Heute gibt es bei Steam ein unschlagbares Angebot, so könnt ihr mehr als 10 Spiele, darunter Vollpreistitel für nur 50€ erwerben. Eine Liste findet ihr weiter unten. Zusätzlich, gibt es noch 3 weitere Spiele, welche, aber nicht in der Liste auftauchen, da sie indiziert sind. Nach einem Kauf sind diese, jedoch trotzdem unter meine Spiele zu finden.

• Company of Heroes
• Company of Heroes: Opposing Fronts
• Company of Heroes: Tales of Valor
• Frontlines: Fuel of War
• Juiced 2: Hot Import Nights
• Red Faction Guerrill<
• Saints Row 2
• Titan Quest
• Titan Quest: Immortal Throne
• Warhammer 40k: Dawn of War Gold
• Warhammer 40k: Dawn of War Dark Crusade
• Warhammer 40K: Dawn of War Soulstorm
• Warhammer 40K: Dawn of War 2

Another pair of fortnights, another new column!  Futurismic have my 21st Blasphemous Geometries column entitled “The Mechanics of Morality : Why Moral Choices In Video Games Are No Longer Fun”.

It is a little bit longer than my usual BG columns but I felt that I had quite a bit to say about this issue.  I am particularly proud of what I am calling The Clarkson Effect :

In order to be fun, transgressive behaviour requires the existence of a strong moral code to transgress against. However, when the transgressive opinions and behaviour become an accepted and recognised way of being, the behaviour ceases to be transgressive and thereby ceases to be fun.

Tera Patrick once again tries to sell Saints Row 2 with her “assets.” If it worked on you the first time it definitely will this time.

After being half-in-half-out of a relationship for the past three weeks, I’m finally officially single again.

I put up a profile on some online dating thing, but I don’t really expect anything to come of it. I’m too insecure to contact people, and so far I’ve only been contacted by guys – which I’m not interested in. I suspect I should actually work on loving myself before I expect someone else to first though.

Otherwise, I have to leave my place by the end of November. So I really have to start looking for a new place and very soon. I was planning on getting a flat anyway, this just pushes me to do it.

Otherwise, I’ve been hanging out with my ex-girlfriend lately again. I’m not sure what’s going on between us, I think she genuinly only wants friendship but I’m a bit confused as to what I want from her.

Also I finally succeeded in installing Saint’s Row 2. And the game lets your character crossdress, so, duh I got a very femme looking guy running around in a skirt. I bought some heels for him, but I’ve stuck to having him wear pink Chuck’s, I wish I could find a pair!

I hit the 2 month mark at my new job and I’m really getting into it now. I’m now at the stage where I know exactly what I have to do, no longer relying on the notes I was furiously taking down in the first few weeks of my job. I’m quite heartened to hear my workmates say how well i’ve been doing, how fast I work and how easy it is to get on with me. Everybody likes compliments (or an oppurtunity to enlarge my ego…), i’m no different!!

I’ve steadily got to know most people at work too. The ground floor staff, i all know. If not to talk to, i at least know their names. Upstairs, however, is like a whole other world! It’s larger and there is no great urgency to go upstairs throughout the day, so I tend not to mix with the people up there so much. Well, that was until last week when I tagged along on a work night out to celebrate my sister (and others) end of training for their new positions. The majority of people on this night out were from upstairs, but thanks to my old friend alcohol, a few drinks down the line and I’m anybody’s. Drink has always been a fabulous way to unwind and get to know people, even people who you’ve previously only nodded a hello to them in the corridor. Now i’m laughing and joking with them while drinking down double jack daniels!

An actual proper work night out is scheduled for next friday night, or at least I hope it is, i had such fun that I’m itching to go out with them again. I even went out and brought some new clothes – partly because of my diet, my clothes are all too baggy, and partly because of my criminal lack of smart ‘going out’ clothes. Whenever I go out normally now, it always seems to be a pub, so I have no ‘town’ clothes. Clothing that means I wont get turned away at Lloyds…

Sticking with the ILF, we had an annual conference a few weeks back. It was actually the first annual conference they had, but it is good for what it was. Basically an event to get everyone involved with the ILF together in one building. I stuck around only for the first part of the day, not sticking around for the dinner or drinks, but i could see the merits of meeting these people. We even got a show from Natasha Wood (she is one of the ILF users), who has a one woman show visiting various towns, cities and countries, all about her life and how her disability (she has Spinal Muscular Atrophy) has both helped and hindered her throughout her life. It’s well worth seeing, both funny and touching, and worth the day off work to see!

Work is great, my weight loss (6 stone and counting) is great and even Nottingham Forest are playing great. Finally we’re seeing the real deal from Forest. While we’re still a way from being champions, we seem to be finally competing at this level, this is what all of us fans have craved since we got relegated from the Premier League 10 years ago. Okay, one season in 2003 might have been brilliant, but aside from that we’ve never really convinced as challengers at this level. After a run of matches this year where we’ve played so well but come away with nothing, it’s good that we are now reaping the rewards of our efforts. On an unbeaten streak, we’ve been camping out in 7th and 8th these last few weeks, keeping within touching distance of the top due to the fickle nature of this league. One week Newcastle are top, then it’s Cardiff, then Middlesborough. We’re three points behind current leaders Newcastle, but equal or better than them in terms of quality. We could beat any team in this league on our day, but despite all this we do still have our inconsistencies, not least our ‘one half good, one half bad’ syndrome which we can’t shake! (take the Newcastle game as a prime example)

I’m just chuffed that it’s nearly November and we’re 8th. We’re competing in this stupendously competitive league. While a promotion this year is beyond us, a playoff place chase certainly isn’t, and it’ll put us in good stead for the next few years where hopefully we can step up and be genuine promotion contenders. It’s been 10 years since we were at the top, finally we seem to be headed back towards there.

I’ve been enjoying my Xbox 360, it’s good to have this console again. I bought Saints Row 2 and Fifa 10 recently. Saints Row 2 is a great game, this is how I’d have preferred GTA 4 to be like, a bit more tongue-in-cheek and silly. That’s not to say that I didn’t like GTA, but having played San Andreas, playing Saints Row 2 seemed like a ’sequel’. And Fifa 10, it’s a great game. Really good. I’m happy that Fifa have finally stepped up, after years of shit football games. The football is natural, controls are easy and the graphics are excellent. I wholeheartedly recommend this game!

And before I go, I got an invite to Google Wave the other day. I was intrigued as anyone to see what the fuss was all about. Google Wave is like a glorified Google Mail with a tacked on ability of real-time instant messaging. This means you actually see the words appear on the screen as the other person is writing them, there is also the chance to upload a ton of media as well as the ability to group edit anything that has been added/uploaded. It’s much easier to explain when you’ve used it, but something to remember before using it, is that it needs a fast (FAST) machine to run smoothly. My Mac seems to run it okay, but my work PC struggles big time. It’s worth a look, but I can’t say it’s changed my life. Google have plenty of work to do on this, so until then it’s little more than an interesting oddity.

Εβδομάδα προσφορών της THQ στο Steam – Gameover.gr
Ξεκινώντας χθες, ρίχνοντας τα δύο μέρη της σειράς Titan Quest στη μισή τιμή, κάθε μέρα θα αποκαλύπτεται και μια διαφορετική προσφορά. Καθώς οι τίτλοι της εταιρίας που είναι διαθέσιμοι στο Steam περιλαμβάνουν τόσο πρόσφατες κυκλοφορίες όπως τα Red Faction: Guerilla και Saints Row 2, όσο και παλιότερους τίτλους όπως τα S.T.A.L.K.E.R. και Dawn of War, είναι πιθανό να δούμε ορισμένες άκρως ενδιαφέρουσες ευκαιρίες.[next]

Now gamers have a variety of titles to toy with until Modern Warfare 2 arrives in stores. Grand Theft Auto 4, Left 4 Dead, Street Fighter IV, Saints Row 2 and Star Wars: The Force Unleashed have all been added to the 360 Platinum hits lineup. These five games will start as low as $19.99 and up, so there’s no reason to play yourself.

He aquí una excelente noticia para los que tenemos Xbox 360, y es que Microsoft anunció que Grand Theft Auto IV, Left 4 Dead, Street Fighter IV, Saints Row 2 y Star Wars: The Force Unleashed ya se convirtieron en Platinum Hits para Xbox 360 en Estados Unidos, y por lo tanto los podremos comprar a un precio mucho menor.

Ahora estarán en 20 dólares, pero recuerden buscar la caja con un diseño un poco modificado, indicando que se trata del Platinum Hits.

Por lo pronto ya estoy pensando comprar Left 4 Dead y Street Fighter IV, a pesar de que ambos tengan secuelas que están por salir. Sin duda una muy buena oferta la que nos hace Microsoft.

Todavía no hay noticias para realizar este movimiento en Europa.

]]> http://elmundotech.wordpress.com/2009/10/05/xbox-360-platinum-hits-collection-gta-iv-street-fighter-iv-left-4-dead-saints-row-2-star-wars-the-force-unleashed/ Mon, 05 Oct 2009 21:16:05 +0000 elmundotech http://elmundotech.wordpress.com/2009/10/05/xbox-360-platinum-hits-collection-gta-iv-street-fighter-iv-left-4-dead-saints-row-2-star-wars-the-force-unleashed/

From/De: Xbox Press 

Legendary Franchises Join Xbox 360 Platinum Hits Collection

Retailers extend ‘Buy 2 – Get 1 Free’ promotion thru October 31st as Grand Theft Auto, Street Fighter and Left 4 Dead join the latest inductees in the Platinum Hits Collection.

Microsoft today announced the latest titles that have earned their place in the Xbox 360 Platinum Hits collection, including “Grand Theft Auto IV” (Rockstar Games); “Streetfighter IV” (Capcom); “Left 4 Dead” (Valve); “Saint’s Row 2” (THQ); and “Star Wars – The Force Unleashed” (LucasArts). Continuing on under the banner “Greatness is Earned,” Xbox has selected the top-rated and best-selling games to receive the Xbox Platinum Hits label and will make them available in stores at prices starting as low as $19.99.

With over 60 titles, the Xbox 360 Platinum Hits Collection delivers classic must-have games at a great value under one elite umbrella.

The new titles added to the collection are as follows:

· Grand Theft Auto IV: A powerful modern-day crime epic set in the most detailed sandbox environment ever created. Explore Liberty City as Niko Bellic, an Eastern European immigrant with a war-torn past in search of the American Dream. The dream quickly turns into a nightmare as he struggles to cope with his cousin’s mounting debt and the seedy underworld of Liberty City.

· Street Fighter IV: Brings the legendary fighting series back to its roots by taking the beloved fighting moves and techniques of the original Street Fighter II and infusing them with Capcom’s latest advancements in next generation technology to create a truly extraordinary experience.

· Left 4 Dead: Set in a modern day survival-horror universe, the co-operative gameplay of Left 4 Dead™ casts four “Survivors” in an epic struggle against hordes of swarming zombies and terrifying “Boss Infected” mutants.

· Saints Row 2: Five years have passed since your former Saints crew betrayed you. Rebuild your empire using an arsenal of rocket launchers, stun guns and satchel charges, and transform your crib, crew and ride with total character customization. Seek revenge against rivals to reestablish yourself as the rightful king of Stilwater.

· Star Wars: The Force Unleashed: The saga continues in Star Wars: The Force Unleashed, casting players as Darth Vader’s “Secret Apprentice” and unveiling new revelations about the Star Wars galaxy. Set in the era between Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith and Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope, players must assist the iconic villain in his quest to rid the universe of Jedi, and face decisions that could change the course of their destiny.

In celebration of these latest additions to the Platinum Hits Collection line-up, retailers are offering a “Buy 2 –Get 1 Free” promotion for Xbox Platinum Hits Collection titles, including the latest additions, through October 2009. More information regarding this promotion is available at your local retail store.

When I found out the sequel to the awesome but Xbox 360-exclusive Saints Row would be multiformat, including a release on the PlayStation 3, I was happy. Sure, I’d lose out on some of the back references, but I’d at last have a silly alternative to GTA. That was pretty much the main reason I bought Saints Row 2 – to play about. What I wasn’t expecting was a game with both the gormless fun of playing about the city, and also a surprisingly clever, engaging plot.

For the plot, there are three storylines you can follow. Once these are all complete, there is a final fourth one. Each of the three initial storylines focuses on one of three opposing gangs (you being the member of the fourth gang, the Saints), the Brotherhood, the Ronin, and the Sons of Samedi. The Brotherhood are a tattooed, thuggish lot, the Ronin are oriental sorts with katanas and… motorbikes, and the Sons of Samedi are hippies. Finishing a storyline results in the eradication of that gang from the city, with each mission resulting in one piece of their “turf” being handed over to you, and the climactic missions all involving killing the gang leaders in a platformer-boss-style fashion. The final storyline then sees you fending off an evil corporate giant looking to clean the city of gangsters.

So, what sort of stuff is covered in the mission spectrum? There’s all sorts – burning drug crops, making someone accidentally kill their girlfriend with a monster truck, burying someone alive (then, at any point after in the game, returning to the grave and hearing his screaming), and even a thrilling mission in which you tow a car to a garage. Yay!

That’s the bit of the game I wasn’t expecting to be awesome out of the way. Here’s the bit I bought the game for: messing about. There’s a lot you can do – full car customisation, plane piloting, fight club participation, insurance fraud (jump infront of fast cars and sue them), spliff smoking, making your own radio station out of tracks in-game, etc. There are a ton of cheats which can aid messing about, too, including some to make it rain pedestrians, lower the gravity, set all cars to attack you… whatever suits your fancy.

The music in-game is probably the strongest part of Saints Row 2. Despite the seemingly constant gangster theme of the game (which includes unchangable, expletive-filled rap forced through your ears on the main menus), the radio stations cover a wide range of genres – rap, classical, easy listening, electronica, and even ’80s pop. And, in a move Grand Theft Auto games should really have had, you can switch off certain radio stations so you never need listen to them. Add to that the fact you can buy (with in-game money) tracks and remix them into your own radio station, and you won’t be forced to listen to anything you’d rather not again.

Then, of course, in a second move GTA should’ve done before – complete online two player co-op. That means you can both be doing missions together, or even playing in the city independently (no San Andreas-style limits, you can be on opposite ends of the city, in two different cars, in buildings together or separately, anything). There are also several games to play together, including the incredibly fun Death Tag. In this, there’s a time limit, you both have randomised weapons with infinite ammo, and most deaths loses.

So, my opinion of Saints Row 2? If you’re over 18, get it. If you’re under 18, wait until you’re 18 then get it. If you have it, play it. It’s an absolute blast whichever way you’d rather play it.

(Note: Content Warning: strong language and depictions of virtual violence)

(92%)

I seem to have amassed a large collection of what I’d call ‘guilty pleasure’ gaming. These are the games that will not be remembered in times to come as gaming classics. More often than not they’re flawed, stupid and the embodiment of simple, pointless fun; in many cases deliberately so. For me they generally come in the form of sandbox action titles, a genre which seems to value content over coherence. I bring this up because I’ve finally found an example of the genre that, despite falling squarely into the mould, I don’t consider to be a ‘guilty pleasure’. Prototype, or [PROTOTYPE], is actually quite good.

The difference is that most sandbox games that favour the playground element of design, in which you’re given a tool set and set out to wreak havoc on the world, have one element that seems to detract from that very purpose. Take Saints Row 2, a game I’m about to be very unfair to. Many praised Saints Row 2 for giving the player the ability to enact the hyper-cartoonish destruction and violence that was present in the PS2-era GTA games but very much missing in the fourth. This is a worthy and noble pursuit for a game but the way in which Volition implemented it left me cold. If you’re anything like me there came a moment when playing GTA3, or one of its sequels, in which you stood your character on the roof of a passing car and used it as a mobile base to terrorise the streets. The character would slide backward motionless once the car hit any significant speed, forcing you to course correct every couple of seconds, but that was part of the charm and simply the fact that you could do it, when the developers clearly hadn’t put in any coding to allow you to, was cool. In Saints Row 2 doing the same action triggers a mini-game in which you can pull off a variety of poses and gain a rating for how long you can keep your balance. If I remember correctly, gaining the top rating gives you a traffic cone you can wear on your head. It’s Cool™. This was my problem with Saints Row 2: the developers had a mini game ready for any stupid action you could think to undertake. All very well, but if I’m messing about and avoiding the missions of the game I don’t want to be constantly reminded that the fun I’m making for myself has been authorised by the developers.

This is the vapour that is the apparent result of punching a guy into pieces.

Prototype understands this. Killing civilians draws no reward or penalty, I can’t even remember if you get any experience bonus for killing uninfected civilians, and even the infected ones draw such a small amount of points that they aren’t actually worth bothering about. In fact there’s absolutely no reason why you should be able to unlock a Curb Stomp upgrade that allows you to stomp on dead bodies (or even why this would be an upgrade as opposed to something you can just do) but there is and you can, if you really want to. And I did.

The unlock system is another reason why I warmed to Prototype over other, similar, games. It’s a centralised system which allows you to upgrade your character at any moment once you’ve gained the right amount of experience (something which builds up at a ridiculous rate). It was the lack of a centralised system that proved to be the main flaw in another game, one I enjoyed more than most people. In Mercenaries 2 progression led to the ability to buy more powerful airstrikes which could be used to destroy absolutely any building in a game. However, unlike in Prototype, and, more unforgivably unlike in the first Mercenaries game, these airstrikes could only be bought by visiting specific military bases located across the map. When you start a mission you’re given a list of recommended items and in order to actually obtain that list you’d need to quit the mission, find which bases were selling which items and travel to each individually to buy them. Frequently I’d do none of that, instead turning up to the mission location unprepared and having to wing it based on what I could scavenge. All very well, perhaps, but this meant that there was no sense of an escalating growth of power, a key feature in almost any mission based game. It was also a bizarre move considering the first Mercenaries gave you access to the Russian Mafia through your PDA, allowing you to call in any airstrike or package from any location with a couple of button presses.

For a while I was worried I might start to tire of kicking helicopters to death. Luckily that point never came.

Because Prototype’s progression of power is intrinsically tied to the escalating powers within the character the game is much more accessible in terms of growth. The sheer number of powers means that there is always a reason to complete the high-experience objectives or side quests. As well as the upgrades that are necessary for survival, like the ability to shoot hundreds of tendrils from your body, are a bunch that serve no purpose than to increase your ability to mess around, like the power that allows you to surf a body along the ground while blood smears along behind them.

The game is also geared to reduce the time spent searching for those survival essentials. The consume mechanic means that civilians, and this game is set in New York so there are thousands of them, essentially act as health packs. Guns can also be taken from any member of the large military presence, although I can’t think of a time in which I actually needed to use one, and, eventually, any tank or helicopter can be stolen at any point. It’s one of the few true playgrounds in the sandbox genre, with little of annoyances that so often plague it.

Here are the innards of some guys. Prototype's primary colour is red.

It is, of course, flawed in its own right. Some of the upgrades are so powerful as to render the others useless, the story isn’t in the least bit memorable, any hints at character morality are instantly destroyed when I start punching hundreds of people into bits, a lot of the missions aren’t particularly inventive, the movement system isn’t anywhere near as interesting as Infamous’, and, from a technical standpoint, it looks like a bit of a dog (although this places it as a pretty normal example of an open-world game). That said there are hours of fun to be had kicking helicopters to death, tormenting the local populace and running up the side of a wall in order to chuck cars at water towers. For these reasons Prototype is clearly the best stupid game I’ve played in a long while.

I’ve had a good chance to play Saints Row 2 now, and although I’ve still got a long way to go I think I know enough about the game.  So here are a few thoughts I’ve had about this would-be GTA.

What appeals most to me about this game is the vast array of customisation that is on offer.  How many other games allow you to change the way your character walks?  The excuse for playing as characters that look like a professional boxer, drug-addict, celebrity, prostitute or normal Norman is actually pretty good.  You play the leader of a gang who was injured in an incident and have only just woken up from a five year coma (this is apparently related to the previous game which I have not played) having required extensive plastic surgery.  The first thing you do is create your character using a large selection of sliders and selectors, everything from the usual facial adjustments to hair style, build, gait and accent.  The last is sadly limited to three choices, but does rather impressively change all of your characters dialogue throughout the game.  All of this only a small part of what is on offer outside of prison, clothing for head, eyes, over-shirt, under-shirt, coats, trousers, underwear, shoes, socks, belts, left wrist, right wrist, and all encompassing suits.  There are several different shops each offering different styles of clothes, so you should be able to find something to wear.  Plastic surgery means that not even your initial choices are blocked from your control.  You can also modify various bits of your house and also the style of clothing and type of car you gang uses.  This allows you to make your character your own, whether you prefer a realistic likeness, or an over-the-top caricature.  I rarely spend long with this kind of thing, but I did enjoy the large choice Saints Row 2 offers.

When it comes to hardware there is the typical selection of firepower, the pistols feel a little weak more like cap guns but the shotgun has a nice amount of power.  Encounters with gang members, police officers and pimps are a little  in some encounters you’ll run around hardly taking any damage, but in others you’ll be taken down within seconds.  I’m not a fan of regenerating health but it makes sense here and is nicely balanced, it takes several seconds to start and halts when you take damage.  Melee is quite nice, as well as various weapons you can also fight hand-to-hand, hits don’t always connect cleanly but it’s a step up from the basic, straightforward punches in some games.

Vehicles are very hit and miss, there are some nice ‘low-end’ vehicles such as vans and one or two of the higher up cars are nice to drive, but you could never call them accurate.  Steering is a little floaty, the aim has obviously been ‘vehicles that get you where you want to go’ rather than any form of realism.  One of the best examples is a car that allows you to perform a 180 spin when reversing at a low speed, I found it very satisfying and useful if you get in and want to head in the opposite direction quickly, car enthusiasts will possibly be put off though.  Cars do a good job of staying right way up but without running into floaty rolling some games resort to, some might like to get stuck every so often but Saints Row 2 is about keeping the fun going and in that respect it offers a nice balance of risk and safety.  Damage modelling is pretty reasonable, everything we’ve come to expect is there, damage and eventual explosion, bits falling off, etc.

Several games have had a selection of radio channels, KCHAT from GTA:  Vice City was a personal favourite, and Saints Row 2 is no exception.  It’s almost all music, but there are some quite funny advertisements, often satirical with some gaming references.  Due to the strange controls it took me a while to find out how to change station (left and right arrow keys), in total there are 11 stations all playing a certain music genre.  One particular nice touch is how you can still hear the radio when you’re close to the car, although obviously slightly muted.

The area that most lets down the game is the poor job of porting, glitches and performance issues, as well as obvious leftovers from the games console heritage spoil what is otherwise an okay game.  As well as the average steering mentioned above there are other control issue.  Mouse movement is generally good, however when it comes to spray-painting your gang’s logo that all goes to pot.  Movement is sluggish to the extreme, one second hardly moving, the next jumping forward in great leaps.  Saints Row 2 is primarily a console game and I don’t think there’s anything wrong with that, but some features have bizarrely been left in when there is a much better way of doing them on a PC.  Menus stood out the most, navigating between tabs was almost certainly done with the shoulder buttons on a controller, these have simply been changed to Shift\Control.  Arrow movement would have been nicer but it could have been okay, except you can only use the left Shift for some reason, it’s cousin from the right side does nothing.

Most complaints I’ve seen about performance issues date back to around release and generally revolve around performance on lower systems, I haven’t experienced much of this but there are one or two recurring annoyances.  Slow-down occurs quite often, this happens in other games of course, but at points of action, detail or a complicated graphics process, for example the particle storm surrounding the frozen ship in Crysis.  But in the PC port of Saints Row 2 there is a massive difference between simply standing in an outdoor environment, and driving through it.  Standing around on the street I can get an average of 45-50FPS, but when it comes to driving it can drop to as low as 10, that’s a very large difference.  I’m no expert, but that sounds more like poor optimisation than not having a beefy enough computer.  Driving games have been around for how long, most other games would have poor performance all of the time, it’s not even as if the game looks very pretty, some aspects are nice but in general most could have been done several years ago.  (For example Just Cause two years before.)

Which brings me onto my next topic, car popping.  Travelling along a road it is populated by random vehicles, if you stop and let the cars drive off they will quite quickly disappear, this isn’t too bad on its own, rendering living cities is difficult.  However if you speed up again and catch up, some of the vehicles will have completely disappeared (this is most obvious with some of the more unique vehicles).  So it’s not like they just travelled out of the view cut-off, that is actually how far the world ‘lives’ around you, what is this the nineties?  I don’t remember this happening with Vice City six years before Saints Row 2 was released.

Poor engine performance aside though, I still think there is a lot to enjoy in Saints Row 2.  It’s one of those games where if you go in knowing what to expect, you’ll find a lot of enjoyment when you might otherwise have been put off.  There basic premise behind the storyline is a good one, criminal leader goes into prison and comes out to find the world he knew has gone now he must reclaim his empire, okay so it’s not original but is a nice base from which to build.  Sadly the rest of the storyline isn’t as good, a couple of interesting character but it mostly just rehashes traditional gang stories.  Gang interaction is a bit mixed, on the one hand you can ‘recruit’ any of the members to follow you either in the general environment or for missions (the number is limited until you complete certain goals), at first I didn’t use it but as the difficulty of the missions increased I started using it and enjoyed bring some of my ‘posse’ along.  AI isn’t brilliant but on par with that of the enemy so it balances out.  Then there are the takeover attempts, once you claim an area you start earning money from it, however the gang you usurped it from  may try to take it back.  You receive a call telling you the area, and it flashes on the map, whilst the takeover attempt is happening you stop earning money from that region, there is an increased enemy presence in the area and they will attack you on sight.  In order to secure the area, you must defeat all of the lieutenants in the area.  I thought this did a great job of keeping the gang theme flowing.  Other than that though there is nothing, I know some games don’t even do any of this but it seems a shame for the gang warfare sandbox to be dropped so suddenly.

The Obligatory 'Is it me or is it a little warm?' joke.

Saints Row 2 is sometimes called ‘the fun GTA’ due to it’s focus on explosions and laughs rather than a semi-realistic portrayal of gang life, but not only is that unfair on GTA it isn’t quite true.  I think a more accurate description is ‘GTA unrestrained’, Rockstar carefully thought about what they would let the player do, if something doesn’t lead directly to fun or impacts on another more important part of the game then it is cut.  This removes any chance of unsettling the gamers experience, which is a good thing.  In Saints Rows case they’ve bolted on anything that has even the slightest chance of being fun, this results in niggling problems when conflicting elements interfere with each other, but, it can also result in interesting situations that could never have been planned.

Once I’ve completed the main storyline I doubt I will ever play it again, unless it’s in many years time and let’s face it by then we’ll probably all have computers in our brains and augmented reality will be a way of life.  But that doesn’t mean I won’t enjoy myself now; mad explosions, dressing up as a pirate, throwing people into oncoming traffic, riding a quad bike that’s on fire, streaking, crashing helicopters, shooting people with stun guns, speaking with an awful cockney accent, being a feared psychotic criminal and at the same time wearing a t-shirt that says ‘Let’s go out for a BITE! at the Museum of Natural History, like bad action films these are guilty pleasures that are fun to experience once in a while.

To mark International Talk Like A Pirate Day, not only have Telltale Games made Tales of Monkey Island Chapter 1 free for the day, but Steam have The Secret of Monkey Island: Special Edition (the 2009 remake) available for just $5, and Direct2Drive have included Sid Meier’s Pirates! for the same price as part of their 5th anniversary sale – along with many other titles, including BioShock and Saints Row 2. Also, savings this weekend on all things Unreal at both Steam and GamersGate.

Play-Asia:
The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass - $19.90 (save $29) – Japanese language.

Steam Weekend Deal:
The Secret of Monkey Island: Special Edition – $4.99 (50% off)

Other Steam Deals:
Garry’s Mod – $4.99 (50% off)
Unreal Tournament GOTY Edition – $1.99 (80% off)
Unreal Tournament 3 Black – $8.00 (60% off)
Darkest of Days – $35.99 (10% off)
MDK – $8.99 (10% off)
MDK 2 – $8.99 (10% off)
Madballs in Babo: Invasion – $7.99 (20% off)
Twin Sector Pre-order – $26.99 (10% off)

Impulse:
Aztaka – $14.95 (save $10)
Droplitz – $4.99 (50% off)
Tropico 3 Pre-order – $32.50 (save $3.49)
Scavenger – $4.99 (50% off)

GOG Promo:
Strategy games 25% off:

• Celtic Kings: Rage of War – $4.49
• Original War – $4.49
• Haegemonia Gold Edition – $7.49

Direct2Drive:
5 Year Anniversary. 50+ games for $5 each.
Week 2: Action games. Ends 21/09/2009.

• BioShock (75% off)
• The Chronicles of Riddick: Assault on Dark Athena (87.5% off)
• Saints Row 2 (83.3% off)
• Sid Meier’s Pirates! (75% off)
• STALKER: Shadow of Chernobyl (75% off)
• Frontlines: Fuel of War (83.3% off)
• Thief: Deadly Shadows (75% off)
• Serious Sam Gold (75% off)
• Max Payne 2 (50% off)
• MLB 2K9 (75% off)

GamersGate:
Unreal Complete Pack – $16.95 (62% off)
Unreal Tournament: GOTY Edition – $1.95 (80% off)
Unreal Tournament 3 Black – $7.98 (60% off)
Takeda 3 – $14.95 (50% off)

WOW! It has been a LOOOOOONG time, even by my standards. So whats up internet. School started so everything has been very busy. Plus, I have been getting my hands into some new projects/hobbies the past couple of weeks. Let us kick this all off with some game related stuff.

First, I bought Fat Princess. I haven’t played too much of it. It is quiet a lot of fun and I plan to get together with my buddies from the Syndicate. These are a great bunch of guys i teamed up with about the time Killzone 2 launched. On an additional note i have been playing through Ninja Gaiden Sigma from my gamefly list and i forgot how fun this game was. Last time i rented it i never got very far because a big release came out i just had to get but now that I have returned I am loving it. I miss games with grueling difficulties. What I love about it is that although its hard, it doesn’t quiet seem unfair to me. It always feels like i can do better and eventually, I do. I find the experience extremely satisfying.

I also beat Quake 2 for like the 6th or 7th time, go me. If you don’t know Quake 2 is pretty much my favorite shooter of all time. Why? I just think its damn fun. It is not terribly story heavy, yet still feals like you are progressing through a unvierse. Sort of like the original half life (but not quiet as amazing and deep) yout ake int he story and the universe simply by being there. Very little is told to you. You crash on the strogg planet during a massive assault and now as one of the few surviving Marines you must forge a bloody path to open up the planet to the main assault and eventually destroy the Strogg leader. I love it.

Champions Online has launched, and I have purchased the game. I loved City of Heroes, and for me, Champions is just a more advanced and sophisticated CoH like experience. I think the game is fantastic. Sadly I probably wont be able to renew my subscription since i am in between jobs at the moment but i have a new job lined up in the near future so here is to hoping i get hired and can continue to bring the beat down with my gunslinger bounty hunting bad ass of a super hero.

Last bullet point on gaming here. Direct2Drive is having a celebration for its 5th birthday. For the next 5 weeks they will be selling select games for only 5 dollars. if you have a computer that can run stuff you should go check it out. Some of the games are kinda old (X-Com pack of all the old X-com games) and some are more recent (Bioshock and Saints Row 2) but regardless there are some good deals in there. I personally picked up Saints Row because I only rented it and never got to finish it. To me Saints Row 2 was a fantastic little break from GTA IV and its… overly realistic atmosphere. Saints Row is over the top and just fun. However I need to get my ps3 controller hooked up because driving with the keyboard is not happening, at all.

Now, on to other important matters. As you guys probably remember I was talking abut a new guitar….

well hereis my new Schecter C-1 classic

I’m happy with it. Plays great, sounds great, feels great, looks great, how can I complain. I don’t have much to say ont he gutiar itself but i can say this. I currently play in a band called Jigawatt. I play guitar and sing and thats all fine and dandy. Very ****c rock inspired metal. Now, I wanted something a little mroe modern. Let me introduce all of you to…… ALL HAIL THE CRIMSON KING! (AHTCK! for short) Now my real name is Darren but i am credited as Orlandun on there. It was a misunderstanding that is now a running joke I guess, haha. Regardless I think the songs on there are awesome. i am not playing on thsoe recordings but I will be on future recordings. WE plan to start doing shows in the LA area soon. Check us out and if you like us spread the word around. THE AHTCK HAS BEGUN!

Finaly, one last thing to add to the list. In a moment of weakness and good deals I bought the Black Reach starter set with my cousin (we weant half ad half) and for 25 bucks I got a starting army of Orks for Warhammer 40k. The past couple of weeks I have been painting nd for not really have painted before I’m quiet proud. I original primed them black but form what I am hearing i am gonna try priming in white and hopefully that will make things look a bit brighter and better where i want it too. Here is a couple shots of my handy work.

I am particularly proud of this Nobs head. The eyepiece and the highlights look awesome. I wanna try and see if i can get a more glass like effect on that targeter but other than that i think its going fairly well. I did add a teal color on his arms that i am using on my higher ranking Boyz to signify how bad ass they think they are, it actually looks really good but i haven’t taken pics yet. If you guys want i can post more.

Well that’s a nice update on what’s going on with me. Also, I am going to start doing a blog on word press that should be updated more often. I plan to sort of link it up with AHTCK! but it will be about the same thing you see here. Me talking about random music and games but I won’t feel as obligated to talk about just gaming related stuff. Thanks for reading guys. This blog isn’t going away I will try and update both at the same time. You can see the new blog here.

Until next time, stay frosty!

I’m looking for something mindless.

Every once in a while all you want is to sit back and play, no important goals, no real depth, just…something. You want a game that engrosses you but doesn’t try to pull you in, not relaxed, indeed some can be quite difficult, just not requiring much thought.  It’s almost like meditation.  Not every game is suited for this, not even the ones you may think are.  It’s nothing to do with quality, you can get both really good and really bad games that fit into the category of ‘mindless games’, and despite the name they don’t have to be lacking in challenge or ideas.  What they cannot be is adventure or any type of puzzle game, anything that requires precise timing of complicated events (3D platformers in particular, but not 2D ones) is also out.  They’re mostly action based but not necessarily restricted to the action genre, the controls are simple and the enemies (if there are any) are predictable.

One of the best examples of this type of game is Serious Sam, specifically the original and the second encounter.  Big, muscle-y hero fights wave upon wave of monsters in remarkably pretty settings, the guns are big and ammunition is plentiful, the enemies are just cunning and varied enough to spark a few brain cells but do not require any real thought.  I installed the demo again recently and have quite enjoyed playing a for couple of minutes in between tasks, it’s quick getting to the action and easy to drop should something arise (no homoerotic jokes please).  I never bought any of the Serious Sam games so I’m looking forward to the upcoming release of Serious Sam HD.  Classic gameplay in a nice shiny coat, what more could you want?  Obviously I’ll play a demo to make sure it still feels the same, and of course if the price is ridiculous I won’t bother, but otherwise I will most likely buy it.

And that’s all that matters really, deep games are brilliant and are probably the largest part of what ‘makes’ gaming for me, but this isn’t an either\or situation and having the choice of both just enriches gaming.  I am about to go buy Saints Row 2 from the current Direct2Drive deal, £5 is a nice enough price anyway but I can also register the game in Steam whom I have had better experiences with when it comes to connection speeds.  SR2 certainly fits this theme of mindless gaming, often quoted as ‘the fun GTA IV’, so maybe it will hold me until Serious Sam HD gets here or who knows, maybe I’ll discover a new favourite.

I doubt it.  Mindless games are a lot of  fun but they’re rarely the ones you remember when someone asks for you list of top games.  Take Serious Sam, you rarely hear about it in any ‘Top X’ lists or general discussions about FPS recommendations, but since the remake was announced opinions have been coming out of the wood-work.  It seems everyone has played it and most are excited about a remake, seemingly ignoring the fact that it may not feel the same (although I’m optimistic) in the new engine.  If you were to ask me for some examples of mindless games I have enjoyed I doubt I could think of any, but they were there.

The closest I have come recently to this kind of game was the Darkest of Days demo.  There was more story than Serious Sam but it was basically just a motivator for shooting speedy little pebbles into peoples (and horses) bodies and the old weapon\futuristic weapon switch just helped increase the feeling of release.  But otherwise there haven’t been many good examples of this game type recently, just the littered corpses of titles aiming for something deeper but failing to achieve their goal.  Sadly some of these will be lumped in to the mindless games mini-genre simply for being shallow, but there is a big difference between a filled in lake and a puddle someone has spent their time tiling.

Title image nicked from here.

You might be surprised by the games we’d call stinkers

With AAA game season just around the corner (you know that special overcrowded time when the big games usually compete to get your attention and almighty cash), we thought we’d look back on the year so far and pick out some games from all platforms which wasted our time and money.

Sure, there may be more stinkers to come, but they usually don’t dare to face off against the big end of year hitters.

We all have games we hope will be great fun but end up being stinkers and our writers have come up with our own games we hated to play this year.  Some of the games chosen may have been released earlier than this year but it is when we caught up and played them.

What about ‘your’ stinkers!

We would be very interested in your opinion of games you’ve played this year that you didn’t like too, so please do comment in the box at the end of the article.

Axis of Reality

• Terminator Salvation (Xbox 360)

After seeing the movie, I was interested to check out the game. Sure, I’d seen the reviews but the main (perfectly valid) complaint was its direct cloning of Gears of War. Not a problem to me, I love Gears, and adding robots is always a good idea.

Oh how wrong I was. Never before have I played such a BORING game. Not like it’s broken, or glitchy, or anything like that. It was just so completely devoid of fun, despite following the Gears of War bible to the letter. Makes you realize how hard Epic must have worked to really make Gears as much fun as it is.

• Saints Row 2 (PC)

Don’t get me wrong, I loved Saint’s Row 2 on 360. I found it a lot more fun to mess around in than GTA IV, and the constant flow of rewards for stepping outside the story to just play in the massive sandbox were endless.

The shaky framerate did bother me though, so when I got a brand new powerhouse of a gaming PC I quickly snapped up the unusually low-priced PC version. This taught me a good lesson that there’s always a reason why certain relatively new games can be found for dirt-cheap prices: it was broken, as simple as that.

Horrible performance on a top-of-the-line PC, a disgusting number of bugs and glitches (even post-patch) but most of all a problem Volition have said they won’t be fixing where the game plays at about double-speed on Windows 7 that makes it run like a Looney Tunes cartoon. Not fun. Not fun at all. Especially since for some reason it requires a 13 gb install.

Shadow Wave

• Two Worlds: (Xbox 360)

It took me awhile to get to this game, but this year I finally gave it a go.  Kill. Me. Now. When it took me 30 minutes to get out of the bloody first room in the game I was already in a rage.

Why the hell was it that to progress from the first room, you had to do more than simply walk straight out the exit, when in the intro the guy walks straight in?

So uhh what was the whole point of the intro then? Weird… then I finally got out, saw the horrible framerate, awkward controls and hilarious dialogue. And I put the controller down before playtime even hit 1 hour.

• Resident Evil 1: Archives (Wii)

For those of you that don’t know, Resident Evil: Archives is essentially a port of the amazing Gamecube remake of Resident Evil 1. It landed on the Wii with ‘enhanced graphics’ among other things.

Sadly, upon booting the game up in 480p, the game is forced into a 4:3 resolution, giving you large black bars on the sides of your TV.

Yes, I realize that it would be very difficult to convert pre-drawn backgrounds to widescreen, but come on, just give us a stretch screen option! I’d prefer slightly stretched characters than a smaller screen accompanied by huge black bars.

The only way to get this game to take full screen is to turn your Wii back down to 480i on the Wii menu. A simple stretch option would have been much appreciated! But sadly, by doing this it brings the games graphics quality essentially back down to what it was on the Gamecube.

Do not grab this title if you already own the Gamecube version, even if you are a fan of the series.  It’s a bad attempt at milking you of your cash.

dkpatriarch

• Eat Lead: The Return Of Matt Hazard (Xbox 360)

You’d think the concept of a shooter game that made fun of a bunch of other video games that take themselves seriously (it has an ally called ”Master Chef” instead of Master Chief…get it?) would be full of fun and laughter.

Instead what you get is a boring old school game that makes you groan in dismay more that giggle with glee.  Even the 2D pixelated tribute to Wolfenstein 3D’s look wasn’t enough to make me finish it.

I got my son to do that for me so I could still get the achievement points and was very glad I had borrowed and not bought it.

• Damnation (Xbox 360)

Another game with potential that had an interesting concept but went horribly, boringly wrong.  In my review I explain it all, but suffice to say that it was a painful slog to the end and I was in damnation playing it.

• Bejeweled Blitz (Facebook)

Okay I hate this game, but not for the reasons you might think.  I hate it because when I’m talking to my wife, she’s playing it trying to beat her Facebook family and friends’ scores.  When we watch a movie or TV show at home, she’s half-watching and half playing this stupid jewel game.

I tried the game and found it too boring and just stupid.  The worst game I’ve played this year! My opinion may have been predisposed to dislike it though, because my wife likes it too much.

Of course she claims I’ve pretty much been doing the same to her for years with my various console games…but it’s not the same is it?

TWODOGSz

• FUEL (Xbox 360)

An open world driving game should have two core principles to its design. To keep the player immersed in a seamless, free flowing, minimalist UI environment and to have core driving mechanics that provide fun and challenge for the player. FUEL has neither.

• Flock! (XBLA)

Never judge a book by its cover! Herding farm animals to “the Mother Flocker” will raise a brief smirk, until you quickly realise that under a colourful exterior is a rainbow of butchered game design, with so many problems that you’ll wonder if there ever was a competent game hidden amongst the entrails in the first place.

ChiefJimbolaya

• Prison Tycoon 2 (PC)

I bought this old PC gem in the bargain bin at Wal-mart. It was completely, 100% broken. The controls didn’t even work. I guess I was being punished for my sadistic desire to entertain myself by instigating shiv-jabbin’ lunchroom fights in my own supermax.

• Ghostbusters  (Xbox  360)

And not because it’s a bad game. It was an awesome game that I had been looking forward to for a long time. But the clunky controls would have to land it in this spot relative to the rest of the games I played this year. Sorry Dr. Veckman…

GrathiusXR

• Wolfenstein (PC)

Compared to its console counter-parts the game on the PC felt somewhat clunky and a bore to sit down and play through. The movement gave me a headache and the amount of bobble whilst running was nauseating.

The little open city where you can upgrade your gun and walk around and accept mission to me sounded good on paper but did not suit this game.

I was expecting a Return to Castle Wolfenstein-esque game but was left disappointed.

• Stormrise (Xbox 360)

As excited as I was with another RTS on the console, I really didn’t expect much from this title, and upon playing it I knew my expectations were still too high.

Whilst the Whip Select was a useful tool, the fact that only 1 squad could be chosen at any moment was annoying and the amount of casualties even on Normal made the game a complete chore and bore.

The insanely glitchy movement and attack of both the AI and the player made me wonder if this game was released at the right time.

Betheo

• Metal Gear Solid Acid (PSP)

I know this game wasn’t released this year, but I’ve been lucky enough to have played mostly great games in 2009.  I really, really did not like Metal Gear Solid Acid.

I will admit it was my first MGS game, and the style it was done in just confused the hell out of me. The graphics were nice enough, but I prefer to be able to move the character myself, not have to take turns with annoying cards.

Also, I really got fed up with being forced to watch the intro all over again when I started a new game. It’s a few minutes of my life I’d like back.

• Nintendo DS Games (in general)

I know the DS is a console, and I know this will flame alot of peoples keyboards, but I dont like the DS, it just feels like a silly console with basic kiddie-styled games that mostly suck.

I guess what they say is true, once you go for a PSP that is black, you dont go back. Other than that, I really, really hate styluses, I mean, with a passion.

• Call of Duty: World At War (Xbox 360)

Yes, I know, I’m going to be hung, drawn and quartered for this, and then yelled at, but honestly, I didn’t like it.

As a rule of thumb, I tend to avoid World War 2 games in general, but I had played COD4 and loved it, so I then played COD2 (I know, old school) and it was ok, but COD5 just really irked me for some reason. I guess im just a really picky gamer.

XboxOZ360:

• Infernal (Xbox 360)

Infernal, as the name implies, it an infernal disaster of mammoth proportions. What started out with a great premise, slipped into gaming hell the moment you started the game. The graphics were so ‘last-gen’ it had me wondering how such a terrible game could actually be passed and given certification?

I’ve never known a shooter where you can basically walk headlong into opposing forces with a pistol, and be shot with SMG’s, fully automatic rifle fire and have explosions all about you, and not DIE – Hello… It took me almost 20 minutes to die, with me trying to die to actually prove a point.

The developers need to be taught a lesson that they simply cannot, and should not dump their rubbish on us simply to make a profit.

If you haven’t yet had a read of OXCGN’s most frustrating games, jump over to the article by clicking here.

Please share us around

Link to review

DLC with fewer bangs for its buck…

Saints Row has been locking horns with GTA since both have released. Some like GTA’s gritty true life realism to Saints Row 2, and some people just prefer the over the top fun and diversity SR2 delivers in its game play whether it be side missions or the full blown story.

Without spoiling the story for those who have yet to complete SR2, Ultor Exposed downloadable content pack continues the 3rd Streets Saints endeavour in bringing down the colossal super-corporation Ultor, with the meeting of Tera, a former lab worker at Ultor, hell bent on bringing the company to its knees after realising the pure tyranny of Ultor’s true intentions.

Upon purchase your game will be equipped with a series of new hair-do’s to choose from at your next visit to the Plastic Surgeon as well as a new selection of vehicles to wage your reign of anarchy on the city of Stilwater, ranging from race cars, helicopters and even a jeep like vehicle which may seem familiar to those who have picked up a copy of Red Faction: Guerrilla recently. Remember its all in the same universe.

Unfortunately, heres where things seem to dry out on the features for this downloadable content, with just a handful of hairstyles and vehicles to add to your experience for an entire 800 Microsoft Points you get that and just 3 story missions for your buck. The missions aren’t long and vary from collecting items, protecting a moving truck and protecting the same truck just on foot instead.

Along with this, because after all it is Paid DLC, you’ll get a small collection of achievements to unlock through your time in Stilwater.

In trying to keep up with GTA’s phenomenal downloadable content updates, Ultor Exposed fails to hit the spot, whilst only serving as just a bridge through the main story-line to the continuation of the Ultor story arch, this proves to be a very small yet over-priced package, perhaps trying to gain more only on the fact the game now stars Tera Patrick. We hope to see more for better in the near future Volition…

3.2

Buy it here ready for your Xbox to download…
http://marketplace.xbox.com/en-GB/games/me…5-d802545107fc/

I stumbled across a post a made last Sept 2008, in which I proclaimed my love of my newly acquired PS3. It’s interesting to look at the list of the games I had, as I now only have 4 out of those 17 listed.

This is my collection, at this moment. Not counting several PSN games I have also bought.

Burnout Paradise (Platinum)
Buzz! Quiz TV
Call of Duty 4 – Modern Warfare
Dark Sector
Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion (GOTY)
FIFA 09
Grand Theft Auto 4
Heavenly Sword
InFamous
Killzone 2
Lair
Little Big Planet
Medal Of Honor Airborne
MotorStorm
Ratchet and Clank: Quest for Booty
Resistance
Ridge Racer 7
Saints Row 2
Sega Mega Drive Collection
Singstar Abba
Singstar Queen
Singstar vol. 3
Star Wars Lego
Star Wars: The Force Unleashed
Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune
Warhawk
Watchmen: End is Nigh

And so, I still really love my PS3, and also have a half dozen blu-ray DVDS. I think the quality of the games I own and play has increased significantly, just as the games on the console seem to be getting better and better.

My top 5 fave games – SAINTS ROW 2, GTA 4, InFAMOUS, CALL OF DUTY 4 – Modern Warfare, KILLZONE 2.

Freedom of total destruction has forever acted as a tight leash on the neck of action-based videogames. Growing up, I always heard friends talk about how much more fun taking a rocket launcher to a building would be if it crumbled to the floor on impact. Back then, games like Blast Corps on N64 proved to be the best cure for such wanton destruction, providing satisfaction on a scale even greater than demolishing Lego sets during my years as a tyrannical infant just years before.

But now, after two first-person shooters and floundering around with limited ‘Geo-Mod’ technology on last generation consoles, Volition have created an open-world third-person shooter that seeks to re-invent those old ideals for a new breed of consoles and breathe new life into a series which has been left loitering for quite some time.

It’s 2125 and as protagonist Alec Mason, you come to Mars looking for an honest life of work under the wing of your activist brother. When your brother’s conveniently timed murder comes about early on however, you are soon assimilated into the Red Faction, a group of freedom-fighters who collectively seek to take down the tyrannical Earth Defence Force (or EDF). No, you won’t be fighting off any giant red ants, but the call for utter deterioration of the EDF’s lifelines quickly becomes your most important objective.

This is where the open-world aspect of Guerrilla comes into play: completing missions scattered around the map weakens the strength of territories dominated by EDF forces. As a result of liberating areas, the morale levels of the Red Faction become increased, meaning random soldiers join you during battles against the EDF and help defend or overtake specific strongholds.

‘Salvage’ is essentially Mars’ currency and allows the purchasing of valuable weapon upgrades and unlocks. To accrue Salvage, you’re required to be as unashamedly destructive to the surrounding EDF property as you can possibly be: blowing up targets in the grandest way possible permits more Salvage to be collected on the ground amongst all the debris.

But if you don’t completely total a building, potential Salvage may left strewn about, so being as ‘thorough’ as possible with a battered building pays off in several beneficial ways. As you can imagine, blending solid third-person action with an extremely robust and accurate physics engine is where Guerrilla comes in its own. Bearing witness to a building crumble to the ground and at the same time trying to dodge the falling debris from crushing you is almost a game in itself. And even when a large chunk of the ceiling does (rarely) land for a fatal blow, it’s more humorous than it is annoying.

Venturing out into the red plains of Mars however can be a little underwhelming to explore and its population of workers and stragglers don’t necessarily appear to be as down-trodden on a day-to-day basis as much as the narrative might lead you to believe… but honestly, even though the geometry is little more than a battleground for riding around and fighting on, it’s ultimately not required to be anything else but that.

The cornerstone of Guerrilla is its sheer moment-to-moment chaos, a pedigree that revolves around Guerrilla’s destructible core. Your trusty sledgehammer can not only diminish an entire building to rubble, but laying into a fleet of oncoming EDF can be a very gratifying way to go about liberating. Next thing you know, you’re tumbling a space-jeep into the side of an enemy base; or jet-packing over an expansive bridge gap which was penetrated thanks to the remote charges you laid down and detonated just seconds before.

Beefy mech-walkers also become available from time to time, causing swift ploughing justice through the defences of troops and vehicles with the greatest of ease. Even when undertaking some of the more tedious side missions, there’s always moments of ‘Did you just see that!?’ peppered throughout, something which is important to the ‘anything goes’ nature of a sandbox adventure.

Even when a visual barrage of explosions and bodies litters the screen, not only does the game look very slick and run at a respectable frame-rate, but the degree of polish applied to the game’s technical feats is joyfully evident the first time you level even the smallest complex.

Truly, these high production values are of similar penmanship across the majority of game’s technical facets. All weapons – even the humble pistol — feel robust and effective to shoot; and while the vehicles that run course around Mars offer little more than a means of ferrying you from Point A to Point B, they handle efficiently enough to make the journey worthwhile (although a fast-travel option can be unlocked later on as well). And without trying to convey any cynical overtones, what would a third-person shooter be in a post-Gears landscape without an over-the-shoulder aiming model and contextual cover system?

Sure, when you extract some of Guerrilla’s more elusive bullet points, it becomes more of a straight-forwarded affair, but when these aspects are combined, the end result is an exciting campaign that in turn eclipses the throwaway narrative that lingers on throughout the 10-hour campaign. That said, the story-based missions are arguably the most enjoyable part of Guerrilla’s campaign; and despite repetition seeping in once the grind hits, specific side missions are worth pursuing for the sake of racking up some more Salvage so you can better equip yourself for the tougher levels later on.

On that note, the default Medium setting can get extremely tough down the line, becoming a test of endurance that almost ruins the joy of blowing everyone to kingdom-come without the need for too much headwork. So, if you’re not one to enjoy having your mind numbed by constant onslaughts half-way through the campaign, then you may just be better off beginning on the Casual difficulty and simply enjoying the ride as opposed to wanting to jump off it.

16-player multiplayer is also a big component of Guerrilla and will likely be what maintains longevity for many. A very robust matchmaking system works around a levelling system and there are customizable options to tweak that perfect space marine look. Amongst a total of six modes, the focus on destruction is not lost in the multiplayer side of things either. Team-based capture-and-defend action in the form of ‘Damage Control’ is where Guerrilla’s form becomes properly flourished, where opposing sides vie for the power of specific plots of the map and utilize the game’s seasoned arsenal to do so.

This includes a menagerie of power-ups that are exclusive to the multiplayer portion. For instance, the ‘Rhino’ pack enables you with a momentary physical push that barrels you ahead as an unstoppable force, meaning you can smash through building sides and kill enemies in front of you, knocking them off far into the distance. Others grant abilities like invisibility and a vertical thrust, allowing you to reach higher places with a single activation. Unfortunately, you can only use one pack at a time, but there is enough variety in each pack to ensure that the players who learn to strategize with each pack will have the tactical edge over those who don’t.

Alongside a fully-functional and fleshed-out multiplayer, a mini-games collection of sorts under the name of ‘Wrecking Crew’ is available for a group of 4 players, which involves a pass-the-pad series of challenges that are meant for party play. They are actually a lot of fun and succeed as an enjoyable distraction from the competitive multiplayer.

In the most basic sense, the pure glee that arises from knocking down buildings and seeing them crash with visual splendour instantly makes Red Faction: Guerrilla a legitimately fun experience. There are certainly paths left less travelled with Guerrila, such as the hollow story and the empty world, which both fail to be incredibly interesting. But as far as delivering on its promise of unbridled destruction both offline and online, Volition have done a remarkable job in creating an accessible tour-de-force of explosive action that you won’t soon forget.

Does a lot of things right

Its universe is on the bland side

It’s going around that there will be Saints Row 3… But some people are saying it’s just a rumour.Saints Row 2 is good but Saints Row is apprantly better.Gamespot rated  GTA IV  10/10. Saints Row got 8.3 and Saints Row 2 got 8.0 .  So is there going to be Saints Row 3? I hear you asking.. Well i am not entierly sure so if i find out it’s true i will publish a post.

Elite Trooper Out