Far Cry 2 - In other hands

The German Crytek made a good impression with the shooters Far Cry and Crysis. However, it also argued with publisher Ubisoft, with the result that Far Cry 2 is not made by Crytek, but by the French publisher itself. We took a look at the huge studio Ubisoft Montreal, where the final touches are being made to the game.


The break between Crytek and Ubisoft meant that the German studio can no longer use the name Far Cry and Crysis made under the name of a sequel for publisher Electronic Arts. Use Ubisoft, which not only has the rights to the name, Far Cry, but also the engine of the first part may continue to use, began immediately after the break to Far Cry 2, for which it has arranged a special studio in Montreal, Canada. There, a team of 200 people working on the shooter, who this fall to appear. Not only on PCs but also on Xbox 360 and Playstation 3.

Ubisoft is hoping to keep in Far Cry 2, the strengths of Far Cry and Crysis and improve. Lesser sides That sounds like marketing talk, but there are a few specific points where the publisher pays attention. Thus Far Cry 2 will not have such extremely high requirements set as Crysis. Although the game with DirectX 10 support them, it is still mainly focused on systems that use version 9. Furthermore Ubisoft especially want to make the game more varied than the two predecessors. Thus, the first part which was linear for a game with an open world game and the story of Crysis was some bizarre, the strange alien influences. That should be all different and of course above all better, you Ubisoft.

* The forest

Therefore, in Far Cry 2 focuses on the open nature of the game. The world is no longer an island, but Africa, though it is obviously not to the entire continent. The main features of the African nature are crowded into 50 square kilometer game world freely traverse his. Not without a fight, because it is tightly fought in Far Cry 2. Even without your interference, because there are already two parties that have to stick to you in coming days. The UFLL, or United Front for Liberation and Labor, and the APR, which stands for the Alliance for Popular Resistance, battling for supremacy in this part of Africa. There is a third party in the game, which is simply called the Underground, and this is more a movement of black marketers who are trying to stay out of sight. The two warring parties Want, when you want to buy something or regularly, you can always approach the Underground. As long as you know diamonds on the table to explain the Underground can arrange everything for you. These diamonds are also the only currency in the game. Everyone gathers them and you will find them hence the craziest places, but rarely can you get them without a fight.

Uefa Euro 2008

The dream of every English football fan? The qualifications for the European Championship in Austria and Switzerland, and then do it so that England does qualify for the tournament. That dream will not come quickly, but Uefa Euro 2008 Electronic Arts can do it!

As the name suggests this football game from EA Sports completely revolves around the tournament that starts in June. The game features logically on the official license, which means that the original logos are used and all the stadiums where the match will be played are also included in the game. Unfortunately stores a license from a tournament is not automatically the participating teams. Many countries have the real names, complete with original jerseys, but a small number of countries have to do without the real names and shirts and unfortunately Netherlands one of them.

Dutch team is called in the game, but is hardly recognizable as such. The players names are not real, the players do not resemble the real players and the shirts are not official. It's been so for years and has everything to do with a conflict of the past. In ancient games in the FIFA series are the names of the men of Orange used, while there was at that time not the right license purchased. That has translated into a dispute between Electronic Arts and the players of the former Dutch national team, and as long as that is not resolved, EA can not buy the license of the Dutch team.

This is a point that for years has been appointed by numerous media and criticized, so it's silly to start it again, about right? Error. The Championships this year on the football calendar event what it is about and where the Netherlands undoubtedly warm weather ahead, whether in Austria and Switzerland or in the pub on the corner. 'We' encourage massive 'our' boys, but push corresponding game in a console or PC, and you should do it nepnamen a mess, a simple orange shirt and nothing reminiscent of the Dutch national team. Very sorry.

Stronghold 2 Deluxe PC Review

Give me a sandbox and I'm no longer hold. Using some molds is a few minutes later a powerful fortress that can be raised. Not even the terrible hordes of Very-Very-Kwaadaardigistan destroyed Of course a non demolished castle fortress imperfect and I smash my creation yet through flung pebbles and homemade explosive sounds. Then I get hit by my friends who gently suggest that this strange behavior for a man of twenty years. Astonished parents and children leaving I leave my (MIJN!) sandbox, while I wake up slowly out of my trance.
It is therefore not surprising that as a child I was fortunate in discovering the Stronghold series. The combination of a slight economic sim and Medieval belegeringssim led to the successful Stronghold (2001) and its improved successor Stonghold: Crusader (2002). Wait three years later Stronghold 2 was released and since then the game can be found. In the budget bins Is Firefly Studios managed to further improve the series



Manure, rats and banquets

Essentially Stronghold 2 works the same as its predecessors. You start your castle with a stone keep, the 'Keep', a few subjects, a granary and a storage place. By placing a few saw mills for loggers and farms for food lay the foundation for your economy. Walls and fortifications need stone and iron weapons to be mined. Your hard-working farmers have to remain satisfied and you do that by producing enough food., Beer and / or church In this sequel should be also given negative things. Manure can go on hoping and rats can get involved. Your castle on the idea In addition, any farmer can decide to say goodbye to brave life and go steal. Oddly enough, this happens regardless of the state of your castle, a farmer gets double rats millions is just as likely to rob a starving the granary. Criminals are thrown by guards in prison when a judge sentences them. The penalty is determined by the drop of scaffolds or pyres, whichever your mood and rank.
A great new addition to the economic part of Stronghold 2 is in fact the 'Honour' system. The Kingmaker game mode, an extended form of Skirmish, your rank plays a major role. You start as a nobody to spend. With little choice in construction possibilities and without the possibility of army In a war game that is not exactly an attractive situation and you will have to do to earn enough Honor Points as soon as possible and take off. Rank best Honour can be earned in several ways. There may be held by the lord of the castle. Example a feast For this feast are special foods required that all have their own building again. A monastery also can be built, thus bringing monks regularly piles of hand-written literature to the castle for the glory of their Lord.
Putting down statues, giving dance parties with dresses made ​​by the mistress, punishing criminals, to opportunities for earning honor is no lack, and that is perhaps the problem. The economic part of the Stronghold games was never deep, but wide enough to stay interesting. Now it begins, however, to look like Firefly Studios has gone far in the width and thereby lost sight of. The fun It's pretty frustrating when you're trying to act in order to return to your castle, and to see that everyone has left. Return something important off A candle maker was in fact from the path of righteousness abandoned, leaving plenty of candles were not available for church services, making the castle dwellers high taxes no longer wanted to see from the finger.



Blood, Steel and flying cows

that important what you're doing is of course the war. You can then perhaps set up a nice economy, but if you are not able to repel an attack, you are a lousy lord. The ability to build an imposing fortress has always been the most important and most entertaining part of the Stronghold games and Stronghold 2 is still a pleasure to build that even Richard the Lionheart would not dare besiege a castle. Walls, gates, moats, towers with ballista or catapults, all possibilities are present again. In the sequel, there are some options on top of them, such as rolling logs and tons of stones that can be used to crush while being bombarded with arrows. Oncoming enemies used
on the other side of the wall there are some changes made. In traditional units, everything is still the same, the Archer, Swordsman, and others are all present yet. The only exception is the addition of the Knight, which is actually a stronger version of the Swordsman's. When the mercenaries, by contrast, there are those replaced. So you no longer have access to incendiary slaves (jammer!) and Arabian swordsmen (fine), but you can now recruit Vikings or thieves example. These mercenaries are an excellent alternative for lack of raw materials, but obviously cost a lot more money. The family of siege weapons has increased. Besides the familiar catapults and trebuchets you have time also provided with siege towers and, as a replacement for my favorite suicidal slaves, carts with burning hay. As in previous sections, it is possible to hurling stones to exchange with throwing dead cows, which is not very effective, but very nice. Off
the repelling attacks is still the best part of the game. While catapults holes in your defense store trying to bury under a rain of all sorts of projectiles, the enemy delivers exciting gameplay.
Unfortunately, the AI of the computer rather weak. Without reacting let the opponent castle in ruins and shoot if the roles are reversed and let the AI is quite easily spoofed. So you can put a small wooden wall of your castle walls, so ladder carriers can not do anything more, and enemy troops are more concerned with the tearing down of the wall than that for which they came: the head of the lord on a silver platter. In this way, sieges be as you learn to better understand the AI less interesting.



Something for everyone

There is plenty to do in Stronghold 2. There is the aforementioned Kingmaker. In this mode, you choose a card, up to seven computer opponents, you determine the alliances and imagine some other things in order to clean up afterwards. Every opposition out of the way Everyone starts with a dungeon and must build a fortress to simultaneously make. Equivalent of opponents to the ground You get assigned a defined area where most everything is available, but if you have a shortage somewhere, it is possible to buy 100 Honour, which you can get to your raw materials or production can 'outsource' access. Neutral area However, this is a high price for something that can be used by the adversary. Conquered with some troops Additionally, you will definitely start all Honour need for promotions. Annoyingly, the computer does not seem to keep accumulating on the whole idea of honor, because it already buildings drop early in the game that you normally can only build. After several promotions This sometimes leads to slight ruching while you can defend yourself. Barely All the weaknesses of AI remain in Kingmaker force, because he is aggressive at times.
Moreover Stronghold 2 also offers two Campaigns. These are, as in the first part, an economic and a military campaign. First you will deal with the reconstruction of the kingdom and the second with the association of that country. The military campaign has also found a very interesting story, but I can not find it. The king is gone and the land is in the hands of all evil barons and it's up to you to get it. The thing back in order In fact, this is the same structure as in the first Stronghold, but now with added soon too long there. Moderately animated cutscenes And the voice acting can be described at best as acceptable and at worst as a toe-curling bad. The weak acting is also reflected in the rest of the game. It is as if the actors have taken to sound. Idiotic as possible with each race This contest is brilliantly won by the Spearman, who cries when clicking dazed "I'm confused".
Incidentally, there is much overlap between the two campaigns, since you have to fight bandits in economic missions and military missions still a castle should run.
There is a large collection of castles that you can besiege or defend Conquest Trail, which you demolishes in a fixed order forts throughout Europe or saves, the ability to build complete freedom a dream castle and a map editor . Add to this multiplayer Kingmaker to that and you have a very complete package of game options, though they are not all equally strong.


Glorious 3D without the glorious

, the most eye-catching change is the one I'm talking about the least. Stronghold 2 is in fact full 3D. Unfortunately, it seems that it does not matter much for the developers or their new game would run a bit. Smoothly I played the first game on a P4 3.0 Ghz, X800, and 1 GB of RAM, a configuration that is more than meets the recommended system requirements. However, once it was busier on the screen, dropped the framerate of the game so that it simply was not fun anymore to continue playing. Even with my current computer runs the game during major sieges choppy. Lowering settings does not seem to have as little impact so I can only conclude that adding a third dimension is poorly developed. Anything else
, the quality of what appears on the image actually is not very high. The textures are blurry and models of units are simple. The buildings look better, but that is still not in proportion to the poor performance. In contrast, the collapse of buildings and walls looks pretty good, like the shining armor. But given the price for all that, I prefer the aged appearance of the first parts.
Also in the field of the camera, I am not happy. Turning the camera, please note the highest use of 3D, is very slow. Also, I would like to zoom. Further away from
that other essential part of the presentation, the sound is much better realized. The voices with gusts bad, but the sound effects are fine. The death cries of some men, the collapse of catapults and crossbows reloading sounds properly. The music, a collection of medieval tunes, can tempt me. Conclusion If Stronghold 2 had more time to mature, it would probably have been. much better game It is simply great fun to build a castle and defend, but by a large number of serious deficiencies, the fun spoiled. The weak AI from the previous games is hardly resolved and in presentation shooting game deficit, while the gameplay too much tends to the economic side. If you are intrigued by the game concept, you're better off with Stronghold:. Crusader I would stress that the omission of slaves in the tyrant disappoints me. Nothing says "I'm your finicky burchtje until the last stone chipping and every inhabitant stringing! A spear" as clear as 50 penniless arsonists death sent to convert. Two farms on fire Sigh.

Condemned 2: Bloodshot Review

Condemned was at the launch of Xbox 360, at a time when top games were scarce on the next-gens still one of the better games. However, that said, especially about the then limited supply of games, but the fact remains that Condemned: Criminal Origins was a great action game. At the last E3 trade show in the summer of last year, the international media was already a tasty taste of Condemned 2, in which the thread is eleven months after the events of the original arrested.


Condemned 2: Bloodshot is a horror game and that is all too clear. Not only the story and the mysterious surroundings create tension, there prevails a constricting, threatening atmosphere while playing. This atmosphere is the essence of Condemned 2. All other elements, or go to the pure gameplay or whatever looks, well would not come into their own when the atmosphere would not hit the right note. I am not referring so much to the sheer shock effects, when suddenly a strange creature in front of you or behind you is suddenly a window is smashed, but the feeling that you are being watched and will be. Attacked at any time This ensures that you are sitting on the edge of your seat when playing Condemned 2 constant. And while you do not even know if it's ok with the game parts.

Those parts of the game are of course. Gamers who have played the original will have little difficulty to go. Started with Condemned 2 The controller looks at all on the control of the first part. However, it is unfortunate that the authors apparently assumed that everyone has played Condemned, because for novices Condemned 2 is quite difficult to pick up. The screen gives some indications, but a clear tutorial is missing, which makes the early stages of the game unnecessarily difficult.

Dark Sector: Zelda meets Gears of War?

Developer Digital Extremes is the last few years in heavy weather. The original creator of Unreal Tournament (1) has long been no more hittitel delivered. Her latest project, Pariah, ended up a bit by the wayside. Also for Dark Sector, one must again fight for what it's worth. Still, Dark Sector is timing at a good time. All publishers jealously keep their big titles behind because Rockstar's flagship, GTA IV, in stores


But what if you do not have so much as a gamer with the sandbox genre? Or GTA series has never really been your? What if you're a fan of shooters are more? Then after Rainbow Six Vegas 2 and Army pretty quiet on the front. Dark Sector have easily come in time. That the game a little while shamelessly borrows play in Gears of War is not so strange. Digital Extremes and Epic have long enjoyed a close cooperation with technology and ideas were shared. And it was especially Digital Extremes more than once as a mercenary for Epic's projects were deployed. In addition, the cover system from Gears of War, praised and loved by now had its impact on titles like Rainbow Six, by many, Kane & Lynch, Army of Two, and now again Dark Sector. However, it is your unique weapon, the Glaive, that Dark Sector at once makes a lot more interesting.

Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures - More action than WoW

The new MMO from the creators of Anarchy Online promises violence, bare breasts and especially more action than is usual in a mmo. The fighting is over your character 'on' and occasionally perform a special action, and the makers focus on the content exclusively to an adult audience. We reached the primitive man already in us in the beta.

"Rated M for mature 'called so pretty in the U.S.. Here there 18 + on the box and there was the Norwegian developer Funcom also out. The authors bring the inevitable violence in the game - it is, after Conan - intentionally explicitly portrayed. Moreover figure quite a few scantily clad women in the game, which often carry the oldest profession in the world. The game goes back to the world of Robert E. Howard created in 1932 and that includes violence and lightly dressed women at home. But Funcom had another reason to spend. Both explicit image With the high rating Funcom wants excited teenagers from the servers ward. Whether they will succeed, of course, is highly questionable, but the aim is commendable.

* Fight

Nevertheless, explicit violence and a bare chest here and not the main attractions of the game. Funcom hopes to score especially with what they themselves call the Real Combat System. The system means that players have to act in the fight than in a usual mmo active. In the system that is now prevalent, lets attack a character, then the figure of itself a pattern of standard attack action repeats. The player need only occasionally throw to make a difference. Between a special attack In Age of Conan is less easy. Each blow, knock, or saying to you to put in motion even the most simple swipe with a sword. That's not all, the same simple swipe with a sword can be placed. The stroke can be right in the middle, from left to right and vice versa executed. It lets you anticipate the moves of your opponent. If an opponent has a shield in one hand, you can attack the other side. Of course you can also use a self shield and hold up your shield instead of attacking. Also keep up a shield is an active operation which also takes stamina. After ten seconds is your stamina meter be empty and you have to rely on your weapons back. With your shield so you can win at most time. Maybe just enough time to heal from a healer.

AoC is all Unreal Tournament chase with the ability to dive away. By twice W, S, A or D key, dive your way in the corresponding direction. The icing on the cake, there are still the combos. Due to rise in level you're playing it more and more freely. You can then drag it to your action bar. Simply click on the corresponding button is not enough to activate. Combo but If you press the button, the combo center is displayed, with an indication which stroke or strokes you must enter to activate. Combo from Which also activate special actions is a lot more active than usual im mmo's. There would seem to be a downside to the new system: it focuses on melee classes like warriors and rogues. Classes which mainly use magic will be less notice of the new system.

Wii Fit - Get the gym to your living room

Nintendo had the first steps to sweat games already put in Wii Sports. Since then, I do not come to the tennis club and after the introduction of Wii Fit, I may also unsubscribe from the club.

Incidentally, I was not already at the fitness center since it's more fun to run around in Grand Theft Auto or Unreal Tournament around. Anyway: Wii Fit is not a typical game, it's more a series of exercises where game elements are applicable to grow with the player extra motivation. Still, I refer in this review of practical considerations to under the heading of 'game'. Can the gyms doors may close or Wii Fit may not call themselves a replacement?

* Wireless steps board

Get your Wii Fit at home then you will get in addition to the game disc, a Wii Balance Board, a kind of steps board, provided that is able to measure your weight and balance it. Your body image In a way that is somewhat similar to training your brains in Brain Training, you train your body through muscle workouts, yoga, aerobic exercises and balance games.

The Wii Fit board is wireless and comes with four batteries. The thing is to place in the living practically anywhere and the connection is not disturbed by a bench or table that comes between the board and the Wii console. The Wii Balance Board is a precision piece of hardware and not just a gimmick. Nintendo recommends taking place barefoot on the shelf is all my preference for socks. The Balance Board can withstand 150 kg and if you do sit up, then Wii Fit is probably not the solution you're looking for. For people with big feet is what the shelf on the tight side, but my buddy 43 could well able to deal with.