Tuesday, November 29, 2011

PS3 Space Marine - deal of the week in Play Asia

Region free, get it for $18.90 here.

Star Wars: The Old Republic beta

Since the NDA has been lifted...

SW:TOR is pretty much Bioware "playing it safe"; it has nothing really new, the graphics are lackluster so they will run on your neighbour's  machine from 2005 and it focuses on the usual level- and gear grind.

It will not make a real dent on WoW's armor, but it will probably have a few hundred thousand Star Wars fans and people bored in the WoW grind flocking to it, at least for the first "free" 30 days.

I played my trooper come commando to level 18 during sunday and monday - and while fun at times, there's too much running around (and the 35% speed boost you get at level 16 doesn't really help) and all the quests are pretty much of the standard "kill X monsters" or "fetch X items" variety.

I have to admit that they *did* accomplish something I wished the Conan game had perfected before; nearly all the quests have complete voice acting (except the "quest automat" ones). Now, I can't honestly say if this continues all the way until level 50, but it does to at least 20. Then again, so did Conan's...

Will I get this one on release? Not a chance.

Would I play this for free, with "pay to play" content bundles? Probably.

Friday, November 25, 2011

Ok, why is it that the PS3 always seems to get the short end of the stick?

Seems like the choice of  getting Skyrim for the PS3 was the least favorable one.

Why? It is starting to look like it's the platform where the "big saves bug" will most likely drop your frame rates or freeze your game. Oh, and speaking of freezing, the game has frozen / crashed on me on at least three occasions - so save often.

The game also looks crappiest on the PS3, I believe. Though neither of the console versions can hold a candle to the PC one - especially after you download a couple of "hi-res texture" mods for it.

I know I should've got the PC version - it's a Bethesda game after all and Oblivion was in the exact same situation even though the PC hardware was the underdog in 2007.

As for other games, every time there's a comparison, the Xbox 360 seems to come out as a winner - even though the PS3 is supposed to have superior hardware. How does, exactly, the superior processor, etc help you if you're memory limited and most of your games aren't even anti-aliased like the competitor's?

Don't get me wrong; owning all the current gen consoles, I would love to, well... "love" the PS3, but real world experiences make it harder and harder. I would especially love to prefer the PS3 for multiplayer titles, where paying for the actual game is enough and you don't have to pay the console manufacturer monthly for playing online. ;P

So come on PS3 developers, get your freaking act together and release less buggy games even though you're only doing a conversion (most dev studios seem to target the 360 as their main system, if not the PC). Sheesh!

Monday, November 21, 2011

Play-Asia - buy for $60 with PayPal before year's end and receive a $6 off coupon.

Here: Grab a US$ 6 off US$ 60 Limited Coupon!

Might be nice if you're a frequent customer. ;)


Oh, and Skyrim is still very nice. Level 20 and going strong - have left the main quest line nearly untouched and just played the side quests that go on, and on, and on and...

Wednesday, November 16, 2011

Skyrim!

Finally got to play Skyrim last sunday (got it since the release day) and all I can say is that it's good, good, RPing, slashing & hacking, sneaking & spellcasting good.

Yes, it's basically Oblivion V2.0 and the console versions are really starting to show the age of the current consoles vs the PC that nowadays has 4+GBs of memory and 1+GBs of dedicated video memory - where it really, and I mean REALLY, shows is the texture resolution.

Looking at the screenshots I'm left feeling I should've gotten Skyrim for the PC instead of the PS3.

Then again, I like sitting in the living room and playing with the wireless controller (which I could do if I dragged the huge PC there and set up the controller with some crazy software, no thanks ;) ).

Yakuza 4 & L.A.Noire sale

Update:

L.A. Noire for the Xbox 360 is sale for $19,90 + p&p.


And Yakuza 4 is still on sale:
Yakuza 4 (PS3) is on sale at Play-Asia for $17.90 + p&p... ;)

Wednesday, October 26, 2011

Deus Ex: Finished

Gotta say that it's one hell of a game, Deus Ex: Human Revolution.

Made very much in the spirit of the original Deus Ex and repeats no mistakes from the sequel.

Very good, a 9.5 out of 10.

Tuesday, October 11, 2011

Has it been a month and a half already since last update? Damn...

Sorry about that.

I've been too busy playing Deus Ex: Human Revolution (damn good, so good it wipes the second Deus Ex from your mind and brings back the warm feeling from the first, classic one).

Oh, and the damn Rise of Isengard expansion for Lord of the Rings Online. Blah... ;P


Oh, and I did try (briefly) the new Call of Juarez game ("The Cartel"). You know, the one that's based in our time and tries a lot to be like GTA, but succeeds mostly in being like Kane & Lynch 2?

What an god-awful screw-up of a good intellectual property and two good western games... ;P


Oh, while we're on "everything" -subject here; if you like independent fantasy/suspense/whatever films - rent / buy "Trollhunter". It's a Norwegian film that's surely going to get a watered-down Hollywood version later on, but it's refreshingly new. And the Norwegian nature is really beautiful (well, except for all those damn big trolls :D ).

Monday, August 29, 2011

Vacation's over...

... well it's been over for two weeks but little to no gaming (of new games, at least; some Darksiders and Riddick there).

I did try From Dust (on the PC); it's a nifty little god game with raise/lower earth/water (or lava ;) ). Very "Populous for the 2010s" -kinda thing. Recommended.

Oh, and Conan, the MMOG game, went free this summer. I still can't get myself to play that one. It just seems there's nothing much to do and lots of running around to find even that little thing to do. I had a two month subscription and probably logged in four times. Good thing the pre-paid card cost me less than 5 euros... ;)

Thursday, July 21, 2011

PA Weekly Special

Operation Flashpoint: Red River (PS3) $18,90

The third installment in the Flashpoint saga isn't half bad - way better than the second one (Dragon Rising). At that price it's a must-have for any wargame fan. ;)

Tuesday, June 7, 2011

June update; Witcher 2, L.A. Noire and other stuff...

Been a tad busy building a three by five meter storage shed in the back yard, so very little gaming going on.

I have tried Witcher 2: The Assassins of Kings though; very nice box with a coin, map, cutout characters, etc. And incredibly unforgiving combat system with no clue as to when a particular mission is suitable to your character's level or skills. Very nice graphics, aside from the occasional uncanny facial animation...

And L.A. Noire; I really don't understand what all the fuss is about. The game has been in development since 2006, and it shows in lots of places as crappy low res textures, low polygon houses, etc. And the cases? Might as well call it "serial woman slaying investigator, the game". I mean, how many laid out naked, strangled and assaulted women you have to put in cases in a row? Five? Enough? Get repetitive at all? Sheesh...

Don't get me wrong, the voice acting and the motion capture are top notch, and I actually recognized many of the actors from their faces ("Hey, it's the cop guy from heroes!") - and it's not a bad game. I just get the feeling I'm being led through my nose towards an ending I have very little power to affect... ;P

Monday, April 4, 2011

QnD Quick Review: Singularity (PS3)


"How come you haven't aged a day, captain Rambo. Err, I mean Dumbo? Uhh, Renko"? The Russian officer said.

"I don't know, but after an hour it sure feels like I've been playing this game for days!" Nathaniel Renko answered, tight in the grips of two Russian special forces soldiers.

"If you don't tell me the truth, I will make you play Singularity for another two hours!" Yelled back the officer. 

"No! Remember the Geneva Convention! Anything but that! Noooooo!!!!"


That's pretty much how I picture my first hour and half playing Singularity.

Ok, I knew the game was cheap. And flopped. And it looked like a standard 3rd person shooter. But...

I thought it would have a "time gimmick", like TimeShift. Or it didn't resort to "spawn behind you" mutant-zombie-teleport-horror-monsters like Wolfenstein did, 10-or so years ago. Maybe it would have new interesting weapons? A good post-apocalyptic wibe, like Metro 2033?

Bulls*it!

Every minute playing Singularity just reinforces the feeling that "some other game has done this better". Usually a lot better.

The graphics aren't bad, just uninspired and sometimes bland. The monster design is "so-so" and you spend the first hour shooting at the same model until you get an upgrade and spend the next hour shooting at that one - with the welcome exception of shooting some human-Russians in the meanwhile (that makes the model count... 3.).

Then there's the absolute glass-pipe game play; no freedom of choosing your paths.

And the gameplay in general; Even when it comes to weapon choices the game throws it in your face; you're offered a "pistol - assault rifle - shotgun" upgrade path while you play through the early game, and for GODS SAKE - take the shotgun even if you feel like you prefer the rifle.

Why? I'll tell you why - the game stops giving you rifle ammo in the next game section, instead of lavishly giving you shotgun ammo. So if you forgot to upgrade before the one-way door you just passed closes behind you, you're in for a fist fight after you run out of rifle and pistol ammo (and you will run out, as the tough buggers will take around a clip of pistol ammo before they drop).


Oh, and when the game wants you to do something "The Way It Is Meant To Be Played", it REALLY wants you to do something. As in spawning monsters until you run out of ammo and health, while figuring what the hell it wants you to do, or go. Like in one instance where your entrance and supposed-to-be exit are both blocked and you should find an "alternative route". Err, what f*cking route? Argh! Oh I died - rewind back few minutes, rince and repeat (ie. die again), until you Google search what the heck the game designers were thinking at that particular moment (I guess it depends on if they were on uppers or downers... ;P ).

All in all, Singularity is average, uneven and uninteresting. There are better games out there waiting to be played.


Score: 6/10

Thursday, March 17, 2011

QnD Quick Review: Call of Duty: Black Ops

Let me start this by telling about my history with CoD; I've played pretty much every CoD game (except "The Big Red One") that ever came out, on pretty much every platform that ever came out (excluding the handheld PSP).

Most have been from "Good" to "OK" with a few exceptions that were just "Blah!". Those few exceptions seemed to drag the otherwise good series under the bar of "good".

- CoD, the first one, was OK. Nothing special.
- CoD2 was good. It was still mostly a "pipe-run", but the awesome Normandy beach invasion was something you'd never seen before. It felt like you were dropped straight in "Private Ryan".
- CoD3 looked like the previous ones, but the gameplay was uninspired, the feeling of running inside a glass pipe was bigger and it was... in a word "Bleh!"
- CoD 4, ie Modern Warfare, was something I thought I'd never like since "CoD is a WW2 game!" - wrong. The game was good. Not awesome, but good.
- The fift CoD, World at War, was another CoD that seemed to capture the feeling of "no-freedom" with uninspired gameplay and plot. Ie another "Bleh!" CoD...
- MW2 was a bit better than the first foray into Modern Warfare, nearing the "awesome" line. Gameplay was fast, weapons great and game balance good.

Then there's CoD: Black Ops. Do you know what's in common with CoD, CoD: WaW and CoD: Black Ops? They're all made by the same studio: Treyarch.

Now,  Call of Duty: Black Ops, at first, looked like Modern Warfare, but played like World at War. The feeling of The Glass Pipe was still there, not as pronounced as in WaW or CoD, but still. Mostly what pisses me off about Black Ops were the many unintuitive missions and "choices" (I use the word with quotes since you really have *no* choice while playing this game) sprinkled in the game. Oh, and the endlessly spawning enemies.

Take one of the Vietnam missions for example; the NVA is assaulting your position and you're told by the game's waypoint system to advance to the first trench. I did this a dozen time, each time dying to the endless mass of respawning enemies.

At one point I half-noticed, while taking cover behind some sand bags, that one of the AIs was doing something behind the bags. After a couple of more failed tries, I noticed this again. This time I saw he stabbed a barrel and kicked it down the hill.

"Nice" I thought, I'll shoot it and it'll probably blow up. Err... No. Nothing happened when I sprayed it with a M60 machine gun. Damn, that's one tough barrel...

Next time I noticed there were more barrels, oh! After 15+ tries - I finally "got it"; you had to "use" each barrel and they would blow up after *all of them* were rigged with C5, stabbed and kicked down the hill. Well, doh! Why wouldn't the damn AIs just come up and say so. Not do something, somewhere, while mumbling to themselves - not something you're likely to hear in a place where hundreds of bullets are whizzing by and grenades are exploding...

Those kinds of "what-where-why" -moments are common in Black Ops. Sometimes you're left wondering why you have to do something just because it's the "Only Right Way To Do It" (tm)...


As for the graphics, they are OK. Exploding enemies and dismemberment by the heavier weapons are mostly just comic "LOL" moments though. (Uhh, like a magnum revolver or M60 would blow off limbs.) Sometimes you feel like you're playing Rambo The Video Game, and not just because of the Vietnam missions.

(Especially in the end) the game is another "Praise the US" -type thing which has no problems dismembering, neck-stabbing, gutting or just plain wholesale slaughtering enemies and blowing up poor third world bamboo huts, while lamenting the death of one "young soldier" mid-mission in a totally out of place WTF-moment.

Also, the absolute stupidity of the main character just plain leaves you flabbergasted at some points - how many god damn times does he have to get knocked down or unconscious by the same damn bad guy? The only enemy that can, without any trouble, surprise and drop the main guy with one blow does it like 4-5 times? Get a friggin' clue man!

Oh, and of course there are nazis - this is the sixties after all (WTF!?!?)...

So in short? Black Ops is a game with zero freedom, uninteresting plot, cliche missions, cliche enemies and pretty much nothing new, all mixed in a very predictible plot.  The best thing is that it won't last more than 5-6 hours even if you take your time.

So, in keeping with history, Treyarch have made another crappy CoD game. I should be familiar with how the thing goes by now; big advertising budget makes sure the game sells outrageously well while still being a steaming pile of crap compared to the "good" CoD games. Oh, well... It's still a good series if you ignore every CoD they make...

Score: 7/10

Monday, February 28, 2011

Wii Quickie

Yeah, I got a Wii - a system I thought I'd never buy.

It's for the wife and kids (yeah, yeah). A lovely red 25th anniversary Mario console.

Thus far I've got a few "must haves" for it.

Quick recaps for them:
Okami: this is what the game should have been in the first place. I first played it on the PS2 and while it was refreshingly different, "something" was missing. The motion controls complement the game nicely. All in all a good addition to the Wii library and better version than the PS2 one.

Zack & Wiki: Even with the motion control "gimmick" it feels like one of those good old adventure games. Find stuff, find a use for stuff, get treasure. All this while wiggling the controller in various ways. A rare gem.

Madworld: Graphics stolen from Miller's Sin City, gameplay stolen from any old 3rd person beat'em up - the game is more a curiosity than a real "must have". Then again, you can get it for nearly free as used (I paid around 7 euros shipped home).

Metroid 3: It's the Wii's own Halo. Nothing special, though you can see the effort and professionalism the team put in it; it hardly looks like your usual Wii game (which usually means poor graphics, textures and general "last-gen" look).


Oh, and another must have was a decent component cable. I still don't understand why they ship the consoles with crappy composite cables (well, I do: to sell you over-prices composite cables).

Anyways, Madcatz to the rescue with their "Universal" (PS2/3, Xbox 360, Wii) cable for 9,95 eur. Recommended.

Tuesday, January 4, 2011

QnD Quickie: Kane and Lynch 2 (PS3)

Price: 6.99 eur
Where: Play.com

Lets get this out of the way: the first Kane and Lynch was better, period.

It wasn't praised by the critics, but it was still an OK action gamer and even had a somewhat decent multiplayer offering with a twist (people could turn on each other mid-mission).

The second K&L game suffers from sub-par graphical outlook, which can be attributed to the "camcorder"-feel the game tries to capture. After you disable the motion sickness inducing shaky cam option, you're left with a game that could look a lot better and is deliberately made to look worse for "cam packing artifacts", etc).

But what annoys me most is the fact that enemies have somehow changed from normal humans they were in the previous game to nearly bullet-proof super humans; you can actually shoot someone in the head several times before he keels over. Sometimes an enemy may require as many as ten shots all around the body to die - and this is in the normal difficulty level.

On top of that, the controls, and especially the targetting, is way worse than in the previous game. Not to mention way below the best offerings of the genre. Even the cover system works "iffy" sometimes.

All in all; being such a cheapie at the moment I guess I shouldn't have expected anything special from a game that costs around 1 eur per point I gave it... ;)



Score: 6.5 / 10

Status update 2011

Still mostly playing LotRO (hunter now level 51, minstrel 37), with the occasional little console gaming (Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood mostly, lately - a very good game, like all previous ones thus far).

Oh, and as for 2010 and non-gaming stuff; Machete and The Walking Dead rocked.

One was funny, full of satire and over the top gory violence and the other was like watching a George Romero movie that was six episodes long. One of the older, good Romero movies.