Cargo The quest for Gravity is one of the most entertaining games I have played in a long time. It makes no sense what-so-ever and because of that it is just so much fun.
The story goes that Earth was blown apart and all the pieces of Earth are orbiting in the atmosphere, and humankind has changed to what can only be described as "small fat babymen", You are one of the last surviving Humans and must put the Earth back together.
The main aim of the game is to produce "Happiness" which is the currency you use. You use Happiness to buy parts and build contraptions, to bring the pieces of Earth back to the ground and to meet some quest conditions.
It is a really colourful, musical game that doesn't take itself seriously which is the main charm to it. If you can spare €10 and are interested in a fun, fairly short game that will be very entertaining I would advise you to take a look at this one.
Wednesday, May 25, 2011
Monday, May 16, 2011
The Return Of The Dragons
So I finally got Dragon Age the second and let me start off by saying I really enjoyed this game.
Now that that is out of the way...
DA2 is in no way able to live up to DA1. It should have been a stand alone game and not a sequel, if it had held any other title it would have had no problems and most likely have received much better reviews.
The story, and the way it is told is brilliant (As of writing this I am about halfway through and loving the story and side missions.) and very unique. I quite enjoy the way there are sometimes silly interludes where the storyteller embellishes the actual tale. All of the characters, even ones you can't recruit seem to have well developed backgrounds. Even if it is just an impression of depth, it shows that the creators put a lot of thought into each character as they created them.
The combat seems very reactive, flows very nicely and looks fantastic. That is one thing that has definitely improved since the first game. It used to look very jerky and disjointed, but now the characters do leaps and spins as would be the case were it reality. Mages don't just stand around poking a stick in the vague direction of the enemies but now look like they are actually participating.
The talent trees have changed dramatically, you still get the standard, two-hand, shield, etc talents but now the trees have been broken down quite a lot more and it is harder to specialise in one type of combat. Another thing is that the talents are less interesting, there seem to be less abilities to use actively in combat and more stances or modes.
However there is a very nice addition, in most games you try to make all the characters love you instead of disagreeing with you, but in this instance you get a special ability if they love you or if they hate you. This means you can play the game the way you wish and whatever way it impacts upon the characters you will benefit somehow.
One thing that bothered me about the NPCs though was the distinct lack of customisability. Their talents are pretty much pre-determined as well as their equipment and of course their appearances. Appearance makes sense as they are a defined character, I can also understand the custom equipment as it makes sense for characters to already have their own weapons and armour. However if a game gives you the option to level up a characters abilities it should allow you complete control or have a specific tree that can't be customised.
My one major qualm about the entire game is the voice acting. The main characters all have great voice acting but the background characters have some dreadful acting and accents. For instance the Elves are (all of a sudden) Scottish and Irish, but the voice actors are not Scottish or Irish so a lot of the voices sound really fake.
Aside from this I am really enjoying this game and would advise playing it, but try not to compare it to the original game. You will really enjoy the story and there are some really neat features worth playing for.
Now that that is out of the way...
DA2 is in no way able to live up to DA1. It should have been a stand alone game and not a sequel, if it had held any other title it would have had no problems and most likely have received much better reviews.
The story, and the way it is told is brilliant (As of writing this I am about halfway through and loving the story and side missions.) and very unique. I quite enjoy the way there are sometimes silly interludes where the storyteller embellishes the actual tale. All of the characters, even ones you can't recruit seem to have well developed backgrounds. Even if it is just an impression of depth, it shows that the creators put a lot of thought into each character as they created them.
The combat seems very reactive, flows very nicely and looks fantastic. That is one thing that has definitely improved since the first game. It used to look very jerky and disjointed, but now the characters do leaps and spins as would be the case were it reality. Mages don't just stand around poking a stick in the vague direction of the enemies but now look like they are actually participating.
The talent trees have changed dramatically, you still get the standard, two-hand, shield, etc talents but now the trees have been broken down quite a lot more and it is harder to specialise in one type of combat. Another thing is that the talents are less interesting, there seem to be less abilities to use actively in combat and more stances or modes.
However there is a very nice addition, in most games you try to make all the characters love you instead of disagreeing with you, but in this instance you get a special ability if they love you or if they hate you. This means you can play the game the way you wish and whatever way it impacts upon the characters you will benefit somehow.
One thing that bothered me about the NPCs though was the distinct lack of customisability. Their talents are pretty much pre-determined as well as their equipment and of course their appearances. Appearance makes sense as they are a defined character, I can also understand the custom equipment as it makes sense for characters to already have their own weapons and armour. However if a game gives you the option to level up a characters abilities it should allow you complete control or have a specific tree that can't be customised.
My one major qualm about the entire game is the voice acting. The main characters all have great voice acting but the background characters have some dreadful acting and accents. For instance the Elves are (all of a sudden) Scottish and Irish, but the voice actors are not Scottish or Irish so a lot of the voices sound really fake.
Aside from this I am really enjoying this game and would advise playing it, but try not to compare it to the original game. You will really enjoy the story and there are some really neat features worth playing for.
Monday, May 9, 2011
Some News and Updates!
While this blog was created in order to talk about games I feel that it is time I update it a little and develop it into something a little more suited to my day-to-day life.
I will be putting in (hopefully) more consistent blogs not only about games but also about bands that I enjoy/discover and also movies or machinima that I've seen.
This will allow me a lot more freedom to keep up a weekly (or more frequent) schedule.
Hopefully you will all find the things on here of some interest and be able to expand your own world view (of music and games) to encompass some of what I love.
I will be putting in (hopefully) more consistent blogs not only about games but also about bands that I enjoy/discover and also movies or machinima that I've seen.
This will allow me a lot more freedom to keep up a weekly (or more frequent) schedule.
Hopefully you will all find the things on here of some interest and be able to expand your own world view (of music and games) to encompass some of what I love.
I am a Dwarf and I'm digging a hole!
So last week I bought and played a game (Before all the people on youtube reviewed it might I add *sadface*) by the name of Dwarfs?!
It is, I suppose, an RTS game. However you do not have a lot of control over it.
You have a town centre which produces digger dwarves at a regular interval and these diggers start digging randomly, you can also buy warrior dwarves to defend the town or outposts which patrol around the selected building.
The digger dwarves will dig out caves which can contain treasure, minerals, water and lava. Obviously minerals and treausre are a good thing, however lava and water will kill your dwarves and destroy your town. Your job is to stop the lava and water before they reach the town.
While this sounds like a fairly easy job to do, bear in mind the longer the game continues the more and more dwarves there are in your game. It starts off rather easy while you can zoom out and keep an eye on each dwarf easily. But as more and more appear, and as they dig out further from your town the harder it is to watch them.
There are of course several sides/ways to dig out a cave so in order to remove the threat of a cave you have to "solidify" the walls, place a wall and blow up the floor so the lava/water has nowhere to go.
The game contains several modes that all vary quite drastically, so even if you get bored of one mode there are many more to attempt. The modes do contain the same amount of "randomness" though.
If you do not like the lack of control that the game contains then this is most likely not the game for you. I have found that it can be rather frustrating that you can't spot a lot of the trouble before it occurs and pre-emptively stop it but if you do get a good dungeon going the sense of achievement is fantastic.
If you are a fan of unique,fun games then I would suggest giving this game a go, but if you prefer a more structured, rule bound game then maybe give this one a miss.
It is, I suppose, an RTS game. However you do not have a lot of control over it.
You have a town centre which produces digger dwarves at a regular interval and these diggers start digging randomly, you can also buy warrior dwarves to defend the town or outposts which patrol around the selected building.
The digger dwarves will dig out caves which can contain treasure, minerals, water and lava. Obviously minerals and treausre are a good thing, however lava and water will kill your dwarves and destroy your town. Your job is to stop the lava and water before they reach the town.
While this sounds like a fairly easy job to do, bear in mind the longer the game continues the more and more dwarves there are in your game. It starts off rather easy while you can zoom out and keep an eye on each dwarf easily. But as more and more appear, and as they dig out further from your town the harder it is to watch them.
There are of course several sides/ways to dig out a cave so in order to remove the threat of a cave you have to "solidify" the walls, place a wall and blow up the floor so the lava/water has nowhere to go.
The game contains several modes that all vary quite drastically, so even if you get bored of one mode there are many more to attempt. The modes do contain the same amount of "randomness" though.
If you do not like the lack of control that the game contains then this is most likely not the game for you. I have found that it can be rather frustrating that you can't spot a lot of the trouble before it occurs and pre-emptively stop it but if you do get a good dungeon going the sense of achievement is fantastic.
If you are a fan of unique,fun games then I would suggest giving this game a go, but if you prefer a more structured, rule bound game then maybe give this one a miss.
Monday, May 2, 2011
Vault 101
Fallout 3 is a game set in a post-apocalyptic 50's-esque period. The storyline is that the Cold war broke out and mankind was forced underground into fallout vaults in order to avoid the nuclear blast.
It is an open world, sandbox shooter. You are given a main storyline mission that you can complete immediately or you can completely ignore it while you traverse the wasteland in search of fame and riches.
There is a wide variety of weapons, armour and items that you can scavenge from stashes or enemies (or even from friends) providing you with many different ways to tackle each situation.
The game is very entertaining and interesting and has many ways to deal with every encounter you have but can sometimes lack direction. You can finish a quest and not pick one up and then find yourself wandering around for hours just looking for something to do. (Not to say that you do not find plenty of things all over the entirety of the wasteland but it can all be a little bit aimless with no defined quests to do things.)
As always I played through originally as a stealthy, pistol wielding character. This proved to be rather difficult as pistols don't tend to deal a huge amount of damage and the stealth isn't the greatest stealth system i have ever seen.
My second play through was more successful as i used melee and rifles, providing me with the close combat skill as well as the ability to pick off distant enemies.
The game included a "Decay" system in which weapons, armour etc begin to wear out and you can use several of the same type of weapon to repair them (similar to reality where you would use parts from one to fix another.)
My overall impressions of the game were positive, the world was in general interesting and entertaining, the combat was not clunky or unresponsive (despite being frustrating at times if you haven't repaired anything in a while.), the conversations were somewhat entertaining, and the quests, while some were rather repetitive, they generally felt immersive and entertaining.
If you are interested in RPG games and don't like the medieval/fantasy setting then this is the game for you!
It is an open world, sandbox shooter. You are given a main storyline mission that you can complete immediately or you can completely ignore it while you traverse the wasteland in search of fame and riches.
There is a wide variety of weapons, armour and items that you can scavenge from stashes or enemies (or even from friends) providing you with many different ways to tackle each situation.
The game is very entertaining and interesting and has many ways to deal with every encounter you have but can sometimes lack direction. You can finish a quest and not pick one up and then find yourself wandering around for hours just looking for something to do. (Not to say that you do not find plenty of things all over the entirety of the wasteland but it can all be a little bit aimless with no defined quests to do things.)
As always I played through originally as a stealthy, pistol wielding character. This proved to be rather difficult as pistols don't tend to deal a huge amount of damage and the stealth isn't the greatest stealth system i have ever seen.
My second play through was more successful as i used melee and rifles, providing me with the close combat skill as well as the ability to pick off distant enemies.
The game included a "Decay" system in which weapons, armour etc begin to wear out and you can use several of the same type of weapon to repair them (similar to reality where you would use parts from one to fix another.)
My overall impressions of the game were positive, the world was in general interesting and entertaining, the combat was not clunky or unresponsive (despite being frustrating at times if you haven't repaired anything in a while.), the conversations were somewhat entertaining, and the quests, while some were rather repetitive, they generally felt immersive and entertaining.
If you are interested in RPG games and don't like the medieval/fantasy setting then this is the game for you!
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