Catching Up - Braid and Amnesia: The Dark Descent

A while back that ridiculous Humble Indie Bundle came out with pretty much every good game ever. Even though I already owned several of the games, I bought it anyway, gifted away my duplicates and set to playing two games I should have played already, but never got round to - Braid and Amnesia: The Dark Descent. Spoilers await below.


Braid
Last night at around 2:30am I completed Braid.

I'd like to point out that I actually aided a friend in the completion of the game around the time of release on Xbox Live Arcade back in 2008, so I was up to date on the story, but enough time had passed for me to have no advantage when attempting the puzzles.

But, as those of you who have finished the game will know, Braid isn't about the puzzles. If you are under the impression that it's a quaint little indie Mario-style game with time bending mechanics then I'm afraid you've been horribly misled. I watched Indie Game: The Movie a few weeks ago (something which I would recommend to anyone at all interested in the industry), and learned that Jonathan Blow, the maker of the game actually slipped into depression not long after Braid was released. To an outsider, this would seem utterly ridiculous. The game is the highest rated title on XBLA ever, was the second highest selling game on the service in 2008, and made Blow very rich, very quickly. To him, people were enjoying the puzzles, and that was fine, they just weren't "getting" it. The philosophical and highly mature side of the story only reveals itself fully if you complete the entire game, and that is what a lot of people were missing.

As I say, I knew prior to last night's completion what happened at the end of the game, and I remembered the final level fairly vividly. It speaks to the game's quality that I remember this almost four years after its release, and yet I can't really remember much of what happened in Max Payne 3 which I played and reviewed about two months ago.

Braid is a simple story about Tim, a guy who is trying to save his Princess from an evil monster. To do this he has to solve puzzles while manipulating time. But the thing about time in Braid is that it isn't linear, and it certainly isn't simple. Not only does that relate to the puzzles, but also to the story itself. The final level in the game takes place in World 1. The level begins and Tim sees the evil Knight holding on to the Princess whilst holding onto a vine hanging down from above.

"I got you!" He sneers.

But the Princess manages to escape his clutches and jump up to a ledge above him.

"Get down here!" He shouts after her.

"Help!" She cries out to Tim who is watching all of this from below.

Just then a wall of flame erupts from the left side of the screen, engulfing everything in its path. Tim runs to the right in the lower section of the level, with the Princess above him, and they aid each other by pulling levers and lowering ladders to help each other escape their impending doom.

Tim finally reaches a ladder, and climbs up to his Princess who is on the other side of some glass. And then, whiteness.

The princess is asleep in the room behind the glass, and Tim can't reach her. The only thing that can be done is rewind time, and then everything becomes clear. Time isn't being rewound, but allowed to run forwards.

The Princess is fleeing from Tim, setting traps and blocking off routes up to her which Tim manages to narrowly avoid each time. She then sees her Knight up ahead, and knows that she is going to be safe.

"Help!" She cries out to the Knight, while Tim watches helplessly from below.

"Get down here!" He shouts to her.

The Princess jumps down to from the ledge and into the loving grasp of her Knight.

"I got you!" He soothes her, and they escape up the vine to safety.

The epilogue contains text ambiguously explaining the story of Braid. Blow has never revealed the true meaning, and that is the point - it's very open to interpretation. One of my favourite theories is the Atomic Bomb theory, which can be found by clicking this link. It posits that Tim is a scientist working on the first Atomic Bomb, and that The Princess is the bomb herself. This would explain several references in the text hinting at locations and quotations surrounding the development of the bomb, and the wall of flame at the end of the game, and some of the artwork which suggests a Manhattan setting. My favourite thing about the story though, is that we will never know the exact meaning, and that's how it should stay in my view.

Story aside, the final moments of the game are a masterpiece in level design. The fact that Blow can make a level work both backwards and forwards, and have two entirely different meanings is a very impressive achievement. I'm very much looking forward to the next game that can combine storytelling and gameplay in such a tight way.


Amnesia: The Dark Descent
Again, I've seen the majority of Amnesia being played, so I knew what to expect here. You would have thought that would negate some of the horror impact of the game. Nope.

I haven't really got very far into the game playing on my own. Conceptually I'm a big fan of the game, but then I can never bring myself to put myself through playing it, which is a shame. I did do the water monster bit though, which is no mean feat, as people who have played the game will confirm.

One day I will finish it. Maybe.

The new Amnesia game, A Machine for Pigs got delayed until 2013 recently, and I breathed a sigh of relief. I really want to play it, but at least now I've got more time to prepare for it. You can read my preview of the game I wrote by clicking on this link.

That's it for now, thanks for reading, have a good weekend whatever you're doing. I'm going to see Batman, can't wait.

E3 2012 Part 1 - Microsoft

The biggest press event in the gaming calendar is here! E3 2012 started today and I'll be attempting to watch all of the press conferences and write about what has been sparking my interest.

Microsoft Press Conference
The entire theatre started awash with Microsoft's familiar green light, and then there it was - a FMV Halo 4 trailer! Now I've never been the biggest fan of Halo, and my hopes of something new were dashed when I saw that the first enemies to be seen were Grunts, Jackals and Elites. But wait, that Elite just disintegrated... wait, what are those glowing crawling animal robot things? Awesome, something new from the Halo franchise, perhaps I'll be excited about it after all.

Next up was Splinter Cell Blacklist. I remember when these were highly unforgiving stealth games, but not any more. This origin story sees Sam Fisher running and gunning his way through hordes of enemies, and scaling walls like a monkey. I haven't confirmed this, but I don't think Michael Ironside was voicing young Fisher, which made me a bit sad, but we'll see.

I know lots of "proper" gamers don't like sports games, but that's only because they're wrong. Fifa 13 will be the new slightly improved football game for this year, and will feature Kinect support for the first time. You can make substitutions without going into menus, can call for passes and so on. My favourite part was when they showed a player being caught by the offside trap and swearing at the Kinect (it was beeped out, kid friendly show). The Kinect picked up on this however and the commentator began saying how the player was unhappy about being caught out, very amusing.

Madden 13 too will feature Kinect support, and the presentation even featured legendary quarterback Joe Montana! I found it funny that no one seemed to be acknowledging that Sega made the largely unsuccessful Joe Montana football games back in the nineties, but anyway. Montana began to call plays using his voice rather than a controller and then proceeded to score a touchdown! Against the Seahawks, with the Niners, what a dick.

Fable The Journey is a Kinect Fable game. Yay.

Gears of War Judgment got a trailer too, sparking many debates about what the correct spelling of that word is. The trailer didn't show much other than confirming that it is indeed a new Gears of War game, so there's that.

Then there was dubstep, which can only mean one thing: a racing game! Forza Horizon was on show, and this time they're leaving the track and heading out into the open world, and it looks very, very pretty. I've never been drawn to the Forza franchise despite being a big racing fan, hopefully this will do something to persuade me.

Last year we saw the new Tomb Raider game, and this year we got to see a bit more! The gameplay looks incredibly fast paced, seeing Lara running, jumping, shooting and stabbing her way through the level at breakneck speed. I'm hoping that there will be more of an exploration element to the finished game, but I guess they have to show off the exciting sections here.

Then three new titles. Ascend New Gods seems like a fantasy beat em up, in the same vein as God of War, and I'm not quite sure what to make of it from what they showed. Then they showed a trailer for a game called Lococycle, and in the notes I made for the press conference it says "Wat???????", so there you go. Go and watch the trailer. Then finally 343 Guilty Spark was floating around a test chamber from Portal and apparently that's going to be called Matter. 


But that doesn't Matter because Resident Evil 6 was next, and much like Tomb Raider the action was fast and action packed, with explosions and fire and helicopters and quick time events out the arse. I wasn't particularly interested, but then I haven't been interested in a RE game for a long time now.

Trey Parker and Matt Stone, the creators of South Park then made an appearance to grant some much needed levity to the press conference. They were showing off South Park: The Stick of Truth, well not so much showing it off as showing a trailer which gave no indication of what the game will be. You will be playing as the new kid in town who is trying to become cool and be the fifth member of the group. It remains to be seen just how this will be done and whether it will be any good or not.

Then for some reason Usher came out and sang a song and danced. A lot. And then he left and apparently that was them showing off Dance Central 3, huh.

Finally, Microsoft closed out their star studded show with the big guns, quite literally. Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 or CODBLOPS2 if you're feeling that way inclined showed the public what they've been showing press since the game got announced a while back. There's a female president and holographic devices, so you know it's the future. Also there's a gun which you can "charge up" which apparently means it can shoot through solid concrete to kill guys on the other side. The gameplay demonstration takes place in Los Angeles and shows the branching storylines and differing tactics you can use to approach your mission. At one point you can choose to either snipe from the top of the broken freeway or rappel down and shoot guys that way. Okay fine, it's not really revolutionary, but at least it's a step in the right direction for the ageing franchise. The most interesting part for me was the use of drones which could be controlled using a PDA thing on your wrist, and that there was a pilot-able jet. I'm unsure whether the jet is on semi- rails, as there didn't seem to be a way to alter your altitude when you wanted to, but I could be wrong about that. Also, the future is black, apparently.

So that was Microsoft's press conference. I'll be writing up EA and Ubisoft's respective press conferences early on tomorrow, and then I'll hopefully be able to do Sony and Nintendo's later in the day.

Excited about games yet? I sure am, and we're only a couple of hours in to this epic event. Thanks for reading, see you later.

Diablo 3, Max Payne 3 & The Walking Dead

It has been over a month since my last blog post, and I'm glad to be back writing again.

The reason for my hiatus was my university finals, and now that they're over I am no longer in full time education! How did I celebrate? By downloading the games I had been missing out on over the past few months of course.

Diablo III
This was the one. Of all the titles I wanted to play during my revision, this was the one that was tempting me the most, not least because half of my friends list on Steam were playing it 24/7, and that's only the ones that had bothered to add it to their non-steam game list. So, this morning, the morning after what I hope was my last ever exam, I downloaded it (very quickly, Blizzard have definitely upgraded their downloader since I last played one of their games) and logged in, after a minute or so trying to find the authenticator app on my phone.

Oh, this thing, I remember reading about this issue that was occurring over the first few days after the game's release. Maybe it was just giving me the full experience?

Nope, not working. Okay, I'll play that later.

The Walking Dead
Since Diablo was walking, I thought I'd jump into one of the other games I had been itching to play. I've never read the comics or seen the television adaptation of this series, so I wasn't really sure what to expect. After reading multiple favourable reviews I thought I would give it a go though, and I definitely wasn't disappointed. It also makes me want to at least watch the TV show, if the writing is up to the same quality as it is in the game - which will be another huge time sink, but hey, I'm technically unemployed now, time is one of the things I do have.

It's a game about zombies, which I continue to say I don't enjoy the idea of, yet still seem to keep playing them (Dead Island, Dead Space, Dead Rising, etc). Telltale Games, the masters of episodic adventure titles strike again (they kinda struck out with that Jurassic Park one, but we'll forgive them for now), with more item collection and quick time events! It's a lot better than it sounds though, as the entire thing is wrapped up in a great little story which really makes you empathise with the characters over the short play time with clever dialogue sequences and tricky decisions to make along the way.

There's only one episode out at the moment, but there are four more to come and I am very much looking forward to playing them, after the huge CLIFFHANGER at the end of the first. Spoiler: The woman says "I think everything is going to be okay" - and then all the lights go out. One of the weakest plot moments of the entire episode I must admit.

Max Payne 3
I was considering getting this for console, but now I'm going to be reviewing the PC version for Hooked Gamers, so I'm waiting a few extra days for it to be released on Steam. Check back for that!

For now though, I'm going to revel in my new found mountains of student debt - thanks for reading, have a good one.

What to do in Dota 2 - Part 3

I was scared again. I had managed to score my first Dota 2 victory, but it was only against computer controlled bots. Now I was joining a game against real life humans, who had most likely played a lot more of this game than I had. What if I messed up and they made fun of me? Oh, I remember, I couldn't care less what people on the Internet type in text chat to me. Although one time a guy said my story was cool, and then called me bro. He was nice.

Windrunner was my hero of choice this time. She's a feisty redhead with a bow and arrow with shots that can shackle enemies to each other or to trees, and an ultimate ability which increases the rate at which she fires at a target for a period of time. Within the first five minutes I had gotten my first enemy hero kill, FIRST BLOOD. I got an extra bit of gold and experience for getting the first kill. Either I was getting better, or this hero was good for the way I played.

I was paying more attention to the minimap this time, seeing where the enemy heroes were, and where my allies were. If an enemy hero was all on their own and a few of us were nearby, we could go and kill it, and it was working well. A couple of us got caught out though, and a group of enemy heroes made quick work of us.

"Stop dat feed."

Clearly someone on our team wasn't pleased with us for dying. Feeding is where you needlessly die to enemy heroes, thereby granting them extra gold and experience with no gain for your team. That's bad. Woops.

It was a close game. We were trading kills and towers were getting destroyed on both sides. Some barracks on opposing sides of the map had been destroyed, which meant that "Mega" Creeps had started spawning, which can sometimes even pose a threat to heroes if there's a large enough group of them. The game was nearing an end, probably all it would take was a big hero battle to decide it.

That battle soon came. I didn't feel like my ultimate ability was as powerful as a lot of heroes', who do massive area of effect damage. Mine simply allowed me to focus fire on one hero, which wasn't doing the battle as a whole much good. We lost all of our heroes, and three of theirs were left standing, this meant trouble for our remaining structures. Since most of us had a fairly lengthy respawn timer by that point, the enemies were able to destroy the towers surrounding our Ancient and start attacking it. We all managed to spawn just in time to drive them back with our Ancient barely standing on around 15% health.

While all this was going on, it became apparent that our creeps were making some headway on the other side of the map, unbeknownst to us, and more importantly the enemy. They had managed to destroy the towers surrounding the enemy ancient and were beginning to attack it! And the enemy heroes were either dead or halfway across the map.

Radiant Victory!

We had won the battle, and man was it close. Our team had all assumed defeat, and yet with no help from us, our creeps had won us the game. I was beginning to really enjoy this game now, and couldn't wait to join some more games and try some new heroes out.

Thanks for reading, have a good one.

What to do in Dota 2 - Part 2

If you haven't read the first part I posted yesterday, go and read it now. It's fine, I'll wait.

Surprisingly, considering the stories I had heard, there wasn't a lot of hostility towards me as a new player. Maybe I had learnt enough about the game before going in, or maybe the people I was playing with were just being nice.

Sadly, it turns out the latter was true.

I started my second game, this time as the Dark Seer. He has abilities like being able to suck all the units in an area into a vacuum for a short time, dealing damage to them, and a handy support ability which cloaks the target in an ion shell, which does damage to nearby enemies. His ultimate ability creates a huge light wall, which, if crossed by an enemy hero, will create a copy of that hero which serves under the Dark Seer's will. Not only is it handy, it looks REALLY cool.

So, the game loaded. Apparently that day Blizzard had added a new class, the Brewmaster into the game.

"I'm just playing against bots to try and Brewmaster, why are you all here, lol?"

Oh good, some know it all veteran come to test a new hero amongst the plebs.

The game went much the same way as the first one, we were all levelling up, getting new items and so on, and at about level six or seven our resident expert piped up again.

"DS why don't you help?"

I checked all of the heroes that people on my team were playing, DS could only stand for Dark Seer, my hero. I had no idea what he meant... it seemed that everyone on my team had suddenly decided without any communication to group up on one side of the map and were engaged in a battle with a group of enemy heroes. Had I missed something? Perhaps there's a certain time when everyone groups up and starts the "team battle" phase, but I sure as hell didn't know when that was.

I trudged across the map to go and help, laid down my "Wall of Replica", and helped kill a hero or two. But then I got sniped, by the aptly named "Sniper". Two of the people on my team spoke this time.

"Omg seriously?"
"Got killed by a bot LOL"

Okay, maybe they're right, maybe I need to step up my game a bit. I decided to start following the more veteran players to see what they were doing.

The trick when the creeps are fighting each other in the middle of the map is to try and get the killing blow on enemy units, whilst also trying to scare away enemy heroes so they don't get the bonus experience and gold from killing friendly units. Sometimes an enemy hero would stray too close to our group, and everyone would use their stunning effects to give time for the gankers to deal the massive damage. I felt proud of myself for using my Vacuum ability to suck a few heroes in before they got finished off by our melee units. Clearly my allies weren't as impressed, maybe it's something they see every game, or maybe they just don't speak unless they're insulting you, who knows?

"I'm going for two Daedalus, lol"

Professor Dota was talking again. The Daedalus is one of the better weapons in the game, with +81 damage and a giving you a 25% chance to critical strike, which does 2.5x normal damage. They're fairly expensive, so getting two of them is no mean feat. This player was clearly good enough to rack up enough cash to do it though.

This game was a lot easier than the first. I reckon that there were a lot more new players in the first game than this one, and it definitely showed. We were destroying enemy structures like nobody's business, and eventually we were able to just walk up to the opposing Ancient and hack it to pieces.

My first Dota 2 victory! It felt good.

I figured it was time to do away with the bots, and start going against human opponents, that's where the real competition was to be had after all.

And indeed, it turned out to be the most exciting game yet, but that's a story for another day.

Thanks for reading, see you next time

Assassin's Creed 3, 3DS, Total War Shogun 2

Short post today:

Here's the third episode of Gaming News of the Week, check it out if you've got a few minutes free!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uvpSopvaf78&context=C41c3ef8ADvjVQa1PpcFMl0KRhfYw3MBgsDYa4DBpoJHtIpVCzSlI=

Thanks, have a good one

Steam Deals & Total War: Shogun 2

There have been some pretty sick deals on Steam this week. I picked up Total War: Shogun 2 for a mere £7.50, which is a bargain seeing as the game is barely a year old, and not only that, it was one of the better games of last year.

Total War: Shogun 2

I've played a good few hours so far, and am very much enjoying it. There's one niggling thing that annoys me about it though: I don't know anything about the setting. It makes me wish that the game was set in one of the other time periods the Total War franchise has visited, just with the mechanics from this one. I loved the Medieval, Rome, Empire and Napoleon games, and part of that was probably because those are some of my favourite periods from history. One historical setting I would like to see from the franchise is Alfred era Britain, close to the formation of England as a single country. That would be cool.

In Shogun however, it's feudal Japan, and you take on the responsibilities of one of the multiple clans in the country at that time and embark on your quest to become Shogun. In terms of strategy games in recent times, I've been playing Civilisation 5 and Crusader Kings 2, so it was kind of a shock to come back to the all out war scenario. The game lacks the depth of those other ones due to the fact that the campaign is basically kill or be killed, rather than being able to forge alliances and win through diplomatic or economic victory. But what it lacks there, it makes up for by making the war element so damned fun. 

What has always set the Total War series aside from other strategy games is the real time battle system. Shogun's is just as good as it's always been (it doesn't seem like they've changed it much), and although I don't know much about the setting, it's still pretty awesome to see samurai and the like battling against each other. 

Square Enix Weekend

Today (Saturday through Sunday), you can get 75% off all the Deus Ex games, which, like Shogun, is another steal. £7.50 for Human Revolution, which, while it wasn't as good as we were all hoping it to be after the precedent set by the original, was still one of the better games of last year, horrible boss battles aside. (Which the developer outright apologised for, which I thought was pretty funny)

Speaking of that original, it's £1.50. That's basically zero pounds, come on.

Looks like Thief, Lara Croft, Just Cause, Dungeon Siege, Kane and Lynch and Hitman will also be on sale over the next few days, so be sure to check out what's going on in the Steam store if any of those tickle your fancy.

Remember to check out my new video series, Gaming News of the Week on YouTube! 

Also I'm in the middle of writing a Trials Evolution preview, which I am hella excited about. So look for that over the next week or so.

Thanks for reading, have a good one

GNotW Episode 2

Hi, how's it going?

I've made a new video, it has more Mass Effect 3 news (yawn), Game, World of Warcraft, Minecraft and a bunch of games which I suck at playing. So something for everyone!

I've got more plans for this series, so stick with it as it's only going to get better and leave me some feedback if you want to see something changed.

You can click right here to get to YouTube, or watch the embedded video below. Hope you enjoy it!

Thanks for reading/ watching. Have a good weekend.

Gaming News of the Week

...and now for something completely different.

I decided to try my hand at video editing and speaking into a microphone, and then somehow combining those two things into an interesting (hopefully) weekly (hopefully) feature for your enjoyment!

It will be a run down of the gaming related news from the past seven days, as well as a few extra bits here and there such as me talking about the games I've been playing.

So, here it is! The first ever episode of Gaming News of the Week!

(I'll hopefully get the video embedded soon, it's not showing up on YouTube search results at the moment, which is the only way to do it on Blogspot)

EDIT: There we go.

Thanks for reading/ watching, have a good day!

My ME3 Ending. Is the outrage from fans justified?

Just finished my first (and probably sole) play through of Mass Effect 3. I'll tell you what happened, go through some of the key (but limited) differences in the other endings, and will muse about whether the massive amounts of outrage from fans of the series is warranted. So obviously, spoilers are coming. Don't read if you don't want to know.

My Ending
You are faced with two (or three, depending on certain factors) choices in the final moments of the game. You can destroy the Reapers, or control them (or combine synthetic life with organic life in what sounds like some unholy experiment gone wrong). I chose to control them, which I believe is the paragon ending, I think this is the case because it was blue, not red.

Depending on your galactic readiness rating, which is pretty much based on how many side missions you did, there are a few different ways each choice can pan out. In mine, Shepard dies, the reapers retreat, Earth is saved, the Mass Relays are all destroyed and the Normandy crash lands on some remote planet where Joker, Ashley and EDI emerge unscathed, which confused me as EDI was with me moments before on Earth, but anyway, the credits roll.

Then there's an utterly pointless cutscene after the credits, which suggests that an old man far in the future has been telling his grandchild all the events which have happened throughout the series. Why? What does this add to the ending?

The Outrage
Well, one thing the child says is "Tell me another Shepard story." Uh-oh, DLC on the way, thanks for making sure we all know, Bioware. Then there's just a straight up message saying, "hey, well done for beating the game, but remember to buy the DLC when it comes out!" Apparently, fans of the series didn't quite like that their hundreds of hours spent playing these games culminated in a ten minute cutscene and a message telling them to spend more money. Who knew?

By the way, I looked up what the other endings were after I finished. Turns out they're all the same. Sometimes the shockwave that ends the Reaper threat is red rather than blue though, so that's something. It's a little more varied, sometimes Earth is destroyed and the survival of the Normandy crew is in doubt, but you will have had to have played a pretty awful game to get to that situation. Fans are annoyed that over the course of the three games, they have spent hours shaping their character to be what they want them to be, only to then find out that no matter what choices you have made, you will always be faced with the same decision.

Plot Holes?
Regardless of your choices and actions, the Mass Relays are always destroyed. These are the only means of travelling the galaxy, so that's going to make it difficult for the millions upon millions of alien species which have congregated in Earth's solar system to help defeat the Reapers to leave. Also, I haven't read them, but I'm reliably informed that in some of the fiction, we are told that the destruction of a Mass Relay causes an explosion the same size as a supernova, destroying the solar system it's in. Looks like Shepard just found a way to decimate all forms of life in the galaxy much faster than the Reapers could ever do. Oops!


Speaking of the Reapers, we're told by their creator, why exactly they were created. Get ready now.


He created them billions of years ago, to stop synthetic beings rebelling against their creators and killing them.


So he created synthetic beings, which every now and then would kill all organic life, so that the organic life wouldn't create synthetic beings which would kill them. JackieChan.jpg

I won't go into more details, you can find much a more informative article here about why people are so angry about it.

Are fans right to be annoyed by the ending to Mass Effect 3? Maybe. Probably. But honestly, who cares? Not me. Bioware consistently make fantastic games that we all enjoy playing. Sure, the ending was a little weird, but I still had a good time with the game and would recommend that anyone who hasn't played the Mass Effect games to give them a look as soon as possible. They are quite simply, a collection of the best games of this generation. Anyone who thinks they have the right to demand that Bioware change the ending to one of their games because they didn't think it wrapped up the story quite perfectly is absolutely crazy.

Thanks for reading people, have a good one.

Demos and New Releases

I feel like I haven't done this in a while. My last post was a review of The Darkness II, which can be found here, or if for some reason you don't want to read the entire thing, there is an edited version on the Warwick University newspaper site because it was too long for them.

In other news, I wrote an Arma 3 Preview for Hooked Gamers, and I've just finished up an article about the Double Fine Kickstarter and the Humble Bundle Mojam which should be surfacing in one form or another pretty soon.

The even more exciting news is that we're finally getting to a run of decent new releases... here's what has been whetting my proverbial appetite recently.

SSX Demo


I normally don't play game demos (the auto dictionary thing is underlining 'demos', but I'm pretty sure that's the correct pluralisation... anyway), because it is generally what the developer wants you to see, i.e. the most polished part of the game which will allow them to take money out of your pockets more easily. However with sports games (extreme or otherwise) I can't imagine they are able to do that so well. There's a tutorial and a single level in the SSX demo, so I guess they could just make that really good, but regardless, I played a bit of it.

It's pretty fun! I played one of the old games like ten years ago and haven't really touched the series since, but EA definitely seem to have rejuvenated SSX back into something worth playing. Oh yeah, it's a snowboarding game, maybe I should've mentioned that earlier.


Everything looks real nice, some great lighting effects and the animations are really smooth. As I say, there's only one level, or "drop" as EA are calling them so there's not a great deal to comment on, but it's definitely enjoyable. You do tricks, grind rails and everything else you'd expect from a snowboarding/ skateboarding game. Performing these tricks build up your meter, which allows you to give yourself a speed boost, and eventually you enter "Tricky" mode, where you get infinite boost and can perform better tricks. Do well enough in Tricky mode and you will enter "Super Tricky" mode, where you can hit the shoulder buttons at the same time to pull of your rider's special signature move.

I'm gonna wait til some reviews come out to decide whether or not I'm going to buy it, but it is certainly interesting me. I believe it's out in the US tomorrow and we have to wait til the 2nd over here in the EU, so we'll see.


FIFA Street Demo


Another reason I don't usually play demos is because it's probably going to be a level from the game, meaning I'm then going to have to play that bit again if I eventually buy it. I like games 'n'all but I don't really want to spend a bunch of time doing something again and again.

 Contrary to that statement, I have been playing FIFA 12 again and again and again recently, so never mind, play demos if you want to.

The lack of new releases keeps me going back to the super addictive online Ultimate Team mode, so I'm excited to see what EA is going to do with a new football release. FIFA Street is all about your ball skills (teehee) as you get points for doing tricks, and it's not about how many goals you score but how you score them.

The demo is out on Wednesday for PS3 so I'll give that ago and probably get back to you about that.

Mass Effect 3


Haven't played the demo for ME3, are you surprised?

This is the big one then, the first huge release of the year, and hopefully it will live up to the hype, and the precedent set by the much loved previous games in the series. It's out on the 9th in the EU, so less than two weeks away!

What was with all this hate for EA/Bioware even before the game demo came out, you hadn't even played it by then! I remember back in the good old days of, oh I don't know, a year ago, when Bioware was untouchable... the shining God amongst video game developers, and now everyone's complaining because it put multiplayer into an RPG game and tried to add in some Kinect functionality? Just don't play it that way if it incenses you so much!

I'm not even the biggest fan of the series, although I quite enjoyed the second game and I'll be buying this one when it comes out, it's just a little confusing.

Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning


After some screw ups with Paypal, I finally got my hands on this game around two weeks after release, and have been playing bits and pieces of it since then.

It's kinda good, I was hoping it was going to be super revolutionary but it isn't really. The combat is quite fun, and different to a normal RPG, so it's nice to have that variety, but it's not engaging enough. And there are far too many quests... the majority are fairly well written, but I have found myself playing it more and more like how I used to level through WoW on alt characters. Go to a quest hub, pick up every quest I see, skip through the text, follow the markers on my map, kill/loot/escort whatever is there and repeat until everything is finished.

It's a shame because they did have some really nice ideas, and it's fairly fun to play for the most part, it just needed to be a bit more compelling.

That's it for now, Journey is coming out in a couple of weeks and I honestly can't wait for that, but I'll get more into that closer to the time.

Thanks for reading y'all, have a good one.

The Darkness II - Review

I actually wrote this about 5 days ago, and have been trying to get it published somewhere since then. It's going to be in The Boar (Warwick University Newspaper) next week, but some of it had to be cut as it was too long, so here's a sneaky peek at the unedited version:

The Darkness II - Review

Digital Extremes has taken over the reins of development for The Darkness II, the follow up to Starbreeze Studios' acclaimed 2007 original. After a delay of over six months, it was finally released at the beginning of February on PC, PS3 and Xbox 360.

The games follow the story of Jackie Estacado, who is inhabited by a malevolent being called The Darkness. This gives him unholy abilities, on top of two tentacle-like extra limbs, which can be used to melee and grab objects and enemies from afar. After surviving multiple mob hits in the first game, and being forced to watch his girlfriend, Jenny, die, Jackie went on a quest for revenge. The Darkness II takes place two years after the events of the first game, and in the meantime, Jackie himself has become the head of the Franchetti crime family, whilst trying to keep the evil Darkness under control. However, at the beginning of the game, Jackie is under attack once more, and must unleash the power of The Darkness again as only it has the power to prevent him from dying.

As the story unravels, you find that an ancient organisation called The Brotherhood are looking to gain the power of The Darkness. Giving up The Darkness seems an enticing prospect for Jackie, but the evil being reveals that Jenny's soul is trapped within it, and will be lost forever if Jackie does not fight back. And fight back you do, with great force. You have several categories of weapon to choose from, such as shotguns, rifles and pistols, with several types of gun within each, and you can dual wield one handed weapons. This is all standard fare, but what sets The Darkness II apart from other first person shooters are your Darkness abilities.

The right tentacle is used for swiping and slashing, and the left tentacle is used for grabbing. An enemy can't be grabbed unless they are dazed, either by being shot, or hit with the right tentacle. Once the left tentacle has someone in its grasp, a gruesome finishing move can be applied, and depending on your talent choices, you can gain health, ammo, or a shield which gives good protection from bullets. The left tentacle can also grasp objects such as lengths of pipe or fan blades, and can hurl them at enemies, causing yet more gory death. On top of the tentacles, you can also unlock some extra abilities, such as being able to channel The Darkness through your guns, which means you can fire without using any ammo and with increased damage. Early on, you get the ability to eat the hearts of deceased enemies to give you a health boost. Guts and gore are definitely high on the list of defining features of The Darkness II. Be wary though, as your Darkness powers can't be used in the light, so you are often shooting out bulbs, or avoiding enemies smart enough to carry large torches with them.

Also at your disposal is your little Darkling buddy, who is a figment of your imagination, but becomes a very real threat in the dark. He also provides a little comic relief, as he is a small, British-accented demon wearing a union jack shirt who delights in calling you 'Monkey' even though he looks like one himself. You control him at certain points during the game, but for the most part you're running around as Jackie killing everything that moves.

Right from the get go, the game has a rather frenetic pace, especially from an onlooker's point of view. The amount of action on screen at any one time can be a little overwhelming because of your four points of attack. Despite this, the controls are usually manageable, with one shoulder button being assigned to each limb on the consoles. The main complaint is that your tentacles rather obstruct your field of view, sometimes making it difficult to see exactly where the danger is coming from. Being in the light is also a massive hindrance, as it takes away your Darkness powers, while also partially blinding you. Once again, if you don't know exactly where the light source is, it's quite hard to escape and you are very vulnerable. When it's at its best though, The Darkness II is a delight to play, a fast paced shooter with great and exciting extra mechanics.

It's a nice thing to look at too, with some good cel-shaded visuals to give it more of a comic book feel, since the games stem from the comic book series. Although cartoony, the game does a good job of maintaining the dark, brooding atmosphere throughout, to the point that when you do go outside in the daytime for a fleeting moment later in the game, the amount of light and colour seems strange. Also adding to the atmosphere is the top notch voice acting on show, with Mike Patton of Faith No More fame returning from the first game to voice the Darkness, and Brian Bloom becoming the new voice talent for Jackie. Even the side characters are voiced really well, and the quality of writing helps you feel really involved in what's going on on screen. To break up the action, Jackie occasionally has hallucinations created by The Darkness to distract him from his goal of being reunited with Jenny. Many of these take place in an insane asylum, where Jackie is the patient, Jenny is a nurse, and members of The Brotherhood and his crime family are either doctors or fellow inmates. In fact, the game does a good job of nearly convincing you that maybe Jackie is a mental patient and is just imagining his other life after all. The Darkness II has a pretty compelling story, which will keep you powering through just to see what happens next.

The only problem is that the main story mode is on the short side. On normal difficulty it only took me between four and five hours. There is a new game plus mode, where you can replay the story again whilst keeping all of your talents you have accumulated, and there are plenty of achievements to go for, but the lack of length in the first place is a little disappointing.

The Darkness II does have a multiplayer mode to keep things going though, and it takes the form of a co-operative story campaign called Vendettas. You can play as one of four characters, each with their own limited selection of Darkness powers, and you play through some missions that are alluded to in the single player mode. It too is fairly short though, so if you want to bring some friends on a long multiplayer campaign, you may have to look elsewhere.

If you're looking for a quick burst of fun with some extreme violence and brutal murder thrown in, then The Darkness II is the game for you. A bit more work on the campaign and a more robust multiplayer mode and it could have become one of the better games in a slow start to the year for new releases. But as it is, it's an enjoyable, if short, experience that I would recommend to fans of shooters who are looking for something a little bit different.

Overall:

8.3/10

Some games are coming out!

It's February, and there are two games getting released that I'm averagely interested in!

By the way, my Borderlands 2 Preview was the highest rated on Hooked Gamers for January, so thanks for that if you voted it up!

Since then, I've written a DiRT Showdown Preview, and a review of Puddle, so check those out if you haven't already.

Enough of the self-plugging though, because my band is playing at Warwick University Battle of the Bands in two weeks. Oh wait, sorry, games.

The Darkness II
I never played the first one, "oh wah wah, you need to play the original first to get a feel for the story". No. That's what Wikipedia is for.

To tell you the truth, if it wasn't the start of the year and there were other things to be playing, I probably wouldn't be as interested in The Darkness II. It's just that I've played like 300 games of FIFA online now and I need something else to do. And ripping people in half with the evil tentacles coming out of your back, accompanied by an incredibly British monkey sidekick seems the best option.

You're this mafia boss, Jackie Estacado, and your girlfriend died in the first game, (or something, I haven't actually read Wikipedia yet). Anyway, the most important part is that you have this evil force, "The Darkness" living inside you, which Jackie attempts to keep under control, but he has to unleash it when a hit goes out on him so he doesn't die. (Or something, seriously, I'm just in it for the senseless murdering).

If I find it fun enough to play a good chunk of, I'll review it (in a more eloquent manner), so that's something to look forward to.

Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning
EA seems to just want to refer to this as 'Reckoning' now, which is fine by me, it's a pretty long title otherwise. I think I've said before what a stupidly generic word 'Reckoning' is though, but watchagonnado?

Here's a lazy description of Reckoning: It's an Elder Scrolls game but with a more action-oriented combat system. You can hammer on the attack button to do combos and such, and there's an added timing element to pull off different attacks. Seems a cool system, but doesn't seem deep enough to stay really interesting for the dozens of hours the game will last, but we'll see.

There's coloured loot, main quests, side quests, repeatable quests, strange quests, up quests, charm quests and more. I've heard rumours that perhaps 38 Studios have somehow put too much content into the game? Or rather that there is enough content, just that a lot of it isn't exactly exciting (I hesitate to use the word filler without having played it yet).

It'll fill the RPG gap in my life since I Skyrimmed myself out (eww) though, and should be enough to tide me over til we get to see what aberration EA has turned Mass Effect 3 into (I hope that's not true).

I may review Reckoning, could take up too much of my time though given that I have several essays/ courseworks/ revisionings to be doing over the next few weeks, so that's less likely than a Darkness review.

Thanks for reading people, be good.

That bit where... Dead Space 2

Haven't blogged in a while, partly because it's still January and as such there are no new games to talk about, but mostly because I haven't had time. I've still been writing though, and if you haven't seen them already you should go and check out my articles on Hooked Gamers, who I now work as a volunteer writer for!

Borderlands 2 Preview: http://www.hookedgamers.com/pc/borderlands_2/preview/article-988.html

How biased are gamers? (Feature): http://www.hookedgamers.com/features/2012/01/24/how_biased_are_gamers.html

Back to blogging business then, with the latest part in my 'That bit where' series.

I'm not usually much of a horror game player, but Dead Space 2 tickled my fancy last year so I decided to give it a try. After a play through with many spills and multiple thrills, it became one of my favourite games of last year. There are several stand out moments (most of them horrifically gory), but the one I'm going to write about here is one of the most exhilarating sequences in the game.

Dead Space 2 - The Train


For the most part, Dead Space 2 is a game which gleefully allows nothing to happen for five minutes while you wander around checking every corner, and then when you least expect it: BAM, a monster jumps out of a wall and impales you on razor sharp spikes. You do well to hold onto your controller when this happens, and if you do you are hammering on the fire button until whatever the thing is falls over, and sometimes even then it isn't dead. The game is very good at this, and so does it at nearly every opportunity, and it never gets any less terrifying. In a game where ammo can sometimes be fairly hard to come by, wasting multiple bullets in these situations isn't advisable.

I'm emphasising the amount of times you're slowly tip-toeing around, waiting for the next monster to appear, because the train sequence in Dead Space 2 is pretty much the exact opposite. It breaks any of the tension that has been created up to that point in the game in about a three minute long action packed roller-coaster(train) ride.

So you start up the train, which clearly the undead inhabitants of Dead Space 2 don't like, as they start swarming to your location. Even as the train hurtles along, they're jumping onto it and breaking through the windows left and right. After defending yourself for a bit, suddenly the carriage you are in breaks off from the rest of the train, so you have to make a death defying leap towards the next carriage, using your handy foot-mounted rocket boosters. After dodging the doors which are wrenched off and sent flying towards you, you roll into the next carriage, with yet more monsters waiting for you.

But it's not over there. Not long after this, the train starts to go into a nose-dive (by the way it's like a floating space train, should've mentioned that earlier). Unable to stand up properly, you slide on your back through the rest of the carriages, shooting and dodging flailing zombies as you go. The train crashes into what seems to be a large storage hangar, and you are caught in a wire, hanging upside down from the wrecked train just above the ground. And there are more monsters coming.

This moment probably stayed with me as it was so different from most of the rest of the game. The game is filled with edge-of-your-seat moments, and this one is exciting in a completely different way from the traditional horror moments of other levels. I would definitely recommend playing this game, you can probably pick it up fairly cheap these days too.

Thanks for reading.

That bit where... Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare

Back in 2007, we were bored of first person shooters. It seemed like every month, a new game came out that was set in bloody World War II. By that time it had been done to death, we all knew the scenarios, the weapons and the outcome of every battle (the Nazis lose, spoilers).

But then, rising out of the swamp of FPS mediocrity came Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare. Wait a second, this is set, like, today? That's so real! It gave us a new enemy, instead of fighting Nazis, we were now fighting anyone who wasn't American or British, and in doing so the developers were staying as close to current affairs as possible...

Along with that, there were new weapons to enjoy, the guns that every nine year old can talk about at length today were largely unknown before this game came out. They also highlighted how much guns from the 40s sucked...you mean I don't have to load a new bullet into the chamber after firing every shot? War is awesome!

Five years later, we're praying for something different from FPS developers, but oh well, it was good for a while.

Anyway, there were two highlights of the game for me, one of them being the Ghillie mission, simply because it was something different. Instead of shooting everything that moved, you had to stealth your way through, picking your shots and trying not to get detected. Then there was that bit after you assassinated the guy with the helicopter which oh so nearly crashes into you! But then it stops, phew! My favourite part of the game though, was a moment of extreme poignancy that seemed so out of place and yet fitted in so perfectly.

Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare - Shock and Awe


"All U.S. forces, be advised, we have a confirmed nuclear threat in the city. NEST teams are on site and attempting to disarm. I repeat we're..."

In the mission entitled 'Shock and Awe', you are tasked with attacking Al-Asad's (the villain of the piece) rumoured position in his capital city. However, half way through the mission a retreat is called after a nuclear threat in the city is detected. During the retreat, you stop off to rescue a downed helicopter pilot who is under fire.

Everyone bundles into an evac helicopter and as you take off you see several other helicopters making their escape from the city, phew, everyone's going to make it.

And then the nuclear device detonates.

You watch as the mushroom cloud billows skywards and the shockwave makes it way towards you, destroying everything in it's path. We're far enough away, right? We're still going to make it. But the shockwave keeps coming, enveloping the other helicopters in a cloud of dust and rubble, and then it hits you. Your helicopter spirals out of control, crashes into the ground and then everything fades to black.

Did I fail the mission? That's not supposed to happen is it?

You wake up, manage to crawl your way out of the wreckage and drag yourself onto your feet. The sun has disappeared behind the smoke, and everything around you is just a shell of what it once was. At least you're alive though, someone will come soon to save you. You fall back to the ground and close your eyes.

Someone will be there soon.

It is later revealed that 30,000 people died in the blast, Marines, OpFor and civilians all wiped out. I had never played a game where such a catastrophic event occurred right before my eyes. Nor can I remember playing a game in which I had completed a mission, and several of the game's main characters died, all in one moment.

I congratulate you, CoD4:MW, not only for having an acronym longer than most game titles, but for putting this incredible sequence into a game, allowing a slight insight, just for a moment, into what it would actually be like to be in that situation. Maybe war isn't so awesome after all.

Thanks for reading.

That bit where... Warcraft 3 (plus announcement)

If you haven't heard, yesterday I got a job as a volunteer writer for http://www.hookedgamers.com/! It's pretty exciting for me, as I'll be getting a taste of what it's like to be a professional writer - sticking to deadlines and whatnot- while still maintaining a bit of freedom over what I write about.

If all goes to plan, my first article on the site will be a preview of Borderlands 2, which I am currently taking a break from researching while I write this, so that's something to look forward to.

I shan't be falling behind on my blogging duties though, so today I'll continue my 'That Bit Where...' series by talking about one of my favourite games from when I was twelve and into my early teens, Warcraft 3.

Warcraft 3 - The Cutscenes


My favourite cutscenes in video games have always come from Blizzard, simply because of how long and how much time it seems has been put into each one. (I'm talking about the pre-rendered cinematic cutscenes here, not the in-engine ones)

It may sound strange that my favourite parts of the game were parts that weren't actually playable, and I don't mean to detract from the quality of the game itself, because it still remains one of my favourite RTS games to actually play. After seeing the first cutscene or two however, I found myself playing through the game just to get to that next epic piece of eye candy, forever hoping that the next one wasn't the last one.

It's quite hard to talk about them as they are just videos, so I'll let you watch them yourselves, if you haven't seen them before, I'm sure you won't be disappointed. I'll link the two that I remember the most fondly here, but if you want to see them all (around 10 or so) you can find them on YouTube.

This first one depicts Archimonde, (a Champion of the Burning Legion, you don't need me to tell you with that name that they're pretty bad dudes) destroying the city of Dalaran pretty much with his mind, so you know, he's pretty badass.

The second, and probably the most iconic of all the cutscenes from the game, shows Prince Arthas betraying his father by killing him and taking the throne for himself. This is a huge moment in the series, as Arthas begins his descent from loyal Paladin, filled with honour, to twisted and evil Death Knight. Arthas' story is followed throughout the series, culminating with him being the main boss of Wrath of the Lich King, one of World of Warcraft's expansions.

(Little known fact: The petals that fall around Arthas at the beginning of the video are in fact called Arthas' Tears, and can be picked using herbalism in WoW)

I absolutely adore the story and lore behind the Warcraft series, and to have that reinforced by such beautifully created videos is the icing on the cake.

Hope you've enjoyed the videos... I have, I'm going to watch the rest of them now.

Thanks for reading.

That Bit Where... Saints Row: The Third

Back to my favourite moments in video games series, and today I'm looking at Saints Row: The Third, my second favourite game of last year. I've written about it in my review, but without going into too many specifics, so here I'm going to talk to you about one of my favourite missions in the game.


Saints Row: The Third - http://deckers.die


In a game filled with ridiculous situations, this is probably the most ridiculous of all.

The Deckers are one of the many opposing gangs to your Third Street Saints, and the gang is mainly composed of computer genii led by Matt Miller. They cause many problems for the Saints, not limited to your character failing to withdraw $1,000,000 from an ATM and consequently punching it. Anyway, eventually the camel's back is broken and it's time for you to enter Cyberspace and face off against Miller, seriously.

You're transported to this Tron-esque environment, all neon and straight lines, with Kinzie, your own computer specialist, watching over you. Except that she got your character model wrong and you're a toilet... and then a sex doll... Eventually you settle for a wire-frame character, simply because "at least it has a gun".

Decker grunts start warping in, and you swiftly dispatch of them while making your way to "the firewall". Staying true to the rest of the game, there is some hilarious dialogue, with random technological buzzwords being thrown around as if anyone knows what they're really talking about.

Eventually Miller notices the ease with which you're defeating your enemies and starts altering the world. He slows you down, reverses your controls, and -my personal favourite- starts to create artificial lag. This is the first time lag has ever been fun in a game, and you marvel at how close it feels to the real thing. You have to imagine it was actually pretty hard to do, the meeting must've gone something like "Okay, we need the frame rate to go to hell, and for enemies to jump around the screen". I mean it's nothing less ridiculous than what the developers had been asked to do prior to this point, so I doubt there was any argument.

So then you complete the text adventure and move on...

Yup, they threw in a text adventure style mini game for you to complete. Why? Because they did, just accept it. It's hard to explain if you haven't played the game, but by this point you just take whatever it starts throwing at you. It contains swords, magic and unicorns, and comes with amusing lines from your character for each of the many ways you can "die".

After you complete that, you're back in cyberspace (as a toilet with a gun for a while), kill a few more Deckers and close in on the firewall. But not before playing a bit of 1974 Atari classic Tank!. Honestly, just go with it.

Back in Cyberspace, killing a few more guys, and then the game crashes. Not your game. Cyberspace. You have to "press any key to continue". I love this game.

Finally you reach Miller and the firewall. It turns out his avatar is a 20 foot tall winged warrior with a Final Fantasy style comically oversized sword. You exchange blows, fight off a few more Deckers, and eventually Kinzie manages to turn you into a replica of Miller's Avatar. A few attacks later and you defeat him, and are the new lord of cyberspace!

I think I'll have to write a bit more about Saints Row: The Third in the future, as there are several other awesome moments I haven't even touched on.

Thanks for reading.