First Impressions Round Up 31/08/10 - 360 Fest

Another new month is around the corner and with it another batch of new(ish) games. I spent a bit of time over the bank holiday weekend checking out some recent Xbox 360 titles. The poor old PS3 and Wii aren’t getting much of a look in at the moment, mostly because the allure of my shiny new black 360 hasn’t worn off yet. I do have a couple of Wii games that I need to check out soon though. Without further ado let’s get to it…

Just Cause 2
I was a big fan of the original Just Cause and its blend of crazy stunts, free roaming game play and destruction, but there wasn’t really enough variety to it. The setting pretty much looked the same from one side of the archipelago to the other, and the liberation missions were extremely samey. This time though there is a much wider array of environments – from snowy mountainous areas, through tropical rainforests and deserts. There’s lots of fun to be had just exploring the world, discovering and completing all the challenges and mucking about with the physics engine. Try connecting one end of your grappling hook to a gas canister and the other to the a bad guy before shooting said canister, and watch as hilarity ensues!

Mafia 2
On the surface, both Mafia 2 and Just Cause 2 appear to be free roaming action games in the template of Grand Theft Auto, but once you actually spend a bit of time with Mafia 2 it becomes clear that it is actually a much more linear affair than the games publicity would have you believe. The city of Empire Bay is beautiful and the game is incredibly cinematic, but there is actually very little scope to go off and explore at your leisure. Even if you were to do so, you would find very few distractions throughout the city other than the odd garage where you can upgrade your car or a bar where you can get drunk. I also have concerns over the length of the game because I’ve only been playing for a couple of hours and I’m already as far as chapter 4. Let’s hope the storyline slows down a little as you get further in.

Brutal Legend
I actually picked this one up about a month ago but it’s taken this long to put it in my 360 and give it a spin, mainly because I had already played the demo and that was a fairly decent sized chunk of the game in itself. I’ve now got a bit further than that and rescued the head bangers, and I’m enjoying it so far even though the vast majority of the metal references are going straight over my head. Roaming around the over world a bit was fun, and I’ve yet to encounter the allegedly broken RTS sections.

Scott Pilgrim vs. The World: The Game
Played through the first level of this Live Arcade tie in with the Edgar Wright film. It’s a retro style scrolling beat ‘em up in the same vein as Final Fight or Streets of Rage, and it follows the plot of the film/graphic novels pretty faithfully. The levels do seem to be a little on the lengthy side so I was starting to get a little fatigued by the time I encountered the first boss, but the game does support up to 4 players in local co-op play which would be great fun. Alas though, I was playing it on my own which feels a little dull.

Puzzle Quest 2
The extremely addictive puzzle/RPG hybrid game returns with even stronger RPG elements than before. There are lengthy dungeons to explore and many side quests to be found, as well as new treasure looting and door bashing mini games which add a little variety to the main puzzle mechanics. Equipable weapons have been added as another way of doing damage to your adversaries in addition to the skulls and spells that were present in the first game, and there is plenty of game to be found here for your 800 points.

That’s it for this round up – the promised Alan Wake and DeathSpank reviews are on the way, and one for Dragon Quest IX may not be too far behind. I'm also waiting for another trio of GameSpite books so I may have a thing or two to say about them once they arrive and I have consumed them.

Red Faction: Guerrilla review

The Red Faction series has been around for quite some time now, having made its debut on the PS2 back in 2001. It is famed for its "GeoMod" system, which allowed for realistic destruction of buildings and environments. Now, this is the first time I've actually played an entry in the series, but from what I hear, the original GeoMod was by no means perfect as it only let you destroy preset parts of the environment. Things were improved slightly for the sequel, and now for Guerrilla we have GeoMod 2.0. Instead of letting you blow chunks out of the entire environment, you are limited to being able to destroy man made structures, but this isn't a huge problem as Volition have crafted a sprawling open ended playground for you to smash into pieces. Without further ado, let's get stuck into the main part of the review.

Format: Xbox 360, (also available for PS3 & PC)
Publisher: THQ
Developer: Volition Inc.
Expect to pay: £10 - £20

Graphics: 8 out of 10
Visually Red Faction: Guerrilla is extremely solid, with big chunky vehicles, large environments that flow into one another without any loading times, and a frame rate that for the most part remains stable (only showing signs of slowdown when there is extreme amounts of carnage going on). Thanks to the fact that the various districts of Mars are at differing stages of being terraformed, Volition are able to avoid everything simply looking red or brown. Granted, the first few environments you find yourself exploring look like something taken directly from Total Recall, but later on you find yourself in the the slightly greener environs of Oasis, and later still the dark and oppressive surroundings of Eos, where the evil Earth Defence Force are based. The vehicles range from sturdy looking trucks, through buggies, recreational vehicles that look a bit like the Johnny Cab from the aforementioned Arnie film, huge tanks, and robotic walkers that are immensely satisfying to pilot and smash things to bits with.

Sound and Music: 9 out of 10
First of all, I absolutely love the music in this game. During downtime within your base or just travelling to your next district of devastation, the music is very serene and somewhat melancholy. Once you start ripping things apart though, the tempo increases to match and it really gets the blood pumping as you raze buildings to the ground. The various weapons sound suitably meaty, and the vehicular emanations reflect the typing of transport you're driving - so electronic whirring from some space age looking hatchback, and a deep rumbling from a behemoth tank. As for the voice acting, I would say it is solidly done but not in danger of winning any acting awards. The most recognisable voice is probably that of Michael McConnohie, who plays the Commander. Fans of Crackdown will most definitely recognise him, and he's been in dozens of other games too. It was absolutely no surprise to see Nolan North and Yuri Lowenthal among the cast list too, as they seemingly sign up for any VO job they're offered - though I'd be hard pressed to identify them as specific characters this time around.

Vehicles are not only useful for getting to A to B - they are also a great source of protection from bullets, especially when the area is swarming with enemies.

Game Mechanics: 7 out of 10
The basic structure of the game goes like this: you are given a new area of Mars to explore. The EDF are in control of this area and you need to take over, by completing Guerrilla Actions (more on this in a minute), destroying EDF property of varying importance, and completing missions that comprise part of the main storyline. The the Guerrilla Actions include Transporter (driving a vehicle back to a safe house within a time limit), raids on EDF buildings, protecting an area from an EDF incursion, House Arrest (breaking fellow faction members out of imprisonment), Demolitions Expert (blowing stuff up against the clock and with limited resources), and my personal favourites - Heavy Metal (causing wanton destruction in a big stompy robot exoskeleton), and Collateral Damage, where you man a rocket launcher on the back of a bike driven by a nutcase, and have to destroy as much EDF property as you can. Successful completion of these actions lowers the influence of the EDF on that sector, and increases the morale of the Red Faction. Before you are able to liberate an area completely, the EDF influence must be reduced to zero. Then you can take part in the liberation mission (having completed the proceeding story based missions as well), and access to the next area is granted where the whole process starts again.

The reason I have only given the game a 7 in this area is because of the controls. These days, you would expect a shoot em up to follow the majority of other games in the genre and have the zoom/iron sight mode on the left trigger, but for some reason Red Faction: Guerrilla has this mapped to clicking in the right stick and the left trigger is melee attack. Even late in the game, I would go to zoom in on an enemy and instead flail at thin air. I did check out the options menu to see if I could remap the controls, but unfortunately not. On normal difficulty, the game can be quite tough, as enemies can swarm you and take down your health incredibly quickly. I was dying all over the place, and eventually switched to Casual, having a much more enjoyable time as a result.

Freeing an area of Mars locks you out from completing particular types of Guerrilla Action if you haven't done so already, but fear not, once you finish the last story mission they will all become available to you, thus allowing you to get the Achievement for completing all 104 of them should you choose to do so. I should also mention that completing missions and destroying buildings grants you salvage, which is the currency that you can use to buy new weapons, shields and other useful items throughout the campaign. In the early stages of the game I found the sticky mines incredibly useful, and later on the rocket launcher upgraded with its heat seeking ability was a godsend. You can also buy a jet pack at a quite advanced stage in the campaign, which is another extremely useful little gadget for getting in and out of trouble.

As well as the single player campaign there is also a multi player mode. However, I've yet to experience this and unfortunately I doubt I ever will as it seems that nobody plays the game on the Xbox Live servers any more. PC owners should still be able to find somebody to play with, and I hear it is actually a pretty good multi player mode. It's a shame that a good half of the Xbox Achievements are based around the multi player though as there's not much chance of unlocking them now.

Innovation and Cleverness: 7 out of 10
Taken separately, sandbox games and third person shooters are of course nothing new. But by combining them together will the Martian setting and unprecedented amounts of destruction and mayhem, you have something rather special on your hands.

Value and Replayability: 8 out of 10
Some reviewers think that we shouldn't take the cost of a game into consideration when critiquing it, and fair enough - but this blog speaks for real people who can't afford to buy every major release as soon as it comes out, so I feel taking the current market value of a game into consideration at the time the review is written is a valid thing to do. In this case, you can now pick up Red Faction: Guerrilla on its own for about £13, or as part of a 2 for £20 deal in the major retailers. Might I suggest Batman: Arkham Asylum as a possible companion to this game if you don't own it already? Two of the finest action games of 2009 for £20 is a real bargain.

The single player campaign didn't really take very long for me to finish - I'd estimate about 20 hours maximum. I must stress however that so far I've only completed 50 of the Guerrilla Actions - it would take a decent chunk of time to go back and do the other 54. I definitely feel that I've got decent value for money out of the game.

Overall: 8 out of 10
Red Faction: Guerrilla is a fun, chaotic, cathartic, yet sometimes frustrating trip to the planet Mars, well worth seeking out for those who love to blow things to smithereens. A follow up, Armageddon, has already been announced, and it would appear that it is shifting things back to a more linear structure, and also adding aliens to the mix. I have concerns about this because it means the game is in danger of becoming just another marines vs aliens shoot em up, and we've already go plenty of those. I'll reserve judgment until the final game appears though.

Need for Speed: Shift review

I picked up Need for Speed: Shift back in the middle of December with some of my birthday money, and it has taken until now to reach level 50 and complete the World Championship. I did stop for a while though and also took a slight detour away from the main campaign to play the Ferrari and Exotic DLC packs, which I will also incorporate into this review. Whilst I have quite enjoyed some of the recent NFS games such as Most Wanted and Carbon, I wasn't that keen on the Underground games or Pro Street, so this break away from illegal street races and the modding scene was quite refreshing.

Format: Xbox 360 (also available for PS3)
Publisher: EA
Developer: Slightly Mad Studios
Expect to pay: £20 - £25

Graphics: 9 out of 10
As you would hope and expect from a game with the word Speed in the title, Need for Speed: Shift feels convincingly fast, more so that Forza Motorsport 3 in fact. When you first get into some of the more powerful cars in the game, you may (or at least I did) struggle to stay on the track as the corners leap up on you with alarming velocity. The game also looks very pretty all round, with a stable frame rate, excellent in car view and well designed user interface. You are constantly getting feedback from the game as you earn stars, unlock badges and gain levels (more on this later), enticing you to play on just a bit more. There are also some great tracks in the game, based on real world circuits and cities, such as Spa, Brands Hatch, Road America and a London River track.

Sound and Music: 7 out of 10
I'm no expert on how one car should sound compared to another but the engine noises all sounded distinct and convincing to me. By default, the licenced soundtrack is turned off but after a while I decided to switch it on and give it a listen. Firstly, the choice of music isn't really to my tastes (it's quite hippity hop orientated), and secondly there isn't really a lot of it, so you'll be hearing the same tracks over and over again very frequently. In the end I preferred to play my own music that I'd ripped to the hard drive of my 360.

Racing around the London track, one of my favourites.

Game Mechanics: 8 out of 10
Firstly, how does the game feel? It's not quite as realistic as the Forza Motorsport or Gran Turismo series, yet not as arcadey as PGR. The closest comparison I can make is Race Driver: GRID - you can't just throw the cars around the corner, but things feels ever so slightly exaggerated.

The main career mode of the game is split into 4 Tiers of events, followed by the World Championship. There are quite a lot sub events within each tier, which fall under various types: standard races, hot lap events (beating set times), time attack (getting the fastest lap within a set time limit), knockout, drift (my least favourite), Endurance, and series of 3-5 events. In order to progress to the next tier, you must earn a certain amount of stars, which are given out for podium finishes, earning certain amounts of profile points during races, and various bonus objectives such as beating a certain lap time, staying on the racing line or for a clean race.

You earn these aforementioned profile points by carrying out certain manoeuvres during a race, split into two categories: precision and aggression. Precision includes such things as clean overtakes, driving on the racing line, etc, whereas aggression points are awarded for bumping into your opponents, drafting them and sliding around corners for example. These profile points also act as a form of experience, and as you reach certain totals you will level up. Levelling up brings with it various awards, such as extra sponsorship money, more garage slots or the ability to take part in many different Invitational Events. Whether you're a precise or aggressive driver will influence the order in which this Invitational Events are unlocked, so if you fall within the Precision category you will be more likely to be invited to time trial events, whereas if you fall under the Aggression banner you will get knockout and drift events.

Making you reach certain star thresholds in order to progress through the career is all well and good, but there are so many Invitational Events on offer that you will probably have unlocked access to the World Championship way before you've finished with the other tiers. This initially caused me to lose interest in the game but eventually I came back, and I'm glad I did because taking part in the events is fun in and of itself (apart from the Drift events which I detest - not because they're bad, but because I'm not very good at them and don't find them fun). Now, on top of all these things there are badges, awarded for achieving various milestones within the game - such as driving a certain distance in a European car, mastering all the corners of a track, or pulling off a particular number of perfect starts (when the shift indicator is green). The badges come in various flavours - Bronze, Silver, Gold, and Epic - you earn certain amounts of them you will also unlock achievements/trophies. I was still earning badges right towards the end of the game.

If you just play through the main game without going online, then you probably won't hit level 50 by the time you've done all the events. If you decide to purchase the two DLC packs though, there's plenty to see you through all the way to the level cap, and some nice achievement points for bothering to do so. As for the packs themselves, both of them offer decent value for money for 800 points apiece, and playing through them will take a fair old while. The Exotic pack is ever so slightly longer and offers a set of new tracks (one of them being a version of the Monaco Grand Prix circuit), but both packs feature a set of new cars.

Innovation and Cleverness: 6 out 10
While it is hard to truly innovate in a racing game these days, or one grounded in reality at least, the stars, experience and badges and attractive design of the interface help give Need for Speed: Shift a style and flavour of its own.

Value and Replayability: 7 out of 10
The career mode will take you a decent chunk of time - it took me many many hours of playing hit level 50 and get to the end of the game, and I haven't even done absolutely everything (I still need to go back and do most of the Endurance events, as I never seem to have the time to devote to them). Those who want to squeeze the game for all of its achievement points will have to earn every star on offer in the game, and get every single Epic badge - which is no small task let me tell you. Since the game was released the price has fallen quite a bit, so you can now pick up the Limited Edition version for £23. If you love your driving games, it's well worth the money.

Overall: 8 out of 10
Need of Speed: Shift is an extremely solid, highly polished game. For petrol heads, it's not quite in the same league as Forza Motorsport 3, but it's a pretty close call. If you have already finished Turn 10/Microsoft's game and you want some more racing action, then definitely give this one a look.

Top 5 Announcements from E3 2010

Here it is, my list of what I consider to be the most exciting announcements to come out of last weeks Electronic Entertainment Expo. I'm only focusing on stuff that we didn't know about before E3 happened, although I will be including a short list of other stuff that I'm interested in afterwards.

5. Driver: San Francisco
I know the Driver franchise has fallen out of the public eye thanks to the buggy and decidedly average Driv3r (despite having several decent enough games since), but I really enjoyed the first two games back on the PS1. The series seems to be returning to its roots, with Tanner being reinstated as the main character. The developers are promising that the handling will still feel like the Driver that we know and love, and hopefully they will deliver a solid, entertaining game that will help turn the fortunes of the franchise around.

4. Kirby's Epic Yarn
Just one of several good looking platform games coming to the Nintendo Wii (see also Donkey Kong Country Returns and Epic Mickey). What really sets this one apart is the art style, as the backgrounds look like made of fabric and the characters out of string. Reminds me a little of Paper Mario, except you know, with knitting instead of paper. There appears to be solidly designed platform game behind this visual gimmick though, making this one to watch out for.

3. Back to the Future and Jurrasic Park game franchises from Telltale
This was actually unveiled a few days before E3 began on the Telltale web site, but I think it's fair to include it here. They have managed to secure a deal with NBC Universal to produce two episodic game series based on these much loved film properties. I would imagine that they will be within the graphic adventure genre as that is where Telltale excel, but I could be wrong...

2. The Nintendo 3DS
This has of course been rumoured for several months now but now Nintendo has officially unveiled the next iteration of its DS hardware. Rather than being just a minor upgrade like the DS Lite and DSi, this is a brand new console. The main selling point is of course the stereoscopic upper screen that allows you to play games and watch films in 3D without the need for glasse, but the console will also feature motion and gyro sensors, an analogue swipe pad, improved graphical and processing capabilities, two cameras on the front to allow you to take 3D photographs and perhaps most importantly full backwards compatability with all of the old DS cartridges.

There have been some very exciting game announcements for the platform already, including: Kid Icarus Uprising, Resident Evil, Metal Gear Solid, Super Street Fighter IV, Saints Row, Mario Kart, Paper Mario, Professor Layton, Kingdom Hearts, Dragon Quest, Final Fantasy and Assassin's Creed. For the complete list, click here.

1. Child of Eden
Many of my favourite games of the last decade were thought up by one man: Tetsuya Mizuguchi. Space Channel 5 Parts 1 and 2, Lumines, Every Extend Extra and of course, Rez. All of these games share something in common: they fuze music, graphics and game play together so that each part is important as the other. Child of Eden is his next project, and is a spiritual sucessor to Rez. It looks and feels very similar from what I've seen so far, and promises to make full use of the Microsoft Kinect camera to immerse you within the game. I can't wait to get ahold of it sometime during 2011 - in the meantime I'll just have to make to with replaying Rez yet again!

Also of note:

• Donkey Kong Country Returns (Wii)
• Epic Mickey (Wii)
• Fable 3 (Xbox 360)
• Fallout: New Vegas (Xbox 360, PS3, PC)
• Zelda: Skyward Sword (Wii)
• The Old Republic (PC)
  

and many, many more...

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.