It's like Fidel Castro in his Santa phase
There’s been a long running debate going through the community about the role of game demos. One side (let’s call them “consumers”) are all for them, given that they allow a chance to try a game before opening their wallet. The other side (tentatively labelled “most publishers”) usually see game demos as a threat, as they’d rather people purchase games first before discovering that they’re rubbish.
Well thankfully Haemimont Games had the forethought to offer a demo for Tropico 3, because if they hadn’t I probably would have missed this gem of a game.
Typically I’m not much of a fan of sim games. In fact the last sim game I played and really loved was the original SimCity, where I cheated so often that my cashed-up utopia was frequently crushed by Godzilla. But after countless hours of play, and several catchy calypso songs almost burned into my brain, I can honestly say that Tropico 3 has become one of my favourite games of all time.
The concept is quite simple. In Tropico 3, you take the role of El Presidente, ruler of your very own Cold War banana republic. In order to run a successful island you have to balance the happiness of your citizens with your financial and political ambitions. Sound easy? Yeah, that’s what I thought too.
Piggybacks are fine, Little Sister, just don't ask for a helicopter
The 2010 sequel season (sequelganza!) continues it’s unstoppable march with the release of 2K Games’ BioShock 2. The highly-anticipated “Deco ‘n Daddy” shooter has been a long time in the making, suffering delays in 2009 and requiring no less than five game studios to bring to fruition. Has the result proved to be worth the wait? Or does the sequel fall prey to the high expectations carried over from the original?
It’s been almost three years since we last descended into Andrew Ryan’s Rapture, and from the moment you stumble to your feet in BioShock 2, you’ll feel like you never left. In-game, however, it’s been ten years since the events of Jack Ryan’s return and Fontaine’s fall, events for which our new protagonist was, for all intensive purposes, stone dead. Subject Delta is an early model “Protector” Big Daddy, who’s line was genetically bonded to a single Little Sister to increase the effectiveness of the pairing. Delta’s Little Sister is Eleanor Lamb, daughter of Rapture’s new leader Sofia Lamb. In the game’s prologue Sofia gains control over Delta and forces him to commit suicide, reclaiming Eleanor in the process. Ten years later, Delta falls out of a Vita-Chamber and discovers that he’s regained his free will.
From here Delta must make his way back to a now teenage Eleanor and effect an escape from Rapture’s grasp. Along they way you’ll meet both new and familiar faces, and discover a whole new side of Rapture in the process.
It's arrived!
I’m Commander Stu Shepard and this is my new favourite game on the PC. Guess I just gave away the ending of this review, huh…
Regular readers* will know the original Mass Effect was my pick for game of the decade and I know I wasn’t the only one eagerly looking forward to the next installment. That’s a lot of pressure, so have Bioware cracked or have the delivered?
.
..
Relax people, they’ve delivered.
Mass Effect 2 picks up a short while after the end of the first game and there’s a new menace in the galaxy. A species known as the Collectors are attacking human settlements and it’s fallen to Commander Shepard to assemble his or her team and put a stop to it. I won’t go into detail, but the story is involving and fans of the first game won’t be disappointed.
As promised, choices you made in the original game carry over. They don’t really affect the main plot but it’s a great touch. You did keep your save games, right? Read more
No, it's not a ovary simulator...
Ever wonder what it’s like being trapped in a zero gravity atmosphere, lacking in hope and with only the tiniest amount of propulsion between you and certain death? Well, that’s not the “official” summary of Hemisphere Games’ puzzler Osmos, but that’s certainly how it felt to me during certain points of the game.
Osmos is a game based on physics and, possibly more importantly, mass. Players take control of a mote, a sort of amorphous orb, that you can propel around the game space by ejecting small amounts of it’s mass. The objective is always to become the biggest mote in the play field, which you can achieve by absorbing motes smaller than yourself. If you come into contact with a mote larger than yours, it absorbs you and if you can’t get away in time it’s game over. In this sense, Osmos could almost be described as an asset management challenge. Except of course it’s too damn good looking.
Sounds simple? It is … or at least the concept is. I was somehow lulled into a false sense of security by the games early levels, which are a relaxed affair, which led me to become unpleasantly surprised when the game cranks up the difficulty level to 11 in the higher stages. What begins as a very paced, quite elegant game in it’s beginnings, quickly managed to become a fast-paced cuss fest as soon as I’d advanced far enough.
Machinarium: A Robot Love Story
I like point and click adventures. They’re the kind of game I enjoyed when I was younger and continue to be the kind of game I feel most comfortable playing. I think what I like about them is the idea that everything on the screen is what you need to complete the task. If not, there are clues to get you through. You’re in safe territory, able to move through the game and enjoy the plot or the scenery, or both.
What a shame Machinarium, visually impressive as it is, doesn’t tick all of those boxes.
The game was developed by Czech company Amanita Designs, who put their own time and savings into making it. That alone impressed me when I first came across it. The beautiful thing about Machinarium is obviously the world they created. In a lovely sepia tone, Amanita has set up a junk planet populated by cute little robots. They frolick in oil, play music and go out their funny little lives. But there are some bad guys too, notably three bullies who are the reason for this adventure. They’ve separated two lovebots and the … well, I assume it’s the boy robot, is left in pieces on a junk heap.
From there it’s a matter of getting your bot back together and getting back into the city. In creating such a rich backdrop for the story, Amanita have decided to make only the useable items on the screen clickable and this makes sense in the first screen. It seems intuitive, with finding the pieces of the little bot easy. Read more
At least it delivers what it promises!
2009 has been a particularly popular year for the undead. If zombies were a stock, they’d be one of those shaky yet steadily earning graphs that indicate their progressive market saturation. We’ve had the big titles like Left 4 Dead 2, Resident Evil 5 (and Darkside Chronicles), Plants Vs Zombies and Dead Space: Extraction, and it seems like we’re seeing endless new independent titles such as Killing Floor, Zombie Apocalypse and I MAED A GAM3 W1TH Z0MB1ES!!! Heck, even Guybrush Threepwood has spent some time as a walking corpse over the past twelve months.
In short, while I’m a big fan of brain-eating hordes in general, to continue the slightly overwrought stock metaphor, we’re probably getting dangerously close to flooding the market here.
So now Zombie Driver, by Polish developers EXOR Studios, is another game to add to the undead collection from 2009. Although the title may suggest some kind of undead Gran Turismo type game, what you’ll actually find here is more of an early Grand Theft Auto game … with zombies.
The story is so simple as to be non-existant. There is a zombie outbreak in an un-named city, caused by a chemical company … or something. The (also un-named) player survives the initial attack by jumping inside a taxi and driving out to the city’s quarantine line, where he strikes a somewhat unlikely deal with the military to assist in the evacuation of survivors in exchange for a safe exit from the city.
LeChuck looks like he dropped a triple word score
Waking up after being buried alive in a coffin is certainly one of those iconic nightmares that can make even capsule hotel guests shiver with claustrophobic disgust. The very idea is enough to trigger a one-inch punch training montage in most people.
Spare a thought then for poor Guybrush Threepwood, Mighty Pirate, because this is exactly where you’ll begin Rise of the Pirate God, the final episode in Telltale Games’ Tales of Monkey Island. It’s a little unsettling for long-term Guybrush fans, as up until his betrayal at the hands of LeChuck (again), he’s always had something of an unkillable complex. And sure enough, true to form, you’ll soon discover that just because he’s been stabbed through the heart is no reason he can’t make his way back to the land of the living.
Pirate afterlife isn’t so bad. There’s a treasure under every X, and you’re free to fight and steal to your heart’s content. Guybrush, however, can only concentrate of Elaine. So after a little exploration, meeting up with some old friends and making some new ones, you’ll discover that making your way back from the land of the dead isn’t as hard as it might sound. After all, LeChuck treats the place a revolving door. So after a little voodoo that you do (that you do do so well), Guybrush manages to tear a hole in the Crossroads that allows his ghost passage back into the land of the living.
Unfortunately, the newly ripped portal delivers LeChuck everything he’s ever wanted on a silver platter, as he can now use Esponge Grande to draw voodoo straight out of the afterlife. Sponge thoroughly wedged, LeChuck gains almost infinite power, and so begins his rule as the Pirate God. And an undead Guybrush is the last obstacle between LeChuck and world domination.
Zombies improve everything. It's science.
It was only a short time ago we got our hands on the RPG-shooter Borderlands, and we’ve been loving it ever since. So naturally when it’s first DLC chapter, The Zombie Island of Dr. Ned, was released I automatically put up the points to buy it. Why? Well most likely because I’m a good little consumer who’s been deeply ingrained with the compulsion to hand over his money. But that aside, what’s the best way to make a great game even better? Why you add zombies, of course.
Once downloaded, the new chapter isn’t too hard to access. Jakob’s Cove, where the action takes place, can only be accessed via a New-U station’s fast travel menu. It should be noted that you can travel there before even technically activating the fast travel service in the game’s plot. I suppose this early availability is required, however, as Jakob’s Cove is a completely stand-alone area (hence the “island” part of the name), and the only way to enter is to fast travel.
Once you’ve made your way to the island, you’ll be greeted by the local Claptrap, who wants you to take care of this rather bothersome zombie apocalypse they seem to be experiencing lately. He points you in the direction of the camp’s doctor, Dr. Ned (who totally isn’t Dr. Zed, as the game keeps reminding you) and from here on inwards you’ll be up to your armpits in undead minions.
The Brotherhood of Upended Buckets welcomes you
Welcome to a new series of reviews where I (and maybe the others) go trawling the bargain bins of my local games stores to see what kind of entertainment can be had for $20 or less. We’re going to be calling these “Rewind Reviews”, reviews of games that may have previously passed you by but warrant a second look.
First in the series is a doozy – Fallout, the post-apocalyptic RPG originally released by Interplay in 1997. For some reason I never got to play it then but it sure got a lot of positive attention from others. It’s featured near the top of numerous “best games ever made” lists and it’s been highly rated by pretty much every reviewer that’s ever played it.
But how does it hold up some 12 years down the track?
I’ll get a couple of practical matters out of the way first. The version I bought (for $15) also came with Fallout 2 and the spin-off RTS game Fallout Tactics on the same disc. I won’t get into those games in this review, but suffice to say that’s some pretty sweet value. The game installs in a couple of minutes flat, it loads fast and it hasn’t had any problems running on the two XP machines I tested it on. So far so good.
Character creation is straightforward. You can either choose one of the pre-configured characters or make your own from scratch. If you go for the latter option (as I did) you’re given handy prompts explaining exactly what consequences your selections will have and you’ll have to make some careful tradeoffs (less overall damage but more critical hits, for example).
Blowing his own brains out will just save you some time later
I’ll admit to the fact that I was a little skeptical when I originally heard about Borderlands. A game that’s structured like Diablo, but plays like a first person shooter? You probably couldn’t shove the chalk any further into the cheese, as far as pitching a game is concerned.
But the art style did look fantastic, and once there were a few gameplay videos to peruse the concept became more palatable. In the end, Borderlands managed to close the deal with me by emblazoning “splitscreen co-op” on the back of the case, and that was that.
As strange as the idea sounded when I first heard it, everything clicks the moment you pick up the controller. The gameplay is simple, yet addictive, as it simultaneously appeals to both the item scrounging RPGer and headshot focused shooter fan inside nearly every gamer. If you love power-levelling and kitting out your character with the best gear you can find, then this game is for you. If you enjoy fast-paced firefights, then this game is for you.
And what backs you up in these firefights? Well the game boasts an estimated seventeen million different guns (which I believe technically qualifies as a “fuck-tonne” on the metric system). While this is certainly impressive, many people may be a little disappointed to discover that most of these seventeen million weapons are variable instances of the same gun, much in the same way that everyone used to trade different versions of their “Lapis Plate of the Wolf” in Diablo. So while there are millions upon millions of guns, they still distill down into eight or nine catagories, so don’t walk in expecting to discover a gun that shoots guns or anything equally crazy (like a certain reviewer did). Read more
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