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

Back-log: Kameo Elements of Power

First an introduction to the section. Back-log is just a fancy way of saying: old games that I feel like reviewing just to fill the time between big releases. Due to no games that i am really interested in coming out till mid to late August I thought I would review a few old titles that I am either playing through again or for the first time. This time it will be Kameo.

Kameo Elements of Power was an Xbox 360 launch title developed by Rare and was the first game I bought, separate from the Xbox 360 bundle that we got at launch. It is a slow paced action game with an emphasis on being fun instead of challenging. You play as Kameo who can take on the form of 10 elemental warriors who range from an ice gorilla to a dragon and are the core feature of the game. Kameo herself is a bit annoying and you never particularly like her or understand why she feels it appropriate to adventure in a mini-skirt (not that I would complain if I was adventuring with a woman in a mini-skirt).

The story is not one to be remembered or to be cared about during the game. The basis of the story is that Kameo was given the elemental warriors but her sister feels that she deserved them, so she decides to free the troll king and torture her family. How that makes sense I may never know, or care. The story is not important in Kameo Elements of Power, it is just there to move you from place to place and pit you against some fun bosses. Also there are a number of side quests within each zone and some hidden arenas that will give you rewards if you choose to complete them.

However you do not start out with access to all of the elemental warriors, in fact after the first level you will lose access to any of them and will have to reclaim them as you go through the story. This I felt adds to the game, in that you do not have all of your abilities available to you from the start and will have a slow and steady trickle of new talents to play with as you progress. And the good thing is that all of the warriors play very uniquely. However you will find yourself sticking to one or two of the warriors the majority of the time just because for most enemies there isn't a need to use any of them in particular.

The game's control scheme is quite unique and one that is very effective for the gameplay style. To change form you use the A, B, X and Y buttons depending on what warriors you have assigned to which buttons (A is always Kameo's normal form). And to attack you use the two triggers. The left and right will do two individual moves, while pressing them together will do another move or they can put you in a different mode/stance to access other moves. This allows you to access attacks quickly and use a lot of variety when using a particular warrior, but also switch between your assigned warriors quickly.

Another aspect of the elemental warriors is that you do not have access to all of their abilities or the full strength of their abilities when you get them. Throughout the game you collect 'elemental fruit' which is basically a currency to buy new abilities and upgrade existing ones. There are 100 elemental fruit in total, some you get through buying them from shops with the gold you collect while others you get by completing side quests or just finding them. Only a true completionist (with likely access to Gamefaqs) will go looking for all of them and get them all. There are also a number of other secret items spread throughout the game that are more difficult to find.

The graphics and appearance of Kameo is still one that is very nice but it doesn't contest with other more high end Xbox 360 titles such as Call of Duty 4. Still the game won't be ruined by shoddy visuals even when bought today.

However Kameo does not have a very long game life. In total the story may take you 5-6 hours and there is about 2-3 hours of side quests. There is also a score attack mode where you play through a level and attempt to get as high a score as possible. There is also co-op but it isn't anything amazing. So if you spend some time looking for some of the more hidden parts of Kameo Elements of Power you may get a total of 10-12 hours of gameplay out of this game.

So Kameo Elements of Power is a good game, just not an amazing one. It is enjoyable and you can probably find it for a much lower price then your average retail game, and you may need it to get you through the summer. The achievements for this game are also quite good, you can get around 600 points by just playing through the game which is quite nice if you are looking for some quick gamerscore. But if you are looking for a good and more recent Rare game you may be better off waiting for Banjo-Kazooie Nuts and Bolts which is to be released in November 2008.

Score

6/10

Rainbow Six Vegas 2 Review

Rainbow Six Vegas 2 is a first person shooter with a heavy emphasis on cover and covert ops. You play as Bishop and the story takes place in conjunction with the first and sums up the story.

Team Rainbow is an elite team of S.W.A.T. who are sent into high risk situations and have existed since their first game 'Rainbow Six' in 1998. As hinted by the title, this one is based in Vegas but sadly the Ubisoft Montreal people chose to put most of the locations in the most boring parts of Vegas possible. A fitness centre and a housing district are not the most compelling locations.

The Campaign of Rainbow Six Vegas 2 is not a particularly memorable one and is fairly short. You play as Bishop in a series of acts to stop acts of terrorism and unravel a web of conspiracy. It lasts about 8-10 hours and has 3 different difficulties to play on so there is some replay value there (especially if you are a achievement whore like me). There is also Terrorist Hunt and Multi player to keep you interested in this game as well. Terrorist Hunt is either a single player or co-op mode where you have to kill a certain number of terrorist on the multi player maps. Multi player also has the classic modes (e.g. Team Death match) but the one which I most enjoyed was Conquest where you have to take and hold 3 points for 30 seconds to win the match.

The game controls very well, when moving you are in first person but by pressing the left trigger (on the 360) you will take cover and switch to a third person perspective. You can sprint by holding the left bumper and through grenades with the B button. However there is no melee attack which is a disappointment, personally i would think taking a guy out with a knife is still quieter then a silenced shot.

One very nice system is the ability to fully customise your characters appearance and armor. There isn't much option with faces but you can if you have a vision camera scan in your own face which is a nice feature. You can also change your clothing which doesn't affect your ability but just makes your character look cool. While armor affect your mobility and protection, so you can either be very fast or be a tank which takes a few more shots to kill, i like being the tank.

However the best part of this game is the persistent character system. This is similar to the Call of Duty 4 multi player rank system but i carries over to the campaign, terrorist hunt and multi player. Basically you get experience points for every kill which allows you to rank up and unlock more armor options and clothing options. There is also a system known as ACES (Advanced Combat Enhancement and Specialization). There are three categories: Marksmen where you get points for killing enemies at long range or head shots, CQB where you get points for killing enemies in close quarters and Assault where killing enemies with grenades or ones with shields will reward you there points. As you achieve higher ranks in these categories you will unlock more guns to use in all of the different game modes. This is one of the big hooks for the game and makes dieing in a terrorist hunt or campaign not feel to bad because as long as you killed 1 enemy you will have advanced in some way.

Another big hook for this game is that it is very tactical. You have a number of gadgets, such as thermal vision, night vision and the snake cam to help you take out the terrorists faster and in some cases silently. You can also rappel down the side of a buildings and breach in through a window, or flip yourself upside down and shoot through the window before breaching. Also due to when playing single player you have the control of two AI team mates who you can tell to stack up on a door and either flash and clear, breach with charges or just simply open and kill the foes inside depending on the situation.

Where the game does fall down however is the AI of your opponents and your team mates. Quite commonly the enemy will run in a straight line towards you, making them very easy targets. While in other cases your team mates won't do anything and when an enemy is about to shoot you in the back they will wait for them to shoot and then fire. The game would have been much better if the AI was improved but it is not so bad as to make the game un-playable.

Also the graphics of Rainbow Six Vegas 2 are somewhat disappointing and when compared to other games which are built on the Unreal Engine such as Unreal Tournament 3 it is somewhat lacking. And because you are in the somewhat more boring parts of Vegas there is nothing really there which wows you, which is a shame.

So should you buy this game? Yes if you like a strong shooter with a much heavier emphasis on tactics and stealth rather then a run and gun experience. The multi player side of the game is still quite heavily populated on Xbox live but i don't know for how much longer with the likes of Gears of War 2 on the horizon.

Score

6.5/10

Dr horriable review

Hey all i know this is not game but i thought i would talk about it. Its a series of 3 short acts of blog style musical which tell the story of the Anti-hero Dr. Horrible, rise or fall depending on your view if you haven't watched it go here http://www.drhorrible.com/. On day of this post its free to watch all 3 but after midnight on 20th July it will not longer be freely available and should be download able for small fee.


Each of the 3 acts are about 13 minutes long and was written by Joss Whendon (WARNING!! SPOILER ARE TO FOLLOW) i thought it was well thought out story even though it has point in story that don't make much sense for example how Dr horrible put body of Penny onto stretcher after being accused for killing her. Another example of this is the fact police do nothing through out the story. Even though i am not generally interested in Musicals I thought the songs were well done and told the story very well. My favourite song was one at end of act when he singing about killing Mr Hammer because of slightly darker tones and show begin of transformation of Dr Horrible.

Then end also show that even though he achieved what he wanted to he lost himself to it as at end he says he wont feel a thing which shows he wasn't happy with end result the music used throughout the acts were good to portray the atmosphere and use of dark horses cowboys and various jokes through out were good for comic relief though this is hard thing to say with most of the story being a joke anyway.

The actor played there part well and were good for there roles i am interested to see where Joss will take this from here and look forward to anything else he might do.

Too Human Demo Impressions

This just came out on Xbox Live and i have had a chance to play through it once. Too Human is an action RPG / dungeon crawler. It is set in the future with a Norse twist. You play as the god Baldur and can be 5 different classes, however in the demo only the Champion class is available to try out.

You get about 45 minutes in the demo, including skill allocation and gear swapping. As the champion you mainly use a combination of two handed swords and pistols, but the game really shines in the melee combat. You fight robots, which means all the classic variants of the grunts and the rocket types and then the slightly larger robots. As you kill opponents you increase your combo meter which can be used to activate certain abilities that will become available later or your Ruiner ability, which is basically an area of effect bomb for those tight situations. There are a number of small bosses that you fight and personally i enjoyed them. The story seems like it could get very interesting and Too Human has been announced to be a trilogy so it appears it will be a fairly long story as well.

But where I thought this game would fall down is its control scheme. To move you use the left stick and to attack you use the right stick and point it in the direction of your enemy to either hit it if it is near or slide towards. Or hold down the left and/or right triggers to fire your guns and select your targets with the right stick. Now what I thought would go wrong is that there would be serious camera issues however this didn't seem to happen, the game played smoothly and despite there being a slight learning curve i enjoyed how it play and that it differed from the X is quick attack and Y is heavy attack standard.

So I would strongly suggest trying this out if you have a 360 and have access to Live and i will likely be picking this up when it comes out August 19th.