Juego: Viking: Battle for Asgard.
Género: Acción y Aventuras.
Plataformas: PS3, Xbox 360.
(Analizamos la versión de PS3)

- “Ciudad de Midgar, todo comienza cuando un chico rubio subido en un tren…”
- “Errr, no tío, que esto no es Final Fantasy, nos encontramos en una ciudad nórdica con miles de vikingos y ordas de viles monstruos”
- “Ah coño, pues entonces haz tu el review”

Entorno al lanzamiento:

Primavera del 2008, Sega decide dar a luz un juego en tercera persona: Viking, Battle for Asgard. Por esta época, los juegos en tercera persona donde el protagonista incluye una espada han adquirido la misma personalidad uno tras otro: Devil May Cry.
Lejos de tratarse de una mera copia con mejoras gráficas y un variable entorno, The Creative Assembly nos plantea una serie de misiones dentro del juego que sin duda, hacen de “Viking, Battle for Asgard” un juego diferente, que no único.

¿De qué va ésto?

Nos sumergiremos en el reino de Midgard, con la diosa Hel descargando sobre nuestro pueblo vikingo inmensas legiones de monstruos que dejarán nuestra isla y las del resto de Midgard, bajo su total dominio. Es aquí donde aparece el papel de nuestro protagonista, Skarin, un vikingo más hinchado que Ronnie Coleman, que con la compañía de un hacha, su espada y la ayuda y consejos de la diosa Freya, pretende liberar a su pueblo de un destino esclavizado.

Bien, una vez claro el guión sobre el que girará la trama me gustaría resaltar ALGO INTERESANTE: el juego se basa en su mayoría en la cultura nórdica y vikinga, por lo que contaremos con numerosos guiños y leyendas, que de saber algo sobre dicha cultura, enriquecerán y nos harán más amenas las partidas. Quede claro que no hay que ser un experto entendido en leyendas nórdicas para poder jugar el juego, pero seguramente, sí te guste más, pues numerosos nombres te resultarán familiares de historias que hayas podido leer. Conste en acta que yo de vikingos sé poco más que Asterix y Obelix siempre les hundían los barcos, así que puede ser que se haya notado en la efusividad con la que he relatado el argumento de la historia.

Gráficos:

Las mejoras gráficas respecto a la anterior generación, son bastante notables. El entorno abierto por el que nos moveremos con el protagonista está lleno de paisajes bellos y con una gran frondosidad de por medio. Hay detalles poco cuidados, como la mayoría de cuevas rocosas que nos encontremos en el juego, que dan una sensación bastante acartonada de ellas.

Son gráficos pasables, pero ni mucho menos una maravilla, viendo el rendimiento que han dado otros juegos.

Ahora bien, la sensación de ver como salpica la sangre tras reventar literalmente a un siervo de Hel es sencillamente genial..horas me he tirado descuartizando brazos y cabezas enemigas.
El punto flaco a destacar son las escenas, que o bien tienen un estilo de cómic estático que no me acabaron de convencer (más que nada porque el principio y final del juego te lo cuentan así y me pareció el aspecto más mal hecho del juego) o bien, utiliza los propios gráficos del juego, sin ninguna mejora.

Sonido:

Un buen apartado, para que engañarnos. La traducción ha sido totalmente al castellano, lo cual incluye las voces, y eso quieras o no, siempre es de agradecer, más aún cuando se les da una buena entonación, como es el caso.

Principalmente y durante la exploración, no encontraremos música de fondo que acompañe nuestro épico viaje, si no más bien la propia naturaleza: se escuchan desde pájaros, hasta nuestras pisadas cercanas de la playa, por ello el ambiente transmitido es el de estar en el propio entorno. Quizás si se echa en falta de vez en cuando alguna canción típica de Devil May Cry que nos permita esa emoción y descarga de adrenalina cada vez que machacamos el botón, pero no.

Aquí el apartado sonoro dedicado a las batallas, vendrá cuando nos encontremos con las batallas más duras de cada isla, donde no lucharemos solos: iremos acompañados de legiones más o menos grandes de vikingos que habremos ayudado en el desarrollo de la historia (cuando digo más o menos, el mínimo de personajes que te ayudan pueden rondar los 30 y el máximo perfectamente más de 300). La música muy apropiada en este tipo de batallas, una gran orquesta se alza por detrás del telón mientras derribamos al ejército de Hel.

El SFX de cada vez que destripemos a un enemigo, es simplemente genial.

Destripando el sistema de juego:

Nos encontramos con un tío que lleva un hacha y una espada, por lo tanto, creo que es lógico el sistema de juego que vamos a emplear: macha-botones y macahaca-enemigos (Devil May Cry, God of War y similares). Ahora bien, lejos de ser tan sencillo como presionar X repetidas veces para atacar y exterminar los rivales, nuestro protagonista tendrá que ir más allá de ello si pretende sobrevivir en el juego, me explico: habrá batallas contra diferentes tipos de enemigos, por lo que simples espadazos no serán el medio más sencillo de desacernos de ellos. Habrá que plantear diferentes estrategias, que se basarán principalmente en tres cosas:

- Combos: Los combos podremos adquirilos a través de la Arena de Combate, una por cada isla. Se nos permitirá comprar movimientos más potentes y devastadores, a la vez que podremos subirlos de nivel y mejorarlos. Los ataques servirán para hacernos más fácil la estrategia a seguir entre diferentes enemigos. Ejemplo: Si aparece un enemigo con escudo, primero atacaré de forma que pueda reventar el escudo cuanto antes para ya atizarle al monstruo; mientras enemigos sin escudo podré ir directo a saludar su estómago con el filo de mi espada. Son bastante necesarios para avanzar en el juego.

- Poderes elementales: Los Power Up. Hay que comprarlos y subirlos de nivel para hacerlos más o menos potentes, a través de el maná que nos de el derrotar los enemigos, podremos invocar uno de los tres poderes que se nos ofrece: Hielo (congelaremos a los enemigos y podremos hacerlos cubitos de hielo para un cubata), Fuego (los quemaremos y debilitaremos poco a poco), Electricidad (torrarlos por dentro). El poder se acaba cuando se acaba el maná. Son muy efectivos y bastante útiles cuando estas en apuros.

- Combinación de botones: A lo God of War. Cuando estás a punto de cargarte un monstruo especial, en este juego también debermos combinar correctamente entre los diferentes botones de dirección y acción del mando. (Así como para abrir cofres y puertas debermos pulsar repetidamente círculo)

Como podéis comprobrar, es un juego que de armas no tiene demasida variación (hacha y espada para toda la partida) pero si que nos encontraremos con otros elementos que hagan menos monótona la partida. Interesante comentario que se me olvidaba: el nivel de dificultad es bueno. Ten claro que si te aparecen 10 enemigos de golpe, vas a estar muy jodido, y a no ser que te plantees una buena estrategia y te los cargues poco a poco sin llamar la atención (uno a uno), habrán cosas que te serán imposibles hacer queriendo matar a todos los enemigos de golpe.

Y tras esta “breve” introducción, paso a explicaros porque no lo podemos incluir en el mismo saco que al estereotipo de Beat Em Up: el juego mezcla este género, con el de Aventuras y Exploración, pues para avanzar en el juego, tendremos que sortear diferentes tipos de misiones, entre ellas, las más importantes:

- Liberar poblados: Para avanzar en la aventura, necesitamos liberar poblados y territorios infestados por el ejército de Hel, con la finalidad de que los vikingos que liberemos, puedan ayudarnos más tarde, en las grandes batallas.

- Exploración de runas: Debemos buscar por los lugares donde nos indica el mapa , unas runas escondidas que nos permitirán invocar a un dragón (o dos o tres dependiendo de lo avanzado que llevemos el juego) que será imprescindible en las últimas batallas de cada isla.

- Infiltración y sigilo: Este sin lugar a dudas, es uno de los aspectos que más me ha gustado del juego. El hecho de tener que infiltrate en las fortalezas que guardan miles de monstruos bajo el dominio de Hel será una tarea ardua y complicada. Deberemos intentar que nos vean el mínimo de enemigos posibles, pues si somos avistados y percibidos por la fortaleza, será imposible acabar la misión.

- Vikingos vs Siervos de Hel: Increible, así debe empezar la descripción de este punto. Se trata de una batalla entre centenares de personajes por la pantalla, donde tendrás que abrirte camino entre aliados y enemigos (que obviamente pueden golpearte y tú podrás golpear) para llegar a los enemigos que de verdad importa: los chamanes que regeneran las ordas de monstruos. Sin exageraros, puedes llegar a ver a 500 personajes en menos de un minuto. Iba a comentar que en Ps3 estas batallas iban a cámara lenta (vamos, excusa para no decir que se ralentiza el juego), pero con una actualización del juego, el ritmo de combate es a tiempo real. En estas batallas tendremos a nuestro lado unos dragones, que aunque impresione a primera vista, que no os deje engañar: solo podrás utilizarlo, si derrotas a ciertos enemigos en el campo de batalla, ello te permitirá atacar un turno con el dragón, que arrasa todo lo que pilla.

- Pega sobre este sistema de misiones: NO HAY UNA PUTA MISIÓN SECUNDARIA, así de claro, es lo único que le falla a este aspecto. Por lo tanto una vez te pasas el juego, no te queda nada por ver, pues todo lo que tienes que hacer es obligatorio. Lo único secundario que hay es encontrar tesoros y cofres (vamos, dinero para comprar) y encontrarte con algunos monstruos que tengan atados a 3 vikingos a un palo (suena mal, lo sé).

Duración: El juego puede acabarse perfectamente en una semana, con una media de 2-3 horas por día como mucho..así que si las cuentas no me salen mal, entre 15-20 horas el juego se acaba y hay poco más que ver, ya que no es demasiado re-jugabe debido a que es muy directo y con una variación rejugable muy escasa.

Conclusión:

Juego bastante entretenido que te hará pasar unos momentos buenos con las liberaciones de poblados, épicos con las batallas más enormes y a veces incluso extresante con las misiones de sigilo si no se te dan bien. Es una mezcla de Devil May Cry, God of War y un buen juego de aventuras que se precie. Ahora bien, una vez lo acabes, no hay nada más allá de lo visto.

Sobretodo me quedo con una muy importante: Sega está dando un gran rendimiento con juegazos en las consolas de última generación.

Nota de Legend SK: 7,75

Juego: Viking: Battle for Asgard.
Género: Acción y Aventuras.
Plataformas: PS3, Xbox 360.
(Analizamos la versión de PS3)

- “Ciudad de Midgar, todo comienza cuando un chico rubio subido en un tren…”
- “Errr, no tío, que esto no es Final Fantasy, nos encontramos en una ciudad nórdica con miles de vikingos y ordas de viles monstruos”
- “Ah coño, pues entonces haz tu el review”

Entorno al lanzamiento:

Primavera del 2008, Sega decide dar a luz un juego en tercera persona: Viking, Battle for Asgard. Por esta época, los juegos en tercera persona donde el protagonista incluye una espada han adquirido la misma personalidad uno tras otro: Devil May Cry.
Lejos de tratarse de una mera copia con mejoras gráficas y un variable entorno, The Creative Assembly nos plantea una serie de misiones dentro del juego que sin duda, hacen de “Viking, Battle for Asgard” un juego diferente, que no único.

¿De qué va ésto?

Nos sumergiremos en el reino de Midgard, con la diosa Hel descargando sobre nuestro pueblo vikingo inmensas legiones de monstruos que dejarán nuestra isla y las del resto de Midgard, bajo su total dominio. Es aquí donde aparece el papel de nuestro protagonista, Skarin, un vikingo más hinchado que Ronnie Coleman, que con la compañía de un hacha, su espada y la ayuda y consejos de la diosa Freya, pretende liberar a su pueblo de un destino esclavizado.

Bien, una vez claro el guión sobre el que girará la trama me gustaría resaltar ALGO INTERESANTE: el juego se basa en su mayoría en la cultura nórdica y vikinga, por lo que contaremos con numerosos guiños y leyendas, que de saber algo sobre dicha cultura, enriquecerán y nos harán más amenas las partidas. Quede claro que no hay que ser un experto entendido en leyendas nórdicas para poder jugar el juego, pero seguramente, sí te guste más, pues numerosos nombres te resultarán familiares de historias que hayas podido leer. Conste en acta que yo de vikingos sé poco más que Asterix y Obelix siempre les hundían los barcos, así que puede ser que se haya notado en la efusividad con la que he relatado el argumento de la historia.

Gráficos:

Las mejoras gráficas respecto a la anterior generación, son bastante notables. El entorno abierto por el que nos moveremos con el protagonista está lleno de paisajes bellos y con una gran frondosidad de por medio. Hay detalles poco cuidados, como la mayoría de cuevas rocosas que nos encontremos en el juego, que dan una sensación bastante acartonada de ellas.

Son gráficos pasables, pero ni mucho menos una maravilla, viendo el rendimiento que han dado otros juegos.

Ahora bien, la sensación de ver como salpica la sangre tras reventar literalmente a un siervo de Hel es sencillamente genial..horas me he tirado descuartizando brazos y cabezas enemigas.
El punto flaco a destacar son las escenas, que o bien tienen un estilo de cómic estático que no me acabaron de convencer (más que nada porque el principio y final del juego te lo cuentan así y me pareció el aspecto más mal hecho del juego) o bien, utiliza los propios gráficos del juego, sin ninguna mejora.

Sonido:

Un buen apartado, para que engañarnos. La traducción ha sido totalmente al castellano, lo cual incluye las voces, y eso quieras o no, siempre es de agradecer, más aún cuando se les da una buena entonación, como es el caso.

Principalmente y durante la exploración, no encontraremos música de fondo que acompañe nuestro épico viaje, si no más bien la propia naturaleza: se escuchan desde pájaros, hasta nuestras pisadas cercanas de la playa, por ello el ambiente transmitido es el de estar en el propio entorno. Quizás si se echa en falta de vez en cuando alguna canción típica de Devil May Cry que nos permita esa emoción y descarga de adrenalina cada vez que machacamos el botón, pero no.

Aquí el apartado sonoro dedicado a las batallas, vendrá cuando nos encontremos con las batallas más duras de cada isla, donde no lucharemos solos: iremos acompañados de legiones más o menos grandes de vikingos que habremos ayudado en el desarrollo de la historia (cuando digo más o menos, el mínimo de personajes que te ayudan pueden rondar los 30 y el máximo perfectamente más de 300). La música muy apropiada en este tipo de batallas, una gran orquesta se alza por detrás del telón mientras derribamos al ejército de Hel.

El SFX de cada vez que destripemos a un enemigo, es simplemente genial.

Destripando el sistema de juego:

Nos encontramos con un tío que lleva un hacha y una espada, por lo tanto, creo que es lógico el sistema de juego que vamos a emplear: macha-botones y macahaca-enemigos (Devil May Cry, God of War y similares). Ahora bien, lejos de ser tan sencillo como presionar X repetidas veces para atacar y exterminar los rivales, nuestro protagonista tendrá que ir más allá de ello si pretende sobrevivir en el juego, me explico: habrá batallas contra diferentes tipos de enemigos, por lo que simples espadazos no serán el medio más sencillo de desacernos de ellos. Habrá que plantear diferentes estrategias, que se basarán principalmente en tres cosas:

- Combos: Los combos podremos adquirilos a través de la Arena de Combate, una por cada isla. Se nos permitirá comprar movimientos más potentes y devastadores, a la vez que podremos subirlos de nivel y mejorarlos. Los ataques servirán para hacernos más fácil la estrategia a seguir entre diferentes enemigos. Ejemplo: Si aparece un enemigo con escudo, primero atacaré de forma que pueda reventar el escudo cuanto antes para ya atizarle al monstruo; mientras enemigos sin escudo podré ir directo a saludar su estómago con el filo de mi espada. Son bastante necesarios para avanzar en el juego.

- Poderes elementales: Los Power Up. Hay que comprarlos y subirlos de nivel para hacerlos más o menos potentes, a través de el maná que nos de el derrotar los enemigos, podremos invocar uno de los tres poderes que se nos ofrece: Hielo (congelaremos a los enemigos y podremos hacerlos cubitos de hielo para un cubata), Fuego (los quemaremos y debilitaremos poco a poco), Electricidad (torrarlos por dentro). El poder se acaba cuando se acaba el maná. Son muy efectivos y bastante útiles cuando estas en apuros.

- Combinación de botones: A lo God of War. Cuando estás a punto de cargarte un monstruo especial, en este juego también debermos combinar correctamente entre los diferentes botones de dirección y acción del mando. (Así como para abrir cofres y puertas debermos pulsar repetidamente círculo)

Como podéis comprobrar, es un juego que de armas no tiene demasida variación (hacha y espada para toda la partida) pero si que nos encontraremos con otros elementos que hagan menos monótona la partida. Interesante comentario que se me olvidaba: el nivel de dificultad es bueno. Ten claro que si te aparecen 10 enemigos de golpe, vas a estar muy jodido, y a no ser que te plantees una buena estrategia y te los cargues poco a poco sin llamar la atención (uno a uno), habrán cosas que te serán imposibles hacer queriendo matar a todos los enemigos de golpe.

Y tras esta “breve” introducción, paso a explicaros porque no lo podemos incluir en el mismo saco que al estereotipo de Beat Em Up: el juego mezcla este género, con el de Aventuras y Exploración, pues para avanzar en el juego, tendremos que sortear diferentes tipos de misiones, entre ellas, las más importantes:

- Liberar poblados: Para avanzar en la aventura, necesitamos liberar poblados y territorios infestados por el ejército de Hel, con la finalidad de que los vikingos que liberemos, puedan ayudarnos más tarde, en las grandes batallas.

- Exploración de runas: Debemos buscar por los lugares donde nos indica el mapa , unas runas escondidas que nos permitirán invocar a un dragón (o dos o tres dependiendo de lo avanzado que llevemos el juego) que será imprescindible en las últimas batallas de cada isla.

- Infiltración y sigilo: Este sin lugar a dudas, es uno de los aspectos que más me ha gustado del juego. El hecho de tener que infiltrate en las fortalezas que guardan miles de monstruos bajo el dominio de Hel será una tarea ardua y complicada. Deberemos intentar que nos vean el mínimo de enemigos posibles, pues si somos avistados y percibidos por la fortaleza, será imposible acabar la misión.

- Vikingos vs Siervos de Hel: Increible, así debe empezar la descripción de este punto. Se trata de una batalla entre centenares de personajes por la pantalla, donde tendrás que abrirte camino entre aliados y enemigos (que obviamente pueden golpearte y tú podrás golpear) para llegar a los enemigos que de verdad importa: los chamanes que regeneran las ordas de monstruos. Sin exageraros, puedes llegar a ver a 500 personajes en menos de un minuto. Iba a comentar que en Ps3 estas batallas iban a cámara lenta (vamos, excusa para no decir que se ralentiza el juego), pero con una actualización del juego, el ritmo de combate es a tiempo real. En estas batallas tendremos a nuestro lado unos dragones, que aunque impresione a primera vista, que no os deje engañar: solo podrás utilizarlo, si derrotas a ciertos enemigos en el campo de batalla, ello te permitirá atacar un turno con el dragón, que arrasa todo lo que pilla.

- Pega sobre este sistema de misiones: NO HAY UNA PUTA MISIÓN SECUNDARIA, así de claro, es lo único que le falla a este aspecto. Por lo tanto una vez te pasas el juego, no te queda nada por ver, pues todo lo que tienes que hacer es obligatorio. Lo único secundario que hay es encontrar tesoros y cofres (vamos, dinero para comprar) y encontrarte con algunos monstruos que tengan atados a 3 vikingos a un palo (suena mal, lo sé).

Duración: El juego puede acabarse perfectamente en una semana, con una media de 2-3 horas por día como mucho..así que si las cuentas no me salen mal, entre 15-20 horas el juego se acaba y hay poco más que ver, ya que no es demasiado re-jugabe debido a que es muy directo y con una variación rejugable muy escasa.

Conclusión:

Juego bastante entretenido que te hará pasar unos momentos buenos con las liberaciones de poblados, épicos con las batallas más enormes y a veces incluso extresante con las misiones de sigilo si no se te dan bien. Es una mezcla de Devil May Cry, God of War y un buen juego de aventuras que se precie. Ahora bien, una vez lo acabes, no hay nada más allá de lo visto.

Sobretodo me quedo con una muy importante: Sega está dando un gran rendimiento con juegazos en las consolas de última generación.

Nota de Legend SK: 7,75

Nå er det virkelig lenge siden jeg har blogget, siste post er faktisk så langt tilbake som i april. Jeg sluttet med bloggingen midt i eksamensperioden min og slutten av skoleåret, derfor tenkte jeg at det var lurt å begynne opp igjen sammen med et nytt semester. Merker allerede nå at dette kommer til å bli et langt innlegg… puh!

Nytt skoleår på HiØ og jeg er nå klar for å spesialisere med innenfor de fagene jeg skal kunne undervise i. Allmennlærerutdanningen er 4-årig hvor man de første to årene tar de obligatoriske fagene som matte, norsk og pedagogikk. De to siste årene skal man altså spesialisere seg og mitt valg falt da på samfunnsfag. Samfunnsfag består av, i grunnskolen, fagene geografi, historie og samfunnsfag. Håper på et bra år hvertfall, selvom jeg er en smule skeptisk til ekskursjone for å kikke på stein- og bergarter. (Geografi)

Siden jeg har spill som tema på denne bloggen vil jeg gjøre en oppsummering av min spillsommer, som har vært mer eller mindre storslått… Vel. Iallefall begynte jeg sommeren med å gå igjennom en del spill jeg allerede har fullført for å skaffe meg mer gamerscore. Man kan vel tydelig si at jeg har blitt bitt av basillen og endt opp som en gamerscore-hore. Så jeg dro meg igjennom litt Crackdown, Gears of War, Mirror’s Edge og litt Guitar Hero/Rock Band på jakt etter små og store summer med G’s. Det var hvertfall begynnelsen på sommeren, men selvom jeg nesten hadde krabbet meg opp fra 7000 G til 9000, skjønte jeg at jeg ikke ville kunne runde 10000 uten å skaffe meg noen nye spill. Min lillebror ville etterhvert komme med noen av hans nye spill, men frem til det måtte jeg låne litt. Rundet 10000 gamerscore ved å spille igjennom Call of Duty: World at War og Harry Potter: OotP, som var to helt ålreite spilll. CoD synes jeg har gått seg litt fast i de samme mønstrene av oppdrag og baner, men noen av achievementsene gav en utfordring. Klarte ikke å drepe generalen med pistolen på 200 meters avstand, men jeg er tross alt bare menneskelig. Harry Potter var et ganske middels spill, hva man egentlig kan forvente av et EA-har-kjøpt-en-tittel-spill, men synes det var ganske morsomt for det. Jeg lånte også med meg Viking: Battle for Asgard og jeg må bare få si: MAKAN til møkkaspill skal du lete lenge etter. Protagonisten var en klump med muskler som løp som om han gikk i 5 meter med gjørme. Spillet gikk egentlig bare ut på å trykke på X og Y annenhver gang og med en historie som var like gjennomført som en våt gymsokk. Jeg spilte ikke igjennom dette, fingrene mine formet seg til knyttnever hele tiden.

Det hele forbedret seg da Trym kom, spillnivået gikk betraktelig opp. Fable 2, SKATE samt litt Halo 3-gaming gjorde at spillsommerene ble ganske så lys. Fable 2 var en fantastisk opplevelse, nydelig spill med en virkelig sær form for humor. Jeg var litt kjedelig og valgte å være snill, men jeg fikk en god del gamerscore ut av det. Lionhead introduserte også en følgesvenn, som jeg mener var egentlig ganske nyttig. Joda, det var en del glitches og mye tull man måtte igjennom for å holde hunden gald, men hunden hjalp deg tross alt i kamp og fant nedgravde skatter. Et genialt spill!

SKATE var også en positiv opplevelse og jeg føyer meg i rekken som sier at spillet slår Tony Hawk-serien ned i støvla! Måten man behandler brettet på gir en helt ny opplevelse av skate-spill som jeg ikke har sett før. Men for å ikke gjenta hva utallige spillanmeldere har sagt hele tiden, så nøyer jeg meg med å si at SKATE er et spill som bør spilles!

En spennende spillsommer har det vært altså, uten så alt for mange nye titler. La meg bare få slutte denne oppsummeringen med å fortelle om 22 September. Da kommer nemlig Halo 3:ODST som vil være det nyeste kapittelet i Halo-serien. Nå skal ikke jeg fortelle mer om hva spillet handler om og alt slikt, men jeg må nesten fortelle om min forhåndsbestilling av ODST hos GameStop. Forhåndsbestilling av spillet med Sarge som firefight-figur og man får Collectors edition for 199,- kr hvis man bytter inn 2 xbox360-spill! Regn med at jeg er der når butikkene åpner på 22 September.

Helt til slutt vil jeg bare si at jeg nå spiller meg igjennom [Prototype] og at det vil komme en “anmeldelse” av det senere. Mye mulig at jeg begynner å blogge små anmeldelser av spillene jeg fullfører, men vi får se hvor aktiv jeg vil være der.

Det jeg vet er at jeg hvertfall kommer til å blogge mer, har fått gløden tilbake igjen og når “fruen” min også har begynt å blogge aktivt så bør det nok gå.

- Magnus “Gamer” Valebjørg.

Graphics

In the world of viking battle for Asgard color palettes seem to play a large part of the ambiance in regards to the visuals and that is a definite plus. Liberated areas are bright and shining with redemption as your newly freed kinsmen walk around on wondrous land, while the enemy regions and your captured brothers in arms are stuck in the deep and depressive darkness. Outside of this well done artistic choice, the character models are fairly pleasing as they represent their characters well and the environments are large and wondrous. Nothing jaw-dropping here but it does please the eye. And the graphic novel like cut scenes hit the tone of this game to a tee.

8/10

Story

There is a war being waged between angry goddesses and you are called to take up arms by the command of Freya. She is trying to stop her rival goddess at any and all costs from bringing about Ragnarok which will bring about the end of life itself. You are given her blessing in battle and must set forth to discover how to end the day, and some of the hidden truths about the enemy themselves. All in all I liked the story, it wasn’t as in depth as I would like given some awesome source material, but it’s better then the average action title.

6.5/10

Gameplay

This is such a mixed bag of good and bad, it might be hard to walk away anxious or worried after reading this so I will try my best.
In terms of the pros, the world of viking is open one. Meaning, you can mostly choose what missions you undertake and in what order. This was delightful and more action games need to try this approach, it felt very liberating compared to most linear titles. Also, the upgradeable skills give you good reason to keep on killing. But of all the positives, the full scale warfare takes the cake. You have HUNDREDS of warriors and creatures going to hell and back to ravage each other and it feels every bit of epic and awesome as that should.
The cons of this game would be the odd stealth elements. I call them odd because you are a warrior viking blessed by freya and can split enemies in two….yet you have to hide and can be in trouble if you face 5+ enemies at once. The choice to give you such power but then straddle it with such vulnerability was a huge letdown and takes away from some huge potential for the title.
Also, the missions you undertake don’t vary from the usual free them or fetch this variety, which makes your ability to choose from them less important then it should be.
Lastly, the sneaking missions onto bases is aggravating and doesn’t do the action in this title justice.
So after that I walked away ok with the title, but a lot less please then I could have been. I think you will too.

5/10

The Achievement Angle

This is a great game for achievement boosters as you can get over 500 pts from just playing the game on any difficulty level you choose. In addition, only a few achievements would actually require true skill or timely dedication.

8/10

Overall 

 If you want to try a different kind of action game with a solid story and wage some epic war, this title could work for you. But the hindering stealth aspects and lack of variety will sour the taste. I’d say test out the waters before you dive in.

6.5/10

Recommendation: Rent

Viking Battle for Asgard

Viking – Battle for Asgard è una nuova creazione della Creative Assembly, che dopo Spartan – Total War, presenta un gioco per Xbox 360 e Playstation 3. Giocando con Viking – Battle for Asgard, vesti i panni di Skarin ( lo vedi sull’immagine sopra ) e combatti per riconquistare i territori sottratti dai nemici, in una serie di missioni diverse tra loro, che ti vedranno spargere molto sangue nei campi di battaglia, molto belli da vedere e di enormi dimensioni. L’ambientazione delle scenografie di Viking – Battle for Asgard, rispecchia la mitologia normanna, e vede la presenza di draghi mitologici e una gran quantità di violenza, visto che i tuoi nemici, sono le Legioni di Hel, una dea bandita da Asgard, che ha riunito un esercito di Vichinghi non morti per vendicarsi dell’affronto subito. Questi vikinghi non morti ti daranno molti più problemi di quello che pensi, visto che alcuni personaggi hanno l’abilità di farli risorgere, ma tu hai un’asso nella manica, cioè la possibilità di evocare l’imponente Dragon Strike, grazie alla divinità Freya, che manda in nostro soccorso un gruppo di draghi, e le loro entrate sarànno davvero spettacolari. Viking – Battle for Asgard presenta paesaggi, città, fiumi e foreste riprodotte veramente bene e senza alcun limite di esplorazione, infatti in questo videogioco, ci sono anche molte missioni secondarie, in aree amiche, che consentono di acquisire esperienza e ottenere potenziamenti e attacchi speciali devastanti, con mosse e tecniche sempre più rapide e distruttive.

Shop Online: Videogiochi, Console, Giochi Ds, Giochi Pc, Giochi Ps2, Giochi Ps3, Giochi Psp, Giochi Wii, Giochi Xbox 360

Pagina Originale di Viking Battle for Asgard!

HomePage Videogiochi e Console!

Ten 360 Games You Haven’t Played – Part 2

by AXIS of Reality

©2009 Alex Baldwin

Time for Part 2, finding ten 360 games you haven’t played but really should. It would be nice if there was no need to write articles like this and all great games got the attention they deserve, but a lot of the financial success of a game is reliant on their marketing budget.

This means if the game isn’t a sequel to an established franchise or isn’t being pimped at trade conventions (like the upcoming E3 for example) it will often be overlooked, so it shouldn’t be surprising that these last five games in the list are all original IPs.

To remind you, the 5 games in Part 1 were: • Infinite Undiscovery, • Overlord, • Eternal Sonata, • Banjo Kazooie: Nuts ‘n’ Bolts and • Condemned: Criminal Origins.

And without any further blabbing about, here’s the final 5 games you should be picking up in the mid-year sales dirt cheap, or trade any games you already own and get them delivered for free (for a timed period) from our affiliate Game Share.

Viking: Battle for Asgard

Now this one is confusing. Viking: Battle For Asgard has all the right ingredients for a commercial smash hit – a huge open world, some beautiful graphics, epic battles and a great setting. So where did it go wrong?

I have absolutely no idea. Recently I managed to get a copy for cheap, and have been loving it ever since.

The environments are often quite stunning, with stormy skies and fantastic lighting as they’re overrun with enemies before opening up to perfect skies once you’ve slaughtered every inhabitant in the most brutal ways possible.

Want to slice off both arms before tearing the torso off into a meaty chunk? Go for it – you’ll be rewarded with more mana.

Along with some Tomb Raider-esque platforming, Viking: Battle For Asgard will keep you entertained for a good long time with solid gameplay and a great world. For fans of God of War or Fable, it should be on your list to buy as you can find it between $25 and $50 now.

A word of warning for PS3 owners though – the PS3 version is unfortunately plagued by technical and framerate issues that get worse as the game goes on, so you might like to avoid this one unless you have a 360.

TimeShift

You may have heard of Sierra Studios Timeshift several years ago, maybe even played the quite underwhelming PC demo that immediately put most people off this title.

Well time to take another look, as after that disastrous showing the team at Saber Interactive went back to the drawing board and gave the game a good overhaul. The result? An enjoyable blaster with some very amusing time powers.

Using the usual time controls of pause, rewind and slow motion you’ll be able to run into one of the large-scale gunfights, pause and shotgun a few soldiers before unpausing and watching them all fly backwards simultaneously.

Then, you might need to quickly rewind to detach that grenade that got stuck to your helmet and watch it return to its sender.

While unashamedly ‘borrowing’ many ideas from Half-Life 2, Halo and any other successful FPS franchise you can name, the end result is a highly competent shooter well worth the $15-$30 you’ll find it for in sales now.

Dark Sector

Digital Illusions’ current-gen debut Dark Sector was at one time, the most anticipated game on the planet. Why? Because it was the first game ever to be announced and shown off for the current generation of consoles.

You can still find the trailer on YouTube, looking like a cross between Unreal and Chronicles of Riddick. After the team realised that the space marine setting was pretty much full to the brim the game was reworked and in the end we got the new Dark Sector.

Well, the rest of the world got Dark Sector. It was banned in Australia due to the use of its signature weapon – the ‘glaive’, a three bladed shuriken-esque boomerang that had the capacity to sever people completely in half.

Through a mixture of this and cover mechanics that pay a lot of homage to Gears of War, Dark Sector received positive reviews with the only real issue being the complete lack of innovation.

• Dark Sector D3 Publishing Video

But hey, not every game needs to reinvent the wheel. Some like Dark Sector play it safe but still provide a great experience.

After some censorship Dark Sector did get an Australian release with absolutely zero fanfare, so now’s a great time to pick it up for $25-50.

(ED: The “original Dark Sector concept was much deeper and tense than what we gotyy in the end. I would have preferred D3Publishing to contniue with the original style. Set in deep space which secondary characters and a great deal more depth. Idealy it may surface in another form, at some stage. One can only pray – check the vid out for an early squiz.)

• Original Dark Sector footage

Too Human

Now here’s a game that had a high public profile (thanks to the much-publicised lawsuit between developers Silicon Knights and Unreal Engine 3 creators Epic) but was largely ignored on release.

Well, maybe not ignored – more all-out hated. After a massive development schedule covering 3 generations of consoles, when the final result didn’t turn out to be the second coming, it was ripped to shreds by gamers everywhere, whether they’d played it or not.

Critics were nicer – OXCGN’s own review gave it a respectable 7.9/10, indicating it’s a good game but it doesn’t push any boundaries. OXCGN even had a favourable comment from the man himself, Dennis Dyack. Which was a nice surprise.

If you’re looking for a good dungeon crawler with some epic scenery and an interesting twist of sci-fi and norse mythology, Too Human is well worth getting for the $25-50 it can be found at.

While there are some flaws (such as the well-known valkyrie cutscene problem when dying), it’s a lot of fun with a huge amount of armour and weapon customisation and even better in co-op with a friend.

Enchanted Arms

Yes, one more JRPG to finish off the list. Bizarrely, Ubisoft chose to publish Enchanted Arms instead of a Japanese publisher for the launch of the 360.

While everyone was ooh-ing and aah-ing over Oblivion’s world and Dead of Alive 4’s graphics, [eM] -eNCHANT arM- as it was originally known, snuck by under the radar but provided those who found it with a long and satisfying romp through several worlds with a great battle system.

It suffered from the usual launch-game problems of fairly empty environments and making every surface shiny (aaaah…back when shiny = next-gen), but made up for it with combat that played out like a cross between regular turn-based and chess.

You would slowly collect more monsters to fight for you on a grid board that required a fair bit of tactical thought.

The story was interesting and the characters, while overly stereotypical and with the worst fashion sense ever to befall the world of games, were memorable. Enchanted Arms is a great way to bide the time until Final Fantasy XIII and Blue Dragon 2 make their debut. Pick it up for $12-25 easily.

Once again got to warn that the later-ported PS3 version suffers from technical problems so try before you buy for PS3 owners.

Well, that completes the list.

Of course there are going to be more overlooked games than these, and I’m sure there are still some I’m yet to discover. These were the ones I felt most in need of some recognition however, and I hope you’ll give them a go when you next see them under a layer of dust in the pre-owned bins of game stores around Australia (and the world) or on Game Share .

You could pay $100 for a good new game OR you could get several of these for the same price and help the developers get what they deserved from the beginning.

After all, it’s pretty hard to regret an entire new game for nearly the price of a DLC pack on Live or PSN

. ©2009 Alex Baldwin

Please share us around

I feel like Rosenberg’s Ramblings can’t possibly be a proper video game-focused blog until at least one charticle has been posted. Since my page dwells in the shadowy corners of the gaming Internet, known to few and read by fewer, I feel it’s only natural that my first official list casts a spotlight on some of 2008’s more underappreciated gems.

Some of these you’ve likely played and forgotten; others you missed entirely. Maybe there’s even a title or two missing. Lord knows I didn’t get to play Operation Darkness, but a WWII-based tactical RPG featuring vampires and dragons can’t be totally without merit, can it? The running theme binding all of these selections together is that I played and enjoyed each and every one of them. So please, feel free to append your own choices in the comments section below.

Viking: Battle for Asgard (released March 25, 2008)

A third-person, open-world action/stealth-RPG published by Sega and developed by Total War architects Creative Assembly. I simply don’t understand the lack of love Viking received. Set across three wide-open maps, the goal throughout is to continually build your Viking army (and your viking avatar Skarin), the better to crush enemy-held camps, villages and castles in epic-scale invasions. The combat is pretty brutal too, with slow-mo decapitations and limb removals serving as the norm.

AWAY: Shuffle Dungeon (released October 30, 2008)

Mistwalker’s/Artoon’s Nintendo DS-exclusive AWAY: Shuffle Dungeon was released at the worst possible moment, arriving the same week that Fallout 3 hit stores. What’s more, I think people may have been frightened off by the simplistic, overly cutesy visuals. It’s too bad for that; AWAY ‘s dual-screen dungeon shuffling and between-dungeon city-building makes for incredibly addictive, and frequently challenging, gameplay.

Bangai-O Spirits (released August 12, 2008)

Treasure’s original Bangai-O hit North American Dreamcasts in March, 2001, the same month that the console was to be discontinued here. Its DS-exclusive sequel Bangai-O Spirits features 160 levels plus a full-featured level editor. User-created content can even be shared as sound clips, which can be recorded into another DS via its integrated microphone. At first glance, the game seems like a standard 360-degree scrolling 2D shooter, but a variety of weapon effects, environmental features and enemy strengths/weaknesses create a distinctly puzzler-like dynamic.

Chronotron (released May 2008)

I tried this here Flash game months ago on Kongregate because of good advertising. Chronotron drew me in with a Simpsons reference headlining its description: “It’s about a robot that goes back in time for some reason. (His best friend is a talking pie!)” While I never did find the referenced talking pie, I did find a game which toys with time-based puzzle play in a way very similar to another fairly popular 2008 release, Jonathan Blow’s Braid. This one’s free though, meaning all you have to do is click right here to play it.

The Club (released February 19, 2008)

Bizarre Creations’ The Club is definitely a flawed game, though the core ideas were sound. It’s essentially The Running Man in video game form, mixing the thrill of wanton virtual violence with a racing game-like focus on running laps and time trials through the carnage. All of the festivities are overseen by a disembodied booming announcer’s voice (think Unreal Tournament or Mortal Kombat). Unfortunately, the multiplayer was a flat-out missed opportunity. For a game so rooted in the mentality of classic arcade games, it’s criminal that the only online play options were sorry, utterly generic modes cut from the deathmatch/team deathmatch cloth.

Hail to the Chimp (released June 24, 2008)

Wideload Games’ hilarious Hail to the Chimp remains my favorite party game of 2008. The basic idea of animals duking it out for control of the clam vote – and thus, the Animal Kingdom – in the wake of the lion king’s departure is great on its own. The metric ton of game modes onhand in Hail is further supplemented by fantastic writing. Not only is each candidate realized as a unique, wacky persona – from Floyd the Walrus’s new age ramblings to Murgatroyd the Jellyfish’s incomprehensible burblings – but there’s roughly 90 minutes of hilarious animal kingdom television to be unlocked in a cable guide-like interface.

Korg DS-10 (released November 4, 2008)

There are quite a few DS titles on this list, and with good cause. No gaming platform has exhibited more flexibility than the DS. Sure, it can play games. But it can also do any number of other things, such as fully emulate the Korg MS-20 synthesizer in AQ Interactive’s Korg DS-10. A series of virtual knobs, dials and switches result in a pitch-perfect (no pun intended) digital re-creation of Korg’s excellent, oft-sampled classic synth. Beware though: an aptitude for composition or at least some willingness to learn are required to reap the full range of benefits that Korg DS-10 has to offer.

N+ (released February 20, 2008)

Okay, Metanet Software’s N+ wasn’t exactly underappreciated when it hit Xbox Live Arcade back in February. The simple-yet-stylish platformer starring a stick figure ninja scored high with critics and even garnered a Game of the Year nomination or two in recent weeks. Feb ‘08 is a long time ago however, and much has been released since then to push N+ aside in many gamer’s hearts. Seeing as how N+ offers four-player co-op, a full-featured level editor, online leaderboards featuring full replay videos and – let’s face it – some of the most downright challenging arcade-style gameplay outside of Treasure, I felt that one more end of year mention was in order.

Rise of the Argonauts (December 16, 2008)

Had Liquid Entertainment’s Rise of the Argonauts been released two or three years ago, it would have been a smash hit. Perhaps even an early 2008 release – or early 2009, as was originally intended – would have been better for it. Instead, Rise came along at the tail end of 2008 – fraught with the bugs of an unfinished work no less – and will likely fade into obscurity as a result. That’s a crying shame, since (tech troubles aside) Rise of the Argonauts is an extremely competent action-RPG set in a fantasy-world version of ancient Greece. It may be imperfect, but it’s a damn good time with its satisfyingly gory combat and atypical RPG mechanics which are based on the ties you build with one of four Greek deities.

Spider-Man: Web of Shadows (released October 21, 2008)

Shaba Games’ Spider-Man: Web of Shadows is also imperfect, but it gets two very important things right. The first, web-swinging, is nothing new; Shaba worked closely with the usual Spidey dev, Treyarch, to implement their excellent web mechanics for speeding through New York City’s urban jungle. The second however is all Shaba. In Web of Shadows we finally have a Spidey game where fighting as the webcrawler feels right. An incredibly well-conceived combo system gives players the ability to wipe out entire gangs of nameless cronies without ever once setting foot on the ground. For any other troubles weighing the experience down, swinging and flinging are both incredibly entertaining.

Silent Hill: Homecoming (released September 30, 2008)

Is it fair to call Homecoming the best Silent Hill game since the second one? I really want to know, as I’ve never played 2 in its entirety. I can tell you this though: Silent Hill: Homecoming is exemplary survival horror, by far the most well-executed example of sticking to genre tenets that I’ve seen in years. Perfect pacing and elaborate level designs lie at the core of Homecoming’s dark, twisted heart. Really, I’ve said all of this before, and recently, on UGO’s Gamesblog.

What’s Cooking? with Jamie Oliver (released October 21, 2008)

I can hear some of your snickers from here. A freakin’ cooking game? Well, no. See, it’s not really a game. This is the thing about the DS. It can play games, but it can also run a variety of useful apps. What’s Cooking? is best described as an interactive recipe book. Sure you can do virtual practice runs for one recipe or another in a game-like space, but that’s kinda besides the point. What’s Cooking? features a powerful set of filtering options for its cookbook, a built-in cooking timer and ingredient shopping lists. It’s not perfect – where, for example, are pictorial examples for some of the more difficult procedures – but it represents yet another compelling step towards a more multi-functional future for the Nintendo DS.

Behold! Vikings!

So, I recently picked up Viking: Battle for Asgard. I’ve had my eye on it for a while, and the price is finally low enough for a poor college student such as myself to afford. Hail discounts!

Anyways, I read plenty of reviews beforehand and most sites and mags gave it a solid 7.4 out of 10. Now, I’m a child of the Legend of Zelda worshiping tribe, so any time I can get my hands on a decent hacker/slasher adventure fantasy title I’m set for about a month or two. Then if you throw in a heavy dose of one of my favorite mythologies, this case being Norse, I’m as happy as a headcrab with a new host. The gameplay is pretty decent and has some of the best combat physics and character animations I have ever seen. Some bits of the game are ripped straight from God of War, but its hard to find a game these days that doesn’t adapt an idea from another. Its bloody good fun.

But of course, no game is absolutely perfect, and Viking is no exception. Skarin, our clean-shaven protagonist, runs (or rather lumbers) like he has cinder blocks tied to his toes. Considering how little armor he is wearing, he should be much more spry. The combat does get a bit repetitive, but when you engage in a full-scale battle and the hockey gloves come off, its just gets plain fun and brutal. Dynasty Warriors wishes it could pull of battles like this. But my main beef with this game is the soundtrack…or complete lack thereof. Seriously, this game doesn’t have music whatsoever during the actual gameplay. There is even an option in the menu to toggle the music. So unless “on” really means “off”, this game doesnt have a soundtrack at all except at the options screen.

So here’s where gamer ingenuity comes in. I also just got into the metal band Amon Amarth. For those of you of the non-nerd persuasion, “Amon Amarth” is Tolkein’s Elvish for “Mountain of Destiny” or as it is commonly known as “Mount-fucking- Doom”.

All together now: NEEEERRRDDSS!!

Now, I dare you to say that to their faces

They are in a special class of Metal known as Viking Metal. Its kind of a sub-group of Power Metal, but very specific. Their songs are all about viking mythology, warriors, battle, gods etc. Its pretty damn over the top, but its really awesome music. Whenever I listen to them, I dont know whether to laugh or pound my chest, grab the axe I have hidden under my desk and go pillage and burn something. Its a fun dilemma.

So, plugging my iPod into my 360 and uploading Amon Amarth’s newest album, “Twilight of the Thunder God” makes a perfect (and I mean perfect) soundtrack for “Viking”. The game doesnt get points for not having its own music, but it definitely earns a special place in my book for allowing me to combine a new favorite band and awesome combat gameplay. Seriously, there are few things more satisfying than cleaving an enemy into five pieces during a face-melting guitar solo.

Rock on

P.S. I really do have an axe hidden under my desk. Just in case.

]]> http://mitchrukat.com/2008/10/01/viking-battle-for-asgard-review/ Wed, 01 Oct 2008 21:49:49 +0000 Mitch http://mitchrukat.com/2008/10/01/viking-battle-for-asgard-review/

Rating: 6.5 Out of 10

Viking: Battle for Asgard reminds me kind of The Lord of the Rings. This game has some cool finishing moves, interesting landscapes to cover, some cool combat that can be amusing, and the portals can really help you get to one place to another. However, the combat can get boring after a while, the objectives and missions are very repetitive, there isn’t really much audio in the game, and there is no payoff for exploring areas. Overall, this is a good game to rent and pretty easy to get 1000 achievement points on as well.

Pros:

+ Combat can be amusing for a few hours

+ Portals make travelling easy

+ Cool finishing moves

Cons:

- After a few hours, the combat gets dull

- Objectives and missions are repetitive

- No payoff for exploration

- Audio is sparse and disappointing

Extras:

# Viking: Battle for Asgard Cheat Codes

# Viking: Battle for Asgard Achievements

Viking: Battle of Asgard really puts the ass in Asgard

This game…is a load of garbage. It’s linear, graphics reminding me of old PS2 games and gameplay which is both horrible and acceptable at the same time.
I’ll keep it short, for this warning needs to get out.

So, you play as Skarin, some blonde, long-haired hardcore viking with amazing muscles and rocking tatoos. You’re the silent character, meaning, the only sounds you make throughout the games is the occasional grunt when you get your bum kicked. I really don’t have anything against this character. The fur-lined leather armor and  the sword and axe sitting nicely seathed on his back makes him look sort of cool. Skarin is apparently having visisions (which you get your small taste out throughout the game, and they are really just pointless) and he is also the servant of Freya. Servant? More like her slave. She says jump, you say how high. Well, not say. Perhaps sort of indicate it with your hands. You get my point.

The game begins with Skarin getting killed by a big champion called Drakan, whom is Hels servant. Hel is the main antagonist of the game, raising armies of undead Legion and making the land sour. Anyways, Skarin is then ressurected and rejoins the battlefield. Yeah. Over the game, you will visit three islands. The first one is smaller, the second one is bigger, the third one is the biggest. Sadly, there is no real change in difficulty. I remember dying most on the first island, before learning the gameplay and the techniques. After that it’s just rinse and repeat. Literally. Rinse. And repeat. On the first island, you have to complete several tasks to build an army big enough to take over the enemy head base, which is a big viking town. So you go around, liberating viking camps, opening up the supplies (Which you do by liberating lumber mills and so on..) and summoning a dragon. Now all of this sounds pretty nice for a start. Going around, killing legion with awesome moves, cleaving them in half whilst liberating viking camps. But no. You will realize that when you get to the second island, it all starts over again. It’s the exact same thing, only now you have a bigger island to liberate, and two towns that you have to take over. And the exact same from the transition from second to third island. It’s awful. It makes you want to put the controller down nicely on your bed, then walk outside and hope lightning strikes you.

And the battles. The battles for towns. They are also the exact same throughout the game. The point is that, your enemies has the shamans, which summons new Legion to fight you all the time. So you have to take out those shaman, and then get to the portal to the end of the town to summon your shaman there, so that she can convert the portal, making the town yours. Sounds odd? Yes it is. Does it sound like you will do this more then you want in this game? Yes, that’s true. In every single fight you kill some champions (or giants), get some dragon runes, get the dragons to kill a shaman, and then go kill the last shaman yourself. Over and over again.

Throughout the game you can collect money from sacks of money lying on the ground, urns or treasure chests. You can also earn money from handing in kegs of mead to the local innkeeper, but that is just random luck finding a keg. Because trust me, you don’t want to run around looking for them. You want to complete this game as fast as possible. Anyways, with this money you can buy upgrades and items from your nearby shops. You can by runes to imbue your weapon with magical powers. These runes are either fire, frost or lightning. However, these effects are not constant, and depletes some sort of magic bar which is filled by collecting red orbs from slain enemies. You can also press and hold A and X simultaneously to unleash a more powerful attack at your enemy, which depletes more of this “magic”. Now, there are four upgrades for each rune, and since I was watching the achievements for the game whilst playing, I saw that there was an achievement each for unleashing the most powerful runes power onto an enemy. So, I was hoping that, wow, there would be some awesome graphics when I unleash my powers onto the enemies. No. It’s the EXACT same graphic as the first rune. Oh for the love of. Anyways…The other items range from health upgrades to potions to throwing axes to treasure maps.

Since this being a game of exactly the same thing all over again, guess what happens when you have to upgrade your weapons? Well, firstly you have to find a shrine to stick the sword into. Then you sort of glow for a moment, and so does your sword, and then you pull it out. Crossed fingers it will have ugpraded somehow, looking more cool then before.
No. Just no. Nothing happened. Nothing at all. Everything looks the same. Did they not THINK whilst doing this game? It’s like they “Oh hey, I know, let’s make a game about vikings!” and then they made ONE level which they just copied three times, added some colours and WHAMMO, they had a new game. This game had ALL the potential of being a great game. Why did they have to screw it up?

There’s just one thing this game exels at. Slicing enemies in half. I just love cutting an enemy in half in slow motion. Sadly, since the enemies are also about the exact same throughout the whole game, these moves also remain the same, meaning they get pretty boring after a while, maybe. Nah, it’s fun slicing things in half.

So, all in all, this game is a piece of crud. The only reason this should be played is wether you enjoy playing really bad games, or for the pretty easy 1000 gamerscore. But it’s mostly bad. Real bad. Don’t spend a lot of money on this.

Por si no lo sabian tambien me encanta la mitologia Nordica. El saber de los dioses de Asgard como Odin, Thor o Loki, la llegada del Ragnarok y la batalla final donde todos pereceran . . . y claro toda la magia y detalles que usabam los antiguos guerreros Vikingos. Por eso cuando SEGA anuncio este titulo me emocione, lastima que fue una perdida de tiempo.

El juego Viking: Battle for Asgard es un beat´em up en tercera persona, donde eliminaras a cientos de hordas de enemigos salvajes que buscan destruir el reino. Y tu eres el elegido por tus grandes habilidades y por que eres heredero del poder de los Vikingos. Pongamoslo de esta forma . . . eres como Kratos . . . solo que sin la acción ni emoción que caracteriza a God of War. Y eso es lo que supongo intento hacer SEGA, un juego con otra mitologia pero que fuera como el titulo de God Of War de Sony, y es una lastima pero no lo logro. El gameplay te lleva a matar a miles de enemigos, que no se defienden que no tienen buena IA, que no representan reto incluso los jefes de nivel; un audio pesimo te acompaña en las misiones y una historia que fue mal contada hace de este juego un bodrio. Lo unico interesante es que hablan de la Mitologia y tanto los escenarios como los enemigos tienen una gran ambientación, lastima que teniendo una base mitica tan basta hayan hecho este juego tan chafa . . . mi consejo final no gastes tu dinero en vano.

So, it is official. I am desensitized to violence. There is little violence that will shock me. I have been playing these games on my 360 lately (and not even the most violent one: GTA IV

Viking: Battle for Asgard- You play a bloodthirsty viking warrior brought back from the dead by the goddess Freyja. You brutally wage war across Midgard, chopping the monsters of Hel’s Legion into little bits along the way. You slay champions and giants. Ancient dragons are your allies. You find and use Mjolinir, Thor’s Hammer. The game was spectacularly beautiful and really fun. The killing, the constant killing, affected me, though. It got repetitive. It hardened me into a cold viking killing machine.

Frontlines: Fuel of War: The year is 2024, and you are a soldier with the Western Coalition after all of the fuel has all but run out. You pilot massive tanks and helicopters to fight for what little resources are left. The gameplay is awesome, and death has little consequence. When you die, you just redeploy, as a fresh new soldier. This is a convention I saw in the Battlefront games. Interestingly enough, that kind of total lack of fear from death is useful. I have found myself really looking at the life or death consequences of my own life and my own choices. The possible future presented in Frontlines has also had me really look at my contribution to this kind of post peak oil scenario. I am excited to see how this game will play out.

Burnout Paradise: The Burnout series is well known for crashing. It is a game of road rage, pure and simple. In this version, though, EA Games has made a massive multi player world for people to dwell inside of. You start off with a junker, and you drive around Paradise City, recklessly, collecting prize money for running other cars off the road and causing multiple collisions. Of all violent games, this is by far the most dangerous. The car crashes that I cause and am a part of would kill hundreds of people. And yet, like sweet sweet candy, I just want more. Just one more race. I can catch that dude who cut me off. I can launch my car off the freeway construction and hit that billboard! I guess the upside is that I drive much more sensibly in real life when I am immersing myself in Burnout. This game really is vast and gorgeous. I really enjoy it.

The Club>- The shaky premise of this Sega title is simple. There is an ultra secret organization called the Club that organizes underground blood-sports through dangerous areas filled with gunmen. You play as one of eight outsiders dropped into a deadly game. Think Bruce Lee’s Game of Death, only everyone wields guns. This game’s violence, too, is without consequence. Where do all these thugs armed with uzis and minguns come from? As I played through the game once on Casual (an interesting descriptor, for sure) I must have brutally murdered a few hundred guys. You are scored on how stylishly you kill these people, so explosions and head shots are preferred. I just kept thinking about these guys’ worlds and what on earth would make this kind of game worth it for them, you know? It is a crazy game.

Assassin’s Creed- I played through this game a couple of months ago. There was a writers strike on, which meant no work and no good TV, so…

Eres Skarin, un veterano guerrero que perdió a su padre, llamado por la diosa Freya para que aniquiles a la Legión de Hel, integrada por Vikingos /Zombies quien tiene especial desprecio por la diosa.

Cuenta la leyenda que existe un arma tan poderosa que puede romper las cadenas del Dios Lobo Fenrir, para desencadenar el Apocalypsis y que el lobo ingiera el sol.

+ El modo Batalla merece muuucho la pena, muy al estilo Lord Of The Rings o Narnia. En el trancurso hay guerreros que liberarás  (y se unirán a tus tropas) y es aquí donde la euforia comienza, estás rodeado de cientos de guerreros que luchan a tu lado, la sangre salpica, la carne salta y tu espíritu guerrero será liberado.

+ Los dragones que puedes dominar por emdio de piedras mágicas le dan un plus.

- Las gráfic dejan mucho qué desear, se ve enseguida que lo sacaron corriendo.

-El modo de juego es repetitivo, no hay muchas opciones.

para XBOX 360

A highly touted, much-anticipated (at least by us) PS3 release, Viking ultimately falls flat on its lumbering, running face.

2 out of 10, THIS GAME SUCKS

Do you like to run? Do you like to run around a huge, empty world and pick up bags of gold? Do you like to run back through terrain you just spent 15 minutes running through? Then would you like to run some more? If you answered “Yes!” to all these questions, then Viking is the game for you. A more fitting name might have been Viking: Battle of Marathon.

The game, much like the similarly disappointing Assassin’s Creed, begins well enough. The undead legions of the Norse goddess, Hel, have overrun human settlements in her quest for vengeance against her fellow gods. You, the Viking warrior, Skarin, are saved from death in battle by the goddess, Freya, who wishes to save the realm.

Unfortunately, Skarin is a lifeless cardboard cutout with no personality. It appears Freya chose you as champion for no particular reason, other than that you dress differently from all the other vikings, who all dress the same. There is no backstory here; you don’t have a personality or motivation worth mentioning (unlike the compelling, family-murdering Kratos in God of War). You are just a random dying warrior Freya saved.

For the first few hours, I was enjoying myself. The ample violence and brutality of kills was enough to keep me interested. One particularly violent joy in this game is one of your finishing moves, where you whack the enemy’s head right off. As if he’s not dead enough already, you then hack down and take off his arms. I thought it was humorous, as it certainly is overkill (pun intended).

However, after a few more hours, the excessive running around began to slowly bleed out any enjoyment I felt. Thankfully, there are leystones, which serve as teleport points between areas in the game. Unfortunately, they can be few and far between, and they don’t help you with the recurrent backtracking in certain areas. Since the developers decided to make this game so running-intensive, they at least should have provided a sprint option to navigate more quickly.

The combat in Viking (like in many other games) steals amply from the God of War series. GoW continues to be the gold standard in hack-and-slash and must serve as the standard of judgment for games with similar combat systems.

When compared to the rapid-paced action of the GoW entries, Viking cannot compete. Skarin is more like a lumbering tank, and anything but your fastest attack takes a few seconds to initiate — and there are charged attacks that take even longer. It leads to a lot of awkward standing involved, while you and your enemies charge up. This all gives the game a clunky, ponderous feel, lacking the graceful and seamless fluidity in GoW combat.

That being said, there are powerup moves you can acquire to make combat a bit more interesting. However, the developers created built-in limitations for these powerups: you need to acquire crystal orbs from defeated enemies to utilize your new moves. Many of the moves require two crystals, and you can only stock five crystals at a time. So, once you run out (and you will quickly), you are back to standard stock attacks. It’s a needless restriction that contributes to the overall annoying nature of combat. Finally, when performing finishing moves on enemies, the game goes into slow motion. I cannot tell whether this is due to software/processor glitches or if it’s intentional. In any event, by the time you perform your 357^th killing move in slow motion, you will be bored to death and wish it was over more quickly.

Here is my theory on these games: If you aren’t going to improve upon GoW-type combat, then at the very least, don’t do worse. I’d rather developers steal directly than drop the ball.

To obtain the advanced moves, you must visit the battle arena. There, a warrior spirit from Valhalla will train you. Oddly, you have to pay this ghost in gold for new skills. This bothers me. If there was a priest there, who demanded cash for access to the spirit, as a tithe to the Gods, I’d be fine with it. But directly paying a ghost in gold seems pretty stupid to me. What use does he have for gold? The developers should have gotten creative and had you drag him the head of a bad guy as a blood offering or something. I could see a ghost wanting that. It’s too bad designers get so comfortable with the gaming conventions and fail to see that gold as payment for all things is just a perpetuation of lame, status quo gaming. Details matter more and more in games, and paying a ghost in gold to train you is a sign of laziness.

You can also power up your axe and sword with fire, ice, and lightning runes. This works as a sort of hybrid between the magics and Rage of the Gods in GoW. You have a red meter that, when activated, powers up with whichever element rune you choose. It remains powered up until the meter drains to empty. These powerups are largely useless at lower levels. Your enemies crackle with minor energy damage (lightning), turn blue/white (ice) or run a bit red (fire). It improves later in the game, but still, this was another area where the developers were clearly lazy and went for a modest effect, rather than taking the time and energy to create something interesting and effective.

Another combat-related problem that Viking has is that the power orbs you pick up from dead enemies (these are red/green orbs that are blatantly stolen from GoW) don’t automatically flow to you—you have to get close enough to absorb them. This kind of sucks when you whack a guy and he falls off a cliff (there are lots of cliffs) or you step away a few feet to hack another person. This was a notable problem in GoW1 that was fixed in GoW2; in the sequel, the orbs automatically came to you after a kill. It is inexcusable that the developers of Viking would fail on this detail. Running around in a little circle and backtracking after every single kill (you will rack up hundreds) soon gets tedious.

One area worthy of praise is that you automatically go into a “stealth” mode when approaching enemies. You can purchase a combat upgrade from the warrior spirit that will allow for even better stealth and stealth kills. In some cases, enemies are actually asleep (why do undead warriors need sleep?) and you can initiate a quick kill on them. This is pretty cool, and I’m glad they thought of it. I enjoy these little details (when they get them right).

For most of the game, you will spend your time running around to free captive Vikings. These freed warriors will eventually amass into an army to attack a fort, stockade or stronghold. It remains unclear why Hel’s minions are capturing Vikings and allowing them to remain fully armed, armored, and dangerous in ramshackle wooden prisons. It also remains unclear how 15 fully armed and armored Vikings are not able to smash out of their dainty wooden prisons, but Skarin alone is able to do so on their behalf.

I’d also like to know why Hel’s minions are keeping fully armed and armored Vikings captive rather than just killing them. It could be that the undead eat them for food — that would be fine with me. But it still doesn’t explain why they are left fully armed and armored (sorry to beat this to death).

The objectives in the game are outlined in a map much like the one in Assassin’s Creed. However, it doesn’t really tell you which objective (there can be several) you should accomplish first. In some cases it’s intuitive, but in others, you run to an objective, only to find it is locked (you need a key) or blocked (you need explosives or something). You will then have to spend 5 to 10 minutes running to the next objective, hoping beyond hope that it is not locked.

At some point you will have freed enough Vikings to form an army and can call them to battle. The cutscenes here are pretty dramatic: dozens to hundreds of Viking warriors marching on dozens to hundreds of evil undead. You then take control of Skarin and the battle is on. While conceptually enticing, these mass battles fail in application.

Your Vikings do help you kill the bad guys, but they are strategically ineffective. First, there is so much going on, it is difficult to locate Skarin.

Second, you can in no way direct your army. They are morons. Many objectives require cutting through the enemy to kill multiple shamans who are raising undead reinforcements well behind the front lines. Viking allies hit the first wave of attackers and never penetrate much. That means you will have to wade through (and avoid) scores of creatures to get to the shaman. The game should have at least allowed for calling half a dozen Vikings to assist in your attack — a strike team of sorts.

You will also unlock dragons to assist you in battle. How awesome, you say! Locate a dragon gem, charge it with magic, place it on the dragon summoning stone and awake to service an 800-year-old beast! Look out, bad guys! I’m coming to battle and raining fire on you! Well, it’s not that easy. After you enter a large battle, only then do you find out that you also need a dragon rune to call the dragon to aid. Where do you locate one? Good question. After killing the first shaman in battle (shamans tend to be major battle objectives) you get a dragon rune! Now you will be ready to rain fire down on the other shaman! Not yet. You need two runes to destroy a shaman. So you have to destroy a second shaman before killing the third shaman.

Also of note is the development that shamans just happened to arbitrarily be carrying the one and only magic item Skarin can use to summon a dragon and destroy him and his fellow shamans! That seems awfully convenient. I was sure that, as the game went on, my enemies would wise up and destroy all the useless-to-them dragon runes they were carrying, so that I couldn’t use them, right? Nope. They carry them throughout the game. Idiots. I have no problem finding magic items in odd locations (like where I found the dragon gem), but the notion that bad guys would carry a rare and useless-to-them method of their own destruction for no particular reason irks me to no end.

Ok, finally, I was thinking I’d get some awesome cutscene fire rampage! Think again. You click the buttons to summon the dragon, it appears in the sky, it dives quickly, it breathes fire on the shaman, and (in the first battle) the battle abruptly ends. You’ve won. It all takes about 3 to 4 seconds (I counted) and was extremely anti-climactic. The quick dragon summoning you see in the commercials/trailers for this game is all that is actually in the game. At the very least, I thought it would be like summoning Bahamut (or Neo Bahamut or Bahamut Zero) in Final Fantasy VII on PS1. Remember how cool that was (and 10 years ago at that)? All the air in the vicinity got sucked up, the screen went black, and then a dragon appeared in space and spewed forth a laser that incinerated your enemies? This was nothing as cool as that.

So here we are again, where a PS3 game is trumped by scenes in a PS1 game from what, a decade ago? By way of additional comparison (to see how Viking fails to stack up), see the summoning videos of Final Fantasy VII on the PSP, as well as from the PS1, below.

It is a sad commentary on the state of PS3 development that the summons for the handheld PSP are excessively superior to the dragon summoning on the PS3 for Viking. It is absolutely ridiculous (I’m having buyer’s remorse. Perhaps I should have bought the PSP instead of PS3).

Viking Dragon (what you will see in battle is when the dragon burns the beached longboat at 1:21):

FFVII Crisis Core Bahumut PSP (holy shit is this cool!):

FFVII Crisis Core Phoenix PSP:

All Original FFVII Summons:

FFVII Bahamut Zero (PS1):

The voice acting in Vikings is subpar. Your allies all have cheesy British accents and stilted speech patterns. The script is about as cardboard as Skarin’s personality.

I was willing to cut Viking a lot of slack, because on paper it seemed tailor made for my interests: an ultraviolent hack-and-slash Viking game (my dream)! However, that only goes so far. This game ain’t no GoW2 (the greatest warrior game to date, and if you are going to aim for this target, you’d better not miss), nor does it come close.

Viking, much like Assassin’s Creed (review here) is not a finished product. I can only conclude the developers made an economic decision and rushed the beta version to market without proper testing and quality control. This seems to be an increasing pattern for PS3 releases (see Assassin’s Creed, Turning Point: Fall of Liberty, Army of Two, Turok, etc.). You may enjoy Viking for about 2 hours. I did. But after that, getting through it is a marathon that will test your endurance for repetitive stupidity. My advice would be to pass this game up and go replay God of War 2. It might be the only thing capable of washing the bad taste of Viking out of your mouth.

I picked up a copy of Viking today after hearing the hype from friends. I was a little hesitant at first after seeing the “reasonable” review from IGN.

Viking, for those of you who haven’t seen much about it, is an action adventure sort of game. The player plays as the inexplicably epileptic viking warrior Skarin. I have to start by saying Skarin happens to be one of the most badass video game characters I’ve played as, this guy tears people to shreds, literally. The game is set in Midgard, where a bitter war rages between Freya, goddess of love and war, and Hel, goddess of …well, goddess of something evil. Chosen as Freya’s champion, Skarin and his viking buddies are thrust into the war to end the tyrannical opression of Hel’s forces over Midgard.

I’ll start with the flaws of the game (basically so I can have a nice rant about how fun it is). I found the controls pretty reasonable and easy to adapt to but there is the odd occasion where you find yourself lunging in dismay at some hapless undead minion as a rather larger and more intimidating enemy is patiently waiting to cut you short.

Alright, maybe thats a little unfair criticism, if you’re going to make a big slow attack I guess you have to prepare for the consequences; but after the nth respawn it begins to take its toll. There could at least be some way of realising your mistake and blocking. I’m probably nitpicking.

Moving on in frustration is the “sneak into the enemy encampment and active some crazy portal”. What they fail to mention is that you’re a 7 foot viking warrior who isn’t the most adapt “stealth” character. Your camera is ultra sensitive with no real changeability and trying to work out where the next bastard undead soldier with his bastard horn ready to summon the whole bastard undead legion is really quite a grievance. I suppose it achieves its goal of mixing up the gameplay from simple hack’n’slash to sneak’n’stab, just not in the most preferable way.

A widely cited criticism seems to have been with the sound in this game, the almost lack of ambient sound in the “wilderness” is a little bemusing, but not particularly a large flaw I’d acknowledge. The average player is not left in wanting of sound, particularly when it comes to the large scale battles. Coming onto the battles, I have little to complain about except for maybe the idea of giving the player set objectives such as “kill the shamans”. Its a good idea in theory, it means the player isn’t left to simply slaughter endless tides of undead. But some of the objectives become more than a little irritating when you alone are left to complete them with seemingly none of your entire viking army to help out.

The graphics seemed acceptably nice in combat when things are fast paced, things look pretty slick. More noticeably, in cut scenes the closeups on specific characters are surprisingly low detailed, the game seems a little lacking in the graphics department compared to a lot of next gen games coming out recently. They reach an acceptable level though and there’s little to complain about in the midst of a battle.

In terms of gameplay, I personally love this game. I’ll admit theres a level of repetition to it, but I haven’t found any lack of fun in single handedly raiding an enemy camp. Maybe its just my worrying affinity for violence, I don’t know, but the whole “hack limbs off to kill them” thing is something I’ve fallen in love with. The storyline seems to flow smoothly with what you do in the game, freeing more and more vikings from the hands of the undead increases your army and theres definite reward in seeing your horde of vikings charging towards the enemy.

As far as combat goes, I haven’t enjoyed fighting this much since Assassin’s Creed. Rather then, as you might find in some games, avoiding enemy confrontations, you will find yourself drawn towards them with the lure of possible loot and the satisfaction of swiping the head off the dude’s shoulders. The traditional RPG element of upgrading your skill shines through with the option to learn new “rage moves” at the Battle Arena. The more you learn the more you can counter the difficulties you find with certain enemies and the more you develop your own fighting style.

Overall as far as games go, Viking seems like a solid effort. Theres some obvious flaws, some more irritating than others but the game makes up for it in the “raw fun” category. The epic battles leave no want for something interesting and the storyline is interesting enough to hold onto.

• Graphics 6.5/10
• Sound 7/10
• Storyline 8/10
• Gameplay 9/10
• OVERALL 8.5/10

Laurie.

Crispy Gamer has kept me very busy for the last month or so. There are two new reviews for you to check out that were written by yours truly.

I absolutely love Frontlines: Fuel of War. I think it’s already one of the most underrated games of 2008. I’m going to be partaking of the Battlefield: Bad Company online beta on Xbox 360, probably soon after I finish typing this and playing some more Gran Turismo 5: Prologue, but Bad Company is going to have to be really phenomenal to pull me away from Frontlines.

You can find out in my review just why I liked it so much, and obviously I was lucky to not have technical problems like some folks did, but suffice to say it’s so good because it’s laser focused on taking and holding ground. There are a lot of jobs you can perform, but everyone’s an attacker or defender and I think that’s exactly what you need in capture point games. Nobody really wants to be a medic, so Kaos Studios did the right thing and did away with that entirely. It creates a harsh reality of quick death online until you learn to be more careful, but I think that ultimately results in a much more entertaining game.

The other game you can read about is another I found to weigh in closer to the top end of the scale, FlatOut: Head On. If you dig racing games (and crashing games) and have a PSP, you really can’t go wrong with it. The nu-metal will grate with some folks, but you can turn that off, and the rest is definitely good enough to keep your interest for a very long time.

It’s one of the few PSP games that seems built for portable play, and I think that’s one of the most important things when you’re looking at handheld titles. I don’t want my games on the go to keep me tied up when I have to shut the lid or flick the switch and I really prefer when I can be at the end of a segment before having to do that. FlatOut: Head On gets that right. Definitely check out the review if you’re looking for some racing on PSP.

There’s more on the way with my reviews of Pro Evolution Soccer 2008 on all major console platforms submitted. I’ll be sure to post here when that pops up. Also, I’m working on something else for Crispy while also checking out some games Sega dropped in my box. One of those is Viking: Battle for Asgard from Creative Assembly which I’ve already had some decent fun with. It sure is a pretty game, especially after you drive away the forces of Hel and make things all spring-like again. The brawling combat is a good time also.

Speaking of a brawl, the kids got Super Smash Bros. Brawl from the Easter Bunny and they’re in Nintendo heaven with that one. I’m right there with them wishing I had more time to play it, too. It’s hard to believe that the game surpasses Super Smash Bros. Melee because that title was already tipping the meter toward brilliance, but Brawl is easily the better game. It’s the kind of game that you know you’ll still be playing until they make another one… if they ever do. I don’t know where they’d even go next.

As an aside, a lot of what’s cool in the unlocking of stuff in Brawl was cribbed from the completely underrated Kirby Air Ride. I’m really glad to see designer Sakurai not turn his back on that title developed while he was still at Nintendo. It may not have come together perfectly, but that game is one my kids still play, and with good reason. It’s a quick and entertaining racing romp that contains a lot more technique than is evident at first glance, but its real genius was the unlocks board where you kept getting neat stuff just for playing the game and trying different things.

I really can’t wait to see what Sakurai works on next!

“Die nordische Mythologie fasziniert Spieler immer wieder. Mit Viking: Battle for Asgard erscheint wahrscheinlich in wenigen Wochen schon ein neuer Actiontitel, in dem ihr als Wikinger mit allerlei Waffen in die Schlacht ziehen könnt. …”

So leitet Gamigo.de einen Artikel über ein neues Spiel für PS3 und X-Box 360 ein.

Das Spiel hat mit der nordischen Mythologie zu tun, denn es geht u.a. um die Götter Odin und Hel und vermutlich um einen Haufen Äußerlichkeiten. Doch das war es dann vermutlich auch schon wieder, genauso wie bei unzähligen anderen ähnlichen Spielen.

Denn die germanischen Götter und die Mythologie der Germanen und besonders der Wikinger dienen auch hier nur als Fundus, aus dem sich die Spielautoren nach Belieben Einzelteile herausgreifen und diese ebenfalls nach Belieben verändern, verfälschen, kombinieren. In diesem konkreten Spiel muss der Held (= der Spieler) sich in großem Chaos behaupten, welches herrscht, “denn Odin hat die Göttin Hel aus Asgard verbannt, da sie sich ihm widersetzte. …“

Der Mythenkundige wird sich jetzt natürlich fragen, wie denn die Göttin Hel nach Asgard gekommen sein könnte und welche Macht Odin ausgerechnet gegenüber dieser Göttin haben soll.

Doch das dürfte die Spielemacher – und die übergroße Mehrheit der Spieler – überhaupt nicht interessieren. Sie wollen Ihr Gemetzel – und die verhunzte nordische Mythologie bietet dafür anscheinend einen idealen Hintergrund.