Dec 23
2008
2008
Well, our regular subscribers will have surely noticed that it’s been a little quiet in GR land the past few weeks. But fear not, we have not forgotten you, our loyal minions of return minionness. It5’s gotten back to that time of year when everyone, even we, your review writing lords, have a lot to deal with.
At present, our duties consist of :
1) Shouting at the TV
2) Shouting at each other
3) Shouting at ourselves
4) Eating cake
And E) Sleeping in the garden
However, come the other side of the new year, bot the Reaper and I will return with an impressive line up of both new and old games for you to sink your teeth into. I don’t want to go into too much detail about our little secret project, but I can assure you it is something on a scale not previously considered. Something that has been made possible only now through the keen application of Ebay, an old CRT Television and a lama called Steve.
We will also be briinging you Fallout 3 for both Playstation 3 and PC, Siren Blood Curse, Rainbow Six Vegas and several more titles that you may still be uhming and ahhing about that we can, perchance, inform you correctly about. Both the good and the bad aspects. Watch this space my loyal minions, thine faith shall be rewarded.
Nov 18
2008
2008
Dead Space “make us whole again”
By: The Almighty Bobfish Category: Dead Space, PC
ELECTRONIC ARTS, FOR many years the laughing stock of the gaming world. Pointless sports title after ever more pointless sports title. Many of us wondered how the company that brought us Desert Strike, Road Rash and the Buck Rogers games could have sunk so low in such a short period of time. And, somehow, still stay in business.
And then, last year, out of nowhere, the old EA suddenly came back. Announcing a plethora of new, and extremely inventive titles for the following (now current) year. Amongst them being Dead Space. Originally it seemed to be a Playstation 3 exclusive, though this ultimately proved not to be the case as it was simultaneously released both on the X-Box 360 and a week later for the PC as well. Though it was originally intended for a worldwide release on October 31st, it was put forward (likely due to a rather significant demand from the eagerly waiting players) to the 14th.
So, that begs the question, was it worthy of all the fuss?
Well, I can’t speak for the console version of the game, but the PC release certainly kept me entertained. It’s somewhat clichéd and formulaic, but unlike many such experiences, does not suffer from such as it was clearly intended to be so. From the initial, unarmed mad dash to escape from the first Necromorph, who almost catches you, but is crushed in the closing of an elevator door, to the “shock” twist in the closing cinematic, there is little that could be hailed as truly original. But it at no point ever really tries to be. EA have taken a tried and tested formula, thrown in some new characters (the protagonist taking after Gordon Freeman and never speaking) an impressive array of environments (especially considering almost the entire game takes place aboard a self-contained space craft) and some top-notch scripting and voice work.
It’s a combination of each of those things, along with the understated score by Jason Graves, the constantly oppressive atmosphere and the outstanding quality of the visuals which are all the more impressive considering the surprisingly low requirements for the game. Even on my decidedly sub-par rig it ran at a smooth 25+ frames per second with the settings maxed out at a 1024×768. I could even run at full 16×12 without noticing any significant slowdown, but I prefer the latter resolution for some reason. Though, it’s worth noting, that in some of the areas where there was a lot going on, such as environments with mist or lots of particulate matter in the air, my framerate took a bit of a dive. But even at it’s worst if never dropped below 16. Which is really, really impressive since I’m only just exceeding the minimum requirements.
The basic premise of the game is straightforward enough. Our erstwhile hero, Isaac Clark (a lowly repair tech) is sent to the USG Ishimura, a planet cracker (which does mean what you think it means, the planet crackers literally blast planets into asteroid chunks which can then be mined for raw materials) after all communication is cut off. Even before they dock with the ship the problems start as an impact from space debris forces an emergency landing. And then inside the space dock the crew are set upon by the Necromorphs, the pilot co-pilot is killed, and Isaac is separated from his crew mates Kendra Daniels (a tech expert) and Sergeant Zach Hammond.
Unarmed and alone, thinks don’t look so good for our friend the technician. But fear not, he quickly procures a plasma cutter for himself, and steels himself for a slaughter fest of suitably and satisfyingly gruesome proportions. The game is even designed to encourage dismemberment of your opponents, unlike those which have such features included for the sake of a little gore, with Dead Space you are actively encouraged to shoot off the Necromorph’s legs, arms, heads and…other appendages rather than just pumping a stream of bullets into them. This actually makes your initial weapon, whilst slow and theoretically weak, your most useful tool as it is designed, as the name implies, for cutting and features two firing modes. One for vertical cutting, and one for horizontal. Each of the weapons you will procure feature alternate firing methods, but the cutter, in my opinion, has the most useful as ammo is plentiful, and it can be adjusted for maximum efficiency in any environment. Such as when traversing a zero gravity environment where up and down are subjective to where you want them to be.
Overall, the game was pretty straightforward and didn’t really feature any groundbreaking ideas or new concepts in gameplay. It simply stuck to a refined, well rehearsed method of tense wanderings and intense bouts of action, with a few bits and pieces of mild puzzle solving along the way. But it is clear from the outset that the atmosphere of the game is the most important thing, and in this regard it succeeds magnificently. Easily elevating a truthly quite plain game into a thoroughly enjoyable survival horror, one of the few that actually succeeds in finding a good balance between the two. There was only one problem I could find with the game, and this came in the form of the aiming controls. A bane I usually associate only with console games (showing that this was clearly moved to the PC second) but it would at times be either much too slow, or far too fast, resulting in a number of irritating deaths when I found myself blasting the wall, or the floor at my feet instead of the slavering un-dead alien/human/monster thing only two feet away.
Simply put, Dead Space is an entertaining, replayable and cheesy as all hell (seriously, you can see the plot twists coming hours in advance) zombie romp with an, actually almost completely unimportant, alien flavour. And it’s a combination of all these things which makes it so much fun, because it never claims to be anything else. I would recommend before you do play the game that you track down and watch the six video comics that give details of the events directly leading up to and causing the problems aboard the Ishimura. They are all available for download on the Playstation Network, and I would assume on the X-Box Marketplace as well. They are not really integral to the plot, but they do add some interesting backstory, and will avoid those little moments where you sit wondering exactly what everyone is talking about.
Graphics: 9/10
Gameplay: 8.5/10
Audio/Music: 9/10
Plot/Scripting: 9/10
Overall: 8.5/10
Aug 03
2008
2008
Steam Review - “The Nexux of Online Gaming”
By: Twitchenstein Category: PC
Steampowered.com, Steam’s official website, describes it as the “nexus of online gaming.” It is a free program designed for PC Gamers that want to get more out of their online experience. It is noted for its feature that allows players to download big-label games right to their computer without a CD or Key to keep track of.
Once you have an account, all your games are saved to it and you can download them to any computer. Another feature that attracts many users is the “friends” system. The Steam Community feature not only has an overlay system in which players can chat during game play, but it also has a voice chat system that is almost exactly like talking on the phone- for free!
Why Does it Rock?
I have been a Steam user for years, and it has made my life a lot simpler. It is a great way to keep track of your games and cool people to play with. The game selection is huge and sales and discounts are offered regularly in the online store.
The program itself runs in a tabbed window, but you can close it and choose which features to keep open, such as your friends list or a chat box. Another great facet is that Steam automatically updates your games, so you won’t need to worry about whether a patch download is the newest version or if it has a virus. Steam also keeps you updated on gaming news and upcoming events.
What’s the Catch?
As great as Steam sounds, though, it has flaws just like any other program. It is constantly running in the background of your computer, even if you close it. Some people find that just exiting is not enough; that they need to end the Steam.exe process.
This issue will only truly affect players with slower computers. Another issue is that occasionally Steam malfunctions in ways that can inconvenience you, such as a friends list not working or a game refusing to start. Usually, these are problems that have quick fixes which can be found anywhere except the Steampowered.com technical support section (all hail google). Thankfully, though, these issues are few and far between.
Overall
Overall It’s a great program and a lifesaver. Like anything, it has its flaws but the hardworking folks at Steam are always working hard and releasing Automatic Updates that fix the newest issues. I love it and give it a 9/10.
Jul 22
2008
2008
Puzzle Quest: Challenge of the Warlords Review
By: Adam Milecki Category: PC, Puzzle Quest: Challenge of the Warlords
I’ll start with a confession. I don’t tend to like your average RPG. As often heralded as they may be, I just can’t quite bring myself to tolerate yet another clichéd fantasy hero going on yet another clichéd quest; all the while, having the clichéd experience of a lifetime!
I often feel RPGs are more anime than game. This is not a knock at anime. It’s a knock at RPGs for tending to not be as interactive as I feel they should be. Before you complain, I fully concede that there are many great RPGs out there. It’s just yet another genre plagued with oversaturation, as well as not quite being my cup of tea to begin with.
All of that said, while standard RPGs may cause me to shy away, hybrid RPGs (games that combine a genre or genres with RPG elements) can really get me excited. The Boktai series, strategy RPGs, the later Castlevania games-these are all hybrid RPGs that I have a lot of fun with. The list goes on. Puzzle Quest: Challenge of the Warlords has deservingly added itself to this list.
When I first heard of Puzzle Quest I was quite wary. It’s basically an RPG with gameplay mostly based around a competitive version of the well-known casual puzzle game Bejeweled. In the past, Bejeweled proved itself to be a bit too simplistic for my taste but was just on the border of addictive and fun.
Puzzle Quest puts Bejeweled’s gameplay mechanics well over that border into very addictive and very fun territory. Puzzle Quest’s addition to the gameplay mechanics includes heroes of differing classes, spells, items, mounts, companions and RPG stats with leveling. There’s even multiplayer support via LAN or over the internet using IP addresses.
There’s additional gameplay outside of the gem-matching puzzle battles. You navigate a map visiting various kingdoms, accepting quests, even sieging, running and building your own citadels. Once citadels are properly built up, you can visit them to solve puzzles and pay gold to train your hero.
The citadel puzzles forge items, train captured mounts and teach you spells from captured enemies. Anyone familiar with the Heroes of Might and Magic series will see a lot of similarities in Puzzle Quest. Replace HoMM’s strategic war battles with Puzzle Quest’s puzzle battles and you have a game strikingly similar to Puzzle Quest.
The storyline of the game is a bit hackneyed, as one might fear, but its still fairly well done and interesting. It never gets in the way of the core gameplay and only enhances it. The graphics are well-done with a nice anime style. This style is carried throughout the entire game from the characters to the monsters and locations you visit.
Even the music and sounds are quite well done and fit the games epic fantasy atmosphere well. These are all areas that the developers could have easily slacked on, making the game more of a puzzler with RPG aspects, but they chose to make a full-blown RPG with prominent puzzle gameplay-a daring and definitely successful endeavor. While the gameplay is fairly repetitive there seems to always be a way to switch things up a bit.
Puzzle Quest has been ported to several consoles. I’m personally familiar with the PC and Nintendo DS versions. I’d recommend avoiding the handheld versions. The PSP version has an unfortunate bug rendering companions moot and the NDS version is rather unbalanced.
The presence of cheating AI is questionable in all versions. If it does cheat, I don’t feel it to be very noticeable or a major problem for that matter (at least in the PC version). All things considered, my advice is to grab yourself a patchable version (PC or Xbox 360) just to be safe.
While the PC version is moddable, the Xbox 360 will be receiving a purchasable expansion pack subtitled Revenge of the Plague Lord that has yet to be announced for any other system. Puzzle Quest: Challenge of the Warlords is a great game considering the overall quality and is surprisingly deep for a puzzle game. The relatively low price point doesn’t hurt either.
Jul 14
2008
2008
PC Game Hints: Where I Stand
By: Richard Martens Category: PC
Image via Wikipedia
Before I get started I am going to make a statement. I in no way agree with using cheat codes in a game until you have beat it fair and square. Now that I have said that let me make a small differentiation between cheating, and getting help.
Cheating is when you punch in a code, or alter the code of the game in some way to give yourself and advantage that makes the game easier to play. Getting help is when you ask a friend how the hell you get out of the room that you seem to be stuck in. One I believe is pointless and makes the game no fun to play. The other I try to not use, but there are times when I am damn glad it is available.
One of the great things about PC games (and games in general lately) is that they often have one or more places that require some real thinking to get past. Also they have lots of fun Easter eggs and reasons to replay the whole game from scratch. However this is also the annoying things about a lot of PC games.
I can’t count the times I have spent hours retracing every step looking for a clue or item that I know I had to miss to get further along in the game. However, with the internet, this is no longer the way it has to be. Now if I get truly stuck (and to me that means I have tried every possible thing I can think of) I can go on the internet type in help me figure out this game, and boom I can find a place where players either a bit smarter or more motivated (not sure which half the time) have figured out what to do when I get stuck.
I love these PC game hints and while I consider cheat codes an aberration, I consider this a totally fair way to beat a game.
I know this may seem hypocritical, and maybe it is, but I look at using a walkthrough as more akin to calling my friend for directions to his house, while I look at cheat codes as akin to copying your neighbors test answers. Call me crazy but that is where I stand.
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