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Game On - October 2008

Fallout 3 landscape
It's what gamers were wary of - that Bethesda, game studio that won the rights to make the third chapter of the well-loved Fallout series, would end up making a game that felt and played similar to Oblivion.

I loved Fallout 1 and 2, especially for the fantastic landscape... though the graphics were primitive, I don't think any other game has succeeded in capturing the sense of living in a complete breathing world.

Even though the NPCs didn't move around and have lives, the dialogue and the backgrounds made for a perfectly formed environment. Picking up bottles of hooch and strange drugs seemed normal in a world left to its own nuclear winter.

The Fallout games also used this brilliant 50s throwback in all the burned out equipment, with monopoly style cartoon characters and preppy sounding narrators. It was a world of black comedy, of originality, but most of all, a game of wondrous discovery. Once you get your first automatic weapon, you feel like the King.

Then, as you're razed by the Brotherhood of Steel, you realize just how much you have to go.

On Saved By a Towel, a gamer gets a build of Fallout 3, plays it for 15 hours and reports that it feels a LOT like Oblivion.

"But that’s where the uniqueness ends, and even the uniqueness that is there is constantly tainted for anyone who has played Oblivion for any long stretch of time. Running around the landscape is just the same, it just looks different."

I have to admit that even playing Oblivion felt a little dull... it's surprising, considering that Morrowind was so much more painful to play, walking everywhere because your character was out of shape.

With the fast travel system in Oblivion, nothing felt unique anymore... and I worry that Bethesda would make this mistake with Fallout 3. The original Fallout games had very similar looking environments for towns and areas, but each place felt different -really different, though the attitudes of the people in the town, and the unique buildings.

Can Fallout 3 replicate that feeling? The trailer looks fantastic, like it would be everything that we'd expect.



Will this meet the mark for Fallout fans, though?


*this image is from Wired Blog

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Bejeweled Deluxe

Wired Magazine has an interesting discussion with Jason Kapalka about the appeal of simple games. Kapalka is the co-creator of Bejeweled, the best selling casual game where players click on gems and they disappear.

[ Click here to read more ]
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Love

October 23rd 2008 03:28
Love the computer game

No, we're not talking about playing the emotion of Love, either by settling down or by stringing your girl/boyfriend along, then dumping them and making them cry.

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Empire: Total War
Avast! I've always loved the Total War series, a strategy game series that aims to give the player control over a slice of history.

At first, the games just seemed like an interesting kid on the block - you went around to jump on his trampoline, but you didn't want to be his best friend


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WWE SmackDown vs Raw 2009

October 14th 2008 00:01
WWE SmackDown vs Raw 2009


The latest installment in the WWE series of video games: 'SmackDown vs. Raw 2009' continues the franchise’s definitive video game simulation of live WWE action on the Xbox 360, PS2 / 3 and PSP consoles


[ Click here to read more ]
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I just had to get down on this... in addition to showing CGI cutscenes at gaming conventions, Blizzard has given the community a little treat: a 6 minute gameplay video of their upcoming real-time strategy game, Starcraft II.

Wired got it out today, and I've embedded it here for all you happy gaming Orblers


[ Click here to read more ]
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Need For Speed Undercover

October 3rd 2008 05:38
Need For Speed Undercover


The next installment in the Need For Speed franchise is due to land in Australia this November for all the major consoles including handheld portables


[ Click here to read more ]
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