Tuesday, 22 November 2011
Henry Dowling
Despite the troubles at Infinity Ward, and a throng of haters on gaming forums, the third and supposedly final chapter in the Modern Warfare story arc is simply amazing - a brutal cinematic tour de force that will surely go down as the best in the series so far. Amazing, but not dramatically different. But then, why should it be. Modern Warfare has always been about over-the-top set pieces, unrelenting action, and a tight, focused multiplayer suite - all elements which are pillars of the Modern Warfare 3 experience. When your game has broken sales records year after year, with the competition still playing catch-up, there isn’t much need or drive to innovate. Instead, the focus here is on pushing the boundaries, taking the sensory overload to even higher levels with more spectacular battles, grand settings and narrative twists. There is little in the way of evolution with Modern Warfare 3, but rather a refinement of a winning formula that satisfies on just about every level ...
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Monday, 21 November 2011
James Lenoir
id Software's latest game, Rage, reminds me of the time I built a home-made glider out of cardboard boxes and attempted my first test-flight off the roof of my grandmother's house. On paper, my idea sounded foolproof - a teenager's attempt to pay homage to the Wright brothers - but in reality it resulted in a fractured collarbone and the end to my grandmother's aspirations to grow an olive tree. You're probably wondering what I'm rambling on about, or perhaps you're suspecting that there's something else in my tea, but the truth is that although Rage overflows with good intentions, it all comes crashing down ...
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Wednesday, 16 November 2011
Henry Dowling
I once had a brief conversation with a colleague regarding medieval times. As it turns out we both had similar romanticized ideas, visions of dashing knights, saucy wenches and pointy castles perched high up on misty mountain peaks. The reason it was a brief conversation, however, came when the woman in question remarked how she longed to live in those times - to be there with, and I quote, "all the adventure and the dragons and stuff". Staring at her like a rooster who’d just been shown an elaborate magic trick, I made the mistake of pursuing the matter. Dragons and stuff? Oh, yes, most definitely. And how do we know there were dragons? Well, because of all the stories. Obviously. Now, as ridiculous as that may seem to those of us with, oh, I don’t know, a pre-school education, it does go some way to show just how deeply ingrained the concept of dragons is in our collective consciousness. Folktales of the big scaly bastards are strewn across history with such frequency that one might just be fooled into believing there might be some truth to the legends. Most fantasy writers will agree that very little compares to a fire-breathing dragon when you’re looking for a bad guy to put at the sharp business end of the hero's sword. Which brings us to the case in point - Bethesda Softworks’ The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, a fantasy adventure with the ‘dragon’ just about sewn into its narrative flesh. After the hype that has surrounded this title you’d be forgiven for being skeptical, but be sure that in Bethesda’s gifted hands, these beasts and the fantastical world they live in become the heart of one of gaming’s true masterpieces ...
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Monday, 14 November 2011
James Lenoir
I have a confession to make, I am Batman. While it may have been possible to dismiss my statement as the delusions and idle fantasies of an overweight and geeky fellow who is wearing a Batman t-shirt and a cardboard mask, that all changed when Rocksteady Studios released Batman: Arkham Asylum in late 2009. In fact, those that played it really became Batman ...
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Monday, 07 November 2011
Henry Dowling
After a solid yet disappointing - not to mention dog ugly - first WRC outing, publisher Black Bean has teamed up once again with developer Milestone in an attempt to right the wrongs of last years effort. Sadly, while there have been a few tweaks here and there, the whole game looks and feels so similar to what we saw in 2010 that I’m very tempted to just refer you all back to my original WRC review. Unfortunately, my editor says that this simply won’t do, so I’m going to have to come up with a new way to describe what is essentially the same game ...
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Monday, 07 November 2011
Henry Dowling
Just like the actual sports and pro athletes that our annual sports titles recreate, and more so than almost any other gaming genre, sports games are renowned for favouring studied refinement over dramatic progression. Those who take their sports gaming seriously tend to hang onto each new release in heated anticipation, eager to see how the developer has gone about recreating their sport of choice in an even more realistic manner than the year before. The NBA 2K franchise, 2K Sports' biggest earner, is one such series which has been constantly evolving, year after year coming ever closer to the perfect basketball simulation, an evolution which resulted in last years' iteration slam dunking on the competition and cementing its place as the clear genre leader. With a lack of serious challengers this year - EA Sports' NBA Live franchise has taken a seat on the bench for this round – one might have expected 2K Sports to take it easy and ride on the popularity of last years' impressive offering. It's a credit then to 2K Sports' dedication and commitment to the sport to see that NBA 2K12 presents not only a significant improvement over its predecessor, but probably the most authentic basketball game we've ever played ...
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Friday, 04 November 2011
James Lenoir
The latest Beenox game, Spider-Man: Edge of Time, starts off in spectacular fashion, as Eddie Brock (Anti-venom) kills Spiderman. If that doesn't make you sit up and pay attention, nothing will, and what could have been the shortest Spider-Man game ever, quickly shifts its focus towards the future. In particular, towards the year 2099, where Miguel O'Hara (Spider-Man 2099) finds himself caught in a temporal conundrum. O'Hara fails to stop Walker Sloan, an Alchemax scientist from travelling to the 1970s, and in turn reality and the future are drastically altered. Alchemax (and presumably its corrupt board-members) appears decades before it should have, and the destinies of many in the present day are changed as well. For instance, Peter Parker isn't employed by the Daily Bugle, but rather finds himself slaving away in a cubicle at Alchemax ...
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Friday, 04 November 2011
Henry Dowling
The smoke rising from a burned out tank in the distance, coupled with the staccato gunfire of a heated infantry battle in full swing, is my cue to move. The enemy squad are held up in a half-collapsed factory, the rest of my unit working like a finely tuned machine to keep them suppressed. I poke my head out over the crumbling concrete slab I’ve been hiding behind for what feels like forever, and there it is - the enemy M-COM station, unguarded and calling to me like a homing beacon. With the agility of an electric eel I vault over the barrier and charge across the open field between me and my target, that last M-COM station, the only thing standing between my team and battlefield glory. With mere meters left to cover, a sudden, piercing, hissing sound scorches past my head - the fearsome crack of sniper fire - and I drop to the floor, flat on my belly, desperately worming my way towards the nearest cover. Everything has gone quiet now, the faraway rumblings of bitter war a faded memory as I lie in the dust. Minutes feel like hours, my heartbeat throbs in my brain - surely he must be gone by now? Edging forward slowly, breathlessly, inch by inch I push my luck towards the M-COM station, so close I can smell it. He would have put a bullet through my head by now, I’ve been exposed for far too long, right? I pull myself up into a crouch, and shuffle right up to the M-COM box, my skin tingling with confidence and the thrill of victory. Just a moment’s work to arm this damn bomb, and we’re on the next Osprey out of here, medals and ribbons tacked to our lapels. A shot rings out that splits the air like a whip, the salty, metallic taste of my own blood fills my mouth. A cold shiver crawls across my skin as I sink to the dirt, and the world in front of me fades to inky black ...
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Friday, 28 October 2011
Henry Dowling
It concerns me and pains me deeply that, short of some amazing financial windfall, by the time I am anywhere near being able to afford a proper, full blown supercar, there won’t be any left to buy. Chances are we’ll all be whizzing about in silly flying cars or simply teleporting from place to place. More worrying still, future generations will probably never even get to hear the gargantuan roar of a V12 engine, or smell the delightful fumes as a heavy throttle sears through another gallon of fuel. The fact is that, after over a century of refinement to the same basic principle, the petrol combustion engine may actually be reaching its twilight years, up against the world’s environmentalists telling us we all need electric-hybrid-nuclear pods that run off cow manure. Times, they are a’changing. In fact, the way things are going, by the time you’re done reading this review your car and its belching carbon emissions will already be outlawed for poisoning a panda bear. ...
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Thursday, 27 October 2011
James Lenoir
Can you smell it? The rich aroma of jet fuel, cordite and the flesh of those who dare to stand against Democracy. Now picture our hero staring distantly out towards the horizon, closed fists on his hips. His square and manly jaw quivering majestically as a banner with the tag line, “Make Metal Bleed” is unveiled behind him. Generic metal tunes thunder gloriously in the background as fireworks explode, lighting up the night. This is the mental image that played itself in my mind as I opened up the Ace Combat: Assault Horizon game case. A few hours later, with my aviator sunglasses foggy from perspiration, I mumbled to myself "Who wrote this? This could have been an Iron Eagle sequel. Someone call Louis Gossett, Jr. ...
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