Author - Ripper71

Alan Wake’s American Nightmare (PC/Steam)

2012/05/25

So if you are a fan of the site and regular reader or just someone who is interested in the Alan Wake series and stumbled upon the site while looking up reviews on the game you may have read the review of the game on the Xbox 360 back in March by my colleague and friend MikeySunshine. He has been a rabid fan of Alan Wake from the beginning and knows the lore better than anyone outside the developers probably. So rather than giving a fairly rehashed review of the game since there really weren’t any features added I am going to approach the game from the point of view of someone who never picked up the first. I never got around to picking up Alan Wake and MikeySunshine warned me that American Nightmare might be an odd place to start the story, but here I am doing it anyway.

I went in knowing basically what I had learned from previews and what I couldn’t forget from chats with MikeySunshine when he played it which was mostly about graphics and that this is a side story, not a sequel in the true sense and that is a really good thing to know. Its graphics are pretty good though the subject is mostly contrast between light and dark and the ground is mostly dirt with a few weeds and other desert life. The buildings and vehicles all have a deserted, neglected feel to them that the graphics did a great job of bringing across. Except for the odd person you come across who directly relates to your storyline the whole place is empty except for you, the Taken and Mr. Scratch who thinks he has come up with a way to get you out of his way once and for all. This is where it gets tricky not putting in a spoiler because a key element of the gameplay ties directly and inseparably from the storyline. So the next line is going to be a spoiler… skip it if you want to go into the story as pure as I did.

****SPOILER ALERT****

Mr. Scratch trapped him in a time loop so he plays the same three areas over and over three times. The game runs around 4 hours and is only three maps repeated.

****SPOILER CONCLUDED****

Even with (SPOILER OMITTED) the game still manages to feel fairly fresh as it continues with the enemies getting harder and harder as you go and the weapons getting better and better. You collect pages in this game and they are used to help upgrade your weapons as well as help in the final showdown with Mr. Scratch. Never pass up a page because there is nothing like finding yourself one page short of an upgrade and that upgrade might make the difference in surviving the ever escalating strength of the enemy.

Controls are the same as your standard shooter on the keyboard, one of the biggest limitations being one that is more and more common, only being allowed two weapons at a time. You want the fun satisfaction of killing with the nail gun but you know if things get hairy you’ll wish you had a magnum and an assault rifle. My suggestion is on the lower levels use the fun items because you will probably want the heavy hitters later on. Plus there are supplemental items that take up most of the other numbers where you would store weapons so it does make sense to a degree but personally I like to go into battle with every weapon available.

The storyline is a bit confusing and I won’t go into it too heavily here. If you have played it or don’t mind spoilers you can read MikeySunshine’s review and get just about all of your questions answered. If you want to remain spoiler free keep an eye out for homages to Twilight Zone, Night Gallery (Rod Serling’s often forgotten masterpiece show), the Saw movies, Reservoir Dogs, Natural Born Killers and the Grind House genre of films. Most of the story is told in televisions where real video is shown and in cut-scenes which are also real video. This I think almost takes away from the games graphics because they look a little poor compared to real video but not so much as to really take away from the enjoyment. These combined with what is written on the papers give you the storyline which is pretty good if confusing. I think the final boss battle felt a little anticlimactic but it made complete sense with the storyline so those just playing for the fighting know that though it might seem weak to you it works.

Besides if you are in it for the fighting you REALLY want to play the “Fight ‘Til Dawn” Arcade mode which has you survive waves for ten minutes and if you get high enough scores you unlock more maps and you get more than were in the storyline! This isn’t a new idea in games but it does work well with this game because you have to not only worry about ammo but battery life as well as you run around the maps trying to survive. It takes this kind of map a step further and makes it that much more exciting. I am a storyline guy all the way but honestly I think this was more fun than the campaign and the variety of maps keeps you entertained and once you beat them you can unlock playing them in Nightmare mode. The only problem with this, and some may say it is a pretty glaring problem, is that just like the main storyline it is single player only.

Last Call:

This is one of the harder last calls I have done. I even gave myself an extra day to stew over the game before writing this to make sure I still felt the same. At the time of publication this game is $14.99 which for a stand alone side story game that lasts about four hours almost seems slightly expensive. But then when you consider all of the playtime you get from the Arcade mode it seems very reasonable. So I think I have to put perimeters on my recommendation. If you are a true fan like my buddy MikeySunshine this game is a must have. If you like a good fighting game, especially with a great Arcade mode then this is definitely a game for you, just remember you are playing solo (there are leader boards). If you are new to the series, just care about a storyline and the idea of (SPOILER OMITTED) bothers you then maybe you should wait on this one, start from the beginning and see if you care enough about Alan to follow this journey.

Classic Gaming Showcase #3 Alien Storm (PC/MicroConsole/Sega/OnLive)

2012/05/22

Ripper71

Articles, News, Reviews

Let’s face it we had a pretty decent obsession with aliens back in the days of Sega. Most of us still have that obsession which brings us to revisit games like Alien Storm and find dozens of other outer worldly creations that go bump in the night. For now we will pass up on nocturnal fixations (probing!) and talk about a game which had one of the most interesting takes of all time on aliens: possession. Ok Ok I know you are saying that really isn’t that much of an interesting take but I didn’t finish… possession… of mail boxes. Here you are walking down the street right after some UFO (well it is an alien saucer so it is identified) buzzes you, carrying some giant fancy plasma gun, whip or flame thrower and all of a sudden the phone booths and mail boxes come to life and start opening a can of whoop ass. Speaking of which, the garbage cans open whoop ass cans themselves! Good thing you were walking along heavily armed!

Storyline:

You are part of a group called “Alien Busters” and aliens want to dominate the Earth so you are here to stop them! That’s about it.

Gameplay:

It is kinda fun to run around attacking every object you see in the streets! You use all the arrow keys because the game is a side scroller with depth so you find yourself needing to move up and down to dodge and land attacks. But then the game suddenly becomes a first person rail shooter sliding sideways as you shoot up enemies in a warehouse earning energy for the next level.

Then it is back to the side scrolling play for some more action and boss fights. Then suddenly you are on a running level moving really, really fast and your only way to get through is by shooting, moving up and down and jumping over enemies. For a moment it throws you for a loop and you might take some damage but it is fun because once again it has changed up the play style. And these are the things that really make the game work. Sure it is fun and funny to have garbage cans and mailboxes come to life or fight aliens that look like the Creature From The Black Lagoon or The Thing (the original with Kurt Russel) but most of the games real fun lies in it’s ability to change between styles so much, a diversity we really don’t see in games much except the occasional “mini-game.” If the game play gets too hairy you can use your energy for special weapons attacks.

Graphics/Sound Effects:

The graphics aren’t great and they aren’t bad, they are actually a decent example of games at that time. I remember playing some other games on systems with almost identical movement just very different themes. The music has the wonderful arcade/console music style of the time and just adds to the charm. The game looks old school but has quality play that has stood up to the test of time.

Last Call:

When it comes to playing the classic Sega games it really comes down to feelings of nostalgia, history, and having fun with games that were in a way often simpler. This game has no deep plot, uses arrow buttons and a few keys (or three buttons and a thumb control on the controller) but it is fun to play, a silly premise and can be a challenge with the change ups in play style. This game is a great example of why we pick these retro games up and give another go at them and there are around 40 of them in the OnLive $9.99 a month PlayPack with over 160 other games. If that isn’t enough of a seller, you can demo them and just about every other one of the games that OnLive offers at http://www.onlive.com/promote and make sure it is worth your money.

Classic Gaming Showcase #2: Alien Soldier (PC/MicroConsole/Sega/OnLive)

2012/05/14

Ripper71

Articles, News, Reviews

This was a game I thought I hadn’t played before based on reading the premise because I didn’t understand the premise. I was right but that was luck. I am all for a nice rich storyline but this set some insanely lofty goals when it came to the idea behind this side scrolling shooter. You play Epsilon Eagle, a robot/animal/human parasite that co-exists with each of it’s parts including it’s eagle head. He was the head of a criminal organization which was attacked and he was forced to hide in a young boy’s body until his rival Xi-Tiger forced him into a rage and caused him to morph and began a continuing battle between his good and evil sides. So there are good and bad guys playing out in a soap opera, or badly written Sci-Fi storyline, that when partially told in a scrolling Prologue is confusing and bordering on painful. If you can ignore this, and you can, you will experience one of the hardest side scrolling shooters around with so many bosses that it got listed in the 2010 Guinness World Records Game Edition.

Storyline:

AVOID! Actually it is dramatic enough for a good laugh if you can figure it out. It even has… DUN DUN DUN… an evil twin!!

Controls/Gameplay:

The game is a side scrolling shooter with three buttons to represent the three on the original Sega system and arrow keys for movement. One button is for shooting, one for jumping, pretty standard stuff for a side scroller but where it gets interesting is the third button which was traditionally reserved for special attacks. In this game it allows you to cycle through your weapons, which you can trade out along the way for different ones. In today’s shooters this is a pretty common thing but back in day when this came out it was pretty unheard of. Also different enemies are weak against different weapons so you find yourself cycling through at lightning speed to find the weapon of choice. Some of the enemies you will attack with a certain weapon and just watch it bounce off without any effect while they hit you with deadly accuracy and I am just mentioning the standard enemies. The boss fights (of which there are almost three dozen) each have weapon and logistics challenges. Honestly this game should be a gauntlet to be thrown down for anyone who brags about beating boss fights or being experts at side scrolling. Just ignore the storyline and use OnLive’s save system so that you don’t have to keep working your way through the whole level to get back to the boss.

Graphics/Sound:

The graphics are excellent for their time with the sound and music working well with them to pull the player into the game and get them quickly immersed. Even though the boss battles are difficult, the play is addicting so it is nice that the graphics aren’t an eyesore or that the music or sound effects are too annoying. It is surprising how these simple things can make the difference between playing on or giving up on a game in a rough patch, which can occur with so many bosses.

Last Call:

Honestly I was worried about this game after the scrolling intro, which I kept watching over and over to understand. I was afraid this was a rarely seen game for a reason, but once you get past the story this is an excellent side scrolling shooter with plenty of challenges but also more options weapon-wise than gamers were used to at the time. This game not only holds up it is an excellent challenge for any gamer. It is also part of OnLive’s $9.99 a month subscription plan which includes over 200 other games. If you still need to make sure it is your taste, you can demo it from OnLive’s new demo link list at http://www.onlive.com/promote or even better yet, challenge that friend that always brags about beating bosses to complete the game. Just don’t make them follow the story, that is just cruel.

Classic Gaming Showcase #1: Alex Kidd in the Enchanted Castle (PC/MicroConsole/Sega/OnLive)

2012/05/08

Ripper71

Articles, News, Reviews

This is the first installment of an ongoing series dedicated to the games we loved and the games we missed over the years. OnLive recently made a deal with Sega to carry a bunch of Genesis classics as well as some greatly loved games by other companies giving us the opportunity to enjoy the roots of gaming on a modern platform. Hope you enjoy them as much as we are!

Alex Kidd got around in his day as the mascot for Sega in the earlier part of the 80’s, he was the precursor to Sonic and hung around a while after the hedgehog hit the scene and stole the spotlight. He was a vaguely monkey looking boy who did martial arts attacks as part of his fighting style but also played a mean round of rock, paper, scissors… an odd edition to a game which made it stand out in most people’s memories who played it. Also Alex’s adventures were not limited to just jump kicking and rock, paper, scissoring, in Enchanted Castle he gets to ride a motorcycle, a helicopter like vehicle and there is even swimming involved. With such diverse gameplay it is kind of surprising that the Kidd got beat out by Sonic, but Sega backed their blue rolling hedgehog as the competition against a certain plumber on the Nintendo system and the rest is history. Luckily Alex has made a reappearance to remind us what we left behind.

Controls:

The controls are simple whether you use the keyboard or the OnLive controllers so it is more a matter of picking up the timing of jumps and strikes than anything when it comes to controlling. If you use the keyboard you move with the arrow keys and ASD and if the controller you use the left stick and XAB. Since the Genesis had a simple controller they are replicated very easily. It’s getting used to the controls well enough to kick a moving car through the windshield that can be the challenge.

Gameplay:

As mentioned above the gameplay is very diverse. You run, swim, ride a motorcycle, fly a helicopter, even hopping on a pogo stick. As a result the game never really begins to feel like the same thing over and over, instead you start to wonder what you will be doing next. And if fighting gets a bit boring to you you can always gamble at rock, paper, scissors which was probably a lot better to put into a kids game than blackjack. Probably the biggest drawback to gameplay would be that one hit from an enemy and you die which doesn’t always seem fair when you find yourself surrounded. Normally I might also complain about save locations but OnLive has placed it’s own individual save system into the game making that old concern mute.

Graphics/Sound:

For their time the graphics are good and yet still have the nostalgic 16-bit graphics that marked the time. The sound and music are fun and hokey too making this a stroll down memory lane for some and a lesson in what graphics used to look like for those who were too young to be playing games in 1989. The graphics and sound definitely add to the game’s fun rather than detract.

Last Call:

Alex Kidd was a strong character in his time, knocked out only by Sega backing Sonic as their main contender to Mario. This game has more diverse gameplay than some games you will find out there today and it was all done in a 16 bit universe. Take the time to get used to the controls before giving up on what is a nicely done adventure, you’ll find it worth the effort. The game is also part of OnLive’s 200 game PlayPack bundle for $9.99 a month along with about 40 other Sega classics. If you still aren’t convinced you can go to http://www.onlive.com/promote and demo this and just about every other OnLive game they have. Give it a try!

OnLive Celebrates 200 Games In PlayPack

2012/04/20

Ripper71

Articles, News, Previews

In honor of crossing the 200 game mark in their PlayPack, OnLive is offering the first month for $2.00 with each additional month for the normal $9.99 and are having the following events:

4/20: 200 minutes of Multiplayer Madness in Homefront starting at 3pm PDT

4/21&22: Brag Clip Challenge where you get to show off your best skills or goriest kills

4/23: Guess the Game and Write the Caption Contest

4/24: Watch Andrew Hume of S.P.A.Z. show his game skills and show off some new features starting at 1pm PDT

4/25: OnLive Community Manager does a live streaming PlayPack broadcast starting at 2pm PDT

4/26: Peter Nagy from Game Farms will discuss and show some skills in Air Conflicts: Secret Wars at 9am PDT

4/27: At 2pm PDT starts “School Time” where OnLive commentators watch different players and do a play by play letting you know who ruled and who got schooled

Be sure to sign up for the Play To Win Sweepstakes for an ASUS Transformer Prime Tablet and play all of the PlayPack games you can for entries and possibly a special avatar!

For more information go to http://www.facebook.com/OnLive

Naval War: Arctic Circle Review (PC/Steam)

2012/04/20

Ripper71

News, Reviews

The words “strategy game” can bring up a lot of different things in a persons head. The fact is that it is a term almost as general as “RPG” anymore as to what it can represent, some might even call it a catch phrase that fits such a wide number of games that it always has to be qualified to be truly understood. The first way we generally qualify “strategy games” is with turn-based or real time. This narrows the field in half usually and can be further narrowed down but one of the sub-categories is “real real-time” which is almost never heard due to its apparent redundancy. But for the sake of understanding Naval War: Arctic Circle you really need to understand what is fairly unique in this modern game sub-category is and exactly how it works. Or you might find yourself buying a game you hate in the first two hours, hate not being too strong of a word.

There are tons of examples of real-time games out there, you build a base, build some soldiers, find a way to make money and all this takes place in real time, you can slow down the game speed or speed it up but you don’t wait for your enemy to attack before you attack or heal your forces. In the time you are taking to build your forces your enemy is doing the same and so it is known as real time. This really is breaking down the idea to a fundamental that could be argued but for the sake of explanation we will use the above to define real-time strategy gaming. Then there are games like Naval War: Arctic Circle which is a “real real-time” game which means as long as you don’t speed up the gameplay everything will happen at a speed and impact as real life. It may take you five minutes to build a base in a standard strategy game, in Arctic Circle it may take you 30 minutes real life time to drop a sonar buoy off to detect an enemy, and there may be nothing to see for miles around in your shot but your helicopter flying over a choppy sea. There may literally be nothing for you to do until that buoy drops or there may be 50 things you have to do during that period if you want to beat the level, all based on how long it would take in the real world. “Real real-time strategy” games are for a particular breed of gamer, ones who crave the greatest realism possible, ones who want absolute historical and military accuracy on every aspect of the game. Admittedly I am not one who dives into this game style every chance I get but I also believe these are the true chess of video games, these games exercise your mind as much as your body so I never shy away from one.

The view above is what you had better get used to because that is what you see. You can switch the image in the bottom box to the top to see how nice the planes and helicopters you use are rendered but in the end you will wind up putting it down in the little box again because this is not a game of graphics. They can look nice, heck they could have been crap since the key to this kind of game is not in how clean everything looks but the intelligence of your opponent, CPU or player, and whether or not you have the ability to outmaneuver them. First step: read the manual. Learn absolutely everything you can about this game’s mechanics because it is hard. It is meant to be hard. It is meant to be hated and loved at the same time for it’s difficulty and the fact that everything is happening in “real real-time.” You’ll find yourself cursing from a simple misclick or a minor mistake because that might mean the difference between those red plane markers on your screen wiping out your fleet or not. You’ll want to zoom in on an explosion about to happen but you need to think twice because while you are watch a fireball bloom that used to be your enemy’s ship, two more might be joining it. It is your war room, you are calling the shots.

There are two different campaigns, both based in a near future Cold War. It is nice that you aren’t just confined to a NATO campaign and each one has it’s own particular heavy challenges to overcome. Multiplayer is one on one and really does feel like a fastest fingers/best macros kind of contest, but still requires strategy. As with most real real-time games you can preset certain aspects of the games such as standard cruising altitude and speed on aircraft so that you can concentrate on the big picture, though as so often as it is in games it is also in real life: gotta watch those little things or they build up to a big bite in the arse. The option to micromanage is always there, use it wisely.

Last Call:

These are often the dream games of historians and military specialists (or people who consider themselves such). You aren’t just running around with a grunt and his rifle, you are commanding the entire Arctic Circle including that grunt but also a whole theater of men and machines. Some will just shake their heads at this game and go grab their plasma gun. Others will crack their necks and knuckles, get comfortable in their computer chair and spend two hours laying buoys to capture an illusive enemy sub. This game is a hard road to glory, a mental challenge not all can complete and requires the mind of a chess player with the mouse finger of a competitive gamer. Will you answer the call?.

Super Street Fighter IV: Arcade Edition (OnLive/PC/Micro-Console)

2012/04/19

Ripper71

News, Reviews

I remember way back when the Street Fighter franchise started up and my buddies and I fed the machines at the arcade our quarters by the handful. One of the best things to ever happen was console versions of the game thought they were never quite the same since they didn’t have all the buttion in the right places. This resulted in the fighter pads, strange little devices you had to find a solid surface for but overall gave you the arcade experience on your games that used all the buttons. I wonder how many wound up gathering dust after interest in the games began to wane. They are still around as are the Street Fighter games. My questions is how playable is it without one of those pads?

I should probably discuss the game before I get into the gameplay. This game is steeped in a very rich tradition of playstyles, graphics and storylines and it doesn’t fail now. This is technically a revamping of Street Fighter IV but it is done so well that it can be considered a sequel since it has new characters, tweaks to play and and updated feel to it. To put it simply it maintains tradition while updating and expanding. There isn’t much more you can ask from the game. It is well done and fits the Street Fighter family.

I got lucky that I got to play the game on OnLive for the review because that means I got the opportunity to play it solely using the keyboard, then afterwards using a controller with the wireless controller and the micro console. First I tried it out on the keyboard where every button that would be used on a fighting pad had a corresponding assignment on the keyboard so that combos you would remember from the gamepad could be quickly and easily mastered. The lack of control stick caused a bit of a learning curve but I got used to that well enough. The only real problem came in when I started getting my butt handed to me I would sometimes start buttons mashing and let me tell you, you can do some pretty painful and confusing things if you start button mashing, miss your keys and start hitting dozens of hotkeys a second. Luckily I have a sense of humor and sense of my system otherwise I could see that melting some folks down. Heck I didn’t know there was a hotkey for some of the stuff I did. I just had to stop and start laughing.

As you can see I don’t take gaming overly serious. at least not these kind of fighting games. I think I am a challenging player at these type of fighter games, but there are plenty of better players. Occasional wins and shouts of fun and laughter are my key to them. It brings up one quick point I want to make, if you are practicing the game make sure you are not in spectator mode or visible to online players in another way. Not only will they learn your techniques you prefer, but sharks will fish for easier prey and on some systems you may get jeered for not immediately playing someone. It happened to me a lot.

Now the nice thing about OnLive is they also have a micro-console that allows you to not just experience your game on the PC but also on the console as well. There are some definite extras on an OnLive controller such as the ability to record brag clips, play them back, then post them on the internet for others to see but when it comes down to actual playing if you are familiar with an XBox controller or a PC controller then you have the general idea and feel for the console controller and you can pick it up and start playing in no time. For the most part you are ok if you button mash as long as you avoid the brag controls.

Last Call:

This game is just as fun to play on the PC or console as it is with a fighting pad. If you have a fighting pad already around or plan to play the game competitively then you make want to go fighting pad. Otherwise you can get it on OnLive and play it as PC and console and have tons of fun. If you aren’t sure just go to http://www.onlive.com/promote then you can give it a shot for free and decide for yourself.

OnLive Makes Trials Easier (PC/OnLive)

2012/04/19

Ripper71

Articles, News

So I was going through my email and saw an announcement from OnLive that Dead Island was going to be one of their latest additions and my heart kicked it up a notch in both a good and bad way. When Dead Island was available for play at E3 I played the demo twice and my wife who was also there played it several times as well. We had fallen in love with the little girl trailer like many folks and to get hands on was such a great rush. We pre-ordered the game the day pre-orders were available and with child like glee we sat down before our ginormous TV and started it up. Our excitement first turned to bewilderment then anger. NO LOCAL MULTIPLAYER? We tried at first taking turns playing but it just wasn’t the same. The couple that games together stays together (Life Lesson!) and unless we wanted to pick up a second of the same console and a second copy of the same game this would not be an “us” game and when it comes to zombie slaying I always want my wife to have my back.

Fast forward to now and I get an email from OnLive telling me that they now have Dead Island available. After the infuriating lack of local co op on the previous system I played it on I was a bit leery. Then I remembered that OnLive now has a page that is dedicated to all of it’s game free trials at http://www.onlive.com/promote. Pretty easy to remember but I bookmarked it anyways and went to check out the game. It only took me about two seconds because it was on the first page right in front of me. On the right is a search box and right below it was a free trial alphabetical list which had just about all their titles, so around 200. The nice thing is that they are 30 minute trials. better than most demos since they don’t end because a pre-approved cliff hanger spot but because that’s how far 30 minutes get you into the game. Turns out that the co-op is still internet only, so I knew before I bought the game and I found myself playing other demos just because I was there. In some games 30 minutes really is a decent amount of play, in most games it is enough time to tell if you like it or not. It is also a quick way to find out if a game will play on your tablet or smart phone and how well.

Last Call:

OnLive is celebrating having hit the 200 game mark so now is a good time to check out the service and with 30 minute trial play times on that many games you can definitely get a feel for whether you like the service and the games it provides as well as check for features that may or may not be provided. Give it a whirl, doesn’t cost anything!

Confrontation – Review (PC/Steam)

2012/04/05

Ripper71

News, Reviews

Over the years I have played a lot of RPGs and that is putting it pretty mildly. Some turn-based, some realtime, some hack and slash, some requiring quite a bit of tactical strategy. I have learned to love all kinds of different RPGs and found that almost all have some strengths that make them playable, the big question is if they are strong enough to endure. The best ones wind up being played still over a decade later though there are plenty of great ones that slip through the crack simply because they ride in the shadows of the strongly established. So first a game must be great then it must be lucky. The question is whether or not Confrontation winds up being either.

Confrontation doesn’t take very long to show it’s graphically a thing of beauty. The cut-scenes use the same quality of graphics as its game play with immense details and rich colors. The music is well composed and the sound is crisp and excellent from the attacks to the death agony screams. The quality would easily make a great animated series but that is not what they are working for here. We have to face it however that a game can look great but if it doesn’t play well it isn’t going to survive whereas some games that are just plain ugly have an unlimited lifespan because they are fun and found their audience.

Confrontation is a top down real time tactical RPG where you build up your elite squad of Griffin soldiers to fight against the fearsome creatures of the Alchemists of Dirz (the Scorpion), the ferocious Wolfen packs (the Wolf), and the brutal Orcs of Bran-O-Kor (the Jackal) deep inside the continent of Aarklash. Starting with warriors,, and working your way through other classes you recruit and redefine your team to both their advantages and your tactical strengths. This is no “Leroy Jenkins!” game. Every encounter requires planning and squad placement as well as careful consideration of location. Fighting in too tight of quarters can block up your melee from getting strikes in, too loose and your healer might start grabbing aggro and taking melee. There are some skills that the tank class can use to hold aggro but it still comes down to tactical planning. Playing it I had a lot of close call battles and a couple just flat out failures because I didn’t consider flanking issues or let big melee beasties past my tank and onto the hunter and ranged magic user. Personally I like a game that creates such challenges so that I have to stop and think rather than just hack and slash through each battle.

The game also has skill trees with lock-off branches so that once you choose a skill path on the character you had better be sure. One of the more interesting things is upgrades in weapons and armor require finding glyphs on the battlefield which reward credits for each upgrade that go into a pool from which all your characters draw from. So if you put all your upgrading into a particular character you had better plan to hold onto them for the long run because other characters won’t get anything.

Maps are set up fairly linear with little off shoots that can be taken or avoided which creates the option to engage or avoid patrols as well. If you like to clean a map you can methodically work your way through, just make sure you have a method or you could find yourself being attacked by multiple patrols and wishing you had snuck by. Once again this is a tactical RPG and engagement is definitely a factor to consider. To help with this consideration the camera angle is completely adjustable using the mouse wheel though default is above and slightly behind and during movement will revert back to this location. Use this option often though because a treasure chest full of bandages could be tucked in a dark corner. Another nice and helpful feature is the pause located at the space bar that allows you order unit commands and figure out your next move. Some might think this is too much help but features like this are up to the players to choose or ignore.

The game has a multiplayer mode in which you can play any of the four factions and even challenge particular players to fight. Since I am reviewing the game prior to release I had a hard time finding players to try this out with but I can say if it as solid as the single-player campaign it should be a lot of fun to play. It is unfortunate nowadays that a lot of the time the success or failure of a game comes down to how it draws in it’s multiplayer audience more than its single-player campaign though to a degree that is understandable because it does address playtime for your money.

I just have to discuss one feature of this game which doesn’t effect gameplay but to me is one of the most awesome geek touches. Every old school D&D player and probably a few new ones remembers going to get miniatures at the local hobby store to paint and have sit on the table to represent their characters. The game actually has a section called Army Painter that lets you paint all the different characters you use and encounter. As you can see above it looks like a desktop with a coffee cup full of pens and pencils and a couple paint canisters and a styrofoam cup to wash your brush off in. Honestly I spent quite a while just playing with this feature for the sheer fun of it. This was a completely unnecessary touch to the game which really endeared it to me or maybe I should say that deep rooted geek within.

Last Call:

This is a solid tactical RPG game with great graphics, excellent game play mechanics and makes you think before you slash. It has all the makings of a successful game that should appeal to a wide audience. The key is getting word out and surviving in a market place with a lot of RPGs that are shadowed by giants.

OnLive Wireless Controller – Review (Multiple Platforms/OnLive)

2012/04/04

Ripper71

News, Reviews

OnLive has been long committed to being on as many platforms as possible. Those who have no idea what I am talking about when I say OnLive can read our review of the system right here and really should so you have a proper understanding of the scope of the system and how well this peripheral compliments it. To simplify it Onlive is to gaming, and now desktop Microsoft programs, as Netflix is to movies. I became a true believer when I researched them then visited them at E3 in 2011 and I have been nothing but more impressed with them since.

I did have a concern that has been looming on the horizon with me which is the reason I am posting this story tonight, tomorrow I go in for back surgery. Over the years I have found my video game playing often impacted by the condition of my bad back, particularly in the last year. Luckily OnLive allows you to play the same games on your PC, laptop, some tablets and mirco console picking up on one device right where you left off on another. So I would sometimes work on the PC then work a while on the micro console while in a loveseat and when that got to be too much I would lay in bed with the laptop, playing on it as long as I could before my back would start to suffer from the weight of a gaming laptop and I would finally just have to give up for the night. I tried varying solutions to help with this such as wireless keyboard and mouse which worked ok but never had the responsiveness and reliability that I got from a hardwired keyboard itself. The mirco console was great when I was in parts of the house with strong wifi and could sit up to look at a television, but my bedroom in the back of the house where I needed to lie flat in bed didn’t work. Then along came the OnLive Wireless Controller.

The OnLive Wireless Controller comes with a USB dongle that allows it to be plugged into any PC or laptop with a USB port or it can be synced to some phones and most tablets using Bluetooth technology. So for this review, despite my back getting really bad, I was able to continue to push on. This is an extremely important note for disabled or physically impaired individuals, this controller makes gaming with OnLive remote from all their platforms!

I had heard from early discussions and reviews of this controller that it would sometimes give loose or “slushy” response which totally negated OnLive exceptional responsiveness (often faster than consoles). After trying the controller on multiple platforms I had no problem on any of them with bad responsiveness, actually I found it to be equally responsive to a plug in PC controller which has been my go to when I’m laid up.

To test it completely as and find out if there was a situation where it actually would outshine a keyboard I tried out Super Street Fighter IV: Arcade Edition on OnLive. First I tried it with the keyboard and after a bit of a learning curve I found that the keyboard worked great with the game as long as you could keep track of where your fingers were and didn’t start button mashing because inevitably you would find yourself hitting some other hot button. Then I tried playing the game with the controller on the PC and laptop and found that my chance of beating a human or computer opponent doubled and that I stood a chance better than with the keyboard. I could also see this as a benefit for fans of racing games but let’s face it, the best thing this controller does is bridge the gap between PC and console. With a controller remarkably similar to the XBox, console gamers can jump right into the OnLive market without having to worry about getting used to playing on a keyboard. If they really wanted they could use the micro console as well which comes with one controller. Not only is this wireless controller compatible with the mirco console giving you a second controller if you use the USB dongle that comes with the controller you can play up to four people on a single PC, getting the console experience without the console!

If you have a tablet (just about any but iPad, though they do have one ready for that too if it gets cleared) you can play using the Bluetooth connection in those and turn your tablet into your monitor as you control with the wireless controller. This may not seem like that big of a deal but tablets can be sometimes notorious for loose or just unresponsive touch controls and the nice thing about a controller is you can physically feel the button instead of hitting virtual ones. OnLive has actually put out some touch games that work great with the tablet (L.A. Noire Complete Edition) but sometimes there is no substitute for feeling that button push. If that wasn’t enough of a selling point many smart phones are Bluetooth compatible with it too, so your little Android screen can not just play OnLive games but play them with a full size controller! I have played a few console games that got ported to smart phones and I can tell you now that cursing was heavily involved thanks to a combination of a smaller screen and sizable fingers.

Last Call:

After surgery I am going to be laid up unable to sit up enough to have a laptop on me for a while, it will be on a box on the bed next to me and I will be playing games using the OnLive wireless remote just like I wasn’t physically impaired. It is just one more way that the controller, which is compatible with all the devices OnLive is compatible with (micro console, tablet, PC, laptop and most smart phones), will be enabling me to game. Not just on the go like they did before, but on the “no go” as well. The only way it can get better is when the software gets released on the iPad and the iPhone. Don’t worry you will know when that happens because I will be shouting that on every social network I can. In the meantime, see ya in the cloud. Dang OnLive should make that one of their slogans…