Ok, why is it that the PS3 always seems to get the short end of the stick?

Seems like the choice of  getting Skyrim for the PS3 was the least favorable one.

Why? It is starting to look like it's the platform where the "big saves bug" will most likely drop your frame rates or freeze your game. Oh, and speaking of freezing, the game has frozen / crashed on me on at least three occasions - so save often.

The game also looks crappiest on the PS3, I believe. Though neither of the console versions can hold a candle to the PC one - especially after you download a couple of "hi-res texture" mods for it.

I know I should've got the PC version - it's a Bethesda game after all and Oblivion was in the exact same situation even though the PC hardware was the underdog in 2007.

As for other games, every time there's a comparison, the Xbox 360 seems to come out as a winner - even though the PS3 is supposed to have superior hardware. How does, exactly, the superior processor, etc help you if you're memory limited and most of your games aren't even anti-aliased like the competitor's?

Don't get me wrong; owning all the current gen consoles, I would love to, well... "love" the PS3, but real world experiences make it harder and harder. I would especially love to prefer the PS3 for multiplayer titles, where paying for the actual game is enough and you don't have to pay the console manufacturer monthly for playing online. ;P

So come on PS3 developers, get your freaking act together and release less buggy games even though you're only doing a conversion (most dev studios seem to target the 360 as their main system, if not the PC). Sheesh!

Vacation's over...

... well it's been over for two weeks but little to no gaming (of new games, at least; some Darksiders and Riddick there).

I did try From Dust (on the PC); it's a nifty little god game with raise/lower earth/water (or lava ;) ). Very "Populous for the 2010s" -kinda thing. Recommended.

Oh, and Conan, the MMOG game, went free this summer. I still can't get myself to play that one. It just seems there's nothing much to do and lots of running around to find even that little thing to do. I had a two month subscription and probably logged in four times. Good thing the pre-paid card cost me less than 5 euros... ;)

Cheap games for the summer.

PA has some offers going, so if you lack some gaming for the summer (or are allergic to the sun or something) check these out:

Xbox 360 (region free versions):
Where the Wild Things Are $9,99
Dante's Inferno $19,90
Legend of Guardians: The Owls of Ga'Hoole $12,50
Tropico 3 $14,90
Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe (Platinum version) $17.90
Project Sylpheed: Arc of Deception $9,90

PS 3 (always region free):
3D Dot Game Heroes $18,50
Fallout: New Vegas $17,90
Katamari Forever $19,90


PC (region, what region?):
Red Faction: Guerrilla $3,99
The newly released Dungeons & Dragons: Daggerdale $19,90
Dynasty Warriors 6 $7,90

June update; Witcher 2, L.A. Noire and other stuff...

Been a tad busy building a three by five meter storage shed in the back yard, so very little gaming going on.

I have tried Witcher 2: The Assassins of Kings though; very nice box with a coin, map, cutout characters, etc. And incredibly unforgiving combat system with no clue as to when a particular mission is suitable to your character's level or skills. Very nice graphics, aside from the occasional uncanny facial animation...

And L.A. Noire; I really don't understand what all the fuss is about. The game has been in development since 2006, and it shows in lots of places as crappy low res textures, low polygon houses, etc. And the cases? Might as well call it "serial woman slaying investigator, the game". I mean, how many laid out naked, strangled and assaulted women you have to put in cases in a row? Five? Enough? Get repetitive at all? Sheesh...

Don't get me wrong, the voice acting and the motion capture are top notch, and I actually recognized many of the actors from their faces ("Hey, it's the cop guy from heroes!") - and it's not a bad game. I just get the feeling I'm being led through my nose towards an ending I have very little power to affect... ;P

QnD Quick Review: Call of Duty: Black Ops

Let me start this by telling about my history with CoD; I've played pretty much every CoD game (except "The Big Red One") that ever came out, on pretty much every platform that ever came out (excluding the handheld PSP).

Most have been from "Good" to "OK" with a few exceptions that were just "Blah!". Those few exceptions seemed to drag the otherwise good series under the bar of "good".

- CoD, the first one, was OK. Nothing special.
- CoD2 was good. It was still mostly a "pipe-run", but the awesome Normandy beach invasion was something you'd never seen before. It felt like you were dropped straight in "Private Ryan".
- CoD3 looked like the previous ones, but the gameplay was uninspired, the feeling of running inside a glass pipe was bigger and it was... in a word "Bleh!"
- CoD 4, ie Modern Warfare, was something I thought I'd never like since "CoD is a WW2 game!" - wrong. The game was good. Not awesome, but good.
- The fift CoD, World at War, was another CoD that seemed to capture the feeling of "no-freedom" with uninspired gameplay and plot. Ie another "Bleh!" CoD...
- MW2 was a bit better than the first foray into Modern Warfare, nearing the "awesome" line. Gameplay was fast, weapons great and game balance good.

Then there's CoD: Black Ops. Do you know what's in common with CoD, CoD: WaW and CoD: Black Ops? They're all made by the same studio: Treyarch.

Now,  Call of Duty: Black Ops, at first, looked like Modern Warfare, but played like World at War. The feeling of The Glass Pipe was still there, not as pronounced as in WaW or CoD, but still. Mostly what pisses me off about Black Ops were the many unintuitive missions and "choices" (I use the word with quotes since you really have *no* choice while playing this game) sprinkled in the game. Oh, and the endlessly spawning enemies.

Take one of the Vietnam missions for example; the NVA is assaulting your position and you're told by the game's waypoint system to advance to the first trench. I did this a dozen time, each time dying to the endless mass of respawning enemies.

At one point I half-noticed, while taking cover behind some sand bags, that one of the AIs was doing something behind the bags. After a couple of more failed tries, I noticed this again. This time I saw he stabbed a barrel and kicked it down the hill.

"Nice" I thought, I'll shoot it and it'll probably blow up. Err... No. Nothing happened when I sprayed it with a M60 machine gun. Damn, that's one tough barrel...

Next time I noticed there were more barrels, oh! After 15+ tries - I finally "got it"; you had to "use" each barrel and they would blow up after *all of them* were rigged with C5, stabbed and kicked down the hill. Well, doh! Why wouldn't the damn AIs just come up and say so. Not do something, somewhere, while mumbling to themselves - not something you're likely to hear in a place where hundreds of bullets are whizzing by and grenades are exploding...

Those kinds of "what-where-why" -moments are common in Black Ops. Sometimes you're left wondering why you have to do something just because it's the "Only Right Way To Do It" (tm)...


As for the graphics, they are OK. Exploding enemies and dismemberment by the heavier weapons are mostly just comic "LOL" moments though. (Uhh, like a magnum revolver or M60 would blow off limbs.) Sometimes you feel like you're playing Rambo The Video Game, and not just because of the Vietnam missions.

(Especially in the end) the game is another "Praise the US" -type thing which has no problems dismembering, neck-stabbing, gutting or just plain wholesale slaughtering enemies and blowing up poor third world bamboo huts, while lamenting the death of one "young soldier" mid-mission in a totally out of place WTF-moment.

Also, the absolute stupidity of the main character just plain leaves you flabbergasted at some points - how many god damn times does he have to get knocked down or unconscious by the same damn bad guy? The only enemy that can, without any trouble, surprise and drop the main guy with one blow does it like 4-5 times? Get a friggin' clue man!

Oh, and of course there are nazis - this is the sixties after all (WTF!?!?)...

So in short? Black Ops is a game with zero freedom, uninteresting plot, cliche missions, cliche enemies and pretty much nothing new, all mixed in a very predictible plot.  The best thing is that it won't last more than 5-6 hours even if you take your time.

So, in keeping with history, Treyarch have made another crappy CoD game. I should be familiar with how the thing goes by now; big advertising budget makes sure the game sells outrageously well while still being a steaming pile of crap compared to the "good" CoD games. Oh, well... It's still a good series if you ignore every CoD they make...

Score: 7/10

Monthly update - still on a hiatus.

Good news; got a couple cheap games; Wet (7 eur from Gigantti) and Crackdown 2 (14 eur from Play.com).

Bad news; still haven't bothered to boot the consoles, aside from a small stint with the latest Splinter Cell - Conviction.

Enjoying my VIP-time at LOTRO. First character made level 40 yesterday (hunter), with the minstrel following at level 31 and a new addition, the guardian at level 21 (made as a "jeweller / cook alt", really).

The guild I'm in, Keepers of the Palantiri, is full of nice people who are helping each other out (hi guys!).


And to make sure I don't have too much time for console games, I just bought a .308win rifle and I'm shopping for a suitable bird scope now... :D

Too. Busy. To. Post. Must. Play. More. LOTRO...

So Lord of the Rings Online went "free" to play.

I shelled out the $6.50 to get a "premium" account like I did with Dungeons & Dragon Online. Now, I could've got all this (sans the Turbine Points) for $2 if I paid with the mobile phone option, Paymo - but it didn't pan out (the operator thinks it's a leisure SMS and it won't work since I've blocked them and all adult stuff on my phones).

But, anyway. The "premium" account got me...

• 5 auction house slots
• 5 gold maximum (like this is a huge problem yet, with 0,6 gold having been my maximum before I bought the 500 silver horse I had to buy a "riding skill" for)
• ability to trade with players
• better chance to get in if there's a queue (there might be, read on)

Those are the things I cared about, anyway.

Anyways, I played LOTRO in the beta back in... 2007 I think. It didn't grab me then. But since then DX10, lots of polishing and a thousand new quests later, the game looks pretty damn spiffy. Oh, and it has players. A lot of them.

In fact I can't remember the last time I saw a town as busy as Bree in a MMORPG. And it doesn't stop there - the countryside sometimes has more players than orcs or bears. An "orcicide" can be seen in the rush hours. Which is sometimes a problem when you have to wait for a rescue target NPC to spawn for 5 minutes - the boss mobs thankfully spawn quickly, sometimes too quickly (as in "right after you kill and loot the previous one and haven't healed up yet" ;P ).

Running with all the bells and whistles, huge view range and maximum textures on (with my HD5850) the game doesn't have to be ashamed vs any modern MMORPG.

Oh, and I can't think of a game that had this much... for the lack of a better word, "geometry". I don't think Middle-Earth has a level spot, aside from the fields (where you can grow crops, naturally). Everywhere you can see hills, mountains, pits, lakes and... oh did I mention lakes and ponds? Damn there are a lot of those around - feels downright at home (Finland is the "Land of the Thousand Lakes", remember? ;) ). Oh, and the Tolkien borrowed names help too; how about the troll tribe of Rauta-Lehmä? While being completely stupid ("Iron-Cow"), it's still Finnish, as are a lot of place names too (just as silly, most of them)...

So after a couple of weeks in the Middle-Earth - I recommend anyone interested in MMOGs take a tour. It's free!

www.lotro.com

Slow going...

... on the gaming front.


Still playing RDR, aka "Grand Theft Horse". Other than that, I've only had the time to play a little DDO (Dungeons & Dragon Online) on the PC.

For a free game it's pretty nice. I was in the beta back in, oh... 2005 (?), and it definitely didn't grab my interest back then at $15 per month, but now... I did fork out $6.50 for a "premium" account that gives you 4 character slots vs 2 of the free account, and no auction house limitations.

You can still pay $15 per month for "Unlimited" access, which includes dungeons, races & classes people otherwise have to pay for to access. I think the basics are enough for my occasional DDO interest, though.

If you want to try Dungeons & Dragons: Eberron Unlimited out, go here.

First Impressions: Just Cause 2 (PC)

"Looks good, improves on every aspect compared to the first one."

That's how I'd summarize JC2 for the PC after a few hours' quick bout with it.

The grappling hook isn't the most original idea (Batman: Arkham Asylum or Bionic Commando, anyone), but it works well. It has more freedom than in AA or BC, and it's easier to use than the BC one.

Capturing helicopters brings Mercenaries 2 into my mind.


More later, maybe. ;)

Gaming rig: continued

I've finally settled the new system in and it's actually on the table and all. ;)

I also added a new monitor: a 24" Benq Led display (G2420HBDL). Very satisfied with the price / performance ratio (at 189 euros here); the image is crisp and clear, there's enough brightness (so much so that I toned it down to 25/100 setting) and, what's really important to me, it's a matte panel display. I don't have to look at my own face or the ceiling light while playing. Also, no dead / stuck pixels and nothing else to complain (yet ;) ).


The 5770 was a slight disappointment on the memory side of things; all I could get out of it stable was 1325MHz (1200MHz default). The core is running at 950MHz (850 default) and still seems to have room for more.

With the CPU at default speed the system gives a pretty standard ~11000 3D mark score in Vantage.

New gaming rig: complete

So the final specs of my new Windows 7 (64-bit enterprise) gaming rig were as follows:

- CPU: i5 750 (not yet OCd)
- Motherboard: Asus P7P55D-E (for USB- and SATA-3 support)
- Memory: 2x2GBs of Kingston 1600MHz Hyper-X memory
- Graphics: HIS Radeon HD5770
- Disk: Samsung F3 1TB harddisk (with Samsung 320GB drive for automated backups, etc)
- Cooling & case: CoolerMaster Hyper 212 Plus CPU cooler (120mm fan, with possibility to add another later)
Zegamax Luna case w/3 120mm fans
Silver Power 600W 80+ power supply (Cheap, but good reviews and up to 87% efficiency)

The only hiccup: the 120mm fan on the side is exactly where the Hyper 212's top is, so I had to remove it since even rotating the plex-window didn't allow the side cover to fit... ;)

CPU temps are below 30 degrees C in normal desktop / surfing use, so I should be set for a nice overclock later when I get everything running (just did the cabling yesterday, the case is now really roomy with good airflow).

Power consumption is around 85-95W at surfing use and around 170-190W when playing newest DX11 games. The 5770 is still at normal clocks. The HIS card should have Hynix memory capable of 1500MHz memory clocks, so there should be plenty of OCing room for that too.


All in all, pretty good price / performance ratio at little over 800 euros. A i7 860 CPU would've cost another 100 euros and a 80GB SSD drive another 200 euros - but I'm happy with the F3 for now, at least, and in gaming use the lack of HyperThreading shouldn't be a major performance factor (another thing in synthetic benchmarks or stuff like MPEG compression).

A new gaming rig

I'm having hard time justifying myself a big budget for a new gaming PC since I do most of my gaming on the consoles nowadays, so what I've ended up with is a mid-range, sub 1000 eur, gaming PC consisting of:

• Intel i5 750 CPU w/ Scythe Katana 3 cooler
• Asus P7P55D-E motherboard (the local store is out of the cheaper GigaByte USB/SATA3 boards)
• 4 gigs of DDR3 1333Mhz G.Skill Ripjaw memory
• HIS Radeon HD 5770, 1GB (another to be added later in Crossfire)
• Zegamax Luna case with a 650W Chieftec "Super Series" PSU (can you say "cheap-ass"?)
• Some random 1TB drive (probably a Samsung F3)
   

I'd love to got for an Intel X-25 SSD drive, but my budget would break on the 80GB version and the 40GB seems so tiny - even for a pure OS drive. And in either case I'd still need a 500GB - 1TB drive for the actual "games and stuff".

Also, the 58XX series Radeon's are out of the picture; I could cash out for the 5830, but honestly, the 5fps difference at FullHD isn't just worth the extra 80-90 euros (considering that I can add another 5770 later for around 130 euros).

If I went for an AMD system with Phenom II X4 955BE, I'd probably save another 30-40 euros, and wouldn't lose many (if any) fps in games - but for more intensive reasons like MPEG-compression and working with RARs, I decided on the i5 750 that is basically a i7 860 that has HyperThreading disabled.

I could save even more if I took the chance with a Phenom II X2 and tried to unlock it with a suitable motherboard.

But with my track record of getting good CPUs I decided not to (anyone remember Celeron 300As? Or 366s? I had to go through 5 specimens of the latter to get them to 555MHz and never got lucky with a 300A... ;) ).


Oh, well... Decisions, decisions.

Maybe I'll get that damn cheap Packard Bell i5 430/Radeon 5650 laptop instead - would save me 200 euros and tons of time... :D

QnD Review: The Saboteur (Xbox 360)

You know, I'm tired of everyone saying this is "Pandmic's Swan Song". It might very well be true, but I'd rather remember the bunch from a couple of nice games like the Mercenaries 2 and The Saboteur.

Both are sandbox games that offer you great freedom - the other taking place in a tropical South American island and the latter, in WW2 era Paris (and environs).

While not a masterpiece, or even a contender for the game of the year, The Saboteur is a very nice game in itself.

Like I said, the game gives you great freedom; Paris is at your fingertips, you can roam around, do side quests, climb tall buildings (the Eiffel tower, anyone?), visit raunchy stripclubs, etc.

The areas of Paris that are still nazi-occupied (ie. the ones you haven't had chance to blow up yet) are artistically colored gray. When you free an area, the color comes back in. While a great idea, most people probably prefer the nice black and white artistic style with dabs of color like red blood, a blue necklace, etc.

Movement and fighting controls are a bit restless, but the vehicle controls are even more so. Most cars handle like they had too little weight, especially if you try the handbrake, and none of the vehicles handle like period cars.

While lacking character advancement, you do get "perks" you unlock by doing specific things like beating five nazis, blowing X number of things up, etc. Perks are essentially new attacks, bonuses to things like shooting, bomb setting timers, etc. All handy stuff that'll make you so much more effective at liberating Paris.

The story is nothing to write home about; there's the main villain, revenge, the nice girl and the naughty one, etc.

What sets The Saboteur apart a little, is the use of very adult themes throughout the game. You have topless dancers, lots of blood and violence, drinking, bar fights, etc. In short; good fun all around. ;)


So should you get The Saboteur? Yeah, I think so. Especially if you're a friend of open world sandbox games like GTA, Mercenaries 2 or Saint's Row. The WW2 might be a genre that has been game-developed to death, but as you can see from the list I just mentioned - no great WW2 era "GTA" games are around. It's a different experience from modern cars, planes and helicopters or heat seeking missiles and "ho-beating, drug trafficing".


Score 8/10


You can get Xbox 360 version of The Saboteur from Play-Asia for $49,90.

Also, the PS3 and PC versions are available.

Review: Modern Warfare 2

This is a mixed bag: it's a PC game that is made with the console version's limitations in view.

There are no dedicated servers for multiplayer, the gameplay has been dumbed down somewhat.

But still - the game runs smoothly on even older hardware (no FPS complains with a AMD X2 4500+ and GeForce 8800GTS, only *heavy* smoke causes FPS to drop). It's easy to play and the combat has a realistic "WTF!? Duck! Shoot! Did I just kill someone" -feeling to it at best. It gives you the feeling of being a bona-fide US soldier in a warzone.

Even voice acting is top notch, with easily recognizable big-screen stars like Keith David (The Thing and the Riddick movies) and Bill Murray, among others, doing a great job...


Missions have an urgent feel - it feels like you're *there* and fighting for your *life*. Bullets whizz past, and through walls, satisfyingly. Enemies fall down, sometimes only wounded and shooting back at you after the initial shock. If I had to find a pet-peeve, I'd probably say that riot shields are too powerful (nothing short of a grenade can't affect then, unless you can flank the guy holding it - which can be a pain in the ass in tight corridors). Oh, and grenades are a little too whimpy (except flash-bangs, which work wonderfully).

Graphics range from top notch (90% of the time) to "so-so" (10% of the time), with night vision and lighting being very good, but infra scopes on some rifles being a little... well, "icky". ;)

Cheesy, but still epic, movie score accompanies everything and you truly feel like you're playing a movie, instead of a game.

Heck, even the ending is like it's ripped off straight from a Bruckenheimer movie.

I'll leave the multiplayer to younger people - I got my ticket's worth with the, admittedly short-ish, single player campaign and the special ops missions.

More like this, please.

Score 9/10

Free gaming: Dungeons & Dragons Online goes "Free"

Or should I say "Dungeons & Dragons Online Online", as most people use "DDO Online"? :P

Anyways, if you're seeking for a MMORPG hit and you're low on money or like me, you're a avid pen & paper DnD player, check DDO out.

I tried the beta in 2006, but it didn't grab me. But as it's free now, I thought "what the heck". I wasn't disappointed.

Though leveling is a bit slow (probably because of level 20 being the max, like in your average DnD campaign without Epic Levels), the game seems pretty fun - and most important to me, soloing seems OK.

Now what the "free" means; no customer support and people who pay (monthly, or at least for the one-time license like buying the Stormreach DVD version) get to cut you in log-in lines.

Fine by me, as far as they don't skimp on the content or make the paying customers "Über" (well, selling +50% experience gain potions for real money in the Turbine shop might be considered twinking someone to become über faster, but who cares).


You can create an account and download the game, here.

First impressions: Call of Juarez - Bound in Blood

The PC version is beautiful, plays well, runs well (on a 8800GTS/X2 4400+) and has great voice acting.

The plot is akin to the first one, which wasn't anything super-hyper-special, but it's like playing a Eastwood western - all down to the north vs south riverbank battle with trenches, cannons and a bridge to blow up. ;)

One new addition are the secondary missions you can do between the main missions (three so far).

Seems to be a great game.

First Impressions: ARMA 2

Ok, lets get the negative ones out first:
- Worst Voice Acting, EVAR
- iffy mouse controls (almost feels like mouse lag)

Now, there. I said it.

The good:
- Realistic
- Looks damn good
- Very "OpFlash"/"ARMA"


I'll dive deeper tonight, now that I've installed the oh-so-tiny 120MB patch that was waiting just after the game was released (in English).

Cheapest at the moment:
- Amazon £22.62
- The Hut £23.73

First impressions: Prototype

Aptly named; the game feels like a prototype of a game.

Not involving, camera problems, control issues, uninteresting gameplay, bland graphics.


First impressions for the PC version: 6.5 / 10

Free gaming: America's Army 3

The latest installment of the multiplayer first person shooter is coming on the 17th of June and you can preload (Steam link) it from Steam now.

It's been *years* since I played AA and I'm kind of anxious to try this one out.


Edit 24.6.2009:
Finally had time to try it out. Looks fine - multiplayer can be a "bit" laggy. Feels like good ol' AA.

The Day My Xbox Stood Still

Ie. the Red Ring of Death.

Finally, after 2 years and 1 month the "old gal" showed me her true colors; three lights on the RoL ("Ring of Light" as Microsoft calls it).

I hear there's an extended 3-year warranty for the problem (which is a good thing, considering the 2-year normal warranty), so I guess I'll be playing on the PS3 a bit more while the cursed thing is taking it's repair trip...

Down: Xbox 360

Up: PS3 and PC gaming

:D