Search Results for: painkiller

Painkiller: Battle Out of Hell’s third level, The Lab, has an interesting mixture of action styles. There’s the usual panic-inducing mob of foes who will cause most players to scream expletives shrilly while frantically clicking the left mouse button. Then there are the sniping sections which require a steady hand and a careful aim to […]

Up until yesterday, the worst level of any game I’ve played was “Who Turned Out The Light?” in Earthworm Jim. The title gives a hint as to what it’s about. Imagine a 2D scroller. Now imagine a 2D scroller set in pitch darkness. It was every bit as bad as you would imagine it would […]

Painkiller has recently gone on sale over at Steam. For less than 10 bucks, you get Painkiller plus the expansion and I think that’s a steal. I’m only in the second chapter of the game but I’ve been having a blast. The game is an entertaining old-school shooter done with new-school technology. (Shotgun + ragdoll […]

The Rise and Fall of Andrew Mellon By Matt Stoller Andrew Mellon had a quiet demeanor, rail-thin bearing, and beautifully manicured hands. His habit of taking long vacations, his age, his manners, and his soft-spoken shyness might have been mistaken for weakness and frailty in someone else. Mellon may have been born rich, but he […]

American voters don’t care about the economy By The Economist Polling on behalf of The Economist by YouGov shows that Republicans are four times as optimistic as Democrats about the state of the stockmarket, which Mr Trump often cheers on. Liberals complain about high housing costs and low wage growth—never mind that wages are growing […]

Wealth concentration near ‘levels last seen during the Roaring Twenties,’ study finds By Christopher Ingraham The 400 richest Americans – the top 0.00025 percent of the population – have tripled their share of the nation’s wealth since the early 1980s, according to a new working paper on wealth inequality by University of California at Berkeley […]

Kentucky governor blames violent video games, movies, not guns for school shootings By Scott Wartman Why is he convinced that it’s video games and not guns? Because when he went to school in New England, students would bring guns in for show-and-tell. “Sometimes they’d be in kids’ lockers,” Bevin said. “Nobody even thought about shooting […]

Painkiller: Battle Out of Hell complete. It’s a shame the expansion ended with another annoying boss battle with silly rules but I suppose the fact it was significantly less silly and annoying than the final boss battle in the original game should count for something. One final note: the final cutscene kept crashing on me […]

The sixth level of Painkiller: Battle Out of Hell, Leningrad, is a challenging one set in the eponymous city during World War II. There’s close-quartered house to house combat, snipers to contend with, tanks to destroy, air strikes to avoid and it ends with a huge chaotic set-piece in an open square. While it’s by […]

For some reason I’ve yet to discover, I found myself playing level five of the Painkiller expansion, Battle Out of Hell, after completing the first three levels. The fourth level is apparently not accessible at the Insomnia difficulty level. Anyway, the fifth level, Dead City, is an expansive one set in an abandoned city. There […]

Battle Out of Hell’s second level is one of the most enjoyable I’ve played in Painkiller. Entitled Loony Park, it’s set in a decrepit amusement park. The park may be run-down and demon-infested but there’s still fun to be had. There are demonic puppets that hang by their strings after you kill them, evil clowns […]

The Orphanage level in the Painkiller expansion, Battle Out of Hell, is the most unsettling first person shooter game level I’ve ever played. The original game was creepy in parts but The Orphanage kicks it up a notch. The heart will pound, the palm will sweat, the stomach will turn. The environment is typical of […]

I completed the fourth chapter of Painkiller earlier. The boss for this chapter was a bugger named Alastor. He wasn’t especially hard; hurting him was downright easy. The irritation stems from the fact you have to do it repeatedly. Hey, developers, giving your boss more hitpoints doesn’t make the battle any more epic or memorable. […]

I completed the third chapter of Painkiller today. Each chapter of the game features multiple levels with unique settings but the gameplay is pretty much the same thing every time. It’s always quiet when you begin. You have a moment or two to admire the beautiful graphics of the setting. Then you take one step […]

One of my previously stated reasons for getting a new PC was to play games on it. However, upon trying to decide on what game I wanted to play, I remembered just why I was deeply unhappy with the state of PC gaming. See, these are the things I have to investigate before purchasing a […]

There are bosses. There are big bosses. And then there’s this … It’s the fifth level of Painkiller’s first chapter. I’m in a large graveyard and I see that looming in the distance. No way, I think to myself. Seriously, no way … As it turns out, it was “way.” Way, way big.

Just a heads-up: if this blog is never updated again, it will be because I have keeled over in fright while playing Painkiller. (Click on the thumbnails for the 1680×1050 versions.)