During the early part of this century one game ruled the interwebs: Counter-Strike. There were three reasons why I never got into it. The first was that the alpha-beta days of clunkiness and poor performance left a bad impression in me. The second was that people were WAY too into it and the learning curve (or the keeping-up curve) was very high. And the third reason why I never got into Counter-Strike was that I was having too much fun with Team Fortress Classic.

It wasn’t just the variety of maps and gametypes, but you could choose a different class of character on every game. And there were a lot of classes. My favorite was the Heavy Weapons Guy. Slow and bulky, but strong and packing a big-ass chaingun, HWGuy was the best friend of any player on a 56K modem.

It was TFC’s popularity that led to the announcement of Team Fortress 2… In 1999… Seven fucking years ago. But finally Valve will release the very impressive-looking game with Half-Life 2: Episode 2. Watch the trailer here.

Oh, but they are not alone.

Valve will also pack in a strategy-based FPS named Portal. I wish I could describe it but words can’t do it justice. You have to see the trailer.

A few weeks ago X-Play did three episodes that featured the 10 best video games for each console of this generation: Xbox, Playstation 2, and Gamecube. They also mentioned some of the worst games they’ve played.

All in all they were good episodes, and the lists are hard to refute. Those games mentioned that I did manage to play were pretty amazing and deserve the attention. Especially those that were overlooked by most gamers. Of course, you have to keep in mind that they chose the “best” games, not the most important. That’s why you’re more likely to find sequels in the lists than their cutting edge predecessors.

Now these episodes are finally available in a convenient podcast form (right click/save as):

Xbox
Part 1 (#10-8) | Part 2 (#7-5) | Part 3 (#4-2) | Part 4 (#1)

Playstation 2
Part 1 (#10-8) | Part 2 (#7-5) | Part 3 (#4-2) | Part 4 (#1)

Gamecube
Part 1 (#10-8) | Part 2 (#7-5) | Part 3 (#4-2) | Part 4 (#1)

I know it’s not as glamorous as hacking Madonna’s web site, but what the hell: Morgan Webb, will you marry me?

Tremulous is a free, open-source game that combines FPS action with strategic base building. It’s made by Darklegion Development using a derivate of the GPL Quake 3 engine called ioquake3.

The online multiplayer gameplay is based on two opposing teams of aliens and humans. But unlike most multiplayer games, both teams are very different. The aliens aren’t your regular humanoid species. These are spider-like beasts, some of which have great speed and the ability to crawl on walls and roofs.

Both teams have a main structure to secure: Humans are powered by a generator, while the aliens must protect the Overmind. Spawn points (telenodes, eggs) are critical, since their presence is necessary for teammates to return after they are killed.

Humans can use their kill points to upgrade weapons and armor in the Armoury. Aliens can use their points to “evolve” at any moment and become bigger and stronger. Humans need healing stations, while aliens can slowly heal themselves. Also, both teams can build varying automated defense structures to protect their base.

That’s only the basics.

This game is insanely fun, and surprisingly balanced for a game with such different teams. It’s also nice looking. Especially when you consider it’s a free game based on a dated engine.

It has its share of flaws, though. As a game that requires strategy, communication is difficult on text messages. Then again, voice chatting has proven to be more aggravating than helpful on Halo 2. You also require smart people to build at your base. Not geniuses, mind you. Just smart enough.

“Smart enough” can be hard to find on any online community.

Minimum requirements: 800 MHz x86 CPU, 256 MB RAM, 32 MB NVIDIA GeForce2 or ATI Radeon 7000, Stereo sound card, 125 MB free hard drive space, 56 kbit/s Internet connection.

Guitar Hero is almost the perfect game. Almost. Guitar Hero II should get closer to flawlessness because it’ll include a bunch of the things I wanted on the first:

All except one: An Xbox or PC version that would let me import and edit new tracks, and share them with a community. The thing is, with copyright laws as they are, sharing imported tracks would be an issue. And so I don’t expect much in this area from RedOctane.

But then there’s always the online programming community. You gotta love ‘em.

Some schmuck from Ottawa has been developing FREETAR HERO. It’s a two-part project. The first consists of a Windows XP track editor that let’s you input the guitar-controller key presses into a selected song. The second will be the actual PC game.

A public beta of the editor will be released soon, but you can see a video of it in action at the site.

Allow me to rant a bit.

A few months ago I got a Playstation 2 after been submitted to the inescapable joy that is Guitar Hero. Now, it’s kinda stupid to have a console just for one game, especially when I’ve never played a PS2 title. A lot of them are really cheap now. So, while at GameStop, Last Dojo suggested a brand-new game called Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty. It’s the latest thing.

I’m familiar with the Metal Gear franchise and its creator Hideo Kojima. But I’ve always considered myself a Splinter Cell guy. In a way, both games are opposites within the stealth genre. Splinter Cell encourages you to go though the level without being seen, although you can take out everyone in many, many ways. Metal Gear Solid, on the other hand, requires you to interact with the environment so that you can hide in brightly lit spaces. I mean, you have to: It’s way too hard to fight back. Now I understand why their fanbase is so divided.

After three Splinter Cell games it’s hard to get into Metal Gear (I’m sure that also happens the other way around). But once you get used to the rules and controls, the gameplay can be extremely fun. That is, when it lets you play. And that doesn’t happen much, because there are more cutscenes than there is a game.

Now the rant: Why the fuck hasn’t anyone told Kojima what a video game is? It’s a GAME that may or may not have a story thrown in for the sake of entertainment. If I wanted to see a friggin’ movie, I’d see a friggin’ movie. Not only do I have to put up with the seemingly endless cutscenes so that I can know what to do during the mission, but they’re also pretty bad. Sure the action and the shots are cool (and the Snake Plissken reference is awesome), but the voice acting and dialog are almost unforgivable.

Still, I paid good money for it ($6), so I’ll be damned if I stop playing it. Might as well use walkthroughs to know the objectives. I just want to skip those cutscenes like they were Wayan Brothers movies.