The tale revolves around your own designed hero (I know, you’ve heard that, and seen it before- many times before, but not like this…), this time you get to design almost everything, comes from clothing, to strategy of combat, and tactics – in real time engine.

This game has six stories to offer, in which you’d get to move your hero around, and while you’d play a hero, the rest of the heroes would still be active, and play as well… you’d get to join or fight against them, and its all depends solely on you, feeling lucky? I’ve got even better news…

Remember how every time you’ve played an RPG game, the NPCs were the same no matter how you talked to them? remember how you could hang around everywhere natural to everything, without any consequences? well this is gonna change too… as soon as you pick your hero’s race, you’d pick a side, and the game would react to your decisions within it.

you can also pick if your character comes from rich or poor environment and the tale would also change to fit it, starter locations would change as well, etc.

The stories are built on stories written by an author called George R. R. Martin, so you should expect a good tale (no, i’m not about to ruin your experience, so I’ve decided to let you find out the story for yourself, just make sure to have a nice cup of coffee around, cause you’re gonna play this for a long time).

Oh and one more thing, this game is rated 18+, cause well… there are too many unexpected combats, and when it comes to dirty fights, you’d never expect it when it comes… hope I’ve got your appetite up.

©2010 Noob Talk Gaming Community. All Rights Reserved.

Gearbox (the devs. of brother in arms series) has made a great RPS game – This game was particularly made for the lovers of all Diablo games, with a Sci-Fi storyline, “open tale” (much like Diablo, you get to decide what you want to do next… Kinda fun in a way, but I’ll get to that), in a RPG structure, and it even has a comics side…

The game takes place in a star called Pandora, where the local civilization failed, leaving behind all sort of technology, homeless people (and aliens), and in short – fallout with alot more freaks.

Into the story comes the hero – which you can choose how he may or may not interact with the world, you can pick his type out of four possible types (Berserker, Siren, Soldier and a Sniper), and while each one has its own pros and cons, the story depends on the player alone.

This Pandora world is so huge it took me few good hours to cross it, which makes it difficult for people who are short in time (like myself) to enjoy the game in the small brakes of the week, and in it, the things changes based on your luck as a gamer when you create your character (the main tale’s building stays the same place, but most of the world comes random – kinda freaks me out with all the walkthroughs…)

The game takes alot of other things from Diablo as well, there is a limitless amount of items you can acquire – with a small improvement – you pick the way they combine into your ultimate weapon… (anyone has a deja vu from FF series?)

Within the RPS system of the game there is the level system, not really unique, kinda reminds MMORPGs of sorts – it allows you to choose a skill of your liking, or improve stats, pretty much the basics.

And to add to the stolen idea’s list – there are many buggy like vehicles – of the sort you might encounter in HALO, to assist the player to move around the hugeass map.

Another side of the game is the multiplayer mode – this allows you to help a friend in his missions, to operate as a squad, or just go ruin his game (PvP anyone?), you can hop into his car and blast some aliens away, or steal his car and go amok, its all up to the how you wanna play.

In short, this game is absolutely worth your money, and rated Super in my scale, kinda gonna start playing it till i die after the army period!

©2010 Noob Talk Gaming Community. All Rights Reserved.

If we’re going to examples, remember the GTA? the better they made the graphics the boring it becomes… took them 4 versions (or should I say 4 tries) to get it work somehow, and still most people didn’t really like it.

Remember the good old Heroes of might and magic? as soon as they turned 3d the game lost all the creditability, people started looking for the old versions again, or worse- they stopped playing.

Now (or to be precise – 04/12/09) another example was published to the crowds, I’ve pre-ordered it, cause it didn’t look so bad and I’ve got relatives working in few gaming companies, got a nice deal for it, and after two days of playing it I must say I’m very disappointed.

The game works almost like Heroes of might and magic, apparently they thought that they could do it better in 3D; the graphics are average at most, and much like Worms Mayhem, the 3d is actually getting in the way, making the player frustrated at the overly slow pace of the game and unable to master the keys.

The main problem in such “designs” in my opinion is that they place the camera too close to the commanded units, so you’d see their superior textures, forgetting that just like in real life APPEARANCE isn’t everything – if a game looks good, but you cant play it, whats the point? if you’d have a big map, or real combat, that require your attention throughout the map, and half of it is covered by shadows, clouds and other things, that supposed to be the “BACKGROUND” of the game, you wont see the game, you wont play it, and definitely you wont enjoy it.

What’s sad is that this game actually had the potential, they have added over 100 different units, they gave it 9 armies, 5 heroes, and even epic game endings (took me several hours to reach each), plus it has also a game editor built in.

So yea, it could’ve been another great copy of the original heroes of might and magic and join that long list (like age of wonders and such) of possible covers to the game, with its own epic ideas, but unfortunately it seems, it is yet another example (in a very different and much longer list) of how to make a good game (or software – ex: vista) suck just by just turning it into 3d in the wrong way.

Who would really want to play strategy game at grass hight?

I think I’ll just ask for my money back, so I could put it on real game.

©2010 Noob Talk Gaming Community. All Rights Reserved.

The game, just like every other Total War, offers you the seat of napoleon in both strategic campaign and in game conflict resolving tactical phase (you could of course let the computer do the tactical phases for you, but I find the computer very lame in making decisions).

The game takes place in the 18^th century, and it might even reach to the beginning of the 18^th century (depends on how bad you are in conquering the world).

While playing the game you could either sit on his chair, and follow the imperial path of napoleon, from before conquering the world, through it, and past it (to the great fall of napoleon), or go against it.

It appears total war didn’t have much time to develop this one, so they took the system of total war- empires, and build the new campaigns on it

The combination of missions in game along with accumulated experience is what making this strategy game  different from others.

So what’s new?

This time in Total War you’d get to command new forces (guess who’s?), with much more advanced weapons than usually supplied in every version of total war, you’d have fun using swords too, however most of the fights could be dealt with just a handful of defense units, and few good cannons (I know what you think… total war? cannons? Well, yea, they have finally done something right).

The game offers three new campaigns, so take command and lead your battle in the land and sea through Egypt, Italy and eventually Europe.

This version of the Total War, offers a new, highly designed multi- player, with vocal command options, theme designer and extra bonuses (considering you bought the original copy of the game, and didn’t burn it).

©2010 Noob Talk Gaming Community. All Rights Reserved.

Guess what! So far, there are over 53 pages of people posting on EA forums about why EA released Pandemic Studios’ final game after knowing full well it did not work properly.  It is not a small bug! If you are an ATI video card user and either Windows 7 or Windows Vista, you’ll have game crash after the title screen. Since the marketshare for ATI is nearly equal to that of Nvidia, and the ATI logo is adorning the front page of the Saboteur website, it seems like quite a large mistake to release the game in its current state.

Yeah I know this one was more flame then news but here are the news. AMD is now working with Electronic Arts to resolve these issues for AMD/ATI users. Let’s hope they’ll fix this problem.

©2010 Noob Talk Gaming Community. All Rights Reserved.

The game starts out with Mario, Luigi, Peach and the Toads being in Peach’s Castle celebrating her birthday. Suddenly a large cake appears and from it the Koopalings jump out and captures Peach and escapes in a Doomship. Mario, Luigi and two Toads, blue and yellow, give chase which starts the whole adventure. From Peach’s Castle, two red Toads shoot out Peach’s birthday presents that are different power-ups to assist the heroes in the search of Peach.

Three new items are introduced to the game, the Propeller Suit which allows Mario to spin up in the air to gain access to other areas, the Ice Flower, which was seen in Super Mario Galaxy, as the opposite of the Fire Flower, and finally the Penguin Suit which works in the same way as the Ice Flower but allows one to glide on land and got better control in water and on ice.

The Mini Mushroom appears along with the classic Mario items. Yoshi appear as well having a similar role as in Super Mario World with Super Mario World 2 elements, such as being able to flutter in the air for a short distance.

The biggest news with N.S.M.B.W is the multiplayer mode, where one can join forces with a friend at the same time to play cooperative or competitive. Co-Op is not a new thing, but new for a Mario game who until now had been the same until now, with the small exception of Galaxy where another player could assist Mario/Luigi with his/her Wiimote.
What negative sides does New Super Mario Bros Wii have then? Well, there are a few things that make me complain.

The first is the length. The main story is too short for being a Mario game, it took me 2 days to complete it. This is somewhat redeemed when the search for Star Coins and the hunt for the 9:th World starts, but the game should have had at least 12 Worlds with an extra hard world to make it enjoyable.

The second is the soundtrack. The majority of the music is from New Super Mario Bros, remade for the Wii. There are some catchy tunes but sadly it didn’t give the WOW-feeling that Super Mario Galaxy gave me when I heard the soundtrack for the first time.

Thirdly, the lack of online gameplay, compete online with other players from all-around the globe would be awesome or why not cooperate to take down that castle that always bothered you? Online gameplay is something you have to learn Nintendo, but don’t fail like you did with Super Smash Bros Brawl.

Overall, N.S.M.B.W is great and definitely worth to buy, despite the negative factors. With Super Mario Galaxy 2 around the corner along with other games, this is a great game to play while you wait for them!

Back to finding the Star Coins…

©2010 Noob Talk Gaming Community. All Rights Reserved.

Crisis core is classified as an action role player game, in which the combat system is real time 3d, and with high definition graphics, who could ask for more?

Crisis core’s real time active combat system including moving around a lot, being  able to attack, block or dodge, use special abilities, spells or items if you like, and of course the unique LIMIT system.

This game is a “MUST” for everyone who ever liked the final fantasy products, and although I’m sure that there would be those who already had the game ordered few weeks before it even came out (like myself), this review wasn’t made for them. This review is for those who consider getting the game, and in my opinion on the scale from one to ten, this game gets twenty.

The game was designed specifically for those who like the epic final fantasy vii’s tale, along with advanced awesome graphics, great audio, and beautiful cut-scenes (seriously, “youtube”  them!).

The game takes place right after the ps2 game: “dirge of careberous”, and before the first version of final fantasy VII to pc and in parallel to the T.V series.

The only playable character would be Zack Fair, the 2nd class SOLDIER operative, but don’t let that put you down, Zack is a tough guy, with cool moves and funny voice.

So what is SOLDIER? SOLDIER is an elite group of soldiers that has been implanted with Jenova’s cells (to be short, Jenova is a being that came out in meteor from the sky, tried to destroy earth, was captured and put in a lab by shinra’s forces, and was being experimented on by a scientist named hojo) in order to possess superior agility, immense strength, and ridiculous speed, the SOLDIER group is divided into three sections. The SOLDIER organization belongs to Shinra Electric power company, along with their covered branch, the turks.

At the beginning of the game the player becomes acquainted with Angeal (– a father like character to Zack, and his teacher, he’s the one who gave Zack his cool buster sword, which was later given to Cloud Strife), Genesis (– a first class SOLDIER and a friend of both Angeal and Zack), and least but not last the legendary SOLDIER, the strongest one of them all, the undefeated Sephiroth.

During the game Zack will meet few friends from the first version of the game (“final fantasy vii”), and together they’ll take you through the war with the Wutai until the events at Nebelheim, and it will end at the final fantasy vii 1’s beginning, making the story sequential.

This game defiantly beats up all the sequels, and it promises at least 27 hours of playing through the essential missions and the story, not counting the hundreds of quest possible… after playing the game rest assured you, just like me, would google daily for a sequel.

©2010 Noob Talk Gaming Community. All Rights Reserved.

Hear me out before you start lecturing on the risks of smoking or why I should shut the fuck up – Why must it be such a bad thing that big companies pay game developers to advertise their products in games? I mean yeah, sure, it could cheapen the experience of seeing a big Coca Cola billboard when you’re blazing your way through Liberty City on the back of a chopper, with the wind in your hair and the cops on your ass. But what if it could be different?

What are really the negatives about this? Developers get a bigger budget for better tools, more staff or just more time to polish and improve on the game. However, the risks are that the game in question could become a joke, with advertisement on EVERYTHING, maybe even having the main character dress up to look like Ronald McFuckingDonald… Oh the awful thought!

But does this really need to happen? Can’t the publishers and developers agree with the sponsors that their advertisements will be seen, but that will be it? I would like to believe that most of the game designers and producers love their creations too much to have it be cheapened just for the sake of money. If that were to happen – we, the gamers, will surely tell them what the fuck is up. But seriously, though?

Picture playing GTA IV and watching a cutscene where Johnny Klebitz standing by his bike, waiting for his fellow brothers, as he pulls up a pack of Marlboro cigarettes. He jerks one out as he lights it up, leaning back on his ride as the nicotine enters his blood stream and calms him down.

I can’t be the only one who thinks that the idea would be pretty cool, as Rockstar tried (and succeeded) to create a world similar to ours, and having something as universal as Marlboro in the game could very well be useful as a link to the real world, making it easier for the Player to relate to the character, whether he smokes Marlboro or not.

It’s all about self-discipline, you see. Not giving into the money and lavish deals of the corporate world. And I’m talking about small things here, people. I don’t want to see big, blatant and arbitrary advertisement that throws me out my suspension of disbelief, but merely small details that enhance the game world and the immersive qualities of the game.

What do you think? Flame on!

©2010 Noob Talk Gaming Community. All Rights Reserved.

Modern Warfare 2 is a first person shooter set in the actions that followed those in Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare. As someone who doesn’t respond to overhype, threats or Activision very well, I was somewhat reluctant to playing this – given the chance that I might actually buy into all of the shit that’s on the Internet right now. Alas, I didn’t listen to myself and the game to be quite entertaining.

Let’s discuss some of the specifics of the game, shall we? This is a review, after all.

Modern Warfare 2 follows the story of multiple characters, ranging from an American infiltrator within a Russian terrorist cell to a highly ranked Scottish ex-SAS. I know that it may sound like a cluster fuck, but it’s all very nicely wrapped up. The story is somewhat up its on ass in messages from time to time, but the scope of it all is very interesting, even though it was probably Infinity Ward’s way of giving the entire world the finger. Don’t get me wrong, even though it’s all very pretentious (especially the middle of the game) the game presents itself in an extremely polished and structured way, switching between characters more frequently than Ron Jeremy changes his underwear.

Basically the story is about the US screwing the pooch in the first game, only to have it thrown back in their faces – like a circus clown getting a pie in their face. If the pie is a Nuke, and the face is their face AND balls. The setup of the story is doing a great job at making the pacing smooth, streamlining everything to near perfection with very few things interrupting the flow.

Now for the gameplay – it’s an FPS. You point the business end at whatever you want to make not breathe anymore and then you pull the trigger. Done deal.

Oh right, I suppose I have to elaborate somewhat… Right, what I really like about the gameplay is the fact that the variation from the last game has been ramped up, as with almost everything else. There are very limited vehicle sections breaking up the otherwise pretty exciting gunplay, small parts where you break out of character only to smear butter in your eyes and pleasure you in ways you didn’t think was possible.

Seeing as the developer, Infinity Ward, are very keen on keeping a solid framerate of 60 FPS up at all times, the gunplay is great. There is always something happening – explosions, flanking enemies and epic video game moments that will be remembered for years to come. Also, the smooth framerate really allows the controls to shine, the quick responsiveness going hand-in-hand with the overall quality of the game. It’s pickup and play at the get-go and I applaud it for that.

The online experience is not as fluid, though. The PC version is, as many of you might know, severely flawed and the peer-to-peer based server hosting is shit – so much for 60 FPS when you’re lagging like Michael J. Fox during an earthquake.

Now for the most important part of the review! The graphics!!!

They’re good.

Right, so there it is. Modern Warfare 2 is a great game, but I have a couple of problems with it…

First of all, the balance is off from time to time – the enemies are ridiculously good shots when playing on Hardened. Like silly good.

Secondly, I don’t know what to feel about the whole deal with breaking up the gameplay only to introduce a scripted event pushing the story forward. It’s good and all, but don’t you also think that it’s a bit frequent? It almost seems like they’re just improving upon the first one by just touching it up and making it happen more often. I don’t see anything groundbreaking about this, but it sure is pretty.

©2010 Noob Talk Gaming Community. All Rights Reserved.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not a game developer (even though I’d like to be) so I’m not really sure about the development cycle or the different pipelines of different companies but there are some games that just leave you scratching your head… Games like HAZE (even though it was severely overhyped), Damnation, Vampire Rain: AS, Leisure Suit Larry: Box Office Bust etc… Now let’s point some fingers!

Creative Director

Now not all games have a Creative Director, but this is the person who is in charge of the creative vision of the game, getting all of the different leads (art, tech etc.) unified to his picture of the game and keeping them all busy for the entire development cycle.

How he fucked up?

“Hey everybody! It’s Margarita Monday!”
“Phil, it’s Friday.”
“Better start preparing for Monday, then!”
*chugs from Tequila bottle*

Game Designer

The Game Designer is someone who is responsible for the gameplay being created and, hopefully, intertwined with the story elements and everything else – Just making the game smooth and FUN. In short – to keep the gameplay consistent and entertaining throughout the entire game.

How he fucked up?

Well, imitating other games is a sure way to make your game blend into the hundreds of other titles being released each year. Make it stand out, do something different, don’t use something from another game unless you make it equally as good or better. If you’re copying a game, make sure it’s a good fucking copy.

Executive Producer

An executive producer is someone who is getting paid a ridiculous amount of money for sitting in meetings and bossing people around, basically. He is responsible for making the game cost-efficient but still assuring that the game reaches a certain standard. The unique mix between communicating with the development team together with the pressure from above i.e. the publishers and marketing folk desperate to keep their initial deadlines makes for a very demanding position to fill.

How he fucked up?

Well, he could be a greedy bastard who only cares about the money. On the other hand, he could be overseeing a team of inbred turds who couldn’t model a brick wall if their lives depended on it.

Lead Tech

Ah yes, the Lead Technical… He is usually the guy wearing a funny haircut and glasses who jokes about D&D during lunch, successfully repelling any women within 10 yards. Joking aside, though – The amount of responsibility on this guy’s shoulders is immense. Picture it yourself, being in charge of multiple teams working with the tech behind a game. That requires you to know a lot about every single part of the game’s engine and being able to keep many things in the air at once…

How he fucked up?

By not putting the lotion on it’s skin!!!

Game Testers

I believe that these bastards could be a big part of why games fail to perform… You see, many of the great game development companies will tell you that the best approach to Game Design is called “Iterative Design”. That means that you test the game. A lot. You make up a game concept – test it. If it passes, you create a very simple version of the game – test it. If anything goes wrong, you go back and brainstorm – then test it. Seeing a pattern here?

How they fucked up?

Now you might see why Game Testers might have a part in not making the game as good as it could be. If a Game Tester doesn’t know what makes a game fun or is too chicken-shit to tell the team what they really think – the game will suffer.

Yeah, it’s a long shot but it’s not impossible.

CEO

I don’t really have to tell you what a CEO is and does. You all know it. Could it be that the CEO is a brainless moron who only cares about profit? Perhaps.

That’s how he fucked up.

Evil Publishers

Now we all know that publisher companies eats babies for breakfast and makes a living off of people’s tears, broken dreams and lunch money. So basically, if the publishers have a plan for a game – you better follow that plan. Or else.

Bloody fascists.

So there you go, that’s some of the people who we can blame for certain games sucking as much as they do.

However, the alternative theory is that it’s YOUR fault. And GameTrailers.

©2010 Noob Talk Gaming Community. All Rights Reserved.