(This is an entry for this).

First thing I did with my first few months of salary was to finally buy myself a gaming PC so you’d probably know, I love games :). And not your average junkie too: I really love them, have played many many games, and find it puzzling why people can spend Ks on a gaming rig, or a car, or handphones, but find the concept of actually buying an original game - prices have dropped a little because of the weak dollar - completely alien.

That’s a discussion for another day though, since I’m writing this to share my favourite game of all time. You’d think it’d be a recent whizzbang shooter like Call of Duty 4, Bioshock, or maybe Half Life 2 - all fantastic games in their own right. After all graphics have improved to such realistic levels titles even a few years back can sometimes look positively outdated.

But yet I feel the best game of all time is Baldur’s Gate 2 (and its expansion Throne of Bhaal ), released a full 8 years ago in 2000 by the now-defunct Black Isle studios.

Granted I’ve always leaned towards RPGs rather than FPS. The former tends to be more story-centric and involving, rather than a twitchfest - although the lines are beginning to blur nowadays. But I think BG2 was one of the few games to have a perfect combination of action, gameplay, story, setting, and even decent multiplayer.

The freedoms given in the game, set in the Dungeons and Dragons Forgotten Realms setting, still puts many later wannabes to shame. After an intriguing introduction where you fight your way out of a dungeon and watch as a childhood friend is kidnapped, you are free to explore Amn and its surroundings as you please, though the game reminds you about your main quest every now and then. And no mere Fed-ex side quests these; the game throws at you pirates, vampires, werewolves, djinni, liches, and even dragons! Indeed, it’s been observed that the second chapter of BG2 is practically as fleshed out as the entirety of some other games.

And when you finish with that, you find out that it’s just the beginning as you travel over the seas and into the Underdark.What completely separated BG2 from other games though was its gameplay - due mostly in part to its Infinity Engine. I still haven’t seen an engine, 3D or otherwise, that has been as able to capture epic, spellslinging battles as Baldur’s Gate did. And these battles were hard too, even on your second or third time through, which gave you all the more satisfaction as you finally downed that dragon or mind flayer.

It was also one of the few games - then and since - which had interesting companions, all of whom would change your party’s playstyle, and how you experienced the game. All had their own storylines and subquests and there were more enough combinations for multiple playthroughs.

In 2001 came the expansion Throne of Bhaal, and it brought the game to dizzying heights of epicness - up to that point most studios had never done a DnD game with characters levelled so high. And somehow it all still worked, timestops, comets, devas, fire giants and all, and it still captured the adventuring spirit of the series.

I’ve lost count of how many times I’ve played through BG2 (4? 5?) and I find that as I write this I’m tempted to pick it up and try a new character and party build :P. I’m not alone either: there’s still a thriving mod community centered around the game. If you like RPGs and have never played this, you aren’t a true RPG fan :).

That’s it for my favourite game of all time!

Popularity: 55% [?]

Diablo III! You have to love Blizzard, when they do promos they sure do it right. Rather than leave us hanging with initial announcements, then drag on the PR campaign with the odd screenshot, concept art, staff interviews, etc, they usually already have working footage of the game - which is what the fans really want to see.

Kotaku has the links. It looks like it will  be in 3D, but it’ll retain the isometric perspective. Plenty of footage up already.

[Update] Here’s an interview from IGN as well.

Any guesses when the game will be out? I’m betting on a Q4 2009 release :).

Popularity: 46% [?]

Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull

Indiana Jones is one of the best movie franchises ever! It’s a rare blend of action and humour and doesn’t miss any opportunity to poke fun at itself. It has one of the best, most recognizable theme songs of all time. And it stars Harrison Ford!

My introduction to Indy wasn’t actually the movies though; it was 1992’s Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis, an adventure game by the magnificent but now-defunct LucasArts games division. It’s a rare, very rare example of a successful game-movie crossover that retained the qualities of its original, along with a magnificent storyline and memorable characters. It still stands up to any adventure game you’d find on the market today.

If you have been deprived all these years or are in need of nostalgia, here’s the introduction sequence :) :-

I’ve played all the Indiana Jones games and watched the movies more times than I can remember, and I’ve been looking forward to Indy IV for months!Detractors say that Harrison Ford is now too old to play Indy, or that Lucas is just milking an old franchise for money. Well the latter might be true, but Ford will always be Indy like how he will always be Han Solo and the president of the United States. He already has the fedora, the whip, and the Scowl down pat:

Now here’s waiting for May 22, 2008 to see if he has the rest of it still! :).
[Link to 720p Trailer torrent]

Fallout III

Fallout (1997) and its sequel Fallout II are universally considered among the best computer RPGs of all time (I preferred Arcanum, but it was less polished ). In the retro-futuristic Fallout universe, a nuclear war has laid waste to the earth, with the only survivors being the people who took refuge in government-built Vaults. In the original, you are sent out to scour the wasteland and your sister Vaults for a replacement “water chip” for your Vault. Interplay ( I’m so sorry I couldn’t afford non-pirated games back then  :(( ) did a phenomenal job in fleshing out a world of humans dealing with the fallout of nuclear war, as well as implementing a solid game system and an open-ended storyline. The ending of the first game is especially memorable:
If you want to know what it is ▼

The concern everyone is having is that Bethesda Softworks, who bought over the rights to the series, are well-known for focusing more on eye-candy than a solid story ( *ahem* Oblivion ). I’m actually a bit worried for them because there are a large number of scary Fallout fanbois out there!

Whatever the case, we’ll know soon - they are apparently on track (shock) for release in fall 2008.

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince

My Pottermania has pretty much died down by now, but I’m still looking forward to the sixth movie - the main reason being that I’m very curious how they are going to handle the romance that Harry is supposed to have with Ginny. With all the focus on the big Three, she’s been little more than a wallflower in the movies. Not exactly the spunky, vivacious Ginny from the books.

Context for this still:

[Returning from the village after the DA meets for the first time]

Hermionie: Anyway, at least we know one positive thing that came from today…
Harry: What’s that?
Hermionie: Cho couldn’t take her eyes off you, could she?
Harry: *smirk*
Ginny: *emo*

Popularity: 73% [?]

Yes no kidding.

Link to official trailer torrents
Gameplay footage on Youtube
Main site (Careful, the site is huge: 5mb+)
Press release at IGN
Gamespy article

Popularity: 17% [?]

Some people I know from KL came down to Penang today and I was supposed to meet them for dinner. Thing is I was going there straight from work, and on the way I got a call telling me they were still on Penang Hill - which left me stranded for an hour or two.

At first I was going to go to kill time in Gurney. Anyone who knows me well knows I’m a fan of arcade light-gun games, and Gurney has the newest machines in Penang, with House of the Dead 3 and 4. But as I was going there I remembered the massive jam that plugs Kelawai road and Gurney drive during the weekends… so I opted for Midlands (1-Stop) instead. Midlands’ arcade is ageing, but they have a good deal which lets you play unlimited games for 4 bucks an hour.

But low and behold as I walked into the Midlands arcade… a spanking new Time Crisis 4 machine! How new is TC4, you might ask? It’s so new that I can’t even find a review for it, let alone an FAQ! So let me be the first:

Namco’s original Time Crisis revolutionized the shooter genre with it’s hide-and-shoot gameplay. Time Crisis II was pretty bad. It didn’t add anything new other than multiplayer capability, which games like Virtua Cop and House of the Dead already had, and TC II was also much easier, with generous time allotments (taking the “crisis” out of the name), as well as a horrible case layout which positioned the player way too near the screen.

The series then took a detour with Crisis Zone, another forgettable shooter which a machine-gun instead of the standard pistol. Time Crisis III then brought the franchise back to the forefront with a weapon-switching system and PS2-standard graphics.

Crisis Critique

However with other competing shooters like House of the Dead 3/4 featuring more frenzied gameplay and much better graphics, or the underplayed (but good) Virtua Cop 3 which sported Max-Payne style bullet time, it was high time Namco shipped a new Time Crisis. How does it measure up?

My first impression wasn’t good: the graphics weren’t noticeably much better than TC III and definitely not on par with House of the Dead. It didn’t help either that Midlands opted for the small-screen cabinet. I started the game, and noticed it still had the same weapon choices. Didn’t look good!

But the complaints pretty much ended there. For one thing the story is slightly better, and the NPCs actually do take part in the action - this adds more challenge, since you have to take care not to hit them. The game also suggests the guns to use at key points (much needed, it was hilarious seeing people trying to take down choppers with a pistol in TC III).

While the graphics aren’t absolutely cutting edge, the game makes the most of them. Smoke, glass shards, sprinkler systems, and even bugs sometimes block your field of vision, and there wasn’t any lag, unlike certain scenes in TC III.

Some of the best improvements were the features and scenes adapted from other games. NPCs communicate to you via radio like in Virtua Cop, and the sound even comes through the individual gun stands, not through the screen. There was a scene straight out of the classic LA Machineguns, which placed you in a helicopter raining down rockets on helicopters and anti-air vehicles below. There was a short sniper portion a la the Silent Scope games, and in the beginning of second stage there was even a tribute to Doom III, placing you in a dark cave and attaching a flashlight to your gun to spot the enemies! Coupled with the well-scripted shootouts, TC 4 definitely had the most memorable scenes compared to its predecessors - typically had one or two good ones per game and then turning into a mindless shoot-fest at the end.

Multitasking Your Shooting

The newest feature that has everyone talking is the multi-screen battle. At many points in the game you need to hold and defend a certain position, during which enemies will come at you from all directions. By pointing your gun to the edge of your current screen, you “scroll” to a different screen, with a different set of enemies. Very challenging, especially in solo mode, but also very innovative.

Gameplay-wise, it’s definitely the best of the series. Accuracy is worth many more points now (1000 for each percentile), and the bullet combo system is much less brainless - there’s a gauge on top which increases as you hit enemies, but quickly goes down as you start missing. Although the weapon selection is the same, they are more balanced - the shotgun has a cooldown between each shot, and the machine gun does much less damage, making it unsuitable for bosses. Reloading seems slightly stricter, no more “duck-and-shoot” techniques. Much more challenge now, for better or worse. I couldn’t get past the first stage on one credit!

Anyone reading this who’s a fan or whose name is Benjamin or Khay Soon, I need kaki for TC 4 !!

Popularity: 25% [?]

I'm sure most gamers appreciate how advanced the physics are in computer games, whether it be applied to a projectile in a first person shooter or anatomically, but apparently Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion takes the cake! Someone managed to set up a 3-minute domino display with the in-game editor. Probably a combination of having way too much free time and the fact that the game looks pretty but gets really boring…

Popularity: 17% [?]