PC Curb

F.E.A.R 2: Project Origin is a survival horror first person shooter. It is a sequel to the original F.E.A.R. and is scheduled to be released on 10th February 2009 on all major platforms including Xbox 360, Playstation 3 and PC. The demo was released yesterday (january 22, 2009) featuring a full level from the game.

It has been just over three years since the release of the original F.E.A.R. (First Encounter Assault Recon). This sequel follows the same principals as the first aswell as utilising technological advances to add in better features.

I have just completed the demo and have been blown away by the experience this game offers. The amazing graphics, gameplay, weapons and storyline all contribute to my initial positive reaction. The demo begins witha short video introducing Alma, a young paranormal girl (she was also in the first game). You then spawn on to a dark road with debris flying everywhere and must follow the little girl. After falling through a hole in the floor, Alma disappears. There is immediate interaction with an enemy after that and you acquire your first submachine gun to annihilate him.

After continuing through this linear style gameplay it is obvious you are in a school of some sort, judging by the lockers and classrooms. It becomes a scary task to patrol through this school as all the lights are either off or barely flickering, a violent wind is flowing through the rooms knocking numberswiki.com

over furniture and you encounter flahses of Alma and other ghosts. There is also a suspenseful music bed and the sight of dead bodies and blood splattered all over the walls.

As the demo approahes the end, you travel through a subway and finally make it to gound floor where you have to eliminate more enemies.  The last mission is to ride on Powered Armor, which is a robot-like vehicle that allows you to walk and shoot with high powered guns. While riding on Powered Armor you have to destory other robots aswell as ground troops. This leads you to the end of the demo and you see a collaboration of firefight scenes and before a screen displaying the release date.

I was very impressed with the contents of the demo and will be sure to purchase the game when it comes out on February 10. In the mean time I recommend you try out the free demo of F.E.A.R 2: Project Origin. The file is 1.76gb in total and can be downloaded from here. For those of you who are on limited bandwidth it might be
a good idea to check with your ISP and enquire as to whether they can mirror the file for an unmetered download.

PC Curb tests out Call of Duty: World at War. Here are a few minutes of gameplay featuring the new addition of molotov cocktails.

Trying out the flame thrower. (ignore the first 30 seconds).

2nd video.

Whether it is because Christmas is around the corner or not, there seems to be a lot of great PC games being released lately and a few more coming out soon. Some of the most anticipated games of the year are coming out and this is great news for PC gamers. Sometimes game companies withhold the delivery of particular games to the PC platform because they feel piracy is greater and there is more profit to be made in other consoles such as Xbox 360 and Playstation 3. Due to this reason this is a great time to take advantage of the great titles being released as it might be awhile before anymore make it so this platform.

Undoubtedly, not everyone will be purchasing these or any games and may choose to pirate them instead. This is contributing to the reason why game developers are neglecting PC releases.

No matter how you get the game, everyone is going to have to have one problem in common and that is system specifications. Computer hardware outdates very quickly and upgrades can be expensive. A lot of the games mentioned in this post require up-to-date hardware (primarily graphics card) unless you want to run them on low graphic detail.

Brothers in Arms: Hell’s Highway

PC Release October 7, 2008.

Developed by Gearbox Software and published by Ubisoft, Brothers in Arms: Hell’s Highway is the next deliverance in this popular series. With lots of improvements to AI, weapons and graphics, this game is more focused on working as a team than in previous versions.

Far Cry 2

PC Release October 21, 2008.

Far Cry 2 is developed by Ubisoft and is a sequel to the original Far Cry released in 2004. It is still a first-person shooter but is an entirely different game with a stronger concentration on realism.

The game begins with a long car ride before your character is released which initiates a linear style of missions. It is a bit disppointing to see no on-screen SAI (situation awareness indicator) although a map can be accessed by pressing ‘5’ by default.

The game makes up for the lack of SAI in graphics and weapons. A new system is available which let’s you purchase weapons with money you earn throughout the missions. These purchased weapons are more reliable than retreiving weapons from dead enemy, which are prone to jams and bad accuracy.

Dead Space

PC Release October 20, 2008.

Dead Space is a brand new survival-horror game in the third-person shooter format. This game involves fighting an alien infestation onboard a ship that has turned the crew members into alien-like creatures. The game features no HUD (heads up display) and instead shows information on the back of your character. While playing, your character will experience zero gravity moments which will allow you to jump from wall to wall and shoot aliens at the same time. You will also be able to blow body parts off them, preventing the ability to walk whilst remaining alive.

Call of Duty: World at War

PC Release November 12, 2008.

As hinted in a previous post, Call of Duty: World at War will be released soon and is quite different from previous CoD releases. The main concern is Treyarch has developed it (as opposed to Infinity Ward) and it has taken a step backwards to World War 2 times despite the popularity of CoD4 being modern combat.

Fallout 3

PC Release October 28, 2008.

Fallout 3 is an action role-playing game, it’s the 3rd installment in the Fallout series. A new health and radiation system will be implemented with this release. The ability to measure the radioactivity of objects will be possible and is relevant to the fact the game is set in 2277 and 200 years after a fictional nuclear war. A new weapons system will make it possible for weapons to decay over time and cause loss of accuracy and rate of fire.

Grand Theft Auto IV

PC Release 21 November, 2008. (delayed to December 02 for US)

As speculated in a previous post, GTA IV will finally be reaching the PC platform. It was released for the PS3 and Xbox 360 platforms on 29 April 2008 which means PC gamers have had to wait a shocking 6 months longer than everyone else before they can even try it.

Electronic Artists (EA) have announced that they will be releasing a sequal to the PC killing Crysis. But! will it be as demanding as the first game was? When Crysis was first released people were going out and spending thousands of dollars on computer parts in order to max our Crysis. I can remember when folks were saying, “Hey, i run 2 8800 GTS’s in Sli and i can play Crysis on high”. That setup is realy quite out dated now, and looks to be that they just wasted their cash on two crappy cards. This is a perfect example of how quick technology is moving, whats great today will be crappy in a few months, and the only way to keep up will be to update which means you are spending your hard earned dollars.

Now, by the time Crysis warhead will be released, it would have been about one year since the first game was realsed. This means one years worth of technological improvements, which should mean where in for a killer. A monster of a game with the best graphics we’ve ever seen on a PC game yet. If Crysis Warhead is to live up to its originality, i believe graphics wise we’re in for a treat. But, there’s that problem again .. will your PC be able to cope playing the game? If you are looking at buying a graphics card now, by the time Crysis Warhead is released it will be out dated. Even before the game is released, it’s causing problems for it’s fans. EA is even selling its own branded computers guaranteeing to perform well while playing the game. But i highly recommend you don’t purchase this PC, and by saying that .. do not buy any PC’s or parts from LightStorm Computers.

Will Crysis Warhead live up to its hype? maybe, maybe not. we will just have to wait this one out.

May and June 2008 marks the release of Race Driver: GRID worldwide. It is a superb racing game that features realistic graphics and gameplay. It is developed by Codemasters and has been released on the following platforms: PC, Playstation 3, Xbox 360 and Nintendo DS.

‘Race Driver: GRID’ is like no racing game I have ever played due to it’s realistic environment and the beauty of each of the racing cars. This  is strictly a racing game. There are lots of AI as audience members but they are all protected by barriers meaning there is no running down people like in Grand Theft Auto. You also race against other cars, all being AI. They can also be quite aggressive at times, particularly during the start of races, as they try and run you off the road.

PC Curb has recorded a compilation of sequences in the game to give you a taste of what the game looks like. I highly recommend you go out and buy or download this because you won’t regret it. Also note if you already own an Xbox 360, the PC version of the game is compatible with the controller so you should be able to plug and play and use a joystick instead of a keyboard.

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PC Curb’s new Youtube Channel.

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The new version in the Call of Duty series has been announced.  CoD: World at War is the 5th release in the popular series and will be available on PC, Playsatation 3, Xbox 360 and Nintendo Wii. The game remains in the WW2 era and plans to be released by the end of 2008.

Some gamers are angry that Infinity Ward will not be developing it like they have with previous versions. Instead, CoD World at War will be developed by Treyarch.

Here is a trailer from the official site:

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The love between game developers and world wars is no doubt a quixotic relationship and still continues to encourage game developers to create World War II inspired games, including – “COMPANY OF HEROES”.(perhaps the one and only good thing wars have given us-inspiration to game developers)

But is the industry heading towards an overkill? We are in the year 2008, and have been bombarded with countless World War II based titles. Gamers are now becoming fed up of the same old theme being used and abused in every possible way! This is where Company of Heroes- opposing fronts comes in.

Opposing fronts (OF) is the standalone expansion to 2005’s original Company of Heroes. This is a real time strategy game.

While CoH was based entirely on the American point of view, OF lets players decide between two factions in both single and multiplayer- The Allied British or the German Panzer Elite, each of these factions comes with its own pros and cons, and is perfectly balanced out.

REQUIREMENTS:

• Windows xp/vista
• Dual core processor 2.5 GHz
• 256 MB video card (GEforce 7x/8x/9x series should do it)
• 1 GB ram

Company of Heroes: Opposing Fronts is a brilliant gaming experience for both multiplayer and single players. The single player campaigns are detailed to perfection and have an immense entertainment value. The in-game battles are epic and truly bring in the authentic WWII feeling. The multiplayer mode is as usual kickass as usual especially with the interplayability factor. OF also has a dynamic weather system, which means you have to fight battles in the night time as well as in the daytime, and also in rainfall.

However this little gimmick has no effect on the overall gameplay. The game looks gorgeous as expected. Watching building explode and collapse while debris files all round was fun while the game ran in all its glory at our end.

The only flaw that we could find (if it can be called a flaw) is the reccuring` world war 2 theme, which we mentioned earlier. Sure, we have had World in conflict, which is a strategy game set in the present/near future, but to have Company of Heroes – with its entire superb multiplayer and single player elements- set in the present word would be great.

Crysis is not only a stunning visual package, but the game provides excellent gameplay along with a good, solid storyline. Crysis is based in the year 2020 where aliens have invaded the planet. An archaeological team on a remote tropical island is captured by a north Korean team, and the US special forces are sent into the field to locate and rescue the scientists. Equipped high-tech nano suits boosting strength, speed and armour, you’re parachuted into a sprawling tropical jungle to face intelligent enemies of a different kind that are tearing US and Korean forces to shreds.

Missions are allocated throughout the game, but how you go about it is entirely up to you. There is no set path to how you complete missions as long as you cover the objective.

The map consists of a variety of different terrains allowing you to complete your missions uniquely each time. This provides endless replay value.

The weapons and vehicles in the game are well thought through. Almost every vehicle in the game is accessible providing a more realistic and exciting spin to the game.

Crysis is very demanding when it comes to graphics and processing. When the first screenshots of the game were released gamers and editors were blown away with the graphics and attention to detail. More surprising, after the game was released, people realized their system couldn’t cope with the high system requirements. The multiplayer ability allows to to verse other online or network of PC (LAN). Overall Crysis provides thrilling visuals and is a great action packed FPS. (PC CURB Rating) ****

System requirements:

Minimum:

OS – Windows XP / Vista
Processor – pentium/celeron/athlon 2.8 GHz or faster (XP) or 3.2 GHz or faster (Vista)
Memory – 1.0 GB RAM (XP) or 1.5 GB RAM (Vista)
Video Card – 7600 256 MB
Hard Drive – 12GB

Recommended:

OS – Windows XP / Vista
Processor – Intel Core 2 DUO @ 2.2GHz or AMD Athlon 64 X2 4400+
Memory – 2.0 GB RAM
GPU – NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GTS/640mb or similar