Category: Past Blasts

Do you remember the good old days, when video games put fast hack-and-slashing combat sequences and extensive levelling systems first and a deep narrative with memorable characters second? BigHuge Games certainly banked on gamers holding some kind of nostalgia for those titles of yore with their fantasy RPG Kingdoms Of Amalur: Reckoning. However, depending on your preferences, their ambitious open-world title may appear to have backfired in its retro homage.

You need only sense the feeling of lacking innovation that pervades Reckoning’s storyline to see just how much emphasis it places on its gameplay- you’ll find your character resurrected from the dead into an ancient war between the mortal races and their immortal tyrants, and thanks to your selective amnesia, in essence, you’re given the chance to choose your destiny, branching off into any skill set and reputation that suits your play style. Various fantasy stereotypes like the intimidating wise councils, the ancient royal families and their descendants are employed constantly and regularly, to the point that you’ll find yourself almost completely devoid of empathy or emotive connection to any of the identikit races that you come across.

This sounds like an exciting premise at first, but it’ll quickly become apparent that the supposedly limitless choices at your disposal are markedly more finite than they are in Skyrim. Far from being able to forge your fate and have your name become either one that instils fear or pleasure across the kingdom that lies before you, all of the separate towns and villages just feel like isolated mission areas whose population only have an inclination to you based on the pre-determined actions you perform throughout the entirety of the forty-hour campaign and the various (repetitive) side missions.

The moment that it becomes obvious that your actions are having very little major change on the game world around you is precisely the point at which you’ll realise that Reckoning is far less immersive and compelling to blitz through than any recent RPG legends.

That the game’s graphics are sub-par at best- unlikely to have looked out of place on the PS2 or the original Xbox in a similar vein to Fable– doesn’t help, either. Electronic Arts didn’t place much faith in the Kingdoms franchise based on the underwhelming locales and character models that must surely be the result of a restrained budget.

The game’s one saving grace is undoubtedly its fine combat- harkening back to classics like God of War, it’s fast-paced and dynamic (even more so than Skyrim at times), boasting a genuinely arcadey style that is easy to pick up and develop on as you progress your character’s skills and abilities. If BigHuge could have worked on making every element of the game experience as refined and unique as this, we might have ended up with a more satisfactory overall product than we got with Reckoning.

Everything about Kingdoms Of Amalur: Reckoning feels a little dated, its woefully recycled plot suffering the worst in a period where video gaming narratives had evolved to become such deep and engaging experiences. Although if I’m being nice, you still may be able to get some fun out of this.

In a world where popcorn-shooters like Call of Duty and Battlefield reign largely dominant over their industry despite their tiresome linearity and woeful storylines, it’s refreshing every once in a while to find a game that doesn’t rely on a formulaic template set down by the past legends of its genre. Those of us who aren’t waiting for the midnight launch for the next COD look to a select group of prized developers who will offer us consistently innovative and thought-provoking experiences: developers like Valve, Rocksteady, CryTech and Capcom, all masters of their respective trades rarely given enough attention by the wider gaming community, but treasured by those with a keen eye for talent. We added Ubisoft Montpellier to the list with the release of Rayman Origins…

Origins tells a simple tale – Rayman and his buddies are fast asleep, and their snoring awakens a menacing granny and her army of Darktoons, who then precede to capture a handful of Glade Kings and run off into the distance, just begging to be chased. Sound familiar? Yep, there’s more than a hint of the Mario franchise about this one; from the whimsical soundtrack to the fast-paced, rhythmic gameplay, countless elements that have made the iconic plumber’s recent escapades such captivating romps are present here, and as you might expect the whole experience plays out all the better for it.

However, what might come as more of a surprise is just how much Origins has to offer of its own accord. For starters, there’s a great variety in the styles and themes of each of the levels on offer, ensuring that the player won’t ever be stuck with the same repetitive gameplay mechanic for too long, but equally that they’ll get enough time with the thrilling flight sections, the incredibly addictive bonus chase sequences and the oft-hilarious boss battles that they won’t ever be left feeling short-changed either.

Perhaps even greater an achievement than that, though, comes in the simply sublime animation. The in-house UbiArt Framework engine made specifically for this project works wonders, giving a distinct visual flair to characters, locales and objects throughout every level, and is rendered stunningly in high-definition. You need only watch a trailer or gameplay demo of Origins to get a glimpse at the sheer level of attention and detail that’s gone into each aspect of its graphical style. This was undoubtedly a trend-setter for any development teams who dare to take a new approach to their animations and artwork.

I would offer a word of warning: Rayman Origins is not for the faint of heart. Like the Mario Bros and Prince of Persias of old, this game is not afraid to have you throwing your controller across the room as you fall down that same pit you’ve been trying to conquer for the past hour for a hundredth time. Ubisoft made the opening half of the game deceptively accessible, providing players with a fairly simple bunch of levels that can be breezed through in the best part of five hours, but once you’ve reached the midway point (and believe me, you’ll know when you’re there), the difficulty ramps up dramatically, as you’re forced to scour back through past levels to desperately search for more Electroons that can open up the path to new worlds.

Such an unprecedented shift in challenge is likely to alienate a significant proportion of the game’s younger audience, simply because there are so many titles out there right now which don’t pose so much of a struggle or require as much time to be invested in order to complete them. Personally, I would say that the team at Montpellier should really have balanced out the learning curve of Rayman Origins’s later levels a little better to make the idea of putting the disc back into our consoles for one more go seem a little less daunting.

That said, I commend the studio for sticking to their guns and giving us a ‘hardcore’ platformer that gloriously harkens back to the days of the Mega Drive and the SNES, packing all of the challenge and innovation that made the classics such a joy to play in their heyday. Whether you’re able to beat it or not, there’s absolutely no denying that Rayman Origins is a stunning pinnacle of modern platforming and visual design. Above all, it’s a cracking showcase of what consoles can offer (besides first-person shooters).

Japan is well-known for its eccentric commercials and their love for lycra and spandex on their tokusatsu superheroes; and they have taken their idiosyncrasy a step further and fashioned a lycra-donning superhero, whose duty is to quench the citizens’ thirst with Pepsi—Pepsiman! And yes, they made a video game based on this soda superhero.

Like Tony the Tiger from Frosted Flakes, Pepsiman serves as Japan’s official licensed mascot. It’s a shame Pepsiman never reached the other side of the world, or even expanded beyond the Pacific side of Japan because the West is losing out on a worthwhile advertisement.

And there have been countless console games based on licensed advertisements and, almost all of them, do not compare to Pepsiman’s unyielding explosion of unconditional satisfaction. Take, for example, Burger King’s Sneak King, I did not even bother to invest 5 minutes into it before I popped it out of the disc tray; and now, it is probably shoved beneath broken controllers, collecting dust.

Just a little backstory between me and Pepsiman: my adventures with this Japanese mascot started when I was still a padawan in video games and my fingers lacked the dexterity I have now. Walking into the living room, I remember my older brother wide-eyed and slightly perspiring, standing in front of the television playing none other than Pepsiman. I kept my eyes glued to Pepsiman and five seconds later, I collapsed on the ground laughing. The amount of absurdity happening in the video game crucified me into a non-stop chain of choking cackles and pig-snorting giggles.

C’mon, whoever is not tickled by the occasional soprano-pitch wailing, “Pepsiman! Pepsiman!” must not have a soul—well, that’s not for me to judge. I digress. Overall, Pepsiman’s cheesy quirks and easy-to-follow mechanics definitely deserves a high-five for a licensed advertisement game.

Almost similar to Sonic the Hedgehog, Pepsiman’s objective is to run from Point A to Point B whilst avoiding obstacles and collecting treasure points, except the obstacles are flying sofas, banana peels, and angry drivers, and instead of rings, Pepsiman gathers Pepsi cans.

All in total, there are 8 stages in the game; totalling a collection of 800 Pepsi cans. For each can Pepsiman collects his health bar increases along with the countdown timer; giving Pepsiman more leverage.

In most stages of the game, the perspective is played behind-the-back of Pepsiman. Take note, Pepsiman does not stop running and he is constantly on the move. Have you ever played Crash Bandicoot: Warped where Coco Bandicoot is riding her pet tiger on the Great Wall of China? Yeah. Pepsiman is very much identical to that.

The ’90s truly loved their platform games and Pepsiman rightfully belongs in that sphere of love.

With that said, if you grew up in the ’90s and missed out on this, it’s never too late to quench that gap with Pepsiman!

It’s hard to believe now, but there was a time when Call of Duty didn’t rule the FPS roost. Before the first game of the aforementioned FPS franchise was released in 2003, it was the Medal of Honor series that was most gamers’ experience of virtual World War II. MoH kicked off with its first game, released in 1999 on the PS1 by DreamWorks Interactive (now known as DICE) and is notable for having legendary filmmaker Steven Spielberg’s involvement in the game’s design. If that wasn’t enough, the game also boasted music from popular Hollywood film composer, Michael Giacchino. What resulted was a then-immersive war FPS that was released to critical acclaim and set the standard for WWII video games at the time. It also meant the beginning of a video game franchise, with several sequels and spin-offs to follow in the following years. Yet, we will focus on one of those follow-ups here – Medal of Honor: Frontline.

Released for the then-current-gen consoles, the PlayStation 2, Xbox and Nintendo GameCube, the game featured a similar quality in its action setpieces as previous games in the series. Only this time, it was powered by greater technology than the primitive PS1, bringing such historical moments as D-Day and the Battle of Arnhem gloriously to life in ways that had never been done before. I can already hear those who grew up with the Medal of Honor: Allied Assault PC game argue that it was that title that did the cinematic experience better, but Frontline was many players’ introduction to the series as a whole. The opening D-Day level, while not as graphically compelling as today’s games, is still playable, with excellent sound design and voice acting creating an intense atmosphere. The battle reeks of Spielberg’s Saving Private Ryan opening in terms of tone, but since the series’ origins lie with the aforementioned director, it shouldn’t be that surprising.

But, as veterans of the game are no doubt aware, the majority of Frontline doesn’t have you fighting huge battles alongside fellow comrades-in-arms but has you as an agent infiltrating Nazi Germany. Frontline pits you in the shoes of soldier-turned-OSS (nowadays known as the CIA) agent, Jimmy Patterson who must go through nineteen deadly missions, from investigating secret German weapons facilities to sabotaging U-boats to obtaining classified Nazi documents. Patterson can safely be described as a mute, WWII-era Rambo, as an overwhelming percentage of these missions involve him having to eradicate entire facilities-worth of Nazi soldiers alone as he goes about his business. The good thing though, is that it is damn well fun, thanks to the combination of an impressive presentation and enjoyable gameplay with a whole host of different weapons at your disposal. From the M1 Garand to the Thompson to the German MP40, gunning down hordes of relentless Nazis is as fun today as it was back in 2002 when the game was released. Yeah, sure, the AI isn’t as up to scratch as that of more modern games, but going through corridors, single-handedly mowing down Nazis with a machine gun or picking them off with a sniper rifle from afar is still as deliciously fun as ever.

Perhaps a glowing difference to the CoDs of today is the game’s lack of a rest-and-recover health system. Instead, the more Jimmy gets shot, the more his health will deteriorate. Medical packs dotted around the levels will refill it. If that weren’t humorous enough a walk down memory lane, then the fact that the game allows you to have multiple weapons in your possession at one time will. Apparently, Jimmy – like many of other of his contemporary World War II FPS protagonists – has superhuman strength and can hold a multitude of heavy weaponry at once, including a machine gun, rifle and bazooka!

Questionable weapon-carrying aside though, what makes Frontline arguably better in the presentation department than many WWII games that have come before and after it is the music. Like with the first game in the series, Frontline employs the masterwork of composer genius, Michael Giacchino (whose recent film credits include Spider-Man: Homecoming and War of the Planet of the Apes). The brilliance of the music is that it captures the villainy and tyranny of Nazi Germany as well as the humanity and loss in war. In the levels ‘Rough Landing’ and ‘Arnhem Knights’, for example, Giacchino employs a child’s voice which sings sombrely throughout these levels as a dramatic accompaniment to the horrors of war. Then there are the urgent, momentous violins of the manor house mission, which perfectly captures the feeling of being discovered by Nazi soldiers. It was here you had to fight your way through the manor house to rescue your informant. The music is such a character of the game, one wonders whether Frontline would be the same game without it. Regardless, it helps give the game a more heightened sense of cinematic emotion that many more modern WWII games intrinsically lack.

But whatever more recent WWII games may lack, they have much to thank Medal of Honor: Frontline for since it paved the way for their existence. The game scored $95 million in the United States alone and gaming publication Next Generation ranked it as the eighth-highest selling game launched for the GameCube, Xbox and PlayStation 2 between January 2000 and 2006. The game also found great success in the United Kingdom, selling at least 600,000 copies and attaining Platinum status on PlayStation 2.

A year after the game’s release, the first Call of Duty would be released and war-based FPS’s would continue to flourish in the game industry. They continue to do so – and with the big CoD’s return to a World War II-era setting next month (November 2017), it sits as a pleasant reminder of what led to games of its kind. And with the game having a remaster available for the PlayStation Network, there is simply no excuse not to check this one out.

Right from the off, Max Payne 3’s writers pitch the main narrative as a high-speed, intense character drama led brilliantly by its protagonist’s crude and satirical variety of quips. Those players who have already experienced Remedy’s original Payne efforts will know exactly what to expect in terms of the titular anti-hero, yet it’s to Rockstar’s credit that they make the character accessible to series newcomers. Indeed, it’s virtually impossible not to strike some form of sympathy towards Max as he finds himself helplessly drawn into an underworld conspiracy where death waits around every corner.

And speaking of death… boy, is there a lot of death in this game! Whether or not you’ve committed gratuitous atrocities in GTA before, it really is difficult to name many other titles that have featured such magnitude of bloodshed as the Texas Chainsaw Massacre-esque experience that is the main campaign. Such an incredible degree of violence is complemented by Rockstar’s use of a slow-motion camera at the climax of every battle, adding to the genuine cinematic feel that the storyline segments possess in great measure.

That said, unless you’re in a particularly aggressive mood for the majority of the playthrough, there’s a good chance that you’ll find the mindless slaughter that so frequently ensues begins to grow old in the final chapters. As with so many other examples of their back catalogue, Rockstar managed to mix things up in terms of the narrative so as to keep things feeling fresh, however.

The bulk of the storyline itself revolves around Max’s journey into the Brazilian favela of Sao Paulo and his attempts to free a wealthy businessman’s daughter from a world full of corruption and betrayal. For the most part, the balance of narrative-based cut scenes and gung ho gameplay is pitch perfect, just as accomplished in its exposition as in GTA IV or Red Dead Redemption, if not more so.

As anyone who knows Rockstar might have guessed, the supporting cast of this epic action piece regularly consists of satirical, bordering on hilarious stereotypes of the various threads of modern society. Whether this occasionally comedic take on some of the darkest portions of humanity is to your taste will really depend on your personal preferences. Again, for me, it just serves to represent the incredible talent the developer’s script writers have for representing the social archetypes that form the basis of our living, even if some of the new additions to the Payne franchise of characters aren’t quite as relevant or memorable as their predecessors.

One thing that you can definitely not fault, however, is undoubtedly the grand production values that this title boasts. For starters, the graphical technology on display here was, and is, incredible. Every ounce of pain, ammunition and location details is masterfully handled by the game’s designers, making for an incredibly immersive world to encapsulate the already sublime gameplay mechanics and the skilful narrative.

Looking at Max Payne 3 as a whole, it’s certainly hard to shake the feeling that there’s just a little something holding it back from attaining the high ranks that its predecessors reached. None of GTA or Red Dead’s glitches are present here, and in no way does it suffer from the same problems of narrative pacing as those iconic predecessors do. And yet, beneath all of the cinematic design, thrilling gameplay set pieces and unexpected plot twists, the lingering sense that we’ve seen all of this before in some form still pervades the experience.

I must hand it to Rockstar, they most definitely have the ability to make even the most simplified gameplay experience seem damn near masterful. To call Max Payne 3 simple would be to call it a disappointment, which it most certainly is not. I’d place it at the very least on a par with Red Dead thanks to a tighter and more compelling storyline, but there’s still a notable leap in quality between this and Grand Theft Auto IV.

If you haven’t given Max Payne 3 your time yet, then I highly recommend you take advantage of it.

“I’m trying to work out who’s more full of s**t,” says Captain Walker to his loyal teammate Lugo in the opening level of Spec Ops: The Line, “you or intelligence.” Lugo quickly responds that “if [he] weren’t a hardened killing machine, that might actually have hurt”- it’s moments like this that highlight the subtle wit and banter between the comrades at the heart of this military shooter, setting it apart from its competitors. No more will you have trouble distinguishing this deceptive pro-war experience from the browns and greys that litter annual, outstayed returnees like Call Of Duty and Medal Of Honor or indeed the science-fiction elements that have been recycled from the Halo franchise into other weaker rip-offs since its inception. Indeed, if gamers are looking for a shooter that differentiates itself in terms of narrative and empathetic content, this will most certainly fit the bill.

The main plotline focuses on the country of Dubai as it is thrown into chaos by sandstorms in a near-future setting. Sent into the ruined nation in order to retrieve a renegade faction of the United States’ military forces, Walker and his men soon discover that all is not at its seems, as the horror of an intense civil war begins to emerge on the surface and they are caught right in the middle of it. It’s hard to do this hugely compelling narrative justice on paper without spoiling its best twists, yet sufficed to say that Spec Ops packs a deep emotional punch the likes of which you probably haven’t seen since the original Modern Warfare, or perhaps ever in a military shooter.

Not only do the characters and locations you come across prove both memorable and realistic, the effect the war of the 33^rd has on these plot elements as the lengthy 10-12 hour campaign progresses is startling and impressive to behold, resembling that of a blockbuster action movie done right (so more Apocalypse Now than Battleship!). If there’s one snippet of knowledge that you will take away from The Line’s single-player mode, it’s that decisions really can have dire consequences, but sometimes the ‘right choice’ is either taken out of our hands or indeed often non-existent. One particular action I took at around the game’s halfway point seemed like the only course of reasonable attack, and perhaps it was, and yet that didn’t stop the monumental impact it had on my view of this fictitious conflict shifting dramatically, and it will do the same for players if and when they allow themselves to be immersed into the rich world.

This core narrative strength would mean little if the gameplay itself couldn’t match it, so it’s a good move on Yager’s part that they learnt from the best. As we’re talking about a cover shooter, I think you’ll already know which franchise I’m talking about, but in case I have to spell it out for you, then know that this game has the words ‘If you like Gears Of War, you’ll love this’ written all over it. The cover system is fluid and responsive, even if there are times when the ‘invisible barriers’ of the various levels are more notable than they might have been in Epic’s hands. I rank the aforementioned technical inspiration and Spec Ops on the same level, but this shortcoming is sadly something which holds the latter back a little for striving to be the first masterful third-person shooter in a long time.

Layered over the strong narrative and linear – but-impressive gameplay is an eye-pleasing graphics engine. The environments were and are near photorealistic at times, the AI for the most part wonderfully animated and the sand textures that Yager spent so long working on impressively put to good use. Admittedly, some of the textures on characters’ clothing do look a little pixelated when viewed closer in cutscenes, but this is a minor drawback that only slightly reduces the level of immersion for the overall experience.

There’s a good degree of replay value to the main campaign, with dozens of intelligence reports littered across the various levels and a multitude of game-changing decisions that will actively affect its endings. A ‘Spec Ops’-esque mode (don’t worry, the irony of that name choice isn’t lost on me) a la COD wouldn’t have gone amiss here either, yet it’s clear that Yager and 2K spent the majority of their time working on this story mode.

Moving onto the multiplayer, there’s no doubting that the gameplay and graphics engines laid in place for the campaign carry over efficiently into what is unquestionably a very competent component. As a solo gamer at heart, the strength of online offerings is sometimes of little relevance to me, but I can at least credit the developers for handing us a functional, if not entirely innovative multiplayer mode.

Although the multiplayer modes don’t break much new ground, they’re strong enough to last players for some time, and quite frankly it’s the shockingly innovative solo campaign that’s the main attraction here. Those players fearing that this is just another COD lookalike should rest assured that this is no such pretender – in fact, as someone who has all but left that aforementioned tired franchise behind, I can safely say that this improves upon its lacklustre campaigns in every possible way, making for a breathtaking adventure that won’t soon be forgotten.

Had Spec Ops: The Line entered the shooter fray a little earlier in the game, I would imagine it would have gone down a storm back in the day, but as it is by copying the tropes of Gears rather than making its own way in the gameplay department, this brilliant shooter can’t hope to be the revolution this genre still sorely needs.

This week I have decided to take a look back in anger at a game that split many gamers 50/50; Red Faction Armageddon.

But first, some admissions on my part; I have played this game before. Put bluntly, I disliked it. I never finished it and didn’t think twice before I got rid of it. Why then did I find myself picking this up on the cheap when the opportunity came along? Was it guilt? Curiosity maybe? No, it’s neither of these.

For the third time in my life, I’ll admit that I was wrong. Yes, that is a man admitting he was wrong. As much as it pains me to type these words, I think I may have drawn a conclusion too quickly about Red Faction. Having had the displeasure of playing some really poor titles this past year it has brought some perspective into my life.

I now find myself playing this again and I must say I’m enjoying it much more than I did before. Now I’m not going to start blowing the sunshine up its rear end, but there are things that the game must be commended for.

By the same token, there are things that the game does badly. Very badly at times, but there’s nothing that will kill the game entirely.

For anyone who doesn’t know, Armageddon was released on the back of huge success after Guerilla proved to be a bigger hit than expected. Offering an open world setting with un-rivalled destruction, the game won over the hearts of sandbox gamers. Sadly, this is where Armageddon falls down as it turns its back on the open world and shoves gamers deep underground.

Despite this though, there are still enjoyable destruction sections whereby buildings must be felled in order to progress and if you enjoyed it so much, you can even rebuild the bugger and bring it down all over again.

The story behind Armageddon is that you, Mason, have brought havoc on Mars by uncovering an ancient alien race which is intent on destroying all human life on the Red planet. Obviously, you want to make amends for this so you travel underground in order to bring back peace to the population despite them turning against you one-by-one.

From this perspective, the game sounds fine and dandy but sadly it’s not all plain sailing. One thing that the game does poorly is its script. The dialogue within the title is simply appalling at times. It is on two accounts; firstly it is so cheesy that it seems like it has been pulled out of an 80’s movie. Secondly, the local AI that travels with you makes remarks out loud which make you want to hit it at times or turn it off.

If you dare stray off the path you have to go down for more than ten seconds, it will shout at you to get back on track. It will do so repeatedly until you eventually oblige, which could be up to five minutes depending on how much exploration you like to do.

I say exploration in the loosest form possible though. This is a corridor-shooter, as opposed to offering you an open world to traverse. This would not be such a bad thing were the game well-known for this but it isn’t. The last title was an open world adventure that was at least a little dynamic compared to this ‘go there, do this right now in this manner’ affair we have here.

The game also seems to go through phases of being far too easy compared with sections of becoming suddenly harder as hundreds of enemy’s surround you whilst your bullets don’t seem to do much more than tickle them until they die of laughter.

After all that you’re probably thinking that it won’t be the game for you but hear me out. Red Faction Armageddon will get you through a “dry spell” so to speak. It will be faithful to you, just don’t expect blockbuster action or scripting as it falls short of the mark on this front.