The Witcher is a role-playing game released back in October 2007, and only available for the PC. Basically, it's all about Geralt, the character impersonated by the player, which is one of the few remaining "witchers". A witcher is a monster hunter with supernatural powers, available to work as a "freelancer", but you will find out more about the whole deal once you get to play the game. This is not a review, but a report on this game's excellent sales in the last months, so let's see how good they were...



Regarding this game's sales, Adam Kicinski, CD Projekt RED Joint CEO, said the following:"We are very happy with The Witcher's performance to date. Our goal was - and still is - to reach one million copies sold during the first year. 600,000 games sold in just three months brings us much closer to this ambitious goal. It's a great success for us, made all the more impressive by the fact that The Witcher was created by a completely new team and it is our debut both as a game developer and in bringing our products to a global audience. The task was not easy, as The Witcher brand was completely unknown in many markets, and it was released in a busy season alongside franchises that have been on the market for many years. Yet, I can confidently say that we've passed this trial victoriously. Actually, only now - as we've conquered many of the initial barriers - can we spread our wings, which, of course, we intend to do. Such success wouldn't be possible without our publishers' support - Atari, Noviy Disk and the publishing branch of CD Projekt. They all put a lot of work into the game's promotion in individual markets."

This fact wouldn't be such big news, but considering the fact that The Witcher got a "Mature" rating in most countries, and its availability only for the PC platform, the number of sold units looks simply amazing!

At last, I should confess something - I didn't manage to spare the time required to play this game, but I think I'll do my best to succeed in this quest. If only a day would have 48 hours...

The Unreal 3 graphics engine is an amazing one, if used well. While games like Blacksite: Area 51 don't do much to help this excellent engine become more popular (at least for me, Blacksite: Area 51 was somehow disappointing, especially because they didn't optimize the graphics properly, and the overall "unfinished" feeling of the game), Lost Odyssey is an excellent title that uses the Unreal Engine 3.0, and today, it just got released in Northern America...

Currently, Lost Odyssey is only available for the Xbox 360, being already released back in early December 2007 in Japan, and on the 8th of February, in Australia. Unfortunately, Europe will have to wait until the end of this month, because the European release is scheduled for the 29th of February.The story of this RPG game is spinning around the many generations that are influenced by Kaim, the user-controlled character, a man who was condemned to live for 1,000 years (I wouldn't mind too much getting such a sentence!). It's a story of love, hate, peace and war, all taking place in a world getting close to a "mystical industrial revolution".

Today, we just got a message from Game Invasion's Jeff Palumbo, informing us about the latest exclusive video from Lost Odyssey, so we would like to thank him A LOT, and also share this with you. Just go here and enjoy it!

I really hope they are going to make this available for PCs as soon as possible, because otherwise I'll be forced to buy a game console... Lost Odyssey is a damn good reason to justify expenses on a game console, even if you are only gaming a few hours per week!

<-234x60 Half Banner - left->Paradox interactive announced today that they will launch Mount & Blade, a single-player, third- or first-person-shooter action/role playing game which focuses on medieval combat.
The BETA version of the game impressed the gamers starting with the realistic combat and ending with the sandbox gameplay.

The players can roam the map freely in the medieval world where they can hunt down bandits, trade for profit in a deep economical system or can become a great lord and participate at wars.



Although the game isn’t finished yet, it’s worth playing because there are numerous implementations and the community is extremely active, offering many updates which increases the game’s beauty.
Mount & Blade brings innovative strategy and role playing elements, borrowing elements used over and over again by other games belonging to these genres.
All these are implemented, and the great graphics guarantees you entire hours of fun.

<-234x60 Half Banner - right->Paradox Interactive understands gamers and it can’t wait to invite them in the world they’ve been created in several years in BETA now being so close to completion.
They’ve even announced a release date for Mount & Blade on Q2 2008.



Now, all we have to do is wait for the final release or play the BETA, which I’ve already tried and I must say that it’s an interesting game and it is worth playing.

<-125x125 Button - left->The night is getting colder, tainted by the screams of the unfortunate. Maybe I should have drowned with them, but fate has other plans in store for my perdition. The horrible noise can only mean that our crashed plane is sinking fast and I feel the urge to put some between us, lest I join it in the watery grave. Eerily gleaming fires stretch over ocean waves so calm, yet light pieces the darkness with unwavering certainty. I’ve reached the lighthouse at the end of the world, one lonely withered thorn to support hope where there is none. My chest hurts, but I’ll live yet; these steps - man made for sure. I must find the others.

“No gods, no kings, only man”

In the land of art, science and industry these symbols are engraved upon the walls, like runes of warding, ironically, the truth which brought the city’s downfall. As I descent with my newfound batysphere, I wonder who would have thought a whole city lies here at the bottom of the ocean. Rapture, as they call it, is a dream for all to men to free themselves of social and moral restrictions, and evolve to something greater. But can man be redeemed from his true destructive nature through technology? The wealthy and idealistic industry man Andrew Ryan seems to think this way, but entering the submerged city my welcoming party is grim. Creatures lurk in the shadows at every corner and they are not human anymore. I don’t even feel like leaving the relative safety of the batysphere after seeing IT rip the entrails off my rescuer. It is still out there, whispering secrets of my death and I don’t even have a crowbar to defend myself.

If you liked System Shock 2, then Bioshock is the game for you. If you love the retro theme Fallout used to push back in the days, Bioshock will also feel strangely familiar. I spent quite a lot of game time sight seeing and delving deeper into the complex social reality of Rapture. We’re talking about a large living city here, thus every location used to be someone’s quarters, bar of health center. Evidence of people’s past thoughts and actions can be found at every corner, usually by means of audio diaries picked up along the way. Rapture was created as a city of promise, a land of the free where everyone gets what he deserves in a seemingly capitalistic offer-and-demand ruled society.

Andrew Ryan sought to build a perfect society comprised out of elite individuals in the fields of art and science. In truth, man covers all the aspects of labor even in such an idealistic endeavor, thus physical work also needed to be employed, by those most fitted to perform it. Ryan was the father of Rapture, yet the rules he enforced lead him to be just one player in the vast game of economics. When rivals finally emerged, with the mindless back-up of the masses, power hungering turned to system corruption in the upper hierarchy.

“Adam is the canvass but plasmids are the paint”

The tool of this muffled civil war was Adam. Extracted through sea shells and developed into a mutagenic agent by a group of Rapture scientists lead by Tanenbaum, Adam enhanced humans with powers beyond their wildest dreams. Through Adam one gains the capacity to store plasmids and use them as they wish. Plasmids resemble spells since they require substantial quantities of Eve to be triggered off. Telekinesis, the control of fire or the power to freeze your foes are just a few; doubled by combat, technological and physical tonics which passively augment the denizens of Rapture, and now, yourself. But in order to gain Adam, a choice is to be made.

At some point it became apparent that there is not enough Adam to go around, and Tanenbaum engineered the Little Sisters to collect Adam from the dead. Guarded by massive armored robots called Big Brothers, these fiendish little girls have been transformed to see dead people as angels. Approaching them has since become a crime in rapture as they carry that which everyone here craves for. Big Brothers hit extremely hard and the first time you fight them is one of the most interesting things in Bioshock. Plenty of healing hypos, running around pillars and aiming for the head with armor piercing ammo should eventually do the trick.

And here’s the choice. The best way of getting Adam is to harvest it from the Little Sisters, leading to their impending death. Should you play nice, the little girls can be rescued from their mutagenic curse by a method taught to you by Tanenbaum. It leads to less Adam, but substantial rewards later on because the good doctor feels guilty and wants her children back. If you’re the kind of player that searches for items through every crevice, you’ll do just fine with less Adam. Ignore that completely if you plan to take on the game on the legendary difficulty. Spend Adam to gain more plasmids and increase your characteristics, including the amount of health and Eve you have. Tonics can be picked up on your journeys and basically represent items lying around. However, there is a possibility to gain more from research.

Humans never change

So we have a ‘50s retro themed city swarming with plasmid infested creatures that most of their humanity and spend their time hungering for Adam: splicers. It’s been a genuine pleasure to approach them from the shadow and listen to their rants undisturbed. Beyond the dim lights of Rapture, shadow and reality come together in a ghoulish fest where seeing and believing can never be the same. Complex shadows dance on the wall in front and I can tell a mother is bent over her child’s crib just around the corner. At first she sings a lullaby seemingly happy but then sorrow and madness take over. Wailing, crying out to the men gods of Rapture that took her child away, she lounges towards me with a wild look on her face. At first Adam made super humans out of the elite citizens of Rapture, but their developed Adam addiction lead to the loss of sanity. It’s only one of the main withdrawal symptoms, but the flesh decays as well. Splicers are bloodied and paranoid, their bodies scarred and their wits gone.

The doctor seems to be working late tonight, down at the gene splicing dental lab. I can tell by his shadow movements that he’s quite busy as I approach silently from behind. But then again, the light turn off leaving me defenseless and I must retreat as healing is expensive at this stage. Much of the scare comes from this use of lighting, sound and superb voice acting. I haven’t heard such great monologues since Sanitarium, one decade ago.

Atlas is directing you every move through the radio straight from the beginning, seemingly a true friend in this hour of need. With his help you going to discover the traps of perdition which brought great men and women to despair and madness, and Adam had a role to play in each story. First off we have Dr. Steinman, the surgery’s Picasso, obsessed with plasmid perfection in human beauty. Ryan’s rival in the works of industrial Rapture used to be Fontaine, now presumed dead. The story then arcs to Pete Wilkins, the underground rat living a parasitic life off his former master Fontaine. Land Ford is the biologist which used Adam to grow trees here on the ocean floor, subdued by Andrew Ryan’s strong grip over all things Rapture. Who can forget Sander Cohen, the mad artist who used plasmids to nurture a kind of grotesque art form built on pathos and death. The list goes on as you face Andrew Ryan in the end.

The plot thickens

Often enough you’ll be faced with hacking various turrets, robots, safes and vendor machines through your incursions in the world of Rapture. The mini game is always the same and presents you with a race of wits against time, rebuilding an exit way out of the given puzzle game. You have to arrange the tube pieces in such a way to structure a way for the liquid to reach its destination, while avoiding alarms and broken fuses. It’s refreshing to see that personal wits make a difference in the game, no matter how (un)skilled the in-game character is. Rewards are great should you crack these graphical riddles and range from ammo to cash, health and eve packs. Should you run out of ammo, tipping off an alarm and hacking two or three bots to escort you through the remainder of the level is generally a good idea.

Bioshock isn’t a hard game though and pleasure derives through every aspect of the work presented before your eye and fingertips. I’d like to think that it’s one of the good aspects of the multi format games, since Bioshock has a PC and Xbox versions. For a shooter, the mouse is pretty much involved in aiming the gun faster and that’s pretty much it. The casual style gameplay doesn’t require you go to that much trouble when it comes to strafing, jumping around and dodging bullets behind obstacles. So it’s not a hardcore shooter where you go out of bullets fast, which in turn lets you enjoy the creepy atmosphere more.

Take a picture. It lasts longer

The basics of research lie in accurate observation of your surroundings. Yet taking pictures of splicers wandering around or rushing for your scalp isn’t exactly the first thing that came through my mind when I picked up the camera. Its screenshot time now, because the more you catch on film, the more research points you gain and every time the bar goes to full, you learn something new about the creature. Yes, most splicers are vulnerable to anti personnel ammo, but I bet you’ll want to gain that special (free) tonic from research level two, or maybe that incredibly powerful ability the creature has been using to drop you dead. I was lost when I met Houdini Splicers for the first time. They just teleport around and throw fireballs at me, laughing the mad man’s laughter. Yet after careful observation through the use of my trusty weapon six camera, I found out I can stealth myself and go invisible if standing still with the new camouflage physical tonic. It can’t get any better than that.

Plasmid eye candy

It would have been unfair to start the review talking about graphics, but time has come to praise Bioshock and its wonderful use of the Unreal Engine 3. Movement is all right with the note that jumping is a bit off by default and you need to boost your character with running tonics to get the full feeling of a shooter. Turrets have no problems throwing at you high speed bullets (which can miss), rockets and flames. Flying sentries come in like butterflies, inaccurately hovering up and down in a very realistic movement pattern. I did mention lighting earlier. While 2K Games advertised Bioshock runs on Shader Model 3.0, there is an unofficial patch out there which allows 2.0 shader graphical cards run the game just fine. Even so, darkness is never impenetrable and developers use shadows to great effect, hinting that which you can not see, pushing you further exploring. The Houdini Splicers are some interesting characters and their rendering and invisibility effects left me jaw open and wondering just what the hell that was. World textures are detailed yet have a sense of roughness about them, which only adds to the depth of the retro concept. Taking screenshots of poster ads never gets old.

Where to next?

All in all Bioshock offer very good value for the money and Bioshock main concept man Ken Levine along with the new defunct Irrational Games developers (swallowed up by 2K Games) did a fantastic job at about every aspect of the game. The sense of playing a polished release that won’t disappoint is unmatched, and will undoubtedly weight heavily when looking for the game of the year. The only way to destroy your own gaming experience is by abusing some generous game mechanics like the Vita Chambers which basically spell resurrection safe spots. If you stick with the regular “kill first, ask questions later” modus operandi and save the game often, there won’t be any need to resurrect at the last visited Vita Chamber. Feeling that Big Daddy would go down faster if you hit it with a wrench is wrong; don’t do it. I positively adore the retro atmosphere and if you are a Fallout fan, I’m sure Bioshock will look like a welcomed revival and not a rip off because imagery and dialogues are rebuilt from scratch.

The Bioware team made a name for itself in the computer gaming business as one of the best RPG developers, albeit on the fantasy line, but what we see today furthers from the beginnings. To the delight of role playing and sci-fi fans everywhere, Mass Effect finally hit the shops today as an Xbox only release. In the later years Bioware was synonymous with Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic and Jade Empire, but should you ask the question again in one year, the answer might as well point out at Mass Effect. The action RPG title is the kind of game where a stuffy story line meets tactical combat as you get immersed deeper into the plot thinking about an interactive sci-fi movie experience.

Bioware turned Mass Effect to high definition, along with signing some pretty impressive names in the voice talent department. Seth Green, Marina Sirtis and Lance Henriksen get the job done, so don’t feel ashamed if it feels like Alien 5 somewhere along the way. Starting off into the game you take up the role elite human Spectre agent, Commander Shepard, upholding the law until you turn rogue to uncover a mystery beyond the boundaries of conventional thought. The role playing factor turns up in a non linear story where you are faced with the consequences of your own moral actions. In the end these too will influence the outcome of the scenario, where you are tasked with stopping a threat so great it could destroy all life in the galaxy.

>Mass Effect managed to get the attention of the SCI FI Channel and will have a featurette tonight, November 20^th 11 p.m. EST. The special it’s called “Sci vs. Fi: Mass Effect” and will explore the ways that technology and human ingenuity came about to create the premises encountered in the Mass Effect storyline. Somewhat like a look behind the scenes, with more information available on the official site.

Mass Effect has been rated M for Mature by the ESRB. There is a limited collector’s edition available and includes pretty trinkets like the “Galactic Codex: Essentials” fiction book, the “A Future Imagined” artwork book, four documentaries about the creation of the game on a DVD and 10 songs from the game’s soundtrack.