Poor Gawain this just isn’t his year for games. First Mythica gets the axe and now Warhammer is dead. Below is the note found at the games webpage:

It is with a great deal of sadness that I have to inform the community that we have decided to discontinue the development of Warhammer Online and will be closing down this website with immediate effect.

This has been a difficult and painful decision but it was taken following a following a full review of the progress of the game, costs to date and future costs of the project. As a result both Games Workshop and Climax Development Limited, the computer games developer, have agreed to terminate the development project.

I would like to say a personal thanks to all of the people who have followed our development over the last few years, your constant support and enthusiasm has meant a great deal to us.

Robin Dews

And here are four screens showing a game that could have been:

It really is to bad the game got the axe. Read through their faq and see what you could have been playing.

Well I got a little time in with the game Guild Wars and I got to admit it’s kind of fun. But this is a pre alpha/beta kind of deal and there are bugs. Lots of bugs. Problems like joining a group and sending messages to people online that the game thinks is offline.

Gameplay is that of a mmorpg mixed with a Diablo hack and slash feel. Which isn’t a bad thing. All kinds of neat stuff I’m sure. But the documentation is non existent. One interesting thing is the way loot is handled. Any time your in a group and something drops the game assigns a player to pick it up. If you don’t pick it up in the designated time anyone can.

The graphics are pretty nice as the screen shots above show. It’s interface almost reminds me of World of Warcraft’s. Which probably is because some ex Blizzard guys are a part of the team developing this game.

If your going to try this one make sure to do so before the end of E3. This demo only is running for E3 and then after that who knows. It should be mentioned that guild support is not in the game yet, which is funny seeing how that is a selling point and part of the games name. It’s worth grabbing this demo just for the fact it’s such a small download. The content is downloaded as you go from area to area. Worth a shot for a free game if you like this kind of thing.

Here are some shots of Sacred. It does look and feel like the Diablo series of games. But it is 3d accelerated. The characters are all 3d and the background is 2d. Overall I think it looks ok.

It should be noted that my screen shots show blood and gore. The US version of the game has no blood and gore. To enable gore on a US version of the game you have to first find a UK exe and then use regedit to change some stuff. For complete directions on how to enable gore in Sacred head over here.

Farcry the fps designed by german developers Crytek has been keeping my attention from any other pc game. These guys may be fresh in your memory because they were raided by german police for supposed use of pirated software. Other than that you probably never heard of these guys. Well that’s not true, you may remember them for their Nvidia tech demo called X-Isle which became Farcry.

The above screen shots don’t do the games graphics engine justice. They were all I had at the moment. This game has amazing graphics, if your system can handle it. Storywise it’s the same old thing. Lame b movie plot that gets you trapped on an island with a shitload of bad guys that you more or less have to take on all by yourself.

And this is a great game to debate with Gawain about. As it is a 3d accelerated game that really offers nothing new. Yet it is lots of fun to play. The homicidal maniac in me loves the carnage one creates in this game. And the shear size of the landmass your on is perfect for the sniper rifle.

Me, Gawain, and Purify have been tearing around the lands of Norrath for the last few hours. It seems that there is a working EQ emulator out and you can find it here. Lot’s of kinks still need to be worked on, but it is playable. Below is a screen of the group as we killed polar bears in the Everfrost:

It’s a nice change of pace from running around Camelot. But it’s just a diversion. If you want to join in the fun just follow these directions and look for the server called “Turk’s DAoC Retreat” and see if you can get in.

*Updated with a pic of my guy with the fancy graphics enabled.

I played some MechCommander 2 with Gawain and it didn’t play like I remembered. Being the screenshot grabbing whore I am, I got a few shots form me and G’s games. The outdated graphics and lack of multiplayer co-op brought down the fond memories I had of the game.

The next game we dig out should be System Shock II. This would be a great game because it’s a rpg and it has co-op play built in thanks to a patch. And the best thing about it you can get it free from the the Underdogs here.

So I picked up X²-The Threat even though I heard it had clunky controls and buggy gameplay. X² is a sequel to the game X: Beyond the Frontier and both games were made by german developers Egosoft. X² is a game kinda like Elite. Except it has all the modern 3D graphics one would expect from todays games. And it lacks something I just can’t put into words.

I can tell you it is complicated. Trade, Fight, Build, Think are fancy buzzwords the developers are attaching to this title. The learning curve is quite high and the manual does a piss poor job explaining all of the options these buzzwords claim. The one thing I can say that is cool about the game is the fact you can buy capital ships. There is something really cool about flying around space in a slow moving capital ship that can blast the shit out of just about anything you come across.