Tagged: pc

12May

Metro 2033

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Metro 2033 had always been a title that fascinated me in general, as the post-apocalyptic setting and the Russian feel of the game are just not something you’ll find regularly in games. And recently, user Jinxtah from the Between Life and Games’ forum sang praises for the game, further convincing me to give it a shot soon. Finally, my Easter break (Orthodox Easter was in early May this year) allowed me some free time in my hometown and away from my PS3. I’d already got Metro 2033 from the Humble THQ Bundle a while ago, so it was a matter of downloading and installing it on my computer. Not long after, I was into the world of the Moscow Metro…

Metro 2033 Cover

Game: Metro 2033
Developer: 4A Games
Platforms: PC, Xbox 360
Original release: 2010
Territories: All

Metro 2033 is based on the novel by Russian author Dmitry Glukhovsky, which, interestingly, was first published on the internet in 2002, chapter by chapter by the author. Only in 2005, after becoming really popular online, was it published as an actual paper book.  The game is a first-person shooter, a genre I’m not a particularly huge fan of. But the atmosphere makes it truly one of a kind – the dark, endless tunnels of the Metro are humanity’s last hope, while the surface is a desolate land, where endless nuclear winter and mutants reign, and the air is not breathable. But the hellish post-war creatures do not just stay on the surface, they try to take over the tunnels and destroy the humans. And even in the face of such adversity, humans are not united, there are warring factions and struggle for power among the mere 40,000 survivors living in the Metro. Our hero and his brothers in arms are the only ones who preserve the glimmering hope of our species.

Screenshots in the review have been taken by me during my playthrough. And one important note before I continue – play the game with the Russian voices – I cannot recommend this enough. You can still use English subtitles if you don’t understand the language. The English voices with the thick Russian accent are charming, but… just not the same.

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08Apr

Terraria – terrible

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“2D Minecraft” is a very short description of Terraria that I’ve heard somewhere… I disliked Minecraft quite a bit when I tried it, it’s one of the recent crazes I just couldn’t understand. But I thought I’d give Terraria a chance. After all, it’s 2D, pixely, it should have some charm, right? Wrong! I downloaded the PSN demo this weekend, and gave it a couple of tries… I was disappointed. The picture you see below has way more charm than the demo itself.

Terraria Cover

Game: Terraria
Developer: Re-Logic
Platforms: PC; PlayStation Network (playable on both PS3 and PS Vita), Xbox Live Arcade
Original release: 2011
Territories: All
Price: $9.99

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26Mar

Final Fantasy VIII

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Until recently, there was one big hole in my personal Final Fantasy history – the one game from the entries before the series went online that I hadn’t beaten. Final Fantasy VIII was the successor to VII that I knew didn’t live up to the magic of VII at all. I knew about how Squall was a lame protagonist in comparison to Cloud, about the stupid-as-hell “plot twist,” I’d heard of the “Rinoa = Ultimecia” theory. I’d even started the game several years ago, and played the first 2 hours or so, but then gave up, deciding to invest my time into something I’d like more. Now, with the ability to play it on the PSP, I finally went back to this game and filled that gap.

Final Fantasy VIII Cover

Game: Final Fantasy VIII
Developer: SquareSoft
Platforms: PlayStation, PC; PlayStation 3, PlayStation Portable, PlayStation Vita (PSOne Classics)
Original release: 1999
Territories: All

I should say that Final Fantasy VIII entirely lived up to the expectations – nowhere near VII’s league, but nothing incredibly horrendous like its biggest haters would claim. The story and characters are pretty uninspired as a whole (except from a couple of exceptions I’ll mention later), but it makes some interesting gameplay experiments, which ultimately make it easily abusable, but I wouldn’t write them off as bad. It also offers some interesting locations, as most FF games do, and a relatively epic final stretch. After a promising beginning, there are some incredibly ridiculous moments in the story later on, which harm the game’s overall quality big time.

The screenshots in the review have been taken by me.

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20Jan

Mass Effect 3

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Already since the first game, I felt that the Mass Effect series was the grandest undertaking of the current console generation. And now, having finished the trilogy, I am absolutely certain of it. While none of the individual games are perfect, this is one of those cases where the whole is greater than the sum of its individual parts. The vast, detailed universe (actually, that is just the Milky Way galaxy) BioWare have created, with all the different intelligent species, with hundreds of planets, with complex political relationships, is beautiful. Just beautiful. I can only think of a handful of cases in the history of gaming where comparable amounts of effort have been put into crafting a game/series’ universe. And Mass Effect may actually be THE most complex one of all.

Since I first played the game quite a few months after it came out, I couldn’t help expecting a mess of an ending, as that was the almost unanimous opinion among gamers on the internet. However, I can now safely say that those claims are incorrect. Mass Effect 3 provides a very fascinating conclusion, staying true to the principles of the series. It’s natural that there are people who don’t like it, but, given the size of the saga, there is no possible ending that couldn’t have ticked someone off. So fear not, BioWare did NOT mess up with Mass Effect’s ending. It’s a fitting conclusion to the saga.

Mass Effect 3 Cover

Game: Mass Effect 3
Developer: BioWare
Platforms: PC, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360; Wii U
Original release: 2012
Territories: All

The third game in the series is another solid entry. Like the second one, it improves on some things in the predecessor, but is then weaker in other aspects. The thrilling struggle against the Reapers and the brilliant finale have Mass Effect easily leapfrog the second game in terms of overall story. Sadly, it doesn’t hold up as far as conversations/development of your teammates goes (even though we are already familiar with a great part of them). Annoying gameplay features from the second game like streamlined stats distribution as opposed to precise, point-by-point growth, and thermal clips (ammo), sadly remain here. Neat things like hacking are completely gone. It was clearly important for BioWare to keep the game tuned for the average gamer and maximise its sales. But those issues still do not detract much from the overall excellence of Mass Effect 3.

Seeing as I played the game on PC, this is another review where I provide my own screenshots.

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30Nov

Barkley: Shut Up and Jam Gaiden 2 Kickstarter

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Barkley Shut Up and Jam Gaiden

In the recent days, I was extremely excited to find out that Tales of Game’s, the creators of the magnificent PC RPG Barkley: Shut Up and Jam Gaiden, Chapter 1 of the Hoopz Barkley SaGa wanted to work on a sequel. For this purpose, they set up a Kickstarter page, and it’s not only underway, but it exceeded its initial goal of $35,000 in under a day! I must shamefully admit that I haven’t even beaten the first game… I’ve played like an hour of it and postponed it until later times that are apparently yet to come. But it is such a fun concept, the story setting is absolutely brilliant, and it stars the likes of Barkley and Jordan in a cyberpunk world! I highly recommend it, furthermore, it’s free! Visit the above link to download it.

And, if you’ve got some money to support the Kickstarter for the sequel, please do so. It has reached its initial goal, but the developers said that the more money they raise, the more time they’ll put into the project and the more ideas they’ll be able to realise. I’m sure that even just reading the Kickstarter page will assure you that we’re talking guys with very good sense of humour here. :)

Barkley: Shut Up and Jam Gaiden 2 Kickstarter page: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/talesofgames/barkley-2-an-rpg-sequel-to-barkley-shut-up-and-jam

13Nov

Sonic Adventure 2 – a relic of the past

Posted by in Demo Impressions | 1 Comment

SEGA like to release their old stuff on PSN/XBLA/Steam lately, making some completely free money off their past work. I was a big fan of SEGA back in the 16-bit era, and, of course, the 2D Sonic games were a major reason for that. Sonic was WAY cooler than Mario in the 2D world, he carried SEGA forward, and that is why the Mega Drive/Genesis was such a success. I never owned a Saturn or a Dreamcast, though, so I had missed on Sonic’s later forays, this time in the 3D world. And while his more recent games have been widely hated (Sonic Generations being a recent exception), the Dreamcast entries Sonic Adventure and Sonic Adventure 2 have always been beloved by the fanbase. Thus, quite curious to see just how good the first 3D Sonics could be in comparison to less popular stuff like Unleashed, which I’d tried a couple of years ago, I recently downloaded the demo of Sonic Adventure 2 on PSN.

Sonic Adventure 2

Game: Sonic Adventure 2
Developer: Sonic Team
Platforms: Dreamcast, GameCube (Sonic Adventure 2: Battle version), PlayStation Network, Xbox Live Arcade, PC
Original release: 2001
Territories: All
Price: $9.99

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22Oct

Retro City Rampage – fresh with nostalgia

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I occasionally try out demos, mostly on the PlayStation Network. Very rarely has a demo made me buy a game (the awesome early PS3 action-adventure Folklore comes to mind), but they’re a fine addition of the current generation, a real step forward from the years before when we only got demos rarely, through game magazines or the rare inclusions of a highly anticipated game’s demo in a previous game by the same company (think Metal Gear Solid 2′s demo in Zone of the Enders).

With this article, I’m starting a new section of the site, where I’ll share my quick impressions from demos I have found to be notable. And the first one I’ll write about is Retro City Rampage.

Retro City Rampage

Game: Retro City Rampage
Developer: Vblank Entertainment
Platforms: PC, PlayStation Network (playable on both PS3 and PS Vita); Coming soon: Xbox Live Arcade, WiiWare
Original release: 2012
Territories: All
Price: $14.99

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15Aug

The new Final Fantasy VII PC version is out!

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Square Enix have finally put the new Final Fantasy VII PC version up for sale. Sadly, the rumour that it would be up on Steam didn’t hold true. What we do know is that this new version has improved graphics and music compared to the original PC release, though, naturally, it’s far from the full-blown modern-technology remake fans want so much. For a limited time, the game costs just 10 Euros to download, so I highly recommend it to anyone that has not played this masterpiece yet!

Final Fantasy VII Cloud

Official website: http://finalfantasyviipc.com/

06Aug

Video Game Music of the Week – 06-12.08.2012

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Still in a PSO mood, this week I’ve decided to share PSO2′s take on “A Whole New World” with you. PSO fans will instantly recognise it. It’s enjoyable and shows promise for the PSO2 soundtrack as a whole. Of course, I do not hope for a soundtrack as amazing as Phantasy Star Online’s, that would be too much to ask. But I’ll be happy enough if PSO2′s comes close to its quality. Yes, the game is already out in Japan and I could listen to the music even now, but I prefer to wait until I get to play it myself in 2013. :)

Composer: Hideaki Kobayashi
Game: Phantasy Star Online 2
Song: A Whole New World – PSO2 Arrangement

30Jul

Video Game Music of the Week – 30.07-05.08.2012

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This week continues the SEGA theme, even if we’re leaving the 16-bit nostalgia behind for now. With Phantasy Star Online 2 having already come out in Japan and being mere months away from being playable in English, I cannot help recalling one of the things that made the original Phantasy Star Online so amazing – its soundtrack. It’s one of my favourite game soundtracks, and the song I’ve chosen from it is actually from Episode IV, exclusive for the PC version Phantasy Star Online: Blue Burst. It’s called “Nostalgia in Solitude: Part 1″.

Composer: Hideaki Kobayashi
Game: Phantasy Star Online: Blue Burst
Song: Nostalgia in Solitude: Part 1