A newly released (in Beta) game by EA and Maxis is called Darkspore.
It has the exact same functionality as the original Spore but this is a lot more of a hack and slash game. The theme is a lot darker and angled for a slightly older audience.
You start off with pre-made heroes that can be completely customized as in the original Spore but they have an Element associated with them. Each element has an element they are strong against but are weak against their own element. You create squads out of your heroes and can create a very dynamic team due to this. The game is aimed more at multiplayer and you can have up to four people on your team in multiplayer each with their own squad of three heroes so each persons choice can impact upon the team in a serious way.
In the campaign you are against creatures known as "Darkspore" again each with an element. They are supposed to have destroyed or invaded your homeworld and you are a cloned/pre-made hero that has to fight to retake the planets they have invaded.
So far im rather impressed by the game (as i was by the original Spore) but they have improved alot of the annoying aspects of the original and created an actual storyline and removed alot of the pointlessly large game map quests (The star map of the universe) however seeing as it is only in beta and alot of the game may yet be changed i cannot say for sure how the game will progress. I have enjoyed what i have played and if done correctly, scaled etc, it may prove to be a very worthwhile game. My main concern for the game is that it is currently charged at €50 which i think may be too steep for people to show any interest in. However the Beta is currently free and worth a play i would advise downloading it and playing over a weekend and gauge your own reaction.
Tuesday, March 29, 2011
The Crafting of Mines
A game that i have played a lot of lately has been Minecraft.
It is a game that is hard to define as it doesnt really have any specific genre or aim. The main point of the game is to build the world you can imagine.
You start off in a randomly generated world with no tools, no base, no tutorials, nothing. You have to use the world around you to create tools and a base in order to survive the night when the monsters come out.
You can make a whole range of tools, weapons and armour. But in order to make them you have to find the materials in the world.
You start off with wood and dirt as your main tools and then using wooden tools you dig out stone and create stone tools then on to iron, gold and the strongest diamond. There is also the ability to create "circuits" with redstone which can allow some amazing creations to be made.
It is currently (Still) in beta but even if you buy it now you will receive all future updates and it is currently very playable and there are very few bugs that cause issues in the game. During Beta the game costs €15 but will (once released) cost €20. For the amount you will play this game i think the cost is very little and definately very worthwhile.
It is a game that is hard to define as it doesnt really have any specific genre or aim. The main point of the game is to build the world you can imagine.
You start off in a randomly generated world with no tools, no base, no tutorials, nothing. You have to use the world around you to create tools and a base in order to survive the night when the monsters come out.
You can make a whole range of tools, weapons and armour. But in order to make them you have to find the materials in the world.
You start off with wood and dirt as your main tools and then using wooden tools you dig out stone and create stone tools then on to iron, gold and the strongest diamond. There is also the ability to create "circuits" with redstone which can allow some amazing creations to be made.
It is currently (Still) in beta but even if you buy it now you will receive all future updates and it is currently very playable and there are very few bugs that cause issues in the game. During Beta the game costs €15 but will (once released) cost €20. For the amount you will play this game i think the cost is very little and definately very worthwhile.
Tuesday, March 22, 2011
Going first breaks the game...
I recently bought the game Risk Factions.
It follows the same base rules as classic risk but has some added objectives such as taking over barracks and airfields. This adds an extra element of tactics as it does not involve just destroying the enemy by taking over all their territory.
There are a bunch of rewards you can get in the game that give you a bonus to attacking or defending, bonus troops, etc. It involves doing specific objectives to receive them however and some of these can be very difficult such as "take over 9 territories in one turn".
You can play multiplayer as well as hotseat and have the option to play both classic risk and the new risk factions.
One major problem ive found with the game in general is that the person who goes first gets a rather large benefit. They get to take over territories first and as such reduce their enemies troops for the next turn meaning that the enemy immediately gets a lesser chance to take over territories.
This game (yet again) is only €10, it is a game that you can come back to again and again for both multiplayer and singleplayer. As it is a classic board game that has been brought into the new age i would definately advise picking it up especially for the price being asked. It is very enjoyable and something that you can easily waste 10 minutes playing every now and again.
It follows the same base rules as classic risk but has some added objectives such as taking over barracks and airfields. This adds an extra element of tactics as it does not involve just destroying the enemy by taking over all their territory.
There are a bunch of rewards you can get in the game that give you a bonus to attacking or defending, bonus troops, etc. It involves doing specific objectives to receive them however and some of these can be very difficult such as "take over 9 territories in one turn".
You can play multiplayer as well as hotseat and have the option to play both classic risk and the new risk factions.
One major problem ive found with the game in general is that the person who goes first gets a rather large benefit. They get to take over territories first and as such reduce their enemies troops for the next turn meaning that the enemy immediately gets a lesser chance to take over territories.
This game (yet again) is only €10, it is a game that you can come back to again and again for both multiplayer and singleplayer. As it is a classic board game that has been brought into the new age i would definately advise picking it up especially for the price being asked. It is very enjoyable and something that you can easily waste 10 minutes playing every now and again.
Tuesday, March 15, 2011
Stop right there criminal!
As i have been playing a load of old games that either have had saves deleted or that i come back to again and again i was bound to come back to Oblivion at some stage.
First off i will say, No game should have DLC better than the game itself.
Shivering Isles is the best part of Oblivion BY FAR! While i do enjoy the game, the style, etc. There is no way it can compete with the fun, interesting areas and quests that shivering isles provides. There are several very interesting quests such as the daedra quests and faction quests as well as random encounters and occurrences.
That being said, there are several reasons to play on after completing the DLC. If, like me, you are a collector/completionist, there are several houses to buy and armour sets to own, including each city's guard armour set, as well as several factions to gain reputation with.
I usually start off as a sneaky melee or spellcaster character, but in an effort to experience all aspects of the game i decided to play as a heavy armour, ranged character. First of all i noticed that having ranged weapons is a fairly fantastic way to fight as you rarely if ever get hit. Secondly heavy armour means you take almost no damage from any hits you do take.
Due to the fact that i was using no magic or melee it changed the way the game played out for me completely, i ended up finishing quests in completely different ways than i normally would.
For instance one of the quests involved finding a missing mage. The original playthroughs i ran around the house using detect life and other skills and found the mage hiding. The latest playthrough i didnt have any spells to find him with so i ended up asking other mages to help and having to go on a brand new quest.
In summary this is a great game but even someone who loves rpg's and open world games it was a bit of a struggle to continue past some major points in it. If you enjoy open world rpg's this IS a good game and one that you will continue to come back to again and again. If you dont enjoy those type of games then i be rather hesitant to recommend it to you.
First off i will say, No game should have DLC better than the game itself.
Shivering Isles is the best part of Oblivion BY FAR! While i do enjoy the game, the style, etc. There is no way it can compete with the fun, interesting areas and quests that shivering isles provides. There are several very interesting quests such as the daedra quests and faction quests as well as random encounters and occurrences.
That being said, there are several reasons to play on after completing the DLC. If, like me, you are a collector/completionist, there are several houses to buy and armour sets to own, including each city's guard armour set, as well as several factions to gain reputation with.
I usually start off as a sneaky melee or spellcaster character, but in an effort to experience all aspects of the game i decided to play as a heavy armour, ranged character. First of all i noticed that having ranged weapons is a fairly fantastic way to fight as you rarely if ever get hit. Secondly heavy armour means you take almost no damage from any hits you do take.
Due to the fact that i was using no magic or melee it changed the way the game played out for me completely, i ended up finishing quests in completely different ways than i normally would.
For instance one of the quests involved finding a missing mage. The original playthroughs i ran around the house using detect life and other skills and found the mage hiding. The latest playthrough i didnt have any spells to find him with so i ended up asking other mages to help and having to go on a brand new quest.
In summary this is a great game but even someone who loves rpg's and open world games it was a bit of a struggle to continue past some major points in it. If you enjoy open world rpg's this IS a good game and one that you will continue to come back to again and again. If you dont enjoy those type of games then i be rather hesitant to recommend it to you.
Magical in a runeish sorta way...
My recent forays into indie/cheap games has lead me to a lovely replacement for a terrible(y-addictive) game by the name of WoW.
Runes of Magic is a free to play, micro transaction, MMO. It is very similar to wow (as any MMO tends to be) But it is created completely from scratch and does not try to be like wow.
You start off as either a human or an elf (new races will get added with each new expansion they decide to release) and can choose a selection of classes.
These classes can be a very crucial choice as later on in the game you can choose a second class that you want to spec into. You will get specific skills depending on the class combination as well as the general skills of each class. This i think is a very very cool way of making classes unique. You could be a warrior/priest and be able to tank and heal yourself or a mage/warrior and be able to deal immense damage AS WELL as getting the unique class combination skills.
I decided to play as a Rogue/Scout as it allows me to do close combat stealthy style and very good long range attacks and the two classes both rely on one stat as the primary.
As you continue on into the game you find you need to learn professions such as mining, woodcutting and herbology.
You can learn every profession in the game but you can only max out a limited amount of them. Each profession will give you specific benefits at higher levels but you have to choose carefully which benefits you really want before you level them up.
I haven't played enough yet to get to the higher levels but i think i might possibly go with leather working (as i can wear leather) and some sort of magic oriented profession such as alchemy to offset being a purely physical class.
There are some really neat features in the game such as the dual-class system, pvp dungeons, pure solo play, temporary mount rewards very early (as soon as you complete the easy tutorial), a teleport system from pretty much any location but for me the most important feature is the fact that there are no queues. There are over 4 million players registered on the game (and rising) and they decided to provide enough free places for everyone to join without having to queue. This in itself is a fantastic reason to play as most server based games will not give you the instant join ability.
Aside from all this the game does have a few issues, quests can be a bit tedious and ask for a few too many items to be collected etc, some of the later game stuff is apparently not working correctly (yet), and there isn't any way (as far as ive found) to find a specific trainer/location/etc (such as in wow asking the town guards). These are all minor issues and so far can be worked around by the smallest amount of work. (I have suggested implementations on the forums that might help but who knows if they'll be taken into account)
However overall i have had no issues with this game (so far) and have found it very enjoyable, even playing by myself, there are alot of things to do and places to see (and more coming all the time), Having a few friends to play along with would make the experience even better as far as i can see.
I give this game 4 and a half dead Darryl's out of 5! (and sure its free so ya aint gonna lose out anything by trying it!)
Runes of Magic is a free to play, micro transaction, MMO. It is very similar to wow (as any MMO tends to be) But it is created completely from scratch and does not try to be like wow.
You start off as either a human or an elf (new races will get added with each new expansion they decide to release) and can choose a selection of classes.
These classes can be a very crucial choice as later on in the game you can choose a second class that you want to spec into. You will get specific skills depending on the class combination as well as the general skills of each class. This i think is a very very cool way of making classes unique. You could be a warrior/priest and be able to tank and heal yourself or a mage/warrior and be able to deal immense damage AS WELL as getting the unique class combination skills.
I decided to play as a Rogue/Scout as it allows me to do close combat stealthy style and very good long range attacks and the two classes both rely on one stat as the primary.
As you continue on into the game you find you need to learn professions such as mining, woodcutting and herbology.
You can learn every profession in the game but you can only max out a limited amount of them. Each profession will give you specific benefits at higher levels but you have to choose carefully which benefits you really want before you level them up.
I haven't played enough yet to get to the higher levels but i think i might possibly go with leather working (as i can wear leather) and some sort of magic oriented profession such as alchemy to offset being a purely physical class.
There are some really neat features in the game such as the dual-class system, pvp dungeons, pure solo play, temporary mount rewards very early (as soon as you complete the easy tutorial), a teleport system from pretty much any location but for me the most important feature is the fact that there are no queues. There are over 4 million players registered on the game (and rising) and they decided to provide enough free places for everyone to join without having to queue. This in itself is a fantastic reason to play as most server based games will not give you the instant join ability.
Aside from all this the game does have a few issues, quests can be a bit tedious and ask for a few too many items to be collected etc, some of the later game stuff is apparently not working correctly (yet), and there isn't any way (as far as ive found) to find a specific trainer/location/etc (such as in wow asking the town guards). These are all minor issues and so far can be worked around by the smallest amount of work. (I have suggested implementations on the forums that might help but who knows if they'll be taken into account)
However overall i have had no issues with this game (so far) and have found it very enjoyable, even playing by myself, there are alot of things to do and places to see (and more coming all the time), Having a few friends to play along with would make the experience even better as far as i can see.
I give this game 4 and a half dead Darryl's out of 5! (and sure its free so ya aint gonna lose out anything by trying it!)
Monday, March 14, 2011
Im the God Damn Batman!!
Batman. Where to begin? Batman is badass. He has the perfect mix of self-righteousness, pompousness, wimpy back story and kick-assery to just be the perfect badass good guy.
However having said that i prefer a bunch of the bad guys to him (as i tend to do).
Now onto the game. Arkham Asylum is the perfect setting for the game, it provides plenty of opportunities for Batman's main enemies to be around.
The gameplay is great, despite having a massive amount of backtracking, it works this in quite well. The combat isnt clunky or boring, the stealth isnt black and white and if you mess it up it immediately moves into the combat, a perfect combination.
The gadgets are great fun and more useful than you first think (i spent the majority of the game not upgrading to certain ones and then once i did regretted not having done so earlier) but unfortunately it takes forever to get them all, which creates even more backtracking if your trying to 100% it.
Theres not really much about this game that annoyed or disappointed me. I found the odd time the controls were bothersome (but that may be more down to me than the game) and some events repeated that probably shouldnt have repeated but all in all the game felt balanced, entertaining and changed enough between sequences that it all was very enjoyable.
I would definately recommend this game to Everyone! I will end this by saying this is the only game (other than the Baldur's Gate *EDIT and Deus Ex* series) that i have fully completed and played the life out of.
Im the God Damn Batman!
However having said that i prefer a bunch of the bad guys to him (as i tend to do).
Now onto the game. Arkham Asylum is the perfect setting for the game, it provides plenty of opportunities for Batman's main enemies to be around.
The gameplay is great, despite having a massive amount of backtracking, it works this in quite well. The combat isnt clunky or boring, the stealth isnt black and white and if you mess it up it immediately moves into the combat, a perfect combination.
The gadgets are great fun and more useful than you first think (i spent the majority of the game not upgrading to certain ones and then once i did regretted not having done so earlier) but unfortunately it takes forever to get them all, which creates even more backtracking if your trying to 100% it.
Theres not really much about this game that annoyed or disappointed me. I found the odd time the controls were bothersome (but that may be more down to me than the game) and some events repeated that probably shouldnt have repeated but all in all the game felt balanced, entertaining and changed enough between sequences that it all was very enjoyable.
I would definately recommend this game to Everyone! I will end this by saying this is the only game (other than the Baldur's Gate *EDIT and Deus Ex* series) that i have fully completed and played the life out of.
Im the God Damn Batman!
Tuesday, March 8, 2011
Shived by a Shank and Shanked by a Shiv
Shank A Streets of Rage esque game. You have dual shanks and a secondary weapon that deals a heavy strike and also a ranged weapon.
It flows quite nicely and even I, someone who is terrible at platform/beat em up type games, am nearly finished.
Some of the controls on the pc are a bit... sticky... Its available on the xbox too and apparently the controls flow even better but so far there have been no issues.
It has a nice cartoony style that allows for the gorey bloody style and the anime-esque jumping style and moves.
Its a great buy for only €10 and i would definately recommend it.
It flows quite nicely and even I, someone who is terrible at platform/beat em up type games, am nearly finished.
Some of the controls on the pc are a bit... sticky... Its available on the xbox too and apparently the controls flow even better but so far there have been no issues.
It has a nice cartoony style that allows for the gorey bloody style and the anime-esque jumping style and moves.
Its a great buy for only €10 and i would definately recommend it.
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