Added this page as a companion to 'Life & Games' for news from the gaming world that i just have to open my big gob about and can't share with my gaming illiterate buddies in the 'real' world :)
March 2012:
A well known computer gaming magazine, having beta tested PROTOTYPE 2......"For all it's violent excess the game is attempting to tell a more human story" Ooookay....this is what happens when gullible children review computer games. Forget the fucking 'story' people, you and i know that if this type of game floats your boat you are playing it for the visceral violence that the 'playtest' review is full of. The downside is that those two pages of the magazine are now stuck together with strong black coffee........splutter! Well i found the quote funny anyway :)
On the upside, the same magazine have a Gamersgate promo code to get a free download of the original Crusader Kings and it's expansion pack. One of the best PC strategy games ever made....(Yay!)
Pocket Review of the month:
BASTION - Much hyped and highly regarded action RPG lite Bastion. I bought it from Gamersgate this month ( Fuck Steam! ) played for 8 hrs solid and here's my pocket review.
Music and Soundtrack 11 out of 10 :D - I'm speechless just listen to it OK.
Graphics and Art 10 out of 10 :) - Anime hand painted to a consistently high standard.
Game play 6 out of 10 :{ - Usual hack and slash with some poor and frustrating levels ( see controls )
Content and Features 7 out of 10 - loads of weapon customisations and home base building/upgrading.
Controls: Play with a console controller only. PC keyboard movement requires more dexterity than a ballet in a minefield.
Spot on review of the month goes to the general consensus on the new SYNDICATE 'rehash for cash game': It's crap, we knew it would be and it's got nothing to do with the dystopian vision of the future that was the original. ( The re-release of the original on GOG still scores 80+ on most review sites )
April 2012:
DO NOT PAY!
How the hell did i miss that? Played the original PC version of Star Control 2 years ago. Saw this on 'Good Old Games' GOG.com for a few dollars and decided to pander to a nostalgia trip. Then i found out that there was a free 'open source' version of the game with loads of add on packs and music remixes, fully voice acted and based on the original and superior old 3DO version and it runs like a dream on windows 7. Major Face Palm or what :(
Anyway, DO NOT PAY FOR THIS GAME FROM GOG.COM - Get it here with extra modern HD music remix packs. It's now Called 'The Ur-Quon Masters' for legal reasons but we know it's an updated Star Control 2 :D
GOBLIN CAMP: WTF is Goblin Camp.
A free indie goblin fort management game with a mouse driven interface that i recently 'rediscovered' as the game now has tile set support and a full set of features. The latest version is 0.2 at time of writing and it's still being supported. I have produced an introductory vid. Watch it here and follow the links in the video description for downloads of the game and tile sets.
Here's some screen shots featuring the 32 x 32 detailed tile set:
Pocket Review of the month:
Released on April 11th in the UK on GoodOldGames.com Legend of Grimrock this Old Skool Dungeon Crawler with Modern Graphics and Soundtrack simply oozes challenging Game play and fun. See the screenies and full description on the 'Rock'n'Role' page of this blog.
Music and Soundtrack 8 out of 10 :D -Nice ambient dungeon sounds and good positional audio for those with 7.1 gaming headsets or speaker systems but some dodgy creature 'noises' let it down slightly.
Graphics and Art 10 out of 10 :) -Excellent HD textures that don't blur out when close up to them. Creature animation and textures are up there with the best.
Game play 9 out of 10 - Some frustrating combat for parties with underdeveloped skill sets.
Content and Features 10 out of 10 -drip fed armour, weapon and alchemy ingredients that have to be searched for by uncovering secret areas, easy to miss. The player feels a palpable sense of reward and relief when finding a new much needed weapon upgrade :D
Controls:Well thought out and intuitive control method - minimum keys used provides a fluid game play experience.
RANT OF THE MONTH: 25th April 2012
Dont' you just love marketing persons? How gullible do you have to be in order to be duped into playing a 'free to play' game? The latest is the new Tribes release. Pay, or don't, but don't try to tell us that your game is free to play when everyone is buying the best guns and classes and armours to the value of an average single player PC game in order to survive and be competitive! Why not just sell the game in the first place? Sadly though, this is happening more and more in single player games that you have already purchased, Dragon Age was one of the first where you came across a quest and were jerked out of the game to be told you had to pay extra in order to begin the plot line.
It's no wonder that the greatest amount of actual sales as opposed to pirated copies of games is happening in the independent market where i just paid $14.99 for Legend of Grimrock with no DRM and the bulk of my other spending has been in donations to indie developers who continue to enhance and support their great games and many allow you to pay them for free if you don't want to or can't afford to pay.
I'm not suggesting that the major games companies give away their games by any stretch of the imagination. But i think the lesson should now be learned that in order for PC sales to continue to be viable, they need to sell their game with all it's content at a fixed price and with no DRM requirements what so ever. Sales figures are starting to prove this argument. The currently flawed business models based on greed are contributing to the downfall of the PC as the premier gaming platform in the mainstream, and will ultimately lead to increased piracy and lost revenues for the short sighted companies involved.
MAY 20th 2012
FALLEN LONDON - Echo Bazaar
Stumbled upon this browser based game this month. After a while i was hooked on the intriguing portrayal of an alternative London that has literally been dragged down to hell. Set in a pseudo Victorian era with a Gothic atmosphere, the game portrays a grim and gloomy city ruled by demons and full of nightmarish characters.
Gameplay wise your character develops as you attempt to uncover the secrets of the city as you play through storylets and opportunities presented in the style of a graphic novel. The game has masses of content and your character spends action points to advance story lines. Success or failure depends on the strength of attributes that develop according to the storylets that you decide to investigate and the outcomes furhter define your avatars 'character'. There is an element of inventory management and a random element in the form of opportunity cards that replenish from a pool over time.
Overall, it's a great way to spend a few hours while you browse the web or catch up with other social media activities. Friends can be invited to perform actions alongside your character and many of the stories require their assistance. Friends can be added to your circle from facebook and twitter accounts.
The game supports micro transaction to puchase extra story branches, unique items and to increase the ammount of turns a character can play. 1 turn once used takes 10 minutes real time to replenish and if you're playing the free game then you are limited to ten turns represented by a candle that burns down as you use them up. It is not necessary to make any purchases to play the game and there is plenty of free content to enjoy and discover.
Improvements and additions are being regularly added to the game but ultimately, the test of whether or not you will stick with it depends on if you appreciate the quirkiness in the writing and setting. Either way, it is certainly unique enough to give it a go.
Sign up for free at Fallenlondon.com
24th May 2012
Pocket Review of the month: DIABLO III
Well, as a big Diablo fan since the originals and i still play 1 & 2 regularly, i finally took the plunge to purchase the third installment in the series despite my reservations about on line requirements and the inclusion of real world money player auctions for artifact items.
So. I paid £45.00 English pounds for a digital download that took 7 hours to complete using a peer to peer network similar to torrenting with the battlenet client - Strange, 'my computer seemed to be behind a firewall' I was informed. Well DOH! of course it's behind a firewall, do you think i'm daft? Anyway, i had made an exclusion like i did for Starcraft II :P
So, the game finally installed and i was unable to get on to my chosen European server as i was told it was too full. Then, it was 'down' with some undefined problem. Please try again later.....Nnnnnrrrrghhhhhh!
So, the next day i was able to connect to the server with no problems and actually play the game, and after some 20+ hours of play, during which i was unceremoniously booted out of the game three times due to server errors here is my pocket review of the game as a hardcore diablo fan and also a big fan of Torchlight.
This iteration of the diablo franchise is basically Diablo 2 'lite':
Battlenet chat is basically the same as in Diablo 2 where players can talk on several chat channels from general to specific game in progress and co-op play is enabled with friends. No problem if that's your bag - personally i like it, although VOIP should be standard in modern games by now.
The game, as a single player experience however feels a bit dull and it's features have been cut to the bone with little choice in class skill paths and most of those skills are not desirable for an optimum build. Runes and gem socketing from the original games are still present but are rare. Skills earn 'console style powerups' and are earned automatically on levelling. This makes character customising a no brainer and even good loot drops are much rarer than in the original games and are all very similar in abilities, varying only by degree. Crafting of items has been moved in a limited way to a blacksmith and the items are in the main, not worth the expenditure compared to those you will eventually find in fat loots. Otherwise, the game plays mechanically as you would expect from the two previous incarnations and that is no bad thing.
Graphically, the game is workmanlike, with similar looking scenery 'themed' in each act and consisting of little colour variation in direct contrast to the wonderful cartoon vibrant world of Torchlight with it's over-the top effects and gibs for example, giving one the impression that this game is a bit too far up it's own arse, although the graphics are at their best in outdoor sections. I suspect that due to the fact that this is essentially an on line game depending on 'ping', that the graphics have been kept as low key as possible and i have certainly noticed my internet connection dropping to lag the game at certain high traffic times of the day.
So in summary, and basing my conclusions on my opinion of the mainstream games industry elsewhere in this blog: Yet another example of a mainstream rip off, taking advantage of past laurels to 'cash in quick' - was it worth 45.00 English Pounds. Personally, yes....WTF, i got butt raped because i'm a fanboy. Will, i continue to allow myself to be shafted? Probably, as a gamer i never learn and this probably won't be my last raping by Blizzard :P. Is Torchlight a far superior game? YES. Diablo fanboys with cash to splash only, otherwise wait for torchlight 2, you have been warned!
Soundtrack: Hauntingly familiar - 10/10
Graphics: Bland - 7/10
Gameplay: Cut back, gutted - with way too easy combat cutting down the fun factor = 6/10
Features: 7/10 - Hacked down gameplay and lacking the customization opportunities of it's predecessor.
Ouch! Roll on Torchlight 2 :)
P.S. In case you think i have been a bit harsh, here's the reasoning. 45.00 quid ( about 70.00 US Dollars ) for a game that will undoubtedly be asking you for more cash via DLC add-ons and maybe paid for content and it's not up to the standard of Diablo 2. The high level loot only appears after Hell Difficulty which is unlocked only after you have completed the game 3 times. Do you want to play through it again with the same character three times to see this? Players will be able to sell this loot using real world currency via an auction house system and no doubt Blizzard will be milking a fat cut so they will want this loot to be at a premium in the game.
In the US a big player base already: In Europe, following a marathon session on my day off, only 3 people on the Demon Hunter chat channel and one of them was probably me :) Perhaps the European dads haven't saved up enough cash to buy the game for little Johnny and my arse is still sore :{
On the bright side, i can afford it and it's more Diablo - Yay! It's just that i'm going to have to sit on a soft cushion for a while :P
Updated - 05/06/2012
After completing Nightmare level with a barbarian character still no premium loot items yet so on to Hell, then Inferno levels.
Also been playing co-op games in a private party with up to four players, The games basic, arcane chat method is sadly lacking and you would have thought that voice chat support could have been built into the game as a modern standard. Still, there's always Skype group calls for effective teamwork. The difficulty ramps up with more players and loot drops improve leaving the single player game a poor second. This then, from the developers of World of Warcraft: and it shows. This heavy reliance of online content and DRM requirement, flies in the face of statistics that show the majority of gamers still play single player games and online gaming is only in a 20% minority group. And, if your gaming is mobile. Make sure that you are camped on top of a wi-fi hotspot and you have an unlimited download contract as you simply won't be able to play a game that you have paid through the nose for!
Update - 09/07/2012 After 300+ Hours of play! And two characters at level 60!
Still no loot that would enable me to be competitive in Inferno Difficulty. With release of 1.03 patch and a hotfix - higher level loot drops in the endgame have been improved but to be honest i have seen little benefit or difference.
Conclusion is that Blizzard are pushing the real money auction house so players have to buy gear to complete inferno diff. There is little difference in game play skill. A characters survival depends on a few rigid skill builds so all characters end up the same as everyone else's and critically, you need high end gear to survive inferno. You would have to 'farm' for hundreds if not thousands of hours to find this gear by yourself and this has led to many players giving up and abandoning the game and what is essentially a repetitive process. Either you are a dedicated and skilled gamer or you make up 90% of the people who bought this game on the back of Diablo 2 and you are 'casual'. If you are in the latter category then you will quickly find that the repetitive grind to find gear to enable you to beat the game both boring and frustrating and you will give up, or you will buy from the real money auction house to get through the game - but then what is the point in that. YOU did not find the gear and YOU have ACHIEVED nothing therefore!
Overall then, a fun combative action RPG with a short and disappointing shelf life for most of the people who actually bought the game save for a small section of the hardcore and the faithful. NOT a good way to go for Blizzard, who will ultimately realise that they made one of the worst business decisions in gaming history in finally destroying the Diablo franchise for the majority of it's fans.
For an overview of gameplay and issues check out my Diablo 3 Video Diary.
Imminent Release of FTL - Faster Than Light - on September the 14th 2012
The Space Ship Captain Rogue-Like Simulation Game from Matthew Davis and Justin Ma.
I will definately be doing an LP of this on my You Tube Channel as i've been exited about this for some time now. Stay Tuned :D
No comments:
Post a Comment