Retro City Rampage and more....

It's October and there are many games coming out right now that my head is spinning!

One game I'm really enjoying is Retro City Rampage for the PC. You can read my impressions at Maximum Pixelation.

Of course, along with Retro City Rampage you've got the new X-COM which is fantastic, I've just got PC a copy of Dishonored sitting on my desk (yes, a boxed copy of a PC game...it's a very weird feeling), I still have to play Episodes 3 and 4 of The Walking Dead and let's not forget FIFA 13 and PES 2013!!! It's all a bit nuts and we've still got some great titles on the horizon with Assassin's Creed III, Need for Speed: Most Wanted 2, Hitman: Absolution and Far Cry 3!!

It's a great time to be a gamer.....and a bad time to be an adult with adult responsibilities! 

Lavan

FIFA, Pro Evo, FTL and other random musings

It's not fun being sick but it does leave me without excuses to post.

I'm writing for Maximum Pixelation - a very neat site about games. I've recently written a review for 10000000 ("10 Million") an iOS game that I am hopelessly addicted to. I have had many a numb-butt from sitting on the can far too long deeply engrossed in this game. You can check out my review on the front page of the site.

I'm also really digging an Indie game called FTL ("Faster Than Light") on the PC - it's best described as a Star Trek Captain combat simulator. You're a military ship trying to cross the galaxy and each jump results in a random encounter. In the battle encounters you have to juggle managing the controls for shields, engines, weapons and more. You also have to manage and direct your crew - there's a fire in engineering but the aft of the ship has been boarded and you also need someone to do repairs in life support - whom do you send where? While that's going on you have to manage your shields and weapons as an enemy ship bombards yours!

It's an absolute blast and, like "10 Million" it can be played in little bite sized sessions that are perfect when you're in a rush (though, much like that iOS game you may find yourself staying to play far, far longer than you intended).  What I also love about the game is the imaginary narrative about your ship's adventures that you no doubt start creating in your mind! I find myself drawn to Football Manager (PC) for the same reason. Both PC Gamer magazine and the website Rock, Paper, Shotgun have excellent pieces on FTL adventures that are definitely worth reading. 

This time of year brings football gaming and, unlike fans of the gridiron variety, connoisseurs of the beautiful game have a number of options. Most notable of these are FIFA 13 and PES 2013. I once made a name for myself writing absolutely massive and in-depth reviews of these kinds of games but I doubt anyone has the patience to read those kind of write-ups any more. I do think both games deserve some words because they are both absolutely phenomenal games and I'm trying to wrap my head around some kind of concise gameplay comparison between the two. Look for that either here or at Maximum Pixelation.     

X-COM and Dishonored both come out next week and that's another two games added to the list of things I want to play but don't have enough time to do so (but will anyway because, hey, who needs sleep?). I'm also really looking forward to Hitman: Absolution and Far Cry 3. Both of those games look incredible.

We'll talk soon. You bring the coffee next time....

Lavan

Armored Kill (360) and Soccer Gaming

Armored Kill, the newest expansion pack for Battlefield 3, comes out for general release today. It's actually been out for more than a week for subscribers of Battlefield Premium and after several hours of play I have to say it's a real return to form for the Battlefield series.

Armored Kill, as the name suggests, puts emphasis on vehicles and as a result it includes four absolutely massive maps. Along with the four maps there are 5 new vehicles (2 Tank Destroyers, 2 Mobile Rocket Artillery Vehicles and 1 Quad Bike) and an AC-130 Gunship. There's also a new game mode, 'Tank Superiority', which is Conquest with a single capture point, tons of vehicles and super-short vehicle respawn times.

As you'd expect, the big draw for any expansion pack are the new maps and the four maps in Armored Kill are bloody huge. Fortunately, the maps are littered with vehicles so you're not often stuck legging it to a capture point for 5 minutes. Armored Shield is probably my favorite and takes place in the Russian countryside with large plains, farms, fields and a small farming town. I enjoy the super-long sight-lines, the excellent variety between infantry skirmishes in and around the farming town and then the vehicle-heavy areas around the periphery. 

The other maps are Alborz Mountains (a snow-covered mountain range with a valley on the other side), Death Valley (a forest and highway map that takes place at night under a full moon - the decreased visibility allows you to sneak around on foot if you want), and Bandar Desert (a bay-side town/city with surrounding desert). The Bandar Desert stage is the largest Battlefield map ever, it's apparently 2.5 times the size of Caspian Border, and I think it's too big for consoles. Since the 360 and PS3 versions of Battlefield 3 only support a maximum of 24 players I found this map far too expansive and even with vehicles to help me get around, I often spent more of my time driving around and looking for action rather than actually doing some shooting. However, I am looking forward to trying this one out on the PC as I imagine 64 players on a map this size would be perfect. 

A special note has to be made of the addition of the AC-130 to each of these maps. This is basically a CPU-controlled gunship that flies around the map in a set pattern. Each map has a designated 'antenna' control/conquest point that allows the captured team access to the gunship. Access to the AC-130 grants you the ability to use two human-controlled turret spots that allow you rain down hell upon the battlefield, but it also allows your team to use the AC-130 as a mobile spawn point. This latter perk is very cool as it provides a form of fast travel (since the AC-130 loops around the map) and also allows you to descend upon capture points paratrooper-style.

There's no doubt that whomever controls the AC-130 capture point has an advantage but much credit should be given to DICE for balancing things so it's not a game breaker. First off, because the AC-130 flies around the map in a set pattern the gunners on board don't always have sight-lines to ground targets. This stops them from just raining down fire on the antenna capture point and preventing the other team from trying to capture it. It takes a good 3-4 minutes for the plane to circle around the Battlefield which is enough time to mount an offensive. Second, it's not that hard to shoot down! The Armored Kill maps are not only littered with ground vehicles but they also have a number of choppers and jets and while the gunners onboard the AC-130 can fire off chaff and flares, the 'on-rails' nature of it's flight path can make it an easy target. Thirdly, shooting ground targets isn't as simple as point and kill - you have to factor in distance, how fast (and what direction) the plane is moving in, and also what direction your target is moving in. All three of these things ensure that the AC-130 doesn't spoil the game.

I'm really enjoying Armored Kill. I think it brings Battlefield back to the massive skirmishes the series is known for and is the complete opposite of the previous expansion (Close Quarters) that tried to ape Call of Duty. The emphasis on vehicles provides a ton of fun and even if you're not good at driving a tank or flying a helicopter, you can bust out your Engineer-class and have fun with your rocket launcher! If you're a Battlefield Premium member then you've already purchased this, but if you're not I definitely think it's worth checking out if you liked the larger maps in Battlefield 3.

Lavan

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In non-shooter news, today also marks the release of FIFA 13 and PES 2013 for consoles. The PC version of PES 2013 came out last week and apart from an online mode that is an unmitigated disaster (will Japanese companies ever learn how to do online play?) it's absolutely fantastic. I'll have more impressions in the coming days but I really feel this is a return to form for the series.

Not to be outdone, the FIFA 13 demo was also very impressive with some notable gameplay improvements and, as you'd expect, presentation and features that blow PES out of the water. I am really looking forward to trying the full version.

Factor in New Star Soccer 5, New Star Soccer (iOS) and the pending release of Football Manager 2013 and it's a hell of a time to be a football gamer!

Lavan

Mark of the Ninja (360)

Mark of the Ninja from Klei Entertainment is easily my biggest gaming surprise of the year. Klei are probably best known for the Shank games, 2D side scrolling beat 'em ups with an impressive art style but mediocre gameplay. With that modest pedigree, I am not sure what deal with the devil they made to produce such an excellent downloadable/XBLA game!

Mark of the Ninja is basically a 2D side-scrolling Metal Gear Solid without the frustration, the bat-shit crazy story, and the 6 hour cutscenes. The Metal Gear Solid comparison isn't lost on the developers who've actually included a funny nod to Konami's game in the form of an unlockable I won't spoil. By moving from 3D to 2D, Klei remove all the frustrations and limitations that are inherent to stealth in 3D games and create a streamlined platforming experience that's still full of depth and an absolute joy to play. 

As a Ninja, the game involves you infiltrating a number of secure facilities to reach your target. These places are crawling with guards and while you can try and take the guards on directly you won't last long (they have guns, you do not). So in true Ninja-style you have to go sneaking around and silently taking out guards. Just like Metal Gear, guards have a cone of vision but since you only have to worry about 2.5 planes it's a lot easier to manage how you hide and you don't have to worry about fiddling with the 3D camera. I say 2.5 planes because you can actually hide in the same plane as a guard is looking if you hide behind certain objects - so even though a guard is looking to his left, and you are standing the in the same x-axis to his left, you're hidden behind an object. 

A guard's cone of vision is increased if there's more light so a large part of the game is trying to stay hidden in the shadows. You can take out the lights by either switching them off (the more civilized way) or smashing them (the more fun way) but the latter can alert guards from the sound of breaking glass. Sounds you make create are represented visually by a bubble that radiates from where the sound was created. If a guard is within this bubble then he's alerted.

Speaking of alerted, like Metal Gear, there are a couple of states of alertness that guards can exhibit. If you make a sound or a guard spots you briefly (before you jump away into the floor above or below) he doesn't panic but instead goes to investigate the disturbance. If he doesn't find anything then he goes back to his station or previous patrol route. Wherever he saw or heard you last is represented by a fading circle on the screen. This can then be used to lure guards where you want them to go (into traps or into isolation). If a guard sees you for more than second then he goes into full-alert mode, calls the cavalry and starts shooting. During this period if you get out of sight there's a 10 second count-down on screen until the guards step down and return to the first level of readiness. 

My favourite guard response, however, is when one becomes 'terrified'. If you're able to kill a guard in a particularly gruesome way and allow another guard to find his body (or see his death) then he'll completely lose his shit and sometimes even start firing his gun randomly and take out other guards! 

There's nothing like stringing up a dead guard from a lamppost (Batman: Arkham City- style), drawing over a pair of guards to his body and then seeing the first guard absolutely lose his shit and shoot the other guard in a panic! It's brilliant. 

Of course, it's not just the guards that can detect you but also dogs (that have massive cone of detection for sound) and automated defense mechanisms such as trip-wires and lasers.

What Mark of the Ninja does masterfully is the generous checkpointing and the lack of punishment for being detected. The game check-points so frequently that whenever I was detected I would just let the guards kill me and then restart a screen or two away from where I was detected. This totally takes away any of the frustration you'd get in other stealth games from being found out. Likewise, you don't get punished for failing - each level has certain goals and challenges (like getting to a certain area without being detected or without raising an alarm) - dying and re-starting doesn't affect the status of these challenges so you don't find yourself swearing and needing to go back to the beginning of a level if you want to complete a challenge. These may be two minor points but they make a world of difference.

There are more than half a dozen assassination methods (pull a guy into a dumpster to kill him, drag him from underneath a ledge, etc) and each has a mini-skill component to it - when you sneak up upon an unsuspecting guard an X button prompt appears to initiate the kill. The moment you hit X an arrow appears on the screen and you have a 1-2 second window to move the right stick in that exact direction. If you pull it off then you complete a silent kill. If you don't, you still kill your target but he's able to make a noise to alert surrounding guards. It's a small touch but it adds another layer of skill to the game.

Different guards also require different tactics - the plain vanilla guards can be sliced and diced any which way you want but then there are elite guards with riot shields (so you have to attack from behind), snipers who can one-shot kill you, guards with gas-masks (in areas where you're exposed to poisonous gas) and more.

Like in Metal Gear you have a tone of gadgets at your disposal such darts (which can be thrown to destroy lights or switches), to smoke bombs (to let you pass laser beams and hide your location), fire-crackers (which can be thrown to draw a guard's attention elsewhere) and many more. 

Each of these are unlocked in an RPG-style progression. As mentioned before, each level has certain goals and challenges. Completing these challenges as well as completing moment to moment gameplay tasks (such as staying hidden while a guard passes you or silently killing a guard) earns you points. These points are then used to unlock new gadgets, new fighting/assassination moves and, later on, new abilities. 

Tying everything up is an amazing art style, genius level design and a great story.

This game looks absolutely gorgeous. Not only are the visuals crisp and clean but the hand-drawn aesthetic really steals the show. By going with a stylized, rather than realistic, look they're able to maintain a congruency to the visuals that really draws you in. You're playing a dark, gritty, ultra-violent version of a Saturday morning cartoon.

Animations are brilliant and often you'll find yourself wincing as the main character slices and dices his way through the game. Lighting and the way you're presented both in darkness and in the light is also masterfully done. When you're in shadow everything dims and has a highlighted glow to it. When you pop into the light everything gets saturated. 

The stages themselves are amazing with tons of detail and vary from ancient dojos to skyscrapers and subway tunnels. The weather effects are also very well done. My two favourite parts of the game are a stage early on when you're trying to infiltrate a compound during a thunder storm. The rain effects and the intermittent lighting are stunning. Likewise, towards the end of the game you're in the desert and have to battle sand-storms. What's neat is that both the lightning and stand-storms also have an effect upon the gameplay in terms of your visibility. 

Level design is very smart and I never once got lost. The way the stages are designed also afford you at least more than one way to get past an obstacle.

The cherry on top is a solid and really well told story. You play as a Ninja who has been chosen by his clan to bear 'the mark'; a tattoo using ink that bestows heightened senses and abilities to the recipient. The only downside - the longer you have the tattoo the more you begin to lose your sanity and eventually you're expected to kill yourself before you lose your mind. It's a very cool concept and the end chapter has a very neat narrative twist.  

This game, for me anyway, came completely out of nowhere. If it wasn't for a friend's post on a forum I don't think I would have even tried it. Ironically, I had just started playing Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker HD on the 360, finished the first level (20 minutes gameplay, 40 minutes cut-scene...I'm not joking) and then downloaded Mark of the Ninja. I'm not sure how I'm going to go back to Metal Gear after playing this. 

If you're a fan of action-stealth games you should get this game and even if you're NOT you should still check it out because it takes all the frustration out of stealth action and, all in all, I think it's the best game I've played this year and at $15 it is an absolute steal.

Lavan

Sleeping Dogs (PC)

Sleeping Dogs has an interesting development and publishing history. It was supposed to be True Crime: Hong Kong (the third game in the True Crime series) but then it was dropped by Activision somewhere through the development cycle. Thankfully, it was picked up Square Enix and the result is one of my favourite games of the year.

Sleeping Dogs takes place in Hong Kong with you playing as Wei Shen, a Hong Kong-born but American-raised police officer who's sent undercover to infiltrate the Triads. The narrative is your fairly predictable undercover police story - cop works his way up the latter, gets emotionally attached to the group he's supposed to be infiltrating, there's the question of mixed loyalties, he has to make a decision, yada yada. While I would have liked something a little less by the numbers, the story is still excellently told with some really memorable characters, some genuinely touching moments and fantastic voice acting. Much has been made of some of the Hollywood voice talent attached the the game such as Tom Wilkinson, Lucy Liu, and Emma Stone but the real star of the voice cast is lesser known actor Will Yun Lee who plays Wei Shen. Lee does an incredible job of bringing Wei Shen to life and yielding an emotional depth that's more often than not missing from most video game characters.

The story has a solid arc with a satisfying resolution that still leaves things open for a potential sequel.

I've mentioned more than a dozen times on this blog that I'm a sucker for any kind of open-world games because I just love exploring virtual environments. Sleeping Dogs impresses right off the bat because it takes place in Hong Kong. I've never been to Hong Kong but after 18 hours in Sleeping Dogs I feel like I've been in and around a fictional facsimile of the Pearl of the Orient. Something as small as driving on the left side of the road in right-hand-drive cars makes a massive difference in the feel of the world. Sleeping Dogs' fictional Hong Kong has 4 boroughs connected by highway with a hill/mountain in the middle. Despite the actual map size being small, the verticality of the city gives a great sense of scale to the map. Building, roadside and highway details are fantastic but I wish there were more buildings you could enter. When the sun goes down the city becomes a neon jungle with signs everywhere.

The city isn't as large or detailed as GTA IV's Liberty City (after finishing Sleeping Dogs I went back to GTA IV just to make sure nostalgia wasn't clouding my memory) nor is it as large as Steelport from Saints Row: The Third, but it does have tons of character and each of the different boroughs has enough unique characteristics to make Sleeping Dogs' Hong Kong feel like a real place.

The real star of the game, however, isn't the story or the open world itself, but rather the gameplay and in particular, the hand-to-hand combat. Sleeping Dogs borrows heavily from the hand-to-hand combat system used in Rocksteady's Batman: Arkham Asylum and Arkham City games. It's just as brutal and satisfying but it differs from the Batman games in terms of the timing (it's much less precise and more forgiving) and the increased variety with regards to moves, combos and environmental attacks. I actually enjoy it even more than the aforementioned Rocksteady games and it definitely sets the standard for hand to hand combat in open world games to come.

Gun-play is also really well done and it's important to note that you don't actually do that much shooting in this game - most missions still involve hand to hand combat and this is a nice change from the open-world norm. While the shooting is not as snappy or responsive as the excellent shooting in Saints Row: The Third, it's a lot better than GTA IV's (including the Ballad of Gay Tony expansion). There's also a severicable cover system and some Max Payne-esque slow-mo involved when you vault over cover or shoot out of a moving car. It's very neat.

Likewise, the driving is a good intermediate between the heavily physics-based (and almost too twichy) driving in GTA IV and the stop-on-a-dime crazy arcadeyness found in Saints Row: The Third.  As mentioned, the game implements some very cool slow-mo when you start shooting out of a moving car. The ability to shoot the tires out of chasing cars and see them flip into the air like something out of an 80s action movie is a bit over the top (and something I'd more expect to see in Saints Row) but still a lot of fun and very well done. Similarly over the top (and similarly just as fun), is the ability to car-jack from a moving vehicle a la Pursuit Force! If you hold down the A button while driving Wei opens the driver-side door (or sits up in his motorcycle seat) and if you get close enough to another vehicle a prompt appears and you hit A again and he'll jump from one vehicle to another. For some larger vehicles you then have to control Wei as he crawls around the top or side with the driver trying to shake him off! As I said before, it's completely over the top but a lot of fun and again, something I think should be included as an option in more open world games.

Another neat addition to the driving is the ability to press a button to automatically ram other cars. If you're driving and another car is beside or in front of you, if you press a direct and the X button your car suddenly lurches/jumps a few feet in the chosen direction. It's completely unrealistic but it adds another dimension to the car chases - particularly when you're being chased by the cops. If you're being chased by the cops in a GTA game the only ways to lose your tail are to either make it to a Pay & Spray location or get out of the cone of vision/influence of the chasing police. The latter system is also employed in Sleeping Dogs but you can also end a police chase by taking out a finite number of chasing cop cars by ramming them. This is a ton of fun but it also does take a lot of the tension out of police chases. I never once felt that an entire mission was going to go to shit because the cops were going to take me down - something I'm regularly terrified of in GTA.

Tying everything up in a neat bow is an excellent RPG-like progression system. Each mission you complete earns you both 'Triad' and 'Police' points. The more brutal your kills/actions; the higher your Triad score, while the more you try to obey the law while undercover (i.e. not running over pedestrians or killing innocents) the higher your Police score. These points are then used to unlock different abilities such as new combat moves or time-slowing bonuses during gunplay.

Those two meters, however, aren't the only ways you can evolve your character. Scattered around Hong Kong are random, miscelanous missions that unlock 'Face' (street cred) points. These points unlock global abilities such as a discount on certain items or secrets appearing on your mini-map. Speaking of secrets, as mentioned before, you can unlock new combat moves by earning Police and Triad points but there is a whole branching tree of combat moves that are unlocked by finding special jade statues. The story conceit is that these statues belong to your old Kung-Fu master/sifu and by returning them to him he teaches you a new move. The sifu character is actually quite well done and both he and Wei have some very interesting conversations.  Rounding things out are 'Health Shrines' that are hidden around the city. Finding and praying at each shrine increases your maximum health.

These RPG-like systems not only add more depth to the gameplay, they give you another reason to keep driving forward besides the (very good) story. Sure you want to play one more mission because you want to find out what's happening to Wei, but you also want to do more missions so you can unlock cool new moves and abilities. It's very implemented and it's something that no GTA game (save San Andreas, which, incidentally is my favourtite) has done.

Special note has to be made of what an incredible PC port this is. Kudos to developer United Front Games for creating a PC version that isn't crippled and makes full use of the power of modern PCs. I played it on the PC using the free high-res texture pack and the results are stunning. The screenshot attached to this post is one I took on my own computer just using Steam's F12 capture - and it looks even better in motion. Best of all, you don't need to have a kick-ass rig to run the game at high settings - my PC is 2 years old and ran it just fine.

All in all, Sleeping Dogs is a fantastic game that I thoroughly enjoyed from start to finish. I loved being able to explore a fictional Hong Kong while kicking seven shades of crap out of Triads. The story may be a tad predictable but it's expertly written and still very engrossing. It took me 18 hours to finish it and I enjoyed every second.

Assasin's Creed 3 and Borderlands 2 are still to come out but I already know that Sleeping Dogs will most definitely been in the running for my personal game of the year. 

Lavan

PS Kudos also to United Front and Square Enix for some excellent cover cart by Tyler Stout.

PPS While the game still runs fine on the 360, if you have a solid PC I would definitely go with that as it looks much better and plays the same with a 360 controller.

Yesterday (iOS)

I used to really enjoy point and click adventure games but I've kind of fallen off playing them in the past 10+ years. Part of that has been moving onto other genres and part of that has been Lucas Arts' retirement from the genre. That said, there have still been a number of studios that have consistently been making point and click games in the interim. One of those is Pendulo Studios who made the Runaway series of games and The Next Big Thing. I actually own the first Runaway game (Runaway: A Road Adventure) but as with many games I buy during Steam sales I've yet to even download it let alone play it! However, one I finish Pendulo's new game, Yesterday, I'll definitely be checking it out to see how it compares. 

Point and click adventures are perfect for the iOS - touch substitutes well for a mouse, there're slow paced, bite sized and you can save anywhere. Yesterday does some really neat things to make the user-experience even more streamlined. Since the last 'new' point and click adventure I played was (I think) Grim Fandango I don't know if these are additions developed specifically for this game or if they're now the genre standard.

The most notable feature is that when you double click on an area of the screen your character basically teleports to that new region rather than walking there. It may seem like a very simple, almost trivial, addition but it really helps speed up the gameplay when you don't have to wait for your player to complete his slow walking animation to get around the screen. This also helps to prevent the monotony of hunting around your environment at a snail's pace. 

Another great addition is a button that you press that automatically highlights all the objects in the environment that you can interact with! This completely removes all the frustration inherent to the 'pixel hunting' that was an integral part of old point and click adventures. 

Both of these additions are fantastic because they allow you to focus on the most important aspects of a click and point adventure - the puzzles and the story. There is nothing inherently skill based or enjoyable about clicking around the screen on every pixel to see if it's selectable (and then waiting for your character to walk around while doing it).

The story of Yesterday is difficult to explain without spoiling but it basically surrounds the main character, John Yesterday, a researcher on the occult who awakes in hospital after apparently attempting to commit suicide. What follows is a fairly serious story that weaves together the occult, satanism, murder, a grand conspiracy (of course) and also an element of fantasy. You can tell from some of the dialogue that this was a game perhaps not written by native English speakers or possibly translated from a different language (Pendulo Studios are based in Spain), but it doesn't ruin the narrative at all and there's still some very good characterization. 

The puzzles are also well done in that they're logical and actually make a modicum of sense. Sure the solutions to puzzles in the Monkey Island games were hilarious but some of them could only be solved with trial and error. I've yet to find a similarly annoying puzzle in Yesterday and as a result you actually get a sense of satisfaction when you do find a solution.  

Voice acting is solid except for one swarmi character who has the worst East Indian accent I've ever heard! Seriously, Pendulo - if you ever revive that character in a future game I'm available to do that character pro bono! The visuals are very good with some really nice art direction. This was actually a PC game first (see the pic above) so the graphics shrunk down to an iOS device look very crisp and clean. 

Yesterday is available for $6.99 on iTunes which, in the crazy economy of iOS games, seems like a lot but I've had a lot of fun with it so far and definitely think it's worth a look if you're interested in a new point and click adventure. 

Lavan

Remember arcade machines?

Sitting here in the departures lounge of Pearson Airport playing Yesterday (impressions coming soon) on my iPad while waiting for my flight to board I suddenly found myself nostalgic for old arcade machines. Growing up I never really went to stand-alone arcades until I was a teen so my exposure to arcade games initially came from visits to the airport as a child. Being part of an immigrant family growing up in the UK,  my dad would often find himself going to the airport regularly to either pick up or drop off numerous relatives and family friends. I'm guessing most 7 year old boys liked to go to the airport to see the airplanes. Not me. I saved up my change and went to the airport to play games whose graphics and sound would blow me away.

In the mid-80s any and all my gaming at home was done on my trusty Sinclair ZX-Spectrum 48K - games on tape, monochrome graphics and tinny sound. So when I went to the arcades (er...I mean the airport) and got to play things like Gauntlet, Space Harrier, and Outrun I was completely blown away. Arcade machines were this magical, mysterious powerhouses of gaming that utterly annihilated anything you could experience at home. Playing them also involved 45-60 minute drive to get there which added to the sense of occasion and wonderment.

Arcade-ports (remember them?) were a major selling point for home titles but could never come close to the majesty of their cabinet versions. I distinctly remember getting Paperboy for the Spectrum as a gift and being delighted that I was playing an arcade game at home!!

As I got older, I started to hang out more at the local community centre which also had a neat selection of different arcade machines that would rotate every few months. I remember playing the crap out of Double Dragon (another gem I ended up getting the Spectrum version for) and it was the first arcade game I ever finished. Around that time more and more intricate cabinets would be on show when I made a trip to the airport. I don't think I've ever been more floored by a video game than the first time I saw Hard Drivin' and it's colored 3D graphics and the Afterburner cockpit cabinet was like something from another planet! I was convinced if I did really well at it then Centauri would reveal that it was all a training exercise and I was ready to be a real life fighter pilot!

I was too young to experience Walter Day's golden age of gaming when Pac-Man, Defender and Missile Command created an insatiable buzz around arcades but I was around to experience the madness that was Street Fighter II's appearance on the arcade scene. It was incredible - people literally crowded around machines like something from a movie. The game itself was also stunning - amazing visuals with these gorgeous, colorful sprites and detailed backgrounds....and why is that guy in the Guile stage jerking off? Furthermore, in the pre-FAQ era it was also something of a mystery - how exactly did you pull off those flashy moves? Would someone tell you how to pull off a dragon punch? Isn't that supposed to be Mike Tyson? How are you supposed to pronounce Ryu? (for the record, I think I spent a decade incorrectly calling him 'Rye-You')

I wonder, though, if it was Street Fighter II (and specifically it's port to the SNES) that marked the beginning of the decline of arcades. I know arcade machines were still doing okay a decade later but I remember that SF II on the SNES was the first arcade-port where I thought to myself; "Wow, this almost is as good as the arcade version." It was the first inkling that you could have a system at home that could produce visuals that matched those magical cabinets at the arcade/community centre/airport/chippy. And that is, in my mind, why arcades are pretty much extinct - you can now have those types of experiences at home without having to pump in quarters. In fact, your phone probably supports a version of Street Fighter II that looks better than the original arcade machine!

I daren't say it's a shame that arcades have died (its innumerably more convenient to play games at home) but I do miss that sense of awe and wonder that came with those cabinets.

Lavan

PES 2013 Demo Impressions

For as long as I can remember 'Seabass' Tekatsuka has been the top dog at Konami Computer Entertainment Tokyo and head producer of the Winning Eleven/Pro Evolution Soccer series. However, coinciding with the flagging fortunes of the WE/PES series (though I still maintain last year's title was somewhat of a return to form) there's been a shake-up at Konami and Seabass has been replaced by Kei Masuda. No word on whether or not he'll earn an aquatic nickname.

We got our first look at Masuda's work as the head of WE/PES when the demo for PES 2013 was released this week. It's available for the 360, PS3 and PC and features 4 International teams (Italy, Germany, England, and Portugal) and 4 South American club teams (Flamengo, Fluminense, Internacional and Santos). After extensive time with the 360 and PC versions I have to say I'm incredibly impressed with the improvements made to the game engine thus far.

I think the two biggest changes right off the bat are the passing/shooting system and the ball physics, particularly when it comes to dribbling and ball control. You can now turn off all the assists for passing and shooting and have almost full control over where the ball goes. Holding down L2/LT brings up an arrow that shows the direction that your pass or shot will go in. Also you can use R2/RT button to add curl/finesse to passes as well as shots. These two things allow you much more freedom with your passing and shooting. 

Ball physics, via the representation of ball control and momentum, are fantastic in the demo. There are new features where the changes are obvious such as holding down R2/RT when controlling a ball which brings it to a stop and close to you, or you press in the Right Stick when the ball approaches to flick it on. But the changes in physics are apparent with more granularity even with simple things like controlling a ball on the run - if you're turning or at a full sprint the ball won't be kept as close, if you slow down then it will. Of course, this also differs by players - Ozil can keep the ball close to him at all times versus a lumberjack like Andy Carroll who needs more time and space. 

The net result of this is the most fun dribbling model I've seen in a football game - even better than that found in FIFA 12. Even without using the R2 and Right Stick modifiers, just twisting and turning in tight spaces is a lot more fun and organic. When you throw in the aforementioned modifiers with the right players and you can pull off some magical moves. 

Fancy footwork has been present in both FIFA and WE/PES for the last few years but it hasn't been without problems. In FIFA 12 the problem was response time - in the Arena/Free mode you could pull off all the moves you want with ease, but when you try to do them against the CPU, the half-second lag between inputting commands and seeing the results was enough for you to lose the ball. In PES 2012, the issue was complexity - trying to pull off some of the moves was harder than a 10-hit Street Fighter combo!

In the PES 2013 demo, both issues seem addressed; there's minimal input lag between the controller and your player, and the moves themselves are much easier to do. I was actually able to 'Nutmeg' a defender (and mean it) without breaking my fingers! This makes using the skill players so much fun.

There are a few other improvements in the demo I thought were worthy of note:

- Give and go's are also altered as now you can select which general direction you'd like the initial passer to run in after he's dished off the ball. 

- The game still has the off-the-ball controls that last year's game had (where you can control a second player while you have the ball by flicking the right stick and then clicking the stick to initiate a run) but now adds a short corner feature where if you hold down the R1/RB button it brings a forward close for a short pass. 

- Lobs are finally back to the WE9-style and you can actually lob a keeper as you would do in real life (with the ball looping high with backspin). 

- The defending system is largely the same as PES 2012 (which was already quite good), but now double tapping the X/A button performs a lunging tackle (a happy medium between a standing and a sliding tackle)

As for negatives, one that has to be mentioned is the shoddy frame-rate in the 360 demo - it's pretty glaring at times and Konami really have to iron that out for the final release (it's not an issue in the PC version). Also, I didn't see too much variation in how the AI build up their attacks - everything seemed pretty direct and right up the field when the CPU got the ball. Finally, while you're given the option for full passing control almost everywhere on the field, the one area where it's absent is the crossing which is still, as far as I can tell, semi-auto.

I'm really enjoying the PES 2013 demo. On the PC, with the 'demo-extender' patch I've logged more than a few hours with various settings and it's been a ton of fun. I'm a soccer-whore so I was always going to buy both FIFA and PES this year but I'm definitely looking more forward to Konami's game.

Lavan

PS I threw together a quick montage video of action from the demo using Neymar. Hope you enjoy it.

Ace Combat: Assault Horizon

Remember Falcon 3.0, the harcore PC flight sim by Spectrum HoloByte? That game had a 250+ page manual and took a good hour to figure out how to take off without stalling and crashing several million dollars worth of virtual military technology. Namco's Ace Combat: Assault Horizon (AC:AH) is the polar opposite of that game. It's the 'Top Gun' of flight games - loud, dumb, and a ton of fun!!

AC:AH takes pretty much all of the complexity out of flying and focuses on providing as cinematic and action-packed experience as possible. The in-flight controls for planes are very basic - throttle with the triggers, the left stick is to pitch and roll, the bumbers control yaw. The physics are ludicrously loose - you can pull off any kind of harebrained maneuver without worry of blacking out and it takes an act of God to stall your plane. You also can't do a barrel roll for some reason.

Once you engage enemy fighters, you can use cannons and heat-seaking missiles to take down bogeys but the most fun comes when you get in close behind another plane and engage DFM ('Dog Fight Mode'.....yeah, I know...). You have to follow an enemy close for a few seconds before you can engage DFM but once you do (by pressing both bumpers together), the game basically takes control of 90% of the flying for you, zooms the camera close in and you're controlling a reticule to try and target your bogey. The combination of the visuals, sound design and controls makes this an incredibly thrilling experience. Because the computer is doing most of the flying for you (you're basically moving left or right to generally keep up with the fleeing target) it can create situations where you're occasionally flying between city buildings trying to shoot down another plane. When you do fire off the kill shot the camera dynamically follows the rocket in, shows your victim going up in flames and then cuts back. This never got old for me. The end of game stats showed I had shot down a couple of hundred planes by the end and I never once got bored of this mechanic.

The CPU pilots can also target you and if they close in behind you there's a neat feature where, while trying to evade/shake your tail, you can line up two markers and then perform 'a counter' whereby you flip your plane and instantly loop around behind your pursuer. It sounds dumb but it's incredibly cool to see/do and adds another demension to the dogflighting.

There's a similar mechanic for ground targeting that's just as fun called ASM (...ahem....'Air Strike Mode'....) where you have to line up with a designated entry point for a bombing run and once again the computer takes control of a large portion of the flying controls (you still can bank left or right) and you focus on raining hell on ground troops. 

Unlike previous Ace Combat games you also get to control helicopters. These missions are mostly support missions for ground troops in populated areas and have their own neat mechanics. You often have to use buildings for cover and with simplified controls it's easy to duck and weave between buildings. If someone fires a missile/rocket at you - no problem, just do a barrel roll to evade it....in a chopper (try not think about it too much).

Amazingly, for a Japanese game at least, AC:AH has a story penned by an actual 'writer' (we'll use that term lightly) - Jim DeFelice who's written a number of military thrillers. Unfortunately, though not unexpectedly, the the story is pretty rote and predictable but still a lot more involved than I thought it would be. The game takes place in 2015 where you play as Lt. Colonel William Bishop of the 108th Task Force (a multinational UN task force composed of NATO and Russian troops). You're leader of Warwolf Squadron and by the end of the game you have some semblance of attachment to the pilots in your squadron - contrast this to Ghost Recon: Future Soldier where you spend 10 hours with 3 other soldiers and I couldn't tell you their names to save my life.

The 108th Task Force is charged with stopping a Russian insurgent group, SRN, who are funded by the Russian mafia. This is all just an excuse for you to go flying missions around the world from East Africa, to Dubai, to Miami and a number of other locations. There are twists and turns in the story but you can see most of them coming a mile away. You also have a nemesis - Colonel Andrei Markov (you have to read that in a thick Russian accent) - who is the world's best fighter pilot or something. No prizes for guessing whom you fight near the end of the game. It's dumb, but it's dumb fun and I quite enjoyed the campyness of it all.

Graphically, this game is very, very pretty. There are a ton of different planes you can fly (and fly against) and there all modelled beautifully. Explosions are gorgeous as are the particle and smoke effects. Ground details, particularly around the cities are fantastic. Miami and Dubai are two particularly well presented cities with buildings galore to fly in and around.

Sound design is similarly impressive with immersive comms chatter and some very good use of surround sound with missiles and explosions all around. There is also a very rousing and grandiose orchestral score. The voice acting sits on the wrong side of the 'bad' vs. 'so bad it's good' line which is a shame because truly awful voice acting combined with the campy story would have made the narrative experience that much more fun. 

Regardless of the apathetic voice acting, AC:AH is a bucket-load of over-the-top fun. An average mission generally starts with an overly dramatic cut-scene furthering the silly story, then you're suddenly in the air and have to shoot down 20-30 planes in a single mission - don't worry, your plane can somehow carry 50-60 missiles! Throughout the dog-fighting you're routinely pulling 10G turns with the greatest of ease. Then at some point you're up against the opposition squadron's top dogfighter and on occasion you have to chase down an ICBM and shoot it out of mid-air. It' crazy, it's stupid and it's fun.

The game takes about 5-6 hours to finish which I felt was the perfect amount of time - any longer and I could see myself getting a bit bored but those 5-6 hours were an absolute blast. Best of all, the game can easily be bought new for $20-30 which is very reasonable and solid value for money.

If you're looking for anything approaching a flight sim I'd stay well clear, but if you're open to playing the the Air Force version of a Michael Bay summer blockbuster I think you'll have a blast.

Lavan

Syndicate (360)

My love of last year's Deus Ex: Human Revolution has got me back into digging the cyberpunk genre in a big way. I was impressed by Syndicate's Skrillex heavy announcement trailer last year and recently got my hands on the game.

First off, while the original Syndicate was a 3/4 view isometric real-time 'strategy' game, this reboot is a First Person Shooter. This would have prompted yawns except it was developed by Starbreeze who made the excellent Darkness and Chronicles of Riddick games. Both of those games excelled in creating an engrossing atmosphere and engaging game world. They also both had a component of open-world/free-form gameplay to them as well.

Syndicate starts in 2069 where the world is no longer controlled by governments but by large corporations known as 'Syndicates'. Their control is made possible by the DART chip - an implanted brain chip that allows users to access the internet and renders most other electronic devices obsolete. In classic cyberpunk style the world is divided into those who have the chip (living in wealth and prosperity) and those who do not (who live in the ghettos). The powerful Syndicates employ bio-engineered/augmented security officers called 'Agents' for both protection and to engage in corporate espionage.

You control an agent named Miles Kilo (awful name, I know) who works for the world's largest Syndicate, Eurocorp, and has had the newest prototype DART chip implanted into his brain. 

This DART chip allows for several gameplay abilities that somewhat differentiate the game from the FPS norms. Tapping the Right Bumper (RB) brings up the 'DART Overlay' which adds a Matrix-style overlay to the visuals, highlighting enemies, important objects in the environment and also slows time slightly. You have three different 'Breach' abilities that are activated by targeting an enemy and then holding down the Left Bumper (LB). The Breach abilities allow you to hack into an enemy's DART chip force them to either commit suicide ('Suicide'), turn upon their allies ('Persuade'), or force their gun to explode ('Backfire'). 

Both the DART Overlay and the Breach abilities use an energy bar that is only refilled by either hacking objects in the environment or by killing enemies. Furthermore, the Breach abilities only work on those enemies that have implanted chips - so when you encounter those members of society who do not have them (and it's not much of a spoiler to mention that you do) you can't use them.

The shooting and controls in Syndicate are solid and the special abilities add flavour to all the encounters. Some later groups of enemies will have soldiers who have jammers that stop you from using Breach abilities (so you have to take them out first). There are also a good number of enemy types from heavies, to those with shields, mini-mechs and, of course, other Agents. The other Agents are your boss battles and while I'm generally not a fan of boss encounters in first person shooters, I think they work pretty well here because they force you to use your abilities and/or the environment in different ways.

You also gain experience points from each kill/hack/encounter and can then use these to upgrade your abilities in a fairly intricate upgrade tree which adds an RPG-lite component to the gameplay. 

Graphically, Syndicate is solid. I like the art style and look of the world but I still think Deus Ex: HR wins out in terms of art design and also the intricacy and level of detail found in the stages. You travel around future New York, Los Angeles and a floating city in the Atlantic. While the futuristic architecture is very well thought out and logical, there is nothing as stunning as Lower and Upper Hengsha that you find in Deus Ex. 

The faces and animations are excellent but there is some slow-down in the 360 version when there's too much going on at once - it only happens a handful of times but it's enough to mention. The DART-overlay and menu graphics are really well stylized but I felt at times the font sizes were too small and when I was trying to read emails/journal entries I had to strain.

The narrative itself is decent with requisite twists, turns and a very nice reveal towards the end of the story but it doesn't feel as fleshed out as it could be. The narrative leaves things open for a sequel but still manages to feel complete.  Starbreeze decided to use real-life actors for the other main characters who are both voice and facial captured. Brian Cox plays the head of Eurocorp and he is, as always, absolutely awesome as a maniacal megalomaniac. He was previously in Manhunt and Killzone and was brilliant in those two as well. The only other notable actor would be Rosario Dawson who plays Eurocorp's head scientist. While she is undoubtedly gorgeous I don't think she adds much to her character and I think EA/Starbreeze could have saved some money by going with a lesser-known actress.    

Syndicate features a very rich background fiction which is told through diary/journal entries and news articles you pick up. Unfortunately, none of this is really essential to the central narrative which is a shame and feels like a missed opportunity. It's fascinating reading about the other corporations, industrial espionage and also a rising revolutionary movement among deposed non-chipped individuals. The latter is somewhat touched upon in the narrative but not in as much detail as it deserves. 

After you're done the 10 hour single player story, the excellent co-op mode provides further enjoyment. In co-op you play as a team of 4 human-controlled Agents who have to take on various missions against the AI. Like all good multiplayer games (i.e. Battlefield 3) Syndicate rewards players that work together and each co-op player can play a variety of different roles from the bog-standard 'healer' to someone who specializes in hacking. The missions themselves are also quite varied from simple assassinations to stealing something from a rival Syndicate's compound and making it back out alive. 

Best of all, this is one EA game that doesn't require an online pass so if you do buy the game used/preowned/whatever you can still play this mode. 

I quite enjoyed Syndicate. It didn't blow me away but I had a lot of fun playing through the single player and co-op was engaging enough for me to forgo Battlefield 3 for a while. I think the game-world could have been fleshed out a bit more and I wish there was a bit more open-ness to the game (like in the Darkness) as it's fairly linear. Right now you can get Syndicate new for $30 and used for even cheaper. At either price, I think it's a good deal.

Lavan   

Ghost Recon: Future Soldier - Single Player Impressions

Ubisoft's Ghost Recon series has been around since 2001 with the original on the PC. I was first introduced to the series when it shifted from first person to third person view with 2006's Ghost Recon: Advanced Warfighter on the 360. I last played that game around 5 years ago and have two enduring memories of it; it looked absolutely gorgeous and that I enjoyed the slow, methodical, tactical pacing of the action.

Ghost Recon: Future Soldier (GRFS) is the newest game in the series but I think Ubisoft, seeing the success of more arcadey shooters like Call of Duty, have decided to try to balance the tactical nature of earlier games in the Ghost Recon series with more run-and-gun style seen in arcadey shooters. Unfortunately, the result is a game that seems caught in limbo between the two doctrines.

GRFS has all the features you'd expect in a top tier 3rd person shooter - cover mechanics, tons of different weapons, a Gears of War-style recovery/bleed-out and more. The 'Future Soldier' aspect comes from the variety of different gadgets and technology your 4-man team has access to. You can use a robotic drone to fly/drive around the battlefield to scope out and mark targets. You can also use Predator-style active camouflage to sneak around undetected. You also have a 'futuristic' HUD that shows the location of enemies through cover.

The controls are solid, very responsive and mention must be made of the ingenious way you can move from cover to cover. Once you're behind cover, you can look to another area of cover, hold down A and then you automatically run to that area. It's a very simple system but it works brilliantly and is something that other 3rd person games need to borrow.

So far, so good but unfortunately, the single-player experience falls flat because of gameplay that is in limbo between being a tactical shooter like the older Ghost Recon games and a more arcadey shooter like Gears of War. It also doesn't help that the mission design is often atrocious and that your teammate's AI is utter garbage. It seems as though more than a third of the missions are stealth-only missions that result in a game-over message the moment you're detected. A lot of times I found trial and error was the only way to get through them. Other missions are the complete opposite with infantry coming from every angle and you're running around the battlefield like Captain Price and Soap, absorbing bullets and capping Russians left, right and center a la Call of Duty (only COD does it better). The last 10 minutes of the game have you literally running through the forest chasing someone while shooting enemy troops along the way. Absolutely no tactical thought needed.

You can't order your teammates to move to different positions (you could in previous games) but you can mark/designate opposing soldiers for them to take out. Unfortunately, AI path-finding is awful. Through the course of the overly-long 10+ hour single-player campaign I had FIVE different instances where I had to re-start from a checkpoint because one of my AI squad-mates got stuck trying to walk through a wall rather than go through a door. I would be at the next check-point, waiting for it to unlock only to see a message stating I had to wait for all of my squad. I'd run back and then see one of the 3 generic idiots you roll with literally banging his head into a wall. For a 'triple A' title in 2012 that's just unacceptable.

The game's narrative is also disappointing because while you can clearly see a ton of effort was put into it (it's more than 10 hours long and there are a lot of cut-scenes as well as in-mission dialogue) it just doesn't come together. There's something about a Russian coup and missing weapons but I couldn't follow and really didn't give a shit after the first 2 hours. At some point in the middle you're in Siberia controlling an indestructible mini-mech with infinite rockets and you wonder why the Ghosts just don't take this thing with them wherever they go...

Ubisoft also tried to ape Battlefield: Bad Company's foursome of characters but while I can easily ring off the names of Sweetwater, Marlowe, Haggard and Redford I couldn't begin to tell you the names of the guys in GRFS. I know there's a guy with a southern accent and the black guy is your squad leader (even though you spend the entirety of the game giving HIM orders). That's about it.

It's all a shame because there are some good ideas here and there are a few, albeit brief, moments where everything comes together nicely such as a part of the level in Zambia where a Sandstorm comes in and reduces visibility to zero. Or, my favourite part of the game, the first section of the final mission where you have to assassinate several targets. Unfortunately, these moments don't make up for the mediocrity you have to endure the other 90% of the time.

The single-player in Ghost Recon: Future Soldier isn't bad (except for those times when the AI renders the game broken) but it's not very good either. If you're a huge fan of tactical shooters like the previous Ghost Recon: Advance Warfighter games I'd steer well clear - it's nothing like the other games. If you're a fan of run-and-gun 3rd person shooters I'd probably wait for this one to go on sale.

Lavan

Homefront (360)

I had meant to check out Homefront when it first came out but I was so busy that it passed me by. The game’s mixed reception and purportedly short campaign length didn’t light much of a fire under my ass to buy it. I eventually did buy a used (er...I mean ‘pre-owned’) copy at my local independent videogame store for $7.50 few weeks ago.  After finishing the single player campaign ofthis first-person shooter I have to say I quite enjoyed it but I’m also glad I didn’t pay full price ($60) for it.

For those who aren’t familiar with the story, Homefront starts with a story montage that begins in 2010 with some real-life footage of Hilary Clinton speaking after the sinking of the ROKS Cheonan.The montage continues with the death of Kim Jong Ill in 2012, whose son then reunites North and South Korea to form the Greater Korean Republic (GKR). Over the next 10 years the GKR gains massive power, a bird flu epidemic and theglobal economic crisis cripple the United States, and in 2024 the GKR detonates an EMP over the US rendering electronics and much of the nation`s infrastructure in ruins. In the resulting chaos the GKR invade and occupy the United States.

Yes, it`s Red Dawn, the videogame. Except they’re Koreans, not Russians.

The game begins two years after Korean occupation of the US and you play as a former Marine helicopter pilot namedJacobs. Sleeping in your makeshift Colorado apartment you’re suddenly awoken by GKR troops and dragged onto a bus going to a ‘re-education camp’.  Fortunately, your bus is ambushed by American resistance fighters who rescue you for the sole purpose of helping them in their plan to recover jet fuel for scattered U.S. military forces.

I’m a big fan of atmosphere and sense of place in games and Homefront really excels in these areas.  I really liked the suburban sections in Modern Warfare 2 where you fought off Russian invasion - the idea of modern military warfare taking place in the North American suburbs (a place most of us are familiar with in our day to day lives) is something I find incredibly intriguing. So, to see this concept more fleshed out in Homefront is a big thrill.

The first half of the game takes place in dilapidated and destroyed suburban Colorado (2 years into Korean occupation) and the attention to detail is amazing. At one point you’re running through back yards and along with the expected household destruction you also see remnants of a crashed Boeing 747 scattered around the place. In one area you come across a garage that has a 747 engine smashed into the side of it, around the cornerhalf of the fuselage lies down an alleyway.

My favourite area in the game is when you come across ‘Oasis’ a tiny, hidden resistance outpost with civilians intermixed with resistance fighters. The attention to detail in this section is incredible. You see rows of potted plants and vegetables laid out in logical fashion, hydroponics and water filtration systems, a little classroom with a blackboard and tiny children’s chairs, car batteries and solar panels arrayed to collect power, even sections of camouflage tarp strewn over open areas to hide the outpostfrom detection by airborne GKR forces! It really feels like a place where desperate people are trying to carve out some semblance of a normal life amidst chaos.

Tonally, the game starts out with a metaphorical punch to the gut. As you’re driven by GKR forces in a converted school bus to a ‘re-education’ camp, you’re able to look out the windows and can see GKR troops rounding up American citizens like cattle. At one point a GKR soldier grabs a resisting civilian from behind, puts a plastic bag over his head and begins to suffocate him as you drive past! The most disturbing segment occurs as the bus rounds a corner you see (and hear) GKR soldiers lining up a man and a woman against a wall while their toddler looks on screaming. The mom tells the toddler not to worry and then the GKR soldiers gun her and her husband down. The resulting sequence of a wailing toddler running up to, and embracing, the bodies of his killed parents struck me in a way no game has been able to before.

Kaos Studios wants you to know that the Korean occupation of the United States is brutal and they definitely succeed in the opening few minutes of this game.

It’s a shame, then, that such excellent atmosphere and environments are held back by shoddy characterization and poor story telling. Your AI-controlled team of fellow resistance members is made up of 4 other characters; Boone (the African-American leader of the resistance cell), Connor (a former marine), Rianna (an African-American female...no really, that’s her name) and Hopper (an Asian-American engineer). Unfortunately, apart from one scene where Connor tells Hopper he should sit out a meeting with some other rebels because they ‘probably don’t like Asians’ there isn’t anything remotely interesting about them or their interactions. Half-way through one of the main characters dies and while we’re supposed to care I wasn’t really bothered.

Likewise, the plot is paper-thin and the only twist/surprise can be seen a mile away. The plot and some mechanics also do a disservice to the excellent atmosphere created by the game. At one point you come across mass graves of American civilians, it’s a chilling moment – ruined by Connor suddenly screaming ‘motherfuckers’, shooting at the patrolling guards and then prompting a 10 minute cover-based firefight that culminates in you having hide under dead bodies with the on screen button prompt of, and I kid you not;

“Press X to Hide in Mass Grave”

*sigh*

The ending of the game is also somewhat bewildering. Not because it leaves things open – this was clearly intended to be the first game in a series and the story of how the resistance to GKR occupation took it’s first steps towards reclaiming America – but because in the space of about 3 seconds a main character decides to sacrifice himself to save the mission. I don’t want to give away too many details but you spend the prior 30 minutes fighting improbable odds, then you get a quick cut away to somereinforcements – you’re thinking, alright, I guess we have to kill them too – but then your squad-mate decides he’ll just off himself to save the day.There’s zero build up to what should be a very dramatic moment -  he just sees the bad guys and then he’s off toget himself killed and I’m left there with the controller thinking;

i.                    Wait...what just happened? Did he just kill himself? Did the game just end?

And

ii.                  He really didn’t need to do that. At all. Particularly since we spent the rest of the game fighting similarly bleak odds.

                      

It would be like an alternate cut of Return of the Jedi where, when Lando Calrissian is flying deep in the bowels of the Death Star, lines up to shoot the reactor core and then at the last minute decides to fly the Millennium Falcon into it killing himself and poor Nien Nub – roll credits. What. The. Fuck?

Gameplay-wise I think Homefront got a bad rep from a lot of mainstream reviewers as it’s a perfectly serviceables hooter. The aiming and movement mechanics are generally tight and there’s a nice weapon selection. It’s completely linear and scripted but so are the single player experiences of most first person shooters. It doesn’t have the sharpness of the CoD engine and it doesn’t have the destruction found inB attlefield but it’s still fun to aim down the sights and take out bad guys.

The biggest shortcoming of the single-player is the length. I am not particularly great at shooters but I finished this game on the default (Normal) difficulty setting in three and a half hours! While I don’t expect shooters to have 20+ hours of gameplay, three and a bit hours is frankly ridiculous. I’m not particularly upset since I bought this game used for less than ten dollars but if I picked it up for full price I would have been pissed.

There is a very robust multiplayer component to the game but since I bought it used I’d have to pay $10 for an online pass to be able to play beyond the first 5 levels (of player progression). I hit level 5 in about 40 minutes and while it’s a fun experience with some neat ideas (you use points you get from killing enemies/achieving objectives to purchase in-match vehicles, weapons, etc) I would still rather play Battlefield 3 or even CoD.

Despite some pretty poor scores from high-profile gaming sites (Gamespot gave it a 4/10) Homefront still managed to sell around a million copies – largely in part to some very aggressive (and undoubtedly expensive) marketing. Unfortunately, expectations from publisher THQ were much higher and this resulted in the closure of the developer Kaos Studios.  It’s a shame because there are some very neat ideas here. Fortunately, Crytek Nottingham have been tasked with making a sequel which makes me quite excited. I really loved Crysis 2 and hope Crytek’s Nottingham studio is as talented as their Frankfurt one.

Lavan

Super Soccer Champs (iOS)

Uprising Games’ newest iOS game isa solid re-creation of the 2D top-down soccer action found in Kick Off 2 and SensibleWorld of Soccer. To make things a bit easier for today’s audience the gamefeatures two action buttons (shoot and pass) and an easy dribble mode (wherethe ball sticks to your feet).  The gamespeed, despite being adjustable, is also significantly slower than thoseaforementioned 16-bit games but that’s likely a good thing because of the smallscreen size of the iPhone and iPad. 

Friendly

2010 World Cup

Euro 2012

EPL

1990 World Cup

Euro 1996

1986 World Cup

1966 World Cup

J-League

Chinese Club League

Team Editor

None of the leagues or players arelicensed but Uprising Games get around this by just including the last name ofplayers and/or pseudo-names. The classic tournaments also feature accuraterosters so I could re-create the 1990 World Cup using an England side that hasBarnes, Gascoigne, Lineker, Beardsley and Waddle!

I definitely had a lot of fun withSuper Soccer Champs but I acknowledge that the top-down 2D soccer gameplay maynot be for everyone (particularly if you didn’t grow up playing Kick Off or SWOS) but if you have an interest in soccer games I definitely think it’sworth a try.

Lavan

New Star Soccer (iOS)

After 5 games and numerous iterations it’s often easy toforget that the New Star Soccer series is basically made by a single person;Simon Read. For those who haven’t heard of the series, it’s a top-down soccergame in the vein of Kick Off and Sensible Soccer. The hook is that you controla single player through the course of his career from a young nobody warmingthe bench at a non-league team to, hopefully, an international super starplaying for a top club team and also your national team. You improve yourskills and attributes by playing more games and by completing trainingchallenges (which take the form of numerous tiers of mini-games such asdribbling through cones, heading in crosses, etc).

What really draws you into the game is are the numerousoff-field activities which are just as important as the on-field ones. Theoff-field activities can be divided into financial and inter-personal.Depending upon the level you’re playing at, and your negotiating skill, you geta per-game salary. This can be supplemented, once you become more successfuland well-known, by various sponsorship deals. The money you earn can then beused to buy things such as property, vehicles and various other goods andservices. These things aren’t just for show – they have a direct effect uponyour match performance! The more nice things you have the higher your happinessrating and this acts as bonus for your attributes. Furthermore, differentproperties have varying bonuses upon your ability to recover from fatigue aftermatches!

Interpersonal relationships are also very important. As aplayer you have relationships with your teammates, your boss/manager,  the fans and (if you get one) yourgirlfriend. The more you improve these relationships (by selecting to spendtime with each and then playing a match-three mini game) the better you do onthe field. For example, the better your relationship with your teammates, themore likely they are to pass to you! You have a finite amount of time betweenmatches to for interpersonal activities and the more you spend doing these themore it fatigues you prior to a match so it’s a balancing act between somethinglike spending time with the fans at a photo-shoot to butter them up but notfatiguing yourself so much that you end up playing poorly in the next match andthen having the fans on your back!

I’m a huge fan of the PC NSS games – the sense of immersionand pure addictiveness is incredible – but I was wary as to how Simon Readwould bring the top-down action to an iOS device as I’m not a big fan ofvirtual thumb-sticks. The solution is ingenious and absolutely perfect for bite-sized, on-the-gomobile gaming. Instead of letting you control the moment to moment action, yousee Football Manager-style text commentary and interspersed are certain keymoments where you take control via little mini-games for passing, shooting, setpieces and tackling/intercepting passes. The passing and shooting mini-gamesare simple (move an arrow, touch a moving/bouncing/still ball where you’d liketo strike it) but have quite a bit of depth under the surface. Importantly,there’s a good balance between user skill and also an accurate reflection ofyour avatar’s abilities.

I’ve played close to a 75 different iOS games but New StarSoccer is easily the most addictive.  Thecombination of addictive gameplay, quick matches, and the RPG aspect of carvingout the individual career of your player. My player started off in the BlueSquare South division playing for Boreham Wood before moving to AccringtonStanley, then Brighton, before moving to France with Evian in the French seconddivision. After successfully winning promotion with Evian I earned a move toLille and ended up winning the league in my second season there – scoring theleague title clinching goal with a thunderous 30 yard volley in the 89^thminute against Marseille! I had also helped Canada qualify through CONCACAF tothe 2014 World Cup Finals! My third season with Lille didn’t result in a titlebut ‘we’ did manage to get to the Champions League semi-finals before losing toBarcelona.  The following season I earnedmy dream move to Liverpool and I find myself fighting for the EPL title goinginto the last few weeks (I didn’t say the game was necessarily realistic)! 

If you’re a fan of football/soccer I think you owe it toyourself to check out NSS. You can play a limited trial for free but can unlockthe game for just 99 cents. It’s a no-brainer and easily my favourite iOS game.

Lavan

Battlefield 3 Premium and Close Quarters Impressions

After a little break from shooters, the past few weeks I've got back into the armed combat groove with both Modern Warfare 3 and Ghost Recon: Future Soldier. I enjoyed the single player experience of the former and tolerated parts of the single player of the latter. Multiplayer in MW3 is a known quantity - tight controls, great gameplay, spoiled because it's largely played by 13 year old psychopaths. I really, really wanted to like GRFS and while the few games of multiplayer that I played with friends were solid, the matches I played with randoms made me want to throw my controller out the window. After one particularly frustrating game where my team lost by something like 10,000 points (or so it felt like), I decided to jump back into Battlefield 3 and immediately fell back in love. Since I had a hefty Microsoft Points card for Father's Day I decided to pony up for Battlefield 3 Premium.

For those who don't know, Battlefield 3 Premium is EA's version of Activision's Call of Duty Elite service. For 50 bucks you get access to all 5 of Battlefield 3's pending expansion packs (2 of which are already out - Back to Karkand and Close Quarters). The remaining 3 expansions are coming out September, December and March of next year. You also get access to the expansions 2 weeks early. There are some other minor perks like exclusive decals, a custom knife (for a gun fight?!) but none of them are particularly impressive.

Close Quarters is the newest expansion pack and features 4 new maps, 2 new game modes and 10 new weapons. The new maps are all smaller, mostly indoor levels, with no vehicles and focus on...erm...close quarters combat. The four new maps are; 

Donya Fortress - a 3 level Middle-Eastern castle/fort 

Operation 925 - a multi-level office building with an underground parking lot, lobby, cafeteria and lots office space 

Scrapmetal - a labyrinth multi-storey abandoned factory with a variety of walkways and open and enclosed spaces 

Ziba Tower - a hotel in Tehran 

Each of the levels is beautifully rendered with a fair amount of destructible cover. Of the new levels, Scrapmetal is definitely my favourite as each of the three capture points have a variety of ways to approach them and you can use a great deal of strategy for both attack and defense. 

The two new game modes are Conquest-Domination and Gun Master. Conquest-Domination is a version of the regular Conquest mode but modified to suit the small, infantry-focused maps. Now it only takes 10-20 seconds to capture a point and you can only spawn at a random point or on your squad - you can no longer spawn on a capture point and there's no home base for your team. 

Gun Master is a neat mode where there are no classes (no Engineer, no Recon etc) and everyone starts with the same handgun (the MP-443). Once you get two kills with the MP-433 it's automatically upgraded to a 3-burst handgun (the Barretta 93R). Two kills with the Barretta and you unlock a Magnum. This keeps going every two kills until you start unlocking submachine guns, assault rifles, shotguns and so on. Though you're put onto one of two teams, the winner of the mode is the first person to cycle through all 17 weapons (the last is a knife). 

Because the maps feature no vehicles and are infantry-focused, the Close Quarters matches play very different to regular Battlefield. It's very much like the COD/MW run-and-gun style gameplay, except you're not playing with/against 13 year old sniper-rifle savants and you still have defined player roles (Medics and Support are key in these maps). The maps are also designed really well and while you can run around like a headless chicken trying to kill everything in sight, you'll be a lot more successful if you work with your squad to try and defend capture points. The Scrapmetal map is the perfect example of this with each of the capture points having multiple avenues for attack on a variety of elevations. 

Gun Master can be fun if you're able to make it past the first few rounds and unlock the submachine guns. If you find yourself in a funk and stuck with the first three weapons (the handguns) it can be very frustrating as everyone else is running around with superior hardware. 

I really enjoyed the Close Quarters expansion pack but I can see how it may not be everyone's cup of tea. The frantic nature of Conquest-Domination isn't going to replace regular Conquest for me but I do find it a very fun palate-cleanser and good to have in the map rotation. If you like COD/MW but prefer Battlefield 3 then I think it'll be a nice diversion. If you really hate the COD/MW-style gameplay then I'd steer clear of this one. 

That decision also factors into whether or not you should pony up the $50 (FIFTY DOLLARS!?!) for Battlefield 3 Premium. Each of the expansions sells for $15 but most people will have already purchased the excellent Back to Karkand expansion pack so if you're planning to buy the rest of the expansions going with Premium saves you $10. However, if you're not interested in Close Quarters then you're better off buying each of the three remaining expansions individually and saving $5. 

Lavan