Mouse Clicks Not Thumb Sticks

What’s better than post apocalyptic Russia?  How about post apocalyptic Russia with flying demons?  Welcome to the Moscow subway system, home of the protagonist in Metro 2033.  A world ravaged by a nuclear war has forced it’s denizens underground, to live in the squalor of the subway and sewer systems.  Ammo must be scrounged, and pre-war shiny bullets are the currency of the day.  You must find filters for your gas mask, and you must manually charge the batteries for your flashlight with a little hand generator.  This is the world of Metro 2033, it is a rich beautiful world… and it will infuriate you with it’s excellence.

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NBC’s looking to milk us nerds even further with a Battlestar MMO. “How is this a bad thing?” You say… when’s the last time a quality MMO was announced a mere 6 months prior to release.

Sadly, I expect this to be a low budget, low quality release that is simply an IP milking, not a legitimately good game in it’s own right.

(source:http://www.massively.com/2010/03/09/gdc10-battlestar-galactica-mmo-coming/)

Buried in the bowels of the internet, withing and article about de Blob for the Wii, the CEO of THQ proclaimed we would all be wowed by their E3 showing. The afore mentioned titles being listed as some of their electronic wares that will be on display.

I, for one would be overjoyed to see a follow up to the latest Red Faction. The trend lately seems to be rapid sequels that aren’t truely new games but just extensions of their origionals. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it… or at least fix it so we can beat it into the Marshian dust again with out sledge hammer.

I could go with “Korea holds their collective breath” or “Korean markets surge in late afternoon trading” or “Army of South Korea storms blizzard HQ” but that’d just be to easy.

Suffice to say, the whole world is excited at the announcement of advanced rock paper scissors for PC coming THIS month and on track for a mid-year release. That’s about a close as we get to a release notice from Blizzard, so chew on that and be ready for the trans-pacific telecom lines melt later this month.

(source:joystiq.com)

Star Trek Online has launched with great initial success. With claims of over one million accounts, and server lag to make it believable. Cryptic is working on the quick path to money making by trying to envoke rule of aquisition #574: If you can charge for sometihng, do it.

Cryptic recently added Ferengi as a playable race for the low-low price of 50 cents. Additionally, you can play as a klingon in starfleet for $1.50.

If only the creation of were so cheap in real life. Heck, just birthing classes are more expensive.

What?  Wait… what?  Seriously BioWare?  Did His Premiership drop you a loonie and say, “Hook us up, eh?”  Me thinks this is the beginning of a campaign to alter the world’s perception of the English language.  Pro tip for those abroad; it’s generally not highlighted with a maple leaf, it’s the union jack or the stars and stripes.  They’re missing a critical third color in this indicator flag.  We need to keep an eye on the Canucks… they’re up to something.

In seriousness, this is what you’re presented with when attempting to unlock a special code for pre-order or collectors edition goodies for Mass Effect 2.  I mention it because I think it’s the only time that I’ve seen the Canadian flag used to represent English (outside of a Maple Syrup e-tailer) in place of the typical the US or GB flags, or even more fancy, the US/GB hybrid flag.

Full screen grab after the break. (ps, I like Canadians… this is mostly in jest… *looks North suspiciously*)

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There’s been alot of confusion floating around about the DLC for Mass Effect 2.  No, it’s not all free (oopsie daisy) and it won’t all be via the Cerberus Network.  The Cerberus Network is a new DLC gimmick we haven’t seen before.  You have a one-time activation code you enter and receive free DLC in-game through the “Cerberus Network.”  The way it’s described sounds a bit like a more RP way of presenting DLC in-game, similar to Dragon Age : Origins’ man in your camp that ruffled some feathers. (“save my family name on a quest of glory, I take visa!”)  Either way, via the Cerberus Network you’ll be able to access content only released through that in-game network.  This is to enhance original sales in an attempt to push off some of the game trade-in stores that are ever so popular with those dirty consolers.  This gives additional content to the original purchase, in theory, reducing trade-in buys.

There will be a substantial amount of additional DLC, however, that is available via traditional means of purchasing the pack for $5-$10 .  These are separate from the Cerberus Network and do cost the greenbacks.  The DLC for Cerberus Network and the standard DLC are two separate beasts.

The brief. : Cerberus, free if you buy the orig. game, get everything that releases on the Cerberus Network and ONLY the Cerberus Network.  All other DLC is plain ol’ $$.

MechWarrior Living Legendsis a Crysis Mod that’s been in development for a few years now.  We’ve had such a dry spell from mech games that it’s by far the best news in Mech gaming since the announcement that the original creator of the series is working on MechWarrior 5… which may just be vaporware, or may not be out for another 4 years.

Living Legends is one of the most amazingly well put together mods I’ve seen in a long while.  The model quality is superb.  The MWLL team had large shoes to fill using the Crytek engine.  The sheer detail that the engine allows and the example given to it by Crysis made it tough for a small group of hobbyists to pump out similar quality, but they’ve done a fantastic job of it.  That said, it is a beta and there are some crashing issues, but there’s a surprisingly large number of people playing the game.

The future holds good things for this mod, with MW3/4 levels of mech customization planned and more maps on the way, the future is even brighter than the present.  For now, it’s a worthy download if you already own Crysis.  Snag it here, and a small patch here. [Torrents]

When Lego Universe was announced and it was revealed that it wouldn’t encompass every IP that’s added lego to the name to drop the demographic by 8 years and sell another half million copies, people wondered what it would be about?  Building things?  They already have an app for that.  CES gives us our first healthy glimpse into the Lego Universe.  Surprise, surprise, it contains little yellow headed dudes that you can disassemble in a mildly disturbing fashion to make a very highly customized player.  The walkthrough really just hits on the basic RPG notes.  Get quest, kill/pickup stuff, turn quest in, get cash/xp/lewt.  Curious?  Vids embedded after the break.  #2 shows the best gameplay footage, whilst #1 shows some character creations/customization. #3 and #4 are a little more action packed. Watch them lego bits fly.

If you just want a quick glimpse, #3 is the best look at the game.

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The day of open beta is here, and while the folks at Cryptic stand in front of their servers, trying to clear away the smoke, we took a moment to hop in an sample some of the amazing detail and variety that the STO character creator has.  It’s quite impressive.  We’ve created two videos, one that features each races for about 20 seconds, and another that give a full minute to each race and two minutes to the custom race creator.  Checkout the short version, and/or checkout our YouTube channel for the long version once it’s finished processing.

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