GamerOverload - One Geek & Five Years of Missed Gaming to Get Through.

Tuesday

23Dec

Mirror's Edge - Impressions/ Review

Tuesday, December 23, 2008 at 12:04PM

Well, I finally finished Mirror's Edge last night and it was pretty good.

The initial story of Mirror's Edge is you play as Faith a runner in an Orwellian city of sorts that is slowly being rid of the freedoms of the individual, and replaced by the wills of corporations. As you progress through the game you learn more about Faith's past and how it relates to the ongoing story. I am not gonna give you the whole plot here as I wanna avoid spoiling things so I'll stop here and say the overall story, is manageable and at that the very least is as good as the plot of something like Halo 3 (better in my opinion)

The intial gameplay mechanics in Mirror's Edge are wholely unique from anything that's been done before. DICE, who developed this game went off in a completely different direction from their past projects, creating a First Person Runner Adventure. Whereas in most FPS like Halo and or Gears, Mirror's Edge main weapon is the user's body and momentum. Lotta people will slam this game and say it was an interesting attempt at something that ultimately failed, to these people I say STOP BEING CYNICAL ASSHOLES. DICE created a whole new sub-genre within First Person games, and the fact that they were able to do this with something as simple as running...well you gotta give the developers props.

The graphics in this game are ABSOLUTELY AMAZING as well. Everything has a clean yet real feel about it that makes your mouth water. It's a mix of realistic tones and animistic (it's a word now, I created it) qualities. Your perspective is never filled with anything even resembling a HUD and the game quite frankly is made all the better for this absent feature. You navigate your surroundings via runner vision, which will illuminate places you can jump and climb onto in red. The game gives you the option to turn runner vision off though, as every damn surface in this game can be bounded off of or run across. Personally, for your first run thru I wouldn't suggest it though as navigation with runner vision can be a bit confusing.

Tomorrow I'll post part two of my review, in which I actually am critical.

Till THEN!

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Wednesday

01Oct

Dead Space : PAX '08 Gameplay Impressions

Wednesday, October 1, 2008 at 01:00PM

About a month or so ago I got a chance to play Dead Space at PAX '08. I had an initial bit of skepticism before I played the game. The screenshots that had been going around & the video of gameplay all looked great but, seeing and playing are two entirely different things.

After a 30 minute convo with some fellow gamers in line, I was lead into the hotbox. Two Dead Space kiosks were set up, large LCD screens showing off some of the gameplay. I waited anxious as the guy in front of me was finishing up his mission, game developer by his side helping him out when he needed it. FINALLY...it was my turn at bat. I cracked my knuckles. I thought to myself. "Let's do this"

Controls: General movement was alright but scrolling thru weapons, scanning objects, jumping in weightlessness, etc...all of this took some getting use to. Simply put, your gonna have to play the game longer then half an hour to get use to all the controls.

Environments: Fuck me, were the environments FANTASTIC on this game. Lotta people are touting The Force Unleashed's environments but in comparison TFU is Dead Space's bitch. The detail paid to every little thing and the overall tone which is induced is that of both dread and fear. In writing about this Doom 3 & Bioshock's environments keep coming to mind, as this game seems to take the best from each and combine it into a mosaic of dark foreboding. I tend to be big on environments within games, it helps an immersing me fully. Halo 3 had this in spades when it came to navigating through the caverns of the Flood invested ship. SO yeah....I LOVE the environments

Sound: I can't honestly judge sound, what I heard was ok, but given the nature of the exhibition halls, and all the echoes, the only way to judge this game's sound would be in an office/home arena. Like I said though, from what I heard and experienced while playing, sound added more to the overall creepy atmosphere of this game.

Gameplay : Ok so the really important crap. Overall gameplay is good BUT....if your looking for just a nice easy FPS shooter, this game is not for you. Dead Space's controls are designed in such a way as to promote anything but the basic run & gun approach and this, with the inclusion of small puzzles...yeah. This game is for people that like to have the crap scared out of them. Enemies are not defeated easily with just a couple shots to the head, they writhe around and every enemy gets put down a different way. Seriously, I kept shooting this one tentacled monster in the head...nothing...eventually the arse got on my back and took me down, and of course the other baddies joined in when I couldn't shake the first off. The guys/gals who made this game, don't want you to rush through it, they want you to enjoy it like a fine wine, to use a phrase. The general story of the game I knew a little beforehand and what I played didn't really elaborate more on the main story of "guy looking for his love on a creepy mining station that ran abound something foul". The physics engine used, was pretty good, Halo 3 level, and the inclusion of things like the Half-Life-esque gravity gun (among others) were welcome additions.

The jumping in weightlessness is handled well throughout the bit I played, though I did have some trouble landing certain jumps (was more player error though as I was trying to jump the hell away from the monsters coming at me). Camera views once or twice in gameplay were annoying but in general they didn't hurt the overall gaming experience much.

The game, from what little I played, looks GOOD.

I'd say if your looking for a game with excellent graphics, intriguing gameplay mechanics, and the ability to really creep you out, try this sucker when it comes out in stores around mid-Oct.

I'll have my full review of Dead Space when I get the Ultra Limited Edition later this month.

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XBOX 360

Tuesday

26Aug

Star Wars: The Force Unleashed!!

Tuesday, August 26, 2008 at 02:26PM

So a couple days back the first demo for SW: The Force Unleashed came out

For a demo the game was pretty damn good. Broken down, my impressions are as follows:

Pros:

3rd person perspective works well in general, throughout demo gameplay
Game mechanics work seamlessly, the two game engines workin in this thing are what really help sell it in presentation
I can pick up a FREAKIN TIE FIGHTER WITH THE FORCE AND BASH A STORM TROOPER WITH IT!!!
Environments within the game have a balanced level of destructibility
Enemy AI is configured well with respect to the difficulty level your playing on.
Sound, music and effects are awesome....honestly it's from the people famous for THX...do you really expect any less.

Cons:

-Overall graphics are not exactly eye-dazzling. If your looking for the level of graphic quality you got from Bioshock or Gears of War, your barking up the wrong tree with this game.
-"Heavenly Sword" effect, comes off as more annoying then cool. I am killing guys left and right and all of the sudden my camera view ZOOMS over to where this guy is getting squashed by something I threw....normally this would be cool...but the way it was implemented within this game..the player is almost punished when these scenes come about, getting shot at by Storm Troopers while pushing buttons madly to return to your proper camera view.
Boss Button-Push Sequences. It seems like any game coming out now has these "button-push" sequences wherein the screen flashes a button and you have to push it, and then another and then another to finally beat a boss. I'm sorry but this mechanic has ALWAYS bothered me. Firstly this game implements this element as badly as the others wherein you have that momentary lapse where you have to think "Ok which button is the green one?" Place the damn button on the screen where you'd push it on the controller. If the button is the bottom middle button, place it on the screen as such.....I'll certainly be able to hit that button quicker seeing that...as opposed to the damn color. What's more...do away with this whole concept. Games were doing fine without these Button-Push sequences...the ONLY reason they have become more and more popular is because game designers have gotten lazy and would rather just shove a cinematic/Saturn CD esque movie in there then just simply leaving you along to destroy the baddie piece by piece.

Overall the demo is good but the game itself will have to step it up a notch. The graphic flaws are annoying but can be overlooked if the game mechanics keep upping the overall enjoyment of gameplay aka letting the player throw Storm Troopers out windows. I give this demo an A- an anxiously await it's release.......and the mayhem I'll be able to ...unleash.

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