A game that I absolutely love is Left4Dead and I completed an achievement that I am massively proud of.
It is a multiplayer co-op game set in the near future soon after a zombie apocalypse has occurred. You play one of four "survivors" that have been brought together due to circumstance and have to work together in order to stay safe and reach freedom. Each of the survivors has a distinct personality (and sometimes they clash) and a back story telling how they arrived in the situation they are in.
You use a range of guns, your standard weapon being a pistol, medkits and pills. The items spawn depending on how well or how badly you are doing and have a number of places in which they can spawn. Rarely in the same place twice.
There are five levels in each campaign, the last one usually being a "survive until rescue arrives" objective, while the first four involve fighting your way through the map. There are certain areas in the game where you have to do a specific task which will alert the "horde" and you will have to fight off or fight your way through several waves.
There are several difficulty levels from Easy to Expert, Easy you can play through solo with barely any effort, while expert is nearly impossible without having 3 (good) human players.
While I was originally a little bit annoyed at how quickly Left4Dead2 was released after the first game when I played it the first time I realised that it was a brand new game and completely worth my money.
Left4Dead2 is a continuation of the first game but following a different group of people. Each of the characters have brand new back stories and personalities.
You start off again with a pistol but you have a choice of melee weapons you can exchange it for. The item list was expanded in the second game as well as the amount of areas where the items could spawn.
There are five new campaigns in the second game and the major difference to the first is that some of the maps are set during the day, creating a brand new atmosphere as you normally wouldn't expect such a horror setting in the daytime.
Again there are difficulty levels from Easy to Expert, But this time a new difficulty is included called Realism. Realism is expert mode but it has no UI help tips or character outlines. This makes it harder to see when an ally is in trouble or spot where an item is in a room.
My proudest moment (to date) was when I completed all of the campaigns on expert by myself.
I have gotten over 200 hours of fun out of these two games, a lot of this by myself, but with a few friends you could get a lot more enjoyment out of them. You can usually find one or other of these games on sale on Steam, it is more worthwhile (at the moment) to just get the second game as it is getting backdated with the maps from the first game.
Monday, November 28, 2011
Saturday, November 19, 2011
All Hail Trigon!!
A game I have been looking forward to playing DC Universe for a very long time (since first seeing it in action!) and when it went free to play I got my chance.
The first thing I should start off by saying is that in the first week of free-play, DCUO had a lot of lag and disconnect issues but they very quickly implemented fixes and upgraded the servers. I don't think anyone was expecting the influx they received.
Secondly I was not impressed with their character creator, Not in comparison with many other MMOs I've played. You can't change the facial structure or specific details of the characters, as well as the selection of costume pieces being very limited. However when you get in-game you can collect items that will unlock more costume styles as you play, So you might end up getting the exact look you want after you create the character.
The fact that the game is set in the DC Universe means there are a lot of iconic characters running around the place. This helps immerse you in the game a lot more than if you had a bunch of made-up-on-the-spot characters telling you what to do. Everyone knows Batman, Superman and Joker and knows at least some of their story giving you some angle to enter the story at.
Another story aspect that completely blew me away was the introduction cinematic. It is the single greatest explanation of a character's appearance in an MMO that I've seen and a fantastic trailer regardless. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0AnQ-p4cU8w this is the best version I could find. Watch in 1080p and full screen for best results.)
The actual game play is very good. It is a huge change to something like WOW where it is completely gear and skill tree based. In DCUO you can have a very strange combination of skills and still do just as well as someone with "optimal" skills, in PVE. The quests are all story based and very entertaining but you can sometimes find that they drag on a little bit too much. You could be collecting 25 of something when 10 would have suited just as well.
The PVP in DCUO is rather imbalanced, stuns are king and nothing is going to change that. If you have a hotbar of six stuns you can pretty much beat anyone. This is sometimes good as a low level player can actually beat a max level player is they are skilled and fast enough, but if you get caught out in any way you are going to die and there really is not much you can do about it.
There is an arena called legends where you pick an Iconic Hero/Villain and you play as them an in the beginning arenas you are all on the same baseline and it is fairly balanced, but as soon as you meet people who have been able to unlock other characters it becomes unbalanced again.
DC Universe Online is a fantastic game and with a few PVP and PVE tweaks will be one of the greatest MMOs out there but as it is at the moment it has a few too many issues to hold that title. This however didn't stop me paying for the Premium account as I know I will play it for a long time to come.
If you like DC Comics/Universe then definitely give the free version of the game a try as it certainly tickles that spot for a comic book nerd like me.
The first thing I should start off by saying is that in the first week of free-play, DCUO had a lot of lag and disconnect issues but they very quickly implemented fixes and upgraded the servers. I don't think anyone was expecting the influx they received.
Secondly I was not impressed with their character creator, Not in comparison with many other MMOs I've played. You can't change the facial structure or specific details of the characters, as well as the selection of costume pieces being very limited. However when you get in-game you can collect items that will unlock more costume styles as you play, So you might end up getting the exact look you want after you create the character.
The fact that the game is set in the DC Universe means there are a lot of iconic characters running around the place. This helps immerse you in the game a lot more than if you had a bunch of made-up-on-the-spot characters telling you what to do. Everyone knows Batman, Superman and Joker and knows at least some of their story giving you some angle to enter the story at.
Another story aspect that completely blew me away was the introduction cinematic. It is the single greatest explanation of a character's appearance in an MMO that I've seen and a fantastic trailer regardless. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0AnQ-p4cU8w this is the best version I could find. Watch in 1080p and full screen for best results.)
The actual game play is very good. It is a huge change to something like WOW where it is completely gear and skill tree based. In DCUO you can have a very strange combination of skills and still do just as well as someone with "optimal" skills, in PVE. The quests are all story based and very entertaining but you can sometimes find that they drag on a little bit too much. You could be collecting 25 of something when 10 would have suited just as well.
The PVP in DCUO is rather imbalanced, stuns are king and nothing is going to change that. If you have a hotbar of six stuns you can pretty much beat anyone. This is sometimes good as a low level player can actually beat a max level player is they are skilled and fast enough, but if you get caught out in any way you are going to die and there really is not much you can do about it.
There is an arena called legends where you pick an Iconic Hero/Villain and you play as them an in the beginning arenas you are all on the same baseline and it is fairly balanced, but as soon as you meet people who have been able to unlock other characters it becomes unbalanced again.
DC Universe Online is a fantastic game and with a few PVP and PVE tweaks will be one of the greatest MMOs out there but as it is at the moment it has a few too many issues to hold that title. This however didn't stop me paying for the Premium account as I know I will play it for a long time to come.
If you like DC Comics/Universe then definitely give the free version of the game a try as it certainly tickles that spot for a comic book nerd like me.
Saturday, November 5, 2011
Viva La Human!
This is the day I have waited a very long time for (Well honestly the day I played the game was the day I waited for but still!)...
Deus Ex: Human Revolution.
It is only fair that I compare it to the original Deus Ex and point out the good and bad points.
First off the tutorial/prologue shows you the basic mechanics of the game while also introducing you to the story. It is quite nice as you don't feel like you are doing a tutorial. This is different from the original in that there is no ACTUAL tutorial assault course.
A big change from the original game is the removal of the skills/experience system. You still gain experience for completing quests and exploring etc. But now instead of putting your experience into certain skills you use that experience to level up your augmentations. This, while not keeping exactly with the original, was a slight enough difference that it didn't take away from the "levelling" feel of the game.
Human Revolution gave you several ways to approach scenarios in keeping with the series. However it has limited those choices to quite a large extent. This was rather disappointing but to be fair it is rather difficult to script the freedom you had in Deus Ex as the freedom was only there pretty much as a glitch or a non-scripted sequence. It still felt lacking in a lot of areas however when you could only go certain ways and not be as creative as in the original.
As in the gameplay, the conversations were slightly more restricted too. There was a nice new feature added however that I quite enjoyed that allowed you to influence people. I was very glad that this was added as it did free up conversations somewhat.
One thing that really disappointed me about the game however was the intro music. It wasn't the classic Deus Ex theme, a crucial part of any Deus Ex game (even Invisible War had it!)
Deus Ex: Human Revolution is in my opinion a very worthy sequel to the classic Deus Ex. It is not exactly the same in all aspects but the bits that have changed have, for the most part, changed for the better.
And let's face it... Your character is a bad-ass!
Deus Ex: Human Revolution.
It is only fair that I compare it to the original Deus Ex and point out the good and bad points.
First off the tutorial/prologue shows you the basic mechanics of the game while also introducing you to the story. It is quite nice as you don't feel like you are doing a tutorial. This is different from the original in that there is no ACTUAL tutorial assault course.
A big change from the original game is the removal of the skills/experience system. You still gain experience for completing quests and exploring etc. But now instead of putting your experience into certain skills you use that experience to level up your augmentations. This, while not keeping exactly with the original, was a slight enough difference that it didn't take away from the "levelling" feel of the game.
Human Revolution gave you several ways to approach scenarios in keeping with the series. However it has limited those choices to quite a large extent. This was rather disappointing but to be fair it is rather difficult to script the freedom you had in Deus Ex as the freedom was only there pretty much as a glitch or a non-scripted sequence. It still felt lacking in a lot of areas however when you could only go certain ways and not be as creative as in the original.
As in the gameplay, the conversations were slightly more restricted too. There was a nice new feature added however that I quite enjoyed that allowed you to influence people. I was very glad that this was added as it did free up conversations somewhat.
One thing that really disappointed me about the game however was the intro music. It wasn't the classic Deus Ex theme, a crucial part of any Deus Ex game (even Invisible War had it!)
Deus Ex: Human Revolution is in my opinion a very worthy sequel to the classic Deus Ex. It is not exactly the same in all aspects but the bits that have changed have, for the most part, changed for the better.
And let's face it... Your character is a bad-ass!
No Machinima In Sight...
A game that I have played several (hundred) times is Deus Ex. It is one of my favourite games and in my opinion an absolute pinnacle of good game creation. (Developers take note!)
First of all there is an option to do a tutorial, but it is not forced upon you. The "starter area" is easy enough that you can pick up how to play as you go along as well as get to grips with the different weapon types without it being "spoon-fed" to you.
Deus Ex is called an RPG-FPS as it has a level-up system with skills and your performance can sometimes depend on how trained you are in certain skills, but it also does not hamper your performance, just enhances it.
There are several ways to approach each challenge in the game. You can fight everything that moves, you can talk down all your enemies, you can sneak through air vents or you can use a mix of all of the above. It is completely down to you how you handle each situation. There are even some areas where you can do something that would normally be completely game breaking and the game just continues on!
The overall story of the game is that the world has developed to the stage of "Nano-Augmentation" and they are in wide use. Your character is in the top tier of augmentation and is an anti-terrorist agent in UNATCO. He later uncovers a disturbing plot and the game progresses from there.
The most impressive thing about the game is that it allows you so many options in all aspects of the game even down to conversation. There are so many hidden items and secrets in the game as well, even I have not found them all, in my many playthroughs.
Overall I believe this game to be a foundation block in gaming history and I really hope that new developers will look back and start to take a leaf out of Ion Storm's book...
First of all there is an option to do a tutorial, but it is not forced upon you. The "starter area" is easy enough that you can pick up how to play as you go along as well as get to grips with the different weapon types without it being "spoon-fed" to you.
Deus Ex is called an RPG-FPS as it has a level-up system with skills and your performance can sometimes depend on how trained you are in certain skills, but it also does not hamper your performance, just enhances it.
There are several ways to approach each challenge in the game. You can fight everything that moves, you can talk down all your enemies, you can sneak through air vents or you can use a mix of all of the above. It is completely down to you how you handle each situation. There are even some areas where you can do something that would normally be completely game breaking and the game just continues on!
The overall story of the game is that the world has developed to the stage of "Nano-Augmentation" and they are in wide use. Your character is in the top tier of augmentation and is an anti-terrorist agent in UNATCO. He later uncovers a disturbing plot and the game progresses from there.
The most impressive thing about the game is that it allows you so many options in all aspects of the game even down to conversation. There are so many hidden items and secrets in the game as well, even I have not found them all, in my many playthroughs.
Overall I believe this game to be a foundation block in gaming history and I really hope that new developers will look back and start to take a leaf out of Ion Storm's book...
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