Quake 3

Quake 3, from id software, is a first-person shooter dedicated to multiplayer action. If you are unfamiliar with this concept, try to imagine Unreal Tournament without vehicles with the same story as Battlefield 2142; where the only single player mode available exchanges your friends for AI.

It is difficult to review a multiplayer game made so beautifully simple, from 1999. The only way to review this game would be to use a comparison with recent first-person shooters.

First of all, which happens to be my bug bear for most games: Unlocks. The more you play recent games the more accustomed you become to them. Not only this but learning the maps gives you knowledge as an advantage. Given these natural advantages of experience, making game mechanics which offer more would certainly break the game for people new/ late joining. This mechanic is known as unlocks, and is something used massively in today’s games to keep the players engrossed and obsessed with progression; we’ve all played a game counting down the XP or credits until unlocking a weapon or feature we would love to get our hands on. Quake 3 doesn’t have this, your game progression is skill, based on ability. Quake 3 is extremely fair; making ranters, much like myself, laugh each time they get “owned” rather than swear the complicated server ballistic simulation is as flawed as America’s Army 3’s or that a currently unobtainable weapon is Over Powered.

With playing this game over a decade after its release, mentioning the graphics in a review would be bad taste. However, I was shocked to find that I could still see enemies across the room without them appearing to merge into the surroundings like Ayrton Senna around an apex at Monaco, unlike my recent experience with Goldeneye on the N64. Quake 3 is still fully playable without having to sign a new contract with Vision Express, which is great considering the game will fit onto a standard flash drive and will run on pretty much anything.

No unlocks, no noticeable progress and little amount of mechanics: Why play it?

Personally, I would not play this at home. The closest I have been is Unreal Tournament 2004, in a private server against bots, with friends. However, it has been years since I have had so much fun with a first-person shooter playing this in a LAN game. The bare mechanics, no customization beside general appearance, level playing field and no Odd Job makes this game a very fun, easy to play, party game. The best nights are the unplanned nights and these parties beat Mario World, hands down.

Personal use - 3.1 (dated and lack of features)
LAN games - 7.6 (great fun but would get boring quickly)

Mirror's Edge

Mirror’s Edge is a first-person parkour game developed for release in 2008 by EA Digital Illusions CE. The basis of the game is to free-run along the skyline of an unnamed city, avoiding armed authorities who want you for a reason not explained.

The visuals of this game compliment the gameplay’s flow. Clean, uncluttered colour schemes and colouring objects and routes to highlight the progression route ensures the game stays a running game rather than adding to the pile of frustrating games where you run around in circles pondering where the developers wanted you to go. Though mentioning colour, the main colour is red, which cannot be changed. This may be an issue if you suffer from a colour deficiency; an issue a lot of new games are considering for their HUDs. This game does feature something I like a lot, which draws immersion better than a lot of games and a reason why I really liked The Getaway: No HUD.

If I were to state a fun-factor, I would say the reminiscence of The Matrix that we fell in love with years ago. Jumping across roof-tops, and actually making it, bullet time weapon de-arm moves. Mirror’s edge gives us fans what Enter The Matrix couldn’t. This game will hold you on the edge of your seat but offer you little quiet spaces to overcome the last few moments of action before abseiling you down another skyscraper to embark on the adrenaline rush. The fact that this game is in first-person adds to that factor of speed and how much you are in control. This ‘perceived speed’ being down to the view is often well known by Sim-racers who understand the benefits of the correct Field-of-view. To compare: I felt barely in control during Splinter Cell: Black List as the character halted and span left while my view slowly followed. All these details make this game immersive and Edgy.

I am picky when it comes to continuity and open-word within games and this game will be treated no different. There are moments that I feel are scripted, where you jump further than usual, like the cast of Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon, just so the game continues on. Though this would normally bug me to disbelief, Mirror’s edge seemingly executes this to spice up the repetition and to avoid the old Tomb Raider issues where you swear you pressed jump but instead, she just plummeted to her death. Open world too has gone to the way of the “i”, where it is used so often that we don’t even know what it means anymore. This isn’t the game’s fault as it was never sold as open world, but when a game appears to be free-running and instead orders around in a ‘Crysis 3 corridor irony’, you start to wonder if you actually do play games anymore. Granted, the game would be painfully dull if all the roofs were barren and had no sense of direction and digital Illusions has pulled off a tricky seller very well.

This game delivers a concept very difficult to make, very well; pleasing an audience left abandoned since 2003. The visuals and feedback are done in the best of ways, although we now need Mirror’s Edge 2 with Oculus Rift support.

Very edgy with sky-high quality, shame about the lack of colour deficient support.

8.2

Split/Second Velocity

Throughout the years, there have been many variations of driving games. From Pole position; Indy car racing; rally games like Colin McRae and the likes of Vigilante 8 with its vehicular warfare. In 2010, Blackrock Studios broke from the norm to make a racing game where you truly use the environment to your advantage. This new Intellectual Property would be known as: Split/Second Velocity.

 

How many times, in racing games, have you been so far ahead that it’s bored you? Alternatively, has someone else been just too far away or just too fast to catch? Have you ever wanted the track to just swallow them up? Or would dropping a building on them suffice? In Split/Second, power plays allow this.

Split Second is nearly a racing game with Michael Bay fans in mind.

The story behind the game, Split/Second Velocity, is that you have been chosen to participate as a competitor in a TV show where you, and your opponents, can trigger environment events to gain an advantage. These events vary from buildings toppling over, cranes swooping and bridges/ shortcuts opening up, to aircraft crash landing and underground routes collapsing. These events are triggered by power plays. Power plays are activated while opponents are close to possible events and you hit the power button. However, there is a currency to play these. To play a power play, you first must have filled your power bars to a certain amount. There are 3 bars which, when filled, enables the bigger power plays. One all three are full, you can either play 3 normal power plays; like a bus flipping over, then a building exploding and whichever other event you wish (perhaps opening a shortcut). However, with a full bar you can play the big ones like; route changers which can critically alter the environment to the extent that the racing track has changed, or nasty plays, like a crash landing aircraft. To earn this ‘power’ you can perform many things. These are: time in the air; drafting cars in front; drifting or narrowly avoiding events aiming to take you out.

 

The above describes the game-play pretty well in the Race mode: Complete the number of laps first. However, there are other modes. Elimination has the same quirks as race, but instead of finishing first, you have to make sure you’re not in last position when the timers reach zero – last one standing wins; These two modes were my favourite and are a sure hit for split-screen. Detonator removes your control of events and throws everything at you as you battle for the fastest time around a track, alone. Survival removes all power plays and pits you against rows of trucks around a repetitive circuit where blue barrels slow you down and red barrels kill you off. The aim is to overtake as many lorries as possible before sudden death or running out of lives, gaining points for each and a multiplier for each consecutive. Air Strike and Air Revenge sits you, again, in a standard Split/Second track but against a helicopter. You must avoid the oncoming missiles. The only difference between these two modes is that Air Revenge re-visits the power-play IP and mixes it up with the ability to divert the missiles back to the helicopter.

 

Onto the graphics: They’re beautiful. At times I can feel that the car models are a tiny bit bland and a hint of the yellow tint used by other games to spruce things up a little. Other than these niggles, when you see the environments crumble, you can tell these were small sacrifices made to ensure the game runs smooth on all platforms. The HUD is by far a stroke of ingenuity. Too many fast paced games were plagued by the player having to dart their eyes around the screen at clutter (Track Mania for one). This isn’t the case for S/SV. The HUD is concise, not in the way but tucked in, where you can see it. The only improvement on this would be to attach the HUD to the car, but this could ruin that you display your trophies on your car, proudly, instead of hiding them away. Sound is an important part for immersion and S/SV has an interesting backing track. When you hear a whoosh as you drive past nearby concaved areas and as cars sweep by – you feel the speed. This adds excitement and breaks up areas of bland travel. Other than this, I love the sound of that aircraft swooping down and obliterating every other pest on the track as it breaks apart along the runway.

The multiplayer feature is nicely integrated into the game, to the point that your online rank is your car number. Oddly enough, the same ranking system that killed Metal Gear Online for me, worked really nice in this game. The once horrid system where you would lose your gained rank if you sucked for a few rounds really heats up the competition. Though when I reached the best rank, rank 1, I stopped playing as I didn’t want to lose my awesome tag. The game-play is fast and furious as docile AI is replaced with competent ‘nasties’ who all want your glory.

Arcade racing games have recently bored me with repetitive nonsense but this game found its way into my PS3 many times and it’s so underrated by people until they actually play it. I love it and I would give it an original 9.5.

One of the only flaws I could think of was that on some tracks, learning most of the power play events would suffice in most single player campaign races if you learned to control the exaggerated car characteristics to fly around at a decent pace, especially with how docile the AI could be at times.

Ecco the Dolphin

Ecco the Dolphin is an action-adventure game that first showed up on the Mega drive RADAR in 1992. The developers who made this game so overly hard, Novotrade International, wanted to create a game which would last longer than the hype, or at least more than a weekend.

At first impressions, the game, though now dated, has clear graphics compared to other games at the time with a very nice set of animation sprites – this impressed me very quickly. Sounds are detailed and the music doesn’t repeat itself to death; which is great as this game has a lot of ‘down-time’ where you wonder where the hell you are going.

I found the controls of this game on a very severe spectrum. While still or moving slow, Ecco would spin on a dime: Which would be great if the Mega Drive had something more directionally fluid than a D-pad, like an analogue stick. However, considering the labyrinth to navigate, this would have worked the best. On the other-side, a major mechanic of the game was the ability to sprint, or boost. This enabled Ecco to remove enemies and some obstacles. At the same time, the controls would go numb. I would have liked some input, even minimal, but sadly immersion is lost as I sit there and wait to see if I hit anything dangerous.

Beyond this, I didn’t see much else as the game was designed to be played for more than a weekend, and I only played a few minutes, most of which I struggled to swim against a current and kept drowning.

With the age in consideration, I would give this game an 8.3

 I just wish the controls would find a middle ground and that the game would give more direction in quests as the ‘down-time’ really made the difficult to navigate areas more frustrating without knowing if there would actually be anything beyond the strong current of difficulty: You don’t want to work so hard if you might not get any gratification.

 

Beyond Two Souls

Beyond two souls is a PS3 exclusive interactive movie by Quantic Dreams, staring Ellen Page and Willem Dafoe. Beyond two souls was the second game to be screened at the Tribeca Film Festival.

The non-linear story of Two Souls features a girl called Jodie, who has a psychic connection to an entity has called Aiden. This entity, bound to Jodie, has a mind of its own as it manipulates objects and people. The narrative zooms back and forth through Jodie’s life as she learns how to control Aiden through the care of two doctors, then when she becomes independent and working for the CIA. Details of the game can be different dependant on which options you choose throughout the game and can cause branches to form; as like Heavy rain – another game made by Quantic Dreams.

The gameplay is beyond the norm as the game lets you control both Aiden and Jodie throughout Jodie’s life. The game has no HUD and object interaction is done through manipulation of the analogue sticks instead of a button. The closest thing to a HUD is a tiny white dot highlighting anything you can interact with. I think this is great as it helps immerse you into Jodie’s world without face-clutter acting as a distraction.

Due to the multiple options to change the branches of story line, replay ability will be very high. This is without mentioning how much fun it is to mess with people using the entity; which alone is worthy of a play-through again.

Beyond Two Souls prides itself on its e-motion capture details and the use of famous actors Ellen Page and Willem Defoe. The graphics to show these details are amazing for current gen (soon to be next gen also). Cut scenes are movie master pieces through direction by David Cage and game play is fluently blended in as if you never lost control. I haven’t seen this dynamic since Hideo Kojima’s fourth instalment of the Metal Gear Solid Series in 2008, and Beyond Two Souls advances this exponentially.

As a conclusion, this game is very refreshing. As games become more and more realistic and a bigger medium of entertainment through movie like stories, we need games like this to dig us out of the current rut of: Cut scene, kill, kill, kill, irrelevant cut scene, kill, kill and linear walkways. This game will sure have its critics who would also dislike Metal Gear Solid for its long, yet not elongated, cut scenes but you can only make so many run ‘n’ guns before the modding community starts making their own retexture packs.

 

This game should be on PC too:

9.4

Space Marine

 

Since 1987, Warhammer Forty Thousand models have adjured to fill table tops of battle thanks to Rick Priestly and The Games Workshop. In 2011, this dice fantasy was turned into a controller journey of battles and mass-slaughter, gun ‘n’ run, fun. Developed by Relic Entertainment and published by deceased THQ, this 3^rd person shooter implores you to rampage amongst Orks and other non-human targets – smashing their skulls to replenish health.

 Space Marines is all about the fun factor – so much that you can even forget about the story line. There is very little strategy to the game, other than grabbing a nearby enemy and stomping on them to replenish health. This health replenish system keeps the flow steady and doesn’t require you to hide around a corner for 2 minutes or tip-toe around the map until you find a pick-up – a mechanic which can kill the fun out of most games. At long range you have a barrage of fire-power with very little hiccup. Getting up close and personal is just as fluid as you grab, stab and finish enemies like a Soul Calibur tribute. However, after a while this does all become routine and I feel the game loses its edge … and then the jump jets appear. Only for little moments, but the jumps jets really open up the map, giving the player to the ability to smash players into the floor in a way Crysis 2 wouldn’t.

The graphics are good, not fantastic, but good. I would have liked to see a few less flat textures but the game is desirable considering it runs on the Xbox 360. The only things the game was missing was a few paint runs or over-spray on the characters to give that authentic Warhammer look. The sound, I found, was sufficient, though the characters sounded like heavy cigar smokers – perhaps it’s just a side-effect of gene modification.

The levels of the game did annoy me in the title. I found the maps rich of layers and detail, except all the nice details were on a plain different to our own. While enemies were firing down at us from vistas of surrounding sections, we were stranded on the lower levels as if playing Space Invaders. This was rectified by the jump jets, hence opening the map up, but still the majority of the travel was bland and served no purpose except to deliver the feeling of progression.

All-in-all, a very fun game to escape to and a game which actually tries to just be a game instead of an interactive movie.

 7.1/10

Dragon's Dogma

Dragon's dogma is an action role playing game released in 2012, developed and published by Capcom for the Xbox 360 and PS3. The game is set in a fantasy world of dragons and other mystical beings who either help or hinder you slashing through quests.

 

The visuals are realistic with a hint of magic, as weapons glow and streams of power bounce around the immediate surroundings. The version we had was from the Xbox, showing signs of drained, pastel colours in some day or brightly lit scenarios. The models and physics of such are amazing; especially of the mystical beasts: The first beast being a Lion, Goat and Snake combined comes to mind.

 

Game play is an individual experience as you can create your own class of character with any appearance you desire, much like the pawns. You have: Fighter, Warrior, Mystic Knight, Strider, Ranger, Assassin, Mage, Sorcerer and Magic Archer to choose from, each with their own weapons and powers. Pawns are your helpers within the game from which you modify, much like your own character, from an astounding array of choices: From body type, hair and tattoos to their characteristics on how they react to certain events. These characters you can call for using preset interaction orders: for example, "Come", "Go" and "Help". Combat is fluid as there is no waiting between animations: attack moves are combined with animations flowing in to each other.. Boss battles are revolutionized from the normal 'dodge and attack' cliché as now you can climb or grapple enemies to deliver devastating strategic blows.

 

Replay ability is present due to the random spawning of enemies, couple this with all the different character types you can play as or have helping you: Many reruns are possible, if you can survive past the bore of repetitive cut-scenes.

 

During my first impression I found that the game expected you to know how to play, throwing me in to a battle. However, this was a nice, fresh approach apposed to sitting still for 10 minutes as the game ran through each and every control asking me to repeat. To help was a layout of controls on the HUD, making memorizing them semantic as I kinesthetic-ally learned them. Once the tutorial level was over, and I  finished creating the character I'd play as for the rest of the game, I was bombarded by cut scenes, shortly followed by a short burst of game play and then another few cut scenes; this was the order of the rest of the amount I played until the introduction of pawns and another boss Battle: A giant Cyclops. With the Cyclops a few attacks were made until its back was turned, followed by climbing his back and defeating it with a few hits to its eyes; this concluded the game play time.

 

Personally I am not in to mystical quest games, whether point and click or action but this game seemed well made, compelling and innovative enough for perhaps a few more hours of play. I give this game:

 

7.5/10