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Mar

STALKER: Call Of Pripyat Review

By That Bloke In The Beanie Leave a Comment

Categories: Review
Tags: Call Of Pripyat, FPS, PC, shooter, STALKER

Welcome back to Chernobyl Comrade…

*somewhere over the Ukraine*

I sat back and drank the last of my brand of El president Rum. Leaving Tropico was hard. The beach, the sun, the women…
I leaned over to where Garv was playing on his DS.

“How-much longer until we’re in London?” I slurred.

“Uhhh, yeah, about that…” he said, putting Professor Leighton down.
“You’re not going to London Beanie, you’re ah, no longer recognised as a UK citizen. Sorry…”

“Bwuh!? But, I was born there! I can’t be cast off like some manky kleanex!”

“…You were a dictator on a Caribbean island. The foreign office wasn’t too keen on your policies so revoked your citizenship.”

“Awww come on! I only tested ONE nuke there!”

“Unlucky buddy. The good news is we found a country that’ll take you AND is a segway to your next review!” he said grabbing an AK and parachute.

“…I’m not going to Paris am I?”

“Nope! Hope your Russians good, yer going to Pripyat!” he said tossing them to me.

“But Pripyat is in the Ukraine…”

“So? They still speak Russian there! Now get yer arse over to the door!”

“Wow, we at the airport already?”

Garv gave me a look. “Oh yeah, we’re almost there, all ya gotta do is step out the door…” he said snidely.

“Right-o boss! You’ll lemme know when my papers come through right?” I said hopefully.

“Uh huh, yeah, sure. Now fly you beanie wearing freak! Fly!”

Then I fell…

Luckily I knew how to work my parachute…unfortunately I hadn’t factored in how hard I would hit the ground…

When I woke, there was the sound of the wind in the trees, the patter of light rain on my face and an alien wailing in the far distance. There was a man standing just in front of me seemingly motionless. He smelled of death and decay mixed with rotten vinegar.

I pulled myself to my feet, pulled my AK to my side, safety off. As I did so the man turned, his flesh pallid his eyes glazed over, his arms hanging limply by his side with a 9mm clenched in one hand. I brought my rifle to bear and pulled the trigger…with a worrying *click*.
The zombie stumbled forward, raising its gun as I fumbled to re-load my weapon. Then came the shot. The zombie fell back, twitching in its death throws as a STALKER appeared through the brush. He walked straight past me and put a knife through the zombies sternum.

“Thankyou! Thankyou so much!”

He didn’t respond, going through the dead man’s pockets.
I got to my feet. The droning siren wail still permeated the air.
“What is that…”

The STALKER finished his business and stood up. “It is the sound of the wind through the greatest anomaly. All day and night it never stops. It is calling to us. It is calling us…to Pripyat.”

And now, to the review.

Call of Pripyat (COP) is the third game in the Stalker series, continuing the events from Shadow of Chernobyl and is by far the best game in the series. It takes place in 3 areas, the Zanton old riverbed, the Jupiter rail station and industrial district and the suburban city of Pripyat.

To those of you who are unfamiliar with the STALKER series, lemme give you the cliff notes: Alternative universe where the 1986 Chernobyl meltdown causes strange anomalies within the radiation Zones to create artefacts which are worth a lot of money attracting treasure hunters called STALKERS who fight each other’s and the mutated animals while avoiding the daily emitions that are lethal if caught in.

Yes the premise is silly, but the end product is excellent. GSC GAMEWORLD have clearly learned from the previous 2 games and given us a wonderfully atmospheric shooter.

The plot this time is that you play Major Alexander Degtyarev, but I like to call him Al. He works with the Ukrainian secret service or USS. You’ve been sent into the zone to investigate why several helicopters in Operation Fairway were suddenly down upon entering the zone with no apparent explanation. Although you are fairly well equipped at the begging as opposed to the last two games, your weapon is only fully useful once it is upgraded and customized to your style of fighting. You can mix it up between using a pistol and sniper rifle or, my favourite, a machine gun and shotgun combo. However, weapons can only be upgraded by the relevant tools you find within the zone. Why the inhabitants had the tools for customizing SMG’s in their houses I don’t know, but it adds a nice challenge and reason to go exploring.

So what else does COP improve over its predecessors? Well, the factions for a start. While they exist, they are not permanently at war and peace and the zone is not divided up the most common stalkers you will see will be operating as independent stalkers of Bandits. This makes the game much more streamlined as you’re not worrying about who controls what area and you’re free to follow the plot missions or side quests.

Now, I’m about to make a statement some may consider controversial, but I say it with confidence: COP’s side quests, are better than Fallout 3’s side quests. A FPS shooter, has better quest in it, then an RPG. Wow. I did not see that coming. Why are they better? Let me count the ways. You earn USEFUL in-game achievements when you complete them, they are varied and interesting enough to make you explore every corner of the Zone instead of just the plot locations and they actually have a bearing on what happens when the game ends!

The weather and lighting effects are top-notch and the melodious sound of the wind in the trees to the howling of the pseudo dogs will keep you checking your back to make sure nothing is creeping up on you and believe me, they will creep up on you…

I’m not going to talk about the monsters you face too much because it will spoil the surprise, but you’ll be seeing some new faces and some old ones to send shivers down your spine. You can go from hunter to hunted in a matter of seconds if you don’t have your wits about you.
The surrounding environments especially that of Pripyat itself have been lovingly recreated by the team to be as realistic to the actual location as possible. The desolate wastes, the empty buildings add to the tense feeling of loneliness before you get, jumped, shot eaten or hit by an anomaly. The artefacts that you find while risking your life in anomalies are much more worthwhile than in the previous game as they are integral to surviving radiation and attacks on the harder difficulties and later on in the game.

The daily emitions from the Chernobyl power plant have to be sheltered from at all costs, if yer out when the sky turns red yer gonna be dead. I know, it’s a bad rhyme but it’s true. You’ll find yourself ditching your stuff just to make it to a tunnel or bunker so your goose isn’t cooked.

However, the game is far from perfect. While the voice over’s have improved, the voice doesn’t always match up with the text and is still the grinding eastern European accent which makes it hard to discriminate one character from another. While the game has fewer bugs than its predecessors it still suffers from clipping issues and occasional messy A.I. For example, when I travelled between the areas all of a sudden all of the STALKERS in the safe area ran out as if someone had done a toxic fart in there!

But these are minor gripes. Ultimately COP is an enjoyable atmospheric shooter with a good 15-20 hours of game play and a satisfying ending. While it’s not perfect I’d definitely recommend it to fans and newbie’s alike.

- That Bloke In The Beanie

Jan

Halo Reach: So What Do We Know?

By Garvaos 2 Comments

Categories: Game News
Tags: 3, Bungie, FPS, halo, ODST, Reach

It has been month or two since Halo ODST, many of us gamers have now beaten the campaign and have played Firefight till our eyes and thumbs bleed. So now we have played ODST half to death where do we go from here? Do we go back to Halo 3 Multiplayer and spend hours on playing match after match of Big Team slayer (or whatever takes your fancy). We could do that, or wait for the supposed last title in the Halo Saga, Halo: Reach.

So what is Halo Reach? Well if we look back over the Halo story line as a whole, we know that the Planet Reach was the last standing and the most fortified planet that the Human race had. Reach was the last hope for the Human race to stand a good chance in the Human Covenant intergalactic war. But as fans of the Halo series are fully aware, Reach was taken over by Covenant forces and marks the downfall of the Spartan army.

As you can see this game is not going to be all sunshine and lolly pops. It will be in the same vein as ODST was, in that its going to be dark and gloomy, I hope they will bring back some film noir style cinematography with that too. So you are a part of a squad of spartan soldiers who are stationed on Reach. This squad, known as the Noble Team are the main spartan squad protecting Reach. In true ODST style you will be an un-named character who only answers to the call sign Rook…I mean Nobal 6.

As this is a prequel to Halo: Combat Evolved everything in the game is slightly more primitive. Meaning the Covenant will be using more of their Native tongues. It has also been said that the Covenant will be coming across as more of a scarier and creepyier opponent to what we are used to. Sounds pretty interesting to me, but it doesn’t stop there, new enemies have been confirmed, these new enemies are known as Skirmishers, which are close relatives to Jackles, but are more dinosaur like in appearance and only travel in packs, and with new enemies you will get new weapons. The Needle Rifle, which is a souped up needler which can take out three enemies at a time, and the Marksman Rifle, which is a mixture between the sniper rifle and the battle rifle, so FPS gamers out there who like hiding in bushes and getting head shots will be happy with this weapon.

There is a nice selection of new player abilities to get your mitts on. As a spartan in this game you have a special ability. You can choose between active camouflage of sprint. Each of these abilities have a power bar which will deplete when the ability is used, but will re-charge after a short time also. The beauty here though is that these abilities can be changed on the fly. There is also a brand new Melee assassination/one hit kill that has been introduced into the game, I assume its kind of like the assassinations in Aliens Vs Predator, and if so, that would be awesome!

With all character upgrades in the Halo Series there are some downgrades. You will be returning to Halo: Combat Evolved form here, with a health bar and shield combo. Which will be a nice blast from the past, also spike and frag granades are out, but you can’t have everything in a prequel I suppose.

Multiplayer will be making a welcome return with up to 16 player online mode. There will also be Co-Op split screen etc. All the features that we are used too in Halo 3, with also some new features and game types that have not been announced yet, but watch this space because as soon as we know, you will.

Halo Reach looks set to be a great title to round the Halo Saga off with. It also boasts fully motion captured cut scenes and 20 to 40 dynamic lights used at one time. Sounds pretty cool, but I’ll leave you to judge with this Halo Reach trailer.

Garv

Jan

Borderlands Review

By Garvaos Leave a Comment

Categories: Article and Review
Tags: 2K, Borderlands, FPS, Gearbox, RPG

I have been thinking back the February last year where I finally got a copy of Fallout 3 for my birthday. After trying out oblivion and not really getting on with it, I was a bit dubious about trying the game, but never the less I played it and got hooked to it. I thought this was the perfect combination of First Person Shooter and Role Playing Game I had been looking for. So almost a year on I sit in front of my TV with my mouth a gape, my gormless expression I have spread across my face as I look at the screen before me says it all. Boarderlands is the true FPS RPG I have been looking for. Sorry Fallout 3, I do still love you but its me, not you.

Before I dive straight into this review. I would just like to highlight that I have only played this game in single player. This game has been advertised as a co-op game as much as a single player game. But I have found that this game works damn well in single player, and here are my thoughts.

Cunningly dubbed as an RPS (Role Playing Shooter) Boarderlands, like any good game out there, throws you into the story line from the get go, there are four mercenaries, or mercs as they like to be called, on a bus they have just flown into a desolate and baron planet called Pandora to seek out something called the vault. Legend has it the Vault contains advanced alien weaponless with technology so advanced it will blow your mind, or indeed you enemies.

As the bus rolls on you get the choice to choose one of the mercs who have come along for the ride. You have the soldier named Roland, who is your classic, assault rifle and shot gun squaddy who most FPS fans are used to when playing things such as halo, duke nukem, doom, any FPS game under the sun. Then you have Lilth, the siren phase walker, If stealth and speed is your game, this is the chick you wanna be. If sniper rifles and range attacks are more your cuppa you will be be a lot happier playing as Mordecai. But if your a full on FPS guy who loves explosives and ripping people apart with your bare hands then take my advice and choose Brick.

Each of these four characters has a special skill that can be used, the soldier has a deployable turret, the siren can turn invisible and have a great increase in speed, the sniper has a friendly hawk like bird creature that will happily peck enemies eyes out and Brick, well he just goes absolutely nuts with his berserk mode and has an insane increase in melee attack and is slightly invunrable. All these skills last a limited amount of time before they conk out and have to regenerate again. This is your classic FPS gaming element, Quake had it with Quad Damage, Doom had it with Berserk packs and Nukem had it with an array of equipment top use, and for me it never gets old, there is nothing like have a short boost of power to get you out of a sticky situation.

This game does the FPS genre justice. It has the aiming system where you look down the barrel/sight, that we associate with games like Modern Warfare and FEAR. There is a huge amount of weapons to find, make and customize, kind of in the same vein as Bioshock. Hell it also has re-generating shields from the likes of Halo. Speaking of Halo, you remember how the vehicles in that game controlled? Mainly using the left stick to accelerate, reverse etc. Boarderlands uses the same set up here when it comes to it vehicles. So you can see Gear Box has taken inspiration from a lot of First Person Shooter games. I love it when a game developer does its research.

But as you are fully aware this is as much of an RPG game as it is an FPS game. As you can imagine this is a real time combat RPG. When aiming at an enemy you will get his/her/its health and shield bars and what level they are at so if you level 4 and your opponent is level 12. Run away. You are given experience for each kill, each mission you complete and for each of the huge ammo boxes that are hidden and scattered across Pandora. With each level up you gain skill points which you can assign to a skill tree. This skill tree is linked to both your characters special skill and your character his/her self. So if you play the game with the Soldier Roland, such as I did you will get a skill tree linked to you and the scorpion turret. With skill points going towards things like your health and ammo capacity, to your scorpion turrets power and regeneration time. You can also acquire skills that enable your turret to regenerate the players health and shield. So you really can have a good play with what skills you want to assign and how you want your character to grow. You can also customise your character to a curtain extent, by changing his/her colour and name. Its a nice little touch and can be done at any time but as you can probably gather, you can’t customise every aspect of their appearance like you can with say Fallout 3. But you can’t have everything.

Graphically this game takes the cell shaded approach to its visuals. In one word it looks fantastic. It is very stylised and some what refreshing to see the FPS point of view taking on that graphical style. Sure XIII did it back on the original Xbox, but to see a game of this generation do it is nice to see. There is a lot of detail in this game visuals, and really reminds me of the drawing style that graphic novels such as Spawn and The Darkness use. You get bugs and glitches every now and then in this game, but I have come to realise that huge games such as this and fallout. Your not going to get every single bug and glitch out of there because quite frankly, it is just to big.

I never though I would see the day that and FPS and an RPG would get on so well and produce a game such as this. I tried to come up with an FPS, RPG idea in my game design module back in uni and miserably faild. So thanks Gear Box and 2K, This is awesome!

Garv.

Nov

Is Left 4 Dead A Revival Of The Classic FPS?

By Garvaos Leave a Comment

Categories: Article
Tags: doom, duke nukem, FPS, Id, Left 4 Dead, Left 4 Dead 2, Seriouse Sam, Unreal Tornament, valve, Wolfenstien

For the past week or so now I have pretty much been playing the Left 4 Dead 2 demo non-stop. Being as skint as I am, I need to get my hands on all the free gaming I can at the moment. So as I ploughed my way through countless amounts of zombies and the undead, I got thinking - Is Left 4 Dead a welcome return to the classic style First Person Shooter (FPS)?

Let me lay down some facts here, as you are all aware by now I grew up with the FPS genre - so when I say Classic FPS I mean games like Wolfenstein 3D, Doom and Duke Nukem 3D. The principle of the single player - and indeed co-op - campaign in these games is simple. You run through the level gunning down everything that moves, until you get to the end of level goal - usually a big button that says end of level, and finally you get your level statistics. It was very simple gameplay back then, but hell was it damn effective; nothing compares to unloading a clip of ammo into any unsuspecting demon, nazi or indeed alien.

First Person Shooters nowadays have evolved. When you pick up and play the campaign mode in Halo, or Modern Warfare you are thrown into a different kind of gameplay that is more objective based. Instead of just gunning you way through hordes of enemies to get to your one and only goal, you have to fulfill objectives that go towards obtaining that end level goal. Now this is definitely a more in depth style of gameplay that most gamers have come to expect these days, but I find that this new style of first-person shooter is less of a stress reliever that Doom and Wolfenstein were.

The original Doom had the option of punching demons to death, now that's what I call an FPS.

Ever since the first Halo, I have come to accept this objective base style of First Person Shooter. The Unreal Tornament franchise tried to keep to the classic style with its tournament based killing spree, but for me it just wasn’t the same. Then Serious Sam came along, which was damn good for just non stop killing, but in my mind it lacked something, (AKA Story) and wasn’t the serious survival FPS I wanted. I was about to say goodbye to the old style FPS, but then I played Left 4 Dead 2.

Now I have got my hands on this demo I have been kicking myself quite hard. Mainly because I should have been bitten by the Left 4 Dead bug a while ago with the first game. Granted I had a little go on the first game over my mates house but I really didn’t take it in and I regret doing so. To my mind Left 4 Dead is the next generation FPS game I have been hunting for. It returns to the classic FPS game genre with its simple, run, gun and get to your goal in one piece, but not only that, it brings lovers of this type of FPS game play together. Being mainly a co-op driven game, it somehow gets the balance of single player action and team based survival just right, meaning you can either play this on your own or with friends, no problem. Kind of reminds me of the Doom Co-op campaign days, ahhh memories.

The one thing I love about the ‘kill everything that moves’ game design is that pretty much anyone of any skill level can pick up and play it, not only that, they can also get good at it. To be honest I did struggle a bit with my first encounters with a Tank and a Witch, as I hadn’t played the first L4D much, if at all. I really didn’t know what to expect when a Witch was around. Basically I heard the crying, saw a sobbing zombie, thought it would be great to put her out of her misery with a shotgun shell to the back of her head. Next thing I know I am on the floor screaming AHH MY FACE!!! Can anyone say N00b!1!

The beauty of this game and indeed style of First Person Shooter is that you can attack it in any way you see fit. Some people like to stay behind and pick enemies off. I personally love to grab the nearest melee weapon, smother myself in Boomer Bile and shout something along the lines of “Here Zombies!! Lunch Time!!” and see how many of the undead buggers I can decapitate, it was the same with Doom, find a horde of pinky deamons and hack them down with the chain saw.

I gave the Left 4 Dead 2 demo to GuitarGirl to try, seeing as we did the expo coverage together I thought why not. She had a go, and her approach to the gameplay was somewhat different to mine. I love to lead the group and kill as many zombies as possible, where as she likes to hang back and pick them off. Both methods are effective. It’s just I remember GuitarGirl playing the demo and accidently setting a car alarm off. It happenes to all of us in L4D at some point. So the zombie horde came in their thousands and she survives it. Thing is, her team mates were on the brink of dying and she remarkably still has pretty much full life and was standing on a table. Then she says “I think I pissed my friends off because they’re nearly dead - But I’m OK because I am standing on the table!”….Facepalm.

As you can see. Left 4 Dead to my mind is a welcome return to the classic style of First Person Shooting. With simple controls, non-stop killing and one goal in sight; to survive the zombie apocalypse. I will no doubt be putting both Left 4 Dead games on my christmas list, and now I breathe a sigh of relief that the classic, kill-everything-that-moves style of gaming is back. I welcome it with open arms, lets just hope a charger isn’t going to mow me down in the process.

Garv.

Nov

Will Borderlands Be The Next Fallout 3?

By Garvaos Leave a Comment

Categories: Article and Preview
Tags: Borderlands, Fallout 3, FPS, Gearbox software, RPG

We have all seen our fair share of game clones over the years. Grand Theft Auto had The Get Away and True Crime, Mario Party has Raving Rabbids. Basically once one game has a great selling idea, another developer wants to get in on the idea.

May I introduce Borderlands, a new game from Gearbox Software that combines First Person Shooting and Role Playing game into a nice combination in a post apocalyptic world. Yes basically the same idea as Fallout 3 has. But in Borderlands you have class choices as opposed to bringing up your character through choices made throughout the game, like Fallout.Bborderlands also takes a cell shaded graphically style and I think but cannot be sure (so please correct me if I am wrong) it also has a more comedic outlook on postapocalyptic RPG survival.

Ok so lets take a look at the standards Fallout 3 has layed down. I loved Fallout 3 it was so new and diverse. It was following the same style as Oblivion, but in my opinion it took it a step further it took the idea of a postapocalyptic sci-fi shooter, added all the elements that make most RPG games take over your life. I was pretty flabbergasted that an FPS and an RPG could meld together so well. It was gritty, grimy gruesome and really gave you the feeling of kill or be killed in a savage world.

Now, Borderlands sounds to me that, it can hit all these marks. Ok so if you have not gathered already, I have not played it, and to be honest I was pretty gutted I didn’t get my hands on it at Eurogamer. What I really think that it is doing that sets it apart from Fallout is its comedic/light-hearted take on it. I dunno about you guys out there, but I really cannot take cell shaded games as seriously as, what I like to call, true graphic games. But with that said The game play sounds pretty damn good in my opinion. You get to choose from four different characters a Soldier, a Hunter, a Siren, and a Berserker. Each class has a different skill tree in game. This means throughout the game you gain skill points which you can apply to your skill tree to get character specific skills. Say if you are the Hunter, your skills in the skill tree will be composed of Revolvers, Gunslinging and Sniping. This in turn will give the entire game a great deal of replay value.

So each of these games are defiantly both RPG’s both thankfully they are FPS RPG’s in their own right. Fallout 3 has the gritty, grimy and somewhat mundane outlook on post apocalyptic life and survival. It also has a character system that is totally customisable and you can build it strictly from the ground up.

Borderlands to me on the other hand is more of a game that will focuses on the game play more than the story and character customisation. Making gamers out there pretty much choose a person and jump straight into the action. Kind of taking a Final Fantasy outlook on RPG games.

So Will Borderlands be the next Fallout 3? To be frank why would games want to be the next anything? Borderlands has enough unique elements that I think it will do very well on its own.

Garv

Nov

Halo Waypoint: More Games Should Do This.

By Garvaos Leave a Comment

Categories: Article and Review
Tags: Bungie, FPS, Halo 3, Halo 3 - ODST, halo wars, Halo Waypoint, Microsoft

I have been a bit deprived of Xbox LIVE recently. This week saw me once again logging onto LIVE to see what things I have missed.

So after downloading several gigs worth of demos onto my hard drive, I came across Halo Waypoint. Now me being the journalist I am, I personally have not heard much about this new addition to LIVE. Which is quite surprising really, seeing as I live and breath all things Halo pretty much. You could probably imagine my excitement when I saw the words, Halo, Download and Free pop up on the screen, so without hesitation I proceeded to download this interesting little gadget.

Now I approach games in two different ways. The casual way, which is for things like beautiful Katamari and Guitar Hero, these games I am not fussed about getting 100 percent completion, I am there to enjoy the game and what it has to offer. Then there is the completionists way, where I approach a game and want to milk it for every little thing it has to offer me. Halo for me is a completionists game, I have owned Halo 3 for years now and still have not got all the achievements.

This is when Halo Waypoint steps in and gives me a helping hand. For those of you out there who have no idea of what this little gem is I will fill you in. This is a Halo dashboard that links all your Halo games together in a nice neat little package as well as updating you on all things Halo.

So how does it go about wrapping all you halo games up? Well what it does is it calculates your overall achievement score on Halo 3, Halo Wars and Halo 3 ODST. It then takes that number and applies it to its own unique scoring system giving you an overall Halo Career score and set of awards. It even shows you how many achievement points you have gained over the corse of your Halo gaming career.

Before I get to carried away with my excitement let me give you some examples. Waypoint says I have an overall Halo achievement score of 1405G. That is all my gamer points added up from Halo 3, Halo Wars and Halo 3 ODST. It then takes that number and applies it to Halo Career Milestones. At the moment I am on Milestone 25, for hitting the 1400 gamer point mark. I can progress through these milestones by unlocking more achievements from any of the three games. But thats not all, you are also granted Waypoint Awards. These are medals given to you based on elements of gameplay thought the Halo 360 series. For example I have 8 out of the 15 awards which include: Special Weapons, Explorer, Halo 3 A.C.E, Halo 3: ODST A.C.E and so on. These awards are given to you depending on how many achievements you have unlocked in that particular bracket. So if I were to go into Explorer, it will show me the achievements needed to unlock that award, like finding all the skulls in Halo 3 or finding the audio tapes in ODST. The more achievements you unlock for that award, the higher your award tier. So I have a Tier 4 Explorer award because I went out my way to find the skulls in Halo 3 and stuff like that.

This is a fantastic tool for completionists, and general Halo braggers out there to really show off their achievements. But it doesn’t stop there, oh no. Waypoint gives you avatar unlockables. These unlockables are tied into Halo achievements, so If you say unlock a certain achievement on ODST the Orbital Drop Shock Trooper armour will be unlocked for your avatar. It’s little things like this that get geeks like us all riled up and wanting to unlock all Halo achievements, I mean c’mon, dress your avatar up like an ODST with guilty spark flying round your head? … Awesome!

Aside from the Halo career path, Waypoint updates you with the latest Video, images and news from all corners of the gaming globe. Wanna catch up on Red Vs Blue? or take a look at IGN’s Halo features? Or maybe you want to know the latest on Reach or the new Halo DLC? Well it is all here, plus it will be updating all Halo fans with the Halo anime series as well.

Halo Waypoint is, in a word, Huge and awesome (ok that was two words) but it does bring the games into a nice neat little package, packed full with its own achievements and awards, with a side order of news, videos and images on all things halo. This is a must download for anyone who has been bitten by the Halo bug.

Nov

MarkBOSS’s Modern Warfare 2 Marathon

By markBOSS Leave a Comment

Categories: General Gaming and Review
Tags: activision, Call Of Duty, FPS, Modern Warfare 2

Mark Boss tackles Mod War 2 (hardend) on release day through a 11 hour parade of bullets. This time was spent on both single player and multiplayer gameplay, but only single player footage is shown here.

11,657, 32 bullets fired that day.

www.youtube.com/gamersuniteTUBE

Music by Eminem and Nate Dogg- Till I Collapse

Nov

Welcome to the Zone comrade, you’ll never leave!

By That Bloke In The Beanie Leave a Comment

Categories: Review
Tags: FPS, PC, STALKER

The first person shooter genre, ladies and gentlemen, perhaps the cradle of civilization for modern gaming. There were many games before, some good some bad, but none gave the popularity to gaming that the FPS did. Wolfenstein 3D was the first, but it was Doom that set the standard which was then adopted by Quake and every other FPS. It’s been nearly 20 years since the blocky grey trend setter graced our screens and its many children wriggled their way into our hearts. Some were big names: Medal of Honor, Halo, Far Cry, Golden eye and of course Half Life. But today I’m going to talk about, what is in my eyes, a lesser known classic, a game forgotten or dismissed out of hand for what it appears to be.

Lovely weather

Im talking about S.T.A.L.K.E.R: Shadow of Chernobyl. Now before I go on I should explain that it is a very Russian game, not just in the nature and name of it, but in the way it was designed. By which I mean, despite being released in 2007, it looks a good 5-6 years older and it plays, harder than an Ex-Marine with an attitude problem. Also, the game takes a detour from the 1986 meltdown setting it in an alternate timeline where instead of radiation killing everything around it, these things called ‘anomalies’ some of which produce valuable artifacts that have positive properties making them much sought after by the STALKERS in the ‘Zone’ around it.

Not your typical Stalker...

S.T.A.L.K.E.R. stands for “Scavenger, Trespasser, Adventurer, Loner, Killer, Explorer, Robber” which, unsurprisingly is the character you will be playing. You play the nameless one a fella who fell off a truck and ended up on a fat Russian merchants table on the outskirts of the town around the Chernobyl reactor. You have no memory and you only have a blackberry with a two word command: Kill Strelok.

From here you’re dropped into the cordon surrounding the Zone with nothing but a knife and a pea shooter pistol, welcome to hell and it is glorious. Even on normal or easy difficulty, this game will hand your ass to you within the blink of an eye. Whether it is humans, blind dogs, invisible cuthulu like monsters or the anomalies that you bump into, the Zone is out to kill you. Now, I know I’m a sticker for the more ‘hardcore games’ as my last few reviews show, but this is a game any FPS lover should play because it’s so unforgiving an unrelenting. Whether you’re out in the middle of the night with nothing but a flashlight, or down in some poorly lit tunnel you’re always listening, waiting and praying that you see you’re for before they see you.

If you see these guys, yer in trouble...

The plot is also a nice change from you standard FPS fare, even if most of the dialogue is pretty stilted from its original Russian and it would have been nice if the writers had spent a bit more time, ya know, writing. I not going to ruin it for you here but I will say that the devil is in the detail, and if you want to complete this game you’re going to need to look closely.

What sets even this old FPS above the others are the weather effects are second to none, with sun, rain and blood red storms when there is a ‘blowout’. The enemy A.I even follows a life-cycle, eating sleeping, tracking and fighting making them seem much more human that the normal wave of uniformed soldiers that you’re normally up against. Shooting feels much more realistic too, if you want to be accurate you’ll need a rifle with a scope so you’ll need to get up close and personal if you want to hit anything with a pistol.
Now for all my praises there are almost as many problems. At time of release and even a year after the game is still plagued with bugs corrupting files and crashing the game, showing even more how ‘amateurish’ the games production and coding was. Thankfully that’s been pretty much fixed by now with several patches. Also like I mentioned before, the game is not all that good looking, although there is a mod out now which drastically improves the various caves and vistas you traverse across. The game also feels unfinished in that your equipment will degrade but you will be unable to have it fixed, something that was probably meant to be implemented but ended up being left out until fixed by the Oblivion lost mod.

Thankfully the STALKER community have lavished much love on this game with patches and mod’s making the experience much more fulfilling and much less frustrating. So, yet another flawed gem from my collection, and perhaps one of the best things to come out of Russia since the AK, Vodka and warm furry hats. Oh, and in case you’re wondering, no, vodka will not help you reduce radiation sickness, despite what STALKER tells you. It will get you smashed though.

Nov

Plus XP Exclusive: Aliens Vs Predator Interview

By Garvaos Leave a Comment

Categories: Game News and Interview
Tags: Aliens Vs Predator, Eurgamer 2009, FPS, interview, PC, ps3, Rebellion, sega, Xbox 360

After getting my hands on Aliens Vs Predator at Eurogamer, I was given the opportunity to catch up with AvP developers Rebellion via e-mail. The Head of Art and Design, Tim Jones, took some time out from the game to answer some questions.

What made you decide to create a new Aliens Vs Predator game?

It was a very simple choice for us. We made the original AVP game on PC in 1999 so we were delighted to get a chance to work on a new AVP game. The Aliens and Predator franchises have a huge following so there’s a lot of pressure in creating a game which will please all the fans, and we’re really enjoying the challenge.

Are you a fan of the previous Aliens Vs Predator games and films?

Of course, we’re all massive fans of everything Aliens and Predator, from the movies to the comic books to the video games. We actually made the first Aliens vs. Predator game for PC in 1999 so we’ve got a lot of history with the franchise and it’s a privilege to come back and work on a new AVP game a whole 10 years after our first game.

Regarding Campaign mode, will this be a totally new storyline? Or rather a follow-on from the previous games/films?

Our game has a brand new story to the Aliens and Predator universes. We worked closely with Fox on the story and they’ve allowed us to even add in some brand new weapons and enemies that you’ve never seen before in any movie or comic book for Aliens or Predator.

In the game, you can play as the Marine, Predator and Alien, and each species has its own separate story driven campaign and right from booting up the game for the first time, the player can choose to play any of the three campaigns. Each campaign’s story interweaves with the stories of the other two species’ campaigns so there will be crossover in the narrative between the three.

A Predator, From Aliens Vs Predator Back In 1999

Having played the game myself at the Eurogamer Expo I must say the design for each character type is fantastic. How did you go about creating them? Did you have to analyse each film closely to get them just right?

There’s been a huge amount of research done in creating the game and making all of the character types exactly right. We’ve immersed ourselves in everything Aliens and Predator, including the movies, and have also gone back to our original 1999 game to remind ourselves about what elements are key to the AVP experience.

Which of the three character types was the most challenging to create?

Definitely the Alien was the most challenging. The Alien as a playable character is genuinely unique, with its ability to cling to any part of the environment, even tracking its prey as it crawls along the ceiling… We’re working hard to ensure that the Alien character will retain this powerful (and fun!) advantage with a control system that allows gamers of all abilities to scurry over every surface in the game without any difficulty.

With the Alien being able to climb walls and pretty much scale any surface, did you have to take a different approach when it came to designing levels for multi-player?

Yes, it’s true to say we did as each of the three species has different means of traversing the environment. As a Marine you’re pretty much rooted to the ground, as the Predator you can leap onto rooftops or into the trees, and as an Alien you can crawl anywhere – up walls and trees, along the ceiling! So for example, as the Marine you could be walking through a jungle, while a Predator could be tracking you from a tree top and Alien could be scuttling up the tree to attack the Predator. It makes for a pretty unique multiplayer offering, that’s for sure!

Which is your favourite character to play as, out of the three types?

I’d have to say the Predator – he’s got some pretty awesome gadgets and his ability to cloak and hunt his prey from above feels very empowering.

And finally when is the game due out?

Aliens vs. Predator will be out on Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and PC in February 2010 so not too long to wait now!

Plus XP would like to thank Tim for taking some time out to answer questions for the site, and I can safely say I am looking forward to this title come February. Now if you will excuse me I am off to watch the first Aliens Vs Predator movie.

Garv

Nov

Eurogamer 2009: Left 4 Dead 2

By Garvaos 2 Comments

Categories: Preview and Review
Tags: Eurogamer 2009, FPS, Left 4 Dead 2, valve

A double dose of zombie mayhem.

Garvaos and GuitarGirl 24 played Left 4 Dead 2 at Eurogamer, so read on as they both take you through the zombie slaying action in Plus XP’s first joint review.

Garv- At Eurogamer, the Plus XP team got the opportunity to try out Scavenger Mode, The new multiplayer game variant that features in Left 4 Dead 2.
24- In celebration of this new multiplayer mode we at Plus XP have decided to team up and give you our first ever joint review, so sit back, relax and enjoy a double dose of this exciting new release.(but don’t relax too much and forget to watch out for the zombies…).

Story
Garv– It’s your typical survival horror scenario, you are one of the few survivors left after a virus has broken out and turned most of the human population into crazed flesh-eating freaks. First person shooter gamers and B Movie horror fans will be right at home here as you fight your way through hordes of zombies by any means possible.
24- It is clear from the start that this game is as a true sequel to the original Left 4 Dead. With the tried and tested theme of zombie horror madness still going strong, anyone who loved the first installment is sure to love this new addition. The game promises to be like stepping right into a zombie movie, with all of the blood, guts and in some cases good old-fashioned comedy value a good horror flick should have.

Scavenger mode
Garv- For all of you gamers out there who don’t know what this mode is, its a two team battle, where the survivors have to collect petrol cans, which they then have to take to a generator on the map. The opposing team, AKA the infected, have to stop the humans from fueling this generator by mauling them to death in any which way possible.
24- To me this new mode opens up endless party play possibilities. Though the original Left 4 Dead was a good title to play through solo, this new mode gives the option for multiple players to take part in shorter battles, making it much more fun to play with friends. The format was reminiscent of the Slayer multiplayer mode in Halo, with Survivors Vs Infected, best of three team battles, bringing out many a competitive nature. My advice is; get this title, add some friends, a big stash of junk food (and quite probably a few drinks) and let the zombie death match rage.

Gameplay
Garv- For me the basic gameplay of Scavenger mode - and indeed for Left 4 Dead as a whole – is very well done, I can easily see myself maybe spending days on this game mode alone, it’s the classic simple-but-effective approach that makes this mode so appealing. Left 4 Dead 2 as a whole feels and plays beautifully. Having only played a small amount of the first game, I can safely say the classic B Movie Horror feel is back in full swing, making this game a unique gem that stands out from any First Person Shooter Game and any generic Zombie mashing gore fest.
24- The gameplay of Left 4 Dead 2 proves to be as smooth and enjoyable as any hard-core gamer could wish for. Reminiscent of the original Left 4 Dead, it allows many possibilities for varied forms of combat, with quite in-depth (but still easy to master) controls. Despite the odd zombie getting stuck in doors (much to our amusement) the demo ran smoothly throughout, which is more than I can say for some of the other new titles showcased . All of this looks promising for a classic, smooth running, familiar yet still exciting gaming experience.

New features
Garv- One of the things I found interesting was the new infected characters. The Spitter, the Charger and the Jocky. Getting to actually control these new zombies has been something I have been looking forward to since Left 4 Dead’s appearance was announced for the Eurogamer Expo. The Jocky I was most impressed with, because he could jump on any unsuspecting survivor and control where they moved, meaning you can lead any survivor into a horde of zombies for a flesh-eating mosh pit of carnage. The Charger and Spitter were good too, the Charger being a lot like the tank from the first game but with a great speed boost, and the Spitter spits stomach acid that can engulf any unsuspecting group of survivors. I loved to see three or four survivors cowering in pain as they dissolved in a pool of acid, but then maybe I’m a tad masochistic.
24- I also enjoyed playing with the new infected characters, but it’s also worth saying at this point that the storyline also features 4 completely new survivors. I also can’t go without mentioning the new melee weapons this game features. Aside from the more traditional weaponry, in this title you can also choose to fight with an electric guitar, crowbar or even a frying pan. Though I didn’t find these weapons as effective as the guns, there is still something to be said for fighting off hordes of very angry zombies with your kitchenware. Very Sean of the dead.

Sum up
Garv-As a whole, Left 4 Dead 2 is a must for any one who has a slight inkling to rip apart the living death. If you were a fan of the first game, I suggest you welcome this game with open arms. Put boycotting aside, because I will tell you now, with all the new content, this is far from just a glorified DLC pack.
24- If you enjoyed Left 4 Dead you will definitely be up for Left 4 Dead 2. I have it on good authority (The writer in fact) that this game promises and entirely new storyline, as exciting and zombieful as the first installment. That plus the new characters, modes and weaponry makes this game a surefire hit for all of those wannabe post apocalyptic survivors out there.