Henk van de Goor's Bloggers@large

I have been playing some great next-gen PC games lately (the biggest reason why I bought my new PC). This week I installed two games: Assassins Creed (AC) from Ubisoft, and Frontlines Fuel of War (FFW) by THQ. The games are 100% the opposite of each other. Frontlines Fuel of War is a first person shooter (FPS) set in 2024 and is mostly a Battlefield 2 clone, whereas Assassins Creed is a third-person stealth game taking place (mostly) during the time of the Third Crusade in 1191. So the contrast between the games is pretty big.

As to be expected from a 'stealth game' the emphasis lies upon finishing your missions without getting noticed. If you played any of the games from the Splinter Cell franchise, you probably know the genre. I won't bore you to death by explaining then storyline in-depth, but in this game you need to assassinate (duh!) 9 subjects. All of them in different places set in a medieval Palestine.

It took me some time to get used to the keyboard lay-out (the game is originally a console game) but I like the gameplay and - as to be expected from a DX10 game - the graphics are really stunning. Motion is fluid and it is almost as if you're watching a movie. Just look at the videos below. I would rate it at a 8,5 out of 10.

Frontlines on the other hand, is just your average FPS with lots of cool extra vehicles and options. It looks good but it isn't as cool as Assassins Creed or, to name another game in the same genre: Call of Duty 4 (COD4). I would rate it a 7,5 out of 10.

Anyway: just check out these video clips from AC:

Ok, ok, I need to stop raving about my new PC, but it is awesome and it does play games like no other PC I have owned - period. So let's talk about one of the games that I am playing at the moment; Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare or COD4 for short. Guys: this IS by far the coolest FPS game I have ever played. This game was made for me. It is fast paced, has great graphics and most important: immersive action. Playing the game is just like being in a movie: I do not kid you. I have never experienced somthing quite like it.
In this game you play several characters both from the SAS and the USMC. As such you go on several missions that are intense and really realistic.

The coolest thing is that you really feel part of the game: right at the beginning you get flown in over sea in a storm to land on a freigther ship to recover clandestine nuclear materials. The ship gets blown to pieces and starts to sink fast. You have to run for your life to get out and literally jump into the back of a heli, which you barely make. Man, that was intense!

But even more stunning is the part where you are in a helicopter, just after resqueing a female Apache chopper pilot and their is a nuclear explosion! Oh my... I have never before felt more like being in the middle of it. Just awesome!

Also unbelieveably cool is the part where you become a thermal imaging TV operator aboard an AC-130 gunship. It is just like all the cool footage you have seen on TV from the first Gulf War: you can use a gatling gun and some awesome other guns to level the area around the good guys.

In short: get this game if you really like FPS games. This is the best! Just check out the video's below and judge for yourself (all footage is in-game! I can vouch for that!).

COD4

Addictive. That's the word that describes the TimeShift. I installed it on Wednesday and yesterday I already reached level 20 "The Gate Crashers". Mastering time is fun. One of the coolest things in the game is slowing down time and dodging bullets just like your Neo in The Matrix, then stop time for a second, snatch the gun from a bad guy and turn time back on. The guards start muttering saying things like: "What? What happened?" or "That's impossible" or - when you just run past them - "Where did he go?". The game runs ok, even with my crappy nVidia 6600GT that only has 128mb. I admit the game defaults to a crappy 640x480 but at that resolution the effects are still very nice. In fact it looks a lot like Half Life2.

Games like these are very creative even though they are much the same in essence. In fact the whole genre of FPS games hasn't seen that much innovation (in my opinion) other than the increasing reality and eye candy. Having said that: is it a bad thing? I don't think so. Most games are really entertaining even though the core of the game is the same; running around killing bad guys. But as they say: never change a winning team. And so far games like these are still interesting and cool.

*Update*Game over: I just finished the game (Sat. 25/11/2007 at 23:20). As I said it's a lot like Half Life2 as that game also had an open ending! Guess we will have to wait for TimeShift 2 or some extension pack.

Whoa buddy! Did I mention there are a bunch of cool games coming out this month? Well, my buddy Vincent alerted me to this super cool looking game called "TimeShift" from Sierra games. I watched the trailers and all, and I think the idea behind it is very cool. Off course all this bullet-time stuff started with the movie The Matrix and carried on into games like "Max Payne" and "Prince of Persia Sand of Times", but TimeShift is indeed very cool looking: I am about to install it to my PC as I write this. Here's a short excerpt of the storyline:

Scientists from the near-future have begun work on creating a viable time machine. The project results in the creation of two devices, the Alpha Suit, a less advanced prototype jump suit, and the Beta Suit, a more advanced, so-called military grade model with features the Alpha Suit lacks such as an integrated AI designed to prevent the creation of paradoxes.
The director of the project, Doctor Aiden Krone, takes the Alpha Suit and travels into past. Once there he alters the timeline, placing himself as the ruler of the Krone Magistrate that controls a dystopic world.
The protagonist, an unnamed scientist, then takes the Beta Suit and follows Dr. Krone back to the year 1939 to a place called Alpha District. He then proceeds to assist the Occupant Rebellion against Dr. Krone.

In the meantime, while I'm installing: enjoy these videos (especially the second one: it's mini movie).

Damn, have I been sleeping or what? For years I have been playing this game called Soldier of Fortune II, Double Helix (aka SOF2) online. Heck; I was even in a clan and had my own server for the game. The game came out in 2002 and I have been playing it ever since. The graphics and such weren't that great (based on the Quake III engine) but the gameplay was fun enough for me (and that's what counts). But as with many games I started playing it less after our clan broke up and I think I have played it about 20 minutes or so in the last month. So today I was browsing the newsgroups as usual to spot some new movies and software and low and behold: "Soldier of Fortune Payback" popped up. What??!! A new SOF version? SOFIII? I didn't know that they were coming out with a new one! Yet there it is: a spanking new episode of the game with new, updated and brutal graphics "complete with excessive gibs, blood spray, destructible and detachable limbs, and squeamish death animations." There is a plethora of good games coming out this last quarter of the year - obviously because of the holidays - and I am looking at buying a new PC because of that. Games are fun, games are good :-) Anyway: I am downloading a ripped version (single player only, obviously) at the moment and if it is any good I will buy it for sure. Same goes for the spanking new Crysis, successor to Far Cry. Both games that are setting new standards for game graphics. Yes sir, if I buy something I think it will be a Quad Core with at least a nVidia 8800GT videocard or something. Until then I will have to make do with my 6600GT...

So, I got my hand on Valve's Portal game that I wrote about Thursday. I have played all the way up to level 7 level 16 and now I'm stuck. What I didn't know is that the game starts you out with only being able to choose a entry portal and not the exit portal. I guess they are building the game up that way. On my PC I can play it at 1024x768 resolution and only at medium quality (I guess my Nvidia Geforce 6600GT is just too sucky; I need new PC anyway). I love the concept of the game and the whole portal displacement thing works out nice. I hope I can solve the level I'm on soon and I get the option to choose my own entry and exit portals.

It is no coincidence that I used a drawing of of Dutch artist M.C. Escher as an illustration for this story about a new game by Valve; "Portal". Escher was famous for drawing pictures that defied logic and created a visual paradox. Still they looked realistic enough as if the situation was possible. I can not help but feel that the makers of Portal where inspired by Escher and his mathematical precision. In case your wondering what I am ranting about, here's an abstract from the Wikipedia article that I used as a reference above: "Portal is a single-player first-person action/puzzle video game developed by Valve. The game consists of a series of puzzles which must be solved by teleporting the player's character and other simple objects using a single handheld device, with the goal of getting to an objective point."


Now, I haven't had a chance yet to play the game myself (I am downloading it at the moment), but I am very intruiged by the concept as it is something different from the ordinary first person shootem 'up games that I usually play. The only way to give you an idea of the game is to watch the video below that was used in some viral ad campaign to promote the game:

Valve's Portal Intro


As you can see, this game requires some quick, out-of-the-box thinking in order to solve the puzzles. It is not like the kind of puzzles you had to solve like with a cerebral game as "Myst" or it's succesors like Riven. Instead you need to think in all dimensions and it seems that way the impossible becomes possible. Again; in my feeling a bit like Escher.

Here is some actual gameplay footage:

Portal Gameplay Footage


I will get back on this game as soon as I had a chance to play it.