Tuesday, April 28, 2009

QnD Review: Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts



Platform:
  • Xbox 360
What price and where:
In short:
  • Return of Rare's old Nintendo 64 videogame heroes from 1998.




QnD Review:
They're cute. They're old and overweight. And they're back.

Personally, back in late 90's, I wasn't a great platformer or Super Mario clone fan. But these days, with work, kids, dogs and all that silly stuff taking all my time I can appericiate easygoing games that I can just pick, play for a while and then drop when the need arises. Banjo-Kazooie: N&B is a game just like that.

Sure, if you want to delve into the game by building your own vehicles to the last detail, you can spend a considerable amount of time just there. But if you want to jump in and do some puzzle solving, jumping or driving around in a silly vehicle that handles like dough on wheels - that's here too.

Don't get me wrong; this isn't going to be a classic by a mile, but it's still entertainment - and if the price is right, that's good...

The good:
  • easy gameplay
  • Rare's take on old characters is sarcastically funny
  • graphically "nice" - not full of eye-candy, but colorful and has a fitting theme
  • cheap for such a new game

The bad:
  • the vehicle designing could be better - a lot better, and more fun
  • sometimes it's not really clear what you're supposed to do, or more likely what you can do in a given gameworld.

Score:
  • price: 8
  • graphics: 7.5
  • sound: 7.5
  • gameplay: 8.5
  • story: 8.5
TOTAL: 8

MTW2: Third Age mod



Wow.

That's all I can say. Some people have too much time on their hands - which is good. This makes me think about ordering MTW2 Gold (the mod requires the Kingdoms -expansion).

Just, wow...

Link to the mod release thread.
(Pictured above: dwarven units going after orcs. Below: Mûmak charge against Rhun infantry. Images borrowed from the screenshot thread.)


Edit:
So I took a ride to the local game store after lunch. You know, one of those small dungeon-like places where the sales clerk looks like a goblin and smells funny. I found a copy of MTW2 Gold for 18 euros.

Installing it reminded me why I hate original, bought, PC games so much; first thing the game did after I inserted the first DVD was to inform me that I'm a bad person because I have Daemon Tools installed and that I wouldn't work.

Thankfully the "workaround" (as suggested by the SecuROM website for Fallout 3) was to open the DVD and run the setup.exe manually.

Oh, joy. I can't wait to run the game for the first time (it probably won't work) and then apply the no-cd patch from GameCopyWorld (thankfully, they're still around...).

Monday, April 27, 2009

Resident Evil 5 demo

Let's get this off the plate first: I hate Resident Evil games. There I said it. I've hated them since I first played them on the PSX or Game Cube (can't remember which).

So RE5?

Basically you have a guy that can't walk and shoot at the same time, who's aiming speed is comparable to the movement speed of molasses in the dead of winter. Then you have his partner; a woman that is dumber than a rock and who'd you like to kill more than the bio-zombies after your sweet brains.

Oh, and my pet peeve - ammo. I mean, you have obvious gun toting lunatics who go into Africa carrying less ammo than Olympic ski shooters in a competition. What's with that? In all RE games!?

Come to think of it; maybe you have so little ammo because the inventory system is a goddamn nightmare! Not only is it unwieldy, slow and unintuitive - it's realtime. So good luck on mucking about with the controller while a zombie is chewing your damn leg off!

Verdict: BLAH!

QnD Review: Drakensang: The Dark Eye

Platform:
  • PC
    Tested on: WinXP SP3, 4GB, AMD X2 4200+@2450MHz, GeForce 8800GTS, SB Audigy
What and where?

In Short:
  • German developer dabbles at classic high fantasy with good to average results.

QnD Review:
Hey! Stop the press!! This clearly isn't a "bargain" game! In fact this game has just been released (03/2009)! Well, for my defense I'll tell you that this game costs less than most full priced PC releases and it's worth a look for anyone into the high fantasy RPG genre.

Drakensang introduces nothing new. What it does, on the other hand, is that it takes all the classical elements of the "RPGs of yore", throws them into one melting pot, stirs a bit and then serves you a very enjoyable RPG experience.

You have your usual elves, dwarves, fighters and mages with the murder mystery, bad guys and gods thrown in the mix.

Based on a true pen & paper RPG ruleset, the game tends to be a bit challenging at times, but it offers you a free ranging character development system where you can take most classes (and I use that term loosely) where you want to. So a spellcaster can wield a sword or an axe and even use armor (though metal armor prevents spellcasting) and a fighter can learn spells or alchemy with it's companion plant-gathering skills.

Visually the game ranges from "Ooh-aah" (mostly nature scenery) to "ho-hum" (mostly dungeons, sewers, etc). It runs reasonably well on an older maching and is less buggier than most PC games on release.

While no The Witcher, Drakensang: The Dark Eye is still a recommended RPG snack to tide you over while waiting for the next big classic RPG.

The Good:
  • Old School RPG feel
  • Character skill development variety
  • NWN style "pause combat" - you can pause at any time and issue commands to your fellows
  • graphics and sound, when they feel like it
  • map / quest pointer system is one of the best thus far

The Bad:
  • challenging; sometimes the opposition is just too damn hard, forcing you to abandon something until you get some more levels below your belt (but that's "Old School" for you)
  • graphics can also be dull at times
  • gaining levels and skills is slow work

Score:
  • price: 6
  • graphics: 8
  • sound: 8.5
  • gameplay: 9
  • story: 8.5
TOTAL:
8.5
(Not an average)

QnD Review: Too Human

Platform:
  • Xbox 360
What price and where:
In short:
  • A cybernetic Diablo clone set in futuristic bastardization Norse mythology
QnD Review:
Too Human pits the player against hordes of nigh-endless robotic monsters aptly named "goblins" and having bosses called "Grendel" (GRNDL-1 or whatever), and so forth. The player is the Norse god Baldur who seeks revenge for his dead wife, getting his ass kicked and probably for prematurely losing his hair.

So on we go to defy Heimdall, deafeat Loki and generally kick ass with a bunch of "space marine" helpers that are about as useful as paper tissues in a hailstorm.

The Good:
  • it's cheap
  • even bastardized, the Norse mythology is an interesting topic
  • you can make your own weapons and armor (well, buy them really) and use runes to make them more powerful
  • it's long, so there's plenty to play...

The Bad:
  • ... it's long, so there's plenty of time to be bored.
  • the plot is average and the voice acting is forced
  • level design is uninspired
  • monsters are uninspired
  • weapons and armor, aside a few exceptions, are your basic "random bonuses slapped to random weapons" -variety
Score:
  • price: 9
  • graphics: 7.5
  • sound: 7
  • gameplay: 7
  • story: 7
TOTAL: 7.5