Prequel to the most immersive FPS of all time.

Welcome back to the dust-choked Zone, set in the fictional aftermath of the Chernobyl disaster.  Set one year before the first game, take the role of Scar, a mercenary fighting for survival against the rival factions vying for control as much as the hostile wasteland of the Zone itself.  It’s a war of territory, artifacts, and true power, with Scar as the deciding factor.

The original S.T.A.L.K.E.R. was lush in its ruined detail, creating the feeling of a real environment, cast in a lighting system that still hasn’t been surpassed.  Direct X 10 support in Clear Sky results in truly spectacular visuals, including dynamic transitions between day and night, detailed landscapes, and lifelike animations.  Though it’ll naturally still work with DX8 and 9.

The AI of the original could be dangerous and downright amusing, flanking you when you least expected it and giving you a helping hand when the odds suddenly turned against you.  That’s also been improved for the prequel, so enemies and allies make situation-based decisions to create the sense of a real struggle.  To take this further, very little in Clear Sky will be predetermined.  Battles will play out in real time with the player there to tip the odds in favor of one faction over another.

Everything you loved from S.T.A.L.K.E.R. is making its return, from vast areas to a wide assortment of quests, quirky NPCs and an arsenal of realistic weaponry.  New levels, movie-quality cut-scenes leading up to the original, fast travel, weapon modification, and other welcome features have also been thrown into the mix, for what’s certain to be a grotesque beauty of an experience.

Fresh from Bethesda Softworks’s underground bunker.

While it may be fun to design rude creatures, EA doesn’t want them on their servers.

The Spore Creature Creator came out on June 14, give or take a day, and the first thing people did was start designing genital monsters of their very own. Ambulatory penises are the most common, but more creative beasties ranging from Goatse-saurus to creatures that look like copulating people, animals, or a bizarre combination of the two (and probably plants as well) have been popping up all over. Spore Creature Creator is completely freeform, an unrestricted toy to design just about anything your twisted, pervy mind can come up with. It was only a matter of time before the wonderful anything-goes anarchy began to be reigned in.

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Penny Arcade's first game appears on PC, Mac, Linux, and XBLA.

Coded up by newcomers Hothead Games, this first of a planned four part RPG adventure has hit the downloadable street, available over Xbox Live or Penny A's and Hothead's own Greenhouse digital distribution platform (www.playgreenhouse.com) for the Windows, Mac, and Linux versions.  All versions have a demo you can snag for free, and discover if this colorful steampunk adventure is worth your $20.  Expect the full game to run you 6-10 hours of enjoyment if you're a fan of Penny Arcade or ATB style combat, a la Final Fantasy 7.  The official word runs like this:

"Penny Arcade Adventures: On the Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness, Episode One is an RPG-Adventure game set in the deranged 1920s universe of New Arcadia, delivered togamers via accessible episodic releases. Players join Gabe and Tycho, the crime-solving team of the Startling Developments Detective Agency, to combat savage enemies and solve mysteries hidden deep in the sinister heart of New Arcadia. The game is the result of close collaboration between Hothead Games and Penny Arcade, featuring distinct artwork and characters designedexclusively by Mike "Gabe" Krahulik, story and dialogue by Jerry "Tycho" Holkins, both brought to life by the Hothead team."

I've tried the demo on both XBLA and PC, and I have to say it's hard choosing which to go with the final buy.  The production values in everything from the visuals to the sound was beyond my expectations, especially how my own customized character shows up right as I made him in the 2D cut-scenes.  Yet when it came to playability, I felt that combat was really designed for the mouse and got adapted to the 360 controller in a way that's just a little awkward, especially with three people to control in real time.  The comedy comes through loud and clear on either device, complete with clever narration and jovial item descriptions.  So if you're a fan of the comic, I can't see how you can go wrong.

The best Asteroids clone ever is free.

Asteroids hasn't aged well over the years, despite repeated re-releases.  The idea is sound and the original will always be a classic, but each new execution feels a little too unadventurous to be all that interesting.  Fortunately, Asteroids has clones, and that's where Spheres of Chaos comes in.

Spheres of Chaos is basically the best version of Asteroids ever made.  It came out several years ago as shareware, but just recently went through a price-drop to free.  More than just a trippy psychedelic clone, it's got a huge variety of enemies and hazards to fear, not to mention power-ups to exploit, all of which combine to turn each level into a free-form challenge that requires both fast reflexes and careful planning to defeat.  Each enemy also has its own musical sound effect when destroyed, and the combination of insane amounts of color and slightly chaotic but still ambient sound combines with the hectic action to become both soothing and tense at the same time.

For those not into visual overload, it's worth nothing that the trippy graphic effects can be turned off completely, or enhanced beyond all possible reason for those wanting to know just how many colors at once can squeeze into a pair of eyeballs.  Oddly enough, my high score was gotten while experimenting with the Liquid graphics setting.  I honestly have no idea how.

If free excellence isn't good enough news, the game's creator, Iain McLeod, has announced a sequel.  Spheres of Chaos 2008 is on the way, although there's no target month yet, and hopefully won't be renamed Spheres of Chaos 2009.  There's also a little note hiding all the way at the bottom of the front page of the web site asking if anyone is interested in helping with an Live Arcade port.  I'd love to play this on my tv, so if anyone's listening, drop Iain a line.  

Spheres of Chaos is available on PC, Linux, PS2 Linux, and even Risc OS.  Check it out, it will make your life better.