barely fatal

With so many sites showing Windows Vista screenshots – the RC 1 can be expected soon – and the Mac fanboys waving their flame swords, I thought I’d give it a try, too. Since I don’t have a PC at hand I could use (more like dare) for a standard install, I tried installing it on Virtual PC and Virtual Server. I even got me the latest beta of Virtual Machine Additions. It installed alright, and in Safe Mode it even runs acceptably. However, don’t think of running it in Normal Mode with the Glass themes on a VPC – I didn’t even manage to make the Start Menu unfold, it’s so incredibly slow. Do any of you have some experience how to speed it up or is it absolutely useless, with the bad graphics driver emulation and stuff?

By the way, I also tried the Office 2007 Beta. Some of the standard apps like Word really look different now, clean, much more workflow oriented. Totally new way to access the menus – it’s a lot easier to find what you need in the options screens. It’s all in the same line as the new IE7. We should expect to need time for the adjustment, though. I liked it so far.

This months turns out to be a demo festival of some sort:

El Matador is a straight-forward 3rd-person shooter. Pros: A lot of detailed objects make the levels seems bigger and more realistic than they really are. Contras: Graphics lack next-gen effects and shaders (‘cept the water). A.I. lacks … everything, basically. Enemies hide, but then they run right into the fireline – and don’t get me started on the friendly A.I. Animations are funny at times. Weak collision detection. Levels 100% linear. Bad weapons models. I can’t say much about the story … there are drug dealers. You shoot them.

Joint Task Force is an RTS set in the present. So you get to use Abrams, Apaches, Humvees and you … shoot drug dealers. And terrorists. Well, you can’t build bases: You start out with a small team and when you accomplish an objective, you get money. Your commanding officer then buys the reinforcements. A lot of micro management, but really big levels and great graphics. It plays well, I found it pretty hard, but rewarding. This one’s really good, I think.

Just Cause is something between GTA, FarCry and Boiling Point. You start on a big tropical island (in the demo) and you are free to do what you want – unless you want to fulfill your mission. Which is, by coincidence, killing drug dealers, and terrorists. And corrupt banana republic military. You can jack cars, bikes, boats, helicopters, … and you shoot stuff. Lots. Physics? A joke. Graphics? Pretty enough with day and night cycles. It really plays a lot like GTA, and that’s not a bad thing.

El Matador has not been rated in Germany. Now the game risks to be banned. The devs want to quickly change the german version. No blood, and the main character (you) is gonna be a bad guy. Huh? How does that help? Whatever. I wouldn’t recommend the game anyway.

So I tried the Bad Day LA demo. Graphics are poor, gameplay is stupid, the idiotic main character is even worse. Keep your hands off.

The Paraworld demo comes with a $ 5000 multiplayer contest. It’s gonna be the next e-sports game and it’s not even out yet. It looks pretty and it’s balanced well. The two available ‘tribes’ play differently, in short: the game makes (almost) everything right. However, the game feels like I have seen it before. All in all they took all the best from the “Age of …” and the “…craft” games. The new ‘army controller’ feature is nice but nothing too fancy or revolutionary and I miss a few comfort features. So, for me it’s only another RTS, although a rather good one – at least up to now.

So I also played a few rounds of FEAR Combat. It’s great! The different game modes allow tactical team play. You choose a gun – there are no weapon spawns – so you have ‘classes’. The intense battles known from FEAR make every single fight a challenge – you die easily, so you are cautious. I’ll definetely play more.

Today, Monolith released the multiplayer part of F.E.A.R. (First Encounter Assault Recon, aka The Game They Called Stupid) for free download. You do not need the full version of the game, just download the multiplayer client and off you go: It’s called FEAR Combat.

I must confess, my excursions into FEAR multiplayer have been short, but they built in many new game modes since my last visit. From what I’ve seen and heard so far, it’s worth the download. The system requirements have always been steep for the highest quality levels, so be warned.

Wanna play a game, anyone?