Feb 05
Posted by Ben at 19:26
I was never the biggest fan of the original Prince of Persia, and it’s slightly unsettling to think it came out when I was in primary school (although this version came out in 1999 to coincide with Sands of Time), let me just say then that my appreciation for this most retro of games has increased dramatically.
One of the most striking things is that this is a game based around the 1989 original, running on a humble Game Boy Colour, is how well it runs. The graphics are fairly simple, but still plenty clear enough, and sharp enough on the 3DS screen to look good. The animation is the star though, it’s amazing how nice it still looks, it’s a shame there aren’t more games like Prince of Persia.
The gameplay though is much more divisive, but we’ll come to that later. If you’ve yet to reach your 20’s then there’s ever chance you’ve never played the original Prince of Persia, so for your benefit then the original PoP games were ruthless puzzle platformers. The prince moved at a sedate pace, but there was always the chance that his next step would activate some spikes, or maybe open the door to the exit. Sometimes you’ll need to hop past a saw, sometimes take a running jump, sometimes grab a ledge with your fingertips. There’s a huge satisfaction from working out the correct route through a level, solving the problem of how to traverse the platforms.
This sense of reward and progress is exemplified by the addition of a 1 hour time limit. The prince has to escape the dungeons before the Sands of Time run out, you can use as many lives as you like, but each failed attempt is time wasted. It’s a nice challenge for those familiar with the game, and it’s a very good way of seeing your progress. You may only get to the third level in your first hour, but getting there again on the second attempt might only take you 10 minutes. There’s a password system so you don’t have to start again each time, however my experience of it was that it started me with only 20 minutes left, despite it taking me no where near that long to get there. All that being said there are obvious flaws with the time limit, and I think I’d rather the game without it, it’s hard enough on its own.
And that’s where the problems come in. While the animation is great, what it does is create input lag, you sprint towards the end of a ledge ready to leap the chasm, but end up just running off the end into the pit of spikes because the game decided you missed the beat. It’s a problem magnified by you restarting the level every time you die, that’s fair enough and not what I’m complaining about, but it means you have to redo sections you’ve already bested. This means that when you all of a sudden fail to make a jump you know to be incredibly basic.
It’s incredibly frustrating, so much so I rarely wanted to play my full hour, by the 40 minute mark I was often ready to turn off. It’s worse when you feel like your inputs have just been ignored rather than the lag costing you. And this is where the time limit becomes such a problem, you’d happily keep playing until you nailed it, but knowing you don’t have a hope of getting to the end of the game doubles your annoyance.
It’s a shame too because Prince of Persia almost won me around and I’ve had twenty-odd years of not liking the game. I can see that fans will love it, because bar the lag input I kind of want to too. If you feel the need for some retro Prince of Persia on your 3DS then don’t hesitate and pick it up, everyone else I’d suggest be a bit more cautious.
One of the most striking things is that this is a game based around the 1989 original, running on a humble Game Boy Colour, is how well it runs. The graphics are fairly simple, but still plenty clear enough, and sharp enough on the 3DS screen to look good. The animation is the star though, it’s amazing how nice it still looks, it’s a shame there aren’t more games like Prince of Persia.
The gameplay though is much more divisive, but we’ll come to that later. If you’ve yet to reach your 20’s then there’s ever chance you’ve never played the original Prince of Persia, so for your benefit then the original PoP games were ruthless puzzle platformers. The prince moved at a sedate pace, but there was always the chance that his next step would activate some spikes, or maybe open the door to the exit. Sometimes you’ll need to hop past a saw, sometimes take a running jump, sometimes grab a ledge with your fingertips. There’s a huge satisfaction from working out the correct route through a level, solving the problem of how to traverse the platforms.
This sense of reward and progress is exemplified by the addition of a 1 hour time limit. The prince has to escape the dungeons before the Sands of Time run out, you can use as many lives as you like, but each failed attempt is time wasted. It’s a nice challenge for those familiar with the game, and it’s a very good way of seeing your progress. You may only get to the third level in your first hour, but getting there again on the second attempt might only take you 10 minutes. There’s a password system so you don’t have to start again each time, however my experience of it was that it started me with only 20 minutes left, despite it taking me no where near that long to get there. All that being said there are obvious flaws with the time limit, and I think I’d rather the game without it, it’s hard enough on its own.
And that’s where the problems come in. While the animation is great, what it does is create input lag, you sprint towards the end of a ledge ready to leap the chasm, but end up just running off the end into the pit of spikes because the game decided you missed the beat. It’s a problem magnified by you restarting the level every time you die, that’s fair enough and not what I’m complaining about, but it means you have to redo sections you’ve already bested. This means that when you all of a sudden fail to make a jump you know to be incredibly basic.
It’s incredibly frustrating, so much so I rarely wanted to play my full hour, by the 40 minute mark I was often ready to turn off. It’s worse when you feel like your inputs have just been ignored rather than the lag costing you. And this is where the time limit becomes such a problem, you’d happily keep playing until you nailed it, but knowing you don’t have a hope of getting to the end of the game doubles your annoyance.
It’s a shame too because Prince of Persia almost won me around and I’ve had twenty-odd years of not liking the game. I can see that fans will love it, because bar the lag input I kind of want to too. If you feel the need for some retro Prince of Persia on your 3DS then don’t hesitate and pick it up, everyone else I’d suggest be a bit more cautious.
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Unfortunately I didn't get to do one of these yesterday, annoying because I had a lot to write about, and that's now going to get washed over a bit by me talking about what I've completed, chiefly Resident Evil Revelations
Revelations has some problems, problems enough that I already know how the review is going to read. I might have already complained about the map system, that unless you're near to where you need to be it can be a pain in the arse to work out the correct route. The plot is incomprehensible, it led me to believe certain scenes were flashbacks when in fact they weren't, or may have been, but not as far back as I thought. Mind you I should know better than to play a Resident Evil game for it's plot.
The real issue I've had with Revelations though is the pacing. It bounces around far too much for it's own good, meaning you're 4 hours in before you feel it's got going properly, and then it pisses away it's climax before the final boss. Don't take that as damning though, it's a glaring flaw but the game is still brilliant, tense at points, it looks great, and plays better than most of the RE games I've played.
One game I was going to post about yesterday was Osmos on android. There's a humble indie bundle out where the games will run on the usual windows, mac, linux platforms, but also a decent android phone or tablet. I've included the word decent there because my Desire seems to be right on the cusp of being able to play the game. It's very framey at times.
I'm enjoying it much more than I thought I would, and it works surprisingly well on a phone. It's Katamari-esque in that it requires you to absorb things to make yourself bigger, however movement means expelling some of your mass, so chasing down the means to make yourself larger can cost you massively.
Finally I also bought, played and completed Prehistoric Isle, an old SNK game that is on PS3 Mini. I mistook Prehistoric Isle for some other SNK Shmup involving dinosaurs that's actually pretty decent, because there's no way it's Prehistoric Isle. It's a hard game to begin with, fair enough, but later on it becomes impossible to progress (and I mean that) without spending credits, and even when it's not costing me actual 10ps that's still a bad sign.
Revelations has some problems, problems enough that I already know how the review is going to read. I might have already complained about the map system, that unless you're near to where you need to be it can be a pain in the arse to work out the correct route. The plot is incomprehensible, it led me to believe certain scenes were flashbacks when in fact they weren't, or may have been, but not as far back as I thought. Mind you I should know better than to play a Resident Evil game for it's plot.
The real issue I've had with Revelations though is the pacing. It bounces around far too much for it's own good, meaning you're 4 hours in before you feel it's got going properly, and then it pisses away it's climax before the final boss. Don't take that as damning though, it's a glaring flaw but the game is still brilliant, tense at points, it looks great, and plays better than most of the RE games I've played.
One game I was going to post about yesterday was Osmos on android. There's a humble indie bundle out where the games will run on the usual windows, mac, linux platforms, but also a decent android phone or tablet. I've included the word decent there because my Desire seems to be right on the cusp of being able to play the game. It's very framey at times.
I'm enjoying it much more than I thought I would, and it works surprisingly well on a phone. It's Katamari-esque in that it requires you to absorb things to make yourself bigger, however movement means expelling some of your mass, so chasing down the means to make yourself larger can cost you massively.
Finally I also bought, played and completed Prehistoric Isle, an old SNK game that is on PS3 Mini. I mistook Prehistoric Isle for some other SNK Shmup involving dinosaurs that's actually pretty decent, because there's no way it's Prehistoric Isle. It's a hard game to begin with, fair enough, but later on it becomes impossible to progress (and I mean that) without spending credits, and even when it's not costing me actual 10ps that's still a bad sign.
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Feb 02
Posted by Duane at 06:42
Word games have been a staple element of passing time for seemingly forever, but they've never really made it in the world of videogames. However, with the popularity of Words with Friends, Denki have decided to make a competetive word based game that will feel incredibly familiar to students up and down the country.
Quarrel is equal parts Scrabble, Countdown and Risk. That may sound like an attempt to pigeonhole the title into the realms of the type of people that normally sit and do the Sunday Times crossword or alternatively lie on their sofa and try and come up with rude words using the same combinations of letters that the contestants on Countdown have to use, but it goes far beyond that, mostly thanks to its Risk style elements.
As I've already alluded to, the game sets you against upto 3 other competitors, either AI controlled or over XBox Live. You each have a tile of controlled territory, with the aim of the game to control the map. This is achieved by challenging your opponent to spell a word that earns more points than you. The game gives you a set of tiles, from which you have to create a word using a number of letters defined by how many followers your occupied tile has on it. The more followers you have, the bigger the word you can use and the potential for a higher score is available. Of course having a longer word doesn't always mean it scores higher when letters carry similar points to the ones in Scrabble.
Its incredibly engaging, and thanks to the games graphical style, which is admittedly rather cute and Mii like, it becomes really enjoyable to play. The colour pallete is incredibly cheerful and friendly, and whilst losing is always frustrating in any game, the sheer joy the game exudes makes it a little easier to bare. Not only that, but scrolling along the bottom is the dictionary definition of the words submitted by those competing and the full anagram that would have been available to use if you were able to use all the letter tiles.
Honestly, its really difficult to find anything wrong with Quarrel, and its a shame that, despite its low price, that it doesn't appear to have been picked up by very many people as its the perfect XBox Live game to sit back and relax with but still play in a multiplayer environment. I for one certainly reccomend it.
Quarrel is equal parts Scrabble, Countdown and Risk. That may sound like an attempt to pigeonhole the title into the realms of the type of people that normally sit and do the Sunday Times crossword or alternatively lie on their sofa and try and come up with rude words using the same combinations of letters that the contestants on Countdown have to use, but it goes far beyond that, mostly thanks to its Risk style elements.
As I've already alluded to, the game sets you against upto 3 other competitors, either AI controlled or over XBox Live. You each have a tile of controlled territory, with the aim of the game to control the map. This is achieved by challenging your opponent to spell a word that earns more points than you. The game gives you a set of tiles, from which you have to create a word using a number of letters defined by how many followers your occupied tile has on it. The more followers you have, the bigger the word you can use and the potential for a higher score is available. Of course having a longer word doesn't always mean it scores higher when letters carry similar points to the ones in Scrabble.
Its incredibly engaging, and thanks to the games graphical style, which is admittedly rather cute and Mii like, it becomes really enjoyable to play. The colour pallete is incredibly cheerful and friendly, and whilst losing is always frustrating in any game, the sheer joy the game exudes makes it a little easier to bare. Not only that, but scrolling along the bottom is the dictionary definition of the words submitted by those competing and the full anagram that would have been available to use if you were able to use all the letter tiles.
Honestly, its really difficult to find anything wrong with Quarrel, and its a shame that, despite its low price, that it doesn't appear to have been picked up by very many people as its the perfect XBox Live game to sit back and relax with but still play in a multiplayer environment. I for one certainly reccomend it.
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Feb 02
Posted by Duane at 06:14
When a game franchise gets to its fifth instalment (or technically, in this case, its sixth) , it can become difficult to see what can be offered up next. Especially in a genre thats as "limiting" (using an external viewpoint) as the Beam-em Up genre. Street Fighter has managed to remain fresh and current for a long long time, using different mechanics for its indicidually numbered titles whilst evolving the previous template and add "Super" or "Alpha" to the title.
Despite the sheer brilliance of Soul Calibur on the Dreamcast, Namco's weapons based fighter had begun to feel tired by its third (numbered) instalment and Soul Calibur IV did nothing to rectify that. Soul Calibur V, on the surface at least, tries to rectify that with the inclusion of a fresh cast. Series favourites such as Ivy, Voldo and Mitsurugi (although the latter is left out of the games story mode) all make an appearance but the focus is mostly on the new guys, all of whom have a link to previously popular characters but still have their own unique spin on the weapon types that they have inherited. Two of these characters are the focus of the previously mentioned Story Mode, which weighs in at a rather dissapointing 2 hours in length. Patroklos and Pyrrha are the son and daughter of Sophitia and for the most part you play as one or the other for the 20 "episodes" it offers (although there are a couple instances where you control Z.W.E.I. and his werewolf spirit E.I.N.). Personally, I found this to be very limiting and the game doesn't really give you enough encouragment to play as any of the other 22 characters on offer (the full roster is currently 25 characters). The narrative is fairly typical of the series, although it attempts to be much more grandiose than ever before but kind of falls flat and irritating by the time you reach the closing episodes. The lack of Edge Master mode is really rather telling in this respect, and if you're approaching this instalment looking for some single player brawling you only really have the Arcade mode and Legendary Souls mode (wherein you fight a "higher levelled opponent"). The Arcade mode, or Quick Battle, effectively gives you an Online play experience but Offline, and gives you a series of fights against opponents that have AI thats equivalent of the various online rankings the game gives you as you become better at the game.
Legendary Souls depicts you against some incredibly tough opposition, having you fight some of the series' strongest characters at the "height of their powers", so included here is Cervantes in his Soul Edge days and Siegfried wielding Soul Calibur, and the difficulty level is pushed up to the highest that the AI offers. I'm not particularly ashamed to admit I'm not really very good at fighting games, although I did get kind of handy (amongst my group of friends back in the day at least) at Soul Calibur, needless to say, Legendary Souls handed me my ass, not on a plate, but on a silver platter, with each of my fingers provided as bread sticks. Although I had a little more success at landing blows than I have done in similar modes or difficulty levels in other fighters. Even so, talented players should still find some satisfaction in bettering this mode.
One of the key focuses of this instalment, although its been a part of the series since Soul Calibur III, is its Character Creation mode. Here you can either alter the standard roster, changing outfit colours and applying extra trinklets, or you can use the other characters as a base to build up your very own fighter. Really, its only the aesthetics that you can alter, theres no ability that I found that enables you to customise move sets. Hours can easily be spent making your very own roster of characters to use, of all different shapes and sizes, and the more you play the game, the more outfits you unlock (although I imagine Namco have even more planned in the form of DLC, of which there is already one pack available).
However, all the modes in the world (which admittedly Soul Calibur V is sorely lacking) couldn't disguise poor gameplay mechanics. There's been some fine tuning, long-term fans will feel immediately at home, albeit a home thats been renovated whilst they've been on holiday, whilst fans who have missed a few instalments (such as your truly) will be able to pick up the basics straight away. The games also still fairly friendly to new players, although not quite to the same standard as it once was. Although Guard Impacts have been made easier to implement into your fight, but theres an incredible amount of depth in the system ranging from a simple guard then attack to a particularly tricky parry in the form of Just Guard. Special moves, such as each characters Critical Edge moves, can be easy to launch, but still difficult to master. Although I felt there was some serious issues with the balancing of particular characters. Maxi still feels like a spam fest, whilst juggernauts such as Astaroth and Knightmare feel much faster than I ever remember them being, and once a handy player manages to get a combo going, it can be near impossible to get out of being attacked never mind initiating parry's and knocking them off guard.
This is where Soul Calibur V ultimately falls flat, it does everything in its power to try and be accessible, but does it all ever so slightly wrong. The decision to omit Edge Master mode has done away with one of the most perfect tutorial style game modes that I have personally seen in a game of this type, and getting the balance of such powerful characters like Knightmare is essential to making any fighting game feel fair. Fans may say that "I'm just shit" or whatever, and really, I'm happy to admit I'm not very good, but when you feel like you've only managed to win thanks to a bit of luck rather than finding a weakness, or that you've won because you resorted to cheap tactics, the game becomes less enjoyable, which is a real shame, because Soul Calibur V feels like it could have done alot better.
Despite the sheer brilliance of Soul Calibur on the Dreamcast, Namco's weapons based fighter had begun to feel tired by its third (numbered) instalment and Soul Calibur IV did nothing to rectify that. Soul Calibur V, on the surface at least, tries to rectify that with the inclusion of a fresh cast. Series favourites such as Ivy, Voldo and Mitsurugi (although the latter is left out of the games story mode) all make an appearance but the focus is mostly on the new guys, all of whom have a link to previously popular characters but still have their own unique spin on the weapon types that they have inherited. Two of these characters are the focus of the previously mentioned Story Mode, which weighs in at a rather dissapointing 2 hours in length. Patroklos and Pyrrha are the son and daughter of Sophitia and for the most part you play as one or the other for the 20 "episodes" it offers (although there are a couple instances where you control Z.W.E.I. and his werewolf spirit E.I.N.). Personally, I found this to be very limiting and the game doesn't really give you enough encouragment to play as any of the other 22 characters on offer (the full roster is currently 25 characters). The narrative is fairly typical of the series, although it attempts to be much more grandiose than ever before but kind of falls flat and irritating by the time you reach the closing episodes. The lack of Edge Master mode is really rather telling in this respect, and if you're approaching this instalment looking for some single player brawling you only really have the Arcade mode and Legendary Souls mode (wherein you fight a "higher levelled opponent"). The Arcade mode, or Quick Battle, effectively gives you an Online play experience but Offline, and gives you a series of fights against opponents that have AI thats equivalent of the various online rankings the game gives you as you become better at the game.
Legendary Souls depicts you against some incredibly tough opposition, having you fight some of the series' strongest characters at the "height of their powers", so included here is Cervantes in his Soul Edge days and Siegfried wielding Soul Calibur, and the difficulty level is pushed up to the highest that the AI offers. I'm not particularly ashamed to admit I'm not really very good at fighting games, although I did get kind of handy (amongst my group of friends back in the day at least) at Soul Calibur, needless to say, Legendary Souls handed me my ass, not on a plate, but on a silver platter, with each of my fingers provided as bread sticks. Although I had a little more success at landing blows than I have done in similar modes or difficulty levels in other fighters. Even so, talented players should still find some satisfaction in bettering this mode.
One of the key focuses of this instalment, although its been a part of the series since Soul Calibur III, is its Character Creation mode. Here you can either alter the standard roster, changing outfit colours and applying extra trinklets, or you can use the other characters as a base to build up your very own fighter. Really, its only the aesthetics that you can alter, theres no ability that I found that enables you to customise move sets. Hours can easily be spent making your very own roster of characters to use, of all different shapes and sizes, and the more you play the game, the more outfits you unlock (although I imagine Namco have even more planned in the form of DLC, of which there is already one pack available).
However, all the modes in the world (which admittedly Soul Calibur V is sorely lacking) couldn't disguise poor gameplay mechanics. There's been some fine tuning, long-term fans will feel immediately at home, albeit a home thats been renovated whilst they've been on holiday, whilst fans who have missed a few instalments (such as your truly) will be able to pick up the basics straight away. The games also still fairly friendly to new players, although not quite to the same standard as it once was. Although Guard Impacts have been made easier to implement into your fight, but theres an incredible amount of depth in the system ranging from a simple guard then attack to a particularly tricky parry in the form of Just Guard. Special moves, such as each characters Critical Edge moves, can be easy to launch, but still difficult to master. Although I felt there was some serious issues with the balancing of particular characters. Maxi still feels like a spam fest, whilst juggernauts such as Astaroth and Knightmare feel much faster than I ever remember them being, and once a handy player manages to get a combo going, it can be near impossible to get out of being attacked never mind initiating parry's and knocking them off guard.
This is where Soul Calibur V ultimately falls flat, it does everything in its power to try and be accessible, but does it all ever so slightly wrong. The decision to omit Edge Master mode has done away with one of the most perfect tutorial style game modes that I have personally seen in a game of this type, and getting the balance of such powerful characters like Knightmare is essential to making any fighting game feel fair. Fans may say that "I'm just shit" or whatever, and really, I'm happy to admit I'm not very good, but when you feel like you've only managed to win thanks to a bit of luck rather than finding a weakness, or that you've won because you resorted to cheap tactics, the game becomes less enjoyable, which is a real shame, because Soul Calibur V feels like it could have done alot better.
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Progress, lovely progress. I've not played a huge amount but I have made some progress in to Resident Evil Revelations
I think last time I posted I'd just beaten a boss, and I've not long since beaten another one. The first one requires you to shoot and move, throw all your ammo at it. The 2nd one is a tenser affair, I wont go in to detail but it should put to rest the suspicions that you can't do creepy on a handheld.
There are a few problems starting to creep in though, firstly the map(s). The bottom screen of your 3DS is your local map, but it's not zoomed out enough, so it's hard to tell when you get to a fork if one option is just a single room to explore or whether it's a long winding correct path. Similarly there's an icon that tells you where you're aiming for, only unless you're right next to it you can't see it. You can see it on the 2nd world map, but it doesn't really indicate a path to it, at best it just tells you you're on the right floor.
I'm still really enjoying it, well the water section I've just done less so, but hopefully I'm about to be done with that
I think last time I posted I'd just beaten a boss, and I've not long since beaten another one. The first one requires you to shoot and move, throw all your ammo at it. The 2nd one is a tenser affair, I wont go in to detail but it should put to rest the suspicions that you can't do creepy on a handheld.
There are a few problems starting to creep in though, firstly the map(s). The bottom screen of your 3DS is your local map, but it's not zoomed out enough, so it's hard to tell when you get to a fork if one option is just a single room to explore or whether it's a long winding correct path. Similarly there's an icon that tells you where you're aiming for, only unless you're right next to it you can't see it. You can see it on the 2nd world map, but it doesn't really indicate a path to it, at best it just tells you you're on the right floor.
I'm still really enjoying it, well the water section I've just done less so, but hopefully I'm about to be done with that
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I've been a bit lax updating the past few days, I've not played much due to my envious party lifestyle, but I have played this weeks big game; Resident Evil Revelations on the 3DS
As an aside, it's odd that Capcom decided that the release day of Revelations was the time to start advertising the due-in-November Resident Evil 6.
Anyway, the game itself is actually very good, it's a bit of a mix of old RE style and the new RE style. You can strafe, even without the circle pad, and provided you make good use of the scanner ammo is less than sparse. The flip side though is that you're very much dealing with monsters rather than villagers, it's rare they attack in groups, and the tone is creepy rather than high tension.
Revelations is paced for the 3DS, you've had chapters in Resident Evil games for a while but here they feel a bit shorter, early on at least, and give you a nice little recap when you boot the game up again. The one thing I will say about this structure is that 3 hours in I'm still unsure if the game has really started properly. I began playing as Jill in the tutorial mission, then as Chris for a while, then I think Jill again with some more new features rolled out (it's a bit jumbled), then I played as Jill's partner in a flashback. In fact half of what I've played has been a flashback of something or other, each time to a different time. Hopefully now with a boss beaten, and a Chris level seemingly on the horizon the game will start to settle down.
In terms of resident Evil tropes Revelations handles the limited inventory slightly differently. Now you aren't just dumping stuff in one big bag, instead you can carry a certain amount of health, a certain number of grenades, and annoyingly a limited amount of ammunition. This might be a design decision, you revisit areas so had you completely picked it clean on your first run through there's a chance you'll have left yourself short on a return visit, but the capacity (which can be upgraded) is pathetically small. On that note weapons can be upgraded at certain points, with the scanner being fairly useful at finding the bonuses you'll need.
I'll admit that once I realised I was going to have to back track and revisit areas my enthusiasm for Revelations took a bit of a knock, but all in all I've really enjoyed it, certainly more than what I played of 5
As an aside, it's odd that Capcom decided that the release day of Revelations was the time to start advertising the due-in-November Resident Evil 6.
Anyway, the game itself is actually very good, it's a bit of a mix of old RE style and the new RE style. You can strafe, even without the circle pad, and provided you make good use of the scanner ammo is less than sparse. The flip side though is that you're very much dealing with monsters rather than villagers, it's rare they attack in groups, and the tone is creepy rather than high tension.
Revelations is paced for the 3DS, you've had chapters in Resident Evil games for a while but here they feel a bit shorter, early on at least, and give you a nice little recap when you boot the game up again. The one thing I will say about this structure is that 3 hours in I'm still unsure if the game has really started properly. I began playing as Jill in the tutorial mission, then as Chris for a while, then I think Jill again with some more new features rolled out (it's a bit jumbled), then I played as Jill's partner in a flashback. In fact half of what I've played has been a flashback of something or other, each time to a different time. Hopefully now with a boss beaten, and a Chris level seemingly on the horizon the game will start to settle down.
In terms of resident Evil tropes Revelations handles the limited inventory slightly differently. Now you aren't just dumping stuff in one big bag, instead you can carry a certain amount of health, a certain number of grenades, and annoyingly a limited amount of ammunition. This might be a design decision, you revisit areas so had you completely picked it clean on your first run through there's a chance you'll have left yourself short on a return visit, but the capacity (which can be upgraded) is pathetically small. On that note weapons can be upgraded at certain points, with the scanner being fairly useful at finding the bonuses you'll need.
I'll admit that once I realised I was going to have to back track and revisit areas my enthusiasm for Revelations took a bit of a knock, but all in all I've really enjoyed it, certainly more than what I played of 5
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Jan
27
27
Posted by Mark at 10:10
Gary Penn, of developer Denki, told Edge that obvious words such as 'arse', 'shit', 'wank' and 'fuck' are flagged as offensive and can't be played if Family Filter settings are on, in what might well be Penn's best quote of his career.
However, an extra, secret list of words have been included as no-goes: "Microsoft has an additional filter in place for all Xbox Live games, which we have to support, but while we have to use that filter, we don't know which words are permitted."
In the interests of research, and not a juvenile wasting of an afternoon seeing what they could/could not get away with in Quarrel, Edge found words that said filter catches include borderline cases such as 'train', 'help', 'start', 'skid', 'bung', 'hung', 'dice', 'god', and- yes- 'shaft'.
Edge haven't found an explanation as to why those words have been blocked to be forthcoming from Microsoft as yet. I'm sure they'll keep you posted, in between fits of giggling.
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Jan 25
Posted by Ben at 17:50
Dragon Ball Z Ultimate Tenkaichi is an odd game. As you’d expect from a Dragon Ball Z game it’s a fighter… of sorts. You throw punches and fling fireballs, but it feels more like you’re stringing together QTEs than really being in control. You launch attacks much as you’d expect, but once you’ve landed a couple of blows you’re presented with a choice of attacks, essentially this is a toss of a coin and if your opponent guesses right you’re open to a counter. If they guess wrong however you get to launch them through the air, smashing them through mountains before leaving them as a crater in the ground.
Special moves are a tap of the analogue stick away, chaining moves is just a button press, and countering is often just a matter of mashing buttons and hoping for the best. On that point, there is a moment when countering where you’re required to press the Y button at precisely the right time, this to me feels laggy and oddly demanding of precision after you’ve spent 10 seconds mashing the pad with your palm.
The thing that makes Ultimate Tenkaichi peculiar though is that it works. It’s not a fighting game and it’s categorically not for anyone but fans of the series, but by replacing control with graphics and sonics it does an incredible job of capturing the essence of the series. Even when it pulls you away from the combat and into chase scenes, Ultimate Tenkaichi does really well at pairing them with scenes from the show.
Unfortunately it’s when it moves you away from the normal one on one fighting that the game lets itself down a bit. The world map is largely pointless, it does let you get in to a few extra fights (such as a tournament), but you get enough of that just making your way through the main story (which is a fair few hours). You’ll fly to your destination then as you arrive the game will stop for one of its achingly long load times, before you’re back to move an inch, then watch another loading screen. Incidentally the loading screens, which as mentioned occur far too often and for too long, have you collecting capsules for absolutely no reason, they don’t do anything.
The low point of Ultimate Tenkaichi is without doubt the boss fights, giant characters with only a vulnerable limb as your target. You’re asked to rely on the games dodging mechanic and that just isn’t good enough. Things are made worse by the boss fights being prefaced by un-skippable cut-scenes. They’re an odd difficulty spike too, out of sync with the rest of the game that seems pitched at a younger gamer.
Which brings me to my closing point, the smartest thing about how Ultimate Tenkaichi handles its licence is that because it is such a ride at times fans get what they came for, Dargon Ball Z. While I’m still pining for that well done Dragon Ball Z fighting game, the 15 year old me (*cough* 18 year old me *cough*) loves the ridiculousness of it all, an almost perfect capture of the essence of the series.
It’s games like Dragon Ball Z Ultimate Tenkaichi that were the reason we stopped giving scores for a while. It’s not technically a good game, and it absolutely hangs on its licence, but if you are a fan you’ll have a great time with it. To put it simply, if you aren’t a Dragon Ball Z fan don’t buy Ultimate Tenkaichi, ever, but if you are then stick another point or two on what’s below
Special moves are a tap of the analogue stick away, chaining moves is just a button press, and countering is often just a matter of mashing buttons and hoping for the best. On that point, there is a moment when countering where you’re required to press the Y button at precisely the right time, this to me feels laggy and oddly demanding of precision after you’ve spent 10 seconds mashing the pad with your palm.
The thing that makes Ultimate Tenkaichi peculiar though is that it works. It’s not a fighting game and it’s categorically not for anyone but fans of the series, but by replacing control with graphics and sonics it does an incredible job of capturing the essence of the series. Even when it pulls you away from the combat and into chase scenes, Ultimate Tenkaichi does really well at pairing them with scenes from the show.
Unfortunately it’s when it moves you away from the normal one on one fighting that the game lets itself down a bit. The world map is largely pointless, it does let you get in to a few extra fights (such as a tournament), but you get enough of that just making your way through the main story (which is a fair few hours). You’ll fly to your destination then as you arrive the game will stop for one of its achingly long load times, before you’re back to move an inch, then watch another loading screen. Incidentally the loading screens, which as mentioned occur far too often and for too long, have you collecting capsules for absolutely no reason, they don’t do anything.
The low point of Ultimate Tenkaichi is without doubt the boss fights, giant characters with only a vulnerable limb as your target. You’re asked to rely on the games dodging mechanic and that just isn’t good enough. Things are made worse by the boss fights being prefaced by un-skippable cut-scenes. They’re an odd difficulty spike too, out of sync with the rest of the game that seems pitched at a younger gamer.
Which brings me to my closing point, the smartest thing about how Ultimate Tenkaichi handles its licence is that because it is such a ride at times fans get what they came for, Dargon Ball Z. While I’m still pining for that well done Dragon Ball Z fighting game, the 15 year old me (*cough* 18 year old me *cough*) loves the ridiculousness of it all, an almost perfect capture of the essence of the series.
It’s games like Dragon Ball Z Ultimate Tenkaichi that were the reason we stopped giving scores for a while. It’s not technically a good game, and it absolutely hangs on its licence, but if you are a fan you’ll have a great time with it. To put it simply, if you aren’t a Dragon Ball Z fan don’t buy Ultimate Tenkaichi, ever, but if you are then stick another point or two on what’s below
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What began as a student project that won a Student Showcase prize at Independent Gaming Festival at GDC 2010 is now a full-fledged downloadable game experience like nothing you’ve ever played before. Guide puddles of fluid through a variety of novel, themed environments (the human body, a garden, a foundry, and more). But to do so, you must tilt the environment, balancing each fluid’s unique properties with the environmental factors of gravity, friction, and each course’s obstacles.
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Puddle price is currently 800 Microsoft Points.
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Players fight for dominance over island territories using eight-letter anagrams to build the highest scoring word possible. Quarrel for Xbox LIVE Arcade for Xbox 360 includes the fun challenge of online multiplayer, supporting up to four players to prove who has the most lexical prowess. Players can also compete against nine unique AI in the classic Single Player mode, or take on the Challenge mode to take on extra mini-objectives within each battle.
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Quarrel will cost you 400 Microsoft Points.
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