PC Gaming
The End of Video Game Manuals
Gasp*. I know right? How could Game Manuals be coming to an end? Well if you’d like a few hints, look at games such as Modern Warfare 2, with 5 whole pages in it’s manual. I can’t tell you how excited I was to finally get Modern Warfare 2 and open the game and read the manual, to delve the depths of the story and the game itself. I was extremely disappointed. I found very little information. I found what the buttons do and a quickie on xbox live. That was about it.
Now games of the past have been quite different. One of my favorite games of all time, Warcract III, had the most amazing manual. It included pictures of important characters, their bios, maps, lists of units and their bios, etc. It was excellent, and I must have read it over 100 times completely.
Visiting IGN, I found an article about the Ending of Game Manuals. Apparently, Ubisoft is going to completely stop game manuals in their future games. IGN had 4 editors give their opinions on the situation. My opinion is that there should always be a decent manual in a game. A game manual increases the worth of the game. I just truly enjoy opening the game and reading the manual first before I ever play the game. That’s how I am, I like to read all about it and know what is going on before I step foot into the game itself. It’s the experience that’s being cut. I don’t like it.
After reading my short opinion and the editors at IGN, what are your opinions? What do you think about game manuals and their importance to the game? Do they enhance the experience, or do you cast them aside and never touch them? What do you think of the financial savings vs. end user desires?
I’m anticipating some great responses!
Need For Speed World — Another EA Free-To-Play
EA is coming out with another NFS. The beauty of this one is that it’s free. That’s right. Absolutely free. EA has is experimenting with free-to-play games. Before this one, it released Battlefield: Heroes. It got Best of 2009 from IGN. I’ve played a few of these free-to-play games, and I loved them. Combat Arms was my first one, and it was brilliant. Battlefield Heroes was a great game as well. For those of you who don’t know how these free-to-play games work, here’s how it goes:
Usually you have to register on the site
download the game
install
Play.
Yep, that’s it. However, there is a catch. Usually you can’t get special weapons or you can’t customize your character quite as much if you put a few bucks in the game. Meaning, if you charge your account, you can buy special weapons or equipment that could aid you in your game. EA hasn’t released information on how they are going to profit off NFSW, but I imagine that you won’t be able to get certain cars, gadgets, or little add-ons without throwing in a few greenbacks.
Photo from IGN. Game in early testing stages.
One of the few cars obtainable in this game. Porche
As you can see for yourself, the game looks great. And remember, it’s a free game. Free games don’t look this good, until now. EA is planning to include ~250 cars with around 50-100 when the game launches. The maps are from previous games including: Carbon, Most Wanted, and EA also plans to include maps from the other NFS games.
Onto gameplay. It’s fairly straightforward. It has a minimalistic hud and simple controls. It’s more arcadey than a real simulation. You can have nitro boosts and power-ups. EA also said that they would include other modes like in Pursuit, where you had cops. Yes, you will be able to play as a cop. Customization options are adequate, paint jobs, wheels, etc. When you launch the game, you are landed into a massive world. Just a press of the button has you matched up with 7 other players. Now all that’s left is to pick a game mode and your set. The racing is seamless.
Oh and one more thing, it’s PC only.
The game still has a ways to go, but so far it’s looking promising. What are your thoughts? Put them in the comments. Do you think this will be a hit or miss? Leave it in the comments.
-TJ
Do we see the future of gaming? Some may…
In the previous week, the gaming world went through a lot at the Game Developers Conference. One thing we discovered was OnLive, a glimpse of the future.
OnLive, the future of gaming?
One of the biggest entertainment grabbers at this years convention was Onlive, a Video Game on demand service that plans to integrate a low-end system and a high-end internet as one to play the most technologically advanced games out there, such as Crysis, on a crap computer.
The system, developed by Rearden, processes the Game’s happenings and simply streams it to your computer, but you have to think about all of the packets required to send to the Rearden servers, and then the packets sent back to you. That’s using a lot of your Upload and Downloading capabilities
The big issue that I foresee is obviously the lag, something that will be noticeable unless you have some super-connection.
Rearden assures reporters that lag won’t be a major issue, and if this is true it will really send the gaming industry to such an advanced level.
Burnout Paradise Coming To Steam
Burnout Paradise is coming to the PC in the form of the “Ultimate Box,” which combines the core game and all additional tracks, cars, and updates into one shiny box. Don’t like purchaseable, game-filled boxes? Use Steam instead.
Steam, on of the most powerful and popular digital distribution systems will be showcasing Burnout Paradise alongside Fallout 3, Half Life 2, Left 4 Dead, and other games from Valve and other developers.
Burnout Paradise, also known as Burnout “5″, is the 5th installment in the popular street racing franchise. In January 2008, it was released for 360 and PS3, and later took its first release to the PC platform in February.
This free-roaming, wide-open racer doesn’t have a Steam release date as of yet, but it sure as hell won’t be that long of a wait- you know Valve, with its numerous updates weekly.