Rage Preview

Sometimes I wonder. When you think of the world of ultraviolence from Clockwork Orange, wasn't it really just a premonition of the 90's id Games such as Wolfenstein 3D, Quake, and Doom.
You know, the point of the games  is just finding new ways on how to blast monsters, nazis, or really whatever, to shreds. In his presentation at Eurogamer Expo Tim Willits brought us back in time showing footage from the old classics and also gave them perception with his quote "against Nintendo sensitivity". I got the fortunate chance to chat to him and shake hands and now I'll never wash that hand again. Already banned at work for that, but so worth it!

Mind you they were all great games, single-handedly both inventing and revolutionizing the First-Person Shooter genre with its aspects of violence, great engines, and pvp addition. The other side of the coin being of course that it turned the genre quite stale. You only need to look at the recent Modern Crapfare games to understand that point. The genre has got stuck.

Unfortunately don't expect anything quite as revolutionizing in their recent game Rage. You can come to that conclusion by having a look at the background setting and story. A post-apocalyptic wasteland with a world dominated by "The Authority" and a rebel faction quite aptly and creatively dubbed the "Resistance".
It's a setting that's been beaten to death by now like a reanimated dead horse. It proves that even though id has finally had a go at dialogue and story, it really is just a little loincloth covering the gratuitous violence and gore.
The only thing Rage may be revolutioning is even a negative thing. Namely the gaming industry trying to crack down on second-hand games by offering content tied to the original game. Tsk Tsk...

That's not too say Rage is a bad game, in fact to the contrary. I played it during the Expo and had a blast. Of course expect no depth, instead it's like a virtual game of popping a bubble wrap sheet. Except in this case it's popping heads with a double barrel shotgun to the face and giggling like a 14-year old schoolgirl. And really, would you seriously have it any other way?
The game has vehicles but they're smooth and very reactive to the environment. Drive against a large rock and see your character being plummeted to the high skies and his own embarrassing death. Much to the amusement of any spectators of course. The game's engine has an amazing quality of detail that we've been accustomed to by id. It boasts a weapon arsenal that would make the most perverted gun nut drool like a fat kid looking at cake. You can see a few of them in action in the following video. Especially enjoy the floating balloon of death at 0:28 and what appears like an attached propane tank at 0:40.
You can already imagine that player cackling like a mad German scientist.

You can watch the Uprising trailer it here, with a fitting and beautiful accompanying score of A Perfect Circle:



This article is sponsored by id, because I do like being paid to promote violence.

Review: Monstermind

I personally dislike your average Facebook game. In essence they are nothing but self-propagating pyramid schemes devoid of any real gameplay. I'm not even harsh about that, I'm just pointing out the obvious here. In fact raise your finger how many times you've seen the spam like "X has find a sick duckling and would like you to give it a home" on top of your Facebook page.

There is no doubt however that in the last few years casual games have soared, and the gaming industry has slowly turned its gaze towards it. The last counter of facebook inhabitants was that of 700 million users. And that is a huge playerbase which is not to be ignored. It is in this light we have to look at EA's recent acquisition of Popcap. A game developing studio that has perhaps single-handedly revolutionized casual games.
But that said, the selection of casual games on Facebook itself, the so called application games has never really broken through that stereotype of boring collector games. It is for that exact reason that I was initially cautious about trying MonsterMind. Bossa Studio's take on social games.

MonsterMind plays much like a RTS-based city simulator. You not only build your city based upon population and tactical resources (Money). You also need to defend it from an onslaught of monster attacks. These come in the form of 1950's B-movie monsters, from a gaint Ape to the 49 1/2 ft woman.  The entire game is stylized around that area as well. Even the little mission videos are black-and white reels that any fan of the Fallout series will surely appreciate.
The unique angle of the game however is how you can annihilate your friends' cities by unleashing your own homebrewn version of terror and fear. The game even wants to be played as an antisocial game. Where it is incredibly fun to not only destroy your friend's city, but where it's also hilarious to see your own city in ruins. The game namely doesn't penalize you much for it. Repair cost is minimum, and you will be rewarded by drops and xp still. I would say that that aspect of the game is well-balanced, unfortunately you'll find the start of the game a bit too slow as you struggle to get money.
In my interview with the game's lead developer Mike Bithell during Eurogamer Expo, he relayed an anecdote where someone in the team was boasting about how great and awesome his studio was, until a secret mail going round banded the entire rest of the team against him in a one-all assault.
I think it's that exact that anecdote catches what MonsterMind makes so much fun and unique at the moment. Sure it's fun to make your own city, but I'll be damned if it's not more fun to inflict doom upon those unsuspecting cities.

That's not to say the game is all positive. There are some bugs currently and the micro-transaction system is in my opinion mildly overpriced. It's nice that the developers have made some of the real currency buildings to be available as a crafting drop, but to expand your city by one grid you'll have to fork out a reasonable sum. I was also missing a scroll function to have more control and vision over my city, but the developer told me that was a thing they would like to include, and as of this article it appears to be included sort of.

The game is currently in beta, and unfortunately it is still having some issues. Town Halls not repairing, tanks blocking your monsters, or just the usual maintenance. So it's currently not the stablest condition, but I heartily recommend this game to absolutely everybody.
You can find it here: http://apps.facebook.com/monstermind/?ref=bos_mainsite

Eurogamer Expo: Day 4

Sunday 25 September was the last day, and although unfortunately the Dark Souls peeps had to cancel, we got to see Batman Arkham City and Assassins Creed instead. Combined with a Guild Wars 2 and End of Nations session, it was going to be an effin' busy day for a geek like me. However, I was geek enough for the challenge!


Star Wars: The Old Republic

Thanks to an early entry I finally got the chance to try out the new Star Wars MMO without having to waste one's life (Not that I have one) in an hour-long queue. For those unaware, KOR is an mmo being developed by Bioware and is firmly etched on the company's previous award-winning Star Wars game.
It was Bioware's intention to make an mmo with strong writing and RPG-based conversation options inside an engrossing story. The expectations of the game are then quite high although recent footage does not seem hopeful. So how was the demo?


As a Sith I started in Korriban, and after a little cutscene it starts well. You are greeted and instead of the usual "go kil x amount of creatures" I was met with several dialogue options. Unfortunately one area later, the aforementioned quest doomed up, and even later still, I was told of creatures that laid waste on the imperial army, who were supposed to be smart creatures. But nope, they were still the usual cannonfodder that are just numbers in my quest screen. Dissapointing


Honestly, it was so bad, had Chewbacca witnessed this travesty, he'd have shaven his entire body and admit himself into a cloister. Now, it's hard to base an mmo on 15 minutes. But good story and writing will never make up ancient graphics combined with dated gameplay in an MMO.

Perhaps instead of putting money in marketing, and cosplayed stormtroopers, the company should have taken a year to brainstorm on what a future MMO should have.

Playstation Vita

The Playstation Vita is Sony's newest handheld device I got my hands on to have a small test session with. What struck me first is how light the device is, and how intuitive and userfriendly the controls are, exactly at the right place. I have little experience with handhelds, but I was sucked in extremely fast.
The device has a touchscreen at front, a second touchpad at the back with which for example you could raise terrain, and motion sensors.
From the game I played: Little Deviants, these elements were utilized well, and the level design was cute and fun.

Its only downside is most likely the cost at 230£, and the fact its batterylife is only at around 3 hours.


End of Nations

Not many RTS games were to be found this year at the expo but End of Nations is certainly a promising and very ambitious project from Trion and Petroglyph. If that latter studio doesn't seem very familiar to you, they are a new studio comprising some of the dev team of Command and Conquer.

End of Nations is quite unique in that it is actually a free-to-play MMO-RTS. Instead of harvesting resources to amass your army, you can choose a team of units at the beginning of the battlle, who can resurrect if you have the tactical resources to afford. This latter element is more akin to DOTA gameplay such as the now famous League of legends, but when you think about it, in an MMO this makes much sense.
Another strong MMO element is the character progression in the line of a skill-tree which branches out between crowd control, straightforward combat, and a more sneaking style of play.

What is very interesting, is that the world map plays much like the board game Risk. Two factions will vattle for domination of land sectors. Although how exactly this will play out we were not told.

The game itself is quite beautiful and has a very distinct AAA quality to it. Especially as the map offers scale, so you can choose with the tactically superior isometric view, or if you prefer a third-person view. The simple choice between both, kind of touches upon what is the ground developing principle of this game. It is open to any type of player, from the hardcore RTS fanatic, to a more casual that will only use his mouse.
This is also found in the fact that the game is highly customizable, with aesthetic skins you can buy for cash.
But also the fact the game offers a stand-alone single player campaign or co-op.

Unfortunately this wide customization and openess could prove to be the game's Achilles heel. For the time I had to play it seemed fun and of a very high quality. But if it will hold up against games such as Star Craft, that are geared towards hardcore RTS gameplay, is not entirely clear.

Assassin's Creed: Revelations

It is a shame the Dark Souls session was cancelled, but luckily instead I got to watch Assassin's Creed Revelations, which I would otherwise have missed.
This game is the last instalment in the series, and we were told it would tie in the game's loose ends, especially in regards to the characters of Altair and Ezio.

We got to see many concept art pictures, and it shows a very rich and detailed city of Constantinopel, where much of the game will take place. A nice touch is that the districts in the city will each have a distinct artstyle. Especially the game's particles and lighting effects were showcased, with a dramatic change as a result. I was pleasantly surprised with how a place from dusk till dawn, almost seemed like two different areas.

The game also gives you the chance to craft small explosives, ranging from lethal bombs that you can toss at groups of soldiers, to a small distraction bomb, to even caltrop bombs, giving the game a much more tactical range of choice when you are met with a group of enemies chasing you.
And speaking of, absolutely stunning was a scene of a cart chase in the game.


Guild Wars 2


In a recent article I wrote how I tried the demo and had mixed feelings about the game. Well after the developer session and seeing some live footage you can now go all Prague defenestration on my opinions in there, heck, throw me out into the trash at the same time. Because believe me, that footage was jaw-droppingly sweeeeeeeet.

We were shown how the game's public event system works. It's pretty much like serverwide quests that are open to anyone to participate it. But absolutely amazing is how these events can branch out to new events, or even other events if the former was unsuccessful.
Say you need to attack a fort of Charr. If you are successful you'll proceed to pushing the enemy back, but if not, then the Charr will quickly proceed to dominate the entire area, repopulating it with their own minions. This gives it a very refreshing dynamic life to it.



Batman: Arkham City

Batman: Arkham Asylum was a revelation of a game. It stands as the best superhero game ever made. It's not only uncanny as how natural it feels to play as Batman, but using the original voice-over actors Mark Hamill and Kevin Conroy mixed with original writing is a cocktail of pure awesome.
You could see the passion from the developers as they're giving their session as well, constantly gesturing and talking. It's obviously there's much love going into the Batman franchise.
The only downside to the first game was a widely recongnized fizzle of an end-bossfight, and the game's relatively slow campaign.
Arkham City definitely seems to address that last part, taking place is in an open part of the city itself, populated by criminal scum and villainous masterminds. 


The combat is again extremely smooth and fluent, using combo points to perform take-downs. And from what I saw it's nearly the same as the previous game. But why change something if it's not broke of course.


The best part was a catwoman sequence, they really did outperform themselves in giving Catwoman a very sneaky playstyle and animation. You are even able to scale the ceilings if it is lined with a grid, and you can use your whip to navigate from gargoyle to gargoyle much as batman is able to. Best part, whipping people off a corridor from right beneath them.


Unfortunately although the game has gone gold, the PC version has had  a month's delay. So here's to hoping this will not be affecting the PC version of the game.

Eurogamer Expo day 1: 22 September 2011

Eurogamer expo is the UK's biggest and bestest gamer convention. Last year was a huge hit and this year -keeping in mind with the amount of blockbuster games to be released- was bound to repeat that.
It's also the biggest event not to need signposts, since all you have to do really is just follow the nerds. Heck, you can already spot them in the tube going there. The tube btw, which is London's closest point to the depths of the Nine Hells itself. Mind the Gap? Mind the Chasm more like...

Still, I went with one single goal, to amass as much swag as humanly possible. And during the process I found out there's literally no limit to the weight I am willing to carry when it comes down to gaming swag.

Battlefield 3

The Battlefield 3 conference was presented by Karl Magnus Troedson, the VP of Dice itself who took us a brief look through some trailers and a live-played single-player demo.
We were also promised exclusive footage  but that turned out a bigger dissapointment than waiting 15 years for Duke Nukem Forever. Seriously, since when is rehashed trailer footage with some music exclusive?
The presentation was mostly about showcasing their new engine Frostbite 2, and the 5 pillars its built on. You can see it here for yourself, but don't ask me why they list SOUND as a pillar, and then only use a musical piece in the video...
Troedson began the session by putting the bar high, calling Battlefield 3 "All out war" and calling it the best "Battlefield game yet". I'll have to admit that from going by the footage of the live-played single-player demo, the game looked bloody slick. Graphics and animations were of a high-standard, and when the guns were shot you could actually hear it ricocheting off the walls in the room. Impressive as well to see the actual recoil of the weapons in action.

Troedson was hammering on innovation a lot, but ... As fancy and new the game looks, it's like with a car. Apart from the new engine, gameplay-wise there's litte new under the hood.


Btw, Mr. Troedson? Please don't compare a game ever again to the filmclassic Heat, .. ever .. again ...


Guild Wars 2

Of all the games on show I'd have to say Guild Wars 2 was defintitely one of the ones I *had* to try out. And there seems a pretty fanboyish following as well. There were multiple people who were trying the demo out for the second and even third time, and there was someone with probably the ugliest Charr teddy-bear I've seen
Yep, Guild Wars 2 booth definitely had its fair share of freaks ... me included.

Before you ask, nope we did not get to see the last class, it's still as of yet unannounced. I have already bought the biggest bucket I could find to harvest the tears of nerds that will be shed when it is revealed the last class is not mesmer. (it probably is though)

I played the Norn starting area with an engineer. A class where you could spec into goggles but those didn't seem active at the demo yet. The class itself seemed to much like a ranger with a blunderbuss, but as I only got to level 4 it's hard to fully judge a class at that stage.
The Norn area itself was of a nordic beauty, at first with thick blankets of fog, and then later in a greener area where you could see little currents of wind sweeping through the trees.
My neighbour was playing a high level Asura  guardian and I got to witness high-paced combat, and even a dragon boss who was of an absolute gargantuan size. There were bigger ones even I was told. Crikey.

Gone are also the days of dualclassing and putting your skill points in your class skills, it looked like you could dump your points only in class attributes as is usually the case in RPG's.

From what I played it was a beautiful and fun game, but do not expect a complete revolution of the genre. Because what I saw, I've already seen in many other games.

Skyrim


Last game I played was Skyrim, Bethesda's latest addition to The Elder Scrolls saga. Although the area was absolutely gorgeous, the distance was set at minimal resolution, which just contrasted a highly detailed surroundings, with a blurry horizon. That and some clunky animations made me see it more as Oblivion 2.0 than anything else. Of course it's an immense landslide of difference with Oblivion, a game whose graphcis have dated exceptionally badly. It was played on a console though, so hopefully on a PC we will be able to crank up the details and graphics.
Don't get me wrong, the landscape was wild and of a sublime beauty. In fact there were swooping rivers with waterfalls, and you can even feel it's harder going against the stream. On top of that, I was capable of catching a salmon while wading in it. I was told you will be able to cook them as well for buffs. Neat.

I got to try out the new dualwielding system. It worked great, especially the  conventional melee dualwielding, but also a literally "spells and sword" fighting style. Not completely seamless, but still quite smooth. Of course at that stage in the game it was impossible to try out multiple spell combinations, but if executed correctly this could bring a nice new dimension to the spellcasting gameplay, and fighting in general.
Also worth pointing out is that you'll get to a larger city, with an excellent nordic medieval architecture, including sculpted woodwork.
There was a giant nearby that even makes the screen shake from his walking.

Either not implemented yet, or discarded, but the persuasion-wheel mini-game was gone. There is only a Persuasion line available.

Interviews

I had the great opportunity to speaking directly with OnLive and the lead dev of Bossa Studios but those merit different articles.


Thanks for reading!

Space Marine Review

This review is probably as belated as could be, but I have mostly Amazon to thank for that. Shipping my copy four days late. What is the point in pre-ordering a game if you get it so late?
And before anyone adds: "Pre-order it on steam" I would have done that, if some unknown force hadn't actually disabled Space Marine from the Steam Store.
That's right, a game that requires Steam to be played, can not actually be bought in the Steam store itself.
More than likely we have the Evil Empire of www.game.co.uk to blame. They replied Nu-uh, but seeing how this only affects the UK and where the only victor could only be retail sales then yeh, you'll understand that statement would be Pinochio's equivalent of a 10-foot pole. Ideally used to keep distance of aforementioned corporation...
It's so absurd and surreal, I almost fathom myself being back in Belgium. And speaking of, do they have a government there yet?

But how is the game? A month ago I gave my thoughts on the demo and that seems pretty much true for the entire game. The game engine renders Game Workshop's setting graphically both stunning and beautiful. It's a mix best described as industrial gothic. A big thumbs up to the engine that earlier gave birth to another graphically lush game: Darksiders. The game is also filled with lots of particle effects and events and I can't say I've ever seen my framerate drop, or had a crash.

It's a game that is also true to the 40k setting since it actually makes you feel like a real space marine, a one-man war machine with bolter guns that feel like they're really firing explosive rounds the size of a fist.
The story itself, although not the most original, is enticing and plays as if it doesn't just use Warhammer 40k as a background, no it actually really feels like it is part of the whole setting, with little audiobooks around, and references to for example the Space Wolves. And allow me to call the protagonist Captain Titus, Badass of the Year.

Or how I learned to love the atomic bomb

The gameplay is good, with a fluid combat system where you can switch from melee to ranged nearly flawlessly. Unfortunately the first part of the game can get tedious after Ork wave number 100, with the same types of orks, and the same type of behaviour/tactics. It's also suffering from a few unnecessary and unfortunately at times boring level designs. Did we for example really need a level through sewer tunnels where we get perhaps 3 waves of enemies?

He's Boss Grimskull

Luckily once halfway and introducing the forces of Chaos, the pace becomes fast and the fights much more complicated and vast, with beautiful three-way fighting between Chaos, Orks, and you the Space Marines. There's also a few mindblowing levels such as fighting on a moving train or alongside other Space marine chapters.





The single player campaign unfortunately is unforgivingly short. It took me 9 hours on normal difficulty, which means it can be done on anywhere from 7-10 hours. That is damningly short.
That would be ok though, if the multiplayer was good. Sadly though, it is not. There are only two modes currently (co-op mode is being introduced later). But even these two modes seem rough and simple. Not to mention unbalanced as you get weapons and gear through levelling. That latter part is not to be underestimated, if you realize the potential of the hammer and jetpack.


If you want an entertaining game where you're satisfied enough with just hacking down endless  waves of orks and Chaos forces then you'll feel right at ease. But be wary that the single campaign is short, and the multiplayercampaign is rough and unbalanced.

Saints Row 3: Meet the Deckers

A few weeks ago we could see a luchadore-based gang in true Warriors-style. Today in the most recent video we can now see glimpses of ... a nerd squad called The Deckers.
No I take that back, it looks more like a nerd squad with a neon-sense of fashion. A truly dangerous and lethal combination!
The trailer is seeping with gratuitous 80's Tron elements which I'm sure anyone will appreciate, but I'll truly take my hat off if they manage to put a lawnmower man character somewhere in that level.

So far the whole mindless jokes and references just-for-the-heck of it is looking awesome. But I hope that Volition, the game developer behind the Saints Row trailer hasn't just thrown all these elements into a game and then shaken it (not stirred) into a cohesion-less soup. It would be a shame if the game turns out to be a mere pastiche with a complete lack of focus.

You can see the latest trailer here:, and definitely enjoy the old Atari reference:






This article was sponsored by THQ

The Baconing Review

The Baconing is the third instalment in the Action-RPG-Adventure series. A game managing to borrow from three genres and pretty much failing at each one. Ouch.

In this part, the hero Deathspank has worn the six(?) thongs of virtue all at once which has somehow caused a disturbance in the force, causing an Anti-Spank to erupt.

As you can guess the humour in it is absurd, filled with cultural references and often completely (and yet satisfactory) over-the-top. It's also the game's greatest (and only) redeeming feature. Although, graphically the game is quite beautiful as well, with a great change in scenery and colour with levels in a jungle, a barnacle lake all rendered cartoonishly breathtaking. Unfortunately it is not enough. Which is a shame as the game offers quite a few hidden gems that will make you burst out laughing: A leprechaun maffia, A demented Zeus berating you to "get off his lawn" to a tongue-in-cheek reference to the game-industry itself, and so many more.

Deathspank humour at its finest

Leprechaun Maffia-themed armour

Although the game only lasts about 8-10 hours there is a reason the review is so late. That's mostly due to a very repetitive gameplay and tedious fightingsystem. The game's fighting consists of constant mouseclicking on the foes. And there's your other reason this review took so long. You start to get arthritis in your fingers from clicking away hours and hours on end .... The game is a natural habitat for a WoW-clicker. And before you start fanboyishly disagreeing. Yes there's blocking, a "fury" bar and grenades. But it doesn't offer enough of a change in pace. Even the grenade system is flawed as you can only throw right ahead of you with no aim. 

This could have been so easily remedied by using fun feats and skills or gadgetry with (hilarious) drawbacks. But no, levelling up offers more weapons (Kek, the same ones) and some unimaginative feats such as "move faster" "do more damage", ... In fact the game even managed to make your co-op henchmen have more fun than you. That's quite impressive to pull off.

I don't understand how a game that tries to be funny, fails so hard and ends up making levelling the most boring thing whatsoever.

I wanted to like this game, but unfortunately instead of popping out new parts in the series as if state benefits depend on it, Hothead would do much better trying to make the fighting and gameplay more innovative and rewarding, instead of a chore. Turning the game into an adventure struggling from one joke to other.

 As it stands now The Baconing is much like a one-trick pony. Stay for the comic dialogue, avoid everything else.

I'm still not complaining too much however, for I became:

We'll need a bigger cradle

GOD OF ... ORPHANS

Saints Row Teaser

Saints Row 3 has been on my radar ever since it opened up with what *has* to be the best damn teaser trailer ever.
The game is easiest to describe as a sandbox game with no rules and disregard to even its own genre. It's there to have fun and provoke.
Its developer once famously quoted "Our game philosophy is: why give players a baseball bat when you can give them a giant phallic weapon" and "We're an equal opportunity defender, you can nutshot even women"
And that pretty much sums up the game, nor can I disagree with such flawless yet outrageous logic. It's completely over the top and bigger-than-life, and that message just oozes out of its latest trailer. You can watch it here:



A gang based on luchadors, with the leader called Killbane, the Walking Apocalypse (As if Killbane alone isn't adequate enough) To top it off, how to better represent the game and its bigger-than-life genre than actually have Hulk Hogan himself do the voice-over for Angel de la Muerte.

My only criticism is that the previous games were quite atrocious on the PC platform, with the second instalment suffering from technical issues, and I have a feeling the third instalment will be best enjoyed on a console as well. So bear that in mind.



This article is sponsored by THQ to promote gender-equal nutpunching.