Apocalypso's Atomic Arcade

2009/12/19

Fallout 3: Game of the Year Available on D2D

Fallout 3 GOTY edition has been out for a couple of months , and now the game is available on digital distribution sites like Direct2Drive.

I’ve just been playing this recently along with some other games. I started the Point Lookout DLC just yesterday. They say this is the best out of all of them. I’ve also played Operation Anchorage and The Pitt, but that was when I bought the first retail pack with both of them in. This is why I avoided buying the second retail pack, because I was waiting for the GOTY edition.

The Fallout 3 Game of the Year edition includes Fallout 3 as well as all the DLC packs - Operation Anchorage, The Pitt, Broken Steel, Point Outlook, and Mothership Zeta.

Ignore the average D2D reader score of 6.6 on the site. It’s a very good deal with practically 6 games in one. The only deal this good was likely the Orange Box years ago.

Each of the DLC packs were originally priced at $10, and with the GOTY edition priced at $49,95 on D2D (slightly cheaper than Steam - by a few cents, lol), you’re basically paying for the DLC packs and getting the original game, Fallout 3, free. The only way you can buy the individual DLC packs online is through Games for Windows Live.

You can still get the retail version of Fallout 3 GOTY edition though, and cheaper too – for the PC at least.

Note: I’m just giving some advice here as regards playing the GOTY edition. It works best with a clean install, and perhaps even with a saved game with an unmodified game if you all ready have Fallout 3 on your PC. You’ll need a patched version of F3 if you don’t use the GOTY edition. If you’ve played any of the DLC packs before, the save games may not work properly if at all, seeing as the DLC packs are essentially reinstalled. I found this out the hard way.

Buy Fallout 3: Game of the Year Edition at D2D

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Fallout 3: Game of the Year Edition Hits Steam

2009/12/18

The Simpsons and Worms #2: So It’s Come to This

At one point I posted about an observation I made while watching reruns of old seasons of The Simpsons. What I talked about was that the episode called “Stark Raving Dad” contained several quotes of speech that were used in the game called Worms.

Well, recently I saw another episode of The Simpsons called “So It’s Come to This: A Simpsons Clip Show”, and upon listening to some of the quotes, I also recognised a few that were used in Worms, particularly the part where Homer is teaching Bart to shave, and after nicking himself with the razor several times, he applies aftershave, and afterwards Homer is in excruciating agony, as you can imagine (well, if you’re a man and ever put a whole handful of aftershave on an open cut or two or three). These sounds were split and used individually in the “Simpsons” theme in Worms for the sounds the worms made when falling or tumbling on the ground.

This was also the episode that contained the famous 32 D’ohs in a row clip. This was partially recreated by Jon St. John in a recording session for a Duke Nukem game. He managed about 11.

2009/12/17

Twenty Years of The Simpsons Today

On this day, 17 December 1989, the debut episode of The Simpsons aired on Fox. That’s twenty years ago; two decades.

The Simpsons is by far my favourite animated comedy series. Sure, there are others that I’ve seen, like South Park, and even a British series called 2DTV, which I only ever saw one series of – I’m not sure if they made any others, and of course Family Guy, which as far as I know doesn’t show here in S.A., but The Simpsons has been running longer, and most of the time, it’s been better.

I came across an article on Digg, originally from Yahoo news about the twentieth anniversary of the hilarious little program that started off as a Christmas special which grew into an ongoing series, and nowadays a cultural icon. There was a movie made in 2007, and there’ve been games based on The Simpsons and lots of other merchandise too, all featuring Bart (an anagram for brat), Lisa, the irritating feminist-wannabe, Maggie, the eternal baby, Marge, the gravelly-voiced mother with a curious hairdo, and Homer, the highlight of the show, as well as numerous other characters from the series. Marge even appeared in Playboy recently (that’s how hard up Playboy is right now, and has been for the last several years, because of the internet – it has to feed off of The Simpsons’ success). The Simpsons characters have even appeared on US postage stamps – madness.

It’s hard to believe it’s been so long. I’ve been watching the program since the early nineties, and right now on Vuzu, channel 123 on DSTV, they’ve been showing all the past episodes of The Simpsons, right from the very first one and then on to the first season and beyond, including one of the more infamous episodes, “Stark Raving Dad”, which featured the voice of the legendary late Michael Jackson.

Many stars have made appearances on the show, with their voices and likenesses, even including politicians and such. At the end of every episode, I usually wait until the end of the credits just to see if it really was Michael Jackson, only to see that it was “John Jay Smith”, which actually turned out to be a pseudonym for the man. I rarely do this with any other program.

To celebrate the twentieth anniversary, there will be a documentary called "The Simpsons 20th Anniversary Special in 3D on Ice", to be directed by Morgan Spurlock, who made "Super Size Me", and it will air next year – a weird choice of director, but anyway.

Matt Groening, the show’s creator, has said that there may be the possibility of another Simpsons movie in the future.
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Doh! The Simpsons still young and yellow at 20

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20091213/ts_afp/entertainmenttelevisionussimpsons_20091213031833

Rumour: F.E.A.R. 3: Project Hades Possibly Revealed

It seems there’s more on the trail of blood as concerns F.E.A.R.3.

It was initially spotted by Mountain Dew…whoops, I mean Superannuation, like a lot of things, on a CV belonging to one Joel Cueller, an ex-Monolith artist: the title of “Project Hades”.

People have immediately assumed that the name is the subtitle of F.E.A.R. 3. Seeing as it’s in development at Monolith, and that the previous title in the series, F.E.A.R.2 had the subtitle of “Project Origin”, which was originally the actual title (complicated stuff, don’t ask), it’s not hard to see why.

Cueller also worked on F.E.A.R. 2: Project Origin and its DLC packs while still at Monolith.

In the F.E.A.R. universe, there are a lot of Projects: Project Origin, Project Icarus, Project Perseus, Project Harbinger, and Project Paragon. So Project Hades must be a new one then.

Add to this the rumours that have been going around about F.E.A.R. 3 over the past few months, and the ending up F.E.A.R.2, and it’s quite clear that even if Project Hades isn’t F.E.A.R.3, that title will most certainly be in the cards for the future.

F.E.A.R. 2: Project Origin wasn’t a bad game, but it was different somehow, and arguably not as hard hitting as the original. F.E.A.R. was one of 2005’s most anticipated titles, and upon release was named GOTY by some publications and even spawned a series of machinimas in the P.A.N.I.C.S. series. Project Origin was one 2009’s sleeper hits, and has since faded in to obscurity.

I think they should get someone like Clive Barker in to work on the F.E.A.R. series. He would make that game scary and weird as hell, maybe even more so than the first one. Remember Undying and Jericho?

That’s what it needs to be – scary. That’s what the title, even though it’s an acronym, is supposed to indicate. I seem to remember the replica soldiers, even the weakest ones, in the first game being a lot bigger and scarier than the ones in the sequel.

2009/12/16

Video Game Deals: PSP and DS Deals at Amazon

PSP

Pinball Heroes: Uncharted [Online Game Code] - $3.99 - Save $36.00

Beaterator [Online Game Code] - $19.99 - Save $20.00

Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars [Online Game Code] - $29.99 - Save $10.00

Mario & Luigi Bowser's Inside Story - $25.00 - Save $8.99

The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks - $25.00 - Save $8.99

Tony Hawk's Motion - $17.79 - Save $9.80

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http://www.nowinstock.net/

News: ZeniMax Media Has The Rights to Rage

Day of Reconciliation (SA)

Although that headline may seem as though their planning some horrible sort of revenge on the world (which they might be), it’s actually related to the game Rage, by id Software, currently still in development.

Previously, EA was going to publish the game, but ZeniMax Media recently acquired the publishing rights to the title, and has said that Bethesda Softworks will publish the title when it’s released, hopefully next year.

Earlier this year, ZeniMax bought id Software to add to their stable which includes Fallout 3 developer Bethesda. This was a move that shocked most of the world, or at least the gaming population, seeing as id, up until then, had remained independent for 17 years.

As regards the publishing rights being shifted to Bethesda Softworks, some people have claimed that EA got shafted on the whole deal, and that it was coming for months, but EA claims there are no hard feelings, and wishes them all the best. It’s nothing personal; it’s business.

As Loot Ninja wrote though, why should ZeniMax pay EA, an outside, third party company to publish the title, when they can do it themselves? Initially after the buyout earlier this year, id’s next shooter, Doom 4, was going to be the first game by id published by BethSoft, but now that’s going to change, and Rage will be the first. It will also be the title to debut the id Tech 5 engine. That should mean it will be called the “Rage engine” for some time, and not something else, like the Doom, Quake, Quake II, Quake III, or Doom 3 engine. Damn, that’s also a first.

ZeniMax is going to handle all sales and marketing as regards Rage, and issued a press release with all this information, among it, saying that Rage’s development will be unaffected by this issue.

The game should be out in 2010 on PC, Mac, Xbox 360, and PS3.

Got Some More Classic Games on the Weekend

I posted the other day about how I went Christmas shopping and ended up picking up something for myself: Operation Flashpoint GOTY Edition. Well, I went Christmas shopping on the last weekend as well, and went to Musica once again, where I picked up four classics: Thief II: The Metal Age, Deus Ex, Hitman 2: Silent Assassin, and Dark Messiah of Might and Magic. All of these were between R50 and R70 each.

Right now I’m playing Deus Ex. It’s the first time I’ve played this game in years. Even though the AI, animation, and graphics aren’t that good (even when it was released), it’s still a good story and addictive gameplay that reminds me of System Shock 2.