#476 Halo: Combat Evolved

Posted: 14th October 2011 by Mulholland in Games
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7

92nd game played so far

Genre: First-Person Shooter
Platform: Xbox
Year of Release: 2001
Developer: Bungie
Publisher: Microsoft

We DID warn you in our post for Call of Duty 2 that it would be time for a little bit of Halo (yes purists we are only calling it thus instead of the more longwinded, yet more descriptive, Halo: Combat Evolved).

Like everyone else who had the original Xbox I also had Halo and this was the first shooter that I actually had proper exposure to. When it was released it was heralded as the birth of a new type of shooter and, somewhat unusually, this critical feeling has not deteriorated with time. With this game now receiving a 10th birthday present in the form of an HD revamp it makes sense for us to cover it before the year is out.

So happy birthday Halo for a month in advance, let the games begin.

Our Thoughts

Just for the record, the reason for the subtitle ‘Combat Evolved‘ is that marketing people thought ‘Halo’ didn’t explain what the game was about. And to be fair, the game doesn’t feature as many angels as you might expect. But that’s just a small observation to explain that bit of the title. Halo is, all in all, a military shooter, where you and your squad fight the aliens. Many aliens. With, to be fair, notably non-alien names. Such as grunts, drones, elites and jackals.  Also notably lacking fishes, but then again, that’s just a joke even we won’t understand by the time this is published. Well, seeing how they based the Covenant troops on birds, reptiles and bears they had to leave some part of the animal kingdom for another game. True, as we’ll probably see soon enough. Besides, the fish couldn’t breath on the halo land anyway. Does the gravity for water even work out on there?

Anyway, aside from an earlier discussion on whether or not I should make Maltese fish soup for dinner tomorrow… (Yes!) In doing our playthrough for the blog we both tackled the single player campaign, for me it was a refresher and Jeroen just needed to get to grips with Halo with this being his first exposure minus 15 minutes of Halo 3 co-op. While this was a few hours of single player, which at least had the advantage of a full screen to look at. It was an interesting experience. From starting out having just been woken from hibernation, you soon have to deal with the ship being taken over as you fight off several baddies. This leads you to landing on the Halo from the title, which is mostly invaded by the Covenant, the aforementioned baddies, who try to get control of the superweapon the Halo apparently is. With a title like Halo and its respective genre there really is no need for a complex storyline and yet beneath all the weaponry and great multiplayer is a really interesting space opera. Nowadays shooters are criticised for not being able to marry an interesting plot with it’s gameplay but Halo really managed to pull it off back when it was rare. It is probably safe to say that it would still be rare if the Halo series hadn’t become such an influential force in the gaming world.

The same can be said for the multiplayer mode, something which cemented Halo as a staple of LAN parties and gaming nights with mates. We will be getting onto Halo 2 in a year or so and we will discuss it’s role in getting Xbox Live off the ground. For now though, the original Halo‘s multiplayer is good but has been so mimiced and bettered by later games like Timesplitters: Future Perfect and other titles in the Halo franchise that it will be better discussed when we review the copy of Halo 3: ODST we borrowed from my mate. Multiplayer in shooters is something that here jumped from the PC to the consoles – as you might know, they were already big on the former, but it wasn’t as big on consoles – split screen limiting what you can do in these games while the internet hadn’t taken off as much as a platform for consoles (Xbox Live being one of the things that changed that)

As I earlier mentioned Halo will soon be going through an anniversary HD revamp and, with the exception of the FMVs, we have to say that it still looking good. I mean okay; the graphics are dated and the event triggers can be a little bit off (although this may be because of the Xbox 360 patch) but it is still very immersive and playable. To mention the latter – yeah, it sometimes was awkward to trigger certain events, and we had to re-enter some areas a few times before the game realised we were supposed to move on. For the graphics… we’ve once mentioned that graphics last longer if they’re cartoony, and it’s safe to say this also applies to the type of alien backgrounds we saw through part of the game. It felt older, of course, but it’s not the eyesore we’ve seen with other games. (Tony Hawk’s Pro-Skater 2 instantly comes to mind) However I do agree, the best looking areas of the games are the interiors of spaceships since they are brightly coloured with unusual lighting. Also the aliens do still look okay as long as you are not close enough to bash them in the face with your Needler. I know it’s a bit of a crappy gun but I have always had a soft spot for the Needler. The weapons are interesting. Thanks to the games not having to be realistic, they could put in plenty of stranger weapons – plasma guns, light swords, and the needler. No points for guessing what it fires. Okay it’s an obvious name but it is bloody cool. … true.

Final Thoughts

How different would gaming history have been if this had remained an RTS for the Mac? Who can say. But, what it is safe to say is that for a game that is approaching double figures it has aged gracefully with only a few select wrinkles on show. If anything this replay of an old favourite has made me want the Halo: Anniversary Edition all the more.

#630 Call of Duty 2

Posted: 10th October 2011 by Mulholland in Games
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5

91st game played so far

Genre: First-Person Shooter
Platform: PC/Xbox 360
Year of Release: 2005
Developer: Infinity Ward
Publisher: Activision

Whenever you launch a new console you really need that killer app to make sure you can tie in gamers early. Like how the original Xbox had Halo, which we will be covering very soon, the Xbox 360 had Call of Duty 2 which really saw the birth of an immensely successful console shooter franchise.

I always feel bad for the Germans when I play games like this… I know I know World War Two and all that but still it has always made me wonder how games like this would sell in those areas. Anyway, here’s Call of Duty 2.

Our Thoughts

Whilst I am grateful that these games have all the dialogue in English but do they have to give them such dreadful accents? Didn’t they sound like proper German and Russian accents to you? And I thought the British was spot on… What I hear in the streets every day. I know you are baiting me since they used mannerisms that I don’t think anyone would say on the street. Then again this, like all the early Call of Duty games, is set in World War Two so I am guessing it is rife with forties slang. As well as accents straight out of a Sean Connery movies but this really is a moot point. The accents are just there to set the tone, obviously.

As Peter mentioned this is an FPS set in the second world war and it’s clearly trying to be realistic, which is probably a first for us while doing the blog. This is really mostly just a small setting thing, but there’s something fun about heading into some skirmishes in the second World War, so far probably unlikely to have a major effect on the war, but making you feel like you’re in the middle of a battle in the streets of some Russian or African city. Fun, yes but also fairly intense when suddenly you enter a bunker and are surrounded by Germans who want to turn you into a sieve. A bit of the gameplay that really gives it’s age away is the lack of cover-based shooting, something which we became very well acquainted with in Killzone 2. On the other hand, the squad based gameplay, where you actually have squad mates with you who support you and who you have to protect, seems like something Killzone 2 copied from the Call of Duty series – appropriately changed and refined as the following years required.

With the leaps in graphics that would have come to expect. I am in no way dismissing the graphics in Call of Duty 2 since they are of the current generation and are still fairly good but not up to the standard of modern releases. Fair enough considering this was a launch title for the 360, although it makes it hard sometimes to seperate friends from foes. I think a lot of that is things being in the heat of the moment and drab colours being a requirement of World War Two uniforms. That being said it can be hard to differentiate between them every now and then and the moment you make a mistake and commit an act of friendly fire it’s game over. Pretty brutal and nothing like war to be honest. Being a ‘traitor to the motherland’ is the worst thing you can do… probably mostly to keep the game working properly.

However, outside of gameplay which is pretty damned solid (despite the lack of cover based shooting), the best part of this is the sound. Sound does add to the experience. While there’s epic music in the FMVs, the game itself is subdued, with gunfire around you and both sides in the war shouting… oddly enough in English, but I guess it sort of sets the tone. The ring of the artillery is pretty loud with the overall game sounding like it had been turned up to 11.

All in all the game can get fairly intense, and while there are moments of excitement, such as when you duck for cover as tanks drive over the trench you’re in, mostly you end up trying to find out where your enemies are hiding now and firing from. Make use of cover, sparingly use your grenades and try to root them all out before you move on. Sometimes with the help of your squad mates, just as often hoping they either come by or get out of the way when you need a quick getaway. (Absolutely necessary considering the amounts of grenades thrown at you)  It would help if the squad were more helpful or were not so keen on being bullet fodder. Granted it helps you rush in where angels fear to tread and ram the butt of the gun into your enemies gizzard, but when you are infiltrating a building it’s annoying being the only guy with a gun. Especially if you are running out of ammo. There’s a number of places where they’re useful, and just as many where they aren’t… mostly depending on whether there’s enough room for them to run for their cover (meaning you can’t use it) Still, the rallying cries of your teammates can help raise the morale of you as the gamer having dodged many a bullet and feeling the gaming world is against you.

What helps here is that your objectives go beyond ‘kill all enemies’ or, to go back further in time objective-wise, ‘reach the end of the level’. While at times your main goal is to reach a spot, there are also several other goals, such as you having to blow up tanks, repair a telephone wire so you can call your headquarters and infiltrating a base (where infiltrating means, kill the enemies in your way) to get the secret papers for some plans. I also greatly appreciated the missions were you made things explode, I do enjoy a big boom. The explosion missions are, indeed, awesome. As are the graphics when buildings, tanks and other such things become engulfed in smoke. It makes me want to play more urban destruction games. Of course by the time you walk through these areas, they’re pretty much blown to pieces anyway, with tables overturned and gaping holes in the walls that are still standing.

Being our first foray into a ‘historical shooter’ Call of Duty 2 is at a great advantage, but I can safely say that we are looking forward to the next one.

Final Thoughts

Since we are actually rather behind we are going to be doing a lot of shooters (both FPS and Shoot ’em Ups) so this catch-up does feel a little bit forced at times but then we play games we enjoy and remember why we do this blog and look forward to sampling every genre… let’s just hope that we get the numbers up to scratch soon.

#245 Sam and Max Hit the Road

Posted: 6th October 2011 by Jeroen in Games
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7

90th game played so far

Genre: Adventure
Platform: PC
Year of Release: 1993
Developer: LucasArts
Publisher: LucasArts

Take a smart-alec talking dog. Add a homicidial rabbit. Have them solve crime – preferably as violently and destructive as possible. Add to that plenty of (at times crude) humour, and you get Sam & Max. Starting off as comic books, this game was made in 1993, while a few years later a TV series followed.

The game covered here is one of the LucasArts classics, Sam & Max Hit the Road, a proper adventure games – fun, tough, but never impossible. The series was revived over a decade later with a seperate episodic set by Telltale Games. I’ll mention a bit about those later, but for now let’s look at this point and click adventure classic.

Our Thoughts

In the interest of full disclosure, I’ve played, and finished, this game before, so I was biased before we played this game… and was mostly used as a human hints book. I have no idea how far I would have gotten without you as my personal FAQ since some of the puzzle solutions involve both lateral thinking and insanity. I think insanity applies to more than just puzzle solutions in this game though.

This is truly an old style adventure game where you talk about everything with everyone, try every item on every bit of the room and attempt everything you can. It is the first point-and-click adventure that we have covered for the blog and, with the exception of Broken Sword, my first classic adventure game. With experience you learn to check every item in the room to see if you can speak, look, use, bake, lick or take it. When you are a genre beginner this causes a lot of back-tracking to find an item that, despite looking useless, is instrumental in the game. It’s even worse when you don’t realise what you are looking for or why. One of the rules of this game is, of course, that nothing is ever useless. It may take a while before you see its use, but it’s worth taking anyway. That’s the nice things about having galaxy-sized pockets. (I missed those in Guild Wars. Different genre but thought it was worth the plug.)

The story doesn’t become clear straight away – part of it is obviously figuring out what’s going on, as is proper in any detective story – but it’s easy to see that you have to find out where a group of frozen yetis (recently freed) have gone to, and why a famous country singer is chasing him. You also need to chase after a former circus freak who has run off with one of the Bigfoots claiming it was the love of her life. It’s weird, twisted and what you would expect from the guys at LucasArts, or rather Steve Purcell, the creator of Sam & Max. An expert in the art of bonkers which makes me want to re-watch the television series.

Since the game is completely weird it is lucky that the writers had such a wicked sense of humour which is thickly spread on every inch of the screen. It isn’t even one form of humour either; there’s dry wit, slapstick, absurdism, wordplay and most other types you can think of. It’s something that pervades all aspects of the game as well – not just the writing, also the graphical design, include the animations, as well as sounds at times. It’s hard not to be humorous when you are stuck in a giant fibreglass fish and being flown across the country at the assistance of a chopper.

The true star and focus of this is Max. While Sam is the straight man, funny but focused, Max is outrageous, suggesting violence as the only possible solution and if he’s not threatening physical abuse, he’s taking it from Sam… taking it with a smile and enjoying himself as he does it. In other games it might seem wrong, and the bunny would be the cute one, but here it’s just slapstick enough to be funny at every turn. I think the razor sharp teeth and fuzzy exterior may help there. And while you’d think it troubling if he looked serious, he’s just so cute that you want to cuddle him… assuming he’s not holding a knife first. I’d also require a muzzle and a sedative. My point still stands.

The thing is that no game from 1993 stands up to modern standards. The MIDI sound is tinny and repetitive and the graphics are stylised but unsophisticated. However, you never play games for purely aesthetic reasons and since it boasts a great sense of humour, hard puzzles and a bonkers plot you continue to play on despite how dated a lot of the things are. Sam & Max Hits The Road stands as one of the great point-and-click adventure duos and have since reclaimed their title as the best in their recent 3D adventures, where Max’s teeth are now disturbingly sharp. It is a true classic of the genre… just remember to have GameFAQs open in a separate window because you will get stuck.

Final Thoughts

This is one of great LucasArts games, from when they were at their peak. If you ask me, this, together with the still upcoming Day of the Tentacle, is their true peak, in humour and puzzle values. There are more that I haven’t played yet (and am looking forward to), but that’s still forthcoming. For that reason alone, this game is worth spending some time on, to see what it is and why, how fun it is.

Add to that the wild setting, story and especially characters, and you get a game you’ll find very hard to put down. Well, maybe for a bit, but the puzzles will keep luring you in. After all, how do you get that mood ring again…?

#646 Guild Wars

Posted: 2nd October 2011 by Jeroen in Games
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5

89th game played so far

Genre: MMORPG
Platform: PC
Year of Release: 2005
Developer: ArenaNet
Publisher: NCSoft

And here we go, the first game in a genre of nine. The MMORPG are generally associated with its own type of players, with grinding to the beyond and players that are not always at nice… although at the same time the games encourage the type of cooperation we always say games are great at creating.

I’ll be honest and say that, based purely on what I read, this would be the MMORPG I’d be most likely to play. I’ve heard about how addicting these games can be and, with their monthly subscription fees, playing them can seem problematic at times – certainly more expensive than others. Guild Wars, however, avoids this – if you pay the inital fee by buying the game, the game is free to play after that. Sure, they try to sell you clothes and extra characters to make more money, but nothing else is mandatory. And that makes it more likely for me that I’d play it. Weird, but money-savingly true.

Our Thoughts

I hate this blog, we need to stop it now. Too much Zelda for your tastes? No… it’s made me enjoy an MMORPG and I shall forever hate this blog for what it has done to my limited amount of street cred.

Have you ever played an MMORPG before? No, but South Park and general pop culture has lead me to play that socially inept people play this in their parents’ basement in cardboard armour. But… here is an MMORPG I can get on board because it plays just like a well executed RPG which happens to have the odd sprite running around with cat ears. Considering how many of my family players who play too much World of Warcraft you’ve met, I thought you’d have felt differently by now. In a way, however, that’s what these games are – RPGs with some more people walking around who can help. A multiplayer RPG over the internet, but with Guild Wars even the multiplayer aspect can be ignored for at least the lower levels we played, as AI characters are there for you. 

I think what helped is that the only places there are other players are certain hub locations, otherwise the sweeping landscapes resplendent with tigers, monsters and the odd windmill are run independently. Makes it feel far more personal and relaxed instead of having every orc and elf competing with you for EXP. Even so, if you want to work together, just make sure you join each other’s teams and you’ll be ready to go ahead and do it together. Because of the time when we played and the time we had, we mostly played this as an expanded single player game, but that worked – even so, jumping into the multiplayer sections might be more fun at some point.

We each played as a different character of different occupations in order to test things out. Whilst I chose a ranged character with a bow and magical abilities Jeroen went for a bulky warrior type who charges in headlong and then learns some rituals to summon spirits to cause PAIN. I figured the brute tank is usually the best way to start to learn the game, as it tends to be easier than characters where you need to learn lots of different spells to be effective. Still, that didn’t cause too much of an issue, as the game is quite intuitive and forgiving, and gives everyone plenty of powers to use as you need them. It’s also a good thing you get four characters by default, so you can actually try different options also a pet tiger if, like myself, you chose the ranger class (as some people prefer). 

The game’s payment model, or general lack thereof, is interesting as well. You pay for the games, and can pay for extra stuff, but don’t pay membership fees. This makes the game cheaper and easier to jump into – why not try it; it won’t cost anything more later. Especially since Gamestation offer it for under six pounds. As any gamer would know this is incredible value for money for an MMORPG.

It’s even more impressive when you find out how immersive the gameplay is. There is the initial hurdle of the tutorial where it plays out in a slow and rigid manner, not helped by there being three NPCs which find it hard to talk to each other unless you are standing over their shoulder. Stopping your progress until they finish their ‘joking’ too. After this initial piece of handholding they basically leave you to play missions as you see fit, including leaving you free to leave most of the follow-up tutorials and character setup missions to the side and focusing on other missions and options instead. 

Beyond that, your options are wide and open, as you’ll want in a game like this. You can collect lots of items to get better items, or follow other people’s missions, or just focus on the story and go through that. Luckily, the game requires very little grinding, and in fact discourages it, leaving you free to focus on actual gameplay. The lack of grinding is a godsend in this game, in fact it’s pretty hard to grind since you are unable to gain experience points if your enemy is four levels below you. Very boring, but a godsend to prevent you have to kill lots of the annoying critters just to be able to do your next quest, which is great because it allows you to explore the worlds at your own pace, so you can stop and marvel at the beauty of your surroundings.

And beautiful they are. From the large buildings that dominate the land to seeing the grass sway in the wind and, the bit that impressed us most, your characters actually leaving footprints in the sand that seem to stay there until you leave the area. For me the awe inspiring moment was wondering through a field of sunflowers with the sakura trees gently swaying in the distance. Considering the age of the game (five, six years) by now, it’s quite impressive how real and good it looks, and how seamless loading is (after the first half hour of loading during which we wrote up part of the Tempest 2000 article).

I also would like to commend Guild Wars for making this a human only affair. It is very refreshing to play an RPG containing spellcasters that focuses solely on getting the human playable characters looking spot-on rather than having anything that could inspire yiffing. The characters themselves appear graceful yet powerful and are beautifully rendered making it a joy to create character without worrying about the differences between regular elves and dark elves. Even so, there are plenty of options in customization that they don’t even all look the same.

All in all, however, this is very much a more casual MMORPG, especially compared to the grindfest deep games like World of Warcraft seem to be. And this time it works out, making the game thoroughly enjoyable, easy to get into, and something that’ll continue to be addictive for some time. Since I have a few weeks until my PGCE I will be most definitely be skewering a few more Kappa and I’ll be taking care of some when you’re working on your PGCE.

Final Thoughts

What more can we add to that? This is a brilliant MMORPG and I was happy we could make this the first to try it out. Track it down if you have a chance – even better, download the trial client and see what you think! You might enjoy it. We certainly did, and enjoyed it more than we expected. Considering how I was already considering this earlier, I’m happier to find this out. It’s a beautiful and addictive game, and it’s that sort of thing we tried to avoid with avoiding these games… at least it’s cheap.

#264 Tempest 2000

Posted: 29th September 2011 by Mulholland in Games
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2

88th game played so far

Genre: Shoot ’em Up
Platform: Atari Jaguar
Year of Release: 1994
Developer: Atari
Publisher: Atari

Ah the early nineties. It was a simpler time with a  recession, no iPods, John Major was the Prime Minister and game titles contained multiples of 1000 in order to look futuristic.

Tempest 2000 is the only game on the list whose home is the Atari Jaguar console (god bless the PC port) and is actually a sequel and remake of the 1981 shoot ’em up game Tempest with improved graphics, music and levels. The man behind this, Jeff Minter,  is the brains behind games we will later encounter on this list so… watch this space!

Our Thoughts

This is one of those games that just allowed for simple fun. Lots of shooting creatures, with your only mission not to get confused with what way is left and which is right when you go in a circle. Once you get past the initial level you begin to long for the circle levels as the difficulty ramps up. It’s a shoot ’em up, shooting lots of approaching enemies is what you do in these games and the main special draw in this game is, well, the perspective. Instead of approaching the enemies on a 2D game, here they come crawling up from the centre of the screen.

In earlier levels the terrain is a simple one, i.e. a straight line and a circle, which means that it is fairly easy to gauge the origins of the enemy. However, in later levels the terrain gains all types of folds, nooks and crannies it gets harder and harder to figure out where the enemies will end up. It’s an interesting thing about this game that as you progress the difficulty level can ramp up suddenly, then dip and slump then ramp up again. It always keeps you on your toes and, despite the simplicity of the game, keeps things interesting.

Games such as Tempest 2000 thrive on a simple gameplay so in order to up the ante they need to make themselves distinctive in some way; otherwise there would be no reason for them to be on this list. The most noticeable way this has been done is the impressively apt soundtrack that has been used to accompany the levels which is a marriage between synths and club beats or, if we’re being honest, eighties and nineties music. The soundtrack not only works well (and fits in with what I remember of the music at the time), but adds to the gameplay. It heightens the tension and speed of the game, making it feel like you have even less time to get to the enemies and defeat them than you already have. It might not have been necessary, but it certainly adds to the game. I think it is necessary since the beats definitely cause your heart to race that little bit more thus increasing the adrenaline rush the game can inspire.

The graphics help here as well. By using vector graphics, any unnecessary distractions are removed, and you’re left to focus on the enemies and environment, meaning that the danger becomes more real. Add to that the lack of distracting surroundings and making it hard to see whether the enemy’s approaching from the fourth or fifth lane from the right, and you have a challenge in itself.

As you delve further into the game the games bestiary expands to include such lovable enemy staples such as ‘the one that splits in two when you shoot it’ which, due to quick pace set by the game, can be mighty stressful. There is such a rush when you finish the level which is followed by the slightly deflating thought of “oh crap what the hell will the game throw at me now”.

In that sense the game is strangely addictive, creating its excitement through adrenaline, excitement and worry.

Final Thoughts

Vector shooters are by their nature very simple games, but if video games have taught us anything (and we all know they have) it is that simple is not a negative quality. By combining simple goals with distinctive graphics, good music and an a rather nifty difficulty curve Tempest 2000 has been a good surprise.

#130 Super Hang-On

Posted: 25th September 2011 by Jeroen in Games
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0

87th game played so far

Genre: Racing
Platform: Arcade
Year of Release: 1987
Developer: Sega
Publisher: Sega

Super Hang-On is a motor cycling racing game. That’s the big thing to say here. To be honest, not knowing the genre, there’s not much more we can say about it this time. It’s a big racing game from its days, played by actually sitting on a bike, leaning, braking and accelerating.

Solid racer or dated gimmick?

Our Thoughts

As I explained before, I have a slight link to racing, as long as we’re using (rally) cars. Having no such link to motor cycles, this game is quite far removed from me. No insightful commentary from me on this.

I can safely say that neither of us will be having much in the way of insightful commentary and that’s not just because we don’t know about motorcycles (since that sort of knowledge isn’t required). The other day we were discussing how hard it will be to pick our favourite game of this 50 and how hard to pick the duffer… but I do believe we have come across it.

At the same time, I just can’t get too picky about it, as this is very much a game of its time. 24 years old now, it looks and feels dated, but has a simple premise: Race around the track as fast as you can, making sure you aren’t too slow. This is helped by its choice of control scheme, which involved some of that actual racing feel. That’s true, the original arcade version did involve the player mounting an actual motorcycle with them actually tilting it to turn. However, this was ported to many consoles including the PSN, Sega Mega Drive and Commodore 64 with a substantial level of acclaim. Therfore, the playing of this on a port makes a form of sense. Plus it’s a lot easier for us to accomplish… arcade cabinets don’t fit in our games box. Yet…

Yet since we have had to make some allowances on this blog I hope we won’t be begrudged for playing these games in a more convenient form than scouring London’s arcades. And we’ve already started that anyway…

To the point, the game itself. The graphics… meh. As you can see, basic, but fitting with what you could get at the time. Gameplay… simple but solid. The checkpoint system shows up in many later games, and will have been there before, but is good overall. You go left and right, brake and accelerate, and have to navigate around the bends, avoid fellow racers (or obstacles next to the road if you stray) and then you just have to be fast.

I think we all know the reason this is on the list, it was one of the first motorbike arcade games that got the controls working. Yet there are so many racing games out there that have since been able to improve on this on every facet imaginable. It’s a fun game, we just want to go back to the games we prefer more and that we know work better.

Final Thoughts

It’s a simple game. Good, solid racing fun. Nothing we’ve seen before, and others have done it better, but as it’s one of the first, I guess this should be there. It’s fun, but I wouldn’t make a detour just to play this game.

#337 DoDonPachi

Posted: 21st September 2011 by Jeroen in Games
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4

86th game played so far

Genre: Shoot ‘Em Up
Platform: Arcade/Saturn/Playstation
Year of Release: 1997
Developer: Cave
Publisher: Atlus

Right, here’s the thing. We are incredibly behind in our coverage of shoot ’em ups. This marks the fifth game out of over 150… so we are really REALLY behind.

DoDonPachi stands as the first game we have covered for this list that was released for the Sega Saturn and it is a manic shooter from the makers of… yea I’m not really sure who this developer is and they have not exactly done a major release. Still, it’s always fun to shoot mechanised insects.

Our Thoughts

I wonder how many epileptic seizures have been triggered by this game. I mean it is a manic shooter but I don’t know if I have ever played one that is this manic. I think the general strategy I used was ‘shoot everything and bomb when it’s too much’. Boring, maybe, but quite effective at times. The stratagem may be boring but the game was definitely not. It doesn’t take much to describe the premise of this game: shoot the enemies, avoid the bullets, oh my god is that a giant mechanised bee. In the world of gaming what could be simpler? We didn’t get to the main enemy bee, as the conditions for that are, quite simply, insane, but there’s lots of other enemies that you feel overwhelmed soon enough.

Still, despite its simplicity in gameplay in a way, the game is enjoyable. There’s three ships, with their own weapons, both a normal shooter and a bomb type, which can be combined into a large attack if you want. And they do play differently. There are also two different modes for each vehicle: laser, which is immune to small enemies, and shoot, which has two times the attack power of laser. We had a go at all vehicle types and I can say that my favourite was the laser blue one. There’s something nice about the fiery red ship too, although the green one seemed to have its own cool powerful attacks. I don’t know about it though… I just enjoyed playing the green one. The bombs are great fun too since you can either fire them by themselves to turn the enemies bullets into tokens or combine it with the regular gun to make a gigantic uber laser. The former has the more visual appeal, as defeating the enemies turns them into stars. The bomb do this to all lower HP enemies on the screen, as well as to all the bullets, causing a shower of stars to come to you. These stars are just worth points, but it creates an amazing effect. This adds to the feeling of power and such, making the whole thing a lot of fun to play that way. The sheer number of bullets fired at you makes this game really difficult to get through. In fact you can only meet the final boss if you get through the whole thing without using more than one credit. There are also plenty of other criterion needed to get there which does promote repeated plays and the use of many quarters in an arcade machine.

All in all, this is a manic shooter, bright graphics and fast paced, that you won’t be playing for hours at a time, but is brilliant to play for an hour here and there, racing after all the enemies to kill them while avoiding the many boulders fired at you.

Final Thoughts

When you discover that DoDonPachi is in fact Japanese for ‘Angry Leader Bee’ then you become thankful that they kept the Japanese name. It’s a short game but it’s a surprisingly good game which warrants a replay or two. Nice one.

#938 Killzone 2

Posted: 17th September 2011 by Jeroen in Games
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1

85th game played so far

Genre: First Person Shooter
Platform: Playstation 3
Year of Release: 2009
Developer: Guerilla Games
Publisher: Sony Computer Entertainment

And so we continue our journey into games defined by, well, shooting people. Thanks to the games we recently borrowed, we’ll be playing more of these… meaning we’ve been training our trigger fingers and been doing our best to train our reflexes.

Killzone 2 is a game by Dutch game developers Guerilla Games. I thought I’d put that bit in there just to show my allegiances. Anyway, even so, this is a shooter as we saw, where you are part of a team of soldiers who try to caputer the Helghast (bad guys) leader. There’s plenty of weapons and vehicles at your disposal. Good luck!

Our Thoughts

Out of all the games we borrowed, this was the one we had to finish early, as Chris asked to get it back when we were done with it – the others were less urgent. That sort of says something about the quality of this shooter and its attempts to draw you in. That or this was the newest game he lent us and therefore the one he probably hasn’t had a chance to properly play through yet.

Either way, this game is still very well done. Despite a few oddities that we’ll go into, I’ve rarely seen you sweat this much when playing a game, or ignore me as much as you did. I think that is because this is the first single-player game we have covered that demands near 100% attention, unless you enjoy having a grenade aimed up your jacksie. When you play a lot of platformers, puzzles and racers it is easy to forget the joyful adrenaline rush that can be experienced in a first-person shooter; especially one that gives you near-zero breathing space between skirmishes.

In a sense my playing style of carefully holding back was rewarded, as it gave me time to determine what to do, rather than charging in and being overwhelmed, which happened often. Enemies are plenty and strong and they seem nearly endless. It also ended up with you regularly running out of ammo and being left with only a starting pistol to defend yourself.

As Jeroen kindly mentioned I prefer a more headstrong approach where I charge in and smash the Helghast with the butt of my assault rifle, which I did fair enough with… my lower difficulty play helping as I’m not as used to these games (or controls). Compared to my regular deaths at a higher difficulty level where some enemies require multiple magazines to even knock his blasted helmet off. Still, it allows players at all experience levels to feel challenged which is great since gamers tend to complain how games are getting easier. That’s my excuse for it, at least.

Still, at any level the game is challenging – in general, the normal difficulty level would be considered hard in many other games. As said, the enemies have hit point amounts that are higher than most – one or two hit mooks in other games would often need five or ten times as much in this game. Possibly a slight exaggeration, but the enemies generally took a lot work… while there were very many of them. Grenades were incredibly useful when they were there… which wasn’t often, considering their rarity.

As with all successful first-person shooters there is a lot that can be said about the available weaponry. Regular weapons such as assault rifles and SMGs can be found with variations belonging to both your side and the enemy. Then there are the big fun weapons which include the missile launcher and sniper rifle. There is a lack of originality that can be seen in other sci-fi oriented shooters such as Timesplitters and Halo but there is enough variation to peak interest. Then there is the Boltgun which is FPS mana from heaven. Still there are enough variations on the theme to maintain interest but, with the exception of the Boltgun, not enough to inspire awe. I’d be hard pressed to name a favourite myself.

Like many other games in the genre, this also features some static weaponry – gun turrets and such. Unfortunately there’s nothing exciting here either. The feeling you get is of a solid set of weaponry – one they know works – without anything gimmicky that sounds interesting, but has no point to it and just clutters. This isn’t helped by the fact you don’t have a real inventory – you just have your standard pistol and a single weapon you pick up along the way. Some grenades, but that’s mostly it.

This lack in imaginative arsenal pales as a problem when compared to a lack of a non-online multiplayer. Call us old-fashioned but there are some game genres that should automatically receive a multiplayer mode, with first-person shooters being one of them. When the first instalment of the Killzone franchise was released the bigwigs in Sony’s marketing department attempted to have the gaming world believe that this would be their ‘Halo-Killer’. However, as of Killzone 3, which was released in Feburary, the developers at Guerilla Games have rectified this with an offline co-op mode… still doesn’t help with this game though.

One of the reasons why this jars is that the gameplay is a lot about team work… a lot of time has been invested in having guys around you who support you during the fights and who need your help defending and healing them. While this can get more annoying than fun at times, the AI is good enough to keep this fun. But it’s also a kind of gameplay that would transfer brilliantly to multiplayer, even in the same room – you can just see yourself shouting to the person next to you to help you out, warning them about threats. Now, however, you can only do so online right now, which still works, but isn’t as brilliant.

Here is the part of the review where we make a complete U-Turn since; in all honesty, this could be one of the best first-person shooters I have ever played. Fair enough there is no offline multiplayer or an imaginative armoury but who gives a flying fig when the game is as good as this one. Unlike the storyline of Halo, a game which (shock horror) I have yet to see the genius of, it is one that is immediately relatable and is undeniably engrossing. It is, in the basis, very simple, but through broadcasts and other info, you find a lot of depth in it – not necessary to understand what’s going on or why, but it adds to the world in an otherwise unobtrusive way.

Further drawing you in are the graphics. Not photo-realistic, they do present the idea of a simple, functional world. Nothing too alien, but the type of world you expect to see in this type of gritty sci-fi world. The opening sequence showcases the graphics in a jaw-dropping manner. It really makes you wonder what there is left to improve on before we faceplant into the uncanny valley.

Despite a few niggles here and there, the game works well, and the issues we have are more choices made during development than actual issues. The lack of coop multiplayer is a shame, as we were keen to try that, but other than that this was a good experience.

Final Thoughts

There’s a few other small additions that we could discuss here that were a fun addition – for example, there’s a nice feature in a few places where you open valves and such by rotating the controller – but mostly it’s a solid shooter. It doesn’t do anything creative, but does its job as a really good shooter, which is all we really want from it.

Possibly the best shooter we’ve played, even though future games might change that… right now this stands as the top of the genre for us.

#775 Professor Layton and the Curious Village

Posted: 13th September 2011 by Mulholland in Games
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2

84th game played so far

Genre: Puzzle/Adventure
Platform: Nintendo DS
Year of Release: 2007
Developer: Level-5
Publisher: Level-5

One of the more interesting new DS franchises is Professor Layton. A traveling puzzle solver, the professor tries to find treasure and solve mysteries through… solving puzzles. Because THAT is how you should apprehend criminals.

It seems like a simple idea, but with over 100 puzzles per game, you  know there has to be a bit more to the game to keep going. Add to that partial voice acting, and you know you get an interesting game, surely? With the size of the series, it seems like they’ve reached something.

Our Thoughts

I do love a good puzzle game; and I think we can say with quite a deal of conviction that this is definitely a good puzzle game.

The in-game puzzles are numerous and cross a large number of genres with a good spread along the difficulty curve plus the overarching puzzle of the village and the golden apple is also incredibly engaging. Although you can decently beat the game in 5-6 hours there is a great degree of replay value since you will forget the solutions to many of the early puzzles.

What helps with keeping the game interesting is the adventure element. Rather than a succession of puzzles, as we saw with The 7th Guest a short while ago, the puzzles need to be found and those, as well as other clues and hint coins, are hidden around the world you need to search. It also helps that whilst there are many puzzles that have to be solved in order to progress the plot there are so many extra ones to be found in the town’s nooks and crannies that it really does make sense to explore. Especially when you realise that at times, you have to get a certain amount of puzzles completed to proceed.

It helps that, as said, the puzzles are simply fun and diverse enough. Some puzzles are fairer than others – a number of them require the kind of lateral thinking that might seem like cheating sometimes, depending on the circumstances the designers thought of – but usually the answers make sense and can be derived.

Aside from the puzzles, which are integral to the success of the games, I did fall in love with the art style. Professor Layton’s design is already on the path towards iconic status, but there is a lot can be said for how the world of St Mystere looks. The village’s characters are drawn mostly in caricature reminiscent of French animation such as The Triplets of Bellville which, considering the game is set in France, is brilliantly apt. It is one of those touches in the games that won’t be seen by all gamers but is greatly appreciated by those who notice. And it looks lovely, and somewhat right. The slightly stylized looks allows for great characterizations, meaning that you get a feel of the character very early. Considering the amount of characters you meet, it’s very useful.

All in all, the actual animations are simple – the puzzles don’t need it and the main game doesn’t use much. Instead the game has a lot of hand drawn backgrounds which look gorgeous and provide you with enough details to allow quite a bit of exploration. There are, however, some fully animated sequences which includes a really cool one involving a rogue Ferris wheel (something which was missing from Trauma Center if we’re being honest). It is a lot more animated, that’s true. Not complicated, but still pretty.

The game is also incredibly addictive; I’m actually trying to do a few more puzzles at the moment. I want to finish the game too. It has also helped whet my appetite so much that I will, once I start earning, be investing in the other titles in the series. Who knows, I may even grab a copy of the film. What helps here is that it’s a good ‘background’ game. You don’t have to keep playing because of action going on around you; instead you can just do a puzzle when you feel like it.

Final Thoughts

Is it a game I’ll play again frequently? Maybe not too much, but I’ll certainly give it another go every once in a while. The puzzles are good fun – not too simple, but solvable – and there’s a good hint system to help you should you need it.

The game is pretty and has an engaging storyline, and is unique enough to really be worth giving a go when you have the chance.

#666 Trauma Center: Under The Knife

Posted: 9th September 2011 by Mulholland in Games
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0

83rd game played so far

Genre: Medical Simulation
Platform: Nintendo DS
Year of Release: 2005
Developer: Atlus
Publisher: Atlus

And so we have reached the game of the beast, how ironic it is that game 666 is one where you are trying to save people’s lives. Surely a game such as Devil May Cry or Planescape:Torment would have been a little more apt.

Either way, we noticed a small time ago that according to our big statistics spreadsheet we are long overdue a game on the Nintendo DS… in fact we have only covered one in the blog so far (the quite excellent Meteos) and there are nearly 50 of the blighters for us to be getting down and dirty with. So we dove into our big tuppaware box of gaming glory and yanked out two at random… then we figured that since I had already been playing two DS list games in my spare time it would make more sense to use those… sorry Mario & Luigi fans.

Our Thoughts

Let’s begin. Don’t forget to disinfect before you make the cut and be careful you don’t miss. I think it’s the GUILT that you need to be more weary of, that and the lasers. The premise of this game sounds simple… you have to perform surgery on various people to cure them. Not exactly rocket science. True, but it’s a lot like brain surgery. Luckily brain surgery on innocent patient where a few wild stabs have little effect beyond reducing a health meter… far safer than doing it in real life. Smells a lot nicer too.

Trauma Center stands as the first successful attempt to bring the surgical theatre to the world of gaming. It was also one of the first successful games to really make full use of the DS’s touchscreen technology. Especially since there is no way it could have been made before the current generation of consoles, except for a computer mouse which would not have worked anywhere near as well. For some. The narrative style is fairly typical of a Japanese made game in that speech is shown in text below static emotion-filled faces. It makes for a fairly stylized story that feels a bit over the top, not always as believable as you’d want it to be. You also get frightening little control, and they are little more than filler between the actual gameplay. Unfortunately not enough to draw me in. Since this is a game that draws great strength from rather stressful levels where many things can go wrong then it is nice to have a bit of a breather. However, I do agree that when you are used to games with a far more interactive edge it does jar a little bit to basically have the story talked at you rather than enveloping you in the intrique. Because you’re just performing surgery, it doesn’t always feel like the story has an impact – they could’ve shown you movies of penguins waddling up the beach to lay eggs and you’d have had that same breather. Whilst that would be delightful it really would have little to do with the surgery… unless it was fitting a shunt into the neck of a poorly penguin chick. Very much so.

The main gameplay is very decent however. Aside from a few control issues – they clearly had some things to work out here – the game is immersive and feels strangely realistic. There is a real pump of adrenaline as you notice a patient begin to flatline. Mainly as it means you have to give it a few healing injections. Also there tends to be a great degree of frustration since it is likely you just failed on your fourth attempt. Yeah, a lot of this is trial and error, keep trying to fix it. Also knowing when to use your surgical superpowers becomes a real factor in whether you suceed masterfully or fail bitterly. Although I found that the time taken to activate the power sometimes made failure more likely.

The controls can feel a little bit buggy when things get tense.  Which, in the end, is a big issue with this game. In particular zooming, which I lost a surgery or two on. It tells you to draw a circle, but actually  wants you to stop it earlier. But the rest of the operations uses the stylus and touch screen so seemlessly that this is not as big of an issue that it could have been. What helps is that it all feels intuitive. There are a lot of different actions to take, but they’re intuitive enough that they don’t feel difficult to remember. Also the icons for each procedure are not at all confusing thus making the operation feel as natural as it can… considering the circumstances. It’s a good game. Even the squeamish can play, as it doesn’t get that detailed. It takes some time to learn this game and come to grips with, but all in all, a solid idea executed well.

Final Thoughts

One reason the DS became so successful is that it opened up the floodgates to many game types that have never been been previously realised. This list is not only made to showcase the best games ever made but also the highly original ones. Nothing says original like a game where you use a touch screen to remove shards of glass from a young woman’s heart. I look forward to seeing how this will play out in the Wii version.

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