Upcoming Games

This is a quick list of all the 09-10 game releases that I am anticipating, along with a 1-5 meter of how much I am anticipating it. Some of them I have written about previously, but here they all are in a convenint list.

Borderlands: An first person shooter that should combine intense shooting and RPG-like leveling with full Co-op play both locally and online. The game`s focus is on customizing, witbh more then 600,000 (!) weapons in the final product. You can also customize your vehicle and character with similar systems. Topping it all off is a terrain randomizer. While city locations remain the same, the area between cities will be different every time (supposedly without a load screen).

Anticipating 5/5

Lost Planet 2: Capcom took an interesting rout annuncing this game. They set up an announcemenon Xbox Live, but no one knew it was Lost Planet 2 until the video was released. The video showed 7 minutes from a game that looked like a finished product. The sequel to extreme condition looks to turn up the heat with a warmer climate for the player and his squad (the game is heavily focused on multiplayer) to fight through, facing both alien Akrid and snow pirates from the first game. The game should ship this winter.

Anticipating 4/5

Batman: Arkham Asylem: The Dark Knight's latest video game adventure is a stealth-based, atmosphere-filled trek into the island of Arkham. The game should involve open world explorations with preditory stealth action. Batman will use his gadgets to stay in the shadows and eliminate his foes carefully, or use a new multi-target combat system to take down his foes. Check out the videos online, they look great. The game should come out this september.

Anticipating 5/5

The Elder Scrolls V (Skyrim?): Virtually nothing is known about the newest installation of the best open-world RPG series ever, but with a game this big, I have to say something about it. Bethesda has said very little about the game, exept for saying that they ARE working on it. The last time I saw the Elder Scrolls was 2007's Shivering isles. I still play Oblivion, as it is one of the best games ever. In a side note, Bethesda recently copyrighted the name Skyrim, inciting rumers that TES5 would be called Skyrim.

Anticipating 5/5

Final Fantasy XIII: The latest of the perpetual line of final fantasy games (which are called a series, despite how they are all unrelated) does not look to be bringing any changes to the real time action of Final Fantasy XII, but should sharpen things up with some of the best graphics I have seen on the Xbox 360. I have never been a fan of turn based Final Fantasy, (the only FF I like is Dirge of Cerberus, an action game), but RPG fans can pick it up in May.

Anticipating 2/5

Assassins Creed II: The sequel to my current favorite game features a new hero and plot, and is based in Italy, with such cities as Rome and Venice. It should retain the open world gameplay of the first game while adding some additions to the combat, along with other general tweaks (see my post on it for a better description). I can not wait for its November-December release date.

Anticipating 6/5

Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen: Yes, it is a movie Tie-in, but a couple of things indicate that it may be above the normal level of terrible movie games. The game has a heavy focus on online multi-player. A few videos online suggedst a hectic team combat experiance. However, the videos also suggest that the game will be missing one of the best parts of the original, the destructable enviroments. It could be good, or it could be a waste of money. You can find out for yourself in late June.

Anticipating 3.5/5

The Beatles: Rock Band: While I love classic rock, I am not a fan of the Beatles. This is not because I do not like them, butt simply because I have never heard much of their music. I love Rock Bands, and I think a game based off them should be a great way to experiance their music for the first time. The game will take a diffferent path then Guitar Hero's band-centric games, with nothing but Beatles. The game will have downloadable tracks, but will not support any song transfers to your Rock Band 2 library. You can pick it up in september, as either a disk case or special edition, with special Beatles instruments.

Anticipating 4/5

Assassins Creed II

The sequel to one of the best games of 2007 has been anounced by Ubisoft to be released at the end of 2009. Assassins Creed 2 should come out on the Xbox 360, PS3, PC, PSP, and Wii (?) systems.

While little is known of the plot, the player will play as Ezio Auditore di Firenze, a Italian noble-turned-assassin whose family has been killed by rival clans. His mission will be to destroy those responsible for his families death, in the spirit of Altair (player character) in the first game, who is his ancestor. He will explore more cities then in the first game (Rome, Venice, and Florance have been confirmed), and will somehow interact with a artifact that a modern group is searching for.

The sequel should feature some new gameplay as well. Ezio can hide underwater, as long as he can hold his breath, which shuld work great in Venice. The one button combat of the original has been updated to allow the player to use enemy weapons. Also, more weapon variety will be present, with spears, knives, and maces (as well as others) usable in combat. Also, Ezio cannot automatically heal all wounds, as he will have to visit one of many street docters for serious injuries. Ezio will also be able to hide in more objects, and in any crowd. There are rumors of masks that Ezio can disgise himself with.

The side missions have been expanded, with sixteen total mission types. A day and night cycle has been added to the game as well.

Leanardo Da Vinci will feature in the game as well, as it is in 15th century Italy, and will supply the player a new hidden blade. There are also rumored glider wings that are hidden in Ezio's cloak.. The game also has a notority system, which causes guards to recognize you, unless you lower your notority.

Several videos featuring Da Vinci's scolls have been released, as well as a demo cover for the game. A few screenshots are available.

Terminator: Salvation review

I really wanted to love this game. It is based off a great movie, and has some great elements, but is consistently short. This hurts the game badly in the long run.

The game only has one option at first, to start the campaign. You pick a difficulty, and your off. The game is set in a ruined version of L.A., and follows John Conner's journey to rescue a group of men trapped behing enemy lines. He meets new friends (many who appear in the movie), and defies his superiors to save three men, because he believes that every life is sacred. The plot works as a prequel to the movie, and does a very good job of setting up the characters. It is a strong point for the game.

The gameplay itself is also very good. The game has a heavy focus on using tactics such as flanking to defeat your enemies. If you try to defeat the enemy head on you will lose every time, as the games main enemy, the spider, is heavely sheilded from the front, but has a exposed battery on the back. You have to work with your team to surround it and take it down from behind. Also, the variety of weapons in the game work differeently on different foes. The flying aerostat, for example, can avoid assult rifle blasts, but fall to a shotgun quickly. You will have to use your weapons wisely to succeed.

All of this flanking is done by the use of a clever new cover system that allows you to quickly move between covers with minimum exposure to enemy fire. It is intuitive and fun, and the areas are set up to allow you to chain cover hops together to get behind the enemy.

The rest of the game is quite good as well, and has some of the best tactical shooting I have ever played (even better then Ghost Recon).

The graphics are quite good, and the enviroments are consistantly well done, and immerse the player into the game. The AI is good, and the controls are response. The game looks like a sure hit.

Then it ends. After 6-8 hours of playing, the main plot is over, and you have no options, but to turn up the diffuculty and try again. While the game warrants a second playthrough, their is nothing else to do in the game. The levels are all linear, without any side objectives or easter eggs. There are not even any special acheivements, only ones for finishing the levels. The games appeal is basically over.

The game has one more hook, though. While it lacks any online play (Despite what the box says; it lies), it supports local 2 player co-op. This adds greatly to the replayability, and is very fun. The 2 player is the games best feature.

Salvation is a good game that was spoiled by a limited time frame. If the game had been released alongside the DVD release, it could have been awsome.

7.5/10 Great gameplay, short length. Worth a rent or used purchase. Only worth full price to terminator fans and co-op fans

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Co-op is the new thing!

I made this post after I noticed how much co-op is in new games. While two players complating missions together was popular in the time of the NES and the Genisis, modern consoles have abandoned this concept, preferring to focus the entirety of the hardware on single player, often tacking on online deathmatches. With the new generation of consoles, the developers can give the same experiance to multiple players. Games like Lost Planet 2, Resident Evil 5, Borderlands, and even tie-ins like Terminator are going with two, or even four players, locally or over Xbox Live. It increases the replayability of the games campaign, and allows you to have more fun then you would normally have (unless the connection is bad).

Terminator Salvation Tie-in Coming to Xbox 360 (Suprise!)

While movie tie-in games have a bad track record (the only one I have ever liked was Quantum of Solace), I have some minor hopes for this game. One, it is based before the movie, so it could avoid the commen tie-in pitfall of length (A two hour movie cannot supply enough material for a game, no matter how you twist or stretch it). Two, Warner put together a whole new studio called Halcyon Games to develop the game (= they are actually spending money on the game in hopes that it will be good enough to become popular). Halcyon's represintitive has said that the game will focus on quaility game play.Three, the game is advertising a new cover system. It will be button activated instead of thumbstick activated, which should prevent the player from accidently getting their head blown off because they exited cover at the wrong time. Finally, the game has followed Resident Evil 5 with a full two player co-op campaign. While there will be no Xbox Live support, the co-op should add some replay value to the campaign.

The developers have also promised usable vehicles and even playable robots (I personally want Arnold's original Terminator as a playable character). Screenshots and videos have promised decent graphics and maybe even destructable environments (Nothing makes barely dodging a John Conner killing missile cooler like that missile shattering the building behind you). A new physics engine should make for great environments to play in, and allow the cover system to work well. Terminator salvation should come out on the 19th of May

Oblivion Review

I put off writing a review for Oblivion for a while, simply because it is such a huge game. It literally has hundreds of hours in one playthrough, and is sprinkled with little Easter eggs for dedicate players. It is one of the greatest games ever made and is quite possibly the best current Xbox 360 game.
The game starts with you designing a face for your character. You can literally change everything about your face. You rarely see your face in-game, but players can spend hours simply creating the perfect appearance. However, all the options made it difficult to quickly make a attractive character (Thus most of my characters look hideously ugly.) Also, some of the options were indecipherable. (Chin to eye to mouth ratio? There were at least 70 options that looked like that.)
Once your character is perfect, you take him/her through a lengthy tutorial that teaches you the basics of Oblivions gameplay. This a improvement over Morrowind's (Prequel to Oblivion, 2002 Xbox game of the year) tutorial, which just handed you a knife and shoved you out the door into the big scary world. Oblivion gives the player a chance to amass a few weapons and a little know-how before booting them out into the slightly less scary, still really big (around 35 square miles) world. The character then chooses or makes a class. This involves choosing from a list of basic skills and is standard RPG fare.
One of the most challenging parts of Oblivion for beginners is what comes next. Anything. You can follow the plot, or ignore it. You can get a job, or explore. Or just kill random people. However, every action has a consequence, and the guards will haul you off to jail (where you lose levels) if you break the law. The game is completely open. There are hundreds of side quests, ranging from assassinating targets to simple deliveries. It would take hours to describe everything in Oblivion, but the bottom line is you will never get bored.
One of the best new systems was the new stealth system. It used the light, your movement, even the weight of your boots to judge enemies awareness of you. It worked great in practice, and the assassins guild missions are the best in the game. Sneaking is not an essential skill, but is great. In fact, Oblivion's missions can all be completed mostly with swords, magic, or stealth, allowing a variety of characters to fully experience the game.
The combat in Oblivion is solid (a definite improvement over Morrowind's literal hit and miss combat), but is still RPG combat. You block to lessen damage and expose the enemy, then swing. This worked well one on one and versus groups, but add allies into the picture and the combat does not have nearly enough precision (so many times I was killed by an ally that I had hit one too many times.) I found that at the higher levels the fights were too drawn out, as you would pound the other guy fifty times with your sword to kill him. This really hurts the combat experience, both in realism and intensity. A increase in attack damage or a decrease in health (or both)would of been appreciated.
Speaking of high levels, Oblivion has another high level annoyance. A new system increases the level of your enemies to match yours. While this prevents the brutal difficulty Morrowind had at the start, it's a real drag at the high levels. You work so hard to get your character a level up, only to find that the entire game is harder. You have to put all your level points towards strength and endurance to keep the game's difficulty at a manageable amount, but once these skills maximize at 100, every level up is a negative, not a positive. There is no feeling of accomplishment in your level, only dread of the enemy stat boost.
Oblivion was an Xbox 360 launch title, but it still has terrific graphics. The environments are crystal-clear, and the characters look perfect. There is even a speechcraft minigame centered on facial expressions. The frame rate holds up well ,even with the massive environments and bunches of people. However, ground features like trees and rocks will only appear as you near an area, hurting the long range environments. Also, the cites and environments lack that magic touch that Morrowind had. Oblivion was all grasslands with a little snow at the top of the map, while Morrowind had swamps and deserts in addition to the basic areas. The cities were all square and stone, lacking the sweeping grandeur of Morrowind's variety of cities (I miss my elephant bone cities.) However, when not compared to its stunning prequel, Oblivions environments are top notch.
Oblivions score also is great, but not as great as Morrowind's superb score. Tears come to my eyes every time I hear Morrowind's opening theme. However, very few games are originally scored as well as Oblivion. The rest of the sound really enhances the game experience.
Oblivion is an almost perfect adventure that's flaws are made up for with a massive amount of content.
10/10 Buy it, no matter what games you like. It is as close to perfect as games come.

Arkham Asylem delayed

The new Batman game was originally scheduled for a June 23 release, but after a progress review the release date was pushed back to the end of the summer. However, a new video has been released along side promise of a new free-flow combat system, that will allow players to simultaneously engage multiple enemies. It should combine the accuracy of single target systems with the versitility of a open system to immerse the player in a intense combat simulation. Check out the new trailer and the older ones, they look great.

Lost planet 2

The sequel to the third person shooter Lost Planet has offically been announced in a nine minute video presentation over xbox live. The original had a few issues, but the sequel looks to sharpen things up with better graphics, faster-paced gameplay, and an heavy focus on cooperative gameplay. While the original supported multiplayer deathmatch online, the trailer showed a squad entering the jungle and using team tactics against a combination of rival snow pirates and aliens. The game also has a variety of multiple occupancy vehicles. It has been suggested that the game will support full 4-player campaign co-op both locally and over Xbox live.

The Lord of the Rings: Conquest Review

Conquest is a multiplayer action-strategy game developed by pandemic studios and published by EA Games. It focuses on capturing control points and killing enemies.
Conquest is basically a sequel to Battlefront II, which was released at the end of 2005 for the last generation of consoles. It was also developed by Pandemic. The gameplay is very similar to the battlefront series in the way that the player spawns as an infantry soldier and tries to capture a number of set command post by standing near them without enemies present. The amount of Command points they have contributed to a score. When the score is high enough, they win. However, several major tweaks to the formula make this a leap forward for the "series."
The first major change is noticed even before you step onto the battlefield. The classes have been redone for a medieval setting, and the types have also been changed. While Battlefront had 7 classes, they were all useless except for the basic soldier. Conquest only features 4 units, but they are shockingly well balanced. The warriors are strongest at close range, but are easily sniped by archers. Mages are weak alone, but can heal allies and create a large shield that block enemy fire. Their magic attacks can kill large groups of enemies at once. Scouts have no ranged attacks and low health, but are the fastest runners and have the best attack damage. They can also turn invisible and instant kill enemies from behind. A variety of horses, trolls, and mumukil are controllable, and air units can kill you in the campaign.
Once you step onto the battlefield, the focus turns to the gameplay. The games ranged combat system works well, seeming like a basic third person shooter. However, the lack of any form of cover mechanic (Be it crouching or cover-hugging) prevents the shooting from rivalling anything else currently on the market. Warriors, meanwhile, have a more complex combat system. They have light, medium, and heavy attacks, three special energy attacks, and a block. The combo system was well employed, but was easily mastered, and made the player invincible against the AI.
Another complaint was the strategy label. While instant action had some strategy with finding out which enemy command post were not defended, most of the game was pure action. The campaign just involved swarming of the enemy to reach an objective, then capturing/killing/defending/retrieving it. It could become very repetitive .
Also, the game does not look to good. While it had definitely next-gen graphics, the Xbox 360 has done so much better. Certain objects pixlate very quickly (Particularly the trees-what is it with pixlating trees? The leaves turn into pixles twice the size of your head!), and the whole thing lacks the crispness of most modern games. The game also had a proliferation of glitches (there is a large proliferation of the dead-dude-hangs-randomly-in-air glitch) The game is generally visually unimpressive.
The games local multiplayer is decent, with all modes available. However, campaign is only two player- what's with that! For a game that is built for online multiplayer, the online multiplayer has serious issues. The connection is universally bad, and the frame rate plunges online. It`s like playing in bullet time. Also, you cannot start a public game. You have to join EA`s setlist, which has each map on a certain mode. You get so sick of Mount Doom hero team Deathmatch.
However, the game makes up for all this with a healthy dose of pure fun. The multitude of maps and game modes give the game plenty of replay value, though some courses (Helms Deep, Pellinor Fields, Rivendell) are better than others. (Minas Morgul, Mount Doom) The repetition of gameplay can be ignored with gameplay this fun.
8.5/10 Great fun for LOTR and Battlefront fans, good action for not too picky gamers.

Tom Clancy's H.A.W.X Review

Hawx is a air combat simulator set in the near future, following the exploits of a group of pilots who work for Artimis global defence.
The main point of the game is to blow up enemy planes, tanks and boats, and here the game succeeds well. The game has a variety of weapons (and planes; over 50 of them) from free-falling bombs to locking missiles. Most targets fall to a missile or two, but the game makes up for this with a large proliferation of enemies all across the field.
Two factors set the Hawx combat system apart from the average plane game: the ERS and OFF mode. The ERS (Enhanced Reality System) sets up a series of gates to your target. In a plane dogfight, this means that the gates will lead you straight behind the enemy fighter, allowing you to easily (perhaps too easily) shoot down the enemy plane. The system also guides you to strike ground targets obscured by skyscrapers.
The Off mode system, changes the camera from behind the plane to a sweeping third person view that, while looking nice, makes controlling the plane brutally difficult. In this mode, the plane can turn very tightly, however, you can also stall the plane, causing you to drop like a plane-shaped rock. This mode is not nearly as useful as ON mode, and you will not enter it very often.
The game has a surprisingly interesting plot for a military plane game, focusing on military corporations and, predictably, the American air force. It also ties in to Clancy's Ghost Recon series. I won't spoil the plot, but it has some nice twists so far (I haven't finished the plot yet). Graphically, the game stands up well, however, at close range objects will pixelate badly, especially the trees (when you fly through them). On the positive side, the environments are all designed by Google earth and look beautiful .
The best aspect of the game is the multiplayer. 4 players can play through the main plot, which does make it a far more enjoyable experience. The game also supports an 8 player team deathmatch. While early reports suggested 16 players online, I thought it was worth the trade, as the game runs seamlessly, even when I played with 8 other players from Outer Antarctica. However the multiplayer suffer from a slight unbalance, as the radar guided missiles are virtually undodgeable, while close range missiles can be evaded easily.
Hawx is , in the end, a great game with a few issues that never interfere with the high fun level. Hopefully Clancy will release a sequel that addresses a few of these issues.

9/10 Must have for plane game fans and Tom Clancy fans, Great buy for the average gamer.
My first review, please comment nicely

About the Dogs

My post has nothing to do with Great Pyrenees, but I love pictures of them, so there will be a lot on my blog. And they are not copyrighted.