Toronto Thumbs

First Contact:
Star Trek Online

World of Warcraft, Everquest, Warhammer Online, City Of Heroes: a small cross section of Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Games (MMORPGs) that I have been interested in over the years, but sadly, have yet to play.

My wife and I were looking for something that we could play together during our spare time. Neither of us are particularly good at multiplayer console games, so we turned to the world of MMOs as a potential fit. She recently started playing WOW, influenced in some part by the web based TV show, The Guild. I, on the other hand, have avoided WOW because I figured that either: it could not be as good as advertised, or I would become obsessed.  That’s when we turned our attention to Star Trek Online.

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Posted in PC, Reviews | 3 Comments »

Check This Out!
Plants vs. Zombies

If there’s anything that scares me more that the Conservative government, it’s zombies.  Vampires, werewolves, poltergeists, Brian Mulroney - those things I can deal with.  But zombies?  Man, I can watch zombie movies in the middle of the day, with the sun shining and children laughing and playing outside, and I’m still going to be up until the very wee hours planning my escape route and how I’m going to survive if/when the zombies come.

That wouldn’t be the case if they were all as easy to kill as the zombies in PopCap Games’ popular iPod game, Plants vs. Zombies.  In fact, they’re so easy to take out, you can do it with nothing more than a well-stocked garden.

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Posted in Mac, PC, Reviews, Xbox 360, iPhone, iPod Touch | 4 Comments »

Classics
Sword of Fargoal

If you place Sword of Fargoal along the Commodore 64 RPG timeline, it sits snugly between Telenguard and Questron.  It’s a brilliantly straightforward dungeon crawler.  If you’re looking for class selection, stat management, socketable equipment, and battle tactics… well, this will number as one among many disappointments in your life.  Sword of Fargoal offers the simplest pleasures: killing monsters, leveling up, and finding treasure.  Frankly, what more do you need?

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Posted in Apple, Classics, Commodore, PC, Reviews, iPhone, iPod Touch | 6 Comments »

In ʘur Sights
Sniper: Ghost Warrior

Anyone has ever listened to one of our Thumbscasts would know that I am a big fan of snipers. In almost every war-like FPS-type game that allows you to choose a class, I will be hanging back in the bushes or the trees picking off clueless people with abandon thanks to a very powerful rifle.

So what is the first thought that enters my mind when I find out that City Interactive is releasing a game in which the main character is a sniper? Hell yes!

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Posted in Microsoft, PC, Previews, Xbox 360 | No Comments »

Late to the Party
Assassin’s Creed

As many of our readers know, I’m late to the party for a lot of things. Assassin’s Creed by Ubisoft was one of those games that I was never interested in; whether the marketing didn’t reach me, or I wasn’t really looking for it, I never bothered to pick it up. What little I saw of it showed a hooded man running around the Middle-East, parkour style, murdering people. As a concept, that did not appeal to me.

Of course, I was completely wrong. Drawn into the display at the 2009 Sony Holiday Preview Event, I got to watch Assassin’s Creed II. Not only was it spectacular to behold, it also included an actual plot! Of course, after this I did some reading and realize that there was far, far more to this franchise than I initially thought. My timing could not have been more perfect to purchase the game, too, as it had just attained Greatest Hits status.

While my overall feelings about this game are positive (I would recommend it to anyone that enjoyed a good story), the experience did have moments that were trying, and I will deal with those up front so that I can end on the note that I ended on when I finally finished the game.

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Posted in PC, PlayStation 3, Reviews, Xbox 360 | 2 Comments »

PEW! PEW! PEW!
LEGO Star Wars III: The Clone Wars Announced

Good news for Star Wars fans: Today LucasArts and TT Games announced that LEGO Star Wars III: The Clone Wars is in development and scheduled to hit all platforms this fall. Awesome.

I’ve been a fan of the console LEGO games since picking up the prequel-based LEGO Star Wars for the GameCube years ago. The human characters actually had yellow faces back then, much like real minifigs! I wonder what happened.

While I’ve only played the LEGO Star Wars games and LEGO Batman, I have the utmost confidence that they’re well-designed console platformers. I can’t speak well for the DS counterparts since LEGO Star Wars II was by far the worst DS game I’ve ever tried to play.

That negativity aside, I’m especially stoked about seeing what TT does with The Clone Wars franchise. I still can’t figure out when this new animated series is supposed to take place, considering the fact that the original 2D highly-stylized Clone Wars cartoon spanned from the end of the film Attack of the Clones right up to the beginning of Revenge of the Sith. Does Lucasfilm wish to ignore the first series as it wishes to ignore the amazing Droids and Ewoks cartoons?

TT Games is promising that this will be the most action-packed LEGO game to date. It’ll feature all the characters from the show’s first two seasons (it’s currently in season two) as well as other characters from elsewhere in the saga. The game’s also said to contain new modes of play, including a battle mode allowing for head-to-head fighting, a level builder, and an interesting-sounding feature called “Lightsabre slicing.”

If you can’t wait till the fall to get some LEGO Clone Wars action, check out this cute Unity-based online game where you play as Anakin on a rescue mission to find R2-D2.

Posted in Awesome, DS, DSi, News Bytes, PC, PSP, PlayStation 3, Wii, Xbox 360 | No Comments »

TAKE THIS, NETBOOKS!
Alienware’s M11x Is Small AND Mighty

On Tuesday Dell officially launched the Alienware M11x, a laptop computer they’re also touting as the most powerful 11-inch laptop in the universe. They should know; the thing has an alien head on it, thus assuring its extraterrestrial cred.

Originally unveiled recently at CES in January, the M11x features some impressive specs, some of which I didn’t even know were specs. Dell, however, is certain this little mighty laptop will help redefine mobile gaming. Here’s just a taste of some of the many discussions you will have if you get this laptop:

“Oh, sorry. What’s that you got there, sweet little old lady on the train? Oh, a Nintendo DS. Yeah. Been there. Check this shit out. It’s a laptop that runs PC games in 720p. No, no, it’s okay. I don’t want to play Sudoku with you. Does this have solitaire on it? You’re damn fucking right it does! What do you I’ve been playing?”

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Posted in Awesome, PC | 2 Comments »

Grand Theft Auto: Episodes From Liberty City
Coming to PlayStation 3 and PC this Spring

Today RockStar Games announced that Grand Theft Auto: Episodes from Liberty City will be released for both PlayStation 3 and Games for Windows LIVE on March 30, 2010. The collection had previously only been available on Xbox 360.

The two episodes, The Lost and Damned and The Ballad of Gay Tony, will be available as either digital download via PSN for $19.99 (for those that have Grand Theft Auto IV) or as a standalone retail disc ($39.99 suggested retail price).

PC gamers will be able to take part in 32-player multiplayer matches and will have access to an advanced video editor.

Posted in News Bytes, PC, PlayStation 3 | 3 Comments »

Sadface
The End of CitiesXL Planet Offer

One of the alluring features of CitiesXL was the Planet Offer; the multiplayer component of the game that allowed you to interface with other peoples’ cities from around the world.

Sadly, the response to the Planet Offer has been less than stellar, and Monte Cristo will be putting an end to that element of the game as of March 8, 2010. No new subscriptions will be available after Feb 1, 2010.

I did not partake of the Planet Offer. I had a free week, which was nice, but I didn’t have time to take advantage of it. Was it intriguing? Certainly. Just not enough to convince me to pay for the service.

I’m not really all that surprised. These days there are so many different games to play, which is good thing in the sense that people have variety to play with; but it can be a disadvantage, as it takes away from other titles that you may want to concentrate on (or those other titles take you away from the current one).

Kudos to Monte Cristo for trying. It takes guts to do something like this. I’m not really worried about them, though, as the game is a great single-player experience. I believe they’ll be making some of the multiplayer assets available in the single-player game, too.

Posted in News Bytes, PC | No Comments »

Retro Goodness
Dark Void Zero Now Available

Today Capcom released Dark Void Zero over Nintendo’s DSiWare service. The retro-tastic 8-bit adventure was developed by Other Ocean Interactive and features a chippy soundtrack by composer Bear McCreary, who has also made the music for Dark Void and Battlestar Galactica.

In Dark Void Zero, players control Rusty, who is the first human born in the void and also is tasked with making sure The Watchers don’t take over Earth. Not to worry, you have help from Nikola Tesla and a bad-ass jetpack.

Don’t have a DSi? Not to worry, the release of Dark Void Zero was accompanied by the news that the game’s headed to both the iPhone and PC platforms. Neat!

Posted in Awesome, DSi, News Bytes, PC, iPhone, iPod Touch | No Comments »