Game Review: Dead Island

Dead Island is fun! It is actually the most fun I had with a game in a long time. As the title suggest this is a game about zombies. The last few years zombie games seem to be the new WW2 games. Everybody wants to release one to catch up with the zombie gold rush. This game though is not some poor excuse to pay the developers in order to slay undead hordes. This is gaming at its best.

Dead island starts with a crazy party in a luxurious tropic island resort. During the night though all hell breaks loose and the beautiful sunny resort turns into a post apocalyptic zombie infested nightmare. For some reason everyone that has not played Dead Island is under the impression that it is an FPS of the Left4Dead nature. This a wrong impression. Dead Island is an action RPG and has plenty of elements from both genres. You kill zombies and level up in an open sandbox environment. You pick your skills and complete quests from NPCs, while hacking undead with your machete. You craft more powerful items from objects you find in the environment, while you run down zombies with your pickup-truck. You get the picture...there is lots of action  in a open world RPG.

Stop ruining my holidays

When you start the game you choose your character out of possible 4 very unlikable(they are all pricks if you ask me) protagonists. They are not different classes exactly, but each character offers different strengths and weaknesses. You 've got your  tank-ish character and the more agile/ranged one for example. The game starts in the resort where you get your first missions helping out some survivors and learning the ropes of the game. There are story missions and there are the sidequests. I highly recommend doing all of the sideqests. Besides offering many many hours of fun gameplay, each off them offers  money, experience points, unique items and much more. Each chapter opens up a new quest hub  for story missions and side quests but you can freely travel between them.

In Dead island I never got bored. The game is pure entertainment from start to finish. The missions vary in nature. You have missions were people want to find relatives, items, you got to save people, investigate situations, kill certain characters, rescue and escort NPCs. There are many missions and while some might look like your standard fed ex quest it is not and the island makes sure about that. While you are trying to get from point A to point B the game will throw everything at you: more small side quests, interesting places to explore, loot to grab and a horde of zombies and human enemies. The real protagonist is the island. It is alive and wandering around pays off in fun, XP and loot.

The four pricks

The graphics are very good and each hub has its own distinct look and feel. After the lush bright and sunny beach resort you find yourself in the depressing city slams and after that in the deep jungle. My favourite two areas have to be the resort and the Jungle mainly because I preferred the open beautiful environment to the gloomy and doomy shithole that were the slams. Another reason was probably that some missions in chapter 2(the slams) I had to fight in closed space and the game turned into a corridor 'shooter' which was a bit repetitive, but fortunately it did not last long.

Speaking of 'shooter' this game offers many many weapons. It took a considerable amount of time though before I got my hands on a gun. There are machetes, axes, knifes, frying pans, shotguns, rifles, pipes and many others. The game offers many different melee and ranged weapons to use in different situations. For zombies (who will be the most enemies) I preferred melee weapons. For human enemies I mostly used ranged since they were shooting at me from a distance but also because in melee combat were harder to hit.

What a relaxing place to slay zombie hordes

While you kill enemies and complete missions you gain experience points to level up. With each level you earn skill points which you spend to advance your various skill trees. There are various tree builds for your characters depending on your preferred play style. One important game mechanic in Dead Island is crafting. During your adventures you will find and pickup many different items. These items can be used to create mods for your weapons and other various helpful 'tools of the trade' like bombs, molotof cocktails, bullets,etc. Money is also a very important aspect. You use the money you gain from missions, or looting, for various things such as to upgrade or repair your weapons and buy useful items from NPC merchants.  

Dead Island can be played as single player or as multiplayer from the internet or LAN. When you are on a mission the game will try to find players around your game area and range of missions and join the two single player games into a coop. It is a really nice implementation  that seamlessly brings players together for a multiplayer experience.  

Overall Dead Island is a very entertaining product that does everything correctly and provides many hours of gameplay. The production values are high, the action is intense and game mechanics are fun. Highly recommended.

Diablo III

Game Review: Gemini Rue

Launching Gemini Rue is like opening a door to the past, to the early 90s when point & click adventure games were king. Even though the game was released in 2011 it plays, looks and feels like on the of the old school adventure games and you could even confuse it with a game released from Sierra or Lucas Arts back in their glory days.

Gemini Rue could be a Phillip K. Dick story. It is disturbing, it asks difficult questions and portrays a dark future for mankind. You are Azriel Odin, a cop. You were an assasin working for a criminal syndicate but you betrayed them and now you are trying to take them down. Your brother has been kidnapped and is being held in a secret facility were they alter people's personalities. Your goal is to get your brother back. The plot of the game is very well written with great twists. The characters are well thought off and each has his/her own motives and past story that you will discover while playing. As far as sci fi stories go this is a top dog. I find that the better sci fi stories are criticism on the present and this is no exception.

One of the game's strong cards is its atmosphere. It has this noir detective mystery feeling. It feels a lot like being in Blade Runner. The graphics are hand drawn and beautiful. They play their part and get the job done without offering millions of polygons. The sounds and voice acting are nothing special but for an indie game are rather good.

The game is somewhat short but the gameplay is solid and you will never feel that you are bored or doing something that you shouldn't been doing. The riddles are almost all inventory based with the occasional logic puzzle here and there. The game is a bit easy but that will not bother you as the riddles are very well blended in to the story and what your characters are doing. During the course of the game you will control 2 different characters, most of the time each being in a different environment pursuing his own goals. There were no illogical puzzles but there are a few "action" sequences. Don't get me wrong these are not 'action' exactly but rather some shooting mini games that you will have no trouble tackling. They don't feel like they were put there to extend the gameplay or to market the game as having action, but they enhance the thrill at the right moments.

Overall Gemini Rue is a highly recommended game for everyone that enjoys a good adventure or a sci fi story. It is very cheap and you can buy it from steam, or from the publisher's website directly. Just launch it and travel back to the glory days of the point & click adventures

Escape from City 17 part 2: Half-Life fan made short film

Allroundgeek.com is a big fan Half-Life inspired fan made films. Over the years we have presented many of those.

One of our favorite, so far, was Escape From City 17 part one. Finally, the people responsible for that short film created the part 2 which is even better, bigger and more awesome.

Come on Valve, give us Half life 3 already. We have been waiting for years.....how many times more do I have to play all the Half Life games(plus the expansions) to quench my thirst for anything Half Life, before we get to play Half life 3?

Here is part 1 in case you missed it the first time round:

Here is part 2:

Back To The Future: The Game Review

If you were a kid growing up in the 80's or 90's chances are that one of your favourite movie franchises is Back to The Future. It had it all. Excellent plot, wacky Sci Fi, memorable characters, nice action, humor and of course, time travel! Since then I 've seen the movies countless times but they never fail to entertain me. Tell Tale games is a company that has given us some very good adventure games in the past few years, but Back to The future: The Game is their best so far! It continues the story of the movies with a brand new plot and contains all the elements that we loved about the 80s movies.

All the cast is back. Marty, Doc, the Mcfly family, the Tannens and of course everything is taking place in the Hill Valley's past, present and future. The game starts with Marty going back to 30s to look for Doc who has been lost and in the process to save him messes with the normal timeline. In the course of 5 episodes we get to fix things up and maybe even improve some aspects. I do not want to ruin it for you but the scenario is excellent and a worthy successor of the movies.

Since it is an adventure games we will have to solve puzzles to progress the story but these puzzles are so well done and so well implemented in to the story that do not seem like distractions but part of the game plot. In my opinion this is how adventure game puzzles should be. They should not seem something that the designer put there to make your life difficult but something that your character should do towards his story goals. The game is not very difficult but it is challenging nevertheless. If you ever get stuck there is an in-game hint system with 3 levels so you can get some help without ruining the experience.

The game looks beautiful. The cartoonish versions of the characters are convincing and the game scenes are rich with details that enhance the atmosphere. For each time period you will get a nice different feeling out of the graphics. The sounds and the voices are very well done as well. We have the actors of the movies' cast coming back to lend their voices once again and they do an admirable job in recreating the old magic.

One thing that I did not like at first was the controls and direction of how the scenes changed while Marty was moving. It seems as though the designers kept in mind that the game would be released for consoles as well and they made up this unified control method that would work well with a console controller, but at the same time keep the old school point and click control method. After a while I got used it and I did not mind.

Over all if you are a fun of the movies, or adventure games, this is a highly recommended purchase. It will keep you entertained for many hours and at the end you will see the all to familiar 'To be continued' that promises of an next installment to the franchise. I can't wait for it! In the men time Tell Tale is planning to resurrect another beloved franchise and transform it in an adventure game series, that of Jurassic Park. So, stay tuned!

Wing Commander: Privateer. Who needs Eve Online?

I got out of the jump point into an asteroid field. My radar started blinking with red marks. 3 pirate centurion ships were blocking my way while shooting at me. I quickly lock on the middle target firing two missiles. I hit my afterburner and at the same time and steer to the left to avoid the incoming fire. Soon there were two pirates left and I was dogfighting amidst asteroids. They really wanted my cargo but I wanted to avoid being sucked into the void even more. I hit the afterburner making a run for it. After two nav points I reached an agricultural planet where I sold my cargo for a, well deserved, amount of money which I used to buy some new tachyon cannons for my ship. While in the Merchants Guild office to enlist for a new mission I heard the voice of my girlfriend standing behind me..... "What's this ugly looking crap of a game that you are playing?" Welcome to the world of Wing Commander: Privateer.

It all started with Elite, the granddaddy of space simulators. It was an 8-bit heaven of space travel, bounty hunts, piracy and intergalactic commerce. Fast forward to the early 90s Origin Systems took the old recipe, added SVGA graphics and the Wing Commander universe and gave us an amazing game.

Privateer features a totally open world with dozens of solar systems to visit and countless missions to complete. There is even a campaign scenario that you can totally ignore if you fancy. The player can assume the role of pirate, a bounty hunter, a merchant, a courier, or even a smuggler, trying to make his fortune in the frontier worlds. It is all about the money....

You can use the money to upgrade your ship with stronger weapons, more shields, better armor and much more. You can even buy a newer ship more suited to your carrier. For example, you can get a ship with larger cargo space to move more goods, or a faster fighter for your dogfights.

The game uses the Wing Commander 2 engine to bring us some beautiful graphics that really help to build up the space atmosphere. Most of your time in the game will be spent on the cockpit traveling and fighting but you will visits planets and space stations as well to equip your ship, buy or sell goods and get new missions.

This game was recently re-released from GOG tuned to run on modern equipment. It costs just 5.99$ and for the dozens of hours of fun it offers it is a steal. For those of you that agree with my girlfriend about the graphics there is a free open source remake of the game with a new engine that offers 3d graphics and out-of-the-box support for modern operating systems., now if you 'll excuse me I ve got a shipment to smuggle into a system with really tight security.

Half Life- Singularity Collapse

Half Life 2 is the single best game ever created in the history of computer games. The story, the setting, the characters, the unbelievable level design and the amazing atmosphere, made it an instant classic that, after so many years, it still inspires people. There have been many fan-made short films and videos. We have presented some in the past but, even after 7 years from its release, people still create new content for the Half Life universe. A couple of days ago a new fan-made short film surfaced and I have to say it is one of the best so far.

Half Life-Singularity Collapse mixes real life action with computer generated graphics from the game and it even shows the man himself, Gordon Freeman, momentarily.

Enjoy.

Rift account gets hacked. Slow response from Trion Worlds

A friend of allroundgeek informed us that his Rift account got hacked. One day he logged in to find his characters stripped from all his items and gold. This is not a situation a player that put hours into advancing his character wants to find himself in. Our friend contacted Trion Worlds immediately explaining to them the situation. It took a full week before he got his stuff back. In addition the customer support gave him some special in-game items and a month's subscription to compensate him for the trouble. Despite that, the fact is that his account got hacked in the first place, which is Trion Worlds fault. In addition, it took them a whole week to reinstate the characters. For a new MMORPG trying to break it into the market this is not good at all.

At the end of the day MMO accounts are not simply game accounts that you 've put hours into. Any MMO account is not less important than any other e-shop account were you put payment and personal information in. You do not want to be in a situation where it is compromised.

Our friend was kind enough to provide us with the email conversation he had with Trion Worlds customer support.

Customer (xxxxxxx)	03/15/2011 11:35 AM
Hello i logged in to the game just now and i noticed most of my chars are naked and and dont have any money one them... Could you please check out what has happened.. Customer (xxxxxxx) 03/15/2011 12:15 PM i just found out that some of my chars on another server are as well naked... do i need to contact a gm there or this ticket is enough?

Response Via Email (GM XXXXXXXX)

03/16/2011 07:45 PM

Hello XXXXXXX! Thank you for contacting us regarding Rift! We do apologize for the delay in responding to your hacked account inquiry. Hacked account appeals are our #1 priority and we are attending to each ticket as quickly as possible. While waiting for us to respond to your petition, we recommend NOT playing on the affected characters until your account has been secured. Once we have investigated your account, we may offer you one of two options. Based on how severly your character was altered, we could restore your character to the most recent back-up we have prior to the account becoming compromised. The second option would be restoring any coin which may have been lost. Again, we do apologize for any inconvenience this has caused you, as well as for the delay in responding to your inquiry. I want to assure you that your inquiry has not been lost and we have not forgotten about you. We are taking steps to both increase our account security as well as increase our customer support staff in order to reduce these wait times. Thank you for your patience while we continue to strive to provide the level of customer service that you should come to expect from Trion. If you have any additional questions or concerns then please don't hesitate to let us know. Thank you for your continued support of Trion Worlds and for playing Rift. Your reference number for this question is 110312-xxxxxxx Sincerely, GM XXXXXXXXX Trion Worlds Inc. Customer (xxxxxxx) 03/17/2011 01:18 AM i would prefer for my characters to be restored from a backuped state before i got hacked... last time i logged out before i got hacked was 4.30AM (GMT +2) on 15/3/2011 around that time at least:) i hope those information help Customer (xxxxxxx) 03/22/2011 12:23 AM five days and no reply...... Customer (xxxxxx) 03/22/2011 03:36 PM And you expect people to renew their subscription with this kind of support? Response Via Email (xxxxxxx) 03/23/2011 01:20 PM Hello XXXXXX! Thank you for contacting us regarding Rift. We are very sorry to hear that your account's integrity has been compromised. We advise that you immediately run a virus/malware scan on your computer, as well as changing your account password in an effort to safeguard your account. After reviewing your issue, I have gone ahead and rolled your characters back to a point in which they seem to look in good shape. This means that all data would be lost between from when your character was compromised to now if you played your character during that timeframe. Please be sure to never visit any questionable websites or open mail that looks questionable, as they could be phishing attempts by seedy websites attempting to siphon off your account information. Remember, never share your account information with anyone to help prevent issues such as this from arising. If you have any additional questions or concerns then please don't hesitate to let us know. Thank you for your continued support of Trion Worlds and for playing Rift. Your reference number for this question is 110315-xxxxxxx Sincerely, Game Master Trion Worlds Inc.

OpenTyrian: Free arcade awesomeness

During our early video game years we used to pump coins in magical machines that would entertain us for as long as our pocket could handle. There is something really awesome about those arcade shooters and it's not just good childhood memories that pull us to them. It's the simple fun of playing them: blinking lights everywhere, quick reflexes, thousands of ships to destroy, upgrading your own ship with cooler-stronger weapons, playing the same level for 21st time in order to get it right. Not many cool arcades would hit our humble PC screens, but Tyrian was one of them.

Tyrian was released by Epic Megagames(the usual suspect) in 1995 and it was brilliant. It had everything that we loved about arcades. OpenTyrian is a remake of the original game by a group of dedicated developers. Of course as the name implies it is open source and free. It is faithful to the original and it even has an extra level.

The game takes place in the far future where as usual mankind is in trouble. The plot in this kind of games does not matter but Tyrian is kind enough to provide us with one for whoever wants it. There are datacubes that we gather and after each level we we read the new data that progresses the story. During the levels we gather coins to upgrade our ship with bigger weapons, better shields and other cool enhancements.

Download the game, grub your joypad and start killing thousand of spaceships throughout the galaxy.

Dead Island looks awesome!

We all love zombies! I mean, not love them-love them, 'cause they are hideous blood thirsty monsters that want to eat us alive. We love the zombie infested games and movies. How about a game with a totally open world, free to roam wherever we like, but one that is full of zombies. We would have to survive on our wits and skill alone. That game is Dead Island.

It features a tropical island full of zombies that we can explore alone, or in cooperative gameplay. It features a first person perspective and RPG elements. The game will be out sometime this year and will be released for Windows Xbox 360 and Playstation 3.

Check out the trailer:

EDIT: Watch the recut "forward" version of the trailer.

Bioshock movie canceled

A couple of years ago it was announced that Bioshock, the art piece-meet video game-meet horror flick, would be getting a Big screen adaptation. Bioshock is to this day one of my favorite games of all time. The director responsible for the project was Gore Verbinski who is known for the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise as well as the Hollywood adaptation of the really scary japanese movie the Ring. Despite the bad history of games turned to movies I was pretty confident that thanks to the deep backstory of the game, it's art direction and the capabilities of Verbinski, we would have enjoyed a pretty good movie. Unfortunately the project was cancelled due to Verbinski's rightful objection in making a PG-13 movie instead of an R rated that he was planning. In his own words:

"I couldn't really get past anybody that would spend the money that it would take to do it and keep an R rating. Alternately, I wasn't really interested in pursuing a PG-13 version. Because the R rating is inherent. Little Sisters and injections and the whole thing. I just wanted to really, really make it a movie where, four days later, you're still shivering and going, 'Jesus Christ!' It's a movie that has to be really, really scary, but you also have to create a whole underwater world, so the price tag is high. We just didn't have any takers on an R-rated movie with that price tag."

You can read the full interview here. Even though I would really love this project to materialize I have to agree with the man. If it would get a PG-13 rating it would not be a real Bioshock movie 'cause the director would not be able to use everything at his disposal. Ohh well...we can just play the games again.

Portal 2 available for pre-order

Valve announced today that Portal 2 is available for pre-order. Hooray! The game will be available sometime in April. I know a couple of people that by reading this will probably rush to open the Champaign bottles. Get ready to re-visit the Aperture science labs and meet your "old friend" Glados. The game will feature longer and more engrossing single player campaign, new puzzles and cooperative gameplay. The steam store updated earlier and the price( with a 10% discount for the pre-order) is 34,19 euros and includes the original portal game. If you own it already you can gift it to a friend.

Since the pre-order launch day coincided with the florists and chocolate makers Christmas (valentines day), Valve released a very funny small video to remind us of the new cooperative play mode. Enjoy the video.

Play League of Legends on Mac OS X

League of Legends is currently one of the most popular games around. The refined DOTA-clone in the absence of a better MOBA game dominates the scene. Unfortunately for Mac users Riot games has still not given us an official client to enjoy it. The company announced last year that it would launch a mac client but, alas, has not done so. The summer went by, fall went by and still nothing. During the summer though, Riot proceeded with a mac client beta testing for the North American server. It used Transgaming's Cider Technology for the client, meaning that it used a Mac Wrapper around the Windows client. For unknown reasons this did not have a happy ending with an official release. The good news is that we can use this Beta client to play on either, the NA or EU, server with a bit of fiddling. Forget all about the bootcamp crap or virtual machine crap. This is the real deal. Launch, play and enjoy LOL right from your Mac's Desktop as a native Mac OS X application.

Here is how:

• Download the beta client. You can download the beta client from a torrent (you are going to need a torrent client to download this, like μtorrent). Don't worry, it is perfectly legal(it's a free game after all). Also you can download via the rapidshare link provided by boompje(for specific instruction for the boompje link check here).
• Make sure that you have set your primary Mac Language as US English (System Preferences-> Language and Text) or it will crash during install.
• Install the game using one of the aforementioned methods.
• In some cases the application will close immediately after trying to open. If this happen do what is suggested here on page 18 by user felixjet
• Open your Application folder and Right-Click on LOL application. Select "Show Package Contents"
• Download the cracked LolLauncher.exe and replace the one found in Contents --> Resources --> Transgaming --> c_drive --> rads --> projects-> lol_launcher-> releases->0.0.0.xx->deploy.
• ONLY if you are planning to play on the NA Server: let the game update. Other wise if you are planning to play on the EU servers launch it and let it update AFTER you have configured everything else below.
• Go to : Contents -> Resources -> transgaming -> c_drive -> rads -> Projects -> lol_air_client_config_na -> releases -> 0.0.0.1 -> deploy
• Open the "lol.properties" file with you text editor.
• Replace the text inside the file

For the European Server the contents of the file should look like this:

host=prod.eu.lol.riotgames.com

xmpp_server_url=chat.eu.lol.riotgames.com

lobbyLandingURL=http://www.leagueoflegends.com/pvpnet_landing

ladderURL=http://www.leagueoflegends.com/ladders

storyPageURL=http://www.leagueoflegends.com/story

lq_uri=https://lq.eu.lol.riotgames.com/login-queue/rest/queue

For the North American server the contents of the file should look like this:

host=beta.lol.riotgames.com

xmpp_server_url=chat.na.lol.riotgames.com

lobbyLandingURL=http://www.leagueoflegends.com/pvpnet_landing

ladderURL=http://www.leagueoflegends.com/ladders

storyPageURL=http://www.leagueoflegends.com/story

lq_uri=https://lq.na.lol.riotgames.com/login-queue/rest/queue

• Save the file.
• ONLY If you are planning to play on the European server: Go to Contents --> Resources --> Transgaming --> c_drive --> rads --> system and open the "system.cfg" file.
• Replace the "Region = NA" with "Region = EU".
• Save the file.
• You can now switch your Language Preferences back to normal.
• Enjoy the game.

UPDATE: I no longer answer questions in the comments section regarding this as I have stopped playing LoL and moved on to Dota 2. You are of course welcome to use the comments section to ask a question since another user might be able to answer to you.

Frequently Asked Questions

Did you make this?

No, I did not make this. I simply found the mac beta client and got it to work on my mac(Early 2008 Macbook Pro). This is a guide of what I did to make it work. It might not be the same for you.

Are you affiliated in any way with Riot Games? Do you get anything for it?

No, I am not affiliated and I do not gain anything from it. I am simply a gamer just like you.

Will this work on my Mac?
This is based on a BETA client that was never meant to be a final release for the public. Thus, it might not work for you or it might require a lot of twiking to get it to work properly.

Will this play on my G4/G5 Mac?

No, it will not. It will only play on Intel based Macs.

Will this play on Mac OSX Tiger?

No, it will not.

Will this work on Mac OSX Lion?

I personally have not tested in Lion (Only Snow Leopard) but other users have reported that it works fine.

I am in Asia. Will I be able to play with this client?

Probably not. Riot games blocks IPs coming from Asia so you will not be able to join using a European or a NA account. Garena deals with SEA region for LoL and I am not aware if they use the same configuration and what the host addresses are.

Will this play on Mac which has Intel Integrated Graphics Card?

Chances are that it will not play properly. You need a Mac with a dedicated graphics card.

I get graphical glitches/white pages/weird graphics?

Try setting all graphics options to "Low". Not "very low" or "medium". The beta client probably has some issues with some graphic cards and this is the only way to make it play properly.

I get an "$INSTALLVOLUME/installer/AdobeAIR/en-US.plist".

Try installing the game from the full client instead of the downloader/installer. Make sure you have installed adobe air first.

I have installed everything but when I click on the game launcher it seems like it is starting but then it stops and nothing happens.

In some cases the application will close immediately after trying to open. If this happen do what is suggested here on page 18 by user felixjet around the middle of the page.

I have installed everything but when I launch the application it says that the beta is over and I cannot proceed.

Riot closed the BETA so you need to use a crakced launcher for the game. Right click on the lol application and chose 'show package contents'. Download the cracked LolLauncher.exe and replace the one found in Contents --> Resources --> Transgaming --> c_drive --> rads --> projects-> lol_launcher-> releases->0.0.0.xx->deploy.

If you found this guide useful you can follow us by clicking the "follow" button on the widget on the right, use the social bookmark buttons below to spread the word or register to the RSS feed.

Pandora Directive: The greatest FMV adventure of all time

I was going through my old game boxes and I stammbled on one of my favourite games of all time. Pandora Directive. I had not played this since when it came out in 1996 and I was really in the mood for a good detective story. There are few that can compare to Tex Murphy, private investigator. Simple as that I badly wanted to play it. Unfortunately the game comes in 6 CDs and it is made to run on DOS or Windows 95 and requires some very tedious fiddling around to make it play without requiring to switch discs. Fortunately for me GOG has bundled it in one nice package that is ready to play on modern PCs for an excellent price. That was it. I downloaded the game from my GOG account and sunk in the P.I. world of Tex Murphy.

The game is an FMV adventure meaning that real life actors are used for the game's cut scenes and graphics. The acting is very good and it includes names such as Kevin McCarthy, Tanya Roberts, Barry Corbin and of course Chris Jones as Tex Murphy. If you played Under a Killing Moon(another great Tex Murphy adventure) you would have noticed that the direction, filming and acting was not of great quality, but in this everything is top notch.

The original commercial trailer of the game

Tex Murphy is a very likable lad. Life has not been good to him and he always finds himself in trouble. His life is just like an old fim noir movie but that's they way he likes it. He is a mixture of Humphrey Boggard and Indiana Jones with more humor and less looks. Always broke, always down, he is street smart and in search for a new job, women and whiskey.

The story of the game starts when a customer aproaches Tex and asks him to find a long lost friend. Tex being broke as usual will accept the job and his search will lead him in a series of murders, goverment conspiracies and alien encounters. Without wanting to give anythign away this one is one of the finest plots in any adventure game.

Our hero, Tex Murphy P.I.

The best quailty of the game, apart from the story, is the way the gameplay is woven around the story. You will never have illogical puzzles that were simply thrown there for the sake of the game. Everything has to do with the story and all riddles and puzzles promote the plot further. This is a challenging game though. The game features an in-game hint system which is very helpfull without giving much away. It can be played on two levels: one for normal play and one with extra puzlles and no hint system. Puzzles are a mixture of inventory based ones and standalone mechanical riddles.

The graphics are very good even for a game of 1996. They are 3D and you can move around everywhere and search for items and clues. The video quality is nice and thankfully its doesn't use the interlaced technique that was usual in the games of the time. The soundtrack is very pleasant with blues and jazz tunes setting the tone.

One of the many places that you will look for clues

The story takes place in a span of 9 days(plus 1 for the ending) and the game is very generous as with its playtime. It will take you many evening to finish this one. The game features 7 different finalles depending on how you played the game. All in all this is an excellent choice if you are after a great adventure and truly is one of the greatest games that were ever created.

The series includes Under a Killing Moon, Overseer and the first two Tex Murphy games, Mean Streets and Martian Memorandum. All are available from GOG. It is too bad that Microsoft bought Access Software just to buy the Links golf simulator (that Access created) and shut down the Tex Murphy games. I would really love to play a new in the series but I don't see this happening. Oh well. Get yourself a bourbon turn the lights off and enjoy one fine detetive story.

Battlestar Galactica Online: Free Browser MMOG

Bigpoint, the German browser based game giant, is developing a free Battlestar Galactica based game for some time now. At the 8th of February they will open the gates to beta testers from around the world. It will be an open beta so anyone can participate.

The game is in 3D utilizing Unity Web player which brings fast 3d graphics to the browser. Unity is supported by Windows and Mac but unfortunately there is no support for LInux so far. Little is known about the game. You will be able to join the Humans or the Cylons and have various career paths such as fighter or miner.

In the mean time go register a game account and download the unity player. The 8th of february is near. Oh...and check out the trailer..

Duke Nukem Forever has a release date.

Duke Nukem Forever the ultimate vaporware, the absolute joke of the digital entertainment industry has finally got a release day. Yes this is correct. May 3rd, in North America, and 6th everywhere else, if not everything goes down in flames for yet another time, will be the day that Duke will be hitting our screen again after 12 years.

A new trailer was released as well and it looks great fun. Kick some alien ass before this hits the shelves...you know just to refresh your killer instict and bubble gum habbits.

Half Life inspired fan made movies

Happy New Year everyone! I hope you had great time during the holiday season. I will always remember Christmas 2010 as the Half Life overdose season. The regulars of allround geek probably know that I have too much time in my hands these days. The past weeks I spend countless hours playing all the games from the Half Life universe. I do not know why. I think it started with Portal. Then it moved to Half Life 2. When I started playing again Half Life 2 I noticed that they had added achievements. Achievements were not available when I first played the game so I decided to play it again to do the achievements. 10 minutes into the game I got sucked in for good and I ended up finishing it,then playing Episode 1, Episode 2 , the original Half Life, Opposing Force and pretty much anything that was available. Half life 2 is the best game ever made, period. The gameplay is fantastic, the atmosphere and the scenario are excellent, and the immersion to the game world is unparalleled.

It is no wonder that these games have created such a movement. Many fans went to great lengths for their love and created their own movies inspired by the Half Life universe. Some of them are good, some of them are bad but all have one thing in common: love for the Half Life atmosphere, mythology and world elements. There are two major categories of these films: the live action movies and the ones created using the game's engine. In this post you will find a selection from both categories that I particularly liked.

Beyond the Black Mesa

What's in the box?

Escape from City 17

Half Life 2 Lamda

Half Life Fan movie trailer

Follow Freeman

Retro Holiday Gaming, Part II: The Dig

After playing Death Gate it was time to change the setting from fantasy to science fiction. The Dig is an incredible science fiction story based on an idea Steven Spielberg had (yes THAT Steven Spielberg). Originally he wanted to make a tv episode and later a movie about it but it was deemed too expensive. Fortunately instead of staying unproduced it became a 1995 adventure game by Lucas Arts.

When a radio telescope detects an asteroid on a collision course with Earth, an expedition is sent to save the planet. The plan is to place two nuclear devices on the surface of the asteroid (named Atilla) to change it's course and put it in a stready orbit around Earth (making Attila Earth's second moon). As you can imagine things don't go exactly as planned and three of the five team members end up stranded on an alien planet.

Houston we have a problem!

You play the role of Boston Low, commander of the mission (voiced by T-1000 himself, Robert Patrick). With you, are Maggie Robins, a reporter and expert in linguistics and Dr. Brink Ludger, a noted geologist and archaeologist. Together you have to fight to survive on a deserted alien world and try to find a way back to Earth if there even is one. I don't want to say too much about the story because it would spoil it for you. I will just say that it is one of the best science fiction stories ever told in any medium that explores some great philosophical thoughts. But of course that is the case will all good science fiction.

The dialog system

The interface couldn't be simpler. When you see something of interest, you left click to interact with it. There is only one button to the bottom left side of the screen that brings up the inventory (right click does the same thing). When you talk to someone you don't choose exact phrases but rather ask a question, make a comment and talk about various topics represented by appropriate images. Pretty simple stuff. Most of the puzzles are quite easy but there are some that will leave you scratching your head.

Strange encounters

Any science fiction fan should play this game and if you're reading this blog odds are that you love science fiction. So head over to Steam and buy the game for an ultra low price of 1.99 euros (50% off). A great game on a great price. I really hope that one day it will also make a great movie.

Retro Holiday Gaming, Part I: Death Gate

These days, after seeing some of the old games offered at the steam sale, I got a bit nostalgic and decided to dig around my old games and replay a couple of my very favorite adventures. First up is Death Gate, a 1994 fantasy adventure game by Legend Entertainment loosely based on a book series called The Death Gate Cycle. In order to run such an old game on Windows 7, I of course used DOSBox and everything worked like a charm.

In Death Gate two races of magicians, the Sartans and the Patryns, battled for supremacy and rule over the inferior races (humans, elves and dwarfs). The Sartans, sensing that they were losing the battle, devised a plan to gain the upper hand: using magic, they sundered the world into 5 smaller worlds, four based on the elements (air, fire, earth and water) and a fifth one called The Labyrinth in which they trapped all the Patryans. You play the role of Haplo, a Patryan that has just escaped the Labyrinth, two millennia after the sundering. With the guidance of a powerful Patryan, Lord Xar, you set out to the other worlds to gather information and avenge your race.

Arianus, the world of air

Death Gate is probably the most dialog heavy game I have ever played, but the story is so good that it completely absorbs you. The voice acting of the cd version and the music are also very nice which adds to the enjoyment of the story. The graphics of the game are beautiful, although they are mostly static images with subtle animations and a few 3D cut-scenes. The interface is simple but effective. Your inventory is at the bottom of the screen and at it's left are the use magic button and other people in your party. On the left side of the screen are some key action words and some that change depending on what you are doing and below that is a compass which you can use to move around.

The interface is very intuitive

Magic plays a very important role in the game and is used in a unique way. You cast spells by tracing your finger in the air to create line designs. In order to construct a spell you use various runes that you combine together. As you progress you will learn more runes and more spells. This system provides the basis for some very interesting puzzles in the game.

The rune magic system

Death Gate is available for download at Abandonia (sadly not the CD version with the voice acting). If you like adventure games do yourself a favor and give Death Gate a try. I promise you, you will be rewarded.

Merry Christmas!

Humble Bundle 2 gives away games of Humble Bundle 1

In a previous post I told you about the humble bundle deal. A 'pay as much as you want' charity sale of indie games. You can select to give the money to the developers, the Electronic Frontier Foundation, or the Child's Play charity. The bundle apparently was a huge success, surpassing the 1 million $ goal.

I just received an email from the makers of Humble Bundle that says that whoever has given more than 7,49$ will receive, as an added 'thank you', the games that were in last year's Bundle! This is excellent news since with a very low prices you don't just get 5 fantastic indie games but 11!

In addition all games can now be activated on your steam account as well which is very convenient. The list of games now comprises of:

• Osmos
• Machinarium
• Braid
• Cortex Command
• Revenge of the Titans
• World of Goo
• Aquaria
• Gish
• Lagura HD
• Penumbra Overture
• Samorost 2

This is the creme de la creme of indie games. There is no other deal in any shop that, with such a low price, can get you all these games. There are only 3 days left on the humble bundle charity deal, so whoever has not yet taken part in the charity now he/she should!