MOVED TO POLYPWN.COM

Big Changes on the Horizon!

2011-07-24T12:57:00.000-04:00

We might be slow during the next week, but its because we are hard at work on some big changes that are on the way.

Though I originally started this site as a basic blog, I had big plans as to where I wanted to take it. In the couple months that this site has been live we have been progressively improving the content and exponentially increasing our traffic. I am very proud of where we have been able to go in such a short amount of time, and am very excited about the next phase that we will be moving to.

Though we will be growing past this blogger stage, our goal of bringing excellent content will remain the same. You can expect us to continue to offer unique perspectives, produce honest reviews, and delve into gaming news that is often overlooked by the mainstream media.

We are hardcore gamers at heart, and it is our mission to produce content for the hardcore gaming community.

At this time I would like to personally express my thanks not only to our readers, but also to my team. Getting to the point we're at has been a group effort, and everyone has done so much for so little. I greatly appreciate it, and am eager to pursue the next phase of our site with you.

We will be working hard to move into this next phase as quickly possible, and will update everyone when we are completed. We hope you will find the changes to be as exciting as we do!

RAGE - The Wasteland

2011-07-21T18:09:00.000-04:00

id Software have released another excellent RAGE dev trailer, this time focusing on the game's NPCs and multiplayer.

As you've probably already figured out from my previous posts on RAGE, I'm totally stoked about this game. The graphics, weapons, story, and gameplay look superb. I'm a long time fan of id Software, and it looks like they're really going to deliver with this game.

October 4 can't come quickly enough. Check out the video below,and make the wait even more difficult!

Deus Ex: Human Revolution - Live Action Trailer

2011-07-21T17:53:00.000-04:00

A live action trailer for Deus Ex: Human Revolution has been released, and is something you'll definitely want to see if you're interested in the game.

The trailer shows that using augmentations might not be as cool as it seems. It shows a future where people have had their lives ruined by augmenting, and the addiction to the drugs required to keep their bodies from rejecting the augmentations. Also, there is discussion of the corruption of the fictional "Sarif Industries"; making it apparent that conspiracy will be just as big a part of this game as it was in the previous titles.

The trailer is very well done, and gives some insight at the depth of the story we will see in DE:HR when it is released on August 23rd.

Violence in Video Games: How the Mainstream Media has it all Wrong

2011-07-20T22:07:00.003-04:00

Originally written by Daddybrown73 of ROSETINTEDGAMERS

Video games have always been kept at arms length, even sneered at, by those who simply don’t understand or are confused by them. In its infancy video gaming was predominantly the pastime of young men who-as it has often been thought- chose to lock themselves away in darkened rooms tapping furiously away at keyboards, gazing unblinkingly into TV monitors, communicating in lines of code that too many were a complete mystery; the realm of the geek, the nerd and the loner.

This was the widely accepted view, a stigma if you like, of the videogamer and those who created these quirky, yet extremely complex, slices of electronic entertainment. While it probably didn’t do one much good in the eyes of the opposite sex, it was an otherwise harmless depiction of video games and those who partook in them.

When the Sony Playstation exploded into the conscious mind of the mainstream in 1994 in Japan and 1995 in the US and Europe respectively, video games were given whole new lease of life. Using an aggressive marketing campaign largely aimed at the twenty-something male demographic with a disposable income, (who at this point had probably only had fleeting moments with video games during their childhood), Sony, quite literally, turned the entire industry up-side-down. Sony had brought the arcade into your living room with ground breaking titles like Ridge Racer, Tekken and Wipeout then later with Tomb Raider, Metal Gear Solid and Gran Turismo; some of the stigma that had become attached to video gaming began to wash away. As the brand grew in strength with the release of the Playstation 2, Sony upped its campaign for front room domination, steering their product in the direction of whole families with innovations such as the Eyetoy, Singstar and Guitar Hero. In time having a Playstation, or indeed any games console, in your front room was as common place as the family DVD player. Video games hadn’t just become ‘acceptable’; they had, to some extent, become ‘cool’. But over the pursuing years, even as video games were becoming more widely accepted as a valued form of entertainment, there were those who began to take a very ugly view of the pastime. For some, video games were about to become the new video nasties.

On the 27th February 2004, 14 year old Stefan Pakeerah was murdered by his friend Warren Leblanc, 17. The police cited the motive as a drug-related robbery but this didn’t stop the media bringing video games into the furore; in this case it was British based developer Rockstar North’s violent, adult themed survival horror Manhunt. It was claimed that Leblanc was ‘obsessed’ with the game and was suggested that it [Manhunt] played a major part in this heinous crime. During court proceedings it was discovered that it was in fact Stefan Pakeerah that owned the video game, not his killer. That didn’t stop the media of course. What followed was an unashamedly brutal attack directed at the games industry, most notably from The Daily Mail who, during the week surrounding the news of the murder, ran with the headline “Murder by Playstation” This was quickly followed up the following day with “Ban These Evil Games” Both issues featured a colourful collection of box art and screen grabs from various adult video games. Unsurprisingly these images, combined with some juicy sound bites, were completely taken out of context in an attempt to drive home whatever message the Daily Mail was trying to convey to its readership.

As you might expect everyone jumped on the band wagon. From the red-top tabloids, women’s lifestyle magazines, prime time news channels, in fact pretty much everyone with an opinion and who had an outlet to express that opinion were lining up to have stab at the games industry. Even some MPs began to voice their ‘concerns’, particularly Labour MP and prolific anti-violent video game campaigner, Keith Vaz, who still maintains to this day that Manhunt, contrary to the evidence, played a key role in Stefan Pakeerah’s tragic death. Sadly even key players in the retail side of the industry had their part to play as they hurried to pull the game from shelves for fear of a media backlash.

Then there’s Florida Attorney, Jack Thompson, whose own campaign against video games, or ‘murder simulators’ as he coined them, (particularly the multi-million selling franchise, Grand Theft Auto, -another Rockstar title), became synonymous with every anti-video game campaign that ever took up residence outside a developers front door. From gangland murders to school shootings, Mr. Thompson was leading the charge in trying to bring violent video games to the forefront of everybody’s mind as the catalyst in many of the gun related crimes taking place up and down America.

As the games industry has grown so has the number of people eager to stick the metaphorical boot into video games. Even the animal rights group, “The Academy of Notre Dame’s Animal Rights Club” has had a pop, stating that the killing of guard dogs in Activision’s Call of Duty: World at War was cruel and “should not be a form of entertainment”.

There was also another shameless attempt by the press-namely Fox News- to drag the games industry through the mud with its attack on Bioware’s space epic Mass Effect. The report, with the obligatory panel of non-gaming experts thrown in for good measure, claimed that the game had ‘full on sex and nudity and explicitly describes sexual situations’. Of course it was nonsense, but Fox News weren’t about to let the facts get in the way of a good story. As expected, (given that it had been developed by one of the industries finest studios), Mass Effect was a huge success, so much so that it has gone on to spawn two sequels, (with the third and final act being released later this year), but it had nothing to do with non-existent porn, it was simply a well put together, intelligent, thought provoking video game. No more, no less.

It doesn’t end with video games turning us all into monsters either. More recently there are those who would have us believe that the ever growing issue of obesity, (particularly amongst our children), sits squarely at the feet of interactive entertainment. Even in the light of motion controlled systems like the Nintendo Wii, Microsoft’s Kinect and Sony’s Playstation Move-gaming systems that would have us all jumping around like numpties-for a small majority, video games are the root of us all piling on the pounds. Far be it for me to suggest that playing video games for hours on end each day is a healthy lifestyle choice-like with anything moderation is the key-but in a society where there’s an ever growing concern that a whole generation is slowly becoming dangerously un-healthy through poor lifestyle choices it doesn’t take a leap of faith to see that laying the blame directly at the door of just one [probable] cause is counterproductive to finding a solution to what is a much wider issue.

So why such hatred, nay fear, of what is predominantly a fun, exciting and often rewarding pastime? One that has in more recent times brought people from all over the world together-particularly since the launch of the Nintendo Wii in 2006-in the enjoyment of playing games? Yes there are violent video games, (all of which are rated accordingly I hasten to add), and yes for the most part it is a passive form of entertainment, but as adults, (and for some of us, as parents), surely we’re allowed to make our own decisions and not be told as to what is deemed suitable when it comes to what video games we play and how long we play them for? Isn’t the freedom to make our own decisions on any aspect of our daily lives part and parcel of a free thinking, democratic society?

To quote the late Bill Hicks: “Did I miss a meeting?”

More and more people are playing and enjoying video games than ever before, but why our beloved hobby is still continually sneered at, looked down upon and condemned by so many is anyone’s guess. Video games still have a long way to go before they find true acceptance as a valued slice of entertainment, an art form if you must, but we are getting there if only a bit at a time. For some though, it would seem, that time will never come; a case of fearing what they don’t understand, and much like in the tale of Frankenstein’s Monster they gather en masse, pitchfork and flaming torch in hand, ready to smite down that which they have, through their lack of understanding, come to loath.

Check out ROSETINTEDGAMERS to see more of Daddybrown73'S work.

Top 10 Games That No One Played

2011-07-17T18:29:00.006-04:00

As a huge fan of gaming it has always been disheartening to see incredible games see little success. It doesn’t take a genius to know that if a game doesn’t sell well it could spell doom for a franchise. This is especially true if it’s a new intellectual property, as poor sales will most likely mean that we will never get to see future sequels.

This do-or-die sales reality has rung true for many of what I consider to be some of the best games that I have ever played, which inturn has inspired me to create this list.

Yes, it is true that some of the titles you’ll see here did not (or will not) mark the end of their respective franchise. However, if there have been – or are going to be – any new entries to the franchise(s) you can bet that the game will be very different than the “failed” entry that preceded it. Often, in my opinion, these changes – designed to try and address a larger audience – are for the worse.

One final note, before we get started. This list is only contains games that I have played, and may not include many games commonly seen on these types of lists.

10. WinBack: Covert Operations

WinBack was a cover based, third person shooter developed long before games like Gears of War made this type of gameplay popular. The game follows Jean-Luc Cougar, who is a secret agent that is part of a task force responsible for infiltrating a satellite command center that has been taken over by terrorists. The command center houses the controls for operating a space based laser weapon capable of mass destruction.

The game’s story is filled with plenty of twists and turns, and plays out like a good espionage/action film. That said, the gameplay is the real gem here. The cover system used in this game was truly revolutionary for its time, and it lent itself to some truly great combat situations.

In addition to the fun single player campaign, there was also a great multiplayer mode that took full advantage of the game’s cover mechanics. This was back in the day when split screen multiplayer was all the rage, and the mp in this one was great.

WinBack: Covert Operations was released in 1999 for the Nintendo 64, and for the Playstation 2 in 2001. I played the 64 version of the game, which received mostly favorable reviews. There was a sequel that was released years later that I never got a chance to play.

WinBack is one of those games that very few people I know have ever played. However, like me, the people who did get a chance to play it have fond memories of the game.

9. Hybrid Heaven

Another N64 game, Hybrid Heaven was one of the most extreme mixtures of genres I have ever seen. In all, it was a 3D action game, shooter, brawler, and turn-based RPG. And yes, despite combining all of these unrelated genres, it worked.

The story was about an alien invasion involving human replicas, mutated monsters called “biological weapons”, and government conspiracy. Somewhat of a nod to the Body Snatcher films, the antagonist aliens are trying to overthrow the U.S. Government by implanting aliens disguised in human form into leadership positions; including the Presidency. In typical video game fashion, it is up to the player to uncover the plot and stop the alien baddies.

I found the story to be good and well presented. The music is also very good, and fit the game very well. The graphics were a bit hit or miss, but not terrible considering the year the game was released (1999).

The gameplay combined elements that you would see in a typical 3D action game of that time, but with most combat sequences taking place as hybrid turn-based brawler sequences. The game featured a unique way of leveling up by allowing you to gain experience for individual body parts based on how often you use them offensively and defensively. In a similar fashion, you will learn most your new moves by having them performed on you by foes.

In addition to the top notch single player campaign, Hybrid Heaven features a two player versus mode. Honestly, this is probably the weakest part of the game. The turned based fighting just does not lend itself to very enjoyable multiplayer combat…

HH did not get the warmest of reception at its release, which probably helped account for it being on this list. I always enjoyed the game, and everyone else that I introduced it to enjoyed it as well. It may have been a very different game, but I never understood the negative publicity... For me, it was a very memorable game; and I guess that’s all that matters.

8. Jet Force Gemini

Yeah, I know, it’s another N64 game (guess what system I spent a lot of time with growing up), but it’s a damn good game that I’m willing to bet most people reading this have not played.

Developed by Rare – that company that was churning out quality titles for Nintendo like clockwork, but then died off when they migrated to Microsoft – Jet Force Gemini features some of the richest graphics you’ll see in an N64 game; as well as being the most gory ESRB Teen Rated game I have ever played. The story is decent, but nothing Oscar worthy; which is fine. It is the gameplay that makes this game a classic.

With the exception of an annoying fetch quest late in the game – exacerbated by the fact that you have to save every single member of a tribal alien race – everything is enjoyable from start to finish. The action is top notch, and the guns are fun to use.

The game features three unique playable characters, and requires you to exploit the abilities of each to defeat the Mizar – the main antagonist – and his army of aunt-like Drones. Each stage is set on a different planet, each of which is home to the previously mentioned tribal race that sort of resembles furbies.

The first act of the game is definitely the best, which has you pretty much just landing on each planet to gun down waves of alien drones. The second act, unfortunately, is not quite as good. In what may have been one of the worst design decisions of all time, you are required to repeatedly revisit each planet until each and every tribal is rescued. The game cannot be completed until this task is done, and you are forced to repeat a stage if a single tribal is killed. This is worsened by the fact that the damn things seem to be addicted to death, and they’re almost always positioned so that they will be caught up in the middle of a firefight…

After Goldeneye and Perfect Dark, Jet Force Gemini is – in my opinion – the best game that Rare released on the N64 (probably ever). The fact that this game has been passed up by so many is pure blasphemy; it’s a game that everyone needs to play at least once. After seeing Rare release an HD updated to Perfect Dark, I can only hope that they will do the gaming world a favor by eventually re-releasing an HD version of this gaming gem.

7. Brutal Legend

One of the newest games on this list, Brutal Legend is a great game that has been overlooked by a lot of people. For those who don’t recognize the title, it’s “that Jack Black game” that was released on Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. You know, the one where he is holding a battle axe and a guitar on the cover…

Aside from being one of the newer games on this list, it is also probably the game that has had the best sales. That said, the numbers for this game fail in comparison to what are considered to be “successful” games these days; and the vast majority of the people I’ve talked to have never touched the title. It was also very disheartening that the multiplayer community was dead before it even had a chance to get started…

Directed by Tim Schafer, Brutal Legend follows Eddie Riggs (Jack Black) as he tries to save enslaved humans in a world inspired by heavy metal music. While on his quest, he meets many characters inspired by – and some voiced by – metal icons; such as Ozzy Osbourne. Combining adventure game and RTS elements with amazing music, Brutal Legend is a high five to fans of old school heavy metal. Hence, this is probably a big part of the reason I love the game so much.

The game is often extremely humorous, especially during the first couple hours. Jack Black was the perfect actor for the role; not only adding to the humor, but also injecting his personal love for metal to the character. If you’re a fan of the metal genre, you’ll find this game to be something special within the first few moments of playing it.

Brutal Legend received mostly favorable reviews, but never was able to garner a whole lot of attention from the gaming community. A lot of this has been attributed to the fact that, while marketing, they did not do a lot of specifying on how the game would play. This is largely due to the fact that EA and Vivendi wanted to keep the RTS elements secret, since they considered it to be a “naughty word in the console space.” (Source)

Being a lot newer than many of the other games on this list, it is still very possible for players to get a chance to play this fine game. I’ve seen it sold for as cheap as $20 for a new copy, so there should be little stopping anyone from picking it up and giving it a go. If you’re an old school metal fan, you owe it to yourself to try this game out.

6. MadWorld

Not only the goriest game to ever grace Nintendo’s Wii console, but easily one of the top 10 goriest games ever made; MadWorld is a stylish brawler that demands your attention. Everything in this game is stylishly rendered in black and white; well, that is, except for the buckets upon buckets of red blood that you’ll paint the world with.

The premise is a game show – DeathWatch – set on different parts of Jefferson Island as it is under siege by a group of terrorists known as “The Organizers”. The terrorists have released a virus into the city that will kill the infected within 24 hours, and the only way to obtain the vaccine is to kill someone else; thus transforming the city into the stage for DeathWatch.

Enter Jack Cayman, the game’s protagonist who has a retractable chainsaw built onto one of his arms and a knack for killing. Jack quickly becomes an audience favorite, and gains strong sponsorship support. It also becomes quickly apparent that participating in the game show is not his only purpose for being there.

MadWorld turns the violent act of ripping a foe apart and turns it into an art form. The game features some of the most outrageously brutal gore I have ever seen in a game, and rewards you for dispatching foes as brutally as possible. All of this is hosted sporting event style by Greg Proops and John DiMaggio. I cannot stress how brilliant of a decision this was, as this duo does an unbelievable job. You’ll be laughing for days at some of the outrageous comments that make as you slaughter your enemies

Unfortunately, MadWorld’s strongest selling point was probably also what helped to land it on this list; as it quickly became apparent that this insanely gory game had a very little market on the Wii. It’s unfortunate, because I think that the game could have had a strong following had it been a multiplatform release. I’m still hoping that we’ll see this title rereleased in HD on the PC, 360, or PS3; or even eventually on the WiiU.

If you happen to have a Wii, then I highly suggest that you try this game out. You should be able to pick it up for fairly cheap, and you’ll probably be surprised by how much you enjoy it.

5. Turok 3: Shadow of Oblivion

Yes, I know; another N64 release. But it just so happens that there were a lot of great N64 titles that were overlooked, and Turok 3: Shadow of Oblivion is another of them.

Next to Goldeneye, the original Turok was probably the second most popular first person shooter to grace the console; well, that is, until Perfect Dark was released years later. Combining the simple “shoot everything in your path” mechanics that made old school fps games popular, with out of this world weapons and buckets of gore; it’s no wonder why Turok: The Dinosaur Hunter was such a smash hit.

However, after its first sequel – Turok 2: Seeds of Evil – the franchise began dividing its fan base. T2 kept most of what made the first game good, but then tucked it inside of a game that focused very heavily on exploration. You could not beat the game without thoroughly exploring each and every area for hours. As you might imagine, this did not sit well with many shooter fans.

Enter T3, a game that would divide the franchise’s fan base even further. Dropping exploration completely, T3 was a standard linear action fps in the vein of Half Life; and had a focused story. This vision strayed so far from the originals that it turned off many of the fans of both original games. This is unfortunate, because I believe that it is the best in the series.

Packing the best story of any Turok game that came before or after it, excellent graphics for the N64, two unique single player campaigns, and awesome multiplayer to boot; T3 is the definitive Turok experience. The character facial animations used in the in engine cut scenes were the best I had seen up to that point, and would not be surpassed till years later. A lot of the texture work was also state of the art for that time.

Another great part of this game was the music that was some of the best in the series. Overall, I wouldn’t rate it over the music used in the second game; but it was still very good. Acclaim, who sadly went under years after T3, should be commended for the music they had in their games; which was some of the best to be featured on the Nintendo 64.

Unfortunately, all titles after T3 have been a mess. This is probably a direct result of this game failing to generate good sales numbers. Since its release, there have been two series “reboots”, both of which have been terrible. This is extra unfortunate for long time fans of the game, like me, because T3 ended with one Hell of a cliffhanger; one that I will probably never get to see play out…

4. Metroid: Other M

This one is going to be controversial, as a lot of people down right hate this game. I beg to differ, and believe that Metroid: Other M is a game that fans of the franchise should cherish.

All said, M:OM did not have that bad of sales; it just did not sell the way that it should have. Being a return to the side scrolling action that made the franchise a success, this game should have been a smash hit. However, the designers made the very controversial decision to make Samus speak. This decision is what I believe has ultimately turned people away from the game.

Like Link, of the Zelda games, Samus has traditionally been a silent hero; and fans had been used to seeing her this way for decades. Giving her a voice and a personality was an instantly risky decision, and I have to give Nintendo and Team Ninja props for making it. Though doing this ultimately pissed a lot of people off, I feel that it was the best part of the game. It gave a personality to one of the best characters in gaming history.

Now, all this said, I do believe that there were a couple of different choices that they could have made with Samus’s character that would have helped to ease the frustration with many Metroid fans. For one, there was a scene where Samus was literally scared senseless by one of her long time foes. I think they went a bit overboard in this scene, since Samus is supposed to be a hard-ass. The other is the fact that Samus spends so much time following the every order of her former commander. This one isn’t quite as bad, since this is a pattern in many games. However, it did end up pissing off fans all the same. A few clever design choices may have helped to avoid this problem.

Aside from giving Samus a voice, M:OM also packed one of the best stories of any of the Metroid games I have played. The game is chock full of fully voice cut scenes, many of which explore the back story of the historic character. It’s a big turn from previous games, and it was all very nicely done.

Graphically, the game is a marvel. It is one of the best looking games on the Wii, and I can only imagine what it would have looked like in HD. Team Ninja should be applauded for the effort they put into this game’s visuals. It’s just unfortunate that so many haven’t experienced it.

Metroid: Other M is a firm example of why much of our favorite industry has become so stale. Nintendo and Team Ninja took a classic franchise and pushed it in a new and exciting direction. They tried something new, and were punished for it… Because of this, you can almost guarantee that we will never see another Metroid game take this direction; which is unfortunate. I find it ironic that so many gamers complain about how stale the industry is becoming, but then turn their noses to a game where something new is tried. It’s unfortunate, and something that we need to overcome. If not, we will continue to see nothing but Call of Duty clones released every year…

3. Zone of the Enders 2: The 2^nd Runner

Best. PlayStation 2 game. Ever. There, I said it. I’m sure people will disagree, but I don’t care. Zone of the Enders 2: The 2^nd Runner is the best PlayStation game I’ve ever played, and it is nothing short of a tragedy that so many people have never experienced it.

Published by Konami, and produced by iconic game designer Hideo Kojima, ZotE2 is a mech based spaced shooter that had some elements similar to Star Fox games. The action is constantly intense, the story is good, and graphics are great. In fact, this is truly one of the best looking games I’ve played on the PS2 console.

I will be honest, I never played the original. However, you can get an overview of what happened in that game in ZotE2, so there was never really a reason to pick up the first. I actually picked up this game on a whim. I saw it at a used game store for very cheap and decided to try it out. I had never heard of the game, so was not sure what it would be like. Boy, am I glad I made that purchase! Like I stated earlier, this is definitely the best PS2 game I have ever played.

The game follows Dingo Egret, who starts of working as an ice miner on the moons of Jupiter. He finds the mech, called orbital frames, Jehuty while mining. Soon after, he is attacked by BAHRAM forces – the antagonist army – and is forced to take control of Jehuty to fight them. Dingo is eventually captured, and mortally wounded. Fortunately, a spy working undercover within BAHRAM saves his life by wiring him to the Jehuty life-support system. The only drawback to this is that if he leaves the orbital frame, he will die.

This game is a white-knuckle action game that should not be missed. Though short, the intense gameplay will keep you coming back for consecutive play throughs. It has all of the elements that you’d expect in a Kojima game, without the addition of inflated cut scenes. Yes, there is a deep story here, but you won’t be expected to sit and watch 20-plus minute story sequences. Also, have I mentioned the music? Fantastic! Some of the best you’ll here on any game on the PS2.

Zone of the Enders 2 is one of those rare games that everyone needs to experience at some point, making it all the more painful that the game was so greatly overlooked. If you have a working PS2, I highly suggest picking this game up; if you can find it. ZotE2 is infamously difficult to find. If you are lucky enough to find it though, make sure to grab it! You will not be disappointed.

2. Metal Warriors

Developed by LucasArts in 1995 for the Super NES, and published by Konami, Metal Warriors is one of the best games I have ever played. To this day, this is the game that I believe needs a modern remake. The game mechanics were both unique and ahead of its time, and the gameplay was superb.

MW was a mech game set in the year 2102. Defenders of Earth, the Metal Warriors were the last defense against an army known as the Dark Axis. You battled this army through a challenging single player campaign where you would have to skillfully utilize the various mech/assault for success. In addition to the single player, MW also features a 2 player split screen versus mode that was ages ahead of its time. In fact, this versus mode was my overall favorite part of the game.

The single player campaign was not particularly long, but it made up for this by being very challenging. It will take skill, and a lot of experience with the various assault suits, to complete this game. Granted you have someone to play with, you’ll get a lot of practice with the suits in the game’s previously mentioned versus mode. This is the absolute best part of the game, and the primary reason this game is ranked at number 2 on my list.

I spent many a long night playing multiplayer with my friends. It was extremely revolutionary for its time, and had mechanics that I think would still be appreciated today. Each mech is completely unique and requires using very different strategies. You can also eject out of your mech at any time, and use a jet pack to traverse the maps; and hopefully find an unused mech to enter. Though very mobile once out of the suit, you are also extremely vulnerable; and will die with a single shot from your opponents mech.

Metal Warriors is a game that I will hold dearly for years to come. It was, and still is, one of the better games I have ever played. It’s a true shame that so many people have never even heard of it. Though it may be hard to find, if you ever do happen to come across it you should definitely pick it up. If you have someone to play versus mode with, you’ll enjoy hours of the best mp you’ve ever played.

1. Eternal Darkness: Sanity’s Requiem

We’re finally at number one, and it is no less than the GameCube classic: Eternal Darkness: Sanity’s Requiem. If you have ever played this game, then this number one spot probably comes as no surprise. This is one of the absolute best games ever made, which makes it all the more stunning that it was not a commercial success.

Developed by Silicon Knights, ED:SR was the first Mature rated game to ever be published by Nintendo; and this was a game definitely deserving of that rating. The game features a dark story, and often has scenes of extreme blood and gore. It is also one of the scarier games I’ve played, and has some scenes that nearly made me drop my controller.

It is these reasons that may have lead to it being so overlooked. The game did not get the marketing it deserved, which I feel is due in part to Nintendo being somewhat cautious of tarnishing its “family friendly” name. Another thing that I know has lead to it being overlooked is the game’s box art. Though the front cover is fine, the back includes a screenshot that can be perceived as “corny.” I’ve spoken with people who said they did not pick up the game because of this, and I can admit that I was a bit skeptical when I first picked it up and saw it. Once you play the game, you understand the context behind the shot; but if you haven’t played it, the picture gives the perception of the game being sort of lame and corny…

ED:SR was first and foremost a psychological horror. You play through the game as several different characters, each with their own sanity meter. Various game events can cause the meter to deplete, and cause the character to hallucinate. Some of these hallucinations are truly screwed up, and some of them mess with you quite a bit. The worst is when the game will pull up your save menu and systematically delete all of your data! Of course, it’s just a hallucination; but it still made my heart stop every time I saw it happen.

This game features an excellent story, and boasted the best voice acting I had heard up to that point. It also has some of the best music I have ever heard in a game, some of which will stick with you for long after you shut the game off. The only aspect that didn’t really hold up that well were the graphics. This is somewhat excusable, though, as the game was originally slated to be released on the N64. It was decided that it would be released on the Cube, instead, late in development.

Eternal Darkness: Sanity’s Requiem holds a very special place in my heart. This is one of the best games I have ever played, and it was just as enjoyable each time I played through it. There was a period where I would literally play through this game every weekend, and I never got bored of it. With the exception of Star Fox 64 (which was meant to be played through in one setting), there is no other game I have played through as many times. I cannot recommend this game enough. It is a very important part of gaming history, and is not a game that should be missed by anyone! If you are a fan of horror, adventure, or action games – or are just a fan of good games – you owe it to yourself to play Eternal Darkness.

Carmageddon in L.A.

2011-07-17T12:28:00.001-04:00

It appears the city of Los Angeles has named this weekend Carmageddon, as Max Damage puts it "to let the Carmageddon racers do their thing" He's also happy about the extra splatter bonuses on offer. (Source)

Also head over there and join the forums and vote on their Poll to keep the PratCam. If you're not sure what that cam is its this....

I voted to keep it, I love that cam, especially when you slam the breaks and blood comes out of his gob.

RAGE - Behind the Scenes: The Arsenal

2011-07-14T20:59:00.002-04:00

Those awesome guys down at id Software have released another tight video for their latest title, RAGE.

For those not in the know, RAGE is a post apocalyptic shooter set in the not so distant future. The game will feature id's trademark intense first-person shooter action as well as vehicle combat, all set in an expansive world powered by the new id Tech 5.

This latest trailer features several of the geniuses at id disusing the various weapons, ammo types, and gadgets that you'll discover in their game. They also brush upon the game's economy, as well as the large variety of gameplay options that will be at the player's disposal.

It looks like the team at id Software is going all out with this one, making waiting for the game all the more difficult.

RAGE will be released on PC, Xbox 360, and PlayStation 3 on October 7, 2011.

Alice: Madness Returns - Review!

2011-07-11T21:06:00.002-04:00

Please note that this Review pertains specifically to the PC version of the game. However, much of the information may be relevant to other versions.

Opening

A decade ago, EA published American Mcgee’s Alice. I had my first encounter with this game several years after its initial release and, although the graphics and gameplay mechanics were extremely outdated by that time, I absolutely loved it. American Mcgee had taken a story that we all know and turned it on its head; creating an absolutely twisted, but undeniably fantastic, version of Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland stories.

Fast forward to the present and the sequel that no one expected has been released. I probably speak for many when I express how excited I was when I first found out that this game was in development, and I had eagerly devoured and digested every bit of media released for it as I awaited the release. Every screenshot and video released seemed more impressive than the last, and it appeared that this was going to be one Hell of an amazing sequel; and it looked like it could even outdo the sheer genius of the original.

Unfortunately, the bad thing about building such anticipation over something is that expectations can become too high to satisfy. Or, even worse, you might get a product that has no chance of pleasing any level of expectation. Sadly, this is the case for Alice: Madness Returns. Not only failing to live up to my hype, this game is actually heartbreaking to play.

Before you read any more, I want you to know that I do think this game has the potential to be amazing, and it may even be salvageable. With some well thought out patching, this game could definitely be saved. However, I am not reviewing the game that this could be, or the game that I want it to be. I am reviewing the game that it is.

So, what went wrong? Well, read on to find out.

Story and Presentation

This is a tough one, as Story and Presentation make up both the best and worst parts of this game. In one hand, you have a very mature, gothic take on a timeless classic. In the other, you have a game that lacks so much polish that you’ll wonder if they even tested it before release.

Let’s start with the positive. The story in this game is very good, and is actually even more fleshed out than the story in the original. It takes place pretty much immediately after the events of the first game and has Alice living in an orphanage in Victorian London under the care of a psychiatrist by the name of Angus Bumby, who uses hypnotism to help patients forget terrible events.

Still haunted by the events that lead to the death of her parents ten years earlier, Alice’s mind continues to be shattered. Throughout the course of the game, she constantly bounces in and out of reality; with her hallucinations taking her to a disturbingly distorted Wonderland. On her first revisiting of her imaginary world, she’s told by the Cheshire Cat that wonderland has become corrupted under a new law that rules it. Like in the original game, Alice believes that the only way she can save herself is to save Wonderland.

Alice is f***ing nuts!

Though it starts off sort of slowly, A:MR ends up having a strong story. As you progress, Alice slowly remembers elements of the events that took place on the night that her family died, and it becomes apparent that there is actually more to the tragedy than what was revealed in the first game. The mystery surrounding the events is the best part of the plot, so I won’t ruin any surprises for you. I will say this, though; don’t give up on the story. About halfway through the game, I was actually starting to think the story was going to be pretty straight forward; but then something was revealed that made me realize that there was actually much more to it. If you initially enjoy the game then I strongly encourage you to stick with it to the end. The reveals at the conclusion are actually pretty satisfying, and it all comes together well.

Unfortunately, past the story, the rest of the game’s presentation is pretty weak. The only other halfway decent aspect in this category is the stylish 2D cut scenes. I didn’t think I was going to like these at first, but they quickly grew on me, and I suspect that they will grow on everyone else as well. If only the rest of the package could have held up…

The absolute worst part of A:MR is its very unfortunate lack of polish. Then entire time I played this game – from the start of the first chapter, to the closing of the final – I kept asking myself the same question: did Spicy Horse even test this game before releasing it? There are so many environmental bugs that the hardest part of advancing becomes overcoming them. It is extremely frustrating and heartbreaking. The developers have created one of the most captivating worlds I have ever seen in a game, but the technical issues kept me from ever being able to fully absorb the experience for more than a few minutes at a time.

Alice does her best Scarface impression...

The most prevalent of these issues is the obscene abundance of invisible walls. They are everywhere! You’ll start running into them within the first few moments of being in wonderland, and they’ll plague you for the rest of the experience. It doesn’t matter whether it’s a path, a tunnel, or a platform; you’re never safe from the chance of running into one of these, and sometimes they will lead to you getting killed and having to replay segments of an area. It’s a pain in the ass, and something that should not be seen in a modern AAA title.

The next most common issue that you’ll see is the f***ing up of the game’s camera. At random times, the camera can become completely screwed up and the only way to fix it is to stop moving the mouse (or joystick) for a second. This actually got so bad while using a mouse that I had to use a gamepad for the remainder of the game. This is very unfortunate, and the option of using a gamepad is something that many PC gamers will probably not have.

Wonderland can sometimes be reminiscent of Hell.

Speaking of mouse issues, another problem that you’ll quickly encounter is extreme mouse lag. This comes from the fact that the game is initially locked at 30 FPS, a problem that can only be overcome by manually editing the .ini file. This is an absolutely unacceptable problem that should not ever be seen in a PC release, and it’s not the only control issue to plague this port of the game. Note: I use the word port intentionally, as it is utterly apparent that this game was designed with the consoles in mind, and then ported to PC. It’s a smack in the face to all the fans of the original Alice, which was a game that pushed the boundaries of PCs at the time.

On this same topic, the menus were also designed without any thought of the PC platform. It’s not that the menus don’t function; it’s that they are ugly as Hell when viewed in any resolution greater than 1280x720. This is as a result of the menus being designed in 720p, and then being stretched when you view them on PC in a higher resolution. This means that the menu images weren’t even put into consideration when porting this game to PC, which is just another slam to the gamers that helped push the original game to sell over a million copies.

As a final note on the game’s presentation, if you bought the Alice: Madness Returns Complete Collection for PC by the 17^th of June via Origin (EA’s Steam-like download service), then you got all of the game’s DLC for free. This is nice for the people who were able to take advantage of it, since the DLC will have to be purchased by console gamers. However, if you missed this June 17^th deadline, or purchase through another source, then you have – for now – been screwed out of the DLC. As of this writing, I still don’t think that there is a way for PC gamers to get these extras if they did not meet the initial requirements; which is yet more bullshit that users of the platform have been handed.

There are some bizarre locales...

Graphics

Just like the original, graphics are one of the strongest aspects of A:MR. Though it does suffer somewhat from being a console port, the PC version of the game is still often stunning. Even at times when there are noticeably low res textures, the art design is still – typically – breathtaking.

The most beautifully rendered element you’ll see in A:MR is Alice, herself. As of this writing, she is probably the most detailed character I have ever seen in a video game. From her insanely realistically rendered hair, to all the detail packed into her various dresses; the quality is almost unrivalled. Unfortunately, this level of detail does not translate to all of the other characters in the game. Most look decent, and perfectly sell the dark vision of American Mcgee’s Wonderland. However, some of the NPCs are downright ugly. Within the first five minutes of the game, I wondered why Alice was the only character in London who even remotely looked like she could be a real person. The other human NPCs all fit well within the world when they’re standing amongst themselves. However, they look terrible when you compare them to the detail packed into Alice…

This game is often beautiful.

Most of the environments are amazingly detailed. This is a very twisted, often extremely disturbing, vision of Wonderland and the level design often depicts it perfectly. However, there are some areas that are strangely bland in comparison to the rest, which will leave you scratching your head. It’s almost as if there were random sections of the game that were quickly thrown in and they didn’t have time to fully detail them. You can sometimes brush these off by remembering that Alice is pretty f’d in the head, and maybe her visions are somewhat distorted. However, it comes up way too often to be able to always use this excuse, and it consistently pulled me out of the experience.

On a final note, one goody that PC gamers do get is the addition of Nvidia PhysX enhancements. Out of every game that has used this, A:MR’s implementation is probably the best I’ve seen. This is one area where having a good gaming PC will really be an advantage over playing the game on a console since playing with PhysX enabled is a much different visual experience than playing it without. Just check out this article for comparison videos, the difference is rather amazing. At least the developers remembered PC gamers in one area of this game’s production…

Sound Design

One of the most memorable aspects of American Mcgee’s Alice was the music, and the sequel does not slouch in this area. In all honesty, the music is not quite as good as the original, but it is still well done. In fact, the sound design is generally very good; making it one of the most successful parts of the game.

I was very impressed with the game’s voice acting. Every actor delivers their lines well, and the acting surpasses that of the original game. The real star, for me, was the voice of the Cheshire Cat. Not only does he have the best lines, but I believe that the voice actor used did an absolutely perfect job at portraying the character. Out of every incarnation the cat has had in various forms of media throughout the years, this vision of the character is by far my favorite. If a movie – which has been talked about for years – is ever created for the property, it would be wise to use the same actor.

Sound effects are sort of hit or miss. Some of them are good, while others are nothing special. I guess I can’t really complain about any that are used, it’s just that they do not hold up as well as the excellent voice acting and music.

Gameplay

The gameplay is probably the hardest aspect of this game to review. When the game’s previously mentioned technical aspects are not holding it back, it can be pretty fun. But when the technical problems kick in, which they often will, the game can become a chore to play. I actually went back and replayed the original game before writing this review and I can honestly say that, despite being outdated in almost every regard, playing through it was insanely smooth in comparison. This is so unfortunate, because almost every other aspect of A:MR is an improvement over the original.

The biggest improvement over the original game is the combat system, which reminded me somewhat of the combat seen in 3D Zelda games. There is a handy lock on system, and switching between weapons is quick and fluent. Every enemy has different ways of defeating them, and you can experiment with your weapons to come up with quicker ways to take them down. Blood and gore is also used much more liberally this time round, which really fits the game’s vision very well.

When not fighting, you’ll be either solving puzzles or platforming. The platforming sections are typically much stronger than the ones seen in the original game which is mostly due to the fact that Alice can now double/triple jump, and can float Princess Peach style. This usually makes platforming a much easier affair, with the exception of when you hit an invisible wall on the edge of the platform you’re trying to jump on. Also, it must be noted, that Alice has for some damned reason forgot how to grab onto edges. This resulted in me often screaming many obscenities at my monitor, as you might imagine.

The sides scrolling sections are great!

The game can become repetitive at times, though the developers have made some steps to help fight this. Throughout the game, you will be randomly thrown into different types of gameplay. The best of these being side scrolling sections, with the worst being physic based “ball” puzzles seen later in the game. These help somewhat, but don’t completely cure the problem. The game would have actually been a bit better if it had been a little shorter; not something you’ll see may say very often. The problem is that they reuse the same types of challenges too often to try and stretch out the game length. This was unnecessary, and has done far more damage to the game than what would have been done had it been a bit shorter.

On a final note, there is a currency system in the game that comes in the form of teeth. When you collect these, you can use them to upgrade your various weapons. It’s a cool system, and gives you an incentive to fully explore every area. However, it is actually too easy to gather enough to fully upgrade all of your weapons some time before the game’s finale, making any future teeth you discover pointless to pick up.

Longevity

Depending on how much of a completionist you are, you’re fist play through of A:MR will take you between 10 and 15 hours. The bad thing is, because of how repetitive parts of the game can be, you’ll actually be reminded of why most games aren’t quite this long these days.

Use teeth to buy upgrades for your weapons.

There are plenty of hidden items throughout the world that will give you access to lost bits of Alice’s memory, unlockable artwork, and additional health. There is also a New Game Plus that allows you to replay the game with all of your upgraded weapons. If you enjoyed the game the first time through, then there might be enough incentive to play through again. If not, then this title will definitely be a one and done.

Closing

Like I told one of our other editors prior to writing this review, Alice: Madness Returns is an excellent game wrapped in a terrible package. This is very sad for fans of the original, especially since the worst part of this game is a lack of polish that was most likely a side effect of a rushed development. In all honesty, the game is very salvageable; but the developers would have to take the time and devotion to go through the entire game and clean up each and every chapter. If the game was kept exactly as it is now, but had the technical problems cleaned up, then my only complaint would be that it’s a bit repetitive; and my overall review and final score would be much more positive. Unfortunately, games are reviewed as they are, not as they could be. And as it is, A:MR is just not the game that fans had hoped for. Let’s just hope that we do not have to wait another decade to see this IP used again…

For now; despite all of the technical issues, and the bit of repetitiveness, I think that I will have to take at least one more stroll through this twisted vision of Wonderland. I will inevitably curse the game out, once again, from start to finish; but the vision is just too damned good to experience only once.

Bottom Line

TGO Score: 3.3/5

Doom II Mod that is Full of Win!

2011-07-10T13:02:00.001-04:00

The Doom games hold a special place in my heart. Not only was it the franchise that introduced me to the FPS, but the original was also the first game to ever scare the shit out of me! The games may have aged much since I first played them, but the gameplay is still as solid and addicting as ever.

Fast forward to the present, and you get a mod that looks to be filled to the brim with 100% win! As seen in the video bellow, there has been an awesome looking D2 mod released that gives it a Modern Warfare twist. Haters of Call of Duty can relax, as the classic Doom gameplay has barely been tweaked.

The mod is called Real Guns Advanced 2, and can be found on Doom II server: Skulltag 174.54.67.21:10672. For more information, as well as download links, you can view this topic seen in the Skulltag Forum.

I'm definitely going to give this mod a download!

I got Balls of Steel (Edition) Duke Nukem Forever Review

2011-07-10T08:12:00.037-04:00

Duke Nukem Forever Review

Format: PC

If you prefer your films to be more Saving Private Ryan and less Die Hard, or if you prefer to watch 5^th Gear over Top Gear then you probably won't like Duke Nukem Forever. If, however, you prefer your action to be over the top, your one liners to be delivered with so much cheese they come with a free bottle of Lea and Perrins and your comedy to be loud and offensive then you probably would enjoy Duke Nukem Forever as much as I did.

Great with cheese on toast

The Script

The story is is a direct continuation of Duke Nukem 3D (as direct as you can get being set 12 years later) and its pretty much the same, an assortment of aliens arrive on Earth once again to steal all the women and impregnate them Aliens style (when you see their queen you will understand why they want our women) and that's about it. Oh and the aliens are bitter after Duke handed their arses to them in DN3D and completely humiliated them by ripping the head off their Overload, taking a shit down his neck and forgetting to flush, so they are after a little payback too.

The game starts off in Duke's penthouse (on the 69^th floor no less) with the aliens already hovering over Las Vegas Independence Day style!

It's the end of the world as we know it (and I feel fine)

From there the game starts off slow but still enjoyable, you wander round the backstage of a TV show interacting with things, such as drinking all the fizzy drinks from a vending machine, all the food, then tossing the empties on the floor and just generally making a mess of the place, there are plenty of people hanging around with their own things to say to you, including one fan who just has a fit and faints when he sees you, with the exception of Little Jimmy (a little kid wearing a t shirt with the DN3D front cover on it who wants you to sign his book) there are a number of other fun moments backstage but I wont ruin it.

All the while the aliens are still hovering over the city making people nervous when Duke finally decides he needs to see what's going on, he heads over to the Duke Cave to have a conference with the General and the President. The President, being a complete wimp, tells Duke not to interfere with the aliens as he wants peaceful negotiations (they made that mistake in Independence Day) but Duke's gut tells him otherwise.

The president: A complete wimp in need of some power armour.

So the game kicks off from there. As I said before, it starts a bit slow, finding your way around the Duke Cave and fighting the first few enemies without weapons at all, you can punch them, throw weights at them or golden statues that Duke was awarded for saving the world. This game can't help but be compared to Duke Nukem 3D, so compared to that, which starts off instantly with a gun shooting Troopers in the face, this might seem a little restrictive but its not long before you get your first weapon.

Blowin' shit up

Which brings me to the weapons. You may have heard people complaining about the fact that the majority of the weapons are a carbon copy of those from Duke Nukem 3D and that you can only hold 2 weapons at once, one site even complained that the weapons lacked imagination and slated it for not having iron Sights, I guess unless the weapons are replicas of real world guns they don't want to know.

Well, being a carbon copy of DN3Ds weapons isn't bad at all, it's what the fans wanted, and there are some extra added weapons, though they aren't that special they do add a bit more variety, such as the rail gun and the Trooper's rifles. Pretty much all of the weapons work the same as in DN3D, except with a lot less ammo, with the exception of the Freezethrower which is now a short range weapon and recharges itself, which is a pretty sound feature. And of course when you have frozen someone you can run up and boot them in the chops!

Right in the chops!

Now, the 2 weapons limit (which is all thanks to 3D Realms not being able to map all weapons properly on a controller, so thanks to them and thanks to consoles the PC gets shafted once again), I'm not a fan of it, I hated the idea of it for a Duke game, I mean, he could he carry all weapons at once with full ammo in

Duke3D and that's what he should be able to do this time, not just because its the sequel but also because he is rock hard and can carry them all at once, being the one man army that he is. Well I did get a bit used to 2 weapon limit, I'dstill prefer to have 10 weapons at once but because the game is designed around the limit it works OK, but it would have been far better being able to use the full arsenal. There is usually an abundance of weapons, especially just when you need them, so you will conveniently find certain weapons (like an RPG) just as you’re about to fight a boss, which is an approach I liked as you tend to get the right weapons for the right situation, also only explosives can hurt a boss, it's no use shooting them with a shotgun as it simply won't work, even if it's “right in the jewels” as Duke himself would say.

As the weapons are, they are fun to use, except for the low ammo limit, especially in some weapons. The shotgun still being my favourite and most used weapon next to the ripper, these both make many appearances in the game so you find them everywhere, another old favourite (though I hate the new model of it, it's too much of Aperture Science going for it) is the shrink ray, which is still fun but doesn’t show up nearly enough in the game. When the weapons do run out you can replenish them by getting a new one off the floor (like some tramp) or just restocking them from one of the many EDF ammo crates you find throughout the game.

An EDF soldier with ammo crate and some pussy power armour, yesterday.

The new weapons are the Rail gun, which is your standard long range sniper rifle that makes heads swell up and explode if you get a head shot, as well as 2 weapons from the Assault troopers which fire lasers and the Enforcer gun which fires a volley of missiles, though ammo is very limited for this gun.

The all too funny trip mine is back, place it in a corridor or across a walking path and watch something get blown to smitheries as they walk through the laser, you can now also place them on enemies and watch them running around trying to remove it before the inevitable happens (which you can also do in Multiplayer too)

Also returning is the pipe bomb, which now gets set off using a key fob (also makes a nice little tune when you press it, listen out for it). The pipe bomb and trip mine are not counted in the 2 weapon limit, they get their own dedicated hotkeys which is nice, so you can toss them off at any time (little innuendo that most British people should get). The pipe bombs can now be bounced off certain alien plants in the game that are used to bounce duke around, good for bouncing them around corners and blowing someone up.

"hehe what a mess"

As well as the weapons you get Beer which makes you very resistant to damage (much like real beer) too bad after one can Duke gets completely smashed and his vision goes all over the place. To go with the booze you got Steroids (yes you can have them both together) which is like Berserk mode in Doom, you can run round punching heads off and conserve your ammo at the same time, as well as your ego regenerating extremely quickly (after all, what person on steroids wouldn't be able to do that?), it's always fun to watch a head roll, and they do quite often.

You also get Duke Vision which is just night vision, helps you see in dark places, which is quite handy at times because you can see the enemy but they cant see you, so you creep up behind them and take their heads off! And lastly you get Holoduke, which is a lot more effective than the one in DN3D. Holoduke is very good at distracting enemies and actually fights them while you remain invisible to go round the back and kill them from behind. The Holoduke itself is very funny, it tries to copy Dukes one liners but gets them all slightly wrong, a bit like Biff Tannen in Back To The Future when he says “make like a tree and get outta here”. If someone wanted to make a cheap counterfeit Duke and try to sell it as the real thing, it would turn out like the Holoduke.

Cheap knock off Holoduke doing confusing the pig cops.

The only weapon that is missing is Duke's Mighty Foot! I can't imagine why they removed it, it was so much fun to go round kicking aliens, toilets, windows and fire hydrants, especially fun when booting pig cops through the window on the Death Row row level just after you get out of the electric chair (my favourite because its just so unrealistic, a bit like walking up a ladder and kicking at the same time)

You can, however, use the boot (and your fists) to perform executions moves on weak enemies, which usually results in a lot of blood on the screen and a head half way across the room.

Bosses are Boss!

For me personally, the enemies are one of my favourite aspects of Duke Nukem Forever. The first enemies you meet are the standard no frills Assault troopers, either shooting you in the face with their fancy blue lasers or, if you get close enough, trying to claw your eyes out.

Although the Pig Cops are a bit different from their DN3D counterparts they are still a lot of fun to fight, they are tough and brutal and can go into their own Berserk mode when their health gets low, they are also quick and jump about the place like grasshoppers taking swipes at you, I love to fight these and the troopers at the same time, it can be quite difficult. Another change to them is that they are no longer limited to the shotgun, they also use the Ripper and the RPG. They also jump on your face and try to rip your head off, at which point there is some frantic button pressing till you snap their necks, which is a good laugh.

The Octabrain, one of my favourite enemies are back and a little different than DN3D too, while they still fly around and shoot at you, they now also have telekinetic powers (for those that don't know what that means it

means they can toss shit at you using their minds, a bit like The Force) and when you get a group of them together they can be a bitch to fight as they start throwing all sorts in your diction and can sometimes be hard to dodge, there is an easy way to dispatch of the Octabrains but you will have to find that out yourself.

The one thing that's missing is that they no longer teleport in when you euthanise a cocooned woman, I miss that little feature.

Octabrain that ran out of boxes to launch at me.

As well as them you got the Enforcer, the Assault Commander and instead of the Protozoid Slimers (which have been removed) you now get the Impreganator, which is essentially a knob on legs trying to deep throat you (think of the Facehuggers from Aliens) they also shoot some sort of white goo at you from a distance, I got no idea what that could be. To go with them there is also the Octababy, a cute little infant Octabrain that scuttles around on the floor and you can stomp on it's head, unless you get 6 or 7 of them all jumping on you then you're in trouble.

Just like in DN3D there are bosses in this game, unlike DN3D they now have boss metres, which I love, just like many old games, and they can now only be killed by explosive weapons or mounted turrets, which again I quite like, since they are a boss they should be much harder to kill and it makes the game a lot more fun. Killing each of the different bosses involves a death move at the end, when you kill each boss you get your maximum ego increased and each boss dies in their own amusing way (as you've seen from the trailer, one boss is constantly punched in the scrotum until he submits)

I found some bosses easy to kill and others hard to kill, I suppose part of that is my fault as I kept forgetting to use my pills and the cheap knock off holoduke! But a lot of the time it's just strafing around firing at them, which I fine by me, one good thing I like about the fight with the battle lord is that he start booting cars at you, which do a nice chunk of damage if you catch one in the face.

Damn you! Damn you all to hell!

Yeah but what does it sound like?

The music in Duke Nukem Forever isn't as enjoyable as in DN3D, mainly because the music in Hollywood Holocaust is so awesome, but also I like the old simple music like that that just loops around over and over like in DN3D and in Doom. However, the music is still good, there is a mix of background suspense music when you're just moving from place to place, to cheese 50's B movie music when the mothership appears and some metal music too. Duke also whistles the main theme so I guess that counts too.

I did find myself getting to some places in the game where I was fighting enemies and there was no music, and I was thinking it would feel better with some music playing rather than being quiet and just hearing the sound effects. I don’t mind it going quiet when you’re walking and nothing is happening, but there should be music whenever there is any action.

When I was fighting some bosses the music didn't really fit the scene, it didn't make me feel like I was in mortal danger, which it should do considering I'm fighting bosses 4 stories high, though a minor niggle it didn't bother me that much, but I felt it could be better.

The new Duke theme is very good it plays on the game's website www.dukenukemforever.com and in the very good intro video that plays when you start the game, it's not as good as the Megadeth version but it is still very good, and they went through a couple of versions of this tune on the website in the months up to the games release, they chose the best one

A lot of the music sounds like it has used Aliens as a reference, which some of it probably has, especially right near one particular piece of music sounds just like near the end of Aliens, you may notice it when you get there.

At many points in the game you hear music from Duke Nukem 3D, such as when playing the pinball game in Dukes Gym you can hear the Hollywood Holocaust music, you hear the DN3D theme tune in various other places and when you are in lifts you hear the music that is played in DN3D when you are in the supermarket level. So it's got a very nice touch of nostalgia, I can sit there for ages listening to the music at times.

The sound effects are all pretty good too. The melee attacks sound nice and brutal and the grunting when fighting hand to hand with some enemies then snapping their necks, like the pig cops, all sounds good. I especially like the sound of the RPG as it fires and locks on, and there is also a nice little Easter egg in the fact that the sound effect of the Trooper teleporting is the exact same one as is used in Duke Nukem 3D.

Troopers teleporting in from all angles can be a pain.

Some parts of the game sound too quiet too, like with some explosions or when there is a big crash like when a crane falls over, some sound effects could doing with being a bit meatier and with more oomph!

The noises the enemies make could be better with the same make over, especially with some bosses, they make a roar but its not loud or scary enough, especially the battle lord, in DN3D the roar of the battle lord scared the shit out of me and I'd be sneaking my head round corners to see where he was before his Minigun tore me to shreads (it's a shame he's not that formidable anymore).

The voice acting is not bad, just what you would expect from this game, other characters in the game do their job and tell you what needs to be said, or get pissed off if you keep shooting them. The president sounds like a pussy and you just wanna slap him and every other word out of Dillon's god forsaken mouth is an expletive, but the very fact that he is over the top with his expression of the English language (replace English with the language of your version providing the localisation isn't a load of shit) is what makes it so funny.

Duke's voice is as good as ever, with all of the old favourite lines rerecorded some didn’t sound as good as the originals, don’t know if that’s because the bad quality of the old ones made them sound grittier or the lines just weren’t delivered as good, but overall the lines Duke delivers are great and some had me pissing myself laughing, the only gripe is that he doesn't talk enough. Now just hold the phone! Duke not talking enough? What are you on about? Well obviously he never shuts up when kicking ass, that's the best part, but when other people are speaking to him he doesn't talk back to them much, maybe just one line, sometimes not at all, he's got a touch of Gordon Freeman about him and I really hate that in a game when someone is talking to the main character and they just stand there not responding, especially later in the game when a certain character has a right go at Duke and he just takes it quietly instead of mouthing off at him then slapping the taste right out of his mouth and sending him to a watery grave! Maybe in the sequel.

Dillon. His mouth is filthier than the shite they serve at Duke Burger.

Playing Duke

Feels great to be controlling Duke again (especially when you get him to pick up some shit from the toilet and he starts protesting) he is still the same loud foul mouth arrogant bastard that he's always been and that's why many of us still like him and have waited for the game (and why others have given it a poor review and tried to label him as misogynistic in a misguided attempt to jump on some proverbial bandwagon of hating Duke, either that or they are trying to impress someone, you know who you are!)

There are a few things that I don't like about DNF while playing it and I'll get them out of the way first. Checkpoints! They aren't necessarily a bad thing but when there is no option to save on a dedicated save slot as well it gets very irritating. If you start a new game it will wipe over your previous checkpoints and ego and thus you will be back to square one. What if more than 1 person wants to play your copy of Duke? They can't, they got to wait till you've finished, then even when you have finished you're gonna tell them to fuck off because it will wipe your save off anyway! PC FPS games used to have the ability to save on many save slots at a time, it wasn't a magical feature, it wasn't even complicated to do, but we could save as many times as we liked and go back and forth to different parts of the game that we enjoyed, that was, of course, until consoles got more popular and PC games started getting treated like shit because companies wouldn't put the effort in any more to take advantage of what the PC can do, hell! Even consoles have lots of storage now for saved games and what not, so why are we forced to use checkpoint without the ability to save whenever we bloody well like?

The weapons feel mostly like they do in DN3D, although annoyingly with a lot less ammo, it doesn't really affect some guns as their ammo is more frequent than others, but some weapons like the Enforcers gun run out too quickly. The freezethrower is the only weapon that isn't the same as the original. In DN3D you could fire ice crystals and bounce them off walls to freeze people which was really cool, in Forever it is a close range weapon, closer than the shotgun, where it fires a stream of ice about 4-5 feet in front of you and will take a second or 2 to freeze whatever you are shooting, then you can shatter them with bullets or boot them (unfortunately they don't come together and reform like in Terminator 2, though that would have been great if it happened occasionally). When you finish the game however you get an option to use the original freezethrower just like in DN3D. Just don't try to use them underwater.

Occasionally you run into invisible walls, where it looks like you can jump over some rubble or run under a small bridge somewhere and you get stopped by thin air, it's not something that really bothers me, after all it's a game, but it means lack of exploration in the levels, and exploring is something that was rewarded well in DN3D by giving you parodies (such as dead Doom Guy or Luke Skywalker) extra ammo and other goodies such as messages from Levelord.

As is with the levels in DNF, they are very linear, move along a path through the level and get the job done, I got no problem with that, I don't mind being funnelled down a path to progress with the game, it is better than DN3Ds wide open and complex maps because you can't get lost in them, but also exploring and getting lost and finding secrets is part of the fun.

A small village in the desert that looks like a movie set, perfect for an ambush.

The levels themselves are varied and look pretty good, from Dukes mansion to fighting in Vegas (though it would have been better if there was more of the game set here and if it was at night) then you got Nevada, Hoover Damn, a Strip Club (a level with no actual gun play or baddies that got slagged off by some reviewers, I guess some people just don't know how to relax and have fun) and the Alien Hive (a level in which one reviewer seemed to think Duke was laughing at someone being raped, which simply isn't the case).

I found most of the levels to be fun to play though, except for maybe the level driving Duke's Monster Truck, I felt like the driving went on a bit too long, it could have been shortened and still would have been fun, although when you do stop you get some good fights, especially the one on the bridge, when you are getting to the end of this level it starts getting darker and darker as you reach the dam which is a nice touch, it's fun to fight in the dark.

Throughout most levels there are breaks in the action, such as driving Dukes Monster Truck, sometimes you might stop to get on a turret and gun down a host of Pig Cops galloping towards you, or to shoot down a fleet of their ships. Sometimes this break feels nice, other times it doesn't, I'm not really fond of the idea of sitting on a turret and waiting for every wave of enemy to finish before I can move on again, it gets a bit dull and frustrating because you are sitting there not knowing when the waves are going to end. Although the first turret sequence is when you are fighting the alien mothership, that one I did enjoy as it was a boss fight and you knew when it was gonna end, when either the ship got fucked up for Duke did.

Occasionally you get puzzles too, they aren't very advanced, some of them are physics puzzles (like in Half Life 2 although not as sophisticated) such as tossing barrels in certain places to shift the weight of something so you can progress, one of them has you controlling a radio controlled car so you can push a fuel rod out of a room and into your waiting hands (Which I believe is homage to Shadow Warrior in which you could also drive a radio controlled car).

In some of the levels you get shrunken down and have to take a different path to progress,one such path takes you through some dangerous cog wheels and another is running through Duke Burger no bigger than the size of a bun. When running around as tiny Duke standard sized enemies become bosses and those tiny Octababies that you thought were cute are now huge monsters ready to swallow you whole (not the kind of swallowing Duke likes)

The stuff of nightmares!

The ego system is what takes place of your standard health in Duke Nukem Forever. I prefer to have health packs and to carry around a medkit for emergencies (something which you cant do here) but the ego system isn't all bad, the hiding until it regenerates part is, although I guess it's meant to be Duke getting his ego bruised and he has to wait for it to grow again until he can get back into the action, it plays too much like regenerating shields and forces you to hide like a baby while it recharges. The good thing about the ego system is the fact you can increase your maximum ego by doing things to boost Duke's ego, such as lifting weights, winning at the many minigames that are dotted about the game such as pool, air hockey, video poker and Balls of Steel Pinball.

There are other more, lewd methods of stroking your ego such as watching porn, watching babes in bikinis, finding adult magazines about the place or flicking through a calender full of fit women. Many of these methods of ego boosting are hidden and it is fun to try and find them, some of them are really good when you do find them. The ego boost is permanent too, some things you find may only boost it slightly by +1 point, others boost your ego more by +2 points. Another way to boost your ego is by killing bosses, once Duke does a death move on them and they finally die your ego gets boosted, it's also one reason to play the game again, going through and looking for more ego boosts that you may have missed before.

An ego booster and a handy way to keep track of the days.

It's the little things

One of the best things about playing DN3D and DNF is the humour and endless parodying that goes on throughout the game, a lot of which you may miss the first time round. For example, during my second play through when I first got the rail gun I'm zoomed in and looking all around the landscape and see some funny signs off in the distance that you can't see without using the scope, and when you set off your pipe bombs using the key fob it makes a little Duke Nukem theme tune, which you may not notice at first but its a very cool feature.

Forever is crammed full of one liners, parodies and Easter eggs. Again referencing many popular films such as Aliens, Starship Troopers, They Live and others, they even have references to others games, one such reference is to World of Warcraft which you may pick up on when an NPC gets killed. Humour is a hard thing to do, and most games just don't seem to bother, many just take themselves far too seriously these days and have forgotten how to have a laugh.

You may find some of the humour falls flat, some of it you may love, I was pissing myself laughing at many parts, especially when Duke proclaimed that he had “Balls of Fail”. Another thing to do, and this will get you an achievement, is to listen to all phone messages on every phone you find in the game (without deleting them of course like a certain newspaper would do) and some of them themselves are parodies of things or just funny messages to listen to.

Yes thats right, Duke has a phone, in here.

Unfortunately some of the little things are missing from DNF that you find in DN3D. For example, leaving Duke idle now means bugger all, he will just stand there and do nothing about it, I left him idle for 10 minutes in a lift and he just stood there doing nothing, didn't even query as to whether or not I'm waiting for Christmas. (although I did have the nice lift music to listen to that you hear in various parts of the game and is in DN3D too)

The good old “ugh ugh where is it?” is gone too, it may seem like a small point, but that always made me laugh and the fact that it's not in Forever shows that there are no hidden walls to be found, no point in him asking where it is if it doesn't exist. Hidden walls as a great feature of old FPS games and it should be brought back, it's great to open a wall and find a stack of ammo or someone hanging upside down or a reference to some game or film.

Another fun thing to do in DN3D was to smash the toilets and drink from them, that feature isn't present either, not a huge disappointment but not great for a game that prides itself on interactivity (though there are still tons to interact with, it's a shame to have some features removed) You can still smash fire hydrants though and drink from them, then go relieve yourself in an unbreakable toilet. In DN3D it would increase your health, not so here since it's regenerating.

Multiplayer

I'll be honest, I'm not a huge multiplayer fan these days but what I did play of Dukes multiplayer was quite fun. The maps are generally good, my favourite being Duke Burger where you are shrunken, its a good map to use the rail gun on.

All the usual modes are here, Duke match, Team Duke match and Capture the Babe (A mode which rubbed a few people up the wrong way but it's all in a light hearted fun way)

The maps are limited to 8 players where everyone plays duke, there are ways to customise him by giving him different hair, or hats, different shades as well as new clothes.

To be able to customise Duke you earn points through killing or winning in the MP games, you also get points for doing specific things which is fun, such as stomping on an another duke or putting a trip mine on him, there are many challenges to do and it's fun to try them all in MP, the more you do the faster your XP racks up and the more items you can buy for customisation, also the faster you level up.

Each time you level up you unlock a new item in Dukes mansion, which you can access from the multiplayer menu. The mansion starts off bare with wooden boxes everywhere, each one is an item to be unlocked so you can decorate your apartment, you can also unlock babes too and they wander around the place looking pretty, you can also talk to them a bit, giving Duke an excuse to come out with some innuendos.

If Duke was this strong he would be able to carry more than 2 weapons.

I wish there could have been more players as 8 seems a bit limited, especially since some games can go up to 32 players (and should all be able to on PC)

There are also no dedicated servers, it's all peer-to-peer so when the host leaves the game that's it, game over, doesn't matter if YOU were having fun or not, if the host loses connection or rage quits it's game over. This idea of peer-to-peer is very cheap and is a main reason why I wont bother with MP any more (do you think Counterstrike would have lasted over a decade without dedicated servers?)

OK so what's the bottom line?

Does Duke Nukem Forever live up to 14 years of hype and development, no, of course it doesn't, nothing ever could (if you find something that can let me know) Even though some people seem to think it has been developed constantly for 14 years you would be wrong, it's been scrapped and worked on again several times, so this version we are on started about 2006-2007 (Christmas 2007 was when we got the first look at it)

Does it live up to the 2001 Duke Nukem Forever trailer? No it doesn't, the trailer itself, for me, is the best game trailer ever made and they just couldn't live up to it (again, if you know of any game that is as good as that trailer looks let me know)

Duke Nukem Forever is a fun game not as bad as many people are making it out to be, it's not as good as DN3D and it feels more modern than it does old school, with features like regenerating health and 2 weapon limit. However, the game does still feel like duke, it's fun with the good old classic weapons and enemies and lots of humour and references to pop culture to keep an eye out for. At times it does feel like stop-start stop-start when the turret and puzzle sequences show their faces but it's not too distracting. The game is more limited than it should be thanks to the 2 weapon limit and linear level design, it's still a good game but not as fun as the original.

The lack of dedicated servers is a poor move and will impact the MP, it takes nothing away from the singleplayer game though, the same as lack of mod tools, it will impact the life of the game but takes nothing away from the singleplayer itself.

Oh and I'll say one thing about the graphics too, while not mind blowing, they are very nice in some places (as long as you switch off the horrible post processing), one thing annoying about the graphics is depth of field when you zoom in, I got no idea whose stupid idea that was , games are far better without it, just because I zoom in it doesn't mean I want the rest of my vision to be blurred, I'll decide what I want to focus on thank you very much!

On the consoles the graphics may be rubbish, blurry textures, long load times and low resolution, but on the PC you don't get that, as you can see from the screenshots it looks far nicer than the console versions. People should play the PC version of DNF before slagging it off and not just the console versions, give yourself an inferior version to play and you can't really be surprised.

The ending of the game leaves it open for a sequel, and I really do hope there is one.

Story and Presentation: 3

Graphics: 3.5

Sound: 3.5

Gameplay: 3.5

Longevitiy: 3.5

Score 3.5/5

Steam Summer Camp Sales!!

2011-07-07T14:13:00.002-04:00

If you don't have steam or you haven't been paying attention, the summer camp sales are going on and from what I've seen there are some great deals out there! The sales started back June 30th and will be continuing through the 10th (this Sunday).

75% off deals:

If you're hankering for a new MMO to dive into, they have RIFT priced at a mere $9.99 and $14.99 for the digital collectors edition! So for $9.99 for the game you will be getting the game and 1 month subscription for under the price of a single months subscription order.
Or if you have the desire to punish some fascists, the company of heroes series is available at only $12.49 bundled!
Maybe you're looking to get into some 3rd person adventure, puzzle solving and watching one of the most famous female heroines' behinds while escaping from danger? Tomb Raider: Legend - $4.99, Tomb Raider Anniversary - $2.49, Tomb Raider: Underworld - $7.49 and finally Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light - $3.74.
If you're interested in tower defense games except with the mix of being a FPS as well Sanctum is on sale as well. This game now offers multi-player mode with up to 4 players. The game is on sale for $3.75 for a single copy, or if you're the giving sort you can also order a 4-pack for $9.86 to get some friends involved!

50% off deals:

Are you looking for some more zombie apocalypse prep? Dead Rising 2 is now available for $19.99 so tell a friend so you can into some co-op play or hook 3 and go for the zombie vs human pit match mode!

That's all from me and be sure to check out more great sale offerings from the steam store!

The Secret World - The Salvage Coast Trailer

2011-07-06T18:02:00.001-04:00

Funcom has released a new trailer for The Secret World, their up and coming MMO.

The video shows off an environment that strongly reminds me of Alan Wake, which is certainly not a bad thing. It has definitely caught my interest, and it will be interesting to see how it pans out.

Check out the video below!

Batman Arkham City Gameplay Footage

2011-07-04T13:33:00.000-04:00

If, like me, you were a fan of Batman Arkham Asylum, then you're going to get a kick out of this footage.

Showing off what is presumably the first moments of the game, this video shows off quite a bit. You'll get to see Catwoman, Two Face, and a whole lot of Batman's pattented free-flow combat. Its an excellent video, and if you're a batman fan you have to watch it.

Check out the video below!

Back To The Future Review

2011-07-03T07:45:00.045-04:00

Back To The Future.
Review

In this review I'm going under the assumption that everyone who reads it has seen Back To The Future, and if not go watch all 3 films in one long marathon while munching on a huge family pack of

The perfect time travel snack.

Back To The Future is a point and click adventure game from what is possibly my favourite development studio Tellttale Games, who specialise in these kind of games and are very good at making them too.

The Back To The Future games are split into 5 episodes, each one taking about 4 hours to complete (or 0 hours if you've got a DeLorean with a Mr Fusion that you feed lesser computer games to to go back in time with), each episode has its own conclusion but but the next episode carries on directly from it, just like in the films where you get back from fixing time and realised you forgot to put the bin out before you went back to the future and now your house has turned into a skip, then you got to go back and fix that too.

1.21 GIGAWATTS?!?!?!

The story itself plays out very well, but I ended up getting confused towards the end, couldn't remember who I met where and what I done with them, but it doesn’t really matter as you can still enjoy the game and finish it without knowing the precise details of what happened.

You meet some old favourites throughout the series such as Biff (and his many incarnations through time, Biff, Griff, Tiff, Kidd, Tipp, Lipp, Nipp, Stiff, Jiff, etc etc), Marty's parents, a young Doc Brown and at one point Great uncle Willie.

Almost all of the characters are liable (some I didn’t like too well and some you're not meant to) and the voice acting is good throughout, especially Doc brown who is voiced by the legendary Christopher Lloyd himself! He does a great job at voicing old Doc and the young Doc too. Unfortunately Michael J Fox couldn't voice Marty McFly (although he does make an appearance in the last game) but the voice actor they got in to do Marty is so good that it's hard to tell the difference (and at times you would swear it was Michael).

What did one farmer say to the other?
"Make like a banana and get outta here"

As you would expect from Back To The Future (and a Telltale game) there is lots of humour in it, its not just the jokes that are funny, some had me in stitches, but also the situations they get into and a lot of times just the way some of the lines are delivered is funny, either just in general or if they use a particular line from the film, and a lot of the time Marty makes me laugh because he just sounds so much like Michael J Fox.

The music is present and correct, it uses the BTTF theme in many places and with good effect, the game also has it's own music too, and even during the credits you get the Back in Time theme tune. As I write this review I have been listening to the BTTF theme over and over again, I just can't get enough of it, played it about 15 times already!

Is that enough road to get up to 88?

As an adventure game some of the puzzles are easy, others may have you thinking (they did me at least) but once you get used to the formula you get used to it and find it easier to guess what the programmers want you to do in many puzzles and the face offs during the game. The face offs, as I like to call them anyway, usually entail a set scene that you have to accomplish in a certain order in order to complete the scene, usually you against another character, which plays out pretty well.

The whole series (all 5 games) is very authentic, very humerous and very much has the Back To The Future feel to it (even the game end the same way the film does with the DeLorian flying into the camera)

The graphics in the game, while being simple and cartoony, are very nice and give the game a great light hearted feel. All of the characters look much like the actors who played them in the film, you may notice a few graphical bugs but really they make no difference what so ever to the game play.

One small niggle is sometimes when you are walking with Marty through the game and the camera moves to a different angle I've found myself going in circles a bit trying to reoriantate myself as one direction suddenly becomes another one when the camera changes, though part of that is just me being a bit rubbish.

The game is highly recommended to anyone who likes adventure games or Back To The Future (still recommended if you like neither of them but don't blame me if you don't like it) Oh, and not recommended for graphics whores either.

Now I can't wait to see what Telltale do with the Jurassic Park game!

Doc, I've always wanted to tell you....

It's ok Marty, I know.

Story and Presentation: 4
Graphics: 3
Sound: 4
Gameplay: 4
Longevity: 3

Score: 4/5

Hellgate: London Open Beta Launched!

2011-07-02T16:33:00.003-04:00

Though far from perfect, I always thought that Hellgate: London was a fun game. It took the elements that made Diablo 2 great and mitigated them into a first person shooter. I was always upset that Flagship studios did not spend a little more time with the game prior to launch to clean up its problems, which ultimately lead to the game failing; and Flagship closing its doors.

Well, luckily for Hellgate fans, Korean company Hanbitsoft has brought the game back as a free-to-play MMO. These are the same guys who brought back Mythos, another old Flagship game, in free-to-play MMO form.

I've spent a little bit of time with the game, and have so far been please. Bizarrely, there seems to be a couple graphical glitches that have survived since the original, but everything else - thus far - seems to have been greatly improved.

I will be sure to provide more updates as I play more and will also, eventually, release a review. Being that this is an MMO, I won't release a full review until I have spent a lot of time the game.

Age of Conan - Now Free to Play!

2011-07-02T16:20:00.001-04:00

Wow, it seems like more and more developers are starting to jump on the free to play bandwagon with Age of Conan being the latest game to adopt the model.

The game is now called Age of Conan: Unchained, and offers both free and premium gameplay models.

I always thought that this was an interesting looking MMO, but I've never liked the idea of having to pay monthly to play a game. Well, with AoC now going free to play, it looks like I have no excuse not to jump in and try it out!

Go to the official site for more details.

Firefall - June Dev Diary

2011-07-01T17:05:00.001-04:00

Red 5 has released their latest Dev Diary for their amazing looking free to play shooter MMO, Firefall.

In this video, they discuss how story will be important to their game. To help drive this point home, they announce that the famous science fiction writer Orson Scott Card (Ender's Game) will be aiding in the story.

For further details, check out the video below.

Treyarch releases CoD Black Ops - Trailer, and we Release Our 50th Post!

2011-06-30T18:42:00.001-04:00

It is with great excitement that I publish our 50th post! That's right, this post marks the 50th post to be published on our site; and the topic couldn't have been better.

As the title describes, Treyarch has released a trailer for what is now the fourth map pack for Call of Duty: Black Ops. The map pack will be titled Annihilation, and will feature four new multiplayer maps plus a new Zombie map.

This trailer focuses primarily on the Zombie map which, pardon the language, looks fucking awesome!

Like the previous map packs, this DLC will cost you $15 bucks. I, personally, have been waiting for the prices of the previous packs to go down before taking the plunge; but this one might be an exception to the rule...

At any rate, check out the hilarious and insane video below!

Rage - The Legacy of a ID Trailer

2011-06-30T18:11:00.001-04:00

ID Software has released and amazing trailer for their upcoming game, Rage, which also gives a brief history of their company.

For those that don't know, ID is the company that created the first person shooter genre with the release of Wolfenstein 3D. After Wolfenstein, they later perfected the genre with the release of Doom. They also are the developers behind Quake, another historic FPS franchise, as well as the developers of the 3D engines that power their games.

Aside from their monumentally influential shooters, ID is also famous for being the HQ of gaming's smartest developer: the legendary John Carmack. This genius is behind some of the most influential 3D graphic engines in the history of gaming, including the historic Quake III engine.

The trailer features input from several of the key figures at ID, and shows some stunning gameplay footage for Rage; which launches for PC, Xbox 360, and Playstation 3 this coming October. Check it out!

Dungeon Siege 3 Demo Review

2011-06-30T00:57:00.011-04:00

I'm not going to beat around the bush, I cannot emphasize enough how bad the handling is for a mouse and keyboard setup. If you do plan to play this game on PC, since it is a console port, I would highly recommend a controller. If not, then I'm sure you will find the game play to be less than satisfying.

The graphics are attractive but didn't entirely blow me away. Which doesn't matter all that much since I have gone back and replayed the first two game of the series in the past, just to show how much I did enjoy them. I am glad they kept with the same viewing perspective. There's just something about walking through a forest and branches flowing into my view, call me strange but it is a little addition that draws me further into the game. I do believe that the front viewing angle of the camera is a little too acute, I would much prefer it being able to pan up further for a better line of sight. Not to mention there are only two zoomed view options. It would make more sense to have a free scrolling zoom, leaving that aspect to the players preference.

I gave both offered characters a run through in the demo. My first play through was with Lucas Montbarron, the guardian. This was a class that I honestly can say I disliked mostly due to the controls which did make close quarters combat tolerable, but switching between stances somewhat clumsy. The 2-hand sword special moves will cause a great deal of damage against groups quickly. There is a charging move which basically turns your character into linebacker, smashing through and knocking aside anyone in your way. The other special move allows your character to sling a force of wind that will travel through long stretches of a group. These specials leave the giant sweeping standard combo attacks found in the 2-hand sword stance to make haste of the wounded foes in no time. While the sword/ shield stance has rapid attacks that are great for singular engagements and powerful boss enemies. The only skill I used from this stance is the shield pummel which stuns single enemies. The skill turned out to be somewhat useful at times but the focus drain can overshadow its usefulness in my opinion.

The second play through of course was with Anjali, the Archon. I enjoyed the transition between her stances mostly because she offered an excellent balance between ranged and melee attacks. She is a true support character and I really did like her offerings since she can still kick some butt. In her elemental form she shoots flames for her primary attack, so she can really reach out and touch her enemies. In the elemental form she is much more of a support character, with an immolation skill that burns her enemies while healing herself and party members. Also in her elemental is a minion of hers, a fire jackal, which does a good job pouncing on its' victims and drawing some attention from Anjali. The elemental form skills truly make her a worthy adversary when using her human form. She uses her staff in her human form to, like lucas, make sweeping attacks against multiple foes. Her special moves in her human form also allow her to do somewhat of a bicycle kick multi attack and a flying stun kick as well. Both attacks are very good at dispatching multiple opponents.

On to the skills and attribute menu's, I believe they could have done a better job in diversity. Each skill can go two directions, a 5 part mix of possibilities, to me this seems interesting but leaving the option for the additional skills behind. It seems that was primarily to satisfy the console crowd in their limited flexibility. The attribute menu seemed a little shallow as well in steering the direction of the character's development, and certain directions were obviously more favorable than others.

So all that's left is the story. In my opinion overly dramatic story telling in the chapter break cut scenes with emphasis on every other word. I also tired quickly of hearing "Jayne Kassender" since the name was repeated so frequently. Also, the interactive text cut scenes were a little boring without allowing a real change of direction in your character's path. With this being a game demo review I won't speculate further on the story and leave that for you to decide.

All in all I wouldn't give this game a top notch score, or would I trash it altogether. There are some good elements meeting the terrible which does help tip the scales to make it a little more favorable. It is a far cry from the first two Dungeon Siege games yet I believe to a beginner to hack n' slash rpg gaming it will find its' best audience, that is if you have a controller. Just keep in mind that this is a demo review and I'm only experiencing a taste of the overall game, hence the limited look into story and character development.

Crysis 2 Direct X 11 Video

2011-06-28T01:35:00.008-04:00

I know Cody posted a few days ago about the Direct X 11 upgrade, with some small pictures that dont really show much as the screenshots are quite small, but here is a video demonstrating it, and it does look seriously good.

I especially like the water reflections and how the robots look later in the trailer.
Click Here to see the video.

Alice: Madness Returns - Review in Progress Cont.

2011-06-26T19:42:00.001-04:00

I'm still working my way through Alice: Madness Returns, but will hopefully have it finished and be able to get my review up later this week.

I've been pretty pleased with the game thus far. There have been some presentation issues, but other than those it has been a very solid game.

I've uploaded a couple of videos of the game in action.

Enjoy, and expect the review in the near future!

Minty's Top 10 all time games

2011-06-25T14:17:00.052-04:00

This is my top 10 list of all time favourite games (that's the whole entire time I've been playing games, 25 of them in fact).

As you may notice all games featured in this list are quite old, there are 2 reasons for this, the first being the game has to stand the test of time, if I go back to it and play it over and over again even tough there are newer games coming out then it can make it into the list. The second reason being that newer games just aren't as fun as older ones.

Also, where I have found that a game has an equally good sequel/prequel, due to both games being near identical in game play I have added it to the same number slot.
Many games appear on multiple systems but I list the systems I played them on the most and got the most fun out of. So, starting at number 10.........

10. Super Metroid SNES 1994

A game which I'm sure everybody has played and is my favourite game on the SNES.

Fantastic game, easy to play and I love playing through and unlocking the new abilities throughout the game, such as being able to turn into a ball or the spiral jump.

The boss battles are great, some small bosses or mini bosses, some large bosses and quite hard to kill, the game never feels too hard though and so never gets frustrating to play, it also never gets boring.
There are plenty of secrets to be had in the game, which you don't get enough of in games these days, secrets where you can find new places, extra ammo or extra health, I also love the music in a secret room, you know there is a secret there because of the music so you spend 20 minutes on that screen looking for it.

Which moves me onto the next bit, the music, along with the original Command and Conquer and Final Fantasy 7, Super Metroid has the best music in any game ever, each area has its own theme, the bosses have their themes and they are all fantastic to listen to.

The game is very long and will take you many hours to complete and takes you across different locations including in caves, ships or underwater.

Super Metroid is also the first game to ever get an emotional reaction out of me, I won't say which just in case anyone hasn't played it, but for everyone who has played the last boss I'm sure you will know which bit I mean, for a game to do that it's very difficult. Again, this is a game that I can play time and time again and still not get bored.

9. X-COM UFO Defence / X-COM Terror from the Deep PC 1994/1995

A very compelling, deep and engaging game that I find hard to put down, even today steam has me at 50 hours playing X-COM UFO defence!

Its a turn based strategy game defending the Earth from alien forces, you start off, build a base from which to intercept enemy craft then once down you send out your X-COM soldiers to finish them off.

The ship to ship combat is mostly automated, but fighting your units against theirs is where all the fun is, taking a set amount of units to the mission, equipping them and using them to wipe out any remaining aliens on the map. To start with you have a few units and they are all rookies who advance in ranks with the more aliens the kill, the higher their rank the more health they have, time used (which they use to move around the map) as well as morale so they don't run off like a screaming child when the fight goes pear shaped, which it often will as the aliens have far superior abilities and weapons than you.

Which brings me to the research tree, it is very deep and you can research everything the aliens use in the game, from a small bomb which wipes out half the screen to their own craft which they use to attack you and you use eventually to attack them and stop the invasion. Unfortunately for Terror From The Deep there is a bug in the research tree which can sometimes make it impossible to finish the game, still, its my favourite off the two and I never tire from playing it, I love the underwater missions.

8. Homeworld PC 1999

An RTS set in space. Plays like Command and Conquer, no base building, but you do have a home base to construct ships and gather resources. The game has a good storyline and is told during missions and throughout very well hand drawn cut scenes, there is an amazing use of Adagio For Strings for some very sombre moments in the game.

The space battles are very good too, you got everything from tiny fighters to large capital ships to content with, as well as your resource collector you also have a unit that is especially designed to salvage enemy ships to add to your fleet and take to the next level, very handy as the game can be quite hard when resources are dry and you cant build more ships, always have salvage ships on standby to rob a few off the enemy.

The game has a very good and easy to use 3D map so you can set your units to go anywhere on the map in 3D space. The controls of of your units are easy to use and pays just like a normal RTS game with creating groups of units which you can order together in one go, all ships also have the options of flying in various formations which makes for some good tactics.
Homeworld has a high difficulty level and is very compelling to play, I can play it again and again and still not get tired of it.

7. No one Lives Forever 2 PC 2002

A brilliantly fun FPS from the same people who made Blood. The game is set like a 1960s spy film. The main character is a secret agent and she has an array of spy gadgets and weapons to fight with, among them are a remote controlled kitty bomb, a dart that knocks people out but doesn't kill them (handy for silently dispatching guards but they get back up later) a Katrina sword and some money to throw to distract guards.

The game itself is very funny throughout, its hard to get humour to work in a game but it works brilliantly in NOLF2 from chasing a French man through a village on a tricycle, to your typical over elaborate spy death traps and making people slip on bananas. You also pick up intel and memos throughout the game, some give you hints and tips, others are just gags and funny situations such as guards getting in trouble for slacking off etc.

The levels are very varied too,throughout the story you will travel from Japan, to a trailer park (one of the best levels) to an underwater Spy hideout with a very typical spy boss who you will grow to like.
Overall the game is very fun and not a typical FPS, its got a good story to follow and interesting characters. On an interesting note this game is the most recent addition to my all time favourite games, and its nearly 10 years old.

6. Mechcommander PC 1998

A real time strategy game that plays like Command and Conquer except there is no base building or resource collecting. You play from a top down view and command a squad of giant Mech robots across a battlefield.

It starts off with a very good (yet full of cheese) FMV intro sequence which sets the tone for the game very well, it's basically 2 forces against each other, each force owning different style Mechs with different weapons to choose from. The Mechs range in size from 25 tonnes to 100 tonnes and makes for some very good strategic play as you have a weight limit to each mission so you have to choose which Mechs to take, you can also customise their load out which is very good.

This is a very hard game, the control system is easy to use, but the difficulty of the missions is right up there making it one of the hardest games I have ever played, and its all the more satisfying when you do beat each mission. The missions range from destroy a specific target, to getting to a certain location in the map, destroying convoys and so forth, all the while battling the enemy Mechs which makes for some very fun game play, I love fighting in giant robots! If you beat a Mech and the pilot ejects you get the chance to take salvage that Mech and carry it over to the next level, so your arsenal is constantly expanding.

Mechcommander also has the best 2D sprites I have ever seen in a game. The game itself has 2 zoom settings, a far away one so you can see a lot of the fight and one where you zoom in close to better see what is happening, each sprite was redrawn for the 2 zoom levels and are very highly detailed with great animation, a lot of effort has been put into it and I still love the look of it today.
A brilliant game with a high difficulty level but great combat and very customisable.

5. Shining Force 1/ Shining Force 2 Sega Megadrive 1993/1994

Woooo!! Simply the best RPG game ever! Both games play very much the same, have a long story to play through, both of which comprising of their being some evil in the world that you have to destroy, a very worthy goal!

Both games involve you playing through the story, meeting new characters along the way to join your "Shining Force" to take the fight to some evil monsters. The monsters themselves being mostly typical fantasy monsters, Minotaurs, Centaurs, Haryps, and one of my favourites from Shining Force 2 is a fight against a kraken, very hard fight.

Speaking of favourite fights, SF2 has one of my favourite all time fights in a game, your shining force pitted against the forces on a chess board, if you haven't played it I wont say more by spoiling it other than I could do that fight over and over again.

The game itself has a unique play style, it is a turn based game, where each of your units has a limit space on the world they can move to, some units can move further than others, some move like a sloth with a broken leg, but your units can move anywhere within this region and end their turn, the enemy plays the same, once you get into a fight the scene changes to a close up of the fight where whoever instigated the battle has their turn.

During the fight you and the enemy have a chance to dodge attacks or even have a second attack, the chance is random, but can make for some very nerve wrecking game play when you are low on health and the enemy is dodging your moves or has 2 attacks and you dodge both of them and eventually end up winning or losing.

Each battle your forces gain experience and level up in the typical fashion, stats go up as usual, but when you get to level 20 you get the choice of upgrading your unit to a hero class, this may give them extra abilities, or new magic or be able to wield new weapons. In SF2 some characters have special items that you find throughout the game and can upgrade them even further than normal.

The character you meet that join your force are typical warriors, mages and flying units, but they are many different species with their own advantages and disadvantages, you cant take all of them into battle at once as you have a limit, this makes for some good tactical play, deciding on who you need for that mission and who can be left behind.

SF1 and SF2 are brilliant RPG games, very long play time and very fun too, you can now get them for PS3 and Xbox 360 on the Sega Megadrive Ultimate collection or on the Wii Virtual Console, I can't recommend them highly enough.

4. Freespace 1 / Freespace 2 PC 1999/2000

The best space combat games I've ever played, granted I've not played a lot, but this one is brilliant and I can play it time and time again.

Both games play very much the same and the story from the first one continues onto the second one, everything written below applies to both games.

They both got good and compelling stories that draw you in and have varied missions from escort, all the way to huge battles trying to take out a capital ship. The ships themselves range from typical fighters which are very small and designed for dog fighting, which works brilliantly in the game, to the huge capital ships cutting each other in half using beam cannons, some ships are up to 6 miles across.

Throughout the game you get to fight in many varied fighters with a large array of weapons using many kinds of laser cannons and missiles ranging from fast but weak damage to take out fighters to very slow buy do very heavy damage for the capital ships.

One of the best things about the combat is the ability to target subsystems on the larger ships, you can choose to take out shields first, or engines, or weapons, then pick them apart one by one like a pack of hungry hyenas!

Also when fighting you get to distribute power across 3 systems, Speed, Shields and Weapons, to give each one of them a boost at the expense of the other 2 systems, makes for some good tactical fights where you might put all your power on speed so you can flee, let your shields charge, then go back into the fight with full weapons power.

The combat plays very well, the story is compelling and makes for a long game, there are a huge amounts of details in the game, not just from the ships but from weapons too, brilliant tutorials to show you how to play the game and use each weapon and the missions are very well briefed too with some brilliant voice acting, one of the actors being Ronnie Cox, you may remember him playing Dick Jones in RoboCop

3. Blood PC 1997

Next to Doom this is the best FPS ever. It's got more imaginative weapons, levels, monsters and is just as fun to play, it's hard to pick one over the other.

The weapons are brilliant and so much fun to use, your starting weapon is a pitchfork, a bloody PITCHFORK! Which you use to jam in the faces of zombies repeatedly until their head pops off which you can boot around the place like a football until it explodes.

As well as that you get the flare gun which you fire into people and watch as they slowly burn to a crisp running around screaming, when they are on fire they try to run into you and set you on fire too, a very nice touch.

There are several power-ups to be had in the game like invulnerability, but one of my favourite is Guns Akimbo which gives you 2 of every weapon for a short time, 2 flare guns, 2 shotguns etc. and each weapon has a dual fire mode as well which makes them very fun to experiment with, this is just something that is lacking in games these days.

The levels are brilliant too and very varied, you start, quite literally, from your own grave! Then progress through some of the best levels I've played in an FPS including a Carnival, a Moving train and some creepy woods.

Another thing the game has which you don't see enough of these days is a main character with personality, he talks throughout the game, makes wise cracks when left idle, quotes popular culture and even some of the levels are parodies of popular films, overall its an extremely fun no nonsense game and I can play it over and over again.

2. Doom 1 / Doom 2 PC 1993/1994

The best FPS of all time. No need for a fancy storyline, in fact its very simple, Demons from Hell are summoned on Mars and you have to take them out, it's not going to win any awards but is a great excuse for a good kick off, and this takes me to the game play.

The game play is very simple too, no nonsense shoot everything that moves with an arsenal of weapons from the very weak to the downright ludicrous and powerful (BFG) which can take out an entire room in one go. It's all over the top and not at all serious and that's what makes this game so fun to play, even better than most FPS games these days.

The weapons are extremely fun to use, from the close range chainsaw, the Shotgun (still my favourite ever) berserk mode which means you can punch someone and they shatter into a mess on the floor and the rocket launcher which I use to knock Cacodemons about the level and watch them float around, which is always hilarious.

The monsters too, including the Cacodemon are all great to fight against and quite imaginative, monsters such as the Pinky Demon, the Mancubus and the Cybderdemon, and for the PC version you get the Arch-Vile too!

Also for the PC version you get some extra levels, one of which is the Spider Mastermind versus the Cyberdemon, a very good level which is practically nothing else except those two.

The game has good music too all throughout, again it's simplistic music, nothing too dramatic or dynamic and its still very good to listen too, also sometimes you can hear a crying baby in the background which is very eerie.

1. Command and Conquer Tiberian Dawn/Red Alert PC 1995/1996

This game being my all time favourite. When it first came out I didn't have a PC, I played it on the PSX (that being the original Playsation) and it was amazing, instantly became my favourite game. Only a few years later when I got my PC did I get C&C on it and it was even better again thanks to playing with keyboard and mouse.

At the time I had neither played or seen anything else like it (there was Dune but I didnt get to play that). Everything about it was brilliant, building up my base, the research tree, I loved the graphics and even the story told via FMV. Also the music is amazing, I can listen to it all day, its so 90s techno, has possibly the best music ever in a game (closely followed by Final Fantasy 7 and Super Metroid)

Obviously there are far newer RTS games with better graphics and better gameplay mechanics with more races in the game, but I love the simplicity of C&C, just 2 races does it for me. To this day I still play it and have a huge amount of fun doing so, both campaigns are fun to play, the FMV and the CGI cut scenes are still great to watch, I've probably gone back and played this game more than any other which is why its my number 1.

Red Alert took everything good about C&C Tiberian Dawn and improved on it (it couldn't improve on the music though even though the music in RA is great) it added extra units, the Dog being a favourite, indoor missions, even more FMV and CGI sequences and a quirky fun story line. Both games also feature 2 of my favourite intros ever.

Honourable Mention goes to Another World SNES 1992

My second favourite SNES game ever, cant quite get into the top 10 but still a brilliant game, and a few years ago they released the 15 year anniversary so it is well worth getting again, though I find the intro on the SNES version the best, its got brilliant music and a great story which scrolls up the screen Star Wars style!

The game is short but the story good and the game extremely fun to play through. It was the first cinematic game I ever played, it was like playing a film (obviously before FMV became all the rage) it's got brilliant scripted sequences and moments which get the adrenalin pumping, again another game that invoked an emotional reaction, not as strong as Super Metroid but still.

This game also had the best animation of any game of it's time using a technique known as Rotoscoping, where animators would trace over live action film movement frame by frame.

This game also has fantastic music and really adds to the action of the game, highly recommended.

Team Fortress 2 - Now Free to Play!

2011-06-24T16:35:00.001-04:00

It has been announced that Team Fortress 2 is now permanently free to play!

In an interview with Develop-Online Valve's Robin Walker stated that, based on data they got back from their "Mann-conomy update", TF2 would be "more successful as a completely free product". You can read the complete interview here.

If you have not played TF2, there is now absolutely nothing holding you back from downloading and trying it out. Those that enjoy it will now have completely free access to a heavily supported product with a very strong community.

To coincide with their conversion to the free to play model, Valve has released a new trailer. Check it out!

Team Fortress 2 - Meet the Medic

2011-06-24T16:17:00.001-04:00

Valve has released an epic trailer for their Medic class.

They have been releasing "Meet the (INSERT CHARACTER CLASS HERE)" trailers for years now, but I must say that this one is the best yet. In its just over four minute run-time, the video manages to give some insight into Medic's personality, show how "Uber" works, and showoff some cool combat action. The video also has some hilarious, ridiculously quotable dialogue. After watching this, you'll be saying "Ribs grow back" for years to come!

Watch the kick-ass video below, and prepare to LOL!