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XBLA Review: Joe Danger: Special Edition

By
Magnus Risebro
– January 24, 2012Posted in: Reviews, Xbox 360

Joe Danger: Special Edition features vibrant and catchy music, however, the sound that will ring in your ears after playing is no melody, it’s the gut-wrenching “KERCHUNK” of failure. This sound near-constantly jabs at your ears during the 6 or so hours it takes to finish the career-mode. But whenever that horrible effect is played you’ll instantly punch the Back button to start your umpteenth attempt of the level because the one-more-go-factor shines with this one.

Essentially, Joe Danger is a physics-based, more complicated Excitebike focusing on traversal rather than racing. As titular stuntman Joe Danger, you ride your motorbike through a series of side-scrolling obstacle-courses filled with platformer-style hazards. Interspersed with these standard levels are races, which ramp up the chaos a few notches. To progress, one performs level-specific challenges such as collecting items or finishing within a set time. By doing this, stars are earned and used to unlock new levels.

Great controls are largely responsible for how entertaining the game is: The bike-physics are tuned to a perfect sweet-spot between nimble and weighty, making it satisfying and simple – though not necessarily easy – to pull off jumps, flips and tricks. Contrary to certain other precision-based, platforming-style games, the controls in Joe Danger are never a hurdle between player and game, and instead manage to reach the ideal state of any control system – to feel nonexistent.

The second half of Joe Danger’s Yin-Yang of great gameplay is the level design. Early on, the game teaches you the simple key concepts; boosting, tilting the bike in the air, and jumping. Subsequently, your skills with these concepts are tested in an increasingly devilish fashion. Often, the game tricks you by repeatedly incentivizing a certain maneuver, only to throw out a situation where you must deliberately NOT perform that maneuver to succeed. The level design consistently forces you to keep an open mind and rethink your techniques, giving the game a slight puzzle-game feel.

As for the volume of content: Besides the 6-8 hour career mode there is an additional, Special Edition-exclusive, “The Lab” campaign featuring extra-challenging levels, as well as a level-editor similar to LittleBigPlanet (though not nearly as comprehensive, and sadly lacking the ability to share levels with anyone but your friends). Both of these provide more Joe Danger, an undeniably good thing, but are definitely complimentary rather than essential to the game. Finally, there is split-screen multiplayer, which I could not test, but imagine is solid.

Giving the game a pleasant vibe is the Pixar-like aesthetic. Cartoony and colorful backgrounds, hummable and upbeat music, and Joe’s regular shouts of “Wahoo! Yee-haw!” will glue a wide grin to your face, at least until the challenge becomes too much and you start Dragonborn-shouting cuss-words at the screen. Nonetheless, the jolly presentation is a nice element, and certainly improves the game’s experience.

Joe Danger is everything an Arcade game should be in the classic sense. It’s to-the-point, it’s easy to learn yet hard to master, and above all, it’s fun. Even with the “Kerchunk”-based ear-torture, it’s well worth 1200 Microsoft points.

Pros:

  • Satisfying, arcadey gameplay
  • Bonus modes provide a wealth of content
  • Charming presentation

Cons:

  • Can be hard. No-longer-fun-hard.

4/5

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Review: Nuclear Dawn

By
Magnus Risebro
– December 12, 2011Posted in: PC, Reviews


People who subscribe to a philosophy of sacrifice for eventual greater good will have a jolly old time with Nuclear Dawn. Unfortunately for those with lenient moral principles, the gameplay consists of slightly more “Sacrifice” than “Greater good”, a condition one must accept before appreciating the game.

Essentially, Nuclear Dawn is a 32-player class-based multiplayer shooter where 15 of 16 players on each team play the role of cannon fodder grunts through a Counter-Strike/Battlefield/Team Fortress 2 hybrid  FPS while the remaining two people play an RTS. It’s an undeniably interesting concept, and the fact that it even remotely works is commendable.

As a commander, you place healing stations, spawn points, automated turrets and such on the map. These installations must be constructed within your power network, which is expanded by building power nodes. As an FPS-view foot soldier you pick one of four classes (stealth-guy, shoot-guys-guy, heavy-guy and repairing/healing-people guy) and set out to capture currency-generating stations on the map allowing the team more constructions, while taking out constructions – and combatants – of the enemy team. The ultimate goal is to destroy the enemy team’s main spawn bunker, usually achieved through gradual expansion of territory until one team’s rocket turrets are conducting perpetual – and if you are on the losing team, horribly annoying – spawn killings.

If sending AI soldiers to their deaths does not satisfy your ego enough, get Nuclear Dawn.

The FPS gunplay is surprisingly tight for something constituting only half a game, packing a level of punch and precision above many dedicated shooters. The guns have satisfying visual and audial feedback, and class and loadout is adapted for specific situations without being completely useless outside their niche; the medic’s SMG performs best in corridors but your keyboard won’t suffer your frustrated slammings if you get caught in a long-range firefight with it.

The RTS side of things works moderately well too, though my exposure to it is limited (The highest ranking players are usually selected for the commander roles, and this game boasts a small, but hardcore, community meaning newbies are seldom allowed commander roles). Your success is quite reliant on the underlings (players) obeying your orders, something which might have been a disaster on the douchebag-infested console online services, but is not a problem in the gentlemanly society of PC gaming. The commanders have a disproportionately massive influence on the battle, which is the cause of nearly all of Nuclear Dawn’s issues:

Not only is serving under an incompetent commander caps-lockingly frustrating, even a tactically efficient commander will employ tactics that make playing as a grunt a sour experience. The game is balanced to make it fair with regards to which team wins and loses, not with regards to the FPS player’s moment-to-moment experience. Oftentimes, you are supposed to continually grind your head against the enemy as part of the larger plan. Getting stuck in horrible bullet-hail bottlenecks is a mere side effect for the benefit of eventual victory. You’ll encounter situations whose effect on most FPS players would yield a furious hate-mail in the game’s developer’s inbox, but giving an individual FPS player immediate satisfaction ranks low on Nuclear Dawn’s list of priorities.

This is where the game will lose many people’s attention. Players craving quick-fix gameplay typical of the modern multiplayer FPS will struggle to enjoy it. Unless you get satisfaction from knowing you are helping achieve a longer-term goal, the majority of the time spent in Nuclear Dawn will seem a chore rather than a pleasure.

However, if you do accept these terms and are able to thrive within them, the experience of Nuclear Dawn can be thrilling. Seeing your opponents’ base riddled with explosions, decreasing health bars and soldiers getting spawn-killed is a great reward for having out-cooperated them over the course of a fifteen-minute, highly methodical tug of war. Not to mention that sweet moment when you realize a battle is turning in your favor, or conversely, the sudden panic when things are clearly going sour. The high level of tactical depth (again, on the large scale rather than the small one) ensures these moments keep coming, as there is a near-constant multitude of strategies for a team to consider, keeping things tense and unpredictable.

It’s a nice bonus that the game is up to snuff in terms of presentation, too. The battles are fought mostly in apocalyptic near-future versions of iconic cityscapes such as London, Tokyo and New York, and these settings are created with an air of believability and scale that balances out their relative genericness. Grass stretches up through cracked sidewalks, crumbling skyscrapers tower above you, and the wet floor of a subway station reflects the neon lights above it. It’s lucky the game runs on the highly scaleable Source engine, so even mediocre computers ought to be able to handle it with minimal friction.

Nuclear Dawn is a low-priced and very interesting game being played by a dedicated and friendly community, which might well be worth the high barrier to entry, reoccurring frustration and intermittent technical cock-ups you may suffer.

Pros: Cool, if slightly generic, art style, gameplay rich in depth and originality.

Cons: Moderately hard to get into, requires buckets of patience, intermittent technical issues.

3 out of 5.

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Just In Bailey: Video Game Christmas Special

By
Joey Alesia
– December 5, 2011Posted in: Blogs, Columns, Editorials, Joey's Blog, Just In Bailey, Staff Blogs

Christmas is a unique time of year.  It is a time of joy and celebration.  It is a time of giving, friendship, and family.  Children make lists for Santa in the hopes that he has them on the “nice” list.  Parents get to see the joy on their kids’ faces when they get everything that they asked for.  Christmas is an awesome holiday.  My wife and I are celebrating Christmas for the first time in our own home.  We just bought our tree and have a few decorations to put up.  Today, while we were driving, my wife turned to me and asked, “What do you think the characters in video games do during Christmas?”  We starting really thinking about it and came up with some ideas of what we thought some of the big name characters is the industry are up to during the holiday season.

When he’s not saving Hyrule from Ganon, Link, ever the helpful one, turns his attention to the poor.  He spends his holidays outside of various stores, playing his ocarina, a red bucket with “Salvation Army” standing next to him.  People going into the stores are wowed by the beautiful music.  When Link needs to rest, Navi takes over and bombards Christmas shoppers with “Hey!”, “Listen!”  Needless to say, the bucket doesn’t fill up all that fast as the shoppers run like the wind when the fairy is out.

Since Mario is always out and about saving the Mushroom Kingdom and Princess Peach, he usually takes Christmas off to rest up.  While Mario lounges about the house, Luigi dons their beloved Mama’s “Flower” apron and gets to baking. Like so many Italians during the holiday season, Luigi churns out all sorts of delicious food.  Biscottis, pizelles, lemon knots, and many other Italian pastries fill up the kitchen.  And people wonder why Mario never seems to lose any weight (I have an inkling that Mario probably makes the same New Year’s resolution year in and year out and ends up as one of THOSE people at the gym that only lasts a week or two).

Warring with the gods of Olympus can be an expensive endeavor.  Kratos spent years decimating Olympus and most all of Greece.  With Zeus dead, Kratos searched for a purpose in life and a way to make a quick buck.  Like so many people, the economy made earning difficult for him.  So, Kratos joined the most elite Christmas organization in history, the Mall Santas.  Every day, kids sit on Kratos’s lap and list off all of the toys they want for Christmas and then get to pose with him.  The pictures don’t turn out that well and Kratos loses his temper a bit too easily (he likes to swear revenge on the teenage punk elf taking the pictures), but at least his heart’s in the right place.

Not ones to let a good opportunity go by, Sub-Zero and Scorpion put aside their differences in the spirit of the season and run a local ski resort.  Sub-Zero keeps the snow and ice flowing when Mother Nature fails to deliver.   The skiers, snow boarders and all the kids with sleds are all treated to hot cocoa in the lodge area, made personally by Scorpion.  He has a unique way of heating the cocoa (TOASTY!).
So, these are some of the scenarios my wife and I came up with.
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What do you think everyone else is doing during the holidays when they aren’t out fighting, or saving the world (or trying to destroy it)?

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Just In Bailey –an homage to the secret code from Metriod, which allowed you to play as Samus Aran without her suit– is an editorial column at Vagary.TV brought to you by Joey Alesia. Each week Joey will challenge you to look at a different perspective of the characters, gameplay, and/or plot in your favorite games. Chat up your thoughts below, or send Joey an e-mail at Joey.Alesia@vagary.tv

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Just In Bailey: The Sound of Silence

By
Joey Alesia
– November 28, 2011Posted in: Blogs, Columns, Joey's Blog, Just In Bailey, Staff Blogs

With technology advancing at blinding speed, video games are becoming more cinematic with each major release.  The visuals are more real.  The gameplay is deeper.  The sounds have gone from MIDI notes on a keyboard to full-blown orchestras.  With these advances, video game characters have been given more personality than ever before.  Their hair blows in the slightest breezes.  Their eyes twinkle in that special moment.  And their voices…  Well let’s just say sometimes silence can be golden.

I read a lot of articles on the death of the silent protagonist.  These articles talk about how players want their characters to talk.  Some reviewers even give a game a lower score if the main character doesn’t have a voice.  While I think that Nathan Drake is a phenomenal character (and Nolan North, while he voices almost every character in every game that comes out, is a pretty talented voice actor) he is his own person.  The Drakes, Kratoses, Ezios and Solid Snakes of the world are their own characters.  There is no room for the player to think for them.  No place for the player to actually BE the character.

Some of the most popular characters in video games are the strong, silent type.  One of the first, and best, examples that comes to mind is Link from The Legend of Zelda series.  When I play these games, especially the latest game Skyward Sword, it really draws me in and gives me that heroic feeling.  I make the decisions.  And believe me it’s probably better if they kept Link silent.  Their attempts at giving him a voice in the 80s cartoon and the CD-i games didn’t pan out all too well.  It probably makes Zelda happy too.  She gets no argument from him when she wants to go shopping.

Next to Link, there’s Mario.  He’s as popular as Mickey Mouse, and barely says a thing.  He just goes about his business, rescuing women from giant turtles and monkeys.  Mario does say a few things here or there, but for the majority of the time you’re playing you are an Italian plumber from Brooklyn.  The few things he says though are in a stereotypical Italian accent.  My entire family is Italian and NO ONE sounds like that.  But since Jersey Shore has already ruined the image of Italians everywhere, Mario has nothing to worry about.

Then there’s Crono from the RPG Chrono Trigger.  He doesn’t say a word for the 100+ hours you can put into that game, but his character stands out among the strongest in video game history.  And before someone can cry out that my examples might be a little aged, consider this:  the only talking your character in Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim does is a whole lot of shouting.  The player decides on the conversations.  The character doesn’t drive the story as much.

I believe that keeping the protagonist silent, depending on the storyline of course, can be an asset

to a game.  Again, it gives the player a level of immersion that they can’t achieve if their character does all of the talking and makes all of the decision for them.  When it comes to iconic characters, such as Link, who have gone 25+ years without a voice, why try and give them one?  The results can be a big disaster.  Look at Metroid: Other M.  The developers took one of the most bad ass characters in video games (and the one this column is based on) and made her talk.  What could have been a genius idea turned into a disaster.  Instead of making Samus cool, calculating and oozing with ass-kickery, they made her submissive and whiny (check out some videos on YouTube and you’ll see what I mean.  The videos are rather lengthy and loaded with inner monologues and nonsense).  It seemed to me she set women back a hundred years.  I hope that when they decide to make another Metroid game they keep Samus quiet as a mouse and just let her actions speak for her.

One game that does give the main character a voice and the player a feeling of control and immersion, and does it without cutting corners or coming off cheesy, is Mass Effect.  The player builds their Commander Shepherd from the ground up.  Even though Shepherd does the talking, the player is given the choice on how Shepherd acts in a conversation.  So both sides are happy.  Those who like to be in control get to and those who want a talking character get that as well.  It’s similar to a “choose-your-own-adventure” story.  The words are there, the majority of the story is pre-determined, but the reader [read: player] has a fair amount of control over the events and the outcome.

To be clear, I don’t have a problem with the main character having a voice.  For story purposes, sometimes it’s necessary.  But, it needs to be done right.  The voice needs to fit the character.  Heck, I bet Nolan North could have done a better job as Samus.  The creators need to be careful when it comes to letting their main character speak.  When it’s done right Mass Effect) the results can be beautiful.  When it is done wrong (Metroid: Other M) it can be a disaster.  Of course, there are the rare occasions when the voice acting is so bad it’s good such as the original Resident Evil.

I hope for the sake of video games that the silent protagonist doesn’t die.  Not every character needs to have a voice.  We as gamers are their voice.  We are in control.  We call the shots.

Just In Bailey –an homage to the secret code from Metriod, which allowed you to play as Samus Aran without her suit– is an editorial column at Vagary.TV brought to you by Joey Alesia. Each week Joey will challenge you to look at a different perspective of the characters, gameplay, and/or plot in your favorite games. Chat up your thoughts below, or send Joey an e-mail at Joey.Alesia@vagary.tv

 

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Vagrant Gamers #2 – Rapalogical Ghetto Science

By
Jeremy Goodson
– November 22, 2011Posted in: Shows, Vagrant Gamers

This week I’m joined by Ryan Kenward, the Owner and Mastermind behind Vagary.TV and Magnus Risebro, our resident Norwegian/Swede. We go a little over-time, but we had a great conversation.

Today’s Topics Include:

-What we're playing
**Word from our Sponsors*** (Thanks Jay Jay and Zusker!)
-Main topics:
  - MW3 Launch and our Impressions
  - TOR NDA Drops
  - Skyward Sword releases tomorrow
-On the Site:
  - Joey's Just In Bailey - Achievments
  - 3D Reviews (Thanks NVidia!)
  - n00bketeers 83, Perfectly Sane Show 70, Movie Dudes 23
  - Reviews:
    - LotR: War of the North
    - Super Mario 3D Land
    - Goldeneye Reloaded
-Shout Outs
 - www.websiteinahour.com
Theme Music by our very own Magnus Risebro
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E-mail Us!: Podcast@vagary.tv
   –Let me know what you liked, what you didn’t like, and features you’d like to see on a future show, and of course any comments or questions for this or an upcoming show!
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Follow us on Twitter:
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Website (for all of your upto the minute article updates): @vagarytv
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Please feel free to comment below as well! We love feedback!
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You can now find us on iTunes! Just search Vagrant Gamers!
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Listen here for now:

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PC Review: Tropico 4

By
Tony Odett
– November 14, 2011Posted in: PC, Reviews

Had I been born in the Caribbean, I would have been destined for dictatorship. With my dashing good looks, brilliant mind, and iron will, I could have rivaled Fidel Castro with my own little island paradise to control. Sadly, I was born in America, and am forced to live out my parallel future in a gem of a game called Tropico 4.

Tropico 4 is a unique twist on the city building sim. Instead of building some continental urban metropolis within the confines of a larger nation, you’re given an island to rule as you see fit. Sure, you’re still building power plants, residential buildings and such, but your level of control extends to all walks of life. Does a peasant disagree with your rule? Throw them in jail. Is a professor plotting sedition? Have them executed. Is the military about to stage a coup? Buy them off.

Factories make beachfront even more pleasant.

The game’s greatest strength is the wide variety of possible play styles.  You could cater to the needs of your people, focusing on making them as happy as possible. You could construct of tourist paradise, or become a paragon of industry, or export your island’s natural resources. It’s even possible to build your island on weapon’s trading.  I tended to bounce around a bit with my economy, but I really favored military dictatorship to rule my people. The game includes a host of factions for your island, from the intellectual elite and the communists, to staunch loyalists and pesky environmentalists. Instead of bending over backwards to please them all, I elected to focus on building large military forces and convinced my simple island folk that my way was the best way of doing things. The fact that this is a viable strategy in any game is astounding, and here it works with dramatic effect. The oppressed people will occasionally rebel, and a bloody battle over some particular object in your domain will ensue. If you have enough soldiers, your victory will be assured.

Your island is part of a global economy, and you are forced to deal with other powers on the world stage. Foremost are the United States and the Soviet Union. Anger either one too much, and troops will land to end your reign.  This was an issue in Tropico 3, but Tropico 4 also adds additional power. Lesser powers include China and the Middle East, who are important in trade but lack the strength to actually attack your island. Really, I failed to see the effect of this addition. Often, when choosing sides in a political dispute, you will be left with opting between one of the great powers that could oust you from power, and one that you only have to deal with in trade. This made a lot of the political events really trivial decisions.

Surf's up!

New to this iteration of Tropico are natural disasters. I have to admit having dreams about the tsunami event in the game, as it was rather impressively shown off. The effects can range from insignificant damage from a tornado or earthquake to the destruction of nearly every building on your island. As awful as the latter result sounds, in the grand scheme, it’s really not so bad, as the United Nations will pour money into your island so that you can fix everything that was broken. This makes disasters an interesting diversion, but one that will delay (and not destroy) your efforts to rule your island.

If I have to commend Tropico 4 on anything above all else, it is the stellar tutorial. It has become far too commonplace for strategy games to offer insufficient tutorials, leaving the player to scour forums and strategy guides for advice. Tropico 3 suffered from this mentally as well, which is what made it refreshing to see the focus on teaching in this new effort. The game walks you through not only how to navigate the map and build buildings, but also goes into depth explaining how the various items interrelate. You end the tutorial not merely knowing how to play the game, but the fundamentals of building an economy. My first few play sessions of Tropico 3 ended in dismal bankruptcy and failure, so it was nice to be able to play around and feel like I actually had some sense of what I was doing.

Tropico 4 offers a refreshing change of pace to the slate of fall gaming releases. If you have never had the pleasure of playing a Tropico game, I highly recommend you take this one out for a spin.  If you highly enjoyed 3, Tropico 4 will provide you with new content (though the two are very, very similar), and a campaign which allows interrelate missions, as you build Tropico into a veritable Caribbean empire. Detractors should probably stay away, as the fundamentals of Tropico 3 are still dominant in the gameplay. But then, suddenly there aren’t any detractors. Perhaps, perhaps, someone has made them “disappear.”

Now... let's PARTY!!!

Pros: Ruling an island with iron first, fall release that isn’t a shooter, amazing tutorial

Cons: Very similar to Tropico 3, sound track is way too short for a game with many hours of play

4* out of 5

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Review: Resident Evil: Code Veronica X HD

By
Magnus Risebro
– November 14, 2011Posted in: PS3, Reviews, Xbox 360

Chris here is in for frustration when he realizes those grenade rounds were meant for a boss two hours down the line.

The Resident Evil series is a funny old tale. Both a symbol of Japanese ingenuity and of Japanese gaming industry rut, the series has broken through one moment and broken down the next. The 1996 original made such an impression with its precisely crafted atmosphere, dual story campaigns, zombie dogs, Jill Sandwiches, hardcore item management, and doors being locked from the other side that Capcom seemed to have felt the way forward for the series was to turn everything up to 11 rather than to re-innovate. Indeed, it was not until Resident Evil 4 in 2005 that the series got some much-needed revitalization.

Even at its 2000 launch Code Veronica was hardly forward-thinking, and this HD re-polish does almost nothing to accommodate the decade of advancement that has since occurred in videogames. So despite a still-strong atmosphere, sense of place and flashes of ingenuity, Code Veronica feels clunky and plodding in too many of its elements.

Anything that constitutes “gameplay” is either dry, frustrating, or a combination of the two. Stripping away atmosphere, story and nicely designed environments leaves Code Veronica as a game of bringing key item A to keyhole B while making sure you fill your six/eight-slot inventory with the right combination of power weapons, normal weapons and health items. Figuring out which key to bring to which keyhole is either obvious or trial & error, seldom logic. The combat is never challenging, it’s only a matter of having a correctly managed inventory. If you do, it’s piss-easy, if you don’t, you either die or lose enough health/ammo to warrant reloading a save. Don’t even think of trucking on without those resources, as it’s very possible to save yourself into a no-ammo, no-healing items corner, forcing a full restart. The only real way to be skillful at Code Veronica is to have played it already, and if you haven’t, regularly reloading saves is a necessity. Great fun, repetition does not make.

You’ll push (and re-push) through this gameplay by means of Resident Evil’s infamous “tank controls”, whose presence in this game is utterly nonsensical. See, the original Resident Evil had these controls because there was no other decent way to navigate shifting pre-rendered backgrounds. Those pre-rendered backgrounds were there because the original Playstation couldn’t handle a fully 3D environment of the detail the game required. Code Veronica, however, launched on the Dreamcast and subsequently has polygonal graphics. Yet, bizarrely, the uncontrollable camera angles stay the same. They might occasionally pan, turn and zoom, but the controls of old remain, ensuring no player movement ever goes smoothy.

The framing for the gameplay hardly excels either. Opening with some cheesy, grimy CG, the plot centers on Claire and Chris Redfield discovering an organ of the Umbrella corporation headed by a cartoonishly evil aristocratic family. True to tradition, the voiceacting and script are both horrendous. Though not featuring classic lines of the “Master of Unlocking” calibre, cringe-fans will find plenty to enjoy here nonetheless, specifically in the astoundingly awkward interactions between Claire and supporting character Steve. Even when separated from the dialogue, the plot is uninteresting, not that it’s a signifanct bother.

Though the central narrative is trite, the world in which it takes place is as great as it tends to be in Resident Evil. Every location is designed with masterful nuance, instilling a sense of discomfort through audio and visual design that inspires images far more disturbing than the game’s reality. The eerie ting of flies hitting against a glass lamp and the steam-filled concrete corridors dotted with shadowy corners will sculpt in your mind a monster that no amount of health-spray or flame grenade rounds can slay. But instead, the game presents a monster easily taken down with a shotgun and some corner-camping techniques. Oh well.

In Resident Evil: Code Veronica X HD (gotta love them Capcom titles), enjoyable moments are the exception, tedium is the rule. It might be a worthwhile pursuit and purchase for historic or nostalgic purposes, but otherwise, it’s difficult to enjoy with any consistency.

Pros: Thick atmosphere, brilliant level design

Cons: Consistently clunky and tedious gameplay

2 out of 5

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PC Review: A Game of Thrones: Genesis

By
Jeremy Goodson
– October 20, 2011Posted in: PC, Reviews

Much can be said about George R. R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire series; G-Rated is not one of those things. On the other hand, if you thought murder, treachery, deceit, gratuitous sex, bloody battles, and an epic storyline are what you expect, then you are on the right track; This is what makes the series so intriguing.

I have to admit, I was a bit scared when I heard they were making into a TV show. Luckily, my fears were quickly put to rest right as the first episode started playing. But if the idea of a TV show made me weary, the idea of a video game would have been horrifying.

Cyanide Studios took a huge risk in taking one of the most renowned series of our time and turning it into a video game. Had they screwed it up, it could have completely blown up in their faces. I’m glad that I get the privilege and opportunity to report that not only did Cyanide NOT screw up the game, they put together a top notch prequel completely worthy of the Game of Thrones title.

Let me just start by saying that this game is definitely not for someone who wants an easy ride. In fact, GoT:G is probably one of the hardest games I’ve ever played. Maybe it’s because I’m not incredibly adept to RTS type games, but I had a hard time making it through this game. I lost…a lot. At first it was a bit annoying but then, when I did manage to pull off a win, the level of satisfaction that I felt was astounding. I wanted to keep playing just to prove to myself that I could beat the next mission and move forward with the story.

The main concept, while it does involve many, many epic battles, is more of spying, trickery, and deceit. One of your main goals –which gains you map awareness– is to infiltrate neutral cities and get them to join your side. Or, if that doesn’t work, you can make a secret pact with said cities in order for them to help you, while tricking your enemies into thinking that they’re helping them. This was probably my favorite part of the game.

You can also send a spy into your enemy’s main city and have them pay off someone to work for you. I loved being able to have my enemy build a unit that was actually on my side. How awesome is having your own personal double agent? I could actually trick my opponent into hiring an envoy to go out and make deals with cities which would give me an advantage. I have never seen this concept before in any game that I’ve played. It is truly unique.

The main reason that I wanted to be able to do this review in the first place was kind of selfish of me. I’m a huge fan of the world of Westeros that George R. R. Martin created. The details and complexity of the story arc are phenomenal. He is not afraid to write characters that you hate and he is not afraid to kill off anyone, and I mean ANYONE. Since I’m so intrigued by the main lore that is already out there in the books and TV series, I could not pass up the chance to learn more about the backstory, and that’s what this game does best.

A Game of Thrones: Genesis is not about anything you may have read in the A Song of Ice and Fire series. Instead, it gives you a chance to play through, and see first hand, how the land of Westeros was shaped over the few hundred years before the fiction in the books took place. In this aspect, Cyanide Studios —with some help from Martin himself– has delivered beautifully. Anyone who is a fan of the series needs to play this game and experience it for themselves.

Even though I’m a fan, I have to be honest; A Game of Thrones: Genesis is not for everyone. I wish I could say it was, but the biggest setback is that the game is hard..really hard. There were a few campaigns that took me more than a couple of tries to get through. To me, the struggle was worth it. I love hard games, especially ones that make me feel like I’ve accomplished something when I finish it. The battles can definitely be described as epic, especially as you get into the late game. For those that want more of the “easy street” approach to games, this one is not for you.

With that said, though, I do highly recommend this game. If you’re a fan of either the Game of Thrones television show that was on HBO or the groundbreaking A Song of Ice and Fire series, you will love the storytelling of this game. It’s a great supplement while waiting on the next book…and who knows how long that will take to get out? Also, if you’re a fan of RTS games and don’t mind a challenge, the game delivers astonishingly well in this area as well.

A Game of Thrones: Genesis does an excellent job of taking all of the aspects that the series embodies and playing them out on your computer monitor. If that sounds like something you can get into, them by all means go out and buy this game. There is so much more I want to say about everyting, but they all seem like spoilers. It is really something that you have to experience for yourself to really get the full feel of it all. There is also definitely some good replay value, as you can play the game with or against other players as well adding a whole new element of the game into the mix that I didn’t even get a chance to hit on. And I mean, seriously, who doesn’t want to betray their best friend and pillage his land or team up and take over the Seven Kingdoms for themselves? The opportunities are endless.

Pros:

–Great Story

–Epic Battles

–Fun Gameplay with some new twists

–Great Replayability

–Did I mention the story?

Cons:

–Very Challenging

–Slow Start and may take a bit to get into if you’re not there for the Story at first

Overall Score: 4/5

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EA announces Starbreeze-developed Syndicate title

By
Magnus Risebro
– September 12, 2011Posted in: News, PC/Mac, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360

After years of rumors, it has finally been confirmed that Swedish developer Starbreeze, responsible for the highly-regarded The Chronicles of Riddick games, is working on an adaptation of the classic strategy title Syndicate, to be published by EA.

Syndicate was a 1993 isometric real time strategy game set in a cyberpunk future where one would command a company’s agents in covert operations against rival companies. The game got an expansion pack and a 1996 sequel but since then no new titles bearing the Syndicate name have been released.

According to a recent press-release, the new Syndicate is, predictably, not an RTS, but a “unique and brutal sci-fi first-person shooter experience”. It does seem to borrow the setting from its father though, as the press-release states it is “set in a not too distant future, where business is a war”. As is the case with many FPS games players will have access to a few tricks to use against their enemies besides guns:

Through DART 6 bio-chip technology implanted in their head, players can slow down time and breach the digital world around them to take down their foes using a variety of upgradable hacking mechanics

Reminds me of a certain other cyberpunk game set in a corporation-run world...

Fans of the original Syndicate may shake their head at the series becoming an FPS, but EA Partners Executive Producer Jeff Gamon stresses that “Our goal with Syndicate is to provide a challenging action shooter for today’s gamers, as well as fans of the original. I’m sure they will enjoy and recognize the legacy that made it such a classic”.  Whether this is empty PR appeasement or representative of the final product remains to be seen.

The game is also set to include a 4-player co-op experience which will feature “missions from the original cult classic, which adds another layer of depth to the overall experience”.

Syndicate is slated for release in early 2012 on PS3, Xbox 360 and PC.

Sources: Official EA press-release, screenshots from Computerandvideogames.com.

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Gamescom 2011: Binary Domain Preview

By
Magnus Risebro
– August 20, 2011Posted in: Event Blogs, PlayStation 3, Previews, Xbox 360

Upon first glimpse of Binary Domain, you’d be forgiven for a shrug and a disinterested facial expression. Dudes in armor carrying assault rifles, attaching their backs to flat surfaces and leaning around them to blast robots in ruined cityscapes. Whoop-de-doo.

Beyond the unexciting surface however, Binary Domain presents some very good arguments for why you ought to care about it: First of all, the pedigree behind the game is highly respectable:

Much of the creativity responsible for the ever-loved Yakuza series are developing it, promising for the quality of the narrative. Second, Binary Domain has some legitimately cool tricks up it’s sleeve (more on those later). Finally, the aforementioned wall-hugging, robo-blastin’ action looks to be reassuringly solid, surpassing most of its cover-based shooter peers.

Binary Domain is set in a 2080‘s Tokyo where robots make up a large part of society, both as servants and as regular citizens. Trouble starts when so-called “hollow children” – ‘bots that look and act indistinguishable from humans, and think themselves to be one – start appearing around the world. Robots like these are strictly illegal, so a black-ops team consisting of the player and his squad-mates is sent into Tokyo to infiltrate a corporation suspected of producing hollow children. The metropolis is divided into halves, the post-apocalyptic slums of the undercity, and the clean, utopian overcity. As one might expect, the game will take you through both.

The demonstration I was shown featured a three-man team composed of average Joe-Soldier, Sniper-Girl, and a preposterous French gentleman robot  fighting their way into the upper city, gunning down security bots in an attempt to get through a train-station. This black ops team is apparently so deeply “black” that even Tokyo’s security forces are unwarned of their arrival, meaning they must be blown to bits in the name of greater good. And get blown to bits they did, courtesy of cool hit location-specific damage.

Shoot a bot in the legs, and he’ll crawl towards you, blow one arm off, and he’ll be unable to reload, score a headshot, and their electronic brains will fail to tell ally from foe, targeting every animate object in sight.

Speaking of electronic brains, the enemy AI seemed unusually clever, using squad-tactics such as covering allies taking point, as well as being wary to stay in cover. Enemies also reacted convincingly to rough and sudden amputation of limbs by means of machine gun, drastically changing tactics depending on whether legs and arms were in place.

However, Binary Domain’s most interesting quirk was neither the robo-destruction nor the AI, but the trust system, a cool take on the morality/conversation systems found in other games. Instead of only influencing the direction of the story when making concrete choices and selecting dialogue options, moment-to-moment combat will push the narrative in different directions, specifically with regards to how your team-members view and treat you. Revive them when they get downed, lead the way upon request, and play cooperatively, and they will return the favors. Disregard their pleas for help and cooperation, and you will score less assists and more kills, boosting your XP for character-building purposes, but sinking your allies’ trust levels.

In addition to being affected by your performance in combat, trust will also be influenced by navigation traditional dialogue trees, exemplified when Sniper-Girl complained about Joe Soldier’s dickish behavior during a firefight. Shrugging her complaint off with an arrogant remark, her trust level fell even further. A cool touch is that the different characters you will have in your squad as the game progresses will react differently to various kinds of behavior. Some might trust you more for constant aggression and lack of helpfulness.

As western as all this squad-based cover-shooting and tactical robot dismemberment sounds, Binary Domain is distinctively Japanese outside moment-to-moment combat. For example, the story, like other high-concept Japanese videogame stories, is rendered with ridiculous melodrama, quirk and heavy-handedness (check out the story trailer to see what I mean). This was apparent in the aforementioned complaint from Sniper-Girl, who’s tone and wording sounded nothing like how you’d imagine a professional special-ops soldier to act. Not to mention, one of your teammates is a robot with a cartoony French accent and gentlemanly mannerisms dropping lines like “A worthy opponent, a most formidable enemy!” and ridiculously over-congratulating you on being great when his trust level is high.

But if you, like me, can stomach and even appreciate this kind of quirkiness mixed with heavy melodrama about the human soul and whatnot in your third-person shooters (in other words; if you enjoy Metal Gear Solid), then the story should be right up your alley.

It’s true that the core gameplay in Binary Domain is not revolutionary in the least but compelling storytelling and some neat tricks combined with good execution of tried and true gameplay has in the past produced some fantastic games. And so far, Binary Domain seems to be fulfilling all the above criteria.

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