Left 4 Dead - Preview

As some of my very few readers may know, I have an epic hard on for all things zombie. Movies, books, games. Doesn't matter. I eat that shit up. My infatuation with the genre started after seeing Night of the Living Dead when I was kid and has only grown over the years. The Resident Evil series has provided a decent filler for my gaming needs, though game companies seem to avoid the zombie genre more often than not. Dead Rising is a very excellent attempt of a free-form zombie game but left me wanting more. More as in, cooperative game play. A group of survivors playing together and working together to survive against the horde of undead. A few years back, the RE series tried it with their Outbreak series on the PS2, which I never got to play but I heard was not that well done. According to the wiki page, Capcom shut down its multiplayer servers some time ago. Either way, it was the step I was hoping a zombie game would take.

About a year ago or so, I heard about Left 4 Dead and instantly added it to my gamer radar. The idea is basic enough, but it is also what I have been hoping for. The game is all about the cooperative play. You pick the role of one of four survivors, join up with the other three and together you must make it through 5 different maps to beat the scenario. According to various interviews over at Gametrailers.com these scenarios will take about an hour to finish, but no promises that all of the four players will be alive at the end. Its so damned sexy, I can't begin to describe it. Not only will you be playing with a small group, you are also able to play as the big nasty bosses. Four types of bigger, nastier and vicious zombies with special powers and their only purpose is to ruin the day of the survivors.

What makes this even hotter, though, is the GM AI the developer is putting in the game. The entire purpose is to make sure that no two games are ever played exactly the same way. This GM AI will spawn zombies at random places, at random times and in random numbers. One play through may have you facing a horde coming from inside a house and the next, the house is empty and you have to face a horde coming in. It sounds sweet and looks sweet from the gameplay videos in the above link. It is also stated that friendly fire is active and varying in the amount of damage done based on the difficulty, so watching your fire is going to be a key to surviving a rushing horde of undead. The entire idea is that at no point are you, or your fellow survivors, safe. It also keys on team work. Rushing off on your own and expecting to survive is a bad idea. There are trackers put into the game so you know who you can trust based on previous play. Someone is all about team killing? You can boot em. Find someone who heals alot but maybe shoots you to often? Tough choice. In a gamer world filled with douche bags, jack asses and fucktards, you have to wonder how often you will find players who hurt your chances of survival rather than help.

So I will keep my eye on this game over the coming months. release dates have been pushed back a few times and right now the best time is "some day in 2008", which is great but we still have a good chunk of 2008 to get through. Of course, I would rather wait longer for a polished version than play it now when its not done.

Grand Theft Auto IV

Rockstar is at it again. Their big time title has a follow up that has a lot of hype to live up to. The game has been out nearly two weeks now and a lot of people have beaten it, spoilers are abound and the cheat codes are out there. You won't find any of that here.

Like the previous GTA games, the world is large and you have the freedom to go where ever and do what ever you want. This time, instead of a reformed gangbanger in the 90s or a small crook in the 80s, Rockstar brings you to the modern day, or something like it. You play as Niko Bellic, former solider, people smuggler and now illegal immigrant in New Yo...er Liberty City. You are fresh off the boat, with the American dream in the front of your mind and your cousins emails of penthouses, fast cars and faster women swimming through your head. The reality of the situation quickly reveals itself and you embark on a quest to make it big in America.

There have been some major changes since GTA: San Andreas. The driving is the most obvious. No longer can you hit the e-brake and slide around corners. Going fast is almost not worth the risk of the big wreak you will get into. Many call the driving more realistic and while I have no idea if it is, it is harder. Combat as gotten a small upgrade with the auto targeting system and with some practice, you can take on a number of baddies with the auto targeting system. You also have the benefit of cover. A lot of cover in fact. Almost everything in the game can be used as effective cover and it is helpful. I have found, though, that the auto target gets iffy when the heat rises up and things can get away from you really quickly.

The biggest change, in my mind, is the cops. The LCPD will be all over you after two stars and it gets worse and worse from there. In the previous versions of the game, part of the fun was pissing off the cops and having an extended fire fight with them till you jacked a tank and went on a rampage. I havent messed with the cops long enough to see if tanks are even an option anymore. It is very very difficult to survive in the early stages of the game against a 4 star rating due to limited weapons. Even when you have access to the full compliment of weapons, its hard. Cops will swarm you, shooting away with accuracy and no concern for the amount of ammo they pump into you. One example of their eagerness to fuck your world up is this. I snagged a 4 star rating and had cops all over me. I had armor, ammo and I was in an ally with only one way in. Cops rushed me and caught me reloading, rifle butted me to the face and three or four of them unloaded shot guns into me. They don't fuck around.

Rockstar also removed some of the "RPG" elements that were in GTA: S.A. No more working out, being forced to eat, changing hair styles and so forth. There are different clothes but beyond the need for a suit in some missions, you could stay in the same clothes you start with and be fine. Sure, if you go on dates you will get insulted but as far as I could tell, it didnt affect how the date went.

While GTA: S.A. was MASSIVE in scale, GTA IV has shrunk things down. You do have the entirety of New Yor...I mean Liberty City to run around in, you are limited to the areas you can go to till they open up. This does limit the amount of places you are free to roam about for a good portion of the game but once it does open up, it can take some time to get from one side of the city to the other. Thankfully, there are a shit load of taxis you can hire to take you to where you want to go instantly, though it costs extra. The traffic in the city does make this option very attractive later in the game when money is not a concern.

While GTA IV loses all of the wide open spaces from GTA: S.A. the story telling, characters and over all plot has been improved. The characters, from the main character to bit players, are flushed out. It was said that missions would change every time you did them in some preview I read but that is not the case. Maybe the order in which you do some missions will change things but the actual mission goals do not change, only the conversations while you are driving around.

There are friendships and dating in GTA IV, some what like GTA: S.A. Each friendship you develop will have its bonus. One will get you free taxi rides, one will get you discounted weapons. I have ignored the dating side of the game but the one relationship I did build up gives me the ability to call her up and lose my wanted level, which is bad ass. Maybe once I finish the game and go into free roam, I will see what else is out there, but if you do not mind spending the time on dates and friendships, some of the bonuses are worth the time. The gun one is for sure, as is the losing your wanted level.

There is, as always, a shit load of stuff to keep you occupied in Liberty City. From dating, random missions for friends, playing mini-games (such as pool, bowling and darts), going to shows, comedy acts and even getting wasted. All of these cost you a little money and each of them is part of building your friendships or girlfriends. Some friends only want to do certain things, so try and remember who likes to do what. I am sure when you do the things they want, you earn their friendship faster. There are, still, the vigilante missions and so forth from previous games though they are abit more in depth than before.

So thats about it with out going into story details. The graphics are great, the sounds are well done. Liberty City feels like a real city and its always busy. You will not become bored while playing the game, though frustration with the driving and auto targeting may lead to nearly throwing your controller through the tv. The auto save, though, is frequent enough so you do not fall behind in the game should you turn off the console in anger.

Just don't piss off the cops.

LotRO follow up and trade skill talk

Alright. So the below post was a quickie review about Lord of the Rings Online. I had been playing for a few days but had not gotten to far. Now, I have myself a couple of characters and have become deeply interested in keeping my guys up-to-level-equipped with the trade skills. I have 3 characters, all capable of making the tier 2 weapons/armor for each class. I only bring this up because of a single reason.

I never really got into trade skills before. I ignored them in EQ, MxO and there was no trade skills in CoH. I did, for one character, get into the trade skills in WoW but got burnt out before I maxed leather working on my rogue.

LotRO has a very simple, clean and effective trade skill system. While in WoW you can pick two trade skills, mostly a gathering and production skill, LotRO has a very different set of skills. You pick a profession and with in that profession, there are three trade skills. Generally, you get one "production" skill, a gathering skill and something else. But you are always lacking at least ONE major component to the crafting aspect. Only tailoring and weapon smithing does not require you to have a secondary character to provide, or produce, the needed items to craft. Armor crafting and wood working all require crafted materials from another trade skill that you are not capable of making. While its fairly simple to throw together an alt, and the classes and starting areas are different enough to make having 3 or 4 before getting bored, the economy is so limited, its hard to buy the items you need.

I have noticed, though, that on the unoffical RP server, where I play, that people are generally nice. There are your d00ds that ruin shit for everyone but they are limited.

Example. There other night I could not sleep so I jumped on my champion to get him up to 20 so he could use heavy armor, a bow and become a bad motherfucker. While I was running around farming copper and tin, some random dude in Bree offered a free purple weapon, which I could use, and I took him up on it. After a few minutes after being given the weapon, instead of buying it for 30 silver, the guy sends me a tell and offers to craft me up two fine steel long swords. Now, the "fine" series of crafting is a one shot only item. You can't learn it and keep making them and they normally require some rare item from an elite/rare mob. This guy, who was 50, made me two of them. Now, the "fine" series of stuff always sells for 100+ silver in the AH. He gave me two, saved me 300 silver and a pair of weapon that would last me 6 levels easy. That shit don't happen in WoW.

So, again. Get the trial. Enjoy the game. Its a vastly different gaming world than WoW or EQ. Its a strange mix of each with its own flavor. One that is starting to grow on me.

Lord of the Rings Online: Shadows of Angmar

I have been playing MMOs since EQ first came out, which is not that rare considering the huge market that has emerged over the past couple years or so. Anyway, since the original EverQuest came out all those years ago, I have only really gotten into one other MMO since. Word of WarCraft. Now, this is nothing amazing considering there are tens of millions playing the game, but if you look at all the MMOs that have come out since EQ broke the market wide open, I have only really enjoyed 4. I have tried others but they all fell short of what EQ offered, what MxO could have been, what City of Heroes/Villians tried for and what WoW perfected.

Which is why I am surprised that I have enjoyed the last few days I have spent playing LotRO. I went into the free trial not expecting much at all. Only reason I even bothered with it was because I watched the movies again. So I took a crack at the game, did not do much research and just went into it to enjoy it, maybe kill some time while my friends were all occupied this past weekend with babies, wedding planning and being out of town.

So I popped in, fired up a hunter and entered J.R.R Tolkiens world. Now, I just got a beast of a new video card so the game was running full tilt graphics wise. I did not find the graphics to be as clean or as enjoyable as WoW but they are decent for what the game is. The sound is impressive, with lots of noises from the surrounding area, monsters, your character and little details that some developers miss. Still, even though the game is not as sharp as WoW in every aspect, it passes muster and doesnt distract like the graphics in EQ2.

Where LotRO really starts to shine is the story. There is no real "story" in WoW, nor was there in EQ. There was some vague back drop of a main story line but it was lacking and really was not that important. You just went along, doing quests, getting loot and leveling up. Atleast in EQ, there was roleplay to be found all over the place, which is why I loved the game. WoW, it was the game play, the graphics and the ability to log on for an hour or two, knock out some quests and log off again. LotRO manages to recreate that feeling easily. You can jump on, do a few quests and log off. Even the big event quests don't take long and, so far, I have been able to do them alone.

The classes are interesting, as are the races different bonuses and negatives. The starting stories, atleast for humans and elves, is very different and gets you into the main story line quickly. Where in most games I will take up a rogue or thief type class, I have yet to really try the bandit class yet. So I can't really delve to deep into the real differences between the various classes, though the hunter class is pretty powerful. I have not really enjoyed the Captain class much and I HATE starting over again when the starting quests are the same, so I havent tried anything else.

Overall, I suggest any one who has started to stray away from MMOs for single player games or shooters to give the free trial a shot. LotRO takes a formula that has been perfected in WoW and gives it a enough twist to not be a clone. Its original as a MMO can be now-a-days and keeps you interested. If you can get past the vastness of the world once you get out of the newbie area, find a good kinship (guild) or even a few people to group with every once and while, I can see LotRO keeping things fun for a while.

Just so long as you don't treat it like a grind and burn yourself out.

Company of Heroes

Company of Heroes is a RTS based in WW2. Taking control of Able company, you are able to command squads of soliders during major battles in WW2. From D-Day on Normandy to the end of the war, this title manages to do what many RTS games have tried and failed. I view this game as a worthy re-visioning of Close Combat, one of the best WW2 themed RTS games ever made.

Graphics:

This game is fucking beautiful, if your rig can manage it. I run a GeForce 7600 with 1gig of ram and I get hic-ups in the frame rate every few minutes for about 5-10 seconds. This happens during in-game video and during game play, though it may be something else going on in my system. With all the up-dates, the slow downs have decreased in length and severity. Point is, the game kicks ass. With the newest patch in effect, the game is able to take advantage of DX 10, which I can not use but the screens look beautiful. Hands down, this is one of the best lookin RTS games on the market. Explosions, soliders, buildings, tanks and water are kick ass.

Gameplay:

The games missions give you a variety of starting conditions. From having a base of operations and the ability to expand your base, to limited amounts of soliders at your control. Despite the various starting conditions, the missions are fairly cut-and-paste. Defeat the germans, secure resource locations and dont lose all your men. While there are various secondary missions that can be done during the game, you are awarded metals for finishing these side missions but they are not core to the game, nor do they seem to unlock anything extra.

You do get a variety of troops during the missions though. Riflemen are your basic grunts, Airborn are slightly better armed and trained and Army Rangers are the cream of the crop. You also get a decent choice of tanks and other vehicles that are able to be produced and they are devestating against infantry. they are not, though, invulnerable. While the German AI does not seem to try all that hard to take out your armor, your troops are easily able to blow up enemy armor with sticky bombs, recoiless rifles, bazookas and other AT weapons.

Your troops will all start fairly basicly, but during missions you are able to secure weapons that the Germans either drop or leave laying around. A Airborn company can sacrifice three soliders to become a MG crew or mortar crew. You are also able to pick up light MGs, bazookas and Panzerwhatsits to give your troops an edge in taking down armor and buildings.

One REALLY cool aspect of the game is that everything is destructable. While your troops may be hiding behind a wall have great cover, a decent sized explosion, or a vehicle, can destroy the cover and leave your men with thier asses in the air. Cars, boxs, rubble, buildings. It can all be destroyed.

As you play out the mission, you are given command points as you gain experience, which is gained by killing enemy troops, taking resource points, building defensive structures and other things. With these command points, you are able to call in air strikes, mortar fire, artillery, ship-based bombardment, special troops, equipment and other things. These "power ups" can be very helpful, though the best ones take alot of command points and take some time to earn them.

I really cant say enough positive things about the game play. Its all REALLY fun. Your squads gain exp for killing enemy units and will become tougher, have higher morale and become more accurate as the mission progresses. You are able to build a building that will have some previous veteran squads avaiable should you want to spend the extra points to pull them up.

Storyline:

Well, its WW2. Its been done to death. I dont know what happens if you lose a mission yet, but I would imagine that you start the mission over. Its standard WW2 fair though, but it doesnt SEEM old.


Controls:

Well the game is almost all mouse based. Its fairly easy to keep track of your troops when things are not going hectic but in the bigger missions, things can become tough to keep track of. A pause feature would be MOST welcome in the game but that would also make it seem way to easy.

Replay:

I havent beaten the game yet but most games do not hold very high replay value to me. There is online play but I have not tried it yet either. I would imagine the on-line aspect of the game is solid after being out for awhile but you never know. I generally dont play any games online unless they are MMOs, so my exp is limited.

Over all:

Game is awesome. Buy it.

9.5/10

NCAA Football 2008

Remember NCAA 07 on the X-Box or PS2 last year? Total control over your team in legend mode, the ability to see who was coming at you from the sides and a game speed that gave you the chance to bust out huge plays fairly easy?

All that is gone. Taking from Madden 07 last year on the 360, EA has made it so you are able to only control your player. Need to make a huge stop in the 4th quarter but you are the quarter back? To bad, its up to the AI. All you can do is what your position can do, the rest is out of your hands. Through the SuperSim mode, you can jump right back to playing your guy again but watching some un-ranked team score 42 points against Texas, you start to wonder if it is balanced at all. While this does lend itself to the feel of playing on a college football team, it gets really old really fast. The total lack of control outside of your position gets very frustrating.

Though this is the largest sticking point for me, the game is probably awesome for nearly everyone else. The controls are solid, the hits look hard, the speed is set well and with a little luck and some skill, you can make huge plays. So far I have only gotten into college mode with a running back and a quarter back but you can test the waters of what ever position you want in legend mode during the high school state play offs. 4 games to get a feel of your position, how the plays work, the supersim works and is a good training period.

Frustating, though, is the lack of a college feel to the game. Gone is the dorm room from previous versions, which I felt lent some to the college experiance in 06 and 07. There are no shots of fans in the stands, no more crowd meter, no shots of the mascot cheering on the side lines and no cheer leaders. The actual "college" aspect of NCAA 08 is non-existant. It plays very similar to Madden 07 on the 360, atleast in terms of giving the feel of being a star.

Where the feel of the game is lacking, the actual game play is decent enough. As a RB, you will run into opposing players you never see coming thanks to the limited third person view. The camera does a decent job of staying with you but on plays where you go in motion, the camera gets lost and you can not see your player for a few seconds. Running the ball is well done with a host of options of getting around players, but I found, at least playing at Texas (ranked 5th in the polls for this game with a A ranked offence), your offensive line doesnt make holes very easy and your TEs and WR dont hold blocks for jack shit. I'd guess that about 35% of the time, you will be taken down in the back field before you can get going. As a QB, there is an option for calling audible at the line but the plays are limited. The coach called plays are mostly stock and dont vary much and plays will be called that dont make sense for the situation, atleast how I would call them atleast. You will see the same play called through out the game and it will fail every single time.

The graphics are good, the frame rate never suffers and the stadiums look fantastic.

All in all, though, NCAA 08 doesnt FEEL like a college football game. It feels more like a football game that is set in college but the college aspect if left alone. You dont get any thing cool during pre-game, such as seeing the impact players warming up from previous versions and the commentary is pretty much the same as it was in previous versions. EA did not add a lot of depth to the game what so ever. While I know that it is a video game and not supposed to feel like the real deal, I have felt that previous incarnations of the game did more justice to college football this this one.

EA still has a lot to learn, it seems, to putting out a solid football game on the next-gen systems. When I would rather go back and play 06 or 07 on a xbox or PS2, that is not a good sign.

Graphics: 8/10
Sound: 8/10
Gameplay: 5/10
Feel of a college football game: 2/10

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I posted this review on some forums I visit a while back. Actually, it was July of last year. Anyway, I re-read it and my review still sticks. EA sports has not been able to make a really solid football game for the 360 yet. People buy Madden because its Madden and because there is nothing else out there to choose from. I, though, have been playing NCAA Football for a long time, much like I have Madden and EAs NHL series.

What I have seen since their, failed in my opinion, attempts to bring a next gen football game to the 360 is a disturbing move away from what worked so well for the games in the past. I don't know about most people who play but I play for the "feel" of being a college or pro athlete. While some of the things in the NCAA series, such as studying and what not, seem a little over board, I enjoyed them. Having a dorm room, events to pick, crowds cheering on game day and so forth. I miss those aspects of previous versions and I wonder if they will be brought back.

I did, though, really enjoy the addition of 4 high school play off games to test your position and get a feel for the game. That was cool. Also, being able to take screen shots from your big plays and have a slide show of them at the main menu was kick ass. I hate hate hate hate the close up third person view EA has started using. Having no fucking clue who or what is on either side of you is frustrating.

Blargh! Ideas!

One of the main reasons I created this blog was to get ideas for games out of damn head and onto...e-paper. Obviously, I love games. I've loved games a long long time and I don't see that changing; but I am running into problems with the games that are being released now. One of the biggest problems I see is the release date on games that are going to be huge. Such as the GTA series and so forth. Game companies release their big seller during two times of the year. Either before summer hits or right before Christmas. Now, I know they do this because they want to make money and so on but really. Having bland and boring months of no decent games being released really drives me nuts. Its also a problem with our "Next-gen" series of game consoles. The PS3 really doesn't have any games on it that make me want to pick one up. The Wii has SOME but the control scheme just pisses me off.I fucking LOVED Nintendo when I was younger. The SNES is, hands down, the best console ever. After that, well. Nintendo seems to have taken a back seat. I may get into that in another post. Probably not. The 360, seemingly, is the dominate console on the market now. The most games, the best games and its graphics can't really be out shown by the PS3 at this point. Is the PS3 better? Maybe later but not now.

Anyway. My point here is simple. I have a fuck ton of ideas for games that, for some reason, have not been made or have failed at being what they could have been. I know the technology is there to make these games happen. Like a zombie survival type game that doesn't have an ending unless you want it to and a on-line portion of the game that runs like an MMO. Zombies are fucking awesome, look at the RE series or Dead Rising just as examples. People would buy that shit, people would PAY to play that. It would RULE!

Or what about a Star Wars MMO that is like KOTOR? HOW THE FUCK HAS THIS NOT BEEN MADE YET?!?! Star Wars Galaxies? Are you fucking shitting me? Screw that non-sense! Get me a MMO like KOTOR and I'm there. Fuck, get me my third KOTOR and I am there.

It just baffles me that these big name studios either won't make these games or haven't thought to do it yet. I mean really. A KOTOR MMO? The servers would be so fucked on the first day, its not funny. What about a Shadow Run MMO? I was fucking PUMPED when I heard they were making a SR game and then to find out it was pure shit? Oh fuck man. That pissed me off.

So game studios! Listen up! I am on my way but until then, you shit fuckers better get your acts together and make games people WANT to play. Making an Oblivion clone? Fuck off. Stop it. Trying to make a GTA clone? Eat a dick. Get with the program, listen to the people that pay you for your product and make some games people want to fucking play.