4 Games that you must buy these holidays.

Its that time of year, when money must be offered up to the consumer gods. Yep its Christmas time. So I have put together a couple of games that are a must for you or your kid this holiday season. It will be sure to keep them out of your hair for a couple of days.

Oh.

Tragically I am yet to get a single game from any of the distribution companies in South Africa. Not for a lack of trying, oh no. Many a day has been spent on the phone calling and asking them to send me stuff. My outbox looks like a directory of companies. Alas I am yet to get anything, so I am going into this blind. I have only the opinion of reviews I have read and the chatter that fills internet forums.

LEFT 4 DEAD.

Zombies, FPS and the Half Life 2 Source engine… it sounds to good to be true.

You play as one of four survivors of a zombie apocalypse, armed to the teeth, you have to shoot your way through wave after wave of the undead, trying to reach the next safe house. Other players are able to play as one of the Zombie horde, I’m sure that would add a little spice into the action.

Its a multi-player only game, so only if you are a regular LANNER or have at minimum a ADSL 512K connection, don’t even look at Left 4 Dead.

Seeing as I have never played this game I dont know what you are in store for. But post-apocalypse is always great, so I’m sure its going to be great. However, parents, its going to be full of gore and blood.

Pick it up online at: (Oh Reader, i have not been paid to advertise the following sites, I just find them to be the best in SA when it comes to online buys)

Take 2: R 362

BTgames: R375.00

kalahari.net: R346.46

Game Specifications :

MINIMUM SYSTEM SPECS

CPU 2.4 GHz Processor,
1GB RAM,
DirectX 8 graphics card,
Windows Vista/2000/XP,
Mouse, Keyboard,
Internet Connection

RED ALERT 3

The Command and Conquer series has for a long time been the acid test from where all RTS games are based. So it with awe and amazement I heard that the 3rd of the RED ALERT series was on its way out.

The 3rd in the series, sees America and Russia again blowing the crap out of each other. Mean while the Empire of the Sun (Japan) is about to get into the thick of things. Three factions, full motion videos and fast action packed carnage… its going to be rad.

From the youtube videos I’ve seen it looks like its going to be great, make sure this is underneath your tree this year.

System Requirements:
* OS – Windows XP / Vista (32-Bit)
* Processor – XP: 2.0 GHz (Intel Pentium 4; AMD Athlon 2000+; Multiple Cores) / Vista: 2.2 GHz (Intel Pentium 4/AMD Athlon 2200+/Multiple Cores)
* Memory – XP/Vista: 1 GB
* Hard Drive – Media: 6.0 GB / EA Link: 12.0 GB
* DVD Drive – 8 SPEED
* Video Card – NVIDIA GeForce 6800, ATI Radeon X1800 or higher end DirectX 9.0c compatible gfx card
* Sound Card – DirectX 9.0c compatible (Creative Sound Blaster Audigy cards require a Intel P4 2.6 GHz or similar under Vista, Yamaha Xwave-512 not supported)
* Online Multiplayer – 512 Kbps or faster; 2-8 Players
* Input – Keyboard, Mouse
* Optional – VoIP Headset

kalahari.net: R399.95

BTgames: R379.00

TAKE 2: R 362

Call of Duty 5: World at War.

We all thought that Call of Duty had grown up and moved off the battle fields of World War 2 and into the modern era. With the massive success of Call of Duty 4, it was with a raised eye brow and a WTF I read about Call of Duty 5.  Yep, you are back fighting the axis powers, either as an American, Brit or a Russian. The only reason I can come to for the reason why Call of Duty 5 to be back in WW2, it was the only time that they won a war.

Besides that, its looks awesome. Non stop action, gun play and enough carnage to make you remember those soldier of fortune 2 days. If you have the PC able to play it, do your self a favour get it. play it and send me your take on it. I wonder if we will ever see a FPS based during World War 2 where we get to play as one of the axis powers. But I wont hold my breath and neither should you.

System Requirements:

Processor: AMD 64 3200+/Intel Pentium 4 3.0GHz or better

Memory: 8 GB free hard-drive space, 512MB RAM (XP)/1GB RAM (Vista)

Graphics: Shader 3.0 or better, 256MB Nvidia GeForce 6600GT/ATI Radeon 1600XT or better

kalahari.net: R383.95

BTgames: R375.00

Take2: R 361

FAR CRY 2.

Set in deepest darkest Africa, you are a merchanary that has to hunt down a arms dealer. A FPS set in our own back yard… roving gangs of armed faction fighters, with enough fire power to even make the dodgest Hillbrow Resident turn green with envy. Oh, and you get to run around with a flame thrower, set fire to the Africa veld or burn your for like your uncle burns the chops at the family braai. You’ve also got hundreds of kilometres to run around in. The best way to describe FAR CRY 2 would be, as dangerous as Johannesburg stuck in the middle of the veld.

If I could have one game this year, it would be FAR CRY 2.

MINIMUM REQUIREMENTS:

CPU: Pentium 4 3.2 Ghz, Pentium D 2.66 Ghz, AMD Athlon 64 3500+ or better

RAM: 1 GB

Video card: NVidia 6800 or ATI X1650 or better
Shader Model 3 required
256 Mb of graphic memory

Media reader: DVD-ROM

Hard drive space: ~12 Gig of HD space. (TBD)

RECOMMENDED:

CPU: Intel Core 2 Duo Family, AMD 64 X2 5200+, AMD Phenom or better

RAM: 2 GB

Video card: NVidia 8600 GTS or better, ATI X1900 or better
512 Mb of graphic memory

Sound: 5.1 sound card recommended

SUPPORTED VIDEO CARDS:

NVidia 6800, NVidia 7000 series, 8000 series, 9000 series, 200 series. 8800M and 8700M supported for laptops.
ATI X1650 – 1950 series, HD2000 series, HD3000 series, HD4000 series.

BTgames: R329.00

Take2: R 361

kalahari.net: R383.95