Now that Thanksgiving is upon us and we're about to indulge in giving plenty thanks and eating boatloads of turkey, I figured it would be a nice little opportunity to look ahead at the next great holiday and come up with a nice little wish-list. Yes, I'm obviously referring to Christmas and there are plenty of excellent games I do not yet have but would really like to try. Will Santa be good to me this year? I sure hope so.
Here are my picks for the games I am dying to get my hands on:
I played the beta of this gem and loved it to death. Granted, it was multiplayer only so I never got a taste of the single-player component. I do know that single-player is geared specifically towards co-op for the first time in real-time strategy history, and that alone has me foaming at the mouth. Come Christmas, this is one of the first PC games I want to see as I peel away the wrapping paper.
I've heard only good things about this Oblivion-styled RPG which is a sequel to the legendary Fallout series (which was previously a series played from an isometric viewpiont rather than first-person). This game has a lot of great features such as the VATS combat system, a gigantic open world, lots of characters to meet, befriend, or even kill, and of course lots of surprises along the way and great character customization and development. This winter, I'm anxious to begin exploring the aftermath of a nuclear winter!
Is there anything about this game that anyone not living under a rock doesn't know by now? It's naughty, it's gruesome, it's big, it looks great, and it's another Grand Theft Auto game. Sure, most have seen and played it by now, but this December we PC gamers are getting to play it on our systems for the first time. I personally can't wait to experience it and to apply a dab or two of anti-aliasing so to prevent those nasty jaggies from taking a leak all over my eye-candy paradise. Let's just hope the performance doesn't take a nose-dive and the game remains solid all the way through. This game is going to be epic. I can feel it!
My lone XBOX 360 choice holds a special place in my dear little heart. The reason is that it brings back childhood memories of playing the excellent Banjo Kazooie for Nintendo 64 and loving every minute of it. Who can forget exploring the colorful world with the cheerful banjo-filled music in the background, turning into different animals, performing different goals, and grabbing up all those sacred jigsaw pieces? Banjo Kazooie gave Super Mario 64 a run for its money, in my opinion, and although I don't think Nuts & Bolts will be quite on the same level as the awe-inspiringly good Super Mario Galaxy for the Wii, I do think it will be good enough to keep me captivated all the way through just like the original. Plus, the vehicle customization is just the icing on the cake.
Nintendo's Wii system hasn't exactly been brimming with top notch titles as of late, but I think Animal Crossing: City Folk looks like a very fun (and time-consuming) game that will be seeing plenty purchases this holiday season. Not only does it finally allow users to communicate effectively via voice-chat for the first time and via real-time chat in the game world, but it will also bring together players, allow them to visit and befriend one another, and also opens up a world of customization just like the Animal Crossing games for Gamecube and Dual-Screen (DS) did. Although many reviews are citing complaints as to how little it differs from the previous Animal Crossing titles, I think that the formula is unique enough as to not require making many drastic changes. You are essentially living in a little fantasy world with your own fantasy house made from your own fantasy furniture and wall paper and alongside your fantasy neighbors (and fantasy online friends!) What's not to look forward to? My Wii may finally be dusted off just for the sake of playing this game come Christmas time.
I recently purchased the PC version of Left 4 Dead and it has been a blast. As you know by my previous post, I played and really enjoyed the now-deactivated demo which did a great job of promoting the game in my opinion. The full version of the game, just as I expected, is every bit as fun as the demo and has in store many more surprises. Some of the later levels in the game have been really fun to play, and thus far the latency and performance has been nothing short of great.
As of today, however, I just came across a really cool feature I'd like to share with you all: Splitscreen mode in the PC version! Yes, you read that correctly. In the PC version only, it's possible to activate splitscreen mode and play together with someone who is using (preferably) an XBOX 360 controller!
How exactly does it work? And what exactly must you do to activate it? It will take you 5-10 minutes tops to implement it, and all the instructions you need can be found HERE.
Like I do with most of my other blog entries, I decided to go ahead and create a gameplay video showing this little trick in action. Please note that because I'm such a loser, I didn't have any family or friends on-hand to actually try it out with me, so in this video I just took turns using the 360 controller (bottom screen) and the standard mouse/keyboard PC combo (top screen) to show that they both work just fine.
Here's the video:
In other news: Left 4 Dead's status has officially been raised from "great" to "friggin' awesome!"
SPECIAL NOTE: The demo is only good until November 18th.
Anyone who is a fan of George Romero zombie films or even 28 Days/Weeks Later needs to check out the demo they just released of this game. It should be out on the 360 as well as PC, and is one of the best "zombie games" I've played in a long time. In fact, I think it's the best one since "Zombies Ate My Neighbors!" on Sega Genesis/Super Nintendo, albeit the fact that that game was much more cartoonish.
Left 4 Dead is, essentially, a multiplayer co-operative-based first person shooter in which you and a squad of three others (either player or AI-controlled) move from location to location while being attacked and ambushed by zombies of all types. The key points that make this game stand out from the rest are the teamwork required and the innovative artificial intelligence.
Teamwork is important in more ways than one. Here are just some of the ways: > Giving one another healthkits, etc. > Reviving teammates or helping pull them up off ledges they've fallen over > Saving them from zombies that sometimes pin them to the ground or even snatch them with tentacle-like ropes and start to pull them in to be eaten!
The artifical intelligence is very cool and helps make the game different every time you play it. There is an "A.I. Director" that will actually populate the world with zombies at specific locations, and even unleash zombie horde attacks depending on the status and locations of the players. Just as an example: During one play-through, I went downstairs to the first room in the apartments and found myself ambushed by a large group of zombies who broke down a wall to get to me. When I replayed the same segment, the wall never came down and the group of zombies was not present at that same spot! This aspect of the zombie placement/attack methods will keep you on your toes!
Finally, here is a video I recorded showing the game in action: (PC version)
As you can see in the video, it is important to grab items such as health kits and even additional weapons (molotov cocktails as just one example) to aid with your survival and to also help teammates. Unfortunately, I was the only one using a mic and one of our guys even left us midway through the battle, leaving an AI "bot" in his place. This video does a poor job at showing the essence of teamwork, but when you are in a match with three other guys who are using their mics and helping keep the team together, the experience is much more satisfying and thrilling.
But it doesn't stop there.
In the final version of the game, there will also be a "Versus Mode" in which some players control the survivors, while others actually play as the zombies and plot attacks to try and kill off the survivors. I can't wait to try out this mode and to see how it will work on both ends. (How will the zombie/zombie controller players act? What types of attacks will they plan? How will the survivors react? Will they stick together like in the main game mode?)
With that said, I can only say one thing: Play this game! It's a blast.
I haven't updated in a pretty long while, I know, but I have been playing some great games. There are two games in particular that I would like to share with you: Max Payne and Max Payne 2. I have a story about both of these wonderful games and I would like to share it with you. It goes a little something like this . . .
A few years ago - several years ago, in fact - I was given a copy of the original Max Payne as a gift. I remember thinking the visuals looked so incredible on the back of the box and thinking, "There is simply no way this game has a slow-motion mode in which you can dodge bullets and see them coming at you!" Yes, this was back when the concept of Bullet Time was still fresh and not often seen in many, if any games. I also remember not being able to install it on my old computer and having to wait a year or so before I could even see the game in action.
I finally got around to playing Max Payne, but it was when I rented it on XBOX. It was fun while it lasted, but when I returned the game, I never really rented it again or played through it. As time passed and I spent more time upgrading my PC, I installed it a couple times every now and then but never managed to make it past the first level or two before throwing it out the window. It isn't that the game sucked; I just didn't really feel connected to it at the time.
With Max Payne 2, the story is quite similar. I purchased it not too long after it was released and, like the first game, didn't spend a whole lot of time with it before uninstalling it. I remember playing through the first couple levels then getting caught up with other games and simply letting go of it. Just like with Max Payne, I never saw the glory of the second game. It was yet another game I purchased and wasted money on without even giving it a true chance.
Until now!
Just recently, I'd been extremely bored with what the PC gaming scene had to offer. As we've been fed the same ol' same ol' time and time again, I figured I would take a trip into the past and play through Max Payne and its sequel, Max Payne 2.
I would like to say that both games were absolutely amazing all the way through. I never knew they were so fun to play and held up so well today, but it's true: If you've not played these games yet, you can do so even at this time and still have fun. They remind me a lot of the Grand Theft Auto series, especially GTA 3, in terms of how well they hold up today. The gameplay mechanics and storyline are just so well designed, they can't be shunned and still work together marvelously years later.
The original Max Payne was where I began, obviously, and I couldn't stop playing until I'd finished it. The level design is pretty straight-forward, but each set of enemies poses a challenge. Because your Bullet Time (slow-mo) ability goes down every time you use it and replenishes only when killing enemies, this major aid must be used conservatively and effectively if you want to make it through some of the tougher segments without being killed. Being able to slow down time and approach foes, especially groups of them, more effectively made combat much more satisfying and added more depth to the experience. Rather than running-and-gunning, you had to do so with a strategy in mind before-hand as to avoid taking too much damage in the process. The "painkillers" system works out well, too. To refill your health, you can have up to eight painkillers in your inventory. You use them by pressing the TAB key and your health goes down a bit. I had no complaints about this and thought it worked great and also made searching through rooms more interesting in hopes of finding more of the painkillers or even more ammunition for that matter.
The difficulty level was also nearly perfect. I found that using quick-save (F5) and quick-load (F9) were almost essential to get past rough spots without losing too much health, and that some enemies were tougher than necessary, but overall it played well and was never too easy or too hard. If I remember correctly, the difficulty in the game is actually set up so that it gradually adjusts to your playing style. In other words, if you're mowing down enemies left and right, the game will slowly get tougher. If you're sucking, it may let up a bit to allow you to regain your composure and to, well, stop sucking! I did notice that as I got further into the game, individual bullets from enemy weapons started taking out more and more of my health so that I had to play more and more cautiously as the game went on. I thought this was awesome and constantly kept me aware and on my toes.
Last but certainly - and I mean certainly - not least, is the storyline. I saved this one for last because it's perhaps the most important component of the game next to Bullet Time. The story is told so well that even non-video gamers will become immersed in it. It is told as if you are watching a comic strip. Comic strip-like panels show up and contain dialog, which is spoken by voice actors that fit great with their parts. The illustrations look almost like watercolor paintings and are beautifully done. There's just something special about seeing a story develop in this manner rather than the typical cutscene-laden approach most games seem to take these days, and the story will sometimes drive you on more than the gameplay itself will. The characters are developed very well and you'll always be wondering, "What will happen next?" Until the very end, I was captivated.
And then comes Max Payne 2, which is another fantastic game that improves upon the original in almost every way imaginable! After playing through the original Max Payne and having such a blast, I immediately ripped through my closet and threw the Max Payne 2 disc into the drive just to see how the story of Max Payne would continue and to see how the plot would unfold and undoubtedly thicken. Sure enough, I wasn't disappointed!
Max Payne 2 isn't a whole lot different from the original, so almost all of the things I said above hold true for the sequel. (You know what that means. If you played the original, you absolutely owe it to yourself to get this game.) But there are some differences that are worth noting and that make this one a little more unique.
The main difference is that the gameplay has been more streamlined with the new way in which Bullet Time functions. Rather than slowing down the game to a snail's pace to allow you to see practically everything that happens, in Max Payne 2, Bullet Time puts the world in a dark shade of yellow and slows down things just enough so that you have a slight advantage over your enemies. In other words, it's not near as slow as the original. This was sort of a downside for me, but it still works great and there's even a kicker: Bullet Time energy refills automatically, even when not killing enemies. Unless I'm mistaken, killing enemies refills it even faster, but in Max Payne 2, you can sort of sit back and allow it to refill before you move on to the next segment. It doesn't refill quickly, but it's an advantage over being forced to kill enemies just to get more of it back, especially in low-health situations as found in Max Payne. Also worth noting is that using the SHIFT key still makes you dive but slows down time even more and doesn't use Bullet Time energy. Who made this decision? I'm not so sure, but it still works. I guess the downside is that, after diving in a direction, you're left vulnerable after you hit the floor and must take time to get up, so perhaps that's where the trade-off comes? It still felt weird that I was slowing down time at will and not using any of my energy in the process with this move, but it is what it is, and I still have no complaints even if it doesn't make too much sense!
The level design in Max Payne 2 was every bit as good as the first. In fact, it was often better. Some stages had more than one approach and even more variety than in the original. The "funhouse" level was very creepy and memorable, for example, and the segments in which I controlled Mona were also interesting and well-done. These kept the game fresh and added a change-up to the typical office-building and mansion settings found all throughout the original game and also in the sequel. I also thought enemy placement was well done and the dialog always made me aware of where enemies were before I reached them, allowing for more strategy and getting rid of cheap shots or being hit from enemies I'd never even seen or heard beforehand. As you approach a group of enemies, for example, you'll generally hear them talking and babbling on about different things. Not only does this make you aware of where they are, but it also adds to the atmosphere and helps advance the story line. You can hear them sometimes saying things along the lines of, "Get ready, guys. Max Payne is coming!", which was just bad-ass to the max.
The sound design in Max Payne 2 and its prequel, for that matter, was just as well done as anything else. As mentioned above, the voice-overs and dialog added a lot to the experience, and ambient sounds such as dogs barking, police sirens in the background, television shows, phone calls, and even rain pelting the roof above you were always making me feel immersed in the game world. At some points, I actually thought it was raining outside my house because it sounded so real in-game. The musical score, as in the first game, was also awesome and made it that much more cinematic. Overall, they did an excellent job with the sound design on all fronts!
I really don't have much more to say. Max Payne was released in 2002 and Max Payne 2 was released in 2003, but both of these games still hold up well today and are certainly worth playing if you haven't played them before. Even if you haven't played them in a long while, it would probably be a good idea just to do so because the experience is so well done and is rarely done so well in today's PC gaming scene.
"Death is inevitable. Our fear of it makes us play safe, blocks out emotion. It's a losing game. Without passion you are already dead."
Just a day ago or so, I spent some time playing Crysis Warhead and messing around with the enemy soldiers to see how their artificial intelligence 'ticked' and to see the different routines they'd perform. After realizing just how interesting it was just watching their actions (and re-actions), I decided it would be a good idea to start filming and record some of their reactions for others to see.
After recording a decent amount of footage from the "Shore" level, I went ahead and edited the footage, pointing out the specific good and bad things the enemy A.I. does. Sometimes they'll do some pretty cool things, such as taking cover behind objects, performing room-sweeping maneuvers, and working together to get the job done in other ways. Other times, they'll make stupid mistakes that will just leave you dumbfounded.
You'll see all of these things and more in the video below:
I've recently been on a gaming binge and it has been quite a wild ride. Right now, PC gaming is really booming because we have so many big releases coming up and in our face. The games I've been playing recently are Crysis Warhead, Spore, and soon The Witcher: Enhanced Edition. I'll discuss the first two, as I have yet to move on to The Witcher, but I still have much to say
We'll start with Spore, which is really a tough game to describe unless you've actually seen or played it. Essentially, Spore is a game in which you create a species from scratch, then guide it through the different stages of evolution. This means that you'll move from being a small cell to a land-based creature to a tribe of your creatures all the way up to a space-age species of creatures which control space itself.
The game is really fun, but not as good as it was hyped to be. Some of the stages are not very fun to play (well, pretty much all of them, to be truthful), and the game doesn't have much depth at all. What this means is that your actions really won't have many deep consequences and there isn't a ton of replay value nor thrills to be had based on the gameplay alone. In this case, the game rides on its creativity, which probably isn't a surprise to many. The creature, building, and vehicle creators are extremely fun to use and allow you to create an enormous variety of whimsical things.
I would go as far as to say that without some form of a creature creator, Spore would be one of the most boring games in existence. I know that you're still asking, "But why?" because I still haven't answered that question, but here it goes: As I sort of mentioned before, your actions have no real, deep consequences and the stages of the game are quite boring. Below is a quick summary of all stages in the game:
In the Cell stage, you swim around eating pieces of food (meat if a carnivore, algae if you're a herbivore) and avoiding or attacking and eating other creatures. In the Creature stage, your creature heads to the land and you begin attacking and/or meeting and greeting new species. In the Tribal stage, you guide a tribe of your species around a landform, taking over or allying with other tribes until they've all been dealt with appropriately. In the Civilization stage - when your creatures suddenly become irrelevant - you construct cities and use land, air, and sea vehicles to capture resources and attack or deal with foes using religion. In the final and deepest stage, Space, you control a flying saucer/machine and deal with other empires by either trading with them, attacking them, or even defending your homeland if that's a priority. You can also add tools onto your ship to allow you to terraform planets, color them, etc. and you are also given a beam that allows you to suck up plants and animals on planets in order to use them for purposes such as locating them elsewhere.
In all honesty, none of these game modes is all that fun to play. Even the Space stage, with its huge star system(s) and tons of planets to explore, missions to undertake, planets to colonize, and so forth, still becomes repetitive quite quickly. The Civilization-aholics will probably enjoy this more than I did, but it's nothing to write home about. As I've seen others say, the other stages are more or less "appetizers" because they're much shorter and have little to no depth. It's also disheartening to know that your species becomes obsolete and no longer changes past the Civilization stage, and that as you move around in the earlier stages, the 'changes' you make to your creatures only determine whether it's a carnivore or herbivore. Other, deeper characteristics based on the way you play are never put forth as we probably would have expected. For example, you can build a completely different creature from stage-to-stage and have no drawbacks as a result. It simply doesn't matter what you do - if you do it and move along, the game moves along, too, just like any other game would. I was really expecting more - a "species life simulator" of some sort, but a project that ambitious would take more than several years to complete I'm sure.
With that said, here's a quick video I whipped up showing me creating a strange scorpion-like creature in the Creature Creator:
Now that Spore is out of the way, let's move on to Crysis: Warhead!
Without a doubt, Warhead has given me the best $30 value in a long time. What you're getting is an excellent standalone expansion (original game not required) as well as an improved multiplayer component that is marketed as a completely separate game known as Crysis Wars and that comes on a separate disc as a result.
If you played Crysis and were bored every now and then with the constant stealth gameplay, Warhead is definitely the game you're after. Shortly after the beginning, the pace picks up with explosions left and right and better gunfights than in the original game, and it doesn't let up until the credits start rolling. The missions are a little more linear than those in Crysis, but it doesn't hurt the experience at all. It's hard to say Warhead is the same type of game because the two just take such different approaches. In this game, you're being funneled into frantic battles and you'll notice small touches such as more explosive barrels littered around the landscape, vehicles having much lower armor and therefore being easier to destroy, and more. Some of the more exciting segments include riding around in a fast anti-armor vehicle, blowing the hell out of everyone and everything in your path, and riding on the back of a train, either manning the guns on top or using your own weaponry to take out forces and camps appearing both to your left and right. The train ride was one of the better missions in the game and I'd put it up there with some of my favorite moments in gaming. The ice levels are back, but they actually show up sooner than you'd think and pack more variety and excitement than those in Crysis.
The story is told better, too, because the voicework is better and the characters are more engaging. You really care about the different characters in the game and you also get to see a deeper side of the main character, "Psycho," by the end of the game that will leave you in tears. I would say that it's certainly one of the more touching cutscenes I've seen in a first-person shooter in a long time, and the downright gorgeous visuals only make it that much more immersive.
Speaking of the visuals, Warhead's performance isn't a whole lot better than Crysis', but you'll still find yourself getting better frames especially in DirectX 9 mode, which offers similar visuals to DX10 but with 5-10+ higher frames in most segments. The visual quality is only slightly better than that in the original game, but it's still the best shooter when it comes to visuals by far. There is simply no matching any of the Crysis games at this time when speaking of that area.
I haven't yet tried the multiplayer component/game, but I do look forward to installing Crysis Wars and seeing the improvements they've made. I've been looking around, and some early reports indicate that the experience is better and plays more smoothly all-around. I think it will definitely be a great second-half to the game and will make the game(s) that much more worth the thirty buckaroos.
With that said, Crysis: Warhead is a game any shooter fan should play. I know that the market is over-saturated with shooters at this time, but you should give this one a try just because it does so many things right. It's hard to find great shooters these days that pack a punch in almost every area, but I think Warhead hits the nail on the head wherever possible. Even if the performance may still not be at the level we desire and even if the ice stage and alien battles will still piss off a few folks, this is a damned good shooter, through-and-through. And for thirty bucks, you'd be a fool not to buy it, even if you're a DRM crybaby.
Because I recorded a Spore video, I decided I would also record a Crysis:Warhead video showing me taking out North Korean troops in one of the earliest levels in the game. The video is set to the theme song of the well-known movie The Terminator, and I think you'll know why by the time the video is over. Once again, enjoy:
Now that we've discussed the evolution of species in Spore and the total annihilation in Crysis:Warhead, we'll probably be moving on to a completely different type of game when I begin playing The Witcher when time allows. I recently purchased The Witcher: Enhanced Edition which is actually the original game with tons of great enhancements and some great extra content such as the game soundtrack, a "Making of . . " DVD, a world map, and more. Ya'know, the typical collector's edition content. But still, it's well worth the money! I've heard only good things about The Witcher, and it's time for me to hop into its crazy world and experience the adventures it has to offer. I'm sure they'll be exciting.
