Haven't done one of these for a while, as I haven't been playing anything I hadn't already spoken about, but I have had a new gaming influx, and it is time for a run down once again.
Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood
I am really enjoying this so far, just reached sequence 6, so about two thirds of the way into it. As you will all know, it is largely more of the same, and if you liked 2, you will like this. It has a few more tweaks, but nothing that needs to be discussed in detail. The execution combos and the ability to call in an assassin make the combat even easier than before, and quite a few people have criticised this. But I feel these complaints are misplaced. In both the original, and in 2, you never had any trouble killing enemies, you could engage entire regiments and leave the dead stacked high. Realistically, the kill streak and allied assassin's merely speed up the inevitable, and I feel keep things moving along nicely. The kill streak in particular, pull off a successful counter attack execution, and all you have to do is push the stick in the direction of a new enemy, and press attack, to auto kill them too. You could be forgiven for thinking that makes every fight too easy, but really, do you actually benefit from making every kill a separate successful counter attack? the combos really just speed it up, and you have to dodge and block successfully to maintain the streak.
The game is not flawless, I have a couple of minor issues with it. These are just cosmetic, nothing really major. Firstly, those of you who played 2 will recall the jump climb ability that the female thief teaches you. In Brotherhood, you begin the game with this skill, but when you lose your equipment early on, for some reason you lose this ability, even though it isn't granted to you by an item, and you have to wait quite a while before you get it back when Leonardo makes you a climbing glove. Not important, just one of those slightly jarring moments. The next problem I have is the wanted posters. They appear on walls and platforms high up for your benefit, so that you can free run about getting them down. I appreciate that it is for the player, but when you are trying to make an ancient city seem alive and natural, shouldn't wanted posters be at street level where the civilians can see them? I can see why they are the way they are, but since the posters are not a challenge anyway, I feel Ubisoft would have been better off going for realism over gameplay on this particular issue. Another issue i have with it is the civilians that fill the city. In this game, as you remove Borgia influence and renovate the city, your popularity spreads, and citizens come to your assistance in fights. The problem here is, as any of you who have played previous games will know, Ezio's blades seem to have some sort of magnetic attraction to civilians. I can only imagine that guard's armour has the same polarity as Ezio's various stabby implements, and he slides away from them into squishy people. The number of times you try to use the hidden blade on a guard, and Ezio turns slightly and executes a random civilian is ludicrous, and this problem is significantly compounded when citizens rush in to fight. It is rather ironic that in rushing to your aid, they actually make the fight an awful lot harder, as you have to be very careful you don't stab them instead. The final problem I have is that for a game entitled 'Assassin's Creed' the actual stealth/assassination missions are easily the weakest. The game does not do stealth terribly well, and I find the missions where you cannot be spotted very irritating. you only have to go near a guard and you fail.
Having just played shortly before writing this, I will add too a couple of times in a row where it has stated I failed the full synchronisation requirements, even when I didn't...
Despite these minor quibbles, it is an awesome game, loving playing it, and can't wait for the next installment.
FEAR 2
I picked this up on the cheap before Christmas, I loved FEAR and the expansions, but hadn't gotten round to 2. With 3 coming out not too far away, I thought I better catch up. Not played it too much so far with Christmas goodies to play, but so far it seems a lot like the first games, and I am enjoying it.
Uncharted 2
Like Assassin's Creed 2 in my previous week in gaming blog, this is another game I had previously bought, completed, and traded in whilst I was unemployed. Like Assassin's Creed 2, now that I am working again I have re-bought it to enjoy again (also got God of War 3 and Splinter Cell Conviction again too, but not played them yet). This game is just awesome, a must buy if you are a PS3 gamer. The story is great, the graphics beautiful, action is thrilling. What I love most about this game though is that the characters are incredibly human. Their discussions, their banter, insults, are all incredibly believable, you get into the spirit of the events, and you laugh along with them. Nathan Drake is the reluctant hero you can believe. He isn't macho, he is self deprecating, he likes a wry laugh. The little jibes between characters are wonderful, and the whole experience is amazing start to finish, pick it up.
Playstation Move
I am a tech junkie, I love trying out new things. Whilst this has been out for some months I was waiting for there to be something I really wanted to play it with. With Kinect I wanted to see what the tech was like, and bought it regardless of software. With the Move, it is obviously a Wii for a more traditional gamer, so I was more interested in seeing how the games were implemented. A few things are coming out soon (dead space, killzone 3) that will use Move in some way, so I wanted to buy it in time for those. With the system I got Time Crisis Razing Storm, and RUSE.
I am a huge Time Crisis fan, they are the only games I ever played in arcades, and I spent many a coin in them. They are just a great, fun lightgun game, and as far as lightgun shooters go, they are second only to silent scope (if I ever win the lottery, I am going to buy myself a set of the silent scope arcade machines). Razing Storm was panned here on IGN, rating a pathetic 4, and the story mode of Razing Storm is awful. The controls just don't work. Instead of standard rail shooter, they have given you movement controls with the navigation controller, and it just doesn't work. The ranking mode is traditional though, if very short, and is ok. Dead Storm Pirates also comes on the disk, and is an ok distraction. I wasn't terribly taken with it, but shooting skeletons and giant crabs is kinda funny. Also on the disk is Time Crisis 4, which IGN also panned, but frankly it is a standard Time Crisis game, if you like the others, you will like this one, you know exactly what you are getting, and for a series like this, that is no bad thing. You play lightgun games to wave a plastic gun round, it is a test of your accuracy, you don't play them for plot or character development. I love Time Crisis, so I love 4 too, though it seems quite a bit harder than previous titles to me. It is fun, great to play for a quick session, has some humerous moments, and great if you get two controllers and play co-op, good for getting a few friends round.
Ruse
With my laptop being at death's door, I have been unable to game on it, which means no RTS. I am an RTS junkie, so this has been a real problem. I don't want to play any console RTS games because I need a mouse. When RUSE came out with move compatibility, this was my chance to get my RTS fix with a hopefully suitable system that works as well as a mouse. I haven't played this too much either, having worked so much over christmas and new year, but I have enjoyed it so far. Move controls work exceedingly well, making control and navigation incredibly easy. As for the game itself, it is pretty cool, I am only on the early levels so far, where it gives you everything you need and you just follow the numbers to win, your granny could do it. I shall have to wait until I get to missions where you build your own forces to assess its' RTS credentials, but so far the graphics are good, the zoom is smooth and responsive, from third person close up right back to command table sector view.
All in all the Move is a great system, absolutely accurate, and very easy to use. It is basically a PS3 controller with a pointer, so you need no instruction on how to use it, The Kinect suffered from not having a manual because it is such a different system, they really need to tell you what it actually does. The Move though suffers no such problems, if you are a PS3 gamer, you know what x and o do, and you can probably work out how to point at a screen, so it is very simple. The navigation controller is great if you are just using your PS3 to watch a film or internet tv etc. it is much smaller and more convenient than the standard pad, and great for navigating the menus.
What have you been playing? Any opinions on the above?
Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood
I am really enjoying this so far, just reached sequence 6, so about two thirds of the way into it. As you will all know, it is largely more of the same, and if you liked 2, you will like this. It has a few more tweaks, but nothing that needs to be discussed in detail. The execution combos and the ability to call in an assassin make the combat even easier than before, and quite a few people have criticised this. But I feel these complaints are misplaced. In both the original, and in 2, you never had any trouble killing enemies, you could engage entire regiments and leave the dead stacked high. Realistically, the kill streak and allied assassin's merely speed up the inevitable, and I feel keep things moving along nicely. The kill streak in particular, pull off a successful counter attack execution, and all you have to do is push the stick in the direction of a new enemy, and press attack, to auto kill them too. You could be forgiven for thinking that makes every fight too easy, but really, do you actually benefit from making every kill a separate successful counter attack? the combos really just speed it up, and you have to dodge and block successfully to maintain the streak.
The game is not flawless, I have a couple of minor issues with it. These are just cosmetic, nothing really major. Firstly, those of you who played 2 will recall the jump climb ability that the female thief teaches you. In Brotherhood, you begin the game with this skill, but when you lose your equipment early on, for some reason you lose this ability, even though it isn't granted to you by an item, and you have to wait quite a while before you get it back when Leonardo makes you a climbing glove. Not important, just one of those slightly jarring moments. The next problem I have is the wanted posters. They appear on walls and platforms high up for your benefit, so that you can free run about getting them down. I appreciate that it is for the player, but when you are trying to make an ancient city seem alive and natural, shouldn't wanted posters be at street level where the civilians can see them? I can see why they are the way they are, but since the posters are not a challenge anyway, I feel Ubisoft would have been better off going for realism over gameplay on this particular issue. Another issue i have with it is the civilians that fill the city. In this game, as you remove Borgia influence and renovate the city, your popularity spreads, and citizens come to your assistance in fights. The problem here is, as any of you who have played previous games will know, Ezio's blades seem to have some sort of magnetic attraction to civilians. I can only imagine that guard's armour has the same polarity as Ezio's various stabby implements, and he slides away from them into squishy people. The number of times you try to use the hidden blade on a guard, and Ezio turns slightly and executes a random civilian is ludicrous, and this problem is significantly compounded when citizens rush in to fight. It is rather ironic that in rushing to your aid, they actually make the fight an awful lot harder, as you have to be very careful you don't stab them instead. The final problem I have is that for a game entitled 'Assassin's Creed' the actual stealth/assassination missions are easily the weakest. The game does not do stealth terribly well, and I find the missions where you cannot be spotted very irritating. you only have to go near a guard and you fail.
Having just played shortly before writing this, I will add too a couple of times in a row where it has stated I failed the full synchronisation requirements, even when I didn't...
Despite these minor quibbles, it is an awesome game, loving playing it, and can't wait for the next installment.
- plenty of colourful characters
FEAR 2
I picked this up on the cheap before Christmas, I loved FEAR and the expansions, but hadn't gotten round to 2. With 3 coming out not too far away, I thought I better catch up. Not played it too much so far with Christmas goodies to play, but so far it seems a lot like the first games, and I am enjoying it.
- great AI as before, other developers really need to take note
Uncharted 2
Like Assassin's Creed 2 in my previous week in gaming blog, this is another game I had previously bought, completed, and traded in whilst I was unemployed. Like Assassin's Creed 2, now that I am working again I have re-bought it to enjoy again (also got God of War 3 and Splinter Cell Conviction again too, but not played them yet). This game is just awesome, a must buy if you are a PS3 gamer. The story is great, the graphics beautiful, action is thrilling. What I love most about this game though is that the characters are incredibly human. Their discussions, their banter, insults, are all incredibly believable, you get into the spirit of the events, and you laugh along with them. Nathan Drake is the reluctant hero you can believe. He isn't macho, he is self deprecating, he likes a wry laugh. The little jibes between characters are wonderful, and the whole experience is amazing start to finish, pick it up.
- an incredible range of breathtaking vistas await you
Playstation Move
I am a tech junkie, I love trying out new things. Whilst this has been out for some months I was waiting for there to be something I really wanted to play it with. With Kinect I wanted to see what the tech was like, and bought it regardless of software. With the Move, it is obviously a Wii for a more traditional gamer, so I was more interested in seeing how the games were implemented. A few things are coming out soon (dead space, killzone 3) that will use Move in some way, so I wanted to buy it in time for those. With the system I got Time Crisis Razing Storm, and RUSE.
I am a huge Time Crisis fan, they are the only games I ever played in arcades, and I spent many a coin in them. They are just a great, fun lightgun game, and as far as lightgun shooters go, they are second only to silent scope (if I ever win the lottery, I am going to buy myself a set of the silent scope arcade machines). Razing Storm was panned here on IGN, rating a pathetic 4, and the story mode of Razing Storm is awful. The controls just don't work. Instead of standard rail shooter, they have given you movement controls with the navigation controller, and it just doesn't work. The ranking mode is traditional though, if very short, and is ok. Dead Storm Pirates also comes on the disk, and is an ok distraction. I wasn't terribly taken with it, but shooting skeletons and giant crabs is kinda funny. Also on the disk is Time Crisis 4, which IGN also panned, but frankly it is a standard Time Crisis game, if you like the others, you will like this one, you know exactly what you are getting, and for a series like this, that is no bad thing. You play lightgun games to wave a plastic gun round, it is a test of your accuracy, you don't play them for plot or character development. I love Time Crisis, so I love 4 too, though it seems quite a bit harder than previous titles to me. It is fun, great to play for a quick session, has some humerous moments, and great if you get two controllers and play co-op, good for getting a few friends round.
- who doesn't like shooting undead pirates?
Ruse
With my laptop being at death's door, I have been unable to game on it, which means no RTS. I am an RTS junkie, so this has been a real problem. I don't want to play any console RTS games because I need a mouse. When RUSE came out with move compatibility, this was my chance to get my RTS fix with a hopefully suitable system that works as well as a mouse. I haven't played this too much either, having worked so much over christmas and new year, but I have enjoyed it so far. Move controls work exceedingly well, making control and navigation incredibly easy. As for the game itself, it is pretty cool, I am only on the early levels so far, where it gives you everything you need and you just follow the numbers to win, your granny could do it. I shall have to wait until I get to missions where you build your own forces to assess its' RTS credentials, but so far the graphics are good, the zoom is smooth and responsive, from third person close up right back to command table sector view.
All in all the Move is a great system, absolutely accurate, and very easy to use. It is basically a PS3 controller with a pointer, so you need no instruction on how to use it, The Kinect suffered from not having a manual because it is such a different system, they really need to tell you what it actually does. The Move though suffers no such problems, if you are a PS3 gamer, you know what x and o do, and you can probably work out how to point at a screen, so it is very simple. The navigation controller is great if you are just using your PS3 to watch a film or internet tv etc. it is much smaller and more convenient than the standard pad, and great for navigating the menus.
What have you been playing? Any opinions on the above?
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