PC, PC Reviews, Reviews, past - by Diortem - March 6, 2010 - 14:38 UTC - Be first to Comment!
Something lurks under this mountain. Something Ancient, and something evil. And it’s your job to figure out what in this blatant clone of Diablo. (Not that this is a bad thing.)
Torchlight starts with your arrival in the mining-town sharing the name of the game. Your reason for arriving is never made clear: Only that a very powerful magic user came before you, and the first entry of his journal the game reads to you talks about some REAL power being here. This power comes at a price that might have been too high, and had he known what it would do to him, he probably would have never even shown up. The mines used to produce precious metals as well as a magical stone called Ember. Used to is the key term, because recently monsters began to pour into the mines from below. Being the good guy you are (or perhaps because you wanted to go down there anyway), it isn’t long before you follow two other adventurers down and begin an adventure that will ultimately pit you against the source of the monsters in an epic battle for the fate of the town, and possibly the world.
When you first start playing, that this game is Diablo 2.0 becomes instantly clear. You will be greeted with a control panel much like Diablo, complete with mana/health gauges and ten slots in which you will place your spells and items, and even start with 4 taken up by health/mana potions and identify/town portal scrolls. In fact the only differences in this panel are that the health/mana are each taking half of one sphere in the center instead of each taking their own on the sides, you do not have a description box for what you are fighting (rather, that is more like Diablo 2 where the game will show that on top as you attack it), and you now have both your left and right mouse button attacks displayed in front of you, as well as an “alt” attack, which by hitting alt, you can swap with your right mouse button on the fly. In short, it takes a lot from Diablo, adds a little of Diablo 2, and improves on both to make for a very adaptive interface to configure and use quickly while in the dungeons. Even the automap returns in almost the same way: you can have it not be there, in the corner like a radar, or in classic overlay, which still remains my personal favorite for these games.
However, not everything is exactly the same. For starters, your belt no longer controls how many slots or what might be waiting as the next item you might choose to use from your 10 slots. Rather, much like World of Warcraft, or many other MMOs, you will choose an item and all of those in your inventory are attached to that button, be it a kind of health/mana potion, a kind of scroll, or even spells/skills you want hot-keyed for quick use. This helps speed up the game to make and make it even better to play.
When you get right down to it though, the ability to place whatever you want in those slots will not be the only thing to remind you of WoW. Graphically, this game shares a lot of the same style and flair as the juggernauted MMO. The 3d rendering and cartoony style will remind you a lot of this, and in a good way. The game has character and charm, and the art will not leave you bored of what you are looking at. On top of this, the game also takes full advantage of this to minimize the power needed to run this game. For giggles, I brought out an old Dell P4 laptop with 1.5 ghz CPU, 512MB RAM, and some old forgotten Intel graphic chipset and installed the game on it. Sure, loading times were long, but the game itself played smooth as butter…. well as smooth as this game runs on anything anyway.
And I do have to bring that up, because this game has one flaw in it’s presentation: The way it loads. Basically, this game takes a “load as it needs” approach to running, which may sound great, until you realize it’s loading all it’s data from a literal zip file in it’s main directory. The results may vary depending on what you run it on and what AV you are using (MSE may not have liked this very much), but anytime anything new showed up, the game would have to pause to load it into memory, disrupting the game for a little bit. Thankfully, these issues are brief and the longer you play that session, the less you run into them, but it is an obvious downside to what otherwise is an absolutely excellent blend of graphical style and performance.
Sound-wise, this game doesn’t fair so badly, either. The music might as well have been ripped right out of the Diablo series…. literally. If you walked into a room with this game idling and the screen turned off, you wouldn’t be able to tell unless you knew before hand the PC it’s on doesn’t have Diablo 1 or 2 installed. Sound effects, are also very pleasing, to boot. Weapons sound about right, all the voices are well acted (and none repeat between enemies… of course few enemies even scream, much less talk, so this isn’t a big issue) and all your major quests include full narration along with the text! That’s right, this clone’s main story is FULLY VOICED. A very nice touch to finish the feel of the game. Course do not expect this kind of detail on any side-quests you take on, but then, a number of those are randomly generated, so to do so would be impossible. (Not to mention some of the later ones that actually are planned have a few bugs, such as a portal that you have to click to the left of to use and voices stop being used altogether… clearly things that are small, but they just did not have time to fix.)
Sadly, I do have one last fault to bring up, though. This game has no multiplayer at all, so if you want to bring a team with you down into the mines of Torchlight, you are just SOL.
Overall, this game is simply amazing, especially for the price. (It launched at $20, and if you can catch it on sale, you can often get it for even less.) If you enjoy Diablo style games, you are doing yourself a disservice to miss this game. This is the game type refined, and it would have scored even higher had it included online gameplay.
PC, PC Reviews, Reviews, past - by Diortem - February 6, 2010 - 15:09 UTC - Be first to Comment!
Often when a developer releases a game, they want the first thing you say when you start playing to be simple “wow.” They want you to be wowed with the scope, with the music, with the graphics… they just want your first impression to be “wow.” The problem is that you have MANY developers looking to one-up each other at this. So what’s “wow” today is likely going to be “normal” or “meh” the next day. However, in Mass Effect, I think we have a title here that will remain “wow” for a long time.
Mass Effect follows the adventures of Commander Shepard, who through the events within the game, becomes the single most important person in the galaxy and the struggle for the survival of all intelligent life within it. Right off the bat, you will find out Shepard has been nominated to be the galaxy’s first human specter (in case you do not know, specters are agents who do the dirty work for galactic civilization as a whole, but do so outside the law), and your first mission in the game is a test to see if he has what it takes. This also quickly becomes the perfect vehicle to introduce the main antagonist of the game that you will spend the rest of the main missions chasing after.
And missions are exactly how to describe this game. You will travel to various locations and complete missions recorded in your journal by people and things you see/hear/talk to as you see fit and completing the main ones whenever you want to move the core story along. While the game is exceedingly short for an RPG, (my little brother completed the Xbox 360 version of this game in roughly 8 hours), the game offers an insane amount of events going on throughout the galaxy both triggering more of these missions and triggered by your actions during and between them, giving you the impression of a full and busy galaxy. This is why this game continues to be one with a “wow” effect. Add to this the codex entries you will receive explaining the deep, rich, and very complete history and current events of the galaxy, and you will see one of the most complete worlds made for any video game to date. Bioware REALLY made a masterpiece in the worlds you get to play with.
And play you will. The game mechanics are for the most part exceedingly smooth, from conversation to combat, feeling almost completely natural in it’s new home on a keyboard and mouse. I say almost due to the fact that holding down spacebar to open a combat menu mid-combat is not as natural as it could have been. (Just hitting space would have been better.) This is really trivial, however, since the game pauses while you do this, allowing you to breath and think about what you are doing and making even a small amount of awkwardness forgivable.
However, also worth pointing out is an issue with the cover system: you can get stuck on walls, much like the complaints I have heard personally about Gears of War (regardless of version). Overall, it works rather nicely, but but concidering I can speak from experience where the very last boss of the game almost killed me because I got too close to debris I was backing up around and got stuck on it, I would say it is shy of perfect and could probably have used a little bit of work.
Technically, I wish I could be as impressed with this game as I am with the world and overall gameplay. Make no mistake, this game is a port from the 360, and it shows. EVERY issue I had on a technical level seems to stem from this, and settles into exactly 3 issues:
The first, most common, and most trivial issue is graphical pop-in. Almost every time when you first get into a level, you notice the details of the area are VERY low… and the high detail pops in a second later. This is a direct result of the game being a port from the 360. On the console, the idea was to reduce loading times since the game had to load from a disc, letting you get going while the game finished loading. The problem here is, we are on a PC. We are not loading from a CD or DVD. We are loading from a much faster hard drive. It would have been no issue to wait an additional half-second and see everything the instant the game starts the map, not a moment later.
The second issue is not quite as common, but a little more of an annoyance…. awkward loading. This seems to come from bringing the RAM limitations of the 360 home, without whatever extra code the 360 had to handle this in the background (I honestly suspect relying on the 3 cores of the 360 CPU was a big part of this, where PCs at the time were still balancing around a single core processor). The results are that randomly the game will drop frame-rate while your hard drive clicks away to load a new chunk of data, sometimes pausing entirely with a “Loading” screen. This was completely unnecessary on the PC, though, just due to the RAM available to the PC gamer. (PC required a Gig of RAM and no card with less then 128 MB of RAM on it’s own, more then doubling the what the 360 has.) They could have easily taken advantage of that, and with a little work, adjusted the on the fly loading to not be so obtrusive. Still, this never annoys for more then a few seconds, and NEVER happened in the heat of the action, so this is a forgivable, if annoying oversight in the porting process.
The third oversight is with sound. Simply put, this game uses accelerated sound by default…. and it sounds nice… in theory. However, it seemed to me it was set for 5.1 surround sound only, which means anyone using this with stereo speakers (like most PC gamers that Im aware of) literally can not hear the speech or sound effects almost at all over the background noises without turning this feature off. First lesson of game developement is to make sure your game runs right in the most common configuration, making this a blatant failure in the process.
Further pressing matters are bugs in the non-accelerated version of the sound. I can not speak for these being in the accelerated or not since I could not use it, but the code running the software version is terrible. If too much is going on that it has to keep track of, it starts to loose sources and stutter the background music/effect. The results are dropped conversations, gunshots, footsteps, and even in two of the bars in the game, the dance music getting stuck repeating the first few notes like a broken MP3. Needless to say, this is VERY annoying, and leaves you thankful that it seems to only be an issue in 3 very specific areas in the game, one of which it goes away as you kill the army of enemies. Keep in mind, this was NOT a slowdown, as the game at all 3 points didn’t drop a frame from the FPS… this was purely a sound issue.
Overall, though, this game is incredible. You are given a huge galaxy with an insane amount of detail which still reacts to your choices very well. The main game is short, but as a plus, this also means there are very few missions you actually must do, leaving you to be free to do pretty much anything you want, or not do anything you don’t want. The choice is yours, which seems to be the core idea Bioware was going for when they made this one. VERY well done!
PC, PC Reviews, Reviews, past - by Diortem - January 23, 2010 - 03:01 UTC - Be first to Comment!
“Do you know where you are? Do you have any regrets? Are you ready?” These three questions are all the warning you get from this game about the horrific things you will witness once you leave the first room. Sit down, get comfy, and be ready for your skin to crawl….
The White Chamber is a point and click horror adventure, in which you play the part of an unnamed young woman, who literally just woke up in a coffin in a dark room. She has no idea how she got there, and you do not even know her name. After a short puzzle about the only other thing in the room, you begin your adventure to figure out where you are, what happened, and how you can get away from a nightmare taking inspirations from both Silent Hill and Event Horizon. This rather simple story-line is very well executed with plenty to do along the way, making for a very enjoyable game, if not one you will find relatively easy and exceedingly short to complete. (I think I did it in under 2 hours.)
When you first look at this game, one word will scream at you: anime. The game looks nice at a native 1024×728, but the main character and the world she inhabits have a blatant anime-feel to them. Do not let this fool you. It will only lull you into a false sense of security until you see your first WTF moment, which will likely make you jump out of your seat, proving the game to have looks that suit it’s needs and atmosphere quite nicely.
The sound effects and music only amplify this. For most of the game, the music is non-existent, leaving you to the ambiance of the computers and machines around you, piping up only when it can drive the tension through the roof, literally baiting you into the next step like an 8 year old meeting a dare. And just as often as not, you will find good reason to dread the conclusion it draws you to.
Control-wise, it is rather simple, however. You left click somewhere to move there, and right click things to use/see them (the game will open a small menu with the two icons when you do this). You also have an inventory which will appear when you move the mouse to the top of the screen, but leave it off the screen until, making for a rather minimal interface that works to enhance the eerie-ness of this title. However, like FPS, there is really little a game of this kind can do to innovate controls on the PC.
Overall, this is one creepy game. It will make you nervous. It will make you uncomfortable, and it will keep you coming back till you see the conclusion. If you are a fan of horror titles that actually ARE scary, pick this up…. Do not hesitate. Open a new browser and follow a link below: Studio Trophis made this game as free-ware, so you have nothing to lose trying this out.
Downloads:
Studio Trophis’ site: Latest version (1.7 as I write this) is here, but hosted by FileFront
FilePlanet: Version 1.3, for those who would rather use Fileplanet over FileFront.
PC, PC Reviews, Reviews, past - by Diortem - January 16, 2010 - 13:31 UTC - Be first to Comment!
Ah, the Blood Ravens… they’ve been gone a long long time. It almost seemed like Relic had forgotten about the chapter they revealed to us when Dawn of War launched in 2004. It’s time to change that. The Blood Ravens stand once more!
In Dawn of War 2, you are a Commander in the Blood Ravens who has been sent to assist and take command of the efforts to push back an Ork war-band that is running rampant around your home sub-quadrant. Starting with trying to figure out who is enraging these orks on a mass scale, the story quickly becomes far more complicated, introducing players hinted at during the opening video.
This game is NOT a standard RTS, and this becomes appearant very early on. You will never build a structure, and you will never be given the option to amass a huge army to do your Imperial bidding. Instead, you will have 5 squads (and yourself) to equip as you feel best for the mission at hand.
You will then pick up to 3 squads to join you in the action below for what has been described (quite accurately) as a Diablo-esque RTS: You are controlling a small team of 4 squads. Each squad contains a leader who will level up with time on the ground and can perform special moves, sometimes leading the squad into the attack. If your leader dies, you can send another squad to to revive him and continue the fight… the others in the squad are not so lucky.
Not that you will lose them for keeps, however. If you can get a squad with missing members to a structure you have taken, you can bring a new recruit down to take his place, refilling your ranks for the next attempt at whatever killed the last one… be it beacons JUST for this, or more special structures that will also give you more advantages in later battles for taking them now. (For example, some buildings have a direct relation to how many times you can use certain special abilities in combat.)
You will have to select each mission before you play, which due to the day-based mechanic, will play a large roll in how the game will progress. Everyday you are given a single deployment (although you can earn additional deployments for playing very well), and when you are done your “turn” the day will progress, along with events around the sub-quadrant and how long you have left until optional missions will disappear.
Your missions themselves will generally fall into 3 catagories:
- Defending a structure you have previously took during another mission.
- Attacking a special enemy and everyone else in the way.
- Securing specific structures from the enemy.
Of course story missions do not stay so simple, often blending these objectives inways you will not see until you are in the think of it, keeping you on your toes.
Graphically, I can’t say anything bad about this game. RTS games are not known for highly detailed sprites or background. Instead, it’s more common to use the power of the machine to show more on the field, letting the fights be as impressive in scale as possible. Not so in this game. The battlefields are absolutley gorgeous, from the lushious jungles, to the run-down hive worlds, to the alien infested lands of both. Further more, the land does change according to what is going on, so be ready to be amazed. The sprites themselves look great from any distance too, revealing some really high detail work.
However, this does come at a price. It was never bad enough to hurt gameplay, but when the action got it’s most intense, there was some stuttering, and this was especially true for tyrandis, who almost never show up outside of a literal swarm.
This game also has a lot to boast in the audio department… the voice acting is absolutely amazing, and delivers the personalities of each of your 6 leader characters perfectly, not to mention the random chatter of the enemies: absolutely full of character. The sound effects are not bad either, as swords swinging, explosions, and all the colorful weapons of the Warhammer 40K universe deliver what sounds about right for each.
Music, however, is one place the game does not seem to offer much variety on. There is a theme song to your mission/squad select/equip screens. I didn’t really notice any music that stood out in the game itself, but this could well have been either drowned out by the gunfire or so ambient I honestly didn’t notice it. Either way, Im not so sure it was a bad choice… it’s really easy to get into the battle before you this way.
Overall, this game is something completely new for the RTS genre, something new and something really really good. Most genres of games seem to become more complacent as of late, and seeing how especially true this is for RTS titles, it’s more then a breath of fresh air to see something like this fly so well. If you are a fan of RTS games, PC gaming, or Diablo-style games, pick this one up. It will be a fun change of pace. If all of the above are your thing, why haven’t you bought it yet? You are doing yourself a disservice to not have it now.
Nintendo Wii, Nintendo Wii Reviews, Reviews, past - by Diortem - December 19, 2009 - 21:17 UTC - 1 Comment
It’s bug squishing time. Grab your weapon of choice, a few friends, and jump online. This is no drill, this is it! You and your friends vs. an insane amount of giant insects intent on eating you alive! Welcome to Onslaught!
Onslaught is a First Person Shooter in which you play a member of a rescue team sent to a new planet just being explored. The problem: giant cybernetic bugs. What was a rescue mission quickly becomes a survival mission as you struggle to grab the few humans left and get the hell off this planet! The story has a few small twists, behind this, but really nothing you won’t see coming or be told before the game even begins. None of it matters, however, as the point of the game is the action on the ground, not how you got there.
As mentioned before, this game is a First Person Shooter, and takes it’s lessons of control from the trailblazer to get it right on the Wii, Metroid Prime 3. Although you will miss the customizability of that title, it is really not needed here, as the sensitivity feels about right from the start, and the controls are comfortable in minutes. I’d recommend opening up the online manual, but only because the game’s in-game instructions leave something to be desired, and rellying on them to know everything you need to play will leave large chunks of what you can do in-game unavailable. (In my case, I did not know I had grenades or could drive a tank till about halfway through the game.)
However, this game suffers some in general design…. mainly within the single player game. In this mode, you will have around 20 levels, all of which will be running through tunnels to get somewhere or wipe out all the bugs you can…. or defending some objective from those same bugs who will come explicitly to destroy. While running around and killing bugs can be fun as anything, it gets old quick due to the limited kinds of enemies and very repeat nature of these kinds of levels. Defend the base missions do not fair much better, since they rely on the same enemies and infuriating patters that can be next to impossible to complete on single player. Yes, you do have an AI squad to back you, however, when they can never be too much help in defenses since they will never leave formation. All you can do is tell them which direction to face.
Multiplayer is a lot better due to the ability of another player to go where they want. It also is where your score begins to play into the game… this is an arcade style shooter, and you will be competing with your other players to get the highest score in the level you choose. Sadly unless you want to play in tournament games, you are still stuck to the same 20 or so levels you played with before. But those 20 levels can be a blast to play with friends.
When this is not possible, the lack of players out there becomes a blatant point of issue in this game. Simply put from my experiences, I could not get a game in my “region” going. There were no other players to recruit into a game… a sad state of affairs for a game sold on being a multiplayer title. On the flip side of this, I was able to get a game or two across the globe, and (this will shock many WIi haters out there) I had NO connection issues! The game ran flawlessly and without lag! Even if the game is not the most popular, the networking code is rock solid.
Graphically, I have to applaud HudsonSoft. No they did not make a great looking game. At best, the game looks alright. However, this is a Wiiware title, and as such, they had a total of 40 MB to work with max. This game is graphically is on par with games that needed 10X that on PC (due to the Quake 3 engine), so despite the blatant limits in enemy types, and general resources to build levels with (almost everything is in the desert or underground) I have to say Hudson did an amazing job here. Sound is also very well done, including some limited voice acting!
Overall: If you can be sure you can have a few buddies who will get this game with you, go for it. $10 is a small price to pay for the co-op fun this game has to offer. However, if you are planning to play this game alone, I would have to tell you to pass. You will not get any unique levels, and the levels you do get will get boring fairly quick. All you will get extra is a really cheesey storyline that almost makes the story behind Starship Troopers look good (except this one is actually more straight forward).
PC, PC Reviews, Reviews, past - by Diortem - December 13, 2009 - 23:17 UTC - Be first to Comment!
Come play…. it’s time to release your inner *******….. have fun…. *evil laughter with lightning in the background*
In this game, you will play the roll of Ceville, an evil tyrannical king who’s purest joy in life is to make others miserable. Sadly, payback is a *****, as the game starts with your people and even your own guards turning on you and attacking your castle! During your escape, you will find out who traitor that caused all this is, and your new life mission will be to get revenge on the “vile villain.”
Sadly, the story in general is slow and you will wish Ceville was more into kicking ass then undermining later in the game. However, live for the moment, and you will be laughing as often as not.
This is a point-and-click adventure, with a very sadistic sense of humor during which you will control 3 different characters at different times, each of which will have puzzles that apply their personalities to to the way you have to think about it to win, making for some serious challenge and requiring you stop and think often… but most of the time, you will be playing as Ceville, and the way to win, will be to be the biggest ******* to everyone else you can, sometimes doing things you would never have thought of.
However, to assist in the relatively high difficulty some parts of this game have, there is a very minor hint system/improvement to the point-and-click formula. When you hold down the space bar, you will get to see a text title over everything you can interact with color coded to show how you can (look, use, talk, ect.) interact with it… and it shows according to what you have selected from your inventory (if you have anything selected). This is a very nice touch in that getting stuck no longer means the game becomes nothing more then a hidden object game… a very nice improvement for the entire genre.
Graphics and sound, however, I can have very little praise for. The game looks beautiful for the most part, but between minor framrate issues (do not ask me why, the game does not look that complicated, and for comparison, I run Crysis Warhead at the same resolution without a hiccup), shadow-work for objects that clearly go through things (as well as sprites for a video or two), and even some objects that it’s obvious they moved it later and then didnt change the location you click on, it’s obvious this game is not very polished at all. Sound also suffers from issues of the same nature, between the audio not matching the subtitles at times, and even cutting out (as if they cut their English version short on a few lines by accident). This game is budget, and while they spent it wisely around the gameplay and puzzles, things do suffer for it.
OVERALL: I would be lying if I told you this game wasn’t entertaining, but I would also be lying if I told you this game was great. It’s a good title, and if you like this kind of game, it’s worth buying. If you are even neutral to Point and Click games, you may be better off going to find something a little more finished for your tastes.
DS, Nintendo DS Reviews, Reviews, past - by Diortem - November 25, 2009 - 16:56 UTC - Be first to Comment!
200 years ago, something happened. Something big… so big in fact that the world was catastrophically altered, and all history before and even the event itself have been forgotten. Before this moment in time, the three races lived here. Now, however, humans have worked hard at rebuilding their society. Casts (the race of living robots) that still can have only begun to turn back on again. They are the last of their kind with no memories of anything at all. Newmen are now the stuff of legend… long gone to the new pre-history.
This is the world that Phantasy Star 0 drops you into, and let you in on an adventure to understand what the “Great Blank” really is… and maybe, just maybe, save the world from a second one. It’s impossible to explain more then this without ruining the story of the game, but to it’s credit, the species you play will both change how the story begins as well as control details along the way, truly making the game a little more unique for each player. Sadly, the reason I cant explain anything more is because the game is pretty short and direct. The main game is about 6 missions, each can be completed in a about an hour. Thankfully there are side-missions to pad the length of the game as well as supply extra details about the world of the game, but the length is an issue.
Gameplay-wise, this game is instantly familiar to anyone who has ever played Phantasy Star Online, including the return of the old style action palette, literally allowing you to custom set each what each button (as well as each button when you hold down the left bumper) does while in combat. It isn’t a direct port from PSO, though, as you no longer lose that second set of techniques when your mag is ready to drop it’s own attack for you. (That is now controlled by holding both bumpers to charge it.) You also now have a new super-shot system in which holding down a button to attack will charge your character to do a super technique (provided you have enough Photon Points left to do it), adding even more depth to an already classic and well made engine!
Sadly, not all changes here were good, as the gunplay can be a little stiff if you are not moving when you start firing. You will get the classic 3-hit combo system this way, but when you are done, you wont move for a moment, leaving you vulnerable. But overall, that is a very minor complaint. This game is as fun as the original was, and carries with it almost the exact same feel. This game is absolutely solid.
In addition to the single player campaign, you can play with up to 3 others in a multiplayer mode with it’s own quests to complete, and here the game really shines. Playing exactly like you did on your own, you can play locally or with others online and the DS doesn’t miss a beat, making for a fun as hell game (and for many, a trip down memory lane). The only issue I can bring up with this mode is communication.
When you play with random people on a Nintendo Console, you assume there will be restrictions. In this case, you are limited to a list of 15-20 phrases which you can click on to say in-game. That in itself is not too bad, but when you can not find a Goodbye to leave without being rude, or something to say “you choose” or “after you” to not demand the lead possition in a group, it almost becomes useless at times. Frustratingly so.
Playing with others you have traded friend codes with (I refuse to knock a game for using something the system it’s on has made manditory) is a little better. Now in addition to these phrases, you can draw what you want to say, and even save drawings for later, giving you quick access to much more usefull (or amusing depending on what you want to do) messages on the field. While this is definately a step in the right direction, and has a “cool factor” to it, I can’t help but wonder why Sega didn’t use the mic built right into the DS. After all, when playing as a team, nothing beats voice communication, as the popularity of XBox Live has proven to us all. My advice: If you can do it, play this game with all your buddies being on a voice network to the side.
Graphically, I have to say I am impressed with this one. This is easily the best looking DS title to date (even including 2D games Ive played on the system), and with almost no slowdown at all. When the battle is at it’s heaviest and you are looking at 11 or more characters (who all look amazing) on the screen at once, there isn’t even a hint of a stutter, so enjoy your battles at their best and in full power. This game will offer you nothing less, and show you just how powerful your handheld system is.
I still have to say almost no slowdown, though, as the game clearly gears itself to do this. When the enemies are loading in is when you see the framerate drop, as if the game is swapping power from it’s graphics to load for that half second. Obviously this has no effect on gameplay, but it is notable because when you first see it, you will wonder for a second… then you will stop caring as wave 2 comes in hard and fast and in all it’s graphical (and gameplay) glory. Also worth noting is how the game sections off the map. Unlike other entries of the series, you will only see the room you are in, each one loading separately. Another clear indication of how they did what they did, but at the same time, another one you wont care about beyond a nod to the tactic itself.
If there is any real weak point in this game, it’s sound. Do not get me wrong, the music is actually really good and classic Phantasy Star Online, but the sounds were hardly varied. You have your generic monster growls, moans, and groans…. you generic shooting sounds, and your party’s groans of combat. Sadly, there is almost no voice-work in this game, limiting it to a few cut-scenes you will see while playing the story and a fully sung credits track, so get used to seeing text when an ally has something they want to tell you in combat.
Final Thoughts
If you are a fan of Phantasy Star Online, you would be foolish not to pick this game up. It is the sequel you have wanted for about a decade. If you are a fan of this kind of game (Diablo, Torchlight, ect.) you may well want to give this game a shot. It’s not a perfect match, but it is enough of the same kind of game to entertain, and with free internet gaming and at a $35 asking price, you can’t go wrong here.
Now if you will excuse me, I have some final side-missions to finish myself. See you on the surface.
PC, PC Reviews, Reviews, past - by Diortem - November 15, 2009 - 14:38 UTC - 1 Comment
“Come get some!” For millions of players who grew up with the classics, these words echo among the halls of the hallowed, as well as the infamously catchy metal theme that announces to the world Duke Nukem has arrived.
Duke Nukem: Manhattan Project was released almost 10 years ago, and sadly remains the last title to be graced with what can only be described as the new generation’s Duke… at least for now until Duke Nukem: Critical Mass gets to us, but according to Gamestop, that will not be till March next year.
The game itself is a 2D plaformer that will bring memories of Duke Nukem 1 and 2 back the moment you let your hand rest in the old famiar, and forgotten, configuration: arrow keys to move and look, Ctrl and Alt to jump and shoot. You can use Z and X to zoom and hot key pipe bombs, but this hardly does anything to change the old-school feel this game has…. reminding you of everything that made Duke Nukem 1 and 2 good enough to kick things off with 3D in the first place.
That isn’t to say this game is flawless. While the controls feel perfect, they are also fluid enough to be unforgiving. For example, there are things in this game like spikes that touching will kill you (spikes mainly), and touch them you will. What most games would look at as at most scraping the side will send the Duke splattering into guts and gore.
Your goal in each level will be to find a keycard, a babe with a bomb attached to her, and then escape to the end of the level… about as straight forward and old school as you get (with a Duke touch of looking for babes that need saving). The level design itself in this game is a bit of a mixed bag. When the level is awesome, holy sh*t it’s amazing. You’ll be blasting rockets (which in old school form WONT hurt you) at enemies and charging along through a relatively interesting level and remembering just how awesome this was back in the day. It’s even better now with the graphic power of even a few years ago behind it! But there are times when, just like most games of that day, you will find…. the level. You know the one. Where it takes forever to find your way to the exit with everything done. Thankfully these moments are exceedingly rare, and the game is overall a fun blast from the past of gameplay, albiet a short one. (My completion time, no more then 6 hours.)
Graphically, this game is suprisingly good! When you think of 10 years past, you expect clunky, bad bitmapping, and all the fun things of the PSX/EARLY PS2 era. This game has aged exceedingly well. The backgrounds still look nice and fairly well detailed, Duke and all your enemies still gleam with the quality you should expect. The ONLY thing to age badly are the babes…. I blame oversimplified framework and early *ahem* attempts to imitate Dead or Alive *ahem*.
Sounds and music in this game are also pure classic Duke. From the first gunshot to the last words out of the Duke’s mouth, you will be pleased with how everything sounds… minus a few static pops from the old technology. Music is always either just as good or so burried by explosions you dont know or care.
FINAL VERDICT: When this game came out, it was a bargain title, denying the pure fun hidden within it, and just like the classics of old, this one aged extremely well. While the game is short, it is an amazing reminder of just how it was done back in the day, and perhaps why sometimes nostalgia is good. And with services like Good Old Games now beginning to show, there is no reason anyone should miss this often overlooked gem.
Nintendo Wii, Nintendo Wii Reviews, Reviews, past - by Diortem - November 14, 2009 - 15:19 UTC - 1 Comment
Be ready to be three years old again, when goo is disgusting, and yet alot more fun then it has every right to be…. only you mom wont tell you to stop playing in the mud this time. Instead, it’s time to delve into a strange world where the goo is alive, able to build structures with surprising strength for non-solids, and brains will count for far more then brawn (and about as much as reflexes).
The story behind World of Goo is as murky as your living building blocks at best. What starts as living goo beginning to explore the world around them quickly becomes a convoluted story about a company named after them, which for reasons that do not even begin to make sense, you will ultimately destroy. Seriously, I don’t even know if this qualifies as a spoiler since the whole thing makes so little sense. However, seeing how little the story matters to the game, this is hardly an issue.
The game itself is a puzzle game based on physics. You will build structures out of goo-balls with the goal of getting the goo flowing around it to the pipe at the end of the level, doing so with the instinctive ease of pointing your wiimote at your choice goo-ball and holding down A to pick it up and drag it wherever you want before letting go of the button, and dropping the ball. Using all the different kinds of good available (and each will be introduced by the game, so I will not try to explain them here), you will have somewhere around 40 levels to complete: Some easy, some hard, and some “are you ****ing kidding me” hard. You will have fun, but be STINGY with your skips (the game does let you skip 3 levels for every chapter you complete (there are 4)) to prevent some more hair-pulling events later.
The music to this game is simply amazing…. and for once, I can tell you not to take my word for it! It’s being given away for free! Go take a listen at fileplanet and hear this awesome masterpiece for yourself. As for sounds in general, there are not a lot to go around. There are generic pucker sounds for when you move goo around and they sometimes squeal as you manipulate them, as well as some popping, burning, and bursting, but nothing that will really draw your attention.
Graphically, this game is very simple. A blatantly flat and stylized set of graphics will meet your eyes and remind you in an odd way of things like Beetlejuice and Nightmare Before Christmas, if not a lot less technically impressive. It looks very nice and has a charm all it’s own, but it was never going to win any awards since once the charm wears off, there is nothing really special remaining.
FINAL VERDICT: If you enjoy puzzle games, go download this on the shopping channel. This game is also on the PC (with Mac and Linux also available now), but do not let that fool you. 2D Boy themselves have said both versions are the same exact game. The only differences I could find are you can have a player 2, 3, or even 4 on the Wii if you want, but in return you lose the leaderboards for the individual levels the PC version has. Add that to this version being $10 instead of $20, and there should be no reason not to pick this excellent title for your digital Wii library.
PC, PC Reviews, Reviews, past - by Diortem - November 8, 2009 - 15:46 UTC - 2 Comments
I wonder how that press conference must have gone. “I have a GREAT idea for a video game! Let’s make it about a bunch of balls. They are at war, see, and have all kinds of guns and stuff and roll around and fight each other!” “But sir, we just bought an over 20 year old licence about balls without guns! We cant use this!” “Sure we can! Let’s just put a few in the game!” “BRILLIANT!” Seriously, this is about the best I can come up with, but whatever it took to cause this game to be, it’s to all our benefit that it happened!
The story to this game is not very deep, but it fits the feel of the game perfectly. Oculus Orbus and Horn-Head are blasting through the galaxy in a high speed space-chase to some as of yet unnamed artifact when Horn-Head gets the one good shot he needs to take his rival down. Depending on which campaign you decide to play, you will either follow Oculus in his adventure with his new allies or Horn-Head and his new hoard of goons eager for the power in a race to this artifact, each with a fairly light, but solid story backing the adventure. Both sides will basically be playing the same maps, though, so if you don’t care enough about the stories to follow them both, you wont miss out on much.
The game itself is a top-down shooter in you roll, shoot, and puzzle your way through in classic arcade fashion with a wide variety of weapons ranging from a simple machine gun, to a super powered lazer cannon, to grenade launchers, to ninja star launchers. The selection of weapons is absolutely amazing. You will also have a selection of characters, each with unique powers and abilities to choose from…. but there are a few catches stopping you from going hog-wild: Physics and you will have to earn the ability to use them by playing the game. Choose to play alone or with friends, co-op or vs, but play!
But why mention physics? Simply put, you are a ball, and guns have recoil. Different weapons will have different strength recoil, but it will change how you want to use each or which ones you might want to pick where all the more. A laser gun is amazing, but when you fly back a few feet for using it, it’s probably not the best weapon when you are up on a bridge over lava. This game will make you consider such things as part of your strategy. The controls behind all of this is also very well done, adapting the WASD controls we have all come to know and love absolutely perfectly.
Sound-wise, this game will not impress you, but it will charm you. The voices are amusing, but rarely enough used to never over stay their welcome, and the guns themselves sound about like you would expec them to. Even the music fits this style. There is not alot of different songs on here, but it will charm when you focus on it, yet settle to the background nicely when the guns are blazing and the enemy is swarming around you.
And they will look really nice while swarming. I am hard pressed to think of a single thing that crossed my screen with anything but high resolution bitmaps and generally looking great. On my system, I was able to up the resolution to 1440×900 (my monitor’s max) with liquid smooth frame-rate almost all the time. I saw almost only because the engine does show a small weakness. If you are too high up over the base floor, the engine starts to chug a little. It isn’t enough to wreck the game, and it doesn’t matter what is actually around you. An odd, bug, but being a graphical flaw, I should mention it. (And as a side note, do NOT play this with Xfire running… they just dont get along and your frame-rate will suffer regardless of power or settings… badly.)
FINAL VERDICT: This game is the very defenition of a fun fast paced action game that is insanely easy to get into. It does not have a deep plot, alot of complex controls, or even any real gimmicks. It’s just solid fun… and at $10, there is no reason to say no to this game.
PSP, PSP Reviews, Reviews, past - by Diortem - November 2, 2009 - 00:41 UTC - 3 Comments
This is it! THIS is EXACTLY what I got a PSP for. If you read my stuff back when I posted on Live Journal, you would remember a story from reviewing Final Fantasy 7 on this very system. If not, read it now and understand why a PSP was completely unavoidable in my world. Clocking in at under 50 hours, so far it is the shortest Persona game… but who could resist playing the start of what has become THE choice RPG series… from the beginning?
The game starts innocently enough. You and your friends decide to play a game… well they call it a game, and I suppose if you call “Candyman” a game this is too. The idea is that if you complete this “Persona” game correctly, you and your friends playing will see your futures. What happened instead, was a little girl appeared, and electricity arched over everyone playing, making them pass out and dream….
When they all came too the party found that the world had become decidedly more dangerous. Deamons have invaded, but for some reason cant get into the school. It doesn’t take long before the only absolute truth becomes apparent: Your choices are your own, and you must live with the consequences.
While the story draws you in, it is also very complex due to the game living up to this. What you choose to do will indeed change what happens, and the ending of the game you reach. For me, the game was fairly direct, and ended rather hum-drum, but I must give it alot of respect despite that, simply because I do not know what I did to get the ending I got! This is the best example of a game you play right now and again later on with a guide so you can see how things could have ended if you had done things differently.
Gameplay-wise, this game lives up to it’s age as an old school RPG. You will move around in an overworld, several dungeons, and except in specific safe places, will always run the risk of any movement hitting a random encounter and a menu-driven battle. Alright, so the dungeons are actually 3D and shown in first person, but the novelty of this view wears off fasr. Story will direct you to specific places where key encounters and boss battles will occur as well to drive things along, but this is also standard faire of an old RPG. Where this game differentiates itself gameplay-wise, is combat and the things that give this game it’s name, your personas.
Personas in this game in essence the inner elements of your character’s personalities, brought forward and used in active combat. As such, they offer “skills” which are effectively the magic spells of this game, as well as enhancements to the character’s stats and their strengths/weaknesses. For example, you could have a character with a persona that nullifies fire attacks, but is weak to ice. Personas slowly gain these abilities as they gain rank (different from level) up to 8, and you can put a maximum of 3 personas on each character (to be swapped during combat for a turn or at will outside of combat).
To get new personas, you must negotiate with the deamons you are fighting through a system in which you will either make them happy, scared, angry or eager to join you via the communication methods each of your characters can do RATHER then fight on any given turn. Each character has completely different methods of negotiation and the monsters will react to different tactics, both by time of combat (moon phase) and by their personality traits. If you can achieve an eager reaction and are high enough level you can take their card. With this in hand, communicating with this kind of deamon will result in them retreating, and taking it to Egor will allow you to merge it with a second card to create a persona and equip any you have made to a character of your choice. (Egor is in the velvet room, and you will discover him when he is ready to show, as well as the specific of this rather in-depth system on it’s own.)
Combat itself differs from most RPGs in that it has an element of Final Fantasy Tactics style stratagy. On top of all the strengths and weaknesses of both your characters and the deamons, you will also have only certain ranges weapons and skills you use will hit on the enemy side of the board, and you can adjust your formation to fit your needs (both at will out of combat and for the turn of everyone moving mid-combat), adding to the control you have over how the battle will play out!
While I cant complain graphically about this game, I can not really praise it either. The combat is in a birds-eye-view field with characters that while they fit the field, are too small to really add a lot of detail to, leading to a very generic RPG look in combat. The dungeons are indeed in first person 3d, but VERY basically so. In fact the engine is about as blocky as Wolfenstien 3D from the days of DOS. Don’t get me wrong, this game is ALOT prettier then that, but the maps will be very reminiscent in their layout. And the overworld map looks like someone photographed a portion of a city and used it (maybe with a little editing) as the map. You are pointed out by a green arrow pointed down at the roads where you are. Looks nice, and is effective at it’s job, but it’s nothing particularly special.
FINAL VERDICT: If you are a fan of Shin Megumi Tensai or of Persona in peticular, you owe it to yourself to pick this up. It’s retranslated, eliminating alot of complaints about the hack-job it recieved when it hit PSX, and the extra power in the PSP definately eliminates all the issues with graphic problems the PSX version had. By far a worthy re-mastering job. HOWEVER, if you dislike older RPG games, stear the hell away. In it’s core workings, that is exactly what this is. Anyone else, it’s worth having, but seeing as you can download it as well as buy the UMD, don’t feel rushed.
