I am no longer worried about Borderlands 2 after watching the Doomsday trailer below. We finally get to meet the four new players in Salvador, Maya, Axton and Zero. Zero in particular intrigues me since he looks like a cyborg ninja and could possibly be a new class. 4 player co-op, more guns, new rides that can fit all four players finally looks like solid additions to Borderlands 2. Play split-screen and claptraps are back. I notice many action set-pieces involving flying machs and huge monsters in the trailer.
The artstyle looks even better than the first game. I notice alote more snow in Borderlands 2 from the trailer. Handsome Jack is the new bad-guy tyrant bent on destroying Pandora. The Borderlands Premiere Club is a Pre-Order Bonus from select retailers. It includes a Golden Key, Vault Hunter’s Relic and Gearbox Gunpack. Borderlands 2 was developed by Gearbox Software and published by 2K Games for the PC, Playstation3 and Xbox 360. The game drops on September 18, 2012. Thanks Gamespot.
Published By: SCEA, Developed By: Housemarque, Genre: Action, Release Date: November 30, 2010, Rating: M, Systems: Playstation 3 (PSN).
Presentation: I originally started playing Dead Nation soon after the whole PSN fiasco happened last year. You remember you could pick two PSN games and two PSP games? Well finally i am now getting around to writing review for this twin-stick zombie shooter. Dead Nation upon start-up evokes a strong George A Romero vibe. If you seen any of his zombie movies Dead Nation has a similar vibe. The presentation regarding Dead Nation is a mix bag overall. On one hand you have a dark challenging zombie shooter with good content. On the other hand you have a shallow story and a gang of problems relating to its online component.
While waiting to sync with random Dead Nation players for co-op online can get frustrating. Most times you except the person you connect to. When the game starts up it either freezes or you loose connection to the player. Asides from that, no mic support in Dead Nation. When strictly talking atmosphere Dead Nation does the zombie thing good enough. The game takes place mostly at night. The visuals evoke an apocalyptic vibe and the sound design adds a visceral touch of its own. The main menu screen featured menus of Solo Game, Co-Op Game, Online Game, Global Status, Rankings, Options, Online Store and Gallery. Navigating the menus and interface wasn’t a chore and featured good menu music.
At the bottom of the Dead Nation’s menu screen features a news feed of updates and fictitious info. Dead Nation really pushes its world rankings alote. Every country is scored on how many zombies it killed and shown on the news feed. The controls via the Duel Shock 3 gamepad: R1-fire weapon, L1-throw item, R2-close combat, L2-rush, LS-move, RS-click (reload)/aim, D-pad-previous item/weapon. For the most part the controls are decent. Dead Nation naturally is a challenging game. Its difficult even on Normal. Upgrading and using all of your flares, mines, grenades can only help you.
Story: Dead Nation’s story centers around two protagonists Jack McReady and Scarlet Blake. You can play Dead Nation with either character. The stories of each character aren’t so different in the end. They both are trying to get to the same location. Jack McReady and Scarlet Blake both have their reasons for surviving the zombie apocalypse. Dead Nation never really explores how, why or who is responsible for the outbreak. Its story is more focused on the two main characters and their struggle for survival. Cutscenes with narrating at the start of each chapter fleshes out the story.
Visuals: Dead Nation is a decent looking game. Good lighting accompanied with decent artstyle brings out the atmosphere. Levels and settings are diverse featuring hospitals, carnivals, rail sequences and even snow covered landscapes. My only complaint is that the game is too dark all of the time. There were many times i just wanted to see dusk or a glimmer of sunlight.
Sound: I did like the sound design in this game. The zombies pretty much all had unique sounds attached to them. The music sounded as if it was ripped out of one of the newer zombie movies. The sound design really fit this game like a glove.
Gameplay: Shooting zombies in a top down view has been done before. I played so many Xbox Live Indie Games where you’re in a top down view shooting waves of zombies. Does Dead Nation set itself apart from most twin-stick zombie games? Not really. However the co-op, armor upgrades and stores do help the gameplay. Dead Nation isn’t an easy game to walk through, its difficult. Some of the weapons i used were assault rifle, smg, rocket launcher, flame thrower, a gun that shoots electricity, a gun that shoots blades and the shotgun. Each gun is upgradable at stores at each major checkpoint. You can also buy and upgrade, grenades, flares and mines.
Upgrading is important especially for tactical items like the latter. For guns you can upgrade stuff like ammo, power, rate of fire etc. As far as zombies go they really range from all types. You have your normal grunts that move slow. You have big swarms of faster moving zombies. You have fat zombies that spit and giant zombies that jump and leap towards you. Some zombies do take strategy to destroy. Many areas in the Dead Nation has you pres a button and wait for a lift or door to open. At which time you have to fend off mass amounts of zombies. The gameplay at times did get repetitive and predictable.
Replayability: The single player campaign will last you upwards of five hours. You can play in co-op (if people still play it on PSN). You can collect armor sets to strengthen your character. As you play Dead Nation you can venture back to the Gallery menu to see artwork you unlocked. There is also Road to Devastation DLC if your tired of the main campaign. Overall the content is good in Dead Nation. But be warned the online component does have issues.
Final Verdict: Dead Nation is a good, challenging top down zombie shooter that features online co-op. There are some glaring issues with the online componant but doesn’t take too much away from the gameplay. Thanks for reading.
How can you not be impressed with this new Far Cry 3 gameplay footage? The video below shows shootouts, driving and interacting with some of the game’s NPC’s. You also have alote of action set pieces in Far Cry 3 that i didn’t expect to see. The jungle setting looks gorgeous. The character models looks really detailed. You can see how yellow that one guy’s teeth are in the video.
Then again, all Far Cry game’s look great. I love sandbox first-person shooters and this one should deliver the goods. I like the cover system and sliding mechanism. I have many questions about the game’s story but those will have to wait. Far Cry 3 is a sandbox first-person shooter developed by Ubisoft Montral and published by Ubisoft for the PC, Playstation 3 and Xbox 360. The release date is September 4, 2012. Thanks GamerSpawn.
Published By: Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment, Developed By: Supergiant Games, Genre: Action Role-Playing, Release Date: Jul 20 (Xbox 360), Aug 15, 2011 (PC), Rating: E10+, Systems: PC, Xbox 360.
Presentation: Led by narrator Logan Cunningham Bastion’s presentation oozes with style and substance. For this Gamer Blog article i played Bastion on PC via Steam. The only modifications i did to the game was raise the resolution up to 1680 x 1050 and anti aliasing to 4x. The game ran great. I played Bastion on normal difficulty for the review with a gamepad. The Xbox 360 gamepad worked wonderfully for this game. Bastion’s quality is throughout. You can pick any aspect of it whether its visuals, sound design, story, gameplay and content, Bastion is solid from top to bottom. My entire experience was flawless. No bugs, no glitches no freezes. The game ran great throughout its entirety. The atmosphere of Bastion is cool. Its a extremely cool game to play. I actually felt cool playing it.
Story: Bastion stars “The Kid” as the narrator calls him. The Kid has white hair and swings a Cael Hammer and shoots with a Fang Repeater. The world was recently rocked by a science experiment gone horribly wrong. That experiement was called the Calamity and it wiped out practically all man kind. The Kid with the help of Rucks (the narrator) must hunt down Cores and Shards to build Bastion. Bastion is a special land that holds special powers along with many secrets including a way to reverse and prevent the Calamity from ever happening. Along the way The Kid rescues survivors in Zulf and Zia. Zulf ends up betraying The Kid and Rucks and kidnaps Zia. Zulf learns the truth of the treachery behind the Calamity after reading a rare diary. Zulf unites his people against The Kid which is another story angle in Bastion.
Visuals: The graphics in Bastion’s three quarters top down gameplay view setting popped out of my screen. The use of colors and imaginative art design was diverse and impressive. The cutscenes and character designs told a story within themselves. When you visit the Skyway and venture out into the many stages you witness great as well diverse artwork on each stage. The texture work and anti aliasing really shined on my PC. Bastion truly is a goodlooking little arcade game.
Sound: The proactive/reactive narrating done by Logan Cunningham was superb and added a cool vibe to Bastion’s already cool presentation. The music throughout was supurb. There was not a single moment during my plathrough where i wanted to turn the volume down. The music coupled with the reactive voice narrating gave Bastion a great atmosphere while fighting Gasfellas and Scumbags.
Gameplay: Bastion’s gameplay is standard action-RPG fare. You hack’ n slash, roll to evade, use range weapons and melee weapons to get the job done. You collect XP for defeating enemies and level bosses. Much of Bastion’s gameplay is centered around rebuilding specialty shops within Bastion. As you build the Bastion you can unlock the Forge where you can upgrade weapons. The Distillery lets you assign a special ability to a slot. You unlock slots as you level up. You can move and switch special abilities anytime when your in the Distillery. The Arsenal lets you choose a long range and melee weapon. It also lets you assign special attacks in one slot that consumes Black Tonics. Special attacks come in the form of Hand Grenades, Whirl Wind and Mirror Shield.
You can build a Shrine in Bastion which pays respect to the Gods. But what is cool about the Shrine is that as you collect idols of Gods while out hunting for Cores and Shards. You can bring those back and set them in the Shrine to activate gameplay modifiers. Think of Halo Skulls. You can activate a God Idol and the entire gameplay of Bastion will slightly change in some aspect making it more difficult. The first idol i collected was the Pyth bull. When you build the Lost and Found in Bastion its basically a general store. Here you can buy materials to modify all of your weapons.
You can also purchase Mementos and Spirits at the Lost and Found. The currency in Bastion are fragments. They are little blue shards that appear when you defeat enemies. You can also destroy objects and parts of the environment to get fragments as well. The Bastion is the main hub in this game clearly. Over time as you rebuild it and ask Rucks, Zulf and Zia questions about items, you add them to Bastion. Not only as decorations but as potential gameplay sequences like Zulf’s pipe for example. You can add a baby Squirt a baby Ankle Gator, a mailbox and Pyth statues.
Combat in Bastion is great. Countering, blocking and evading just adds the iceing on Bastion’s gameplay cake. Weapons i collected in Bastion: Cael Hammer, Fang Repeater, Breaker’s Bow, War Machete, Rusty Musket, Duel Pistols, Army Carbine, Galleon Mortar and Fire Bellows. But wait! The most powerful and my favorite weapons come at or near the end of the game in the Calamity Cannon and Battering Ram. The Battering Ram is such a powerful weapon that you have to choose to help Zulf and leave the weopon or keep the weapon and leave Zulf behind. I left Zulf behind. On a side note there are a few times near the end of Bastion where you have to make gameplay decisions. What’s most important is that the gameplay in Bastion felt visceral. Its fun and addicting. The enemies are diverse and bosses like Queen Ann provided challenge.
Replayability: Bastion’s stellar campaign lasts a good five hours. After you beat the game you can play New Game Plus and Score Attack Mode. You can also activate idols in the Shrine for more variety. If you’re an achievement hunter you can clean up on those as well. Bastion has no co-op or multiplayer which it doesn’t need since the game is primo as is.
Final Verdict: Bastion is a great action-RPG thats big but is wrapped up in a small arcade package. I tried to nitpick this game to see if it had many glaring faults, it doesn’t. Its as quality as quality gets in regards to videogames. Thanks for reading.
Published By: Microsoft Games Studios, Developed By: Turn 10, Genre: Driving, Release Date: Oct 11, 2011, Rating: E, Systems: Xbox 360.
Presentation: Upon release Forza 4 and Kinect were suppose to revolutionize the driving genre with its hands-free gaming. In other words it was suppose to be the main draw of Forza 4 and the main show if you will. Well as it turns out from using my Kinect with Forza 4 its more of a watered-down sideshow than a main attraction. Sure you can examine cars from the inside and out in Autovista mode with Kinect. You can also race hands free with head tracking enabled. At first it was pretty neat to put your hands at 3 o’clock and 9 o’clock as if you’re holding a racing wheel to steer. It was neat to turn my head and see it reflect on the screen. However after one race, I literally felt like Kinect was tacked on and didn’t look back. I was done with Kinect with Forza 4. Besides you can do everything that Kinect does much easier with a gamepad. Navigating menus with Kinect was decent.
Forza 4 is a robust driving game. This time around Turn 10 added a few new tracks including the famous Top Gear 1 mile long track, Ingineon Raceway, Hockenheimring and Indianapolis Motor Speedway and a fictional track in the Bernese Alps. There are over five hundred cars with not one manufacture that makes up the bulk of the number. You won’t see over one-hundred Nissans in Forza 4. Rivals is a new multiplayer mode that takes some aspects from Autolog via Need For Speed games. In Rivals you can compete against friends or stranger’s ghost cars. Types of races include Top Gear Rivals, Autocross, Open Time Attack and Track Days. You can also except spontaneous Rival Challenges.
Autovista is a virtual garage mode i like to call it. Narrated by Jeremy Clarkson of Top Gear fame. While in Autovista you can inspect some of the world’s most exquisite automobiles in fine detail. Expecting motors, interiors while starting up the engine was visceral. The history and stats of each Autovista car is explained by Jeremy Clarkson as your checking things out. They’re only a select handful of cars for Autovista in Forza 4. You can unlock more vehicles like the Halo Warthog (not driveable) by completing Challenges with cars. The challenges are mostly you using a fast car to past a bunch of slower ones. You can’t talk about Froza 4′s presentation without talking about the AI and physics. Afterall this is a driving game and its very important.
First off i did experience some weird physics mostly having to do with car hitting a barrier at high speed and flipping over instantly. The AI counterparts sometimes drive eradic when i used the Rewind Feature often times crossing into me erratically. I seen cars ahead of me magically drop out of a race when they ran into a barrier as if they were not looking where they were going. There are many difficulties to choose from including Easy, Medium, Advanced and Expert. Braking, stability control, traction control, shifting and suggested line are all adjusted accordingly. You can custom adjust any one trait if you want. I played at medium which was easier than i expected. Even as i made my way into the more challenging events Medium added alote of ”help”.
Visuals: It looks better than the last game thanks to the new lighting engine. The cars have a semi photorealistic look in Forza 4. Details are in the pudding and as they say. You can see sun glare bouncing off your hood and windshield. Cars do look and sound better in Autovista mode but that is expected. For a game that features 16 car races and split screen Forza 4 performs and runs buttersmooth at all times. I never got tired of looking at cars and the tracks in this game. Sure you can spot faulty blurry textures on cars and see a 2D tree in the background but it doesn’t take away from the entire package regarding the game’s visuals. I can’t say Forza 4 is the best looking driving game my vote still goes to Gran Turismo 5. I will give second place to Forza 4 which isn’t chopped liver.
Sound: Turn 10 outdid themselves recreating car’s sounds. The exhaust tunes and motor at times had me thinking the car was real. While in Autovista nothing was better than listening to a car start-up. The latter sounded like your really inside a car and the motor sound real. So kudos to the sound design in Forza 4 as it was impressive. As far as the music go in-game its ok. Its mostly fast beats and techno stuff.
Gameplay: Forza 4 initially granted me a car and credits from Forza 3. I received 13,000 credits and a Fiat Aberth 500. When you first start playing Forza 4 your gonna spend most of your time in the Play Career section which is like a single player RPG for your career. There you will level up in XP, earn credits, unlock new cars, earn badges, gain affinity bonuses and learn how to play. You start out playing the Clubsman series then Sports Man then Semi-Pro series etc. Each series has ten separate races that range from one on one cat and mouse chases to full 16 car races on big tracks. Each time you gain a level you can unlock different class cars from S, A,D and C ranks. I never felt like i had to go out and use Microsoft Points to buy tokens to buy a supercar.
You win plenty of cars to use for these events. As you make it up the ranks in the world tour your going to have to upgrade and modify your car to compete. Adjusting suspension, brakes, gearing and tire pressure helps alote. Buying weight reductions, engine upgrades can and will raise your car Class level so keep track of the numbers. Lets say your car is a Class A 599. If you mod it to 600 its now a Class S car and your competition will be tougher. There are so many upgrades you can do to all of the cars. You can pay nothing by earning Affinity points by using a specific manufacture for races over and over. Who doesn’t like free parts? For the most part each event depends on the car you pick, Sometimes you will have to switch your car but not often.
Replayability: The Career Mode in Forza 4 is robust let alone the the Multiplayer. Turn 10 made sure thye wanted you to stay busy with this game. Lets start with DLC. You have The November Speed Pack, December IGN Pack, January Jalopnik Pack and Free Hyundai Veloster Bonus Pack. There is a February Pack but i forget its name atm. There is a Season Pass if you want to save some money on all of Forza 4′s DLC. The multiplayer side of things was deep as well fun with many gamemodes and daily credit bonuses keeps you logging in. In multiplayer you can access your club where you share a garage with freinds full of great cars. Race modes online included: Rivals,The Playground, Drift, Drag, Turn 10 Select and Circuit. Each category has a deep list of different types of races to take your skills online to. I personally really enjoyed the online for Forza 4. As far as replayability goes you can play this game everyday till Forza 5 releases.
Final Verdict: I can’t compare Forza 4 to its past games much since i really didn’t spend alote of time with them. As far as Forza 4 goes, its a great driving game. The physics and AI could be better but what it does do great outweighs all of the negatives. You have a great library of diverse cars. You have alote of replayability. And most important the game is just fun to play and addicting. Thanks for reading.
Binary Domain is a sci-fi third person squad based shooter centered around cyborgs taking over the world. For this particular Gamer Blog article i played it on my Xbox 360. Binary Domain was developed and published by SEGA for the Playstation 3 and Xbox 360. It releases February 28, 2012.
Lets start with the title screen. Menus included: Campaign, Xbox Live, Options and Exit. Button layout via the Xbox 360 gamepad: A-evade/hide/dash/climb over, X-melee attack, Y-focus, B-pick up/examine, RS-look, D-pad-change weapons, LS-move, Back-toggle member info, Start-pause, LB-display voice commands, LT-aim, RB-reload/shock burst, RT-shoot.The menu screens all had a futuristic cyber-punk look. As far as the controls go they were clunky for many movements. The melee always gave me problems for some reason. I know you can most likely map buttons accordingly but i normally stick with default.
STAGE 1
Next i choose Campaign which has two separate demos, Stage 1 and Stage 2. I choose Stage 1 first and picked Rustem Up for my difficulty. Whats nice about Binary Domain is that it is a squad based third person shooter much like Ghost Recon. You can pick different squad mates (two) who represent different classes and have different characteristics. Squad members in the demo included Big Bo who is a Heavy Gunner with High Stamina. You have Faye who is a Recon Specialist and Expert Marksman. Charlie is Spec-Ops and is a Tactical Specialist. Last you have Rachel who is Demolitions Class and a expert in CQC. I choose Big Bo and Faye.
You can give orders to squadmates in-game by holding down LB which opens u a menu of commands. Commands include: Y-hold, X-regroup, B-retreat and A-move. Many times during the demo squadmates talk to you bringing up a Y button promp to answer questions. Depending on how you answer squadmates they will follow your orders or ignore you (if you piss them off). The latter has to do with the Trust Level gauge between Dan (protagonist) and squadmates. The latter is pretty cool if it wasn’t for the bad AI in Binary Domain. Stage 1 looked like a shantytown in a futuristic Tokyo. It did not take long before i started firing on the “Scrapheads”. You can immediately pick up and play Binary Domain if you played Gears or War or Uncharted.
What Binary Domain sorta reminds me of is Terminator Salvation (yes i platinumed it). I say that because the robots crawl towards you as you shoot them apart. In Stage 1 you mostly fight simple grunt bots who provide little challenge in 2080 Tokyo. The challenge comes at the end of the demo when you fight a Lancer. Lancers are huge heavily armored bots. You have to knock its shielding off with a Rocket Launcher then jump on it head holding on for dear life and shoot. Stage 1 was short but the Lancer battle at the end makes up for it. For the most part your going cover to cover giving orders to your squad while shooting Scrapheads.
There is a store in Binary Domain’s Stage 1 demo. Its called Ammunition Transit Japan. There you can buy first aid kits and Nano Machines that can boost specific attributes of each squad member permanently. You can also upgrade your weapons in all sorts of ways. You can buy ammo and many other useful items. The stores are located in-game and stops the action when you use them. All guns can be modded on the following statistics: Rounds, Fire Power, Range, Accuracy, Fire Rate, Shock Burst and Bosonic Charge. As far as guns go Dan used an assault-rifle and pistol with a few grenades. I picked up a shotgun, sniper rifle, LMG and Rocket Launcher in-game. All of the guns had average kickback and feel. Aiming was decent.
STAGE 2
Stage 2 takes place in a train station and this time your not bringing the fight to the Scrapeheads. You’re actually being hunted down. Your team for this sequence included Faye and a robot named Cain who had a thick French accent and is a splitting image from the robots from i Robot. Stage 2 really shows how bad the AI is in Binary Domain. The enemies were pretty mindless running past you while in cover. Sometimes they stand around not doing anything. Your squadmates aren’t any better. They get in your way when your trying to shoot Scrapheads and you will get a small penalty from your AI partner for shooting them.
For the most part your running through a train station fighting waves of robots trying to capture Dan, Cain and Faye. Mid-way through the short level you have to fight a “Heavy” bot. You can give squad members orders or take their advice while dealing with the monstrous robot. You continue on making your way through a slew of bullettrains till you reach the ticket counter. At which time a huge robot appears and a cutscene pops on then demo over. Stage 2 had a much different pace than Stage 1 as well its scenery. It also showed off the bad AI as well.
Other Stuff
When you just sit down and play Binary Domain its pretty fun. The gameplay although wasn’t nearly as polished as i hope however i did have a goodtime shooting Scrapheads in 2080 Tokyo. What did get annoying however was the bad voice dialog of my squad, it was terrible. Look, i love cheesy lines when done right ala Vanquish. But Binary Domain wasn’t even funny, just bad. The visuals in the game are decent featuring nice electrical effects when you shoot bots apart.
Visually i have to see more settings of the game. The character models in-game were good. The animations not so much. Moving cover to cover, sprinting and melee attacking robots looks wonky. The sound design minus the voiced dialog was decent. The robots sound like robots. The gunfire and the futuristic effect of the Shock Burst sound cool. The music was decent and had a cyber-punk sci-fi vibe to it.
Binary Domain’s demo didn’t impress me as much as i hoped. It is a good third person squadbase shooter. I really like the game’s atmosphere but the overall presentation really is rough around the edges mostly dealing with AI. Thanks for reading.
Catherine is a action puzzle game centered around 32 year old Vincent Brooks. Vincent is just your typical guy with major conflictions and who has commitment issues with his longtime girlfriend Katherine Mcbride. Catherine gets weird fast due to Vincent’s nightmares. Not just normal nightmares. These nightmares can kill Vincent in real-life. The killer also happens to be his girlfriend, Katherine. I was able to snag the one hour demo of Catherine from PSN+ last week. Sometimes PSN+ members get exclusive one hour demos of full games to try out. Catherine released last week on PSN+ but i’m just now getting around to play through it. Catherine was developed and published by Atlus Co for the Playstation 3 and Xbox 360. It originally released July 28, 2011.
Catherine starts off as a TV show called Golden Playhouse hosted by a sultry vixen named Trisha. She tells the tale of Vincent. Soon after your in-game at the first gameplay Stage 1: Nightmare which is a tutorial of sorts. The opening puzzle of Catherine teaches you the basic fundamentals of climbing towers. In a nut shell that is what Catherine is, its a puzzle game of manipulating blocks to reach the top. You have an initial set number of lives and continues. There are alos many layers and many strategies involved when climbing towers. You can push and pull certain blocks. Some blocks can “edge” which means they float when connected to a block and can support your weight as long as they are “edge”.
There are also blocks that can crack and chip away if you step on them. There are blocks you cannot move. That isn’t a problem as there is always a way to reach the top of a stage. You can use the Left Stick on the Duel Shock 3 to look around the tower (within reason). You can hang around blocks and climb around. Playing on easy mode will let you redo a “move” by pressing the Select button. Keep in mind each block you move it stays in that position. There are power-ups you can snag around the block puzzle towers such as Mystic Pillows which gives Vincent extra continues. You can also collect coins that give you points. To make Vincent climb and move i used the D-pad and LS. To push and pull blocks i used the X button (hold down).
When you make it to Landing sections of the nightmarish puzzle levels you can talk to other sheep. Vincent has sheep horns when he plays puzzle levels in Catherine. He is marred as a sheep being led to the slaughter (is my guess). Talking to other sheep are important. You can learn new techniques for climbing the puzzle towers like the “Pyramid” or “Slider”. You can also discover your own moves. The basic premise of Catherine’s gameplay is to create stairs to climb up using the blocks. The gameplay screen during puzzle sequences looks 2D but is really 3D. You can push blocks forward and pull them back towards you. The camera has a semi fixed position but can be moved with LS to see whats around you for strategy. There are checkpoints mid-way up some puzzle towers/stages.
Asides from the nightmarish puzzle scenes that have the floor dropping below you and an evil Katherine trying to murder Vincent, you also have real-life sequences as well. In between gameplay sequences you usually see Vincent in his day to day life. He’s usually hanging out with his buds Toby and Chief at the Stray Sheep bar. You also meet up with Katherine and talk. Each cutscene and in-game cutscene was really impressive visually showcasing great anime art. The voice acting and sound design was solid as well. The cutscenes and in-game cutscenes are a welcomed break from the game’s puzzle sequences.
Vincent’s phone is an important gameplay element when not trying to survive his nightmares. You can read and answer Kathrine’s texts. Answering questions in Catherine dictates gameplay and how characters perceive you throughout. You can save using your phone anytime. You can also access your diary and Awards at anytime. There is a underlying story of young men that died in their sleep. Vincent and his friends knew the most recent, Paul. They discussed it at the Stray Sheep. Sheep, there goes that word again. I did get to meet the “other” woman” in Catherine. She sat down at Vincent’s table uninvited ready to stir up trouble. Vincent is a weak man. I can see him getting in trouble. I wished i had more than an hour with this game its pretty damn good.
As far as presentation goes Catherine is a good game. No glitches or bugs in the version i played. The story seems fun and interesting. The visuals are very good featuring great anime cutscenes and in-game graphics. The music was impressive as well. The package is quirky and unusual in design but i really like Catherine’s style. I can see myself picking this game up eventually. Its a challenging puzzle game with a quirky thick atmosphere. If your a PSN+ member i say check it out. Thanks for reading.
Who’s hyped for Far Cry 3? I admit i am. After beating Far Cry 2 a few years ago and seeing the direction Far Cry 3 will be taking i’m pretty psyched for number three. The open world jungle exploring first-person shooter is back along with Far Cry’s stellar visuals. The trailer below is a documentary style cutscene showing the opening moments of Far Cry 3′s protagonist and his two friends.
If you seen the E3 2011 video you will immediately recognize the psychopath in the trailer. He begs the protagonist’s friend to shoot him. At which time the the psycho kills his friend and the protagonist escapes only to be stranded. Far Cry 3 is developed by Ubisoft Montreal and published by Ubisoft for the PC, Playstation 3 and Xbox 360. Its release date is TBA. Thanks Gamerspwn.
Published By: Laughing Jackal, Developed By: Laughing Jackal, Genre: Puzzle, Release Date: Feb 7, 2012, Rating: E10+, Systems: PsP, Playstation 3 (minis).
Presentation: Hungry Giraffe is a lighthearted puzzle game featuring what else, a giraffe. When strictly dissecting this game’s presentation its a pretty good minis puzzle game. You have good atmosphere thanks to the visual and art design. The music also helps out. The gameplay at first seemed pedantic but would soon grow on me and became a challenging yet addictive puzzle game. During my playthrough of Hungry Giraffe i experienced no bugs, glitches or any significant framerate issues while playing on my Playstation 3.
The main title screen of Hungry Giraffe includes: Feed Me, Stats, Awards, Credits and Options. The Stats section keeps track of gameplay statistics like Fast Food Eaten, Times Vomited, Dumbbells Eaten and Calories Consumed. The Award section is basically an achivement/trophy section. Here you can unlock various in-game awards such as “Fast Food King” – Eat 3,000 Fast Food Items. Hungry Giraffe’s menus were easily navigable however the menu screen looks big and didn’t fit my TV like it should have.
Story: If there is a story to Hungry Giraffe i guess it would go something like the following. Its a story of survival. You must keep the giraffe fed or else he/she will die. There is no vegetation in jungle so you must steer the giraffe to eat fast-food, strawberries and stay clear of harmful substances and objects in the process. Gamers, there really isn’t a story here, its just a puzzle game.
Visuals: Hungry Giraffe has a light-hearted artstyle when it comes to visuals. Colors and texture work make there presence felt immediately upon playing. The design of the giraffe i thought really fit the game’s presentation. There isn’t alote to dissect visually in this game. You have a long winding giraffe neck and head eating food for the most part. The background designs do add some variety to Hungry Giraffe’s visual presentation. Although small on screen you can clearly see what your eating and what you’re suppose to avoid.
Sound: I enjoyed the orchestra music while playing Hungry Giraffe. I can’t help but feel i heard that music before. Maybe its just my mind playing tricks on me. As the giraffe eats yummy food he/she makes a soft “nom” sound. When the giraffe eats a bottle of green poison he/she pukes which sounds accordingly. Overall i like the sound design in Hungry Giraffe. It never overdoes it and every sound plays out accordingly.
Gameplay: Hungry Giraffe is a puzzle game. You have to steer a giraffe’s head with its long windy neck. Your main goal is to eat foods such as french fries, sandwiches, strawberries, apples and chili peppers. When you eat food you stay above the fold on the screen. Not only that you rise higher. If you drop below the fold of the screen you die. You gain points for gaining height. The higher you can make the giraffe’s head go the more points you get. The more points you get, the better chance you can unlock the next level. When you consume hardhats they are stored in the bottom right of screen. You can collect three. What’s important about hardhats is that they can give you a massive surge of height, like a boost if you will.
You press X to activate hardhat and steer the giraffe with LS (Duel Shock 3). Hungry Giraffe has a challenging gameplay element to it. You didn’t think this puzzle game would be easy did ya? The challenge comes in the form of avoiding objects on screen to eat the food that gives you height. They are anvils, dumbells, green bottles of poison and psychotropic pill bottles. Each hazard item has its own unique effect on the giraffe and must be avoided. Anvils immediately knocks the giraffe’s head downwards which makes it difficult to regain momentum upwards. Remember only good food gives your giraffe height and momentum. The dumbells are eatable and also knocks the giraffe’s momentum downwards.
Your probabaly asking why not just avoid all of the bad stuff and eat the good stuff. That is the addicting gameplay of Hungry Giraffe, its difficult avoiding the bad stuff. You also have green bottles of poison that are eatable and makes your giraffe puke a big glob of vomit that covers the screen. Not only is this semi gross but it hampers your vision greatly when trying to navigate for food. And last you have the psychotropic pill bottles that are eatable. These things literally make your giraffe trip and your controls are instantly switched to oppsoite. You go right you turn left and vice versa. The screen also has some weird trippy effect with wild colors and flashes disorienting you even more. The gameplay is challenging yet addicting. I didn’t expect to put so much time into this game but i did.
Replayability: Not much. You do have 10 different stages that offer alote of challenging gameplay. You also have the awards system that keeps tracks of in-game achievements. You also have a stats page to look at which doesn’t add any replay value.
Final Verdict: Hungry Giraffe acomplishes what it needed to do. It is a small yet addicting and challenging puzzle game. The presentation was solid regarding the game’s atmosphere, visuals and sound design. Its a solid little minis game. Thanks for reading.
Published By: Bethesda Softworks, Developed By: Bethesda Game Studios, Genre: Role-Playing, Release Date: November 11, Rating: M, Systems: PC, Playstation 3, Xbox 360, Price: $59.99
SPOILERS THROUGHOUT
Presentation: You can’t review The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim fairly without talking about its perfomance issues, bugs and glitches. I did play Skyrim on my Playstation 3 for this particular Gamer Blog review article. To say Skyrim is an ambitious game is an understatement. The game is visually stunning and its scale is equally as impressive. Skyrim is an open world game with day and nightime cycles. Animals of Skyrim such as deer, mammoths, elks, trolls and walruses inhabitant the northern mountain land of Tamriel. With Skyrim’s ambitious beautiful huge world came many glitches, bugs, freezes and sometimes hilarious physic effects.
During my playthrough i encountered bandits that float in midair and walk without moving. Anoter glitch happened when i called and captured the dragon Odahviing in Dragonsreach. The trap magically pops up and Odahviing starts dancing (looks like he was dancing). Anyways, i talked to the guard to let the dragon go and in which time the dragon attacks and kills everybody in Dragonsreach. The second time i played the scene Odahviing ends up taking me to Skuldafn on his back. Another glitch happened when i attacked a giant and he hit me so hard i almost flew into orbit.
The latter glitch was actually pretty funny and omg worthy. The game breaking glitches come in the form of freezes and one in particular really really upset me. The final battle with Alduin in Sovngarde. As i took the last of Alduin’s life the game frooze. Keep in mind this was my first time fighting him so i was very upset. How can a game lock-up as you defeat the final boss? It was a coincidence i know but very bad timing on Skyrim’s part.
Apart from the performance issues Skyrim pretty much nails all aspects of presentation. The atmosphere is organic and brimming with detail. The orchestra score is amazing and the visuals are topnotch and were very impressive for an open world game with so much going on. The menus had a nice navigation system for quick access to magics, weapons and anything else for that matter. For the amount of content and detail of each object in Skyrim. For a game that is so layered with options and content i never felt overwhelmed or confused the entire playthrough. Skyrim is ergonomically built for gamers.
Story: The story of Skyrim puts you in the shoes of the Dragonborn who is the one true soul who can defeat the eldest and most powerful dragon in existence “World Eater” known as Alduin. In the beginning of the game Dragonborn was awaiting execution till Alduin showed up which sets off a chain of events all over Skyrim. Alduin immediately started resurrecting dragons to fight along side him. To defeat Alduin Dragonborn has to learn the way of the Voice which is called Shouts. In Skyrim dragons speak through powerful thu’ums which can have all types of powerful effects. With the help of the Greybeards and Paarthurnax (dragon) on High Hrothgar the Dragonborn learns the way of the voice and Alduin’s source of power and why he’s in Skyrim.
The reason Alduin is in Skyrim was due to him being cast while in the past with an Elder Scroll. Many years ago Skyrim’s greatest heroes Haken One-Eye, Felldir the Great and Germliaith Golden-Hilt battled Alduin. The problem is the three of them couldn’t actually kill Alduin so Felldir the Great banished Alduin to the future which is Dragonborn’s time in Skyrim. You actually do get to fight Alduin in Dragonborn’s time once before going back into time to fight him alongside the three great heroes in Sovngarde. With the help of the Dragonborn’s Dragenrend shout the four of them were finally able to kill Alduin. When i look back on Skyrim’s story i think its average. You could tell very early what the plot of the game might be about.
The details of Skyrim’s story are drip-fed through moments with NPCs such as Septimus, Paarthurnax and Esbern. Asides from the main story of killing a powerful dragon you have a raging war going on between Ufrec Stprmcloak (Stormcloaks) and General Talius (Legion). Before being able to use Dragansreach to trap Odahviing you must get a treaty done with the two warring factions on High Hrothgar with the Graybeards. My personal opinion is that the best stories i experienced came in the form of random NPC encounters and just playing the game. There are so many natural and memorable moments to be had in Skyrim’s world.
Visuals: Skyrim features a gorgeous world littered with sweeping mountains, forests, caves, waterfalls and even antarctic like settings. Its a vast and very detailed world. Even the thousands of objects you find each have detail you’d never expect. The NPCs are nicely detailed. The wildlife in Skyrim such as Frost Spiders, Ice Trolls and Mammoths all featured nice texture work and imaginative design. The design of some enmies such as the Mechanical Guardians showed off the diversity in Skyrims graphics engine. The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim is a great looking open world game.
Skyrim isn’t perfect however nothing is. I can nitpick how the ground textures look blurry at times but why? The overall game is gorgeous and organic. The lighting and fog effects while in dungeons and caves created a thick atmosphere as you fight Draugrs, bears or trolls. The special effects from shock, flame magics and dragon shouts were always fun to look at. I also enjoyed the brutal melee finishers. Even the third person viewpoint finally looks good in a Elder Scrolls game. I would switch to third person many times on foot when exploring Skyrim. I also enjoyed riding my horse around and looking at the gorgeous mountain vistas from time to time.
Sound: The Nordic themed orchestra music reminded me of Conan when i was a kid. Its really amazing stuff. When dragons attack the music oftentimes shifts from its calm tranquil melody into a more thunderous beats that got my heart pumping. The music while in castles and villages was atmospheric as well. The sound effects of the dragons were impressive. Many of the voice actors did a fabulous job. I really enjoyed listening to Paarthurnax speak.
Gameplay: Skyrim at its essence is a Role-Playing game. Sure you earn XP for doing practically everything in Skyrim from lockpicking to enchanting your weapon. There are so many areas and stations to hone and level up your abilities. You can use alchemy labs to create potions. Use workbenches for weapon smithing that will improve your weapons and armor. Use cooking pots to create new foods that improve your stamina and health even further. Reading books can open new quests and level up skills. In Skyrim you level up accordingly. What i mean by that is take by Redguard class build for example. For much of the game i used a enchanted melee weapon in my right hand and destruction magic in my left.
My one-hand melee and destruction magic skills ended up being the most advanced skills in the game. For the most part whenever i used a new skill albeit restoration magic, bows or conjuration magic they would level up automatically over time. You do of-course have the ability to choose perks and special skills as your entire class build levels up in Skyrim. You can pick one attribute for Health, Stamina and Magika. You then pick one perk point to unlock a special ability whether its for combat, armor, magic etc. The latter takes place on a nice looking constellation screen that was easily navigate and shows you exactly what skill you unlock does.
You can assign all food, magics, shouts, potions and scrolls to a quick access menu for use in-battle. Skyrim has a great amount of flexibilty regarding its combat. I duel wielded magics and weapons. I used a sheild in left hand and melee weapon in right. I used a bow. You can upgrade your skills to make duel wielding magics and weapons much more powerful. The problem was never with the diversity and content of Skyrim’s combat.
The problem is with the combat itself. Its just not visceral or engaging and for the most part its not challenging. The only challenge if you can call it that was the boss fight with Nahkriin. The highlight of Skyrim’s combat should of been dragon battles. They weren’t because they weren’t challenging. Dragons just flew around in circles depending if you have Draganrend you could knock them down and just beat them to a pulp. The attack patterns of each dragon was virtually identical and predictable.
Replayability: The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim took me 49 hours to complete. For the most part that was with a few side quests completed but mostly the 18 main quests. As far as replay value take your pick. You can play the game with different race build or continue playing in Skyrim’s sandbox after you killed Alduin. The goreous world of Skyrim is charming enough to keep you playing long after you completed the main story.
Final Verdict: Skyrim is a great Role-Playing game make no mistake. Its big, ambitious and filled an unbelievable amount of content. But like with many ambitious games there are problems. those being bugs, freezes and glitches.
