Gamespot puts together a cavalcade of the games of 2011

I wanted to share a pretty neat video that I saw over on Gamespot the other day. It's a cool little piece that goes through 2011 and the games that came out over the months.

I think it's a nice way to go out of 2011:

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Happy New Year and a big thank you!

It's almost time to drink ourselves senseless and celebrate the end of another trip around the Sun by exploding large amounts of colored chemical compounds into the unsuspecting atmosphere of our planet.

From me here at Light Speed Gaming I hope that 2011 brought you good things and that 2012 will be even better. Try not to blast off any extremities that you care about and may your hangovers pass quickly.

I also want to thank every one of you for spending time here on Light Speed Gaming and reading my semi-daily reviews, opinions, rants and so on.

Light Speed Gaming has now been around for a good three months, so obviously we're still very much in the opening phase, but I am really happy about how many people are choosing to stop by and take a gander at my writings.

I love the smell of fireworks in the evening. Smells like... money burning

I'd like to encourage you all to leave comments on my posts as it will greatly help me with working out what kind of things that you'd like to see more off, and I also just really enjoy engaging with readers, so please do leave a comment, they are very much appreciated!

Looking into 2012 I intend to keep going with near daily updates to the blog if at all possible. It's been quite a lot of work for me to keep making a new post every day so far, I'm just one guy that also has a full time job after all, but I think that frequent posts help to keep me in the "blogging zone" and I'd also very much like to give you all a reason to spend a few minutes checking in every day.

I'm not sure how you guys are liking my split between video games, sci-fi video games and other sci-fi stuff (mostly movies and books). Obviously I spend the vast majority talking about video games, which is also keeping with the naming of the blog, but I'll try to throw in a little more movie, book and other sci-fi related content where possible.

Please do let me know if there is some particular gaming or sci-fi area that you'd like to see more coverage of.

You may also have noticed that I've had a few guest posts up. I think that it's very nice to mix up my writing with the thoughts of other people, and if you're out there with an itch to write about something gaming or sci-fi related, then you're very welcome to send me a mail or contact me on Twitter and we can discuss a guest post here on the blog.

That's all from me. Again, Happy New Year and best wishes for 2012!



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My 3 personal Star Wars peeves - AKA "Actually, that doesn't make any sense.."

If you really take a hard look at the Star Wars movies you'll quickly see that there is a bunch of stuff in there that just makes no sense. The most obvious and talked about peculiarity is the comically poor ability for Stormtroopers to hit anything at just about any range, even though they are supposedly some of the finest soldiers in the galaxy.
Or like the absurdity of those same elite forces being beaten by a tribe of angry teddy bears with rocks and spears.

Then there are things that you might initially not really think about, but then after seeing the movies a few times you go "hang on a minute..."
I've gathered my three favorite/worst of those moments and I submit them to you here:

1) Jabba the Hutt getting killed by Leia

Jabba the Hutt was supposedly one of the most badass crime lords in the galaxy at the time of his demise. He was obviously no stranger to people wanting to brutally murder him, as we can see from his calm reaction to first being threatened by a person with an armed thermal detonator and then a Jedi.
Hell, just having two people trying to murder him is probably a slow day in the office for Jabba.

So you'd think that he'd be pretty interested in some high quality bodyguards. You know, someone who wouldn't immediately abandon their post as soon as the shit hit the fan. People that would have a vested interest in the continued well being of their boss and employer and not let him get slowly strangled by a female slave.

"I could have been able to afford decent bodyguards if only I hadn't wasted all those money on liposuction"

Seriously, how the hell do you have a skiff full of guards, bounty hunter, mercenaries and criminal scum in general and as soon as there's a small explosion everyone just freaks the hell out? No one saw an opportunity to get on Jabba's good side by making sure he got out of there alive?

It wasn't even like it was a deadly Jedi with a lightsaber that was assaulting Jabba. All they had to do to save him was just shoot Leia in the back. 5 seconds of work for the gratitude of the most notorious Hutt in the galaxy.

Interview with the developers of Guns of Icarus Online

I'm very happy to be able to bring you an interview with Joseph Lieberman from Muse Games, makers of Guns of Icarus Online. You may remember that I had the first gameplay trailer from this game up on the site back in November.
With its dieselpunk setting and first person piloting of giant airships the game is looking to be quite the unique experience and after this interview I'm even more curious to see the finished product.

First off, can you tell us a bit about what Guns of Icarus Online is all about? Obviously flying the airships is the key gameplay element, but what sort of tasks will you be using your nifty ship for? 

There are two modes of play that together embody what Guns of Icarus Online is all about. On the smaller scale, the game is about the thrill of flying and moment-to-moment airship combat, with its strategy, skill and frantic action, and the teamwork of a well-knit crew where everyone has a job to do.  These experiences are the core of the PvP combat mode that we will aim to release first. In the campaign mode on the larger scale, which we will expand to, the game is about the politics of alliance and conquest, and the economics of nurturing the growth of struggling towns while increasing your own profits through trade. As the captain of a merchant ship, you will be the one that towns depend on to deliver the supplies they need to survive. Lose the cargo en route, and shortages will hamper growth and affect the local economy. As a warship captain, you’ll be on the front line defending or expanding your faction’s territory, protecting merchant fleets so shipments get where they’re going -- or raiding them and bringing the spoils home.

Steampunk and Dieselpunk seems to be enjoying quite the surge of popularity these days, which means that the setting in Guns of Icarus Oline is not necessarily as unusual a sight as it has been before. What would you say really sets the Guns of Icarus Online world and setting apart from the standard steampunk/dieselpunk themes of greasy engines and smoking mechanics?

Steampunk and dieselpunk were starting points for our concept, but they’re only a part of the aesthetic. This obviously isn’t a high Victorian steampunk setting that’s all gaslight and gleaming brass, and it’s not an Atomic Age dieselpunk fantasy setting, either, although it has elements of both. The world of Guns of Icarus Online is what you get some 300 years after history has basically been arrested at the outbreak of World War I in 1914, so that’s the upper limit of technological progress. In the war, humanity essentially bombed itself back to the Dark Ages and had to build up from there.

Some parts of turn-of-the-century technology still exist or can be salvaged or recreated with a lot of effort, like electricity. At the same time, without access to global trade and production, most of the world is living a pre-industrial agrarian or even hunter-gatherer lifestyle, with animal labor and maybe some limited steam and diesel power -- all in the ruins of an urban, industrial world that has been iced over, desertified, and thoroughly scavenged. Guns of Icarus Online also draws on a broad range of cultural influences, as the current population is the product of centuries of upheaval and migration. We’ve got elements of European, Middle Eastern, and Asian cultures all remixed in different ways, from the fashions to the architecture to the place names. We don’t think it’ll be quite like anything you’ve seen before!

A steampunk airship flying game is something we don’t see every day. From the gameplay footage you’ve made available it looks like you’re going with a very special kind of gameplay that is focused on controlling your ship from the first person, as opposed to something like Eve Online that is all 3rd person with UI to handle all the ship controls. Can you give us a more detailed look into how players will be operating the airships in Guns of Icarus Online and how that will impact the gaming experience?

We’ve had quite a few long, philosophical, late-night discussions about what is an MMO, what is an MMORPG, an RPG, a MMOFPS, a non-MMO -- an MO? -- and finally, what is Guns of Icarus Online?

One thing that’s clear is that this is not your typical third-person, open-world, mouse-driven MMO. We’re not Eve Online or World of Warcraft. What we’re doing is bringing team-based, match-driven, FPS-style play to what in the campaign mode will become a persistent shared world, with some more traditional RPG trappings like trade and crafting.

3 Reasons you should play Star Wars: The Old Republic and 3 reasons why you shouldn't

After 32 levels and around 40 hours of playing Star Wars: The Old Republic it is of course too early to say anything definitive about the game, but I feel I can already share a few key findings with you that may help you make up your mind if this is a MMO for you or not.

I've narrowed down three factors that I think are pretty significant game design points and say a lot about what kind of game Star Wars: The Old Republic is.

3 Reasons to play Star Wars: The Old Republic:

1) This is the most well crafted MMO since World of Warcraft

Since World of Warcraft launched in November 2004 there have been many challengers, but they have all lacked the quality of polish that Blizzard puts into their products. There were many bugs and issues with WoW at launch, but the overall experience was incredibly smooth and well executed.

Many other MMO's provided some interesting ideas, but most of them felt like they had been taken out of the oven before they were done, or that whoever was making them simply forgot to add several important ingredients before it even got into the oven (I'm looking at you; Age of Conan and Warhammer Online).

In SWTOR I have found a game that really feels incredibly well crafted right out of the gate. I've only had a couple of disconnects in all my play time and only run into a single quest that was bugged. Now again, like WoW there are still plenty of bugs to be found, but overall you really get a sense that a ton of work and love was poured into the game, and that really helps establish an inviting gaming atmosphere.

2) The story is better than anything you've ever seen in an MMO

There has been story in other MMO's before SWTOR, but there has never been story like what you find in SWTOR in MMO's before. Obviously the class story lines are the main set pieces for SWTOR and that is where you'll find the most interesting stories.

I have genuinely found myself pushing for just a few extra hours just to see the next part of my class quest.
It wasn't the promise of loot, a cool new ability or the draw of a new shiny mount that made me keep playing until 3:30AM. It was the lure of seeing how my Sith Inquisitor would get out of the tight spot that he found himself in, and that is a kind of motivation that I have never experienced before in a MMO.

Besides an interesting side quest story, Alderaan is also incredibly pretty

But not only are the class stories quite good, there are also several interesting quest lines to pick up as non-class specific side quests on the worlds that you visit. I particularly enjoyed the Alderaan side story quest line that saw me help out the Empire aligned noble house in its attempts to claim the throne of Alderaan.

Coming up on Light Speed Gaming in the last week of 2011

*Groan*...oh...hello there...ugh, Christmas has struck at me and left me more bloated and stuffed than Jabba the Hutt after an XXXL serving of chili con carne. Fortunately I have one day to recuperate before another "Christmas lunch" demands that I once again cram a straight up unhealthy amount of food inside my unsuspecting stomach.

Anyway, let's look at what we posted here on Light Speed Gaming this week, before we were struck by this Jesus powered holiday.

First up was my slightly delayed Saints Row: The Third review, which gave me a chance to agree with the Giant Bomb sentiment of "You really should play Saints Row".

I also shared some of my common sense pieces of advice on how to get 100k credits at level 25 in Old Republic. It's 4 simple steps that got me a decent sum of cash and resulted in me being able to get a land mount as soon as I hit level 25.

A Steam copy of Fallout: New Vegas was also handed out to the reader that shared the most interesting sci-fi experience of 2011. Oasis789 took the prize by bringing up the very cool convention "Singularity Summit", which you should totally check out.

I also spent some time ranting about video games marketing and some very questionable marketing methods.

Finally the week ended with a little home video, though rather than someone getting hilariously surprised by a falling bucket of water, or a dancing dog in a tutu, this home video demonstrated the Alderaan PvP battleground in The Old Republic and my complete inability to kick Republic ass.

So what is on the plate for the very last week of 2011?

Blowing up Alderaan. The Empire spares no expense to have the greatest New Years Eve fireworks

Merry Christmas from all of me to all of you

The great Pagan holiday, known in Christian countries as Christmas, is upon us once again, ready to smother us with inappropriately large sized servings of food and piles upon piles of meticulously wrapped gifts.

I hope that you will all have a great Christmas and that Santa has left a little science fiction present underneath the Christmas tree, whether it be in the form of a video game, a movie, a book or something else entirely.

I myself have asked Santa for a shiny new copy of Anno 2070, though how I'll find time to play it in between Old Republic and my extended Christmas feasting sessions I don't know.

What will Futurama Santa bring us this year?

I will be spending Christmas with my family, but I should still be able to keep up posting here on the site, so please do check back in and see what's up, if you get a chance to make your way onto the interwebs.

So Merry Christmas and best wishes to everyone from me here at Light Speed Gaming!



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Commentated Alderaan PvP Video - I'll melt your face with lightning!

I've already dumped more hours into Star Wars: The Old Republic than probably any other game that I've played in 2011. I'm really enjoying the game so far, even if it can't quite match the addictive qualities of WoW (can anything really be expected to recapture that feeling again, though?).

Anyway, I thought I'd share with you my first experience of the PvP battleground system in Old Republic. So I give to you this video of me noobing around the Alderaan PvP battleground and trying to violently burn my republic enemies into a crisp, through the use of Force lightning.

I hope you'll excuse the slightly too loud sound effect volume in the video. I had some technical issues with the recording, but I hope you can still manage to hear most of my commentary.

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Is all fair in love and games marketing? - 3 nasty trends in games marketing

I'm sure that a lot of people have a distinct dislike for marketing people. A dislike that is only topped by their dislike for lawyers or having an ice pick wedged in their eye socket.
I myself have a fairly positive view on marketing workers and their trade in general. I understand the need to drive sales for a product and that this practice will sometimes create situations that can perhaps be a little obnoxious or a small hassle for me as a consumer.

But I must say that certain trends that I'm starting to see in video games marketing has made me question if we're starting to reach a point where the marketing decisions are starting to really hurt the games and the people that are going to play them?

Using highly advanced word alchemy, I have condensed my complaints into three main categories that I feel sum up fairly well, what my issues with the current game marketing situation is and why I think they are negatively impacting the games being made.

1) Preorder Bonuses

Getting a lot of preorders is great. Firstly, it's a lot of guaranteed revenue for your company that will come in as soon as you release your game, and secondly, it is also a great figure to brag about (if it's high) and show the world how great your game must be since so many people have already ordered it without it even being out yet.

One way of increasing the number of preorders that your game gets is by creating a "preorder bonus". Something in the game that will only be available to consumers that placed a preorder on the game.
If you look at it in a positive light it is the game company's way of saying thank you to the fans for preordering and believing in the game. If you take a more cynical view it is a way to sucker people into laying down a deposit for a game of unknown quality by promising them a slightly different looking gun/costume/hat etc.

Anyway, my gripe is not as much with the preorder bonuses themselves. I think that it's alright to reward your most dedicated fans a little. What I mind is the practice that is becoming more and more common, where every retailer has their own specific preorder bonus.
Want the silver machine gun? Preorder at Best Buy. Oh, you want the purple striped hand grenades? That's an Amazon preorder bonus.

This got completely out of hand with "Batman: Arkham City", which had so many different preorder bonus arrangements that there are entire dedicated web pages that explain where you need to go to get which preorder bonus!

So many... Batmen? Batmans?

Not only does this mean that some people that preorder may feel cheated when they discover that there was actually a much cooler preorder bonus at another retailer than the one they placed their order in. It also means that the people that care the most about getting all the content for your game will be unable to get it unless they place multiple preorders (now I'm sure some marketing people would actually like them to do just that, but I'd also like those same marketing people to spontaneously combust and go out in a massive fireball of aggregated greed and pure evil, but that's probably not gonna happen either).

Of course, you'll most likely be able to get your hands on all the preorder bonus content later...by buying it as paid downloadable content (DLC). That's right, kick those preordering fans right in the nutsack by taking away the one identifier they have of being dedicated fans.

Announcing the winner of a Fallout: New Vegas

My giveaway of a Steam copy of the game Fallout: New Vegas has ended and it's time to pick a lucky winner.

There were several interesting great sci-fi experiences of 2011, from the movie "Inception", to the audio book version of the Star Wars book series "Fate of the Jedi", or even a blast from the past from a reader that just watched the 1997 movie "Contact" for the first time.

Another very interesting top sci-fi moment from "DC" was the movie "Another Earth"

But I ended up picking a comment that really tickled my inner sci-fi geek. Oasis789 nominated the convention "Singularity Summit", which is a convention for high profile speakers to discuss the possibilities of the future.

In particular, Oasis 789 pointed out the lecture given by Stephen Wolfram, of Wolfram Alpha fame, where he discussed, among other things, such sci-fi sounding concepts as computational equivalence and the inevitable unlocking of human immortality and it's impact on society.

PS Vita launches in Japan -321.000 units sold in two days

The PS Vita, Sony's PSP successor launched a few days ago and Reuter's is now reporting that the handheld gaming system sold 321.000 units during the first two days of it's availability to the Japanese buyers.

This is a little lower than what the latest handheld from Nintendo, the Nintendo 3DS managed to do, as it sold 371.000 units in the first to days of it's launch in Japan.

The new Uncharted game on the PS Vita is probably the biggest draw for me

I've previously looked at the PS Vita and put forward why I think that it will not manage to be a big success.
I believe that the time for expensive single purpose gaming devices has passed, and while the PS Vita is packing some very impressive hardware and even looks to have a pretty strong launch line-up, I think it is going to be a small hardcore minority that is going to be willing to lay down so much money for a PS Vita, when they can enjoy a pretty decent gaming experience on their smartphone.

Having said that, I have yet to decide if I will or will not be part of that small hardcore minority that purchases one of these systems. As a huge gadget lover there is a lot to like about the PS Vita, and I might just end up giving in to my gadget lust and get a Vita when it launches around the end of February.

This is a mistake I've done once before. I bought a Nintendo DS and I probably played a total of 20 hours on the system before it ended up as a space filler in a drawer. Hopefully, if I do end up getting myself a PS Vita, it will see significantly more use than my poor neglected DS.

It will be interesting to follow the sales development on the PS Vita and see if my doomsday prophecy on high-end handheld gaming systems will turn out to be true, or whether consumers are still ready to pay a large lump of money for the ability to have a "true" gaming experience on the go.



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4 tips to have 100.000 credits by level 25 in Star Wars: The Old Republic

Money makes the world go round, they say. This is true even a long time ago in a galaxy far far away in the game of Star Wars: The Old Republic, where money not only makes the world(s) go round, but will also enable you to go round the worlds faster, by buying yourself a ground vehicle as soon as you hit level 25.
Not to mention being able to expand your inventory holding capacity or just picking up a nice new piece of gear or mod from the auction house when you really need to.

So you'll want to get your hands on some credits in SWTOR and I'm gonna tell you how. At level 25 I had amassed just around 100k credits in game, and I had still bought every single skill available to me as I leveled up, and even expanded my inventory space twice (that's a total cost of 25k credits alone).
This meant that as soon as I got back to the Imperial fleet, I could go train the first speeder skill and buy my very first speeder, allowing me to ride in style and separate myself from those filthy filthy poor people that were still travelling using their feet.
How quaint!

My inventory (expanded twice) brimming with items to sell and my cash balance looking good

So tell us, oh rich one, how can we also amass these piles of currency and be part of that elusive 1%?
Well, I'll tell you. My tips are simple and straightforward, but judging by the amount of people that were complaining about lacking money for a speeder, they are not heeded by a lot of the player population.


1. Gathering skills are key

In SWTOR you're allowed to pick three crew skills, of which only one can be a crafting skill. But there's no rule that states that you *must* pick one crafting skill. Instead of going for two gathering skills and one crafting skill you should pick three gathering skills instead.

I suggest you pick Bioanalysis, Scavenging and Archaeology.
Why these three? Well, all these gathering skills are skills that you can use out in the play areas. You'll find nodes that can be gathered for all of these skills and for Bioanalysis and Scavenging you'll even be able to gather resources off some of your slain enemies. That means that you'll be able to get materials for 0 cost, so the sale of them is 100% profit straight into your pocket!

I've seen a lot of people advocating the advantages of Slicing, which is more aimed at straight up bringing in money directly, without the need for the middle step of having to sell an item to another player.
The big issue I see with Slicing is that it's not going to be corrected for inflation. That is, you'll always get X amounts of credits for a Slicing mission of a certain level, but the price of crafting material Y is going to increase as the economy gets going and players grow wealthier.

Saints Row: The Third Review - Please hold still while my pimp friend slaps you with his giant purple dildo bat

As I slam my VTOL jet into hover mode, I hear the targeting tone indicating that I’m locked on to the tank that has just emerged from around the corner of the street. I hold down the fire button and let loose with a volley of missiles before I climb out of the cockpit and jump out into a dramatic free fall.

I pop my parachute and look for my gang, which is already waiting for me on the ground. There’s my purple ninja guy, my fat luchador wrestler and my good friend the black pimp, who only speaks in auto-tune sentences powered by his golden microphone staff. Making my graceful landing, I pull out my giant purple dildo bat. It’s clobbering time!

Saints Row: The Third is a game that is crazy and stupid in all the best possible meanings of those words. It is the Monty Python and the Holy Grail to GTA IV’s King Arthur. There is barely a serious moment in the entire game, and yet the story still manages to be engaging and make you care about the main characters, which is perhaps Saint Row’s biggest win and surprise. 

Oh, aside from the story there are also quite a lot of scantly clad women, or "bitches", in this game...

You would imagine that a game that is constantly hitting you with one over the top ludicrous mission setting after the next would be all about the showpieces themselves, and not care much for making an attempt at getting the player invested in the characters themselves.

Now granted, we’re not talking storytelling that is on par with something like we’ve seen in “To The Moon” (sorry I keep plugging this game, but you really should play it!), but for a game that is heavily focused on storming brothels or jumping through the windshield of a plane in mid-flight, it is certainly a lot better than what I was expecting.

The game sees you taking the role as head of “the Saints”, an infamous gang that has reached such incredible fame that they have their own clothes stores, comic books and can’t rob a bank without being asked for an autograph. 

Unfortunately a rival crime cartel operation by the name of “the Syndicate” (no connection to people in trench coats with mind control chips implanted in their brains) is set on encroaching on the Saints lucrative business. The Saints soon find themselves back to square one, having to rebuild their crime empire in the new city of Steelport and take down the Syndicate at the same time.

Coming up in the week of December 19 on Light Speed Gaming

In a surprising turn of events it is now Sunday again after the passing of exactly 7 days. I am sure you are all as surprised by this as I am, but that means that it's time to look at what went down here on Light Speed Gaming and what's coming up next week.

Firstly, I must apologize for the missing review of Saints Row: The Third. My schedule has been a bit more hectic this week than I anticipated, and I also came down with a bad case of being seduced by the Dark Side and spent too many hours with Star Wars: The Old Republic.

Anyways, let's look at what hit us here at Light Speed Gaming this week, kicking off with my own attempts at writing some sci-fi fiction. I would again like to ask that you give me some comments, either good or bad, so I know if you'd like to see more of my fiction writings in the future or if you'd rather get violently stabbed in the eye with a dull spoon (or somewhere in between).

Another Sci-Fi Do Want was posted on Wednesday, where I regaled you all with how much I love the ED-209 from RoboCop.

Next was the grand finale of the Light Speed Gaming Sci-Fi Game of the Year 2011 awards, which revealed that Deus Ex: Human Revolution took the title as our best sci-fi game of 2011.

Saturday coddled us with a guest post from Tyler, which contained his favorite sci-fi movies of 2011, perfect for some movie gift shopping.

Finally I ended the week with the second half of my own sci-fi writing, concluding the tale of the destruction of the Arisen Imperial flagship "Lightbringer".

Deus Ex was my sci-fi gaming highlight of 2011. Well done, Eidos!

Now let's check the navigational charts and see what's up ahead for next week, where Christmas Eve looms in the horizon as a giant nebula of glitter and flying reindeer.

The final hours of the Arisen Imperial flagship ”The Lightbringer” - September 4933 (Part 2)

You can read part 1 here. This is the second and final part of my little short sci-fi story, which details the devastating loss of the Arisen Empire's flagship "The Lightbringer", destroyed in a terrible battle by the techno-hating Neo-Luddites over the planet Foenix.

As the fleet began slipping into convoy formation and prepared to leave, the three Supernova class battleships, the heart of the Arisen Imperial force, formed a back line, protecting the retreating ships from the vicious attacks of the fast-moving sleek Neo-Luddite bombers.
Buzzing around just outside of the maximum weapon range, the bombers looked like a pack of blood crazed sharks watching a colony of seals swim away from them, but being unable to do anything about it. Clearly unhappy about the situation they tried taking pot shots at the convoy from extreme ranges, however they were much too far away for the required accuracy and the shots went wide and exploded harmlessly in an impressive display of pyrotechnics. Occasionally a bomber would get overzealous and fly too close in an attempt to get in a real shot and would promptly get obliterated by the combined firepower of the three battleships that made up the rear guard.

Then it happened. The sharks decided that they were through with trying to get to the prey and being slapped away by its noble guardians. They would settle for ripping their protectors to shreds. Moving in unison, the bombers came straight at the three battleships. With their guns mainly trained on protecting the convoy, the battleships were unprepared for a direct assault and wheeled to get all their guns in firing position to protect themselves. Even unprepared the ships represented massive firepower and many bombers were destroyed before even getting into range.

“No… no!”, Djenkato watched in horror as the bombers screamed overhead of the Lightbringer, having released a deadly payload straight into the side of the Vengance. The ship was now dotted with huge holes all along the side and from the wild fluctuations of her engine it was clear that the main power core had been breached and threatened to explode at any moment.

New Syndicate trailer features more eye stabbing goodness

I just saw that EA has put up a new trailer for the upcoming Syndicate FPS game. This trailer explains how the special chip implanted in your brain is going to make your life a whole lot easier.

Syndicate should be out in February, so it won't be long until we can force people to commit gory suicide by hacking into their brain embedded hardware. I'm sure no parent organizations will have any problems with this at all!



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The best Sci-Fi movies of 2011

I have another guest post for you today. I've just been busy with bringing you my thoughts on the best sci-fi games of 2011. Now it's time to look at what great sci-fi works that we got from the world of cinema in 2011. Tyler has penned out his thoughts on which movies were the best at really tickling our sci-fi craving fancy (let me just state right away that I disagree strongly with Transformers 3 being on the list, but to each their own ;) )

Even though it seems the multiplex was stuffed with crappy romantic comedies or unnecessary sequels this year, 2011 did have its fair share of quality science fiction cinema. If you missed any of these, you should rent, download or stream them at warp speed.

1. Super 8
   
   Combine the writing and directing talents of J.J. Abrams, add in a side order of Spielberg channeling the early ‘80s magic of E.T. and sprinkle in some incredible acting done by kids no older than 12, and you’ve got a recipe for the year’s best sci-fi movie. From the intense and chaotic train crash, that everyone saw in the trailer way too many times, to the tension that comes from not knowing what’s going to happen next, to the superior performances and nostalgic ‘70s era cinematography, this was easily the year’s best.
   
   

   

   
   

2. Source Code

What may initially seem like Groundhog Day on a train is actually a taut thriller that consistently keeps the audience guessing and rooting on Capt. Colter Stevens. As a soldier who wakes up in the body of a man on a train that was eventually destroyed by a bomb, Jake Gyllenhaal gets only eight minute increments to investigate whatever he can to find out the identity of the bomber before they can wreak even more havoc. Yes, the premise sounds idiotic and redundant, but Source Code leaves you feeling thrilled and thoughtful.

Early Christmas present! Win a Steam copy of Fallout: New Vegas

It is the season for giving and so there is no better time for me to offer up a Steam copy of Fallout: New Vegas to a lucky reader.

Fallout: New Vegas is an excellent sci-fi RPG from 2010 that puts you into the boots of a courier in post-nuclear war wasteland Las Vegas.
It's a great open world game that is very similar to Skyrim in many respects (aside from the radioactively mutated ghouls, of course).

Check out this Gamespot video review for further info on the game.

So what do you have to do for a chance to win this super sci-fi title of 2010?
Simple, I want to hear about your best sci-fi experience of 2011. Whether it was the best sci-fi game you played, the best sci-fi movie you saw, your favorite sci-fi book or some other sci-fi related thing.

Just post your  personal favorite sci-fi "thingie" of the year below and let us know why it was so great and you'll have a chance to win the game. I will pick a winner based on most persuasive arguments and added points for an interesting story behind your nomination.

The contest will end on the 22nd of December 1PM CET, which means you will be able to spend some quality Christmas holiday time exploring the nuclear wastelands if you win. Fun for the whole family!



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Two new Command & Conquer games announced - One is a Generals 2 and the other a Browser game... WTF EA?!

In a great bait and switch, not seen done with such flair since George Lucas brought us the Star Wars prequels, EA has announced that they'll be bringing us two new games in the beloved C&C franchise.
This was followed by much cheering that was immediately turned into cries of outrage and despair as the nature of these two new installments was revealed.

The first new C&C game announced was a sequel to the very so-so 2003 game "C&C: Generals".
It's not that generals was terrible but it was certainly the least interesting outing in the C&C franchise if we ignore the horrible steaming pile of cyber poop that was C&C 4.
At least we can take solace in the fact that it's being developed by a new BioWare studio, so fingers crossed. The game won't be out until 2013, so it's much too early to say if it's looking good, but I'm going to miss my Brotherhood of Nod stealth tanks.

At least there appears to be Orcas in the game. That's always a plus

While I can at least maintain some semblance of cautious optimism about Generals 2, I have a whole lot more trouble feeling up beat about the other new C&C game; Command & Conquer: Tiberium Alliances.


Details about the game are not yet available, save for this one soul crushing one; it's going to be an online browser based game... 


Take a look at the announcement trailer yourself and make your own call:

Bleh, I would much rather have had another Red Alert game..



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Announcing the winner and runner up for Sci-Fi Game of the Year

Last week I went over the games that managed to claw their way to the top 5-3 places on our Sci-Fi Game of the Year 2011 list. Today it’s time to finally reveal which game ends up snatching the title of the greatest science fiction themed video game of 2011 and which game made has to make do with the not quite so glorious title of runner up.

So without anymore further introduction let's dive right in.

Runner up: Portal 2

When the first Portal game came out with the “Orange Box” in 2007 I was pretty blown away by the game.

Initially by the really cool gameplay mechanics of the portal gun, which allows you place a two way portal on most surfaces of the game and allows for some truly mind bending puzzles that make you feel insanely clever when you finally figure them out. 

But as I got deeper into the game, the quirky humor became a great part of the experience, and I found myself actually laughing out loud several times during Chell’s daring attempt to escape the Aperture Science facility.

My favorite Portal 1 comedy moment was probably this gem that GLaDOS, the AI antagonist of the game, delivers to you as you are getting quite close to escaping: 

“We are pleased that you made it through the final challenge where we pretended we were going to murder you. We are very very happy for your success. We are throwing a party in honor of your tremendous success. Place the device on the ground, then lie on your stomach with your arms at your sides. A party associate will arrive shortly to collect you for your party. Make no further attempt to leave the testing area. Assume the Party Escort Submission Position, or you will miss the party”.

(By the way, you can find a comprehensive list of GLaDOS quotes here, there’s some top notch quality comedy in there)

GLaDOS is still around in Portal 2, even if she's looking a little worse for wear

The first Portal game was a pretty short affair, so when Portal 2 was announced and it was revealed that it would be a full 6-7 hour gaming experience I was happier than a test subject who just found out he was in the placebo sample group.

BioWare hints that they'll eventually add "Guild Capital Ships" to The Old Republic

I was just having a look over at the official SWTOR site and I found this page outlining the planned additional content that BioWare will be working on adding to the game.

It should come as no surprise that BioWare is going to be adding more flashpoints and operations into the game, nor that they are planning on bringing additional PvP content to the game. That's all pretty much standard MMO content patching stuff.

But what came as quite a nice surprise was this juicy piece of info: "Eventually we even want to deliver on the promise of the long hinted at “Guild Capital Ships”."

Hopefully your guild capital ship will be a little less... on fire and crashing through the atmosphere

Now admittedly for all practical intents and purposes a guild capital ship is probably not going to be a whole lot different from just a guild hall, but I'm not ashamed to admit that I'm enough of a Star Wars geek that the idea of having a Star Destroyer (Sorry, I mean a Sith Battlecruiser) as guilding housing is pretty damn cool.

BioWare, shut up and take my money!



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Sci-Fi Do Want: ED-209 from Robocop

It's time to go for another trip down the halls of the sci-fi archives and pick out another "do want" from the crowded shelves, just overflowing with awesome futuristic gadgets and gizmos. After the last entry, which was the rather peaceful Spacing Guild Highliner from the Dune universe I thought it was time to pull out something with a little more punch.
Like maybe three 20mm machine guns. Oh, and a rocket launcher would be sweet.

Well, do I have just the thing for you! I present the mighty mech-like robot "ED-209" of "RoboCop" fame.

Awww, he's so cute when he wants to hug

Yes, it's the Enforcement Droid series 209, the friendly robotic neighborhood policeman available soon(subject to approval, may not happen) near you. Brought to you by your favorite almost non-evil multi-national corporation OCP (Omni Consumer Products).

Light Speed Gaming Sci-Fi Game of the Year "Readers' Choice" - Augmentations FTW!

It's time to find out which game won the "Readers's Choice" Sci-Fi Game of the Year here on Light Speed Gaming.
When I last gave you an update on the situation Deus Ex: Human Revolution was leading by a single vote, with both Portal 2 and Dawn of War 2: Retribution right behind this elbow blade waving RPG.

Since then there's been a massive show of support for Deus Ex and in the end it ended up with a very comfortable victory, completely obliterating eclipsing the competition, like Lady Gaga at a high school talent show.

I think a victory smoke is in order, Mr. Jensen

I can't say that Deus Ex taking the title was a big surprise, but I was expecting that some of the other titles, particularly Portal 2, would give it a real run for its money. There's no doubt that Deus Ex was a fantastic game and Eidos has done an incredible job at bringing this once most beloved franchise back into peak fighting form.

Stay tuned for my last post on the Light Speed Gaming Sci-Fi Game of the Year 2011 on Thursday, which will reveal the my winner and runner up. Will I agree with the choice of the readers or did something else grab me as the ultimate fictitious of science gaming experience in 2011?

Also, a huge thanks to everyone that voted in the poll. I appreciate you taking the time to vote!



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The final hours of the Arisen Imperial flagship ”The Lightbringer” - September 4933 (Part 1)

Today I thought I'd bring you something a little different. Aside from my blog writing endeavours I have also been doing a bit of fiction writing on the side. I'd like to share a bit of my writings with you and I hope you'll enjoy them.
Any feedback would be most appreciated. If this is something that people enjoy, then I might share more of my writings here from time to time. 


Alpha Admiral Djenkato stared at the monitors with horrid disbelief. Somehow this supposed rabble of crazed fanatics were beating back her masterfully planned invasion. There could be no doubt now that, after three weeks of fighting, the Imperial forces were beaten.
And it all started so well, the admiral thought. The Arisen force had arrived 23 days ago as a silvery gleaming fist of unbridled power. Her ship “The Lightbringer” had spearheaded the attack on the orbiting planetary defences and obliterated them all in short order with minimal loss of support craft. The planet invasion force had launched from her fleet and within days, all but two of the strategically significant locations had been captured.


Then the Neo-Luddite reinforcements arrived. It started with reports from the planet of massive counterattacks from forces that had seemingly been kept out of the initial combat. It became apparent that large parts of Foenix’s underground was hollow and filled to the brim with Luddite fanatics, who rose up in a coordinated move that wiped out half of the entire invasion force in less than 24 hours. After the initial shock of the surprise attack the Arisen force had managed to consolidate their perimeters and were holding their ground, albeit only barely. For a time Djenkato believed the operation could still be saved with liberal use of the massive orbital bombardment capabilities of her, still almost completely intact, orbiting space fleet.

“Admiral, the final ships from Foenix are aboard the fleet. There are no more Imperial forces left on the planet.” The voice of one of Djenkato’s subordinates broke her line of thought and she looked up from the monitors, blinking a few times to clear her head and focus on the matter at hand. “Very well, lieutenant. Order the fleet to begin withdrawing from orbit and set a course back into Imperial territory. We will remain to hold off the Luddite forces along with the Vengance and Justice until the rest of the fleet is safely away.”

Coming up in the week of December 12 on Light Speed Gaming

Another week has been forever lost to us in the hazy depths of time and that means it's time to look back at what nurturing digital gruel was served to you here on Light Speed Gaming and what we have cooking in our cyber pots for next week.

The first big blog nugget this week was my review of Skyrim, which saw me finally get down to the gritty business of passing judgement on the latest medieval shouting sim from Bethesda. 

Next up it was time to reveal the games that made it onto the top 5-3 places in the Light Speed Gaming Sci-Fi Game of the Year 2011 awards. Warhammer 40k made its presence known in this outing by wrapping its ceramic armored hand around two of the places.

A guest post introduced us to the TV show "Alphas" and why it could be the show that "Heroes" was supposed to have been. Thanks goes to James Ged for this post.

Kicking off the weekend was my attempt to create a Christmas gift buying guide by making a top 10 of great sci-fi blu ray movies. This list had the unintentional side effect of almost tricking myself into buying several of the movies and thus using precious funds that are earmarked for gifts to other people... stupid Christmas.

The week was rounded off by my post detailing my overall impressions of the Star Wars: The Old Republic beta test and a terrific guest post by Simon Horrick, who contributed with a great post on sci-fi and the movie he is working on called "Third Contact". A big thanks to Simon.

My god... it's full of stars!

So as we stand upon the precipice of the termination of this week and the initiation of the next, let's see what's in the works for you to consume on Light Speed Gaming.

A Living Machine With A Human Heart

Today I have another great guest post for you. This time Simon Horrocks  has taken some time to give us a fascinating look at the disturbing sci-fi movie "Third Contact", which he is currently working on.

Science fiction, known as a ‘literature of ideas’, has emerged as a genre only in relatively recent human history. We looked out into a vast, unfathomable universe and saw that we were far from the centre of it. So, something of an irony, then, that the more science enables us to dominate our environment, the less in control of it we feel.

Set in dystopian futures where civilisation has broken down, or inflicting on us irresistable warrior-races from alien worlds, or even monsters of our own making (from Frankenstein’s creation to The Terminator’s Skynet and beyond), sci-fi reflects an age of human paranoia, where every new discovery forces us to question everything around us.

American novelist Philip K. Dick’s stories were mostly driven by one theme; a question central to our existence – what does it mean to be human? Are we no more than a genetic machine? Are we merely a device for carrying memories around? If one day we can replicate this machine, so that neither we nor the machine can spot the difference, will this machine be human too?

But now some science has apparently lost the plot entirely. Yes, at the sub-atomic level, things are looking increasingly weird. You can be put in a box and be both dead and alive at the same time. The Quantum Suicide thought experiment suggests the conscious mind is immortal. As The Joker says in Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight – “Whatever doesn’t kill you, makes you… stranger.”

The Steampunk trend is perhaps a reaction to these uncertain times, harking back to a day when science was as unsettling as a chemistry set on Christmas morning. H. G. Wells time machine was, somewhat quaintly, made out of nickel, ivory bars and ‘sawn out of rock crystal’. The intrepid Time Traveller embarks on his journey by pulling smartly on the machine’s ‘starting lever’.

However, there is perhaps a suggestion Wells had some foreknowledge of the Many Worlds theory and immortality. As the Time Traveller is about to set off on his journey, he describes the moment he is about to operate the machine as “a suicide holding a pistol to his skull”. Did he somehow get a premonition of the Quantum Suicide idea?

At some point in the (probably not too distant) future, ideas we now consider the height of cutting-edge sophistication, will inevitably seem humorously quaint to those looking backwards. But we science fiction creators hope we will have touched on some timeless theme, even if it’s a little bit by accident.

So it was, in 2007, I began to write a story about the uncertainty of everything. That story, through various incarnations, eventually became a movie, Third Contact. At the time, I was moving through many dark places in my mind. They’re not always the most pleasant places to be, but what I brought back from those lightless caves went into the screenplays I was writing.

Overall impressions from "The Old Republic" beta weekend - Adopt, Adapt and Improve

I've already dipped into my experiences with the beta weekend for Star Wars: The Old Republic, firstly by touching on the space combat missions and secondly by describing how I enjoyed my time with the Bounty Hunter class.
Today I'm going to give my overall thoughts on how I found the game and tell you if my expectations are still the size of an Imperial Star Destroyer or if they've been slaughtered like Sand People by an angry Jedi.

First up let me give you a bit of background on how much time I had with the beta and what I used my time on. I got in a good 25 hours or so, and in that time I leveled a Bounty Hunter to level 17 and a Sith Inquisitor and Warrior both up to level 10. I also dabbled very briefly with a Jedi Knight, but only got up to level 4 before the lure of the Sith Empire overwhelmed me.
My travels took me through Nal Hutta and Korriban, and I also finished up Dromund Kaas with my Bounty Hunter and just got my feet wet on Balmorra. I also played through the "Black Talon" flashpoint, so I got a taste of the "dungeons".

The first stop in my SWTOR experience was the character creator. Compared to what World of Warcraft offers there is an incredible wealth of choice on offer. I do however have two significant gripes with character creation.
Firstly I am disappointed by the race selection that BioWare has decided on. You really only have human and "variations of humans with slightly different coloration". I do appreciate the inclusion of the Chiss, which I have always thought were a very cool race ever since I saw Grand Admiral Thrawn in "Tie Fighter", but Cyborgs are nothing but humans with a few bits of metal stuck to their face and Miraluka are just humans with a veil over their eyes... Really BioWare?!

Miralukans. They're like humans... BUT! No eyes! Mind = Blown!

There are so many other interesting races that they could have chosen. The old Star Wars MMO "Star Wars Galaxies" offered a much wider choice including Wookies, Trandoshans and Rodians. I don't know if BioWare simply thought that people did not want to play anything that looks more alien than a red human with some small horns on his head, but I am really disappointed that we're getting treated to these "Star Trek" aliens.
I also found that the "body type" selection is too extreme with the available options. You go from skinny short guy to super Schwarzenegger and then to big fatty Mcfat with no steps in between. The end result is that pretty much 90% of the male characters that I saw in the game were all using the pumped bodybuilder body type, which is a big shame. There needs to be a more "normal" body type available that is neither skinny nor steroid filled.

On to the game itself then. Every class starts the game with the classic "Star Wars crawl" that sets the scene for your situation and finishes off with a cutscene that shows your character arriving on the relevant starting planet. It's a great way to set the mood and feels appropriately Star Wars.
You'll immediately be thrown into a conversation with a story NPC and be introduced to the voiced conversations and the dialogue wheel. Pretty much throughout my beta testing time I found the quality of the voice work to be really good and the conversations were interesting to follow. I did encounter several instances though, where I would be talking to an alien character speaking in their native tongue and their spoken lines would take only a second or two even though the lines they were speaking were two or three complete sentences, which was a bit jarring.

Sith Inquisitor Character Progression Video

A new video is now up from BioWare which shows off the character progression of the Sith Inquisitor, which is going to be my class of choice when the early access starts for The Old Republic next week (at least if I don't change my mind at the last second and is lured over to the Bounty Hunter, which I loved playing during the beta weekend).

If I do go for the Inquisitor like I plan, then I will head down the road of the sorcerer, which focuses on all the lightning based ways of causing terminal discomfort in your enemies.



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The Ultimate Sci-Fi Blu-Ray Movie Christmas Gift Top 10

It's December and you've already missed one week of Christmas shopping to playing Skyrim (or is that just me?). Next week you'll be Force gripped by the launch of Star Wars: The Old Republic so maybe you should take a moment to get some gift shopping done?

I've put together a list of sci-fi movies that should make great Christmas presents for anyone with just a little appreciation for science fiction. They are great for presents for any fellow geeky family members, or perhaps as a little self indulging gift from you to you, with regards from Cyber Santa.
You can also pass along the list to gift givers and possibly avoid another pair of hand knitted socks (not that those aren't great!).

10: Star Wars: Blu Ray Box Set

I know I have bitched about what George Lucas has done to the old Star Wars movies. I completely stand by my criticisms, but despite Lucas' best efforts to mutilate my childhood memories to a degree that would make even Jack the Ripper uncomfortable, the fact of the matter is that Star Wars remain some of the best sci-fi movies ever made.
And even though this Blu-Ray box served as another opportunity for Lucas to mess with perfection it's still pretty great to see the old trilogy all polished up like R2-D2 at a medal awarding ceremony. Damn you Lucas! Just wipe that smug look off your face and take my money already!



9. Inception

I was very positively surprised by Inception, when I first saw it. It's the kind of movie that works really well the first time around, but if you start spending too much time thinking about the plot it starts to come apart at the seams a little. In that respect it reminds me a lot of another DiCaprio movie Shutter Island, which I can also recommend by the way.
But try not to think too hard about the logic of bringing people into the dreams of other people, or the silliness of going into a "dream within a dream" and Inception is a very entertaining movie, which also has some slick visual tricks up its sleeve.

Alphas: A Better Version of Heroes

I'm very happy to bring you another guest post here on Light Speed Gaming. This one comes in from James Ged, who is going to share his fondness for the TV show "Alphas" with us and explain, why he thinks it is actually in many ways the TV show that "Heroes" should have been.

Alphas (SyFy) is what Heroes should have been. Everyone agrees that Heroes had a great first season, but it quickly went to crap after that. Alphas, on the other hand is stronger both narratively and structurally. Although these shows share the same basic idea—there are people among us who have extraordinary abilities and powers—they are very different in the way they approach plot and style, and Alphas pulls it off where Heroes failed.

Structure and Narrative

Part of the weakness of Heroes was that it didn’t set itself up with a particular structure from the beginning. That is, it set itself up as a free-for-all drama with no real structure or regular plot elements, so when the show had to grow and become something else in its second season, it had nothing to fall back on, and thus fell apart.

Alphas, on the other hand, has established itself as a procedural-type show with a plot structure based on a team of “Alphas” (or people with enhanced physical and mental abilities) who investigate crimes and track down other Alphas who may be a danger to themselves or others. Although the show broke with the procedural structure throughout the first series, the writers regularly returned to it, giving a continuity and framework to the show that allowed for good character development strengthened the overarching storyline.