Archive for the ‘Features’ Category
February 14, 2010
Note: This article contains spoilers
Note: I don’t actually love any game characters (Well, maybe number 1)
Valentine’s Day can be hard for people who are alone. Nobody there to keep them company on what is supposed to be the day all couples treat each other to romantic gestures and acts of compassion. Unfortunately, not everyone is lucky enough to have someone they can share this day with. However, there is no need to fret. I’ve made a list of the game characters you can fall in love with instead.
The following characters may not necessarily be the hottest game characters but they are all well written characters that you just (Well, I can’t) can’t help but fall in love with.
10. Alyx Vance – Half Life 2
Alyx isn’t a blonde supermodel with massive, err… assets; she’s just a realistic, normal women. This all works to her advantage though. It makes her feel more like a human due to the good writing and believable personality. You grow to care for Alyx over the course of Half Life 2 and the episodes. Oh and she has the best smile you’ll ever see! Read the rest of this entry ?
Posted in Features | Tagged Final Fantasy, Half Life 2, Heavenly Sword, Knights of the Old Republic, Mass Effect, Phoenix Wright, Uncharted, Valentine's Day, Valkyria Chronicles, Video games | 3 Comments »
November 6, 2009
The last generation of gaming had plenty of amazing games. The PlayStation 2, Xbox GameCube and Dreamcast all had their fair share of great games that will be fondly remembered. However not all of these amazing games were as influential as others. There a few select games that have influenced the current generation and the games within it. All of the games in this article have influenced the modern gaming industry in one way or another.
The first game I want to discuss is Shenmue. This was released in Japan at the very end of 1999 for the Dreamcast. The game was incredibly ahead of its time and boasted open worlds, real time day and night cycles along with very high production values. This game is often considered to be amazing but due to the poor sales of the Dreamcast most gamers haven’t even played it. Arguably this is the game that created the sandbox titles that we see so much of nowadays. I think, however, that it was too early. If it had came out at a later date when more people had moved up a generation (Be it PS2, Dreamcast etc) it would have had a greater influence.
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Posted in Features | Tagged Grand Theft Auto III, GTA3, Halo, Influential, Last Generation, Resi, Resident Evil 4, Shenmue, Video games | 1 Comment »
October 31, 2009
When you play a Survival Horror game you expect to be scared. You are expecting to be jumping, screaming and generally just shitting yourself. Well I doubt you’ll be screaming (Or literally shitting yourself) but my point still stands, they are supposed to scare you. Through many techniques including atmosphere, sound etc the good ones will have you at the edge of your seat, scared and filled with tension. It’s not just horror games that scare you though; plenty of games have horror parts in them, like Thief: Deadly Shadows which the people who played it will know about. Then you get each, individual genre which can surprisingly be scary in a completely different way. This list will talk about how each genre can be scary without even having horror elements within it.
FPS
Those aliens are very ugly, I wouldn't want to meet one of them round a corner!
The first person shooter surprisingly does have its scary moments. I could mention games like F.E.A.R that place a large emphasis on the horror elements of the game and I could also mention the like of S.T.A.L.K.E.R. and Fallout 3 which both have horror elements within them but it isn’t the main focus. Instead, I’m going to mention the one that everybody has faced before. I am of course, referring to running round a corner to be faced with an enemy. Every time this happens I just can’t help but jump out of my seat in sheer shock and surprise. It truly is a terrifying moment in gaming that is guaranteed to get you every time. The fact that enemies in FPS’ tend to be ugly, bald guys, ugly aliens, ugly monsters or ugly robots adds to the fear as you a greeted with a horrible and shocking sight.
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Posted in Features | Tagged Beat em'Ups, FPS, Halloween, Horror, Platformer, RPG, Scary, Sport, Stealth, Video games | 1 Comment »
September 27, 2009
I don’t want Space Marines, I don’t want clichéd JRPG heroes, I don’t want blank slates, I don’t want American soldiers, I don’t want hot girls with very little clothing (Well maybe I do) but I do want animals. Animals tend to either by the main heroes trusty sidekick or appear in platformer games. Nearly all of them are aimed at kids but that doesn’t mean there aren’t some that are not and that the ones that are don’t appeal to everyone else. Most animals in gaming tend to be quite amusing but they can bring tears to your eye. For the list I am only including characters that are real animals and not animals that have been made up for the game.
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Posted in Features | Tagged Agro, Animals, Characters, Conker, Crash Bandicoot, Monkey, Shadow of the Colossus, Sonic, TimeSplitters, Video games | 1 Comment »
September 6, 2009
… and a quick summary of this generation so far.
Now I love a good hack and slash adventure game or whatever you want to call it. Sometimes they called beat em’ up action, simply action-adventure and more but for the purposes of this I’ll call it hack and slash. They always manage to be very stylish and cool, put up a good challenge and have a great pace throughout the game, well the good ones do. Generally there are always going to be really big bosses that look impossible to defeat but eventually you will kick their ass. This generation has had a few games so far but next year looks like it will be giving us some of the best.
Look at what hack and slash action games we’ve had this year. It started off with Afro Samurai. Now this wasn’t amazing, it was decent, stylish fun. It had a great style and even though it lacked depth compared to most other games in the genre it was still worth a play. The next game we got was X-Blades. I hate to count this in the genre that I often consider my favourite but I better give it a quick mention. It was crap. It was boring. It was basically unplayable, fortunately I never had the honour (well…) of playing much of this. Not the best start to the year now, is it?
I don’t know if you can count Ninja Blade but it didn’t show us what the genre was all about. It was a decent enough game but anyone who has played Ninja Gaiden can tell you that it’s not half as good. It was fun but once again lacked depth and didn’t put up much of a challenge at all. There was a large focus on quick time events which obviously didn’t help it. The first one that could be called good was a very surprising one. X-Men Origins: Wolverine shocked everyone when it actually turned out be not bad. It may have been a God of War clone but it pulled it off rather well and managed to be very entertaining. Easily the best game of the genre in 2009 so far.
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Posted in Features | Tagged 2010, Action, Adventure, Bayonetta, Beat em' up, Castlevania, Dante's Inferno, Darksiders, Devil May Cry, Fighting, God of War, Hack and Slash, Ninja Gaiden, Video games | Leave a Comment »
August 22, 2009
Personally I think that the PSP has had some great titles and is a pretty good piece of kit. You can download games, play music, watch videos, look at pictures and all of that so as a media player it’s pretty impressive. However I’m here to talk about the games. There have been some great games on the system so far such as God of War: Chains of Olympus, Patapon, Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII and plenty more. 2009 looks to bring even more great games to the system so this list will pick out five of the best looking games for the rest of the year.
5. Assassin’s Creed: Bloodlines
Now the first Assassin’s Creed was a decent game. It had great ideas but some poor execution and even though the gameplay was great at the start, it got repetitive quickly which just made it boring. What it needed was variety. Fortunately though Assassin’s Creed II looks like it is taking the great groundwork of the first game and expanding upon it to make a great game. From what we have seen of Bloodlines it’s hard to tell whether it too will add upon the first game in the same way but I can’t imagine why not. Ubisoft are putting a lot of work into Assassin’s Creed 2 and I think they will be doing the same for Bloodlines.
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Posted in Features | Tagged 2009, Assassin's Creed, Bloodlines, Broken Destiny, Dissidia, Final Fantasy, Gran Turismo, LittleBigPlanet, PlayStation Portable, Portable, PSP, Sony, Soul Calibur, Video games | 4 Comments »
August 7, 2009
Note: “this generation” refers to this generation of consoles.
Good voice acting is usually praised by both gamers and critics but more often than not the person behind the voice doesn’t get much credit. Normally people will say they think the voice behind “x” character is good but will rarely know who actually does the voice. I think that voice actors/actresses deserve a lot more recognition than they get so I’ve compiled a list of the top 10 voice actors/actresses of this generation. The list is based on both performances and how much they have been in but in some cases people are in higher places for having a single, amazing performance.
10.
Phil LaMarr
Phil LaMarr is primarily an actor but still does voice acting every so often. Most of the roles he’s played, he’s done well. He was Sig in Jak II and III but that’s not this generation so it doesn’t really count. His best voice acting role is without a doubt Vamp from the Metal Gear Solid series. The voice was perfected in MGS4 and he really fitted the character. He was also in inFamous which he voiced the main character. Even though John in inFamous wasn’t the best voice acting, it did show that Phil LaMarr is able to put different voices on. John had a really, really gruff voice which is why it is only decent voice acting, it was too gruff. Vamp on the other hand had a completely different voice. Fans of Mercenaries may know that he played Christopher Jacobs in both games. This was not his best performance but he did provide a voice which suited the character very well. Mercenaries was really over the top and was supposed to be humorous which Phil LaMarr managed to convey very well with his character.
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Posted in Features | Tagged Actors, Actresses, Consoles, Gears of War, Generation, Heavenly Sword, Mass Effect, Metal Gear Solid, The Darkness, Top 10, Video games, Voice Acting | 5 Comments »
July 24, 2009
RPG’s are always seen as being really big in Japan but not so big over here. To an extent that is true because you will rarely see a Japanese RPG sell well anywhere outside of Japan. However the same can be said about Western RPGs which rarely sell well in Japan. It’s reasonable enough to treat them as two different genres though. The basic ideas in the games may be similar but when you take into account everything else they are completely different games.
From this point on JRPG = Japanese RPG and WRPG = Western RPG
The first thing I’m going to discuss is the battle system or the way you fight enemies. JRPGs have a tendency, or at least they used to, to stick to a turn based battle system. Most games had slight variations of it but generally they stuck to the same idea of taking turns to attack, defend, heal etc. I love Turn Based battle systems and think it was perfected in Final Fantasy X but some people argue that it’s dated and shouldn’t be used. However that doesn’t stop games like Lost Odyssey from using it. Random battles are also a feature that often pops up in JRPGs. More often than not you will not see your enemy and the fights will always be random encounters which you have no control in. A lot of games do seem to be changing this now such as Final Fantasy with the 12th instalment and the more recent Tales of Vesperia. Some games seem to be sticking to it though, mainly Pokémon which still proves to be massively popular in both Japan and the west. This is one of the few exceptions of the rule. Now onto Western RPGs which favour real time combat over turn based. Off the top of my head the only Western turn based game I can think of is Fallout. Fallout 3 also had a real time option along with VATS (Kind of turn based) but the original was turn based. WRPGs don’t have random encounters either, or at least I have never found one that does. Most of them have enemies around the area which you can attack at your own will using whatever weapon you may have. Read the rest of this entry ?
Posted in Features | Tagged Bethesda, Bioware, Cell Shaded, Culture, Dragon Quest, Elder Scrolls, Fable, Fallout, Fantasy, Final Fantasy, II, Japanese, Level 5, Lionhead, Lost Odyssey, Mass Effect, Morrowing, Oblivion, Open World, Rogue Galaxy, Role Playing Games, RPG, Sci-Fi, Square Enix, Star Ocean, Tales of Vesperia, Traditional, Video games, VII, VIII, Western, XII, XIII | Leave a Comment »
July 10, 2009
… and how Hitman 5 can make it even better
The Level Design
The Hitman series always have clever and well designed levels. Each level is filled with loads of small touches, secrets, goodies and more. There is always something fun and useful hidden in the levels for the determined player to find. The actual levels themselves are just as good. There is no repeated corridor for the 50th time or multiple rooms that are exactly the same. Each area in Hitman is designed extremely well and gives the player freedom to go where they want in that particular area. The exploration helps you find the special things that will help you complete your mission in a fun and inventive way. Hitman 5 could make the worlds even more open than they already are. I don’t want a GTA world but making the people in the world do actual things and have some common sense would be great and help the area feel alive. A more open world would also mean that there would more opportunities to explore which could add a lot of replay value to the game.
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Posted in Features | Tagged 2, 2010 Video Games, 3, 360, 5, Agent 47, Blood Money, Disguises, Eidos, Film, Hitman, IO Interactive, Playstation, PS2, Silent Assassin, Stealth, X360, Xbox | Leave a Comment »
June 30, 2009
I thought I would make a small feature so people will know what to buy instead of Terminator Salvation. This won’t be that big a feature and the one scheduled for 10/07/09 will still be at that date.
Gears of War
Platform? – Xbox 360
Why? – The shooting is a lot more solid than Terminator Salvation and so is the cover system. The game isn’t particularly long but it is still longer than Terminator. Gears has a lot more replay value with great co-op, great multiplayer and more difficulty modes. It is also amazing graphically with an incredible amount of detail.
How much? – £12.99 at Play.com.
Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune
Platform? – PlayStation 3
Why? – Uncharted mixes third person shooting, platforming and cool characters into one game. Even though it is quite short there is multiple difficulty modes that you will want to play through again. Uncharted also looks great with some fantastic lighting in the jungle.
How Much? – 14.95 at ShopTo.net.
Resident Evil 5
Platform? – PlayStation 3, PC and Xbox 360
Why? – Resident Evil 5 is a great action game that has fantastic co-op. Unfortunately it does continue the horror from the previous games in the series but it is a solid, action game with plenty of replay value.
How Much? – PS3 – £19.99 at Gamestation.co.uk
- PC – £18.95 at ShopTo.net
- X360 – £19.99 at Amazon.co.uk
Dead Space
Platform? – PlayStation 3, PC and Xbox 360
Why? – Dead Space isn’t just a third person shooter but is more of a survival horror game. It has some very clever scares and has an amazing use of sound. It is relatively long too so it will keep you going for quite a while
How Much? – PS3 – £11.96 at Amazon.co.uk
- X360 – £12.96 at Amazon.co.uk
- PC – £7.70 at Amazon.co.uk
Note: All prices were correct at time of posting.
Note2: I don’t mean any offence to GRIN as the developers of Terminator Salvation. This feature is just to recommend what games people could play that are similar to Terminator Salvation. I believe that Terminator Salvation is a decent game but let down by the length and with more time I think it could have been great.
Posted in Features | Tagged 2009 video games, Action, Christian Bale, Film Games, John Connor, Judgement Day, PC, Playstation 3, PS3, Rise of the Machines, Salvation, Terminator, Third Person Shooter, X360, Xbox 360 | Leave a Comment »
