Brain Assassin » games

Deus Ex 3 E3 Trailer Shows What’s to Come

JC — Thu, 10 Jun 2010 07:22:21 +0000

A few days ago, the E3 trailer for Deus Ex: Human Revolution made it into the web. The third installment actually is a prequel to the original Deus Ex published in the year 2000. In March the first trailer was shown to the public. The E3 trailer expands on the former and drops a few hints of the possible plot. Before I start rambling, do yourself a favor and enjoy the trailer:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=4FRWYRqaGFE

Deus Ex took place in 2052, Deux Ex: Human Revolution takes you into the year 2027. Since Human Revolution is a prequel the augmentations are mechanical rather than featuring nanotech like the first two games did. The augmentations will be divided into four types: Combat, Social, Stealth, Technology. Thankfully, the developers also got rid of the unified ammunition introduced with Deus Ex: Invisible War. The game deals with the ethics of transhumanism and meta-humans. The greek myth of Daedalus and Icarus in the main character’s dreams serves as an allegory to this theme. As was the case in previous titles conspiracy theories and powerful corporations are very prominent.

The main character, Adam Jensen, is a security chief with a company that specializes in biomechanical augmentations. Once he witnesses an attack on his company the conspiracy -- and the game -- begins. Jensen needs to find out who just killed all the scientists and why they did it. You can surely guess the rest: questions lead to other questions and soon Jensen has to save the cheerleader world.

There’s only one thing really bugging me. Once again, the game will hit different platforms (PC, PS3, Xbox 360). I seriously hope it won’t suffer the same fate as Invisible War did. As a consequence of console-oriented development the levels were smaller and the game was lacking detail. There’s nothing else to do but wait and hope. The game currently has a tentative release date of March 2011.

Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands Review

JC — Mon, 07 Jun 2010 20:14:55 +0000

I bought Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands during my stay in London over the extended weekend. Today, I had nothing to do so I put it in the PS3 and had a go at it. After roughly seven hours I was done. The real playtime is about one hour less and six hours of gameplay aren’t all that good for a game like this. The predecessors took me longer. Anyway, let’s see if I can summarize my experience a little better.

I won’t tell you anything about the plot. Let’s just say that the storyline is weak and you surely won’t be absorbed by the narrative. The acrobatics and platforming is up to the Prince of Persia standard set by The Sands of Time. The first two hours are pretty easy going but it get’s more challenging later on. The prince unlocks new powers like freezing water or making portions of ruins seem like they did before they were destroyed. You have to combine these powers to get through the later levels and this is definitely more challenging than the beginning areas. Thanks to the ability to rewind time you improve the odds to beat tricky platforming areas.

Combat is more boring because it mostly consists of button smashing. The first enemies are easy, the later ones are a bit tougher and sometimes quite big. With the powers the prince unlocks with his experience points everything’s easy, though. Using these powers requires the same resources as does rewinding time so you may have to be careful, depending on your playing style. During normal gameplay you can’t maximize your powers so you should play the game’s challenge modes.

The visuals of the game aren’t impressive at all. The game had potential, though. Sometimes, TFS looks really fantastic which is unfortunately negated when you arrive at dull looking areas. Some areas even look a bit unfinished. Seems like the developers had a lot of pressure finishing the game in time which results in this unrefined game.

Funny sidenote: You can unlock additional stuff via Uplay and the developers added an Ezio costume (Ezio is the lead character in Assassin’s Creed II).

So, what’s my conclusion? The game is neither bad nor awesome, but good. It has a solid base but there’s quite a bit of untapped potential hidden deep within. That makes it better than the 2008 Prince of Persia but that’s it. It’s got good voice acting and some interesting platforming but combat is a dull affair. If I had to rate the game, I’d give it 6 out of 10 points.

Deus Ex 3 Trailer Is Here!

JC — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 13:09:59 +0000

Finally, we get to see more than just a few screenshots. As Eidos Montreal boss Stephanie D’Astous tweeted a few days ago a ‘surprise’ has come this way. Naturally, the surprise is nothing more than a trailer albeit a nice one. I already burn to have a copy of the game in my hands. The first installment was spectacular, the second one I found not that well made. Anyway, have a look for yourself:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=pO-5bG8487g

God of War 3 Review Shows Stunning Graphics!

JC — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 16:09:28 +0000

This morning I went to Gametrailers.com expecting nothing out of the ordinary, like I always do Today, however, my sharp eagly eyes spotted a God of War 3 review. This review contains minor spoilers but you shouldn’t worry if you’ve already played its predecessors. The review does the game credit: You’ll see some stunning in-game graphics and parts of a few cutscenes. Well, I can’t wait for the game any way, especially since the sex mini-game has been unearthed, but I want to play this game right now. Just look at it. That’s frigging awesome, people.

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God of War 3 Sex Minigame

JC — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 07:28:39 +0000

Apparently, God of War 3 once again features a sex minigame. Every God of War title, even the PSP version, has included an optional, hidden section where Kratos can please topless maidens. In the third installment of the very successful franchise game director Stig Asmussen didn’t want to include the minigame at first. This time around, they decided to integrate the sex minigame into the story where it serves more of a purpose than in previous titles. In the conclusion to the trilogy Kratos beds the goddess of love – Aphrodite – herself. He couldn’t possibly do better in further games, could he?

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Does Battlefield: Bad Company 2 Really Rock?

JC — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 09:46:11 +0000

Battlefield: Bad Company 2 is here and it sure looks like great fun. I liked the first installment of the series well enough but I could never convince myself to buy it. I always had the impression that something was off. This time around I’ve already pre-ordered the sequel. Judging by multiple reviews, the game should be fun. Unfortunately, the humor from the first part seems to have largely gone AWOL and the single-player mode seems to be quite short.

Anyway, a tweaked and upgraded Frostbite engine does it’s best to deliver gorgeous graphics and almost totally destructible environment. You get wonderful vistas and a sense of depth only a few other games can offer. Apparently, the game’s mechanics seem to work great and your AI compatriots do their best to support you. A collectible weapon system offers a reason to return to the campaign though I’ll probably just play through it.

The multiplayer is where Bad Company 2 delivers. The destructible environment adds an extra tier of strategy to the game as you can alter the playing field by a few well-placed explosions. Larger teams are segmented into smaller strike forces, called squads. Within a squad, players can choose between four load-out kits, each featuring its own weapons and unique tools. Contrary to the campaign, where the player has one of the most forgiving aiming systems, there will be no aiming help anywhere in the online multiplayer mode.

BC2 has a Metacritic score of 89 which is rather good. So, how do you feel about Battlefield: Bad Company 2? Already played it? How does it compare to Modern Warfare 2?

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God of War III and Battlefield: Bad Company II Incoming

JC — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 10:18:06 +0000

This march promises to be quite eventful. I’ve just pre-ordered Battlefield: Bad Company II and God of War III from Amazon.co.uk. Best of all, Amazon is kind enough to provide an in-game early AK-47 weapon unlock code for BC2. According to a preview over at Ars Technica you can beat the single-player game of BC2 in about eight hours or so. That’s O.K. because multiplayer ist the meat of the game. Apparently, you’ll also get a day-one map pack in the form of a one-time-use code included with the game. Just enter the code and you get two additional maps. If you buy the game used, you’ll have to unlock the content for US$ 15. Here’s a preview of things to come:

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God of War III on the other hand is all about the single-player experience. Amazon bundles the game with a code to unlock a Forgotten Warrior character skin, if you pre-order with them. GoW III ups the ante in terms of size by offering areas up to fours times larger than those found in its predecessor. The programmers and designers have included new instruments of death and ruthless techniques for Kratos to learn. The third installment will conclude the trilogy but there already are plans to create more games with Kratos. Here’s a trailer for your viewing pleasure:

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Nier: More Competition for God of War 3?

JC — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 15:25:03 +0000

Dante’s Inferno, which has been shipped to customers already, is a game very similar to the God of War franchise. It has already received mixed reviews, citing “repetitive and/or derivative gameplay”. Nevertheless, it has been concluded that this is a game that fans of action shouldn’t miss. As of yet I’m still undecided whether to buy the Dante’s Inferno or not. I think I’ll stay with Kratos though. Today, I saw the story trailer for NIER. While it certainly isn’t to my taste there surely are a few similarities to God of War. Actually, the official press release says that this is a unique Action-RPG featuring twisting storylines coupled with deep character development. NIER is being published by Square Enix and will be available in North America on April 27th, 2010. We Europeans will have NIER in stores almost a week earlier on April 23rd, 2010. Enjoy the story trailer:

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Why Modern Warfare 2 Sometimes Really Sucks

JC — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 10:09:33 +0000

Last week I was on sick leave and I spent quite a few hours playing the latest installment of the Call of Duty franchise: Modern Warfare 2. It’s the first title of the franchise that I own and interestingly enough, I bought it for the PlayStation 3 rather than for the PC. Anyway, I love the single player mode even if it is annoyingly short. An experienced player will defeat the game in only a few hours. Apart from the length, CoD: MW2 really does fine.

It’s the multi-player mode that tends to suck from time to time. The developers – the guys from Infinity Ward – implemented a feature called host migration. This features prevents the game from ending if a match host leaves the game early. Instead, a host migration delay allows a new host to be selected and the game to continue on. Out of 50 times it worked three times for me. To be honest, it worked more often but in these instances the game became unplayable because of the sudden lags and stuttering. All these countless times when I saw

In addition, the game has some serious balancing issues. Every time I’m on a team with two or three other people and we’re playing against a team consisting of eight players, I’d like to strangle the developers responsible for this screw-up. There’s no fun in that, especially if you’d prefer Mouse and Keyboard to a Gamepad anyway. So, you’re not the best player, you’re low-level, and your team mates are roughly your equal and you’re playing against eight high-level characters who have access to better weapons and perks. That sucks.

Last but not least, have you ever seen the “Game lobby closed” error message? No? You’re one of the luckiest guys to ever play this game. The system looks for other player, waits for more people, joins another lobby, spends more time waiting, pretends to launch the game – and then it screws you over by displaying a notice with the informative text “Game lobby closed”. There are times where I definitely spend more time waiting for a game to be set up rather than playing it.

I seriously hope they fix these issues very soon. Nonetheless, I have to applaud them for their update strategy. They have a very small footprint of only a few megabytes and they download quite fast. Keep up the good work and fix these issues!

The Forgotten Sands: Ubisoft Continues Prince of Persia

JC — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 15:59:12 +0000

Looks like Ubisoft has announced a new sequel to the Prince of Persia franchise. Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands will continue the Sands of Time trilogy. No words yet on how they will return to the Sands of Time storyline. According to the press release, the game will feature “many of the fan-favorite elements of the original series as well as new gameplay innovations”. The game’s debut trailer will premiere on Spike TV’s Video Game Awards 2009 on Saturday, December 12th, 2009 at 8 p. m. EST.

The Forgotten Sands is scheduled for release on “consoles and handhelds” in May 2010. This date nicely coincides with the film Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time which will hit the movie theaters on May 28th, 2010. I wonder whether The Forgotten Sands will be some kind of tie-in to the movie? It could also simply continue with the prince we know – effectively creating a tetralogy – or mark the beginnings of a new trilogy. I guess we’ll have to wait until Saturday.