The latest issue of PC Gamer arrived in my hands this morning and between its covers is the first exclusive look at Quake IV. Funny thing - I skipped to the Rome Total War review first (92% btw) See Doom 3 hasn’t yet done it for me. It was a blast at first (scared the bejebus out of me) but I could only enter so many rooms where something jumped out from behind a wall. Too much rinsing, not enough washing and far too much repeating.

I don’t know what that means. Anyway, with Doom 3 id has left a sour taste in my mouth, and so I wasn’t all-excited for another of their properties. More so, the game is coming out WHO knows when.??

But it looks like Raven Software is steering Quake IV an unexpected direction. Lately the FPS industry’s foundations have been shifitng a bit with squad-based shooters - think Call of Duty and Brothers in Arms. Quake IV seems to be following suit.

A sequel to Quake 2, the game’s story picks up 4 hours later and pits you against the Strogg forces in an all out battle for their home world. Like Quake 2, you start out invading a planet - this time you don’t crashland a personal capsule on Mars to fight your way alone.

Expect a Saving Private Ryan D-Day beach battle, except this time around you’re on the Strogg home world. Entirely unlike Doom 3, the game renders vast expanses of land. From the get go you and fellow forces stage an assault across open territory. Keeping supression fire going, you have to move between cover to pick off bad guys (while generally trying to stay alive ). Meanwhile that Destroyer
you rode-in-on provides fire/artillery support from above. Lots of things going boom. Lots of gore. Lots of gibs. mmmm.. gibs.

The main push of the game is to keep the story experience going while the action continues to stream in. Fellow marines (who have personalities ) will go on “point” (suckahs). When a giant maw opens up and swallows them whole, that’s your cue to start blasting the hell outta everything in front of you. Action shooter goodness.

“Even when the action seems to slow, the overall war doesn’t. You’ll be safe for the moment in a Marine-held compound underground, when a massive explosion will rock the surface and shake the walls. Everywhere you go, the conflict will be a constant looming presence - an “ambient war environment”, as Willits describes it” -
Dan Morris, November 2004 PC Gamer

Reminds me of one element of Halo that I loved - playing a part of some bigger war. I mean, sure, being the focal point of the game when everyone is shooting at you is great, but sticking that in the mix of larger mayhem, that’s something entirely different and fantastic. I don’t know if Quake IV will even come close to pulling it off well, but I’m anxious to see it… Especially while moving through something as horrific as a Strogg factory. Remember those body part machines in Quake 2? Yeah, these screen shots… um.. they’ll look a lot better now.

I sense Quake IV will have that same Alien/Aliens relationship with Doom 3 - expect more explosions, more help, and fewer dark halls. If you see PC Gamer on the shelves this month, it’s worth the cover price.

Quake IV is set to come out in 2005.

PS. Click the above image to see the artist’s concept notes.

MMORPG.com is giving away 20 Everquest beta accounts. It’s a helluva long shot with the number of readers they have, but it couldn’t hurt to try, right?

Good luck!

Less than a year after the release of “Sly Cooper and the Thievius Raccoonus” Suckerpunch Studios has released “Sly 2: Band of thieves”. For those of you who played the first Sly you were treated to what was essentially a textbook example of how game design works. The first game could be completed in about 8hrs; this was due to the flawless level design and well incorporated differing game play. Once you started playing you did not want to stop.
Sly 2 continues the traditions of the first, but adds more game play and addresses tech issues found in the first game.

This time around (as in the first) Sly teams up with “the Brains” Bentley, and “the Muscle” Murry to take back the Clockwerk parts from the first game; the Claw Gang must be stopped. One of the biggest differences this time around You Get To Play as Bentley and Murry!
Each level to the game is broken up into an Episode; the first takes place in Paris. These Episodes start on what is essentially a “Hub” world. In the world you must complete jobs that build up to a bigger Heist (think Oceans 11, but with a Raccoon, Turtle and a Hippo) once all the wide variety jobs are finished your team can proceed to steal back the Clockwerk parts.
The variety of tasks in each level range from straight forward platforming (mainly with Sly) to beat-em-up, puzzles, playing with RC helicopters, picking pockets, recon photos, disabling alarms, finding hidden loot, cracking safe’s, hacking computers, shooter elements…ok there is A LOT to do!

Because there is so much to do and accomplish in each level the game is a great deal longer than its predecessor, also Suckerpunch has done a lot of work on the games engine. The original Sly was one of the first Cell Shaded games on the PS2, and to put it nicely frame rates were a problem! Now given the size detail of the areas the detail of each char in the game and the fast pace, there is no slow down, I am glad to see my biggest problem with the first game addressed in Sly 2.

The Graphics in Sly 2 build on the style of the first. Everything is this game makes it feel as if your playing a cartoon! Animations, models, and intros all have a great sense of Saturday morning.
The controls are rock solid, one button to hit, one to jump and a contact sensitive button to allow for running on ropes, crawling, hugging walls, climbing and other “thieving” abilities. These controls are very responsive, and there are only slight variances between Sly, Bentley and Murry.
Although I have only made it through the first two levels of Sly 2 (about 6hrs so far) it just keeps getting better and better as I go along. Its not often that a Studio takes less than a year to produce a new title and to have that title surpass an already great game deserves some recognition. The Sly series is now on par with the Ratchet and Clank and JAK series Well Done Suckerpunch! Ok I have to split, because I am about to boost the Clockwerk wings, have a good weekend Monkeys.

IGN has posted a good and critical review of Battlegrounds - the soon released Star Wars mulitplayer FPS. (PC,Xb,Ps2) I had hoped this game wouldn’t be a BF1942 clone, and thanfully it isn’t. However, the game suffers some from design problems and stupid AI.

Read the review here:
pc.ign.com

The vehicles (walkers) can soak-up damage and require coordination to take down. I’m a huge fan of that, but each multiplayer scenario can be solved only one way, and unless you and your teammates strictly follow the “script” then your side is pretty much hosed. It’s hard for me to find online servers, for any game, where teammates coordinate well at all, so that design aspect scares me. Also replaying the same script sounds tedious, especially when there are only a few maps.

The author also makes a point that you can very easily snipe with the mouse, and so he prefers the console controls a bit more. Umm.. since when have console shooters been better than PCs?

I won’t be purchasing this one but I hope grab it from Gamefly. If any of you also gamefly, let me know and we can coordinate. I wouldn’t mind some cooperative xbox live time in ya.

The game is set to release Tuesday.

- Dave

Kuma War is an epsiodic First Person Shooter. The game’s website releases modules “ripped from the headlines” that are recreations of recent combat in both Iraq and Afghanistan. For example, some of the modules have been named “Fallujah Vigilant Resolve”, and “Uday and Qusay’s Last Stand”.

From what I’ve seen / read the game isn’t all that great. The engine is dated, the AI is horrible, and so the 30 minute missions aren’t worth the monthy subscription. Gamespot reviewed it earlier this year.

Their latest scenario / module features the John Kerry (!) river boat engagement that’s been all over the headlines the past few months. Has John signed off on this?

There are 6 screenshots here. Check them out. None of them show John under any fire — I wonder if he can even get hurt.

http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/

I was just surfing through Ars and found this trailer for Beserk for the PS2. Wow.

This is what I get just from watching — you’re a guy who runs around with giant sword and cuts sh*t in half. Pretty straight forward, and pretty violent. The game’s bosses look to pose some interesting battles, too.

Too bad I don’t have a PS2. I seriously want to know this guy’s story:

Looks like Beetlejuice hit one of those Mars Attack guys. Anyway I did some digging - “Berserk” was a manga series broadcast on Japanense television back in 97. Netflix has the series for rent - it’s got a respectable score, too. I’m not normally into Anime, but I’m checking it out anyway.

Edit: I found some more out about this title. There was also a Beserk game for the Dreamcast, however this one isn’t a direct sequel. Also, gamespot has posted some info about the game when they covered the Tokoyo Game Show.

-> Dave

We’re ready to go - the online rosters have been updated to reflect the current NFL Rosters, and we have 9 people signed up

We need three more people to bring the league to 12 teams before we can kick it off. Anyone else interested in playing email me at dave@monkeygames.org.

The title will link to a review of the new Star Wars Trology on DVD. And for those of you who are getting it (i’ve ordered!) You will be getting a nice little bonus. An XBOX demo of Star Wars: Battlefront is included in the set! VERY COOL!

What more can I say. It looks like the game I have been most anticipating this year is very close to being in our hands!