Author - Jerry Paxton

Building A Basic Home Cockpit

2011/03/28

For us fans of PC flight simulation, the ultimate goal has always been a realistic home cockpit with tons of switches, knobs, buttons, and levers to give us that extra edge and forever do away with having to use a keyboard.

The biggest question when approaching your home cockpit should first and foremost be: How much can I spend? In the world of flight sim peripherals, it is not unusual for realistic components to cost way over $500 dollars. Many remedy this by building their own gear which, I will touch upon later on in this review. For most people, however, they will not be able to go that route and will instead focus on purchasing equipment for their ‘pits. We are targeting this build for gamers with lower to mid-level budgets.

DCS: A-10C Warthog Review – PC

2011/03/21

Jerry Paxton

Reviews

DCS: A-10C Warthog represents the revival of a genre in, for the most part, a kind of sleeper status of late – the flight simulator. With the downfall of companies like Microprose, Jane’s Combat Simulations, and Spectrum Holobyte the field of combat flight simulation has been somewhat bereft of winners – often falling to the hands of lesser-skilled, indie developers. Coupled with the fact that Microsoft ditched the ACES team responsible for their line of Microsoft Flight Simulator line of civil aviation simulation and things were looking pretty bleak for us armchair pilots. Enter: Eagle Dynamics, who turned many heads with their survey combat flight simulation, Lock-On: Modern Air Combat, back in 2003. Unfortunately for fans of the series, publisher support waned, leaving many bugs unfixed until the company teamed up with The Fighter Collection in order to proceed with their own line of flight simulators.

The latest in this line is the new DCS: A-10C Warthog, which simulates the US Air Force’s premiere close-air support aircraft, the A-10C Thunderbolt II, or ‘Warthog’. The game is laid out in similar fashion to their past products: there are training missions, single missions, campaigns, mission editor, and multiplayer options. With Warthog, Eagle Dynamics has provided players with the sorely-wanted option of creating dynamic, on-the-fly missions based on a given set of parameters. This allows players who are ‘iffy’ on their mission-creating skills to come up with new content should they get through all the campaigns and user-made missions to be found on the various Warthog community groups out there. Speaking of campaigns, there are several to choose from, each with their own objectives, end goals, and environmental conditions – all will challenge your skills on every level possible.

Missions can start both on the runway, engines primed and ready for takeoff, or on the ramp where you must go through a detailed pre-flight and start-up procedure before you can begin taxiing. Of course, all this realism comes at the price of a steep learning curve. Smartly on the part of Eagle Dynamics, there are several difficulty scaling options for the less sim-oriented. If you want the challenge, however, just about every switch, knob, and button can be operated via the virtual cockpit view and your mouse cursor. The amount of controls present is refreshing in an age of console-based, arcade flight games with no basis in reality whatsoever. In fact, after many hours with the simulator in full realism mode, I believe that if given an A-10C Warthog on the ramp in the same start-up conditions, I would have a fairly good idea of the proper order of switch operations to get it rolling – definitely a much better idea than Joe Schmo off the street.

With all of these controls, it is quite overwhelming for most people when they first get in the game’s virtual cockpit. Thankfully, there is a series of interactive training missions designed to get you flying and used to the various systems found on-board the aircraft. Players get a nice introduction to the aircraft in the first training mission, and then begin to progress into pre-flight ops and basic aircraft maneuvers. Then, the real fun begins as you have several training missions designed to teach the targeting and weapons systems.

The mission editor is a full-featured tool that will allow players to script out their own adventures in both single and multiplayer modes. That being laid out, there is still one glaring issue when creating a multiplayer mission: you cannot have two human players in the same flight. Apparently, this is part of the base coding of the game and can’t be altered. However, a tip for you mission-makers out there would be to create two flights, one for the player and one for the multiplayer client, and just mirror all the way-points, etc. From there you would just need to make sure your flight lead was responsible enough to pass on all relevant information to the rest of the flight. Taking this a step further is the campaign creator, which will string together sequences of your mission editor-created missions in order to create a full campaign! For the budding actors out there, you can even add your own audio files to missions!

The simulation itself simply has too many aspects of brilliance to expound on. I could rattle on about the avionics, communications, and flight dynamics of Warthog all day but, in the end, I think it is better just to say that I have never seen such a realistic simulation available in the civilian market. Special kudos must be sent to Eagle Dynamics for their bang-up job simulating the LITENING targeting pod as well as the various functions of the two multi-function displays.

Peripherals will be key in effectively playing Warthog. Those of you with simple two-button joysticks will definitely need to upgrade to at least a setup with a throttle control – preferably a HOTAS (Hands On Throttle And Stick) setup. These are flight stick and throttle units which, in theory, move all relevant controls to the peripherals so you don’t have to switch back to the keyboard. There is no HOTAS setup that does this in full, so if you don’t have additional peripherals for USB programming, the keyboard will be your friend for a while to come. Gamers looking for a good entry-level HOTAS should take a gander at Thrustmaster’s Hotas X. It is inexpensive and will allow you some assignments for easier operation.

If you have a gaggle of cash lying about, you may want to look into the Thrustmaster HOTAS Warthog. The peripheral has direct plug and play compatibility with Warthog and is an exact replica of the stick and throttle found in the actual aircraft. Another good peripheral that won’t break your budget is Thrustmaster’s set of Cougar MFDs which will allow you to control your on-screen MFDs with a physical re-creation. I would also recommend NaturalPoint’s TrackIR head-tracking system, which will allow you to look about the cockpit without the use of the flight stick hat button.

One of the more awesome features of DCS: A-10C Warthog is the ability to coordinate strikes and CAS operations with JTACs (Joint Terminal Attack Controllers). These JTACs are troops or other scout platforms operating in the theater of battle who call out incoming enemy units for the player to take out, sometimes even lasing the target for them to use precision guided munitions. JTACs will even perform BDAs (Battle Damage Assessments) so you can measure your effectiveness on target.

Visually, DCS A-10C Warthog features some breathtaking graphics both in the air and on the ground that can stress even the beefiest GPUs when fully maxed-out. Not to exclude anyone, there are a host of scaling options for graphics so that your PC can keep up no matter what you are running under the hood. The audio design of the game is also well-done, with all the appropriate warning sounds and indicator cues present. A nice touch that just gets my geeky juices flowing is the point during start-up that you close the canopy. There is this point where the audio transitions to primarily your in-cockpit sound, muffling out the outside world slightly. It provides a nice moment of immersion that I trust other players will experience as well.

In closing this review, I felt it a good idea to bounce some questions off of Matt Wagner, producer of the DCS series – especially to see if he would spill the proverbial beans on what platform they plan on simulating next!

Q) Why cant you assign a multiplayer client to be in the same flight as the primary player in the game’s mission editor?

A) MP is based on SP code in which player (client) much always be flight lead.

Q) Are you planning to move onto a completely new airframe after this or will you be creating DLC packs for Black Shark and/or A-10C?

A) Over the next year we have both DLC and a new aircraft development planned.

3) Any hints on what aircraft you guys are planning to simulate next?

A) The next DCS aircraft will be a fixed wing US fighter.

Q) When do you foresee Black Shark/A-10C compatibility in missions, etc, being implemented?

A) We plan to provide a compatibility for Black Shark that will allow it to fly online with A-10C sometime later this year. First we need to polish up A-10C a bit more.

Q) In your opinion, why should gamers out there who have never touched a flight simulator give DCS A-10C a chance?

A) The A-10C is a rather easy aircraft to fly and has lots of cool weapons like the 30mm cannon, guided missiles, GPS bombs, etc. We also included interactive training missions, improved graphics over Black Shark, expanded map area, many new AI units, and the ability to fly the most detailed and accurate modern jet sim EVER done for the PC. For those that don’t want to go full-hardcore, there are many options to scale back the difficulty and detail. For those that fly the A-10 in shooter games and would like to see how the REAL aircraft operates, this their chance.

I would like to thank Matt Wagner for taking the time to answer my questions as well as helping to produce such a wonderful combat aircraft simulation.

Overall, whether you are looking to take your first steps into combat flight simulation or are a battle-hardened desk jock, you can’t go wrong with DCS: A-10C Warthog. The game features rock-solid simulation that will allow you to get the feel for what it is like to sit in the cockpit of the venerable A-10C while not having to salute or enlist in the Air Force to do so – although, you may wish to thank your wife when she gives you the okay to begin construction of your home cockpit!

Homefront Review – PC

2011/03/16

Jerry Paxton

Reviews

Homefront was a title I had been looking forward to ever since John Milius was attached as a writer. Milius, who for those of you that don’t know, co-wrote and directed the 1984 action flick, Red Dawn, in which a group of young people-turned freedom fighters resist an occupation of the United States by Soviet aggressors. Given that credit alone, Homefront should have been amazing. So, I redeemed the PC review code sent by the always friendly folks at THQ press relations and began my play.

First thing I noticed was that Homefront did not support the ultra widescreen resolution of 5760×1080. Most modern shooters have no issue with this resolution, even if the menu screens get a bit wonky but Homefront was having none of it. So, I selected 1920×1080 and set the visuals to their maximums. This is not a showstopping issue, by any means, but was bothersome at the time. Anyhow, time to join the resistance!

To sum up the very intricate tale of the United States’ decline and North Korea’s expansion, it can be simply said that due to a hodgepodge of catastrophes, the US was left severely weakened. Having to turn its back on the rest of the world, North Korea slowly began a series of expansive movements which greatly strengthened their position on the world stage. In a bold maneuver, the now united Korea launched a massive EMP attack on the crumbling United States which decimated the power grid on a nation-wide scale. As the country fell into anarchy, US forces attempted to keep order – that’s when the Koreans launched a full-scale invasion.

At the start of the game, the United States is largely occupied by Korean forces and the player is being sent to a prison camp to mine for ore. The resistance movement liberates you because of your history as a trained pilot and your adventure begins.

Visually, Homefront is a very attractive game, utilizing a modded Unreal Engine 3 for its visuals. It should be noted that the PC version of Homefront was not developed primarily by Kaos Studio but was outsourced to Canadian developer, Digital Extremes. Despite a strange ‘shimmer bug’ where non-interactive objects periodically flash, they did a great job with the game’s graphical elements. The PC version supports DirectX 11 and first-person cockpits.

The game audio is excellent, with the sounds of a large-scale conflict always looming around you. In some sequences, when you are in the wreckage of a city, the sounds are more intimate – maybe the grumbling of Korean forces as they harass civilians or even chat amongst themselves about the current situation or their ‘great leader’. Voice over work is very good, with a believable cast of actors providing some visceral performances.

Homefront’s gameplay is of the contemporary FPS fare, being akin to Call of Duty: Black Ops in its frenetic pacing and sudden action elements. The player will usually be accompanied by a small team of resistance fighters and both friendly and enemy AI is responsive and adaptive. Unfortunately, the gameplay of Homefront on the PC does have some challenges. First, and foremost, is that the overall player controls feel wooden and unresponsive. It feels more like you are controlling Frankenstein’s monster than an agile human being. For the weapons-fans out there, you will note a surprisingly large number of armaments being carried by the game’s combatants – all of which can be wielded once dropped. You can carry two primary weapons at a time, so choose carefully as all weapons do not share a common ammo type.

By far, the single biggest issue with Homefront is the length of its singleplayer campaign. At the standard difficulty level, I passed it all in a scant THREE HOURS. This is simply unacceptable in a modern video game. Digital Extremes added a lot to the multiplayer modes, but this franchise was sold to me and a lot of other gamers on the promise of its campaign… Which comes up short, literally.

Despite the wooden controls, what story and narrative there is is actually fun. Combat tends to unfold quickly and has a lot of interesting set pieces to play with, like a TigerDirect.com store, Hooters, and even a White Castle. There is also a multitude of homages to John Milius’ previous film work in the game – one which cracked me up hard the first time I saw it. When in Utah amongst the crazy masses residing outside a large wall built by the Koreans, you encounter this farm complex. In the center of this complex you will find two farmers/soldiers pushing a ‘wheel of pain’ a la Conan! The Wolverines reference is much more apparent and on the nose.

Homefront’s story is full of mature situations and death – as it should be. It takes an unflinching look at an occupation by openly-hostile forces not at all concerned with the Geneva Convention. Parents are shot on the street in front of their crying children, Korean soldiers are tortured before being executed, and there is even a mass grave scenario. It is such a shame we only get three hours of play here. The climax at the end of the game is so awfully-setup as a segue into a sequel, it is jarring and leaves you feeling ripped off. If a game is meant to have a sequel, you need to leave fans feeling like they got their money’s worth enough in the first game to shell out even more cash for the follow-up!

Overall, Homefront is a fun game that should definitely be experienced… as a rental. Don’t pay $60 dollars for a three hour game – doing so is not fair to gamers at large as other game companies will soon follow suit unless there is enough backlash. Homefront is a tragedy – so much potential and great setup with so little to show for it. I am left confused and bewildered at the whole experience. I wanted to be in a resistance force against the Koreans. I was hoping to see some more tactical gameplay. I was hoping to see four more hours of game time!

In closing, kudos to THQ and John Milius for putting so much effort crafting an awesome game backstory. We hope that next time you give us a lot more game with which to explore it.

Battle: Los Angeles Review (PC)

2011/03/14

Jerry Paxton

Reviews

Sabre Interactive, the developer behind the clever shooter TimeShift, has teamed up with Konami along with Sony and Relativity Media to develop the video game tie-in with their new film, Battle: Los Angeles (or Battle: LA). The game is available on the PlayStation Network, Xbox LIVE Arcade, and Steam platform on Windows PCs. Having recently seen the film and enjoying its action sequences (not so much the corny civilians and dialog, but I digress…), I was primed and ready to fend off the advance alien invaders as one of SSgt. Nantz’s squad members.

The gameplay is your standard shooter fare, similar to games like Combat Arms or Breach, minus that game’s cool cover system. Unfortunately, the game does suffer from some control issues. The worst being that the player character jumps like what seems to be a real-world equivalent of three inches off the ground when the space bar is pressed and overall movement is a bit stiff.

Also, if the game were accurate, US Marines would only be able to run for about fifteen feet before being winded for five to ten seconds. Meanwhile, your AI-driven squadmates seem to go forever, often times leaving you playing catch up. Also of concern is that none of the marines seem to be carrying a standard issue sidearm or fighting knife. The game features three weapons – an assault rifle, a rocket launcher, and a sniper rifle.

Levels are taken from many of the film’s action sequences and, to Sabre’s credit, look the part. The biggest flaw in the level design is the uber-linear layout to the debris laid about. It is very clear where the game developers intended you to move – to a fault, actually.

Visually, Battle: Los Angeles is pleasing enough to look at. The game features a number of graphical optimizations that your gaming PC will gladly take advantage of. On the console versions, however, the game is a less-attractive affair. In-game audio is well done also, with the sounds of full-scale war permeating the environment around you. Battle: Los Angeles features numerous graphic novel-esque storyboard sequences which act to setup the next level. For the sake of the game’s very short playtime, the plot of the story is altered slightly to accommodate.

Unfortunately, the game spans about 45 minutes of game time and, even with a few unlockable modes, just is not worth the $9.99. What the game DOES show off, sometimes, is how cool a full Battle: Los Angeles game COULD have been. Combine the alien-fighting action with a tactical control system a la Rainbow Six: Vegas 2 or Ghost Recon: Advanced Warfighter and you would have a real winner on your hands. While not a horrible game by any means, the game would be far more worth a purchase at a $4.99 price point.

Hopefully, with the nice box office draw the movie has been, we will see a true Battle: Los Angeles wargame in the near future… Hopefully.

Interstellar Marines Audio Interview with Zero Point Software

2011/03/14

Jerry Paxton

Articles, Interviews

We recently got some time to chat with Zero Point Software’s game director of their upcoming Interstellar Marines, Kim Jørgensen, about the project and its development. This twenty minute audio interview features several topics of discussion, from what we can expect to see in the next chapter of their roadmap to retail release as well as their advice to other independent developers out there. We would like to thank Kim from ZPS as well as the entire Interstellar Marines team for making this interview possible.

**Also, I must apologize to you listeners out there for the low volume of my microphone – it was a glitch in the settings. Despite this, I think you will get some great info about IM from this interview – enjoy!

Review of Dragon Age 2 – PC

2011/03/14

Jerry Paxton

Reviews

Dragon Age: Origins on the PC was a great RPG experience which managed to bring the gameplay of old-school masterpieces like Baldur’s Gate and Fallout into the modern age – giving both console gamers and PC gamers alike their choice of play options. Two years later and BioWare has brought out the game’s sequel: Dragon Age 2.

Telling the story of Hawke – a character who, at the start of the game, is in the process of fleeing Ferelden from the Blight during the same time frame as the original Dragon Age: Origins. In tow with Hawke are his mother, sister, and younger brother. The family ends up in the city-state of Kirkwall and must eek out a living in order to survive. Dragon Age 2 features a framed narrative, and each act of the game is setup in the discussions of one of Hawke’s companions, a rogue named Varric, and a seeker of truth. He recounts the story of the game to the seeker and, sometimes, will embellish a bit along the way. That’s as far as I dare go in giving away the plot as it is doubtful that any of your playthroughs of Dragon Age 2 will be exactly the same.

This is because Dragon Age 2’s most amazing quality is its ability to tell a unique story based not only on what your actions were in the previous game (allowing imports of saved games a la Mass Effect 2) but also the decisions you make in this title. Choose to leave a party member behind and while you are out on a quest, this character might be captured, die, or worse. Choose to take them with you and much of the same is possible. BioWare has masterfully crafted a game where you get very involved with the characters you are allied with and care about what happens to them. Aside from your party members, any of your character’s dialog choices and actions could have serious implications on the game world or at least how your party interacts with it.

They have also taken the level of inter-party member character interaction to a whole new level here. Gamers remembering the fun interaction of your party members in the Baldur’s Gate series have not seen anything yet! Dragon Age 2 features some incredible inter-party conversations – from taunting to heart-felt discussions and everything in between. You will also earn reputation, both positive and negative, with each one of your party members. This raises a lot of options for how your party works. This won’t end your game experience at all – in fact, party members give your character special bonuses depending on whether they like or dislike you – so you may play that part of the game tactically to get your bonuses exactly how you like.

Also, the romance system in Dragon Age 2 is very present and you have a lot more potential mates to choose from than the number found in Dragon Age: Origins. Also present is the ability to cheat on your mates with other characters along the way. Again, this goes directly back to the development team’s focus on character interaction. In terms of that category of the game, we have not really seen anything like Dragon Age 2 to date.

The gameplay of Dragon Age 2 has been streamlined to make things a bit smoother to operate. Some of these ‘optimizations’, as I will refer to them, are very good – others, not so much. Combat has a much more frenetic and cinematic quality. Warriors will charge and lunge at opponents, giblets fly about more than in the first game, and party member AI has been greatly improved upon. A re-vamped tactics screen returns and presents the tactical options and AI plan of attack in a much easier-to-understand method than in DA:O, but should you never touch that screen you can rest easy knowing your party members will do fairly well by default. If you are a PC gamer like me who loved the Baldur’s Gate and Fallout series of isometric RPGs, you can set the game to pause on the start of combat and you can zoom the camera out and up to a level similar to that found in the first game.

Unfortunately, some of this streamlining did not sit well with me. First and foremost is the loss of the ability to outfit your party members’ clothing and armor. For some reason, this option is simply non-existent. You can find upgrades to your party member’s attire but those are just stat bonuses. The only things you can change on your party members are their equipped weapons and jewelry. Maybe BioWare got tired of seeing ‘nude’ Dragon Age: Origins machinima or something? I don’t pretend to know. The other issue with this optimization of the game system is its lack of certain skills and abilities that were so fun to play with in the first game. For instance, in the more focused skill trees provided for each character, you will not find any shapeshifter magic. The good part about the skill trees are that they won’t confuse any new gamers to the RPG world. They are very straight forward in that regard.

Another issue with Dragon Age 2 is its re-use of levels. You enter several areas that are directly taken from other ones. They may have different loot and enemy layouts (perhaps even a locked door where an unlocked one previously-resided), but the actual structure of the level itself is exactly the same. I am surprised to see this kind of laziness by BioWare and wonder what would have allowed them to make more levels unique? Was it time, money, or both?

But, I digress… Despite these issues, Dragon Age 2 features some very pleasing visuals. While the game’s demo did not perform well on my high-end gaming rig, the retail product is a thing of beauty – even with everything pumped up at 5760×1080 resolution! BioWare has even released a 1.08GB texture pack for the PC version that allows you to run it in even higher quality. Game audio is superb, with awesome ambient sound effects as well as some really excellent vocal performances by the voice over cast. Both Nicholas Boulton and Jo Wyatt bring in great delivery as the male and female versions of Hawke while Victoria Kruger’s ‘stimulating’ portrayal of the ex-pirate captain, Isabela, is exceptional. Brian Bloom also does some excellent work as the rogue, Varric, who has a ton of exposition to pull of and does so without missing a beat. Big thumbs up to the rest of the cast as well – everyone just did wonderfully.

Overall, Dragon Age 2 features some very fun and frenetic combat as well as a rich storyline with some of the best character interactions and development ever seen in a video game. I dare you to play though this game without finding yourself talking to your party members as if they were in the same room as you. In short: If you are an RPG fan, you should go out and get this one right away. BioWare did a bang-up job with it and you will have a great time re-playing it as well, just to see what other outcomes you can create by your actions.

Crysis 2 Be Fast Trailer

2011/03/13

Jerry Paxton

News

Crytek and Electronic Arts have released a new trailer for their upcoming shooter, Crysis 2. Be Fast shows off the speed-enhancing abilities of the player’s nanosuit in combat applications. Crysis 2 is due out on March 22nd, 2011.

Trapped Dead – Review (PC)

2011/03/08

Jerry Paxton

Reviews

Trapped Dead is a welcome breath of not-so-fresh air in the realm of zombie games. From Dead Rising to Left 4 Dead, zombie games are usually frenetic affairs where players bounce about like Sonic the Hedgehog on a stimulant. Headup Games has brought us a game where tactics and inventory management are of the utmost importance, as is using the individual skills of your party members to their fullest and keeping good tactical discipline in your party’s formations. In essence, Trapped Dead is reminiscent of games like Commandos and Baldur’s Gate in that you spend most of your time carefully planning out your next movements before committing to a fight as each could be one or more of your party member’s last…

Trapped Dead starts with two friends driving across country when they stop for gas at a seemingly-abandoned fuel station. As it usually does in these situations, zombies are running (shambling in this case) rampant and eating on the living. Along the adventure, you will gain new characters in your party – each with their own strengths and weaknesses. For instance, on of the characters – a medical doctor, is wheelchair bound. He cannot move as quickly as the others but can heal like no other and, when given a street howitzer, is a formidable sentry turret of sorts. Each party member has limited inventory space and managing this space is of the utmost importance. To make matters worse, there are not a lot of supplies out there to scavenge so you have to make every shot or med pack count at just the right moment to get out of a situation in the best shape possible. Gameplay can be paused and un-paused with the spacebar.

The zombies of Trapped Dead come in many flavors – most of which shamble about like those found in Night of the Living Dead director George A. Romero’s films. This is also a welcome sight for the zombie game genre as most have the undead running about like marathon runners for shock and intensity. After playing Trapped Dead, though, you will find out that managing your quickly depleting stock of pistol rounds while seeing tons of zombies slowly converging on your position is just as intense and, sometimes more so as you have time to see it coming… What could you do different next time? What new tactics could you try? Thankfully, these questions will occupy your thoughts quite a bit in Trapped Dead and you will be aching to give that particularly hard mission another go.

The game’s narrative is presented through a large series of graphic novel panels as well as late 1970’s grindhouse / 1980’s horror movie style. Corny dialog abounds as well as dated equipment to sell the time period in which the game takes place. Unfortunately, while that dated / corny stuff really helps sell the game – the voice over work doesn’t. Purposeful grindhouse is a great thing when the actor’s buy into it and, in this case, the voice over characters just don’t quite hit where they should have. They are not Troll 2 bad, mind you, but they could have definitely been a lot better!

Visually, Trapped Dead is a simple game – but that simplicity translates very well on screen with crisp environments and characters. With very few options to set in the graphics menu, it is also worth noting that the game would not run on my PC in ultra-widescreen modes (5760×1080). I had to reduce it down to single-screen, 1920×1080. Once at that resolution, I experienced no more visual issues worth mentioning. Aside from the voice over work, Trapped Dead features some really fun and creepy sound design. From the period score to the background noise of flesh eaters moaning and environmental effects, Trapped Dead’s audio is very well done and commendable.

Multiplayer was an aspect we were desperately trying to make work as apparently the game supports cooperative gameplay. Unfortunately, we experienced constant timeouts when trying to ping available servers. Despite this, after playing through the singelplayer stuff, I can make an educated guess that the multiplayer would be a hoot given the game mechanics.

The only other complaint with Trapped Dead is that its control system seems sluggish at times. I would switch between characters and it seemed like the game did not pickup the keypress. Aside from this, the game controls relatively well in terms of what buttons do what function.

Overall, Trapped Dead is a welcome breath of fetid air for the zombie game genre. With a gameplay system a la Commandos and Baldur’s Gate as well as plenty of gore and undead to be found, we highly recommend you give this one a try. Trapped Dead is currently retailing for $19.95 and the game could have easily sold for one and a half times that amount. If you are a fan of zombie games or tactical strategy titles, you won’t be disappointed.

Fallout NV: Dead Money Review

2011/03/07

Jerry Paxton

Reviews

Full Disclosure: I am a Fallout nut. ‘Nuttier than squirrel poo’ is a phrase that I would apply to my obsession with all things Fallout. I played and replayed Fallout 1 and 2 for a decade before Fallout 3 came out. Blah blah blah, old school, blah blah blah, turn based combat, blah blah blah, three-quarter isometric view. Enough. I’m also pragmatic and will take what I can get as long as the games have that ‘Fallout feel.’ Story, snark, and attention to detail. While I was pleased with the way Fallout 3 came out, New Vegas is unquestionably a better sequel. Closer to California, the developers were able to mix a lot of old Fallout into the new, and it felt more comfortable, familiar, and ‘real’ than Fallout 3. Anyway, I’m babbling. On to the review!

INTRO
Dead Money opens with the Courier picking up a new radio signal which leads to a small underground Brotherhood of Steel bunker. Like any wastelander, a disembodied female voice inviting me to ‘Come play’ is a compulsion I cannot refuse. This is Nevada right? I might have stumbled on the right frequency for the Mustang Ranch!

Anyway, once the Courier gets close to radio source, he’s (I realize there are female gamers and characters, but I’m male so I’m going to use masculine pronouns and you’re going to be ok with it) subdued in a bright flash of light and whisked away to a small Villa outside the legendary Sierra Madre Casino.

Standing in front of a fountain in the town square, the Courier is greeted (in hologram form) by Elijah. Elijah was McNamara’s predecessor as Elder of the Mojave Brotherhood of Steel contingent. Elijah disappeared after the events of HELIOS 1, apparently making his way to the Sierra Madre Casino in search of advanced old world tech.

The Sierra Madre Casino itself was constructed by mogul Frederick Sinclair for a starlet named Vera Keyes to protect her from the impending war. It supposedly contains untold wealth, and features the most advanced old world tech including holographic entertainment and security, as well as ‘replicators’ that can create nearly any physical item (including food, weapons and ammo). However, the Casino never opened. Its doors were designed to be sealed shut until the grand opening gala ceremony. The bombs fell the day before the ceremony was scheduled to occur, and the doors remained shut.

THE STORY
Elijah really, really wants inside. He has grand plans of using the Sierra Madre technology to create a holographic army to pacify the wastes and build a grand new society. He needs assistance triggering the opening gala ceremony, getting into the Casino, and ultimately, the vault at its core.

Adventurers have long sought out the treasures of the Sierra Madre. Some even made it to the Villa. Elijah has coerced many into obeying him and attempting to break into the Casino. Three potential companions remain alive and hidden somewhere in the Villa.

The Courier is fitted with an electronic bomb-collar that Elijah can detonate if he disobeys. The bomb-collar is linked to the three other companions whose aid the Courier must enlist. If one dies, they all die.

The companions are: Dog/God, a multiple personality nightkin (sans stealthboy); Dean Domino, a ghoul, who was actually supposed to entertain at the Sierra Madre; and Christine, a Brotherhood of Steel scribe sent to hunt down Elijah. Together the Courier and his companions attempt trigger the opening ceremony and unseal the doors to the Casino.

I won’t give too much away, but obviously, the ultimate goal is to get inside the Casino and confront Elijah.

FEATURES / GAME PLAY
Dead Money differs from other Fallout environments in that there really aren’t a lot of enemies to fight. It’s all relative I suppose, but I found more of my time was spent sneaking around and avoiding holograms than shooting bad guys.

The Villa and Casino are surrounded by a red cloud of toxins that corrode any armor and eat the flesh within (the ‘Cloud’). Didn’t matter what armor you wore, your health dropped like a rock when you were standing in the Cloud. Unlike radiation exposure/sickness, the damage began immediately. Luckily, you can see the physical cloud to know where the boundaries are. The Cloud graphic and health effects are very well done.

The Villa is populated by ‘Ghost’ people, who are alive, but sealed in their hazmat suits. They are very hard to kill. Unless you score a critical hit and blow off a limb, ‘killing’ them doesn’t really kill them. The ghosts just drop down unconscious, like a fallen companion, only to get up a few seconds later ready to fight again. Keeping Dog/God around was really the only sure fire way to permanently eliminate one.

Once you get into the Casino, holographic security becomes an issue. The holograms are impossible to kill with your weapons, but if you see the emitter (not always easy) you can destroy that. The holograms are BAD ASS. They shoot fricken lasers from their heads (that’s a Dr. Evil thing… go with me on that), rapid fire, and it only takes 3-4 shots to bring the Courier down. Best bet is to avoid them entirely.

Oh, before I forget. There are f—ing traps EVERYWHERE. I have a blind spot when playing Fallout, and it’s watching where I’m going. I just don’t do it. Every location, every room, every corridor, every hallway has a bear trap in it, and I’m pretty sure I stepped in them all. Move slowly, and for Dog/God’s sake, don’t increase your run speed for Dead Money.

I mentioned the electronic bomb-collar above. One problem you’ll face is that radio signals and speakers will interfere with the collar. Get too close and your collar begins beeping. If you don’t get out of range or destroy the source, boom! This added a certain intensity to every step of the game that’s not generally present in Fallout. Your collar could begin beeping at any moment, and if there’s more than one speaker/radio causing it, getting to safety isn’t easy. Keep an eye on the wall graffiti. Previous collar-slaves have pointed out where a lot of the speakers are, and even arrows to guide you on your journey. The beauty of Fallout is in the little details. Don’t rush the expansion, or you’ll miss out.

WEAPONS
I forgot to mention that you’re stripped of most of your weapons and armor upon arrival. Elijah gives you a holorifle, which is one of the stronger weapons you’ll find in the game, but you can also find police pistols, shot guns etc… Other than the standard laser pistol side arm, I did not see any plasma/energy based weapons.

ARMOR
Not a lot to report here. While there is some unique Sierra Madre armor, it’s no better or worse than what you were likely wearing when you entered the expansion.

GRAPHICS
Also not much to say here. Dead Money is the first downloadable content for Fallout: New Vegas. Same game engine, same graphics. The whispy effects from the Cloud are neat, but not noteworthy. Note: I play on a PC.

Many of the buildings in the Villa are boarded up, which was annoying. If you’re going to put them in, let me get inside! There were plenty of buildings with open walls on the second story. The only way to get to them was a needlessly complex system of rooftop leaps and platform walks. If I have the strength to tote around 250lbs of guns and armor, I can kick in a wooden door. Seriously.

CONCLUSION
Overall, I enjoyed Dead Money, but I was disappointed by the play time: 3-4 hours. Such is life with expansions, I suppose. I will say that it’s a very tense 3-4 hours, and well worth your money.

Interestingly, both Elijah and Christine give the Courier info on that ‘other’ courier you’ve heard hints of throughout New Vegas. This other courier and the battle at the Great Divide will be the focus of future downloadable content, and I can’t wait!

LittleBIGPlanet 2 – Review (PS3)

2011/02/22

Jerry Paxton

Reviews

First person shooter? Racing? Adventure? Puzzle platformer? What type of game do you want to play? What type of game do you want to make? These are the questions that LittleBigPlanet 2 asks you. In the most basic sense, this is not a game. This is a mighty tool to let you create and experience whatever you want. And to top it all off, Media Molecule tacked one of the best platform games of the past few years on to the disc.

The story mode in LBP2 is fun. One of the best games I’ve played in a quite a while. The (very loose) story present is this: All of CraftWorld is being threatened by the Negativitron and it’s up to you to join with the Alliance to save the day. Well… Maybe it should read more like, ‘All of blah blah… Forget it. Here’s a bunch of levels designed to show off the new crap we put n the game. Have fun!’

Story isn’t so much LittleBigPlanet’s strong suit, but hey, you’re not buying this game for the story. Mario games rarely have much more of a story than ‘The princess is in another castle’ and they are the best platformers of all time. The story mode of LBP2 shows off some the best platforming levels of the last ten years all while teasing the sorts of games you’ll be able to create with a little time and effort. Throughout the game’s core 30 levels you’ll ride bees, shoot cupcakes out of your head, and grapple-hook through flaming forests. Each world shows off a different gameplay mechanic and I can’t wait to see what the community creates given these new toys.

LittleBigPlanet 2, like the first game, comes with the promise of user-generated content. Early adopters of the game have been lucky as it is backwards compatible with all 3 million or so levels created so far for the first game (along with any unlock able content you may have earned in the first title.) The search tools are far more streamlined this time around. Searches lead to content lists, opening a level can link to levels created by the same user, which can further link to their personal favorites and so on. My favorite part of the search tool is the new Media Molecule Favorites list, levels the developers themselves have chosen to show off.

Creating these levels is no small feat, but it Is a little user-friendlier than the first game around. The first game seemed to have endless demo videos to watch before you were allowed to think about touching an edit tool.LittleBigPlanet 2 does away with that, instead opting for a few basic tutorials before you can choose to either continue watching demo content or jump right in and try it for yourself.

Some of the better tools at your disposal this time around are the all new SackBots. These are programmable bots that can be used as enemies, NPCs, or heck… I don’t know… backup dancers? Their behavior is up to you.

Levels can now be linked together to build a game as large as your imagination will let you. Your levels are no longer confined to simple platforming. The intent behind LittleBigPlanet 2 is to give one the ability to create entire games of wildly varying genres. You can do this to your heart’s content with the ability to record your own dialogue, change camera angles at your pleasure, program the behavior of different tools, etc. For a game built around 2D platforming, I’ve started to see FPS-based levels being uploaded. This content generating freedom works well enough now and will only grow with time as users get more creative and crazy.

I’ve got little to no complaints about this title. Jumping is still a little floaty and shifting between foreground, middle, and background can be a tad off at times. Other than that, there is plenty of fun to be had here. Whether you’re purchasing this just to jump in and make your own games or if you’re more my speed and are looking forward to endless amounts of content waiting your consumption, this games has something for everyone. Personally, I’m going back online to play through some LittleBigPlanet recreations of The Human Centipede.