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Here at Avid Gamer we love new technology and whenever news about some sexy new kit arises it gets us drooling. Any intelligent gamer knows that sound is as important as graphics or gameplay for a game as it adds atmosphere, tension and emotions. To fully experience gaming you really need a 5.1 (or even 7.1) speaker set or headphones. It is very difficult to find good gaming hardware that emulates the sound coming from a game so we’re always on the look for good audio technology.

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If you’re a football fan who enjoys playing the game then you’ve probably sat at home watching Sky Sports and thought to yourself “If only I was a football superstar.” At the start of 2008 that’ll become a possibility if you own broadband and a PC. The opportunity is coming in the form of Football Superstars, a unique MMO experience that ties together football, second life and reality. The game is being developed by CyberSports and they are hoping to grab gamers with their new take on the football video game. There is a previous preview of the game on the site, which can be found by clicking this link.

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As a companion to comments on Timeshift, I spent some time with the single player Xbox demo recently. Having largely ignored the game through development, it looks likely I’ll continue to do so- it seems to suffer from the increasingly common ailment amply described as “Not-Another-FPS” syndrome. I couldn’t say whether the time-bending aspect becomes more central to the experience within the full game, but the demo pedals scripted moments of time slowing/reversing, whilst the meat of the game can be approached like any other FPS you might like to name. Wrapped up in graphics blatantly optimised for the PC (think F.E.A.R with slightly better textures), a setting done to death (gritty sci-fi cityscape anyone?), and environment damage ripped from Red Faction (some walls fold like paper, others are impervious to all abuse), I was distinctly unimpressed. Most importantly Timeshift seems to take itself very seriously and subsequently lacks the fun factor, which immediately tempts me to look elsewhere.

Not a bad game by any means, but a bit uninspired at a time when competition is fierce!

Time-bending Antics

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It was four years ago that Infinity Ward split to create an independent studio. Its first game was a little known shooter called, ‘Call of Duty’ on the PC. The developers harnessed their previous experience from Medal of Honor titles and melded it into a new game. The original Call of Duty was one of the best ever FPS to ever hit the PC. It took the adrenaline filled MoH and turned the action-factor up to eleven. The game took the player through World War 2 which such sublime execution that it was immensely engrossing. The epic set pieces, (the Russian levels in particular) made the player believe that they were in that precise moment of warfare. Accompanying the single player experience, was an addictive and rewarding multiplayer mode that kept me entertained for hours at my local LAN cafe.

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It seems like today is the day of ‘Return of the King.’ Earlier today, I praised Infinity Ward for successfully taking the Call of Duty series in a new direction while keeping the core mechanics that made the original such a great game. While Call of Duty 4 seems to be fighting for the crown of ‘Best Single Player FPS,’ our old friend Unreal Tournament seems to assaulting for the Multiplayer Side. The last UT game we had was UT2004 and what a game it was. It took everything from UT and UT2003 and blended it into a face paced, frantic multiplayer orgy. It played near perfect, looked amazing (for its time) and was one of the best Online Shooters out there. It’s been almost 4 years, but Midway and Epic are on the edge of releasing Unreal Tournament 3.

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Fear is a funny emotion. The human mind works in curious ways and fear is one of the more complexities of it. Before this preview turns into an analysis of the human psyche, let me clarify something. FEAR was a scary game. It pulled jumps, frights and unease on the player to unnerve and worry them. Resident Evil was a scary game as it utilised the feeling of being helpless and against the odds to create tension and genuine fear. Doom 3 was on the right track, but as soon as you realised you had a gun, it lost all scare factor.

Clive Barker’s Jericho is upon us, so much so that I’ve given the PC version of the demo a thorough play through. For anyone unaware of who ‘Clive Barker’ is, he’s a horror author / director. You can literally feel the shivers down your spine with that knowledge. More important is the fact that the last game to do with him was ‘Clive Barker’s Undying.’ It was released in 2001 and had critical success, but sadly it commercially failed. Flash forward six years and another scare-fest, gore-ridden game is about to be released. This time, it’s a first person squad shooter. You can switch between all six members of the Jericho squad and utilise their different weapons and paranormal abilities.

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