Author - Ripper71

Painkiller: Hell & Damnation Review (PC/Steam)

2012/11/19

Fans of the first person shooter genre even if they haven’t played them know games like Doom, Wolfenstein 3D and, after it failed so badly, even non-FPS gamers (and non-gamers) know Duke Nukem 3D which wasn’t much different from it’s massively successful predecessor graphically. Some may say it was a simpler time of gaming when those titles reigned supreme, graphics were good for their time, the story didn’t mean crap it was all about run and gun, shoot anything that moved because it all wanted you dead. There have been sequels to these titles, each with varying success but all with the same formula: fun weapons and lots of things to kill with them. Alongside these titles should be another that true fans of FPS hold close to their hearts but most outside the genre have probably never heard of: Painkiller. It’s idea was simple: give the players cool looking weapons and have them kill everything in sight to Hell and back, literally. The formula worked through add-ons and expansions where it just gave you more scenery and more killing because that is what players wanted, back then at least. Now about eight years later does a sequel for the game stand a chance with today’s players or will it become Painkiller: Hell To Play?

Storyline:

Our hero of yore is back again, killing time in Purgatory pissed at how he kept getting jacked over in previous encounters with anything he didn’t shoot. So when a new entity approaches him, this time Death himself, and offers him a way to reunited with his wife he tells Death off right quick. Then he thinks about how bored he is and decides what the hell? Even if he doesn’t get back to his beloved Catherine at least he can kill some time killing. Jaded and pissed off fits Daniel Garner just fine as he locks, loads and causes things to explode. Death’s deal? Kill stuff and collect souls. If it sounds like I am spoiling things I’m not, that is all in the first few minutes, after that the storyline takes a backseat to slaughter, and I think sparse story works for better than bad story.

Graphics/Sound (Atmosphere):

This is where some games went wrong recently, no matter how much even older gamers want to relive the glory days of video gaming genesis they have forgotten just how bad the graphics are compared to their youth. Honestly the graphics on the original Painkiller games were no slouch, coming out only about eight years ago but there is still a marked improvement which was an extremely smart move. It also has a kick ass soundtrack by Ojo Rojo which gets the blood pumping to match the blood splatter.

Gameplay:

Ok the first step in making a sequel to a classic is updating the graphics, second is deciding how much of the old formula to stick to. In the case of Painkiller: Hell & Damnation they went back to the old play formula even more than before, give a little back ground and then give wave after wave of enemies. They vary a bit, during Halloween they even had special monsters just for the season, but in the end you take on tons of monsters of varying difficulties then a boss fight. To do it they give you lots of weapons to slice, dice, and anything else you might want to do to an enemy killing wise.

The variety of kills helps the repetition of enemies seem less of a consideration as you care less about what they look like before you kill them and more about a new creative way to take them out. I literally constantly cycled through the weapons, changing attacks on every enemy making goo and bits of them all. This game knows what it is and what players loved about it in the past. Sometimes players just want to play a good old fashion bloodbath and that is what it is. The bosses require a bit of challenge and thought, and finding all the secrets of the game to unlock buffs can be challenging but in the end you can just sit down at this game and play a session of kill everything in sight.

The game is pretty short though playing through again trying to find more things, or in some cases less things just trying to beat the clock, can be rewarding. There is a great co-op mode that allows you to go through the campaign with another player and the game adjusts enemies to match. There is the classic deathmatch and capture the flag multiplayer modes as well to give you an opportunity to splatter other players as fast as you can too in case you like to share your bloodlust and get literally more bang for your buck.

Last Call:

This review is a bit shorter but that is because this game is simple and straight forward, it is a classic FPS updated graphically for today’s gamer. If you remember the days of Doom fondly but still want your Halo style multiplayer Painkiller: Hell and Damnation is a great bridge between the games that made the genre and the play you have come expect. When I feel like just doing lots of creative killing I plan to go back to this game time and again, I really hope they keep up with the holiday themeing too, I could get behind blasting Santa and his elves.

Trailer:

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Euro Truck Simulator 2 Review (PC)

2012/11/16

Ripper71

News, Reviews, Windows PC Review

I definitely know my way around a simulator. Another member of the GamingShogun.com family used to be known for them but somewhere along the line I slipped into the driver seat, quite literally in most cases, and I now have a nice solid butt groove in it. I find that some of the most challenging of the sims are the truck ones because we want to draw upon our general knowledge of physics from driving cars which is entirely different. Some also come with the opportunity to try to learn the complex stick system of big rigs which is not just hard but once you learn it you don’t always have it like riding a bicycle you have to stay fresh or lose your edge. What Excalibur did with Euro Truck Simulator 2 was put all the challenges of all the different trucking games into one game then add terrific graphics and over the top features to make this game the best vehicle simulator I have ever played.

Features:

Transport a vast variety of cargo across more than 60 European cities.
Run your own business which continues to grow even as you complete your freight deliveries.
Build your own fleet of trucks, buy garages, hire drivers, manage your company for maximum profits.
A varied amount of truck tuning that range from performance to cosmetic changes.
Customize your vehicles with optional lights, bars, horns, beacons, smoke exhausts, and more.
Thousands of miles of real road networks with hundreds of famous landmarks and structures.

Gameplay:

The gameplay in most vehicle sims is just trying to complete missions or tasks. In this game you have an actual full storyline in which you are trying to progress through. There are multiple ways to change the difficulty from the kind of jobs you take, to the how accurately you want to drive the vehicle such as camera angles and shifting. You choose the job you want to do from a long list, weather goes through patterns as does day and night all making it so it can be insanely realistic and difficult or just a simple fun play. It is all up to you.

Vehicles can be customized for looks as well as function also adding to the game experience and though thankfully the times doesn’t match one minute to one minute during the missions they can be pretty long to complete especially if you take on a long haul. The amount of versatility in this game is absolutely staggering, a person could play through the game over and over and never have the same experience because of the variety of jobs, diversity of business building possibilities and sheer number of customizing options. This game is basically a driving simulator, business simulator and custom truck designer all rolled into one with the possibility of enough realism to prepare the player for most real life scenarios in each. If someone had told me they wanted to try to combine all of these I probably would have called them mad, to see it pulled off so well is incredible. This isn’t a game you could just play for hours, this is one you could play for days.

Graphics:

To pull off all of the above you would think the graphics would have to suffer. Not the case, there is excellent detail in the environments, vehicle cabs, and outside sections of the rigs. There are complex reflections in the environments as well as shadows. Landmarks all over Europe are painstakingly recreated to make the landscapes feel as real as possible. This is one of the best uses of the exterior camera angles, to see your customized rig driving past landmarks and beautiful scenery while the sun is setting or the rain spatters off the cab. Personally though I love to look at it all out the windows of my cab like I would if I were really behind the wheel.

Sound:

Normally this is grouped with graphics as part of the atmosphere of this game but this time I felt it deserved it’s own section because not only are the general sounds of trucking realistic but you can change the radio stations to choose from dozens of real live streaming European radio stations! The streaming is perfect with no glitches or buffering and it honestly sounds like you are listening to it in your own truck. I cranked up my speakers and amazed other people in the house with how good the stations were. I particularly liked a French station which mixed classic 80s, contemporary alternative, and popular European bands all together into a station where I never understood the DJ but loved the universality of great music. At one point I had to do things around the house so I paused the gameplay and left the music going because it was better than my iPod, iPad or iPhone. I used to love listening to “radio” stations in other games that had a soundtrack rotation on each “channel.” This game may have spoiled me on those because it just uses real radio.

Last Call:

This game was a complete shock to someone who is hard to shock when it comes to games. It could be as easy or difficult as I wanted, as in depth or simple as I wanted and could have been a good game as a rig simulator, radio streamer, business simulator or custom truck designer but instead put them all into one package with each part having immense diversity. I keep finding myself drawn back to another haul so I can change my paint job or have a bit more money in the bank to hire a new employee the following month or so that I can just enjoy the road, the scenery and the terrific music for a while.

Trailer:

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Dark Preview (XBox360/PC)

2012/11/16

Ripper71

News, Previews, Windows PC News, Windows PC Preview, Xbox 360 News, Xbox 360 Preview

1 Comment

Those who really keep up on the FPS and third person shooter genre have probably come across a strange trailer from Kalypso that creates questions rather than answering them. It starts out with a first person point of view of a strike team being wiped out by a teleporting beast that mostly keeps to the shadows and then moves into make a kill on the viewer. The word “Dark” slowly fades in, fades out. After that a handful of screenshots for the game were released showing a dark figure stalking through darker alleys in third person perspective. With this the forums blew up. Was it first person? Third person? Shooter like the trailers hints at or power based fighting like the screenies hint at? The only official word was that is isn’t a shooter, you are a vampire and use those powers. Players hounded Kalypso for answers and they bided their time… until recently when they invited a couple handfuls of journalists to come see for themselves what the game had in store and I was one of the lucky few.

Storyline:

Still shrouded a bit in secrecy and development, the initial storyline is that you are a vampire fledgling, freshly made and still learning your powers, and you have been set on a path of both self discovery and discovery of who your master is. Along the way you discover that there are certain things that a fledgling must do to become full vampire and that if you fail you become one of the beasts from the trailer, mad as a hatter zombies/ghouls killing everything in your path. If these issues aren’t enough there is a military group known as “M17” that is not just in your way but wants you dead. All this is in the initial developing storyline of the game.

Graphics/Sound (Atmosphere):

It is a game of dark themes and dark environments but the game uses 3D cel-shaded graphics and great lighting so that it still makes great use of color and rich contrast. The environments vary so much as to put the graphics to great use being everything from office buildings to forests to mine shafts. As a company that appreciates making the most of platforms Kalypso also plans to make advanced graphic settings for the PC version of Dark giving the greatest visual experience your system can handle (deadlines for the XBox360 platforms require the games to be done at a certain time for physical production allowing more time for PC graphic adjustments). The cutscenes are designed to match the action graphically which also helps maintain the suspension of disbelief and the flow of the game. The sound is excellent and crisp and I am sure the final soundtrack will be match great since the music being played at the event matched the action extremely well.

Gameplay:

The most beautiful game with the best story in the world can still be unplayable if the game mechanics don’t work well. Luckily even though they are being adjusted every day the current gameplay builds, both mechanics and options, are not just playable but solidly defined to the point that if the game were to release tomorrow with the current build it would be a good play. This makes it look extremely optimistic that once the final version is released it will be a great game in all aspects. The control choices are intuitive to the third person genre and are easily picked up and mastered so that players can concentrate on play rather than on learning to play.

The gameplay style itself is a different take on a well established formula. This game heavily involves the use of stealth, misdirection and strategic approach. It is not an attack everything run and gun play style. Many enemies are just better off being avoided completely and the whole area of a level should be considered from a safe spot of cover before moving. One of the vampiric talents you get is the ability to sense blood around you as well as sensing if you are observed. This enables you to have an infrared style look at a level showing glowing red figures of your enemies and whether or not they already see you. This is a great way to keep you from stepping out from behind some crates into a six man crossfire which I saw plenty of when people weren’t being cautious during hands-on.

Another vampiric trait that helps is called shadow leap, which is a teleporting ability showcased in the teaser trailer that has been released. It is based on line of sight and makes it so that you can teleport to any location you see regardless on obstacles between you and the spot. This can prove great for teleporting across rooms to escape guards, teleporting past fences to prevent pursuit, heck this is a great way just to cross a room quickly. The best use of this however is teleporting right up next to an enemy and feeding on them or dispatching them in some other way. There is a definite feeling of satisfaction when you appear in a puff of black smoke and since your teeth into an enemy. Remember this game is a third person action, not a third person shooter, so you have to rely on techniques that let you pass enemies or let you get up close and personal to them fast.

To help with this there is also skill points that are gained to fill in skill trees and improve your vampiric prowess. There are multiple trees and multiple traits on them that are still in development so it might be a bit soon to comment on them too deeply but they are at this time designed to make significant improvements to your play and also vary enough to custom tailor greatly to your personal style of stealth play, which there can be a rather large variety of. Offhand examples would be trying to complete a level without killing guards or half-vamps, another would be killing everyone in sight, another would be teleporting through as much as possible as fast as possible. There will also always be those who want to just run in and kill like crazy and only retreat to cover when they are about to die. The developers have taken all these styles and more into account and have already built in great replayability with just these trees and traits since you can play through a different style each time. Add to it the variety of environment and replay should definitely not be boring.

Last Call:

This was a preview of the game, a glimpse of what is to come after so much teasing and it was nice to not just see gameplay but to be able to be directly hands on with it to get a solid feel for what we can expect. With its unique theme and own taste on the third person action game Kalypso has taken us out of the dark wondering what to expect and instead given us great expectations of the game to come.

Trailer:

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Scania Truck Driving Simulator Review (PC)

2012/11/12

Ripper71

News, Reviews, Windows PC News, Windows PC Review

I have played a lot of car driving games over the years which made me think I was pretty well prepared to drive a big rig. Heck when I was a teenager I learned how to drive a water truck and a dump truck so I thought I had a pretty good understanding of the steering involved with big trucks. It doesn’t take long before you realize that driving a semi with a trailer is different from any other driving game you have ever tried.

Storyline:

Sims usually don’t have much of a storyline but this one actually has one to a degree. You are a young trucker who is working on your skills so you can compete in Young European Truck Drivers contest held in Sweden then go on to deliver cargo down dangerous roads to individuals in need. In this sense the story is basically three chapters: learning to drive, competing, then putting all you learned to practical use.

Gameplay:

Semi trucks with trailers do not perform at all like you would expect them to. Learning to drive in this game is a very difficult lesson in physics and any person who has every thought a trucker has the easy life needs to play this sim and learn differently. Backing up in particular is a hard learned trick because a semi trailer doesn’t behave at all like you would think when you put that sucker in reverse. They are also squirrely as hell which might cause a less patient player to run away quick. This game is hard but anyone who ever thinks they can drive anything or have ever thought that life on the open road was for them should really give this game a run. I sincerely believe that the learning to drive section of this game not only prepares you for the next section of the game but also teaches you the fundamentals you need to drive a truck with a trailer in real life.

The second part, the Young European Truck Drivers contest that has you running obstacle courses and performing tricky maneuvers struggling for the best times not just set by the developers but set by fellow players all over the world. You have to have your game down pretty tight if you want to be ranked decently at all. This part I was generally just happy to complete, getting competitive times would require dedication bordering on obsession. No scratch that, you would have to be obsessed. It is crazy hard to complete yet alone compete so those who do deserve mad respect. They also deserve a giveme hat and a loan for their first rig or at least a try at being a tram driver at Disneyland.

The last part is actually a bit easier and possibly the most fun is the dangerous roads and deliveries section of the game that follows the competition. Instead of having required moves you have to make to complete a task you are on timed runs driving the best you can through flood swollen streets and along cliffs with sheer drops. You really put your reflexes and knowledge of the physics of the rigs to test in this one but instead of trying to avoid cones you are trying to keep from sending your rig plummeting to certain doom. This seems the most appealing just like seeing a tight rope walker walking 50 feet off the ground is more exciting than seeing one walk 5 feet off the ground. To succeed at these tasks it takes the same skills you learned in practice and competition but there is much more satisfaction in real world conditions.

Graphics And Sound:

The graphics in the game are excellent and really help immerse the player into the game. The tiny details can be important on some of the driving challenges so good graphics can be key. The sounds are also very authentic with the rumble of engines and when making a mistake sometimes the screech of metal. Between the graphics and physics this game might not play quite as well on a lower end computer but if your computer can handle it you will enough the atmosphere.

Last Call:

This game definitely isn’t for everyone, it takes patience and more patience as well as some skill. Driving a semi truck using real world physics is a lot harder than it looks when you see someone doing it at your local loading dock. If you like a challenge this game is an excellent one and if you have ever thought of a career in truck driving master this game first.

Trailer:

Gallery:

Zombie Cat: The Tale Of A Decomposing Kitty (Book Review)

2012/11/12

Ripper71

Book Review, News, Reviews

When I first heard the title of this book I thought it might be much like some of the books of my youth titled “101 Uses For A Dead Cat” and expected a tasteless collection of mistreated kitty corpses. What I found instead was a heartwarming book about a boy and his recently deceased feline and their journey through the zombie apocalypse.

Without giving away too much of the book this is written in children’s book style with the gore you would expect from a zombie tale but told in a way that reaches out to all ages. The artwork is very well done with colorful illustrations that one would expect in a children’s book and the story is both heartwarming and hilarious.

For fans of the zombie genre, children’s books aimed at all ages or just folks who want an unusual table top book I highly recommend this fun and original read.

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Coolmaster Skorpion Mouse Bungee Review (PC)

2012/11/10

Ripper71

News, Reviews

Ok at first when I heard about this product my initial thought was “What? Why would my mouse ever need a bungee?” It wasn’t until I got ahold of one and put it to the test that I realized I had actually been needing one for a long time.

Product Overiew:

Ever missed the perfect shot cause your mouse cord got stuck? Are you tired of mousecord drag and pull? Do you constantly bend and move your mouse cord around, but don’t want to compromise and go wireless? Get the Cooler Master CM Storm Skorpion and make your mouse feel like its wireless! Don’t restrict your options to a few tiny wireless mice, use any mouse you want. No added delay, interference issues, higher weight due to batteries, and constant recharging and swapping batteries like actual wireless mice.

Testing:

When I read the product overview the first time I had two thoughts: first, that it sounds like a TV infomercial. Second, that every single point mentioned was either a problem I had had at some point or a consideration I had made the same decision on. I had been about to get the perfect snipe shot or had a rotation blown by my mouse cord getting stuck. My desk is pretty small so most of my cable hangs over the edge causing extra weight and pull on the cable and occasionally things get knocked onto the cord on the desk or knocked off the desk and happen to hit the cord. My cord goes around a post on the desk before dropping toward the back and sometimes just the post can cause an annoying drag. I have on occasion considered going with my wireless mouse to free it up but don’t want to have my mouse die at a crucial moment in a boss fight. All these issues are solved easily by the Skorpion and it just plain looks badass on my desk.

The Skorpion is designed with gripping legs that keep them from moving and a “tail” that goes up over it’s body and can accommodate thin plastic wrapped cables or thick fabric wrapped cords. Designed for a mouse it gives extra movement with it’s flexible tail in case you find yourself need to move the mouse beyond it’s usual space around the mousepad. That way you don’t feel constricted by it’s use at all.

I didn’t limit my testing of it to my mouse, one of my computer speakers is designed with cable leading to the entire set and the computer causing it to weigh down and sometimes slide right off the side of my desk and behind it. This means I have to climb under the desk, untangle it from any wires it might have fallen into and set it back up. Placing the Skorpion behind it and running it’s heaviest cable through it guarantees it won’t fall off the back and have me scrambling around to set it back up.

Last Call:

This is one of those products you don’t think you need until you consider your computer situation then you realize it is a product you are long overdue for. It is reasonably priced, can be used in multiple ways and did I mention it looks bad ass? It even breaks down easy for travel. Do yourself a favor and pick up one of these.

Atari Arcade Review (iPad)

2012/11/10

Ripper71

Mobile News, Mobile Review, News, Peripheral Review, Peripherals News, Reviews

I had already been playing Atari Greatest Hits on the iPad and iPhone for a while when the opportunity to try out this peripheral came along so I was more than happy to give it a run to see if it improved the gaming experience. I had grown up in video arcades and had the Atari Computer Gaming System (later to be dubbed the Atari 2600) since it had come out so I had old school memories of gameplay to draw from and a desire to relive them.

Setup on the system is as easy as charging the iPad. No extra power source is required for the Atari Arcade which means it remains nicely mobile and you simply connect the plug on the Arcade to the charging input on the bottom of the iPad, slide the locking pins forward and you are ready to start up the game. When you start Atari Greatest Hits it automatically detects the Atari Arcade and configures gameplay to work with the controller. The program comes with one free game but a few extra games come with the controller purchase as well (or you can do what I did and fork out $10 to get 99 games) so you can start playing almost immediately.

Thanks to the locking system and design of the controller the game system is playable not only on a table or steady surface but on your lap as well making it nicely mobile and great for trips or waiting rooms. A lot of thought was obviously put into the design of this controller and it shows as you quickly forget about what you are playing the games on and get caught up in the games themselves. The controller has four buttons so it can simulate the controls from the arcade for games like Asteroids which required multiple buttons or the Atari 2600’s Combat that required just one button so the rest of the buttons are assigned to Atari 2600 functions such as Game Reset and a/b select. Another nice feature is the controller doesn’t negate touch screen commands so that if you want to touch the screen to change games or hit the button on the bottom of the iPad to close the program it all works smoothly.

Last Call:

Peripherals for the iPad can be REALLY hit or miss, quite often missing completely. I am pleased to say not only does the Atari Arcade live up to hopes it exceeds them. It could be considered a bit pricey but when you consider for an additional $10 you wind up having 99 games playable in their original arcade or console style but in a completely portable system and it becomes much more reasonable. Besides, it is hard to put a price on keeping a kid occupied during a long trip in the back seat of the car or in a doctor’s office and if you did put a price on it this system might be within it.

Guns Of Icarus Online Review (PC/Steam)

2012/11/10

Ripper71

News, Reviews, Windows PC News, Windows PC Review

This is one of those games that when the beta was announced I signed up for it quick and when the closed beta began I happened to be in a busy season and didn’t get to touch it. So when it was announced that it was now available on Steam and we had a review copy I was quick to volunteer. Steampunk Zeppelin FPS? Yes please! The concept behind it alone was enough to pull me in, but was it enough to keep me playing?

Storyline:

In the spirit of Guns Of Icarus, Guns Of Icarus Online takes place after the daring flight of the Icarus in a time of chaos and war with man against daring man in their flying machines. The website goes into a history of the land but the reasons for the fighting are a little ambiguous which is fine since as a good soldier you are just told to shoot them over there.

Gameplay:

Movement consists of standard WASD and mouse with R and F being used additionally by the pilot to throttle the ships. There are three player classes to choose from: gunner, engineer, and pilot, all of which have overlapping capabilities making it so they can do all the jobs just not as well as the person specializing in it. Gameplay at a basic level consists of manning guns, flying the ship and repairing the ship. There are finer details such as special loadouts both for the ships and players to improve these acts but for the most part the gameplay is flying, shooting and repairing. Since it is all straight forward in that sense it mostly comes down to player’s skills rather than weapons or ships as to who will win a fight.

There are five types of ships: The Junker (much like a Chinese Junk, only flying), The Squid (you can guess what this looks like), The Galleon (armor and gun array similar to a traditional galleon), The Goldfish (yep you guessed what it looks like) and the Pyramidion (makes me kinda think of Silent Hill’s Pyramid Head as a Macy’s Thanksgiving Day float). Each ship has an inherent strength that fits the style of the pilot and is selected by them. Ships like the Squid are fast, the Goldfish is agile and the Pyramidion is a juggernaut. The end result is mech or tank style battles with four man crews including the pilot where it is vital that the crew work as a team or all is lost. If the crews work together as a fleet then the team is almost unstoppable. There is voice and text chat in the game and the crews that seem to do the best tend to be the one’s with a vocal captain piloting well and calling the shots. The teams that do the worst are usually the ones who have a silent captain or one that just insults the crew.

Atmosphere:

Usually atmosphere is discussed earlier in the review but since it is the real standout of the game I saved the best for last. This is a Steampunk/Dieselpunk environment and the ships and clothing style represent this genre beautifully giving stunning graphics with great detail and lots of customization of character wardrobe (for a small fee) to allow players to have an extremely individual look that suits their style. This is really the aspect that sets this game apart from other vehicle PVP games that would, for flying purposes, have you in planes, mechs or spaceships. The music is excellent and fits the mood created by the visuals as well making this game addictive to play not so much because of original gameplay but more from original atmosphere.

Promises Of More To Come:

As it stand now the game is fairly bare bones, you have player and AI crews in PVP combat. Vehicles and gameplay options are expected to be added as the game develops over time including the addition of merchant play.

Last Call:

Guns Of Icarus Online is a pretty straight forward team vehicle PVP game set in a stunning and visually interesting world. It is about $10 depending on where you purchase it from so you get an affordable game that is still in the fairly bare bones stage. It relies heavily on a player base, the more it can get the better it will be so hopefully it will take off nicely. The environment is enough to keep bringing me back to playing it though I do hope the promises of more content come along sooner rather than later for the game’s sake and that of the Kickstarters that funded it.

Trailer:

Gallery:

R.A.W.-Realms Of Ancient War Review (PC)

2012/10/16

Ripper71

News, Reviews

They go by a few different names, dungeon crawlers, hack and slash adventures and RPG action to name some but if you have ever seen Diablo you know what a prime example of the genre is. By far the most successful of the dungeon crawlers, Diablo is what all other games of the type wish to be: great play with a dedicated fan base. That second aspect is really hard to earn and many very good games have given us the great play and gone by practically unnoticed. One of the ones that has been lucky enough to grab attention is Realms Of Ancient War, the only question is does it have the gameplay to keep eyes and hands on it?

Storyline:

Long ago, the four kingdoms of men, dwarves and elves were torn apart in a violent war. A brittle peace has been established 10 years ago during the mysterious “Summoning of the Kings”. But today, the world is on the verge of entering war again, as hordes of Nothingness are pouring through portals across all four Kingdoms. The Kings have sent detachments of soldiers to investigate the origin of this new threat… none ever returned. This all seemed so far away from you. But it is you that the King of the North has chosen, to open the four Portals and put an end to the evil forces, once and for all!

This seems like a pretty interesting plot and driving force for a game and reveals itself more deeply as the game progresses, fleshing out a pretty detailed story and villain. You really don’t need a good story necessarily for a hack n’ slash adventure but it can be the defining edge that turns a single game into a series with fans crying out for more.

Graphics:

The graphics are really, really nice. There is great detail all through the game and varying environments so that you don’t get tired of looking at the same graphics over and over, one dungeon blending into the next. A lot of attention was paid to the graphics, from crumbling walls to growing blood puddles and it really shows. Also a very nice touch is the corpses remaining on the ground instead of disappearing as soon as you leave the screen or right before your eyes. This takes a bit more memory and detail to programming but is worth it when you are running around, can’t remember if you covered an area properly and you see a nice pile of carnage you have left behind. It can be so cool seeing your areas of destruction that sometimes you just want to call somebody over to show them all the damage you have done. The death throes of the beasties and their positions or in some cases lack of position make for very cool moments. The only graphic question I have offhand is whether the developers intentionally made it so that the wizard’s green gas cloud looked like he ate too many chimichangas, if so I can relate to the wizard even more.

Gameplay:

This is really the “meat and potatoes” of the game over which most things will be forgiven. If the plot is a bit weak and the graphics suck good gameplay can at least get the game played and develop a fanbase. As true to most hack n’ slash games you aren’t generally concerned with one of two enemies but hordes and hordes that pile up and collect around you. These can make for the above mentioned corpse retention particularly satisfying as you watch them stack like wood, well bloody, death rattling wood.

There are three classes to choose from, a range strong Wizard, a melee strong Warrior or a mix bag Rogue. These are pretty standard fair for this type of game, though the classes seem a little more reliant on their specialty than usual. The game is designed to be single player or co-op and I think it comes through in the character developments with the Rogue being the solo player’s class of choice and the other two being the co-op. Each class is completely playable on it’s own but even the specialty of the Rogue to turn invisible to enemies to regenerate strikes me as something that would be more like done single player. That said each class has a nice group of talents to choose from with plenty of choices available from the beginning and skill build up in each of the talents. If you are worried about enemies getting too close as a wizard you can put points into a knock back maneuver and bind that to your mouse keys or number keys, which are completely assignable by the player. As you get higher levels the differences talent and skill wise will diminish between characters of the same class but individual items which can be different colors will still make them standout. The system has a built-in comparison system too, letting you know when stats are better or worse between what you are wearing and what is selected in your inventory.

The death system favors co-op as with soulstones being needed to resurrect at soulstone checkpoints for solo players and resurrection if your partner lasts a certain amount of time after your death in co-op only using a soulstone if you both die. This keeps you cheering your buddy along after you fall and is encouragement for the “doesn’t play well with others” co-op players to watch their teammate’s back. These games are traditionally designed to be played multiplayer anyways so it is nice to see incentive to do so.

One thing to kind of get used to with this game if you play dungeon crawlers regularly is line of sight does not mean line on target. When fighting enemies running around a corner to clear line of sight and picking off enemies is still a very important aspect but some environments such as coffins block like buildings instead of being able to be shot over. This actually can add quite a bit to strategy once you get used to it. The other thing is weapon damage is limited to distance not room size so if you are using a range attack it could end short of an enemy in your line of sight if you are still too far away from it. This also can play into some good strategy during battle if you think things through and figure out the enemy’s range of attack.

Last Call:

These games will always be compared to Diablo, they will never get out of it’s monolithic shadow, but that doesn’t mean a game that plays differently or the same as Diablo is a bad thing. Realms Of Ancient War has developed it’s own style in a lot of key ways and is graphically beautiful to look at. It plays a lot like a standard dungeon crawler which means it is easy for people who like them to jump into it but it has it’s own unique storyline to take players through a different tale. I recommend it to other hack n’ slash, dungeon crawling, RPG action gamers like me. Time will fly as you’re killing evil.

Trailer:

Happy Wars – Review (XBLA)

2012/10/14

Ripper71

News, Reviews

Ok I know it sounds a bit like a contradiction unless you are a totally twisted. War should not be happy times. In the gaming world though it can be very true if you find yourself having fun on a silly playing game that is also free. Yep I wonder how many people stopped reading and started downloading with that last statement because Happy Wars takes the big RPG mechanics of a PC and makes them some simple fun on XBLA.

Storyline:

When two tribes go to war… well in this case it’s two kingdoms and they fight daily over such things as what is tougher a hippo or an elephant, favorite games, the weather, politics, you know the usual stuff everyday arguments result in that generally don’t turn into war. Oh and a princess gets kidnapped at one point in case I forgot to mention that, which actually is a pretty good and ancient reason for war. There actually is a storyline on the single player campaign though I imagine a lot of folks will dedicate themselves to multiplayer because it is an absolute blast.

Graphics and Sound (Atmosphere):

I mentioned they fight over hippos versus elephants right? Well the graphics and sound are as silly as the reasons they fight. Giant heads on little bodies all with cartoony features and silly atmospheres combine with goofy noises and Saturday morning music to make this a game that visually doesn’t take itself seriously and aims for fun rather than realism.

Gameplay:

Strangely enough this may be the one area where the game takes itself serious and has had some heavy time vested into it. You can choose from three classes and you receive armor rewards for the different classes no matter which you play. You can be a warrior, cleric, or mage – pretty standard classes for a MMORPG though sometimes the names may vary. As you fight a battle your character levels up quick in battle opening up more skills and helping you earn free items. At the end of the fight you find out what items you have and you get exp towards a character’s overall level. So you always start at level one in a battle but as you level up outside battle you go in wearing better gear. I know that sounds kind of confusing so I will try to put it this way: a level 15 character goes in as level one but can go in with level 15 armor and have skill bonuses as well. So it rewards the longer term player but gives a level enough starting playing field that a noob won’t get totally slaughtered. This makes it so that the smart player, using the environment and skills they have learned can take down opponents that in some games would be untouchable. Gameplay consists of capturing spawn points, destroying opponents’ castles and beating the snot out of each other.

Items such as armor, weapons and charms, can be aquired multiple ways: earned in battle, won by gambling in game credits or purchased with real world money. Normally this bothers me pretty bad because it means the game is free to play but pay to win. However this game hit a decent enough balance that yes you could pay and level fast and be tougher but if you don’t it is still fun. Also it has a single player campaign as well as multiplayer so you can play against a very good AI if you choose to and that AI won’t be running around with purchased weapons. To have a free game that has single player campaigns is kind of unheard of these days so making a couple small purchases doesn’t feel as bad since you are supporting a full gaming experience. There are levels of purchases, some of the weapons, armor and charms can be pretty pricey in the real world so it all depends on how much you want to invest.

Last Call:

This is a really fun game that kept turning into “one more battle and then I’ll go to bed”. The servers are a little different in setup, expect to be disconnected a lot during the matching up section because I think it balances the teams then boots the extras. I play a lot of free to play games but they are almost exclusively on the PC so to have a F2P on the console that sucked me in as much as this one did was a very pleasant surprise. I also really appreciate the single player campaign being on the game too, if it is free it usually only has one or the other, not both multiplayer and single player. Or one will suffer heavily for the inclusion of the other, too much of a stretch of resources. I enjoyed this game a lot both in single player and multiplayer and highly recommend it. What do you have to lose except a bit of hard drive space on your XBox 360?

Trailer: