Minimum Requirements –

* Windows XP SP2 or Windows Vista SP1
* P4 3.2 GHz (single core) or any Dual Core processor
* 1 GB RAM (XP), 1.5 GB RAM (Vista)
* A 128MB Video Card (Shader Model 3) - Nvidia GeForce 6600 GT / ATI X1600, or equivalent
* 5.5 GB of Hard Drive space

Recommended –

* Windows XP SP2 or Windows Vista SP1
* AMD Athlon 64×2 4400+ or any Intel Core 2 Duo
* 2 GB RAM (XP and Vista)
* A 256MB Video Card (Shader Model 3) - Nvidia GeForce 7800 GT / ATI X1900, or equivalent
* 5.5 GB of Hard Drive space

Dawn of War 2 will be released February 19th, 2009.

Prince Of Persia
Review

So, I’m just going to rant a bit about how I felt playing through Prince of Persia. The big thing that struck me right off the bat is you can’t die. Don’t think “o he’s saying that just because it’s an easy game” no, you literally can not die. If you jump off a cliff, miss an edge, or get slain by an enemy your trust magic friend Elika will be there to pick you back up and let you carry on your merry way. This helps the game be more enjoyable for all levels of gamers, one of my friends who had only played one game in her life got enticed to play as I drove the “you can’t die” factor home.

Elika (pictured above)

There is plenty of the old school Prince of Persia, flag pole swinging, wall running, puzzle solving type of stuff with a limited amount of combat. The controls are like Assassin’s Creed’s but instead of holding buttons you just tap them once you reach a certain point. So to run along a wall you run up to it, tap A to jump, push the toggle stick towards the wall and bam, you’re wall running. Tap A again to jump off, or you fall off after a certain amount of time.

There is also these magic “steps” on the walls
The Step of Ormazd(Rebound)(Pictured Below)

Each color does different things, for instance yellow makes you fly, and the red above launches (rebounds) you fast to a set area, after pushing Y upon landing on it.

Combat in the game is all based on combos. At first I got an extreme God of War feel to the combat because how it explains it is “X, then push A, then push Y” that kind of thing, and you watch him do his thing to the enemy. The scenes are sweet to watch when you first start playing the game, but eventually you learn the best combo and stick to it, seeing the same thing over and over. The lack of enemy models also makes combat very repetitive very fast. There is only 2 regular character models, one weak soldier type and one bigger you have to knock him into things kinda boss. Having this boss being beat only by knocking him into certain areas makes the battles sometimes long and aggrivating. That is why it took me this long to finish the game and write this review.

All in all, I enjoyed this game up until the half way point and then it seemed to drag on. The story is pretty bland and the voice acting is brutal, I mean you’re the prince of persia and there is no lick of an accent at all. You also pull some witty teenage humor at parts which ruined it for me at times.

I’d give it a 7 / 10.

The only beef I have right now is that, since I live in Canada, they are catering to the french speaking population a bit too much for my liking. The hardcover art book that I paid my hard earned money for is actually 100% in french. There is an art book, soft cover and cheaper quality that is in English, but honestly, there are more English people in Canada than french. I don’t understand why they would do this, but I guess it is an art book, you’re not really reading too much. Well thats my 2 cents, now it’s time to get the gears of war rolling once again.

Kotaku.com has some great screens up from Left 4 dead.

Fallout 3 comes out tomorrow and I could not be more excited. I’ll have to wait to get home from school before I can play this one, but man it should be good. I can’t wait to try out VATS and make custom weapons out of random pieces.  The first 2 fallout games were very different games it seems, but I like where Bethesda is taking this franchise.  It really seems to engulf the player in the environments giving you more of a realistic feeling.  There also seems to be a wide range of guns in the game which will keep you searching for others. Well, just waiting for midnight..

There is a new fallout 3 contest running until November 3rd, check it out!

IGN also gave it a 9.6 review! Read more at IGN

Happy post apocalyptic adventures to all!

It’s been a few days now since Fable 2 was released, thus allowing us some time to experience the new world of Albion. Fable 2 is a hack and slash rpg type with a little life simulation thrown in. As you explore Albion you can buy houses, get married, have children, slay countless numbers of monsters, and make many morale decisions. If you have not experienced Fable before, you can still pick up Fable 2 and not worry about being behind or left out of the loop when it comes to the storyline. The game takes place 500 years later than the first games events wrapped up.

The combat system seems very similar to the first game allowing you a choice of a ranged weapon, a melee weapon, and a magic ability.

Ranged weapons come in three shapes, crossbows, rifles, and pistols.
Rifles are the most powerful, but are the slowest, crossbows are the ‘middleman’ being average in speed and damage, and respectively pistols are the fastest ranged weapon but also the weakest.

Melee weapons vary between 4 shapes there is a sword, cleaver, mace, and an axe. Weapon details are listed in game if you toggle the right stick when you have the weapon selected you can see its speed. Generally the maces and axes are the slowest weapons.

Magic abilities all come with a ranged attack as well as an area of effect (except the summoning spell has no aoe, and the time spell well, slows down time).

The story is really well put together in Fable 2, it flows well. You can easily get sidetracked and go on side missions, but a handy little glowing trail helps guide you to whatever quest you choose. You are also allowed to quick travel to any places you’ve been to previously that you may need to return to. There is also a return of the Arena now called the Crucible.

Now to gain skills you must slay enemies causing them to drop orbs that you collect to use on gaining skills. You can put skills into Melee, Ranged, or Will (Magic). A really well rounded system, however I found that the Time spell dominated over the other spells. The spells require a charging time so you have to stand in one spot taking damage to unleash a lot of damage, it’s really not worth the wait. The time spell greatly helps combat allowing you to slow down time (after charging) or just simply appearing behind an enemy (instead of the shooting ability many other spells have ) which means as long as you slash them they can’t turn around to hit you. This works on almost all enemies, except for the Trolls. Trolls can easily be Defeated as long as you get the Roll ability and lock onto the Troll. If you are good with ranged weapons you can constantly circle the troll without taking damage because his attacks go right through you when you’re rolling (this is really helpful for the last round of the Crucible).

Fable 2 has been great fun for me so far and I am continuing to play as now a pure evil character. If you like ratings then I’d give this game an 8/10. Why 8?

Because of the Multiplayer. We were told from the start “revolutionary multiplayer” but we all know Peter Molyneux tends to say things like that. The multiplayer is kind of a let down, allowing you to enter into another persons world only to discover you have to choose a character from a few choices of heroes. So you cannot play your character with your friends character, it’s just not happening, even though that would make this game just over the top. The glowing friend orbs that move around the world as your friends play are a really nifty idea often leading to some random xbl messages. The singleplayer more than makes up for the lacking in the multiplayer department. Fable 2 is a great game, I’m really impressed.

Keep rocking the 360’s friends, support exclusive developers!

There has been a plethora of driving so far and using your map. Maps are simple enough to use and maneuver with in this game because you’re actually holding it up in your hands, guns down. Also, it feels a little like “Survivorman The Video Game” because I’ve been pulling bullets out of my arms and legs, ratcheting the heck out of cars, trying to fight off Malaria, and sleeping in some shanty rusted down shacks full of guns. As I play, I’ll let you know how my feelings change.

Gears of War 2 has now been found on torrent sites being downloaded like crazy. The file is 6.76gb which is massive, but regular size for games nowadays. Ironic how I posted yesterday and then, probably the most anticipated game this year, gets leaked this early! Gears of War 2 isn’t that far off from being released either which fits right in with when games are leaked. November 7th is when this drops, if you’re not playing this on your warranty voided modded xbox, hopefully I’ll see you online in November.

So recently there has been a surge of games that have been leaked to the internet.  First it started with Fallout 3 and the news was everywhere, then Far Cry 2 and Fable 2.  Although, since Fable 2 is 360 exclusive the number of copies downloaded will be way less as opposed to Far Cry 2 which was leaked on PC just recently.  Fallout 3 is still only leaked on the Xbox 360, which is good because many people are unwilling to break the law and mod their systems to accompany these leaked games.  It truly makes a fan of the gaming society sad to see this happen because you’re only hurting the companies that we love.  These companies pour hundreds of man hours into these games, working long hours to bring such great titles to us and people choose to repay them by downloading their games at no cost.  There is not much a company can do about this however, as with any big company, it is hard to keep tabs on such high numbers of people.  If you truly love a game, support the developers so we can have more!  The upside to this is we won’t be seeing these delinquents online as obtaining an original key will cost them money.

In short, lets support the developers so we can enjoy these games and look forward to many more classics!

 No firm date has been set yet, although there is word that December is when this will hit the streets. It has also been said that this will be an update free of charge.  You can read more about it at the official site.