Moody Gamer

There has been a lot of talk lately with the advent of current generation consoles like XBox 360, PS3 and Wii about PC gaming being in decline. Most of the flak being shot because of the ongoing trend of PC developers are either going cross-platform, console first PC later or console exclusive development. Add to that the rampant piracy on the PC platform coupled with possible difficulty in developing for various hardware configurations versus a single platform configuration that is available on the consoles.

Yet what is being reported by the PC Gaming Alliance shows otherwise and that PC gaming is far from dieing thanks to online gaming power on the PC (MMOs anyone) and ability to directly download games to your PC (Steam everyone!) are some of the dominant yet few of the reasons why PC gaming will continue to breathe.

Check out the full report on PC Gaming Alliance website.

You read it right. Fileplanet are giving away limited number of Red Alert 3 Beta keys. Just head over to Fileplanet and register to get your key. Registration is free and takes a few seconds. As soon as you receive your beta key, just download the beta client (the game) version 1.03, install it, make an EA account when the game asks you to and you are set to join.

The Red Alert 3 Beta client will allow you to play as the Allies, Soviets or the new Empire of the Rising Sun (another name for Japan) and get to battle other players online on four maps: two 1v1 and two 2v2. Since the game is in beta, expect crashes and lots of bugs but rest assured with the help of many beta testers and you, things will get sorted out for the official release in October.

I will be writing a full blown Red Alert 3 Beta impressions soon at MEGamers so stay tuned for that.

Update: The Impressions is up at MEGamers, check it out.

Seems Sony still wasn’t satisfied with their PSP Slim model and went ahead to improve upon it. The new PSP 300 model is scheduled for release in October 2008. The improvements include the following:

• Anti-reflection technology: Much needed since playing outdoor sometimes gets annoying due to the reflections.
• Improved LCD contrast and color: Nice but nothing to brag here.
• Built in microphone for use with new games and out of the box Skype application: Based on your preference if you will use it or not.
• Slight improvements in size (very slight): Hardly noticeable.

So as you can see, the PSP 3000 is more of an update rather than something new. So if you haven’t got a PSP yet and was thinking to get one, then get this model. If you already have the PSP Slim, there is nothing you really missing out and the new features don’t warrant a purchase over the Slim. If you have the old PSP model (the bulky one), it might be worthy to check this out.

A lot has happened since my last post. First of all, I managed to get hold of a Red Alert 3 Beta key. Thanks to someone at Rage3D forums who had two. If you are wondering why I didn’t buy Kane’s Wrath and obtained the key that comes with it, then check out No RA3 Beta key for ME.

Also, I have been accepted as a reviewer for the best Middle Eastern gaming site MEGamers. My acceptance review was Mass Effect (Check out the review at MEGamers). Look out for a bigger review of GRID with a lot more details than the mini review I have written here at Moody Gamer. Lastly, stay tuned for my Red Alert 3 Beta Impressions at MEGamers soon.

So you might be wondering that since becoming a reviewer, posts will be much less here in Moody Gamer right? Wrong. I will still continue to write reviews, articles and whatever. Only difference is that I only write reviews for MEGamers and very detailed ones. Here I have the freedom to write my usual mini reviews of both old and new games, unique articles, guides, thoughts and many more. So really, hardly any change will happen so fear not. I already have a nice guide cooking that am sure will interest many of you.

Keep your eyes open and stay tuned.

Sure is a nice month for graphics card upgrades. Why? Because AMD have released the monster 4870 x2 graphics card. This is the direct competitor to nVidia’s Geforce 280. Checking any of the reviews littered through out the web, it seems that the 4870 x2 easily beats nVidia’s best offering even though the 4870 x2 is priced at around 550$ compared to the G280 price tag of 400$.

Anyway, here is my advice if you are planning to buy a graphics card during this time:

• If you want the best single card solution, get the Radeon 4870 x2, period.
• If you are on a tight budget, then the Radeon 4850 is the best option priced at a low 200$.
• If you play at 1650×1080 resolution or a notch higher or lower and would like the best value, consider getting the Radeon 4870 (not the x2) priced at around 300$.
• If you want to play at higher resolutions (way above the resolution mentioned above) and can’t afford buying a 5xx$ card, consider the Geforce 280.
• If you have a Geforce 8800 GT or better, then consider waiting for another generation to upgrade since there aren’t that many coming games that your current card won’t be able to run (of course some will require reduction in graphics fidelity), especially if you are tight on cash.

As you can see, the Geforce 260 seems to be left out based on my analysis. When the 4850 is slight behind the Geforce 260 at a far much lower price point, buying the G260 isn’t a good decision. Even if you can buy the G260, going for the 4870 is a better option due to it being cheaper and faster.

Do also note that I didn’t provide any recommendations for Duel card setups (SLI or Crossfire), for the simple reason that I personally think that they are costly, consume a lot of power, generate a lot of heat and they still pose a moderate amount of headaches for the user.

Happy shopping

Am sure many are very familiar with this Warcraft 3 mod map. Choose your hero, start at the opposite side of your enemy’s base, help your creeps by killing the others and cooperate with your friends to beat the other team by destroying their base. Simple idea, nice balance between the heroes and fun for quick games.

So why would I hate such a mod? Why are there even a lot of people who also hate it? Below I list some very strong reasons why I hate this very mod:

• It is the same map layout over and over again. Where is the diversity?
• Yeah lots of heroes, but controlling one character from a top view isn’t really strategic.
• New people get hooked to it so much that any other complete (read not a mod) game isn’t cool.
• A huge number of players play it yet never heard of Warcraft 3!!!
• Matches almost always take a very long time to complete, easily above 30 minutes and I estimate 1 hour on average for a single match.
• For crying out loud, you are just controlling a Warcraft 3 hero unit!
• Level up above the others and you are invincible!
• It is fun for a week or three months (I am even going too far with that) but years are too much, even WoW players don’t get that hooked.
• The PC has no other game except DotA?

Around here, the biggest contributors to DotA’s success are the LAN gaming centers. Why should they go and buy “expensive” 8800 GTs or 4850s to play modern and cool multiplayer games when DotA requires PCs which you can buy on wholesale or cheap (50$ PC anyone) that have year 2000 or up to 2003 specs. There are players who play DotA, who tell their friends how cool this “game” is and that it is available in your average Internet Cafe too! Get the picture?

It is indeed a great mod, but taking it too far like that is really sad, honestly.

Command and Conquer 3: Kane’s Wrath is the expansion pack for the successful Command and Conquer 3: Tiberium Wars. This is the first foray into 3D for the Tiberium Universe of the C&C series which started the RTS genre as we know it. Kane’s Wrath adds more units, sub factions, more multiplayer maps, a global conquest mode and 13 new single player missions to the core Tiberium Wars game.

The single player portion of the expansion focuses entirely on the NOD faction and Kane’s survival after the second Tiberium war, what led to the third Tiberium war and what happened next at the end. So through all the 13 new missions, you play as NOD only. The cut scenes do answer some questions about what happened between the second and third Tiberium wars from NODs perspective and explains some of the events happened during the third war in addition to the end. You will feel some disjoint sometimes if you aren’t familiar with the Tiberium universe story. The missions themselves are nothing special yet are fun for one or two days play, since they are easy and pretty much require destruction of your enemy’s base. Nothing ground breaking there.

The new global conquest mode is nothing new as well. It is very similar to the Lord of the Rings Battle for Middle Earth 2 War of the Ring mode. The idea is you have the whole map at display and you get to try taking as much territory to win or either by achieving curtain goals for each faction. The game plays in a turn based way. You make your moves and go for the next turn. Conflicts then can be resolved either by real time game play or via auto resolve which lets the computer determine who will win by comparing the two forces’ strengths. Personally, the global conquest mode doesn’t feel right and you really need to be good to win since making one or two mistakes can end the game easily.

Kane’s Wrath adds a lot of cool new units that change the balance of each faction yet still enhance the overall balance during conflicts. In addition, each faction has it’s own Epic unit. These are huge and powerful units that can seriously turn the tide of battle if properly used. Though they are left at the very end of the tech tree and are seriously expensive to build.

The new units are either shared or split throughout the six sub factions, two from each main faction. These sub factions are a more specialized version of their parent faction in a certain area. For example, the Black Hand NOD sub faction focuses on infantry and flame and has no stealth or air technology. The factions are marginally much more balanced when compare to C&C Generals Zero Hour sub factions.

Kane’s Wrath main feature is really the multiplayer section of the game. The layout is still the same of Tiberium Wars multiplayer where you can either ask for an auto match or go check the lobbies for matches that you want to participate in. With all these new units, maps and sub factions, Kane’s Wrath is really a lot of fun online. Add to that the dedication EA is giving to the C&C series, that new patches are more and more common these days with balance changes which are always important when dealing with online exploits. This is no Starcraft polish, but it is good enough to have a fair and fun online experience.

Nothing spectacular in terms of the graphics since it is really the old SAGE engine used in C&C General’s years ago with more shaders. So the game is smooth and will run on a wide selection of PC configurations. The music is mostly untouched and is the same from Tiberium Wars bar one track which is a remixed version of the NOD faction from the previous Tiberium game.

Kane’s Wrath is more of a fans’ expansion pack than for the general audience, yet if you are into online multiplayer RTS games, I strongly recommend you try this since it is fast and fun to play.

Yes people it is official, Grand Theft Auto is finally coming to the PC as many anticipated. With a North American release date of November 18th and a European release date on the 21st of the same month, PC gamers will finally get to experience the best GTA game to date.

Rockstar Games, a publishing label of Take-Two Interactive Software, Inc. , is proud to announce that Grand Theft Auto IV will be arriving on the PC on November 18th and 21st in North America and Europe, respectively.

Expect the Middle East region to get it around the same time in November.

For more information regarding the announcement, head over to VE3D.

Yep, after I got my copy of Kane’s Wrath, looking for the Red Alert 3 Beta went in vain. EA have given Command & Conquer 3: Kane’s Wrath buyer the change to participate in Red Alert 3 Beta testing by providing Beta keys in the game box. To my surprise, I found nothing in my copy of C&C3 expansion pack, kane’s Wrath. I went to Red Alert 3 website and started looking up why. It seems EA didn’t put the Beta keys in all the regions. Was so eager to join the beta especially after how much fun is Kane’s Wrath. EA seem to have gone a long mile with their balancing and patching. It is enough to say that Out of Sync issues that plagued C&C Generals are none existent in C&C3. Still nowhere near Starcraft polish but good enough to have an enjoyable time playing online. With Red Alert 3 coming, even more attention is given to the multiplayer side of the game and from current impressions from the Beta, people are having a blast.

Hope next time EA gives our region a better chance with such opportunities and offers. There is still the possibility that EA might open Red Alert 3 Beta to the public at a later stage but no word on that at the moment, here is hoping though.

Digital Chumps has a nice comprehensive impression on Red Alert 3 Beta that you might want to check out here.

Lost Planet Colonies is actually Lost Planet game from Capcom with additional maps for multiplayer. The game was released on the XBox 360 and PS3 first then later on PC. Few months later Capcom released the Colonies Edition which didn’t change the single player element but rather only settled with updating the multiplayer portion with new maps and items.

The story is about humans trying to colonize a snow covered planet that host huge bugs called the Akrid. These Akrid also have an energy source which is their weak point as well. Humans had to develop Vital Suits (VS) to help them battle the Akrid more evenly. So the plan is to rid the planet from all the Akrid for humans to live happy, very original huh!

Story aside, you control a guy named Wayne. The controls are very similar to a first person shooter game except you play it from a third person view. He gets to use normal sort of weapons and grenades. You are required to get Thermal Energy to sustain your health. TE can be obtained from any heat source and mainly from your enemies. You can also get TE from checkpoint like posts. If you get hit, your health goes down but is quickly replenished from your TE but one fierce attack can kill you instantly since it takes time to replenish health from TE. That is where VS suits come to play. They control similar to Wayne when he is on foot but are heavier with armor and better weapons. VS also provide faster movement, jump and even limited flying abilities. Lost Planet contains various VS suits that have different abilities. In addition, the weapons mounted can be replaced easily.

The game is fun and mostly revolves about getting a good VS suit and getting through most of the obstacles to the end boss. The obstacles come in the form of Akrid which themselves come in huge variety and sizes to other humans that are either mounted in a VS suit or on foot. Really one of the best parts of the single player part of the game is the end level bosses. They make the other Akrid puny in comparison and are tough until you figure out the way to beat them but even then it is still fun and challenging.

The game graphics are nice and uses directx9/10 very well. You get cool snow and blizzard effects when you are traversing an outdoor area. In addition, the explosions create a distortion effect and I must emphasize that there are plenty of explosions in Lost Planet. Nothing special about the music or the sound effect though.

The performance is a bit unstable. You get areas with very smooth frame rates and other that jitter a lot. Even the cut scenes aren’t smooth for unknown reasons when there is nothing obvious that can indicate that the performance should get affect, something like huge explosions or heavy weather effects. Still, none of these performance issues had any affect on the game play. They were more of an annoyance rather than a hindrance.

Capcom are really putting some serious efforts into porting games to the PC which are indicated in Lost Planet, especially noticeable when you compare it to the previous port from them. They are even did an awesome job when they ported Devil May Cry 4 to the PC. Stay tuned for that review.