Ten Reasons Why Being an Assassin in Real Life Would Be Awesome
Stop by GameZone for ten reasons why being an assassin would be a great way to spend your time.
Disclaimer: It might not be so awesome for everyone else.
Posts Tagged ‘PC’
Portal 2 review
Portal 2 was my first experience with the series, which turned heads and made everybody and their professors stay home to play it. Maybe it was because puzzles make my brain numb or because GLaDOS’s threat of spending eternity placing cubes on pressure pads made my time with the game actually feel like an eternity, but I wasn’t expecting such a lasting and substantial single-player campaign.
From the first test on, I knew a generous game length wouldn’t be a problem. If I could master each scenario, then that would be an accomplishment to be proud of. And I did … for the most part. Admittedly, I did resort to GameFAQs a few times, and in three-fourths of those instances I regretted the decision immediately. The solution would have come to me on its own, if only I was a little more patient, logical, and observant. No matter how difficult the puzzle, none of them were unfair. I would say that maybe cheap tricks don’t compute with a robot like GLaDOS, but she did waste perfectly good confetti on humiliating me.
After completing so many tests, primarily in the beginning of the game, I did grow tired of GLaDOS’ insults and the constant barrage of portal-based puzzles. To my surprise, though, the game broke up the pace with a more action-focused segment and then continued to introduce new mechanics, gameplay objectives, and plot points so that I was never bored for long. Challenged, maybe, and cranky sometimes, but never bored with the same routine.
More than just orange and blue portals await the player. There are bouncy blue, slippery orange, and white surface-reinventing gels. There are excursion funnels and weighted and discouragement redirection cubes. There are also frankenturrets, which are, by the way, adorable.
All these oodles of gameplay combine with the dozens of ways you learn to achieve momentum and manipulate a testing stage. Add that to the many humorous or dramatic conversations with Wheatley and GLaDOS (the voice-acting is superb), and the wealth of content comes together to deliver an even stream of story and gameplay. Like many gamers of our current generation, I don’t always feel compelled to see a game through to its completion, even if it is, by critics’ standards, “good.” I did feel adequately compelled with Portal 2, and the motivation resulted in my witnessing one of the weirdest and most musical endings in any game. Its inclusion is no longer a mystery to me, considering that Jonathan Coulton’s name appears in the closing credits.
The game’s sound itself is interesting. Whenever you slide on orange gel or rocket off blue, a different theme can be heard in the background. Add that to whatever music might already be playing, and the result is often harmonious. Considering artificial intelligences are constantly making perfectly clear their desire to kill you, a little tranquility is appreciated.
I did get a taste of the multiplayer mode, and it fell very short of the quality presented in the normal campaign. But I guess the option alone counts toward replay value. Having to cooperate with another person to overcome challenges establishes a much different dynamic than the one in the single-player campaign.
Without spoiling the game, I can say the final boss fight resolves with one galactic-sized deus ex machina, but it was such an enjoyable and surreal deus ex machina that I don’t even care to think less of the developers for doing it. Who would have thought anyone would do that in a video game.
The final minutes do suggest another, much different Portal sequel could be on the way, and the suggested context relieves me. I had, throughout my time with Portal 2, dreaded what a possible continuation would consist of because as wonderful and thought-provoking as Portal 2 is, I wouldn’t want to put myself through another 12+ hours of this mental exhaustion. That’s like taking a week to solve a Rubik’s cube and then challenging yourself to another go, without the foggiest idea as to how you solved the damn thing in the first place. Once is enough, unless some big changes are involved. And no, I don’t mean an even bigger Rubik’s cube. Let’s not get carried away.
Rating: 9/10
Pros: Cave Johnson, black humor, cute frankenturret buddies
Cons: Wheatley’s change of heart
Beta sign-ups for Gotham City Imposters
Developers Monolith are accepting candidates for the private beta of their upcoming downloadable shooter, Gotham City Imposters. Interested gamers must visit the website; plug in their email address, birthday, zip code, and gaming platforms (PC, PS3, and/or Xbox 360); abide by the non-disclosure agreement.
The multiplayer FPS divides players into two opposing groups: vigilantes dressed like Batman and crazed criminals looking head-to-toe like the Joker. The two sides go at it on the open streets of Gotham City.
The game allegedly has “more customization than you can shake a shotgun at,” allowing players to alter hairstyles, guns, and gadgets. Upgrades and unlockables are included as players level up in various ways, including solo outings and several multiplayer modes.
The beta starts in September (next month). Cast your submission and you’ll be thanked with the cute Batman drawing on the left. Adorable.
Demo: Faery: Legends of Avalon
Flying around as a faery has its perks. Try Faery: Legends of Avalon as a demo before you buy.
King Oberon, ruler of Avalon, calls upon your newly awakened hero to save the faery world from vanishing into disbelief. Your main task is to find and recruit a companion, and a quick trip down to the beach will usher in pesky goblins and another faery named Aziel. In exchange for your help exploring a small cave near the shoreline, Aziel will join your quest to heal the portals dividing the faery and human worlds. In the cave, the two adventurers encounter small crabs, more goblins, and a guardian of rare dragon eggs.
Load times in Legends of Avalon are immediately atrocious in between actual gameplay, but the character designs translate crisply and colorfully onto the screen. The opening narrative and some of the in-game dialogue contain a few glaring spelling errors, a considerable blunder for any finished product.
Interacting with other, non-playable characters means choosing from slim pickings of questions and answers in a dialogue wheel. A small percentage are coded in blue or red, indicating that the person you’re holding the conversation with will either react favorably or unfavorably. This stark social perspective leaves little room for moral ambiguity; dialogue straddles the line between dry and interesting, although conversing with Aziel gives the tutorial portion of the demo a much more natural feel.
The controls are fairly easy to learn. Combat is turn-based in nature, relying on action points instead of mana and allowing players to either execute a string of regular attacks or a few stronger moves. Your party will automatically heal after every battle, so for seasoned RPG players expecting an innovative experience, Legends of Avalon might not be the best choice.
One feature Legends of Avalon has incorporated quite nicely is its menu system. The game facilitates menu navigation, prompting players with the option of viewing the appropriate window whenever they open a treasure chest or gain a skill point. The more your character levels up, the more sporting he or she will look. They’ll even start showing a little tattoo ink, each bearing a special ability.
With such convenience and simplicity, one has to wonder whether Legends of Avalon lacks any deeper substance. From the screenshots made available, it looks like the game’s most appealing asset is its gorgeously rendered locations and bizarre, often jumbo-sized monsters. The demo’s boss fight with the Giant Crab verged on falling into a lifeless, back-and-forth routine of attacks and dodges, but the game’s potential emerged with one creative catch. The Giant Crab, standing a poor chance against Aziel’s lightning attacks, fortified itself behind a front line of smaller crabs and goblins.
This game is also available for the Xbox 360 and PC.
Have you tried Faery: Legends of Avalon? Let me know what you think in the comments below.
Atlus Announces The Cursed Crusade
Today Atlus predicted that this coming summer, the Old World will burn—that is, their new action-adventure quest The Cursed Crusade will land on the PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, and PC in conjunction with developer Kylotonn Entertainment.
Promising two player co-op (online and local) gameplay, The Cursed Crusade is set at the close of 12th century medieval Europe and follows two damned warriors in a fight for their souls. Throughout the game, Denz and Esteban are afflicted by the Templar’s Curse, which pulls them ever closer to hell and burns “their humanity away as it engulfs the space around them in demonic flame.”
According to Aram Jabbari, Manager of PR and Sales at Atlus, the game’s historically accurate locations will be contrasted with the characters’ supernatural struggle, making for a unique experience:
“The game’s main characters are not heroes; they’re just men, susceptible to temptation, easily made to feel doubt and despair.”
Thoughts? To me, this sounds like a dark fantasy twist on Assassin’s Creed.
Visit the brand new website thecursedcrusade.com for a teaser trailer featuring gameplay footage.
High in the Clouds: Bioshock Goes Infinite
More Bioshock, please! Check out the star-spangled news (with a teaser trailer and screens) at OneMetal.
Irrational Games promises to return the Bioshock series to red, white, and blue form with Bioshock Infinite. The sea is so three years ago. Come visit the city in the clouds.
2K Marin departed Bioshock from its original creative talent for the lesser praised sequel, but the company is graciously stepping aside for the third installment in the series, a property that Irrational Games has reclaimed. 2K president Christoph Hartmann recently announced, “We believe that Irrational Games will lend their meticulous attention to detail and unique storytelling expertise to make BioShock Infinite an incredible entertainment experience that will immerse new and diehard fans of BioShock alike.”
Spawn Kill Favorites: Resident Evil 2
“Ada, wait!” Before las Plagas, there were zombies. Ankle-dragging, brain-hungry zombies, the undead who waited behind corners and inside lockers, hoping an unlucky S.T.A.R.S. member or even some exhausted shop owner with a shotgun would walk straight into their open arms. Hey, it happens. Resident Evil 2 is proof.
When it comes to horror video games, Resident Evil tops the chart, nails the head shots, and splatters the screen with blood and gore. Although the popular series changed its mainstream viral formula with the “action horror” award-winner Resident Evil 4, fans still consider the second game a hot favorite. Leon S. Kennedy may be a teenage girl’s knight in zombie gut-stained armor now, but he wasn’t always such a looker who rolled with Umbrella’s punches as slickly as the bad puns and bingo jokes. Once upon a time in Raccoon City, he was a rookie cop whose first day on the job ended in city-wide decimation. He slogged through grimy sewers, followed a corporation’s blood trail, befriended Redfield’s sister … and fell for one dangerous lady in red.
Interested in the full retro review? Click here and read it on Spawn Kill.
The Prince, Now Environmentally Savvy
Put those Jake Gyllenhaal posters away, my fellow Prince of Persia junkies. The upcoming Forgotten Sands, which fills in the seven-year blank between the first two main games, adds an elemental touch and promises to deliver more classic time slidey, puzzle solving, sword slashing goodness.
Everything's better with the undead. Everything.
Level design director Michael McIntyre reports that the new adventure will let gamers play in a time-manipulating sandbox more akin to The Sands of Time, a series highlight. When the Prince decides to pay his brother a visit, he discovers Malik’s city overrun by the sand fiends with whom he struck a deal. Since The Forgotten Sands emerges fresh out of The Sands of Time, players can rewind time in a cinch. When the Prince befriends a Djinn named Razia, she instills in him various elemental powers.
Puzzles and combat balance evenly for the most part, and as many as fifty enemies will bombard the hero simultaneously courtesy of the Anvil Engine (Assassin’s Creed II). McIntyre praises the new fighting style, which harnesses intense and flexible combat. He also explains, “The big mechanic here is to do your combos. But the combos don’t drive you in a straight line. It kind of feels like Sands of Time combat, but cranked up to eleven.”
I can smell the water already ... There's a hint of lemon.
The elemental powers intertwine with the Prince’s acrobatic feats, allowing the developers to establish brainteasing obstacles. For instance, the Prince can slow time to a standstill, solidifying water into a more performance-friendly implement. Eventually you’ll earn four core powers, which attach to the four trigger buttons. Dash combines air and fire, according to McIntyre: “It’s something you can quickly intuit as a player, but it opens up a lot of of possibilities.” Minor, customizable strengths, like the ability to summon mini tornadoes, can be purchased.
Another change includes the populace, who are no longer absent in a sense. Sand statue vignettes augment an otherwise linear story. “They breathe a lot into the world,” McIntyre commented. “It has that real Pompei vibe.”
Set for May on the PC, PlayStation 3, and Xbox 360 systems (a separate Wii game awaits on the sidelines), The Forgotten Sands makes a promising case for itself. For a more detailed look, visit Kotaku.com.
The only kind of timing I enjoy in video games: The not getting sawed in half kind.
