Hey folks! Long time no see, eh? Well, I sure wish that you know that I'm posting regularly on my website, http://www.perdiv.com! And on my twitter, http://twitter.com/caffeinegamer!
Be sure to check those out if you want more regular updates.
So, since I'm here, I'm here to talk about video games, right? I sure am. I'm here to tell you What's Up this month.
Unless you just arrived here in modern time from a hundred years in the past or so, you've probably heard of L.A. Noire. The crime investigation adventure game from Team Bondi and Rockstar that boasts the largest credits list for cast of characters in a video game yet. One of its selling points is that the team used a new facial scanning technique for capturing the actors' faces down to the smallest detail, and it looks amazing.
But it's so much more than just a facial scanning technology showcase. It's a game that's been in development for many years and the attention to detail is stunning. The writing is, for most part, excellent, and there are lots of interesting cases and characters.
I finished the game just yesterday, so I'll have a review for it up and running hopefully within a month after this post, so keep a lookout for that!
Of course, since Portal 2 was released just recently, I should get a review up for that too. I have so many things to say about that game, so much praise and love for it, but I'll keep that for another time. Gotta pack up my laptop now, work day's over!
Remember to check out my website and Twitter for more frequent updates, and keep your eyes peeled for reviews on hopefully both Portal 2 and L.A. Noire.
Until then!
Marcus out.
Showing posts with label Gaming Related. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Gaming Related. Show all posts
2011-06-16
2009-10-11
Coming Soon!
It'll be up a lot later than I anticipated, as I did play through it just over a week after first getting it. The point is that the review is really and finally on its way, very soon!
Get Psyched!
/Marcus out.
2009-07-17
Far Cry 2 - Review
Without doubt, the original Far Cry for the PC was the prime example of next generation graphics technology in 2004. At the time of its release, it more or less defined the term 'realistic graphics', as gamers across the world witnessed the stunning beauty of the tropical island shooter. Sure, it was not nearly as impressive story-wise as it was with the visuals, but overall, it was an enjoyable action game.
A few spin-offs and pseudo-sequels later, four years later, to be exact, the true sequel to the hit FPS finally arrived, appropriately named Far Cry 2. It differs a lot from it's older brother and doesn't carry the original story onwards. It's more like an adopted child in the sense that the only relation it has to its siblings is the tropical, warm, sunny and partially aqueous setting.
An example of the impressive scenery in Far Cry 2. Developers went to Africa to do some research for the game, and it really shows.
Far Cry 2 puts you in the middle of an unnamed African country, right in the heat of the on-going civil war between the two factions; the APR (Alliance for Popular Resistance) and the UFLL (United Front for Liberation and Labour.) After having gone through the mandatory introduction to your, once again, visually stunning surroundings (about equally as stunning to us today as Far Cry was to us in 2004), you're thrown into the heat of the conflict. The conflict itself is rather complicated, two sides of differing opinions against each other, both resorting to making their statements through firepower. Though not based directly on any real war, the story is very believable and could very well happen in the real world. The development team has clearly taken inspiration from ongoing conflicts in Africa today, and have successfully managed to paint a realistic scenario to the player.
Your role in the war starts out as a pretty straight forward mission, which proves much harder to accomplish than you may first imagine. Your mission is to get to a mysterious man, colloquially described as the "bastard that armed both sides", also known by the alias 'the Jackal', and finish him off. You can pick from twelve different characters, with different background stories (which do not affect the story, it more serves as a means to enhance the relation between you and your one-man/woman-army avatar) and, of course, with different appearances, which shows in game. Which character you choose also affects which buddies you'll acquire throughout the game (since it choses from the other eleven characters.)
Your buddies serve as a sort of personalized last chance before being treated to the game over-screen. If at least one of them is labeled as 'rescue-ready' when you've taken enough hits to bring you down for the count, your stalwart mate will come to your aid, getting you back up on your feet and helping you out with the remaining bad guys. They're sort of the Far Cry 2-equivalent to the bottled fairies in the Zelda-series, if not even more helpful, as they carry guns.
But your loyal friends aren't always the helpful savior. During most of the main missions, the most loyal of your two partners will call you on your cell phone and ask you to take a detour to your main objective. At first, it seems no more than fair to do as your friend asks, even though it often means you'll have to take a sometimes unneccesarily long detour. Eventually though, you'll get tired of him/her always asking you to 'do this for me' before you 'do that for them', which negatively impacts on the bonding between you as a player and your virtual comrade.
The map and GPS item will be used almost as often as your firearms. You'll need them navigate the large, open world, and to find hidden diamonds along the way.
Unlike its predecessor, this game takes place in an open world, with the freedom to go where you please, within the boundaries of the map, of course. The tropical game world boasts an incredible fifty square kilometer map, so there's plenty of room to move around, and the enivronment has obviously been designed with the concept of alternate routes in mind. Most of the time, there's another way to advance to your chosen objective than the most obvious one. Usually this other route will prove less painful to take, as it often involves you choosing the path with fewer guard posts along the way.
The map size is definetly of large proportions, and to just hike or swim across the landscape would take way too much time and would also make the game boring very quickly. Thankfully, there are plenty of vehicles around that you can use. There are motor boats, off-road machine gun-equipped cars, hang gliders, dune buggies, generic cars and Jeeps. Jeeps as in the actual brand Jeep, with silver emblem on the front and all.
Though very useful to get to your goal quicker, vehicles have a tendency to break down very quickly, forcing you to whip out your trusty wrench to tighten some bolts. After that, you're good to go again. Not a very realistic way to fix an almost burning car, but it contributes with a nice effect to it, visualizing the process of the vehicle repairing instead of just showing a progress bar or something alike.
Although your main missions involves taking assignments from both sides, whichever side you're currently working for will still attack you. This basically means that even if you work with the APR on a mission to thwart the UFLL's plans, and there's plenty of APR soldiers involved as well, they'll still be turning their gun sights towards you. Your employers fend this behaviour off as you being hired for the mission undercover, so no one except the people sitting on their butts in the offices know that you're with them. In the start, it comes off as a lazy, in-game excuse for not coding allied behaviour into the generic soldiers' AI, but eventually, though perhaps reluctantly, you come to accept your place in the war as a lone wolf.
Taking screenshots in the heat of battle (without godmode) is about as hard as snapping photos of running animals with a cruddy camera, in real life, that is. If you squint, you can see some blood.
Aside from the story-advancing main missions, there are also various side missions that you can take on. These involves missions given by gun shop owners (usually involves destroying a shipment), the underground missions (to deliver passports to civilian escapees in exchange for medicine against malaria, a sickness which you've contracted and have to occasionally take pills against), and assassination missions, assigned to you by an unknown employer, who's presumably the same guy every time, since he says the same thing in the same tone for every mission. Sometimes, you'll be forced to take on underground missions, if your supply of pills has run out.
Although they contribute with a bit of variety over the main missions, the formula is essentially the same. You need to get from point A to point B in order to complete the mission, taking care of whatever obstacles may be in your way (such as guard posts.) Side missions don't involve your best buddy asking you for favours however, so the objectives are usually more straight forward and simple. The downside is that, other than granting you access to buy better weapons (gun shop missions), getting more medicine (underground missions) and stashing up with a supply of the game's currency, diamonds (assassination missions), the side missions don't increase the figures on your percentual game completion progress.
While the underground missions are purely there for your survival, the assassination and gun shipment sabotage missions are there to compensate for one another. Sometimes you'll need additional diamonds other than those earned during main missions, to pay for the weapons that were recently unlocked to you during your assignment from the gun shop owner. You get these extra diamonds from the assassination missions, and thus it grants all mission types a sense of importance.
One of many weapon storage rooms. In these, you can pick up a fresh new weapon from the ones you've purchased. You can also get more ammunition and grenades/molotovs.
Far Cry 2 sports an impressive and fun arsenal of weapons. While missions might become samey from time to time, you can make them slightly different by using different weapons. Depending on what primary, secondary and special weapons you combine, you can either make a sneaky approach towards your target, or you can select all automatic weapons and go completly insane on everything that comes between you and your objective.
However, to avoid rendering your character an invincible superhuman, aside from the usual ammunition depletion, your fun sometimes comes to an abrupt end when your favourite gun starts jamming. This usually happens if you've been using your trusty rifle for a bit too long, or if you've picked up a used weapon. The used weapons usually are in very bad condition and you'll constantly find yourself looking for some temporary shelter to hide behind while you unjam the gun. Eventually, if you've really been using your gun for too long, it'll blow up in your face. This rarely happens however, as there are plenty of gun shops to exchange your rusty old rifles at.
While being an effective element to add further to the game's sense of realism, weapons do have a tendency to jam at the most unfortunate times.
Another element that adds to the realism, and can be of either great use or of great despair to you, is the dynamic fire in the game. Using either a flamethrower, a flare gun, a molotov or blowing something flammable up, you can set your surroundings on fire. The effect is quite impressive and the flames spread around even more if the weather is windy.
The dynamic weather and day/night system in the game, while not being particularly unique, is used really well, and partially affects the enemies' perception and alertness. For example, if you attack a guard post at night, they might have more trouble seeing you from far away, even if they are more alert than during the day. In the light of the day, however, enemies spot you more easily but may not be as alert to do so as they are during the night.
The weather cycles between different states smoothly. Though most of the days it'll be sunny and bright, sometimes there might be a heavy storm or even rain.
One of the later missions in the game takes place at a small airport. You'll meet with pretty heavy resistance, especially in the last few missions.
During the course of the story, the game forces you on occasions to pick one side over the other. These rather tough moral decisions happen at the more major turning points in the game, often pulling you further in, in terms of immersion. Had the game's title been decorated with the word 'betrayal', then it would've certainly lived up to its name. On several occasions, you're backstabbed by the people you've been helping out for a long while, or by the people that've been helping you out. It's used quite a few times, but in an unpredictable and irregular pattern.
Eventually, you'll come to your long awaited goal, only to find that you won't be doing what you had planned to do from the beggining. Another successful plot twist.
The final mission serves as a rather powerful climax before toning down to the calmer ending. Unfortunately though, the curve of excitement from the last mission to the ending sequence isn't just steep, it practically goes straight down, hitting rock bottom. It is a realistic outcome for the conflict, but it's a rather disappointing ending, leaving much less of a reward for your hard work than you had hoped for.
Far Cry 2 is by no means a perfect, flawless game. Though relatively bug free, it suffers more from minimal design flaws and, as mentioned, a rather disappointing ending. The good sides however, namely the very impressive and beautiful scenery, fun and well balanced gameplay and small yet colorful variety of its elements, make it one of the best games of last year, getting in pretty close behind Fallout 3. With nearly an entire day's hours worth of main mission gameplay on the harder difficulties, it's definetly a game worth picking up and playing, if you haven't done so already. It's well worth its money, even for the collector's edition, and probably ranks among the top of my personal favorites in the FPS genre.
/Marcus out.
Far Cry 2 is the copyright work of Ubisoft®. The expressed opinions in this review are mine, and are not related to Ubisoft® in any way. Pictures used in this review are used as means to illustrate the look and feel of the game, and none of the content I've provided (text and images) are meant to harm the company in any way. It's merely a statement of opinions, and should be regarded as such.
2009-03-11
Don't F.E.A.R. the Reaper
Welcome back to the blog, myself. Why, thank you, myself!
And welcome to the readers, welcome to another post about gaming and whatever else comes to my mind (not a whole lot else, I must say.)
As you probably get from the obvious reference in the title, this post's gonna be about F.E.A.R. 2, which I recently got a hold of and played through pretty soon after. If I say I'm a usually slow gamer when it comes to finishing them and at the same time mention that I had finished Monolith's most recent bloodfest within two weeks after I got it, you can guess that it's pretty short. It's not rare that a lot of big titles are lacking in length these days, still it's better to end the fun while it's still fun and not have it end with the player loudly shouting in joy that it's finally over.
Anyhow, let's skip on back to the topic. F.E.A.R. 2 : Project Origin is the true sequel to the 2005 title F.E.A.R., which gained wide attention and praise for its intense and fast action, its shiny, sexy graphics and the über amount of gore and blood. Since then the hit FPS has received two expansions, Extraction Point and Perseus Mandate, of which neither I've actually played. From what I've heard, they're pretty much the same as the original game, save for a few new weapons and new levels, of course.
F.E.A.R. 2 differs a lot more from its origin than the expansions seemed to. You no longer play as the anonymous 'point man' from the first installment, instead you play as (the awfully quite) Michael Becket, who's part of a special ops team sent out to find Genevieve Aristide before the Armachan black ops kill her (she's seen too much, basically.) It proves a bit trickier than expected, but your team deals with it nice and smooth. Soon after having retrieved Aristide, the event from the ending in F.E.A.R. occurs. The majority of the remainder of the game takes place in the ruins left behind by the operation at the Armacham facility and that's when the story really takes off.
The game engine has had a pretty nice overhaul, showcasing some very interesting visual effects such as the more common motion blur effects as well as some new ghost effects. Monolith have also become better at using the physics engine to produce some eerie atmospherical effects.
The enemies are pretty much the same as they are in F.E.A.R. You've got the usual cop-like-dressed forces that try to stop everyone who's seen anything related to Armacham's experiments and, of course, the replicated soldiers. The gameplay has been expanded with the addition of the occasional (and actually not-so-annoying) quick time events and a bad-ass power armor that you get into every now and then and literally blow the shit out of everything in sight.
Overall, I liked the game and found it a worthy addition to the F.E.A.R.-universe. It had the elements that I liked about its predecessor and added some nifty little details and things to enhance what was feeling a bit aged in the original in comparsion to today's standards. Though, it was unfortunately rather short and it wasn't exactly as spectacular graphically as the first one was when it came, not that I think graphics matter much though, but you get the picture. One thing that comes to mind that I thought would've been improved was the shadows. It becomes more common that games use soft shadows instead of the hard-edged, unfiltered stencil shadows, which F.E.A.R. 2 still uses, but it's not exactly a huge atmosphere-killer.
I'd recommand any fan of the first game to go and grab this worthy sequel, despite its lack of length and mere surface depth in terms of the storyline and how it's told. It's a fun and bloody action shooter with a cool gameplay twist (the slo-mo effect/reflex implant) and an interesting continuation to its elder sibling. For those who haven't tried the first one out either, I'd recommend getting F.E.A.R. 2's collector's edition. Not only do you get the sequel in a fancy case, you also get the first game as a bonus. Yay!
Well, I guess that's all for now. Sorry I kept it strictly to the review, but I'm way too unfocused to type some random rambling right now. Stay tuned till next month or so, for another oh-so-exciting (sarcasm much?) addition to the blog. Thanks for reading!
Until next time...
/Marcus out.
And welcome to the readers, welcome to another post about gaming and whatever else comes to my mind (not a whole lot else, I must say.)
As you probably get from the obvious reference in the title, this post's gonna be about F.E.A.R. 2, which I recently got a hold of and played through pretty soon after. If I say I'm a usually slow gamer when it comes to finishing them and at the same time mention that I had finished Monolith's most recent bloodfest within two weeks after I got it, you can guess that it's pretty short. It's not rare that a lot of big titles are lacking in length these days, still it's better to end the fun while it's still fun and not have it end with the player loudly shouting in joy that it's finally over.
Anyhow, let's skip on back to the topic. F.E.A.R. 2 : Project Origin is the true sequel to the 2005 title F.E.A.R., which gained wide attention and praise for its intense and fast action, its shiny, sexy graphics and the über amount of gore and blood. Since then the hit FPS has received two expansions, Extraction Point and Perseus Mandate, of which neither I've actually played. From what I've heard, they're pretty much the same as the original game, save for a few new weapons and new levels, of course.
F.E.A.R. 2 differs a lot more from its origin than the expansions seemed to. You no longer play as the anonymous 'point man' from the first installment, instead you play as (the awfully quite) Michael Becket, who's part of a special ops team sent out to find Genevieve Aristide before the Armachan black ops kill her (she's seen too much, basically.) It proves a bit trickier than expected, but your team deals with it nice and smooth. Soon after having retrieved Aristide, the event from the ending in F.E.A.R. occurs. The majority of the remainder of the game takes place in the ruins left behind by the operation at the Armacham facility and that's when the story really takes off.
The game engine has had a pretty nice overhaul, showcasing some very interesting visual effects such as the more common motion blur effects as well as some new ghost effects. Monolith have also become better at using the physics engine to produce some eerie atmospherical effects.
The enemies are pretty much the same as they are in F.E.A.R. You've got the usual cop-like-dressed forces that try to stop everyone who's seen anything related to Armacham's experiments and, of course, the replicated soldiers. The gameplay has been expanded with the addition of the occasional (and actually not-so-annoying) quick time events and a bad-ass power armor that you get into every now and then and literally blow the shit out of everything in sight.
Overall, I liked the game and found it a worthy addition to the F.E.A.R.-universe. It had the elements that I liked about its predecessor and added some nifty little details and things to enhance what was feeling a bit aged in the original in comparsion to today's standards. Though, it was unfortunately rather short and it wasn't exactly as spectacular graphically as the first one was when it came, not that I think graphics matter much though, but you get the picture. One thing that comes to mind that I thought would've been improved was the shadows. It becomes more common that games use soft shadows instead of the hard-edged, unfiltered stencil shadows, which F.E.A.R. 2 still uses, but it's not exactly a huge atmosphere-killer.
I'd recommand any fan of the first game to go and grab this worthy sequel, despite its lack of length and mere surface depth in terms of the storyline and how it's told. It's a fun and bloody action shooter with a cool gameplay twist (the slo-mo effect/reflex implant) and an interesting continuation to its elder sibling. For those who haven't tried the first one out either, I'd recommend getting F.E.A.R. 2's collector's edition. Not only do you get the sequel in a fancy case, you also get the first game as a bonus. Yay!
Well, I guess that's all for now. Sorry I kept it strictly to the review, but I'm way too unfocused to type some random rambling right now. Stay tuned till next month or so, for another oh-so-exciting (sarcasm much?) addition to the blog. Thanks for reading!
Until next time...
/Marcus out.
2009-02-16
The Dead Will Walk the Earth
If anyone one of you frequents the main page of the Steam store, you'll probably have noticed that they had a weekend (now extended til' tuesday) sale on Left 4 Dead, the zombie outbreak/survival/shootfest of the century. If not for all time, there haven't been too many zombie shooter games before that I know of.
I decided that this would be the time to take the full version out for a spin, and I definetly don't regret the purchase. Though I haven't even played the campaign online with friends yet, it's so worth the money. I tried co-op briefly at my brother's though, and it was great fun.
And it's actually sort of creepy, especially the witches. Somehow, I always manage to startle them, and they hunt me down and nearly beat the shit out of my ass. Fucking witches.
I also got ahold of FEAR 2. Hell yeah! Being the collectorist-whore that I am (whoa-hey, a new word!), I purchased the Limited Edition, of course. Comes in a nice, fancy steelbook case. And the game is great as well, of course. It hasn't managed to properly scare me yet, but the feeling of suspense and mystery is great. It's so well-made that it almost annoys me, in a good way, of course.
Ah well, that's all for now. I guess the next post will be in around next month. If I continue this monthly posting, I'm just two posts away from the blog's first anniversary. Not that anyone cares, but I just noticed.
Until next time; get smarter, game more!
P.S. Oh yeah, new logo design. Just temporary, but the color scheme is a bit more neutral to ye olde eyeballs now. Hope you like it!
/Marcus out.
I decided that this would be the time to take the full version out for a spin, and I definetly don't regret the purchase. Though I haven't even played the campaign online with friends yet, it's so worth the money. I tried co-op briefly at my brother's though, and it was great fun.
And it's actually sort of creepy, especially the witches. Somehow, I always manage to startle them, and they hunt me down and nearly beat the shit out of my ass. Fucking witches.
I also got ahold of FEAR 2. Hell yeah! Being the collectorist-whore that I am (whoa-hey, a new word!), I purchased the Limited Edition, of course. Comes in a nice, fancy steelbook case. And the game is great as well, of course. It hasn't managed to properly scare me yet, but the feeling of suspense and mystery is great. It's so well-made that it almost annoys me, in a good way, of course.
Ah well, that's all for now. I guess the next post will be in around next month. If I continue this monthly posting, I'm just two posts away from the blog's first anniversary. Not that anyone cares, but I just noticed.
Until next time; get smarter, game more!
P.S. Oh yeah, new logo design. Just temporary, but the color scheme is a bit more neutral to ye olde eyeballs now. Hope you like it!
/Marcus out.
2009-01-23
About those "video games"...
After another good while of quite and absence of posting, I return once again. Yup, it's that time of the... uh, well, sometime. It's blogging time anyway.
As some of you may have noticed, the FEAR 2: Project Origin-demo has been released on Steam. I downloaded it the moment I saw the advertisement. Shit, I've been looking forward to the true sequel since I completed the first one (without the expansions, haven't yet tried them.)
Although the game-gasm was very short, even a little short in demo-terms, it was truly fucking enjoyable. I'm very confident that it will be the game to admire and adore in these damp winter times that we have to reluctantly endure. Hell, it might even be the best we'll see until fall this year, 'cause everyone knows that's when most of the big titles come. Thankfully though, Monolith have decided to give us the full gory funfest that is FEAR 2 already in February.
My apologies for the lack of an Absence-review as I believe I previously promised. It will come though. I'll also write my thoughts down on Fallout 3 and Far Cry 2 as soon as I'm done with them. Though I am technically done and through with Fallout 3, I want to scavenge the wastes some more before I pass final judgement to words in this blog of mine. But I'll admit that there's barely the slightest nitpicky, minor flaw to point out with Bethesda's ambitious successor to the awarded series. I've not been this attached to a game for long, if ever.
Of course, I purchased the collector's edition for it. I've considered getting one of the Pip Boy 3000 digital clock replicas as well, but I eventually decided against it, as it does have a hefty price tag, even for being one of the coolest (and nerdiest) collectibles I've ever seen.
Anyhow, that'll have to be enough for now. I think I'll be off for another walk in the wastes that I hold so dear. Either that, or I'll go sadistically driving into zebras in Far Cry 2.
Oh, one more thing, a cheer to america's new (and probably greatest ever) president! I just hope all those trigger-happy supremacist idiots in the states leave him alone.
That is all, until next... hm, well, let's say next month, at latest?
/Marcus out.
As some of you may have noticed, the FEAR 2: Project Origin-demo has been released on Steam. I downloaded it the moment I saw the advertisement. Shit, I've been looking forward to the true sequel since I completed the first one (without the expansions, haven't yet tried them.)
Although the game-gasm was very short, even a little short in demo-terms, it was truly fucking enjoyable. I'm very confident that it will be the game to admire and adore in these damp winter times that we have to reluctantly endure. Hell, it might even be the best we'll see until fall this year, 'cause everyone knows that's when most of the big titles come. Thankfully though, Monolith have decided to give us the full gory funfest that is FEAR 2 already in February.
My apologies for the lack of an Absence-review as I believe I previously promised. It will come though. I'll also write my thoughts down on Fallout 3 and Far Cry 2 as soon as I'm done with them. Though I am technically done and through with Fallout 3, I want to scavenge the wastes some more before I pass final judgement to words in this blog of mine. But I'll admit that there's barely the slightest nitpicky, minor flaw to point out with Bethesda's ambitious successor to the awarded series. I've not been this attached to a game for long, if ever.
Of course, I purchased the collector's edition for it. I've considered getting one of the Pip Boy 3000 digital clock replicas as well, but I eventually decided against it, as it does have a hefty price tag, even for being one of the coolest (and nerdiest) collectibles I've ever seen.
Anyhow, that'll have to be enough for now. I think I'll be off for another walk in the wastes that I hold so dear. Either that, or I'll go sadistically driving into zebras in Far Cry 2.
Oh, one more thing, a cheer to america's new (and probably greatest ever) president! I just hope all those trigger-happy supremacist idiots in the states leave him alone.
That is all, until next... hm, well, let's say next month, at latest?
/Marcus out.
2008-12-21
Let it Snow
Short and sweet, those are the keywords.
Remember me mentioning The Grail of Eternal Life, a Spear of Destiny-mod that me and Havoc made some years ago that's getting a complete overhaul for the better? Sure you do, or else I'll be angry. And you don't want me to become angry, really.
Anyhow, I've uploaded a christmasy/wintery trailer for it, to show that it's still alive, and going really steady. Over the last three weeks, the mod's been ported to Wolf4SDL (thanks Havoc!) and around four more maps have been made. That's incredible, considering that over the near two years before that, the mod's progress has been incredibly slow, going at a map per every six months or so. It looks like it'll see the light of the day already next year, if all goes well *wink*!
Check out the trailer at YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4I0h4l7Jv4g
That's all for now, happy holidays!
/Marcus out.
Remember me mentioning The Grail of Eternal Life, a Spear of Destiny-mod that me and Havoc made some years ago that's getting a complete overhaul for the better? Sure you do, or else I'll be angry. And you don't want me to become angry, really.
Anyhow, I've uploaded a christmasy/wintery trailer for it, to show that it's still alive, and going really steady. Over the last three weeks, the mod's been ported to Wolf4SDL (thanks Havoc!) and around four more maps have been made. That's incredible, considering that over the near two years before that, the mod's progress has been incredibly slow, going at a map per every six months or so. It looks like it'll see the light of the day already next year, if all goes well *wink*!
Check out the trailer at YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4I0h4l7Jv4g
That's all for now, happy holidays!
/Marcus out.
2008-12-18
We Are Next.
Prey was released just over two years ago, but had been in development for several years before that, I think it might've been ten even. But don't quote me on it.
Prey was originall designed and developed by 3D Realms, you know, the guys behind the infamous and commonly ridiculed vaporware-title Duke Nukem Forever, but after some years, Humanhead Studios took over the development. 3D Realms were still involved with the production of the game though.
Prey takes place in modernish time, at a pub somewhere in a native American reservation in Oklahoma. As usual, you play the good guy; a garage mechanic named Tommy, who's not particularly fascinated by his cherokee heritage. His girlfriend, Jen, is a bit more interested however, but neither her nor Tommy's grandfather can convince him about the importance of his heritage. He'd rather move out to the big cities and live like everyone else. At the night of the frightening event, which will later be explained, Jen is working at the bar and Tommy and his grandfather are also there, as well as two fellows who've had a few drinks too many. After having a quick and easy fight with the rude drunks, things start to happen. Bad things, of course. Without spoiling too much, the three of them, Tommy, Jen and Tommy's grandfather, are abducted and brought to a peculiar alien vessel of some sort, called the Sphere.
Prey is quite famous for it's twisting and turning of gravity in real-time. It's been seen a few times since, in games like Super Mario Galaxy. Portals similar to those found in Valve's Portal (nifty name, huh?) can also be seen throughout the game, and both these elements play a big part in the game's fun and unique gameplay. Another interesting element is the spirit form, which is neccesary to change to in some situations. It keeps the gameplay from becoming dull running and gunning and the fact that you cannot really die but instead go to a spirit realm where you shoot down lost spirits in order to regain your spirit power and physical health keeps you from frustratingly beating the shit out of your keyboard.
Story-wise, the game is still really good, but the storyline seems a bit mediocre at first. Average, working people get abducted by aliens with laser weapons, but don't worry, it builds up and gets a lot more interesting as it progresses.
The plot involves a few minor twists and turns, and about seven tenths through the game, the main objective and motivation for our hero Tommy changes. He also develops as a person through the game and the relation between you as a player and your virtual cherokee avatar make a pretty steady bond, but it doesn't go quite the whole way, which might be because of the game's length, or moreso lack of it.
This is one of the game's weak points, which prevents it from being as fantastic and enticing an adventure as I imagine it could be. Some might argue that the id Tech 4-engine is a bit outdated to today's standards, but the amazing design makes up for whatever the engine lacks in nifty physics and advanced shaders.
Overall, it's a great game and I recommend anyone to buy it, since you can find it real cheap in stores today. I'm hoping to see a sequel soon, to compensate for the rather short alien-slaughter experience that it was. Hopefully, any sequel will not take as long to come out as the original title did. Wether or not it was worth the wait, I cannot answer, as I heard of it just some months before its release, but it sure deserves the positive comments that the front cover's been decorated with.
That's all for this time, over and..!
/Marcus out.
Prey was originall designed and developed by 3D Realms, you know, the guys behind the infamous and commonly ridiculed vaporware-title Duke Nukem Forever, but after some years, Humanhead Studios took over the development. 3D Realms were still involved with the production of the game though.
Prey takes place in modernish time, at a pub somewhere in a native American reservation in Oklahoma. As usual, you play the good guy; a garage mechanic named Tommy, who's not particularly fascinated by his cherokee heritage. His girlfriend, Jen, is a bit more interested however, but neither her nor Tommy's grandfather can convince him about the importance of his heritage. He'd rather move out to the big cities and live like everyone else. At the night of the frightening event, which will later be explained, Jen is working at the bar and Tommy and his grandfather are also there, as well as two fellows who've had a few drinks too many. After having a quick and easy fight with the rude drunks, things start to happen. Bad things, of course. Without spoiling too much, the three of them, Tommy, Jen and Tommy's grandfather, are abducted and brought to a peculiar alien vessel of some sort, called the Sphere.
Prey is quite famous for it's twisting and turning of gravity in real-time. It's been seen a few times since, in games like Super Mario Galaxy. Portals similar to those found in Valve's Portal (nifty name, huh?) can also be seen throughout the game, and both these elements play a big part in the game's fun and unique gameplay. Another interesting element is the spirit form, which is neccesary to change to in some situations. It keeps the gameplay from becoming dull running and gunning and the fact that you cannot really die but instead go to a spirit realm where you shoot down lost spirits in order to regain your spirit power and physical health keeps you from frustratingly beating the shit out of your keyboard.
Story-wise, the game is still really good, but the storyline seems a bit mediocre at first. Average, working people get abducted by aliens with laser weapons, but don't worry, it builds up and gets a lot more interesting as it progresses.
The plot involves a few minor twists and turns, and about seven tenths through the game, the main objective and motivation for our hero Tommy changes. He also develops as a person through the game and the relation between you as a player and your virtual cherokee avatar make a pretty steady bond, but it doesn't go quite the whole way, which might be because of the game's length, or moreso lack of it.
This is one of the game's weak points, which prevents it from being as fantastic and enticing an adventure as I imagine it could be. Some might argue that the id Tech 4-engine is a bit outdated to today's standards, but the amazing design makes up for whatever the engine lacks in nifty physics and advanced shaders.
Overall, it's a great game and I recommend anyone to buy it, since you can find it real cheap in stores today. I'm hoping to see a sequel soon, to compensate for the rather short alien-slaughter experience that it was. Hopefully, any sequel will not take as long to come out as the original title did. Wether or not it was worth the wait, I cannot answer, as I heard of it just some months before its release, but it sure deserves the positive comments that the front cover's been decorated with.
That's all for this time, over and..!
/Marcus out.
2008-09-28
I Am...
Long time no see, huh? Well, technically, I can't possibly physically see my readers, although I could meet them after having finished a post. So, well... Ah, nevermind.
This time around, I'll try to keep it strictly to game-related stuff, since that's what this blog was mainly to be about. First, I'd like to mention a Spear of Destiny-modification called Absence. I was in the dev-team as tester, sort of, and graphics artist. I made a few sprites and sprite modifications for it. My friend from Germany, who goes under the web-alias Havoc was the project leader, and responsible for pretty much everything that made the mod to the interesting new experience that it is. If you're a fan of and know how to handle old DOS games, you should check the mod out. For the comfort of those interested, here's a link to the news section of the Wolfenstein 3D Dome; just click.
What else, well, I've been playing the S.T.A.L.K.E.R.-series a lot lately, mainly Shadow of Chernobyl, which I recently finished, and of course the sequel/prequel, Clear Sky. They're both great and interesting games, and the freedom to explore a seemingly infinite landscape of anomaly and monster infested land makes up for every little nitpicky flaw the games have.
Expect reviews of both Absence and the S.T.A.L.K.E.R.-games to end up here sometime, although I wouldn't count on them popping up in the near future.
Well, seems my mind is trying to tell me that there isn't much else to say/type for now, so I guess it'll be a relatively short post this time. One last thing though, as some audiences from Sweden might know, Idol has started. That's right, I watch that shit. I don't know if I should feel bad about it or not, but it's actually entertaining at times. There's two contestants, or should I say; artists, in particular that stand out slightly from the others, which I like. It's a bit more varied now with the new judges/jury, since they seem to have taken the whole concept of what an idol is with a wider view, and not just accepting potential pop idols. Overall, the show has had a refreshment for the better. I won't be calling in any votes, since it costs like a buck for every vote you call in, but I'll keep my fingers crossed for some of the more interesting ones.
That's about it, apologies for the lack of any interesting content whatsoever, save for mentioning Absence, of course. Download it. Now. Please?
/Marcus out.
This time around, I'll try to keep it strictly to game-related stuff, since that's what this blog was mainly to be about. First, I'd like to mention a Spear of Destiny-modification called Absence. I was in the dev-team as tester, sort of, and graphics artist. I made a few sprites and sprite modifications for it. My friend from Germany, who goes under the web-alias Havoc was the project leader, and responsible for pretty much everything that made the mod to the interesting new experience that it is. If you're a fan of and know how to handle old DOS games, you should check the mod out. For the comfort of those interested, here's a link to the news section of the Wolfenstein 3D Dome; just click.
What else, well, I've been playing the S.T.A.L.K.E.R.-series a lot lately, mainly Shadow of Chernobyl, which I recently finished, and of course the sequel/prequel, Clear Sky. They're both great and interesting games, and the freedom to explore a seemingly infinite landscape of anomaly and monster infested land makes up for every little nitpicky flaw the games have.
Expect reviews of both Absence and the S.T.A.L.K.E.R.-games to end up here sometime, although I wouldn't count on them popping up in the near future.
Well, seems my mind is trying to tell me that there isn't much else to say/type for now, so I guess it'll be a relatively short post this time. One last thing though, as some audiences from Sweden might know, Idol has started. That's right, I watch that shit. I don't know if I should feel bad about it or not, but it's actually entertaining at times. There's two contestants, or should I say; artists, in particular that stand out slightly from the others, which I like. It's a bit more varied now with the new judges/jury, since they seem to have taken the whole concept of what an idol is with a wider view, and not just accepting potential pop idols. Overall, the show has had a refreshment for the better. I won't be calling in any votes, since it costs like a buck for every vote you call in, but I'll keep my fingers crossed for some of the more interesting ones.
That's about it, apologies for the lack of any interesting content whatsoever, save for mentioning Absence, of course. Download it. Now. Please?
/Marcus out.
2008-04-15
Eight Melodies
Just dropping in to say that I've just recently spent a total of 220 american bucks for a complete copy of EarthBound for the Super Nintendo (of which 40 dollars' shipping.)
If you know the game and its high value among collectors and fans, you'll know it's not easy to find it in such a condition, with what I think is intact scratch n' sniffs.
But if you're not much into the game, maybe not at all, you'll be thinking I'm complete nuts for spending so much on a video game.
But ah, I say! It is one of the very best games I've ever played, it looks innocent enough for a youngster to play, but if you truly understand it, it plays with your mind in a manner I've never experienced a game doing to me, ever. With years of development on its neck, it shows as one of the most well-made games to date. Some über-programmers over at a fan-site were astonished by the way the Escargo Express delivery man managed to find a route around to the player when there was only just enough spaces to squeeze through the maze-like pattern around the player.
Call me a fan-boy, call me a nerd, call me fucking crazy, but I love this game.
But I'll have to live rather cheap the following weeks. A worthy sacrifice to have the golden snitch of console games sitting in your lap in a few weeks from now, waiting to be taken care of.
/Marcus out.
If you know the game and its high value among collectors and fans, you'll know it's not easy to find it in such a condition, with what I think is intact scratch n' sniffs.
But if you're not much into the game, maybe not at all, you'll be thinking I'm complete nuts for spending so much on a video game.
But ah, I say! It is one of the very best games I've ever played, it looks innocent enough for a youngster to play, but if you truly understand it, it plays with your mind in a manner I've never experienced a game doing to me, ever. With years of development on its neck, it shows as one of the most well-made games to date. Some über-programmers over at a fan-site were astonished by the way the Escargo Express delivery man managed to find a route around to the player when there was only just enough spaces to squeeze through the maze-like pattern around the player.
Call me a fan-boy, call me a nerd, call me fucking crazy, but I love this game.
But I'll have to live rather cheap the following weeks. A worthy sacrifice to have the golden snitch of console games sitting in your lap in a few weeks from now, waiting to be taken care of.
/Marcus out.
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