Empire: Total War Review

The 1700′s were bloody, with the French Revolution, the American Revolution, and the French and Indian War. Creative Assembly’s Empire: Total war now allows the complete re-writing of the 18th century. With the Total War signature, Empire brings what everyone loves and more. The latest installment supplies gorgeous DirectX 10 graphics that were once thought impossible on a game of such massive scale. Empire introduces the age of gunpowder, which differs greatly from previous Total War titles that were based on hand to hand combat. Players now control huge lines of  musket infantry, and powerful artillery that devastate anything that gets in the way. Although charging cossacks may seem like an unwelcoming innovation to a Total War game, Empire has advanced the franchise like you wouldn’t believe……… Read More.

Video Game Opponent Jack Thompson is Back!

The infamous Jack Thompson is back. Jack Thompson recently appeared on a Utah radio show “Utah Eagle Forum” and he brought all of his bull with him. He went to the show just because he likes to hate on the video game industry, and to talk about the recent veto of the Utah game bill. As usual the recently disbarred lawyer with out a license brought up the usual argument…. Read More Here.

Lauching New Site for Man.CHUP.EUG.

We have launched a new site that will replace this one. Here is the URL http://www.tecgoat.com/. The site is very basic as of now, but that will change very soon. The site will essentially be the same with hopefully more content. So stop by see whats new, and help support the Tech Goat. Also the Podcast is going to be recorded with in the next week, so keep an eye out for that.

Company of Heroes Tales of Valor on the Horizon

 

Yet another stand alone expansion is coming to the award-winning Company of Heroes real-time-strategy series. Tales of Valor is going to be released in stores on April 9,2009 and on Steam April 15th. The expand-alone is going to contain many new features, campaigns, units, and multiplayer modes that will hopefully live up to the Company of Heroes quality we all know. There will be three new campaigns that are split up like in Opposing Fronts. The first campaign is the Tiger Ace campaign where players control a single Tiger tank using the new Direct Control feature trying to hold back the British advance into France. Direct Control allows players to you guessed it take direct control over the unit. The new feature gives players the ability to “aim, fire, and maneuver in real-time to capitalize on the changing battle conditions.” Causeway is the second campaign where you take control of a single U.S. Paratrooper company during the hours following D-Day. The final campaign is the Falaise Pocket campaign where you command Wehrmacht soldiers in your attempt to hold back the Allies, but no matter how well you do I bet you will loose in the end (just a guess). New units will also become playable in all the armies, along with new maps for skirmish and multiplayer modes. Speaking of multiplayer, Company of Heroes includes three new game modes for multiplayer where you can master the new features and abilities. In addition to the new stuff and the expanded Company of Heroes experience, Company of Heroes Tales of Valor will cost $29.99 making it easier to purchase than a full $50 PC game. Overall if you’re a fan of the series or looking to get into it this will probably be a good buy. However, I would wait for the reivews because the new direct control feature seems very risky considering Company of Heroes’ current RTS mechanics are so perfect. Company of Heroes Tales of Valor.

Steam Weekend Deal Tomb Raider: Anniversary 75% Off

 

For this week’s Steam Weekend deal is a sweet one. This weekend only you can get Lara Croft: Anniversary for 75% off the normal price tag of $19.99, which is $4.99 for those of you too lazy to do the math in your head. So go around your house find some pocket change and a few random one dollar bills to get this deal, which won’t really matter ’cause you’re going to be paying with a credit card. Still this is a sick deal and you should get even if you’re remotely interested. Also $5 to be able to play as Lara Croft, sounds like a deal to me. More information here.

No More SecuROM!!

I think it is safe to say that no one in the entire world likes SecuROM when not even EA likes it. EA has released a tool that will allow you to remove SecuROM off of their PC titles with SecuROM. Finally EA has come to their senses and realized that SecuROM has done more harm than it has good. It gave them a two star rating on Amazon.com for Spore and made certain PC gamers boycott products with SecuROM. Also Electronic Arts must have realized that SecuROM has been hacked on all their games, and has probably increased the number of copies pirated than if there was no DRM. You can download the SecuROM de-authorization tool here. Good job EA for this tool, but just make sure you don’t make any more dumb decisions that will in the end bite you in the butt in the long run.

Why Blu-Ray Has Not Been Fully Successful

We all know Blu-Ray is being slowly accepted and may eventually take over the DVD market. However, there are many reasons Blu-Ray has not been fully successful. One is the extremely high prices for the player and discs themselves compared to DVD. Two is that not everyone has a superb fancy 1080p television. Three everyone has a DVD collection and the player for them. And Now for the most important reason, Star Wars! Those first three reasons are minuscule compared to this gigantic g problem of no Star Wars on Blu-Ray. In my opinion Blu-Ray will never succed if it doesn’t adopt the Epic Trilogy we all know as Star Wars. I mean if Legos can have Star Wars why can’t Blu-Ray. Yeah it may cost a lot and take a huge chunk of time to make the Death Star HD, but still the true epic should be in 1080p and in 5.1 surround sound. So George Lucas you and Sony need to make a play date and make this thing happen, please!

Nvidia GTX 275 and ATI Radeon HD 4890 Out Now!

Today both Nvidia and ATI officially announced that both of their newest graphics cards are on the market. The HD 4890 is about $250 while the GTX 275 is about $260, lets hope that 10 dollar difference is worth it. With that $10 increase you are getting 240 processor cores running at 1404 MHz, 80 texture processing units, a 448-bit memory interface, and an 896 MB framebuffer. While those AMD ATI fans are getting a whopping core clockspeed of 850MHz, 1GB of GDDR5 at 975MHz on a 256bit bus, 800 stream processors, 40 texture processing units, 16 ROP’s, and a eco friendly max TDP of 190W. In my mind the HD 4890 looks to be the better deal with 1GB of GDDR5 and a core clock of 850MHz, but only time will tell. Let the battle begin!

Game Informer Outsells Sports Illustrated, Time, and Playboy!

Game Informer alongside EGM dominated the game magazine industry until 1up’s unfortunate buyout. However, GameStop’s Game Informer is living on and very strong I might add. According to BurrellesLuce Game Informer has a monthly readership of 3,517,598, making it the 12th most read magazine in the United States. Which puts it ahead of other very well known magazines such as Sports Illustrated, Time, and Playboy. Keep it up Game Informer!

PS3 Firmware Update Allows 16-Person In-Game-Chat

The upcoming 2.70 Playstation 3 firmware update is coming out very soon, and is going to feature 16-person in-game-chat. The new text chat will be available in and out of game with up to three chat rooms. Now we can organize with our friends way more easily without having to be in a game or relay messages! Also included with the update you will finally be able to filter your friends by online status or alphabetical order. Yet another thoughtful thing Sony put in the update are larger file attachments (3MB), and the ability to back up your purchased content on any external device.

Red Faction: Guerrilla Release Date June 9

THQ has now come out with a solid release date for Red Faction: Guerrilla made by Volition. The game will be released on the PC, PS3, and Xbox 360. For those of you who want a taste of the Red Faction the demo is going to be out on April 23. However if you relly want to play the game soon you can pre-order it from GameStop and be able to get the demo April 3.