SilverStar's Creative Gaming

ICO Review

2011-11-11T10:24:00.000-06:00

Written 02/19/2010

Note: Screenshot and video courtesy of Google Images and Youtube respectively. Credit goes to the original capturers.

Have you ever heard of ICO? No? Don't worry, nobody else has either. Unfortunately though, you're missing out on one of the best games on the PS2...really.

Visuals and Presentation

Considering that ICO was released in late 2001 and the power of the PS2 had not yet been fully realized, the game is simply beautiful! The environments, while mostly indoors, make you feel as though you're taking a journey through a waking dream. The character and weapon models look as good as they can for the time frame. Textures look good as well, but can be a little repetitive. My only real complaint is that the outdoor environments can be pretty bright and thus hard on the eyes.

Visuals and Presentation Rating:

Sound

As far as sounds go, ICO simply doesn't have many. The ones that are there are high quality and add immensely to the overall feel of the game. The music is very subtle, but equally appropriate. The voice acting is all in Japanese, but fits everything nicely. In all, ICO provides limited but good sound.

Sound Rating:

Gameplay

ICO's gameplay consists of 80% puzzle solving, 15% platforming, and 5% combat. ICO is not for the person in your life who dislikes critical thinking and puzzle solving, as it will quickly and effectively frustrate the living daylights out of them. You will spend a lot of time looking around with the camera for the best possible method to solve a puzzle or clear a platforming sequence. Even then, such things often boil down to trial and error, and that's really half the fun. If all you had to worry about in these puzzles and platforming sequences was yourself, then the game would be entirely too easy. During all of these sequences you must bring your companion, Yorda, along with you to open magically sealed doors that Ico cannot open on his own. Unfortunately, she is nowhere near as agile as Ico, and alternate paths must be opened for her to progress.

After those paths are opened though, Ico must literally hold Yorda's hand and lead her throughout the game. You might think this would end up being a nuisance, but in reality it's quite refreshing. It's not often in gaming that you have the opportunity to touch your companion characters in a meaningful way like that outside of a cutscene. I quickly found myself growing attached to her by this frequent simple gesture.

On occasion, you will need to defend Yorda from encroaching shadowy beasts who will attempt to capture her and drag her through portals into their realm. These are the only times you will experience any combat in ICO. There are only three weapons that Ico can use: a stick, a sword, and a different sword that has magical lightning emitting from it. After obtaining a weapon, or if you feel confident enough to go unarmed, simply press the square button to swing; that's it. Typically, this would make me want to howl in agony, but there is so little combat in ICO that it's not really a problem. In all, the gameplay in ICO feels like a Zelda game with stripped down combat. If something can even resemble a Zelda game in the slightest, that's a huge plus in my book.

Gameplay Rating:

Story

WARNING: Major Spoiler Alert! Also note that some of this section is purely conjecture and may be false.

In the traditional sense, ICO does not have very much of a story, but ICO is not a traditional game. If you have played Shadow of the Colossus, you will recall that at the very end of the game, the main character was possessed by an evil spirit. After having the spirit cast out of him, he is found as an infant with horns beginning to grow out of his head. In ICO, the main character is a boy no older than ten years old with, you guessed it, horns protruding out of his head. This makes me believe that Ico is the same person that you played as in Shadow of the Colossus.

Either way, at the beginning of the game, Ico is brought to a castle on a remote island to be sacrificed to an unknown being for simply having horns. After escaping his bonds, he sets out to find a way out of the castle to freedom. While exploring, he stumbles upon Yorda, who is also being held captive for some unknown reason. Needing all the help he can get, Ico frees her and discovers that she is the daughter to the queen of the very castle you're in.

It is here that conventional storytelling ends. The tale is no longer told with words, but by the silence and emptiness surrounding you. Like a piece of art, the interpretation of this is left to the observer, and there is no right or wrong way to see it. However you do interpret it though, this is a journey that absolutely must be experienced to understand and appreciate.

Story Rating:

Replay Value

Unfortunately, considering that ICO is purely linear game and takes 7 hours or less to complete on the first playthrough, replaying it a second time will take you even less time than that. There is also nothing new to discover by exploring areas more in depth because of that linear nature. So unless you enjoy the game enough to replay it the exact same way you did the first time, ICO's replay value is virtually nonexistent. Honestly though, a game as unique as this deserves a replay, but not everyone might agree.

Replay Value Rating:

Final Thoughts and Overall Score

It really is a tragedy that one of the brightest gems of the PS2 era has gone so largely unnoticed. Though I suppose that this was somewhat rectified with Shadow of the Colossus. If you have the opportunity to experience ICO, take that opportunity and run with it! There is no other game out there quite as unique and tranquil as this. Any self respecting gamer would be doing themselves a severe disservice by not experiencing it.

ICO Overall Score:

Star Wars: Republic Commando Review

2011-11-04T10:16:00.000-05:00

Written 07/06/2011

Note: This review is for the PC version of the game. Screenshot and video taken from my machine.

I really wanted to play Republic Commando when it was released back in 2005, but I couldn’t afford it and was rounding out my senior year of high school at the time. By the time I had enough money for it, the game completely slipped my mind. I only remembered it recently when I managed to snag it for $5 during a Steam sale. Not only had I finally gotten my hands on the game, but I also decided to make it my first Youtube playthrough game. Should I have forgotten about Republic Commando so long ago? No, but it was still great to save that much buying it!

Visuals and Presentation

Compared to today’s generation of ultra-realistic games, Republic Commando looks quite dated. To make such a comparison would be unfair though, so I won’t do it. Compared to other games of the time, Republic Commando’s visuals are quite solid. Models and textures are as detailed as they could be for the time, with most of the effort showing itself in the textures. Having done some rudimentary modding in the Jedi Knight games, I know that such a technique is the best way to achieve more realistic results with the limited power of the older game engines. Animations, while rather limited, are all much more fluid than many other games of the era. The environments and enemies are equally limited, but are still well designed. The limited variety also helps to keep the game focused, though there was still a little available room left to add more variety. By far the most limited in variety are the weapon models, but it actually serves an understandable purpose in the gameplay; which I will explain shortly. Overall though, Republic Commando’s visuals are solid with a lack of variety.

Visuals and Presentation Rating:

Sound

Considering that this is a Star Wars game, most of the sounds and music you’ll hear in Republic Commando are the same things you’ve been hearing for years. Honestly, I would have it no other way! The sounds and music of Star Wars are a large part of what makes the series so iconic, and it would simply not be the same without them. In addition to those classics, there is a very nice and original title song that also plays at key points in the campaign. The voice acting is also top notch, with the notable inclusion of Raphael Sbarge. For those of you who don’t recognize voice actors in games, he also voiced Carth Onasi from Knights of the Old Republic and Kaidan Alenko from Mass Effect. Everyone portrays their roles excellently, which is helped along nicely by the intelligent and coherent writing. Overall, the sound package of Republic Commando is excellent despite the reuse of most of the classic sounds and music you either love or hate by now.

Sound Rating:

Gameplay

As odd as this may sound, there are no Jedi whatsoever in Republic Commando save for a roughly 30 second appearance of Yoda. You are instead, big surprise, a Republic Commando in charge of three other Commandos. The game is a first-person shooter with a heavy emphasis on squad tactics. The shooting mechanics themselves are simple and basic, and are especially easy to pick up if you’ve ever played a Call of Duty game (and who hasn’t?). The gameplay’s real depth comes into play with its squad command system. While in most areas, you will be given the option to assign any of your fellow Commandos to a tactical location, allowing them to snipe, throw grenades, provide anti-armor fire, or man an unoccupied turret. Unfortunately, each location is pre-set to a certain action. So if a particular location is designated for sniping, the Commando will only snipe in that location. Fortunately, the developers were smart enough to place each tactical location in good spots.

As I’ve mentioned earlier, the weapon selection in the game is very limited. The reason for this is that your primary weapon, the DC-17 blaster rifle, actually acts as three separate guns. You start off with the DC-17 only acting as an assault rifle. Soon though, you’ll find a sniper attachment that you can switch to while still using the same weapon. After that, you’ll come across a grenade launcher attachment as well. While still being the same gun, each attachment uses it own ammo type; which is convenient. Other than the DC-17, there are seven guns in the game, but you will likely rarely use them, as you’ll be nicely supplied with DC-17 ammo throughout most of the game.

The difficulty of the game is fairly relaxed most of the time. On occasion though, you are thrown into a situation so difficult that you will die at least ten times before you succeed. I personally don’t have a major problem with this, but it was definitely frustrating nonetheless. Multiplayer in Republic Commando shows the game’s age most clearly, and generally feels like simply a tacked on feature. The gametypes are cookie-cutter, and mostly revolve around Deathmatch and Team Deathmatch. The map designs are nice, but they can’t distract from the overall blandness of the multiplayer gameplay. Honestly, Republic Commando’s multiplayer can’t hold a candle to its competition. This game shines in its campaign experience, and I believe that was the intention. Multiplayer in Republic Commando would be best left ignored.

Gameplay Rating:

Story

At first, Republic Commando’s story seems as though it will make little to no sense. You begin the game as one of many elite clone squadrons sent to Geonosis to aid the Jedi in the events near the end of Star Wars: Episode 2. After you extract from the planet, you are sent to...well, I won’t ruin it for you. Suffice it to say that events begin to tie together very well as the game progresses, and ending with things leading directly into a battle depicted in Episode 3. Until the very end of the game though, there will still be questions as to why you are present in certain locations. Unfortunately, the game’s ending is also a pretty nasty cliffhanger; so be ready for it. Overall, the game’s still is a bit confusing at first, but ends up being worthwhile.

Story Rating:

Replay Value

Considering the weak nature of Republic Commando’s multiplay, all of the game’s real replay value is in its campaign. Fortunately, the campaign took me a respectable 10 hours 48 minutes to complete on the normal difficulty. Unfortunately, there is not much to do after that but replay the campaign on a harder difficulty. The game is certainly worth another playthrough if a Republic Commando 2 is ever announced, but until that happens, the game’s replay value is highly dependent on how much you enjoy it the first time through.

Replay Value Rating:

Final Thoughts and Overall Score

If you’re tired of playing a Jedi in Star Wars games, give Republic Commando a try. If you enjoy tactical military shooters, try Republic Commando. If you like Star Wars in general, try Republic Commando. If you hate Star Wars, what’s wrong with you? The game is available for PC and the original Xbox.

Star Wars: Republic Commando Overall Score:

System Requirements:

OS: Windows 2000, XP or Vista
Processor: Pentium III or Athlon 1.0 GHz or faster CPU
Memory: 256MB RAM
Graphics: 64MB 3D Graphics card with Vertex Shader and Pixel Shader (VS/PS) capability
DirectX®: 9.0b
Hard Drive: 2.0GB
Sound: 100% Directx 9.0c

Prince of Persia Review

2011-10-28T10:03:00.000-05:00

Written 05/10/2011

Note: This review is for the PC version of the game. Screenshot and video taken from my machine.

On occasion, I like to try something different. I’ve never played any of the Prince of Persia games save for about an hour of a few intros. So when I saw the more cell-shaded Prince of Persia in GameStop for $10, I figured it would be worth giving it a go. To someone uninitiated to the franchise, was it worth the money? I’d say!

Visuals and Presentation

From what I can tell with my limited knowledge of the franchise, this Prince of Persia takes a much more stylized approach than the games before it. The colors are bright and vivid, with textures that make everything look just like a piece of concept art. I wouldn’t exactly call it cell-shading, but that’s probably the best way I can describe it. This “loud” art style also shows itself in the character models and textures, particularly in the Prince himself with his blue and orange scarf. The animations are also quite fluid and you can feel a certain rhythm when you begin chaining together different acrobatic feats successfully. The environments, both the corrupted and healed versions, are well designed and rarely leave you guessing where to go next. Enemy variation is pretty limited, but considering that you’re struggling against one enemy at a time for long stretches of time, it’s not that bad. The camera, while intuitive and manageable, will at times lock itself in a position that makes figuring out where to jump next difficult. It happens so infrequently though, that it really doesn’t distract from the beauty of the moving concept art piece that is Prince of Persia.

Visuals and Presentation Rating:

Sound

The sound of Prince of Persia is really quite solid. The music could easily fit in an Arabian Knights movie, and it’s a nice change of pace, at least for me. The running, jumping, sliding, swinging, flying, and all the other sounds, including those in combat, never disappoint either. The real star here though is the voice-acting. For those of you interested in such things, the voice-actor for the Prince is Nolan North. That’s the same fellow who voiced Nathan Drake from the Uncharted series and Desmond Miles from the Assassin’s Creed series. The Prince’s attitude and demeanor are very similar to Drake’s, and if you’ve read either of my Uncharted reviews, you know how much I like Drake. If you take the time to talk to Elika, you’ll be treated to a great deal of the game’s history, her personal feelings, a growing relationship between herself and the Prince, and some chuckle-worthy banter. While the whole package isn’t always stellar, it’s definitely never painful to listen to. Oh, and make sure your turn your sound up a bit if you hope to hear the voice-acting.

Sound Rating:

Gameplay

The gameplay in Prince of Persia is distinctly separated into platforming and combat. You’ll spend most of your time jumping, wall running, climbing, holding on to ledges and vines, using power plates, and flying through air. It’s a great deal of fun, as it’s almost like playing a rhythm based game without the music. I can’t really say I’ve played a game with platforming quite like this. The next closest thing to this I’ve played is both Uncharted games, and that’s still not exactly the same. Aside from his hands, feet, and agility, the Prince also has a gauntlet which he can use to slowly descend walls. It may not seem that great at first, but you’ll soon find that it can be an invaluable tool.

If the Prince can’t reach an area on his own, he can call on Elika to compliment his abilities with her magic. If a gap is just too far to jump, Elika can help the Prince jump a second time in mid-air and thus make such gaps insignificant. She can also use power-plates, which allow her to hurl both of them great distances, run up walls temporarily, and even fly. When you combine the Prince’s acrobatic abilities with Elika’s power plates, you have yourself a very fun and visually entertaining platforming system.

The game’s combat is also pretty unique. It revolves around two on one battles at all times, with the Prince and Elika facing off against one foe. You will never face more than one enemy at a time. To prevent the combat from quickly becoming stale, it focuses on chaining together as long of a combo as you can, and random quick-time events. You can jump, have Elika jump in for a magical attack, use the Prince’s sword and gauntlet, and block. To effectively chain together combos, you need to constantly be switching between Elika, the Prince, his gauntlet, and jumping. The Prince’s gauntlet throws enemies in the air and allows you to juggle it for a moment before spiking it to the ground. Chaining together combos is also slightly more difficult than you might think until you figure out the mechanics, and could almost be considered a meta-game.

As great as the gameplay is, there are also no real consequences for failure. You will not die in Prince of Persia, not even once. It’s not because the game is too easy, as it’s not, but because Elika will always save you just before your death, guaranteed. This gives no real consequence of failure, as it is absolutely, unequivocally, impossible to die. The only consequence for failure when platforming is being forced to restart your acrobatics where you began them, which is never too far away. In combat, failure only means that your enemy regains a portion of its health, which can easily be taken away again with a moderately executed combo.

There is also no real sense of character advancement in the game aside from unlocking the use of power plates. You keep the same weapons, armor, and skills throughout the entire game. There are no unlockables that I know of, and you never gain any new abilities in combat. While I can somewhat understand why these choices were made, I also feel like more could have been done to give the player a better sense of advancement and more incentive to not fail.

Gameplay Rating:

Story

WARNING! Spoiler Alert!

The basic premise of the story is that a dark deity is attempting to break free of its generations long imprisonment and has corrupted the world around its prison. Elika is the last person of the tribe tasked with maintaining the deity’s prison in the area. She liberally falls on the Prince, who is dragged into circumstances beyond his control. After that, you hunt down and eliminate four of the dark deity’s top servants and heal the lands of their corruption. I won’t say anymore for fear of ruining the ending, but I will say that things take a very unexpected turn toward the game’s conclusion. Overall though, the story isn’t actually as great as it might sound. It’s by no means bad, but I felt like it wasn’t very far beyond average, if that.

Story Rating:

Replay Value

Because of the lack of progression and unlockables, the replay value of Prince of Persia is highly dependent on how much you want to replay the same content in possibly a different order. There’s really not anything beyond that. Granted, the game is enjoyable, but you may want to wait a few years and forget the finer details of the game before replaying it. That way you can enjoy it more as a new experience again, instead of knowing exactly what to do throughout the entire game.

Replay Value Rating:

Final Thoughts and Overall Score

Having never played a Prince of Persia game to completion before this one, Ubisoft definitely has me interested in trying out the rest of the games now. Maybe I’ll pick up the HD remakes of the first three games on PS3. Overall though, this Prince of Persia seems like an excellent introduction to the series! The game is available for PC, PS3, and 360.

Prince of Persia Overall Score:

System Requirements:

OS: Windows® XP/Windows Vista® (only)
Processor: Dual core processor 2.6 GHz Intel® Pentium® D or AMD Athlon™ 64 X2 3800+ (Intel Core® 2 Duo 2.2 GHz or AMD Athlon 64 X2 4400+ or better recommended)
Memory: 1 GB Windows XP/2 GB Windows Vista
Graphics: 256 MB DirectX® 10.0–compliant video card or DirectX 9.0–compliant card with Shader Model 3.0 or higher (see supported list)*
DirectX Version: DirectX 9.0 or 10.0 libraries
Hard Drive: 9 GB
Sound Card: DirectX 9.0 or 10.0–compliant sound card (5.1 sound card recommended)
Input: Windows-compliant keyboard, mouse, optional controller (Xbox 360® Controller for Windows recommended)

http://support.ubi.com

Uncharted 2: Among Thieves - Game of the Year Edition Review

2011-10-21T10:05:00.000-05:00

Written 1/29/2011

Note: Screenshot and video courtesy of Google Images and Youtube respectively.

I thoroughly enjoyed the original Uncharted, and that’s no secret from my review of the game. It was smart and funny with excellent gameplay, visuals, and sound to boot. Two years after the original’s success, Naughty Dog gives us Uncharted 2: Among Thieves; IGN’s overall Game of the Year for 2009. Is this sequel worthy of such an honor? In a word, definitely! Why didn’t I pick this up sooner again?

Visuals and Presentation

Visually, Uncharted 2 is an absolutely beautiful game and tops the original in basically every way. Models are textures and much more detailed, environments look and feel much more intricate, and the effects are simply stellar. The water and snow in the game are particularly nice from both a visual and technical standpoint. When anything comes in contact with water or snow, only the parts that actually touched the water or snow are affected. With water, it can become anywhere from slightly damp to completely soaked. With snow, the effect can best be seen on characters, as it will pile up on your boots and legs, as well as any other body part it touches, and thaw out realistically. Footprints also remain in the snow (as far as I can tell) indefinitely.

As excellent as all of the eye-candy on-screen is though, the animations outshine everything else by and far. They are so smooth and believable that each character’s personality can clearly be seen without them ever saying a word. Drake’s animations are full of stumbles, ducks from cover while covering his head, startled jumps, and flailing through the air while reaching for something to grab onto. Chloe’s animations on the other hand, are much more refined with better balance and less unnecessary movement. I particularly like her hair animations though, as they are among the most realistic I can immediately recall from any game I’ve played. Stair animations are also present and look fantastic. I know stair animations aren’t very important to many people, but when a developer takes the time and effort to include them in their game, it makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside. What, is that just me?

Typically, most of the eye-candy from a single-player campaign needs to be stripped out for the sake of gameplay in multiplayer. Not so in Uncharted 2! Everything you see in the campaign is present in multiplayer, with the only difference being that the water and snow effects on characters are slightly reduced. I have no idea how Naughty Dog managed to do this, but I’ll bet they learned some of the same black magic Valve used when they put such massive groups of zombies on-screen without any lag at all. In all, if you want to see the real power of the PS3 with a truly beautiful game, look no further than Uncharted 2!

Visuals and Presentation Rating:

Sound

The sound in Uncharted 2 is an exact copy of the original’s with the only differences being a few new voice actors and music tracks. Naughty Dog brought everything that was excellent in the original game and added some slightly better writing for the voice-actors, which is really quite good considering how awesome the original Uncharted’s writing was. The music has also been tweaked to better suit the new environments, and it all sounds great. I don’t really have much to say about the sound in Uncharted 2 because it’s all so similar to the first game, which was great. If you’d like more info on the sound of Uncharted 2, I would highly suggest reading my review of the original Uncharted.

Sound Rating:

Gameplay

The gameplay of Uncharted 2 sort of assumes that you’ve played through the original game until you at least encounter the enemies with laser-sighted weapons, as they will be thrown at you relatively early in the sequel. After that, new enemy types will appear that are much more difficult than in the first Uncharted, like soldiers with riot shields, others with such heavy armor that they almost require headshots, minigun users that look a lot like the Heavy class from Team Fortress 2, and a few other unique enemies that I won’t spoil for you. Allow me to say though, that when you meet these unique additions, you WILL die multiple times. Those guys are brutally hard!

Other than that, the game plays exactly like its predecessor, a third-person shooter/platformer/cover-shooter. I’ve never played Gears of War (I know, where have I been right?), but I’ve seen enough videos of it to say it’s an appropriate comparison as far as the shooter and cover mechanics go. To put it simply, if you don’t find yourself at least some nominal cover, your life in Uncharted 2 will be pretty short indeed. Don’t think you’re entirely safe when in cover though, as the AI will quickly surround and overwhelm you if you’re not careful. The best thing you can do is find cover that gives the AI the least amount of possible routes to flank you, then keep an eye on your weakest angle while thinning out the opposition.

Melee combat has been slightly improved to make it more entertaining, but at its core is still a bit shallow. When meleeing, enemies will now try and counter you. When this happens, time will slow slightly and give you ample opportunity to escape the counter by pressing triangle. While it’s definitely not the most in-depth thing in the world, it can actually be pretty fun; so I suppose I can forgive its lack of depth.

When you’re not running and gunning, you’ll be solving basic to moderately difficult platforming puzzles. You can climb, jump, scale certain walls, and generally anything you would expect from the first game. Occasionally these sections will be a little frustrating because the camera will set itself at such an angle where the controls become a bit confused and unintuitive. It doesn’t happen very often, but it can be a little jarring when it does. Another thing I noticed is that it’s oftentimes difficult to tell where you can and can’t climb. You may see a spot you think you can jump to, but Drake simply refuses to go in that direction. To make life a little easier on you, when this happens, keep moving about until Drake reaches out his hand in the direction you want to go. If he never reaches out, you can’t go that way, simple as that! Trust me, looking out for that will save you a lot of confusion. Other than these core mechanics, you’ll also encounter situations where shooting yourself out isn’t exactly an option. I’m not going to spoil them for you, but let me say that they are all fantastic and a lot of fun.

Multiplayer mechanics are identical to the campaign, but the necessity of cover is downplayed in favor of more traditional running and gunning. Cover is still important mind you, but not as used as in the campaign. The gametypes are mostly your standard fare of Team Deathmatch, Capture the Flag, Territories, King of the Hill, etc. While unoriginal, the solid core gameplay mechanics still make them quite fun. The co-op gametypes are a little more original, with Co-op Objective setting you and two others in the middle of a point in the campaign to find a treasure at the end of the sequence. Co-op Arena is basically the same thing as Left 4 Dead 2’s Survival mode or Gears of War 2’s Horde mode, with you and two others tasked with surviving as long as possible while the enemies become increasingly more difficult. These modes are highly dependent on teamwork, and I would strongly discourage you from going out on your own to be the hero unless you’ve got the bite to match your bark. Finally, there’s an experimental gametype that’s...well...experimental! Overall, Uncharted 2 is a very solid gameplay package with some slight annoyances in the campaign, but some fun multiplayer to make up for it!

Gameplay Rating:

Story

WARNING: Spoiler Alert!

Where the original Uncharted focused on Drake’s heritage and almost solely on his character development, Uncharted 2 focuses more on the overall story and almost everyone’s character development; including their individual relationships. The game begins with Drake enjoying the good life on the beach, when he is approached by Flynn and Chloe. They ask for his help in discovering Marco Polo’s missing expedition and the hidden city of Shambhala, A.K.A Shangri La. After some hesitation, Drake agrees, and the story sets off in truth. I don’t want to spoil too much, but I will say that the story, like the gameplay, is an awesome Summer-Blockbuster action script with healthy doses of betrayal, love, humor, and edge-of-your-seat scares. The story is also told simply, so it’s pretty hard to get lost even if you halfheartedly pay attention. The only thing that may be a little confusing is trying to determine where one character’s real loyalties lie, as they constantly switch sides until the very end of the game. This should by no means distract from the excellent and well written story of Uncharted 2 though!

Story Rating:

Replay Value

Usually a game’s replay value rests solely on its campaign or its multiplayer. Uncharted 2 is one of those rare games where both portions are almost equally replayable. After completing the campaign, the Bonus menu allows you to purchase anything from new skins, to different rendering filters, to cheats, to concept art galleries, to behind-the-scenes videos with the Naughty Dog team. Aside from multiplayer being just plain fun, you can also buy perks, skins, etc in a fashion exactly like that of Modern Warfare 2. As I always say though, it all depends on how much you enjoy the game to begin with. If you enjoy shooters or action games at all, you can get quite a bit of time out of Uncharted 2 should you so desire.

Replay Value Rating:

Final Thoughts and Overall Score

PS3 fanboys (and fangirls) should be very proud indeed to have an exclusive game of Uncharted 2’s caliber. Whether you’ve played the original or not (though I suggest you do simply because it was great), Uncharted 2 is easily accessible and a blast to see and play. If you own a PS3, you are doing yourself a great disservice if you don’t even try this game. Great job Naughty Dog! You’ve earned every accolade you’ve been given and then some! I’m really looking forward to Uncharted 3 now!

Uncharted 2: Among Thieves – Game of the Year Edition Overall Score:

Playthrough Parts: October 13 - 19

2011-10-19T17:05:00.017-05:00

October 13:
Republic Commando Part 88 - Manning Another Turret
Oblivion Part 22 - I hate Vampires!
Terraria Part 59 - Not good on many levels

October 14:
Republic Commando Part 89 - We? It's Just You!
Oblivion Part 23 - So glad. You have no idea!
Terraria Part 60 - King Slime? Where is he?

October 15:
Republic Commando Part 90 - Back and Forth
Oblivion Part 24 - Where there's enemies
Terraria Part 61 - Any time now day!

October 16:
Republic Commando Part 91 - The End, or is it?
Oblivion Part 25 - Most boring backtrackiest episode evar!
Terraria Part 62 - At least I'll land in the water...Hopefully!

October 17:
Oblivion Part 26 - Look at those ragdolls
Terraria Part 63 - Now we're getting somewhere!
Bulletstorm Part 1 - Thanks Epic Games!

October 18:
Oblivion Part 27 - You're a ghost, you don't need sleep
Terraria Part 64 - Corruption in the dark, wonderful!
Bulletstorm Part 2 - Rainbows, puppies, and lucky clovers

October 19:
Oblivion Part 28 - Being Rushed
Terraria Part 65 - What is up with everything trying to kill me?
Bulletstorm Part 3 - That Should Have Been Worth Something!

Uncharted: Drake's Fortune Review

2011-10-14T10:20:00.000-05:00

Written 04/01/2010

Note: Screenshot and video courtesy of Google Images and Youtube respectively, and credit goes to the original recorders.

The year is 2007, and the PS3 is having a really rough start. Most of what was available were cross-platform sports games and only one exclusive to truly rally around (that being Resistance: Fall of Man). Many believed that Sony had permanently lost its edge to Microsoft and that the PS3 would flop in a similar fashion to the Dreamcast. Undaunted by these speculations, Naughty Dog unleashed Uncharted: Drakes Fortune as a PS3 exclusive. With that, Sony loyalists finally had a game worthy of the then high priced PS3, and 360 owners had their first bouts of jealousy.

Visuals and Presentation

Uncharted is the first game of this console generation to truly tap into the extra power offered by the PS3, and it shows. The character models and textures are of a quality practically unseen in games up to this point. The clothes of every character wrinkle and stretch realistically depending on the movement of the character exactly like it would in real life. They also react to water in the most realistic way I've ever seen in a game. In most games, when a character gets wet their entire body becomes slightly darker for a moment then lighten up again; even if only their feet are actually wet. In Uncharted, only the part of the character that actually makes contact with water becomes wet. The effected clothes also become visibly heavier, drip, and take up to 2-3 minutes to dry off. Speaking of the water itself, it looks fantastic and behaves very naturally. Having attempted to make water myself in multiple game engines and seeing how truly difficult it is, I can attest that Uncharted's water is both an artistic and technical feat.

The environments also enjoy the same treatment as the characters, with lush jungles and ancient ruins. The lighting is dynamically rendered and is particularly awesome in the jungle environments where every leaf of every tree casts shadows along the environment and characters alike. My only qualm with the lighting is that it can be quite bright at times and hurt your eyes. Also, there these odd little dots that the light casts on some objects. The textures are colorful, but not so much so that you're distracted by it. My only complaint with the textures is that Naughty Dog gave too much specularity (I think that's the right function) to every texture; thus making 90% of the game look very wet when it doesn't necessarily need to.

The animations of the characters are top-notch work. Nathan Drake hardly ever does the same jump or lands the same way twice. He'll stumble, flail, and nearly fall over during movement. While in cover, he'll protectively cover his head when under heavy fire and flinch when bullets hit too close to him. Enemies will dodge and weave when shot at, dive for cover, and generally make you wish they would just stand still for just half a second. Overall, the visuals of Uncharted, while clearly topped by more recent titles, are still great eye-candy and will not disappoint.

Visuals and Presentation Rating:

Sound

The sound in Uncharted is just as good as its visuals, if not better. The voice acting is superb to the point that most of the voice actors should win film awards for their excellent performances. Nathan Drake in particular is a joy to listen to simply because he has so much variance in his tone and it all sounds completely natural. He can be cocky and self-confident one moment, immediately switch to being terrified and crying like a little baby the next, and go back to his usual self with a corny yet funny comment. Then there's the banter between him, his companions, and his enemies. All of it is very well written and performed. The quality of the voice acting never diminishes throughout the entire game.

Weapon sounds are also of the same great quality, with obviously weaker weapons sounding well, weak, to stronger weapons with an audio kick that makes you very happy to have upgraded your arsenal. The ambient sounds are very appropriate without being overpowering. For example, it's possible to know you're in the jungle simply by listening. The music is an original score of somewhat tribal music and modern melodies that fit the game perfectly. It's not often sound can beat visuals of Uncharted's quality, but that is done here and then some.

Sound Rating:

Gameplay

Uncharted is broken down into three major gameplay elements: platforming, shooting, and story. The platforming sections of the game are a sort of hybrid between what you would see in Assassin's Creed and Zelda: Ocarina of Time (minus the excruciatingly difficult puzzles). You are presented with the exit to an area, and you must find a way to open that exit and then run, jump, climb, and swing your way to victory.

The shooting sections are similar to something like Gears of War or Mass Effect 2 where cover is absolutely essential to success. Basically, you find cover that gives you the best possible position to view the whole area, figure out where the enemies are typically taking cover themselves, wait for them to poke themselves out of cover, and attempt to take them out before they duck back into cover. That sounds like a simple task I know, but it's not once you learn how smart the enemy AI can be. The enemies in Uncharted know when you're aiming at them and do everything in their power to prevent themselves from being shot. They will duck, dodge, weave, and dive for cover so often and so quickly that it will often feel like you're trying to squash a particularly fast and agile roach and keep missing.

The story section is...well...reserved for the story section of this review!

Gameplay Rating:

Story

WARNING: Minor Spoiler Alert!

Unlike most games from the last 10 years, Uncharted's story is firmly set in the real world...at first. Even when the story does go into strangeville though, it makes a lot of sense in the context of what's going on. It's the sort of thing that that'll make you say “y'know, if this or that really would have happened hundreds of years ago this could have been realistically possible”. I seem to be getting a little ahead of myself though.

At the beginning of the game you are introduced to the main character, Nathan Drake, a very witty and likeable guy who would be great to have at a party. Nathan is a treasure hunter and supposedly a descendent of Sir Francis Drake. He is looking for a vast treasure that he believes his ancestor was on the trail of before meeting an untimely demise. After breaking open the coffin supposedly belonging to Sir Francis Drake, Nathan finds not Sir Francis's body, but his diary instead. This diary gives a detailed account of Sir Francis's search for the Lost City of Gold, El Dorado, and every clue he had found up to that point.

To help fund the trip where Sir Francis had been searching for the city, Nathan agrees to have a History Channel-type person, Elena Fisher, follow him around and record his search on a TV program. Nathan also employs the help of his friend, Victor Sullivan, to bring him to this tropical island.

After the trio reaches the island, things get hairy very quickly. I don't want to say much beyond that as I'll be revealing some major spoilers, but expect a story worthy of a summer blockbuster release with some great action sequences, good character development, and witty/corny humor. To prove my point, a relative of mine who frequently sees me gaming walked into the room while a cutscene was happening and thought Uncharted was a movie. I had to agree that it certainly could pass off as one, but it was in fact a game. Overall, if you're looking for good (not utterly great, but still quite good) story with very believable characters that you would enjoy being around in real life, Uncharted is definitely for you.

Story Rating:

Replay Value

Considering that Uncharted is a very linear game that can be completed in 10 hours max, typically I would say that the replay value on a game like this is hardly worth talking about. Fortunately though, Uncharted is not a typical game in that respect. Scattered throughout each chapter are treasures that you can find which will earn you both PSN Trophies and in-game unlockables such as making-of videos for the game and concept art galleries. I'm unsure if those are the only types of rewards available, but the gameplay and story are so refined and fun that I wouldn't mind replaying the game just for that. So whether you're a completionist or you just enjoyed the game enough, Uncharted is definitely worth at least one replay, if not two.

Replay Value Rating:

Final Thoughts and Overall Score

Quite honestly, having never played a Naughty Dog game before, I was unsure what to expect from them with Uncharted. Not only was I very pleasantly surprised, but now I can't wait to play Uncharted 2: Among Thieves when I get more time!

Uncharted: Drake's Fortune Overall Score:

Playthrough Parts: October 6 - 12

2011-10-12T17:06:00.029-05:00

October 6:
Republic Commando Part 81 - Fighting Fire with Fire
Oblivion Part 15 - My Business is my Own!
Terraria Part 52 - Forget You Too!

October 7:
Republic Commando Part 82 - You're Judging Me Again
Oblivion Part 16 - Why are you Watching?
Terraria Part 53 - The Digging Trio

October 8:
Republic Commando Part 83 - Just Tapping Away
Oblivion Part 17 - Shortest Day Evar
Terraria Part 54 - To the Wiki!

October 9:
Republic Commando Part 84 - Just Get Shot!
Oblivion Part 18 - I will Slay you all!
Terraria Part 55 - Dungeon Crawling

October 10:
Republic Commando Part 85 - Just had to get in the way, didn't you?
Oblivion Part 19 - Does it look like I'm worrying?
Terraria Part 56 - Server Fail!

October 11:
Republic Commando Part 86 - This is Nothing!
Oblivion Part 20 - Plenty Waiting
Terraria Part 57 - I'm on top of the world!

October 12:
Republic Commando Part 87 - Have Fun Killing!
Oblivion Part 21 - Glowdust Pl0x!
Terraria Part 58 - Permanent Floaty Block

Borderlands Review

2011-10-07T10:07:00.000-05:00

Written 12/21/2010

Note: This review is for the PC version of the game. Screenshot and video were taken on my machine.

Borderlands is a pretty hard game to categorize. The official website and advertisements claim that it's the offspring of an FPS and RPG's union, and I can believe that. I've also heard it classified as a Looter-Shooter, which is also accurate. In short, this is the hybrid genre to beat all hybrid genres. It does make you wonder though, is it a good idea to cross-breed an FPS and RPG?

Visuals and Presentation

As I sit here and think about how I'm wanting to start each section of this review, I'm realizing how truly difficult Borderlands is to describe. Everything is a hybrid of two things, except for the sound. The visuals in particular are very stylized but yet they try to give off a somewhat realistic feel at the same time. It can be a little jarring at first, with realistically detailed textures that are slightly cell-shaded, but the effect quickly grew on me to the point that I quite liked uniqueness of it. The same treatment can also be seen in the environment, player, enemy, NPC, and weapon models; and the quality remains quite consistent throughout the entire game.

Pandora is a desolate place very reminiscent of the Capital Wasteland of Fallout 3 with the exception that a nuke hasn't hit this planet. It's a very barren and unforgiving place, but not a particularly varied one. Expect to see a lot of sand and rock with the occasional bandit camp littered about when roaming outdoors. The interior areas, while largely reusing textures and prefab models, are all uniquely designed so that they really feel original. Toward the end of the game you begin to see some real variety, but it doesn't last very long. The most variety you'll be seeing in the game will be in the DLC areas such as Dr. Ned's Zombie Island. I only purchased the initial three DLC packs available at the time of this writing (The Zombie Island of Dr. Ned, Mad Moxxi's Underdome Riot, and the Secret Armory of General Knoxx), and they provide a much more pleasing visual package than the core game with environments specifically tailored to the individual topics of each DLC. In all, the core game looks and feels great, but if you're looking for a little more variety, buy some of the DLCs.

Visuals and Presentation Rating:

Sound

Sound is probably the most straightforward, non-hybrid, aspect of Borderlands. Most of what you'll be hearing is the gun sounds, and there's quite a few to be heard. Each sound is perfectly appropriate for the type of gun you're firing, and avoids making any particular weapon sound weaker than it actually is. The music and other general sound effects are also solid, but the music can be a bit repetitive. You're going to be hearing the same exploration tune so much it's going to get stuck in your head for a while. The combat music is good, but it really blends into the background when things get heated up. The music in the Mad Moxxi DLC however, is just plain awesome! I found myself so distracted by it that it would almost get me killed; it's that good! Voice acting is good as well, if you can hear it. Some voices come in loud and clear and are performed very well. Others are hard to tell because you can't hear a dang thing they're saying. So keep the subtitles on and be ready to speed read. Other than that, I have no real complaints about the sound. It won't win any awards, except for possibly the Moxxi music, but it's by no means bad either.

Sound Rating:

Gameplay

More often than not, games are either supported by strong gameplay and have a very weak story, or vice-versa. Borderlands is most definitely a perfect example of the former. The gameplay is so solid that it makes the admittedly non-existent story just disappear (more on that in the next section). As I've said earlier, Borderlands is the offspring of an FPS and RPG's union, and there's really no better way to describe it. If you've played either Halo or Call of Duty, the shooting mechanics will be very familiar to you. If you've played World of Warcraft or any other MMO, the loot and skill-based mechanics will be very familiar to you.

At first glance, it's very difficult to distinguish between the shooting mechanics of Borderlands and Fallout 3. Both give you weapons with damage, accuracy, and fire rate stats, and let you shoot in a traditional FPS style. The difference is where Fallout 3's shooting mechanics are ruled by the RPG “number-crunching” method to determine hits and misses, Borderlands' shooting mechanics are ruled by your actual accuracy and twitch skills in an FPS method. That's not to say the stats on your weapon make no difference, because they do, but rather to say that you can overcome the poorer stats of your weapon with sufficient FPS skills. A weapon with poorer accuracy stats simply means your reticule is bigger, thus forcing you to either waste more shots or get closer to your target.

I can't really move on without talking about the weapons themselves. There are literally anywhere between 100,000 – 1 million guns in Borderlands. It seems like black magic, I know, but the system used to generate weapons is really quite ingenious. To put it as simply as possible, there are roughly 10 (I may be exaggerating, as I've not really counted) gun manufacturers in the game, and each specializes in certain weapon stats. Some focus on damage while sacrificing accuracy or fire rate, while others focus on high accuracy with limited damage potential, while others focus on giving the weapon an elemental property, and so on. Then there are a vast amount of individual gun parts, like stocks, scopes, barrels, etc, for each manufacturer. So when a chest is opened with a weapon in it, or an enemy drops a weapon, a manufacturer is (I assume) randomly chosen. After that is established, then random individual gun parts are chosen within that manufacturer available options until the weapon is complete, and that determines its stats. This means you will hardly ever come across the same gun twice, and assure that the weapon you're using is truly unique to you. For a more detailed explanation of this, among other things, check out this dev interview by GameSpot.

The RPG side of things becomes most apparent in the amount of looting that you do, and the skill tree used to specialize your character. To put it bluntly, if you don't loot, then you won't progress, then you will surely die. It's like this in almost every RPG known to man, and Borderlands is no different. You need to constantly be scavenging for better and better loot to stay competitive with the enemies you're fighting, and it almost becomes a meta-game in and of itself. Your skill tree allows you to specialize your character to your playstyle. I played the Soldier class (there's also the Berserker, Hunter, and Siren classes), and my skill tree allowed me to progress in offense, defense, healing, or a bit of each; which is what I chose to do. The skills themselves, aside from your one active skill, serve to buff your character to make them more proficient in a certain role. Considering the Soldier's skill trees above, it's pretty easy to guess what each one does. You also level up just like in a traditional RPG by completing quests, killing enemies, and completing challenges to gain XP.

Pandora itself is a pretty large place, and you're going to be traveling a lot. Luckily, there are Catch-A-Ride stations scattered all around the planet that spawn vehicles, and generally make your life more enjoyable. Typically there are only two-player vehicles available, but in the Secret Armory of General Knoxx DLC, there is a vehicle that can carry a full group of four players. Speaking of full groups, Borderlands' multiplayer is a whole lot of fun. It's basically just a four-player co-op through the single-player campaign, but going through the empty wastes of Pandora is much more enjoyable with a friend at your side. Just keep in mind that your connection is dependent on which player in your group is the server host, so be sure the one with the best connection is hosting the server. With all of that said, you're going to be hard-pressed to find a more unique and enjoyable gameplay experience than Borderlands.

Gameplay Rating:

Story

This is going to be a really short section because there's just not much to say here. You're on Pandora because you are a Vault Hunter. What's in the vault, no one knows, and you never find out. That's it, case closed, the end, no joke. The story in the core game is an excuse to shoot everything in your path, and that's ok considering how good the gameplay is. Just don't expecting anything deep and engaging. The DLCs on the other hand have very enjoyable and focused stories. So if you're looking for any kind of story at all in Borderlands, buy the DLCs.

Story Rating:

Replay Value

If you enjoy the gameplay at all in Borderlands, playing online is enough to keep you happily occupied for a very long time. Playing the campaign alone took me roughly 53 hours to complete, and I still have a few side quests left to do. Then after you complete the game once, a second playthrough option opens up that brings everything's level range up to high-levels. So even level 1 areas become challenging again. Overall, it just depends on how much you enjoyed the game the first time. I can definitely see myself replaying this in the future though.

Replay Value Rating:

Final Thoughts and Overall Score

To answer my initial question in the opening paragraph: yes, it is definitely a good idea to cross-breed an FPS and RPG; so long as the product is as awesome as Borderlands. If you enjoy originality in your games, give Borderlands a try as soon as you can! The game is available for PC, 360, and PS3.

Borderlands Overall Score:

System Requirements

OS: Windows XP/Vista
Processor: 2.4 Ghz or equivalent processor with SSE2 support
Memory: 1GB System RAM (2GB recommended with Vista)
Graphics: 256mb video ram or better (GeForce 7 series or higher/Radeon HD3000 series or higher)
Hard Drive: 8 GB or more free space
Sound: Windows compatible sound card

Playthrough Parts: September 29 - October 5

2011-10-05T17:04:00.015-05:00

September 29:
Republic Commando Part 74 - Wookie Stole my Kill!
Oblivion Part 8 - First Oblivion Gate
Terraria Part 45 - Come to Eat my Soul No Doubt

September 30:
Republic Commando Part 75 - Where Life gets Hard
Oblivion Part 9 - Omega Sign?
Terraria Part 46 - Go Home and be a Family Tree

October 1:
Republic Commando Part 76 - I don't need it now
Oblivion Part 10 - Far too Casual
Terraria Part 47 - 1.7 Hours of Epicness

October 2:
Republic Commando Part 77 - Wookie Pwnage
Oblivion Part 11 - Awesome Freeze Frame
Oblivion Part 11.5 - He WAS Right Behind You!
Terraria Part 48 - Slaying Left, Right, and Center

October 3:
Republic Commando Part 78 - So Much for the Guide
Oblivion Part 12 - Commentary Sync Fixed
Terraria Part 49 - World Traversal Platform
Terraria Part 49.25 - I'm Dead Aren' t I?

October 4:
Republic Commando Part 79 - Promenade?
Oblivion Part 13 - You Need Some Eyebrows
Terraria Part 50 - Train of Death

October 5:
Republic Commando Part 80 - Let's Try that Again
Oblivion Part 14 - Speechcraft Fail
Terraria Part 51 - Summon Timing Fail

Need, Greed, or Pass - Hard Reset

2011-10-03T17:31:00.001-05:00

At first glance, you'll probably think that Hard Reset is a high budget game made by a big developer like Valve or Crytek. In reality, the game is made by an indie developer called Flying Wild Hog. The demo opens with an animated comic strip that attempts to set up the world, time period, and why your character is there. After watching the intro sequence three times now, I still don't fully understand some of the finer details. The basic premise is that you are a member of the Corporation, a sort of police force tasked with protecting the Sanctuary from the Machines; which are sentient robots that are attempting to evolve their AI to a higher point. It sounds confusing I know, but I wonder if events are explained more clearly in the full game. Toward the end of the intro, your character, Fletcher, is sent out to investigate a fresh murder scene. You are then tasked with scouting the area and finding the Machine killers.

Visually, Hard Reset is simply gorgeous, with towering buildings, flying cars, and advertisements everywhere you look. Even though the game is set in the year 2436, the smaller buildings look distinctly modern while still being advanced enough to fit in such a futuristic setting. Aside from the environments, the weapons, enemies, props, and effects are all equal to that of a large development studio.

Unfortunately, the sound, while still good, does not hold the same consistent quality that visuals do. Weapon and environment sounds are solid at all times, with punchy gunshots, interesting enemy sounds, and subtle ambiance. The voice acting is much more hit and miss though, with well performed dialog in the introductory cutscene, but bland and uninteresting during gameplay. Hopefully the gameplay voice acting improves over the course of the full game.

Speaking of gameplay, Hard Reset is moderately challenging on Normal difficulty. The demo starts you off with only one small Machine to destroy and two weapons. The first weapon is a standard machine gun that shoots at a very satisfying speed, while the other appears more alien in design, and fires orbs of energy. Personally, I found that the energy gun was significantly weaker than the normal machine gun; so I hardly used it. Each weapon has one 200 round clip, and ammo is easy to come by once you begin destroying larger numbers of machines. If you do run out of ammo though, it will slowly regenerate so long as you don't fire. The Machines themselves will ruthlessly pursue you once they spot you, and can easily overwhelm you with their sheer numbers.

To help thin the crowds quickly, various environmental objects can be destroyed to create large explosions or electricity to shoot out and short circuit the machines. Along with with ammo and health pickups from defeated enemies, you will also collect credit chips that can be used to upgrade your weapons. To use them, you'll need to find an Upgrade Terminal. Upgrade Terminals allow you to enhance your current weapons, or add attachments, such as a shotgun or grenade launcher, to them to make them more versatile. You can also upgrade your armor with the ability to enter a slow-motion state when your health is critical, among other things.

Aside from the rather confusing story and the weak gameplay voice acting, Hard Reset appears to be an excellent game for anyone who enjoys First-Person Shooters or independent games. It is with that said that I classify Hard Reset as a Need!

Mass Effect 2 Review

2011-09-30T10:09:00.000-05:00

Written 02/02/2010

Note: This review is written for the PC version of the game. Screenshot and video were taken from my machine.

Let's get a few things out of the way here and now. Mass Effect 2 is better than the original by nearly every sense of the word. If you haven't played the original though, go and buy it before you play Mass Effect 2; it makes a monstrous difference in how much you'll understand in the storyline and enjoy the experience overall. So if you ask me, you should stop reading this right now and go buy Mass Effect 2 (and the original if you haven't played it yet). Bioware has truly outdone themselves yet again! And no, I'm not joking, go buy this...right now!

Visuals and Presentation

The original Mass Effect, though still pretty by today's standards, was plagued with countless texture pop-ins, cookie-cutter “dungeons”, and many mostly barren planets. It was as though Bioware hadn't fully mastered how to get the most bang for their buck out of Unreal Engine 3 yet (that is, if I can properly pick out my engines). It also could have been the fact that they were working with a now three year old build of the engine. Either way, all of those issues have been fixed in Mass Effect 2 and it's a welcome change to say the least. Gone are the texture pop-ins of the first game. Each “dungeon” is fresh and unique; with far more detail in each than before. The planets, while not quite as big as in the original, are greatly refined and feel more alive. The models and textures have all been updated as well, and look truly spectacular. The ambiance is calming at most points, but can effectively heighten the tension when it needs to without any problems. In all, I just can't say enough about how good this game looks!

Visuals and Presentation Rating:

Sound

Sound is something Bioware has always excelled at, and Mass Effect 2 is no different. The voice acting is top-notch, with everyone who was in the first Mass Effect reprising their roles in Mass Effect 2, and some excellent additions to the already stellar cast. The dialog is smart and thought provoking with just enough humor when appropriate to keep things fresh. General sounds also have the same excellent quality as the voice acting. Guns pack the same audio punch as you would expect. Ambient sounds and music are very subtle, but immensely help develop the mood for any given situation. When the music does crank up though, expect an excellent score that is very distinctly Mass Effect. In short, Mass Effect 2's sound is the audio equivalent of art.

Sound Rating:

Gameplay

At first I was kind of on the fence on Mass Effect 2's gameplay, but it grew on me to the point where I now find the first game's mechanics greatly inferior. Unlike the first game, where combat is ruled by the stats of your equipment moreso than your skill, Mass Effect 2 plays much more like a 3^rd person action game in the same vein as Gears of War than a traditional RPG. Weapons no longer have stats that you can readily compare with other weapons. Instead, you're given a description of the pros and cons of each weapon and allowed to choose whichever weapon suits you best. Armor still has basic stats, but you can essentially wear anything you want and be almost as effective as you would be if you nit-picked your stats to death. With this greatly decreased emphasis on stats, combat requires a bit more skill than the first game. Finding and utilizing the best cover spots is often paramount to success. You still have skills like you would see in traditional RPGs, and they do really help, but it's not impossible to go through the entire game on solely the shooter mechanics and cover. As far as bugs go, there really aren't any except for the occasional instance where I would get stuck on something and need to reload; as well as two instances where the AI just stopped working.

Make no mistake though, this is still an RPG at its heart and it should be approached as such. You're going to be spending more time progressing the relationships with your crew and figuring out what's going on in the story than blowing someone's head off. Some of the conversations can be pretty long, which may turn some people off at times; but if you're a thorough person like I am, it won't be much of a problem.

One of the main features of Mass Effect 2 is the ability to import your save file from the first Mass Effect, which transfers all (and I really mean ALL) of the choices you made in the first game so you can either reap the benefits or suffer the consequences of those choices in Mass Effect 2. This is a HUGE deal because the way you play the original Mass Effect has a meaningful and permanent result in Mass Effect 2, and it has already been confirmed by Bioware that you'll be able to import your Mass Effect 2 save file into Mass Effect 3. So if your Mass Effect 2 save has all the choices you made in the first Mass Effect, and you import that Mass Effect 2 save into Mass Effect 3, then you will experience the consequences of all three games' choices. Now simply consider if you replay Mass Effect 1 and 2 and change a few choices before playing Mass Effect 3, something completely different could happen in a certain situation. Nothing like this has ever been done in gaming, and I'm very glad Bioware is the first developer to make it happen; they completely deserve it!

Gamplay Rating:

Story

WARNING: SPOILER ALERT

Considering that great stories in games is what put Bioware on the map in the first place, it's no surprise that the story is by far Mass Effect 2's strongest point. Let's face it, as good as the visuals, sound, and gameplay can be, the main reason you're going to play a Bioware game is for the story. They are easily one of the biggest pioneers of game stories in the industry.

The story itself can be hard to describe because the way you played the first Mass Effect can possibly change how the story progresses. So the way you go through the story could be completely different from the way I did. To put it generally though, Mass Effect 2 continues the story of Commander Shepard and his mission to destroy a galactic threat of sentient machines known as the Reapers. In the opening sequences, everything seems to be going peachy until something...bad...happens and Shepard becomes....indisposed...while the Normandy floats away...in pieces. Shepard remains in this indisposed state for two years while he's being...fixed. When he gets back on his feet, he discovers that human colonies are disappearing without a trace. After a little investigation, he finds out that the colonists are being abducted by a race known only as the Collectors for an unknown, but obviously nefarious, purpose. After the Collectors abduct their targets, they disappear through the Omega 4 relay; a mass relay that whoever passes through it, save the Collectors, never return. The Collectors, he learns, are working for the Reapers and must be stopped. Seeing this as a suicide mission, Shepard scours the galaxy for those willing to join him.

Without giving away too many more spoilers, the story progresses fantastically! Characters you know and love from the first game make their returns and their reactions to you now can be quite interesting. They are extremely well developed over the first Mass Effect and feel that much more alive. Even though you could really connect with your crew in the first game, the deep and meaningful interactions you have with them in Mass Effect 2 are that much more profound. It all leads up to an ending that sets up the story perfectly for what's sure to be an utterly amazing finale to the Mass Effect saga!

Story Rating:

Replay Value

The replay value of Mass Effect 2 is highly dependent on if you want to see what happens when you make different choices. Also considering that making different decisions in the first game will change certain dynamics in Mass Effect 2, so there's really a lot of potential there to mix and match how you want the story to progress. Unlike the first game though, when you finish Mass Effect 2 you're given the option to continue your current save and finish any side quests you may have missed or start the whole game over with all of the equipment and experience you already have. Personally, I always love it when an RPG allows you to continue playing after you finish the main storyline, so that's what I picked. It helps me get a little more closure on “what happened to so-and-so after such-and-such happened?” until the next game is released. Which ever way you go though, you can easily get three complete replays out of the game at the very least. Considering that the game took me 42 hours to finish one play-through, doing it three times is quite the bang for your buck!

Replay Value Rating:

Final Thoughts and Overall Score

As I've said before, Bioware has truly outdone themselves yet again with Mass Effect 2! It is quite easily one of the best, if not the best, games in the company's portfolio. The depth of the story, very well rounded characters, fluent combat system, and the sheer amount of choice combinations is simply staggering. Any fan of RPGs, or gaming in general, would be doing themselves an extreme disservice to not experience this at least once. So whether you pick this up for 360, PS3, or PC (system requirements below), make sure you've finished Mass Effect 1 first, and get ready for a wild ride in Mass Effect 2!

Mass Effect 2 Overall Score:

Minimum:

OS: Windows XP SP3 / Windows Vista SP1 / Windows 7

Processor: 1.8GHz Intel Core 2 Duo or equivalent AMD CPU

Memory: 1 GB RAM for Windows XP / 2 GB RAM for Windows Vista and Windows 7

Graphics: 256 MB (with Pixel Shader 3.0 support)

DirectX®: DirectX 9.0c August 2008 (included)

Hard Drive: 15 GB

Sound: DirectX 9.0c compatible

Supported Chipsets: NVIDIA GeForce 6800 or greater; ATI Radeon X1600 Pro or greater. Please note that NVIDIA GeForce 7300, 8100, 8200, 8300, 8400, and 9300; ATI Radeon HD3200, and HD4350 are below minimum system requirements. Updates to your video and sound card drivers may be required.

Recommended:

OS: Windows XP SP3 / Windows Vista SP1 / Windows 7

Processor: 2.6+ GHz Cure 2 Duo Intel or equivalent AMD CPU

Memory: 2 GB RAM

Graphics: ATI Radeon HD 2900 XT, NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GT, or better recommended

DirectX®: DirectX 9.0c August 2008 (included)

Hard Drive: 15 GB

Sound: DirectX 9.0c compatible

Playthrough Parts: September 22 - 28

2011-09-28T17:01:00.011-05:00

September 22:
Republic Commando: Needing a Bigger Gun - Part 67
Oblivion: What Happened to Morrowind? - Part 1
Terraria: My First Blood Moon - Part 38

September 23:
Republic Commando: Harder by the Minute - Part 68
Oblivion: PUFFEH! - Part 2
Terraria: Death from Above - Part 39

September 24:
Republic Commando: I Feel Good About Myself - Part 69
Oblivion: Enthusiasm Fail - Part 3
Terraria: Onwards and Downwards - Part 40

September 25:
Republic Commando: That's Kind of Morbid - Part 70
Oblivion: Physics for the Win! - Part 4
Terraria: Work with me Man! - Part 41

September 26:
Republic Commando: Laugh at Me if You Want - Part 71
Oblivion: I will Shank you! - Part 5
Terraria: Heart of Death - Part 42

September 27:
Republic Commando Part 72 - You're too Hard on Yourself
Oblivion Part 6 - Way too many Interruptions
Terraria Part 43 - Blood Moons Every Night?

September 28:
Republic Commando Part 73 - Bugged Door
Oblivion Part 7 - Calm Down Man!
Terraria Part 44 - Back in Standard Ratio

Indie Spotlight: LIMBO

2011-09-23T10:07:00.007-05:00

There aren't that many games today that are so immediately unique as LIMBO. It's colorless, quiet, and simple. You may only run, jump, and grab certain objects. Such gameplay reminds me of the bright days of the old school Mario games that I, and many others, first cut our gamer's teeth on. This is by no means a Mario game though. LIMBO is a dark, mysterious, and cheerless place where bodies litter the ground and nothing holds good intentions toward you. In part, it is this fact that makes the game so unique. There is no color in the game whatsoever; only black, white, and the shades of gray in between. To break up the monotony of a plain black and white 2D plane, the developers at Playdead included a foreground and background that are separated from the playable plane by the camera's depth of field. In other words, the camera focuses on where you walk, but blurs everything in front of it and behind it. This gives the world a real sense of depth, even though you are actually restricted to a 2D plane.

Sound in LIMBO is nearly non-existent, but I believe it was an intentional decision. Though a great deal of the game's atmosphere can be attributed to its visuals, the lack of any constant music or sound dramatically adds to the tension and expectation of seeing the next trap just a moment too late. The limited sounds and music that are there however, are well crafted and adds to the experience in the best possible ways. In all honesty though, the silence is more profound than the sound. If you play this game, turn off any noise around you and listen as you play. You will hardly hear anything for some time, and it will be a great deal more engrossing than you think.

The story is also nearly non-existent, but it works for the setting. LIMBO's description on Steam consists of one line that tells the entire story. That description reads: “Uncertain of his sister's fate, a boy enters LIMBO”. That is everything you need to know to understand why you are where you are and why you're doing what you're doing. The story does not develop or progress beyond that singular goal until the very end, where you are then sitting back, watching the credits roll, and appreciating the amazing experience you have just had.

Speaking of the credits, you will be seeing them very soon after beginning the game; as LIMBO only lasts three hours for a decently experienced player. Those three hours will be among the most memorable of your gaming career though. The game is well worth the $10 admission to anyone who appreciates unique and memorable experiences. Overall, LIMBO, alongside other greats like Amnesia, Terraria, and Minecraft, displays the great power of the indie developer, and should not be missed by any self-respecting gamer.

LIMBO Overall Score:

Bioshock 2 Review

2011-09-16T10:20:00.003-05:00

Written 02/15/2010

Note: This review is for the PC version of the game. Screenshot and video taken on my machine.

Back in 2007, 2K Games took everyone by surprise with the original Bioshock. It was a smart, original, and story driven survival-horror-FPS. Its quality is still hard to match today, considering what it offered. Now, three years later, we see Bioshock 2 aiming to dethrone its predecessor. Its success in that goal however, can be left to interpretation. I will attempt to reserve my personal opinion on the matter until the end of this review.

Visuals and Presentation

The one thing that Bioshock 2's single player campaign exudes the most is ambiance. This game is so atmospheric it's palpable. Everything you see is completely top notch from the models to the textures to the animation. The animations in particular carry the most impact for me simply because there is no mistaking what each character is feeling and at times what they are thinking about. You don't typically see impressive digital acting like this except in games like Half-Life 2 and Grand Theft Auto IV. It's also apparent that 2K spent quite a bit of time on its lighting. Without such detail paid to the lighting, most, if not all, of the atmosphere of the game would be lost. The lighting can also provide critical gameplay elements when necessary. Often times you'll see a shadow or some other visual cue that warns you of impending danger and gives you enough time to prepare for it.

Unfortunately, very few of these good things can be said about Bioshock 2's multiplayer visuals. No shred of the game's excellent lighting remains in the maps; which are mostly recreations of areas from the original Bioshock. This leaves every area flatly lit and feeling empty despite the chaos of matches. The models, textures, and animations also severely suffer from the same treatment. Every texture's resolution has been reduced far beyond what is necessary for a typical multiplayer setting. This is so extreme on the weapon and character models that most of their fundamental texture definition is lost and degrades many models to colored blobs. The models have also had many of their polygons removed, which leaves their shapes less defined and somewhat distorted. Animations are also much stiffer than in the single player campaign. Overall, single player = good, multiplayer = bad.

Visuals and Presentation Rating:

Sound

If the visuals of Bioshock 2 are that atmospheric, the sounds are doubly so. From beginning to end, you will always be hearing something interesting or disconcerting. From water dripping on the floor through cracks in the environment to creaking support beams, you're constantly reminded by the audio that you are hundreds of miles under the sea. Splicers and Little Sisters are always heard before seen, and it's always interesting to hear what they have to say before revealing yourself to them. You'll also be hearing a great deal of voice acting via the prerecorded tapes littered across Rapture and conversations with your allies. Every bit of it is very well thought out and performed, and add tremendously to understanding the overall story as well as Rapture's history. The music is also an excellent contributor to the game's atmosphere with melodies that keep the apprehension high and climax songs that leave you downright stressed. Without such excellent audio throughout, Bioshock 2 would simply not be the same.

Sound Rating:

Gameplay

If you've played the original Bioshock, you're already very familiar with the gameplay formula of Bioshock 2. The game is designed to keep you scavenging for new equipment, ammo, and money to keep you alive. If you're not someone who likes to explore or you can't handle limited resources well, Bioshock 2 is not the game for you. You also have various powers such as the ability to wield lightning, fire, and ice from your palm through genetic mutations called Plasmids. To obtain more Plasmids, you must find Little Sisters and either kill them for their ADAM, or save them and accept a lesser amount of ADAM as a gift from them. Unlike the first Bioshock though, you can wield a Plasmid and a conventional weapon at the same time. Everything else in the game simply requires you to survive long enough to reach the end. While this still works well in Bioshock 2, a few key issues keep the game from rising to true greatness.

While you are encouraged to explore your surroundings to stay afloat, doing so doesn't feel as rewarding as it did in the original Bioshock. You're still in the underwater city of Rapture, and it's still a very original and interesting place, but the breath-taking aspect of the city is somewhat diminished in the changes made throughout Rapture. Technical issues are also very abundant in the game. In short, 2K needs to release a major patch for the game...now! During my play through of the game, I experienced a major crash that would not allow the game to relaunch, even after reinstalling the game. I searched the official Bioshock 2 forums for a solution but there wasn't one available until a day and a half later; and even then it was only a work-around of the real problem. On another occasion, my Plasmids were fully disabled and remained so even after logging off and logging back on. The only way I found to fix the issue was to spend some of my limited ADAM on a new Plasmid, thus resetting my Plasmid selection options.

As for multiplayer, I can sum it up in two words: stay away. For one, the lag is absolutely unacceptable. The gametypes are the same standard ones we've seen over and over for years in FPSs. As I've mentioned in the Visuals section, all artistic pleasantries have been stripped away in the vain hope of increasing performance. Balancing is basically non-existent as everyone runs around with only grenade launchers. I'm unsure if I should be blaming the QA department or the programers for this, but if a major patch is not released to fix these glaring issues, heads need to roll.

Gameplay Rating:

Story

Warning: Spoiler Alert!

It's been 10 years since the events of the original Bioshock, and a lot has happened. You're no longer Jack Ryan from the first game, but a Big Daddy known only as Subject Delta. As the game opens, you're strolling along with your Little Sister, Eleanor, doing what Big Daddies do best; drilling holes in those who would harm his little friend. Then one of the cheeky buggers throws a Plasmid at you that allows the user to command a Big Daddy for a short amount of time. While you're still under the Plasmid's effects, Eleanor's mother, Sofia Lamb, reveals herself to you. She hands you a pistol, tells you to place it to your head and fire. Unable to resist the Plasmid, you obey. You somehow survive, and are awakened years later dazed and confused. You're now left to figure what's going on.

The story from here is not as well developed nor does it hold the same impact as the first Bioshock's did. That's not to say it's bad by any standards, but it definitely feels like someone else wrote the story for Bioshock 2. There are many references to a cult that has formed in Rapture under Sofia Lamb, and they can be seen everywhere from the paintings on the walls to random scribblings by the Splicers. A fair warning though, there was one painting in particular that offended me as a Christian. It depicted three men hanging on crosses surrounded what look like prayer candles, and it looks like Jesus' crucifixion at first glance. Upon closer inspection though, you can see that the three men hanging on the crosses are Rapture citizens. I don't know what 2K was trying to say there, but needless to say I did not appreciate the image. Luckily, that was the only serious incident like that. After everything's said and done though, the game ends in a satisfying way that leaves the door open for a potential Bioshock 3.

Story Rating:

Replay Value

Considering the utterly broken multiplayer or the fact that the single player campaign takes 10 hours or less to complete, Bioshock 2's replay value is next to nothing. The only thing that truly warrants another playthrough of the single player campaign is the ability to see the alternate ending of whichever one you got before by doing the opposite of whatever you did the first time. Unless you're interested in replaying the game on a harder difficulty as well, there's nothing else to do beyond the alternate ending.

Replay Value Rating:

Final Thoughts and Overall Score

Under all the rubbish 2K has failed to clean up before releasing the game, Bioshock 2 is actually a solid game. If a major patch that addresses all of the severe issues is released, the multiplayer portion of the game has a chance to be fun and possibly worthwhile. Let's be honest with each other though 2K, the original Bioshock was a huge success because all development time was put into the single player campaign and only the single player campaign. Had Bioshock 2's development cycle followed the same path, it could have easily outshone the first game and then some. If you, the player, have played the original Bioshock, Bioshock 2 is still worth it...after a patch and possibly a price drop. Quite honestly though, this game would be rated higher if the multiplayer did not exist.

Bioshock 2 Overall Score:

Amendment: 2K has released a patch for the multiplayer portion of Bioshock 2 after the writing of this review which fixes many, but not all, of the game's lag issues. All of my other statements not concerning the lag still apply.

Minimum:

OS: Windows XP, Vista, Windows 7

Processor: AMD Athlon 64 Processor 3800+ 2.4Ghz or better, Intel Pentium 4 530 3.0Ghz Processor or better

Memory: 2GB

Graphics: NVIDIA 7800GT 256MB graphics card or better, ATI Radeon X1900 256MB graphics card or better

DirectX®: DirectX 9.0c

Hard Drive: 11GB

Sound: 100% DirectX 9.0C compliant sound card or onboard sound

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Recommended:

Processor: AMD Athlon 64 X2 5200+ Dual Core 2.60Ghz, Intel Core 2 Duo E6420 Dual Core 2.13Ghz

Memory: 3GB

Graphics: NVIDIA 8800GT 512MB graphics card or better, ATI Radeon HD4830 512MB graphics card or better

Other Requirements: Initial installation requires one-time internet connection; Ability to save game, earn achievements, receive title updates and online play requires log-in to Games for Windows LIVE; software installations required including Microsoft Visual C++2008 Runtime Libraries, Games for Windows LIVE client, Games for Windows LIVE Client Patch, Sony DADC SecuROM, Microsoft DirectX.

Final Fantasy XIII Review

2011-09-09T10:04:00.004-05:00

Written 04/25/2010

Note: This is for the PS3 version of the game. Screenshot and video courtesy of Google Images and Youtube respectively, and credit goes to the original recorders.

It's been four years since Final Fantasy 12 on the good ol' PS2, and fans of the Square-Enix super-franchise have been itching for the next installment after finishing FF12. We've been teased with tidbits of Final Fantasy 13 for almost the entirety of those four years, and now it's finally here. Was it worth the wait? Does it hold up to the rest of the series? Does it compete with the most legendary entry of the franchise: Final Fantasy 7? In short, yes, yes, and yes. If you're a fan of Final Fantasy, or JRPGs at all, go buy this game right now. I'm serious, stop reading, go to GameStop or Wal-Mart, and buy this...right now!

Visuals and Presentation

Square-Enix claimed during FF13's development that the game would tap into the full power of the PS3. After spending a considerable amount of time with the game for myself, I can believe it! Think of the best CGI cutscene you've ever seen in an RPG, and that's how FF13 looks at all times. Everything you can see in the game is absolutely spectacular, and I mean everything! Sure, there is still the occasional CGI cutscene, but at times it's nearly impossible to tell if you're watching events unfold in CGI or in-engine.

Although everything in the visuals department is superb, I have to make special mention of the facial animations. They are of such a high quality that any emotion or motivation a character experiences is etched into his or her face, which will change the character's body language dramatically. At times, those animations can be more expressive than a talented real life actor or actress. I could on and on about how good FF13 looks, but I think I'll leave it at this.

Visuals and Presentation Rating:

Sound

This is the first Final Fantasy that I've played which strays quite a bit away from the series's traditional sound techniques, and thankfully it doesn't suck! The typical intro song you're likely used to is replaced with a calming, yet somewhat sad, piano score that portrays the journey your party goes through very well. The victory song that has been in every Final Fantasy that I can remember is gone. That's right, that iconic fanfare jingle you either love or hate by now...gone! While some may be shouting for joy at this, I personally kinda missed that little tune during my playthrough. The new music and sound that is there though is very appropriate and of great quality. The voice acting itself is excellent, and matches what's portrayed in the animations perfectly. The dialog is also well written for every character. Overall though, the sounds take a backseat to the amazing visuals.

Sound Rating:

Gameplay

It is in gameplay where Final Fantasy 13 is the most different from every other entry to the franchise. If you've played any Final Fantasy, you know the combat consists of both sides standing opposite of each other with each taking turns using skills and magic until the opposing side dies. You may also recall that in Final Fantasy 12 the ability to move around freely during combat. The combat in Final Fantasy 13 is a hybrid between those two systems with turn-based combat and a limited amount of free movement. There are four fundamental differences that make this system unique however: control, speed, staggering, and paradigms.

Basically, you no longer directly control your entire party, but only the party leader. To help prevent things from becoming utter chaos however, a class-based system was instituted which allows you to better focus the skills of your now purely AI companions. A paradigm is formed when you put together different classes in the same group. For example, one of the paradigms I use the most is Relentless Assault, which means I have one character as a Commando and the other two as Ravagers. What if I need healing though? Neither the Commando or Ravager classes have any curative spells. Well, considering that every character can specialize in as many classes as you choose, you can switch between up to six paradigms on the fly during combat depending on how you set up your party's classes. So when I need a quick heal during combat, I switch to a paradigm like Combat Clinic, where one character is a Sentinel and the other two are Medics. When I'm appropriately healed, I switch back to the offensively oriented Relentless Assault.

Controlling only the party leader in combat seems ridiculous I know, but once you see that the combat moves so quickly that you hardly have enough time to issue commands to just one person, the idea will start to grow on you very quickly. Fights that would normally take you two minutes in a traditional Final Fantasy take between 10-30 seconds in FF13. Something that truly is ridiculous is the fact that if your party leader is defeated it's game over, even if someone in your party is still alive to revive you. I'm sorry Square-Enix, but that was a bad design choice on multiple levels.

During combat, you will also notice a light-brown bar at the top-right corner of your screen. This is the Stagger Meter. As you do damage, it will gradually fill. When it eventually does fill, your target will be staggered for a short amount of time and you will do at least 300% damage until the Stagger Meter empties again. While in a fight with a high HP enemy or boss, staggering it can mean the difference between life and death. Overall, even with the one serious design flaw, FF13's gameplay is among the best of the series.

Gameplay Rating:

Story

This section is going to be short, and intentionally so. I simply can't think of a way to describe the story without revealing some pretty major spoilers. Basically though, the themes surrounding Final Fantasy 13 involve the irrational fear of the unknown to the point of hysteria, love, hate, loyalty, unjust destiny, and the tenacity to change that fate or die trying. They are presented in such a way that, if observed in the proper light, they could apply somewhat to the world today. The story is told and progresses well, but I did find myself occasionally lost as to what was going on; especially in the very beginning. Every time I did become lost though, the story would quickly tie up those loose ends and renew my understanding. In all, this is definitely a story worth telling and hearing, and should not be missed!

Story Rating:

Replay Value

This is a Final Fantasy, and that already puts its replay value pretty high. The problem is that this is the most linear of the Final Fantasies that I know of, and that makes FF13 considerably shorter than its predecessors. If you were to pass up every single side quest in the game, you could easily finish it within 30 hours. Considering that every other Final Fantasy I've played takes at least 80 hours to finish, that's a pretty huge cut in gameplay time. If you decide to take on every side quest though (of which I believe there are about 60-ish), you can easily extend your gameplay time to the 60-70 hour range; which is far more acceptable. The game itself is worth at least one entire replay, if not more, due to the exceptionally strong gameplay and story. It really just depends on how much you liked the game the first time around.

Replay Value Rating:

Final Thoughts and Overall Score

On the whole, Final Fantasy 13 takes quite a few risks to achieve what it is; but I think they all paid off excellently. This is a fresh approach to the tried and true formulas founded throughout the franchise's history. It's definitely not a revolution, but more of an evolution. Personally though, I feel that Final Fantasy 13 has the potential to influence how JRPGs are made in the same way that Final Fantasy 7 did many moons ago. Great job Square-Enix, you've given us yet another classic!

Final Fantasy XIII Overall Score:

Splinter Cell: Conviction Review

2011-09-02T10:27:00.005-05:00

Written 05/03/2010

Note: This is for the PC version of the game. Screenshot and video taken on my machine.

I'm sure some of you have followed the ongoing development of Splinter Cell Conviction since its revealing 3 or 4 years ago. You may remember it used to look, feel, and probably play a lot differently than what has recently been shown. The game has gone through countless delays and even a complete overhaul from the ground up. After all of that, it's finally here. Has the wait been worth it?

Visuals and Presentation

Considering that Conviction is made in what I would be willing to bet is Unreal Engine 3, Ubisoft had a lot to work with in the visuals department. Character models, environments, texturing, and lighting are mostly pretty good, with a low resolution texture popping up on very rare occasion. The bullet trail effects, lighting, and general blur effects are particularly nice. The most original concept is by far how the lighting effects tie in to the stealth mechanics of the game. In past Splinter Cell titles, when you entered a dark area, you knew that the enemy could not see you if you could not see Sam Fisher on screen without night-vision being enabled. While this makes for a more authentic stealth experience, it can at times make visibility, and thus gameplay, a serious issue. To resolve this, Ubisoft added a feature that makes the screen black and white when you are appropriately hidden in darkness. As you move into more lit areas the screen begins to fill with more and more color until everything is in full-color. Obviously you are most visible in this state, so it would be advisable to quickly find cover. This makes some areas of the game quite nerve-wracking because nearly every enemy has a flashlight attached to their weapons. You'll be slightly startled at least once when you're hiding in complete darkness and your screen suddenly flashes with color as an enemy's flashlight moves over your general area.

My biggest complaint with the visuals has to be the facial animations. The lip syncing is terrible to the point of there being little mouth movement actually forming the spoken words. Facial expressions are also very limited beyond Sam's serious and cautious glare. Except for those things though, Conviction's visual package is pretty solid.

Visuals and Presentation Rating:

Sound

The sound in Conviction is not what you would expect simply for the contents of the voice acting. The dialog is mostly well written and performed with every applicable voice actor from previous Splinter Cell titles reprising their roles excellently. Weapon and ambient sounds are also done well. The music is a great mix of quiet, suspenseful, and intense tracks that do their jobs very well and can at times be a bit catchy. What drags down Conviction's sound though is the extreme vulgarity throughout the entire game. To put it simply, the language in Conviction makes Grand Theft Auto IV look tame. When engaging enemies, you'll hear something along the lines of “die you mother #^%@ing son of a #%^*)! piece of %*#( mother $!%#er!” every 5-10 seconds. It is so pervasive and unnecessary throughout the entire game that it becomes highly offensive. Seriously Ubisoft...why?

Sound Rating:

Gameplay

This is a Splinter Cell game, and you probably already know what the gameplay mostly entails if you've played any of the previous entries. This is a stealth game at its core, but Conviction adds a great deal of action to the mix typically unseen in the franchise. In previous Splinter Cell entries, the pace of the game was very slow, methodical, and required a great deal of awareness and planning. In Conviction, Sam Fisher's speed and agility have dramatically increased without taking away the necessity of being aware and properly planning how to clear out a room. Sam will need this extra speed to avoid the many bullets flying at him. Like it or not, Sam Fisher is nothing like Solid Snake and can never hope to be. If Sam gets shot three or four times, he dies, plain and simple. Your best options are to sneak and use the environment to get the jump on the enemy.

To help you do just that, Ubisoft has added two new features to the mix. First is the Last Known Position. When Sam is seen, a white, ghost-like silhouette appears at his position. When he ducks behind cover again, the silhouette remains in that same place indicating your last known position to the enemy. They will then quickly move in on that position, but if you're quick enough you can maneuver yourself around them without being seen and ambush them from behind. You could also employ the second new feature, the Mark & Execute, to quickly take care of many enemies at once. To do this, Sam finds a suitable enemy and “marks” him. After marking as many target as your current weapon will allow, position Sam where all of the mark icons you've placed are red and tap the execute button. Sam will then take out every one of your marks in a stylish yet efficient manner within two seconds. You may be thinking right about now “if I can just Mark & Execute everyone that makes the game too easy”, and you would be right. Fortunately though, you can only use Mark & Execute after successfully taking out an enemy with a melee attack; which is not always the easiest thing to do and live to tell about it.

Outside of the single-player campaign there are Deniable Ops missions and online co-op. Deniable Ops missions are separated between a search-and-destroy gametype and a gametype similar to a tower defense mini-game. Each are fun, but are a little limited when it comes to map selection. Then there's the online offerings, and part of the biggest issue this game faces. If you want to try out the multiplayer just as much as I do, you can't. You heard me right...you can't! The game will have been out a week tomorrow and the Ubisoft servers are STILL not allowing ANY connectivity to the online portion of the game. Not only is this completely unacceptable, it makes the game a complete rip-off! I paid $60 expecting multiplayer, and I want my multiplayer dangit! Then there's the abominable DRM (Digital Rights Management) measures Ubisoft has put in place to prevent the game from being pirated. Basically, Ubisoft is requiring that you be connected to the internet at all times to play the game; even in single-player. This wouldn't be so bad if the Ubisoft servers wouldn't randomly crash and make your game completely stop until the connection is reestablished. Come on people, I PAID for the game! You don't need a constant connection to verify that I do indeed own what I'm playing! Think of the needless bandwidth you're using to do this too! If anything, this will likely encourage piracy just to avoid your out of hand watchdog tactics! I haven't even touched the technical issues of the game yet! On at least 5 occasions the game crashed to the desktop and completely froze my whole machine twice, forcing me restart it via the power button on my tower. A patch needs to be released to fix all of this very soon, or I may actually consider seeking a partial refund for all of this! I should really make a Hitler rant parody on the topic.

Gameplay Rating:

Story

WARNING: Spoiler Alert!

This is the first Splinter Cell title that I know of in which the story is a direct sequel of the game right before it. If you want the back story of Conviction, read the Story section of my Double Agent review. Conviction picks up with Sam Fisher following a lead on finding his daughter's killer. Without giving too much away, the story quickly moves from a revenge tale to a national conspiracy involving a presidential assassination. While the story is decently written, I did feel like it jumped from point to point with little cohesion at times. This was fairly rare though. I also felt that Sam was very cooperative with whoever was ordering him around at the time given that he constantly asserted that he is an unwilling participant in the events around him. Overall though, this is one of the best stories of the series and worth at least a peek into it.

Story Rating:

Replay Value

Considering that single-player campaign is only 9 hours long, Deniable Ops are limited in their maps and gametypes, multiplayer does not work at all, and the outrageous DRM makes the game unlaunchable at times, and Conviction's replay value is hardly nothing. Deniable Ops are fun, but only prove to be a temporary distraction. The single-player was also good, but not really worth a second replay unless you really enjoyed it. Multiplayer is completely unavailable, but if it was available, it would probably increase Conviction's replay value dramatically. So until a major patch is released...

Replay Value Rating:

Final Thoughts and Overall Score

It's not that Conviction is a bad game by any stretch. It has mostly solid gameplay, but suffers from too many technical issues than I care to think about. The fact that you can't even connect to the multiplayer is a huge turn off for me; especially if a patch that fixes this is not released soon. If you want to be able to play the multiplayer right now, I would suggest purchasing the 360 version of the game. If you want the PC version though, well, you have been warned.

Splinter Cell: Conviction Overall Score:

Minimum system requirements:

OS: Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows 7

Processor: 1.8 GHz Intel Core2 Duo or 2.4 GHz AMD Athlon X2 64

Memory: 1.5 GB Windows XP / 2 GB Windows Vista, Windows 7

Graphics: 256 MB DirectX 9.0c–compliant video card (512 MB recommended) (see supported list*) DirectX®: DirectX 9.0c

Hard Drive: 10 GB

Sound: DirectX 9.0c–compliant sound card

Peripherals Supported: Mouse, keyboard, headset, 12-button gamepads with analog sticks

Internet Connection: Broadband Internet connection

*Supported Video Cards at Time of Release:

NVIDIA GeForce 7800 / 7900 / 8 / 9 / GTX series

ATI RADEON X1800 / X1900 / HD 2000 / HD 4000 / HD 5000 series

ATI HD 3000 NOT supported at time of release.

Laptop versions of these cards may work but are NOT supported. These chipsets are the only ones that will run this game.

Splinter Cell: Double Agent Review

2011-08-26T10:15:00.004-05:00

Written 01/08/2010

Note: This review is written for the PC version of the game. Screenshot and video taken from my machine.

With the release of Splinter Cell: Conviction just a month away, I've decided to pick up its predecessor, Double Agent, to get caught up on the series' story before launch day. Luckily for me, I caught it on sale on Steam for just $5. Was it worth it though? Well, yes and no. This review is mainly intended for those who plan on picking up Conviction without any intention of playing Double Agent first. So there may be some spoilers in the Story section. You have been warned.

Visuals and Presentation

For a game that was released in late 2006, Double Agent looks quite pretty. In the display menu I discovered you could set the game to run in either Standard or Next Generation mode. During the credits, I learned that the Standard mode ran the game in the Unreal Engine 2; which is in the same technological time-frame as the PS2, original Xbox, and PCs over at least three or four years old. The Next Generation mode ran the game in the Unreal Engine 3, which is in the same technological time-frame as the PS3, 360, and any mid-range PC found on the market today. Basically, if you can run Unreal Tournament 3 with decent settings, then you can run Double Agent in Next Generation mode.

I didn't test the game in Standard mode, but I played through it entirely in Next Generation mode. If you can run it like that, Double Agent can be a real treat to look at. The lighting effects and shadows, which have always been at the heart of the Splinter Cell series, look great and really add to the atmosphere of the game as a whole while still acting as an excellent gameplay mechanic. Another thing that really helps Double Agent presentation-wise over the other Splinter Cell titles that I've played is the variety of places Sam Fisher finds himself in. Over the course of the storyline missions, you travel to China, Africa, and America just to name a few locales. Each area feels distinct and well crafted, which keeps things fresh. The only real complaint I have with the presentation is when you don't have your night-vision goggles handy. On one level, not having them is not a problem because it takes place during the day. On another level though, which you revisit four times throughout the game, not having night-vision makes life nearly impossible in certain critical areas of the map. Overall, the game looks quite good considering its age.

Visuals and Presentation Rating:

Sound

First and foremost, if you want to hear this game...at all...turn your volume up to double what it usually is. The audio in Double Agent is output at such a low volume you can't even hope to hear it if you set your speakers to their normal levels. That aside, the voice acting in Double Agent is what you would hope for. Cheese is non-existent in the dialog, and one small conversation in particular between two terrorists should not be missed for humor's sake. Sam Fisher's voice is reprized by Michael Ironside, like in every other Splinter Cell title, and it just wouldn't be the same without him. It's really quite surprising you don't hear his voice in more games outside of the Splinter Cell series, but I suppose to each their own. General sounds are also what you would expect. Weapons with silencers on them are adequately, well, silent; and unsuppressed weapons draw enough attention with the noise they make.

The music is nothing to write home about, but it definitely serves its purpose in creating the mood for certain situations and excellent at heightening tension. For the most part, the music remains so subtle that you hardly even notice it. When an unaware enemy approaches Sam's position though, the music becomes louder and much more serious the closer the enemy comes to Sam. If an enemy does discover Sam, the music almost reaches the intensity of a James Bond action scene as he loudly calls out for backup. Combine the music with the nice voice acting, and you've got yourself a pretty decent audio package. Just be sure to turn your sound up!

Sound Rating:

Gameplay

This, like every other Splinter Cell title, is a stealth game. It's not a stealth-action game or any other hybrid variation you wish to come up with. Sure, you have a gun and can choose to go out shooting, but you're going to end up frustrated from constantly reloading because you're frequently going to be dead. Your best friends in Double Agent are your bare hands, gadgets, distractions, and your brain. Patience is also a must, because without it you're going to end up eating dirt...again. The game will also put you in countless situations to remind you of that very fact. Quite often, you'll enter an area that can be completely wiped of enemies if you plan everything right, but if you're seen, you don't even have time to pull out your weapon before you're getting a bullet surprise.

At other times, there's no possible way of eliminating even one enemy without being seen. On those occasions, you have to employ everything at your disposal to reach your goal without drawing the least bit of attention to yourself. That's not to say you can't safely draw attention elsewhere. Throw a can or bottle near some enemies and the noise will attract their attention away from their posts, giving you precious seconds to slip by unnoticed. You can also use your pistol's EMP function to temporarily plunge the room into darkness and simply walk past the opposition as they flounder around in the dark trying to get the lights back on.

Stability-wise, Double Agent is very hit or miss. During my play time, the game crashed at least 10 times, but actually closer to the 15-20 range. I'm unsure if I should credit those crashes to faulty programing by Ubisoft, or the fact that I'm running the game on Windows 7 and through Steam. Either way, definitely something to look out for.

Gameplay Rating:

Story

Unlike the other Splinter Cell titles in the series, Double Agent is not simply a random assortment of missions Sam undertakes with little to no connection between them. At the beginning of the game, Sam is heading to (if I remember right) Russia to ascertain if a certain terrorist group has acquired a nuclear weapon and disable it if that is indeed the case. After disarming the weapon and extracting, Sam is informed that his daughter, Sarah, was killed in what seemed to be a hit-and-run incident. Without anything left to lose, Sam takes on the most dangerous mission of his life; to infiltrate one of the world's most dangerous terrorist organizations. After purposely landing himself in prison and breaking out a member of the terrorist organization, the JBA, Sam finds himself at their headquarters in New York and joining their ranks.

It is at this point that the story progression is in your hands. In each mission, you're given objectives from both the JBA and NSA. At times you can complete the objectives of both organizations without drawing suspicion from either, but there are also times when you must choose who's cause to support because objectives from each organization are completely opposite from each other. Do you choose to kill innocent civilians in order to prove your loyalty to the terrorists and put your motives in question with the NSA, or do you spare the civilians and risk blowing your cover with the terrorists? Choices like this and others change how people feel about you and how much they trust you. They can also effect how the game ends entirely and if a certain mission is available to you at all. It all leads up to an ending that sets up the story for Splinter Cell: Conviction excellently.

Story Rating:

Replay Value

Replayability in Double Agent is definitely its weakest point. While the story is better-than-average by a bit, there are some pretty cool moments in the missions, and the gameplay is mostly solid, the game just doesn't have enough impact to make me want to play it over again. The frequent crashes are also a big factor in why I won't be giving Double Agent another go; though I don't know if it was simply an issue with Windows 7, Steam, or just bad programing. It was a good ride the first time through, but not so much afterwards.

Replay Value Rating:

Final Thoughts and Overall Score

Splinter Cell: Double Agent is not a bad game by any stretch of the imagination, but it's also not a completely world-shatteringly awesome one either. It provides a good story with solid gameplay if you can survive the crashes. It's available for nearly every system known to man, even GameCube; but you'll have the most luck finding it for PC (system requirements below) with online retailers such as Steam and Direct2Drive, considering its age. The only time I've recently seen a console version of the game was a few months ago at my local Blockbuster. If you see the game for $5 to $10, consider giving it a try; it's worth the nominal cost.

Splinter Cell: Double Agent Overall Score:

PC Minimum System Requirements:

Supported OS: Microsoft Windows® XP

Processor: 3 Ghz Pentium 4 or AMD Athlon 3000 (3.5 Ghz Pentium 4 or Athlon 3500 recommended) - Game optimized for dual-processor-enabled computers.

System Memory: 1 GB or above (1.5 GB recommended)

Video Card: DirectX 9.0c-compliant, Shader 3.0-enabled 128 MB video card (256 MB recommended) (see supported list*)

Sound Card: DirectX 9.0c-compatible (EAX recommended) - PC audio solution containing Dolby Digital Live required for Dolby Digital audio.

DirectX Version: DirectX® version 9.0c or higher

Hard Disk: 8 GB available hard disk space

Multiplay: Broadband connection with 128 kbps upstream or faster

*Supported video cards at time of retail release: Single Player: ATI X1300 / X1600 / X1800 / X1900, NVIDIA 6200 / 6600 / 6800 / 7300 / 7600 / 7800 / 7900 | Multiplayer: ATI X1600 / X1800 / X1900, NVIDIA 6600 / 6800 /7300 / 7600 / 7800 / 7900

Indie Spotlight: Amnesia: The Dark Descent

2011-08-19T10:17:00.003-05:00

Let me get this out of the way here and now, I don't do horror; whether it be books, movies, or games. I generally just don't do it, ever. Sure, I know Bioshock could be considered horror to a degree, I don't really see Bioshock as TRUE horror. What I mean by true horror is the complete and utter feeling of helplessness and being completely defenseless. It's when you have such dread of going around the next corner that you'll sit and gather your wits for 5 minutes before proceeding, or you simply turn the game off altogether and find something cheery to do so you can calm down. So it makes it all the more surprising to me that I actually played Amnesia: The Dark Descent to its completion, AND that I thoroughly enjoyed it! Granted, I couldn't play it alone at any point of the game as I would become way too freaked out; so my cousin (who convinced me to try the game in the first place) helped me with it.

Amnesia is brought to us by Frictional Games, the same folks behind the Penumbra series. You're probably going to hear me say this a lot in this column, but indie developers have so much more creative freedom to realize their visions than big name development houses with publishers on their backs needing a massive profit. Amnesia is a prime example of this; as I seriously believe you will not get an experience like it at this point from any big name developer. Publishers are quite finicky I hear, and rarely stray from green-lighting cookie-cutter games for fear of losing money. Amnesia breaks many conventions of what survival-horror currently is, and shows that the genre can be so much more! If I were someone working in a game publishing company, I would be watching Frictional Games with great interest indeed.

With all of that said, Amnesia is anything but cookie-cutter. You begin the game stumbling through a dark castle talking to yourself. You are reminding yourself of your name, Daniel, and where you're from. As you're constantly telling yourself to focus, you black out and wake up sometime later sprawled on the floor in the middle of a random hall. The only memories you have are your name and where you live; everything else is gone. You have Amnesia; pretty hard to guess right? As you get up, you notice a trail of florescent red liquid (though it also looks like rose petals a bit) leading into room after room. It's dark, very dark, and you find some tinderboxes to light the extinguished candles and torches with. Eventually you come upon a letter addressed to you, but it's also from you. You discover that you've somehow made yourself forget everything you've ever done. You're then given a most grizzly task, to find Alexander Brenennburg, the lord of the castle you're in, and murder him. Without any more information than that, you find yourself with little choice but to head forward and listen to your past self.

I'm not going to say anymore about the specifics of the story, but I will say that the story never drops in quality until perhaps the very end. It's primarily told in flashbacks you have in certain rooms, and scattered letters you find from yourself and other former residents of castle Brenennburg that tell of your previous exploits and give background as to why you're here. This encourages you to explore every nook and cranny you can find for more information to continue the story. It's very possible to pass by a letter with vital information, and you become lost in the story because of the gaps it leaves. I'm a very thorough person though, so exploring in a game like this is very natural to me; but it may prove tedious or difficult to those with slightly shorter attention spans. The story can also be a little predictable at times, but that should by no means distract from the excellent tale that it is.

Gameplay wise, Amnesia is probably as survival-horror as you can get. Daniel is not a super-soldier, the chosen one, a mutant, mage, Spartan, or anything else you can think of that can wipe out legions of enemies by little more than blinking. Daniel is a man, an ordinary man, and he's scared to the point of insanity; literally. Along with his physical health, you must also manage Daniel's mental stability. When Daniel sees something disturbing, and he will quite frequently, his mental faculties will become more and more rattled. At first, this has little effect on him except for a little blurry vision. As he loses grip on reality even further however, he will begin to suffer from severely blurred vision, very hard heart beats, hallucinations of roaches crawling all over his body, stumbling, and eventually blacking out. Considering that the game is set in 1839, there's no Xanax sitting around castle Brenennburg for Daniel to calm himself down with. Instead, he regains his barrings on reality by solving moderately difficult puzzles to progress throughout the castle.

Daniel can also take preventative measures to keep his mind in check by staying in well-lit areas. Where there's no light in an area already, Daniel can create it by either using tinderboxes to light some of the extinguished torches and candles, or use his lantern. Both are very limited resources, but if can manage them properly, they'll go a very long way and you'll rarely find yourself wanting. If you're a wasteful kind of person though, you're going to need to learn better habits, and fast!

Aside from the disturbing events Daniel witnesses, the four enemies of the game will drain his sanity faster than you can shout “Holy reanimated corpses Batman!”. In all, the enemies include the darkness, what Fuzzy (my cousin) and I call the Water-Demon, the Gatherers, and the Shadow. I know it seems a little redundant that there's the darkness and the Shadow, but they are actually two different things. The darkness is very literally the darkness all around you. Without any light to combat it, it will drain your sanity to the point where any slight disturbance will have Daniel stumbling and screaming for his mummy (yea, he's British). The Shadow on the other hand, is an actual being that you never actually see, but you know it's there from the roaring and the fleshy boils and sacks that cover every surface of the environment and hurt Daniel when touched. The Water-Demon lives, you guessed it, in the water and chases anything that enters its domain. You never actually see it either, but you know it's there by the footsteps splashing on top of the water as it relentlessly pursues you. The Gatherers are the most common enemy second to the darkness, and look like mutilated and disfigured corpses that roam the halls of castle Brenennburg. By simply looking directly at them, Daniel's sanity begins to drop like a lead weight. If Daniel is seen by it, it will chase him until he can lose its line of sight and hide. Once hidden for a minute or so, the Gatherer loses interest, leaves, and disappears into thin air.

The presentation that ties all of this together is absolutely phenomenal! I have no idea what engine Amnesia is made on, but I would love to know because it almost has an Oblivion vibe in my opinion. Either way, for being stuck in a dark castle for the entire game, the environment is surprisingly diverse. From laboratories, to engine rooms, to sewers, to kitchens, to dungeons, to even a morgue, it's all here, and it all looks great! Everything is also powered by physics, especially the doors and other opening and closing objects. When opening a door, you need to hold left-click and move your mouse forward or backward and the door will move at the speed you move your mouse. This adds another element of caution because opening doors faster or making excessive noise with objects will draw unwanted attention from nearby Gatherers. As great as the visuals and physics are though, the real star of the presentation is by far the sound. The game could look absolutely hideous (thankfully it doesn't), and it would still be terrifying from the sound design alone. I can't tell you how many times I instinctively looked behind myself after hearing a random shuffling, whispering, voices, screaming, wind blowing, and various other oddities. The music is very subtle and ambient, hardly noticeable but enough so to greatly effect your mood and apprehension level. Frictional Games did such an amazing job on the sound design, I'm going to flat-out demand that they win an award for it at the next Independent Games Festival! Overall, Frictional Games has a real gem on their hands with Amnesia: The Dark Descent, and I highly recommend it to anyone even remotely interested in horror!

Amnesia: The Dark Descent Overall Score:

PC System Requirements

OS: Windows XP/Vista/7
Processor: 1.5Ghz - Low budget CPUs such as Celeron or Duron needs to be at about twice the CPU speed
Memory: 1 GB
Hard Drive: TBD
Graphics: Radeon 9600/GeForceFX - Integrated graphics and very low budget cards might not work.

Mac System Requirements

Minimum:

OS: Mac OS X 10.5.8 or newer
Processor: 2.0Ghz
Memory: 1 GB RAM
Graphics: Radeon X1000/GeForce 6 (Integrated Intel Graphics not supported)
Hard Drive: 2GB space free

Playthrough Parts: August 18, 2011

2011-08-18T15:38:00.005-05:00

Playthrough Parts: August 17, 2011

2011-08-17T19:51:00.000-05:00

Playthrough Parts: August 16, 2011

2011-08-16T16:11:00.000-05:00

Playthrough Parts: August 15, 2011

2011-08-15T20:06:00.000-05:00

Playthrough Parts: August 14, 2011

2011-08-14T19:33:00.000-05:00

Playthrough Parts: August 13, 2011

2011-08-13T18:54:00.000-05:00

Playthrough Parts: August 12, 2011

2011-08-12T18:23:00.000-05:00