Two years later and the parts match the model: Worms 2 Armageddon (XBLA)

About two years ago I, along with thousands of other punters downloaded Worms on XBLA, and what a cheeky release it was. Like buying a new Ferrari only to find it drives like the 1995 model Worms XBLA was a visually slick remake of the PC original. No Holy Hand Grenade, one voice set (since rectified in DLC), only a few terrain types, the whole experience was enjoyable but left fans of later Worms games, myself included, a little empty and so the game has spent many a month untouched in the annals of my hard drive.

Enter Worms 2 Armageddon; so named because it is the sequel to the first XBLA Worms title and because the weapon selection is based on the Armageddon chapter of franchise, chanting artillery, air born lambs, and heavy donkey effigies included. This is the Worms that the Download era needs, fully featured thanks to a longer more challenging single player, bolstered with a few extra game types and with that added degree of insanity that Worms acquired in 1997.

You can even add hats to Worms! Here's hoping for a beer hat for the redneck voice.

The game shows its improved feature set from the off with a far more comprehensive team creation which includes an array of voice sets that makes my brain boggle just scrolling through them, setting colour, a hat, victory dance, the only thing missing is a personal super weapon but, I guess that was removed to help with game balance.

And then there are the new game changing weapons, the new sentry gun and magnet items add a new layer of strategy to controlling the field whilst the bunker buster will be the bane of any fans of the darkside award, such as myself.

Fire is also a major area of improvement, no longer does it burn for three seconds and magically dissipate, fire continues to burn through the landscape during the subsequent turns, again making tunnels and hiding under the level a far less appealing prospect not that a napalm strike can cut down over several turns and fry you.

Avatars make an appearance in the 360 version to emote about how the game is going.

Worms 2 Armageddon feels like the true sequel to Worms Armageddon, and a Worms that is genuinely ready for the modern gamer, with more options in combat both for defensive and offensive players the only disappointment for this player is that you can only have four players in a match, even more would have been even better.

Anyone who felt short changed by their flashy looking but outdated model two years ago shouldn’t feel anxious going in this time, the 2009 version has been fitted with the most up to date technology, and could very well be the best iteration in the franchise to date.

P.S. The achievements aremore time consuming this time, so you won’t be maxing it out in a weekend. Should ensure it stays around long enough for you to just want to enjoy playing it, unlike last time.

Very late to the party: City of Heroes/Villains.

I’m currently trying out City of Heroes/Villains and I’ve made the following characters:

Hero, The Purple Pylon:

Specialises in shooting pure energy blasts and looking very purple and menacing.

Villain, The Argumentative Midget:

Creates machines to do his dirty work and surprises his opponents with traps.

I know I’m a little (very) late to the game but so far so good, the combat is very satisfying as I take on multiple targets, sending ragdoll’s flying with my various attacks and whilst missions are standard ‘go here, do this’ MMO fare, stopping random crimes and just bringing evil doers to justice (or the opposite when playing my villain) just makes me feel powerful and heroic. The fact that it is my own hero rather than me playing as some Marvel or DC stalwart gives the game a fantastic feel that no other super hero game has ever done.

If nothing else it gets me hyped for Champions online.

Halo Wars demo impressions

My impressions are pretty much from Skirmish, single player was nice but skirmish is where it shines.

I’m very impressed, the gameplay is elegantly designed thanks to simple base creation and a limited but effective pool of units, it’s more about intelligent unit deployment and thanks to very simplified resource gathering, simply placing a building, it means you can decide how many you want and not let it bother you anymore.

But the genius element is the obvious seasoning of Warcraft 3 in the recipe by asking you to use a scout to gather additional resources and take the neutral outposts before an opponent. It encourages exploration around the map which is a careful balancing act between a sizable force that could counter an opponent and take an outpost and leaving enough defence back at the base in case of an attack.

Another fantastic addition is the info you receive from your commander relating to your opponenet, playing as UNSC against the cov I was warned of a rush, so I built turrets and it was an effective counter, then when I was playing as Covenant I was warned of approaching air and knowing I was weak against air I build a shield generator and some anti air turrets whilst getting Vampires out of my expansion base.

Heroic difficulty is not hard enough and there’s no online regrettably, but I guess those are the tasty looking carrots that Ensemble are dangling at me…

Late to the party: Spore Creepy and Cute

Myself and my better half got a hold of the creepy and cute pack for Spore recently and the results have been great!

Sure you can argue these parts should have been in Spore from the get go but buying the parts pack has been an injection of life into this underappreciated game for us, I can only hope the galactic adventures pack does the same for the disappointing space stage of the game…

My very cute creature looking quite stoned.

My menacing creature looking sufficiently evil

*HOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOWL*

My friend called this Flower dance 'The gayest thing ever'.

Madworld – forget all those balls you like playing with.

A new trailer for Madworld landed yesterday here on gametrailers  and it makes me salivate for the game even more than I already am.

Designed as a spoof of American sports reporting, complete with ESPN style logo, two enthusiastic commentators talk you through some great looking footage from Madworld.

My excitement runs a little deeper than it being an adult game on Wii however, the style of the game from its combat engine to the tongue in cheek humour is all reminicient of God Hand, an underappreciated title on the PS2 that everyone should check out.

And if you can’t be bothered to go an play it, here’s the best part in youtube form:

Late to the party: Patapon

Last year a little rhythm action strategy game came out on the PSP, aka the handheld no one cares about, the game went by the name of Patapon and even though I played and enjoyed the demo I never got round to buying the game, simply because it arrived at the wrong time. Caught up in the post 2007 wallet casualties, everyone who wasn’t throwing Mario around space was teabagging fools on Halo 3, Team Fortress 2, or bloody Call of Duty 4, *sigh*, no one had time for a quirky game on their dusty PSPs.

So when I spotted it for a tenner today I knew I needed to show it some respect, and also because those one eyed freaks were staring at me from the box, threatening to stab me in my sleep if I didn’t man up and throw a tenner at something a little odd, on a system I would need a spelunking kit to recover from the catacombs of my room.

You control the Patapon using drums, each piece of percussion is mapped to a face button and by hitting them in specific rhythms you command the Patapon to move forward, attack, retreat and whatever else comes later in the game. It’s very simple whilst you need a little thought when considering what type of Patapon you use in your formation and from there it plays like a rhythm action title, with the Patapon chanting along with your beat and performing the actions you ask, by playing a perfect beat they become more powerful.

Visually it’s a striking mixture of geometric shapes and one tone objects, it looks amazing on the PSP screen as your numerous minions throw spears, chop, and launch arrows at foes and it never faulters. Much like Loco Roco it is a game designed for the PSP in every way, visually, aurally, and in how it plays as levels will not take more than a few minutes making it an easy game to chip away at.

Assuming it continues to be as good as it has started, expect a lot more of banter on Patapon from me in the near future.

What’s more, aren’t they just the cutest?

Stupidly high res Halo Wars screens released, hype meter fluctuates.

Considering I’m on an RTS high from Red Alert 3 and now Dawn of War 2, Halo Wars is a pretty big blip on my radar considering it’s the Halo universe, but with me playing Captain Kees and telling every little unfortunate Spartan to rush at Wraith tanks like they were kids zerg rushing a sweet shop on pocket money day.

So when Ensemble say ‘here, have some lovely high res shots’ I naturally say ‘why thank ya gov, go ‘av a cup a tea on me’. At least I would say that were I a method actor currently getting in role for a stage production of Oliver Twist.

But I’m not.

So without further ado, cast a discerning eye over these 5120 x 2880 resolution piccies that I had to shrink because they were TOO AWESOME;

To be honest I wish the game was on PC, then the units might not look like they were made out of play dough by a six year old. But that doesn’t really matter when you’re fifty feet in the air barking orders at people the size of pin heads, so why release such high quality pictures of a game in which individual units look so bad anyway? At least in Dawn of War each unit is nicely detailed.

Roll on February 5th so I can see how this game plays.

Dawn of War 2 Beta impressions – flashing scythes and zealous marines.

I’ve not played Company of Heroes but I’ve heard this game is a lot like it, less about building a base and more about using units in weird and wonderful ways, and if it is genuinly the inspiration for Dawn of War 2 then bloody hell, I’ve been missing out!

Dawn of War was fun but my favourite way to play was the ‘capture all the strategic points and hold them’ method, so imagine my annoyance when all I get are players rushing my base and slaughtering me, I also couldn’t play as Tyranids, major minus point right there.

But now you can’t win by simply rushing an opponents base and raping their units,  because Dawn of War 2 is about slowly creating and utilizing squads, moving tactically across the map and taking resource points and power nodes to fuel your war machine. It requires battlefield awareness far beyond most games as you zip around using squads to pry key locations from your opponent, perhaps causing distractions before having your best unit appear behind an undefended squad and rip them a new one.

furthermore you choose a specific commander who you will be reviving and retreating many times during combat, each army offers three commanders and each offers a slightly different play style. The Lictor, pictured above, specialises in infiltration, creeping around the map and unleashing unexpected attacks, while the Hive Tyrant is a more in your face commander making his presence known, buffing up his allies and causing opponents to flee. Each commander can then be upgraded further during a battle with unique attacks which could either be personal preferance or chosen to counter your opponent.

From the time I’ve spent with it Dawn of War 2 offers a streamlined but obviously deep strategic experience, I’ll be playing the Beta further and should hopefully be able to give my fellow Hive Minds a few tips on playing the ravenous swarms at their command.

The Crysis of MMOs – TERA

Industry unknowns Bluehole studio have just thrown a trailer for their upcoming MMO TERA onto the wonderfully harsh world of the Internet, but for a website as fickle as gametrailers, the games graphics are actually turning heads.

TERA: The exiled realm of Arborea (its full, groan enducing name) is a game developed in the land of MMOs, aka Korea, and alongside a slick looking combat engine the game is pushing some serious polgyons but rather than babble on about them, here’s the video;

So let’s dissect the trailer, revelling in the interesting points and casting aside the unwanted entrails whilst casting a speculative eye over how exactly a game this dang pretty could possibly be marketable.

It sure is pretty, JRPG CGI pretty, and the art direction is a solid mix of massive cities and sprawling vistas. The most depressing thing is that all sources available show the game in compressed SD form rather than the beautiful crystal clear sceens that would do the game justice, not a fan of the hulk like magic casters myself but the melee classes look ready for combat and in the females cases, as ready as nerdy programmers will let them be.

But then the real shocker hits because combat looks fluid, fast paced, and with more action than an evening in Newcastle. If I had to draw comparisons, and I do, it reminds me of the Tales franchise with melee classes whipping out impressive slashes and leaps whilst spell casters run away from combat and volley spells in, like all good cowards.

Navigating the world also looks fun as characters run across sprawling plains and clamber up vertical walls, these heroes look genuinely skilled and more importantly, this should give locations some fun routes to navigate.

But how to make this sellable considering most PCs will not be up to this without spluttering and submitting to an early death… Considering black magic is probably out of the question, a Guild Wars model would seem correct to me with all players inhabiting the city whilst all mission areas are instanced for individual parties.

I’ll be keeping a beady eye on this one, if only to see how they market a game that will make your graphics card EXPLODE.

FEAR 2 demo, quick impressions.

Here’s a quick summary of my thoughts on the Fear 2 demo…

Because of Halo, every FPS has melee. Because of COD 4, every FPS has a scope/ironsight button...

The Look

- Slick, the creepy red sections have a nice sky effect alongside some serious glowing going on, very strange.

-A few big set pieces give the game a big chunky feeling often missing from most modern FPS games.

-It feels very claustrophobic, areas are littered with obstacles which means you’ll need a lot of spacial awareness, but there’s plenty to duck behind.

The Scares

-More jumpy than a bunny with twice the advised amount of Duracell batteries rammed into its back, who’s also dosed up on caffine.

-School area was ace but could have really gone for the creepy vibe more, it just had guff ghosts drifting menacingly towards you.

-I didn’t mind the jumpy parts that took you to the red locations as they were intriquing to the part of my mind that likes a side dish of plot with its mindless gory shooting.

The Combat

-Slow-mo makes combat very easy, but very satisfying.

-Shotgun to the face = win;

As the point I just made says, win.

-The laser ’sub boss’ was dump, and his laser was annoyingly stuck to my body draining my health, and he refused to leave his little room to chase me. Did I mention the encounter was shit?

-The section in the mech at the end was easy and rather chunky, a fun diversion but really detracts from the horror focus of the game in my opinion.

Overall

-Enjoyable FPS mechanics offset by a bombardment of jump scares, just doesn’t do enough new or feel as clever as I’d like a horror FPS to be. To be honest the game feels like three lesser games that met in a pub one night, (an FPS, a survival horror, and Mech Assault) discussed their problems and decided the best thing for all three of them would be to fuse into one mega ultra game. A good idea until you do the maths on combining horror and mechs…

Bonus points for this immensely scary tiger!

Make your mind up yourself by nabbing the demo off Xbox Live, PSN, or PC over here.