PC Gaming Archives - Page 85 of 93

BioWare and EA Announce Gift of the Yeti Facebook Game

Yeti

BioWare and Electronic Arts have announced Gift of the Yeti, a free Facebook game that allows gamers to earn money to go towards the purchase of Dragon Age: Origins and for the Child’s Play Charity. Here’s a blurb from the press release:

In the Gift of the Yeti game, players have a chance to help a sick Santa by delivering gifts on his behalf. Facebook friends can compete to beat each others’ high scores. The backstory of the Yeti will unfold through a clever Advent day calendar, with each day revealing a new piece of the storyline. Gift of the Yeti also allows players to choose from a variety of different gifts that they can send to their friends to invite them to save the day for Santa, and support the Child’s Play organization.

A bunch of my friends have been sucked into various Facebook games, but I’ve yet to lose myself to one. Gift of the Yeti will get its chance to own me, simply because it’s a BioWare product. Plus, Like Matt Damon and LeBron James said in Entourage, “It’s for the kids!”

Any of you going to give this game a shot?

What Are You Playing This Weekend?

My knee has been acting up again, so I’m going to try to stay in bed and keep my leg elevated most of the weekend. Thankfully, I have a bunch of Green Lantern trade paperbacks to devour — most of them are repeats (Rage of the Red Lanterns, Agent Orange, etc.), but I borrowed Emerald Eclipse from a friend, which will add some new GL goodness to my life.

Scribblenauts

Man cannot live on comic books alone though, so I’m happy that I picked up Scribblenauts during Amazon’s Black Friday week. This game came out while I was in Japan in September and with all the craziness over the last few months, I kind of forgot about it. I’m looking forward to testing the word parser and seeing how imaginative the game can be. Some of my more competitive friends said it was boring, but admitted that they used the words “trampoline” and “angel wings” way to much. To me, winning isn’t the point of Scribblenauts. I want to see how creative it will allow me to be. I’m really looking forward to it!

How about you? What’s on tap for your gaming weekend?

Coffee Talk #40: Your Favorite Videogame Villains

Welcome to Coffee Talk! Let’s start off the day by discussing whatever is on your (nerd chic) mind. Every morning I’ll kick off a discussion and I’m counting on you to participate in it. If you’re not feelin’ my topic, feel free to start a chat with your fellow readers and see where it takes you. Whether you’re talking about videogames, the U.S. vs. England in the World Cup, the return of Paul “The Punisher” William, or whether Pacquiao/Mayweather is a go for March 13, 2010, Coffee Talk is the place to do it.

I was chatting with some industry friends about videogame villains when I realized that I don’t have a favorite one. That just seems odd to me. I can spout off dozens of comic-book baddies I love. The same goes for movies and television shows. But for some reason, I don’t have a favorite videogame villain.

M Bison

There are certainly no shortage of bad guys to choose from in games. Whether you like cerebral assassins, evil dictators, comedically ineffectual turtle overlords, or guys that just want to blow crap up, gaming has it all. Maybe it has something to do with how I don’t like playing games as an evil character; perhaps the interactive experience makes me actively dislike videogame villains? *shrug*

Perhaps you can help me out. I want to know who your favorite videogame villains are. Maybe your great selections will help jog my memory so that I can pick one baddie to rule them all.

Microsoft Launching Games on Demand for Windows

Windows Live

In a move that will make big waves in the (relatively) small PC gaming market, Microsoft has announced a games-on-demand service for Windows. The service will kick off on December 15, 2009. Here are some of the launch details:

The launch lineup will include recent hits like Resident Evil 5 (Capcom), Red Faction: Guerilla (THQ), and Battlestations: Pacific (EIDOS), as well as new exclusive Live-enabled versions of popular digital games such as World of Goo and Osmos, distributed by Microsoft Game Studios. All games can be purchased either by credit card or with Microsoft Points. Games on Demand for Windows will be available in markets that currently have the Games for Windows — Live service. Microsoft is also offering an updated Live-enabled version of Tinker, formerly an exclusive Windows Vista Ultimate Extra, as a completely free download from the Games for Windows — Live client.

Valve should be worried about this initiative. It could be a very large problem for its competing Steam service. Although Steam is more established, Microsoft obviously has the money and infrastructure to make its service immediately competitive. Then again, I wonder if MS will fully back this endeavor. It makes so much money from Xbox 360 and has clearly been pushing gamers towards its Xbox 360 console. Its recent PC gaming efforts have been half-assed.

In the past, a lot of you have told me that you’re never going back to PC games outside of Blizzard titles. Does Microsoft’s new service interest you?

Jimmy Kimmel Talks About Dragon Age’s Bi Elf Assassin

Zevran is getting some major airtime, as Jimmy Kimmel did a spot on Dragon Age: Origins‘ bisexual elf assassin. Even though the game is being used as a joke, I’m psyched that a BioWare product is getting mentioned on network television.

Coffee Talk #39: Gamer Girl Hot

Welcome to Coffee Talk! Let’s start off the day by discussing whatever is on your (nerd chic) mind. Every morning I’ll kick off a discussion and I’m counting on you to participate in it. If you’re not feelin’ my topic, feel free to start a chat with your fellow readers and see where it takes you. Whether you’re talking about videogames, whether the New Jersey Nets will go 0-for-December, Tiger Woods’ adventures in adultery, or whether Nokia can make Symbian competitive, Coffee Talk is the place to do it.

There are certain things a woman can do that make her 20 to 30 percent more attractive than she already is. Female sportscasters are a great example of this. A cute female sportscaster will automatically be promoted to beautiful. A beautiful one elevated to goddess. (See ESPN’s Erin Andrews.) It’s called being “sportscaster hot”.

Female gamers benefit from this “gamer girl hot” phenomenon too. Is it shallow? Maybe…but I am of the opinion that elevating gamer girls is a good thing. On a practical level, it’s a common interest. For the sake of changing the image of what a gamer is, it’s fantastic to show that there are hardcore gamer women out there. In my mind, any woman that’s an avid gamer should be considered attractive because she has an awesome hobby.

Ginger Reyes

My big weakness is female bass players. I had a huge crush on D’arcy Wretzky for years — she was definitely a cutie, but playing bass made her sexy. Ginger Reyes is another beautiful woman that’s too-hot-to-walk-the-Earth because she plays bass. Paz Lenchantin is either my dream girl or too much woman for my brain to process — she plays bass and videogames!

Are there any sportscasters, gamers, bass players, actresses, or singers that you find more attractive because of what they do? Please list any gals or guys that pop in your head.

Google’s Top 10 Videogame Search Terms for 2009

Google Zeitgeist has posted its top 10 search terms for a bunch of entertainment categories, including videogames. Here are the top 10 queries for games.

ghostbuster
ufc
saw
bakugan
batman arkham asylum
twilight
fifa 2010
modern warfare
transformers 2
resident evil 5

Ghostbusters the Videogame

The list is pretty interesting and indicative of what casual consumers search for. While a few of the titles on the list are definitely for the hardcore, a bunch of the search terms are mainstream. And then there’s Bakugan…which shocked the hell out of me at #4.

Anything on the list surprise you?

Source

EALA and Dice Team Up for New Medal of Honor

Medal of Honor box art

Electronic Arts announced details on the new Medal of Honor game. Normally, I abhor writing about game announcements (especially ones on military shooters), but there was something interesting about the new MoH — the single-player and multiplayer components are being developer by two different teams. Here’s a snippet from today’s press release:

Medal of Honor is being built with a best-in-class single-player campaign. The Medal of Honor development team at EALA has been hand-selected by the studio leadership of general nanager Sean Decker, executive producer Greg Goodrich and senior creative director Rich Farrelly. To compliment the single-player experience, EALA has enlisted the multiplayer expertise at EA DICE. This team will develop the multiplayer experience of Medal of Honor. These two studios are coming together to deliver a world-class Medal of Honor that is poised to re-set the franchise for a new generation.

It’s interesting that two big and established teams are working on different components of one game. I’m curious to see if it will be a homogeneous experience or if the game will feel incongruous.

Furthermore, I want to know how DICE will “compliment the single-player experience.” Will it say supportive and nurturing things to it? Will it say nice things about the single-player experience’s shoes and hair? I want to know!!! More importantly, I want to know if any of you are interested in this game.

Coffee Talk #38: Gamer Food

Welcome to Coffee Talk! Let’s start off the day by discussing whatever is on your (nerd chic) mind. Every morning I’ll kick off a discussion and I’m counting on you to participate in it. If you’re not feelin’ my topic, feel free to start a chat with your fellow readers and see where it takes you. Whether you’re talking about videogames, Allen Iverson going back to Philly, Derek Jeter being the first Yankee to win Sports Illustrated’s Sportsman of the Year award, or the heat Sheamus is getting for being friends with Triple H, Coffee Talk is the place to do it.

Gamer stereotypes are pretty amusing. If they were true, we’d all be 30-something males living in our mothers’ basements. One gaming stereotype that always amused me is that gamers are fueled by a diet of Mountain Dew and Doritos — as if that’s all we ever eat. Certainly I’ve had my share of Mountain Dew (especially Diet Code Red) and Doritos, but I wouldn’t call it gamer food by any means.

Warcraft Mountain Dew

In fact, I rarely eat when I play. I usually can’t be bothered by trivial things like sustenance when I’m saving the world, beating up the bad guys, or leveling up my latest RPG character. Often it’s hard to remember to even drink water when I play games. The one good thing about load times is that I can take a few seconds to sip some water, coffee, or iced tea.

Today I wanted to learn about your dietary habits. What do you eat and drink when you play games? Are you a Mountain Dew and Doritos guy/gal? Or can you not be bothered to eat and drink during your precious game time?

Coffee Talk #36: Are You Evil?

Welcome to Coffee Talk! Let’s start off the day by discussing whatever is on your (nerd chic) mind. Every morning I’ll kick off a discussion and I’m counting on you to participate in it. If you’re not feelin’ my topic, feel free to start a chat with your fellow readers and see where it takes you. Whether you’re talking about videogames, turkey hangovers, Ali Funeka getting robbed by Canadian boxing judges, or your Black Friday steals, Coffee Talk is the place to do it.

I hope everyone had an excellent Thanksgiving. Now that many of you are full of turkey, stuffing, and pumpkin pie, let’s talk about something important: being evil. Nah, I’m not talking about going on a random acts of cruelty spree. I’m talking about being evil in games.

Fable II evil

As I started my fourth play through of Dragon Age: Origins during Thanksgiving break, I noticed that I was either totally or mostly good in my three previous runs. Looking back at my history of BioWare and Lionhead games, I almost always play as the good guy — even when I play the game multiple times. The one exception was Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, simply because some of the Sith powers were too cool to ignore.

For me, gaming as the bad guy isn’t fun. I don’t fantasize about being the villain. I want to be the hero! Furthermore, I feel guilty about evil choices I make in RPGs. Sometimes I’ll pick a nefarious dialogue branch just to see what happens, but if the consequences are too severe, I’ll go back and reload my game out of guilt.

I wanted to see how you guys play games where you have a choice between being good or evil. Do you usually take the angelic route like me? Or do you enjoy being a devilish character?