3 Ways to Be An Enviromentally Friendly Gamer

These days, green is everyone’s favourite colour. Everyone is concerned about the world blowing up and putting gas everywhere in the universe. Heck, even former vice-presidents are making oscar-winning documentaries about this stuff.

I find it quite strange that people don’t make connections between gaming and the enviroment. Well, I do, and I’ve thought of three ways to be good to the enviroment while gaming, both in-and out of the game.

1. Game with the lights out

If you’re a horror game fan, but also a big wuss, you probably spend most of your gaming hours with the lights ON. Congratulations, you’re winner – NOT. Think about it. There are 24 hours in a day. If you play horror games with the lights on for 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, you have the lights on for 168 hours a week! Having the light on for one hour means you’re wasting 50 dollars! 50*168 = 8400 dollars! It saves money, and our time on earth, to game with the lights out.

2. Buy used games

Sure, they come with humoungous scratches on the back, and last you about 5 hours. Sure, they’re amazingly overpriced considering the trade in value at Gamestop. And sure, they’re crawling with disease. But again, think about this: When you buy a new game, the developers make a new one. They’re using tons of plastic, paper, and other stuff to make the game complete with package. That’s why you buy used games. You’ll save some money, and save some enviroment!

3. Play games that take your breath away

When you breathe, you’re making a plant or a tree do a lot of work. Breathe a lot, and you’re killing trees and plants! That’s why you have to play games that stop you from breathing. Maybe you’re a super-super wuss, even wussier than the wusses I referred to in number 1! Play Resident Evil! Maybe you’re a really insane athlete! Play Madden 07! Or, maybe you’re a really old person who doesn’t like surprises. Play any game with an M rating, and you’re gold.

Way to go. Even by reading this, you’ve saved about 10 trees! You rock, random reader! Continue to play your favourite games, but don’t forget the three steps of green gaming!

What are your favourite ways to help the enviroment AND own noobs at the same time?
Post a comment, and keep being green!

STALKER: Reviewed

S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl for the PC has finally been released. Some people on the message boards I visit have been waiting for six years, ever since the game was first announced back in ‘01.

Lots of people have pirated the game, but if you’re going to support the game industry and give them money for a few hours of entertainment, then you’ll probably be interested in some of the critical reviews the game has recieved.

Yahoo Games was super impressed, giving the game a 4.5/5.

“STALKER’s levels are huge and sprawling, each big enough for many large buildings and plenty of countryside between them. You’ll visit ruined cities, factories, military bases, radiation-bathed garbage dumps, and mysterious research labs. Oh, and the power plant itself, lurking at the northern end of the map like some hulking, malevolent reminder of humanity’s arrogance.”

Meanwhile, Gamespot gave the game an 8.5, praising the spooky atmosphere and the AI but shunning the game for the bugs that ruined their stalking adventures.

“The game’s artificial intelligence is impressive, both in and out of combat. In combat, enemies are cunning when given enough room to move around. Human enemies hunt you intelligently, using cover and the terrain to their advantage. Meanwhile, creatures such as packs of mutant dogs behave like you’d expect wild animals to. They attack when they feel they have the advantage but flee if given a painful lesson. It’s this kind of behavior that makes the zone feel alive, with these different factions and animals all trying to go about their daily tasks.”

And finally, IGN was also impressed, but  gave the game a lower-80’s score because of the terrible technicalities and the average side-quests.

“In a strange twist, several of the main story missions take place underground or indoors, shifting the aspects of gameplay toward that of a traditional corridor shooter. If you really want to test out how S.T.A.L.K.E.R.’s open world elements work, you’ll need to embark on the many side quests The Zone’s NPCs offer. Sadly only a handful of them are truly interesting. They mostly offer simple tasks such as kill a single target, wipe out a camp, or retrieve an object. The more involving ones toss you into battle with A.I. companions, though there are too few.”

I’m not too convinced on whether I should pick the game up yet. In my opinion, the best way to determine those kinds of things are the fans themselves. We’ll just have to wait and see.

IGN: The 25 Best PC Games of All Time

IGN has released an extensive list of their 25 favourite PC games. With quite a few surprises, and quite a few memories, this feature makes great reading material for any PC gamer.

They also talked about a wide variety of genres and games which I was SUPER happy about. I’m so sick of those lists where you see the same games in the top five every single time.

I won’t spoil the top picks, but I was extra pleased to see Company of Heroes, Oblivion, and Call of Duty on the list.

The feature can be read at IGN.

Mod Spotlight: Mammouth Party

Mammouth Party is an online adventure mod for Half-Life 2, and after trying it out, I’m quite impressed.

The objective is to collect food for your clan. However, you are in competition with three other clans, so competition plays a big part in the mod. 

The game definitely has an evident sense of humour that works extremely well with the cartoon-based art style.

More information and media can be found on their website. The mod can be downloaded at most gaming websites, including Gamespot.

Shadowrun: The Weapons of the Future

Last week, lots of details about the weapons in “Shadowrun”, the multi-platform shooter game were released.

It seems from the screenshots that instead of randomly finding these weapons, you must purchase them with your hard-earned in-game money. It hasn’t been confirmed if this is a feature in the single-player component as well as the multi-player part of the game.

The weapons in the game range from accurate pistols to bone-crushing rocket launchers, and even though the game takes place in the 2030’s, the weapons don’t seem to be that much different from your typical shooters today. When you’re selecting which weapon to buy, every weapon lists the damage, accuracy, rate of fire, ideal range, and ammo count which will definitely help you decide what weapon to purchase.

This game is definitely shaping up, and I’m excited to take part in the cross-platform action that will put PC gamers against (or teamed up with) Xbox 360 owners.