An obsession with scarlet stockings helps.

It’s been quite some time since I walked the desolate alleyways of Fallen London. The hazy fog surrounding the rooftops seems a bit thicker, the distance from the surface somehow even further than it was. This seasons fashions are quite gay and the shroom hunting season is already in full force. There have been many changes: entrepreneurs in the Neath are always searching for new opportunities. I found myself welcomed back into the social whirl without so much as a Where have you been?: in Fallen London one does not ask difficult questions.

My visit was meant to be brief, a quick run along the rooftops of the Flit to prove that I still could, a night drinking fine wines at the Shuttered Palace. My room at the Smoky Flophouse was just as I’d left it and there was a pot of stew bubbling on the stove – although how the woman knew I was returning, I don’t know. Secrets have their own value in Fallen London and I shall be sure to leave her a couple as a tip.

I was thrilled to find that the wine I’d left in the cellar has matured nicely and in fact as I went through my items, I found that there were opportunities for improvement that I had not seen before. There were many interesting discoveries within my inventory

I discovered a Brazen Urchin squatting on the rooftop and, in return for some currant buns, he filled me in on the gossip. Within a few minutes, I found myself embroiled once again within the intrigues of Fallen London. A grubby kitten appeared, winding its way around my ankles and mewing with a plaintive sound. I couldn’t possibly leave the poor thing to fend for itself. So we’ll remain here for a short while, the urchin and the kitten and I. It’s only Fallen London, after all. I’m sure I can leave any time I wish. I’m sure…

Fallen London

The year is 1889. Three decades ago, London was stolen by bats. Dragged deep into the earth by the entity known as the Echo Bazaar. It lies now in the Neath, a cavern of impossible size, on the shores of the Unterzee, a giant saltwater lake. The sun is gone. The tumbling white clouds are gone. There will never be another strawberry. But Londoners can get used to anything. And it’s quiet down here, with the devils and the darkness and Rubbery Men and the mushroom wine. Peaceful.

Well, it was until you arrived.

Fallen London is a web-based choose-your-own-adventure narrative story. If you are unfamiliar with the website, you can get a feeling for the game in my original article on How to Play Echo Bazaar but the details are out of date. The game has had a major overhaul including a change of name: Echo Bazaar is now Fallen London.

The revamp of Fallen London includes many great improvements while still offering a sense of wonder as I found myself immersed in the rich and detailed world. There’s no longer a need for a Twitter or Facebook account – you can sign up with just an email address. You can still receive one action reset per day by posting about the game publicly and, if someone signs up via your link, you receive a mug of musky and explosive Darkdrop Coffee, which restores an additional ten actions. So the emphasis is firmly on thanking you for spreading the word rather than pushing you to spam your friends.

The website appears to be lightning fast: I no longer resent the time spent clicking on a storylet just to see what the options are. There is no longer a daily limit for actions and the actions now refresh at a rate of one every eight minutes. There are ten actions available within the free play and twenty as an “exceptional friend” which now costs only twenty fate.

The slowness and the daily limit had been a particular annoyance to me – if I ran out of turns I felt held back and if I didn’t manage to use them all up, then I felt frustrated. The revamped Fallen London is a joy to play for these fixes alone.

There are interesting stories which include the option to progress using purchased Fate; however these seem to be uncommon and most also have “free” options to continue.

It costs $9.95 (£6.22) for 45 Fate. I spent 20 Fate to be an exceptional friend for a month, which gets me twenty turns per round rather than ten. That left 25 left over for the Fate-enhanced tales. I’m more than happy to pay ten dollars a month for some fun dip-in-and-out content, so as a social gaming system, this works really well for me.

Budgeting my Fate did not seem difficult and I quickly made decisions as to which story lines I wished to progress and which to leave by the wayside. This also gave me the reassurance that there would be plenty to do next month when I might revisit some of the forgotten story lines.

The crafting options are new and intriguing, items combined to make other items. I immediately found myself immersed in the mixing of wines and converting of secrets.

Chris Gardner from FailBetter Games told me more about this:

Our goal with Fallen London is to make everything a story. As the economy and game grew it was getting difficult for players to know how to get hold of specific items when a story required them.

We wanted a way to make most items obtainable when you needed, and that’s where the crafting system came in. You can convert lower items in each line into higher types, and convert some items from one line to another.

At the same time we didn’t want it to be a story-free clickfest. So each line ties into a particular conflict or mystery of Fallen London. As you convert items you learn more about the setting. Some of the secrets revealed at the higher ends of each line, especially, are especially juicy.

Most of the conversion actions have additional rare successes which reveal more information and give an additional, very generous, reward.

The puzzle aspect of the game has grown slightly: I have multiple story lines where I’m not quite sure what to do to progress but there’s enough to do that I enjoy the exploration. I’ve found myself simply wandering around the neighborhoods, looking to see who I might run into. There’s an additional layer of immersion within the game as I consider how to find items (locationally, through crafting or by getting the correct card).

If I have a complaint, it is that there seem to be many opportunities and storylets with an option involving the surface – which I’ve now learned means “send a message to someone on Facebook or Twitter.” Personally, I’m more than happy to scrawl on my own wall or twitter feed with cryptic Fallen London messages; however it feels aggressive to target someone else, especially as I have no means of seeing whether or not they are playing. An invitation to dinner or a request for an alibi sends an in-game message which the players can turn off if they quit the game, which means the only risk is that I wasted a turn. I’m less comfortable with writing on someone’s Facebook wall or directly contacting them on Twitter and I’m unsure if there is any benefit to the other player. I have not actually tried one and I’d be interested in hearing in the comments what you think of these and if you’ve used the option.

However, this is a minor niggle in a fulfilling world that I am glad to have rediscovered. I love the fate scheme putting my “subscription” into my control rather than committing me to a regular payment every month regardless of my schedule and playtime.

And also, there’s that grubby kitten. Her name is Theodore (I am apparently not good at sexing kittens) and she loves me, although she appears to fill the residents of Fallen London with dread.

If you haven’t played Fallen London before, then I would urge you to rush to the website now and start your adventure. You have the whole world in front of you. If you played before then I would recommend you return for a look around. As a free player, you can certainly get enough out of this to see what the options are and how you feel about the changes. Personally, I’m thrilled and enjoying myself again. I have big plans to buy a ship and see Polythreme … shortly after I finish the labyrinth of Tigers.

Come join me! We can share the cup of coffee…

Posted by Taymar on http://mmorpg-info.org.

“Why I am leaving the Empire, by Darth Vader” was published today by the Daily Mash in a STUNNING exposé of internal systems within the Empire.

This embarrassing leak, including CONFIDENTIAL working practices with an insider’s view of Empire recruitment systems, will be the talk of the traders while Empire approval ratings are sure to plummet.

After almost 12 years, first as a summer intern, then in the Death Star and now in London, I believe I have worked here long enough to understand the trajectory of its culture, its people and its massive, genocidal space machines. And I can honestly say that the environment now is as toxic and destructive as I have ever seen it.

To put the problem in the simplest terms, throttling people with your mind continues to be sidelined in the way the firm operates and thinks about making people dead.

Read the full story on the Daily Mash.

Posted by Taymar on http://mmorpg-info.org.

Lifeguards work outside and are at the mercy of weather conditions. Even good weather can create difficult conditions as the beaches become crowded with swimmers and surfers. It’s certainly never “just another day at the beach.” That is what made the Weather Channel decide to premiere a special series to highlight the experiences of these brave life-savers.

Lifeguard! is an original reality show filmed on the Southern California beaches stretching from Malibu to San Diego. This is a real-life Baywatch showcasing the most beautiful coastline in the country.

This unscripted series features the real challenges that So Cal lifeguards face on a daily basis, including rip-currents, cliff divers, bombs on a boat and even a Great White Shark. The trailer on the Lifeguard website includes the dramatic true story of a 17-year-old who was trapped under 6 feet of sand after his tunnel collapsed.

The website also includes the biographies of the featured lifeguards for each episode, whose credentials are a lot more impressive than just a suntan.

You can see the full Episode Guide for a taster of what is to come. This original reality show premiering next week looks like a winner.

Posted by Taymar on http://mmorpg-info.org.

At this point, things become a bit more complex. Firstly, you have to make a choice about what advanced class to take. You can’t change your mind, so best to have known what you wanted to do at level 1. The warriors can’t heal and the healers can’t tank but both get a DPS option and for the most part the DPS classes can do a bit of either tanking or healing.

You’ll have your first companion by now. That will be your only combat companion for about 20 levels, so tune your abilities towards their functionality. Bear in mind that NPC healers don’t use power: their heals are on cool downs so they are not good emergency healers. You need to plan your fights well if you’re relying on an NPC healer.

If you can afford it (or if you can borrow from higher level friends), then buy lots of cheap 200 credit gifts for your companion. Try to get 12,000 credits and boost the affection to 4,000 but in any case, do aim to get them to 2,000 affection at a cost of about 4,000 cr. It is more important to do this than to develop a crafting skill because it enhances the value of all subsequent companion faction gain. The rank 2 gifts are three times more expensive but give only twice as much faction (and that only after they are at 2,000 affection). You get the next companion at about level 30 when 12,000 credits is not a big deal.

The starting companions and their preferred gifts are as follows:

I have not tested all of these. Where there are options, check that you’re getting about +96 affection.

You will also now be able to pick a crafting class. Even if you know exactly what you want, click on all the trainers and reject their skill: you get exp for each one you click on. Biochem and cybertech are useful to everyone as they make general use items. Synthweave and artifice are of use to the force wielders and armortech and armstech are of use to the non-force users. You will want to match up your craft skill to your gathering skills and that isn’t always obvious:

The best general purpose skill is biochem as it gives you access to the stimulants and med packs while you level. Without levelling this skill you probably won’t be able to afford stimulants which are equivalent to an extra piece of equipment and you’ll probably use cheaper sub standard heal packs. There are lots of animals to cut up on the early planets but it gets tougher later on to find the raw materials. You’ll probably find that your crafting costs you money unless you’re very good with the Marketplace. It is optional but as you can get some nice advantages from it, you may as well.

If you aren’t interested in crafting then take slicing (which doesn’t support any particular craft but gets good cash) and a gathering profession to sell on the parts.

Another thing that happens at level 10 is that you can now do PvP. Warzones normalise your stats to Level 50 so you won’t suck too badly (though getting run speed makes it much better). You should get your daily warzone quest and join a warzone. Unless you really hate PvP it’s worth doing because each battle is decent experience and decent cash (even if you lose) and if you win, you complete the daily quest for a load of exp and cash.

By doing the daily PvP as often as is convenient (i.e. whenever you’re in the capitol), you should find that you level quite quickly through the first world. Complete your class quest there to come away with the ship. At level 14 or 15 you learn a sprint skill, this makes getting about the world much easier. You’ll also get PvP tokens which you can use to buy orange, upgradable items for yourself and your companions.

In each world you visit, your main objective should be to complete the class quest. Often this will take you to quest nodes that are worth lots of exp but the main gains in character terms are from the class quests: some great quest rewards and extra companions. Your first target is to get the ship from the first set of planetary quests.

Once you have a ship, you can start to do another fast levelling trick: the daily space quests. The first few are fairly easy and the fights don’t take long. Be proactive in killing threats to your escort target. The level 20 quests are not too hard but remember to check the marketplace for ship modifications. Also, spend any space flight bonus you get. In particular, at 30 space flight tokens you can buy a device that lets you shunt power to shields or blasters. This makes the space combat a lot more interesting.

Once you have shields, the game play changes a bit. Now you need to stop blasting in order to recharge the shields. The shunt adds to this as when you’ve got no targets (or if you’re only using missiles) you stop blasting and click on shield regeneration. The rest of the time just click on the blasters button because shields don’t regenerate when you’re blasting anyway, so it doesn’t matter if they are regenerating slower. At about level 28 you open up a very hard (and not worth the effort) escort space quest and by about level 30 the other quests have greened out but it is good exp till then.

If you have a few friends, the flashpoints are a good source of social points and nice equipment. The daily flashpoint quest makes it well worth doing even if your group isn’t the most efficient (and a good group will get fast exp as well). If you find yourself questing with others in heroic areas and the like, then it is important to all to try to join one conversation. You get one social point per person involved in the conversation for every response, unless you ‘win the roll’ in which case you get twice that. The social vendor has some very nice upgradable items, so if you’re interested in how you and your companions look, you will probably want to get social rank. You can then spend credits or ‘commendations’ on level-appropriate modifications so that your equipment not only looks how you want it to but also has the statistics that you’d like it to have.

If you aren’t doing flashpoints and PvP and space quests then you will probably find that the ‘bonus series’ quests on each planet are worth doing – these have some great rewards and decent exp but there is quite a bit of effort involved in them.

Always log out in a location that is giving you rested exp. You gain it pretty quickly and it won’t get used up by doing space missions or PvP.

Between star battles and PvP, you should not only find that you level quickly but that you are have plenty of credits. This is important because at level 25 you need to have 48,000 cr on hand to buy a speeder and the skill to use it plus another 7,000 or so for your other (less important) level 25 skills. At this stage, you will have a lot of skill points and will be getting some fairly complex options with regards to how you specialise. This is the kind of detail that changes from time to time but this has gone beyond the remit of a starter article.

Posted by Aach on http://mmorpg-info.org.

Skyrim has a sandbox approach to character development while SWTOR has you pick one from 8 classes of hybrid damage / heal / tank types, though much like Skyrim pretty much every option lets you do pretty much anything, just to varied degrees of ability.

Both games lean heavily on questing and NPC interaction but SWTOR has two big advantages: firstly it has a much better quest system with a full range of (mostly meaningful) chat options and secondly it brings ‘over shoulder’ camera angles to the quest conversation cut scenes where it includes your character’s voice. The conversation cut scenes don’t always work but in 95% of NPC interactions you get a real cinematic feel.

The voice acting is also better in SWTOR with more rational use of regional accents and some great acting. There are also many more quests in SWTOR which makes the high quality of the voice acting stand out even more.

Both games have companions but while you get lots of freedom to pick (and freedom to kill) companions in Skyrim, the SWTOR companions are more well developed. They don’t just go along with you after a single quest, they continue to develop affection for you depending on your actions towards them and towards others while they are about. There are 80 companions in SWTOR and only 45 in Skyrim, though you can only get 5 on any particular character in SWTOR, each class has access to 5 (plus a droid servitor who isn’t much use). Each one will open up quests and options as they develop affection for you (including romance and marriage in some situations).

Both games have gathering materials and crafting them into your equipment as options but again the SWTOR method is more involved and more interesting (though again it is limited per character class). In Skyrim you can gather anything and do any craft and get rewards for doing so. You can improve Skyrim skills with perk points but even so alchemy is the only craft of comparable complexity to those of SWTOR. In SWTOR you must pick two gathering and one craft skill per character, this allows you to get all the bits you need though sometimes at a cost. Crafting is done by your companions: the more they like you the better job they do. As skills develop, you can get critical results with some exceptional items produced.

The world is where Skyrim starts to pull things back. Although SWTOR is set in an Intellectual Property that we are all familiar with and has a big head start in terms of world building, the Skyrim world is fairly well established too. Also, as it is an MMO and not a single player game, SWTOR struggles with technology limits with respect to having things that players can interact with. This is not a small issue and much of the joy of Skyrim comes from picking up random stuff, throwing it about, dropping it and broadly having a bit of sandbox fun. There are a few things you can interact with, mostly for gathering crafting stuff in SWTOR, plus static ‘holocrons’ and ‘lore items’ that give exp and other bonuses.

There are a lot of loading screens in Skyrim: every building you enter has a loading screen. In contrast, SWTOR seems to take a long while to run round: it has some big maps and the fast travel options are limited, although when you get a speeder things improve, more so than with a horse in Skyrim.

The art decisions seem to have been similar with respect to environment but the technological limits differ: Skyrim because it is designed for console and SWTOR because it is an MMO. Both games develop the themes of their environment quite nicely with a lot of detail and some atmospheric environments. The minimum system requirements for SWTOR are lower than for Skyrim but graphically they are pretty even if you turn it all up to maximum, Skyrim has the edge there though with more textures, particle effects and many more ‘oooh’ moments. Skyrim’s set piece kill cut scenes are a nice touch too.

Skyrim is somewhat twitch-based but there are not a lot of combat options: it is designed for console so there are only really 4 buttons in use. My main problem with the Skyrim game play is that that any interesting fight requires you to drink potions and that means pausing the game to open the inventory – very much breaks up the excitement of the fight. The combats in SWTOR have (too) many more options and though it is not twitch-based it does have a number of reactive actions that require a bit of attention to be paid. Fights with several enemy of varied ability are common and make for an interesting mix of ability usage.

Skyrim has a lock-picking mini-game and SWTOR has a space combat mini-game. It’s no contest. As much as I like the lock-picking in Skyrim, it just doesn’t stack up against a mission based heroic space combat simulation with space ship modifications and so forth.

Both games suffer from slightly problematic user interfaces but these are easily overcome by letting people modify the UI which is starting to happen with Skyrim and has been promised for SWTOR. Most of the UI issues in SWTOR relate to the social aspect of the game which isn’t really the remit of this.

Skyrim is a good deal cheaper, with SWTOR costing about 50% more. If you only get to play a few hours per week you’ll wind up paying even more on SWTOR subscription to get to maximum level (or you’ll be at it for a year to play through all 8 class quests) so the masses of extra content do come at a premium but that premium is bundled up with PvP and co-op group play and guilds and raids and the like. A year’s subscription to SWTOR plus the cost of the game costs about four times as much as Skyrim and a year would give you time to experience pretty much all of the content. SWTOR probably offers a little more than 4 times the content (though they constantly release more free content, it is mainly for group play). In terms of value for money, the two games are prettyclose.

Just as a final note, SWTOR is also a good multi-player game: the flashpoints (instanced group quests) are great, the class roles work reasonably well with lots of overlap, the PvP is easy to get into and fun, group quests and ‘social’ rewards help develop the community.

So what are you waiting for?

Posted by Aach on http://mmorpg-info.org.

Voxels are “volumetric pixels”, essentially the big blocks that we have come to know and love in Minecraft. Smaller versions are often used in terrain. Castle Story have released their first gameplay demo so that you can see how they have used them:

The game uses the Unity3d engine which means it will be Windows and Mac based. A recent request for questions on Facebook was filled with “When can I give you my money?” requests.

Posted by Taymar on http://mmorpg-info.org.

In previous posts this year, Wukung reviewed the following: Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective, Dead Space 2, Kill Zone 3, Little Big Planet 2, Deathsmiles, Bulletstorm, Dragon Age 2, Duodecim, Crysis 2, Portal 2, Mortal Kombat, Final Fantasy IV: Complete Collection, Razer Onza, Alice: Madness Returns, Yakuza 4, LA Noire, No More Heroes, Duke Nukem Forever and Infamous 2, Renegade Ops, Deus Ex Human Revolution, Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine, Blood Rayne: Betrayal, Catherine, Arcana Hearts 3 and Gears of War 3, X-Men: Destiny, Ico HD, Shadow of the Colossus HD, Rage, Dead Rising 2: OtR and Batman: Arkham City.

That’s in addition to the games reviewed in 2010: Darksiders, Bayonetta, Tatsunoko vs. Capcom, Mass Effect 2, Dante’s Inferno, BioShock 2, Ace Attorney Investigations: Miles Edgeworth, Heavy Rain, Yakuza 3, Bad Company 2, Half Minute Hero, BlazBlue, Red Steel 2, Disgaea 2, FFXIII, Just Cause 2, Splinter Cell Conviction, Nier, Super Street Fighter IV and Iron Man 2, Alan Wake, Red Dead Redemption, No More Heroes 2, God of War 3, Transformers, Demon’s Souls, Super Mario Galaxy 2, Crackdown 2, Monkey Island 2, Limbo, Castlevania, Alpha Protocol, Metroid: Other M, Halo: Reach, Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep, Dead Rising 2, Case 0, Vanquish, Fallout: New Vegas, Fable 3, Star Wars: The Force Unleashed 2 and Last Window and Black Ops, Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood, Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit, Gran Turismo 5 and Epic Mickey.

*Whew!*

Wukung will share his picks for the best of 2011 in the New Year but first, take a look at this last batch of contenders.

Battlefield 3 (Xbox 360 (played), PS3, PC)

Military shooter which offers the now-common package of both a single-player campaign and multiplayer gaming. As you would expect, the shooting is responsive and satisfying. Featuring DICE’s much hyped, all new Frostbite 2 engine, Battlefield 3 has some impressive environments and visuals. The performance is solid but there is a lot of very noticable screen tear in the single-player campaign. In practice, Battlefield 3 produces beautifully rendered scenes which are so dark and so full of dust clouds and visual effects that you can’t see who is shooting at you. This isn’t a problem in multiplayer, which dials back the effects and overall graphics fidelity, producing much clearer, though still impressive, visuals.

The single-player campaign plot is a Frankenstein’s monster of genre elements. The previous Battlefield game, Bad Company 2, took a more light-hearted, optimistic approach. Unfortunately, Battlefield 3 is generic to a fault. The busy and excessively dark visuals are a frequent problem. The checkpoint system is poor, placement is at times too sparse. Saves fire off with enemies still up, leading to additional deaths when you are sent back to a checkpoint. Checkpoints may also save when you are in a bad position, making it very difficult to recover. The campaign often demands you run through enemy fire: while there is usually seemingly a safe path or time to make your run there is no way to know beyond trial and error, particularly frustrating when a check point sets you back or makes you watch an event. While the core shooting mechanics are strong enough to make the single player frequently fun, there are a lot of serious issues.

Multiplayer, in contrast, is thrilling. The scale of the maps is amazing. The integration of land and air vehicles is extremely impressive and shockingly well balanced with infantry combat. Team games actually reward team work and tactical thinking.

The advancement system is clearly there to keep you hooked but at times acts as a major barrier to entry with some very core abilities with held back for too long. This is particularly frustrating in aircraft where chaff flares aren’t available at the start. This leaves you so vulnerable it requires a fair bit of luck to get even the little experience required to unlock them. There are some interface issues. Worst of all is the complete lack of lobbies. There is a score board between matches which doesn’t allow you to quit, to use the time for customisation or for people to join the session. This means quick-join frustratingly puts you into sessions in progress without any option of joining games which are starting.

Those interested in Battlefield 3 primarily for the single-player component will probably come away disappointed. The campaign doesn’t just fail to live up to the high standards established, at times it is painfully bad. Despite this it does have its moments. The multiplayer aspect is by far the stronger part of this package. Despite inevitable comparisons with Call of Duty, Battlefield 3‘s multiplayer is quite distinct. It is much more focused on larger scale team games and integrating vehicles. Even completely setting aside the single-player campaign, Battlefield 3′s multiplayer stands on its own. It is unfortunate that the otherwise excellent multiplayer is let down by some awful interface choices.

8/10

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 (Xbox 360 (played), PS3, PC, Wii, DS)

Military shooter which offers a package of a single-player campaign and multiplayer gaming… deja vu? The story-telling hits a few flat notes with several events that should carry a lot more weight having little impact and some at the other extreme of being heavy handed. The action, however, is pitch perfect. There are no disruptive difficulty spikes and the action manages to be varied enough to not get stale. The real star of the show is the razor-sharp responsiveness of the shooting mechanics, helped along by the steady 60hz frame rate.

Multiplayer is probably the most important part of the package and on this front Modern Warfare 3 has made some steady improvements. Kill Streak rewards in general have been toned down and the support strike package, where your kill streak isn’t reset on death at the cost of less directly offensively orientated rewards, makes a big difference. Killstreaks and the advantages accumulated from constant play perhaps tilts the action in a way that detracts from the shooting experience at times but still gives a compelling experience that will keep fans hooked.

Modern Warfare 3 is a game about iterative rather revolutionary improvement, and that is fine. It does what the last few Call of Duty games did except a bit better. If you are a fan of the series, then you know what to expect. If you have never tried it, then this the best place to start. The same could be said for every game in the series when it was released and likely its successors for years to come. While to some that might be off-putting, Modern Warfare 3 is a lot of fun.

9/10

Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception (PS3)

Indiana Jones style adventure combining shooting, climbing and two-fisted brawling. As a follow up to one of the most critically acclaimed games of recent years, Uncharted 2: Among Thieves, Uncharted 3 has a lot to live up to. This is quite possibly the best looking game on any console. The set pieces are bigger than ever and make good use of the moving environments. The story, seemingly treading very familiar ground for the series with a search for a legendary lost city, distinguishes itself in its treatment of the characters and showing them in a new light. Uncharted 3 doesn’t skimp on delivering a spectacle but balances that with human drama. Once the story gets going, it’s hard to put the controller down.

The gunplay is solid as ever but perhaps not as satisfying as some pure shooters. Melee has been greatly expanded on, though as a result it is less useful for quick take-downs in a shoot out. Brawling can be a lot of fun and often adds to the cinematic quality. Shooting while climbing is also new and while rarely used, it adds some fun moments.

By far the weakest element of gameplay is the stealth. Flaky stealth take downs, no option for dealing with multiple close together guards and enemy layouts that seem to make stealth impossible even when it is indicated as an option are some of the more serious issues among numerous problems with sneaking. Alerting a guard means a larger number of more heavily armed enemies will appear aware of your position negating any progress you might have made in sometimes fairly lengthy stealth sections. It is surprising stealth is played up so much since it has seen very sparse improvement from the previous games. The controls leave some buttons a little overloaded meaning depending on some fairly arbitrary quirks of context they can do things you really don’t want. Overall though, the gameplay is excellent, particularly when the game lets you combine agility and climbing with shooting, giving you a lot of versatility.

A very generous checkpoint system sometimes actually breaks the flow of the action. For example, in a chase sequence failure can be quite frequent due to needing to follow a specific but unclear route and uncooperative controls; however, checkpoints are also very frequent. The result is very stop-start. Checkpoints also occasionally can shift you further forward than you were.

While I definitely wasn’t disappointed, I could not help but feel it wasn’t quite as good as Uncharted 2. The awful stealth mechanics left a bitter taste but the main reason was that few of the game’s major locations felt as enthralling as the second game’s. Regardless, Uncharted 3 is technically exceptional, brilliantly presented, thoroughly enjoyable thrill ride. Certainly one of this year’s gaming highlights.

9/10

The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim (Xbox 360 )played, PS3, PC)

Open-world RPG from the series that defined open-world RPG. The gameplay has some fairly major weaknesses, such as poor stealth mechanics, occasionally unresponsive controls, overly simple combat and quite a few UI issues. Despite this, it’s still a joy to play. The world is the real star and the gameplay is strong enough to showcase it.

Skyrim feels in near every way a step forward, not just for the series but open world games in general. You can spend days in one corner of the world and still not have exhausted what it has to offer. Skyrim‘s world isn’t just packed with content, it’s full of beautiful fine details that makes you want to explore. There is a thrill in every little discovery and there is a lot to discover, making this one of the most engrossing experiences gaming has to offer. Even though there are some flaws in gameplay, they don’t get in the way too much. Skyrim is both accessible and deep, vast but engaging enough for that not to be intimidating. Skyrim is quite simply a phenomenal game.

10/10

Saints Row The Third (Xbox 360 (played), PS3, PC)

Saints Row The Third is a sandbox action game which gives you the chance to engage in criminal activities ranging from assassination to committing insurance fraud by diving in front of cars. It’s hard not to draw comparisons with Grand Theft Auto, which clearly inspired the Saints Row series. Saints Row The Third has much more in the way of spectacle and customisation. Fine tuning your character’s look can be as satisfying a pursuit as the game’s missions and activities. The combat is a lot of fun with surprisingly sharp and pacey shooting mechanics. Setpieces pack the game right from the introductory mission. While not carried out with close to the artistic or technical flare you would expect from the Uncharted series, for example, the setpieces still produce memorable moments of gameplay. The game gives you a lot of latitude to create your own over the top action. For example, one utterly periphery aside gives you a list of targets to assassinate many of which you could kill by bombarding while hovering overhead in a futuristic vertical take-off jet. Vehicle handling is easy but satisfying although driving rarely features heavily in a mission. Co-op is ridiculously fun, allowing two players to roam around the city completely independent of each other if they want but brings them together for missions. Much of the joy of co-op stems from being able to share your creations with friends and strangers.

It is hard to be offended by much of Saints Row The Third‘s violence when it is so ridiculous although the shockingly callous attitude to prostitution and human trafficking is quite jarring. Over-the-top action, a wonderfully ridiculous story and great customisation options all fit together perfectly. Saints Row The Third is a surreal, joyous playground that is slightly mired by not being able to let go of some of the grubbier clichés of the genre.

8/10

Assassin’s Creed: Revelations (Xbox 360(played), PS3, PC)

The latest addition to the now annual franchise Revelations featuring the now familiar format of climbing, swordplay, stealth and hopping through history.

Revelations‘ main innovation is the entirely disjointed Den Defence, a fairly awful implementation of tower defence, which is triggered if you gain too much awareness. Ironically, it functions as an effective punishment, encouraging you to manage your awareness level very carefully. The Assassin management from the previous game has been expanded. A series of missions help tie training recruits more into the game.

Unfortunately, complications made to the management mini-game turn it into a micromanagement grind which demands constant attention or to be ignored completely. Bomb crafting gives some fun options to quickly dispatch a few enemies but for the most part can but is rarely needed or particularly useful. There are several first person levels which fill in details of Desmond’s past which are set in mostly abstract environments which feature creating blocks. These segments are occasional frustratingly fiddly, applying gameplay with little similarity with rest of the game. While there are some remarkable flares of presentation in them, they are an odd addition.

There are extra moves available which utilise the new hook blade for both climbing and combat. Tweaks to controls make using ranged weapons alongside melee more seamless. Constantinople, the game’s main setting, has a distinct feel from previous locations. Despite this, it doesn’t feel as large as Brotherhood’s Rome and certainly lacks the variety that the previous game’s environment offered. There are fewer of the setpiece hidden location levels than previous games but those there are the best yet. Some of the full synchronisation optional objectives are intensely frustrating, particularly some of the latter missions which are seemingly more down to luck than skill.

The plot rounds out and closes off both Ezio’s and Altair’s story. Altair’s arc gets something of a short shrift with not a great deal of time dedicated to it but it is well presented and wrapped up. In the present day portion, there is very little advancement of the overarching story of the series. Revelations is very much the third and final act of a story that began with Assassin’s Creed 2 but rather than a triumphant finale, it is much more a bitter sweet epilogue. As part of a long running story the plot is quite introspective but as a result, it ties up enough loose ends to allow the series to break dramatically new ground with its next instalment.

Multiplayer returns and still feels like a very much tag-on focusing on a skill set completely distinct from the story. The changes are utterly iterative and it plays very much the same as before. Even some maps from Brotherhood return. Despite this it is still enjoyable and offers something different as multiplayer experiences go.

Many of Revelations‘ innovations are a disparate patchwork which detracts from the action. What the game does well is carried over from previous titles. Revelations has a handful of welcome tweaks and refinements to the core gameplay but doesn’t fix some lingering frustrating issues with the controls. However, Assassin’s Creed is a remarkable series, and Revelations is a great game. Unlike Brotherhood though, with Revelations it feels like the annual release schedule has taken its toll.

8/10

Posted by Wukung on http://mmorpg-info.org.

“BlizzBlues, the greatest World of Warcraft machinima of all time, teams up with Bioware’s much anticipated MMORPG Star Wars The Old Republic for a Christmas song you will never forget.”

Posted by Taymar on http://mmorpg-info.org.

but it is this African bull frog who really wins the game:

Posted by Taymar on http://mmorpg-info.org.

So, what have we got for next year? 2012 looks like it will be a fast-paced, epic crusade as the game makers fight it out to spoil our imaginations with a flurry of new games. Here is MMORPG Info‘s lookout list for 2012.

Number 10

World of Warcraft – Mists of Pandaria (PC) – sometime 2012

We may have featured this more highly if it was any other expansion. Although this is on our watch list, it’s more an intrigue to see what Blizzard will reveal. Have they completely lost the plot? To be honest, we suspect this will be fairly lame and targeted at the younger player base. It could spell the end for the legacy that is World of Warcraft opening the door to another MMORPG. Will it be SW:TOR? Will it be Guild Wars 2? The jury is out and we will be watching closely to see how this unfolds.

Number 9

Final Fantasy XIII-2 (360, PS3)

If you have the slightest interest in this game, visit their website. It is a thing of beauty and the game looks certain not to disappoint. FF XIII-2 was released in Japan on December 15th but the rest of us will have to wait until the New Year to get our hands on a copy. As well as some pretty awesome reviews, it seems to be accompanied by an equally impressive combat system. We’ve been blown away by the trailers and expect nothing less from the game.

Number 8

The Darkness II (360, PS3, PC) – February 7^th

We nearly fell off our chairs when we found out another instalment to this game was imminent. Who doesn’t want to run around with killer snakes sprouting from the shoulders, running through subway stations popping off bad guys? The original was a gripping story and with any luck, the sequel will not disappoint. Hiding in the shadows as Jackie Estacado sending forth darklings and now, the added bonus of shooting stuff whilst attacking with snakes out should make combat exciting. Apparently the graphics have been made more in keeping with the comic book, which should add to the already rich atmosphere of the game.

Number 7

Mass Effect 3 (360, PS3, PC) – March 6^th

Could it be the end of the Mass Effect era? A nice touch here is the game choices made in Mass Effect 1 and 2 can be carried forward into Mass Effect 3. For this reason, if you haven’t played the first two, then we highly recommend you go ahead and do so, not least for the story. No doubt this release will leave us saddened as the last instalment in an epic game series but still, its arrival is much anticipated.

Number 6

Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater HD (XBLA, PSN) – Summer 2012

Shouldn’t Tony Hawk have chronic arthritis of the knee joints and surely he must be about a bajillion! Very possibly he does and is but it doesn’t stop this ongoing series of skateboarding madness being the gaming industry’s equivalent to crystal meth. I might not be out on the street on my skateboard but I know goofy when I see it and can tell my flip tricks from my grab tricks. Can you combine them into an epic combo of insanity?

Number 5

Tomb Raider (360, PS3) – Q3 2012

Fantastic! Lara Croft is back in her usually tight shorts and tight t-shirt attire! The screen shots look promising and even if the game is pants, as long as they keep the handstand ability, it’ll keep us amused for at least a couple of hours. One things for certain, if they decide to make a movie of this, the movie makers will have a hard time passing off poor old Angelina as a 21 year old. One for the wishlist is a recreation of the ‘swimming with sharks’ level.

Number 4

Halo 4 (360) Q4 2012

We’ve not got much to say on this other than we know it’s coming and the title is enough to get us perched on the edges of seats peering at the ‘watch this space’ place on our monitors.

Number 3

Chainsaw Lollipop (360, PS3) – Sometime 2012

It’ll probably be free to download off Steam within two weeks but who cares? Cheerleader, chainsaw… WOO HOO! If this game isn’t just a case of run around mindlessly carving up zombies, we will be disappointed. It needs no plot, just amusing death and a healthy side order of gore.

Number 2

Guild Wars 2 – (PC) – Sometime 2012

Guild Wars 2 has entered closed beta testing and our fingers are itching to get a shot on the new instalment of this MMORPG. Interesting professions, a unique class system, a decent focus on PVP amongst many other things may set Guild Wars 2 apart from the norm. It will be exciting to see how this fairs against SW:TOR. Perhaps a breath of fresh air if you’ve been on a WoW marathon… like forever… if you want to try something new, give this a whirl.

Number 1

Diablo III – (PC) – Sometime 2012

Ah, Blizzard! Hopefully this is where all your gaming talent is hiding out because they most definitely have vacated the WoW building. With fond memories of Diablo I and II, how can we not reserve the supreme spot for the anticipated delicacy which will hopefully be Diablo III? Blizzcon teased us, the trailers and reviews are leaving us begging for more and the screenshots look incredible. What more is there to say?

Posted by Yaznee on http://mmorpg-info.org.