Filed under: Reviews

The Soldier of Fortune series of games has long been a guilty little pleasure for many gamers. Developed by Raven Software (the guys making a little title called Quake 4), the first game starred a real-life mercenary named John Mullins and was made popular due to its unusual (for the time) real-world topical settings and violent, visceral combat. A sequel was made two years later in 2002, also starring John Mullins, titled Soldier of Fortune: Double Helix and upped the ante considerably in terms of gore and violence due to their much publicized GHOUL 2.0 dismemberment system.

Though neither game was ever considered a top-tier quality title, both Soldier of Fortune games have managed to attract and keep a solid cult following with many gamers (including myself) playing one or both of the games even to this day. So when Activision suddenly announced earlier this year that they were bringing the violent series back, many people were quite excited — if a little confused by the news that Raven Software was no longer the development company. Things didn’t get much better when it was found out that a small company named Cauldron out of the Slovak Republic would be handling the development, but still people held out hope. I mean how can they mess up with such solid groundwork already laid in place by the previous games?

Unfortunately, it doesn’t take long for cracks to start showing in Soldier of Fortune Payback’s facade. Right off the bat, you find out that they’ve ditched the series protagonist John Mullin in favor for a generic faceless mercenary who sounds like he’s trying to pass an unusually large kidney stone every time he opens his chew-filled mouth. The rest of the voice acting in the game varies from much worse to slightly better and completely fails at drawing you into the characters or the story itself.

Speaking of which, while the story has never been a crucial part of the Soldier of Fortune series — the ’story’ in Payback is borderline gibberish. It is like the developers decided what kind of environments and levels they wanted to put in the game, and then wrote a story that stitched the levels together in some kind of vague narrative fashion. The story is filled with double-crosses, conspiracies and secrets-within-secrets, but in the end feels like nothing more than an attempt to justify why your faceless merc is bouncing around between the Middle East, China, and Russia. In reality you can sum up the whole story in one word — TERR’RISTS.

Graphically speaking, it’s unfortunate but one of the biggest problems with Soldier of Fortune Payback is that it has been released at possibly the worst time ever. With Call of Duty 4 hitting stores just a couple weeks before the bar has been raised to an almost impossible height for any similar game released around the same time. COD4 has what could easily be considered the best graphics for any multiplatform PS3 game, while Payback … well it looks like somebody tried to do a COD4 total conversion using the Quake III engine.

Almost everything in the game looks washed out and bland, like the brightness has been cranked way too high (and of course there is no ingame option for turning it down). This makes the already sketchy textures look even worse, and gives the whole game a bland look to it. I kept waiting for the high-quality textures to pop-in after a second or two (ala Uncharted) but alas, what you see when the level loads up is the best it’s gonna get.

Things aren’t all bad though, as some parts of the Payback actually look *almost* pretty. In the jungle levels, there are a considerable amount of foliage, the character models have some decent lighting effects applied to them giving them a bit of depth, and the explosions giving off by grenades are surprisingly. The environmental lighting is also solid enough and occasionally helps inject a bit of mood into the levels, and thankfully the framerate is quite steady throughout the game — even when faced by half a dozen different enemies at the same time. Overall though, the game gives off a strong low-budget look and never manages to really ever wow you with its environments or special effects.

Historically speaking, the strongest point of the Soldier of Fortune series has been its gameplay. Tight, visceral, and unbelievably gory — gameplay is what has given the SOF series such long lasting legs. Unfortunately, Payback drops the ball here as well. While Double Helix had a 32-point dismemberment system and the ability to cut open the skull of a dead enemy and watch their brains fall out — Payback is filled with what I could only assume as compromises in this post-Hot Coffee and Jack Thompson gaming environment.

Replacing the grotesquely accurate GHOUL 2.0 dismemberment system from the second game is an engine that fails to even live up to the gore of the first game. Sure, you can still blow off the heads of enemies and watch the blood spurt four feet in the air, or kneecap a guy and watch him hobble around on one leg until he dies from blood loss — but it’s considerably less advanced than the five-year-old Double Helix. Also, when you shoot the enemies, it is like they have grenades stuck in their joints. You can sweep an AK-47 across a row of four or five guys and they will practically explode into a collection of limbs and bloody stumps. A 7.62×39MM round should not be capable of ripping off a whole leg — let alone turning an entire head into a mist of blood.

Quite a few reviews have complained about the difficulty of the game, and honestly that completely confuses me. True, I had just finished the Call of Duty 4 campaign (which is brutal) but I absolutely breezed through Payback on Medium difficulty. I definitely was killed quite a few times, but I never had to retry any one section more than two or three times and most of the game I was able to go through without breaking a sweat. The main reason is that the enemies take almost no effort to kill. Utilizing almost any of the machine guns, you can just sweep fire back and forth across the ranks of enemies and watch them die in horrific manners.

You can also take a ridiculous amount of bullets without dying, with only shotguns or grenades posing any real threat to you throughout the game. To top things off you also regain health extremely quickly utilizing the popular Halo style health-regen system so you merely have to duck behind a box for a couple seconds before you are in proper fighting form again.. The only difficult points in the entire game were some of the boss battles and one of the last levels where there are three or four guys waiting around almost every corner with guns that kill you in two hits. You get used to both though, and even those couple of sticking points become a non-issue (here’s a hint: stab bosses to death and use grenades around corners to blow away the waiting enemies).

The one good part of the gameplay in Payback is the surprisingly satisfying weapons. Before each level you’re able to change which weapons you want and customize them as well — adding scopes, silencers, grenade launchers, etc. It allows you to really mix up how you kill people, since most of the guns you are able to equip you never see in the game itself. There is a really large selection of weapons too, and they all feel and sound fairly different. The wide variety of killing instruments combined with the (albeit gimped) dismemberment system are really about the only reasons to play Payback when it comes down to it. The campaign is short (four to five hours) and the online play is currently nonexistent. Over the course of a week I only ever saw three servers — total. When a server was up, the online play was surprisingly fun. Good luck finding somebody to play with though.

Overall, I’d have to say that Soldier of Fortune Payback is one of the worst games I’ve ever played all the way through. Between the static and washed out levels, the simplistic AI, the lackluster story, the horrible voice-acting, the toned down violence, and the ease of the game — there’s really no reason to recommend it to anybody. It did have this weird so-bad-it’s-good attraction for me, but when it comes down to it — you should just go play Call of Duty 4 and pick up Soldier of Fortune: Double Helix on the cheap somewhere. You’ll satisfy both your need for a fantastic, intense FPS as well as your need for horrific violence and gore. Unfortunately, Payback offers neither.

PS3 Fanboy score: 4.5

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This USB device known as the Logitec LDT-1S30X4U is truly unique - not only does it come with an integrated double TV tuner, there are also a couple of USB ports for you to plug in additional devices - such as another Logitec LDT-1S30X4U! Simple mathematics will dictate that when you do so, you will be able to gain access to four TV channels simultaneously. Now that’s more channels than your two eyeballs will be able to decipher aall at once, so thankfully the Logitec LDT-1S30X4U is also capable of recording other channels in the background. Additional features include TimeShifting function, Data Broadcasting and video exporting to mobile devices. The Logitec LDT-1S30X4U measures 121.8mm × 112.5mm × 36.2mm and will retail for approximately $152 when released next month.

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Filed under: Computers, Video Games, Gamer

For gamers who live by the technological adage, “Better, Stronger, Faster” - well, your world just got a whole lot more exciting. Digitimes reports that Samsung has announced the development of the GDDR5, a new video memory chip that will be fastest graphics data processor of its kind in the world. This type of graphics memory chip is an integral part of a computer’s video card, the component by which images and video from your favorite games are processed and transmitted to the screen.

The GDDR5, a series 5 double-data rate memory chip, transfers data at an astounding 6-gigabytes-per-second (GPps) and images at 24 GBps. Besides being about four times faster than today’s widely used GDDR3, the new chip operates at 1.5 volts, which means that it uses about 20% less power than its slower contemporary. To put these numbers in perspective, the chip uses less power to be faster than your PlayStation 3 or Xbox 360. In other words, he GDDR5 promises to increase it and make your favorite state-of-the-art games more seamless and fluid. on big screens.

Samples have been sent to the top graphics processor firms, and mass production is expected to begin in 2008, with GDDR5 chips expected to be available sometime in the coming year. By 2010, Samsung claims the GDDR5 will capture about half the PC gaming market and be the standard for gaming memory chips. What does this mean for gamers? It suggests that the GDDR3 will soon be obsolete, and that the GDDR4, which has gotten positive reviews but has not been as ubiquitous as the GDDR3, won’t be the top dog for long either. Customers who want the best, most fluid graphics will wait until the GDDR5 is available in video cards before making their next purchase. Sorry, gamers, but the bad news is that taking gaming to the next level will have to wait until next year sometime.

From Digitimes Via Engadget

Related Links:

• Gateway 30-Inch LCD XHD3000 High Definition Monitor
• Optoma HD 65 Projector
• Activision, Vivendi Announce Biggest Game Publishing Merger in History

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Filed under: Bad news, Management, Consumer experience, Rants and raves, Google (GOOG), Microsoft (MSFT), Wal-Mart (WMT), Home Depot (HD), Exxon Mobil (XOM), Scandals, Citigroup Inc. (C), Bank of America (BAC), Costco Wholesale (COST), Countrywide Financial (CFC), Lowe’s Cos (LOW)

This post is part of AOL Money & Finance’s Best & Worst of 2007. Be sure to cast your vote for the most hated company of the year.

Trying to discuss the Most Hated Companies is not easy. There are so many to choose from that if we left the subject wide open it would fill a novel. The four companies that made our list are all substantial in size and that alone brings much criticism. These four companies and their stocks are all broadly covered by Wall Street and business journals everywhere. We at BloggingStocks have written dozens of stories about them in just the past year alone. Each time we do, we find that our readers have plenty to vent about, so here we are giving you all one more chance.

Three of the four stocks here have not paid off for shareholders, and that is bound to start the ranting and raving. All of them have created some consumer backlash, and even fury. Some people hate the management. But management hating is not the problem at the worlds largest company, Exxon Mobil, since it is up about 200% in the past five years.

Bank of America (NYSE: BAC), capitalized at about $190 billion, was neck and neck with Citigroup (NYSE: C) as the largest financial institution but, at least for now, it has remained atop the heap while Citi has become a fallen (think questionable loans and billions in write-downs) angel capitalized at $150 billion. Bank of America has grown by mergers and acquisitions over the last decade. It was acquired by or merged with NationsBank Corporation, depending on your perspective, kept the BoA name but moved its headquarters to North Carolina from California. This was followed by the acquisitions of Fleet Boston, MBNA, US Trust, ABN Amro North America, and LaSalle Bank, and most recently an investment in Countrywide Financial (NYSE: CFC).

All of these changes affected millions of customers that had prior business relationships with the predecessor companies. It is only natural that B of A move these new customers to their existing business platforms and change the previously excepted customer patterns. This caused some grief and many complaints. B of A also has had to contend with its own customers that have complained about all the new fees and charges that keep popping up on their monthly statements. While this is true of most banks, B of A is leading the charge, and often takes the brunt of the criticism.

Bank of America has not been untouched by recent debacles in the financial sector related to industry lending practices, questionable mortgages, and the ensuing writedowns, but they have fared better than most. The stock had been up over 50% during the last five years, but has dropped recently. The entire sector has been underperforming the overall market, and looks like that will continue to do so. Some contrarian investors are starting to take a look at this sector, although most have suggested they will stay on the sidelines for now.

Given the stock performance, the size of the company, the increase in fees and altering of business practices, there is much to complain about. However, Bank of America pays a handsom dividend yield of about 6%, has the stability of a wide footprint, and has given no signs that it is through looking for new areas of growth. It is probably one of the safest bets (famous last words, I know) in the financial sector.

Exxon Mobil (NYSE: XOM) cannot escape the wrath of anyone. Well I guess there are exceptions, that would be shareholders and the Bush Administration. Consumers, on the other hand, hate it with a capital H. Every time gasoline prices go up, the population becomes restless. Every time corporate profits and executive pay are announced, people become disgusted. When these things happen in concert … well, you can make up your own adjectives, but they’re not pretty. Now add issues of hydrocarbon emissions, global warming, foreign intrigue, energy tax breaks, and oil industry subsides, and people can get downright nasty.

All that said, XOM has outperformed most stock investments you could have made over the last five years, gaining about 125%, while paying a dividend and with little downside risk. Because of its giant shadow it remains a Wall Street darling even if this makes most people think of it as having a dark side.

Home Depot (NYSE: HD) has been trying to ride out the center of the storm for a couple of years now. It has had to deal with the housing market implosion, competition from a formidable opponent in Lowe’s (NYSE: LOW), complaints about shabby stores, poor customer service, and management has lost most of it’s credibility. It has also suffered from “Big Box” syndrome like others of its ilk ,and all this has led to a stock price that has been going down all year, losing about 30% of its value.

It started the year trading near $40 and is trading in a $27 to $28 range lately, making shareholders none too happy either. But they say things seem darkest right before the dawn, and Home Depot has maintained reasonably strong cash flow though all it’s difficulties and holds an abundance of powerful assets. Prime among these assets is its real estate accumulated at good prices over the past ten years. Several things are working in Home Depot’s favor going forward, although the market will choose to ignore these things for now.

The market will improve eventually for housing, and this will help immensely. Nothing will restore the company’s reputation like an increase in profits and same-store sales. While the industry is suffering, no new competitors will be entering the market, so both Home Depot and Lowe’s are well positioned for this. If a recession or anything resembling such a thing does emerge pushing back new home sales, Home Depot will see growth in the remodeling business. Lastly, all the complaints shareholders and consumers have leveled at the company may seem like they have fallen on deaf ears, but I suspect they have not, and current management will have any easier time showing gains over such low expectations.

Wal-Mart (NYSE: WMT) is the biggest of “Big Boxes” and has suffered mightily for it. It has been making gains overseas, but in the United States it is facing many continuing challenges. Its size hurts it in several respects. When it searches for a site there are fewer choices and often residents do not want to see such massive change to their communities. It offers jobs, but they are low-paying jobs with few benefits, and it is not union friendly either.

When it wants to expand same-store sales, Wal-Mart cannot rely on simply adjusting the product mix or adding a few things, so it has had to enter entirely new businesses, which it has done like the food business and the drug business. It wanted to enter the banking business as well, but this idea has been met with tremendous opposition.

Worst of all for shareholders, in particular long-term shareholders, its stock price is down about 20% over the past five years, and this is very disappointing considering that the market is up substantially. Wal-Mart reported strong sales recently and increased profits, but you wouldn’t know it by looking at Wall Street’s response.

In my view, one of the critical issues for Wal-Mart to contend with is that growth will be difficult, and unlike other large companies that have the option of spin-offs or break-ups or outright sales of assets, what can they do to become more agile or attain better value for its assets?

It is true that all of these companies have felt the heat at times from investors, the media, local municipalities, and their citizenry. However, they are also victims of their own success, or at least past success. This certainly contributed to hatred of Microsoft Inc. (NASDAQ: MSFT), before and the building animosity against Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) now. The idea of hating a company is too harsh and seems out of place in general. However, if you have suffered the consequences of negative personal experience I suppose you might develop such feelings. What companies are on your short list of infamy?

To find potential opportunities and verify my track record, read Chasing Value or Serious Money.

Sheldon Liber is the CEO of a small private investment company and the principal for design and research at an architecture & planning firm. He does not own any of these securities.

Share the reasons for your pick of the most hated company in the comments, or let us know about any contenders we overlooked. Also be sure to see the rest of AOL Money & Finance’s Best & Worst of 2007.

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Filed under: Action, Casting, RumorMonger, Fandom, Comic/Superhero/Geek

I’m already convinced we’ll continually circle the same names over and over and over … until, eventually, this whole thing will just go away. Yup, we’re in Justice League limbo — not quite development hell or greenlight heaven; we’re here to just wait and speculate. It would appear that Warner Bros. has this film cast already. Then why are we hearing (yet again) from sites like AICN and IESB when it comes to casting confirmations? These names should’ve hit the trades a week or two ago, when we first reported on them. But no. So here we are. Again.

AICN claims they can confirm 100% with all sorts of inside studio sources, their siblings and their siblings’ children that Megan Gale has officially landed the part of Wonder Woman in the new live-action Justice League Film. She’s from Australia, used to be a fashion model, appeared in the movie Stealth and, well, that’s all there is to know at this time. Additionally, and with the same certainty, IESB claims that dude Armie Hammer has landed the role of Batman. He played Barrett on one episode of Desperate Housewives. Kurt on one episode of Veronica Mars. And Student #2 on one episode of Arrested Development. And now he’ll play Batman in the long-awaited Justice League flick. Don’t try to find the logic people; I’ve been searching for months now and nada. Will an official announcement come soon? Maybe. Maybe not. So you’ll have to make do with this for now.

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Jason “the designer man” Beaird, author of SitePoint’s The Principles of Beautiful Web Design (currently available in a limited, hard-cover signature edition), recently gave a presentation as a guest lecturer to the User-Centered Interface Design class run by Aarron Walter at The Art Institute of Atlanta.

Jason’s talk drew upon the core design principles he discusses in his book, and provided students with some practical advice on what to expect in an agency environment. After the talk, Jason joined a class critique of a redesign project students had been working on. I think students were a little nervous about being critiqued by the guy who wrote a best-selling book on design, but once they realized how down to earth Jason is, they gained their confidence back.

Aarron has made the audio and slides from Jason’s talk available on his personal site.

Download:

• Jason Beaird’s Guest Lecture Podcast (MP3, 43MB)
• Jason’s Presentation Slides (PDF, 4.3 MB)

This article provided by sitepoint.com.

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Filed under: Cellphones

Is the mobile phone really mature enough for brick phones to make a retro comeback? According to the makers of the ironically named Mini MOB, the answer to that is yes. The Mini MOB is definitely designed in the retro brick phone style, but at only 3.5 cm wide, it could probably be considered a scale model. It includes some pretty standard specs — camera, MP3 player, 128 MB card for the SD slot — but also happens to have an amazing battery life of 30 days standby, and a full 72 hours of continuous talk time! That’s almost enough to get us interested in picking one up, but at £160 ($320+) it ain’t an easy decision.

[Via TechDigest]

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Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!

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Filed under: News

Square Enix has unveiled its lineup for their annual Jump Festa event and among the sea of trailers and playable games is yet another lovely video of Final Fantasy XIII — not just the game, but advertised is the entire Fabula Nova Crystallis series. We don’t know if this “new” trailer is going to be a remixed version of what was shown behind closed doors at the Tokyo Game Show or not, because this one is also going to be shown behind closed doors. If it’s all new footage, that’d be grand, but we just won’t know. Hopefully someday Square Enix will allow the general public to see how their titles are progressing, but until then, we’ll just keep you up to date on potential videos that may or may not get leaked.

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Filed under: Gaming

We’ve been hearing quite a bit about next week’s Fall Dashboard Update for the 360, but Microsoft’s finally ready to spill all of the beans. Obviously, the biggest update is the “Xbox Originals” downloadable Xbox games, but other improvements include enhanced online profiles, increased social networking, beefed up parental controls, improved menus, and our personal favorite: DivX support. As stated before, Xbox Original games, like Halo 1 and Fable, will be going for 1200 MS points (about $15), which is roughly comparable with your local game store’s bargain bin. Also on the fiscal side of things, certain titles on Xbox Live Arcade are getting permanent price drops, akin to “Platinum Hits” of retail titles. As for DivX, Microsoft was a little vague when speaking with Joystiq about it, but it sounds like XviD is in play as well, which is just double fun. It’s all hitting as a free download on December 4th, starting at 2AM PST.

[Via Joystiq]

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