Author - Ripper71

Marvel Pinball Review (PS3)

2010/12/20

Pinball is the old school of arcade gaming. There are actually museums dedicated to the slanted tables with their silver balls and fast flippers. Over the years videos games were added to pinball machines and pinball machines were added to video games with varying success, usually the less successful being the video games. As strange as it seems, we have had plenty of success over the years imitating human movements but when it comes to the little silver balls crossing the tables and hitting the bumpers just right, it always seems to fall just short. So when Zen Studios took on pinball machines it was a daunting task and critics were ready and waiting to attack another attempt.

Much to their shock, Zen Studios not only pulled off the physics they expanded their game with more tables and a sequel, each time just getting the better and better and the tables more exciting. Finally they got to the point that they teamed up with Marvel Comics and created the game that appealed to our inner gamer and inner comic geek with all the best physics ever made for pinball. If it sounds like I may be a bit over-excited about it, I’m not. My fingers and arms are tired from hitting my flipper buttons like crazy every chance I could for days. I went out to a video arcade, found one of the classic pinball games from way back in the day and I discovered I actually liked the video game one better. The real life game had a broken flipper, some of the bumpers were a little too worn and the special aspects of the game barely worked. When I got home I was able to play a game with identical physics without the worry of a sticking or broken flipper or lousy bumpers. Add to it the interaction with Marvel heroes and villains that can’t quite be duplicated yet in the real world and Bam! you’ve got a game with all the bests of old school gaming with the magic of modern technology.

Graphics/Audio:
The graphics and audio are spot on for creating a pinball machine experience. The dings, clicks, bells and sound clips that make pinball all the fun it is are clean and believable, and yet the addition of Marvel comic heroes and villains just a little too animated for a real machine works as well.

Gameplay:
The gameplay is immersive and you soon forget you are playing a video game instead of a table top. You shoot the ramps, you pull back the plunger, you go crazy with the flippers and that little silver ball reacts just like you would expect it to. You use very few controls, mostly a button for your right flipper and another for your left. Wolverine has a short table with simple ramps, Spiderman has a long table with lots of crisscrossing paths for the ball to travel, Iron Man has lots of tubing and metal to fit the technology theme and Blade solidly pulls off the land of vampires with a table that changes between daylight mode and night. One of the only real complaints at this point is that there are only four tables and the gameplay is so addictive you just want more. With the word being that Zen Studios has gained access to the whole Marvel Universe, I imagine we will be aiding more of our favorite heroes with our trusty flippers in the near future! This is also nice since some people really prefer a certain type of table over another so having more options will give them more to love.

Playtime/Cost:
This has an unlimited playtime. The game is playable over and over, it has online multiplayer as well as a ‘pass the controller’ up to four local player mode. There is also an online leaderboard system and trophies to be won for each table. Add to that the fact that there is already talk of more tables and heroes coming along this game is a great value at $10.00 and is perfect for single player and party gaming. They are even planning tournaments!

Last Call:
This may be the best pinball video game I’ve ever played. It is in some ways better than the real thing because the physics are so solid that you get the play of real life without any of the wear down of mechanical parts. I can’t wait for the next table, which will be chosen by player’s votes with Ghost Rider currently in the lead.

*DISCLOSURE: A copy of this game was sent to us for the purpose of this review, though at the price I would have happily bought it anyways.

Latest Monkey Island Episode Launches on iPad

2010/12/17

Ripper71

News

Just in time for the holidays, the first episode of Tales of Monkey Island ‘Launch of the Screaming Narwhal’ is now available for iPad on iTunes. In the Tales of Monkey Island series, hapless pirate Guybrush Threepwood fends off a relentless pirate hunter, matches wits with a malicious marquis, overcomes fearsome foes with sabers at sea, and is nearly digested by a giant manatee while hunting down a pox-eliminating sponge.

‘Launch of the Screaming Narwhal’ retails for $6.99 on the Apple App Store. Telltale has episodes two through five planned for release in the new year and they also will be available for PC, Mac, PlayStation Network and WiiWare.

Worms: Battle Islands Review (PSP)

2010/12/10

Ripper71

Reviews

I have to admit I haven’t been getting a lot of playtime in with the PSP recently. With all the amazing games coming out on PCs and other systems with new expansions and map packs I can barely keep up with the next game. So when I got a chance to try out Worms: Battle Islands on the PSP it was like a wonderful reunion in which I got a chance to remember why I like the system so much. Luckily for me the reason for the reunion was Worms: Battle Islands which I had a blast with from the first cinematics and right up through the game. Fans of the Worms series should rejoice if they have a chance to play this on the PSP, it has everything you have grown to love about the series and the controls and gameplay work like a charm.

Atmosphere:
The atmosphere for the game is set in the opening cinematics for the game. Like the opening of an 80s television show, it looks like a cross between the A-Team and The Love Boat. The atmosphere continues into the gameplay with the fun music and sound effects Worms players have come to expect. It doesn’t take itself serious and a big part of the fun of the game is the silliness of the atmosphere. Each island chain has it’s own theming and feel so one set of islands will have a tropical feel and all aspects from the voices to the background support the theme, then the next set might be snowy tundra. All this helps support the atmosphere of traveling and conquering different islands in a fun way.

Customization:
One of the favorite aspects of the Worms games is the amount of customization possible. Most of the customization in the game is unlocked by advancing levels or downloading online but player’s are able to change the worms’ masks, hats, dances, voices, forts, and background landscape. There is even a landscape editor in case you want to make your own designs. On each level you can also recover blueprints which can then be used to help build custom weapons which you get to name!

Gameplay:
The campaign mode is set on a series of islands that have smaller ones which represent levels surrounding a larger island. Once you beat and therefore take all the islands around the larger one you are able to assault the boss on the main island. It takes different strategies to beat levels, some take a bit of creative thinking. Some levels will only give you a handful of apparently useless items which when used right allows you to beat the enemy. On standard levels you have a timed menu at the beginning of the level which thought out right enables you to gain an advantage in the level. It requires fast thought and sometimes trial and error which younger players, who just enjoy blowing things up in fun ways may find themselves stuck. Luckily there are multiplayer modes where players can challenge each other online or in a fun ‘pass the game’ mode that supports up to four players. The game also has Time Attack in which you complete the level as fast as possible, Puzzle in which there is a strategy to beating the level and Customization which allows you to create your own weapons, load up your arsenal and blast away at attack dummies and targets. This game has something for everyone from the trigger happy to the cerebral, all presented in a fun, silly way.

Graphics/Audio:
The graphics are excellent, cartoony as they are intended to be, with lots of explosions and crisp, clean levels. The voices are excellent and there are many styles to choose from as well as many styles performed by the enemies. Some quote presidents, some are designed to sound like military figures, others are pop culture references. All in all the excellent graphics and variety of sound and voice effects add to the enjoyment of the game.

Controls:
The control design and setup works perfectly with the PSP. I got used to the controls really fast and stopped paying attention to the controls and concentrated on the game. The platform works exceptionally well with the game, making it so that the short time in which you have to make decisions doesn’t seem too bad because instead of fumbling for controls you quickly make your moves.

Cost/Playtime:
Worms: Battle Islands cost $24.99 on PSN and has a lot of replayability, customization, and multiplayer options which gives it an unlimited amount of playtime. Each level can be played differently, often with different weapons each time and multiplayer is never the same game twice. At that price with unlimited play and portability letting you take Worms with you wherever you want, this game is a bargain.

Last Call:
This game will be one of my go-to games, one I plan to take on trips or errands where I have to wait. It has one of the most comfortable and intuitive control setups I have played Worms on and the gameplay is fun and challenging. I highly recommend this game, especially if you like a fun and silly time.

*DISCLOSURE: A copy of this game was sent to us for the purpose of this review.

Alien Breed 3: Descent Reviewed (PC/Steam)

2010/12/06

Ripper71

Reviews

Alien Breed 3: Descent picks up the story of chief engineer Conrad as he fights aliens and Artificial Intelligence that are trying to take over his ship. It starts with a ‘previously on Alien Breed’ collection of comic panels which, though nice looking, are somewhat confusing. There are logs which you can read to try and get a better understanding of the story but this beginning is really one of the defining points of this game: to fully understand the trilogy you need to play it and not jump in at the end. The game is playable and enjoyable without understanding the storyline, but that brings up another aspect of the game: Alien Breed plays just like the previous two episodes, so much so that it feels like the next section of the same game. Since I played the previous two games and enjoyed the gameplay, it was an all-around pleasure to play.

Atmosphere:
The atmosphere of this game is nice and creepy, reminding players of a certain series of alien movies with spidery little ones and large, big-mouthed beasties. You are on your own for the most part in this game just like in the others and there are lots of enemies and tasks to tear through, creating an atmosphere of intensity that seldom lets up. The pretty, crisp graphics and sound support that atmosphere and keep it feeling tense from beginning until end.

Controller/Keyboard:
The controls on this game are just like the rest of the trilogy, a gamepad controller works great and the keyboard controls are awkward and never seem comfortable. I like the accuracy of the mouse when it comes to shooting but otherwise everything else is incredibly easier with the gamepad.

Gameplay:
The gameplay is enjoyable, though maybe a bit repetitive after playing the other games. You kill your way to an objective, get a new objective assigned back the way you came, the ship falls apart or is sabotaged in some way and you have to find a new way to your next objective. You continue this way going back and forth across the ship encountering wave and wave of baddies. There are a few different sections to mix it up but, in the end, it is mostly the same stuff. If it was the same each time through it might have become uncomfortable to play and let’s face it, a ship can only be so big.

Storyline/Final Boss:
In my opinion if you are playing through this series, you are in it either for the storyline or the gameplay, and the final boss section decides how rewarding you will feel about the series overall. Without giving away any plot secrets, the game did leave a chance for a spin-off, which makes sense if the studio wants to keep it’s options open, but it left the ending feeling with less impact than it should have. As boss fights go, it was much harder getting to the boss than defeating it. I had to fight hard to get to that final moment, the game really pushes you both in fighting strategy and ammo conservation, and I was afraid I might not have enough ammo to get the final boss done. In reality, I could have spent a few more rounds on the way.

Cost/Playtime:
This can be a hard one to answer. Fact is, you can download all three titles for $9.99 each, so that you can play through the whole story and get a decent amount of hours for $30. The last chapter, which felt shorter than the others, ran about 10 hours. That was with going for some achievements but not all, on normal. One play through will probably give you about 30 hours for the whole series, more for playing on hardest settings and achievement hunting. There is also online multiplayer, co-op, free-play and leader boards so for $30 for the series it is a really good deal, if you don’t care much about the story you may even want to go with $9.99 for just the last game and you still get plenty of offline and multiplayer options.

Last Call:
This game was designed to feel like a sequel to the others and to wrap up a storyline. It felt so much like the other games it could have been interchangeable and really it was the story, mostly told in cut scenes, that was the reason for sequels. The story was ok, the play was pretty good and the price was right. Just make sure you own a gamepad for your sanity’s sake (ed.note: On my play-through of the original Alien Breed, I preferred the keyboard, just IMHO).

*DISCLOSURE: A copy of this game was sent to us for the purpose of this review.

ArcaniA – Gothic 4 Patch Released

2010/11/25

Ripper71

News

DreamCatcher Games, Spellbound Entertainment, BVT Group, and JoWooD have released a new patch for ArcaniA – Gothic 4 that slightly alters specific gameplay dynamics, increases the overall performance and getting rid of rare crashes.

Detailed Patchlog:
FIXED: Interruption of interactions with sword strikes
FIXED: Acknowledgments playback after loading a save game
FIXED: Jump interrupted by FMV character freeze
FIXED: Cool down in the inventory screen
FIXED: Reduced ocean clipping problem for Stereoscopic 3D
FIXED: Arrows stick on already disintegrated Demon
FIXED: Stamina consumption while sprinting with equipped spells added
FIXED: SLI issues &amp; optimizations
FIXED: Crash on vista machines when starting the game on the second adapter while the first adapter was disabled
FIXED: Stereoscopic 3D can be deactivated from the NVIDIA control panel before launching game
FIXED: Pickable item restoration
FIXED: Multiple CPU profiles in process manager
FIXED: Clouds use dynamic vertex buffer for frequent locking
FIXED: Performance problem with terrain tile generation
FIXED: Performance bug in trails
FIXED: Rare crash when arrows stuck in players vanished
FIXED: Additional unnecessary loading screen when using a teleport stone-need

In case you missed it, be sure to checkout our full review of Arcania – Gothic 4.

Divinity 2: The Dragon Knight Saga (PC) | Review

2010/11/22

Ripper71

Reviews

In a year full of sequels and expansions coming out for so many games, sometimes a gem or two is likely to fall through the cracks and not get the credit it deserves. This can be especially true when sequels in similar genres come out and this has been a solid year for MMORPGs and RPGs with more to come next year. So, it wasn’t too surprising that the next episode in the Divinity games, Divinity 2: Ego Draconis, slipped through the reviews. What is surprising is what Larian Studios did to remedy the issue: they remastered and retooled Ego Draconis to make it better and added a sequel story named Flames of Vengeance, doubling the playtime. The new compilation, titled Divinity 2: The Dragon Knight Saga, plays nice and smooth with interesting character building styles and really funny dialogue.

Atmosphere:
The game starts with beautiful cinematics and excellent music. The music was composed by a Russian musician named Kirill Pokrovsky and the graphics rival any of the big games out there. The light streams through the trees almost looking like a painting at times and the graphics in gameplay are just as good as the graphics in the cinematics. As a result there can be some fairly long load screens going in and out of buildings that can slightly dampen the atmosphere but they are easily forgiven when the quality of the graphics is considered.

Gameplay:
The Dragon Knight Saga does a few interesting things which will surely earn it mixed feelings among the players. The game doesn’t set up traditional trees like many RPGs – instead, it has skill categories with no particular level of skills. For example, there is a whole section of skills under the label ‘Warrior’ and you can pick whichever skills in the list that you want and invest points without having to have a certain number in one skill before investing in another. Also you can put points in other categories as well so you could have a rogue with warrior skills that can fire mage fireballs. You can only have one class’ weapons available at any time but you can change classes at anytime! This means you can try a quest as a warrior, decide it would be easier as a rogue, go to the trainers and change to rogue, beat the quest and then just go back to the trainer and change back. The theory of the game is that you have been trained in all these fields and you have simply lost the conscious memory of the skills and the trainers help you remember them. So, at any time, you can invest any points in any tree and you can change class at will. To some RPG purists this can be seen as playing it too loose with the character, others might welcome the freedom of making a completely unique character with all the skills they like from all the different classes.

One of the other characteristics of the game that would be a bit debatable is the vagueness of directions and quests. Some would like the fact that it is a large map with lots of exploring to do to find your way to the quests. Others who are used to RPGs that point the way a bit more might get frustrated with how difficult it can be to find your quests and how the enemies you fight might vary in levels in the same area. So you may be fighting some level 2 goblins and wander past them and run into level 5 ones in a large, slaughtering group. Saving a lot is key to getting through the game but don’t rely on the auto-save, it seldom saves.

Divinity 2: Ego Draconis starts you off at level 1 as you would expect but Divinity 2: Flames of Vengeance is continuing the story so it starts you off at level 35. It has you pick a class to start with and gives you generic skills for the class you choose but then you can go right to the trainer, unlearn them and use 35 levels worth of points to once again build a custom character using any skills across the classes. This is really the most unique aspect of the game and will make or break most people’s experience with it.

Storyline/Interactions:
Without giving away too much about the story (there are definitely some spoilers that could be said) you play a Dragon Slayer initiate being trained to hunt down the last of the Dragon Knights, hybrid humans that can transform into dragons. The storyline plays out well, if a bit predictable, and is well-written and interesting. The side quests along the way though are usually where the most fun is to be had. The game writers had some major fun with the dialogue and some of your response options to the NPCs are ridiculous and funny. They also help you define your character as well though. Your character can be a sarcastic jerk who is prideful and rude to everyone, he can be humble and well spoken or he can even be corrupt and foul. These responses will define how the other characters interact with you. If you act like a well-spoken, staunch supporter of the military you won’t make any friends among the commoners. If you tell the pig farmer he needs to stop his barnyard crushes (you actually have the option to say something similar to that) you can expect a quest line to end and that farmer to never speak to you favorably again. This also makes for a fairly unique experience in the game because if you help merchants they give you better deals on goods, if you wrong one they may never sell to you again. You have more freedom in what you say, how you react to knowledge you learn, but all your interactions have consequences.

Another interesting interaction besides dialogue is the choice to read people’s minds. This is an option on just about every dialogue and the results can vary from the mundane to paying of with new skills. Sometimes it can give you dirt on a character to blackmail them or bring them to justice, other times it can show you how innocent the character is. This ability doesn’t come without a cost though, in this case in the form of experience. The concept I believe is that to gain the knowledge from their heads you have to give up some of your own. It makes you pick your targets very carefully because if you read too many minds you find yourself further and further from the next level.

Last Call:
Divinity 2: The Dragon Knight Saga is a very well put together collection of games with a unique character building system as well as interesting gameplay and very fun dialogue options. I’m glad they didn’t let the game slip through the cracks so that folks not only got a second chance to try it, but a chance to double their play.

*DISCLOSURE: A copy of this game was sent to us for the purpose of this review.

Arcania: Gothic 4 | Review (Xbox 360)

2010/11/14

Ripper71

Reviews

I’ve been playing RPGs since the days of pencil and paper when my friends still owned first editions of the D&amp;D Dungeonmaster and Player’s Guides. Though I do enjoy a good MMORPG, playing offline can be just as fun and rewarding, especially if a game has a rich environment and a great storyline. The more character development you can adjust the better also, so that you truly feel the character is your own. Arcania: Gothic 4 gives you the chance to personalize your character and lots of storyline, it just gets a little bit lost in hack and slash quests and weed pulling missions.

Atmosphere/Graphics:
The game starts with an update of events since the last game with rich video cut scenes showing the dark times have indeed descended again up Myrtana. Excellent musical score accompanies both travel and action, the cut scenes are beautifully rendered and drive the story along very well. There was a lot of love put into the atmosphere of this game and is part of the hallmark of this title. One of my few complaints would be the lack of variety in the enemies you encounter. While the flying insects are very well rendered and the raptor-like beasts are well animated, they make up a majority of the population of the enemies you encounter. You eventually take on a bit more of a variety of enemy but you get so used to fighting the same enemies that it is actually a little startling when you find yourself face to face with a new creature. That at first has a nice intimidation factor but you can then expect to see the same creature under slightly different names from then on in the game. Also most of the npcs share a small variety of faces, especially the shopkeepers so that you may go to six different shopkeepers spread out over several towns and they will probably be wearing the same costumes and they will have the same faces. I imagine this makes it easier to keep graphic issues from getting too jerky and the game size manageable, but it can be a bit distracting and pull you out of the game making it a bit of an atmosphere killer. You begin to think that these kingdoms may be a little too inbred.

Gameplay/Storyline:
Without giving away too much of the storyline you play a shepherd who has prophetic dreams and hopes of a destiny that lies beyond counting sheep. So from simple beginnings you must start with simple quests to learn your way in the world. Things turn dark quickly and you find yourself slowly becoming the new hero of the land. This happening slowly makes a lot of sense, you can’t be expected to go from sheep shepherding to savior of the kingdom over night and in real life hours it takes about 40 hours to accomplish most of what you set out to do. Honestly I think a few missions could have been shaved off this or varied up to keep the game play from getting too monotonous. I started out with the plan to play every last mission but after encountering some which didn’t advance the storyline or do anything but make you a small bit of gold I found myself picking and choosing a bit so I didn’t find myself running all over the place picking weeds.

What it lacked in quest variation it made up for in character customization. You start out the game equal to anyone else who plays it but in the end you put points into different trees which result in a completely unique ending character. The trees amount to warrior, ranger, assassin, paladin, shaman and mage but how you build them and their strengths and weakness depends entirely on you. In this way you could have a ranger who specializes in bow attacks but can also fire off fireballs or so many other combinations that each time you play it will be a completely different. This is where it is somewhat a shame how long and monotonous the campaign can be. You want to play again trying new classes and builds but the hack and slash and weed picking quests become so time consuming that the thought of playing it again is a bit daunting. If a player plays this occasionally, casually, instead of in heavy long-houred gaming seasons this could be a game with excellent replay value and long term play.

The storyline starts out a bit mysterious and never seems to quite develop. Some of the cut scenes actually feel like they were cut shorter and npc dialogue interactions seems to just end often leaving you wanting a bit more. Since this game has such a long play time I am left to wonder if maybe some of these were clipped to reduce time, but if a player is committed to so many hours of playing a few more seconds even minutes here and there really won’t hurt and they definitely could have helped. A few less errand quests in exchange for greater depth of storyline would have been very welcomed and might be something that should be considered for future installments.

Multiplayer:
There is no multiplayer in this game but I felt it was a subject worth bringing up. The areas are so well developed with places to sit and random foods and potions to eat and make that it almost feels like a shame. There are tables to sit at, beds to lay on-so many atmospheric elements that serve no real game purpose that if put into a multiplayer environment could make for great places to role-play. I am reminded in this way of Neverwinter Nights and wished I could go online, create a character on a server and explore these lands with others, possibly with some gamemasters guiding us into unique moments.

Cost/Playtime:
The game retails $59.99 (there are some deals to be found out there) and runs about 40 hours of playtime, though if you go through dialogue quick and trim off some of the side quests it might be a little less. The game has definite replayability, going as far as certain achievements seem to require you to specialize in different classes so if you want them all you probably need to play more than once. You get a lot of play for your buck, just some of it might be a bit repetitive.

Last Call:
Arcania: Gothic 4 has a title tradition to live up to, one of rich environment, deep storyline and interesting quests. Though the storyline and quests didn’t quite seem up to the title’s standards it was still a good play with a lot of customization possibilities. It isn’t geared as much toward the marathon player who might find it too repetitive but a casual player who wants to take their time through a decent story and a long campaign might find this a game perfectly suited to them.

*DISCLOSURE: A copy of this game was sent to us for the purpose of this review.

Halloween Game Showcase – Evil Dead: A Fistful of Boomstick

2010/10/28

Ripper71

Halloween, Reviews

Evil Dead: A Fistful of Boomstick was released in 2003 and immediately got knocked down by most reviewers. I want to say this upfront because I think it got panned because of when it came out more than anything else. Had it made it out a couple years earlier it would have preceded Grand Theft Auto III, the game by which all following 3D shooters would be compared to from then on, and GTA3 was one hell of an act to follow. This is a shame because the game has so much campy fun and gore, it even has a button just dedicated to playing Ash quips (voiced by THE Bruce Campbell) whenever you want to!

The game starts with Ash narrating his story to a stranger who’s only shown as a pair of ancient eyes and raised eyebrows. It then fades to Dearborn, Michigan where we find Ash on a bar stool drinking away his woes on the 12 year anniversary of the death of his girlfriend (from the first Evil Dead game, Hail To the King which, in my opinion, is one to AVOID!). It is 20 years after the events of the Evil Dead movie trilogy and a local television show has found the infamous Necronomicon reading reel from the cabin and decides to play it live on-air. The result is a vortex over the television station, time travel, and lots and lots of deadites! I don’t want to give away too much of the story but it keeps the camp fun going from beginning to end and Bruce Campbell did an amazing job voice acting. It was made around the time the first Spider-Man movie was being made and was supposed to keep Ash around until Sam Raimi could get back to the Evil Dead series. In the end another video game and several comic lines wound up being the way that today you can still get your Ash fix. They even made two short comic runs of ‘Freddy Vs. Jason Vs. Ash’, a highly rumored about movie project that fell through and became comics that read like an Evil Dead film.

Atmosphere:
Back to the game though, this game does a great job of keeping the creepy atmosphere. The Deadites travel fast and Dearborn is soon a ghost town with only a few untouched or un-eaten inhabitants. Paper flutters on the breeze, the music is dramatic and the streets are sparsely lit by street lights. It can be hard to see the Deadites as they wait in the shadows or attack on poorly lit streets. Through all this runs Ash, a bit hunched over, as he kills Deadites in gore-filled attacks and keeps his famous macho/idiot persona. If not for his quips and the over the top gore this might have been a game that was taken serious with the solidly creepy atmosphere. But Ash keeps it fun through multiple time periods and locations.

Game Play:
The areas are pretty large and elaborate with lots of killing to do and a few locals to talk to in order to advance the storyline. You dual wield weapons and you can choose different ones depending on mood or effectiveness throughout the game as you pick them up. Weapons are also upgradable throughout the game giving you more boom for your buck as you go and you will need it, at times there are over 30 Deadites coming for you all at once. Camera tracking can be a little awkward and swing a bit wide not showing what is in front of you, but this is solved quickly by hitting a single button. The game has combos which are rewarded with extra quips when delivered and health is measured in blood drops on a bar in the upper corner. When things get crazy button mashing does work, but might not work as well as strategic map placement and maneuvering. You also find spells as you go so that if you manage to read them just right you can hit the Deadites with their own medicine, but if you don’t pronounce every single syllable correctly you might find yourself on your back in a world of hurt.

Controls:
Controls are pretty straight forward and easy to work, in some cases almost too easy. The game has an excellent enemy lock system which makes some kills too easy as you learn the enemy’s pattern, pick the right weapon and run around while your shots always hit home. I found it was almost as much fun to not use the lock system and manually aim though this makes combos much harder. With the lock system the last boss is way too easy, which combined with the straying camera are really the two biggest issues with the game. Luckily the ending after the boss is still worth it.

Graphics/Audio:
Graphics for 2003 are pretty good, but probably were rendered a little simpler to avoid loading screens and to allow the actions of over 30 Deadites to be attacking at once and still not lose the gore factor. The gore is rendered very well, with huge amounts of blood spraying in an arc as you slash through Deadites with the chainsaw and blood trails well from the Deadites that are blown in two and are still crawling after you. The television I was playing on was far bigger than the one I had back in 2003 but the game still looks great on a large LCD screen. Audio is crisp and excellent, noises sound like they are coming from the room you are in and Ash’s voice is perfectly clear as he delivers his one-liners. They also have comments for when you reclick on objects or stop moving Ash for a while like ‘Excuse me… hello? Time to wake up and smell the corpses!’ These are pretty common these days but was kinda special back then. Heck at one point while playing it I just kept hitting the Ash comment button in response to all my wife’s questions.

Playtime/Cost:
It is a pretty quick play, probably can be done in one dark and stormy night, though it is more fun to kill some extra Deadites and hear Ash/Bruce Campbell deliver as many quotables as you can. Since the game is several years old you can pick it up for pretty cheap new or used, probably the hardest thing would be to find it, which on the internet is only a couple clicks away. Plus one of the extras included is a terrific video of some of the greatest moments in Evil Dead history, through the original film right up to the game, with ‘making of’ segments for the game and comments from Bruce Campbell about the Evil Dead franchise and the game play of A Fistful Of Boomstick. I have put this game on just to watch that video before.

Last Call:
If you are looking for some camp to go with your horror gaming, Evil Dead: A Fistful of Boomstick is a great way to get yourself in the holiday mood… or just release some stress. If you are an Evil Dead fan this is part of the storyline you really should experience. Final Word: ‘Groovy’.

*DISCLOSURE: I am a huge Bruce Campbell fan. But if the game sucked I would still tell you, like the Hail To The King game, man that was painful.

Twisted Lands: Shadow Town (PC) | Review

2010/10/26

Ripper71

Reviews

When I was a kid the only thing I looked forward to when going to the doctor’s office was the latest Highlights Magazine. I remember the drawings with the hidden objects in it were my favorite part, and I got so dissapointed when someone had already circled the objects and spoiled it for me. Well now I can play Twisted Lands: Shadow Town and not only get an interesting story with a twist, I will have plenty of hidden objects to find in item filled scenes. The concept is simple, the game requires an item to solve a puzzle and so you must collect a whole bunch of items to find what will work just right. So you have to pick a whole list of items from the scene but you will only use one and it will solve the puzzle and move you along. There are a couple of other kinds of puzzles thrown in that make it more difficult but most of these can be skipped if they prove too challenging. The game is designed to be family fun hidden object puzzling with a Halloween feel and that is what it delivers.

Atmosphere:
You are stranded on the beach outside a deserted town. The feeling of isolation and lonliness is accentuated by a constant thick fog and occasion ghosts who show up suddenly and leave almost as quickly. Your wife shipwrecked with you and is missing so you puzzle your way through a town left to ghosts and… something else, trying to find the love of your life. There is one scene where the game almost seems to go from creepy to horror, and some may be a bit creeped out by the ghosts, but they tend to just do things they did while living then disappear. After a while the atmosphere just adds to the story and gives a nice spooky background to the puzzling scenes.

Gameplay:
Straight forward follow the story hidden object puzzling with the previously mentioned couple of harder puzzles. One of them was particularly difficult and not skippable but otherwise if you get too stuck on where to go or where an object is in the picture you can click on a ? in the lower corner and get a hint as to the item’s location or where the clue was supposed to lead. One of the only complaints would be the list of items you have to find in a scene can sometimes be vague, probably on purpose. The item may be ‘bat’ for instance and you are looking at the items for something with wings and it is actually a baseball bat. Another would be ‘rose’ and you look all through the picture and on the side of a watering pot is a painting of a rose or it is carved into a piece of wood. It adds an extra challenge and sometimes after staring at the picture for a long time it suddenly dawns on you… oh they mean that baseball bat or that label on the wine bottle with a sun on it.

Controls:
Point and click all the way. You click on things to look at them, you click on arrows to move to the next scene. No need to get used to WASD to navigate, just get ready to click near the arrow in the direction you want to go.

Graphics/Audio:
Graphics are clean and nice, helping submerse the player. The sounds also tend to lend to the feel, the audio is clear with creepy music and sounds. The hidden object puzzles lose more and more color as you go so that in the end it is harder to see an item stand out. The graphics are good and pretty standard for this style of game.

Playtime/Cost:
If played by the casual player, maybe a bit younger or a bit older which I think this type of game mostly targets, it could last days and possibly be repeat play. Heavy gamers will burn through it in a night. At $19.95 it is not badly priced for a game, especially one your kid might play over and over, but it is a bit pricey compared to what this genre of games usually run. You can download a free one hour trial version of the game to see if it is right for you.

Last Call:
It’s a fun family friendly Halloween hidden object puzzle game. The storyline is interesting with a nice twist at the end but for the most part it is pretty standard for the genre. If you like this type of game this is a solid one.

*DISCLOSURE: A copy of this game was sent to us for the purpose of this review.

Review of Lara Croft And The Guardian Of Light [PC]

2010/10/14

Ripper71

Reviews

There has always been a certain intimacy with the Tomb Raider games. Being from the third person perspective, right behind her as she jumps, dodges, and shoots has always made me feel like I was more her sidekick than her controller. It always felt like you were just one step removed from the action, when she would drown or miss a jump and leap to her death you were right behind her when she did, following her over the cliff or listening to her gasping death. You saw what she saw, so if something came sneaking up from behind you knew when she did and swung around to face the enemy. With the new style you see the whole screen and you know where the enemies are hiding and where they will attack from. You anticipate their moves and go grab treasure that she never could have seen from her perspective. In this you gain the advantage of knowing where everything is and what will be your next obstacle or reward. This definitely makes for a fast playing, quick shooting game, but when she leaps to her death you think of her last save point and not so much that she just leapt to her death. It has lost it’s intimacy. That may be why this doesn’t carry the Tomb Raider brand, it is the same character in the same kind of setting but an entirely different experience. As long as you are fine with that this is an excellent arcade game.

Atmosphere:
Though not immersive like the Tomb Raider games, the levels are well designed and are well rendered jungles and ruins. The cut scenes vary between motion comic and animated and all add to the feeling that you could be in a local arcade plunking tokens in and fighting your way through. The storyline is told during the cutscenes for the most part leaving you to concentrate on the action when you have control.

Gameplay/Controls:
I tried playing it with both the keyboard and the game pad and the game pad won hands down on both responsiveness and ease of control. The keyboard could be a little tricky and unresponsive when it came to diagonal jumps while the same sections are a breeze with the game pad. Shooting accuracy is better with the mouse but since that usually isn’t much of a concern the game pad seems by far the best choice. It is a standard Run/Jump/Shoot/Action setup with periodic items that give you bonuses and minuses on stats and weapon upgrades. Single player you get a spear at the beginning of the game which has unlimited throws so you will probably find yourself only changing to other weapons for mini-bosses and bosses or just for the fun of it.

Achievements:
Achievements are setup in three basic ways: speed, skill, and exploration. There are achievements for clearing levels or beating bosses in a certain amount of time, there are achievements for making certain jumps, shots, or puzzle completions a certain way and there are achievements for finding all of certain treasures or relics. Because all of these achievements can’t be completed at the same time it sets the game up for replayability at least a couple of times because while you can do the skill and exploration achievements at the same time, you can’t complete all the time ones if you do.

Multiplayer:
Multiplayer is a lot of fun because completing puzzles and getting to treasures require teamwork. Each player plays one of the two main characters (in single player you just play one while the other periodically interacts in cut scenes) and that character has certain strengths and weaknesses. I won’t go into too much detail because finding these out is part of the fun but I will say sometimes clearing an obstacle requires one player to use a primary talent so the other player can complete the task. Achievements are rewarded to both players and should be a consideration when looting. It is possible for one player to horde most of the loot, which can bring out the competitive nature in some folks leaving one person to fight off the enemy while the other collects the loot. This can actually have a benefit because some achievements are based off of how many points are reached so if one player does most of the kill blows and collects most of the treasure then both players will get the achievements. The fact that there is so much teamwork involved in the game really made multiplayer tons of fun and very replayable.

Replay/Play Time/Cost:
Replay is a no-brainer on this title because the achievements are set up for a miniumum of two plays and multiplayer is so much fun. How long it takes to play through really depends on what achievements you try for and which control setup you choose. If you play on the game pad and go for speed it is only a few hours of play. If you play for skill and exploration and stick with the keyboard and have some problems with the jump it could take you quite a bit longer. Longest play time on a once through would probably be about 10 hours. The game will run you $14.99 from Steam or 1200 points for the XBox 360 so it is pretty cheap for a new title with built-in replay, even if some of the play throughs may be a bit short time-wise.

Last Call:
The game was made as a departure from the Tomb Raider series so if you can get past that and enjoy an isometric arcade game that just happens to have the same character name and take place in a similar environment as the Tomb Raider games then Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light is a great play at a good price.

*DISCLOSURE: A copy of this game was sent to us for the purpose of this review.