Archives: Games

Fallout 3: New Vegas Creatures and Perks update!

Hi non-sports fans.

Today’s blog post is somewhat of a gisting of a blog post by an esteemed writer called David Hodgson, who is writing the official game strategy guide of Fallout 3: New Vegas. I’ve also chucked in some of the latest info on the new Perks that we will be seeing.

David has keenly detailed some of the monsters of F3:NV for us and personally I think this is very exciting; aside from the main human factions, the monsters are always the face of a game. If you have cool creatures to do battle with (Skaarj, Headcrabs, Big Daddies for example) then you instantly have a better game; a love to hate relationship that allows the game world to describe itself through combat; the action scenes help you to engage with the game just as much as the dialogue scenes.

This sneak peak at the upcoming game guide gives away a little about the key creatures that will inhabit the Mojave Wasteland. David initially revealed a little about the human-sized adversaries of the wastes; White Glove Society Bouncers with dandy canes, the slack jawed goons of a Brahmin Baron, shifty city thugs and a variety of different guardsmen for each settlement such as Howitzer armed Boomer tribesmen. The two big factions, NCR and Caeser’s Legion, will have a their own little armies for you to run away from very quickly.

What we really want to see of course are the twisted remnants of nature that are Fallout’s signature mutants. David classes wilder foes as “Abominations”, totally outside of the natural order, while mutated animals are known as… Mutated Animals. Long time Fallout fans will be happy to see the return of the Deathclaws, this time aided by ‘Legendary’ and ‘Alpha’ classes to up the challenge level. Veteran Fallout fans will also be rewarded by the appearance of an old enemy; the Gecko! F2 players will recall being eaten repeatedly by these massive rubbery lizards and it’s no surprise that the arid Mojave is home to their ilk.

New foes will include the Nightstalker, a mysterious dweller of dark places and blue Nightkin Super Mutants, led by the pleasantly named but presumably quite hostile leaders, Tabitha and Davison. The scenery of this instalment looks set to be very detailed and frankly teeming with life, which is just how we like Fallout; this isn’t about the blasted, boo-hoo Post Apoc genre, but about a 50sesque B-Movie creature feature. Fallout in the past has struck a wonderful balance between silly monsters and stark realities, finding a way to make the schlock still carry shock- fingers crossed, New Vegas will continue that fine tradition.

To quote David: “It’s up to you to meet and greet it, or beat and eat it.”

Finally, a sneak preview of the new Perks:

Slayer:

The slayer walks the earth! The speed of all Melee Weapons and Unarmed attacks is increased by 30%.

Spray ‘n Pray:

Your attacks do much less damage to companions, allowing you to liberally spray an area with reckless abandon.

Super Slam:

All Melee Weapons (except thrown) and Unarmed attacks have a chance of knocking your target down.

Methinks the Slayer perk will be getting quite a workout from my desert nomad when I get my hands on a copy…

Peace,

Bret

I like my gears how I like my women- metal and solid

Good Saturday, peoples of the web. Today’s blog post is a little article about how much I love Metal Gear Solid. So sue me, you feckless wedge chasers. See y’all next time!

It’s a franchise that has a whole umbrella of successful products from the core gaming masterpieces to mobile games, novels, a radio play and all manner of collectibles. I’m not interested in the sequels and spin offs or even the predecessors- there is one Metal Gear Solid which bolted the words tactical, espionage and action together and created a new genre.

Metal, Gear, Solid. Another three words which baffled gamers at the time. I remember picking up a PlayStation 1 magazine, for that brave little plastic device was still in vogue at the time, and reading the words Metal Gear Solid. So… it’s about… a metal gear, right? Which is solid. So… I guess it’s about robots?

Well, as it turned out, there were robots. There were also helicopters, stealth ninjas, reams of spoken dialogue, a thick plot with an alternate ending, gadgets, comic book villains, tons of background info, tanks, guns, fist fighting and comedic sneeze-based subplots. MGS dropped jaws.

This was in 1998. Other games simply were not doing this much in one package. MGS was one of the first dear-God-this-game-is-better-than-a-movie-and-a-book-put-together moments that I and many other gamers at the time had ever experienced. So where is it now? The fact is that while the sequels detonate their payload all over our screens, the first Metal Gear Solid (not counting the pixeltastic MSX originals) has fallen into the bargain bins of time. A crying shame indeed, but also a godsend for retro enthusiasts such as myself. Ebay is your friend on this one.

The great thing is that you won’t need any super-retro hardware. Okay, a PC may struggle, for so many older games fail to work on Vista and 7. However the PlayStation 1 version will of course work on a PlayStation 2, or even better you can grab the GameCube version and play it on a Wii!

Some may recall that the original game was given a lick of fresh graphics, dialogue and updated gameplay modes and ported to the GameCube under the new sub title “Twin Snakes”. I can recommend this to anyone who dislikes chunky graphics and may have been put off the original for that reason. Even people who played the original might enjoy this version as the slight tweaks make it more worthwhile to re-play.

So what’s the big deal? Enter Solid Snake, a somewhat suggestively named agent of a global counter-terrorism unit. Snake is a cigarette smoking, ass kicking, grizzled lady killer who must infiltrate an Alaskan nuclear weapons base using only stealth and awesomeness to rescue some hostages from some wacky terrorists. Once those nobodies have been dealt with, it’s time to befriend a scientist, save a girl, defeat a huge walking tank, stop a nuclear war, defeat a cyborg ninja with mysterious links to the past and face off against Snake’s evil mastermind counterpart while discovering the terrible truth of his existence and coming into his birth right as a genetically perfect legendary soldier! This is all between grumpy quips, hiding in boxes, hours of in-depth characterisation, love plots, postulations over the nature of mankind and warfare and strangling guards when they take a leak.

The fact is that MGS was as full of both sound serious gameplay and novel, quirky Easter eggs. Swapping controllers around or having phone conversations with hot women while crawling under tanks becomes normal while playing this game. The game employed so many interesting devices from personal radar to a tiered alarm system that it’s very hard to find a game in the same genre now that doesn’t have a little MGS in it. Of course, I’m being biased- the game was not without problems. Despite being graphically advanced for the time, the original is still somewhat clunky, most noticeably in the fact that the characters haven’t got eyes. The stealth system was right for the game, but falls a bit flat when you consider that the guards could only see about 50 feet forward. There were also problems with the controls that often left Snake revolving around on his belly while you tried to select a weapon and crouch.

This review is for those who missed Metal Gear Solid first time around and need the extra impetus to find out what sparked this astonishingly powerful franchise. The simple truth is that the gameplay is solid, the story gripping and the whole package has a kind of timeless beauty. The bargain bin just doesn’t know how lucky it is.

Chandler in Fallout 3: NV! And a load of other, cooler people!

Forgive me for just copy-pasting this press release but it’s hard to blog while you’re at work and some news can’t wait!

In this case, the voice acting cast for New Vegas!

Celebrity Roles to Include Ron Perlman, Matthew Perry, Wayne Newton, Zach Levi and More!

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August 10, 2010 (London, UK) – Bethesda Softworks®, a ZeniMax® Media company, today revealed the star-studded voice over cast for Fallout®: New Vegas™, the follow-up game to the critically acclaimed Fallout® 3.  Fallout: New Vegas features Golden Globe-winner and two time Emmy nominated actor Ron Perlman (“Hellboy”, “Sons of Anarchy”), Screen Actors Guild-winner and Emmy and Golden Globe nominated actor Matthew Perry (“Friends”), Mr. Las Vegas himself, Wayne Newton, William Sadler (“Shawshank Redemption”), Zach Levi (“Chuck”), Felicia Day (“The Guild”), Michael Dorn (“Star Trek:The Next Generation”), Kris Kristofferson (“Blade Trilogy,”), Danny Trejo (“Machete”, “From Dusk Till Dawn”), John Doman (“Mystic River”, “The Wire”) and Rene Auberjonois (“Boston Legal”, “Star Trek: Deep Space Nine”).

“The Fallout franchise has taken narratives in interactive entertainment to the next level, and we could not be more excited about the all-new celebrity lineup for Fallout: New Vegas,” said Pete Hines, Vice President of PR and Marketing for Bethesda Softworks. “The voice acting provided by these actors helps drive the compelling and immersive story of Fallout and further adds to the overall gameplay experience.”

Ron Perlman returns to voice the narrator in Fallout: New Vegas, a role he has played in every major Fallout game to date.  Matthew Perry plays Benny, a smooth-talking, two faced gangster, and Wayne Newton takes on the role as “Mr. New Vegas,” the radio DJ of the Mojave Wasteland.

Three celebrities take on roles as playable companions in Fallout: New Vegas: Danny Trejo is Raul the Ghoul, a mechanic and former gunslinger; Zach Levi is Arcade, a member of the Followers of the Apocalypse who hides a mysterious past, and Felicia Day is Veronica, a sarcastic Brotherhood of Steel scribe.

The epic cast continues with Kris Kristofferson as Chief Hanlon, a grizzled solider at the end of his career, and Rene Auberjonois as the enigmatic and reclusive Mr. House. Michael Dorn reprises his role as Marcus, an intelligent super mutant, who was last seen in 1998’s Fallout® 2; John Doman is Caesar, the charismatic and powerful dictator at the head of Caesar’s Legion. William Sadler plays Victor, a friendly robot with the personality of an old fashioned cowboy.

In addition to this star-studded cast, players can expect to hear even more celebrity cameos throughout the world of Fallout: New Vegas.