By Mark / 2010-09-01 20:55:44First impressions: "Wow! I can actually read the on-screen text!" Chalk one up for Dead Rising 2 being an improved sequel.
Dead Rising 2: Case Zero is the much-publicised 'playable prologue' to Dead Rising's forthcoming full-fledged sequel, seeking to bridge the storyline gap between the two games- explaining how lead character Chuck Greene comes to find himself in the Zombie-infested Las Vegasalike Fortune City.
It explains it by putting Chuck- and his daughter- in Still Creek, a small town near to Fortune City, trying to find out exactly what it is behind the zombie outbreak which has taken his wife and infected his daughter. As he stops for gas, he sees his truck, and his supply of zombie antidote Zombrex, stolen, stranding the pair of them as the zombie hordes close in.
It is at this point that we are launched straight into the game, and immediately back into familiar DR territory, an open world full of shambling undead, terrified survivors and random objects to pick up and fling at them. And the most important feature of Dead Rising, nice pink dresses to put your big, hairy bloke of a player character in.
For the most part, the return of all this is welcome, and comes with a few changes- for a start, three save slots replace the solitary slot from the first game, for most a welcome change, but one that arguably undermines the time management element of the first title, a seemingly needless move considering that Case Zero is played over a significantly shorter length of time. Another helpful streamlining feature is that it is now possible to attack zombies while carrying a survivor, rather than having to put the survivor down, wait for the animation to play out, attack the zombie, go back to the survivor, pick them back up, and then wait for that animation to play out before you could get back to actually playing the game.
The biggest change is the inclusion of 'combo weapons', where certain weapons can be taped together to create a more powerful one- although only in certain locations, and to a guitar soundtrack that would embarrass an A-Team montage. Otis is also gone, and in his place is Bob, a store owner who stands on a roof and will wave at you until you respond to his call, rather than call you on a walkie-talkie and ignore you if you don't respond in time, which is a much better way of handling the survivors.
Fundamentally, however, the game plays much the same as its predecessor, which allows us to concentrate more on the game's form.
Rather than being a traditional 'demo', as such, Case Zero takes the form of a short, self contained game with a definite ending, rather than just tailing off into what would otherwise be "The Rest Of The Game". It also comes with a price tag of 400 MSP, or about £3.40.
Taken on its own as an 'episode' of Dead Rising, the title stands up, and I can see myself enjoying five or six of these, released periodically, just as much as a full length, retail Dead Rising. Knowing that there's a full length, retail Dead Rising on the way, however, leaves a nasty taste in the mouth since you've paid for what is ultimately a demo, and even at its low price can seem to be a way of gouging players, especially score whores who want another 200 gamerscore, which could become a worrying trend should less scrupulous publishers decide this game is a success.
Also, despite its completeness, its brevity causes it to lack the same sense of scale that the first game did, and the chaos that ensued when having to make a decision between continuing with the survivors you are already on the way to save, taking the survivors following you somewhere safe, or firefighting newly-discovered survivors.
So long as this game remains separate content, and not part of the game proper, Case Zero is definitely worth your time, and makes a nice starter for the main course due later this month.
Dead Rising 2: Case Zero is the much-publicised 'playable prologue' to Dead Rising's forthcoming full-fledged sequel, seeking to bridge the storyline gap between the two games- explaining how lead character Chuck Greene comes to find himself in the Zombie-infested Las Vegasalike Fortune City.
It explains it by putting Chuck- and his daughter- in Still Creek, a small town near to Fortune City, trying to find out exactly what it is behind the zombie outbreak which has taken his wife and infected his daughter. As he stops for gas, he sees his truck, and his supply of zombie antidote Zombrex, stolen, stranding the pair of them as the zombie hordes close in.
It is at this point that we are launched straight into the game, and immediately back into familiar DR territory, an open world full of shambling undead, terrified survivors and random objects to pick up and fling at them. And the most important feature of Dead Rising, nice pink dresses to put your big, hairy bloke of a player character in.
For the most part, the return of all this is welcome, and comes with a few changes- for a start, three save slots replace the solitary slot from the first game, for most a welcome change, but one that arguably undermines the time management element of the first title, a seemingly needless move considering that Case Zero is played over a significantly shorter length of time. Another helpful streamlining feature is that it is now possible to attack zombies while carrying a survivor, rather than having to put the survivor down, wait for the animation to play out, attack the zombie, go back to the survivor, pick them back up, and then wait for that animation to play out before you could get back to actually playing the game.
The biggest change is the inclusion of 'combo weapons', where certain weapons can be taped together to create a more powerful one- although only in certain locations, and to a guitar soundtrack that would embarrass an A-Team montage. Otis is also gone, and in his place is Bob, a store owner who stands on a roof and will wave at you until you respond to his call, rather than call you on a walkie-talkie and ignore you if you don't respond in time, which is a much better way of handling the survivors.
Fundamentally, however, the game plays much the same as its predecessor, which allows us to concentrate more on the game's form.
Rather than being a traditional 'demo', as such, Case Zero takes the form of a short, self contained game with a definite ending, rather than just tailing off into what would otherwise be "The Rest Of The Game". It also comes with a price tag of 400 MSP, or about £3.40.
Taken on its own as an 'episode' of Dead Rising, the title stands up, and I can see myself enjoying five or six of these, released periodically, just as much as a full length, retail Dead Rising. Knowing that there's a full length, retail Dead Rising on the way, however, leaves a nasty taste in the mouth since you've paid for what is ultimately a demo, and even at its low price can seem to be a way of gouging players, especially score whores who want another 200 gamerscore, which could become a worrying trend should less scrupulous publishers decide this game is a success.
Also, despite its completeness, its brevity causes it to lack the same sense of scale that the first game did, and the chaos that ensued when having to make a decision between continuing with the survivors you are already on the way to save, taking the survivors following you somewhere safe, or firefighting newly-discovered survivors.
So long as this game remains separate content, and not part of the game proper, Case Zero is definitely worth your time, and makes a nice starter for the main course due later this month.
By Duane / 2010-08-31 06:02:26It's sometimes amusing how one poor entry into a well liked series can seriously hamper the success of any future releases. There's no denying that despite some strong releases in the franchise, Tomb Raider is still struggling to shake off the shackles of 2003's Lara Croft Tomb Raider: The Angel of Darkness.
Releasing a download title via the means of XBox Live Arcade (and soon PSN and PC) appears to be a reaction to this on the surface of things, but its only when you get your hands on the game you realise that Crystal Dynamics have possibly done so as a means to try out something completely new with the previous First Lady of Gaming. What we have here is a really strange mash-up of Tomb Raider, Geometry Wars and Torchlight, which on the surface sounds like a recipe for disaster.
I'll break it all down for you. The game is played from an isometric camera, which gives it that Torchlight feel, as does its graphical style. Both are really well done and very rarely does any scenery get in the way of your view of the landscape, the camera is pulled out just enough to provide you with enough space to aim at any creatures and enemies that may come your way. This is where we come to the games aiming. Using the left stick to move, you use the right stick to aim and have full 360 degree control of where Croft points her weapons, which has fantastic animation I might add. Holding down the Right Trigger will result in Lara opening fire on whatever is in line with the direction she's pointing her guns in, so that covers Geometry Wars. Classic Tomb Raider comes in the shape of the games visual appearance, which returns to the traditional sandy coloured tombs, and the puzzles, which rely heavily on switch activation (of varying kinds).
Crystal Dynamics have also strived to include an aspect of meta-gaming with in Guardian of Light. Rather than just rely on the Achievements for this, there's all sorts of things to collect in levels that unlock upgrades and weapons for you to use throughout the game. Keeping in line with the Geometry Wars feel to the game there's an element of score attack too, complete with leaderboards, and with co-operative multiplayer (which at the time of writing is limited to local co-op only, but will be online once the PS3 and PC versions are released, something to do with Microsoft wanting timed exclusivity getting in the way of utilising the games netcode or something), there's something here for everyone. Weighing in at 1200 MARPS (£10.20), the price may put people off, luckily the demo is quite sizeable and gives you a fair idea of wether or not you'll enjoy the rest of the game or not. But in my opinion, this is one of the better Tomb Raider games in the entire series.
Releasing a download title via the means of XBox Live Arcade (and soon PSN and PC) appears to be a reaction to this on the surface of things, but its only when you get your hands on the game you realise that Crystal Dynamics have possibly done so as a means to try out something completely new with the previous First Lady of Gaming. What we have here is a really strange mash-up of Tomb Raider, Geometry Wars and Torchlight, which on the surface sounds like a recipe for disaster.
I'll break it all down for you. The game is played from an isometric camera, which gives it that Torchlight feel, as does its graphical style. Both are really well done and very rarely does any scenery get in the way of your view of the landscape, the camera is pulled out just enough to provide you with enough space to aim at any creatures and enemies that may come your way. This is where we come to the games aiming. Using the left stick to move, you use the right stick to aim and have full 360 degree control of where Croft points her weapons, which has fantastic animation I might add. Holding down the Right Trigger will result in Lara opening fire on whatever is in line with the direction she's pointing her guns in, so that covers Geometry Wars. Classic Tomb Raider comes in the shape of the games visual appearance, which returns to the traditional sandy coloured tombs, and the puzzles, which rely heavily on switch activation (of varying kinds).
Crystal Dynamics have also strived to include an aspect of meta-gaming with in Guardian of Light. Rather than just rely on the Achievements for this, there's all sorts of things to collect in levels that unlock upgrades and weapons for you to use throughout the game. Keeping in line with the Geometry Wars feel to the game there's an element of score attack too, complete with leaderboards, and with co-operative multiplayer (which at the time of writing is limited to local co-op only, but will be online once the PS3 and PC versions are released, something to do with Microsoft wanting timed exclusivity getting in the way of utilising the games netcode or something), there's something here for everyone. Weighing in at 1200 MARPS (£10.20), the price may put people off, luckily the demo is quite sizeable and gives you a fair idea of wether or not you'll enjoy the rest of the game or not. But in my opinion, this is one of the better Tomb Raider games in the entire series.
By Ben / 2010-07-21 18:45:44Marco!
Metal Slug has had a bit of mixed history. The first game was incredible, certainly one of my favourite ever, but if ever a game series epitomises diminishing returns, then SNK’s blaster is it. The problem has always been that it started out as a concise, challenging shooter, but over the years got more and more stuff piled on top of it. Things got a bit better with 6 , stripping back and creating a much shorter game.
XX follows a similar blueprint, aliens take a back seat, you stay on earth, and there’s only a few Metal Slug variants. There’s even a considered ‘easy’ mode, which hands you a machine gun as your default, and changes boss patterns to make things more manageable. You’ll still die a thousand times, but there’s a definite feeling that with a bit of practise you could clear a level without biting the big one.
The harder settings offer an even greater challenge, but again there’s a real potential for improvement that’s been missing in some of the previous games. Of course that potential requires many, many play-throughs, and no shortage of concentration. However, most telling is that you can still have fun on the default settings. At a certain point combining insane difficulty with infinite continues makes any game meaningless, Metal Slug XX I’d argue gets it just about right.
The game’s a tad too long, especially as if you do ever master it there’s a wealth of challenges available, not to mention POW’s to rescue and secrets to find. There’s a scoring system too, although this is left largely meaningless thanks to how often you will die. And die you will, despite my protestations there will be some who simply wont take to the challenge, and it’s hard to blame them, there’s no such thing as an easy Metal Slug.
While it’s important to remember that this is a remake of a handheld game, it is something of a shame that more wasn’t done with the graphics. In so many ways this feels like a fresh start for the Metal Slug, it feels focused, featuring new ideas and less rehashing. With people picking this up as a cheap download game, it’s a shame there wasn’t the wow factor to act as a spring board for future releases.
But the fact remains that Metal Slug XX builds on the foundations Metal Slug 6 laid for rebuilding the franchise, and it’s as interesting and ‘new’ a Metal Slug since the 3rd. The Combat School and POW lists borrowed from the old Neo Geo Pocket Colour games add depth and character. And frankly XX offers a more welcoming way in for new players, or those who haven’t dabbled since the first game.
Metal Slug has had a bit of mixed history. The first game was incredible, certainly one of my favourite ever, but if ever a game series epitomises diminishing returns, then SNK’s blaster is it. The problem has always been that it started out as a concise, challenging shooter, but over the years got more and more stuff piled on top of it. Things got a bit better with 6 , stripping back and creating a much shorter game.
XX follows a similar blueprint, aliens take a back seat, you stay on earth, and there’s only a few Metal Slug variants. There’s even a considered ‘easy’ mode, which hands you a machine gun as your default, and changes boss patterns to make things more manageable. You’ll still die a thousand times, but there’s a definite feeling that with a bit of practise you could clear a level without biting the big one.
The harder settings offer an even greater challenge, but again there’s a real potential for improvement that’s been missing in some of the previous games. Of course that potential requires many, many play-throughs, and no shortage of concentration. However, most telling is that you can still have fun on the default settings. At a certain point combining insane difficulty with infinite continues makes any game meaningless, Metal Slug XX I’d argue gets it just about right.
The game’s a tad too long, especially as if you do ever master it there’s a wealth of challenges available, not to mention POW’s to rescue and secrets to find. There’s a scoring system too, although this is left largely meaningless thanks to how often you will die. And die you will, despite my protestations there will be some who simply wont take to the challenge, and it’s hard to blame them, there’s no such thing as an easy Metal Slug.
While it’s important to remember that this is a remake of a handheld game, it is something of a shame that more wasn’t done with the graphics. In so many ways this feels like a fresh start for the Metal Slug, it feels focused, featuring new ideas and less rehashing. With people picking this up as a cheap download game, it’s a shame there wasn’t the wow factor to act as a spring board for future releases.
But the fact remains that Metal Slug XX builds on the foundations Metal Slug 6 laid for rebuilding the franchise, and it’s as interesting and ‘new’ a Metal Slug since the 3rd. The Combat School and POW lists borrowed from the old Neo Geo Pocket Colour games add depth and character. And frankly XX offers a more welcoming way in for new players, or those who haven’t dabbled since the first game.
By Duane / 2010-07-14 07:59:40It'd be far far too easy to dislike LEGO Harry Potter Years 1-4, just to look all "mature" and all that, but that would be unfair. For what its worth, the LEGO games have been pretty enjoyable and highly playable for gamers of all ages, tapping into the older players instinct to collect whilst providing fun for younger audiences. LEGO Harry Potter Years 1-4 is no different.
Taking cues from the first four books and their accompanying movies, you're given a full on Harry Potter/Hogwarts experience in LEGO form. All the best bits from either version of the series are here, with the locations being suprisingly and lovingly re-created for the game. Unfortunately it doesn't quite have that same "built out of LEGO" appearance that the LEGO Star Wars titles has, but then the kits that have been released over the years to tie in to the movie franchises has mostly comprised of ready built pieces unlike that of the Star Wars LEGO. So the slightly less blocky locations are in keeping in with the toys the game takes its basing from. The game play locations are also absolutely huge, you not only have the entire Hogwarts castle and the majority of its grounds to explore, but you also have Diagon Alley, Nocturne Alley and Hogsmeade available to explore (either as a level, or as an actual proper open plan location), due to the size of Hogwarts itself you'll receive a ghostly guide in the form of Nearly Headless Nick who leads you through the castle to where each chapter in the story starts from.
The usual sense of humour thats entertaining for Children and adults and plays on the characters own nuances or even scenes from the movies is all intact as expected, however the gameplay itself has had a slight overhaul. Characters and camera's aren't quite as clumsy to control as they have been in previous LEGO instalments.There's also a wealth of spells to unlock and use in various situations, opening up for even further exploration of each and every corner of the game in order to reach that 100% marker. Suprisingly, considering previous releases, Travellers Tales have decided to have a bit of fun with the Achievements too, rather than just receiving them for completing levels or reachign a set ammount of studs, gold bricks or whatever, you'll also get points for Professor Snape in a barrel amongst other things, resulting in a much more fun experience for all.
It's odd to say this, I'm not a huge fan of the subject material, despite having watched the movies and read the books on numerous occassions, but LEGO Harry Potter Years 1-4 is incredibly fun to play through, probably more so than LEGO Star Wars II The Original Saga. The tinkering with the gameplay and attention to detail, not to mention the sheer size of the game result in an incredibly rewarding (and if my other halfs play through of the game is to be believed, highly addictive) game that once again is fun for everybody to play. It lacks the online co-operative play of LEGO Star Wars The Complete Saga, and the achievements aren't local co-operative play friendly either (the level based ones all state "single player" to unlock them), whilst there are one or two bugs, one of which can make the game impossible to achieve 100% on (in our case, the game froze, we had to turn the 360 off which resulted in that level being lost and unplayable from the level select menu's). But on the whole, this is probably the best instalment of the LEGO franchise to date.
Taking cues from the first four books and their accompanying movies, you're given a full on Harry Potter/Hogwarts experience in LEGO form. All the best bits from either version of the series are here, with the locations being suprisingly and lovingly re-created for the game. Unfortunately it doesn't quite have that same "built out of LEGO" appearance that the LEGO Star Wars titles has, but then the kits that have been released over the years to tie in to the movie franchises has mostly comprised of ready built pieces unlike that of the Star Wars LEGO. So the slightly less blocky locations are in keeping in with the toys the game takes its basing from. The game play locations are also absolutely huge, you not only have the entire Hogwarts castle and the majority of its grounds to explore, but you also have Diagon Alley, Nocturne Alley and Hogsmeade available to explore (either as a level, or as an actual proper open plan location), due to the size of Hogwarts itself you'll receive a ghostly guide in the form of Nearly Headless Nick who leads you through the castle to where each chapter in the story starts from.
The usual sense of humour thats entertaining for Children and adults and plays on the characters own nuances or even scenes from the movies is all intact as expected, however the gameplay itself has had a slight overhaul. Characters and camera's aren't quite as clumsy to control as they have been in previous LEGO instalments.There's also a wealth of spells to unlock and use in various situations, opening up for even further exploration of each and every corner of the game in order to reach that 100% marker. Suprisingly, considering previous releases, Travellers Tales have decided to have a bit of fun with the Achievements too, rather than just receiving them for completing levels or reachign a set ammount of studs, gold bricks or whatever, you'll also get points for Professor Snape in a barrel amongst other things, resulting in a much more fun experience for all.
It's odd to say this, I'm not a huge fan of the subject material, despite having watched the movies and read the books on numerous occassions, but LEGO Harry Potter Years 1-4 is incredibly fun to play through, probably more so than LEGO Star Wars II The Original Saga. The tinkering with the gameplay and attention to detail, not to mention the sheer size of the game result in an incredibly rewarding (and if my other halfs play through of the game is to be believed, highly addictive) game that once again is fun for everybody to play. It lacks the online co-operative play of LEGO Star Wars The Complete Saga, and the achievements aren't local co-operative play friendly either (the level based ones all state "single player" to unlock them), whilst there are one or two bugs, one of which can make the game impossible to achieve 100% on (in our case, the game froze, we had to turn the 360 off which resulted in that level being lost and unplayable from the level select menu's). But on the whole, this is probably the best instalment of the LEGO franchise to date.
By Duane / 2010-07-12 07:56:04Welcome to Paradise? Welcome to unashamed cash in more like! Shame on you EA, Shame on you Harmonix, shame on you Demiurge Studio's and shame on you Billie Joe.
Okay, its not that bad, as a piece of entertainment software its as good as any of the other Rock Band titles, but as a stand alone entry into the series it really wasn't needed when you take into consideration the wealth of downloadable content available for Rock Band and Rock Band 2. Yes we have The Beatles Rock Band, but Green Day are not The Beatles and this particular release hasn't had the love and attention thrown at it that was given to The Fab Fours title.
The set list itself is as entertaining as you'd expect, it really is for Green Day fans, mostly those who enjoy the post-American Idiot version of the pop-punk band from California. I'm not going to knock the set list at all really, the latter half of the game doesn't interest me all that much, whilst the first half isn't particularly challenging to play, its pretty good to kind of veg out to really. It's the additional content that makes this a complete and utter waste of time, only 3 venues to play in (a generic club, the Milton Keynes Bowl and the Fox Theatre in Oakland, California) and a bunch of video and photo unlockables.
As I said, its as good as you'd expect from the Rock Band series, and will be great fun for dedicated fans of the band, but it doesn't really deserve a retail release as it misses that something special that made The Beatles Rock Band a must have for all music game enthusiasts.
Okay, its not that bad, as a piece of entertainment software its as good as any of the other Rock Band titles, but as a stand alone entry into the series it really wasn't needed when you take into consideration the wealth of downloadable content available for Rock Band and Rock Band 2. Yes we have The Beatles Rock Band, but Green Day are not The Beatles and this particular release hasn't had the love and attention thrown at it that was given to The Fab Fours title.
The set list itself is as entertaining as you'd expect, it really is for Green Day fans, mostly those who enjoy the post-American Idiot version of the pop-punk band from California. I'm not going to knock the set list at all really, the latter half of the game doesn't interest me all that much, whilst the first half isn't particularly challenging to play, its pretty good to kind of veg out to really. It's the additional content that makes this a complete and utter waste of time, only 3 venues to play in (a generic club, the Milton Keynes Bowl and the Fox Theatre in Oakland, California) and a bunch of video and photo unlockables.
As I said, its as good as you'd expect from the Rock Band series, and will be great fun for dedicated fans of the band, but it doesn't really deserve a retail release as it misses that something special that made The Beatles Rock Band a must have for all music game enthusiasts.
By Duane / 2010-05-28 08:39:41So it seem's we are going to be getting a new SKATE game every year. Good job they're enjoyable in a "I'm into S&M" kind of way then isn't it?
After saying that, I think I may have to be careful here as to make sure I don't look like some middle-aged former President of the worlds biggest motor racing organisation. Enough of this silliness, then. This being the fourth edition of SKATE (the Wii had its own release titled Skate It), what have EA Black Box added to mix things up a little. Well first things first, the game isn't set in San Venelona (SKATE)/New San Vanelona (SKATE 2), its headed to a new city, Port Caverton, which is a much happier, sunnier, blue skies kind of place where unlike preivously the cities security actually welcome skaters and the city itself gives them impression of being planned and built by some kind of architect who may just enjoy rolling along on a plank of wood himself. This makes for a much more natural and pleasing experience instead of the disjointed annoyance of having to call someone in every so often to remove blocks from handrails and such so now you really can just skate around and trick off anything.
The focus this time out isn't on reclaiming a city as it was in SKATE 2, now your tasked with setting up your own board company, to do this you create a team and then partake in challenges to earn your company sales. This is intergrated into a new team feature for the games online section, in which you also generate sales by having people view your videos or photos and download the skate parks you create in the new park editor. It all works rather well but it feels a little unthoughtfull in that you cannot sell merchanise that you have created. It seems Black Box have missed out on not copying something thats integral to the experience of Forza Motorsport 3 and ran with the idea of setting up your own franchise. A full laid out merchandise and board designer in the game, plus having something like Forza 3's Storefront would have increased the belief that you were indeed setting up your own franchise. Instead your left with a cumbersome flash based design tool on the SKATE website that doesn't always work.
As with alot of EA's recent output though, the real meat and veg is in the online infrastructure. As previously mentioned you can create your own team and have others join upto it, then head out and take on other peoples teams in various challenges. You can even do nearly all of the single player challenges online, earning extra sales for your board company in the process, meaning those that just stick to playing the game on their own miss out on more than just jamming with friends. The new difficulty levels mix things up a bit too, you now have the choice of three settings, Easy, Normal and Hardcore. Normal is how the game played in the previous instalments. Easy makes landing tricks and gaining air much easier, there's also more chance of landing on bars when aiming for a grind, whilst Hardcore takes things in the opposite direction and makes for a more satisfying, if also aggrivating, experience overall.
However, whilst SKATE 3 is the best instalment in the series thus far, there's very little here that wasn't already done before, and save for the new and much better setting, it probably wouldn't be worth investing in. If EA Black Box had gone all out on the Board Company idea, rather than making it feel a little tacked on and purely for plot purposes, they could have had a real gem on their hands here. If you need more SKATE and want somewhere to play thats more enjoyable than New San Vanelona, pick SKATE 3 up, otherwise theres not much here to justify another £45.
After saying that, I think I may have to be careful here as to make sure I don't look like some middle-aged former President of the worlds biggest motor racing organisation. Enough of this silliness, then. This being the fourth edition of SKATE (the Wii had its own release titled Skate It), what have EA Black Box added to mix things up a little. Well first things first, the game isn't set in San Venelona (SKATE)/New San Vanelona (SKATE 2), its headed to a new city, Port Caverton, which is a much happier, sunnier, blue skies kind of place where unlike preivously the cities security actually welcome skaters and the city itself gives them impression of being planned and built by some kind of architect who may just enjoy rolling along on a plank of wood himself. This makes for a much more natural and pleasing experience instead of the disjointed annoyance of having to call someone in every so often to remove blocks from handrails and such so now you really can just skate around and trick off anything.
The focus this time out isn't on reclaiming a city as it was in SKATE 2, now your tasked with setting up your own board company, to do this you create a team and then partake in challenges to earn your company sales. This is intergrated into a new team feature for the games online section, in which you also generate sales by having people view your videos or photos and download the skate parks you create in the new park editor. It all works rather well but it feels a little unthoughtfull in that you cannot sell merchanise that you have created. It seems Black Box have missed out on not copying something thats integral to the experience of Forza Motorsport 3 and ran with the idea of setting up your own franchise. A full laid out merchandise and board designer in the game, plus having something like Forza 3's Storefront would have increased the belief that you were indeed setting up your own franchise. Instead your left with a cumbersome flash based design tool on the SKATE website that doesn't always work.
As with alot of EA's recent output though, the real meat and veg is in the online infrastructure. As previously mentioned you can create your own team and have others join upto it, then head out and take on other peoples teams in various challenges. You can even do nearly all of the single player challenges online, earning extra sales for your board company in the process, meaning those that just stick to playing the game on their own miss out on more than just jamming with friends. The new difficulty levels mix things up a bit too, you now have the choice of three settings, Easy, Normal and Hardcore. Normal is how the game played in the previous instalments. Easy makes landing tricks and gaining air much easier, there's also more chance of landing on bars when aiming for a grind, whilst Hardcore takes things in the opposite direction and makes for a more satisfying, if also aggrivating, experience overall.
However, whilst SKATE 3 is the best instalment in the series thus far, there's very little here that wasn't already done before, and save for the new and much better setting, it probably wouldn't be worth investing in. If EA Black Box had gone all out on the Board Company idea, rather than making it feel a little tacked on and purely for plot purposes, they could have had a real gem on their hands here. If you need more SKATE and want somewhere to play thats more enjoyable than New San Vanelona, pick SKATE 3 up, otherwise theres not much here to justify another £45.
By Duane / 2010-05-15 06:01:22Barely six months after the release of FIFA 10, EA have released a new football game. Why on earth would they do that? Because its World Cup time! But the question is, if you own FIFA 10, is it really worth shelling out for 2010 World Cup South Africa?
Now in my experience, these summer titles tend to be the experimental efforts from EA. The games in which they test out a few technical things in order to see about bringing them to the "full" versions of FIFA, and 2010 appears to be no different. Small additions such as the altitude that the stadium is set at having an effect on a players stamina and how heavy the ball are show that EA Sports are always trying to bring that element of realism to the series. But on the other hand, they've sped up the gameplay to give it less of a pedestrian feel, which adds a strange sense of arcadeyness to proceedings. This probably makes it the most accessible FIFA in recent years, not that the others were difficult to pick up, this ones just a little more fun to play.
AI behaviour appears to have had an overhaul too, its far less predictable what the keeper is going to do in any given situation, leading to some moments that would make Arsenal's Manuel Almunia blush and your heart hit your throat. Captain Your Country mode returns, although thats pretty much the same as Be A Pro from the normal annual FIFA's with the added ability of you and four friends being able to compete within the same team for the role of captain. Other features like Story of Qualifying (a challenge mode that takes the events of real games and asks you to turn the tide or replicate them exactly), and standard tournament modes where you can play as any countries National team and attempt to lead them to glory.
The online modes also feature their own World Cup where you are pitted against a series of other players who are representing a country of their choosing in order to make the country you've chosen the games World Cup champions.
There's very little here thats not already available in FIFA 10 or indeed in the 2008 European Championships release, so its difficult to reccomend a purchase. However on the other hand its just as difficult to not reccomend it as one again EA Sports have delivered a solid, well presented football title thats highly entertaining regardless of what difficulty level you're playing at. The graphics engine is somehow vastly improved over that of FIFA 10 and the chance to relive famous moments in World Cup history, both from years gone by and in this particular tournaments qualifying sector (and as the tournament kicks off, EA will be releasing more challenges that are taken straight from events at this years competition). 2010 World Cup South Africa has enough here to stand on its own two feet, although the fact that its being sold at a standard RRP is likely to put most off, and deservedly so.
Now in my experience, these summer titles tend to be the experimental efforts from EA. The games in which they test out a few technical things in order to see about bringing them to the "full" versions of FIFA, and 2010 appears to be no different. Small additions such as the altitude that the stadium is set at having an effect on a players stamina and how heavy the ball are show that EA Sports are always trying to bring that element of realism to the series. But on the other hand, they've sped up the gameplay to give it less of a pedestrian feel, which adds a strange sense of arcadeyness to proceedings. This probably makes it the most accessible FIFA in recent years, not that the others were difficult to pick up, this ones just a little more fun to play.
AI behaviour appears to have had an overhaul too, its far less predictable what the keeper is going to do in any given situation, leading to some moments that would make Arsenal's Manuel Almunia blush and your heart hit your throat. Captain Your Country mode returns, although thats pretty much the same as Be A Pro from the normal annual FIFA's with the added ability of you and four friends being able to compete within the same team for the role of captain. Other features like Story of Qualifying (a challenge mode that takes the events of real games and asks you to turn the tide or replicate them exactly), and standard tournament modes where you can play as any countries National team and attempt to lead them to glory.
The online modes also feature their own World Cup where you are pitted against a series of other players who are representing a country of their choosing in order to make the country you've chosen the games World Cup champions.
There's very little here thats not already available in FIFA 10 or indeed in the 2008 European Championships release, so its difficult to reccomend a purchase. However on the other hand its just as difficult to not reccomend it as one again EA Sports have delivered a solid, well presented football title thats highly entertaining regardless of what difficulty level you're playing at. The graphics engine is somehow vastly improved over that of FIFA 10 and the chance to relive famous moments in World Cup history, both from years gone by and in this particular tournaments qualifying sector (and as the tournament kicks off, EA will be releasing more challenges that are taken straight from events at this years competition). 2010 World Cup South Africa has enough here to stand on its own two feet, although the fact that its being sold at a standard RRP is likely to put most off, and deservedly so.
By Duane / 2010-04-26 05:43:18Less than a week ago we reviewed SNK's Samurai Showdown Sen, the overall jist was that it was entertaining, but would never be able to take down something like Street Fighter, and now Capcom have pretty much just confirmed that with the rebranded and fleshed out re-release of Street Fighter IV, now titled Super Street Fighter IV.
So whats new? 10 additional characters (some all new, some returning from previous Street Fighter releases), new stages, the return of the famous bonus stages from Street Fighter II and my favourite feature, Street Fighter TV which is a replay upload/download feature that lets you study other players' fighting styles (or in my case just show the world how awful you really are).
Lobbies have been altered too, now you and eight other people can wait and chat in a lobby, taking it in turns to fight, making the whole experience feel friendlier and more welcoming overall. Now these all seem like DLC style additions, so why a re-release? Well Capcom have put alot of effort into trying to rebalance the characters, making the power characters like Seth and Zangief more evenly balanced. The Challenge mode has been seen to too, initially providing you with the opportunity to learn your chosen characters intracacies then providing you with tasks for you to overcome just for a bit of fun, fleshing out the single player aspect of the game. Something that titles in this particular genre usually forget to tackle.
As for the game itself, its still every bit as good as Street Fighter IV, it looks utterly gorgeous in motion which makes it an absolute joy to play. Never before has a games visual style played such an important aspect of drawing you back into the game in order to give yourself time to learn its depths and master each characters technique. It's reduced price also makes it friendly for those who already own Street Fighter IV, and as most of the community will no doubt move over to this version of the game, if you want some regular Street Fighting then this is a must have, although no doubt most of you have already made up your minds already.
So whats new? 10 additional characters (some all new, some returning from previous Street Fighter releases), new stages, the return of the famous bonus stages from Street Fighter II and my favourite feature, Street Fighter TV which is a replay upload/download feature that lets you study other players' fighting styles (or in my case just show the world how awful you really are).
Lobbies have been altered too, now you and eight other people can wait and chat in a lobby, taking it in turns to fight, making the whole experience feel friendlier and more welcoming overall. Now these all seem like DLC style additions, so why a re-release? Well Capcom have put alot of effort into trying to rebalance the characters, making the power characters like Seth and Zangief more evenly balanced. The Challenge mode has been seen to too, initially providing you with the opportunity to learn your chosen characters intracacies then providing you with tasks for you to overcome just for a bit of fun, fleshing out the single player aspect of the game. Something that titles in this particular genre usually forget to tackle.
As for the game itself, its still every bit as good as Street Fighter IV, it looks utterly gorgeous in motion which makes it an absolute joy to play. Never before has a games visual style played such an important aspect of drawing you back into the game in order to give yourself time to learn its depths and master each characters technique. It's reduced price also makes it friendly for those who already own Street Fighter IV, and as most of the community will no doubt move over to this version of the game, if you want some regular Street Fighting then this is a must have, although no doubt most of you have already made up your minds already.
By Duane / 2010-04-20 09:29:16The Samurai Showdown series is one I've covered before here on bitparade, with mixed results I might add. The latest offering, Samurai Showdown Sen is the eleventh entry in the series, the fourth to be developed in 3D.
As far as sword based beat em ups go, the Samurai Showdown series doesn't have much competition in terms of numbers, quality however is a different story as it tries to share the limelight with Namco's Soul Calibur. It's pretty obvious which is the more popular out of the two. But to compare would be unfair as the two games differ greatly. Whilst Soul Calibur revels in showmanship and flashy graphics, Samurai Showdown Sen brings to the table a more considered fighter that places as much emphasis on working out your opponents weaknesses as it does overpowering them with move after move. Fights rely on you using your power meter to add extra strength to your attacks, encouraging you to take blows in exchange for that extra bit of muscle. Thats not to say that fights can't be won without it. By simply pressing the right analogue stick in a red glow appears around your chosen fight and attacks recieve a small boost in power that may allow you to overcome your opponent. However, this isn't always possible as the game has a tendency to make it all too easy for fights to end up in a juggling spree, which whilst fun for the victor, are always incredibly annoying for everybody else as you're left defenceless without the abilty to counter the moves. This is most apparent when fighting against some of the stronger opponents in Story mode. More often than not I was beaten by being juggled for a lengthy period of each round that ultimately led to me having such little energy left that I had no way of coming back at my opponent other than to hunker down and chip away with cheap attacks or simply give in and try again after pressing continue, neither of which is any fun.
This initially makes Samurai Showdown difficult to pick up and play, the action is much slower than Namco's title, although fights can be over just as quickly. The emphasis here is less on arcade bashing thrills and more on the ability to be skilled at fighters and take your opponent by suprise, linking up moves but not leaving yourself open and as far as this goes it does it very well. However there's something lacking from the package on offer and it has to be that ability to thrill and reward. Moves are never really flashy and are mostly belieavable as far as fighting goes, character design is rather bland and thats without mentioning the jarring contrast between the absolutely gorgeus artwork of the games menu's and introductions which are presented in a traditional oriental artform and the in-game graphics which look rather poor when stood alongside pretty much every other fighting game available on the XBox 360.
I think it shows that my biggest criticsm of the game is in its visual presentation, I feel the 3D graphics are also to blame for the games sluggish and visually unrewarding nature and would love to have seen a Samurai Showdown that looked like the artwork that is present in the menu's here running at a speed thats not over the top but is at least fast enough not to lead to frustration, but as it stands here the entire package combined isn't upto the standards most would expect based on SNK's pedigree, nor does it stand a chance when Capcom's Street Fighter IV has widely become regarded as one of the most perfect fighting games ever created.
As far as sword based beat em ups go, the Samurai Showdown series doesn't have much competition in terms of numbers, quality however is a different story as it tries to share the limelight with Namco's Soul Calibur. It's pretty obvious which is the more popular out of the two. But to compare would be unfair as the two games differ greatly. Whilst Soul Calibur revels in showmanship and flashy graphics, Samurai Showdown Sen brings to the table a more considered fighter that places as much emphasis on working out your opponents weaknesses as it does overpowering them with move after move. Fights rely on you using your power meter to add extra strength to your attacks, encouraging you to take blows in exchange for that extra bit of muscle. Thats not to say that fights can't be won without it. By simply pressing the right analogue stick in a red glow appears around your chosen fight and attacks recieve a small boost in power that may allow you to overcome your opponent. However, this isn't always possible as the game has a tendency to make it all too easy for fights to end up in a juggling spree, which whilst fun for the victor, are always incredibly annoying for everybody else as you're left defenceless without the abilty to counter the moves. This is most apparent when fighting against some of the stronger opponents in Story mode. More often than not I was beaten by being juggled for a lengthy period of each round that ultimately led to me having such little energy left that I had no way of coming back at my opponent other than to hunker down and chip away with cheap attacks or simply give in and try again after pressing continue, neither of which is any fun.
This initially makes Samurai Showdown difficult to pick up and play, the action is much slower than Namco's title, although fights can be over just as quickly. The emphasis here is less on arcade bashing thrills and more on the ability to be skilled at fighters and take your opponent by suprise, linking up moves but not leaving yourself open and as far as this goes it does it very well. However there's something lacking from the package on offer and it has to be that ability to thrill and reward. Moves are never really flashy and are mostly belieavable as far as fighting goes, character design is rather bland and thats without mentioning the jarring contrast between the absolutely gorgeus artwork of the games menu's and introductions which are presented in a traditional oriental artform and the in-game graphics which look rather poor when stood alongside pretty much every other fighting game available on the XBox 360.
I think it shows that my biggest criticsm of the game is in its visual presentation, I feel the 3D graphics are also to blame for the games sluggish and visually unrewarding nature and would love to have seen a Samurai Showdown that looked like the artwork that is present in the menu's here running at a speed thats not over the top but is at least fast enough not to lead to frustration, but as it stands here the entire package combined isn't upto the standards most would expect based on SNK's pedigree, nor does it stand a chance when Capcom's Street Fighter IV has widely become regarded as one of the most perfect fighting games ever created.
By Duane / 2010-03-21 06:42:28Wow what a difference a couple of years makes. When we last had a Battlefield game to play, it was a mixed affair, the single player was pretty average, had some comical moments but left nobody raving about it, the multiplayer was pretty good but had the crazy popular Call of Duty 4 Modern Warfare to deal with.
Fast forward and the situation looks the same, or is it? It's hard to deny that the Call of Duty franchise, whilst still able to offer some high octane entertainment has taken a pretty big knock with its previous two releases, especially so with Modern Warfare 2, with Activision, Treyarch and Infinity Ward pretty much delivering cookie cutter versions of the finest games in the series depending upon the setting but also making the single player campaigns a confusing mess whilst small changes to the multiplayer don't seem to have been for the better. During this time DICE have been hard at work trying to restore former glories to its once incredibly popular Battlefield franchise, and with Battlefield Bad Company 2 they might just have done it.
Now admittedly the single players not going to have anyone absolutely raving about key moments, especially not compared to the Ghillies In The Mist section (amongst others) of Infinity Wards award winning 2007 shooter, however DICE have provided an entertaining blockbuster romp through various locales that never outstays its welcome and provides amusement throughout. OK so most of the humour is fairly slap stick but its hard not to smile whilst Bad Company discuss their favourite moment in the Arnold Schwarznegger film Predator whilst setting up Sniper positions and there's other moments like that too.
The obvious main focus here, as is the case with pretty much every First Person Shooter in the modern age, is definetly the multiplayer and DICE have really struck gold here. Everything that made the original Bad Company enjoyable has returned, the ability to spawn on your squad, destructive scenery, the standard Battlefield inclusion of vehicles, all of this makes its way back into Bad Company 2. But where DICE have really managed to make this game excell in multiplayer is looking at the things that work against the likes of Modern Warfare 2. The first notable change is the lack of perks, its just you and your weapons. Uou unlock more weapons as you progress but no single weapon has an advantage over the starting kit for whatever class you like to play as. There's also changes to the controls, thankfully DICE saw sense in regard to their odd vehicle controls in Bad Company and have made things more standard, there's still the option to go with Bad Company controls if thats what you wish however. Another welcome difference between this and Modern Warfare is the placement of your melee attack. Personally I always found the melee being on the right analogue sticks clicky button rather cumbersome and it would throw my aim off more than anything else, DICE then have stuck the melee (as default) on the right bumper button, meaning your melee attack is an instant option rather than an after thought as in Halo 3 or something to risk like in Modern Warfare 2.
Its suprising just how much Bad Company 2 has improved over its predecessor, its also encouraging that DICE have looked at their competition and attempted to tackle any issues raised by those games. I think its fair to say that Bad Company 2 requires more patience than the Call of Duties and Halo's of the world, but bare with it and its so much more rewarding as a game. As a sensual experience it rewards from the off, it looks and sounds absolutely gorgeous. The guns and explosions are as meaty as anything you'd find in Criterion's Black from last generation, and you're never far away from an intense gun fight in the single player mode or a strong rivalry in multiplayer. The maps are much bigger than the average map in any of the games rivals, but when tackling this game you have to remember that vehicles have to be taken into account. Even so, they never feel too big and its never too much hassle to traverse the terrain on foot.
I have to say I've been thoroughly impressed with Bad Company 2, I was a fan of the previous instalment but could see its glaring faults but on the evidence provided here DICE have tackled every single one of them and made an essential game for those who wanted to like Modern Warfare's multiplayer but wanted something that wasn't quite as frantic nor as selfish.
Fast forward and the situation looks the same, or is it? It's hard to deny that the Call of Duty franchise, whilst still able to offer some high octane entertainment has taken a pretty big knock with its previous two releases, especially so with Modern Warfare 2, with Activision, Treyarch and Infinity Ward pretty much delivering cookie cutter versions of the finest games in the series depending upon the setting but also making the single player campaigns a confusing mess whilst small changes to the multiplayer don't seem to have been for the better. During this time DICE have been hard at work trying to restore former glories to its once incredibly popular Battlefield franchise, and with Battlefield Bad Company 2 they might just have done it.
Now admittedly the single players not going to have anyone absolutely raving about key moments, especially not compared to the Ghillies In The Mist section (amongst others) of Infinity Wards award winning 2007 shooter, however DICE have provided an entertaining blockbuster romp through various locales that never outstays its welcome and provides amusement throughout. OK so most of the humour is fairly slap stick but its hard not to smile whilst Bad Company discuss their favourite moment in the Arnold Schwarznegger film Predator whilst setting up Sniper positions and there's other moments like that too.
The obvious main focus here, as is the case with pretty much every First Person Shooter in the modern age, is definetly the multiplayer and DICE have really struck gold here. Everything that made the original Bad Company enjoyable has returned, the ability to spawn on your squad, destructive scenery, the standard Battlefield inclusion of vehicles, all of this makes its way back into Bad Company 2. But where DICE have really managed to make this game excell in multiplayer is looking at the things that work against the likes of Modern Warfare 2. The first notable change is the lack of perks, its just you and your weapons. Uou unlock more weapons as you progress but no single weapon has an advantage over the starting kit for whatever class you like to play as. There's also changes to the controls, thankfully DICE saw sense in regard to their odd vehicle controls in Bad Company and have made things more standard, there's still the option to go with Bad Company controls if thats what you wish however. Another welcome difference between this and Modern Warfare is the placement of your melee attack. Personally I always found the melee being on the right analogue sticks clicky button rather cumbersome and it would throw my aim off more than anything else, DICE then have stuck the melee (as default) on the right bumper button, meaning your melee attack is an instant option rather than an after thought as in Halo 3 or something to risk like in Modern Warfare 2.
Its suprising just how much Bad Company 2 has improved over its predecessor, its also encouraging that DICE have looked at their competition and attempted to tackle any issues raised by those games. I think its fair to say that Bad Company 2 requires more patience than the Call of Duties and Halo's of the world, but bare with it and its so much more rewarding as a game. As a sensual experience it rewards from the off, it looks and sounds absolutely gorgeous. The guns and explosions are as meaty as anything you'd find in Criterion's Black from last generation, and you're never far away from an intense gun fight in the single player mode or a strong rivalry in multiplayer. The maps are much bigger than the average map in any of the games rivals, but when tackling this game you have to remember that vehicles have to be taken into account. Even so, they never feel too big and its never too much hassle to traverse the terrain on foot.
I have to say I've been thoroughly impressed with Bad Company 2, I was a fan of the previous instalment but could see its glaring faults but on the evidence provided here DICE have tackled every single one of them and made an essential game for those who wanted to like Modern Warfare's multiplayer but wanted something that wasn't quite as frantic nor as selfish.
Older posts
