Author - Judgeman

Jurassic Park: The Game – A Review (PC)

2011/12/05

Since the novel first hit in 1990, I have been absolutely enraptured with the world of Michael Crighton’s Jurassic Park. Since the first release of the book, Jurrassic Park has seen four movies, another novel, ten series of comic books, a theme park ride, and numerous video games. Even though many feel that the entire premise of a dinosaur theme park had been driven into the ground, Telltale Games has decided to resurrect the Jurassic Park corpse and (attempt to) breath some life into the franchise with their latest release, Jurassic Park: The Game. Has Telltale Games done what was originally done in the novel and brought back to life an ancient lifeform that is worthy of praise, or is this game better left as a buried fossil, never to be seen again? Let’s take a look with my full review of Jurassic Park: The Game for the PC.

Story:

The story of Jurassic Park: The Game runs parallel with the original novel. You play as various other park inhabitants that are stuck on Isla Nublar. The characters are all new creations for the game and have never been mentioned in the novel nor the original movie. The characters are thrust into the actions the night that Dennis Nedry tries to escape with the shaving cream can of embryos and it all goes downhill from there, as the dinosaurs are released into the park.

You never interact with any of the characters from the original storyline. All of the new characters are truly forgettable creations and are very one dimensional – from the mercenary paid to get the embryos from Nedry, to the gruff military man that InGen sends in as a rescue team. The voice acting is bland and annoying, which really hurt me because TellTale Games have always been known for their outstanding attention to characterization and voice detail.

Jurassic Park: The Game is a story of survival above all else, and it tells it through mediocre voice acting and bland characters that I just don’t care about. The original story had so many interesting characters that a reader would truly care if any one of them lived or died. Jurassic Park: The Game, unfortunately, could not pull of the same writing and characterization that the original novel could. Ultimately, the story of Jurassic Park: The Game did not bring anything new to the table for the Jurassic Park franchise to work with.

Gameplay:

TellTale Games is well-known for their point and click adventure games. Not hearing anything about Jurassic Park: The Game before it hit my inbox, I was expecting the solid tried and true game play that I have come to know from TellTale Games. What I got was a rude surprise.

Jurassic Park: The Game’s whole game play is based on quick time events. You are playing an interactive movie to where you get to press a certain key to avoid danger. I was absolutely floored when I played the first chapter and all I did was press the key that the game asked me to press. I cannot believe that some one at TellTale Games decided to make an entire game based on the absolute worse game play mechanic ever created, the quick time event. It wouldn’t have been so bad if the story and the characters were at least interesting to follow and watch, but with the mediocre storyline that the game is telling, the quick time event game play just bored me to tears.

There is some minimal investigation that needs to be done to solve problems, like looking for a way for the character to steal passes in order to enter the park. But these sections of investigation ultimately lead to quick time events that serve as the bulk of the game. What this game truly needed was much more investigation sequences and far, far fewer quick time events. I could understand the events for moments of dodging velociraptors, but using the quick time events to use a machete to cut a path through the jungle is just unforgivable.

Aesthetics:

I have already touched on the voice acting earlier in this review, so let’s go ahead and finish up that discussion. The acting isn’t horrible, just not all that great. It serves the purpose for telling the story, but that’s about it. I feel that the actors just didn’t really get into their parts at all and this was such a shame, since I had always equated TellTale Games with great voice acting, such as in the Sam and Max series and as recently as the Hector games.

Jurassic Park: The Game in a pure graphics sense is looks bare and unimpressive. The motions of the characters are quite clunky and the environments don’t have a lot of detail to them. The actual character models do look nice and make up for some of the downfalls, but for a Jurassic Park game, I felt that the environment needed to shine and be stunning to look at.

Final Thoughts:

Overall, Jurassic Park: The Game is an unremarkable and easily-forgettable experience. With quick time events being the prevalent game play mechanic, the player will find no need at all to think about anything while playing the game, just hit the button the game tells you to and watch the action unfold. The action, however, is also unremarkable as the storyline tells a similar story that the original novel told, but with far less interesting characters. The graphics are bare and sparse looking, thought the character models do look nice and the voice acting works for the job at hand. Even as a fan of the original novel, I was hoping for something more here, but Jurassic Park: The Game ultimately fails at the one thing that is most important in any video game, it just isn’t any fun to play.

Ultimate Marvel vs Capcom 3 – A Review (Xbox 360)

2011/11/29

Judgeman

News, Reviews

1 Comment

Marvel Vs Capcom 3’s run has come to an end. Capcom has released its successor in Ultimate Marvel Vs Capcom 3 that hit stores November 11^th. Originally scheduled to be a host of downloadable content for Marvel Vs Capcom 3, Ultimate Marvel Vs Capcom 3 brings us twelve new characters, eight new stages, the ability to play as Galactus in single player, and a host of rebalancing designs that helps equalize the original characters. Ultimate Marvel Vs Capcom 3 is being sold at a discounted price, but even then will it be worth your time?

Story and Gameplay:

Many aspects of Ultimate Marvel Vs Capcom 3 are exactly the same as the original game. The storyline for the single player campaign is just what it was previously, you select three heroes to battle through various stages in order to fight Galactus and prevent him from making lunch out of the Earth. Most fighting games have a very basic storyline anyway, and this one is no exception.

But a riveting storyline is not why we play fighting games, is it? It’s all about beating the snot out of the other player, whether it’s online or on the couch. The biggest change that Ultimate Marvel Vs Capcom 3 has brought to online play is spectator mode. We can finally watch the other games going on as we wait our turn to battle instead of just watching to boxes bounce back and forth. Connection over online seems stable and quick, I never did experience any lag during my bouts. But with the new characters and rebalancing, it gives us more options then just picking Wolverine in order to stay competitive.

Capcom does pay attention to the tournament play styles when it releases a new fighting game, especially one like Marvel Vs Capcom 3, which has had a past in fighting tournaments. Capcom had noticed that a distinctive play style had erupted as the go-to play style in tournaments, that of using quick fighters to pummel the opponent. In order to keep players from having to choose characters like Wolverine, Capcom has buffed the weaker characters by increasing their damage potential, or even giving them moves to counter the faster play style. Characters like Magneto, Spencer, and Storm all received major updates in new moves while tournament favorites such as She-Hulk, Wolverine, and Phoenix have received nerfs in regards to damage output, overall health, or how their moves work.

The biggest draw to Ultimate Marvel Vs Capcom 3 is the twelve new characters, six for Capcom and six for Marvel. These new characters represent Capcom’s attempt to change up the tournament game play by adding more ranged experts, like Dr. Strange, and more unconventional characters, like Phoenix Wright. The previously mentioned Phoenix Wright, Frank West, Firebrand, Nemesis T-Type, Virgil, and Stryder Hiryu join Capcom while Marvel is joined by Dr. Strange, Hawkeye, Ghost Rider, Iron Fist, Nova, and Rocket Raccoon. Yes, Marvel gets Rocket Freakin’ Raccoon as a playable character. I love you Capcom, I really do.

I have to be honest, I’ve always been more partial to the Marvel characters in this game, but characters like Phoenix Wright and Frank West are just too fun to play to ignore. Phoenix Wright is probably the most unconventional character I’ve ever played in a fighting game.

In addition to these new characters, we get some new costume changes that are selectable by changing the colors of the character. I love how Capcom can bring alternative costumes in to the game in this mode, and it is always great to see what costumes make an appearance. Gone is the black and white color scheme for Deadpool, but you can now recreate X-Force by selecting his black and gray outfit with Wolverine and X-23. Its fun to cycle through the Marvel characters to see what obscure color variations Capcom has brought to the game, and we will be getting various costume packs via Xbox Live that will give us more options.

Ultimate Marvel Vs Capcom 3 finally gives us eight new stages to brawl through. New stages, such as the Shadowland stage featuring Dark Daredevil on a throne, and the Days of Future Past, which features the iconic wall of wanted posters from The Uncanny Xmen #141. All of these new stages fit right in with the previous stages and look absolutely stunning. Like the Shadowland stage, some of the other new stages feature other characters in the background. Its fun to see whom else is hiding in this game.

Aesthetics:

The visuals remain as impressive as they were in Marvel Vs Capcom 3. The game really revels in its comic book roots and the presentation is that much better for it. The colors really pop off of the screen and the alternate outfits that you can choose from makes selecting your team that much more fun. Going for a theme? Try playing as X-Force by selecting Deadpool, Wolverine, and X-23 all in their black and gray outfits. Feel like playing as a version of the Fantastic Four or the Future Federation? Then you can select those outfits for She-Hulk, Ghost Rider, Spider Man or Doctor Doom.

The sound and voice acting remain the same in this version too. Characters interact with the opposite side during the opening and closing voice over work, which adds an added dimension to the game play for me. I love how the characters will acknowledge there past affiliations if they find themselves on opposite teams. Ultimate Marvel Vs Capcom 3 does not add anything new in the aesthetics department, but carries over the good work from its predecessor.

Final Thoughts:

Ultimate Marvel Vs Capcom 3, at first, feels like an unnecessary release. With Marvel Vs Capcom 3 only nine months old, why release this update in store and not as downloadable content? Well, Capcom was affected by the Tohoku earthquake and tsunami and was unable to release this as an update, as previously scheduled. With that in mind, the items that are found in Ultimate Marvel Vs Capcom 3, such as the update to balancing and the new characters, make this version of the game the best out. The new characters are extremely fun to play and interesting to get into, the balancing helps make the game that much more enjoyable, and the new stages brings forth some new appearances of characters that we like to see. If you enjoy playing Marvel Vs Capcom 3, then Ultimate Marvel Vs Capcom 3 is a must have, as it will be the version that everyone will be playing online now. If you haven’t bought the first version yet, then right now is a great time to get into the Marvel Vs Capcom franchise at a discounted rate.

Dragon Ball Z Ultimate Tenkaichi – Review (Xbox 360)

2011/11/07

Judgeman

News, Reviews

Being the fan of fighting games that I am, I was pumped to find that I would be given the newest release from Bandai and Spike in the Dragon Ball Z games, named Dragon Ball Z: Ultimate Tenkaichi, for review. After playing great games like Super Street Fighter IV and the newest Mortal Kombat, I was very interested in seeing what Spike had done with the Dragon Ball Z franchise. Unfortunately, the answer is not much. While the game looks beautiful, the repetitive game play and lack of strategy really ruined the game for me and made it feel way to shallow in this age of deeper fighting games.

Story:

Dragon Ball Z: Ultimate Tenkaichi runs into its first obstacle in trying to tell the vast Dragon Ball Z saga through a video game. Developer Spike tries to do this through a few mediums, in game cut scenes, short videos and through dialogue boxes. If you are a fan of the series, then you will understand everything that is going on. For me, who has seen some of the episodes but never followed it all the way through, found the story development extremely confusing and, to be honest, really dull.

During the Story Mode of Dragon Ball Z: Ultimate Tenkaichi, the story has a brilliant way of interfering with your fight to force the outcome that the writers need. During the fight between Tian and Nappa, I was absolutely crushing Nappa to the point that I knew I was going to win, but since Tian is not supposed to win this fight, Nappa ends up just hitting me with his special and wipes out my full health bar. To have scripted events in a video game is one thing, but to have them in a fighting game just feels cheap.

Dragon Ball Z: Ultimate Tenkaichi has a few modes to play; Story Mode, Hero Mode, and Versus Mode. Story Mode follows the story of the Dragon Ball Z universe and essentially guides you through the episodes of the saga. Hero Mode allows you to create your very own hero to play with, but the hero generator is very limited, and finally you have the Versus Mode with allows players to battle another play either at home or over the internet. Here, you have your choice of many different characters from the Dragon Ball Z universe, and can even use different skins if you’ve unlocked them during Story Mode.

Ultimately, Dragon Ball Z: Ultimate Tenkaichi fails to tell the story of the Dragon Ball Z universe in a compelling way for anyone. I felt lost most of the time and had no idea as to why certain events were even occurring. The fact that the story would force you to lose a fight is what really made this just hard to swallow.

Game Play:

With most fighting games, if the story is weak then at least you have solid and balanced game play to fall back on. Unfortunately, Dragon Ball Z: Ultimate Tenkaichi has neither a good story nor good game play. Most of the game play in Dragon Ball Z: Ultimate Tenkaichi is based on luck rather than skill. The game uses a paper, rock, scissors mode to determine who wins what sequence of blows. Once you hit an opponent, then you have to win this sequence to continue with your combo. The opponent’s only option is to mash all of the buttons at the same time in hopes of bringing up a quick time event to stop your combo. This is flat out unnecessary and in no way fun to play. It makes every fight that you do in the game both boring and repetitive.

You do have some strategy that you can use, by moving in and out of melee range to use different tactics, but this feels superficial at best. Ultimately every fight comes down to who pushed what button faster to start an unbreakable combo. The characters also really don’t have any special moves that they can pull off during game play, until you reach a certain point in the fight where the story will allow you to use that special move.

The final nail in the coffin for Dragon Ball Z: Ultimate Tenkaichi are the loading screens. Anytime a developer feels that they have to put in a mini game during the loading process means that your load times are intolerably way too long. In Dragon Ball Z: Ultimate Tenkaichi, they are also occur way too often. You will be in the middle of a fight, then a loading screen will occur, you will get a small cut scene, back to the loading screen, then resume the fight. That just throws off any type of immersion or enjoyment I had while fighting in Dragon Ball Z: Ultimate Tenkaichi.

Aesthetics:

Here’s where I’ve been hiding the good news for Dragon Ball Z: Ultimate Tenkaichi. The game is great to look at and actually makes the cartoon look outdated. The character models are rendered beautifully and are very accurate to their cartoon counterparts. The world looks bright and luscious, and can be utterly destroyed during the more energetic portions of the fight, though it would be nice if this damage was more permanent on the world. The fights themselves are impressive to look at. Each character moves with blinding speed and the special maneuvers that each character uses looks amazing as well.

The battles and environments of Dragon Ball Z: Ultimate Tenkaichi just can’t get any better looking. I really wish that the game play could match the way the game looks, then this would have been one hell of a fighting game.

The sound of Dragon Ball Z: Ultimate Tenkaichi is adequate at best. The voices of the characters do a serviceable job in telling the story. The dialogue is cheesy in most cases and so is the voice acting, but it fits with the Dragon Ball Z show, so I can’t fault the developers for matching the show. The music is much, much worse of a villain then any bad guy in Dragon Ball Z: Ultimate Tenkaichi. The music is just plain bad during the fights and will make you do anything else other then listen to another guitar riff in game.

Final Thoughts:

Bandai and Spike could have had a top notch fighting game based on the popular television show with Dragon Ball Z: Ultimate Tenkaichi, however bad game play issues truly crippled this game. The story, while not great, was serviceable for fans of the game, but for a novice to the Dragon Ball Z world, the story was convoluted and hard to follow. The game play is the true villain of Dragon Ball Z: Ultimate Tenkaichi, with the fighting system based on a paper, rock, scissors model and having mind numbing repetition to all of the fights. Dragon Ball Z: Ultimate Tenkaichi has tons of characters, but they all fight exactly the same way with absolutely no diversity in style or feel. The game is absolutely beautiful to look at and captures the spirit of the Dragon Ball Z cartoon perfectly, and in many times, even better then the show itself. However, the sound effects are serviceable and the music is downright just bad. In the end, the power level of Dragon Ball Z: Ultimate Tenkaichi falls well short of the other advanced fighting games out there and should only be played by super fans of the series that need to get their hands on everything Dragon Ball Z.

Dungeon Defenders – A Review (XBLA)

2011/10/28

Judgeman

News, Reviews

Trendy Entertainment has released their newest game that follows the ever growing genre of tower defense games, with Dungeon Defenders. Dungeon Defenders allows the player to choose one of four classes to defend your crystal versus the hordes of goblens, kobolds and dragons that infest the given dungeon that you are in. To make things even more interesting, Dungeon Defenders also plays like an action role playing game, allowing you to level up your character, outfit him or her, and set off to help the defenses that you erected to eradicate anything in your way. Dungeon Defenders may not be completely original in terms of game play, but they get almost everything perfect.

In Dungeon Defenders, you get to choose a class from four options that are the basis for most fantasy games; squire, monk, sorcerer and huntress. Each class brings with them very specific towers and styles of game play that the player has to utilize to defend their crystal. The huntress, for example, does not have towers but uses traps to hurt the invading horde, while the squire relys on strong melee attacks to help defeat the enemies.Like most tower defense games, you have time to set up your static defenses on the board before the enemies invade the stage. You are allowed as many towers as your mana can buy, then place them in strategic areas around the board. Once you are ready, you then open up the doors for the monsters to invade. Your role is two fold, to repair and place any towers that need your attention, and to add your own attack power to help bring down the invaders.

The action role playing game comes into effect as you level up and as you find items during game play. As you level, you can choose to upgrade certain skills, such as increased health of your towers or increase the personal damage that your character does. You also can find upgrades to gear that you are wearing as you run through the dungeon. The create way that Trendy Entertainment does their upgrade system allows for a quick visual check before you equip the item. If the item has a thumbs up, then it’s an upgrade, a thumbs down means its lower then what you already have, and a thumb sideways means that it’s a sidegrade.

Between levels, you are transported to your very own tavern to conduct more business. The tavern that you visit will change as you earn trophies and achievements to reflect your accomplishments. In the tavern, you can buy and sell equipment, look for online games, or get ready for the next dungeon. Dungeon Defenders also lets you share your equipment chest with the other classes on your profile, thus if you find a nice bow that your huntress can use while playing as a squire, you can just place it in your chest and collect it later when you log into your huntress.

The solo campaign is fun to play, but Dungeon Defenders really shines in cooperative play. Whether it’s done locally or online, four player co-op is the way to play Dungeon Defenders. Game play over Xbox Live was flawless and I was able to find people to play with fairly quickly.

Dungeon Defenders is just great to look at and has a fantastic aesthetic to it. It is completed in more of a cartoon-style, but the style really fits what the developers were going for. Each character is stylized and the player is allowed to change the color of the clothes to distinguish your squire from another’s The dungeon stages are done in the same cartoon like style, and are lit fantastically. The crystals give off a neat glow that lights the dungeon, and items are very easy to see due to their icons or their very own glow that they give off. The tavern is also a visual playground, especially once you get some of your trophies hung up onto the walls.

Final Thoughts:

Dungeon Defenders from Trendy Entertainment does not reinvent the tower defense genre, but does about everything it can to make it darn near perfect. There are a few balance issues here and there (which should be patched today) and the camera is your biggest enemy that you have to contend with, but other than that, Dungeon Defenders is a good time to have by yourself and a great time cooperatively. Dungeon Defenders is out now and sells for $15 for both Xbox Live Arcade and on Steam for the PC.

Blizzcon 2011 – Thoughts from the Show Floor

2011/10/28

Judgeman

Articles, News

This past Friday and Saturday marked the sixth time that Blizzard invaded the Anaheim Convention Center with their very own show, aptly named Blizzcon. I made it to the convention center just in time to grab a spot and check out the opening ceremony, which this year was filled with big news, surrounding four upcoming releases from Blizzard. Let’s take each release in turn.

Diablo III

Diablo III was the lightest this year in terms of actual news. The Collector’s Edition was introduced and looks very substantial. Besides receiving Diablo III, you get a 4GB USB drive that contains Diablo II and its expansion, The Lord of Destruction, you also receive a very cool looking Diablo stone head to store your soul stone USB drive. Also including is a 208 page art book, a two disk DVD/Blu Ray behind the scences look at the making of Diablo III, and the soundtrack for the game. As for in game items, you will receive armor dye, and exclusive banner and Tyreal’s wings for Diablo III, Fetish Shaman pet for World of Warcraft and Starcraft II unit decals.

During the Diablo III portion of the opening ceremony, it was also announced that World of Warcraft players can get themselves a free copy of Diablo III by subscribing to the Wow Annual Pass. For a one year commitment, you will receive a free copy of Diablo III, entry into the Mist of Pandaria beta and Tyreal’s Charger mount.

The build on the floor for Blizzcon was pretty much the same build we saw at last year’s show, with some fine tuning. The game looks and plays amazingly well and I am truly excited to see the final product from Blizzard.

Starcraft II

This Blizzcon focused on the upcoming expansion to last year’s Wings of Liberty, named Heart of the Swarm. As the name hints at, this expansion focuses on Kerrigan and the Zerg. While there wasn’t any real news in regards to this expansion that we hadn’t already heard, Heart of the Swarm was playable on the show floor, both in multiplayer mode and single player campaign. I was able to play through the first mission in the single player campaign, and have to say that I am very excited about this release as well. The first mission pits you against feral Zerg for control of the planet, and the mission ran flawlessly. This will be quite successful, when it is finally released.

Blizzard DOTA

Blizzard also released news on their very own Blizzard Defense of the Ancients game. Featuring Blizzard characters from all of their intellectual properties, Blizzard DOTA doesn’t reinvent the game, but puts Blizzard’s own special touch to a tried and true game. Blizzard DOTA was playable on the show floor, but unfortunately I was unable to get my hands on this game. If you are a fan of DOTA or even League of Legends, this game will be a must have for you.

World of Warcraft

Blizzard, in dramatic fashion, saved their biggest news for last. For months, many have speculated as to the next WOW expansion and what content would be involved. Chris Metzen put all of that speculation to rest with his own brand of style during the opening ceremony, announcing Mists of Pandaria. Yes, folks, we finally get Pandarens as a playable race, and I for one couldn’t be more excited about that. Pandarans will be Warcraft’s first ever neutral race, meaning that once you reach level 10, then you will have the choice on which faction you will align yourself with. Pandarens will be seen on both sides, in the Alliance and in the Horde.

We also get a new class, the Monk. The monk will be a new DPS/Tank/Healing class that will be able to do it all, depending on how you specialize. The monk focuses on the use of Chi, very similar to the use of energy for the rogue, to complete combinations of punches and kicks to defeat enemies. The monk class feels right in regards to the Pandaren, but when you look at Warcraft classes as a whole, it feels a little unnecessary. Time will tell on this as we get more information.

The first two features of the Mist of Pandaria expansion were greeted with great applause and cheers from the crowd, the rest, however, was met with a little more reservation. With the expansion, we will receive a completely redone talent system, a new vanity pet battle system, level cap raised to 90, and challenge mode dungeons that will cater to smaller group sizes. There will be no large boss battle in the Mist of Pandaria expansion, like there has been for the last three expansions. Instead, Blizzard wanted to refocus on the main conflict of Warcraft, Horde versus Alliance. This expansion will focus on all out war between the two factions.

One Last, Very Cool Thing

As many of you probably already know, Mega Blocks makes a full range of Halo figures and sets that are based off of the entire franchise. Starting in 2012, Mega Blocks will now be releasing World of Warcraft sets and figures, than in 2013 they will begin releasing sets and figures based on the Starcraft series.

I was able to visit the Mega Blocks booth and view some of their planned releases for 2012, including both Orgrimmar and Stormwind, complete with Thrall and Varian Wrynn respectively. In their preview display, there was two goblin zepplins shown, Deathwing flying over Stormwind, Horde and Alliance seige machines, and various character figuers and mounts, including the engineering mount.

I was told that there are also plans in development to create armor sets that will focus on the various tiers that are found throughout the game. You will be able to change the armor on your characters to different armor sets as they become available, adding a whole level of creativity that isn’t found in the Halo series of figures. I am already clearing sections of shelving off to make way for this series once it hits stores in 2012.

Crimson Alliance Vengeance DLC – A Review (XBLA)

2011/10/20

Judgeman

News, Reviews

A little while ago I reviewed an Xbox Live Arcade game from Microsoft Studios and Crimson Affinity named Crimson Alliance. While Crimson Alliance reviewed well, it fell short when compared to games such as Torchlight or even the older Diablo II within the same genre. Fast forward to today and we see that Crimson Affinity and Microsoft have just released their first downloadable content for Crimson Alliance named The Vengeance Pack. For only 240 Microsoft Points (that’s $3 people) you can play two extra stages and one extra challenge level. In keeping true with Crimson Alliance’s affordability, a 240 MS pack it’s just a steal for what you get.

So, What Do You Get?

In The Vengeance Pack, you get two main levels of play and one challenge level. The first level is named “Dead Among Us”. It is, you guessed it, a zombie stage. The second stage is named “Inferno” and is more of a hellish lava stage. Both stages are created to be hard, harder then most of the normal game is. The monsters are much harder to kill and are set up in combinations that make them very difficult to even reach in some cases. From the very beginnings of “Dead Among Us” you will see the evil intentions of Crimson Affinity to make these stages much more of a challenge and worth your MS Points. I lost track at how many times I was mauled when I was rushed by zombies from all sides. While difficult, I never once felt that the challenge was cheap or impossible to overcome, I just had to be more wary of which enemies I encountered first. Of course, recruiting some friends would have helped too.

You also receive a challenge map with The Vengeance Pack. Aptly named “A Fistful of Coins”, this challenge stage allows you to fight wave after wave for coins. Whatever coins you find after each wave, you can either keep or push on to the next stage. If you are killed, you will loose all the coins that you have gathered in the challenge stage, so it is a “get rich or die trying” type of game play. This is a great stage with a high risk, high reward ideal, the further you play the more money you get, but you could loose it all with just a simple, ill timed death.

But, Is It Worth It?

That’s the easiest question to answer. If you loved, or even liked, playing Crimson Alliance, then The Vengeance Pack is an absolute must have. For a measly 240 MS Points, you get 2 of the harder stages in the entire game and a great challenge level that will help fill your coffers with gold. The game play of The Vengeance Pack, as well as the aesthetics, all fit perfectly well with the main game and are presented here unchanged. With this pack, you get about two to three more hours of Crimson Alliance, which is hard to pass up. The Vengeance Pack is available right now on the Xbox Marketplace.

Blackwell Deception Review (PC)

2011/10/18

Judgeman

News, Reviews

Wadjet Eye has released the fourth installment to their Blackwell series, entitled Blackwell Deception today for the PC. Even though this is the fourth installment for Wadjet Eye, this will be my very first Blackwell game, so I will tackle the review that way with no previous mentions to the title’s predecessors. Blackwell Deception fits firmly into the type of adventure game genre that, as a youngster, I loved from Sierra Online so many years ago. Games like King’s Quest, Police Quest, and Leisure Suit Larry all graced my machine growing up, so I was very excited to get my hands on Blackwell Deception, the spiritual successor to these games. Did Blackwell Deception live up to the Sierra Online legacy? Yes and no, so let’s look at the details.

Story:

Story, in these types of games it is paramount. Without a driving storyline, the simplistic game play just becomes glaringly inadequate to keep one’s attention. The good news here folks is that the story for Blackwell Deception is very well done and is intriguing to say the least. You play as a pair of characters through Blackwell Deception, a psychic detective named Rosa and her ghostly partner, Joey. This odd pair set out to investigate cases involving spirits and ghosts and help these wayward souls to the other side.

Blackwell Deception throws you into your first investigation on the Hudson, trying to discover for a client why their yacht detaches itself nightly. You soon discover the soul of the previous owner, trying to complete the last task that he had set before himself prior to his death. This first case does a great job in setting up the two main characters and their personalities through the rest of the game. You soon learn the limitations and abilities of each character and how the two work together in solving each puzzle set in front of the player, but more on that in the game play section.

Rosa plays the investigator that is used to the weird and unusual, and is also used to having other people think that she is crazy. Most of the conversations start out by having to convince the other characters that, no, you are not insane and can help move the investigation along. Joey, on the other hand, has the ability to really show his character through the story, since no one alive except Rosa can either see or hear him. Joey is an old gumshoe straight out of a noir detective novel. Both characters are fascinating to listen to and work wonderful together to make the story interesting.

Gameplay:

Blackwell Deception takes it’s game play straight from the old Sierra Online games with some changes. You move the characters around the scene, looking for items to interact with and will help you solve puzzles that you will be faced later in the game. Since this game is a detective game, some of these items are clues that your character can discover through conversations with other characters. These clues can be interacted with in Rosa’s MyPhone, which must be from the same Mapple store that Lisa’s MyPod came from in The Simpsons. Rosa can also use her MyPhone (really, MyPhone, sigh) to use the internet to investigate her clues further. She also keeps all of her contacts listed on her MyPhone so that, at any time, the player can return to a previous scene of investigation.

Blackwell Deception has a great game play gimmick that really makes the game play exceptional, in my opinion. By pressing the tab key, you can switch between Rosa and Joey to investigate a scene. Each character has their advantages and disadvantages that can help the player to gather the clues needed to unlock more of the investigation. For instance, if a locked door is barring your patch from finding a clue, you can send in Joey, who is intangible, to investigate. You have to realize, though, that Joey may be able to enter the locked room to see what is on the other side, but cannot interact with any items there nor unlock the door to let Rosa in. The player has to remember to use both characters in order to solve many puzzles throughout the game.

The user interface in Blackwell Deception is simple and near perfect. The game allows you access to all of your clues at any time through a simple draw down menu, and the options menus are simple and easy to use. The game play feels just like the old Sierra Online games and plays just as perfectly. There really is no other way to improve on this game in this area, it just was a smooth game to play.

Aesthetics:

Ok, now the bad news, this game uses retro graphics to go along with its retro game play. While most people will probably like to take a trip down memory lane to play a game that looks exactly like games did in their child hood, to me this just shows how aged and bad those graphics are in comparison to today’s games. I know, I know, most of you will say that I’m comparing apples to oranges and that Blackwell Deceptions is meant to look this way, but most people will have a hard time leaving Dark Souls or Forza 4 to play Blackwell Deception and not notice the huge gap in graphics quality. The game runs solely in 800 x 600 resolution with no option to change it, so worry if the game looks bad when you play it, it’s not your PC, it really looks that bad. I am not all about the graphics, games are not all about graphics. This was the main reason why I call this section “Aesthetics” not “Graphics” because I wanted to give games like Blackwell Deception a chance to do something different without getting hammered on the quality of their resolution. But the graphics of Blackwell Deception aren’t stylized, but really are a downgrade to other similar games, like the latest season of Sam and Max.

Blackwell Deception makes up for it’s like in graphic aesthetics and makes up for it in sound aesthetics. The characters are all voiced beautifully and makes you really get into each character’s personality. With the combination of story and vocalizations, the world of Blackwell Deception comes alive and makes the player forget sometimes that he or she is looking at graphics that would have looked great in 1983. The music is also a great choice for this game, going with the music that would have made any period noir detective piece come alive. The music punctuates the dark city scape with a mood that just feels right.

Final Thoughts:

Having played a metric ton of point and click adventure games this year, Blackwell Deception really shines out as one of the best of it’s genre to be released in a while. The story is near perfect and intriguing, the music and vocalizations of the characters fit perfectly with the mood that the story is trying to portray, and the puzzles are hard enough to keep you busy, but logical enough to solve if you keep your wits about you. The major downside is the graphics issue, which I can overlook. The game is rendered in the old Sierra Online look that is stuck in the early 80’s with 800 x 600 resolution graphics. I understand the attempt to make this game look and feel like the old King’s Quest games, but in comparison to today’s graphics capabilities, it ends up looking cheap and unfinished. However, the story, game play and sound of Blackwell Deception easily makes up for the graphics downside to make this game a must buy for anyone that is looking for a great detective game that will run on any system.

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Hector: Beyond Reasonable Doom – Review (PC)

2011/10/13

Judgeman

News, Reviews

Telltale Games has released the final chapter to the Hector Trilogy entitled Beyond Reasonable Doom. Beyond Reasonable Doom’s storyline picks right up where episode two left off and then wraps up the terrorist case in Clapper’s Wreake.

Story:

The story of the Hector Trilogy has been its strong suit since the beginning and Beyond Reasonable Doom continues this trend. The story does pick right up where it ended with episode two, so make sure you have played through the other episodes first before picking up this game. Hector continues work on the case involving the Terrorist of Clapper’s Wreake using his personal syle of detective work, which involves questionable methods and morality. Without spoiling the ending, or any of the other episodes while I’m at it, Beyond Reasonable Doom wraps up the trilogy nicely and leaves me satisfied in the story department. Overall, the story is well written and funny, with a British sensability to it. While it won’t win any writing awards, Beyond Reasonable Doom does tie up all of the loose ends and characters into a nice little ending that will leave you smiling. The writing has been easily the best part of the Hector series and has made me laugh hard more then once.

Gameplay:

The gameplay of Beyond Reasonable Doom is the exact same as the other two episodes, point and click. You will spend your time moving your mouse around the scene, looking for items to pick up, interact with, or to merge together. The puzzles in this go around seem to be a little more logical and were easier for me to understand and comprehend. There were a few puzzles in the earlier episodes that I just didn’t get the logic behind, but episode three steered clear of those traps. The puzzles here just feel right, challenging enough to make you think, but not hard enough that you will want to bang your head on your keyboard.

Aesthetics:

The visuals of the Hector Trilogy have a hand drawn look to them and are just fun to look at. The visuals make Clapper’s Wreake appear to be the unpleasent town that the characters say it is. Everything is done in two dimensional art style that works nicely. The locals are fun to look at and, in some cases, disturbing, but all have that particular sense of humor that Hector is known for.

The sound design for the game is adequate, but the voice acting, as before, is great. The characters each have their own personality that comes through in the voice acting brilliantly. Hector is done to perfection, the actor really makes him sound like the ass the dialogue makes him out to be.

Final Thoughts:

The Hector Trilogy was a fun romp through Clapper’s Wreake. The puzzles, with some exceptions, were logical and just challenging enough to give your brain a tweak. The art direction fit the story perfectly, the locals were dirty and disturbing, the characters visually portrayed their personalities, and was completed in a two dimensional style. The story line won’t win any awards for depth, but will keep you fully entertained for the entire three episodes. Beyond Reasonable Doom ties up the story line quite nicely and gives the trilogy a nice little ending. Overall, I felt that this trilogy, while not as good as this year’s Sam and Max trilogy, is worth playing for any fan of the point and click genre.

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Skydrift – A Review (Xbox 360)

2011/09/23

Judgeman

News, Reviews

Digital Reality has released a new aerial racing game for the Xbox 360 named Skydrift. To be honest, I didn’t know a lot about Skydrift before I downloaded it to my Xbox 360, which is truly a crime because Skydrift is one of the best racing games that you will play this year. Combining the hectic racing game play of Mario Kart with the aerial acrobatics of Crimson Skies (oh, how I miss that game), Skydrift is a deep racing game that looks great to play.

Story and Gameplay:

The story is just like any other racing game, win the damn race. No matter what game type you are playing, the goal is the same, to come in first. Most of the game modes pits you against a set number of opponents where the first plane across the finish line wins, but you will run into other game modes that shake things up a bit, like elimination where the last place plane when time runs out is eliminated. The game modes are varied enough to keep you from getting bored and are quite fun in their own right.

The controls for Skydrift took me a little while to get used to, but once you do they feel very intuitive and right. You have the typical gas and break triggers to make your plane go, along with a shoot button and a boost button. You also have the ability to do stunts in order to gain boost by flying on the edges of your wings. Doing this will allow you to take tighter corners at a much higher rate of speed. Think of it like a hand break option in a car racing game, easy to do but hard to master.

The weapons are fairly typical for this type of game, you have your mines, machine guns, rockets and shield power ups. If you are shot down or crash into a wall, you will respawn right where you died and begin the race again. During each race, you can carry two items at a time, but you can upgrade these items by collecting another item that is the same. For example, if you already have a shield power up, collecting another shield power up will boost that shield when you use it and allows you to absorb much more damage. One feature that I really liked with Skydrift’s game play is the option to turn a power up into boost. I always hated being in front of the pack in Mario Kart with a useless power up, with this feature that is fixed and I can boost away from the pack that is chasing me.

Skydrift is full of extra items that a player can collect, like extra skins for the eight planes in the game or different awards and achievements. Each plane has different stats and can be useful in different game modes or styles of play. Like to blast your enemies but worried that they will blast you back? Take the plane that has the higher defense. Do you play much more of a straight racing style? Then the plane with the higher speed and acceleration but lower defense may work for you.

Skydrift can be played over Xbox Live, but I was unable to get any Live games in due to the severe lack of opponents. Skydrift had a quiet release, which means I don’t think a lot of you have heard about how good this game is and have not purchased it yet from the Xbox Live Marketplace. This has led to a lack of online games currently for Skydrift, as I couldn’t find a single game or opponent to play against whenever I tried during my time with Skydrift. I hope this changes soon, because this game deserves a solid online community.

Aesthetics:

Skydrift is great to look at. The planes look fantastic and are extremely colorful, just like racing planes should be. The levels are well designed and very interesting. In many cases, the level actually caused me to take my mind off of the race at hand to stare at a great feature of the track or by looking for an alternative route through a lava field. I am grateful for the targeting reticule that the game provides, because honestly it’s hard to see the other planes in all of the features of each level. You can loose the plane ahead of you as he dives through a waterfall or around extremely tight curves and out of your line of sight. Skydrift is just a joy to look at and the racetracks are varied and interesting enough to keep you from getting bored.

The sound, on the other had, just does its job well enough so that it is not bad. The soundtrack is typical race game fare, with nothing that stands out to be praised while the sound effects does the job, nothing more. There is no race announcer at all, but I’ll leave it up to you on whether that is a good thing or a bad thing. Overall, the visual aesthetics are fantastic, while the sound aesthetics are just serviceable.

Final Thoughts:

Skydrift has had a quiet release and that is a shame, this game deserves more attention. Skydrift combines the chaos of a Mario Kart style racing game, with the dog fighting mechanics of an aerial fighting game. Digital Reality really did a fantastic job on Skydrift, filling it with exciting and gorgeous racing levels and different awards that players can earn during races. While the game has it’s downsides, Skydrift has much more going for it and is a great purchase for any racing or aerial dogfighting fans out there. What is really the worst part about Skydrift is the current lack of an online community. With a strong online community behind it, Skydrift’s appeal will last a long time and it’s replayability would greatly increase.

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Crimson Alliance – A Review (Xbox 360)

2011/09/23

Judgeman

News, Reviews

Microsoft Studios and Certain Affinity have brought us the newest action role playing game to hit the Xbox Live Arcade with Crimson Alliance. Crimson Alliance follows three prototypical heroes through the fallen empire of Byzan as they work their way to Byzan’s new ruler, the Soul Siren. Taking many of its game play features from games such as Diablo and Torchlight, Crimson Alliance is a decent game that could have been much better with a few adjustments.

Story:

Crimson Alliance follows three heroes as they travel through the Empire of Byzan. The heroes, Direwolf the Wizard, Gnox the Mercenary and Moonshade the Assassin, work their way through dungeon after dungeon, until they reach the Soul Siren, the new and corrupted ruler of Byzan. As our heroes fight through the masses of the Soul Siren’s forces, they have to deal with their own sordid past and work together through distrust in order to rescue the Empire of Byzan.

While the story of Crimson Alliance won’t win any awards this year, it is solid enough to be entertaining. My biggest disappointment with the writing for Crimson Alliance is that the story can’t quite decide what tone it wants to portray throughout the story. At some spots, the story starts to touch on a humorous tone, but then quickly backs away. If the writing had been closer to what was found in Magicka, then I think it would have been a bigger hit with me. But as it stands, it just feels serviceable with characters that feel way too much like clones of these typical archetypes.

Gameplay:

Crimson Alliance focuses on the three class dungeon crawler model, in a similar vein to Torchlight. In Crimson Alliance, you have attacks mapped to three buttons with a teleport ability attached to the fourth button. Your attacks don’t change throughout the game, they just gain in strength depending on the item that you have equipped. Each class has a stun attack that will allow them to slow down the fight, for instance, the wizard’s attack sends out a wave of ice that will freeze his opponents in their place. The movement controls are fluid and well done, and the attack controls make sense and feel just right to me.

In each level, the player has a chance to find hidden treasure that is behind a obstacle that only his class can unlock. This hidden treasure is an upgrade for one of his equipment slots. The wizard, for example, carries a staff, an orb, and robes, so in each dungeon you will find a special upgrade for one of these spots. You can also buy upgrades at the end of the level from the traveling merchant with the gold that you find as you move through the level. You will not find any upgrades to this equipment as drops from the level’s denizens. The only items that you will find are extra items that can become useful, like sentry guns or throwing axes.

Up to four players can play Crimson Alliance, either over Xbox Live or through local co-op. I ran through the levels through the local co-op with two other people and really thought that this is where the game shines. In fact, there will be some puzzles for gold that you simply cannot solve without the other people in your group, so make some friends before playing Crimson Alliance.

Crimson Alliance plays quite well, but in the end still feels like Torchlight or Diablo, just without some of the features that makes either of those games great. You don’t get a skill tree in Crimson Alliance, your skills are improved by the type of item that you equip. I also feel that the lack of item drops throughout the game just makes Crimson Alliance feel incomplete. I love the randomness of item drops in Torchlight or Diablo, there is always a chance that an upgrade can be found on the next monster you kill. That feeling is gone in Crimson Alliance, where your upgrades are bought at the end of the level, or discovered by searching for the one item per level that is hidden.

Aesthetics:

Crimson Alliance does have a nice style to it. From it’s comic book style intro to its dark dungeon levels, Crimson Alliance does look very nice. I was very pleased when the levels started to change from drab dungeon interior to exterior. One of my biggest complaints with these types of games is that you only get a certain variety of indoor dungeon for your level scheme. Crimson Alliance, in the same way that Diablo II does it, moves the action outside and changes up your level aesthetic so that you are not just looking at the same type of dungeon wall. Though Crimson Alliance does not do it as well as Diablo II, I gotta say that I liked the aesthetics here more then I did in Torchlight.

The voice acting is typical of this type of game, not fantastic but does the job. The characters are voiced in the exact way you would expect, the wizard sounds old and wizened, the mercenary is much more brutish while the assassin has a quiet tone to her voice. Some of the dialogue gets over the top, in a way that I would have enjoyed if Crimson Alliance would have gone the humorous route for it’s story. Since the story did not go that direction, the over the top dialogue just feels corny and out of place in these cases.

Final Thoughts:

Crimson Alliance does many things that other action rpgs do well, but in the end falls short of the better games. While it’s aesthetics and game play are solid, the lack of item drops in Crimson Alliance just makes the game feel unfinished in comparison to Diablo II or Torchlight. The 4 player online or local co-op is a great feature for the game and will ensure that there is plenty to do with friends. What makes Crimson Alliance accessible to players is the pricing scheme, which is free for the base game, 800 Microsoft Points for one class or 1200 Points for all three classes. This makes Crimson Alliance worth whatever money you want to put into it, and in this economy that’s probably the best feature of the game. At the end of the day, most players will probably wait until Diablo III or Torchlight II comes out for their next action rpg, but if you are looking for a good action rpg on a budget, then Crimson Alliance will serve you well.

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