Violent Gamer

2012 Game of the Year Nominees

2012-12-14T01:01:00.000-08:00

The time has come. As 2012 comes to a close, Violent Gamer is taking a look back at this year, and all the gaming that has happened. 2012 was an odd year in many ways. Many people thought it would be the last year of the current console generation, and so were expecting this year to be a kind of “swan song”. However, it seems that everything has been shifted to 2013 in terms of both the last of the current generation and the beginning of the next. Despite this shift, some truly incredible games came out this year, and we feel it is important to celebrate and recognize the best. We are very proud of the following list of games: they challenged us emotionally, mentally, and psychologically. They brought tears to our eyes, laughter to our mouths, and smiles to our hearts. We at Violent Gamer stand behind each and every one of these games and offer a bow of thanks and gratitude.

Check back on December 20^th to find out which game will be our 2012 Game of the Year, as well as our detailed opinions about each nominee. In the meantime, please let us know what you think should be Game of the Year in the comments below. Read on for our nominees, and go out and play them!

Happy Holidays, and thanks for reading.

Sincerely,

Violent Gamer (Adam Borchert and Cooper Sivara)

Borderlands 2

Dishonored

Far Cry 3

Final Fantasy XIII-2

Journey

Mass Effect 3

Planetside 2

Spec Ops: The Line

The Walking Dead

Journey Review

2012-12-09T00:25:00.002-08:00

I heard about Journey a few months ago, and while the game certainly peaked my interest then, it was never really a game I gave too much thought to. First of all, it’s a downloadable game off the PSN, and I hadn’t had too much experience with those until recently. And it was $15, which seemed pretty steep for a downloadable game. I had also heard it was only around 2 hours long, which seemed much to short to pay that much money for as well. Boy, I couldn’t have been more wrong.

Journey is the most beautiful video game I have every played. And I’m not just talking about the graphics (which are gorgeous): rather, the entire experience as a whole is beautiful. From the art design to the music to the gameplay, everything weaves together like a piece of art to create constant beauty. Journey will remind you that the world is beautiful, and that it is worth braving the trials of life to experience that beauty.

The mountain in the distance.

The goal of Journey is very simple – you are a nameless, cloaked traveler traversing various landscapes to reach a mountain in the distance. For most of the game you can see the mountain in the background, calling to you. But like most great video games, Journey is about the journey, not the destination.

Journey is a truly unique video game. There are no points, no bosses, and no score to keep track of. This may turn certain players off to the experience. Journey is a game that takes its time creating a world to explore, and patience can be required to fully enjoy the game. If you’re looking for an action-packed, hear throbbing experience, you may want to look somewhere else.

While Journey is simple, it excels in its simplicity. There are three main “controls” in the game: movement, jumping, and singing. Movement is achieved through the left analog stick. Jumping is controlled with the x button. As you play the game, you can find these glowing symbols at random points. These symbols add length to a scarf your traveler wears. The longer the scarf and the more symbols on it, the more you can jump and access new areas. The other main control is singing – accomplished using the circle button. As you progress, you come across lengths of fabric that you can awaken to help you by singing to them. While this may seem like a strange concept, it works beautifully in the game, and once you witness it, everything will make perfect sense.

The beauty of this game will stick with you long after you've finished playing.

While the gameplay is incredible, it is not to be outdone by the graphics, art direction, and music. The game captures a wide array of landscapes – all of which are breathtaking and incredibly detailed. Everything is brought to life around you – from the sand sticking to your cloak to the winds howling in your face to the snow falling softly around you. This game is pure art, and best of all it is art that you can become a part of and play with. This is perhaps best represented with the music – the soundtrack is awe-inspiring, and you even get to be a part of it. When your character sings, the notes match the soundtrack and compliment it perfectly.

While all of these elements are amazing, perhaps the most compelling thing about this game is the “multiplayer”. It’s possible to play Journey completely by yourself which is a wonderful experience, but the real fun comes when you come across a fellow traveler. The game randomly pairs you up with someone playing the game. There are not text messages or voice chats, they just suddenly appear. It’s up to the two of you if you want to work together or go your separate ways at any point. But I HIGLY recommend playing with someone else. There are certain gameplay elements that are stunning with two people (I won’t spoil anything here – it’s better to find them as you play).

Each Journey experience is unique. I started playing the game by myself and got the chance to get the hang of everything. Then my companion appeared, and we were off. There were things I could never have known or accomplished without the person, and by the end of the game I felt truly connected to the traveler in a way I have not experienced in multiplayer ever before. Towards the end of the game, we started drawing pictures around each other in the sand. It was so simple and beautiful, and something that was truly unique to my personal Journey. Sharing that experience with another person touched me in a way that is indescribably special.

Playing with another traveler can create a truly special experience.

I cannot recommend Journey highly enough. I will say that it is not for everyone. But if you are looking for a beautiful, unforgettable experience that celebrates the awe of nature and life, this game is for you. I have no hesitation in giving this game Violent Gamer’s perfect score of 10/10. Journey was an incredible gaming experience I will never forget – it gave me hope and courage in my own journey through life. And that’s something you can’t put a price on.

Violent Gamer Score: 10/10

Written by Cooper Sivara.

Ready Player One Book Review

2012-09-26T11:29:00.000-07:00

I know it may seem a bit weird: a video game review website reviewing a book? But hear me out: if you have a love for video games, amazing storytelling, and the history of video games, you will love Ready Player One. It is immediately clear that the author, Ernest Cline, is a sincere gamer, and an even more sincere nerd. There is literally so much nerd packed into this book it is truly incredible. Cline has a particular fondness for eighties nerd culture references, but he includes everything right up to present day. The bottom line is this: if you’re a video game nerd like me, this is the book you’ve been waiting for.

The book’s plot is set in a semi-apocalyptic 2044 in the United States. Essentially, giant cities are really all that remain, with vast stretches of wasteland in between. Around the cities (where the wealthy typically live) are columns and columns of “The Stacks” – towers of trailers piled on top of one another to save space. As you may guess, the poor tend to occupy the stacks, and it is one such occupant, Wade Watts, that is the protagonist of the story.

Even though the world is falling into ruin, no one really cares too much because everyone spends most of their time in another world, the OASIS. The OASIS is essentially a giant video game that functions as an online world. Technology has advanced so that you can virtually immerse yourself completely in the game. Think The Matrix without the creepy spine thing. The Oasis offers a world where just about anything is possible – worlds to explore, quests to complete, PVP combat, shopping, schooling – just about anything you can think of. It does run on its own economy, so you do need in-game currency to do these things. That’s the problem Wade has: he’s got a virtual universe to explore and no money to do so.

When Wade isn’t going to school, he spends most of his time searching for the “Egg”. You see, the OASIS was designed by a legendary programmer – James Halliday. When Halliday passed away, he left a rather strange will behind. He left his entire fortune (an obscene amount of money) to the winner of a contest he had created inside of the OASIS. Essentially, he hid a video game easter egg in the virtual world of the OASIS, and the first player to find this egg receives Halliday’s fortune (and essentially control of the OASIS). Reminiscent of a certain chocolate factory owner’s contest, it is enough motivation for Wade to become obsessed with finding the egg. He becomes a “gunter”, a person who spends their time studying Halliday’s life in order to find the egg. A lot of this research boils down to classic eighties pop culture, video game history, and anything in the geek/nerd culture as well. To keep track of who is winning the contest, Halliday created a scoreboard where anyone who makes progress towards finding the egg receives points. The scoreboard is empty for a number of years following Halliday’s death. The egg is simply too well-hidden. But everything changes when Wade finds the first clue and jumps to the top of the leader board.

The plot focuses on the race to the egg and the various steps to get there that Wade must take. He comes into contact with both friends and foes along his journey (although all of them are looking for the egg). There’s the cool best friend, the evil mega-corporation, and the girl of his dreams all to contend with. And while the overall plot arc may not be anything revolutionary, Cline does throw in some cool twists to keep you guessing, particularly near the end of the story.

The author, Ernest Cline, is a video game nerd in the best possible way.

The book itself is a very easy read. It really does feel like a video game, with each chapter being a level or mission to complete. I have to say I have a hard time remembering having this much fun reading a book. The characters are incredibly easy to relate to, the plot is engaging and exciting, and the cultural references are funny, nostalgic, and charming. Cline even manages to throw in some social commentary into the mix, without ever being heavy-handed or patronizing. He asks earnest questions about what it means to have a “virtual identity”, to have the mask of anonymity when online. And whether or not true anonymity is real or not. As our world becomes more and more digital, will we lose ourselves in it, or hold on to who we really are?

I really can’t recommend this book highly enough. Let me put it this way: if a book references Blade Runner, Pac Man, Star Wars, The Lord of The Rings, Back to the Future, Neon Genesis Evangelion, Mobile Suit Gundam, Firefly, and Cowboy Bebop, it’s going to be pretty awesome. I had so much fun reading this book, and I hope you will too.

Violent Score: 4.8 / 5

Written by Cooper Sivara.

The Last Story Review

2012-09-17T12:54:00.001-07:00

The Last Story has quite a story behind it’s development. Directed by Hironobu Sakaguchi (creator of the Final Fantasy series) and developed by Mistwalker, the game’s soundtrack also claims the legendary Nobuo Uematsu as it’s composer. Obviously, the game has quite a pedigree with a tremendous amount of talent, and the experience and skill of the development team shines throughout. And while Sakaguchi and Mistwalker get a lot right in this game, there are some technical shortcomings that prevent the game from being a true masterpiece. These hitches aside, however, The Last Story is a wonderful RPG that will not disappoint fans of the genre, and may even give them new hope for the future.

The Last Story tells a tale that on the surface seems common. The plot focuses around an orphaned hero named Zael and his band of mercenary friends. They get involved in things that are initially way over their heads, and eventually have to save the world from destruction. Oh, and they have to save a princess with magical powers. Sounds a bit familiar, right? Well, while the story certainly isn’t revolutionary, it does find ways to be compelling, mainly due to the characters.

The cast of The Last Story

The characters are, without a doubt, the best part of The Last Story. Zael and his companions start off as a stereotypical band of ragtag warriors – you’ve got the orphaned hero, the inspiring leader, the thoughtful girl, the boisterous girl, the ladies man, and the dark brooding guy. While at first it seems that the characters will be forever stuck in these RPG stereotypes, they start to transcend them. Over the course of the 20 hour story, the characters begin to open up to each other as they overcome hardships. They reveal surprising depth and emotionality, without ever going into the severely melodramatic. Despite the fantastical nature of the world, these characters feel incredibly human. They make plenty of mistakes, but through it all they constantly show how much they care about each other. There are some incredibly inspired moments (particularly towards the end of the game) that are truly beautiful, and that beauty mainly comes from the characters themselves.

Speaking of beauty, the graphics and art direction of the game are superb – for the Wii. This is definitely the best looking third-party game I’ve ever seen on the system, and is right up there with some of Nintendo’s own franchises. The game pushes the Wii to it’s very limits. And while yes there are some frame rate issues and some screen tearing, the art direction is beautiful. The art is medieval inspired with a bit of steampunk thrown in, which does look pretty cool. The battle animations are simple but effective, with a few spectacular standing out. Every once in a while in a big battle you’ll have a bit of a lag, but nothing too major. Ultimately, even though the game looks like a PS2 game overall, it looks like a beautiful PS2 game.

Lazulis Island, where most of the story takes place, is beautiful.

For me, the main let-down I had with the game was its combat system. I had heard a lot of really good stuff about it, and that it was pretty revolutionary for an RPG. I suppose that I might have built it up in my head too much, or maybe it’s just not for me. In any case, I was a bit disappointed. One of the first things I didn’t like was automatic attacking – in other words, in order to attack with your sword, you just run into enemies. I like to have control over individual sword attacks, so I changed to manual attacks in the settings. Once I did that, it certainly gave me more to do. Unfortunately, however, you still can’t really control the way you attack, it’s just kind of a general slash combo. You can guard and counter, but there are not really any “attack moves”. Zael also has a crossbow at his disposal which can be equipped with various arrows. The problem with the crossbow is that it’s very difficult to aim. Most of the time I needed the crossbow to take down an enemy quickly, but I had a tough time doing so because I could not aim it correctly. And there’s no kind of “z targeting system” to help you out, at least to my knowledge. In fact, the camera can be frustrating as well – it gets stuck at very inopportune moments, and on several occasions I died because I couldn’t see the enemies around me.

The battle system has cool concepts, but can be frustrating in practice.

There are some very cool ideas in the battle system, however. For example, Zael can use a “Gathering” power to draw all of the enemies to him while other party members have time to cast spells. Zael can also do back-flips off walls and attack. The back flips are cool and effective, but it sometimes takes a while to run up the wall, which can be annoying. Eventually, Zael can also command everyone in the party, which leads to different types of magic being use that he can then “diffuse” against enemies or to help allies. While all of these ideas seem really interesting and innovative, they are not executed well because the controls are not tight. You’ll try to find cover and end up rolling past it; you’ll try to run up a wall and get stuck at the bottom; you’ll be fighting an enemy and then lose sight of them. And because Zael doesn’t really have that many different attacks, the battles essentially dissolve into you running around distracting enemies (particularly bosses) while your friends cast magic. While this kind of team mentality is a cool concept, in actuality it turns out to be a bit boring and repetitive. Overall, though, I think the battle system is one of those “love it or hate it” situations, so other people may love it. I just was not a fan.

One element that did not disappoint at all was the game’s music and sound design. Sakaguchi and Uematsu work together incredibly well, with Sakguchi creating beautiful, simple moments with the characters that are lifted to new heights by Uematsu’s music. The soundtrack is sweeping and epic at times, and nostalgic and intimate at others. This is without a doubt one of the best soundtracks I’ve heard in a video game. In a similar fashion, the voice acting is phenomenal. The cast is a melting pot of different UK actors, and their different dialects work together wonderfully. The localization team also did a great job with the dialogue – it’s funny, earnest, and at times truly touching. For this reason, most of the cut scenes are incredibly compelling to watch, which is a good thing considering the vast amount of them in the game.


There are some truly beautiful moments in the story.

Overall, The Last Story is one of the best games I have played on the Wii. Yes, it certainly has its technical limitations and problems. And yes, in my opinion the battle system was not executed as well as it could have been. But the story of Zael and his companions is one worth discovering. Though the overall story is nothing out of the ordinary, fans of the genre will really appreciate the subtle twists Sakaguchi introduces that eventually transcend expectations. Sakaguchi and his team will surprise you with incredibly powerful, simple moments that make you care about the characters and what happens to them. The Last Story is not trying to reinvent the wheel. Instead, it just gets many of the RPG elements right on the nose and then goes even further with them. If you’re a fan of RPG’s and still have your Wii, the Last Story is a fitting and beautiful way to say goodbye to the system.

Violent Score: 8.6 / 10

Written by Cooper Sivara

Project Eternity Officially Funded

2012-09-17T12:01:00.002-07:00

Since launching on Kickstarter on Friday with a target of $1.1 million, Obsidian Entertainment's new isometric RPG, Project Eternity, has hit its target today and is now funded just below $1.5 million. With an updated post on their kickstarter site, Obsidian Entertainment has announced new content that will be released if their new stretch goals were met. This includes bonus characters, new storylines, a Mac/Linux version, player housing and more.

The first stretch goal has already been met. With $1.4 million raised, the game will feature a new playable race, class and companion. As the funding grows, more will be added to the game. Here is a list taken from the kickstarter page of all the stretch goals announced, though there isn't anything announced yet for the $2.4 million mark, Obsidian is working furthering its stretch goals.

1.6 million, a Mac Version of Project Eternity and The Story Grows!
We've listened and we’ll make a Mac version of the game at this tier. We're also going to add a new major storyline along with new quests, locations, NPCs, and unique loot (special histories everyone?).

1.8 million, New Playable Race, Class, and Companion!
The options grow for your main character and the roster of your motley crew expands with the addition of a new companion from the selected class.

2.0 million, Player House!
Get your own house in the game that you can customize, store equipment in, and where your companions hang out, or, as the elves say, "chillax".

2.2 million, a new Region, a new Faction and another new Companion! And, dare we say it... ? LINUX!
Great news, everyone! For the Tarball Knights of Gzippia out there, we'll be adding Linux support!
Also, the world of Project Eternity grows in a major way with the inclusion of a whole new faction and the territory it holds. This adds new NPCs, quests, magic items, and hours of gameplay. And yes, you got it, another companion.

2.4 million and beyond! Coming Soon!
Though these goals may seem to be very ambitious, the gaming community has embraced many projects with high price tags on Kickstarter. I have no doubt that this game can easily hit over $2.4 million in the next 29 days.

Stretch goal information provided by Project Eternity Kickstarter page.

Written by Adam Borchert

End of Nations Beta Impressions

2012-09-10T00:30:00.000-07:00

Trion and Petroglyph's massive real-time-strategy game went into beta this weekend. For those of you not familiar with End of Nations, it is an online free to play RTS that combines gameplay styles from other popular real-time-strategy games. There are two factions available to play, the Liberation Front and the Shadow Revolution. Within those two factions are sub-classes that further tailor to your style of gameplay. You can either play cooperatively against a computer, or in large scale pvp matches with up to 28v28 battles.

Rather than focusing on managing your base and army, End of Nations has you primarily focus on creating and managing small squads. Before you go into battle you'll custom build squads to counter your enemies units. If your enemy is using air units, you can switch to an anti-air squad on the fly. Each unit has their own unique ability for either offensive or defensive maneuvers. The key to victory is to compliment your teams army.

When your not in a battle you'll be able to customize your squads in the Armory. You can customize each individual unit with special items you're rewarded with after each fight. Each time you level up you will be given a tech point to spend in your skill tree, which can then be used on upgrading units, new commander abilities or tactical structures.

On the world map you will see battles going on in different areas. Each battle has their own unique objectives. Some of the game modes include:

Domination: Players must capture and hold the majority of all victory points to win.
Base Assault: Attackers must take all victory points before time expires.
Base Defense: Destroy the enemy headquarters by securing victory points
Cooperative Defense: Defend tactical structures against waves of enemy AI.

End of Nations will be free to play when released. Players will not be able to buy their way to get an upper hand on other players. End of Nations will feature a VIP subscription where players pay a monthly fee for a boost in experience, loot bonuses and store discounts, similar too World of Tanks. Players can also purchase cosmetic skins and commander portraits.

Overall I really enjoy playing End of Nations. Right now teams are unbalanced because of the limited number of players in the beta. I frequently find myself going against players that are 3-5 levels higher than myself. I like the different objective maps that are available and I played my first 6v6 match which was a lot of fun. End of Nations is a different kind of RTS, if you like the fast paced micromanagement of StarCraft 2, you might not like EoN. To sign up for the beta you can visit the End of Nations website here.

It's A Zombie Invasion!

2012-09-06T15:03:00.000-07:00

So you like killing zombies eh? Well don't we all? And what a great time to be a zombie hunter! With a flurry of games featuring zombies being released and covering all genres like horror, action/adventure and survival, it gets a little overwhelming choosing which game is right for you. Well, that's why I am writing this article. I will be going over a few of the zombie games that have already been released or will be in the near future.

Day Z (PC)

This is a zombie mod that was made for ARMA II and can be downloaded for free if you own a copy of the game. It was released in April and quickly took the PC gaming community by storm. Day Z is a hardcore zombie survival game. Players pick servers to play in and start with nothing but the shirt on their back. Players need to quickly scavenge for food and weapons and avoid being killed by zombies. Not only do you have to avoid zombies but you can never trust other players on the server. Being such a huge success among gamers, The Day Z will soon be released as a standalone title. Day Z is a true survival game, if your looking for a new experience and don't mind losing all of your gear after being ganked by other survivors, give Day Z a shot. Click Here for more info.

Resident Evil 6 (Xbox 360, PS3, PC, Wii-U)

Resident Evil is synonymous with zombies, horror and bad movies. RE: 6 is looking to go back to its zombie roots with a familiar cast leading the story. Though Resident Evil games have become progressively mainstream and over the top action shooters, I am still hoping that it will combine both action and survival horror like RE: 4. Though its easy to get lost in the story and all of its sub plots and new viruses, Resident Evil has grown one of the most evil and recognizable corporations known in all of gaming, "The Umbrella Corporation." The demo will be available for download on Xbox Live and PSN on September 18th.

Zombie U (Wii-U)

Nintendo publishing a zombie game? Well it's true. As one of the launch titles for the upcoming Wii-U, Zombie-U is looking to appeal to a more adult audience. Zombie U promotes survival and exploration and trying to get to places you probably shouldn't. The game looks to utilize to gamepad to see and interact with different objects you may not have seen by just looking at the TV, it can also be used to give you quick access to your backpack without having to navigate through pesky menus. Another unique feature is when you die, you come back as a different survivor. Zombie U's focus is survival, horror and exploration.

Fortnite (PC)

When you think of Epic Games, you think dark, bloody, gory and armed to the teeth, right? So when Epic Games announces they are developing a zombie game, you think its going to be Gears of War but with zombies. WRONG! When I saw the announcement trailer I was very surprised to see bright colors, cartoon like characters and an almost Team Fortress 2 style of graphics. Though we don't know much about Fortnite, we do know that players will have to gather supplies and weapons during the day, and prepare for a zombie horde at night. Though there has yet to be a release date, Fortnite is worth following. Check out our original post Here for more info.

The War Z (PC)

Just a couple months ago Arktos Entertainment and Hammerpoint Interactive announced their new zombie survival MMO. With no leveling or experience system, War Z looks to drop 250 players on one sever and have them survive a zombie apocalypse. With players tired of paying a monthly subscription or using the "pay to win" model of free to play, War Z looks to bring in a new generation of MMOs. The War Z promises a one time purchase of the game and no hidden fees or subscription charges. Though they are hoping to launch the game this fall, it may take longer for the game to officially release. Check here for our more in depth article Here.

State of Decay (PC, Xbox 360)

State of Decay takes a more movie like approach the the zombie survival genre. Unlike The War Z and Day Z, State of Decay is not multiplayer. It is a single player, open world sandbox where the player looks for survivors, captures safe houses and runs missions to survive the zombie outbreak. State of Decay is also more action oriented than the other games on the list. Melee weapons will be able to hack limbs off and all combat is from a third person perspective. The trailer itself almost looks like the video game version of Night Of The Living Dead. For a more in depth look, click Here.

The Walking Dead (PC, Xbox 360, PS3, iPad)

From comic, to TV show, now to video games, The Walking Dead has made a big impact in pop culture. With a bigger focus on human survival and interaction, The Walking Dead game features 5 episodes where making moral decisions and trusting other survivors plays a bigger role than fighting off the zombie horde. Though the episodes are short, Telltale games delivers some of the best story lines and character development ever made. For more information check out one of our posts Here.

Written By Adam Borchert

Will Star Wars: Old Republic Quazi-FTP Work?

2012-09-05T01:38:00.000-07:00

We are hitting the 9 month mark since the release of Star Wars: The Old Republic. With subscriptions falling and paying a $15 monthly fee no longer appealing to gamers, Bioware is looking into open the game into the FTP(Free To Play) market soon. However, The Old Republic will not give full access to the games content, players that do not pay monthly have restrictions with end game content and PvP. With current subscriptions peaking at just under 1 million, will this be the boost Bioware needs to gain a bigger audience?

There is no doubt that The Old Republic was one of the most anticipated MMOs since World of Warcraft. Following an identical leveling system and with the Star Wars universe at Biowares disposal, it was hard to imagine that The Old Republic would be in the position it is now. After I leveled a bounty hunter to max level and got into the end game content, I found an unfinished game. With only a couple of Operations available and a constant rotation of Huttball in PvP, it was the lack of content that made players lose interest. Giving Bioware credit, they did resolve many of the issues they had at launch, but the waiting for updates and small patches wasn't worth the monthly fee in the long run.

As I mentioned before, The Old Republic isn't going fully FTP. There will be restrictions to players as they level up characters and get into the end game content. While the exact details have not been released, we can get a general idea of what kind of restrictions players will face with the quazi-FTP features. Large raids or Operations will not be available for players, nor will players have full access to the auction house (Galactic Trade Network). See the chart below to compare the two.

Subscription Vs Free To Play

When I first heard about The Old Republic going free to play, I was really excited. With a lot of MMOs no longer requiring a paid monthly subscription, I thought this was going to be the new plan going forward with SWTOR. However, I was disappointed to find that it will not be fully free to play. From my experiences playing the game, having so many restrictions doesn't make the game worth getting into again. Being one of the most expensive games ever produced, it will be interesting to see if this new method will get SWTOR back on its feet.

Check out our original review Here.

Written by Adam Borchert

Counter Strike: Global Offensive Review/Rant

2012-09-04T19:47:00.002-07:00

Counter-Strike is one of the most beloved PC games of all time. That is not to say it is without its flaws. And let's be honest, most of us "believe" that CS:GO was produced to remedy those issues. We all hoped we would receive a more balanced and enjoyable gaming experience. Sadly, I personally feel like GO is quite simply CS: 1.6 with new graphics - and made only to be thrown to the console crowd. I have never known Valve to conform to industry standard, but with some of the changes made in CS:GO, it feels as though their desire to assimilate conflicted with any desire to produce a real NEW game.

There are 8 new maps combined with the 8 classic maps, along with new equipment like Decoy and Incendiary Grenades. We have also been given about 8 new weapons, such as the Sawed-Off Shotgun and the Tec-9. Huge changes have been made to the guns accuracy and rate of fire, but the main complaint I have is the recoil. I am not sure if the recoil is actually broken or if all that has changed is the feedback, but if you have played CS:S for a long time, you will know exactly what I'm talking about. With all the changes to the weapons, it now feels like any gun can get the job done. Some will call that "balance" but I call it a tragedy because it feels like you no longer need to know your weapons. You don't need to know how a gun works anymore because you can kill someone 20 feet away from you with a shotgun now. GG.

Hitboxes and player models have been modified. Below is a photo comparing the hitboxes from CS:S to CS:GO.

This I have no complaints about, it was an intelligent fix that should have been made in Source long ago. It adds a needed difficulty to the game, giving you longer life and more difficult targets to defeat. The player models look hideous, though. Terrorists are cute hipsters with skinny jeans and hoodies! really? really. The buy menu is straight out of COD, the matchmaking system is totally unnecessary, and the community quick play option takes FOREVER. All worthless. OH, AND NO SPRAYS? AND WHERE ARE THE SILENCERS?

Even with all of these complaints I still think CS:GO is worth playing. It is still Counter-Strike and it is still unlike any other FPS in terms of actual game play. Is it ever going to be my favorite game? No. Is it better than Source? That is debatable for some. (correct answer is NO) It is, however, a decent game with amazing replay-ability and an amazing community surrounding it. Thank god it is only $15. I had really high hopes for this game, but they were quickly crushed as it turned out to simply be a 1.6 console upgrade.

Violent Score: 7 (Out of 10)

because I am a bitter source-hag

Written by Kittenhedd

Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII Announced

2012-09-03T10:21:00.000-07:00

Final Fantasy XIII fans, rejoice. Lightning isn’t done yet. This weekend at the Final Fantasy 25^th Anniversary Event Square Enix announced the third and final chapter in the Final Fantasy XIII saga - Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII. Although this game remains shrouded in mystery, one thing is for sure: we are finally getting what we’ve been waiting for – an end to the Final Fantasy XIII story.

While only a few details are known at this time, I have done as much research into the announcement as possible, including watching the stream of the event. Read on for details and a general breakdown of everything we know so far.

During his presentation, Toriyama (the director of the game) focused on two key concepts for the game: “World-Driven” and “Lightning Returns”. Let’s focus on the “World-Driven” first.

“World-Driven” is an entirely new concept for the Final Fantasy series. If you think of XIII as a story-driven game, and XIII-2 as a player-driven game, Lightning Returns will be a world-driven game. Toriyama explained that this means that the world of the game is constantly changing. Time passes – the sun rises, people go about their daily business, the sun sets, and night falls. All of these events effect the world – and each gamer’s experience. It sounds like Square is trying to create a world that exists on it’s own, independent of the player. Think something like Sleeping Dogs or Skyrim. The game is considered open-world, so the player is able to freely explore the entire world that is in constant motion. Theoretically, this will make each player’s experience in the world unique – and could even mean that if you play the game more than once you could have quite a different experience the next time around.

The world Square is designing for the game is very intriguing. The game takes place hundreds of years after the events of XIII-2, in a world called Novus Partus. It consists of four large islands set in a sea of chaos. The islands are connected by a monorail system, which I will talk about more in just a bit. From the concept drawings, it seems that each island will offer a very different environment to explore. One seems to be a large city, the next more of a forest/farmland area, the third a harsh desert, and the last a mountainous region. Apparently, the big castle-like structure on the mountain island is the shrine of Etro (I thought it looked familiar). If you look up just beyond it, you can also see the New Cocoon floating in the sky (I missed it on my first observation).

The world of Novus Partus, with the Shrine of Etro and the New Cocoon in the background.

One of the most important elements in this world is that of time. As a kind of mirror to the events leading up to XIII, Lightning Returns takes place over 13 days – the last 13 days of the world, to be exact. In order to bring this element more into focus, square is introducing a Doomsday clock device into gameplay. Essentially, the doomsday clock starts at 13 days and as you play it counts down to the end of days. It actually sounds very similar to Marjora’s Mask, which upon initial inspection worried me a bit. I’m personally not crazy about games that have an impending time limit – I really like to take my time and fully explore worlds. However, I was somewhat put at ease when it was revealed that actions you take during the game affect time passing in both ways. So, certain actions that Lightning takes will use up lots of time – taking the monorail between islands, using certain moves in battle, choosing to rewind time if you fall in battle – all of these actions will push the Doomsday clock forward. However, by completing certain other actions Lightning will be able to turn back the clock – by defeating enemies, for example, she can add more time to the Doomsday clock. So while the overall effect is to give a sense of urgency, it sounds like you won’t be rushed all the time and will still be free to explore the worlds fully.

Square seems to have put a lot of effort into making Novus Partus very realistic as well. People are out and busy during the day. The monorails have a time schedule, and are most frequent during peak travel hours. Nights are less busy but more dangerous. And certain areas are only accessible during certain parts of the day. Gates close, buildings shut down, etc. They even mentioned that if you are not careful, you can get stuck in a certain place for the entire night, wasting valuable time. This element is meant to introduce another level of strategy to the game – you have to plan how to spend your time wisely and always thinking ahead.

A metropolis of Novus Partus with the monorail overhead.

Visually, the concept art looks stunning and very different from the previous two games. The world is meant to be a combination of different elements: “mechanical, gothic, and fantasy”. It seems that unlike XIII-2 almost all of the locations will be completely new. This also applies to enemies and monsters. Essentially, chaos has infected the enemies you encounter, so they will typically be mutated versions of your typical RPG fare.

Speaking of things being different, let’s move on to the second main concept: Lightning Returns. This game belongs to Lightning. She is the sole playable character (a big change for the FF series as a whole). Because of this, Square will be offering a lot of customization with her this time around. Apparently, there will be over 20 different costumes you can equip Lightning with. It sounds like the costumes may not only affect the look of Lightning, but also her abilities in battle as well. Similar to X-2, the costume she is wearing could augment certain moves or attributes, adding another layer to the battle mechanics.

Players will also have more control of Lightning in battle in general. Details are still a bit sketchy, but it sounds like you will be able to control her movements during the entire battle. Real time events like parrying attacks, countering, and even attacking will be introduced. Battles will take place in the world without a “battle screen”, so you’ll be able to move Lightning around as you see fit, and even be able to use the environment for cover and strategy. You will also be able to choose different strategies for the actual fighting. You can rush and attack melee style, or hang back and focus on casting spells. From the way it was presented, the battle system reminded me a bit of the one found in the Mass Effect games. I think when we see it in action everything will become much clearer, but essentially it sounds very different from the previous two games.

The development team was not ready to show what Lightning will look like in the game, but they did reveal what they asked Nomura to create for her. They emphasized that she is going to fight her final battle. This is the end of her story. And as opposed to the somewhat mystical quality she had in XIII-2, it sounded like they wanted a return to the “tough but beautiful” style of XIII. Personally, I can’t wait to see what she will look like.

The concept art looks beautiful, and could that be a preview of Light?

Though a lot remains to be seen about this game, I have to admit I’m very excited. The game sounds very different from XIII and XIII-2, and it will be very interesting to see how Square implements all of these new elements. At the same time, however, it seems very important to Square to keep the core of the XIII games in this one. Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII is the final chapter in the XIII saga, and it is vital that it keeps the spirit of XIII while moving things forward to the conclusion.

Please check back soon for more info on Lightning Returns. Square has promised more details after September 4^th, and I will update you as soon as they do. They have also revealed that the game will be coming out in 2013 (how appropriate) and so hopefully we won't have to wait too long to see the game in action. In the meantime, let us know what you think in the comments below. Are you excited? Nervous? Happy? Scared?

Through all of the unknown elements, I think it is still important to keep hope alive. Square has rewarded our hope with the promise of a new game in the XIII legend. They have offered us what we really need: and end to the story. Lightning has one last chance to save the world, and we get to experience her story one last time. I can’t wait.

We won't give up on you, Lightning.

Far Cry 3 at PAX

2012-09-03T02:11:00.001-07:00

During our time at E3 we got our hands on a demo of Far Cry 3. It was more showing off the gameplay and graphics than its open world setting. At PAX they are showing off just a small part of the huge sandbox world where you can interact with the environment and explore different points of interests. Though Far Cry 2 was set in an open world, it felt very linear at times and the side quests were very forgettable. Far Cry 3 looks to improve upon the shortcomings of its predecessor.

The newest installment looks to give the player more freedom and encourages exploring rather than just going through the story. Throughout the world there are radio towers that will show you points of interests in your area. When you take over an outpost the area becomes friendly and you unlock weapons, gain fast travel and get new missions. Far Cry 3 also promotes different styles of gameplay. You don't have to run in like Rambo, guns blazing to take over the outposts, you can take a stealth approach and take out the guards so they cant sound the alarms.
truly disappointed with the previous Far Cry but it seems the developers are trying
Far Cry 3 seems to be making some big leaps forward this time around. I was to revamp the franchise and add on to what made the original Far Cry a big success. We know there is a crafting system but yet to know what that fully entails. Check back later for more details!

Video by GamesRadar

Written by Adam Borchert

Don't Abandon Ship!

2012-09-01T22:35:00.001-07:00

Our Dear Readers,

I want to say that even though Sean will no longer be with Violent Gamer, we will still be releasing content each week. Sean was the most active writer for the site and it was from his hard work and dedication that we were able to grow into the site we are today. Though we will not be doing as many updates, we will still keep the site active and be releasing content frequently. This site has meant a lot to us over the past two years and we want it to grow and be one of your sources for gaming news and reviews. I want to thank Sean for all of his work he has done for our site and congratulate him on a much deserved opportunity to work for Beefjack. I also want to thank you readers that visit our site and have given us the support over the last two years.

Violent Gamer Writers,

Adam Borchert

Cooper Sivara

Away I Go

2012-08-31T13:09:00.004-07:00

Hey everyone, I haven't been putting up much here in the last couple of days and that is because I've been settling in over at Beefjack, who recently hired me to do mostly the same kind of videogame related writing that I was doing here, except this time around there are editors and all of kinds of professionals around me. I've only written a few posts over there so far, but I'm going to be more involved in the coming weeks and that means I will be posting less and less here. From time to time I may post some gameplay videos here, like today I'm going to try to get up a Planetside 2 gameplay video since the NDA was just lifted, but I won't be able to get in many posts and I can't write anything here that might conflict with something I am writing at Beefjack. Thanks everyone who ever visited Violent Gamer from time to time and supported us over the last two years.

We started an ant sized website that got a thousand views a month and we have grown into something more substantial that has received thirty to forty thousand views a month. It is still small in the eyes of the internet, but it still felt like a huge accomplishment and a huge thanks to anyone who ever read one of our posts or watched one our videos. I hate to be stepping away from it all, but I am excited at the same time to work for something much bigger and be part of a more professional atmosphere. On a last note we are about to hit 300,000 total views, which is a huge milestone for us, and I would like to one last contest, but I haven't decided what exactly yet and I will work up something by next week. Once again, thank you everyone and if you still care to read my work head on over to my new workplace ever so often, but Adam and others may continue to post here if they can.

-Sean Cargle

Steam Greenlight

2012-08-31T12:59:00.001-07:00

Steam Greenlight came out in a full yesterday and now there are over 500 games that the community can vote on. If a game gets enough votes then it will likely be added to Steam, even if it is currently in alpha or beta. There are three games on there I wanted to highlight, for I have talked about them many times here.

First up is Heroes & Generals, which is that upcoming free to play world war II FPS that has a big strategic campaign map and has a lot of promise. My last update here for Heroes and Generals was about one of their new trailers and most recently they have been working on adding new maps to the game, new models, and a singleplayer mission. The game has always been pretty rough and I'm not entirely sure where they are going to go with it, but it could be the closest thing to a modern day world war II online. Check out my video from the early beta to see how it looks, but this one is pretty dated.

Steam Greenlight Page: http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/
Main Website: http://www.heroesandgenerals.com/2/index.html

Next we have Gnomoria. It is the dwarf fortress like game that gives you a bunch of gnomes, a fairly large map with a lot of depth, vertically, and gives you the tools to try to make an amazing settlement. It is in early alpha and I talked about it extensively back in June, but it does have a lot of promise and it receives weekly updates. Since it is in alpha there isn't a lot of content, but you do have free reign of your gnomes. You have to deal with making military groups to protect your gnomes from invading goblins or powerful golems, while you also can make a mountain side into a great fortress or make a town nestled in a valley. You can do whatever you want with any map and I would love to see this one make it on Steam someday. They have a demo available at their website if you want to try it out, but take a look at this preview video I made for it.

Steam Greenlight Page: http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles
Main Website: http://gnomoria.com/

Lastly we have Project Zomboid. The Indie Stone has been making this sandbox zombie survival game for what seems like years and so many things have happened during development, like them getting robbed and losing months of work, which lead to some angry and unnecessary exchanges on the internet. There was also the time that paypal stole much of their money from pre-orders, but other than all that they have been trucking along and the game is still in development.

There are a lot of interesting things that they've done with Project Zomboid, like successfully making zombies react to every sound around the map and making a horde of zombies scary again, plus they already have had people modding and making their own maps. They intend to have co-op at release, whenever that is, but it does and always will have a lot of promise. Here is one of their more recent videos.

Steam Greenlight Page: http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/
Main Website: http://projectzomboid.com/blog/

Thanks for checking them all out and checking out Steam Greenlights expanding inventory of games to see many other interesting and promising indie games.

-Written by Sean Cargle

A long look at XCOM: Enemy Unknown

2012-08-29T00:05:00.001-07:00

Today 2K Greg and two developers from the XCOM team at Firaxis, Jake Solomon and Garth DeAngelis, have an hour long gameplay demo of XCOM: Enemy Unkown to show off and they have plenty of explanations for everything. It is a rare, informative and lengthy look at this turn based strategy game that hasn't shown a whole off a whole lot of gameplay yet. They did just announce that the game will feature multiplayer, but they haven't done an indepth look at that yet either. This video however shows a good chunk of singleplayer and gives you a real idea of how the game will play. The video doesn't actually start until about three minutes in, but they quickly load up an abduction singleplayer mission that is a 3rd of the way through the game. That first mission lasts until about thirty minutes in and it is pretty damn entertaining, especially since they have someone in their squad get permanently killed, but after that they show the world map, character sheets, mission details, salvage and the home base. I wish they had shown something like this at E3, it is a hell of a lot more interesting than the presentation they showed us that was entirely scripted. Take a look at the video below and check out the main website for more information on the game. It will be coming out on October 9th, 2012, for PC, PS3 and Xbox 360.

-Written by Sean Cargle

Skryim: Hearthfire Announced

2012-08-28T16:47:00.002-07:00

Building better worlds, all of them, better worlds. That is with this new DLC for Elder Scrolls V: Skryim you can build your own home in an impressive manner that doesn't involve downloading a pre-made and non-customizable home online for free. You have to useresources to build your home and you can build a custom home, not just some cookie cutter cut out. There are areas all over where you will be able to build your home and eventually you may be able to build multiple homes across Skyrim. You can add additional buildings onto your property as well, like stables, docks, greenhouse, an alchemy tower and more. You will be able to take any follower and make them a steward of your property, plus you have intruders to deal with, like giants or bandits. You will also be able to hire a carriage driver, a bard and buy yourself some children! Well, that is you can adopt children now and move them to your home. If you have yourself a wife, or husband, you can also move her to a new home as well. Thankfully the children don't look bland and lifeless and you will be able to interact with them in unique ways. Take a look at the new trailer for Hearthfire.

This is once again an Xbox 360 timed exclusive, how annoying, and there isn't even a pretend release date for PS3 or PC. Speaking of PS3, Dawnguard still isn't out on that so who knows if they will ever receive Hearthfire. I'm happy to say that Hearthfire is pretty cheap, 400 Microsoft Points, which is about five dollars. It could still be overpriced and it all depends on how much you can actually do with the modification, especially when there are so many custom houses you can download for free on PC. Head on over to Bethesda's Hearthfire page to read more about it and thanks for reading.

-Written by Sean Cargle

OMD2: Fire & Water Pack

2012-08-27T13:32:00.002-07:00

The first DLC for Orcs Must Die! 2 is on the way and it is up to you to decide if it worth $5. Fire and Water is focused all around fire and water elementals, who both break down into smaller enemies like earth elementals, but not in the same ways. Fire elementals start huge and once you destroy their largest form they will turn into a bunch of exploding little hell raisers, while water elementals turn into puddles of waters, which don't do anything on their own, but if a waterling finds the puddles then they can use that to grow into a water elemental or water lord. These are the only two new enemies in this pack, but there are three new traps, three new endless levels and three new story levels, all of which can be played cooperatively or alone.

The new traps!
The Web Spinner: Slows down enemies passing through a hallway with a tangle of webs. Similar to the tar trap, except it has a wider area of effect.

Ceiling Darts: They drop from the ceiling and hit enemies in every direction, sounds useful, but only great against groups.

Web Spinner on the right and Ceiling Trap on the left.

The Floor Portal: This trap sounds a little overpowered and must have some untold restrictions, but if an enemy steps on it they are sent back to the beginning of the level.

This pack does come with one new way to earn skulls for each level and that is by going through the level only using weapons. Ideally this pack would have added some new weapons or trinkets on top of all that, but it does look to be a decent amount of content and it is possible to justify this $5 purchase if you already have conquered all there is in Orcs Must Die! 2. They seem to be responding to the new traps and new levels demand from Orcs Must Die! 1 and they have gotten out a DLC pretty quickly to help satiate those who want more from the game. Personally I haven't beaten 100% of the game yet, three more levels of nightmare to go and almost all of the endless levels, but I may end up checking this one out. Thanks for reading everyone and this DLC will be out on Steam on August 29th, in two days. Here are a couple more screenshots from the press release.

Main Website: http://www.robotentertainment.com/games/omd2

-Written by Sean Cargle

Clockwork Empires

2012-08-27T12:38:00.003-07:00

Gaslamp Games, creators of the enjoyable rogue-like Dungeons of Dredmor, have just revealed their new game to the world today and it is all about building steampunk cities in a dangerous world filled with monsters, elder gods, insane people and evil. Like Dungeons of Dredmor, this dynamic city-building game will make failure not the worst thing in the world and each city you create has many different routes for destruction. For instance, you can have scientists working in a lab and if you leave them unintended for too long they might start working on mad creations and end up summoning an Elder God, one of the giant world destroying monsters from H.P. Lovecraft's Call of Cthulu, to your city and bringing about the demise of everyone. Your city could also be destroyed by other players, the game can be played with up to four people cooperatively or competitively, or plenty of other lovely ways. When you lose you can earn medals, promotions and titles, so losing everything is all for naught. Clockwork Empires is what this creation is being called and it sounds rather interesting.

Not a whole lot has been revealed about the game yet, just a few screenshots, some info and a feature list that I'm going to copy and paste for you shortly, but it does sound pretty ambitious. I'm a little concerned since their previous game wasn't like this at all, but Gaslamp Games has always been a solid developer that doesn't hate their community. All of the screenshots and a bit of the information on this game is from a PC Gamer article that was exclusively done for the press release of Clockwork Empires. The game will have a story of some sort and the back story is that you are a Junior Bureaucrat that is sent out to get fame and fortune as you build glorious steampunk cities on the frontier. You will be able to explore the world by land, sea and air and each will present their own challenges. For now, let us take a look at the list of features:

-Dynamic, city-building, citizen-simulating action. Every imperial subject has a purpose and agenda of their own, and their interactions are rich, exciting, and often lethal!

-New “procedural extrusion” technology lets you design your colony the way you want! Buildings are procedurally generated and extruded directly from the aether to your specifications!

-Tame the uncharted continents by land, sea, and air! Set forth in mighty Zeppelins to do battle with Sky Pirates, or take to the seas in search of fortune and probably sea serpents!

-Create magnificent acts of plumbing, link together mighty gears, and build ominous Megaprojects!

-Tangle with the machinations of malevolent entities! Scry the legacy of the Invisible Geometers, fumigate the baleful moon-fungus of the Selenian Polyps, and cleanse the scuttling creepiness and poor personal and moral hygiene of your everyday, average cultist.

-Losing is still fun! When your colony fails miserably, earn medals, promotions, and titles as befits a true politician and scion of the Empire!

-Multi-player mode, with up to 4 players, lets you co-operate with your closest friends to build a glorious city… or fight a horrifying economic battle to total annihilation!

-Round-Robin mode lets you share your Clockwork Empires with friends! Take turns running a colony directly into the ground then argue for fun-filled hours about whose fault it was! (Like Monopoly but with more exploding Zeppelins!)

-Rendered in glorious GaslampVision! Thrill as the colours are brought to life by Gaslamp’s team of caffeine-addled artists labouring under the technical specifications of our elite programmers* to bring you a game that is rendered in Each of the Three Dimensions! New multi-core technology by Actual University Students lets you use every last ounce of power in your computer to run a thrilling and vivid simulation!

-Featuring the new Dynamic Soundtrack Orchestra – the Soundtrack that Adjusts to Your Gameplay! (Mr. M. Steele, conductor)

-No always-online DRM requirement, unlike certain other games we don’t want to mention. You know who you are and your mothers are very disappointed.

-Comes complete with the Gaslamp Games Quality of Excellence that you know and love, and if you don’t like something you can mod it yourself in the best tradition of Empire Craftsmanship!

Sounds at least vaguely interesting huh? There isn't much more than on the game, but here is one more screenshot and if you would like to read a little bit more then head on over to PC Gamer's article on Clockwork Empires. The game doesn't have an expected release date, but they are making it for PC, Mac and Linux. Thanks for checking it out.

Main Website: http://www.gaslampgames.com/2012/08/27/clockwork-empires

-Written by Sean Cargle

Sang-Froid: Tales of Werewolves

2012-08-24T19:29:00.000-07:00

Yesterday Sang-Froid was brought to my attention and I thought it was going to be another incredibly rough indie game that had promise, one that probably wasn't ever going to come out, instead I found myself pleasantly surprised and intrigued. Sang-Froid is a game that mixes strategy and action in some very familiar ways that are some-what reminiscent of tower defense hybrids like Orcs Must Die! or Sanctum, but it is a different sort of game. You do set out elaborate plans to deal with waves of enemies, but unlike both of the previously games this one lets you see all upcoming waves and you have to plan for all of them right from the start. Once you have your traps set you get pulled into the game as you run around as a big lumberjack who can take a decent number of hits and deal out a lot of damage with his axe or his slow but powerful musket. The traps in this are very non-typical and it is one of the many ways Sang-Froid makes itself different from every other game. For instance, you can place use bait to pull your enemies towards you, or you can set up towers that let you quickly slide from one tower to another across a large map, or you can set up fires that terrify enemies. It all makes sense once you realize that many of the enemies are wolves and werewolves, which naturally would fear fire, but just because they fire it doesn't mean it will hold them away forever, eventually they will gather up courage and move closer.

On each map you have to defend specific buildings and their is plenty of information available to help you do that. At the beginning of each game you can see all of the waves for a map and you have to ration out your money so you may have enough traps for each set of threats. Each wave can have different enemies coming from different directions and each group of enemies can be attacking different buildings. There are traps you can set up to instantly kill small enemies like wolves, but anything as strong as a werewolf is going to take a lot more and there are many different ways you can tackle each situation. There are fire walls you can use, wolf traps, hanging nets, spiritual totems, bait, bonfires, towers, ballistas and more. You also have tow characters to choose from and each of them can be leveled up with various skills that look to be similar to an RPG skill system. The game is definitely a bit rough and they originally had a release date of Summer 2012, which obviously isn't accurate at this point, but it does look like it could be a lot of fun and be different than everything else. Check out their newest gameplay video, with commentary from one of the developers from Artifice Studios, and get a good look at Sang-Froid.
Main Website: http://www.sangfroidgame.com/

-Written by Sean Cargle

Sleeping Dogs PC Review

2012-08-24T12:19:00.003-07:00

Sleeping Dogs is a game by United Front Games and Square Enix that drops you into modern Hong Kong and shows you a violent world where everything isn't as simple as black and white. It is the third game in the True Crime series, the last of which came out in 2005, and it focuses on giving you the perspective of law enforcement. The games used to have highly accurate open world locations, but Sleeping Dogs stepped away from that and made a more stylized and less accurate Hong Kong. The world is still open and full of side missions, collectibles and life, but it is similar to Grand Theft Auto IV in the way that the world opens up as you go through the story and the games main focus is the story. The story is also what sets this game apart from many other games of the genre, for it has some very serious tones and some meaningful sections of the story, however it still has plenty of trivial and action orientated sections. The game is about 20-30 hours long, depending on if you try to complete 100% of the side missions and find all of the collectibles, but there is a whole lot to dissect and discuss here so lets start going through it. Also, we have a video review if you would like to do that sort of thing instead.

Taking in the sights. It is always a temptation to stop and look.

The story is the main attraction in Sleeping Dogs, for most people, and it left me with some very mixed feelings. You play an undercover cop in Hong Kong named Wei Shen. He grew up in Hong Kong and has just returned to perform his undercover role, but he has spent most of his life living in California. They approach the situation in an intelligent way. Being an undercover cop in a gang full of people you used to know isn't easy and they make certain that you know how difficult it is on Wei Shen. If you have seen movies like The Departed or Infernal Affairs then you can easily understand what they are trying to get at in the story. The story starts out fairly typical with you infiltrating a small time gang that is a small part of a criminal organization called the Sun On Yee. You start out with petty tasks, like collecting protection money or edging out competitors, but the tasks get a lot more upscale after a few hours and you find yourself doing a wide variety of tasks.

Story
The first time I realized how much potential this story has was when they gave these generic gangsters real-life characteristics and made them feel human. The leader of the gang initially seems like a hot headed typical macho gangster, but they quickly turn him into someone far more personable. He wants to get married, he doesn't cheat on girlfriend, he treats the gang members like his brothers and he is actually pretty intelligent. Unfortunately they do this kind of character introspection with every character you met, but they do manage to do it with several of them and it is a pleasure to see story telling that actually surprises you in meaningful and non-violent ways.

One of the four apartments you get in the game

United Front Games also does some things with the story that are unheard of in a game full of gangs, racing, shooting and violence, like treating women and men equally and not falling into stereotypes. For instance, you can date many women in the game and while you don't have to it does help gameplay wise because each woman you date gives you something to help you find collectibles. Wei Shen treats these women like you imagine a gangster might and you generally only go on one date with each woman. There is a particular side mission with one of his girlfriends that struck me as I played through the game.

A battered, bloody and exposed Wei Shen

When Wei Shen finds out that one of his girlfriends is cheating on him you go on a mission to confront her and shame her, but once you catch her meeting with her new boyfriend she throws down some logic that I didn't expect to see. Instead of Wei Shen beating up her new boyfriend she shames him by saying how he is constantly dating multiple women and why can't she do the same. He actually accepts that logic and apologizes. That scene showed a multi-faceted Wei and instead of taking the action orientated route, like most games would, they chose the one that might make you contemplate the scene and the characters. Another oddity is how they use a side task to give insight into Wei Shen and how he is viewing his situation. They do that with the martial arts club and how every time you bring back a statue, you return statues to learn more martial arts skills, Wei has a chat with his instructor and it is always has a personal touch to it.

Wei and his instructor talking as he returns the last of the missing statues

So far I've only talked about how great the story is and it does have some incredibly strong moments, but as much as they think out some scenes and conclusions they seem to have given little thought to others. The ending is something that doesn't feel right and feels like a cop out, no pun intended. There are also a few times when they don't follow the same consistency that other parts of the story seem to constantly be following. An example of this would be how you kill a very large number of people in the game, some of which are killed officially in story scenes, but most are killed on the sidelines and there are no apparent negative repercussions. This wouldn't be a big deal if they didn't spend a couple segments of the story implying that there would be serious repercussions for killing and becoming a real gangster. There is this constant back and forth of whether or not Wei Shen is mentally still a cop and trying to uphold the law or if he has truly become a gangster, but in the end they never seriously address it and make it feel trivial despite how often it is brought up in the story.

Gameplay
When you start Sleeping Dogs you start off running and getting a first hand taste of how the games free running system works. It isn't Assassin's Creed, you can't scale buildings, but you can slide over tables, quickly jump up walls and fall great distances gracefully. It is fairly simple and it works pretty well in the world, but there are a few times when technical glitches arise and stop it from flowing smoothly. Shortly after the free running segment you are introduced to the melee system, which is the main combat system in the game and you spend most of the game fighting hand to hand or with melee weapons. Marital Arts plays a great part of the game and as you go through the game you learn new moves, new counters and a lot of upgrades that help you decimate your enemies. You have grabs, counters, light attacks and heavy attacks. There are certain combos you can do and it generally feels pretty great, even with the default PC controls.

The combat system starts out really simple and it makes you wonder how you could ever lose, especially when you can easily counter enemies (they glow blatantly red before an attack) and you can easily use environmental attacks on enemies that often instantly put them out of the fight, like throwing someones head into an air conditioning unit. It all gets much more difficult when they start adding in different types of enemies, like grapplers who cannot be grabbed unless they are stunned or brawlers who cannot be disrupted during an attack, only countered. Enemies will also start to have melee and ranged weapons and when they make these big groups of diverse enemy types then it can be really easy to get overwhelmed. Once you start learning a lot of new martial arts moves and upgrades it starts to get easier again, but it never gets so easy that you let your guard down and weapons can always tear down your health fairly quickly. Take a look at this bit of gameplay showing off melee combat and one of the drug bust side missions.

Ranged combat handles pretty well and it is one of the few things that seems to be easier with PC controls than it is with a gamepad. The shooting mechanics are fairly typical, but they are still well done and enjoyable. You can take cover and if you jump over cover you can go into a slow motion shooting mode, similar to bullet time in Max Payne, but it is only as long as it takes for your feet take to hit the ground. There are a great many car chases that involve shooting too and those do get very repetitive, especially once you realize that this quickest way to get rid of any vehicle is too shoot the tires. Thankfully the explosions that result from you shooting a vehicles tires, when they roll unrealistically and explode, are well done and despite the repetitiveness it is entertaining with its slow motion stylistic nature. In car chases, and in a few other situations, you can action hijack vehicles and it is surprisingly easy to do.

UI and Controls
Most of the controls do feel like they are intended more for a gamepad than a keyboard and a mouse, but once you get used to them they start to feel pretty good. The controls for melee combat feel a little too free form at times, but more often than not it feels smooth and melee moves can be executed quickly. Ranged combat is one of the few things that feels a little better with PC controls. Driving and movement are both a little tough at times, but like everything else they become natural and fluid once you ease into it. The control scheme is very familiar for any PC gamer, but unfortunately the keys cannot be remapped and that is a serious problem for left handed gamers. The interface is well done and cannot be modified, like the controls, which could be a problem for you if you like to change around that kind of stuff, but most everyone else will be perfectly fine with it. Text is appropriately sized and easy to read, the mini-map is just the right size, hints tell you exactly what you need to know and everything works very well.

Graphics
Sleeping Dogs is one of the most visually impressive games I've seen lately. Character models of civilians walking around the street are of decent quality, but you they have done some really nice work with many of the more central characters. Sure their character models and animations are equivalent of something excellent like Heavy Rain, but this is a far different type of game and for this type of game they have done a good job. Driving around the city at break neck speeds looks absolutely splendid, especially when it is raining, but there is something obnoxious about it at times. Sometimes when you are going very fast in a vehicle there is a shakey camera of sorts and there is no option to turn it off. It is something you can get used to and ignore, but you shouldn't have to ignore it and it has lessened my experiences of driving several times. There are other times when you are driving and the game puts you into a closed up fixed camera position, which can be annoying, but thankfully they have a key that lets you look behind and that usually makes that not an issue.

When you think of game being ported to PC you should hope they port it like Sleeping Dogs. This game has a full array of graphics options with everything from anti-aliasing to world density. You can see objects pretty far away and the game is built in a way that field of view isn't an issue. Building can always be seen from a distance and the only thing that fades in are people and cars, but they have done a great job making it hard to notice. I have seen a few missions that employ some odd spawning mechanisms that have enemies spawning right in front of your face, but other than that you never seen anything in the world spawning right in front of you or fading into view in an obtrusive way. There are a few times when I saw graphical glitches, but other than the there is a little to complain about the graphics and the game is a pleasure to look at.

Side Missions and Collectibles
Like all open world games of this nature there is a lot to find and do in this game other than the main story. You start off the game with very few side missions and they are mostly random tasks that have some kind of story to them. Some these side missions have multi-parts while others are single instances. You also have immediate access to two of the games mini-games, gambling and cock fighting. The rest of the side missions and mini-games, like racing and karaoke, don't open up until you progress further into the story. The collectibles are all there from the beginning, but some of them are locked away in areas that you have to unlock through the story. These areas aren't entire city blocks, more just houses and estates. Collectibles start out pretty tough to find, but once you get farther into the game you unlock ways to find them more easily. There are many different types of collectibles though, like chests, clothing, cars, statues and there are shrines that increase your maximum health.

The whole system for mini-games, side missions and collectibles works nearly identical to every other GTA style open world game. The mini-games are repeatable, give small rewards, and aren't too exciting. Some of the side missions are a bit more interesting and enjoyable, but most of them are fairly repetitious. Their isn't enough variety when it comes to these missions and many of them end up being racing, driving someone around or shooting enemy gang vehicles while someone else drives you somewhere. Racing motorcycles or cars is really enjoyable, especially since they handle well and the tracks can be rather tricky, but once you purchase some of the more expensive vehicles they get fairly easy. I would have appreciated more variety when it comes to mission types, especially drug busts that play out the same every single time. You go to a drug bust area, beat up the gangsters there, hack the camera, go to your apartment and identify the guy that looks the same at every drug bust.

You can repeat any mission, even main story missions.

Last Comments
Sleeping Dogs isn't a perfect game. It has a few bugs, it has plenty of repetition, the open world doesn't do anything new with the genre and a few of the story ideas don't pan out, but despite all that there is still so much to enjoy about the game; the story is generally pretty strong, the voice acting is fantastic, the characters are interesting, combat is well done and enjoyable and the world is a pleasure to travel through. On top of all that there is a lot of content to find and you can get a good twenty to thirty hours out of the game.It doesn't have any multiplayer, which will turn some people off, but the singleplayer is powerful enough that the absence of multiplayer doesn't feel like a major flaw. As good as the game is it is hard to recommend it for full price, but if you can get it on sale for any amount off then do it.

Violent Score: 8.5 (out of 10)

Thanks for reading.

-Written by Sean Cargle

Sleeping Dogs PC Video Review

2012-08-23T23:07:00.002-07:00

Here is our video review of Sleeping Dogs for PC. I am currently working on a written version and will hopefully have that up tonight. If you want some additional written information about the game then check out my preview of the game from last week. Have a good night everyone and thanks for watching.

More bad news for Command & Conquer

2012-08-23T02:29:00.000-07:00

EA recently announced that Command & Conquer 2 Generals is cancelled and the new Command & Conquer will be free to play. If that wasn't troubling enough on its own there is now more to crush the soul of any die-hard fan of the long running real time strategy series that goes all the way back to 1995, which was back when the beloved Westwood Studios was still around. A few days ago PC Gamer did an article on the new Command & Conquer and revealed more information. They were told by Bioware Victory's general manager, John Van Caneghem, that this new Command & Conquer will have no singleplayer and will be largely focused on E-sports. It will be entirely multiplayer at launch and will seemingly contain little that people love the series for. Cangehem's also said how the studio, "really wants to get back to the roots of what made Command & Conquer great." As a fan of the original Command & Conquers, everything up to Generals, that is almost offensive. Singleplayer is what many people loved about the original games, especially with the real actors and actresses playing out their often ridiculous roles as GDI or NOD.

Few would deny that people also enjoy Command & Conquer for its multiplayer components, but it was never had a massive multiplayer community like Starcraft or Warcraft. Thankfully Cangehem did say that game will have cooperative missions at launch, so at least there will be some kind of singleplayer-ish missions in there, but they really seem to want to turn the series into something that doesn't befit the Command & Conquer name. Is their free to play scenario turns out to be pay to win, meaning you can purchase with real money items or units that give you an in-game advantage, then it will likely be the death of this series. There is a bit it over at the PC Gamer article, so do check out that, but it seems I will just have to hold out hope for Planetary Annihilation and Company of Heroes 2. Thanks for reading and as pessimistic as I am about this game don't think hope is entirely lost just yet, no one can be certain of that until they try the finished product.
Main Website: http://www.commandandconquer.com/

Source: http://www.pcgamer.com/2012/08/20/C&CGenerals
-Written by Sean Cargle

Tower Wars Review

2012-08-22T17:09:00.006-07:00

There are a great many tower defense games in the world, especially on PC, and SuperVillian Studios is looking to break the mold with their interesting take on tower defense. Others have done this before, but few have done it well, and Tower Wars makes tower defense about more than just defense. With this game you must balance defense and attack, as you send waves of units at your enemies castle. There are many different types of units and you have a tech tree that lets you research bonuses for all units, like more health, more defense, faster movement and many other improvements. All of your units, and their upgrades, don't only use money, you also have to use battle points and those are only earned by sending attack waves. On the defensive side of things you have quite a few different towers to crush your enemies with, which is pretty much what you would normally expect from a TD game, but you also have mines around the map that you must upgrade and fill with miners in order to increase your income. On top of that your castle can be upgraded to have stronger guns, it has machine guns on it, or more health. If you play tower defenses regularly then you have likely played this type of game before, but this game is polished, multiplayer focused, strategic, steampunk styled, and it has some very colorful and attractive graphics.

You can argue that there are plenty of free games or mods for Warcraft or Starcraft that essentially do the same thing as Tower Wars, but they don't have the same level of polish, animations, graphics and balance. I was initially worried when I saw that this game was largely multiplayer, especially since it uses a matchmaking system instead of a server browser, but I've found that games are quickly found and started. However, there is still the problem of people dropping out, but if you are lucky they won't drop out until they are about to be defeated. The game does have a few singleplayer options, like a classic tower defense mode that pits you against one AI that is continually attacking and you only have to deal with defense. There is also a short tutorial, but the main reason to play the game is for multiplayer. You can make parties with friends, up to three players, and join games that way and it seems to work just as quickly as going in by yourself.

Balancing attack, defense, units and research isn't particularly easy, especially when games get hectic. When you are playing one versus one you obviously have to try balance everything at once, but in larger games you can devise strategies for each player and have each player focus on particulars. In most of my games I stuck with defense, but even with defense you still have to occasionally assist in attacking, at the very least to earn some battle points to recruit miners or increase your castles defenses. Just working on attacking alone can be a challenge. There is a lot of depth between the different units and many research options, plus each unit can be individually ranked up three times. There are basic units, like the tough knights, or fast moving robots, but then there are some more interesting units, like the units that carry and protect smaller units, or shield units or units that heal the area when they are killed. You can combine them all together and make some pretty powerful convoys, but there is a problem of it being easier to defend and turtle up then it is to attack.

Tower Wars is repetitive in nature, but thanks to the different maps, different match types (1vs1, 2vs2, 3vs3), different units and large tech tree it does feel pretty different each time. You can develop different strategies to meet different types of players. There are achievements, ranked matches and unranked, and a fair bit to do, but like any multiplayer focused game it is all focused there and the games longevity is determined by how much you enjoy playing with and against other players. There are some balancing issues that need to be fixed, but this tower defense game does a lot right and is an attractive offering. Ideally there would be more maps, a proper singleplayer mode, more towers and a few less generic units, but there is still a lot to like here and if you are looking for a different type of tower defense game then Tower Wars should fill that desire. There isn't a demo available, unfortunately, but there are plenty of lengthy videos of gameplay on Youtube and even TotalBiscuit has done a preview of the game. For $10 Tower Wars is an impressive offering.

Violent Score: 4 (out of 5)

It isn't innovative, but it does have depth, strategy and a great style, plus a few minor bugs.

Thanks for checking out the game and for reading.

Main Website: http://www.towerwarsgame.com/

Steam Page: http://store.steampowered.com/app/214360/

-Written by Sean Cargle

State of Decay

2012-08-21T19:25:00.001-07:00

Back in July Arktos Entertainment and Hammerpoint Interactive announced War Z, a survival based MMOFPS zombie, and then earlier this month Day Z was announced as a standalone release aiming for a Fall release. Now State of Decay, previously known as Class3, has been announced by Undead Labs as another survival based open world zombie game, except this one isn't first person and it isn't multiplayer like the War Z or Day Z. This game will give you a big dynamic open world full of zombies to fight and survivors to find. You can capture buildings and turn them into outposts or homes, which will keep the zombies away from that area and allow you to research new technology and provide a community for the survivors you find throughout the world. The game is pretty ambitious, just like the other two open world zombie survival games I mentioned, but they have already been working on the game for two years and have a lot of information available, plus there is quite a few screenshots and a first gameplay video. First up, take a look the game in action. It certainly looks a little rough and it doesn't have a release date yet, but they are going to release the game on PC and Xbox 360.

If you watched the video then you will likely share the same opinion that shooting looks terrible, but melee looks a bit more promising. With melee weapons you can chop off the limbs or heads of zombies and it doesn't sound all that easy to do, especially if you are facing multiple zombies. All of the weapons in the game will be craft-able and based on real world weapons, so there won't be anything crazy like basketball bombs or electric baseball bats. They may be adding durability to the game, but either way you will be able to find common melee weapons in buildings. However, you won't be able to use any random thing as a weapon and guns can only be found, not crafted. Different areas will have unique weapons and items, like military bases, plus you can find vehicles scattered around the world, vehicles that will need fuel. Fuel will also be used for many other things in the game, like crafting and generators.

State of Decay is planning to have nearly all of the functional buildings in the game to be capture-able and enter-able. You will set a main spot as your home, which is where you will conduct research, build new facilities, keep supplies, build a farm and a spot where you can sleep safely. Outposts are more refuge and supply areas that you can establish far away from your home. The only special thing a home needs to be made into a home, as opposed to an outpost, is a perimeter fence of some kind. When you are building a new structures you won't have total control over construction, like Minecraft, in order to make it fairly easy so you can focus more on other aspects of the game. Once you make a building an outpost or a home it will get an area of protection around that will not let zombies spawn in the area and it will be harder for zombies to infest nearby buildings, but none of that will stop zombies from other places from coming in and attacking that area.

The world will be changing as you go through it. Zombies will spawn, survivors will spawn and zombies will attack outposts and roam the world in the hordes. Everything will be more dangerous at night and zombies will obey the regular rules of sight and sound. During the day you might run into a few zombie loners, but at night they tend to be in much larger groups and much more aggressive. Since zombies can respawn you won't be able to permanently erase them from areas unless they are around an outpost or your home. Survivors will also respawn, but if too many die it will become increasingly difficult to find more. Survivors aren't going to be static entities either, you will have to earn their trust and each will have a different outlook. You may run into some that are openly friendly, while others are more reserved, but they haven't clarified if there will be the possibility of running into hostile survivors.

You, and the survivors, will need food and you will have to roam the world to gather supplies, but you can also eventually set up a farm at your home and eventually they want to add the option to have livestock. Presumably if you have a huge amount of outposts set up in the world you will need an immense amount of supplies to keep everyone well fed. You can send people out on missions to gather food or scout, plus you can call in assistance if you in a tricky situation, but I'm sure that is all relative to research and how developed your outposts and homes are. Each outpost and home will have a limit, based on the building, for how many survivors you can recruit.

State of Decay will have a story in the game, so it won't be entirely open ended sandbox with little lore and no direction. You start off in a mountain, coming back from a fishing trap, and run into a zombie apocalypse that has been going for two weeks. You will be able to technically finish the game, but even after that you can still come back into the world and keep playing. While State of Decay will be singleplayer only it will also have some persistent offline elements. If you had upgrades being built when you logged out then those will continue to build while you are offline, same goes for weapon repairs. Your communities will also slowly eat food while you are offline, so if you log off for months you may come back to a bunch of starving people and hopefully that means they will also give you time to rebuild your supplies before losing people if you are only playing every so often.

If the State of Decay release goes well and the game does well then they plan to turn the game into something very similar to the War Z and Day Z, a multiplayer zombie survival game. Much of this information has been revealed through Q&A's over the last couple of months and more of those should be coming, like one on character creation. State of Decay has some good ideas and sounds like the kind of zombie game I have always wanted to play, ever since I saw Night of the Living Dead in the 90's. Here is to hoping this is a great game, but for now we the impending releases of the War Z and DayZ standalone this Fall. Thanks for reading and for more information take a look at the links below.
Main Website: http://undeadlabs.com/stateofdecay/
Q&A #1: http://undeadlabs.com/forums
Q&A #2: http://undeadlabs.com/forums

-Written by Sean Cargle

PopCap, A Human Approach

2012-08-21T16:57:00.000-07:00

In the last couple of days there has been a lot of talk of PopCap, the developers behind the massively popular Plants versus Zombies and Peggle, letting go a large portion of their staff. This seemed immensely odd since they had just announced Plants vs Zombies 2 yesterday. Today the co-founder of PopCap, John Vechey, addressed everyone in a letter that is incredibly sympathetic to all of those losing their jobs and devoid of marketing terms, it is very human. It is sadly rare for a company to be this open about everything that is going and to address the situation so thoroughly. John explains that PopCap is indeed letting many people go, mostly in their US studio, but they are still pushing forward into the gaming world and trying to deal with the new challenges put forth by the free to play and social gaming market. Here is two of my favorite paragraphs from the post,

"But this morning we informed our employees about a reorganization in our studios that will include a “Reduction In Force” in our North American operation – mostly in our headquarters here in Seattle – and an “exploratory consultation” to evaluate the future of our PopCap office in Dublin, Ireland.

And now in English: “Reduction In Force” means that some people are losing their jobs. “Exploratory consultation” means we’re talking to our Dublin team about the future of that office and whether we can find a path to improve our profitability in Europe without having to close the operation. Today’s news is something you expect periodically from a company in a fast-changing industry, but it sucks if you’re one of the people losing his or her job. These people are our friends and we don’t like doing this."

Check out the whole post here and see everything he had to say. I wish more companies would take this approach that says exactly what is going on, why it is happening, and what it means for the company. Thanks for checking it out and take a look at our post yesterday for the news on Planets versus Zombies 2.

-Written by Sean Cargle