PC News and Game Reviews

NWN was a must for any fans of the RPG genre, the successor to the superb Baldur’s gate series and long forgotten, eye of the beholder classics. Full 3D view and slick interaction justifiably made it the flagship for next generation RPGs. NWN II was initially staggeringly in its depth of character development, items, monsters and looked very good, performing well with even a small army on screen.

Its fatal flaw, which NWN did not suffer from, was the number of bugs. The game seemed overly complex, with simple cut scenes causing your game to crash and resulting in the campaign having to be re-started. In fact, there was warning on the loading screen telling you to save your game as often as possible. These bugs put a lot of players off what was ultimately a good game, if a little stretched.

The add-on pack is just that, new levels, monsters, classes, items and effects. It’s the usual price for a non-independent game and is designed to allow you to import your NWN II character. Curiously, there is a welcome note in the manual in which the producer basically says that they released NWN II too early and that Mask was how the game should have looked and played.

As you’re playing a character that was able to complete NWN II (you have to create one otherwise), game play is more complex from the offset then a standard RPG. You need to know the game to play it, as your using a powerful character. But immediately you can tell that the developers have worked hard on the engine, its seamless and bug free. The loading time between maps is reduced and levels are kept to a reasonable size to ensure your PC isn’t unnecessary taxed. If NWN II had looked and played like this then it would have made a much bigger impact.

The main campaign is tough, well paced and just the right length (about 10 hours). Character development to “epic levels” is possible, allowing your character to become a juggernaut of destruction. There are dozens of new feats and spells (you do need to play with the manual open to figure out what they do) which allows new ways to win battles and solve problems.

The game only falls down in its plot devices. Most games in the Baldur-NWN series have complex plots with the protagonist central to the story. Mask goes to far though, and has a horrid feature called the “spirit meter”. Not to give the plot away too much, it basically dictates how long you can spend on any map, how often you can rest, whom you can kill etc. It seems like the game creators wanted to limit your ability to regain spells or health by resting, so to make the game more challenging. It’s worked into the plot and very hard to get away from. Predictably, there is a cheat out there that doesn’t disrupt the game at all but drastically improves the game play. Its just a bad idea that could haunt the developer for some time.

This aside, the dialogue is also very heavy and you have to be careful what you say since your party members can get annoyed and leave. There are even dialogue sequences whereby you have no choice at the end but to kill the bad guy you’re talking with, therefore making the conversation totally irrelevant.

Otherwise the game plays well and looks good. I would have to recommend it to anyone who enjoyed NWN II and wants to see the game to its full potential. I would also welcome further add-on modules (the scope is unlimited with an engine like this) but no more spirit meters please.

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Well the most hyped game of all time has come and gone in a few short days!!! Crysis, the proud creation of German Developers Crytek had promised to “Bring PC Gaming Home”. Flaunting “next-gen” graphics and an action packed story line….is this the PC game to rub in the faces of the console masses…..well the short answer is yes!! I have no doubt we will see Crysis on the consoles….but it just wont be the same

Plot

At this stage here I think if you were living on Mars you would probably know the plot for Crysis. You play through the game as the super hard “Nomad”, clad in a high tech Nano Suit. You are sent as along with some other Delta Force operators to a remote tropical island in the pacific to investigate an alien crash site. The problems for Nomad start very early, with the Island being completely overrun by the North Korean Army. The situation quickly develops into all out warfare with the Koreans…..before turning very “alieny”. To avoid spoilers….lets just say the aliens and the US forces recently arrived do not get on very well!!!!

I will say that half way through Crysis you kind of loose the freedom of choice that the earlier levels present…and you switch to a more Half Life 2 experience as you battle through a scripted story line. This was disappointing but unavoidable as at the end of the day Crytek are attempting to deliver a story of some sort! Allowing complete freedom to the player would never work. Might just mention that STALKER is the only game that came close to the delivering the above, other developers have a lot to learn from this buggy but excellent game.

Graphics + Sound

Next Generation…..Yes. To shoot from the hip I would say that on medium settings, Crysis looks far better than Bioshock (another graphics poster boy). Will it make smoke come out of you computer……Yes. I was getting blue screens as I tried to over clock my machine to play on “High”. I had to settle for most settings on high, with 1280 X 1024 resolution with 2x AA (Plus my computer is not even a year old!!!!). At this resolution the game still looks fabulous. Graphics however do not make a game good……they just make it pretty. Luckily for us Crytek also paid quite a lot of attention to the other elements of the game!!!

The sound is not found wanting. Some great ambient noise in the Alien Craft certainly raised a few hairs on my neck. The Nano suit voice is something you will come to hear quite often…as you frantically switch between stealth, strength and cloak!!!

Game Play

Crysis is an honest to god FPS. You can equip an array of weapons ranging from pistols to “a damn minigun”. The choice of weapon, or more to the point weapon modifications, greatly effect the game play. Remove your silencer to do maximum damage…but run the risk of alerting the whole island to your presence. Attach a silencer and go for the quiet kill? The weapon mods are an interesting feature of the game, but certainly not novel.

The nano suit on the other hand is the one item that effects how the game plays out for you most. You will find that using stealth early on is the way to go. As the story “narrows” your options you will find that you will use stealth less and less as you are forced to follow the story line.

Another great element of game play are the vehicles and the amazing physics engine that tie it altogether. It is really satisfying to smash a tank through a building and see it crumble….with the occupants crushed. Crysis is the first game to pull this off….and it gets my vote just for that!

Conclusion

I really enjoyed the story. It was well thought out and executed well . I like the freedom of the early levels, however felt a noticeable decline in the freedom after the aliens showed up. From that point on however the experience was so well delivered that I am willing to forgive Crytek…..as either way there is only so much sneaking around you can do in the jungle

My one complaint is this (POSSIBLE SPOILER), the last chapter “Last Stand” is buggy and confusing. Simply Google “Crysis Tac Launcher will not lock on” and you will see the utter confusion some gamers encountered at this late stage of the game. Having just secured the Tac Cannon I rushed out to see the Hunter crawling up the deck of the carrier.
I just “assumed” that I had to use the Tac Cannon on the Hunter, as after all I had just went to the trouble of getting it. It took me a while to figure out it was about 20 SCAR clips and a bunch of rockets I needed to use!!!!!

Tac Cannon “No Target Locked” Bug

That done I then suffered the “No Target Locked” bug (The solution BTW is: You can only lock the last baddie, not the hunter (spider like thing = hunter)…so stop trying. Shoot the 4 turrets off the last guy and then and ONLY then can you lock the two arms on the far left and far right!!! If this fails read on!!!)…..which was really annoying as it meant re-loading a save game. I hate when this happens as the sense of immersion is hopelessly smashed!!

That said one cannot ignore the achievement. Is this game better than Half Life 2, I think so. I know PC Gamer won’t think so as Valve are secretly bank rolling them Crysis has to get 9 out of 10. I deduct one point for the debacle above. Great game….buy it…..but make sure you have at least a GeForce 8800 GT / GTS / GTX or one of the beefy Radeon cards….otherwise you will be seeing about half the frames you should be seeing!!!!

Crysis wood physics bug

At the moment i’m playing my way through the full game, and im happy to report I have not found any physics bugs like this in the final release of the game. So far I have only seen a gun get stuck in a wall and make a really loud crashing noise?!?

This video was recorded using fraps and shows a crazzy piece of wood in the pre-release! Have a look below:

Opposing Fronts Review

Having downloaded from Steam and had a few technical frights with the horrid “game is currently unavailable”error, I was very excited about playing the follow up to the best game of 2006. Like Dawn of War (DOW - another Relic title), it seemed very hard to improve on a formula that worked so well. Company of Heroes (COH) had incredible involvement for an RTS, and very re-playable. Even some of the Skirmish maps warranted a second look. Most RTSs only require you to build a large force and march forward, even in the case of the squad based DOW. However, COH had incredible moments, like a fire fight between houses where your MG teams are dug in, or the sound of a tank approaching your horridly exposed AT gun. Even laying out barbed wire to keep pesky infantry at bay was fun.

So how could Relic follow up on their magnum opus? Well they could get DOW winter assault out and take a good look. Not a stand alone game, but featured a new army, patches and short campaign. It arrived with DOW at the peak of its online popularity so was bound to do well commercially. However as far as value of money is concerned, it was disappointing. Not only was did the army have the weakest units, in keeping with the culture of the table top game, but required incredible micro-management to make it all work. Unfortunately, if you’re not a 12 year old on your summer holidays, you just can’t invest enough time into an army like this, so it became an ultimately useless add on. Dark crusade was the same again, new races but just another skirmish gimmick.

Now why haven’t I mentioned Opposing Fronts (OP) yet? Well you have to take the Winter Assault experience onboard. OP is a stand alone game so you have to pay a lot more for it then your average add on pack. You get two new armies and two campaigns. Now Relic has added weather conditions and more varied terrain, but if you hadn’t played the original COH, then you would think the two games were released simultaneously, there just isn’t any game play or substantial graphical differences. There are also rumors of an insidious installation process….

Now to the armies, which were the greatest feature of the original, with varied units and doctrines to add to the chaos. It’s still Normandy/Western Front with the Wehrmacht having the advantage in armor and tactics but a horrendous reliance on fuel resource, while the British Army have excellent defensive options but poor armor.

However, the Wehrmact does not resemble the COH army at all, it is highly mobile, compact and fuel permitting and can unleash very powerful armored units. In the case of the Jahd-Panther, perhaps too powerful. I can foresee big changes when the patches come out, as the balance is just not right yet. Almost all the units have been overhauled and all the buildings are new. The Doctrines are very different from each other, but not necessary equal in their impact on the game. The scorched earth Doctrine is totally useless and the campaign levels which force you to use it are painful in the least.

Now to the British and anyone who has played winter assault will know what I mean by stodgy, boring and lame. Its one thing using gun emplacements and artillery to your advantage on a scripted campaign level, but in a skirmish game that does not giving you geographic advantages, your in trouble. In truth, they have an uncanny resemblance to the imperial guard. I just can’t see how this will be a popular army online; they require far too much planning and management to put up a fight. The doctrines don’t really make any difference to the game in the same way that doctrines from the original game did or the new wehrmacht options do. The commando units are good, but armor is the key to this game and infantry is too vulnerable to rocket and artillery attack to be the focus of an army. Plus, the wehrmacht are very mobile from the offset, so their armored cars just drive around your pill boxes! I don’t need to elaborate on what a King Tiger can do to them.

I wouldn’t be surprised if further armies and campaigns are released by Relic peace-meal over the next 18-24 months, to milk their (excellent) product. An opportunity was missed here though, as the focus should have moved to the Eastern or African theatres, to really add a new dimension. The Engine is probably strong enough to only need minor upgrades to hold its own for a while longer.

All the same, there are some very entertaining campaign levels for both armies. If you are familiar with the original, I would recommend playing on hard or expert difficulty to get the most out of the game. The problem if you have played the original, is the sense of déjà vu which might put some players off. I think relic is really trying to sell the same game twice. If you plan to play online then it is necessary to own OP to play the new army, even if you have bought COH already. Similarly, if you have OP but not COH, then you can’t play the old armies online. Truthfully, if you had to buy one, I would say get the original, as the armies are more balanced and the new maps in OP aren’t really that different. Overall, don’t expect to be overwhelmed by OP if you’re a seasoned COH player, but do expect to pay the say price for it.

It’s been known since Valve announced the release of Half Life Episode 2 and Team Fortress 2 that a new type of game “Portal” would make it’s presence known. I got the orange box only the other day and I am amazed at what they have done.

Plot

Aperature Science is the name of a company which throughout the course of the game you see has direct links to Black Mesa. You are a test subject which wakes up in a sealed laboratory and asked to conduct tests under the scrutiny of Aperature Science technicians.

A monotonous voice tells you what to do and provides limited reassurance but also is quick to point out that damage to life can occur if the correct procedures are not followed. Lovely! The atmosphere is very clinical, sterile and cold. After a brief introduction to the magic of “the portal” you get your shaking hands on ‘the device’ that has turned our game world askew. And now for the next 19 chapters you get to unlearn what you think you know and re learn the laws of portal physics! Woo-hoo!

Graphics

Since this has been spawned from the Half Life world you can expect Source Engine graphics, nice textures, ruthless levels and merciless things that kill you. Because this is “Aperature Science” everything looks slightly different to City 17 or Black Mesa. For example the turrets have been revamped and have an eerie child like voice. Mechanisms like lifts and doors all look slick and clean in this laboratory. Because portals can be created on 80% of the surfaces in the game, there will be times when you see yourself. Although your body has not been rendered in the game, your character has, so you can see a limber female test subject from time to time.

Setting

As I said above the game is set in a test Lab but there are times when you’ll stumble across an unfinished piece of construction that will lead you to a dank area behind the scenes, this to me is brilliant as it reminds you that there is a world outside the shiny walls of Aperature Science. Towards the end there is an amazing piece of storytelling from the guys and gals in Valve which I won’t tell you about now as it is a spoiler.

All I’ll say is, the game’s not over until the fat lady sings. This game although not as ‘open ended’ as the Half Life episodes, it has endless potential, if that makes sense? I like to think that Valve could have kept “making” this game till the end of time and still find uses for Portals, but obviously they had to put a lid on it at some stage so all we get is 19 chapters. I bet there will be a Portal 2 or something to that affect in the next episode of Half Life.

Game Play

In this mod/game Valve have added in a nice section which gives the game some life. Simply called Achievements, it’s a collection of things you can do or unlock in the game, it will give you a goal to aim for if when completing the game you feel like playing some more you can try and succeed in the tasks in this section.

Using portals to jump 300ft for example or using the infinity portals to fall 30,000ft. The list goes on.

There are some bonus maps which are unlocked on game completion and they are 6 maps from the game itself which are much more difficult with certain things removed and more dangerous things added. I really don’t want to tell you too much about the game, just trust me when I say it is well worth it. It’s a very well made addition to the Half Life universe and it has opened another few avenues(or portals!) which Valve can use for producing another mind blowing game down the line.

Conclusion

I love it, I played it through in 2 sittings I think so it is a short game if you love Half Life as much as I do. The good thing is Portal was only released and some diligent level builders had custom maps already made for it! So there is some additional content out there that can keep you going in the Portal building universe.