Painkiller: The Review

I decided that I would give my first review today. What better game to review is there than the one I am currently engrossed in, Painkiller.

First, the graphics. Very pleasing. You will be hard pressed to find a game that looks this good (setting Half-Life 2 and Doom 3 aside) on the shelves. Everything flows together smoothly and looks great.

Even though the path through any given level may be a bit linear, you should not become bored. This is achieved by truly spectacular level design. The locations are beautiful and each level offers some new "eye candy." The creepy levels feel creepy, the huge levels feel huge, well...you get the picture. Everything feels like it should.

There is definitely not a shortage of hellspawn in this game. With each level sporting 150-400 monsters to tear through, you're in it for the long haul. Killing the same monster on a given level can be a bit redundant. However, this does not take away from the game's overall playability.

Weapons are definitely fun to use too. With each weapon having an alternate fire mode, you should be able to find many a creative way to demolish your foes. My personal favorite is the steak gun. This instrument of carnage fires wooden steaks at your foes. It brings me great joy to fire a steak, watch it hit the enemy, and see the enemy taken to a nearby wall and pinned there.

This brings me to my next point, ragdoll physics. What would we do without them. If you play games, you know what they are. This game has 'em. They're good. Enough said.

An aspect usually overlooked in a game is the sound. This game performs very well in this department. Monsters sound as they should. The ambient sound during levels is great and really sets the mood for the level. Let's not forget, the soundtrack. One word sums it up, bitchin'. The quickly paced fight music really gets the adrenaline pumping. It gets the job done.

To wrap things up, this game is great. It is great for a quick level of "blow shit up" after a hard day's work. The best way I can describe it is: Doom of the 21st. century. It is a really simple game and can help to relieve stress. Blow stuff up in a virtual world. It works just as good as the real thing. Plus, nobody gets hurt. If you like straight forward shoot-em-ups, you'll love Painkiller. Happy gaming.

Oldschool Gaming

With all these new games coming out (Half-Life 2, Doom 3, Battlefield 2, well...you get the picture) it can be really easy to get lost in the "new age" of gaming. Don't get me wrong. The new games are just as fun as ever and even prettier to look at. However, there is something to be said for playing the oldies. You know. Stuff like Doom II, Wolfenstein 3D, Myst, Gunship 2000, Zork Nemesis, etc. All those games that reshaped their genre. When I play one of these old games, I feel like I am discovering an old friend. They're simple yet can bring many hours of joy. I mean, who can resist blowing up imp after imp after imp after imp with the #5 (rocket launcher) in Doom II. I guess I am just trying to get all the gamers out there to realize that there was gaming before Doom 3 and Half-Life 2. Happy gaming.

Overclocking The nVidia 6800

I just overclocked my 6800 last night. I had never overclocked anything before. However, nVidia makes it very easy to do so with their latest drivers. Now, everyone knows that most GPU cards are shipped not performing at maximum power. The companies that manufacture the cards do this so the card will run in a very stable state for everyone. Then you have the overclockers. The people who want to get that extra boost out of their system (mostly for gaming). Even though the 6800 tears through any game easily with a high framerate, it is nice to give yourself some breathing room by upping the power just a bit. Now, like I said before, nVidia makes this very easy for their users. Here we go:

1: Go to the "start" menu
2: Click "run"
3: Type "regedit" in the "Open:" line
4: Click "Ok"
5: Click "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE"
6: Click "SOFTWARE"
7: Click "nVidiacorp"
8: Click "global"
9: Click "nvtweak"
10: In the biggest white area to the right, right click
11: Click "new DWORD"
12: Name it "coolbits" without the quotes
13: Right click on the value you just created (coolbits)
14: Click "Modify"
15: Change the value from "0" to "3"

All this did was make the menu for overclocking that nVidia includes in their drivers visible. You should now be able to see it when you go to "/control panel>>display>>settings>>advanced>>nVidia 6800" Use caution when overclocking. Go in little steps, not huge ones. Find a frequency that your system runs stable with and you have got it. Happy computing.

UPDATE: After overclocking everything is running stable and cool. My GPU temperature before overclocking ran at 55 degrees C. After overclocking it runs at a steady 57 degrees C. It holds this temperature even under stress. The 6800 card is truly a great work of art. I gained a few frames per second in all my games and am happy with how the card is performing.

Half-Life 2

Played it. Beat it. Loved it. This game is everything that I wanted it to be. The moment of realization [of what a great game it was] came when I was following Alyx down a hallway. Now, I know you may get some immature ideas in you head right now so hear me out. Anyway, she was talking to me when we were walking down the hallway. Yes you heard me. Talking. What made it unique was the fact that she was actually turning her head realistically to make an effort to look at me. This gave me the opportunity to see all her facial expressions, which, as a player, draws you into a game. I mean, (spoiler ahead) in how many other games did you care what happend to a character in the game. Come on. Be honest. Not many, right? However, this game was different. At the end of the game during the big explosion, I couldn't help but realize a feeling of loss was taking me over. There is one thing that proves me right. On every Half-Life 2 related site I noticed that almost the same question or comment presented itself. What happend to Alyx?

My Computer

I am currently running a Dell XPS Gen. 4, 1 GB of RAM, 250 GB hard drive, Intel Pentium 4 3.4 Ghz, nVidia 6800 GT. This machine is one beast of a system. It tears through any application or game that I ever run on it. From Half-Life 2 to Ultimate Doom to notepad, this computer can handle it.