So I blog about PC games, but I bet you’re wondering what it is that I actually play. What do I do in between blog posts? That question will be answered every other week in the “A Gamers’ Log” feature. Think of it as a quick overview of the games I played and perhaps a small prelude to some of the entries to come.

Of course there’s plenty of room to discuss your own gaming habits for the past few weeks as well. So if you’d like to respond to what I’ve written, or add in your own list of cool (or horrid) games you’ve played recently, then by all means: do so! Note that in order to keep this entry somewhat manageable, I’ll limit things to just the main games I’ve played this past month.

Earlier this month I spend some time participating in the Tabula Rasa ‘open’ beta test. After several hours I was left with the exact same impression I had of Lord of the Rings Online. It’s a fairly beautiful game for a mmorpg and has all the basics down fine, while introducing a bunch of new elements to the genre.

In complete contrast to this experience stood the Hellgate: London demo. I already gave a fairly lengthy hands-on report regarding this game, but I’ll just reiterate in short. Where Tabula Rasa had all the basics covered, this game goes wrong on all fronts. In terms of audio, atmosphere, gameplay and visuals this game is thoroughly disappointing - it doesn’t even support dual-core processors either! Yet in terms of catching that slightly addictive and fun element, Hellgate: London somehow, strangely, does hit the mark. Unfortunately the rest is so underwhelming that this game was immediately, permanently, removed from my to-buy list.

Tabula Rasa

Somehow it just lacks that certain fun element that grabs you and makes you want to play for hours on end…

 
Salvation came this month in the form of The Orange Box. A compilation consisting of Half Life 2, Half Life 2: Episode One, and the new games Half Life 2: Episode 2, Portal and Team Fortress 2 - this is one value box you can’t afford to miss. Having already finished the original game, I played through Half Life 2: Episode One and Two in roughly 8 hours - loving every minute of it. I might not have been a great Half Life fan in the past, but after the excellent Episode Two it’s impossible not to become one. These are some truly amazing games you can’t afford to miss out on!

Portal was another stellar gaming experience. I hadn’t expected much from this game, but after hearing not only some of my friends but even my sister rave about this game - I started to get my hopes up… and it didn’t disappoint. Sure it was only 2 and a half hours of fun, but those were 2 and a half hours of pure gaming bliss. Solving simple - and not as simple - puzzles while racing through portals accross maps was very entertaining. Team Fortress 2 sealed the deal by providing surprisingly engaging multiplayer gameplay. While gameplay is a tad too slow and public-oriented for my tastes, it’s still thoroughly enjoyable and definitely one of the best multiplayer shooters this year. Lovely for the occassional break from my new main game…

The Orange Box

These are some truly amazing games you can’t afford to miss out on!

 
Halfway into October, the world as we knew it changed forever. A new modern classic was born, with the release of the Unreal Tournament 3 beta demo. I’ve already shared my impressions on both DeathMatch and Vehicle Capture the Flag in the demo, but I can’t reiterate this enough: Unreal Tournament 3 looks to be the best shooter this year, with ease. It’s only been around for a few weeks, but it’s already making it’s way to my top 5 most played games list on Xfire - and has completely replaced Unreal Tournament 2004 for both myself and just about any UT player I know.

Having gotten a taste for Unreal Tournament 3 I find myself unable to play Unreal Tournament 2004 anymore… whenever I start up that game I find myself wishing I was playing the UT3 beta demo instead, in spite of it’s many technical, mostly minor, issues. Perhaps more impressively: it’s also replaced the original Unreal Tournament as my alltime favorite in the series!

Both the competitive community as well as the casual public server community are absolutely loving this demo, provided they’re not running into gamebreaking technical issues, which are rampant on certain hardware configurations. I’ve joined up with a colleague from work into clan Third Command - looking to be a CTF clan in the full version, and we’re recruiting! - and we’ve been competing in TDM a bit for the past few days. It’s been great fun, in part because we’ve found ourselves capable of competing against worldrenown DeathMatch teams like fnatic, BeGrip and dignitas. But more on that later…

Needless to say this game will be the focal point of my gaming activities for a long time to come… and as for UT2004, let’s just say I’m about ready to delete it from my computer - permanently. You can get the demo here. (740 MB)

Unreal Tournament 3

This demo has already replaced the original Unreal Tournament as my all-time favorite in the series!

 
Some measure of roleplaying action was provided this month as well, but not by Neverwinter Nights 2: Mask of the Betrayer as you might have expected, but by CDProjekts’ debut game The Witcher. It’s been receiving stellar ratings across the worldwide interweb and for good reason. The game is not only visually striking, in large part due to the amazing animation, but also an absolute blast to play. The story and game world is incredibly immersive, with excellent voice acting and use of cutscenes, while granting a great measure of freedom to the player and a lot of depth.

I tend to enjoy the more complex roleplaying games - and this game gives me everything I could want and more. You could call it more than a little bit overwhelming, but because it’s amazingly streamlined and intuitive, it’s also thoroughly enjoyable for casual players. A friend of mine who likes hack & slash RPGs but dislikes games like Baldur’s Gate, vastly prefers this game over Hellgate: London and even calls it the best RPG he’s ever played… yikes. And I’ve seen similar praise, even from fans of longtime classics like Baldur’s Gate and Planescape Torment.

As if two modern classics weren’t enough, The Witcher rounds up the month beautifully as a third genuine modern classic - and serious Game of the Year contender. PC gaming is dead? Sure doesn’t look like it!

The Witcher

The best RPG ever made? Maybe not, but definitely the best in a long, long time!

 
The final game I’ll cover in this log is the recently released Crysis singleplayer demo. It certainly does justice to the many screenshots and videos in almost looking photo-realistic. This is beyond a shadow of a doubt the most beautiful game ever created - and it runs quite decently in 1600×1200 resolution at high settings on my PC. Aside from the impressive visuals the demo also impresses in terms of storytelling. I loved the way they integrated cutscenes and professional voiceovers in the game - and it actually made me want to play more towards the end.

Unfortunately on the gameplay front it felt very reminiscent of Far Cry, which I never found to be particularly enjoyable. It might look and sound the part, but on the gameplay front - in spite of a few innovations - it feels quite generic. Fortunately the amazing graphics and engaging story tend to suck you in, in spite of any gameplay shortcomings, which makes this yet another serious Game of the Year contender in what was already the most impressive gaming month since… ever? Definitely worth a try if you can run it (and reportedly it runs on PCs well below supposed minimum specs).

Get the demo here. (1.77 GB)

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