And they give it a whopping 4.5/5.0. They say the game’s weak points include the predicatable and weak single player campaign, and some interface problems. The games’s strong points, of course, are its art sytle, graphics and an ability to portray some of the most frenetic battles in an RTS.

Read gamespy’s full review here.

I’ve gushed over this one a few times already, so I won’t waste any more of your time. Warhammer 40k: Dawn of War comes out September 20th. The lowest price I’ve found for it is from GoGamer.com for 38 bucks ( that’s 11 cheaper from EbGames ).

Oh to be a young uber nerd again attending school in LA - dreaming of game innovations…

“Representatives from Electronic Arts and the University Of South California’s School of Cinema-Television have unveiled the EA Game Innovation Lab at USC’s Robert Zemeckis Center for Digital Arts, located in downtown Los Angeles. The lab has been created to act as a state-of-the-art research space and think tank for game design and creation.”

[editors note]
Original Post by Chris. This is the original post. And since I saw this review up somehwere, I think we can go public with this now.
[/editor’s note]

Last week many of us were given the chance to join the World Of Warcraft (WoW) Stress Beta.
In total I spent about 5 days playing this MMORPG, and I have to say I had fun.
I created a character I picked the Night Elf Race, and the class of a Druid once “Wanzer” was created I set off to into the woods to get as much “street cred” as I could in a limited time frame.

As a Druid Wanzer had access to some cool spells from the beginning these spells allowed ranged attacks, status attacks, and the ever important healing spell. In the first few hours Wanzer quickly made it to lvl 4. As with all RPG’s the spells got better, and the mana and HP climbed to match. WoW uses a system of “resting” to deter players from grinding EXP. I have to say I did not notice much of a difference as I played. Granted there were moments, where I would get 200% EXP for a kill, but considering I would play for as long as I did when I was deep into Star wars Galaxies last year, it feels as if this will turn into a novelty in the released version of the game.

Combat is a blast especially once you get into it with higher lvl monsters. I found myself quickly learning how to create combos of spells that would decimate creatures. Also many of the quests in this build of the game can be soloed and adventuring alone is easy. However after doing some exploring I found a way off my Island, once I was in the “new land” I started running into high lvl monsters, that would kill me without blinking…this brings us to death in WoW. When a player dies in this world, you are sent to the closest burial ground, here you are allowed to either “pay” to be rez’ed with EXP, org strap on your ghost boots, and “huff” back to your body! I choose to “huff” all the time. Now here is the problem. If you died in the middle of a pack of Bears you come to life in the middle of a pack of Bears! If you don’t time you rebirth just right your going to die often. Its also worth mentioning that Ghosts in this game are bound by the same “laws” as the living so no going through objects, no floating, and no possessing statues in order to free Zool….

I have to say during the many days I played WoW I did not feel bored, the feeling of move here kill stuff, move there kill stuff is still there. What staved me from going outside into the sun was the openness of my characters development. Aside from the skills Wanzer was learning as a Druid, he also took time to learn Enchanting, Animal Skinning Fishing, Bought a Pet Owl, gained the ability to morph into a Bear (to kill the enemy you must know the enemy!)
I had a lot of fun playing WoW and it was a good intro into the next generation of MMORPG’s coming down the pike. With WoW, EverQuest II, Middle Earth Online, D&D, and City of Villains coming out soon it’s going to be hard to choose.

Did anyone else play in the Beta?

[editors note] Original Post by Chris

Ok… this is deffinfitely bizarre.

Larry informed me today of a very bizarre marketing campaign that Bungie is launching for Halo2. It seems that in many movie theatres, was a trailer of Halo2. And following it.. was a URL. http://www.ilovebees.com.

Now, when you get there, it seems like the site is being “intercepted” or something by someone or something who is trying to transmit the “truth”. All of this is neat.. but lame.

Now.. if you click on the link in the cryptic welcome message you end up at an even more cryptic page. People have figured out that the numbers are dates, and GPS coordinates of payphones.

People around the country have been going to the payphones at the appropriate times… answering phone calls.. and saying a codeword (no idea what). And the meters above the areas move forward. (same as the meter of the site as a whole).

Now.. not only that, but audio content is unlocked. THIS is where it gets cool. It seems like the each recording is part of some story. You have to piece it together yourself.. but it IS interesting and mysterious.

Some have speculated that when enough of the audio is unlocked Bungie would do somethign in response.. like launch the demo… launch the game… beocme the messiah.. you know .. the usual rumors.

I think they might just provide a movie or something that provides backstory to Halo 2. Cuz you and I both know this isnt just about the Covenant coming to earth.

Well at any rate.. go play with it. Its very bizzarre and a rather interesting approach to marketing.

Editors note:

We don’t think that the Stress Test Beta of World of Warcraft was considered “open” and because it wasn’t, and since we all love getting into betas, and intend to continue to do so, I have taken down Chris’s Beta review of WOW and saved it.

Once we are allowed to post this, I promise we’ll get it back up quick as we can.

Sorry for any inconvenience.

I think we missed the show (if anyone TIVO’d it - please save!). However - the site is nothing less than KICK ASS! It’s not just a one page site with a background about the show - it’s literally the SHOW - on the site with Real Player clips and excellent write ups. Check it out.

“The Video Game Revolution | PBS: “This is the story of how a whimsical invention of the 1960s helped spawn the computer industry as we know it. Video games have influenced the way children live and play, forever altered the entertainment industry, and even affected the way wars are fought. See how it all began and find out what it means for the future.  The Video Game Revolution premieres Wednesday, Sept. 8th, at 9:00 p.m.”

My Rig I affectionately call “m0nk3y” has undergone a cosmetic and functional overhaul.
I first step in rebuilding “m0nk3y” was to find a new case, I found a company called NZXT these guys make once of the craziest cases I have ever seen, it is a standard mid tower sized case, but it gets funky with its well cut side window and L.E.D. “eye”. I saw this case, and the wheels started spinning.
I transferred the guts of my Rig from one case to the other, but alas its still did not feel like I was done…and it was still noisy.
I have always been a little wary of water cooling, water inside a case just seemed strange to me, but since I was out to kill the noise of my 5 80mm fans (158 dbs or 2 people talking right next to my desk) So I decided this would be the time I played with water cooling, I picked up an Kingwin Artic cooler this kit comes with very nice 2 water blocks (1 CPU and 1 GPU) 2 radiators (one bolts to your standard 80mm fan mount, the other slides into a 5 1/4 drive bay). This kit installed no problem, however while I was “bleeding” the tubing of air bubbles, I fried my 9800 pro…yeah leaving a card in the AGP slot with no cooling…rookie mistake.
So back to zipzoomfly I go, here’s where it gets “interesting” I decided to get the exact same card I had, but try to pay less.
I found a good deal on the MSI ATI 9800 pro. I ordered the card and went to the ARSTechnica forums to see what the kids had to say. I found out that MSI built the card with the same Core as the 9800xt in essence you can run your 9800 pro as a 9800 pro XT (but only with 128mbs of ram).
When I got the card home I installed it, along with a new 500wt power supply, I then went to the techpoerup site and got the ATI tool. This utility allows you to tweak your ATI based card, it has features such as finding the optimal Core and Memory speed or allowing the user to set these speeds manually. No matter how you decide to do it the ATItool allows you to check for artifacts on the output of the card. I currently have my card set as follows:

Overclock speed Core: 408.38 / 361.13 (base)
Default speed Memory: 378.00 / 338.00 (base)

I received an extra 300 points on my 3dmark score, and its good to know I am getting the most I can out of the card.
While the ATI tool is running it will put major load on your CPU, however with the water cooling the temps over 2hrs while the ATI tool was running were:

Normal = 38.6 c /98.24 f
100% CPU usage Temps = 47.6c /117.68 f

So when everything was said and done, ‘Liquid m0nk3y” was back up and running. A little faster and a lot quieter.
I would also like to thank Fico for lending me a ti 4200 for troubleshooting, and allowing me my videogame “fix” while the new parts were traveling to Boston.
Have a good weekend Monkeys

So I’m in the process of building my new rig and i’ve been waiting for the high end video cards to become avaliable. Well the wait might be over. I have decided to go with ATI’s new x800 series of cards. The x800 pro is like the old geforce mx’s…not worth your time. So I’ve been wanting to get either the XT or XT Platinum Edition. Both have proven very hard to find and when you do find them the mark up is crazy.
I just found this one today. Its the X800 XT only. The PE isn’t for sale on this site yet. The price is still pretty high, but for those who need the best of the best( me ) here it is. $479!
The nice part about this is the only difference between this card and the PE is the core speeds of the memory and VPU.
I’m thinking about getting it, what better way to complent my AMD64 3400+ machine.
Thought some people here would also like to grab one.
enjoy

Grab the demo installation exe, or even better the distributed download BitTorrent from 3D Gamers’ Download Page.

The three of us who got into the Warhammer beta all loved it. Developed by Relic Entertainment (Homeworld/Impossible Creatures) Warhammer is a frenetic RTS with some of the the most gratifying chaotic battles in recently RTS memory. Units light ablaze, fly into the air, and get impaled on various.. things.

No exaggeration - It’ll probably be the biggest action RTS this season, and I’m sure it’ll win numerous RTS of the Year awards.

Have fun this weekend.

This title seems the perfect mix of Age of Empires 2 and Rome Total War.

Unfortunately, the developer of KoH is in Eastern Europe, and I think that’s why there hasn’t been much publicity about the title. Most english gaming mags are in the States, with some also England, but it seems Bulgaria is too far to fly even for them. And so everything I’ve leared of this title comes from: just one old PC Gamer preview, the game’s forum, and a weekly newsletter run by the KoH website. It could be that I’m ausceptible to the game’s product marketing, but what I’ve read over the last 6 months makes me excited.. and I think we may have a sleeper hit strategy game on our hands…

… though the Medieval setting doesn’t break any strategy game molds. You’re placed in control of Kingdom of cities and towns. Your focus is split amongst civic projects, static defenses, espionage and diplomacy. Recruit and train armies, march them out to stop invaders, or push them beyond your boarders in attempt to conquer all of Europe.

The diplomatic features seems more involved than the usual. Most RTSs have simple-logic diplomatic options. For instance, Civilization and Rise of Nations have opponents that badger you into alliances or attempt to extort money from you… “or else.” Over time these systems seem flat — you’re either at war with someone or you’re not.

Knights of honor has diplomatic missions that should tie in well with the action and carnage that occurs in battle. Spend some time sucking-up to your ally then request his aid in taking an enemy town once he’s all googaly-eyed for you. If you appear weak and soft your neighbors might band together to invade… but you could stave this off with diplomacy flair and buy time until you can pose more of a military obstacle. It seems you can even pit enemy against enemy with tactical subterfuge. Let them knock each other down a notch, join with the winning side, and soak up more land for your empire. Good times.

The game is large in scope, too. The real-time map covers the entirety of Europe. From Turkey on up to England. You can zoom out to see your kingdom at a glance, or zoom in to watch inhabitants live in their individual towns and cities.

It’s these things things that lead me to believe that Knights of Honor is a sequel-in-spirit to Medieval Total War, and that’s a very good thing. As I look over the feature breakdown there’ a sense that this game has the same sort of building tension - you’re not always in conflict but you’re always preparing and maneuvering for the next one. And with gorgeous graphics like this, I can’t help but get anxious to play.

There are so many games coming out in the near future that it’s impossible to get them all at release. I’m going to wait to see if GoGamer h as a madness mail. Once I get my hands on it I’ll post my thoughts.

The game has hit Gold and will be in European stores this month.

Quick Links:
Knights of Honor Website

~~ Click screenshots to enlarge ~~