I don't care as much about the new mods and scenarios, but the improvements to the core game are more than enough to win me over. The story, the art direction, the interesting combat system, and the terrific voice talent make BioShock an unbeatable experience that you simply can't miss out on.
It just doesn't get any better than this. Steve's thoughts on It was a very good year for this PC gamer. The Witcher chimed in with a little action-RPG goodness as well. Gears of War also made its way over from the consoles with enough new content and improved visuals to make it worth checking out. Sam and Max continued to provide small, easily digested bites of hilarity and puzzley challenges.
Though I normally don't gravitate towards the adventure shelf at the local software shop, I definitely found lots to love in Sherlock Holmes: The Awakened. I'm a big fan of Lovecraft and Sir Arthur so it was great to see them brought together.
Charles' Favorites in An extensive conversation with a dead god in a forgotten universe comes to mind. Overall, a great RPG experience, even if its spirit meter mechanic can get fairly annoying.
From capturing monsters to leveling characters and getting new skills, it's near impossible to put down. Seemingly such a simple concept, it's pulled off remarkably well here, proving to be the perfect blend of casual and hardcore gaming. Very obvious ones. I still had a great time with it. If you've got a copy lying around, make sure you at least play until you're past The Bar.
With some changes to the quest, reward, and faction structure, this game could have been outstanding. Like S. I really didn't care for the side quests at all except for the Moon mission , the planetary rover should burn in a nuclear fire for having such ridiculous controls, and there was rampant texture pop-in.
That being said, the main story, character interaction, and ability to role-play and make meaningful decisions were outstanding, and the soundtrack was simply fantastic. While I though the single-player storyline was mostly disposable, and missions where they prevent you from using T3 units were as exciting as staring at a blank wall, the multiplayer and skirmishes drew me in.
I know many out there may not appreciate the kind of strategic appeal this game has, but the feeling of marching an army of robots backed with ridiculous experimental units to decimate an enemy base was exhilarating.
It's fast and accessible. I loved the frenzy of online play, shifting your unit types to meet the demands of battle, not having to worry about base management, and just generally blowing up the enemy with as little hassle as I've seen in RTS games.
A refreshing experience. While I didn't particularly care for Sunshine, specifically Yoshi in Sunshine, Mario Galaxy made me feel like a glassy-eyed kid again. Once the nostalgia wore off it always does, damnit!
The game's not perfect, though I suppose few are, but I still played nonstop until about stars. Yes that's right, I didn't unlock Luigi. I am a bad gamer. What can I say? They were the best games of the year, even if they're on almost everyone else's list.
I suppose I could have left off something like Call of Duty 4, a game with a single-player mode like some of the greatest Hollywood action movies and one of the best implementations of MMO-style online FPS action out there, you know, just to be different, but then I'd be a liar. The cake and the companion cube are sheer genius. Then, of course, are Half-Life 2 Episode 2, which is basically Half-Life 2 with all the fat trimmed off, and Team Fortress 2, which absorbed nearly every free moment of my life for over two weeks of my life.
And then there's the whole "best deal in gaming" thing, as if that were important. Instead of relying heavily on RPG elements like System Shock 2, BioShock was skewed much more heavily toward the FPS side of things, a polarizing decision when it comes to the hardcore crowd's opinion. For me, BioShock drew me in and grabbed hold of my imagination in such a powerful way, I couldn't help but call it the best of the year.
Charles thoughts on So I didn't put in a bunch of games because, well, this year was bonkers. It was fun, damnit! Stupid Blues, got me every time. Keep in mind if you've never particularly liked UT, this version will do absolutely nothing to sway you. Civilization IV: Beyond the Sword makes an already phenomenal game even better.
The new espionage elements and the Apostolic Palace work together to make the game's diplomatic system more interesting and a lot more flexible in terms of projecting your will on your enemies without resorting to open warfare. An improved AI wages war much more effectively this time around which can drastically increase the drama and tension of your games. Still, it's not without problems.
The espionage system is far too effective on Marathon speed, and the way that corporations work doesn't seem to make much sense. The overall presentation or interface of the game hasn't been improved by the expansion either. Additionally, there are undoubtedly small balances and tweaks that are sure to be coming down the pipe over the next few weeks.
In the meantime, the new options and increased difficulty of Beyond the Sword are more than enough to justify its purchase by every hardcore Civ fan. Few World of Warcraft players would consider their experience complete without the additions that The Burning Crusade brings. The ridiculous first-day sales numbers support this. If you didn't care for the gameplay of the original game, there's nothing here that's going to change your mind.
Still, players who are new to MMOs won't find a better introduction than the two new races found here. For players who already love the game and have been anxious to break through the level cap, The Burning Crusade is a done deal. They bought it on day one and are now happily butting up against the new level cap.
Still, the forty-dollar price tag is a bit steep, particularly for players who aren't inclined to try the new races or aren't powerful enough yet to venture into Outland. Considering the quality of the content in the original game, there's certainly no big rush for mid-level types to jump right into The Burning Crusade. The Sims 2: Seasons Electronic Arts. Supreme Commander THQ. Lord of the Rings Online Midway. The Orange Box Valve. Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare Activision. BioShock 2K Games.
Half-Life 2: Episode Two Valve. The Witcher Atari. Portal Valve. World in Conflict Vivendi. Crysis Electronic Arts. Team Fortress 2 Atari. It had to be done. When Blizzard confirmed in May that it was, indeed, toiling away on a sequel to its classic real-time strategy game StarCraft, the ensuing Internet explosion was visible from space. The resulting article feverishly typed by a kimchi-stained Charles Onyett describing the precious few StarCraft II details doled out by Blizzard, became the No.
Blizzard dropped a news bomb when it announced Starcraft II, but the company had more payload to deliver. On a weird Sunday in December, Activision and Blizzard parent company Vivendi Games jointly announced that they would soon merge to become the largest third-party videogame publisher in the world.
That the resulting company would be called Activision Blizzard spoke volumes about the value of the Blizzard brand, and we're not talking about StarCraft II at least not in the U. It was mostly World of WarCraft that Activision investors were after, and with good reason. Although PC game sales have been sharply declining in recent years, according to NPD Group figures, subscriptions to massively-multiplayer online games like WoW are higher than ever.
Although NPD doesn't take into account some major retailers or Valve's Steam service, the numbers look dire for PC gamers, whose grumblings about the impending death of their pastime at the hands of the MMO craze can be found on forums around the web.
As if to rub organic, fair-trade sea salt in their wounds, developers announced a flurry of new, high-profile MMOs in So are BioWare and Blizzard. Star Wars or Mass Effect? StarCraft or something new? Many PC gamers couldn't care less. But they're increasingly feeling outnumbered.
Well, at least there's Deus Ex 3. Although the series' creator, Warren Spector, won't be involved in the new project, developer Eidos was excited enough about the sequel to one of PC gaming's most beloved franchises that they announced the game twice. As if to prove their bona fides to the Deus Ex die-hard, Eidos put up a Deus Ex 3 web site to announce both the start of the game's development and the creation of its new Montreal studio; unveiled an arty teaser trailer; and posted several job openings.
It's time to give back, Mike: We demand more Mr. T ads. Events of Every year we see more and more gaming events, be it publisher events for their annual catalogs or for specific games. This year a few individual events, which just so happened to focus on Blizzard's games, captured the attention of the gaming industry much more than the major conferences, calling into question the necessity of hosting the major trade shows in the first place.
In fact, across the industry this year, we a trend of publishers holding back details on upcoming games until they held their own, private events, instead of letting out all the information at major shows. While it may be beneficial for them as their products don't get overshadowed by all the other announcements occurring simultaneously at a chaotic event like E3, it's still disappointing to readers who click furiously across previews to find something new, only to discover the publisher won't spill the beans until they showcase the game at their own event months later.
Is this just a trend of the last few years, or will it eventually lead to the dismantling of major shows? We'll have to wait and see. Microsoft made a big deal about their Games for Windows branding and Games for Windows — Live service.
Given the most recent NPD sales data, apparently nobody cared. Again, no really important or surprising occurrences, just more previews.
Fallout 3 was there, as was Call of Duty 4, Crysis, World in Conflict, StarCraft 2, and many other high profile PC games, but most of it'd we'd seen and written about already. Except for S. Note that next year could offer something different and hopefully more exciting as E3 moves back to the LACC. There'll still be an invite-only admission process, but at least with all the games under one roof we might see an event with more character, unlike 's segregated, somber, and sterile feel.
Other than that it was just more of the same. As seemed to be the case in , all these major game shows offered nearly the exact same content. We'd see a section of Age of Conan, and then see almost the same thing at the next show, and so on. Titles present, aside from those already mentioned weren't surprising. What TGS did have, however, was the festive atmosphere sorely lacking at E3. All the booths were decked out with oversized mascots, it was loud, swelteringly hot, filled with booth babes, cosplayers and generally exhausting to cover.
Thankfully the press was given an extra day before the crowds invaded, after which point it took several hours to try and see a game with even a remote degree of popularity. We're not saying this is a better way to hold a major event, but it sure as hell makes things more exciting. While E3 felt more like attending a series of corporate seminars, TGS was a high school dance. Hot Game Tips of As the year comes to a close, we look back fondly at all of the games that had us cursing like sailors and throwing our controllers in obscene rage.
There's nothing quite like finally showing a game who's boss, stickin' it to the virtual man, and IGN's Guides and reader-submitted FAQs and Cheats made that triumph more possible throughout the past twelve months. Here's our recap of the year's most popular videogame wisdom. A challenge as open-ended as BioShock calls for guidance. Virtually every enemy encounter, from splicer battles to big daddy showdowns, requires some semblance of pre-planned strategy.
We detail it all in our full walkthrough that covers every stage, every security camera, and every boss challenge. We've even sprinkled throughout the guide video demos of key fights, including the game's final boss.
The game has lots of intricate secrets too, like the challenge of finding Sander Cohen's apartment. We also discovered with the help of our readers a handy quick-reload function for the crossbow and grenade launcher: Immediately after hitting the reload button, quickly toggle to your plasmid and then back to your weapon.
Almost immediately, the weapon is reloaded making the crossbow a seriously awesome shooter. This package of games challenged us in all the right ways, thanks to excellent variety provided by the combination of multiple Half-Life 2 adventures and the clever and puzzling Portal.
We were most excited to beat Portal, so we did that walkthrough first. The entire game is an evolving puzzle that demands some thinking we somehow managed. Even after beating the game and enjoying the excellent ending , the game throws more challenges in the form of an advanced mode.
That's where FAQs took over. For the Half-Life 2 games, we were sent some awesome button-tap cheats for invincibility, infinite ammo, and free health. They're classic-style cheats, but almost rare in this day and age so we appreciate them immensely.
General MacArthur once said, "Old soldiers never die, they just fade away. In COD4, you play the roles of several modern day soldiers dumped into extremely fierce combat.
What the game's designers didn't tell you from the get-go, is that they secretly hid a bunch of terrorist laptops throughout the game. If you're in search for COD4's screwball cheats, or simply wondering about the locations of the secret laptops, you can check out our free Call of Duty 4 strategy guide and watch those bodies fly.
We've been bruised and battered by 's final rush of games, but we're already licking our wounds, eager to crack skulls with next year's releases. Join our fight against unbeatable games and submit your own cheats, hints and walkthroughs and FAQs. Gamers helping gamers—it's a beautiful thing. DiRT Codemasters June BioShock 2K Games August World in Conflict Sierra September The Orange Box Valve October Crysis Electronic Arts November Nearly twelve months ago, we decided to take a look into our crystal balls to see if we could determine anything about the future.
Through the swirling clouds of prescient energy, we were able to glimpse a number of important events -- IGN hiring a fat nerd, the continued harassment of our female employees, and an unexpected journey to a far away land where the water is warm and gassy.
But we also saw some stuff that had to do with video games. We first predicted that World of Warcraft would continue to garner more and more of the online gaming market. Now to be fair, predicting that World of Warcraft will succeed is like predicting potato salad at a cookout, but we were definitely borne out by the staggering increase in subscription numbers as the game released thanks both to the game's first official retail expansion and the continued growth into new foreign markets We had assumed that the MMO giant would at least have some competition in the form of Warhammer Online and Age of Conan but with both of those titles slipping into , the only noteworthy additions to the market were Tabula Rasa and The Lord of the Rings Online.
Though the former has the cachet of Richard Garriott's name and the latter one of the greatest fantasy brands of all time, neither proved capable of even denting Blizzard's subscription numbers. We had hoped that the release of Vista would spur a resurgence in the PC hardware market and encourage the prevalence of DirectX 10 cards. Unfortunately, Vista was such a hardware and software nightmare when it was released, most gamers simply passed it by.
Some of us here at the office even went so far as to reinstall XP. BlackSite: Area Call of Duty 4. Charles says : If you look back at our review list and sort by the shooter genre we've done it for you! There've been weird hybrid releases like S. It's not just the quantity of shooters released, which is especially impressive considering 's comparatively anemic offerings, but the amazing quality of most games that came out.
I still can't believe all these titles these games, especially considering how some of them S. It's great for gamers, but I can't imagine all that rewarding for publishers. If I wasn't working at IGN, where it's my job to play all these titles, I know I'd neither have the money nor the time to keep up. I'd instead have to deal with things like, you know, an actual job.
