E3 2010

Christmas for gamers.

This year has been great for gaming, great titles released almost every month. We've had Mass Effect 2, Bad Company 2, Heavy Rain, God Of War 3 and so much more. Now E3 has rolled around raining down games upon us. There's still a day and a half left but I wanted to just quickly summarize how I feel about it so far.

So, it started off with the Microsoft conference and boy oh boy, what a disaster that was. It started off alright with all the expected games from Microsoft. Your Gears Of War 3, your Halo: Reach, and your Call Of Duty: Black Ops. It went down hill from there.

Microsoft focused solely on Natal, now re-branded as "Kinect", for the remainder of the show. As expected, most all of the games that were shown for it were targeted at a "casual" and not at the people sitting in the crowd that morning. Fittness games, a Wii sports clone, some dancing games, and some other things that I wasn't personally interested in.

I would go into more detail but I've already popped a vein in my eye for staring at the screen for too long. I'll continue what I though of E3 tomorrow, and also my thoughts on Metro 2033 ( a fantastic game btw)

Assassins Creed 2

I know I said earlier that my focus was going to be on Stalker but God damn, this game has captivated me. It's about a million times better than the first. There's just so much more richness and detail in the cities you traverse, it feels so much more alive than the first one.

One of the major complaints about the first one was the lack of variety in what you can do in between key missions. Well they took that complaint and really stopped at nothing to make sure the  player didn't get bored while roaming around the city. Races, Hired Assassinations, catching thieves,  finding hidden treasures and codex pages, and so much more. I spent hours just free-roaming, taking up the city sights, doing some side missions here and there. Really engaging and really fun.

Gosh, there's so much more that needs to be said about this game! It's so richly detailed, engaging, beautiful, and deep. There are some issues here and there but they don't detract from the overall game quality at all. After all, no game is flawless.

On the agenda

So I just recently bough Stalker: Call of Pripyat. I heard it's a great game, as well as its predecessor Shadow of Chernobyl. The latter of which I played for about 10 minutes and then Windows decided it would be a good time to crash. Either way, I plan on getting into these really soon, write up my thoughts on here. I think it would be best played with the Complete Mod which basically updates the look of the game.

Speaking of mods, the popular BOLOpatch for the PC version of Just Cause 2 was released yesterday and boy it's a lot of fun. It's of course still a little bit buggy but the new numpad spawning feature means you can jump out of your plane/helicopter and then spawn a vehicle or object while you're free-falling. Which is just crazy awesome. What I usually do is fly up quite high, spawn a plane and try to get in and fly away before my ass is blown to bits.

"Ahhhh, he's got me with his wire thing!!"

Just Cause 2 is a ton of fun. An extremely pretty game with some over the top, awful, cheesy voice acting and amazing stunts and explosions. I would write more but I'm too lazy.

What else have I been playing... ah yes, a small game called Tag. I believe this game was created by about 4 or 5 students studying Game Design at Digipen. It's a puzzle game, your main "weapon" is a gun that shoots out paint. There are three types of paint, that you are slowly introduced to throughout the 6 or 7 levels in the game. Green paint makes you jump really high, red paint makes you go really fast if you walk on it, and blue paint lets you stick to the surface you've sprayed it on. Simple, yet fun game mechanic, and the game did leave me scratching my head a few times, trying to figure out how to solve a certain puzzle.

It's very basic in terms of visuals, as you'd expect coming from a few students at a university but it stll does a good job. It's all pretty much cell shaded with distinguishable outlines on everything. The world is also pretty much black and white, and different shades of grey, but your paint manages to bring colour into the world.

What's really interesting is that supposedly some of the students who made this were hired by Valve to work on Portal 2. Similar to how the students at this same university were hired by Valve a few years ago for creating Narbacular Drop, the game that was pretty much transformed into the first Portal.

So anyway, quite a fun game, should only take about 10 to 20 minutes of your time. I know no one reads this but you can download it here: https://www.digipen.edu/news/itagi-wins-best-student-game-award-at-igf/page-1/

And also read about how they got an award for it. Good for them, they most certainly deserved it.

What I've been playing

Well, this week has been great for gaming. Just Cause 2 demo, Battlefield Bad Company 2 release, and the announcement of Portal 2. Excellent stuff.

The Just Cause 2 demo is a blast (pun definitely intended), Ive played for at least three hours already according to Steam and it is really good, hectic, crazy fun. You start off at the Reapers base, after a really cheesy cutscene with some really cheesy voice acting. First thing everyone must do is to get out your pistol, shoot a gas canister, grapple on to the top of it, and rocket it into the sky (making sure to jump of before it explodes). Free-falling in this game is a wonderful experience, you really get that immense sense of speed as you plummet through the sky and the whole island surrounds you in a quite astonishing vista.

Making sure to pull your parachute out before you hit the ground (and ragdoll in an unrealistic yet humorous fashion), you start slowly gliding over building, roads and cars. The real fun in this is that you can use the wonder that is your grapple hook to keep you floating  by grappling any object and reeling your self in to pick up speed and thus stay airborne. It's a great way to travel around  the map and beats walking or running.

Let's talk more about this grapple hook. Pressing F once and pointing at an object in the environment will propel you straight towards that object. Pressing F while pointing at an NPC will pull them towards you, and will at most times result in the phrase, "AHH, HE'S GOT ME WITH HIS WIRE THIING!!", which is downright hilarious. Now holding down F and pointing at something or someone offers some interesting mechanics. You can basically tether two things together with your hook. Tethering an enemy soldier to a car and then driving off is a classic example. This lends it self to some funny and interesting game mechanics.

Now as far presentation goes, they really delivered on this one, every thing is so vibrant and colourful. You really get the sense that this is a real island. This is especially evident when you're free-falling. I can't explain it, it's just something you have to witness to really appreciate. Eyefinity also helps make the experience 10 times better.

Well, in summary Just Cause 2 really feels like a buy for me. There just seems like so much to do, and so much to blow up as well.

Bad Company 2 is a great game. Not for its singleplayer of course, that was very mediocre, but for its multiplayer. Before I go on to say how much I love the Mutlitplayer for this game I want to talk a bit about how "meh" the singleplayer was. It started out alright, you're placed in WW2 on a secret mission to find some secret weapon that does a lot of damage etc. The usual stuff. At the end of the mission you die (akin to Call of Duty 4), then you're placed in Preston Marlowes' shoes once again. On a mission to find this secret weapon yadda yadda.

It's really quite boring, unoriginal, short and all those other degrading words. I plowed through it in what seems to be about 5 or 6 hours. The only redeeming feature being the Bad Company crew. They're all back from the original and they still make me chuckle here and there but the scenario they're placed in just doest... fit, for lack of a better word. In fact, I enjoyed the singleplayer of the first Bad Company so much more. It suited their personalities, they're all a bunch of army rejects who stumbled across some gold and they tried to find more, like the rag-tag group of soldiers they are. They're not hero's and they were never meant to be, and there's absolutely nothing wrong with that.

But anyway, moving on from that, the multiplayer is where it really shines. And the variation in maps is just brilliant, each having their own unique atmosphere and tone. There's the desert map, the snowy map, the forest map etc. Each with their own unique visuals. One thing I thought was really neat was the sandstorms on a desert map I was playing on. It sweeps in and out obscuring the battlefield, making it harder for you to find your target or offering some temporary natural smoke bomb. Great stuff.

All the multiplayer modes from the first one have returned, being only two that's hardly a surprise. Still doesn't stop it from being fun. There are slight variations such as squad rush and squad deathmatch, I haven't had a chance to play them yet but I'm sure they're great as I just finished up a game of Conquest. Which was surprisingly fucking awesome.

Oh lord, look at me. I could go on forever. Bottom line, Bad Company 2 is excellent simply for its multiplayer, don't really bother with the singleplayer unless you want to chuckle a few times in 6 hours.

Portal was updated a few days ago, an achievement was added, things got crazy. Valve ingeniously implemented an ARG involving radios and Morse code into the update which the "internet" solved in a day or two. Nevertheless, it was great marketing and yesterday Portal 2 was officially announced. With co-op to boot. I feel this is going to be a great game, like the first one. There was also mention of it being full retail price, which could mean another game is included... Episode 3, is that you?

I can dream.

Well, long post is VERY long. Now I must go watch Alice In Wonderland. Toodledo

Mass Effect 2

I was pleasantly surprised by how awesome this game is. The beginning starts off with a bang, quite literally, as the Normandy-SR1 is blown to bits by an unidentified spacecraft. And like many captains before him, Shepard goes down with his ship.

This is where your journey starts, 2 years later in a research facility under siege, where you're fortunately resurrected, told to grab a gun and fight your way out.

Quite an action-packed start to what I fell is going to be a great game. I'm only about two hours in but I'll talk about the graphics and gameplay.

Quite honestly, it looks a ton better on PC than ME1 did. The environments especially seem to have a richness and detail about them that really give them life. As do the characters, although still slightly stiff around the face, it's the body language that really stands out. Bioware did a great job on the animation, no doubt they probably used motion capture and I applaud them on that decision (and applaud them even more so if they didn't!). They move with such subtly yet with so much emotion my dad, who walked into the room while I was playing, asked me if I was watching a movie. He really just stood there for about half a minute watching Shepard shout at the reporter lady (renegade style). Job well done Bioware, job well damn done.

Although, many have said it before, the writing in this game and the way the lines are delivered is quite excellent. One little niggle though, is that sometimes the syncing is off. This is most prevalent in humans, it sort of ruins the moment.

Now onto gameplay. They've overhauled quite a few things in Mass Effect 2. One major change is the weapon system. In the previous game, guns had an infinite amount of ammo, but would stop firing if they heat up too much, you'd then have to wait for it to cool down, akin to reloading it. This worked well, but thinking back now it kind of lessened the intensity in shootouts as you'd just have to wait for your gun to cool down. In Mass Effect 2, they've introduced what they call heat clips, which are ejected once you fire your gun to keep it cool. Which makes sense, and also adds more intensity in the firefights, which was missing from the first. It also encourages you to think more tactically, use the last grenade launcher ammo on the group of enemies flanking you, or the giant mech in front of you? Those kind of situations. I like the system and hope they stick with it for Mass Effect 3 (inevitable).

Alright, I'm ending it here. If you liked Mass Effect 1, and Sci-Fi Action RPG's, you will love this game. Complex story branches, great characters, good combat, overall awesome game with lot's of re-playability.
 

Rome: Total War

Yeah, I may be a little late to the war and this game has been sitting on my Hard Drive for a long time, unplayed. But today I was bored and decided to give it a go. I've played the Empire: Total War demo and the menu here is pretty much the same, along with those little quotes displayed above the loading bar. It's a great, simple and clean interface.

So anyway, I decided to start on the prologue campaign just to get through tutorials and whatnot. And I really got hooked, I'm naturally a sucker for RTS's ever since those days when Age Of Empires first released, such glorious days. Anyway, the first battle was a small scale one meant to teach me how to command my troops, basic RTS stuff. After I won my first battle against those pesky barbarians, I was back onto the world map, which I think is a very clever idea. It's an easy way to manage your troops and cities, with little details such as carts and boats travelling around, trading goods. It's a well executed and nifty little idea.

Graphics are as expected from a 3 year old game. They do the job but what's really well done is the sound. You can zoom down to ground level to "march" beside your troops and the sound of their clanking armor and the chorus of a hundred stamping feet really immerses you in the battle. One thing I dislike though, is that there is no blood. At all. It ticks me off but I'm sure there is a mod out there that implements it.

Now let me talk about how it played. Well, I did have some issues when commanding some of my units to go to "x" through route "b", they'd usually take the longer route; "a" to "b" to "c" for example. It didn't happen enough to make the game annoying or lose me a battle. But it does sort of make your tactics uncoordinated. Aside from that you really do get that sense of controlling an army, and the battles really do feel epic.

What more can I say? I'll definitely be playing this more, along side Empire: Total War, which I purchased a few days ago for £6 (thank you Steam).

B:BC 2 beta impressions

Well I finally got into a good match a few times today (although I often get randomly disconnected) and I must say it is quite fun.

It's very reminiscent of the first one and that's not a bad thing at all.

In terms of how it controls, I feel there have been some changes but not a lot. In fact it plays pretty much the same way as the first, the only way I could probably distinguish between the two in terms of how it plays would be if I had them side by side. This is not a bad thing at all, I felt right at home as soon as I first parachuted on to the battlefield and I'm sure newcomers would be able to get to grip with the controls rather quickly as well. One little niggle I do have with the controls is the switching through weapons  using the mouse scroll wheel. Instead of looping after switching past the last item in your inventory, as you'd expect it to, it requires  you to scroll back the other way. Yeah, a very nit picky, minor annoyance but still annoying.

As you descend to Port Valdez in your flimsy parachute you're greeted with AA gun fire and a beautiful panoramic view of the whole snowy map. It's quite stunning actually, but once you hit the ground it's time for action. I can't tell whether it's a step up from the first game but damn it looks good, character and vehicle models especially are very well crafted and animated. With the introduction of "destruction 2.0" to the Frostbite engine we get a lot smaller destruction, pieces of wood from a fence being chipped away, and we also get an overhaul on the large scale destruction, toppling a whole goddamn building. This really helps make every match fresh and fun, and also elevates tension as your enemies could come from anywhere at anytime. Particle effects such as fire, smoke, debris, and explosions to name a few are also really well done. It's really a sight when a tank bulldozers through a corner of a building and unloads an explosive round at the enemy. I have also yet to encounter any graphical bugs which is great, and the fps never wavers either, and no screen tearing whatsoever.

It all really ties together to give you a very addictive, hectic, sometimes strategic, and rewarding online experience.

Now back to the beta.

Battlefield: Bad company 2 PC beta is here!!

And it's full of lag...

Good thing is that DICE are aware of the situation and are working hard to fix it, at least that's what it says on the ticker. Will post an updated impression and maybe a video once they solve their issues.

Single player reconstructor mod

Just a video tutorial I made for installing the SP reconstructor mod for Red Faction: Guerrilla. a lot of people I've seen have been confused as to how to actually get it working, myself included. Everything is running fine now though, it's an excellent mod.


I would've preferred to make this an audio video tutorial tutorial but my computer is so loud that whenever I record it sounds like I'm standing next to a wind turbine.


Anyway, I hope this helps anyone who stumbles across it.