2009
So what’s the big Crysis?
By: The Almightyly Impressed (and soon to be visited by the Jedireaper) Bobfish Category: Crysis, PC
GODS WHERE DO I even begin?
Crysis is one of those games that comes around sometimes. It gains masses of attention from both sides of the fence and leaves you wondering who to trust. Is it really that good? Can you judge a game entirely by it’s visuals (which are utterly amazing btw)? Is it all about the plot? Is it the game-play mechanics? Perhaps the enemy AI? Or the level design? Or could it be most important who has developed it and how much effort was put in?
Long story short , I honestly don’t care. I loved the game and I give my strongest recommendations for playing it. However, be warned. Though the listed specs are surprisingly low, they’re also massively inaccurate. Running even at recommended levels you will find yourself struggling with anything more than even low end settings. It’s a massive, swirling abyss of system drain that leaves you with a sense of having being violated in a most invasive, but nourishing and satisfying way. Much like a rather infamous moment at the end of a certain, pie oriented, teen comedy.
However, let it be said, Crysis is still some way from being the perfect game. It has a lot of strengths, but a few weaknesses as well. Some of which are elementary, though forgivable considering how relatively new Crytek are to the annals of video-game legend. Mark my words, the Cry Engine, if not Crytek as a whole, will be firmly entrenched in our memories for many years to come. Especially with the upcoming Cry3. It’s performance and visuals are, in my opinion, less pronounced than it’s first iteration, but considering it runs as efficiently on the two high definition consoles as well as the PC, and is only a little lower quality (High as opposed to Very High) this is something that could well be the next major breakthrough. But that is something to be decided by the release of Crysis 2, which is possibly due even as early as the middle of next year. Just remember to take that with a very large pinch of salt, because I will not lie to you, at this point, that release date is nothing more than fanciful speculation.
Anyway, to Crysis strengths I will list, of course, the visuals. I was only able to run on High with my rig, Very High requires DX10 or above which is not available to XP based operating systems. Though considering I was running at an average frame rate of 15, perhaps I should be glad of that. It removed the temptation to “crank it all the way up to 11” and fry my motherboard. I’ve done that in the past, and it’s not a pretty site I can assure you. But yes, the visuals are very, very good. Two years on and they’re still considered the man to beat. For a very good reason. They really are that good. I mean, just see for yourself.
But visuals alone are not enough to make a great game. All of those things listed above, well, to be honest, I think it needs all of them. Or rather, to be a great game it needs a strong showing from each. The plot, as it is, is a fairly straight forward sci-fi yarn. A quiet little island in the Phillipines has suddenly come under scrutiny by the North Korean Peoples Army, the KPA. As well as a team of American scientists (one of whom is voice by Claudia Black of Farscape fame) who are now being held hostage by the commanding officer, General Kyong. And this is where our intrepid (that means fearless by the way) band of heroes come into the mix. It is your job, along with your CO (Commanding Officer) Prophet, your NCO (None Commissioned Officer) Sergeant Psycho (a good old British lad) and two other lesser plebs who’s names I forget, to find the hostages and liberate them from their captivity.
But lo and behold, it isn’t that straightforward. Seems that, a few million years ago some Omlins (aliens, that’s my daughters word for aliens) crash landed on that very same island and have been sat in a dormant state, with their bio-organic technology, just waiting for a large enough energy source to wake them up again. From there, it doesn’t exactly fill you with confidence now does it? It’s far from an original idea, and it’s been done extremely well already. So it’s understandable if you’re somewhat dubious about how it all pans out. Fortunately, it pans out very well. And although the Omlins are revealed early on in the game, they only take a major role in events towards the very end. At least insofar as being the antagonist is concerned.
Crysis also features another, very nice, little addition which I appreciated immensely. On the highest difficulty, Delta, your usual aiming reticule is absent, meaning you have to judge your shots with more skill, or leave yourself vulnerable by bringing the sighting lenses to your eye and limiting your field of view. It serves as a very firm reminder that the game is designed far more around a black ops approach than rushing in guns blazing. Though your top secret nanosuit is well equipped to offer you a strong backing either way you go. With it’s Maximum Armour which soaks up gunfire extremely well, Maximum Strength which allows you to jump onto buildings, Maximum Speed which is far more useful for getting away than it may first seem, and Cloaking capabilities. I opted for the blending with nature and cloaking into the trees approach, but that doesn’t mean you have to.
You will also find yourself fiddling with your weapons as you progress and find new components such as a Sniping Scope, grenade launcher and the utterly invaluable laser sight. The latter, of course, makes you easier to spot by enemies, but gives you a much clearer idea of where your bullets are going to land. As well as this there are several different vehicles that you will have access too, many of them with a mounted light machine gun which tears through enemies, trees, and even most buildings with equal effect. Not to mention how much faster they make travelling. Though, again, it’s offset somewhat by how much more noticeable you are.
The AI is also solid, and not just the enemies either. There are several sections, especially later in the game, where you will be joined by the USMC. They’re far more effective in assisting you than in most games of this type. Though if there are more than about six or seven people around at a time their IQ seems to drop sharply, as demonstrated in my accompanying video. You’ll know what I mean when you see it. Still, inspite of this, they can give you a good challenge, and will often find you in the bushes even when cloaked because they’ve seen leaves moving, or your laser sight, or you just came too close.
So yes, to put it simply, Crysis is an amazing game. Extremely well crafted, solid, though system intensive, and stable. I look forward to more from Crytek in the years to come, and am already making some progress into Crysis WARHEAD, which seems to be at least as good so far.
Graphics: 9.5/10 (shocking huh?)
Gameplay: 9/10
Audio/Music: 9/10
Plot/Scripting: 8/10
Overall: 9/10
2009
A quick reminder
By: The Almighty Bobfish Category: Games
GamerzReviewz.com is not a professional video-game review magazine. In fact, we are intentionally the exact opposite. As the name implies we strive to provide frank and honest ground level impressions of video-games both old and new. Written for the people who play them, by the people who play them. Be you “casual” or “hardcore” or even an unashamed fanboy, all views will be given fair hearing. To that end, a call to those who read my meandering self-indulgence. If any of you wish to see your own work on here, if you have a burning desire to tell us how much you adore or loathe any game you have played then we encourage you to do so.
You can E-mail myself at sloucen@gmail.com with anything you wish to contribute. So long is it does not infringe any law or contain content which is too intrinsically mature it will most likely find it’s way on here in the fullness of time. Just be sure to title any messages as Gamerz Reviewz so it doesn’t hit my Junk folder.
2009
Resistance : Fall of Standards?
By: The Almighty Bobfish Category: PS3, Resistance
I’VE NEVER MADE any secret of my distaste for First Person Shooters. But at the same time, I feel that I’m liberal enough to offer then a fair hearing and give them a chance to win me over. On some occasions, this happens almost instantly (F.E.A.R). Other times they leave me wondering and start to grow on me (The Darkness). Sometimes they don’t grab me but I muddle through and see what happens (Halo). And sometimes they just leap right out at me and scream I SUCK! (Halo 3).
Which then, did Resistance fall into?
I have to say, and expect to be aggressively and mercilessly derided for doing so, that it fell rapidly into the latter. I honestly cannot fathom how it became such a major contender and why it has such a strong cadre of loyal followers. Graphically it was extremely poor, and not even the excuse of being an, effectively, launch title is enough to hide that fact. The textures…just don’t exist, and the animation is so clunky as to be beyond laughable. Leaping headfirst into the realms of SRSLY ZOMGWTFBBQ
And don’t even get me started on the massive mess the developers made of not only the topography (forgiveable for sake of game flow) but also the geography of England. If I’m not mistaken, Wales was listed as a bloody city. Just…wow! I cannot find the words to express the sheer sense of…wow!
The story, as far as it goes, is less than inspired as well. It borrows heavily from many other sources, and not incredibly effectively. The various pieces of intelligence scattered throughout the game make a valiant attempt to offer some depth to the events, but smack heavily of copious application of flange. Never a good thing. It was also extremely easy, though there is an extra difficult level unlocked that I haven’t explored. To be honest, I doubt I will, there just isn’t enough there to grab my attention.
At least is wasn’t a short game, as many shooters are. Though for a game with thirty “levels” it was decidedly shorter than you would expect. It took me probably twenty-five hours to play thorough, maybe a little more, and due to the layout of the game I can’t see it taking anything less than about eighteen even if you’re flying through. So I wonder, with a game so relatively large, how could Insomniac justify skimping out so much on everything else? I’m going to stop here because I really can’t find anything positive to add, and I don’t like to offer a stream of rhetoric. Suffice it to say that I firmly recommend against playing it. Though many others have found it to be an incredible buy. The decision remains with your good self.
Graphics: 6/10
Gameplay: 6/10
Audio/Music: 6/10
Plot/Scripting: 3/10
Overall: 4/10
Final note : It’s also worth mentioning the scene in the Manchester Cathedral. It troubles me when people create a stir over something like this on the grounds of…no, not violence, not disrespect for the house of the lord. But…zomg! Aliens in the house of God! Words cannot describe how banal that is.
2009
You got teh F.E.A.R 2
By: The Almighty Bobfish Category: F.E.A.R, PC, Preoject Origin
AFTER MUCH DEBATE, and some rather nasty back room dealings, the second official chapter in the F.E.A.R saga hit stores earlier this year. And immediately split the fanbase right down the middle with a massive, flaming meat cleaver sword of doomy doom.
Some were extremely pleased to find that the two expansions (Extraction Point and Perseus Mandate) were made obsolete by the new plot arc. I fell into the other (I believe smaller) category who were disappointed due to the quality of those two offerings, especially Extraction Point. But it matters little in the end, they’re no longer cannon and that’s the end of it. The worst part about that was how it left so many loose ends. Such as the fate of the three survivors from the first chapter. Jin and Holliday were, and still are, my two favourite characters from the series. Though Stokes is pretty cool, but I’ll come to her later.
The important question now is whether Project origin is worthy of it’s place as a sequel to one of the best games made so far. Which is another point which rapidly drew battle lines between the fans. Some did, indeed, very much like the new direction the game was moving in, and others utterly hated it. It seems very much that this is one of those cases where there is no middle ground. But then, there so rarely is anymore. So where do find ourselves at the end? All I’m going to say is that a game with actual hands to press buttons and open doors is an instant win in my books.
Thankfully, at least from my perspective, the game does a very good job of driving the plot forwards. Offering far more insights into the sordid affairs of Armacham. We find that not only was Alma bred for the sole purpose of creating pyschically controlled super soldiers, so too are a number of other children. Fairly early in the game we come to a school set up to train and develop what appear to be hundreds of potential pawns. A point that many will gloss over, but a thoroughly chilling concept when you sit and think about it for just a moment.
Still, that doesn’t answer the primary question. Is Project Origin a good game or not? A worthy successor yes, but that doesn’t immediately make it worth the time to play. I believe that, yes, it is an extremely good game. Not as good as it’s parent, but I spend much of my time explaining the vast difference between “not as good” and “bad”. It’s a very well constructed, solidly written and fun experience. The over abundance of Alma, especially during early stages of the game, irked me somewhat, but fit with the story (and fan requests). And the sudden rash of heavily combat oriented sections right near the very end went a long way towards spoiling the flow for me personally. I also found it to be a little too easy. The AI seemed to be more or less on par with what we were expecting, though the environments were more linear and gave them much less room to really make use of their team smarts. Which was another thumbs down for me.
But don’t let that fool you. No matter how well constructed something is, there will always be the weak points. The important thing is that F.E.A.R 2 has less marks against is than in its favour. Long story short, my thumbs up is definitely there. And I have to say, for such an advanced game I was thoroughly shocked at how low system requirements were. Ignore those listed (which is pretty standard for PC games, they always try and make it sound more impressive than it really is) this is an extremely well coded engine. It actually ran better than the first F.E.A.R did on my rig. Now that is a major case of kudos. Plus, Leftenant Stokes. She has some great lines that add a
sense of realism to the game. “Snakefist? Are you f***ing kidding me?!?”
Graphics: 9.5/10
Gameplay: 8.5/10
Audio/Music: 8.5/10
Plot/Scripting: 9/10
Overall: 9/10
2009
There have been a few things happening in the real world that have taken up most of my time recently. The most notable of them being a visit from my daughter and the purchase of a new PC. But fear not, I have also been busy thrashing the arse off a number of games in my spare time, and have developed a backlog of some of the more recent titles. I’ll be working through them, as well as some older games that I’ve prepared material for, over the next few weeks. By which point I should probably have some more of the newer titles ready to go as well.
Two reviews will be coming either tomorrow or Thursday. Resistance for the Playstation 3, and F.E.A.R 2 PC. And that’s just the tip of the iceberg.
Eyes peeled peeps
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