What's Up? - Late September Edition

It's time for a new type of segment, because the blog is looking empty and lonely again!
What's Up is a quick and simple segment where I discuss current games I'm playing and up and coming games that have caught my interest/I probably will buy.

Right Now:
Aside from the constants (games that I return to at least once a month) that are currently Left 4 Dead 2 and Torchlight, I am in the progress of playing the shit out of Scott Pilgrim vs The World: The Game. It's a downloadable, retro-style, sidescrolling brawler based on the books and it's so much fun. It borrows a lot from River City Ransom/Street Gangs gameplay wise, in a very good way. It's colorful, pixellated, challenging and full of awesome references.

I'm also slowly making my way through another downloadable title, Dead Rising 2: Case Zero. It's a "small" prequel to the full product and by "small" I actually mean pretty damn big for a downloadable game. It's very well worth its surprisingly low price, so if you've got some Microsoft points to spare, don't hesitate, get it now!

Other than those two, I'm also playing Gears of War, the first Dead Rising and Amnesia: The Dark Descent. The first two are so well established that they don't really need any thorough explanation. Everyone might not be fully familiar with Amnesia, however, so I'll be my usual generous self and briefly explain what it's all about.
Amnesia is a survival horror game with an advanced physics system previously seen in Frictional's Penumbra games. You have to mimic the actual motions you would do to interact with things, like holding the left button and pulling back with the mouse in order to open a door and such. It has a great atmosphere and interesting story and the suspense will have you on edge constantly, even when you're feeling relatively safe.
Amnesia is awesome, and cheap. If you're into immersive games and being genuinely afraid, go get it on Steam now!

Coming Up:
A lot of interesting games are coming out this upcoming autumn month so there should be no worries for lack of entertainment to fill any gamers free hours. The only thing that worries me is how I'm going to afford all these games.
In order of interestingness, here are the October titles that will probably force me to eat cheap noodles for a few weeks:

• Fallout: New Vegas - This title is an absolute (I have already pre-ordered it, so.) I loved Fallout 3 and from what I've seen in the trailers and interviews on New Vegas, it seems like the best next step for the franchise.
• Medal of Honor - Danger Close is pulling an Infinity Ward on the long running Medal of Honor series, bringing the franchise from the second world war to a modern war setting, and it's looking good. The multiplayer part of the game is being developed by DICE and while it may look like a spiced up Bad Company 2 in a slightly different setting and style, it shows a lot of potential to become a fun game, both offline and online.
• The Sacrifice DLC for Left 4 Dead and Left 4 Dead 2 - How could I not be school-girl-excited for this? With Valve releasing a four part comic weekly up until the release week of the DLC, how could any sane person not be excited?
• Dead Rising 2 - Let's face it, who doesn't love butchering a bunch of zombies with a wide variety of weapons and tools? The paddlesaw is a solid enough argument on its own as to why you really should buy this bloody slaughterfest of a game.
• Castlevania: Lords of Shadow - A 3D Castlevania game that actually looks really awesome? That also features a cast of famous (and good) actors? Did I mention it's a Castlevania game? Sign me up!

There's probably another game or two that I missed mentioning, but the most interesting ones made it to the list. Hopefully I'll have something even more interesting (textually and perhaps even visually?) for the next post, stay tuned!

Blood and brainz,

/ Marcus out.

A Quick Bit

Here I come, contributing with yet another blog fart into the great cyberspace.
Just dropping by to say that I've cleaned up the blog a bit. I'm a gamer, the blog is named 'The Caffeine Gamer', and therefore, anything that was not even remotely relevant to gaming has been removed, save for a couple of posts that I felt deserved to stay.

I'm considering making a quick video review for some random game, either that or start recording a Let's Play for some short game, as a sort of pilot to see if it catches anyone's interest. Anything to fill my account on the Tube with something fresh and fun.

We'll see how that goes, I'll try to report when/if I've made up my mind.

Until then..!
/Marcus out.

A Slice of Sniper Ghost Warrior

After having to fiddle about with the demo some, it is finally here, A Slice of Sniper Ghost Warrior!

Sniper Ghost Warrior is a Chrome Engine 4-driven stealth shooter, with a not wholly unexpected emphasis on sniper rifles. Do not the let the title fool you though, this game is not about hunting the paranormal back to their graves. It's about a tropical island filled with evil redarrows that you have to avoid and/or take out tactically, complete with windy weather that affects where your bullets eventually impact with your targeted redarrow, if they even do!

You're probably thinking that 'redarrows' is a very silly name for a faction of armed-to-the-teeth baddies, but unfortunately, there's no better name to give them. The demo was scarce in information regarding who you were fighting and why. So, for the sake of having a name to go by, let's call them redarrows.

This is why we'll call them redarrows. Crumpets indeed, sir Stereotype!

The demo is short, even in terms of demo length. It consists of three missions spread across two different locales, both very well decorated and impressively beautiful in terms of graphics. The impressive visuals have a surprisingly low impact on framerates, even on the highest settings the game will not only look good, if you have a decent enough system it will also flow smoothly. Whether it's because of the game engine itself or because of thorough optimization I do not know, at least it certainly is a lot more hardware friendly than a certain couple of other tropical island shooters (SGW won't leave your hardware crying for mercy, if you catch my drift.)

Sand, palmtrees and primitive huts. The perfect place for our bushy looking protagonist to silently kick some redarrow butt.

Unfortunately, the pretty environment seems to have left a few other areas less loved and cared for, namely collision mapping and lively characters.

The collision has a couple of issues. While pretty stable in its core (no disastrous errors such as falling out into the great void), it seems that the objects decorating the island were very roughly mapped for collision, as your rifle will sometimes stick halfway through the very rock you're climbing on. Speaking of rocks, it is sometimes impossible to crawl your way up some of them, while walking on them presents no issues, save for the fact that you'll most likely be exposed to all those redarrows standing around you.

The redarrows have their own share of issues. They all seem to share the same topic of conversation and as such the passive dialogue outside of cutscenes will be very repetitive and slightly ruins the mood. There's also the visual problem of them looking very lifeless. Sometimes, it seems the pupils in their eyes are very shy of the camera, leaving their eyes completely white and creepy looking. Perhaps they are ghosts after all?

The lip syncing is horrible and the voice actors seem bored and uninterested in what they're saying.

A prime example of the redarrows' ghostlike eyes. Spooky!

The core mechanics of the gameplay lie not within lifeless characters or rifle consuming rocks though. The purpose of the game is sneaking and the occasional shooting, and both these elements actually work pretty decently.

The stealth element is not particularly advanced in any way, but it works. Patience is important and so is a good hiding spot, which the tropical island provides plentiful. Your bushy costume logically works best in the midst of a dense area of vegetation. You'll however find that tip-toeing to the next patch of bushes will sometimes prove lethal, as redarrows immediately spot you from hundreds of metres away. This is mostly an issue on just the first mission of the demo, as the other missions don't treat you with a game over screen once you're spotted. On the other missions, you will instead have to deal with anyone in your immediate vicinity and swiftly proceed to find a good hiding place to force your attention meter down.

Spot the looney! I told you the guy was bushy looking, though with good reason, of course.

The gun mechanics work very well and seem to have been given almost as much love as the environments. When shooting with a sniper rifle, you'll find that factors such as gravity and wind affect the direction of your bullet, more or less forcing you to tactically plan your shot before pulling the trigger. This makes the success of a lethal shot feel a lot more satisfying than the more popular approach of a game relying on twitching/running and gunning. If you score a perfect headshot with your sniper rifle, you will occasionally be treated to a slow motion bullet cam, from the shot being fired to the blood spraying out of your enemy. Although the bullet cam feature lacks slightly in variation, it does provide with a greater sense of satisfaction when getting that perfect hit.

Bloody good! Lining up the shot properly will not only let you kill one redarrow, but several!

Unfortunately, those who expect a game worth the price tag will most likely be disappointed. Although the game sports some very nice visuals and dares to differ from the usual run-and-gun approach, it is not enough to save it from being any more than mediocre at best. It is an indie game with AAA ambitions and visual coating, probably not worth the money until it hits the bargain bin. It is not an awful game, so if it's ever on sale on say Steam or GameStop, I will give the full game a try, but for now, I'd advice everyone considering this title as a next purchase to save their money for something else.

/ Marcus out.