Game Reviews - =ADK= Gaming Community Website

From Dust

Sun, 21 Aug 2011 23:29:11 +0000

At this point, it's no longer a matter of whether or not the metaphorical car will end up in a horrible twisted flaming wreck. That's been plainly obvious for months. Now it's a matter of how. And, hoo boy, things are going downhill fast. First, From Dust's PC port suffered a month-long delay shortly before a trouble-free console release. But then Ubisoft promised a reprieve from its “always on” DRM nonsense, so at least that was something. And the painfully predictable twist? The DRM does require an Internet connection, the port's in terrible shape, and our tolerance of Ubisoft's apparent disdain for PC gamers has been dead all along.

Initially, Ubisoft plainly stated that From Dust would require “a one time only activation. After which you will be able to play the game offline.” After gamers spent money and discovered that to be blatantly untrue, Ubisoft barely even acknowledged the outcry, merely amending its statement to read “‘From Dust’ requires an internet connection when you start the game.”

Really, though, you might be glad that some malicious software's invisible hand is stopping yours when you try and play From Dust. According to early reports, the PC version's locked at 30 FPS, utterly lacking in graphical options, and glitchy to the point of not loading at all.

So basically, if you've for some reason recently found yourself pining for the good old days of PC ports that stopped just short of biting you in the eye, you're in luck! Everyone else, if there was ever a time to be outraged, this is it. Ubisoft, we don't know what the entirety of PC gaming did to make you so upset, but we're honestly not sure we care anymore.

Mortal Kombat - Review

Wed, 11 May 2011 18:11:27 +0000

Background - Mortal Kombat gameplay has changed so many times over the years. First it started as a 2D fighter using live actors as their models. The scene would cut the actors in and having them fight each other. Mortal Kombat began a new genre of video games since MK was a different style of fighting that was more adult-oriented. MK had a dark story filled with death and murder. This tradition continued throughout all the games, but each release after Mortal Kombat 3 attempted a new format, but most gamers would maintain that these attempts were failures. With the 4th version, they stepped into the 3D realm. The 3D format continued until MK vs. DC. In this version they tried to make the game less violent and lost a substantial part of the audience. The latest version returns back to the original 2D roots with a 3D engine.

1. Gameplay

a. Characters:
Many of the beloved MK characters are back in this one. Scorpin, Sub-Zero, Smoke, Noob Saibot and Reptile are a few of the returned players.

b. Commands:
This game plays exactly how you would expect a MK game to play. It doesn’t quite have the juggling abilites as Marvel vs. Capcom, but it has all the style of an MK game. The commands are simply to use, but tough to master. This is a perfect strategy for fighting games. The simplicity attracts the casual crowd and yet, challenges the hardcore group. You can pull out some amazing combos. You can even increase the damage from the combos when you mix in character specials, or setting you up for a longer based combo. The fighting in this game is great. The new x-ray mode makes things all the better. It can quickly revert transform your game since it does a lot of damage. Not only that but it looks sweet as well.

2. Story:
The story is this game is interesting too. It begins with Raiden in the envisioned future environment of the first 3 MK games. He sends a message to his past self in order to prevent Shau Kahn from killing everyone and taking over Earth Realm. You play along using different characters and fighting battles in order to prevent this from happening. The way they introduce characters is well thought out and how they turn into the ones that you know and love.

3. Sound and Visuals:

a. Sound - The music in this game leaves something to be desired. While it isnt near the worst that I have heard, but alas, that is not why you play an MK game. The fighting noises and character sounds are what get a players heart going. When the sounds are authentic, the game seems so much more engaging. Cringing at some of the fatalities because of the sound is what helps make this game so much fun. So, though the music is lackluster, the game sounds more than make up for it.

b. Art - The graphics in this game are amazing. They have rendered three different textures. One texture captures the normal qualities of the characters. Another captures the muscle tone for each of the characters and the final one represents the skeletal structure of all them. When you cause a fatality or an x-ray attack you can sometimes see the skeletal structure of each character (all the time with x-ray attacks). The normal textures look really good. They fit the MK universe and attacks flow well. The backgrounds look amazing and are really well rendered. They are animated and interesting to watch. They don't take away from the fighting though. It is nice to look at, but they don’t distract the player from the overall experience.

4. Replayability - Just for the sheer fun of fighting opponents, causing fatalities or just messing around on the challenge mode-- this game has you coming back for more. This game has a lot of features to keep you coming back. In addition, the cliffhanger ending suggests that they could add DLC to continue the story mode. That would assure to have many of us going back and playing it again and again. I have played this game for many hours and plan to put in more.

5. Overall - This is hands-down the best Mortal Kombat I have ever played. The moves are fun, the bosses are hard (really, really cheap though), and the X-Ray mode doesn't really get old. Although, I have not played it online (I would probably get destroyed) it seems like it would be a fun thing to do. You have Co-op so you and a friend can go 2v2 against computers or people using a tag system. You can also do combos to lead into that tag system. The only thing that really frustrated me was the boss battles. They added in a type of "boss armor", that negates some of your attacks (they won't get stunned or stumble). It is annoying to say the least because they can attack you right after that. They also can do pretty heavy damage to your characters with every attack. It is a really rough fight and you have to be super cheap in order to beat them.

*TL:DR*
This is a great fighting game. Much like Marvel vs. Capcom 3, I expect to see this game included in tournaments (probably with the gore turned off so many people can watch). It is really fun to play and amazing to watch. If you enjoy the MK series , like fighting games or if you just want a good, well- rounded, challenging fighting game-- I suggest you pick this game up. I thoroughly enjoyed this one and am still playing it.

Brink - PC Review

Wed, 11 May 2011 08:05:13 +0000

The first time I played Halo, it really irritated me that melee attacks were so powerful. It's actually better to smack an opponent with a pistol than to shoot him in the face with it. How stupid is that? But eventually, I got it: Halo's unusual elements, like those supercharged melee attacks and the low-gravity bunny-hopping, created a set of physics in the game that doesn't exist on Earth. By adjusting the parameters of reality, the developers got you to play the game in a different way—a way that was actually a lot more fun.

Developers haven't stopped trying to change the way we play shooter games—just look at Vanquish or Bulletstorm. The latest entry in this genre is Brink, which forces you to rethink the differences between single-player and multiplayer, change the way you move, and adopt new tactics. It might be too much to call Brink the Halo of its time, but it is still one of the most innovative first-person shooters to come out since Master Chief made his debut.

The most innovative aspect of Brink is that the single-player and multiplayer games are basically the same thing. Whenever you start playing, you decide whether you're playing alone, with co-op partners, or with both co-op partners and human-controlled enemies. Each mission is a series of objectives in which one team tries to accomplish something and the other team tries to stop them. You can play through the entire campaign as two different factions, each with its own set of cutscenes, for a total of 16 missions.

Movement in Brink is unique as well. By holding the left bumper, you go into the "SMART" (Smooth Movement Across Random Terrain) system, meaning that you sprint across the ground, climbing over any obstacles that get in your way. Normally, these kinds of systems are prone to malfunctions, but I very rarely did anything I wasn't trying to with it. Also, you can customize the controls if you hate using a bumper button to run (I certainly did).

The one criticism I have of the movement is that it isn't quite fast enough. When you create a character, you choose from one of three body types. Medium is the default option, light characters move faster but can't carry powerful guns, and heavy characters move slowly but carry huge guns. (You have to unlock the heavy and light types, but that happens early on.) Even with light characters, I found myself longing for the super-speed sliding of Vanquish, or at least more opportunities to use my parkour skills à la Mirror's Edge. That's not a lot to ask considering how much the SMART system was hyped in the pre-release buzz. This problem is compounded by the fact that light characters are essentially useless with weapons, meaning most players will stick with less-mobile medium characters. (To be fair, you can improve your character's stats by leveling up, and you can complete challenges to unlock more powerful weapons for all of the character types. Perhaps some experienced players will find light characters workable.)

Also, Brink's developers made a serious effort to overcome the various problems that plague multiplayer first-person shooters today. If you hate grenade-spamming, you'll be delighted to hear that grenades in Brink don't do much damage and are on a cooldown timer. If you're sick of weak sound effects, you'll be thrilled by the intense music and the almost unnervingly loud gunshots. In addition, the EXP system is designed to punish selfishness; each character class has "buffs" they can give to their teammates (soldiers give extra ammo, medics give health, etc.), and giving buffs nets you far more EXP than killing the enemy does. The other major feature of character classes is that they can accomplish certain kinds of objectives, such as planting charges or repairing tanks, which discourages players from finding a favorite class and sticking with it. (You can change between classes in-game whenever you come across a command post.)

However, there are some problems that even Brink doesn't fix. For starters, you'll die almost constantly when the enemy team bands together in a group, especially when you're playing solo and don't have any decent players to help you stand against the bots. This can be frustrating for those who are used to more traditional campaigns. In fact, I would not advise playing this game by yourself at all, or at least without turning down the difficulty. (When you die, you can either respawn at a command post or wait for a medic to get around to healing you.) The escort missions are downright silly, because the NPCs you're tasked with escorting have a tendency to walk brazenly into the line of fire and require medical attention repeatedly.

Shogun 2 - PC Review

Fri, 01 Apr 2011 05:59:21 +0000

Me and the Total War series – we go way back. We go back to Shogun, the original that put The Creative Assembly on the map over a decade ago. I’ve played every core game in this long running series and most of the expansions from the high point of Medieval Total War with the Viking Invasion to the low point of Empire: Total War.

The frustrations of Empire left me cautious about Shogun 2’s prospects. On the one hand the developer was returning to familiar territory – they knew this game before beginning to design it. This was home turf. This was Shogun and I was hoping that this familiarity would pay off. On the other hand, maybe The Creative Assembly had simply lost its touch? In many ways, this was an incredibly important release for the developer because if this one failed it could start to erode its core fan base.

It turns out that Shogun 2 is the best game The Creative Assembly has released in years. It’s a triumphant return to the era of rival clans, yari ashigaru, ninja assassins, and honor filled katana wielding samurai. It’s a huge, complex design, yet constrained and restricted enough so the AI is able to play its own game. I see myself playing this one for years to come.

What makes Shogun 2 such a joy to play is that the AI, for the most part, knows what it’s doing. This cannot be stressed enough as it was a key reason why Empire Total War struggled as mightily as it did. The AI in Shogun 2, while it may cheat a bit at the higher levels of difficulty, will use the same skills you use, the same tricks, the same unit’s special abilities and will do so in a way that makes sense. You never feel cheated. When I first discovered that another clan’s ninja had sabotaged my stronghold’s gates I was both ticked off (damn ninjas!) and thrilled to see the AI play the same game I was playing. When my bountiful sea trade route was attacked, thus crippling my economy, I was ticked (damn pirates!) but thrilled to see the AI recognize that I was financially cleaning up on the seas with impunity.

The AI shrewdly works diplomacy, knowing when to press your buttons and when to try and beg for a clan’s life either by offering payoffs or even offering to become a vassal clan (basically a puppet state). Attacking a clan will bring its allies into the war – if it suits them. On the other hand if you bring your allies into a fight they very well may conquer territory instead of you, which is great for your ally, but likely not quite what you had in mind. You truly get the sense that you’re playing against a working AI and not a placeholder for you just to steamroll to an easy victory.

Even on the battlefield the AI has received an obvious shot in the arm. While it still loves the wild charge of cavalry at your defending general, it now uses feints, is much better at defending, and luring units away from its front lines isn’t quite as easy as it usually is in a Total War game. It still isn’t great at sieges – either attacking or defending – and you will see the occasional AI hiccup every now and then but for the most part it’s an engaging game that forces you to stay on your toes and it’s hard to ask for much more than that.

Perhaps the greatest achievement in Shogun 2 is that The Creative Assembly has gone back to telling a story through its massive campaign structure. Empire felt like a sprawling game with little sense of direction. Shogun 2 is the polar opposite. Yes, it’s a huge game and there are a ton of moving parts but the campaign does a tremendous job of telling the story of your clan’s struggle for dominance.

This is done via the skills and traits acquired by leaders, heroes, wives and daughters as well as each special unit such as ninja, metsuke (secret police) and monks. Your family tree is front and center and you can see your bloodline as your Daimyo ages throughout the course of a campaign. The real kicker is the campaign timeline which allows you to read back and study the important events that transpired from beginning to end – the clans that die off and then resurface, religious rebellions that broke out, treaties that were broken and battles that were won and lost. It gives the campaign a fantastic sense of place and you get the feeling that you have created your own sense of history. After playing one long campaign, I spent a lot of time simply looking back at the timeline, remembering events that happened several real life days ago. “Oh, wow, yeah, that rebellion was a game changer.” It’s a small touch but an appreciated one.

I was hoping for a meaty single player experience from Shogun 2 and that’s exactly what I got in return but what I didn’t expect, and what still amazes me, is that the game has also delivered a stunningly brilliant multiplayer mode – for the first time ever in a Total War game.

In the first section, dubbed Avatar Conquest, you create your Shogun avatar and build a small army and start in a single province (each starting point provides a particular unit specialty) and you begin conquering Japan one province at a time, earning achievements, new units, new traits and skills and decking out your avatar with gameplay laced items such as funky hats and cool looking armor. The design even allows for detailed clan formation so you and your buddies can tackle this challenge together. You can spend weeks playing this mode and collection junkies will be drawn in hook, line and sinker.

In addition to Avatar Conquest, the game allows other players to drop in on your single player battles, if you wish, to take the AI out of the equation. However, the real show stopper is the inclusion of co-op multiplayer. Always a tricky subject when talking about a Total War game, the developer finally nailed down a way to pull this off.

It works like this: you and a friend take two different, allied clans, and take turns as normal. However, when either of you get into a fight you have this handy “share” button which allows you to split your armies in half so both players get to take part in the battle, which provides a lot of tense and sometimes hilarious scenarios. There’s very little down time in a co-op campaign game as you’re either taking your own turn or helping your allied partner in a battle or vice versa. The entire multiplayer suite in Shogun 2 is magnificent and fans of the Total War series who normally stick to single player are doing themselves a disservice.

Either playing solo, with friends or against them, Shogun 2 is the pinnacle of the Total War series. This is how you pay homage to a brilliant game that started a franchise, and I wouldn’t be upset after seeing what the developer has done here if we saw remakes of Rome or even another Medieval Total War. Whichever direction The Creative Assembly manages to go, I am officially back on the bandwagon.

This review is from William Abner of GameShark. I posted it as a test for blogs that we should soon be posting for everybody.