Hello all!
Currently the GFGG team is prepping themselves for the long and early morning train ride down to Eurogamer.
I shall be Tweeting (@JaffaKira) and blogging the whole time - as well as posting some Youtube vids.
Hopefully we'll grab some good content, stay tuned and I'll speak to you soon!
29/10/2009
18/10/2009
The Last Stand
Every videogame and their mothers these days have some sort of survival mode attached to the experience so it really wasn't a surprise when Relic/THQ announced one for Dawn of War II. Having been released a few days ago I've put a bit of time into it and have found it to be enjoyable. There are a few gripes though.
The first of my problems is the obvious and most annoying fault, the lag. Now I don't have the greastest internet connection yet I can play just about any game out at the moment with little to no problem. The Last Stand lags no matter who your connected to and it does begin to get annoying. The second issue I have is that you HAVE to have 3 people in your party to play. This isn't a huge problem but a few times I have found myself wanting to play a match with Drahc but having to wait for the server to find us a third player.
Having said all of this the DLC is fantastically good fun. You may have worries about how long this fun will last but I assure you that there are enough upgrades and wargear to keep you going for a long time, and 3 characters to play. The gameplay basically revolves around surving against waves of various races. Every fourth wave is a boss battle (which are always challenging) and there are also 2 control points that increase your points multiplier. Once you die (and you will die) you gain experience on the character that you were using. This experience is the same for all of the players in the match. This ensures that everyone gets a level playing field and team play becomes a more intergrated part of the game (as opposed toa rush to get the kills). Gaining levels only unlocks wargear meaning that a level 1 player can be as effective as a level 15 depending on the skill of the player. This is a welcome change to normal RPG systems.
Overall The Last Stand is a good addition to Dawn of War II, and, although it isn't something that you should buy the game for I recommend downloading it (if you already own the game) and putting some time into it. Especially if you have some mates to do it with.
The first of my problems is the obvious and most annoying fault, the lag. Now I don't have the greastest internet connection yet I can play just about any game out at the moment with little to no problem. The Last Stand lags no matter who your connected to and it does begin to get annoying. The second issue I have is that you HAVE to have 3 people in your party to play. This isn't a huge problem but a few times I have found myself wanting to play a match with Drahc but having to wait for the server to find us a third player.
Having said all of this the DLC is fantastically good fun. You may have worries about how long this fun will last but I assure you that there are enough upgrades and wargear to keep you going for a long time, and 3 characters to play. The gameplay basically revolves around surving against waves of various races. Every fourth wave is a boss battle (which are always challenging) and there are also 2 control points that increase your points multiplier. Once you die (and you will die) you gain experience on the character that you were using. This experience is the same for all of the players in the match. This ensures that everyone gets a level playing field and team play becomes a more intergrated part of the game (as opposed toa rush to get the kills). Gaining levels only unlocks wargear meaning that a level 1 player can be as effective as a level 15 depending on the skill of the player. This is a welcome change to normal RPG systems.
Overall The Last Stand is a good addition to Dawn of War II, and, although it isn't something that you should buy the game for I recommend downloading it (if you already own the game) and putting some time into it. Especially if you have some mates to do it with.
05/10/2009
All Hands, Man Your Stations! There's War to be Had in the Pacific!
"December 7th, 1941 - a day which will live in infamy" - Franklin D. Roosevelt, on the attack of Pearl Harbour
On May 15, 2009 Battlestations: Pacific appeared in Europe, to no great hype or excitement. Although its predecessor, Battlestations: Midway had been reasonable it had not been awesome. A limited amount of missions and scenarios meant the replayability wasn't too good, and so personally my expectations for its sequel weren't too high.
However, having played the game itself, Battlestations: Pacific has proved to cure most of the ailments that afflicted its older brother, sister, mutant, disc, or whatever you want to refer to it as. Straight from the off, there is now a Japanese Campaign, much to my delight, as we can all assume the Japanese Battleship Yamato will make an appearance, and where there is a Yamato Class Battleship, there will be carnage... and lots of dead US sailors. Fact.
On May 15, 2009 Battlestations: Pacific appeared in Europe, to no great hype or excitement. Although its predecessor, Battlestations: Midway had been reasonable it had not been awesome. A limited amount of missions and scenarios meant the replayability wasn't too good, and so personally my expectations for its sequel weren't too high.
However, having played the game itself, Battlestations: Pacific has proved to cure most of the ailments that afflicted its older brother, sister, mutant, disc, or whatever you want to refer to it as. Straight from the off, there is now a Japanese Campaign, much to my delight, as we can all assume the Japanese Battleship Yamato will make an appearance, and where there is a Yamato Class Battleship, there will be carnage... and lots of dead US sailors. Fact.
Of course, where there's foreign voices, there is a possibility of bad voice acting, and this plague has visited BS:P. The Japanese voice acting, is now in English, so rather than hearing a Japanese person shouting at you “Torpedoes in the water” in a language you don't understand, you now have some awful voice acting telling you the important information of your impending doom. This for me though, makes the game that little bit better, as it gives me a chance to evade and carry on playing, rather than encouraging me to learn how to swear at fellow crewmen in Japanese.
Another detail I have noticed is that game balance has been restored. No longer can you spam Torpedo bombers at everything that moves and hope to let the waterline do the rest. Torpedo damage is now reduced and water pumping more efficient, meaning if you leave that destroyer to die, it will slowly repair itself, and then destroy you. As its name suggests. Enemy AI has also been improved, reacting to your movements rather than moving in your fleets’ general direction and hoping for a kill.
The absolute best thing that helps haul this game from Midway to the Pacific is the new Skirmish mode. At last, once the campaigns have finally been completed (after surviving those really annoying Submarine and Plane missions), you now have a replayability factor in the form of several Skirmish modes, ranging from Take and Hold style maps to Protect the Invasion Fleet and Duel mode, improving the online experience tenfold, as gamers get to enjoy new competitive game modes to challenge their gunnery, strategy and general "blow-uppery" skills.
However, it's not all sunshine and lollipops for BS:P. There comes a time where you'll hit, as mentioned before, missions that are limited to Submarines, Planes, or something else you really don't like doing. Although there is slightly more mission variation than “kill this, move here, protect this” (including a raid against an Australian harbour in the Japanese Campaign), the time will come where you have to fight in a vehicle you don't like, or when the odds are so horribly stacked against you that you don't feel a chance of victory. Depth Charges still own Submarines... (hint hint) I hate Sub missions.
Strategic importance
So overall? BS:P has the right mix of tactics and 3rd person Battleship Carnage that made the first game bearable. Although with a couple of annoying missions, BS:P is certainly a marked improvement, and definitely worth getting if you're interested in ship-to-ship warfare or general carnage. When all else fails, take command of the biggest ship you've got and turn the tide yourself. Sounds good right? All hands, Battlestations!
04/10/2009
Uncharted 2 Beta Impressions
Now we all know that Uncharted 2 has been hyped beyond comparison but, possibly, by some nigh on impossible way it might have lived up to the buzz? Now before you take my head off for saying this hear me out. Think what Uncharted is being praised for. Good looking? Check. Good voice acting? Check. Good multiplayer? Most definitely yes.
The beta has been knocking around those lucky enough to be part of it for a few months now and all we have been hearing are good things. It went live to the public a few days ago and the reception has been fantastic. I downloaded it 2 days ago and am already addicted, see here’s the thing. Not only is playing Uncharted 2 online a hell of a lot of fun and absolutely stunning, it’s also rewarding and very addictive. There is an enormous amount of modes and game types to delve into despite how little it seems at first.
The demo gives you 4 different modes to play with: Deathmatch, Objective, Co-op Objective and Co-op Arena. The 2 co-op modes are good fun to play through with some friends but the real meat of the demo is in the Deathmatch and Objective modes. I have been playing for 2 days now and have put in about 4-5 hours and have not played a single game type twice. There are only a handful of maps but the intricacies of the games alter constantly. Be it a standard all weapons point capture or an all RPG fight to the, quite explosive, death. I have played such a numerous amount of different game types but I’m still convinced that I haven’t seen everything this has to offer (I haven't even discussed the brilliant machinima mode). And this is just the beta.
Point I’m trying to get across is this: Download the beta, enjoy it, buy the game, enjoy it and be happy. This is incredible considering it’s free and is in many ways more value for money than some full games I’ve played. Get it and love it.
(As a side note it seems that some people are experiencing a very long wait to get into their first few online games. Whillst I didn't experience this myself I thought I would mention it anyway just incase thats a factor for any of you.)
The beta has been knocking around those lucky enough to be part of it for a few months now and all we have been hearing are good things. It went live to the public a few days ago and the reception has been fantastic. I downloaded it 2 days ago and am already addicted, see here’s the thing. Not only is playing Uncharted 2 online a hell of a lot of fun and absolutely stunning, it’s also rewarding and very addictive. There is an enormous amount of modes and game types to delve into despite how little it seems at first.
The demo gives you 4 different modes to play with: Deathmatch, Objective, Co-op Objective and Co-op Arena. The 2 co-op modes are good fun to play through with some friends but the real meat of the demo is in the Deathmatch and Objective modes. I have been playing for 2 days now and have put in about 4-5 hours and have not played a single game type twice. There are only a handful of maps but the intricacies of the games alter constantly. Be it a standard all weapons point capture or an all RPG fight to the, quite explosive, death. I have played such a numerous amount of different game types but I’m still convinced that I haven’t seen everything this has to offer (I haven't even discussed the brilliant machinima mode). And this is just the beta.
Point I’m trying to get across is this: Download the beta, enjoy it, buy the game, enjoy it and be happy. This is incredible considering it’s free and is in many ways more value for money than some full games I’ve played. Get it and love it.
(As a side note it seems that some people are experiencing a very long wait to get into their first few online games. Whillst I didn't experience this myself I thought I would mention it anyway just incase thats a factor for any of you.)
29/09/2009
The Old Republic
Since I am a MMO player, and for all those who are interested, and I am preparing myself for the mocking of the fellow GFGG staff, I play WoW or World of Warcraft, that awfully addictive game... I’ve played EVE online, which I was doing ok with until I lost my ship, threw all my toys out of the pram and quit. And once upon a time I played that, now looking back bad, game, Runescape, over the interwebs. I did once try to play Star Wars Galaxies, and it was either all the bad things I heard about it, or a technical issue that stopped me from actually playing the game, but I never got round to it.
Now its LucasArt’s second attempt to breathe life into their bank accounts (Although, with all the merchandise LucasArt’s have made, I’m sure their bank accounts are lined and made from Gold), with Star Wars: The Old Republic. Now, for you lot in the know, you’ll know what series this is following on from. For all of you who don’t. Look back at other games LucasArts have made, say... in the RPG genre. Then say... look at games set BBY (Before Battle of Yavin.) Then say... look at the name and realise it shares a name with KOTOR, Knights of The Old Republic. Yes!! LucasArt’s have decided that the follow on to that brilliant game KOTOR 2, that they are going to make an MMO from it. Congratulations, Most of your fan base now hates you...
Now its LucasArt’s second attempt to breathe life into their bank accounts (Although, with all the merchandise LucasArt’s have made, I’m sure their bank accounts are lined and made from Gold), with Star Wars: The Old Republic. Now, for you lot in the know, you’ll know what series this is following on from. For all of you who don’t. Look back at other games LucasArts have made, say... in the RPG genre. Then say... look at games set BBY (Before Battle of Yavin.) Then say... look at the name and realise it shares a name with KOTOR, Knights of The Old Republic. Yes!! LucasArt’s have decided that the follow on to that brilliant game KOTOR 2, that they are going to make an MMO from it. Congratulations, Most of your fan base now hates you...
Since Galaxies, When they messed it up bad ways by making the Hero class (Jedi) easier to obtain by casual players, which caused all kinds of problems (If you having problems thinking why this is bad, imagine a group of intellectual people being given a button to destroy the world, but because they are intelligent they have no wish to destroy the world, now imagine, that button gets mass produced and given to monkies... And the button has a picture and smell of bananas...) Now, LucasArts thinking ahead, have released a (At the moment only Sith Warrior) Jedi ish class. This may sound mad. But wait! If they release them as a default class to pick, then they have the ability to be normalised around the rest of the default classes, making the game more balanced. This might make a lot of people since that will mean that the Sith and the Jedi won’t be super powered, but it’s all for the best.
This game has two basic ways it can go, in terms of combat. It can either go for a WoW interface of 1, 2, 3, 4, 5... Then abilities linked to each of the buttons. Or it will follow a KOTOR style combat system of lining up attacks (to people who haven’t played KOTOR, I’m sorry if you don’t understand this, just image a menu of all your attacks that you cycle through) Either way, people will adapt to this way of play easily. So combat won’t be an issue. The only problem I see with the combat is that a soldier will have fewer abilities, than, say, a bounty hunter, who will have fewer abilities than Sith Warrior etc. So classes, unless they surprise me and give each people the same amount of abilities to balance it, will be unbalanced.
Dialogue will always be dialogue, and I don’t intend on hovering on the subject long, I just hope they implement a KOTOR 2 style dialogue system, where you can pick what you say, and you can influence relationships with people based on what you pick (So telling a quest giver they have a ugly haircut will make them not want to give you quests.)
Which leads me swiftly onto quests, as I assume that, since every other MMO does it, that this one will too, give Quests or Missions to level your character up faster, but, as previously mentioned, every MMO does something like that. I can’t see them getting around that, but I would like to see them try, make an Original MMO (sorry for swearing, “Original MMO”)
The planet selection is limited at the moment, but they always have chances to increase the amount of planets you can go to later on, out of the millions in the Star Wars universe. What will interest me to see, is how you get to other planets. You’d either have to pay to fly on a Transport full of other people (Which will get tedious), Transport will be free (Still tedious but better) or pay for your own ship (which is brilliant, but then raises questions.) I mean, for the latter, if you have your own ship, why don’t you sellotape a massive gun to the front and blow people to the moon of Endor and back.
Finally, and this is very, Very, early days to be thinking about this, and some people will hate me for this, but what on Coruscant (see what I did there, “What on Earth”, “What on Coruscant” Teehee) will they do for End Game. “Gather 40 people up and go blow up a early Star Destroyer... well... an early version of the early version of the Star Destroyer... it gets complicated” or “Go kill this badass Sith dude” in which case, the first one means that Space Warfare might be involved, (By the way, this is all hypothetically, off the top of my head stuff, don’t expect any of this in the actual game) which would be badass, but it means that ship to ship fighting would occur, which means space could be dominated, which causes a lot of issues. And the second option seems awful, Cause End Game means that you need to gather a lot of people, and it gives more rewarding stuff, but Kill a person? And that needs 40 of you? Seems unfair, and it kind of makes you disheartened that you can’t do it by yourself...
Dialogue will always be dialogue, and I don’t intend on hovering on the subject long, I just hope they implement a KOTOR 2 style dialogue system, where you can pick what you say, and you can influence relationships with people based on what you pick (So telling a quest giver they have a ugly haircut will make them not want to give you quests.)
Which leads me swiftly onto quests, as I assume that, since every other MMO does it, that this one will too, give Quests or Missions to level your character up faster, but, as previously mentioned, every MMO does something like that. I can’t see them getting around that, but I would like to see them try, make an Original MMO (sorry for swearing, “Original MMO”)
The planet selection is limited at the moment, but they always have chances to increase the amount of planets you can go to later on, out of the millions in the Star Wars universe. What will interest me to see, is how you get to other planets. You’d either have to pay to fly on a Transport full of other people (Which will get tedious), Transport will be free (Still tedious but better) or pay for your own ship (which is brilliant, but then raises questions.) I mean, for the latter, if you have your own ship, why don’t you sellotape a massive gun to the front and blow people to the moon of Endor and back.
Finally, and this is very, Very, early days to be thinking about this, and some people will hate me for this, but what on Coruscant (see what I did there, “What on Earth”, “What on Coruscant” Teehee) will they do for End Game. “Gather 40 people up and go blow up a early Star Destroyer... well... an early version of the early version of the Star Destroyer... it gets complicated” or “Go kill this badass Sith dude” in which case, the first one means that Space Warfare might be involved, (By the way, this is all hypothetically, off the top of my head stuff, don’t expect any of this in the actual game) which would be badass, but it means that ship to ship fighting would occur, which means space could be dominated, which causes a lot of issues. And the second option seems awful, Cause End Game means that you need to gather a lot of people, and it gives more rewarding stuff, but Kill a person? And that needs 40 of you? Seems unfair, and it kind of makes you disheartened that you can’t do it by yourself...
Anyway, I can only hope they sort out the website soon, so I can play it, and have no social life still. And I hope they don’t mess it up like Galaxies. Anyway, this is Craig signing off, sorry if this has gone back to Essay like form :(. And may the force be with you.
24/12/2008
Merry Christmas!
On behalf of the GFGG blog staff and writers I'd just like to say a big thank you for reading our blog and also we would like to wish you a very merry Christmas. We hope that Santa brings you all the gaming joy that you would like ;)
look out for some alterations to our blog in the new year!
Merry Christmas!
Jaffa, Drahc, Craig and GamerGit
look out for some alterations to our blog in the new year!
Merry Christmas!
Jaffa, Drahc, Craig and GamerGit
20/12/2008
Off Topic!! *Gasp*
Sorry about not reviewing any games recently, Christmas is all pretty hectic and i'm playing WoW so not much social time as it is XD
I'm still alive, basically is the message, but i'll attempt to do a review soon.
Like a Wii game, since we haven't had one of those in a while.
Peace out you crazy people!!!
Have a great Christmas!!!
I'm still alive, basically is the message, but i'll attempt to do a review soon.
Like a Wii game, since we haven't had one of those in a while.
Peace out you crazy people!!!
Have a great Christmas!!!
11/12/2008
Rant time: Why I used to be a Ninty Fan.
The emphasis here should be on the 'Used'. Back in the day, when the best console a guy could ever want was his trusty SNES, when things like the red ring of death were completely unheard of, and if your console didn't last literally forever, you'd be seriously disgruntled, Nintendo were possibly one of the best producers ever. Why? Because all their games were great, absolutly fantastic. Name one product by Nintendo pre Gamecube, and you've got at least one fond memory of it. But lately, with the Wii, i'm far from impressed. I walked into game yesterday, looked at the wii shelfs, and was confronted with nothing but sub-sub-sub-par kiddies movie ports. And what was still in the top 10? Super mario galaxy. A game that was released LAST YEAR.
It's a similar story with the DS, good, decent gaming releases are few and far between. and more often than not you're confronted with a wall of horrible crap, punctuated with a few good titles that Nintendo released last year.
I bought my Wii near enough the time it released, and *Increadibly* hyped. The potential was fantastic. But now i kinda regret it. And the Wii is the first console that i've ever regretted buying. Which makes me increadibly sad, considering its the only one of this generation thats introduced anything really new. And i feel terribly abandoned. I look back to the SNES days, when There was a huuuge variety of fantastic games, first party and otherwise.
Nintendo has obviously appealed to the whole family, but in doing so its alienated its core fanbase, myself being one of them. And I personaly think its a huge mistake. When Microsoft and sony release their competitions into the family market, Nintendos going to feel the loss of its loyalists.
It's a similar story with the DS, good, decent gaming releases are few and far between. and more often than not you're confronted with a wall of horrible crap, punctuated with a few good titles that Nintendo released last year.
I bought my Wii near enough the time it released, and *Increadibly* hyped. The potential was fantastic. But now i kinda regret it. And the Wii is the first console that i've ever regretted buying. Which makes me increadibly sad, considering its the only one of this generation thats introduced anything really new. And i feel terribly abandoned. I look back to the SNES days, when There was a huuuge variety of fantastic games, first party and otherwise.
Nintendo has obviously appealed to the whole family, but in doing so its alienated its core fanbase, myself being one of them. And I personaly think its a huge mistake. When Microsoft and sony release their competitions into the family market, Nintendos going to feel the loss of its loyalists.
10/12/2008
EPIC News!
The company EPIC have semi-announced/ let slip about 2 new games in progress. The first of the 2 should be no surprise. Gears of War 3. Apparently this game is well underway and will involve a new 5 player Co-Op experiance. Apparently. The second game rumoured is a survival horror game. This game does not yet have any information floating around but could be one to watch. Survival horror on the UT3 engine - YES PLEASE!
04/12/2008
New Brand Extension!!!!
Hello my good friends, JaffaKira here to tell you about an exciting new extension of our blog...a YouTube Page!
basically we will be uploading game footage and various interviews that we have found from scouring the internet to 1 page. Also we will be posting our own content including video reviews and our own gameplay footage. we would appreciate your subscriptions so check it out at http://uk.youtube.com/user/GiftsFromaGamingGod - Thanks Guys!
basically we will be uploading game footage and various interviews that we have found from scouring the internet to 1 page. Also we will be posting our own content including video reviews and our own gameplay footage. we would appreciate your subscriptions so check it out at http://uk.youtube.com/user/GiftsFromaGamingGod - Thanks Guys!
26/11/2008
Craig's Portal Review
Just to mention two things to start off. Firstly, very first Valve game to be reviewed on the site, Yay!! Secondly, trying for a relatively short review, Shock! Horror! So... Short review time! Go!First ish single player Valve game without the mute Gordon Freeman, in a Freeman related game; instead we have a mute un-named test subject. Go Go Valve. But don’t be let down by the no talking, because the robotic testing voice throughout gives the greatest dark humour in any game. Ever. Still jumping up on down excitedly over its physics engine (even though portal seems to look like they break all known physics) I do love the Valve physics engine, I mean they sum up the most serious of terms in amazing ways, for example, “Momentum: Fast thing goes in, fast thing comes out.”
The game is set out in a fun set of almost tutorial style challenges, and then sets you off into the real world. The challenges start fairly simple, “move across the room”, and then steadily increases to, “do everything, dodgy bullets and don’t touch a thing.2 which is good as it’s quite an easy difficulty curve, and with enough practise and help from the beginning levels, everything can be done, even if it seems impossible at first, and if you disregard the negative talk from the computer.
The game’s end is quite interesting, still have the dark humour throughout and then some, so it felt more like a comedy sketch as opposed to an end “boss” (sorry for spoilers, but if you’ve ever played a Half-life game it isn’t much of one) the end videos further this funny element disproving the “Cake = lie” hypothesis and then there is the end song. Which I have to say is absolutely amazing. Then again if I could sum up the game it would be with the words “absolutely amazing”, or with “buy-now-else-you’ll-die-due-to-serious-amounts-of-me-stabbing-you” or with “equivalent to pizza.” The end also leaves a cliff-hanger, which might mean Portal 2!!! Yay!!!!! (How-ever I have no idea how Portal 2 could equal or surpass Portal since Portal is sooo amazing and new, something similar would be boring)
Achievements have been implemented, which is similar to everything and it’s dog these days, how-ever some are interesting and have to be done by actually thinking (Jesus Christ No!!!) such as “Fall 30,000 feet) does take thinking, since nothing in the game has that much of a drop. Then, just in case you found the game easy, they implemented “advanced challenges”, which are pretty damn hard. Such as do this level, without touching the floor. Then they have challenges like, have the least footsteps, and use the least portals, which can boarder on ridiculous.
The game has, in my opinion, the most emotional moment and best supporting character in any game. The companion Cube. Killing that cube was the hardest thing, emotionally speaking, that I have ever had to do. The cube also has its own parallel humour, like a picture of a family, with all the faces replaced with the cube, which made me chuckle some. Remember my friends, the cake is a lie, but the cube is forever. *Cries.* Portal has a good game time, it takes a couple of hours (dependant on how quickly you solve and pick up the physics and puzzles, and if you go through the advanced maps etc.) and it’s a good enough time for you to enjoy it to its full potential and not get bored rigid of it.
Now for the summing up paragraph. Excellent game, fun, both for game-play puzzles and the dark humour, and keeps you interested for enough time to stop you being bored from real-life. No real problems with the game. I have no clue, as I’ve stated before, how they will actually top this game, if they make a next one. (by the way, cannot wait for Half-life 2, Episode 3) No clue what to review next, possibly go for an old epic game, not Epic as in the company though.
Craig Signing off. By the way in the time it took to read this, you would of possibly completed half of portal by now. Congratulations. Achievement Unlocked.
23/11/2008
COD 5 Wii First Impressions
The Wii has taken a brutal amount of crap this year with barely a couple of games worth mentioning (SSBB being one of if not the only one). Still a friend of mine (being a history/FPS fan) was looking forward to COD 5 but unfourtunately his PC can't run iTunes let alone any games. This meant that his purchase be made for the Wii, a console most gamers associate with games that are err... different to the COD series. Nevertheless he brings this game to my house raving about how good it is, in multiplayer that is. So we sit down and decide to do some Co-op. First problem. The sods have decided the Wii isn't capable or at least doesn't deserve co-op so they give us this 2 player monstrosity that is completely pants. Basically player one has a normal screen whereas player 2 gets an aiming reticule on player 1s screen. That's right. all player 2 can do is shoot. Unfourtunately neither players are given a different reticule to the other so the mix up is horrendous and no one gets anywhere. We had to stop after 5 minutes due to the fact that neither of us could aim at anything. So. Where is the 4 player co-op found on every other console and PC hmm?
It gets worse. The campaign has some of the worst physics I've ever seen in a game (with people literally falling to the floor when they have been shot...except this happened in water? Shouldn't they float?). the only saving factors are that the controls are alright and the gameplay is alright. However there is nothing remotely special at all.
The reason that this is a first impressions as opposed to a full review is that I got so bored with the game I gave up on level 2 and played some UT3 instead. I'm told the multiplayer is good but to be honest I'm not even contemplating buying this, purely because Wii owners have been skrewed over again. Damn you, damn you to hell.
I'm sorry but the developers and publishers do not deserve any money whatsoever from this half assed port. Just please do not buy the Wii version of this game, please, help yourself.
It gets worse. The campaign has some of the worst physics I've ever seen in a game (with people literally falling to the floor when they have been shot...except this happened in water? Shouldn't they float?). the only saving factors are that the controls are alright and the gameplay is alright. However there is nothing remotely special at all.
The reason that this is a first impressions as opposed to a full review is that I got so bored with the game I gave up on level 2 and played some UT3 instead. I'm told the multiplayer is good but to be honest I'm not even contemplating buying this, purely because Wii owners have been skrewed over again. Damn you, damn you to hell.
I'm sorry but the developers and publishers do not deserve any money whatsoever from this half assed port. Just please do not buy the Wii version of this game, please, help yourself.
22/11/2008
Fable 2, the Succeeding Successor, or the Oddball Offspring?
Fable 2 is one of those hit and miss games: set 50 years after the prequel, Fable 2's storyline has managed to live up to it's reputation. The “what's happeninz'” (as delicately said by The Big Geez [read my intro dammit!]) within Fable 2 is a very wide expanse of diverse and independent quests, with a catchy plot allowing for hours of gameplay at once. Unfortunately, with all much anticipated games, Fable 2 does have a few drawbacks, as mentioned later in this post.
The Graphics and “look” of the many landscapes is an awesome prospect, even with the “cartoon-like” (perhaps) style of the people. The effects of the water and the general landscape is pure eye-candy, and once you see it, you'll wonder what the hell they want to achieve for Fable 3 (will there be?). The atmosphere in game is also very peculiar, such that you actually care for your actions the first time you play the game. Instead of thinking, “I'm going to be an evil bastard all the way through”, it's more “this is so evil, even though it is a bunch of pixels”. Which leads nicely onto my next poi
nt.
The much anticipated Dog of Fable 2, very much a selling point for animal lovers (not like that! >.<), is another prospect of the game. Only 5 minutes into the game, you'll see what I mean. I actually felt like jumping into the game with a sawn-off shotgun and shooting that bully kid in the face: without giving too much away, that's all I can say. You'll know what I mean when you play it. Whenever that mutt gets hurt, or whenever a choice involves him, the choice will be most likely towards that little 4-legged chum who helps you find treasures and quests: “where would I be without him?”. Nowhere.
Once again, the non-speaking character has been brought back, with gestures including gesticulations and grunts, ranging from “Vulgar Thrusts” (Pelvic thrusts to all us normal people), to “Come Back to My Place”, which explains itself, and will be a big hit for all you sex manic gamers out there (dirty, dirty people!). This is very much a flavour of the old Fable (the gestures, not the sex manic gamers) but largely improved: families, houses, estate empires, kids, marriage, love, hate, fear, fun and the rest of it. It can be largely annoying however, with a good character, to be loved by absolutely everyone, who all ask to marry you: in a similar respect, evil characters will find that their quest target or gift giver will run away as soon as they come into view.
The quests within the Fable universe are still as fun and seemingly pointless as ever, but unfortunately, there never seems to be enough to do after the main questline. You can only complete the Crucible, commission statues or donate to the Temple of Light so many times before that never ending quest gets annoying in the quest log. To give the game credit, the quests that are there are catchy and give you the old sense of must complete, but there isn't enough of them to keep you happy for long. In addition, certain ways of playing the game cause glitches, 2 of which happen to stop the games completion. Other glitches cause your much wanted quest rewards to magically disappear (watch out Lady Grey!).
Overall, Fable 2 is definitely a game worth buying: looking past the very few glitches and the sense of rushed work give a beautiful insight into a universe of Heroes, magic, impossible creatures and awe-inspiring landscapes that a
nother game may struggle to replicate. And one last thing: thank god for a game that at last puts the emphasis into looks and weapons, rather than using armor! Thank the gods, god or whatever.
The Graphics and “look” of the many landscapes is an awesome prospect, even with the “cartoon-like” (perhaps) style of the people. The effects of the water and the general landscape is pure eye-candy, and once you see it, you'll wonder what the hell they want to achieve for Fable 3 (will there be?). The atmosphere in game is also very peculiar, such that you actually care for your actions the first time you play the game. Instead of thinking, “I'm going to be an evil bastard all the way through”, it's more “this is so evil, even though it is a bunch of pixels”. Which leads nicely onto my next poi
nt.The much anticipated Dog of Fable 2, very much a selling point for animal lovers (not like that! >.<), is another prospect of the game. Only 5 minutes into the game, you'll see what I mean. I actually felt like jumping into the game with a sawn-off shotgun and shooting that bully kid in the face: without giving too much away, that's all I can say. You'll know what I mean when you play it. Whenever that mutt gets hurt, or whenever a choice involves him, the choice will be most likely towards that little 4-legged chum who helps you find treasures and quests: “where would I be without him?”. Nowhere.
Once again, the non-speaking character has been brought back, with gestures including gesticulations and grunts, ranging from “Vulgar Thrusts” (Pelvic thrusts to all us normal people), to “Come Back to My Place”, which explains itself, and will be a big hit for all you sex manic gamers out there (dirty, dirty people!). This is very much a flavour of the old Fable (the gestures, not the sex manic gamers) but largely improved: families, houses, estate empires, kids, marriage, love, hate, fear, fun and the rest of it. It can be largely annoying however, with a good character, to be loved by absolutely everyone, who all ask to marry you: in a similar respect, evil characters will find that their quest target or gift giver will run away as soon as they come into view.
The quests within the Fable universe are still as fun and seemingly pointless as ever, but unfortunately, there never seems to be enough to do after the main questline. You can only complete the Crucible, commission statues or donate to the Temple of Light so many times before that never ending quest gets annoying in the quest log. To give the game credit, the quests that are there are catchy and give you the old sense of must complete, but there isn't enough of them to keep you happy for long. In addition, certain ways of playing the game cause glitches, 2 of which happen to stop the games completion. Other glitches cause your much wanted quest rewards to magically disappear (watch out Lady Grey!).
Overall, Fable 2 is definitely a game worth buying: looking past the very few glitches and the sense of rushed work give a beautiful insight into a universe of Heroes, magic, impossible creatures and awe-inspiring landscapes that a
nother game may struggle to replicate. And one last thing: thank god for a game that at last puts the emphasis into looks and weapons, rather than using armor! Thank the gods, god or whatever.
Introducing...
Adding to the franchise with many brand extensions is one of the perks of a blog. I am Drahc, here for you Xbox 360 diehards out there looking for “quality” console gaming (who struggle to find a decent computer, like myself). As an intro for you all I'd like to say this: as a preview to my reviews (Geddit? Preview, review, Gamer Blog? No? Oh, nevermind...) don't take absolutely everything I write word for word: chances are we don't meet eye to eye. Use these pages as a mere guideline to your next purchase. If you like something I say is crap, forget it, and put it down to difference in opinion (though in my honest opinion I'm always right... geddit? No? *sigh*).
Regards
Drahc (Conscripted Reviewer, Xbox 360)
PS: I have decided to name GamerGit, “The Big Geez” (like cheese, but not quite as awesome).
Regards
Drahc (Conscripted Reviewer, Xbox 360)
PS: I have decided to name GamerGit, “The Big Geez” (like cheese, but not quite as awesome).
Wrath of the Lich King Trashes 24 hours Sales Records
World of Warcraft, one of the most popular games IN THE WORLD has just released a new expansion. Providing you have had access to the internet you've probably heard of it. The funny thing is that in the first 24 hours of release 2.8 million copies were sold. This has broken the record for the fastest selling PC game previously held by The Sims. EAT THAT MAXIS!
Poor NCSoft
Seems that "online Sensation" Tabual Rasa just couldnt hack it when it came to the MMORPG scene. The team have decided to pull the plug on the game due to the lack of players. I would be sad had I ever played, or been interested in playing Tabula Rasa but I guess its just another kick in the balls for NCSoft (Both teams of developers and Richard Garriot have left the company). Still thats what you get for creating crappy games...(For all of you who care, TR is going under on February 29th...I'm sorry for your loss, move on)
Supreme commander 2? Yes please!
Square Enix and gas powered games have announced that they've started work on Supreme commander 2.
Hands up if this news just made you need a new pair of pants?
21/11/2008
Indie Game: The spring project
Every RTS gamer worth anything knows about Total annihilation, right? It's the father of large scale strategy gaming, and for it's time completely revolutionized the genre. The most fundamental difference was that the recourse gathering system. It was more about a balancing act between income and the constant output due to construction, rather than stockpiling to make specific units, this led to a much more dynamic experience. But, the problem was, with all games back then, the technology. There was only so much you could zoom out, and it never really looked nice, even to games at the time. But, regardless, the game had a huge fan following, due to the incredible amount of content, that stemmed from the very fact the game had subpar visuals that could easily be recreated.
For the sake of this review, i'm only going to take into account the content based off the original TA. I'm perfectly aware that the engine has evolved beyond that of simply recreating TA, but in my personal opinion, the TA based content is the best and most playable available, which shows in the lobbys, as the most popular mod played is Balanced Anahliation, or one of its varients.
What the spring project has set out to do, is to simply renovate the original game into a engine which supports fully 3D maps, while using the same models.
Changing this:
To this:
A rather substantial improvement, but does it live up to the originals brilliance? The answer? A short, and deffinate, Yes. The team have done a simply fantastic job, and i would personally even say that due to the incredible amount of content currently available, that the game actually competes with supreme commander, my favorite RTS of all time.
One of the biggest problems I come across when playing indie games would have to be the lack of polish you get with more commercial titles, and i have to say, the lobby system, integrated content downloader, and simply the loading screen screams that this is by far one of the best produced indie games around today. Graphically, its simple, yet charming. The maps and shadow detail is good enough not to be noticeable, and the unit models, while still being of the quality of its predecessors, have a simple charm to them that really differentiates them from each other. The construction vehicles, for example, have a ray that folds out and constructs buildings, and the peewees are the cutest thing that you'll ever see explode a thousand times over. One thing i have to mention though, is the ingame UI is a little shoddy, but its easy to ignore, as it serves its purpose well, and does a good job at not getting in the way.
The gameplay, being that of TA, really doesn't need questioning, its going to be great, i know that, you know that. But the level of tactical choices, coming straight from the diversity of units, is simply astounding. Do i go over this wall with Kbots? Do i build stronger heaver tanks and risk their front defenses? Do i go for a mixture? What about Air units, or even navy? How about artillery? I could start building hovercraft and just go straight over the lake, or build a subsea base and build units from that. The diversity and flexibility never leaves you doing the same thing twice.
But that was already established with TA, right? What we are interested in, is how the new engine works. And it runs on practically anything. I personally have it running on a basic Dell inspiron laptop (1.7ghz dual core, with some crappy intergrated intel graphics device) and its not bad. What i do have to say is, it does seem to have allot of problems with newer hardware. For instance, it has, or at least used to have, a problem with dual core processors. Which was a right pain. It also had a problem with my Nvidea 8600 at the time. Both problems could be fixed with a little tweaking of the settings, and it pretty much can be expected of any indie game running off its own engine, but it was frustrating nevertheless.
And like all indie games of the sort, its constantly being updated and refined. A few months ago, i would've had to of complained about the apparent lack of pathfinding, and the game losing out hugely from it, but the problem has been fixed and rectified. Now to create a front to which your units will evenly space out, you simply draw a line with the right click button, creating a makeshift formation.
But regardless, with a simply huge library of maps, mods and even different games altogether (Kernal panic for example) it's almost certain you'll find something you enjoy. That including its fantastically easy to access recourse center, and even an installer with an option to download the most used content on setup, the game itself couldn't possibly be better implemented and presented.
- GamerGit
For the sake of this review, i'm only going to take into account the content based off the original TA. I'm perfectly aware that the engine has evolved beyond that of simply recreating TA, but in my personal opinion, the TA based content is the best and most playable available, which shows in the lobbys, as the most popular mod played is Balanced Anahliation, or one of its varients.
What the spring project has set out to do, is to simply renovate the original game into a engine which supports fully 3D maps, while using the same models.
Changing this:
To this:
A rather substantial improvement, but does it live up to the originals brilliance? The answer? A short, and deffinate, Yes. The team have done a simply fantastic job, and i would personally even say that due to the incredible amount of content currently available, that the game actually competes with supreme commander, my favorite RTS of all time.
One of the biggest problems I come across when playing indie games would have to be the lack of polish you get with more commercial titles, and i have to say, the lobby system, integrated content downloader, and simply the loading screen screams that this is by far one of the best produced indie games around today. Graphically, its simple, yet charming. The maps and shadow detail is good enough not to be noticeable, and the unit models, while still being of the quality of its predecessors, have a simple charm to them that really differentiates them from each other. The construction vehicles, for example, have a ray that folds out and constructs buildings, and the peewees are the cutest thing that you'll ever see explode a thousand times over. One thing i have to mention though, is the ingame UI is a little shoddy, but its easy to ignore, as it serves its purpose well, and does a good job at not getting in the way.
The gameplay, being that of TA, really doesn't need questioning, its going to be great, i know that, you know that. But the level of tactical choices, coming straight from the diversity of units, is simply astounding. Do i go over this wall with Kbots? Do i build stronger heaver tanks and risk their front defenses? Do i go for a mixture? What about Air units, or even navy? How about artillery? I could start building hovercraft and just go straight over the lake, or build a subsea base and build units from that. The diversity and flexibility never leaves you doing the same thing twice.
But that was already established with TA, right? What we are interested in, is how the new engine works. And it runs on practically anything. I personally have it running on a basic Dell inspiron laptop (1.7ghz dual core, with some crappy intergrated intel graphics device) and its not bad. What i do have to say is, it does seem to have allot of problems with newer hardware. For instance, it has, or at least used to have, a problem with dual core processors. Which was a right pain. It also had a problem with my Nvidea 8600 at the time. Both problems could be fixed with a little tweaking of the settings, and it pretty much can be expected of any indie game running off its own engine, but it was frustrating nevertheless.
And like all indie games of the sort, its constantly being updated and refined. A few months ago, i would've had to of complained about the apparent lack of pathfinding, and the game losing out hugely from it, but the problem has been fixed and rectified. Now to create a front to which your units will evenly space out, you simply draw a line with the right click button, creating a makeshift formation.
But regardless, with a simply huge library of maps, mods and even different games altogether (Kernal panic for example) it's almost certain you'll find something you enjoy. That including its fantastically easy to access recourse center, and even an installer with an option to download the most used content on setup, the game itself couldn't possibly be better implemented and presented.
- GamerGit
20/11/2008
Craig's Red Alert 3 Review
First off, I am rather a Command and Conquer fan, playing mostly all of them, apart from some of the expansions, I even played that random FPS they decided to make for no honest-to-God reason. So when, jumping back a year, they released Command and Conquer 3: Tiberian Wars, with the revival of Kane, one of the greatest game Villians in a game, followed closely by Dr. Breen, i was rather extactic, and, by Jove, the introduction of an alien race, Yay! Happiness for all, and the result, after buying and playing the game, for me personally was a: Meh...with meh sprinkles, all the over-poweredness of the Necrons in Dark Crusade without any of the kick-ass to follow.So on randomly finding a link to "New Red Alert Game" i was half in anticipation, half in dread over this new EA release. Jump back further into the past, and you possibly will remember Red Alert 2, which was a fine specimin of a RTS of it's time, Russians Vs. Allies, lots of Dogs, Spiders, Tanks, blowing each other to Hell, futher back still from that, going to Red Alert, yes I have played it and was deeply hurt, when i saw the Full Game for free on a demo disk and it not working due to Vista, Damn OS's. Anyway Red Alert 3 has quite a high standard to reach, even if the bar was lowered a couple of notches due to C&C3.
When i first saw C&C3 i had thought, By Jolly, a playable alien race, Hazzar! Demographic targeted, Amazing Sci-Fi actor cast, away we go, and, as i previously stated. Meh. Even with the Nerd-gasm from the sci-fi actors all in the same room.
As i said in my Fallout 3 review, I chose RA3 over Fallout & Dead Space, due to it's blurb on the back of the box, at the time, when i was less informed, Fallout was a FPS, Dead Space was in a similar meh ish category, and i was bored out of my mind with FPS's, and RA3 which is obviously a RTS, which i hadn't played for awhile since possibly C&C3, but what sold RA3 over the other two, was the lines, in the blurb, "Parachuting Bears" and "Samurai Robots", I mean, Wow!! Their creative department must have been locked away, families threatened, and force fed awesome pizza till they came up with that. Then when you open the box you get a poster of the Girls of RA3, awesome as a concept, how-ever, bears and robots is one thing, perhaps mixing them together and putting them into a setting like, Mars, and having them fight, Flying Monkey Fish, for something like, Lemon Pie, but when the female interest comes into play, t is rather degrading and insulting, I mean, don't get me wrong, nice looking co-commanders are all well and good, but when each shows off far too much clevage and wears things totally unsuitable for combat or a desk job, it's the metaphorical carrot dangling infront of the nerd, and to be honest, I don't bite.
Anyway, moving onto the actual game, and the gameplay, if you have played C&C3 and Generals, it's more of the same: Build base, collect money, all base are belong to me, collecting money seems more difficult than usual, but that's good, no instant building a massive army, and there are enough ore mines scattered around anyway. Bases are intuative, as they can be built on land and water, superweapons also included, although, floating walls havn't caught on yet. On the subject of super-weapons, they are still as over-powered as ever, but i suppose thats were the "Super" comes into it, some, like the Chronosphere have the most obsurdly short cool-down time, but they have moved away from RA2's Nukes and Lightening and moved towards Vacuums and Photons, Hazzar for science! It's all very pretty, and also amazing destructive.
Units are similar, Tesla Troopers, Conscripts, Attack dogs, but here's where it moves on and gets interesting, all three races (I'm moving on to the third one soon, promise) have different mechanisms for warfare, Russians have boats that go on land, and flying parachuting stuff, Allies have disguise and sheilds, and the Japs have Transformers, one that even looks like Optimus Prime, if he had been captured and brainwashed by the Japs. Still on this racial differences thing, Each race has a different way of building the base, and upgrading it, Russians put structure down first, and build up, Allies build it then plonk it down, and Japs build it, put it in a box, and says "where-ever's fine with me boss", same with upgrading, Russians just build stuff, and upgrade that way, Allies, have to get one upgrade from the central command thingy they are near to, and Japs, upgrade each unit producing facility individually, which when they keep getting blown up, can annoy the hell out of you.
Each unit gets a rather nifty secondary ability or weapon, Some might get a "Jump back in time to heal or remove yourself from a stupid fight" others might change to a magnetic gun, that sucks in tanks to crush them under their tracks. Which adds more tactics to the game as opposed to "Big army, move over there, kill anything between Point A, and Point B."
We now move swiftly onto Powers. For some games, it's a saving grace, something to turn to if your amazing attack plan of flimsy robots against a moon lazor didn't go quite to plan. Powers can turn the tide of a battle quickly, but for a game that offers soo much in the way of tactics, which the changing weapons and abilities, it turns into a power-up cluster-fuck. Some powers are overly ridiculus, like a satalite to steal all your tanks without warning, or a bomb you can't stop, you just set it off quicker.
As i've mentions they have released a new faction into the game, The Empire of the Rising Sun, and they are pretty funky, Transformers Vs. Ruskies, and since the aforementioned changing weapon and use of abilities things, all races are equal, unlike the Scrin in C&C3, where you could wipe the floor clean with Planetary Assault Carrier and Devastator Warships.
I suppose, for me, the best bit about RA3 is the actors involved, do actually create a nerd-gasm.
I mean, the Japs are rules by Sulu, for those familiar with the Star Trek Universe, Russians led by Long John Silver, and with the Crazy Russian scientist from Armeggedon, and the allies led by the Head reporter from the Spider Man films, with the second in command being a Bond villian.
Another new feature, which is rather nifty, that EA have decided would be a good thing to implament, is a Co-op campaign, which is orginal for a C&C game, and is quite fun, even if you can't select the commander you want to be, but hey thats being pedantic.
Speaking of being Pedantic, i move onto problems. Glorious, Glorious Problems. First off, The Powers, "God Said: "Let there be Powers" and Craig Said: "Fuck off!!!"" I mean, with less than careful planning, and more random clicking, you could decimate a base beyond repair with superweapons and powers alone. Another thing that is rather annoying is the swimming thing, Dogs and Bears especially. Not disputing the fact that they can swim, it's just that... Dogs don't swim an inch above the water, and Bears haven't inherited the powers of Christ and can walk on water, so in a round-about way, i'm saying they don't look realistic. Now Remember back to RA2, and the fun RA2 Chronosphere fun, or moving boats onto land, or land units to water, and it would destroy them, I do, and well it works still, but, Submerged units seem immune to this fun, and this i would of accepted, if i couldn't bloody see them under the water!! And why, when i fly planes accross and fire missiles into the water does it do bugger all to them?? Absolutly no damage what-so-ever.
Anyway, overall, it is a fun game, and lives up to the RA standard, beating C&C3 by far, not that it had to do much. It still keeps the heart of a C&C game, good casting of actors, good fun races to chose, all fun, but, word of warning, if you are bored with the Build base, munch stuff, routine of RTS, firstly, don't buy RTS's second, RA3 is more of the same.
By the way, sorry for Essays. One day i'll write a short review.
Well this has been Craig, No clue what i'll review next, possibly a Freeman game, or a game related to cake, and lies.
18/11/2008
Whats to come...
Hello all my gamer friends and welcome to the site!
I am Jaffakira and I'm here to tell you about what's to come on the blog. I'll start with reviews.
First up we have futuristic RTS game Red Alert 3.
Next we have the 2 survival horrors Left 4 Dead and Dead Space.
Last but not least we have 2 Xbox 360 reviews coming up for Fable 2 and Gears of War 2.
Also coming soon is our Youtube channel. This will contain all of the game related videos we happen to come across and will he worth looking out for, we'll keep you posted.
Lastly I'd like to take this chance to personally thank all of you reading this. Readers are definitely something that we are short on so thank you.
Seeyahs all soon
JaffaKira
I am Jaffakira and I'm here to tell you about what's to come on the blog. I'll start with reviews.
First up we have futuristic RTS game Red Alert 3.
Next we have the 2 survival horrors Left 4 Dead and Dead Space.
Last but not least we have 2 Xbox 360 reviews coming up for Fable 2 and Gears of War 2.
Also coming soon is our Youtube channel. This will contain all of the game related videos we happen to come across and will he worth looking out for, we'll keep you posted.
Lastly I'd like to take this chance to personally thank all of you reading this. Readers are definitely something that we are short on so thank you.
Seeyahs all soon
JaffaKira
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