GalCiv 2 Peace Report, Day 1

Nabeel Burney 1 Comment

Tom Francis, of PC Gamer UK magazine, has posted the first part of his latest AAR of Galactic Civilizations 2 over at CV&G.com. It is to be included in the latest magazine issue as a separate booklet, and the online blog will be updated every few days til the complete piece is up there. This piece was written on the heels of the newest expansion for GalCiv 2, Twilight of the Arnor; Francis’ previous effort was on the preceding Dark Avatar expansion.

I’m a huge fan of his work, and immensely enjoyed the last AAR, so I’m really looking forward to reading this one. Essentially it is a meticulous day-by-day recount of a playthrough, in this case it’s an attempt to conquer the galaxy with a cultural victory. What makes this kind of thing interesting is that everything that occurs is related and nothing omitted - all mistakes and all victories. That his pieces are hilarious by nature is only icing on the cake. It makes the game sound interesting to even those who aren’t even interested in playing it.

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Space Siege Demo

Martyn Zachary Leave a comment

The Space Siege demo in four words:

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American McGee’s Grimm

Martyn Zachary Leave a comment

So far I’ve had the delight to try out - for free, if I may add, the defining characteristic of this endeavour - the first and fourth chapters of American McGee’s Grimm, the new episodic series published on GameTap. To get the monkey off my back, both episodes, Puss In Boots and A Boy Learns What Fear Is, have felt perfectly fine to me. In the answers section of his personal forums, McGee writes that

[Grimm] was designed to be played by people who’ve never played a game before. Of course this means that hard core gamers are going to literally *hate* the experience. But that’s OK.

Though I full well understand the defensive attitude, and considering I would probably have to label myself a “hard core” gamer, it’s somewhat surprising that my biggest (sole!) gripe so far would be that I keep on forgetting when a new episode is released. I’ve therefore missed the more platform-oriented, sea-scaped The Fisherman and His Wife and the classic Little Red Riding Hood.

GameTap offers you the possibility of downloading the first episode as a stand-alone installer, subsequent episodes will have to be downloaded via the GameTap interface or through the recently introduced TryGames. The fourth episode racks up around 300mb. Though McGee promises more download services (I’m sure some users are “Steaming” by now) shortly, it remains to be seen what will happen to Grimm and GameTap now that Time Warner have decided to sell off the service.

Well That's a Bitch
How Grimm.

The basic starting point for the game series is that the team reimagines an old Brothers Grimm story. Check out the pictures and the rest of the review after the jump.

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PS3 BioShock Release Date 21 October

Nabeel Burney Leave a comment

BioShock’s release on the PS3 has finally been dated for October 21st in the US, and 24th the rest of the world.

The PS3 version of the game is being touted as an enhanced package containing features exclusive to the platform, such as a new ‘Survivor’ difficulty mode, support for the new PSN Trophies, and a new game mode titled ‘Challenge Rooms’.

As IGN reports, the Survivor difficulty mode aims to introduce an even more challenging experience by means of making the world a tougher place to survive in; resources scattered around the levels are scarcer now, and the player will have to make do with less than ever. It’s bringing back what most System Shock fans were expecting from the outset - a gameplay experience that sees you hungering for resources at every step, needing to scavenge for and carefully ration every item you come across, making “every bullet count”.

The Challenge Rooms feature is a whole new game mode available to players from the main menu, and consists of a series of areas that each pose a discrete challenge for players to overcome. I’m picturing Portal-like puzzles that pit players against the clock to complete; it could be a feature that proves popular as the community strives to compete for best times, and could be supported for some time down the line.

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