Tritton AX 720 Gaming Headphones Review

by Tiberius Jonez

“The Unfair Audio Advantage.” That’s what Tritton technology’s website declares on the product page for their AX 720 Gaming Headphones. After using these headphones in Modern Warfare 2, can I honestly say it’s a fair statement? Read on and find out.

There are two major players in the Gaming Headphone space, Turtle Beach and Tritton. Turtle Beach seems to be the better known of the two; likely due to their long-standing availability at Best Buy stores across the land, but Tritton’s products are now also available through Best Buy and other major retailers. This, combined with the quality of Tritton’s product line could be giving Turtle Beach legitimate cause for concern.

Being Christmas time, I was given $100 to buy something for myself and I’ve been in the market for some decent gaming headphones for a while. I couldn’t stand the idea of buying another crappy Microsoft headset or some other junk from Madcatz or Nyko, so I started researching. What I found initially was that Turtle Beach is well-reviewed around the internet, with only sparse mention of Tritton. So, I ended up buying a set of X31’s from Turtle Beach for $99.99 plus tax.

I chose the Turtle Beach product because for $100, the X31’s are wireless and are supposed to do a decent job of mimicking surround sound with a stereo headphone. I got the X31’s home and at first glance, they seemed kind of cheaply made to me. They were light, which is normally a good thing in headphones, but they seemed a little TOO light – like they’d break easily under any kind of strain or abuse. I’m a hardcore gamer, so whatever I buy is going to take some abuse – there is simply no way to avoid it.

Once I got the X31’s setup and running, my impressions were mixed. On one hand I thought they were comfortable and the ability to adjust your chat volume independently of game audio was a very nice feature (the Tritton AX 720's also have this feature). Unfortunately I found the “surround” capabilities of the X31’s to be sorely lacking. While playing Modern Warfare 2 on the Xbox 360 I could hear that enemies were somewhere near me, but I had no idea what direction they were coming from. Worse yet, I experienced severe popping noises whenever either end of the cord attaching the headphones to the controller got jostled. For $100, I was very disappointed.

So, I headed back to Best Buy to exchange them for a pair of Tritton’s AX 720’s. At $129.99, the AX 720’s are $30 more than the X31’s and they are not wireless, but I had read a few reviews that gave the Tritton’s extremely high praise for their sound quality – which is always better with a wired product VS a wireless one. Unpacking the AX 720’s, the first thing I noticed is the build quality – these things just feel well made. They are larger and a quite a bit heavier than the X31’s but they look really nice and feel very sturdy.

Setting up the AX 720’s is a bit of a process. The unit comes with its own Dolby 5.1 amplifier that connects to your Xbox 360 Elite via the optical input. The amplifier is quite small and should easily fit in most peoples setups. The amplifier has it’s own power supply, so you’ll need to have a free outlet available on your power strip. Xbox 360 owners must have an Elite model to take advantage of Dolby 5.1, as it requires the optical input. By the way, the AX 720’s can be used for Xbox 360, PS3 and PC and will work great with any BluRay/DVD player or other audio/video component with the requisite optical output. PC users can use the included standard 3.5 MM connection for stereo sound as well, but you will miss out on the surround sound goodness. The cord running from the headphones to the amplifier is 12 feet long and should be sufficient for the vast majority of players.

I did have one hitch with the setup. The manual is less than comprehensive, and at first I had other players in my game complaining about a very irritating buzzing sound coming from my mic. My wife and I searched the internet for a solution and nothing suggested fixed the problem. Then I started messing with settings on the AX 720’s amplifier and stumbled on the answer. For Xbox 360 users, make sure you select 5.1 Dolby, headphone mode, and game mode. Setting it like this eliminated the buzzing being heard by other players. Now it was time to get to fragging.

Before I even started a game, I noticed the sound quality difference over the Turtle Beach X31’s. I have my dashboard set to the water effect. Low and behold when I turned on my 360 I heard water sounds and at first couldn’t figure out where it was coming from – then it hit me – it was the dashboard effect. I had never even heard it with the X31’s or from my TV's speakers.

So, I joined a game of Modern Warfare 2. I took a couple of seconds to adjust my chat volume and game volume to a nicely balanced level. This is accomplished with an inline volume control on the cord running from the headphones with independent volume controls for chat and game audio. There is also a mute button so you can speak to someone in the real world without annoying other players in the game.

Once the game started, I was instantly blown away. I heard a chopper fly in from behind me and then I started taking in all the ambient sounds in the game; bullets whizzing by, explosions near and far, and people scurrying about. I could not only hear all these sounds, but I could tell exactly where they were coming from – both the direction and distance. Explosions were full and powerful and every sound in the game was crystal clear and beautifully recreated.

What you want to know is, did wearing these things make me a better player? Normally, I'm a solid player in MW2, but I absolutely dominated with these things on. It was so easy to find a comfy camping spot and just listen for enemies to approach. This was especially effective inside of doorways. I would simply setup inside a doorway and wait for someone to approach, then just as they were about to enter the door I’d leap out and knife them.

The second match I played was on Karachi. Here I didn't camp, and I can't tell you how many times I avoided a death because I heard someone approaching from behind and was able to wheel around and take them out – much to their chagrin. Once the dust settled I was the top player in the match by a large margin. going 25-4; my best single match score ever. Oh my, the sweet gaming goodness. I couldn't wipe the smile off my face.

A significant side affect of using these is that it seems to make the game's graphics better. That's not to say the graphics are literally improved but it is astounding how much easier it is to spot enemies – especially distant ones, when you have audio cues pinpointing the direction you should be looking in.

This is truly something that cannot be adequately explained – you simply have to experience it for yourself to appreciate the added sense of immersion true surround sound adds to your gaming enjoyment. Not once did I find myself wondering where a shot or approaching footfalls were coming from – it really lent a sense of confidence to my playing that I would never give up now.

To be plain – if you enjoy first-person shooter games and don’t mind ponying up the $130, you will not regret buying the Tritton AX 720’s. I give them my highest recommendation.

The Last Remnant PC review

By Tiberius Jonez

Final Fantasy; unless you’ve been living under a rock for the past ten years, you know it is widely considered the crown jewel of Japanese style role playing franchises. Personally, I never really enjoyed it until the release of Final Fantasy Crisis Core for the PSP. I always found the stories utterly clichéd, the combat tedious, and the graphics to be less than stellar, except for the cut scenes. And I’ve never personally understood the Japanese penchant for creating male heroes that look like 12 year old girls. Never mind the endless grinding and random encounters.

So, imagine my apprehension when I read that The Last Remnant, the latest attempt by Microsoft (the game first appeared on the Xbox 360) to tap the Japanese RPG market, was created by Final Fantasy developer Square Enix.

The Last Remnant makes a very good first impression; the opening cut scene is dramatic and full of excellent eye candy. In this scene, we witness the kidnapping of our hero, Rush Sykes’ sister, Irina. Of course, the kidnapping is just the tip of the iceberg of a much broader reaching political intrigue in which our hero will eventually find himself deeply embroiled.

The story is alright. Though it never quite reaches the level of fine literature, it does have some dramatic moments, some touching moments and the occasional plot twist that might actually surprise you.

My favorite part of the game is the combat. The Last Remnant's battle system is unique, though it will likely be several hours before you truly appreciate its intricacies. Rather than controlling individual party members during combat, you recruit leaders and soldiers, and group them together into unions. Although each unit has his or her own stats, equipment, and arts (the game's versions of spells and combat skills), you issue union-wide, turn-based commands on the field. Whereas in most RPGs you choose very specific actions, such as casting a particular spell or using a particular item, in The Last Remnant you choose broader commands. These may include healing unions that need it; performing mystic arts (though you can see which arts the units will use, you can't micromanage them on a unit-by-unit basis); or summoning Rush's awe-inspiring, beautifully designed Cyclops to assist in battle. It should be noted that the combat feels most comfortable with a gamepad, especially an Xbox 360 controller. While the combat is certainly functional with a mouse and keyboard setup, it is clear the system was designed for a gamepad.

Another thing I could never quite get used to, and one that is common to JRPGs is how, even though you are traveling with a large group of people, you only ever see your own character while exploring the world. Your allies are only apparent when engaged in battle. You've just completed this epic battle, and a split second after it ends, here you are all by yourself. I find this design choice to be slightly jarring.

The battle system is quite deep, and the graphical effects and animations are all very well done, and never become boring. The same can’t be said for the repetitious one-liners that Rush utters before each encounter. After a while, I desperately wished for a way to shut him up and just start the next encounter.




The world presented in the game is stunning to look at, and considerably larger than that found in the Xbox 360 version. While you will travel through many varied types of terrain, they all feel connected and reasonable within the game’s “reality”. There is the occasional texture pop-in, but overall the game's visuals are vastly improved over its Xbox 360 counterpart. Frame rate drops are very rare. One problem, and this is nitpicking, is the animations of some of the characters during in-game conversations. Some of the body language is just plain strange. It’s hard to explain, but you’ll know it when you see it. It’s not enough to detract from the overall enjoyment of the game, but it does occasionally end the suspension of disbelief that is the hallmark of any great game, film, or book. I do have to consider it a slight hit to the game’s otherwise excellent presentation.

The Last Remnant is a very long game, even if you don’t choose to explore every side quest and nook and cranny. Thankfully, the music is excellent throughout. Every area of the world has its own theme, and the music in battle is always rousing and never gets stale. The voice acting is generally very good, but there are occasional awkward moments.

Overall, the technical improvements Square Enix made to the PC version of The Last Remnant render it far superior to its Xbox 360 cousin, and make it one of the most enjoyable RPG games around, and one that any fan of the genre should make a point to experience.

Presentation (8)
Graphics (9)
Sound (10)
Gameplay (9)
Lasting Appeal (7)
Overall 8.6

Left 4 Dead at a glance

by Brendan Rose

The surprise hit of 2008, and an instant classic for me, was definitely Left 4 Dead by Valve software, makers of the archaic masterpiece Half Life. Half Life spawned games like Team Fortress 2, Counterstrike, Half Life 2 and eventually the evil and draconian Steam, which often refuses to let you play a game even though you’ve already paid for it.

Left 4 Dead is a Co-Op zombie shooter modeled on a movie theme. The zombies are kind of like those from 28 Days Later, really wild and crazy running at you slavering and screaming for blood, trying to rip your throat out when they notice you, and just standing around staring off into space when they don't.

L4D features 5 boss zombies. The Boomer, a bloated fat zombie barfs or explodes, sending a hoard of lesser zombies to kill you. The Smoker, like the licker from Resident Evil, constricts you with its tongue and drags you away to eat or strangle. The Hunter moves quickly and dives at you to tear you to shreds with his hands. The Witch cries until she's startled and then rips you apart. The Tank slaughters everyone half the time; you really need to stick with your team or you'll find yourself swarmed, restrained, and dead pretty quickly.

All the monsters and most items are placed randomly by the AI director, ensuring that every outing through the four chapters of screaming infected, each containing five levels, always feels fresh and new.

The game also features a versus mode where two teams face off as either the Zombies or the Survivors.

There is no way to express the joy of ditching your three stupid friends as they die in a hoard of zombies, overcome by their own dumbness, while you escape unscathed. Left 4 Dead features crisp live voice chat (or garbled gibberish on 360), swarms of enemies, and is really one of the most fun games of the year. I bought it twice, so I can easily recommend that you buy it once.

Far Cry 2 at a glance

By Brendan Rose

I wasn't particularly excited about Far Cry 2. It was released along side a slew of other more interesting titles and it was one of the last that I picked up. I played through the start, wasn't really impressed, got frustrated hunting diamonds, and gave up. That was it for a while. But after sitting down with it, sometime around the point I'd just wiped out an enemy unit and blew up a fuel tank which set fire to the grass that spread all through the area as I drove away, I realized, I love this game.

The graphics are rich and colorful; the African landscape looks great, ranging from dry plains to lush green jungles. It's a very pretty game. Not as pretty as Crysis, and I was disappointed that destructible buildings didn't make it over for instance, but at least it doesn't abuse and debase your computer like Crysis does.

Sure the story is crap, and it's just repetitive shooting and driving from place to place, but it's fun. The action is solid and the graphics are pure and beautiful. It’s one of the nicest looking games I've played, and it looks even better on the PC. The fire physics are the best I've seen in a game so far. It's also just plain cool to see your character pull a bullet out of his leg with a knife. It's a well rounded, polished, balanced and fun action shooter. The landscape is detailed and full of color and life, and it's funny to run over a gazelle.

Far Cry 2 is said to be a sequel in name only. It carries over none of the story or mutant powers of the first game. You are dropped into an unnamed African nation in the middle of a civil war and your mission is to track down and kill the arms dealer supplying both sides. The plan goes sideways as you're overcome with malaria and you have to start doing missions for either side for diamonds to buy weapons, and help the underground for malaria pills.

The AI is passable but nothing to scream about and there is the issue that you will be fighting the exact same enemies, time after time for the rest of the game. Most of the variation centers around your choice of weapons, and there's plenty. the game also includes a map editor.

There's not much depth to be found in Far Cry 2, but what it does, it does well. If you like first person shooters, it's worth a look.

Watch the video below for a taste of Far Cry 2's eye candy.

Fallout 3 - Game of the Year

by Brendan Rose

Fallout 3 is the next in line of the classic series of games from the nineties that allowed you to wander a post apocalyptic wasteland and lose much of your soul in the process, pillaging and tormenting survivors. With it's over the top violence, prostitution, drugs, pimping your wife for money, and killing little kids that throw stones, the game quickly gained cult status among fans. They were warped and deformed by the game forever, and hid in damp caves until the release of Fallout 3. Many of them were frightened and hateful towards the new game, but most have now come to accept it.

After the developer tanked, the licence was picked up by Bethesda, makers of the classic Morrowind, and the tripe Oblivion. Oblivion was a terrible game, but it's barebones engine provided the perfect framework for the new Fallout.

A lot of people thought it was just Oblivion with guns, which was true, but far more importantly, it was Oblivion with decapitation and dismemberment, and they fixed the damn level scaling, and the guards don't attack you everywhere for crimes in one city.

But that is just nerd history. The game starts you out being yanked out of your mothers vagina and told to decide the sex of your character. Your father (Liam Neeson) then has you sent off and you begin a series of milestones in your characters development in the underground vault where you decide your stats and skills which have an important impact on your character. You can also choose your appearance.

The game tries hard to give you the option of pursuing whatever interests you and still being able to get by. If you want to play it like a shooter, you can put your points into perception and weapons. If you want to use stealth, or melee, or focus on speech, the game will accommodate you.

As you level up you are able to receive perks depending on your stats and level that bulk up and customize your character in often unique ways. You can kill most of the people in the vault eventually, not all though. You can kill almost anyone in the game actually, which is nice. One of the first choices you're presented with is whether you want to destroy a town (Megaton) or save it. Your choices have some effect on the story and the ending is dynamic based on a few variables.

It's a very polished, fun game, with lots of depth. The wasteland goes on for miles and it's rich and full with beautiful graphics and plenty of detail, and it's just nice to be able to wipe out a town.

There's also a lot of depth to most of the characters, with a nice variety of dialogue choices, which makes it a lot more fun to blast their head off. The game uses a system called VATS to freeze time and line up attacks against different body parts and then watch all the violence in flashy slow motion. It's a nice throw back to the original isometric game. Strangely, watching limbs and heads go flying off, does not get old over time. The only problem is the regular FPS style fighting feels a bit clunky, you really need to use VATS.

Also available for the PC version is the GECK, which with a simple PHD in Quantum Physics, you can design and build your own levels, and the rest of us can try vainly to place one NPC that immediately runs away from where we placed it.

You can follow the main quest or just explore the wasteland, doing side quests, of which there is an abundance. There are also other characters you can recruit depending on your alignment.

There's a nice variety of enemies to suit different points in your development, ranging from Raiders to Supermutants to The Enclave, and plenty of random monsters like the Deathclaws. It's a nice nod to the spirit of the original games, and the next logical step for the series. The ending, however, is terrible...just terrible.

The main story lasts about 20 hours, and if you like exploring weird vaults and caves full of monsters, there's a lot more beyond that to be experienced.

It's my favorite game for 2008 and definitely worth a try.


Type Full Post Here.

H.A.W.X.: Revolution X shooting down Ace Combat this fall

By Tiberius Jonez

Like Abbott and Costello, Hall and Oates and Lennon/McCartney, Tom Clancy and Ubisoft have been a long-standing team with a track record of success. Responsible for some of the most memorable IP’s around, from the Splinter Cell franchise to Rainbow Six: Vegas, the duo have become a staple of the shooter genre. That’s why I was surprised when I heard about their latest collaboration – an air combat game called H.A.W.X.: Revolution X which is set to debut this fall on the Xbox 360, PC and PS3.

With the Ace Combat series being the uncontested champ of this genre for the past ten years, it will be nice to have an alternative – especially one intent on straddling the line between arcade and simulation while maintaining a high level of realism.

The realism extends beyond the planes - which look beautiful – to the topography of the areas over which you’ll pilot them. By utilizing real satellite data, Ubisoft Romania says the areas you fly over will be virtually identical to their real world counterparts.

H.A.W.X. is an acronym for The High Altitude Warfare - Experimental Squadron, a real squadron founded in 1943. It was originally known as FALCO until the U2 spy plane scandal of the 1950’s forced the government to shut down the unit – at least publicly. In reality the name was changed to H.A.W.X and the program continued as a secret government project devoted to the testing of the US government's experimental aircraft and weapons systems, combat and recon black ops missions, training US and Allied pilots and the capture of enemy air-oriented technology.

The game is set in 2012 with the world on the precipice of global conflict. Private Military Corporations (PMC’s), which seem to be the favorite foil of game plots right now (see Metal Gear Solid 4), are available for hire by any sovereign country and are seen as legitimate mercenaries. Unfortunately, over the years the PMC’s have become more and more powerful and difficult to control, which is where the H.A.W.X. come in - to lay down the law.

H.A.W.X. offers a pilot assistance program called ERS, which aids in tracking enemies and piloting. The system is turned off by double-tapping your brakes and on by double-tapping your thrusters. According to a write up on IGN after a hands-on session with the game, switching back and forth between the two flight styles becomes second-nature within minutes and using it has nothing to do with skill level – it is something all players will use. In short, you’ll be turning ERS off when you need to make really difficult maneuvers that require full control of your jet’s systems and turning it on when you want to find difficult targets or get a better view of opposing planes during dogfights.

Judging by screenshots, H.A.W.X. is looking great and the gameplay sounds very promising. Hopefully we’ll see more on the game before its fall release.

PLAY reveals Tomb Raider Underworld coming in 2008

PLAY Magazine (via tombraiderchronicles.com) has confirmed that the next Tomb Raider game is Tomb Raider Underworld. In their January '08 issue, PLAY scores an exclusive interview with Eric Lindstrom of Crystal Dynamics, the game's developer.

According to Lindstrom, Lara Croft's latest adventure will feature a level of realism and interaction unprecedented for the series.

For example, "In the level where Lara explores Southern Mexico, she leaves footprints in the mud, but it's raining so they wash away. The bodies she leaves behind in combat encounters will stay, however, as will the debris from any destruction she causes." He also noted that when Lara kneels on a muddy outcrop, only her knee will be covered in dirt and this will gradually dissipate as she continues on her journey.

On creating a new level of immersion, Lindstrom says, "we developed a hybrid lighting model that combines dynamic lights with carefully created light maps to make our world look stunning in ways that none of the available methods could achieve alone." They've also given Lara full motion capture "to bring a more natural fluidity to her movements, with proper weight and secondary motion."

Tomb Raider Underworld in tentatively scheduled for a 2008 release on Xbox 360, Playstation 3 and PC.

Ubisoft working on web-based Might and Magic game

It's already been a good day for Ubisoft and now they have announced work has begun on a new web-based game set in the Heroes of Might and Magic universe. Heroes of Might and Magic Kingdoms, is being developed for a Spring 2008 worldwide launch.

Heroes of Might and Magic Kingdoms is a strategy game set in a persistent version of the heroic-fantasy world of Heroes of Might and Magic. Thousands of players will be able to rule their virtual kingdoms, lead gigantic armies against each other, master the trades or create legendary heroes. The game requires no download or installation, only an Internet connection. In addition, players can play at their own pace; from 10 minutes to multiple-hour sessions.

“This is a new type of game for Ubisoft, one that allows you to jump into a rich and complex universe just with your Web browser,” said Serge Hascoët, Ubisoft's Chief Creative Officer. “Heroes of Might and Magic Kingdoms will open a wide door to the Might and Magic universe, allowing players to immerse themselves within it unlike ever before.”

Read on after the break for ways to get a key to the beta for the game today.

An exclusive key for the beta test is hidden in the Heroes of Might and Magic Complete Edition that releases today, you can also register on www.hommkingdoms.com.

Web-based games have historically ranged from utter crap to pretty good. With a developer as talented as Ubisoft entering this space, maybe we can expect Web-based games to reach the next level.

GTA 4 box art revealed

It may have been delayed until sometime in 2008, but that hasn't quelled excitement for Grand Theft Auto IV. Now we have our first official Box Art for the game. Feast your eyes on the glory of it all...I especially love the girl licking the lollipop in an oh-so-suggestive way. (UPDATE: A new trailer has also been dated - more after the break)

See all things GTA at Rockstar's GTA page.

UPDATE: Rockstar also announced a new trailer titled, "Move up, ladies" which is scheduled to drop Dec. 6th - next Thursday - at 3:00pm EST.

Iranian President reviews Call of Duty 4 - Video

Sorry, this video has since been removed. Gee, I wonder why?!

Iranian President Ahmadinejad (don't look at me, I don't know how to pronounce it) has taken some time out of his busy day building a nuclear weapons program to thoughtfully grace us with his opinion on Infinity Ward's latest blockbuster, Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare. His video review follows after the break.

This is one hilarious video, and it's short. I wouldn't call it SFW, so you may want to wait 'til you get home to watch it, or at least shut your office door. Thanks Gametrailers!

Enjoy.

Metareview - Kane and Lynch: Dead Men (Xbox 360, PS3, PC)

Nobody likes game delays, but sometimes they are actually a good thing. Apparently the folks over at Eidos don't concur with that sentiment as they clearly thought it was more important to get their latest offering, Kane & Lynch: Dead Men, to market in time for the holiday sales crush rather than release it later and give gamers a product worthy of their sixty bucks.

It seems the game's story is powerful, if under-utilized, while the gameplay is decidedly last generation. With a glut of great shooters already hitting store shelves this season, Eidos should have done us (and themselves) a favor by delaying K&L and heaping a few (hundred) buckets of spackle and polish on it.

1UP (75/100) So there are problems that prevent Kane & Lynch from fully realizing its potential, but its concept and execution are strong enough to survive them. We rarely see scenarios and story structure this good in a game, and that makes it easier to forgive some of the more hardcore technical game-design issues. It's definitely more of a popcorn game for the action-movie crowd than a hardcore shooter, but there's nothing wrong with that.
IGN (70/100) Foul language alone wouldn't be enough to make Kane & Lynch stand out from the myriad other titles looking to gain some notoriety. This is where Kane & Lynch earns its stripes. Rather than employing a series of cheap shock tactics as so many other games have, IO Interactive crafted an intense and visceral story to go along with the game. Say what you will about the language being over the top, but these anti-heroes are wonderfully bent. It's no easy task to create such despicable characters and then give them motivations and situations that allow even the holiest of us to relate to their situation and feel for them. These are hard men put in an impossible situation. Following them on their journey is a wild and bumpy ride. As well constructed as the plot is, one would assume the game would play smoothly. Unfortunately, it does not. Instead, it plays like a game that lacks focus and needs a few more months of polish. But then, most of the gameplay feels like it was pulled directly out of a game from the last generation, so perhaps more time wouldn't have done any good.
Gamespot (60/100) Kane & Lynch: Dead Men is an ugly game, and we're not necessarily talking about the graphics. This criminal tale is packed with a collection of completely unlikable characters with no redeeming value whatsoever. It's impossible to even root for them as antiheroes. Once you get past the messy, meaningless story, things don't get too much better because you're saddled with clunky artificial intelligence on the part of your allies and your enemies, as well as a core shooting mechanic that simply doesn't satisfy. The unfortunate part is that the game does have a few bright points and feels like it had a lot of potential that just didn't come together as well as anyone must have hoped.

Crysis review - the bar has been raised!

Crysis has been on every PC gamer's radar for the past 18 months, ever since the first stunning images from the game were revealed to the public. No one ever questioned the game's unbelievable near photo-realistic graphics, but could the gameplay live up to the visuals? Gamespot has posted their opinion, and the video review follows after the break.

Amazing graphics...check. Excellent sound...check. Riveting story...check. Exciting gameplay...check. Apparently Crysis has it all. The reviewer calls it "without a doubt, one of the best shooters ever made." His only real complaint is the perplexing lack of a team deathmatch mode in multiplayer.



Now, all you need to do is spend a couple grand to upgrade your PC to an acceptable level to run Crysis.

Update: Firing Squad has an excellent story showing how you can upgrade your PC to run Crysis and the new Unreal Tournament game for only $500.

They Deserved Better - Part One: Beyond Good and Evil

This is part one of a four part series called "They Deserved Better" where Adam Montgomery examines the fate of some of the greatest games ever made that never achieved the level of commercial success they deserved. These games hold a special place in our hearts. They are the cult classics of the gaming industry and deserve our recognition and, if possible, a place in your game library.

In part one, Adam Looks at Beyond Good and Evil from Michael Ancel, the brilliant creator of the first two Rayman games.

Jade battled to free the minds of Hilllys’ inhabitant, but she was only free to do this after Micheal Ancel had a similar battle with videogame audiences. Beyond Good and Evil is the product of Ancel’s struggle; it is his attempt to open minds.

Originally intended as part of a trilogy, BGAE failed to sell. It was so much of a commercial failure that the work that had gone into the game-world’s engine was cast aside (although the JADE engine did go on to feature in the more successful Prince of Persia) and the franchise died without delivering it’s sequels.

It’s a shame too, because Jade’s home world of Hillys felt real. It felt like every step you took in the world left a footprint. Crowds would gather in support of the rebellion. Every exposure you made was broadcast and heard by the people. The JADE engine made possible long-distance visuals, preventing feelings about the environment being an endless series of “levels” – it was a hive of activity. It was a prize worth liberating.

Cinematic sequences carried a sense of drama and emotion. Jade’s personality wasn’t explicitly told to the player; it was signed in unspoken language: with the nuance of her character revealed in the movements and framing of the camera.

Ancel had a tale to tell, and he told it impeccably.

And then there’s Jade. She wasn’t from the mold of other female protagonists, and she wasn’t bound by their shared restraints. She was mentally strong, strikingly independent, and was the backbone of a revolution – a willing messiah for Hillys. Most importantly, and most distinguishingly, Jade was untouched by marketing staff seeking the dollars of teenage boys. She was the opposite: she was a feminist heroine.

Jade’s spiritual, she’s resilient, and she’s a woman of substance – tied to her purpose without thoughts of failure. Most endearingly, Jade is a mother figure, but not just a mother figure. Her role as caretaker is but a reflection of one aspect of her personality and, when paired with her thirst for truth, makes up her drive. Yes, Jade began by taking care of a few, but she ended up taking care of an entire nation.

Metroid Prime’s Samus Aran is an icon; the moment she removed her helmet to display her femininity is seminal. However, and this will anger some, when you’re playing the game she’s not a woman. She’s not even a man. She’s a sexless, soulless it.

And when Samus won the Gamefaqs character battle it was a bit sad. The first woman to win the contest wasn’t really a woman at all, she was a canvas; a white sheet for the player to project themselves onto; she was a safe nothingness.

Compared to Samus, Jade in Beyond Good and Evil is Women’s Rights 2003: liberation in a new medium.

It’s just a shame she had such a sad and premature ending.

Adam Montgomery

Hellgate: London Demo available now at Gamedaily

If you are planning to purchase Hellgate: London when it releases on (Nov 2nd in Europe) Halloween, then scoot on over to Gamedaily now and download the demo before it hits the rest of the net tomorrow.

The Gamedaily demo will likely be the only chance you have to download the demo without having to jump through a bunch of hoops like sign-ups, logins and passwords and such. It's just a quick and dirty download...me likey!! At 1.5 gigs, the demo is good sample of what you can expect from the first release from Flagship Studios, whose development team consists of former Blizzard employees that worked on Diablo, Warcraft and StarCraft.

UT3 and COD4 PC Demos Available Now!!

The single player demo for Call of Duty 4 and the Unreal Tournament 3 demo are now available for download. UT3 is available through fileplanet, and COD4 is available here.

If you want to know if your system will run UT3, check out this in-depth benchmarking story from PC Perspective.

According to Fileplanet, UT3 is still scheduled for a November release. COD4 is definitely releasing on November 6th.

Enjoy!

"Game On" - HP Shows Amazing New PC Gaming Technology

HP isn't exactly known as a hip and cool company. In fact their image is probably more conservative IBM wannabe than cutting edge visionary. Well, they are about to pack that image up, pour some gas on it and burn that mother to the ground!

With the recent surge in popularity of console gaming brought about by this latest generation of hardware from Microsoft, Nintendo and Sony, HP is planning to seize what it sees as a golden opportunity to take PC gaming to unprecedented heights while fundamentally changing the way we play games on computers. During HP's Gaming Summit at Dogpatch Studios the company announced "Game On", the company's HP Labs research center that is developing technology that could be incorporated into next-generation personal computers that play interactive video games designed for the broadband era.

We're not talking your standard Next Gen shooters or racing games either. Oh no, what HP has planned are some pretty amazing gameplay technologies. The prototypes they showed included computers with curved screens so someone playing a racing game can see the track they're driving on ahead and to the sides for an incredibly immersive experience and a touch-screen computer built into a coffee table so players can sit on all sides and participate. HP also played a video in which a teenage boy is walking through a big city with his handheld game player. He points the device at a portion of the city's skyline and the device scans the outline of the buildings in view, creating a game scene from that image. Very cool indeed!

During a panel discussion, Rahul Sood, chief technology officer at HP Gaming, and founder of Voodoo PC which HP acquired in the fourth quarter of 2006, said that next generation PC games based on Microsoft's new DirectX 10 technology will do more to drive sales of Vista than anything else. He said, "DirectX 10 is going to provide a dramatically improved gaming experience that will drive adoption of Vista."

Sood also said he sees HP offering a premium line of gaming PCs priced higher than its current line of HP and Compaq branded PCs, but lower than VoodooPC's custom-made models, which can sell for $8,000. When asked specifically if HP plans to soon introduce a line of PCs such as that, Shane Robison, executive vice president and HP's chief strategy technology officer said, "I am not allowed to go there."

While impressive, HP has a steep hill to climb. Sales of gaming consoles grew 33 percent in 2006 while sales of gaming PCs grew by only 1 percent, according to the retail sales tracking firm NPD Group Inc. There are reasons to be optimistic though. Sales of gaming software that runs on PCs reached US$6 billion globally in 2006 and are forecast to hit $12 billion by 2010, said Rick Wickham, director of games for Windows for Microsoft, citing figures from IDC.

HP's move into gaming could be a "game-changing" one, said Rob Enderle, lead analyst with technology research firm The Enderle Group. HP could try selling high-margin gaming PCs to escape from the low-margin PC market it competes in with every other PC maker. But he explained it could also be a risky move. "The buyer may say they don't want one and that is the risk when you make a game changer. You make a guess at where the market is going and you get there first," Enderle said. "If you guess wrong you're there all by yourself"

Top Ten Coolest Game Characters - Nintendo is not cool.

Gaming site screwattack.com has posted a cool segment in which they detail their "Top 10 Coolest Game Characters". The rules are simple...only one character per game franchise can make the list and you gotta be LL Cool baby!

Duke Nukem came in as Number 1 on their list, citing Duke's phrases, and his general badassedness (is that a word...it is in the world of Duke Nukem!). They particularly seemed to enjoy one of the cinematics from Duke Nukem 3D. "I'll rip off your head, and..." You remember the rest. :)

Of course Top Ten lists are only fun because noone ever completely agrees with them, and that will certainly be true in this case. This list may actually be more interesting for who DIDN'T make it. Let's just say there are going to be some very irate Nintendo fans.

Check out the entire segment in this clip from Youtube.



No Marcus Fenix? Hmmm. Who do you think should of made the list?

Max Payne Creator and his Dream Team coming to Next Gen

Samuli Syvähuoko, one of the co-founders of Remedy Entertainment, the company responsible for the hugely successful Max Payne franchise, has formed a new development studio called Recoil Games and begun development on a new Next Gen game.

Syvähuoko has assembled a virtual super group of game designers and artists to get Recoil off to a fast start. The company's founding team members each have an average of ten years of experience in the game industry and hail from a virtual who's who list of developers including Codemasters, Electronic Arts, Guerrilla Games (Sony), Remedy Entertainment, Treyarch (Activision) and Ubisoft both in Finland and internationally.

Recoil's hook is they plan to create games based around a disaster movie kind of theme to create games on an extra-large scale. Sounds risky, but interesting.

From the company's press release:

"Established in January and based in Helsinki, Finland, Recoil Games Ltd. focuses on the creation of action games with the scope, feel and ensemble cast of disaster movies. This is a large untapped area of the industry and Recoil plans to lead the way with its innovative Cinegames design techniques. These games will feature huge stories, and require a large ensemble cast-often working together-to solve the many varied challenges, including internal human conflict, another area most overlooked in today's action games. These games will be released for current and next-generation consoles and PC."

Recoil's first game will be an original IP (intellectual property) utilizing in-house technology as well as licensed third-party tools and is targeted at the Xbox 360, PS3 and PC.

It will be interesting to see if a team of such uber-talented people can all work together on a common goal without getting sidetracked by individual agendas. If the game ends up having half the attitude and fun of Max Payne, it'll be one worth watching.

Top Casual Games of 2006

Bob Mandel over at Avault has a nice little write-up on some of the best casual games of last year. If you're looking for a fun distraction and aren't a slave to the technological bells and whistles of the Next-Gen consoles, you may very well find something here to fall in love with...and it won't cost you sixty bones!

2D Ocarina of Time creator dies in car accident.

Richard Denton, the creator of the 2D version of Zelda: The Ocarina of Time, and better known as "Dampe" around the net, was killed friday when he was struck by a car. Apparently, the road was wet, the car slid and Dampe was struck and rendered unconscious at the scene. He died later at the hospital; he was 15. According to the police report the car that struck him was not speeding and no alcohol or drugs were involved. Apparently it was just a very very sad freak accident.

We send our condolences to Richard's family and friends and his girlfriend. Reportedly his last known words were an "I love you" to her.

At the request of his family, the game, the official OoT2D webpage as well as the forums are closed. The future fate of the game itself remains undecided at this time.

A video from late last year shows the game in action.

To Dampe, I want to thank you for your hard work and passion, hopefully you know just how many people were inspired by your talent and efforts. You will be sorely missed.