EverQuest II The Shadow Odyssey (PC, MMO Role-Playing) is the next generation of massively multiplayer gaming, a huge online world where friends have come together for adventure and community. Featuring breathtaking graphics and a vast, beautiful and dangerous game world to explore, EverQuest II sets the standard for graphical realism as players are immersed in the game’s exciting locales and mysterious lands.

“New achievement trees, new armor, new group zones – sure, they are mostly applicable for the veteran players, but TSO brings in a free mount for all players and that is very nice. With the TSO expansion, EverQuest II continues to be one of the top MMOs on the market and The Shadow Odyssey only deepens the experience.” [GameZone | EverQuest II The Shadow Odyssey]

Top scores were given to Graphics and Concept. MMORPG fans will most likely have a blast with EverQuest II The Shadow Odyssey.

Ubisoft recently released Patch 1.02 for Far Cry 2 (PC, Shooter), a game where you are sent to take out "The Jackal", a mysterious character who has rekindled the conflict between the warlords, jeopardizing thousands of lives. In order to fulfill your mission you will have to play the factions against each other, identify and exploit their weaknesses, and neutralize their superior numbers and firepower with surprise, subversion, cunning and, of course, brute force.

Patch Details:

• Singleplayer:
  • Fixed health not changing with the difficulty level.
  • Keyboard controls remapping in single mode now carry into multiplayer mode.
  • A buddy will no longer get stuck when healing him while player is receiving damage.
  • Stats of favourite weapon are now properly reset between loaded save games.
  • The mortar will no longer move the player through wall.
  • Mission objectives markers are now show properly after loading a save game.
• Multiplayer:
  • Server’s IP address now displays in lobby, beside the match’s name (for direct IP join to work)
  • Dedicated Server can now be launched in command line.
  • Improved match start conditions. Ranked games can now also start if the player max is attained and everybody but the host is ready.
  • Fixed a bug causing random crashes when joining a game.
  • Ranked matches in progress will no longer display in the match list.
  • Fixed players with same name by using identifiers instead of names.
  • Fixed crash when creating a LAN game without a network cable.
  • The diamond pool is now always validated after class upgrades, reset or rank up to avoid getting more diamonds than you are supposed to for your rank.
  • When creating a dedicated server with PunkBuster enabled, then close it to create another but this time with PunkBuster disabled, PunkBuster will still be considered ON, on this new server.
  • Fixed a problem where a player could get stuck (and couldn’t get killed) after pressing the interaction key while wounded and getting rescued by a teammate at the same time.
  • Fixed players getting disconnected if they have too many user maps and try to enter the map rotation menu in a Player or Ranked match.
  • Vehicles will now always respawn even if they are never used.
  • Fixed users not being able to see a match if the host switched match mode after a rank.
  • Fixed a glitch that could make a player invisible to another.
  • Fixed incorrect check for negative values when adjusting diamond count.
  • Fixed a problem where a player would render through objects if healing a wounded playing while being wounded at the same time.
  • Fixed reload not being interrupted on the host when a client picks a weapon while reloading.
  • Fixed Field Manuals not unlocking after game mode change.
• General:
  • Fixed glider key remapping.
  • Game will now minimize in order to show the website when clicking on ubi.com.
  • Dolby 5.1 is now supported for most sound cards.
  • Fixed a random crash that could happen when pressing ESC to cancel a Benchmark run.
  • Added CPU Intensive benchmark test run.
  • Fixed Jackal Tapes and Partner Tapes pages.
• Map Editor:
  • Fixed crash in editor when deleting many objects in very rapid succession.
  • Fixed crash in editor during parsing of the map headers.

Download Patch 1.02 at FilePlanet >>

Joymax recently released new content for Darkeden (PC, Role Playing Game), a massively multiplayer online role-playing game, inviting players into a bleak near-future environment and a brutal conflict between two distinct races-vampires and slayers.It contains hundreds of potential skills and two distinct systems of character advancement, and is available to download and play free of charge.

The update includes access to the treacherous Hell Garden and a number of new market items, from forges and hourglasses to new yellow drops, all available in-game to the brave Slayers, Vampires, and Ousters of Darkeden.

Dead Space (PC, Action) is set in the cold blackness of deep space, the atmosphere is soaked with a feeling of tension, dread and sheer terror. Players step into the role of engineer Isaac Clarke – an ordinary man on a seemingly routine mission to fix the communications systems aboard a deep space mining ship. It is not long before Isaac awakes to a living nightmare when he learns that the ship’s crew has been ravaged by a vicious alien infestation. He must fight through the dead silence and darkness of deep space to stay alive.

GameZone gave it an 8.9 rating:

“An excellent new addition to the splinter group of action games centered around horror. I suspect they will make a sequel and I suspect it too will spawn a franchise. Dead Space gets it right when it comes to the scares.” [GameZone | Dead Space]

If you are looking for a nice Action game with great sound, medium to hard difficulty, and nice concept, Dead Space is good one to get.

A Vampyre Story (PC, Adventure) is a frightful and fantastical point-and-click adventure game. Combining 3D animation and 2D designs, the game follows the opera starlett, Mona, a woman kidnapped by Baron Shrowdy Von Kiefer and slowly becoming a creature of the night after coming under the vampire’s spell. As she seeks to venture away from his gothic island-set castle, she’ll have to learn to control her vampyric powers of turning into a bat, hypnotizing people, turning into vapor, and drinking blood from humans. Her friendly bat acquaintance, Froderick, will join her on her quest.

IGN gave it a 7.6 (“Good”) rating:

“… but to be honest, it’s one of the more interesting adventure games around. Most important is how much cheesy writing you are willing to put up with. The cast is quirky and the scenarios are quirky; forgive me for still not being over the constipated raven. My personal cup of game A Vampyre Story is not, but you may enjoy a sip if only to experience its unique, Halloweeny flavor.” [IGN | A Vampyre Story]

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Patch 1.1a was recently released for Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning (PC, MMORPG). Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning  is the new fantasy MMORPG from Mythic Entertainment, the creators of Dark Age of Camelot.

Patch 1.1 Details:

• "Two New Careers - The Knight of the Blazing Sun and the Black Guard have joined their allies and are now available to play for everyone!
• Open RvR Influence System – As part of our ongoing effort to encourage people to take part in oRvR, we are pleased to announce the release of an Influence system geared solely to oRvR. Players who participate in this part of WAR will now have additional incentives for fighting for their realm. As part of this patch we have also made quite a number of changes and fixes to oRvR places and NPCs as well.
• Easy Public Quests - PQs are great but sometimes it’s hard to get enough people together to complete them, especially in the lower tiers. So, we are redesigning one PQ per chapter so that it can be completed by 1-3 people.
• Chat Hyperlinking - One of the most requested features by the community has been adding the ability to hyperlink items, abilities and quests in the chat window and now it has been added.
• Itemization Improvements – As part of our continuing support to improve item rewards in WAR we have released a number of new item improvements with 1.1. These improvements include re-vamped armor sets for all levels, new item drops for a number of harder dungeons, and improved drop rates of PQ rewards.
• Main Assist - RvR is exciting, chaotic and always challenging but this feature will make it just a little bit easier to help your group fight the good fight.
• Player Statue System - Nothing says "you’ve made it" more than having a statue with your name on it in the capital city of your realm.
• New Content - Whether it is new lairs, new quests and changes to items, this patch is full of lots of fun new content additions to the game.
• User Interface - Lots and lots of fixes, changes and new additions to our user interface and API functionality, new additions to the chat system and graphic options incorporating community requested features a channel flashing on activity, the ability to turn the chat bubbles on/off, a gamma slider and so much more.
• Player Responsiveness – We have added a number of additional features to improve the responsiveness of the game client. These changes include items that will lessen the "Pause" period in casting due to high lag, as well as fixes for a number of animation glitches and issues players experienced while rapidly activating abilities.
• AddOn Management - WAR now officially supports many great User Interface mods! You can now access your AddOn management window via the ‘Customize UI’ window. This window will allow you to view information about and enable/disable any AddOns you may have installed. This window also contains an ‘Advanced’ screen that gives UI mod developers access to some of the same development tools Mythic uses to create its UI. In coming versions we will continue to improve the UI Modding systems in-game and plan to launch a UI Mods specific section of the Warhammer Herald.
• Improved Performance and Stability - We have made additional improvements for both the client and the servers."

More about Patch 1.1a at the official WAR site >>

ATI recently released an update to its ATI Catalyst Software Suite. Version 8.12 promises to provide performance gains to the following:

• Call of Duty: World at War DX9 – performance gains of up to 21% for Single
  and Crossfire mode.  Performance gains were noticed on all Radeon HD48xx.
• Crysis DX10 – performance gains of up to 25% for Single and Crossfire
  mode.  Performance gains were noticed on all Radeon HD4xxx.
• Crysis Warhead DX10 – performance gains of up to 13% for Single card
  mode and up to 16% for Crossfire mode.  Performance gains were noticed on
  all Radeon HD4xxx.
• Devil May Cry 4 DX10– performance gains of up to 6% for Single and
  Crossfire mode.  Performance gains were noticed on all Radeon HD4xxx and
  HD38xx.
• Fallout 3 – performance gains of up to 15% for Single card mode.
• Far Cry 2 DX10 – performance gains of up to 10% for Single card mode and
  up to 57% in Crossfire mode.  Performance gains were noticed on all Radeon
  HD4xxx and HD38xx.
• FEAR DX9 – performance gains of up to 6% for Single and Crossfire mode. 
  Performance gains were noticed on Radeon HD4870X2 and HD4870.
• Hellgate: London DX10 –  performance gains of up to 6% for Single card
  mode and up to 10% for Crossfire mode.  Performance gains were noticed on
  all Radeon HD4xxx.
• Left 4 Dead DX9– performance gains of up to 10% for Single card mode and
  up to 5% for Crossfire mode.  Performance gains were noticed on all Radeon
  HD4870 series.
• Lost Planet Colonies DX10 – performance gains of up to 10% for Single and
  Crossfire mode.  Performance gains were noticed on all Radeon HD4xxx and
  HD38xx.
• Prey OGL – performance gains of up to 15% for Crossfire mode.  Performance gains were noticed on Radeon HD4870 1GB products, HD46xx, HD45xx.
• S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Clear Sky – performance gains of up to 10% for Crossfire
  mode.  Performance gains were noticed on all Radeon HD4xxx and HD38xx.
• Unreal Tournament 3 DX9 – performance gains of up to 18% for Single
  card mode and up to 15% in Crossfire mode, especially in cases where AA is
  enabled. Performance gains were noticed on all Radeon HD4xxx and HD38xx.

If you are currently using an ATI graphics card in your Windows XP gaming rig, be sure to update it to the latest drivers:

Download ATI Catalyst Drivers for Windows XP 8.12 >>

Tom’s Hardware recently released their December 2008 choices for best gaming video cards for the money.

The following were the picks:

Recommended PCI Express Cards:

• Radeon HD 4650 (US$60)
• Radeon HD 4670 GDDR3 ($80) [review]
• GeForce 9600 GSO (aka GeForce 8800 GS) ($80)
• Radeon HD 3870 ($95)
• GeForce 9600 GT ($95) [review]
• Radeon HD 4830 ($120) [review]
• GeForce 9800 GT 512 MB (aka GeForce 8800 GT 512 MB) ($120)
• Radeon HD 4850 ($160) [review]
• Radeon HD 4870 512 MB ($215) [review]
• GeForce GTX 260 ($215)
• GeForce GTX 260+ ($265)
• Radeon HD 4870 1 GB ($265)
• 2x Radeon HD 4850 in CrossFire Configuration ($320)
• Radeon HD 4850 X2 ($370)
• Radeon HD 4870 X2 (over $400) [review]

For light gaming only, the HD 4650 should suffice. This card give more bang than the HD 4350, for just a few bucks more.

If you are interested in a CrossFire configuration, two HD 4850 cards seem to be the way to go. Tom’s Hardware didn’t have a recommended SLI configuration, so for guys and gals who prefer Nvidia cards, two 9800 GT cards running in SLI mode might be the next best thing.

And if you just have to have the meanest and “baddest” card, and could afford it, the HD 4870 X2 is for you.

Recommended AGP Cards:

• Radeon HD 2600 XT (around US$65)
• Radeon HD 3850 512 MB (over $100)

For AGP systems, the HD 2600 XT and HD 3850 512MB are the best choices (if and only if you need to replace a broken graphics card on an existing AGP system).

[Source: Tom’s Hardware | Best Video Cards For The Money: Dec '08]

Left 4 Dead (PC, Action) is a multiplayer focused shooter game from Valve. Set in the immediate aftermath of the zombie apocalypse, L4D offers four expansive "movie campaigns" that challenge you and your fellow survivors to battle thousands of swarming zombies as you travel across the rooftops of an abandoned metropolis, through rural ghost towns and pitch-black forests. In addition to the movie campaigns, Left 4 Dead features a Versus mode that allows you to play as the Boss Zombies.

FiringSquad gave it its Editor’s Choice award:

“Left 4 Dead is just another game in Valve’s portfolio that goes to show they know what fun is, and what people want to play. By taking many of our cultural references to zombies and allowing players to be part of the horde, Valve has given us a game that is unlike any other we have seen. Fast paced action and scream inducing frights work to provide an innovative and exciting game that has a huge replay factor thanks to the AI Director’s ability to completely randomize each play through.” [FiringSquad | Left 4 Dead]

GameZone gave it an 8.9 rating:

“Left 4 Dead is a great multiplayer shooter with many elements that you won’t find in any other shooter this year. The co-op experience is unrivaled and the dynamic AI is an excellent design choice. While more maps would’ve been nice, Left 4 Dead is still a worthy purchase for any fan of multiplayer shooters.” [GameZone | Left 4 Dead]

Do you like shoot-em-up action multiplayer games? Left 4 Dead is your sure ticket to hours of great fun.