Overlord II Review

Title of the Game: Overlord II
Platform of Game: Available on the PC, Xbox and PS3

Genre of Game: 3rd Person action-adventure game

Developer: Triumph Studios
Publisher: Codemasters

Product Model Year:
23 June 2009 (NA)
26 June 2009 (EU)
9 July 2009 (Aus)

Game Requirements:
Minimum System Requirements:
System: CPU 2.3GHz Intel, AMD or equivalent
RAM: 512 MB
Video Memory: 128 MB
Hard Drive Space: 2500 MB
Recommended System Requirements
System: 4 at 3.0 GHz or Athlon XP 2800+ or equivalent
RAM: 1024 MB
Hard Drive Space: 2500 MB

Description of the game: The game is a sequel to the widely acclaimed Overlord game which player takes on the role of an omnipotent being called the overlord. The overlord, is the dear leader of all the little minions which are willing to sacrifice themselves for the victory of their overlord. The game is mostly made up of smug humour which actually works quite well. This game picks up after the previous game, where the previous overlord was apparently defeated. The minions moved underground to the Nether Regions where your new empire is being built.

Game Play: Much of the gameplay from the previous game that made it great remained the same, however other elements were tweaked where players could bring back alive minions that has passed on and give them your own personalised name. This gives the game more depth and personal connection.

The game generally has 4 types of minons, the primary or the browns, that are given to you from the start, the reds, fire throwing minions, the greens, stealth minions that live in jungles and the blues, which can swim and are very good at making themselves dissappear.

What has kept me interested in this game is that, it's the first tactical third person game ive seen and it works well i admit. Controlling a horde of minons, of say about 35, can be tough, but the controls make it so easy.

I do have to admit a nice arrow to show where to head off to next would be nice, sometimes i find myself left wondering around finding where is the bridge that gets me out of here. and so on and so fourth.

Graphics: Graphics wise, i have to be amazed at how much the graphics has improved from the first one and the graphics is quite breath taking. A truely remarkable experience i have to admit.

Sound: The voice acting for the minions is fantastic it's true emmersion in the game and the subtle humour makes the game even more thrilling.

Conclusion: Though the game has alot of upsides, i have to say, that sometimes the controls of the minions is abit wonky. Sending them to collect something may infact get the button stuck and ends up sending everyone.

Though it has it's downside, the game has alot of potential to be on my watchlist if another sequel comes up.

[Prototype] Review

Title of the Game: [Prototype]
Platform of Game: Available on the PC, Xbox and PS3

Genre of Game: 3rd Person Action (sandbox) game

Developer: Redical Entertainment
Publisher: Activision

Product Model Year:
9 June 2009 (NA)
12 June 2009 (EU)
10 June 2009 (Aus)

Game Requirements:
Operating System: Windows XP Service Pack 3 or Windows Vista Service Pack 1
CPU: Intel® Core™ 2 Duo 1.86 GHz or AMD Athlon™ 64 X2 4000+ or better
Memory:1 GB (XP) or 2GB (Vista)
Hard Drive Space: 8GB of uncompressed hard disk space (Plus 500MB for swap file.)
Graphics Hardware: DirectX 9.0c compliant card with 256 MB 3D hardware accelerator (NVIDIA 7800GT/ATI® Radeon™ X1800 256 MB or better) and support for Pixel Shader 3.0
Sound Hardware: 100% DirectX 9.0c compliant card

Description of the game: Activision is known to publish various DC universe hero games, prototype is a step away from that. Prototype is their own proprietary work, so it's interesting what they have done here when they are not bound to storylines of exsisting characters. In prototype the main protagonist is Alex Mercer. Alex has superpowers that is probably a combination of various other super heroes. Think, the powers of the hulk, wolverine, the thing, spiderman, batman, and various other superheroes rolled into one. His powers are on a genetic level, they are caused by a mutated virus, unlike his DC universe conterparts.

Game Play: What you get when you combine all of those heroes into one game? You get a superbly entertaining game. His powers never really feel over the top as the challenges your are faced with usually requires a mixture of these powers to solve. However, the downside is that the game doesn't really give breathing room. Unlike other games, where you are having alot of problems trying to deal with one monster, this game will throw you 4-5 immedietely after killing that difficult creature. It can be quite steep.

The game has an interesting way to tell it's story, through the web of intrigue. It's a system in which each person you consume, will reveal a little bit of the story, but their story are not directly connected to each other. They are just saperate memories of each different person in the story, and you have to piece them together. It works really well.

Graphics: Graphics wise, the game is not that appealing, it seems to use a similar engine as spiderman and superman, which lack graphics for games of this generation, which is quite sad for a game of this calibre. The game is an open world game, meaning much of the world is rendered pretty decently, there is no loading times and surprisingly loading time from the main menu to the game itself is very short compared to games like GTA.

Sound: The sound and music makes up preety much of the bulk of the game. The voice overs are done very well to provide the right emotions and emmersion into the game.

Conclusion: The game is a fantastic mix of all the DC universe characters out there, probably if the graphics was better it would have been a far more enjoyable experience.

Kiling Floor Review

Title of the Game: Killing Floor
Platform of Game: Available on the PC Only

Genre of Game: First Person Shooter

Developer:
Publisher: Steam

Product Model Year:
14 May 2009

Game Requirements:
Operating System: Windows 2000 / XP / Vista
CPU: 1.2 GHz or Equivalent Memory:512 MB RAM
Hard Drive Space : 2 GB free hard drive space
Graphics Hardware: 64 MB DX9 Compliant
Sound Hardware: DX8.1 Compatible Audio

Description of the game: The game is a spin off of the popular unreal tournament mod, Killing floor. The modders decided that the game is so popular that it deserved to have it's own game. Thus, the new mod is repackaged and turned into a new game. The game gives open world co-op gameplay that allows players to team up and find their own locations to strategies their ways to hold out the waves of zombies. It is a highly addictive game, especially if it's played with friends.

Game Play: Much comparisons can be made with it's alternative, Left 4 dead, but it is worth mentioning that the mod this game is based on was created way, before left 4 dead was developed and some monsters itself in left 4 dead are remininces of the zombies here. There are a number of zombies that can really be a challenge to players. It is also worth noting that the game has a level system and have a wider range of weapons in which can have players vary their playstyle. There is also a perk system that can be tuned to the player's playstyle.

Graphics: Even though the game is sporting an unreal tournement 2004 engine, the game's orgy of violence in which much blood and gore is splattered is more than trilling to the soul. The adreline rush coming from killing 46 zombies at one wave is more than enough to keep your heart racing.

Sound: The cresendo of music played during epic zombie battles keep the mood constant. It is also worth noting that there is a voip system built into the game.

Conclusion: Even though the game's engine might be dated, it sparks an interesting take on how a mod can be turned into something standalone and even into a commercial game. Perhaps somewhere out there, there is a mod waiting to be unleashed.

Fallout 3 Review

Title of the Game: Fallout 3
Platform of Game: Available on the PC, Xbox360 & PS3

Genre of Game: Third Person Shooter/First Person Shooter

Developer: Bethesda Game Studios
Publisher: Bethesda Softworks, ZeniMax Media

Product Model Year:
North America : October 28, 2008
EU: October 30, 2008
Aus: October 30, 2008
UK: October 31, 2008

Game Requirements:
Operating System: Windows XP/Vista
1GB System RAM (XP) / 2GB System RAM (Vista)
2.4 Ghz Intel Pentium 4 or equivalent processor
Direct X 9.0c compliant videocard with 256MB RAM (NVIDIA 6800 or better / ATI X850 or better)

Description of the game: Fallout 3 is an interesting Role Playing game that takes place in an open world with almost endless opportunity for exploration and making decisions. In the game, there is no black or white options. Only shades of grey. There is no out right good or bad decisions, and most decisions you make will affect what happens in the game.

Game Play: Every run through of the game gives the player the opportunity to try something different. The karma system itself increases replay value of the game. With each decision you make, an influence to the general game. The map also appears to be endless with almost the sense that the map goes on forever.

The bad point is that the game play may be very short if you stick to the main storyline. You will have to take the time to travel the world and abandon the main line quest for a while to truely explore the world. For example, you have the opportunity to blow up a citycalled megaton, which would give you alot of bad karma.

However, what makes the game even better than it is is the 4 DLCs released fr the game which adds value to the game. Lengthening gameplay value and time.

Graphics:
Graphics wise the game is immensely fantastic. Even on a low speced computer, the game runs amazingly well, however, certain expect of the graphics have to be turned off.

Sound:
Zuir did a very good job with the sounds in the game. However, it has to be noted the music in the radio station tends to be boring after a while as they are almost on an endless loop with the occasional voice of 3-dog.

Conclusion:
The Game is a fantastic game that truely has surpassed the defination of open world as there is almost no representation of a loading screen in the game. In a world that is that large, the feeling that there is almost no loading screen is amazingly unique for a game of that scale.

Battlefield Heroes

Title of the Game: Battlefield Heroes
Platform of Game: Available on the PC
Genre of Game: Third Person Casual Shooter
Developer: DICE, EA
Publisher: Electronic Arts
Product Model Year: TBA (Still In Closed Beta)
Game Requirements: Windows XP or Windows Vista, CPU: 1.0 GHz, RAM: 512 Mb (1Gb on Windows Vista), Video Card: 64Mb DirectX compliant video card with at least pixel shader 2.0 support, Hard Drive space: 1Gb of space is required to install the game, Internet connection: 256kbit Cable/DSL connection

Description of the game:
Battlefield heroes is an interesting new breath into the world of online games. The developers at DICE, have decided to forgo realism and make the game a cartoon shooter, thus making it a casual game. Unlike it’s valve counterpart, team fortress 2 that took the same root, but with added blood and gore, this game loses the blood and gore and replace it to be a more arcade stylized game.

The game uses a class system similar to it’s other Battlefield predecessors, however what makes this particular game unique is the introduction of character customizations and that the game is free to play. The publisher, EA decided to go with an advertising model build into the game then going the traditional route of selling the game storefront. Small banner ads are displayed in the lobby and several places in the game. Interestingly enough they do not really take the user’s or player’s experience away from the intended game play. But who knows, when advertisements will actually appear in-game.

Game Play:
The game is a free to play cartoon shooter, however it carries a third person point of view. Players who are not comfortable by this viewpoint might find this quite disturbing however, the approach the game took in implementing it’s skill system might redeem itself. For example, the soldier, can heal everyone on your team at a radius. Thus this means that players will not only be helping themselves to survive longer, but helping their entire team.

In the number of games I have played, I noticed that the game’s fundamental structure is capture the flag. That principal in itself works, but the game only has capture the flag, making the game choices pretty blend.

There are 3 classes each with their own specialties. Though, the commando might be overpowered by their stealth ability being in infinite, almost making themselves invisible for the whole time, only appearing, when they attack or are close to other players.

The variety of vehicles, ranging from mounted turrets to tanks to jeeps and aircraft make the game choices for attack really interesting, however we do notice that flying the airplane is no easy feat. Using the mouse as the yaw stick is very annoying, playing it at demo alone, I notice I almost always leave the area. Playing in a proper server, I noticed people flying the aircraft in incredible ways, I have no idea either to be shocked or ashamed. Perhaps flying is just not my thing.

For the tanks, as if to emphasize on the cartoon part of the cartoon shooter, the tank shoots with an interesting pop sound instead of the traditional boom.

Graphics:
The Game is incredibly colourful, being a cartoon shooter after all. With plenty shades of colours to emphasize the backdrop of the maps, representing areas in france and small towns. Though the game works even on my EEEpc, the textures appear well placed and good with few graphical glitches.

The effects, like glow and the pop of the tank appear fairly well in the cartoon like environment of the game. Especially the skills used in the game.

However, one iffy of the game is that almost all characters in the game appear al most robotic, they arn’t very fluid, for example, when jumping the character appears to just jump straight up, it’s almost as if all the soldiers were soaked in starch and left out in the sun to dry for 3 days, and ironed out.

Sound:
Being a cartoon shooter game, the game makes use of cartoon sound effects to mix it up. Also, the theme song of the game is indeed very catchy. I admit i do have that song as my ringtone for my handphone. It is indeed that catchy.

Sound effects wise, the game has quite a varied number of sound effects at it’s disposal.

Conclusion:
The game is an interesting take for an MMO game, it does have it’s drawbacks, and it’s the first time EA is trying out this new business model, we can just wait and see if the game takes off the way it should. Though it has it’s flaws, it’s still in beta and the developers are still working on the game. The developers are indeed listening to the experience from players and are still improving on the game.

The game is still in beta stage so experience after this review was written might change.

Principals Of Game Design

This blog is now used for Principals of Game Design Module. Please ignore all the other posts, except for the previous, game review post.

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