Imagine if you will…you had 5 games individually, normally costing $60 each, you’d end up having to pay upwards of $300 for the things. However, Valve Software did something very smart when they released the Orange Box. The Orange Box includes Half Life 2, and the two subsequent expansions, titled ‘Part 1 and Part 2’ respectfully. In addition, two new games, multiplayer only shooter ‘Team Fortress 2’ and fascinating puzzle game ‘Portal’
The Half Life 2 games all continue the story that was put out in the original Half-Life, released in 1999, now the cities are under authoritarian rule and people are living in fear of the government, not sure what is going to happen during the day. As Gordon Freeman, you are trying to take down this government and restore a sense of importance to the normal people. There is one weapon that you get in the game that you will probably not put down once you receive it, and that’s the Gravity gun…what kind of ammo does it use? Just about anything that you can find. Enough said.
Team Fortress 2 uses the same engine as Half Life 2 and is Valve’s own multiplayer shooter. You can choose from being a sniper, to a heavy gunman, to even being a spy. The game is a favorite on Xbox Live and the Playstation network since its release, and Valve has even made their own set of humorous videos that introduce the various classes.
Portal is the game that the famous line ‘The Cake is a Lie’ comes from. Its primarily a puzzle game where you are trying to figure out how to reach the end of each of these areas using all sorts of portals and gravity tricks. Very challenging puzzles are rewarding in the end when you do find the cake after so many struggles and challenges.
For now less than $30, there’s not a better deal on the market for video games than this collection. Go and get this…whether its for PC, for the 360 or the PS3, just go get it.
Wednesday, December 2, 2009
Call of Duty 4: Reviving the War Shooter
Activision and Infinity Ward’s Call of Duty franchise produced two fantastic World War II shooters for not only the PC, but also for the Playstation 2 and Xbox 360. After the second game, Infinity Ward decided that a change in scenery was needed for the next game. Treyarch handled development of Call of Duty 3, which again took place during World War II. But then all of a sudden, we were treated to this.
A shooter that was going to take place in modern day was going to be coming for our systems. The runup to the game was enormous and soon enough the game was released and the praise was funneled directly to it. To put it straight, Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare has to be on the shortlist of greatest shooters of all time.
You start in the game as “Soap” Mactavish of the SAS, as they go to get information on a possible nuclear device that gets lost when the ship is sunk. Then you take control of Marine Paul Jackson, looking to take down the terrorist leader in the Middle East (No not Bin Laden). You go through a rather abbreviated, yet compelling campaign mode where you are trying to prevent Russian Ultranationalists from doing damage to America.
But the meat of CoD4 is in the multiplayer, which while challenging, is MUCH MUCH MUCH fairer than a certain other popular Xbox 360 shooter. There may be some glitches that some folks have exploited, but overall it’s a better experience than Halo or other multiplayer games where if you know one trick you’re good to go.
The first impression you get from Call of Duty 4 is with the graphics, and they look stunning. Everything is rendered beautifully in high definition and the details of so many things, you can’t help but be impressed with graphics, even if they aren’t the first thing you look at. The sound design of the explosions, the bullets whizzing around and the banter only adds to the intensity of the situations that you are in. In addition, the controls are simple to use and aren’t over complicated by anything that goes on.
The bottom line, if you haven’t already played this one, go get it and play it through before getting the sequel, which I will review at another time.
A shooter that was going to take place in modern day was going to be coming for our systems. The runup to the game was enormous and soon enough the game was released and the praise was funneled directly to it. To put it straight, Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare has to be on the shortlist of greatest shooters of all time.
You start in the game as “Soap” Mactavish of the SAS, as they go to get information on a possible nuclear device that gets lost when the ship is sunk. Then you take control of Marine Paul Jackson, looking to take down the terrorist leader in the Middle East (No not Bin Laden). You go through a rather abbreviated, yet compelling campaign mode where you are trying to prevent Russian Ultranationalists from doing damage to America.
But the meat of CoD4 is in the multiplayer, which while challenging, is MUCH MUCH MUCH fairer than a certain other popular Xbox 360 shooter. There may be some glitches that some folks have exploited, but overall it’s a better experience than Halo or other multiplayer games where if you know one trick you’re good to go.
The first impression you get from Call of Duty 4 is with the graphics, and they look stunning. Everything is rendered beautifully in high definition and the details of so many things, you can’t help but be impressed with graphics, even if they aren’t the first thing you look at. The sound design of the explosions, the bullets whizzing around and the banter only adds to the intensity of the situations that you are in. In addition, the controls are simple to use and aren’t over complicated by anything that goes on.
The bottom line, if you haven’t already played this one, go get it and play it through before getting the sequel, which I will review at another time.
Tales of Symphonia, a forgotten RPG for the Gamecube
The Nintendo Gamecube is the game console that unfortunately is sandwiched in between two very successful consoles for Nintendo, The Nintendo 64 and the Wii. The Gamecube was not as successful as either of these two systems and was set back in the console race that was created in that time with the Cube going against the Playstation 2 by Sony and the Microsoft Xbox. While the Gamecube is not remembered as well from the previous generation, there were still an amount of good games for the system, and not all of them were games that were made by Nintendo.
Tales of Symphonia is such a game, released in the US by Namco in 2005, it is an installment in Namco’s ‘Tales’ RPG franchise, much like how Square Enix has the ‘Final Fantasy’ series. Tales of Symphonia takes place in a fantasy setting where there is a group of people called Desians that enslave humans in order to harvest mana, the world’s life force that is steadily dwindling. Therefore, someone goes on a journey to replenish the Mana to the world. Enter the characters that you will be playing for most of the game. Lloyd Irving is a human living in a small rural village along with his friends, Genis Sage who lives in the village with his sister Raine, who is also the town’s school teacher. And Colette Brunel, who is revealed to be what is called ‘The Chosen of Mana’ and it is she that must go on the pilgrimage to restore the mana to the world. However, the events of the game all play through Lloyd’s perspective. The story itself takes a small bit of time to get going, as is usually the case with many Japanese RPGs, but once the plot is in motion, it doesn’t stop at all.
The battle system of ‘Symphonia’ is what makes this game unique, unlike most Japanese RPGs where the characters battle in a turn-based system, ‘Symphonia’ is real time. You take control of the characters and move them around a preset battle field and attack the enemies and cast spells all in real time. The battles get very frenetic at some points, but you always have good control over your character and can customize what you want your battle mates to do while in the heat of battle. The graphics in this game are decent, but the character designs are what give it that feel. The designs of the characters were done by Japanese Manga artist Kosuke Fujishima, who is probably well known, for those who have read it, for the ‘Ah! My Goddess’ manga that has been running since 1989 in Japan.
Overall, if you haven’t played this game yet and you have a Wii, go ahead and search out for a copy and try this out, this game should be a pleaser.
Tales of Symphonia is such a game, released in the US by Namco in 2005, it is an installment in Namco’s ‘Tales’ RPG franchise, much like how Square Enix has the ‘Final Fantasy’ series. Tales of Symphonia takes place in a fantasy setting where there is a group of people called Desians that enslave humans in order to harvest mana, the world’s life force that is steadily dwindling. Therefore, someone goes on a journey to replenish the Mana to the world. Enter the characters that you will be playing for most of the game. Lloyd Irving is a human living in a small rural village along with his friends, Genis Sage who lives in the village with his sister Raine, who is also the town’s school teacher. And Colette Brunel, who is revealed to be what is called ‘The Chosen of Mana’ and it is she that must go on the pilgrimage to restore the mana to the world. However, the events of the game all play through Lloyd’s perspective. The story itself takes a small bit of time to get going, as is usually the case with many Japanese RPGs, but once the plot is in motion, it doesn’t stop at all.
The battle system of ‘Symphonia’ is what makes this game unique, unlike most Japanese RPGs where the characters battle in a turn-based system, ‘Symphonia’ is real time. You take control of the characters and move them around a preset battle field and attack the enemies and cast spells all in real time. The battles get very frenetic at some points, but you always have good control over your character and can customize what you want your battle mates to do while in the heat of battle. The graphics in this game are decent, but the character designs are what give it that feel. The designs of the characters were done by Japanese Manga artist Kosuke Fujishima, who is probably well known, for those who have read it, for the ‘Ah! My Goddess’ manga that has been running since 1989 in Japan.
Overall, if you haven’t played this game yet and you have a Wii, go ahead and search out for a copy and try this out, this game should be a pleaser.
Monday, October 5, 2009
Brutal Legend...there will be metal!
Tim Schaefer has been a widely regarded and critically acclaimed game designer for his work on games such as Hell on Wheels, Grim Fandango and Psychonauts. What is unfortunate is that ever since he had left Lucasarts, he has not had a game that one could probably call a commercial success. However, his newest game ‘Brütal Legend’ set for release October 13th.
The game focuses on the world’s best roadie, Eddie Riggs. One night after an accident at a “heavy metal” (the music the band that he works for plays is hardly heavy metal at all) He gets transported to some odd fantasy world. The opening scene is embedded below, censored for your protection.
The story will be revealed as you go along in the game, but I don’t want to focus on that right now, what I DO want to focus on is what my impressions were playing the Demo that was made available on Xbox Live. To put it bluntly, at its core, Brutal Legend is a hack and slash game, and plus there was a pretty cool driving stage with it as well.
While that may not seem too original at first, the environment that it takes place in as well as the performance of actor/Tenacious D frontman Jack Black make this game one of the most intriguing games coming out this fall. The control of the game is very responsive and easy to pick up and just start slashing up whatever enemies there are.
What also should be mentioned…is the MASSIVE metal soundtrack being offered in this game, bands such as Black Sabbath, Def Leppard, Dragonforce, and Dethklok all have songs that will be on the soundtrack of the game.
So in all if you want a new spin on a hack and slash game, check out Brutal Legend when it comes out on October 13.
The game focuses on the world’s best roadie, Eddie Riggs. One night after an accident at a “heavy metal” (the music the band that he works for plays is hardly heavy metal at all) He gets transported to some odd fantasy world. The opening scene is embedded below, censored for your protection.
The story will be revealed as you go along in the game, but I don’t want to focus on that right now, what I DO want to focus on is what my impressions were playing the Demo that was made available on Xbox Live. To put it bluntly, at its core, Brutal Legend is a hack and slash game, and plus there was a pretty cool driving stage with it as well.
While that may not seem too original at first, the environment that it takes place in as well as the performance of actor/Tenacious D frontman Jack Black make this game one of the most intriguing games coming out this fall. The control of the game is very responsive and easy to pick up and just start slashing up whatever enemies there are.
What also should be mentioned…is the MASSIVE metal soundtrack being offered in this game, bands such as Black Sabbath, Def Leppard, Dragonforce, and Dethklok all have songs that will be on the soundtrack of the game.
So in all if you want a new spin on a hack and slash game, check out Brutal Legend when it comes out on October 13.
Monday, September 14, 2009
Bigger Than Jesus? Apparently not in the UK
Hard enough to believe that the country that gave us the Beatles, couldn't even keep the brand new 'Rock Band' game that offers a near complete catalog for the Beatles did not beat out Guitar Hero 5 in the United Kingdom....odd yes...but its the truth.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
