Archive for the ‘Games’ Category

Bring games to Linux

penguincomputingI buy and maintain a Windows PC just to be able to play games. I would be a lot happier, if I could stick to Linux on all my machines and spend the money on games instead of a second set of hardware. Steam for Linux is slowly growing but AAA titles are still not being ported by EA, bethesda and the likes. While an emulated version is generally performing quite poorly (if at all), the request for making a full port of your favorite games like Skyrim or Battlefield 3 is still being ignored.

Let’s not doubt the potential impact those might have. It’s better to set a signal instead of giving up without even trying. At least I just signed…

Links first seen on steamforlinux.com

The Longest Journey – Dreamfall Chapters now on Kickstarter

Dreamfall

Gone but not forgotten: When I finished playing Dreamfall I was stunned by the epic open ending that left me hanging with millions of questions and I was really looking forward to the sequel of this very fine adventure game. But it never came. So over the years (it must have been 6 by now) I forgot the game even existed. Until I came across the Kickstarter: The core team of The Longest Journey is back together and planning to pick up the story where they left of. And swoosh: my anxiety is back as well.

During the first games, the dialogues are a bit exhausting at times, but it’s very much worth to chill out and play the first two episodes (or at least the second one, as the technology of the first one got quite ancient by now). Not a big fan of spoilers so I’ll just give you this: The technology driven world as we see it is just one half of what is out there. There is a parallel world of magic and both have been kept in balance for centuries. In the first part the balance starts to crumble and you play a girl who might be important to prevent that from happening. I won’t spoil anything from the second episode, except that you play yet another even sweeter girl.

You move through an epic and very atmospheric adventure with breathtaking scenery and a fantastic conspiracy story holding all of that together. At the end of part two you just want to know how it all plays together. So hurry up to finish the first parts if you haven’t done so already and get onto the kickstarter

Watch the clip in which director Ragnar Tørnquist and his crew explain what the sequel will be about:

P.S.: They are building it in Unity3D – which by coincidence I just started to look into myself (more on that in one of my later posts maybe). Would love to pledge and in return have a look at their source!

Edit: I just pledged $50.

Game Impressions: Proteus

Just stumbled over a game called Proteus while checking out some news on Steam – a fantastic looking and sounding exploration experience from the indie game scene. Can’t seem to find the “buy” option although it’s supposed to be released today. But I found some interesting “Let’s Play” on Youtube giving a little bit of a feel what it is (spoiler alert). Must say, I am curious and will definitely check it out. If you are into games also because you feel they are a piece of art and more than just objectives to solve or competitions to beat, you might want to do the same… If you constantly feel the need to blow shit up, please move along!

EA Origin EULA Privacy Scandal & Solution

First off: I love Battlefield since the first release and I have been playing all of them since Battlefield 2 weekly for hours. I love DICE for making awesome games with such attention to details and with the guts to put something new into each and every one of them. I also loved Mirror’s Edge and Pinball Dreams/Pinball Fantasies – both DICE products (those where the days guys!). What I hate is when some producer (read: EA) takes over and drives a perfectly good franchise and an awesome games studio against the wall by doing things like manipulating game review scores or not releasing it on steam. But the latest is really the kicker… they want you to install a spyware, they call ‘Origin’ if you want to play Battlefield 3 on PC.

I am really happy to see the reaction of the German gamers population, that led to EA’s latest scandal now even making it into the mainstream media.

In case you missed out on the details: The reason is that in the EULA (you know, the colossal text that you scroll down and accept when installing something) they get the agreement from you that, if you want to play Battlefield 3, you allow them to scan your entire harddisk and send everything they find to undisclosed third parties, which technically even includes private documents, photos, videos and the like. Not enough that you actually paid for the game (as far as i read the rumors, EA wants to increase their prices from now on from average 50 to 60 euro per game), you also have to install a trojan/spying virus with it to be able to play.

It took quite a while since the first complaints started to emerge online in August, but now that Battlefield 3 has been released, it is finally all over the german speaking media: Die Zeit, SpiegelOnline, NZZ, n-tv. Only Bild is missing out on that one so far. However, I am wondering why the Media outside of Germany does not seem to report on any complaints at all. Are you people satisfied with what EA is doing? Are you not informed? Or is the mainstream media just not covering what’s going on?!

What can we do about it? I for one will not even install the game until EA has modified their EULA dramatically (unfortunately I pre-ordered in April without knowing at that point, that it will run with Origin only). I will give Amazon a bad review on Battlefield 3. I will write a complaint email to EA’s Privacy Department and if nothing has changed until 11.11.11 I will send back my copy for a refund and start playing Skyrim as planned and only Skyrim instead. *drool*

Workaround: If you want to play Battlefield 3 anyway but of course would like to prevent Origin from scanning your system, there is supposed to be a solution called sandboxing. I haven’t tried it myself, but go ahead and report back if it worked… I would still suggest you to at least write a complaint to EA about it though, otherwise there will not be anything happening ever and you would at some point sandbox each and every game you buy.

Sequence on Steam feat. Ronald Jenkees

Yay! I just accidently found a game called ‘Sequence’ on Steam! Wait. Steam has what now?! Ok, from the start: I love the indie game releases this year, so i regularly check what’s on Steam. And there it was featured today: Sequence is one of those rhythm games that are flooding the market lately (most prominent example would probably be Guitar Hero). I am actually not so very impressed by this gameplay idea in general and the fact that it combines RPG elements with the timing of direction punching on the keyboard or gamepad is not the reason why i mention it here. No, the real reason is that it is featuring music by Ronald Jenkees and this guy is just genius! I have been watching his performances with the synthesizers quite some time ago on youtube and was always thinking about ordering one of his CDs. You can see that he just loves what he is doing when improvising along his sequencers. And now that I just found out that he obviously contributed some tracks to this game, i have basically no choice but to support him finally – with the tiny price of 3.59EUR (its 10% off right now) there is absolutely no reason to hesitate! If you would like to know who Ronald is and what’s his music like, here is my favorite track:

Ultimate Gaming Gadgets: The FPS Simulator

Suck at this, Kinect – I am off to the holodeck now… kthxbai!

Games I want to play in 2011

Fall is coming and even though there were quite a few very cool indie games this year (see my review of Limbo for example), the big blockbusters are still to come! Sure there has been Blink and Homefront out already, but although being hyped a lot, i somehow never got myself to show any interest in them. Instead, here is a short introduction into my most anticipated ones:

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Game Review: Limbo

Maybe you have played the 1991 platformer ‘Another World‘ back in the Amiga or in my case Atari times. I remember the very smooth animations which in those days were just awesome compared to the frame-by-frame pixel animation most of the games had. Without any textures however the game got a certain minimalistic feel. This is what Limbo (Latin limbus, edge or boundary, referring to the “edge” of Hell) reminds me of. But I am not comparing. It is fresh. It is more creepy. And this is due to two simple design decisions: first of all it is all black and white, with an old flickering camera effect and all shapes are drawn as silhouettes only. Second, there is no music whatsoever. Just sounds and some ambient noise. And those are just awesome! Footsteps, flies and… what is that noise coming from the bushes over there?

Creepy visual art, perfect atmosphere. My new favorite parallax-scrolling puzzle platformer is called... Limbo! (sorry, Braid)

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Battlefield 3 Multiplayer Teaser ‘Operation Metro’

I already posted this clip on my facebook application page yesterday just when it was released by DICE/EA, but I know a lot of people who are not on facebook anymore. So here you have it too: The latest Battlefield 3 Multiplayer Teaser, recorded on the Multiplayer Map ‘Operation Metro’, which is going to be played like a Rush Map (as known from Bad Company 2). Enjoy the destructible environment and – what amazes me in every single trailer I have seen so far – the fantastic ambient sound effects. Pure awesomeness!

The Rush Layout of Operation Metro, with its different zones: outside and inside. Also pictured are the mcom stations to be destroyed.

E3 Battlefield 3 and Frostbite 2 Trailer

The E3 is held at the Los Angeles Convention Center (LACC) in Los Angeles since monday 6. June 2011 and the Battlefield 3 Team released some tasty trailers on their game and the Frostbite 2 engine.

You can check out a live coverage from their booth through the official battlefield website: http://www.battlefield.com/battlefield3. Continue reading

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