Marathon: Durandal was released onto Xbox Live Arcade last Wednesday (1st August) for 800 Microsoft points and it’s a fairly sizable download for an Arcade game at 138MB.
The Marathon series of games, of which I believe this is the second, are FPS games developed by Bungie Software of Halo fame. With an attack by the alien race the Pfhor imminent, Durandal an AI is the only hope of defeating them and this game sees the player exploring the ruins of an alien civilisation known as the S’pht on their homeworld of Lh’owon. The full game offers a good selection of multiplayer deathmatch modes such as “Every Man for Himself” and “King of the Hill” or you can play the single player campaign cooperatively with up-to seven friends. The trial game allows you to play the first level of the single player campaign as you start exploring Lh’owon.
The controls for the game are straight forward with the left joystick used for movement, the right to look, with fire controls assigned to the triggers and weapon selection to the bumper buttons. The only real oddities are the “X” and “Y” buttons which are used to glance 90 degrees to your left or right respectively when they are held down.
You can either play the game using the original or HD enhanced mode, with the latter mode sharpening up the graphics noticeably. Overall the graphics are what I’d expect from a game that was released in 1995 with some fairly decent backgrounds, sprite animation and details. The gameplay seems fairly typical of first person shooters and sees you trying to achieve mission objectives and flipping switches while dispatching enemies.
The available trial level didn’t really impress me and unfortunately it left me feeling fairly nauseous after I’d played it for a while, which is something I’ve never experienced before from a FPS. I also found that the glance buttons only added to my feelings of nausea and I stopped using them fairly quickly. If you’re a fan of this genre and have an interest in older games then this game may be worth a go but it’s not one for me.
Well folks, the Halo 3 Beta has finally come to an end and I did intend to post some final thoughts on the game. However I didn’t manage to dedicate as much time to the demo as I intended.
Therefore, my thoughts haven’t changed that much from my first impressions. I still believe this is shaping up to be a great game and I sincerely hope that the single player experience proves to be just as good as the multiplayer. I definitely started enjoying the game more once I got used to the controls and weapons. As with all multiplayer FPS games there’s a “trail-by-fire” period when it seems like all you do is stare at the re-spawn countdown. If you stick with it though it becomes an amazing amount of fun and there’s always a great amount of satisfaction to be had when you take out the current leader in the match.
Roll on 26th September, when I can get my hands on the European release. In the meantime here’s some footage of the Wraith Tank.
The Hour of Victory demo is now available from Xbox Live Marketplace at 938MB. I wasn’t aware that this demo was available until I read Jigsaw hc’s Demo Review yesterday as it seems to have appeared without much aplomb. To be honest I can see why, as on the whole it’s not a game that I’ll be eagerly looking forward to playing again. You may or may not be able to guess from the title that this is yet another WWII first person shooter. These days you really have to offer something new to stand out from the crowd in this overcrowded genre. So what does this game offer us? Well, in the demo you can choose your character from one of three on offer with different skills. There’s the British SAS commando “Ross” with strength and endurance, a US ranger “Bull” a trained sniper with a grappling hook to climb to higher vantage points, and finally there’s the covert operative “Taggert” whom can pick locks and cut fences. Depending on the chosen character you should be able to take different routes through the level. However, I’m going to have to take the word of the press on this as to be honest I didn’t have the tenacity to try out each class.
The demo does not impress at all, the graphics are very humdrum and lacking detail and decent character animation. To compound problems the default controls felt lethargic until the sensitivity was upped at the expense of precision aiming as the shooting reticle jerked about the screen. Whereas games such as “Call of Duty” add a great deal of atmosphere to the gameplay, Hour of Victory is lacking in this department. I didn’t feel like I was in a life and death situation at all, I was just going through the motions of moving from one objective to another without really needing to take cover. In the end it just isn’t very exciting.
Granted this is a demo of a game and as such it is work in progress but this demo does nothing to help its cause. In some respects it would have been better to not release this as it doesn’t compare well against its rivals. Unless this game changes drastically then it is one I will be avoiding.
I guess there’s not many console gamers that haven’t heard of the Halo franchise. Whether it’s to mock the franchise or to heap praise on it, the game seems to garner its fair share of both love and hate. So it has been with baited breath that the Halo 3 beta has been anticipated, but does it live up to expectations? Well, in some respects that’s hard to answer, this is is after all a beta product. The beta offers up the multi-player live component of the game only and gives you three maps to play with along with a selection of modes. There are a few settings, allowing you to change the colour, emblem and designation of your Spartan and also the controller configuration to suit your requirements. Matchmaking also has a few options so you can prioritise good connections, closer skill range, or your native language. Thus far I’ve not had to change the connection priority and all my games have been lag free.
The maps are nicely varied with “High Ground” seeming to be the map of choice for a majority of “rumble pit” matches that I’ve joined so far. “High Ground” offers a kind of tropical atmosphere so familiar with the prior games with a good selection of internal and external environments, including some military style buildings and bunkers. “Valhalla” seems to be another tropical environment which I’ve not seen a great deal of and finally “Snowbound”, which as the name suggests is a snow covered environment with large open area and various underground tunnel complexes to explore.
The weapons (or tools of destruction) all seem to be balanced with a good selection of close quarter, automatic and explosive varieties to choose from. Something new that has been introduced is the ability to pick up equipment; Whether it’s the bubble shield, portable grav lift, power drainer or trip mine all have there uses and I’m still exploring the possibilities.
I wasn’t initially overwhelmed with the graphics, I would have to say that they look sharp, polished and very competent but I’ve yet to have a “wow” moment. Maybe this is because I’ve not had time to take a good look around at the scenery. If I stop and gaze at the flowers my already short lifespan takes a hit. However it is not the graphics alone that make a game and I cannot fault the core gameplay. It’s fast, furious and raises the heartbeat to what I hope is a healthy level.
I’ve heard reports that this beta feels very familiar to experienced online Halo 2 players and only offers a few noticeable improvements, but this is an all new experience for me as I’ve never taken the Xbox and Halo 2 online. So far it’s been very enjoyable even though I’m invariably in the bottom half of the leaderboard.
I hope to post my final impressions when the beta demo period ends, but it’s convinced me enough to have faith and preorder the game, it’s just a question of which edition “Legendary” or “Collectors”? I’m now eagerly looking forward to playing the finished article on the 26th of September.
The Blacksite: Area 51 demo is available on XBox Live Marketplace as a 584MB download. I’ve played through the demo a few times so lets get straight down to what’s on offer.
It’s night and you’re in the middle of a thunderstorm. Rain bounces off the environment and you hear from the chatter between your team mates that you’re here to locate another team that was lost a number of hours before. You take the lead and a communication box at the top of your HUD kindly tells you that you can command your two team members using the right bumper button. The command button is action sensitive, and working your way around the environment you soon find a door that your team mates kindly blow open once you issue the command. When you get into the building the action starts aplenty as you see a large bipedal alien life-form attacking a civilian in a car. Of course you’d like to help him out but there’s plenty of enemies that need to be taken care of first as your thrust into a firefight. Your team do a fairly good job of helping you out which gives you time to notice some destructible items in the environment.
Onto the next area and firstly you have to deal with some aliens that reminded me of “Starship troopers” as they scuttle up close and personal to take you out. As long as you keep your distance they won’t give you any trouble and after you’ve finished them off you’re ordered to carry on the search. At this point the game looks to get a lot more interesting as a large worm like alien impacts into the liquor store. You’re treated to a nice matrix style slow mo as cars fly past from the impact and just as you’re getting ready for a big ruckus that’s when the demo ends.
The demo is a tight on rails affair with not much chance for exploration, and unfortunately it’s all over far too quickly. The graphics are good, with some nicely detailed models using the Unreal 3 engine. However I did experience a bit of slowdown during the first firefight but hopefully this will be ironed out for the final release. The game is looking interesting, and offers a nice atmosphere, but at this stage I’m not sure what unique elements it’s going to offer in the highly contested FPS arena. The game is due for release towards the end of the summer, and I’ll be keeping an eye on its development.
