GT reviews "The Saboteur"

I was interested in this game, but it lost me.

Watch video

Ask a Ninja reviews "Ninja Assassin"

They don't move

So the Saboteur has boobs.  Jim Sterling at Destructoid thinks they're grand:

It's worth noting how the nudity in The Saboteur is not as creepy as it usually is in videogames. There's something quite classy about it, which makes it altogether sexier. The women are fairly well proportioned and realistic, and while it's clearly sex for sex's sake, it still manages to look more mature and less cheesy than most games that claim to have important, intelligent sexual content.

This is what he's talking about:

VIDEO

Me, I'm calling "Uncanny Valley" on these ladies. But maybe robo-eroticism just isn't my thing.

Gamespot does not <3 Rogue Warrior

I might have mentioned before that Rogue Warrior was looking a bit stinky.  Gamespot puts it a bit differently:

In Rogue Warrior, lead character Dick "Demo Dick" Marcinko (based on the real-life ex-Navy SEAL, and voiced by actor Mickey Rourke) doesn't just drop an F-bomb--he drops an entire nuclear warhead of repulsive language that would make even the most world-wise among us reach for a set of earplugs. As depicted in developer Rebellion's newest first-person shooter, Marcinko is a shallow, potty-mouthed antihero without a single redeeming quality. Unfortunately, the appalling dialogue seems to have inspired Rogue Warrior's gameplay, which is characterized by useless stealth mechanics, inconsistent hit detection, incredibly linear level design, and abysmal AI. Yet the boring, one-dimensional gameplay and terrible dialogue aren't the game's most insulting blemishes; that prize belongs to Rogue Warrior's total lack of value. You can finish it in just over two hours, and the stripped multiplayer consists only of deathmatch and team deathmatch, yet publisher Bethesda Softworks is asking full price. Don't be a sucker: Steer clear of this garbage.

Ouch.

Modern of Honor

With Call of Duty Effing 7 rumored to be either a Viet Nam or generalized Cold War era offering, it seems that Electronic Arts has pulled the final feeding tube out of the World War Deuce first-person shooter. The next Medal of Honor game will be set in modern-day Afghanistan:

Operating directly under the National Command Authority, a relatively unknown entity of handpicked warriors are called on when the mission must not fail. They are the Tier 1 Operators.

Over 2 million Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen and Marines wear the uniform. Of those, approximately 50 thousand fall under the direct control of the Special Operations Command. The Tier 1 Operator functions on a plane of existence above and beyond even the most highly trained Special Operations Forces. Their exact numbers, while classified, hover in the low hundreds. They are living, breathing, precision instruments of war. They are experts in the application of violence. The new Medal of Honor is inspired by and has been developed with Tier 1 Operators from this elite community. Players will step into the boots of these warriors and apply their unique skill sets to a new enemy in the most unforgiving and hostile battlefield conditions of present day Afghanistan.

There is a new enemy. There is a new war. There is a new warrior. He is Tier 1.

There's not enough in the teaser trailer to make it worth posting, but it's here if you're interested. 

To all the MoH vets out there: what are your thoughts?

Boycotts FTW!

From Wired:

Valve said Tuesday that its cooperative zombie shooter Left 4 Dead 2 shuffled two million units across the Xbox 360 and PC during the last two weeks of November. That’s more than double the sales the original Left 4 Dead managed over the same period last year.

No doubt, L4D2 had the chops to beat its detractors into submission. But PC gaming forum-dwellers are looking like idiots these days, eh?

Metro 2033 - coming 23 years earlier

If the gaming industry is a mirror on the collective psyche, everybody wants to venture out of the last pockets of civilization after the world has gone to shit. As long as there's mutants to shoot, what the hell, right?

Metro 2033 is another one of those games, picking up the post-apocalyptic torch from S.T.A.L.K.E.R.'s mostly dead hand. The trailer is nevertheless intriguing, particularly because the visuals bear a striking resemblance to what the AtmosFear 2.0 engine produced in Cryostasis (a game you very probably didn't play). Thankfully, though, it looks like Metro 2033's environments will be more varied, if just as cold.

(Trailer below the fold.)

Mega-Martyrdom

MW2 has a bit of a glitch, and it's pretty funny (as long as you're the guy exploiting it). Sticking with the particular weapon & perk combo all but guarantees you'll finish at the top of the leaderboard.

1UP is taking the high road, decrying glitch users as filthy cheats and steadfastly refusing to reveal how it's done. Destructoid also thinks glitchers are scumbags, but they posted the "how-to" video anyway:

That didn't take long

A group called the TeknoGods has released version 1.0 of a "multiplayer loader" for MW2, which is essentially a server emulator that bypasses IWnet and allows players to connect directly to a listen server. The loader still requires Steam for network initialization, but the two-player co-op mode is no longer dependent on IWnet's matchmaking facility.

The plan for version 1.1 is to enable dedicated servers, without the need to connect to either IWnet or Steam. (MW2 already has dedicated server code - it's just disabled.) The beauty of the loader is that it's not a hacked executable. It's a straight code injection, which means that it operates in much the same way as a mod. That, in turn, means that it's going to be extremely difficult for IW to patch the loader to death.

Hacking dedicated servers into existence is not without its pitfalls. Without Steam, there will be no anti-cheat. Although the loader is designed to work only with original (i.e. not cracked) executables, it's entirely possible that a new crack will be developed that the loader can't detect. And, most importantly, there's the risk that your Steam account will be banned if the IWnet bypass is detected.

None of this changes the fact that MW2 for the PC is $60-worth of gaming f*ckery. But, it is nice to see that there are still a few guys out there that aren't content to get bent over by Infinity Ward, even as the reek of a failed boycott still permeates the air.

The sleeper hit of 2009 ...

... is probably not going to be Rogue Warrior.

Initially developed by Zombie Studios, the game was later handed over to Rebellion Developments after the publisher, Bethesda, decided that Zombie was making a mess of things.  The game was just released today, but the early returns are anything but positive.  Watch the video, and judge for yourself:



I probably would have shut it off as soon as I heard "Get dead, f*ckbags."

UPDATE: IUN has learned that Rebellion is also developing the much-anticipated Aliens vs. Predator, due in February 2010.  You have been warned.

The other kind of gaming

As of 8:19 PM EST, Steam says the number of people playing MW2 today peaked at 102,968. Time for a little wager, I say.


On March 1, 2010, I'm setting the over/under for MW2's player population at 20,000. Who's taking the under, and who's taking the over?

Bear with me

As you can see, I'm working on a new layout for IUN. What you're seeing now is not the final product.

UPDATE (1):  the layout is about what it's going to be.  I need a new banner now.

UPDATE (2):  done for now. Feedback would be appreciated.