Octoroks, Tektites, and Leevers too…
During the critical debate as to whether it was more accurate to compare ย Spiral Knights to either ย ย Gauntlet or Zelda, my peers and I uncovered a few gems from the past for review.
Borderlands: No Heaven
First off, if the title of this article doesn’t make sense and you haven’t seen the original gameplay trailer for Borderlands, go check it out. The music is the song No Heaven by DJ Champion. It’s not the kind of music I usually listen to but the trailer had it stuck in my head forever.
Now then, it’s been a couple months since I mentioned looking forward to playing Borderlands, so I thought I should post a follow-up. I played the game pretty intensely for a while, running through two playthroughs on my first character, a Siren, once as a Soldier, and a little as the other two classes. Most of my gameplay was single player but I got in quite a few multiplayer sessions with a couple of my friends that were a blast.
From skag hunting to fighting off the denizens of the Eridian Promontory, the game as a whole was extremely fun. It wasn’t without its issues but unfortunately that seems to be standard for PC games nowadays. Regardless of some of the minor issues, I got more than my money’s worth on Pandora.
Anticipation: Borderlands
Due in no small part to the obsession of Ravious, our resident representative of Spugnation, I’ve started getting excited for the upcoming release of Borderlands on the PC next week. ย The group of friends with whom I play online games typically enjoy both RPG and FPS style games, so this seems like it should be right up our alley.
Borderlands has been described as a FPS version of Diablo II, which is a fairly accurate description. ย You are given a choice of one of four classes, each of which has three skill trees which you can choose from to customize your character to your liking. ย Loot seems to be a big part of the game, and the constant variety keeps you engaged by ensuring there’s always the possibility of something better than what you have dropping from the next enemy.
S.T.A.L.K.E.R. follow-up
I wouldn’t even pretend that I follow video games as close as I used to. ย I knew about Clear Sky, the prequel to Shadow of Chernobyl, but I only recently became aware of the development of Call of Pripyat, the latest sequel currently due out this fall.
Looks like Clear Sky is going to move up my to-play list.
S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl
Scavenger, Trespasser, Adventurer, Loner, Killer, Explorer, Robber
I while back I finished playing through S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl. I picked the game up when it was on sale on Steam and have thoroughly enjoyed it.
S.T.A.L.K.E.R. takes place in “The Zone,” the area surrounding the Chernobyl nuclear power plant where a second nuclear disaster lead to the appearance of physics-defying anomalies and the artifacts they produce. ย You play as an amnesic Stalker plying your trade (artifact retrieval) while trying to piece together your past. Along the way you’ll have to contend with ย anomalies, radiation, hunger, military forces trying to lock down the Zone, bandits, and mutated… things.
Game Scribe
A couple of friends of mine have started a blog called Game Scribe which chronicles their exeriences is (primarily) online gaming. ย In the past they focused on Lord of the Rings Online and Team Fortress 2, but with the imminent release of Warhammer Online that game will be getting more and more attention in the near future.
I haven’t really kept up with the video game hobby in a while so when I was asked to contribute I had to think a while before I came up with something I could actually write about. ย In the end I wound up agreeing to write an intermittent series on some of the older PC games that I’ve played as a sort of “blast from the past,” starting with Deus Ex.
With the launch of the Iron Agenda keeping up with Game Scribe posts (let alone here) is going to be a challenge for me, but Moondog and Ravious certainly maintain regular updates. ย If you’re interested in following a few gamers’ romp through their virtual playgrounds be sure to check out their site!
The Unforeseen Consequences of Rock
Well, since Luke and Chad have both already mentioned something about it (granted Luke’s was a previous jam session) I guess I should go ahead and throw down as well. Last night was the world debut of Unforeseen Consequences, who rocked out in Stockholm before touring around Europe for a few hours. Baby-faced front man Mic Stabbington provided the ear-splitting vocals. Saultydog laid down the rhythm and Fuente provided the bass grove while Nathan Implosio (damn you character limits!) kept time with his furious drumming of fury.
Unfortunately the tour was cut short before it reached international fame when Mic’s blaring rendition of Sabotage kept his wife from going to sleep upstairs.
WHHHHHHYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY!!!!!!! *cough* *wheeze*