I thought you had linked to that recent news story.
No idea about that other things, but I won't ever use Steam. :) 

http://www.shacknews.com/laryn.x?story=56213
The maps look like some stuff from the geo competitions for quake3, looks pretty damn nice. 

Odd that they made it FPS instead of thirdperson, but that's the new cool.

http://www.bornegames.com/mirrors-edge-beta/

Is the not bad for what it is flash version. 

I hate the acronym DLC for some reason. I always forget what it means.

The Mirrors Edge flash game is just a beta, but I think it's fantastic. I posted it earlier in the thread. Definitely hoping for a proper release. 

DownLoadable Content. 

heh, thanks, but I just mean that it takes me a few seconds to recall each time. I usually think of the Sega Dreamcast first for some reason.

This game is shit, but addictive:
http://www.kongregate.com/games/mofunzone/damn-birds
Damn birds! 

And you really can't beat the sound quality.

http://puzzlefarter.com/ 

Finished it yesterday. Daz: the point of no return is the end of the main quest story line, the game ends after you've turned on the machine. So it's a bit different from Stalker.

By and large a nice game, I guess. The world design was good for the most part, although sometimes the destruction/junk placement felt a little forced and unrealistic. Everything has a gritty look to it which is good, but also made the world feel repetitive after a while. The Oblivion engine wasn't such a good choice - the models and animation are average, and the lighting really sucks. It's just ugly minlight with no variation in contrast at all. I understand that reasons of performance played into this considering the huge viewing distance, but they could have at least tried lightmaps or whatever. Strangely enough, the game ran mostly smooth for me on high settings on the outside, but often stuttered a bit in inside levels. Very short loading times.

The buildings and especially the caves reminded me of Oblivion, too, for they pretty much all looked alike and thus made me lose interest in exploration quickly. Navigating through the Washington DC ruins became particularly annoying after a while, with the need to use the subway tunnels and all. At other times, exploration was rewarded with the discovery of unique locations or quests, but there could have been more. Despite all the stuff (radar locations) one can discover, there isn't much incentive left after a while (even more so because there're hardly any good items to find, unless you're a cup or finance clipboard collector) - the world feels pretty lifeless. And its boudaries are clipped off.

The overall number of quests is fairly low (though sometimes there were things without being labeled quests). The main story line is pretty short and I guess in this respect it didn't help that I discovered father's location by accident and thereby skipped a number of in-between main quests. The two quests that really stood out in my view were Oasis (Harold) and Tranquility Lane (remember that magical painting in Oblivion?). The ending felt rushed and pointless.

Gameplay was easy, but that's ok (even with the game's level cap at 20, which I reached quickly). Played mostly in first person perspective and realized only later that third person view helped a little in creating a somewhat more RPGish feeling (despite the retarded-looking player model). VATS targeting system for el consoleros was fun sometimes (especially the excessive gibbing), but more often than not, at least in the beginning, manual aiming payed off more. Lockpicking minigame was ok for a while, hacking sucked.
The Karma thing didn't really work out - it seems you have to try hard to be evil. Will do that next time around.

It's good that more and more FPS games now seem to go into the sandbox direction - I'm interested in what comes out of it. 

My one wish with Fallout 3 is that the character creation would have had a fast path. I like experimenting with different builds and it's hard to stomach starting the game over and over again if I have to go through things like the interminable birthday party. Other than that, it's a great game! Loved, loved, loved it! 

Willem, they give you an "are you sure" prompt as you're leaving 101 for the first time (with the ability to alter whatever you wish), so if you made a save game right before that, you could just load it up to experiment with different builds. I like doing the same thing, and have already decided I'm going to try (try) to be a bit more of a bastard next time through, even though I'm usually too much of a giant flapping vagina and start feeling guilty about being mean to people in a game. :p

negke, I actually sort of liked the hacking mechanic--were you aware that you could eliminate "dud" passcodes or even reset your count by highlighting gibberish between matching pairs of < >, ( ), or { }?

I haven't played as much as you guys have, and haven't been able to play for about a week--I had just hit level 14--but Fallout 3 is certainly in my top 10 of all time. Maybe even top 5. 

"negke, I actually sort of liked the hacking mechanic--were you aware that you could eliminate "dud" passcodes or even reset your count by highlighting gibberish between matching pairs of < >, ( ), or { }? "

Really? Shit, that's definitely worth trying, thanks! 

I didn't know that. Then again, I accidentally closed the hacking manual without reading it (if that was mentioned at all).
In the end, I just tried regular terminals and didn't care if the hack failed, and did a lame quickload action for terminals I deemed important. 

An entirely successful attempt to create a bland, meaningless, Z-list turd of a console port.

Also has bonus fucked up key bindings. 

http://uk.pc.ign.com/dor/objects/3880/duke-nukem-forever/images/duke-nukem-forever-20081218042325717.html?page=mediaFull

I just hope they dont get cold feet ad pull it again.... 

Errr yeah. 

Very good Russian humour. I'd cite from the site, but you'll really have to read for yourself. I laughed.

This is the same MG tower but the soldier is equipped with a missile launcher instead of machinegun. The soldier is also given a piece of bacon for greezing the barrel and a bottle of whiskey for cleaning the aiming optics.

If you have ever been in the army, you will find this funny.

http://btanks.sourceforge.net/blog/about-game/enemies-and-monsters/ 

Mines are effective equally against troops and vehicles. They have winning appearance, and are easy to install and use.

Five fully equipped troops are frozen and GZIPped into standard rectangular bricks. Before refrigeration, each trooper is prepared using special hormons and steroids, and can be used in action after quick microwave-aided defreezing. Shipped in two versions with machine guns and handheld rocket launchers.

Boomerang rocket is an accidental modification of the homing missile that has been found after beta drivers were installed from a damaged CD

argh. I'll stop now, because I have to compile it. 

http://store.steampowered.com/app/7670/

Bioshock now �3.50 on steam, if you haven't bought it already! 

if the fucking stupid store will actually let you buy anything.

Thanks valve! 

why not go and, er, maybe no. wouldnt want to start a flame war..... 

It's been a couple of months since I've played a full game, having kept myself busy with Half-Life mods. Most of which were fairly average, but of course the engine was designed in 1996. I read a review for Vietcong which mentioned the game being only marginally better looking than the high-definition updated Half-Life. So, as usual, I wasn't expecting much, but Vietcong definitely delivered. The visuals were great, albeit outdated by todays standards. But compared to it's competitiors of the time; Medal Of Honor and Call Of Duty, Vietcong looks just as good. But it's hard to compare because most of the battles in Vietcong take place in lush jungle and bush.

The waterfalls, rivers, rotting trees and bush everywhere creates an atmosphere I have not yet played in game. The levels were also quite big, some of which you can easily get lost in. Although there is a fairly linear path, you often need your teammates to guide you through because it doesn't always look linear.

Which brings us to another aspect that Vietcong suceeded at compared to most other first person shooters - team mates. You team mates don't really get in your, they don't get stuck or lost, the aren't complete idiots that run into bullets. Your pointman also shows you the way, although at a snails pace. You don't have to wait for them, they won't hold up your progression, but if they are around in a gunfight it's certainly helpful. There are a couple of levels where you're fighting with another team charging up a hilll towards some ruins full of Vietcongs, so you've got at least a dozen team mates charging up with up - a neat feeling.

The game does have some flaws though. The biggest being limited quicksaves. You can only use quicksave five times on normal difficulty - and with the instant deathtraps and when a single bullet can slash your health in half, you need unlimited quicksaves. Fortunately, you can get unlimited quicksaves on easy difficulty. But easy was actually still very fun, certainly not so easy that you can play with your eyes closed.

The other annoying thing was the limited amount of ammunition and weapons you can carry. One handgun, and one normal gun, but often you have to drop your weapons and pick up an enemies gun because you've run out of ammo. Actually picking up ammo is a timely matter, as is making countless radio calls in the middle of battle.

Vietcong was not a long game, probably ten hours max. But maybe it just felt short because I was having so much fun with it. Everything is very realistic, even killing your enemies as you need to hit them pretty well or they'll recover and keep shooting. Great graphics for 2003 and fun gameplay means I'm looking forward to playing the official addon pack and sequel. It's a pity the creators, Pterodon & Illusion Softworks, haven't done much else in this genre. But, how will this hold up against Men Of Valor, the only other successful Vietnam-based game released a year later... 

http://www.zachtronicsindustries.com/alchemy/alchemy.htm 

is like the best coop game ever. I doubt there are still any servers up, but I used to play online on the hardcore servers and it was totally ace. Probably on par with left 4 dead, just not as polished.

Hidden and Dangerous 2 Sabre Squadron has nice coop too, if anyone fancies revisiting old classic games with their mates to play coop. 

try being a radio man in vietcong... you actually have to use the map when calling in an airstrike, and as the map isn't full of detail and markers showing where stuff is, it's not impossible to miss the enemy completely or even blow yourself and team up. A neat touch. 

http://www.foddy.net/Evacuation.html

Unfortunately, some of hte random levels are stupidly easy, but you can move on quickly to a harder one.