Albion Review

Albion

Developer: Blue Byte Software Publisher: Blue Byte Software Release Date: 1995
Genre: Single player Sci- Fi Role playing game

Gameplay:
4/5

Albion is a role playing game with a mixture of 2d top down and first person camera views; top down for the 'outside' world and first person view in the underground dungeons. Since it is a role playing game, it has stats for your characters as well as gaining experience from killing enemies. Most of the non-combat part of the game involves puzzles and branched conversations so there are very few tasks involving 'Give X to Y person'.

The battle system in Albion is turn based that takes place on a 6 by 6 grid. At the beginning of each turn, the player chooses a action: Attack, move, cast magic, use items or flee.

Graphics:
5/5

The graphics in Albion are very nice to look at in both in the diverse outside and dungeon worlds.

Sound:
4/5

The sounds in Albion are good, with nice environmental sound effects along with the MIDI for the music.

Replayability:
2/5

The replayability in Albion is bad since it a role playing game (meaning lots of linearity).

Overall:
3.75/5

A fun sci- fi RPG game to play with very nice visuals and sound effects.

Merry Christmas

Hi
Just wanting to wish you a merry Christmas from everyone here at Aus Game Tech.
Have a happy holiday and new year. Found this vid. Hope you like:)



On another note, for some reason the Christmas lights videos in my last post violated YouTube's terms and conditions or something like that so i have replaced them with some from another website so sorry about this re post and that one:(


Thanks for Watching
AndrewCow

Christmas Cheer (computerized)

Hi:)
Just like most other people, I love Christmas(as much as Philip will try and convince everyone I am the Grinch) so I found some vids on YouTube that express fantastic Christmas Cheer, run by computer of course. Now these light shows are amazing. I have bben to Disney Land and seen all of their shows, and seriously, they should hire the programmers of these lights!!!



Amazing Grace 2008 - Holdman Christmas Display from Richard Holdman on Vimeo.


Amazing Grace Techno - Computer Controlled Christmas Lights from Richard Holdman on Vimeo.



Carol of the Bells - 2008 Holdman Christmas Display from Richard Holdman on Vimeo.
Thanks for Watching/Reading

AndrewCow

Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade: The Graphic Adventure Review

(Also my first post using Windows Live Writer)

Indiana Jones and The Last Crusade: The Graphic Adventure

Developer: Lucasfilm Games Publisher: Lucasfilm Games Release Date: July 1989

Genre: Single Player Point and Click Adventure Game

Gameplay:
4/5
Indiana Jones and The Last Crusade: The Graphic Adventure is a game based on it's movie counterpart, where you play as Indiana Jones and you have to get the Holy Grail. For those who don't know what a point and click adventure game is, it is an adventure game where everything is controlled by clicking on stuff to do various actions.

On unique feature that the game is the ability to fight your enemies. The fighting uses the keypad to move and throw different punches and blocks.

Graphics:
4/5
The graphics in the game are very nice to look at, and are very pretty.


Sound:
4/5
The game features nice sound effects as well as the Indiana Jones theme song at the title screen.


Replayability:
4/5
There are a different ways to solve the puzzles throughout the game and choices , giving the game some replayability, which is unusual for a point and click adventure game


Overall:
4/5
A decent point and click adventure game for Indiana Jones fans

PS. Sorry for all of the emails - I had some formating issues with Windows Live Writer - I am unistalling it now

Just A Reminder!

COMMENTING IS NOW FIXED!
YOU CAN NOW COMMENT AGAIN!

Youtube 5!

THEME: VIDEO GAME MUSIC #2

The best video game music ever!


My Top 10 Video Game Music... Ever!


TOP 10 Boss Music Part 1/2


TOP 10 Boss Music Part 2/2


Portal Music - Still alive

BONUS VIDEO

The Device has been Modified v2 - Portal Music Video

Comments

Hi

I have heard from some people(including myself) that there is a problem with commenting. I will try and figure out what is going on and McFar54 and I can fix it, but for now, I encourage you to put any comments you have on the Forums.

Thanks for Reading

AndrewCow

COMMENTING IS NOW FIXED

TRAILERS!

Diablo 3 Trailer


Starcraft 2 Trailer


Empire: Total War Trailer


Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War II TRailer


Final Fantasy VII: AC Complete TGS 2008: Japanese Trek Trailer


MadWorld European Uncensored Holiday Trailer


LotR Online: Mines of Moria Runekeeper Trailer


Rise of the Argonauts Majestic Trailer


Gears of War 2 Combustible Map Pack World Premier Trailer


God of War III Spike VGA World Premier Trailer


Ok, My Next Post will be a Best of 2008 post so be prepared for controversy as I reveal my favourites of 2008! I will also be putting up a poll for the readers choice award and coming soon is the definitive Guitar Hero World Tour review!

The Full Youtube Live show is now embedded at the bottom of the Blog!

Official Nintendo Magazine, Youtube 5 and Trailer Time!

Firstly, The official Nintendo Magazine has launched toiday in Australia. This is great news for those wanting pro-Nintendo reviews and information. This is however a great addition to the whole Nintendo Magazine as we only have an unofficvial magazine which is not really that great. Good Work Nintendo, now use this as a base to tell Aussie consumers when the games they want are coming out!

THEME: DOS Games - Funny Moments

Spiderman DOS game completion caused by glitch


HITBALL (Funny PC Engine Game)


Black Cauldron (MS-DOS) game


Beverly Hills Cop DOS game (DOSbox 0.72)


Shinobi (DOS) - Longplay 1/2




Grand Theft Auto 4 : The Lost And Damned Video Game Awards Trailer

Doom II: Hell on Earth Review

Doom II: Hell on Earth

Developer: id Software
Publisher: GT Interactive
Release Date: October 10th 1994
Genre: Single player and multiplayer first person shooter

Gameplay:
3 out of 5

The game is a survival horror-ish/ science fiction FPS game involving a space marine (played by you) who goes and tries to stop the invasion of demons from Hell. The gameplay is simplistic with the objective of the game is to get from point A to point B with a number of monsters in between for your inconvenience and you start off with a melee weapon then you go collect the usual array of pistol, shotguns, machine gun, explosive weapons and hi-tech super weapon which you would only use for boss battles because of the sparse ammo that is available, so the game play is anything mind- blowing. There is no vertical aiming which is unusual for an FPS. This makes the game easier to play as it makes aiming very easy. One flaw I found in this game was its bad level design. I often got lost and ended up wondering around in circles for a few seconds

Graphics:
4 out of 5

The graphics are pretty good, compared to other games even though it is exactly the same as the first Doom game , with a nice and neat game interface.

Sound:
3 out of 5

The sound effects for this game are nice but the in game soundtrack is a bit repetitive and will be annoying to listen to.

Replayability:
3 out of 5

Due to its linearity of the gameplay, the game loses its appeal once you have finished the single player mode. Though there is a multiplayer mode, and from what I have read, it is fun, boosting its longevity for a bit.

Overall:
3.25 Out of 5
A decent and enjoyable FPS if you like to kill demons with a double-barreled shotguns or a chainsaw.

Getting the best out of your PS3

Have a PS3 and want to get the best out of it. Well I found this video on IGN and just thought I would share it with you all:)Hope it works for you!!



Bye

AndrewCow

Musical Mario

I was reading about an IGN article titled '10 Wonders of the Gaming World' today and I have discovered something really neat. There is this special ROM-hack of the game Super Mario for the Super Nintendo.

It is a level where Mario makes his way to the end of the level of ememies, mushrooms and blocks. But what makes this level unique is that you don't need to use the controls to move Mario, as Yoshi, koopas, buttons, blocks and switches propell Mario through the stage for you (which is approximately 11 minutes long). As well as accomplishing this feat, it uses the sound effects of the switch- hits, coins, items and koompa shells to make a tune which is in perfect timing with the background music with not a beat missed.

Atari buys Cryptic Studios, Windows Security Exploit and Ebooks on the Nintendo DS

Atari has purchased Cryptic Studios for $26.7 million. This means that all upcoming Cryptic titles (Champions online and Star Trek online) will be published under the Atari logo. What this will mean for quality is still unknown as Atari have had a mix of quality in their titles. What thi swill mean is more money for Atari.

Another Windows security hole has been uncoverd...after a major batch of fixes. This hole allows hackers to exploit a venerability in Wordpad's Text Converter. Because of Microsoft's monthy patch cycle the earliest it could be patched is January 9 2009. This is another Microsoft problem and I, like everyone, am tired of all the security holes in Windows. I hope there won't be as many in Windows 7, but as we all know there probably will.

Finally, Nintendo, in partnership with book publisher Harpercollins, will start publishing ebooks on the Nintendo DS. This is great news as it means if you have a DS then you don't have to buy a separate ebbok reader. For people without a DS, tis is an added feature to lure them into buying the Nintendo DS. The service will be launched in the UK on Boxing Day for 30 dollars and will feature many classic books. It is not known when the rest of the world will get this feature. What sort of DRM will be used to stop people illegaly sharing the ebooks the books is also unknown.

This weeks Youtube 5 will be moved to next week.

Oops:(

I am sorry. I know I posted this last night but accidentally, in editing, i deleted it. Luckily I saved the post so here is an exact copy of the post(with some spelling fixed)


Hi All:)

Firstly, I HAVE A Wii. This means that obviously I can review games for it. The first game I will review is Shaun White Snowboarding but I can not review it now because I have not gotten very far. This is because i have been to preoccupied with my 2nd thing. I got the Guitar Hero World Tour band game and it is AWESOME. I love the drums(which i mainly play). They are really fun and quite realistic. I am also often forced into singing:(:(but oh well. The singing system is exactly the same as Singstar except there is star power and the whole thing is a little less accurate.

The guitars are just the same as always, excluding the addition of the slide bar. Now, I have not entirely worked out how to do the slide bar but I know it is VERY hard and I frankly have NO IDEA why they included it.

There is a much wider range of songs in this game compared to the others in the series and that is not including the composer feature. This is the feature where you can compose your own songs. I tried and it is weird and hard. But there is a feature to go with it where people(who are much better at composing than me) publish can their songs they have made. Now some of these songs are a bit dodgy(i found one that was supposedly the Star Wars theme that was COMPLETELY unrecognizable) but for the most part they are good. Also, all of these songs are free so even if it is terrible, it doesn't matter. Another thing that was a welcome introduction( I am not sure if they had it in Aerosmith--I never had it) is beginner level. This is excellent for all your friends that are playing it for the first time because they can actually play it:)

Overall I love this game. The only downside I found is that for the Singing and Drum parts, they are either REALLY easy or REALLY hard....which is annoying. So my final recommendation is definitely buy this game. It may have a hefty price tag, but it is worth it.

Thanks

AndrewCow

P.S If anyone has Aerosmith or knows if it has a beginner mode, please tell me in the comments.

P.P.S I just thought i should tell you I reviewed the game on a PS3 so yea......I am only talking about features for the PS3 version but they are pretty much the same i think.


So there you go:) I am sorry about all the spelling and grammar mistakes in the last one!:(

New Metal Gear, Facebook Virus and a Mirrors Edge DLC Trailer!

Firstly, A teaser for the next Metal Gear game has been released by Konami. It is just a picture but it seems to show the XBox 360's Green Ring of Life. My personal opinion is that this will probably be a remake of MGS4 but for the Xbox 360 or, considereing the "i", it could also be an iPhone MGS game. For now we wait. Here is the teaser image:

Next, A virus has come to Facebook. The virus emails Facebook users witha fake Youtube Video that links to a fake Adobe Flash Player download site which asks the user to update Flash Player. This then infects the computer and uses it as a host to send similar emails to others. This is quite serious and ausgametech strongly suggests updating your antivirus software immediately,wether you use Facebook or not.

Finally here is a trailer for the Mirrors edge Downloadable Content:

Mirrors Edge Downloadable Content Trailer


P.S. PLEASE USE THE FORUMS!!! THE LINK IS IN THE LEFT SIDEBAR!

Firefox 3.1

Ok, I've been using Firefox 3.1 and I have to say, apart from the fact that a lot of my addons simply do not work, it is really great. There is the new visual tab switching:

You can now use special characters to restrict searches when using the AwesomeBar.

There is also webstandards improvements.

YOu can find out more at http://en-us.www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/3.1b1/releasenotes/. But I just can't wait until it is finally released because it just looks so damn good.

COD 6 News!

Call of Duty 6 has been announced! The game, to be developed by Infinity Ward, is to be released around Spring 2009 and will be called Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2. Yes COD:MW2. SO expect another high quality game but they could have chosen another era other than going back to the "Modern Warfare" thing. WHy not set it around World War 1? WHy not the Cold War? WHY MAKE A SECOND MODERN WARFARE GAME!!!! I'll leave this up to you to decide becasue I really don't know why they did this.

Command & Conquer: Red Alert 1 Review

The first game I'm reviewing:

Command & Conquer: Red Alert 1

Developer: Westwood Studios

Publisher: Virgin Interactive

Release Date: 1996, declared freeware on August 31^st 2008

Genre: Single player and Multiplayer Real Time Strategy

System Requirements:

Windows 95/98

75MHz Pentium Processor (120 MHz recommended)

8 MB Ram (16MB recommended)

4x CD-ROM

1 MB video Card

Gameplay:

3 out of 5

Red Alert is a real time strategy game meaning that the game is about building a base, managing resources and building troops with a scissors-paper-rock formula to win against the enemy. The game play is good for an RTS game. The controls might be a bit hard to get around, with the whole game based on using hotkeys for ordering units as there is no graphical interface for the unit orders. Also it seems that you can only create one unit at a time and must wait for the creation of the unit to finish before you can create another one. The missions in the campaign are not repetitive, ranging from establishing building bases to making do with what you get at the beginning of the mission.

Graphics:

4 out of 5

The graphics of the game are all good and neat compared to other RTS games. The developers of the game hired actors to film in their cutscenes (which all RTSs besides the Command & Conquer series don’t do) so the graphics for that are good though the resolution isn’t that good and make the cutscenes a little pixelated.

Sound:

5 out of 5

There is nothing much about the sound effects in the game except for that they are very good. One feature that I think is nice is the voices when you select menu option, for example when it says "battle control exterminated" when you abort a mission. The soundtrack is good (it has been voted the best video game soundtrack of 1996 by PC Gamer and Gameslice magazines).

Replayability:

4 out of 5

The single player skirmish mode with computers with various levels of difficulties or with other people over the internet extends the longevity of the game and it would probably take a medium to long time to get bored of the game. The game also comes with a map editor enabling you to make your own maps and single player mission, prolonging its gameplay.

Overall:

4 Out of 5

Fun gameplay that is sometimes disruppted by awkward game play mechanics.

A worthwhile look at if you’re a RTS enthusiast

YOutube Synphony Orchestra!

Youtube now has a Synphony Orchestra! The Youtube Symphony Orchestra is an open audition orchestra which will play music composed by Tan Dun (Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon). All that musicians need to do is upload a video of them selves playing an orchestral instrument well to an area on the YSO site (http://au.youtube.com/symphonyau) and they will be considered for admission. The YSO will play on April 15 in Carnegie Hall in New York. Submissions for consideration to be selcted for the YSO close January 28 2009.

My View: A wonderfull idea from Youtube but I suspect it will be hard to select the finaists. Also, the fact that it is only one piece means a very short concert from the orchestra. This will be good for audiences watching it on Youtube after the performance but how it will stack up for people invited to watch the performance live? Maybe the performace will include other orchestras from around the world and maybe a performance by Lang Lang? Maybe even a live stream on Youtube. I guess all will be revealed in teh coming months.

Oops

Sorry!

I know i haven't posted anything in ages but i had nothing to post about. But here we go I have something. When surfing the net in the early hours of the morning, looking for something to do besides looking at porn, where should you go??What are good sites?? Well these are just some of my favorite:)

1. Dr Ashens--Reviews of old tat you have never heard of:)

2 .Zero Punctuation--Reviews of new tat that you will have heard of--I DON'T WANT TO HEAR YOUR CRIES OF HATRED CAUSE HE IS A LITTLE HARSH!!!HE IS AWESOME

3. Flash --Excellent tutorials of how to make a game---yes you do need Adobe Flash CS3 but a 30 day trial is available HERE

4. Fan Fiction.net--Fan Fiction(well duh) on almost everything:)

5. Tutorials--Tutorials on things such as Flash, Photoshop and Java. Another site for tutorials that I like is HERE but it does not have as many.

Well hope you enjoy those:)

Till next time

AndrewCow

Youtube 5! + New Youtube Layout

THEME: Video Game Music (Part 1)

10 Video Game Songs

'Hope Runs Deep': Gears of War 2 Main Theme


Halo-Main Theme

Calling To The Night - MGS

Final Destination - Super Smash Bros. Brawl



Next, it seems that Google has released an update to the layout of Youtube. The new layout is more compact and, when embedding videos a search bar now appears at the top of the video. I will keep you posted on any updates and information about the new layout.

Forums are up!

The Forums are now live! All the catagories are up and you can post! All you have to do is sign up at http://ausgametech.mybb3.org/ucp.php?mode=register.

The link to the forum is on the LEFT sidebar (NOT THE TOP OF THE PAGE!).
Also you can't post until you have registered.

In other news: The Banners will return soon!

Month of DOS

As mcfar54 has said, this month is the month of DOS, dedicated to those old DOS Games.

- INTRODUCTION -

Now, for those who don't know what DOS is, DOS stands for Disc Operating System. DOS is an operating system used for the IBM PC computers around 1981 to 1995 and has been partly used for the Microsoft Windows 95,98 and Millennium Edition (ME).
DOS uses command line interfacing, meaning that programs are started by entering their filename and file path. Also there are internal commands such as copying a file.

DOS isn't that user friendly as it does not have any graphical interface such as buttons or icons for menus or navigation, meaning that it would be very hard for a new person to use it, though you don't really need to know how to use it to play DOS games.

An example of what DOS looks like

Seeing as Windows 95,98 and ME computers nowadays are very old, ugly, bulky and not so powerful relative to the new XP and Vista computers, nobody really wants to go out to buy one to try to play DOS games. But Windows XP computers can play very few DOS games very well. If you manage to find a DOS game that runs on XP, it would either be very jerky (Eg. Doom II), or have no sound (Eg. Dune II) or the copmuter is too powerful to play the game and you can't really play it because it runs really really really fast so that it is unplayable (Eg. Warcraft II).

So, if you want to play DOS games, there is a way to be able to play DOS games on a Windows XP computer properly with no problems. A free program called DOSBox (http://www.dosbox.com/) can be used to play DOS games. The program maybe difficult to use at first, but there is a good tutorial on how to set it up and use it here. When you have got the hang of using DOSBox you can now go play your DOS games on your Windows XP computer to your heart's content.
If you don't own any DOS games, don't worry as some of DOS games are available to be downloaded for free legally.

Anyway, that's it for now and I will be reviewing DOS games for the next few weeks.

Month of DOS!

ausgametech's Month of DOS starts today! So to prepare to dust off that old Windows 95 machine and get these old DOS Games because you are going to love them.

To help us out with this we have a new contributor so he will be posting very soon!

Forum Link

There is now a link to teh forum on the left sidebar

Forum!

The forums are up but there are no topics yet. Still you can check it out at http://ausgametech.mybb3.org/index.php!

Topics etc will be added soon.

The Full Youtube Live Show plus many more videos in this video filled post!

Firstly I would liek to announce that the forum is coming soon, so DON'T PANIC!

Next I would like to say that tis post will be filled with videos!

First up...The full Youtube Live clip!

YouTube Live '08 - Full Show


Next...Some Slo Motion vids!

High fps slow motion compillation


Slow motion high FPS compilation


Next...Some Trailers

Need For Speed Undercover Trailer


Halo 3: ODST (Name Change Announcement Trailer)


Finally...Some Movie Soundtracks

Blood Diamond movie scene (I Can Carry You)


Quantum Of Solace Music Video "Another Way To Die" - Alicia Keys and Jack White


I hoped you liked this post because each month I am going to do a video filled post with many excellent videos I can find from that month in a new segment called "Videos Monthly".

Also don't forget that the Month of DOS starts on Monday!