The Fallout Effect

I know it has been a while since there has been a post on here but i thought i would write a quick one just to talk about what i think should be called the Fallout Effect.If you don't know Fallout 3 is an first person shooter RPG from Bethesda Studios, the makers of Oblivion. It is fantastic, a really great game. It is in a post apocalyptic future setting after a massive nuclear war, and basically the entirety of the world is a wasteland.

I always go into these RPGs with the aim of being good and trying to help people, everyone wants to be a hero. And i managed to do so for a long time, but this game is so grim and the world is so screwed up and it just destroys your morality in the game. At the beginning of the game i would help anyone and would avoid killing anyone who seemed to have a sliver of innocence. But so much crap happens to you both in the story and outside it, and also just in the general world, that you quickly forget these ideals. It is a game that has a strange way of moving you.

One point in the game that you will likely encounter more then once is when you go into a house which is relatively still standing, and as you go through the rooms you may come across a child's room. And there is a skeleton on the bed, not a child's exactly but a small adult to avoid to much shock i guess. There are toy cars and teddy bears on the floor, and seeing this just filled me with rage. When next a raider walked through the door i took pleasure in killing someone who may have caused something like this at one point or another.

And later i would find myself remembering an event in the game that was horrific or unjustified connected with a character and my morals would just go out the window and i would forget about keeping my character good and perform any given act with no care of who gets hurt in the process. Now of course none of these characters are in fact real so there is no consequence of killing these character apart from in the game. But the people in the game are very life like and you do get attached to some of them and others you just want to bullet in their head.

The fact that Fallout 3 can have such a strong impact on you and really bring you into this world is what makes this a game everyone needs to experience. Things will happen in the game that will make you both angry and sad, however it still manages to be charming and enjoyable. So if you enjoy RPGs in any form, buy this game. This isn't a formal review cause i have yet to finish Fallout 3 but so far it is amazing.

Company of Heroes: Gold Edition Review

Company of Heroes: Gold Edition features the original Company of Heroes and the expansion: Opposing Fronts. Company of Heroes is a World War 2 strategy game developed by Relic Entertainment, who are currently working on the upcoming Dawn of War 2 game. Company of Heroes is not your traditional strategy game due to it having a major emphasis on strategy. In other RTS (Real Time Strategy) games, if your force is larger then another force you will generally win. And in a tank battle, in other strategy games, whoever shoots first would win. However that mentality merely cannot be adopted when playing Company of Heroes.

The Gold Edition features 4 teams to play as (2 from the original and 2 from the expansion). You can take the role of a general for the Americans, British, Panzer Elite and the Wehrmacht. There are 3 campaigns (2 of which come with the expansion). In the first you play as the American forces in the invasion of Normandy. There are around 20 scenarios for you to play in just this one campaign. The second is from the Panzer Elite perspective of Highway 69 or better known as Hell's Highway, and lastly you play a campaign as the British forces in the liberation of Caen. The last two are somewhat shorter then the first but just as fun. All of the campaigns are of course based on true events and a large number of the characters involved are in fact real people who lived and died in these events in our worlds history. This really adds a sense of realism to the game and gives you an emotional connection to the characters represented in the game, which is something rarely seen in an RTS.

In Company of Heroes there is not a major emphasis on base building. Each of the teams only really has 4-6 main buildings with a number of support buildings which are either for defence or offense. This means that there is less time spent building your base and more time spent on moving your forces about the battlefield and aiming to the win the match decisively, meaning it is difficult to turtle in this (just stay on the defence and do nothing else). Of course with any RTS game there are resources that must be collected in order to build and upgrade your units. There are three types of resources: manpower, munitions and fuel. To collect these however you must take and hold points which have a designated resources applied to them with a certain level of output per minute. Each point can be captured by infantry and takes a certain amount of time to gain control of. With certain forces you can build a structure or place a unit in the vicinity of the resource to increase its output but your main method of getting more of any of the resources is to vie for control of the different points dotted around the map. This is a great system and one that has been done very well in other RTS games as well, but it works perfectly for this style of game.

One of the big aspects of this game is the multiplayer. You can play as any of the 4 forces, however the Americans cannot fight the British and the Panzer Elite cannot fight the Wehrmacht. You play on either the Allies or the Axis side meaning if there are 4 people in a match it will always be 2v2, there is no free for all. However this was a very wise decision on the developers part due to the games resource system, as mentioned above, in that on either team if your team mate captures a point you will get the benefit of the resource node as well. You can do a match whereby the objective is to just destroy and defeat your enemies (called Annihilation) but the best mode is called Victory Point Control. This is where there are 3-6 "victory points" on the map which are captured in the same way as a normal resource point. Whichever team (Axis or Allies) has the greater number of victory points under their control will have the advantage and the other teams "points" will start to decrease. Before a match you can set the point limit to 250, 500 or 1000 and this is what both teams start with, and once the other teams points reach zero you win. It makes for a very active game with specific points of action, it also focuses on defensive gameplay but with enough emphasis on offense to play very well. The online system for the game is also very robust with an in-built friends list and chat available for use. Also you can select a large button at the top of the screen once you log in which says 'Play' and you will usually get into a game in at most 3 minutes. Despite the game being about a year old now there is still a large community of gamers playing Company of Heroes.

Now when I said earlier that there is a heavy emphasis on strategy i meant it. The game has a intuitive cover system whereby units can take cover behind walls, hedges and just about anything else. This will reduce the amount of damage that they take from fire coming from that direction. However it will not help reduce damage from behind or the side, making flanking a much more important strategy to adopt. This means that whatever strategy you adopt there is generally a method to counteract it. If you garrison a building they can just roll up a fire tank and scorch the building killing your units inside very quickly. Tanks are also not a godly weapon against infantry and the second one of your soldier squads run into one it doesn't mean instant death. A tank of course does do a lot more damage to a group of soldier then another squad however if you have armed your troops with a bazooka (either with a purchasable upgrade or by picking it up off other fallen infantry) or sticky grenades then they do stand somewhat of a chance. Also flanking is important when fighting tanks, if you attack the tank from the rear then you will deal a lot more damage then if you took it head on.

The game has a great variety of units to play with and amongst the 4 teams there is no standard unit meaning that you have to learn and develop a unique strategy for each team you play as. There are standard squads of units which generally have 4-6 soldiers in them. There is a number of different tank types all suited to a different task. There is also a large number of stationary emplacements ranging from MG42 nests to, my personal favourite, the British Howitzer Artillery.

The game also has an in depth leveling up system which is independent to each match. For each team there are three different choices of speciality, there is generally a defensive one and an offensive one and then one which is very specific to the team. Such as the British have an artillery speciality. You earn XP for just about anything: building a structure, building a unit, killing a unit, losing a unit, etc. Through these with each level you get, you earn a point which can be spent on one of two trees within the speciality. There are only 3 skills within each tree, meaning that by the end of the match you will usually have all 6 skills. These give you access to abilities with certain units, the ability to call in air strikes and artillery or some certain units.

The graphics for the game are very good in my opinion for a strategy game and the look and feel of it suits the setting. Although the cinematics look shockingly awful they are not very long and are merely there to emphasis the story. The animation for the soldiers is also very good and the tanks move very realistically and have to turn instead of just popping into a new direction like over RTS games. Relic also has to be commended for great voice acting and general sound, despite the cut scenes looking terrible they sound great and the the gun fire and explosions also sound very close to real.

The only criticism i can possibly have for this game is that the majority of the maps look very similar. There is not massive variety when it comes to choosing a map. Generally it will be a small village surrounded by grass field, or a wrecked city. So you won't be seeing desert maps or maps filled with snow when in multiplayer. But this is a very minor complaint and one that really shouldn't discourage you from picking this game up.

So i cannot recommend Company of Heroes enough to RTS fans or gamers who are looking to get into the genre. There is so much depth involved with this game that is presents a new and very interesting approach to strategy games. It has recently been rumored that another expansion is on the way for Company of Heroes so there may be even more content on the way for this awesome game. It is available on Steam fairly cheaply and if you are looking for a game to fill some time you really can't go wrong with Company of Heroes.

Score:

9.5 / 10

More TF2 Fun!!!!!

The heavy patch for TF2 (team fortress 2) is offical you can check out patch notes as they are released at http://steamgames.com/tf2/heavy/

American McGee's Grimm: Little Red Riding Hood :review

Little Red Riding hood is the second installment of American McGee's Grimm Series it follow the same structure as it predecessor so take a look at first episode review to get an idea how the game works. Even though i was hoping they would maybe mix thing up a bit they sadly haven't, its the same game with a different fairy tale, which is little red riding hood this time round, just in case you didn't guess from the name.

Before you say "well duh its an episodic game", I would like to jump in and say that I understand what an episodic game is and that it should be the same game with regular new smaller cheaper releases. So far they have been releasing the games frequently and it looks like they will continue to do so, they are doing better job at episodic gaming then say Valve as they take several years with each of the expansions for half-life 2. The game is also on the mark with being cheap as you cant get cheaper then free and with all other games you get with gold membership its a good deal. But unlike Sam And Max and half-life 2 the big difference is that Sam And Max and Half-life 2 are good games, so we want more. While at the moment this game suffers from not being good enough to warrent sequals.

Yes Grimm is peeing on a bird sliced up by its cage

Now onto the game its jokes are still dark (well sort of, it's more childish then dark an example is when you convert a deer it poofs into a deer split in two on the floor and spasming) but i still feel they could have taken it further (although the teenage boy market i think they aiming for limits how far they can take it) and make it funnier as i didn't laugh once during this game. This one took me a bit longer to complete because it has a few more jumps you can mess up but have dumbed down finding the secrets for i found a lot more of them then in first game even though I didn't go looking for them. It is a blessing that this game is short for it got boring really quickly.

I would like to correct something from my earlier review of the first episode, which is actually free while the subsequent episodes will be free on the day of release then on the following day it will becoming a premiere game on gametap (meaning you need gold account to play it). So if your interested (don't know why you would be) just play the first episode (A Boy learns what fear is) to see if it worth paying the subscription to catch the missed episode and you will be able to play third installment on 14th of August which is called: The FisherMan and his Wife.

Graphics: 6/10 - same as before

Gameplay: 3/10 - no changes

Entertainment : 4/10 - better story but still missing the mark

Total score: 4/10 - same as first episode, there is still hope

Geometry Wars Evolved 2 Review

Geometry Wars Evolved 2 was released on Xbox Live Arcade on the 30th of July for 800 Microsoft Points. It is the sequel to the previously released Geometry War game on XBLA also made by Bizarre Creations. Geometry Wars is basically just a dual stick shooter, however this version is surprisingly fun due to the number of interesting and fun modes that come with the game.

There are six modes: Deadline, King, Evolved, Pacifism, Waves and Sequence. Deadline is your classic timed mode where you have to kill as many enemies as you can in 3 minutes with infinite lives. King is where you can only shoot when you are in a small circle which the enemies can't enter, the twist is that the circle shrinks once activated, so you have to move to another ring pretty quickly to avoid being killed. Evolved is where you start with 3 lives and 3 bombs (bombs are just an attack which kills just about everything on the screen) and you have to attempt to stay alive and get as many points as possible. Once you reach 100,000 you get another life and bomb and every 10 times this value will also give you a life and another bomb. Pacifism is where you cannot shoot at all and have enemies chasing you, to destroy them you pass through these exploding gates. Waves is a series of different formations of a particular type of enemy (orange) which moves in a straight line, back and forth and you have to attempt to shoot as many as possible. While sequence is 20 levels of different arenas with a sent formation of enemies that you have to attempt to get through, and it follows the same rules as Evolved in its life and bomb distribution.

A great feature of the game is that you don't start off with all of the modes available to play. Initially only Deadline is open to play and you have to score a certain amount to unlock the next mode (king). Then you have to play King to unlock the next and so on. It will only take you about 20-30 mins to unlock all of the modes but it makes the game a lot more fun for that duration of time and introduces the game at a nice pace.

All of the modes are a lot of fun and the majority of them are very challenging, the hardest i would say is sequence. Also the variety of enemy is very good for this game in that there isn't to many that you can't learn the behaviour of them all, but not to little that you won't ever be taken by surprise by the game. Also the graphics suit the game very well, it is very bright and colourful and sometimes shocking in the amount of flashes that are taking place on screen.

The game also has great leaderboard support and for a game that could become very competitive in scores it is done perfectly. For each mode where you select it there is a list of all your friends and their top score in that mode. This means that when you look at the game types you see who is beating you in what and they will see when you take them over as well. There is also other leaderboard in the opening menu where you can view them full screen and see where you rank with your friends or amongst all of the Geometry Wars Evolved 2 players. Of course all of this requires an Xbox Live silver or gold account to make use of.

There are also co-operative and competitive modes that you can play with up to 4 players locally. I won't talk about these much because i haven't had a chance to use it due to all of my mates being out of the country Warp not being here at the moment either. But i hear they are good. The achievements for Geometry Wars Evolved 2 are also very good and you can get 100/200 fairly easily while the rest may take some doing.

There are very few flaws with Geometry Wars Evolved 2, only that it is a fairly short. But for around £7 it really is not an issue and you will feel that you got what you pay for by the time you put down the game after the first hour of having it. So for an XBLA game it is very good and the next XBLA title I am looking forward to would have to be Castle Crashers which comes out at the end of August.

Score

8/10

Dr Horriable

For info about this look at earlier post but its back for free again with adverts breaks between the acts (to fund it of course) so i guess it wasnt selling on itunes as well as they hoped so check it out at http://www.drhorrible.com/mushortio.html

American McGee's Grimm: A Boy Learns What Fear is: Review

If you hurry you can play the first installment of American McGee's Grimm:A Boy Learns What Fear is for free today (31 July) on Gametap. If this day has passed you will need a Gametap gold account to play this game as it is currently a Gametap exclusive.

The game takes about 30 mins to play through (watching all cut scenes) and it took me 23.46 minutes (gameplay) to complete, the game is designed to be like a TV show. With episodes coming out pretty frequently and they will be free on the day of release. After that day you will require a gold account to play the game. The idea being that you will get into the game and hopefully miss so you will have to get a subscription (or want to play through again which is unlikely).

Now onto the actual game, firstly you will watch the fairy tale which in this case is about a boy leaving home in search of find out about fear and he ends up riding into a castle of ghosts and getting a girl. Grimm who doesn't like happy stories then has to go in and darken it up a bit so you then play through the story by controlling Grimm with 'wasd+spacebar' key or mouse and darken the place up a bit by wait for it, walking around as he has a dark aura which changes the landscape around you from happy to dark.

So goal is to fill a bar which is located at the top of screen to correct level of darkness and butt stomp things to progress. It also has a few jumps to get through the game. Its a not a particularly deep game and its lucky that the game is so short for it would get boring pretty quickly. Its also not a very difficult game for there are very few obstacles which can kill you and even then they only set you back to where you missed the jump and there are cleaners who are supposed to prevent you darkening the place but they really don't pose a threat. There is also no puzzles without a guiding arrow, always there to tell you what to do.

Your properly thinking then what the point of this game? Well i would say its a game of cheap laughs for example you darken a swing set in children playground and it then has children hanging from it, these provide a quick laugh but nothing more. Also when you leave your character standing still he will pee which can be used to aim jumps this is about as deep as the game gets. Once you complete the game you get to watch a darken version of fairy tale which was mildly entertaining but i think they could have taken the dark theme of this game a lot further.

I would say its hard to give the game a fair review for as it is episodic they may add new functionality and make the game more exciting to keep you coming back for more installments but judging the first episode on its own it not that impressive and i hope they take theme further. The next installment so if you missed this one i wouldn't run out to get gold account but wait to try next one on 7th or August 08

Graphics: 6/10 - its cartoony looks don't try to be impressive (and they are not) but it looks good and goes with the theme of game quite well

Gameplay: 3/10 - needs more functionality

Entertainment : 4/10 - cheap laughs

Total score: 4/10 - for the first episode only, the series still has hope