Category Archives: Phokal

BF2 1.50 patch to unite gamers

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Battlefield 2.  This is the game that made me upgrade my computer back in the day (and it still was barely enough).

Now, a few years later, and a few expansions later, and they are doing a great move: making all the expansions free.

The bane of any multiplayer game is a splintered community that makes it harder to find a compatible game.  Requiring DLC to get on a specific server to play with certain people limits the number of players willing to continue paying for this product, instead of simply moving on to the next, better FPS.

But now they are reforming their community, with a game that will now run on any modern system.

I’m looking forward to when it is released:

http://blogs.battlefield.ea.com/bf2_2142/archive/2009/08/27/battlefield-2-update-v1-50-is-almost-here.aspx##

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A new Batman game to be excited about

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batman22

My copy of Batman: Arkham Asylum just shipped.  I highly recommend checking this game out (demos are available).

PC

Xbox 360

PS3 (go log in on PSN)

I had a ton of fun playing through the demo a couple of times.  Stealth felt rewarding, combat brutal, and had a good overall presentation.

And if you think the final screen from the NES Batman game has been photoshopped, you’d be right.  But it’s not that far off.

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G.I. Joe – You need to weaponize these warheads

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The new G.I Joe movie is not good. But isn’t bad, either. There is as much plot as you would expect. There’s a base and it gets attacked. There are explosions. Lots of “Duke!” and “Ripcord!”, gunfire, ninja fighting, missiles, and chases.

There’s lots of fanservice. Favorite characters are here, as are a lot of vehicles.
Of course, there is a lot to criticize. There is a lot of stupidity you have to forgive. If you thought Die Hard 4 had hard-to-believe plot, then G.I. Joe will rub you the wrong way.
“We need you to weaponize the warhead.”
“What’s Scottish for ‘fire’?”

It’s not a movie I’d tell someone to go to, but if you wanted to see it I wouldn’t let other opinions stop you.

Gears 2 DLC, the complete collection, now available

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The new Gears 2 DLC comes in two flavors: 7 new maps (featuring some classic remakes) and a deleted bonus scene single-player level for $15, or all that *PLUS* all previous DLC (19 multiplayer maps total) for $20.

This is a good chance to bring together the multiplayer community.  For $20 you can get everything and be up to date with everyone else.

http://majornelson.com/archive/2009/07/28/gears-of-war-all-fronts-collection-and-dark-corners-multiplayer-map-pack.aspx

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Guide to installing Grim Fandango

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grim-fandango-melange

Grim Fandango is one of the few games that simply has trouble on new machines.  One of the first official patches helped fix puzzles that ran to quickly on anything above a 400mhz processor.  I waited for the Lucasarts Steam announcement, but was left still needing to research this dilemma.

Upon inserting the disc you are greeted to an autoplay that *may* reject your harddisc space due to inaccurate readings, and the Setup.exe will not run under any variant of 64bit Windows.  I am testing under Windows 7 RC, so this should work under Windows XP, Vista or 7.

  1. Instead, place disc A in the drive, then download and run this Custom installer available here: http://quick.mixnmojo.com/grim-fandango-setup
  2. I installed to the default Program Files(x86)\
  3. When prompted, insert disc B.
  4. Included in this custom installer is a Custom Launcher (available separately here; NOT NEEDED for this install): http://quick.mixnmojo.com/grim-fandango-launcher
  5. After installed, go to the Options of the Launcher and make sure there is a green check next to Run from Harddrive.

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Assassin's Creed for iPhone demo impressions

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The first thing you are greated to is a cg cinematic when you play the regular version of Assassin’s Creed. When you load the iPhone version you are greeted to a movie of the regular version’s gameplay. Right down to targetting cursors appearing on characters running around the screen.

The gameplay itself is solid; the biggest hurdle is the virtual joystick. Either you will be able to deal with it or it will break the game for you. Try the newly launched demo/free version to test this.

Otherwise it is a nice looking platformer (for a phone game). Though, I did notice my battery drop pretty quick while testing out the demo.

Lucasarts Adventure games coming to Steam

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My next post was going to be how I got my old copy of Grim Fandango running on Windows 7.  I may, however, just wait for Steam to solve this problem for me.

Some old Lucasarts adventure games are coming to Steam; I’m hoping Grim is amongst them.

Thanks, Kotaku.

Game Club: Idea – Who wants to play Grim Fandango?

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Lately, I’ve been thinking of playing Grim Fandango. I’ve also thought about turning this into a more social experience: a game club (like a book club).

The game would be Grim Fandango, and the subject would be “Why did adventure gaming die?”

Some may say adventure gaming isn’t dead. Syberia, Indigo Prophecy, Telltale’s Sam and Max revival are all critically well received. They are, however, never compared directly to The Longest Journey or Grim Fandango; the last great classic adventure games.

Whether adventure games died due to archaic mechanics, that other genres incorporated adventure mechanics into themselves, or the average gamer’s attention span has simply shrunk, Grim Fandango should help in this examination (and be fun to play).

I’m thinking play could be 1-2 hrs a week with a weekly posting here on the blog for discussion. Throw in meeting in person roughly once a month, and you have a book club.

Facebook 3.0 for iPhone 3.0

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Here it is:

Facebook 3.0 for iPhone 3.0 almost complete

Check it out. Looks good, but will lack push until 3.1
http://www.insidefacebook.com/2009/07/01/facebook-for-iphone-30-coming-soon-preview-and-details/

Battlefield 1943 is coming

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Next week, XBLA and PSN will have BF1943; and Xbox Live enforces a trial be available.

I would suggest grabbing that trial and giving it a shot.  It will probably be an excellent multiplayer shooter with 4 maps.  Expect future map packs to cost as much as the full game.

Thanks,  Evilavatar

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