Back to the PC with the sims (and a HOTAS)

When I'm away from London I normally have my trusty old laptop with me. Apart from the games I have on various emulators I tend to find myself playing simulators quite a bit. Falcon 4 Allied Force is my flight sim of choice at the moment but I also dabble with a bit of LOMAC.

I recently decided to retire my crappy old microsoft joystick for something a little more snazzy. enter the Thrustmaster T. Flight HOTAS X.
I have always wanted a HOTAS controller but the normal cost has been prohibitive, I couldn't believe it though when I found this one for less than £35. Its fantastic with more axis and buttons than you could shake a stick at. Well worth it and better than some more expensive flight controllers I have tried in the past.


Today I have also been browsing on GOG.com. For those that don't know, GOG.com is a wonderful website that offerers the great PC games of yesteryear at very reasonable prices with full XP/Vista compatibility and loads of extras. I recommend every PC gamer to get an account. Anyway I treated myself to the WWII Tank sim Panzer Elite and Spacefighter sim Freespace 2.

look out for reviews here soon

UBI Oh Where Art Thou? UPDATE

Well its Monday morning and UBI have sorted out the mess on the EndWar servers.


From the Official UBI boards:

Posted Sun January 18 2009 23:07 Hi Everyone, When the 3-minute rule update was executed last week we encountered some unexpected difficulties which resulted in units not receiving XP or remaining KIA after matches. This issue has now been resolved on both the PS3 and Xbox 360. We apologize for the inconvenience this has caused and are looking into an in-game compensation package. I'll announce more details once we get them worked out. Thank you for your patience and understanding. -QPK *UPDATE* We have finalized a reparations package. All players will be given 2 million credits and have their top 3 units promoted one level. This should happen after today's ceasefire. This message has been edited. Last edited by: QuidProKuo, Mon January 19 2009 01:10

So it could have been quicker but at least there is some compensation for us downtrodden commanders.

Well done UBI

A big thumbs up to Fallout 3!

Well its just gone 3 in the morning, I have just finished the main storyline after a six hour session and oh my god was it worth it!
Now I have played many games over the years, I would count many games as being amazing but Fallout 3 is on a different level. I think I have just found the first game I believe everyone should play at least once in their lives. This truly is a masterpiece and shows just how good a narrative the videogame industry is capable of. I would truly compare this game to great works of literature like The Lord of the Rings or Frank Herberts Dune.
I sure hope we see more of Pip Boy in the not to distant future.
Remember.....
War Never Changes.

UBI Oh Where Art Thou?

One of the things I like about Endwar is the online campaign system and the experience your units can gain over time.
However at the moment there is a server glitch somewhere, no ones units are gaining experience, on top of that units can not die (some would see this as a good thing but I do not!). This has been going on as far as I know since Thursday

UBI's response? You guessed it nothing, not so much as a peep out of them. Now I'm sure they will sort it out (along with other bugs in the game) but is it too much to ask for a quick "were looking into it" on the official boards?

I dont care if its the weekend, a company the size of UBI doesnt shut up shop at the weekend!

UBI Sort Your Funking Lives Out!

What i got for Crimbo

Well things all got a bit hectic before Christmas. All the lovely things I was planning to do for the blog all got sidelined by real life I am afraid.

However all is not lost as I am back and ready to share with the world some of the Gaming things I got for Christmas.

Tom Clancy's End War
Before Christmas I returned to playing Rainbow Six Vegas, a game I never got around to completing. Now back in the day I loved the original Rainbow Six but had fell behind the PC technology curve needed to play later versions and due to a motion sickness problem i avoided most console FPS till this generation.
Despite being somewhat simpler than the original game, R6V is a great game and good fun online too. So after getting back into Rainbow Six, I decided to check out the rest of Tom Clancy's gaming catalogue. First Stop End War.

End War is very simple as far as RTS games go. You only have access to 7 or so units, only have 3 armies to choose from and the combat system is best described as a rock paper scissors affair. So far nothing is making this game stand out.
What does make this game standout though is its voice command system. Almost all commands you could want to give are given using your voice and the consoles microphone and it works!
This is the first game I have ever played using voice command and it is fantastic. You should see me stomping around the front room shouting at the telly and as a first foray into voice command games it shows what the technology is capable of. I can not wait to see where this technology pops up next, apparently Tom Clancy's Hawx will have a little voice command in it and I hope it shows up in other TC titles.

"Unit Two Secure Alpha"

MCT