While I’m on the subject of game demos today, I might as well mention the Crysis 2 demo too. Sadly, it’s only a multiplayer demo, and really, who wants a fucking multiplayer demo of a predominantly single player game? I don’t care about leveling up my persistent character before I get the full game, I’ll do it when own the full thing. I want to shoot some aliens in Times Square first! Anyway, with my frustrated mini-rant over, read on for a quick opinion on the demo gameplay itself.
Despite my complaining about the demo being focused on the multiplayer instead of on the single player, I have to admit, I’m very impressed so far with the visuals and the gameplay, as far as a sequel to such an awesome original game goes. Though the controls are a little bit funny (jumping doesn’t occur until about half a second or more after you hit the button, making evasive maneuvers slightly too sluggish for my liking) the graphics are still very nice, and the guns look really cool, and feel like they really pack a punch when you unload a clip into somebody.
The most important thing we want to know about though are the super-suit/super hero powers that made the first game so damned fun to play. Now, I’m fully aware that most games water down certain aspects of single player content (Red Dead Redemption) to make it more appropriate for online play, so it’s probably just because of that – but all of the powers you get a hold of, at least at the very start of your online career in Crysis 2, have a very short period of activity. Hitting the cloak button will keep you invisible, but only for about 5-10 seconds, and if you run around or move at all you aren’t very difficult to spot. I know this because I killed a bunch of folks trying to sneak up on me, from the front. Idiots.
The other powers I had a blast with were the power armour ability, which increases your damage resistance (though in the frantic action taking place in multiplayer was almost entirely useless, as I didn’t feel like I took any more shots before dying the same amount of times as I was without it on), the super speed, which is essentially just sprinting quite fast, and only really good for trying to escape. But my favourite power, right after invisibility, was the jump-smash move (I forget it’s real name, but it makes no difference) which allows you, whilst in mid-jump, to hit the ‘B’ button, sending you slamming down into the ground, complete with your own mini-micro-shock-wave, killing anybody you hit in the process. It takes about a second too long to recover from though, and so if you do manage to pull the kill off, you are left vulnerable to attack from any other sucker who comes along and tries to get a dig in.
Obviously, I’m saving any judgment for when the game is released, but in all honesty from what I’ve seen in the demo, I can only hope that the single player gives the player a lot more freedom to take their time with stealth kills, or go absolutely nuts with the super jumps and super slam attacks (and hopefully, super throw-people-against-the-wall) against the pitiful weaklings who don’t all have suits just like you, like the chaps in multiplayer. Most of the fun for me will be knowing I’m playing as a bad ass, unstoppable mofo (yes, I said mofo) where the hundreds of puny men I get to mow down and punch into space will not be able to do a damn thing about it.
See trailer. Play demo. Go:
Dome Keeper is an excellent little spin on the tower defense game, in which you play the role of a jetpacking miner defending his base from swarms of aliens, whilst searching for a hidden relic buried somewhere beneath him. And now, with this huge free update, you can play it with friends.
I want to talk about Cloudpunk, a game where you get to be a flying-car delivery driver in a futuristic cyberpunk city. Its world is an incredible achievement of environmental design, and while the gameplay itself may be basic, the city of Nivalis is a thing of beauty to behold. Nivalis is built out of hundreds of hand-modelled cuboid buildings; there’s nothing procedural about it. Apparently it took 3 years for the devs to design the city, and it really shows.
I do love me some quality pixel art, and it doesn’t get much better than this. Cast n Chill is a cozy side-scrolling fishing game by small indie dev team Wombat Brawler, with absolutely gorgeous visuals. It’s simple to play, and you you can dip in and out of it at your leisure, making it a fine addition to our collection of coffee break games.
Format: PC
Year: 2001 – present day
If Return to Castle Wolfenstein was my first date with PC gaming, Battlefield 1942 was when she invited me to meet her parents, and the relationship went to the next level. My god, did I really just write that analogy?
It’s safe to say that Fumito Ueda’s third game was one of my most anticipated titles of the previous generation. Announced in 2009, I eagerly watched every gameplay trailer and read up every snippet of information I could. Ico and Shadow of the Colossus remain two of my most beloved games, and I found the idea of another game by the same studio a mouth-watering temptation. A multitude of delays and long periods of silence from both Sony and the developers led many to believe it would never see the light of day, not to mention the troubling news that Ueda himself had left the project due to creative differences with Sony. The game lingered in development hell for several years and its fate was uncertain. Ueda and his team remained with the project as consultants and the game eventually had a release date set for December 2016. My excitement rekindled and I wondered how it could ever live upto 7 years of anticipation. So, was it worth the wait?
Format: PS3
Release date: 2010
Heavy Rain is more like an interactive movie than a game, and it is mostly excellent. It’s a game about choices and living with the consequences. I played it through twice myself, just to see how different decisions affect the story and its ultimate conclusion, but to say that my first try was emotional would be the understatement of the century. This game almost broke me. I’ll tell you how soon, but first I want to recount the story of one of my friend’s choices… Like I said, watching Heavy Rain is just like watching a movie, but watching your friend play Heavy Rain gives you an amusing bit of insight into their psychology. The results can be hilarious.
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