Author - Ripper71

OnLive Wireless Controller – Review (Multiple Platforms/OnLive)

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…

OnLive Brings Back Sega Games

Ok, I am old enough that I played the Atari 2600 and though I had a great deal of love for it the systems that followed were quick to blow it out of the water.  As a result my Atari got lost over the years but I still have my Nintendo, Super Nintendo, Sega… well the list goes on.  The folks at Sega and OnLive understand the love for old school gaming and so they have teamed up to bring over 40 Sega games to our new tech world over the next month.  Best of all they are all part of their $9.99 a month PlayPack!  So besides getting over 150 great recent big and indie titles for the low subscription, you get all these Sega titles too.

Alex Kidd In The Enchanted Castle: Alex speeds to Paperock to investigate, but the creatures of Paperock decide to hinder his efforts and try to keep him away from Sky Castle, Ashra’s hideaway. Luckily Alex knows how to jump, punch and kick his way through the most stubborn of enemies.  Memories: I actually didn’t play this at the time it came out, I caught it later when it got ported to a later system and at first I thought I might have missed it because it’s uniquely Japanese game feel but apparently it was released in the North America.  You punch, jump and kick, but then you also play Rock, Paper, Scissors as part of your battling.  It is a must play so that you can tell your friends about this uniquely strange game.

Altered Beast: Athena, the daughter of Zeus, has been captured by the wicked Neff, God of the Underworld, and is being held captive. Summoned from the dead by Zeus himself, it is up to you now to clear five rounds of underlings before taking on Neff, in what promises to be the most grueling of challenges.  Memories: One of the coolest things about this game is that you get to be a werewolf basically and be the good guy!  How often does that happen?

Comix Zone: Sketch Turner is in it up to his inkwell. Mortus is drawing horrendous creatures to battle Sketch in every panel of the strip.  If Mortus destroys Sketch, that megalomaniac mutant will become real and Earth will be doomed to his rule!  But there is hope. Now that he’s a comic book superhero, Sketch can kick some serious butt. Instantly, Sketch can fight like a one-man mercenary platoon!  Memories: This was a strange side scrolling game with nice graphics for it’s time.  You hop from comic book cell to comic book cell to fight the enemies so it is a lot like an interactive comic.  Being a bit of a comic geek too I look forward to fighting from page to page again.

Crack Down: Ben and Andy, the two top Special Service agents have accepted a very dangerous assignment – the elimination of Mr.K and his Artificial Life System. Mr. K plans to rid the earth of human life forms using the killer robots he’s created, and no one but Ben and Andy can stop him! Help them to infiltrate the chilling futuristic city, place Clystron bombs and get out before they blow.  Memories: None!  This game got ported to Genesis but apparently not in the North American market where it has been brought to life in some computer ports and was rumored to maybe hit a console.  But for most of us this will be a chance to taste this 16 bit baby for the first time!

Ecco The Dolphin: Life was an adventure for Ecco, the young dolphin. Until one day, all of that changed when a freak whirlpool of air and water tore the life from Ecco’s home leaving Ecco all alone. Now he must fight to stay alive, while traversing the vast ocean in search of clues that will help him save his family and return them to the bay.  Memories: Ok who doesn’t remember Ecco?  If you lived through that time and had anything to do with video games you heard about this Sega blockbuster.  I just remember my girlfriend (now wife) hogging the game.  Trivia: They made an Ecco the Dolphin labeled can of tuna as a promotion for one of the games.

Eternal Champions: Unjust deaths were dealt upon nine of history’s greatest and most influential warriors, and the future now stands at the brink of chaos.  The Eternal Champion has summoned the souls of the nine and placed them in competition. The winner will be rewarded a second chance to prevent their own death, and in doing so restore balance to a desperate world.  Memories: Another huge success for Sega this game was a lot like Mortal Kombat with more emphasis on the story and what I remember most about this game was knocking your enemy off of bridge levels and watching them plummet to a gruesome death.

Gain Ground: The battle-simulation game has gone haywire! All contestants inside the system are trapped and frozen on the battlefields, and the androids are reprogrammed to become hi-tech killing machines! It’s up to three brave fighters to rescue hostages, and to destroy the central computer of the system, the Brain.  Memories: This was kinda an arcade strategy game, strange combo for the time but worked and had addictive game play.  Sometimes entering a level and seeing how many enemies there were between you and the exit seemed like overkill but if you played it right you somehow made it through.

Galaxy Force II: Halcyon, ruler of the Fourth Empire, has the peaceful and prosperous solar system Junos marked as its final target in the galactic massacre, and has sent the bulk of his attacking force in for the elimination of all life forms in the system, and the construction of a gigantic fortress on each of the five planets from which to rule the galaxy.  The galaxy’s recognized governing body, the Space Federation, begins recruiting attack pilots in an effort to reclaim Junos. Strap yourself into your TRX-5 Quasar and turn the tables on Halcyon.  Memories: None, I didn’t get to play every game!  Hear it was like Star Fox though which was sweet…

Golden Axe: The land of Yuria has been invaded and is now ruled by the iron fist of Death Adder, who secured his throne by seizing the Golden Axe. Three brave warriors now rise to the challenge of defeating Death Adder and his soldiers and returning peace to the Kingdom.  Memories: One of those games I blew a ton of money on in the arcade I was so excited to get it on the Genesis and pay one low cost.  All three playable character were fun though personally I was always fond of playing the dwarf with his axe.

 Kid Chameleon: Heady Metal, the boss of the arcade game Wild Side, has escaped! He’s capturing kids by defeating them at their own game.  Take Kid Chameleon into Wild Side and give Heady Metal and his gruesome underlings a taste of their own aspirin. Because Kid Chameleon is about to cause a few headaches of his own!  Memories: Another game that slipped by me so I am excited to give it a play!

Ristar: The evil tyrant Greedy holds the galaxy of Valdi under a reign of terror, spreading misery and darkness.  But from the depths of space comes Ristar, a shining shooting star who is destined for greatness. Only his special powers can restore happiness to the solar system once again. Memories: A lot of folks missed the release of Ristar because of the next gen systems releasing around the same time and people putting their Genesis aside or selling it.  Luckily (?) we didn’t have the money to pick those up yet so Ristar got some playtime in our house.  It felt kinda like Sonic but instead of rolling around for attacks you reach out with stretchy arms and pull things to you which get scorched into black lumps.  It gave you a feeling of power to cook your enemies to cinders.

Shadow Dancer: The Secret of Shinobi: New York City has fallen into the hands of a group of ninja warriors called Union Lizard, and they have taken people hostage.  Joe Musashi’s former martial arts student Kato has been mortally wounded while investigating Union Lizard, leaving his faithful dog Yamato.  Joe Musashi swears to avenge Kato’s death, and heads for New York. Can you guide Joe Musashi and Yamato through the ring of fire and triumph over this evil force?  Memories: I was a Shinobi junkie so all you had to do was throw the name on the game and I gave it a run.  I vaguely remember the dog as my backup but it was all about using Shinobi attacks for me!

Shinobi III: Return of the Ninja Master: Joe Musashi’s sworn enemy the Neo Zeed are secretly rebuilding an organization in Japan after the battle in Neo City.  Joe (code name Shinobi) senses the evil power growing and starts to make his way back to fight the Neo Zeed once again.  Memories: Sometimes a little short on plot these games were always long on action and one of the nice things about Shinobi III were it’s excellent graphics for the system and it’s use of background and foreground images which gave it an almost 3D depth.

Sonic 3D Blast: Dr. Eggman (AKA Dr. Robotnik) discovers unusual birds known as Flickies that can transport to anywhere using Dimension Rings.  Successfully capturing the Flickies, Robotnik turns them all into robots to help him find the Chaos Emeralds. Sonic must save the Flickies by freeing them from their robotic prison and prevent Robotnik from finding the Chaos Emeralds.  Memories: Memories for the Sonic games can kind of bleed together because there were just so many with very different takes on them.  It didn’t take long to remember this one though because it wasn’t a side scroller so it took a little getting used to and had an original fun feel.  Friends who came over were quick to sit down and watch.

Sonic Adventures DX: Director’s Cut: An ancient evil lurking within the Master Emerald has been unleashed from its slumber by the devious Dr. Eggman and is on the verge of becoming the ultimate monster using the 7 Chaos Emeralds. Only Sonic and his friends are heroic enough to put a stop to Dr. Eggman and his evil minions. Hit the ground running in this classic epic adventure in a race against time to save the world!  Memories: Another Sonic 3D game but this was from more of a behind him rather on top of him view and had some terrifically wacky characters which is what I remember most.  Not sure I played the Director’s Cut, that was a while ago.

Sonic Spinball: Dr. Eggman (AKA Dr. Robotnik) is once again turning the animals of Mobius into robots using his monstrous contraption, the Veg-O-Fortress.  Only Sonic can penetrate the Pinball Defense System to free the animals, retrieve the Chaos Emeralds, and put a stop to Dr. Eggman’s fiendish plans!  Memories: Sonic Spinball has gone through many incarnations including a real life roller coaster!  It also set the more cartoon style that he is most known for now.  It gave him more personality I think which has made a household name even more so.

Harrier II: A call for help comes from deep in the universe. Fantasyland has been taken over by destructive forces.  Quick on the scene is Space Harrier equipped with his laser, who must attempt to outwit and out maneuver the hoards and prevent Fantasyland from being blown into oblivion!  Memories: No offense to the developers but I really have no memory of the Harrier games’ plots what I remember is the vanishing point on the horizon style of game play where an enemy started off tiny in the distance and grew into a huge monstrous thing up close while your distance behind the Harrier remained the same.  It is kinda hard to describe and very hard to forget.

 Vectorman: By the year 2049, Earth has been turned into a toxic waste dump. Humankind has fled into space leaving behind an army of mechanized “Orbots” to clean up the mess.  But when the Orbot leader “WarHead” goes haywire and starts a global revolt against the humans, it falls on the shoulders of the last Orbot loyal to its human masters to save the planet.  Memories: Vectorman is a run and gun that is probably most remembered for it’s exceptional graphics which used a few pre-rendering tricks to make them seem next gen.  Because of all this the game was a huge success with players and critics alike and definitely won some awards.  This one will be fun to play again to remember what “next gen” was considered back then.

Ok those of you who counted might have noticed that I did not list near 40 games.  That is because OnLive is releasing new games every weekday for another two and a half weeks!  You can got to their Facebook website and vote on the order of release for the week and this week they put up a challenge to get a certain number of votes so that they release them all the first night… maybe they will do that again?

Thursday 3/29/12 Releases: Columns, Dr. Robotnik’s Mean Bean Machine

Friday  3/30/12 Releases: Ecco Jr., Super Thunder Blade, Fatal Labyrinth, Bonanza Bros.

Next week: ??

Last Call: This really kind of feels like an obvious choice but I’ll go over it so it sinks in. 40 Sega Games as part of a $9.99 monthly subscription deal that includes over 150 other games such as indie hits like World of Goo, big hits like Homefront and selections from hit series like Bioshock, Fallout, F.E.A.R. and Deus Ex.  When this promotion is done they will have around 2oo games for $9.99 a month.  If you round up a penny that is pretty easy math.

Microsoft Apps Go Cloud – Review (Tablet/OnLive)

Ok if you are a regular to the site there is one name that has to have stood out over the months: OnLive.  If you are new to the site I’ll give you a real brief overview.  OnLive is cloud-based gaming that delivers your same game to multiple locations including your PC, your tablet, some smart phones and even has a micro console around the size of a deck of cards so that you can plug directly into your TV and play like a video game console but at a cheaper console price.  In short it is like Netflix for video gaming, even having a subscription service for over 200 video games for only $10 a month and rental and purchase of new games.  You can start a game on your PC, resume it on your Android phone or tablet, then start playing it on your micro console all as if you were playing from the same place.  You don’t need a state of the art system to play the newest graphic beast of a game, just like Netflix you just need a strong internet connection.  I have been raving since I got my hands on the system at E3 last year but I’m not alone, Time Magazine had it as one of the top 50 websites of last year and their latest work with Microsoft is only going to continue to bring it attention.

OnLive teamed up with Microsoft to not just make the future of gaming quick and flexible but also the writing and business uses of the devices as well.  It is called OnLive Desktop and provides Microsoft Word, Excel, Microsoft PowerPoint, Internet Explorer and Adobe Reader all through the same account and cloud system you play the video games on.  You just download an app, it opens a page with all the links that looks like a computer screen.  You pick the program you want and away you go.

Because it is all done via cloud the programs open amazingly fast due to the high quality server they are being opened on and the fact that it is utilizing the same proprietary data transfer system as the games (which can have a faster online response time than consoles). Everything responds as fast as if it were on your computer instead of via cloud, I think in some cases even faster.  Your tablet doesn’t get bogged down memory wise, the pull up keyboard is well done and best of all you are getting all this Microsoft software at your fingertips for free!  If you leave a program open with some work on it and exit out of the OnLive Desktop on purpose or accident the work is right there again when you open Desktop again.  This can definitely come in handy if working on sensitive material you can close the program fast and be right back to where you were when you go back.  It also just comes down to it is nice to have all these very useful official Microsoft apps available on multiple tablets including the IPad.

For those of you who like the idea but may find it more work than fun there is also Microsoft Blackboard, Microsoft Garden Pond, Microsoft Rebound (a particularly fun futuristic air hockey style game) and Microsoft Surface Collage to help fight writer’s block or brain cramp while working on that special project.  All for free as part of your free OnLive gaming account.

Last Call:

This is a terrific, easy to use collection of tools and games that won’t take up space on your system, provides a lightning fast response to your needs and probably best of all is free.  If you have an OnLive account you might as well add this on just in case you find yourself needing one of these tools. If you work a job with writing or in business you never know when Microsoft’s top business products will come in handy.  If you don’t have an OnLive account… what are you waiting for?

Yesterday – A Review (PC)

I was fortunate enough to get to play the preview for Yesterday and in a very short section of the game I learned it was one of the most twisted point and click games I have ever seen.  The characters were disturbed at best, the items you point and clicked together were unusual and it didn’t take long to realize that the subject of who was the “good guys” was blurry at best.  And the preview left off at a total “wtf?” moment that had me playing through a few more times to make sure I saw what I thought I saw.  So when my esteemed Editor In Chief asked if I might want to play the game itself I jumped at it and had it downloading before the email could go through.

The game is a point and click, picking up items from your environment, combining them or using them on each other, then trying to figure out what to do with them next.  There are also dialogue choices for the storyline to click on with different responses for each.  Figuring out what to click on can sometimes be the hardest part because some objects you click on multiple times to interact with them in different ways.  And sometimes items are just red herrings, you can pick them up but they wind up serving no purpose other than to fill your inventory.  Point and click games can vary from obvious choices aimed at a younger audience to real puzzlers that have you scratching your head for quite a while before the cartoon light bulb appears over your head.  This one is harder and for good reason, this games puzzles and most definitely it’s themes are aimed at an older audience and your actions as well as the storyline can be downright disturbing.

The story revolves around a few main characters and even divulging who they are would give too much of it away.  But you find out in the beginning 30 seconds of the game that homeless people are being burned alive and the first character you are going to play is a volunteer for a reach out program trying to get the homeless off the streets so they aren’t murdered.  All normalcy is lost around this point as a story of lunacy, Satan worship and post traumatic stress disorder all work together to create a very messed up story.  Though certain elements can be said to have been seen in this movie or this other game there is some very original story telling going on with excellent twists.  For every plot development you guess another will hit you out of the blue and some are sheer stunners.  I locked myself in a room with no interruptions and played the game on a marathon run in the same night, not because of deadlines or distractions but because I wanted to make sure I was getting the full experience because it became obvious early on that things weren’t as they seemed and plot twists might hang on the simplest of statements.  I think I could have enjoyed this as well if I had watched somebody else play it or even if it had been turned into a movie or a mini series because the story is just that strong.

One last thing that needs to be noted and might slip past the casual observer is the very nicely stylistic artwork used in the graphics.  The game seems to purposely stay away from straight lines, even in the sides of buildings or door jams as if not only are all the characters in the game slightly off or plain twisted so is everything in the very world they inhabit.  The voice acting is great, music is good but next to the storyline it is the twists in graphic style that I think is most notable.

Last Call:

It is hard to write a review about a mystery game where the twists start right at the beginning and keep up until the end leaving very little to talk about that isn’t a spoiler.  This is a great story, an excellent game and a challenging point and click puzzler where you really need to pay attention if you want to get through the game without using the hints.  The answers are there but you have to be to to get them.  When it came to Yesterday I started for the game but marathon played for the storyline.

Gas Guzzlers Combat Carnage Preview (PC/Open Beta)

So after being down for the count a couple weeks with first pneumonia then a bad cold I have been itching to get into a new game (ed. note: Glad to have you back!!).  When Gamespires announced their Open Beta of Gas Guzzlers Combat Carnage I was more than ready to put my Sentra in the garage and get behind the wheel of a dino hogging beast.  My first love was my small block Malibu Chevelle and the only thing that could have made her better would have been machine guns (figures California would ban such things right when I got her).  So you put some horses under a hood and ammo cases on a roof and there is a good chance I will have at least some love for the game.

Believe it or not, that was my first concern with Gas Guzzlers.  It put me in a Fat Ficho (imagine a Fiat).  Now if I were pulling a heist in it or driving through insanely narrow European streets I could still probably get behind it but the tracks provided are off road.  I understand the idea of starting small and working your way up I really do, but this vehicle doesn’t even begin to live up to the Gas Guzzlers title.  It is a slow, squirrely car that if you make the slightest mistake in you will lose the race.  The slightest mistake.  Your initial weapons are fairly ineffective as well so it comes down to racing a stock Fiat in dirt.  The beta luckily also includes a vehicle that looks straight out of the Fast and The Furious and this car handles much tighter plus the first weapons upgrade they give you to try is missiles so that it is possible to eliminate the competition as well as outrace them.  The vehicle is still designed more for street racing but it is such a leap above the Fat Ficho that I found myself in my Motor Zen place soon enough.

I do want to mention again that this game has just gone into Open Beta so any issue I might have with the game will probably be resolved by the time it is released or the ability to upgrade performance gear alone will probably help clear these issues when implemented.  These issues aside the graphics are excellent, the vehicle damage system looks terrific and the courses are well designed and engaging.  I even enjoy the “road kill” bonuses you get when you take out a chicken, rabbit or prairie dog that happen to wander onto the course because it is handled in a fun and cartoony way.

The only other nagging issue I had was the voice over.  Sounding straight from the mouth of an old school professional wrestler, the voice over is part commentator, part co-pilot and a bit confusing.  At times it seems to be making comments for you about a weapon you picked up for example, then other times it seems to be griefing you like if you hit a wall too hard the game actually said “That wasn’t too fuckin’ smart!” and another time said “Aw, shit!.”  The language seems to be raw simply to be raw and uses mature language regardless of whether you are doing well or bad, though the worse you do the more it seems to curse.  As an adult I heard far worse language when my dad was working on an engine but it generally wasn’t aimed at me.  When I don’t correct enough for a turn and drop back two places in a race I will probably be cursing enough without the game saying “son of a bitch!” or my still favorite “that wasn’t too fuckin’ smart” which I am probably already feeling.  It’s adult humor and meant to be funny but it almost feels like it could be abusive to a child.  I think the game may continue to tend toward this angle since it appears that it is being marketed in Europe as “Gas Guzzlers Shitload of Gas” as opposed to the U.S. “Gas Guzzlers Combat Carnage.”

Last Call:

I really look forward to reviewing and tearing up some tar on the final game.  Gas Guzzlers is in Open Beta which is still a very early process, heck at one point I had a collision error and found myself driving through the sky shooting my machine guns at clouds before the game corrected me back onto track.  All it does is give you a taste of the game and an idea in which direction they are going.  As a gorgeous, racing game with excellent tracks and fun weapons this game is headed in a great direction.  The only question is whether it wants to keep going in the mature direction solely for the purpose of being mature and edgy, which could in the end easily lose them a whole player base.  I’ll enjoy it either way, but it is not headed towards family entertainment.

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Vessel Preview (PC/Steam)

When I first heard about Vessel it sounded interesting, stylish 2D side scrolling action game involving water.  That description didn’t really do justice to the game and the exceptional physics involved in it, the grace and style that can be made using water in a Victorian Steam Punk environment.

The story is about an inventor named Arkwright who created Fluro, liquid based mechanical creatures, that have been integrated into every part of our modern life.  Arkwright used this knowledge and resulting wealth to improve liquid physics and finish his latest creation “The Device.”  He steps outside his home laboratory and finds himself locked outside the house by one of his latest Fluro so he goes to get his tools to get back into his house only to find the Fluro have ran amok all over town particularly causing havoc on the fluid based technology.  This technology all looks like Victorian Steam Punk in design though it is actually Victorian Liquid Punk and there is water water everywhere, some of it walking on two feet.  All of Arkwright’s inventions run on it including the multiple weapons he uses to set things right throughout town.

The animation style combined with the haunting music creates an atmosphere very similar to Limbo. Where Limbo painted a world of shadow, Vessel paints with a world of water.  Water is involved in all the puzzles and Strange Loop Games went to painstaking lengths to plot the physics of all the water, even the ones not involved in puzzles.  This world would come to an end if there was ever a drought but anything that can be liquified is put to use to keep the world going.  Fans of Penny Arcade may enjoy how much Arkwright looks like he came right out of it.

The puzzles definitely vary in difficulty and some are more a matter of timing than brain work but there seems to be another challenge around every corner and you get so immerse in moving Arkwright through it you can easily lose time.  With so many levels and puzzles to solve there is a lot of time to be passed and I was just playing the demo!

Features:
* Fully physically-simulated world of liquid interactions. Experience flowing and splashing water, scalding thick lava, drippy glowing goo, and explosive reactant chemicals, simulated using fluid-dynamics.
* All creatures in the game are composed of simulated liquid, and maintain the fluid’s properties and abilities . Collide water creatures with lava creatures to create steam, use creatures made of glowing goo to navigate dark areas, and mix creatures of reactant chemicals to trigger explosions.
* Solve puzzles by combing the unique behavior of each creature with the fluid they’re made of. Drop a ‘Drinker’ Fluro and lure him by spraying goo. Create a ‘Dark Fluro’ and chase him with light.
* Explore a world of fantastic, detailed machines and strange, wondrous environments. 2D hand-drawn textures combined with 3D normal maps and lighting creates a unique, other-worldly look to the visuals.
* Gain the powers of the creatures you encounter in the field and apply your discoveries to your next great invention, ‘The Device’.

Last Call:

The graphics are beautiful and haunting, the gameplay puzzles are excellent and if you pay attention the liquid physics are almost awe inspiring.  Hopefully it will get the notice and gameplay of Limbo because it truly deserves it.  Maybe this year it will be on top indie game lists like Limbo was this past year.

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King Arthur 2: The Role-playing Wargame Review (PC/Steam)

I consider myself lucky that a while back I had the opportunity to play Total War: Shogun 2 and review it for Gaming Shogun. At the time I felt lucky because I got to experience the immense depth and choice players had when playing that game and how it had great replay value due to all the choices.  You even had a choice of how deep you went, you could play it a lot like a Risk simple strategy game or you could go in and orchestrate the movements of each of your units each step through the battlefield.  I tried a bit of each and still it took days, weeks, just to get a grasp of all there was to do in that game.  There is a reason that some magazines and some websites didn’t just list it as one of the best games of the year but also listed it as one of the best games of all time.  It was a great play and a gorgeous sight loaded with amazing detail setting a new bar for strategy games like it to come.

Another reason I feel lucky to have played it is when I got the opportunity to review King Arthur 2 which lists itself as a “role-playing wargame”  I may not have realized it was another name for strategy games in the very same vein as Shogun 2.  I may also not have realized the benchmark set by Shogun 2 should be considered when reviewing this game.  Can it stand up to such competition?

At the opening screen of the game players are given the option to play the prologue if they like which instead of being a long animation is actually playtime with tips and a great opportunity to introduce yourself to the game play.  I thought it was to be just the first part of my nights play only to discover that I had played for hours and only set the stage for the actual story.  I don’t want to spoil it by giving away too much detail but I can safely say the prologue does an excellent job of leading into the game itself and sets a timeline for the rest of the game.  This part of the game would have made a decent, though somewhat short, game all on its own and uses both historical facts and mythology to weave an excellent tale.

After playing the prologue and reaching it’s pinnacle it is a bit hard to start the game with lowly means and have to work your way up to glory again. But at the same time it is like getting a chance to play the prologue over again with a better understanding of the game aspects and a different cast of characters. So in a way it is like having a short game and long game depending on your time allotment you can play one of both.

If you are familiar with Shogun 2 this will all sound a bit familiar but the game allows you to control pretty much ever aspect of your growing empire.  You have to make diplomatic relationships with the lands around you, you have to listen to and defend your people and when all else fails you have to draw your weapons and start trying to beat the snot out of your enemy.  The beating the snot out of the enemy part can often be conducted through auto battle but sometimes it requires you to get your face down with the troops and make their movements, use your heroes’ spells, take over temples for deity’s favor and watch the direct results of your moves or lack of moves cause your soldiers or your enemies to fall to the ground.

If someone comes into the game thinking of it mostly as a war game they will find themselves hemorrhaging money and burying their soldiers left and right.  Strategy is important to not just surviving the game but winning it is realizing that war is the last resort of strategy.   Then when it comes down to war it is as important to have a good strategy on the battlefield from troop placement to upgrading, from who to have attack first to the attack formation. Where are their archers? Do you really want to charge head on with your cavalry into pikesmen? Which of your heroes can best help which section of your troops and do they stand a better chance going on the offensive directly? And at the end of this battle how many of their ally territories are going to side with them over you? When those ally’s make a move will you and yours be able to stop the retaliation?

If this game had come out before Shogun 2 and been as heavily publicized as Shogun 2 had been (one of the biggest video game media blitzes of the year) there is a good chance that this game could have been the one that others were compared to. Graphically it is amazing with good voice acting and tons of action when action is called for. The immense control over your forces and the historical accuracy of the possible formations, units and general events of the time work perfectly together so that even armchair historians will recognize names and places. Every decision has to be weighed against the consequences to make sure you don’t find yourself facing down many more enemies than you can cut through. The name of the game being King Arthur may bring up images of the round table and Merlin’s mists but this game tries to be more historically accurate than many of the Arthur tales basing itself more on the historical figure the myths were supposed to be based off of though you can expect some units that are more supernatural than natural.

The drawbacks to the game are a bit minor and definitely the result of being spoiled in today’s game market.  The game is a pretty beefy download and will probably take a decent while to get you into the action.  Load screens are pretty long and could use more interesting images than the game logo.  Also there were some pretty serious crash issues which at first I thought might just be an issue with my system but then I tried the game on another of my computers and checked forums, communities and other reviewers to see if they had the same issues and it seemed universal and quite often at the same point.  I found that I had to actually change my pattern of attack in a couple spots to keep it from crashing due to too many units, spells and special abilities going on all at once.  In at least one case the results was a less substantial win than I would have liked and in another case the random prize generator gave me a rare the first time I beat a battle and gave me a common the next time I played it after a crash.  Also you can’t save during battle so if something comes up you have to accept a defeat rather than saving it and coming back when you have more time.  There have been nearly daily updates though so I think most of these issues will be gone before you know it.

Last Call:

This game is a lot of fun and has a lot of similarities to Total War: Shogun 2 so if you like that kind of game it is definitely worth playing.  If you haven’t played Shogun 2 and you like detailed strategy games then this is definitely a game worth picking up along with Shogun 2.  It will feel like the same kind of play but you will get what seems like 3 games for the price of two with the long prologue on King Arthur.  It has glitches like many new games do but it also has some fun and very well detailed game play, just remember to save often until they get the glitches and crashes cleaned up.

 

Law & Order: Legacies (PC/Steam)

So there were plenty of nights that we would watch a television show that makes the noise Dun Dun throughout it. We would follow the witnesses as they discover the victim and continue as the process carried right through the sentencing of someone who may or may not be guilty and may or may not be found so. It usually had some degree of closure and most episodes tied up the story, sometimes neatly, other times as messy as the audience could except. Dick Wolf has continued to bring up Law And Order in many fashions over the longest running television crime series ever so it would make sense that eventually they would make a video game and try to recreate the experience we had watching the show but take it one step forward and make us part of the show. But are fans of the show ready to step up?

Law And Order: Legacies will include a total of 7 episodes covering multiple cases and does not restrict itself to the most recent casts of the Law And Order shows but makes all star match ups so you can get a feel for how they would work together. As a player you take the role of the investigators both in interviewing the suspects and checking the crime scene for evidence and sometimes the evidence can be a bit harder to find. Once you collect all the information and evidence you turn it over to the prosecutors and then take their place in the courtroom in what amounts to multiple choice answers about a section of testimony you just heard or a question that should be asked. When it comes down to it that is pretty much what you do through the whole game but your choices have actual results on the way the story plays out with multiple story lines and multiple endings. It seems most of the time that the better answer is obvious or that if you listen closely to the testimony you can object at the right time with the right objections but sometimes it gets into a grey area and you really aren’t sure which might be the best way to go with the questioning or objections. Ever so rarely a real mind twister will pop up and you might find yourself jeopardizing the case.

I mentioned there are 7 episodes but at launch there are only 3 so that, much like a real television season, the episodes will release one by one and you will have to wait until the next episode for your fix of animated justice. The characters are well rendered and even without openings taken right off the TV series you easily recognize the faces and voices. And of course the infamous music and Dun Dun! which I began to predict during the many nights my wife and I watched it together and still makes her laugh even while I did it to the game.

If someone likes the show this game is a seriously fun fix and could be played together so that different people make different decisions, maybe assigning characters so that it can be as interesting as the television show but more like the game night. This kind of brings up a point, the audience of a game of this type and this subject is older for the most part so there is the problem of hitting their target audience. The people behind Law and Order teamed up with TellTale games who target toward the younger and older generation which this game would be great for, kids learning a bit about the legal system and decision making and folks who have watched this series since it began and will love to get to participate in the action.

Last Call:

Fans of the show will no doubt enjoy Law And Order: Legacies and just like the television show they will start with a couple episodes, get hooked and have to wait for the next episode of the season to arrive. If the right word gets out about this game and the audience responds right I could see this becoming a long lasting series to rival it’s record breaking television counterpart because there are so many crimes, and these are there stories… Dun Dun!

Please Stay Calm Review (iPhone)

This is one of those games I have been playing for quite a while (back in it’s beta days) and keep meaning to write up but find myself playing it instead.  Please Stay Calm is a zombie apocalypse game that utilizes your phone’s GPS and FourSquare to create locations for it’s MMO.  This isn’t the only game out there that does it, it is just probably one of the most successful.  Did I mention it is free?

Please Stay Calm is set in the aftermath of the zombie apocalypse when all the government agencies have pulled out leaving survivors to their own devices and decisions on how they are going to live their lives.  Scavenging becomes a daily way of life and survivors rely on each other for defense or medical attention and build safe houses and outposts to store supplies and be able to hopefully sleep safe at night.  There is a global communications system designed to find fellow survivors and help them in any way you can.  You can help others, you can hunt others, you can join clans or you can lone wolf your way through a huge variety of zombies, some holiday related, some the bane of your pre-zombie life.  The key is survival and how you do that is really up to you.

The graphics are styled and enjoyable, there is a minimum amount of sound to it which works well if you are checking your outposts in the middle of the night while you are checking the time.  You build up stamina for healing of dueling, action points for scavenging and hunting and health is pretty much what you would think.  Things are bought with one of three things: cash, supplies or credits.  Cash and supplies are gotten through scavenging and hunting and credits can be bought with cash or by watching commercials and downloading programs, most of which are other free games.  This game can be played completely free just using the currency you get in game,  but if you get impatient you can buy credits at a very reasonable price for a free to play currency.

Hunting is a fun game of watching a bunch of you weapons pop up at the bottom of the screen and try to pick the best one before they go away and it is the zombie’s turn to take a shot.  You have to watch your health though because sometimes the zombies are strong enough to take you down with a single hit.  Dueling is picking someone who is rated around your level and then you have the choice to add a bonus item such as explosive ammo to give you an edge, in case they put a defense bonus on them such as a land mine.  Defenses usually last 6 hours so that you can go to bed and get at least a little sleep with some hope you might survive.  Unlike most games Duels aren’t live for both parties, someone attacks and wins or loses and the attacked gets a notice so they can get revenge if they want and attack back.  Using the same stamina as dueling is healing which just means picking someone on your friend’s list, checking their health and healing them.  The final thing, scavenging, involves moving a flashlight around your screen avoiding moving green dots, if they get in your beam of light you are caught and get nothing.

One of the real keys to the fun of this game is that you find yourself doing all this at real life locations.  Between GPS and FourSquare you may find yourself scavenging the local supermarket or fighting zombies in your neighbor’s shower.  Any place with a check-in is territory you can hunt, scavenge, outpost and safe house.  Right now I have an outpost on the Death Star.  Who knew that would have landed in Reno?

Last Call:

This is a great pick up and play a bit game that you can play a couple times a day and if you are like me those days wind up turning into weeks and months.  I love this simple free game and I know if I get too frustrated with the pace of building up my weapons or defenses I can pick up some credits for a real affordable price.  New players arrive everyday and meams new friends to play and chat with and people get really into the game with back and forth duels and clans being at each others throats.  At the end of the day though, it is about surviving the zombie apocalypse and the more practice we all have the better off we are!  Did I mention it is free?  Well, it still is.

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The Dark Knight: Golden Dawn Deluxe Edition (Graphic Novel/DC Comics)

It really isn’t too surprising that with the success of the Dark Knight movies, the incredibly well done Batman Arkham games and the cancellation of Batman The Brave and The Bold for a darker Knight animated series in development that Dark Knight graphic novels and comics would start to take a grittier, darker approach than previous incarnations of the caped crusader.  As a result, a lot of jewels of the writing world got to shine in this element. A couple of the more notable being the dynamic duo of David Finch and Jason Fabok who were given the reins of the Batman: Dark Knight series in which we get to feel the pain that Gotham inflicts on it’s citizens, villains and superheroes in this modern world.

Gone are the days of the smooth skinned, perfectly painted Joker and the laughable bumbling Penguin and in its place are villains wracked with disease and addiction, a Batman whose lines have definitely blurred between hero and villain, and a Gotham where hell is closer than anyone would like to think.  The story concentrates on the disappearance of one of Batman’s oldest friends, Dawn Golden, who is one of his only good links left to his past before his parent’s murder and runs through Gotham’s usual list of suspects with some surprisingly strange twists.  I have read a lot of Batman over the years, particularly the darker ones such as The Dark Knight Returns and The Killing Joke, and I have seldom seen the question of villain versus victim so well and deeply explored or had the lines between the heroes and the villains be so thin.  Gotham has damaged all its inhabitants and none feel truly safe from the street folks to the socialites.  Going into any deeper detail would spoil parts of the storyline but I can say the artwork is exceptional, as dark and gritty as the story itself and I often found myself stopping to just take in the detail of a panel or a page.

The Deluxe Edition is a collection of the first six issues of Batman: The Dark Knight and also includes Batman: The Return “Planet Gotham,” a short tale by Grant Morrison in which Batman realizes the best way to protect Gotham is to protect the world and start fighting terrorism in the Dark Knight way.  The story is really well written with excellent artwork and sets up a concept that bridges several previous Grant Morrison Batman stories together and defines new roles for the different individuals who have taken on the bat logo as well as Robin.  It was originally published as a one shot a year ago so it might have been easy to miss but is a solid read on it’s own.  There is even a two page story called “Eternal” by David Finch at the end of the book that tells the story of two of the inheritors of the Batman and Superman names walking toward the statue dedicated to their mentors and discussing what it means to be these iconic superheroes.  When all this is put together in a nicely bound hardcover format this is really a “deluxe edition.”

Last Call:

I am really glad I got the chance to read this graphic novel.  The main story is so well-written I want to go out and pick up more copies from the comic series right now and the additional Grant Morrison story makes me want to read a few of the stories I have missed from other graphic tales.  It is a true “deluxe edition” and is not only a great read but if read carefully can bestow the reader with a better understanding of how thin the line between good and evil really can get.