G3AR

Max Payne 3: G3AR vs Lazygamer Winner Announced

Jarred — Fri, 18 May 2012 13:00:26 +0000

Over the last couple of weeks we have been running a competition where one lucky reader will be rewarded with a copy of Max Payne 3 AND a chance to join us on the G3AR team to take on the fools from LazyWeightGainers, sorry LameGamers? Oh, apologies again, we mean the guys at Lazygamer. The lucky reader gets to join us in a competitive match up against Lazygamer and their winner (or loser, depending on how you look at it). Now we feel we need to be a bit more specific as the word 'competitive' implies that there will be a competition or challenge of some sorts, sadly it is as announced, against Lazygamer and while it will be a lot of fun it is unlikely to be over-challenging. Much talk has been going on between the two sites over the last few weeks. We have thrown some smart taunts their way, while they have replied with nothing more than incoherent statements of intent. We even noticed that they considered bringing back a former staff member from retirement. We think they might be scared, and rightly so. The winner and lucky reader who gets to play against, laugh at and destroy the Lazygamer folk is: Jason Bridges A huge congrats to Jason and we look forward to having you on our team. Remember, in preparation all you really need to be better than the guys from LameGamer is opposable thumbs, mind you if you want your pet to play in your stead it will probably make it more fair for them, but we doubt they would be able to win. In all seriousness (well a little seriousness) good luck to the guys at Lazygamer, you will need it. We look forward to the battle and hope the best team wins (us). A massive thank you to Megarom who were kind enough to sponsor the game and cool enough to join in on the fun concept.

Freebie Friday Winner Visually Enhanced

Jarred — Fri, 18 May 2012 12:00:11 +0000

We at G3AR believe that we have some of the coolest readers on the planet. True story. As a reward for being 'cool' we decided that you deserved a chanced to win some amazing Gunnar Eyewear made specifically for gaming. The eyewear for this week's prize is COD MW3 glasses and not only do they look pretty damn snazzy, they also really do help your eyes when gaming. So the luck winner is: Francois Claassen A huge congrats to Francois and thanks to all for entering and visiting the site. We love having you all on the G3AR site and hope you will continue to support us and please don’t be shy to share your views on any of the posts. A quick notification also that G3AR will be covering E3 IN JUST A COUPLE OF WEEKS. More to come on that soon. Remember that we have our PS Vita competition running with TWO extra entries for every comment made. To keep up to date with all the latest happenings on the site make sure to follow us on Twitter and ‘like’ our Facebook page and why not comment on all three to give us your thoughts on all the latest happenings in the gaming and PC world. Next week we have a double whammy Freebie Friday with an exclusive something something for PS3 owners and a graphics card worth R2000! A massive thanks to Comet Computing for the awesome prize.

Blizzard Apologizes for server crashes

David Kozlowski — Fri, 18 May 2012 08:40:31 +0000

If you were one of the many Diablo 3 players trying to log on to one of Blizzards servers on May 15, but were greeted by ugly errors like the good old 37 error then this is for you. An apology has been released Blizzard expressing how sorry they are for the down time in demon slaying, also that the action house will be delayed as well until the server issues are resolved.You can read the full lengthily apology below.

Diablo Players: We'd like to extend a very sincere thank you to everyone who joined the global Diablo III launch celebrations this week, as well as to everyone who was ready to jump into Sanctuary the moment the game went live. To that end, we'd also like to say that we've been humbled by your enthusiasm — and we sincerely regret that your crusade to bring down the Lord of Terror was thwarted not by mobs of demons, but by mortal infrastructure. As many of you are aware, technical issues occurring within hours after the game's launch led to players experiencing error messages and difficulty logging in. These issues cropped up again last night for the Americas and Europe servers. Despite very aggressive projections, our preparations for the launch of the game did not go far enough. We've been monitoring the game 24/7 and have applied several optimizations to help our systems better weather the global rush. As of late last night, specifically 11:50 PM PDT on May 15, all systems have been online and running relatively smoothly. We're continuing to monitor performance globally and will be taking further measures as needed to ensure a positive experience for everyone. This includes some maintenance to implement additional improvements for each region. In order to make sure everything is continuing to run as it should, we've decided to move out our target launch for the real-money auction house beyond our original estimated date of May 22. We'll post further updates on that in the near future. Aside from the tremendous number of players simultaneously logging in to the game, one of the launch-day service issues was linked to the achievement system. Some players began to notice early on that achievements were either not being earned properly, or not being saved between multiple logins. We're investigating this issue and will provide a specific update as soon as possible. We greatly appreciate everyone's support, and we want to sincerely apologize for the difficulties many of you encountered on day one. Please visit the Battle.net Support site or Support forums for the latest service-related updates or for help in troubleshooting any technical issues you may be having downloading, installing, or while playing the game. Thank you again for your patience while we reinforce the gates of Sanctuary and further strengthen it for your onslaught. Respectfully, Blizzard Entertainment"

We have a Horizon screenshot or two Forza

Dawid — Fri, 18 May 2012 06:00:48 +0000

Playground Games have been so secretive about their upcoming project that the reveal of it being a Forza spin-off, named Horizon, caught everyone by surprise just a few weeks ago. The team of Forza Horizon is made up of the best of the best in the racing genre and mostly hail from the following developing studios:

CodeMasters (Dirt, Grid, F1)
Bizarre Creations (Blur, Project Gotham Racing)
Ubisoft Reflections (Driver San Francisco)
Rockstar North (Grand Theft Auto)
Criterion (Burnout, Need for Speed: Hotpursuit)
BlackRock Studio (Split/Second)
Slight Mad Studios (Need for Speed: Shift)
Sony London (Wipeout)

That’s some serious talent right there. Below you can see the first in-game image and the cover art. [gallery link="file" columns="2"]

Lost Planet Spinoff for the 3DS and PS3

Jarred — Thu, 17 May 2012 14:00:28 +0000

Capcom announced that Ex Troopers, a spinoff of Lost Planet, will be heading to the 3DS and PS3 this year. The game is said to be a third-person shooter and is being lead up by producer Shintaro Kojima (Monster Hunter). With very Anime styled visuals the game features a battle between Snow Pirates and Akrid. Few otherdetails exist at the moment, but there is a reveal trailer which you can see below. Looks pretty good to us. Icy. [youtube id="Wr1HMERZcBs" width="600" height="350"]

Smart As Heading to the Vita

Jarred — Thu, 17 May 2012 13:30:53 +0000

Smart As is a new take on the train-your-brain type games coming exclusively to the PS Vita. The game has 20 different, intellectualy engaging puzzle games to test the mind capabilities. Smart As will also allow players the ability to share stats and achievements with other players who have the game, as well as on social media platforms. Smart As uses all the Vita's features including the cameras, touchscreens and augmented reality and will also provide challenges to keep the mind occupied on a daily basis. The puzzles range from maths type questions to general logic type puzzles as players aim to beat scores of their friends and improve their own knowledge. The game will also use the Vita's Near feature for those countries lucky enough to have the feature in a working order (not us. Sniff). The game looks interesting and will be educational, but just how different it will be to the DS' Brain Age games is yet to be seen. Check out the trailer below and make your own mind up: [youtube id="I6p43iFnZBc"600" height="350"]

New Sorcery Trailer

Jarred — Thu, 17 May 2012 12:30:31 +0000

Our excitement for Sorcery has hit new heights in recent weeks. We've finally got a release of a game that might actually make the Move worth owning and is arriving soon. The fantasy, wand wielding game releases next week and a new trailer has surfaced. The trailer is a very brief last look at the game before it releases. Stunning visuals and wonderful gameplay are both evident from the trailer. One more week and you will be able to pretend you are all Harry Potter. One more week! Check out the trailer below: [youtube id="OGKexH9_GNo" width="600" height="350"]

Review: Sniper Elite V2

Dawid — Thu, 17 May 2012 11:32:58 +0000

Sniper Elite V2: Review

David Kozlowski — Thu, 17 May 2012 11:00:33 +0000

[gameinfo title="Game Info" game_name="Sniper Elite V2" developers="Rebellion" publishers="" platforms="Xbox 360" genres="Shooter" release_date="May 1st 2012"]There are lots of games about war out there, but it’s not often you see an entire game focused on the role of just a sniper. There have been a few games that have tried to put you in the shoes of a sharpshooter before like the recent Sniper: Ghost Warrior, but they usually fail. The reasons for them failing, besides just being a terrible game like Ghost Warrior, is because it’s hard to convey the role of a sniper into a video game while keeping it fun to play. A sniper is never usually in the heart of the action, they are usually in a window somewhere far away from all the exciting stuff waiting for the perfect moment to strike. Sniper Elite V2 aims to get the right balance between playing as a sharpshooter and fun factor, and their accuracy is pretty spot on. Developers Rebellion’s latest Sniper offering is a remake of their 2005 release titled Sniper Elite: Berlin 1945.You fill the shoes of an Elite sniper named Karl Fairburne, who is put into the heart of Berlin towards the end of WW2. Karl is assigned the task of capturing a group of scientist working on a V2 rocket program, and shooting hundreds of German soldiers in the head along the way. Where Sniper Elite V2 hits its mark is in its execution, literally. When you achieve a perfect kill-shot the camera will follow the bullet exiting the rifle as it sails towards the enemy, where an X-Ray view empasises the bullet shattering bones and ripping through other internal important mush as it makes its path through a soldier doing what bullets do best. The satisfaction from these kills is immense, and you will find yourself craving your next target. Your right bumper is used to stabilize your breathing which also slows down time while zooming in a bit to give you an extra edge to pull off that perfect shot. This gameplay mechanic coupled with some decent looking visuals, stealth elements and some classic third person run and gun action help Sniper Elite V2 stand out from previous sniper games. Where it miss-fires is in the lack of polish. Animations can look a bit weird at times and the stealth kills from behind are notibly weird as it looks like you are giving an enemy some kind of awkward bear hug gone wrong. Controls are also not up to AAA quality. On the odd occasion you will find yourself running up to a car to take cover in the middle of a fire fight only to finger-tap-dance on the buttons as you struggle to stick to it, leaving you standing exposed and acting as a human bullet sponge. Sniper Elite V2 feels like it is aiming in the right direction. Online co-op missions and the X-ray system are great additions but the series still needs a bit of work on the technical side before it truly earns its title as the elite sniper game. It certainly is worth a look and we will definitely keep one eye on this series going forward.

ARMA 2 sales up 500% because of new mod

David Kozlowski — Thu, 17 May 2012 09:30:04 +0000

A new mod for Arma 2 called Day Z is pushing up sales of the game five fold of its original sale rate.The popularity of the new mod, that was developed by Bohemia Interactive's own staff member Dean Hall, is spreading fast as it seems players around the world have not had their fill of shooting zombies in the face yet.The mod is an online open world game that has players trying to survive a zombie apocalypse.The developers behind Arma 2 at Bohemia interactive were so impressed with the new mod that they are going to support it from there side as well. Marek Španěl, one of the lead designers on Arma 2, had this to say about Day Z.

Considering the mod’s popularity we are committed to do some related work in the next Arma 2 update (1.61).We are actively communicating about how we could best support the Arma 2 user community especially in multiplayer and Day Z players are right now a significant portion of people actively playing the game, so of course it’s high on our priority list to support it the best we can.”

Day Z looks like a mix between Dead Island and Left for Dead, but with a more realistic gritty feel.If you own Arma 2 you can try the mod out for yourself here http://www.dayzmod.com/, if you don't own Arma 2 a Steam sale is sure to be on its way to capitalize on the games new popularity.Check out a trailer for the mod below. [youtube id="A7Q8c8jnL3s" width="600" height="350"]