Game Review: Fable II (Xbox 360)

November 25th, 2008, 02:39 Posted By: Shadowblind

Fable II
Publisher: Microsoft
Developer: Lionhead Studios
Genre: Adventure RPG
System: Xbox 360 (exclusive)

Opening:
The original Fable was quite a controversial game. The game's creator Peter Molyneux had promised the world to gamers, and much of that promise went unfulfilled in the first game. The strange thing about it, was that although many of the features that were said to be in the game weren't, it still proved to be a very fun game, and the features that were in it were very innovative. The opposite of the scandal is true with Fable 2. This time around, Peter Molyneux under promised, and over delivered. Whereas Fable was a good game, Fable 2 takes everything from Fable, entirely new concepts, and a world ten times larger the the original, and expands upon it in every way imaginable. Funny, thrilling, emotional, and entirely too short, Fable 2 is everything people wanted it to be and then some.

Story
Like the original, Fable 2 is all about its satirical nature, that is, its very very funny. What makes it stand out from other "funny" games is that its GENUINELY funny in its nature. While containing a very serious plot and story, everything from the people to the expressions, which are basically your way of communicating to people, to the things that the characters say, it has a unique charm and humor to it.( A bit of an understatement; this is one of the most unique game worlds ever created, in part due to its charming atmosphere.) This atmosphere of Fable sets it apart from the countless other fairy-tale style games, and it truly gives it its own image and personality as a game. This is by and large the most endearing aspect of the game, and what will have you coming back for more, even after you've completed all the quests and the story. And about the story...

The original Fable had a rather weak story, although thats what in part made it so fun(Not many times had a game been made where you can choose which way a generic fairy tale will be told). Fable II's story, while by a good margin better, isn't great. What it boils down to is a rather generic story of a hero who must combine powers with 3 other heroes to save the world. Not so original. What makes it original, is how you can essentially choose the way the story is told.(For all I know you might be able to even kill the mains, I never tried.) Everything you do, even down to the small chores you did in the beginning of the game influence how the world is shaped for you and how the story and sub stories will play out. This also means you sometimes have to be careful as to what quests you don't do(For the most part, quests you do do won't mean the desolation of entire cities) Still, the story mode itself

Graphics
The graphical style for Fable 2 is one of those games that you could call art and not have Kojima slapping you across the face for it. If a game should have ever been called "art" due only on its visuals, Fable 2 is up there with Okami and Shadow of the Colossus. The bright and colorful vibrant shades during the daytime in such places as Bowerstone lake and Market make you entranced by the world as very few games have been able to accomplish before. Just as well, in contrast the dreary, dark and pale colors of such places as Wraithmarsh and The Bandit Coast give the game a true air of tense feeling. Its these great graphical styles that really suck you into the world, and make it a treat to just run through the roads and look at the world itself.

The game isn't so much technically impressive as it is creative. The graphics are simple, as are the water effects and most of the game. The magic is positively striking, but the effects do have some negative effects on the game. For instance, most massive level 5 spells will cause the game to slowdown for a few seconds. Nothing major, but defineatly an annoyance. The thing is, as colorful and fun-filled as the graphics are, the sheer lack of technicality in this age of gaming is disappointing. Also, when night falls on the forest levels and other levels where the color attracts you to them, the levels appear very drab and boring.

You can jump off this bridge, like most things.

Animations are something that needs work as well. Stiff looking attack and magic animations, and enemies are no different. Expressions are well done. The characters movements pertaining to interaction with your character, such as fear, joy, admiration, and most actions on the parts of the villagers just feel fake and hollow. Despite this, your characters animations are fantastic when it comes to the customization you can do. Instead of the animations being absolutely terrible to fit with all the different clothing possibilities you'll have, the animations stay the same, even if the same does need a bit of work.

Gameplay
Fable 2 has a very fun and repetitive combat system. That sentence about sums up what you'll be feeling by the combat. The thing about it is that it stays mostly fresh throughout the entire game. Its absolutely simple and has, as the creator pointed out, a one button combat system, yet the feeling of combat in the game doesn't get boring for a long while. This is due in part to the upgrades you can level up during the game. As you earn experience from killing enemies, you can use the experience to level up different areas of your character, such as power, skill, and will--or in other words, swords, guns, and magic. Each time you level these areas up, you gain a different skill in that area--whether its the ability to block an attack, zoom in on your gun, or get a far more powerful spell, the combat will stay fresh until you've unlocked everything that can be unlocked. Unfortunately, unlocking everything doesn't take a huge amount of time to do, so the combat may bore some people after a while. Its simple, which is a double edged blade in this case. Figuratively and literally. The control is responsive, though there are occasional hiccups during combat. Movement could be a little more fine tuned. But the choices for how you kill the enemy are still there. Tons of different weapons, both melee and range that have their own special attributes make it very fun to swap out weapons every so often and see how the battles will play out that way.

Also, leveling up your character in these three aspects will produce physical changes on your characters appearance as well. Level up power and you'll get buffer. Skill and you'll grow taller. Will and blue magic lines(which I thought looked kickass) will start appearing on your skin. For the most part, these changes are appealing in the game. The problem is, if you don't want these changes to occur but still want the benefits of that certain level, your outta luck. For example, if your playing as a female character and actually care about appearance in the game, then your not going to want to level up power much or you'll start to look like a berserker from Gears of War(i.e. like a freak). Or, if you don't want to be a Goliath looking creature you'll probably refrain from upgrading skill.

Thankfully, Lionhead seemed to come prepared for this. They split each group--skill,power,and will-- into 3 groups each. only one upgrade group within each group effects your characters appearance, and thats the group that determines the amount of damage they will do. And once you have legendary weapons with massive amounts of damage, you will no longer need those possibly-freaky enhancements. Just in case though, Lionhead made a feature where you can downgrade at any time, one of your upgrades. So if your extremely tall but want to be shorter again, simply downgrade that skill. Its simple.

Undead. What RPG would be complete without them.

Another feature that will effect your characters appearance is also one of the most innovative features in an RPG, that of the ability to choose your path in a non-linear fashion. Most of the actions you take in Albion will yeild you either Good or Bad karma. This can be anything from stealing random stuff from someones house or killing your spouse, to making a crowd of people upbeat by playing the lute to donating to the Temple of Light. The game lives up to its motto "For every action, a consequence. Who will you become?" But all these choices you make won't be for nothing, and many of them will certainly be very hard to make(especially if you plan on being good.) Depending on how evil or good you are, your physical appearance will change. You hair will become golden and you'll get a halo if your good. If your bad, your eyes will become red and you'll grow horns. There is also a more subtle layer of "good and evil", which is more of the grey area in between, called Purity and Corruption. Doing kind acts and eating good foods will give you purity points, which will make your character look attractive. Eating pies and meats all the time and charging your tenants massive rent will give you corruption, in turn making you fat and ugly. These features are where Fable 2 shines its brightest, and are one of the most fantastic innovations in an RPG in years.

There is also the world around you that reacts to your actions. For instance, if you go on a crime spree in a town and kill people, then crime and panic will break loose in the town. The economy will drop, and it will become a miserable place to be. On other other hand, if you spend tons of money there and charge your tenants less in that area, it begins to flourish, and the economy will skyrocket. People will love you more, and more people will begin to appear there. Your ability to influence and change the world around you as well as yourself is, too, a fantastic innovation that Fable 2 introduces well. Oh, and yes, P.M. was telling the truth when he said that you can buy everything in the game world of Fable. Pretty much, everything.

Sound:
A good bit of the music is recycled from the original Fable with minor changes in what instruments seem to be used to play the song. Still, the music sounds like orchestral music, which fits the game's "epic fairy tale" premise well. Sound effects are nice and varied; different blades and guns yeild different sounds, as well as each different spell you cast. The sound also helps the world come alive to you, as this game plays fantastic in Dolby 5.1(Lets give a round of applause to Thomas, who let me test his surround sound to the point of almost breaking it. Sorry Tom.)

The game also runs on some fantastic voice overs. Each NPC has some well written and executed lspeech they want to say to you, and the greatest thing about the VOs is that they are done comically, like the rest of the game. In fact, I'd be willing to go so far as to say that without the VOs being as funny as they are, the game simply would be far more boring. At least to your ears it would be.

When a game manages to make hopping fences fun, you know its good. Fable II is good.

Replayability:
The game's story takes about a mere 12 hours to finish. But to be perfectly honest, thats not what your gonna be doing most of the time anyway. After opening all the doors, buying all the property, spending a good while at the crucible and finishing most of the quests, I found that I had taken about 50 hours, give or take a few. That means, after basically finishing the game, it took a good deal of time to accomplish. This really isn't much in the way of Oblivion or a JRPG, but its fairly long.

Co-op won't have you running back for more. Playing with a friend whos right beside you will end up being more funthen the online co-op. This is due to a number of reasons. First off, the joining player can't play as his character, only a premade one. Second, your Skill powers get flushed down the drain. Third, if your "friend" is bored, he can just as easily slaughter a very important character who you can never get back. And fourth is the lag. Lots of lag. Stupendous ammounts I have experianced in fact. If you can get over these issues, then you may yet have some fun here. Well....

Closing Comments:
In all honesty, I love this game to death now. Pretty much one of the only games I've really went back and did all the side quests after finishing the story mode. I bought this game with moderate expectaions, which made it a pleasent surprise to find out it was worth the money. But I won't lie; errors and glitches mess this game up badly. If you can get over those errors though, you'll find an experiance deeper then any RPG or JRPG you've played in the last ten years.

Major Selling points:
-Fantastic and colorful graphics
-Addictive Combat system
-Ability to play the game on your own path, and be as good or evil as you want to be.
-Lots of cutomization and choices that reflect on your character
-Wide, open freeroam world
-Huge game; many quests and things to do

Major Breaking Points:
-Lots of technical hiccups
-Co-op sucks
-Story mode is a bit short

Final Scoring:
Graphics: 4.5
Story: 4
Gameplay: 5
Sound: 4.5
Replayability: 4

Overall Score:

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Review: Acekard 2.1 DS MicroSDHC SLOT-1

November 24th, 2008, 17:31 Posted By: bandit

Acekard 2.1 DS MicroSDHC SLOT-1
Manufacturer: Acekard
Site: Buy from DealExtreme / Buy from Acekard.ca / Buy from Acekard.ca (+2GB Combo) / Buy from Acekard.ca (+4GB Combo) / Buy from Acekard.ca (+8GB Combo)
Price: $32.00-$55.00

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Review: Shredmaster Hero on Tour Controller

November 24th, 2008, 16:52 Posted By: bandit

Shredmaster Hero on Tour Controller
Manufacturer: Nexilux
Site: Buy from TotalConsole
Price: $14.99

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Game Review: Feeding Frenzy 2: Shipwreck Showdown (XBLA)

November 23rd, 2008, 07:30 Posted By: Shadowblind

Feeding Frenzy 2: ShipWreck Showdown
Publisher: Oberon media
Developer: Sprout Games
Genre: Arcade Action
System: Xbox 360 (Xbox LIVE)

Overview:
Big fish eats small fish. Its a fact of life, and is a saying that well explains the worlds state of life. Feeding Frenzy takes this saying quite literally, as you play as a fish in the big sea whose only purpose is to eat small fish and became a big fish to eat even bigger fish. Sounds simple right? Well it is, almost too much so. The game isn't broken(well, controls may be) but it certainly does what its supposed to, if by 'supposed to' means bore you in little over an hour.

Gameplay:
The gameplay revolves around trying to devour other smaller fish and grow larger, so that you can eat the larger fish. Thats the formula for every level you play, except for the occasional bonus level which has you doing some some mini game to attain a higher score. The thing is, its all been down before, and in 1995 at that. Playing this game reminded me of a lesser quality version of Odell Down Under, a similar game where the gameplay is nearly identical. However, Feeding Frenzy is far more simplistic. There is usually only a single type of fish you are able to eat, and that will, for most at least, get extremely boring as the game progresses, since there is really no change to gameplay. This results in a very repetitive experience all throughout story mode, as there is far too little depth in the game to really hold anyone other then a casual gamer's interest for very long. The 'not-so-different' special levels you do every so often do little to keep your interest.

The controls are quite a mess. Constantly, you'll end up drifting into the mouth of a bigger fish on accident because of the Astroids-style drift that happens after releasing the controller stick. It also makes devouring small fish a pain, at least until you get the Vacuum ability to suck up fish.

The good news is there is co-op, and if you have a relative who doesn't generally like video games, this is a great game that can be played with them. The game's difficulty is easy and its learning curve is non-existant. Just try to make sure your friend or family doesn't fall asleep while playing it.

Try doing this for just 10 levels and see if your not sick of it.

Graphics:
The charming underwater theme of the game fits very well with the mood of the game. Vibrant and colorful, but all too bland and reptitive. The backgrounds repeat, the same fish sprites are used constantly, and all in all its just becomes boring after the 15th level of the same background and fish. I guess the solution Sprout games used for this was to invert the fish colors every so often. Meh.

Sound:
The tranquil music does its work, like the rest of the game, to make you feel tired, and sort of relaxed. The creepy sound effect you hear of the guy saying "Feeding Frenzy" is more likely to scare you then relax you though. Sound effects for eating fish will get annoying after a few hours of continuous play, but hey, at least they didn't have you hear the fish screaming bloody murder every time you eat them.

Closing comments:
Feeding Frenzy is one of those games that your sister would play on an internet game site rather then a game you'd be wanting to spend money for. After all, there are some almost identical flash games you could play at no cost. I suppose Feeding Frenzy's biggest offense that it commits is just not being all that fun, even though it generally does what its supposed to. Which I suppose, is make you get very drowzy.

Story: N/A
Graphics: 2/5
Sound: 1/5
Gameplay: 1/5
Replayability: 2/5

OVERALL: 1/5

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Game Review: Call Of Duty: World At War (Xbox 360)

November 22nd, 2008, 23:07 Posted By: fg-54


Developer: Treyarch
Publisher: Activision
Players: 1-18 (2-4 co-op)
Genre: FPS
Price: $59.99
Reviewed On: Xbox 360
ESRB:

__________________________

Overview: It seems like every year, a new call of duty game comes out during the holiday seasons, how does this one stand out from the rest? I really have no idea because I have never played a COD game before, so this year I am jumping in and heading out to see what all the fuzz is about in this bullet packed FPS. (CAUTION: DOES NOT CONTAIN ACTUAL BULLETS!)

Gameplay: There is no denying that WWII games have been done quite too many times, and for gamers that have been keeping up with the franchise this may be a good or bad thing, this is still Call Of Duty in every single way so if you didn't like the old ones, there is a slim chance that you will enjoy this one.
What REALLY sets this one aside from the rest is an extra game option you unlock after beating the game where you are stuck inside a house and an unlimited number of waves of nazy zombies, they can come into your house but they have to break walls and wood that covers windows first. You can re-build any barrier, buy new weapons, and expand your ground, tho when you expand your ground, you also increase the number of gaps that may lay in your home for zombies to come in. The zombies get faster and stronger as the waves go by making your initial guns useless against them, guns that use to kill them with one shot will later take 2, 3, 5, 7 shots to kill them after a few waves go by, tho a head shot will always blow them up, it is alot harder to do so when they are running at you by the bunch. this is a great experience specially with friends, but I do wish they had expanded a bit more in it, there is only one type of zombie and the house is pretty small, also, it is great to have a small group so that team work becomes easier to achieve, but having about ten guys in a house kicking zombie butt would have been cool too.

The flame thrower is a blast to use on enemies.

Now on to multiplayer, this game supports up to 18 players which is great, you have to constantly watch your back or else you will die easily, I learned this thanks to an awesome death cam that puts you in the eyes of your opponent seconds before your defeat, and sure enough, most of my deaths were caused by enemies whom i did not see mys self, if you learn from the mistakes that the death cam shows you, you will quickly be able to dominate the grounds. The ranking system on Call Of Duty: World At War is great, you level up constantly and get great rewards, from new weapons to perks that you can add to your character to give him more health or make his bullets inflict more damage, after you reach level four you can create your own class to fully be able to customize your character to fit your gameplay style.
The AI can be very dumb at times which takes away from the experience, sometimes I feel like i am just target practicing due to the fact that they just aim at me and wait for me to shoot at them, sometimes you can even stay behind them or follow them for long periods of times before they notice you which is odd because this could have possibly been done on purpose to encourage you to be stealthy in certain areas, but if they did, they need to fix it because even I would notice people when they are running behind me or starring at me with a gun few feet away from me.
Your team mates are no better, you will often see them shooting at walls just because there is an enemy at the other side of it, I once saw a squad member run sideways across an opened door and once the opening was over he started to shoot at the wall, it was quite a late reaction.
Any time you are at your feet (not on a tank or something) your gameplay will most likely consist of the following: walk around, get ambushed, hide behind something, come out to shoot at your enemies and get back in cover once you have taken enough hits, and then go to the next area, this is all good at first but after a while you start to notice this pattern.

The loading times are covered up by a mix between real live footage, and CG content, it always loads up before the introduction is finished and you are free to skip it afterward tho some of them are quite interesting and you may want to watch each at least once.
There is an icon on the bottom left of the screen where the map is located that tells you where to go, this way, you will never get lost which is a great touch, tho not completely necessary due to the fact that this game is very linear, tho this simply further escorts you to your next checkpoint.
Most of the achievements have to be done alone, which is a shame because normally you have the option gain achievements ether solo or with a friend, and who doesn't love to grab a friend and go achievement hunting right?
Aside from the regular gameplay where you run around and shoot there are only two missions that have you doing something differently and they are both short, one of them takes you inside a flame throwing tank that can self-regenerate somehow and while its nice to have a completely new mission and all, this particular one was not all that fun, and then there is the other mission that puts you inside a plane where you will have to shoot down boats and plains, here you can only control and fire turrets and the game will ask you to change position every now and then to shoot at objects on the other side of the plain, this one is actually fun.

Can YOU guess what will happen next?

Graphics: Character models are well made and often go out of their regular behavior to do a scripted one such as opening a gate or killing captured enemies which is rare in games, there is a strange mixture between high res textures and low res ones, the grass for example has an incredibly high resolution texture for what it is, I crouched and zoomed in on it and it was still relatively smooth, yet when I was hiding behind what seemed to be a desk, the texture was low enough for me to see each pixel without having to zoom in on it, I had so walk away from it to figure out what it was.
Another thing that HAS to be pointed out is that the level of detail in the environments is amazing, the jungle is filled with numerous species of plants, and the buildings are filled with chairs, dirty walls, garbage, ect, not to mention that your battlefield is always changing, this keeps the game from getting repetitive too early. The fire effects are also excellent and the reactions from the flames are normally good too, except for the fact that I think there is only one animation for being burned, I once burned two enemies at once and they were mirroring each others movements perfectly.

Sound: The sound in this game is top notch, you hear bullets coming from every direction and hitting the ground or walls near you, solders screaming for their lives and dying, voice overs are good too but the lip sync can use alot of work, while you are in cover you can count on the sound of bullets hitting your cover to see when the enemy is reloading so you can pop out and lay a nice grenade on their feet to keep them warm. Overall the sound in this game is so great it improves the overall experience by a long shot.

Replay Value: The main story can be fully played in co-op and the online mode is great too, that is not even counting the great zombie survival extra that you unlock once you beat the game, tho you don't need to beat the game in order to play it if you have been invited by someone to play it, the regular multiplayer modes also have missions that you can choose to completely ignore or you can face them, this missions are small things like stab someone a certain amount of times and things like that, but one should never look at the teeth of a given horse, if it is there as an extra and is not mandatory then no reason to complain but to appreciate.

Conclusion: The game will last you about 6-10 hours depending on the difficulty level and your personal skill level, it takes 6.5 GB to install this game and it only shaved off about one or two seconds of loading time on my end, so unless you REALLY want to play Call Of Duty: World At War with a silent xbox you are gonna want to play this one from the disk, and its not like you will hear the xbox with all the sounds from guns, grenades, tanks, and people screaming.

This is why stabbing a knife with your stomach is a bad idea.

________________________________________

Overall Score:
.:Great Game!:.

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Hori makes GameCube style Classic Controller

November 21st, 2008, 17:12 Posted By: bandit

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Nyko Charge Station Quad

November 21st, 2008, 16:45 Posted By: bandit

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Game Review: Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots

November 21st, 2008, 16:43 Posted By: Noodle

*Wrote this for DarkSaviour a week ago to see if I was suitable; no pics or anything, just the review. Feedback from everyone else is welcome*



Few series titles inspire such fond memories and high expectations as Metal Gear Solid. Released in 1998 only to completely surprise everyone who really couldn’t at the time have understood the fuss Sony was making at an E3 where people could talk of little else than Final Fantasy VIII, Metal Gear Solid now sits close to the top on the list of best videogames of all time. The screens of guards decked out in white ski masks with baffling giant red exclamation marks suspended over their heads that were published in the games press following the expo did little to express just what Metal Gear Solid was all about. It was only by actually experiencing it first-hand that Metal Gear Solid’s importance in the development of the medium became clear: videogames had leapt forward in complexity and evolved, yet again. Metal Gear would not do this by some revolutionary new rendering process (although it was the third instalment in a series, and the first to be rendered in 3D); but by casting the player in the role of a more believable, developed and rounded character, thrown into an conflict against impossible odds; one that would plunge the world into peril should he fail to stop the plot of a group of terrorists planning on unleashing a new stealth nuclear weapon.

Ten years on, and we have seen two subsequent releases in the series; a sequel and a prequel. Both have their fans and critics; mostly due to Kojima’s unapologetically eclectic game design and storytelling style. This summer saw the release of the supposed last instalment in the Metal Gear Solid saga, ‘Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots’. It is Solid Snake’s first foray on the Playstation 3, and just how much of a leap in design and technology the stealth-em-up has taken on the new platform is what gamers will be most interested in finding out.

It’s always best to start a review with the positive aspects of a title (and there are plenty to be had in this game) so we will start with the actual gameplay.

Gameplay:
The gameplay is instantly familiar, not only for veterans of Solid Snake’s other sneaking missions, but for anyone who has played any FPS shooter of this generation (expect to depend on iron-sight aiming for most of the combat); or indeed Resident Evil 4, which has admittedly had its polished gameplay and ‘over the shoulder’ viewpoint pilfered by plenty of other games lately (this month’s ‘Dead Space’ for example). It is a pleasant surprise to find how solid and well implemented the controls and game mechanics are, especially considered the mess CQC brought to the table in ‘Snake Eater’. Old Snake has now had his move list increased to allow for greater control of the battlefield; Snake can now roll on his back to fire, conduct body searches on captured guards for ammunition and health items and even use the trusty MK.II robot (powered by Cell, kids) to shock snooping troopers up ahead or steal an extra clip or two for your cache.

For someone who misses the far simpler times (and inventory system) of ‘Metal Gear Solid’, the level of weapons customisation provides a good justification for the jolting interruption of the menu screen first implemented in ‘Snake Eater’, which is brought up with the ‘start’ button. Many of the dozens of weapons available can all receive between three and five additional parts, which ranges from scopes and laser dot sights, to shotgun attachments, flashlights and the perennial favourite, silencers (This is a stealth game, after all). This is great fun, and can drastically change how you play and what guns become your trusty favourites. It feels like you’re being granted real choice as to how to approach the way you play, which many games profess to but few actually deliver. The level of weapons customisation is so accomplished that you are left wondering why MGS4 is relatively alone in the endless number of shooters to offer this as an injection of diversity in gameplay.

Speaking of diversity, ‘Metal Gear Solid 4’ may at first glance (and possibly during your entire first play through) seem like a shooter, devoid of any of the innovation that made the original a classic. You’ll be so busy with all your new weaponry that it possibly won’t be until your second play-through that you begin to experiment with stealthier tactics involving both inventory items and the often numerous paths available to negotiate the environment. The good news is that these are as well implemented as the more direct approach, and add real variety to the second play-through.

The customisation and diversity doesn’t end there either, with plenty of ‘Octo-Camo’ customisation available to increase your ‘cover’ gauge from ‘Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater’, which has survived the change of platform and has not moved from the top right corner of the screen, now sitting snugly with the radar. The ‘Octo-Camo’, which featured prominently in all preview footage of the game, doesn’t disappoint. For the first 20 minutes of gameplay there is plenty of amusement to be had by hugging any surface with an interesting pattern to see how well it is reflected by your adaptive camouflage, especially if this is your first Playstation 3 title and are keen to see what the console is capable of. Mostly the tiled walls work best here, reproduced faithfully as the texture gets audibly pulled off the hard drive and mapped onto Snake’s suit (this only sort of justifies the 20 minute wait for the first act alone to install). There will be situations where a little suspension of disbelief is required when a guard walks right past you in broad daylight simply because your camo matches the wall you are crouched beside, but Metal Gear games have always had a silly bug or two. After the first completion of the game you are awarded with new bits and pieces for your sneaking suit, but you will have to work a lot harder for the bandanna and stealth camouflage than in other Metal Gear instalments.

Enemy A.I. can make or break a game of any genre, but it is particularly important in stealth games. In ‘Metal Gear Solid 4’, enemy A.I. proves to be a bit of a mixed bag. Thankfully, this doesn’t completely pull the gamer out of the world they are supposed to be destabilising, but rather has a knock-on effect of lowering the difficulty. This is primarily an assumedly unexpected effect of the introduction of guerrilla groups that dot many of the games environments. Their fight is not with you however, and allying yourself with them is done simply by taking out rival P.M.C squads in their line of sight. The potential of these new found allies is not particularly well implemented however, and they won’t throw you health replenishing rations (of which there are now three types, but far fewer to be found dotted around the maps) or open new routes and other things you will have come to expect from friendly N.P.C’s.

The confusion brought on by the A.I. only really arises when you look at the enemy behaviour. If you are familiar with the previous Metal Gear instalments, you will know that firing off a loud weapon in an occupied room or even silently killing a guard in the presence of another will launch the game into alert mode, sending squads at you from all directions like a sponge sucking up water. In ‘Guns of the Patriots’, the dynamic has changed, what with the P.M.C. groups already being aware of the guerillas, so if you can keep your distance from the P.M.C.’s and blend in well enough with the guerillas, you can happily blast away all day without an Alert Phase. You will either find this jarring or more refined and realistic.

Graphics:
The visuals of Metal Gear Solid 4 are naturally of a very high quality. With the advent of Playstation 3 Konami’s Team Metal Gear have at last been able to craft a war-zone with meticulous detail and faithful reproduction. Characters, weapons, vehicles and environments are all modelled and shaded to perfection, and there isn’t a blurry texture in sight. In particular the shader work on Raiden’s ‘please please love me’ ninja exoskeleton and Naomi Hunter’s wardrobe really give a taste of what the Playstation 3 is going to be capable of in its lifetime. The diffuse, specular and normal map textures really carry the characters past Metal Gear Solid 2’s plastic doll look.

You will either love or not particularly care for the art direction of Metal Gear Solid 4. Echoes of ‘Black Hawk Down’ abound with a slightly bleached out look to the environments due to the harshness of the glaring sun, which heavily constrasts with shadows. It renders the world in a more realistic light but in the rush to create a photorealistic world it seems the art team forgot to stylise much of anything. The current-gen staple motion blur is present here too and is well executed and further grounds the game in its realistic world. Particle effects like dust storms, snow, grenade explosions that blow the scorched soil (and bodies) into the air are expertly crafted and really add atmosphere.

Sound:
The sounds of ‘Guns of the Patriots’ are produced to a similar high quality, and people who have already bought into the HD Home Cinema revolution will benefit most. There’s very little to be said about the sound; the foley does its job well, the weapons, explosions and dialogue all sound as they should (if only there wasn’t so much of the latter). The score is underwhelming, especially if compared to Takanari Ishiyama’s superb original Metal Gear Solid’s soundtrack, and even Gregson-William’s previous scores for ‘Sons of Liberty’ and ‘Snake Eater’, and is only slightly better than the weakest Metal Gear offering, the blasphemous techno remixes of the Metal Gear Solid soundtrack for ‘Twin Snakes’.

Story:
The general enjoyment of this game only falls to pieces because of Kojima’s insistence on disregarding any criticism he has ever received regarding the stupefying length (and in recent games, blatant silliness) of dialogue heavy scenes. ‘Metal Gear Solid 3:Snake Eater’ felt like a tongue-in-cheek parody of a Metal Gear game, and while some of the deliberate ‘comedy’ is thankfully absent from ‘Guns of the Patriots’, it has been replaced by unintended idiocy. Prepare yourself for a convoluted and mostly unsatisfying end to the Metal Gear Solid saga. Whatever mysterious corners the writers of wrote themselves into in the last two games are instantly written-off as being caused by nanomachines, and instead of revelations regarding the Patriots there is only further confusion shovelled on to the towering pile of plot holes and abandoned twists. The individual backstories of the members of the ‘Beauty and the Beast’ unit that you will sporadically face throughout the game inspire some of the worst writing you will ever have ever been unfortunate enough to be subjected to in a videogame. The ‘Snake Eater’ plotline also has a detrimental effect on the story of ‘Guns of the Patriots’, and none of it is particularly worth knowing or watching twice. For all the dialogue in ‘Guns of the Patriots’ (and there are hours of it), there is very little actual information divulged or developments uncovered. The popularisation of motion capture in videogame cut-scenes has allowed Kojima to produce scenes three times the length for relatively little extra cost, but there is only about half as much information actually communicated in these scenes as there used to be, and much of it is ultimately forgettable rambling. You will find yourself resenting the characters you found so interesting and well developed in Metal Gear Solid, and there is one too many re-appearances of characters no one wanted to see return from ‘Sons of Liberty’ (with their own pointless and convoluted ‘secrets’ in tow).

And this is all before you take into account a scenario three quarters into the game which will leave most gamers chomping at the bit and almost guarantee the average gamer will never bother to finish the game twice. Taking over an hour on my second play-through, this tedious hide-and-seek mini-game through the drabbest location in the entire game not only shows the cracks in the A.I. programming but will bore the average gamer to tears. Worse still, even if you know where you will eventually end up during your second play-through, you will have to go through it all again anyway even if you steam on ahead. I won’t be doing it a third time.

Having said all this, there are scenarios towards the end that go some way redeem all of these shortcomings, and for any Metal Gear fan this is a game that must be played, and will be played, irrespective of what any reviewer on the planet says. It is not a bad game, but it could have been so much greater had Kojima actually looked back, played ‘Metal Gear Solid’, re-discovered what made it so great and transferred it to a console with as much potential as the Playstation 3.

Major Selling Points:

- Metal Gear Solid meets next-gen gameplay.
- More weapons than you would find in five shooters put together.
- The end to the Metal Gear Solid saga!

Major Breaking Points:

- Even more story to wade through.
- The story,scenes and dialogue are generally poor.

In Summary:

Story: 2/5

Sound: 3/5

Graphics: 4/5

Gameplay: 5/5

Replayability: 3/5

Overall:

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CycloDS Evolution on DSi

November 20th, 2008, 21:29 Posted By: bandit

TeamCyclops has come out and released a video stating that they were also able to get their CycloDS Evolution working on the new Nintendo DSi

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Acekard on Nintendo DSi

November 18th, 2008, 15:28 Posted By: bandit

It seems Acekard is the first flashcart team to be able to run a flashcart on the newly released DSi. Of course, Acekard is using their own flashcart. Although this shows some promise, there are still obstacles.

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