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By Michael Charge, 08/10/2010 8:50 pm

From now on, this site is purely for reviews and full length articles in order to act as a professional portfolio. Expect game concepts, samples and more in the coming few months

For more of my personal stuff, such as updates on uni and funny pictures of me being a fool, go to my tumblr at http://tumblr.hntdaab.co.uk/ which will be updated more regularly than this site.

I’ll see you at http://tumblr.hntdaab.co.uk/

Michael

Thoughts On… R.U.S.E.

By Michael Charge, 04/11/2010 9:00 am

Ah Ubisoft. Your cunning plans of using evil DRM were thwarted via the gaming public so you decided to go with the sensible option on your latest strategy game. A good choice too, as R.U.S.E. is an excellent entry into the RTS genre that takes a familiar setting and puts its own spin on it through the use of cunning plans.

The story, or is it?
R.U.S.E. takes place in World War 2, with you taking control of a single General on the Allied side. For the first half you are General Sheridan, fighting from Tunisia to Germany via Italy and D-Day and seemingly responsible for most of the major breakthroughs of the war and saving French troops left, right and centre. It’s the standard strategy game campaign, with wooden acting, annoying voice actors (the American female advisor is perhaps the most) but it acts a good tutorial for multiplayer, introducing you to all the concepts required to play the game. Each location is split into three or four missions which play over the same area, making it feel like you’re part of an ongoing operation, especially when your allies are advancing alongside. There are also a set of bonus objectives, most of which are just common tactical decisions with bonus points but others are strange and arbitrary additions.

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Enter stereotypical British guy No.1

I have a cunning plan…
At first glance, R.U.S.E. appears to be a very simple ‘build units and attack’ sort of game. You must maintain your supply line while building up your forces from a selection of types and then gain the highest score before the time runs out. Unit types lead to a rock-paper-scissors-aircraft style of game, although in some cases you can simply just swarm the enemy units human-wave style.

The main change to this formula is the addition of the RUSES system. These are power ups that can be applied to sectors on the map to gain an advantage. They range from camouflaging your buildings or units up to decrypting enemy orders so you can work out what the opposition is planning. Unlike other games, where the little additional elements (such as Company of Heroes’ Company Commander Abilities) are optional and battles can be won without them, R.U.S.E. requires you to use these twelve abilities to win. There is no reason not to; out of all twelve, I can only think of one that I haven’t used regularly in both campaign and multiplayer but even that one, which switches around the appearance of unidentified units, is still a neat thing to use. All of this can lead to cool setups, where a fake assault on the left, combined with radio silence for your units on the right, allow you to blitzkrieg the enemy defences and to take their base.

There are six building types which produce a whole host of different units, from light infantry all the way up to super heavy tanks and strategic bombers. Each has its own proper purpose and the correct use of these differences, along with the RUSES, allows for a rather satisfying victory. Some of the units are cool in themselves, such as watching a fleet of bombers getting ripped to pieces by some mobile AA or an infantry column having a metric ton of lead dropped on it by at least three different artillery pieces.

I do have one point to make about the gameplay of the campaign; you eventually reach a point where you are close to having unlocked all the units and buildings available to you but are still missing one or two units. I found this bit so frustrating; there a situations where the best tool for the job isn’t unlocked for a purely arbitrary reason despite having used it in the mission previously. Due to this, the later levels have a massive difficulty spike which can be really frustrating but it does work very well as an intro to the multiplayer.

As well as the competitive multiplayer I’m yet to talk about, there are also two other single player modes to increase the amount of playing time. “Battles” is simply skirmish games against the AI. The computer seems pretty clever, using RUSES and unit combinations like a real player would and also reacting to your choices. Operations on the other hand are a series of challenges that are designed to see if you can solve the problem given to you. These are a combination of realistic scenarios and purely fake but unique set ups such as fighting against Russian’s, German’s and French all at once. They are an interesting inclusion but I prefer the multiplayer.

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A giant angry house, or is it?

Graphics:  made of wood and cardboard to fool you
R.U.S.E. is the best looking RTS game in a long time. It has a very similar look to World in Conflict (a game it also shares its camera controls and fast paced battles with) with units swarming over maps while aircraft buzz over head. When zoomed in it looks stunning, as properly proportioned units drive through the streets and rounds smash in the ground alongside cowering units. You don’t see them hugging cover, like those in Company of Heroes but that is a small price to pay based just on the scale. The game also implements a bit of camera shake, so when you place your camera close either firing units or places of impact it shakes like crazy. It’s a pretty nice effect.

Rolling the mouse wheel zooms you out ever so slowly. As you move away, units change to chips, clouds begin to appear and it starts to look like an old tabletop game (sadly no hex’s). Zoom even further and you soon notice that it actually is a table in one of several war rooms such as on the bridge of a battleship for D-Day, or in a desert tent for those in North Africa. This is a really cool cosmetic feature that helps to make you really feel like a WW2 general.

Wait a minute, that doesn’t sound right…
Apart from the voice acting in the single player, I’m quite impressed with the audio in R.U.S.E. Notification sounds, alerting you to facts such as buildings destroyed or supply lines under attack, are crisp and to the point while also easily audible above the sounds of battle. Artillery sounds really powerful (especially as it flies past the camera) while all the other weapon sounds are a joy to hear. The unit’s vocal responses are also pretty good, though the audio is mixed slightly strangely so they are really quiet. This might be another way for R.U.S.E. to maintain your position as a general, giving you a muted link to your units.

Lying to friends
RTS games often have a feel to them about what the dev team was focusing on and R.U.S.E. definitely feels like a multiplayer game. The game is insanely well-balanced (due in part to its several months long beta) and so it is down to player skill in the use of units and RUSE’s that lead to victory rather than some huge imbalance. I’ve played a few matches and it seems pretty populated still weeks after release. It’s also great fun to play in all its various team set-ups, despite being limited to simple points amassing rather than king of the hill style modes.

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Giant Arrows of Death! Attack!

R.U.S.E. uses Steam for all of its matchmaking and stats tracking, so on PC a steam account is required. I do also like the fact the save games are stored in the steam cloud, which was very useful when my PC had issues mid-review (unrelated to the game). The game also uses Uplay, which does require you to login and gain points if you want to unlock a multiplayer map and an upgraded version of a standard unit. Ubisoft, please don’t do this; we already have enough achievement style incentives from Steam, Xbox Live and the Playstation Network and locking out key content is kind of a big deal.

Some final, truthful, thoughts
R.U.S.E is one of the few games that has taken the RTS genre and shaken it up a little to create a game that is easy to play but tough to master entirely. It also is presented beautifully with excellent graphics and sound. I look forward to seeing where this game goes next, hopefully Ubisoft will use Eugen’s Irisoft engine to pump out some more large-scale battles. I recommend R.U.S.E. to everyone from newcomers to hardy RTS fans.

Thoughts On… Alien Breed 2: Assault

By Michael Charge, 22/10/2010 8:00 am

(This is originally a review from This Is My Joystick)

altTeam 17 are known today entirely for their incredibly popular Worms franchise, which has sold many millions and had many of us addicted to shooting each other’s worms with high powered weaponry. Some people who remember back to the days of the Amiga might also know them for Alien Breed, a tribute to the Aliens movies and a rather good game. Recently the game was resurrected as an episodic series, the first episode being released for both Xbox Live Arcade and PC. Unfortunately, it was eclipsed almost entirely on Steam by Valve’s free alien shooting gallery Alien Swarm. Can the second episode from those boys from Wakefield correct the balance?

How could this day get any worse?!
The plot line of this second episode follows on with from the story of the first. After a brief cartoon recap of the events from the first episode (a requirement I think in any episodic game) your character, Chief Engineer Conrad, now has to fight his way through this ghost ship in order to prevent it crashing through the atmosphere. It’s not the best written tale as it primarily seems to consist of you going from place to place in order to fix nearly every system on the ship, like the entire ship was a DIY botch job made by someone who was bored one afternoon. Writing for dialogue seems to be rather standard, but strangely there is absolutely no spoken dialogue for your advisor.

Literally a corridor shooter
Like that other game I mentioned, Alien Breed is an isometric shooter that takes you through the corridors of an abandoned ship as you run around shooting aliens, solving puzzles and repeatedly pressing the use key to fix things in order to advance. The camera angle is pulled way down so it’s very hard to see far in front which is designed to increase the tension but it actually quite annoying as the angle has been done better in other games.

Obligatory Turret Section is included

Obligatory Turret Section is included

The other issue is that the game has only a few weapons and none of them are actually any fun to use. It becomes a slog to go through door after door. You also have a set of additional equipment such as grenades and health kits. Unfortunately, the grenades require a throwing time which is exactly the last thing you want when your fight big groups of aliens. It was maybe a design decision but it’s really annoying. The main issue with both sets of equipment is how little of each you will find and how expensive they are to buy from the save terminals. This means 90% of the time you are running around with less ammo than you actually need.

The game’s enemies are quite limited in variety but they have a nasty habit of swarming you when the opportunity presents itself. There are also several boss encounters that seem to be pretty simplistic and based around hitting specific points at specific times.

Those Aliens are unreal!
Alien Breed uses the Unreal 3 engine and it does get quite a lot of work out of it. The actual action does look rather good, with gunfire reflecting off the surfaces of the ship as you fight your way through. I’m not a fan of the art direction though; the main character looks exceedingly generic and he seems to lack any animations for anything even in the cut-scenes. The aliens also look like rip offs of HR Geiger’s creatures but nowhere near as visually interesting.

Whooo! Spooky Sounds!
In terms of sounds, Alien Breed’s effects do the job. They present an adventure through a ghost ship with some nice ambient sounds and ones for gunfire. I’m less happy with the backing music as it is entirely forgettable. If you’re playing Alien Breed, it isn’t for its audio.

Killing in Co-Op

Killing in Co-Op

Breeding with a friend…
Alien Breed also has a co-op mode. You can either play one of three special co-op mission chambers or play the survival mode, which is also playable in single player. These modes add a little bit of extra play time and can be quite fun. I do recommend voice chatting through it to prevent any wasting of ammo and gear.

Is this a fine (Alien) Breed?
Alien Breed 2: Assault is a competent third person shooter, however, it is still overshadowed by Valve’s Alien Swarm, which is not only a better and more replayable game, but also free for any Steam user. That said, when a Steam sale pops up, keep an eye on Alien Breed 2 as it is provides a good few hours enjoyment, especially if you can get a co-op game running.

Thoughts On… The Silver Lining Episode 2: Two Households

By Michael Charge, 20/10/2010 5:46 pm

(This is originally a review from This Is My Joystick)

altBefore I start I have a confession; I have never played a King’s Quest game. I’ve done a little bit of research before playing this latest game but I have never picked up one of the classic games and unfortunately, this new episode isn’t that good.

For those of you that don’t know, A Silver Lining is an unofficial fan made sequel to the King’s Quest series of games made by Sierra back in olden times. After a tumultuous development (which has seen two separate cease and desist orders from the varying copyright holders), it’s finally being released in five episodes.

A plot about a plot?
The story of the second episode starts up at exactly the end of the first. Graham, the jaunty hat wearing main character, has set out to find out how to break a spell that was cast on his children in the first episode. You start the second with a list of things to find and some vague clues about where to go. The story is a major part of the game so I won’t spoil it for you but it isn’t exactly the best ever. Some of the writing is especially lacklustre for a game that revolves around telling a story, with a load of cringe worthy dialogue lines even before the voice actor touches them. It’s pretty hard to take a tenuous story seriously when almost every line feels like it was written by someone who doesn’t quite get how to write stories. It also fails to introduce you to any important concepts or world information from either the previous episode or from the world in general.

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Erm, what?

Ah, good time for some gameplay
Of course, this is actually a game so you can’t spend the entire thing sat back watching video. The first episode has about twenty minutes of gameplay to an hour or so of narration and cut-scenes. I really disliked this as it was really, really boring due in part to the terrible writing. The second episode has actually improved the ratio to something more closely resembling a game. It plays as a standard adventure game, based around finding items and then using them in the correct place. There isn’t any combining of items to make new and bizarre items like in The Secret of Monkey island and there are only three verbs you can use (look, interact and talk). It makes it simple but the problem is that it eventually turns into a simple case of pickup everything and try it on every puzzle. This is the style that Lucasarts games kicked the shit out of when they were released and under no circumstances should we go back to it. The game is pretty cool in that it has responses for using the wrong item which could potentially be funny but as mentioned before, the writing really lets it down. The game also has an issue in telling you what to do, unlike other games, it tells you your overall goal and that’s it, with very few clues about where to go and what to look for.

Visual silver? Nope
The game gets worse. The graphics have to be some of the worst I have seen in the past few years. It looks almost exactly like the late ‘90’s 3D graphics of the last actual King’s Quest game, which for 2010 is not very good. Textures look flat, there’s a lack of effects and faces just look wrong. Compared with many other adventure games, you aren’t coming here for the visuals.

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Seriously, what is going on in this picture?

Audio silver? Nope again
Silver Lining’s audio is slightly better due mainly to its haunting music. All of the music tracks are beautiful and well worth a listen. It sounds like they got a very talented composer to work on it. Unfortunately, the voice acting is far less impressive. It sounds a little like amateur hour, which is understandable for a fan project. What is less understandable is just how annoying some of the actors are. The genie’s voice feels like nails on chalkboard while the narrator is nothing but annoying throughout; her little self plug is rather irritating.

Every cloud…
Overall, I cannot recommend this game to anyone except possibly insanely die hard King’s Quest fans. The only “silver lining” I could find in the game is the music, the rest is just a simple “find items to solve puzzles” adventure done in subpar graphics, voice acting and writing. Even for free, don’t play it.

Thoughts On… Scott Pilgrim vs. The World

By Michael Charge, 18/10/2010 8:00 am

(This is originally a review from This Is My Joystick)

altMovie tie in games are normally not that good. Ok, that’s an understatement; 99% of games which are related to movies are just plain bad. Luckily, the game based on Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World is not among this very bad group. It does have one or two issues, but overall it has to be one of the best beat-em-ups to come out in the last few years. It is truly a KO.

In the Mysterious Land of Toronto…
If you haven’t picked up the plot line from the barrage of the film’s marketing, Scott Pilgrim is a twenty something slacker/bass player living in Canada. He meets, quite literally, the girl of his dreams in Ramona Flowers, American roller skating Amazon delivery girl. However, in order to date her he must battle her seven evil exes. Unfortunately, this is effectively all the story the game gives you and most of that comes from the attract screen at the start. It is quite evident from this point alone that the game is designed for people who have gained their knowledge of Scott Pilgrim from other sources and are playing the games as an accompaniment.

Punch, Punch, Kick, Kick, The guy hogging the baseball bat is still a…
The game plays just like nearly every other brawler. You, and up to four of your friends fight your way through screen after screen of enemies in order to progress to the boss battles that finish every chapter. There are seven chapters in total and each has several areas within. To fight, you have the usual block, jump, light and heavy attacks. Each character also has their own special move as well as a striker which calls in Scott’s stalker Knives Chau and whose effect varies depending on the character. These special attacks drain “Guts Points” which also allow players to stand back up after running out of HP. The levels you fight through are all themed around the associated evil-ex and so rapidly change from one level to another. They are jam packed with items to use, shops to buy accessories and food from and waves of bad guys. It also has a levelling system, much like the game River City Ransom, so as you fight you unlock several extra moves up until the level cap at sixteen. This levelling system in some way accounts for the tough as nails difficulty; make no mistake, this game is designed for co-op. It is still do-able in single player but expect lots of shouting and screaming at your TV.

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There is something familiar about this screenshot…

Scott Pilgrim is packed full of funny references to some classic games. From the Mario style map screen to the copies of “Never-ending Fantasy” and “Spikey the Porcupine” in one of the in game shops, it buzzes with an old school feel. It also harks back to the gaming days of old in other ways, the game is brimming with reasons to play back over and over again. There are no collectables but many achievements require several playthroughs in order to unlock. There is an additional character that requires the game to be played through once with each character and an unlockable striker that will require some perseverance just to get into the fight to unlock it. The game also has a boss rush mode and a survival zombie mode, both of which are unlocked by cheat codes input at the start menu.

Them Pixels look fine
My favourite thing about the game has to be the 8-bit esque graphics by Paul Robertson. They capture the comic’s art style perfectly and are a much better fit to the source material than any poorly rendered model of Michael Cera. Every tiny animation is packed full of detail and character, from Scott’s victory celebration to the look of glee on Kim’s face when you attack an enemy with a baseball bat. It’s a delight to see in motion and with four players and a screen full of bad guys it’s a visual feast. The backgrounds are also beautiful pixel art while some animated interludes really help to convey the game’s link back to the comic. It has inherited some of the weirdness from Robertson’s other work but doesn’t really suffer as this is a world where pretty much everyone seems to be a champion fighter.

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Ah those blocks. Bring back memories…

You’ve never heard a Gameboy rock out quite as hard before
I’m also in love with the soundtrack. It’s all written and performed by the chip tune band Anamanaguchi. It’s a great rocking soundtrack that combines screaming guitar with 8-bit sound effects to create a sound like the game’s Scott Pilgrim is inspired by while also adding a modern twist to it. However, chip tune music can be a little abrasive so if you aren’t a fan you might have to play with the music turned off. The rest of the sound effects sound like improved versions of sounds from other games which is another tribute the game throws out.

Got four friends? Time to fight!
I mentioned before about this game featuring co-op. It supports four players who choose one of the four characters to play as. Unfortunately, this co-op is only on a single console. The lack of online seems a rather weird decision; I don’t know whether this was a design decision or simply a lack of time. I have heard people saying it will be patched in but I wouldn’t get your hopes up. However, I think it’s great as a co-op game apart from the levelling system. Just like in Castle Crashers there will be situations where the players are all at different levels which can lead to frustration. Get past that and it’s a joy to play. It’s among the most fun four people can have in one room with their clothes on.

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This image sums up the game

WE ARE SEX BOB-OMB!
Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World: The Game is one of the best games made to tie in with a film’s release. It captures the spirit of both the comic and book, takes the references from both and moulds it into a game as fun as other modern brawlers such as Castle Crashers. The lack of online co-op is a major issue for a modern release but the rest of the gameplay, as well as the replay value means this is a great package. Add to that its cheap price (800 points on XBLA and £6.99 on PSN) and it’s a truly great game. Buy it now and start collecting some loose change.

Thoughts On… Men of War

By Michael Charge, 09/10/2010 8:00 am

(Old review – from the original HNTDAAB)

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Publisher: 1C
Developer: Best Way/Digitalmindsoft
Year of Release: 2009
Platforms: PC

Russian games are special. Being from a primarily PC gaming orientated country means devs can make some completely off the wall games or use ideas that western developers would run away screaming from crying for their mothers. We have seen overly ambitions games with real character (S.T.A.L.K.E.R.), traditional games with some truly entertaining plotlines (King’s Bounty) and now we see what would have happened if COH crashed into Sudden Strike at high speed.

Men of War is the latest in a long line of detailed RTS games from the developer Best Way. If you’ve never played Soldiers of World War 2 or Faces of War, the best way to think about MoW is that is a much more detailed version of Company of Heroes, with no base building and most of the “Americanisms” of Relic’s game pulled out. Some of these “Americanisms” include well designed UI and gradual learning curve.

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These points sound incredibly negative and that’s because they are. Parts of the game do feel really rough especially the voice acting and UI. The voice actors are atrocious and they get worse in the German and US campaigns. Most annoying though is the briefing guy, whose monotone strikes fear into the heart of even those who knew the Miller of Benton. The UI is also clunky, with some decisions making absolutely no sense. I mean come on, left click controls? They are terrible. To the casual person who spends 5 minutes with the game, they will think it’s terrible.

But spend more than 5 minutes with Men of War, and you start noticing things. Things like every soldier has an individual name, individual inventory and are actually reasonably intelligent. They will switch to grenades, dive for cover and pick up helmets after they have been pinged off. Tanks will rumble along, switching rounds from AP to HE depending on whether it fighting squishies or other metallic boxes. Similarly, the moment you notice artillery ripping the buildings apart or a tank crushing its way through a small French church will have you giggling like a small child who’s just been told they have the keys to the world’s biggest toy box. And you do, as the unit list looks like the devs were using Jane’s WW2 stuff book as a design doc. additionally all the units look exquisite, with details really standing out in all fields. Tiger tanks look menacing and sound like the rumbling of thunder. They look even better when a British tank has blown the turret off igniting the ammo and setting the trees around it on fire. On the topic of looks, I make mention of the requirements. I’ve tried it on my laptop on it runs it perfectly at high settings. The Russians didn’t fully polish the game off but they optimised the engine so you’d be hard pressed to find a modern pc that couldn’t run this game.

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When it comes to content though, the game does slightly slip up. There are three campaigns (Russian, German and American) alongside a set of bonus missions. The missions are all interesting and will take a long time to finish, but after that there are no skirmish modes. The online is good fun, but at time of writing, the version numbers of Russian, European and America all are different meaning player counts are very limited. Hopefully the first full patch will fix this.

Men of War is a brilliant game, but only if you are willing to learn the games little intricacies and get used to having to replay missions every once in a while. The engine is great, producing a realistic world in both looks and physics but sound and UI slightly let it down.

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