The Elder Scrolls : Skyrim

The latest in the Elder Scrolls Series - Skyrim. The hype for this one was insane. Memes , Soundtrack themes covers, videos and whatnot. But what surprised me the most, that people started telling their stories. Call me nostalgic but that kinda remembered me of the early dial-up era , when internet was a privlege and there were no gaming hubs on the web, when you needed to actually talk to fellow gamers about your journeys in the virtual world.

Having played the previous Elder Scrolls games (Morrowind and Oblivion) I can say that for me there is decent amount of novelty brough into Skyrim, but it somehow lacks the addictiveness. To elaborate :
The crafting system - which is something you do until you are able to craft the best weapon and then you almost never get back to it. The same can be said for the enchantment. It's kinda of a crach course to power. I can't recall I dabbled arround with it when I crafted the weapons I wanted.
The shouts - I never used them except for solving a few puzzles. They just never seemed like a tide-turner in battles mainly because they lack the damage output, so I stuck to good ol' sword and spell. That's the kind of player i am - practical. I never do stuff if a certain way if can do it in a more efficient one.

The gameplay on the other hand was impeccable. It works like it's supposed to be. although sometimes it can be annoying when the guards have no visual on you and yet they immediately know it's you who commited the crime, and instead running to the place of the crime they engage in a pursuit. Also , the interface could've been better. Constant switching and gear changes seriously hinder the fluidity of the gameplay. They could've done with some gear sets like gear set for thieving, gear set for trading etc.. instead, you have to manually equip the specific gear.

Regarding the story i have nothing to say. To be honest It kind of bores me, being set in some fantasy medieval surroundings, with all it usual cliches - poisoning, assasinations, treachery and loyalty, vendettas... I've done it so many times before in other games and Skyrim was kinda "Meh.."

Still, the world is vast and there's plenty stuff to explore and find out, but I think Fallout 3 offered much more interesting locations that seemed to form a stronger connection with me. Skyrim is not the best RPG ever but it's definitely a good game.

Deus Ex : Human Revolution

It's funny how some games drop the price more than others and there is no significant difference in quality (Yes I'm looking at you L.A. Noire). Before i continue i must say that i was a bit late for the original Deus Ex party, and hence i only have played for like 6-7 hrs or so, so all the comparisons to the original Deus Ex in the mixed reviews out there were kinda meaningless to me, but generally I knew what they were refering to.

With that said I want to point out a few things about this game. First, the game mechanics - It's really nothing new. The missions are resolved basically by a combination of several basic actions - disable guards and hide their bodies, hack computers, and look for air vent ducts. I know it looks limited and repetitive but in reality (okay, game reality) it's very well implemented. The buildings infrastructure is always different so the basic mechanics is complemented with substantial variety in enviroment, which requires quick switching of tactics and approach to the task at hand. Kinda like my first encounter with Tetris. A set of 2 actions resulting in so much fun. Well done.

A few short remarks about the story. I never got the impression that the player makes actual impact on the way things happen. It's like you always get from point A to point B in the story, but which route you take to get there is up to you. So the freedom of choice applies only to the methods but never the world itself (maybe a few different dialogue content but that's basically it). While I'm on the subject, the various dialogs based on person's character type was a fun thing for me. You get different responses by choosing the same dialogue options based on person's character traits (ex. if he's impulsive the chances are bigger that he'll respond with an outburst but then again he might not). So yeah, no walkthrough for these :)

I've heard tons of hate-speech about the boss battles, and though i must agree that they are a strange fit into the picture, for me, they were just the kind of variety I needed to break through all the hiding and sneaking.

All things considered, I enjoyed playing it. And I think so should you.

The Fallout stories

What i really want to talk about this one is actually the plausability and yet the huge diversity of the world depicted in Fallout 3. To be honest I’ve never experienced such a variety of situations you can stumble upon. That’s due mostly to the brilliant scenario, IMO. The choice of the setting is allowing practically limitless directions of development. Before I indulge, I just want to briefly describe the state of the world the game’s main storyline is taking place.

USA is engaged in war with China, and in the war reaches it’s escalation point when nukes start to fly destroying all, irradiating the entire Earth’s surface with massive radiation. People were forced to retreat to Fallout shelters that were built all over USA. After a certain amount of time they’re opened and people resurface to find entire new situation on the surface. The player is put in a role of one of the guys who comes out of the shelters.

First, this scenario offers a world of possibilities. People who stayed are suffering severe radiation symptoms (decay of the skin) and are shunned by the people who were not affected by the radiation. This actually makes a lot of sense, since the people who could not afford/couldn’t get to the Vaults were mostly farmers and in general people with low financial standing so in the chaos that followed the bombing they called upon their primal survival skills and employ unethical methods to continue their lives. Most of them, anyways…

The pinnacles of power are always formed around the money wells. The Enclave , who are self-proclaimed descendants of the US Government , (basically politicians and part of military) who are using the current situation to perform multitude of testing for their variety of agendas (creating super soldiers, silencing the speakers of the people or everyone with a potentially harmful opinion, eradicating their failed experiments with mutation) and the Brotherhood of Steel , which are essentially well organized technology scavengers ( formed also by part military/scientists) with an honor code embedded in their beliefs. There is also the mutants, who were actually humans infected with a virus developed by the Enclave, and a lot of other fractions - various AI’s and androids/robots , aliens, Raider gangs and groups  and whatnot. Add that to the fact that the world is on a crossroad, there are ideals and there are tools so basically everyone forges the world in his own direction.

So, back to my original point, basically just by providing a fruitful setting for the storyline quests and various situations the player can get himself into is tremendous. Every “what if” idea can sprawl a city/encounter on the map when that idea is brought to life ( and there are pretty awkward ones , like “What if I make my own state and name it after myself , where everyone does what I say” to the utopian ones like “What if we organized to defend people everywhere” ). To make the situation more real, every idealistic commune (a city or an organization) has individuals who think differently on the idea which they themselves are a part of. So you have a human-loving mutant, anti-slaver fighter with a knack for monetary, Brotherhood of steel member who does not share the zeal and enthusiasm of his fellows (a.k.a. he just works there) etc, etc..

All of the ideas implemented make sense and not seem “made up”.  But what’s more realistic is the painting of the humans as individuals in that big picture. For I think that in every human is the desire to be unique and at the same time the desire to be a part of something.  A game trait which for me (and whole lot of other people) is a solid base for building an immersive experience.     

NBA Jam : On Fire Edition

Take basketball, inject it with adrenaline and you get NBA Jam : On fire edition. The core mechanics is basically copied over from the original NBA Jam, like other various ports  (College Slam, NBA Hangtime etc.) but it's polished enough to match the current technology standards. So there is no surprise there: 2-on-2 matches, highly exaggerated dunks, the timing of steals/blocks, on-fire bonuses, the weird playable characters... Everything is there with much more increased dynamics which proportionally increases the fun factor.

The game offers various play modes that earn you jam points, which you then spent at the store bying/unlocking stuff. Though it serves as some kind of motivation, the pure joy of playing against a friend outweighs all, whether it's a co-op game or VS one. It's one of those "Holy sh*t it is midnight already" kinda games. Though, the AI routine is pretty much reworked so it's much more human-like, so playing solo is also interesting but it becomes predictable after a while.

Another thing that really contributes is the commentary. Tim Kitzrow's voice plus some of the most hilarious one liners i've heard are absolutely fantastic. He even sings in some rare occasions :) This just speaks more to the effort that is made to preserve the things that are(were) fun from the original and just tweak it a little bit to improve on certain points. Most of the improvements are made in gameplay (various powerups and match modes that favor certain strategy like 3 pointers , assisted dunks etc..) and the effect they achieve is a substantial increase of amusement.

On other hand, this can certainly be viewed as "squezing a buck from already great game" but at least with this one you get the old school sport action in HD. The price is definitely worth it.

8.5

King's Bounty : The Legend / Armored Princess

If i can single out the best 3 games ever made, the list will definitely contain Heroes of Might & Magic 3. It's such a perfect mix of cleverly made challenges that always kept me on my toes requiring careful planning strategy and optimizing combat effectiveness to beat the game (which I must say , I haven't done till this day :). It's no secret for me that King's Bounty : TL/AP feeds on the ideas used in Heroes of Might and Magic and the similar games, but actually the game is a spiritual sequel on the 1990's game King's Bounty (which I've never played). King's Bounty : The Legend also introduces some modification of the game segments that improve the overall player's experience.

King's Bounty : The Legend , and Armored Princess have too much similarities for me to make separate reviews for both games so whatever i say here goes for both games.

The player takes control of a hero general who explores the map in real time, and if a combat situation arises the time is stopped and combat is done in turn based manner. The combat itself can be easily described like some sort of modified chess version where the hero's troops take on the ones of the enemy. Of course, there's a billion things to take into account beside the raw combat stats of the unit, the unit's morale, the leadership of the hero, the special powers, strengths and weaknesses of the units, various magic and also randomized combat terrain with power up objects... The mechanism is not really that complicated, but it requires careful planning to make the most of the battle. The units can be of various appearances mostly represented by creatures from various mythologies, divided into several categories/races (Humans, Animals, Demonic, Elves...) but after the first encounter with them it's relatively easy to get to know their ability. That's basically combat mechanics 101. The fun part kicks in when the superb AI shows up. It is so cleverly done that it's designed to react differently to a different approach, so the battles are NEVER boring. Yes, in The Legend the enemy armies were largely consisted of same class (depending of the world/map the battle is taking place), so it's kinda lame to fight the same enemies over and over but it's corrected in Armored Princess.

Army management is just part of the story. The strategy part. The other one is the RPG. The hero can gain experience and level up, gaining talent points in 3 different trees magic, mind and might, each giving bonuses in different categories. The hero can also wear gear that improves his basic attributes (Attack, Defense and Knowledge) delegating the attack and defense benefits to it's commanding troops, and the Knowledge directly influences the effectiveness of the magic the hero uses in combat. Customizing specific gear to fit specific fighting styles or even single battles can be sometimes annoying but it's always fun to beat a challenge using your own intellectual prowess which is actually is a significant part of what gaming means.

This game is definitely among my top 10 games I've played, and I'm not sorry for every minute I've spent. If you're into RPGs and turn based strategies this one will definitely win you over. Just be sure to have some work vacation days available :)

10.0

Mafia 2

I'll just cut to the chase and say that I am very disapointed of this game. This coming from a guy who's played the first Mafia and find it one of the best games on the subject of crimeworks in general, if not ever. The game had it all - the cinematic appeal, the voice acting, the whole "mafia" mood, I can safely say that it was to games what The Godfather was to movies - a jewel.

Mafia 2 is almost like an exact copy of the first game, and it has all the "good stuff" but lacks the "for the first time" factor.

The storyline is best described with the caption of the last chapter "Per aspera ad astra", meaning that it describes the rise to power of a small time crook, to a key figure in the criminal world. Yes, the story has all the suspense, trust and betrayal, power struggles and everything but it's nothing new.

The gameplay mechanics is almost an exact copy from the first game, with a little touch from GTA. City map with various locations to explore, cars to steal, several different weapons and people to run over and everything does not pack much of a WOW, I think everyone would agree. Even the variety of the missions carries over from the previous game, torching the competition, illegal distribution and smuggling to the classic sleeping with the fishes kind. It's not that it isn't substantial , more that it isn't something new.

Also, overall the game is rather short.I finished it for like 10 hours or so, on Hard. I dunno what was I expecting, I guess I wanted something different, but instead i got the original Mafia. I think the "2" in the name is obsolete.

6.5

On RPG's : Open worlds and multiple choices

Open world, free roam and shit like that.
Many of the latest titles boast with this kind of stuff, but is it really worth it ? Does it impact the gameplay and overall improve the game?

IMHO, No. I get that there's plenty of stuff to do in an open world, but most of it due to unrelated-ness to the storyline or the lack of player motivation are deemed meaningless and kinda stupid. Let me elaborate, explaining some of the features of an open world.

1. You can go to any place in the map. I'm not even gonna elaborate the stupidness of this one . Yay, i climbed the mountain/ i reached top floor of that building / swam to that isle ... Bitch please.

2. You can kill random citizens. Yes you can. I can go on a killing spree and after 10 minutes of repeated massacres, I start to lose interest. Okay, it's very much possible, but it lacks purpose. I can kill enemies and get XP, or i can do that without the XP/get significantly less XP. What's the reasonable choice here?

3. Various mini-games. There are examples mostly present in rpg's . Poker Dice in Witcher , Quazi-blackjack in Mass Effect 2 , and many more. With these you can get monetary reward in terms on in-game currency , but due to the repetitive nature of the mini-games i never spend more than 30 mins AT BEST. The monetary reward was insignificant.

4. You can collect various in-game resources and afterwards sell them. That sounds awfully familiar. Farmville anyone ?

Not to be hater and all, but IMHO the openness of the world has 2 real benefits:

1. The possibility of making an error (Kill the wrong enemy , go to the wrong place, etc..) which is inherent ability of broadening the number of player choices. But due to the map navigation and automatic checkpoint marking that most games have, this possibility is effectively suppressed thus eliminating the purpose of the open game world.

2. The reward for exploring the unknown. Yes I'm talking about the Super-sword you get after going off the map and defeating/solving the puzzle of Demi-God X. Many of the old games had these moments, but nowadays, almost every game rewards the player with the best sword of the game after dealing with problems along the main storyline , so basically you don't need to waste time exploring, since you know that you'll get the real deal "by default". So the only real benefit from this is achieving it faster/easier. That's probably the best motivator when it comes to RPGs but i often feel cheated when i spend hour and a half for a piece of shit gear.


So for me at least , the open world implementations of modern games don't bring much to the table. I'm not into completely eliminating the open world option, just some adjustments need to be made here. Some other time ...

Batman : Arkham Asylum

Yo dawg, i heard you like Batman, so i recommend you the best Batman game.

When i think about it, I myself never had the "Batman phase" maybe cause I'm into superpowers and shit. But I cannot say that I havent watched all the movies and also the epic TV series with Adam West.

The thing that made me buy Batman : Arkham Asylum was all the cool fight videos, but I got quite more than i bargained for. Since the begining the game starts the storytelling of a what i think is a superb and truly Batman-like plot, with many of the well known characters making an appearance. Talking about the characters, the voice acting is beyond words. They bring the characters to life quite well. Also, the entire Arkham Asylum setting is extremely compelling.

The gameplay offers a wide variety of obstacles to overcome from sneaking, fighting, platform and some of them require a small amount of spatial reasoning. It's like you get 4 games in one with this one. The beauty of it, figuring them out really feels like you're Batman ( not that i know how's that like :). When i think about it, I spent a great deal of the game in detective mode, so there was a moment when a friend of mine thought i was fighting skeletons :)

What the game really takes to another level (IMHO) is the fighting/action part. I've never experienced such a great mix of quicktime events and fluid action. I mean it looks just like an action movie watching them from aside, but actually doing the combos is a MUST HAVE experience. The only thing that might use a bit work is the difficulty. I've played the game on Hard (hardest setting available) and I never played a segment more than 3 times over, and I'm really an average player when it comes to gaming. For a huge deal of them I was able to get on the first try. Also, maybe because of all the fun you have, it does seem a little bit short.

All these elements combined - an awesome pack of fun. I strongly recommend it!

9.0

Way of the samurai 3

It started with a random youtube search for gameplay videos of a samurai game. I wasn't impressed much, but i was aching for a decent beat'em-up so i put it on the list.

But this game is so much more. Way of the samurai 3 is truly a game about being a samurai, about the uncertainty of life, about self-improvement ( grinding comes to mind, but in a good way ) and last but not least - about skill. I've read all sorts of reviews on the net and most of them highly polarised. I can only speak for myself and for me it was truly captivating since I'm a fan of the samurai lore and I've got tons of anime and movies to prove it. My guess is the game appeals only to a certain group of people who share my interests.

Since the very beginning, i was plunged into a game with no commands list and didn't even know where to go, so I read the entire game manual (okay , only the english section). But the manual does not cover all of it, it just gives you a glance just enough to make you curious. There's a classic RPG vibe to the game progress, better weapons and more skills used in combos, weapon parts for customizing weapons and also a pleasant surprise - The difficulty. It is a great challenge if you're a no-walkthrough kinda player like myself and this game really offered a rejuvenation to my gamer self. The commands are relatively easy to get used to and you'll be having fun in no time.

Another thing that impressed me was the variety of endings. Truly an open perspective to the part of the world described in the storyline with all of the key figures having an influence in the overall outcome. I've rarely felt that I have that kind of impact of the things to come in any game. Ever. And yeah, the number is 21. 21 different endings.


If you're into swords and warrior codes and are up for a challenge, I strongly recommend Way of the samurai 3.

8.5

Assassin's Creed 2

Yeah, an(other) old one. What can I say, I guess I'm one of those guys that really gets his TODO Stack done. :)

I've never played an Assassin's Creed game so this was my first one in the series. The storyline is relatively captivating and slowly exposes the gameplay elements as you go. As for the storyline theme, I don't buy that Templar/Assassin shit in the first place so it's kind of a "Immerse Player Spell - Fail", but the game offers plenty of gameplay to compensate.

The Old Cities are very well translated into the game world, I looked it up a huge part of the buildings actually resemble the monuments that exist in the real world ( 10 points to Italy for monument conservation ), and I must add they look pretty awesome.

The gameplay offers a standard rogue scenario - Infiltrate, assassinate and in several occasions fight. What the game really shines is the usability of the interface. It's my first game of this kind and in 30 minutes I was already feeling like home. Excellent mapping of buttons-actions, extremely user friendly which is essential in this stealth like games that demand split-second actions. The equipment upgrade is also well done, though I didn't notice some drastical improvement over the initial weapon/armor sets in the actual gameplay.

The variety of missions tends to get repetitive, especially if you are a nitpicker and you finish every sidequest (like I am), but it's not to the extent of let's say Prototype.

All in all, it's fun and I asume it's more if you're into that Templar lore.

7.8

Gemini Rue

When i first saw this i screamed so hard that every jedi must've heard the disturbance in the force . As i watched the trailer all the King's quests , Police quests ,Indiana Jones's flashed before my eyes . Finally an old school adventure game!

Gemini Rue is as good as it gets , with the recent trend of re-making the older series (monkey island per se) into hi-def copies , truly a great refreshment of the if not extinct then slowly dying out genre. Classic point and click interface and cartoony drawn scenery spiced up with a pixelating touch make up for a truly nostalgic visuals .

Which kinda reminds me that Adventure games back then were all about storyline and intellectual challenges. What better way to integrate these two than a detective story. Here's when the action kicks in. At first i was skeptic about the action segments , but they do not ruin the gameplay at all they're just the right amount needed to break up the adventure stereotype. IMHO they're relatively easy and straightforward.

But , nostalgic atmosphere aside what i really liked about this one was the "game over" screen. Yes , it's so old school that you can actually die (and reload game). Sure , there is autosave feature so that you don't have to replay the game from the start , but it felt kinda nice.

All in all , If you ever get that craving for old school stuff , here's your portion.

8.0

Uncharted : Drake's Fortune

Right after i got my PS3, it came wiht Uncharted 2 bundle so i couldn't help myself and started playing it. It was a decent game, awesome gameplay, Holywood-y storyline and all-in-all great fun. Recently i got a copy of Uncharted : Drake's fortune, the original in the series, so i decided to give it a spin.

The similarities with it's successor are more than obvious (which is kinda logical, since it shares the same base characters and stereotypes). The game mechanics is the same or very similar, so the fuck-yeah factor while taking out enemies is always present, furthermore i noticed that the enemies are sort of smarter than the sequel. they take cover immediately and shoot only when covered by another enemy fire, which is kinda challenging. But it still conforms to my theory (Hard is the new easy) for the modern games.

The graphics is more or less (okay , less) acceptable for today's standards, the camera does it's work and is really blending with the action segment you're performing.
The characters are all there. The sarcastic comments of Nate and his sidekick Elena are an action game cliche, but Sully's one liners really light up the show.

Not much to say here, just if you're one of those who got right on Uncharted 2 you'll enjoy this one too.

8.0

Finally , an awesome mecha game!

Hawken , by Adhesive games.

What an awesome trailer , especially the moment where the sniper sits on top of a building and you can hardly distinguish him from the surroundings . The futuristic city in decay is marvelous , the combat is fun to watch . Too bad it's gonna be a First person shooter (I've made a resolution not to play FPS's on a console system , mostly because my experience with Bioshock and Borderlands).
But i might get it for PC , it has been aching for a good shooter.

Adhesive games , you go get'em.

Uncharted 2: Among Thieves

Though the game itself offers no originality (mostly a mixup of Tomb raider , Indiana Jones for PC ) it's still quite interesting . I guess the good ol' recipe that people never get tired of killing stuff does it's trick .

Aside the really good action sequences , there are some puzzles to solve , which are quite average , nothing with the "WOW" effect.
The storyline is mainly consisted of cliches and offers no variety of choices , but that's not what the game was intended to offer i suppose.

The multiplayer on the other hand is maybe one of the greatest i've seen . Many different modes , earn-money-improve system , brilliant . Alse relatively easy to find players for a game (at least i didn't have any problems with it) .

All in all , it surprised me , i thought most bundled games were crap , but this was something different. Strongly recommend it.

9.0

Betrayal at Krondor

I remember the days when i first got this game. It came free, in a magazine, so i was like "let's give it a shot". It kinda was the only way to go, since I realised later that the magazine was all in German :) It was my first encounter with a text-based RPG. Hell it was one of the several games i played on my 486 PC. I remember having pretty decent English language skills, but some of the words used in the game were yet unknown to me. So kept an English dictionary handy :)

The storyline was marvelous, with well-constructed characters each with their own distinguishable manners and stereotypes. But due to the variety of situations they're placed, you never get that feeling of boredom, or the "I know what he's gonna do next" kind. And my it was captivating. I never went out for a week .
As for the technical side, it was not much, rough images, blocks, low res.. But it could still visualize the narrative well. I didn't need much more. I had my own imagination there to help me :)
The sound was just some midi tunes, which got well with the ambient. Well, to say the truth, I don't give much to a good sound, I just need it not to be a distraction.

This game got my love for RPGs burning, and you always remember and appreciate your first love :)

9.5