PC Features

What Are the Best Free-to-Play Shooters?

With all
the new free-to-play shooters being released these days, it’s hard to
tell if there are quality games behind the trend, or if free-to-play is
just a recent fad. After having played many of the most popular
free-to-play online shooters, here are the free shooters most worthy of
your time. Let’s get the obvious pick out of the way. Team Fortress 2 was originally a part of a compilation of Valve games named The Orange Box, eventually turning into an individual product, and most recently, a free-to-play title. Team Fortress 2
originally had 6 maps at release, with 9 unique classes, including the
tank-like Heavy, the agile Scout, and the stealthy Spy. Since release,
though, Valve has added ridiculous amounts of content to it, including
new weapons and gadgets for the classes, many new maps, UI changes,
balance changes, a full-on trading and crafting system, and more. This
was a $20 value at release, but Valves constant updates and improvements
have made it a steal, especially for free. There’s no incentive to pay,
unless you want the quick and easy route to new items. The only
problems I can think of are the stubborn server admins who’ve added a
line of code that auto-kicks free-to-play users upon connection. It’s
not like you want to play with those types of players, anyway.

Game Play Theater Festival: Modal Kombat – Review

Modal
Kombat is a classical
guitar performance art piece that calls itself “The First Ever
Guitar-Controlled Video Game Battle.” In it, Dave Hindman and Evan
Drummond, two Klassical guitarists have hacked a pair of acoustic guitars to
serve as video game controllers.  Over the course of the show, the duo
have music fights in games like Pong, Mario Kart and Mortal Kombat.  It had a very
brief run in New York City this weekend as part of the Game Play Theater
Festival at the Brick Theater in Brooklyn.

Just to
be clear, these are not Guitar Hero controllers, but actual guitars that have been modified to
control classic game consoles. A
giant projection screen on the back wall of the theatre shows the games being
played while Hindman and Drummond control them live. The duo use different cords to turn left and right in Mario
Kart; they guide a Pong paddle up and down by raising or
lowering the pitch, and hitting certain notes will trigger special attacks in Mortal
Kombat. All of this is
accompanied by classical guitar music.

Best PC Games of 2011 (So Far)

This year got off to a great
start with Dead Space 2 standing
out in January as an early contender for Game of the Year.  Yet, the following months fizzled with
highly anticipated games like Dragon Age 2 disappointing fans, while critical
darlings like L.A. Noire stubbornly refused to appear on PC until later this
year.  Fortunately the PC indie
scene coughed up a couple of great games in the first half of this year, giving
PC gamers something to tide us over until the blockbuster glut in the fall.  Our PC Department of
Fergus Halliday, Ari RunaninTelle, Jonathan Gann and Charles Battersby panned
the river of mediocrity to find the Three Best Games of 2011 (so far).

‘Dungeon Defenders’ Set to Fuse Tower Defense and ARPG Gameplay

When
the Unreal Development Kit first was released it gave indie developers
access to the power of the Unreal Engine and opened the way for tons of
indie game developers looking to make the next big thing. One of the
first games to come out of the UDK was Dungeon Defenders, a
small but cool indie game that fused tower defense and action RPG
gameplay to give gamers something really fun. Since then, the small free
version of Dungeon Defenders is being expanded into a fully
fledged digital release by the game’s developer Trendy Entertainment and
has already been released on iOS and the Android App Store, but is
coming to XBLA, PSN and PC in the near future.

Fight For Freedom As Captain America This Fourth of July

Liberty must be fought for every day, with every breath.  Once your colony declares its independence from your oppressors, you can’t just roll over and take a nap.  No, the price of freedom is constant vigilance, and since it’s Independence Day, let’s take a look at games where you can play as one of the greatest defenders of freedom in history: Captain America!

Achron: Hands On Preview

Time travel is one of the most interesting ideas that science fiction plays with, and dozens of films and books have been written about the possibility that you could go back in time and fix your mistakes. Tons of video games have used time travel as a plot device but very few have actually incorporated it as a mechanic (the only ones that comes to mind for me are Prince of Persia and Braid).

How Has TF2 Changed Since Launch?

I really enjoy seeing TF2 class changes. Since the game’s launch in 2007, the game has improved tremendously. It’s been awesome trying out all of Valve’s new items with the recent Uber Update.New features range from replays to a crafting system, but the Team Fortress classes changed more than anything else.

5 Reasons I Never Played World of Warcraft

Infested Planet: Hands On Preview

Indie games these days come in all shapes and sizes. Infested Planet is a new one that looks to combine squad-based strategy gameplay with a very cool, dynamic AI. The game sets you as the commander of a crack military team who must clear out a terrifying alien infestation.  Sure the story isn’t exactly the most original, but Infested Planet isn’t trying to tell a science fiction epic, it’s trying to give gamers a fun strategy experience with some unique twists.  We got to play around with the beta to see exactly how close they come to their goal.

I wanted to like… Dragon Age: Origins

I’ve always been a huge fan of Role Playing Games. My general interest in the genre is far-reaching and broad, but as a result I tend to be picky and only truly like a handful of scattered games that blend the elements. I generally like Japanese RPGs, provided they’re not too grind-focused and have a good story, or at least a humorously convoluted one. As far as western RPGs go, I cannot accurately pin my preferences into a group or particular type. I tend to like old turn-based games. Some newer RPGs interest me and even fascinate me. Many of them, however, downright frustrate me, even if I want to like them for the merits they do have, such as Dragon Age: Origins.