All things Half Life will be going at a discount this weekend!!

if ya didn’t find a reason to pay up for half life ever..Valve is making it easier than ever to jump in and own everything from Half-Life to Episode Two to Half-Life 2: Deathmatch with a sale of 66% off everything Half-Life. That means Episode Two is $5.09, Episode One is $3.39, and Half-Life 2 proper (complete with Lost Coast) is only $6.79. The entire Half-Life series? Just $16.99.

Or if you really want to take the plunge with Valve products, the Valve Complete Pack — which includes every Half-Life game in addition to Counter-Strike, Team Fortress 2, Left 4 Dead, Portal, and more — is 10% off and will cost you just $89.99. That’s a hell of a deal to own every game from one of the most acclaimed developers in the industry today.

East India Company Review

East India Company is a mercantilist RTS  game set at the dawn of the global trade age. As governor of one of the great European East India companies, you get to compete against others for dominance of the oh so very lucrative markets of Africa, the Middle East, and especially India. As the commander of a private navy that includes both merchant and military vessels, you’ll stop at nothing to secure a profit, which includes seizing port cities from the natives, sinking the fleets of rival companies, and forming alliances to wage all-out war. Success in East India Company derives primarily from sound financial planning, measured growth, and innumerable boatloads of exotic luxuries. In addition, you’ll find it necessary to personally direct every naval battle using the “tactical” mode for resolving ship-to-ship combat, which is sadly the weakest and most tedious element of EIC’s gameplay. And unfortunately, multiplayer action is limited to these lackluster battles. While not without flaws, the trading gameplay is solid and should entertain many fans of the genre; however, those lacking in patience may find the laborious early tactical battles less fun than a watery grave.

East India Company comes with four single-player campaigns, which cover the years from 1600 to 1750. During every campaign, you’ll play the East India Company of one of eight Western European nations, all of which historically chartered such companies. This excludes the Holy Roman Empire, which was presumably included to represent the short-lived Austrian Ostend company. However, there is no real difference among the factions aside from the geographical locations of their home ports. Those locations may give England and Portugal a slight advantage over the others because they are in good positions to box in their rivals. Every campaign uses the same strategic map that covers Europe, Africa, and Asia, through India. The exclusion of China is somewhat disappointing because it could have been fun to play through the Opium War time frame. However, controversial trade goods, such as opium and slaves, are left out of the game altogether.

The bulk of your single-player experience will be spent at the strategic and port views. Here, you’ll build ships and organize them into fleets, buy and sell trade goods for profit, conquer ports with marines, and negotiate with foreign companies. Such missions as sinking a pirate fleet, delivering a special commodity order, or upgrading a port facility provide some variety, but nevertheless, buying and selling goods gets repetitive. Despite the availability of detailed reports about the price of tea throughout your empire, the trading game seems incomplete because you can sell your exotic goods in only one European city–your home port. When you get inevitably tired of manually managing trade, you can set up automatic trade routes, but unfortunately, these take away any satisfaction you might have derived from maximizing profits by buying, hording, and selling at the right times. As it turns out, the real key to a successful company is not micromanaging trade deals, but rather balancing how much you spend on ships, munitions, and upgrades while leaving enough free capital to buy massive quantities of spices, silk, and the like. Be careful: A few careless expenditures could wind up ruining your company. Another necessary consideration is diplomacy. If you offend enough of the other companies, your fortune will end up at the bottom of the ocean.

East India Company’s interface functions capably on the strategic level, providing easy access to the location and cargo of your ships, the main trade goods supplied by various ports, detailed price histories for everything you have sold, and more. The strategic map is not very detailed–it mostly comprises empty expanses of land and ocean–but it is clear and easy to use. The port view interface, which you use to buy and sell goods, build and organize ships, and upgrade buildings works effectively as well, but only after you switch to 2D ports in the game options. 3D ports look great and function without a hitch, but the load times are absolutely intolerable. The music in port view is a nice touch because it rotates Indian, African, Arab, and European themes depending on the port’s location.

The most beautiful part of the game is also the one you’ll tire of the quickest: tactical mode. The gorgeous waves, sunsets, and thunderstorms are remarkably picturesque, while the ships–cannons, sails, and crews–are splendidly detailed. Sadly, you’ll find yourself staring at those waves until you’re seasick as you wait for the real-time tactical battles to progress. The ability to take direct control of individual ships with the WASD keys is promising, but it doesn’t make up for the slow pace of combat. So, while there are some tactics involved, patience is probably more essential for victory, and whether you are using finesse to carefully guide your ships in direct control mode or just sloppily throwing every ship at the enemy, your biggest foe will be your own boredom. First, wait as you close in on the enemy vessel. Once you’ve engaged it, wait while your crew reloads the cannons and fires until your enemy is riddled with holes. All this would be perfectly tolerable if not for what happens next. Just as you think you’re about to win, the enemy vessel begins to flee and catching up with it makes the minutes feel like hours, even with wind and speed in your favor.

The most beautiful part of the game is also the one you’ll tire of the quickest: tactical mode. The gorgeous waves, sunsets, and thunderstorms are remarkably picturesque, while the ships–cannons, sails, and crews–are splendidly detailed. Sadly, you’ll find yourself staring at those waves until you’re seasick as you wait for the real-time tactical battles to progress. The ability to take direct control of individual ships with the WASD keys is promising, but it doesn’t make up for the slow pace of combat. So, while there are some tactics involved, patience is probably more essential for victory, and whether you are using finesse to carefully guide your ships in direct control mode or just sloppily throwing every ship at the enemy, your biggest foe will be your own boredom. First, wait as you close in on the enemy vessel. Once you’ve engaged it, wait while your crew reloads the cannons and fires until your enemy is riddled with holes. All this would be perfectly tolerable if not for what happens next. Just as you think you’re about to win, the enemy vessel begins to flee and catching up with it makes the minutes feel like hours, even with wind and speed in your favor.

If you get impatient and attack as soon as you’re in range, you’ll get even further behind, and the enemy vessel will ultimately escape after an excruciatingly dull chase. If you decide that tactical combat is not for you, auto-resolve is your only other option, but you’ll quickly become reluctant to use it because it always results in heavy losses. However, on the bright side, tactical combat becomes much more fun once you start fielding superior ships with long range and lots of cannons. In the Grand Campaign, for instance, if you can make it past the first 30 years or so, you can rule the seas with fleets of frigates and ships-of-the-line that make battles fly by in comparison to the sloops you had at the start.

Tactical battles and uninterrupted trade runs reward your fleet commanders with experience that enables them to level up and buy numerous useful abilities. These range from faster movement speeds to extra cargo capacity on the strategic level. On the tactical level, you can accomplish tasks like hurting enemy morale and making emergency hull repairs. In addition to helping you improve and specialize your fleets, the commanders add a bit of character to EIC. Although their comments are relatively generic, their knowing sea-weary faces, ample girth, and flowing beards are surprisingly endearing.

East India Company is at its best when you can triumph over the other companies and build a powerful and flourishing trade empire. Thus, it is all the more disappointing that there is no multiplayer campaign, only tactical battles. The various online/local network modes primarily consist of variations on the same “sink all enemy ships in the time allotted” theme, and they suffer from the same issues as single-player. The Last Ship Floating mode puts you in command of a single ship and is well suited for direct control, but the matches often end in a draw after time runs out. The Dominion mode apparently involves capturing buoys to earn points, but we couldn’t play through it thanks to a reoccurring crash-to-desktop issue. Although we had no other problems playing EIC over a local area network, we also never had any luck finding an online game.

East India Company doesn’t live up to its potential. While the strategic aspect of the game may keep you engaged for a time, it’s not ultimately strong enough to carry the tactical aspect. When you’re ferrying goods back and forth across the map, you want something exciting to break up the routine, and the tactical battles should have filled that role. Their weakness, however, brings the entire experience down. If the combat at sea played as well as it looks, East India Company could have pleased a wider audience. Throw in the lack of a multiplayer campaign and other nagging issues, and you have a game recommendable only to trade enthusiasts and boat watchers.

Wii Sports Resort Review (w/ Wii MotionPlus)

Its been a long time since we’ve done a Wii review…but here goes…the latest - Wii Sports Resort review with the Wii MotionPlus!!

What’s great about this game is that it shines as a fun, accessible, and varied multiplayer experience, and while not all of its minigames are top-notch, there’s plenty here to make this a great party game for any Wii owner.

Of course, to get in on the party, you’ll need the new MotionPlus accessory because none of the games in Wii Sports Resort can be played without it. One MotionPlus is bundled with the game, and to Nintendo’s credit, many of the minigames can be played by sharing one remote and one MotionPlus with a few players. But you’ll need to buy more if you’re hoping for some simultaneous multiplayer action, and while this may seem like an unnecessary financial imposition from Nintendo, it doesn’t take long to become convinced of the new accessory’s worth. This isn’t some gimmicky plastic peripheral–the MotionPlus gives even the simplest games in Wii Sports Resort an intricate level of sensitivity that is apparent from the moment you first pick up a controller.

For example, take the simple Frisbee Dog minigame. It’s easy enough to pick up–you mimic the real motion of throwing a disc by making a flicking movement with the Wii Remote–but the one-to-one movement afforded by the Wii MotionPlus means there are several things to think about in every throw, such as the speed of your flick, the angle and timing of release, and any spin you may want to impart. Unless you’re a serious Frisbee freak in the real world, it can be a decent challenge to throw straight consistently. These tight controls make even this basic minigame–throw Frisbee, make dog catch Frisbee–more challenging and fun than you might expect.

That same level of control intricacy can be found in all of Wii Sports Resort’s minigames. There are 12 different individual sports, and since many of them feature several modes the total number of activities on offer is more than 20. Not only can you throw your Frisbee to a dog, for example, but you can also hit the links for a game of Frisbee golf, complete with the ability to choose from three types of discs for different distances. This makes Wii Sports Resort a much more varied package than its predecessor, and while not all of the activities on offer have lasting appeal (or even short-term buzz), the majority are good fun, particularly when played in groups.

Most of the minigames in Resort are brand new, with only two (bowling and golf) that are enhanced versions of Wii Sports activities. Of the new activities, archery is one of the standouts. The Wii Remote acts as the front of your bow, and you mimic drawing on the bow’s string by pulling the nunchuk back. The MotionPlus allows for extremely precise targeting, making archery simple to perform but hard to master. Table tennis is another top performer, with the game accurately tracking every slight tilt and turn of your virtual racket. This makes it an extremely close re-creation of the real sport and one of the best competitive games to be found in the Wii Sports Resort package. Bowling and golf’s MotionPlus augmented improvements are also easy to spot. In golf, putting is a much more precise affair, while adding a draw or fade to shots is now something that can be realistically added to your arsenal. Adding spin when bowling has also been significantly improved–making a bowling ball curve left or right is now easier than ever, so much so that an entire minigame has been devoted to it (where you have to maneuver the ball around obstacles placed in the lane).

Most of the other new minigames are fairly dull when played solo, but they improve significantly when the element of competition is introduced. Swordplay, for example, is generally just a whole mess of random waggling, but if you play it in Speed Slice mode–where two players vie to see who can cut various objects in specific directions–it becomes a frantic test of who has quicker reflexes. The three-on-three Basketball mode is also quite enjoyable, if a little simplistic. But sadly, not even the draw of competition can lift Wii Sports Resort’s poorest entries. Cycling has you holding the Wii Remote and nunchuk in each hand while quickly waving your arms up and down to pedal–and, yes, it is as dull and pointless as it sounds. Kayaking–where you hold the Wii Remote upright and move it on either side of your body to paddle–is similarly aerobic and just as uninvolving. But with such a variety of other good activities available, you’re actually spoiled by all of the choices in Wii Sports Resort. This significantly improves the game’s longevity as a multiplayer game because the choices available to you make it so that–unlike in Wii Sports–you won’t ever have to play the same one or two good games ad nauseam.

Wii Sports Resort doesn’t really push the Wii’s graphical capabilities–it has got the original game’s bright colours and cartoony looks, which make it visually appealing if a little bland. The audio is similarly simple but effective. The jaunty music is fitting to the game’s holiday theme, but there’s little else of note here in terms of effects or speech. But that’s not to say the game’s presentation is ineffective. Nintendo has kept it basic and accessible, with a straightforward menu that makes it very easy to switch among any of the activities on offer.

Xbox 360 Pro ‘discontinued’

This week saw several retailers further stir up speculation that an Xbox 360 Elite price drop and PlayStation 3 slimline model are imminent. First up was the Xbox 360 Pro product page (pictured top) on the site of UK retailer Argos, which apologetically informed consumers that the SKU is no more. “We are very sorry but Microsoft have (sic) discontinued this line,” reads the page, which urges would-be buyers to purchase the Xbox 360 Elite as an alternative–the same scenario behind the model’s rumored repricing to $299. Also, attempting to buy the Pro from its Argos page leads to a 404 error.

Following a flurry of headlines on the “discontinued” Pro, Argos reportedly told British industry site MCV that the posting was an “administrative error.” For its part, Microsoft stuck to the company line. “We’ve made no such announcements and are working with our retail partners to ensure they have the right inventory of consoles to meet the needs of their customers,” a rep told GameSpot.

Meanwhile, the rival PlayStation 3 console appears to be getting a price drop elsewhere in Europe. Tech blog Engadget’s Spanish site noticed that GameStop Iberia announced that the PS3’s price was now officially €299 ($424.58) via Twitter, €100 ($142) less than the standard price. A caching site reveals that GameStop Iberia twittered no fewer than three different €299 price-drop announcements on August 9 and 10 (pictured center)–all of which are no longer on the retailer’s Twitter feed. Why the posts were pulled is unclear, but overenthusiastic tweets have preempted major announcements before, most recently Command & Conquer 4.

Meanwhile, French electronics retailer Fnac is already offering the 80GB PS3 Infamous bundle for just €299. However, that price appears to be only for the Portuguese store (Fnac.pt, pictured bottom), with the regular Fnac.com being sold out of the stand-alone 80GB PS3. The French site does offer two Gran Turismo 5 Prologue 80GB PS3 bundles–one with Pro Evolution Soccer 2009 and the other with Grand Theft Auto IV–for the standard retail price of €399 ($566.58).

Sony reps had not yet responded to requests for comment on the apparently European PS3 price fluctuations as of press time.

Nintendo sales slide 40%, profits plummet 60%

is this the end of the nintendo bubble? Nintendo’s successful strategy to expand the gaming audience with the Wii and the DS has accounted for much of the industry’s growth over the past few years. So it should come as little surprise that when the industry as a whole suffers a multi-month malaise, it would be reflected in the console maker’s sales figures.
Nintendo today reported its financial results for its first fiscal quarter, the three months ended June 30, and the numbers weren’t pretty. Nintendo’s revenues were down a full 40 percent from ¥423 billion ($4.45 billion) for the same period last year to ¥253 billion ($2.66 billion) this year, while net profits for the same periods were down a steep 60 percent, from ¥107 billion ($1.12 billion) to just ¥42 billion ($442 million).

The publisher attributed the slide to a number of factors. First of all, Nintendo said it was hurt by a weaker lineup of software titles. The company’s previous first fiscal quarter saw the international releases of Wii Fit and Mario Kart Wii, compared to this year’s first quarter slate headlined by the Japan-only debut of Wii Sports Resort. The DS couldn’t pick up the slack, as Nintendo lamented that “there were few popular new titles,” with Pokemon Platinum being the only game singled out for selling well during the quarter.

With no hit new games to sell the hardware, Nintendo also saw those figures drop significantly. For the quarter, Nintendo sold 2.23 million Wiis worldwide, just 43 percent of the 5.17 million it sold for the prior year’s first quarter. The DS line of systems fared significantly better thanks to the international launch of the camera-equipped DSi, but still fell short of last year’s mark. Consumers worldwide purchased 5.97 million DS systems over the quarter, down nearly 14 percent from 6.94 million sold in the previous first quarter. To date, Nintendo has sold 107.75 million DS systems worldwide and 52.62 million Wiis.

Much like Sony explaining its own disappointing financial figures today, Nintendo also pointed to foreign currency exchange rates thanks to the strong yen. Despite the numbers, Nintendo did not change its financial forecast for the year.