QnD quick review: Crackdown 2 (Xbox 360)

Price: 13.99 eur

Where: Play.com

A couple of years ago (or maybe three) came out an open world game called Crackdown (or Riot Act, like my JAP region free version was called).

It didn't include anything really new, except maybe the collection of agility, hidden, etc orbs that were sprinkled around the city in various hard to get locations, some impossible to get  until you had collected enough of the said orbs and got your agility up (as it governs how far and how high you can jump).

The game had all kinds of goofy achievements; like "juggling" a car in the air for several seconds with explosives, blowing up certain number of cars in one go, etc.

All in all; good fun and not that much originality.


Now it's 2010 and the same studio is out with the sequel. What has changed? Well, not much.

The orbs are still there, the the skills still advance by you using them, the buildings are still high and there's lots to blow up, shoot, maim and destroy.

Added are the "infected" (read: "zombies" from "28 days later"). By day the city is full of normal citizen, peace keepers and gangers, but by night the citizens are replaced by blood-hungry, zombie-like infected.

Instead of battling against the various gangs and trying to kill their leaders, this time around you're battling the infected by fixing up a series of beacons that can kill them by light. Yeah, they're severely allergic to light. So much so that they'll explode when exposed. Thank goodness they don't glow in it... ;P

All the while the only "gang" left, The Cell, is running interference (they're the guys that broke the damn beacons and their power generators in the first place, and are now guarding them). You can "pacify" things by taking over Cell HQs, fixing things up and taking care of the infected lairs.

All in the day's work for a good-guy agent. Or are you the good guy? There are recording and propaganda radio transmissions flying around that speak of an antidote for the infection - is it right to blow them up after all? Hmm...

The game engine is pretty robust with cartoon-like graphics. Sounds are mostly unnoticeable - in good and in bad. If you have Live Gold you can invite players to your world for co-op matches.

Crackdown 2 can look pretty at times.

But, somehow, it all feels nearly too familiar. There's no real new "gimmick" or new stuff to do. As an open world game, GTA IV beats this one hands down, without any DLCs.

Crackdown 2 is not a bad game, especially if you liked the first one. It's just a little... "uninspired". I paid a whopping 14 eur for it on Play.com, so I can't really complain as at this price it's an OK buy.

Score: 7.5 / 10

Monthly update - still on a hiatus.

Good news; got a couple cheap games; Wet (7 eur from Gigantti) and Crackdown 2 (14 eur from Play.com).

Bad news; still haven't bothered to boot the consoles, aside from a small stint with the latest Splinter Cell - Conviction.

Enjoying my VIP-time at LOTRO. First character made level 40 yesterday (hunter), with the minstrel following at level 31 and a new addition, the guardian at level 21 (made as a "jeweller / cook alt", really).

The guild I'm in, Keepers of the Palantiri, is full of nice people who are helping each other out (hi guys!).


And to make sure I don't have too much time for console games, I just bought a .308win rifle and I'm shopping for a suitable bird scope now... :D

Still playing... LOTRO.

Haven't even bothered to boot the Xbox 360 or PS3 for 3-4 weeks.

Only other game that I took a quick peek at was Fallout: Las Vegas (10 minutes, can't comment on it very much - except it's "very Fallout 3").

Actually ordered the Mines of Moria addon for LOTRO; new areas and quests, higher level cap, two new classes and two more character slots, higher tier of crafting and 30 days free VIP status.

Not too bad for an addon selling as low as $9,99 in the US (more like $26 with shipping overseas, dammit! ;) ).

Too. Busy. To. Post. Must. Play. More. LOTRO...

So Lord of the Rings Online went "free" to play.

I shelled out the $6.50 to get a "premium" account like I did with Dungeons & Dragon Online. Now, I could've got all this (sans the Turbine Points) for $2 if I paid with the mobile phone option, Paymo - but it didn't pan out (the operator thinks it's a leisure SMS and it won't work since I've blocked them and all adult stuff on my phones).

But, anyway. The "premium" account got me...

• 5 auction house slots
• 5 gold maximum (like this is a huge problem yet, with 0,6 gold having been my maximum before I bought the 500 silver horse I had to buy a "riding skill" for)
• ability to trade with players
• better chance to get in if there's a queue (there might be, read on)

Those are the things I cared about, anyway.

Anyways, I played LOTRO in the beta back in... 2007 I think. It didn't grab me then. But since then DX10, lots of polishing and a thousand new quests later, the game looks pretty damn spiffy. Oh, and it has players. A lot of them.

In fact I can't remember the last time I saw a town as busy as Bree in a MMORPG. And it doesn't stop there - the countryside sometimes has more players than orcs or bears. An "orcicide" can be seen in the rush hours. Which is sometimes a problem when you have to wait for a rescue target NPC to spawn for 5 minutes - the boss mobs thankfully spawn quickly, sometimes too quickly (as in "right after you kill and loot the previous one and haven't healed up yet" ;P ).

Running with all the bells and whistles, huge view range and maximum textures on (with my HD5850) the game doesn't have to be ashamed vs any modern MMORPG.

Oh, and I can't think of a game that had this much... for the lack of a better word, "geometry". I don't think Middle-Earth has a level spot, aside from the fields (where you can grow crops, naturally). Everywhere you can see hills, mountains, pits, lakes and... oh did I mention lakes and ponds? Damn there are a lot of those around - feels downright at home (Finland is the "Land of the Thousand Lakes", remember? ;) ). Oh, and the Tolkien borrowed names help too; how about the troll tribe of Rauta-Lehmä? While being completely stupid ("Iron-Cow"), it's still Finnish, as are a lot of place names too (just as silly, most of them)...

So after a couple of weeks in the Middle-Earth - I recommend anyone interested in MMOGs take a tour. It's free!

www.lotro.com

Yakuza 3 (PS3)

Has it really been a month since the last blog-post? Sheesh...

Anyways. In the meantime, ie. "while not posting", I've been playing Yakuza 3 (and lately Mafia II on the PC - a beautiful game).

What can I say about the "Big Y"? Not having played (to my recollection) the previous games on the PS2, but having taken the time to watch the "what has happened" cut-scene videos from the said previous games provided with Yakuza 3 (smart move, Sega), the world really feels fleshed out.

And not only feels, but acts too; there are multitudes of people walking around the streets of Tokyo, shops to visit, video games to play, etc.

Voice acting is great (and unlike in previous games), not dubbed in English.

The graphics are a bit on the cartoony side, but still pretty OK. Especially if you keep in mind that Yakuza 3 was released in Japan a year earlier than in the US / EU.

The game has a... nice "feel", I guess, for a lack of a better word. I reminds me of the old Shenmue games I played on the Dreamcast and Xbox - and no wonder, since some of the Shenmue people are on the Yakuza 3 payroll.

Combat is simplified, but not too simple (two button combos) and the plot plods along slowly at first. Characters are all real personalities, for good or for worse...

The biggest downside in the western version is that it has seen some cuts made vs the original Japanese version; there are no longer hostess bars or Japanese quiz games to play, but you can still date people and play "other stuff", like karaoke. Yay.

The "feel", the world, the plot and... well, the whole game really begs for a gamer that likes all things Japanse (or just fancy something different for a change). All in all, I'd recommend Yakuza 3 if you're into open world (kind of) games. Especially if you have a soft, very nostalgic spot for the good ol' Shenmue games.


Score: 8.5/10

Vacation's over...

... so I guess I'll start posting again.

As to what I did during the vacation?

Well, on the gaming front I played through Heavy Rain (pretty good, a bit slow and predictable at some points), and I'm 1/3 through Bayonetta (a lovely £8 game, used from Game.co.uk).

Didn't spend my whole vacation inside, of course. Actually gamed very little as I spent time running around with my DSLR and, last week, hunting some pigeons (the season started, as usual, on the 10th of August).

Crackdown 2 for the Xbox 360 is out...

And it's curiously cheap at Play-Asia.

These days the UK shops usually beat the Hong Kong ones in new game prices, but I guess this is the exception...

Summer holiday is here. Woot - and stuff!

Not much gaming going on, aside from RDR that I still haven't finished. I get distracted by side quests, strangers, mini-games, etc and just plod along the main quest (currently a few missions in to Blackwater).

Aside the gaming side of things; I went and got another DSLR camera - a Canon 30D this time. I figured I could use another as a backup.

Long story short - after getting the excellent (in price / performance ratio) 55-250 / 4.0-5.6 IS lens for it, it's contending for the spot of my primary DSLR which is currently held by the Olympus E-510.

I just need to get the sensor cleaned a bit (a couple of dust specks on it). Otherwise the 30D feels like new. Not a bad buy for less than 250 euros...

I'm off to holidays for a couple of weeks, then back to work for a week and then off to holidays again for three weeks. :D

Slow going...

... on the gaming front.


Still playing RDR, aka "Grand Theft Horse". Other than that, I've only had the time to play a little DDO (Dungeons & Dragon Online) on the PC.

For a free game it's pretty nice. I was in the beta back in, oh... 2005 (?), and it definitely didn't grab my interest back then at $15 per month, but now... I did fork out $6.50 for a "premium" account that gives you 4 character slots vs 2 of the free account, and no auction house limitations.

You can still pay $15 per month for "Unlimited" access, which includes dungeons, races & classes people otherwise have to pay for to access. I think the basics are enough for my occasional DDO interest, though.

If you want to try Dungeons & Dragons: Eberron Unlimited out, go here.

Qnd quick Review: Red Dead Redemption (Xbox 360, Limited Edition)

RDR, or GTH (Grand Theft Horse) as some people like to call it, is finally here.

Was the wait worth it? Let's see...

The premise
In RDR you take on the role of John Marston, an ex-outlaw now working for the federal government mostly against his will. His job is to capture his old partner in crime so he can resume his life with his wife and child (so no Hot Coffee for Mr. Marston). From this premise starts his quest for justice or revenge - depending on which way you want to look at it, or play it.

Marston can be a nice guy, helping people along, or he can be total bastard and outlaw who robs banks, trains and kills people. Of course the latter will incur a bounty sum on your head (unless you use certain helpers like, err, a bandanna).

Keeping on the right side of the law is up to the player, though it's easy to slip by mistake; sometimes telling a lawman from a bandit in the heat of a gunfight can be hard - and accidentally shooting a deputy will instantly make you a wanted man and get a $20 bounty on you. Killing an innocent will make this bigger. The only way to get rid of this is to visit the rail station and pay off the bounty with either money or a letter of pardon.


The game
RDR looks great and plays well (with or without auto aiming). With the game installed on the hard drive, there are only occasional hiccups when you ride blazingly fast from one place to another. Out of the two versions of the game, the Xbox 360 one looks better. Again. I wonder if the developers / converters will ever get the hang of PS3, or indeed quit taking shortcuts in the development.

As for the game itself; along with the around 20 hour main storyline you have an open world the like of which only Rockstar can provide. You can hunt, collect herbs, play poker / blackjack, throw horseshoes, tame horses, slice your fingers in a game of five finger filet, rob banks / trains, steal horses, bounty hunt, etc. There are tons of side quests, strangers to help, etc. Towns are full of people acting like you'd expect people to act in 1908 west - along with whores, drunkards, fights and even the occasional rape or murder you can prevent if you're so inclined. Though I suggest you lay off the booze if you want to be of any use; it'll just corrupt any man who touches it... ;)

You can fist fight, knife people, use your pistols and rifles, lasso horses or people, etc. The only thing you can't do is swim. Don't try it (though getting killed isn't much of a deterrent - there's not much of a death penalty in RDR).

The game is, in essence, Grand Theft Auto in the Wild West. All this coupled with great voice acting, a good musical score and an interesting storyline makes for of the best games of 2010 (I'd have this contending for the Game of the Year with Mass Effect 2 if there aren't any more surprises this year). R* delivers, again.


Limited Edition differences:
In Europe, well most of scandinavia anyway, nearly everyone preordering got a "Limited Edition" instead of the normal one. What's the difference? A cartboard slide-in cover for the normal DVD box and a code that you can download a few extras with: the war horse (faster, more stamina), golden guns (extra fame) and an deadly assassin outfit that you can get after completing half a dozen or so missions in game.

After the code is  used, you're left with the cartboard covers, so there's zero extra resell value for the LE version. Currently the extras are not available for the regular version owners, but there's a rumor they might be available for purchase later.


Score: 9/10