PIXEL GRAVE

METAL GEAR RISING REVENGEANCE - DEMO IMPRESSION

2013-01-27T14:53:00.004Z

Raiden, a hugely disliked character from the Metal Gear Solid series, returns Metal Gear Rising Revengeance, and no, revengeance is not a word.

A spin-off of the MGS series, MGRR’s self contained plot is set four years after MGS4 and carries the PMC (private military company) antagonist with it. Players assume the role of Raiden, probably the least loved character in all the MGS series, as a cyborg, sword wielding ninja. A far cry from all the previous stealth orientated games, this is an action driven slash-em-up in which the player can slow down time to dissect foes before snatching their ‘residual’ which I believe is how it got the name ‘zan-datsu’ but also perhaps a cross meaning from the word ‘zan-tetsu’ meaning iron kill.

After a very short VR training tutorial, the demo takes place with Raiden arriving in PMC infested Sukhumi and before long is attacked by kin-like cyborg ‘desperado enforcers’. Players familiar with Metal Gear Solid 4 will notice the similar aesthetic here to the beginning of Act 1 and you may even pause for a moment to think whether Snake could be hiding in a nearby barrel or discreetly wiggling his way across before without knowing.

Developed by Platinum Games, creators of other action slashers such as Bayonetta and the gore-tastic Mad World, MGRR shares a many aspects as the other MGS games which were all developed Kojima Productions. These include many sounds, such as the classic ‘spotted’ exclamation, to the codec, cutscenes and a handful of ridiculous but loveable characters. However it takes also keep that old scar of a trait that is the awful controls. Numerous times I found myself having to press multiple buttons to just throw a grenade but hopefully with more practice I may master it but going from the controls in previous MGS games, it may take a while.

Rising Revengeance is certainly something everyone should, even those who have no interest in MGS and to those who do, each could take something from this they find enjoyable. Be it being thrown back in the world of the Metal Gear universe or those who just like to see bodies, robots and watermelons get sliced apart.

WARLOCK : MASTER OF THE ARCANE - REVIEW

2012-05-27T16:04:00.002+01:00

From the creators of the Majesty and Elven Legacy series (yeah, me neither), comes Warlock : Master of the Arcane. This game seemed to apparate itself onto Steam quite discreetly and missed a lot of the spotlight by being released almost at the same time as Diablo 3 as well as Civ V recently going on sale. None the less, it's game play style and fantasy aesthetic encouraged me to take a look.

Warlock : Master of the Arcane is a turn based strategy game much like Civilization. In fact, it's so much like Civilization V it could almost be seen as a mod, much like the 'Fantastic Worlds' expansion for Civ II. Though being a Civ fan and disliking the series by each addition and the boredom that comes as soon as your borders are met with each other civilizations, W:MotA tackles this by creating multiple worlds within a game and increases the most fun part - exploration. You begin by selecting a hero with unique perks and units, then other options such as the number of opponents and how many other worlds there are. Then, much like Civ still, you begin with just one city and have to expand and grow your kingdom across multiple cities throughout the world(s) using settlers and units to defend / secure them..

Unlike Civ, resources play a big part in this game, especially money. Depending on the buildings you have in your cities you'll earn an income and units have to be bought as well as maintained through your income. Having a huge army will cost you a lot each turn and therefore become difficult to recruit more units - depending on your budget.

Unfortunately I found the AI players and minor diplomacy features almost unnecessary, as I spent the whole game tackling the monsters that are a constant plague on the lands within the world you begin and more so in the other worlds you discover by travelling through portals located on the map. To enter another world is a real challenge and you have to ensure you have a decent amount of units to enter to take on these new foes, though the rewards can be worth it.
This brings me on to another great feature of W:MotA, be securing certain resources on the map you can be granted entirely new units. Pass through a gate to another world and secure some settlers on a Dragon's nest (once you've secured it), and you'll then be able to train Dragon's to fight for you. This is also similar in other places such as Dwarven, Rat or other species' camps or even have an undead city which can recruit skeleton warriors and other completely unique units. Unlike Civ V for example that once a certain technology is discovered and then oil appears everywhere on the map, in W:MotA, exploring and securing / defending these becomes a much more important and enjoyable part of the game.

Another similar but different aspect to Civ is research. Instead of researching technology you research spells. These can be cast once a turn though some stronger spells require two turns or more to cast. You cast these spells by using mana which is generated through the buildings you construct in your cities and some resources throughout the map can generate more. It can be quite easy to forget about these spells but they can be useful especially for finishing off enemies or helping to transport your units across the map. Once you've discovered one spell you're immediately given a choice of the next spell to research though soon you have so many spells it's hard to keep track of them and you're given a tiny windows in which you have to scroll through to find the one you want. It's quite a clunky feature to manage and it's strange that you can cast magic anywhere that you can see and therefore feels almost as if you're cheating when you transport your units from one corner of a world the a corner of another world. I would have liked to have seen a limit to your area of effect, perhaps a range depending on the strength of your magic, but it's still a nice feature to play with when your units aren't doing enough.

A certain resource of the map will allow you to create a shrine to a god in the closest city within the hex's border. This costly building allows you to build (also costly) units that are extremely powerful. Favouring a god will give you a stronger reputation towards them but a worse one towards their opponent god. Favouring a god long enough will allow you to control their avatar on the map and therefore be more of a force to be reckoned with. The gods give you quests throughout your game and you have the choice of accepting or refusing them, though refusing or failing to complete them can have consequences!

To win a game of W:MotA is ... a mystery!? You can't select the conditions at the start of a game nor could I find them online except among discussion on forums. From what I have seen and researched you can either research an ultimate spell which once you cast makes you, well I don't know but you problem become some kind of combination of Gandalf and Dumbledore and therefore just win by default. As well as this there is conquest, god favour and ... well, I'll add them once I find them out!

W:MotA is a great revival of the series as I feel Civ, despite its polish and fantastic visuals, has become dull and unoriginal. This game however brings a whole new enjoyment and great aesthetic that'll keep fantasy fans happy. There are few minor bugs and gripes such as the magic and some movement commands that can become fiddly and at times frustrating though I expect the developers to be waving their wands to makes these 'vanish'.
If you're a fan of turn based strategy and love Civ games then this is a must, especially at its small price that will still give you hours and hours of enjoyment

7.5/10

COMPANY OF HEROES 2 - REVEALED

2012-05-04T15:20:00.003+01:00

Хорошие новости! (GOOD NEWS)!

Relic, the makers of the fantastic Company of Heroes along with other great RTS series: Dawn of War (I & II) and Homeworld among other games (e.g. Outfit), have announced that Company of Heroes 2 will be released in 2013!

For those unfamiliar with Company of Heroes. It's a World War 2 real-time strategy game in which you control a company of allied soldiers (and others in add-ons) through the invasion of Normandy. Company of Heroes also boasts completely destructible terrain so no battle is every played out the same way and some events can be totally unpredictable. A great example of this could be attacking an enemy vehicle which suddenly goes 'out of control' and explodes into a nearby building also nesting a squad of enemy troops. It's this immersive, interactive and unique gameplay that makes Company of Heroes of a real joy to play.

Company of Heroes also doesn't have a frustrating resource economy during battle that distracts from the gameplay. Instead a player must secure areas of the battlefield that provide one of the three types of resources as well as giving a tactical advantage. This encourages players not to sit inside their base and to tactically take control of the map.

There is very little information known on Company of Heroes 2 but this is what we know so far...

It’s set on the Russian front. You control the Soviets in their fight to repel the invading Nazi force.
Snow plays a major part on the battlefield, falling and melting dynamically, and slowing your soldiers and tanks based on its depth.
The game runs on the Essence 3 engine, the latest version of the graphics engine Relic have been updating and expanding upon for years.
The cover system has been revamped, to function more realistically and allow soldiers to vault over obstacles.
Line of sight plays a large tactical role, with the game’s fog of war based on what your soldier’s can actually see. Relic call this system “True Sight”, and it causes areas of the map to be grayed out and enemies within turned invisible by buildings, items of cover, or dropped smoke grenades.
The Normandy landing that opened Company of Heroes (and Saving Private Ryan, one of its key inspirations), was the 23rd biggest battle of World War 2. “13 of the 15 bloddiest battles” happened on the Eastern front, points out Company of Heroes lead designer, Quinn Duffy. The game should represent those battles and their vicious scale, as much as it does minute infantry tactics.
Just like the original, the scenery is highly destructible, and you’ll be given control of plenty of tanks and other explosive equipment. That includes barn-burning flamethrowers.
There will be multiplayer, but Relic aren’t ready yet to talk about it.
The game is due out 2013.

If you want to read every shrapnel of information, you’ll need to run out and buy the next issue of PC Gamer magazine – on sale in the UK on May 9th, and the US May 22nd. UK readers even get Company of Heroes 1 free with every issue.

WIZORB - REVIEW (ONGOING)

2012-04-23T22:47:00.002+01:00

I would have had this review finished a long time ago if it wasn't for something particular, but I'll get to that point later on.

Wizorb is the name of the game and what it's about - that could be quite confusing when regarding just the name. Essentially it's block breaker in a retro 8 bit aesthetic but up to date by ... hmm, being released today? It's an innocent £2 on Steam for PC & Mac but has also been released on Xbox as an Indie game for, I dunno, about the same amount of Xbox points as a sock for your avatar.

The game takes place in a beautifully created nostalgic fantasy world in which you, the wizard, must turn into a ball and break blocks, monsters, chests, secret doors, bosses and more blocks, to rid the world of evil (probably). At the beginning of each level you see you, the wizard, but only for a split second before he's turned into an orb and his staff into some sort of bigger staff which is now horizontal. It's this panel / staff that you control to rebound the orb to take out the blocks and monsters etc. Though strangely you have this constant portrait of the Wizard in the top right corner who at the end of a level, gives a big youthful smile to you as if he had just won a round in Street Fighter.

The mechanism is simple and the game is somewhat addictive if it weren't for that big problem festering on the side of it and which is taking me forever to get this review done. That being the fact that you HAVE to destroy every last block in the level before you can go on to the next. At first I thought by taking out the enemies / monsters I would advance to the next level, but no, it's like cleaning up after a party and everyone's left - you're left there tediously trying to rebound your orb in the hope that it hits that one last block which is sitting, laughing at you, from behind an indestructible concrete wall. This really kills the flow and fun of the game for me and even though you get spells which can come in handy to tackle this problem, it's not always possible as blocks aren't always in the firing line for your spells for you may be out of mana.

If you're a retro fantasy / block breaker lover who loves the same 8 bit tune being repeated constantly and doesn't make tedious work, then this is £2 well spent. For the rest of us, £2 is a steal for what could be a great game but one which is crying out to be changed to a more enjoyable one.

X COM : ENEMY UNKNOWN - FIRST LOOK

2012-04-15T18:48:00.002+01:00

I have to say this outright - XCOM : Enemy Unknown looks fudging incredible. Too long has it been since I've played a damn good strategic turn-based game, maybe not since Civ 2 (I felt the later games lacked all the detail the originals had to offer).
Also by Firaxis, XCOM : Enemy Unknown will place you in control of a secret paramilitary organization called XCOM. As the XCOM commander, you will defend against a terrifying global alien invasion by managing resources, advancing technologies, and overseeing combat strategies and individual unit tactics.

Though this new X Com game is not a sequel and has instead been labelled a 're imagining' and will expand on that legacy with an entirely new invasion story, enemies and technologies to fight aliens and defend Earth. You will control the fate of the human race through researching alien technologies, creating and managing a fully operational base, planning combat missions and controlling soldier movement in battle. As like in the original, the game is turn based so tactics and team work with your squad members will be essential.

From what videos have shown it looks like there are a lot of great features in the game. The combat looks really smooth realistic. Shoot a canister and it'll blow up sending characters or enemies flying or sit a sniper in a nice spot and he/she'll neatly pop out from cover and the camera will follow and take place while he or she takes the shot. Not only will you be able to control your ground units but also air support to come and knock out key targets.
Though most of the aliens shown look like those on the front of a packet of Space Invaders, there are other more ferocious looking Aliens that look like a real challenge to deal with and no doubt there will be a wide variety of foes to face.

The base creation in Enemy Unknown looks like an attractive Sim Tower 'esque side view of your base with all the personnel happily working away inside. The overall aesthetic is a some-what casual looking style though looks to make the more in-depth gameplay a lot more approachable without clouding the player with too many buttons and controls.

X COM : Enemy Unknown will host over 70 unique missions that expand across the world so expect to visit lots of unique locations too.

We look forward to any more information soon before it's Autumn 2012 release!

MASS EFFECT 3 - REVIEW

2012-04-13T16:53:00.001+01:00

It took only a matter of days after ME3's release that I had heard or read through top news websites such as the BBC that Mass Effect's ending was so disappointing that one gamer had even taken it up with the federal trade commission. So before I'd even started I'd heard this news and had been blasted out of the air-lock of the high hopes ship I had happily been aboard. None the less I was determined to see out the ending of this epic trilogy though I didn't play from any save I had made before. I had played ME1&2 on the Xbox 360 though had somehow lost my save from the first game meaning I've only played each Mass Effect game without any of my previous choices or decisions brought across except for the gaps you fill in through a few questions at the start of the game. I wish I had experienced more of the cross-over between each game as just ticking boxes about which character died and which lived based on the decisions I'd made before made my first steps in to the game feel a bit specious. Though despite of this, after a short introduction to the Reapers opening the game with an all out attack on Earth, once back on the Normandy and jumping between systems and nebulas, I was back in the full swing of the Mass Effect Universe and loving it all over again. The introduction is quite quick and chaotic and Shepherd must leave on the Normandy to seek help to fight against the Reapers that are now tearing apart Earth like an over-excited child unwrapping a Wii. Though soon after this you realise you have fix every races' problems in order for them to join you in the fight against the Reapers. Though these are huge inter-galactic problems, problems that built the ME universe and gave depth and history to each race and their relationship with other races that Shepherd must completely fix while Earth is genocided by the Reapers.

The characters, mostly female at first bar one muscle head, are presented to the player as if they'd entered a burlesque house. Each giving that sly undertone as if your Shepherd had slept with them or will do though I must have skipped that question at the beginning or accidentally ticked 'all of the above'. It's then later that you're introduced to other characters such as Garrus and Tali though I missed out on almost all the characters I had gained in the second game. No doubt because I didn't carry my save across but also because once I'd completed the main missions, the annoyingly sparse journal that holds little to no idea as to what to do for an objective or where the damn planet it's based on is, gave me little interest in continuing. I simply got frustrated by the lack of detail in the side missions, how I received them, how I had to then just go to systems and try and find the objective by scanning planets and hoping you found something before the Reapers come to chase you out system. Going back to the characters, I feel it's not just those who are on your side but those against you that really make the game interesting. The ones you can fight along side with are all essentially just 'good guys' (or girls). They all support you and have some unique spot on Normandy to be there for you when you want to talk to them to eventually get in to their pants. It's the other characters that I liked, especially the Cerberus leader, the Illusive man because he's so ... Illusive. Even in the second game when you work for him he's fickle and unreliable yet has a crude air of class about him. In ME3 you soon have to face Cerberus, for reasons you will discover, and on one of the first missions have to chase a Cerberus android babe through a science facility on Mars before she can get away with confidential material. To me, this is real Sci-Fi role-playing fun at it's best. It's a shame that later on the missions just simmer down to taking on waves of Reapers which have just a single tactic depending on what kind of Reaper it is. It's also these rogue, mysterious characters that are intriguing to learn about and to come up against, much more engaging than those aboard the Normandy - especially Anderson, though not on the Normandy but still a chum of Shepherd, Anderson is you staple, by the book soldier soldier with nothing interesting to say except that he was born in London, twice.

Coming from console to PC I noticed how fluid the combat is on PC. Though this may have been improved over the first two games as they were on console, I found the combat something I really really enjoyed and didn't hate like I did in the first game. Assign commands was simple and easy to work together to combine skills to take down foes. I was hoping, maybe even at the end, just to be able to have a few more squad mates at once more than just two - just to make it that little bit more exciting and hectic. Though not being granted this I didn't mind as the game still delivered despite some of the missions / area maps being a bit dull or repetitive.

I didn't hate the ending, I certainly feel it needed all the anger over it, there are much worse endings out there, look at Borderlands - that wasn't a vault just a huge v***** that you have to kill and then start the game again. C'mon, now that had a bad ending but I guess it's peoples commitment to 'role-playing' and wanting to see the outcome of a character and other characters they've progressed over three games. It's when you realise this journey that a player has made that you understand why one would want a more clear conclusion.
Though without giving too much away, seeing the Reapers go down, particularly in city they were in, was much like War of the Worlds and I began to wonder if the Reapers catching the flu was the reason for the outrage.

8/10

THE WALKING DEAD - FIRST LOOK

2012-03-20T20:00:00.000Z

With the second series of The Walking Dead coming to a close, videos have emerged for the video game adaptation of Robert Kirkman's popular comic and TV series.
Created by Telltale games, it seems to take on a similar art style to the studio's recently created Back To The Future game as well as also being released as episodic titles. The art style also resembles that of comic books, illustrated by Charlie Adlard.

Although the TV series and comics are similar they aren't completely parrallel, though this game will NOT follow Rick Grimes, the protagonist and main focus of the latter. If I may add, I feel the fact that the TV series and comics being slightly different a good point as although the comics are way ahead, you aren't watching exactly what you've read and can't predict that events that may happen.

Telltale Games have stated that the first episode will be set before Rick Grimes has even woken from his coma (that's not a spoiler, that's how the comic and TV series begin). Though they also state that they see the comic books as their cannon and therefore how the events play out in the TV series may not make reference in this game at all.

The player controlled character in The Walking Dead game is a chap named Lee Everett, a man convicted of a crime but who is offered a chance at redemption, albeit a in world in which the dead walk. You will only play as this character but will meet characters from the comics and also be able to see and maybe explore places and locations too. The game play in The Walking Dead also mirrors the actions and consequences of those in the comics: Shoot and gun and you'll attract the horde or when a walker turns up, it's a harrowing experience, not simple job of popping a load of bullets in them or head-butting them to death (here's looking at you Operation Raccoon City).

The first episode is said to have a 'spring' release but it is believed it will be out by next month with the following episodes then being released each month after. The game is said to be released on all major platforms (PC, XBLA, PSN, iOS).

GAME BAFTA VIDEO GAME AWARDS 2012

2012-03-16T20:54:00.000Z

BEST GAME: Portal 2
Bloody 'ell!

PERFORMER: Mark Hamill, Joker
Well deserved

FAMILY: Little Big Planet 2
I like Adam Buxton

DEBUT GAME: Insanely Twisted Shadow Planet
I dislike Alex Zane

ONLINE MULTIPLAYER: Battlefield 3
Again

SPORTS / FITNESS: Kinect Sports 2
Back up a bit

Oh it's just a big thing about Minecraft, good time for a toilet break...

Christ he talks a load of bollocks, no wonder I gave up after page 1 of his books...

Wow, Ian Livingstone is presenting the next award, let's turn to page ## to find out who wins...

ARTIST ACHIEVEMENT: Rayman Origins
Erm, the demo is great fun

ONLINE BROWSER: Monstermind
Okay?

ONE TO WATCH: Tick Tock Toys
Tick Tock, what?

ACTION: Batman Arkham City
About time they won something...

GAME AWARD FOR 2011: Battlefield 3
Perhaps we'll get a new one every year?

MOBILE & HANDHELD: Peggle HD
Every train journey I took during my years in Japan was spent playing this game

STRATEGY: Total War Shogun 2
Great game, but I'm rubbish at it

GAME INNOVATION: Little Big Planet 2
The most innovating way to get from A to B

BEST DESIGN: Portal 2
Can't disagree, tremendous aesthetic and design

AUDIO ACHIEVEMENT: Battlefield 3
I wouldn't know, I just hear gunfire as I get torn apart every few seconds

BEST ORIGINAL MUSIC: L.A. Noire
Fair enough

BEST STORY: Portal 2
It's a great game but the story is almost identical to the first ...

Charlie Higson is drunk!

NEXT GEN DISC-LESS ?

2012-03-14T22:18:00.002Z

There are rumours circulating that the next Xbox will be disc-less and therefore support no optical media at all. Though this is inevitably a step into the future of digital media, one that has already been taken in PC gaming, music, mobile phone software and now more and more people are moving on to streaming films and/or TV. Is it time for the next-gen of games consoles to take this step too?

As far as the current generation goes, you can download games through Xbox Live Arcade, Playstation Network and the Wii's Virtual Console. Furthermore, on Xbox 360 & PSN you can buy and download full retail games direct from their respective marketplaces which are then downloaded to your hard drive where they will belong.

This alone raises issues for the next generation and whether they will be backwards compatible. One always hopes the next generation consoles will be able to play their games they own for that previous generation. The reason being that gamers won't have to keep every piece of previous hardware, accessories and such in order to play those games and also the chance they may be enhanced on the more powerful next-gen hardware. However, if you've downloaded a full game direct through Xbox or PSN, one would hope they could download it again on the next-gen otherwise it's locked and stuck on that generation of hardware and if you ever wanted to play that/those downloaded games again you'll have to use that console again in order to do so. Then again, if the next-gen is disc-less and one can re-download those games their purchased through their respective stores, what about those who chose to buy it at retail? They still own the game, just in a different medium - will they be able to play those games on a disc-less machine?

Looking at current platforms for downloading, PC is doing extremely well and taking Steam for example, which on 5th Jan 2012, hit 5 million active users online. However, looking back at the PSP Go which failed miserably, could this have been due to it being direct download only or hardware, marketing or price related reasons?

Quite a big problem for me and no doubt many others are bandwidth limits. I have a 60gb download cap per month and although I could pay more to increase that, in my financial situation and at my current download rate it's fine. I download PC games on Steam but only maybe once or twice a month at the most and then they're a couple of gig and not too hefty. Taking a look at some current-gen games, particularly those on PS3, some are reaching to limits of their blu-ray capacity which would be my entire month's allowance in one swoop. Now this could lift the lid on Internet Service Providers, who may have to give in and allow a larger cap as more and more people demand it. Though what will the limits be to those games? At first Microsoft have a size limit to their Arcade games so that they would fit on the original memory cards, though after not so long the cap was removed and we've had some spectacular XBLA games. Would developers feel they need to cut down their overall size or push for much better textures and high quality audio and even movies which will ramp up the mbs even more.

More to come...

DEAD LIGHT - FIRST LOOK / Q&A

2012-03-09T23:34:00.004Z

I've been tempted recently by a few XBLA horror / survival games such as Alan Wake: American Nightmare and I Am Alive but after seeing a few game-play videos about Dead Light, I can't help but put away my MS point purse and wait for what is looking to be an absolute gem of an XBLA title.
The game is being created by Tequila Works (yeah, me neither), a Spanish (maybe that's obvious) third-party development studio for Microsoft. Though to give them credit, this seems like their first project and it's looking absolutely phenomenal.

As Tequila Works describes on their website, Dead Light depicts an apocalyptic world where existence is futile, and only a solitary man treks the American west coast.
The year is 1986 and a mysterious disease has decimated mankind, transforming people into killer automatons. Survival is the measure of all in this original cinematic puzzle platformer. Deadlight is the frightening odyssey of an ordinary man fighting extinction like a flame in the desert. Hopeless and unable to escape the horrors of a dying world, Randall Wayne will reveal himself as a natural born survivor.

I'm sure you may have picked up on the numerous genre clashes in the above statement such as 'puzzle platformer' and 'apocalyptic world'.
Though judging from the videos and screenshots they pull it off brilliantly. Playing much like classic such as Another World, Flash Back and Prince or Persia but looking as beautiful as modern hits like Shadow Complex, Tequila Works have truly created a fresh breath of rotten, putrid, Zombie air to the platform / survival / puzzle genres.

As gained from watching the videos, the player must avoid contact as much as possible with the near unstoppable walking dead in order to gain ground. Though doing this may require the player to distract the zombies, lure them into a trap or barricade them behind doors. The developer also hints that there is no inventory so picking up items and searching for key items is essentials and adds 'hardcore' elements to the game.

Due to my anticipation and not knowing a whole lot about the game I decided to email Tequila Works with a bunch of questions...

1. When will the game be released?
<< Summer 2012

2. Will it only be on XBLA?
<< Yes, it is an XBLA exclusive title

3. What survival aspects will there be in the game?
<<Deadlight is not a zombie shooter, you must better avoid confrontation whenever you can.
When you are in a dead world, every little sound is amplified. Zombies can be dumb but they are tireless. The player must take care of that, but also it’s an ability at his/her disposal. For example, Randall can scream or taunt to catch their attention. It can sound not very smart of him, but you will understand when you play the game.
Combat is always an option, albeit a poor one. There are more enemies than bullets, and noise is a key mechanic in Deadlight.

4. Is the game primarily a puzzle game? If so, what kind of range of puzzles can we encounter?
<< One of the main inspirations for Deadlight are the classic cinematic platformers, like Prince of Persia, Another World and Flashback. The environment is a character itself; there are deadly traps and a misstep means death. Randall, our hero, has a variety of navigation, combat and interaction with the environment that allow him to advance and solve the physics-based puzzles. There’s no inventory or “find the red key” puzzles in Deadlight.

CLASSIC - CHARLIE BROOKER PRANK CALLS GAME PUBLISHERS

2012-03-04T16:49:00.002Z

Whilst rummaging around some of my old junk I stumbled upon an old DVD that came with a PC ZONE magazine. PC ZONE was a British PC gaming magazine that ran for 17 years but was shut down on my birthday 26th - September 2nd, 2010. The DVD was a 1993-2003 anniversary disc which had classic demos and videos from that 10 year period.

Charlie Brooker, a screen-writer, journalist and broadcaster worked on PC ZONE during the mid 90s, creating controversial comic-strips and insulting those who wrote to the magazine.
On this Lost Ark of a DVD I found are old audio files of Charlie Brooker prank calling big name Publishers regarding PC games.

So here they are, in their original poor quality audio but resoundingly brilliant in their content.

Prank call to Activision regarding Quake...

Prank call to BMG regarding Grand Theft Auto...

Prank call to Eidos regarding Tomb Raider...

Prank call to Virgin regarding Jedi Knight....

TITAN ATTACKS - REVIEW

2012-03-02T11:29:00.000Z

If there's anyone that really loves retro gaming it's PuppyGames. Though taking a retro aesthetic to all their games this one in particular also burlesques a retro arcade classic that everyone knows and loves and from this, they elevate and improve upon it.

The premise is simple - Space Invaders. But these invaders are from Titan, are they're invading Earth, which you need to defend and then take the fight back to them, planet by planet (including the moon).
You control your tank using the mouse (or keyboard if you're insane, as it's much slower), to weave among the enemy projectiles and hammer the ctrl or mouse buttons to shoot back and space to launch a smart-bomb. Though there's nothing smart about it, you just hit space and most of the enemies on the screen explode after a flash.

As you shoot more enemies down you'll gain money which can be spent on upgrades such as shields, gun-power and even weapon attachments, giving you more projectiles to hurl upwards at those cretinous invading swine.

You begin on Earth and after a series of waves take on a boss before moving on to the next planet (or moon). The great thing is if you need to quit suddenly, you can. By hitting the escape key the game will save and quit to the main menu so when you next return you can continue from where you left off.
Another nice touch to this system as that the game remembers your score, shield amount and power-ups when you complete a planet (or moon) so you can continue with the geared up arsenal and score to continue to rack up those points to get on the leader-boards.

The visuals in Titan Attacks are brilliant, true retro homage to it's catalyst yet the lighting, resolution and fast paced gameplay give it a more modern decree. As with all Puppy Games near identical units and characters from previous games are used throughout adding that little extra personal touch and it's these attentions to detail and lovingly addiction gameplay that makes this another triumph.

8/10

Operation Raccoon City & WTF happened to Zombie Survival Horror?

2012-02-27T14:10:00.000Z

I just recently watched the Resident Evil: Raccoon City Operations, Brutality Trailer.
Yes it was brutal, brutal in sticking a grenade to a Zombie's face like a tissue and booting them back to watch the fireworks. Brutal as picking up a body off the floor by their head and then choosing where to insert holes in to them like they were some sort of wooden object. Brutal as being on fire and then slicing a zombie's head off who is also on fire and clearly just trying to seek some mutual pity from you!

This got me thinking - what the flippin' Zombie brains has happened to survival horror? The masterpiece that is Richard Matheson's, I Am Legend (NOT the terrible film adaption), truly resembles what has happened to the genre. No longer are you fearing the undead but now they fear the player, I almost feel sorry for those Zombies getting barged aside like a flag on a downhill ski slope as the player blazes their way down the slope that is Raccoon City.
At the beginning of Resident Evil 2 you begin in the centre of Raccoon City when all hell has broken loose and have to escape the hordes or Zombies that chase you down alleys and through scarred urban roads. It was exciting, exhilarating, survival.

In retrospect, Capcom have released Resident Evil: Revelations which is in fact a real return to their roots but it's a shame that this is only available on a single handheld device and their new take on survival horror which is more like a jump on the band wagon action game, is on Xbox 360, PS3 and PC.

I don't remember a game before the first Resident Evil that actually terrified me. Before that I was only scared by films like The Thing and Gremlins. Capcom created a whole new genre but now just seem to mock it by allowing the player to slap the Zombies about a bit, point at their chests and then flick them in the nose before using them as a human shield as they march on mowing down more tougher foes.

Now I'm not an old stick in the mud, I like change and for games to progress and develop into more modern renditions. Due to influences such as 28 Days Later we now have a lot of with running Zombies, or 'infected' as you may want to call them if you're a smart-arse.
Left 4 Dead is an example of these games and it's fantastic. This game is almost the game my friends and I have been crying out for, true co-op survival.
Other games such as Dead Space and Amnesia have been fantastic additions to genre, each adding their own idiosyncrasies and methods to fright the player.

Even more, we have a huge amount of Zombie games in the casual genre. Some of these are great such as Plants vs. Zombies, a straight-out unique concept which at heart still plays as a Zombie survival game. Or there's Zombie Smash which I personally find to be complete garbage as the player can just pick up and throw around the Zombies as soon as they timidly walk onto the screen without a hint as to how that's possible. Plants that shoot peas though, now that's acceptable.

If I had the power, which I don't (sorry), I'd like for the genre to take a step back and look at it's roots. I would love to see a first-person Zombie suvival game, and of course co-op, but be true to the fundamentals of Zombie Horror Survival. If you get bitten, that's it pal! you're a gonna. You really have to watch your back and each other's. On top of that, I want the fact that the only way to kill a Zombie is to shoot it in the head. You couldn't do this in the first few Resident Evil games because you couldn't even aim except at three angles, and when they brought in the ability to aim in Resident Evil 4 they replaced Zombies with flippin' squid infected fake-Zombies that you could just shoot in the toes a couple of times before they die!

Argh!

Tribes Ascend - My Thoughts

2012-02-26T21:26:00.001Z

I keep telling myself, free games can't be good but I'm a huge fan of the original Tribes, I must have played that game for god, I don't know, ages.
I got lovingly invited to the beta the day before it opened to the public and spent most of that day tweaking the .ini file as it ran for crap on the only preset options I could choose, reminiscing the day when I tried to move on to Tribes 2 (which I shamefully couldn't).

Once playable the nostalgia came flooding back when I spawned with a disc launcher in my hands and vast a panoramic landscape to fly around in. much like a dog being let loose in an empty field, I enjoyed the freedom and smooth game-play until I hit level six and spent most of the time flailing in the air as my dead body came crashing to Earth like the Phobos-Grunt spacecraft.

When you reach that level you begin to understand how good some of these players are and how essential teamwork, strategy and how to quickly stamp out the voice commands can be. In this, Tribes Ascend doesn't fail to be true hardcore gaming, it's rough, gritty, punishing and absolutely exhilarating.

There are a host of modes to play, Team Deathmatch, Arena, CTF and more, plenty of variety to keep one entertained and to tone different skills and play styles.
On top of all this the aesthetic of Tribes Ascend is breathtaking. Spaceships (not the Phobos-Grunt) crawl across the skyline, nearby moons glow suppressing the battlefield and the terrain amplifies it's shape from base to base.

However, that shadow of such a shining game creeps around and you remember it's free-to-play. You can pay various amount of money to earn gold and XP boosters or you can sweat it out and earn all the XP yourself and unlock way. Though bare in mind, it took me a long time to gain 7200xp just to unlock the Sentinel class, a class similar to how I played the original Tribes, but to get the proper energy rifle you need to earn 100,000xp. I'd have to play as much I just had more than 13 times just to unlock that weapon, and then there's upgrades and extra weapons for everything and in every class.
Though they aren't rude enough to dangle in front of you the delights of what being a 'VIP' has to offer - if only I could transfer over my smurfberries, you can't help but feel that you inevitably have to put some money down and then it begins, now you've started you may as well pay the full amount, and if you pay the full amount (about £30), who's to say they won't add more and more and then you realise you've spent more than an average priced PC game. On top of that you may also have the displeasure of unlocking everything all at once and then have nothing to work towards! Why play? Why gain XP to earn that final weapon upgrade you've been struggling towards.

Though there's just one more nuisance, a bad habit I find with most free-to-play games, though this is nowhere near as bad as buying letters in Words with Friends, which is just outright cheating. In Tribes, those with more than you do have an advantage. Only after a few hours of playing I had unlocked extra health and more radius damage for my grenades, and for a game, the whole series in fact, that functions so well on a player's honest skill to have such an arbitrary system in place is a let down.

It's stressful, but it is acceptable. You can play Tribes Ascend without paying a penny and have an absolute blast. You may even be able to pay a small amount towards it and be able to play the style you prefer.

Red Dead Redemption - Review

2012-02-26T19:05:00.000Z

The sun is my guide but also my enemy. The blazing heat stabs at my blistered skin but I have to keep moving, I have to get back to America to hand a stranger a bunch of flowers …

I can sense their eyes, they stare at me through the shallow vine, waiting to see if I hinder, take it slow and wonder into their path. A cub grows impatient and begins barking wildly, spinning in circles around my stout steed.
Fashioning a heroic ‘stationary-jump’ before hammering the ‘get the hell out of here’ button to spark my trusty horse through the pack I dash out in a random direction forgetting my route and straying from the road.
Either I was working it too hard or this horse isn’t as trustworthy as I thought. It buckles, screams and throws me off my saddle like a stroke of bad luck in Buckaroo.

My face slams into the rough desert sharply, a snake nearby mocks me as it slithers away; whilst I slowly come to and get to my dusted, aching feet.

As the orange-ashed world around me comes back into focus I witness my horse being torn apart by the starved wolves.

It’s too late for him – or her, I don’t know, but I draw my pistol in act of redemption. I shoot wildly, imprecise and loose – most bullets hit my downed horse finishing it off for sure.
My eye, it’s dead and there’s no way I’m going to shoot any of these beasts without some snake oil. Damn that mocking snake…

I turn and run astray into the open wilderness – there’s nowhere to hide and the pack will soon be after fresh meat.

I hear the pack gaining on me, I resist turning and looking at the horror approaching, plus it’s also difficult to run and look behind you at the same time…
But what’s this, wild feverfew? I need this, not even the man who needs flowers needs this; why do I want it? I want it, I need this flower.
I kneel down and slowly and merrily pick the flowers before slipping them into my front pocket.

This is foolish – the pack is now circling me at speed, just waiting for me to pick those flowers and the animation to stop.

My eye sparkles in the sun, it’s back, but just for a second. I take aim and cap one, two – no three! In their blood stained snouts. With this hole blasted in their rank I make a break for it and begin sprinting towards a nearby road.

I’m in luck; two strangers ripple into focus through the slur of heat. Standing in the centre of the crimson road, feet firm; I draw my gun and shoot at their black silhouettes painted across the sun-streaked horizon.

I see a horse go down – that’s bad, that’s what I’m after, but I get lucky and hit his friend straight in the neck; depicted by his sombrero fly off his round head.
I run towards them slow and brittle. Struggling to mount the horse I hear the man curse and begin to draw but my luck ricochets again and the pack of wolves drag him down to the ground and begin to chew on his beard. He gets one shot in that strikes me in the left shoulder nearly throwing me off the horse but I stay strong, gripping the horses’ neck and hair I manage to stay on despite it crying out in disparity.

Bleeding; bruised and my health bar at a frightening low, I turn my new steadfast friend towards the sun – that being the red X on my mini map, and continue my journey to the stranger.
This man had better need these flowers for a ****ing good reason…

It’s not often that I can narrate such a tale of an experience I’ve had whilst gaming -
This is the beauty of Rockstar’s new Wild West sandbox adventure, the sky scrapers have been knocked down and instead a rich and varied landscape is painted upon our screens and we can go anywhere, ride off into the sunset, get lost in the wilderness picking flowers that you may not even need or hunt and skin animals, but why? Some people may just like the solidarity, one could be drawn by the rich environment or some adventurers may just be taking a more ‘wild road’ to their destination.
It’s all there, you may not need it, but this vast world is around you and it’s not just the challenges that may draw you into exploring it, this world naturally grabs you and fascinates you with its unsung mysteries.

One down side to this is that these experiences aren’t always a one off – on numerous occasions I’ve had a chap come running to me pleading me to ride him to town then before I can even spit my tobacco the son of an outlaw has dragged me off my horse and begun riding away laughing wickedly through his buck teeth.
Sure there could be a number of ways to tackle this situation such as whistle your horse back and watch his body cascade to the ground as your steed heinously bucks him off, or one could simply shoot him as he approaches knowing exactly what is going to happen.

Another small problem are the amount of bugs in this game. Though these can be beguiling and add to the number of amusing experiences one may have whilst playing, they can on occasion be a hindrance. For example I had a challenge to shoot a number of birds; and when approaching a town I saw a much larger black blob in the sky than usual, though this wasn’t moving. I dead eyed, and painted it with a full clip then as this blob fell to the ground I noticed my ‘wanted’ level go up and a lot of commotion spark in the town as this had turned out to be a man, maybe a gentleman, some kind of family man – I have no idea, but he shouldn’t have been up in the sky just asking to be shot like that in the first place.

The controls in RDR are nothing unfamiliar. It’s much like any other duck and cover system but what’s quite new and unique is the ability to ride horses. GTA, the previous sandbox by Rockstar, was all about cars – steal them, keep them, drive them, crash them and transport people in them as well as other things was key to the game. RDR has taken this same vital and central approach in RDR with horses. Unlike in GTAIV, unless you had some kind of Bat Mobile mod you couldn’t call your car to you – in RDR pressing up on the d-pad will whistle to your horse which will then come valiantly speeding towards you, and sometimes; annoyingly right past you. You can break your own horses that you find in the wild and maybe grow to love your horse – though don’t expect them to last all that long bur don’t get too emotional because after a minute or two of yours dying just whistling for it again will call another.

It’s difficult to give a comprehensive construal of this game’s ‘tale’ without giving too much away. You play as John Marston, an outlaw turned good, and now against his own gang as a changed man and with his family in mind he seeks to hunt down his old gang boss. Though it begins with this simple idea the game unravels into a much wider plot with John meeting intriguing characters and sometimes frustratingly helping others just to continue more with his goal.
The missions are reasonably good but I feel not deep enough. You can quite easily complete a mission within 10-20 minutes and only on occasion they use something a lot more interesting like the train or mine carts. I would have loved to have had a mission in which I was being tracked and hunted ‘Butch Cassidy & the Sundance Kid’ style across the entire West, but what we’ve been ‘drawn,’ one can’t complain.

In all, RDR is a fresh breath to the sandbox genre, gone is the crowded and polluted urban jungle and in is the dusted; sun scorched Great Plains of the Wild West. Though this may be a difficult train to jump onto for some, this ‘new world’ is beautiful and has all the detail as well as an ardent plot fantastically acted.

I tip my hat to you Rockstar

9/10

Trine - Review

2012-02-26T16:00:00.000Z

Trine is a charming fantasy platform with fantastic 3D visuals despite only being navigational in two dimensions. The canvas of the game is vibrant and glowing with true fantasy which draws in you in and keeps you continuing this pleasant and humorous tale. The puzzle elements aren't overly taxing and never angered or had me stumped for too long to discourage me from the game. The developers have cleverly combined three unique and individual characters into the players hands that can be switched between to fulfil specific challenges and tasks though the player is never given a concrete solution to each obstacle and can complete each encounter in their own way. The game is not too short nor too long and has replay value via Steam achievements and finding all the secrets within the game. One annoyance I did find was that if I had to quit the game mid mission then I would have to start from the beginning of that level when I returned; despite having passed numerous checkpoints I still had to begin from the start even if I was within footsteps of the finish

8/10