Many Gamecube owners will vigorously insist that Eternal Darkness was not a failed game. True, it was critical hit and is regarded as one of the best games for Nintendo’s Cube, but despite being a darling of artsy horror fans, Eternal Darkness sold miserably.
It is often said that great things come from humble beginnings. In the case of the North Carolina-based
studio Epic Games, creators of the
seminal Unreal Engine (used in a dizzyingly large number of modern videogame
titles) and the hugely successful Gears of War series, those
beginnings were very humble indeed. The
brainchild of Tim Sweeney, founded in 1991 in Rockville, Maryland, started life
with a simple game creation engine for DOS called ZZT and soon became known for
creating popular shareware titles such as Jazz Jackrabbit, which spawned a
sequel and was named “Arcade Game of the Year” by PC Format magazine in 1995.
With 4 novels and 2 award-winning games, the Gears of War universe has grown to be quite expansive over the last 3 years. Since Gears of War 3 is just around the corner, I’d like to take this opportunity to fill you in on the story so far, both for those of you who have never experienced what the series has to offer and those who have been away from the series since the end of the 2nd game. Think of this as a continuous timeline rather than a book-by-book and game-by-game summary. At the end of the summary, you can find out where each game ends as well as what backstory comes from the first 3 novels.
With 4 novels and 2 award-winning games, the Gears of War universe has become quite expansive over the last 3 years. Since Gears of War 3 is just around the corner, I’d like to take this opportunity to recap the story so far, both for those who never experienced what the series has to offer and those who have been away from the series since the end of the 2nd game.
The War on Terror has been all the rage for the last two console generations, making Islamic extremists the go-to punching bags for military shooters. But even before 9/11, video games often put players up against terrorists. Player Affinity’s writers offer up our favorite classic games that let us fight for freedom against terrorists in all their forms.
The Xbox 360 had some big games drop this month, but also had a special promotion for indie titles as well that showed off some neglected games from smaller developers. Not to mention the Summer of Arcade event which gave us several surprises in the form of downloadable arcade titles. Let’s look back at the games our Xbox Department reviewed over the past month.
The Penny Arcade Expo takes place twice yearly, in Seattle (PAX Prime) and Boston (PAX East). It’s a celebration of all things nerdy; video games are predominant, but PAX also caters to tabletop gamets, roleplayers, fans of the Penny Arcade webcomic and nerdcore music aficionados. In the words of Jerry “Tycho” Holkins, one of the founders of Penny Arcade, it’s the convention that he and his creative partner Mike “Gabe” Krahulik always wanted to go to. I was able to get hands-on with a couple of games over at PAX this weekend. One of those was Mass Effect 3.
In the wise words of Four Leaf Tayback from Tropic Thunder, “You must put those boys in the s**t.” Well ladies and gentlemen, that’s the idea behind THQ and Relic Entertainment’s Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine.
No longer will you be able to play the role of armchair general from
your comfortable view atop the battlefield, nor will you be able to hide
behind the barrel of a gun. Instead, in this expansion into yet
another new genre for the “Warhammer 40K” franchise, you will take on
the role of Captain Titus, a Space Marine of the Ultramarines chapter.
Each genre of games has its very own core element that makes it unique
when compared to other games.
Role-playing games have the numbers and the stories, puzzle games have
the intelligence quotient, strategy games have the tricks and the mental gymnastics,
and shooters have those wonderfully satisfying objects known as guns.
Driver: San Francisco, developed by Ubisoft Reflections, puts you in the role of John Tanner, undercover cop and protagonist from nearly every Driver game in the series. The open world setting is San Francisco, as the title notes, and is complete with the city’s landmarks, such as the Golden Gate Bridge.
