GamersFirst (www.gamersfirst.com), a service of K2 Network and one of today’s most popular free2play online game destinations, announces Parabellum (http://gamersfirst.com/parabellum/), a brand new Free2Play massive multiplayer online First persons Shooter, set to invade San Francisco’s Game Developers Conference (GDC).

Parabellum combines the best elements of FPS (First Person Shooter) and MMO (Massive Multiplayer Online) games to create an extremely unique and fully customizable gaming experience. Parabellum introduces the first interactive non-linear multiplayer campaigns in addition to an advanced character & weapon development system and realistic and engaging game-play.
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Going back in time, Ready 2 Rumble was an excellent game on the Sega Dreamcast – a console that was sadly overlooked when released. The cartoon style graphics were really very good, the animations superb and the strange characters great fun to play.

This new, third instalment on the Nintendo Wii should be the perfect party game. Unfortunately, the game suffers the same problem as the boxing in Wii Sports – simply put, I didn’t find the game accurate enough to translate the variety of moves I was trying to pull off – or indeed that featured in the move list of the manual!
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The House of the Dead: Overkill charges you with mowing down waves of infected, blood-thirsty zombies in a last-ditch effort to survive Bayou City and uncover the horrific truth behind the origins of the House of the Dead.

Survival horror as it’s never been seen before! A pulp-style take on the classic Sega light-gun shooter series. Back when the famous Agent G was still fresh out of the academy, he teamed up with hard-boiled bad-ass Agent Washington to investigate stories of mysterious disappearances in small-town Louisiana. Little did they know what blood-soaked mutant horror would await them in the streets and swamps of Bayou City.

The game has a wonderful grindhouse style that’s quite unlike anything else and doesn’t take itself too seriously – which is completely to credit! Whilst simple, it does provide some great fun. But, it’s the language that has allowed the game to become World Record setting!
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If you lead an active lifestyle, then you might well enjoy playing hard as well as working hard. Those of you who enjoy a bit of skateboarding, snowboarding, off-roading or just about any other type of event that might need videoing and showing off to your friends afterwards should consider The Action Camera.

These two tough, little, no-nonsense digital movie cams can attach to a helmet, mast, handlebars, your foot, arm or whatever to record your latest adrenalin rush. Finally, you’ll have something worthwhile to add to YouTube or MySpace that’s actually interesting and exciting. Keep your hands free to pull the rip cord, swing from a branch, leap bungeed from a bridge, ride your bike, your horse or the back of a turtle (you never know), and let the Action Cams capture it all.
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In case you’ve been living under a console rock and don’t know what all the fuss is about, MadWorld is set to be one of the most crazy, violent videogames with a graphic novel look. Not only that, but it is on the family-friendly Nintendo Wii – shock horror!

Varrigan City is where the game takes place. It’s a city that has been seized by terrorists and turned into their own sporting arena; where “kill or be killed” is the only rule. Welcome to Death Watch…. As players battle enemies they must master the use of various weapons and items found within their environment, such as a chainsaws and street signs, and compete in minigames designed to push the players over the edge.
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Zack Snyder’s stylish adaptation of the Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons graphic novel has certainly taken a long time to reach the silver screen. Has it been worth the wait though? Oh yes. The film follows closely to the graphic novel, but that’s not to say it doesn’t have appeal to those who don’t know the story – it does.

Set in a very different version of the 1980s to our own, relations between America and the Soviet Union are reaching fever pitch. This culminates in a very real potential of nuclear attack. Nixon takes a historic third term in the White House, whilst costumed heroes remain a part of society – albeit an outlawed one thanks to the Keene Act – which makes their very existence illegal.

In this extremely charged climate, the Doomsday Clock creeps ever closer to demonstrating the threat of nuclear war. In this backdrop, a masked crime fighter investigates the death of a former hero which leads to the discovery of a huge conspiracy that has far-reaching consequences for the whole of mankind.
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In a move that has almost never happened before, the Ukranian developer GSC Game World has decided to release a very early build of S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shaodw of Chernobyl that predates the final release by two and a half years.

The version of the game – ‘xrCore’ build 1935, dated October 18th 2004 – is available from several links online, but visit here for a reliable download.

Several levels that were cut from the final game, including Dead City, Swamp and Generators, are available to play in the build. It’s described as “playable”, although GSC says emphatically that it doesn’t guarantee stability or fitness, and won’t provide technical support for it.

The build offers a window into one of the more famous recent examples of development hell. The ridiculously ambitious post-apocalyptic first-person adventure was announced in 2001 and originally
pencilled in for a 2003 released date.

Last year, S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Clear Sky was released, which puts the player in the centre of the action one year prior to the original game.

A group of stalkers has for the first time reached the very heart of the Zone – Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant, and brings about a cataclysm on the brink of a catastrophe. An immense blow-out of anomalous energy changes the Zone. There are no more reliable and relatively safe roads. The entire levels vanish in the outbursts of anomalies. Stalkers and even expeditions die or end up sealed on the lost territories. New areas, which remained unknown since the time of the Zone emergence, appear on the Zone map. The Zone continues to shake with blowouts. The Zone is unstable. The anomalous activity is at its maximum.

Changes of the Zone map known to stalkers shake the fragile balance of forces in the Zone. Among the groupings, there flare up hostilities for the new territories, artefact fields and spheres of influence. There are no more old enemies or friends – now everyone is for himself. The Factions War has started between the groupings.

Introduction
There aren’t too many decent RTS games on this current crop of consoles, so it was no surprise that Halo Wars was destined to make a big splash – especially with the famous franchise name in the title. Set before the original trilogy, the game has you in command, in single player or cooperative, of human forces fighting against the alien Convenant and the parasitic Flood.

Capturing the Halo world shouldn’t have been too difficult a task given that there are three games already to market, however, it’s still a compliment to the developers that the game comes across as an authentic Halo experience despite you having control far above the battlefield.
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Here at Forever Geek, we like to be completely inclusive – whatever kind of geek you might happen to be. I personally enjoy science. It’s with this in mind that I was completely captivated by the new Giant Microbes.

Of course, microbes tend to be extremely small – in fact completely invisible to the naked eye. The people at Plush have decided to bring these incredibly interesting micro-organisms to our view in the form of soft touch versions.

Naturally, all Giant Microbes are cute, interesting coloured and furry to appeal to mini-scientists of all ages (and geeks of an older age!). They make great gifts for anyone who happens to be under the weather and I’ve just ordered two of my favourites – the Red Blood Cell and Stomach Ache!

The image on the cover of the game says it all really, a scantily clad woman brandishing two swords, just waiting to carve up the zombies contained within the game. Whilst on many other sites you’ll find that Onechanbara is taking a rather critical panning, I’m going to look at the game a slightly different way and review it accordingly.

Story
Onechanbara Bikini Samurai Squad is driven by a nonsensical story that centres on Aya and Saki – the ‘Samurai Squad’ of the title who have Baneful Blood. This blood allowed them to be excellent assassins and general all round bad-asses, before settling down for a more quiet life. However, Saki sees a zombie outbreak on TV which starts the quest of the game. So far, so very anime. Nonetheless, the story provides the backdrop to the action, so let’s move on to that.

Action
It’s surprising that the game has been marked down on numerous sites for not having that much to it. Granted, perhaps the elements feel a little disparate but each character has a range of attacks for taking on the undead. This includes a kick, a slash (which when pressed in the right rhythm becomes a combo), a sword clean (otherwise your sword gets stuck in zombie gore), a ranged attack or a grab and different weapons.
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In celebration of the landmark Resident Evil franchise coming to Xbox 360 for the first time, Microsoft unveiled today an Xbox 360 Resident Evil Limited Edition Console Bundle. Available the same day Resident Evil 5 ships to store shelves, Friday, 13th March, Xbox 360 fans will be able to pick up the bundle featuring an exclusive red Xbox 360 from select retailers.

Fans will enjoy the same premium Xbox 360 Elite experience at an even greater value with a copy of Resident Evil 5, matching Limited Edition red Wireless Controller, black Xbox 360 Headset, a 120 GB Hard Drive and exclusive premium Resident Evil 5 theme (download via Xbox LIVE). Supplies are very limited, so Resident Evil fans will want to pre-order theirs today.
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If you are a 20-something, then the chances are that you’ll have played Street Fighter II as a child. You’ll remember the vivid colours, the strategic gameplay and the host of characters with a range of fighting styles. Many, many variants later and we’ve finally seen the release of Street Fighter IV. Today’s consoles can be seen as sorely lacking on the fighter front, so another is always welcome – but does SFIV arrive and show the pedigree it should? Luckily, it’s safe to say that it does.

Gameplay
The characters this time around are represented in 3D and fight on 3D backgrounds. However, they are locked in to a 2D plane, meaning you don’t have the option to sidestep into 3D. Essentially it was a way in which to keep the gameplay the same but move the graphics into the 21st century.
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There’s no secret around the fact that the PS3 is destined to have a firmware update coming fairly soon. What is perhaps more of a mystery is exactly what this update will bring, the benefits, and sometimes of course, the disadvantages. Over at Game Trailers, a forum user has given details from his ‘friend who works in R&D at Sony‘ that includes a range of features that the forthcoming 2.7 firmware update will bring. Here’s the list:

Friends List:
- Voice Messaging is now available as an alternative to text after selecting a user on the friends list. Voice message recordings are capped at 30 seconds.
- Home Integration: Saved PlayStation Home avatar photos can be selected as photo ID for Gamer Card/Friends List.
- Trophy number and Gamer Level are listed under Friend names for quick reference.
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Fear Alma – again. F.E.A.R., the seminal classic shooter, revitalised a tired FPS genre with a great mix of horror, gunplay and Matrix style slow-motion action sequences that proved a huge amount of fun. F.E.A.R. 2: Project Origin returns to the same formula, and doesn’t really differ too much. However, more of the same means more fun.

Story

The sequel to the original game kicks off just before the original game ends, i.e. prior to the massive explosion triggered by the release of Alma (a girl raised to be a biological weapon used to produce ‘replica’ soldiers) and her crazy powers. The player takes the role of Sgt. Michael Becket, a member of a special task force sent in to rescue Genevieve Aristide – President of the corporation responsible for the replica soldiers and Alma herself. Luckily, quite early in, Becket receives the same power as the ‘Pointman’ from the original game, meaning that he too can slow down time (or rather his super reactions kick in) to take out enemy forces.

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It might say on the box that it plays MP3s, but it sure does a lot more than that. The Samsung YP-P3 is as you can see an attractive player and is arriving in the UK later this month. There’s a wonderfully high resolution display that has haptic (touch screen) to acknowledge your finger presses. It’s worth mentioning that the 3 inch screen is WQVGA – which produces an extremely clear image.

Also of benefit is the ability to use various EmoDio widgets on the YP-P3 – a throwback from the Tocco interface – and these widgets are (apart from being handy) quite interesting little things. Don’t expect google maps but do expect a few little games and similar.
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There’s no doubt that iLife is one of the best apps available on the Mac platform, yet it’s probably one of the few pieces of software that you don’t really hear them shouting about. Frankly, if I’d designed it I would be screaming for a port to PC, so sure would I be that it would sell in the thousands of copies.

iLife has been a hidden jewel in Apple’s crown, quietly revolutionising photograph management, movie making, music making and website creation. The most recent version, Apple iLife 09, provides some extremely welcome updates to the four main apps, which I’ve included some further information on below. If you have a Mac, I’d certainly recommend checking the newest version out.

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