Wednesday, December 29, 2010

Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood


I'm kind of glad that I get to review AssCreeBro as a noob meaning this is the first AssCreed I ever play. No rampant fanboism in this review no way!

AssCreedBro is the third game by Ubisoft (And all the multicultural people who work there) in the AssCreed series and the second game featuring the oh so sexy Ezio Auditore Da something something.

Starting off the game I was completely lost on what was going on but luckily some light recapping done by Ezio and various cutscenes got me caught up with the main bullet points of the AssCreed storyline. Apparently the world has been taken over by some horribly oppressive force and it up to Desmond and his Scooby gang to chase down an ancient artifact that might be the answer to bringing down the corporation.

In the beginning you get to test out the basic controls fro controlling Ezio and I would like to say, hand cramps. I've never had to hold so many buttons to do things before. It felt weird in the beginning when you were being forced to keep up with someone as you ran through a small villa and I couldn't stay on the rooftops for more that 3 seconds without flailing and falling onto the ground below. As the game progressed however I got the hang of the basic jump,climb, run mechanic and found it to be fluid. Not one of the easiest games to learn the controls for.

The fighting is where this game puts me off. Its just so clunky and awkward I avoided fighting unless I accidentally stabbed a guard (which happened way too much). I'm not going to lie, when you landed a hit it felt solid and the clang of metal against metal or flesh was music to my ears. The thing was that you had to hold a button to do counters or dodge an attack and when you're being attacked by 10 or more guards you don't have enough reaction time and wind up getting sliced up. Even when you do try to do a counter if its off by a second you end up doing this weird mystical hand wave thing that leaves you open for attack. Regular attacking is just a one button mash until you land a hit and kill your opponent so there are no combos to preform. There is a kick button which is insanely helpful when the asshole guards block 98% of your attacks; it breaks their guard by delivering a kick to the balls. When you do manage to counter Ezio preforms glorious dance of death that has him kill an enemy in such a great way; from double eye stabs to a blade in the stomach to neck breaking, its really something. The silent assassinations are pretty easy to do and incredibly satisfying. Dropping a Borgia guard and continuing your badass mofo walk is easy and highly awesome.

I got a bit lost with the story but from what I gathered, a man named Cesare Borgia son of the first Borgia you kill in the second game (So I've heard) is back for revenge or something but he attacks Ezio's city, kills his Uncle Mario, and confronts Ezio inviting him to Rome then shooting him. This pisses off Ezio and vows revenge. The story circles around Cesare and how Ezio takes him down bit by bit. Then some orb comes into play that has amazing amounts of power (but bogs you down extremely when you actually use it in-game) and needs to be taken away from him. You meet alot of great characters during the span of the single player story(Leonardo is here again), each with their own problems that Ezio MUST help them resolve. In the real world, Desmond and the gang find out where the orb is and some things happen in the end that left me going wtf. Cliff hanger ending that irritated me but my friends say that's how the first two AssCreed's ended.

Ok now to the main thing about the new AssCreed, the Assassins you can hire. You can spot them being attacked by Borgia guards and you must defend them and kill the guards before you can hire them. You can send them on on assassinations to different locations and although the descriptions sound awesome the assassination contracts occur via tons amount of texts and commands. You can also call assassins into battle to help you out and kill certain targets so you don't have to or want to remain hidden. There's also a pretty awesome Arrow Storm ability when you have a certain amount of assassins that lets you rain down arrows on groups of Borgia for fast crowd control. All and all they are insanely helpful in a pinch and are easily replaceable if one falls in battle (which is rare anyway).

Quick note, this game is incredibly gorgeous. Seriously I've never seen such a great looking game. From the cobblestone streets to the architecture to the sky, everything is very nicely made and makes you feel like you're in there during that time period.

There are tons of collectibles with the Feathers and Flags and there is also renovation of buildings which I find kind of stupid since the money you earn from renovating them is the same money you use to renovate other buildings so its a vicious cyclone of money. You can use money to upgrade your gear but they don't cost much and neither do health potions so you end up with all this extra cash and nothing to spend it on which just keeps on growing until your wallet explodes I guess. You get tons of weapons but you'll end up using your double blades the majority of the time and the rest feel like random knickknacks you can't get rid of.

In all this game is great and if you're a pre-existing fan of the franchise you probably already have it but if you're a new player I suggest it highly. It inspired me to go out and buy AssCreed2 and see what I've been missing.

(Note: I didn't talk about the multiplayer partly because I had no one to play with and I forgot it existed before returning it.)

Sunday, December 19, 2010

[PROTOTYPE]


Prototype has to be one of the greatest fucking around games to come out in the last 3 years. I say that because you can waste a good chunk of time throwing people into buildings and elbow dropping into cars before remembering the game has a main quest line.

Prototype, a sandbox game,(By Radical Entertainment and Activision) gives you controlled of a super powered test subject called Alex Mercer. He wakes up in the morgue of the testing facility and sets out to find out what happened to him. Yes, another main character with amnesia and the entire story revolving around it; not the freshest idea in the cliche box but I doubt you'll care much.

Prototype gives you a superhero(villain?) level character and sets you lose in New York City, more specifically Manhattan (duh) with plenty of high buildings you will most likely be hurling yourself off of and landing on innocent people below. Like I said, Prototype is the best game to just have incredible amounts of fun without even touching the main quest line. You are given incredible amounts of power usually coming in the form of giant blades, spikes and bludgeons. High jumps can't kill you and actually cause shockwaves throwing anything nearby off to the side. You can also glide by squirting out jets of blood from your hands and feet (that's what it looks like, it may be magical grape jelly that makes you fly for all I know) making traveling through Manhattan feel effortless.

The controls for these may take some time to get use to but are overall easy to understand. You can charge up jumps by holding jump button while running to do a mega jump that you can use to easily clear barricades and small buildings. Selecting different weapons is simple by letting you use a radial menu that slows down the game to a crawl giving you SOME time to chose the right weapon before being torn open by a giant mutant or a tank. There is a quickslot option that maps a weapon, an appearance, a sensing ability and a shield ability to the D-Pad which allows you to massacre an entire block then quickly transform into an old lady and walk away like nothing happened. The human consume ability is enjoyable to say the least. It replenishes your health but also gives you that person's appearance. What makes it amusing is HOW you consume someone. You either punch them through the chest, slam them on the ground, or snap their spine. If you have a mutation weapon selected it gives you different moves.

As you could've guessed this game is bloody, bloody, bloody. Blood and body parts will be all over the place when you go on a rampage. Even when certain areas of Manhattan get infected by the virus you're trying to keep under control, the streets and buildings turn red and people mutated into blood covered zombies.

Oh right the story. The story for Prototype is confusing. Its like a conspiracy/revenge plot with you trying to discover who you really are and what the company (GenTec) is doing with all these mutants but the government is involved and trying to cover it up but the virus is escaping somehow and there's this woman you're trying to save. Its really confusing. Its so confusing that there are people you can consume to fill something called a Web Of Intrigue which explains what the hell is going on. they needed collectible human brains to try to explain to the player whats going on in the main story they're playing through. Right then.

My biggest gripe in Prototype is the lack of a block button. There IS a dodge button but sometimes that just doesn't cut it. Especially when there are monsters (picture a giant gorilla turned inside out) that do an chain attack that you can't block or jump out off and when there's more than one you can kiss your mutated ass goodbye. Another thing was some of the combos you could unlock. Some of them have you press two buttons at once but sometimes they pick strange buttons like X and B which are impossible to press without hitting A or Y (unless you have strangely slender fingers) so it makes them un-usable in a battle against the army or a hoard of mutants. Last thing the graphics could have used a bit more polish. Things look muddy and at times textures look cloudy and messy. The explosions are.....oi the explosions.

If you want a game that's high in messing around and low on story, Prototype is a great choice. Solid gameplay, simple enough controls, and a high replay value. What more could you want? (Plus its probably like 15 bucks now so its worth a check out)

Thursday, December 2, 2010

Fable III


Ok so I'm going to try to get through this without sounding like a jaded gamer which is extremely hard for me because of what Fable 2 did to me.

Fable III is the third game by Peter Molyneux in attempt to make you care about the fate of a bunch of emotional-less NPCs being oppressed by their King who happens to be your brother. You are essentially the rebel child and set off to try and overthrow him to make Albion a better place to live. The reason that I was so upset with Fable II was the lack of any real change from the first one. It just felt like the only things that changed were bigger maps and a dog. Even the story lacked any real kick and sadly Fable III follows its predecessor with its uninspired story.

The game starts off following around a chicken. Yes a chicken. It follows it as it tries to escape from being killed by random towns folk as Reaver (yes again) does the narration. The chicken ends up being killed (spoiler?) and one of its feathers lands on your window sill thus beginning your journey.

Right away you'll notice that the lip sync and graphics for this game are god awful. I'm being totally serious the lip work is totally off and the cutscenes(apart from like 3 HD ones) look even worse. It looks like everyone has lockjaw. You would think that will all the next gen engines that Lionhead would've gotten a better one. The only thing that look decent are the horizon shots which look pretty colorful and I guess the fog but I don't think anyone can mess up how fog looks.

Speaking of fog let me quickly touch on the monsters, most of the monsters are exactly the same from the last to games although rather uglier especially the Balverines. There are a few monsters but they are confined to an area so you wont be seeing them around as often. You will fight Hollow Men. Lots and lots of Hollow Men. They are EVERYWHERE. They've become what Hobbs where in the first and second game.

The combat for Fable III is pretty much exactly the same as Fable II. You're standard each button controls Magic,Ranged and Melee. The Melee combat is still the same flail and flourish type of combat. I don't know a lot about the ranged since I barely used it. It was pretty useless since magic does twice the damage and casts faster than you can shot and reload. The Magic for Fable is still great which is the only thing I still love about the Fable series. The magic combinations are fun but feel a tad overpowered at times. The one big step back for magic is the fact that you can't scroll through them on the fly, they are now in the form of gloves which you need to swap out (you can only have one at a time or two if you've unlocked the spell combination skill)and some spells have been converted to potions that you use on the D-pad. I didn't like the fact that when you could combine two spells you couldn't use the spells on their own. For example if you had Fire and Vortex you couldn't just use vortex, it had to be vortex and fire.

They bring back so many elements from the old games in Fable III it feels like you're playing Fable I again. You're base is again the Guild HQ. There you can swap weapons, spell gloves, clothes, etc. This opens up when you press the start button so saving is a bit longer. Luckily you can do it in the middle of a fight if you feel a spell or weapon isn't adequate for the current situation you can just change it. Reaver is also around and she will be your guide(again) through what you need to do. The story for Fable III is so overly dramatic. You have to gain followers to help you overthrow your brother and you have to make promises with them in order for them to join you. I thought to myself, a quick slip of poison into my brother's morning coffee wouldn't have done the trick? I LIVE IN THE SAME CASTLE AS HIM!! But then I remembered it was a game and sighed. Anyway not only that, there is apparently a big shadow thing that is going to destroy Albion and so on. I heard that its similar to the black shadow in Kingdom Hearts. Never having played KH (don't judge me) I can't say but for those of you that HAVE, there you go.

The ending for Fable III is again a load of shit. You see it coming miles away and it isn't even that hard. I literally sat there and went "Is that really it?" They spend the entire last half of the game hyping up this huge war and then it happens and its over in a few minutes. In other words, don't get your hopes up for a change in tradition of Fable having crappy endings.

Customization has been obliterated in Fable III. You can't buy clothes the old fashion way, they sit out in the open and there's about 10 or so styles of clothing to choose from (if you don't mix and match). For a game that's all about the Role Play element they really messed it up in this game. Also the towns don't feel different. It all feels like you've been there before.

One more gripe and I'll end this (wow this got long) the button holding to open or do anything. Who the hell thought that was a good idea? I don't mind holding down the A button to open the door but I have to let it go for it to work. It doesn't automatically happen. Trust me, after playing so many games where doors open on one press, it will frustrate the crap out of you. Anyway, Fable III just made everything worse and didn't deserve to be made. That said, lets all sit back and wait for the inevitable Fable IV. Maybe they'll give us new ways to fart on people.

Thursday, November 25, 2010

Holding/Tapping __ Button To Run



You would think that with all the modern tech and advance gaming systems and rigs we would be over the whole "TAP X TO RUN!!" or "HOLD RT AND X TO RUN!!" and of course "HOLD RT WHILE TAPPING X AND PRESSING FORWARD TO RUN!!" to me that's just way to many damn buttons to press. I thought we've established that slight tilt forward was walk, full press forward was jog and twice forward was run. I don't mind pressing a button then letting go but when they force you to hold it down to run its a fucking pain in the ass. Not only that but if you're neck deep in enemies with a sliver of health left and you're trying to get the hell out of there and your fingers give out, you can say hello to your previous checkpoint or save point because your ass is gone.

I know that back in the day you had to hold the button down to run but with so many fucking buttons and types of controllers and joystick sensitivity (HA!) you would think that this little burden from the past would have been eliminated. Tapping is the worse though. Especially if you have to back track or your destination if freakishly long. I think game developers take pleasure in this kind of torturous button mashing. Using an example from a recent game I will call "Blue Alive Vendetta" to protect it's anonymity, this game forces you to tap the run button to get anywhere and if you're aim is off, leaves you running past cover or into a building or enemy since your character apparently has bus air-brakes.

In short, game devs, please stop torturing us with this annoying notion of "immersion". You cant immerse yourself in a game if you need to put your hand in a bucket of ice every 10 minutes from running.

Wednesday, November 17, 2010

Call Of Duty : Black Ops


Another year, another Call of Duty game. Developed by Treyarch, this new installment promises a grittier storyline, stealthier missions and a better story. Do they deliver? Kinda. I'll explain.

In Black Ops you play as Alex Mason a Black Ops agent who is strapped to a chair. The whole game is played in his head (memories) as you try to figure out a code some guy behind a frosted window keeps yelling to you about. As you progress, you will visit many locales from Cuba to Vietnam. In great CoD fashion, the first mission is fast paced, making you run around Cuba making your way up to Castro's base. To do what you ask? You should have a pretty good idea being a CoD game.

There is this conspiracy vibe during the entire extent of the game which is focused on numbers (more specifically a number station). The cutscenes cut between live action shots of war and propaganda clips to in game models (Think Prototype Web Of Intrigue). Don't try to follow these because they make as much sense as the story itself. You have to apparently stop the Russians from unleashing something called Nova 6, which is a bio toxin that makes peoples inside spurt out.

Was it just me, or did the AI enemies get significantly dumber? They just walk up to you and wait for you to notice them before shooting you. Either that or they walk near you casually, just walking like you're no enemy. When it happens so often you end up shooting teammates thinking they're hostiles. Next, some guns have RIDICULOUS amounts of recoil that leave you shooting in the area just above the enemy. While I'm on aiming, the aiming is really off. To get a clear head shot you need to aim just above the target's head. Even body shots tend to miss. While I'm on THAT, enemies can soak up tons of damage before going down. Some even fall over for a few seconds then GET BACK UP like nothing happened! Luckily accompanied with their own horrible aiming you'll end up running up to most of the enemies and just stabbing them. A personal gripe, knife kills don't feel satisfying. Like in MW2 you can actual hear and feel the knife slice. In Ops its just a swing and a tiny spurt of blood. Infinite spawning bad guys. I can do without them forever after Black Ops. Almost every single scenario had them and they're so annoying and should never be in any game ever. Lastly, smoke grenades have zero effect on enemies so don't waste your time throwing them, their shots will still hit you.

Now the good (the small amount there was): Water levels were done very well. Swimming is easy and you don't have to worry about quickly losing your breath. The damage taken, blood on your screen looks less like grape jelly and more like blood which was a welcome shift. The player controlled guided missiles were fun as well letting you take out enemies and mainly tanks while elegantly spinning a guided missile down on them. The crossbow. A hundred times the crossbow. It was so entertaining pinning an enemy with and exploding bolt and watch them flail until it exploded.

Graphically this game look likes any other war game. There are different variations of green brown and grey for our liking. They did introduce blue but that's just because water can't be green or brown without looking like diarrhea. The explosions are really shitty. Even grand explosions like when you take out a rocket look like tiny pops of light. The sky is well done though giving a real feeling of change and time of day.

Ok I didn't touch the multiplayer because the Single Player pissed me off so much but I did manage to try the Zombie mode and I can say that its meh. Its not good but its not very bad. You know how in typical zombie games, headshots equals death? Not for Black Ops zombies! I would shot them in the head and they would continue to attack me regardless. Even shooting most of their limbs off didn't seem to faze these zombies. I ended up shooting them in the shoulder which would kill them faster oddly. When you get power ups (which come in the form of a floating green number or letter) an extremely creepy voice announces what you've picked up. That's good and all but sometimes you can barely understand him and you're left wondering what you picked up. Luckily it shows it a the bottom of the screen but sometimes the symbols are to vague to know what they are. The in game dialogue between you and your partner is VERY ANNOYING. The voice acting for the zombie mode is incredibly bad with no way of turning it off. To advance in Zombie Mode you need to collect points equal to the amount the door prompts you. This can be done by fixing doors and killing zombies. You can cheat and break down a fixed door with your knife and collect the points while your partner keeps the zombies busy. Also, points aren't shared meaning if the door needs 1000 points to open and you have 500 and your partner has 500 you can't combine them which is fine for online Multiplayer but for couch co-op is a pain in the ass.

All and all, die-hard fans will pick this up regardless but if you're new to it, I suggest Modern Warfare 2.

Also I can sum up the entire main story line with one name. Tyler Durden.

Saturday, October 30, 2010

Super Scribblenauts


In the spirit of Halloween I shall mask myself as old Kotaku and review Super Scribblenauts they way they use to (and probably fail at it).

Super Scribblenauts is the follow-up tittle to 5Th Cell's 2009 game Scribblenauts which was ultimately so-so on account of wonky controls and lack of any real progression. Have they stepped up with their addition of Adjectives? We shall see.

Liked:

New Control Scheme For Max: In the first Scribblenauts the only way to move Max was to tap the screen and Max would flail towards the spot knocking down any intricate set up you had trying to solve the puzzle. Apparently 5Th Cell heard our screams of frustration and made Max controllable with the D-Pad which is much appreciated especially since there are some puzzle which require very steady movements and precise controlling.

Adjectives, Adjectives and more Adjectives!: The addition of adjectives really mixes up the Scribblenauts formula making creating things and solving puzzles that much more entertaining. Adjectives can alter the size, nature, even the texture of any item. For example, you can type in "Angry Orange House" and an angry bouncing house will appear and if you're standing too close you will get attacked by it. Adjectives also makes challenges more difficult by making them only solvable with certain adjective described items adding more thought to each puzzle.

Hints! For a fee: The addition of Hints comes in handy when a certain puzzle is wracking your brain. Though sometimes they are a little obscure they ultimately point you in the right direction to solving the puzzle. Hints appear in a small hourglass that fills up over time, if you take too long solving the puzzle the hint will start ticking and let you know there's a hint available. Inclusively, you can buy the hints if you have enough Ollars and don't want to wait. You get three hints in total with the final one pretty much telling you what you need to summon.


Didn't Like

Repetitive Levels : Seriously Super Scribblenauts how many times do I have to see that 3x3 grid with the fill in the missing squares stage? I can honestly say that out of 6 played levels I've seen that grid easily 8 or more times. With the addition of adjectives you'd think that their levels would vary more. That also goes for the create-a-blank machine level. I swear between those two levels its about 40% of the entire game.

Wow This Game is Short: The first Scribblenauts had two sets of levels per world. That made the game extremely long and challenging since the flip levels where usually much more harder. Heck I still haven't gotten through all the flip levels. Super Scribblenauts ditches that ( I guess they needed room for all the "wacky" adjectives) and just lets us repeat the level using different words and adjectives. Personally I hated doing that because it got really old after doing that stage twice. The entire game has about 12 levels with about 12 puzzles each. Compared to the first Scribblenauts 20 levels and about 24 puzzles per level.

Still Lacking Any Direction or Objective: This game suffers from what the first one did, With the ability to make anything a reality you get bored because you have no sense of direction or any sense of structure. When you complete a level it doesn't really feel like you've accomplished anything other than killing time. There's no overall story no real point to do anything other than solving the puzzle right in front of you.

Obscure Wording. Yep Again : Yes this game also suffers from the weird wording that the first one did but this also includes adjectives. You will get frustrated when the game continuously crosses out what you're trying to spawn even if you've tried every word you can think off for the item and even resorted to writing it in another language out of frustration. I don't blame 5Th Cell because they do have a lot of stuff to add but making them less complex to create would be ideal. They don't even bother correcting it they just cross it out and spawn whatever the noun was.

Super Scribblenauts

In the spirit of Halloween I shall mask myself as old Kotaku and review Super Scribblenauts they way they use to (and probably fail at it).

Super Scribblenauts is the follow-up tittle to 5Th Cell's 2009 game Scribblenauts which was ultimately so-so on account of wonky controls and lack of any real progression. Have they stepped up with their addition of Adjectives? We shall see.

Liked:

New Control Scheme For Max: In the first Scribblenauts the only way to move Max was to tap the screen and Max would flail towards the spot knocking down any intricate set up you had trying to solve the puzzle. Apparently 5Th Cell heard our screams of frustration and made Max controllable with the D-Pad which is much appreciated especially since there are some puzzle which require very steady movements and precise controlling.

Adjectives, Adjectives and more Adjectives!: The addition of adjectives really mixes up the Scribblenauts formula making creating things and solving puzzles that much more entertaining. Adjectives can alter the size, nature, even the texture of any item. For example, you can type in "Angry Orange House" and an angry bouncing house will appear and if you're standing too close you will get attacked by it. Adjectives also makes challenges more difficult by making them only solvable with certain adjective described items adding more thought to each puzzle.

Hints! For a fee: The addition of Hints comes in handy when a certain puzzle is wracking your brain. Though sometimes they are a little obscure they ultimately point you in the right direction to solving the puzzle. Hints appear in a small hourglass that fills up over time, if you take too long solving the puzzle the hint will start ticking and let you know there's a hint available. Inclusively, you can buy the hints if you have enough Ollars and don't want to wait. You get three hints in total with the final one pretty much telling you what you need to summon.


Didn't Like

Repetitive Levels : Seriously Super Scribblenauts how many times do I have to see that 3x3 grid with the fill in the missing squares level? I can honestly say that out of 6 played levels I've seen that grid easily 8 or more times. With the addition of adjectives you'd think that their levels would vary more. That also goes for the create-a-blank machine level. I swear between those two levels its about 40% of the entire game.

Wow This Game is Short: The first Scribblenauts had two sets of levels per world. That made the game extremely long and challenging since the flip levels where usually much more harder. Heck I still haven't gotten through all the flip levels. Super Scribblenauts ditches that ( I guess they needed room for all the "wacky" adjectives) and just lets us repeat the level using different words and adjectives. Personally I hated doing that because it got really old after doing that stage twice. The entire game has about 12 levels with about 12 puzzles each. Compared to the first Scribblenauts 20 levels and about 24 puzzles per level.

Still Lacking Any Direction or Objective: This game suffers from what the first one did, With the ability to make anything a reality you get bored because you have no sense of direction or any sense of structure. When you complete a level it doesn't really feel like you've accomplished anything other than killing time. There's no overall story no real point to do anything other than solving the puzzle right in front of you.

Obscure Wording. Yep Again : Yes this game also suffers from the weird wording that the first one did but this also includes adjectives. You will get frustrated when the game continuously crosses out what you're trying to spawn even if you've tried every word you can think off for the item and even resorted to writing it in another language out of frustration. I don't blame 5Th Cell because they do have a lot of stuff to add but making them less complex to create would be ideal. They don't even bother correcting it they just cross it out and spawn whatever the noun was.

Friday, October 29, 2010

Read Dead Redemption : Undead Nightmare


Rockstar has a track record for releasing some amazing DLC for their games and this is no different. It has everything you can ever want in a undead apocalypse game, Undead, Nuns, people eating each other, Unicorns, and even Sasquatches!

The game starts off right after John Marston gets home to his family after killing Bill Williamson. The Marston family is having a nice familiar gathering when they wonder where Uncle is. They don't put too much worry on it and head to bed. Uncle makes for a rude awakening as he has become a shambling undead and attacks John and Abigail in there bedroom. John manages to knock him out with a lamp and he runs off to find his gun leaving Abigail in there with the Undead Uncle which later regains consciousness and chases Abigail outside and proceeds to bite her. While she writhes in pain Marston kills Uncle. Their son runs out to see if his mother is alright and is bitten by her. They soon change into Undead and Marston ties them up and stows them in their house as he sets off to find a cure for this "disease".

This DLC does not mix with the main Red Dead storyline and when you start up the game you get a prompt on which version of the game you want to play which is pretty awesome. I was worried that they would be forced to make it all either a dream state or a hallucination. If you were expecting a half assed DLC with Undead attached you are gladly mistaken. The DLC actually has a really good story with many old characters popping up and some meeting their fate to the barrel of your gun (for the first time or again).

The Undead type are spread even into the animals. From Undead Bears to Undead Bulls, everything has been infected. The main human Undead is classified into four groups; Your standard slow walking shambling Undead, A Retcher which spits out blobs of acid and explodes when killed causing splash damage (It is NOT a L4D2 Spitter even if they do kind of moan the same), Bruisers big fat guys who rush you and attempt to knock you down (No they're not Chargers from L4D), and Bolters who scurry around the floor on all fours at high speeds and attack you (Not Jockeys from L4D2). This mix of undead proves to some annoyingly hard situations when you get attacked by 4 Bolters while getting spit on by a Retcher for example which can lead to death in a few seconds. Luckily you have a handful of new weapons to assist you; a Blunderbuss which shots undead body parts, Undead Bait which comes in handy to draw them out if you're snipping them from a roof top, A Torch melee weapon which sets undead on fire, and Holy Water which sets Undead on fire in a glorious blue flame. Oh and you can only kill undead with headshots. I know right?!

The environment and ambiance of this game really pulls you in. Everything is covered in an eerie gray fog, the skies are covered with grey clouds and it periodically rains making it feel even more dreary. When you save a town from an Undead Horde the sky above the town clears up and sunshine pours in which I thought was a really nice touch. Also, when you ride out and spot a saved town you can see the sky opening and the rays of light shinning down which gives the game a more dream-scape like feeling to it.

The new Challenges and collectibles (so to speak) for this DLC come in the shape of the Four Horses Of The Apocalypse (Famine,War,Pestilence and Death) which you find through random encounters exploring the world. So have specific traits that prove useful (Pestilence has a high damage resistance for example)when traveling. They have unlimited stamina which is another plus when trying to outrun an undead Cougar (or 4 Undead cougars =|) or a flash mob of Undead. The Hunter Challenges are still there and come in a few fun and sometimes ridiculously over the top packages.

I didn't want to give away everything but overall this add-on does not take itself seriously at all. From the cheesy B-movie intro scene to a Sasquatch talking to you about how horrible humans are, Undead Nightmare is probably one of the best DLCs to come out this year and I suggest everyone with a copy of RDR to get it.

P.S: There's also a stand alone hard copy of it coming out Nov. 26 for 30 bucks just in case you dont want to buy RDR just for the DLC.

Wednesday, October 6, 2010

Enslaved: Odyssey to the West



Enslaved throws you head first into a world unknown yet familiar. This is honestly one of the most interesting games I've played in 2010. An old concept of AI co-op but with a refreshing take on it (your AI partner is actually useful!).

Enslaved tells the story of Monkey, a loner with a strange hatred for wearing shirts. Through a serious of events you end up meeting your partner (and master) Trip, who puts a slave headband on you to help her get back to her home after a epic crash in the decaying ruins of New York City. What keeps you from ignoring her and stamping her out like a match of you ask? Well if her heart stops beating for any reason, the headband with deliver a lethal charge and kill you. This sets off a love/hate relationship between these two and starts probably the best forced co-op game to date. Trip is extremely useful; from distracting enemies shooting at you to opening doors to finding the way around the map for you. You do have to save her from time to time but its usually from ledges she's about to slip off or a hoard of robots ganging up on her. These situations happen less and less as the game progresses which means you wont be having to watch her all the time.

Enslaved is a highly platform oriented game with some combat elements which work well. The combat is limited however by the lack of any real combos other than the standard heavy and light attacks. This shouldn't put you off though since the combat sequences are solid and movement is fluid. One thing that I don't recommend using while in the heat of battle is the plasma shots your Staff (main and only personal weapon) emits because it switches the camera to over the shoulder and kills your speed leaving you wide open for a barrage of attacks from the more difficult enemies. The enemies in Enslaved come in the form of blade wielding, electricity flinging mechs but are somewhat lacking with only about 4 different variations. There are also 2 different mini boss mechs which prove easier than expected. They do get annoying and repetitive at times when you have to fight the same enemies over and over again but again, this should not put you off the game.

Besides the somewhat ho-hum combat and enemy types, the platforming is where this game shines. It is absolutely phenomenal. Think Prince of Persia meets Mario with a dash of Uncharted. Swinging from ledge to pipe to platform is incredibly smooth and effortless. Even maneuvering through timed jumps feels easy and never tedious or tough. The climbable ledges in the environment are thankfully highlighted in a glossy finish. Though sometimes with the camera shifts you might miss them. Speaking of environment, the backgrounds for this game are hugeeee. You feel completely submerged in your environment. There's a lot of depth and looking down from high places gives you a sense of grandeur and some fear about how hard it will hurt to fall off.

The controls for this game are pretty easy to understand and its very easy to pick up and play without much specialization on the buttons. There is a "Hey Button" which makes Monkey jump and yell "Hey!" every time its pressed. Its just for kicks at times but in reality its useful for drawing attention away from any mechs about to attack Trip. The camera for this game is really easy to control although when the game shifts angles you are sometimes left walking into the wall for a few seconds while you refocus yourself. The controls for combat are easy, your standard Y for heavy and X for fast attacks. You can't walk off low ledges in this game which forces you to press the jump button to get down but I guess its a good thing so you don't accidentally walk off a ledge. Then again Monkey does walk down certain ledges without jumping soo I guess he's just being a bitch.

The story for this game is rather simple in the beginning. After you are enslaved by Trip you both need to cross NYC and get to the other side for Trip to reunite with her father and set you free. Without giving away too much of the story it does get a bit complex near the last few hours with the addition of one highly colorful and awesome character and some obvious sexual tension between you and Trip. The ending for this game will leave you questioning your decision on it and what you perceive as correct. It is a very eye opening albeit cheesy ending with real world undertones.

There are orbs you collect through the world to upgrade your Staff, health and combat skills which actually feel like they're helping and you are not just wasting orbs on useless stuff. There are some rare collectibles in the form of "glitches" which are floating masks that when picked up flash images of locations and people before the decay of the planet.

Few quick gripes, The graphics aren't that great. Most of the time everything needs about 10 seconds for all the layers to appear making the game look muddy for awhile. The explosions are really pathetic making big explosions look like tiny firecracker pops. Also, sometimes checkpoints are right before a cutscene forcing you to sit through it if you restart or die. You can skip some with the Select button though.

All things considered though, Enslaved is a very very good game with a fresh idea, easy controls and a engrossing story. If you have been burned by other forced AI games *coughRE5cough* pick this game up and see how its really done.

Oh oh also there's a nod to Portal that made me smile so more props to you Enslaved!

Friday, September 17, 2010

Halo Reach



Oh Bungie, why must you do this to me? You know I'm trying so hard to hate you but then you give me Halo games and I can't stay mad at you. Ok I'll admit it, Halo Reach was pretty fucking awesome even if at some points it did feel like already walked ground, some of the new toys made sure it never felt boring.

Okay so if you've played ANY Halo game you already know the story. The Covenant is back and they're doing something bad and you have to stop them (luckily the flood is nowhere to be seen;thank the lords). Anyway you are a part of a team of elite Spartans task with infiltrating the thing for the thing to prevent the thing...err to be honest I couldn't follow the story after the first level. I'm not saying its bad or anything its just that it feels kind of repetitive to all the other Halo variations. Go here, deactivate/activate that, make daring escape, kill baddies, repeat. Again not repetitive just kind of straight cut. Your team consists of a Captain, a brave yet hurting guy, a big mouthed toughie, a woman(omg =O!)tech specialist, and yourself aka the new recruit. You'll be visiting various planets and building interiors, again not amazing just kinda eh.

What is there to say about the controls? Again if you've played any Halo game(or any current FPS game) you already know how it works. There is no dual wielding which I was looking forward to but then was reminded it was a prequel to the first Halo then let go. The new additions come in the form of various perks which you can pick up and use right away with a small cooldown after each use. They range from invisibility up to a jet-pack and will provide you with a new way of playing and disposing of alien baddies (Flying above them and throwing grenades is awesome).

I'm not a big fan of the Multiplayer but if it's anything like the previous multiplayers, its a shinning gem among MP idols. That's one thing I can credit the Halo series for : Good Multiplayer action. Of course most of the players are huge asshole pre-teens but that shouldn't be a deciding factor. Reach also doesn't lack Single player to compensate with MP. It balance them out fairly well with the SP story being about 6~8 hours(unlike Halo 3 where the singleplayer was like 3 hours wtf). Regardless Halo Reach is another fantastic game from Bungie surely to make you lose much sleep and keep you entertained for awhile.


Yeah this review is a little short but there's only so much I can say about the game without ruining it. Also, its not very different from like ODST. The game is very safe and never steps over any major lines. Also Im kind of busy playing it again..uhh....yeah....

Bayonetta


When a commercial promises you "Non stop climax action" you can't help but become excited and then the other kind of excited. No its not a Playboy TV commercial, it was a Japanese commercial that ran for the insane game called Bayonetta. Bayonetta is a game made by the creators of Devil May Cry who are know for their extremely over-the-top gameplay and insane story. Bayonetta delivers that and so much more.

Bayonetta is an extremely powerful witch better known in their world as an Umbra witch. Her black body suit is made of her own hair (its comes from her head not that other place)which she uses to summon giant fists and infernal demons to kick some major ass. When she uses her hair attacks, the hair flies off her body and showing off her lady parts (tastefully...sometimes) then form whatever it was you intended to use it for. She also straps guns to her feet which prove extremely fun and useful in combat. She uses lollipops as health and magical boosts and her taunts are so sexual that you might want to play this game at night with all the doors locked in the dark.

If you haven't already guessed, Bayonetta is completely drenched in sexuality. Even when you walk her ass bobs side to side so dramatically its like she has no spine. The sexuality does NOT deter the greatness of this game it adds more to it because she isn't afraid of her own body. Some people might say that she paints females in negative light and makes them all look like whores and sluts but honestly is it wrong to kick major ass and look good doing it? I don't think so. No way. Plus I prefer her ten times over that Tomb raider bitch who kills natives for their treasures because she has a fetish for shiny shit.

The story, well the story for this game is extremely confusing so I suggest not trying to follow it too closely or your brain might shut down. Bayonetta is a witch who hunts down angels to stay out of hell but the angels might be bad and the witches are good because the angels want to resurrect a giant ancient idol that will lead them into greatness but the witches want to stop them because it might destroy the world and then there are these huge angels that shed their skin when you attack them and are all demon looking inside so they might be really bad and then there's a guy with a scarf that says you killed his dad and there's a little girl who might be your daughter or you from the the past and there's a weird creepy voice that keeps telling you not to worry and- ARGGGGGGG I can't do it! Its just too fucking confusing. Look the main things you need to know is : Angels bad, kick they ass.

The controls for Bayonetta are as smooth and responsive as hell. Preforming and chaining attacks is easy as is the dodging. As you fight your witch meter increases which lets you do Torture attacks which range from an iron maiden to a giant tombstone falling from the sky and crushing your opponent. When you dodge a split second before an enemy attack lands you go into Bullet Time(or Witch Time as they call it) in which time slows down and you move significantly faster and are able to string attacks easier. You can alternate between two weapon sets with a click of the RT regardless if you're attacking so swapping guns for a sword or a whip mid battle is easy. The weapons are varied and plentiful; a whip, demon claws, Nun chucks(complete with Bruce Lee style battle cries) and more that you can switch and swap for interesting weapon combinations (weapons on your hands and feet? Yes please!). The way to get weapons is to collect vinyl LPs that you find either by defeating enemies or in the environment and take to a guy name Rodin at the Gates of Hell(nod) and after a few minutes you get brand new weapons. Some of the weapons are pretty hard to get but the replay value for this game is so high you will be coming back just to see if you missed anything. There are also accessories you can by that aid you in battle such as damage reflection, Witch time activation and more to keep you playing Bayonetta for hours.

The difficulty of Bayonetta ranges from simple one button press does everything to murderously hard. One of my main gripes in Bayonetta is the soundtrack. They keep replaying the same three songs over and over and over again everytime you engage a fight. Its a small gripe but when you have to hear the same song over and over it starts grinding on your nerves. Luckily this is quenched by the death of your enemies and Bayonetta's own battle moans. Besides that, Bayonetta's campy storyline, fast paced and filling combat system, and huge selection of enemies ranging from small to planetary sized will keep you coming(ha) back over and over again.

Sunday, September 12, 2010

Singularity


Lets see if any of this sounds familiar : Evil Nazi, Mutants, other worldly powers, Mutated Nazis, Ravensoft. No it's not a sequel to that horrible Wolfenstein remake, its Singularity. Singularity is yet another swipe from Ravensoft about how much Nazis suck. I'm not saying Singularity is a lazy re-edit of Wolfenstein with new abilities.....oh wait that's almost exactly what it is.

Singularity tells the story of Captain Nathaniel Renko who is on his way to investigate why an American spy satellite was destroyed so they end up flying to a secret island called Katorga-12 but suddenly another electromagnetic pulse(Think the Citadel explosion after effect in Half Life) downs the helicopter he's in. So far so familiar. Through a series of events you learn that Katorga-12 wasn't meant to be found (Think about Bioshock) which has discovered a secret mineral called ADAM Element 99 which is basically a miracle maker and can do almost anything. Of course people abused it and ended up fucking everything up.

Ok honesty time, I didn't really get to finish Singularity partly because it was so horribly bad I couldn't bare to take it. The controls are probably the only decent thing since it controls like any generic FPS out now. The guns lack any punch, you can empty 2 clips before the most basic monsters go down and upgrading does absolutely NOTHING to help out. The environment is pretty crappy too. Messy, brown and blown up buildings is all you'll see. EVERYTHING is blown up. There isn't any indication to where you are suppose to go either, you can spend hours circling the same 4 rooms until you either get lucky and find the right way or eject the disk and snap it in half (Gamefly wouldn't like that though). Singularity wants you to scavenge and get ammo, health, etc but since everything looks the same you'll end up getting yourself lost. The enemies can take tons of damage and kill you in a few hits which totally throws off that balance thing that's so necessary in games.

There's one thing that I really liked about Singularity and that was the gimmicky Time Manipulation Device which was awesoomeee. I admit having fun aging and renewing items for awhile and there are some parts that leave you going "Holy shit that was amazing!" but after the initial charm is gone they shit on it. They only have you using it to renew stairs and boxes to move along places you need to go. The TMD had so much potential but they didn't really use it. You can use it on enemies and watch them turn to dust or become enraged and attack the enemies attacking you but the thing is, it's not practical when you're in a firefight against tons of soldiers and monsters.

The story of Singularity is so ridiculous you'll get lost from the get go. You are apparently trying to get to the other side of the island but then time cuts back to the past before everything went to hell and you save some guy from a burning building then you need to back in time and save some scientist from dying but then *SPOILERS(?)* I guess he turns out to be the bad guy in the future when you save him in the past and them some other stuff happens (I told you I didn't finish it!) then I guess you kill him, get off the island and the game ends. If you're trying to follow the story, you'll need to play-through it again or just look up the wiki (I recommend the later).

Lastly Singularity doesn't know what genre it wants to be. I know it says Sci-Fi FPS but it tries to copy other mods. It tries the Horror Genre and has you going through a creepy school with ghostly voices and things moving around on their own then it switches to a fast paced FPS gunfight Genre when Nazis descend and start filling you with holes then it goes to Platforming that has you jumping from tiny ledges and well timed places and finally it goes the campy Fallout-esque route with its vintage cartoons explaining Element-99 and its run backwards shooting Super Mutants Mutants hoping you don't run out of hallway.

All and all Singularity is like a game developer raided your game collection of your best games, took pieces of them and tried to make a decent game from their organs and sadly it didn't work. take out the Time Device and Singularity is your average boring shooter that does almost nothing right.

Thursday, September 9, 2010

Bioshock


You are the sole survivor of a plane crash in the Atlantic ocean. You surface only to be greeted by walls of flame and a still sinking plane tail. Out in the distance you see a lighthouse and swim desperately to it. You walk up its cold stone steps and step into a world unknown with death and despair from the very first open door. This is how Bioshock envelops you, with its promises of Utopia and freedom of the constrains of man only to twist those freedoms into something darker.

Bioshock is the spiritual successor to System Shock 2 and the similarities are present from your first plasmid. As soon as you step into your first bathysphere you are greeted by a man with a simple idea named Andrew Ryan. He sees the faults in the city above and decided to make one below the waves. Free from moral constraints and morals that usually keep everything civilized but un-imaginative. You will be lead down Rapture's leaking corridors by a man calling himself Atlas which over a radio will guide you through the twisted world of genetic modification to the extreme. As soon as you gain control of your character you are already tense and worried from the previous and bloody beginning cinematic which involves disemboweling and distubing humming.

As you explore Rapture you gain Cybernetic Enhancements Plasmids which will serve as your line of defense and attack ranging from fire, to ice, to a swarm of bees. You start off with a trusty wrench but you also get conventional trigger click weapons like a Tommy Gun, shotgun, pistol which, combined with the plasmids, will serve as the tools to set up ingenious and bizarre ways to dispatch of your enemies which come in the form of splicers. Hybrids Splicers come in a variety of shapes and sizes ranging from the usual, run at you screaming and hit you with a pipe to vanishing throw fireballs at you then vanish types. If that weren't enough there are mini bosses scattered all over the maps which come in the form of Big Daddies. These hulking monstrous things can take loads of damage without even flinching then send you flying across the room. The reason to take these things down are for the little sister which its protecting which comes in the shape of...a little girl...Anyway these little sisters have the highly coveted ADAM which is the main artery to Rapture's success but the only way to get the ADAM is to either kill the little sister for the maximum amount or save her and get not as much but feel good about yourself and that's where the morality choices come in.

The problem with the morality choice is that its way too black and white there's really no in between. You can either be a deity or the devil incarnate which isn't very fair but I guess it comes down to personal preference. There are also Security bots and cameras which Andrew Ryan uses to his favor to spy and/or kill you whenever you get too close to them. Luckily you can hack them which is another major downer because hacking turns into a tedious game of Pipe Dream which is incredibly flow breaking and gets old fast. You can buy out or auto hack them but of course that requires heaps of money which isn't such a big deal but becomes a pain when you go to buy health and ammo and realize you spent all your money hacking 2 turrets.

Another thing that works against Bioshock are the Vita Chambers. These fancy tubes activate when you die; you are instantly re-spawned inside with all your health and any damage you did on any enemies is still there when you revive so you can pretty much die all you want while whittling away the health of a Big Daddy without consequences other than a small loading time between death and re-spawning.

Bioshock is incredibly atmospheric and well crafted and will give you many spooks as you wander around figuring out what happened which is usually told by Audio diaries and ghost sequences scattered around Rapture that tell individual stories while still giving a wide synopsis of the events that lead to the decomposition of Rapture.

The controls are pretty simple and pointing and shooting at what you want dead works perfectly. There are also Tonics which serve to enhance your abilities and you can pretty much become indestructible in a few levels. The story is as twisted as it gets with plenty of twisted characters with gripping and disturbing stories that will keep you reeling, especially when you discover what Atlas is really hiding behind that charming accent and why Andrew Ryan wants him gone.