Tag Archives: video games

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).

Review: Cthulhu Saves The World

Posted on by zackthewicked1

Cthulhu Saves the World, an Xbox 360 indie game from Zeboyd Entertainment, the same people who brought us Breath of Death VII: The Beginning.

Once again Zeboyd Entertainment resurrects the feel of an old school 16-bit RPG with the graphics and sound feeling like they’re right out of an old SNES RPG.

The plot of this game is that the evil Cthulhu is defeated in battle and is under a curse that makes him lose all his powers.  The only way to regain them is to become a true hero.

Really the first thing that comes to mind is this… what would H. P. Lovecraft think if he were still alive today?  First there’s the three-parter of South Park featuring Cthulhu and now this.  He’s either rolling in his grave now or if he had a sense of humor he’d laugh.  No telling unfortunately.

It features the gameplay and graphics of Breath of Death VII, but with improvements.  For starters you can save anywhere but in battle which is a major improvement.  It was annoying that you could only save at inns in Breath of Death VII.  The game has still image cut scenes which are really cool, and of course there’s the dialogue.  Some of the funniest dialogue I’ve seen in a game.  Constantly breaking the fourth wall which in parody games is always a nice little treat.  In addition to Cthulhu you have 6 other party members you can choose from to form your party having up to 4 characters.

Like Breath of Death VII each time you level up you have two options to customize customize your character, whether it be new spells, new effects for current spells, improving stats and more.

The best part about this game is it’s only 240 MS points ($3).  Yeah Breath of Death VII was only 80, MS points, but trust me, the $2 extra is well worth it as this is the superior game.

If you enjoyed Breath of Death VII, I cannot recommend this game enough.  Zeboyd Entertainment I look forward to your future games.

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!