Whenever I hear about rampant killings or massacres that occur within American schools (I don’t wish to say that it’s a common thing for America) it sickens me. Better yet, it fries my brain thinking as to why would someone wish to do such a thing. How can an individual amplify such hate that would cause them to just want to mercilessly wish to go about killing innocent people who didn’t even hold responsibility for the aggravation or abuse that the individual may have received.

Philosophy set aside, I want to bring the real topic starter to the table.

I think it’s fair to say that out of all school shootings in America, Columbines was probably the most renown (respectively speaking - each that occurred were dreadfully horrific and my deepest sympathy goes to the losses). Mainly because of the amateur game developer that created the 2D pixelated game based upon it. Less creatively, the name of the game was “ColumbineRPG” and definitely shook the press cage and victim’s parents.

My initial reaction was probably one of more expected kinds in that I was pretty shocked. Before I hit the website after hearing about it, i’ll be frank.. I barely knew much about the Columbine shootings other than the simplistic fact that it occurred in the first place. So before making an aggressive rant on it’s own forums, I checked out the details.. did my fair amount of research from top source locations like Wikipedia and Google.

I even watched American TV interviews of the guy that created it in the first place (Daniel Ledonne), just to see what gave him the urge to even tamper or create a piece of media over such a horrific killing. So it turns out, he’s not the kind of “sicko” stereotype that you’d expect to create such a thing (I suppose first reactions are to blame for that) but instead a controversial (<- personal input there) rookie movie maker.

Published and justified by Daniel, he says the game was intended to make people accept games as a new medium for the media. In basic terms, instead of understanding things we read in the news by reading books or watching films.. he’d rather we play games instead.

Now here’s the thing, because i’d seriously hate for people to think that I believe Games are bad or “works of the devil” (which was actually what one of the victim’s parent’s said about the game) but, I sincerely doubt that Games or Gaming itself is an appropriate alternative for how we view things in the media.

Acknowledging, or understanding ones tragedies is one thing we as humans can maintain on a civil level but to simulate another’s nightmare blows things wide open.

I think the concept of games or gaming itself has been stretched further than role playing fictional super hero characters but instead taking control of things we hear in the news in an alternate reality. Especially on this basis, because so it appears Ledonne’s game apparently had a “more definitive meaning” behind it. For example, the two elder teenagers that carried out the killings were apparently influenced by games themselves such as “Doom” (you can already tell how dated this horrendous event is), Danny Ledonne was trying to demonstrate that violence of any kind has no psychological relation to gaming. It’d twist the topic completely if I said what I thought, but even if he could be right how does a small 2D game justify that situation whatsoever?

Personally, If Daniel Ledonne acclaims himself to be a film maker (even of a low skill or with lack of talent), then I feel that he is only causing controversy so he has something to make his latest film over (no lie, I have the newsletter e-mails from his site).

I feel he has a raised a very diverse topic in terms of the development of media in that maybe a game can be ported or reformed from what it is into a movie, but the mixture of reality and a game itself is out of the question.

Fundamentally, I get the vibe that Danny never really had the intention of creating a game for a more than it just being a game based on the Columbine massacre. And it’s only been up until now that he has noticed that the game has caused an issue and is purely trying to find a route out of his new found bad name.

He’s fighting a cause which isn’t necessary because the style and concept of gaming will always been the same, whether it be fictional role playing or competitive.

I think you can create and originate new ideas to apply to gameplay but I don’t think you can simply morph issues from the world that we live in, into one which has been purposely made for the sake of enjoyment especially when it’s on the terms of the Columbine Massacre.

If you did read fully through all of this article, then I would like to thank you and hope to see your comments soon!

Hot links related to the article:
http://www.columbinegame.com/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Super_Columbine_Massacre_RPG!
http://kotaku.com/gaming/top/exclusive-columbine-game-kicked-from-competition-226272.php

-Love Duckie

So Gears of War is finally on PC. It may have taken a while for a game Xbox 360 owners have enjoyed for ages now, but was the extra content and upgraded graphics worth the wait?

Well to put it bluntly, no. The game is marred with technical problems, check out the official forums if you want to see what I mean. Rather than go on about the problems this game has I’d like to take this time to say a little about one of my biggest gripes in the gaming industry; lazy ports. We’ve all seen our share of them, and there’s simply no excuse for them. Halo 2 for PC requires Vista to even run, and it features one of the worst menu interfaces I have ever seen. Having to click on an image of the “B” button on an Xbox 360 controller to go back out of a menu is completely moronic. I like the standardisation Microsoft is trying to accomplish by using the 360 controller for games on the PC but this is ridiculous. It’s not just Microsoft that does this as well, as evidenced by the delay of Ubisofts Assassin’s Creed for PC until January 2008.

I guess I’m still pissed about Deus Ex: Invisible War, the sequel to the (in my opinion) best game of all time. This game wasn’t a lazy port, it had simply been designed from the ground up for playing on the Xbox, and as such featured a simple interface, simpler gameplay and a completely dumbed down character development system. Deus Ex: Invisible War was almost a complete mockery of the first game, which still holds up today in every aspect apart from the graphics. When are game developers going to realise console gamers don’t need their games dumbed down? Sure they may require some aiming assistance to score headshots, but other than that they share the core skills that PC gamers share. There should be no need for simplifying games across different platforms, they all share the same pool of gamers, gamers who love to play intelligent, well designed pieces of art that hit them across the emotional spectrum. I suggest standing against this laziness by casting your vote; simply don’t buy games which are badly ported; Gears of War for the PC may be the latest lazy port, but I’m sure it’s not the last. Make that stop by not giving these developers your money.

-KillaCon

My oh my. I’ve been sitting here for two days now thinking of something to write about Call of Duty 4, do I do a review? A good ‘ol moan? Well, I’m going to do a bit of both, so be ready.

The first thing that really jumps out and takes you by the throat is that this is a Call of Duty game. Well no dur, I hear you say, but this is one of the most important aspects! I went into the single player with a certain amount of fear and trepidation that this wasn’t going to ‘feel’ right. I wanted the lovable characters, hordes of enemies and soiled toilets that I’ve came to expect from the CoD series. Guess what? I wasn’t disappointed. From the get go this is CoD at its very finest, your thrust face first into the action, you run to some cover, pop a few shots off and see your men mercilessly gunned down. Bliss.

But. And a big but. This lack of real change, while a blessing in most parts, is the games biggest, and buggiest, flaw. Let me take you back to CoD 2, there was what, 4, maybe 5, enemy models? I could live with that, they all wore uniforms and it would make sense that they would look similar. But rag tag Russians all looking the same? I don’t think so. There are maybe 3 or 4 enemy models for each of the enemy teams and these don’t differ all that much. There’s a guy with his face covered, on both sides, a guy with a beret and sometimes a guy with a helmet, again, on both sides. Though this may sound picky, it really starts to annoy towards the later parts of the game where everyone looks the bloody same!

Anyone remember those checkpoints in CoD2 where you’d die as you got it? Having to start the entire level again, especially on Veteran, was a pain in every gamer’s ass. Well it’s back and I simply cannot understand why. No other game I have ever played has this problem, only CoD. Admittedly it doesn’t happen as often as in previous games, but it happened to me on two separate occasions, once near the start of the game and once right at the end. Both times I had to start the whole level again, both times I punched the wall. I’ll be demanding an explanation from IW and I’ll make sure to let you guys know the root of this evil.

Last and no means least of the flaws is probably the most annoying one. Constantly respawning enemies. If you see a house, run in it. Count the amount of bad guys in there and then load to the previous checkpoint. This time, sit outside and shoot the bastards as they come to windows, how many in the house? In the name of a fair review, I tried this and counted 36 bad guys in a building that only had 6 in. I know this is necessary on the easier difficulties to make the gameplay a bit more substantial, but on Hardcore or Veteran, it’s just plain irritating. Some parts of the game require you to advance on a house from bloody miles away and having a constant stream of enemies running at you makes things no end of hard.

I bet you think I’m going to list all the things that make this great now don’t you? Well I’m not, that’s not how I believe reviews should be done. It’s a trend that made me stop buying gaming magazines, they either completely hate, or love, a game and there seems to be no middle ground. While I may seem a little hypocritical here, I’m not saying I hate the game, I love it, but not to the extent that I let it cloud my vision to the point of being a moron. I will tell you the good points of the game, but not in the intensity and depth of the flaws.

First and foremost, the graphics/looks/whatever you want to call it. In my opinion, without the amazing visuals, this game wouldn’t be half as good as it is. It’s the subtle things that make all the difference, such as dust swirling around as a helicopter lands or vegetation flattening underfoot. While tanks exploding, helicopters crashing and buildings being reduced to rubble are breathtaking, they are expected in a war game and we see them without batting an eyelid. But take a moment and look at the way you, and everything else, interacts with the environment. Bullets rip the place apart, bricks crumble, glass smashes and by the end of the fight, that house you were using for cover has been reduced to a ruin, the entire thing shot to pieces. I want to go deeper into this but sadly; it’s one of those things where you have to see it to believe it.

Now then, let’s get into the gameplay shall we? There’s one word to use here methinks, non-stop (or is that two words?). The start is a little slow, with a dull training mission and a ridiculously easy opening level, but once the first level of Act 1 begins, you’re thrown into the thick of it. Within 5 minutes, you’ll have stealth killed some guys, sniped some guys and got into your first meaty firefight. From then on, there’s barely a second where you’re allowed to breathe. It’s awesome is all I can, and need to say really.

Before I end this review, I’ll take a few lines to explain the multiplayer, which happens to be a very different beast than the single player. First of all, this isn’t for the fain hearted, if you want to be good, the hours are going to slip away. You start with a few basic guns and perks, but by playing more and more and racking up the points, you can unlock a massive variety of guns, each with their own unique strengths and weaknesses and tons of perks, most of which are fairly pointless, but there are a few hidden gems in there. Again though, without actually sitting down and playing it, it’s hard to describe.

And here it is, my first of many reviews here at Frontier Gaming, hoped you enjoyed it.

I know many of the PP forum viewers most probably have already seen the post relating to this, but it just had to be posted so other people can see how truly EPIC this really is.

I don’t have the name of the guy, but lets call him Bob.

Bob is selling his entire game collection dating back from 30 years ago on eBay starting bids at around about $9K. His game collection includes rare copies of games, rare manuals, peripherals, controllers.. you name it this guy just has to have it.

Links:

PurePwnage Forum Thread: Link

Kotaku Article: Link

The eBay auction: Link

Inferno here, I’d like to take a minute to talk about TF2 because this is quite simply the best class based shooter I have EVER played. When I first approached TF2 (hurrah for betas!) I looked upon it just like any other class based shooter, in the sense that I’d end up only enjoying 2 or 3 classes whilst the playtime of the others slowly declined before vanishing off the face of the earth entirely.
I started up a game as the glorious pyro and proceeded to get blown/sniped/beaten/horribly-mauled-in-countless-ways to pieces. Now in any normal game, this would annoy me. A lot. Not with TF2. I realised that no matter what was happening, I was always having fun. Even after being stabbed in the back for the 50th time by spies (since no one actually understood them by this point) I was still enjoying it more than I had been with any other game for a long time. Everything in the game has just been shined to such a level of perfection that it’s just bliss. Moving on to the other classes I found it the same. I love them all. there isn’t a single class in TF2 that I don’t enjoy so be sure to try them all out!

One thing you may not notice at first is the voice acting. Take the time to do so. TF2 has far better voice acting than most games out at the time (for which you can probably thank valve’s previous experience from HL2). Not only are the actors good but the lines in the game are absolutely brilliant, from the heavy roaring out “dakka dakka dakka” in a song to the infamous scout’s “why don’t ya come over here and say that to my face tough guy? BONK!”, every line fits the character’s attitude and the game’s feel perfectly. TF2 is a game worth going through every chat command purely to hear what the character will call out next. Even the little lines that you aren’t in control of are brilliant, after all, who wouldn’t want their character to shout “Eat it fatty!” when you kill a heavy with a bat or “is… is anyone even paying attention to me?” when you drop off the intel.

Now a lot of people have been complaining about TF2 not being as good as TF ecause of the removal of nades and bunyhopping. In fact, a lot of people are just saying it’s a dumbed down TF. When you play TF2, treat it as a new game. Don’t compare it to TF, TF2 is a whole different creature and a glorious one at that.

OK I’m going to stop myself from writing now because if I don’t do it soon I just WON’T stop.

If you haven’t already bought TF2 you’re a madman and should go and do it now. I mean right now. Go on, off with you, hell, just buy the orange box, it’s awesome value and you get two other amazing games to boot.

-Inferno out

Well, for those of you who do not know, Tim Schafer, is currently working on a new game called Brutal Legend. While this is not new information, I am extremely excited about it. The fact is, we as gamers don’t get to experience games that actually make us laugh on purpose that often. Or games that are even artistically innovative. Not that I am saying this game will blow every other game out of the water, but speculating from Tim Schafer’s other titles (including Grim Fandango and Psychonauts among others), this is sure to be an interesting title.

A little bit about the game (if you have read this far, I know reading’s no fun but stick with me). Well, the main character is a roadie known as Eddie Riggs, who will be voiced by none other than Jack Black (Master Exploder!). Eddie happens to be wearing a belt, which has a cursed buckle. Eddie is injured and some of his blood is caught in the mouth of the belt buckle. The buckle then comes alive and takes Eddie back in time to a world where demons rule. The things in the world that Eddie has been thrown into is nothing of the norm, it is the world of Rock and Roll legends. Great metal titans once ruled, however, they were so amazing that they ascended beyond Earth. So everything left behind is something related to Metal. Kinda confusing eh?

Well if you really want a better picture (and I mean 10 pages worth) please check out this months issue of Game Informer magazine.

Okay, so that wasn’t so bad was it? First blog post from me, and I think it turned out pretty awesome.

Keep up the Pwnage.

- Assimilator

The latest PP Episode is out this saturday! Just a small reminder for all of you who didn’t or couldn’t turn up at the Melbourne, Australia or Canada screenings.

Personally I can’t wait, so many dead ends that need tieing up.

PS: All applaud for KillaCon’s killa post

So the most anticipated PC game of the year is almost upon us. To say I’ve been feverishly anticipating this game would be an understatement, and with the recent release of the single player demo a little review of the demo seems in order.

The demo begins with a fairly slick opening cinematic showing off the different powers your nanosuit grants you. This futuristic military armour grants you enhanced strength and speed, cloaking and damage absorption, and although it seems difficult at first to quickly switch between suit modes, by the end of the demo you’ll be nimbly switching between the four modes in the middle of a firefight. After that there’s another opening cinematic where you and the rest of your team all kit up and drop out of an aircraft. However, old friend plot device strikes you on the way down so you crash land separated from the rest of your ethnically diverse team, and it’s your job to meet up with them again. So far, the plot seems very paint-by-numbers; nothing jumps out at you that tells you this is going to be the next Shakespeare. But that’s okay in this instance, as you’ll soon discover when you take over and can freely move about; this game isn’t about the story, it’s about the gameplay. The first thing you’re likely to notice (assuming you have a nice PC) is that the game looks utterly fantastic. The second thing you’ll probably notice is that you can pick up a turtle which is happily lazing around on the beach. I repeat; YOU CAN PICK UP A TURTLE AND THROW IT AROUND. If this isn’t enough to make you rush down to your latest game store and preorder Crysis then I’m not sure this game will be you.

In fact it seems you can pick up almost everything in this game. Shoot the hat off an enemy and you can pick it up; catch one of the little birds running around and you can use it as a weapon or just to satisfy your sadistic needs. The physics in this game are absolutely incredible; Half-Life 2 Episode Two may have wowed us with its Striders demolishing complete houses, but that was all scripted. Demolition of houses in Crysis is completely physics-based; Grab a Korean by the throat and throw him into the side of a wall and it will collapse the wall, taking the rest of the building with it. Take out the supports of a small shanty building and watch as the rest gives way. This all looks and feels absolutely incredible and real. But it’s not all good; while the graphics and physics are phenomenal you will need a monster rig to get the best out of this game, and there’s lots of little bugs and things missing that need to fixed before the finished version hits the shelves. The gun and weapon sounds really need to be tuned up as well; weapons generally don’t sound very powerful, and someone tell me why an enemy can bring down a highly trained high-tech soldier with just one whip of his rifle?

Still, these are minor things that I’m sure will be fixed by the time the actual game is released. The single player is going to be amazing, but don’t write off the multiplayer; I’ve played a lot of it in the beta so far and it’s an absolutely unique experience; I can’t say anything else without giving away too much but multiplayer is going to have a lot of people hooked for ages, the unique mode Power Struggle is so good it simply cannot be missed. Mark November 16^th on your calendars; Crysis is coming.

Check out some amazing videos of Crysis in action:

http://www.gametrailers.com/game/2509.html

 - KillaCon

If you set the Splinter Cell series during the 1100’s, took out the crappy crosshairs, got rid of the nasty silenced weapons (that really did no damage unless you popped a headshot), made it less boringly slow paced, got rid of the ability to toss corpses about & lost the CPU whoring graphics *massive deep breath* you probably would get pretty close to Assassin’s Creed.
Quite frankily after checking out the pre-release vids on GameSpot & FilePlanet it definitely did make a bit of a party in my pants (metaphorically of course). They call it “next-gen gaming” with the greater freedom of being able to run around maps or terrains without being limited to the functionality of “entities” or “objects”, conclusively allowing you to creatively use the level to your own desired extent. I think it’s reasonable to say that the long awaited Crysis goes along the same lines of gameplay in terms of “nothing scripted - it’s all physics baby.”

So it’d be completely unfair to make a comparison between AC and Splinter Cell but you can see what I’m getting at. In far more simplistic terms, in AC, pick a tower and you most likely will be able to climb it like spider-man.

Its new freedom of gameplay is probably so good that you could take a freefall off a 100 ft building, finish reading every Lord of the Rings novel written, take a nap, then eventually slash your targets head off, dance to the Village People, whilst softly landing in hay stack.

(Complete exaggeration but the free fall into a hay stack really wasn’t…)

In summary, if you wanted to ask me what I thought of the game, then my reaction would purely be GET IT.

Although I originally thought that this was going to be a more updated cheap rip of the old game “Thief” I was pleasantly stunned by it’s new approach to gameplay. In fact, the main character’s movement animations are probably so elegant that it would want to make me do Parkour on every house in my village.

PS: There is really more to it than silly free falls and ninja manouvres, so check out the links

FilePlanet vids search: http://www.fileplanet.com/search.aspx?searchtype=2&q=Assassin%27s+Creed

GameSpot page: http://uk.gamespot.com/pc/action/assassinscreed/index.html?tag=result;title;2

After a few talks with the chaps on the PP forums, it seems like things are finally coming to life :)  everyone seems to love the new header and I do too!

Check back for all the nice new spanking posts!