Consolation Prize

Before I was struck down with one of the millions of nasty bugs that seem to be lingering around at this time of year, rendering my mind and body virtually useless and capable only of watching dreary daytime TV shows, I was thoroughly enjoying Fallout 3 – the post apocalyptic role-playing-game from Bethesda.

I must admit that to begin with I wasn’t hooked. The visually impressive post nuclear wasteland can, at least early on in the game, be a torturous affair as even the briefest of encounters with a vicious dog could lead to a fatal outcome. Realising that wandering aimlessly across the landscape wasn’t perhaps the best course of action, and possibly why I was pointed in the direction of the safe haven of Megaton to begin with, I headed off for the nearby settlement and things certainly improved from there on in.

I really should have anticipated the opening salvo of frustration that this kind of game represents; after all, didn’t I clock up over a hundred hours in Oblivion, a stable mate that plays much the same as Fallout 3? Well yes, I probably had a similar first impression of Oblivion, but it’s the kick-ass character at the end of the adventure that I remembered, not the weakling at the beginning that struggles to defeat sewer rats. However, perseverance is rewarded and developing your character is certainly one of the highlights of the game.

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Over the last week I’ve been enjoying the highly atmospheric and amazing sci-fi survival horror game Dead Space. I’ve only just started Chapter 5, and although I realise that by only getting this short distance into the game after several days of play constitutes a rather lacklustre game pace, in my defence I’d like to state that this is by far the most frightening game to ever grace my Xbox 360.

You see, I tend to shy away from any game that ever decides to call itself “survival horror” - the only exceptions to that rule being the Resident Evil series which I’ve managed to become acclimatised to over the years and now seems to have become more about survival rather than horror. Looking back on those early Resident Evil games on the PlayStation I’m amazed they ever managed to induce so much fear and tension. I wonder if in years to come when I look back on Dead Space will I view it in the same light when playing the latest and greatest horror game on the Xbox 1080 or PlayStation 5. Probably not, but apart from the obvious future improvements that will be made to the graphics it’s hard to imagine bettering the atmosphere.

Dead Space really does impress, and through the clever use of sound, vision, and story creates a frightening experience. The sound design is simply second to none - bangs and creaks made by a spaceship under duress overload your senses, blood curdling and disconcerting noises from freakish enemies induce fear, and intentionally uncomfortable music scores aim to heighten the tension. Lighting is also used to great effect with flickering lights and shadows of unknown creatures cast onto walls. And of course the game then delivers the coup-de-grace with the truly horrendous Necromorphs - abominations created and mutated from dead human flesh and bone.

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Yesterday started out as a good day. I’d finally got my hands on Fable II, and with a little bit of trepidation was anticipating dedicating most of the day to exploring the land of Albion. I was ready to fully engross myself in the rich tapestry this fairytale action RPG purportedly offered, and wondered if Peter Molyneux and Lionhead Studios could actually deliver all that was promised.

The surround system hummed into action; the disc in the 360 span with a cacophony and the fairytale began with a glorious intro with enchanting music, setting the scene as a young boy takes his first tentative steps towards greatness.

So far so good - the game was delivering. The camera which focuses and zooms in on the action or significant events is a great touch, the “old” London English accents were corny but made me smirk, the townsfolk had character, and Bowerstone, of what little I saw, looked amazing.

Unfortunately it all came to a crashing end (literally) as soon as the tutorial missions were completed after about 30 minutes. In horror I realised what was about to happen as the spinning disc slowly came to a standstill and the game froze solid. I’ve now tried it on a couple more occasions and the freezing occurs more or less around the same spot, just after activating the magical music box. Digging around the Net it appears that I’m not alone and the forums are alive with posts that relate to “freezing”. Even if there isn’t a definitive pattern as to the “why and when” the freezing occurs, it still appears that I’m certainly one of the unlucky ones.

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Too Human is an unusual game to play. Not from the perspective of its genre, as it could be catogorised as a futuristic action RPG dungeon crawler, but in the way that it requires a serious investment of both time and energy in order to fully understand how to play the game and enjoy its full potential.

I’ve not played a game in a long while where I’ve been left feeling completely confounded by a game. It was only through determination - and gritted teeth - that the veil of fog clouding my comprehension of its mechanics began to lift. Only now, after completion, do I feel like I’m starting to get a handle on some of the peculiarities surrounding Too Human.

Finally I’ve grasped how light and dark “polarity” enemies’ work. Virtually impregnable to either melee strikes or ballistic attacks the correct type of attack must be used against these opponents otherwise they’ll benefit from whatever you throw at them. It sounds like a simple rule but as it’s not explained in depth (correct me if I’m wrong) it led to many frustrating encounters where I was slaughtered by these seemingly invulnerable opponents. It was only through enabling the damage meter that I could spot these enemies and witnessed my ballistic attacks having a negligible effect. Thus I needed to switch to an alternative strategy - melee where ballistic resistance was obvious - to dispatch the numerous hordes.

Discovering how to use the dodge manoeuvre effectively is a key skill in Too Human. Not only in the literal sense that it gets the character out of the way of incoming projectiles, but also in the fact that while dodging your character will have a few frames of invulnerability, which if timed correctly will help avoid any knockdown effects from area attacks. Again, this is another aspect that isn’t taught, but learned through trial and error - and numerous deaths. It’s a revelation when you realise those Troll hammer attacks and ground pounds are not to be feared after all.

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I had intended to dedicate some time last weekend to finishing Half Life 2: Episode 2. I’d left the game just after helping to fend off the Antlion attack in the mines; an amazing sequence that surely pays homage to Aliens as Freeman and his allies, with the aid of some well placed sentry guns, try and hold off the seemingly limitless numbers of critters all intent on revenge for your “accidental” squashing of Antlion grubs underfoot during the exploration of the abandoned mine. Freeman will however have to hold out a little longer…

I also came into possession of Too Human - which the postie kindly delivered on Saturday morning - and I was really looking forward to getting my teeth into this action RPG adventure given that I found the demo enjoyable. The Norse god will however also have to wait…

Instead those cute knights from Castle Crashers demanded my utmost attention and unrequited devotion as I spent a good proportion of my free time trying to rescue those four damsels in distress. Some may say it’s a tad repetitive, after all apart from the differences in enemies and backdrops the majority of the game-play is similar in nature from one level to another – advance to location, clear the area of enemies and then move on - but it’s all wrapped up with such finesse that you’re compelled to keep advancing in order to find out what bizarre level awaits you next. Whether it’s escaping from a giant cat in an abandoned saw mill whilst mounted upon a deer, being abducted by space aliens, or battling atop an escaping carriage, this game hasn’t yet failed to bring a smile to my face.

Although I’ve played a lot of games this year, some of which I’ve admired from a technical or innovative perspective, I believe Castle Crashers by far exceeds in successfully distilling and delivering arguably the most important element of a game – unadulterated fun. And this is the most fun I’ve had in ages!

I’ve got so many games waiting to be played at present, and I’m afraid I’ve fallen back into my bad habit of purchasing games before I’m ready to play them. Once again there’s a back catalogue of relatively new titles waiting for some love and attention once freed from there shrink wrapping.

Even with lots of great titles such as Okami (Wii) and Civilization Revolution (X360) waiting in the wings I was considering returning to some older games that have been left in limbo. And it then it struck me; I never finished The Orange Box. As incomprehensible as it may sound once the amazing adventure of Half Life 2 was complete, and the joys of Portal plundered, I needed to take a sabbatical from Gordon Freeman and the Combine and thus moved onto pastures new. I always intended to return to the game in what would have been a few weeks, I didn’t however expect it to take 8 months. So it’s time again to don the HEV suit and find out how the story progresses in Half Life 2: Episode One after the cliff-hanger ending of its predecessor.

[Minor spoilers ahead]

What I believe Half-Life 2 successfully exemplifies is its unusual approach to story-telling. Told via the first person perspective what you see and hear is exactly what Gordon perceives. There are no cut-scenes to disassociate you from the game avatar, you ARE Gordon Freeman. This approach, when in the capable hands of Valve, is no less of a cinematic experience than say the cut scenes found in Grand Theft Auto IV, but its main advantage is that it keeps the player fully immersed. Being thrown across a chasm into the citadel inside a wrecked mini-van by the robotic DOG from a first person perspective is just as exhilarating, if not more so, than if it was shown via a non-interactive cut-scene.

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And so Niko Bellic’s story has come to an end, for the time being at least. I’ve finally managed to complete all the story missions in Grand Theft Auto IV and it only took 56 hours. Yeah, I’m sure there are plenty of readers out there that whipped the game in less than half that time but it’s not how fast you get there (at least that’s what I’m telling myself), it’s the journey, and boy did I have fun.

It’s a great game, no make that absolutely fantastic, but unfortunately not without some flaws. My chief gripe.. checkpoints, or lack thereof. Yes, Rockstar have introduced the ability to instantly start the mission again if you fail via the clever integration of a text message sent straight to Niko’s mobile, but that’s little consolation if you’ve still got a 10 minute drive to the location before the actual action starts. You could flag a taxi, but the point is you shouldn’t really need to. Niko in all respects is invulnerable, if you die you just spawn at the nearest hospital, you can repeat a mission ad-infinitum so where’s the harm in just integrating a decent checkpoint system? It seems bizarre and I’m pretty sure I remember checkpoints in San Andreas.

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Well the UK bank holiday has been and gone which meant I got a nice three day weekend affording me the luxury of some extra time to play games.

I’m still tearing around “Liberty City” in GTA IV and I think I’m on the home stretch of the main story arc now, working for a mafia boss called “Gravelli”. So far the meter says I’m 70% complete and the clock is on 51 hours. I’m certainly getting value for money out of this game, bearing in mind that I usually play a game for about 15 - 20 hours on average before moving onto something new. I can easily see another 20 hours of gameplay left in GTA IV, especially if I want to try and get the 100% complete achievement, but I’m not sure if I can really be bothered hunting down those 200 pigeons flying rats.

I’ve also recently started playing God of War: Chains of Olympus on the PSP. I really enjoyed the first two games and so far this is living up to my expectations. Although there’s nothing really new in terms of gameplay it’s still a very entertaining romp through the Greek mythological setting. The game has only just begun and I’ve already had a great deal of fun “hacking and slashing” through the invading Persian army at the city of Attica to finally confront the Basilisk which has been unleashed upon the city. If the game maintains this pace it’s going to be one hell of a journey.