No, I haven't got my grubby paws on an early copy of Marvel vs. Capcom 3, before you ask, you'll have to wait another two weeks for that. The title is in fact referring to the game, Two Worlds II, and it's fate, the reason it got pushed back again, as detailed here. This is the latest (although arguably unavoidable) setback in a long line, which keeps pushing the UK release further and further back, slowly earning the reportedly redeemed and quite well-received by critics sequel the same kind of laughing-stock reputation of the first. The release date of Two Worlds II (or Two Worlds Forever as some people have started calling it) now rests tentatively on the 25th of February, but if I was going to get any game that day it would be Killzone 3, or failing that The Conduit 2. Two Worlds II wouldn't get a look in. As it happens I'm going to hoover all three of them up (Plus LBP2 and maybe a couple of minor games) come April, when my real job grants me my end-of-financial-year bonus.
So, I took all of my TWII money (all £32.89 of it) and skipped merrily off to Blockbuster like a gay (happy) child on pocket money day, determined not to be left gameless on this dark day. Ten minutes later I left the shop with chief Two Worlds substitute Divinity II: The Dragon Knight Saga on 360 for £19.95, Bionic Commando on PS3 and Diabolik: The Original Sin on Wii for £4.95 each and Sega Superstars Tennis on 360 for the bargain price of £2.95, with 9p change and a feeling of relief for having something new to play.
The only game I've had a go on so far is Divinity II, which is very good but hard going. Happily in the middle between the expansive, open world Oblivion and the closed in areas of Fable, DII sees you in the boots of a Dragon Slayer hunting the last of the Dragon Knights, powerful beings with the ability to take the form of a Dragon. The Dragon Knight, in her dying breath, transforms you into one yourself, and teaches you of their apparently noble quest to save the world from the demonic 'Damian' (original name for a demon).
I'll admit, I'm still getting to grips with the game, but I think I'm getting the hang of it. The levelling up process is simple, gain XP from killing enemies and completing quests and pile them into different aspects (as a warrior I'm diverting it all into Strength and Health, but there's also things like Magic and Archery), then level up a particular skill, like dual-wielding or regenerating health. The only problem I'm having is with the difficulty spikes, one minute I'm wading through enemies taking barely a scratch as they crumble beneath me, the next I'm dead at the hands of a single Goblin, because he's two levels ahead of me. I think I'm a bit tuckered out by fantasy RPGs at the minute though, I'm still plodding through Dragon Age, so maybe Divinity will have to be moved a bit further down my pile to be rejoined at a later date.
So that's that then. I've been in talks with my cohort Trev, who will be returning to the site imminently, and both of us are working on some exciting new features for the site. We'll keep you posted. Once again, please 'like' us on our Facebook page, there's not only news about the blog there but news about our friend's sites and blog postings and general gaming news. See you later.
Showing posts with label The Conduit. Show all posts
Showing posts with label The Conduit. Show all posts
Wednesday, 9 February 2011
Friday, 14 January 2011
A look back: My top 10 games of 2009
I said I'd repost it, so I've dug it from the depths of Videogame Space and slapped it on here for your pleasure. Note that I hadn't played Assassin's Creed II by this point, and that would have nestled nicely in third place, and in my disorganisation I'd forgotten about the release of the epic Street Fighter IV somehow, which would probably have slid in nicely between Batman and Killzone 2. Tekken 6 wouldn't have placed higher than Borderlands, so with the other two additions isn't really worth mentioning. I assure you, I've been working on 2010's GOTY since the first of January, so there will be no schoolboy errors this time around. So, for posterity, enjoy.
Originally posted on the 15th of December 2009.
As the year is coming to a close and a lot of people are complaining about the lack of great games over the last 12 months, I decided to compile a list of games that have made 2009 a great year for me, and why. So without further ado, ten must-have 2009 games that have rocked my little world.
10: SoulCalibur: Broken Destiny - Namco, PSP.
Far from just being a port of SoulCalibur IV, Broken Destiny took the already impressive fighting game and expanded on it, adding two new characters (including God of War's charismatic hero and all-round nice guy Kratos) and a handful of great new features including a continuous play system based on Tekken: Dark Resurrection's Arcade Mode. The character creation facility from SCIV also makes a return, and it is possibly better than it's parent game's offering. Namco have definitely proven that they are the kings of PSP fighters, Capcom need to sit up a bit.
9: X-Men Origins: Wolverine - Raven Software, XBox 360.
Movie adaptations are usually kiddie-friendly rushed for release pieces of horse shit, and it was utter boredom that drove me to download the demo for Wolverine from the PSN store. When I later received the game bundled with my XBox 360 Elite in September, I expected it to get boring very quickly. It turned out to be an absolutely thrilling God of War style slash-em-up with bucketloads of gore and no sign of Ryan Reynolds anywhere. It's hard to imagine how this game could have been better for what it is.
8: Borderlands - Gearbox Software, XBox 360
Borderlands is a rare game, in that it completely polarizes it's audience. On one hand you have those that love it, and on the other those that hate it, and you'll find it very hard to find anyone sitting on the fence between. In a nutshell, Borderlands is a MMORPG, but without the MM part (although it still plays like one). Then take the fantasy setting and change it into a barren planet full of rednecks and mutants and liberally scatter about a thousand different guns around the game world and you've got it. Throw three friends into the mix and it all spells great fun, if you're at the same skill level that is.
7: The Conduit - High Voltage Software, Wii
The Conduit is actually the most recent game that I've played, and it really impressed me in a way that I didn't think anything on Nintendo's pre-school toy could. It's an awesome FPS that tells the story of an alien invasion orchestrated from within America's own government, and apart from the shitty ending and the fact that at times it's so fucking hard it can drive a grown man to tears, it's great from start to finish.
6: Ghostbusters: The Videogame - Terminal Reality, PS3
When I was a child I had a huge suitcase full of Ghostbusters action figures. I watched the cartoons religiously, loved the films (apart from the library ghost, that scared the shit out of me) and was so jealous of my friend's firehouse play set. I played the Megadrive game so much that me and my friend had written lyrics to the background music. So every second of this game was a fanboy delight for me. And I had my chance to finally get revenge on the library ghost. Just don't cross the streams...
5: Killzone 2 - Guerrilla Games, PS3
I had never even played Killzone 1 until this year, so the series was entirely new to me. Where Killzone impressed me, Killzone 2 absolutely blew me away with it's absolute chaos and phenomenal graphics. Where Gears of War is very organized in it's 'walk to an area, have a fight, repeat' mechanic, Killzone 2 just throws panic and constant action at you at every turn. There's even an attempt at emotive storytelling too, but it gets lost under the machismo and buzzcuts, which are more important in a military FPS.
4: Batman: Arkham Asylum - Rocksteady Studios, PS3
What, as low as number 4? Yeah, Batman is a fantastic game and would probably be at the top spot in a lot of people's lists, but I can't help feeling that it got caught up in the hype of The Dark Knight, which was hyped for a lot of wrong reasons, but let's not get into that. Arkham was, for those who've been living at the Earth's core for the last year, stated as the ultimate Batman experience, melding combat and detective work with a look that stays true to the comics and yet doesn't look too dissimilar to the more recent films (and indeed those from 20 years ago), and features the voices from the incredible Warner Bros. cartoons. Although not that original it sits at the top of the field in everything it does do, and as with Ghostbusters I'm a bit of a fanboy. The collector's edition Batarang was shit though.
3: Shadow Complex - Chair Entertainment, XBox 360
A surprise for me, I tried the trial version of this game on a whim, and it absolutely blew me away. I immediately got me some Microsoft Points and downloaded it. The game is a side-scrolling shooter/platformer in a similar vein to Super Metroid, but with less aliens and more evil subterranean masterminds. Aside from great shooting and simple yet effective melee combat, the platforming is like a 2D Tomb Raider, it actually reminds me of Generations Lost on the Megadrive. And with the platforming element, the only voice that could be used for the main character is Nolan North, which brings me to...
2: Uncharted 2: Among Thieves - Naughty Dog, PS3
I was a huge fan of the first Uncharted where a lot of people understandably overlooked it due to it's zero media coverage and exclusivity to a console that looked like it might die on it's arse, so in the 10 months between Uncharted 2's announcement and release I was practically shitting myself on an hourly basis. I think (I'm pretty sure) that the first one is better in my eyes anyway, but that doesn't stop Among Thieves being a fucking incredible game in every way that kept me hooked from start to finish with it's amazing graphics and Oscar-worthy narrative and voice-acting. The game is an absolute thrill-ride and aside from a pretty annoying train ride and an underwhelming last boss it's pretty much perfect.
1: Dragon Age: Origins - Bioware, XBox 360
No game this year has had me hooked so badly, especially as I'm not an RPG gamer by trait. While not as widespread and welcoming as Oblivion, the game I was hoping that DAO would fill the hole left by, it's expansive main quest and numerous side-quests keep dragging you back for more. Aside from the quests, the relationships that you build up with your entourage through gift giving and social interaction, like a perverted Animal Crossing, and the different paths you can take with every different decision made just compel you to carry on playing, and I found that even before I'd finished it I was already planning my second playthrough. It was only the amassing pile of unplayed games mounting up and my running out of things to blog about that forced me to move on. A slightly underwhelming collector's edition is all that tarnishes this masterpiece.
So that's that then. What, no Modern Warfare 2? No, while I acknowledge that a lot of people love it, it's just not my cup of tea. The campaign was pretty good but not fantastic, but the game was mainly multiplayer and that just doesn't interest me. And, perhaps criminally Left 4 Dead 2 and Assassin's Creed 2 have both evaded my grasp so far. I was very tempted to add Monkey Island SE and God of War collection, but I figured that involved a bit of rule banding, with neither being strictly 2009 releases. Well, until next year then, with it's fine bounty of Mass Effect 2, Fallout: New Vegas, Batman 2 and potentially a new Tomb Raider. I'm very much looking forward to it.
Originally posted on the 15th of December 2009.
As the year is coming to a close and a lot of people are complaining about the lack of great games over the last 12 months, I decided to compile a list of games that have made 2009 a great year for me, and why. So without further ado, ten must-have 2009 games that have rocked my little world.
10: SoulCalibur: Broken Destiny - Namco, PSP.
Far from just being a port of SoulCalibur IV, Broken Destiny took the already impressive fighting game and expanded on it, adding two new characters (including God of War's charismatic hero and all-round nice guy Kratos) and a handful of great new features including a continuous play system based on Tekken: Dark Resurrection's Arcade Mode. The character creation facility from SCIV also makes a return, and it is possibly better than it's parent game's offering. Namco have definitely proven that they are the kings of PSP fighters, Capcom need to sit up a bit.
9: X-Men Origins: Wolverine - Raven Software, XBox 360.
Movie adaptations are usually kiddie-friendly rushed for release pieces of horse shit, and it was utter boredom that drove me to download the demo for Wolverine from the PSN store. When I later received the game bundled with my XBox 360 Elite in September, I expected it to get boring very quickly. It turned out to be an absolutely thrilling God of War style slash-em-up with bucketloads of gore and no sign of Ryan Reynolds anywhere. It's hard to imagine how this game could have been better for what it is.
8: Borderlands - Gearbox Software, XBox 360
Borderlands is a rare game, in that it completely polarizes it's audience. On one hand you have those that love it, and on the other those that hate it, and you'll find it very hard to find anyone sitting on the fence between. In a nutshell, Borderlands is a MMORPG, but without the MM part (although it still plays like one). Then take the fantasy setting and change it into a barren planet full of rednecks and mutants and liberally scatter about a thousand different guns around the game world and you've got it. Throw three friends into the mix and it all spells great fun, if you're at the same skill level that is.
7: The Conduit - High Voltage Software, Wii
The Conduit is actually the most recent game that I've played, and it really impressed me in a way that I didn't think anything on Nintendo's pre-school toy could. It's an awesome FPS that tells the story of an alien invasion orchestrated from within America's own government, and apart from the shitty ending and the fact that at times it's so fucking hard it can drive a grown man to tears, it's great from start to finish.
6: Ghostbusters: The Videogame - Terminal Reality, PS3
When I was a child I had a huge suitcase full of Ghostbusters action figures. I watched the cartoons religiously, loved the films (apart from the library ghost, that scared the shit out of me) and was so jealous of my friend's firehouse play set. I played the Megadrive game so much that me and my friend had written lyrics to the background music. So every second of this game was a fanboy delight for me. And I had my chance to finally get revenge on the library ghost. Just don't cross the streams...
5: Killzone 2 - Guerrilla Games, PS3
I had never even played Killzone 1 until this year, so the series was entirely new to me. Where Killzone impressed me, Killzone 2 absolutely blew me away with it's absolute chaos and phenomenal graphics. Where Gears of War is very organized in it's 'walk to an area, have a fight, repeat' mechanic, Killzone 2 just throws panic and constant action at you at every turn. There's even an attempt at emotive storytelling too, but it gets lost under the machismo and buzzcuts, which are more important in a military FPS.
4: Batman: Arkham Asylum - Rocksteady Studios, PS3
What, as low as number 4? Yeah, Batman is a fantastic game and would probably be at the top spot in a lot of people's lists, but I can't help feeling that it got caught up in the hype of The Dark Knight, which was hyped for a lot of wrong reasons, but let's not get into that. Arkham was, for those who've been living at the Earth's core for the last year, stated as the ultimate Batman experience, melding combat and detective work with a look that stays true to the comics and yet doesn't look too dissimilar to the more recent films (and indeed those from 20 years ago), and features the voices from the incredible Warner Bros. cartoons. Although not that original it sits at the top of the field in everything it does do, and as with Ghostbusters I'm a bit of a fanboy. The collector's edition Batarang was shit though.
3: Shadow Complex - Chair Entertainment, XBox 360
A surprise for me, I tried the trial version of this game on a whim, and it absolutely blew me away. I immediately got me some Microsoft Points and downloaded it. The game is a side-scrolling shooter/platformer in a similar vein to Super Metroid, but with less aliens and more evil subterranean masterminds. Aside from great shooting and simple yet effective melee combat, the platforming is like a 2D Tomb Raider, it actually reminds me of Generations Lost on the Megadrive. And with the platforming element, the only voice that could be used for the main character is Nolan North, which brings me to...
2: Uncharted 2: Among Thieves - Naughty Dog, PS3
I was a huge fan of the first Uncharted where a lot of people understandably overlooked it due to it's zero media coverage and exclusivity to a console that looked like it might die on it's arse, so in the 10 months between Uncharted 2's announcement and release I was practically shitting myself on an hourly basis. I think (I'm pretty sure) that the first one is better in my eyes anyway, but that doesn't stop Among Thieves being a fucking incredible game in every way that kept me hooked from start to finish with it's amazing graphics and Oscar-worthy narrative and voice-acting. The game is an absolute thrill-ride and aside from a pretty annoying train ride and an underwhelming last boss it's pretty much perfect.
1: Dragon Age: Origins - Bioware, XBox 360
No game this year has had me hooked so badly, especially as I'm not an RPG gamer by trait. While not as widespread and welcoming as Oblivion, the game I was hoping that DAO would fill the hole left by, it's expansive main quest and numerous side-quests keep dragging you back for more. Aside from the quests, the relationships that you build up with your entourage through gift giving and social interaction, like a perverted Animal Crossing, and the different paths you can take with every different decision made just compel you to carry on playing, and I found that even before I'd finished it I was already planning my second playthrough. It was only the amassing pile of unplayed games mounting up and my running out of things to blog about that forced me to move on. A slightly underwhelming collector's edition is all that tarnishes this masterpiece.
So that's that then. What, no Modern Warfare 2? No, while I acknowledge that a lot of people love it, it's just not my cup of tea. The campaign was pretty good but not fantastic, but the game was mainly multiplayer and that just doesn't interest me. And, perhaps criminally Left 4 Dead 2 and Assassin's Creed 2 have both evaded my grasp so far. I was very tempted to add Monkey Island SE and God of War collection, but I figured that involved a bit of rule banding, with neither being strictly 2009 releases. Well, until next year then, with it's fine bounty of Mass Effect 2, Fallout: New Vegas, Batman 2 and potentially a new Tomb Raider. I'm very much looking forward to it.
Friday, 18 December 2009
Oh we can beat them forever and ever, then we can be heroes just for one day...
Well well well!
This week the Los Angeles LA Live Complex and the TV channel 'Fiver' played host to the Spike VideoGame Awards, which I eagerly set the V+ box to record and watched like a kid at Christmas the following day (as opposed to a big kid a week before Christmas, which is how I'm doing everything else at the moment). What a fucking travesty.
The very first award was for best voice acting, and over Uncharted 2's Nolan North and Claudia Black, and the legendary Arleen Sorkin and Mark Hamill for Batman: Arkham Asylum, the winner was Jack Black. Jack. Fucking. Black.
While I can acknowledge that Brutal Legend was a widely praised game (although from what I saw the demo did nothing to back that up), and my love of metal culture does will me to play it (There have been a couple of times I've been standing in Blockbuster looking at the £25 pricetag and wondering if the wife would leave me if I brought home yet another game), Black definitely had the least noteworthy performance on the list. I guess they thought they owed him something after he presented it last year.
Another highlight was that all of the nominations for the best team sports game were EA Sports published games. It couldn't have hurt to slide Pro Evo 10 in there could it?
The rest of the show was just a bunch of celebrities awkwardly trying to be funny (I actually felt bad for Tony Hawk, especially as Ride didn't even receive a single nomination), and poorly soundchecked musical performances by Snoop Dogg (who seemed as confused as I was when they asked him to present the award for best RPG) and The Bravery, who are now my least favourite band after I had to sit and watch that prick 'play' his guitar with a violin bow. It doesn't make the music sound better, it just makes you look like a douchebag.
And, one last thing about the VGAs, how can Uncharted 2 get Game of the Year, and Assassin's Creed II get best Action/Adventure? With Uncharted 2 BEING an Action/Adventure game, surely the former cancels the latter out?
Enough VGA anger and on to the gaming.
The Conduit was great. Fuck hard in places and with a shitty ending, but great no less. Of course, had it been a PS3 or XBox 360 release it would have been mediocre, but as a Wii release it looks and plays better than just about anything else on the console.
And I finally finished Tomb Raider Anniversary too. A number of times throughout the game TRA had me wondering if I actually liked it. For every awesome platforming section there was a huge underwater puzzle or something (I've hated them since Ocarina of Time's water temple), Just there to make sure I wasn't getting too much fun out of it. Underworld is next on my agenda, but I just don't know if I want to go back into it so soon.
So I busted out Fable 2, as it's becoming tradition for me to play a Fable game over Christmas, having done so the last two years now. I'm playing as a woman, and started off doing everything the evil way but had a flash of conscience when I returned to my home in Bowerstone to find that the whole village hated me. It actually hurt. So I've decided, in seasonal Scrooge fashion, to change my ways, which is taking a fair bit of work considering I've been doing things like raiding a bandit camp, killing the bandits, finding the key to unlock their prisoners, selling the key to a slaver, killing the slaver and reclaiming the key, freeing the prisoners and then killing them as they walked home.
During my stay in Albion this year, I've been focusing a lot more on the Virtual-Life aspect of Fable 2, buying and renting out properties and making my home, raising my family, that sort of thing. I seem to have spent hours at the Blacksmith's raising money to keep my husband (I resisted the urge to be a lesbian) happy, and only really began the game proper after about four hours play. I may knock it on the head and blast through the game though, I do want to get another Mass Effect playthrough done before the end of January, and this time next week I'll have Sacred 2 to keep me occupied too. I'll be all RPGed out by February at this rate, and might finally find time to get to grips with Assassin's Creed II.
Demo preview time! Bayonetta is pretty crappy. Picture Devil May Cry, replace the albino homosexual with a leather-clad woman who likes to get naked and exchange all of the music for generic Sega awfulness and you've got it. It's not a really bad game, I just wouldn't shell out £40 for it. But then again, I'm not a fan of Devil May Cry. If you want an example of a really bad game, try out Dragonball Raging Blast. Fairytale Fights seems pretty fun, the demo is just you and a bunch of enemies but if the action is as much fun in the real game I'll be picking it up a bit later in it's shelf-life. I would love to write about LittleBigPlanet PSP and Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker too, but my battery is too low to update the firmware on my PSP, even though it's plugged in. Maybe next week.
But oh! Next week is Christmas Day! I will endeavour to post next week, but I might be too drunk/asleep/busy playing Tekken 6. Such is the rock'n'roll lifestyle of a sales assistant stroke freelance games journalist (so I tell the ladies, blogger to the rest of you). Have a great Christmas regardless.
And one last thing, check out my Top 10 Games of 2009 over at VideoGameSpace, and show this up and coming little site some love. Bye!
This week the Los Angeles LA Live Complex and the TV channel 'Fiver' played host to the Spike VideoGame Awards, which I eagerly set the V+ box to record and watched like a kid at Christmas the following day (as opposed to a big kid a week before Christmas, which is how I'm doing everything else at the moment). What a fucking travesty.
The very first award was for best voice acting, and over Uncharted 2's Nolan North and Claudia Black, and the legendary Arleen Sorkin and Mark Hamill for Batman: Arkham Asylum, the winner was Jack Black. Jack. Fucking. Black.
While I can acknowledge that Brutal Legend was a widely praised game (although from what I saw the demo did nothing to back that up), and my love of metal culture does will me to play it (There have been a couple of times I've been standing in Blockbuster looking at the £25 pricetag and wondering if the wife would leave me if I brought home yet another game), Black definitely had the least noteworthy performance on the list. I guess they thought they owed him something after he presented it last year.
Another highlight was that all of the nominations for the best team sports game were EA Sports published games. It couldn't have hurt to slide Pro Evo 10 in there could it?
The rest of the show was just a bunch of celebrities awkwardly trying to be funny (I actually felt bad for Tony Hawk, especially as Ride didn't even receive a single nomination), and poorly soundchecked musical performances by Snoop Dogg (who seemed as confused as I was when they asked him to present the award for best RPG) and The Bravery, who are now my least favourite band after I had to sit and watch that prick 'play' his guitar with a violin bow. It doesn't make the music sound better, it just makes you look like a douchebag.
And, one last thing about the VGAs, how can Uncharted 2 get Game of the Year, and Assassin's Creed II get best Action/Adventure? With Uncharted 2 BEING an Action/Adventure game, surely the former cancels the latter out?
Enough VGA anger and on to the gaming.
The Conduit was great. Fuck hard in places and with a shitty ending, but great no less. Of course, had it been a PS3 or XBox 360 release it would have been mediocre, but as a Wii release it looks and plays better than just about anything else on the console.
And I finally finished Tomb Raider Anniversary too. A number of times throughout the game TRA had me wondering if I actually liked it. For every awesome platforming section there was a huge underwater puzzle or something (I've hated them since Ocarina of Time's water temple), Just there to make sure I wasn't getting too much fun out of it. Underworld is next on my agenda, but I just don't know if I want to go back into it so soon.
So I busted out Fable 2, as it's becoming tradition for me to play a Fable game over Christmas, having done so the last two years now. I'm playing as a woman, and started off doing everything the evil way but had a flash of conscience when I returned to my home in Bowerstone to find that the whole village hated me. It actually hurt. So I've decided, in seasonal Scrooge fashion, to change my ways, which is taking a fair bit of work considering I've been doing things like raiding a bandit camp, killing the bandits, finding the key to unlock their prisoners, selling the key to a slaver, killing the slaver and reclaiming the key, freeing the prisoners and then killing them as they walked home.
During my stay in Albion this year, I've been focusing a lot more on the Virtual-Life aspect of Fable 2, buying and renting out properties and making my home, raising my family, that sort of thing. I seem to have spent hours at the Blacksmith's raising money to keep my husband (I resisted the urge to be a lesbian) happy, and only really began the game proper after about four hours play. I may knock it on the head and blast through the game though, I do want to get another Mass Effect playthrough done before the end of January, and this time next week I'll have Sacred 2 to keep me occupied too. I'll be all RPGed out by February at this rate, and might finally find time to get to grips with Assassin's Creed II.
Demo preview time! Bayonetta is pretty crappy. Picture Devil May Cry, replace the albino homosexual with a leather-clad woman who likes to get naked and exchange all of the music for generic Sega awfulness and you've got it. It's not a really bad game, I just wouldn't shell out £40 for it. But then again, I'm not a fan of Devil May Cry. If you want an example of a really bad game, try out Dragonball Raging Blast. Fairytale Fights seems pretty fun, the demo is just you and a bunch of enemies but if the action is as much fun in the real game I'll be picking it up a bit later in it's shelf-life. I would love to write about LittleBigPlanet PSP and Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker too, but my battery is too low to update the firmware on my PSP, even though it's plugged in. Maybe next week.
But oh! Next week is Christmas Day! I will endeavour to post next week, but I might be too drunk/asleep/busy playing Tekken 6. Such is the rock'n'roll lifestyle of a sales assistant stroke freelance games journalist (so I tell the ladies, blogger to the rest of you). Have a great Christmas regardless.
And one last thing, check out my Top 10 Games of 2009 over at VideoGameSpace, and show this up and coming little site some love. Bye!
Friday, 11 December 2009
My name is Michael Ford. I'm probably the only one left who knows the truth. I know because I was there.
You know when you read a bit of information for an upcoming game, and you instantly know that it's garbage? When they say that, for example, Two Worlds is "Oblivion on Steroids", or when the guy on GAME Radio tells you how revolutionary Women's Murder Club is? Well, I've decided to christen that 'The Molyneux Factor', after the charismatic leader of Lionhead Studios' blunder with the original Fable.
There is a point to this, and that point is that I've been playing The Conduit this week, and I distinctly remember reading that the developers High Voltage Software, who aren't exactly renowned for the quality of their games let's face it, had claimed to have created an engine on the Wii that allowed graphics an visual effects that are "comparable" the those on PS3 and XBox 360 games. Well, they lied. It's about on a graphical par with Halo 2.
And the silly thing is, as with Fable before it, they didn't need to lie about the game because it honestly is fantastic.
For anyone who isn't in the know (and with the game's zero media presence, who'd blame them), The Conduit is a Sci-Fi FPS set in Washington DC shortly before and during an invasion by an insectoid race known as The Drudge. You play as a government agent named Michael Ford sent to recover a device known as the All-Seeing Eye (basically a spherical Sonic Screwdriver) and disrupt terrorist activity in an airport, until you are quickly double-crossed by your admittedly shady looking employer and end up working with said terrorists (who are actually pretty stand up guys) when aliens start popping up everywhere.
I initially had worries with this game, as the Wii isn't exactly well equipped for First Person Shooters with the lack of a second analogue stick. Turning is done by pointing the remote at the side of the screen, thus disrupting your aim which isn't exactly ideal. It is possible to use the Nunchuck stick to turn the player, but that gets rid of the strafe function and after virtually a decade of twin analogue FPSes it makes the game surprisingly difficult to play. It was this control method that ultimately made me stop playing Red Steel, but somehow it seems more manageable on The Conduit.
And another thing that struck me right away was how much the game felt like the original Perfect Dark, far more so than Perfect Dark Zero ever did. The visual style is so much more reminiscent of it, and the way the gun moves depending on where you're aiming is exactly the same. I even found an experimental handgun that looked just like the Mag-Sec 4. If they just changed the name of the aliens from Drudge to Skedar and upped the human technology a bit, it could definitely pass as part of that series.
And as I finished Tomb Raider Legend shortly after posting last week, I've moved on to Tomb Raider Anniversary. That game is fucking hard! Not in a keep dying kind of way, it's just that every room you enter is a huge puzzle, and most of the time the only way to solve the puzzle is by doing about three other smaller ones. It's so mentally taxing compared to Legend, which really is mainly jumping and shooting. I suppose I never noticed before because I hadn't played them side by side. It's obviously not out of my capacity to finish the game, as I have done before, but god, you just lose the will to live when you've spent ages solving a certain puzzle, you strut out of the room feeling great about yourself and you're immediately presented with another. More than a few times I've favoured sleep over carrying on because of this, and that hardly ever happens.
I finished Matt Hazard last Saturday too. After you 'complete' the game, the enemy then forces you into a deathmatch with his IRL henchmen, and all the enemies have stupid names above their heads and stuff. I laughed at that, but the funniest thing was when you finally see the person behind the sexy female avatar who's been helping you through the game and she turns out to be a geeky man! Anyone who's ever used PS3's Home should find that funny. If not, you're dead inside. If Matt Hazard: Bloodbath and Beyond is as much like Shadow Complex as I've heard, then I am very much looking forward to it.
There is a point to this, and that point is that I've been playing The Conduit this week, and I distinctly remember reading that the developers High Voltage Software, who aren't exactly renowned for the quality of their games let's face it, had claimed to have created an engine on the Wii that allowed graphics an visual effects that are "comparable" the those on PS3 and XBox 360 games. Well, they lied. It's about on a graphical par with Halo 2.
And the silly thing is, as with Fable before it, they didn't need to lie about the game because it honestly is fantastic.
For anyone who isn't in the know (and with the game's zero media presence, who'd blame them), The Conduit is a Sci-Fi FPS set in Washington DC shortly before and during an invasion by an insectoid race known as The Drudge. You play as a government agent named Michael Ford sent to recover a device known as the All-Seeing Eye (basically a spherical Sonic Screwdriver) and disrupt terrorist activity in an airport, until you are quickly double-crossed by your admittedly shady looking employer and end up working with said terrorists (who are actually pretty stand up guys) when aliens start popping up everywhere.
I initially had worries with this game, as the Wii isn't exactly well equipped for First Person Shooters with the lack of a second analogue stick. Turning is done by pointing the remote at the side of the screen, thus disrupting your aim which isn't exactly ideal. It is possible to use the Nunchuck stick to turn the player, but that gets rid of the strafe function and after virtually a decade of twin analogue FPSes it makes the game surprisingly difficult to play. It was this control method that ultimately made me stop playing Red Steel, but somehow it seems more manageable on The Conduit.
And another thing that struck me right away was how much the game felt like the original Perfect Dark, far more so than Perfect Dark Zero ever did. The visual style is so much more reminiscent of it, and the way the gun moves depending on where you're aiming is exactly the same. I even found an experimental handgun that looked just like the Mag-Sec 4. If they just changed the name of the aliens from Drudge to Skedar and upped the human technology a bit, it could definitely pass as part of that series.
And as I finished Tomb Raider Legend shortly after posting last week, I've moved on to Tomb Raider Anniversary. That game is fucking hard! Not in a keep dying kind of way, it's just that every room you enter is a huge puzzle, and most of the time the only way to solve the puzzle is by doing about three other smaller ones. It's so mentally taxing compared to Legend, which really is mainly jumping and shooting. I suppose I never noticed before because I hadn't played them side by side. It's obviously not out of my capacity to finish the game, as I have done before, but god, you just lose the will to live when you've spent ages solving a certain puzzle, you strut out of the room feeling great about yourself and you're immediately presented with another. More than a few times I've favoured sleep over carrying on because of this, and that hardly ever happens.
I finished Matt Hazard last Saturday too. After you 'complete' the game, the enemy then forces you into a deathmatch with his IRL henchmen, and all the enemies have stupid names above their heads and stuff. I laughed at that, but the funniest thing was when you finally see the person behind the sexy female avatar who's been helping you through the game and she turns out to be a geeky man! Anyone who's ever used PS3's Home should find that funny. If not, you're dead inside. If Matt Hazard: Bloodbath and Beyond is as much like Shadow Complex as I've heard, then I am very much looking forward to it.
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