Is it possible to have your expectations raised too high? Uncharted 2: Among Thieves delivered a monumental leap over the first game in the series, and it might be easy to fall into the trap of assuming the same advancements would take place in every subsequent release. If that's your state of mind going into Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception, you might walk away slightly disappointed. But that's not a fair response. Though the third entry in this treasure-hunting franchise offers a similar experience to its revered predecessor, it's no less magical. Just about every element showcases the care and craftsmanship you would expect from the series. Combat is even more versatile than in previous entries, combining incredible shooting encounters with advanced hand-to-hand takedowns set in lavishly designed areas. When you need a break from the taxing physical endeavors, thoughtful puzzles allow you to explore your more contemplative side. And these two elements are punctuated by exhilarating set-piece events that leave you gasping. Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception is another superb entry in Nathan Drake's ongoing quest to find the world's many lost treasures.
Once again, Nathan Drake is in search of lost treasure in a mysterious land. The story encompasses many of the same tropes from previous games--deception, twists, camaraderie--though the nuts and bolts of the plot have never been one of Uncharted's strong points. Rather, it's the realistic portrayal of characters--their lively back-and-forth discussions and snide jokes--that give you a reason to care about the tale. Drake, Sully, and the supporting cast sport detailed animation that makes them almost look real, and their playful dialogue further cements this image. Tempers flare, threats are made, and you can feel the tension during heated moments. But these lifelong friends always make up, and it's their believable relationships that make it so easy to become invested in their struggles.
When you picture Uncharted, you may think of plundering ancient tombs or throwing as many grenades as you can manage in bombastic sequences. But the opening of Drake's Deception eschews the larger-than-life action the series is known for in favor of an old-fashioned bar brawl. This is where the new animations that have been incorporated into fisticuffs are apparent as you wrestle with a platoon of aggressive men in a confined place. Shoving a burly dude into the bar while you pummel his face or grabbing a stray bottle to crash over someone's head conjures images of Patrick Swayze handling business in Road House, and the controls are precise enough to make it possible to manage an approaching group without getting your face beaten. Ultimately, these instances where you're forced to take matters into your own hands are the weakest aspect of the game because your freedom is so limited, but that's not to say they're boring. There's a satisfying rhythm to throwing fists while avoiding counters, and you have enough flexibility to move around that you don't feel like you're just performing mindless quick-time events.
As much fun as it may be to bash in a man's head with a wooden chair, it can't match the thrill of beating a man with your fists when he's sporting an assault rifle. There are segments where you have to fistfight in Drake's Deception, but there are other times when you're in a battle for your life and you can use any weapon you want to stay alive. Thanks to the incredibly impactful animations of a hand-to-hand assault, it's fun to put aside the bullets and explosives to focus on getting your hands dirty instead. Being sneaky certainly helps. Snapping a man's neck before he can turn around or just shoving someone clear off a building is immensely rewarding. But there are other times when stealth doesn't work, and you find yourself grappling, feinting, and punching below the belt, while bullets fly and enemies scream death threats at you. Particular animations make these encounters a special treat. You may grasp the barrel of your gun and swing at someone's head with a metal uppercut or elbow a foe in the neck like a wrestler suffering from roid rage, and it's hard to contain your joyous laugh. There are times when you run out of bullets and fighting with your fists is the only way to go. Once you finish off your foe, a slow motion moment in which Drake snatches your enemy's discarded gun in midair adds a fitting end to the fight.
Of course, you don't have to go toe-to-toe if you'd rather not. The beauty of Uncharted's combat is that you can dispatch foes in a variety of ways, and all of them feel incredibly empowering. The key is the expertly designed levels. Drake's Deception is a cover-based, third-person shooter; thus, chest-high walls populate many of your encounters. But those familiar structures aren't used as a crutch here. Verticality gives you the option to climb around like a gun-toting monkey if you prefer, getting the drop on lackadaisical foes. If a man with a rocket launcher is forcing you to hunker behind a piece of debris, fear not; you can smoothly leap from cover, shimmy up a nearby wall, and sprint pell-mell across a rooftop. Grab a sniper rifle on the way if you want to handle him from afar or a shotgun if you'd like to pop him right in the head. Toss grenades at the group of enemies hiding by that well, man the turret once you finish off its previous operator, or sprint past everyone until you make it to the door that marks your safety. Versatile level design lets you choose how to go about killing your pesky foes in Drake's Deception, and rock-solid controls ensure every action you want to perform can be pulled off without any hesitation.
If you're feeling sluggish and just want to use your gun for a while, doing so is a perfectly valid alternative to the high-flying adventuring. The mechanics in Drake's Deception have been refined even further from the previous game. No matter which gun you grab, you can target weak points with ease, and enemies recoil when you prick their flesh with searing-hot bullets. Drake's Deception offers so many different ways to take down foes that you might think it falls into the camp of jack-of-all-trades, master of none. But that's not true at all. If you take things slowly--crouch behind cover only risking your neck when the opportunity presents itself--you have just as much of a chance to succeed as someone who makes use of Drake's agility. And you can have just as much fun, too. The weapons are a blast to use. Landing a headshot from across the map with a sniper rifle is eminently satisfying, as is taking out a gunner with a sure blast from a shotgun. You can easily keep an enemy off balance with a fast-shooting assault rifle or knock a grenade right out of someone's hand with a steady pistol. Ample ammunition lets you focus on the fun of firing rather than scrounging for extra bullets, so you can stick with your favorite weapon if you want or mix things up after every fight.
Read More:
http://asia.gamespot.com/uncharted-3-drakes-deception/reviews/uncharted-3-drakes-deception-review-6341906?tag=summary%3Bread-review&page=2
Tampilkan postingan dengan label ps3. Tampilkan semua postingan
Tampilkan postingan dengan label ps3. Tampilkan semua postingan
Jumat, 18 November 2011
Rabu, 16 November 2011
The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim Review
The Elder Scrolls. The series that let players get completely lost in a fantasy world of elves, magical spells, mythical creatures, swords and shields, epic storylines, and large masses of explorable land continues with Skyrim. Did the extreme amounts of hype and speculation live up to what the game offers?
Yes.
Taking place about 200 years after the events of Oblivion, players are now thrust into the lands of Skyrim. On the verge of meeting their doom, players soon find out that Dragons are no longer just beasts of myth, and the player isn't just another ordinary citizen of Skyrim. You play as the last of the Dragonborn, a chosen individual who understands and comprehends the language of Dragons and is able to adopt it as his own to use it against the onslaught of Dragons plaguing the lands of Skyrim.
If you've read any of our Previews, you already know of the vast improvements that Bethesda has made to ensure Skyrim is nothing short of a breathtaking experience. Everything from combat, leveling, and the graphics went through some drastic changes, and trust me when I say it's all for the better.
The classic races that Elder Scrolls fans are familiar with are back and looking even better than ever. Oblivion wowed us back in 2006 with some really impressive visuals. Seeing the forests come to life before our very eyes was truly a sight to behold. Even though the faces, by today's standards, are fairly horrendous looking, at the time we were all mesmerized that an open-world fantasy game could look that good! Bethesda really outdid themselves this time.
One glance from a high mountaintop overlooking Skyrim, and you'll be speechless at not only the vastness of the explorable land, but the beauty that it encapsulates. Skyrim isn't as lush and green as Oblivion was before it. It feels more dark and gritty, with snow covered mountaintops, deteriorating shanty towns, outposts built up from wood, and cities literally constructed out of stone bricks. Every location has its own distinct look, to the point that they become easily recognizable by looks alone.
Locations themselves are going to be every player's major time suck. Not because you'll necessarily be looking for these locations, (though chances are some definitely will) it's the fact that in between questing to a new area that you haven't yet discovered, various dungeons, caves, outposts, towers, statues, and villages will pop up on your compass HUD, and like a magnet, you'll feel drawn to discover them, if only to just unlock their location on your map to come back to later. It won't be long until you realize that you're not only way out a completely different direction that you're supposed to be, you've uncovered 20 different locations in the process, many that enticed you to explore even further. You then look at the time and notice that something that was supposed to take you only ten minutes in travel time, has now turned into four hours.
Skyrim is a living, breathing world with citizens who actually live out their lives on a day to day basis. This was already introduced in Oblivion, but looking at the system now, you can notice that it had its flaws. Though not perfect, every person's actions are far more believable in Skyrim. Workers attend their daily routines chopping wood, tending their shops, hunting wild animals, etc. People converse in the streets, react to your presence, and to what you're currently wearing, including your race. Just something as simple as playing through the game as an Argonian instead of a Nord, for example, will yield you varying results with citizen reaction, as there are some who are more prejudice to certain races. This alone encourages multiple playthroughs with various races just because of the different interactions.
The biggest change to character development might just be what makes Skyrim the most accessible in the Elder Scrolls series to date. Gone are the major and minor skills that produced character growth which relied on use of that particular skill. Now, everything is a major skill. From Heavy Armor, Two Handed Weapons, Destruction Magic, Sneaking, Speechcraft, and more, raising skills in any of these will now grant you a point towards leveling up. To those not familiar with the process, XP points are not part of the equation here. Instead, each skill can be leveled up to 100 points and each 1 point you gain in a skill, that one point goes toward your level. Getting ten points will net you a level that lets you upgrade either Health, Magicka (Mana) or Stamina, and then assign a perk point in one of the many branching skill trees.
The beauty of this free-form character development is that it truly lets you be whatever it is that you choose. You can be a warrior that concentrates on Heavy Armor and wielding a two handed sword, or you can go a more hybrid route and be a warrior/mage that holds a sword in one hand, and wields a destructive fireball spell in the other. The freedom is there, it's just up to you how you want to use it.
And then there are Dragons. These huge beasts of myth have been unleashed and it's up to you to ensure these overgrown, flying lizards become extinct. These unscripted beasts fly around Skyrim, or protect various locations, and each fight with one is a fight to the death, as they fly around you, swoop down hurl flames and try to eat you in one swift chomp. Each fight can be completely different from each other, and they all make your heart race, even as soon as you hear the loud Dragon shriek way before you even catch a glimpse of one. The best thing is, Dragons are friends to nobody. If you manage to draw them out to where other monsters reside, such as the uber powerful Giants, they'll gladly help out in taking them down (just don't stick around afterwards, since you'll be their next target).
As a Dragonborn, you not only understand the language that Dragons speak, you're also able to learn it and absorb a deceased Dragon's soul. Scattered across the lands of Skyrim are various Dragon Burial Sites, which not only are always guarded by one of these beasties, but they also contain a Dragon word that you're able to learn and wield. These shouts will either propel you a far distance, shoot a freeze breath, disarm opponents, highlight living creatures with an aura, and other useful abilities. To claim these words as your own, you must use a slain Dragon's soul to unlock and wield it. Shouts don't work off of Magicka however, they rely simply on cooldowns. Each shout can also be powered up multiple times once the corresponding Dragon words are found. This combination of weaponry, magic and shouts truly bring out a fun combat system.
Combat and questing aren't the only things that will consume your time in Skyrim. You're able to purchase property, court maidens or men, and eventually get married, take up a profession such as cooking, alchemy, or smithing, and brew up your own healing potions and construct protective pieces of armor and powerful weapons. Does this sound like too much work? Take up thievery and steal or pickpocket your way to wealth, assuming you don't get caught by the authorities. Join the Thieves guild and become a master thief, or perhaps the Dark Brotherhood's murderous intentions are far mor appealing to you--all of this is available to anyone. Skyrim's Radiant Story system will ensure that you constantly have something to do, way beyond finishing the main quest, and even beyond finishing side quests. Simply saying that there is so much to do cannot fully express just how massive this game is.
Though Skyrim is one fabulous package that by some crazy miracle fits on one single disc, it still retains some "open world bugs" that the Elder Scrolls games are known for. Pieces of the environment getting stuck or attached to passing-by NPC's, the occasional NPC getting stuck in a standing walking cycle, or even a dragon completely frozen in mid air. Sure they look odd and out of place, but they haven't once broken my game. Surprisingly enough, throughout my extremely long gameplay sessions, not once have I experienced the game freezing on me. For what the game offers, I was surprised that I only experienced the little amount of bugs that I did. It seems as though Bethesda is definitely learning to iron these things out.
The fact of the matter is, Skyrim is amazing. As an open world where you can truly live out your fantasy life and as a technological marvel, it impresses on almost every level. The few graphical bugs you might encounter shouldn't deter you from what is this years most anticipated game. Bottom line is...you need it. Period.
Read More:
http://www.gamezone.com/reviews/the-elder-scrolls-v-skyrim-review
Yes.
Taking place about 200 years after the events of Oblivion, players are now thrust into the lands of Skyrim. On the verge of meeting their doom, players soon find out that Dragons are no longer just beasts of myth, and the player isn't just another ordinary citizen of Skyrim. You play as the last of the Dragonborn, a chosen individual who understands and comprehends the language of Dragons and is able to adopt it as his own to use it against the onslaught of Dragons plaguing the lands of Skyrim.
If you've read any of our Previews, you already know of the vast improvements that Bethesda has made to ensure Skyrim is nothing short of a breathtaking experience. Everything from combat, leveling, and the graphics went through some drastic changes, and trust me when I say it's all for the better.
The classic races that Elder Scrolls fans are familiar with are back and looking even better than ever. Oblivion wowed us back in 2006 with some really impressive visuals. Seeing the forests come to life before our very eyes was truly a sight to behold. Even though the faces, by today's standards, are fairly horrendous looking, at the time we were all mesmerized that an open-world fantasy game could look that good! Bethesda really outdid themselves this time.
One glance from a high mountaintop overlooking Skyrim, and you'll be speechless at not only the vastness of the explorable land, but the beauty that it encapsulates. Skyrim isn't as lush and green as Oblivion was before it. It feels more dark and gritty, with snow covered mountaintops, deteriorating shanty towns, outposts built up from wood, and cities literally constructed out of stone bricks. Every location has its own distinct look, to the point that they become easily recognizable by looks alone.
Locations themselves are going to be every player's major time suck. Not because you'll necessarily be looking for these locations, (though chances are some definitely will) it's the fact that in between questing to a new area that you haven't yet discovered, various dungeons, caves, outposts, towers, statues, and villages will pop up on your compass HUD, and like a magnet, you'll feel drawn to discover them, if only to just unlock their location on your map to come back to later. It won't be long until you realize that you're not only way out a completely different direction that you're supposed to be, you've uncovered 20 different locations in the process, many that enticed you to explore even further. You then look at the time and notice that something that was supposed to take you only ten minutes in travel time, has now turned into four hours.
Skyrim is a living, breathing world with citizens who actually live out their lives on a day to day basis. This was already introduced in Oblivion, but looking at the system now, you can notice that it had its flaws. Though not perfect, every person's actions are far more believable in Skyrim. Workers attend their daily routines chopping wood, tending their shops, hunting wild animals, etc. People converse in the streets, react to your presence, and to what you're currently wearing, including your race. Just something as simple as playing through the game as an Argonian instead of a Nord, for example, will yield you varying results with citizen reaction, as there are some who are more prejudice to certain races. This alone encourages multiple playthroughs with various races just because of the different interactions.
The biggest change to character development might just be what makes Skyrim the most accessible in the Elder Scrolls series to date. Gone are the major and minor skills that produced character growth which relied on use of that particular skill. Now, everything is a major skill. From Heavy Armor, Two Handed Weapons, Destruction Magic, Sneaking, Speechcraft, and more, raising skills in any of these will now grant you a point towards leveling up. To those not familiar with the process, XP points are not part of the equation here. Instead, each skill can be leveled up to 100 points and each 1 point you gain in a skill, that one point goes toward your level. Getting ten points will net you a level that lets you upgrade either Health, Magicka (Mana) or Stamina, and then assign a perk point in one of the many branching skill trees.
The beauty of this free-form character development is that it truly lets you be whatever it is that you choose. You can be a warrior that concentrates on Heavy Armor and wielding a two handed sword, or you can go a more hybrid route and be a warrior/mage that holds a sword in one hand, and wields a destructive fireball spell in the other. The freedom is there, it's just up to you how you want to use it.
And then there are Dragons. These huge beasts of myth have been unleashed and it's up to you to ensure these overgrown, flying lizards become extinct. These unscripted beasts fly around Skyrim, or protect various locations, and each fight with one is a fight to the death, as they fly around you, swoop down hurl flames and try to eat you in one swift chomp. Each fight can be completely different from each other, and they all make your heart race, even as soon as you hear the loud Dragon shriek way before you even catch a glimpse of one. The best thing is, Dragons are friends to nobody. If you manage to draw them out to where other monsters reside, such as the uber powerful Giants, they'll gladly help out in taking them down (just don't stick around afterwards, since you'll be their next target).
As a Dragonborn, you not only understand the language that Dragons speak, you're also able to learn it and absorb a deceased Dragon's soul. Scattered across the lands of Skyrim are various Dragon Burial Sites, which not only are always guarded by one of these beasties, but they also contain a Dragon word that you're able to learn and wield. These shouts will either propel you a far distance, shoot a freeze breath, disarm opponents, highlight living creatures with an aura, and other useful abilities. To claim these words as your own, you must use a slain Dragon's soul to unlock and wield it. Shouts don't work off of Magicka however, they rely simply on cooldowns. Each shout can also be powered up multiple times once the corresponding Dragon words are found. This combination of weaponry, magic and shouts truly bring out a fun combat system.
Combat and questing aren't the only things that will consume your time in Skyrim. You're able to purchase property, court maidens or men, and eventually get married, take up a profession such as cooking, alchemy, or smithing, and brew up your own healing potions and construct protective pieces of armor and powerful weapons. Does this sound like too much work? Take up thievery and steal or pickpocket your way to wealth, assuming you don't get caught by the authorities. Join the Thieves guild and become a master thief, or perhaps the Dark Brotherhood's murderous intentions are far mor appealing to you--all of this is available to anyone. Skyrim's Radiant Story system will ensure that you constantly have something to do, way beyond finishing the main quest, and even beyond finishing side quests. Simply saying that there is so much to do cannot fully express just how massive this game is.
Though Skyrim is one fabulous package that by some crazy miracle fits on one single disc, it still retains some "open world bugs" that the Elder Scrolls games are known for. Pieces of the environment getting stuck or attached to passing-by NPC's, the occasional NPC getting stuck in a standing walking cycle, or even a dragon completely frozen in mid air. Sure they look odd and out of place, but they haven't once broken my game. Surprisingly enough, throughout my extremely long gameplay sessions, not once have I experienced the game freezing on me. For what the game offers, I was surprised that I only experienced the little amount of bugs that I did. It seems as though Bethesda is definitely learning to iron these things out.
The fact of the matter is, Skyrim is amazing. As an open world where you can truly live out your fantasy life and as a technological marvel, it impresses on almost every level. The few graphical bugs you might encounter shouldn't deter you from what is this years most anticipated game. Bottom line is...you need it. Period.
Read More:
http://www.gamezone.com/reviews/the-elder-scrolls-v-skyrim-review
Jumat, 11 November 2011
The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword review
These days, it's generally inadvisable to purchase a game sight unseen without checking reviews first, but if there's any series that merits complete trust based on its track record, it's Zelda. So it's no surprise that The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword is a must-play not only for all Zelda fans, but all Wii owners in general. In nearly every way, it upholds the high standard of the series and is a worthy entry to mark Zelda's 25th anniversary.
For many people, that's all that needs to be said – the rest is like a giant present that takes upwards of 50 hours to unwrap, and discussing what's under each new layer only spoils the fun. With that said, we'll keep this review spoiler-free and hit the main points of interest without ruining too much of the magic of discovery.
Shaking things up
Skyward Sword subverts the typical Zelda paradigm in ways that aren't immediately obvious just by looking at screens and gameplay snippets. The world itself is structured unlike any other Zelda world – it's definitely not Hyrule as usual. It's divided into two sections: Skyloft and the "surface" world below it. The bulk of the story takes place on the surface, and Skyloft acts more as a homebase where you go to recuperate and explore more leisurely.
The biggest departure from the typical Zelda formula is the lack of the usual separation between overworld and dungeons. Instead, the entire surface world is like a giant series of smaller outdoor dungeons. Navigating through each new area to find the temple takes just as long – if not longer – than completing the temple itself, and the road is paved with a similar type of exploration and puzzles you'd expect from a temple, if slightly more spread out.
On one hand, this means there's much more of the type of classic Zelda environmental puzzles that we love, which is obviously a good thing. The increase in quantity doesn't mean a decrease in quality either – there's never a lull or a dip in the meticulous environmental design throughout the entire game. Plus, it's always clear where you're supposed to go at any given point – we never found ourselves aimlessly wandering in search of what to do.
The tradeoff is that, while there's still plenty of exploration, there's no breathing room on the surface world like you'd find in an expansive area like Hyrule Field in Ocarina of Time or Twilight Princess. The lack of space on the surface though is mitigated by the openness of the sky world, and flying around exploring its various floating islands feels reminiscent of the sailing in Wind Waker, albeit on a smaller scale.
Temples still follow the classic formula, where you explore around to find treasure chests with small keys to open locked doors, which lead to the map, the temple's item (the slingshot, the flying beetle, the whip and so on), and finally the big key that leads to the temple's boss battle. Each temple is smaller and more manageable compared to some of the gargantuan dungeons of Zeldas past, so the dreaded "temple fatigue" never has a chance to set in. Despite this, they still feel like full dungeons, and the bosses all live up to what we expect from proper Zelda bosses – each requires inventive use of your newfound items combined with expert swordsmanship.
In breaking the game up into smaller chunks, it feels more accessible (especially for newcomers to the series, which Nintendo undoubtedly had in mind), but at the same time still maintains everything about classic Zelda that fans are looking for. Adding to the accessibility, each save point (which are plentiful, by the way) also doubles as a teleport spot, and from Skyloft you can conveniently teleport to any point on the surface by choosing your desired destination on the world map.
Together, the structure of the world and the flow of the gameplay feel like a pretty big shake up for the series, but it's one that definitely works. And speaking of shaking things…
The pros and cons of Wii MotionPlus
True to the title, the star of the Wii MotionPlus controls in Skyward Sword is definitely the swordplay. Link's sword moves accurately based on how you move the Wii Remote – swing it diagonally up and to the right and Link swings along with you. We found that even when we used fairly limited movements, the sword always did exactly as we wanted. Using the sword, especially against enemies designed to block you at certain angles, is satisfying in a very tactile way.
Even the flight controls, which we were initially skeptical about, work well despite not being as literal as the sword controls. The beetle item in particular proved to be the most reached-for item in our adventure bag, and we used its behind-the-beetle aerial point of view to fly over inaccessible terrain and scope out the situation ahead many times, often using it even when it wasn't required to solve a puzzle.
Motion control still isn't without its setbacks though. Every time you obtain a new item that uses motion controls, your companion Fi pops up to remind you of how to recalibrate the controls should they slip out of alignment. Recalibrating only takes a second though – just pull up a menu, point the remote at the center of the screen and hit the down on the d-pad to re-center the cursor.
Not too big of a deal in and of itself, but it happens a lot. At times we found ourselves needing to re-align the cursor what felt like every few minutes. No matter how much some might poo-poo traditional controls in favor of motion controls, we never remember having to troubleshoot our GameCube controllers like that – just saying. Though we still prefer traditional button inputs, we have to admit that the Wii MotionPlus really does work well here overall, and while the detractions are there, they're relatively small.
from :
http://www.gamesradar.com/legend-zelda-skyward-sword-review/
For many people, that's all that needs to be said – the rest is like a giant present that takes upwards of 50 hours to unwrap, and discussing what's under each new layer only spoils the fun. With that said, we'll keep this review spoiler-free and hit the main points of interest without ruining too much of the magic of discovery.
Shaking things up
Skyward Sword subverts the typical Zelda paradigm in ways that aren't immediately obvious just by looking at screens and gameplay snippets. The world itself is structured unlike any other Zelda world – it's definitely not Hyrule as usual. It's divided into two sections: Skyloft and the "surface" world below it. The bulk of the story takes place on the surface, and Skyloft acts more as a homebase where you go to recuperate and explore more leisurely.
The biggest departure from the typical Zelda formula is the lack of the usual separation between overworld and dungeons. Instead, the entire surface world is like a giant series of smaller outdoor dungeons. Navigating through each new area to find the temple takes just as long – if not longer – than completing the temple itself, and the road is paved with a similar type of exploration and puzzles you'd expect from a temple, if slightly more spread out.
On one hand, this means there's much more of the type of classic Zelda environmental puzzles that we love, which is obviously a good thing. The increase in quantity doesn't mean a decrease in quality either – there's never a lull or a dip in the meticulous environmental design throughout the entire game. Plus, it's always clear where you're supposed to go at any given point – we never found ourselves aimlessly wandering in search of what to do.
The tradeoff is that, while there's still plenty of exploration, there's no breathing room on the surface world like you'd find in an expansive area like Hyrule Field in Ocarina of Time or Twilight Princess. The lack of space on the surface though is mitigated by the openness of the sky world, and flying around exploring its various floating islands feels reminiscent of the sailing in Wind Waker, albeit on a smaller scale.
Temples still follow the classic formula, where you explore around to find treasure chests with small keys to open locked doors, which lead to the map, the temple's item (the slingshot, the flying beetle, the whip and so on), and finally the big key that leads to the temple's boss battle. Each temple is smaller and more manageable compared to some of the gargantuan dungeons of Zeldas past, so the dreaded "temple fatigue" never has a chance to set in. Despite this, they still feel like full dungeons, and the bosses all live up to what we expect from proper Zelda bosses – each requires inventive use of your newfound items combined with expert swordsmanship.
In breaking the game up into smaller chunks, it feels more accessible (especially for newcomers to the series, which Nintendo undoubtedly had in mind), but at the same time still maintains everything about classic Zelda that fans are looking for. Adding to the accessibility, each save point (which are plentiful, by the way) also doubles as a teleport spot, and from Skyloft you can conveniently teleport to any point on the surface by choosing your desired destination on the world map.
Together, the structure of the world and the flow of the gameplay feel like a pretty big shake up for the series, but it's one that definitely works. And speaking of shaking things…
The pros and cons of Wii MotionPlus
True to the title, the star of the Wii MotionPlus controls in Skyward Sword is definitely the swordplay. Link's sword moves accurately based on how you move the Wii Remote – swing it diagonally up and to the right and Link swings along with you. We found that even when we used fairly limited movements, the sword always did exactly as we wanted. Using the sword, especially against enemies designed to block you at certain angles, is satisfying in a very tactile way.
Even the flight controls, which we were initially skeptical about, work well despite not being as literal as the sword controls. The beetle item in particular proved to be the most reached-for item in our adventure bag, and we used its behind-the-beetle aerial point of view to fly over inaccessible terrain and scope out the situation ahead many times, often using it even when it wasn't required to solve a puzzle.
Motion control still isn't without its setbacks though. Every time you obtain a new item that uses motion controls, your companion Fi pops up to remind you of how to recalibrate the controls should they slip out of alignment. Recalibrating only takes a second though – just pull up a menu, point the remote at the center of the screen and hit the down on the d-pad to re-center the cursor.
Not too big of a deal in and of itself, but it happens a lot. At times we found ourselves needing to re-align the cursor what felt like every few minutes. No matter how much some might poo-poo traditional controls in favor of motion controls, we never remember having to troubleshoot our GameCube controllers like that – just saying. Though we still prefer traditional button inputs, we have to admit that the Wii MotionPlus really does work well here overall, and while the detractions are there, they're relatively small.
from :
http://www.gamesradar.com/legend-zelda-skyward-sword-review/
Download of the Week: Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light on iOS
Game: Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light | Platform: iOS | Publisher: Square-Enix | Developer: Crystal Dynamics | Price: £0.69
All our downloads are piped in with the lightning-quick Virgin Media 50Mb Broadband...
Lara Croft's 'twin-stick shooter' action adventure is an absolute blast on iOS however you look at it. But with an unbelieveable price of just £0.69p until Monday 14th November, it is frankly unmissable. Buy, buy, buy!
Premier Manager 2012 | PSN | Urbanscan | £9.99
This classic footie management series' latest game has got a special launch week price of £4 off, so grab it while it's hot. With RPG-style manager leveling and an enhanced matchday experience, it's well worth a look for your console-based management fix.
Codemasters Racing Bundle | Steam | Codemasters | £20.39
How about 66% off DiRT 3 and F1 2011 on PC? Justin gave both of these games 9/10 at review, so to get the pair of them for the cost of less than one is an amazing offer. It's the 'weekend deal' on Steam, so get 'em quick before they go back up.
from:
http://www.gamesradar.com/download-week-lara-croft-and-guardian-light-ios/
All our downloads are piped in with the lightning-quick Virgin Media 50Mb Broadband...
Lara Croft's 'twin-stick shooter' action adventure is an absolute blast on iOS however you look at it. But with an unbelieveable price of just £0.69p until Monday 14th November, it is frankly unmissable. Buy, buy, buy!
Premier Manager 2012 | PSN | Urbanscan | £9.99
This classic footie management series' latest game has got a special launch week price of £4 off, so grab it while it's hot. With RPG-style manager leveling and an enhanced matchday experience, it's well worth a look for your console-based management fix.
Codemasters Racing Bundle | Steam | Codemasters | £20.39
How about 66% off DiRT 3 and F1 2011 on PC? Justin gave both of these games 9/10 at review, so to get the pair of them for the cost of less than one is an amazing offer. It's the 'weekend deal' on Steam, so get 'em quick before they go back up.
from:
http://www.gamesradar.com/download-week-lara-croft-and-guardian-light-ios/
Minggu, 23 Oktober 2011
Battlefield 3 Screenshot Compares Xbox 360 HD and Non-HD Texture Packs Graphics to PC
Earlier this week DICE stated that Battlefield 3 played on Xbox 360 without the installed texture pack looks like "standard definition."
“The thing with the 360 is that you need to be able to give consumers a game where you don’t have to install it on a hard drive, because there are 360s without a hard drive,” said Battlefield series producer Patrick Bach
“So we need to give you the option of installing it, rather than just demanding it. You could call it a ‘standard-def’ version for the 360 if you don’t have a hard-drive.”
Today, thanks to reddit users "xxgrplayer", we have evidence of just how "standard" Battlefield 3 will look without the HD pack installed on the Xbox 360. Below we have three screenshots comparing the same scene taken with three different setups running Battlefield 3 -- the PC version, an Xbox 360 with the HD pack installed, and an Xbox 360 without the HD pack installed. Keep in mind, these are compressed as JPG and several factors weren't mentioned like frame rate and resolution. Still, I think these give a pretty decent depiction of how the game will look comparatively.
PC is obviously the winner in a graphics comparison, but we all knew that already. What we didn't know was just how well the Xbox 360 version of Battlefield 3 with the HD texture pack installed looks in comparison. PC clearly has the lighting edge over the Xbox 360 (no matter the HD texture), but nonetheless, for a machine pushing five years old, DICE has optimized it quite well.
The face alone isn't the best place to look for differences, but when you look at the knuckles and the gun you can see the big differences. First off, the knuckles on the PC version are much smoother. The gun is more clearly defined on PC, though that could be due to lighting as well.
As for the Xbox 360 HD pack vs Xbox 360 non-HD pack, well, you can definitely see the differences. Look at the guys fingers and it's a dead giveaway. It's actually pretty bad looking at it with the HD pack not installed. Right away you can see the railing missing and the difference in the shirt the terrorist looking over his shoulder is wearing in the non-HD version. The gun and hands are so blocky and lacking texture that it draws comparisons to Half-Life 2. Aside from his face, everything else looks pretty bad.
Although several factors could be contributing to the poor quality of the non-HD textured version of Battlefield 3, I assume this is a pretty accurate depiction of what it will look like. Comparatively, the PC version is better than the Xbox 360 HD-pack version, but not enough to make the game un-enjoyable. Actually, with the HD texture pack installed, the Xbox 360 stands up quite well to the the PC version. The non-HD version on the other hand, well, let's just hope everyone can install it.
from :
http://www.gamezone.com/news/battlefield-3-screenshot-compares-xbox-360-hd-and-non-hd-texture-packs-graphics-to-pc
“The thing with the 360 is that you need to be able to give consumers a game where you don’t have to install it on a hard drive, because there are 360s without a hard drive,” said Battlefield series producer Patrick Bach
“So we need to give you the option of installing it, rather than just demanding it. You could call it a ‘standard-def’ version for the 360 if you don’t have a hard-drive.”
Today, thanks to reddit users "xxgrplayer", we have evidence of just how "standard" Battlefield 3 will look without the HD pack installed on the Xbox 360. Below we have three screenshots comparing the same scene taken with three different setups running Battlefield 3 -- the PC version, an Xbox 360 with the HD pack installed, and an Xbox 360 without the HD pack installed. Keep in mind, these are compressed as JPG and several factors weren't mentioned like frame rate and resolution. Still, I think these give a pretty decent depiction of how the game will look comparatively.
PC is obviously the winner in a graphics comparison, but we all knew that already. What we didn't know was just how well the Xbox 360 version of Battlefield 3 with the HD texture pack installed looks in comparison. PC clearly has the lighting edge over the Xbox 360 (no matter the HD texture), but nonetheless, for a machine pushing five years old, DICE has optimized it quite well.
The face alone isn't the best place to look for differences, but when you look at the knuckles and the gun you can see the big differences. First off, the knuckles on the PC version are much smoother. The gun is more clearly defined on PC, though that could be due to lighting as well.
As for the Xbox 360 HD pack vs Xbox 360 non-HD pack, well, you can definitely see the differences. Look at the guys fingers and it's a dead giveaway. It's actually pretty bad looking at it with the HD pack not installed. Right away you can see the railing missing and the difference in the shirt the terrorist looking over his shoulder is wearing in the non-HD version. The gun and hands are so blocky and lacking texture that it draws comparisons to Half-Life 2. Aside from his face, everything else looks pretty bad.
Although several factors could be contributing to the poor quality of the non-HD textured version of Battlefield 3, I assume this is a pretty accurate depiction of what it will look like. Comparatively, the PC version is better than the Xbox 360 HD-pack version, but not enough to make the game un-enjoyable. Actually, with the HD texture pack installed, the Xbox 360 stands up quite well to the the PC version. The non-HD version on the other hand, well, let's just hope everyone can install it.
from :
http://www.gamezone.com/news/battlefield-3-screenshot-compares-xbox-360-hd-and-non-hd-texture-packs-graphics-to-pc
Beat Hazard Ultra – PS3 Review
Old school shooters are not being made as frequently as they used to be, so it’s refreshing to play one. In Beat Hazard Ultra, you’re a space ship in the centre of the screen and it’s your job to shoot down all the different enemies. The twist to this game is that the music is intense, hard-pounding techno, and the beats of the tunes can be seen in the beams of your lasers and the enemies. There is also a multiplayer option so you can play co-op with a friend next to you or online. BHU is a fast, action-packed, beautifully made game. Cold Beam Games have done a great job here.
The controls are pretty simple as the left analogue stick is for movement whilst the right stick moves the nose of the ship and is also the shooting control (just tilt the stick forward to shoot). Your arsenal of weapon have been mapped to the shoulder buttons, L2 enables your reflect shield, L1 fires the mini-missiles and R1 is for your devastating Ultra beam. There is also the addition of a super explosion (R2) that gradually radiates out from you in a 360o circle. The movements feel very smooth and the ship slides around in space with a good weight to it, you feel that its solid but at the same time one hit will lose a life. So be careful with your movements.
The gameplay in BHU is fantastic, there will be hundreds of enemies coming at you and the screen gets very busy, but it’s the pyrotechnics the game offers that are truly mind-blurring. BHUlooks like it’s on an acid trip, the colours are vivid and bright, and almost everything on screen pulsates to the intese beat of the music. Truly, this is a fun game, sometimes you lose sight of your ship as there is so much mayhem on screen, but it’s so god damn cool.
The game feature waves of enemies coming at you in patterns, with a boss fight at the end of each section. When you finish, you are awarded points which you can spend in the perks management section. The perks are pretty cool and include more weapons to pimp out your ship with. The game’s single player options offers the Standard mode (as explained above), Survival mode, Boss Rush and Chill Out Modes. The Survival mode is exactly what it says; survive wave after wave of attacks. Boss Rush allows you to fight against all the bosses and try to win, although you’ll struggle, as it’s very very hard. In contrast, Chill Out mode is when you have unlimited lives and can sample all the weapons and just shoot the crap out of everything, which is great fun and highly satisfying.
The graphics in BHU are truly amazing, the detail of the ships is good but the attack patterns they take are always varied and the boss battles are very hard to finish. The weapons look stunnig as they shoot forth from your ship and the dazzling light, stars and various other flashing effects are done with a lot of care. Its pretty clear that Cold Beam games went to a lot of trouble mapping these effects and getting the timing just right with the music.
While the set music is just amazing - all techno and very upbeat - one of the best things about BHU is that you can use your own tunes and the game work just as well with them. The various weapons sound right when fired and the alarms and hazard sounds are also done well. This game also offers a great online mode where you can challenge gamers and also take part in co-op play. There are leaderboards as well. The game also offers a rank-up system based on how many points you get, so you can work your way up from trainee recruit to Elite. Be warned, though, you need a crap load of points and time to get to Elite.
Overall, Beat Hazard Ultra is a fun, intense, fast and very beautiful game. It offers a lot in terms of entertaining old school arcade shooting, with amodern musical twist. There is no story but BHU will still hook you. Trust me, you will hurt your wrists, but it will be worth it as the thrill of beating the bosses is motivation enough to keep playing. Add to this the co-op and online modes and you have a game with a pretty decent life span and one that you will keep playing. Old school shooters are back, baby.
from :
http://www.brashgames.co.uk/2011/10/22/beat-hazard-ultra-ps3-review/
The controls are pretty simple as the left analogue stick is for movement whilst the right stick moves the nose of the ship and is also the shooting control (just tilt the stick forward to shoot). Your arsenal of weapon have been mapped to the shoulder buttons, L2 enables your reflect shield, L1 fires the mini-missiles and R1 is for your devastating Ultra beam. There is also the addition of a super explosion (R2) that gradually radiates out from you in a 360o circle. The movements feel very smooth and the ship slides around in space with a good weight to it, you feel that its solid but at the same time one hit will lose a life. So be careful with your movements.
The gameplay in BHU is fantastic, there will be hundreds of enemies coming at you and the screen gets very busy, but it’s the pyrotechnics the game offers that are truly mind-blurring. BHUlooks like it’s on an acid trip, the colours are vivid and bright, and almost everything on screen pulsates to the intese beat of the music. Truly, this is a fun game, sometimes you lose sight of your ship as there is so much mayhem on screen, but it’s so god damn cool.
The game feature waves of enemies coming at you in patterns, with a boss fight at the end of each section. When you finish, you are awarded points which you can spend in the perks management section. The perks are pretty cool and include more weapons to pimp out your ship with. The game’s single player options offers the Standard mode (as explained above), Survival mode, Boss Rush and Chill Out Modes. The Survival mode is exactly what it says; survive wave after wave of attacks. Boss Rush allows you to fight against all the bosses and try to win, although you’ll struggle, as it’s very very hard. In contrast, Chill Out mode is when you have unlimited lives and can sample all the weapons and just shoot the crap out of everything, which is great fun and highly satisfying.
The graphics in BHU are truly amazing, the detail of the ships is good but the attack patterns they take are always varied and the boss battles are very hard to finish. The weapons look stunnig as they shoot forth from your ship and the dazzling light, stars and various other flashing effects are done with a lot of care. Its pretty clear that Cold Beam games went to a lot of trouble mapping these effects and getting the timing just right with the music.
While the set music is just amazing - all techno and very upbeat - one of the best things about BHU is that you can use your own tunes and the game work just as well with them. The various weapons sound right when fired and the alarms and hazard sounds are also done well. This game also offers a great online mode where you can challenge gamers and also take part in co-op play. There are leaderboards as well. The game also offers a rank-up system based on how many points you get, so you can work your way up from trainee recruit to Elite. Be warned, though, you need a crap load of points and time to get to Elite.
Overall, Beat Hazard Ultra is a fun, intense, fast and very beautiful game. It offers a lot in terms of entertaining old school arcade shooting, with amodern musical twist. There is no story but BHU will still hook you. Trust me, you will hurt your wrists, but it will be worth it as the thrill of beating the bosses is motivation enough to keep playing. Add to this the co-op and online modes and you have a game with a pretty decent life span and one that you will keep playing. Old school shooters are back, baby.
from :
http://www.brashgames.co.uk/2011/10/22/beat-hazard-ultra-ps3-review/
Senin, 19 September 2011
We get a closer look at the Child of Eden demo with which Tetsuya Mizuguchi revealed this Rez-like "synesthesia shooter."
First revealed at Ubisoft's E3 conference, Child of Eden is a "multisensory" shooter that combines showers of light and luminous sea creatures with pulsing electronic music that evolves or grows with the beats and samples generated in the explosive destruction of the obstacles in your path. Today, we took a closer look at the demo, again conducted by Tetsuya Mizuguchi, the game's creative director and creator of the similarly musical shooter Rez and blocky puzzler Lumines.
With its flying, tunnel-vision on-rails shooting, the game closely resembles Rez, albeit from a first-person perspective and rendered in glorious high definition at a smooth 60 frames per second. Mizuguchi also doesn't call it a sequel or direct successor to that earlier title, emphasizing Child of Eden's entirely different inspiration: the life theme, as he calls it, which manifests itself in the organic designs of the creatures to be shot at, including neon sea anemones and caterpillar-like creatures built of glowing cubes.
In our demo, Mizuguchi used the Xbox 360 controller rather than the controller-free Kinect system for the Xbox, as seen at the Ubisoft presentation. The controls seem simple and streamlined, with the left thumbstick used to move the reticle and the A button for locking on to a target. Also, with a physical controller, the vibration feedback at the heart of Rez is restored as part of the multisensory experience. Though a Sony PS3 version of Child of Eden is on the cards, no one is yet talking about Sony's Move capability, if any.
The game's high-definition kaleidoscope of color and light is lovely to behold and mixes the regular, tunnel-like environments (sometimes circular, sometimes square) with large, one-off structures. In the short demo, this included a giant anemone, a great, screen-filling wall built of endless glowing cubes, and a globe surrounded by the huge curved sides of what Mizuguchi calls a sound box: a vast wall with certain panels that can be targeted and hit to trigger different sounds.
These were looped vocals samples, in our case. Generally, the game's interactive audio included Lumines-like beats; its quality much improved over the PSP version of Lumines. Later, the background of the game looked much like a crisp satellite image of Earth, in keeping with the life theme and more conventionally a music video-style dancer. These acted as the backdrop to the psychedelic confetti of Child of Eden's busy, heads-up-display-free foregrounds. Child of Eden appears to be an essential title for the (still some way off) Kinect but will be just as good with the standard controller when it arrives, or so says Mizuguchi. There's no confirmed release window as of yet, but we'll be sure to have more as it becomes available.
http://asia.gamespot.com/
With its flying, tunnel-vision on-rails shooting, the game closely resembles Rez, albeit from a first-person perspective and rendered in glorious high definition at a smooth 60 frames per second. Mizuguchi also doesn't call it a sequel or direct successor to that earlier title, emphasizing Child of Eden's entirely different inspiration: the life theme, as he calls it, which manifests itself in the organic designs of the creatures to be shot at, including neon sea anemones and caterpillar-like creatures built of glowing cubes.
In our demo, Mizuguchi used the Xbox 360 controller rather than the controller-free Kinect system for the Xbox, as seen at the Ubisoft presentation. The controls seem simple and streamlined, with the left thumbstick used to move the reticle and the A button for locking on to a target. Also, with a physical controller, the vibration feedback at the heart of Rez is restored as part of the multisensory experience. Though a Sony PS3 version of Child of Eden is on the cards, no one is yet talking about Sony's Move capability, if any.
The game's high-definition kaleidoscope of color and light is lovely to behold and mixes the regular, tunnel-like environments (sometimes circular, sometimes square) with large, one-off structures. In the short demo, this included a giant anemone, a great, screen-filling wall built of endless glowing cubes, and a globe surrounded by the huge curved sides of what Mizuguchi calls a sound box: a vast wall with certain panels that can be targeted and hit to trigger different sounds.
These were looped vocals samples, in our case. Generally, the game's interactive audio included Lumines-like beats; its quality much improved over the PSP version of Lumines. Later, the background of the game looked much like a crisp satellite image of Earth, in keeping with the life theme and more conventionally a music video-style dancer. These acted as the backdrop to the psychedelic confetti of Child of Eden's busy, heads-up-display-free foregrounds. Child of Eden appears to be an essential title for the (still some way off) Kinect but will be just as good with the standard controller when it arrives, or so says Mizuguchi. There's no confirmed release window as of yet, but we'll be sure to have more as it becomes available.
http://asia.gamespot.com/
Kamis, 01 September 2011
No More Heroes: Heroes' Paradise Review - PS3
No More Heroes: Heroes Paradise is fraught with problems. Some of them are intentional, as fans of the Wii original know very well. Some, unfortunately, are not, and it's that fact, coupled with the relative dearth of added content beyond what came in the earlier release, that makes AQ Interactive's Move-powered PlayStation 3 port a difficult thing to recommend.
A Disappointing Beginning
I really wanted to love this game. It repeatedly threatens to be awesome, but then something happens that makes you want to hurl the controller against the wall in frustration. Maybe it's three successive motorcycle crashes. Or spending more than a minute staring at screens and Yes/No prompts as your try to save your game. Or that damnable, newly added "boat signaling" minigame.
It could be any number of things, but most anyone who plays Heroes Paradise will be sorely tempted to turn off the console walk away at least once. Probably more than once.
The core game is largely unchanged. Suda 51's tale of Travis Touchdown, the eleventh best assassin in the world who, over the course of the story, fights his way to the top, is exactly as fans of the Wii game remember it. Nothing's been cut, though a few things have been added in the move to a new console.
In terms of the visuals, you're obviously looking at a much more attractive game here. While large portions of the user interface in No More Heroes maintain the original's 8-bit-style design, the world and the characters within it look greatly improved. Heroes Paradise might not give Skyrim much of a challenge, but the newly HD graphics suit it.
I Like To Move It, Move It
The Move controls suit the game perfectly as well, for the most part. The control scheme is essentially the same as it was with a Wii Remote and Nunchuk; most of the combat involves simple button-mashing, with the occasional swipe in one direction or another to finish off your opponent with some sort of dismemberment or elaborate wrestling maneuver. DualShock controls are also an option -- actually, it's the default -- but the Move option is definitely the one to go with if you can.
A number of boss fights from No More Heroes 2: Desperate Struggle are woven into the fabric of AQ's port as nightmare visions that pop up as the story unfolds, sort of like playable cutscenes. More boss fights is a good thing in a game like No More Heroes -- it's really what the game is best at -- but there's so little context offered for these additions that those who aren't familiar with NMH2 are going to have a hard time deciphering what's going on.
H.M.S. Frustration
Beyond the extra bosses, there are also some new secondary activities available. It's hard to screw up with assassin missions -- they're focused on combat, after all -- but some of the new side-jobs are controller-hurlingly awful. The Semaphore minigame springs to mind immediately.
On the surface, it's simple enough. You're signaling boats with two flags, which must be moved in different directions as a timer ticks down. The Move require waving the wand in one direction and pushing the analog stick on the Navigation Controller in the other, which is completely unintuitive. It also doesn't work roughly half the time, no matter how quickly you respond to the cues.
The best additions are the Score Attack mode -- which lets you fight all 15 bosses for points and leaderboard placement -- and the ability to replay the game's Ranking Fights (cutscenes too) from Travis' crummy motel apartment. You can also elect to warp to side-jobs and assassin missions once you've completed them once. Anything that keeps you off the back of the game's buggy, crash-prone motorcycle is welcome indeed.
Joey, Do You Like Menus And Loading Screens?
No More Heroes was a tough game to review for the Wii, and it continues to be difficult to gauge in its PS3 appearance. So much of the game's appeal is subjective and based on your nostalgic love for older, clunkier games. Personally, as close as classics like River City Ransom and Double Dragon are to my heart, I only view the onward march of technology as a good thing.
The older, clunkier games don't hold up well for me anymore, and NMH: HP is just as intentional a throwback to that sort of play as its Wii predecessor was. If you shudder at the thought of clicking through three menus to get to a slow-loading save screen and wrestling with the controls as much as you do with the Bad Guys, Heroes Paradise is most definitely not for you.
There are definitely things to love about Heroes Paradise for the right kind of gamer, but neither it nor the game it is ported from measures up against any modern-day release in terms of how it plays. Suda 51's original presentation is a brilliantly composed nod to video games and game culture, and it continues to be in Heroes Paradise, but that doesn't mean it's fun to play. Fans of the Wii game and fans of a more old school approach to game design will find a lot to love here; everyone else should stay away.
Read more: http://www.g4tv.com/games/ps3/64601/no-more-heroes-heroes-paradise/review/#ixzz1Wi9pr1FG
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