HyperPac´s site

01.09.2010

Today and for the first time I have 2 games for mobile platforms on the list. And hell yeah, the most funny basketball game of all times…

• GTA Chinatown Wars (Nintendo DS, iPhone / iPad)

This is the first “real” game (not a minigame, or a just for fun game, no a real fulltime title) that I spent hours with on my iPhone. Though the controls are a bit fuzzy cause of the touch controls it´s the best game for the iPhone I´ve played so far. The story is amazing, the graphics are really great (look at them on an iPhone 4 or an iPad and you´ll know what I mean) and it´s simply so much fun.

And – if you don´t like the fuzzy controls there´s also a Nintendo DS version available. I played this one on my oldschool 1st generation DS and yes, the graphics is not so good, the resolution is worse and sometimes even the framerate drops heavily but you got to the point controls and the same great story and gameplay as on the iPhone / iPad.

So what´s the better platform to play ? If you own a Nintendo DS, go get this version for very little money at Amazon or eBay. Having real controls is the big advantage of this version. But if you´re fine with the touch controls in iPhone / iPad games then go get this version. It looks much better and is also available for cheap money at the Appstore.

You can also play the game on the Nintendo DS emulator for PC. See this YouTube video of mine I shot some weeks ago:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5VjcACRrdLU

http://www.gametrailers.com/video/launch-trailer-grand-theft/61060 (iPhone)

http://www.gametrailers.com/video/rampage-trailer-grand-theft/46798 (Nintendo DS)

• Duken Nukem Critical Mass (Nintendo DS)

Well since Duken Nukem Forever won´t see the daylight soon (or ever ) the Duken Nukem fans have to look for alternatives. And what we have seen so far from Duke Nukem Critical Mass seems like the game will bring a lot of fun to the DS. I´m still a little bit unsure if a shooter will really fit well into the controls and look & feel of a Nintendo DS (and I mean in concerns of really being a very good game, not just a 0815 shooter). But very soon we´ll know more.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ADn_GiYBds

• NBA Jam (Wii)

You know what ? I hate sports games, except motorsport. But I loved NBA Jam on the Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES). It was the perfect game for people like me. Easy controls, fun gameplay, nearly no rules and big bam slam dunks. Because on TV, NBA is fun and still today I switch to a game from time to time. The remake of NBA Jam for the Wii does nearly the same, what the remake of Goldeneye (originally on N64) does.  1:1 copy of the good old gameplay, add some features, improve the graphics a bit (well I´m not so sure on Goldeneye) and release it for the Wii. It´s pretty arguable if this is a good concept or not. Some say it´s simple money making. And yes, they are right. Other say, a good copy is better than a worse self-made – and they are right too.

If I look at 2 statements by big publishers of the videogame industry from the last days (Ubisoft: “We will only focus on the (already established) money making titles.” THQ: “People who sell or buy used games are criminals and doing harm to the industry.”) I can´t see any revolutionary development at all and we all know that there are some “only for the money” players in this game (did anyone shout E.A. ?). So doing remakes of some classic titles can´t be that wrong, though it looks like they asked some consultants from the music industry what to do.

Anyway…here are the videos. Enjoy them !

http://www.gametrailers.com/video/e3-2010-nba-jam/101702

http://www.gametrailers.com/video/exclusive-debut-nba-jam/63071

http://www.gametrailers.com/video/bracket-of-nba-jam/100193

11.08.2010

Wow – 3 months since the last update…

• GoldenEye 007 (Wii) & James Bond Blood Stone (XBOX 360 / PS3)

Just a few days after I wrote this article Nintendo announced a remake of the good old Goldeneye, known from the N64. It´s still the best James Bond game ever and I´m very curious on what the remake will be like. The trailers look so ugly, they could have been shot directly on a N64.  But it wasn´t the graphics which made Goldeneye so good on the N64. It was the incredible gameplay, the great multiplayer (yeahhhhhh 4 people splitscreen) and the “real” Bond atmosphere.

http://www.gametrailers.com/video/remember-one-goldeneye-007/701817

http://www.gametrailers.com/video/e3-2010-goldeneye-007/101474

http://www.gametrailers.com/video/e3-2010-goldeneye-007/701355

http://www.gametrailers.com/video/sdcc-10-goldeneye-007/702352

Also Activision announced a new James Bond game, called Blood Stone, just a few days after Nintendo. I have played Quantum of Solace – the predecessor -  on XBOX 360. And it wasn´t that much fun. A boring shooter, no highlights, in my opinion one of those bulk production games, trying to profit from the James Bond brand. The new trailer looks promising and I´m very curious who´ll be the winner in the battle of the Bond titles. It´s also a battle of the technologies – the low performance Wii versus the high performance XBOX 360 / PS3. My bet is on the Wii. Yours ?

http://www.gametrailers.com/video/debut-trailer-james-bond/701796

http://www.gametrailers.com/video/sdcc-10-james-bond/702004

• Alpha Protocol (PC / XBOX 360 / PS3)

Alpha Protocoll is a mixture between a strategic and an action game. It features character developing, known from RPG´s and a solid story. You´re playing the agent Michael Thorton and you have to save the world – what else . Though the critics weren´t too good on the game, I think it´s worth a try, mainly because of it´s genre mixture.

http://www.gametrailers.com/video/launch-trailer-alpha-protocol/100773

http://www.gametrailers.com/video/small-world-alpha-protocol/100278

http://www.gametrailers.com/game/alpha-protocol/9237 … more

• Mafia 2 (PC / XBOX 360 / PS3)

Will it be the new GTA ? Will it be the better GTA ? Will it be as great as part 1 ? So many questions about the upcoming Mafia 2. International release will be the 27th of august. Then we´ll know more. If we take a look at the trailers, it looks brilliant and will surely feature a great atmosphere. But will it be good enough to beat GTA IV or Saints Row 2 ? I don´t know, but I know that I´ll spend some money to find out…and by the way – the demo is already available on XBOX Live and the Playstation Network and can be downloaded for the PC too.

http://www.gametrailers.com/video/exclusive-kick-mafia-ii/702414

http://www.gametrailers.com/video/e3-2010-mafia-ii/101200

http://www.gametrailers.com/video/exclusive-boom-mafia-ii/62666

http://www.gametrailers.com/game/mafia-ii/5403 … more

• F1 2010 (XBOX 360 / PS3 / PC)

Codemasters develops the first F1 game since Formula One Championship Edition for the PS3 (which was on this list below). Since it´s impossible to get this one for an acceptable price (you have to spend around 40 EUR on that…wahhhhhh) I replaced it with F1 2010. The guys at Codemasters know how to do a racing game. They have proven this with Colin Mc Rae Dirt and Race Driver GRID. I don´t like both but I let´s see how they do with a F1 game. And honestly, there is no alternative on the market and there won´t be one in the near future.

http://www.gametrailers.com/video/e3-2010-f1-2010/700510

http://www.gametrailers.com/video/uk-debut-f1-2010/48450

19.05.2010

• Split / Second: Velocity (PS3 / XBOX 360)

I´ve been an addicted player of Burnout 3 Take Down but I never got used to the free world concept in Burnout Paradise. Split / Second: Velocity seems to be a secret brother of the Burnout series and it promises fast paced racing, compensating it´s lack in content with explosions and the BOOOOMMMM effect everywhere. So exactly my kind of game.

http://www.gametrailers.com/video/downtown-trailer-split-second/64043

http://www.gametrailers.com/video/exclusive-debut-split-second/46433

http://www.gametrailers.com/video/the-shipyard-split-second/60055

10.04.2010

• Formula One Championship Edition (PS3)

The last two F1 games I played were Geoff Crammonds Grand Prix 2 (PC) a million years ago and Formula One´97 (PSX). From today´s view both are messy, but GP2 was a great simulation and F1 97 looked brilliant…at that time. When I connected my PS3 to the Playstation Network yesterday I found the demo for Formula One C.E. and I remembered that it was a very much hyped launch title for the PS3. After the frustration with Motorstorm (looked not half as good as it was supposed to) and the fact that the PS3 was absolutely unaffordable at launch time I lost focus on this F1 game. So I downloaded the demo yesterday, and it´s far from perfect but I think the best F1 game currently available. I was only shocked about the prices at eBay and Amazon…gotta look for a cheap one…somewhere.

http://www.gametrailers.com/video/preview-hd-formula-one/16987

http://www.gametrailers.com/video/trailer-3-formula-one/18171

• Midnight Club Los Angeles (XBOX 360)

This is not a typical “must have” game but I think it´s worth a try. I loved the first part of Need For Speed on the PSX but all after versions on any platform couldn´t draw my attention.  Test Drive, Pure, Project Gotham Racing and Forza Motorsport – which all are alternatives to Midnight Club L.A. were a too fuzzy mixture between arcade and simulation (though Forza 3 and PGR 4 are definitely great games). And I´ve never been into that tuning thing, in my opinion wasted time in a racing game. Midnight Club L.A. promises to be a real arcade racer with the focus on fast and thrilling racing action. It has that tuning thing too, but I think it can be easily ignored.

http://www.gametrailers.com/video/south-central-midnight-club/46191

http://www.gametrailers.com/video/launch-trailer-midnight-club/41776?type=flv

• New Super Mario Bros (Wii)

I missed this game in the last updates of this list, and I still wonder why. I´ve spent so many hours with Super Mario World on the SNES and so New Super Mario Bros is a must have for me. It´s already at home, I only need to find some time to play it.

http://www.gametrailers.com/video/ent-09-new-super/57807

26.03.2010

• Just Cause 2 (PS3)

This is a real arcade action game. Don´t expect too good game mechanics, K.I. or level / story design. It´s all about the boooooooom effect and some nice physics.

http://www.gametrailers.com/video/things-that-just-cause-2/63538

http://www.gametrailers.com/video/vehicles-gameplay-just-cause-2/63540

• Red Steel 2 (Wii)

The first part of this game was a real disappointment especially after it´s good locking previews and promising game mechanics.  But in the end the gameplay sucked hard. Now the developers took themself a heart and work hard on the whole gameplay. So now it really feels like a good old sword fight and by the way it is a perfect muscle training for your right (or left) arm. Wii Motion Plus ist required !

http://www.gametrailers.com/video/katakara-showdown-red-steel-2/63530

17.03.2010

• Brütal Legend (PS3)

I own this one already for the PS3 and it´s so much fun.

http://www.gametrailers.com/video/e3-09-brutal-legend/49772

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• Heavy Rain (PS3)

This game is supposed to be the successor of Fahrenheit and I can´t await giving it a try. Now I only need to convince myself to spend 50 EUR for it.

http://www.gametrailers.com/video/to-catch-heavy-rain/61300

http://www.gametrailers.com/video/e3-2k6-heavy-rain/10758 (the beloved E3 trailer / tech demo from 2006)

• Uncharted 2 (PS3)

I loved the first part of this game. It looks and feels like a modern Indiana Jones with less adventure and more action components. It looks great on the PS3, has an exciting story and a strong gameplay. I think I´ll have this imported from Amazon UK in a few days.

http://www.gametrailers.com/video/e3-09-uncharted-2/50366

• God of War 3

This great piece of gaming got it´s place on the list mainly for my girlfriend. She loved the 2nd part of the game and I think she´ll make me buy this one as soon as it´s out.

http://www.gametrailers.com/video/launch-trailer-god-of-war/63218

Some days ago I realized that I haven´t written about a very important affection of me – emulation and emulators of old (and new) video game and arcade system. So this is the first article to change this and today I´d like to advise you nullDC – an emulator for the Sega Dreamcast and NAOMI arcade system. In it´s latest release 1.0.4 r50 it plays a great bunch of Dreamcast games and if you´re owner of a fast PC with a good gaming graphics card you can enjoy the games in much higher resolution than on the Dreamcast.

http://code.google.com/p/nulldc/

You should also try to get your hands on one of those xbox 360 pc compatible game pads. They are supported by the emulator and play well with Dreamcast games.

But one thing you should keep in mind. The emulator is still in an very early state of functionality or better stability. It crashes many times, sometimes it won´t play a game, you restart it and whoooo it works.

And – the developer ended it work on it some months ago and turned it into open source. So hopefully some motivated and skilled people will continue development.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NullDC

Before nullDC will run on your system you may need the following stuff:

• additional components for DirectX (dxwebsetup.exe)
• Microsoft Visual C++ Runtime (vcredist_x86.exe) – even if you´re running a 64bit Windows (like Windows 7 or Windows XP 64bit edition) you´ll need the 32bit (x86) version of the Runtime. It won´t work with the x64 version.

And your nullDC “data” folder should contain at least the following files:

• dc_boot.bin (Dreamcast bios)
• dc_flash.bin (additional Dreamcast bios file)
• dc_flash_wb.bin
• dc_nvmem.bin
• fsca-table.bin

The copyright on most of these files is held by Sega, so I can´t offer them here. But Google should be your friend on this…have fun !

(only in german – sorry)

Es wurde einfach mal wieder Zeit für ein richtiges Old-School Point-and-Click Adventure. Und für 9,99 EUR konnte man bei Geheimakte 2 – Puritas Cordis nichts falschen machen, zumal schon der 1.Teil des Spiels – Geheimakte Tunguska – ein ziemlich brauchbares Adventure war.  Trotzdem lag es dann doch bestimmt ein halbes Jahr herum bevor ich mich in das Abenteuer von Nina, Max und Sam stürzte. Das Spiel zeichnet sich vorallem durch 2 Dinge aus. Es ist a) klassischer Point-and-Click Stoff, mit allen modernen Annehmlichkeiten, die sich in den letzten Jahren als Standard in der Adventureszene etabliert haben (always run, “Szene untersuchen”, Spielhilfe, keine Dead-Ends, etc.). Und b) hat das Spiel von der ersten bis zur letzten Szene wunderschöne, mit viel Liebe gezeichnete Animationen und Schauplätze. Auch die Cutscenes, von denen es reichlich gibt, sind nicht zu verachten und transportieren die Story hervorragend. Kleiner Schwachpunkt an dieser Stelle ist, dass es teilweise bei Interaktionen mit Objekten keine Animationen gibt, sondern nur den vorher-nachher Zustand. Ich persönlich hätte daür lieber auf 1-2 Cutscenes verzichtet, aber naja. Ein großes Lob gibt es für die Möglichkeit, dass Spiel entweder im Vollbild oder Window-Mode zu spielen. Allerdings gibt es nichts was gegen Vollbild spricht, mittels STRG + ESC kann man jederzeit aus dem Spiel rausspringen ohne das es Probleme gibt, sogar innerhalb von Cutscenes, die dann vorbildlich anhalten und weiterspielen sobald man das Fenster wieder aktiviert.

Leider hat die Grafikengine einen Bug, oder ist an einem Punkt schlecht programmiert. Sobald mehrere Personen im Bild sind (und auch wirklich nur dann) kommt es zu massiven Slowdowns – ohne ersichtlichen Grund. Ich habe Version 1.0 gespielt, war aber auch zu faul nach einem Patch zu suchen, der das Problem eventuell behebt.

Die musikalische Untermalung ist sehr gut gelungen, was man im Großen und Ganzen auch von der Sprachausgabe sagen kann. Nur Nina hört sich hin- und wieder nicht zu 100% überzeugend an.

Jaaa…und damit sind wir auch schon bei den Dialogen. Grundsätzlich gesehen sind die Dialoge alle von sehr hoher Qualität – sprachlich und auch von der Art her, wie die Figuren interagieren. Nur leider haben alle Charaktere im Spiel die Angewohnheit, unglaubliche Schwätzer zu sein. Man verbringt einen übergroßen Teil des Spiels damit, Dialoge zu verfolgen. In den meißten Dialogen sind aber max. 20% relevant für die Handlung oder für das Lösen von Rätseln. Leider sinkt dadurch auch die Aufmerksamkeit bei einigen längeren Cutscenes, die aber wiederrum wichtige Informationen enthalten um die Handlung zu verstehen. Hier wäre mit Sicherheit weniger mehr gewesen.

Bei meiner Meinung über die Rätsel bin ich sehr zwiegespalten. Das Spiel beginnt mit einem doch leichten Schwierigkeitsgrad, steigt dann an, fällt wieder etwas ab, bis dann in loser Reihenfolge mehrere Hammerrätsel kommen. Dabei ist die Auswahl der Rätsel vielfältig, ein Adventurefan findet alles was er sucht. So kreativ einige dieser Rätsel sein mögen (eine Raketenabschussrampe aus Bambus und Orangen als Räder – wie geil ist das denn ?), so unlogisch sind Andere. Das führt leider dazu, dass einige Stellen ziemlich frustrierend werden können und man sich überdurchschnittlich lange damit aufhält. Und eben bei genau diesen Rätseln ist auch die integrierte Spielhilfe keine Hilfe, da die Ratschläge nur allgemeiner Natur sind.

Last but not least die Story…die Erzählweise ist ähnlich wie bei Teil 1 auf hohem Niveau, die Spannung kann leider nicht mit dem Vorgänger mithalten. Das liegt unter anderem an den oben beschriebenen Dialogschwächen, sowie an einigen nur schwer nachvollziehbaren Handlungsfortgängen. Kürzere, dafür aber fokussiertere Dialoge hätten mit Sicherheit geholfen, den Spieler stärker ins Spiel zu verbannen und zudem die Handlung dichter, aber hauptsächlich logischer aneinander zu reihen.

Fazit:

Geheimakte 2 – Puritas Cordis ist ein klassisches Point-And-Click Adventure, mit dem man eine ganze Menge Stunden verbringen muss, bis man die Endsequenz vor Augen hat. Der schwankende Schwierigkeitsgrad und die angesprochenen Schwächen in Story und Dialogen führen durchaus manchmal zu Frust, allerdings hatte ich trotzdem das Bedürfnis, dass Spiel bis zum Schluss zu spielen. Für den Hardcore-Adventure-Zocker ein nettes Spiel für zwischendurch, für den interessierten Einsteiger ein guter Querschnitt zwischen allen guten und schlechten Seiten des Adventuregenres.

Und – sorry für die schlechte Bildqualität, aber digitale In-Game Screenshots waren mir zur aufwendig.

Update:

Haaaa…just a few days after I complained about the Bond games of our time, Nintendo announces a new Bond game for the Wii. It bases on the best Bond games of all times – Goldeneye for the Nintendo 64. Though the trailer starts a bit boring, everything else you can see there looks very promising. If you think that it looks ugly, you´re right, but don´t mind. The gameplay will make you forget about this.

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(only in german – sorry)

Ich weiß nicht mehr wie, aber irgendwann im Laufe des Tages dachte ich an den guten alten Brotkasten aka C64. Und als alter James Bond Fan war der Weg in meinem Hirn nicht mehr weit zu dem James Bond Spiel auf dem C64…dem…ja wie hieß das noch gleich ? Daran konnte ich mich nicht mehr erinnern, aber zum Glück gibt es ja Google.

10 Sekunden später wusste ich immer noch nicht mehr, aber ich stieß auf http://www.c64.at wo diverse Videospielmagazine als PDF hinterlegt waren und auch Lotek64, Nr. 3, Oktober 2002 – mit einem C64 James Bond Special (S. 22 – 24).

Nach kurzer Lektüre fand ich heraus, dass es The Spy Who Loved Me war was mich damals so begeisterte. Der Artikel bestätigt meinen in der Erinnerung nicht mehr ganz so frischen, aber guten Eindruck des Spiels – bis auf die Steuerung.

Ich denke ich werde mal den guten alten C64 EMU herauskramen und schauen, ob ich das Game irgendwo finde und gestartet bekomme (ähhhh “Load,8,1″).  Mal schauen ob die Steuerung wirklich so grässlich war, wie beschrieben.

Ach ja…warum gibts eigentlich in der Neuzeit nicht ein vernünftiges James Bond Spiel ? Kann doch nicht so schwer sein, eins auf die Beine zu stellen was so spannend und gutaussehend ist wie Uncharted 2 zum Bleistift.

Download PDF – Lotek64 – Nr. 3, Oktober 2002 (1,28 MB)

Hier einige Screenshots, allerdings von der Atari ST bzw. Amiga 500 / 600 Version (die ich beide nie gespielt habe):

Quelle: http://www.thelegacy.de/Museum/5635/

Goal: Either make RalliSport Challenge 2 (XBOX) playable on XBOX 360 (emulated) or make DICE / Microsoft release a HD port via XBOX Arcade / XBOX Live.

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This article will cover all actions that are made to achieve this goal.

last update: 23.04.2010

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03.) A fax to the developers – DICE

02.) E-mail to the developers – DICE

01.) About the game

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Continue reading ‘The RalliSport Challenge 2 HD project’ »

I got my hands on Hitman – Blood Money for a couple of bucks but when I tried to play it, Windows always says that the “msvcr71.dll” is missing.

Here´s the solution :

1.) Download the missing msvcr71.dll from here

2a.) If you have a 32bit Windows (Vista or 7) copy the file to C:\Windows\system32

2b.) If you have a 64bit Windows (Vista or 7) copy the file to C:\Windows\SysWOW64

3.) Run the game and have fun !

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Thx to :

http://i.justrealized.com/2009/05/16/how-to-fix-missing-msvcr71dll-problem-in-windows/

April the 1st 2010 – the OpenTTD team releases version 1.0 of the game.

OpenTTD is an open source clone of the Microprose game “Transport Tycoon Deluxe”, a popular game originally written by Chris Sawyer. It attempts to mimic the original game as closely as possible while extending it with new features.

http://www.openttd.org/en/about

The original game was released in 1995 (see the wikipedia article) and I´ve been playing it now for 15 years. It´s the second oldest game I´m still playing since it´s release (the oldest is Tetris on the original old school Game Boy).

And I really can´t describe what fascinates me on this game. Basically it´s all about building railroad tracks and streets, directing trains and trucks from destination A to destination B. To be fair – plains and ships are also available…OpenTTD changed not much on the original gameplay but did so many improvements. They managed to keep the game not only alive but in a steady development process.

I can´t mention all the features the game has, but most of them are listed here http://www.openttd.org/en/about.

OpenTTD required the original sound, graphics and data files from Transport Tycoon Deluxe. But development has brought things so far that there are open source resources available for free download, making the game TOTALLY FREE.

My advise : check out the game at http://www.openttd.org, download it, install it, play it and become addicted.

Some screenshots from 1.0 (images are very large) :

http://media.openttd.org/images/screens/1.0/20090821_luuk_de_vries.png

http://media.openttd.org/images/screens/1.0/20100313_rakim-89_d.png

http://media.openttd.org/images/screens/1.0/20091018_panswat_tongvorarat.png

(Update: removed the pictures, took too long to load, use the links above.)

It´s definetly one of the greatest games Atari ever did, but when you try to install it under Windows 7 the installation will fail. The installer will suddenly abort the installation without actually installing the game.

You have to do the following steps to fix this :

1.) Copy the entire content of the Fahrenheit CD into a folder on your hard disk

2.) Download the modified installer (fahrenheit.msi) from here

3.) Replace the original installer with the one from step 2

4.) Install Fahrenheit using setup.exe from the folder on your hard disk

5.) Start the game and enjoy playing !

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Thx to several installation instructions :

http://www.winfuture-forum.de/index.php?showtopic=112968

http://forum.computerbild.de/computer-bild-spiele-heft-dvd/fahrenheit-installation-abgebrochen_60121.html

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Update :

Some people reported that the instructions above won´t work. I did some investigation and found out that all these instructions only work with Fahrenheit Version 1.1. Luckily there is a patch available updating your Fahrenheit Version from 1.0 to 1.1. Unfortunetaly it´s very hard to find out what version of Fahrenheit you actually own. But you can check out the following :

• you bought the game before 2008 => then you probably have Version 1.0, download the patch (Fahrenheit_Patch1_1.rar) here
• you bought the game after 2008 => then you probably have Version 1.1, you should be able to play straight
• you don´t remember when you bought the game and it won´t work anyway => continue reading…

Tom reported the following in the comments for this article :

tom says:

Thanks for the good instructions. Maybe this helps:
It did not work for me straight away (windows 7). The process hung in the task manager as Rashad said. I had to do two additional steps:

- patch to 1.1 with the offical game patch
- install a patch from gamescopyworld: Fahrenheit v1.1 [EURO] Fixed EXE
(i own the original).

The patch from gamescopyworld is actually a crack and therefore it´s not legal to use it if you don´t own the game (originally). Furthermore you should own a good and up-to-date antivirus software before downloading or trying the crack. Nevertheless the patch makes the game running, so in case you´re unlucky with all the above steps give it a try.

Update 2 – playing Fahrenheit in fullscreen or window mode :

I had some problems with the ingame resolution (1600×1200) on my new 16:9 TFT so I looked for a possibility to play it in a window mode.

To change from fullscreen to window mode or back do the following steps :

1. Locate the Fahrenheit.ini file in the installation folder of the game on your hard disk (in my case D:\Games\Fahrenheit)
2. Open the Fahrenheit.ini file with notepad or a (text)editor of your choice
3. Change line 3 “Fullscreen=1″ to “Fullscreen=0″ for window mode
4. OR change line 3 “Fullscreen=0″ to “Fullscreen=1″ for fullscreen mode
5. Save the file and exit your editor
6. Enjoy playing !

I bought Trials HD for the xbox360 on xbox live and spent 1200 MS Points for it. And I can only say – it´s great fun. Due to the HD resolution the game looks brilliant. The levels are well designed, start easy and then have a good learning curve towards some really fucking hard levels. The controls concerning the bike are limited to accerleration and braking. The more important part is the steering of the driver which is done through the left analog stick.

You can get a first impression from the following video :

Some of you might remember this kind of games from several browser games available online. But the origin of this genre might be ExciteBike published 1984 on the NES.

If you wanna know more, then check the Wikipedia artcile, otherwise if you wanna travel back to 1984 then here´s your chance to play it online :

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Excitebike

http://nintendo8.com/game/24/excitebike/

4players did a big controller mash-up (the link at the bottom of the article leads to the picture gallery) and I found 2 interesting devices :

This is the neGcon from Namco, originally made for Ride Racer on the PSX. I still remember the day when I first saw this controller. Schnee bought it (for a shitload of money) and I didn´t liked it in the beginning. But later I cherished its precise control in racing games and still today it´s small and innovative device. Much better than the analog sticks used for the xbox360 or the PS3.

This one is a brain controlled device. I saw something similar years ago at a hospital specialized in epilepsy therapy. The patients controlled a little spaceship in a left-to-right scrolling game and tried to avoid a collision with objects – only with their “thoughts”.

It should help them to recognize outbreaks of the epilepsy early and minimize the seizure.

Anyway – in this picture it shows a game controller. Until now it´s not very popular but I´m sure that this concept of controlling will become more important in the future.

(copyright of the pictures by 4players.de)

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And there is more interesting and funny stuff at 4players (only in german – sorry) :

• a short history of sports games

• the history of sex games (or sex in games?!)

• the history of copy protection

• the 20th anniversary of the Game Boy (24.04.2009) with 120.000.000 sold units

• the history of beat´em ups & everything you need for your own oldschool beat´em up