Monday 21 June 2010

Alien Breed Impact Review

OK so here's how I see it, Team 17 the people who make worms a quirky game where creative and fun environments  being space, the 17th century or under the sea... have made a game that has completely gone the other way and made a top down shooter, where dark and dull environments  being the inside of a ship yeah that's not what i expected for Team 17... well is this game any good?

 Story: From what i can gather, your a member of the crew and the ship crashes into a meteor and the ship starts to explode and you haft to get out of there, mean wile aliens are infesting the ship so your job just got a little harder. The bad thing about the story is, One; there isn't one. Two; it's not told well and, Three; there's no incentive to care. The beginning of the game is this poor comic style cut scene which i didn't know what was going on because of the dark blue and black colour scheme which meant I HAD NO IDEA WHAT I WAS DOING.

Gameplay: To start of the Level Design is dull there is no colour pallet except for gun metal gray, you might say that it's more atmospheric but i say differently, you see in real life an inside of a ship is bright with white walls mainly to give as much light with little electricity, also who would go on a ship like this? It's like this ship is asking for invasion. Anyway to the actual gameplay of the game. It's a top down shooter where you shoot aliens and solve "puzzles" if you can it them that.What i'm saying is the puzzles aren't really puzzles there set out to be objectives (find and tern on a button to complete main task), It's all to basic and repetitive even throw i've got a different objective i'm still doing the same thing, where's the spice that i'm so fond off in mods and indie games (this game just about ranks as a normal game). I've played this type of level and kill this type of enemy so many times that i just get board and don't care.

Taking of enemies there not very... well interesting to fight. Most of them will just run at you and try and bite your face off, and it's not very fun when all your doing is holding down mouse button and shacking it around so the hole corridor is full of flying lead that any enemy that gets in the was of of will die making no challenge for the player.

All in all the game does nothing new or impressive. There alot i'm missing out like shopping and save points but that's because they do nothing to improve gameplay (except buying guns but that's it) i can see effort in it but sadly it's to no cause, i've played better and there's nearly no reason to pick it up besides price and filler, which is possible because the only big games i'm impressed buy is Portal 2 and deus ex 3 what are all coming out next year! 

In sort average game

Liam Hackett

Tuesday 15 June 2010

Portal 2 Surprize!!

Valve, creators of best-selling game franchises and leading technologies, today announced that it will deliver Portal 2 on the PlayStation 3 platform simultaneously with previously announced platforms. The PlayStation 3 version of Portal 2 will be the only console version to include Steamworks.
"When the PlayStation 3 was introduced, I was the one of the platform's biggest critics," said Gabe Newell, president and co-founder of Valve. "However, Sony Computer Entertainment has proved that the PlayStation 3 is the most open platform of all the current generation consoles and has worked extremely hard to make the platform the most desirable for consumers and developers. As such, we are delighted to announce Portal 2 for the PlayStation 3 and believe the Steamworks support included will make it the best console version of the game."
Portal 2 is the sequel to the title named "Game of the Year" 2007 by over 30 publications around the world. Portal 2 promises to break new ground in next generation gaming by expanding the award-winning recipe of innovative gameplay, immersive story, and creative inclusion of music while also introducing multiplayer co-op game modes.
On the PlayStation 3 Portal 2 will be supported by Steamworks, a complete suite of game features and services including auto updates, community features, downloadable content, and more. Previously deployed on the PC and the Mac, Valve's Steamworks development platform will make it possible to deliver the higher level of service gamers have come to expect.
"Valve is one of the industry's leading studios and Portal is one of the most innovative properties launched in the past 10 years," said Rob Dyer, senior vice president of publisher relations at Sony Computer Entertainment America. "Valve's decision to bring Portal 2 to the PlayStation 3 with Steamworks support is incredible validation of the power and openness and momentum of PlayStation 3."
Portal 2 is targeted for launch in 2011 on the PlayStation 3, PC, Mac and Xbox 360 platforms.
For more information on Steam, please visit http://www.thinkwithportals.com.

Monday 7 June 2010

Half-Life 2 Beta Source Interview

Today I was lucky to get an interview with two of the developers behind Half-Life 2: Betasource (Moddb page).  MrCr@ck (Project leader) who does Graphics,mapping, Scripting, Sound design and Modeling behind the project and Mike (a.k.a Pupkin) who does Modeling and Mapping.

If you are a coder or texture artist looking for work please contact MrCr@ck

INTERVIEW

What made you do this mod?

MrCr@ck: It was an idea. I did not like the other processing leaked version, so I decided to make are own.

Mike: Well, I'm not the mod's creator, but I'm a big fan of the beta, and this mod actually did the more exciting things about it, I mean I've seen the Borealis or AirEx a hundred times already, but barely any beta cities or things like skitch ;D

How did you find away to add Skitch into the story and how you going to add him via gameplay?

Mike: Probably he will be the mod's replacement of dog, that's how it was in the beta. He will be more dangerous though, and more agile. Again, I can't tell much because I'm not the leader And joined not long ago.

MrCr@ck: Complete skitch concept had to be created anew. Skitch was brought to earth like an egg at the time of Black Mesa. After the incident, Alyx Took care of him. In betasource mod you meet him after the Airex.

As your new how has the experience been so far?

Mike: Very good, I am cooperating pretty well with MrCr@ck on the modelling, we're also sharing experience on modelling and rigging, so we can learn new stuff faster.


Have you added any new enemies or allies of your own or all from the Half-Life universe?

MrCr@ck: we added all the enemies from original story line. eg. skitch, cremator, combine elite, consul, eli maxwell ....

Will there be a Portal gun or not bothered about having one?

MrCr@ck: Portal gun will not in BS , but we have new physgun

Mike: Probably not.. I mean portal was made later.

How have you dealt with handling the script/story?

MrCr@ck: leaked content and raising the bar. This is all you need to make a nice and true storyline

Will the mod be more focused on puzzles, gunplay or half and half?

MrCr@ck: We want to fully exploit the source engine..so half and half

Mike: The beta was much like the release itself that means the mix of puzzles and gunfights we all know and love HL2.

Will the Manhack Arcade be a big thing in the mod by the looks of the trailer it looks like it?

MrCr@ck: the manhack arcade is a very detailed passage, but in this passage you are held up for about 5 minutes.Yet we worked on it for three weeks.

Mike: Not a big thing, it's more of an introduction to the Combine Empire which would be even more violent and brutal in the beta. It may introduce characters, though.


From Raising the bar flight was an aspect in the gameplay will you be able to fly a plane in this mod?

MrCr@ck: yeah this passage is flight C-130 and in the modification it will be included after the Water Control part

Mike: As far as I know, you wouldn't be really flying it, it's rather a "transport" like the trains, and it would crash into a combine over watch building. Actually flying a C130 would be difficult to make and the Source engine wouldn't like that at all. (Performance wise)

Looking at the screenshots will we be spending more time at city 17 before the uprising?

Mike: You will spend some time there, but that's where the development focussed so far. Of course we will work on the street fights later, they will have the planned more military character of the beta, with the rebels using tanks and behaving more like army remnants.

MrCr@ck: but many time we spending in the neighbourhood C17, eg, borealis, Kraken base, Depod, Prison....and of course wasteland

Final question what you want/will people take away from this?

Mike: It will show people how HL2 was originally planned to be like, and also we try to recreate large parts of the beta to please the HL2 beta fan community, which is still pretty big. And ofcourse, we will work on parts unseen in the WC map pack or other leak releases, like as said before, Kraken base or the Wasteland.

MrCr@ck: Finally I just want to say that people were not afraid to do any mod if they have a good idea.

Liam Hackett

Sunday 6 June 2010


Remember Half Life? Yeah, that survival horror and FPS hybrid? Was wicked badass and cool? Remember it had 2 expansions? Neither do I. Recently your kindly reviewer here had the misfortune luck to come across the Valve Complete Pack online, in it was just about every game Valve has ever made including more obscure titles such as Day of Defeat and Ricochet. I already had Half Life Source so I was really supprised to see that the pack included not only a copy of the original Half Life, bugs and all, but also Blue Shift and
Opposing Force. I had NO idea these existed before hand, I swear.

It's clear that Valve has improved over the years. Why? Becuase both Blue Shift and Opposing Force were..well...not very good. Blue Shift was bassicaly a few more Half Life maps to dick around in with the exception that you are playing as Barney, who's Barney? That guard who keeps offering you beers (also appearing in Half Life 2). I assumed Opposing Force was gonna be good myself, it included new weapons such as a Deagle and a Portal Gun, how awesome is that? Sure it's no Appeture Science gun but hey. Opposing Force also includes new enemies..and this is where my first problem begins, they're not new, I swear they're copies from somewhere.





Like that thing, what is that? It looks like the wierd twin of a Zergling from Starcraft. And yes, fuck crowbars, a WRENCH is where it's at! But that's just the tip of the suckberg. Other copes include a white, tall Vortigaunt and Gohma, yes, fucking Gohma (OoT Gohma I believe). Shephard appears to be alot less manly when not wearing N7 armor since you will die again and again and again and again and again! Mostly because he's alot more fragile than Gordon and even Barney! Yes, the security guard with the Glock has more stamina than the trained soldier.

It's not helped that the gameplay is glitched to buggery aswell. Some lifts stop half way and won't move, some move but they kill you etc. I found 2 that REALLY pissed me off and almostad me rage quit. The first one was right after that blood annoying sewer level (Yes, a sewer level) where you have to make your way past a mirriad of aliens with almost-instant-kill attacks. I ended up with on 26 hp remaining and no shields so as you can imagine I took it slow, I noticed some Black Ops goons up the top of some stairs, killed one of them no problem but the next one is what pissed me off. He stood, there, looking right at me, I unloaded a full SMG clip into him, he took one step AND EXPLODED. I SWEAR THERE WAS NO GRENADE OR ANY TYPE OF EXPLOSIVE THERE, HOW DID HE EXPLODE? The seccond glitch I found I actualy encountered a few times, when your squad randomly opens fire on you for no reason. I swear, I'd be running down a corridor, turn around and my squad would all shoot at me! Did I mention that the aim is off to? Yeah, sometimes when aiming the targeting reticule will jump about all over the place and hit everything BUT the enemy.

Now, for all my complaints Opposing Force does have a good side..sorta.  It does add in a few new weapons like the Deagle, the heavy machine gun and a portal gun. Yes, no longer is the portal gun used for solving puzzles now you can fire it at your enemies and instand kill yourself randomly, this is why GLaDOS went nuts, the bloody incompitence of the portal gun makers. Aswell as the almighty wrench you're also given a combat knife, why? I have no idea but it does open boxes faster than the wrench so it's all good. Aswell as new human weapons we also get the Blue Vortigaunts electric gun, an alien grenade launcher and a barnacle grapple gun. These are pretty cool but the electric gun causes me some grief, mostly because after you get your first one you work out pretty fast is has infinate ammo, which is fine except from any point onwards if you see another one on the floor IT WILL TRY TO KILL YOU!

All in all, Opposing Force isn't bad per-se, but it just feels rushed to me. The glitches, game play issues and enemy types all could have been fixed given a few more months work if you ask me. Will we see Shephard again? Maybe, who right?  He's gotta go kill the reapers first.

Final Score: 2/5

By: Wittyreviewer

Saturday 5 June 2010

Chome Specforce Review

Here we go again. Well now Chome Specforce has moved away from the Halo type of gameplay and now on to the Crysis with it's armor, but is this games as good as Crysis?

Story: You play as the same guy as you did in the last game, now he's with a universe police type army. You and a team mate go to this planet and blow up a plant, i had no idea what was going in the beginning of  the game. Then you blow up the game and get attacked, lets call them the empire. Your left 4 dead (haha) and need to get of the planet before you DIE!! Anyway you join with the Rebels and... it's Star Wars, Episode 6 to be exact. Sadly i got lost in the story just after the tutorial, so not a good story but it's a carrot on a stick approach.

Gameplay: OK this game game was released 3 years before crysis (2007 crysis was released and it still look good wow) anyway you have suit power... which i hardly used... yeah but in some ways that's a good thing it doesn't mean your stuck because of the developers wanting you to do a certain action to do with the suit, gives you freedom to do what you want.

OK the gun play  it good and i mean good, shooting just feels fun, i never used any other weapon except for the default, and it was fun i didn't need to experiment because i was having fun with the weapon i had. That's a shame because there's more room in your inventory to experiment, but i just used that for ammo and grenades.

The A.I. is OK, but the death animations are good, they give me satifactory that I've taken this big guy down. Fire fights remind me of F.E.A.R. but without the impressive A.I. sadly because of the lack of good A.I. i got board of it... quite fast. Thankfully there are some parts to sproose up the gameplay like a speeder chase in the woods with them becomes annoying because guess what there's still no autosave, this is the time of Half-Life 2 and Halo 2 people!!!

All in All i like this game it's not great but it's fun to play to kill time, and guess with you can get this for £5.99 on Steam what a deal and it come with Chome. Anyway it's no Crysis gameplay wise (and nowhere near graphical Crysis or Half-Life 2) but it's fun waste it lasts.

Liam Hackett