Red Dead Redemption single player review

I have bought every major entry in the Grand Theft Auto series, but haven't completed a single one of them. Every time I've either just lost interest and drifted away to other games, or got stuck on a particular mission. While Red Dead Redemption belongs to the same stable of sandbox titles from Rockstar, it goes way beyond anything they've done to date in my opinion. It held my attention for around 35 hours spread over about three weeks, and very few games manage to do that these days before I get distracted by something else. Let's explore why this is a very strong Game of the Year contender...

Format: Xbox 360 (PS3 also available)
Publisher: Rockstar Games
Developer: Rockstar San Diego
Expect to pay: £30 - £40

Graphics: 10 out of 10
The vistas throughout New Austin, Mexico and West Elizabeth are truly stunning. Your HUD basically boils down to a handy mini map/compass combo in the bottom left corner of the screen, with the rest being taken up by the game world. By keeping things simple Rockstar keeps you fully immersed in the living, breathing world that they have created, and it truly is impressive stuff.

While certainly not the first game to feature wildlife, I have never encountered anything quite as diverse and believable as the range of animals to be found here. Rabbits, armadillos, coyotes, wolves, elk, cougars, bobcats, grizzly bears... the list goes on and on, and they all interact with each other as you would expect. So you will see village dogs chasing chickens for example, or a big cat take down a deer. Every animal in the game can be killed, and then you can gather resources such as pelts, meat, horns etc. which you can sell in the shops throughout the land. Likewise there are many different types of plant life that can be harvested for saleable materials.

The wide open landscapes make a very refreshing change from the bustling, cramped environs of Liberty City, and you can while away many an hour simply exploring on your horse, seeing what you can find or triggering one of the many random events. A full day/night cycle is of course included, as is dynamic weather conditions such as rain, thunder storms and the occasional bit of snowfall up in the mountains. When the heavens open, pools of water slowly form on the dry ground, which is a nice little detail.

The many characters that you meet are very well designed as well, each one looking convincingly lifelike and having their own little quirks. They vary from the like able such as the Marshall of Armadillo, or Bonnie McFarlane, to the strange, such as Seth with his fascination with the dead, to the downright detestable like Bill Williamson or Agent Edgar Ross. I encountered a few graphical glitches during my time with the game, such as an invisible train that meant that parcels appeared to be floating in thin air, but in a game of this size and scope such things are unavoidable.

All in all Red Dead Redemption is one of the finest looking games available for whichever system you decide to buy it for, and the good stuff doesn't end there!

This sort of view is pretty common in Red Dead Redemption

Sound and Music: 10 out of 10
First off, the music. The Morricone inspired soundtrack suits the game perfectly as you would expect, and the style and instruments shift as you move from the US into Mexico. There are also a few songs scattered throughout the game at key points in the story by Jose Gonzalez, which boost the cinematic feel of the game. The voice acting is also very competently done, with Rob Wiethoff and Antony De Longis proving excellent performances as John Marston and Marshal Leigh Johnson respectively, backed up by solid performances from the rest of the cast.

If you happen to have a 5.1 surround sound system or better, the positional audio can actually be helpful to you, as you may hear gunshots in the distance and be able to deduce where they are coming from based on which speaker they are coming from. Speaking of gunshots, there is quite a large range of weaponry, from pistols, through to shotguns, repeaters, rifles and mounted machine guns. They all sound unique and are based on the real life weaponry.

Game Mechanics: 9 out of 10
Rockstar have taken the basic blueprint of a GTA style game and refined it until it is almost perfect. There are many small improvements that have been made to Red Dead Redemption, from the way that missions are now sensibly broken up into smaller segments with checkpoints, to the overall difficulty curve that means that the game gradually gets tougher as you get better at it, it seems that all the years spent making games like this have finally paid off in this, their masterpiece.

As well as the main storyline missions that will have to be tackled sooner or later if you want to beat the game, there is a ton of optional stuff to see and do as well. First off, there are 18 optional quests for strangers that can be taken on, which vary from the simple to the weird. These often consist of multiple parts, and you will sometimes have to carry on with the story or just allow a few days of game time to go by before you can continue them. In addition to these, there are 4 sets of ambient challenges that can be taken on and completed at your leisure: survivalist - which involves find various plant life in the wilderness, sharpshooter - which entails shooting stuff (usually wildlife) as you might expect, hunter - finding, killing and skinning various animals, and treasure hunter - figuring out where gold is hidden based on treasure maps with clues on them. Reaching certain levels in each of these challenges and completing them entirely bestows various benefits on your character, and finishing them all gives you the title of "Legend of the West" along with access to a special outfit.

Like Rockstar's previous games, Red Dead Redemption also features a whole range of optional mini games: from gamblers favourites such as poker, blackjack and liars dice, through to arm wrestling, a game of horseshoes, five finger fillet, horse breaking, killing or capturing bandits from wanted posters, or a side job as a night watchman. You could quite easily spend many an hour on these distractions alone (liars dice is my personal favourite). As you travel the country, random events are also triggered at fairly regular intervals - such as a lawman needing help to round up some escaped criminals, a shopkeeper being robbed, or someone about to be hanged unless you can arrive in time and shoot the rope around the victims neck. Taking time out to help people will boost either you honour, fame or both. As your fame increases you will actually hear the dialogue of random passers by change as they begin to recognise you, and they may even ask start giving you gifts.

Of course, honour can be affected negatively as well as positively if you decide to go on a killing spree in a town for example, which also comes with a price on your head. You can clear your name either by paying off your bounty at a train station, or by using a pardon letter. The bigger the bounty on your head, the better the US Marshall's assigned to take you down become, and there's also the likelihood that gunslingers throughout the land will form posses to try and take you down.

For the most part, I didn't have much trouble with the controls, with the odd exception of the auto targeting snapping to a random animal instead of an outlaw during some of the gunfights. After a while you get used to pressing the left trigger to lock onto an enemy, shifting the left stick up slightly to line up with their head, and then firing a shot off with the right trigger to take them out. For large bands of enemies or beasts, you can click the right stick to enter Dead Eye mode, where you can paint targets in slow motion before blowing everyone away. Should you decide that stealth is the way to go, you can also click the left stick to sneak, and then either use throwing knives or simply get up close and slit the enemies throat. This sometimes make more sense that going in guns blazing if there's a large number of heavily armed bandits - sneak around, take a few of the ones on the outskirts out silently, then mop up the rest.

I did encounter a fair few bugs whilst playing through the game, some of them being just graphical glitches such as invisible train which meant that boxes looked like they were floating in mid air, and other more serious bugs which caused the game to freeze up altogether. While these were very annoying when they occurred, the game auto saves very often which meant I seldom actually lost any progress. All in all though, Red Dead Redemption is a stunning technical achievement.

In your face!

Innovation and Cleverness: 8 out of 10
Sandbox games are nothing new, but the execution of Red Dead Redemption raises it above everything that has come before. Just the staggering range of wildlife that adds an extra layer of realism to the game world ensures the game a pretty high score in this category. The little I've seen of the multi player, with its own version of the open world for you to roam in and the ability to form posses, should also be taken into consideration (though it is by no means perfect). Although it took many years to make, it would seem that the hard work put in by Rockstar has really paid off.

Value and Replayability: 9 of 10
Should you decide to rush through all the story missions as quickly as you possibly can, you could probably "complete" the game in under 20 hours, but you'd be completely missing the point. Take your time to explore the world, help out all of the strangers, enjoy the many mini games on offer, and raise your Fame and Honour points, and you can spend many many more hours on just the single player portion of the game alone. When you add in multi player and the promise of more DLC packs on the horizon, you will keep coming back for a long time to come.

Overall: 10 out of 10
Not so long I go I handed out my first 10 out of 10 to Mass Effect 2, but Red Dead Redemption equals it in every way in my opinion. It is every bit and deep and involving as any RPG I've played in recent times, so if you loved exploring the wasteland in Fallout 3, the world of Fable 2, or the galaxy of the aforementioned Mass Effect 2, then you will love wandering in the wilderness of Red Dead Redemption. Giddyup!

Below you can watch the 30 minute Red Dead Redemption film directed by John Hillcoat (The Road). It is made up of cut scenes from the earlier parts of the game, so if you'd rather play through the story unspoiled at your own pace, don't watch it.

A Musical Interlude

There was a time in my life when I would regularly create mix CD's for my own listening pleasure, but as mp3 devices have become more prevalent this practice has fallen by the wayside, and I miss it. So, I have decided to create virtual mix CD, which you will find below along with links to the songs on last.fm. None of these tracks are particularly new, but I find myself returning to them time and time again. Gamers may recognise tracks 16 and 17 from Rez and Xenon 2 respectively.

1. There She Goes - The La's - Last.fm link
2. More Of It - Leigh Nash - Last.fm link
3. You've Got A Lot To Answer For - Catatonia - Last.fm link
4. Ordinary Day - Delores O'Riordan - Last.fm link
5. Teardrop - Massive Attack - Last.fm link
6. Summertime - The Sundays - Last.fm link
7. The Sea - Morcheeba - Last.fm link
8. Hoppipola - Sigur Ros - Last.fm link
9. Into Dust - Mazzy Star - Last.fm link
10. Funny Break (One Is Enough) - Orbital - Last.fm link
11. Cool Kids Of Death - Saint Etienne - Last.fm link
12. Love - Sixpence None The Richer - Last.fm link
13. Little Bit - Lykke Li - Last.fm link
14. Linger - The Cranberries - Last.fm link
15. Bulletproof - La Roux - Last.fm link
16. Mind Killer - Adam Freeland - Last.fm link
17. Megablast - Bomb the Bass - Last.fm link
18. Don't Falter - Mint Royale - Last.fm link
19. Magic - Fauxliage - Last.fm link
20. Into The West - Annie Lennox - Last.fm link

Spotify links coming soon...

Dragon Age: Origins - Awakening review

Here are my thoughts of the recently released expansion for the 2009 RPG of the Year. I won't be doing into as much depth this time as lot of what I said in my original review of the main game also applies here. This review may also contain spoilers of the main game.

Format: PC, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360
Publisher: Electronic Arts
Developer: Bioware
Expect to pay: £15 - £25 (retail version), £19.99 (Steam version)
£31.99 (PSN version), 3200 points (Xbox Live version),

First things first - don't expect an audio-visual overhaul with this release, the graphics are pretty much identical to the original Dragon Age. So you get the same muddy, somewhat last gen looking textures, decent musical score and quality voice acting. There are fewer big name actors filling out the cast this time, but Robin Sachs is there in one of the more important NPC roles. Considering that Awakening takes place in an entirely different part of Ferelden, it is somewhat disappointing that the environments look so similar to what has come before. The foresty bits here look just like those set in the Brecilian forest last time for example. Some all new settings would definitely have been appreciated.

Luckily though things pick up a bit when you examine the plot and characters. There are 6 characters that you can recruit into your party for the duration of this expansion, 5 of which are completely new and one who is a returning character from the main campaign. Of the new bunch, I really liked Anders, the mage who has run away from the Circle of Magi no less than seven times, and Nathaniel Howe - son of the scheming wanker Arl Rendon Howe who was a prominent part of the Origins story. Throwing you together with a supposed enemy and then helping him restore his family name was an entertaining way to pass the time. I didn't feel that I got to know the returning character (Oghren) in the main campaign because I ended up recruiting him last, so it was nice to spend more time fleshing out this character here and eventually he became a valuable part of my party. There are also plenty of humourous pieces of dialogue between the many characters as you roam around the world, and I would frequently stop what I was doing just to hear what they had to say.

Other new stuff includes two new specialisations for each character class and new abilities to go with them, and a raised level cap to 35. There are also more achievements/trophies to earn as you would expect. With the new specialisations the rogue and warrior classes are now more of an even match with the mage, who was way more powerful (and cool) previously.

Whether or not this package offers good value really depends on how you decide to buy it. The disc based version and the Steam version are a decent price and you probably won't feel short changed at the end of the 15-20 hours that it will take you to complete the story (assuming you do all the side quests as well). The PSN and Xbox Live versions though are grossly overpriced in my opinion and really not worth it. The story also comes to a rather abrupt end, and it's a shame that you only get to play around with the new characters for a little while - hopefully Bioware will bring them back for further DLC or possibly a fully fledged Dragon Age 2.

So then, Awakenings doesn't do anything to radically change the Dragon Age experience, but if should you fancy a trip back to the realm of Ferelden, you will be suitably entertained while it lasts - just make sure you don't get stung by a horrendously expensive downloadable version.

Overall: 7 out of 10

Here's Boris - leader of the Amaranthine neighbourhood watch scheme.

Classic or Crap? Volume 2

This time, instead of letting the hand of fate choose a game for me, I already knew what I wanted to talk about. I have fond memories of this game, but I wasn't sure whether it would stand the test of time. So let's take a look and see if this is as good as I remember it...

2. Double Dragon - Game Boy - Taito - 1990


When I was younger (I forget exactly what age but I think it was in my early teens), I was taken off on holiday with my mum and my grandparents to Majorca. Sitting around in the sun all day isn't really my style, so aside from a bit of swimming and reading, my trusty Game Boy was all I had to keep me sane. I only had a few cartridges for it, and amongst them was a new one - Double Dragon. I played the game to death over the course of that week, gradually getting better at it until I could reach the final stage. I never did quite complete it, and soon it was time to go home. To my complete horror upon returning to the UK, I discovered that I had left the cartridge in the hotel room, so I never played the game again until recently.

I was already extremely familiar with the arcade original by the time I had the GB version - while not the first scrolling beat 'em up it certainly made the genre extremely popular, and soon many other games copied the style, including Golden Axe, Final Fight, Teenage Mutant Hero Turtles, and many games produced by Capcom. The Game Boy port of Double Dragon is actually one of the best versions of the game available, with crisp, clear and flicker free graphics, recognisable renditions of the music from the coin-op, a surprising array of moves that can be executed with just two buttons, and it captures the feel of the arcade game even if the stages aren't 100% accurate. It even had a two player mode via the link cable (though I never got to try this).


When I fired up the game again recently with the help of a Game Boy emulator for the GP2X, I still had great fun playing it and was impressed at how good it looked. Taking a quick look at eBay, copies can be found for a fiver, so if you still have your GB, GBC, Super Game Boy or Game Boy Player, track down a copy and show it some love.

Verdict: Classic!

Recent Pickups: 15/03/10

This year, my new years resolution was to post at least one new article on this very blog every week, which last week I failed to do for personal reasons I can't go into. Rather than admit defeat though, I intend to get back on track by posting at least twice this week instead, starting now. I've been a part of the YouTube gaming community for a little while now, subscribing to lots of interesting people and even posting the odd video of my own from time to time. One of the common types of video that people tend to post is the pickups video, and I've decided to transfer the idea into words. I also intend to put together a video of this post which I will embed soon. So without further procrastination, let's take a look at my recent gaming purchases with a few comments on each.

Final Fantasy XIII - PlayStation 3 - Square-Enix - £40
This is the big one that fans of JRPGs have been waiting for, and if anything it has split opinion amongst the fan base even more than the controversial FFXII. Initially, I wasn't a fan of the battle mechanics as it seemed that Square-Enix had dumbed down the game to the point where you were just mashing the X button and watching your party do everything for you, but as you progress more and more layers of the game are peeled back, and by the time you are sent out into the big bad world and left to fend for yourself (about 25 hours in), you have a fully featured RPG with fun, fast paced and strategic battles, many opportunities to customise your characters, and dozens of options side quests to take on. Granted, the game funnels you down a linear path, with nary a reason to stray aside from the odd treasure sphere, which will piss a lot of people off, but the story and characters are entertaining enough to keep me interested

Final Fantasy XIII Official Piggyback Strategy Guide: Collector's Edition - £20
Along with the game itself I also picked this gorgeous looking hardback strategy guide from the best people in the business - Piggyback. Although I have to admit, aside from the odd tricky Eidolon battle the guide has proved somewhat unnecessary so far as there is only one main path through most areas, this is all set to change once I finally reach chapter 11, where it opens up.

Lunar: Silver Star Harmony Premium Edition - PSP - £23

This is actually the fourth time the original Lunar has been released, though each time the game has been substantially reworked. This latest version is no exception, containing new scenes, a rewritten script and a remastered soundtrack. Speaking of the soundtrack, this Premium Edition also comes with a CD and a dozen bromide cards featuring the girls from the game, all in a nice chunky box. I imported it from http://www.videogamesplus.ca/, a site where I've been buying my import RPGs for years. They come highly recommended - the games are cheap and they typically take about a week to get to the UK from Canada.

MadWorld - Wii - £6.99
I spotted this whilst food shopping at my local Morrison's and it was so incredibly cheap that I couldn't resist picking it up. Other than the fantastic black and white art style and commentary by Greg Proops, I have to say I'm not really too keen on the game though. Gore doesn't really do it for me, and the gameplay gets very repetitive very quickly. Though it's a shame that "mature" titles like this aren't performing very well on the Wii, I have to say in this case the game isn't anything special.

Rocket Racing - PS3/PS3 (Minis) - £3.99
This game sounded interesting and promised quite a lot of game for a very small outlay, so I decided to take a chance and purchase it yesterday. I'm still getting used to the controls but it does appear to be a very polished and enjoyable little 2D racing game, well suited to the PSP.


Gamespite Quarterly Issue 2 - The Greatest Games of All Time - £20 (deluxe hardback edition)
I have been a regular reader of gamespite.net since owner Jeremy Parish was known as Toastyfrog, but it was only when Gamespite Quarterly Issue 3 was featured in a recent issue of Retro Gamer that I decided to order a copy myself, albeit Issue 2 rather than 3 because the content was more appealing. The deluxe hardback version features extra content not present in the standard version (37 extra pages) and is a really entertaining read. I certainly intend to go back and buy issues 1, 3 and 4 now.

Podcast Roundup

This time around I'm going to recommend a few podcasts that I listen to or watch on a regular basis. Most of these are fairly well known among the gaming community but there might just be something here that you weren't aware of!

Audio Podcasts

Retro Gaming Roundup
This is a joint project hosted by two US hosts (SocalMike and Scott) and one based in the UK. It's very funny, especially when they all decide to drink alcohol while recording and then trying and decide on the top 10 games of particular category. While the show is only put out once a month rather than weekly, it can reach almost seven hours in length so you'll have plenty to listen to. The show has also just celebrated it's one year anniversary so congratulations and here''s to the next 12 months of shows!

Active Time Babble
Jeremy Parish, Kat Bailey and various other members of the 1UP staff discuss everything RPG related once a fortnight, in a companion podcast to their blog called The Grind. Recent episodes include one that was mostly devoted to Final Fantasy XIII, and one discussing the merits of Star Trek Online and roguelikes.

Retronauts
Another podcast hosted by Jeremy Parish, which goes out on alternate weeks to ATB. They recently did an episode all about the Lunar series, which is great as I'm currently waiting for my copy of the PSP remake to arrive in the post!

4 Guys 1UP
The last of the 1UP podcasts that I listen to on a regular basis. This one has gone through various guises over the last year or so as people come and go, but it will hopefully be around in this form for a while. This one has a more general focus on gaming.

Monroeworld Gamecast
Born from the ashes of Dual Screen Radio and Wii Minute Radio (which were both excellent podcasts that will be missed), Shane R. Monroe, Chris Hentschel and Alex J. Lopez have teamed up to produce this brand new show. There's only one episode released so far but it's good stuff.

RPGCast
RPGamer.com's flagship podcast, discussing the latest news from within the genre.

RPG Backtrack
Another one from RPGamer.com, but this time taking a more retro slant - they focus on games that are at least 2 years old. There are some excellent episodes devoted to the likes of the Ogre Battle games, Shining Force, and Final Fantasy. The show stopped for a while in September but they've just come back with a brand new episode devoted to the Castlevania games that feature RPG elements.

Sarcastic Gamer podcasts
The team from Sarcastic Gamer product five different podcasts including Blue which is about all things PlayStation, and Pink which offers a female perspective on gaming.

Video podcasts

Co-Op
Put together every week by Area 5, Co-Op focuses on anything and everything gaming related, from brand new big budget releases to downloadable and indie titles. They recently changed the format slightly and started putting out live shows, but these are still made available online if you can't catch it as it goes out.

The Totally Rad Show
Not solely devoted to games, but each week Alex, Jeff and Dan do discuss a game that they've all been playing. TRS comes highly recommended for geeks everywhere because it also covers movies, TV and on occasion, comic books.

Non-gaming related podcasts

Mark Kermode and Simon Mayo's Film Reviews
Every week Dr K gives his opinion on the latest movie reviews - very funny, informative and more often than not, accurate.

HD Nation
This is the place to come if you love Hi Definition content. How to get the best from your set up, be it Blu Ray player and TV, Media Centre PC or one of the various HD streaming/pay-per-view boxes.

iFanboy
If you're interested in comics, then this is well worth watching each week!

That's it - the Forza Motorsport 3 review is still coming, I promise. I need to pick it up again for a bit over the weekend to refresh my opinion because it's been a little while, and then I shall make a start on it.

Survey time

Impressions Round Up February 2010

I play a lot of games, and I tend to chop and change between quite a few at the same time - playing an hour or two of something before switching to something else for a while. I also don't like to review a game until I've finished it. This means that there are quite a few games that I never get around to talking about on this blog, because I never finish them, but I would really like to share my thoughts of what I have played. Hence the existence of this article, which I might make a regular monthly feature. So, let's take look at what I've been playing recently...

Resident Evil: The Darkside Chronicles - Wii
I spent about an hour with this follow up to The Umbrella Chronicles last night, and it is pretty good fun. The story focuses the missions that involved Leon S. Kennedy or Claire Redfield this time rather than Chris and Jill, so you get to explore the police station from Resident Evil 2, the Antarctic base from Code Veronica, and some all new stuff that looks like it may be set in or near the country from Resident Evil 5. The difficulty has definitely been toned down from the previous game, but I still find the shakiness of the camera annoying when I'm trying to line up a headshot. There are plenty of familiar enemies in the game, from the traditional zombies, giant spiders, dogs and hunters (from Resi 1).

Darksiders - Xbox 360
I had heard conflicting opinions about this one, but my curiosity was piqued enough to rent it. On first glance the game appears to be a God of War clone, but give the game a few hours and it settles into more of a Zelda formula, with you exploring the world, gaining new abilities, and fighting your way through multiple dungeons and bosses. I chose the normal difficulty setting and I have to say even early on I'm finding a lot of the battles quite tough, as you need to make good use of your block button and your dash move to quickly get out of trouble.

Star Ocean: The Last Hope International Edition - PlayStation 3
Though this is the fourth and most recent Star Ocean game to be released, it is actually a prequel to the other three and so I didn't see the harm in checking out the first few hours of the game. The graphics are decent, though they suffer from some distracting texture draw in, and the voice acting seems to range from merely passable to truly cringe worthy. I like the fact that battles are no longer random but triggered by touching enemies roaming the field, and I quite like the huge maps that you have to traverse, except it can be easy to lose your bearings in them. I haven't messed around with the Item Creation system yet, but I know that this is one area where this series can get incredibly complicated, so I may read a FAQ before trying to work it out for myself.

Resident Evil 5 - Xbox 360
Watching some footage of the newly released Lost in Nightmares DLC inspired me to finally purchase this game, and I have to say for the most part it is excellent fun. What I have played (halfway through chapter 2) does feel incredibly similar to Resident Evil 4, but it doesn't have the same impact this time having done it before. When played in single player mode, the AI of your partner is incredibly poor. Many times I was minding my own business trying to fend off hordes of bloodthirsty Majini (the infected humans in this game), only to be pumped full of lead because I happened to be standing between them and Sheva. This of course not only hurts, but wastes valuable ammo!

Batman: Arkham Asylum - PlayStation 3
Now this one I have actually played significantly more of than the other games mentioned here - I'm about 50% through in fact - so I probably will have a full review up before long. I like the set piece battles where you have to make use of your environment to evade and incapacitate goons, by making us of gargoyles, or sneaking around within ventilation ducts, and the way that the developers play tricks on the player. Reminds me of the good old gameplay of Metal Gear Solid (the original and best one).

I only have the first two games for a week so I don't know whether I will have time to complete them, but I do own the other three so I will continue to play them and other games in episodic chunks, and once I do finish them I will put up reviews like I normally do. While I technically haven't finished Forza Motorsport 3 (it feature a huge amount of championships), I do feel that I have played enough to come to a reasonable conclusion, so that will most likely be the next game to get the review treatment.

Mass Effect 2 review

Note: I will be making the following review of Mass Effect 2 as spoiler free as possible. If you haven't completed the first game by now however, I may mention the plot of that game. You have been warned. I will now return you to your regularly scheduled article...

Format: Xbox 360 (PC also available)
Publisher: Electronic Arts
Developer: Bioware
Expect to pay: £30 - £40

Graphics: 9 out of 10
For the most part, the original Mass Effect looked really good but the frame rate could get really choppy at times. Bioware have really taken care to make sure that the game is fully optimised however as this time around the game is silky smooth throughout, even when you're surrounded with enemies and biotic powers are being fired off with wild abandon.

We still have the "uncanny valley" phenomenon though - human characters have a slight waxy sheen to their skin which makes them look somewhat unnatural. Aliens don't suffer from this problem, basically because we don't know what alien skin would look like anyway and so our brains don't notice that anything is wrong in the same way, and the design of the races is as good as anything you're likely to see in Star Wars (I have soft spot for Turians, myself). Hair is also something of a problem - it doesn't flow or look like real hair does - which is why my male version of Shepard is a skinhead.

These are only really minor issues in the grand scheme of things, however. The design of the game is fantastic, with the Afterlife bar on Omega fairly early on in the game being a highlight. The repetitive structures of the somewhat empty unexplored planets are also a thing of the past, as not only have Bioware done away with the Mako vehicle completely but they've also taken the time to ensure that each environment feels unique. Mass Effect 2 is definitely one of the visual highlights of the 360's life span thus far.

Sound and Music: 9 out of 10

Voice acting in Mass Effect 2 is as good as you would expect from any Bioware RPG of recent times - amazing in other words. Jennifer Hale returns to play the female incarnation of Shepard once again, and she is my preferred choice for the role. Big name celebrities that lend their vocal talents this time include (deep breath): Adam Baldwin (Firefly), Tricia Helfer, Michael Hogan (both from Battlestar Galactica), Carrie-Anne Moss (Matrix Trilogy), Yvonne Strahovski (Chuck), Martin Sheen, Michael Dorn (Star Trek: TNG), Martin Jarvis and Robin Sachs (Buffy). Phew. A list of this magnitude really does serve to demonstrate just what a big business video games have become.

For some reason I can't quite put my finger on, the music wasn't as memorable as it was the first time around. Some of the themes remain the same - the galactic map music for example, but a good deal of it is new. I don't know... it just seem to fade into the background for some reason. The sound effects for both weapons and guns are really cool and unique for each one so you can identify what's going on around you without having to see it. I especially like the noises for the Warp power.

Here we are in the Afterlife bar, which comes complete with Asari pole dancers!

Game Mechanics: 10 out of 10
The inner workings of Mass Effect 2 is the area that has improved the most. Last time the combat was kind of OK, but it was stuck somewhere between being a proper RPG and a third person shooter. This time Bioware has put much more emphasis on the action side of the game, which will probably piss off some but I personally had no problem with. Honestly, the combat is every bit as good as a dedicated third person shooter such as Gears of War 2.

Bioware have also pruned back the length of the missions for this sequel, with most of them not taking much more than an hour to complete this time. rather than the longer sections spent on one planet from the first game. You basically choose where you want to go, get in, do what needs to be done, and then you're given a debriefing screen that details what happened, how much experience was earned and whether you gained any levels, and how much stuff like or you picked up along the way. This means you can play the game in bite sizes doses should you want or need to play it that way.

As previously mentioned, the Mako has been removed entirely this time around and visiting uncharted worlds has been streamlined. Basically, if there isn't something to do there then you can't land - there's no aimlessly trundling around scouring the ground for minerals. Instead you scan the planets from orbit until you get a spike on your scanner and then send it a probe which gathers the minerals for you. These can then be used on various upgrades that you either find during missions or by talking to your fellow crew members.

A lot of Mass Effect 2 will be taken up by you amassing a squad for the big mission at the end. There are more NPC's than there were in the last game, but they're all fleshed out about as much as the old bunch were. These characters basically fit in with one of the six classes that you can choose to be yourself, so some are pure soldiers, some mainly use biotic powers, and others have a nice balance. If you know what type of enemy your going to be facing in advance, then you can pick the right characters for the job. When going up against mechs for example, you will probably want to bring someone with the Overload ability or the ability to hack the mechs and temporarily have them fight on your side.

For me though, the most impressive part of Mass Effect 2 is how the save data from the first game is carried across. The choices you made in the first game don't radically change the outcome of the story, but a lot of things are different. It makes the world feel more real and gives you more of a connection to you character, as you have directly shaped the type of person that they have become. I also really like the emails that you receive from people that you helped out in the first game, even if they were just from minor side quests. Other choices are more significant - whether or not you managed to talk down Wrex in the first game or if you had to kill him, and whether you chose to sacrifice Kaiden or Ashley will of course have an impact here. The number of variables and the amount of data that Bioware had to keep track of must have been immense, and it's incredibly impressive that they have managed to pull it off as well as they have.

Some mechs go on the rampage.

Innovation and Cleverness: 7 out of 10
I'm going to give Mass Effect 2 a pretty high score in this area simply because of the way you can bring your old character and all of your choices over. It really does make the game feel a lot more personal. Sure, other games have let you carry over save files in the past, but never to the degree seen here. The really exciting part is that we can expect even bigger things from the final part of the trilogy!

Value and Replayability: 8 out of 10
This game held my attention all the way through to the end, which amounts to roughly 30 hours of gameplay if you endeavour do find and complete every mission. I'm not one to finish RPGs all that quickly, but I had completed my first play through at the end of the second week of owning the game. I fully intend to go back and play the game as a renegade character this time, making all the opposite decisions to see how things play out.

Overall: 10 out of 10
This is the first time I've seen fit to award a game 10 out of 10 in the history of this blog (which dates back to September 2004). I have come incredibly close from time to time with games like Resident Evil 4, Dragon Quest VIII and Final Fantasy XII, but none of them engaged me to the same degree as this game. It's not completely perfect (nothing is) and RPG purists may disagree with me, but this is the conclusion I have come to. I can't wait for Mass Effect 3 to come out, but in the meantime there may be some interesting downloadable content in the future...

2010: The Year of the RPG

A couple of days ago I completed Mass Effect 2, and I'll soon be putting a full review together for it. Let's just say that it's a strong Game of the Year contender, and it's still only February! 2010 looks like it's going to be a great one for fans of RPGs, so today I will be highlighting a few of the games that I plan on playing over the coming months...

Console RPGs

Final Fantasy XIII - PS3 and Xbox 360 - 09/03/10
Let's get the obvious one out the way first. The Square-Enix cash cow continues to squirt out Final Fantasy games, but of course this one is a proper numbered entry in the series and not one of the many spin off franchises. Opinion on the Japanese version suggests that it will be a fairly linear experience - even more so than most of the previous entries, but I'm not to bothered about that as long as it still delivers a good game.

Dragon Age: Origins - Awakening - PC, PS3 and Xbox 360 - 19/03/10
Most of us had barely had time to complete Dragon Age before Bioware announced that they were going to be releasing a full disc based expansion for the game. Several trailers have been released - one showing off some new adversaries called The Children, and two more featuring brand new characters called Anders and Velanna, so it seems that we won't just be getting more of the same, but a properly expanded world.

Rune Factory Frontier - Wii - 26/03/10
The DS Harvest Moon spin off series gets transferred over to the Wii, complete with gorgeous visuals and a crapton of stuff to do. This game has been picking up awards from dedicated RPG sites such as rpgamer.com and rpgfan.com, and in a few months those of us in Europe get to find out what all the fuss is about.

Handheld RPGs

Might and Magic: Clash of Heroes - DS - 12/02/10
I've been hearing great things about this puzzle/RPG handheld, and it's good to see that it is getting a European release. You control five different characters, each with their own powers and playing style - should be hours of addictive fun for fans of the series and those who have never touched a Might and Magic game before.

Half Minute Hero - PSP - 19/02/10
An RPG with a twist - you're only given 30 seconds to find and defeat the boss! To get around this rather harsh time limit, you can pay a time fairy to reset the clock - but each time you do so it will get more expensive. All of the usual things that you have to do in normal RPGs apply here - you must level up, buy better equipment, acquire new characters for your party, journey through dungeons and of course defeat the evil overlord - all while adhering to the 30 second rule. There's a demo available on the PSN store so I recommend that PSP owners go and check the game out!

Avalon Code - DS - 12/03/10
This is the latest RPG from Matrix Software, the team that worked on the DS remakes of Final Fantasy III, IV as well as Nostalgia. The big twist with this one appears to be the ability to rewrite the stats of your weapons and enemies, as well as the rules of battle.

Pokemon: HeartGold and SoulSilver - DS - 26/03/10
Arguably the best games in the entire Pokemon saga - Gold and Silver, get remade for the DS, boasting improved graphics, extra content and more surprises. The game will come with a Pokewalker - which is basically a pedometer that levels up a pokemon of your choice as you wander around. I've yet to catch the Pokemon bug, but I'm willing to give it another try.

Import Games (currently no European release date announced)

Lunar: Silver Star Harmony - PSP - 02/03/10
Lunar is one of the most remade games that a lot of people won't have even heard of. It first appeared on the Mega CD, was completely overhauled a few years later on the PS1, then was ported to the GBA, and now here it is again on the PSP. It is a great game, but I've already played the PS1 version. I am tempted to buy the Limited Edition version... but should I really be replaying an old game (albeit with new graphics and sound) when I still have a ton of unplayed stuff I already own?

Infinite Space - DS - 16/03/10
Infinite Space sounds really intriguing - "control, build, and customise more than 150 spaceships"... "over 200 characters and the ability to control multiple spaceships at any time"... definitely one to watch and a nice change from all of the fantasy/manga inspired RPGs that populate the DS library.

There are of course many more RPGs coming out during the year that aren't listed here - this is but a taste of what we have to look forward to over the coming months. For example we know that at some point there will be not one but two Dragon Quest games - the sixth installment and the final part of the Zenithia trilogy: Realms of Reverie, and the all new 9th game in the series: Defender of the Starry Sky. Then there's another game in the Tales series - Tales of Graces for the Wii which will hopefully be localised during 2010. We also get to revisit the wastleland in Fallout: New Vegas, with Obsidian handling the development duties this time. I personally can't wait for that one as I loved Fallout 3 (though I still need to catch up on all of the DLC that was released). No doubt there will be plenty of surprises throughout the year as well - one thing is for sure, RPG fans will have plenty to do this year!

Dragon Age: Origins review

OK, I have been stalling for long enough - it is finally time for my Dragon Age: Origins review. Bioware have a track record for consistently great RPG's that I believe no other company in the business can currently match, though each one since KOTOR has become more and more focused on console style games rather than the classic D&D licensed far such as Baldur's Gate II and Neverwinter Nights where they made a name for themselves. Dragon Age is something of a return to that style of gameplay - less emphasis on action, and more on challenging, strategic battles. This review is based on the Xbox 360 version of the game, which will have an impact on the scores given.

Format: Xbox 360 (PC, PlayStation 3 also available)
Publisher: Electronic Arts
Developer: Bioware
Expect to pay: £30 - £40

Graphics: 7 out of 10
While I was in the middle of playing Dragon Age, I was hearing a lot of negative comments about the graphics from elsewhere, and I didn't really agree with most of what I was hearing at the time. However, I'm now 16 hours into Mass Effect 2 (by the same developer I must point out) and that game has highlighted just how rough Dragon Age actually looks. The list of complaints include the rather low resolution textures, the muddy brown colour palette and the plasticky looking humans, but could also include the rather clumsy GUI for the console versions of the game, compared to the tried and tested icon based point and click interface of the PC version (more on this in the Game Mechanics part of the review). Then there's the blood that sticks to your characters during a fight and stays there during conversations, which can look plain ridiculous at times. The game certainly doesn't all look bad - most of it is perfectly adequate in fact - it just looks rather last gen in the current age of extremely detailed HD visuals.

Sound and Music: 9 out of 10
Bioware have a habit of hiring some of the best voice actors in the business and then writing some great dialogue for them, and Dragon Age is no exception. Some of the more well known names amongst the cast include Kate Mulgrew (Captain Janeway from Star Trek: Voyager), and Tim Curry (villain in many films and TV shows including the killer clown from Stephen King's IT and the murderous Trymon from The Colour of Magic), and there are plenty of well established voice artists filling out the smaller roles besides. The in game music was great, but I wasn't keen on the pop rock that played over the end credits - it didn't really feel in keeping with the medieval-esque theme of the game.

Here's a typically brown shot of the game - compared to the vibrant neon graphics of Mass Effect 2, Dragon Age is somewhat lacking

Game Mechanics: 7 out of 10
First of all, let's go back to what I was saying about the interface earlier. I know certain concessions have to be made in adapting the game over to the 360 and PS3, but this was not the right way go about it - having to constantly pause the action to tell your party members to do something, and only being able to give them actions one at a time instead of queuing up two or three in advance feels like a step backwards. You can assign tactics to your NPC party members but that is a pain, and you have to spend precious skill points to be able to using them. A good example of how to do this sort of gameplay on a console is Final Fantasy XII - Bioware should have taken a look at the GUI from that game and learnt from it. Of course most of these problems will go away if you happen to play the PC version - you can switch between part members much more quickly by simply clicking on their portraits, and you have all of your characters abilities as icons along the bottom of the screen rather than having to map a few of them to button presses on the controller.

Apart from the interface, which really makes it hard to keep up with the punishing difficulty when playing the console version, the rest of the game design is as solid as ever. When creating your character you can choose between male and female, Human, Elf or Dwarf, and then Warrior, Rogue or Mage - so far so cliched - but you can also decide upon one of six origin stories, which is one of the major selling points of the game. The first few hours of the game will see these origin stories play out, and each one is significantly different to the last. They don't radically change the course of the rest of the game, but rather they effect personal quests and may introduce you to various significant plot related characters (such as Tim Curry's Arl Rendon Howe) much earlier than others.

As you level up in the usual way (completing quests and killing monsters) you earn skill points and ability points. Skills are the same for all character classes, and include things such as Stealth, Stealing, Survival (the ability to detect hostiles on the world map earlier than normal) and more. The abilities are specific to your class and there are quite a few possibilities. For example the mage could be a healer, a purely offensive mage, dabble in dark arts or have a mixture of all. If you do decide to mix and match it is likely that you will never be able to truly excel in anything however as ability points are quite scarce.

On top of the standard abilities, at certain levels you will be able to choose a specialisation for your character. These aren't just given to you as soon as you reach the required level however, they have to be earned in a variety of ways. Some of them you can simply buy in training manual form from merchants, others can be taught by your various party members once they like you enough, and others can only be learnt by taking a certain path in a request. The best example of this is Blood Mage - you have one opportunity to learn this, and if you do it will have serious ramifications with your story as blood mages are considered extremely dangerous and freaks of nature.

There are many decisions that you have to make throughout the course of the game that may just piss off one party member or another and make them leave the party altogether - in fact it's not possible to recruit every possible character in one play through unless you save just before a key decision and then go back and play things out the other way. This first time through I played as a generally good person, next time (if I can find any time to replay the game amongst the torrent of RPG's coming out this year) I will be as evil as possible. That's always the good thing about Bioware games, there are at least two different ways to play through each of there games, often more.

Having a chat, covered in gore.

Innovation and Cleverness: 7 out of 10
Innovation isn't really what Dragon Age is all about, being a return to the style of Baldur's Gate, but that's not to say that there's none to be found. Bioware continue to be the pioneer for modern multi path RPG's and the 6 different origin stories and their impact on the storyline must have taken a huge amount of time and skill to plan and execute. Then there's a section towards the end of the game which won't spoil the details of here, which is not what you would typically expect from this type of game.

Value and Replayability: 9 out of 10
Upon seeing the world map for the first time, I was a little disappointed that I couldn't roam the overworld as you can in something like Oblivion, and I thought that it didn't look like the game would last very long. My play through ended up taking about 55 hours though so you will get plenty of game to play, and of course you can start again with a different origin story and play as good/evil depending on what I you decided to do the first time through.

Overall: 8 out of 10
I was tempted to given Dragon Age a 7 out of 10 score in the light of Mass Effect 2, but it's flaws don't stop it from being a fantastic RPG. Disappointing graphics and a clumsy interface did detract from my overall enjoyment somewhat, but the character building, writing and story did keep me engaged all the way to the end. Bioware is going through a great time at the moment, and it will be interesting to see what the announced disc based expansion and the promised 2 years of DLC bring to the overall experience. In the meantime, I'm going to temporally swap my suit of armour and bow and arrow for a space suit and a really big gun. Look out for my Mass Effect 2 review soon!

Classic or Crap? Volume 1

There are hundreds, nay thousands of old games available for the classic systems, so finding a new one to play can be quite a daunting prospect. The chances of finding a duffer are fairly high. So in the first of what I hope will become a regular series, I will be taking a look at a random game and deciding whether they are classic, or crap. I realise that this is not an absolute science and there are some games that are almost worthy of classic status but a few significant flaws hold them back from greatness, so in these cases I shall weigh up the good/bad elements of the game and assign them as I see fit. If you disagree with any of my judgments then feel free to leave a comment. I also plan to shoot some footage for my YouTube channel but this will depend on whether I can get my headset to work properly. A lot of these games will also be completely new to me - the way they've been picked is by a random name selector called "The Hat". So let's take a look at the first game...

1. Little Samson - NES - Taito - 1992

The first thing that struck me about this game is how good it looks. A lot of NES games suffer from bad slowdown or flickering pixels, but not so with Little Samson. This is largely due to the game being a fairly late release in the lifespan of the system, so the developers at Taito had learned all the tricks, but this doesn't detract from the technical achievement.

Upon starting the game, you are presented with a level select screen, with each one having its own character. There's a small boy (Little Samson himself), a green dragon thing, something that looks like it could be a golem, and a tiny mouse. These can be done in any order and each character has slightly different abilities. Samson and the mouse can both cling and climb to walls, the dragon can hover short distances, and the golem is very powerful with a punch attack. Once all four of these brief levels are dealt with, it becomes clear that they are merely the tutorial to the main game - after a fairly easy scrap between Samson and the dragon, the game proper begins.

Things continue to be fairly straightforward until you reach the games first proper boss - an evil wizard guy. Bash him around a bit and he will be defeated - only to suddenly transform into something that looks like a demon. It is at this point that I was annihilated - over and over again. I must admit, I have yet to get past this boss, but I've no doubt with enough persistence and gnashing of teeth I would prevail. I can't really blame the controls of the game - they are logical, fast and responsive. All in all the game feels like a really good arcade cabinet, except it's all been done on the NES hardware. Taking a look at gameFAQs, there's plenty to do - 18 levels not including the tutorial stages. The game has yet to be released on the Wii's Virtual Console, but if it does appear I would really recommend downloading that, or failing that, seeking out the actual cartridge.

Edit: I didn't realise that you could change character at any point by pressing the Start button and choosing them, so this time I switched over to the Golem and beat the boss fairly easily. Now I might actually make some progress!

Verdict: A true classic, no doubt about it.

Sorry the picture is so out of focus in the video!

Game store numpties: a rant

While I was in town doing my weekly food shop yesterday, I decided to pop into my local branch of GAME on the off chance that they may have a copy of Final Fantasy Tactics: War of the Lions for the PSP. This is a game that I've been meaning to pick up for some time. I do own an imported Greatest Hits version of the PS1 original, but it has a shocking translation, and the PSP has all new CG cut scenes and other extra content.

Anyway, I managed to find one in the pre owned section for £10, which I thought was very reasonable, so I went to pay for it. After about 2 minutes of searching I was then told by the member of staff serving me that they couldn't find the game and therefore couldn't sell it to me. Was I interested in anything else? Um, no, just the game I went in for in the first place. Now there aren't exactly hundreds of PSP games on sale in GAME these days so it wouldn't have taken an incredibly long time to thumb through the whole draw of games to see if it was in the wrong place, but that was obviously too difficult.

This isn't the first time I have had problems with GAME. They've been unable to find the game I have tried to purchase on several occasions before this one, and back on Boxing Day they put a copy of the first Marvel Ultimate Alliance in the box instead of the sequel. Every time something like this happens I wonder why I bother to give them my money (or try to) at all. If it weren't for the fact that I have a gift card and some credit on my reward card I definitely wouldn't be buying Mass Effect 2 from them next weekend, but as it will save me half of the cost of the game it will be silly not to in this case. After that however, I think I shall be sticking to Gamestation until they disappoint me as well, then I guess I shall look exclusively to the Internet to purchase my games.