With Friends Like These...

When I was young and had not evolved to PC games, I'd waste my days playing Goldeneye at my friends house.

There was no Counter Strike or Team Fortress 2 to make believe I was social since my computer at the time had the computing power of a soggy cheerio. It was three other friends and myself crouched next to each other swearing, punching and throwing each other while squinting at the tiny boxes that comprised our deathmatch.

Now though I'm older and have a job to afford the big boy toys like expensive hardware and hookers. I play online mutliplayer games like all the rest and enjoy them greatly, but alas something is missing; the people element. Yes you can use Vent, Teamspeak, in game VOIP or whatever to talk with your fellow players; but nothing is quite like sitting next your enemy and allies with a couple of Dr. Peppers.

So I've been yearning to regain that feeling without the hoaky online feeling. Most games today aren't well suited for the 4 person LAN party and are better off being played online with 20 or more people. What I'm looking for is an in depth and agressive cooperative play. There should be a PC game that lets me reach out and punch my dumbass teammate or bitchy enemy.

Not multiplayer deathmatch teams or that; the story campaign of say Half Life with another person fighting along side you. Solid Co-op games are rare these games for the PC market. There of course was Rainbow Six Vegas which was astounding, and Gears of War (if you can find anyone who can get the dammned thing working). I like yelling at my friends just a few feet away as we attempt to complete a mission or a campaign together. Online multiplayer is all abou the skirmish, deathmatch, battle royal which is fine; but that's over too quickly. I like to long engrossing multiplayer cooperative play of yesteryear.

Imagine if games like Bioshock, Call of Duty 4, Supreme Commander and Crysis allowed for Co-op play during the single player campaign. Online Co-op play would be great, but I would greatly appreciate having a couple of high quality games that I could bring to a LAN party and NOT have to play a lame deathmatch but a long winding mutliplayer experience that you can't finish in one sitting. I would like to see the length and breadth of a single player game expanded for two-four of my closest geek friends.

The ultimate experience would be a game soley devoted to the Co-op experience which has been for sometime a lost art. We may be nerds, but we all have at least a few friends to share in the nerdom and do occasionally like the human interaction of meeting face to face. Cooperative play to me changes the way we play the game and increases the replayability. For once (and don't kill me) I envy those console gamers who play Halo Co-op; the poor lucky saps......sigh.

Review - Crysis

The guys at Crytek have created a game which is more a tease than my last girlfriend. In one swoop they've made a game that drew me in with fabulous shiny graphics and netted me with promises of a wicked (yea I said wicked so what?) fighting system, and once the trap was sprung I was tranquilized with moderate gameplay and a ho-hum story. After a 48 month development cycle which is computer terms is eons and in human terms is just way too fucking long; Crysis was released upon the waves of eager nerds. What everyone first saw were screen shots of something bordering god like. I could honestly look at the game all day with it's lush visuals and admit I rubbed one or two out to it if it were socially acceptable. The level of detail would astound Stevie Wonder if he had the ridiculous amount of hardware required to run the game at a moderate framerate.
However while creating the equivalent of graphical ecstasy, Crytek forgot to make the gameplay match the epic scenes you'll witness in the game. The gameplay depicted in the commercials depicted you punching a jeep and stopping it dead it it's track and just kicking a large amount of ass. The game however falls short and leaves you with suit powers that look neat.
The standard FPS gameplay is accompanied by good A.I (see screaming Koreans) and a ho-hum story and forgettable NPCs. It's your standard aliens on earth/evil guy harnessing alien technology/evil aliens kicking ass story. Been there done that. Once the Aliens come out the gameplay picks up and I found the action intense. Sadly this is the last hour or two of the game with an ending that leaves much to be desired (I was literally laughing at the last boss).
All in all the game is fun, a graphical whore but fun. Don't expect revolutionary gameplay or action, or even a decent story. Just Grab a box of kleenex and watch the beautiful visuals dance across the screen of your overheating computer.

Crysis Hands on Preview- Not so Great

The Guys over at Bi-Tech.net got their hands on Crysis for a preview and they were left underwhelmed. Plagued by poor AI and a lack of balance the game feels odd; hopefully these problems will be fixed before its November 16th release, read on

Crysis Release Date [Official], should I learn to go without food for weeks?

Cutting straight to the chase, Crysis will be released Nov. 16th as announced by EA recently. I will repeat that, Crysis will be released Nov. 16th, begin screaming.

Yes the revolutionary game giving players unparalleled amounts of freedom, all too revealing nano-suits, and really really big aliens to kick the shit out of finally has a launch. What some are calling the next Big thing in PC gaming Crysis promises to deliver amazing visuals coupled with piss your pants worthy gameplay. And now after several delays EA (crosses its heart and hopes to die) swears that it will be released Nov. 16th.

Promising to offer an unbelievable single player experience, it is however uncertain how well multiplayer will be worth the time. With a lack of Co-op multiplayer and reported latency issues with the 32 player online deathmatches, Crysis may lose a small but still substantial amount of thunder unless these issues are resolved. Crysis will come with a Sand-box editor much like Farcry allowing players to create their own levels for multiplayer use, but that's if the multiplayer is worth anytime at all. Only time will tell.