Before I started playing, I thought Anno 1404 (Dawn of Discovery) would be "more of the same" and little more than that. As it turns out, I was right about the first, but wrong about the second: there is a LOT more to the game than just a remake of 1701
I am a PC gamer at heart although I am slowly warming up to the consoles. Having played PC games back when 16 colors were a luxury, I've seen the PC evolve to a gaming platform to reckon with. Strategy and FPS' still work best with mouse and keyboard.
Eye of the Beholder (trilogy)
Jagged Alliance (series)
Transport Tycoon
Starcraft
UFO: Enemy unknown
Civilization (series)
Might & Magic (series)
Sid Meier's Pirates!
Heroes of Might & Magic
I am a PC gamer at heart although I am slowly warming up to the consoles. Having played PC games back when 16 colors were a luxury, I've seen the PC evolve to a gaming platform to reckon with. Strategy and FPS' still work best with mouse and keyboard.
StarCraft 2
Postal III
Diablo III
I am a PC gamer at heart although I am slowly warming up to the consoles. Having played PC games back when 16 colors were a luxury, I've seen the PC evolve to a gaming platform to reckon with. Strategy and FPS' still work best with mouse and keyboard.
All Things Digital's Peter Kafka interviewed Netflix CEO Reed Hastins during this year's CES. When the topic of Netflix's availability on gaming consoles arose, Hastins said that the chances of Netflix coming to the Nintendo Wii were "excellent". This lends credence to the rumors of a Wii/Netflix partnership that first surfaced in early 2009. While still a rumor, I'd say this one is almost certainly true.
by Falconer on January 7th, 2010 | Category: Press Release
New Beat-'Em-Up Boasts Monsters, Mayhem and Meat Meteor Showers to Spice up Your Spring
In Pirates Plund-Arrr, players will fight through creature-filled areas like a murky swamp, an underwater city, and a haunted village to ultimately face-off against the scallywag Rudebelly and retrieve their stolen treasure. It's serious business in a game that doesn't take itself too seriously: would-be pirates can ride warthogs for "drive-by style" attacks, battle hulking slug bosses and trigger meat meteor showers raining down from above.
SEGA announced today that Sonic & SEGA All-Stars Racing will allow you to race as your Mii on the Nintendo Wii version of the game. Players can take on the likes of Sonic, Dr. Eggman, Ryo and Amigo, as their Mii races towards the checkered flag on tracks inspired by your favorite SEGA worlds.
For more information on Sonic & SEGA All-Stars Racing, check out our recent preview.
by Falconer on December 30th, 2009 | Category: Other
Sometimes, truth is stranger than fiction. A virtual space station in Entropia Universe was auctioned off at a staggering 330.000 -real- dollars yesterday. Entropia is a virtual universe that uses real cash to fuel its own economy.
The space station called Crystal Palace went on auction some ten days ago and saw bids go up to 3.3 million PEDs. PED stands for Project Entropia Dollars and are the in-game currency and is linked to the dollar to give it a solid base in the real world economy. According to Mindark, the company behind Project Entropia, the 330.000 dollar that was paid for Crystal Palace is the highest amount of real-world cash ever to be paid for a virtual item.
by Falconer on December 22nd, 2009 | Category: Other
Longtime Duke Nukem Forever criticaster Wired Magazine posted up a comprehensive reconstruction of 3D Realm's evasive shooter. Apart from hearing from George Broussard himself, I doubt we'll ever get any closer than this to learning what really caused Duke's demise. A quote:
By May 1998, the team had created enough material to show off at E3, the annual videogame industry convention. Duke Nukem Forever was set in Vegas; in the game's plot, Duke operates a strip club and then has to fight off invading aliens. Broussard showed a trailer featuring a dozen different scenes, including Duke fighting on the back of a moving truck, jet airplanes crashing, and furious firefights with aliens. Critics were awed: "It sets a new benchmark for making a 3-D game more like a Hollywood movie," Newsday proclaimed. Broussard was clearly obsessed with making his product as aesthetically appealing as possible. When he brought a few journalists over to a computer to show off bits of the game, he pointed out the way you could see individual wrinkles on characters' faces and mused over how to make his campfire more realistic. ("As soon as we mix in some white smoke and some black smoke, I think we'll be there," he said.)
by Falconer on December 17th, 2009 | Category: Press Release
NEW YORK - December 17, 2009 - Paradox Interactive, the leading PC strategy publisher, announced today that it has acquired full ownership of AGE Studio, parent company of renowned French development studio AGEOD. This acquisition merges two titans of the strategy gaming community and adds a variety of upcoming titles to the expanding Paradox Interactive portfolio.
by Falconer on December 15th, 2009 | Category: Other
With Mass Effect 2 just around the corner, I went Indiana Jones on the pile of games that lives inside what used to be my book case and - with total disregard for my personal safety - retrieved my copy of Mass Effect from it. After the dust settled and my PC was visible at the other end of the room (nah, I'm married, my wife would never allow me to let it get that bad) I installed the game and gave it another play-through.
by Falconer on November 25th, 2009 | Category: Other
GoGamer readies itself for Black Friday Madness with an extensive list of games and hardware that are on sale for considerable discounts. How about Halo: Combat Evolved (X360) for $9.90 or Enemy Territory: Quake Wars (X360) for the same low price? The full 124 item list can be found after the click.
by Falconer on November 5th, 2009 | Category: Other
When deadlines aren't met at Hooked Gamers, it generally means one of two things: a change in the weather is causing a flu outbreak or a new game is distracting our writing staff to the point that they no longer remember to check their schedule. This time, the culprit is Gearbox's excellent new Role-Playing shooter Borderlands.
Now, we know that tons of games are vying for your hard earned money in November and December so we thought we'd give away a copy of Borderlands for PC. That way, one lucky winner at least is able to spend his/her cash on a second game without having to choose.
What do you need to do to win? Easy: just sign up for our E-mail updates. Two weeks from now we will randomly select one person from the people who subscribed and he or she will be our winner. Simple no?
Good luck!
The winner will receive a notification and a request for contact information by e-mail.
Update on Nov 30th - The Giveaway is now closed. The winners will be informed within the next two days.
by Falconer on November 3rd, 2009 | Category: X360
Starting today, Xbox live players can earn bonus points for participating in surveys and purchasing games and addons through the Xbox Live Marketplace. Even renewing your subscription can yield some interesting bonuses, especially when committing to a 12-month Gold subscription.
The promotion is set to last for six months and is only available to US citizens at this time. It is not known if the same program will be available outside of the US anytime soon.
New York, October 30, 2009 - Assemble your party from the survivors you can find. Equip them and send them out to find weapons, ammo and food, to help with the survival effort. Seek out military and emergency vehicles, the best sources for hardware and vital ammunition. Select from an assortment of handguns, shotguns, rifles and assault-weapons or pick-up an ever reliable fire-axe. Then shoot, swing and bash your way through an endless sea of undead.
by Falconer on September 14th, 2009 | Category: Other
For the first time ever in a video game, GRAMMY® Award winning DJ's and producing duo, Daft Punk, will start the party right with Activision Publishing, Inc.'s DJ Hero™ on October 27, 2009. Featuring 93 exclusive on-disc mixes from some of the biggest acts in hip-hop, pop, rock and dance, players will be able to test their DJing chops as virtual recreations of the renowned twosome and experience their iconic sounds in eleven original mixes, including two signature "Megamixes," using their music.
Check out the new screenshots of DJ Hero in our DJ Hero GameHub.
by Falconer on September 9th, 2009 | Category: PS3
The Net is alight over the recent sales figures for Sony's ailing Playstation 3 device. Reportedly, the introduction caused a 1000% increase in sales week on week. Wow, that sure sounds like an incredible feat! But upon closer inspection...
These figures come from UK market watcher Chart Track which is generally known to be fairly accurate with its numbers. They also have some other interesting data to share, that tell a different, less impressive story.
What did the Playstation 3 and Xbox 360 really do to bring us Next-Gen games? All things considered, not that much. With the technology behind the two machines rapidly aging and no new consoles in sight, it stands to reason that real Next-Gen gaming in the next few years will be done on the PC.
Before I started playing, I thought Anno 1404 (Dawn of Discovery) would be "more of the same" and little more than that. As it turns out, I was right about the first, but wrong about the second: there is a LOT more to the game than just a remake of 1701
