If you were playing PC games in the early 2000's, you probably remember a little game called Unreal Tournament 2004. If you were like me, while you weren't scoring Headshots or Monster Kills on as many noobs as possible, you were trying out as many mods as possible. Single player mods. Multiplayer mods. They were all fun, and it was nice to partake in what had become a thriving community of creative and innovative game developers both in and out of the industry.

One of my favorite single player mods was a little top-down shooter made in the obvious spirit of Starship Troopers. It became so popular that the mod mades it onto the Editors Choice edition of the game. The game was very fun and introduced coop play into the Unreal world by introducing classes that worked together and possessed unique abilities. And with enemy being the everyone's favorite target (bugs), it was fun for hours.

Well, the folks at Value hired that original team of modders and have rereleased the game on Steam. The best part.... its free!!



The keeps all the same stuff I loved from the original game. The top down POV, the bugs, and the classes. Here is a class break down:

Officer

Grants a passive bonus to damage and damage resistance to nearby allies. He has access to a class-restricted shotgun with an incendiary grenade launcher and has general all-around abilities. They are also capable of throwing extra amounts of explosive ordnance, and may find class-restricted ammo caches on the field for his Vindicator shotgun. The two playable characters are Sarge and Jaeger.

Carries a motion sensor, can set up sentry guns faster, welds doors faster, and is the only class capable of unlocking certain door panels or completing certain objectives by means of a hacking minigame. They also have access to a prototype assault rifle with auto aiming capabilities and the ability to fire stun grenades. The two playable characters are Crash and Vegas.

Special Weapons

Brings raw damage to the table and starts out with a customized autogun with superior parameters, high magazine capacity, and auto aiming ability. The Special Weapons gains access to a powerful minigun at a high enough level, and can pick up class-restricted ammo caches on the field. The two playable characters are Wildcat and Wolfe.

Medic

Is able to equip and deploy temporary healing beacons, and at a high enough level can use a "healing gun" to selectively heal teammates and themselves. The two playable characters are Faith and Bastille.

Tech

Carries a motion sensor, can set up sentry guns faster, welds doors faster, and is the only class capable of unlocking certain door panels or completing certain objectives by means of a hacking minigame. They also have access to a prototype assault rifle with auto aiming capabilities and the ability to fire stun grenades. The two playable characters are Crash and Vegas.

So why the free release? Well, it doesn't look like there is much "game" behind the game. From what I have seen and read, the story and levels are pretty simplistic. G4 TV (where I first heard about this, sorry I don't have a link) gave me the impression that when Value hired these guys, they main took the previous code and game assets, did a little bit of retooling and tweaking and released the game. Accompanying the game is an SDK allowing players create their own levels and possibly story-lines.

So the idea I am getting it this: Value is just floating the concept around. If it catches momentum and gets really popular, perhaps they will retool the entire thing and make an actual game out of it. Otherwise, they will let it evaporate and put the newly employed modders onto other Value projects.

Regardless of the intent or plans, we should all be thanking Value for the opportunity to play this awesome, bug-shoot-em-up game. And for free?? Who can pass that up?

What causes you to buy a gaming console? Is it the peer pressure from your friends enticing you to game with them? Fanboyism toward a certain console? For me, it is none of those. It is the games.

I can remember when I (emphasis on 'I'. Before then, my mom bought them) bought my very first console it was not for the promise of the fun I might have with others. It was because there was a game out that looked so cool that I had to drop $300+ on the whole thing. For the Playstation--which later translated into my love for the PS2, it was Final Fantasy VII. For the Xbox 360, it was Mass Effect. Both games that would easily make it into my personal top 5.

I have been waiting for that game that forces me to buy a Playstation 3. Uncharted has been close. The first Infamous was closer, but I think Infamous 2 just might hook me. I can't really say why or even if it will happen for sure, but this gameplay trailer from IGN sure gets me close to taking the plunge.

Check it out:

Are you an MMORPG enthusiasts? Tired of World of Warcraft? Or are you just looking for a new game to help you waste the what is left of the summer? Well, you might be in luck. Final Fantasy XI (the mmo chapter of the Final Fantasy universe) is on sale in Steam store. What's included in this package can be seen as either an act of charity or desperation depending on your point-of-view. Regardless it is nice. For $5, you get the game itself, four expansions, and one free month of service. A nice deal.

I played the game a while back when it had first come out. It was okay. I didn't play it long enough to generate an opinion worth posting. The only thing I remember was the double-edged sword that came with leveling your character. Your traditional experience with MMO leveling is generally take with little give. Sure, you might damage your armor or end up with resurrection sickness for a few minutes, but the penalties for dying in PVE are minimal.

Not in FFXI. When you die, you lose xp. Kind of like Dark Age of Camelot. But unlike DAOC, you can lose enough xp to drop in level. In DAOC, once you hit that level, you were there to stay. I used to kill my character in DAOC constantly to get him out of a dungeon or back to a city quickly. I tried that crap once after hitting a new level in FFXI, next thing I know I get a notice I lost a level. My fault for thinking all MMO's are the same, but really... WTF?

Regardless, this is an excellent deal. If I wasn't in the middle of Darksidders and Crackdown 2, I'd give it a shot. Maybe next time.

I can't say I'm shocked. I know I have spend my fair share on Xbox Live Points.

How much is Xbox Live really worth? All it took was a little back of the envelope figuring for Bloomberg to come up with $1 billion in annual revenue for Microsoft's fiscal year, ending June 30.

While Microsoft's been mum about revenue from its online entertainment service for the Xbox 360, Bloomberg simply multiplied the number of users Microsoft admits paid the annual Xbox Live fee--half of 25 million, or 12.5 million--by the $50 fee itself and came up with about $600 million.

They then took Xbox chief operating officer Dennis Durkin's remark that sales of downloadable content topped subscription revenue for the first time--at least $600 million in additional dollars, that is--and landed at upwards of $1.2 billion total.

Link

I don't know why they are "mum" on the info. With Apple recently passing Microsoft as the tech king of America, you would think that numbers like those mentioned would bring in some more investors.

Whatever helps... am I right?