This Is My Joystick!
I’ll be brutally honest; I’d never heard of Krome Studio’s Blade Kitten before being offered the review code. After a short research session courtesy of Google, I was able to determine that it was by the guys behind MS’s much ignored (by me anyway) Gamesroom and based on a webcomic of the same name by the company’s co-founder, Steve Stamatiadis. With this in mind, I had no idea of what to expect going in. To be honest I’m still not entirely sure what I think at the moment…
It doesn’t seem that long ago since Guitar Hero 5 came out, but it’s actually been a whole year since its release. You could say that there is little to no difference between any of the Guitar Hero games aside from their set lists, but what is different about this release is the hype that surrounded it. Early previews boasted a completely new format for the series, and an all new Quest Mode. How much can you really do with a music game though? Activision has managed to stick to some of their new ideas, but there is no doubt in my mind that some players will be slightly disappointed with what they receive when they were promised so much more.
Tom Clancy’s HAWX was a flight sim set in the now infamous Clancy universe that has been used in many a good book, video and game and was released last year. This year’s sequel follows on from the original and is available now on all platforms courtesy of UbiSoft.
I was lucky enough to get my hands on a review copy for Xbox360, so I donned my bomber jacket, picked up my shades and stuck on the Top Gun soundtrack before taking to the skies to see just what this baby could do.
It has been quite a long time since the last ‘proper’ Worms game. Worms 2 was released all the way back in 1997 and Worms Armageddon was released in 1999 but there hasn’t been any shortage of spin offs between then and now for the hardcore fans of this crazy series. 2009 rolled around and saw the release of Worms 2 Armageddon on XBLA and now it’s the turn of the PS3 users to get their hands on this whacky war game.
After several slightly disappointing DLC packs for Bioshock 2 that included multiplayer maps which no-one uses, and the Protector Trials that was a good idea even if we had already saved all the Little Sisters, it was nice to hear about Minerva’s Den as it was an actual story add on for the game.
Is this the DLC that will salvage Bioshock 2 and all its failings? Don’t get me wrong, I loved the story of Project Delta, his little sister and the evil Sophia Lamb, but it was quite lacklustre in comparison to the terrors that Andrew Ryan & Frank Fontaine inflicted upon us. Sure, there were some new toys for us to play with but it just didn’t feel quite the same and it certainly lacked the twists and turns of its predecessor.
One game that has always been a firm favourite of mine is Mafia. It wasn’t as refined as games like GTA, nor as expansive, but it had a style of storytelling that hasn’t been duplicated in any other sandbox game. Little adjustments to gameplay made it a very different experience, one that I enjoyed. It wasn’t just that which made me like the game, it was the story; which was as engaging as they come. From taxi driver to made man, you became Tommy, you became a member of the Mafia. You did what you could to survive and dish out your own justice.
I never thought in the years to come that it would have ever got a sequel, but low and behold, here it is in all its glory. After playing the demo anyone who read my impressions would have gathered that I was taken back to that original game. I re-entered the world of a made man, but this was different, I had a new character to become, a new era to explore and now I have found out if it lives up to the first game’s legend.
Movie tie in games are normally not that good. Ok, that’s an understatement; 99% of games which are related to movies are just plain bad. Luckily, the game based on Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World is not among this very bad group. It does have one or two issues, but overall it has to be one of the best beat-em-ups to come out in the last few years. It is truly a KO.
Kane & Lynch 2: Dog Days is available for PS3, Xbox 360 and PC and is the next step in the story of two infamous criminals, following on from the previous title Kane & Lynch: Dead Men. This prequel was met on release with mediocre review scores and a mixture of enjoyment, apathy and even disgust from the gaming community. As a result, I approached Dog Days with some scepticism and decided to not place my expectations too high.
The developers, IO Interactive, are also well known for their more popular and well received Hitman series, so it’s not like they’re strangers to making good games. Will Dog Days be banished to the kennel like its predecessor, or turn out to be the dog’s bollocks?
EA Sports John Madden NFL franchise is one of the most successful and longest running in gaming history having now been around for nearly 25 years. This year’s edition was released on August 13th in the UK and is available on both PS3 and XBOX360. I have been playing the XBOX360 version, but the question is; is the game comparable to the New Orleans Saints or is it more the Tampa Bay Buccaneers?
Read on to find out?
Pixar seem incapable of putting a foot wrong and continue to produce quality animated products that are suitable for every age. However, the sceptic in me still couldn’t believe they were daring to go to the Toy Story franchise for the third time and I was scared that they may have finally considered the lure of money over quality. While the film proved me utterly and completely wrong as its absolutely brilliant, I was tasked with seeing if the game matched the same quality. With the history of film/game cash-ins, my expectations weren’t high, but with such a high quality film, surely they can’t get it wrong?
I must say, when I got Nier through the post, I hadn’t really heard a great deal about it. All I knew was that it had been developed by Cavia and published by Square Enix, which wasn’t a great deal of information. I had heard things from people saying it was a one button affair and that it didn’t look anything special, but it didn’t put me off, after all, I have to formulate my own opinion don’t I?
After putting the game in the tray I was greeted by an audio only monologue from a woman that seemed to be talking to a character called Weiss. I say talking. I mean shouting abuse and profanity at him in a comical yet erm… enthusiastic way. This was before I had even started the game. Hell, I hadn’t even pressed start and new game, and I couldn’t help but wonder if the rest of the story was going to be as colourful. That said, I got the show on the road to find out if this game was worth shelling out for.
Despite losing a great many of his sponsorships, it is quite clear that EA Sports and the PGA Tour brand still have faith in golfs alpha male and have released Tiger Woods PGA Tour 11 this summer. My most recent experience with this series came last year with Tiger Woods 10 but before that the last golf game I had played was the 96 version of PGA Tour Golf on the SNES (which I absolutely adored!). Obviously a great many things have changed between 1996 and 2010, however, taking hold of my review copy of Tiger Woods 11, I was keen to see how much of a difference a year makes.
Ever wondered who would win in a fight between a Pirate and a Viking, or who would prevail between a Spartan and an Apache? Nope, me neither, but continually answering the questions that no one asked has been the niche American TV show, Deadliest Warrior. Having never seen the show, hypothesising the outcomes of battles between some of history’s most well known soldiers seems a trite and pointless idea for a TV show if you ask me, but with its apparent popularity, Spike (the producers behind the show) and Pipeworks Software have decided that it’s a format that would lend itself perfectly to a fighting game. Released last Wednesday on the XBLA & PSN, the imaginatively titled ‘Deadliest Warrior: The Game’ is a strange one to play through.
There’s something sinister about the ambiguity of Limbo. Despite being one of the five little titles coming via Microsoft’s third annual Summer of Arcade, it stands out in every way. Wordless, lonely and devoid of any color, it most certainly would be that quiet goth kid who sits in the corner were the Summer of Arcade titles a bunch of school children. Is it worth your money? Well, let’s see…
One of the more common questions a videogame journalist will be asked is, ‘What’s your favourite game of all time?’, a question that certainly divides opinion. Whenever you click on This Is My Joystick, we thrust our opinion on you and tell you what we think is right and wrong about the latest game in our cross-hairs, without remorse or pity for those who’ve spent years making it and those who’ve waited months anticipating it.
So, if you’ve read my reviews and seen the marks I’ve given out, you’re probably all wondering what I, as a reviewer, consider to be my standard bearer. What do I consider to be the finest achievement the industry has ever known when every single game is stood side by side?
Coming into this review, I was touting it to be Monkey Island 2: LeChuck’s Revenge, a choice certain to quirk a few eyebrows. However, now that Lucasarts are re-releasing the game for a new audience with a whole host of new features, I feel it is my responsibility as a videogame journalist to at least try to justify myself and determine if those feelings are still relevant today.
So, nearly twenty years on, is this still the masterpiece I remember it to be?
Arguably one of the most anticipated games of 2010, Red Dead Redemption thrusts players into the harsh frontier of the Old West. Red Dead Redemption is one of those rare games which possess a mixture of expectation and surprising acclaim. The single payer had one of the most remarkable stories I’ve ever witnessed in a video game and the multiplayer impressively holds its own in a world where Call of Duty and Halo are the main two choices. Rockstar San Diego is now making its intentions clear with the release of DLC just a month after the game’s launch.
Click here for Trent’s full Red Dead Redemption Review.
Up until this last year or so, the Xbox Live Arcade has been sorely lacking in some quality first person shooter action. However, slowly and surely there has been a slightly steadier trickle coming forth, with DICE’s Battlefield 1943 probably being the highlight amongst some of the titles that have made their appearances on there. While most of the efforts have been cut down versions of more established franchises, or remakes and rereleases of classic titles, there have been few willing to risk their necks on a completely original IP in the genre. One such brave developer is Zombie Studios, who have just seen their (practically) online only title, Blacklight: Tango Down finally hit the marketplace this Wednesday just gone, and I was lucky enough to be offered a chance to review it.
So, how does it measure up? You know what do to find out. OOH RAH!
1994 was a bad year. Fred West’s house was excavated, Kurt Cobain killed himself and Ayrton Senna was killed during an accident at the San Marino Grand Prix. In fact if you look at all of that year you will see that there was probably little to celebrate. Saying that, one thing that was definitely worth celebrating about was the release of Shiny Entertainment’s Earthworm Jim. This side-scrolling platform game had everything; class, charm and style and was well received around the world.
Some of you reading this will probably think I have gone mad, and want to know what’s so interesting about an earthworm. Well the simple answer is this, Earthworm Jim raised the bar in games. It was praised heavily upon release, with Gamesmaster magazine gave it a whopping score of 100% (it was the first time they had awarded a game 100%) and one of the few classics that has been remade several times over the years. Speaking of remakes, the latest incarnation has been brought forward to XBLA and I couldn’t wait to get my hands on it. After all, what could be better than playing a classic in HD.
Harry Potter is a phenomenon. There is no getting around that fact, there is no avoiding it. Whether you’re a fan of J.K Rowling’s written word or not, it’s a series that dwarfs Star Wars, Lord of the Rings and Twilight in terms of revenue and global recognition. That’s why the very thought of crossing Harry Potter with a Lego video game must have been the most appealing idea to Traveller’s Tales and Warner Brothers since turning water into wine or creating Lego Rock Band last year!
As a fan of both Lego and HPVerse, I decided to take the plunge and quickly pre-ordered my copy, keen to see what TT could do with the franchise in the world of bricks. Having spent hours upon hours hunting for crests and collecting studs, I now have a good enough idea of how this plays to give an informed review and to tell you if this has been worth the wait. So, should Lego Harry Potter Years 1–4 be permanently expelled or should this class remain in session?
Please note, the majority of my time playing this game was local co-op with my girlfriend, who has also offered some of her input into this review. Appropriate credit given at the conclusion of this review.
Shamefully, I’ve never really experienced the adventures of Guybrush Threepwood until now. If you’d have uttered that name in my direction few years back and I’d have probably thought that you were talking about a sexually transmitted infection. That’s not to say that I don’t understand that the original Monkey Island games have legendary status in the industry; even without playing it, it’s one of the first games that came to mind when thinking about the point and click genre. The series has seen four full games, with the fifth being released episodically on PC last year, and eventually released on PS3 in June just gone.
So when presented with the option to review the series’ first foray into the world of episodic gaming, I have to admit that initially I was wavering slightly. Think about it; I would be coming into a series with established characters, concepts and inside jokes, and please make no mistake; that is a daunting task. I’ve seen people do it before on other sites with an unpleasant effect; I could upset generations of devoted followers by not ‘getting’ the series, or even by praising a title that peaked back in the day and has alienated since fans. Remembering that I’d purchased the Secret of Monkey Island Special Edition on XBLA last year but never finished it, I even rushed through it over the last week to familiarise myself a little more with the characters and the oddball humour before jumping in with both feet. Consummate professional, me.
So with my research completed, I weighed anchor, hoisted the mizzen mast, shivered my, erm… timbers (?!) as I set sale to catch up with Guybrush and company.
Please note: Rather than review each episode individually as we would usually do with episodic games, I’ve decided to review the series as a whole. The main reason is that the full series has been available on PC for some time, and is readily available in a bundle, where as the PS3 version is only available as a bundle.
Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands tells a story that reaches further through time than its plot. This story spans decades and console generations, and, coupled with the gameplay, is a convergence of two separate universes existing under the Prince of Persia name. Melding 2008’s Prince of Persia with the best parts of the Sands of Time series, Ubisoft has created one of the most unforgettably fun and exciting platformers in years.
Sometimes a game comes along that surprises you. For me, Joe Danger is one of those games. Essentially spanning a multitude of genres and taking influences from a host of other titles, there is more to Joe than meets the eye. Made by just four people from the indie developer Hello Games, Joe Danger is a deceptively simple-looking game that managed to capture the interest of both my girlfriend and a random kid who happened to be around at the time, yet has a surprising amount of depth and challenge for those wishing to explore it.
You take control of Joe, an Evel Knievel-style motorbike stuntman who speeds through a variety of levels jumping over ramps, performing tricks, collecting items and sometimes racing opponents. So far, Joe Danger has been released on the PSN Store for the price of £9.99, but there are plans to possibly bring the title to both XBLA and PC in the future. This is Hello Games’ first release, so can we really expect a high-octane performance, or will Joe come across a bit amateurish, or even worse, crash and burn?
I remember a time. A time when football games didn’t have to take themselves too seriously. A time when titles like Adidas Power Soccer and Olympic Soccer offered the masses an alternative to attempted realism. I remember a time when gamers had more than just FIFA and PES to choose from as their choice of football game; I remember a time when Konami and EA had challengers to the throne.
Well, maybe the times they are a-changin’, as it was rumoured at some point last year that Ubisoft had decided that they would try their hand at cracking the duopoly created by the big two, by entering the sporting arena for pretty much the first time. Barely anything had been said of that rumour since, even as their first effort whimpered on to the scene in the form of Ubisoft Vancouver’s five-a-side-em-up, Pure Football. No advertising campaign, no exposure, no nothing. Hell, if it wasn’t for the fact I stumbled upon the trailer by complete fluke, I’m not sure that I’d know it existed even now. It’s always worrying when a publisher won’t market their own product, so is this Ubisoft’s dirty little secret, or is it a bit of a sleeper hit?
Sam and Max is one of the zaniest franchises you will ever experience. Their off the wall humour and nonchalant policing style has garnered the attention of fans all over the World, taking Steve Purcell’s smartly dressed dog and naked lagamorph from the pages of a comic book into a digitised gaming World, first in the hands of Lucasarts and now in the palms of Telltale Games. Season 3, The Devil’s Playhouse, follows on from Sam and Max Save the World and Sam and Max Beyond Time and Space, once again featuring the eccentric protagonists and a slew of memorable cast members such as Harry the Moleman, Abe Lincoln’s head and Momma Bosco. You can read more about Sam and Max Save the World right here. For now though, this article will focus on Season 3 and the new innovations and adventure Telltale have brought to their headline franchise.
Is this season Telltale’s finest hour? Read on to find out more…
Disclaimer: Please be advised that some spoilers are contained throughout these reviews and so it is advised that you play these episodes in order so as not to ruin your experience with the story. Thanks.
Alien Breed was first released by Team 17 on the good ol’ Amiga back in 1991, and MS-DOS a couple of years later. For the purposes of this review, I had a quick play on the MS-DOS version and I have to say that considering its age, it still holds it own today to an extent, although some aspects are horribly outdated. The emphasis of the Alien Breed series has always been on a creepy atmosphere, and brainless yet fun alien-slaughtering action.
Recently, Alien Breed: Evolution Episode 1 was released on the Xbox 360 Live Arcade, attempting to remake the original and bring it up to date with modern standards. As you can tell from the ‘Episode 1’ subtitle, they plan to bring this out in a series, and I believe it will be a trilogy if all goes well. Alien Breed: Impact brings the game to the PC platform, and also to PSN (I will be reviewing the former). Impact is similar to the Xbox 360 ‘Evolution’ version yet improves on it, with better graphics, revised aliens, improved co-op play and most importantly, more customisation of weaponry.
Rocket Knight is effectively the fourth title in the Sparkster series that dates all the way back to the 16-bit era, having featured on both Sega’s Megadrive and Nintendo’s SNES. This new title is now available on both XBLA and PSN at 1200MP (£10.20) and £9.99 respectively.
For those of you who don’t remember back that far, in its original form Rocket Knight was a side scrolling platform game very much in the mould of its more illustrious rivals in the form of Sonic the Hedgehog and Mario. It even had its own take on the regular platform Genre story: Your kingdom (Zephyrus) was invaded (by a Pig Army) who proceeded to ransack villages, kill villagers and kidnap the princess Sherry. You, Sparkster, came to the rescue, defeating the Pig Army and saving the princess, hooray!
How does the new arcade version measure up, read on to find out.
Street Fighter series, how I love you. Let me count the ways. Sigh… I’ve written many times over the years about my love for Street Fighter, with its immediate and seminal sequel probably the game that turned me into the overindulgent gamer that I am today. I’m not going to cover old ground but the series has been something of a constant in my life; always there, always something I returned to, something that was always guaranteed to keep me entertained.
It’s fair to say that I never really invested the time into Street Fighter III that the game deserved, but boy did I make up for that with Street Fighter IV in February 2009. The game hit with a drastic visual redesign for the series, while the gameplay returned to the simplicity of the older games in a way that made it almost the perfect brawler and addictive like I’ve never experienced before. The game took a firm hold of my life for nearly six months, being practically the only game I played in that entire time (it took Batman: Arkham Asylum to snap me out of it). Just over a year later, in typical Street Fighter style, Capcom have taken the game back to the drawing board, and while not changing much in pure gameplay terms, have added a boatload of new characters and game modes.
Despite what I heard they were adding, when Super Street Fighter IV was actually announced I was still a little peeved; a new game only a year later? What?! Have we reverted back to ’92 and I haven’t realised? Why couldn’t this have been DLC?! Well, in the end I bought it regardless, so the idea can’t have been all that repulsive. So after sampling, is this a worthy of a full price purchase, or is it just money for old rope? You know what to do to find out.
I take my hat off and wipe the sweat and dirt from my brow. The sun beats down on the bone-dry plains, skewing my view, the horizon rippling with the heat. Around me lie four men, gaping bullet wounds still oozing shiny red. A pack of vultures circles overhead, one swooping down presuming a meal. I draw my revolver and take a shot, downing the hungry bird. I take its feathers; I’ll sell them later, maybe get enough for a gin at the saloon. I take one last glance at one of the bodies, a man dressed different from the rest. It was he who I was saving, supposed to be anyway, that is. The scum got the better of him this time, got the better of me. Can’t win ’em all.
I whistle, and my strong, black beauty of a steed comes careening over a hill. She stops by my side, and I give her a reassuring touch as I vault onto her back. Kicking my heels, she cries out and peels off, quick as lightning. As I pound toward the horizon, town of Armadillo my destination, I hear a cry. I glance to my right; a woman is in trouble, battling a couple of rat bastard banditos, intent on having their way with her. I pull back on the reigns and draw my side-arm. In the Wild West, it never ends.
That is just a small tale, one of the millions that can be found in Rockstar’s latest epic, Red Dead Redemption. It’s a game I’ve been clamouring to play since it was announced over a year ago, and it doesn’t disappoint. Let me tell you the tale of the game that finally makes all your Wild West dreams come true.
MAG, short for Massive Action Game, is the latest title exclusive for the Playstation 3 from Zipper Interactive, most known for the SOCOM franchise. From this you could gather that MAG is probably going to be a tactical team-based shooter, and you’d be absolutely right. However, if you know nothing else about MAG whatsoever, then there’s probably one fact (or figure) you’ll be aware of that sets it apart from its predecessors, and in fact any other shooting games made to date. 256 players… at once. So, how well does this work in practice? Even more importantly, does the game have much else going for it besides this insanely high player count? As of this time of writing, there is no playable demo for a game that I feel is of a very Marmite-esque disposition.
Playing Bioware’s Dragon Age Origins reminds gamers of the old days of role-playing games. Slaying vile abominations, drinking fine ale, frolicking with fair maidens and handsome rogues while involving yourself in vast amounts of dialogue and lore. While perhaps not the companies finest hour, Dragon Age proved that Bioware are still the masters of telling an amazing story and creating captivating and memorable characters. For more on Origins, read the full review here.
Since the game’s release in November 2009, Bioware have continued to shower the game with an incredible amount of content, including a full blown expansion and several side quests, enabling you to recruit new party members and explore fresh terrain. This article will look at the downloadable content available for Bioware’s innovative role-playing game and tell you what’s good, and what’s not so good. Please be advised, some of these reviews may contain spoilers for the content held within Dragon Age Origins, and it is advised that you have completed the main quest before reading any of the content contained herein…
It appears that epic mythology is very “in” at the moment. God of War 3 has had PS3 owners salivating for a while now while tales of the Greek Gods have also recently been retold in two blockbuster films (both of which were pretty diabolical to be fair). Now with Visceral Games release of Dante’s Inferno it’s the turn of Hell to get the same treatment, except the deep allegorical tales of religious texts are mostly replaced by a Crusader with an almighty axe to grind, or extendible scythe to be more precise.
I’ve had my eye on Dante’s Inferno for a while but a plethora of hold-ups have resulted in me only picking it up now. Aside from all the controversy, the pre-release footage ticked all the right boxes to sate my ever increasing blood-lust which is reaching worryingly high levels at the moment. Seriously I need to either let loose on GTA4 or try to counterbalance it with Viva Piñata. Just because I’m in the mood for a bit of infernal minion punishment doesn’t mean that Dante’s Inferno is instantly going to be added to my must buy list however, so read on to find out just how good it really is.
When I first heard about Metro 2033 a year or so ago I was more than a little intrigued. After all, a game based on a Russian novel, set in the underground tunnels of the Russian Metro in a post apocalyptic future battling both human and mutant opponents seems to tick a fair few boxes. However, as the release date drew nearer the understated press releases and the decision not to release a demo left me more than a little apprehensive.
So is Metro 2033 the refreshing change to the standard FPS fare that we see all too often or does it fail like so many before in a cloud of failed gimmicks and shoddy gameplay. Read on to find out.
It seems strange to release downloadable content for a game nearly a year old, yet Capcom have decided to release two. The plan is to bundle them together as part of a Gold Edition with Versus mode and the main game later on in March to celebrate the game’s one year anniversary. Capcom also see it as an opportunity to extend the current story arc that was set out in Africa with the Majini. However, the DLC being released is not going to follow on from the events of RE5 but rather take place before and during the events of the game. The content also won’t be focusing on Chris and Sheva as a team, but rather Chris and Jill in Lost in Nightmares and Jill and Josh in Desperate Escape.
Having played through both pieces of content, I decided to write up my experiences. Please bear in mind, this review assumes that you have played through and completed the main campaign of Resident Evil 5 and will contain spoilers.
I’ve made no secret of my vehement dislike and disappointment with the latest Call of Duty title. While others continued to stick with it despite constant issues with glitches online or were far more forgiving of a complete shambles of a story than myself, I had my eyes set on another prize, biding my time waiting for the release of Battlefield: Bad Company 2. I had a lot of love for the first game; it was the only online shooter over the last two years that I regularly went back to, even ahead of more popular titles. It was also the first time that DICE had added a ‘proper’ story-based single player campaign, which to their credit, complemented the ever awesome online mode brilliantly. The campaign did have its problems, most notably with poorly mapped controls and dodgy enemy intelligence, it carried a certain charm that made that okay; it didn’t take itself too seriously and as a result had personality in the bagfuls.
While the recent online-only demo had shown that the controls had been readdressed in the sequel, I was a little surprised by the change to a serious tone. It definitely suited the online mode; but I feared that the humorous charm that I loved about the first campaign might now have been lost. I needn’t have worried; DICE have done it again and have delivered an even better overall package this time around.
In the wake of the release of Final Fantasy XIII it’s hard to find anyone writing or discussing any other JRPG. Last month, though, saw the western release of another potentially interesting title: White Knight Chronicles. While not as graphically alluring as the Square Enix masterpiece, having been published in Japan more than one year ago, ‘Shirokishi Monogatari’ still stands out as it brings several innovations to the JRPG genre.
That level of innovation has been the cause of an initially mild response in Japan, alongside a few shortcomings that have been integrated and patched in the following months and are included in the western release. It is a whole different beast compared to what was released in Japan two holiday seasons ago; much more polished and complete. Despite its new approaches, though, White Knight Chronicles is still a JRPG developed in Japan, triggering the usual biased and overly-negative approach from the western press and ending in an absolutely undeserved Metacritic average of 64.
When a game scoring so low has an user score of 83, it’s fairly easy to notice that something is amiss, and guess what, that something is probably to be found in the “official” press scores.
Way back in 1997 a game was released that would forever be heralded as one of the best games of all time. It had an epic storyline, one that is still gripping people to this day. The game was Final Fantasy VII. Now, I know that the seventh game in the series wasn’t the starting point for the franchise, but it was easily the most recognised throughout the world, especially in the Western market. Previous titles had really only appealed to the Japanese market and Final Fantasy VII was the turning point. Since that time, people have always anticipated the next Final Fantasy game, hoping for another character that would capture them like Cloud Strife did all those years ago.
Back in 2006 Square Enix gave us a teaser of the next game they were working on, this was to be Final Fantasy XIII (13). Before long, a few snippets of information were released, but what caused more of a stir with the fans was that it was to be released on both the Xbox 360 and the PS3. This bit of news made some fans happy while the remainder felt alienated and let down by Square, due to them thinking that it had always been a Sony exclusive (it really wasn’t). Fast forward a little more and finally fans can get their copies and experience the game that they have awaited so long for, to see if it lived up to the hype. Across the board there has been mixed opinions, some good, some bad but the question still remains for some: Is Final Fantasy XIII a good game?
It would have been hard to imagine many people saying this a couple of years ago, but you have to give EA Sports credit for the work they’ve done since the release of FIFA 08. The general perception of them was a poor one with most football fans seeing them as the big bad corporation churning out fully licensed phone-ins as they gleefully raked it in. A massive overhaul and gradual improvements in subsequent iterations has seen FIFA deservedly place itself at the top of the league, even overtaking PES which was widely regarded as the football sim for purists.
EA Sports now convey an image of genuinely caring about the quality of the content that they release which is particularly evident in the recently released FIFA 10. That being said however, we are still talking about one of the many arms of Electronic Arts here, who have no qualms about asking for a bit of incentive to release any new content (and what better incentive than cold hard cash?). With that in mind I felt it was healthy to approach the appearance of the Ultimate Team game mode with my cynicism levels readily stocked. The idea of building my own team and showing the rest of the world what they can do is just too sweet of a nut for me to ignore however, so the only way I was going to find out if my £3.99 was cruelly wasted was after I had taken AS Nutrageous to the top of the world.
Quantic Dream earned an instant fan in me with the release of Fahrenheit back in 2005. It wasn’t your usual video game affair. Playing almost as if an evolution of the classic point and click genre, using context based analogue stick movements for logical actions in the game, this supernatural thriller followed the story of unwilling murderer Lucas Kane, and the two cops tasked with tracking him down. This story-heavy experience was absolutely captivating, at least until the final third when it unexpectedly disappeared right up its own backside.
As someone who loves a good story with his interactive entertainment, I could see that this new control scheme definitely had potential, only it would take nearly five years for Quantic Dream to return with their much-hyped ‘whodunit’, Heavy Rain. This game has seemingly become a title that Sony is banking a great deal on for 2010 considering the financial clout that they’ve backed it with, and for a game that could hold limited mass market appeal, that decision could seem to be a bit of a gamble. So how has it turned out? Well, it’s quite hard to say.
When attempting to create a sequel to one of gaming’s great masterpieces there is surely a great sense of trepidation amidst those set out with the treacherous task. The very announcement of a sequel to Bioshock scared me. Petrified me, in fact. Bioshock stands alone very well and is not only one of my all-time favourite gaming experiences, but ranks fairly consistently as one of the best video games of all time. Bioshock was a very complete, well thought out and detailed story and is a franchise that certainly doesn’t need whoring out and milking dry. It has a compelling narrative with shocking twists and turns, stunning visuals, powerful sound effects and clever gameplay mechanics that hook you until the very end. Certainly, Rapture is a very full and realised World with plenty of opportunities for stories, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that they have to be created as that can ultimately result in being a detriment to a franchise, rather than a benefit.
That being said, I decided to take a second dive into the World of Rapture to make a fair assessment, one way or another.
Back in 1994, Rebellion released their third game; Alien vs. Predator. It would prove to be one of their most fondly remembered titles. How could it fail? Two of the coolest, most violent, extra-terrestrial movie franchises brought together with tantalising execution. With the license for this glorious union having changed hands with varying degrees of success since, I don’t think anyone could have foreseen that sixteen years and two awful movies later, Rebellion would return to the series once more. The new game (which has gained an ‘s’ to its name since the original) has been receiving a lot of positive attention right up until its release, including getting a favourable hands-on from us at the Eurogamer Expo. A bit of a lacklustre online demo dented many people’s hopes, but how does the final product fare?
Audio in games is something for me that needs to be absolutely perfect. Clarity of the sound and audio effects is something that helps immerse you in the world of whatever game you are playing, and when using your TV or PC speakers you don’t always get to hear every finer detail, even when you have the volume turned up to the highest possible setting. Sometimes, you need no other background audio to disturb you and having a decent gaming headset is always a plus point.
Having first encountered them at the Eurogamer Expo last year, thanks to hardware manufacturer SteelSeries, we have been given the chance to try out the 5H V2 headset to find out if it’s worth handing over your cash.
Games are like fashion. Styles come and go; trends go in and out of popularity. It’s a good thing for mind-flitting gamers like myself as it helps us keep boredom locked up ’till lunch. To the untrained eye, it just looks like we’re a fickle bunch of over-active children who can’t decide what we want. However you look at it, games change all the time, and right now gruff, lone anti-heroes are out and buddy squads and teams are in. Army of Two: The 40th Day is no exception.
With the original, EA set something of a trend by building the entire campaign around co-operative play, causing players to either team up with a local or online chum to battle through the carnage, or rely on the ill-fated partner A.I. While it worked for the most part, there were issues. Have EA managed to iron out these creases and provide a solid, exciting and rewarding co-op experience? Have they avoided the cheesy and annoying bromance bullshit that so plagued the original? I think they have, and I’ll tell you why.
The Winter Olympics are upon us. For many this is a time of excitement, anticipation and potential participation. For others, it is a time of realisation that something happens in the world of sport other than football. For gamers, it is a time to buy another tie-in game designed to make us feel like we are being healthy and participating in something international, or a time to give away more of our hard earned cash for something that makes us feel slightly cheated. How does the coming of the Winter Olympics and its inevitable game make me feel? Well, you will have to read on to find out.
I’ve made much of my general dislike of hack n’ slash games over recent weeks, but in my many years of feeling nothing but a huge barrelful of ‘meh’ towards the likes of God of War, one game in the genre did recently manage to turn my head. If you followed our Eurogamer Expo 09 coverage, you’ll already know exactly which game that is. Hideki Kamiya’s Platinum Games brings us Bayonetta; a game that upon sampling for the first time left me equally as puzzled as it did entertained. I came away from the expo not knowing exactly what I’d witnessed, but knew I definitely wanted more. So, upon the game’s release, did the titular foxy female protagonist continue to bewitch me with her charms? Oh. God. Yes.
Race around the galaxy, have a few laughs, make love to a blue alien, tear up a bar after having a lap dance, command a starship save the galaxy… but that’s enough about the first game, it’s time to do it all over again now (especially the blue alien part). Bioware’s Mass Effect set the standard for storytelling with it’s expansive and well-acted script, well defined back-story and branching storyline. While it was always going to be a hard act to follow, we all knew that Commander Shepard wouldn’t be able to resist donning his N7 armour for too long, and with the release of Mass Effect 2 the Normandy is being called into action again for the sake of the galaxy.
Disclaimer: Of course I’m aware that Commander Shepard can be played as either a male or female, but for the sake of this review I’ll be referring to Shepard as a male to keep in line with my playthrough. Please don’t yell at me Bryony…
I think it’s fair to say that everyone was fairly dissapointed with the conclusion to Fallout 3, at least from a gameplay perspective. After hours upon hours of slow motion deaths, seemingly endless exploring and a hundreds of lines of dialogue, the ending suddenly cuts to black with little more than a whimper. Fallout 3 was over, case closed. Until the inevitable release of DLC of course, which we know now consists of five separate expansions that will take you all over the Capital Wasteland and beyond. I was delighted to be granted the opportunity to extend my experience of Fallout 3, but let’s face it, I would have been able to get an entirely new title for the same cost of the whole set, so they had damn well be up to the standard set by the main game itself.
After painstakingly sifting through the content that each piece of DLC provides (I know, tough gig eh?) I’ve come to some tough conclusions about the quality of each expansion, so read on to find out which ones deserve to be part of the Fallout universe, and the missions that should have died at the same time as Fallout 3 did. If you haven’t already, check out our full Fallout 3 review.
Vigil Games’ ‘Darksiders’ isn’t a game that I’d been following all that closely until very recently, writing it off as another of those hack ‘n’ slash games that tend to bore me so. However, after many of the previews on the interwebs claimed that early builds of the game bore more than a passing resemblance to the renowned creation of Shigeru Miyamoto and Takashi Tezuka; The Legend of Zelda; that all changed.
Being a huge Zelda fan, and with this new knowledge in mind, Darksiders instantly became a title I just had to check out. In many cases this level of ‘industrial bootlegging’ can work against a title (although it has worked for some), but by borrowing elements from other titles and thanks to the brilliant execution, Vigil might just have a bit of a surprise hit on their hands.
Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune blew me away; in fact, it was the visuals that sold the PS3 to me. I was delighted to hear the announcement of a sequel, but also wary of being over-excited. The pre-release hype-o-metre grew steadily, and I became more and more anxious. Everybody seemed to think that this game was going to re-write history. Surely not? So, other than reading every non-spoiler article and booking release day off work (something I have never done for a game) I kept myself hype free.
What a difference a couple of years make. Before Assassin’s Creed was released by Ubisoft, the gaming world was going absolutely off their rocker at the sight of the athletic Altair, silky looking combat and massive cities. After the actual game came to light, it became apparent that Ubisoft had forgot to build a vaguely interesting set of mechanics around their innovative ideas. I’ve rarely seen critics and gamers reviewing in such stark contrast to each other, with some praising its ambition and scope and others rightly lambasting it for its massively underdeveloped structure and glaring weaknesses.
Assassin’s Creed sold very well so a sequel was inevitable, but it appears that a lot of damage has been done as Assassin’s Creed 2 has ghosted onto the shelves almost unnoticed. Granted Ubisoft made the brave, or stubborn, or just plain foolish decision to release the sequel in the wake of Modern Warfare 2 (other publishers probably wisely ran for the hills at the sight of that behemoth), but the fanfare has definitely been notably muted this time round. It looks like a lot of the criticisms have been addressed though, so my interest in the series has been reignited, but I bought this game feeling ever so slightly wary that it had silently crept into stores (not unlike an assassin) for a reason.
Over the years, I’ve learned to trust the judgement and quality of products from a certain brand of developer, the names of whom can be counted on a single hand. Among them, I would include Valve, Blizzard, Bioware and Bethesda for their care and consideration to both their fanbase and their constantly evolving and exciting franchises.
Just to give you some perspective; in the last decade, Bioware have given us Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, Jade Empire, Neverwinter Nights and Mass Effect, to name but a few. Bioware is aware of what makes a good game and a compelling narrative and how to put them both together seamlessly. With Dragon Age: Origins, the true greatness of Bioware continues to shine, and occasionally sparkles and dazzles beyond anything they’ve ever done before.
The games market is well and truly oversaturated with music and rhythm games nowadays, with Activision contributing to the vast majority of those. To be honest, aren’t we all finding that it’s getting rather boring? Unrelenting as they are, Activision are back with another music game and seem to be on a bit of a strange crusade to prove that you can never have too many plastic peripherals in your home. Thankfully DJ Hero, developed by FreeStyleGames is a music game that stands out against what is fast becoming a mediocrity of ‘band’ games in Activition’s stable.
It’s been a weird few years for the big two football games on the market. EA, whose FIFA struggled to match the quality of Pro Evolution Soccer for many years, suddenly started reaching a consistent quality from 2008 onwards. Concurrently, Konami stagnated and seemingly forgot how to make a good football game. At the very least they weren’t sure what type of game they wanted to make, switching between sim and arcade styles over the last three years. PES fans, disillusioned after years of unfulfilled promises, started defecting over to FIFA in their droves, especially last year when PES 2009 was not just bad; it was broken. So, as expected the same old promises have been rolled out again this year; have Shingo ‘Seabass’ Takatsuka’s team got themselves back on level terms, or is it too little too late?
When Modern Warfare 2 came through my letterbox, I have to admit I felt a bit conflicted. I mean, the hype machine for this game has been gathering pace for a period of time I genuinely can’t remember ever having happened before. We’ve had controversy about the retail price, dedicated servers, digital distribution and civilian massacre, but pre-orders poured in all the same and it all culminated in a supermarket price war and a movie style premiere with Dizzee Rascal DJing. This isn’t a game, it’s a monstrous year long fire breathing media circus that’s actually consumed the product it was trying to promote. So I have to admit I was a bit skeptical as to whether the game, or any game in fact, could possibly live up to the frenzied hype that Activision had so ably whipped up.
Of course it doesn’t, the only way it could would be if Spec Ops turned out to be a simulated boxing match against the X Factor judges. Where my gloves were filled with hammers… and they didn’t have any protective armour… and they were all tied to chairs. Unrealistic ambitions aside, Modern Warfare 2 had built up so much hype that there would be uproar if it was just an out of the box extension to the first game. Even though it would still be an improvement over World at War if it was, how much actually has changed since Soap MacTavish was airlifted out of Russia all those years ago?
I really have a soft spot for Rockstar North. Not only are they responsible for the one of the most critically and commercially lauded game series of all time, but they’re based right down the road from me and even named a racing horse after my hometown in GTA: San Andreas! GTA 4 was revolutionary in the way that it brought the sandbox game to the next generation, with fantastic production values, a fantastic story with great characters and a well accomplished multi-player to boot.
In all honesty, they could have been forgiven for lying back and watching the money roll in after GTA 4 was released, but ever the workhorses they announced two Xbox 360 exclusive DLC packs were going to be released. The Lost and The Damned was released to equally positive reviews back in February, and now The Ballad of Gay Tony completes the saga. A lot has changed since GTA 4 first came out, so there was always a danger that the expansion packs could come across as dated as unnecessary. I was on the case to find out what’s new in the more flamboyant side of Liberty city, and whether it would be worthwhile to make a return visit.
The horse was Falkirk Boy in case you were wondering, not that the useless mare ever won me anything.
When conversing about football game franchises only two immediately come to mind, EA’s FIFA series and Konami’s Pro Evolution Soccer. Since the early part of the new century these two giants have annually locked horns to see who gets bragging rights to be named the best football game. Konami were arguably triumphant every year until 2008 when EA Canada made an overdue comeback with FIFA 09. Since the start of the current console cycle neither developer had created a game worthy of ‘next-gen’ quality until 09 boldly showed how it’s done. Gameplay mechanics were finely tuned, player physics became more realistic, and online modes possessed lasting appeal. EA Canada had managed to raise the bar in this fierce rivalry.
Anyone who has been reading my twitter updates probably has a good idea how this review is going to go. Three years ago Gearbox Software gave us a teaser of a new game they were working on.
The video depicted a woman talking to you (the player). At certain points as the camera panned around, you had flashes of some human enemies dubbed ’the locals’, then of some of the animal enemies referred to as ’the wildlife’. One of the flashes tells you you’re going to need guns, lots of guns, showing you a room full of weapons. Finally the camera panned further so that you can see her face; this woman was heavily scarred down one half of her face. She then tells you she knows why you’re there and that you’re looking for the vault (cue a reverse plot of Fallout 3), she finally adds that you won’t find it because it doesn’t exist.
The game has seen a massive transformation in style since that teaser was released, now re-branded as an ‘RPS’ (Role playing shooter), the consistent selling point for me at the time was the huge number of guns the game was boasting, which more often than not something that is restricted in games. Borderlands is finally here with claims that it features ‘87 bazillion guns’. Maybe that’s a slight over-exaggeration but one would find it hard not to be intrigued with a game that has more than 17.6 million of the things.
I am a fool. It seems just like yesterday that I thought Call of Duty: Modern Warfare on hardcore mode was as realistic as it could get on a console. I mean you only got a radar half the time for goodness sake! Well, that was before I got my hands on Operation Flashpoint: Dragon Rising, the military simulator from Codemasters. The first Operation Flashpoint achieved unprecedented realism way back in 2001, so I was excited to find out how the new developers were going to take the series forward.
An official sequel has been a long time coming, and I think everyone has been slightly wary of how this ultra realistic series would translate over to consoles. So I strapped on my gear (stop sniggering) and dropped into the landing zone (I said stop it!). My mission? To find out if this war really can be fought on a next gen console, or if the military simulator is doomed to remain on the PC where it has excelled so many times before.
Disclaimer: For the sake of your sanity, you should accept that by putting this game in your disc drive, you are going to die. A lot. Don’t say I didn’t warn you.
Okay, so maybe this might come off as random, but when’s the last time you followed the directions on the back of a shampoo bottle? It’s a cliché joke played out and redone by every comedian to ever spew spittle onto a microphone, but it’s oh-so relevant when considering picking up WET for Xbox 360 or PS3. If you truly and honestly have read the back of a bottle of a hair-care product within the last year, WET’s formula may be both familiar and enjoyable to you. If not, you may want to give this action title a pass.
‘It’s the car, right? Chicks love the car’. Ok well it’s probably one of the best lines in one of the worst Batman movies, but it still remains a fact that we all want the car, but we won’t get it in this review. Batman has been around since 1939, which makes him pretty god-damn old and he is still kicking arse today. Having spawned a hell of a lot of comics, books, films and those all important cartoons, Batman has also had a few games over the years but nothing memorable.
Deep in the basement areas of the Batcave (AKA Rocksteady Studios) Batman: Arkham Asylum has been developed by people who on the basis of the game are massive fans of the character. When Andy looked at the demo, you may remember that he had concerns over the ease of the combat, linearity and whether the game would become too repetitive, thankfully these fears are all now moot as Rocksteady have truly delivered.
Wanna be in a movie?! If you were asked that question what would you say?! Me personally, I would say hell yeah! That’s not why we’re here though. We’re here to talk about games but luckily the game we’re talking about takes you into the movies. Rather than sitting on the back row with a cute, sexy, beautiful woman groping your manhood (or if you’re a woman think sleazy man groping your entire body), you’re entering the world of movie making and debauchery. Where the big breasted women wear bikinis, have an IQ the equivalent to that of a peanut, and have sex with average guys like me and you because they think its a cure for cancer.
Each year we see our fair share of games based on movies, and this year is has been no exception. With the success of the previous three X-Men films, a prequel to the trilogy was added and kick-started the summer blockbuster season. This time the movie focused on the origin of one character, and you should all know by now that it was ‘cleverly’ titled X-Men Origins: Wolverine, in which the film took a look at our favourite claw wielding mutant. As usual with these big budget films, you expect the dreaded movie tie-in. Rather than being the bog standard drivel that you would usually expect, something slightly different came along. Developed by Raven Software (of Marvel Ultimate Alliance fame) and published by Activision, this game had a lot to live up to.
There are plenty retro games from my youth that I’d love to see remade, re-imagined or turned into a series. A next gen Streets of Rage or Starwing, maybe a fully 3D Theme Hospital or a Golden Axe that doesn’t suck ass. One that certainly wasn’t on my list however was Bionic Commando (it was slightly before my time), but the story of a soldier with an extendable grappling hook for an arm seems like a perfectly reasonable candidate, and some of the marketing footage looked very promising.
I thought I’d check it out, and after a few clicks on a well known DVD rental website I was swinging like it’s 1988, so is Bionic Commando a welcome dose of nostalgia? Or should it have stayed back on the NES where it belongs?
Namco Bandai are well known for the Tekken and Soul Calibur games, along with some all time classics such as Pac Man, Galaga and Dig Dug, however these aren’t their only accomplishments. As with any good Japanese developer, they have their own stake in the RPG genre. The ‘Tales’ series of games are Japanese-RPG’s that ooze style and class. They have always taken their biggest influences from anime and manga and also use popular artists to design the characters and produce the animated cut-scenes within the game. Tale of Vesperia is no different; it’s the 10th mother-ship title in the series, incorporating everything that has been done well in the previous titles, making it even better and wrapping it in a design that is beyond stunning.
If you were to ask me what my favourite online shooter was on consoles, I would have to say Battlefield: Bad Company. Yup, I’d have to choose that over the likes of Halo and Call of Duty, and because of that there may be an element of surprise amongst our readership. It’s easy to see why; aside from the fact that these two franchises have been battling it out to be the most played online title on Xbox Live for these past three years, Halo 3 boasts an immaculate online set-up and COD has a brilliant levelling system aimed at keeping players interested.
However, as much fun as I’ve had over the years on these games, over the last year I found myself growing tired of playing nothing but Call of Duty three years running. When I wanted to play online and glanced at my collection, for a long time the first title I always opted for was Bad Company. In many ways it lacked the polish and robustness of COD and Halo, but it was almost like a young upstart against other shooters; loud and brash; there was just this overriding sense of fun and drama that came when playing the game. Last week EA and DICE released the online-only Battlefield 1943 via XBLA and PSN, is this 24 player shooter worth your dosh?
Load up your weapons and fasten your seatbelts, you’re about to take a ride through the good old Red Planet, and it’ll need your help. Your mission, should you accept it, will be to liberate the planet Mars from the domineering Earth Defense Force. Your methods will vary. You may choose to stealthily avoid your enemy in order to safely rescue POW’s, and then blast your way out with brute force; or you may locate the enemy’s stronghold and bring the building down with everyone inside. Whatever you decide, you’ll enjoy every moment of this awesome experience.
As you may know from our podcasts, Japanese RPGs have always been an obsession of mine so when I heard that the next Star Ocean was coming to the Xbox 360 as an exclusive, the title was immediately placed on pre-order. Having played a couple of the previous titles I was hoping that this prequel would live up to the name. For the next 65 hours I was to battle enemies across the ‘star ocean’ and save the earth from certain destruction. With this being the third title that Square Enix has brought to the Xbox 360 and being a 360 exclusive, this game has a lot to live up to with the various technical failings of Infinite Undiscovery and The Last Remnant. The biggest question would be: ‘Is this game worthy to enter your collection? Or is it destined to stay at the store?’
I haven’t delved into the world of free roaming environments and worryngly inconsequential violence since GTA4, so when Prototype came through the door, I was feeling a mixture of excitement at the thought of having a new city to explore (and do damage to) and trepidation at the thought of the game turning out to be Spider-man with people’s heads falling off. There’s so much to take into consideration with these games; you need to have an interesting world to explore, varied and substantial game content to keep the player interested, an interesting twisty story ticking along and a few new ideas that sets it apart from the rest of the pack.
While I wasn’t going into Prototype expecting the next GTA4, I certainly had high hopes for a game that seemed to be hitting the right notes in pre-release. So was this a successful Prototype, or do Radical Entertainment need to go back to the drawing board?
Video games are all the same. You play the hero, fighting evil and ridding the land of it. Whether it’s angry aliens or fiery demons, developers preoccupation with inherently ‘good’ protagonists has existed since the dawn of gaming. Who wants to play the bad guy, right? Well in 2007 Triumph Studios turned the whole idea on its head with Overlord, a game where you play the bad guy trying to take over the land. Players loved it, and it garnered moderately good reviews from the big press.
A couple of years later, and a sequel was released. Following pretty much the same premise, with a few tweaks here and there, players could once again assume the role of a demon prince tasked with conquering a fantasy land. Have the new improvements made the concept any better? Let’s find out…
Games that don’t take themselves too seriously have become something of a rarity these days. The types of titles that spoofed and poked fun at themselves as well as other areas of the media were once released in abundance, but seem to have become lost in the gritty and realistic seas of greys, blacks and browns that make up the vast majority of games on the market in these times. That’s not to say that comedy games don’t appear at all anymore, Tim Schafer’s work stands testament to that, however comedic releases have been too far and between for my liking.
Vicious Circles ‘Eat Lead: The Return Of Matt Hazard’ (released February just gone) was one such title that tried to come in and fill part of the void. Having managed to pick it up fairly cheaply not long ago, and figuring that with the unusual glut of high quality first-quarter releases it would have slipped under many people’s radars enough so that it’s probably still worth evaluating. Read on to find out whether I laughed or cried after parting with my spondoolies.
I was browsing the internet the other day and apparently, Modern Warfare 2 is used as a true test of someone’s FPS ability. If you suck at COD, you suck at life. This got me thinking; unless you play on the harder difficulty settings, MW2 isn’t that hard in its brief but brilliant campaign and the only thing that makes multiplayer a grind is the abundance of lifetime players pwning their way through their millionth match of the week. So, to me, it can’t really be a true gauge of a players abilities.
For that, we need a FPS that does you no favours, that drops you in at the deep end with no mercy and leaves you wondering whether you really have the cajones to make it through. To really test someone’s metal, we need Far Cry 2. It’s been developed and released by the Montreal base of the legend that is Ubisoft, known for crafting the Assassins Creed series and both the next gen Prince of Persia titles. It’s the first proper sequel since the original Far Cry for PC in 2004 as the series has had an almost Street Fighter like run, preferring updates, expansions and enhanced ports over obligatory, straight sequels. Boasting “the most realistic fire ever seen in a game” and “over 50 square km of open world”, Far Cry 2 burst onto the scene in 2008 with the usual hype and pre-launch excitement. Many of my friends and colleges here at TIMJ bought it, played it and loved it. Let’s get to the bottom of why…
The date is November 24th 2004 (no, not right now, I’m doing a flashback; it’s a thing us writer types do). Sony are boasting a game that they feel will finally be their answer to the Halo series, which had been taking the console shooter plaudits since 2001. The game I’m talking about? Guerrilla Game’s Killzone, and boy was it hyped to high heaven back then. In terms of sci-fi, it seemed to be right up my street with a dark, brooding story and action that didn’t feel too far set in the future. After a brief flirt with the demo I was convinced enough of the game’s quality to pick it up on release.
What came next was crushing disappointment as the game was marred by awful visuals, invisible walls, wonky A.I. and glitches galore. When all was said and done it was simply a mediocre release and could hardly be featured alongside the premier titles over the PS2’s lavish history. With that in mind, it was no surprise that I was going to approach Killzone 2 with caution; no matter how awesome the trailers looked, no matter how much the hype was multiplied I wasn’t going to be sucked in this time. Unfortunately I probably should have allowed myself to be, because Guerrilla redoubled their efforts and produced a game that I would happily recommend to anyone.
If Pirates of the Caribbean had weight, it would increase the mass of the Earth by such a substantial amount it would probably drop us into the Sun. Since the first movie broke in 2003, Disney’s flagship (tee hee) live-action pirate extravaganza has had three films, insurmountable amounts of merchandising and even a few games. With trailers of the fourth movie zipping around the internet and Pirates fever set to explode once again in the near future, I thought I’d take a look at one of the games.
While the films have been universally lauded (with the notable exception of British critic Mark Kermode, who hates them), the games have been swept under the carpet. I decided to let PS2 flop The Legend of Jack Sparrow stay there because, well, it’s a PS2 flop. However, At Worlds End, the last two movies hammered into game form by Eurocom (of Batman Begins fame), looks like it might be quite good. So I dug it up and here it is; my experience, or should I say; my descent in to Pirates hell…
Vin Diesel. Love him or hate him, he was everywhere a couple of years ago. With a successful movie career and even a stint as a writer/director (see awful, ghetto drama Strays), it seems the-man-who-has-a-name-like-a-fuel has now decided to turn his hand to making games with the help of developer Midway Studios. Well, starring in one at least. The Wheelman casts him as Milo, a surly driver for the criminal underworld, shipped to Barcelona for a job. Deciding to stay there, he engages in all sorts of car-centric japery with a few shooting bits thrown in. Is it any good? Yes and no. With a movie planned for release in 2010 as a follow-up, the success of this game will be a good judge as to whether the movie will be worth watching. I for one am about as excited as a pig being led to slaughter, and i’ll tell you why…
It’s always a worry when something that you love and are protective of is subjected to a change in management. No matter how good a job the new guys do it’s inevitable that a large majority of fans will shout “What have they done to my game!?” from the rooftops. This is especially true of the Fallout series, which boasts some of the most hardcore (and unforgiving) set of fans in gaming.
With the announcement that Bethesda Softworks (scribes of the Elder Scrolls) had acquired the Fallout IP and were developing a third title, messages of excitement and indignation poured onto forums across the globe. Being a fan of the series myself, and also of Morrowind and Oblivion, I found myself being pretty excited about the latest instalment. So is it worthy of the glorious Fallout name, or should it be locked up in a Vault and never spoken of again?
Naughty Dog have a pretty good pedigree behind them (if you’ll excuse the pun). The creators of Crash Bandicoot and Jak & Daxter have gone from strength to strength over the years with the guidance of Sony. However, I’ve rarely had a real interest in any of their games. That changed over the course of a few minutes when I chanced upon a preview video of Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune. I was instantly fascinated thanks to its unique blend of ‘stop and pop’ gunplay mixed with Tomb Raider style adventuring. Sure we’ve seen game mechanics similar to this in other games, but the way it was put together captivated me. I’ve had a bit of a wait to get my hands on the game, having only just acquired Sony’s slimmer box of tricks, but it’s an adventure that was totally worth the wait.
Being a child of the 80’s, I was a fan of many of the big cartoon franchises around at the time. Ghostbusters, Thundercats, you name it, I probably loved it, joined the fan-club and owned the bedding for it. One of my other favourites was definitely the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (or Hero Turtles as it was known in the UK). There have been a whole wealth of Turtles games down the years, some brilliant, some awful. Consider my delight in the summer of 2007 when I discovered that the franchise was not only due a comeback to the big screen in an animated sequel to the live-action movies, but also to our consoles in the accompanying game. Did it buck the trend of awful movie tie-ins? In a word? No. In two words? Hell no. Although there is that little matter of an easy 1000 gamer points…
“We’re going deep and we’re going hard”. Since its creation in 2003, the Call of Duty franchise has been known for devotion to the World War II setting. The original was widely praised for its gritty, realistic and harsh portrayal of historic battles. The game allowed me to experience war up close and far away simultaneously. I especially gained satisfaction in learning a bit about the past whilst enjoying a video game. Due to the success of Call of Duty, two sequels have since been released. Now, after allowing others a chance at expanding the franchise, acclaimed developer, Infinity Ward, has returned to the helm and (finally) decided to update its calendar with Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare. Very few titles deserve such lavish praise, but this game is a winner with a mountain-sized ‘W’.
Music can be a funny thing. In a similar fashion to games being lost in translation or just plain massacred when adapted to the cinema, music fans do not like to see one of their favourite bands or songs being misused or mistreated in any kind of media. This is particularly true with Metal, and when it comes to Metal, you don’t get much bigger than Metallica, (apart from the clearly superior Megadeth, discuss!).
So when Activision made the decision to take on Metallica’s story and bring it to the popular Guitar Hero series, they may have not realised just how much of a responsibility they had taken on. There was always going to be a danger that it ended up just being a regular Guitar Hero game with Metallica licensing ungracefully shoehorned in, while it should be more of a celebration of the band themselves. I’ve always wondered what it would feel like to be on a massive stage playing some of the best thrash songs around, and now I have my chance! Fair enough, the stage is more of a bedroom but we all have to start somewhere.
What makes a horror movie? The gore? The suspense? The monsters? A combination of all three? Whatever it is, it’s safe to say that we love them, and have done for years. As long as it makes us cringe, jump and lose sleep, horror is universally popular in film, but not so much in games. While many have hit the nail on the head, just as many have failed to even startle us. Thankfully Dead Space, the latest survival horror offering from giants EA, is shockingly on the right side of scary.
Alternate realities are great. In recent years we’ve had; a World War 1 that never ended, the Cold War that got hot and the Russians invading America and, my favourite; the Nazis conquering England and the US in huge, metal zeppelins. These changeable histories allow developers a degree more creativity and scope than those setting out to make a straight-up recreation. Usually, we the gamers are better off for it, sliding through a plethora of ‘what if’ scenarios like penguins on ice and enjoying the ride. Unfortunately, sometimes the concept just doesn’t work. Case in point; Damnation. Developed by fledgling studio Blue Omega, this odd shooter/platformer is set in the American Civil War; except a nefarious, totalitarian dictator is sweeping across the country and taking over. Oh, and there’s machine guns, motorbikes and modern trains. Confused? You ain’t heard the half of it…
I am a Spider-man fanboy. I don’t know quite how to put into words how much the sheer mention of the name sends me into a pretty wild geekgasm. Spidey’s had mixed fortunes in gaming over the years; there are some massive success stories, but in recent times the releases have been somewhat of a ‘copy and paste’ of the open world format that Treyarch brought in with Spider-man 2, and hasn’t really deviated from that since.
This time Shaba Games and Treyarch made a big deal about how they’d re-approached the combat system, aiming for an experience that not only allows you to swing like Spidey, but also fight like him. Did they succeed? Yes, but it’s just a shame that the rest of the game hadn’t seen the same level of treatment.
Timeshift had something of a prolonged development schedule, after many delays and presumed cancellations. When it eventually hit shelves it was drastically different to the original time-manipulating vision of developer Saber Interactive. Deciding that graphically and atmospherically in its then current state the game could not compete with the likes of Gears of War, Saber went back to the drawing board and made several notable changes. Gone was the archetypal and never-fazed protagonist Michael Swift, in his place an anonymous mute aimed at making the player feel more involved in the action. The story was also heavily modified, as the game took a far darker tone than that of its previous direction. History tells us that games that go through these troublesome development cycles and false starts don’t tend to perform well (although Resident Evil 4 managed it ok), but have Saber managed to rewrite history and put out something worth playing?