Take a seat and let me tell you a story. I’m going to tell you right now that it’s long winded, so take a bathroom break now if need be…or skip the 2nd and 3rd paragraph if you can’t be bothered with learning the circumstances behind my glorious main return to PC gaming. You can also skip to the end if you need an ultra-abridged version…but why would you be here reading this if that were the case?

You may or may not know that my gaming history goes as far back as the NES, yet I would have to say that it wasn’t until PC gaming that I really started getting into it. Series like Duke Nukem, Doom, early Command & Conquer and others were big influences on the gamer I am today. I’ve dialed back alot though in recent years in favor of consoles such as Xbox 360. Not to say that I haven’t been console gaming in past years since my roots (because I have…alot) but recent years have shown my gaming consumed by Xbox 360 for the most part (Wii and PS3 to a much lesser extent). I was fine with that at the time, I’d be lying if I said Xbox 360 wasn’t still my favorite console to co-op and communicate with friends and family, until circumstances started sending me packing to different means of gaming.

A little while back you might remember that I had a dreaded E-74 error (one of the many forms RROD takes) on my 360.  I was a bit pissed about it at first, but quite a bit relieved when I found out that they extended warranties for this particular error (since a boatload of people were getting them…nice job again M$). I guess I was somewhat lucky too that I had my console for a few years before any serious problems (after hearing all the other RROD horror stories out there). So I UPSed (that’s a word, right?) my console in…BANG ZOOM…got another console back a little while later and everything was jolly good again. Everything was going peachy until a couple months back I noticed random console freezing during a couple different games I was playing. It got to the point where it was frustrating to even try to play anything. I tried all sorts of troubleshooting: installing to hard drive, playing without hard drive, playing offline, etc. with no success (if anyone can shed some extra light on this I would be grateful). I’m thinking it’s a DVD drive issue, which I’ll probably try replacing once I get some extra money for a new one and I’ve already started looking into the replacement procedure. I then started seeking solace with another console until…tragedy.

Being fed up with the 360, I figured I’d fire up the PS3 and give it some lovin’. Only to find that it’s plagued with a black screen at startup (startup chime + black screen). I’ve had my PS3 for only a bit over a couple years now and though I used it no where near as much as the 360, I had taken good care of it (or so I thought atleast). So here I am, trying to conquer this problem as well. Trying to restore to default settings (only to get through the initial setup and back to black screen), restoring the file system (only to get a corrupted file system message) and others in the reset menu to no avail. Thinking I’m going to have to get that new hard drive sooner than I planned. I’ve wanted to upgrade from my 40gb…BUT I’m probably going to lose my old data now (seems to be the case the more I look into it). I’m almost afraid to even boot up my Wii now lest it succumb to some ill fate as well (and continue this seemingly cascading effect).

Now that I’ve fully explained the situation, I’ll get back into my resurgence of PC gaming (if you’re still awake). I’ve been getting back into my Steam game backlog lately. I, like many others I’m sure, have been collecting up Steam purchases for awhile now and like collecting anything it can be quite addicting. When alot of these games go on sale for $5 or less, how can you possibly pass them up? When they start piling up after many sales and what not it’s nice to actually go back and PLAY some of them (I know, crazy concept right?). Though I’m still far from playing through all my Steam titles (131 at the time of this posting), I have been dipping into a few new titles lately (some old, some new in reality).

Aquaria was one of the first ones, which I had come to acquire through the Humble Bundle a couple months ago. I had scoured it’s lands for more than 20 hours and even if it had been the only game in the bundle I’d say that I had gotten more than my money’s worth. I can’t recommend it highly enough for those that are into Metroidvania type adventure games. Ever heard of a little game called Amnesia: The Dark Descent also? If you’re truly into survival horror games then it’s not one to pass up at all. Audiosurf is always a good standby as well with endless potential. It’s the music game that keeps on giving as long as there’s music to feed it with. It’s always a good time for classics as well, isn’t it? I acquired Star Wars: Dark Forces through the Steam Star Wars pack this winter and have been loving it, having wanted to try it out for awhile. Other classics outside of Steam I have been setting up with a certain DosBox Frontend for back in the day fun (classic Apogee and ID Software titles are among my favorites). I could probably go on forever like this but this is what I’ve been up to lately in gaming. My desktop isn’t a top-of-the-line gaming rig, but it should be pretty moderate for the newest PC titles as well (having built my desktop just a little over 2 years ago).

I guess the moral of the story is this: consoles can be a harsh mistress sometimes *sigh* …and if you’re mainly a console gamer don’t completely forgo the viable world of PC gaming.

…On that note, pick up Duke Nukem Forever for PC before consoles! 😀

– DGM-payne

UPDATE (3/2/2011) : Purely coincidentally, Amnesia : The Dark Descent had just gone on sale on Steam for half price. All the more reason to pick it up now. I would recommend Braid also at $3 during the mid-week sale if you haven’t picked up that indie puzzler yet.

This, my friends, is a beautiful thing…

This trailer, along with the May release date, has no doubt caused the largest boner popping among Duke Nukem fans worldwide since the PAX demos after Gearbox took over the reigns. It’s time to kick ass and chew bubblegum…and you know the rest, don’t you?

Counting the days now… (along with my 3d Realms Duke Nukem Forever wallpaper, which I’ve kept up in anticipation)

– DGM-payne

This is it, the final part of our Anticipated series for this year (and a good portion of next year I’m sure) in video games.

Don’t worry though, this is only the start of many things to come in the rest of the year.

So without further ado, let’s start ‘er up!

• Alan Wake – game consoles : Xbox 360 – This psychological thriller has definitely been long in the making, considering it’s first announcements back during E3 2005, but we’re finally seeing some good details and sneak peeks surfacing. Alan Wake (seen above) as you may know already is the author character that you play as, who travels to a small town to try and spark up his writing career once again. That is, until his wife disappears and he’s plunged into a nightmare of a story. Light is the main driving point of the gameplay from then on out. Not too long ago I was watching a demo from E3 showing some gameplay in which the flashlight was the primary weapon disintegrating shadowy types of enemies with a pistol and shotgun to finish them off. The demo also featured flares and other types of light traps to keep the enemies at bay. The game has a day/night cycle with researching the town during the day and the enemies coming out at night. Right now Remedy is focusing on a Xbox 360 release first, but a Windows version will also probably release later. I’ve been a big fan of Remedy’s work on the Max Payne series so you can probably tell I’m quite excited for this release as well (slated for a spring 2010 release at the moment).

• Bioshock 2 – game consoles : Xbox 360 , PlayStation 3 , Windows – The second game in the series will serve as a prequel to the events of the first game, set 10 years before. In this one you will get to play as a prototype Big Daddy of the enemies seen in the first game. This time around in addition to using the usual plasmid abilities the player is also able to use the drill and rivet gun (with different types of ammo) thanks to the Daddy’s suit. Also new to the series is the ability to dual-wield plasmids and weapons AND explore the sea floor (thanks to the diving suit again). Being a Big Daddy this time around you’ll still be looking for the Little Sisters but this time around instead of having the option of rescuing them you’ll have the option of adopting them to help you harvest the sweet sweet ADAM you desire (or just harvest the ADAM from the Sister after you capture her if you prefer). While getting to the Sisters involves dealing with other Big Daddies of course, these aren’t the only ones you’ll be facing. Meet the Big Sister (pictured above) who, after defeating a certain amount of rival Daddies, will appear and being much leaner and quicker than the Daddies will stop at nothing to harvest YOUR ADAM and collect the Sisters to turn them into something like her. If you adopt some Little Sisters they will give you a bit of forewarning when a Big Sister is about to appear, so that’s pretty nice of them atleast. In addition of single player, there will also be multiplayer this time around involving a civil war between plasmid test subjects. The first game was a unique experience and I have good hopes that the second will up the ante. Originally slated for a fall release this one has also been postponed to early 2010.

• Starcraft 2 – game consoles : Windows – Here’s another one that, like Alan Wake, has spent quite awhile in development. Originally it was planned to be a single game but pretty recently (atleast in the grand scheme of things) has been announced to be released as a trilogy instead. Although all three of the usual races (Terran, Protoss and Zerg if you need a refresher) are going to be available for skirmish and multiplayer battles from the first installment onwards, each game of the trilogy will deal with a separate race in it’s single player campaign. The first of the trilogy is titled Wings of Liberty involving the Terrans, followed by Heart of the Swarm with the Zerg, and ending with Legacy of the Void with (you guessed it) the Protoss. Most units and structures from each race in the first game will be returning with a few new ones here and there and some of the old ones tweaked to spice things up (check out the official website if you want to see them all). Some familiar characters like Jim Raynor, Kerrigan and Zeratul from the Terran, Zerg and Protoss races respectively will also be returning. In more recently it was announced that they would not be including LAN into their multiplayer portion, the reasons they say to make people use Battle.net and fight piracy. Luckily this has caused a bit of outrage and petitions in the community and they’re starting to decide other options it would seem. All I really have to say on the matter is that it would greatly missed by me atleast if they don’t include it, considering how much my brother and I used to LAN the first game. Right now it’s slated for a early 2010 release BUT as you probably already noticed their release dates can (and have) changed alot due to their “It’s done when it’s done” motto and depending on what else Blizzard is working on (*cough* World of Warcraft and Diablo 3 *cough*).

• Postal 3 – game consoles : Windows , Xbox 360 , PlayStation 3 – This is kinda one of those guilty pleasures. Sure, the series has never been critically acclaimed or anything like that but it’s always provided me with that sort of wacky and stress relieving fun that I love (and I’m sure many of you do too). The latest game in the series is no different and they’ve come a long away from their humble isometric shooter beginnings of the first game that was banned in several countries. Take for instance the badgersaw weapon (seen above), a quite literal badger chainsaw of sorts seen in some gameplay footage so far. Another weapon that has been hinted at but not seen is a lab monkey that reacts to a laser pointer. This is just a taste of the over-the-top-itude that makes the Postal series lovable to play (and I’m sure there won’t be a lack of gimps and Gary Coleman as well). Don’t worry, the gas can and matches from Postal 2 are also returning. This time around it’s a third person shooter instead of first person like Postal 2 and uses Valve’s Source engine instead of Unreal’s engine. It’s also the first time that the series is hitting consoles as well instead of just Windows/Mac/Linux, which might also explain for the longer development time (considering they’re also planning a port for PlayStation 3). No official release date yet but I’d expect we’ll probably see this one sometime in 2010.

• Bayonetta – game consoles : PlayStation 3 , Xbox 360 – Think of this one as Devil May Cry to the next level, featuring some of the same type of melee and weapon combat that made that series. Only as Bayonetta though, you’ll be dealing with alot more shape-shifting, spells and a greater number of firearms. As you may have noticed already she has quite long hair, this is where the spells and shape-shifting come in. As crazy as it may sound, she actually transforms her hair into the different magical spells against enemies. Not only this, but her costume is also made up of her hair and deteriorates (to a certain degree) and regenerates as she uses these attacks. As far as firearms go you may have also noticed that she has four pistols by default, one for each limb, that adds to the crazy and blisteringly fast fights that are quite entertaining to watch at the very least (check out some of the preview videos for a taste). This is only the start of a whole array of weapons that includes other firearms as well as a katana and whip. This one is slated for a October release in Japan but we’ll have to wait until January 2010 to get a crack at it.

• Dead Rising 2 – game consoles : Xbox 360 , PlayStation 3 , Windows – You love zombie games, right? This one takes place a few years after the first game with a new main character and new fictional city to fight through, Fortune City (modeled after Sin City itself, Las Vegas). Enter Chuck Greene, a former motocross champion who finds himself in a casino during the major outbreak and slew of zombie hordes. In addition to the zombies, the psycho characters and survivors to rescue (or not) are back once again. What’s not returning this time is the photography portion, sorry Frank West. Oh, but there’s more zombies and an assortment of new objects to fight them with now also (roulette table seen above). It’s been confirmed that there will be a new multiplayer component in addition to the usual single player game but no details have been released yet as to what it will involve. As opposed to the original which was Xbox 360 exclusive, this one will hit PlayStation 3 and Windows as well. Also being developed by Blue Castle Games and only published by Capcom this time around, but some of the original team members are returning to work on the sequel. This one’s expected to release sometime spring 2010 in case you were wondering when you can get a piece of mass-zombie action once again (may I recommend Nazi Zombies in the meantime?).

Whew…lemme catch my breath for a second. The last six can be found after this short break.

Continue reading ‘Riskening’s Most Anticipated – Part 3c : The last of the list! (but certainly not the least)’