Alex Mercer

Alex Mercer was a brilliant scientist who worked for Gentek (the scientific arm of Blackwatch) prior to the initial Blacklight viral outbreak in NYC. He worked directly on the Blacklight virus, increasing its deadliness by 1000%. When news-leaks threatened the security of their work, Blackwatch closed the Blacklight project and ordered the entire staff killed. Mercer stole a sample of the virus and escaped but was later cornered at Penn Station in NYC. Rather than surrender, Mercer smashed the vial releasing the Blacklight virus. The Blackwatch soldiers gunned him down and he was pronounced dead.

In Choplifter HD, players take control of a variety of helicopters armed with a number of offensive capabilities so they can swoop in and make daring rescues in hot zones. The game features more than 30 missions ranging from straight prisoner extraction to dropping off saboteurs that blow buildings sky high to saving survivors from viral outbreaks. Pilots must bank, hover, touchdown, and sometimes even shake loose pesky zombies hanging from their choppers.

Gamers can also look forward to a few cameos from some of the videogame industry's most legendary leading men including Duke Nukem and Super Meat Boy. Choplifter HD combines intense action, humor and tons of variety, creating developer inXile Entertainment's own, fresh take on the original Choplifter experience. Choplifter HD is rated T for Teen by the ESRB and dares players to risk their lives in order to save others starting today.

Creator of the device, British Engineering student Ben Allen, will be available to interview. If you're interested, you can find out more about the controller on POPSCI.

WHERE?
Liverpool Street Station Main Concourse (offering iconic London background). Liverpool Street, L1 1JD, UK

WHEN?
The device will be displayed on Wednesday 18th of January from 08:00am until 17:00pm. The main photo-call will be at 08:30am.

So I've started playing through Deus Ex:HR, picked it up for a fantastically low $10 and am really enjoying it so far. Even though I really like it, I've only played about an hour, and I'm afraid to play more. That's a constant problem for me in games that give you any kind of choice. I have a hard time getting to all of the games I want to play, let alone getting to finish all of the games I do play, let alone playing a game multiple times over. If you give me a choice and there is some consequence, I'm always afraid of what I'm missing out on, that I'm not playing it the "best" way, not getting the full experience. On the surface 'open world', 'you can play in a way that fits your style', and 'multiple endings' sound like a good thing, but it always ends up giving me a certain level of anxiety that detracts from my enjoyment of said game.

What about you guys? Would you rather the game world just told you 'who you are, why you care, and how you do it', and let you go about your business, or do you like to have 'sky is the limit' options and story branches? For those of you who have played through Deus Ex: HR multiple times, how would you recommend playing through?

If you're a Minecraft fan, and a nerd like me, check this out. Am I the only one that thinks a 3D printer would be fantastic to re-create a custom Settlers of Catan board? And now, happy New Year! Here's an obligatory reflective/uplifting speech by ... Hitler? Sure.

Child's Play, the charity started by those Penny Arcade guys raised a whopping $3,512,345 in 2011. The charity has continued to grow every year since its inception in 2003 (where it raised $250,000). Good job Child's Play! Always nice to see a charity like this succeed.

In other news, Fly Away Simulation has posted an article detailing a recent trip to MS where they got a demonstration of Microsoft Flight.

In Microsoft Flight, players view the world from above in a visually stunning and realistic representation of the earth, complete with region-specific weather patterns, foliage, terrain and landmarks. Players can choose to take the helm using highly rendered, accurate cockpits and authentic piloting procedures, or simply use their mouse and keyboard to control the plane in an exterior view. More experienced players can tailor the flight controls to match their skill level, making Microsoft Flight easy for beginners while still challenging for the most accomplished PC pilots.

Microsoft Studios worked with the personal airplane manufacturing team at ICON Aircraft to give aviation fans the exclusive opportunity to fly the all-new ICON A5 before real-world production starts at the end of 2012. Designed by the world-class aeronautical engineers behind the Voyager spaceship, X-Prize winning SpaceShipOne, and Virgin Galatic’s SpaceShipTwo, the ICON A5 is the “jet ski for the skies,” a high-wing amphibious monoplane with a carbon fiber airframe and a comfortable, automobile-inspired cockpit with space for two. The ICON A5 will be the first aircraft available to players for free in Microsoft Flight.

Set in a new era 17 years on from its predecessor and loaded with new game features, including the guest appearance of master assassin Ezio Auditore de Firenze from Ubisoft’s Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood, SOULCALIBUR V is heading to retailers on January 31st in North America and February 3rd in Europe.

Alongside the standard retail edition, a special Collector’s Edition of SOULCALIBUR V will also be available at launch. Packed in a specially designed ‘book’ box, the Collector’s Edition will include a high quality art book, a CD containing a selection of music spanning the history of SOULCALIBUR, the making-of videos, a DLC card for the Black Knight and White Knight armour sets, plus original artwork and letter on reproduction parchment paper signed by the team at Project Soul.

Fans who pre-order either edition of the game from participating retailers will receive a code to unlock Dampierre as a playable character as soon as they fire up the game.

Following the launch of the game, NAMCO BANDAI Games are organising a tournament schedule to unite the community and let fans publicly demonstrate their weapon-wielding prowess. More details on this will follow soon.

When Sonic the Hedgehog was just about to launch on the Sega Genesis I would chase down the UPS truck every single day just to see if my pre-order came yet. At that time I really had no idea that the cycle of wanting games would be neverending, even though I had some glimpses with a handful of other games. I literally thought that Sonic would fulfill and even end my desire for new games pretty much indefinitely, which of course was not the case. To date there hasn't been a single game that I've been indefinitely satisfied with, even those that I have the most fond memories of.

Reflecting on all of this reminded me of some of my conversations with Billy Wilson, more or less how he spent his last few years trying to get me to give some of the views presented by Buddhism a chance. The whole second noble truth and all that, becoming uninterested or unsatisfied with what you have, and wanting more. How are you supposed to break free from that? Once in awhile I think about letting my gaming and swag collection go, and only holding on to what I'm actively playing. The only problem with that is now that games are going digital it's kind of hard to escape your epic games collection, and the desire of adding to it.

All I know is I'm at a point in my life now where I'd like time to actually slow down, but it seems like the older I get the faster it goes. I'd hate to wake up tomorrow and be a delusional 85 year old, especially one that can no longer be a f'in badass in Skyrim.