The Three Rs N3twork is a primarily British viral entertainment network, with standings in many niche interests involved in a variety of different groups. Ranging from gaming to adulthood to video creation.
1/10 - "Just, No." 2/10 - "Avoid." 3/10 - "Gamebreakingly flawed" 4/10 - "Not so great" 5/10 - "Pretty Average." 6/10 - "A few nice touches, nothing amazing" 7/10 - "Not brilliant, fun anyway" 8/10 - "A decent enough game, Well worth a look." 9/10 - "A really good game. Highly Recommended." 10/10 - "An absolute must buy, a defining game for the genre."
While i've spent 4-5 days hooked on the Bad Company multiplayer, i figured it was time to review Alone in the Dark. To start, I found the game really enjoyable. When I first played it, I found the combat really irritating and difficult to grasp, and this led to me being chucked around a fair bit by the enemys, but now i've settled down somewhat. The Graphics are good, and the physics engine is, in a word, amazing. The way fire works is possibly alone in the darks biggest plus point. Everything that should burn, does burn. I once used a flaming bullet to put the window through of a car, and then slowly released i'd set the car on fire, and had to jump out. Moments like this make the game fun, and again, its the engine that should be applauded.
As for the story, it's pretty decent adventure game fare. You play as Edward Carnby and after a brilliant first two "episodes" escaping from a collapsing tower block, you find yourself in Central Park to solve a mystery. Yeah, the whole of central park. Central park is a pretty large place though, so you will have to use one of the many vehicles littered around to get there. In the run up to release, developers Eden used the dreaded words "open world enviroment" but this is untrue. While you have alot of ground you can cover, you dont have the Items to really go on a killing spree of sorts, and so generally you head for the nearest car and go straight for your next checkpoint. That is, when you are actually in central park. Most of your time is spent roaming sewers and hallways nervously.
This isnt a big thing however, I for one like some linearity to my survival horror and the game has alot of charm. The combination system is slightly insane sometimes, as i found out when i taped a bottle of petrol to a box of bullets and then chucked a bandage in it as a wick. Yeah, quite an explosion there. Thats not to say there arent bad things in the game. Gameplay really needs to pause while you are using items in your coat, and the difficulty curve shoots upwards at about 4 hours into the game, a part where I didn't get any healing items for about an hour, and was stuck on "one hit will kill you" after fighting a boss and still not getting any healing items. The controls are ever so slightly clunky, although you will get used to this with time, and some of the enemys are practically invincible, requiring you to shoot 3-4 different fissures with flaming bullets to put them down. The main flaw is that there just isnt enough of it. the game clocks in at alittle under 9 hours if you know what your doing, and I finished it in around 10. This is to me its main crime as a game. I just wanted to play more of it.
Overall i'd give it an 7/10 although, if it would of been a few hours longer it would of certainly been an 8 or 9, i just struggle to justify it as a full price purchase when its so short.
The game has been soured slightly by Atari's rampage regarding poor review scores, a fiasco that veteran companies like atari should be past by this point, slinging accusations of piracy left and right, and so it's hard to review this without that coming into my head subconciously
Right, this has been rather a long time coming, for which I apologise, BUT here's a little post all to do with the spectacle known as Devil May Cry 4! But I've decided to change what I was going to do, as I'm such a big fan of this series, any review I give would be pretty biased, so instead of a review I'm gunna have a general rant on what I loved and liked and felt like obliterating in this game.
First off, the new boy, Nero. If I'm being honest, I actually didnt mind him in the slightest. It was brave to put Nero into the game, with Metal Gear Solid doing the same and Raiden getting a lot of hate directed at him for it, yet it works very well here, with two different perspectives of the same story being shown, making it more interesting. I enjoyed knocking about deranged scarecrows, big fire demons and old men with his meaty demonic fist, the Devil Bringer, as it brought a new element of fighting to an already excellant series. It took a bit more for me to like his gun, which i didnt feel had enough ass-kicking power to it, and it took even more to get used to him shouting out 'KYRIE!!' every time she bloody appeared, but thats being a little picky. At the very least, I didn't resent playing as him for a lot of the game, and I really enjoyed using his sword too, so that was a definite up-side!
Something I really loved in the game was the dramatic boss fights. Each one actually involved some sort of strategy instead of just a hack an' slash-fest, and they also looked visually impressive too, especially Berial, who was a mix between the Balrog from LOTR and a centaur, with a nasty-ass attitude. Some of them also were just a pure joy to fight against, like Credo. the amount of dodging you had to do, coupled with some quick attacks and counters left me wanting to re-do the whole level just to fight him again! And of course, fighting Dante was a massive highlight of the game, reminding me of the fights against Vergil in the previous installment which I felt were some of the best bits. Not to say it didn't get frustrating when Dante would land his billionth stinger move on me though!
It wasn't just the boss fights either, but some of the fights against normal demons and nasty things were pretty darn fun too! The knights were a particular favourite of mine, reminding me fondly of Nelo Angelo from the original DMC. In fact they were pretty much watered down versions of that bastard, but numerous enough to pose a challenge, especially on modes such as Son of Sparda. An enemy I'm not too fond of however is the electric demon that crops up now an then. I mean I love a good challenge on games, and I'm not complaining about that, but he was such an annoying fucker, again especially on the harder modes. You had to shoot him to weaken him enuff so you could hit him with your sword as he electrocuted you otherwise, and it didn't help that he was using his own version of the Trickster style against you. And then once you finally felt you had killed him, he can grab you and explode with you as a parting gift. I couldn't help but feel he was laughing at me when this happened, but I would perservere an carry on.
Another character in the game that stuck in my mind was Agnus, the science guy from the Order. The moment he stuttered onto the screen you instantly knew he was trouble, so it was very satisfying getting to beat him up later on. Agnus is a character I loved to hate, and everytime he appeared something big always went down, so i looked forward to him popping up, even if I did wanna ram my over-sized sword down his throat.
Of course I cant go on about a DMC game without mentioning the old hero, Dante, a little bit more. He may be a little more grizzled than previous games, but he's still got the same style and grace from before, and if anything he's even more cocky and more of a show off! At first it was strange not playing as him, but this just made his appearances even more exciting, especially the opening FMV with the big fight between Dante and Nero, which is the best opening for any DMC game so far. Once i got to play as Dante though, I instantly fell in love with him again. He brought back loving memories of DMC 3, and handles almost exactly the same as he did on DMC 3 too. He has all four styles again, Trickster, Gun Slinger, Sword Master and Royal Guard *spit* except they are even better then before, as this time you can change style mid-fight with the d-pad! This cheered me up immensly as being stuck to just one style for a level on DMC 3 was a little depressing. Weapons can also be changed mid-fight too, so you're no longer stuck with just two guns and two melee weapons for the level either.
Speaking of weapons, I also fell in love with Rebellion and Ebony and Ivory again. In my opinion they were real weapons, and fighting with them felt like pure stylish scrapping, getting in quick hits and quicker counters and always being on the move. Fighting with Dante to me was a lot more fun then fighting with Nero, mostly because you didn't have a demonic arm that could bring the enemies to you, you had to do the moving; I loved it! Felt much more satisfying. Can't say I was a big fan of many of his other weapons though. I felt that the gaunlets while powerful were too slow, the Lucifer was a little impractical, and Pandora's Box while a brilliant idea in theory wasn't a great weapon to use unless I was bored of the conventional types. I did love the shotgun though, being a fan of it in other DMC games, so i felt by law it needed to be used, and it still impressed.
I felt that Trish and Lady making returns in this game was a good thing too, and enjoyed seeing them again, especially Trish who hasn't been seen since DMC 1 way back in 2001! Wasn't too sure on Lady's new look though, but she still had the Kalina-Ann so that made up for it. I was also giddy with excitement when the swords Yamato (Vergil's sword) and Sparda cropped up, and even more happy when I got to use Yamato! Having played DMC 3 Special Edition with Vergil I grew to really like his sword and fighting style, so it was a really nice touch to be able to play with it again. Unfortunately Sparda wasn't on the menu though, and depressingly it was used against you too, but it was a very good feeling beating the guy who was using it i must say.
Visually the game is rather impressive, as it should be, and the difference between this game and other DMC games can be seen best with Dante. The detail on his face an clothes, and in his movements are astounding, and this is true of the other characters too. The best example of the visual step-up is with Berial, in all his fiery glory! Yet the backgrounds and levels you can play in, even though they were rather large and very good looking (especially the outside of Fortuna Castle and the jungle) I felt were rather sparse and in some cases a little samey. Then again there isn't always time to look at your surroundings in a game like this, and let's be honest, not many would.
Unlike certain critics (and some fans I might add) I actually enjoyed the soundtrack to the game as well, feeling that the hardcore metal and rock vibes are what gave the game a much more edgy and energetic feel when pounding the crap out of some demons who deserve it, and if that was changed or taken away then it just wouldn't feel like DMC anymore. I personally prefer Nero's background fighting music to Dante's myself, and enjoyed the music during the credits too, coincidentally them being the same.
Overall I feel this game is a very strong jewel in Devil May Cry's impressive crown, and I really enjoyed playing this game, and still do. Instead of carrying on talking about it, I instead suggest that you play it for youself, if you havent done already, and I recommend this to anyone who enjoys stylish action games even just a little, because I assure you that everyone will find at least one thing they like in this game. In fact, going against what I said at the beginning of this post, I feel that if I did pass a review on this game, it'd be 9/10, being as un-biased as I can be, just because the enjoyment from this game was so much, even being new to the series I'd think it was this good.
As a parting gift, here's a link leading to a video containing the main DMC 4 song, with a lot of game art, promotional pictures and screen shots playing in the background. Enjoy!
This review is going to contain spoilers. Character names wont be included, but either way, I want to discuss the ending of the game. You have been warned. Game of the decade? Defining game of the generation? A masterpiece? With all the hype and reviews buzzing around GTA 4's release, it was hard to find a source to trust, luckily the game mostly lives up to its hype.
That's not to say it isn't without flaws, there are more then a few instances of "pop up" in the game, and there are a few minor issues with the lock on targeting, and the cover system, and its irritating to fail a mission and have to complete a long boring driving sequence again and again because of a lack of in-mission saves, but, by and large, these are all minor concerns, and were the other aspects of the game any less then stellar, then these flaws would still barely show up.
The game has stripped out an armful of the less popular aspects from San Andreas, and plays like the previous peak of the series Vice City. It's a far more intelligent beast however, and the whole experience feels a lot more realistic than its forerunners, and the better for it. I mean, sure, I sorta miss flying harriers from the desert, or doing crazy stuff like using a jetpack to land on a speeding train, but its a worthy sacrifice for set pieces where you jump across rooftops escaping swat teams. The same can be said of the game world, It's certainly not as big as San Andreas', but as a trade off, the area we have got is far more varied, and incredibly detailed. this is a trend in GTA4, in every area you get less than SanAndreas, but everything you do get is of a far higher quality. Cars dent like they should, bullets leave holes in cars, windscreens, even people, and you cant escape the fact it just feels so real. And that's its main selling point, to me, is that it is in a living breathing city, everything just has an air of authenticity about it, from the people walking down the streets, to the occasional traffic wreck as you pull up to a junction. Everyone in liberty city is living a life, and for better or worse, you have the power to intervene in that, that's a major draw to me, and without a doubt one of the games biggest strengths. You can visit comedy clubs [with some excellent bits of stand up from Ricky Gervais], watch TV, go out to a fast food restaurant, all of the things you would do in real life. Unlike real life for most of us however, you're always free to cut loose and annihilate an entire street with an assault rifle. It IS real.
Its not just the city that is more realistic, the cars handle better too, the steering is heavier, and driving in general is slightly more difficult, but this is good, its more rewarding when you get used to it, and are evading the police with ease.
Past the gameplay, there's a storyline that can only be described as epic, taking you from Niko's arrival in the country, as a nameless goon, to "Niko Bellic" an ex-soldier forced into a life of crime, surrounded by bodies. Niko is by far a more likable character then those that came before, and there'sa lot more to his personality. This makes the ending even more bleak when it rolls around at the end of the 30-40 hours gameplay. "We won man, we won!" That's the last line of real dialogue in the game, and it didn't ring true, sure, you've finished the game, the bad guys are dead. But the ending proves that there isn't an exit for people like Nico. As a result of his actions, people he cares about have to suffer. It's a tragic ending that finishes an amazing storyline, and you genuinely feel for Nico when he realises revenge won't right the wrongs. At this moment, the journey is complete, and you realise the story of GTA is far more than its usual "Rise to the top" crime story.
I played through both of the endings on offer, and both are equally as tragic.
All in all, I'd give this game a 10/10 and if it doesn't win Game of the Year, I'll eat my own underpants.
Hi everyone, me again, for my second review. All though last week i said i'd be reviewing iron man, but i decided after all the hype i'd wait a couple of weeks for it to die down, so i could take it in a bit better instead of trying to idealise everyone else's expectations and opinions.
Instead i chose a light hearted comedy, one of many that seem to be sprawling out of America these days, "Forgetting Sarah Marshall", introducing a relative new comer, Jason Segel to the screen along with the rather tasty Kristin Bell and supposed funny man Russel Brand, i say supposed because personally he does my fucking nut in; although he does have his moments within this feature, along with the other stars, spliced in with many other up and coming American comedy names who seem to be appearing in each others movies every other second, mainly bill hader and Jonah Hill of critically acclaimed comedy Superbad. I did at first have low expectations but this after all did genuinely make my laugh my tits off, as these racy comedies become ever more daring but frequently showing me Segel's penis, along with vivid images of sexual activity and some very harsh and brash things that you would not expect to hear from a film like this, and to that i say... bring it the fuck on! cos i'll be damned if we don't need a modern society that isn't afraid to speak and make inexcusable jokes.
Overall it was an extremely funny film that i by and large could not predict, thoroughly enjoyable. See you next week folks.
So, having finally finished Rainbow Six Vegas 2's story mode on realistic, i not only feel like a fully trained, well equipped counter terrorist agent but i also feel like i can now discuss the game.
For a start, Theresalot of people who believe that this game is just an expansion pack and not a real sequel, much in the style that GRAW2 didn't add much to UbiSoft's Ghost Recon series. I'm 100% in agreement with these people, but to just write Vegas 2 off as a simple expansion pack would be a disservice in my opinion. I was possibly the worlds biggest Rainbow Six Vegas fan, i pretty much played it solidly from its release in November 06, till well into 2007. As a result expectations were pretty high, and I'll happily admit to being on the verge of joyous tears as i slid my new copy of Vegas 2 into my 360's disk drive.
I'm afraid to say that first impressions were not so great. the PEC (Persistent Elite Creation)Character creator was almost exactly the same as the first one, with very little new options, and the menu screen could of quite easily been mistaken for the originals. this is nothing but cheap design in my opinion, a new game should at least get a new menu. From there on in I found i was developing a horrendous case of DejaVu, the game used the same game engine, and the even better, the same crippling multi player host advantage.
but no matter, this was a game i loved, so i settled down, and played for a little while. My first major complaint with the game was that the maps were straight up just not as good as the originals. Again, a problem of lazy design.
It took me about a week to get through the realistic storyline, which ties in and completes the originals finally dealing with the traitorous Gabenowak. I did like the fact that your PEC was now your avatar in story, as well as the rather bland fatigues of Logan Keller from the first Vegas, and I pretty much enjoyed the story. It had a slight problem of being a little short, but I'm going to chalk that up to laziness on UbiSoft's part again, and fart in their general direction.
I played through the story with a good friend of mine playing as Knight, and i found that Co-op enhanced the experience heavily, as coordinating with a real person just made it all seem more natural to me. I didn't get on so well with the single player, while i was completing it cooperatively, i trailed behind on single player at normal difficulty. I found it to be largely unchallenging, but my major upset was that they fucked up the voice commands again. I tried to tell my team to lob a grenade, and suddenly they were sprinting headlong at an enemy on a light machine gun, practically tripping over each other to get into the line of hot leaden death. So, i muted the mic.
In general, I think a lot of my problems with Vegas 2 were that it wasn't the sequel i had been rabidly expecting,and convincing all of my friends to buy. It felt somewhat rushed, and i couldn't help but feel it was Vegas 1.5 rather then the real deal. It's still a totally playable game, and I'm still playing alot of multi player, despite the lack of good hosts. I'd score it a pretty decent 7/10, because the Graphics are still pretty shitty, but the games nice and solid, even if it isnt the instant classic Vegas was.
I wanted to write a blog about Rainbow Six Vegas 2's story mode today, hoping to have gotten it finished on realistic difficulty, but my co-op partner never showed up.
So, i'm going to talk alittle bit about Condemned 2. The single player keeps dragging me in and keeping me up long into the night, and i'm finding it a refreshing change from my usual diet of straight up FPS games.
The first Condemned was a pretty average game that i got with my 360 I enjoyed it quite alot, and thought it showed alot of promise, despite a few little flaws which in my opinion, stopped it from being an outstanding game.
My main problem with the first Condemned was the overly basic combat. You picked up the nearest bit of wood and hit the nearest enemy with it till they died. Occasionally, you got a firearm, in which case you shot the nearest enemy with it until they died. then you went back to your trusty bit of wood. this is not the case in condemned 2, here theres a wide variety of melee attacks, combo's and the added ability to throw your weapon ,which makes the games combat far more then a simple "hammer the right trigger" affair.
And then there was the forensics. In the first game, they were widely flaunted as a big aspect of the game, but by and large, this boiled down to getting a glowy blue UV light, and shining it over the wall. In the second, this too has been improved, with multiple choice questions at the crime scene.
I have a vague issue with games asking me to analyse blood splatters and exit wounds like a modern day sherlock. But the side effect of this is that i think i'm REALLY fucking clever when i manage to pull it off. so, nice touch Sega.
So far, so good right? Its taken the original condemned, polished it up, sent it on its way for its place as Undervalued gem of 2008.
this was, until they started talking about an ancient mythical cult. Now, correct me if im wrong, but i didnt notice an ancient mythical cult in Condemned 1. what i had, was a city full of mental homeless people, and a serial killer, who was probably a little mental himself, and this culminated in a rather scary chase round a farmhouse. Then you battled some crazy metal guy in your own head, and pulled his jaw off. I went O_o at this point, but then the game was over, and i went back to play Ghost recon, Job well done.
Now, in condemned 2, again the city is filled with nutcases. this is fine. However, theres also a mythical cult of people who control sound, and your main character becomes what is basically a motherfucking Ghetto blaster.
Yeah, someone at Sega's gonna get fired for that. This pisses me off, because, condemned was pretty solidly rooted in realism until the point i had to defeat suicide-bomber doll's, and then the whole experience took the wrong turn to Batshitcrazy-land.
I'd recommend renting this game, it is alot of fun, its just a shame the last third of the storyline turned into utter dogshit.
I'd give it a pretty solid 8/10. but im starting to get a little tired of Sega whispering promises in my ear and then palming me off with a watered down version of the awesome.
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First off, the new boy, Nero. If I'm being honest, I actually didnt mind him in the slightest. It was brave to put Nero into the game, with Metal Gear Solid doing the same and Raiden getting a lot of hate directed at him for it, yet it works very well here, with two different perspectives of the same story being shown, making it more interesting. I enjoyed knocking about deranged scarecrows, big fire demons and old men with his meaty demonic fist, the Devil Bringer, as it brought a new element of fighting to an already excellant series. It took a bit more for me to like his gun, which i didnt feel had enough ass-kicking power to it, and it took even more to get used to him shouting out 'KYRIE!!' every time she bloody appeared, but thats being a little picky. At the very least, I didn't resent playing as him for a lot of the game, and I really enjoyed using his sword too, so that was a definite up-side!
It wasn't just the boss fights either, but some of the fights against normal demons and nasty things were pretty darn fun too! The knights were a particular favourite of mine, reminding me fondly of Nelo Angelo from the original DMC. In fact they were pretty much watered down versions of that bastard, but numerous enough to pose a challenge, especially on modes such as Son of Sparda. An enemy I'm not too fond of however is the electric demon that crops up now an then. I mean I love a good challenge on games, and I'm not complaining about that, but he was such an annoying fucker, again especially on the harder modes. You had to shoot him to weaken him enuff so you could hit him with your sword as he electrocuted you otherwise, and it didn't help that he was using his own version of the Trickster style against you. And then once you finally felt you had killed him, he can grab you and explode with you as a parting gift. I couldn't help but feel he was laughing at me when this happened, but I would perservere an carry on.
