Jump to content
Please Help Us Test! ×

The Slowdown

A blog by vrap in General

  • entries
    141
  • comments
    41
  • views
    121,145

About this blog

A blog for those who spend more time thinking about gaming than gaming

Entries in this blog

List of Games That No Longer Run on AMD Phenom

Note: I do have just enough self-awareness to file this story under our historical category, Time Machine. There is a tiny, though increasing, category of PC platform video game ports: Games that no longer run on AMD’s Phenom AM2/3 CPUs. There is a simple reason why, shared by all these games: They have been programmed to require CPU support for Intel’s SSE 4 (“Streaming SIMD Extensions 4”) instruction set, version 4.1 or higher. The Phenom CPUs, however, only support SSE up to 4.0. This is
vrap

vrap

24

Jim, Yes Means No

Almost exactly two years ago in 2008, on April the 22nd, the recovering Interplay had just sent out a press release announcing a new Earthworm Jim game to be developed in conjunction with an animated series and a feature film, with original author Douglas TenNapel working as a creative consultant on the game. Conversely, earlier in the same month, Interplay had just “reinitiated its in-house game development studio, and [was] hiring game developers,†and vouched to “leverage its portfolio
vrap

vrap

3

The Road More Traveled: 5TH Cell?s Hybrid

Cowabunga! Washington-based Scribblenauts devs 5TH Cell probably could not have done a more complete 180 degrees in licensing Valve?s Source engine for their latest game, Hybrid. The just-announced game is unfortunately going to be released on the wrong platform ? that is, as an XBLA exclusive, at least for the time being: 5TH Cell is proud to announce Hybrid, a revolutionary new video game available in 2011 exclusively for Xbox Live Arcade (XBLA). Hybrid is a pioneering third person shoote
vrap

vrap

2

Payday 2, “Death Wish,� and Binary States

<p>Over here at <a href="http://www.slowdown.vg/">The Slowdown</a>, I like and try to produce criticism on things that I <i>enjoy,</i> and things that I think are <em>good</em>. This is often (cough, preposterously) visible on the website. This doesnât mean, however, that I donât just âplayâ games, too.</p> <p>One of these games is <b>Payday 2</b>, the sequel to 2011âs <b>Payday: The Heist</b>, a 4-person co-op cops-
vrap

vrap

0

Fallout: New Vegas 2017 Soft Touch Modification Guide

To celebrate Fallout‘s 20th anniversary, I figured it would be fun to completely start from scratch and tool the Bethesda Fallout game series for new, fresh playthroughs. Since I have now spent an evening’s worth of catching up on, and customizing, each of the Fallouts, I figured I might as well put my lists out here. In fact, I have actually written an article on Planescape: Torment (hilariously obsolete today, with the new Enhanced Edition out) before, and it’s a ton of fun to share this type
vrap

vrap

0

The Samaritan Paradox Review

<p><b>The Samaritan Paradox</b>, a relatively new commercial AGS adventure game by <a href="http://faravidinteractive.wordpress.com/">Faravid Interactive</a>âs Peter Ljunkvist, published by <a href="http://www.screen7.co.uk/">Screen 7</a>, is a story about a story. A refreshingly Swedish one, too. The gameâs protagonist, Ord Salomon – âordâ is Swedish for âwordâ – is a shut-in PhD student of literature, rotting away at a failing thesis, with worried frie
vrap

vrap

0

Isaac and the ?Grotesque Body Horrors?

In his PopMatters article ?Fearing God, Fearing the Body: The Theology of ‘The Binding of Isaac’?, G. Christopher Williams discusses various aspects of Edmund McMillen and Florian Himsl?s ingenious (and mildly blasphemous) Zelda/Roguelike hybrid, The Binding of Isaac. Although his reading of the game astutely homes in on the “meatier” parts of Isaac – that is, the implications of the game?s loathsome representation of the corporeal -, I do nevertheless want to point out some omissions in William
vrap

vrap

2

Fallout 3 GOTY 2017 Soft Touch Modification Guide

To celebrate Fallout‘s 20th anniversary, I figured it would be fun to completely start from scratch and tool the Bethesda Fallout game series for new, fresh playthroughs. Since I have now spent an evening’s worth of catching up on, and customizing, each of the Fallouts, I figured I might as well put my lists out here. In fact, I have actually written an article on Planescape: Torment (hilariously obsolete today, with the new Enhanced Edition out) before, and it’s a ton of fun to share this type
vrap

vrap

0

Destiny 2 Incompatible with AMD Phenom II?

I just published my List of Games That No Longer Run on AMD Phenom a month ago, and then Bungie’s Destiny 2 launches on Oct 24th. The launch has raised the ire of tons of Phenom II users, as the game seems to be crashing mightily on those processors. In the developers’ known issues thread, the following SSSE requirement is mentioned: SSSE3 Required: Destiny 2 will not run on processors without Supplemental Streaming SIMD Extensions 3 (SSSE3). Wait, what? Usually, the common problem with gam
vrap

vrap

0

Harassment Is Not Okay

<p>Over the past two months, many video game developers and journalists have had to wake up and go to sleep bothered, pestered, insulted, and threatened – or worse: Phil Fish, and especially women like Brianna Wu, Zoe Quinn, and Anita Sarkeesian have had great reason to be fearful of their privacy, safety, and well-being, after being targeted with threats of death.</p> <p>This is <strong>wrong</strong> and needs to stop. Period.</p> <p>No matter what y
vrap

vrap

0

Dear #gamergate

<p>Dear #gamergate,</p> <p>I don’t know if you’ll read this letter. I have not written to you before. We have not really spoken.</p> <p>While your message to us has, more often than not, taken either the form (and I do not mean to belittle you for it; the matter at hand is far more complex than any single person can handle alone) of the shouting of a rhetorical exercise, copy-pasted from a database of talking points, full of debate gymnastics, smoke and mirrors, r
vrap

vrap

0

Warframe Starter Guide for Plains of Eidolon

Warframe is huge right now – and for good reason – after their latest big update, Plains of Eidolon, has come out. It is indeed a fantastic update to a fantastic game. If you are thinking about jumping in, here are 12 important things about Warframe you absolutely need to know before starting out. 1. Warframe is really, truly free Warframe is free to play. Really! Make no mistake: If you want, you’ll never have to pay a single dime. It is common for the games press to make the mistake of thi
vrap

vrap

0

Quote of the Day: Ebb Software

</img> </img> </img> </img> </img><a href="http://www.slowdown.vg/2014/11/14/quote-of-the-day-ebb-software/"class='bbc_url' rel='nofollow external'>Source</a>
vrap

vrap

0

Quote of the Day: Thimbleweed Park

</img> </img> </img> </img> </img><a href="http://www.slowdown.vg/2014/11/18/quote-of-the-day-thimbleweed-park/"class='bbc_url' rel='nofollow external'>Source</a>
vrap

vrap

0

The Cuphead Runneth Over Dean

GamesBeat writer Dean Takahashi, @deantak, recently had some trouble playing Cuphead: This new video has, in many ways, brought back the game journalist competency debate that last reared its ugly head when Polygon’s Arthur Gies played Doom and didn’t do it very well. The emergent arguments and accusations levied at the person in question have been as various as they are dubious: That Mr. Takahashi’s specific position, as a video game journalist, requires him to be good at all games, or flat
vrap

vrap

0

Quote of the Day: Satoru Iwata

</img> </img> </img> </img> </img><a href="http://www.slowdown.vg/2015/07/13/quote-of-the-day-satoru-iwata/" class='bbc_url' rel='nofollow external'>Source</a>
vrap

vrap

0

On the Rise of Youtube

<p>Giggle!</p> <ol> <li>You watch Long Plays to experience a game without playing it</li> <li>You watch Let’s Plays to be entertained</li> <li>You watch video reviews to be spoiled</li> </ol> <p>Thesis: None of these three things are particularly conducive to actually selling a product.</p> <div class="feedflare"> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/slowdays/slowdown?a=P25Tgk43VPQ:MYdVoITMTXQ:D7DqB2pKEx
vrap

vrap

0

Interview with The Whispered World Designer Marco Hüllen

Note: This is Day 3 of “The Whispered World Week” at The Slowdown. Check back for more tomorrow! Maro Hüllen, with Pet In today’s interview, we talk to the original designer and primary illustrator of The Whispered World, Marco Hüllen (on the right), in the hopes of shedding more light on the curiouser details of the development process of the game – especially, on details that are still left uncertain for non-German audiences. After all, German fans of the adventure game have had the priv
vrap

vrap

2

Top Five Left 4 Dead 1/2 Custom Campaigns

In August 2010, Chet Faliszek announced Valve would begin to rotate biweekly custom-made campaigns on the official servers of Left 4 Dead 2: Every two weeks we are going to feature a new community campaign on our servers. We will feature one campaign at a time to make it is easier to find games. We?ll be keeping it featured for two weeks so people can familiarize themselves with the maps for competitive play. Though we wholeheartedly agreed with Valve on their choice to start their campaign
vrap

vrap

0

What Was Icarus? BioShock Infinite

The over-speculated and hotly anticipated Irrational Games project that was to be revealed today? BioShock Infinite. The announcement of the latest game in the BioShock franchise, slated to launch on the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and PC in 2012, seems to belong to the category of ?expect the expected:” As we all turned to the unexpected (Freedom Force, SWAT, X-Wing vs. Tie Fighter, Kingdom Hearts or Yar?s Revenge), I don?t think many of us really did see the new BioShock game coming – not one
vrap

vrap

0

The Calculated Corporate Cynicism of Shadow of War’s Charity DLC

Note: For the purpose of this post, I have created a new category of post called “Contemporary Cynicism”. In this series, we are going to offer opinions that discuss the question of right and wrong in video games without adherence to common constraints set upon such public discourse. Since the video game companies of today often seem to be so beyond what we consider ethical behaviour, then maybe we should be, too. Several outlets are now reporting that Monolith is releasing a charity DLC, for
vrap

vrap

0

Full Mojo Rampage Review

<p><a href="http://www.overthetopgames.com/">Over the Top Games</a>â new roguelike-lite, <a href="http://www.fullmojorampage.com/">Full Mojo Rampage</a>, is quite <a href="http://videogamefood.tumblr.com/post/51894982974/voodoo-soup-the-secret-of-monkey-island">the voodoo soup</a>, one that has been slowly bubbling away in Steam’s dangerous “Early Access” section since late 2013. The game, having finally reached its boiling point in May 2014, is now out,
vrap

vrap

0
×
×
  • Create New...
Affiliate Disclaimer: Retromags may earn a commission on purchases made through our affiliate links on Retromags.com and social media channels. As an Amazon & Ebay Associate, Retromags earns from qualifying purchases. Thank you for your continued support!