Hands-On 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.

Puddle – Demo Impressions

Puddle is a physics based game where you tilt the screen using the Left or Right Triggers on the Xbox 360 gamepad.  Your goal is to manipulate a puddle of liquid and help it reach the exit of each stages while avoiding dangers. Puddle is developed by Neko Entertainment and published by Konami. Its currently available as a Xbox Live Arcade Game (XBLAG). It will also release on PSN (January 31, 2012) and later on the VITA.

The main menu screen featured Play, Laboratory, Leaderboards, Achievements, Unlock, Buy Full Game, Help & Options and Exit Game. I immediately went into the Help & Options to see the controls: Left Trigger (tilt left), Right Trigger (tilt right), Back (restart level) and Pause (start). The controls are practically flawless. All your really doing is rotating the screen left or right to manipulate liquid where you want it to go. Its not hard to mess up the controls in Puddle since its juts a simple physics based puzzle game.

After looking at the controls i then checked out the Achievements section. The achievements looked pretty easy. “Goldrush” you just have to get 48  gold medals and “Total Reaction” you get that when you finish all levels. Although you can only play one level in the demo you can see all of the levels in Puddle on-screen. Watercourse, Nursery, Laboratory, Sewers and Rocket and a few others. The full game has 8 chapters with 6 levels each. So you have 48 total levels which seems like a decent amount.

One gameplay feature that caught my eye was the ability to unlock secret levels.   When talking about Puddle’s gameplay its pure addicting. Its fun and it makes you want to keep trying everytime you lose all your liquid to dangers. Dangers include fire that comes in the forms of flames mostly. The level design in the demo was good. It was interesting and challenging enough to make getting to the end rewarding. To bad i could only play one level i wanted more.

The presentation is good. From the title screen’s music to the visuals of the liquid. The game has quality written all over it. The music and sound design gave me a science vibe (if that is possible). I usually don’t try out physics games but something told me to give Puddle a go. Glad i did i really enjoyed the gameplay and presentation of this liquid manipulating videogame.

Puddle is a pretty good puzzle physics game judging from the demo. I wasn’t expecting this game to be good or bad. In the end, it turned out really good. If your a fan of physics based games give the demo of Puddle a try. Its a short demo but a good demo. Thanks for reading.

Ocean Drive Challenge – Demo Impressions

As a kid growing up in the “80′s” i immediately caught the Miami Vice”esque” upon starting Ocean Drive Challenge. Oh wait there’s more. Ocean Drive Challenge is a driving game that catapulted me back into the arcades where i use to play a game called Outrun. Trust me, all compliments coming from me. Nostalgia runs rampant with this Xbox Live Indie Game (XBLIG). Ocean Drive Challenge was developed and published by need1D and released January 23, 2012 via Xbox live Live Indie Games Marketplace for 80 MSP.

The main menus screen had Start Game, High Scores, Create, How To Play, Buy Game and Exit. Basically you have all the info you need and its easily navigable. The controls (Xbox 360 gamepad): LS-steer, LB-brake, RB-accelerate, A-switch gears. Simple controls and they partially didn’t matter a whole lot since the game seemed to place you on invisible rails anyways. You can steer and avoid on-coming traffic etc. Its just how the game is built, it seems like you driving on invisible rails the entire time.

You can choose between three different drivers in the full game of Ocean Challenge Drive. The demo lets you choose one driver and that is J.J. Barrom and his RD100D. Cynthia drives a Barracuda and Mr Gatlin who is a dead ringer for Gordon Gekko  drives a Classic GT. Each car has its own statistics for braking, acceleration and top speed. Each character must talk to themselves differently during races also. When you start the race you can choose automatic or manual. You can also “Hide Driver Comments”. I left the comments on since i’m nosey. You can also choose if and what music you want to play. You can shuffle the music if you so choose.

Gameplay is ok. Like i said it feels like your on-rails driving the entire time. Its simplistic and feels old school. I did play through the trial a few times and finally got to the point where i had “30 seconds” until the demo stopped. As for the presentation its solid. The artstyle and visuals are good in my opinion. I liked the different settings and how they changed as you crossed checkpoints. Ocean Drive uses a vibrant color palette that makes the visuals pop out of the screen.

The game appears to have many settings like forest, downtown city, roads lined with ancient statues, canyons and a neon city. Its a really nice looking indie game on XBL. The music was good for what this indie game was about. There are a quite a few songs which adds to the overall quality of the game. Ocean Drive Challenge definitely has some nostalgia going on with it. Its presentation is solid for an indie game on XBL. And for just 80 msp it just might be a deal. Thanks for reading.

Starhawk – Beta Review Week 2

This is my second article detailing my Starhawk beta experiences. As i continue to play this game i am starting to understand its mild strategy elements more. But before i get into any impressions i must inform you gamers of the new update this week. Update 1.2.2 which came online January 20 introduces some new elements to the Starhawk beta.

This includes faster, normal and advanced flight controls (double tap R2 for afterburners). Also added was homing missiles ability to home in sooner and swarming lasers begin to home in sooner as well. I noticed that the Gamelist screen has a Refresh button (triangle) added. Apparently there will be a sort and filter button as well. Then again maybe it was there before but i never noticed it till today.

Strategy

Using Supply Bunkers in Capture the Flag: When playing Capture the Flag i immediately whenever its possible create a Supply Bunker in front of the flag on my team’s base. Supply Bunkers are fairly strong structures that you can walk inside  or climb on top. But what i like most about it is that it comes with a respawning Rocket Launcher and a Shotgun inside. The Rocket Launcher can home in on Hawks and people who are flying jeypacks in the air. Its basically like using the Rocket Launcher from Warhawk. Another thing about the Supply Bunker is that you can set up Turrets from inside of it. As my resources built up i constructed more and more Turrets around the bunker creating a solid defensive base for the flag at my base.

Supply Bunkers aren’t perfect however. I played a match where a guy kept landing on top of my Supply Bunker shooting it with rockets till it exploded. To combat that you will have to climb on top of the bunker or like i just typed lay out a bunch of Turrets around it. Players are crafty and will target Turrets first so be aware. Also many players are trying to construct Supply Bunkers close to your base of operations which can cause problems if your team is not aware. Location is important when constructing Supply Bunkers since your teammates will likely run inside them for better weapons and possible camping/playing defense. You do need a fair amount of resources to build one bunker.

To get resources fast what i did was at the very beginning of the match let all of my teammates build there Garages, Walls, Jetpack Stations or whatever (i don’t dismantle Supply Bunkers). After they headed out towards the enemy flag i deconstruct all of there stations and use the resources immediately to build a Supply Bunker in a good strategic defensive position near the flag. If your feeling like a hero you can head on out towards the other team’s flag and create a Supply Bunker near there flag. But keep in mind people over top of the bunker with rockets can destroy it as well Hawks and Jetpack guys. Everytime i played CTF i would come in top three of my team in XP/Points using the above tips. Its mostly pure defense though so keep that in mind.

Other Impressions: Connection freezes are still apparent from time to time when matchmaking. However when choosing games from the game lobby i have yet to have a connection freeze all day. To select different weapons use the Dpad (Duel Shock 3). Just like in Warkawk enemies and teammates drop there weapons and grenades (they look gold). For some reason the sound design isn’t crisp or loud like other games i play on my Playstation 3. I refuse to to compare this Starhawk beta to the full game of Warhawk. The matches in the Starhawk beta are small in nature only 16 maximum.

The full game will have 32 players maximum. So i suggest you gamers that are turned off by Starhawk to keep that in mind. I also noticed how teams (mine and opponets) are starting to implement light strategy techniques to what and where they construct structures. I say light becuase thats what it is. Its also fast strategy considering people can dismantle your structures if they have the means. If you are having problems getting resources fast dismantle your previous structure or a teammates. You can also respawn Hawks, Razerbacks and Jetpacks (press square near yellow screen). Just make sure you are at the correct station. The epic win of the day was when my drop pod landed on a enemy for a badge.

This concludes my second article detailing some of my time with Starhawk this week. Most importantly i have to tell you again this game is fun.  Old Warhawk vets need not worry. Thanks for reading.

Wanted Corp – Demo Impressions

Wanted Corp puts you in the shoes of two intergalactic bounty hunters Neal H Maddog and Irina Zimoy. This third person shooter arcade game was developed and published by Zoo Entertainment. You can find the released retail versions of Wanted Corp on PSN and PC.

The main menu screen shows Trial Game and Buy Game. After choosing Trial Game it breaks down into Play, Buy the Game, Store, Training, Leaderboard, Archives and Options. I first choose Training which is a tutorial that shows you the basic gameplay mechanics of Wanted Corp. The tutorial teaches you how to catch fugitives, use your guns, throw grenades and basic movement. Wanted Corp can be used with the Move motion controler. Since i don’t have Move i used the DS3: L2-roll, LS-move, Square-melee, RS-aim, R1-fire, R3-reload, L1-change weapon, R2-cryogenic fire.

I like the controls in this game. Its sorta a top down shooter so the roll evade was a nice addition. Switching guns from regular to the Cryogenic Freezer (to catch criminals) didn’t feel seamless. Everything else was pretty good even the grenade aiming mechanic. You get the most points by transferring fugitives which i had no problem with. There is a shop on your ship and also on the maps that takes you to the ship. You can play Wanted Corps Offline 1 or 2 players or Online 2 players.

The demo gives you a nice taste of what the full game is probably like. The atmosphere is light hearted as evidenced by how many one-liners Maddog says in-game. The presentation is that of a sci-fi universe featuring spaceships and distant exatic planets. Fugitives range from all types of beings like half robotic primates and Monks with telekinetic powers. You get a nice dossier of each fugitive you will hunt inside the Wanted Corp spaceship before teleporting onto the planet. To my knowledge there are 8 missions in Wanted Corp (full game). The demo mission  lasts about thirty minutes (give or take). The first mission titled Jungle Episode: 1.

Irina and Maddog uses two completely different styles of gameplay. Maddog just shoots and blows stuff up Irina uses lightning magic. The level’s setting starts off in a jungle then takes place inside a cave and back outside. You can capture practically anything that attacks you. I played alone as Maddog with Irina as a bot. The gameplay is actually fun. You can melee boxes and get ammo and health items if you run low. The gameplay is frantic at times but not difficult. Then again what twin-stick shooter isn’t frantic?

Collectibles such as  Pharmatech Reports are  scattered about and scored on at the end of each mission. The one obvious weakness in this game was its visuals. They were muddied washed out and had vasilene smeared textures. The music was pretty good however. I liked the jungle beats that were in the first mission. The rest of the music did give me a sci-fi vibe. There is alote of voiced dialog in Wanted Corp. The writing and voice acting is pretty much all cheesy but not necessarily bad either.

Wanted Corps demo was ok. It does have a nice tutorial and decent size mission to play. I did like the gameplay for its action and the ability to capture fugitives. The atmosphere was also decent. Thanks for reading.

Tribes: Ascend – Beta Review

Tribes: Ascend is a fast paced  shooter featuring big open maps and jet packs. I was fortunate enough to get my hands on the beta key for Tribes: Ascend. I admit i never played a Tribes game in my life since i was primarily a cosole gamer up until a few years ago. I always heard PC gamers touting Tribes for its fast jet packing style of gameplay. Many gamers also considered some of the Tribes games to be innovative and “before there time”. I don’t know about any of that but after playing some of Tribes: Ascend beta i know one thing, this game is fun. Tribes: Ascend is developed by Hi-Rez studios and published by _No Company. The game will release first on the PC Q1 2012 and later on the Xbox 360 TBA.

Since this is a early impressions article i’ll just get some of content out of the way first. The main screen has all of the beta’s basic info for navigating and finding what you need. Top of the screen has Classes, Profile, Buy Boost, Play Tokens and Shared XP. The Classes include Ranger, Soldier, Juggernaut, Scrambler, Raiden, Brute, Pathfinder, Infiltrator, Technician, Jumper and Sentinel. You start out only being able to access Soldier and Ranger. I played most of my matches today as a Ranger and did ok with that class. I even got a 5 kill no death in one match of  team deathmatch.

Each class has two Perk slots. There are about thirty different perks you can unlock give or take. Some are Looter, Bounty Hunter, Air Show, Flag Reach, Safe Fall, Back Stab and many more. You can also unlock Skills by playing Tribes: Ascend’s online multiplayer. Some of these are Spinfuser Ammo, Health Maximum, Energy, Eagle Reload etc. Since i’m just starting  i have yet to unloack any Skills yet. I did however apply the two free default perks to my Ranger class. As far as navigating through all of the menus etc it was fairly painless and noob friendly. Everything in the beta content-wise has a bio attached to it so you know excatly what your spending your in-game tokens on.

Gamemodes: Team Deathmatch, Rabbit and Capture the Flag. I spent my time primarily playing Team Deathmatch. Team Deathmatch was pretty neat. It has flags that can be carried and dropped for bonus points. Haven’t touched Rabbit or Capture the Flag. I plan on writing more impression articles detailing more gamemodes and maps.

Maps: Bella Omega and Dry Dock are the two maps i wrote down. I did play a couple of others. For the most part all of the maps are huge and open. Some maps are at night with space cruisers flying over head. Other maps are at daytime and feature more greenery. Every map has Inventory Stations that replenish ammo for all of your weapons.

Other Stuff: for a complete noob at Tribes i did find Tribes: Ascend albeit simplistic in design but a captivating and fun shooter. I really like how you have to anticipate and place your shots. My secondary weapon was a grenade launcher type gun. I was placing my shot so good i would blow up a enemy while he/she flew into the grenade i shot killing them. It was very rewarding. So much killing while in the air with this game. As for my skills go i always had more kills than deaths in all my matches. I haven’t spent any tokens on upgrades yet.

I am enjoying this little sci-fi beta thats for sure. I do plan of writing more Tribes: Ascend beta articles detailing more of the beta as i rank up. But to do that i have to play more. Thanks for reading.

Starhawk – Beta Review 1

I remember the early days of the Playstation 3 when everybody would play Warhawk day and night. After playing some of the recently released public beta of Starhawk, its safe to say those days will be returning. I was able to get into the Starhawk beta a week early via Playstation+. People who pre-ordered Uncharted 3: Drakes Deception will be able to get in the beta next week January 21, 2012. Starhawk  is an action game developed by Lightbox Interactive and published by SCEA exclusively for the Playstation 3. The release date is TBA.

Before i get into the factual information i am glad to let players know that enjoyed Warhawk that all of the “LOL OMG” gameplay is in Starhawk. Asides from the occasional long loading times and connection drops this game is pure fun! 1.2.1 Update: Enabled host migration server option, Classic Warhawk arcade flight mode added. Added control panel to sniper tower added. Fixed bug that caused stats not to post. Language support for English, Finnish, French, German, Dutch, Italian, Japanese, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish and Swedish.

Menus: Settings, Matchmake, Create Game, Game List, Leaderboard and News. Maps: Space and Acid Sea. Gamemodes: Capture the Flag and Team Deathmatch. However when you take a look at Matchmake you can see two locked gamemodes ZNS and DM. I assume those two gamemodes will be added later in the beta. Controls: Triangle-item wheel, L1-zoom weapon, R1-shoot, X-jump, Square-reload, O-crouch, R3-melee, L2-grenades and R2-sprint. When operating a Hawk (mech) to transform hit O button. They’re are many more button layouts for the various vehicles. I just wrote down as i played since there isn’t a button layout screen.

Rifters versus Outcast: Rifters and Outcasts are the two main factions in Starhawk, Rifters look like mutated humans and Outcast look like normal humans. I’m thinking since Starhawk will have a single player story campaign i will learn exactly why the Rifters look mutated, probably from some exotic element found on some distant planet?

Gameplay: I’m sure you all seen the videos of huge structures falling in front of players while they are playing. Well those are very important to your’s as well your team’s success in Starhawk. Pressing the Triangle Button lets you bring up the item wheel anywhere. There are many items/structures you can build. Just make sure you see a green outline which means you can build it. If you see yellow outlines means you can’t build it. You just need adequate space. Items that you can build include Walls, Auto-Turrets, Sniper Towers, Pod Beacons, Launch Pads (comes with Hawk), Jet Pack Dispensers and Supply Bunkers. There could be more but those are the ones i built in-game.

Building structures in real-time saves time. You remember having to run around the map to get a vehicle? Those days are over pretty much. Now keep in mind you just can’t build and destroy vehicles over and over in Starhawk. You have to have a certain amount of energy (there is a bar on screen that fills up). You can break down structures which creates room and gives you a chance to build something. Bottomline Starhawk has a better gameplay template then Warhawk in my opinion. Its not perfect and needs to be refined but its better then Warhawk make no mistake.

Other Stuff: Operating the Hawks with inverted controls felt really good. I assumed it would be difficult to control a transforming mech in this game but it wasn’t. The Razerback is like a jeep with a turret. It was easy to maneuver as well. I gotten a few medals in Starhawk including Survivor, Builder and Revenge medals. XP ranks you up just like in Warhawk. When you spawn you are hurled into the map from outerspace (really nice). Long load times and many connection drops are present.

I know its all part of the beta process but its still annoying. All of the “omg, lol, holy s***” moments are in Warhawk. For example a guy in his Hawk was trying to kill me. He was in a mech  and i was close to death. I threw two quick grenades at him and blew him and his Mech up! Stuff like that happens all of the time in Starhawk. Its waht makes the game fun. You always have a chance to survive when it seems you are doomed.

In closing i do plan to write a series of Starhawk impression articles during the length of the beta. As far as fun go this game is primo. Thanks for reading.

Siege King: The Siege of Aurum – Demo Impressions

Siege King: The Siege of Aurum is an action adventure game that brings back some of my childhood memories of playing Gauntlet in the arcades. Developed and published by Ziba Games for Xbox Live Indie Games Marketplace (XBLGM). Siege King: The Siege of Aurum released on January 14, 2012.

When you first boot up the title screen you’re shown the menus Campaign, Arena, Buy Game and Exit. The title screen and menus were organized nicely. No clutter, no confusion and seamless to navigate. The controls via the Xbos 360 gamepad: LS-move, A-basic defense, B-strong attack, X-defense, Y-special, LB-use item 1, RB-use item 2 and LT-respawn (you will be doing this alote). The controls weren’t much of a problem. There are many variables and buttons all over the gamepad you have to push though. Why do i have to press a button to re-spawn? Shouldn’t that happen automatically when i die? Little stuff like that i don’t understand. As far as combat is concerned no real complaints there.

Siege King: The Siege of Aurum gives you a nice little story snippet before you start causing chaos for the Kingdom of Aurum. The story goes, long ago seven knights of Aurum were sent to collect the Gems of Antiquity (seven total gems). Only three knights actually returned with gems (3). You as a gamer must retrieve those three gems from Aurum and return them to your King. The gameplay starts out at Aurum’s sea on your boat. You immediately must siege the beach. As far as the lore goes its there at least. Its nothing special or Shakespeare (thats sarcasm btw). I do give credit for adding a story to this top down action adventure game.

Siege King: The Siege of Aurum is a class based co-op game at heart. There are four playable classes all distinct from one another. You have the Mage, Soldier, Jester and Archer. Each class does have different strengths and weaknesses and quite frankly feel different while playing. Siege King can be played either local in co-op (1-4) players or online (2-4). I wasn’t able to play any co-op in the demo but i’m sure this game is more fun playing with others. As far as the obvious presentation aspects are concerned this game is a mixed bag. The visuals are lackluster and appear blurry with a static setting. However the music is really good and the game’s overall sound design.

Gameplay is old school is some aspects with its top down co-op roots. I must say playing North Beach Garrison was at times difficult. If you get into a swarm of enemies and unable to use your special attack or magic you’re dead pretty much. Simple grunts with arrows and swords can kill you pretty easily if they surround you. If you do use your magic or special attack you can take out quite a bit of them fairly easy. Enemies drop coins which can be used to replenish supplies for your character. I do like how you have to play defense in Siege King: The Siege of Aurum. You have to protect yourself when you can. You just can’t run around the map and swing your sword at enemies all day.

Siege King: The Siege of Aurum demo was good. I do like the class system and the co-op functionality (even though i didn’t get to play co-op). There is depth regarding its gameplay and some story to keep you interested. Siege King: The Siege of Aurum retails for 240 msp. Thanks for reading.

Lootfest: Level Design – Demo Impressions

Lootfest: Level Design is a retro style level editor game featuring zombies, RC Cars and up to 8 players for co-op action. Sounds good huh? Despite me playing practically every type of  Xbox Live Indie Game featuring level editing, mining and zombies i came away somwhat impressed with Lootfest: Level Design’s trial game. Gamefarm are the developers as well the publishers of Lootfest: Level Design. It released January 14, 2012 and retails for 240 msp on Xbox Live Indie Games Marketplace. I’m thinking that 240 msp is a deal considering the depth and quality this game seems to have after playing the trial multiple times.

When you first play Lootfest: Level Design it doesn’t waste anytime in throwing you into its 8-bit visual sandbox world. The in-game menus showed: Creation Mode, Toy, Travel, Shop, Appearance, Network Settings and World 1. The button layout for the sword swinging protagonist via Xbox 360 gamepad: LS-move, RS-camera, A-sword, Back-build, Start-menu. Button layout for editing: LB-remove block, RB-add block, LT-camera mode, Start menu, RT-select, Y-undo and X-pick color. The level editor is basically two lines and a axis one is longitudinal and the other lateral.

You can move the axis up, down, left, right etc. You can pick and choose which type of material you want and where exactly you want it placed. You can stretch blocks horizontally or vertically. The level editor in Lootfest: Level Design is actually noob friendly imo. It doesn’t take long to master it. If you buy the game expect to have a relationship with the level editor. The camera lets you zoom out far enough and close enough as well so don’t worry about vision while creating. Also navigating from in-game to editing the level is seamless. Finding what you want in Lootfest: Level Design is fairly easy.

There is a in-game Shop where you can buy useful items. They sell Apple Pie (refills energy gauge from zombie attacks), RC Tank, Sword Lvl 2 and Set Spawn. All items cost coins to purchase. You get coins and hearts from killing zombies (who doesn’t love that). Speaking of zombies they do spawn up on occasion and a couple swings with the sword usually kills them. When zombies do get the better of you a message from Grampa pops up alerting you to the shop to buy some health items. I did on one occasion buy the level 2 sword but couldn’t tell a difference after killing a few zombies if it was worth it or not.

The RC Car was cool but too bad you can’t detonate it in a group of zombies or can you?  The setting looks like most creation type game’s levels. Its sunny, trees everywhere etc. The visuals reminds me of Zelda when it came out back in 1987 (good old days). The sound design was good but some songs got on my nerves. However i do like how the songs were displayed in the top left of the screen and naturally rotated as your playing Lootfest. Wait let me scratch that i did like “Coding Blind” music that track gave the game a good vibe.

You can change the appearance of the sword swinging protagonist in Lootfest: Level Design. You can change his Hair Color, Skin, Facial Hair, Hat, Hat Main Color and Hat Detail Color. I think its a welcome edition. Who want’s a game with 8 players looking the exact same constructing castles  together? You would get confused to who is who. Some other tidbits of note: Lootfest can be played on a Arcade Memory Stick and must be played on Xbox Live Gold to get the full experience of the game. The protagonist does not jump. This game does have 2-8 players online multiplayer co-op which has to be fun after playing the trial a few times.

One thing i really appreciated about this demo was the fact you could continue off at the world as you left. I played the trial at least five times so much appreciated Gamefarm. You can’t play multiplayer in the demo. However you can create different worlds in the demo and select them at the continue screen. For a demo Lootfest: Level Design is really good. I know its another one of those creation games but you guys should give it a go if your into these type of games. Thanks for reading.

AMY – Demo Impressions

Usually i can make myself play through a bad videogame demo without a hitch. But today i met my match with AMY. Not only did i not finish the demo i’m surprised i made it as far as i did in this devastatingly unplayable horror action game. Vector Cell developed AMY and  Lexis Numerique published this horrendously bad horror title. AMY is now available on Xbox Live as a Arcade game but releases on PSN next week (Jan 17, 2012). It will also release for the PC with a TBA release date. Don’t worry about AMY’s release dates gamers you should stay clear and far away from this game trust me on this.

When you start up AMY you see the menus Adventure, Help & Options, Achievements, Leaderboard and Unlock Full Game. AMY’s archaic tank controls button layout via the Xbox 360 gamepad: D-pad-turn off/on lamp/open inventory/check weapon, A-use serum, LB-jog/run, LT-hit/dodge, RS-crouch/camera, A-action/use, Y-interact, RT-aim/select/power/release power, RB-call Amy/hold Amy’s hand, ask Amy to stay, Select-display tutorial/commands/manual.  Throw the controls and AMY out of the window. First off the controls are horrible and takes two buttons to do everything.

Combat is horrid with the controls you’re praying and swinging for a homerun each time you melee an enemy. The controls are so clunky and wonky its just a chore to turn around and walk. I then checked out the Achievements section after looking at the controls layout. There are 12 achievements in AMY. You get 10g for completing each of the 5 chapters and 50g if you beat AMY on hard. I want to meet the gamer that gets that 50g for beating AMY on hard since the game on normal is hard due to its horrid design, gameplay and combat. You should get a achievement for buying AMY!

AMY opens up with a cutscene of Lana and Amy on a train after escaping a place called the Phoenix Center. Immediately i saw horrible framrate dips, stuttering and slowdown in the cutscene. The writing was horrible for the most part. It seems Lana (protagonist) got the best lines in the demo. Amy really doesn’t talk due to her condition of spotting horrendous tragedies before they happen. The cutscene ends after the train crashes mysteriously at a deserted train station. At which time Lana goes on a duck-hunt for Amy. In the process she meets Marcello who is just a horrible sidekick. His face looks like it was smeared with vasilene and frying grease. His writing and voice actor were as bad as his face looked. After meeting Marcello the cabdriver “with connections” he hands you a Genetic Lock Cracker.

It looks like a weird remote laser gun you use to track down and analyze red dots (DNA) scattered on your HUD. You are trying to unlock a security office by tracking down the person’s DNA. Most of the time i was asking myself “why am i doing this?” sense it made no sense. The gameplay in the demo made no sense so i could imagine the full game. Why do enemies turn to mist after you hit them with a stick? I don’t know. Why am i tracking down red dots on my HUD when i should be tracking down Amy after the train crash? I don’t know. Why is hacking so tedious and ridiculous? I don’t know. I know its early in the year but i have a feeling AMY just might be the worst game i play all year (and its just a demo to boot).

The best part of AMY’s presentation is easily its visuals. I’m not saying the game looks like Crysis 2, it looks barely average. The setting was mostly dark in a big train station. The character designs were decent in-game but weird looking during cutscenes. I did like the contemporary sci-fi setting of AMY. The music was decent at times and borderline over the top in combat situations. The voice acting was a real mixed bag as it seemed Lana got the best lines and everybody else got crappy ones.

What made me ultimately stop playing the demo was the first hacking sequence you encounter. It was so ridiculous and tedious. You had to guess way too much and memorize 5 different symbols. If you don’t guess/memorize them all in 5 tries you start over with a different set. I was thinking this is for Ceaser of Rise of  The Planet of the Apes and not normal gamers. The game was horrid enough now you want us gamers to play a tedious hacking game? No thanks QUIT!