Another generic Shooter

Codemaster just revealed Damnation, there new shooter.   You shoot evil baddies, in this case an arms dealer and his band of clunky mercenaries. Do people not realize how crowded the market is, even triple A titles like Crysis and UT3 tanked in sales.  Developers need to do more in the shooter space,  Crysis and UT3 are great examples of this; Crysis offered amazing graphics, but little innovative gameplay.  UT3 had no change from previous iterations and actually offered less than older Unreal games.  This is not clearly just a PC problem as the console space is justed as crowded.  Consumers are starting to smart up to this too, look at the lukewarm reception to Codemasters other game: Turning Point: Fall of Liberty.  Just read the comments to this joystiq article, please ignore usual internet griping.

Super Smash Bros. BRAWL

Its practically here.  The most anticipated Wii title comes out on Sunday in North America.  I’m buying it on release and can not wait.  Brawl is a very important title for the Wii because it shows a devotion to the outspoken hardcore and provides a game with lasting multiplayer and single player appeal.  The addition of multiplayer, albeit gimped without voice or text chat and friend codes, is a big step forward for Nintendo into the online space.  Stage building will freshen up the stock maps.  Hmm… multiplayer, stage builder, recordable video, sounds like a certain hyped shooter.

Also RIP Gary Gygax

Goodbye ‘Nade/Rocket Spam

The Demoman and Soldiers have been nurfed. An update recently released reduced the reserve ammo the demo and soldiers can carry. My gut reaction was pissed off, but not enough to flame forums as has been the huge reaction. I then played again and realized something was missing, SPAM. But, was it really necessary, TF2 stats on www.steampowered.com show that the grenade launcher and rocket launcher are not abused weapons and the demo gets the second lowest points per hour, the only place where the rocket is highest is damage dealt. They also inserted measures to reduce mic spam, which was much needed. Dramatic reduction in teleporters needed is also good.

I was going to do a post about Microsoft and Windows Vista certification and Intel’s 915 boards, but it seemed too typical MS, you can read about it here.

garfield sans garfield

Funnier than garfield avec garfield.

Battlefield Heroes debut trailer

It is awesome, I suggest you download the HD one here and bask in its 720p glory. I like the art style, its definitely not as polished as TF2 and the character animations do not look as smooth. I like 3rd person shooters, see SWBF2, and anything with even the most minor leveling or RPG elements can enslave me for quite some time, I predict I and my console friends with weak computers will be playing Battlefield Heroes for a while.