PlayStation University | www.psuni.com » Scotty B.

Brink Review

Scotty B. — Sun, 22 May 2011 12:25:58 +0000

The latest title out of independently-owned British game development company, Splash Damage (best known for their online FPS games, Enemy Territory: Quake Wars and Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory), is Brink. Continuing their trend of delivering FPS', Brink sets to redefine the genre with a mix of photorealistic-cartoon-styled characters, Team Fortress style squad and objective gameplay and Mirror's Edge themed parkour movement, all wrapped up in an online, cooperative environment. It is their first proper foray into the console environment (Splash Damage didn't handle the port of Quake Wars), but does it live up to their promises of greatness? Story In a dystopian city known as The Ark; possibly humanity's last surviving stronghold on Earth after the seas have risen, you fight on one of two sides, the Rebels or the Security Forces. The Security Forces are battling to maintain order on the floating city, driving back the dissidents and those who seek to abandon The Ark. On the flipside, the Rebels or revolutionaries, strive only to overthrow the confines and venture out into the seas, assuming other Humanity must still exist elsewhere. Despite the choice being presented to you in black or white right from the very beginning, it proves to tear this tough decision down moments later when you can realise that the choice is not binding; You can switch sides any time you like and run missions from either side with no consistency (even with the same character) which renders the story and this choice quite meaningless. Game Play Provided you go into Brink with a clear mind and no pre-conceived expectations, you'll find an innovative and diverse, strategy-based FPS at your fingertips. Once I got over the initial shock of running around like a headless chook and realised that Brink was more Team Fortress than Battlefield: Bad Company, the true strengths of the game began to show themselves. This is a very ambitious first person shooter. You begin with the uber-stylish character customisation. There are a variety of basic face types to choose from which form the grounds of your character's appearance, but from then on the customisation never ends. You can pick and choose from numerous body sizes, clothing items, tattoos, face paints, hair styles and colours, voice types, actions and as you progress through the game, XP unlocks more and more option. Diving into your first mission, you're quickly given a brief tutorial about how Brink is supposed to play, how your objectives are tracked and how important class choices are within the game world. You have four classes available during a mission, the Soldier, the Medic, the Engineer and the Operative. The Soldier supplies ammo to teammates and has specific destruction targets within missions (planting explosives on a door for example). The Engineer has the ability to increase teammates' weapons potency (buffs) and can builds stationary turrets for defense. The Medic, as you'd expect, heals downed teammates and can give a boost to your teammates' health. The Operative is required for interrogating fallen opponents, performing acts of sabotage - and a personal favourite, can also disguise himself as one of your opponents. Each of these classes become interchangeable throughout a mission - and many classes can be required, so if your teammates are neglecting an objective, you can switch your class and get the job done yourself. Characters are enhanced by 'skills', unlockable abilities earned over time with XP rewards from playing matches. There are a total of fifty available, but you can only apply twenty to a single character, so choice is key. There are some basic ones like better proficiency with grenades, to handy little abilities like being able to fire while incapacitated, so there's a multitude of diversity on offer. None of these skill point assignments are locked down forever either, so you can chop and change by reassigning skill points at any time. Body types also affect just what you can do within the round as well. A 'heavy' body type can wield weapons such as Miniguns and Shotguns (at the expense of running speed and maneuverability), while on the opposite end of the spectrum, the 'small' body type allows only lighter weapons, but gains the ability to navigate the levels through narrow pathways and secret ducts while possessing more outright speed in doing so. The movement mechanics; Splash Damage refer to it as the SMART (Smooth Movement Across Random Terrain) are an absolute highlight, turning the game into a sort of parkour FPS, allowing you to navigate complex environments littered with crates, handrails, tables, walls and gaps with a remarkably easy single input. There are a total of eight maps in Brink. The level design is fantastic, and as you realise the above mentioned body types reveal new areas and new ways of traversing the maps, it's going to be quite a while before you see everything that each map has to offer. That said, it isn't long before you become tired of the same locations and the same objectives within them. For what is essentially an online game with the entirety of its focus on this objective play, it feels like the biggest prohibitive factor of Brink is its longevity. Some of these objectives seem silly and pointless as well. One team might be charged with rescuing a VIP (the other team's job is therefore to stop them by killing the VIP). In doing so though, not only does the attacking team have to eliminate the protectors, but after 'killing' or capturing the VIP, they then have to stand around and guard him for up to 10 minutes. Failure to do so results in the VIP miraculously recovering from the multiple head wounds from your Minigun and having to do it again. These time-based objectives can feel drawn out simply for the sake of being so. Even the more hasty objectives such as demolition and safe cracking for example can become a little monotonous once you've done a map over a few times. The competition online does keep your interest, especially when matches are close fought, though - and games are always full thanks to the addition of 'Bots' (an AI element I thought had been lost in recent years), but of course they aren't true supplement for the real thing. The Bots will regularly run right past you, all swarm together (a grenadiers wet dream) or follow what seems like the exact same patterns on each attempted assault. Perhaps due to the outright size of the maps and the mass undertaking of activity within, online games can suffer from some lag, but whether or not this is a result of the netcode, or actual player connections when handling the information, is up for debate. Graphics & Sound It's hard to find graphical fault with Brink. The art style and detail is superb. Especially the characters, who all have this crazy-detailed, stretched look about them that make you think 'this is what cartoons would look like if they were photorealistic'. I have spent an absolute age in the character customisation, just looking at all the options, switching tattoos, applying new face paints, switching clothes and costumes. The game world is also beautiful, though perhaps not as much attention to detail has been crafted into the environments as the characters. Sound is great, bullets ricochet off metal, shotguns thump and miniguns whistle with metallic urgency. Chris Sweetman, (of Burnout Paradise fame) was brought in for the audio and it shows through in every facet of Brink's fantastic technical soundtrack. Conclusion Brink is an extremely brave, highly stylised, strategy-based shooter. Graphically it is very impressive. The parkour-esque movement both excites and frustrates. The lack of longevity (largely attributed to the small map roster) is my biggest concern. I've been playing it for a few days, but already the fresh feel and interest is waning a little. For innovative, cooperative team-based FPS', it doesn't get much cooler than Brink, but I hesitate to recommend it based on the fact that it just doesn't feel like it's got the legs. It's on the brink of being something really special - all the hallmarks of a good game are there, but it's lacking endurance. It just seems to run out of steam.

Swarm Review

Scotty B. — Wed, 30 Mar 2011 15:15:22 +0000

Ever since I bought DeathSpank from the PSN store last year, the name 'Hothead Games' became one of my benchmarks for fun, not-so-serious downloadable games. While we at PlaystationUni never got to review Deathspank's follow-up, Thongs of Virtue, the announcement of Hothead Games' latest PSN title, Swarm, had us quite excited. The Swarm has crash-landed on a dark and mysterious, war-torn planet. The blue blob 'ship' sends out a single, worm-like tentacle and spews forth a group of 50 Swarmites. This is you. Your goal? Collect DNA from throughout the planet and feed it back to the host blob, affectionately known to the Swarmites, as "Momma". In typical Hothead Games fashion, the idea is to not take Swarm too seriously. Getting through Swarm's many levels, you'll encounter a multitude of environmental hazards. Swarmites can be impaled, fried, asphyxiated, electrocuted, diced into tiny pieces and they can fall into pools of lava or bottomless pits. Normally, you'd think this would be counter-productive. Besides collecting the DNA strands (oftentimes well hidden) throughout the levels, you also encounter numerous - sometimes hundreds - of molecules, which add to your level score and contribute to a score multiplier. Keeping this score multiplier going however, is the tricky part. And one of the easiest ways to keep it going, when you've run out of molecules, is to send your Swarmites to the slaughter. Each death not only prolongs the perpetuation of the multiplier, but it also marginally increases it. Levels have a minimum score in order to pass onto the next level. So managing (and increasing) that multiplier is paramount. And it can be extremely challenging as the game progresses. Many times I'd find myself failing the minimum score requirement to unlock the next level. The controls themselves do take quite a bit of getting used to. There are two main swarm controls; Forcing them to spread out, or pulling them into a tight huddle, both especially useful depending on your environmental circumstances. Additionally, from the huddle, Swarmites can then stack themselves vertically in a treacherously balanced column, serving both to reach higher pickups or platforms and also to navigate through very narrow areas. Furthermore, 'charging' the swarm can spur them into quicker sprint movements and an additional control can jettison them into a powerful direct impact attack that destroys walls and sets off pressure pads. Some levels introduce a carrying mechanic, where your Swarmites carry a glow worm sort of creature, illuminating dark (often pitch-black) areas, but frustratingly these sections can become incredibly annoying if you happen to lose your light-bearing friends. Getting your mind around the controls, as well as learning to manage the entire pack of 50 Swarmites on screen (especially when the scenes become chaotic, full of explosions and other environmental hazards) takes some adjustment. It's quite different to anything you're used to, but once to get a grasp of the feel, it's all smooth sailing from there. Swarm definitely promotes replay. In addition to global leaderboards, after completing a level for the first time, you unlock an additional 'Time bonus' which awards you a further multiplier at the conclusion of a level depending on how quickly you've completed it. Competing for the top spot on the wall is going to take some serious Swarmite management and exceptional care of the multiplier. Hothead Games' Swarm is a fun and enjoyable experience, marred only by some occasional spikes in difficulty (boss battles especially) which really test your patience. And what feels like a little bit of monotony towards later levels as the novelty of the presentation, macabre humour, innovative control and ideas start to wear thin. That said, it's still a colourful and twisted bit of fun.

Test Drive Unlimited 2 Review

Scotty B. — Thu, 17 Mar 2011 13:04:03 +0000

It has been a packed few months if you're a follower of racing games. Just keeping up with my backlog has proved an almost impossible task. Finally, I've had a chance to get around to one of my more anticipated titles this year - Test Drive Unlimited 2. Eden Games have had a long, successful history with the racing genre including the V-Rally series, the PlayStation port of my favourite NFS title of all time; Porsche Unleashed, and of course, the original 2006 hit, Test Drive Unlimited. While I missed playing the original TDU, its sequel was high atop my list of 2011 gaming acquirements. Game Play TDU2 is a sandbox racer, taking place on the paradise islands of Ibiza and Oahu. Utilising a massive open world (and I stress the word 'massive' as this is easily one of the largest sandbox racers to date), you have thousands of kilometres of roads, both asphalt and dirt, at your disposal to explore and traverse. Both of the island game worlds are modelled from satellite data, though some modification has been made to freshen up the layout(s) from the previous game. Travelling between the islands is as simple as jumping on a plane (and costs nothing), with the only requirement being progression to player level 10. Load times are exceptional. Even travelling between the islands only takes a brief moment and fast-travelling to specific points on each island is also incredibly easy as well as lightning fast. It is an impressive achievement for a sandbox game of this type and size with little to no discernible texture pop-in at all. Casting my mind back to similar sandbox games such as Midnight Club: LA - and the ease and visual fidelity involved in moving about the city was nowhere near as polished as it is here. TDU2 operates on a levelling system, with 60 maximum levels (or 70 with the Casino DLC) with this system divided into 4 broad categories. The 'Competition' contribution includes all of your basic racing, including Championships, random duels, and online/offline racing challenges. Racing events are broken down into Time Trials, your more standard Race events, Eliminator events, Speed Limit events (think the Keanu Reeves movie, "Speed" and you're close) and the Speed Trap events (race through fixed speed cameras and get the highest average speed compared to your competition over 4-6 different cameras). Championships are made up of any number of these events, with anywhere from 5-8 events per Championship. Each race offers monetary awards, and winning the overall victory gives you a significant cash prize. Races are divided amongst the car categories, falling into Classic (C), Off-Road (B) and Asphalt (A) events. Prior to entry, you also need to complete certain License requirements (at respective License schools) in order to participate. Completed Championships are usually succeeded by 'High' Championships (advanced events) with complete class victories awarding 'Cup' Championships, so there's plenty to do. Most of these events are visible on the map, or eventually introduced by the various racers in your in-game clique. Your mobile phone offers incoming notification of newly available events. While it's not as annoying as - say - GTA IV's mobile phone system - the poor voice talent in TDU2 doesn't make it any easier to stomach. 'Social' contributions include making friends in game, racing against other people, joining clubs and generally keeping up appearances. 'Discovery' is easily the most expansive and time consuming of the requirements, with challenges such as 'discover all roads' popping up in here. With ~3000km of roads to find and drive, you realise that 100% completion is going to be a mammoth task. Discovery also includes taking photos of touristy locations (sort of 'side missions' given from local photographic firms) and finding car wrecks littered across the islands (finding 10 of a kind unlocks a bonus car). And there are a number of them to collect. 'Collection' is as similarly expansive as the Discovery requirement and includes buying cars, houses, furniture, clothing and various other avatar related modification. Most of this category is going to result in some serious cash grinding, as there's not a lot of big monetary gains to be had beyond the Championships (which can't be repeated as a whole for their larger bonus prizes). There are a stack of properties to buy, scattered throughout Ibiza and Oahu, ranging from small, 2-car garage huts, to expansive 8-car garaged mansions with floor-to-ceiling aquariums - and luxury yachts with palatial living areas. The architecture and opulent locales really drives you to grind the cash and purchase more property though. It is highly addictive. Each house can be fitted with custom furniture as well. Your in-game avatar has a myriad of user-selectable content available, including designer clothes, expensive hairstyles and you can even go so far as to visit the plastic surgeon who will alter your appearance entirely. Then there's the cars; 101 of them on offer if you go by the complete list (though some are locked, some are pre-order exclusive etc.) with noticeable absences of Lamborghini, especially unusual as they were present in the first game. RUF also comes to the party in place of Porsche. All cars have well modelled interiors and exhibit cosmetic damage throughout driving. As previously mentioned, cars fall into the 3 race classes, Classic, Off-road and Asphalt (C4, C3. B4, B3. A7, A6, A5, A4, A3, A2, A1). Everything from the Paris-Dakar Spyker to the Keonigsegg CCR. There's a tremendous diversity of cars, and very rarely do you arrive in the situation where you've picked the wrong car for the class. Most cars can be modded at Tuning shops and made competitive. You can also add stickers/livery modifications to the majority of cars. The process of visiting a car dealer, test driving a car, then buying and individually tailoring a car (wheels, colour choices, interior trim colour combinations etc) is fantastic. Aiding your monetary system is the F.R.I.M, an on-board 'black box' that awards you for various offensive driving tactics such as oncoming misses, high speed driving and dodging traffic. Executing all of this without incident increases the cash gain through 10 levels - the flipside being a crash or impact resets the meter to zero, so higher risk = higher reward. All of TDU2 can be taken online. Even during the career, you can cruise around, progress to objectives, all the while passing, meeting and challenging other TDU2 players around the globe. Unfortunately beyond this, much of the online aspect of TDU2 is currently, at time of writing, broken. You can see a Friend on the map for example, you can fast travel to their location - but you'll arrive to see everyone else on the map BUT your friend. Clubs are still broken, and in my time online, I've been unable to see more than one Friend at a time driving around (and for part of that, my Friend wasn't able to see me). Ranked races are purely random it would seem, with no discernible way to get into a Ranked Race with your Friends. Voice chat works - only when all parties sync properly - which is rarely. The Casino DLC (available as a pre-order bonus, or purchasable from the PSN Store) offers an additional 10 game levels (and supposedly a new/extra way of making money), the Audi R8 V10 Spyder and various mini games (including Roulette, Poker, Pokies and a driving challenge). I picked this up as a DLC option, but the Roulette has been broken/unplayable since I got it, the Poker is either unpopulated or you're beaten by seasoned Poker vets - and the pokies (while actually having some monetary benefit) are insanely boring. It took me an hour to triple my $5000 money. Hardly worth the time when the racing Challenges offer up to a million bucks later on for 20-30 minutes fun. And then there's the Audi R8 V10 Spyder. Despite buying the pack from the store, you then have to buy the car in-game with $1 million credit, or win it at the pokies (tried this, but got bored and poor after 40 mins). So the pack leaves a lot to be desired. Online flaws aside, the single player races also suffer from the occasional bugs. The introduction of wet weather doesn't seem to affect required times in the challenges, so rained out Time Trials can be extremely tough. Whether this is an intentional difficulty spike or an oversight I can't be sure, but on one particular occasion later in the game I had to come back and resume the Trial once the Sun came out. In the later (A2/A1) events, you often find the limits of the physics engine as well, with cars sometimes flying through the air over jumps and landing as if they've hit a brick wall, or spearing into the ground textures. It can be quite annoying especially in the Speed events. I also question the decision to add time penalty to the time trial events as a blanket application if you run off the road. Example - run very wide, fall off the road, crash into the trees - and all the while, in addition to the penalty you've endured yourself just by messing up your line, the game also adds extra penalty time as you're driving off the road, compounding the effect. It forces a 'restart race' scenario every time you mess up a little bit, rather than trying to get you back on the road and make up for lost time. Graphics & Sound Being island paradises, the game play setting offers some spectacular visuals. Nothing says opulence like driving your Bugatti Veyron Super Sport from your luxury Hawaiian yacht mooring. TDU2 reflects this with silky smooth visuals, plenty of colour and great diversity in locations. You find yourself driving through rural plantation areas, past beaches, industrial regions, downtown cityscapes complete with complex highway interchanges and mountainous 'goat trail' tracks with breathtaking views. Car choice is paramount, a superbly detailed Caterham more suited to the nooks and crannies of Oahu downtown than your luxurious 1000HP Bugatti. Cars are all well modelled, not to the same level of detail as say, GT5, but with a passion and authenticity easily allowing you to believe your surroundings. Eden Games have modelled collapsible hard and soft-top roofs, functioning doors, headlights and electric windows. Very impressive. Complete with a full day-night cycle and changeable weather, you can drop the roof, roll down the windows and enjoy the Ibizan sunshine. And just as quickly close it all up when the tropical storms roll in. Ibiza and Oahu have two radio stations. Hariba Radio and Road Rock. Both offer a selection of audio tracks, but to be honest, I found myself cruising without music most of the time, instead, choosing to listen to the authentic and faithfully recreated engine notes. Voice talent is poor though, spoiling the immersion. Phoned in vocal introductions found in license tests and race events are repetitive, awkward and in some cases, utterly cringe worthy. 3 races in-a-row of the same Championship Event, I was told "What Drama! Apparently the Wilder Brothers and Stuart are squabbling again... The pressure of the competition is really beginning to show!". Lines like this one are repeated constantly throughout the game - and become quite annoying. Conclusion Test Drive Unlimited 2 is a enjoyable, if slightly easy sandbox racer with plenty of great ideas and fluid delivery. Early adjustment to the handling aside, it is sure to offer hours of fresh game play. Shamefully, the online lets this one down, both for early progress and replayability, but hopefully this can be addressed in future patches. With such a mountain of content, massive world and loads of cars and race categories, TDU2 should definitely be on your play list if it isn't already.

Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit Review

Scotty B. — Wed, 16 Mar 2011 13:36:49 +0000

[Editor's Note: It's late, but we finally got to it] Throw Criterion at a racing game with licensed cars and you're bound to happen on a winner, right? After all, one of my favourite arcade racers ever is Burnout Paradise. I clocked literally hundreds of hours in that game. It solidified my opinion of Criterion as a developer who knew what they were doing with a racing game. When I read that Criterion were being given a go under the Need for Speed banner - and recreating the classic 'Hot Pursuit', naturally, I was highly anticipating its release. How could they possibly fail? Game Play You're dropped straight into Seacrest County, a district with about 160 kilometres of roads to tear through at breakneck speed. From the get-go, you have the option or pursuing a career as a Racer, or a career as a Cop. Both paths are completely interchangeable however, you can drive an event as a Racer, avoiding the cops - and as soon as you're finished, you can jump into a cop car and go out and chase a racer pack you could have just been a part of. The 'Racer' side is your more conventional get from A to B as fast as possible (at least faster than your competition) scenario. This gets further divided up into Time Trials where you race the clock and standard-fare competitive races against up to 7 other opponents. The excitement though, comes from the racer events where you're being chased by the cops. Sometimes it's just you versus a handful of specialist cop units, sometimes it's a bunch of you against the entire Seacrest County police force. The latter especially, get incredibly action-packed and furiously competitive. Throughout your career as a Racer, you get access to some defences too. Your car can be fitted with Spike Strips, EMP (a useful forward-firing electrical burst that slows down other racers and cops alike), Jammers (blocks EMP targeting, cop communication and offensive deployments, like spike strips for example) and for a quick escape, or a recovery boost, Turbo. On the flipside, the 'Cop' career has you shutting down the races and competitors in the fastest way possible. Like the racers, you have Spike Strips and EMP at your disposal, but in place of Jammers and Turbo, you can call in Helicopter support (useful if you're falling behind, or managing a spread pack of racers - the Helicopter will fly ahead and track other suspects, even dropping Spike Strips to slow them down) and the ability to deploy Roadblocks. Cop events have you tracking large packs of racers, or sometimes a solo shutdown against a very tricky and evasive racer. They'll dart in and out of traffic, drive into oncoming traffic, even pull the handbrake and drive in the opposite direction. Car choice is paramount throughout the game. For the evasive racers, you need to combat them with light, nimble cop cars for example. Similarly the big, heavy cop cars (like a Bentley for example) are better suited for using brute force to tackle suspects on roads where they've got nowhere to hide. There are loads of cars available, with both Racers and Cops getting access to some of the most gorgeous supercars on offer. Jump into a Porsche 918 Spyder and get chased by a Koenigsegg cop car. It's all ridiculously cool in true arcade racing style. Cars are unlocked as you progress through the career, with each event unlocking bounty that accelerates you through 20 levels (for both Racer and Cop). Level progression opens up new tiers of events with access to faster cars and faster opponents. After a while however, events do tend to become a big stagnant. The careers will take about 10-15 hours combined depending on your ability (and luck), but you can only do so many chase events, or time trials before it starts to feel like you've been there and done it before. Criterion have tried to spruce it up a bit by adding certain restrictions making events harder (Racer pursuits with no Spike Strips for example, or Cop events with no Helicopter support or Roadblocks) but generally all this does is drag the event out a little longer than usual. "Autolog" attempts to save the day here, whereby the result of every event you participate in is uploaded to a 'wall' preceding the event entry, so you can compare your times and completion to your Friends. This additional competition is especially time consuming if you have a bunch of Friends of varying skill levels on your Friends list (like I did). It promotes replayability, going back to chase down the extra second or two that'll leap you to the top of your Wall. All your Friends then receive a notification of you beating their times on the leaderboards the next time they play, thereby encouraging them to go back and have another go. As a brief reprieve from all of this, Criterion have included 'Freedrive', where you can take any car and just drive around Seacrest County at your own leisure. Unfortunately though, there's little to do beyond gawk at the beautiful scenery, so it becomes boring quickly. You can however, use this mode to freely take screenshots of your new car acquirements. So far so good. My major disappointments in this title however, rest with the handling and the extreme use of rubber-band AI. Allow me to elaborate. The handling itself is incredibly unnatural. I can't really put a finger on what it is exactly that makes it so unlikeable, but every time I jumped into Hot Pursuit for some races, it would take me a good 5 tries just to get a feel back for it. Every car, from a light, nimble Pagani Zonda Cinque to a big heavy Bentley or Bugatti all seem to handle in the same tail out, drift everywhere fashion. Sure, it's probably the aim with an arcade racer such as this, but even the drifting feels unnatural, forced. I play a lot of racers with many different handling mechanics, but I never really felt comfortable in NFS: Hot Pursuit, even towards the end of the game. Coupled with rubber-band AI - and this is rubber-band AI to rival the best (on par with the most evil Motorstorm can offer) and you're thinking along the right lines. This is further highlighted by Criterion's very own innovation, the Autolog. I'd regularly finish events, especially Time Trials and Interceptor events, a solid 5 seconds to (on one occasion) 30 seconds quicker than the next closest Friend on my list - yet I was unable to beat the AI. I'd finish 2nd or 3rd with a time that was 30 seconds quicker than my Friends - who all, I might add, had gold with their time for winning the same race. Similarly, the Cop events are equally as frustrating. Save your boost for a corner takedown or a hard impact, execute your move - only for the AI to match your boost exactly, forcing you to miss them by millimetres and crash out. It got to the point where I could follow a car on a straight, hit boost, let it off, hit boost, let it off again - and I'd watch the AI car do exactly the same thing. Rubber-band AI mirrors you to a ridiculous level in Hot Pursuit. My dismay for some arcade racers and the rabid use of rubber-band AI's to make games 'accessible' to all was truly highlighted here. It may make games accessible to a wider audience, but all I see is a rigged and forced penalty for being fast. It's simply not fun. To escape the rubber-band AI, Hot Pursuit features multiplayer game modes for up to eight players. Most reflect the same formats available in the single-player careers, but are more enjoyable thanks to Human opponents and realistic outcomes. Graphics & Sound Seacrest County is beautiful. While it's not an 'open world' sandbox in the same sense as racers like Burnout Paradise, or TDU2 for example, it uses the open world to deliver your point-to-point races and events. Freedrive allows you to explore the spectacular environment (even if there's nothing else to do), watch the weather roll in, view sunsets and sunrises. Criterion have delivered a gorgeous world to drive about. Cars are very well modelled and intricately detailed. The entire car list has been given plenty of attention, all cars featuring cosmetic damage, and most cars have a Racer and Cop version (though there are a handful of exclusive exceptions). Seeing your favourite supercar dressed up as a Cop vehicle is quite brilliant - and there's loads of variation in the Cop liveries across the range too. Menu systems are slick, modern and easily accessible. The Soundtrack is standard NFS/Criterion fare with Alternative/rock, Dance /Electro House and some Hip-Hop thrown in, but you also have the option of custom soundtracks if none of the above is to your liking. Car/engine sounds are also well done, authentic and pump the volume on your surround sound, very rewarding too. Conclusion This one was a recipe for success, but it just doesn't make the cut. All the key elements are there to make a fantastic racing game - and a superb Hot Pursuit remake. Only it all falls apart around the most critical of all ingredients - they failed at the racing itself. The handling is so unnatural it breaks the experience. The AI is so in-your-face rubber-bandy that it does nothing but bring out the rage in you. There's little replayability - hell, I even lacked the interest and perseverance to completely finish it. I persevered with the Racer career, but lost interest towards the end of the Cop career. This from a massive racing fan. That says it all. Sadly this one will gather dust when it should have been a regular revisit like its classic counterpart. Criterion have disappointed. In the very genre I thought it would never be possible for them to do so.

Dead Space 2 Review

Scotty B. — Wed, 02 Feb 2011 23:48:47 +0000

2008's Dead Space was a breath of fresh air for the sci-fi, survival horror genre. The strategic dismemberment of your alien Necromorph foes was ridiculously satisfying. Gone were the standard-fare weapons that litter modern shooters. Dead Space introduced the 'Plasma cutter', the 'Ripper', the 'Force Gun'. Looking back, Dead Space is probably one of my most played titles. Including my most recent run through 'Impossible' difficulty, I've run through the original five times. Fast-forward to 2011 and Visceral Games have delivered the sequel, Dead Space 2. Naturally, it has been a highly anticipated title for me. After the original, it's had a lot to live up to as well. Story Once again we join Isaac Clarke, but this time in a hospital on the 'Sprawl'; a huge out-world city and planet-cracking base constructed on the remaining shard of Saturn?s moon, Titan. Strapped into a straitjacket and robbed of the last three years of memory, he awakens to Franco (from Dead Space Ignition), attempting to free him. Necromorphs have overrun the complex. We take control of Isaac, struggling to escape the wave of Necromorph invasion and to make sense of what is happening, where he is, what he's missed - and ultimately, to escape the Sprawl. Game Play Dead Space 2 has a significantly different feel to the original. With Dead Space, you got that sinking feeling you were alone on the USG Ishimura. At most, a handful of survivors were left walking the halls of the ship - and you never really saw them, most conversation was handled over video comms. As such, the 'survival' part of the horror was much more forefront to the game play. With the sequel, we know Isaac's been here and done this before. He's an expert on dismembering Necromorphs, he's got no problem dispatching an army of them when they appear. And he's accompanied by numerous people and companions throughout the Sprawl. For these reasons, the level of anxiety you experience in Dead Space 2 just isn't at the height it was in the original. It's been replaced with a number of new introductions however; Isaac's mind is shot. He's been out of action for three years, the guilt of Nicole's death and the events surrounding the Marker play tricks on his mind. His conscience is haunted. On numerous occasions throughout the game, we listen in on disturbing conversations Isaac is essentially having with himself. We see hallucinations, dreadful images that shake Isaac's mental foundations. The battle is not as much with the Necromorphs as it is with himself. This is not to say the game hasn't changed, even the Necromorphs themselves have evolved and we see new enemy types emerging throughout the Sprawl. One such enemy, the 'Stalker', I can only liken to a Velociraptor. They are incredibly fast, they are pack hunters, they use the shadows to their advantage - and you can hear their frightful screams a mile away. There are a number of new weapons and suits at Isaac's disposal. The Detonator is a proximity mine launcher, which allows you to conveniently set up laser trip wires, particularly useful against enemies like the Stalker. Suits also change Isaac's appearance significantly, with four major suit classes on offer (and further improvements on New Game+). The upgrade system has been tweaked slightly, though it still relies on the acquisition of Nodes (either by collection within the game world or purchasing at the Store) for progression. You now have a 'reclaim' action, which, for 5000 credits, can recoup all of the Power Nodes from a weapon or suit, immediately placing them back in your inventory so you can reassign them to a new weapon. Handy if you choose to focus on a newly acquired pickup later in the game. There's still a major reliance on playing through the game two or three times to upgrade everything though - and especially early in the game, credits and Nodes are quite sparse (this is made up for in the latter half of the game). Deaths are a lot more gruesome this time around. Due in part to the fact that there are a lot more environmental hazards in Dead Space 2 as well. Should a beam from your Plasma Cutter happen to go astray, it might find its way through a non-safety piece of glass, blowing out the room and rapidly de-pressurising the area. If you're not quick enough, or your aim is too poor, you'll get sucked out and crushed in the security door. Control events (almost quicktime events, without the button coordination) also highlight the gruesome deaths on offer. I won't spoil anything, but there's a tremendously horrid scenario near the end of the game involving Isaac's eye that - trust me - you should fail at least once on purpose. There are some amazing deep space sections, plus plenty of use of the fantastic zero-gravity mechanics (Isaac's suits are now fitted with thrusters, allowing him to move about zero-grav/deep space without restriction - and it is superb) as well as some all-new set pieces like the Halo Jump we all saw in the early trailers for example. The approach to level design has also changed considerably in Dead Space 2. Whereas the original incorporated a lot of backtracking and unlocking previously locked doors, or re-canvassing areas to do tasks not available before, the Sprawl offers a lot more option. You find yourself progressing through hospital wings, engineering sectors, shopping malls, garbage disposal facilities, deep-space radar arrays. Dead Space 2 is vastly more linear than its predecessor, perhaps not to some people's liking, but it awards the player with less recycling of environments and reduced confusion in navigating areas. Visceral Games said early in development that Dead Space 2 would be more about action than suspense - and indeed, there's more action. Unfortunately, sometimes it feels as though this 'action' is just there to extend the game play time beyond the actual game content. Instead of new rooms to explore and new puzzles to solve (the latter of which are far more sparse in Dead Space 2 as well), you are often inundated with wave upon wave of Necromorphs, to the point of overwhelming. As a result, both the suspense and anxiety of the first game is diminished. There's less of the genuine scares and less actual fear of what's around the next corner. Enter room, get swarmed with Necros, enter next room, get swarmed with more Necros - and so on and so forward. It is a minor nitpick and a brutal generalisation, but towards the end of the game you do feel that the game has been 'extended' somewhat with abundant enemy spawns. Additionally, there's now a multiplayer mode on offer. You pair up with friends and randoms to form two teams, either Human or Nercomorph. Humans have the goal of escaping the facility, Necromorphs have the responsibility of not allowing that to happen. There's a small selection of maps on offer and generally the action is pretty constant and exciting. One map in particular, Solar Array, works very well. Necromorphs do take a bit of getting used to, learning the specific ability of each Necro-type and using it effectively against the Humans, but once you're experienced, it's quite enjoyable. The multiplayer definitely has the 'tacked on' feel, it's fairly light on features and apart from a level-up system to extract a bit more time from the online component, it may get old - but early impressions at least were fun. Graphics & Sound Graphically, Dead Space 2 is quite reminiscent of its predecessor. Many environments are similar to the halls and pressure-door exchanges of the USG Ishimura - and even the Sprawl itself is massively underused - for a significant part of the game, you could almost be convinced you were walking around in the first game again. Of course, this comes part-and-parcel with the sci-fi, space station theme. Dead Space 2 is darker however; there are moments when you'll find yourself in complete blackness. Spin the camera around and the only light sources come from Isaac's suit. Sounds and screams emanate from all directions. It aims to terrify you. Moments later, power comes back on and you're washed back into the sterile, metal world of the Sprawl. You often have to rely on just your flashlight for direction in blacked-out areas within the Sprawl. The dead silence of deep space sections chill, especially when you can't ascertain exactly where attacks are originating from. There's plenty of use of ambient noises, creaks and groans around the sprawl, often hard to differentiate from the moans and screams of Necromorphs moving behind the walls and in distant areas. The score is perfect too. Isaac's voice is good - great even. It's a fantastic addition having Isaac actually voiced in this one. The dialogue presented to in-game characters varies much from the dialogue we hear inside Isaac's head, his inner conversations and bouts of insanity privy only to us. The audio in general continues the superb immersion we came to expect in Dead Space. Conclusion Game play is more action packed, movement and combat has been sharpened, there are more game play mechanics on offer, Necromorphs are more furious, more cunning and Isaac is more confident, even while struggling with his own inner demons and hallucinations. On typing, I'm on my third play-through, literally back-to-back. I can't put it down. The campaign is absolutely captivating and thoroughly enjoyable. It's a slightly different direction for the Dead Space franchise, but it works. And it is brilliant.

Credible Gran Turismo 5 Review

Scotty B. — Mon, 29 Nov 2010 20:56:31 +0000

Always synonymous with intricate detail and a complete, whole driving experience, Gran Turismo has set the bar for all other racing games in the past. Few have managed the level of quality and detail, features and quantity that we've come to expect from GT. After Prologue and a string of brief 'demos', we finally have a full-fledged GT title for the Playstation 3. It's been a long wait. It's been surrounded by hype, misinformation, delay and anticipation. It's finally here. And after 5 loooong years, everyone hope's it has been worth it. Anyone who knows me will know all the reasons why I hope it's been worth it. Game Play Once I'd gotten the hefty (~45 minute) install out of the way, and downloaded and installed the day one patch (~120MB), the intro movie rolled. I literally couldn't believe it. It was actually happening. I was about to play Gran Turismo 5. Immediately there are some familiar sights. Backgrounds from Prologue are familiar, menu structure and layout are similar. From the main menu, you can select from GT Home, or Arcade to get right into racing. GT Home is the main hub to everything GT career related. You're introduced to the basics of each mode and setting up your profile as soon as you start clocking away. New to GT5 is a set "Level system", that defines which events you can enter and most importantly, which cars you can drive. A Mazda Miata might require just level 0 - a good starter car then - but a Lamborghini LP670 R-SV‎ could require you at level 14 before you can get behind the wheel. Experience is earned from race events, special events and license tests - and comes pretty quickly, so I was busy driving Ferrari's and Lamborghini's a few hours into my game. Much like prior iterations of Gran Turismo, you also have the A-spec and B-spec distinctions. A-spec is entirely solo play. B-spec however, has had a bit of an overhaul. It's now more reminiscent of a "Manager" game, where you create a driver (or team of drivers), choosing their starting statistics, and push them into events where you can control their on-track antics, when to push, when to cruise and when to overtake. You can't jump in the car and share the experience with B-spec drivers any more. The B-spec experience is limited though and is merely more than a cinema viewing. You can't speed the race up and you do miss being able to jump in for a few laps to get back in the race after the AI bungles it. That said, the more I've developed my driver, the more I've enjoyed watching him race. There's plenty of glory to make up for the last corner stacks. AI is slightly underwhelming. While the number of on-track cars has increased to up to 16 in some events, their on-track ability hasn't changed a considerable amount since Prologue. They still appear glued to the racing line, they still pile directly into the side of your car if you happen to spin on the racing line (and continue to try and drive through you like you're not even there). They still mid-corner brake and perform other odd, forced errors which can be a nuisance in License tests and Special Events where you're immediately disqualified for bumping, just brushing another car. And they're not penalised for error while you take the brunt of all the mistakes. After all this time, it is disappointing. You have over 1000 cars at your disposal, just over 200 of those are Premium and the rest are Standard (more on that later, see Graphics), and you'll quickly start building a mega garage of prize cars and your favourite purchased exotics. The Dealerships system has improved vastly from Prologue. The layout is quicker and easier, you're advised from the main menu what cars you can buy from what Dealership matching your current level, so there's no wasting time. In browsing cars, you can also watch a (very neat) driver demonstration of your chosen car in action. Winning a car is slightly frustrating however as "Car Delivery" has been added, a feature which forces you to accept the "ticket" for a car you've rightfully won, load a delivery screen, watch the car roll out of the darkness, accept that you've got the car, then load the main GT Home menu again. It literally takes a good minute to receive a car. Very annoying when you might have just won three cars from completing all Golds in a license test - and you have to receive each prize car individually. Definitely needs a "Quick Add" feature there. Tuning has been revamped, refreshed - but still offers all of the same classic upgrades for your cars. You can still turn your crappy used Japanese import into a monster, uncontrollable 800HP beast and watch it transform into a crazy race machine. My only complaint though is the loss of "Brakes" modifications. You can chuck 500HP at a FF Civic, but you can't add a big brake kit to slow it down?

Dead Nation Review

Scotty B. — Tue, 16 Nov 2010 00:13:26 +0000

If you've wanted a Zombie fix, you haven't had to look too far this year. Dead Rising 2, a zombie mode for Call of Duty: Black Ops. DLC for Burn Zombie Burn! with "In Space", DLC for Red Dead Redemption with "Undead Nightmare". And if you've just gotten your hands on Borderlands' GOTY Edition, "The Zombie Island of Dr. Ned". Housemarque (creators of that gem, Super Stardust HD) have tried their hand at a Zombie game. Dead Nation, the latest - and last Zombie game scheduled for 2010. Much hyped, much delayed, it's finally here. Has it been worth the wait? Story A deadly virus has swept the globe, killing off most of the Human race and turning them into Zombies. A tiny fraction of people survive, either by locking themselves down in secure facilities - or like our protagonists, by having a unique blood code that allows immunity to the virus. Making contact with a researcher, you are forced on a path of recovery. Search for 'Patient Zero', the source of the Zombie virus - and bring a sample to the doctor in the hopes of finding a cure. This will be Humanity's last chance for redemption. Game Play From the outset, Dead Nation feels a little like 2009's Zombie Apocalypse, with its isometric perspective, dark environments and crowd-control game play. That is where the similarities end though, as Dead Nation builds upon this classic zombie foundation with an almost retail-like feel and quality. Controls are managed with a dual analog scheme, identical to the function found in Super Stardust HD. Weapon selection is controlled via left/right on the D-pad, item selection is mapped to up/down. Early in the game, this setup works very well, but particularly later on, when you're managing a multitude of zombies each with their own separate characteristics and attacks, finding the right weapon at exactly the right moment can be troublesome. You have to scroll through a bunch to find the one you want. This is a minor annoyance though. For the most part, the controls work nicely. Immediately, the environments grab you. There's plenty of darkness, loads of shadow. Your torch casts a narrow beam of light through the environment, often startling you with zombie shadows - or twisted scrap metal that just looked like zombie shadows. Lighting is superb, muzzle flashes illuminate a small area around you (often revealing a hidden zombie to your back), fire casts the levels in an flickering, eerie, orange glow. The zombies themselves are varied and many have their own unique traits and abilities. There's an extremely fast zombie that has the tendency to pop up from man-hole covers, racing in to melee you. Sometimes though, they also hide in the shadows, pinning themselves to a wall hoping you don't notice. And sometimes you actually don't - even when your torch light passes over them - until all of a sudden they're bolting towards you with a blood-curdling zombie scream. Some zombies are bloated, mutated beasts, exploding in a kamikaze attack. Others were created by the military in an attempt to fight back against the zombie threat, but ended up becoming taken themselves. Military, Police, Firemen, Doctors, patients have all been taken. Military zombies are still fitted with bullet-proof vests, Police often converge around the nearest Doughnut shop - now unsure why. Firemen are resilient to fire and flame related weapons. There's an incredible variation in zombie foes in Dead Nation. Impressively, there are often huge numbers of zombies on screen at a time. I've not done a count, but I'd guess that sometimes, in major set-pieces, you could see a hundred zombies around you. Varying classes, numerous waves. And the slain bodies remain on the ground, squelching under your feet as you move. Crowd control is paramount. Judging when to use a 'spray and pray' weapon over a more precise single shot weapon makes all the difference. There's tremendous strategy involved. You don't want to use the flame-thrower against a pack of fast-charging enemies for example, as they'll just swarm you, setting you alight as well. Careful progress is awarded with successful defences. Run in like Rambo though and you could quickly find yourself surrounded on all sides, by lots of different zombie classes. You have a bunch of weapons at your disposal, from your basic rifle - a single shot gun (with a super-powered 'alternate fire' that's guaranteed to pop a zombie's head clean off), to all your favourite Zombie-killing favourites like the flame-thrower and rocket launcher. There's a melee 'swipe' for up close and personal combat and a rush attack which doubles as a useful quick dash/evade. Additionally, you have access to some higher powered items. Grenades, Mines and Molotov Cocktails are reserved for getting you out of a really tricky situation with a bang - and you also have Flares, attracting Zombies to the light and giving you a few critical seconds of free shots. You see, zombies in Dead Nation are attracted to light and sound. Like moths to the flame. Setting off a car alarm attracts zombies. Proceed to blow up the car and you can be awarded a huge multiplier for just a handful of ammunition and little stress. Multiplier contributes to an overall mission (and campaign) score and is earned by killing zombies - and reduced when you're hit by them. Environmental hazards are undoubtedly the best defence against larger hordes, with diesel barrels and fire for example, your biggest assistance. Enemies drop gold currency (though it can be found in abandoned cars and crates scattered around levels too), which can be used to upgrade your weapons at any checkpoint with a "weapons shop". Checkpoints are safe, gated zones that refresh your health and allow you to mix and modify your weapons and armour. Armour itself is found throughout the game worlds, usually well hidden in special crates in dark alleys or out of screen in special areas. Playing solo is a nerve-wracking experience. Especially on later difficulties. My first play-through on Braindead (think 'Very Easy') was challenging, but really lacked the urgency and caution of my second co-op play-through on Grim (a 'Normal' or middle difficulty). There are a further two unlockable difficulties. Co-op is truly where the fun is at though. Bump the difficulty up a notch and partner up with a friend for offline or online co-op and you're in for an absolute blast. Even on Grim difficulty, most enemies would take more than a couple shots to down - and some took an absolute beating to reduce to bloody zombie pulp. When you consider the volume of enemies on screen is the same as the very easy difficulty, you can imagine the chaos and carnage experienced. I've done a few play-throughs now, with the shortest being a local co-op run on Brandead/Very Easy - which clocked in at about 4.5 hours. My current solo Grim difficulty play-through is looking to be in the region of 9-10 hours. So there's plenty of play time to be had as well. The Trophy collectors will also be happy to find there's a Platinum to be had in Dead Nation completion. Statistics are tracked across all play-throughs and as part of a Global Leaderboard. Each Country has a "purification progress" in relation to other countries as well as local and Friends leaderboard selection. As far as zombie games go, Dead Nation is easily 2010's most complete, enjoyable and polished of what's on offer. There's loads to do, you can play solo, co-op online or offline and compete for score amongst Friends or the world. Game play is addictive and there's plenty of strategy involved, something often missing in typical zombie shooters. Graphics & Sound The intense lighting really sets this title apart from its competition. The levels take place in late evening - or at night - and generally, your only 'abundant' light sources are dim street lamps, old warning lights and search lights. Sometimes, you're in complete darkness, wandering through a park - and the only light source is your trusty gun-mounted flash light. Scan around to chase a noise and the shadow of a zombie fills your view, only when you scan back - it's gone. "Where the hell did it go??". What truly makes Dead Nation stand out amongst the competition is this amazing sense of urgency and anxious anticipation brought about by clever lighting and gorgeous level design. You travel through city streets, hospitals, graveyards, parks, highways and more - each area more dangerous, shadow-filled and zombie-packed than the last. Areas hidden by darkness often provide cover for hundreds of lurking zombies - but sometimes don't when you expect them to as well. Unpredictability is it's excitement. Audio complements the scene, further deepening the experience with surround-sound systems, as a zombie moan can be heard from behind, from in front. To your left. You scan around chasing shadows, then you're ambushed from a shipping container three-inches to your side that you somehow failed to notice. It's slick, it's polished, silky smooth - and it's brilliantly captivating. Conclusion So, the last zombie title of 2010 is up there with the best of 'em. I've had an absolute blast playing Dead Nation, both in co-op and solo - and will continue to do so. Difficulties promote additional and more intense play-throughs, global leaderboards encourage competition. In the same way Super Stardust HD remained in my gaming cycle for a long time, I'm sure Dead Nation will continue to be a game I play and replay with friends throughout the holiday season and well into 2011. It's definitely been worth the wait. Housemarque have delivered another thoroughly enjoyable hit game for PSN with all the hallmarks of a top-of-the-line retail title.

Fallout: New Vegas Review

Scotty B. — Thu, 11 Nov 2010 04:00:51 +0000

I've always been a follower of the Fallout series. Back when it was all turn-based combat, it was at the forefront of my PC gaming addiction. I even played (and enjoyed) Fallout Tactics. Essentially any game carrying the Fallout title - and having a Power-Armour clad soldier on the front cover - earned my money. Fallout 3 was one of the stand-out titles of 2008. I invested probably 80-100 hours into that game. Even with it's occasional technical issues, it was still one of the greatest shooter experiences I'd had to date. Naturally I was apprehensive about Fallout: New Vegas. Bethesda had handed the reigns back to Obsidian Entertainment, all the good from Fallout 3 had been retained, the promise of ultimate Fallout gaming. But does it deliver? Story It is the year 2281, 4 years after the events of Fallout 3 (now 204 years after the Great War of 2077). We take on the role of "The Courier". Delivering a package containing an elusive "Platinum poker chip" to New Vegas, we're ambushed by Benny Gecko and his goons, package stolen, shot in the head and left to rot in the desert. Thankfully, a robot comes to our rescue and we wake to find ourselves in the little settlement of Goodsprings. Doctor Mitchell revives and patches you up - and you set off to find Benny Gecko, recover the package that got you shot - and ultimately discover why and for what purpose. Game Play Much the same as Fallout 3, New Vegas is a first-person, or third-person sandbox RPG/shooter. This time, the game explores the post-apocalyptic Las Vegas, Nevada and Mojave Desert region, now known as the "Mojave Wasteland". Players who got into Fallout 3 will immediately feel at home in the New Vegas world. The Gamebryo engine returns and many (if not most) of the core foundations of Fallout 3 have been carried over. Your menu systems and PiPBoy control is the same. Map and Quest details appear in the same fashion, listing and waypoints operate in the same way. It doesn't rely on having known the series though, so even those completely new to the Fallout games will assimilate very quickly. Many of the weapons from Fallout 3 carry over as well, in addition to some new, seriously devastating New Vegas weapon systems. You now have access to some overpowered energy weapons for example, sucking up to 6 MicroFusion Cells per shot, and a Gauss Rifle capable of knocking even the toughest foes into oblivion. New to New Vegas are weapon mods. Scattered throughout the world are weapon pieces; scopes, stabilisers, increased muzzle velocity modifiers, increased clip capacities, energy storage boosters. Each weapon has a number of applicable mods, all of which can be applied to your weapon of choice 'on-the-fly'. Simply clip on a scope and attach a silencer to your .22mm machine gun. It's all incredibly simple, very effective and definitely enjoyable. There's more reason to keep hold of weapons and carry them through the game. The levelling system has undergone an overhaul this time around. Often criticised for being too easy later on, Fallout 3's level and Perk system has been tweaked somewhat - you can now only pick a new Perk every second level. You still end up pretty powerful, but not truly as invincible as you did previously. Companions now offer you a specialised perk in addition to a second gun too. At any time, you can have up to two companions follow you around, but at least for my play-through on 'Hardcore', I found them completely useless. They die after a few shots - even fully armoured - from the most basic of enemies. Early in the game though, they provide a practical source of second and third inventories for storage, and as long as you remember to leave them somewhere before a serious battle, the setup works well. 'Hardcore' mode is a new and welcome addition to the Fallout world. Combat is substantially more difficult, stimpacks heal over time instead of instantly. Limbs cripple more easily and can't be healed just by sleeping - you need a Doctor or a Doctor's Bag. Ammunition now has weight and you can die of dehydration or suffer from starvation, so keeping water and food on hand is paramount. Various states of dehydration and starvation also affect character performance, how much you can carry, walking pace/agility etc.. The problem with Hardcore mode though, is it's still too easy. Water - even clean water is abundant. Drinking from radiated water sources while dehydrated has very little penalty. With the exception of the final mission, I never ran out of Doctor's Bags. This is not to say Hardcore mode is 'bad' in any way, just that it's nowhere near as Hardcore as the name makes out. It's more like a 'Hinging on realism' mode. Quests and the people you encounter throughout New Vegas are as hilarious and enjoyable as ever. You're asked to do some truly horrendous things and you carry them out with enthusiastic gusto and a macabre sense of humour. Choice is ever pivotal to your path throughout the story. There are four distinct endings and probably countless ways of getting to each. I found myself making enemies of just about everyone, simply because it was way too much fun. Unfortunately at about this point in my review, New Vegas decided to corrupt my main game save - and an additional two of my backup saves. Losing me about 6.5 hours, or a weekend's worth of progress. Once I'd clawed back to where I was, I then encountered a glitch in a quest which prevented me turning in a required quest item. It's still stuck in my inventory. Further on, just before the conclusion of the story, I did a quest which ran at about 2fps for the entirety of the set-piece, forcing me to fail it about 10 times. Then when I finally toughed it out, the NPC who I was supposed to return the quest to, refused to acknowledge its completion. Like I said in my opening, I've always been a big Fallout fan. In the past, I've been able to forgive minor graphical glitches, falling through the ground, the occasional NPC floating in mid-air, his head stuck in a ceiling. Unfortunately this time around though, I haven't been able to forgive the game corrupting three of my saves, losing ~6 hours of progress, eternal loading screens, my companions literally disappearing, numerous glitched quests that have ended up with quest items forever stuck in my inventory - and quest failure as I'm unable to turn them in. And the complete system freezes which still plague the series. This is as broken as Fallout has ever been. Frankly, I felt like I was playing a Beta testing version, not an $89 AUD retail game. I know many of you will say you haven't encountered any problems, or only minor problems, forgivable of the Fallout franchise and the Gamebryo engine - but I know many of you will also be reading all of this and feeling my pain. Graphics & Sound As with all of the Fallout games, the graphics aren't the strong suit. You're playing in a post-apocalyptic world, with charred, barren wastelands as your scenery. It does post-apocalyptic well, but it's not a title that blows you away graphically. There is some variation this time around though - one Vault is surrounded by lush genetically modified plants, and New Vegas itself is a shining beacon of civilisation in an otherwise demolished world. Character models and facial animations (particularly your starting sequence where you engineer your own face) are beginning to look dated. The game is also marred by occasional 'pauses', where you'll be walking along and the game will freeze for a second or two while it (presumably) loads textures and distant architecture. Frame rates are also less than desirable in some sections. One particular mission I attempted about 15 hours into the game was reduced to a literal slideshow. For the most part though, it is acceptable. Weapon and attack sounds are much the same as Fallout 3, many of the visual and aural cues have carried over and are identical here. Voice acting has vastly improved though, there's some big names on board again (Matthew Perry, Wayne Newton, Kris Kristofferson, William Sadler, Danny Trejo to name a few) and Ron Perlman reprises his role as the Narrator. Conclusion So in a way, Fallout: New Vegas does deliver. When it's not completely broken, hanging your PS3, or glitching your quests and corrupting your save games. When it's working, it's fantastic. Unfortunately for me, that was only just enough of the time to allow me to finish my first and only play-through. I depart from the New Vegas experience immensely disappointed. It's shelved. Maybe I'll play it again when it's successfully patched and working properly. Until then though, I can't hand down a positive recommendation. Save your money and your frustrations and wait 'till it's fixed.

Vanquish Review

Scotty B. — Thu, 11 Nov 2010 02:20:10 +0000

The last title out of Platinum Games was Bayonetta - a title that was poorly received by - well, probably just me. As you can imagine, the announcement of Vanquish out of Platinum Games wasn't a wave of excitement for me - that was until I played the demo. Never judge a book by its cover - and similarly, never judge an announced game by its developer. Story Taking place in the distant future, Humanity has experienced a population explosion. In an effort to overcome energy woes, the United states built the O'Neill Cylinder space station. Essentially a massive-scale solar-sourced generator, it is overthrown by a force calling themselves the Order of the Russian Star. Immediately, they take control of the station and turn the energy generation into a weapon of mass destruction, annihilating San Francisco as proof of their intent. The United States President, Elizabeth Winters, sends in Bravo Company, an elite force consisting of Robert Burns, Lieutenant-Colonel of the operation - and our player character, Sam Gideon, armed with a state-of-the-art mechanical suit called the ARS. Bravo Company aim to retake control of the station from the Order of the Russian Star. Game Play Vanquish is a sci-fi, third-person action shooter. Probably one of the most hectic shooters you've ever played. Your character, DARPA researcher Sam Gideon, is armed with an adaptable armour suit called the Augmented Reaction Suit (ARS). The suit is equipped with rocket boosters which, as the name implies - augments your basic movements and actions. When Sam is close to death, the suit kicks into a slow-mo, "bullet-time" which allows you to react much quicker to incoming projectiles or enemy attacks. You then have the choice of counter-attacking with a much more precise attack, or retreating for the nearest cover. The cover system is a crucial part of the Vanquish experience. The game is hard. Incredibly hard. Even playing through on Casual wasn't a total cakewalk. If you stand out in the line of fire, you will be annihilated by the countless projectiles heading your way. I'll touch more on difficulty later. Pretty much anything in the game world can be used as cover. Walls and structural supports can be quickly 'attached' to as cover with a tap of the Square button. You then have the option of firing from your position or seeking out the next cover. Cover-to-cover movement can be linked very quickly with the ARS suit's boost. Thankfully the cover system works perfectly - as the whole game depends on specialised use of the cover available, especially on later difficulties. The boosting mechanic operates off Sam's suit's energy supply. Sliding around the game world at insane speeds is governed by how much energy you have remaining. Somewhat strangely, this same energy system also powers Sam's melee attack. The melee attack expends the entirety of the energy reserves, instantly putting you into a 'recharge' mode and prevents you from boosting or further melee attacks until the suit has cooled down and recharged. So melee attacks have to be used very wisely. At your disposal are a number of weapons found throughout the game world, including futuristic interpretations of some modern weapons (Assault Rifle, Heavy Machine Gun, Rocket Launcher etc), but also some sci-fi weapons like the Lock-On Laser, a multiple-projectile gun capable of firing homing ammo at numerous enemies at a time. Weapons have an upgrade system, activated by finding weapons of the same time scattered across battlefields, or acquired as more traditional pick-ups in floating 'upgrade' cubes. Throughout the game world, you also take control of manned turrets and even commandeer enemy walkers to turn the tide of battle in heavy fire situations. Enemies range from run-of-the-mill droid attackers, similar in stature and ability to Sam himself - all the way to huge robot "Romanovs" and even more monstrous "Argus" class bosses with multiple forms and seemingly endless weapon and ammunition supply. As I said earlier, Vanquish is a hard game. The difficulty settings on offer range from Casual Auto (Easy + Auto Aim) to God Hard which is just unbelievably tough. Coupled with the fact that many of the 'boss' class enemies have instant kill attacks, a lot of people are going to find the initial run quite daunting, even on the easiest setting. Soon however, you realise that these instant attacks and the swarms of bullets heading your way aren't so much a cheap death incoming. They're always accompanied by forewarning and plenty of visual and aural stimulus. Insta-kill attacks are generally led by a charge-up, or the enemy will change forms slightly before executing it. Even off-screen, their insta-kill attack is led by a roar, mechanical whir or charge noise, letting you know it's incoming - and it's time to get out of the way. When you're used to this dynamic, this incredible sense of urgency Vanquish has, you really begin to enjoy the game. That said, I imagine that the later difficulties, especially God Hard, will be reserved for those who thought Ninja Gaiden Sigma was only mildly challenging on it's hardest difficulty. The whole game is awarded a 'score' ranking, so as you play, kills, clear time and events award additional score. Deaths deduct score. The conclusion of a play-through uploads your score to global Leaderboards so you can see how you fared against Friends and world leaders. This offers an undeniably addictive replay element to the game too. "Oh, if I didn't die in that level I'd have beaten so-and-so and gone up 150 ranks!". Unfortunately, Vanquish has a dependency on certain weapons - some award much better score in certain areas than others - so if you're really challenging for leaderboard times, you're going to be reloading checkpoints until the required weapons show up. It would have been nice to have a 'weapon selection' option for replaying chapters or something to aid replays aimed at score. Levels are also packed full of collectibles called Pangloss statues. There's something like 112 to collect throughout the game. I found 6 on my first run. So they're well hidden - or rather you're so preoccupied with the action that you miss them easily. There are a set of special Challenge rooms offered, where you fight wave after wave of enemies purely against the high score ticker. It's good practice for the campaign and there are Leaderboards for challenge comparison too. Vanquish is a pure action game with astounding levels of on-screen action and an intense sense of urgency. Depending on your difficulty, the campaign can last you anywhere from 4 hours to about 12 hours - but there's plenty of opportunity for replay thereafter. Graphics & Sound Silky smooth frame-rates and intensely action-packed visionary is what this game is all about. Rarely is there a moment when nothing is going on. On average, there are eleventy-billion particles and projectiles smashing their way across the screen, sometimes directed at Sam, sometimes directed at the battling forces around him. It never falters in delivering one of the most action-packed experiences on offer today. The mix of extreme demolition and the futuristic environment makes it almost incomparable to anything before it. The Japanese styled mecha-suits and costumes fit well in the futuristic setting and boss types are presented on a gigantic scale - and often possess multiple forms and abilities, all appearing brilliantly. As you'd expect from a production resting on action and insane amounts of gun fire, explosion and futuristic warfare, the sound is intense, music is hard-pumping techno and voice acting is fast-paced and urgent. Conclusion Vanquish is a gem of fast-paced, hyper-action gaming. If you enjoy boosting around futuristic-styled game worlds with a transforming weapon, to club techno beats, Vanquish is right up your alley. While the story can be short (my 'easy' play-through clocked in at 4 hours, 18 mins) there are increased difficulties, Leaderboards and collectibles to warrant additional play-throughs. Also bonus Challenges to attempt. I struggle to think of a game so packed with on-screen action, all the time and for that reason alone, I simply can't recommend Vanquish highly enough. Brilliant.

Castlevania: Lords of Shadow Review

Scotty B. — Thu, 28 Oct 2010 16:39:51 +0000

Konami's Castlevania series stretches back to 1986 with the original title following a character known as Simon Belmont, descendant in a family of vampire hunters. It was all about tracking down the popular vampire of the time, Dracula, in his devilish castle - with the sole intention of putting him to rest once and for all. Since then, the series has undergone many a transformation and evolution. It's a series that has been seen on almost every major platform of the last 20-odd years. Almost all of us have seen or played something from the Castlevania line. The latest, a complete franchise reboot from Spanish developers, MercurySteam (and Kojima Productions to a lesser advisory role) - aims to reinvent the Castlevania name for next-gen gaming. Story Set during the end of days in the year 1047, the alliance between Earth and Heaven has been shattered, the fabric connecting the two worlds torn asunder by evil commanders known as the Lords of Shadow. Their dark spells take over the lands, corrupting it with hideous creatures, preying on living people. The souls of the deceased are now cut off from the passage into Heaven, forced to wander in Limbo. The Brotherhood of Light, an elite group of Holy Knights are despatched to investigate the dark spells plaguing the Earth - and to fight against the evil of the Lords of Shadow. Gabriel Belmont, one such Holy Knight, also embarks on the quest having lost his wife, brutally murdered by the minions of Shadow. Plagued with guilt for her death, he sets out to recover the God Mask - a supernatural artefact possessing the power to resurrect the dead. Broken and divided amongst the three Lords of Shadow, he must hunt the trio down and destroy them, recover the mask, bring back his wife - and save the World. Game Play Castlevania: Lords of Shadow is a third person action adventure game, with fixed camera and 'hack & slash' combat. Throughout the game we control Gabriel Belmont, who utilises a weapon known as the 'Combat Cross'. This multi-purpose, upgradeable, chain whip is your sole primary weapon. During the game, you find shrines left for you by other Holy Knights which imbue the Combat Cross with additional abilities and powers (a razor-edged chain for instance). There are two main types of attack in the form of conventional direct attacks and wide-area attacks. In addition to combat ability, the Combat Cross is also used as a grapple device for platforming and puzzle solving. Throughout the world you will find numerous glowing grapple points where Gabriel can attach the chain and either scale the wall or wall-run across. These grapple points often hide secrets and signify the next step in some of Castelvania's longer platforming segments. Platforming takes a significant place in the game play. Scaling walls, towers, crossing balance beams, climbing new pathways. The grapple also needs to be used to open up areas (grapple to fixed wall points and tear them down with mashing sequences) for example. The platforming is quite dynamic and coupled with the exciting environments and boss battles, always fresh. In conjunction with the platforming element is an involving puzzle solving aspect of game play which ranges in everything from simply finding keys hidden on dead bodies - to unravelling a room full of electrically charged pathways. Additionally, as you progress further into the game, defeating bosses and the Lords of Shadow, you reclaim some of their abilities. Without spoiling too much of what's in store, after defeating your first Lord of Shadow for example, you acquire his legendary boots, allowing you to run incredibly quickly, jump much larger distances - and coupled with magics, perform a whole new series of combos and attacks. Magic also has a place in Gabriel's arsenal. There are two types of magic on offer; the Light magic - and Shadow magic. Both operate on an expendable 'Focus' meter. As you attack (without getting hit), you build up Focus. Once you have maxed out your Focus meter, enemies begin dropping Focus orbs which can be absorbed into either Light or Shadow energy - then used to power new, special magic attacks in conjunction with your Combat Cross - or any of the unique Lords of Shadow items. Focus can also be acquired from numerous shrines located in the game world. There are over 40 unlockable combos with some spectacular results on offer, especially when using Light and Shadow magic. Magic is also used to solve some puzzles within the world, unlocking doors and various other 'key' type systems. As you delve deeper into the story, you unlock secondary weapons. Accessible from the D-pad, you have the basic starter daggers - a thrown blade particularly effective against certain enemy types. In addition, you gain access to other items, such as Holy Water (as you'd expect, extremely useful against all forms of the Undead), Fairies (not as lame as it sounds - they offer distraction, temporarily stunning most enemies) and the pièce de résistance, a powerful summoning crystal which invokes a conjured demon/fighter to do your bidding for you (with catastrophic success). These can also be combined with the Light and Shadow magics to unlock further powerful abilities. There's a tremendous amount of variation in enemy types for Lords of Shadow. As environments and locations change dramatically, so do your foes. Huge open spaces are often met with massive Titan enemies, towering over you. So large you actually platform around them. Thick, jungle areas and gardens are met with giant spiders and tiny, life-sapping Mandragora (animated plants). Castles are full of heavily armoured Knights and Vampires. Ancient city ruins are populated by Lycanthropes and Trolls. Then there are the 'special' enemies (the Butcher for example), a hulking beast dicing Human carcasses as food for the castle's Ghoul inhabitants. Oddly out of place are the 'Chupacabra' sequences, where a strange, annoyingly voiced character appears, steals all your relics - and you then have to sidetrack to get them back. I'm not sure of the purpose of these sections, but they felt wholly unnecessary. The Light/Shadow Magic usage is great - but the dependence on its use for vanquishing certain enemies (and solving certain puzzles) isn't relied upon until the last few chapters. I felt this was a mechanic that could have been expanded on a bit more (especially as its usage against later enemies and the end boss was very innovative and enjoyable) throughout the entire game. Gabriel's story is intense. It wears him down, exhausts him. He doesn't sleep. It drives him mad, drives him to darkness. It would have been great to see his character model evolve to reflect this over the course of the game, particularly in the last few chapters, but essentially he looks and acts the same, even though the story reflects a broken, exhausted, shell of a man. I really am nit-picking though. I've found it hard to truly fault Castlevania: Lords of Shadow. It plays so well and becomes so addictive. 'Just one more level', I'd be saying to myself at 1 in the morning on a work night. As a hack and slash, it's great. As a puzzle game, it's fantastic - as a platformer, it's good fun. The story is brilliant. Having amalgamated solid game play mechanics from lots of other games, it's enjoying the best of all worlds. In the same way as Darksiders was a gem for what it actually delivered, so too is Castlevania: Lords of Shadow. Graphics & Sound Without a doubt, this is one of the most stunning titles we've seen on the PS3 to date. The attention to detail is overwhelming. Early levels have you moving through thick jungle environments, every leaf and vine modelled with incredible detail. Later levels take you through simply gigantic castles and elaborate ancient ruins. The "Necromancer's Abyss" is amazing. There is a pleasant variation in environments, even the castles themselves have significant differences in architecture, colour palette and style. Enemies are equally as impressive. Ghouls with poisonous bile breath, Armoured Skeletons capable of reanimating and the ability to attack in a massive whirlwind of bone, poltergeist-powered Armoured Knights, freshly changed Vampire kin, a commander Vampire with a double-blade sword as tall as Gabriel himself. It's a much darker edge for this Castlevania outing. If you mixed Pan's Labyrinth with Lords of the Rings, you'd be getting some idea of the character design here. It's fantastic. Unfortunately all of this beauty and detail comes at the cost of some frame rate stability. Occasional portions of the game feel like they're running at sub-30 fps. It's an odd 'staggered' effect, as if the game is just, ever-so-slightly, outrunning the hardware. But only just. It might be enough to discourage the graphics purists, those used to 100fps on PC's, but to be honest, it never really affects playability. ~25 hours of story and I can't say it ever bothered me beyond occasionally noticing it. Gabriel is voiced by Robert Carlyle. Your mentor (and the story's narrator), Zobek, a fellow Holy Knight, is voiced by Sir Patrick Stewart. Voice talent is brilliant. The story has a deep, serious, cinematic tone to it. Coupled with the unique and stunning chapter presentation in the form of tome entries, narrated as words scroll across the pages, it is wonderfully delivered. Conclusion This one is a labour of love. You can feel the time and detail invested into the game. At well over 20 hours for the story, it's good value too. And there's plenty of reason to replay as there's lots to collect, plenty of combos and upgrades and Trials emerging after each level completion. If you miss Castlevania: Lords of Shadow, you miss one of the best games of the year. It mixes the best game play elements of a number of successful titles before it and wraps the bundle in a stunning, epic scale of story and imagery. Absolutely this is one to devote some time to. You'd be crazy to miss it