1 Hour Demo Impressions

Mortal Kombat – One Hour Demo Impressions

Mortal  Kombat was recently added to the full game demo list on PSN+. If your new to PSN+ its just a special subscription where you can get games for free/discount or play the full game (in this case)  Mortal Kombat for one hour. Back in the day Mortal Kombat was the poster-boy for videogame hate groups for its brutality or should i say its Fatalities. After a long hiatus Mortal Kombat is back and better than ever judging from the one hour demo. NetherRealm Studios are the developers and Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment the publishers. Mortal Kombat originally released on April 19, 2011 for the Playstation 3 and Xbox 360. The VITA will get a release April 2, 2012.

The main menu broke down into Fight, Story Mode, Challenge Tower, Training, Online, Extras and Options. One thing this fighting doesn’t lack is content.Whether its Challenge Tower or Online mode Mortal Kombat has multiple gaming options to keep you playing for a long time. For instance the Extras section has unlockable content that you can purchase. Not only that but there are a Necropolis section, a place to Redeem Codes,  Character Trailers and Announcement trailers. Navigating all of the menus was pretty easy do to Mortal Kombat’s menu ergonomics. For as much content that is present i expected some issues finding everything but that wasn’t the case at all.

The controls via Duel Shock 3: Square- Punch, Triangle-Back Punch, X-Front Kick, O-Back Kick, R1-Throw, L1-Tag, R2-Block and L2-Flip Stance. As far as controls go they created a really good gameplay experience. It feels like your playing old school Mortal Kombat all over again due to the controls and button layout. Performing moves wasn’t an issue with me thanks to the tight controls. After going through the menus and control layout it was time to play. I choose Story Mode first with the attention of getting it out of the way first.

Story mode in Mortal Kombat starts off with a fairly lengthly opening cutscene detailing the ending and beginning of the Mortal Kombat tournamaent. You start off playing Chapter 1: Johnny Cage. The story mode has snippets of storylines infused with each character you fight with. You do bounce from charcater to character during story mode. Story Mode was average. Its basically some cutscenes and voiced dialog mixed in with fighting. I had just one hour with this game so i moved on immediately to Ladder Match.

Ladder Match is the classic Mortal Kombat set-up where you just jump in and fight a ladder of opponents and hopefully reach the top. I picked Kratos for all my matches throughout the demo. I mean he is Kratos afterall. He can use the Bow, Hermes Boots and Helios’s Head from God of War 3. Kratos can probably use many other special abilities from God of War 3 but those are the ones i performed while playing. I played a few Ladder Matches which weren’t too difficult on normal difficulty. One level had me fighting in a city with cars racing in front of Kratos. Off in the distance you can see a huge monster destroying buildings. Next i played Challenge Tower which is a training tutorial/practice section. You can learn fatalities and complete tests to hone your fighter’s skills. Challenge Tower is where you should practice.

And last but not least i spent the rest of my hour playing Online mode. When you log into the online servers your greeted with a “Message of the Day” from the devs. Online sub-menus include: Ranked Match, Player Mtach, Private Match, Join Room, Create Room, User Statistics and Leaderboards. I spent my time in Ranked Match. There you can play one on one or tag-team matches. There were quite a few individual rooms with groups of players available also. I completed all of matches from quick matchmaking. As far as connections go i had only one freeze while connecting to a match.

As far as gameplay goes its fun. Its easy to perform Breakers. I couldn’t do any finishing Fatalities which blew. Many experienced players i played against online had no problem pulling them off on me however. The online competitive multiplayer was fun as you imagined and whould be the place i spent most of my time if i did buy Mortal Kombat. Although the in-game cutscenes wern’t impressive visually the actual in-game fighting looked and sound great.

The art design and texture work makes Mortal Kombat one goodlooking fighting game. And not to mention the x-ray bone crushing moves you can perform. Mortal Kombat looks great but is very gruesome to look at. The sound design brings back memories everytime i heard “FIGHT” before the match. The voice acting during cutscenes were mediocre which was expected. When everything is laid out in front of me its easy to say the presentation is good in Mortal Kombat.

From my one hour i spent with Mortal Kombat i will go on record and call it a very good fighting game. I do love my Street Fighter more but Mortal Kombat was really impressive. Thanks for reading.

Call of Juarez: Bound in Blood – 1 Hour Demo Impressions

Call of Juarez: Bound in Blood is a historical action first-person shooter game centered two brother’s relationship (Ray and Thomas). The 1 hour demo is available via Playstation Network Plus membership. Techland are the developers and Ubisoft the publishers to this historical western style fps. June 30, 2009 was the release date. The game is available for the PC, Playstation 3 and Xbox 360.

Call of Juarez: Bound in Blood is a prequel to Call of Juarez. The early portions of the story campaign takes you directly to the Civil War era fighting as a Confederate soldier. Matter of fact, all of my playtime with the single player i played as a Confederate soldier (Ray). The main menus listed accordingly: Single Player, Multiplayer, Options, Credits, Trophies and Exclusive Content. The Story Mode’s menus included Extra Missions, Secrets, Personal Stats. I played the story campaign on Medium difficulty.

The opening cutscene started with a stand-off between Ray and Thomas with a girl and a Priest stuck in the middle. Much of the gameplay centered playing as Ray during 1862 during the Civil War in Atlanta, Georgia. Gameplay composed of holding off waves of enemies, taking out groups of snipers and maning a gatling gun. There is a weapon wheel for quick gun access and cover with lean and peek mechanic. The controls: LS-move, RS-look, Square-action, X-jump, O-concentration mode, Triangle-reload, R1-right fire, R2-weapon change, L2-run, L1-fire left, Select-show objectives.

Concentration Mode lets you slow down time to take out multiple enemies. Red Dead Redemption’s Dead Eye totally reminds me of it. The atmosphere of the single player did appear static at times. The visuals were decent along with the sound design. The writing and voice acting could of been much better in my opinion. The ability to duel wield and take cover was a nice gameplay touch. I must say the small part of the story campaign that i played doesn’t hold a candle to the much unexpectedly fun multiplayer.

Multiplayer section housed Playstation Network Multiplayer – Quick Game, Quick Ranked Game, Custom Game, Create a Game, Unlock Characters and Statistics. Matchtypes – Wild West Legends, Manhunt, Wanted, Shoot Out, Posse. Max players per match are 12. Maps – Burnside’s Bridge, Coffeyville, Frisco, Magnificent Nogales, Stinking Springs, Taos Pueblo and Tombstone. I played one match of Shoot-Out on Burnside’s Bridge that took up the rest of my time of the demo. The match had a timer of 50 minutes.

The multiplayer loadouts are  as follows: Miner, Rifleman, Sniper, Native, Scout, Trapper, Gunsmith, Hombre, Spy, Officer, Duelist and Veteran. I played with a few like the Native who uses bow and arrows and the Sniper. Both were very different like most loadouts. I must say i had way too much fun with this game’s multiplayer. The map was fairly big with a bridge connecting two land masses. Shoot Out is just a simple deathmatch. People had mics in my match with about eight players total.

The one hour demo of Call of Juarez: Bound in Blood was better than i anticipated. The multiplayer was really addicting for some reason. The story well not as good was decent. Thanks for reading.

Brothers in Arms: Hell’s Highway – 1 Hour Demo Impressions

Brothers in Arms: Hell’s Highway is one of those WWII first-person shooters based on soldiers bonding through war. I was able to spend a good hour with the game thanks to Playstation Network Plus. Brothers in Arms: Hell’s Highway is an action game developed by Gearbox Software and published by Ubisoft. It originally released back on September 23, 2008  on the PC, Playstation 3 and Xbox 360. In case it slipped by you i played the one hour demo on my Playstation 3.

The main menu screen incorporated New Game, Chapters, Multiplayer, Options and Credits. I immediately went into Options and read the button layout via Dual Shock 3: L1-dig in, L2-alt fire/command, LS-look/crouch, D-pad-select item, Select-tactical map, R1-throw grenade, R2-fire weapon, RS-zoom, Start-pause/zoom. Without getting an in-depth analysis the controls sucked and so did the button layout. It felt like a chore to shoot people in Brothers in Arms: Hell’s Highway.

I choose New Game so i could spend the first half hour playing the story campaign. The opening cutscenes were aplenty. The year starts off at 1931 in Brighton Miss than 1944 in Normandy, France (the latter is the story from the previous game). More cutscenes ensue. Its obvious Brothers in Arms: Hell’s Highway was trying to convey a sense of family among its characters during WWII. The problem unfortunately is that this game hasn’t aged well on any fronts regarding presentation. After all of the cutscenes you are shown a prompt of whether you want the tutorial on or off. I choose off since this game was already quite painful to look at.

Brothers in Arms: Hell’s Highway is a WWII themed FPS centered around Americans versus Germans. You start off playing in a abandoned hospital in France. You do the basic FPS maneuvers like stealth, shoot a few guys until the end a cutscene shows one of the characters getting killed by a German soldier. After somemore cutscenes its three days before the events in the hospital you just played. I noticed during the opening cutscene two of the soldier’s faces used the exact same modeling features. What i’m trying to say i saw two soldiers standing next to each other who looked the exact same.

Lets look at the problems Brothers in Arms: Hell’s Highway had. Throughout the entire story campaign there was massive stuttering, slow-down, texture pop-in and slow loading. But what i disliked even more than all of that was the controls. They just felt so awkward compared to any FPS i played over the past few years. I could not get use to the controls for this game whatsoever. The game tries to pull you in with voiced narration, sweeping camera angles and below average visuals. The sound design was decent with good writing and voice acting which helped the story campaign. But overall shoddy presentation and a static lackluster atmosphere.

After spending half of my time in single player i decided to see if people played this game online still. They did surprisingly. The Multiplayer menu consisted of Online Game, Local Area Game, Join/Host Game.Maps included Town Center, Light House, Industrial. The sides are American versus German. The main gamemode is called Defend/Attack capture style of game. The cool thing about multiplayer in Brothers in Arms: Hell’s Highway is the fact you can drive tanks. The tanks are easy to operate actually. Most of the multiplayer is standard. You can choose a different loadout etc. The connection issues and spawn killing pretty much ruined the multiplayer for me when it was all said and done

Brothers in Arms: Hell’s Highway is extremely dated on practically all fronts. It just  shows some games do not age well. This game was boring and a whole bunch of performance issues involved with it. The controls i just hated. Thanks for reading.

Sly 2: Band of Thieves HD – 1 Hour Demo Impressions

Sly 2: Band of Thieves HD via the Sly Collection is a direct sequel to Sly Cooper and the Thievius Raccoonus. Sly 2: Band of Thieves can be purchased as one download off PSN or bought on Blu-ray as The Sly Collection. It can also be bought individually on PSN as well. Which brings me to the 1 hour demo of Sly 2 i played. PSN+ members often times get to try out full games for 1 hour before purchasing (or not). Sly 2: Band of Thieves HD was developed by Sanzaru Games and published by SCEA. It released November 9, 2010 exclusively for the Playstation 3.

Much like Infamous (another Sucker Punch game) Sly 2 doesn’t really have a starting menu screen. However after the game started i paused and looked at the controls: LS-move, Select-equipt power-up, RS-move cam/R3-binocucom, Square-swing cane/smash/power-up whack/juggle slam, X-jump/double jump, O-climb/land/pick pocket/sneak, Triangle-juggle/dive spin, R1-run. As far as the controls go they are fine except having to push Circle everytime you want to climb or land on something. The level design fit the controls well.

Sly 2: Band of Thieves HD starts out similar to its predescesor. You’re about to enter and rob a museum for an artifact. Except this time Bentley “The Brains” and Murray “The Brawn” actually help Sly in-game co-up style. Bentley opens up encrypted doors and Murray uses his brawn to fight along side Sly. The story of Sly 2 is similar to the first game. There is a immortal badguy associated with the Klaw Gang named Clockwerk. Clockwerk wants to kill all Coopers which obviously means trouble for Sly since the guy is over 100 years old.

Getting back to the tutorial level in Sly 2: Band of Thieves its similar to the first game’s tutorial. You break in a museum trying to locate Clockwerk Tailfeathers without alerting guards walking around. As you are about to escape you get busted by Inspector Carmalita Fox. Next, a on-rail sequence engages with Sly, Murray and Bentley running while Fox is shooting at them. They eventually make a clean get away. Now your at the hideout where you can buy items via Thiefnet such as Trigger Bombs, Fists of Flames and Smoke Bombs. You can buy items and sell them that you collected when doing jobs. You get most of your money from hitting objects and making gold coins pop out.

The first mission is called The Black Chateu. Your in Paris and this is where the first boss you target of the Klaw Gang Dimitri the lizard resides. You learn about Dimitri’s failed art dream and his rise at becoming a thief. He also owns a nightclub in Paris that you must infiltrate and take photos of which includes a generator, a printer and Dimitri himself. What i enjoyed most about Sly 2: Band of Thieves compared to the first game is the flexibility and diversity in missions. Instead of the super linear style the first game had you can now choose missions. You get assigned a few different jobs for instance. The Black Chateu starts off with me having to uplink satellites around Paris rooftops while not getting caught by guards.

Another job had me infiltrating Dimitri’s office and setting a bug. You can check out where missions are by looking at waypoints with L3. Since i only had an hour i was able to complete a few jobs and all of them were different for the most part. You can also crawl under tables and into vents for stealth purposes during jobs. There are still the same collectibles like bottles with clues in them. Another gameplay element i love about Sly 2 over the first is the health system. The first game was one hit one kill which was archaic for a 3D platformer game. Sly 2 has a actual health meter which you can refill with health items that drop from time to time when hitting objects and defeating badguys.

The presentation is layed out better in design and gameplay over the first game which shows me Sucker Punch (a long time ago) can learn and improve as developers. The visuals ran super smooth at 60 frames per second however the game doesn’t look any better than the first. The sound design along with Sly 2′s music was top notch. The writing and voice actors created a world within itself which led to a fun pleasant atmosphere. But more so than anything i was impressed with the overall game design as compared to the first.

I know i am late to the party regarding Sly 2: Band of Thieves HD. Better late than never i always say. I only had one hour but i must say Sly 2 is better in almost every category compared to the first game. Thanks for reading.

Red Faction: Armageddon – 1 Hour Demo Impressions

Red Faction: Armageddon is an action game that takes place 50 years after Red Faction: Guerrilla. Red Faction and myself go back a long time ago. Red Faction back in the Playstation 2 early days to be exact. I was able to spend a full hour with Red Faction: Armageddon due to my Playstation + membership. Volition Inc and THQ are behind this sci-fi adventure game. Red Faction Armageddon released June 7, 2011 for the PC, Playstation 3and Xbox 360.

The main menu screen has New Game, Manage Save Data, Downloadable Content, Infestation, Ruin Mode, Options and Extras. The controls via Duel Shock 3: Select-GPS, D-pad-select weapon, LS-move/sprint, L1-zoom/snap to target, L2-repair, R1-attack, R2-use nano forge, Triangle-crouch,, O-dodge, Square-reload/interact, X-jump, RS-aim/melee. Although the crouch button got some getting used to the rest of the controls were good. Locking onto enemies with your weapons was easy. Rebuilding objects with the Nano-Forge took some getting used to but was fun to use and effective when fighting EXOs/Mechs.

Red Faction: Armageddon has a really good sci-fi presentation. The only thing i can complain about was the cheesy writing during some cutscenes. The protagonist of Red Faction: Armageddon is  Engineer Darius Mason and Adam Hale (badguy) is the leader of a army who wants to destroy Mars. The opening moments shows a cutscene with Mason in a land vehicle heading towards a Terraformer gets blown up. Mason lives despite the attack. Its apparent very early in the game’s opening moments Red Faction: Armageddon holds true to its roots. That being real-time destruction. The Plasma Cannon i was equipt with took out huge towers in the distance creating big smoke clouds.

You also come equipped with an assault rifle that i used to take groups of Adam Hale’s soldiers. Locking-on was easy and effective, As you made your way towards the Terraformer you run into a big mech inside a garage. There you learn the importance of using your Nano Forge tool to recreate destroyed objects. In the case of the mech you rebuild cover that it destroys so your protected from future attacks. Enough hits with the Plasma Cannon and it (mech) will explode. The Nano Forge rebuilds practically everything else that has been destroyed like walkways, bridges, stairs etc. Since almost everything can be destroyed in this game you will be using it alote.

Collectibles are scattered throughout the game such as audio logs and Salvage. Salvage is used to upgrade the Nano Forge which can be important in the future. After the prologue and the destruction of the Terraformer the story picks up a few years later. The game starts out in an underground area called Bastian. Cara, a Marauder was about to get into a fight till Mason took them out. Mason is hired to do a job which led him to an ancient tomb underground with Adam Jenson at the bottom controlling aliens. I know sounds weird but it was delivered well and had a really good sci-fi vibe. Red Faction: Aramageddon totally reminds me of Total Recall (pun intended) because of the Mars setting.

After spending just over an half hour on the story campaign i came away impressed. I really like the single player side of Red Faction: Armageddon. The story is delivered well with nice CGI cutscenes as well in-game cinematics. The sci-fi atmosphere is thick with creative weapons and aliens. The shooting is fun and the gadgets even more fun. This game has alote of good imagination put behind it. The visuals are good as well along with the sound design. You can operate EXO suits or Mechs (i like to call them). When you add it all up its a solid, fun single player campaign. I wasn’t expecting to like it as much as i did.

Infestation – Infestation is an online co-op (1-4) players where you take on waves of ever increasingly tough aliens. Think Horde mode from Gears of War. There are a few ways to play Infestation. Either Online, LAN or Offline. For Online you can start matchmaking and host a room to play in. The maps are called Missions which included: Black Market, Trapped, Heretic, Extermination, Meltdown, Pressure, Dust to Dust and Harvest. I chose Black Market and my character was Snake. Snake came equipt with two Pistols a shotgun,  Maul Hammer and a Magnet Gun. At the start you run to a waypoint marked on the map where aliens start attacking you from multiple angles. I played alone and was able to complete a few waves before playing the next gamemode. Infestation is ok i’m sure its more fun when playing with others.

Ruin Mode – Ruin Mode is a free form destruction mode where scoring as many points as possible is paramount. At this point i had barely ten minutes of gametime left. I played on Junction which was the only map unlocked. There are others but you have to unlock them by reaching the specified score on Junction first (which i didn’t). It may seem easy, just destroy as much as possible in the time limit but it isn’t. You can pick and choose which four weapons to carry before starting Ruin Mode. Available are: Charge Launcher, Plasma Launcher, Plasma Beam, Plasma Cannon, Magnet Gun, Nano Rifle, Singularity Cannon and Rocket Launcher. I tried a few combinations of weapons but still failed. There must be a technique or  certain combo of weapons to use to get that 14,000,000 score on Junction.

I can say for certain Red Faction: Armageddon has a good single player campaign. The multiplayer seems tacked on however. If you buy this game make sure its for the story campaign and not multiplayer. Thanks for reading.

Alice: Madness Returns – 1 Hour Demo Impressions

Alice: Madness Returns is the sequel to American Mcgee’s Alice that released back on December 6, 2000. Since i am a Playstation + member i often times get to play full games for one hour before you you buy. Alice: Madness Returns is an action game developed by Spicy Horse and published by Electronic Arts for the PC, Playstation 3 and Xbox 360. It released on June 14, 2011.

Lets start out at the menus. You have New Game, Memories, Extra Content, Configuration and Game Manual. The controls via the Duel Shock 3: LS-move, R3/R1-aiming mode, L2-shrink, R2-dodge, Square-vorpal blade, L3-activate hysteria, D-pad-pepper grinder, teapot cannon.Select-skip cinematic, Start-pause menu. The controls are good. Attacking using the Vorpal Blade and then locking on to targets and shooting them with the pepper grinder was seamless and smooth. Controls while platforming were also nice using double jumps and floating while traversing the map.

Alice: Madness Returns starts off with a demented cutscene of Alice in one of her “Shrink” sessions at the Orphanage. The Psychologist wants Alice to let go of her past which she has problems with. Alice saw her family burn up in a fire when she was younger which has something to with it. This entire game has that Tim Burton movie look artistically with wicked raw imaginative characters and set pieces. The world of Alice: Madness Returns has a heavy art inspired look to it not found in many games. Much of the early goings regarding gameplay had Alice chasing a white cat around the city until she drops in a hole. Vale of Tears is the first level you play in and its in Wonderland.

I must say Alice: Madness Returns has very bad performance issues. The framerate were so unstable at times it appears as if i was playing a slideshow. Wonderland looked very imaginitive from a graphical standpoint. After talking to the cat you soon run through the tutorial. You first acquire the Shrinking ability which lets you not only shrink to fit through small holes in walls but also see secret messages where to go next. Next you find and equip the huge butcher knife called the Vorpal Blade. After locking onto  a few enemies and killing them i got the Snicker-snack trophy.

Collectibles include “Memory”‘s which are like audio logs of Alice’s past mostly involving her family. You also collect Bottles for points. Collecting Hollow Yves (teeth) are important for Alice’s survival and upgrading her Pepper Grinder and Vorpal Blade. You get the Pepper Grinder when you help Dutches collect a Pig Snout when you go pig snout hunting. The enemies i ran into included Bolterflys, Slithering Ruins, Insidious Ruins and small mad hatters. The design for all creatures were interesting to say the least. One thing Alice: Madness Returns does right was give me the feeling that Alice is one demented badass in one crazy demented world.

Slashing with a huge butcher knife and mowing down enemies with a pepper grinder that resembles a gatling-gun was fun indeed. The entire atmosphere seemed demented and crazy. The music and sound design lends a hand in the atmosphere. The visual artstyle also contributed. The animations weren’t good and awfully stiff. The gameplay is good regarding the combat and platforming. Gameplay is diverse enough as you meet a few NPCs that give you missions. Exploring was also rewarded by finding items that benefited Alice. Its just too bad the performance issues standout and believe me they really stood out.

After spending one hour with Alice: Madness Returns i can say it has good combat, platforming and an interesting story with decent characters. The world has a unique artstyle and the atmosphere is good. What messes the game up is the horrible framerate issues and sporadic stuttering. Thanks for reading.

Dragon Age II – 1 Hour Demo Impressions

Dragon Age II was heavily scrutinized upon release after gamers had their time with it. Personally i always believed Dragon Age II was scrutinized for its battle system and the fact Dragon Age : Origins is one of the best RPGs this gen. I have played the demo earlier in the year but this particular article details the 1 hour demo via Playstation +. Dragon Age II is a Role-Playing game developed by Bioware and published by Electronic Arts for the PC, Playstation 3 and Xbox 360. It released March 8, 2011.

The main menu screen houses New Game, Load Game, Options, Extras and Downloadable Content. The controls via Duel Shock 3: LS-move, RS-rotate camera, D-pad-character set, L1-previous party member, L1+R1- select full party, X-action, Circle, Square, Triangle-Rotate menu shortcuts, L2-radial menu, R2-switch to secondary battle menu, shortcuts. The battle system is more noob friendly then the previous game. I think its good but not as in-depth or effective as the one from origins.

The opening cutscene shows a Dwarf being held for interrogations regarding the Champion. The woman who’s leading the interrogation is trying to locate the Champion. Apparently the female warrior needs help defending her Chantry and only the Champion can help. After the cutscene you now customize your protagonist (Garret Hawke if male). You first select your class and gender. There are only three classes, Mage, Rogue and Warrior. I selected Warrior. You are now thrown into a prologue style battle tutorial with a group of Darkspawn to kill.

After taking out the Darkspawn in the prologue tutorial the game reverts back to the Dwarf and lady warrior who’s interrogating him. After that, you are now able to customize your character. You can customize appearance, portrait and name. There is also a menu for Events of Dragon Age that recaps the last game’s story. From there you can select your difficulty since this is the actual beginning of Dragon Age II. The story of Dragon Age II takes a completely different angle compared to Dragon Age: Origins. In this game your a refugee fighting along with your mother, brother (later dies, Carver), sister and a Templar stranger. You play as the Champion.

The Champion’s village was burnt down and much of my one hour was spent running from and fighting Darkspawn. After killing a giant Darkspawn earliar in the game Flemeth the Red Dragon “Witch of the Wilds” makes an appearance and saves the Champion and his entire family. If you don’t know who Flemeth is you played the entire game with her daughter Morrighan in Dragon Age: Origins. Morrighan told many tales of the witches power. The destruction of Lothering and A Long Way Home were the only two chapters i was able to complete in one hour. Its hard playing RPGs for only one hour (can’t make a dent in them whatsoever).

As far as gameplay is concerned Dragon Age II wasn’t bad at all. The combat was delightfully gory. You can switch and give orders to members in your party. Looting and leveling up was ok. The combat wheel makes selecting skills and potions seamless while the action is paused. As far as leveling up is concerned you can upgrade Abilities like Tactics, Resistance,  Weapon and Shield, Two-Handed and Vangaurd. You also are assigned Points as you level up. I spent mine on Strength, Dexerity and and Magic. Like practically every Bioware game choices and dialog trees are present in Dragon Age II. And yes there are potential game changing elements associated with decisions you make.

For a game that released this year i expected Dragon Age II to have better visuals with more imagination than it did. I am keeping in mind i only saw a few locations in my one hour. However i still expected better texture work and less stuttering and a better framerate. Don’t get me wrong Dragon Age II is a really goodlooking game but i expected a bigger improvement over the last game.

The writing and sound design were primo. I never got tired of talking to people or listening to the music while playing. My last minutes with Dragon Age II where spent in the Gallows trying to buy my family’s way into the city. Don’t let gamers confuse you on the internet regarding Dragon Age II. From my one hour spent with the game i can safely say its a good game. Thanks for reading.

Ratchet & Clank: All 4 One – 1 Hour Demo impressions

Since i am a Playstation Network + member i was fortunate enough to play Ratchet % Clank: All 4 One for one hour today. Being a fan of the series for a while now i was skeptical about the whole co-op presentation until today. I have played the beta for Ratchet & Clank: All 4 One and even the single player demo on PSN. None of it compares to the full game. Or should i say one hour’s worth of the full game. Insomniac Games are the developers and SCEA the publishers to this co-op action platformer. Release date October 18, 2011.

Lets start at the very beginning for the fact this game was 14GB worth of pain to download on my Playstation 3′s hardrive. During the install process your shown a comedic cinematic cutscene of Ratchet sitting next to Clank for an interview. Apparently the scene takes place recently after the events of A Crack in Time and Dr. Nefarious escaped but is now captured. Quirk is now President and takes part in finding Nefarious which was (i believe) the first level you suppose to play in Ratchet & Clank: All 4 One. Since i only had an hour i joined and completed as many levels/sections of the game as possible (sporadically). One section i played with the help of Susie we had to escape a robot base where they contruct minions. I believe that was actually the tutorial level.

When choosing a match to play you can dictate the search criteria such as Friend’s Only, Location, Allow Games in Progress, Play as Ratchet, Clank, Quirk, Nefarious, Difficulty and if you want Cheats or not. When i entered the lobby i saw about 20 different open in-game lobbies at a given time. Some of the levels were called Phonica Moon (i played), The Dead Groove, Uzo City (i played), TeraWatt Forest (i played), Alduaros Plains (i played) and N.E.S.T. (i played), Polar Sea (i played). Every level i played on was very unique in design and featured genious ways of involving co-op amongst the players with occasional boss fights.

Ratchet & Clank: All 4 One ran butter smooth and looked really good for most of my matches. There are checkpoints on levels as well Venders where you and your buddies can buy wild weapons and guns. You can also keep your weapons on the same level when you leave that map before completing it. Otherwise you only start with a pistol on maps you never played. There is also a ranking system for each player. For the most part, all of the games i played were free of stupitity as every gamer helped each other and competed with one another to net the most rewards at the end of the level. Boss fights were fun and took alote of teamwork most of the time.

The comedic atmosphere and presentation that i always enjoyed is all in Ratchet & Clank: All 4 One. The visuals are pretty good and the art style even better. The cities, desert canyons, snowy mountain levels and ruined city levels looked really good. Ratchet & Clank: All 4 One doesn’t look nearly as good as its PlayStation 3 predecessors but its good enough. The great voice acting between the comedy team of Quirk, Nefarious, Clank and Ratchet always kept me giggling.

Cutscenes do play a part in the story (there is one). Depending on which level or section of the game your in you can see them. Since my hour didn’t give me the freedom of playing the game from beginning to end i caught a few cutscenes while playing in some levels. I got a real feeling of competitiveness while playing Ratchet & Clank: All 4 One. At the end of each level everybody is scored and awarded accordingly. Wether you collected the most bolts or found the most collectibles everybody can see it. Everybody can also see NOOB status on screen when you died the most out of everybody.

Let me make it clear, Ratchet & Clank: All 4 One is a fun fun game. I was skeptical about Insomniac Games making a Ratchet game with 4 player co-op. After witnessing the quality of All 4 One i can safely say its a good game.

1 Hour Demo Impressions – MX vs. ATV Alive

MX vs. ATV Alive is a off-road racing game developed by THQ Digital Studio Phoenix and published by THQ for the Playstation 3 and Xbox 360. It released May 10, 2011. I happen to be a Playstation Network Service Plus member or PSN+ for short. On occasion the service lets you test drive games for 1 hour before buying them (if you choose). I saw MX vs. ATV Alive sitting there so i downloaded it onto my hard-drive.

The main menu screen featured sub-menus of Race Menu, Customize Menu. At the Customize menu you can change vehicles, i picked the Takashi 125 for my starting bike. Vehicles are rated by power, breaking, traction etc. You can earn Rider Skills as you get good at playing MX vs, ATV Alive. There is also a Records section where you can keep track of all your in-game statistics. The Single Player menu is where you can access the poor story campaign of the game. As you beat tracks you unlock more. You earn XP as you compete and complete races that can be used to modeify your ATV or MX.

The Online section is broken down into Free Ride, Local Multiplayer (split screen), Moto Club Depot. You earn the Go Shopping trophy from just entering the store. You can buy graphic kits, vehicles, special items, gear etc. The button layout via the Duel Shock 3: LS-steer, D-pad-camera, free style jam, L1-clutch,, L2-brake, Start-pause, Square-reset position on track, X-use reset points, R3-seat bounce, O-reverse, Triangle-reset cam point and R1-stunt modifier. The controls are not only bad they took me a while to master and when i did, they were still bad.

The Single Player is just a tutorial basically where you have to pass events and level up in the process. It wasn’t fun at all. The Online Playlist section was fun sometimes. Here you can play Free Play mode where you just fly around on a ATV or MX on a huge map getting air doing stunts and racking up XP and points. The actual competitive racing online was marred with super long load times and freezing. When i could actually get in a race and finish it, it wasn’t so bad.

The presentation of MX vs. ATV Alive is that of low quality. From the visuals, sound design, connecting online and controls, it sucked. When you expect to play these types of games you want a thrill out of it. I never felt so bored while playing a offroad racing game in my life. ExciteBike could still give me a better rush than MX vs. ATV Alive. The textures looked extremely washed out and bland. The sound design  wasn’t good. The music i didn’t like. Maybe this game should steal the music from the Motorstorm series.

I can excuse everything in a game if its very fun to play. This game was far from fun. I was confused as to if this game was a over the top racing game or a simulator the way it played. At any rate i didn’t enjoy it. Thanks for reading.

1 Hour Demo Impressions – Mortal Kombat vs DC Universe

On occasion PSN+ members get to try out full games for one hour before making a decision on whether or not if they want to buy said game. Today i downloaded the five gigabits sized Mortal Kombat vs DC Universe to see what it was all about. I had an hour which was plenty of time for me to play around with every gamemode. Mortal Kombat vs DC Universe was developed and published by Midway back on November 16, 2008 for the Playstation 3 and Xbox 360.

The main menu section featured sub-menus of One Player, Two Player, Online, Extras and Options. The button layout via the Duel Shock 3: Square-attack 1, Triangle-attack 2, X-attack 3, O-attack 4, R1-grab, L1-throw, R2-block, L2-3D movement. I’m a Street Fighter IV and Super Street Fighter IV fan. After actually playing Mortal Kombat vs DC Universe this game from a controls perspective felt like it was dipped in molasses. They the controls are slow, sluggish, wonky, unresponsive and featured too much button lag. Lets not get into the hit detection it was pretty abysmal too.

The gameplay is centered around performing Finishers, Breakers, activating RAGE mode and trying to perform combos. The best characters that i used were the Joker and Liu Kang. Joker could throw bombs at will at any distance pretty much. For the most part it seemed to me that the DC Universe characters were overpowered compared to Mortal Kombat’s fighters. The character roster featured Scorpion, Sub-Zero, Sonya, Shang Tsung, Kitana, Joker, Cat Woman, Flash, Superman, Batman, JAX, Liu Kang, Raiden, Kano, Baraka, Death Stroke, Wonder Woman, Lex Luther, Captain Marvell and Green Lantern. There is a separate in-depth area that gives lengthly bios of every fighter which can be found in the Extras section of Mortal Kombat vs DC Universe.

I picked One Player then choose Story mode to get antiquated with the gameplay, visuals and sound design. You can pick which story you would like to play either Mortal Kombat or DC Universe. I played some of both and they are similar in plot but have different cut-scenes obviously. The story had to do with the merger of Mortal Kombat’s realm and DC Universe’s realm. The visuals are very washed out looking. Granted this game is almost three years old. The voice acting and writing were average. The cutscenes featured mediocre camera work. Then again, its a fighting game but Mortal Kombat vs  DC Universe lacks story telling.

After playing through some of the stories and Arcade mode i then visited the Online section. The online section was worse then the single player. I kept getting logged out for one. There is no quick matchmaking. You have to challenge or somebody challenges you to a fight. Most people in the lobbies didn’t even want to fight. The online system is archaic for this fighting game. When i did get a few matches they weren’t fun.

After the online fiasco i played around in the Kombo Challenges section. This section is your typical trials / training section if you will. There you learn combos and must perfoirm specific sequences of moves, specials etc. Its a training area to be frank. You can pause and check out any fighter’s moves list during the training. By the end of Kombo Challenges training my hour was practically up.

Mortal Kombat vs DC Universe isn’t in the same leage as Street Fighter IV, Marvel vs Capcom or the last Mortal Kombat game released. It seems the devs of the latest fighting mastered the art of making a fun addicting deep fighting game. Mortal Kombat vs DC Universe wasn’t fun however i’m very grateful i had an hour to spend with it. Thanks for reading.