-eddy-'s GameSpot Friend's Reviews -eddy-'s GameSpot Friend's Reviews -eddy-'s GameSpot Friend's Reviews en-us Copyright (c)1995-2013 CBS Interactive. All rights reserved. http://www.gamespot.com 20 Sun, 19 May 2013 21:15:44 -0700 GameSpot -eddy-'s GameSpot Friend's Reviews http://img.gamespot.com/gamespot/shared/promos/misc/gs_logo.gif http://www.gamespot.com 135 40 Wed, 21 Nov 2012 18:17:24 -0800 Hellfire-1 reviewed Hitman: Absolution for the PlayStation 3... http://www.gamespot.com/hitman-absolution/user-reviews/803538/platform/ps3/ ...and gave it a 9.0!

Hitman Absolution is the long awaited next installment in the Hitman franchise. Hitman Absolution takes place sometime after Blood Money, and without spoiling too much, starts off with a bang. Or in this case, the muffled pop of 47's iconic Silverballers. Absolution is worth the long wait fans have suffered, and showcases some amazing voice acting and style, as well as keeping the core gameplay elements fun and intact. There are some minor bumps and bounces along the way, but at the end of the road, it proves to be a very enjoyable ride.

Hitman Absolution strays away from some of the gameplay elements of blood money, instead opting for a larger level that is split into three or sometimes four mini-segments, each with their own objectives. Before players baulk at this mechanic too much however, know that it never loses the immersive feel of the classic hitman games. Each mini-area has multiple ways to kill a target or navigate through, and you may spend countless hours in each section trying to complete one of the many challenges posted to you in the games notebook, which in turn give permanent score multipliers upon completion. The game has 5 difficulty levels, which scale nicely. People with little experience with Hitman will find themselves at home with Normal difficulty, which gives them an instinct boost, and standard enemy count and detection time, while those more experienced may find Hard or Expert to their fancy. With each increase in difficulty, instinct becomes more of a rarity, and enemies increase in number, along with an increase to their reaction time. For those that scoff at anything less than the best, there is still the Purist difficulty, which removes all HUD except for a crosshair, but that mode is not for the faint of heart, be warned!

The levels within Absolution are gorgeous, often bursting with people, and covered in a layer of grime that fits the wretched characters that inhabit them. The locales you will crawl, shoot, and punch your way through include places like strip clubs, underground fight rings, an orphanage, a country town, and even an abandoned library. These locations, in turn, are often filled with multiple targets, numerous improvised weapons, and any number of possibilities. While the game mechanics may have changed, the level design keeps things fresh, and you never feel shoehorned into taking a certain route through the level.

Mechanics wise, the game is different than some fans may remember from previous hitman games. Gone is the "Notoriety" system of the previous game Blood Money, and instead it is replaced by more complex A.I, and a new game mechanic called "Instinct". Instinct is a new meter that you have, that is used to see enemies through cover, view movement patterns, or to "Blend" with your disguise, something I will go into detail on later. All of these helping options can be toggled on or off at will, so worry not if you are a hardcore hitman fan. Although useful, these new abilities never seem overpowered, and often, almost seem too limited. You'll find that in blending, your instinct meter will drain alarmingly fast, and instinct is a precious commodity that is hard to come by. Therefore, the game encourages its use as a last resort, rather than a crutch, and overall, it works.

Disguises have changed in hitman as well. No longer can you grab a disguise and be immune from enemy detection, free to wander the levels as you please. Now, enemies that are wearing the same uniform as you will begin to notice you if they see you. Wait too long, and your cover, and disguise, will be blown. This can be avoided however, by using precious instinct and slipping away from their view quickly, in an action the game calls blending. Blending however is costly, and impossible to maintain for more than a few seconds. For this reason, the disguise system in Absolution is less about just grabbing the closest disguise and hoping to sneak through the level, and more about careful planning for what disguise you will take, and when is the right time to take it. For example, some areas in Absolution are decidedly easier in your suit, rather than a disguise. If you take a Chicago P.D uniform when many cops are around, you'll find that while they did not notice you in your suit, they will grow suspicious of you in your new outfit, making for a much more difficult time. Choose your disguises carefully, and know when the right time to use them is. While the disguise system suffers from its occasional bug, overall it works very well, and is a big step up from the invisibility of the past.

Weapons in Absolution can no longer be picked from the start. In Absolution, what you see is what you get. However, look hard enough, and all manner of weapons are available within a level, even if they are a bit out of place sometimes. (i.e: A sniper rifle in a doughnut shop upper level). While some fans may feel this is a downside, it works well within the story of Absolution, and never feels all that missed. Non-Stealthy players will be pleased to note that Absolution can be played as a third person shooter. Granted, it will not have the depth of some of the other games, and you will miss out on quite a bit of content, but shooting is now a viable, and sometimes quite necessary approach to a level.

Part of the reason for this is the improved A.I system. No longer do the A.I have the "hive mind" of the older games. Now, the A.I will react according to 47. If 47 alerts a guard, but kills him before he can radio for help, the other guards will not be alerted. Instead, they may only be suspicious, and hunt for the source of the noise. On the other hand, if an enemy gets away, he will run through the level, alerting more and more guards as he goes, which will fan out and search for you, a tactic which they are quite good at. My attempts to hide in a corner went sour when they swept a room and found me. If the A.I gets caught in a shootout, they will attempt to set traps for you. They will barricade themselves in a room for example, and wait for you to come to them, or try to flank you up a different flight of stairs. This makes for quite a challenge, should you rile the A.I up into a frenzy and then attempt to escape.

On the inside though, this game is a stealth game at heart, and encourages play as such. There are countless lines of dialogue for the stealthy person to overhear, and numerous places and events that can be seen when sneaking through a level, that will not happen if the enemies are alerted. Also, the game has its traditional modifiers at the end of a level, judged on how little you were seen, and how few enemies you killed besides the main target. Getting the Silent Assassin rank should prove a challenge difficult enough to keep most people replaying the levels numerous times hoping for the perfect run.

The controls are smooth, mostly executed with a simple button press, which can do things from kill a target, to knock him down a dark hole, or into an open sewer grate. All are simple, and fun to do. 47 himself handles seamlessly, never having any twitches, or otherwise sloppy performance. Like the killing actions, using instinct is as simple as a single button press. It is a simple control scheme that works wonders for keeping you immersed in the bloody world that is Hitman Absolution.

For the multiplayer inclined, Absolution offers a Contracts mode, where a player may go into a story level, and mark a random target for execution. After killing the target, the game tracks exactly how he was killed, and the disguise you were wearing at the time. Up to three of these kills can be stored at once, and then upon exiting a level, a contract is created for the online universe, who are able to compete to see if they can replicate the hit, or maybe even outdo the player. Completion of a contract earns money, which can be used to purchase weapons or upgrades for the contracts mode. Overall, it's a wonderful edition to a Hitman game.

In closing, Hitman Absolution looks good, and plays even better. Though some hardcore fans may at first be put off from its move away from the "traditional" hitman formula, the game is a blast to play and explore. Players that give the game a chance will more likely than not spend hours replaying levels attempting the perfect hit or the high score, and have fun while doing it. Absolution is extremely accessible to new gamers, while still being enjoyable for veterans of the series. Whether or not you decide to play the role of our beloved bald assassin, one thing is certain. Hitman has never looked better!

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"Hellfire-1 reviewed Hitman: Absolution for the PlayStation 3..." was posted by Hellfire-1 on Wed, 21 Nov 2012 18:17:24 -0800
]]> http://www.gamespot.com/hitman-absolution/user-reviews/803538/platform/ps3/ Tue, 29 Nov 2011 07:14:42 -0800 bowlingotter reviewed The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim for the PC... http://www.gamespot.com/the-elder-scrolls-v-skyrim/user-reviews/781842/platform/pc/ ...and gave it a 9.5!

When The Elder Scrolls: Arena saw its release in 1994 for DOS computers, it arrived under the pretext that you could be who you want and do what you want, the essence of the RPG genre. In the games that followed, – Daggerfall, Morrowind, and Oblivion – The Elder Scrolls franchise held true to that mantra while concurrently growing in both scope and ambition with every step. And now, with Bethesda's fifth game in the series, Skyrim feels in every way like the next logical stage in the evolution of The Elder Scrolls. It is bigger, bolder, and – thanks to the new Creation Engine – prettier than its predecessors, and every bit as engaging. Considering the pedigree, this is not an achievement to be taken lightly. Here is a game that doesn't just command endless hours of time; you will willingly give them up. The few gripes are ultimately inconsequential, not impactful or plentiful enough to tarnish the experience. The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim is likely to go down in history not only as one of the best RPGs of all time, but as one of the best games, period.

Set 200 years after the events of Oblivion, Skyrim is more of a spiritual successor to the previous game rather than a direct sequel. Things start off with your as-yet-unnamed character sharing a prisoner's carriage with other criminals, set to be executed by beheading. You'll catch grumblings of the state of things in Skyrim during the transport; the High King has been assassinated, resulting in a civil war between the Imperials and the Stormcloaks, of which you are assumed to be a member. As you are being sentenced you'll get your hands on the extensive character customization options. Pick from ten different playable races each with their own unique attributes and spend an inordinate amount of time changing the way your character's face looks – if you want to, of course, as the tools are there, even if you won't see your character's face much at all in the hours to come. But just as your character is about to join the headless party, a dragon attacks the town in jaw-dropping fashion. And thus you have the primary crux of Skyrim: Defeat this new threat to the world, the dragons.

No matter which character race you choose, you can continue along any of the three primary classes as you go: mage, warrior, or thief. But these ultimately serve as guides rather than rules. Instead of an obvious tally of "experience points," advancing character levels in Skyrim is accomplished through the consistent leveling-up of individual skills, in turn accomplished by simply using said skills. Make the conscious decision to traverse the mage's path but end up with a particular fondness for one-handed weapons? Hit a bunch of enemies with the mace and watch your skills improve. At first decide to be a warrior but develop a propensity for fire? Set foes ablaze and gain advances in Destruction Magic. Starting from one skill path might hurry things along in that appropriate stream, but you're absolutely free to decide what kind of character you want to be whenever you want to be it, provided you are willing to put in the time to learn.

With enough skill advancements, you'll begin gaining full character levels, choosing from a vast array of "perks" with each level, separated into the individual skill categories. From here, you can choose combat perks like improving weapon damage or magic usage, or you can advance your character in other ways such as lock-picking, weapon/armor-smithing, or speech (improving bartering skills and persuade/intimidation successes). There are tons of different options here that compliment numerous different play styles, and you'll have to spend many, many hours in the world of Skyrim to even attempt to try them all.

But that's just the thing with Skyrim: you'll want to spend that much time in its world. The dragon menace is the all-encompassing issue facing the land, and following this main plot line tells a wonderful tale of the Dovahkiin (the "dragonborn"), the Greybeards, and your Thu'um – your voice – and the important role it plays. The story does an admirable job of feeling truly important and world-changing from start to finish. Walking through a town making small talk with the citizens and being attacked by a dragon never ceases to be awe-inducing.

As satisfying as the primary quest-line is, where Skyrim truly shines is everywhere in between. Your quest to discover and defeat the source of the dragon scourge will take you to the corners of the huge game world and beyond, but you'll never get from point A to point B without discovering something. And this discovery won't be just a valuable gem, rare weapon, or the occasional cave. You'll discover entire communities, complete with their own personalities and social issues that are completely unrelated to the primary scope of the plot. The major civil war between the Imperials and the Stormcloaks, House Grey-Mane feuding with House Battle-Born, the Mage's College of Winterhold making new and potentially dangerous discoveries, and even an aging man's fascination with the Elder Scrolls themselves– Skyrim is ripe with self-contained struggles large and small all across the land. This establishment of a complete, living and breathing world is perhaps most evident after completing all of the primary quests. It is at this time that it becomes clear that even after the devastating world threat has been quelled, every single remaining issue in Skyrim still exists. Simply, life goes on, and there is still much to do.

While the sprawling land of Skyrim is Bethesda's crowning achievement to date, the combat mechanics and presentation are also at a high point in the franchise of The Elder Scrolls. When wielding a shield and a sword, the block-and-counter combat results in a satisfying combination of technique and the spoils of skill advancement. Successfully sneaking up behind an enemy and quietly taking them down is as satisfying as ever. Magic-using is vastly expanded with the introduction of powerful "Shouts" and the ability to assign the same spell to both hands, resulting in powerful dual-wield attacks. And the Creation Engine helps the world come alive all throughout. If you can see a mountain in the distance, you can get to it. Begin scaling it and you'll be witness to weather changes as the swirling wind and dynamic snowfall bring about shivers of your own. And when you do reach its peak, you'll look down, astounded that not long ago you were in that town that now seems so tiny in the valley below. The more you explore, the more that the epic scope of Skyrim will sink into your skin. Even the standard interaction with townsfolk feels more natural, as Skyrim has dispensed with the awkward "chat mode" that zoomed in on characters' faces in games past, instead opting for conversation that takes place right there in the game world with no obvious changes to the UI. It's a small adjustment, but it makes a tangible difference in immersion, which is further aided by the surprisingly short load times throughout.

The few issues with Skyrim are not with the core game design, and are thankfully not likely to be permanent on the PC. While effective, the aforementioned user interface is undoubtedly geared towards the use of a console controller and can feel a bit clunky when employing a mouse and keyboard. It does not take advantage of the myriad of keys that a PC player is presented with and comes off rather menu-heavy, resulting in periods of pausing and searching that seem unnecessary and otherwise avoidable. Fortunately, the game plays quite well with a controller, as its pure gameplay doesn't require the meticulous, instant, pinpoint aiming that an action-oriented FPS would. And for those hoping for an optimized PC interface, the mod community is hard at work, having already released multiple UI overhauls that make much more effective use of the tools available to PC users. The remaining gripes come in the form of occasional glitches and crashes to desktop, but they're neither crippling nor numerous, and Bethesda has already begun to roll out patches to fix issues as they arise. For a game so large in scope, it is – dare I say – surprising that there are so few launch issues, which is either a boon to Bethesda or a result of the sad release state of games in the current generation; take your pick. Either way, it's difficult to consider these easily surmounted and ignorable issues as true "problems" when they simply do not get in the way of the overall experience, and are temporary, at that.

The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim is a game that undoubtedly meets its lofty ambitions. By encouraging exploration that is consistently rewarded with satisfying discovery, Bethesda has created a game world that invites you to become lost in it for hours with no true end in sight. Enthralling open-area dragon battles complement the well-designed and claustrophobic dungeons, all while setting a new standard in the scope and presentation of the role-playing genre. Completing the engaging primary line of quests can actually leave you feeling like you've only scratched the surface of what Skyrim has to offer. From scaling mountains to descending into caves, from slaying giants and mammoths to defeating vampire and werewolf cults, from reading countless texts and books to aiding the everyday struggles of townsfolk, the situations offered by Skyrim seem infinite. Your personal experience is likely to differ from everyone else's, and you cannot soon enough begin your foray into one of the finest RPGs ever crafted.

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"bowlingotter reviewed The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim for the PC..." was posted by bowlingotter on Tue, 29 Nov 2011 07:14:42 -0800
]]> http://www.gamespot.com/the-elder-scrolls-v-skyrim/user-reviews/781842/platform/pc/ Thu, 24 Nov 2011 18:58:16 -0800 btaylor2404 reviewed Assassin's Creed: Revelations for the PlayStation 3... http://www.gamespot.com/assassins-creed-revelations/user-reviews/781384/platform/ps3/ ...and gave it a 9.5!

AC: Revelations, after Ubisoft putting out one nearly every year it seemed that this version would be just AC 2.75. But it is flat amazing to me. Constantinople is a welcome change from the Italian versions of the past. It's beautiful, has slums, high end parts, and the temples are better than ever.
As to gameplay, there is a lot to love. The hookblade and bomb making are great and come in handy. The missions and side missions are varied in difficulty. And the Assassin recruitment is not just an add on this time around. You have to plan, and see an actual progression in your Assassin's this time.
The best part of AC: Revelations, to me, is the story. It's best if you've played the previous versions, actually needed. But AC:R has by far the best story IMO. Ezio seems like he's thinking out things and situations instead of just going 90 to nothing thru the game and has an end goal in mind. Desmond isn't clueless this time around. And most importantly Altair ties it all together. In AC Altair had no voice and you just played. Here he ties all three: Altair, Ezio & Desmond together, as well as having his own fantastic full story.
In closing if you even remotely liked any of the AC series, this game is a must own.

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]]> http://www.gamespot.com/assassins-creed-revelations/user-reviews/781384/platform/ps3/ Sat, 05 Nov 2011 14:33:55 -0700 bowlingotter reviewed Hard Reset for the PC... http://www.gamespot.com/hard-reset/user-reviews/778962/platform/pc/ ...and gave it a 6.5.

With modern shooters becoming increasingly complex and experimental, it's easy to forget the mechanics that dominated the FPS scene in the days of Quake and Unreal Tournament. Developer The Flying Wild Hog remembered. Their game Hard Reset is a cyberpunk shooter that hearkens back to the heyday of the straight-up shoot 'em up, when FPS games were all about killing hordes of enemies and nothing else. There are no puzzles to solve, no head-scratching mazes, and only a touch of platforming. You can hop, but you can't crouch. You'll never reload your weapon. There are no iron sights or scopes, so you always fire from the hip save for one unlockable zoom feature, and it is slight. This game is all about stripping away the things that distract you from shooting until shooting is all that is left. Is it shallow? Yes. Is it short? Uh huh. Is it fun? Yeah, it's definitely fun.

In this futuristic shooter, it's you against the machines, and the entirety of the game consists of shooting robots. Lots of robots. There are melee robots that get as close as possible to you, little robots that try to suicide bomb you, and big ol' robots that bull rush you every chance they get. Some other robots shoot you at range, and others still lob grenades. There are other light variations to these robot types, but this is the long and short of what you'll face. Ultimately, there isn't much variety to the enemies from start to finish.

To combat each enemy type, you're provided two guns, one ballistic and the other plasma. Each gun begins with one firing module akin to a machine gun, but collect enough resources and you'll be awarded with upgrades, a sort of currency that is spent at Upgrade Modules to add modules to each gun type. This way, your guns can have other modes added to them like a shotgun, rocket launcher, or railgun mode. These feel like entirely different weapons when put to use, but the difference is in how the ammo works. As there are only two physical guns, there are only two types of ammo. All of the modules of a respective gun will share the same ammo count, further simplifying the gameplay. And this certainly helps, as in many of the more difficult enemy encounters, you'll be switching back and forth between multiple gun modules on the fly to deal with your foes. It's nice to know that if you have the ammo for one of them, you have the ammo for all of them.

Upgrades can also be spent on increasing maximum hit points and shield recharge rates, and that will be important. This is because another way that Hard Reset throws back to the FPS games of old is that when you get hurt and lose hit points, they stay lost unless you can find health packs. And you're going to get hurt quite a bit, as this game will throw huge waves of enemies at you in a method that seems heavily influenced by the Serious Sam franchise. There's a big difference here, though, as many of these enemies will be flying at you in rather confined spaces when compared to Serious Sam, which often provided wide-open spaces to maneuver around the hordes. In Hard Reset, there will be a lot of narrow escapes if you are to survive, and the quicker you dispatch your enemies, the better.

This is made all the more difficult through the decision to use checkpoints over a manual save system, which is a double-edged sword. On one hand, using checkpoints does away with the tendency to auto-save at every step, resulting in a smoother pace and more tense experience, requiring the player to be cautious at every step. On the other hand, the game is already pretty tough, and it can be frustrating to be sent back to checkpoints as a result of an untimely death, especially during the few platforming sections when falling to your death is a possibility. Luckily, the checkpoints are generous enough that you're unlikely to complain about where you end up should you be defeated. This system works in Hard Reset.

The feel of the shooting is quite satisfying, helped largely by the fantastic aesthetic appeal of the game. Running on the in-house Road Hog Engine, Hard Reset looks really good, holding its own next to the best in the industry. Nice touches like interacting with panels and upgrades in-engine without the need for a separate menu really keep you immersed. Most of the environments appear identical throughout the game, but at least that base environment is quite pleasing to look at. But when you come across the great-looking robots and start pulling the trigger, that's when the visuals really come alive. Start shooting and stuff immediately starts blowing up everywhere, from barrels to cars to power supplies to the robots themselves. Chain-reaction explosions happen so much that you'll just start spraying the landscape under the assumption that you'll get some help from environmental combustion in blowing up your enemies. It's awesome.

The downside is that you're likely to take a pretty significant framerate hit during some of these exchanges. Road Hog Engine is also a hardware hog. I have a decent machine, somewhere between mid-grade and high-end, and I had to turn off any anti-aliasing and set the graphic detail to the "Low" preset just to try to keep these slowdowns to a minimum, and they still regularly occurred. This is the same machine that comfortably runs Battlefield 3 on "High." Luckily, Hard Reset still manages to look great on "Low," believe it or not.

While this title looks fantastic and feels great, it's ultimately a small-serving experience that can easily be completed in one sitting. Even when contending with several difficult sections, you're likely to reach the credits in less than 6 hours. But really, if the game was much longer, the lack of variety in environments and enemy types would get even more monotonous. It does make the modest $29.99 price tag start to actually seem a little steep, though, particularly with the complete lack of multiplayer, a true disappointment. Hard Reset and a free-for-all deathmatch mode would go together like peas and carrots. But without it, there's not much incentive to play the game anymore after you've finished the campaign once.

When a game puts all its eggs in one basket, that had better be a pretty solid basket. In the case of Hard Reset, that basket is the pure shooting mechanic, and it is indeed solid. And it's a good thing it is, because save for the visuals, not much else in the game is of a similar quality. While presented in pleasing, comic book-style cutscenes, the cyberpunk plot is only of passing interest, and the voice acting is certainly not a strong point. The environment is officially monotonous by the time the campaign ends, and there's a general lack of memorable "wow" moments. And when the pure shooting is so good, it makes the desire for any competitive multiplayer that much more intense, as this game seems custom-tailored for an old-school deathmatch. Still, $29.99 is a pretty attractive price tag for what ultimately amounts to an above-average experience. You know what you're getting in Hard Reset: a plain-old and flashy shooter in a small serving. It's recommendable to gamers who luxuriate in the genre, and could be worth a look to the casually interested as well, particularly if found on a sale.

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"bowlingotter reviewed Hard Reset for the PC..." was posted by bowlingotter on Sat, 05 Nov 2011 14:33:55 -0700
]]> http://www.gamespot.com/hard-reset/user-reviews/778962/platform/pc/ Fri, 04 Nov 2011 06:28:53 -0700 bowlingotter reviewed Battlefield 3 for the PC... http://www.gamespot.com/battlefield-3/user-reviews/778855/platform/pc/ ...and gave it a 9.0!

The multiplayer war FPS might be a dime-a-dozen these days, but believe it or not, this wasn't always the case. When DICE released Battlefield 1942 9 years ago, these games weren't the norm. Up until then, supernatural shooter franchises like Quake, Unreal, Halo, and Half-Life saturated the genre. Battlefield 1942's 64-player maps, strong vehicle content, and realism angle made an instant impact to the multiplayer landscape, and it has never been the same. While numerous iterations of the Battlefield franchise have seen releases over the past decade, the progenitor's only true sequel in Battlefield 2 has stood alone since 2005. At long last, Battlefield 3 brings the series back with a vengeance, touting best-ever multiplayer gameplay along with the franchise's first single-player campaign. And while the latter doesn't break any new ground, the former delivers in one of the few occasions in which a game lives up to the hype.

Battlefield 3's multiplayer gameplay picks up everything that made the previous titles great and seems to have hit all the right notes in taking them a step further. Included with the game are 9 maps that vary in overall size, openness, environment, and emphasis on vehicles vs infantry. The necessary strategy truly changes from map to map, making each feel unique while still managing to be genuinely balanced. Operation Metro is an infantry-based map with an open, outdoor area that shrinks to a claustrophobic subway system, playing well with any number of players. But its similar namesake Operation Firestorm is a huge, sprawling landscape where you'll often witness tank battles, helicopter assaults, and jet-fighter dogfights, perfect for huge 64-player matches. Each location requires a different line of thinking, and mastering each player class and vehicle type will keep you busy for hours upon hours.

The player classes themselves are relatively standard and will be largely familiar to players of Bad Company 2, with a few key differences. The Assault class is still your go-to mid-range, accurate infantry specialist, but now provides relief for your squad mates in the form of health packs and defibrillator-revivals. It's the machine gun-toting Support class that is able to distribute much-needed ammo refills this time around. The Engineer and Recon classes still specialize in vehicle combat and long-range sniping respectively.

These classes are even more effectively balanced in Battlefield 3 than in games prior. While each one harbors combat options that lend themselves to any player's shooting style, it's the secondary abilities that make every class necessary for a team to be successful. Without the Assault class, you'd have no one to revive fallen teammates in key moments of battle. Otherwise-effective kill-getters are rendered defenseless unless there's a Support class nearby to provide more ammo. Your whole team is screwed if they're attacked by a skilled tank driver unless your Engineers come by to dispatch them, and active Recon soldiers can strategically place select-able spawn points that can go a long way to turn the tide of war. A team that doesn't make liberal use of every one of these classes is going to have a hard time finding success, and playing each class to their potential offers a truly unique experience every time.

Even the vehicles themselves are accessible. Flying a helicopter in Battlefield 3 offers controls that are simple, responsive, and inviting. But at the same time, there's incentive to practice, as learning the ropes provides a deep-enough experience to benefit experienced pilots. Jet-flying plays a similar role, since while flying them isn't terribly difficult, learning to effectively release flares, fire on infantry, and engage in dogfights feels like a different game entirely. Tanks can certainly make that hard-to-capture point much more reachable, and every vehicle is more effective with additional teammates along for the ride.

Adding to the impressive variety already established between the great maps, player classes, and vehicle gameplay, there are five different game modes to play. Conquest is your standard capture-and-hold mode; Rush pits an offense against a defense in an ever-expanding map with mini-objectives; Team Deathmatch awards the win to the team with the most kills. Then there are Squad Deathmatch, a variation of Team Deathmatch pitting 4 squads against each other, and Squad Rush, a small-scale version of the Rush mode which places one 4-man squad against another. Each mode feels completely different, and every single map in the game is capable of hosting any mode. That's a lot of gameplay variation.

As with Bad Company 2, rewards come about in Battlefield 3 with regular satisfaction. The moments when you feel like you are truly getting the hang of a certain weapon or player class often coincide with numerous presents in the form of promotions, perks, weapon upgrades, and new weapons altogether. Similar payoffs result from effective cooperation with teammates, as working within a squad to attack the same objective or provide each other with ammo and health will yield additional experience points. It's almost as if the game is actively telling you, "You got it! Keep doing that!" And if you're hitting a wall trying to get the hang of a certain strategy (or rather, if you've gotten bored mastering a particular skill), this game offers numerous other strategies to try your hand at, and you'll find another way to begin the flow of rewards once more. Between all of the secondary skills along with the ever-helpful "spotting" mechanic, you certainly don't have to rack up impressive kill counts in order to help your team and gain promotions. With so many avenues to explore, Battlefield 3 will stay fresh for a long time.

The teamwork-centered multiplayer experience also segues into 6 co-op missions. These plot-based missions allow you and another player to work together through missions that compliment the single-player campaign, complete with impressive scripted sequences. They're certainly more difficult than the single-player campaign, but made all the more enjoyable with a buddy. There are even extra unlockables earned through these missions that can be used in the competitive multiplayer mode. The only minor gripe here is that there are only 6 missions, and you'll be left wanting more.

The area in which Battlefield 3 displays a bit more tarnish than shine is in its single-player campaign. While the plot is interesting, it's nothing new, serving mostly as play-throughs of flashback explanations provided by the protagonist Marine, who happens to be under interrogation - [cough] Call of Duty: Black Ops [/cough]. Many of the set pieces and scripted sequences, while impressive, often illicit a feeling of deja vu. And while enemy soldiers will run for cover, they'll also pop out clear into the dangerous open with reckless abandon, calling the AI into question. At most turns, the gameplay in this campaign has been done before, and done better.

But it's not all bad, as the 7-8 hour campaign is often rescued by the same glorious presentation that compliments all areas of the game. While it scales well on lower-end machines, Battlefield 3 is one of the most impressive-looking games released to date as it pertains to realism on a powerful PC. The lighting casts believable shadows and shines through windows into otherwise dark rooms. Several quick-time events in the single-player campaign are awe-inducing, and the voice/character acting is superb as well. And oh, the sound design. There aren't enough words in the English language to describe its excellence. Gunshots rattle in the distance with astonishing believability. Indoor areas echo in perfect tandem with the size of the room. If you're too close to an explosion, you'll experience a period of sudden deafness, slowly returning and accompanied by tinnitus. From top to bottom, Battlefield 3's audio and visual presentation is among the best that the gaming industry has to offer.

While DICE may have taken a step back in the single-player world from Bad Company 2, they took a much bigger step forward in the expansive competitive multiplayer with Battlefield 3. Between the diverse maps and game modes, the varying strategies of the player classes, and the engaging vehicle gameplay, there is a ton of content to keep you busy for many hours. From 4-on-4 to 32-on-32, the possibilities are near endless in this mode, and it's more than enough to warrant the purchase of the game alone. Enter in standard-setting visual presentation and sound design and you have yourself a deadly concoction. Years ago, DICE defined the multiplayer war shooter, and they have redefined it with Battlefield 3.

Get the full article at GameSpot

"bowlingotter reviewed Battlefield 3 for the PC..." was posted by bowlingotter on Fri, 04 Nov 2011 06:28:53 -0700
]]> http://www.gamespot.com/battlefield-3/user-reviews/778855/platform/pc/ Fri, 28 Oct 2011 06:25:18 -0700 bowlingotter reviewed The War of the Worlds for the Xbox 360... http://www.gamespot.com/the-war-of-the-worlds/user-reviews/778168/platform/xbox360/ ...and gave it a 5.0.

Ah, the cinematic platformer. Its invention can be credited to Broderbund's Prince of Persia in 1989, which made its way to pretty much every conceivable platform under the sun. Its fluid animation and puzzle-solving gameplay allowed for 1991′s wonderfully crafted Another World, and eventually games like Flashback and even the early Blizzard title, Blackthorne. But the rigid controls and extreme difficulty that typically encompassed these games has become antiquated over the years, and the genre has laid dormant. Indie developer Other Ocean Interactive has faith that there is more left to be accomplished as a cinematic platformer, and has chosen H.G. Wells' acclaimed novel War of the Worlds for the subject matter. Enlisting Sir Patrick Stewart to provide narration and partnering with the likes of Paramount Digital Entertainment, the stars seem aligned for the video game adaptation to succeed. In execution, The War of the Worlds is visually striking, and Stewart's iconic voice compliments the setting wonderfully. But while it is a wonderful title to behold, the pure gameplay is simply not enjoyable, consisting of unresponsive controls, repetitive trial-and-error, frustrating checkpoints, and cheap deaths-a-plenty.

The War of the Worlds' strength lies squarely in its presentation, which may be worth the price of admission alone. Stewart's narration is an immediate boon to the atmosphere, citing quotes from the novel that are appropriate to the particular area of the game. The setting is dark, brooding and shadowy, borrowing heavily (and appropriately) from the excellent Limbo. All throughout the game, the backdrop consists of unfolding violence and destruction as the massive alien tripods decimate the landscape. The accompanying music is well-crafted and perfectly complimentary, from flowing orchestral scores and scratchy old-time music that sounds as if amplified through a victrola, to ambient electronics towards the game's end. There are even excerpts from the famous radio broadcast peppered throughout. The sum of these parts can be effectively described as awe-inducing, and they only improve and expand as the game continues. There are "wow" moments all over the place. But while there's an effective portrayal of imminent danger, that nowhere is safe, the truth of this notion is fully embodied in the gameplay in disturbing and frustrating fashion.

Thus, we have the bottom line with which to describe War of the Worlds: awe-inducing and downright frustrating. The problem with being so heavily influenced by games such as Another World and Flashback is that the control schemes for those games were never very good to begin with. The trade-off was that, at the time, the idea was new and could be carried almost entirely by the presentation. It allowed for fluid animation the likes of which had never been seen prior. Those games also made effective use of puzzle-solving mechanics to keep things interesting. And while there are plenty of puzzle-like sequences here, The War of the Worlds insists on making them as inconvenient as possible, throwing electricity obstacles, spider-aliens, and laser beams in your path while trying to figure them out. Too many of these parts of the game feel like they were crafted with no other intent than to be pains in the ass. This game subscribes to the old-school NES mentality that you must perform every button press with perfect timing and when standing on the perfect pixel to succeed. Anything less than perfection at any given moment results in death and a restart from a checkpoint (which occasionally is positioned before extremely difficult sections that you must make your way through yet again). When you have to play the same section of a level over and over again to continue, even Sir Patrick's flawless voice-over execution becomes repetitive.

But the issue is not necessarily that The War of the Worlds is difficult. Games like Super Meat Boy and Dark Souls have made their names being both brutally difficult and incredibly satisfying. But the difference between these and The War of the Worlds is that the former titles play fair. The War of the Worlds demands that you be bang-on accurate and fluid in your movements when navigating the broken landscape while being simultaneously chased by a giant tripod and pursued by smaller laser-shooting pods. You're asked to jump from platform to platform with pixel-perfect accuracy while being chased by spider-aliens and threatened by laser beams. These become unreasonable requests when the game doesn't give you the tools to do it with. With fast-paced, action-oriented gameplay, The War of the Worlds should employ tight, quick and accurate platforming, allowing for dashing, turning, rolling and jumping at immediate demand to dodge numerous enemies, climb ladders and hop fire pits. Instead, we're given the smoothly animated but rigidly limiting and sluggish movement borrowed from Prince of Persia, Another World and Flashback. These games made effective use of their control schemes by rarely requiring speed and instead providing challenge in the form of logical puzzles. In general, they were "stop and think" games, whereas The War of the Worlds is often a "run, jump, and dodge" game. To put it bluntly, this was the wrong control scheme for this game.

To make things worse, even when you are seemingly under cover and protected from enemy projectiles, they'll often find a way to fire through said cover and kill your character anyway. It's never quite clear where you're safe. As a result, it's rare to successfully proceed through a new area when presented with it for the first time. At your next chance, you'll let experience govern your choice of cover and not your eyes, or even your logic.

Another thing about your eyes: you'll often be deprived of using them. The presentation is absolutely fantastic and downright breathtaking at almost all times, but it can also get in the way. On early stages, silhouettes of panicking citizens will race back and forth in the game's foreground. It's an exciting effect and truly aids in the desperate air about the game, but it's also quite intrusive. The shadows cover enough of the screen to eclipse your character as they pass, momentarily removing him from view. When so many steps need to be taken with painful accuracy, it's enough to cause an occasional error that you might not have otherwise made. But regardless, these problems do not occur often enough to outweigh the effectiveness of the presentation, and are ultimately minor gripes.

The War of the Worlds is certainly a title with its heart in the right place. The presentation is stunning, both in its visual and auditory properties. Sir Patrick Stewart's voice-over work is perfectly executed and a fantastic addition to the game. The primary issue is that, though it can be nostalgic, its control scheme does not complement the gameplay, which often values painfully perfect timing over an exercise of the mind. Ultimately, this is a title that is enthralling to watch but not much fun to play. The quality of the combined experience sits squarely on the fence, and the value of this 800 MSP title relies in the emphasis you personally place on a game's visceral presentation over its pure gameplay. If you greatly value such aspects, then this game is likely worth the asking price for those alone. But if you're not prepared for frustrating trial and error and the occasional urge to rage-quit, steer clear of this one.

Get the full article at GameSpot

"bowlingotter reviewed The War of the Worlds for the Xbox 360..." was posted by bowlingotter on Fri, 28 Oct 2011 06:25:18 -0700
]]> http://www.gamespot.com/the-war-of-the-worlds/user-reviews/778168/platform/xbox360/ Fri, 21 Oct 2011 20:14:25 -0700 bowlingotter reviewed Nuclear Dawn for the PC... http://www.gamespot.com/nuclear-dawn/user-reviews/777544/platform/pc/ ...and gave it a 8.0.

There's a certain satisfaction to conquering a steep learning curve. Sometimes, the games that are the most difficult to learn are also the ones that become the most engaging when enough time and energy is spent. Nuclear Dawn is a game that entrenches itself in this very category. It is unfriendly and uninviting. It's not much of a looker, either. Many newcomers are bound to turn it off in the first hour, never to return again, but they are to be pitied. Nuclear Dawn is punishing to newbies, but rewards those who endure ten fold with gameplay that offers up some of the most satisfying teamwork ever in a multiplayer FPS.

Like Counter-Strike and Day of Defeat, Nuclear Dawn began as an indie mod based on Valve's Source engine back in 2006 and has now graduated to a full-blown commercial release. It is an online multiplayer-only game that seeks to combine the mechanics of both the first-person shooter and real-time strategy genres, a feat that has proven difficult to pull off in the past. Before we go any further, let it be known that Nuclear Dawn absolutely pulls it off.

But first impressions go a long way, and this is where Nuclear Dawn faceplants. Start up the game, but for god's sake do not jump into a server and assume that you can figure it out. Your first stop should be the "Tutorials" section, which presents several well-produced videos that provide a bare-bones crash course on the basics of the game. It's worth noting that the main menu music didn't stop when the tutorial video started. I had to completely turn off the music from the audio configuration menu before watching them. So, that in mind, perhaps your first stop should be the audio configuration menu.

The videos give a quick overview of the four playable classes in the game: Assault, your standard all-around player killer with a sweet visor that detects cloaked enemies; Exo, the slow and lumbering heavy gunner who specializes in taking down enemy structures; Stealth, a class that can perform backstab and sniper kills while cloaking to remain undetected (by all but the Assault class with the visor enabled); and Support, who through multiple sub-classes can repair structures, heal allies, and torch enemies. As suggested, each class has at least two sub-classes that serve to further diversify the roles of every player in the field, but keeping them under the umbrella of four main classes serves to simplify the process a bit.

There's also a video that quickly outlines the Commander role, and that's where the real-time strategy comes in. The Commander is given an aerial view of the entire map and is tasked with not only giving guidance and instruction to his team, but also building supportive structures including the likes of spawn points and turrets. He also must research technological advancements that unlock different weapon options for the soldiers on the ground.

Teamwork may never have been as important in a large-scale multiplayer FPS as it is in Nuclear Dawn. To reach the goal of completely obliterating your opponent's base, the Commander must provide good instruction and strategically place structures so that they are helpful to the soldiers. But to make this possible, the soldiers must find and claim map markers that generate the necessary resources, the most important of which is the "Primary," the central point of each map that provides the Commander with the most resources available. And in order for the soldiers to have a fighting chance at taking the Primary and other resource markers, the Commander needs to continue to effectively support. The best combination of a skilled, experienced team of soldiers and a knowledgeable Commander stands the best chance at winning the round.

On the other hand, if you're not either a skilled, experienced soldier or a knowledgeable Commander, you're going to get your ass kicked. This game is not noob-friendly. After you watch the short set of videos, you're offered one option: Trial by fire. There's no playable tutorial. There are no bots, so you can't play by yourself to experiment. More importantly, you can't even play by yourself to become familiar with the controls or the interface. You just jump in with both feet and start getting shot at while trying to figure out what button does what. And once you do, you'll start wondering what the heck all the structures are. Someone said something about supplies, but what are they and what do they do? The Commander wants me to attack the Primary– What's a Primary? And where is it?! And what do I do when I get there?? Now everyone's yelling at me! AHHHH!

It is very easy to be scared off from this title in your first hour or two. In fact, if you know what's good for you, you will quit after playing for an hour or so and hit the forums. There, you'll find community-made wikis and strategy guides that are worth every second of your time to read. After that short stint of seeing what everything looks like in-game, it'll all slowly but surely become clear with a little bit of study time. Slowly, but surely.

That doesn't sound like much fun, does it? Maybe not, but the payoff is. The next time you're in-game, you'll have an idea, a mission, a goal, and most importantly, an understanding. When your commander is doling out instructions, you'll spend less time trying to decipher them and more time trying to execute them. Soon, you'll find yourself calling out helpful information to your teammates when you clear out a pesky turret, opening a new avenue for your buddies to attack a strategic position on the map. You'll start to identify when it's appropriate to assume the roles of each of the classes. You'll get your first taste of victory. And finally, you'll start to gain experience points and levels, unlocking perks to assist you in the future. Then you look at the clock; there goes four hours. Yep, you're addicted.

But once you get a taste for the depth of the gameplay and the satisfaction of successful teamwork, you're not yet finished with uncovering all of the great things about Nuclear Dawn. Of equal – perhaps more – importance to the allure of the game is the developer's attention. Nuclear Dawn was only released on September 26th and, at the time of the writing of this review, has already received several updates with numerous changes in the forms of gameplay enhancements, balances, and bug fixes. And they're not all small tweaks; the most recent update added a team autobalancing server option and a bounce sound to accompany grenade tosses (among numerous other changes). Not only are these large-impact changes, but they are all based on community feedback. This developer listens and implements. Along these lines, when beginning a game, you'll see a notification that says "Game Type: Warfare", suggesting that there are other game types. Currently, there is only Warfare, but based on the developer involvement, something tells me that this will not be the case forever.

The aesthetic effect of Nuclear Dawn is not quite as pleasing. It might not be a bad-looking game, but it's certainly not up to the modern standard for visual presentation. Built on Valve's Source engine, it can come off as crude and bland with plain-looking textures. Still, it's squeezing some admirable life out of the aging engine, and the gameplay easily distracts from most graphical limitations. Unfortunately, it does allow for the player to become stuck on rare occasion, but this is yet another area where the developer is sniffing out the bugs one at a time as discovered. The sound, on the other hand, is pretty satisfying. You'll get all the power from the gunshots and explosions that you could want. But there was one particular occasion that provided a nice "wow" reaction: On a rainy map, standing inside a building is accompanied by the unmistakable sound of rain pattering against a metal roof. It was very believable and instantly immersive, and even prompted a hesitation just to appreciate the moment.

If you're clamoring for a fresh experience that will make you change the way you approach a multiplayer FPS, look no further than Nuclear Dawn. The experience of participating on a skilled team and working with a solid Commander is one of the more satisfying ones provided by a multiplayer game in recent memory. And the developer attention makes it all but certain that the game will continue to see enhancements and expansions in the future. This, plus hours of replayability all at $24.99, is real bang for the buck. But please, be prepared for some early suffering. This game makes you work for it. You'll need to accept multiple hours of failure and forum-browsing, but in the end, you'll be glad you stuck with it. Oh, and use a microphone. Your teammates will thank you for it.

Get the full article at GameSpot

"bowlingotter reviewed Nuclear Dawn for the PC..." was posted by bowlingotter on Fri, 21 Oct 2011 20:14:25 -0700
]]> http://www.gamespot.com/nuclear-dawn/user-reviews/777544/platform/pc/ Tue, 18 Oct 2011 11:01:16 -0700 bowlingotter reviewed Rage for the PC... http://www.gamespot.com/rage-2011/user-reviews/777279/platform/pc/ ...and gave it a 7.0.

id Software: legends of gaming. Many consider them the fathers of the first-person shooter genre, one that has gone on to dominate the industry. Their games have become famous for incredible presentation value, standard-setting visuals, and satisfying gameplay. Yet, it has been some time since we've seen an entirely in-house game from the storied developer. Rage marks the first time we've seen such a title since Doom 3 was released in 2004, and the first time we've been shown an entirely new franchise from them since 1996′s Quake. Expectations – and hopes – for this game have been quite elevated. In some ways, they're certainly met. When firing on all cylinders, Rage is a beautiful, nail-biting thrill ride complete with exciting gunplay and far-from-filler driving sequences. But conversely, the engine sputters with RPG features that don't commit and a seemingly expansive world that isn't so explorable. It doesn't help that the PC release is feature-deficient and saddled by technical issues galore. While it might be a tad extreme to call a game with such lofty expectations a disappointment, Rage offers impressive thrills that are often countered by surprising limitations.

In 2029, the Apophis asteroid collides with Earth, causing devastating destruction and threatening the survival of the human race. Foreseeing this occurrence, inhabitants of Earth had banded together to launch the Eden Project, a last-breath effort to ensure the continuance of mankind. Through this Project, hundreds of "Arks" were constructed and buried under the Earth's surface, each containing several human survivors placed in cryostasis. Rage begins 106 years after the execution of the Eden Project, and well after the Apophis asteroid had decimated the planet. You play the role of the only survivor of your Ark, now awakened, and stepping back on to Earth for the first time with no memory of any previous occurrences. Immediately, you discover that this new Earth is not a friendly place.

First impressions of the sprawling landscapes should be absolutely breathtaking. And while they are impressively expansive and detailed, first you need to wait for all of the textures to load. This immersion-breaking moment is one that you're unfortunately forced to become accustomed to throughout your tenure with Rage. And particularly with the PC version, out of the box, it's horrendous. Turn left and textures will take a full second to load. Turn right and you'll find the same situation. Turn back left again to the same textures that loaded before and they'll start loading again, taking just as long. Everywhere you look begins as a blurry, muddy mess before transforming into something attractive. It's just the beginning of a host of technical issues that will mar your otherwise-enjoyable experience.

Texture pop-in aside, the environment is quite attractive in appearance as well as feel. Rage manages to carry a futuristic air while simultaneously feeling run-down and desperate. There's a true sense that people have banded together into whatever community they can find in an effort to survive in an utterly hostile environment, as there is surely a greater amount of barren wasteland than populated towns. The weapons are certainly generations ahead while still borrowing from the old-fashioned, such as the assault rifle that harbors a pleasing combination of gun metal and wood grain.

But the let-down about the attractive environment is that there really isn't much of anything to explore. What appears at first to be an incredible world at your feet turns out to be a tight little hallway once you try to hop over a road barrier only to find out that ye olde invisible walls are keeping you on the straight-and-narrow. And little things like the archaic "glide" up ladders rather than an actual climb take you out of the experience. It's harder to get away with mechanics like these in modern games as they've been largely phased-out over the years, and it's a bit disappointing that a typically cutting-edge developer like id Software is clinging to them.

The characters that you come across are well-acted and superbly animated. There's no immersion-breaking here; conversations with characters happen just as you walk up to them. You won't have to hit a button and enter an entirely separate mode to speak to them. The dialogue is concise with a solid balance between offering personality and information without getting too wordy. Through these conversations, you'll get a basic overview of the plot, but none of it is particularly engaging or interesting. Differing factions just seem like excuses to provide levels and don't seem to have any political or narrative impact. It really all boils down to the "Resistance" versus the "Authority" in a Half-Life-esque struggle for freedom.

As for the action, the game moves quite smoothly, with a solid, weighty feel. The combat in particular is fantastic. Aiming is accurate, whether it's down a scope or across iron sights. Enemies react to the part of their body that has been shot. If an enemy is barreling towards you (which happens quite often) and you pepper them full of bullets as they close in, their momentum will continue to carry them forwards as they stumble to the ground. On the other hand, hit them square with a shotgun blast and they'll fly backwards. Fire at an enemy in the distance and notice that blood will spatter on the wall behind him. Everything ebbs and flows with satisfying consistence in combat situations.

Rage also injects RPG elements into its otherwise-linear gameplay, but it only goes halfway. There's an inventory system that can store various throwable weapons as well as items like remote-controlled car bombs a la Call of Duty. There are a few weapon upgrades, but none of them make enough of a difference to feel like you've changed anything. There is a crafting system as well, though there aren't too many things that you can craft. Still, these extra features work well enough and do provide some variety and personal approach to keep things from becoming derivative, and the several different types of ammo are fun to change on the fly in combat situations.

But what feels missing is any sense of character progression. There are no attributes to customize, no experience points, no levels to advance, no new skills to learn. As a result, completing missions lacks that satisfaction that you'll find from games like Borderlands or Fallout 3. And along those lines, there's much less incentive to hunt out all of the side missions that you can find. Your rewards for such amount to cash – which you're just likely to spend on more ammo for the next mission anyway – and satisfaction for your obsessive-compulsive, completionist tendencies. The problem is that once you open up the door to RPG elements, you can't leave out something as necessary as character progression. It makes the extra missions feel like filler, as if nothing is different as a result of completing them.

Speaking of filler, the driving sequences are anything but. You'll receive your first vehicle early on in the game, and it's immediately a blast to zip around the wasteland even with nothing to shoot and no destinations to reach (if anything, it actually makes the world feel smaller, as you'll be dying to find a large, open area to do donuts in). And as you move on to the following towns, you can participate in the racetrack events, the winnings from which provide a unique currency used to upgrade your vehicles in the form of weapons and armor, and even some limited aesthetic customizations. And while there really aren't any vehicle-centric missions to contend with, you'll be driving to most of the mission locations in the game. And on your way, rest assured that you'll be attacked, and those upgrades will come in handy. Plus, these ambushes can result in cash rewards if you clean out all of your attackers. In this way, these otherwise transportation-only sections actually amount to little minigames during your travels, providing satisfying deviations from the linearity.

After about 15-20 hours, you'll reach the end of the campaign in a moment that can only be described as abrupt, and certainly not satisfying. But fret not, because you can go back and battle it out with some buddies in the online combat driving multiplayer. It's fun for a short while, but it amounts to a Mario Kart-influenced competitive battle with gameplay that's not quite as deep and varied as its inspiration, and it grows stale. The included FPS co-op missions are a lot of fun, though, and you'll wish for more when you're through with them. Hopefully, we might see some come down the wire in the form of DLC.

The audio elements in Rage – both the music and the sound effects – contribute greatly to the palpable excitement and tension during the action sequences. Gunfire from every weapon illicits tangible power. The growls of the Mutants, war cries of the Jackals, and banter of the Gearheads pull you in to every environment, particularly with a surround-sound setup. And the score is bang-on awesome. Just when the action ramps up, the music complements it perfectly, transforming an already nail-biting situation into absolutely raucous combat. These are truly the situations in which Rage is firing on all cylinders, and the moments when you feel that you are playing something special.

But so many of these situations are sabotaged by technical issues on the PC. Too often, you'll find yourself in the middle of an intense firefight, calling on all reflexes to place each shot perfectly as enemies clamor up the walls to reach you when the game inexplicably stops. A handful of seconds later, it will start again. Twenty more seconds pass and yet again– stop. This maddening situation does not seem to be persistent with on-screen activity, polygon count, or audio events. It truly seems to be a random occurrence, and it can bring forth an unfortunate second meaning to the game's title. You might want to go to your video settings to experiment and find the source of your problem, but you'll find that there's nearly nothing there to adjust. No texture quality options, filtering, VSync, field of view– You're given resolution and aliasing, and that's about it. There is a GPU Transcode option which may help to enable or disable, but if you're using an nVidia SLI setup, it's not there, because a resource hog like Rage doesn't support SLI. Facepalm.

Patches have been incoming from id Software, and they have offered up additional video customization options, but for many people, the stuttering issue has actually worsened. Fortunately, as always, the PC gaming community has banded together to find solutions to nearly every last one of these problems, and the Steam forums are abuzz with fixes. If you're prepared to put in several hours creating and editing config files, you're likely to have Rage running quite well on your PC. But it will take a measure of trial and error that not everyone will be willing to contend with.

Rage might not be everything we'd hoped it would be, but all the waiting wasn't entirely for naught. This game offers up FPS action in some of the most thrilling forms that we've seen in years. It's in-your-face, intense, and satisfying, and when coupled with the addictive driving sections, they're both enough to carry the game on their shoulders. But don't count on the RPG elements to take you somewhere that you've never been. The lack of character progression along with the linearity that's sadly governed by invisible walls will mean that you won't be fooled for long before you realize that you're playing a straightforward shooter. And while the game is incredibly attractive and plays wonderfully when all is well, the technical issues with the PC release are many. Shooter fans are certain to get a hefty dose of enjoyment out of Rage, but for those of you who want a working product out of the box, you may want to seriously consider the console platform for this title. Either that, or at least hold out for more patches before making a purchase.

Get the full article at GameSpot

"bowlingotter reviewed Rage for the PC..." was posted by bowlingotter on Tue, 18 Oct 2011 11:01:16 -0700
]]> http://www.gamespot.com/rage-2011/user-reviews/777279/platform/pc/ Tue, 04 Oct 2011 10:35:23 -0700 bowlingotter reviewed Camping Mama: Outdoor Adventures for the DS... http://www.gamespot.com/camping-mama-outdoor-adventures/user-reviews/776079/platform/ds/ ...and gave it a 5.0.

Mama sure gets around. Since the original Cooking Mama released in 2006, the franchise has seen several sequels across the Nintendo DS, Nintendo Wii, and iOS platforms. Each iteration has had slightly different themes beyond cooking ranging from crafting to babysitting, but the formula consistently exists as a package of minigames. It is unsurprising that the Nintendo DS houses the majority of the Mama games, as it is ultimately the most appropriate platform for the gameplay. And it also plays host to the newest Mama game, Camping Mama: Outdoor Adventures. Hours of camping-themed touchscreen minigames await!

In the other Mama games preceding this one, you pretty much play as yourself. You select a recipe or craft or task – whatever is appropriate for the particular iteration – and minigame away while Mama judges your result. In Camping Mama, however, you play the role of a little boy or girl (your choice, no difference in gameplay between them) tasked with exploring different areas of an island to find objects with which to decorate your campground. You might think this means that there's been some much-needed depth finally introduced to the series, but you'd be wrong.

There are five different areas of the island to explore, each with at least six stages within. You begin with access to only the first area, and you walk around finding items like hearts and badges that serve as collectibles. You'll also come across enemies in the forms of crabs, snakes, and other random animals. You can't attack or jump, so you'll have to avoid them. Luckily (?), the enemies just walk along pre-determined and very predictable paths that can be easily circumvented. No enemies really have differing strengths or patterns either, so when you've seen the first enemy in the game, you've essentially seen them all. It's about the only situation that you'll see a mosquito that behaves like a bear.

If you were to ask one hundred Camping Mama players to choose a single word to describe this game, one might come up ninety-nine times: easy. Your character does have a health gauge, but the chances of it ever coming into play are very slim. You begin each stage with 8 hearts and touching an enemy removes one of them. However, since the enemies are so easily avoided, you're only likely to touch a couple of them while walking through the stage. Add to this the fact that you'll find at least one or two hearts in your journey to refill the lost ones and you're left with a game that you pretty much have to make a concerted effort to lose. It's like Camping Mama's existence is gaming's way of balancing the equation opposite Dark Souls.

But it's not only easy because of the fact that you won't run your health gauge down unless you want to. There aren't any puzzles to solve, either. If you want to collect everything in a particular stage, you just have to walk to every corner of it. Nothing is difficult to find. There is no tricky layout of rocks or stones to strategically arrange in order to gain access to an area. Just touch everything in the level. If you don't want to lose, you won't. I promise.

While you're spinning your wheels walking around the increasingly-pointless overworld sections, you'll occasionally happen upon a minigame. Ah, yes, the Mama minigames! These little minute-long lovelies are the heart of the franchise, and they're certainly the most enjoyable part of Camping Mama as well. One minute you're picking pea pods or gathering sea shells; the next you're racing a bear or shoving acorns in the mouths of hungry squirrels. Each one is endearing in its own way. It's the minigames that keep you coming back, even if they are, too, extremely easy.

The minigames might not be quite as easy as the overworld sections, but they're not a far cry away. The only difference is that you might not always score a perfect on your first try, even if you will a good amount of the time. And if you do miss the first time, you'll probably get it perfect the second time. There are very few minigames that will present a real challenge or make you think. This is primarily because Camping Mama tells you very plainly exactly what to do to succeed, and is extremely forgiving. You'll find yourself scoring perfect scores even if you mess up a couple of times. Plus, even if you absolutely bomb the minigame to the point that you score a zero, the game will still tell you, "That went great!" even while Mama's eyes are literally on fire with anger. I would say it's sarcastic, but Camping Mama is really the ultimate, feel-good, "everybody wins" kind of game. As an aside, it is kind of unintentionally hilarious when you occasionally ace a minigame for Papa and he tells you, "Fantastic! You're giving Mama a run for his money!" A little gender confusion in translation, I guess.

At first, the minigames are fun enough to carry the game, which is unsurprising as the minigames are the game in every other Mama iteration. But each of the five areas can be completed in about an hour, and after two of them, it gets very monotonous. The areas that you unlock as you proceed are generally only aesthetically different with no real changes in gameplay or strategy, save for the ice areas late in the game. But while the overworld starts boring and gets even more boring, even the minigames get stale. After a couple of hours, you'll start to realize that you're playing the same minigames over and over with slightly different skins on them.

There are exceptions but they are few and far between. The best minigames are the multi-stage ones in which you build something like a slingshot or a fishing pole. But a truly significant improvement could have been reached if these newly crafted items were usable in the game afterwards. Maybe you could use the slingshot to finally attack enemies? Nope. Maybe you could catch fish with the pole and unlock a new area? Nyet. Just another minigame, on to the next.

With a "can't lose" philosophy, Camping Mama: Outdoor Adventures is certainly not targeted at the hardcore gamer demographic. Still, just about anyone can find quite a bit of fun in the numerous minigames for some time, particularly in small servings without allowing the monotony to set in. But if you pop the game in for a long session, you'll get bored. And while you do have the option of replaying any previously-played minigames straight from the main menu, you'll have to suffer through the grind that is the overworld portion before getting to them in the first place. There might be a good amount of content, but you're not likely to feel compelled to reach it all for any reason other than the satisfaction of completion. If you keep your sessions short and don't require yourself to complete the entire game, you just might feel like playing a little Camping Mama now and again. But it's difficult to say that the game wouldn't be better if the overworld was omitted entirely. In the end, it's just an obstacle between you and the minigames.

Get the full article at GameSpot

"bowlingotter reviewed Camping Mama: Outdoor Adventures for the DS..." was posted by bowlingotter on Tue, 04 Oct 2011 10:35:23 -0700
]]> http://www.gamespot.com/camping-mama-outdoor-adventures/user-reviews/776079/platform/ds/ Wed, 28 Sep 2011 07:24:44 -0700 bowlingotter reviewed Supremacy MMA for the Xbox 360... http://www.gamespot.com/supremacy-mma/user-reviews/775505/platform/xbox360/ ...and gave it a 4.5.

No sport in the world is growing faster than mixed martial arts. With the major name brand of the UFC poised to hit network television on Fox Sports along with the burgeoning popularity of brands like Strikeforce and Bellator, MMA is more popular than ever and shows no signs of slowing. As a result, it's certainly expected that MMA would find its way into a growing number of video games, as well. THQ's UFC Undisputed finally provided a proper MMA simulation for the first time, while EA MMA expanded upon the idea with a lengthy, in-depth career mode. But developer Kung Fu Factory spotted an untapped market; they sought to create an MMA-influenced game that was not a realistic simulation but a brutal, high-impact arcade fighter. The result is Supremacy MMA, and while it has its entertaining moments, the question remains of whether or not this was a market that needed tapping.

UFC fans might be disappointed to know that Supremacy MMA does not provide a roster of professional MMA fighters as we recognize them from today's pay-per-view events. Instead, there is a mish-mash of fighters from several different combat sports, some fictional, some actual. But even the real-life fighters who make their appearances in this game would be only recognizable by hardcore fans of MMA, kickboxing, and Muay Thai. These fighters include the likes of K-1 legend Jerome Le Banner, Muay Thai great Malaipet, and former UFC champ Jens Pulver. Players who had pre-ordered the game are also awarded two additional real-life MMA fighters, journeyman Bao Quach and touted prospect Shane del Rosario. None of these names are likely to be familiar to casual fans of the sport, with the lone exception of Jens Pulver. Still, some of these are very important personalities in their respective disciplines.

Supremacy MMA offers unique story modes for each fighter in lieu of a career mode. The story is told in short order between fights in a pleasing, artistic, comic book-style with inconsistent voice acting. The stories are simple and quick, often consisting of clips that last shy of 30 seconds before a fight, and there are several fights within each story mode that aren't even complimented by any narrative development. There's simply not enough time spent to provide anything fleshed out or memorable. Most of them can be summed up like this: "Guy has some problems and got mixed up with the wrong crowd, his trainer gives him a hard time, and he may or may not come across a crooked fight promoter." There are a couple of exceptions, but none that are notable. Even in the short time that they are featured, the stories themselves are rather inconsistent. Your fighter will fight his way through underground cage matches to end up in a cleaned-up and professional-looking MMA match, only to inexplicably end up back in some rusty underground cage again in his next fight. Each mode only sports 10 fights at most, so you could blow through all of them in a day if you wanted to.

There is also a Femmes Fatales mode which is touted for featuring the first professional female MMA fighters in a video game, Michele Guitierrez and Felice Herrig. Yeah, they're not Cristiane Santos or Marloes Coenen, but they're still some of the few real-life fighters included in the game. Femmes Fatales attempts to provide story modes for these fighters as well, but they're the only two female fighters in the game. So each of these story modes consists of fighting the other female fighter twice and then it's over. Not exactly gripping.

There's a tournament mode that provides either an 8-man bracket or a Mortal Kombat-esque ladder, but that about rounds out the single-player modes. But what matters most is the fighting itself. How does that measure up?

The pure fighting action in Supremacy MMA is somewhat of a mixed bag. True to the game's arcade intent, each fighter has a life bar. It doesn't recharge, and when it runs out, it's over. The last punch, throw, or kick will end in a KO, or the last submission attempt will end in a tap. Button-mash all you want because your fighter will never get tired. But still, the game doesn't fully commit to being an arcade brawler. In an attempt to hold on to its MMA roots, the occasional injections of realism come off a bit awkward. Attempting a submission results in an analog stick-waggle fest, which the more hyper player wins. But a strange occurrence here is that submissions aren't fight-ending if your opponent has enough life remaining. Instead, if you win the offensive submission battle, you'll take out a chunk of your opponent's life and the game will flash the word "DAMAGED" on the screen. It's a stretch, but it can be assumed that the fighter might let go and be satisfied with "damaging" an arm or a leg. But how does one attempt a choke, succeed, but only end up "damaging" their opponent? Did you fracture their neck?

The impact of every blow feels brutal. The screen offers a satisfying shake with each clean strike delivered, accompanied by a powerful thump that can illicit a cringe. Any fight ending with a strike will never have you second-guessing if it was truly a deserving, fight-ending blow. But just as they are during a fight, ending a bout with a submission feels awkward. You could spend an entire match trading brutal strikes, faces swelling, blood flying, and when the moment is right, you slap on that kimura from side control. The struggle ensues and you can feel the impending end of the match as you severely strain your opponent's shoulder. But then the music cuts out and your opponent taps in silence. A couple of anti-climactic slaps is all you get for your trouble and the fight is over. For a game that prides itself on being brutal to the point of pushing the line of realism, why settle with a tap? Why not pop the shoulder from a kimura, break the arm from an armbar, or choke your opponent unconscious with a guillotine? Yeah, it's cringe-worthy, but isn't that the point? Leave the tapping for the simulations.

The game looks good, with fluid fighter animations pulling off believable martial arts techniques unique to each fighting style from boxing to kickboxing, wrestling, Muay Thai, Karate, Judo, and Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. The varied backdrops keep the settings interesting. The damage modeling shows convincingly on the fighters themselves with swollen eyes, bloodied noses, and reddened torsos from body blows. Unfortunately, the control doesn't feel as fluid as the animations look. Too much of the combat is spent with moments of hesitation. Rattle off some punches smoothly, but then your opponent might parry, leaving you staring at each other for a moment, as for some reason, not every parry offers the opportunity to counter immediately. Because of these constant start-and-stop moments, successful combos can sometimes roll out effortlessly but can be maddening to execute later. Fights more often than not end up as a herky jerky affair rather than quick and exciting contests.

In addition, fighters with grappling specialties are a bit overpowered. As long as you can drag the fight to the ground, you can rattle off life-sapping submission moves and rain down some ground and pound. The quickest way to blast through the AI is to do just that. If you're a fan of the stand-up battle, it can certainly be successful, but it will require much more work that will occasionally teeter on the edge of frustration.

The solution to exploiting AI is typically to go online and fight human opponents. That option is offered, but it isn't welcoming. There is only the option to have single, one-off bouts with an opponent that the game will match you with, but there's no observable system to choosing an opponent. It's not unusual for a fighter with a record of 0-1 to be matched up with an opponent with more than 300 wins, and that is ultimately discouraging. With no ramp-up in competition, Supremacy MMA's online component runs the risk of scaring off more players than it will attract. And there aren't too many to be found just yet as it is. To aid in the frustration, the few games found are often marred with lag and glitches, making them hardly a viable alternative to the single-player modes unless the issues are patched.

When Supremacy MMA is firing on all cylinders, it's a brutal, cringe-inducing, powerful brawler that feels like it's touching on something truly unique. But if there are future installments of this title, the game should do itself a favor and release the anchor of realism tethering it to the ground. Let EA Sports and THQ shoulder the task of recreating an MMA match. Supremacy MMA would benefit from wild, exaggerated attacks and injuries, almost in the vein of a dark, violent iteration of a pro wrestling game. The NFL Blitz to the UFC. Unfortunately, as it stands now, Supremacy MMA is an arcade fighter that isn't quite sure what it wants to be.

Get the full article at GameSpot

"bowlingotter reviewed Supremacy MMA for the Xbox 360..." was posted by bowlingotter on Wed, 28 Sep 2011 07:24:44 -0700
]]> http://www.gamespot.com/supremacy-mma/user-reviews/775505/platform/xbox360/ Fri, 16 Sep 2011 06:56:55 -0700 bowlingotter reviewed Dead Island for the PC... http://www.gamespot.com/dead-island/user-reviews/774727/platform/pc/ ...and gave it a 7.0.

It's not hard to find zombies in the gaming industry. From the war-torn Call of Duty to the wild west Red Dead Redemption, zombies have a knack for finding their ways into even the most unlikely titles. In the case of Techland's Dead Island, they are front and center, the stars of the picture. But while zombies themselves are generally mindless beings intent only on killing, Dead Island attempts to be much, much more than just a first-person hack-and-slash undead party, incorporating open-world RPG elements ripe with side quests-a-plenty. The result is a large, lengthy, and ultimately enjoyable romp through Banoi island, particularly with friends. However, it's not without numerous bumps and bruises to go along with a bit of an identity crisis. Throw in a plethora of bugs and glitches and a PC version that forgets why people play on the PC platform, and you'll be left wondering if you're playing a masterful adventure or a sloppy mess. The answer exists somewhere in the chasm between.

When embarking on your quest through Banoi island, you'll choose one of four characters, each with their own backstories and combat specialties. The latter is the only thing that will matter during your playthrough. While the former is interesting when it is first explained, it will never come up again, so don't expect differing plot lines. The beginning of the game that follows gives off a great first impression with your character passing out drunk and waking up in a deserted resort hotel. Making your way to the first set of healthy human characters is tense, and it sets a fantastic tone.

But then the characters themselves– On the whole, they are blatant stereotypes and often portrayed by voice actors making poor attempts at the accents of several nationalities. There are decent actors here and there, but they are unfortunately overshadowed by the numerous lousy ones. And hardly any of them are likable. If they're not horribly selfish, they are irritatingly condescending. As a result, when Dead Island does attempt to paint an emotional picture or teach a moral lesson from time to time, the moments come off as hokey and random. This game wants to tell a moving story, but it doesn't happen. It's just the beginning of how the game spreads itself thin, wanting to fill too many needs at once without fully committing to some of them.

Your first taste of melee combat ensues soon after meeting your human friends. It's up close, brutal, bloody, and gory. The sound here is fantastic; you can feel the impact of every blow as your weapon painfully thumps against your enemy's body, or splats as his skull explodes and rains blood on the ground. The zombies themselves offer idle groans standing in the street, powerful growls as they take a swing at you, and absolutely bone-chilling screams in the distance just before sprinting towards you. These moments are where the game is at its best and most immersive.

When you get the first looks at the landscape overlooking the glorious beaches and distant mountains, Dead Island is quite attractive. You'll catch quite a few breathtaking views playing through Act I, but as the game continues, the visuals seem less and less impressive. Locales become repetitive and bland with increasingly monotonous textures and color schemes. The pacing of the game takes a serious hit as a result, slowing consistently until simply plodding. You'll be completely over the sewers well before you're tasked with entering them for the umpteenth time.

The melee combat control itself is fun if not a little wonky. But with some early adjustment, it's generally satisfying to hone your timing and strike a balance between kicking your opponents away and swinging for the fences. But there are also moments when Dead Island gives you a gun and wants to be an FPS, and these are not as pleasing. Human enemy AI is not much of an improvement over the understandably dumb zombies. Crouching often doesn't get you low enough behind cover to be effective, and for some reason, your character insists on standing every time you pick up an item, placing you back in the line of fire. Melee combat is certainly where it's at in this game, and it's luckily much more common.

The melee strategy also gets a little deeper with the "analog" combat control scheme, which allows you greater control over swinging your weapon. However, this option is not available if you're playing with a mouse and keyboard. That's right, even though many gamers opt for PC versions of games specifically for the mouse and keyboard control, Dead Island makes it painfully clear that they don't want you to use it. You won't get access to the analog combat control option. Exiting in-game menus with the mouse often results in executing an attack (you'd better hope you didn't have that molotov cocktail armed). And a launch bug in the game actually causes strafing to stutter and lag, but only when using the keyboard. Every single one of these issues vanishes when employing a gamepad.

But there are many other problems with the PC version that aren't so easily solved. Standard graphical adjustments like field of view, anti-aliasing, vertical sync, shadow quality, filtering, bloom effects– Not a single one of these can be adjusted in-game. Popular surround sound headphones like the Logitech G35 are plagued with clicks, pops, and occasional deafening white noise making them almost unusable. Fortunately, forum communities have banded together to identify solutions to many of these problems by finding and editing various configuration files with text editors (and thank god for that, because you'll certainly want to enable VSync unless you're a fan of horrendous screen tearing). But really, if this version of the game was provided to just ten other PC gamers prior to launch, almost all of these issues would have been identified in moments. The fact that nearly all of these problems can be circumvented by file edits smacks of absolute laziness when preparing this version of the game. Would it have been back-breaking to add one more setup menu with toggles for these features?

If you put in the time and effort to get around the issues (which hopefully will all be patched eventually), then you have yourself a very playable game. Aside from the already-lengthy campaign, you'll find more side missions than you can shake a machete at to fill the 20+ hours of play time. You'll collect plenty of miscellaneous materials that can be used to customize your melee weapons with barbed wire or additional weights. You'll steadily gain experience and level up your character, unlocking attributes that pay immediate dividends. If you ignore the moments when Dead Island attempts to play the emotional card, you'll find a whole lot of game and a whole lot of fun.

It's even more fun with friends. The co-op play in Dead Island is undoubtedly its greatest strength. Some of the missions towards the end of the game that are frustratingly difficult when playing alone end up as hugely entertaining bloodfests with a few friends. And hopping in and out of groups is absolutely painless. When playing by yourself, the game will tell you when another player is at the same location as you are and you can join them with the press of a button. After you've completed the mission with your group, you can always drop back out and continue on by yourself if you don't want to keep playing online. The ease of the drop-in, drop-out multiplayer and the pure enjoyment of the co-op experience offers fantastic replay value even after you've finished the campaign.

Dead Island tries to be a lot of things, but it doesn't succeed at all of them. The attempts at emotional attachment fall flat, and the gunplay action leaves much to be desired. Conversely, the melee combat is brutal fun, the RPG elements offer satisfying progress, and the length and scale of the game are quite impressive. And even though the campaign slows to a crawl late, invite some friends and the fun is instantly revitalized time and time again. There are quite a few bugs that must be ignored to maintain the enjoyment, though, and the PC version requires some particularly thick skin while working your way to an optimal configuration. But if you have the patience to deal with the drawbacks, Dead Island offers some of the most satisfying co-op gameplay of the year. Even if you don't purchase it immediately, it deserves an eventual spot in your collection. And like the zombies themselves, the online community will be extremely hard to kill off, so expect it to be alive for some time.

Get the full article at GameSpot

"bowlingotter reviewed Dead Island for the PC..." was posted by bowlingotter on Fri, 16 Sep 2011 06:56:55 -0700
]]> http://www.gamespot.com/dead-island/user-reviews/774727/platform/pc/ Wed, 07 Sep 2011 07:29:44 -0700 bowlingotter reviewed Serious Sam Double D for the PC... http://www.gamespot.com/serious-sam-double-d/user-reviews/774037/platform/pc/ ...and gave it a 9.0!

Back in 2001, Serious Sam clocked us over the head with a ridiculous amount of enemies and a frenetic pace in an FPS that reminded us of why games don't always need brilliantly-acted characters and engrossing stories to be awesome. And with the third iteration of the series on the horizon, Croteam decided to see what would happen if they let some other ingenious indie developers play around with the Serious Sam license. Enter Mommy's Best Games who proceeded to take Sam and put him in a two-dimensional platformer. The resulting game is Serious Sam Double D, and it is an absolute blast from start to finish.

It would seem appropriate at this time to provide a loose discussion of plot and setting but it's so unimportant in the case of Serious Sam Double D. The long and short of it is the same as the other games in the series: Sam fights Mental's hordes. This time, Sam is sent through time to three different periods, fighting through ancient Egypt, the prehistoric dinosaur era, and Pompeii just as it is decimated by a volcanic eruption. In the end, each area is just another excuse to throw bigger enemies at Sam in crazier settings.

Serious Sam Double D really does breathe new life into the action-platformer genre. The controls are similar to the classic side-scroller Abuse where the character's shooting direction is independent of the direction he is moving. This control scheme lends itself perfectly to the Serious Sam method of throwing insane amounts of enemies at you. Being able to jump and dodge while simultaneously shooting in any direction makes this less of a headache and more of a wonderfully frantic, white-knuckle ride that won't get old before the game is over.

There exists a healthy variety of weapons to employ from the standard unlimited-ammo, single-fire gun (which you'll hardly use) to a machine gun, flame thrower, grenade launcher, laser gun, rocket launcher, shotgun, and a chainsaw thrown in for good measure. But one of the best features of this game is also one of the most ridiculous. The first time you find a new gun, you'll also find a "stacker." You use it to put two guns together. But you don't end up with a stronger, upgraded gun. You're shooting both guns at the same time. Soon after, you'll learn that you can stack six guns at the same time. Watching Sam run around holding a tower of guns is just ludicrous. The amount of awesome in this feature is absurd.

You'll also pick up a jump pad which is basically a portable trampoline that will give Sam a bit of an extra boost on his jumps when necessary. It doesn't exactly add much depth to the gameplay, but it can create for some crazy situations when you're being chased around by flying monkeys throwing exploding bananas with their other arm having been replaced by an axe and you need to use the jump pad repeatedly to get to safer ground.

That's right, monkeys throwing exploding bananas with their other arm having been replaced by an axe. The enemies in this game definitely deserve the Serious Sam moniker. The iconic Beheaded Kamikaze is ever-present, his recognizable scream getting louder as he approaches your character. Dinosaurs get fitted with armor and ballistics that hearken back to the days of Dino Riders. Giant spiders jump around and shoot missile salvos at you. Stacks of pancakes with forks for legs chase after you. Why not? Hardly anything about this game is rooted in any semblance of reality, and it is better for it.

As crazy as the action can get, it's never so difficult that it becomes frustrating. Still, certain areas and battles will take a few tries to overcome even on the Normal setting. To help you out, the game encourages you to make considerable use of its quicksave feature, going so far as to allocate one of your gamepad's face buttons to the function (provided you are using one). Die, die, and die again, if you must. Your latest quicksave might only be moments before that insane swarm of enemies so that you can try again to your heart's content, and to your immediate gratification.

In addition to the ridiculous and frantic action, Serious Sam Double D offers up several things to keep you coming back after your first play-through. There is a multitude of secret areas across each of the 18 levels spanning 3 worlds, and the game lovingly teases you by telling you how many secrets you've found and how many you've yet to find. You'll also unlock Challenge modes as you progress through the campaign that are quite fun on their own, tasking you with acquiring a set number of kills without dying (sometimes with a time limit) with each Challenge pitting you in a different area against a different theme of enemies. And for you achievement junkies, you'll get awarded with official proof that you've completed these challenges for all of your friends to see in the form of Steam achievements.

All of this is accompanied by a glorious speed metal soundtrack and some particularly cheeky dialogue complete with obscure references and objectification of women that puts Duke Nukem to shame. I would take a moment to lightly complain about the campaign length – it can be easily finished in a little over 3 hours – but then you take into account the secret areas and unlockable challenges– and oh yeah, it's only $7.99! It almost feels unfair to the developer. So by all means, if side-scrollers are your thing, and the idea of a small-serving, action-packed shoot-em-up sounds appealing, then buy this game. Absolutely, buy this game. Oh, and don't forget to crank up the volume. This game is meant to be played LOUDLY.

Get the full article at GameSpot

"bowlingotter reviewed Serious Sam Double D for the PC..." was posted by bowlingotter on Wed, 07 Sep 2011 07:29:44 -0700
]]> http://www.gamespot.com/serious-sam-double-d/user-reviews/774037/platform/pc/ Wed, 31 Aug 2011 06:23:19 -0700 bowlingotter reviewed Boulder Dash-XL for the Xbox 360... http://www.gamespot.com/boulder-dash-xl/user-reviews/773521/platform/xbox360/ ...and gave it a 6.5.

1984 was a long time ago, so the fact that Boulder Dash has continued to see new iterations of its classic gameplay until now is commendable in and of itself. In many ways, now is a great time for one of those new versions to be released. Thanks to the popularity of digital download services and small-serving mobile apps, casual gaming is enjoying its highest successes to date. Kalypso Media has smartly looked to capitalize on this with Boulder Dash-XL for the PC and Xbox LIVE Arcade, the first time that the franchise has seen a major home console since its appearance on the NES back in 1990.

If you've played any of the numerous versions of Boulder Dash that have been released over the past 20 years or so, you'll be pretty familiar with them all. You take on the role of Rockford as he moves freely about a two-dimensional cave hoping to collect enough diamonds to open the exit and complete the level. In order to collect the diamonds and reach the exit, he must dig through soft areas of the cave and avoid being crushed by falling rocks or attacked by various enemies, all while racing against a clock. This basic formula is a proven success, and Boulder Dash-XL takes it to numerous levels and modes making the 800 MSP ($10) price tag quite easy to swallow. There's a lot of content here.

The game's hat hangs firmly on its Arcade Mode which offers 100 different caves. There are several new elements introduced in this mode, such as Rockford's telescoping arm and ability to make use of several different powerups scattered throughout the stages. A lot of them seem like great ideas at first: Dynamite can be used to blast areas open; teleporters take you to otherwise inaccessible areas; certain doorways can only be opened with appropriate keys. But when so much emphasis is put on the time limit and making a mad dash to the exit, the obstacles that require use of these specialties come off less as enhancements and more as inconveniences, or at worst, annoyances. As a result, while there might be a ton of levels in this mode, not all of them are that much fun. They occasionally come off as slapped-together, almost as if the developer figured that the sheer amount of them would make up for any shortcomings in quality along the way.

There is a Zen Mode available which acts as a brother to the Arcade Mode in that it uses the same levels only without the time limit. But there are two aspects that render this mode relatively skip-able: One is that you can only play the levels that you have already completed in Arcade Mode with the time limit; the other is that the levels that were annoying in Arcade Mode are probably still annoying in Zen Mode, so playing them twice isn't very enticing.

The Puzzle Mode contains easily the best level design in the game, making great use of the positioning of the diamonds and rocks and requiring a specific way to succeed. These small levels sans the time limit are also some of the most enjoyable as a result.

There is also the welcome Retro Mode which offers the classic Boulder Dash experience very much like the original one introduced in 1984. It truly captures the essence of the "dash" in the title as it encourages a rush through a very large level to the exit. You'd just better hope that you've collected enough diamonds along the way or you'll be giving it another go!

Across each mode, there are leaderboards available for score junkies. And never are they used to greater effect than in the Score Attack mode. It can be a lot of fun to race through these large, open levels to find the optimal routes that result in the highest scores and compare them to those on the leaderboards. But while there are a great number of levels across the other modes, for some reason there are only four levels in this one. So unless you are one of the aforementioned score junkies, this mode will probably not provide much replay value.

The overall presentation of the game is a nice and up-to-date take on the classic, but it goes a little overboard at times in all modes but the Retro Mode. There is a pleasing headlamp-esque effect that fades towards the edges of the screen, reminding you that you are in a cave, but a lot of the new animations and textures usher in a bit of sensory overload. This isn't helped at all by the often obnoxious sound effects that make the game sound like a fun house and drown out the otherwise pleasing musical soundtrack. Luckily, there exists an option to bring the sound effects down and bring the music up to suit your preference. By keeping it simple, the Retro Mode is definitely the most aesthetically pleasing of them all in sight as well as sound, proving once again that less is often more.

In an effort to pack in as much content as possible, Boulder Dash-XL not only gives off a quantity-over-quality vibe, but it also exposes somewhat of an identity crisis. The huge levels with restricting time limits suggest the desire to be a simple and nail-biting race against the clock while avoiding obstacles, something that made the original a mainstay in gaming culture long ago. But introducing a myriad of all-too-similar enemies and throwing in locked doors, dynamite, telescoping arms, and teleporters suggest that Boulder Dash-XL should be more about thinking than "dashing." Trying to force the two game archetypes together hurts them both, and in this case, it didn't end up in a better Boulder Dash. But ultimately, with so much content at only $10, almost anyone is bound to find something that they like in this title at a bargain. If you keep the servings small, you'll also keep it fun.

Get the full article at GameSpot

"bowlingotter reviewed Boulder Dash-XL for the Xbox 360..." was posted by bowlingotter on Wed, 31 Aug 2011 06:23:19 -0700
]]> http://www.gamespot.com/boulder-dash-xl/user-reviews/773521/platform/xbox360/ Wed, 20 Jul 2011 07:56:22 -0700 bowlingotter reviewed Runespell: Overture for the PC... http://www.gamespot.com/runespell-overture/user-reviews/770755/platform/pc/ ...and gave it a 7.0.

In a sea of imitators, it's always nice to find a true innovator. With Runespell: Overture, Mystic Box gives us a familiar fantasy blanket covering a truly new and engaging game mechanic that most anyone will be able to enjoy. And this being the developer's introductory release, it's probably safe to say that they'll be sticking around for a bit if they so desire.

In Runespell, things kick off in the shoes of the standard amnesiac protagonist. You take on the role of a mysterious Changeling who begins with no recollection of who he is, where he came from, or how he got to this vast, icy mountain range. You're presented with a map overview that has specific paths with bullet points along the way, reminiscent of a game board. The very first space you can move to triggers your first battle, and the game wastes no time in introducing you to its calling card (pun intended).

Runespell: Overture hangs its hat on a card game it calls Mythic Poker. In this game, you face off against an AI opponent. Each of you has a deck of standard playing cards spread out in seven columns a la Klondike Solitaire. Each of you also has a set number of hit points. You take turns moving cards around, three moves per turn. Attacks against your opponent are made by grouping the cards into sets of five that form a playable Poker hand or Yahtzee combination. Each hand is worth a specific number of hit points, depending on its value. For instance, group five cards of the same suit and you have a flush which you can use to attack your enemy. But be a bit more patient and try to match a full house or a 4-of-a-kind and you'll do more damage to your opponent.

Of course, there are a number of twists to Mythic Poker. For one, while you typically have three moves per turn, one of those moves can be to steal one of your opponent's cards and stack it on top of one of yours. The catch here is that once a stack has been started (more than one face-up card in a column), those cards cannot be separated again, and they cannot be stolen. This can be used as a defensive tactic, as if you suspect that an opponent may attempt to take a particular card, you can stack it on another ahead of time to make sure that they can't have it.

Another notable difference that Mythic Poker has over pretty much any other card game is that there is no limit to card amount. This is not your standard 52-card deck, as you'll quickly realize the first time you see two of the same exact card in play, or when you manage to create a 5-of-a-kind stack. Every time you move all of the face-up cards off of a column, there will always be more face-down cards waiting to be played. No re-shuffling needed here. Must be magic.

Finally, there are the Power Cards. These are cards that have special functions that can be played using one of your moves during your turn. They can be offensive and deal out specific types of elemental or melee damage, or they can be defensive and used to protect against an expected attack. There are several other specialized cards that are discovered as you make your way through the game, and it can be satisfying just to go about trying to collect every card. However, using these cards during battle costs Rage Points, which are earned when attacking or being attacked, but much more so when attacking, so it's effective incentive to keep on the offensive as much as possible.

Mythic Poker is a brand new concept with a lot to learn, but Runespell never lets you feel daunted. The tutorial is well done and does a good job of teaching you how things work while you play, easing you into the mechanics without making you feel like you're wasting time with some arbitrary help system.

In between games of Mythic Poker, you'll almost be fooled into thinking that you're playing an RPG. Winning battles will earn you Silver, the game's currency. Silver can be spent in towns on new Power Cards, or on "uses," effectively re-charging used Power Cards that have a limited number of uses associated with them. You'll also meet several allies who will travel with you, but they really just shape up to be unique Power Cards that you may or may not choose to employ. There are conversations with characters throughout the game that explain the plot and are somewhat amusing at times, but while none of it is very engaging, it doesn't intrude on the gameplay, either. I actually spotted a couple of spelling and grammatical errors, but they were thankfully very few, far between and not particularly obvious.

There are even people in towns who will hand out quests, but the illusion of RPG openness dissipates soon after. The "quests" always boil down to another card game against an opponent that may or may not be slightly different than one you have faced before with a different set of Power Cards. Furthermore, every one of these quests is mandatory, with no optional side quests to be found. The only break from linearity is the ability to go back and battle anyone you've already beaten again for fun or Silver. There's no leveling system, so you won't be grinding for experience. The only sense of character advancement that you'll get is when you're awarded new passive Power Cards that will raise your maximum hit point and rage point levels.

It will take about 10 hours or so to get through the campaign, but Mythic Poker is good enough on its own to stay engaging throughout. Runespell is not very difficult for the majority of the game, but the last handful of battles manage to get rather challenging, and dare I say, nail-biting. On more than one occasion, I could literally feel my heart pounding as I waited to see what cards would be uncovered next, down to my last couple of hit points after a solid 15-minute back-and-forth battle. Those moments made the entire campaign worthwhile.

The game looks pretty nice, too. Your Changeling and your enemy are smoothly animated during the battles, and the characters during conversations are depicted by attractive illustrations. The soundtrack in particular is fantastic, putting many much bigger-budget games to shame. The only thing worth complaining about here is that it's certainly not varied. Every single battle in the game is accompanied by the same song save for the very last showdown. Fortunately, that same song is long, exciting, and dynamic, so it'll take a while before you get bored of it.

But as much fun as Mythic Poker is, Runespell doesn't really do much to keep things interesting other than give your opponents higher hit points and stronger Power Cards later on. A bit of a heavier injection of RPG elements could have gone a significantly long way to give the campaign some staying power. It would have been great to be able to choose between a few classes for your character, or maybe items that would adjust attack strengths and styles, or even elemental vulnerabilities for certain enemies. The game is probably intentionally simple so that it is easy to jump in and out of for anyone, but that mentality also unfortunately ends with a game that you're pretty much done with when the campaign is over.

This brings to light some less forgivable design decisions. For one, there's only one game mode: the story campaign. Mythic Poker is a lot of fun, but if you want to play more of it, you need to go through the same campaign again. If nothing else, a simple "Play Now" mode with a randomized enemy and Power Card set would've been very welcome. But more importantly, I'm baffled as to the omission of a multiplayer mode. Slap on some online matches, tournaments, and a ranking system, and you'd have people playing Mythic Poker until the sun came up. Instead, you're left to playing the same tired AI opponents over and over again, and that's if you're ok navigating the same light RPG elements every time you just want to get down to business. Yeah, there's a leaderboard, but it's ranked by point totals versus AI opponents. It might as well be a ranking of how many hours each person spent playing.

Still, Mystic Box got the most important thing right: the core game mechanic. Runespell: Overture introduces us all to Mythic Poker, and if you give it a chance, I'd venture it'll make a believer out of you, too. The problem is that when the campaign is over, you're probably not going to feel much of a reason to play any more, and that's somewhat of a travesty. Luckily, the campaign ends with a painfully obvious reference to an impending sequel, so perhaps Mystic Box will find a way to introduce some much needed variations on the card game, and hopefully some online multiplayer. However, right now, Runespell: Overture will thrill and entertain you with Mythic Poker, but you'll find yourself wanting a reason to play again and likely coming up short. Even if you only play once, though, you'll be glad you did.

Get the full article at GameSpot

"bowlingotter reviewed Runespell: Overture for the PC..." was posted by bowlingotter on Wed, 20 Jul 2011 07:56:22 -0700
]]> http://www.gamespot.com/runespell-overture/user-reviews/770755/platform/pc/ Fri, 15 Jul 2011 09:41:11 -0700 bowlingotter reviewed inFamous 2 for the PlayStation 3... http://www.gamespot.com/infamous-2/user-reviews/770421/platform/ps3/ ...and gave it a 8.5.

A great title comes around every so often. A great franchise? That's a bit harder to come by. Developers that happen upon a new hit IP occasionally have a hard time keeping themselves grounded, attempting to launch the series into areas it was never meant to be. It's not often that you get a sequel that introduces new locales, characters, and gameplay mechanics while still managing to hold on to what made the original title a good one. Sucker Punch Productions did exactly this with Infamous 2.

In an effort to minimize spoilers from the first game, we'll just say that the original Infamous left Cole MacGrath in Empire City anticipating the impending arrival of The Beast, an entity that was to be somewhat of a doom-bringer. Infamous 2 wastes no time in hitting with big action, introducing The Beast at the onset, a gigantic being several stories tall that almost feels like something out of a God of War game. The fight ensues and Cole barely escapes with his life, heading south to New Marais to find a person named Dr. Wolfe, someone who may be able to help Cole become strong enough to battle The Beast.

Whereas Empire City was Sucker Punch's take on New York City, New Marais is influenced by New Orleans after it had been ravaged by Hurricane Katrina. It is familiar in look and feel to the city in the first game, but there are scattered swamp lands outside the city boundaries, and even a "Flood Town" section that has a lot more water in it than most cities should, for obvious reasons.

Cole's buddy Zeke is along for the ride again, and he seems a little more handy this time around, apparently pretty tech-savvy and able to do some undercover work while Cole is providing the muscle. There are also a couple of new female characters in Infamous 2: Kuo and Nix. You'll spend a decent amount of time with each one, depending on how you want to play the game.

Cole's appearance is slightly different than his dark-eyed, inhuman look in the first game. He's a bit cleaned up, now, but not enough to make him unfamiliar. His voice is also slightly less comic-book corny, but still has a similar gruff to it. These changes might be a little off-putting at first, but they pay off. Like he came down from his pedestal, Cole's character in Infamous 2 is much more human and feels less disconnected from everyone else around him. He'll chuckle at stupid jokes and relax on the couch with a beer. Some of the interactions between him and Zeke give off a more genuine impression of longtime friendship than anything from the first title. The use of motion capture also helps warm the interactions up a bit, abstaining from the stoic and robotic movements the characters portrayed in the first game

But true to the original, when you're not watching cut-scenes, there sure is a lot to do and a lot of ground to cover, and simply jumping around New Marais is a blast on its own. Thankfully, Sucker Punch opted to avoid the trite method of finding a way to strip the hero of all his powers in the beginning of the sequel, forcing him to start from scratch. Infamous 2 does manage to dial Cole back a bit at first, but it doesn't quite cripple him. The greatest benefit is that Cole can grind on power lines and glide through the air from the get-go, making traveling a bit more convenient right away. The melee combat is particularly effective and enjoyable, but the camera can also be a bit uncomfortably close in these exchanges.

The mission formula is borrowed straight from the first game, offering up white quest missions and yellow side missions peppered throughout the map, with a "moral decision" every now and then. But the moral formula of Infamous has not evolved, and is sure showing its age now. Whenever there is an option to decide to do something that will affect Cole's moral standing in the game, Infamous 2 literally stops and tells you: "Hey, if you want to be a hero, do this, and if you want to be an a**hole do this." Seriously, it actually has prompts that say things like, "Press L2 for Good, R2 for Evil."

But insults to the intelligence aside, there's really only one choice you ever really make. When you start playing, you have set in your mind to play the "Good" or "Evil" role. But to get access to the best powers, you need to be either completely Good, or completely Evil. So basically, the game penalizes you for wafting back and forth, and rewards you for staying the course. In that case, if you started Evil, you're going to pick Evil every time, and the same formula applies if you started Good. If a game is going to introduce moral decisions, there needs to be a grey area. Consequences should be presented for both sides, requiring the players to weigh the pros and cons of their potential choices. Infamous 2 gives you the option of being Good or Evil, and ultimately feigns choice for the rest of the game.

Luckily, the gameplay is a blast, so you'll probably forget about the– forgettable morality system. Cole can take a lot of punishment and dish out a whole lot more. Many powers are at your disposal, and are unlocked by performing particular stunts and earning experience points which can be spent on the powers themselves. There's enough to choose from that you'll actually find yourself taking a little time deciding on which power to spend your hard-earned experience on. Even if you play through every side mission en route to the completion of the game, you'll barely have enough experience to unlock every power. It makes the choice between which power to unlock and when carry a bit more weight.

A single play-through should easily take over 16 hours even if you don't get stuck on any missions. But the amount of time you'll actually spend on the game could be potentially much greater thanks to the introduction of user-generated content. The tools at your disposal to create your own missions are vast and intimidating at first, but quite powerful. You can work pretty much whatever you see in the game into whatever you'd like to create, and even some things that you didn't see in the game. And scattered about the white story missions and yellow side missions are green "UGC" missions. These are select user-generated missions that will pop up in the game world just as any other mission. Quite literally, the possibilities are endless.

All throughout, Infamous 2 is damn pretty. Character models, buildings, and enemies are all meticulously detailed. The environment boasts a rather long draw distance while making effective use of blur. Lighting and shadowing are employed deftly to accent the passage of day of night throughout the many story missions. Rendered cut-scenes offer meaningful interactions between the main characters of the game, while important plot points are portrayed through hand-drawn comic book-style panel sequences. The game manages to sport a realistic look while still retaining an unmistakable superhero feel. And the frame rate rarely suffers for it, stuttering only a few times during the most intense and cluttered moments of the game.

Infamous 2 shows that Sucker Punch is dedicated to keeping Infamous feeling like Infamous and not straying too far from the formula. As a result, if you're a fan of the first, you'll be a fan of this. But on the other hand, if the first game didn't capture you, there's probably not enough new here to change your mind. The open-world feel is intact, but the morality system is somewhat of a joke when compared to the more sophisticated systems found in other current-gen games, and is pretty unsatisfying. Regardless, there's a ton of content here and a fairly lengthy single player campaign with endless expandability via user-generated content. The enemies are bigger and the battles are more epic. The personalities are deeper and more believable. Infamous 2 is the kind of sequel that makes you even more excited to see what comes next.

Get the full article at GameSpot

"bowlingotter reviewed inFamous 2 for the PlayStation 3..." was posted by bowlingotter on Fri, 15 Jul 2011 09:41:11 -0700
]]> http://www.gamespot.com/infamous-2/user-reviews/770421/platform/ps3/ Fri, 27 May 2011 21:47:45 -0700 bowlingotter reviewed L.A. Noire for the PlayStation 3... http://www.gamespot.com/l-a-noire/user-reviews/765900/platform/ps3/ ...and gave it a 8.5.

The standard sandbox game is often one that somewhat glorifies lawlessness and violence. You typically find yourself running from the cops while attempting to get away with murder. Team Bondi turns the tables on you with L.A. Noire, making you the law. This single-player detective story twists and turns its way through postwar 1947 Los Angeles, each of its characters flawed and damaged in their own way with nary a wholesome soul to be found. It's a mature and unsettling tale of deceit, regret, crime, corruption, and war, and it's unlike any other game that you've played before.

Let's get one thing out of the way: L.A. Noire is not a 1940s-themed Grand Theft Auto. It may look like an open-world game, but it doesn't play like one. It is decidedly linear and much slower-paced than the other famed franchises under the Rockstar banner. The argument could be made that L.A. Noire is truly a member of the adventure game genre, hearkening back to the heyday of the video games that held the importance of the narrative above all else.

As its title suggests, the content of both L.A. Noire's appearance and storyline are heavily influenced by the "film noir" cinematic era of the 1940s and 50s. You assume the role of Cole Phelps, a decorated hero of World War II who enters law enforcement in an attempt to play the role of a clean cop in a corrupt city. His efforts quickly gain him local notoriety as he rises through the ranks of the LAPD. L.A. Noire takes you through numerous investigations ranging from car accidents and homicides to drug busts and arson, and ultimately, you'll be the one deciding who to charge with each crime. And you won't always be right.

L.A. Noire's flagship function is its interrogation mechanic. Many times throughout the game, you will find yourself questioning a witness or suspect and it will be up to you to decide whether they are being honest, bending the truth, or flat-out lying. Choosing the right conclusion will either gain the trust of the person being questioned or crack them, exposing evidence or even an outright confession. But if you incorrectly decide that they are covering something up, you may have trouble getting more truth out of them. If you accuse them of lying, you'd better have evidence to support your claim or you will quickly lose ground in your investigation.

This is largely made possible through the pioneering of MotionScan technology, which takes the method of motion-capture a significant step further in the industry. By surrounding the actor's face with 32 cameras recording footage from all angles, MotionScan enables L.A. Noire to display facial expressions with unprecedented accuracy never before seen in a video game. As a result, Cole Phelps unmistakeably resembles actor Aaron Staton (of Mad Men fame), with his performances completely intact. Every character in the game is captured using this technology, which offers nuances in the delivery of their testimonials, helping you to determine their level of authenticity. The outcome is something that must be seen to be believed, and it results in what is likely the most well-acted game created to date.

How correctly you conduct each interrogation will have a tangible effect on each particular case. It will mean the difference between putting a criminal behind bars and sending an innocent person to jail. There's no save system to bail you out here, either. While you have the option to re-play cases that went wrong, they must be played out in their entirety before trying again. This will likely result in some unsettling outcomes in which you've accused the wrong person, but it contributes to the immersion greatly. You've got to live with your rights and your wrongs as you progress through the game, and it makes the entire experience that much more authentic.

L.A. Noire does give you some helping hands if you get stumped, though. Experience points earned through successful interrogations will earn you "intuition points" which can be spent during future interrogations to help determine the correct reaction to a statement. You can spend a point to remove one of the incorrect choices, leaving you with two and narrowing your odds to 50/50 if you were to make a guess. There is also a social networking-style option called "Ask the Community" which will display percentages next to each option, identifying which choice most other players had made, provided you have a connection to the internet intact.

But L.A. Noire is more than just a 1940s interrogation simulator. When you're not interrogating, you'll be spending most of your time carefully traversing crime scenes in search of evidence to point you to a suspect. This is where L.A. Noire feels very much like an adventure game as you carefully search every nook and cranny of a particular area for clues to aid in your investigation. But the game takes steps to help make this procedure must less troublesome than it could have been by using audio cues. Areas containing undiscovered clues are accompanied by subtle and distinctive music to remind you that there is more to be found in your immediate vicinity. Furthermore, you are gently alerted with a chime when passing by something that can be more closely studied. As a result, these sequences always feel fruitful and never like wastes of time. The aforementioned "intuition points" can also be spent at these times to highlight all available clues in an area if you're having trouble.

There are also several types of action sequences peppered throughout to keep you on your toes. You will quite often find yourself in a foot race when particular suspects notice that you are on to them. These chases will take you on parkour-style romps through the city, climbing fire escapes and jumping between buildings as you either rush to tackle the suspect from behind or end up in a fist fight at the chase's end. There are also occasional gun fights which feel very similar to Rockstar's Grand Theft Auto series, requiring you to take cover and pop out to squeeze off a few shots and subdue violent criminals. These sequences each help to keep the pacing of the game varied, but they also feel rather cookie-cutter and monotonous towards the end of the game. They're also quite easy, rarely requiring multiple attempts to overcome.

There are several car chases thrown in for good measure as well, but typically, driving sequences will simply take you between areas of interest while investigating each case. In the early-going, these will be very satisfying as a way to marvel at the meticulously detailed re-creation of 1947 Los Angeles. But remember that you are the law in L.A. Noire. Driving like a maniac might be fun, but it just doesn't feel genuine. Conversely, waiting at red lights is never, ever enjoyable, making the option of driving responsibly rather drab. For the completionists, there are hidden cars to collect and landmarks to discover. For everyone else, there thankfully exists an option to "let your partner drive," which will skip the driving sequence and bring you directly to your destination to get you straight to the meat of the game.

In an effort to add to its sandbox feel, L.A. Noire offers up "street crime" missions, which are impromptu crimes being committed that you have the option to respond to. They're mildly interesting action sequences to change things up mid-case, but they virtually all end up as simply "go here and kill these guys" missions. There is the inexplicable lack of any non-violent resolution to any of these crimes, as they always seem to result in the coroner picking up another body. It would have been nice to have been offered some strategic options to choose how you want to resolve the conflicts.

While the repetitive nature of the life of an LAPD detective taking on case after case does briefly instill itself on the feel of the core game, the monotonous moments are short-lived. L.A. Noire does a superb job of sending you through a tumbling and unfolding plot, strategically providing flashbacks and insight into other goings-on in the city. What start as seemingly unrelated occurrences gradually unify in fantastic fashion over the 20+ hours of gameplay through the story cases alone. The soundtrack is particularly good, not only serving as emotional orchestral interludes to aid in the tension and excitement, but also borrowing authentic recordings from the time period of the likes of Dizzy Gillespie, Louis Armstrong, and Billie Holiday.

L.A. Noire's recreation of 1940s Los Angeles is incredible, from the cars and the streets to the music and the lingo. The MotionScan technology allows it to host acting in a way that no game has before, and Aaron Staton and cast took the opportunity and ran with it, delivering the greatest acting performances ever seen in a video game. The writing itself is also superb, weaving a tale of flawed and struggling personalities through twists and turns that will grip you until its conclusion. It may be a bit more linear and repetitive than you'd expect from a game that bears the Rockstar moniker, but this is an experience that you cannot find anywhere else, and one that will remain with you well after it ends.

Get the full article at GameSpot

"bowlingotter reviewed L.A. Noire for the PlayStation 3..." was posted by bowlingotter on Fri, 27 May 2011 21:47:45 -0700
]]> http://www.gamespot.com/l-a-noire/user-reviews/765900/platform/ps3/ Thu, 26 May 2011 09:30:51 -0700 bowlingotter reviewed Magicka for the PC... http://www.gamespot.com/magicka/user-reviews/765763/platform/pc/ ...and gave it a 7.5.

Every now and then, an inexpensive title crops up from under the radar and catches everyone by surprise. Magicka is a game that very much fits into this oft-unheralded category. Its walk-around-and-blast-things gameplay is driven by an original and addictive spellcasting mechanic, and the experience is accompanied by a light-hearted and humorous story that references numerous classic movies. This game doesn't always play fair, but it rarely ceases to be fun.

Magicka places you in control of an anonymous wizard whose task is to save the world. Trite? Without question. But there are some rather unexpected quirks thrown in quite often. For one, you are guided by a vampire named Vlad who, for some reason, pretends not to be a vampire, and does a very poor job of it. You are often accused of only getting into fights because you couldn't talk your way out of them, even though your character is apparently mute. And even though the game's world is set in your standard, run-of-the-mill fantasy setting, you'll end up with an M60 machine gun.

This game never pretends to take itself seriously. At launch, it was plagued by a myriad of bugs, most of which have been fixed at the time of this review. But the game seems to be in no hurry to forget that they happened, as right from the get-go, there is a spell in your catalog called "Crash to Desktop" which serves as a tribute to its launch woes. If you cast the spell, it will do exactly as it says. So don't cast it.

But the spellcasting game mechanic is what really keeps Magicka interesting and fun throughout. Whereas most games accomplish spellcasting with a simple "pick a spell, push button to cast" approach, Magicka makes you work for it, in a good way. On the keyboard, the "ASDF" home keys and the "QWER" ones above them are each assigned a different "element": water, life, shield, cold, lightning, arcane, earth, and fire. You are provided a five-slot queue which you can partially or entirely fill with an element. You can pull off a quick fire spell with a single hit of its corresponding key and a right click of the mouse. However, you could press the fire key five times before casting to unleash a more powerful and further-reaching attack.

But in addition to these single-element attacks of varying effects, the five-slot queue can also be filled with a combination of elements. Combining fire and earth will allow you to hurl a flaming boulder at your enemies. Using water and shield together will protect you from water attacks. But more importantly, a number of specialized spells can be cast from precise element combinations, and this is where things get very interesting. There are quick two or three-element spells that will accomplish tasks like teleporting or fast movement, but then there are more complex four and five-element spells that can trigger meteor showers or ultra-powerful lightning strikes. Trying to take care of a screen full of enemies while keeping track of these spells can be dizzying, but also thrilling. You'll feel like you're punching in consecutive cheat codes to pull off these crazy spells over and over again. Best of all, there is no mana meter that needs replenishing. You can cast and cast to your heart's content.

But this new and unfamiliar mechanic brings with it a bit of a learning curve. You won't get very far without training yourself to rattle off some of these spells out of muscle memory. For a little while, just casting fire or lightning will take care of small groups of enemies, but frustration will set in when you can't get through a lengthy invasion of enemies from all sides without getting more creative with your spellcasting. These moments can also be some of the more satisfying ones when you finally overcome them, but sometimes you'll just be glad that they're over.

There is the occasional cheap death here, as well. If you allow a swarm of enemies to get close enough, they'll be able to damage you repeatedly, often enough to interrupt any pending spellcasts and preventing you from taking action to better your position. And since your health bar looks identical to that of your enemies', it is easily lost in the melee, leaving you clueless as to what your situation really is. Worse yet, there are a number of enemies who are able to not only knock your character back, but launch you to the other end of screen, and often off of a cliff. Carefully picking apart a horde of enemies for a lengthy combat session only to be punted off of the screen and into a pit can be extremely frustrating, especially since this will send you back to the sometimes-distant checkpoint.

But you'll want to think twice about rage-quitting if you still plan on returning after calming down. Quitting in the middle of a chapter will require you to start from the beginning of that chapter when you return. The checkpoints scattered throughout each chapter only function as checkpoints during the session in which they were reached. There is no way to save and return to them or any other point in the chapter at a later time.

Aside from the primary quest, there are challenge maps included with Magicka. These serve as a simple "see how long you can survive" mode as the game sadistically throws wave after wave of enemies at you. They are accompanied by global leaderboards, so the competitive score junkies can find a great deal of replay value here.

Both the campaign and challenge modes can be played cooperatively with up to three other people. While this is a fantastic way to play Magicka, you're unlikely to find a random group who would participate in this feature. If co-op is your goal, it would be best to plan ahead and have friends ready to go.

Magicka is played from an isometric aerial view of the comic-like battlefield. Everything is presented with humor and light-heartedness in mind, never taking itself too seriously. In general, the animations are smooth and the sounds effects are appropriate. Nothing is particularly ground-breaking about the way the game looks or sounds, but it is effective enough to maintain the fun factor. However, on occasion, poor optimization will rear its head as the game may stutter and skip while scrolling the landscapes, and it can occasionally get in the way of the gameplay. These occurrences are inconsistent, but they happen often enough to notice.

While making your way through the 10-hour campaign and dealing with its occasional frustrations, you might find yourself coming back for the comic relief alone. While Magicka employs the classic fantasy setting of wizards and trolls, it goes out of its way to identify the ridiculousness of it all. You'll end up with a machine gun. A machine gun. You can't help but smile watching your robed magician mow down layers of enemies with a modern automatic weapon while holding a wizard's staff in his other hand. It's also kind of fun to play the sadistic role and take out the townspeople as well, as the game doesn't dish out any penalties for such. It's just another way that Magicka encourages fun above all else.

Magicka is only $10. It might lack polish, but there is plenty of content and unexpected enjoyment in this title to justify that price and more. It's a delightful romp through a fantastically ridiculous fantasy world that will have you laughing out loud. The spellcasting mechanic will test your patience while simultaneously fascinating and satisfying the discerning gamer in you. While the checkpoint system is flawed and you'll have to stave off the occasional urge to rage quit, you'll be glad you stuck with it in the end. It's a shame that the multiplayer community is not so large just yet, but there is time for this little gem to catch on. If you're a fan of action/adventure RPGs, why not lead the charge on your friend list?

Get the full article at GameSpot

"bowlingotter reviewed Magicka for the PC..." was posted by bowlingotter on Thu, 26 May 2011 09:30:51 -0700
]]> http://www.gamespot.com/magicka/user-reviews/765763/platform/pc/ Mon, 09 May 2011 05:22:10 -0700 bowlingotter reviewed Garshasp: The Monster Slayer for the PC... http://www.gamespot.com/garshasp-the-monster-slayer/user-reviews/764208/platform/pc/ ...and gave it a 6.5.

Independent developers are becoming increasingly prevalent in the gaming industry. Digital download platforms like Steam, PSN, XBLI, and GamersGate have given would-be game creators an accessible method of distribution to bring their titles to the masses. These days, creating your own game from scratch and publishing it yourself isn't just realistic; it's a regular practice. Indie studio Dead Mage is one such developer who has entered the realm of self-publishing with their inaugural title, Garshasp: The Monster Slayer. With it, they hope to change what you expect from an independently developed video game. But while Garshasp doesn't last long and is rough around nearly every edge, the areas in which it excels make it quite the impressive feat for indie gaming.

The story of Garshasp and his quest is taken from Persian mythology, specifically from the poem Garshasp Naame written by Asadi Tousi. The game begins in the town of Siavoshgard where Garshasp resides as it is attacked by the evil magic-wielding Deev known as Hitasp and his minions. Garshasp's brother, Oroxia is killed in the attack. From that moment on, Garshasp is fixated on avenging his brother's death, and sets out on a quest to infiltrate Hitasp's stronghold and confront him.

The story is told through an endearing narrator who chimes in at particular moments during gameplay, usually following a significant occurrence. The moments where his wise-sounding voice oversees the sprawling landscapes during Garshasp's travels are some of the high points of the game. It gives the experience a bit of a professional sheen and helps provide insight to the plot. The problem is that it doesn't happen nearly enough. Consequently, when it does happen, too much information is crammed into a short period of speaking time as unfamiliar names and locations from an unfamiliar legend are thrown around as if they are common knowledge. Even then, it ends up being such a small amount of information that you can never truly understand or empathize with the protagonist. This method could have been an effective way to advance the plot and it is definitely the right idea, but due to these issues, the plot will likely be lost on most who play through the game. Ultimately, it feels like a missed opportunity to take full advantage of an untapped resource in Persian mythology.

However, when it comes right down to it, the mythological setting is just one of many parallels to be drawn between Garshasp and God of War. This game is built from the ground up to look and play as much like a God of War game as possible without being considered outright plagiarism. It's a third-person melee brawler with a roving camera that alternates between distant panoramic views to close-up studies on brutal kills. Enemies often crop up in packs surrounding the player while he pulls off exciting combos with beautiful fluidity. Successfully executed combinations may be accented by short periods of slow motion to emphasize impact. Some stronger enemies can be weakened to a point where Garshasp can perform a killing sequence in the form of a quicktime event. There are switches that Garshasp kicks aside and large mechanisms that he labors to pull. There are totems scattered throughout that provide either life replenishments or experience boosts to power up attacks and learn new skills. Yes, from every conceivable angle, Garshasp: The Monster Slayer is the indie God of War.

But God of War is an exceptionally executed brawler. Can an indie game truly live up to one of the more famed franchises of the past two console generations? Before that question is answered, it should be noted that it is indeed asking too much to begin with. No, Garshasp does not approach the refined epicness of the God of War franchise, but to downplay the game for that would be unfair. What is special about Garshasp is where it succeeds in copying the God of War formula.

For instance, the control scheme is spot-on. Playing with a keyboard will likely end in frustration, but use an Xbox 360 controller and you're in business. The left stick is used for movement around the area and the right stick rolls Garshasp in the direction it is pressed. The face buttons cover the jump, standard attack, strong attack, and grab functions. Hold the left bumper to defend, and a tap of the right bumper switches weapons when an alternate one is eventually found.

Impressively, these controls are almost as responsive as God of War's. Platforming sequences feel great, and in most cases, when you miss, it's your own fault. The responsiveness in battle is excellent as well, with one major exception. In God of War, blocking and rolling can be executed at any time, even while in the middle of other actions, which is extremely important when a fleeting moment is all you have to react to an enemy's attack. Unfortunately, in Garshasp, before a roll or block can be executed, the previous animation must be completed. This really only adds a fraction of a second's worth of a delay to the command, but it is enough to occasionally fall prey to your enemy's attack even if you saw it coming. Aside from this small gripe, combat is fluid, satisfying, and very responsive, even if not very difficult.

This brings us to a more significant drawback: For about the first 3/4 of the game, the "grab" attack can be exploited to make combat far too easy. There are sections of the game where enemies come in droves from all angles, but it doesn't matter because so many of these enemies can be one-shot killed with the grab. Garshasp will enter a short quicktime event where he instantly kills the enemy, during which he is invincible to any other attacks until the event completes. This completely cripples the otherwise flashy and thrilling combat. It is only towards the end of the game where the majority of the enemies do not respond to the grab attack until they have been significantly softened up, forcing you to employ alternating offensive and defensive strategies, and finally offering some depth to the melee. But by that point, it already feels like more than half of the game's combat sequences were completely squandered due to the exploit.

There is one sequence that is found in several areas in Garshasp that you will not find in any God of War games. At specific moments, you will need to jump on to a wall, causing Garshasp to thrust his sword into it and ride it down, taking care to dodge obstacles along the way that are often extremely hard to tell apart from the safe areas. These sequences are great-looking and help to break up the pacing of endless melee battles, but they also carry a rather nonsensical nature. It's kind of difficult to understand why a sword thrust into a wall could be smoothly pulled down for its entire length, and even more difficult to understand why and how its speed could be adjusted. Just don't think too hard about it and it will continue to be fun.

Some of the visual cues throughout Garshasp are perhaps the most impressive moments in the game. There are several areas where the camera will pan far away, giving a sense of enormous scale with Garshasp as but a single man against a giant landscape. At other times, the camera will zoom in while Garshasp deals a finishing blow to a formidable enemy. There are a few moments where the camera positioning may result in some slight wall clipping, but they are few and far between and really don't harm the gameplay.

Peppered throughout the game are some surprisingly great-looking CGI cutscenes. One battle begins with a cutscene presenting a huge enemy crashing through a wall to challenge Garshasp, while some other battles conclude with a CGI sequence showing off some flashy moves and violent ends. In fact, they're so attractive that it's almost disappointing when the game switches back to in-engine action, but it's a worthwhile trade-off. The cutscenes are done so well that I can't help but wish that they were used help forward the narrative rather than only to introduce occasional combat sequences. It isn't until the final battle of the game that Garshasp finally speaks in one of these cutscenes and you'll wonder why he wasn't saying anything the entire time.

The sound is satisfying enough, with Garshasp letting loose war cries as he finishes foes, swiping aside their weapons with his and scoring a killing blow. However, there are some busier moments in the game where sounds will vanish altogether, which is not so satisfying. The music is the obligatory epic-sounding orchestral accompaniment that you would expect to hear, but it is done well and aids the experience. However, it finally truly shines late in the game, when the soundtrack to the inner parts of a temple take on an air of middle-eastern sitar-featured influence, something that would have been appropriate for much more of the game.

Dead Mage were truly ambitious in targeting one of the most epic game franchises of our generation as their primary influence, something that sounds on paper like a losing proposition from the get-go. But when all is said and done, the defining elements of Garshasp are not its flaws, but the areas where it actually succeeds. Make no mistake: Garshasp is a God of War clone. But this not a slight against it, as the game is not shy in confessing to it around every corner. In fact, it's ultimately a rather significant complement to Garshasp to say that it is so obviously an imitation of it.

But imitating a great game does not make a great game. There are some fantastic visual moments and the later fighting sequences are wonderful, but the exploits in the combat system hurt the experience for more than half of the game in significant fashion. The narrator is a great touch but is used far too sparingly to make any plot points worthwhile. The game itself is also extremely short, clocking in at around 3.5 hours without much replay value aside from higher skill levels. Still, Garshasp does succeed in raising the bar on what an independent development studio is capable of delivering. At the time of the writing of this review, no price point has been set for Garshasp: The Monster Slayer, so it is impossible to determine whether or not the cost provides a good value. Regardless, this game is a short and sweet experience worth having, and a boon to the independent gaming scene.

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"bowlingotter reviewed Garshasp: The Monster Slayer for the PC..." was posted by bowlingotter on Mon, 09 May 2011 05:22:10 -0700
]]> http://www.gamespot.com/garshasp-the-monster-slayer/user-reviews/764208/platform/pc/ Sat, 30 Apr 2011 07:00:18 -0700 Garfield360UK reviewed Portal 2 for the Xbox 360... http://www.gamespot.com/portal-2/user-reviews/763566/platform/xbox360/ ...and gave it a 8.5.

Portal 2 review

Portal 2 does the unexpected, it takes a critically aclaimed story and expands it in ways that did not seem possible. In Portal 1 the story seemed to focus around Glados and the environment you are in. Characters were built and expectations of their definition were made. However Portal 2 goes and changes your perception of Aperture Science, Glados, and the many new faces of the world the game takes place in.

This is supprising as many of you may have seen Portal as the pinnicle of story telling in terms of developing a character and also giving a clear idea of what the story is doing. However, with Portal 2, the very definitions of what you come to expect are blured. The game world is not black and white anymore and your perceptions of what is going on will change.

To go into details of why this reviewer thinks this way would go into story spoilers which is a key part of the game, and so they will not be discussed.

Moving into another area of the game, the gameplay itself. The basic mechanics from Portal 1 were place a portal on a wall and then another and move around to get to the exit of the room. These puzzles sound easy enough and once again they are to begin with. However as the game progresses the difficulty and challenge of the puzzles at hand change. You will meet many of the elements of a puzzle from Portal 1 but then you will come to meet new challenges that block your route. These are well paced and work in tandem with the story. The sense of reward from the puzzle mechanics are represented with nuggets of story. This is the traditional Valve at work here and something fans and new comers will come to expect.

The audio and visual aspects of the game are to a high standard. With hints at other titles streemed around the locations in the game. Players of Left 4 Dead and Half Life will know of these little hints to other Valve titles and story plot. These work well with the game as the player is given choice in how much of the plot and world they wish to absorb to a greater detail than the minimal level the opening sections of the game give.

The audio in the game is minimalist with qeues given at times needed such as completion of a puzzle and to give a sense of momentum when this is required for puzzle solving. The cast from Portal 1 are back with new voices to give fans of the series the continuity required for a game such as this.

The co-operative campaign is also a welcome edition to the Portal universe. Playing as two robots, you are solving puzzles similar to that of the single player. However team work is very much needed, especially towards the latter end of the co-op where timing and portal placement is key. The story is very well made and gives you a sense that the way the story has been passed to the player in the single player was not an accidental design principle. The co-op world is the same as the single player but takes place in a different time line to that of the single player. However you will want to complete the single player before moving into the co-operative mode as some story points from the single player are spoilt in the co-operative mode.

However, after praising the visual aspects of the game there are aspects the game could improve. The Source engine is starting to show signs of aging or the hardware running the game is starting to show its age (the review was done on the Xbox 360 edition of the game). The visuals, whilst stunning in some aspects (such as the use of white and contrasting colours in the puzzle aspects of the environment), some are showing cracks. The lack of damage to the environment could show more deformatiy if you are smashing heavy objects into them. However this is a minor criticism in the scheme of things.

Another criticism is with the single player end game. The story seems to build up to grand ideas and thought into the characters. However, the ending feels like time had ran out for the development of the game. The co-operative game ends in a way fitting to Portal the series so it is unclear why the single player story ends in such an abrupt mannor.

The co-operative campaign is also not perfect. The mode really does require you to play with a friend as issues can arise with timing and puzzle solving. Strangers via matchmaking may not be the best way to play through this mode and the game itself suggests this.

Another issue is the length of the game. For fans of the original, this game in single player can be beaten in under 10 hours and without playing the co-operative portion of the game, half the game is lost.

Summary

Portal 2 is an experience that many will enjoy. The rich story telling, awesome gameplay and tried and tested visual and audio aspects will please many. However the experience is not perfect and people who do not wish to listen to the dialouge in the game will only experience half the game.

With a completion time of 17 hours for single player and co-op the game is a good buy or worth a rent at minimum.

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"Garfield360UK reviewed Portal 2 for the Xbox 360..." was posted by Garfield360UK on Sat, 30 Apr 2011 07:00:18 -0700
]]> http://www.gamespot.com/portal-2/user-reviews/763566/platform/xbox360/ Thu, 28 Apr 2011 07:37:27 -0700 bowlingotter reviewed Bit.Trip Beat for the PC... http://www.gamespot.com/bit-trip-beat/user-reviews/763416/platform/pc/ ...and gave it a 6.5.

There is something endearing about giant pixels and 8-bit music. Maybe it's the inherent hipness oozing from all things retro. Maybe it's the tickle of nostalgia for more seasoned gamers who remember their heyday. At any rate, both are employed to great effect in a way that can only be accomplished through the independent gaming development scene. BIT.TRIP BEAT from Gaijin Games plays infectious music on our 8-bit heart-strings and gives us the tools to assist in its composition. The aesthetic appeal is this game's greatest asset, and it carries through some attractive, but often frustrating gameplay.

While comparing this game to Pong is obvious enough to feel like a cop-out, it's the best place to start. The player controls a paddle on the left side of the screen which is moved up and down with the mouse. I'll mention that gamepad support is included, but you don't want to do that. The mouse is easily the better control option, so much so that if you enable gamepad control, the game actually warns you that you might be making a mistake. Similar also to the appropriately retro Breakout, the object of the game is to deflect "beats" that arrive from the right of the screen. These beats are pixels of varying size and color, and each plays a note that compliments the music accompanying the experience.

The three stages of increasing difficulty, Transition, Descent, and Growth, come in the form of songs with only Transition accessible from the start. The following stages are each unlocked by completing the one before it. Through these, you're gonna see a whole lot of beats in a whole lot of forms. Yeah, there are your basic beats that fly gently across the screen as stoic pixels, but then there's everything else. Some will fly quickly across the screen in arching spans. Others will bounce off of the paddle, turn around, and come right back at it. Some beats will stop and stutter before continuing, and there are those that will actually disappear for fleeting moments just to tweak you out a bit. It gets a bit dizzying, but in a good way.

There are two meters extending the length of the screen that you'll want to pay attention to. At the top is the Mega meter which fills gradually with each successfully blocked beat. When it fills completely, you enter Mega mode, where crazy trippy visuals appear in the background and the music gets busier and more hectic while yielding higher scores. But at the bottom exists the Nether meter which fills a bit as each beat gets past your paddle through to the left of the screen. If you're in Mega mode, letting the Nether meter fill up will bring you back to square one. However, if you have yet to fill the Mega meter and the Nether meter fills up first, you'll enter a dark, lonely, desolate place that is black and white and devoid of music where the beats sound more like a heart monitor ticking your life away. While in this desperate mode, filling the top meter will bring you back to the land of color and sound. But allowing the bottom meter to fill results in the big old GAME OVER.

Also aiding in the retro theme, not only is the object of the game to simply survive the stages, but it is also to rack up ludicrously high score totals. Once you fill your Mega meter, each time you fill it again without filling the Nether meter will result in cascading score multipliers. If you master the stages, there is some replay value here for score junkies.

While the game mechanics offer a healthy dose of good old-fashioned fun, there are some factors working against it. For one, this game is hard. I mean, it's really hard. Even the Easy mode is hard. The beats come at so many angles and at so many speeds that it's extremely difficult to cover them all, particularly when seeing them for the first time. Make sure the pads on your mouse are clean and that you have a particularly large surface to slide it around on because you don't want to have to think about resetting it. You'll also want to make sure that you're playing this game on a display with as little lag as possible, so your big-screen 1080p TV might not be the best choice.

But a healthy difficulty should lend itself to a serious replay factor as long as the game is fun, right? Normally, yes, but not necessarily in this case. That's not to say that BIT.TRIP BEAT is not fun, because it is. The problem is that the three stages present are each nearly fifteen minutes long. No checkpoints or mid-level saves exist to bail you out, either. It reflects the worst part of more traditional rhythm games: there might only be one line in a Guitar Hero song that messes you up, but you'll have to play through the same three minutes prior to that line every time just to try again. But in BIT.TRIP BEAT, now you're talking about songs that are almost fifteen minutes long. If you lose at minute twelve only to try again and lose at the same place, that's rage quit material right there. A save system isn't necessarily the solution, but splitting these three stages up into six stages of half the length each would have gone a really long way to make the whole experience much more enjoyable.

But just when you're ready to throw your mouse at the wall in frustration, this game charms the crap out of you. Visually, BIT.TRIP BEAT is a lot like what you might get from mixing Pong with Ecstasy. Entering Mega mode reveals backdrops of sprawling depth and smooth animation. You won't really have a chance to fixate on them, but they're noticeable enough to appreciate. In fact, they're almost too noticeable. Whether it's intentional or not, sometimes the busy backdrops double as distractions. Beats are often easy to lose in the ultra-bright comets as they fly by, as if the game isn't hard enough as it is.

The music provided by Petrified Productions is also one of this game's strongest points. The biggest reward to mastering BIT.TRIP BEAT's stages is actually being able to enjoy them in their entirety. Mega mode shows off the music in its best form, and it's awesome to play an active part in its playback through deflecting beats. It's all part of the gloriously retro package.

Score junkies rejoice: There are leaderboards. Perhaps more useful, these leaderboards can also be restricted to your Steam friends. If you have a buddy who's playing this game too, it can be a lot of fun to go back and forth trying to out-do each other. There are some nifty social networking tie-ins as well; enter your Facebook and Twitter account information and you can report your progress and scores to your network of choice upon stage completions. And the presence of Steam achievements provides for some satisfying icing on the cake.

Since the recent release of Portal 2, there's also a fourth stage included in the package called Test that serves as a tribute to Valve's hit puzzler. While the gameplay mechanics are unchanged in this new stage, many of the retro elements are foregone, instead opting for the ever-intimidating GlaDOS monitoring your every move. It does provide another cool song to play to, and it ups the value of the game these days as the $9.99 price tag did not increase as a result of the additional content.

BIT.TRIP BEAT is a retro-style action game that is both punishingly difficult and short on content. These factors would cripple most titles into obscurity, but there's an undeniable attraction to the old-school visual style and catchy-as-heck soundtrack. No matter if you end up playing it for twenty hours or twenty minutes, this game begs to be played on merit of its presentation alone. While it's often too frustrating to be fun, few games offer a similar experience. Consequently, BIT.TRIP BEAT is recommendable to anyone who has a soft spot for retro flair, but it might be worth waiting for the occasional Steam sale if you're unsure.

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"bowlingotter reviewed Bit.Trip Beat for the PC..." was posted by bowlingotter on Thu, 28 Apr 2011 07:37:27 -0700
]]> http://www.gamespot.com/bit-trip-beat/user-reviews/763416/platform/pc/