I’ll just cut to the chase; this game is straight up bonkers. You get a grappling hook attached to your arm that you can use to do such things as hoist yourself onto a helicopter (and then kill the pilot and take it for yourself), attach an enemy to a gas cylinder (and then shoot it and watch him fly away), or even launch yourself off of a tall structure (and then deploy your ever present parachute so you can glide around the environment). You can hijack every vehicle in the game’s world and use them in some amazing looking stunts, or use them as battering rams.

Not a whole lot you do in the game makes technical sense. Almost everything in the game is so damn far beyond reality. It’s like someone saw Grand Theft Auto and said, “Yeah, let’s remove all the stuff between the parts where you blow shit up, and make it look better, play faster, and make it even more dynamic”, and if you then think for a second that by taking out such things as “plot” or “dialogue” would make it a bad game, then you sir or madam, do not understand what games are all about. Just Cause 2 is a game that makes you remember why you play games in the first place. It is just pure fun for fun’s sake.

The demo is timed, so once you start playing, the clock is ticking for how long you get to play. I was so hooked in the time I was given though that I will, without a doubt, be buying it. You can try it on the PS3, Xbox 360, or the PC. But remember, if you want to try it on the PC, you better have Windows Vista or 7. Learn from my mistakes.

Check out this video for a bit more insight into what I’m talking about.

So Sunday morning, as the wife took my son with her to the store and my daughter was enamored with playing on her mother’s laptop, I began installing Windows XP again. Say whaaaaa? Yes, I had to reinstall XP because at the time, I was using a 32 bit version of it, and it turns out that the only way to upgrade to the 64 bit version of Windows 7 was to already have XP 64 or Vista 64 on your system. So I dug up a disk I had of XP 64, and got cracking. After all was said and done, Windows went for the final reboot before loading the OS, and on the rebound it blue screened and immediately reboot itself again. Double-you Tee Eff? It did it again a few more times as I sat there stunned. Okay, maybe something was screwy with the install. So I did it again. It went down the last stretch to the operating system load screen and BOOM, blue screen and another immediate reboot. I was seriously at a loss. Not only because there was something obviously wrong with my install disk, but because the only 3.5” floppy I owned, the one that used to have the 32 bit drivers that Windows needed for my SATA RAID array, had been written over with the 64 bit drivers. I was boned. I had no way of replacing the files because mine was the only PC in the house that had a floppy.

Then my wife, and her huge brain, said, “Why don’t you go to your parents and use theirs?” I really didn’t feel like driving across town for 1M of info. But it was the only choice I had. So I drove over, used their PC to get the right drivers so I could get back up and running at least on XP, and explained my sob story to them. Then my mother asked if a full version would fix the problem. I said, “Probably”, and she suggested that it could be an early birthday gift if I so desired. Sold!

We ran out and got a copy, and within the hour of me getting home, I was up and running with the 64 bit version of Windows 7. No muss, no fuss, and was probably the nicest experience I had ever had installing an OS. It was damn near as easy as installing any game. You click a few times, type in the CD Key, let it run, it reboots, asks you a few more questions, reboots again, and that’s it; You’re in Windows 7. *fist pump*

And yes, I did end up getting to play the Just Cause 2 demo, but, as I’ve already typed more than intended, I’ll save my thoughts on it for my next post. You’ll have to wait.

Now then, putting those obviously important and logical things aside, Allods has me more scared than Mr Atkinson’s fear of angry gamers (FIGHT THE POWER! R18+ RATINGS FOR ALL)!  For example, the Summoner class, my current class of choice, is supposedly going to have all of its healing reduced by 30%, along with the removal of our mana regeneration ability, and a 1 minute cooldown added onto our most important heal over time spell.  That is a significant change and will dramatically change the layout of the class.  I’d imagine it will be very tough for Summoners to be invited to groups to heal or even offheal, and since other classes can easily out DPS us, we are only left with a few tricks up our sleeves.  Also, considering our pet can’t tank a paper bag past level 10, keeping ourselves alive with heals will be more challenging, not to mention now mana consuming.

That said, despite the looming possibility of gloom and doom, we’ve all seen these sorts of changes before.  Most of them don’t tend to make it past the patch notes, largely due to public outcry.  So it seems a little early to jump the gun and say “The End is Nigh” right?  The problem with Allods however is that the community and U.S. developers don’t seem to have much say in changes affecting the game, much like NCSoft West with Aion.  So now comes the real question, are these changes warranted, or are my nervous feelings an omen of horrors to come?  I’ve dealt with this sort of dilemma before in Warhammer Online with the Magus AoE Nerfs, and we all know how that ended.

Update: Looks like things were worse than I imagined in Russia, check out Keen and Graev’s Gaming Blog for more info.

Use the built in player here, subscribe in iTunes, or download the episode here.

We welcome back Brad Wardell, CEO of Stardock, for his second time on Multiplaying for episode #26. Jason and Steve talk with Brad about Stardock’s upcoming game, Elemental. It’s a fantastic interview and we really appreciate Brad being on the show as it’s always a fun time talking to him.

But that’s not all! Act now and you also hear us talk about the following:

• Elemental
• Heavy Rain
• Warhammer Online
• Starcraft
• Dirt
• Global Agenda

Hosts: Jason, Shannon and Steve

Special Guest: Brad Wardell, CEO of Stardock

Music : The Triptones : www.thetriptones.com

Contact Info : Questions, comments, feedback, errors, voice messages in mp3 or wav format, etc. can be sent to multiplaying@gmail.com. We invite you to write a review on iTunes and visit our website at http://www.multiplaying.net. We’re a part of the Dead Workers Party Network. Find great podcasts at http://deadworkers.com/network/

Bioware has created a fully-developed world in Mass Effect. Several of us have even commented that they wish that Bioware was making a Mass Effect MMO instead of Star Wars. Drew Karpyshyn, who wrote Knights of The Old Republic and both Mass Effect games, has written a few novels set in the ME universe.

The first novel, Revelation, is a prequel to Shephard’s sexual exploits in the first game. It primarily centers around Keith David (Or Captain Anderson, if you want to pretend that he isn’t Keith David), and his investigation into an explosion on a remote planet. Anderson and others find out that this isn’t just an isolated incident, and we get to planet hop with the characters. We see Anderson as a young Alliance soldier, who appears to have a bright future ahead of him. The other main character we get is Saren. During this time, he is a dedicated Spectre. While he hasn’t gone as bat shit insane as he is in Mass Effect, we see that he will do whatever it takes to get the job done. If this dude was playing the actual video game, he would be full Renegade. We learn a little more about what drives him, and I remembered how much I liked him as a character in the first game.

The story moves along reasonably well, with only a few spots that seemed to drag. We get good looks at different species from the universe, with a Krogan bounty hunter being the main stand-out. Saren and Anderson end up having to work together, which was briefly recounted by Anderson in Mass Effect. These two characters are very opposite, so it is fun to see their interactions and how differently they deal with situations. The end of the book sets up the first game, and it helped with my understanding of how the events in the game came about.

I really enjoyed my time with the book. So much so, that I went ahead and ordered the next book which is set between Mass Effect 1 and 2. Karpyshyn has also penned some Star War books, such as the Darth Bane books which are set in The Old Republic timeline. I also recommend those if you are preparing for The Old Republic.

Honestly, lots of gamers complain about various bits of every title that hits the market, but in reality, most full priced or even “discount” games these days are not really horrible. Our standards have just changed. We didn’t know what our standards were when people were making games like Street Fighter 2010 or Friday the 13th(again: language!). Over time, as truly fantastic games are released, our perceptions of what is good changes. Developers learn, for the most part, and can make games according to the market. But this is not to say that shitty games don’t still get released. Like hookers who know where the business is, people who can only make crummy games sell them to the appropriate clientele, otherwise known as children, and iPhone users.

No, I’m not saying that every iPhone user and every kid out there is too daft to see through the bologna (pronounced BO LOG NAH). But with these groups you have a larger number of people who have either never really experienced games and have more income to spend on cheaply made apps, or young gamers who are now getting their mixed bag of mediocre and ultra craptastic games before achieving man/womanhood and graduating onto better gaming.

My big question when I started writing this was simply “why do these shitty games exist?”

I guess the simple answer is probably just that these small developers are out to make a quick buck, so they feed off the consumers who are easily swayed by the pretty packaging and the “idea” that the game is selling. But I also wonder if there are developers who make super crummy games who really think that what they are making is fantastic. Do you think that there is anything genuinely good about developers who are gaming’s equivalent to Uncle Winslow?

Uncle Winslow….?

You know him. The relative who grew up under his parents basement stairs? He scours the internet all day looking for ways to scam people?

He can’t hang out near schools…

Yeah, you know who I’m talking about.

Oh yes gentle reader, you are on the cusp of a post regarding Warhammer Online! Long time since I’ve written anything about the game. In fact, I think the last thing I wrote was about large members of its community walking away from the game, and how it needed to be a turning point for Mythic. Well, from an outsider’s perspective, I think it may have been just that. Not a sharp one eighty like you can do in a Mini, but more like a slow U-turn in a large Cadillac. Maybe hitting the curb on the way, but bouncing back to some degree. It’s become apparent that numerous people are going back to WAR, or have been playing and are showing their support in what seems to be almost a community revival. People like Shadow War and Werit, having never really left the game, have been keeping tabs on all the new blogs. I suggest you go check their blogs out if you want to stay current.

So wait, what does any of that have to do with the title of this post? Nothing!

Okay, well it has to do with the fact that all this Warhammer talk from blogs, and even from people on our forums, has been getting me interested in checking the game out again. So I did. I made up an endless trial account last night and jumped on long enough to check out a touch of the new player experience and do one run of Nordenwatch. I soon realized that scenarios were absolutely, positively my second favorite thing about Warhammer. Maybe a longer post on that later. Maybe not. I have no idea. Who are you, and why are you wearing that? I mean, come on, seriously?

Anyways, I’m going to keep toying around with the endless trial thing. In the meantime, I want to know; what is your second favorite thing about Warhammer Online?

I knew I was F****d when the zombie turned out to be a runner

I was never a big horror fan, so imagine my shock when I realized that I’d become somewhat of a zombie devotee. Or as we in the know call them, “zeds”. Better dead than zed is our motto. Anyhoo, it started when I went offline for a while and delved into table top miniatures. I had a hard time finding opponents, so I wound up adopting the Two Hour Wargames system which work well solo and co-op. One of their premier games is All Things Zombie, so I found myself owning a bunch of little plastic zeds, survivors, cars, buildings, and, of course, dice. The game is a lot of fun, and apparently a good gateway into the world of the shambling undead.

Next came Left 4 Dead. At first I just played through on single player campaign mode. It was a lot of fun, and had a lot of great scary moments, but since I thought I wasn’t into zeds, I put it down and didn’t play it again. We happened to have some open game nights at Multiplaying, and we played co-op L4D a few times. I was hooked. Playing that game co-op is a whole new experience. The tension is higher when you care about your fellow survivors.

Recently, the West Coasters have been doing a weekly “After Hours” play session (Tuesdays at 9 PST). We’ve been doing L4D campaigns and have been slowly getting better. The first week the server crashed as we loaded the climax. The second week, no one survived. Then we had two out of four survivors. And this week three people survived (but not me). Next week I’m out of town, so they’ll probably all survive.

But this article isn’t about L4D. [Ed. Really, you could have fooled me.] I’m writing about the new zombie lover in my life: Zombie, Run!

Zombie, Run! is a Droid (and perhaps other phone, but who the hell cares about them) app. It is put out by Zombie Research Labs, Inc. Basically, it turns your phone into a zombie tracking device. It uses GPS to track your location on the map. You then tell it where you are going, and it shows all the zeds in your path. You have to walk/run/sprint to your destination while avoiding being eaten by zeds. At first they just shamble around and don’t notice you. But if you get too close, the zeds on the screen turn from green to red and they beeline to you. During startup, you define how far along you are in the zombie apocalypse (outbreak, local infestation, pandemic, etc.) and what kind of zeds you are facing (Night of the Living Dead-slow, Resident Evil-medium, or 28 Days Later-fast). As you travel, zeds chase you and new zeds appear.

In my first game, I went for an early local infestation, because, you know, I can’t be a total newbie. I was wearing street, not running, clothes, so I decided to face Night of the Living Dead zeds. Once I had set the parameters, I headed out from a restaurant, where I had been looting for supplies, across Golden Gate park to my safehouse. The park is zed central, so I knew I’d be in for some fun. At first it was an easy walk. I zoomed the map in so that I could only see zeds as far as I could actually see. The phone vibrates each time a zed notices you, and before long, the thing was buzzing like a beehive. The zed agro range is greater than the zoom, so I got agroed by a bunch that I hadn’t noticed. One other thing to note: the zeds ignore terrain, so they can get to you through bushes, buildings, etc. I guess there was a lot of infrastructure damage during the initial outbreak.

Since I’m writing this, you know I survived, but it wasn’t easy. At a brisk pace, I could out walk the zeds, but there were a lot of them, and they didn’t have to stop for oncoming cars, stop lights, etc. And playing zoomed in meant that I turned corners and walked into group of them pretty regularly. To escape, I had to sprint here and there, and even wound up going off road a few times. But in the end, I made it home safe and sound. It was probably the most exciting walk in the park I’ve had.

I would love to go for an actual run using the game and taking on some faster zeds, but the Droid lacks a wrist strap, so I need to get something to hold it safe. I’d hate for it to slip out of my sweaty hands in the heat of the moment.

The best part, is that the game is free. Just some unobtrusive ads, so what’s stopping you? Start downloading and get bitten by the zombie bug! Oh wait, that didn’t come out right.

Be sure to go over to this post on his site and congratulate him!

or you can click here if the image doesn’t load for some reason…