Publisher: Zachtronic Industries
Developer: Zachtronic Industries
System requirements: Windows XP SP3/Vista/Win 7/Mac OSX 10.5.8 (Leopard), 2.0 GHz CPU, graphics card with frame buffer support, 1 GB RAM, 300 MB hard-drive space
Genre: Puzzle
ESRB rating: Not rated
Release date: Available now

SpaceChem doesn’t seem to have a lot going for it. It’s a simple-looking 2D game about programming machines to build molecules. Yet, under this unassuming surface lies a game of such seething excitement that it’ll have you shouting and yelling more than when you play an FPS. I myself spoke such dark utterances that Khorne himself shivered. How can a science-themed puzzle game go so right?

As the title correctly suggests, SpaceChem does indeed involve chemistry in space. As a Reactor Engineer for a leading chemical synthesizer, it’s your job to take base elements and construct them into usable ones. Your reactor has two mechanisms, lovingly called “waldos,” which you program by dropping clearly-labeled instructions into the reactor. The entire process is demonstrated through a series of tutorial missions that teach you the techniques, step by step.

When you think you’ve got the basics down, the game starts layering upon itself like an insane Escher Sonata. Suddenly you have to manage entire pipelines of factories, some with limited functionality. When you’ve got that down, then you get inputs that provide variable atoms, forcing you to add if-then statements into your machines. Then there’s the occasional timed boss battle, just to make sure you’re still breathing.

Like the enshrined Portal, SpaceChem does a wonderful job of slowly layering mechanics, leading you to complex solutions without explicitly giving away the answer. After completing a level, it shows you where you fit in the bell curve of players. Don’t be surprised if you find yourself replaying missions again and again, trying to find ever more efficient solutions each time.

The soundtrack in particular deserves special praise. There’s something about Evan Le Ny’s soaring orchestral music that adds an element of urgent danger. The fact that it provides something of an immersive atmosphere is nothing short of astonishing.

Space Chem hits that gooey sweet spot in the center of your analytical cortex and explodes into a thousand splinters. Every new puzzle looks more impossible then the last, yet finally clicks with such immense satisfaction your roommates might rat you out to the narcs. Once you’ve finished all 50 levels, gnawed at the expansion pack and its “quantum junction” addition, there’s also a sandbox mode that lets your creative beast free from corporate restraints. SpaceChem is more than just a Gainful Employment Simulator for out-of-work post-grads. It’s the best piece of brain candy for those of an analytical bent to come along in a long time.

Our Score:
Our Recommendation:

© Ian Davis for The Adrenaline Vault, 2012. | Permalink | No comment(s)

Developer THQ has announced its list of upcoming releases. Sneaking out first on February 17 is UFC Undisputed 3. Then comes the company’s fiscal 2013 slate, which includes Darksiders II in June, South Park: The Game and a new WWE title in Q3, and Metro: Last Light and The Devil’s Third in Q4. In 2014 and beyond, THQ plans to release an unnamed game from Turtle Rock, inSANE from Volition, Homefront 2 (Crytek), the new game from Patrice Désilets’ THQ Montreal, and Dark Millennium Online, which will be completed with the aid of a “partner,” company boss Brian Farrell has revealed. On top of these, THQ has four unannounced core games in development for release in fiscal 2014.

© Simon Moore for The Adrenaline Vault, 2012. | Permalink | No comment(s)

Publisher: Paradox Interactive
Developer: Ino-co Plus
System requirements: TBA
Genre: Strategy
ESRB rating: Everyone 10+
Release date: Q2 2012

In 1994, Simtex released a 4X game entitled Master of Magic. Like every similar RTS at the time, it initially looked like a Civilization clone. Despite initial bugs, it was far more then just Civ with spells, and it quickly became a strategy classic. A few games have tried to capture its spark since, most infamously 2010’s Elemental, but none of them have quite made it. Unwilling to let such a great spirit languor in DOS emulators, Paradox Interactive is giving MoM a modern body in the form of Warlock: Master of the Arcane. The details are so enticing it might cause your carpal tunnel to flair up in anticipation.

Warlock features three races, each with its own very distinct set of units. You pick a race and a leader, each of whom has his own set of bonuses, and then you’re let off to conquer a randomly generated world, one turn at a time. Warlock feels very influenced by Civilization V. Before anyone panics, please note that it borrows the good parts: the hex-based combat, lack of unit stacks and actual ranged units. Being a master of arcana, you have access to a large grimoire of spells to cast, which adds whole new tactical spice. Once this plane of existence has sworn its allegiance to you, there are others to find and invade. It’s like a layered taco-dip of turn-based strategy, only instead of heartburn keeping you up at night, its “just one more turn.”

Yet, with all these features, Warlock manages to be accessible, yet still deep. A great example of this is the streamlined city management. There are only three resources: food, gold and mana. Units have build and upkeep costs, while buildings produce resources at a constant rate. Aside from the occasional bonus, tiles are not used for harvesting resources so much as for holding new buildings. Meanwhile, choosing buildings becomes more important, because you only get one building per population point. The changes are small and easily learned, but their interplay leads to a myriad of strategies.

Developer In-co Plus is still hard at work packing more goodness into their game for its nebulous Q2 2012 release. Currently, Warlock: Master of the Arcane is definitely one to watch for all those afflicted with “One More Turn” syndrome.

© Ian Davis for The Adrenaline Vault, 2012. | Permalink | 2 comments

If you have set aside your February 7 to relax with your favorite Ubisoft games, you might want to rethink your plans. According to Eurogamer, most of the developer’s games will be unplayable or otherwise impacted when the company starts the process of moving its game servers. Some of the games that will go totally dark include HAWX II and The Settlers 7 (PC), and Assassin’s Creed and Splinter Cell: Conviction (Mac). Console games and certain PC titles (Assassin’s Creed: Revelations and Driver: San Francisco) will be unaffected by the move, but all games that require Uplay authentication will be unplayable. No word was offered on how long the work will take to complete.

© Michael Smith for The Adrenaline Vault, 2012. | Permalink | 3 comments

After dozens of hours in the province of Skyrim, I’ve done a lot. I’ve plundered tombs, slain dragons. I’ve picked a point in the landscape and gone there, full of manly purpose. I’ve listened to many personal stories and stuck my mailed fist of intervention into more then a few faces. Though my adventuring might someday come to an end, it will never truly find a conclusion. Yet, through all of it, I have reached one conclusion:

I like Fallout: New Vegas better.

It’s not a beautiful beast. New Vegas is a cluttered game, mechanically and aesthetically. It’s not just diverse, but outright unfocused at times. The interface, as broken as anything compromised for a controller can be, breaks under the weight of the added survival and crafting modes. Nor is the ham-fisted way the intro exposition is handled a compelling start. Sometimes it can be an outright ugly game.

At the heart of New Vegas is something that you’ll never see in an Elder Scrolls game: a real, dynamic plot. A score of forces all compete for the heart of The Strip. The NCR, the Legion, the Brotherhood, Mr. House, maybe even you. Each faction is well developed and thought provoking. The NCR isn’t the shining beacon of democracy and freedom you’d expect, nor is the Legion pure evil (well, they are, but have very good reason for being so).

Playing through the main storyline involves picking winners and losers, shaping the political dynamics to your liking. The wasteland is not for the weak. Eventually, you’ll have to step on some toes and anger (or outright kill) factions you’d rather not. Make the choice. If you don’t, someone will. In the end, you cut a swath through the wasteland, reshaping it in your own image. It’s this blending of stories that elevates it above Fallout 3, which polarized its players into Paragon or Villain story branches.

Perhaps we can forgive Skyrim for its failures in plotting; Elder Scrolls has always focused more on world-building than story. Yet, I can’t help but find its world boring. It’s far away from the bland European realm of Oblivion, but I can’t help but feel that I’ve done it all before.

Skyrim’s bandits are typical thieves and murderers, while the enemies in Fallout are shaped and broken by the nuclear-charred world in which they live. Murder and theft are necessary actions to survive, be you bandit or homesteader. Why plunder identical ancestral tombs when you can explore ancient nuclear vaults and uncover tales of experiments gone wrong? Why adventure with Illia when you can choose Lily?

I’m not ready to say that New Vegas is a better game then Skyrim. Elder Scrolls V offers far more coherent aesthetics and sensible mechanics, but New Vegas just clicked better for me. I’ve never given Obsidian much credit, but I think that they might’ve bested Bethesda by creating a huge RPG that has a sandbox and thought-provoking plot developments. I’m 30 hours into Skyrim, yet I’m already hunting down more mods to toss into New Vegas for yet another playthrough. After all, when the forgotten realms are quite explored, why not dose up and go to Gamma World?

© Ian Davis for The Adrenaline Vault, 2012. | Permalink | 4 comments

Another MMO seems to be released or switches from subscription to free-to-play almost every month. Up until now, only the venerable EverQuest has stood strong and resisted the FTP tide. But after almost 13 years, the time has finally come for the last of the classic MMOs. Sony announced today that EQ will be moving to the FTP business model starting sometime in early March. Lead producer Thom Terrazas said in the EQ Player’s Blog that growing the player base was a prime reason for the decision. “With the gaming landscape changing every day, we want to ensure we continue to evolve the game to keep players engaged and bring in even more new players to further expand the community.” If you’re already a paying subscriber, you might be tempted to demand a refund, but don’t worry; your subscription fee gives you a number of advantages over the free players. A detailed comparison of free, silver and gold memberships can be found here.

© Michael Smith for The Adrenaline Vault, 2012. | Permalink | 3 comments

Publisher: Telltale Games
Developer: Telltale Games
System requirements: Windows XP/Vista/Win 7, 1.8 GHz Pentium IV or better CPU, 256 MB graphics card, 2 GB RAM, DirectX 9.0c, DirectX 8.1-compatible sound device, 2 GB hard-drive space
Genre: Adventure
ESRB rating: Not rated
Release date: Available now

There was a time when some part of creator Dick Wolf’s ubiquitous Law and Order TV franchise was on the tube almost every day in the US. Some didn’t last long (Crime and Punishment, Trial by Jury, Law and Order: Los Angeles), while the parent show became one of the longest-running scripted shows in American TV history. These days, only Special Victims Unit remains, but now Wolf and NBC/Universal are pushing the franchise into new frontiers with the help of game developer Telltale.

Law and Order: Legacies is a series of seven episodes based on the original show, featuring characters from all of the major periods of its run (plus one character from SVU to give younger players someone to recognize). Several of the characters are so old that the actors who played them have since passed away (Steven Hill as prickly DA Adam Schiff, and most notably, Jerry Orbach, who played the now-beloved detective Lennie Briscow). In fact, Briscow is a major part of the game; one of his old cases forms a thread that connects all six of the game’s episodes. In the first three, the Law half of the show features detectives Rey Curtis, Mike Logan and Olivia Benson (from SVU), while the Order half includes attorneys Mike Cutter, Abbie Carmichael and Jack McCoy (if these names are unfamiliar, don’t fret; the beauty of the show is that the characters have next-to-no backstories, so you don’t really have to know who they are to understand what’s going on).

Just like the show, each episode of the game is played in two parts. In the first, you play the detectives as they examine evidence, conduct interviews and make an arrest. In the second, you become a DA and try the case in court. You select dialogue options from a pop-up menu. Occasionally you’re asked whether or not to believe the things the suspects are telling you, using information that has been previously introduced to back up your claims (a running transcript of the dialogue is available to refresh your memory). Choosing correctly earns you stars, which raise your rank as a detective or sway the jury your way as an attorney. Additionally, in the detective phase you complete hidden-object minigames to locate physical evidence, and in the court phase you can choose to plea bargain or take the case to the jury, depending upon how your case stands with them. You also get a primer in courtroom procedure; you must occasionally make objections, and you have to pick the correct objection (text boxes describe each of the available objections and when to use them). Stories include a cellphone hacking case that leads to murder, a cockfighting suspect killed by his own animal, and a serial killer targeting prostitutes.

Legacies tries its best to give you the full Law and Order experience. You get the narrator, the teaser that ends with a line of darkly ironic dialogue, the credit sequence (complete with Mike Post’s iconic theme music). You even get the trademark “thunk thunk” sound effect. But once the story actually begins, you need to pay attention. Every off-hand statement made by a suspect can become important as you try to catch them in lies, and the more of them you catch, the more likely it is that the perp will be shipped off to Rikers, never to be seen again. The characters are modeled fairly well in that fans of the show will recognize who they are, although the animators took a few pounds and a few inches in height from Benson, made Schiff quite a bit younger and Curtis a bit older than their actor counterparts. And the writers seem to have a love for Briscow, since his is by far the best dialogue in the game. Of the two sections, the court sequences are much more engaging. You’re given more to do and you have to apply yourself much more than you do when playing the cops. Decisions you make in court can significantly alter how the case is eventually resolved.

From an artistic standpoint, however, Legacies is a disappointment. The graphics are primitive and low-rez at best, mostly owing to the extreme age of the Telltale Tool, the developer’s decade-old graphics engine. None of the original actors appear on the voice tracks, which is troubling; it’s understandable in the case of Orbach and Hill, and you’re not likely to hear pricey talent such as Benjamin Bratt (Curtis) or Angie Harmon (Carmichael) in a videogame, but it would’ve been good to hear at least one familiar voice (other than the narrator, of course). The find-the-evidence minigames can be frustrating, since certain items are buried under other items and you get a limited number of guesses before your detective rating goes down. And the interrogation sections are straight out of LA Noire, but not nearly as high-tech; making mistakes means practically nothing when playing as the cops, but it can cost you a conviction in the courtroom.

I’ve been a fan of the Law and Order franchise ever since the first show debuted in 1990, and I have to admit I smiled profusely when the title card appeared and I heard “In the criminal justice system, the people are represented by two separate but equally important groups…”. And the first case on the docket had a twist that genuinely caught me napping. But the other two cases lack that extra creativity, leaving us with an occasionally tedious procedural that only piques our interest once we get off the streets and into court. Combine that with the ancient tech upon which the game is built and you get something that only the hardest of the TV hardcore (or budding trial attorneys) could really love. But there are four episodes left; maybe the best is yet to come.

Our Score:
Our Recommendation:

© Michael Smith for The Adrenaline Vault, 2012. | Permalink | 3 comments

The gate swung open.

Revolted by the thick scent of excrement in the chamber, Locklear hastened to the ladder affixed on the far wall and ascended its filth-slick rungs. Behind him, Gorath and Owyn reluctantly did likewise, gaffing on the noxious vapors in the shaft. “This is nothing,” Locklear grunted, shoving upwards against a grating. “All the windows in the palace are open right now. You ought to smell it in the winter.”

Darkness surrounded them as they slithered out of the privy, their only impressions of the chamber provided by the faint flicker of distant firelight. Ten yards before them the hall joined with an elaborate colonnade stretching in either direction. “Somehow I hadn’t pictured my first visit to Krondor like this,” Owyn sighed, falling blindly into step behind Gorath and the Seigneur.

Betrayal at Krondor surprised me. I expected an RPG typical of the era (it was developed in 1993 by Dynamix), complete with clunky combat and minimal story. I knew it was based on the Riftwar series of novels by Raymond E. Feist, but I expected that to be little more than a marketing tie-in. Instead, it’s an early crossbreed between games and literature.

His curiosity sufficiently piqued, Owyn popped open the half-gallon cask and inhaled deeply. Immediately his senses reeled as the heady cinnamon-like aroma assaulted him. Keshian Ale!

Krondor inundates the player with text at every opportunity (the quotes in this article come straight from the game). Whenever possible, it serves up paragraphs of it, stewed in its own fantasy world. The developers knew that they could only say so much at a time, so every sentence is full of seasoning and flavor. Nothing is wasted.

Voice acting is nice, but it reduces scenes to simple dialogue. As anyone who’s experienced Planescape: Torment can attest, the power of text is its ability to deliver so much more than speech. Every item has a paragraph detailing not just the object, but also the characters themselves, picking them up, turning them over, and telling stories about them. Everything is given far more nuance than even an advanced 3D engine ever could.

© Ian Davis for The Adrenaline Vault, 2012. | Permalink | 5 comments

Publisher: Warner Bros. Interactive
Developer: Rocksteady
System requirements: Windows XP/Vista/Win 7, 2.4 GHz Core2Duo/Athlon X2 4800 or better CPU, GeForce 8800GT/ATI 3850 HD or better graphics card, 2 GB RAM, 17 GB hard-drive space
Genre: Action
ESRB rating: Teen
Release date: Available now

Developers take their careers in their own hands when they set out to make a superhero game. If they want the legions of comic-book fanboys to give their game their seal of approval, it has to be almost perfect. All of the canonical i’s have to be dotted and the t’s have to be crossed, over and above the things that the rest of the gaming public want to see (good story, great graphics, etc). Rocksteady accomplished this with Batman: Arkham Asylum back in 2010. Now they’re trying to make lightning strike twice in the same place with the sprawling action/adventure Batman: Arkham City. In most ways, they’ve succeeded. In some others, not so much.

Since the conclusion of Asylum, Gotham City leadership decided to adopt the Escape From New York theory of criminal rehabilitation: they built a wall around a large section of the city and turned all of their criminals loose inside to fend for themselves, under the watchful eye of prison administrator Hugo Strange and his private security army. For some reason, billionaire playboy/industrialist Bruce Wayne has been arrested and sent to Arkham City. After a hearty welcome from his fellow inmates, Wayne finds his way to a waiting storage container, dons the iconic batsuit and begins his search for Strange, who can be heard periodically counting down to something called Protocol 10. But before the search can begin in earnest, Bats has to come to the aid of his old pal Catwoman, who’s suspended over a vat of acid by a group of thugs.

From this point, you have the run of the city. You can go anywhere, do practically anything (except escape to the outside world). You’ll run into some of your favorite DC villains, and even help some of them (Mr. Freeze is pining for his kidnapped wife, so you try to find her in exchange for his scientific expertise). Of course, no Batman game would be complete without his primary adversary, the Joker, and the Riddler has scattered 440 (!) glowing question marks throughout the city for you to collect. And from time to time, you leave Batty behind and guide Catwoman through a side story of her own.

Artistically, very few games can hold a batsignal to Arkham City. The art direction is stunningly beautiful and amazingly detailed, from the views atop the various structures to the unkempt squalor of the city streets. Combat is almost completely melee-based (Batman has an aversion to firearms), and the fight animations are the smoothest you’ll find in any game; I’ve never been good at hand-to-hand fighting, and even I managed to learn to use the dozens of unlockable combat abilities and takedown moves (not to mention those wonderful toys). The open-world concept is similar to the one found in inFamous. Side quests become available as you travel around the city. You can choose to ignore all of them and stick to the story quests, but you’d be missing some of the most interesting parts of the game. But if you do choose to speed through the main story, you can go back and do the side quests after you complete the final boss battle (and watch the 21 minutes of closing credits). Actually, there is a veritable mountain of content in this game, including the challenge modes that you unlock as you progress. Nick Arundel and Ron Fish’s soundtrack is sufficiently brassy and effective, with more than a few Danny Elfman influences present. And let’s not forget the outstanding voice work (once again) by Kevin Conroy as Batman, Mark Hamill as the Joker (somewhat underused this time but still entertaining), and “It’s that voice guy again” Nolan North as the Penguin. Also, fans of the TV show Castle might recognize the sultry tones of Stana Katic as Talia al Ghul.

Unfortunately, with all of this freedom to explore there are bound to be a few hiccups here and there. The most annoying of these is the constantly respawning enemies. Those of you who’ve played Far Cry 2 will recall wiping out all of the baddies at a remote crossroads, only to come back five minutes later and have to fight all of them again. So it is with Arkham City. You can choose not to fight (being able to reach a rooftop in seconds is a big advantage that you don’t have in Far Cry 2), but there are times when engaging multiple times is unavoidable. The Riddler trophies are much more difficult to grab in City than they are at the Asylum. Some of them are inaccessible unless you’re far enough into the game to unlock particular gadgets. But more troubling than how tough they are to acquire is that you are required to grab all 400 of the Batman-targeted trophies to complete one of the side quests (the other 40 trophies can only be picked up by Catwoman). The issue of collectables has been a touchy one with me. There are tons of them in the Uncharted games, but you don’t lose anything by not finding them. The blast shards in inFamous at least add strength to your character. But to close off one of the Arkham City side quests to those who don’t want to scour the city for green question marks strikes me as ill-advised. All this does is artificially lengthen the game, to the point where I got tired of swinging from building to building like Spider-Man, searching for a trophy that I can’t get because I don’t have the right gadget. Oh, and about that chalk outline on the ground where Bruce Wayne’s parents died. After all these years, you’d think it might’ve faded a bit by now…

In 2010, Rocksteady made a pie that everyone loved to eat from the first slice. So, they figured that it would be great to bake a bigger pie, so folks would eat that much more of it. And we gobbled it up just as they planned, and so we should. Batman: Arkham City is an unparalleled artistic achievement, with great melee combat, an interesting (though wandering) story and lots of gameplay options. But it really is possible to have too much of a good thing, which is why Arkham Asylum will always be the better game. Sometimes just a slice is better than the whole thing.

Our Score:
Our Recommendation:

© Michael Smith for The Adrenaline Vault, 2012. | Permalink | 2 comments

Earlier this week, executive producer Hiroyuki Kobayashi characterized Resident Evil 6 as being the largest project undertaken by Capcom so far. “Between the 150 staff members in Japan and everyone around the world, we have more than 600 people involved. A lot of work has gone into this game,” Kobayashi said. “Resident Evil 6 is by far and away the most ambitious game in the series.” Also, producer Yoshiaki Hirabayashi indicated that the game will be a blend of action and survival horror, which the team is calling “dramatic horror.” The latest instalment will feature a split plotline, with one thread focusing on Leon S. Kennedy in the US, and the other following Bioterrorism Security Assessment Alliance member Chris Redfield in China. The game is expected to arrive for the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and PC on November 20.

© Simon Moore for The Adrenaline Vault, 2012. | Permalink | 2 comments

Gearbox has decided to make you wait even longer to see if anyone can hear you scream in space, announcing that Aliens: Colonial Marines has been delayed from a spring release to a tentative autumn 2012 one. According to an official statement from the developer, “Aliens: Colonial Marines is a process of creativity and invention, and those don’t necessarily follow the structure of an assembly line. While setting clear goals, deadlines and predictions is helpful, they are often subjective. We don’t want to sacrifice the creative process just for the sake of following a blueprint. We prefer to have the creative discovery shape that blueprint, because our goal is to make a great game.”

© Simon Moore for The Adrenaline Vault, 2012. | Permalink | 2 comments

Publisher: 505 Games
Developer: Reverie World Studios
System requirements: Windows 2000/XP/Vista, 2.4 GHz Pentium IV or AMD CPU, 1 GB RAM (2 GB Vista), 1 GB hard-drive space, 256 MB GeForce 7600 graphics card or equivalent, DirectX 9.0-compatible sound card, Internet connection
Genre: RTS/MMO
ESRB rating: Teen
Release date: Available now
Review by Mindy Hartman

Those darn elves, orcs and humans are at it again: building cities, competing for resources and just plain refusing to get along. Dawn of Fantasy was released a little more than three months ago by developer Reverie World Studios as their first released game. Publisher 505 Games looks like they’re trying to branch out with this publication too, as their bread and butter seems to be cutesy animal games for the DS.

Dawn of Fantasy is a standard real-time strategy game that allows players to select their race (human, orc or elf), build up their nation in the realm of Mythador and try to conquer everything surrounding them. Once you select a race, you must choose two starting attributes from a fairly staggering list; your choices determine your starting bonuses and penalties on everything from camp setup price reduction to increased gathering or production abilities. Upon entering your world, a booming voice introduces you to the scenery and your primary task giver. At this point, the world is yours, and building and questing are up to you.

Gameplay is solo; you accept quests, gather resources (food, wood, gold and stone), and conquer nearby baddies such as trolls and goblins. Construction and gathering is done in real time. For example, building a barn really takes half an hour; an archery range takes two and a half hours. While the game has an MMO tag, the MMO aspects of conquering other players’ cities isn’t any different than conquering an AI city in solo play. There’s no aligning with other cities to meet bigger objectives, and conquering another player’s city doesn’t grant you access to the other city or wipe them off the map.

According to Reverie, Dawn of Fantasy has been in the works for 10 years. The game looks and sounds like it was programmed 10 years ago and then sat on a shelf until its recent release. The feel of the game is ancient, too. There appears to be some detail in the graphics, but you can’t zoom in or out enough to take in the big picture (up close or on a grand scale). Dawn suffers in looks, sound and general feel, and it’s been patched 30 times in the last three months. That’s a patch every three days!

As far as actual gameplay goes, there’s not much to rave about here either. There’s no tutorial or easy-to-access game manual to give you hints about what to do. If this is your first RTS, you’re going to be severely turned off from the genre because this game isn’t intuitive enough to get away with skipping a tutorial mode. And real-time building and gathering is a serious problem. Who wants to spend hours waiting for construction of new buildings or weapons? I know I don’t.

I tend to be a pretty positive person. I look for the silver lining in just about every situation. However, I just can’t seem to find anything shiny about Dawn of Fantasy. Nothing is ever going to make me want to wait through its patch and load times again.

Our Score:
Our Recommendation:

© Michael Smith for The Adrenaline Vault, 2012. | Permalink | One comment

rComplex, a tense, ominous platformer from 2009, is getting an HD overhaul in its upcoming debut on iOS devices. In this frenetic action game, you play an unnamed figure being constantly chased through seven levels of varied environments by a shadowy squid-like creature, with no immediate idea of what the enemy is or why it’s pursuing you. The game is being developed by InterWave Studios (Nuclear Dawn). InterWave general manager Igor Raffaele points out that the simplicity of the game’s controls aids the player in figuring out what’s going on. “With no gimmicks to distract from the intuitive control system, rComplex is all about survival and unraveling the mystery.” rComplex will be available for the Apple mobile platform at the end of February, with versions for Android, PC and Mac coming later in the year.

© Michael Smith for The Adrenaline Vault, 2012. | Permalink | No comment(s)

Today THQ announced that it would be refocusing its business strategy towards more profitable sectors. To do so, the publisher will be trimming its branches. Currently, that means its sizable kids entertainment wing. THQ has developed and published many games based on popular entertainment properties for children, such as Spongebob Squarepants, Avatar: The Last Airbender and AC-130 Gunships.

According to a press release, THQ is “in the process of exiting its relationships with kids’ licensed entertainment companies, but will continue to sell certain previously released titles,” thus killing off the possibility of a Warhammer 40k/Spongebob crossover game targeted towards the casual iPad market.

Meanwhile, the publisher is still riding high on hit games such as Saints Row: The Third, a success that THQ plans on emulating. “THQ will be a more streamlined organization focused only on our strongest franchises,” stated CEO Brian Farrell. “The success of Saints Row: The Third is an example of what our revised strategy and focus can achieve.” THQ’s five internal studios continue unabated work on popular franchises such as Company of Heroes, Warhammer 40k, Darksiders and Metro.

— Ian Davis

Source: Gamasutra

© Michael Smith for The Adrenaline Vault, 2012. | Permalink | One comment

The best way to describe the hit indie game Minecraft to a stranger is that it’s like exploring and building in a world made of LEGOs. Naturally, this has caught the eye of The LEGO Group itself. Initially proposed last December, the project has garnered official approval. An official release states, “We’re happy to announce that the Minecraft project on LEGO CUUSOO has passed the LEGO review and we are now developing a concept that celebrates the best aspects of building with the LEGO system and in Minecraft.” CUUSOO is a site where LEGO fans can campaign for their favorite designs to become retail products.

It might be awhile before players can start indulging in real-world Minecraft fantasies, according to LEGO. “We can’t wait to show it to you—but we aren’t ready just yet. These things take time, so we appreciate your patience.“ Hopefully we’ll see an adorable LEGO creeper leaping through a steampunk Death Star before too long!

— Ian Davis

Source: LEGO Cuusoo

© Michael Smith for The Adrenaline Vault, 2012. | Permalink | One comment

Publisher: Valve
Developer: Hidden Path Entertainment
System requirements: Windows XP/Vista/Win 7, 3.0 GHz Pentium IV or better CPU, 128 MB graphics card with Pixel Shader 2.0 support, 1 GB RAM (2 GB for Vista/Win 7), DirectX 9.0c-compatible sound device, 3 GB hard-drive space
Genre: Shooter
ESRB rating: Not rated at press time
Release date: Q1 2012
Preview by: Ian Davis

Certain gaming communities are more resistant to change then others. Some, like certain players who seem to always answer certain calls of certain obligations, pile onto the latest annual release as if it were the last doughnut in the precinct. Counterstrike gamers are of a heartier breed. CS has seen two releases since its commercial debut in 2000, each with its own slow-and-steady patch schedule along the way. The changes have been minor, but not always accepted. For reference, CS has a player base so hardcore that they not only know what a tick-rate is, but they also have strong opinions about them. With Defense of the Ancients (DOTA) 2 on the way, Valve seems to be willing to tackle all the tricky classics. Thus, this one is being recast into Counterstrike: Global Offensive. So how can Valve update this FPS pillar without being an iconoclast?

First step: don’t change what isn’t broken. The base game is still Counterstrike. For the uninitiated, that means two teams charging off at each other, one trying to rescue hostages or plant a bomb, while the other prevents said actions, the dead respawning only after the round ends. After that, everybody buys new weapons and ammo with cash they earned in the previous round for their performance, and go at it again. No perks, no kill streaks; just you, a Mountain Dew, and every ounce of nervous skill you can muster. That’s Counterstrike, and that’s not changing.

However, the first to change is the look. Updated to the latest build of Source, CS:GO’s sharp textures and glowing lighting definitely make it stand out as the best-looking Source game yet. CS:GO shows that the venerable old engine still has what it takes to make a top-notch game today.

But graphics aside, the most important part of the engine is how it feels. The CS:GO team has brought in the top players from around the world to make sure that every movement, timing and animation feels like a CS game.

CS:GO isn’t all old news, though. Valve wants to reach out into the gaming world and bestow their gift of manshooters onto everyone, even those who are likely to be shredded moments after stepping into a server. To accommodate those who aren’t FPS Doug without watering down the juice, CS:GO features skill-based matchmaking. Casual mode provides large sums of cash to all players from the onset, letting you jump right in with your favorite firearm from the start.

The largest piece of news is that CS:GO will reach the consoles. The interface has been especially redesigned to accommodate our thumbstick-and-button brethren. The current High Priest of the PC cult has released a decree, stating that this move ought to be viewed as one of “goodwill and charity, so that all gamers might know Holy Balance and their eyes be lifted to a state of True Skill Based Competition.” Further, he added that he hopes that “their addiction to arbitrary leveling systems be broken, that they break the prestige cycle and know true freedom.”

Not convinced yet? As the release date comes closer, Valve is planning an open beta (the closed beta began last November), so you can get some frags under your belt and judge for yourself if CS:GO is worthy of the name. With a soft release date of “sometime in 2012,” rest assured that Counterstrike: Global Offensive will get the same slow-cooking attention that adds that special Valve ingredient, and be released only at the peak of flavor. Go go go!

Sources: Joystiq, Kotaku

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What do you get when you cross Minecraft with castles and Legos? Well, you could get one cool idea, or you could get Castle Story. While the game is still in the early phases, it’s shaping up to be a really awesome game. An early trailer has been released showing many of the ideas being incorporated into the game, and while everything is not there yet (a la early Minecraft), it still shows a lot of promise. Check out the demonstration trailer. So many great games in the works. With 2012 supposed to be the end of the world, at least I’ll die with a smile on my face and a game on the screen.

© Chip Henson for The Adrenaline Vault, 2012. | Permalink | No comment(s)

Did I not just say 2012 will be known as the year of the X-COM? Well, here it is! A real X-COM game that’s not an FPS is on the way from developer Firaxis. Not only did we get the great news of the game, but a whole series of pictures to peruse. X-COM was one of the first games that I purchased for my Amiga and PC. While the sequels failed to live up to the original, I have high hopes for this one.

© Chip Henson for The Adrenaline Vault, 2012. | Permalink | 7 comments

This little gem is coming for the iPhone and Android sometime in 2012. You design and control a spaceship and explore the galaxy, meeting and blowing new species to bits. You also hire and manage your crew. Generally, you attempt to take over the universe, with a view style and gameplay very reminiscent of X-COM (aka UFO: Enemy Unknown) and a graphic style similar to Escape from the Planet of the Robot Monsters.

Developer War Balloon Games has announced that they don’t have a game trailer yet, so to whet our appetites they have released a taste of things to come with two animations. Both show the quality of work they are bringing to the game. There are some nice touches, such as the salute at the end of the sequence of hiring a new crew member. This is one game I know I will be getting on Day 1. 2012 just might go down as the year of the X-COM.

© Chip Henson for The Adrenaline Vault, 2012. | Permalink | One comment

Alright, strategy gamers. I finally got the chance to build a video of me playing Crusader Kings 2. Luckily, the video displays the game as it appeared on my monitor, and not what I looked like while playing it (which would be disturbing and not as much fun).

I spend a lot of time blabbing in voice-overs in these videos, but before you start watching, you should keep some things in mind. First, this was played on version 0.78 of the game engine. It’s still in beta; the current version floating around in press copies is 0.80. The game has already changed in some slight ways since I encoded this video and posted it. Second, it did have a glaring bug at the beginning, which has since been fixed. You see William the Conqueror ask Harold Godwinson of England for a white peace a few seconds after the start of the video. This kind of changes things, since the famous conqueror doesn’t even try to make good on his claims to the English throne. Aside from that, things proceed in a plausible way, but I don’t want to hear any complaints relating to William. I know he should have invaded England, the designers know it, and everyone with a high-school education in either the US or the former British Empire should know it. The AI just didn’t know it, but that has been fixed.

Oh, and don’t bother asking me why certain troop types do certain things, or why certain buildings cost a certain amount. These things are still changing, so don’t sweat that stuff. Instead, sit back, listen, watch, and then ask me intelligent things, such as “Why did the AI just send the entire Holy Roman Empire into the oblivion of a civil war?” or “Holy Machiavellian politics Batman, why did you just spend 10 years crushing your own vassals?”

The video is broken up into three separate chunks. They can be found here, here and here.

© Jason Pitruzzello for The Adrenaline Vault, 2012. | Permalink | 2 comments