Author Archives: Semtex Skittle

Game Review: Marvel vs. Capcom 3: The Fate of Two Worlds

Posted on by Semtex Skittle

The Bottom Line

It’s been over a decade (no, seriously! Marvel vs. Capcom 2 came out in 2000! It was on the Dreamcast!) since we last dropped into this remarkable franchise of fighting games. A lot of our favourite characters are missing, but the feel hasn’t changed.

Unfocused Ramblings

As usual, I like to begin these reviews with a boring story about my personal life. About ten years ago, a friend of mine owned the Sega Dreamcast. He never had a ton of games for it, and we all agreed that the controller was preposterously big, but it was probably the console that my group of friends and I played the most during that stretch. Because whatever we thought about the Dreamcast, and however few games there were on it, or however few my friend owned… he did own Marvel vs. Capcom 2. At this point, years later, I don’t even remember much about the fine details of the game. But I do remember its feel… and that feel has returned, to my hazy memory more or less intact, this year with the release of Marvel vs. Capcom 3: The Fate of Two Worlds. So now that I’ve played it, and the excitement is all flooding back to me, the unfortunate truth comes out: for all of its selling points (and it has them to spare) this game is not as much fun as its predecessor.

It’s not. You may think it is, and you may even be having more fun with it now… but it’s a matter of circumstance. And this game is not as much fun as the last one.

Does that mean that Marvel vs. Capcom 3 isn’t a great game? No. Actually, I’ve been impressed by basically everything that I have seen from the new title so far. It has the same feel of the old game. That hyper-frenetic superhero/comic book/action game and so on action is quite intact. You still have the hyper combo bars. You still have three different characters who are flying in and out of the action supporting one another and generally causing some havoc. You can still fill the screen with blasts of energy and crazy attack schemes that seem like no one could ever possibly survive them (and be just as disappointed to see that your opponent blocked in time). In other words, they’ve done a magnificent job of recreating what made Marvel vs. Capcom great. So we can say that this sequel is a faithful one. So what’s the problem?

I’m not sure this game translates as well to playing against faceless strangers on the internet as some of the other fighting games that have come out over time. Of course, it’s not a different experience on XBox Live (or the equivalent service of your choice) but this game, unlike other games, is a more intense frenetic experience and should be less about a cold, tactical approach. To me, this makes it more fun to play with friends than in multi-player match-making. Ultimately, that’s subjective, and if you like fighting games you should enjoy the multi-player experience here as well. Of course, whatever I may say about frenetic superhero/video game combat, the more skillful players of fighting games will still maintain a big advantage in this game due to the huge variety of combos available, even if the move-sets of each character are relatively simple. A lot of universal concepts translate across all characters (such as chaining together flashy aerial or team combos, and the counters to those moves).

The game does offer some options to help teach people about the game-play mechanics. If your fingers aren’t made of steel you may get frustrated attempting to execute long multi-team-mate-extravaganza type combos, but the mission mode (sort of a training mode with specific objectives as far as moves) encourages you to explore chaining moves together (from the basics of knocking a foe in the air and coming down on top of them with a crushing blow all the way to the aforementioned 500000 hit combos). I suspect that if you explore some of these modes, and trouble to learn the moves of a few favourite fighters, you’ll quickly get the hang of winning in this game.

Oh, and don’t be overly troubled by the absence of some Marvel vs. Capcom favourites. I’m sure they will all be available through DLC sooner or later. What’s that, you say? They announced that Jill Valentine and Shuma Gorath will appear as DLC characters even before launch? Let the games begin!

The Big Question

What were they thinking, not including characters like Megaman X? Presumably they were already looking at the prospect of selling DLC packages… but there is an infinite pool of characters to draw on between Marvel and Capcom. It still feels a little cheap to have excised some of the staples that we’ve been playing with since the first installment in the series.

Overall Game-Play

It’s a seamless game-play experience that has more than its fair share of flashy effects and super-cool sets of moves. My one gripe with the game on the whole is the inconsistency in move-sets between the characters, where some of the characters have a huge variety of diverse moves that can work in every situation… while other characters… are basically stuck with a signature move or two and a series of button combos. I can see how the innate attributes of the different fighters necessitate some of this for the purposes of balance, but it’s a little disappointing to find out that a personal favourite character has a lackluster move set. I suspect that this will be the exception rather than the rule for most players, but I do think it’s worth mentioning.

Graphics

It’s not visually breathtaking, but it has a certain (and to my mind, incredibly appropriate) style, and you won’t be disappointed by the attack animations. A ton of unlockable artwork accompanies the game in addition to the rendered character models, and there’s a lot to like with the visuals in this game. More important than the overall graphical presentation is probably the tightness of the experience, which doesn’t seem to have any glitches or bugs to it.

Sound

An upbeat main soundtrack accompanies unique themes for every fighter in the game as well as for the mighty Galactus. You’ll likely recognize a lot of the music as remixes on songs associated with the character in question (for example, Chun-Li’s appearance in a bout is accompanied by an overclocked remix of her battle theme from Street Fighter II) and you’ll probably come to appreciate a few favourites. I didn’t find the score forgettable which is a point in its favour. Obviously there’s not a ton of room for mood music in a fighting game, so the character themes and menu themes are essentially it. As for the voice acting, I haven’t encountered any voices that send me to my knees screaming at the heavens, and I take that to be a good sign. For a handful of bonus points, if you have some good surround sound and bass, you may be blown out of your seat by comments from Galactus, who addresses Thor with a hearty “If you are a god… then what shall we call Galactus!?” and other fun-loving quips.

Quick Take: Magicka

Posted on by Semtex Skittle

Quick Take

If you ever asked yourself how much fun it would be to randomly combine 10 different “elements” to create an absurdly large array of spell effects this game answers the question. For the rest? Don’t ask questions.

Unfocused Ramblings

I have, upon reflection, a soft spot for games that are developed by groups of Swedish students. I mean – in a broader sense, if you can make a game that people will enjoy, then why not? And through the magic of Steam, this game becomes available to the world. I know a lot of people have already played Magicka, and but I’m hoping more people will take the plunge into it.

So what is Magicka? It’s a humorous adventure-RPG-ish-game set in a world that parodies a number of mythologies as well as aspects of pop culture. You’ll see a ton of references to pop culture icons like Star Wars, 300, and literally dozens of others. The opening movie which introduces the setting and the premise is chock full of pop culture references and popular memes, and it doesn’t slow down from there. The player takes command of a nameless mage clad in an obscuring robe who has been taught at the academy of magic, and learned to wield eight ‘basic’ elements in order to weave together ever-more-impressive spells. If that weren’t enough, you quickly learn about two basic combines which produce two other, we’ll say “hidden”, elements (which, themselves, are frequently used to create still more sophisticated spells). With these ten building blocks, tens of thousands of combinations are possible. And, since the game doesn’t really force you to progress forward, and even your most tenderly beloved allies are valid targets for your spells, the game really does encourage you to play with these elements until you create something you really like. And from there, to use that spell until you get tired of the animation… and develop something new… and so on.

And yes, there are some big booms available in the more sophisticated spell combinations.

On top of just randomly mixing and matching various elemental building blocks to create beams, balls, streams, and walls, there also exist a repertoire of ‘Magicka’; defined spells that you learn the combination to which have particularly powerful effects (such as Revive, which restores a dead ally, Haste, which allows your mage to run at incredible speed, or Grease which deposits some very flammable fun on the ground).

Your mages can collect weapons from time to time which have some special effects, but for the most part, the game attempts to steer clear of any kind of level-up or power-up type stuff. The focus is very much on the interplay of the spell combinations, and the limitless fun you can have blasting your friends up, over, and through the landscape elements using your magical powers.

All of that sounds good, right? Well, it is. But the game does have some problems, and I would be remiss if I didn’t warn you about them before you shell out your hard-earned cash for a copy of Magicka.

– The single-player version of this game just doesn’t stand up well on its own. For several reasons. The most important one is that it’s very easy to kill yourself in Magicka, and if you do so when playing solo, you’ll find yourself regressing to a checkpoint that could be a good ways back. Quit the game? You’ll end up restarting the entire chapter. This glaring weakness still exists in multiplayer, but with a team of four, you can revive your comrades and hopefully not all die at once. This is tough in single player.

– There are some bugs. Let’s not mince words about this. In addition to wacky things that can happen with spell effects (many of which will send you or your enemies flying around the screen) the game seems to crash occasionally, and it just doesn’t feel quite as polished as you might expect from EA’s latest release.

– They made some inexplicable choices with the multi-player, such as not being able to reconnect to a game in progress, and the cut-scenes not being skip-able except by the host (and they’re pretty lengthy cut scenes at that. You can skip ahead of the cut-scene even if you’re not hosting, but you just stare at a loading bar until the cut-scene ends anyway).

– Despite having its own tutorial section, Magicka really doesn’t teach you much about how to play. Pay close attention to the controls it does show you, and don’t be afraid to experiment, but also don’t spend a lot of time looking for the game to guide you… because it won’t. That having been said, it’s not a crippling problem since experimentation is half of the fun in this title.

– Although the game is clearly more friendly for multi-player use, you’re definitely going to prefer putting together a group of four friends as opposed to playing open multiplayer. Friendly fire is a huge part of this game, and you’ll enjoy it more with your friends. Trust me.

The Bottom Line

Personally, I love Magicka. It’s a great multi-player experience and the combination of spell effects is a lot of fun. But it’s not a polished experience; it has some bugs, some of which are frustrating, and as a single player experience it leaves quite a bit to be desired. For what you’re going to pay for Magicka, however, you’ll feel as if you’ve gotten your money’s worth.

DLC! Black Ops: First Strike

Posted on by Semtex Skittle

(This DLC is an add-on to  Call of Duty: Black Ops by Treyarch.)

Standard Open

Hey, it’s that time of year! No, it’s not time for a new Call of Duty game… but it is time for the first multi-player map pack that Treyarch has released for the latest iteration of the Call of Duty franchise –  Black Ops. The “First Strike” pack contains 5 all-new maps, four for the standard multi-player modes of Black Ops, and one for the “Zombies” mode. Since there’s no other content for this review, I’ll go ahead and give you the multi-player play-by-play (if for some reason you need a review of a zombie mode map, I don’t know what to tell you)

Ascension

Hey, it’s a zombie map! As you would expect, it has a lot of doors… I guess that doesn’t tell you much. This map has you climbing a missile silo. Like all zombie maps, it centers around team-work and cooperation. Don’t play it with your enemies.

Berlin Wall

This map is a (relatively) small battleground that is divided into two distinctive halves by the existence of a kind of ‘neutral zone’ across the middle. This zone, marked very clearly on your radar in red, is the home to multiple guard towers who will shower you with a pleasant hail of sentry gun bullets if you so much as set foot inside of it. The rest of the combat is, to a lesser or greater extent, defined by this dead zone at its centre. Although it initially seems like more long-ranged combat would be the result, you may find that most combatants are seeking ways around the dead zone in order to engage their foes, and that the map actually has a much more intimate feel than you might expect given its small size.

Discovery

This map is the arctic site of some Nazi laboratory. It’s very small, and divided into two distinctive halves. The division is not nearly as clear as maps like Nuketown, but the presence of a bottomless chasm that divides the centrepoint of the map still leads to a limited number of routes from one side to another. It definitely feels like a map where a spawn lock could be effective. That having been said, a central bridge which connects the two halves of the map makes for a potentially brutally-contested “B” point for Domination and other balanced side game-types. Despite its small size and the relative open-ness of most of the map, Discovery is very much a 2-3 level map, and enemies will often be above or below you, so pay close attention!

Kowloon

This map is based on the Hong Kong escape level from the single player campaign, using many of the same terrain elements to create a multi-leveled brawl. This map is very small. In terms of physical size, it probably would rival most of the mid-sized maps, but because of the way the multiple levels and terrain intervene, it plays as small as any level in the game. You’ll often find that combat over the central portion of the map is the key to victory, and is defined by numerous level-changing bridges which provide access not only from rooftop to rooftop but also between the combat levels. Enemies can, and will, come from all sides on Kowloon, and it’s important that a prudent player stay careful throughout.

Stadium

Another small map, actually, despite having several different distinct combat areas. Depending on your chosen game-type you’ll find yourself mostly embroiled in combat in one of the map’s main “zones’… which is to say, the hockey arena itself,. the area outside of the building, or between the rink and its surrounding structures. Spawn points, available cover, and the general feel, of this map change significantly from iteration to iteration. Like most of the best multi-purpose maps, the first time that you play Satdium you should find yourself wondering what it plays like in Death-Match, or Domination, or Demolition, or whatever you’re not playing. Out of the four maps, I personally think that Stadium is the most universally fun design, albeit with some potential for tiresome slug-fests over the same couple of areas of the map.

The Details

For X-Box Liver users, this game is going to run 1200 Microsoft Points (or roughly $15). For hard core Black Ops players the DLC is very much worth it, as it significantly expands the basic roster of maps that the game shipped with. Much like Modern Warfare 2 this DLC will not allow you to match-make on the new maps if you don’t own them, without forcing you to select an alternate play-list (Halo style). On the other hand, this method filters down the available pool of players based on the ownership of the DLC, so it probably evens out.


The Bottom Line

Is this DLC worth it? If you’re a serious Call of Duty multi-player mode player, then yes, it probably is. You’ll appreciate the additions to the game’s maps… and the new maps seem to have been founded with an understanding of what Black Ops really is; a game that features much more intimate combat than its immediate predecessor. You probably won’t feel any urgency to use your sniper rifle on most of these DLC maps (not to say that you can’t snipe, but merely that these have a feel more like Firing Range or Nuketown, and less like Array), but your SMG will probably get a workout.

Classic Game: Baldur’s Gate II

Posted on by Semtex Skittle

A lot of people – and I mean a lot – have played BioWare’s games over the years. Knights of the Old Republic, Neverwinter Nights, Dragon Age: Origins, Mass Effect, Mass Effect 2… and it’s still going strong. BioWare has at least two games that are probably going to come out in 2011. But as time goes on, I rarely find someone who played the games that sort of set off the whole BioWare phenomenon. I would consider BioWare to be the definitive “WRPG” developer, much as Squaresoft would have been the definitive JRPG guys in the past. Of course there are others in the medium, and their work is good too, but when I look back, I always find myself staring back at one game: Baldur’s Gate II: Shadows of Amn.

I think of Shadows of Amn more than the original Baldur’s Gate because it’s a better game. In a lot of cases, we can probably agree the sequels never quite match up with the originals. I think Shadows of Amn blows away the original game for two reasons. First of all, it used to be that advancing technology and increasing popularity for video games made sequels that had a bigger budget and more respect than the originals. History is replete with examples of this phenomenon and it definitely continues into the late 90’s and early 2000’s.

Baldur’s Gate II, however, is a little bit unique in my opinion in the way that the evolution of the same general WRPG style takes a significant step backward from the sophistication and features that BGII integrates. We see in Shadows of Amn an alignment system which your party members will react to throughout the game (including outright leaving if they don’t like your guts), several romances which have interaction with one another, as well as a culmination within the game. A wide cast of characters who support and aid you throughout, and a five-character party which allows for sophisticated and tactical combat.

How much of that transfers on to Knights of the Old Republic? Earnestly, not a great deal. KotOR is still the evolutionary advancement of Baldur’s Gate, it’s just not as evolutionary as you might think. In a lot of ways, it represents a significant step backward in terms of the sophistication of WRPG, the decision-making process that characterizes the genre, and other things. Just one of a thousand reasons that I will always feel that KotOR is insanely overrated. As you’ve probably caught on to by now, I don’t tend to favour titles which don’t advance the genre in some way. I admit that there is some logic to the idea that making changes just to make changes is a recipe for disaster (and let’s face it, there’s no stronger example than my most hated game ever released, Master of Orion 3), but I also think that games should evolve along with the technology that supports them.

Do I think that Mass Effect is a better game than Baldur’s Gate II? In most respects; yes. I thought that the party interactions in Baldur’s Gate II were more sophisticated and more fun, but in most respects, I don’t even think it’s arguable that Mass Effect has moved us in a positive direction with the usage of technology and budget, and is the superior title. But even with Mass Effect (one of my favourite “modern” titles) I’m not certain that everything has been done better than Shadows of Amn. As usual, when we forget about past games, we’re leaving diamonds buried in the sand, and it’s not becoming of us.

So, I guess the bottom line is, play Baldur’s Gate II if you get an opportunity to do so. Try and appreciate the elements of it that are still great, and are still better than modern WRPGs, despite the inferior technology, the (relatively) primitive game system, and even the ongoing use of AD&D 2.0 rules.

Classic Game: XCOM: UFO Defense

Posted on by Semtex Skittle

Those who forget their past; are doomed to forget some incredible games.

I forget who said that, but he must have been a smart man. Going back to the days of DOS games and 3.5 disks, we can still find some gold. In fact, some of the greatest games I’ve ever been played were made before the world had envisioned the idea of a game on a CD-ROM. Well, the greatest squad-based strategy game ever made is just one of these. And you can get it on Steam for a pittance. Really, a pittance of a pittance! I’m talking, of course, about X-COM: UFO Defence (Hereafter referred to simply as X-COM).

People who have played this game are already having some nostalgic flashbacks, and are strongly considering buying it on Steam right now.

For those of you who haven’t played it… read on!

X-COM is a squad-based strategy game that places the player in command of a global counter-alien organization aptly titled X-COM. A completely covert organization, X-COM crosses national boundaries with impunity, and remains hidden from the alien aggressors who haunt the globe. As the theatre commander for this covert organization, you will establish bases across the globe. Each base can house facilities such as alien containment for captives, hangar bays to launch interceptor craft in pursuit of UFOs, laboratories to develop new technologies, and workshops to build weapons. From your initial base, your X-COM organization will grow to protect all of Earth from a merciless and inhuman enemy. It is up to you to save us all.

The game play is based on the Geosphere. In essence, this is a map of the earth which is manipulated through time lapse controls, allowing the player to speed or slow the passage of time. From the Geosphere, the player can access the aforementioned workshops and laboratories, outfit soldiers for battle, and construct new bases and facilities. In addition, the Geosphere map allows the player to monitor alien activity on earth. Each time your base(s) detect UFOs, you can intercept them, shoot them down, and attempt to recover salvage. In addition, you may detect alien bases manufactured on earth, or the aliens may strike on their own, terrorizing Earth cities in an attempt to frighten our governments into submission.

Once you’ve landed at an alien crash site, an active UFO, a terror site, or an alien base, you take command of a squad of soldiers deployed from your landing craft. Equipped with the weapons and armor that you provided them, your soldiers are ready to fight and die at your command. They have various gameplay statistics that will determine how far they can move, how brave they are in the face of adversity, and how accurately they shoot. This squad combat is turn based, and pits a small group of highly-trained soldiers against their enemies. As these soldiers kill aliens and survive their missions, they are advanced in rank and in statistics, moving from squeamishly determined green troops into hardened combat veterans. At the same time, your scientists will learn the secrets of the aliens’ technology, allowing your troops to use fantastic energy weapons and psionic attacks against the invaders.

Strategy game enthusiasts will, almost without variation, love this game. It has incredible depth of strategy, and yet still contains a lot of action. You’ll have to learn the strengths and weaknesses of a variety of alien opponents, and counter them, if you ever intend to defeat the aliens at their base on Mars and stop the invasion of Earth. If you don’t know the joy of X-COM: UFO Defense, then it’s time to run, not walk, to check it out.

Review: Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood

Posted on by Semtex Skittle


The Bottom Line

Assassin’s Creed just gets better and better. Ubisoft has proven that they understand what things work, and what things don’t, in this series.

Unfocused Ramblings

No one was more excited than I was when the original Assassin’s Creed was announced. It brought to my head dreams of my days of playing Thief. I’d been starving for a new stealth-based game for years. It just seemed like nobody was making those kinds of games anymore, and this one had real potential to be what I’d been missing. Well, of course, anyone who played the original Assassin’s Creed can attest to the fact that stealth had little to do with Altair’s journey through the twelfth century Holy Land. I enjoyed the game, but it definitely had its flaws, and I fervently hoped that these things had been addressed when I bought my copy of Assassin’s Creed II. I was not disappointed. The team from Ubisoft working on these games understands what works in their games. I don’t know how better to explain it. And they continue to let the game evolve in a desirable way with Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood.

Brotherhood once again follows Ezio de Auditore in Renaissance Italy, literally beginning at the minute that Assassin’s Creed II ended, as he exits the Vault. This time, Ezio begins the game as a fully trained assassin, though he’s missing some of his bag of tricks due to an event near the game’s open. And he finds himself in the city of Roma circa the late 16th century, once again pursuing the Borgia family; Cesare, Lucrezia, and of course, Rodrigo. As the game moves along, Ezio can eventually regain all of the mechanical tricks from the previous title plus a couple of new ones… including a long-awaited gem in the crossbow. As a weapon, the crossbow does not disappoint. It kills swiftly and silently, and carries a fair amount of reserve ammo. If you’re anything like me, you’ll use the crossbow a lot.

Piling on to the improvements in the game are the huge number of side missions available (although they are met with a disappointing reduction in the girth of the core story). There are several guilds in the city whose allegiance Ezio must win. Once he has it, they each come with a slew of side missions that he can undertake. In addition, Leonardo Da Vinci returns, this time having been forced to craft war machines for the Borgia. Fortunately, Ezio can destroy these mechanical monstrosities in a series of stealth-based side missions that take him to other places in the Italian countryside. Templar Agents must be brought down in side assassination missions. We explore more of Ezio’s past through missions that center around Cristina, a beautiful Italian girl, and Ezio’s first love. The Followers of Romulus have a series of underground lairs which must be negotiated Tomb Raider style, much like the Assassin Tombs found in Assassin’s Creed II, which will grant a special set of armor.

Oh, and we still have the whole ‘rebuild the town and generate income’ mechanic, except this time you’re rebuilding the entire city of Roma, which has fallen into disrepair under the neglect of its Borgia masters. To seize control of the city, Ezio must destroy Borgia towers (essentially, viewpoints that are owned by the Borgia) from which they extend their influence into the city.

And then, of course, there’s the reason this game is called Brotherhood. As you might have noticed if you’re a fan of the series, the Assassins are often a hard-luck bunch, always taking casualties and being beat up on by the Templar. Fortunately, people can be found willing to take a stand against oppression. After saving certain bold citizens from the Borgia guards, Ezio can recruit them into the Brotherhood of Assassins. These Assassin recruits can be called in to assist Ezio in fighting, assassinate a target, or bombard an area with a storm of arrows to massacre a guard patrol. Their effectiveness grows as they are used, and they can also be sent on missions for the Assassins all over Europe, returning to Ezio with florins and special items gained while out on their assignments (these assignments are of the boring point-click-and-wait variety, but if you do things intelligently the process isn’t too laborious).

And all of that is strictly in addition to a palatable, if not necessarily filling, main storyline that begins to tie in Desmond Miles and his compatriots in the year 2012 much more than in previous titles. Desmond continues to be able to exit the Animus at any time to converse with his Assassin friends, but now that he has mastered Ezio’s skills, he can also cruise around the modern version of Monteriggioni, and there are some action sequences that utilize Desmond as well.

The Big Question

How soon will the next Assassin’s Creed be out? Because I’m already hungry for more, and not just because of the serious cliffhanger that Brotherhood ends with. This series is one of the best-handled that I have ever had the pleasure to play. Each installment is noticeably better than the last. The games become more polished, more fun, and with more stuff. Once this franchise has run its course, which might just take a while, I’m equally excited to find out what this development team will be working on next.

Overall Game-Play: 8.0

The gameplay hasn’t changed tremendously since the original Assassin’s Creed. Minor improvements and polishes have made the contextual controls a little better, but they still suffer from the same limitations as always. If you play the game enough, you’ll occasionally find Ezio infuriatingly doing something you didn’t intend; likely to your cost. But once you’ve really gotten the hang of the controls and gotten into a rhythm, these incidents are likely to be few. The biggest limitation to the game play (and, I will add, I don’t have any great suggestions on how to fix the issue) is probably the use of the ranged weapons available in the game. The pistol still feels clumsy and useless, and while the crossbow is predictably powerful with its silent kills, it’s tough to use against enemies who have been alerted to Ezio’s presence.

It’s definitely worth noting that while Assassin’s Creed basically eschewed stealth except for the mundane business of traveling from place to place, while Assassin’s Creed II embraced it and made it a valuable tool at your disposal, Brotherhood seems to demand it. There are a number of sequences where stealth will make your mission a hundred times easier, and others where it is required by the mission itself. And I’m not just talking about tailing people in the market. As much as I appreciate the game fully embracing, and even desiring, your use of stealth, I’m actually now a little aware of the limitations of the controls as far as stealth goes. I feel odd not being able to crouch and skulk silently, or press up against cover, like Sam Fisher. Ezio can presumably do these things. If stealth is going to become a focus, I’d love for the controls to be more conducive to it being successful.

Story 9.0

The story is a quality affair. For this return trip to Ezio’s memories, we now have a very explicit goal; to recover the Apple of Eden that Ezio took in the 16th century in the year 2012. Desmond is already a full-trained assassin, so we’re spared any introductory sequences where we gain valuable abilities one by one over time. Instead, the story literally begins where Assassin’s Creed 2 ended. From there, Ezio’s life of seeking revenge while staying distant even from his family continues. The story gets rolling more quickly now; we already know almost all of the characters on Ezio’s side of the story. We only need to meet a few of the new villains that we know we’ll be assassinating to get things moving.

And actually, it’s probably worth noting that the core storyline doesn’t seem to focus on or revolve around the individual assassination of individual people the way it did before. It also gives us a lot more reasons to specifically dislike each person we’re assassinating as opposed to just making them a part of a conspiracy too large for us to get to know each member of. All of that is fine, and the level to which we can now use stealth to make kills is incredible. Did I mention that I like stealth?

To me, this more mature Ezio is a much less vibrant character than the youthful assassin we met in the last game. It makes sense, given his life experience, but I really do feel like there’s an aspect of sadness to Ezio’s character and his life by now. He’s determined, and strong, and I still find him very likable (especially compared to the dryness of Altair) but his life is as an assassin. Presumably he’s spent too long, and killed too many people, to be anything else.

Anyway, since Desmond now has a much more focused goal while perusing Ezio’s memories, and he can now do things outside of them, we have a bigger tie-in with the year 2012 than we did in the previous games. While the 2012 side of the story does advance, it’s still not a core part of the game. I think a lot of people anticipated more action in the frame story in this installment, and it could be considered a disappointment. I guess it’s worth noting that it didn’t bother me much; I still found Ezio (and the city of Roma) compelling.

Graphics 10.0

I suppose I’ve just come to expect this from the Assassin’s Creed franchise. The game is visually breathtaking. The city of Roma has more recognizable landmarks per capita than any place we’ve yet been, and they’re rendered spectacularly. As are are the buildings. The major characters. The minor characters. The random guards. The civilians who have you no interaction with whatsoever. The game is gorgeous. I’m not sure that anyone would be surprised by that at this point.

Sound 8.0

The voice acting is held to a high standard, as it has been through the franchise. The music is also compelling, and features from beautiful tracks, but I actually fervently wish they had done more with it; or at least included more variety of tracks for the streets of the city, or something. I eventually found myself growing a little tired of the ubiquitous “traveling the streets of Roma” track. Still, the sound is unlikely to disappoint all but the pickiest and most easily-bored gamers (like me).

Quick Take: Breath of Death VII: The Beginning

Posted on by Semtex Skittle

Quick Take

So here’s a random little Indie game that I caught wind of a couple months back. I guess I was behind the curve on this one, but I’ve always been in favour of promoting indie developers. We need more people making great games. And not all of those people are going to work for EA. So, in that respect, the Indie Game Marketplace on Xbox Live is one of the greatest inventions of our time. On the other hand, there’s so many bad games being released on there, that it can be difficult to even trust the cost of downloading one of these titles. Well, if you’re afraid of a title that lacks quality, then you have nothing to worry about with Breath of Death VII: The Beginning (which I will hereafter refer to as BoD7).

It’s a satirical (or parody, I suppose) throwback experience, hearkening back to the days of 8-bit RPGs on the NES. You have the true top-down environments with their (mostly) non-interactive terrain. You have your sprite-based characters, your very traditional 8-bit combat screens. Really, you have it all, except for a beautiful score which pays homage to, but isn’t, an 8-bit tracklist. The game is well put together. It has the polished feel that you’d expect from any professional game in its presentation, the way the game plays, and so on. There are no gameplay glitches or issues to be found in BoD7. I guess that reflects the dedication of the developer once again.

So obviously, you’re not playing this game for the graphics. You’re not playing it for the storyline (but you may very well be playing it for the satire of a typical 8-bit storyline) and you’re not, strictly speaking, playing it for the game system. Fortunately, BoD7 doesn’t reflect 8-bit releases in every way. The system is very intuitive. Characters level up quickly, and get access to a lot of cool powers without much difficulty. Don’t be fooled by the ease with which you’ll breeze through the early parts of the game though – in the tradition of 8-bit games, the game gets pretty hard as it goes on. Of course, it’s still far from unplayable, and you should still have fun progressing through the whole world that Zeboyd has presented for you.

The bottom line? It’s definitely worth the couple of bucks it’s going to cost you. Check it out!

Quick Take: Halo: Reach

Posted on by Semtex Skittle

Sometimes, a full review isn’t terribly useful to people. Quantitative numbers on Halo: Reach from me aren’t particularly likely to sell more copies of the game. But I do think this game is worth discussing; it’s important, in a way. So here’s some thoughts, for which you are most welcome to join me.

Halo: Reach

I was only peripherally aware that Halo: Reach was launching. I mean, it wasn’t marketed, and it’s only a small-time game series… okay, no, of course, I was suffocated by the news. And I was as excited as any casual fan of the series. The problem is… I’ve never been a casual fan of the series. I’ve played thousands of games of Halo between Combat Evolved, Halo 2, and of course, Halo 3 (I only got Halo ODST because it was bundled for free with my new XBox Arcade), and that’s the telling point for me. By the time Halo: Reach came out, I wasn’t as excited for it as I should have been. I didn’t have it pre-ordered, I wasn’t enticed by the Legendary Edition (although I’m not much for collector’s editions of any kind). And the reason why is very simple, and it’s ultimately the most important thing that I can tell you about this game.

I already knew what to expect, and I wasn’t as excited as I used to be. Were you?

By now, Halo fans know exactly what to expect. The game is based around the balanced trinity of grenades, guns, and melee attacks. It is not a cover or tactical shooter, but rather a fast-paced action shooter with players protected by regenerating energy shields. In most ways, the popular multi-player shooter was defined by Halo: Combat Evolved. The graphics are an improvement, the features have expanded, and this is the biggest and best game that we’ve yet seen in the Halo universe. Bungie is run by very intelligent people; the fans don’t want the wheel to be re-invented. They want a new release that fixes perceived problems with previous titles, hands over a whole new slew of maps, re-imagines some of the weapons while leaving other fan favourites in place, and adds a couple toys that we haven’t seen before. In a lot of ways, Halo: Reach is like Madden 11. If you change too much, then you’re not playing Halo anymore, and then what’s the point? Bungie themselves obviously understand this; to go in a new creative direction, they must create a new series.

So what’s my bottom line with Reach?

Well, like all of the Halo titles, it has a surprisingly meaty single player experience. I know that people look at you funny if you even mention the story of Halo: Combat Evolved, but there’s more there than you might expect. It’s at least as elaborate as the story in any Call of Duty title. And the storytelling is done partially through the environments we travel through. Bungie has done a consistently good job of creating beautiful environments scored by epic music. The locations and places are familiar, and yet somehow very alien. It’s an excellent narrative when you bring everything together, complete even with single moments that make you get the tingles. For my money, Halo 2 was the weakest single player campaign, but the story bridged between the set-up in Combat Evolved and the conclusion of Master Chief’s story in Halo 3.

ODST took things to another level, adding more characters to the dynamic. We saw real interaction between characters, even if the player’s character, the rookie, is the typical “strong, silent type”. Reach, I think wisely, took its cues from ODST. We’re treated to an entire cast of powerful Spartan soldiers in their powered armor, with disparate personalities and motivations that make them interesting to us. But Reach also taps into something that we haven’t seen before in the Halo universe. Reach is a prequel. It’s a historical event in the universe, and we already know how things turn out. Disastrously. So woven into the narrative of Reach is a sense of despair. The Covenant is overwhelming. Each move the Spartans make seems like it could be the tipping point, but we’re always knocked back down by the inevitability of it all. It’s rather sad.

Now, from a gameplay standpoint, I had my problems with Reach‘s single player mode. I thought it went on ages too long (although, for me, it seems that I just don’t love Halo the way I used to) and grew tedious. But the narrative quality of the single player was good; far and away better than contemporary rivals like Call of Duty: Black Ops. It took a little time for me to digest the experience, but in the end, I thought that Halo: Reach was definitely worth playing, and makes a fantastic capstone to a series that has really been revolutionary in terms of a genre that is now one of the biggest around.

Oh, and the multi-player is good. I didn’t focus on it here, though, because as I said in the open, it is exactly what you expect. There are new wrinkles – and they’re good ones! – but all it boils down to is this: Do you still love Halo? Then play on!

Review: League of Legends

Posted on by Semtex Skittle

The Bottom Line

A top notch multi-player experience sometimes marred by its terrible community.

Unfocused Ramblings

When a friend of mine first told me about League of Legends during its Beta period in 2009, my interest was piqued, but I’d been drawn in by World of WarCraft, and it wasn’t until early in 2010 when I finally took the time to download the free client and begin playing League of Legends with my friends. I wish I hadn’t waited. Even years after I stopped playing WarCraft 3 or The Frozen Throne for their own merits, I had continued to occasionally play a game or two of Defense of the Ancients: All Stars. As powerful as the World Editor was in WarCraft 3, there were still always going to be limitations on how far Defense of the Ancients could progress solely as a custom map within a game published by someone else. The natural evolution of course was for some of the developers of Defense of the Ancients to go to work for Riot Games to produce their own title; an experience totally under their control but based on the same style as the wildly successful custom maps that preceded it.

If you liked Defense of the Ancients, the odds are pretty strong that you’re going to love League of Legends. It incorporates most of the things that made Defense of the Ancients great, and eliminates some of the inherent weaknesses of working within a real-time strategy engine. After all, WarCraft 3 is designed to have a little inherent command latency, and the engine itself limits what kinds of spells and special powers (as well as the physical skinning of) any and all heroes. Moreover, the core game-play statistics can’t be changed for the benefit of a single custom map (obviously), so League of Legends is a much more polished experience. Now we have Ability Power as a core game-play stat to increase the power of spells and helping to balance the scales between powerful physical damage heroes and heroes with ridiculous spell abilities in the late-game, among a thousand other things.

Okay, for the rest of you who didn’t waste many hours of your lives playing Defense of the Ancients, what is League of Legends? It’s a duel between two teams of either three or five champions supplemented by a limitless army of minions. Each champion is a heroic figure with five unique special abilities (as well as a variety of “core” game statistics, like movement speed, attack range, damage dealt, total armor, etc.) and your objective is to breach the defenses of the opposing army by knocking out their defensive towers to gain access to their base, and ultimately, to destroy the opposing Nexus, a capitol building, which ends the game in victory. Your Champions gain experience points to progress through 18 levels (at each level gaining or improving one of their special abilities) as well as harvest gold pieces which are used to buy items that enhance your Champion in various ways. Along the way to victory or defeat, obviously, you will be opposed by the Champions of the other team, controlled by other human beings. They represent your true opposition, and you’ll have to overcome them if you plan to win the day.

Playing matches levels up your Summoner (that is, the personification of the player) and allows you access to a tree of “Masteries” which offer little bonuses to various things that your Champions can do, as well as access to customizable “pages” of Runes. Each match you select a Rune page from your book, which provides fully customized benefits to your Champion such as increased Mana regeneration, a higher chance to dodge enemy attacks, and more. Your multiplayer games also net you access to “Influence Points” which can be used to buy new Champions as well as Runes inside of the League of Legends store. You can download the client and play the game for free even to this day, but Riot also allows players to purchase “Riot Points” from their store which can be used to purchase champions, alternate skins for them, and other bonus content within the store as well. New content is added very frequently, and the product is at a consistently high quality, which really speaks well of Riot Games and its staff of developers.

The Big Question

Aside from ‘why did it take even this long to create a title like League of Legends‘ ? The question absolutely must be: Where do we go from here? It’s a common theme amongst my game reviews; I know. It’s an important question, though. League of Legends is an impressively complete experience. The developers have adequately explored core game-play mechanics, and the game and its objectives themselves are somewhat non-negotiable. Obviously we can continue to enjoy new Champions and Items eternally, but this isn’t truly a source of growth. A third question might be, “where did all the trolls come from” ? One thoroughly maligned aspect of League of Legends is the community, many of which are players that came from Defense of the Ancients, who are a surly, foul-mouthed lot. It’s hard to defend the community, and people with a thin skin might want to avoid this game.

Overall Game-Play: 9.0

The game play very occasionally suffers from graphical or camera glitches. Since they’re always correctable (if only by recalling to base in some cases) it’s not a game-breaking problem, but it’s also the only real criticism I have for a game-play system that is very tight for the most part. Because the interface is designed intentionally for the player to command only their own Champion, you don’t end up targeting another unit and losing control of your hero (as could happen frequently within the WarCraft 3 engine). The four ‘active’ hot keys are consistent amongst every Champion (Q, W, E, R, matching the skills from left to right on your interface) and aren’t competing with internal game commands (as occasionally happened in WarCraft 3). In addition, there’s no inherent latency, so commands are executed crisply and cleanly (barring lag, of course) which makes so-called ‘skill shots’ (that is, abilities which must be aimed and strike the target to take effect) much more common and much more use-able than they ever were before.

The match-making system, champion selection screens, and other framework for the game also deserves a notable mention. Although it’s gone through a couple of iterations by now, the system works very well. New users will learn their way around quickly.

Story 6.0

Although the game obviously has no single player aspect to it, the creators still actually took the time to create a world in which the game is set. Each Champion comes with their own piece of back-story that fits into a larger overall narrative about a world in turmoil, the various nations within, and their larger-than-life heroes – who obviously bring their talents to the institutional League of Legends to test themselves against other such powerful figures. It’s obviously not a focus of the title, but the story is cohesive, and to my mind, appreciated. It’s nice to have a little understanding of who my favourite Champion is, how s/he gained their powers, and what their goals are. Of course, it’s all just fluff, and you can ignore all of the story elements of the game and never miss a beat in terms of game-play.

Graphics 7.0

The graphics are of the cell-shaded variety and look very nice. The most impressive graphics are, of course, the skins of the Champions themselves. Given how many custom looks are available for your Champions and the sheer number of Champions that now are available in the game, I have to give a little nod to Riot. Of course, there’s no real place in the game for incredibly flashy or ultra-realistic graphics, so you won’t see anything in-game that’s going to blow you away. That having been said, all of the models are nicely crafted, and the game’s graphics definitely have a polished feel. The graphical performance is smooth and doesn’t break, and the look and ‘feel’ is consistent across the character models despite their diversity.

Sound 7.0

The sound in this case comes from combat and spell sounds, a relatively quiet announcer (who nonetheless is unfailing in her ability to identify key gameplay situations), and a simple score. Oh, and the unique voice acting for every single one of the League’s champions. Obviously this last part is what you’re going to deal most with, as your Champion responds to everything from you initially selecting them before the game begins to moving about, attacking, or casting spells. We’re not treated to an epic score in the background that fires our passions as we play, but the sound, like the graphics, is a polished effort that doesn’t disappoint.

Multi-Player 9.0

Well, in this case, there is literally no single player aspect to the game, so I suppose this could stand as an overall score for the title. Personally, I find little to complain about. The most important thing for you to know, though, is that Riot is dedicated to keeping this game updated, changing, and improving. I touched on this briefly in my open, but it’s important to expound on the point. Riot patches League of Legends frequently, tweaking abilities and items in order to provide the most balanced experience. Just as importantly, the stream of new Champions is very steady, which ultimately is the only method by which the game can expand. Obviously, there’s not much (if anything) that is going to change about the way the game is played from start to finish, so everything is in the details here.

Review: Call of Duty: Black Ops

Posted on by Semtex Skittle

The Bottom Line

We’ve left World War II behind, but we’re still a long way from what you might have come to expect from Modern Warfare.

Unfocused Ramblings

It wasn’t a love of Wold War II or shooters or tactical game-play or basically anything else that forced me to indulge in the Call of Duty franchise. It was the multi-player, and the necessity of playing with friends that initially sucked me in. Much like Halo, it seemed like I was on the outside looking in if I refused to play whatever the latest “hot” shooter was. As a person who is primarily interested in partaking of these games with friends, the particulars from shooter to shooter often don’t matter. I imagine there’s more than a few people reading this review who feel the same way.

Well, if the particulars of your shooter aren’t as important as playing the latest title with your friends then fear not; Call of Duty: Black Ops is a shooter. It’s more or less what you’ve come to expect, and your friends are going to play it anyway.

If you’re curious as to whether you’ll truly love this shooter, however, feel free to read on. It presents a significantly different experience than you are used to from Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2. Some people are going to love the changes presented by Call of Duty: Black Ops, and some people are going to hate it. I earnestly suspect that few people will feel lukewarm about it.

The big differences? Well, Black Ops does its best to eliminate the practice of “quick scoping”, and reduces both the power and accessibility of kill streak rewards. Combined with faster access to the best weapons, and Black Ops basically wants its players to have the best of everything quicker, more easily, and to less ultimate effect than its predecessor. If you enjoyed the advantage of quick-scoping with your sniper rifle, or the fact that some of the strongest weapons were not available from the start, then you may have trouble adjusting to the new environment in Black Ops. Your sniper rifles aren’t going to be as strong, and your run-and-gun types are going to fare better. Submachineguns are going to be stronger than ever.

Interested yet? If so, buy the game, play with your friends, and love the fact that your franchise is going to churn out a game every year. Not everyone has that luxury!

The Big Question

Tell me how often we can re-play the same shooter before we get bored. I, personally, am tired of Halo. Is this inevitable for Call of Duty as well? The weapons are different, and the feel is earnestly different from Modern Warfare 2, but these games share so many themes that it’s inevitable that we ultimately tap this resource out. How do we proceed from here, and in what direction? Do the players prefer the Modern Wafare feel where the killstreaks actually diminish player importance (even as they make you feel like a badass) and low-profile sniping wins the day? Or do people prefer running and gunning with aging machine guns, destroying a host of foes on the move, while killstreak rewards, while powerful, are not always going to be game-changers?

Overall Game-Play: 8.5

Well, the control scheme for shooters has been established. We know that we have to learn what guns we’re best with, and what strategies counter dangerous weapons well. In other words, the formula for shooter controls is well-defined, and it’s not particularly wise to branch out. Maybe we differ on what button B and button X should control, but I think we’re going to agree on the function of the sticks.

Call of Duty: Black Ops is eminently predictable in terms of its control scheme, and you’ll have to work hard to convince me that’s a con. Why deviate from a scheme that has produced so many hours of pleasure?

Story 6.5

You won’t be astonished by the single-player campaign. Of course there are twists and turns in the story. Of course, it’s competently told. But if you’re looking for innovation in level design or game-play, then you are definitely looking in the wrong place. The game-play is tight, and the story is fine, but I can’t necessarily recommend Black Ops if you’re not intending to partake of the multiplayer modes.

The single player campaign follows the adventures of Alex Mason, a CIA Black Ops guy from the 1960s, and begins in no place other than Soviet-allied Cuba during the Bay of Pigs invasion. From there, you’ll battle through the typical assortment of urban and exotic environments while battling with a variety of (mostly) similar opponents. The game does throw a few curve balls in terms of the enemy selection, which is nice, but I doubt that you’ll be blown away by the foes you’re battling.

The story hook is, to my mind, significantly better than for some of the previous installments of Call of Duty, and it does use at least one significant character from World at War whom fans will remember. I have already heard rumblings that the game plays more like a rail shooter than a truly interactive experience. If you’re looking for an open-ended style of gameplay, then games like Far Cry 2 or Mass Effect (or even Battlefield: Bad Company) may suit you better. Call of Duty is a basically linear game where you’ll spend most of your time on foot or in vehicles following the lead of other characters, shooting a number of baddies before moving up to the next checkpoint. The major differences come in the fine details of these sequences, including the weapons at your disposal.

Graphics 8.0

The graphics are smooth and fluid, and the loading times extremely bearable. In a game that is perennially most anticipated for its multi-player mode, there’s not much else to ask. I compliment the level design in both the single and multi-player modes. Still, fans of the series (and, particularly,  Modern Wafare 2) are unlikely to be blown away by the graphics. They show the expected improvement on the same platform (in this case, the tangible differences are few), and not much in the way of unexpected innovation.

Sound 5.0

The score is as forgettable as the previous title in the series. But that’s not why the sound receives such an underwhelming score. The voice acting leaves much to be desired. Predictably, the lines are well-acted, and the accents are convincing, but whether by design or no, the game features far too few lines to comment on game-play. This is most notable in multi-player modes, where the game’s announcer fails to reveal critical information about game objectives anytime that it is even slightly inconvenient to do so. I can assure the developers at Treyarch that every single player in multiplayer modes would prefer to hear repetitive lines every few seconds if it meant an auditory acknowledgment that game objectives were in jeopardy. Considering that the voice actors obviously have lines recorded for any game-play situation, it seems like a debilitating oversight to simply [i]fail[/i] to play acknowledgments in key situations.

Multiplayer 9.0

Well, the game is built to be a multi-player juggernaut. From this vantage point, there’s not much to complain about. Did the match-making initially suffer serious problems? Yes. Could the game use a few more maps; particularly those geared toward one objective type or another? Absolutely. But we’re a few patches in by now, and most of the technical bugs in the match-making system seem to have been resolved. Still, since multi-player is one of the biggest points of contention on this title, let’s break things down, shall we?

Pros?

– The level design is tight and features few discernible bugs or exploits. Although we always hunger for more maps, the ones the game ships with provide a reasonable variety of terrain and encounter types.

– A new multiplayer feature, Contracts, provide yet another way to show your skills without interfering with level, prestige, or challenges. Completing contracts affords the player more in-game cash to spend on the latest equipment as well as aesthetics like emblems.

– Treyarch seems relatively responsive to potentially destructive multi-player issues so far.

– The kill-streaks, although noticeably less game-changing than in Modern Warfare 2, still manage to feel powerful and useful to the player.

– The performance of most kill-streak rewards shows some improvements. The attack helicopter is noticeably more lethal than before, the napalm strike provides an interesting and mostly-reliable option for map control, and the SR-71 (the natural evolution of the Spy Plane / UAV) is one of the most powerful kill-streak rewards we’ve seen yet, even if it lacks flash.

– Although the kill-streaks are powerful – and period specific – they lack the raw potency of the Modern Warfare 2 equivalents. There is no equivalent to the Tactical Nuke in Black Ops. In the main, I feel this is a positive step for the franchise. I always felt that the overwhelming power of the Modern Warfare 2 kill-streaks encouraged boosting and camping to a degree that diminished my enjoyment of the game. If you loved those aspects of Modern Warfare 2, then you will likely be unhappy with the high-end killstreaks available in Black Ops.

– The customisable emblems provide an endless opportunity to express yourself. This can sometimes be a con as well. 🙂

Cons?

– Long-range combat is, for the most part, a thing of the past. The weapons, perks, styles, and maps all lend themselves toward a closer range of combat as compared to the Modern Warfare games.

– Although the kill-streaks remain powerful, they definitely lack the allure and “badass quotient” of the kill-streak rewards available in Modern Warfare 2.

– While some players will relish the closer and more intimate combat, the game lacks quick-scoping and long-range weapons that define the modern firearm age.

– Despite some improvements, the multiplayer spawn system is still unacceptably flawed. Some of the spawn locations (particularly in objective-based games) are poorly chosen, and the spawn timing will sometimes have enemies spawning right behind you with no rhyme or reason.

– As mentioned before, the in-game announcer is mailing it in this time around. You should pay careful attention to the situation, because you can’t always rely on the audio to warn you about game developments.