Never Forgive.

Seems that THQ really digs the Warhammer 40k universe – they made a very good strategy game (and are making a sequel), they are making a WH 40K MMO (at least they claim they are), they made the FPS - Fire Warrior (which I didn’t like because Tau suck ;) ) and now they are conjuring an action game.
The game is simply called Warhammer 40000: Space Marine and seems to be a shooter slash brawler.
I can’t really give you much detail about it, because THQ did not provide us with any details.

I can however tell you that there was a video from an early build of the game that showed a lot of promise. Even in that early stage of development the graphics look very good and the art style is grim enough to make a good 3rd person WH 40k game.
The game is fairly brutal and features sweet, slow-motion finishers. The video showed the title Space Marine fighting the forces of Chaos (with very nice Chaos space marines) in an abandoned city under siege by Chaos soldiers. I really hope they will put some Tau in that game so I can gut them with my chainsword. Oh, oh, and Tyranids. Can I please have tyranids? 

It seems that the footage leaked without THQs consent and is being taken offline as soon as someone submits it.

Ah well, seems we’ll just have to wait for something substantial.

War can't be THAT fun...

Ladies and gentlemen, Red Alert 3 is almost upon us. Yeah, yeah, the legend among legends, 5 gazillion copies sold, le RTS extraordinaire, whatever... All I can say is - have you seen how damn colorful this thing is?

No, not that colorful like in the screenshot above - but you probably already know this; why, only 5 minutes ago you've been on the official website and followed the Three Steps. (Personally, I've completed two of them long time ago. I bought C&C First Decade.) Putting all the hype aside, I'm not sure if the creators have gone in a good direction with RA. I absolutely loved the first one. It was gray, serious, not totally overwhelmed with freak technology - it felt like war. After that, RA2 felt like a cartoon. Funny (not) characters, Tanya Adams wearing more make-up than ammo, the units being more hi-tech than their Tiberian Sun counterparts (I mean, really, whose idea was it to put two long-range siege cannons on a helicopter??) For me, Red Alert 2 was a damn comedy, not war. I didn't feel like an officer anymore - I felt like an actor playing in a cheap war flick.

What about RA3? The trailer looks promising enough - famous actors, decent CG, it looks like there may even be some actual plot. But then I look at the screenshots and everything goes to hell - wild, big-ass, unbelievable buildings, units likewise, more colors than the series has ever witnessed; sigh... a comedy after all...

Since Electronic Arts insists on making warzone look like Las Vegas at night, there must be many gamers out there who actually enjoy it. Well, yeah. I've heard MTV does this to people sometimes...

PS. No worries. I'll play the game. If only for Peter Stormare.

PS2. We are not dead! Just pretended! You guys are just so gullible...

Series update

Hi there. Just a quick piece of update on lowrestextures' series. After hours of long debates (actually just a few text messages) FallingStickman and myself have decided to go back to the roots and focus more on game reviews and editorials, instead of writing just Press Play on Tape and Open Your Ears and the some more Press Play on Tape again. From now on, both series will be posted on weekends, interchangeably. Yet, weep not tapes and ears fans, there's a brand new exciting series coming this summer. ;-)

Take care,
Your Loving EXramp

Update

You've probably noticed that things are a bit slow on Low-Res Textures. We've been basically only posting our weekly columns (and even that didn't happen once), but not much more. This is due to summer exams and a lot of other stuff going on. Worry not though, as we'll soon be back on the right track. A Silent Hill Origins review is coming soon, as well as a review/editorial about the Half-Life series.

I was also considering a Metal Gear Solid 4 review, but after much deliberation I have decided not to write one. Given the game's scope (especially in terms of plot) a review would not do justice to the game. An editorial in the future is very much possible, but it won't be soon, as I would need to post some spoilers, and I would like people to have a chance to finish the game by themselves first.

If EXramps decides to write a MGS4 review that is his prerogative.

Vigilante 8: Arcade

Hell Yeah! One of my favorite multiplayer games of all times is coming to XBL Arcade. To make things even better it won't be just a port of one of the original games, but an entirely new chapter in the 70' vehicle combat franchise. Build from the ground up for the XBLA it promisses 8 characters, user-customizable car paint, 5 new arenas, ovet-the top phisics, weapon pick-ups, power-ups online multiplayer for up to 8 people and (YES!) four-player split screen.

The authors also plan free and paid DLC.

Finally, I will have my revenge on my buddies for all the Bomberman Live games I've lost. Muahahahah... sorry.

If you never heard of or played Vigilante 8... well, shame on you. You can check the games out on Wikipedia for example.

Quo..., Qoue, Coocoo...

Sony announced an interesting project, interesting for me at least. It’s called Quo, Quor… I’m sorry, the name is too strange for me.
Anyway, this… thing is a kind of a monthly digital, online magazine. You’ll get interviews, movies, images and information about upcoming titles. Hell, you might even get a beta key for some games. Sony promises that about 90% of the content will be exclusive. Seems like an excellent idea to me.

The catch? Of course there is a catch, even two. First one, the service will be paid. If you pay monthly you’ll have to say bye-bye to about $3. If you care for an annual subscription you’ll have to pay about $25. Not a bad price if you ask me. Oh, and if you’ll get the annual subscription you’ll get a free PSN game (Calling All Cars).
The second catch? Even though it’s not a free service you will be exposed to commercials. This one is a bit strange. I wouldn’t mind if the commercials would be skippable, but it seems they are not. Oh well, can’t have it all.

But hey, I’ll try anything once.

A side not to Sony.
However you would stretch the rules of English pronunciation it’s simply impossible to say Qore the same way as Core. Am I niggling? Sure am.

Burndown

It comes as a bit of a shock for me, but Burnout Paradise was actually announced for PC by Criterion (although I smell the stench of EA around this).
Normally I’m all for making PC ports of good console games (and vice versa), but this time I’m all against.
There are some games that just shouldn’t be converted. I think that’s the case with most PC RTSes and a few strictly console titles – like Devil May Cry, or …Burnout.
Those are games that require fluid animation and constant frame rates - something a PC just can’t deliver (for anyone who played DMC3 on PC…Christ).
Even though the guys from Criterion said on their podcast that it’s gonna run smoothly even on old PCs, I really doubt it will be as smooth as on the consoles. Don’t get me wrong, I believe in Criterion’s developers – they are very skilled programmers, but I don’t believe in PC architecture.
You can check the podcast on www.criteriongames.com. Also, there is a video showing BP running on a laptop and some hi-res PC screenshots (the game looks very plastic on them).

I find this to be a travesty and a failed idea (sponsored by EA). Let’s hope I’m wrong.

Go ahead PC fanboys, hate me.

Changes

Our blog is undergoing changes and might look like crap for the next few days. Fear not though as it should look much better once we're done with it.

He'll make games of your dreams

Some interesting news come straight from Germany. Uwe Boll decided to finish his career as a movie director and open his own game design company - the Stuhldrang Studio will, simiallry to Maxis, focus mainly on making sim games. Their first title will be a movie director simulation.

When asked what made him change careers Boll responded laconically - "I got bored with making movies."

Stay tuned for more info about the infamous director's games.

Happy Easter

The Low-res Textures team wishes you Happy Easter (better late than never)!
May all your gaming wishes become a reality!

Readers wanted

As you probably noticed we haven't written anything for Press Play on Tape last week, or actually haven't written anything at all. This was mainly because of the depressing fact that we didn't have new visitors on the site for a few weeks in a row (at least acording to statistics). No use writing if there is nobody reading it (excluding Madaraczlep, our faitful reader).

If I am wrong - there are people reading our blog, I encourage you to take part in our poll.

Back to the past...

Konami confirmed that they will release a Metal Gear Solid: Essential Collection for PS2 - a compilation of the playstation platform MGS games (the original MGS for PSOne, MGS2: Substance and MGS3: Subsistance).

Konami did not say when or where the package will be released, but some american stores claim that it will be out sometime in March. Wheter or not MGS: ES will be released in Europe is unknown.

Even though the reasons to release this package are obvious (Money!) I, for one, would gladly sell my kidney to buy it.