Friday, 17 January 2014
Thursday, 6 June 2013
Little Inferno
Little inferno was released in late 2012, it's developed by 'Tomorrow Corporation' and features work by Kyle Gabler, the same artist and musician from World of Goo - To the extent where many people, myself included, just sort of logically came to the conclusion that this is a sequel by the same people.
Unlike World of Goo, Little Inferno didn't achieve critical acclaim, nor is it going to anytime soon.
It's a bizarre little thing which plays similar to many odd flash games of the past, and sort of actually reminds me of the 'desktop destroyer' program I used to mess around with as a child (the one where you can take a chainsaw to your desktop and stuff).
Majority of Little Inferno is set infront of a fireplace, and 'Gameplay' is based around purchasing stuff for coins, waiting around for it to arrive, and then setting it on fire - upon which it'll drop more coins than it was purchased for, its a vicious cycle, buy, burn, buy , burn, yet is oddly satisfying for an hour or two, some items have unique effects when burned, some items explode, others get up and leave, some spawn more items.
There are also puzzles to figure out, in the form of 'combinations', essentially a list of 100 combos with hints as to what they consist of, for example, 'Poker Hand' combo is achieved by burning both a Hand and some poker cards at the same time. These vary in complexity and obscurity, with certain combinations making borderline no sense (to me at least).
Graphically, the game looks wonderful, the fire effects are very pretty, and item descriptions/animations are entertaining. Similarly, the music is pretty good for the few short instances where it stirs up, the music sounds very World of Goo though, and often you'll wish you were playing that instead.
The story does sort of progress, but it's really not worth the payoff, the final segment could easily just not exist and nobody would be any worse for it.
Verdict:
Little Inferno was pretty disappointing overall, yet setting things on fire for a couple of hours is oddly satisfying, Its in the Humble Bundle right now, and for the price of 'what you want'? its probably worth it, but the regular asking price of £7 is absurd.
Approximate Game Length : 3 Hours
Actual Worth / Steam Price: £2 / £7 = 0.14
Actual Worth / Humble Price: £2 / £PWYW = Sure, why not.
Should you play it : Meh, give it a go if you stumble upon it, it's nothing too great though.
Rating: 2/5
https://www.humblebundle.com/
Go grab the humble bundle! You get Hotline Miami if you beat the average (and that game is fucking sweet) or you can just pay something minimal and a copy of this and Dear Esther (with some other meh games tacked on)
ps. Awesomenauts is fucking terrible. Just putting that out there.
Unlike World of Goo, Little Inferno didn't achieve critical acclaim, nor is it going to anytime soon.
It's a bizarre little thing which plays similar to many odd flash games of the past, and sort of actually reminds me of the 'desktop destroyer' program I used to mess around with as a child (the one where you can take a chainsaw to your desktop and stuff).
Majority of Little Inferno is set infront of a fireplace, and 'Gameplay' is based around purchasing stuff for coins, waiting around for it to arrive, and then setting it on fire - upon which it'll drop more coins than it was purchased for, its a vicious cycle, buy, burn, buy , burn, yet is oddly satisfying for an hour or two, some items have unique effects when burned, some items explode, others get up and leave, some spawn more items.
There are also puzzles to figure out, in the form of 'combinations', essentially a list of 100 combos with hints as to what they consist of, for example, 'Poker Hand' combo is achieved by burning both a Hand and some poker cards at the same time. These vary in complexity and obscurity, with certain combinations making borderline no sense (to me at least).
Graphically, the game looks wonderful, the fire effects are very pretty, and item descriptions/animations are entertaining. Similarly, the music is pretty good for the few short instances where it stirs up, the music sounds very World of Goo though, and often you'll wish you were playing that instead.
The story does sort of progress, but it's really not worth the payoff, the final segment could easily just not exist and nobody would be any worse for it.
Verdict:
Little Inferno was pretty disappointing overall, yet setting things on fire for a couple of hours is oddly satisfying, Its in the Humble Bundle right now, and for the price of 'what you want'? its probably worth it, but the regular asking price of £7 is absurd.
Approximate Game Length : 3 Hours
Actual Worth / Steam Price: £2 / £7 = 0.14
Actual Worth / Humble Price: £2 / £PWYW = Sure, why not.
Should you play it : Meh, give it a go if you stumble upon it, it's nothing too great though.
Rating: 2/5
https://www.humblebundle.com/
Go grab the humble bundle! You get Hotline Miami if you beat the average (and that game is fucking sweet) or you can just pay something minimal and a copy of this and Dear Esther (with some other meh games tacked on)
ps. Awesomenauts is fucking terrible. Just putting that out there.
Wednesday, 5 June 2013
Rotastic
'Rotastic' , Released in October 2012 for PSN, XBLA and Steam, I can see where they were going with the name, but if im honest, I can only think of Rotisserie chicken when I see the name 'Rotastic'
The gameplay here is based around rotating around pivots, and im sure i've played another game like it, but I cant for the life of me think where i've seen this game concept before.
I got up to world 5 during my half an hour playthrough, that's about half the game I might add since there are only 8 worlds.
Levels are split roughly into 'Collect the Gems', 'Break the crates' (which oddly turns the game into 'breakout' of some form), 'Survive' and 'Duels'.
Pretty much all of the level types play out exactly the same, hookshot onto pivot points and use centrifugal force to fly your way around the level to pickup/dodge shit, there are tricks and little maneuveurs you can do to boost your points, but honestly most of them just reward you for playing the game normally.
The Dueling/Battle mode however is a little more interesting, this still essentially the same gem collecting game as before, but now there are between 2-4 players on the field, and crossing other's ropes will allow you to cut them - its equal parts collection and trying not to be caught out and is actually pretty good - of my experience with the game, the small multiplayer bits were the best and so I would presume that local 4 player would be pretty good.
Graphics and sound are pretty terrible, the art is just about good enough to pass for this sort of game, but many of the levels are incredibly dull looking. The music was horrible, some shitty flute track which seemed to loop every 10 seconds.
I'd also like to add that the game crashed on me twice in the 30 ish minutes I spent playing. Which is less than ideal.
Verdict:
Honestly, im surprised they managed to get released on XBLA/PSN/Steam, it doesn't really seem much more fleshed out that some flash games out there, and for the most part, its not even particularly fun.
I wouldn't waste time with this unless you have 3 friends onhand to give the 4 player local multiplayer a go.
Approximate Game Length : <2hrs
Actual Worth / Shop Price : £1 / £8 (Steam) = 0.125
Should you play it : Nope, Barely worth the 450mb bandwidth allocated towards downloading it, and certainly not worth £8 , though perhaps give it a download should you have some friends come over, it might see 15 minutes of play, maybe.
Rating: 1/5
http://store.steampowered.com/app/204580/
The gameplay here is based around rotating around pivots, and im sure i've played another game like it, but I cant for the life of me think where i've seen this game concept before.
I got up to world 5 during my half an hour playthrough, that's about half the game I might add since there are only 8 worlds.
Levels are split roughly into 'Collect the Gems', 'Break the crates' (which oddly turns the game into 'breakout' of some form), 'Survive' and 'Duels'.
Pretty much all of the level types play out exactly the same, hookshot onto pivot points and use centrifugal force to fly your way around the level to pickup/dodge shit, there are tricks and little maneuveurs you can do to boost your points, but honestly most of them just reward you for playing the game normally.
The Dueling/Battle mode however is a little more interesting, this still essentially the same gem collecting game as before, but now there are between 2-4 players on the field, and crossing other's ropes will allow you to cut them - its equal parts collection and trying not to be caught out and is actually pretty good - of my experience with the game, the small multiplayer bits were the best and so I would presume that local 4 player would be pretty good.
Graphics and sound are pretty terrible, the art is just about good enough to pass for this sort of game, but many of the levels are incredibly dull looking. The music was horrible, some shitty flute track which seemed to loop every 10 seconds.
I'd also like to add that the game crashed on me twice in the 30 ish minutes I spent playing. Which is less than ideal.
Verdict:
Honestly, im surprised they managed to get released on XBLA/PSN/Steam, it doesn't really seem much more fleshed out that some flash games out there, and for the most part, its not even particularly fun.
I wouldn't waste time with this unless you have 3 friends onhand to give the 4 player local multiplayer a go.
Approximate Game Length : <2hrs
Actual Worth / Shop Price : £1 / £8 (Steam) = 0.125
Should you play it : Nope, Barely worth the 450mb bandwidth allocated towards downloading it, and certainly not worth £8 , though perhaps give it a download should you have some friends come over, it might see 15 minutes of play, maybe.
Rating: 1/5
http://store.steampowered.com/app/204580/
Tuesday, 4 June 2013
Game Project Progress - Area 1-1
So after about 5 days on-off work with Maya, the very first environment of the game is pretty much done. Obviously this may change slightly as I continue to learn new techniques, or perhaps after playtesting if we realise that its way too small, but for now...
Here's Area 1-1, the interior of 'The Silver Sky', a bar in Nevada.
 |
| Shitty concept art drawn by myself |
 |
| Horrific first attempt. |
 |
| Lot of work for something that is going to be in the background on the wall of a bar where literally 15 seconds of the game is going to take place.. |
Heres the (for now) finished level.
Looks p. decent to me, though im starting to worry if the game will ever get finished, we may have been slightly overambitious in terms of... everything. Not to mention that it feels like its essentially turned into a 2 man project for now.
Just the thought of having to make about 12 more areas, characters, weapons, enemies....
One can only hope the characters will turn out slightly better than my deer head.
Monday, 3 June 2013
Save the Date
Save the Date is a unique twist on the Visual Novel genre, it is a short indie game from 'Paper Dino Software'
Save the Date is a game about saving your date, funny that.
You take your girlfriend out for dinner, and... bad things happen.
Its very hard to talk about the game without spoiling the twist which makes it so good, but know simply, that is IS good.
The less you know, the better your experience will be.
Approximate Game Length : 30 mins
Actual Worth / Shop Price : £3 / £FREE = 10
Should you play it : Totally, this game is awesome, and the twists are pretty unique.
Rating: 5/5
DOWNLOAD FROM HERE (17mb) - http://paperdino.com/games/save-the-date/
Mirror just in case the dev website blows up - http://www.mengsbizarreadventure.com/uploads/savethedate-1.0-win.zip
ps. Cant find the 'Good Ending(s)?' - Read here when you've given up -
Save the Date is a game about saving your date, funny that.
You take your girlfriend out for dinner, and... bad things happen.
Its very hard to talk about the game without spoiling the twist which makes it so good, but know simply, that is IS good.
The less you know, the better your experience will be.
Approximate Game Length : 30 mins
Actual Worth / Shop Price : £3 / £FREE = 10
Should you play it : Totally, this game is awesome, and the twists are pretty unique.
Rating: 5/5
DOWNLOAD FROM HERE (17mb) - http://paperdino.com/games/save-the-date/
Mirror just in case the dev website blows up - http://www.mengsbizarreadventure.com/uploads/savethedate-1.0-win.zip
ps. Cant find the 'Good Ending(s)?' - Read here when you've given up -
Sunday, 2 June 2013
Element4l
Element4l is going to ride under the radar for a long time, but then eventually, it's going to be included in a sale of some sort, and this game is going to EXPLODE and join the list of indie classics - you heard it here first.
The game is essentially a physics based platformer, you control a being that can morph into 4 elements - Ice, Fire, Stone and Air - warping into them drains a little energy but provides you with the strengths of that element, the game basically builds around this by setting up levels to force you to master the elements to be able to progress.
Air makes you float upwards and be carried by winds
Stone thrusts you downwards
Ice makes you slide around
Fire throws you sideways and lets you bounce off lava.
There are 16 levels, ranging from 'childsplay' act1, to 'leetskills' act4, you'll be able to tell for yourself when the difficulty is ramping up, because the playtime counter shown at the end of each stage will eventually start entering 4 digits (and it shows in seconds), that and the swearing - Infact, mostly the swearing. I was actually shocked at how hard the game was, im usually not the kind to get phased easily by skill based games, but my god the last few levels reminded me of sections of Super Meat Boy.
Element4l runs just around 2.5 hours maybe for a first playthrough, but it will vary depending on personal skill, and whether or not you succumb to 'easy mode'.
The artstyle is minimalistic yet beautiful, im a big fan of the silhouette artstyle provided by games like Limbo and Contre Jour, but Element4l is so very polished, id say it's the best looking game that uses this style. Quotes and little random pieces of text pop up throughout the game, occasionally hints, sometimes things which are slightly more random (the message referencing BMX rider 'Danny Way's great wall of china jump comes to mind).
Music is also fantastic, its a weird style but it reminds me a ton of Brian Transeau (BT)'s more chilled out works, and im totally okay with this. A kind of melodic electronica style, which is pleasant to listen to and adds to the overall mood of the game.
Verdict:
Element4l is a true gem, it does everything right - the graphics are lovely, the soundtrack is amazing, the controls are tight, the difficulty is challenging (and has a good curve), the levels are well thought out... I really enjoyed this game, and i'm sure most of you will too.
Approximate Game Length : 2-3 Hours
Actual Worth / Shop Price : £15 / £7 (Steam) = 2.14
(also, free soundtrack with the game)
Should you play it : Yes! Fantastic little gem in a sea of pretentious indie shite.
Rating: 5/5
http://store.steampowered.com/app/235820 - Steam market page
http://mindtree.bandcamp.com/album/element4l-original-soundtrack - Soundtrack
Rating System
The only reason I've been kind of reluctant to add a ratings system so far is because personally, I usually just skim read an article and then look at the rating at the end. I hope people won't start doing that but I figure if that's what y'all want, who am I to stop you.
I've gone back to the start of 2013 and added ratings for all the games i've given proper reviews to.
The ratings system is out of 5, why 5? Because in the video games industry everyone wants to rate stuff between 5 and 10 out of 10, Bad games often get scores above what they deserve, and eventually everything falls into the 8-10 category anyway, why bother.
Ratings Explained:
0/5 - The game was so bad that I 'tapped out' as soon as I had finished formulating my opinion
1/5 - Not worth your time, nevermind your money.
2/5 - I'd recommend against it, but these games can be appealing if you are into that sort of thing.
3/5 - Could swing either way depending on your personal preference, Not great, but playable, just enough enjoyment/satisfaction to keep you playing. Probably best to pirate a copy
4/5 - An enjoyable/interesting game, which you should probably play should you have easy access to it.
5/5 - A great game which you should definitely play, these games are either very well polished, extremely fun, unique or (preferably) some combination of the 3.
0/5 - The game was so bad that I 'tapped out' as soon as I had finished formulating my opinion
1/5 - Not worth your time, nevermind your money.
2/5 - I'd recommend against it, but these games can be appealing if you are into that sort of thing.
3/5 - Could swing either way depending on your personal preference, Not great, but playable, just enough enjoyment/satisfaction to keep you playing. Probably best to pirate a copy
4/5 - An enjoyable/interesting game, which you should probably play should you have easy access to it.
5/5 - A great game which you should definitely play, these games are either very well polished, extremely fun, unique or (preferably) some combination of the 3.
Heres the current scoreboard for 2013
| GAME NAME | SCORE | VALUE | |
| May | COJ: Gunslinger | 5 | 1.5 |
| March | Bioshock Inf | 5 | 1.07 |
| March | Tomb Raider | 5 | 1 |
| May | Monaco | 4.5 | 2.11 |
| May | Cart Life | 4 | 10 |
| March | Sniper GW2 | 4 | 0.52 |
| April | DeadSpace3 | 2 | 0.64 |
| April | Evoland | 1 | 0.35 |
| Feb | Aliens Cm | 1 | 0.066 |
| March | Resi6 | 0 | 0.125 |
I've also made 'Game Review' its own tag, incase you're looking for that sort of thing
Saturday, 1 June 2013
Phoenix Wright 5 Hype Train
Klavier, Edgeworth, Badass Apollo, Winston Payne, Pearl Fey and Trucy Wright confirmed for brawl.
Im so glad to see Pearl and Trucy reappear, something tells me we'll be seeing Maya again as well, and while im kind of upset that Phoenix has a new assistant instead of using one of these two, its nice to see that they will at the very least be in the game.
One can only hope we'll get some nicely remixed theme songs as well? Child of Magic? Please?
People so far unaccounted for: Larry Butz, Maya, Ema Skye, Gumshoe? , Oldbag, Von Karma's , Maggey Byrde , Lotta Hart...
See the new trailer for yourself here - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VxiF0Jt0ywo&feature=player_detailpage#t=164s
Friday, 31 May 2013
Prison Architect (Alpha 10) Preview
So I've been hearing some good stuff about this game, its from British studio 'Introversion software', best known for Darwinia and DEFCON and Uplink (all pretty good games).
Prison Architect is a bit of a curveball from them, as whilst most of their previous games have an emphasis on real time combat, Prison Architect feels and plays like a 'Bullfrog' game, that is, a business/management sandbox game.
Though it has a very simplistic art style, you'll be too busy doing other things to pay it much heed, sure it doesn't have blockbuster graphics, but really as long as you are enjoying the game, you'll soon forget all about it, as you become immersed in expanding your prison (or as I found it, trying to quell the constant riots).
Gameplay will be familiar to anyone who has played Dungeon Keeper or Theme Hospital, you build a prison from scratch, zone out where you want your facilities, corridors, cell blocks and etc.
Then you can research better stuff, or unlock more facilities as your prison grows.
It's an effective tried and tested formula, and Prison Architect does it well, the fact that I started playing at some point and then it was midnight all of a sudden is proof. The twist of the game which seperates it from other bullfroggy games is that prison inmates don't take shit from no guards...
My prison was going pretty well, few hours of play in, and then all of a sudden - riots. Riots everywhere.
Prison inmates are punching the shit out of everything they can get their hands on, toilets, their bed, cell doors, the guards..
In summary, Prison Architect is shaping up very nicely, I actually forgot it was an Alpha build until I started typing this up because it already feels like there are a lot of features, and the core gameplay is already there. If this is the sort of fun they can give in an Alpha version, then I verymuch look forward to the Beta's and the eventual full release.
There are a few little issues here and there (sometimes your workers wont build stuff no matter how much you ask, environment can glitch, pathing can be weird, guard AI is bad) but there isn't anything here that's a real dealbreaker - so-long as they get rid of it before an official release.
Prison Architect is a bit of a curveball from them, as whilst most of their previous games have an emphasis on real time combat, Prison Architect feels and plays like a 'Bullfrog' game, that is, a business/management sandbox game.
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| Guys please stop rioting. PLEASE. |
Gameplay will be familiar to anyone who has played Dungeon Keeper or Theme Hospital, you build a prison from scratch, zone out where you want your facilities, corridors, cell blocks and etc.
Then you can research better stuff, or unlock more facilities as your prison grows.
It's an effective tried and tested formula, and Prison Architect does it well, the fact that I started playing at some point and then it was midnight all of a sudden is proof. The twist of the game which seperates it from other bullfroggy games is that prison inmates don't take shit from no guards...
My prison was going pretty well, few hours of play in, and then all of a sudden - riots. Riots everywhere.
Prison inmates are punching the shit out of everything they can get their hands on, toilets, their bed, cell doors, the guards..
 |
| GUYS PLZ ;_____; |
There are a few little issues here and there (sometimes your workers wont build stuff no matter how much you ask, environment can glitch, pathing can be weird, guard AI is bad) but there isn't anything here that's a real dealbreaker - so-long as they get rid of it before an official release.
Wednesday, 29 May 2013
Cart Life
Cart Life is a unique game made by 'Richard Hofmeier', the game is billed as a retail simulation game, but in reality this game is so much more.
The game begins with you selecting a storyline, the two initial stories unlocked are Andrus the newspaper seller, and Melanie the coffee stand vendor.
I selected Melanie to start with, a recent divorcee who is struggling to raise money to take custody of her daughter Laura, the game starts with a conversation with Mel's sister, who has offered to take us in, and then after a VERY brief tutorial, brushing our teeth and going to bed, we are dumped in the world.
Much like Melanie herself, you are thrown into the world pretty much clueless, you know roughly what you would need to start a business sure, but how does one actually go about doing so?
To run her business Melanie needs a sellers cart, equipment, stock (coffee, milk, cups, sugar...) , permits and more, but then the decisions begin, where do you set up? what quality coffee beans do you go for?
And then comes the drama, the chores, and everything else that comes with life.
My first day, despite being reminded, I managed to fail at picking up my daughter from school, not only does she probably hate me, but the ex-husband comes by to bring her home.
It's weird little scenes like this that have a surprising impact, particularly because the scenarios presented are just so lifelike.
After eventually getting my cart set up - an ordeal in itself requiring waiting for hours at the courthouse, selling my personal possessions to be able to afford stock and a bunch of other horrific stuff... Finally got the shop up. And then comes the serving - which is, similar to everything else about this game - stressful. As soon as a customer places their order you are on the clock, you have to remember what they ordered, physically type out "Be careful, its hot" and then take their money and do mental math to work out how much change to give them, all under 15 seconds or so, at which point you lose the sale and they walk away.
Other notes:
Graphically, very minimalistic, and greyscale, perhaps an ode to the grey monotony of the working life most of us lead, it is however sufficient enough to get the game across, and in some senses may actually heighten the experience as the brain as a lovely tendency to fill in the gaps with our imagination.
In terms of music, the game is equal parts depressing real life silence and quirky chiptune, its OK, but nothing too memorable.
Verdict:
Though I only spent a few hours playing, I can safely say that Cart Life is one of the best simulations of real life I have seen, much like the real world it is based on, this game is harsh, stressful and unforgiving. Every action has a reaction and it seems impossible to play without a certain feeling of strangulation. Whilst not what I would call a 'relaxing way to unwind after work', Cart Life is a very unique video game experience unlike any other, and playing it will make you understand how it won 3 prizes at IGF2013
The game is available as a free download on the authors website with 2 stories, or $5 for 3 stories
http://www.richardhofmeier.com/cartlife/
Actual Worth / Shop Price : £5? / £FREE = ??
(I have no idea how much I would actually pay for this)
Should you play it : Give it a go, but be warned that this game is pretty much the exact polar opposite of a 'good time'
Rating: 4/5
The game begins with you selecting a storyline, the two initial stories unlocked are Andrus the newspaper seller, and Melanie the coffee stand vendor.
I selected Melanie to start with, a recent divorcee who is struggling to raise money to take custody of her daughter Laura, the game starts with a conversation with Mel's sister, who has offered to take us in, and then after a VERY brief tutorial, brushing our teeth and going to bed, we are dumped in the world.
Much like Melanie herself, you are thrown into the world pretty much clueless, you know roughly what you would need to start a business sure, but how does one actually go about doing so?
To run her business Melanie needs a sellers cart, equipment, stock (coffee, milk, cups, sugar...) , permits and more, but then the decisions begin, where do you set up? what quality coffee beans do you go for?
 |
| This bit was great fucking fun, it was the best simulation of waiting in line i've ever seen >_>" |
My first day, despite being reminded, I managed to fail at picking up my daughter from school, not only does she probably hate me, but the ex-husband comes by to bring her home.
It's weird little scenes like this that have a surprising impact, particularly because the scenarios presented are just so lifelike.
 |
| I don't even know what my ex-husband did, but I hate him. |
 |
| Get real life work skills to put on your CV |
Graphically, very minimalistic, and greyscale, perhaps an ode to the grey monotony of the working life most of us lead, it is however sufficient enough to get the game across, and in some senses may actually heighten the experience as the brain as a lovely tendency to fill in the gaps with our imagination.
In terms of music, the game is equal parts depressing real life silence and quirky chiptune, its OK, but nothing too memorable.
Verdict:
Though I only spent a few hours playing, I can safely say that Cart Life is one of the best simulations of real life I have seen, much like the real world it is based on, this game is harsh, stressful and unforgiving. Every action has a reaction and it seems impossible to play without a certain feeling of strangulation. Whilst not what I would call a 'relaxing way to unwind after work', Cart Life is a very unique video game experience unlike any other, and playing it will make you understand how it won 3 prizes at IGF2013
The game is available as a free download on the authors website with 2 stories, or $5 for 3 stories
http://www.richardhofmeier.com/cartlife/
Actual Worth / Shop Price : £5? / £FREE = ??
(I have no idea how much I would actually pay for this)
Should you play it : Give it a go, but be warned that this game is pretty much the exact polar opposite of a 'good time'
Rating: 4/5
Thursday, 23 May 2013
Call of Juarez : Gunslinger
Call of Juarez: Gunslinger is the 4th game in the CoJ franchise, it is a series I've personally never had problems with, however I did completely skip 'The Cartel' because of the reviews surrounding it.
The game is developed by Polish games studio 'Techland', who also make the Dead Island series - but aren't known for producing anything else worth commenting on.
Gunslinger shares many similarities with its predecessors; dual revolvers, dueling, slow motion and unfaultable gunplay, this outing has for whatever reason (I presume development costs) decided to steer away from the fantastic semi-open world gameplay of CoJ Bound In Blood, in favor of a very linear arcade style shooter. Gunslinger is missing many of the innovations made in previous games like horseback gunplay, epic set pieces and true character development, these losses do make the game feel more shallow as a whole, however the fun to be found in the game stands strong.
The game begins with Silas Greaves entering a bar and sitting down for a drink, before long he ends up sharing a story with some folk in the bar, and thus we have our game. The entire game is told as a recollection, with running storytelling from Silas throughout, this method of storytelling felt somewhat similar to a very extreme version of the amazing storytelling in Remedy games Alan Wake and Max Payne. Being that the story is a recollection, the way the conversation between Silas and his audience flows directly affects the game itself, the plot jumps and skips backwards and forwards as Silas remembers the story - and its a genius way of both storytelling and directing the player.
Parts of the story end up being retold multiple times from different perspectives, one level in the game started being told someone in the bar, a telling of marching through the town to assault a bank - the story told in the legends, Silas cuts in before the climax - "Sorry son, but that's not how it went down at all" - The game turns western filmgrain and begins to rewind, "It was dusk, not high noon, I was riding in from the east..." - The sky darkens before our eyes and we are suddenly set behind the bank instead, the story continues from Silas's perspective.
Another memorable moment from the story involves Silas telling how he spotted a shortcut path, the ingame camera cuts to the shortcut and a path forms from seemingly nowehere - the next few minutes of fighting eventually lead you to an ambush and death, with the same 'Game over' screen you would normally get from dying - "Im sure glad I didnt opt to take that path, im sure that would have ended badly" - The game rewinds. This unique method of introducing alternate universes was very cool, and something I haven't really seen in an FPS game before.
At the core of Gunslinger is of course the shooting, and the shooting is fantastic Some may argue that the game is not much more than a shooting gallery throughout, but is that really that big of a problem? What else were you expecting to do in a first person shooter game?
Gunslinger addresses this problem by making the shootouts so satisfying that you end up quite happy to fight against constant waves of bandits assaulting your position.
There are only 4 proper weapons in the game, sounds bad, but in reality you will happily just use the dual revolvers to kill everyone, because revolvers are fucking sweet. Guns shoot true, headshots are powerful, reloading whilst firing isn't a burden (firing cancels reload animations), and the special abilities really add to the experience as a whole.
What special abilities? Gunslinger has a 'concentration' meter which can be activated even when half full to give Slow-mo and enemy highlighting, this bar refills pretty damn fast (especially later in the game after upgrades) and really helps even the odds and in turn allows the game to throw more enemies at you at once.
Another special ability is called 'Sense of Death' and acts as a last chance system, it refills on its own over time and is activated automatically upon taking lethal damage - the camera zooms in on an enemy and time slows, the bullet becomes visible, you get a chance to dodge the shot which would kill you by leaning left or right, if successful you gain a slight second wind and have a chance to clear enemies or get to cover. It is very similar to the showdown sequences in 'John Woo's Stranglehold', and is just as satisfying and awesome to look at here.
Finally there are the reflex segments, which are gunslingers method of introducing quicktime events to the game, this again plays out very VERY similar to the showdown sequences in stranglehold, but with a quicktime twist - The camera cuts to new enemies and time slows, then key prompts appear on screen (WASD for me), pressing the right key fires a bullet at the enemy and the camera spins around to the next, failing the encounter means a cut back to normal FPS action where you will have to dispatch them all yourself (usually at your disadvantage since there will be 6 of them from all directions).
There is also an XP system integrated into the game, pretty standard affair, you gain XP for stylish killings, combo kills, finding secrets.... Y'know, normal arcade shooter stuff.
The XP buys upgrades in 3 trees (Revolvers/Rifles/Shotguns) and most of the upgrades are sweet.
Upgrading the revolver tree for example allows you to reload faster, shoot faster, more concentration, concentration refills upon 6x multiplier...
Rifle tree is based more around ranged encounter, so more zoom, slight slow-mo on aim.. etc
and the shotgun tree is based around that bucka-buck.
Getting through the trees awards the player with new upgraded weapons (quickload revolvers, faster firing rifles, Dual sawn off shotguns...) and is a nice little reward for speccing heavy into a single tree.
Finally, there are the bosses, who are introduced via an awesome little cutscene which turns into western drawing. Most of these end up as showdown duels but some are on gatlings or other things.
The showdowns themselves are pretty good, I think I preferred the draw style in CoJ:BiB (Sweep mouse down to grab gun, pull mouse up to aim and fire) however the playstyle in Gunslinger is certainly tense and skillful.
Left/Right controls your hand position, you want to keep your hand over your gun to increase your 'draw speed', your mouse controls your focus, maintaining focus on your enemy results in a gradual zoom allowing for better/easier shooting in the actual firing phase. When your opponent goes for his gun, 'fire' draws your gun and then you get to play with the floaty crosshair as you try to fire before he does, firing before your fully draw your gun ends up wasting a shot and essentially getting you killed.
Worth noting also, that completion of the game unlocks 'True West' mode, which is basically a completely HUDless experience. It is AWESOME. Single revolver and rifle now have their purposes as precision weapons, whilst dual revolvers are trickier to use because of the lack of a crosshair.
I've written a hell of a lot for such a 'small' game. I should wrap this up.
Verdict:
Call of Juarez: Gunslinger is a brilliantly made run and gun FPS game, it may not have the depth of the so called AAA titles but the actual fun from gunfighting in this game easily tops that of Call of Duty, Bioshock Infinite, and other big titles from massive studios. This game with its tight shooting mechanics and unique storytelling method may well have just snuck its way into my next top 10.
Gunslinger is far from long, but then, its far from expensive. Pick it up and enjoy the ride the next time you fancy shooting guys without thinking too much.
Approximate Game Length : ~5 (Main Story on Hard), there are extra 'arcade' missions too though.
Actual Worth / Shop Price : £18 / £12 = 1.5
Should you play it : If you are a fan of the FPS genre, this is a must play. Just don't be expecting too much more than an old style corridor shooter.
Rating: 5/5
The game is developed by Polish games studio 'Techland', who also make the Dead Island series - but aren't known for producing anything else worth commenting on.
Gunslinger shares many similarities with its predecessors; dual revolvers, dueling, slow motion and unfaultable gunplay, this outing has for whatever reason (I presume development costs) decided to steer away from the fantastic semi-open world gameplay of CoJ Bound In Blood, in favor of a very linear arcade style shooter. Gunslinger is missing many of the innovations made in previous games like horseback gunplay, epic set pieces and true character development, these losses do make the game feel more shallow as a whole, however the fun to be found in the game stands strong.
 |
| Yes, that border is always there, No, you wont notice it whilst playing. |
Parts of the story end up being retold multiple times from different perspectives, one level in the game started being told someone in the bar, a telling of marching through the town to assault a bank - the story told in the legends, Silas cuts in before the climax - "Sorry son, but that's not how it went down at all" - The game turns western filmgrain and begins to rewind, "It was dusk, not high noon, I was riding in from the east..." - The sky darkens before our eyes and we are suddenly set behind the bank instead, the story continues from Silas's perspective.
 |
| "Wait wait, im getting this story all mixed up, that's not what happened at all" |
 |
| 'Concentration' mode in effect. It is awesome. |
Gunslinger addresses this problem by making the shootouts so satisfying that you end up quite happy to fight against constant waves of bandits assaulting your position.
There are only 4 proper weapons in the game, sounds bad, but in reality you will happily just use the dual revolvers to kill everyone, because revolvers are fucking sweet. Guns shoot true, headshots are powerful, reloading whilst firing isn't a burden (firing cancels reload animations), and the special abilities really add to the experience as a whole.
What special abilities? Gunslinger has a 'concentration' meter which can be activated even when half full to give Slow-mo and enemy highlighting, this bar refills pretty damn fast (especially later in the game after upgrades) and really helps even the odds and in turn allows the game to throw more enemies at you at once.
Another special ability is called 'Sense of Death' and acts as a last chance system, it refills on its own over time and is activated automatically upon taking lethal damage - the camera zooms in on an enemy and time slows, the bullet becomes visible, you get a chance to dodge the shot which would kill you by leaning left or right, if successful you gain a slight second wind and have a chance to clear enemies or get to cover. It is very similar to the showdown sequences in 'John Woo's Stranglehold', and is just as satisfying and awesome to look at here.
Finally there are the reflex segments, which are gunslingers method of introducing quicktime events to the game, this again plays out very VERY similar to the showdown sequences in stranglehold, but with a quicktime twist - The camera cuts to new enemies and time slows, then key prompts appear on screen (WASD for me), pressing the right key fires a bullet at the enemy and the camera spins around to the next, failing the encounter means a cut back to normal FPS action where you will have to dispatch them all yourself (usually at your disadvantage since there will be 6 of them from all directions).
 |
| 'Sense of Death' in effect. Looks like this one would have hurt. |
The XP buys upgrades in 3 trees (Revolvers/Rifles/Shotguns) and most of the upgrades are sweet.
Upgrading the revolver tree for example allows you to reload faster, shoot faster, more concentration, concentration refills upon 6x multiplier...
Rifle tree is based more around ranged encounter, so more zoom, slight slow-mo on aim.. etc
and the shotgun tree is based around that bucka-buck.
Getting through the trees awards the player with new upgraded weapons (quickload revolvers, faster firing rifles, Dual sawn off shotguns...) and is a nice little reward for speccing heavy into a single tree.
 |
| Nice to see a skill tree full with skills that are actually desirable for a change. |
The showdowns themselves are pretty good, I think I preferred the draw style in CoJ:BiB (Sweep mouse down to grab gun, pull mouse up to aim and fire) however the playstyle in Gunslinger is certainly tense and skillful.
Left/Right controls your hand position, you want to keep your hand over your gun to increase your 'draw speed', your mouse controls your focus, maintaining focus on your enemy results in a gradual zoom allowing for better/easier shooting in the actual firing phase. When your opponent goes for his gun, 'fire' draws your gun and then you get to play with the floaty crosshair as you try to fire before he does, firing before your fully draw your gun ends up wasting a shot and essentially getting you killed.
Worth noting also, that completion of the game unlocks 'True West' mode, which is basically a completely HUDless experience. It is AWESOME. Single revolver and rifle now have their purposes as precision weapons, whilst dual revolvers are trickier to use because of the lack of a crosshair.
I've written a hell of a lot for such a 'small' game. I should wrap this up.
Verdict:
Call of Juarez: Gunslinger is a brilliantly made run and gun FPS game, it may not have the depth of the so called AAA titles but the actual fun from gunfighting in this game easily tops that of Call of Duty, Bioshock Infinite, and other big titles from massive studios. This game with its tight shooting mechanics and unique storytelling method may well have just snuck its way into my next top 10.
Gunslinger is far from long, but then, its far from expensive. Pick it up and enjoy the ride the next time you fancy shooting guys without thinking too much.
Approximate Game Length : ~5 (Main Story on Hard), there are extra 'arcade' missions too though.
Actual Worth / Shop Price : £18 / £12 = 1.5
Should you play it : If you are a fan of the FPS genre, this is a must play. Just don't be expecting too much more than an old style corridor shooter.
Rating: 5/5
Wednesday, 22 May 2013
XboxOne - And why if they dont step it up at E3, they will lose to sony.
The Sony hype train is still going pretty strong after their Februrary announce, their show was a strong one showing off some amazing ingame graphics and plenty of exclusives. The console itself had a share button and a few other gimmicks (touchscreen pad etc) but for the most part it was clearly being marketed as a next generation video games console.
And then we have the Microsoft XboxOne announce yesterday, a hulking beast of a console which comes bundled with a Kinect 2.0, which also looks to be fucking huge. Microsoft have gone the way of attempting to replace your TV box, and whilst this may work in theory, im not sure how many people would be willing to go out of their way and make that change - most tech-savvy people nowadays stream or download their TV from the internet, and those who aren't tech-savvy.... you think they're gonna want to replace their cable box with a games console?
An inside look at xboxone development included this line - "We purposefully did not target the highest end graphics. We targeted it more as a broad entertainment play." - Im sure i've heard this sort of argument somewhere else before about a console that isn't doing so well right now.
Most are presuming that the underwhelming graphical power is because of the physical cost of bundling a Kinect2 with every console (and not charging $799 for the thing), presumably the Kinect and all of its fancy motion gesture and voice command things will also be pulling computational power from the console itself at all times Anyone who saw the conference will likely agree that Call of Duty Ghosts didn't look all that great really, it looked slightly above current Gen console level, and probably still behind the graphical quality we can see in games like Battlefield 3 on highest on PC.
also. nobody gives a shit about the scar on the dogs nose. Like seriously? That's your cutting edge technology? High res textures?
And then there are the other problems....
- No used games (without extra activation costs)
- Necessity to be online at least once every 24 hours
- DDR3 as opposed to sonys GDDR5
- Only 5 GB of ram (as 3gb is reserved for the '3 OS's ')
- No backwards compatability
- The shitty name
- Probably lots more.
Heres a rumored specs list taken from a sankaku article
PS4
・CPU: Jaguar 8 Core CPU @ 2.0GHz
・GPU: Radeon GPU @ 1.84TFLOPS
・Memory: 8GB GDDR5 @ 176GB/s
■Features:
・Backwards compatible with previous PS* games
・Can remote play on PSV
・PlayStation Eye
・Supposedly plays used games
・Est. price: $300-$500
・Has a Share button!
Xbox One
・CPU: Jaguar 8 Core CPU @ 1.6GHz
・GPU: D3D 11.1 GPU @ 1.2TFLOPS
・Memory: 8GB DDR3 @ 68GB/s
■Features:
・No backwards compatibility
・Now has Blu-ray & TV support, in the US at least
・Kinect
・Plays used games if you pay again
・Est. price: $300-$500
・Has Windows 8!
All rumors, but those hardware specifications seem like they will become outddated pretty damn quickly over the course of the next console cycle (which I would expect to last at least as long as the current one, if not longer - so 8+ years)
TLDR; E3 better be real fuckin' good Microsoft, and those 8 new IP's better kick ass.
Heres a video summary of the entire conference
And then we have the Microsoft XboxOne announce yesterday, a hulking beast of a console which comes bundled with a Kinect 2.0, which also looks to be fucking huge. Microsoft have gone the way of attempting to replace your TV box, and whilst this may work in theory, im not sure how many people would be willing to go out of their way and make that change - most tech-savvy people nowadays stream or download their TV from the internet, and those who aren't tech-savvy.... you think they're gonna want to replace their cable box with a games console?
An inside look at xboxone development included this line - "We purposefully did not target the highest end graphics. We targeted it more as a broad entertainment play." - Im sure i've heard this sort of argument somewhere else before about a console that isn't doing so well right now.
Most are presuming that the underwhelming graphical power is because of the physical cost of bundling a Kinect2 with every console (and not charging $799 for the thing), presumably the Kinect and all of its fancy motion gesture and voice command things will also be pulling computational power from the console itself at all times Anyone who saw the conference will likely agree that Call of Duty Ghosts didn't look all that great really, it looked slightly above current Gen console level, and probably still behind the graphical quality we can see in games like Battlefield 3 on highest on PC.
also. nobody gives a shit about the scar on the dogs nose. Like seriously? That's your cutting edge technology? High res textures?
And then there are the other problems....
- No used games (without extra activation costs)
- Necessity to be online at least once every 24 hours
- DDR3 as opposed to sonys GDDR5
- Only 5 GB of ram (as 3gb is reserved for the '3 OS's ')
- No backwards compatability
- The shitty name
- Probably lots more.
Heres a rumored specs list taken from a sankaku article
PS4
・CPU: Jaguar 8 Core CPU @ 2.0GHz
・GPU: Radeon GPU @ 1.84TFLOPS
・Memory: 8GB GDDR5 @ 176GB/s
■Features:
・Backwards compatible with previous PS* games
・Can remote play on PSV
・PlayStation Eye
・Supposedly plays used games
・Est. price: $300-$500
・Has a Share button!
Xbox One
・CPU: Jaguar 8 Core CPU @ 1.6GHz
・GPU: D3D 11.1 GPU @ 1.2TFLOPS
・Memory: 8GB DDR3 @ 68GB/s
■Features:
・No backwards compatibility
・Now has Blu-ray & TV support, in the US at least
・Kinect
・Plays used games if you pay again
・Est. price: $300-$500
・Has Windows 8!
All rumors, but those hardware specifications seem like they will become outddated pretty damn quickly over the course of the next console cycle (which I would expect to last at least as long as the current one, if not longer - so 8+ years)
TLDR; E3 better be real fuckin' good Microsoft, and those 8 new IP's better kick ass.
Heres a video summary of the entire conference
Sunday, 19 May 2013
Project Burst
So we've been sort of working on our little game project, we may get a development blog up eventually if Dilly feels like it (since he's weblord, I could always start up a wordpress blog if not but we'll see).
Its slowly starting to come together, so far we have a studio name, game name and have a fair idea on the primary mechanics and hooks for gameplay.
We're currently working on story, levels, artstyle and I think (or hope) one of our talented (lol) programming team will start slowly getting something together.
Once we have story and levels, i'll probably be doing level design, world, enemy ideas, bosses, etc.
Im quite looking forward to being able to let my mind run loose a little and actually think up stuff that I actually have a passion for.
In the meantime, here's how my Maya is progressing.
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| First item I tried making. Beamsword style weapon, inspired a little by Travis's weapon from no more heroes. I would hope it makes a satisfying FWISHSHHH noise upon firing up. |
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| Second item, got to experiment around a little more with cuboidal objects, and learned how to round off/smooth objects. Its very roughly modelled upon a Glock 18C but hell, all handguns look the same really. |
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| Starting to get into big boy league. Im pretty fucking proud of this one considering the amount of time i've been using Maya, and the training i've had on it. Its an autoshotgun concepted from scratch, with inspiration from numerous other shotguns. The problem with designing army based weaponry is that its hard to think up something new that doesn't look retarded. |
Saturday, 18 May 2013
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