As a lad of barely five when I played it, comprehension wasnʼt my strongest suit. But Super Punch-Outʼs bravado and colour grabbed me almost instantly; the sheer size of even the 1-99 Gabby Jay (heʼs French and has a glass jaw, obviously) took up what seemed like a majority of the screen real estate. It helped that your up-and-coming boxer, Little Mac, was rarely seen below his waist, that he had tendency to become translucent and that even by his third opponent he was out-weighed by something in the region of 350 pounds.

When I grew up I learnt that the ensemble of racial stereotypes in Super Punch-Out was a carry-over from the original but if anything they became more over the top on the SNES. They included a (what else?) ginger-haired Irishman called Arron Ryan who loved to be punched but would fight dirty and suck your health by putting you in his almost inescapable – and terrifying – man-hug.

For me, the game is as much tied to moments in my life as any video game, film or song Iʼve ever experienced; by nature of my self-inflicted learning curve my progress through the four tiers of four boxers, the Minor, Major, World and Special circuits, was piece-meal but I rarely remember becoming flustered with the game. I usually knew Iʼd done something stupid when I ended up face-first on the canvas.

Beating Bald Bull, a Turkish brick of a man and the Minor champion, while recovering from Tonsillitis meant barely being able to make a sound while being in a fit of delirium and finally, finally beating the final fighter, Nick Bruiser, a boxer so powerful when he hit you when you were blocking he was able to sprain your hand, meant reaching perhaps the greatest credits in human history – as the names of the development team scroll each of your beaten opponents gives a final epilogue, be it gracious acceptance of your boxing ability or in the case of Nick Bruiser, complete bemusement that he was beaten.

Iʼll never get my tonsils back, but those hours trying to figure out the strategies to beat each fighter, and why some fighters were allowed to kick me in the face or hit me with a stick, made the recovery fly by. And no, Gabby, I wonʼt ever ʻlet you winʼ.

As such, it seems odd that Edge has a huge 26 page set of scribes about the up-and-coming development scene in Dublin. Having said that, as proud as I am of Dublin the BioWare piece is mis-placed, because BioWare are based in Galway.

Edge #233

The set of features, at the back of the magazine in a section aptly titled “Create” covers the home-grown companies like Havok and Jolt, and the difference between game development and the Dublin-specialty in middleware. It also takes a look at PopCap, which houses a proper studio in the capital. There’s a nice wrap up about the future, focusing on the Trinity College MSc program to help churn out future big thinkers in the games industry (a course I was genuinely looking at yesterday morning, before I had the magazine in my hands!).

Edge issue 233 is out now and retails at about €7.

After two games in the main series and several expansions of the critically acclaimed strategy series. Relic decided to go with something a bit different.

Enter Space Marine!

Relic decided to do away with the top down view point and squad based mechanic that was synonymous with the Dawn Of War series, and go with a 3rd person view point and a gameplay style that compares to Gears Of War franchise.

Without the cover system!!!

Now some of might say that’s a bad thing and at times it can be…..But given the role that you play as Captain Titus of the Ultramarines a genetically enhanced supersoldier in the service of the Emperor and the Imperium of Man, who is sent with his squad to the forge world of Graia to assist the beleaguered Imperial Guard in their efforts to halt a massive Ork invasion.

You don’t really need cover!

And I will explain as the gameplay mechanics have a strong emphasis on melee and shooting it give you an edge in comparison to Gears, so for example you yould have a horde Orks coming at you from a distance which gives you the chance to pick them off, But when they get closer your melee weapons come into play which it’s standard hack and slash fare, so what makes it satisifying is the execution kills when you get enough damage depending on the enemy you get an indicator for an execution which is triggered by the action button and the result is a gruesome kill dependant on your melee weapon. You have a choice of three melee weapons one being the Chainsword which is the default and the other two the Power Axe and Thunder Hammer which are scattered throughout the game. All which are dependent of your gameplay style.

I am got going to go on about the shooting mechanics as they are quite similar to Gears in a lot of respects and also are the weapons. Don’t worry you will have access to the standard Space Marine armament.

Also from time to time you are strapped into an assault jump pack which breaks up the game in certain places which enables you to be death from the sky essentially, which is a good thing to be quite honest as it gives you the chance to get the game off the ground pardon the pun.

But while having a best of both worlds is admirable in this game its just not quite enough ,so Relic decided to add a little feature known as “Fury” mode which is procured by getting lots of kills. What that entails is that within the shooting and melee modes you have two types of buffs, for melee it gives you dramatically stronger strikes and for the shooting aspect it gives you bullet time. While not original it’s a nice little addition.

Now for the multiplayer mode :

In Space Marine, there are two multiplayer modes. The cooperative mode is similar to the typical ‘horde’ mode found in other games, it is unavailable at launch But will be free DLC in the future.

As for the main MP mode you can play an 8-vs-8 class-based competitive mode. There are three classes you can choose from on the side of the loyal Space Marines or the ruinous Chaos Space Marines.You can gain experience in gameplay by getting kills and assists which will allow you to gain levels. There are also challenges associated with different weapons and will unlock perks for weapons or armor pieces to customize your Space Marine with.

In the competitive multiplayer, there are two different game modes. The first is annihilation, which is a standard team death match, with the winning team being whoever has the most kills. The second is seize ground, in which the two teams battle over objectives on the field that give points, and whichever team gains the most points wins.

Multiplayer Classes:

Tactical Marine/Chaos Space Marine: The Tactical Marine/Chaos Space Marine is a well-rounded soldier, able to competently fight in both fire fights and melee combat. He has access to every rifle including the sniper rifle, and the combat knife.

Devastator Marine/Chaos Havoc: The Devastator Marine/Chaos Havoc sacrifices maneuverability for long range fire power. He is heavily armored and has access to the largest ranged weapons available to the player, including heavy bolters, lascannons, and plasma cannons. However, he is less agile, and his only melee attack available is a kick.

Assault Marine/Chaos Raptor: The Assault Marine/Chaos Raptor is the close combat specialist in the game. He is able to jump into combat quickly with his back-mounted jump pack and he is able to wield the more powerful close combat weapons with which to destroy his opponents. However, his selection of ranged weapons is limited to side arms only, with the exception of a perk enabling the bolter as a side arm.

Well I must say this is possibly the most fun I have had playing a 3rd peson shooter online in a while. But i will say there are issues with the games netcode operates on a P2P system which is not great and suffers with dodgy host selection. To be quite honest clearly a concession made to the console owners. and the maps while fun are too small especially given the fact that you can use jump packs in the game. Enough Said

As for graphics the environments really capture the Warhammer 40K universe very well with its gothic/futuristic dystopian setting for which Relic should be proud. Now what I will say for a game in this current generation the graphics are not stellar given the fact that Relic had to develop the game for the lowest common denominator AKA the 360 and it shows, But while playing on high settings with my i7 rig with my Nvidia GTX460 I had no issues so I should be happy and you should too.

In closing.

There may be a few things that will put off a few people like the melee getting a bit repetitive after a while and the variety of the enemies are somewhat lacking. And don’t mention the clipping,,,,

But if you are a 40K fan this is the type of game you have been waiting for for years (like me) and you will love it! If you aren’t this will be a nice little distraction for a few hours where you can leave your brain at home.[7]

For the Emperor!

About 3 weeks ago I updated the site with a new theme and some new fancy stuff in the back-end. Unfortunately it wasn’t nice. It screwed with RSS feeds and caused mass confusion with the writers here. What’s worse is Google seems to have thought we were infected with malware.

As such, we’re in a much, much fresher theme that ignores most of what we’ve had in the past and goes back to basics. Unfortunately with the change, our database thinks a lot of the posts (particularly media ones) over the last month are not “posts”, so they’re lost to the sands of database time for now.

In the coming weeks look out for more content then we’ve had recently, from some fresh writers. If you’re interested in getting on board, I’m always welcoming to new people. Just email me!

We’ll be around various events and things soon so get ready for our roving reporter features to accompany reviews and previews of games. Hate to remind people, but we’re heading directly for Christmas… so there’s lots to chat about.

Drop us a comment with suggestions or issues you find with the new layout. Thanks for your support!

Battlefield 3

Battlefield was one of my first game addiction moments. Pure online gameplay was something new for me, and most new recruits into the Battlefield world – because, particularly in Ireland, web connections were nothing to shout about. World War II shooters were also hot property (that hasn’t changed), but when Battlefield2 took online combat into the modern era, it was a game changer. 64 man online warfare could last hours, with the goal simply being supremacy.

There was, and arguably still is, no feeling like being cornered on Wake Island as the Chinese army, only to manage to fight back and win the round.

Years later, EA & DICE are fighting back with a direct cousin to BF2, BF3. This time on their fineline honed Frostbyte2 engine, which has been put through its paces with Bad Company and BC2.

Due in “Q4″ of this year, expect BF3 to be a new era in online gaming. But even more importantly to some, expect it to herald a huge swathe of users to come back to that old relic, the PC.

BioShock: Infinite

A few years ago we heard Ken Levine was returning to game development. The man behind System Shock & SS2 was back with a mad looking 50s-esque shooter under the sea called BioShock. Anyone who played Levines titles in the past knows the story – first person sci fi shooter with RPG elements thrown in for good measure, alongside a supremely well written story.

BioShock was amazing. Visually, conceptually and audibly one of the most original games in year, even if all of the ideas were a mish-mash of old ideas. New concepts like the “Big Daddy” and “Little Sister” immediately became gaming lore.

The second iteration of the game didn’t involve Levine, but was based in the same world. It introduced the new perspective of the player being a new prototype Big Daddy. While it didn’t hit the same mark (it wasn’t as original or clever) it was still an excellent achievement. We now know why Levine wasn’t involved… he was working on a new one.

Infinite sounds fascinating. It takes all that was good about the first title, but then removes a lot of the familiar. It’s set in the sky, not underwater. It has no Big Daddy or Little Sisters. The dynamics you’re used to are gone – so this is a new game entirely, set in the same universe conceptually.

Originally inked for a Q4 release, it looks like Infinite will skip the Christmas rush and get a release in early 2012, just in time for you to spend your Christmas vouchers on…

Deus Ex: Human Revolution

Deus Ex is a gaming classic. A shooter, a sci fi thriller a-la Ghost in the Shell, a bleak commentary on the future, an RPG and one of the best realised gaming worlds we know. And now it’s back. Same cast, world and sense.

This game ruined many a social life, as it was one of those games that you can imagine Bethesda doing now. Long, open, sprawling and endlessly interesting. The original marked a new era of interactive worlds. It didn’t matter, but you could still interact with things like ATM machines. It’s that level of detail that made the game so special.

Add to it more modern development technology, a post-apocalyptic world (in the real world) in which to tell your post apocalyptic future sci fi story and the fact that a lot of the ideas behind Deus Ex are becoming real, then you have a potent mix in which to tell a story.

Star Wars: The Old Republic

I like Star Wars. I wouldn’t say I’m the worlds number one fan or anything close to it. However, I do like some of the games that come out of that universe. I do love Battlefront, the third person online shooter that took the spectacle of a Star Wars fight and turned it over to you in team based future warfare.

I also enjoyed Knights of the old Republic – which is by far the best story told within the Star Wars universe, and in that I include the original trilogy. That team went on to do incredible things, most notably of recent times Mass Effect.

So when BioWare come along and say they want to do an MMO (along the lines of World of Warcraft) everyone has no choice but to sit up & listen. You then have to stand up, fall over with shock, and stand up again when those same people tell you it’ll be a Star Wars MMO.

I’m not an MMO fan. I played EVE for an hour before cursing it’s repetitive blandness, and hated WoW because it has the most antagonistic community I’ve ever come across (and I play Counter-Strike) but the idea of a Star Wars MMO made by BioShock makes me weak at the knees.

The release date is TBA, but it is expected to be announced formally at E3 with a Christmas release.

Max Payne 3

RockStar games are just that – rockstars. With GTA4 they launched a new games engine into the forefront of their “next gen” plans, and with that, rather then rehashing every GTA that’s gone before, they’ve actually gone and looked at their other catalogue titles, and made some new ones (like L.A. Noire).

Max Payne will always be remembered as the action game with bullet time, but it was much more then that. It had a compelling “guy in the wrong place” story and of course, lots of explosions. It’s kind of Die Hard in a more complicated story.

And so, on August 1st, Rockstar are bringing the payne again (see what I did there?) with another blazing action story that will nicely complement their fans alongside L.A. Noire.

L.A. Noire

It’s hard to do a list like this without mentioning the long-heralded L.A. Noire, the Mafia-esque open world game is coming soon, and will bring a 20s-style detective story to the mean streets of L.A.’s high crime underworld.

The technology has matured to a point where facial recognition is unreal, allowing subtle hints of character expression that is instantly recognisable. And not in an overly-used, over-saturated Crysis way, either.

L.A. Noire is out May 17…

Brink

We’ve posted many videos about Brink here of late. The development of this game has been excellent. And why wouldn’t it be? Being developed by Splash Damage and published by Bethesda means you’ve got a hit on your hands.

I could explain the excellent story, mad-hat character & map design and the notion behind having an island of refugee’s going at each other in the future. But instead I’ll save my breath, because it’s out this week.

Mass Effect 3

We’ve already mentioned BioWare in this post. Hell, we already mentioned Mass Effect. So it’s fitting that we mention the next iteration of one of the finest shooter/RPG sci-fi themed game series we’ve had in a long time. Continuing the story where we left off in ME2 will be a tall order, just like moving on from the original to sequel was another tall order, but if one company can hone its skills and make a competent game, it’s BioWare.

ME3 is due out later this year, in Q4.

A for effort, then.

San Fran, however, appears to be a whole different kettle of fish. For the first time in a game of this calibur, the developers have managed to get fully licensed vehicles into their game, and rather then starting afresh and pretending the last game didn’t happen (I’m looking at you, GTA) or shifting the time frame so they can pretend the last game didn’t happen (again, GTA) they’re continuing precisely where they left off from Driv3r.

Licensed cars is a new dynamic, as now you can expect more realistic handling mechanics then you would with fake versions of cars. A fake Dodge Charger shouldn’t handle like a Ferrari F40, for example. An even bigger dynamic is that in this game your character, Tanner (you’re still an uber cop), is in a coma. In this comatose state you can disembark from your body and float into someone elses, re-appropriating their being as well as anything they’re driving. It’s very much like Agent Smith, but rather then you looking like Tanner, you completely change the way you look. It’s just your soul that’s moving… not the fleshy bit.

An ironic twist is the initial section of the game, where you re-appropriate your new super coma powers to take over the EMT on duty who gets a call to a car accident in a clunky, big ambulance. Low and behold, you arrive to your own car accident and learn about your “condition”.

There is plenty of Driver-esque moments in this whereby your main goal is just to catch criminals while driving fast cars around a fully realised city. The notion of being able to shift between people throughout the game is a nice mechanic for sure, which changes the game somewhat – but it doesn’t solve the issue that a lot of people playing this will wish it was made by Rockstar, or make people long for a GTA title even more.

I am pleased to say that Crytek shows the PC community love once again by confirming that a patch for DX11 features in Crysis 2 is indeed underway.

Below statement from Cry-Tom (Crytek community moderator) :

“We would like to announce that there will be a DX11 patch released for Crysis 2. We are working to get the best out of DX11, so we’ll wait to announce the features until a little closer to release.”

Hopefully this news will appease all of the angry PC gamers who bought their DX11 cards in anticipation Crysis 2 hitting the shelves and were disappointed by it shipping only with DX9.

Being one I am very pleased!

Now I can see people asking next : “Where is the CryEngine 3 sandbox editor Crytek hmmm??”

As for the features of the patch Crytek have not announced them as of yet but hopefully that they will be forthcoming with that info soon.

And as said before and will say again.

Watch this space folks!

Crysis 2 is out now for PC, 360 and PS3

A new Crysis 2 PC patch has gone live yesterday. Below you will find a list of the top fixes.

I have personally tested the patch and I can confirm the MP mode is a lot more stable and it has fixed the nano catalyst bug in SP.

According to reports the the flickering issue in sli/crossfire mode still remains But knowing Crytek a fix in collaboration with AMD and Nvidia should hopefully surface in a future patch or driver update.

As for DX 11 nothing yet from Crytek.

I would advise to watch this space.

Good luck

Release Notes :

List of changes
• Further improved anti-cheat measures
• Fix for spurious characters appearing when initiating text chat
• Fix for Chatlog doesn’t disappear after kill cam
• Fixed occasional login issues
• Changed VOIP defaults
• Fixed some UI aspect issues on multiple monitors
• Added option for crouch toggle in MP & SP
• Fixed a bug where players lost Nano Catalyst points after restarting the game
• Filter settings in server browser are now retained
• Default player count required to start a game from the lobby lowered to 4
• Fixed issue related to “Deleting Reference Counted Object Twice” error that appeared for some users with strict router/firewall settings
• Fixed issue of not being able to melee after dying
• Fixed issue where some video cards were being stated as unsupported

We’re working hard with our Ranked Server Partners to switch the servers at the same time that the patch goes live – but inevitably this will take time so we ask for your patience. When you launch the game, the patch will auto-download. If you cannot find servers, please exit the game and re-start to ensure the patch has applied.

You can check the version number by selecting Properties on Crysis2.exe and selecting Details. The correct version after patching will be 1.2.0.0, and the executable will be signed by Crytek GmbH.

Crysis 2 is out now on PC, PS3 and 360

I have tested the patch and and can confirm that the fixes works very well on my setup .

Hopefully you folks in PC  land have the same luck.

Have fun

Release Notes :

The latest patch is now available on Steam and will be downloaded the next time you start Homefront.

FEATURES
Ban list rework
· We now store two separate ban lists on servers; a local ban list, and a global ban list. The local ban list is for bans that originate on the server (via kickbans, etc). The global ban list is for bans that are initiated by a trusted ban list authority. The ban lists store the date of ban, the name of the admin who initiated the ban, the reason for the ban, and a URL field for any relevant ban evidence (demos etc).

New Feature – DEMO URL
· A DemoURL can now be specified in the server playlist, this is used to indicate the location of stored demo files to user’s in-game (see the multiplayer options screen). A good practice for server admins would be to share the demo folder via FTP, this would allow users to grab demos of games they starred in, and also (very importantly!) allow users and anti-cheat authorities to download evidence for cheat reporting. Incidentally, it is now possible to dump all users unique steamID’s from both in-game, and in-demos to the console or text file (this will make reporting abusive players and enforcing bans incredibly easy).

GAME BALANCE
· RPG’s now deal additional damage to HMMWV’s.
· Lowered m200 and m110 sniper rifle damages. The only 1 shot possible is now headshots.
· Flak jacket now has a lower BP cost, and a slight effectiveness buff.
· Diablo damage adjusted.
· Weapon is taken out of ADS and accuracy decreases when jumping.

OPTIMIZATIONS & FIXES
· The Rhino drones weapon attachment was not being properly moved with the Rhino drone on dedicated servers, causing the rockets to fire incorrectly. This is now fixed.
· We have added some animation optimizations for large player games.
· Several UI related improvements were added for large player games.
· Fixed scaling text zooming on Battle Commander when opening up the battle chat or squad UI.
· Switched the buttons around on the load out rename confirmation dialog to better abide by conventions.
· Improved SLI/CrossFireX support.
· A few reported issues with WinXP 64 bit edition have been addressed.
· Improved menu navigation with analogue controls.

GENERAL IMPROVEMENTS
· User feedback for kicks and bans has been improved.
· The intermission lobby now displays clan tags.
· Text chat is now possible in the kill cam, spawn selection, and intermission lobby screens.

NEW SETTINGS & CONTROL OPTIONS
· EnableD3D10/11 is now accessible via the system settings menu.
· Mouse acceleration is now accessible via the controls menu.
· Mouse smoothing is now accessible via the controls menu.

Homefront is out now on PC, 360 and PS3

Quote from 2K :

Hey guys,
I’ve been fielding many inquiries about whether or not Duke Nukem Forever is going to be on Steam and today I’m happy to clear up any outstanding rumors and questions in your mind by saying: Yes, DNF *is* using Steamworks and only Steamworks for both the single player and multiplayer components of the game.

Let me know if you have any other questions about this – and stay tuned – we’re keeping track of a bunch of questions you have been asking and as they are finalized, I’ll be posting more about them here. – 2K Elizabeth

There is also quite a heated debate on the Gearbox forums in relation to this announcement.

http://gbxforums.gearboxsoftware.com/showthread.php?t=117553

In my opinion this is some good news as a regular steam user and for other users. But I can see why people are a bit weary of this news not all folks have great internet connections to support steam or dont have accounts etc, be that as it may there is worse DRM out there…..Trust me.

Duke Nukem Forever is scheduled for release on May 3rd for the PC, PS3, and Xbox 360.

Hail To The King Baby!