fortytwo points

FEAR 2: Project Origin Releases Tomorrow

Monolith's long awaited FEAR 2: Project Origin will be hitting North American shelves tomorrow for Windows, Xbox 360, and Playstation 3. My opinion of the demo is that this is the FEAR we were originally promised with the original, and you can check it out for yourselves here.

Euro-Australian gamers won't get to join Alma's alternate reality until *cha cha cha cha* Friday the 13th, but that's a small gap considering how bad release dates have been in the past (Final Fantasy XIII next year?).

This officially begins the start of the next game season for me, which includes other sure-to-be hits like Resident Evil 5, Starcraft II, and Prototype. I'll be picking it up as soon as I can and you'll likely catch me online as Cap'n K'nuckles. I look forward to stomping some fools in that mech suit, friendly-like of course.

Sweet dreams until they cease tomorrow!    -Unfather

Deep Scrub: Halo Wars

I love the Halo universe. The games definitely have their flaws but the writing, plot, and action have been effective and enjoyable. Master Chief alone is one of my favorite protagonists, kind of my Gordon Freeman if you will, except that Master Chief has an actual personality rather than one you yourself have made up.

I'm also a fan of real-time strategy games (in theory, though less so in practice). But my typical qualm with RTS games is that "S" for strategy, which I don't feel has a place in the title considering how they often play. Most of these types of games simply have you throwing units at your enemy until you win, and if you don't, it's because you didn't throw enough. That's hardly strategy, but thankfully Relic Entertainment has been showing everyone else how to do it with the Company of Heroes and Dawn of War series, which actually require you to *gasp* think about what you're doing.

Too bad Ensemble Studios apparently hasn't played those games, as Halo Wars rips us from the warmth of their great advancements and throws us back into the Iron Age of strategy games. All while conveying the action through some of the worst piss-poor graphics I've seen on the Xbox 360 yet.  Halo Wars sucks like Paris Hilton, and if you want to know why, please read on...

Valve Officially Announces New Left 4 Dead Content, SDK

We already knew it was coming but it's official now; downloadable content for Valve's new hit game Left 4 Dead will be coming our way this Spring. Dubbed the L4D Survivor Pack, it will add a new multiplayer game mode called "Survivor" as well as making the final two campaigns (Dead Air and Death Toll) available for Versus play. A "Critic's Choice" repacking of the game will hit shelves around the same time and includes this content for new players.

Halo Wars Demo is Up

The Halo Wars demo is up on Xbox Live for everyone to enjoy. I'm sitting down now for a few rounds to let you know what I think.

I'll be back once I give it a good thrice-over. See you all soon!

-Unfather

Escapist's Indie Developers Showcase Finale = Wacky Game Concepts

For the last ten days now The Escapist has been running a feature on independent developers called the Indie Developers Showcase. The creators of World of Goo and Samorost have both been interviewed and the insight they and others have provided into their games and the industry as a whole is enlightening and entertaining. You can catch up on what you've missed here:

 Indie Developer Showcase

To wrap the whole thing up the final question they asked of all their interviewees was to create a game concept based on a simple premise: "You are a passenger on an airplane." The answers range from the humorous to the mundane and even get into "I hope that was an attempt at humor" territory a bit (World of Goo creator suggests making a match-3 game out of it, to which I reacted by spitting). Here are a couple of my personal favorites:

Braid's Jonathan Blow Comments on the PC version, Declares Integrity

Braid hit Xbox Live gamers right where they feel it least; their cold, blackened hearts. Without any rocket launchers or breast physics to distract us it had quite the uphill battle ahead of it, but after much kicking and screaming we were eventually forced to accept its nature as the refreshing innovation it is. Braid's Jonathan Blow has since garnered quite a bit of critical and financial success from the release, so it's no surprise that PC gamers are waiting for a chance to warm the cockles of their own thawing hearts with it as well.

Though no official release date for the PC version is yet available, Mr. Blow himself did offer something promising in response to the question "When can we expect some news on the PC version?". His answer:

Halo Wars Demo on Xbox Live Tomorrow

Hey hey hey. Decided to load up a little Halo 3 for giggles and I was reminded that the Halo Wars demo comes out tomorrow, February 5th. The series finally comes full circle and back to the RTS roots from which it was borne, and now the fans can get a taste of what might have been.

I'll be downloading it as soon as possible and I should have a Deep Scrub review up by the 6th. You can check out the official Xbox launch site here:

Halo Wars Launch Site

Let me know what you all think of the game, and until next time, have fun Chief.

-Unfather

"Devolving Innovation: Inspiration in the Industry" by TidalSpiral

"Today it is my great honor to introduce fortytwopoints.com's first contributor. He has written us a great piece about the current state of innovation in the game industry and I hope to share more of his work in the future. Without further ado, please welcome TidalSpiral, and enjoy the read. -Unfather"

>O<>O<

In a world consumed by commercial interests and failing economics, it's not hard to understand why certain games are primed for the spotlight and others are left to devise their own means for success. Gears of War will not ever have to fight for air time in the market - it's got an extensive company behind it, virtually unlimited funds, and to a lesser effect, a massive fan base that demands everything to do with it be revealed to them as soon as possible. This satisfies the latest generation of gamers who are more familiar with these relatively new franchises than the ones that paved the way for them.

To many veteran gamers however, the path we're on is leading to a worsening environment that jeopardizes the quality of all titles. Gameplay innovation has slowed drastically, cliches are ever present, and story writing has been left behind in favor of graphical enhancements. For all the exciting games that allow you to shoot hundreds of terrorists or watch the dramatic explosion of a space ship, there have been scant few titles to inspire deeper thought and push the envelope of artistic power in the gaming community.

MCVUK.com Tells Us Which Game is Really Best, At Least In Sales

The Market for Computer and Video Games site brings us interesting news today. The only unit figures I ever want to hear are the sales ones and they have just announced the 5 top selling games of 2008. The numbers are generated from the reports of the three leading providers of consumer information which include The NPD Group and Enterbrain Incorporated. Not surprisingly, the consumers have chosen the Wii as their market leader.

X-Play's Afro Samurai Review Stereotypical

I love 3rd-person combat games because they usually benefit from a good mix of action and story, but if there's any bane that almost all of them suffer it's redundant gameplay and bad camera angles. X-Play took the time to review Namco Bandai's Afro Samurai this week and of course found this to be a note-worthy complaint that, coupled with some strange stylization choices, earned it a 3 out of 5. With it's super-stylization, hip canon, and entertaining ultra-violence, do you think Afro Samurai worth your time?

Check out X-Play's review with tons of gameplay footage to judge for yourself:

I myself am a huge fan of the Afro Samurai cartoon and the way it has come full circle at the end of Afro Samurai: Retribution was a masterful conclusion to the story. The sword-fighting is exciting and the personalities of the characters are top-notch so the game should have been a shoe-in for awesome. Too bad it suffers from problems that I have to believe were kind of obvious; they're the same ones previous games in the genre have had so you would expect Namco Bandai to have learned from them. Especially considering how many brawlers and fighting games they've made.

Regardless, I'll be playing this the first chance I get and I have a feeling I will enjoy it. Have you played it? Let us know what you think.

-Unfather