Halo 3: ODST Review

Some years ago game ‘expansions’ were common fare, released to add more story or maps to a popular game and normally retailing for less, it was like getting a straight to DVD sequel to your favourite film except, you know, not shit.

But nowadays we rarely get retail expansions, with most games being supported through smaller DLC packs, but ODST feels like one of these releases of old, to Halo 3 what Opposing Force was to Half Life, except it carries the same price tag as its predecessor… Ho hum.

Enemies like Hunters and Brute Chieftans are more formidible foes for the squishy ODST's

So the ultimate question is whether or not it’s worth full whack. Short answer is yes, long answer is if you enjoy a spot of Halo gameplay then of course it is. The pioneering trio of shooty, hitty, explodey combat is still at its best when engineered by Bungie, not to mention the games iconic and riotous vehicle selection, and while ODST is really a bit of clichéd ‘more of the same’ it’s more of the same of the best, but with some noteworthy improvements.

However improvements is arguably the wrong word as ODST removes and re-introduces elements to the combat, gone is cumbersome dual wielding whilst Halo:CE’s health and pistol make their triumphant returns, with health adding a greater degree of tension to proceedings with the pistol being the most satisfying virtual gun you’ll wield in an FPS this year, the combat of ODST is refined, sleek, and undeniably satisfying.

And of course we’re not playing as Master Chief, instead we fill the shoes of nimble, fragile ODST soldiers in the ruins of New Mombasa, and whilst they have the hitting power of a starved grandmother they come equipped with pseudo night vision, that godly pistol, and a real personality.

The game works like this, you walk around the sometimes annoyingly quiet city at night as ‘Rookie’ looking for evidence of your squad, upon finding these pieces of evidence you play the events leading up to its eventual resting place as the vocal and surprisingly well characterised members of your ODST unit.

Also, the field of vision in ODST is notably wider than Halo 3's, which means when you go back to Halo 3 it feels like playing in a box!

And that’s the most important point, yes the campaign only lasts roughly six hours but the flashbacks are snippets of pure, concentrated Halo brilliance, never as good as Halo 3’s best but never dropping to the series lows, with the characters giving the adventure a personality that Chief and Arbitar could never manage with their gruff, action man personas, this is a group of characters you’ll actually enjoy spending time with.

And spend time you will, sure I was tossing six hours around up there but add to that finding all the ‘audio files’, playing in co-op, re-playing for achievements, and enjoying the amazing, endless fights in the genius Firefight mode then you’re looking at a solid twenty plus hours of entertainment, and if you haven’t purchased Halo 3’s map packs you get all them on a separate disk as well, and that’s more than can be said of most other retail releases.

And that’s ODST, in many ways as good as its source material, in just as many ways improved. An enjoyable and extremely replayable campaign bulked out by a great survival mode and arguably the best FPS system to grace our wonderful medium of video games, don’t let the price put you off, this love letter from Bungie shouldn’t be missed.

9

Summer of Arcade week 4 – A Trial of patience, in HD!

Trials HD, oh how you hurt me. I love you, honest to god I would marry you if it wasn’t for your digital nature  but Jesus H. Christ on an expensive bike you are a harsh lover aren’t you? One hundred tries, a quarter of an hour later and three litres of man tears and that’s only put hard mode to rest, Extreme mode and tournaments left to go… Better buy the man size pack of tissues.

But this isn’t my first run in with Red Lynx’s  mascochist machine as I fell in love with Trials 2 on the PC just last Christmas, and in a rare experience for my blog I can look back at said occasion! I put Trials 2 at number 22 in my favourite games of 2008 and said it was ’something special’ but that it made me ‘grind my teeth at the insane difficulty’. Well, Trials HD is no different.

But of course I mean that in the best way possible, there’s a reason I adore Trials more than most human beings, the generous checkpoints turn every excruciating jump into a confined mini puzzle, a minor joint in an entire level of pad twisting tempter tantrums, the visual flair as you ride through a level that literally explodes around you, and the addictive primal urge of every gamer to better your friends.

Add to the mix fun mini slices of aggrivation in the interesting skill games and a robust level editor with easy uploading and sharing abilities and you’ve got a live arcade title with unlimited staying power and one achievement you’ll never get.

Ever.

But to get hung up on a single achievement and later levels harder than Ron Jeremy during an intensive filming session would be petty because Trials HD is pure gaming nirvana, punishing yes, rewarding and ultimately satisfying? Most definately. You’d be a fool to try and talk yourself out of buying it.

You’ll still never get that achievement though.

Ever.

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:

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.

My top ten games of 2008

Top ten time and that means one thing… Bigger prettier banners! These are the ten games that gave me, Dalagonash, the most fun for my moolah, the games that offered most fun no matter how much I played them, the ten that impressed me most with creative features and forward thinking, the ten that I look forward to playing every time I turn them on, the ten that (snip -Dala).

Spore

For me this game was far more than the sum of its parts, if I wanted to play Civ I would have but instead I had a group of personal creatures with my own buildings and vehicles and walked all over my opponents, silly inferior races! Spore let me get creative with simple tools, see other people’s creations thanks to the game’s Internet sharing and see what other people have done with my races thanks to a Facebook style mini feed. The game gave me hours of enjoyment with the creation tools and build up; it’s just a shame that the massive part of the game, the space stage, never grabbed me by the loins as I went off playing other games. I am however looking forward to the first gameplay expansion that will let me go all Star Trek and land on alien planets, beam me up Scotty!

Viva Pinata: Trouble in Paradise

Two years ago I named the first Viva Pinata one of my favourite games of the year and in 2008, it hadn’t lost any of its charm. More of an expansion pack than a genuine sequel, Trouble in Paradise still added a number of noteworthy features that make it a far better game that the first. Online and local multiplayer? Check, camera for screenshots? Check, more toys and ways to have fun with your garden? Check, more focused gameplay goals? Check, and most importantly, more pinata and more things to discover about each one, I always said the best thing about Viva was the exploration and taking the game at your pace, and Pinata 2 continues the superb design, now go buy it please?

World of Goo

It’s not often a game can take you by surprise in the modern game industry but I spotted World of Goo one day on Steam and thought ‘that sounds good for a laugh’, what I got was a charming mix of Lemmings, Tim Burton, and a senior school science lesson. Tasking you to build structures using goo balls the aim is the build towards a pipe so that you can get a set number of Goo balls out of the level, the game never repeated ideas and while this made it a bit short, it never felt like a one trick pony and the addition of ACD targets for each level alongside fantastic art direction and faultless presentation makes World of Goo a deceptively playable and deep game.

No More Heroes

Hideo Kowho? SUDA 51 is the only gaming auteur that matters to me, merging amazing minimalist graphics with a bonkers story, managing to make a perverted wrestling fan, Travis Touchdown, one of the best characters in all of video gaming and combining it all with gameplay that actually suits the Wii. I think of it this highly and I played the neutered PAL version, had the claret been splashing all over the walls maybe I would have thought even higher of it.

Fun fact: My housemate probably wishes he had the ending on camera as I was genuinely shouting at the screen in confusion and amusement.

Grand Theft Auto IV

Forget the ‘Hollywood rivalling scripts’ or the ‘compelling lead character’ GTA IV is here because for me Liberty City was one of 2008’s most believable game worlds, from riding in the back of a taxi watching the world go by to stumbling drunk back to your car realising it’s probably not a good idea to drive, to the improved gun combat. GTA IV may not have the complete reckless fun of Saints Row, but it had a fantastic city and plenty of memorable characters and moments. Yes the incessant phone calls got annoying but for the fifty odd hours I played it the game was fantastic ride, I just wish the multiplayer had taken off better than it did.

Little Big Planet

A game that makes me wish there were more hours in the day, I don’t own a PS3 but I’ve tried to spend as much time as possible on my housemate’s copy of this. Sure the platforming is a little floaty and that’s why I don’t think quite as highly of it as I could, but the sheer variety and creativity that can come out of the robust level creator is what makes LBP rather than its core gameplay and it’s as easy to use as it can be, although the occasional problem can put your work back several minutes but what Media Molecule have achieved will go down as their legacy.

Banjo Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts

This game was a disappointment for some but those are the people that went into Nuts & Bolts wanting a traditional platformer, but for those going into it with an open mind found an intriquing vehicle creation, puzzle solving, racing, sporting cacophony of varied and enticing fun. One minute you’re collecting notes and boxes around the beautiful HUB world, the next you’re creating a new super vehicle to blast around one of the worlds, then you’re striving to get another TT Trophy or knock a friend off the leaderboard, then suddenly you’re playing football with a group of fur and feather freaks in mechanical contraptions over live, and then seven hours have gone by and it’ 3.00 a.m in the morning…

World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King

Warcraft and MMORPGs are an acquired taste as it is but Wrath of the Lich King takes moves to making them both more accessible and more fun for everyone, locations are filled with quests that conclude in epic events such as riding a mammoth into battle, using gigantic siege weapons to kill hundreds of undead, combating scourge commanders, the game made lore more accessible and also made quests more fun with less collectathons and more straight up fun! Dungeons were also refined from vanilla WoW’s several hour trawls to thirty minute boss packed set pieces. The package was polished with a variety of achievements that gave players new interesting ways to play dungeons beyond simply finishing them, the only problem with it is that you need to reach level 70 before you’re allowed to experience the best adventure of 2008, it’s like being told you have to watch and pay attention to every Batman film before watching Dark Knight…

Rock Band (2)

A couple of years ago Guitar Hero nosedived onto the gaming scene and made a tidal wave, its legacy has been preserved and milked by the chaps at Activision but it was Harmonix’s successor hat continued the true spirit of fantastic music, spot on note charts, and fantastic visual style. The confusing release of Rock Band titles meant that the UK saw Rock Band finally released in 2008 and the second title appear only on 360, and not with all the instruments… Ignoring this faux pas on EA’s part the game offering amazing four instrument multiplayer bliss, guitar parts were fun to play rather than finger twisting nightmares, singing was fun, and the drums were a challenging addition, many evenings were spent pretending to be an upcoming rock sensation, and I have completely destroyed my housemate’s opinion of David Bowe’s Suffragette City! Epic win!

Left 4 Dead

The game of 2008 that I still feel excited about every single time it is mentioned, every single time people want to play, every time someone has a new story from a recent play session, the one game that makes a group of four people work as a genuine team against the hordes of undead, the funniest game of 2008, the hardest and most intense game, the most subtle and possibly best story, and the only game I threw £30 against in 2008 that will keep giving and giving into 2009 for no extra cost and maybe beyond. The main campaigns are amazing and infinitely re playable thanks to the AI Director, the Versus mode is an amazing addition and the most creative form of competitive play ever and the promise of new content and user created mods appearing into 2009 and beyond make it the best game and best purchase of 2008!

My games of 2008, 20-11

This game was bigger, better and more badass than the first… Tired of hearing that yet? Presented by gaming self proclaimed king of cool Cliffy B, oh wait he doesn’t like that title anymore, oops, Gears 2 developed on the foundations of 2006’s stop and pop flash in the pan and this second outing entertains greatly, a silly over the top storyline accompanies manly grunts and deep breathing while unspeakable amounts of claret is splashed around the now brighter world. Add in a superior multiplayer and it’s a great package! When the matchmaking doesn’t take ten minutes that is…

Still one of gaming’s most dividing titles, Brawl is a slower and more technical game than Melee with loads of new modes of varying quality and impressive content sharing facilities. But under all the technical mumbo jumbo it is still the fan boyish jewel in Nintendo’s crown and as much a museum of Nintendo history with all its statues, stickers, and music tracks  as it is a solid fighting game. Brawl is glorious fun and infinitely playable with friends, just a shame you’ve probably been playing it for several years already.

‘Two games in one slot? Blasphemous!’ you cry in outrage, but it’s not my fault that the west caught up with Phoenix and got the first title in Apollo’s saga in one year is it? And while Trials & Tribulations had the far superior storyline, the fact it had two games of build up helped, Justice proved the DS had some nice gameplay tweaks up its sleeve as well as fancy CSI style visual effects put them at level pegging. Well done Wright and good show Herr Forehead.

Soviets went back in time and killed Einstein? Oh no! Now the Japanese have rallied a force calling themselves the empire of the rising sun? Is that a mech with several samurai’s in tow!? Red ‘Officially better than its parent series’ Alert returned after a hiatus of eight years and proved it was as good as ever sporting colourful visuals, a heavy dollop of silliness, and deep engaging gameplay that meant that it was as fun as ever to build a line of electricity pylons to shock dolphins, and the addition of a third race didn’t break the balance either. The single player felt unfortunately gimped due to a co-op focus but in Skirmish and multiplayer, RA 3 is something special.

Making sure you get more time out of any music that you buy, Audio Surf’s musical rollercoaster’s provided as much game as you wanted, either an exquisite visualiser or complex match three puzzle game it was rounded off by including scoreboards for every and any piece of music you play on it. A game you have to play rather than talk about, but when you do play it… Genius.

The Behemoth delivers a second taste of retro throwback with Golden Axe for the modern audience. Gone are the blando visuals and charmless locations and in are beautiful hand drawn locations and animations, out are repetitive butt faced enemies and in are creative, comical, and down right bizarre creations that punctuate this multiplayer focused labour of love. Add in several loot bags full of hidden junk, RPG lite features, and a harder quest and you’ve got a download game as robust as and ten times more creative than most full priced creations.

You don’t expect a company like EA to come out of no where with a survival horror game that not only plays well, but manages to brown your underwear slightly and keep the surprises coming right up to the conclusion. Borrowing heavily from sci-fi horror movies such as Event Horizon and Alien, the Ishimura is not only an unsettling place to wonder around, thanks to fantastic audio and visual work, it’s a believable creation of decks, ventilation shafts, mechanisms, and toilets. Curiously the enemies of Dead Space never attack you in the toilets…

Peter Molyneux promised the world with Fable 2 and delivered us Albion, a fantastic place to spend an afternoon. The game may have been full of glitches, occasionally of the game ruining variety but when it works, Fable 2 works. A storyline that gives the player genuine dilemmas rather than small inconsequential choices, lush visuals, and a rousing score create a game that will leave a lasting effect even if you only take one trip into Albion, and that’s all it needs really. To play Fable 2 more than once may break down its choices and world too much because to play it once, and live with your choices it is a heart-warming and telling piece of entertainment that is only let down by the, as mentioned before, game ruining glitches… Here’s to DLC and the next trip to Albion!

Hadouken! Shuryuken! Spinning bird kick! Everyone knows Street Fighter and for those like me who have had it in their lives since way back when, this remake was another fantastic love letter from Capcom. Beautiful graphics were added but never compromised the tournament standard combat, new music was created for the game by genuine fans of video game music, the online was tested to the limit before launch meaning it’s the smoothest fighter online ever and while it lacked some nice modes such as survival, HD Remix stands as the definitive version of Street Fighter 2, and that’s all you need to know.

Geometry Wars was fun but extremely hardcore, after several months of blasting squares and circles I tired of the looooooong build up at the start of a game and it became un-played, gathering digital dust on my digital XBLA digital shelf. Enter Retro Evolved 2, a sleeker and better version of the classic title. Gone is the punishing combo per kill counter and in are the genomes, tantalising small dots that drop from enemies, on top of the main mode are five variations to match your mood and keep you with something to play if you tire of another, and the cherry on top of this glorious wireframe fireworks display is the way friends leaderboards take the fore front, displayed on mode selection with your next highest buddy’s score taunting you in the top right as you play. Addictive, simple, and value for money, but most of all it’s fun.

And tomorrow? I might try and reel off my top ten.

My Games of 2008, 30-21

Released on XBLA early in 2008 then on DS and PSP at the arse end of it (in America at least) this acrobatic action game cum puzzler was a real ball buster to anyone that tried to play it, and if you weren’t feeling the pain enough on your own the brilliant co-operative game would have you and a ‘friend’ bitterly swearing at, and choking each other for weeks. It’s a shame then that the game didn’t let users share their level creations as the editor was robust and exceptionally easy to use, so the only way to share was by getting some one to come to your house to give them a try, and that would be an annoyance because then they would be within range to hit you after attempting your hellish designs for half an hour.

I also defy anyone to finish all the levels without getting the secret achievement…

Ryu Hyabusa is hard as nails, Ninja Gaiden 2 is hard as nails, nails so hard that bosses will blow up without warning and kill you, forcing you to do the entire fight again, that’s hard, or maybe just slightly unfair… If Ninja Gaiden was even a little nicer it may have been higher up the list but its relentless difficulty feels like a large concrete fortress that Itagaki erected just to sit on and hurl insults at the player, sharp shuriken like insults that are un-blockable, stick into you and then explode. But you can’t help but enjoy yourself when a fight goes perfectly as you counter attacks left and right lopping off limbs, jaws, antennae and other unnecessary parts of human, demon, and wolf beast anatomy in a bloody ballet that is unparalleled in its style. And then an attack hits you from off screen, d’oh!

It’s Mario Kart, its fun, it has multiplayer, and it still has blue shells. Forget the fact that bikes break the game online because when you get together with some mates this is fantastic stuff, the new items are a little hit and miss but the courses are good, it feels like Mario Kart, and the Wii wheel is genuinely good fun. A game of good points and bad points, it doesn’t reach the dizzying heights of Mario Kart DS greatness but it’s still good for a chuckle.

Nintendo’s answer to Chess, Days of Ruin manages to knock down the unnecessary building blocks that recent games have added, give the graphics a mature edge, and refine the gameplay. Days of ruin is the return to pure Advance Wars, all Strategy and no over powering super moves or co-operative commanders with the only downside is that a little too much meat was cut off the bones as several essential modes went AWOL and while it was nice to have online play, the options were limited and it’s hard to find an online opponent willing to sit through an entire match.

He swings! He runs along walls! He gets saved infinite amounts of times by some bint with magical powers! Prince’s franchise re-boot wasn’t to everyone’s taste but for those that like to sightsee in a game it was heaven, lush cel-shading created a beautiful world that had a disastrous lack of floors. Acrobatics were simplified but still butt clenchingly fun, American Prince was not as annoying as he first seemed, and combat was still shite.

When it was released Braid was on everyone’s lips and its combination of puzzling and platforming was inspired and using time in ingenious ways during its small selection of levels gave everyone a headache. But for me, it was like eating a very tasty dinner that I paid a lot for but only being served a taster of a few dishes, Braid was over before it began and then it left you with inanely pretentious dialogue which resulted in some bizarre revelation that Braid was the creator of the atom bomb… *ahem*

It’s Castlevania on DS! It’s like last years but tweaked, like the one before that, and the one before that! But seriously speaking Ecclesia is a high point after Portrait, the gothic art style makes its return and the glyph system, coupled with a fan pleasing difficulty headbutt makes it the best outing for ‘vania since Aria of Sorrow.

UBI did a remarkable job on their follow up to mutant spoilt jungle based FPS Far Cry, delivering a mahoosive African playground for you to take a couple of weapons into and kill some baddies. completely unexpected cinematic moments make for some breathtaking personal experiences and guarantee a good pub story on Friday night, just a shame that the other guys probably haven’t played Far Cry and would rather recount another story from the battlefields of Call of Duty…

A curious little motorbike physics game on Steam that was developed from a flash game over on miniclip, the aim is to balance your bike over tricky obstacles and get the fastest time with the least number of faults. While the mechanics are entertaining enough it is the way the game syncs with your Steam friends list and lets you compete directly with them, using ghost data and boasting instantly over Steam gives an already fun game that essential edge that makes it something special. It also makes me grind my teeth due to the insane difficulty of later levels.

Capcom had a lot of guts putting out what is essentially an NES game in 2008 but for those of us with a passion for 8-bit graphics, ear piercing midi music, controller chucking difficulty then Mega Man was the best present a company can give us. The NES presentation had a modern gen polish to it however with online leaderboards and a full list of achievements that make sure fans have more than just a single mode to keep them tided over. Just don’t mention the DLC, with its price tag and lack of leaderboards…

Tomorrow I’ll deliver numbers 20-11!