GamesRadar - PC Previews

Tabula Rasa - closed beta impressions (Tabula Rasa)

3/08/2007

Latin for "clean slate," tabula rasa refers to the philosophical school of thought that we're not born with any prior knowledge programmed into us. Its the idea that we begin life with a fresh start, and NCsoft's next big title, Tabula Rasa, has been hyped as a game that will mark the next step forward in the evolution of the MMORPG genre. A unique combat system, a skill system based on the alien Logos language invented for the game, improved AI behavior, and a futuristic sci-fi setting all ...

Tabula Rasa - closed beta news (Tabula Rasa)

1/08/2007

Theres been a lot of hype about Richard Garriotts upcoming MMO, Tabula Rasa. Its out-of-this-world sci-fi setting - which stands in contrast to the ocean of high fantasy WoW clones on the market - and its untraditional combat scheme - that introduces a mix between first-person shooters and traditional MMO gameplay - piqued our interest when we first scouted out the title. Each new player will start out as a recruit with basic firearms skills and access to Tabula Rasas mysterious Logos powers. ...

Tabula Rasa - hands-on (Tabula Rasa)

18/06/2007

So the Earth was destroyed - space invaders, inevitably, going by the name of the Bane. What chance did humanity have? We can barely get into orbit. The Bane crosses galaxies just to burn worlds. A few of us managed to escape through the uncovered technology of the Banes estranged brother-alien race, the Eloh. We found other races willing to resist the Bane and bound together into a force that called itself the Allied Free Sentients. And a lucky few - including you - discovered they were ...

Tabula Rasa (Tabula Rasa)

16/04/2007

Drugs are good. Probably. Or maybe theyre not. Richard Garriott just cant help making you think about this stuff. His fame was founded on the moral dilemmas of the Ultimas, the games that established the very framework of what we consider the modern PC RPG. You can draw a line from his early work, via Baldurs Gate, to todays greats such as Knights of the Old Republic and Neverwinter Nights 2. But Garriott no longer makes single-player ...

Tabula Rasa - updated impressions (Tabula Rasa)

12/03/2007

Richard Garriott knows a thing or two about fantasy-based role-playing games and put his name on the map with his seminal Ultima series. With a non-compete agreement with EA and work on City of Heroes and City of Villains behind him, Garriott has set his scopes on space with Tabula Rasa - his latest shot at the online role-playing scene. Set in a futuristic world on the edge of annihilation, Tabula Rasa will throw you into the fray as a recruit in the human resistance against a xenophobic ...

Tabula Rasa updated impressions (Tabula Rasa)

7/06/2006

Last month at E3, we had a chance to hoist a boomstick and romp through the long-awaited massively multiplayer, sci-fi shoot-o-rama, Tabula Rasa. TR is a new direction for legendary game designer Richard Garriott, the mastermind behind the Ultima series. Garriott wanted to design something completely different than his high fantasy opus while at the same time incorporating important lessons from his two-plus decades of game design. TR is a furiously paced shooter, but still very accessible for ...

Tabula Rasa (Tabula Rasa)

17/02/2006

There are at least a dozen major genres of offline games; so why do most massively multiplayer online games stick to the massively over-trodden fantasy RPG genre? Enter Richard Garriott, also known by the modest moniker Lord British. He's the father of the classic RPG series Ultima, which old-school PC gamers revere the same way today's console players worship Final Fantasy. Now, he's crafting his most ambitious project yet, due out late this year: Tabula Rasa. Saying Tabula Rasa's name is ...

Major Medic Makeover (Team Fortress 2)

16/04/2008

According to Valve, the next Team Fortress 2 update is tentatively scheduled to go live on Thursday, April 17, or possibly on Friday, April 18. With the news, come extra details on the major makeover for the Medic class. Check out the latest list of the 36 new Medic achievements that’ll be heading towards a series of tubes near you.

Helpful healers can look forward to three new unique items to customize their Medic with as they ...

See GoldRush (Team Fortress 2)

16/04/2008

Soon, Team Fortress 2 fans will be treated to the first of many major updates that Valve plans to release over the next coming year. Expect the update to go live on Thursday, April17 or Friday, April 18. Along with a major makeover for the Medic class, the new update will come packed with the highly anticipated new map, GoldRush.

In GoldRush, the attacking team must push a cart forward along a series of railroad tracks past a series ...

Team Fortress 2 - hands-on (Team Fortress 2)

18/05/2007

The first surprise, playing Team Fortress 2, is how incredibly bloody it is. Its fantastically good fun, too, but you can pretty much see that just from looking at it. The explosive gore, bony hunks of shredded men and severed heads are more of a shock among these beaming cartoon smiles, but you soon realize theyre entirely necessary. In TF2, things do what they look like they should do. A direct hit from a smoke-belching rocket looks like it ought to rip someone apart, so it does. But ...

Team Fortress 2 - hands-on (Team Fortress 2)

6/04/2007

For fans of the original game there's an eerie sense of déjà vu when playing the 2Fort map in Team Fortress 2. Even if you'd already been told it was a remade version of the popular Team Fortress Classic map, or realized simply by looking at the map's name, its layout already exists as a semi-familiar strategy map in the back of your mind. There's that central bridge across the moat, treacherous to cross and half-concealing the alternate entrance to the enemy base. There are the ...

Terminator Salvation - The Videogame (Terminator Salvation - The Videogame)

11/02/2009

For all its credentials, Skynet may be the least-evil sounding world-dominating AI ever conceived. The defense supercomputer did pancake the Earth with nukes and release an army of roboskeletons to kill us all, but we still think it sounds kind of like a British cell phone service. ...

E3 06: Test Drive Unlimited (Test Drive Unlimited)

12/05/2006

Well, you certainly have to give Atari, Eden Studios and probably also Microsoft some props for ambition. Test Drive Unlimited is aiming to create and grow an entire online community. Put simply, Test Drive Unlimited is meant to be played with Xbox Live, as you compete more or less constantly against hundreds and thousands of players online, all of them living and racing on the same island as you, where a simple flash of the headlights is all it takes to flag another player into a race. Atari ...

Test Drive Unlimited - Hands-on (Test Drive Unlimited)

16/03/2006

Pulling out onto the roughly paved boulevard, the soft purr of the V8 engine thrums like a caged panther. Sunlight glints off the hood of the torch-red Ford Shelby Mustang igniting a corner of the windshield with a dazzling lens flare. Gunning the engine with a tap of the gas pedal, a canary yellow Lotus Exige surges into view - you hit him with the headlamps and the race is on. Test Drive Unlimited seeks to sweep car nuts into an entirely new realm of exotic automobile fantasy. This game ...

They - hands-on (They)

28/04/2008

There’s been a bit of buzz about Metropolis Software’s latest project in development, They. The first-person shooter places you in the heart of London in the near future and pits you against an army of invading robots. They’s canned premise sounds painfully generic at first, but the title has some interesting twists in store for those looking for a good reason to pick up a gun and fight.

Right off the bat, They breaks ...

Thrillville: Off the Rails - EXCLUSIVE first look (Thrillville: Off the Rails)

3/07/2007

Chances are pretty good that you didn't play the original Thrillville last year... but a whole bunch of kids sure did. So many went for the ride, in fact, that the amusement park simulator is getting a sequel this October. Thrillville: Off the Rails embraces its youth appeal by pushing everything to be bigger, wilder, sillier, friendlier and, of course, barfier. As theme park tycoon Mortimer's trusted niece or nephew, you still hold the dream job of building, designing and test riding every ...

Tiberium (Tiberium)

2/04/2008

Forget global warming - the greatest threat to planet Earth and the survival of mankind is a green radioactive extraterrestrial crystal that is spreading like a cancer across the entire surface of the globe. Or maybe Deal or No Deal.

“Tiberium is the catalyst for everything, it’s our One Ring, our Matrix, our Force, and that’s why it’s the name,” says executive producer Christopher Plum ...

Tiberium - first look (Tiberium)

29/01/2008

Tiberium. In the Command & Conquer Tiberium universe its both a boon to mankind and an immediate threat to its very existence. Although the mysterious alien crystal helped advance technology and can provide enough energy to fuel an empire, it also infects everything it touches and threatens to engulf the entire planet in a layer of sickly green shards. But its difficult to really appreciate the irony of humanitys dependence on the very thing that could destroy it when youre poking a tiny ...

Tiger Woods PGA Tour 07 (Tiger Woods PGA Tour 07)

26/07/2006

For many seasons, Tiger Woods PGA Tour has relied on an arcade-like feel that gave any player with functional thumbs a -15 handicap. Good news though - from what we saw at Electronic Arts' Summer Showcase, Tiger has shed his quirky strokes and come out swinging the hammer with a more simulation-based method of play. The control scheme has been simplified, taking what worked in the past and applying more realistic effects to make the whole experience come alive. In 07, the entire swing runs off ...

Tiger Woods PGA Tour Online - hands-on (Tiger Woods PGA Tour Online)

2/11/2009

After strolling the links in the closed beta of Tiger Woods PGA Tour Online, we've discovered that EA might be onto something here. This is a game that comes to you completely through your browser, streaming via a small plug-in called the Unity Player. Since everything is hosted on the server, the game is playable on practically any recent Windows or Mac machine. ...