Author - Ripper71

Saints Row: The Third Review (PC/OnLive)

2011/11/19

Certain games appeal to the “adult kid” in us, I know that sounds like an oxymoron but the truth is some games make us laugh and curse at the same time, some games make juvenile jokes not meant for children. Generally, these games are considered male-oriented because they are loaded with machismo, but I have seen women gamers laughing it up and kicking arse in these types of games just as much as the guys – though they may be a little slower to admit it. GTA 3 is a prime example of this kind of game, it raised a giant uproar for it’s senseless violence and adult themes yet it was the top selling game of 2001. It revolutionized the sandbox game and set a new benchmark, both in rude content and diversity of gameplay. As a result all games called “sandbox” or “open world” would be compared to the very high mark set from then on. In 2006 developer Violation Inc. and publisher THQ created a game called Saints Row which was successful enough to sell two million copies and create a sequel which due to technical issues only sold 400,00 units the first year. As a result it took a while to get Saints Row: The Third out and has brought up the question in many people’s mind: is it better than it’s predecessor?

The warning label for Saint's Row the Third

So you definitely get the feeling that the game is going to be both mature and immature at the same time. Which is good, it is what we have come to expect from these kind of games. You can have all of the above situations executed in a serious game but that would probably lose a lot of the fun factor. Sometimes at the end of the day these themes are really what you need, and what Saint Row definitely shoots for and delivers.

You start out with a lot of character customization as to how he or she looks and you can spend a good deal of time getting lost in just this element of the game. There are plenty of gamers out there that don’t care about this feature and can just randomize and be done with it but for those who plan to invest themselves in the storyline of the game as much as the gameplay taking the little extra time can make the difference between a generic thug or a finely honed avatar.

Whichever way you go with it be assured that eventually you will be able to have fun with this aspect too. If you pre-ordered you start with a very strange but fun mascot costume to get you started as well as the rather generic outfit you get to start with. As time goes by in the game you get to accessorize as much as you want, in fact it earns you more reputation, which lets you unlock more things which can include more accessories. You get the opportunity to make the most bad ass looking character to the most silly looking one and though it doesn’t really effect gameplay except for rep when you are running around just having fun in the open world having on some fun gear can add to it.

Graphics And Atmosphere

The graphics in the game look so good that sometimes they look more like concept art, especially during the cinematics. The shadowing and detail in this game help draw you in even with the third person perspective most of the time and the atmospheric sounds and interactions help keep you in it. You can stand on one spot on the street and watch all kinds of interactions between the different AIs populating the world. This isn’t a new idea, but it is a very important one to execute due to the high standards these kind of games are held up to now. You have to be able to interact with just about any part of the environment but it also has to have the ability to interact without you which gives it the opportunity to earn the Mature 17+ rating all on it’s own without the fun and senseless violence you will undoubtedly unleash upon the games’ world. Between the graphics and the atmosphere, from the sounds of traffic, arguments and distant gunshots on the streets to the muzak in the elevator every part of this game is detailed and thorough just as it needs to be.

The game controls are pretty standard for this type of game, actually the buttons are so similar that they are intuitive and don’t really require any practice to get the hang of. If you played the GTA games this will all seem very familiar in the movements of the characters as well as the controls. There are definite and distinct differences between the Saints game compared to the GTA, but at least the controls are quick to master.

Too Much Like GTA?

Some of the similarities of this game and GTA really can’t be ignored but there is also nothing wrong with that since when you get something right there is nothing wrong with keeping at it. Stealing vehicles is the same, beating up or gunning down people on the street, vehicles are mostly similar to GTA and all this makes it so that you can just jump in and play the game without training. Yet at the same time there are very different mini games than GTA so it is a refreshing change.

There are a whole lot of vehicles of all different types some of them are repeated between different gangs, as are the clothing with mostly a difference in color and each gang’s specialist – some snipers, some martial artists. There are plenty of everyday vehicles such as garbage trucks, semis, event little utility carts.

There are also some of the really strange ones like the one that came with pre-ordering the game that is a cat truck that sucks people into its face grill and fires them out a cannon with a bunch of confetti. I know that sounds made up but here it is in all it’s glory.

The set also came with one of the unique costumes in the game that I used for a while because it was a very strange and unique and just plain silly fun. Some of the mini games and extra content is designed to look like it would fit in with a Japanese game show which is another way that this game goes in it’s own direction. It really tries not to take itself seriously from the crazy weapons to the crazy vehicles, to the silly attacks this game is just darn silly fun.

Even the names of the achievements and missions are all double meaning and the banter is the kind of things guys might say to each other while they razz one another on headsets or on the couch. I laughed just about every minute playing this game and though I remember the wonder of GTA3 and it’s glory, I like that this game decided it was going to give you the third person shooter but was going to make every minute crazy machismo fun. It earns the warning posted earlier but not in the dark way that the warning could mean, it earns it in uncompromising over-the-top action and humor. Sure you get the serious mission when you are piloting a helicopter to cover a hacker friend as she tries to get information to help your gang survive, but you also get a gigantic mountain of a friend who jumps on the top of a hovering jet and starts beating it up to help you escape or a comrade who had a tracheotomy and uses an gold auto-tuner on the end of a cane as a voice amplifier.

Homages And Storyline

Most of the really funny stuff is definitely Mature 17+, so I won’t be dwelling so much on that in this piece, but it takes all those video game moments from over the years and pays homage to them to the point of ridiculous. Instead I will try to point out some of the ways it pays homage that are far more subtle that I can mention without giving away the storyline. There are references to Starship Troopers, HALO, Matrix, TRON, and even some MMOs. Heck, there is a joke that most younger players will probably never get involving text based games that older gamers will be laughing their butts off at.

Some, I guess, really are not THAT subtle...

I love those movies but I don’t remember her in them. It does show an example of how the absurd is combined with the slightly more subtle. It actually makes sense to the storyline and that is something that this game does well, takes a surprisingly versatile storyline that features several twists and turns to make absurdities possible and surprising results come up. It isn’t all linear either, there are certain moments in the game where you have to make decisions and those decisions sometimes have a small branching off and others decide what ending to the game you get. It is so well woven in that there are debates all over the boards discussing which ending seems like the more logical, the “right” one that will show it’s effect if another Saints Row game is made.

OnLive And Co-Op

The OnLive system has always been great with its Arena that allows you to look at all the different games people are playing and actually watch them play in a spectator mode that allows you to talk to them, cheer them and jeer them while they work their way through a game. OnLive also incorporates it so that if the game can be played co-op you can actually join the game you are watching. So the way OnLive works with Saints Row: The Third is when you sign in at the beginning of a session you can choose to have your campaign “private” or “co-0p” which makes it so that while you play a new player can join you in the game as long as you aren’t in the middle of a mission. If you are they have to wait until you are done with the mission then they can hop into the game with you and do co-op missions. It’s as easy as that! So if you see someone playing and you like their style of play you can jump right into the game with them and if that works out you can friend them and hop into their games no matter what it is as long as you both have it anytime you are both on. It really makes it so that you don’t just have someone you can enjoy a round with and maybe play with later, it makes it so that you can play with them regularly. You can make Brag Clips on OnLive at the hit of a button that records the last 15 seconds of play so if you just can’t stop laughing about what you just did you can share it with the whole OnLive community and give them a good laugh or cheer too. Also OnLive works with the Saints Row website which allows players to not just chat through its community, it also allows you to compare games and meet up with more people.

One More Mode To Mention

There is one last game mode I have to mention but I will be fairly tight lipped about because it really is just best to be experienced. It it called Whored Mode (Hoard) and it is a 30 level survival mode with a greatest hits from the game both weapons and enemies wise. It is one that is fun to play over and over and I can’t recommend it enough, though I do recommend playing it after the game or you will be spoiler-ed on who some of your opponents will be.

Last Call

Saint’s Row the Third manages to succeed at nearly everything it tries to do, from telling a good story while giving you all the things you love in a open world game and a whole bunch of silly adult fun. It is not for kids, they probably wouldn’t get many of the jokes anyways, but it is a brutally-fun game. Worth owning!

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Rochard Review (PC/Steam)

2011/11/14

Ripper71

News, Reviews

Rochard is one of those hard to describe games that crosses over so many game genres. It is a puzzler disguised as a side-scrolling action game with graphics like Wallace And Gromit and a gravity gun. I guess it wasn’t that hard. Rochard (pronounced “Rock Hard”) is an astro miner whose crew is one job away from the intergalactic unemployment line when they strike pay dirt in the form of a strange element in the middle of an isolated asteroid. It is at that same moment that a bunch of thugs arrive on the ship with laser guns and motion turrets and start taking hostages. It is up to Rochard and his trusty gravity gun to to throw crates, open hatches, re-arrange force fields by pulling fuses and doing his best to get his crew back and still get a payday.

John Rochard is a loveable animated character, an exaggerated cross between a miner and trucker who defies gravity with his gut. He is composed of family friendly graphics that even stay friendly and blood free when he takes out his enemies. Due much to the fun but very decent quality graphics you find yourself rooting for your character and wanting to keep helping him get past challenge after challenge. The voice acting is well done too and very cartoonish adding to the charm and overall family cartoon feel. If you are looking for a side scrolling action game where you shoot everything in sight or a gore filled horror fest this really couldn’t be further from those games. This is meant to be fun, silly, and challenging in its puzzles, though people who pride themselves on really hard puzzles may find them a bit too easy. Everything, even the difficulty of the puzzles, really yells family fun. The controls are pretty straight forward and intuitive, though players may want to check Controls just in case there is a surprise not mentioned in the game’s hints. The game never had a glitch or a hiccup and there was almost always more than one way to solve a puzzle.

The music is one of the only parts that diverge from the family fun feel but it is so well done that I honestly would really like the soundtrack. One track sounds very much like something out of Firefly/Serenity, another sounds John Carpenter-esque and yet another sounded like something right out of Tron. It all screamed sci-fi which does work with the location of the events but not so much the mood of the game. I love the music but I think I would have gone with something more cartoonish for this and saved the great music for a few other actions titles.

Last Call:

I really liked this game! It was silly and fun and cartoonish but the puzzles are decent, the music is excellent and it would be a great game for adults to play with their young kids. Something about the gameplay is addictive and just makes you want to keep helping the guy rescue his crew, get the pay dirt and just generally win the day after which you can just imagine him putting up his feet, opening his favorite beverage and watching… well probably cartoons. At $10 on Steam you may feel you hit pay dirt as well.

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InMomentum Review (PC/Steam)

2011/11/12

Ripper71

News, Reviews

1 Comment

I have played a lot of different indie games over the years and I find something to like in a game even if I find I don’t like the game itself. I can figure out why some people will rave to me about it while I end up with the urge to immediately log into one of my favorite FPS and tear through a few maps. That was definitely the case with InMomentum.

InMomentum is made up of 12 parkour-inspired, timed courses with throwback 3D graphic blocks and lots of ledges. There is some shooting to be done, about 5 times per level to lower obstacles but, otherwise, it is about running and jumping with perfectly timed precision to complete the course in the shortest time possible. Some sections can only be cleared by multiple jumps with multiple buttons, generally one to put you onto the side of a wall and a second to shoot you to the top of it. Errors in jumping result in going back to the last checkpoint of which there are only a few.

The musical score is a nice instrumental with a nice upbeat tempo to get you in the mood to run and jump then run and jump some more. The bars and boxes that comprise the course are multicolored reminding me a bit of Q-bert and some of Rubik Cubes. The game uses the Unreal Engine 3 so there never seems to be any issues with the throwback block graphics and game physics. InMomentum has a single player and a multiplayer mode, single player you are racing against a preset time and in multiplayer you are racing others and can get powerups to use to mess up your enemy, very Kart style in that respect. The multiplayer at least does have the fun of messing with your friends using weapons combos and such and could get very competitive.

Last Call:

I can see where people who like running and jumping games, especially with the extra challenge of wall parkour and kart style weapons to take out your friends, would find this game a great deal – especially with a $10 price tag. I just think the audience is fairly specialized and this would have limited appeal to a general audience.

Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 Review (PC/Steam)

2011/11/12

Ripper71

News, Reviews

1 Comment

I’ve been playing first person shooters since there were first person shooters. I don’t limit myself to any platform or game genre – I simply enjoy playing them. Over the years, certain franchises have risen to the top and captivated players in a way that cements their place in gaming history. A lot of us can remember the feeling of playing Battlefield 1942 and all its expansions and mods. And, pretty much everyone reading this has either played or seen a HALO game. A strong FPS takes a hold in the gaming community with a grip that can only be compared to the most successful of MMORPGs. There is no arguing that the Call Of Duty franchise cemented its place in gaming years ago and has fought hard to stay on-top in a genre filled with competitors. The only question is, with Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare 3, did Activision step up its game and raise the bar or just tow the line?

Campaign

The campaign’s storyline picks up where Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 left off, with our dogged heroes “Soap” and Price hunting the ever frustratingly-elusive Makarov around the globe. Where Makrov goes, destruction is his companion as New York, London, Berlin, Paris and more suffer immensely in his wake. One of the most powerful scenes taking place in London and being disturbing enough to grant gamers the opportunity to skip that segment! Much like Modern Warfare 2, the gameplay is not just designed to be a fun FPS, but also show the horror of terrorism and put your heart into the gameplay. You want to see Makarov pay for the atrocities he commits and delivers upon the world – you feel vested in stopping a monster who not only attacks those who signed up for the battles but also those innocent civilians who just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. Some who don’t care much about story and just want to shoot might take the option to skip the stronger images of the story but they are reminders of real-life terrorist tragedies and so should be watched as a vigil. As usual, I don’t want to give away the story but parts of it definitely feel satisfying and help take care of some of the more bothersome and depressing loose ends of Modern Warfare 2. Unfortunately, some points in the game’s plot don’t really make sense but, with some suspension of disbelief which we mainly reserve for action movies and action games, you can get past that.

The graphics are beautiful with excellent detail – from green leaves in jungle locations and concrete debris and metal fatigue in cityscapes. Some of the situations and set-pieces that you will encounter really push the game’s engine, which is the same one used in Modern Warfare 2. The battle gets chaotically intense at times but the graphics engine holds up for the most part and, during quieter moments or during the cinematics, it is nice to take a moment and notice how thorough the detail is. During one scenario you are in a plane out of control and since the environment, from items to enemies, all change through your actions the graphics engine has to compensate for changes when adjusting the direction of gravity to simulate a plane’s pitch, yaw and roll! You can also tell they spent some time at the gun range as part of their research, because the graphic depiction of the weapons and the firing process (firing mechanism, discharge, recoil, cartridge ejection and reload) are all spot-on and flawlessly-detailed. It is the closest most armchair warriors should probably be to the real weapons as most of them are heavy, awkward, and painful to fire by the untrained shooter. There are even the scenes where a slow motion shoot out happens and everything moves like a beautiful John Woo-esque ballet of carnage.

The in-game audio is also very immersive – so much so that I found myself playing with headsets on so that I could get the full soundscape that the game provides. It’s also not just a lot of gunfire, explosions, and yelling. You hear your footfalls on metal, the sounds of metal fatigue as it threatens to give way beneath your feet, and you hear the rumble and crackling of floors and whole buildings as they collapse in clouds of debris – sometimes with you on or underneath them! When a chopper goes down, you hear the whine of the engine and watch the struggles of the pilot until you wish there was something you could do to step in and help and between the sounds and the graphics it is really easy to forget you aren’t really crashing down with the crew.

The game controls of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 are pretty much the same as Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2. When a special quick-time event actions are required, the key necessary to perform the action is displayed in the middle of the screen. Fair warning: Don’t take your hands of the controls just because a cut scene has happened as you never know if you are going to have to suddenly hit certain buttons to survive! Assigned keys are all conveniently located so no awkward, Cirque du Soleil movements are necessary to complete a mission, I didn’t find it necessary to re-assign any of the keys as they were intuitive to an FPS game – jumping right in and getting the play underway is a snap. Any questions can be quickly answered by checking the controls section. I love gaming on all platforms but, sometimes, there is a certain satisfaction about using gaming mouse precision to take out a long-range enemy, popping their virtual heads in giblety-detail.

The playtime of the campaign can vary extremely, if you just want to see how fast you can play through, you are probably looking at a bit over 5 hours. If you concern yourself with any of the side things like picking up a few of the enemy intelligence packages and changing out your weapons slots for what you think will next serve you best, it will probably last between 10 to 15 hours. If you want to complete all the achievements, try out as many weapons as you can, and you want as close to 100% complete you are easily talking about over 15 hours of play – most likely more in the 20+ hour range. This seems like a pretty good length, if you just want to complete it for unlocks you can do so pretty quick, if you want to play a nice storyline it doesn’t get boring and if you want to do absolutely everything you can from the game the campaign gives you plenty of time to invest.

Multiplayer

For a lot of Call of Duty players, this is the most important part of the game. I will try to discuss some of the issues facing the multiplayer aspect of the game after going over the gameplay options a bit, during which fans of the COD franchise will probably feel some deja vu.

First off, the multiplayer game controls are the same as campaign’s, the other Call of Duty game controls, and FPS games in general. If something requires a different key than usual, it is nicely displayed on the screen either in the middle, the bottom, or both.

The graphics are also the same as the main game with map locations that are familiar to the campaign and familiar to those who have played the COD franchise. Certain maps tend to become player favorites but the nice thing about Modern Warfare 3 is that they took “problem” areas of the maps, such as locations of spawn campers, favorite sniper points, and pretty much anything that gave an unfair advantage to one side or the other and fixed or changed them. These changes, combined with the improved graphical look of the maps, makes it so that sometimes it takes a moment to remember the map and how to traverse it. So, the result is a familiar deja vu-like feeling to maps which are in their own right changed enough to be considered new maps. Some players, mostly those who exploited spawn camp locations for higher scores, will find these changes frustrating while the victims of previous campings get great spots to snipe spawn campers who run to take up their old positions only find a hail of bullets.

This brings up map balance, a highly contested subject in every multiplayer game no matter how well balanced maps are there will always be someone who believes there is an imbalance. In past maps that certainly could prove true where whichever team wound up with certain spawn points at the start of the map had a disadvantage to be overcome that could generally be overcome with superior playing, if the teams were about even they would usually lose. Also, as long as spawn points are targetable from inside the game, there is the risk of spawn campers. Games can try to compensate for this, some make one spawn point unreachable or not attackable, others make the spawn point shift frequently. This game does a decent job with shifting spawn points pretty regularly and giving players who have died in quick secession a few seconds of speed boost in case those deaths were do to camping you have a chance to find cover before getting killed. The maps are relatively small for the most part, one or two really work well with sniper weapons but for the most part mid to short range weapons will work fine. This I find both a bummer and a joy because I truly love sniping but these maps force me to try different weapons on different classes and I have found that if you put a SCAR-L in my hands I will be a happy player. Personally I feel MW3 has done a very good job at map balance and prevention of spawn campers while not taking any entertainment value out of them

Certain maps have already become server favorites so that only a few rotate on it so it really helps that there are so many game play types. These too servers have found favorites of but they tend to use multiple types on their favorite maps. Team Death Match is an old tried and true and still loved by players and puts maps to great use, Team Defender which is the capture the flag location is almost always in the mix and an old staple of FPS games and a new one called Kill Confirmed where you shoot your enemy then collect his dog tags or get prevent someone from getting one of your fallen teammates’ dog tags seem to be the most common to show up on servers and are all pretty fun and when mixed up with a few different maps makes for some variety. There is also a whole different category of multiplayer called Special Ops which combines the old gameplay of co-op variations of the single player levels and a new one called Survival which was popular in Halo games where you survive waves after waves of attackers. If there is a map style or game play you liked from COD:MW2 multiplayer you will find it here with a just a few new additions. Which brings up a whole new subject.

Is It Really Just A Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 Expansion?

This question I notice has popped up a lot, both amongst critics and particularly players. The engine is the same, there are just a few additions to multiplayer and the story picks right up from MW2. Well since I am reviewing this I will give my own pop culture take on it. When the original Star Wars Trilogy came out the first one was written so it could technically stand alone but after that the other two were designed to definitely interconnect. COD: MW2 actually reminds me a lot of the Empire Strikes Back, it was pretty depressing, it ended with the good guys thinking about how they had gotten their ass kicked and how they wanted to hunt down the bad guys, save one of their leaders and kick asses. Which are all things that were done in the third movie. I know people who have just watched the third one and liked it, I know people who have watched the second one and hated it for being depressing but no one says they think the two should have been made into one movie. COD: MW2 we got our asses kicked and were left with loose ends. COD: MW3 wraps up the trilogy well as a story, it is like a third movie so they wanted it to feel like a trilogy and have about the same graphics, same weapons and same engine even. If you look at the story lines it breaks up like a trilogy, it is only when you look at the multiplayer, which is what most people concentrate on that it feels like an expansion. I think they could have gotten away with making the multiplayer different, it didn’t require the same feel and that probably would have made fans and critics feel more like it was a separate game. Because without a story to advance the same play and physics it would feel like an expansion. So what is my take in short? The story feels like part of a trilogy and the multiplayer feels like an expansion.

Which Is The Better Game: Modern Warfare 3 Or Battlefield 3?

I have played many first person games – from the big titles to the $1 indies. In the end, neither is “better”. I think someone may like the narrative of the campaign for one more than another since they are both told a little different. I think they both have similar Multiplayer modes but they also have very distinct differences. Traditionally, Battlefield maps are larger, usually requiring vehicles to get to different points on the map as much as to battle with and lots of open ground great for sniping while Call Of Duty games tend to have tight confining maps, sniping depending on very key locations and there is a good chance that after a couple shots someone will get you, only on a few maps is there really any sniper room. Leveling for Modern Wafare 3 is quick, with lots of perks and customizable weapon choices at lower levels tons of achievement. Right now if you play it on the Xbox or PS3 you can even get double experience from specially marked soft drink caps. Battlefield 3 has much slower leveling, perks are a bit slower to arrive. So what it comes down to is if you like your multiplayer to have quick leveling with lots of quick options and smaller maps then Modern Warfare 3 will look better to you and if you like wide open spaces on your maps, slower leveling and working more for your options Battlefield 3 will look better.

You noticed that I really didn’t compare the campaigns much? I think Battlefield has a tendency to deliver a mixed bag of story – sometimes good, sometimes kinda weak, this time I think both titles delivered fairly similar story quality. One thing I really notice a difference in is the graphics Modern Warfare 3’s visuals are good, but designed to match the last game. Battlefield 3’s Frostbite 2 engine creates amazing detail that just completely outshines the Call Of Duty contender. When going back and forth between the titles for the purpose of this story, sometimes the beauty of Battlefield 3 would just stop me in awe for a second. Only one time did Modern Wafare 3’s visuals stopped me and that was because the sewer walls and object looked almost cartoonish.

Elite Club

The one thing that a lot of people forget about is the Elite Club. With the Elite Club premium subscription account players get monthly benefits which will include downloadable content, competitions for real and virtual prizes, the ability to start and join clans, special clan achievements and battles with other clans, even separate clan leaderboards. So with BF3 you buy a single player campaign with multiplayer until you get bored, MW3 is guaranteed to give you a year of extras if you bought the Hardened Edition or buy a separate subscription for $49.95. Elite Club even has Facebook integration that can check all your friends on Facebook and give you a notification if they join any Call Of Duty title and you can invite them to chat in a mutual lobby. It has had a bumpy start to begin with but once it stabilizes members will immediately have access to all kinds of content.

Last Call

Even if someone wants to argue if Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 should be considered an expansion or a stand-alone game, the title is worth picking up to complete the storyline and experience the new multiplayer fun. If you were able to swing the “Hardened Edition” or subscribe to Elite Club, you are getting a year’s worth of gaming extras which definitely takes the game up a notch and can make it almost like a MMOFPS, socially-speaking. If this works the way Activision hopes, this controversial title may be riding the crest of a whole new wave of FPS gameplay.

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Defenders Of Ardania Review (PC)

2011/11/07

Ripper71

News, Reviews

Those who enjoy a tower defense game will find Defenders Of Ardania an addictive game with a bit of a twist on the theme, you have to take down the enemy’s castle as well as dodging enemy towers.

The towers include arrow, cannons and flame ones and their range is dependent on placement in terrain. After creating these offensive and defensive towers, you then start to create units to attack the enemy’s fortress. Timing your units release on the field by varying their speed, strength and damage aspects is where some of the greatest strategy of the game comes into play. Some units, you will send out simply as cannon fodder so that more important units can slip through the enemy fire. For the most part, after the initial setup of your towers, they are kind of placed and forgotten and you find yourself heavily concentrating on troop plans. The type of troops the enemy can throw at you do have to be considered when placing your towers but then it really is about how best to slip past you enemy’s defenses while yours go on autopilot.

This can be a bit monotonous at the lower levels but once you get to the higher ones the multiple choices of towers and units available to you and the enemy make the game far more addictive. Exact proper placement easily can determine the chances between winning and defeat early in the round and it brings the real strategists out while having the simple tower defense players moving on. Visually, the game’s graphics are really nice and the levels change up the building designs as you go so that they can get rather original.

Last Call: There is not a lot to say about this game as it is your typical strategy/tower defense type. If you like strategy games, you will probably like it. If you like tower defense games, you will probably like it. If you like both you will find Defenders Of Ardania’s price of under $15 a good deal for a on the go Steam game for the hours of play you can get out of the various scenarios. If you aren’t a fan of these types of games already you will probably want to pass as the strategy/tower defense genre is rather specialized.

Payday: The Heist Review (PC)

2011/11/07

Ripper71

News, Reviews

So a well known comedian once said that more than anything else a guy wanted to be in a heist. He went on to describe a scenario in which the heist from a famous movie is every guy’s dream come true. I have no proof whatsoever that someone at the software developer has ever seen the comedian, but it is the foundation for a game that is one giant homage to movie and televisions heists and I have no problem picking up an in-game gun and tying to find the van. I first got a chance to check the game out at the 2011 Electronic Entertainment Expo in Los Angeles, as it had been quietly under-development by a company called Overkill that had been taken under Sony’s wing for distribution. As one E3-goer said to me, “… it’s kinda like Heat and kinda like The Dark Knight”.

So, when I got a chance to review it, I was thrilled. I don’t want to give away too much of the story or how many homages can be found in the game but, if you love first person shooters or heist films, this game is a blast. It encourages you to go faster through levels in a very simple manner, the enemies get meaner and there are more of them the longer the heist takes. And, by enemies I mean bank security, then patrol cops and plain clothes officers, followed by S.W.A.T. and more… If you wait around too long, it can get pretty hairy and you might find yourself close to a clean getaway only to get arrested.

Gameplay is pretty solid, the graphics look decent, and the AI isn’t stupid. In fact, the game AI often reacts the way you would expect real players would. If you shoot at the cops from one stairwell and then run around to the other one, they are caught off-guard for a moment but adjust quickly. They take cover for the most part and, though they do have very good aim, it isn’t perfect. The same can be said for your partners in crime. They aren’t slow to react to situations and if you lead the way towards an objective they are hot on your heels and covering your six – which is good because that is exactly where the AI would like to put a few rounds.

Overall, the game developers did a great job with only a couple issues I saw here and there. One minor one was that sometimes your AI teammates would try to take cover on the wrong side of an object. It looked almost like your teammates were trying to protect desks and tables or something. I found a quick withdrawal and immediate repositioning would get your team on the right side of cover. Another is, considering the complexity of the heists, some of the tools used are remarkably poorly-made. You are trying to steal millions of dollars and you can’t bring yourself to invest in a drill worth more than a garage sale freebie bin?

My last complaint is probably one that will be addressed eventually: There are only six missions. They shove a lot of homages into six missions but, in the end, it is still only six missions. Thankfully, the game costs less than $20 dollars so six well put-together missions is a pretty decent deal – it just leaves you wanting more.

Last Call: If you’re someone who likes first person shooters and heist movies this is a game for you! It is so much fun to play that though it is short is has great replay value and its multiplayer co-op gives you a chance to see how the heist would work if you had to work with real players and what happens if teamwork breaks down (hint: lots of bullet holes and hand cuffs). Time for me to throw on my plastic Payday mask and get back at it.

OnLive’s Halloweekend Free Game Play

2011/10/30

Ripper71

Articles, Halloween, News

No plans this holiday weekend? Not the kind to drink punch filled with dry ice and look down Wonder Woman’s top? Well in case you haven’t already heard about it, OnLive will be hosting Halloweekend free play of four of it’s titles through Monday to keep you in the Halloween spirit and familiarize yourself with their system.

The choices include Orcs Must Die, F.E.A.R. 3, Metro 2033 and Amnesia while most of their other titles include 1/2 hour free trial play. So tell a buddy and sign up for some free play before the Witching Hour on Halloween has come and gone for another year! But wait there’s more! Check out their Facebook page on Halloween for one more spooky offering!

White Knight Chronicles II Review (PS3)

2011/10/13

Ripper71

News, Reviews

I love a good RPG so when the opportunity to give White Knight Chronicles II a try came across my editor-in-chief’s desk he passed it right along quickly to me along with a great map and the BradyGames guide. I had heard of but missed the first White Knight Chronicles but no worries there, this game comes with that too (fully remastered) as well as a BradyGames E-Guide for the first game. I took a look at the first game just to make sure it looked graphically up to par with today’s games and it does indeed have a nice clean look but this review is about the second game and that game has plenty of hours to keep me entertained.

The game starts off giving you the option to import your character from the first game if you want to, so if you played the first game and liked your build and gear you could import it right into this game and keep rolling. This is especially nice when playing them back to back, just load your character up and no need to spend time customizing your look again. But I got my “Ripper” made and went into the game ready for adventure. You start at a high level which makes sense since you can import your character from the first game and would have achieved a decent level. This is nice since it gives you a chance at the very beginning to get a character built and a feel for the battle dynamics.

Early on you will find that this game feels familiar if you are into RPGs, so much so that the controls come naturally and the sounds and graphics look very familiar. The good news about the game is that if you loved the play of Final Fantasy VII but like the graphics of the more recent Final Fantasy games then this game will be a great treat for you. It was for me, having played RPGs since before computers and played all the Final Fantasy ones I really feel this game takes after Final Fantasy in all the right ways which was so refreshing. It is a solid franchise often imitated, but seldom done justice, so to see great graphics and gameplay that feels a little old school but not ancient was a nice surprise. The sound effects, pop-up dialogue boxes are all FF familiar though the soundtrack score sounds very original and well orchestrated.

The gameplay is technically not turn based but the cool down time on your weapons almost makes if feel that way. Your attack cools down, you choose your next attack. hit, then the attack cools down again. You can before the fight designate what character does what but you mainly just control one which helps get away from FF feel a bit. If that character falls you can take control of another and continue the battle. This is great because if you have selected good secondary healer characters and kept up on their training they could revive the fallen character while you continue the battle through another.

This gives a great chance to bring up the game’s AI and its strengths and weaknesses. As AI goes during battle it really does so well generally that you almost forget you are not playing with human players. If you give them the right skills and load them into their skill slots they will use them at the point that you would hope a human would. Occasionally this fails and you find yourself yelling at the AI on the television like it is a real groupmate in a MMORPG but that also points out how well it generally works and how realistic. It is important to do good damage in battle but the true key is your heals, otherwise boss fights are almost insurmountable.

One of the best aspects of this game is the title character White Knight. Without giving away too much using White Knight in battle is so much fun and I found myself looking forward to every opportunity I got to use him. The White Knight can only be brought forth by Leonard, the main character of the game who talks in modern English using modern slang while most of the other characters seem to use more formal speech and manner. This take a few moments to get used to because remember I built “Ripper” to tear his way through the game and there were whole sections of the game where Ripper isn’t even in the battle rotation yet alone the main character you control. Because you want to control White Knight and that is Leonard’s job that is who you play. I almost saw the character creation as the player’s chance to build whatever type of character that seems to be lacking in the group or might be needed in specific types of battle where generic characters won’t cut it. That is how I had to explain it to myself since I spent a while building him.

One of the complaints about the first game was that it wasn’t long enough coming in at just around 10 hours. When I was playing this game I beat a boss at about the 10 hour mark and up rolled the credits. I frowned and glanced at the BradyGames guide next to me and thought back, I know I hadn’t beaten some of the bosses and bad guys I had read up on. What the heck? So I waited for the credits to end and sure enough the game continued! If I hadn’t read the guide or been one of those folks who feel the game writers deserve their due I might have missed there was more game and complained about it’s length. It has over another 30 hours of gameplay left after the credits and some of the best bosses. It definitely made me wonder: if I play the first one until the credits and stay tuned will I see more game waiting?

Luckily I was able to keep playing because the game only gets better and the enemies more interesting as well as difficult.

Last Call: White Knight Chronicles II is a great game for any fan of Final Fantasy or FF RPG style. The game is executed well, the storyline is interesting and at 35+ hours of play on the sequel and the original included you more than get your play for your money, just remember to stick through the credits!

Steve Jobs Dies (1955-2011)

2011/10/05

Ripper71

Articles, News

“We are deeply saddened to announce that Steve Jobs passed away today,” read a statement from Apple. “Steve’s brilliance, passion and energy were the source of countless innovations that enrich and improve all of our lives. The world is immeasurably better because of Steve. His greatest love was for his wife, Laurene, and his family. Our hearts go out to them and to all who were touched by his extraordinary gifts.”

Our world has lost a genius, a man who changed our lives in so many ways since he started his work he didn’t just make an impact on his future he shaped our futures and his legacy will live on. When you go to Apple’s website you simple see a picture of him with his name and dates. When you click on that see this simple text:

“Apple has lost a visionary and creative genius, and the world has lost an amazing human being. Those of us who have been fortunate enough to know and work with Steve have lost a dear friend and an inspiring mentor. Steve leaves behind a company that only he could have built, and his spirit will forever be the foundation of Apple.”

Jobs co-founded Apple in 1976 and the company put out what has often been considered the first true home computer, the Apple II and over the years created the iPhone, iPad, iPod, iMac and iTunes all of which are some of the most recognized and used technology in the world. He was a millionaire by 25, on the cover of Time Magizine by 26 and by 30 moved onto new projects such as the graphics arm of Lucasfilm Ltd., that was destined to become Pixar Animation Studios. After that he went on to sell Pixar to Disney and then became a Disney board member and it’s largest shareholder in 2006.

He shaped our future in as many ways as he could and in as many years as he could, even when his health began to fail, he never failed the world. Steve Jobs, lost by the world at age 56.

Halloween Horror Classic Game: Evil Dead: Regeneration

2011/10/01

Ripper71

Halloween, News, Reviews

Ok, if you read my horror classic game review from last year you might think I am obsessed with The Evil Dead series. I am, so no more thinking, now you are knowing. Personally I thought Fistful Of Boomstick was a very overlooked game and so I wanted to let you all have a chance to look, just as I wanted to steer you away from Evil Dead: Hail To The King (terrible game). I honestly can’t tell you if the first ever Evil Dead game was any good because it was released for the Commodore 64 which was a great system but not one I own, yet alone the game. The temptation was definitely in place to report on The Thing game but our editor and chief reported on that three years ago (so bad ass I bought an extra copy to never be without it) so I am revisiting a game that was as good as Boomstick.

For those who care about the plot of the game I will keep it to myself but every Evil Dead/Army Of Darkness game, comic or movie pretty much starts out the same: the Necronomicon is causing problems and it is up to Ash to save the day while belting out smug bad ass dialogue. Ash dialogue is so bad ass that you have probably heard it in another game plenty of times having no idea who it was quoting. So this time you get to hear it said by Ash, voiced by Bruce Campbell, and his side kick a deadite midget named Sam voiced by Ted Raimi (Sam is an homage to Ted’s older brother, Sam Raimi). In this case side kick is literal as Ash kicks Sam through the air at any target he feels like or any wall or object in his way. A bunch of midget jokes get added to Ash’s repertoire but otherwise it mostly plays like Fistful Of Boomstick with the ability to punt an partially undead midget and listen to him complain as he goes flying through the air. It really takes a long time for that to get even slightly old. It appeals to the South Park/Family Guy loving part of you. The gameplay is excellent, the physics are really good for a game six years old, which in video game terms is quite old, and it is just plain silly fun combined with a good fighting system. It has great combos all followed by quips, weapon upgrades and your own little deadite to punt. What more do you need?

So if you have a PS2 or PS3 or can get your PC to run it and want to “get some” this is a great game to do it and a fun way to keep the Evil Dead alive in all of us. Groovy.