denen inzwischen Millionen ehemaliger Flüchtlinge, die meisten von ihnen Afrikaner, leben und vor sich hin vegetieren. Diese Lager sind Brutstätten des Terrors und des so genannten Widerstands. Außerhalb der Lager ist Europa eine strikt überwachte und reglementierte Hightech-Festung. Ein großer Platin-Goldener Käfig für seine Einwohner.

Die reichsten Länder sind immer noch Deutschland und Großbritannien, jedoch holen Russland und die Türkei weiter auf. Russland ist der Energie und Rohstofflieferant Nummer Eins für Europa, in den Weiten der Taiga werden Ressourcen für den ganzen Kontinent gewonnen. Die Türken haben zwar einiges an Flüchtlingen aus dem Nahen Osten ab bekommen, schafften es aber rechtzeitig die Grenzen dicht zu machen. Außerdem war die Türkei nie das gelobte Land irgendeiner Flüchtlingsidee. Terroranschläge gibt es hier zwar auch hin und wieder, aber alles in allem lebt es sich in Ankara und Istanbul besser und sicherer als in London und Paris. Wenn auch mit etwas weniger hochtechnologischem Komfort.

Afrika: Das ewige Schlachtfest

Der Schwarze Kontinent brennt seit fast fünfzig Jahren. Auf dem Rücken von Millionen Afrikanern haben es mehrere Großmächte geschafft allen Rohstoffkrisen zu trotzen. Der Treibstoff, mit dem der Mars kolonisiert wurde, kam aus Afrika.

Der Preis dafür, ist ein Afrika dass 2000 Kilometer um den Equator herum nicht aufhört zu brennen. Dort wo der Krieg um die Rohstoffe zu Ende geht, beginnt ein neuer Krieg derer, die nicht geflohen sind, um die Vorherrschaft auf dem Trümmerhaufen. In Afrika lebt derzeit die dritte Generation von Menschen die außer andauerndem Krieg nie etwas anderes kennen gelernt haben.

Außerdem sind die Afrikanischen Kriegsgebiete eine der größten Quellen für Arbeit in der Welt. PMCs, reguläre Militärs, Wiederaufbauhilfen, die Zentralafrikanischen Kriege sind eine Jobmaschine ohne Gleichen – auch wenn dafür Millionen sterben oder vertrieben werden.

Südafrika ist heute eins der reichsten Länder der Welt, wenn auch mit einem Armutgefälle das seinesgleichen sucht. Außerdem sind die diversen südafrikanischen Prosthetik-Konzerne Weltspitze, obwohl sie nicht unter den oberen 25 rangieren. Nordafrika ist eins der Opfer der Flüchtlingsbewegungen nach Europa.

Nordamerika – Der menschliche Abfallhaufen

Die USA sind angeschlagen, aber weit davon entfernt am Ende zu sein. Neben China und Indien waren es die Vereinigten Staaten die am meisten von den Afrikanischen Rohstoffkriegen profitiert haben, derzeit jedoch ringt die Amerikanische Wirtschaft noch zu sehr mit den Folgen der Wirtschaftskrise die auf den Sillicon Valley Blast folgte. Die Regierung von Präsident Clarence Burbaker bleibt der Ultrakonservativen Linie seiner Vorgänger treu, Buro of Morality und Homeland Guard Enforcement sind weiterhin die mächtigsten Staatlichen Organe im Inneren. Widerstand und möglicher Un-Patriotismus oder gar Anti-Amerikanismus werden nicht geduldet. Die Bevölkerung wird aufgestachelt sich gegenseitig zu bespitzeln und zu denunzieren, sollte jemand irgendwo „unmoralisches“ Gedankengut vermuten. Dennoch ist und bleibt die Gesellschaft der USA unglaublich Konsum- und Vergnügungsorientiert. Zwar fahren diverse kirchliche Organisationen regelmässige Kampagnen gegen das unheilige und widernatürliche SimWeb, was die breite Bevölkerung nicht davon abhält sich den neuen Medien mit allen Sinnen hinzugeben. Das aktuelle Feinbild der Medien sind Asiaten, denn die Chinesen waren es, die Sillicon Valley zerbombt haben. So passiert es Bürgern Asiatischer Abstammung schnell, dass sie auf den berüchtigten Schwarzen Listen landen. Ein Anruf eines eifersüchtigen Nachbarn reicht aus, um eine Existenz auszulöschen. Jedoch ist der Konsens der Bevölkerung dass man lieber auf Nummer sicher geht, als einen zweiten Sillicon Valley-Blast zu riskieren. Möglicherweise ändert sich das Feindbild wieder, oder wird zumindest ergänzt wenn die Mexiko-Kampagne des staatlichen US-Militärs begonnen hat: Um den durch Südamerikanische Rote Kader destabilisierten Staat zu stützen, und um eine kommunistische Regierung zu verhindern führt das US-Militär derzeit im südlichen Nachbarland eine Reihe von Polizeiaktionen durch, um freie, demokratische Wahlen zu gewährleisten.

Größter Arbeitgeber der USA ist unumstritten der monströse Staatskonzern United Protronics, dicht gefolgt vom weltweit renommierten Privatmilitär Starkwater.

Kanada hat sich im Laufe des Jahrhunderts mehr und mehr befestigt und in sich zurückgezogen. Das gewaltige Land im Norden des Kontinents ist von Entwicklungen hin zu einer Repressionsgesellschaft weitestgehend verschont geblieben, kann sich mit Rohstoffen einigermaßen selbst versorgen und hält sich aus internationalen Querelen weitestgehend heraus, was vor allem von den Ultrakonservativen Regierungen der USA als Zeichen himmelschreiender Feigheit interpretiert und in den Medien breitgetreten wurde. „Feige wie ein Kanadier“ ist ein Ausdruck der in vielen aktuellen Filmen der amerikanischen Medienschmieden zu hören ist.

Heavy Smog Timeline

Die Timeline besteht zunächst mal nur aus einigen der fürs Spiel wichtigen Randdaten und Ereignissen, und beinhaltet leider noch zahlreiche Lücken.
Beispielsweise muss ich noch eintragen, wann genau die Liga Infosozialistischer Staaten gegründet wurde, und welche Staaten da eigentlich drin sind.
Aber das ist unmittelbar fürs Spiel erstmal unerheblich. Deswegen seien mir die Lücken, die noch da sind, vergeben.

Heavy Smog ist eine Cyberpunk Campagne von Sebastian Wüpper, Berlin. Ich habe die Ehre, bei ihm mitspielen zu dürfen. Sebastian nutzt das HERO-System. Da Heavy Smog an sich aber systemlos ist, werde ich - die von ihm erstellten - reinen Hintergrundinformationen online stellen.

Was ist Heavy Smog? Cybercore. Was ist Cybercore? Idealerweise das für Cyberpunk, was Hardcore für den Punkrock war. Eine Aktualisierung, eine Weiterentwicklung unter Beibehaltung einiger spezifischer Kernelemente. Ich könnte auch, um besonders kewl zu sein, den Terminus "Genanopunk" bemühen, aber da mir "-punk" Wortschöpfungen zum Hals heraushängen, und der Begriff auch nicht den Nagel auf den Kopf träfe, nehme ich als Genrebeschreibung eben Cybercore.
Außerdem ist es NICHT gleichbedeutend mit POST-Cyberpunk. Jedenfalls nicht so wie ich das Genre sehe.

Was KANN Heavy Smog?
Idealerweise möchte ich den Spielern Möglichkeiten geben, Szenarios zu spielen, die einerseits unterhaltsame Cyber-Action bieten, andererseits aber auch eine gewisse Dosis an Relevanz intus haben. Quasi das Equivalent zu Popcornfilmen die Hollywood-Action vor einem ernsthaften Hintergrund ablaufen lassen.
Langfristig soll das Setting zumindest für meinen Eigenbedarf so aussehen, dass ich mir einen ist-Zustand nehme, ab dem die Handlungen der Spieler - je nach Engagement - durchaus daran teilhaben können, wie dieser Status Quo sich verändert, wie einzelne Organisationen und Fraktionen in der Welt zueinander und zu den Charakteren stehen.
Also eine Welt bieten, die auf möglichst vielen Ebenen Interaktivität bietet, bei der die Charaktere zwar als kleinere Räder im Getriebe anfangen, aber durchaus die Möglichkeiten haben, aus diesen Positionen herauszuwachsen und Dinge zu verändern.
Was heißt das für die Kernbereiche dessen was man in diesem Setting spielt?
Heavy Smog geht auf mehrere ausufernde Hintergründe zurück, denen es gewissermaßen an Fokus fehlt, da es in diesen nicht vorgesehen war, die Spieler oder Spielleiter auf irgendetwas zu begrenzen.
Um dem Kern des alten Cyberpunks treu zu bleiben, liegt der Fokus von Heavy Smogs Protagonisten auf Elementen, die eher am Rand als in der Mitte der Gesellschaft stehen. Vor allem da die Mitte der portraitierten Gesellschaft zu spielen nicht all zu reizvoll wäre. Ich sehe vor, dass man üblicherweise Charaktere spielt, die dem sogenannten Anarchistischen Untergrund angehören, nahestehen, oder zumindest damit sympathisieren.
Der Kerngedanke der einzelnen vorgesehenen - ich möchte nicht "möglichen" schreiben, denn bei einem Rollenspielsetting ist das ein etwas zu weiter Begriff - Szenarien ist eine Art von "global denken, lokal handeln" Revolution gegen das System, auf vielen verschiedenen Ebenen.

Was soll kommen? Ich werde hier anfangen mit einer Beschreibung der Ereignisse zwischen 2013 und 2070. Die Zeit dazwischen, die jetzt nahe Zukunft ist für mich völlig unerheblich, es ist mir für das Setting egal wer der nächste Präsident der USA wird, oder ob die Intifada sich Ende des Jahres auf die Türkei ausbreitet.
Ich werde kurze Abrisse über "Theater" (im militärischen Sinne) der Welt schreiben, die den 2070 aktuellen Status Quo einiger großer Gebiete der Welt beschreiben. Dazwischen wird es einzelne Posts geben, die technologische Errungenschaften des 21sten Jahrhunderts behandeln, die für das Spiel wichtig sind. Dem folgend, oder ebenfalls dazwischen, da bin ich mir noch nicht sicher, werden einzelne Abschnitte über die global Players - Konzerne, Organisationen, Regierungen, und dergleichen veröffentlicht.
Dazu wird es einige Vorschläge für Charaktertypen geben, und je nach dem auch einige Package Deals für HERO System. Ebenso wie Spielwerte für beschriebene Technologien und dergleichen.
Ob ich die lokalen Newsfeeds die ich derzeit zwischen den Sitzungen für meine Gruppe schreibe auch hier veröffentliche, weiß ich noch nicht. Vielleicht wenn ich das Format wechsele, und an Stelle eines Blogs eine richtige Website oder sowas nehme.

Was sind die Einflüsse, die Heavy Smog geformt haben?
Steve Jackson Games "Transhuman Space" steht ganz weit oben. Das war mir jedoch gewissermaßen zu menschenfreundlich, und etwas zu abgehoben, außerdem wie schon angemerkt, fehlte mir ein konkreter Fokus. Dem auf den Fuße folgend sei die Ghost in the Shell - Stand Alone Complex Animationsserie zu nennen, die mir ein großer Inspirationsquell war und ist. Darüber hinaus gibt es viele kleinere Einflüsse die die Form des Settings bestimmt und geprägt haben: Cyberpunk 2020, Cybergeneration, zu einem gewissen Teil sicher auch Shadowrun, sowie das X-Punk Projekt meiner ehemaligen Rollenspielgruppe um Torsten "VOID" Logemann, für welches ich einige Beiträge verfasste, die ich jetzt wieder für Heavy Smog umgearbeitet und aktualisiert habe, und die sozusagen die ersten ernsthaften Schritte in Richtung eines eigenständigen Settings aus meiner Feder darstellen.
Ebenfalls haben natürlich die Medien die ich bevorzugt konsumiere einen großen Einfluss auf das Setting. Die amerikanische Fernsehserien "The Wire", "Battlestar Galactica", "Lost", die Filme "Children of Men", die "Matrix" Trilogie, und noch so viele mehr. Computer- und Videospiele ("Deus Ex" die "Metal Gear Solid"-Reihe), Comics ("Eden", "Akira", "Transmetropolitan"), Animationsserien ("Ergo Proxy", "Cowboy Bebop"), Romane ("Snow Crash") und so weiter...
Die Liste ist lang.

Stay Tuned.

Since I quit WoW and started to play EVE, I also broaden my horizon on pc games a bit. For some reason EVE and games 'next' to it worked much better than playing games 'next' to WoW. I don't exactly know why it's like that, but I can easily decide to not play for a couple of days, which was for some reason different in WoW. Might have to do something with me having less 'responsibility' in EVE where I'm a 'simple peon' in my corporation, compared to my officer-status in WoW, but I also think it has something to do with the game itself.

Anyway. After playing WoW for 2 years I missed a lot of brilliant pc games, I played myself through the Half-Life 2 episodes, played some Team Fortress 2, Portal ofcourse, picked up Civilization 4 another time and since I started to follow RPS, I actually got a lot more enthusiastic about pc games in general.

But there's just so much to play, that's why I decided to write-up all the games I want to play, so I can go follow the list and go through them all. Doing this might motivate me to actually finish those damn games.

1) S.T.A.L.K.E.R. I remember looking forward to playing this game back in ehr.. 2001 or so? It actually got out  in 2006 and I played a little bit of it last year, but left it unfinished for reasons I don't remember. It's one of those games that feels a bit clumsy and unpolished. At the same time it's very atmospheric and , it can really suck you up for an immersive (and horrifying) experience. I guess it's a bit like EVE that way, you need to put something in it to get more out of it than you can in the avarage game.

So I'm going for it! At the moment of writing the installer just notified me that STALKER is installed. Yay. I'm going to start a completely new game with patch 1.0005 and this Obvilion Lost mod, from what I've heard STALKER got a very active modding community and this mod supposedly adds a lot to