f13.net

Jesus. Christmas is 2 months early and my stockings are full of coal. You know something is wrong when the best titles are coming out on the DS.

Bet on Soldier: Blood Sport (PC):
An FPS where you can profit from gambling on yourself and the opponents. That's sort of neat. I haven't played it and the Developer (Kylotonn) has made nothing else. Digital Jesters has spent a good deal of money advertising this title though. But then, that's what publishers do.

Cold War (PC/Xbox):
$19.99 on Xbox. $39.99 on PC. You are definately paying for the luxury of a keyboard and mouse there. This looks like a reasonably decent FPS from another unknown (Mindware Studios). But it's published by Dreamcatcher, which at least gives me a little hope.

Counterstrike 1: Anthology (PC):
Valve has teamed up with EA to sell you this game AGAIN. Fucking weasels.

DDR Extreme 2 (PS2):
Just reminding myself and anyone else who picks these up. I have to replace my ignition pad also. Sunbaked in the trip across the country. /meh

Farcry Instincts (Xbox):
Talk about taking too long to port. I don't care about this release anymore and I'm not sure anyone else does either. Would have been a great xbox title back in the spring or last winter, but a month before the 360? Oh, hell no.

Half-Life 1: Anthology (PC):
See CounterStrike 1: Anthology.

Lost in Blue (DS):
A reasonably decent looking adventure title for the DS. Yet another reason my system hasn't completely collected dust - yet. I'm still waiting for a title that takes more than 6 hours to beat that isn't puppy simulator.

Lunar: Dragon Song (DS):
Finally a title that will take more than 6 hours to beat.

Marvel Nemesis: Rise of the Imperfects (PSP):
Maybe this totally shitty game on the consoles will be better on the PSP. Maybe not.

NBA Live 2k6 (Everything):
Shouldn't you be reading IGN?

Pokemon XD: Gale of Darkness (GC):
I'm going to be frank here. I'm picking this up on release day.

Rome: Total War - Barbarian Invasion (PC):
A couple places have this expansion listed as coming out. I missed the "gone gold" press release, so I question that information. The demo did come out over a month ago though.

Sly 3: Honor Among Thieves (PS2):
Here's what I know about this game. It's cel-shaded and has a turtle in a wheelchair. Fo' real.

Stubbs the Zombie in Rebel without a Pulse (Xbox/PC):
The best use of the Halo engine yet.

The Suffering: Ties that Bind (PC/Xbox/PS2):
Apparently the first one was really scary. I never played it, but I've only heard good things, maybe someone else can elaborate.

Trace Memory (DS):
Another adventure title for the DS I've been looking forward too. This is simply a good week for the platform.

Tune in next week where the PSP goes head to head with the DS. The PSP is putting forth PoPoLoCrois and Virtua Tennis whereas the DS has Trauma Center and Castlevania.

I looooooooooooooooooooooooooooove this time of the year.

Isn't that Pokémon Colosseum 2 with even more gloom added to the recipe? And wasn't the first one somewhat meh?

So DS > PSP.  Why do people bother going up against such a beast?  I do like the PSP commericals though.  Not enough to buy it, but just enough to appreciate their marketing people.  :hello_kitty:

PSP has a really good October coming up for it.  I plan to buy at least 3 games >< 

I'm feeling M-E-H about these releases. I was so close to buying both a DS and PSP. They would be gathering some serious dust for me right now.

Day of Defeat:Source is release in 1.5 hours.

Dunno if it counts for you, but I'm counting it.

I can't remember how this Steam crap works- do I get that for free, or do I have to pay for it?

Steam itself is free.  Games delivered via Steam by and large aren't free, but if you bought HL2 you might have already paid for DoD, in which case you'll be able to push a button and have it on your hard drive.

Gold package = Free
Silver pacakge = Free

If you bought HL2 in a store, for 40 bucks, that the Bronze package.  In that case, for 19.99 you can buy DOD.

The only game I can think of that I am kind of looking forward to is Age of Empires 3. And I have no idea when it is coming out.

Supposedly 10/18. I'm slated to review it for the site.

Heh....

New books by Neil Gaiman and Richard K. Morgan this week.

Damn video game addicts.

I must've missed the memo... When did Dreamcatcher go from "Oh my fucking god, who in their right mind would've worked on, let alone publish such a game" to, "gives me hope"?

They're a small publisher. They published Serek Dmart stuff, yes. But they also published Still Life and Painkiller.

Er, wasn't Painkiller Godawful tho ?  I seem to remember it was.


Further, I have been mucking about with Dungeon Seige 2, the demo.  It sucks ass.  I mean, it's like they took everything that was wrong with the first one and MADE IT WORSE.

My eyes...

From what I've seen it's actually a fairly "standard" Pokemon game, except the turn-based battles are rendered in 3D.

Zanzarah, (http://www.zanzarah.de/) a 'monster trainer' for the PC, has broken the turn-based barrier as of several years ago.

I WANT TO FROB THE THUMBSTICK AND MAKE PIKACHU RUN AROUND! IS THIS SO MUCH TO ASK?!

--GF

There's already a game that does that. (http://www.ebgames.com/ebx/product/212490.asp)  Plus it's probably a hell of a lot better at it than the Pokemon:whatever game would be. 

Don't forget, Gavin Rossdale's new band, Institute, releases their album this week.

I didn't realize he had a new band. When did Bush break up? Somewhere around the time he started banging Gwen Stefani I'd imagine.

Also, Dreamcatcher made Obscure, which was a decent if unspectacular title.

I, ahem, loved Painkiller. In fact, most of my friends liked it as well. It played something like a serious version of Serious Sam with tons of enemies, some fantastic ragdoll shit, great looking and well-designed levels, and giant bosses that all had a different way of being beaten. Just a solid game.

Obscure was, in short, coop Resident Evil. I enjoyed the hell out of it coop. The game? As Haemish said, unspectacular [otherwise].

Man, how can you attempt to be so deep and yet always go for the shallow option ?

Ah well.

Does anyone have anymore info on Bet On Soldier ?  I must admit to some intrigue when I saw a TV ad the other day with two large fuck off mechs knocking seven bells out of each other...

How about you play the game? Or you can call me shallow right before saying how a TV ad interested you in a game.

Steam isn't free.

Waiting for the endless downloads and the three minute game startup routine will cost you your soul.

Yeah, cause TV Adds never interest people in games.  Marketing; it's just a scam, right ?

I did play the game.  I didn't like it.  I thought it was just bog standard fps.  I'm glad you're happy with it.  Who knows, maybe there's some blighted souls out there that'll like DS 2 as well !  People being different, it might just happen !!!

 :wink:

And, if you buy something electronically on the day of release, the servers may just be down...

Don't stir the steam poison in my chalice please...

Bush broke up only a bit ago ... the only reason I even knew about it was because Institute's song, Bulletproof Skin, played on the radio and I swore it was Gavin even though they called it Institute, so I looked it up. Also, he's been banging Gwen for *years*. She's hot.

You can hear Bulletproof Skin on their website, I think it's good: http://www.institutemusic.com/

Also, Institute is getting pimped Hard on [adult swim].

Wow. Institute sounds exactly like Bush. But then, all of Bush's songs sounded pretty much the same anyway. That's not a bad thing, I like Bad Religion and the Misfits also.

Now if you'll excuse me, I have tears of blood to shed for a thread getting derailed by Gavin Fucking Rossdale.

You forgot one...

THE PUNCTUATOR:  Full Colon Blowout

I'm going to read IGN (i.e. Fuck you, you basketball hatin' motherfuckas).

EDIT: But at least you like the Misfits, Schild.  :-P

EDIT: But I disagree. Their songs do not all sound the same. Death Comes Ripping is not Cough/Cool is not Horror Hotel is not Hollywood Babylon.

And Bad Religion sucks monkey nuts (but not as bad as Bush).

Lost in Blue is eating my baby. I can't put it down. Last night I dreamt that I devised a way to create a signal system from the ruins to call for help. Warning sign #1: gaming so hard that I dream about the game when I'm sleeping in real life. But I've failed four attempts to build a bed (my stamina is fucked from all the running around) and I can't seem to kill anything with my bow. I'm sick of getting +4% for digging clams when I'm starving only to have Skye cook a +127% meal when we're at 80% hunger. Her AI is stupid. But I'm seriously addicted to this game. In fact the only reason I'm online right now instead of playing it is to get help on hunting. Maybe a review will come of this?