Monopolies are bad, mmkay? The rising behemoth of Steam
An article over at GAMESbrief came to our attention outlining “Five reasons why Steam will destroy the PC games industry” and while the points are fairly valid, the reasons at the end are basically a litany on why monopolies are bad. These reasons of themselves do not display why steam might destroy the PC games industry.
However, that’s not what this article is about. This article is an attempt to persuade game developers to go with a shotgun approach to their own distribution and avoid signing in exclusively with Steam. The fine points (reasons) why monopolies are very bad for the industry become excellent warnings after the article is read in this fashion. Developers happen to hold the keys to the industry as much as customers—if they all go with Steam and won’t support other channels of distribution to spread it
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How not to make a teaser trailer: Audere Semper
We are gigantic fans of adventure games in general. We play them a lot. See The Experiment, The Longest Journey series, Syberia, Bad Mojo, and more—but this one totally takes the cake on the worst teaser ever.
Words do not describe how terrible and not compelling this video is. If I were going to purchase this game at the store because I liked what it said on the box, this would probably turn me off. What did they make this in? Windows Media Maker?
It starts off too slow, pulsing between text and short-shot flip animation graphics. Then it leaps into these inexplicable falling letters that don’t actually create the title words, they rather fall into darkness, and that’s that. Finally we get the title.
And …
Fallout 3 Editor Coming Down the Pipe
Bethesda announced plans today to release their Fallout 3 editor, named GECK, to the general public as a free download. Scheduled for a December release, the GECK will allow players to modify data, create new dialog, raise up buildings, and infest their games with unforgivable porn. The Fallout 3 editor will be a free download.
Also, coming out around January, Bethesda will unveil Operation: Anchorage, the first downloadable expansion for Xbox and Windows. You can find the entire announcement on Bethesda’s Fallout 3 site.
As always, we here at Vox Ex Machina will keep you informed the most interesting and vile mods that spew forth from the Fallout player community. In case you didn’t notice, we also have a rundown on the current crop of Fallout 3 nude mods and patches. Check it out and spice up your wasteland experience. It should …
Fallout — Deathclaws Through the Ages
The Fallout series has given us many interesting characters and monsters, but few are spoken of in the same tones and hushed whispers as one critter that earns its name. The deathclaw. These monsters are leathery, reptilian horrors who run in packs and spend their time growling, lurking, and pulling Vault Dwellers’ spleens out through their noses. Deathclaws are tough little kitties.
With the release of Fallout 3, it has come time to take a look at the deathclaw and all the wonderful moments we’ve shared with it through the years.
In Fallout, you might hear mention of deathclaws from time to time, but your first real encounter with the monster will come around the LA Boneyard. You’ll have to deal with a few of these cheerful puppies for a quest, and then, you can take another quest to
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Upcoming Games – August 2008 edition
A little late in the month, but here’s our Upcoming Games – August 2008 edition!
For release this month:
Shepherd’s Crossing (PS2) – August 19, 2008
Also known as: Welcome to Sheep Village, Youkoso Hitsuji-Mura (JPN)
Check out a preview of the game. Could be a the start of a “new” farming series here in North America.
Harvest Moon: Island of Happiness (DS) – August 26, 2008
(See our recent post for more info on Harvest Moon releases)
September:
Harvest Moon: Tree of Tranquility (Wii) – September 16, 2008
(See above for more info on Harvest Moon releases)
Spore (PC, Mac, DS, more) – September 7, 2008
Battle Fantasia (XBox 360) – September 16th, 2008
Lost in Blue: Shipwrecked (Wii) – September 23, 2008
Samba de Amigo (Wii) – September 23, 2008
Disgea (DS) – September 23, 2008
Hamtaro Ham-Ham Challenge (DS) – September 23, 2008
October:
Rune Factory 2: A Fantasy Harvest Moon (DS) – October 16, 2008
Little Big Planet (PS3) – October …
Send in Your Pics for Star Control IV?
“As part of my multipronged strategy to convince Activision to insist that our next project be a Star Control one, I have come up with [an] idea to harness the powers of arts and crafts as well as fans everywhere.
What I want to do is this: Make a giant map of the Earth. Maybe I should just buy one. I’m not a map maker. If I were, I’d probably be instantly fired for my alternative spelling of the nation known as Uruguay as well as the fabrication of non-existent countries like Nutsack Kingdom and Nutsack Kingdom II. As a matter of fact, I have already been fired from previous jobs for these exact same reasons, even though none of those jobs involved making a map…
Phase two is where I once again, ask you wonderful community of fans for support. What I want is to put pictures of you guys up …
The Vox ex Machinia Guide to Playing the Good Guy In Black & White Without Tearing Off Your Skull From the Inside
For those who don’t know, Black & White is a god game dumped into the market by Lionhead Studios in 2001, roughly six years before it was actually ready for publication. I recently picked it up at the local used vendor for the respectable price of them paying me to take it out of their store. As this might imply, the game did not deliver on the majority of its promises, and was ejected from the gaming community as a whole with a speed not unlike the meteorite which wiped out the dinosaurs.
This judgment was, in fact, entirely fair because while Black & White promised an experience between raising your own baby Godzilla and bombarding your foes with holy wrath from space, what you actually got was an exercise in tedium broken only by your divine cow pooping on the temple to your magnificence. Again.
None the less, there is an …
Micro-Review: Pariah
Pariah is an all around mediocre first person shooter that just cannot stand up under the weight of its own ego. The graphical complexity of many of the environments was certainly beautifully painted, the puzzles seemed interesting enough, and the foes—while not that bright—did perish with satisfying cries of pain; but it seemed to lack that spark that makes a video game worth playing. It is a straightforward nothing-special-here first person shooter and nothing more.
Pariah really did not live up to our snobbish standards where it comes to well written and compelling plots. It fell down so badly in that area that it’s hard for us to give this game a good score. Don’t come to this game expecting a plot or characters that make that much sense. It …
Micro-Review: F.E.A.R.
F.E.A.R. This game fell down mostly on story. While the creepy little girl effect really got us, and we loved having bullet-time to take out our enemies in this FPS shooter it really wasn’t doing such a good job of keeping our attention. What drove us forward wasn’t the interesting new foes, but the next time we met Mr. I-Eat-Dead-Bodies or the scary little girl who lit fires and threw stuff at us.
Otherwise it was a generic FPS with horror elements. Things that we did like involved how the bad guys would jump for cover, or leap over objects to get at us. They’d throw grenades when we were hiding and scream in horror when we revealed ourselves. We’re told by everyone that they’re telepathically controlled clones, but they seemed pretty well socialized for clones.
There isn’t much in the way …
Micro-Review: Prey
Prey, an uncanny, scary, atmospheric FPS involving a juxtaposition of aliens and Native Americans. The game starts out presenting our hero, Tommy, a jaded and disillusioned Cherokee boy (young man really) trying to break free of the Reservation. It’s steeped in every pop culture Native American cliché that we could think of, and then some. Suddenly, aliens attack. They start sucking up cars, people, the bar he works in, into this weirdly convoluted ship that is traversed via a bizarre network of space-warping portals. The best parts about this game happen to be some of the humor. Once and a while, wandering about, you come across a panel on the wall that is currently receiving radio from Earth—and it happens to be Art Bell. Callers continually complain about various strange happenings, lights, and other events involved with the alien attack …
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