Should you buy: Magic the Gathering: Online?

July 19, 2012 By 1 Comment

Are you big into play the Trading card game Magic the Gathering? Is making that awesome deck too expensive? Do you find yourself wanting to play a round of magic but no one is around? If you said yes to any of these questions then you might want to look into purchasing Magic The Gathering: Online.

Marshal (PowerCords Editor) was able to talk me into buying this game for $10 bucks and trying it out. At first I didn’t really enjoy playing the game because I couldn’t come up with a good deck idea to start me off with, but Marshal was quick to tell me about being able to buy/trade for cards at a cheap price. When he told me that, I pretty much fell in love with this game. I then took the opportunity to find my favorite magic deck that I had made in real life and see how much it would be to buy all the cards for it. The deck in real life cost me at least $50 bucks, but as I was picking out the virtual cards the total came to $10 bucks.

I made the deck and put it together after a little while of getting use to the menus. I was then ready to test out the deck. Marshal was the only one that had the game and he wasn’t on at the time so I opted to use the “Games” tab. There were a ton of people on making new games and joining others. So it was easy to find a game and test out my deck. Unfortunately I don’t think I won my first game because I played a red white agro deck that was too quick for me. That didn’t stop me I just went and jumped into a new game. Also I’m not that into it but if you are there is an option for tournaments and drafts you can get involved with.

The one thing that I would change about this game is the menu system. I’m not sure what it is about it but I found it hard to navigate and get used to. It was also a bit confusing trying to construct a deck in the deck maker they have. Even with having played magic for a few years now I still found it difficult to construct a brand new deck on here, my opinion is to go to a site such as tappedout.net to build a deck and then go buy the cards and play the deck on Magic Online.

Being able to buy cards really cheap and being able to play whenever you feel like it is so great. Like I said if you are into playing Magic the Gathering trading card game then you should give this game a go. Feel free to add me, Schieds, even though I am not on much at the time being because I am still enjoying Diablo 3.

I will be working on a deck list article in the next week or so, so all of you will have the pleasure of seeing my creation, and if you want to try it out or give suggestions.

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The Witcher 2: Enhanced Edition Review

May 31, 2012 By 4 Comments

How often in a role playing game do you actually feel the decisions you make affect the narrative in truly sweeping ways? More often than not, it seems like we’re selecting between two hallways that ultimately lead to the same room, the only difference between the two is that one is painted red and the other blue (when you play the muppet’s party cruise).

In CD Projekt RED’s The Witcher 2, the differences between those hallways would be one is painted red, and the other is a freeway.

The Witcher 2 is unlike many games in the RPG genre for many reasons. The game is set in a rather realistic world, where monsters are rare and truly monstrous, and where casting a powerful magic spell can leave even the most adept sorceress exhausted for days. You take the role of Geralt of Rivia, a Witcher. Witchers are genetically modified humans, able to ingest alchemical potions and utilize magic — things that would lead most normal humans to a gruesome death — and are tasked with hunting down dangerous creatures.

Geralt is suffering from the all-too-common RPG affliction, amnesia, something he’s had twice now over the series’ two games. Geralt is wrongly accused of killing a king for whom he was sworn to protect, after it is discovered the king was assassinated by a fellow witcher. Geralt is let free, under the sole provision he help hunt down the assassin and his cohorts, now known as the “Assassin of Kings.” The assassination couldn’t have come at a worse time — the the land is being torn apart by numerous warring kingdoms and rebel factions.

Each aspect of the game’s scenario comes into play in some form or another in the gameplay in ways that go beyond just plot devices.

For example: Geralt’s amnesia explains his need for a skill tree to expand his combat abilities. The skill tree works just as any other, with players unlocking new skills and bonuses after each level gained. These make a surprising difference in the difficulty of the game, as early on, some of the most basic enemies can kill you if you’re not careful. This does create a rather steep learning curve for the first couple hours of the game, but thankfully with the Enhanced Edition updates, many of the random shifts in difficulty — both harder and easier — have for the most part been eliminated. Still, by the middle of the game I was practically invincible in even the toughest fights.

Geralt’s ability to use potions and alchemy is also a strong point of the gameplay. Geralt is armed with a magic pendant that shows pickable plants and herb, as well as hidden items and secrets. By collecting ingrediants found in the wild, you can bring up a menu where Geralt can meditate, make potions, or take potions. Potions vary wildly in terms of stat bonuses and buffs, and give a much needed leg up in combat. They also come with a toxicity level — the more toxic a potion is, the higher your toxicity level rises. I was usually able to take between 2-4 potions before my toxicity was maxed. It’s both an interesting mechanic, and provide some realism to the RPG trope of potion taking.

You also have special magical abilities, called signs, which can aid you in combat in both offensive and defensive capacities, adding yet another layer onto the combat system. There is even a sign available for use in conversations, which acts as a sort of “Jedi mind trick,” persuading others to see things your way.

The conversations play out a lot like Mass effect or Dragon Age’s would, but without a dialogue wheel informing you of the “good” or “bad” options. In fact, every choice in the game has its own pros and cons, forcing you to listen to what others have to say and weigh your options, instead of simply clicking on the one that matches your alignment. There were many times I sat back in my seat and took several minutes to really think about the choices the game was giving me. They are all wonderfully complex shades of gray, never black and white or simple. While I certainly have my issues with overly-cinematic games and the illusion of control most RPGs give you, in The Witcher 2 I felt my decisions were not only hard to make, but were extremely important. When I went back to see how other options may have turned out, I found that I missed out on entire chunks of the game that other players saw, and vice-versa. It’s one of the few times a game has given you options with real consequences on the story’s path.

The Witcher 2 is beautiful.

The world the game takes place in is very gritty and realistic, bringing to mind George R.R. Martin’s A song of Ice and Fire series (a.k.a. Game of Thrones), with all its political intrigue, mature sexual themes, violence, and a setting that feels grounded and relatable. The landscapes look like real places, the people and clothing — even the Elves and Dwarves — look more medieval than fantastical. That realism is boosted by the game’s gorgeous graphics. Truly, it’s one of the most beautiful PC games to come out in several years. Even at the lowest settings, the game’s animations, lighting, and texture rival even the sharpest console titles. The high graphics fidelity only add to The Witcher 2‘s immersiveness. While not entirely open like Besthesda’s RPGs, the world is still massive and filled with things to discover and quests to undertake in each of the game’s 3 acts. I never felt at a loss of things to do, though some quests did randomly fail when I completed others, but with the number you’ll have active at any particular moment, it’s a non-issue.

The Witcher 2 is complex, beautiful, and deep. The story is mature, and despite the  largely cinematic presentation, provides the player with hard choices and real consequences; the combat is layered and dynamic, even if the difficulty is inconsistent. Overall, The Witcher 2 is a prime example of the RPG genre, the PC version is a strong reminder of the power PC games can hold. I very much recommend to any RPG fan, or gamers looking for something a little more mature and grounded, but nontheless fun to play.

Pros: Gorgeous graphics; deep gameplay and combat; the story and setting are much more mature and interesting than most fantasy RPGs; choices are important and never black and white.

Cons: Steep learning curve; inconsistent difficulty; requires powerful machine to run a higher graphical settings; some story elements are cliched or contrived.

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Diablo 3 review

May 23, 2012 By 4 Comments

Amidst all this Diablo news today, it might be worth something to actually review the game, wouldn’t it?

Let’s get the basics out of the way, in case you’re unfamiliar: Diablo 3 is an action-RPG made by Blizzard. The main point of Diablo 3′s gameplay is to continually fight hordes of demons to unlock new abilities, and most of all, discover new items and better gear — all in order to fight stronger monsters, who drop even better equipment. It’s an absurdly simple feedback loop so elegant and fun it becomes the very definition of addiction. But more on that later.

Diablo 3 is set in a hostile, dark fantasy world known as Sanctuary. The world is home to human kind, and some outlandish beast creatures, for the most part. However, in the dimensions of Heaven and Hell, Angels have been locked in an eternal battle with the Prime Evils — the greatest and most powerful demons of Hell. The greatest of these demons is Diablo, Lord of Terror who took the war to the world of humans after being summoned there by a dubious human clergyman. He was defeated in Diablo 2, along with several other Prime Evils, and now his brother Azmodan, Lord of Sin has begun his assualt on sanctuary to become the ruler of Hell and destroy the world…

Look, I’m going to level with you here. The world is gritty and dark, and it lends to some great art direction, but for the most part the lore is a bit goofy. This really comes to a head in the game’s exposition. It’s silly and campy and even though I enjoyed the story in a nutshell, it was simplistic and predictable, and the dialogue was laughable. The most iconic character of the Diablo series, Deackard Cain, has a far diminished role in this installment of the franchise as well. The story also builds as if there will be a massive, climactic ending, but in reality it’s a (gorgeously rendered) CG cutscene with narration over it (sounds a bit like another threequel’s ending…). I get the feeling Blizzard knew that 99.99% of players are in it for the gameplay, and even though Diablo 3 has a more cinematic feel, the story is easily glossed over once you’ve had your fill.

The setting does provide some positives, though. The areas and dungeons are dark and bleak, and even though they’re randomly generated, they feel seamless and organic. There are a few “static” areas, and a lot of the randomization is centered around events more so than layout in some places, but it still all looks phenominal, and the game’s soundtrack — while not quite as good as the previous games’ — fits the mood perfectly.

As I said before, the setting is bleak and the art direction certainly show it. Enemies loose limbs and splatter pints of blood, and even explode their guts everywhere; you descend dark abyssal pits and Gothic architecture; beastly demons mob you, many of which sport gruesome forms and outlandish weapons that look very,very painful. My only complaint here is the world is a bit too well-lit. Diablo 3 no longer uses the light radius mechanic of the past games in the series, instead having light come from candles, lamp posts, fires, and even the sun. But instead of dark shadows, the world is mostly always visible, save for a few areas and dungeons. Still, overall the game looks amazing, and what the setting lacks in story, it makes up for it visually.

Graphically, Diablo 3 is great. It looks fantastic, even at lower settings, the particle effects are dazzling, and the colors and lighting give everything an eerie atmoshphere. The animations are fluid and the physics engine makes breaking down walls and swing an axe at monsters visually gratifying.

But how does swinging that axe actually feel? Damn-near perfect.

Backing up a bit, Diablo 3 features 5 playable classes: Barbarian, Wizard, Witch Doctor, Demon Hunter, and Monk. Each have their own sets of abilities, and each can fill numerous rolls within a group. Each class also has their own resource the build during combat which is then used to unleash powerful attacks and skills.

The Barbarian builds Fury while in combat, and focuses on dealing massive amounts of damage, as well as boosting stats; The Wizard uses mana, which regenerates over time, and is used to perform spells that can damage enemies and cause status ailments; The Witchdoctor uses Mojo to summon beasts and deliver poisons; The Demon Hunter builds both Hatred and Discipline, which are used for offenseive and defensive abilities respectively; and the Monk build Spirit through lightning-fast attacks which damage enemies, and heal others.

Unlike the previous Diablo games, in Diablo 3 you do not gain skill points or utilize skills trees. As you progress with your character, you’ll unlock new skills, and further down the line you unlock runes. Runes offer bonuses and tweaks to different skills, such as increasing a spell’s duration, or boosting the damage dealt. Runes offer a deep level of customization, and because every skill and rune is open once you’ve unlocked it, there are numerous builds possible for each class. I found this change to be extremely beneficial, as I could swap out my skills on the fly, and if need be, completely change my play style just by changing a few abilities and items. It negates the need for rolling new characters to try out new builds, and makes character creation far less rigid.

Another change to character progression is the removal of stat points. Your class’ stats will increase on their own as you level up, so instead of min/maxing your character each level, you increase strength, vitality, dexterity, etc. through gear and gems you equip on your character. It goes hand in hand with the new skill system as a way to make class building and progression more open-ended and fun.

Using those skills is extremely fun, too. You use your left and right mouse buttons to perform attack skills, and numbers 1-4 act as your skills bar. You’ll use all those skills in combat, and figuring out new strategies is almost as exciting as the loot enemies drop. This works well, but you’ll be locked into using only certain skills per slot until you go into the options menu and select “elective mode” which allows for full hoykey customization. In fact, in order to see “advanced” tool tips like what percentage an ability boosts weapon damage, you must also enable advanced tooltips from the options menu. Similarly, detailed character stats are not readily available in the character menu, but in a separate tab. However, once these options are enabled, the issues are alleviated.

On top of abilities, health potions have also been changed. Potions are relegated to a single, dedication spot on your hotbar (defaults to Q) and now have a rather long cool down between uses, and mana potions are gone entirely (mostly because each class uses separate resources). This cooldown time is partially negated though health drops that drop from some enemies, and wells that dot each map. They dropped frequently enough, however there have been several times I’d desperately need to heal and my potion is cooling down, and no health drops were near by.

But even that hasn’t stopped my enjoyment of the game. The random loot the drops off each enemy has me feverishly clicking for more. And even though the always online connection has caused some hitches in player’s ability to access the game at times, the Battle.net features are a boon the the multiplayer. Even when playing alone, I still feel connected to my friends and fellow questers, and at any time can join their games or open up mine so others can join without a hitch. The in-game Auction House and robust crafting makes gold a needed resource, and gives each item the potential for profit, and making your private stash and gold universal between all characters is brilliant.

Diablo 3 may lack the deep story that some gamers have come to expect from their games, but as a person who prefers gameplay over story, Diablo 3 is a triumph – proving that in order to be successful, all it takes is a simple, albeit impeccably polished, gameplay design to draw players in and keep them playing. The dopamine-inducing promise of loot, experience, and harder enemies masks the intrinsic repetition of Diablo 3′s gameplay so well that it’s sure to be played for years to come.

Pros: Near-perfect gameplay; addicting loot system; ability and class building is dynamic and fun; the art direction is beautiful; excellent Battle.net features

Cons: Shallow, cliche story that doesn’t matter to the gameplay much; repetition may turn some off; some odd design choices; static areas can get boring; online issues makes single-player difficult

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Power Cords on Diablo 3′s record-breaking success.

May 23, 2012 By 1 Comment

Last week’s release of Diablo 3 was a milestone for PC gaming. Not only did it mark the series’ return after nearly 12 years, it also set the record for being the fastest selling PC game to-date, selling over 3.5 million copies in its first day, breaking Amazon’s pre-order record, and has now gone on to sell nearly 6.3 million within its first week. After factoring in online sales, there is a total of about 7.7 million people playing Diablo 3 (that’s nearly half of WoW’s subcriber base at its peak numbers).

And these numbers don’t even include Korean sales, where the game is reportedly the most played game in the country right now, with about 39 percent of the nation’s gamer population logging in daily. That’s a huge number.

We’re no Korea, but I can say Diablo 3′s certainly been one of the most played games by the Power Cords/Powercast team.

This is obviously a massive achievement for Blizzard. Not only do they have the most played MMO — strike that, most currently played PC game period – World of Warcraft, and the highly successful RTS Starcraft 2, but they now also have the fastest selling PC game ever and undoubtedly the most played action RPG with Diablo 3.

It’s clear Blizzard have talent and eye for quality games. In fact, with the sole exception of Valve, Blizzard is the one development studio pushing PC games forward, despite the fact a small, vocal minority seems to have taken offense to the game’s online features.

I’m very curious to see how the game will persist over time (considering Diablo 2 was played for almost 12 years), especially with the inclusion of the real-money auction house soon. It’s off to an incredibly strong start, so who knows just how many copies Diablo 3 will sell in its lifetime.

What are you thoughts on Diablo 3′s record-breaking sales? Are you one of the millions currently clicking away? Let us know in the comments, or email us at askpowercords@gmail.com

ps. If you’d like to play with me (Brendan) you can find me at EyeAmAhab#1247 on battle.net

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Final Thoughts on Mass Effect 3

April 24, 2012 By 4 Comments

WARNING: MASSIVE SPOILERS.

I know, I know. The topic of Mass Effect 3 — the ending specifically — has been beaten into the ground, debated and discussed, hashed out and argued. But let’s talk about it just one more time.

A few weeks ago, I talked about how I felt about the Mass Effect 3 ending in the greater context of story telling in video games. And how it kind of sucks. A couple of weeks later, myself and the rest of the team put our thoughts to rest in an episode of Powercast.

But here we are, nearly eight weeks since Mass Effect 3 was released, and discussions are still simmering in pockets all around the internet. Debates about indoctrination theories, explanations of plot holes, and speculation of the future abound. And ever since Bioware responded to the ending-hate with assurances of expanded ending DLC, the fanbase’s fervor has been reignited.

This is absolutely unprecedented in videogames. Never has a story enthralled players to the point of deeply discussing an ending weeks and months after the game’s release. I’m actually quite  impressed that our favorite entertainment medium has crafted a story which facilitates as much discussion as Lost or Inception. It’s a sign of the medium’s growth and maturation towards something much more rewarding and expressive.

"The work of one man (or woman) results in a shift that leads to change on a massive, galactic scale."

Now, when I offered my two cents on the ending, I said that while I had some big problems with it, overall I was fine. My big issue
stemmed from the lack of control and variety in the endings or how they play out. This opened up the floodgates for why I feel storytelling in videogames needs to change to better converge narrative with gameplay.

To be clear, I still strongly stand by this. In fact, in the time since that post, I’ve found myself seeking out games with more creative or gameplay-driven storylines. In my opinion, Mass Effect still falters in its execution, relying too much on cinematic practices and not enough on gameplay. But in my criticism of Mass Effect’s illusory decision-making, I overlooked something incredibly interesting: Bioware was playing into the constraints of the medium.

By playing into the illusion of choice, Bioware in fact used gaming’s greatest flaw in the Mass Effect 3′s favor. Instead of a cliche “you saved the world” ending, we got three wildly different end-scenarios. I say scenarios because all players saw practically the same cinematic, just different colors or prerendered clips inter-spliced. But all three possible outcomes (and every permutation within them) create wildly different outcomes for the future of the galaxy, Commander Shepard, and your crew. And before you bring up the plot holes or the random Normandy fate, consider this: your relationships with these characters came to a close throughout the entirety of Mass effect 3. The entire game is the ending, not just the last 20 minutes.

“More often than not, videogame endings don’t make us feel anything at all.”

And don’t forget, if indoctrination theory is right, none of this really matters after all.

For me, the “destruction” ending is the most plausible for my story, but that’s because I like the indoctrination theory. For others, synthesis may be ideal, and others still, control. There’s a choice there, and when you look at the ending from the point of view that “these people saved billions of years of life,” the fate of Commander Shepard and a few dozen crewmates ultimately becomes null in vastness of the universe.

And yet, extraordinarily powerful.

The work of one man (or woman) results in a shift that leads to change on a massive, galactic scale. NONE of us will ever cause such change. In that way, Commander Shepard makes quite possibly the most important decision ever posited to a videogame character: the cosmic fate of all organic life. While many have taken away the idea that the ending seems to say “nothing matters in the end,” I believe the opposite. Everything matters. Every choice creates a slightly different path which could lead to radically different outcomes for the three possible scenarios. We, as Shepard, are literally changing the face of the cosmos.

Carl Sagan would be proud.

Don’t get me wrong here: I wasn’t happy at the end, far from it in fact. I was sad. Whether or not Shepard lives or dies, there is massive, soul-crushing loss on such a large and unfathomable scale. But I like that the end didn’t make me happy. That doesn’t happen often in videogames. More often than not, videogame endings don’t make us feel anything at all.

"We, as Shepard, are literally changing the face of the cosmos."

Mass Effect 3 made us feel. We saw many of our favorite characters die, and watched as worlds were lost, and hope eroded. In spite all the positive change you bring to the galaxy, the loss of beloved characters is immediate and harsh. It’s not easy knowing that we can’t get a happy ending, but knowing the power our decisions wield in the face of such unfathomable odds is inspiring. And if it’s indoctrination theory, the door opens for innumerable possible outcomes each player could find for themselves. I love that idea. So much so in fact, I almost wish the expanded DLC wasn’t coming. I’ve decided my own ending, I don’t need Bioware to tell me how it all ends.

Sure, there are issues with the ending outside of just the choices and outcomes. And I don’t dig the reliance on cinematic tropes. But plot holes and space-magic aside, the ending of Mass Effect works. It makes sense thematically within the series and tone of the final game. Did I want a happier ending? I’m not sure. A part of me wants to say yes, but I know I wouldn’t be satisfied with that either. It’s an ending to a great story and series, nothing was going to be ideal. But no matter how dark it was, or how upset it made people, the ending sparked debates which have lasted weeks, and created an opportunity for personal interpretation usually reserved for literature and film, proof the stories in our medium are growing up. That’s an exciting and inspiring thought.

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Crysis 3! It’s coming!

April 16, 2012 By Leave a Comment

Last week I commented on the rumors that Crysis 3 was going to be unveiled, citing my hopes for a return to the jungle and sandbox gaming, as well as my excitement for seeing more for this series.

Well, it looks like those wishes were granted.

As you may have seen on numerous gaming news outlets, Crysis 3 has been officially revealed, along with new sceens and details on the game.

Crysis 3 will return players to the jungle of New York — not the concrete jungle, but the honest-to-goodness jungle. It seems as though Crysis 3 will be a mashup of both the urban and tropical settings from the previous games, creating a unique landscape to experience. According to the game’s website, New York has been encased in a “Nano Dome”, turning the city into a wilderness of grasslands, dense forests and canyons, and the subway system into a deep labyrinth of caves.

“You’ll need to plan for any situation in the wreckage of the city. With the dome overhead and alien technology on the loose there’s no telling what challenges you’ll face. So, you better be ready to use every situation and environment to your advantage, because you won’t get a second chance. It’s a jungle out there.”

This new setting will combine the sandbox gameplay and tropical setting of the first Crysis, with the intense urban set pieces from its sequel. Players will take the role of Prophet (which is surprising given the event of Crysis 2), and will be armed with a high-tech bow, as well as Nano Suit abilities, and plenty of other weapons.

On top of that, Crysis 3 will be powered by Crytek’s new Cry Engine 3, promising to continue the series’ tradition of pushing graphics fidelity further, and with less hardware requirements.

Personally, I am extremely excited for this game, and it’s been a while since I’ve said that about a first person shooter. In fact, between Crysis 3 and Far Cry 3, I’ve actually become interested in the FPS genre once again.

We’re sure to hear a lot more about the upcoming game between now and it’s tentative Spring 2013 release window, but for now, peek these awesome screen shots:

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Path of Exile Beta!

April 9, 2012 By Leave a Comment

So for the past month or so I have been putting a good chunk of time into Path of Exile. Path of exile is an action role playing game under development by Grinding Gear Games from New Zealand.  Path of Exile is currently in its Beta stage and handing out beta keys to random members every few minutes. They are hoping to be in open Beta soon and then looking to release the game. The game is going to be completely free which is great, it gives people no reason not to at least try it out.

The most interesting things about the game to me are the skill and stat systems they use. There are only 3 different stats; Strength, Intelligence and Dexterity. Each class uses a different combination of these stats and can go a different way in the Passive Skill Tree.

This is only part of the Passive Skill Tree

The way the skill system works is even more interesting. None of the classes have any skills. That sounds weird but the way you have skills is by picking up skill gems and placing them in open slots in your gear. These gems are found from killing monsters or by completing quests. There different style of gems; red, blue and green. Each color represents a stat. Red revolves around strength, blue around intelligence and green for dexterity. They way your skills get stronger is by using them and gaining experience with them. Once the skill gems get higher level they start requiring higher stats based on what the skill is. For example this Fireball skill Gem picture.

Path of Exile is a great game and a ton of fun. I am going to keep playing the beta and continue playing the game once it is officially released. Since the game is going to be completely free I strongly urge everyone to give the game a chance. The only thing this game is going to take from you is time and it is time well spent.

Unfortunately I don’t have a way to capture game play for you all, you can just youtube it. Also here is a link to the pathofxile website I advise you to just take a look.

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The Secret World

March 24, 2012 By 3 Comments

“Imagine if every myth, conspiracy theory and urban legend was true. Imagine a world where you can become anything you want to be, without restrictions such as classes or levels. This is the premise for The Secret World, Funcom’s upcoming massively multiplayer online game set in the modern-day real world.” – TheSecretWorld.com

I’ve been keeping my eye on this game ever since I heard about it a year and a half ago and my wait is finally about to come to an end on June 19th. The developers at Funcom had the brilliant idea of releasing a freeform MMORPG, where there are no levels and no classes. Anyone can do anything they want, and can even change what their characters are at any point in time. The game looks promising to say the least.

 

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Game of the Week, March 7, 2012: Unreal Tournament 2004

March 7, 2012 By Leave a Comment

It’s time for another Game of the Week, where our writers tells us all about their favorite games! This week, Brendan gets into the blood and guts of Unreal Tournament 2004.

I love the smell of gibs in the morning… There was a time before Halo, before Call of Duty, when multiplayer death match wasn’t fought with analogue sticks and SMG’s, but instead with giant rocket launchers and the mightest of all weapons: the mouse and keyboard.

I’m talking, of course, about the golden age of Arena Shooters. It started with DOOM and gained popularity through games like Quake, Starseige, and Unreal Tournament. There’s a wide range of opinions regarding which of these numerous games are the perfect representation of the genre, but for me, no game encapsulates the meaning of the arena shooter better than Unreal Tournament 2004.

What it is: Unreal Tournament is a fast-paced, futuristic first person shooter, released by Epic Games in 2004 (natch), and is the sequel to Unreal Tournament 2003 (which was actually released in 2002) and the original Unreal Tournament.

What defines this series of games (along with others in the Arena Shooter genre like Quake III) is the fast pace of combat. Players  dart and rocket jump around maps, firing massive weapons, and blow each other to bits — the “shooter” part Arena Shooter. These matches took place on maps — the “arena” part — that allowed for high mobility and speed.

Each map varied in size, location, and style. Anywhere from 4-32 players (or bots) could be on the map, engaging in modes like death match, team death match, capture the flag, assault (objective-based matches), and onslaught (point-control style gameplay on large maps, and featuring vehicles).

There’s no story to speak of here; there’s some narrative to be found in the bios for each selectable character, and the single player “tournament mode” will take you through a guided set of matches, much like an “arcade mode” in games like Street Fighter or Tekken, but for the most part story is virtually non-existent (which as we would later find, is a good thing).

Similar to titles like Team Fortress 2 and League of Legends, Unreal Tournament offered players an online battlefield to test their skills against each other. This was by far the best way to experience UT2K4 (though, admittedly, I wasn’t much of an online player until Unreal Tournament 3). The speed and intensity of the online matches was addicting, and lead to many adrenaline-fueled afternoons in front of my computer screen.

Why I love it: One word: instagib. For those who don’t know, instagib is an “instant kill” mode, where each successful shot resulted in a satisfyingly violent explosion of gore, or “gib”, short for giblets.

This was just one of the many ways you could modify your experience. UT2K4 included a vast number of viable you could change in the settings, including low grav, faster characters, instagib, higher health, and many more.

I used to turn on low grav, high speed, and instagib, and try to rack up as many kills as possible, while facing the max number of bots on a tiny map.

On top of this, the Unreal Tournament series is well-known for its mod community. The unreal Editor allows for modders and map makers to create new content — be it new skins, character models, maps, or game modes — and easily export them so they could be uploaded and played by anyone. This opened the door for literally hundreds of custom maps and characters to be imported to your game, increasing the game’s replayability exponentially.This was great, and something I absolutely loved about the game.

When it comes to the actual gameplay however, my favorite thing about UT2K4 was the Onslaught mode. Here, large teams battled for control over specific points on the map called nodes. Each node linked to another, and you could only capture/attack nodes connected to one of yours. Once you had captured enough nodes, you would be able to attack the other team’s main base, and win the round.

These maps were much larger than the normal CTF or deathmatch maps, and also featured vehiles that could be piloted to move across the terrain quickly, or even brutally slaughter our opponents. This was by far my favorite mode online, as it combined the intensity of the deathmatch and CTF modes with the strategy and large maps of point-control. In my mind, few games have ever melded these two styles together as seamlessly as the Unreal Tournament series.

Nexuiz -- Hope for the future.

In recent years, the Arena Shooter genre has basically died out. Since the rise in console FPS games, the PC has been left by the wayside. Games like Counter Strike and Team Fortress still carry the banner, but they offer different experiences than Arena Shooters of the past. Even Epic Games, the development studio responsible for Unreal Tournament, have moved onto the consoles with the highly successful Gears of War series (following their good-not-great sequel to UT2K4, Unreal Tournament 3). There’s still hope for a return of Arena shooters with games like Tribes: Ascend and Nexuiz, but they are still in development and only time will tell if they will succeed.

While I still hold out hope that we’ll see a new title in the series after the launch of Unreal Engine 3 (each Unreal Engine has come with a new Unreal Tournament, so there’s a chance) in all honesty, I’m more than happy with the memories I have of UT2K4. Hell, there’s still a small community playing the game. So if you ever get the hankering to blow some dudes up, and just have fun, get yourself a copy of Unreal Tournament 2004, you’ll be happy you did.

Filed Under: Gaming, Reviews Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Skyrim is unleashed!

November 11, 2011 By 2 Comments

–By Power Cords crew

It's here!

Hey guys!

I’m sure you’re all well aware of this, but FINALLY Skyrim is here! If things seem a little quiet from us today, it’s because The Power Cords crew are busy roaming through the wilderness, as I’m sure many of you are as well.  [Read more...]

Filed Under: Gaming, News Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , ,
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