Halo 2 Review

Halo 2
Developed by Bungie
Published by Microsoft
2004
In-house engine

This is going to be a brief review.  I thought the first Halo was a fantastic shooter that aged pretty well, and once I'd upgraded to Windows 8, I looked forward to playing the record-sales-smashing Halo 2.

I was incredibly disappointed.

Graphically, Halo 2 could have come out any time after 1998.  This might not mean anything to console players, but for the PC, 2004 was a golden year.  Halo 2 is way behind both the Source engine and id Tech 4, and arguably, worse even than the Unreal 2k4 engine.

Plot was poor.  Initially, the Covenant attacks Earth!  And that's pretty exciting, but a few hours later the game is more or less the first one again.  After ANOTHER hyperspace mystery jump, humanity and the Covenant fight across ANOTHER Halo, the Flood is released AGAIN, and there's a faction that wants to fire the Halo array AGAIN.

Halo introduced some great characters, but there is almost no dialogue in Halo 2.

A few new weapons and enemies are introduced, but on the downside, mouse sensitivity went all to hell and the vehicles are a real chore to maneuver.

I suppose that Halo 2 might have some merit as extending the story of an on-going franchise.  I would appreciate that more if all games after Halo 2 were not Xbox exclusive.  Even if Halo 2 is an adequate stepping-stone for a series, it is by itself a completely inferior, half-ass repeat of the first game, and compared to the other fare in that year, nothing I would highly recommend.

I have no idea how this set records.

Resident Evil 5 Review

Game: Resident Evil 5
Year (s): 2009
Company: dev. Capcom
pub. Capcom
Engine: MT Framework
Type: Co-Op Shooter
Viewpoint: Third-Person
Metacritic Score: 86
My Score: Basically unplayable.


Price (as of April 5, 2014)


Regular list price on Steam: $19.99
Lowest Buy-It-Now on eBay (new, with shipping): $9.90




Plot
Zombie Virus mayhem is now a biological weapon, and is used by everyone. You're part of a task force that deals with outbreaks in crappy parts of the world.


Engine
MT Frameworks is the in-house Capcom engine, which they've been using for almost a decade across all platforms. Graphically it's not impressive, but in the brief time I played this game, it didn't crash or bug out.




Save System


Checkpoint Save? Yes!




Combat and Gameplay
...and that's where things fell apart right off the bat. I had been warned that the PC version, single-player, was horrendous. While I hadn't played any Resident Evil games before, I had played a few other survival-horror titles, and thought I'd be safe trying Resident Evil 5 on easy.


Resident Evil 5 is a 2-player co-op game. For me, the second player was a bot. If either player dies, it's game over. Ammo and items can be passed between players.


Problem 1: the bot is dead weight. Once out of ammo, they will not use melee attacks. They will follow you pretty well, but they're not going to be dodging zombies actively.


Problem 2: there's not enough bullets. I'd heard this was an aspect of Resident Evil as a franchise, but I thought it would be more fun. The first time I ran out of bullets was a hold-out segment at the end of a level. I spent five minutes running in a circle with zombies chasing me while waiting for air support. I didn't find it entertaining whatsoever.


Problem 3: the controls. I accidentally found out that melee is a combination of holding down the space bar and clicking the mouse. I've played many cross-platform games, and nearly all of them use the same established keyboard/mouse arrangement I'm used to. It kind of always surprises me when I play a game with bad control setup.


I have heard similar complaints about other Capcom titles. It's the reason I haven't tried Lost Planet.




Expansions / DLC / Sequels
The DLC content just came out on Steam in the last week or so. It's another fifteen bucks, and I don't know why anyone would buy it.




Final Thoughts


This game is meant to be played on a console, with a controller, and with a friend. Resident Evil 5 might have some merit if played like that.



I played it by myself on a PC using keyboard and mouse, and gave up on it after less than an hour. Pass on this one.

A Kobold Deck

Kobolds are those lovable 0/1 red guys for zero mana, from that great set of 1994, Legends.  And aside from Legends, they've barely been seen since.  In any case, I've had some kobolds lying around since pretty much forever, and thought I'd finally give this somewhat limited tribe a go of it.  After doing a handful of card searches, here's what I came up with:

Kobolds

60-Card Format

Red

Crimson Kobolds

Crookshank Kobolds

Kobalds of Kher Keep

Kobold Drill Sergeant

Kobold Taskmaster

Taurean Mauler

Browbeat

Obelisk of Urd

Shared Animosity

Mob Rule

Mountains

Kher Keep

I was going to put Bloodmark Mentor in instead of Kobold Overlord (both give first strike) but opted for Shared Animosity to make them bigger (which will help quite a bit once they have trample).  I only found Shared Animosity because I saw a guy that used Marton Stromgald with kobolds and then looked for similar things.  I also think shared Animosity might be used in other decks down the line, particularly because it only has one red mana in the casting cost.

I really liked Austere Command (blow up creatures with casting cost 4 or greater) but nixed it for Mob Rule.  Keeps the deck one color and $30-40 cheaper.  It doesn't kill my oppenents' biggies, but grabbing them for a turn is nearly as good.

I never got around to finding a use for Mana Echoes.  Fireball is ok, but Mana Echoes is an eight dollar card, and I've seen decks abuse the hell out of it with things like Mry Matrix or Sliver Queen.  Maybe someday, Mana Echoes, but not this deck.

I was pretty happy to find a use for Obelisk of Urd.  It's perfect with kobolds.  I'd been rather dubious about that card until now.  And I'm glad I finally found a place for Taurean Mauler, who got edged out of Sliver decks and goblin decks I've made.  

the way 90% of kobold decks go is out of my price range.  kobolds and other zero-drop creatures are used with Glimpse of Nature ($30 each) to draw half the library, then Cloudstone Curio comes out, and a card with a storm ability wins the game on the third turn.  I'm not against this type of deck, but again, it would cost substantially more, and besides, it could be done without kobolds at all.  There are lots of zero-cost creatures now.  I want kobolds to be the main event.

I think it'll be a fun little casual deck.  Half the cards are from Legends, while the other half give it some updated muscle.

Graveyard-Based MTG Decks

Magic has always had ways to use a graveyard to your advantage.  These are the decks that my brother and I have made over the years specifically for that purpose.  Some of these decks may have been mentioned in previous posts.

Reanimation
60 Card Format
Black, Blue

Animate Dead
Necromancy
Dance of the Dead
Crystal Chimes

Nevynraals Disk

Rhystic Study
Dark Ritual
Hidden Horrow
Flux
Feldon's Cane

Bringer of the Blue Dawn
Dralnu's Pet
Avatar of Woe

Assorted big creatures

Reanimation is a solid deck concept, but the nuts and bolts are all old cards.  Animate Dead (3rd/4th Edition), Dance of the Dead (Ice Age), and Necromancy (Visions) made the deck work.  Draw and discard spells changed over the years, as well as the choice of big creatures, but the base concept kept one of our longest-running decks going for over a decade.

Threshold
60 Card Format
Green, White

4 Anvil of Bogarden
4 Mesmeric Orb

2 Harrow
2 Eternal Dragon
4 Werebear

4 Mystic Enforcer
3 Qasali Pridemage
4 Gurzigost

4 Bonehoard
4 Unburial Rites
4 Pulsemage Advocate


LANDS


Forests
Plains
4 Riftstone Portal
2 Nantuko Monastery


WIN METHOD: Damage- Creatures, Mill
DECK EFFECTIVENESS: A
INHERENT WEAKNESSES: The deck may become a target by virtue of annoyance before taking off.

DISCUSSION

Originally this deck was built around one idea: what if I cast Traumatize on myself? Threshold, flashback, madness, hellbent, and other seldom-used mechanics become useful. While blue originally contributed the bulk of the deck, spells were replaced with better spells until the deck was cut to straight green and white.  This deck went through many iterations and card search terms, and is one of my favorite deck collaborations.

Nether Shadow
60 Card Format
Black

Nether Shadow
Ashen Ghoul
Nether Traitor
Bloodghast

Buried Alive
Iname, Death Aspect

Braids, Cabal Minion
Magus of the Abyss
Killing Wave
Mutilate
Barter in Blood

Blood Artist
Angel's Tomb
Demonic Tomb
Blood Funnel

LANDS

Swamps
Crypt of Agadeem

WIN METHOD: Damage- Creatures
DECK EFFECTIVENESS: A
INHERENT WEAKNESSES: Non-creature decks


DISCUSSION

This is another tried-and-true format, where you generally win by attrition.  We didn't come up with it, we just wanted to try it out.  A rather comprehensive go-to for this deck type can be found at:  http://www.starcitygames.com/article/19681_The-Kitchen-Table--345---The-Nether-Shadow-Primer.html  .

Other Stuff

As I mentioned, using some combination of synergistic mechanics like madness, delve, hellbent, and threshold has been something I've looked into many times over the years.  While the new delve cards haven't impressed me, I was moved to look into yet another graveyard-centered deck, using a lot of cards I've liked for a while.  Graveyard Deck Number Four!


Red Black Delve Discard Threshold
60-Card Format
Red, Black

4 Avatar of Discord
2 Craggenwick Cremator

4 Demigod of Revenge
4 Vengeful Pharaoh

4 Tombstalker

4 Typhoid Rats

4 Anvil of Bogarden
4 Howling Mine

4 Dark Ritual
4 Rite of Flame
4 Cabal Ritual

LANDS

Mountains
Swamps
Multicolor lands
2 Lotus Vale
2 Gemstone Mine

I haven't played it yet, so it may need to be tweaked to get the right balance of discard and speed.  While Tombstalker is the only delve in the deck, and Cabal Ritual is the only threshold card, Rite of Flame, Vengeful Pharaoh, and Demigod of Revenge are all beneficial in the graveyard.  It looks ok to me, we'll see how it goes.

Morrowind Review

I'll keep this short.  I first played Morrowind years after its release, and didn't particularly care for it.

Reason 1: It has all the game-ending glitches of titles that came after.  I played this for about 8 hours, then hit a bug that reduced my strength to zero.  I couldn't deal damage, or carry anything.  I took some potions to counter this, and then tried to sleep it off.

Reason 2:  Less saves.  While Morrowind does have some auto saving, it is less than in games that followed.  In my case, I was stuck with zero strength because sleep resets the autosave.

Reason 3:  Morrowind does not have map/compass waypoints.  It does provide text clues for where to go, but as I don't read so well, this was really a huge downside.

so, there you have it.  Nostalgic fans love Morrowind; I think it's not worth it.  At this point, with all of the Skyrim DLC, Fallout 3, and so on, I would personally recommend something more current off the Bethesda menu.

Games I Liked 2014

Games I liked 2014

This year, I have fewer games to recommend in my annual installment of games I liked that I first played this year (they could have come out at any time).

Gone Home

Gone Home is a non-combat exploration game. You are a college student that comes home late one stormy night to an empty house. Obviously, you have to tear the house apart and snoop through your family's personal items to figure out where everyone is. Gone Home, while short, is a well crafted exploration game that really leaves the player feeling good at the end.

Shadow Warrior

This remake of the late '90's Shadow Warrior is the second game developed by Flying Wild Hog, and I loved it. It's a perfect meeting of new and old, pairing hordes of enemies and groan-worthy jokes with powerful abilities, an out-of-the-box plot, and some of the best controls for a PC game that I have ever played. Also, great job on an in-house engine. Until I looked it up, I assumed this was running on Unreal tech.

Sanctum 2

I liked Sanctum, even if all of my friends didn't really care for it. I like Sanctum 2 even more, even if some of my friends still don't get it. Sanctum 2 has a better learning curve, different character classes, and more tower types. Ideally played with friends.

Noteable Mentions

Payday: The Heist

Payday is a 4-player coop game where you play the part of masked criminals that must work together to take hostages, break into vaults, and kill police. While I'm not thrilled about killing policemen, the gameplay itself is a nice alternatvie to standards like Left 4 Dead. The biggest downside of Payday is that only the first two levels can be played on easy, after that you better know what you're doing.

GUN

How about a game set in the West for a change? I wrote a review for this one recently, so I'm not going to go into details in this article. Not a groundbreaking game but something a little different.

Far Cry 3

It's a big open-world game with lots of sidequests that'll give you many hours of gametime. Some action segments are pretty great, but I'm leaving this on as an Noteable Mention because the endings really soured the whole thing for me.

Wolfenstein (2009) Review

Game: Wolfenstein
Year (s): 2009
Company: dev. Raven Software, Endrant (multiplayer portion only)
pub. Activision
Engine: modified id Tech 4 with Havok physics
Type: Shooter
Viewpoint: First-Person
Metacritic Score: 74
My Score: 70! Do I hear 65? 65! Do I hear...


Price (as of November 8, 2014)


Regular list price on Steam: Not available
Lowest Buy-It-Now on eBay (new, with shipping): $21


My Game Time: 18 hours


Obligatory Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ujycthb4B8E






Plot
B.J. Blazkowicz returns in a follow-up to Return to Castle Wolfenstein. This time the nazis are using energy from the black sun dimension to create monsters and super weapons. Stop 'em, B.J.!


I got this on a $5 Steam sale, but it's no longer available. Speculation on the Steam forums is that Wolfenstein publishing rights may have been bought back from Activision by Bethesda for Wolfenstein: The New Order.


Save System


Manual Save? Yes
Quick Save? No
Area Load Save? Yes
Checkpoint Save? Yes




Combat and Gameplay
Basic shoot-and-crouch gameplay, because health regenerates if you take cover. It's not a mechanic I love, but it's bolstered with a variety of guns (you're not limited to just two or three at a time) and a few abilities. Abilities include a bullet shield, damage amplification, crappy slow motion, and good slow motion. Energy for ailities runs out fast, and can only be recharged at certain spots. So while you have the illusion of being a badass, you're mostly going to be crouching a lot and taking headshots of enemies with really easy A.I.


The exception for this is boss fights, which are generally a pain in the ass compared to the rest of the game. Also annoying are flying enemies that fire a volley of rockets at a time (= you're dead!).


Completing main and side missions earns gold. You can also find gold and intel hidden all over the place. Gold buys upgrades for weapons and abilities.




Expansions / DLC / Sequels
2014 saw the release of Wolfenstein: The New Order. Set in an alternate history, it is not a direct sequel to the 2009 game. Developers of the most recent installment liked Wolfenstein 3D but thought the 2009 game, “was crap.”




Final Thoughts
Return to Castle Wolfenstein was good at the time, and as a sequel, this one feels rather uninspired. The stealth element of Return is gone. Silenced weapons will alert every enemy in the neighborhood. Collecting intel is fine, but looking behind a garbage can to find a bag of gold is pretty comical in 2009. I liked the variety of weapons and the upgrade system, but felt hampered by crappy abilities, easy A.I., and a frequent need to find cover.


If you want a fun new Wolfenstein game, I've heard good things about The New Order. If you want a shooter with cool abilities, I'd opt for Crysis or F.E.A.R. Or even Raven's 2010 game, Singularity. All good games. Pass on Wolfenstein 2009.

GUN review (video game)

Game: GUN
Year (s): 2005
Company: dev. Neversoft
pub. Activision
Engine: unknown
Type: Shooter with minor RPG elements
Viewpoint: Third-Person
Metacritic Score: 76
My Score: 88


Price (as of November 1, 2014)


Regular list price on Steam: $19.99
Lowest Buy-It-Now on eBay (new, with shipping): $31


My Game Time: 10 hours, 90% completion


Obligatory Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2tJjouDWMZU






Plot


You go on a steamboatt with your father. Indians attack and your father dies. You set out to find out why the boat was attacked, and wind up on seeking to stop an evil man's bloodthirsty path to the lost city of gold.


Engine
I couldn't find out what engine this game uses. It's not on Wikipedia, and the generic title of the game makes it impossible to find anything online. As far as 2005 games go, graphics are pretty similar to Unreal Engine 2. I didn't run into any noticeable bugs.




Save System


Manual Save? Yes, usually
Quick Save? No
Area Load Save? No
Checkpoint Save? Totally




Combat and Gameplay
Ride horses! Shoot horse thieves! Throw dynamite! If you're hurt, drink some whiskey! I'm surprised there aren't more shooters set in the Wild West (the only others I can think of are Red Dead Redemption and Call of Juarez). Aside from the main mission, the player can collect bounties, hunt trophy game, play poker, and do some odd jobs for the locals. Doing these things give you money, which you can you use to upgrade weapons, horses, equipment, et cetera.


With the exception of a few tricky boss fights, combat stays on the easy side. This is largely due to the, “quick draw,” slow-motion mechanic. Slow motion is always fun, but in the game they include auto-aim with it.




Final Thoughts
I don't know where I heard about this game, but I'm glad I did. While it's not a long game, the action is almost nonstop. The West is a welcome change of scenery from the usual zombies, aliens, demons, nazis, and so on. It even won some awards from gaming magazines. I'm not saying this is the best game ever, but if you can pick it up on sale on Steam it's a fun romp that has aged pretty well.

Thief Gold and I Am Alive Reviews

Game: I Am Alive
Year (s): 2012
Company: dev. Darkworks, Ubisoft
pub. Ubisoft
Engine: modified Unreal Engine 2.5 w/ Havok Physics
Type: Survival Climber

The Game
I bought this game with a gift card, largely because it has a great title. It was also post-apocalyptic (earthquakes and sandstorms, in this case) and looked like it might be a shooter of shorts. The playable character has been walking for months to be reunited with his family after taking a business trip across the country.


I didn't get too far into it. Gameplay is mostly climbing on stuff. Combat was basic and always came with prompts to make sure you did it right. Bullets were quite rare, and if you climbed too much at once you'd lose your grip and die. So, it's definetely survival, and somewhat of a crappy shooter.


The plot interested me well enough, but I couldn't find the objective on one of the early levels (climbing up a mall). Maybe they could have made it glow. Maybe I missed a prompt on part of the screen I wasn't looking at. I'll never really know. After spending about 2 hours climbing (and sometimes dying from climbing) around the same area, I gave up. This is not a worthwhile game.




Game: Thief Gold
Year (s): 1999
Company: dev. Looking Glass Studios
pub. Eidos
Engine: Dark Engine
Type: Game: Stealth


The Game
This was one of the many games I bought on the cheap, largely to see why it was so popular at the time. It was one of the first games that utilized stealth. You're a thief, and you're going to steal things. Or you can just kill people. You have the option, at least in the little bit I played.


While the gameplay may have been revolutionary at the time, the controls do not translate well to today's gamers. If you remember Duke Nukem or Hexen, there were buttons all over the keyboard to access inventory, use specific items, et cetera. Controls for Thief Gold are a mangled combination of WADS, mouse, and the aforementioned controls of games of latter years.


There were too many buttons to manage easily, and too many to rebind rationally. This is one of those games that I would have liked when it came out, but now I'd be happier to just play Dishonored.

Contagion Review

Game: Contagion
Year (s): 2013
Company: dev. Monochrome LLC
pub. Monochrome LLC
Engine: Source
Type: Survival Shooter, Multiplayer, Co-op
Viewpoint: First-Person
Metacritic Score: 62
My Score: 62


Price (as of October 4, 2014)


Regular list price on Steam: $19.99
Lowest Buy-It-Now on eBay: $11 (Steam key)




Obligatory Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uoMUhHLzoIk






Plot
Zombies! Contagion is a spiritual sequel to Zombie Panic! Source, a game I have never played.


Engine


It's the good-ol' reliable Source engine. You know what to expect.


Save System: None


Randomization
One of Contagions big selling points is that it plays a little differently each time. Locations of weapons, ammo, and necessary items, are not fixed. The path to get from A to B changes. One time a hallway might be blocked so you have to use the stairs. Another time the stairs might be blocked and you have to crawl through ventilation. Level areas are pretty big, so this leaves even a moderately familiar player wandering around not knowing quite where to go. Enemies respawn on a timed basis, but ammo remains scarce.


Combat and Gameplay
There are a few different game types, and I'm going to discuss them one at a time. In Escape, you complete objectives in an effort to be evacuated. The levels are enormous, and they aren't broken into parts as in Left 4 Dead.


Hunted is a survive-as-long-as-you-can game mode in an enclosed area. It is pretty mindless but might be fun with others.


Extraction is the only game type I really enjoyed. Find survivors and escort them to safety, rinse, repeat.


I had two big problems when it came to asking others to try Contagion. First, there are only a few maps for any game type. The randomization concept, which at first sounds like a good idea, is ultimately frustrating in the execution. In some game modes, if you die you come back as a zombie. If you are a zombie, you suck. Even if you manage to shamble up to somebody, you might land a few lame punches and then just get shot in the head. Mostly you just get shot in the head, and have no indication of which direction to go in (if you're a human, your cell phone won't show you a path but will at least point you in the right direction).


Expansions / DLC / Sequels
Nope!




Final Thoughts



I tried Contagion on a free weekend, and played it for several hours to determine if I wanted to pick it up while it was on sale. The answer: no. The maps are very limited, the zombie gameplay is awful, and the randomization premise didn't do it for me. While this looks like a Left 4 Dead knockoff, you're better off just playing that instead.

God Mode Review

Game: God Mode
Year (s): 2013
Company: dev. Old School Games
pub. Atlus
Engine: Saber 3D engine v.S4 with Havok physics
Type: Co-Op Arena, Old School gameplay
Viewpoint: Third-person
Metacritic Score: 58
My Score: A game for people that liked Quake, but thought it had too much plot.


Price (as of , 2014)


Regular list price on Steam: $9.99
Lowest Buy-It-Now on eBay: Not Available




Obligatory Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WaTYLOuD2W8






Plot and Gameplay


“Welcome to Hades! That's Hell in a toga.” You're a descendant of a god, you're dead, and each time you start you hear how you died. Means of death are generally funny acts of stupidity told in a very sarcastic manner. That's it for plot.


There are five, “mazes.” Each one is a level made up of several seperated sections. Finish one area, go to the next. Pick up health, armor, and ammo by running over it.


Five levels? Well, it's not so simple. Each independent part of a maze will have a random Test of Faith. These span a range of modifications that very from silly (all enemies wear hats), to easy (infinite ammo and no reload), to difficult (enemies are larger and tougher).


Gameplay is run and gun, with magical abilities that must be charged by killing monsters. As you progress you gain experience and gold. Experience levels allow you to buy more weapons, abilities, and upgrades, and skins with your gold.




Engine


Saber 3D Engine is a new one for me. It looks about as good as anything else, and does a solid job of supporting the large numbers of enemies that will be on-screen at once. That being said, it's not perfect. Every so often the game would fail to launch correctly, and I'd have to exit out and try again. While playing, alone or with others, I would sometimes notice significant lag.




Expansions / DLC / Sequels
There is no further content, sequel, or fan-created mazes that I could find. With how prevalent the term God Mode is, and the relatively low popularity of the game, it's difficult to search for information on the internet.




Final Thoughts


God Mode is a pretty great ten dollar game. It's a little silly, and has some mindless repetitive replay value (boosted further by all of the unlockable items you can buy). On any difficulty, the number of monsters is fixed, so playing co-op is a lot more fun and allows the player to do something other than easy mode. All that being said, the biggest downside of this game is that, even with a couple dozen different Tests of Faith, there's only five levels.



So while I like the game in general, and would recommend it if you have a four-player posse for some mindless fun, I wouldn't recommend it for long-term solo action unless you are really, really bored.

Far Cry 3 Review

Game: FarCry 3
Year (s): 2012
Company: dev. Ubisoft
pub. Ubisoft
Engine: Dunia Engine 2
Type: Open world shooter with some RPG elements
Viewpoint: First-Person
Metacritic Score: 88
My Score: 85


Price (as of September 2, 2014)


Regular list price on Steam: $29.99
Lowest Buy-It-Now on eBay (new, with shipping): $11


My Game Time: 45 hours


Obligatory Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YJpBeBllyxA






Plot


A bunch of twenty-somethings party on a remote island, then get kidnapped by the local pirates. You escape and fight with the natives of the island against the pirates to free your friends.


Dunia Engine 2


This engine looks pretty good, and there isn't any lag while wandering around the enormous landscape. I ran into glitches a few times, but these could be remedied by relaunching the game.


Save System


Manual Save? Yes
Quick Save? No
Area Load Save? Yes
Checkpoint Save? Yes




Combat and Gameplay


Far Cry 3 is a shooter in which you rarely are required to use stealth. The sneaking around system in this game is pretty easy to get the hang of. There are lots of weapons you can get, as well as weapon modifications. As you level up, you can choose different perks to enhance your preferred gameplay method (the three trees are tank, stealth, and long range. You are not restricted to one tree).


Hunting is an option that lets the player craft items that will allow them to carry more weapons, ammo, loot, etc.


While there are a few confined areas, most of the game is done in an open world environment, allowing the player to approach encampments from any direction. Jungle cover is plentiful.




Expansions / DLC / Sequels
Far Cry 3 has a 2-player Co-Op campaign. Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon uses the same engine and a lot of the same mechanics for a great little game that has nothing to do with the rest of the franchise. Far Cry 4 is due out late this year.


The Good
This game can be quite long, and it has some pretty fun moments. At times it's like you're the hero of a movie. Characters are memorable.


The Bad
I did a lot of sidequests and hunting, and this diluted the scarce plot. I didn't like the endings (there are two). I didn't like being forced to sneak at times, and some of the side quests were a huge pain. Stab two bears to death? I already killed six leopards with a bow, give me a break. I bitched quite a bit while playing through this one, and didn't get 100% completion.




The Verdict
I LOVED Blood Dragon. This game is not as distilled. The main storyline, while not the best, had some very enjoyable moments. Gameplay was average, but the abundance of sidequests, hunting, and exploration give this game a lot of game time that sets it above average. I don't consider Far Cry 3 a great game, but I would recommend it for people that love open world shooters with a good amount of hours per dollar.

Gone Home Review

Game: Gone Home
Year (s): 2013
Company: dev. The Fullbright Company
pub. The Fullbright Company
Engine: Unity
Type: Exploration, Story-telling
Viewpoint: First-Person
Metacritic Score: 86
My Score: A short, simple, nostalgic, feel-good game.


Price (as of July 16, 2014)


Regular list price on Steam: $19.99
Lowest Buy-It-Now on eBay (excluding Steam activation keys): $35


My Game Time: about 2 hours


Obligatory Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IXCJVEY5Lus






Plot and Gameplay


You play the part of a college-aged girl that catches a late flight home. It's storming, it's the wee hours, and you arrive to an empty house. Where is everyone?


The gameplay consists of turning on the lights and ransacking the place. In the process you read notes and activate narration.


Playing Street Fighter at 7-11, Don't Ask Don't Tell, VHS tapes, and bands from the 90's are brought up, which is cool if you're also my age.






Save System


Manual Save? Yes
Quick Save? No
Area Load Save? No
Checkpoint Save? I don't think so.






Final Thoughts



This is a nice little game. It's loosely similar to Dear Esther, except the ending is certain and the whole thing is more accessible. If you're looking for a neat short story-telling game without any combat, check this one out.  

Dream Halls Deck

Years ago, when Dream Halls was banned and 40 card decks were legal, I had blue and red deck.  After I got Dream Halls out, I'd discard cards with madness to cast Searing Wind and Time Stretch.  It was an ok deck, though it had no defenses.  The most fun was when I cast two or three Time Stretches in a row.

Recently, I remade the blue and red deck up to sixty cards.  I used Enter the Infinite instead of Time Stretch.  If I got Enter the Infinite in my hand, I won, but it wasn't fun.  If I didn't cast Enter the Infinite, the deck did very little.

After taking another look at things that cost eight mana or more, I've decided to go with black and blue.  This allowed for me to use Army of the Damned, which I will probably never use in anything else.  I have some beefy creatures and sexy card drawing, and black of course has the generic tutors.  An unintended result of picking cards I liked was that I will utilize cards that are only great if you cast them from your hand (the Myojin, Hypnox, Dread Cacodemon).

I don't quite have all the cards, but I will soon.  I think this will be a fun deck.  If it's too abusive, I'll take out the Cacodemons for more Hypnoxes, or something.  Lots of room to work with.

Here's the proposed decklist:

Dream Halls
60-Card Format
Black, Blue

4 Dream Halls

4 Rhystic Study
4 Baleful Strix
4 Shadowmage Infiltrator
2 tutors

4 Dread Cacodemon
3 Army of the Damned
2 Rise of the Dark Realms
1 Hypnox
1 Myojin of Night's Reach
1 Myojin of Seeing Winds

2 Jhessian Zombies
4 Blood Pet
4 Basal Thrull

Risen Review

Game: Risen
Year (s): 2009
Company: dev. Piranha-Bytes
pub. Deep Silver
Engine: Unnamed proprietary engine using Emotion FX, SpeedTree foilage, and PhysX
Type: Hack and Slash RPG, open world
Viewpoint: Third-Person
Metacritic Score: 77
My Score: This one's a dud.


Price (as of June 2, 2014)


Regular list price on Steam: $9.99
Lowest Buy-It-Now on eBay (new, with shipping): $14.42




Obligatory Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9IFsIXGi9i4&feature=kp




Plot
Set in a pirate-era magical world, the gods have been cast out... but something else has RISEN! A terrible storm shipwrecks you on an island where ancient temples full of monsters have erupted from the ground. A bandit group and an order of mage warriors vie for control and access to the magic artifacts found in the temples.


Engine


The engine is graphically comparable to what you might have seen in Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion, although with less glitches. Some of the key bindings are stupid (“L” for quests, for example) and there is no quicksave. It's not ideal.


Save System


Manual Save? Yes
Quick Save? No
Area Load Save? Sometimes, as an Auto Save
Checkpoint Save? Sometimes, as an Auto Save




Why I Got Risen
One reason why I was interested in Risen is because it had a sequel. If I enjoyed one, I could play another.


My other reasons for trying the game were a misunderstanding of the creators. I saw the trailer, which mentioned Deep Silver. I thought, “Cool, they did Dead Island.” They PUBLISHED Dead Island. TechLand was the developer.
Also listed was Piranha-Bytes, which I vaguely recalled as on of the many developers ultimately credited in Duke Nukem Forever. Piranha Games, a small Canadian developer, worked on DNF. Piranha-Bytes is an small, unrelated German developer.
While I thought I knew what I was getting into, I was wrong.


Combat and Gameplay
I mastered attacking and blocking. Unfortunately, Risen has a complicated system that also uses counterattacks, lateral attacks, charged attacks, and I think dodging too. Failing to figure out this clumsy mess of combat resulted in resorting to cheats very quickly.


But, a lot of the time, quests don't involve combat. You have to talk to people. A lot of people. It becomes tedious.


Early on, I couldn't find a secret entrance to progress the (possibly) main story. So, I ventured out, quickly finding an end-level dungeon near the beginning of the game. The monsters could kill me in one hit, so I had them chase me back to an encampment right outside. Many friendly units were killed, but I was able to loot the dead monster afterward.


I explored nearly all of the island, looting from enemies and harvesting plants. Lots of plants restored mana, but I had no magic powers. I sold these plants.


Fast forward twelve hours. I finally find the secret entrance I had looked for in the beginning. I'm sent on a quest to find two guys that were killed by that monster I lured away earlier. I was also to find a bunch of plants, which I had already found but sold for money.


That's when I'd had enough.




Expansions / DLC / Sequels


Risen was followed by Risen 2, which had DLC.


Final Thoughts


I might have been able to progress further in Risen, but after 16 hours I was convinced it wasn't a good RPG. If it had come out in 2004, sure. But 2009? That's two years after Fallout 3. The combat and key bindings were awful, the gab fest was excessive, and some of their choices (like putting that end-game dungeon right near the start) made no sense.

I'd recommend avoiding this one. Oblivion or Skyrim, while buggy, are more fun with pretty similar gameplay. Mass Effect, Darksiders, or even Dust: An Elysian Tale would be more worth your time and money.  

Anna Review

Game: Anna: Extended Edition
Year (s): 2012
Company: dev. Dreampainters
pub. Kalypso Media
Engine: Unity Engine
Type: Horror, Puzzle adventure
Viewpoint: First-Person
Metacritic Score: 55
My Score: 65


Price (as of May 9, 2014)


Regular list price on Steam: $9.99
Lowest Buy-It-Now on eBay (new, with shipping): not available


My Game Time: 7 hours with walkthrough


Obligatory Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4jmY7sR_wck






Plot


Anna begins with notebook entries by the protagonist. He found a box of photos that give him a bad feeling. They depict himself at a creepy-ass sawmill. He has no memory of this, and, being off work due to migraines, sets off to investigate the sawmill and find out what he has forgotten.


The story is really the motivation to keep playing, and it ends up not answering much. There are multiple endings. Though I played along with an online walkthrough, I got one of the, “bad,” endings. I've looked up the others, and there seems to be uncertainty, and an unhappy conclusion, no matter what ending you get.






Engine


I hadn't heard of the Unity engine. It turns out it's been used in several dozen games from a variety of genres. I've heard of some of the other games using the engine (most of it indie) but haven't played said games.


Graphically, it's one of those that could have come out five years ago. Or ten, just about. It works and looks realistic but, like most games, isn't on the hardware-intense cutting edge.


I didn't run into any bugs with this. It was somewhat obnoxious to register online and login to play the game, and go through no less than three launchers each time before playing.






Save System


Manual Save? Yes
Quick Save? No
Area Load Save? No
Checkpoint Save? No




Gameplay


Maniac Mansion. Myst. Shadowgate. *insert newer games*. Do you like picking things up to add to your inventory? Do you like using every item you have on every other item, and on every named object in a room? That's the kind of game Anna is.


There are clues, in the form of books, that can help. There's also an in-game hint option. Anna came up when I searched for games like Dear Esther, and (to no surprise) was something quite different.


About the only strong similarity is that you can't die. At least, not during the course of events, as near as I can tell.




Expansions / DLC / Sequels


White Heavens, set in a haunted hotel, is set in the same universe and also developed by Dreampainters.






Final Thoughts


Anna is creepy. That was my favorite aspect of the game.


If you're looking for a pretty cheap, pretty short game, this fits the bill. I'm not crazy about the game type, I didn't love the endings, and it wasn't really what I was looking for. Personally, I'm not wild about this one.

Nonetheless, Anna leads a player on a dark quasi-immersive tale that is a good show for the first game by a developer.  

Blake Stone Review

Game: Blake Stone: Aliens of Gold
Year (s): 1993
Company: dev. JAM Productions
pub. Apogee Software
Engine: Wolfenstein Engine
Type: Shooter, Maze Runner
Viewpoint: First-Person
Metacritic Score: This predates Metacritic.
My Score: An alternative game for fans of Wolfenstein 3D


Price (as of April 20, 2014)


Regular list price on Steam: $9.99 for the Apogee Throwback Bundle
Lowest Buy-It-Now on eBay (new, with shipping): Come on now. You don't have a floppy drive.






Plot
The evil geneticist Pyrus Goldfire, with his numerous installations, has amassed a mutant army and intends to conquer the galaxy. Only you, British special agent Blake Stone, can stop him. Pursue him through each installation, but be careful! On the 9^th floor, there is a boss.


JAM and Apogee
If you haven't heard of JAM, don't feel bad. They made Blake Stone, and the Blake Stone expansion game, and that was it. They are no longer around, though one of their three programmers went on to work with other game companies including TKO, Ion Storm, and id Software.


Apogee published Wolfenstein 3D, and was both a developer and a publisher of games. In the mid-nineties, Apogee decided to create separate brands for the different types of games it created. 3D Realms was used for all 3D games, such as Duke Nukem 3D. Another brand was created for pinball games, of which they made only one. Two-dimensional side-scrollers dropped in popularity during the nineties, so while Apogee was legally still Apogee, fans of their games knew them as 3D Realms.


Apogee/3D Realms was influential in the nineties, but then spent over a decade failing to deliver a sequel for Duke Nukem 3D. The company eventually went bankrupt.




Save System


Manual Save? Yes
Quick Save? No
Area Load Save? No
Checkpoint Save? No




Engine and Gameplay
Blake Stone runs on the Wolfenstein engine, and gameplay is nearly identical. You run around, shoot guys, collects keycards, shove the wall to find secrets, and move to the next level. There's a point system and high scores. Levels can be tediously maze-like.


There are a few small improvements. If you were in a room and didn't notice a key, it'll show up on your map. The initial weapon is silent, leading to a possible stealth approach that, while not a focus of the game, was ahead of its time. Friendly NPCs were also ahead of the game, as many scientists were, “informants,” and would not attack you. Allowing them to live only affected the score.




Expansions / DLC / Sequels
Blake Stone: Planetary Strike had another 20 levels, as well as a few secret levels. This added some re-skinned enemies (some were invisible-ish), a new weapon, and a slightly different aim to end a level. I got about halfway through this, but after the 54 standard levels of the original game, plus two or three secret levels I'd found, I had lost my interest in the maze-run, “where's the stupid key?” gameplay.




Final Thoughts
Blake Stone was meant to compete with Wolfenstein 3D, an immensely popular game at the time. In that regard, it succeeded. It used the same engine in a different setting, changing a few minor things, and offered a ton of levels for gamers growing bored.
Unfortunately, Doom was released one week after the debut of Blake Stone. It had stairs, elevators, light sources... Blake could not compete. I played the shareware of Blake Stone, so I got a tickle of nostalgia from it. I've never heard anyone else mention the game, shareware or otherwise.

Confusion in the Ranks Deck

Confusion in the Ranks: 5 mana red enchantment that reads, "Whenever an artifact, creature, or enchantment enters the battlefield, its controller chooses target permanent another player controls that shares a card type with it. Exchange control of those permanents."  

Six or eight years ago, I learned of this card and got four of them, and slapped together the rest of a 40 card deck from whatever I had.  40 card decks were legal at the time, or, if they weren't, we didn't know.  

I've remade this to be a legal 60-card deck.  This meant that I needed to either have tutors or lots of card drawing (in order to ensure Confusion in the Ranks gets out), and I chose to go with black for tutors (white has enchantment tutors, but offered nothing otherwise interesting). 

This hasn't been played yet, so it might get mixed up.  Measure of Wickedness seems perfect, but I feared it would lead to instant, vicious retaliation.  Cards with huge drawbacks, like Cosmic Horror, are tempting but have a high mana cost that did not justify replacing existing cards.  

So, here's the remake:


4 Confusion in the Ranks
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Vampiric Tutor
2 Diabolic Tutor

4 Glitterfang
3 Viashino Sandscout
1 Norin the Wary
4 Sleeper Agent

4 Dark Ritual
4 Wild Cantor

3 Lurking Jackals
3 Nyxborn Rollicker

3 Steel Golem
3 Bronze Bombshell

1 Kher Keep
Mountains
Swamps
Multicolor Lands 

Return to Castle Wolfenstein Review

Game: Return to Castle Wolfenstein
Year (s): 2001
Company: dev. Gray Matter Studios
pub. id Software
Engine: id Tech 3
Type: Shooter
Viewpoint: First-Person
Metacritic Score: 88
My Score: A solid modernization of graphics and gameplay that would, in turn, become dated.


Price (as of March 30, 2014)


Regular list price on Steam: $9.99
Lowest Buy-It-Now on eBay (new, with shipping): $30




Obligatory Trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9UJGNUb5RnE


Plot


You're B.J. Blazkowicz, the same silent protagonist from the original game. You start by escaping Castle Wolfenstein. After that, you're sent on a bunch of missions to abort Nazi rockets launches, steal prototype technology and weapons, perform covert operations, and so on. Ultimately, you end up heading back to Castle Wolfenstein to stop the resurrection of an unstoppable evil knight from the dark ages.




Save System


Manual Save? Yes
Quick Save? Yes
Area Load Save? Yes
Checkpoint Save? I think so, but am not sure.




Combat and Gameplay
This game has all the key features of the time: ladders, crawling in ducts, pre-rendered death animations (3D, no sprites), water, use of WADS-based controls, some destructible scenery, walk-over healing kits, cutscenes, and somewhat blocky-looking people,
The combat is generally straight-forward with little to mention. However, some levels must be completed without signaling any alarms, so there is a minor stealth element.




Expansions / DLC / Sequels
Four Wolfenstein titles have followed Return. Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory (it sounds like Quake 3 but with Return to Castle Wolfenstein weapons) and Wolfenstein RPG (a short game for mobile devices) both came out under the radar.
Wolfenstein (2009) is a sequel to Return to Castle Wolfenstein and was developed by Raven Software. It has a metascore of 74.
Woflenstein: The New Order is due out in May of this year. This one takes place in the 1960's, in an alternate timeline in which the Nazi won. This will be the first Wolfenstein game that does not incolve id Software, though it will utilize id Tech 5 for the engine.




Final Thoughts
If I'd gotten this in 2001, I'd have played the hell out of it. As it was, I played through a few levels, having fun until I came to a level with acrobatic enemies. The first small room had several bad guys. I only had thirty health, and I was out of ammo except for the sniper rifle. That being said, I turned on godmode and merrily progressed through the rest of the game.
Play it for nostalgia if you can, or just play it for kicks. Return to Castle Wolfenstein is a pretty good game for its era, and still runs fine on modern hardware and software.

Counter-Strike: Global Offensive Review

Game: Counter-Strike: Global Offensive
Year (s): 2012
Company: dev. Valve Software, Hidden Path Entertainment
pub. Valve Software
Engine: Source
Type: Online Multiplayer Shooter
Viewpoint: First-Person
Metacritic Score: 83
My Score: 83


Price (as of March 19, 2014)


Regular list price on Steam: $14.99
Lowest Buy-It-Now on eBay (new, with shipping): $8




Obligatory Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NnZ8uj0kuXI


The trailer might be a joke, but it's fairly accurate (and much shorter) than other trailers.






Combat and Gameplay
Originally a port of Counter-Strike for Xbox Live Arcade, Global Offensive added a couple new deathmatch modes for a broader gaming experience.


Gameplay is Red Vs. Blue format, with a strong emphasis on headshots. In my brief game time, I'd basically get shot in the head any time I went around a corner. In some cases, players were deliberately camping out and waiting for someone to walk into view.


Half of the game modes have objectives, these being to detonate/defuse an explosive, or to keep/rescue the hostages. In my brief experience these objectives were ignored and the game ended after one team slaughtered the other.


Players can buy different weapons and equipment at the beginning of rounds. This system wasn't explained; I think I was assumed to be familiar with it from playing other Counter-Strike games. For non-deathmatch modes, players do not respawn until the next round, leading to very short rounds.


I would like to note that, with 167 available achievements, this one can keep a completionist busy for a long, long time.




Expansions / DLC / Sequels


Global Offensive is the most recent in a series with a handful of titles overall. There are no official DLC, but Project Phoenix (and other stuff) can be purchased in-game.


Final Thoughts
The Counter-Strike franchise has been around for fifteen years and is both well-known and well-liked. I feel like I missed the boat here. If I had been playing games like this with my friends for years and years, I'd love it. Someone, most of my friends and I missed out on the Counter-Strike heyday, and I felt a little lost jumping right in on the newest one. Rampantly getting shot in the head was frustrating, as I tend to favor shotguns, explosives, and other non-sniping combat approaches that are, in this game, quite ineffective.



If you are a capable video game sniper looking for a challenge against real people, this one's for you. Personally, I prefer something like Team Fortress 2, with a variety of viable ways to play.