Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory

Game:  Tom Clancy's Slinter Cell: Chaos Theory
Year (s):  2005
Company:  dev.  Ubisoft
pub.  Ubisoft
Engine:  Modifired Unreal Engine 2.5
Type:  Third-Person Stealth Shooter
Metacritic Score: 94
My Score:  Not my cup of tea.

Price (as of October 9, 2012)

Regular price on Steam:  $9.99
Lowest Buy-It-Now on eBay (new, with shipping):  $8.50


Obligatory Trailer:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UVRs8xezo1Y


Plot

You are Sam Fisher, black-ops agent.  Infiltrate hostile premises, recover intel, and eliminate bad guys.


Engine

This one uses a modified Unreal Engine 2.5, so it looks more or less like UT 2K4.  Maybe a little bit better.


Combat/Gameplay

This is of the stealth genre.  Nightvision, infrared vision, binoculars, and EMF goggles help greatly to locate hostiles while you crawl around in the dark.  Limited ammunition makes things more difficult.

I have done some sneaky fighting in games, mostly in the RPGs.  Chaos Theory had some design choices that caused me to lose interest almost immediately.  First, you can't run.  You can crawl, or you can walk (the speed difference between the two is negligible).  If you're gun in in your hand, you are immobile.  While that may make some sense as far as aiming, it also makes the player an easy target, and it's not very fun.


Expansions / DLC / Sequels

"In 1996 Clancy co-founded the video game developer Red Storm Entertainment..." (Wikipedia).  Red Storm was later acquired by Ubisoft.  Dozens of games have the Tom Clancy name attached, and that's why I bought this one on a sale.  If I liked it, there was a lot more where that came from.


Final Thoughts

There are people that like stealth games, and I'm not one of them.  For me the game was ten minutes of mission briefing, ten minutes of walking obnoxiously slow, using all my bullets to kill a few guys, then mashing buttons trying to change weapons while being riddled with bullets.  I'm glad I didn't pay much for it.

Final Doom Review

Game:  Final Doom
Year (s):  1996
Company:  dev.  TeamTNT, Casali brothers, id Software
pub.  many
Engine:  id Tech 1
Type:  First-Person Shooter
Metacritic Score: Not Available
My Score:  ker-BLAM!

Price (as of September 18, 2012)

Regular price on Steam:  $9.99
Lowest Buy-It-Now on eBay (used, with shipping):  $10-15

Game Time: 15-20 hours on default, cheating whenever things got stupid

Obligatory Trailer:  http://www.videodetective.com/games/final-doom/144391

See Also

Doom/Doom 2 Review:  http://fpsandmtg.blogspot.com/2010/12/doom-doom-2-reviewed.html


Plot and Engine

Final Doom is comprised of two 32-level episodes, each utilizing monsters, weapons, and textures from Doom 2.  Both have minor plots of, "portals, demons, blah blah blah."  Final Doom was built on the Doom engine (id Tech 1), so there's no surprises in appearance.


Developers and Gameplay

Plutonia Experiment was developed by the Casali brothers, who were chosen to develop half of Final Doom after sending some of their levels to American McGee.  The first half of Plutonia almost exclusivly featured only the hardest enemies, and ranged in difficulty from "challenging" to "possibly impossible."  The latter half of had a more balanced monster selection, and the closest-to-Doom feel of Final Doom.

Evilution was developed by TeamTNT, a group of WAD-making fans that were active on the Doom editing mailing list.  Their contribution was going to be released for free, but the project was acquired by id before that happened.  Evilution favored large numbers of enemies, the majority of which are humans and imps.  Compared to Plutonia, these were easy.  Evilution uses midi files that I hadn't heard before.


Not to be Confused With...

Thy Flesh Consumed was an additional, damn-hard episode added to the edition of Doom entitled, "The Ultimate Doom."

Master Levels for Doom 2 was an expansion pack for Doom 2.  This contained 21 new levels, which were contracted to third-party developers by id.

Maximum Doom, commercially sold, had nearly 3000 levels.  These were mostly a compilation of amateur WADs found on the internet, so quality was not guaranteed.


Final Thoughts

This is very dated.  I would have played it to death when released, but this was my first time playing it.  While I still appreciate it for what it is, I've become spoiled with more recent games, and have little patience for finding, "that damn switch."

Level design was inconsistent, and the programmer's fondness for a select handful of enemies made progression tedious.  All in all, Final Doom is more Doom gameplay with subpar design.  I find nostalgia in the originals and felt that this (which I first played about fifteen years after release) fell flat.

Corinne Yu: Someone You Should Know

Corinne Yu: Someone You Should Know

Currently, Yu works for Microsoft as a principal engine programmer for the Halo team. That's pretty great in a field where Lara Croft is the best-known female. But that's not all!

Here's a short game programming resume:

-Lead Engine Programmer for Prey, published by 3D Realms

-Director of Technology for ION Storm, the developers of Deus Ex

-Director of Technology for Gearbox, developers of Borderlands

As you can see, Yu has been at several companies, working with diverse engines and approaches. But that's not all!

Corinne Yu has contributed to the space shuttle program, and has been involved with US particle accelerators. The Department of Energy honored her with a national award for her nuclear physics research. She has also earned accolades from the Game Developers Conference.

But that's not all! On top of all that, she's cute, married, and raising a daughter.

I don't need to say anything else. An amazing individual: Corinne Yu is a name you should know.

Tribes: Ascend Reviewed

Tribes: Ascend
Year (s):  2012
Company:  dev.  Hi-Rez Studios
pub.  Hi-Rez Studios
Engine:  Unreal Engine 3 (modified)
Type:  First-Person Multiplayer Shooter
Metacritic Score:  87
My Score:  A solid release for the Skiing/Jetpack genre.

Price (as of September 4, 2012)

Regular price on Steam:  Free To Play
Lowest Buy-It-Now on eBay (new, with shipping):  More Than Free

Game Time:  Ad Nauseum

Obligatory Trailer:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oevWde_F-yU


Plot

Like most multiplayer-oriented shooters, there is no apparent plot.  There's nothing to say about the engine.  I will have an entry in the next month concerning engines.


Combat/Gameplay

Two things attracted me to this.  One, it was free.  Two, I'd heard good things about Tribes games ten years ago and wanted to get a taste.  It didn't taste like much.

This follows the Free To Play ("Freemium") model of sale.  The basics are free, but if you want access to every weapon and character class, you'll either have to cough up some coin or play like it's your job.  Personally, I prefer to pay upfront instead of being nickel and dimed.

The gameplay itself is multiplayer focused, with the usual gametypes.  Instead of having to run, players can quickly ski downhill, and maintain momentum by activating the jetpack at the hill's trough.  Momentum accumulates, so masters of the game zip around like crazy.  I didn't have access to everything, but some classes seemed clearly superior, at least to a casual noob.

Combat resembled children playing soccer.  Two dozen players swarm a spot, flying and skiing and blasting away.  The largess of movement hinders aiming.  After spawning, players try to find that nugget of action on the large, otherwise uneventful, maps.  

Learning the basics is aided by a crazy amount of tutorials.  Unfortunately, these buffer from the internet instead of drawing from the downloaded game file.  Not ideal.


Expansions / DLC / Sequels

For this, DLC are content that will be unlocked if purchased.  I don't care to look if there are sequels.


Final Thoughts

I like the skis + jetpack movement, but I felt the game was inept chaps on huge maps, with what seemed like uneven (and sometimes indistinguishable) classes.  Team Fortress 2 is superior for your freemium multiplayer needs.

Darksiders Review

Game:  Darksiders
Year (s):  2010
Company:  dev.  Vigil Games
pub.  THQ
Engine:  Darksiders Engine (no official engine name) using Havok physics
Type:  Third-Person Platformer, Dungeon Crawler
Metacritic Score:  83
My Score:  Hack, slash, hey!  A boomerang!

Price (as of August 29, 2012)

Regular price on Steam:  $19.99
Lowest Buy-It-Now on eBay (new, with shipping):  $12

Game Time: 38 hours first time, completionist style

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


Plot and Stuff

This is not a shooter, but it's a decent game and there's no reason not to branch out.  More info under gameplay.

War, the Horseman of the Apocalypse, hears the call of the final seal breaking.  He begins the end of the world.  Unfortunately, the last seal is still intact.  The war between angels and demons renders humanity extinct, and everyone is after War, the fall guy.  War sets out not to prove his innocence, but to take vengeance on any that played a part in his frame-up.


Engine

Engine looks fine.  Nothing new.  I had a problem with recognition of achievements, but I'm not sure if that was a fault of the engine or a problem with Steam.


Combat/Gameplay

Darksiders is, essentially, a Zelda type of game.  In each area, you find an item necessary to progress and continue to the next dungeon.  There are some simple puzzles.

Combat is inspired by God of War.  Three different weapons are present, with a variety of moves for each that can be strung together in combos.  "Wrath" abilities add further means of attack, as do several of the items found in dungeons.

Parts of the game are a huge pain.  You might need to put it aside for a few days at some points.  


Expansions / DLC / Sequels

Darksiders 2 came out in August of this year.  The player takes on the role of the horseman Death.


Final Thoughts

If you ever played Zelda anything and though, "I wish this was absurdly violent," then this one is for you.

Tomb Raider: Anniversary

Game:  Tomb Raider Anniversary

Year (s):  2007

Company:  dev.  Crystal Dynamics, Buzz Monkey                                       Software, Nixxes Software

                  pub.  Eidos Interactive

Engine: Crystal Engine

Type:  Third-Person Gymnastics with occasional                        gunplay

Metacritic Score:  83

My Score:  Hey, a remake of an average game!.

Price (as of July 31, 2012)

Regular price on Steam:  $9.99
Lowest Buy-It-Now on eBay (new, with shipping):  ~$8

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

What is It?

Tomb Raider: Anniversary is a re-skinned version of the original Tomb Raider, released ten years afterwards. 

Graphics are superior to the original, but not competitive at release.  They look like something that came out around 2004, not 2007. 

Gameplay is virtually identical to what I remembered, which isn't a good thing.  All the jumping, vaulting, and other acrobatics require clumsy key combinations.  I couldn't get the hang of basic things like dodging. 

Expansions / DLC / Sequels

There are a number of games in the franchise, along with a few movies.  I can't recommend any of the other games because I haven't played them. 

Final Thoughts

The first Tomb Raider was known perhaps more for having a nude patch that for its merits as a game.  I got this for the nostalgia value, but the messy controls caused me to quickly lose interest.  Pass on this one.    

Metro 2033 Review

Game:  Metro 2033
Year (s):  2010
Company:  dev.  4A Games
pub.  THQ
Engine:  4A Engine
Type:  First-Person Shooter
Metacritic Score:  81
My Score:  A poorly developed, crappy game.

Price (as of July 20, 2012)

Regular price on Steam:  $19.99
Lowest Buy-It-Now on eBay (new, with shipping):  $11.50

Game Time: Not Applicable

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

See Also

S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Review:  http://fpsandmtg.blogspot.com/2011/05/stalker-shadows-of-chernobyl-review.html


Plot

The player takes on the role of Artyom, who was born in Moscow right before nuclear holocaust.  Twenty years later, he remembers nothing of the surface, as the survivors have found refuge in the Moscow Metro tunnels.  Mutant attacks are on the rise, and Artyom must journey to Polis Station for help, braving monsters, bandits, dark tunnels, and the toxic surface along the way.

The plot of Metro 2033 is based on a 2005 novel of the same title by Dmitry Glukhovsky.


Who is 4A?

4A, based in Ukraine, was founded by two former members of GSC Game World a year before the release of S.T.A.L.K.E.R.  These two were the main creators of GSC's X-Ray Engine, so the 4A Engine they created for Metro is nearly identical (there has been some contention as to them being seperate engines).  Graphically, it's on the low end of what shooters looked like in 2010.


Combat/Gameplay

Ammo is scarce, and stealth is nearly a must.  Other than that, aim and fire.  The tunnels are more difficult because of darkness, and the surface (also dark) is more difficult because the player must wear a gas mask and have adequate filters while avoiding any radioactive water.  You can carry a handful of weapons and medkits.  Health will regenerate, but very slowly.  Checkpoint saving only.

The game is just as bad as S.T.A.L.K.E.R., for a lot of the same reasons.  While you might have your light off in a tunnel so dark you can't see your enemies, they'll headshot you from fifty feet away.  This, along with an amazing assortment of ineffective arms, make for a gaming experience that is much too difficult to enjoy.  If there was a quick save option, it might be bearable (that's the only way I got through S.T.A.L.K.E.R.), but there isn't one.

The game sought immersion with a lack of HUD, but failed to connect the player emotionally to the characters or their situations.  After dying twenty times in a row at the same spot, I decided I had better things to do than bang my head against this game.


Expansions / DLC / Sequels

Metro: Last Light is scheduled for release in 2013.  This is a direct sequel to Metro 2033.  While author Glukhovsky had some input, the game has no relation to Metro 2034, the second novel.


Final Thoughts

It's a stinker; don't bother.  If you want a fun game set in Russia, Singularity is still the best bet.  If you want a fun post-apocalyptic game, Fallout 3 or RAGE are superior.