Aliens: Colonial Marines Review

Game over man! Game over!

This game is terrible. Just...Just trust me on this. Avoid it. buggy game with terrible lighting, stupid A.I. from your allies and the enemy...Those things might be forgivable but it's just so damn boring! Honestly, save your money and go buy any Aliens vs Predator game or better still. Grab your DS and buy Aliens: Infestation. Seriously, Infestation is a far superior game in every aspect. Your marines have perma-death and there are a finite total amount of marines to encounter during the game. Each with their own personality. This helps each encounter come with a sense of fear and tension as opposed to just popping back two minutes to the last checkpoint. It shares a great deal with Metroid, which in itself is inspired by Alien. It's arguably the best Aliens game to date.

I cannot understand why Colonial Marines failed so badly...I mean it's textbook! You make some aliens and then you have them jump out at you...Not run slowly upright towards you in the same comical animation. That is, of course, when you actually fight aliens...You spend a good chunk of Colonial Marines not even fighting aliens but humans. Other than a couple of nods to the Aliens film, some good, some bad...I cannot even recall a single remarkable thing about the game. Pulse rifle had good sound effects I guess? As a result, I am forced to give Aliens: Colonial Marines...

Star Wars: Battlefront Review

Can't say I remember Stormtroopers with jet packs.

 Star Wars is always something of a shot in the dark when it comes to games. My first memories running across the sands of tatooine or facing off against the death star were in the Super Star Wars games for the Super Nintendo. Sadly for every Super Star Wars, Knights of the Old Republic and Rogue Squadron there were equally it's own weight in Masters of Tera Kasi, Jedi Power Battles and any of the direct movie tie-in games. On the outside, Star Wars Battlefront looked exactly like one of these poor examples of a Star Wars game. A generic third/first person shooter with mindless base capturing objectives right? Well yeah, that's exactly what it is but still...Maybe I was a little bit hasty to skip it.

Story.

This is a little bit of a null point for the game as it does not really have a story. The campaign has you playing through the prequel trilogy before jumping into A New Hope through to Return of the Jedi. You have to option of starting with Episode 1 or jumping straight into the original trilogy. This is great for those who cannot stand the prequels but it's still just as solid a game throughout. Each battle is introduced with a frankly short clip from the respective film before forcing you onto the most practical side for playing that battle.

Rebel battle on Tatooine?

 The main problem when the prequel trilogy is concerned, is that Battlefront was released before Episode III was released. This had led to some battles that speculate further into the rest of the plot. Thankfully, you are not really playing Battlefront for the story. It's all about the...

Gameplay.

As I said above. Battlefront is a third/first person shooter where the objective is primarily to capture all the enemy bases and hold them until the short timer runs down, or at very least to aid you in cutting their respawns down to zero. While alone at the enemy base, it can be hard to capture their post as they will respawn quite tenaciously as you wait for the base to finish being captured. The friendly A.I. Can be helpful in regard to keeping the enemy busy but do not expect them to give a big push to victory.

To aid you in your effort to destroy your enemy, you have multiple classes to choose from. These vary slightly from mission to mission and each side has slightly different performance but most missions you will have a front line trooper, a anti-vehicle unit, a sniper, a pilot and a specialist unit.

Your basic front line trooper will be perfectly serviceable for most situations. Their blaster rifle will take down most units with a variable of efficiency. I found the anti-vehicle unit to be far less useful. I would often jump into a vehicle of my own before tempting fate against an AT-ST with a rocket launcher. The sniper is a useful unit in that it can deal heavy damage while still being able to handle itself at close range. The pilot often has a shotgun of sorts but once again, I could find little use for him. The specialist unit varies greatly depending on the faction you play as. The Rebel Wookie Smuggler I found to be quite impractical where as the CIS Droideka was outright broken.

Hoth is still the best battle in Star Wars to me.

The level design is really quite good in the game however it's just too small for some of the aerial vehicles like the X-Wing and Tie Fighter and sometimes too big for you to cross the field on foot. One of the Cloud City maps leaves a lot to be desired where as Hoth is as brilliant as it appears in The Empire Strikes back.

Music.

Thankfully, the music in a Star Wars game is often very easy to talk about. It's nigh on always fantastic and Battlefront is no exception here. The sweeping sounds from the movies translate well into the game and really help set the scene. I don't think a Star Wars game would quite feel right without the music. You may also be happy to know that all the famous sound effects feature into the game perfectly. The only problem is that when you hear the sound of a Stormtrooper firing his blaster you tend to expect in the back of your mind that he will always miss...Sadly it's not always so in Star Wars: Battlefront.

Visual.

Star Wars: Battlefront was a game released in 2004 but the graphics are very good considering this. I played the PC version with all of the settings at maximum and it was very pretty. I also got a solid performance throughout, being that it's an old game by PC standards. You will easily discern each unit from a glance and all of the battlefields look great. Sometimes they take some lenience with the design to make them more practical for competitive play. Nothing quite beats the feeling of facing off against an AT-AT with just a snowspeeder and a tow cable. The only major complaint is there are no space battles to be seen. This is somewhat a huge blow as that is practically half of what makes Star Wars.

Final Thoughts.

Star Wars: Battlefront is a game that falters very little in it's effort to really make you feel like a Rebel on Hoth or a Stormtrooper at Endor. It's a shame that the third part of the prequel trilogy is missing and that space missions are largely absent but Star Wars: Battlefront is arguably one of the better Star Wars games to date, and I hear the second one is even better.

7/10 Star Wars: Battlefront does it's best to give you the true Star Wars feeling, and it mostly succeeds in that.

System Shock 2, Eternal Punishment and Circle Pad Pro

Nothing quite as scary as a crazy A.I.

Valentine's Day, SHODAN returned to our monitors as Gog.com re-released System Shock 2 to PC and also made the game very playable in modern systems. The game is a blast even though the gameplay feels a little backwards today and I highly suggest it to anyone who wanted a, quite frankly scarier experience than Bioshock.

With Eternal Punishment we will complete the classic series.

Persona 2: Eternal Punishment was given an ESRB rating recently which bodes well for a localized release of part two of the second Persona game. The original Persona was remade for PSP and released on PSN in the UK some time ago and Persona 2: Innocent Sin was released in physical and digital form in the UK some time later. So far Eternal Punishment has remained Japan only on the PSP but of course this could just be a PSOne classics release of the game.

Monster Hunter benefits a second analogue stick but at what cost.

The 3DS Circle Pad Pro is getting its UK release sometime in march, no doubt to release along side Monster Hunter 3DS. I would suggest to avoid the 3DS one and just buy it on the Wii-U or maybe just stick to the Wii game. Playing Gods Eater Burst has really put me in the right frame of mind for Monster Hunter but it will have to wait. First I really want to start playing Pandora's Tower and log some more time on my Wii.

DmC: Devil May Cry Review.

Has Dante changed for the better?

I remember the day, the first time we saw what the new Dante looked like. Oh the outrage from fans who predicted how utterly disgraceful this reboot of Devil May Cry would be. Dante has short black hair, he's a foul mouthed thug, and yes, while all of this is true, it is not quite as simple as that. Believe me, I was one of those people who were quick to criticize the new style but for those with an open mind, you may find yourself completely surprised by this game.

Story.

I felt the dread when I first started to play this game when it came to the plot. Dante was exactly as I thought he would be. He felt like he was developed by children. He swore every chance he got, he was a sexual deviant, he was the furthest thing from the original Dante that I could imagine. You see, the original Devil May Cry games knew they were silly and over the top. It was tongue in cheek. It was cool because they were aware of how absurd it was. It's clear that DmC however is mocking the style of the original game and plays it completely serious and ironically coming across as totally childish.

Well that was my first impression. Thankfully DmC is not like I thought at first. It's a refreshing story with new and interesting characters. Perfect it is not, predictable characters and plot changes are everywhere but that being said they are well designed characters. Dante does not continue his infantile attitude throughout the game, or at least it's toned down greatly as the story goes on and the rewriting of the mythos of Devil May Cry is actually very good. I could not say it's better than some of the best that Devil May Cry has to offer in terms of plot but it's still one of the strongest.

Probably the most interesting element is that of limbo, a twisted version of the real world where demons inhabit and rule the real world from inside limbo. All of the fighting in the game gets done when Dante is dragged into limbo and is guided by the spectral presence of people within the real world. Another change in the reboot is that Dante and Vergil are no longer just demon's but half Angel, half Demon called Nephilim. An unholy union which is despised by the demons.

Gameplay.

Having played every Devil May Cry game so far, I was worried about how they would ruin the gameplay compared to the peak of DMC4. Dropping the framerate to 30fps from 60fps. Oh I could see the jerky motions and unreliable combos now. I did not have much faith for the new DmC and based on the information we were given, I think I was right to be worried about it.

You can still play with your enemies by pulling them into your aerial dance of death.

Thankfully the negative information betrayed the fact that DmC really feels like Devil May Cry at it's core. There have been some changes, some for the better, some for the worst. First thing's first. Combos are fluid, I feel like I am completely in control of Dante's moveset. Most of the moves from Rebellion you remember have returned. Stinger, High Time, hell, he even has Roulette from Nero in DMC4. Some of the buttons have been simplified, High Time is now just attached to it's own button and Stinger requires a double tap forward and the attack button but it's basically just how you remember the game.

There are basically two major elements to the combat which have changed. Firstly you have angelic and demonic weapons and an angelic and demonic grappling hook. Both features change the gameplay greatly. The grappling hooks help with both combat and platforming. The demonic grappling hook can be used to drag demon's and platforms towards you and the angelic can pull you to platforms and demon's. While in combat this allows you to chain absurdly high combos, much like Nero's demonic arm in DMC4. The demonic hook can also be used to remove the shields from some of the more pesky enemies in the game.

The second element is the angelic and demonic weapons. Each are connected to a trigger on the controller in which you enter either angelic or demonic mode, changing your melee weapon into one of their type. Angelic weapons are fast and deal in crowd control and large juggles. Demonic weapons are slow, heavy hitting weapons which serve as a great way to crush bigger enemies or break past shields. Both of these new forms of gameplay add a great deal of depth to the gameplay.

Limbo adds a great bit of platforming outside of the combat, pulling platforms and yourself, gliding through levels, it's one of the first action games that comes to mind with really fun platforming elements. However, not all is good in the gameplay. The problem with DmC is that it's frankly too easy to avoid death. Most enemies put up zero challenge and others mess with the pacing by playing the waiting game, ruining the flow of the normally fast gameplay. There are plenty of highter skill levels but so far, I’ve not hit any major wall of difficulty. I'm sure that once Son of Sparda and onwards have been unlocked, it'll be a nail biting challenge but being you have to finish the game before you can take that challenge, those planning a single playthrough might be disappointed by the frankly, pathetic AI.

Music.

The music of DmC is by far the worst aspect of the game to me. Even prior Devil May Cry games had superior music and you felt the rhythm in the music to help the pace of combat. In DmC it falls flat. You can tell that the choice of music was one that tried to invoke the style of the original DMC games but with more modern sounding tropes but ultimately it's not very fun to listen to. Not that it's all bad, some of the tracks ring a good level of emotion for the game. Just don't expect anything world changing here.

Visual.

The visuals of DmC is arguably another spotty area of the game. Graphically it's an okay game. There are some muddy textures during some points in the games due to Ninja Theory's reliance on the Unreal 3 engine but otherwise the graphics are completely suitable. The area's that you'll visit in the game are very interesting. Not to mention the fact that seeing them from limbo gives a nice extra take on where you are. The problem mostly is within the colouring or rather, lack of.

Prepare to see a lot of red and it's not blood.

You will see lot's of browns and reds during your demonic romp through limbo but it never really has much flair. Even the deep colours feel dull and uninspired. Nothing like as bad as what we see from the modern shooter and quite frankly the original DMC was not much better but even so. It's not very good. There are a couple of times during the game where artistically I wish they had used the style throughout the whole game. Ghostly wisping colour, escaping the characters.

Final Thoughts.

DmC is the poster boy for not judging a book by it's cover in the game world. Everything we were shown about the game made most loathe the idea of it. We were so sure that there was no way this game could possibly hold a candle to the original series. Not only does it hold a candle, it ranks up with some of the best in the series. Do I prefer it to the original series? No. I still think Dante is not as interesting or as fun as the original and the style is not one that I prefer but I would like to see a sequel. DmC is by no means a bad game. It's a great one.

8/10 DmC does almost everything right. Not all of it works as well as others but it all comes together well.

So Long and Thanks for all the Video Games.

Oh Blizzard, what happened? I remember you, back when I was getting into PC games for the first time. I looked around at all the PC games and wondered “Is there anything here that I actually want to buy?” In the corner of my eye I could just about see a twinkle of something great buried in the mess of games. I picked it up to be greeted by a fiery red demon's grill slapped on the front case and a single word. Diablo. Sounds awesome to me. I ended up walking home with the battle chest which included both Diablo 1 and Diablo 2 with lord of destruction expansion. The hours I spent running through dungeons and scanning every piece of equipment I could find with blue text or higher. Just to see if it was that single digit higher in attack power. In retrospect it probably would have been quicker to run through with slightly weaker gear until a new area and it's equipment appeared.

That's not all from Blizzard though. I soon found myself back at the shop with the same Dilemma...What to buy...Plenty of clones of my beloved Diablo...but they were often a far cry from it's Brilliance. Maybe a change of pace is needed...an RTS maybe? I mean I loved Command and Conquer so why not. Did not take long to stumble across the DVD sized case with a huge green orc slapped on the front. “Warcraft III?” but I had not played any other games in the series...I eventually buckled and bought it. I got the same level of quality that I got from Diablo 2 but in the RTS genre...A far more colourful game...Something I welcomed to see on the PC. I loved the game a great deal and managed to work out the basics of what happened in the first two games. An RTS with RPG elements and driven by hero characters...Fantastic I thought. It all fit together well and while I could not get past the undead section of the game. I had fun.

I never did get myself acquainted with some of their other games like Starcraft but I had heard very good things but punishing difficulty as I found out recently. Next to hit big was World of Warcraft...Maybe just the term “hitting it big” is somewhat of an understatement...The game was nothing less than a behemoth. No other online game stood a chance. I was pretty late in getting into WoW and I did not get to a very high level. Just a Paladin in his mid 40s. Either way, I had fun and it did not feel the least bit like a grind to my experience...Alas...All good things must come to an end...WoW is still going and really without signs of evolution I fear it has started to drag other online games into it's pace. Now we have Diablo 3...While not an utterly terrible game, it was a far cry from what fans had come to expect from a sequel to Diablo 2. One day it might be okay...Blizzard may make the game fun or perhaps just make another great game someday...but for now...I think it's safe to say goodbye and thanks for all the memories.

DayZ: Real Life Zombie Expectations.

Recently I bought Arma II combined operations so I could try this new DayZ zombie mod that everyone has been raving about as of late and after an extremely stressful install process I got it running. The game is still in Alpha so it has a long way to go but I figured I'd write about my experiences in the game. The game is set in a fictional place called Chernarus and is approximately 225 kilometres in size. When you start the game you wash up on a random beach with nothing but a bandage, a torch and some painkillers. It's your job to survive the zombie infested area for as long as you can, because death means that you lose everything.

I peered around myself, looking for some sign of life. It was difficult to spot anything with the overcast making my sight ever so slightly blurred. To the right I saw nothing but to the left I could see what looked like a small dock and figured that if there wasn't any life, I might at least find some food or at least a gun. Off I went and before long I bumped into someone. Not a player, mind but the shuffling undead. It's sight was very poor but it's hearing was superb so I tried to sneak past, which was successful but upon turning around I found myself in-front of another undead but this one was hunched over on the floor, hopping around like an animal...He spotted me so I ran, More spotted me and chased after with human-like speed...I was trapped...I died.

I figured I would have to accept that I would die here and there, so I started over. A different area of the coast this time. Looking around I saw a road and nothing else, so I followed it. A road has to lead to a town eventually. It took a fair bit of running but I did find a town...A town that was guarded by Zombies. I had no choice. Like a survivor ninja I tried to weave between the zombies in town to try and find some kind of tool. Not even a gun, just something to hit them with would do. Success!, I thought to myself. On the floor were some objects inside a small barn I found. Some 12 gauge bullets, some makarov rounds and a heat-pack...Fantastic. Well if there were bullets maybe there would be a gun. Too late...A zombie had phased through the door I had just closed and in getting up and running another horde was on my tail...It was impossible to outrun them so only death awaited me.

Okay...There has to be something I'm doing wrong here. Maybe coastal areas are not the way to go...This time I made a bee-line straight through the forest ahead. No zombies so far and it wasn't too long before I noticed another man-made structure. An army airfield I thought, perfect!. There would have to be weapons there. Sneaking around the undead AI, I could see many soldier corpses but sadly it seems I could not check them for weapons and items. I saw something move oddly and when I focused on it, I could see that it was another player. One well equipped it seemed. Sneaking around with an AK47 in his hands I could see that he had far more experience than me...Or that he was very lucky. I decided to go my own direction as to not get in his way. A small building I found near me and with some items on the floor. Before I could pick them up I saw the guy from earlier.

He turned around and shut the door behind us so the Zombies would not get in. I thought that finally I would have someone to aid me in getting a weapon. I heard a gunshot and I was laying on the floor, dead.

Zombies are avoidable...Players are not so much. So that was my first experience with DayZ. It's a very fun and realistic attempt at a zombie apocalypse but it has a fair way to go yet in my eyes. Removing some glitches and maybe balancing the game more. In earlier versions you did start with a handgun which I suppose is kind of interesting that they removed it...Maybe they should add a few more melee weapons to find. Either way, I see great potential for this game In the future but right now...It's a little bit of a mixed bag.

The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim

Here we go. This will be the first time reviewing a game that I've not actually completed. I want to mention first of all that I'm playing Skyrim on the Xbox 360 without it installed. If the PC version if better then great but this is based off the console version as I'm not willing to spend a ton of money upgrading. I touched upon the story a little bit and get the general idea of the plot. With that said, lets get down to it. 

This is a given but Skyrim is no game to take lightly. There is tons to do and you'll probably never do half of it, much less all of it. My level is in the late 20's and I feel like I've not really even started. Normally this would be a negative to me as I hate games which pad out the plot with random fetch quests and encyclopedia based back stories. Skyrim improves these areas greatly in that the quests feel far more fleshed out and have exciting sub plots of their own. Nice change from beating up rats in someone's basement. Also the delivery of the main plot seems much better this time with well written dialogue and less emotionless and pointless feeling characters from it's roots. Outside of Fargoth I have trouble remembering any faces from the older games.

At first glance the game does not feel that visually superior to Oblivion. The character models have had a slight improvement but I must admit that the backgrounds at distance are utterly stunning. Facial features feel less abnormal than before and attack animations are improved somewhat again.

Gameplay is another place where it's difficult to say if it's changed much. I'd say it's all improved upon but by how much is somewhat difficult to judge. All the little things are what make the combat far more fun to deal with. They found a happy medium between Morrowind and Oblivion. Having the ability to charge up your sword swings is nice to see again and the shield is no longer your magical block against all and including the apocalypse. Blocking will now chip a little off your health and you can shield bash to create an opening with your weapon.

One thing I will say is that the game still feels too easy for the most part. My Nordic warrior was quite easily dispatching everything including dragons for the length I played. Dragon shouts are another point where the game shines. Really adds a point to this massive world. I cannot seem to grow tired of searching for words and dragon souls to strengthen my character. Jobs are also a great new system which almost feels fable like but unlike fable they do more than just add to your cash flow. Smithing is really the way to go for any warrior. Abuse can easily net you some powerful armour and weapons early on.

I played for a good amount of time and I never encountered one game breaking glitch...A massive change from Bethesta's track record of having to pray to make it to the end. I've bumped into the off cosmetic glitch of enemies floating a few feet into the air and being killed from a long distance away but nothing that stops you from being able to progress. Skyrim does not really reinvent the elder scrolls series but rather greatly streamlines it to be more practical. Away are with all of your stats besides Health, Magicka and Stamina. Away with the silly major,minor and misc skill system.

If you had asked me before Skyrim was release if it needed to reinvent itself I would of said yes. I loathed Oblivion and all it stood for and Morrowind, though better, was not really much fun for me either. Skyrim is still not totally my kind of game as I still prefer a strong story and character development. I don't see why the Skyrim can't have the same system as Mass Effect and Dragon Age in which you pick out of multiple backgrounds to begin from but even so, I'm nitpicking. Skyrim is fun for even someone like me who'd fond of JRPGs and generally non PC gaming.

In a generation with such lack of quality in the industry, this is a much needed change.

My Score: Elder Scrolls finally reaches the point that I can enjoy the experience. 8/10

The People: I think most people are gonna to find this game nigh on perfect if not perfect. 10/10

See? Hiding In The Dark Is Fun.

I'd just like to mention an interesting free indie game for the PC Ladies and Gentlemen, I give you Stealth Bastard. Don't let the name fool you. This is a pretty fun little stealth platformer which reminds me of the type of quality you got in games like Spelunky. It's completely free with a leaderboard feature, level editor and so on. with games like this and Cave Story, it looks like indie development has reached a whole new level.

Try it now at their site http://www.stealthbastard.com/