Posted in: Game Reviews by Michael Durr on October 14th, 2012
Rarely in my video game reviewing do I get the popular game. I seem to gravitate more towards the forgotten gem or the niche cult hit. I do not mind it of course, it has lead me to discover many awesome smaller games such as the Darkness or Mafia II. However, today the story is different. In my hands is a contender for the game of the year. A game that blends first person shooters with role playing and enough loot to make a Diablo player blush. The game happens to be the Gearbox Software smash, Borderlands 2.
Posted in: Game Reviews by Michael Durr on February 29th, 2012
The quickest way I know for me to like a game is to give it a strong story. Games like Bioshock, Mafia and Skyrim succeed based on the fact that they provide entertaining and engaging stories. The player wants to unravel the mystery, take down that crime family, and slay that dragon because the story compels them to do so. This time around, we look at the game of the Darkness II, which takes a look at the story of Jackie Estacado and his ever going battle with the demon simply known as the Darkness.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Michael Durr on October 23rd, 2011
When these 31 Nights of Terror started, I was pretty much set on spending time with both Condemned: Criminal Origins and the sequel Condemned 2: Bloodshot. As I got farther into researching the first adventure, I realized I rather keep on writing with the same material. There was certainly more story to tell and furthermore I liked what I was writing. Hopefully, you as the audience enjoyed it too. So here we go with the second part. Ethan's story has only begun.
Posted in: Random Fun by Michael Durr on October 17th, 2011
Perhaps it is a cliché for a lot of review writers on here to aspire to be “published writers”. To go beyond the webpages that we put out two and three times a week (and in case of some hard working site owners and webmasters, two to three times daily) and produce a physical, published book. For many of us, it is a dream that we wish we could make a reality. Personally, I have had that dream for over twenty years and after hardships, setbacks and general depression, I find myself in a place where I finally feel I can write. Hopefully in these pages, we can consider this another step towards that fulfillment.
Posted in: Game Reviews by Michael Durr on June 29th, 2011
“Hail to the King, baby.” That phrase through the years has escaped my lips on plenty of occasions. Most of the time, it has also ended by me being pushed onto the floor with a blanket and pillow and/or the eruption of laughter. Since Duke Nukem 3d debuted in 1996, I have always found new and not so appropriate situations to spew his catchphrases. Fifteen years later, nothing has changed, I still speak the Duke and I am still waiting for Duke Nukem Forever. Well today I shall wait no more.
Posted in: 1 - 8 players, 2k Games, First Person Shooter, News and Opinions, Random Fun, Xbox 360 by Michael Durr on October 29th, 2010
Hopefully most of you enjoyed my experience of the first Bioshock game a couple of weeks back. Truth is, I’m still playing the first Bioshock, it is getting regular rotation with NBA 2k11 and Lego Rock Band. But, in an attempt to completely confuse myself, I decided to go ahead and tackle the sequel with only paper knowledge of the ending. This should go over as well as my first marriage. With only slightly less bloodshed.
Posted in: 1 player, 2k Games, First Person Shooter, News and Opinions, Random Fun, Xbox 360 by Michael Durr on October 15th, 2010
Most people have figured out by reading my reviews, columns and other assorted passages of bloggery that I'm wired a little bit different. Most people wouldn't have the guts (or foolishness) to write a gaming column for four years on a site that is dominated by movie reviews. Contrary to many other review writers, I am interested in the story rather than the technical specs. It's no wonder that last year's 31 days of Horror, I wrote a rather long review on The Thing without even touching any information about the dvd or blu-ray release.
Posted in: Game Reviews by Michael Durr on June 15th, 2009
It was the summer of 1993, this little review writer was on his way to college for the first time. Among the many things I took to college with me, one of them was a computer. The computer was top of the line at the time; a 486-33mhz processor chip and an 170 meg hard drive. I said meg. Windows 3.1/Dos 6.22 was the OS combination and it had one game on it besides Solitaire. A shareware copy of Wolfenstein 3d. The game had actually been already out for a year but it was a popular game and on my pc as included software.
Posted in: Game Reviews by Michael Durr on June 13th, 2009
The original Cellfactor was actually a technical demo published back in 2006 by Immersion Games. It was made for the Ageia Physx series of cards which later became a part of NVidia. This demo showed off things we in the first person shooter community took for granted, barrels and boxes. Barrels and boxes have long been staples in games for doing absolutely nothing but existing (occasionally a barrel might explode but that’s it). Thru this demo, your character could use his psychic powers to throw the items and watch as they interact with the environment.
Posted in: Game Reviews by Michael Durr on November 24th, 2008
The original Fallout 3 was held in the firm hands of Interplay Entertainment under the working title of Van Buren. Developed by Black Isle Studios, that title never saw the light of the day when Interplay Entertainment went bankrupt and laid off the entire PC development team in late 2003. In 2007, Interplay sold the rights to the Fallout franchise to Bethesda who had developed the popular Elder Scrolls series. Bethesda scrapped the original code and worked on the project from scratch. It paid homage to many Fallout concepts and Fallout 3 saw gold in 2008. It was a long five years between the layoff of the original creators and the company who ultimately got the right to release the game. Was it worth the wait?
