Transformers Fall of Cybertron (PC) review

Transformers Fall of Cybertron is an excellent game that follows and improves upon its predecessor. Really, other than a few minor detail, I enjoyed it a lot. It's not a revolutionary game, but it's a good one.

Character. New characters are introduced. Shining new design of the robots based on the original comic is what separates itself from the Michael Bay movies, and gain the support of both the fan boy club and the general public. Funny dialog and distinct personality in each character just makes it more engaging for the player.

Plot. Following the story in Transformers War for Cybertron, Fall of Cybertron, as always, does well on delivering a good and complete story with organized plot structure.

Gameplay:
Vehicle Mode. Vehicle fight level is more fun, engaging and faster pace than ever. Really giving you dynamic ways to fight the battle.

Weapon. Each type of robot has different special ability to use (stealth etc.) which is a plus and makes them distinguishable from each other. There are a lot more weapon you can use, both Light and Heavy weapons and you can upgrade them using in-game credit (that I never get enough of them). After awhile, the Megatron cannon is the most powerful Light weapon. It's not hard to find which makes it unbalance for the other Light weapons.

The edge. There are so many times when I just fell off the edge of a platform and died. Mybe I am bad at it? But "balance beam" shouldn't be part of the gameplay. Mechanics in the game Uncharted should be implemented in this game, where a player will grab on the edge when it falls and try to climb back u.

Boss Fight. The boss fight level is static, and highly formulated. I feel like I am simply repeating the same steps every time. It's not fun and not challenging (not cleverly challenging) when you have to repeat the same step 3 exact times. And come-on! Using QuickTime Event to finally defeat Megatron does not make me happy. A cut scene will do just fine, or better than that.

PS. And yes, playing as Bruticus or Grimlock is bad ass.

Prototype 2 (PC) Review

Prototype 2 (PC) Review

Pretty simple, it's as much fun as the first one except better, and without the frustration of the previous title. This is not a series with deep meaning or story. The whole purpose of this game is to make you feel like a bad ass controlling a super powerful "human" who tears everybody apart, literally. 

Most of the people will think that it's the exact same game like the first one. Well, it's, but, better. In fact, I don't want to go back to the previous game at all after playing this one. Now let's get down to it.

The main menu. In most of the games, there is this "Continue" button for you to load up the save and continue where you left off last time in the game. But Prototype 2, the save is already loaded for you when you launch the game. So when you hit "Continue", it takes no time to get back into the action. Of course this is great. But is this just an illusion of a fast loading? Does it mean that it takes longer to launch the game? What if you want to load a different save? 

Maybe I am over thinking. I usually left my seat to grab a drink or something when I launch the game, so I have no problem if it takes a little longer to load a save simultaneously. But nooooo, you have to wait for a short time for it to probably launch the game app, then it reminds you every single time that "This game has auto save feature" and please click "Enter" to continue to load a game save and proceed to the main menu. And there is nothing we can do about it other than just sit there, wait to hit "Enter" and wait for the main menu to load.

Cut scene! Here is my favorite part! In this game, you can pause or skip the cut scene anytime. If you are replaying the level and got tired of the cut scene, skip it! If this is a fire drill and you have to leave your room, just pause it and check back later. And you don't have to worry about skipping the cut scene accidentally because when you click on the screen, it will pause it and bring up a bar menu at the bottom with 2 choices, "Skip" or "Resume". No way you are going to miss that. This feature should be in every game with a cut scene, so that you don't have to sit through the long ass final cut scene every single time before the Mass Effect 2 final mission.

Leveling. The skill leveling system is not as freely as the first one, but still get the job done. Skills are acquired by accomplishing challenges, side and main missions, instead of by gaining points from the number of kills you get. Therefore the player can focus on everything else (the mission etc.) and not just doing mindless killing trying level up or unlock a new attack move.

Combat. The combat is much smoother and easier than the first one. The number of attack moves are reduced and replace by some new moves that are more practically and easier to execute. At any time the player can set 2 skills (Claw, Fist, Blade etc) onto the 2 buttons on the mouse to allow them being used freely. And by clicking, hold or in air, different attack mode of each skill will be executed. You don't have to think about which 4 keys you have to press to launch a fancy move that does the same thing as a basic punch.

(RIGHT: A new move that involves hanging enemies around the city using tendrils, which can make quite a scene after a battle.)

Additional moves are added when you climb on vehicles or grab a person. Giving you more choices on the attack while limiting it to the 3 basic keys that you kit a lot (mouse key and 'E'). Also when you try to consume a person silently, the consume will be cancelled if the person is visible to other enemies and alert you about it. So that you don't have to worry about triggering alarm that's unwanted.

The combat is easy, it's designed to be easy. "Finishing moves" are added to finish up tanks and helicopter when you climb on board and even when they still have full health. You can finish up groups of tank and helicopter easily instead of the frustration in the previous game. The block move is almost immortal in this game, same as the Batman like dodge move. Easy control, additional practical attack moves, and mighty defensive moves definitely make you feel like a bad ass, but some people will definitely ask for more challenge (This is an insane mode of the game).

After all, Prototype is fun. It's nothing big, but it definitely has some good feature that other games can learn from. Did I mention that it's fun? Not that I am a psychopath who enjoy tearing people apart, I just enjoy controlling a super hero like character who can beat the enemy like a bad ass.

WOW Haven't post in nearly 2 years! Time to update!

So it has been 2 years since my last post. Had some really busy semesters and only played a few games. I am graduating next May. Really looking forward to that. First priority will be getting a job at a game studio as programmer.

To prepare myself for that, I made a game (more like tech demo) in Unity 3D for a class. We made it in a team of 5 in one month. It's not well polished but I enjoy the process. Since Cry Engine SDK is out, I am going to use it and make a game myself, with a game idea I have had for awhile.

Objective: finish the game by the end of 2012. Most likely it will be a tech demo, but 1-2 game level that shows my level design skill will be bonus.

I also got an internship at IMVU this summer, but it got canceled due to financial issue that the company is having (.....).  Anyway, I went to San Francisco for the summer 2012 and it's great. Spent a lot of time doing swing dancing which is currently my favorite hobby outside of gaming. This relaxing summer also gave me time to catch up the video games and TV shows that I missed.

Even better, I went to SIGGRAPH conference again as student Volunteer a week ago. It was great, I saw many interesting new technology, a great panel about the making of Avengers, and I got some nice chat with people in the video game industry.

Oh, and I also become a huge fan of the Rooster Teeth. I used to be only interested in the Red vs Blue series, and now I watch everything they made. Go check them out: http://roosterteeth.com/home.php

Last thing that I want to mention: games that I play and don't play.

I am trying to save money, so I have been playing some free-to-play game on Steam and they are great (some of them). Been playing Blacklight Retribution, Tribes Ascend and so on. Interesting stuff and I may write a post about them once I get more play time into it.

I bought LA Noire and Need For Speed: The Run last Thanksgiving. Also got Lego Star Wars III from SIGGRAPH. Haven't started them yet, need to do that some time. Good thing that I finished Uncharted 3 and Mass Effect 3. And I have been playing a ton of Battlefield 3!!!

So games I am not playing and possibly not going to play them: Skyrim, Minecraft, Day Z, and The Old Republic which is coming out for free. Simply because I love them too much. I know that they are good, and I know that I am not going to graduate on time if I play them. Although I have been watching a ton of videos on this games. So I may still write some reviews about them.


Now that I am jumping back into writing game reviews 2 years later, let's see how my perspective and focus is changed. Looking forward to the next post.

Singularity game review

            Singularity is a FPS game developed by Raven Software published by Activision and released on June 29 2010.

            When I first look at the game description, it sounds really interesting: a game that involves time travel, monsters, “Nazi” and a rifle that can let you control the path of its bullets. Unfortunately it is not that interesting.

1. There are parts of the game play where you will travel back in time and fight the USSR soldiers. Most of them are not necessary to story and have no unique game plays involve. You are basically slaughtering the enemies with your advanced weapons.

2. The TMD (Time Manipulation Device) is a cool concept. You can age or renew objects and only curtain objects, and it is basically used to solve the puzzles since aging an enemy cause a lot of energy (regenerate slowly). It can release impulse force to attack the enemies, and that cause a lot of energy too. You can pull objects and only curtain objects from other time to help you solve some puzzles. You can also lift objects and throw them to your enemies. When it gets the final upgrade where the TMD doesn’t require energy any more, you are indestructible while you keep aging and impulse the enemy.

That’s basically all that the TMD can do. It’s mostly used for puzzle solving until the end and in some combat situation. They try to make the game more like BioShock but the large energy consumptions during combat use and the limited ways to use it during combat just make me want to play more BioShock.

3. Weapons. The gun that can control the bullets that you shoot is interesting at first but soon it will make the game too easy, boring and time consumed to watch the bullet flying slowly that can hit the enemies no matter where they are hiding. 

The other weapons in the game are very good and I feel like using weapons in the Modern Warfare. You have many different unique weapon choices, and most importantly, when firing the weapons I don’t have the awkward feeling like when I fire the guns in Aliens vs Predator (2010) game. In fact, if Aliens vs Predator was using Unreal Engine 3, it may actually be a better game. I just hate to use the weapons in Aliens vs Predator, it feels weird when I fired them.

After all, it is not bad but not great either. It is a good shooting game with great guns and enemies. The story is unique and is more or least well told with decision making that let you choose 3 different ending. The TMD and time travel concept is great but not implemented well enough into the game play, story or the combat. That is a disappointment. It is still worth playing.

James Bond 007: Blood Stone Review

James Bond 007: Blood Stone is a third-person shooter action game developed by Bizarre Creations and published by Activision released on November 2.

This is my first time playing 007 series game and I kind of like it, even though I have no idea what does blood stone has to do with this game? In fact, in the opening music scene it shows a lot of diamonds but it has nothing to do with the game.   

Anyway, it is a typical third-person shooter game, can’t jump, go from cover to cover, shooter, then shooter more. Specifically here are a few main points:

1. This game involves a lot of chasing game play whether it is on foot, boat or mostly cars just like in the movies. What is disappointing is that there is one part where I thought there will be a flight chasing part but that is just a cut scene. Especially the car chasing is fantastic that keeps me addicted and it is kind of intense. They should just go ahead and make a racing game. So I went to play Need for Speed 14: Hot Pursuit 3 (NFS 14) and it was amazing! Way better than the driving experience in Blood Stone, but it is still good to have it there in a third-person shooter game.

2. There are confusing part in the game like when you have to fight the helicopter for the first time, you are suppose to knock it down with the crane. However, the gunner on the plane is marked as “Shootable”. So I assume that the designer wants me to shoot him. Therefore I shoot his head and feet that is not covered by his shield until I ran out of ammo. Then I ran from cover to cover under the constant fire from the helicopter and got to the crane and knocked down the enemy. First of all, I wasted all my ammo; secondly, anyone should be dead already under that kind of fire power and I did die a lot inside the crane.

3. No freedom. The stealth part of the game just tries to pretend to be Sprinter Cell 5 (SC5). If you melee an enemy you got a focus point (like the execution in SC5: Conviction), However, in SC5, there’s a lot of freedom for you to move around the map and decide who to kill first and how to. You can also climb up and down on almost everything and evade all enemies to bypass them. In Blood Stone, the map is linear with maybe a bypass for you to outflank in 2 missions. You can’t climb up or over obstacles even if you are a MI6 agent. You can only follow a linear path and kill whoever is in your way. Almost has no strategy at all.

4. The scene there you are chasing by a drill is quite intense without really a real danger. Well done by the game designer. Nice melee combat animation too.

That’s about all, it is not too bad, but it just reminds me how much I love SC5 and how much I want to play NFS 14. SC5 has better game play, NFS 14 has better driving feature and Mass Effect has better story and player interaction. However, it tells a nice typical 007 story with typical 007 game play features just like the movies and I guess that is what the fans want.

One more thing: there aren’t much cool spy kits or weapons, or maybe none. That’s not cool. Even the cars are normal.

Participate in the Game Design Challenge for the first time!

I am participating in the Game Career Guide’s Game Design Challenge for the first time!

            Game Design Challenge: 15 Disks [10.06.10]

I really hope that I can win my first try out of this Game Design Challenge because I have some really good and original mini game ideas. I will post them if I win! Wish me luck!

Alert!

If you are a student or you have a job and you care about your grades or job title, then do not play Civilization V! Otherwise you will waste a lot of your time that can be used to sleep or study or work. You will find yourself playing the game from 9:30pm to 7:30am like me while the project is due in a few days.

Update: (I failed, I did it again this summer, using the time that I should be using to play other games)

Finally! Transformers: War for Cybertron Game Review

Transformers: War for Cybertron is a Third-person shooter game developed by High Moon Studios published by Activision on June 22, 2010. 

IMPORTANT INFORMATION: It has nothing to do with the 2 Transformers movies! Or the 2 Transformers games developed by Traveller's Tales and Luxoflux, which have once again proved that movie games suck!

Since I was born in 1991 in China, my only knowledge of Transformers came from my friends, the Beast War and Beast Machine cartoon series, and 1 Transformers comic that is decades ago (I believe it should be pretty collectable now in 2010). Anyway, I feel like that this is a Transformers game that a Transformers fan will want to play.

Same thing as before, I only play single player campaign. The story took place on the machine planet- Cybertron (not Earth) when Zeta Prime was still leading the Autobot. Megatron used the dark energon to corrupt the core of Cybertron but when Optimus Prime got there it was already too late and blah blah blah you probably know more than I do. The game ends at the scene of The Ark. 

So~ let’s pull out the good thing first:

1. Good Transformers design. We have all seen the robot design in the 2 Transformers movies and they got nothing or little to refer to the original Transformer design. However in this game, the robot designs are great. People in High Moon kept the characteristics or the original design as well as adding some innovative design onto the robots to make them more modern and cool. The details of the Transformers and the machine planet are all well desgined.

2. A game for the fans. The game uses the original plot and large part of the robot designs. There are more than 40 Transformers characters in the game which will definitely bring back a lot of players’ memories of Transformers. There is a new Transformers song during the credits with Transformers animations. During the game you can also hear familiar Transformers quote from the original cartoon like Optimus Prime’s “Autobots, roll out!”

3. Some cinematic levels. The level where Megatron was escaping from Omega Supreme and the level where Silverbolt, Air Raid and Jetfire were chasing the giant Trypticon that was flying to Cybertron are my favorites in the game. The stories were developing while the player was playing through the level. It made the level much more intense when you were chased by the giant Omega Supreme in real time and when you were chasing the giant Trypticon in high speed to try to destroy his jetpack.

4. Some bigger Transformers’ armors or parts will fall off as you are shooting and keep hurting them. That gives you a feeling that you are actually hurting the enemy and that you can guess at about which points I will kill the enemy. This is much better than an enemy with a huge hidden health bar that you have no idea when it is going to fall down or that if you are hurting it or not.

Unfortunately, the above are all the good thing I can find in the game. Here are some bad designs:
 
1. The car and jet high speed racing or chasing were definitely good idea. But they are short, slow and boring. In a part where you have a long highway to go chased by Decepticon jets at some point, which should be fun! But I didn’t feel the danger of the jets and there are no enemies I can fight along the way. That makes it boring though I did feel the speed of the car. In the jets level, there isn’t really any high speed chasing or fighting level. Especially when I was flying in the space, there aren’t too many stuff in the space that can reference the speed of the jet. When you encounter the enemies, you will just flow in the air and shoot them and that exactly what the AI did.

2. The sensitivity of the mouse varies when you shift among the third-person view, the sniper mode and the vehicle mode. It is less sensitive in sniper mode but more sensitive in vehicle mode (use mouse to turn).

      3. One of the worst boss fights. No matter if you are fighting the Omega Supreme or the Trypticon, it is boring stacking on formula. Once again we are fighting huge~ bosses repeating the same stack of attacks again and again. Why most of the bosses have to be giants? It just makes the target bigger and easier to be attacked. And in order to encounter this weakness, the designers decided that you can only attack 2 or 3 tiny spots on the bosses in order to hurt or kill them. That is stupid! I would rather to shoot Trypticon’s eyes to make him blind.

4. I wish when it gets to close range hand on hand fight, the High Moon people can do something like in the Batman: Arkham Asylum game, a cinematic fight animation. But instead, all we got is that everyone in the game has an ax or a stick to strike the enemies. Am I the only one that is not comfortable with Optimus’ ax? It is just like his sword in the movie but lamer. I mean, does Transformers actually use any close range weapons? You tell me Transformers fans.

5. Teammates. You got 2 and only 2 Transformers fighting alongside of you. That feels good~ but what about the others? Aren’t they going to help? I always hate games when you are the hero that fights thousands of enemies by yourself especially when you are just a normal solder like everyone else. It is good to add 2 companies with you. But in this game, it is about a huge war. Shouldn’t there be more people fighting alongside with you like what Infinity Ward did in Modern Warfare? Plus the 2 companies I had didn’t really help much, they almost never kill more than 5 enemies throughout a level, and when it gets to the boss fight, they are just status. They can’t die, and even if you do die, for example got crashed by a train like more than 5 times each, they can just respawn. I want a teammate that actually matters! They can get hurt, they can die, they can help you fight enemies (like killing an enemy sniper), and they can actually hurt the boss and maybe kill the boss. Of course they have to also be intelligent enough to take cover, not like in this game they will just stand in the middle of the kill zone and keep blind firing since they can’t dieeeeeeeee!

Transformers: War for Cybertron, it is worth playing especially for those Transformers fans. But if Crysis 2, Medal of Honor and BioShock Infinite were coming out at the same time as this game was, go get the big titles first. Transformers: War for Cybertron is a B+/A- in the reserved team of game world.

Sniper: Ghost Warrior game review

You know what? I really got nothing much to talk about this game. So this will be a short review.

Here is the summery for my 2 hours game play of this game:

In the tutorial the commander told me to hide behind bushes to avoid detection. But after many times of trying and I still fail get good covers. It’s either that I suck or the game sucks. Anyway, I skipped the tutorial.

In the first mission, a texture of a bush stopped two of my snip rifle bullets while I was trying to kill the guards. I can see two black bullet holes on the bushes clearly.

I was constantly stuck in the game world and there isn’t much freedom in the game. A gap between two rocks can stop me from running. I am not allowed to climb through a large hole on the wall, and I am not even allowed to use the rope to climb over a low wall.

Ok, so there are three guards standing there 15 yards away looking toward my cover. My company sniper told me to wait for him sign to just run a cross of the road right in front of them. So he said “Now!” (or maybe “Run!”, I forgot) and I started to sprint across. I noticed that the three guards were looking at me while I was running and that triggered the alert. WTF!!!!!! So I killed everyone.

When I started the third mission, right after the cut scene, it says “Failure”. So I tried again, and the same thing happened again. After about 4 times, I quitted!

After all, I love being a sniper. But I am just tired of all these errors. It looks pretty but that doesn’t solve the problems. So yea, I am going to delete this game from my computer.

BioShock 2 Game Review

BioShock 2 is a FPS game developed and published by 2K Games on February 9, 2010.

So you play the Big Daddy in the underwater world try to save your daughter. You can use many different kinds of weapons and super abilities to fight the enemies in any way you want.

I haven’t play BioShock 1 yet but I will try to play it later, because BioShock 2 is so GOOD~ it is fun and exciting. The game play is so different than other normal FPS games and this two hands attacks work really well. Good graphics, normal AI, kind of confusing level design but still awesome. There is almost not thing bad about this game that I want to point out so here are some suggestions to the game.

1. I enjoy using those abilities. You can customize what abilities you want to use so you would get confuse or annoyed by switching among so many abilities. But you have to use the machine to customize them. This limits the amount of fun the players can have. If they can choose the abilities whenever they want, then they can truly enjoy the using of those abilities since there are not enough of slots for all abilities.

2. The player sometimes has to walk in the sea from level to level and that is kind of boring. But maybe the game designers can put some enemies in the sea or design a level where you can fight the enemies under water in low gravity. That will be fun. After all, the theme of the game is to fight in an underwater city. How about a fight that really happens in the water?!

3. When I finished the game, I was still unable to buy all the abilities. I have to collect Adam (some kind of blood?) to buy these abilities and I just can’t get enough of them. Like I said in Mass Effect 2 that I hate fighting for money (or Adam). I really wish that I can use and enjoy all of the abilities. Maybe the players should have the option to play the game again but with all of the abilities given.

4. I don’t like the boss fight. It is challenging but kind of frustrating. I wasn’t able to enjoy using all those abilities to fight the boss. I was just too busy to try to stay alive and keep freezing and shooting the Big Sister! And it is the boss for every level, that is boring, and in the final boss fight it is still the Big Sister, AGAIN!!! Except this time there are two of them.

5. The story…….is……strange. Maybe I should play the first one in order to understand it.

That is all! I love it! I enjoyed it, I had tons of fun and the game play is unique. But since the story ends up on the surface and the whole underwater city is blew up. I wonder if 2K can make a BioShock 3 or not. Play BioShock 2 if you haven’t cause I love it and I am going to try BioShock 1 since some people said it is better than the second one.

Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell Conviction game review

Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell Conviction

The Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell is a RPG stealth action game developed by Ubisoft Montreal released in April 2010.
It is a famous game series that many of my friends like. However I haven’t played the previous Splinter Cell games. So I try to play Splinter Cell: Double Agent (No. 4) , and it doesn’t turn out well. I stopped in the middle of the game, disappointed and I don’t want to talk about it.

So I got some basic background stories from Splinter Cell 4 and started to play Splinter Cell Conviction (No. 5), and I love it! It is much better than Splinter Cell 4 and also different from it.

Background stories: our hero Sam Fisher’s daughter died (which is false info). He hides in foreign country and got hunted. There are people trying to kill the president and take over the country. There is a beautiful undercover agent (female), and an old friend in the army trying to help Sam out. Bad guys die, the country is safe and the main characters are all alive, happy ending, the end.

Good:

The game play system is much better than the previous game. There is better graphics, a little bit better AI (but still….) and better story telling.

Good story telling. I am not saying that the story is good, but at least it is well told. The story is delivered throughout the whole game. From loading page to cut scenes to in game dialogue, plus the memories of Sam will reflect on the walls where you can see, it is easily one of the best story telling games I have ever play.

The stealth system is awesome. You can drag people out of the window or stealth kill them from above. You can also use a mirror to peak under the door to check for safety. When in dark, you can just pretend to be a Predator with the invisibility device on, jumping up and down the building, in the room, from wall to wall.

There is this really cool sonar scope like the one in the movie The Dark Knight. You can see through walls (not concrete) and find the location of your enemies. However, it only works clearly when you stand steel and some of the enemies in the end have it too.

There is Execution kill mode that you can use once you complete a hand-to-hand kill. You can then mark 2 people and the character will shoot them automatically in just a blink without being notice. It is really helpful when there are two enemies standing together and you can take them down quick and quiet. Later on you can even mark 3 to 4 people.

You may think that it somehow takes away the excitement that the computer will do everything for you when you use Execution, but you are wrong. The Execution fits the game play and the story. Sam Fisher is great shooter, a special force. This feature makes you feel like a special force with the fire rate, reflection and accuracy that gamers can’t achieve using a hand controller or mouse during the video game. Also you have to be able to manage your use of the Execution since you have to have a hand-to-hand kill first to get the Execution. So in many situations, you can’t just use the Execution to complete the missions. You need strategy, stealth, relocation, and your shooting skills.

You can have all kinds of different weapons and upgrades. Different grenades can be used to help you finish the mission. Those are just some options for you if you want to turn this stealth game into a third-person Counter-strike.

It turns out that you have the option on how you will complete the mission. You can forget about all those stealth kills and turn it into a war zone just firing machine guns and throwing grenades (In some situation you have to do this). Or you can kill everyone without alert the others, being a total elite spy or a silent sniper. Or if you can, you can sneak through the whole level without killing anyone. (Since there is a award for that, I believe it is doable but I never success) One other option, you can turn it into a Predator game. Since the enemies are stupid, you can shoot all the lights and running around in the dark. The enemies can’t see you in the dark unless it is really close or you shoot someone. So you basically become a Predator. It is pretty cool.

There are extra missions that test you stealth skills (no war zone!). They are different scenarios from the single player mission and brings you challenge.

Bad:

You can’t move the body like in the previous title, so the patrol can see the dead body and alerted.

I agree with Ben "Yahtzee" Croshaw on the problem of the computer AI. The enemies are retards. You hiding in the dark (or any shadow) and they can’t see a little bit of you and that just makes this game easier. They will shoot the last place that you were spotted for a long time when you are already somewhere else. Plus the stupid RPG dialog:" Nothing strange to report." Are you sure? cause everyone else is dead!

One most important bug: when you use Execution but then the people have walked behind walls, you can still kill them! The bullet just goes through the walls!!! Fix that Ubisoft! Remember: Missing seasonal dates like Christmas is bad, but shipping a buggy or poorly made product is worse. (2003, Roger E. Pedersen) Fix the bugs is better than sticking to the schedule. One more thing, I threw two grenades and they went through the wall and exploded.

Last:

I think that is all. It is a pretty good stealth game and you don’t have to play the previous series to understand the story.

Serious, try out my Predator mode, it is FUN!

Metro 2033 game review

Metro 2033

Metro 2033 is a FPS Si-Fi game developed by 4A Games in Ukraine and released in March 2010 by THQ. It is based on a book with the same title. (You can even find the book in the game)

I haven’t play Fallout before but I think they are similar concept but different location. After the nuclear war, Moscow is left with wreckage in the nuclear winter. The survivors live underground inside the Moscow metro stations, defending their home against some mutated creatures. People travel mostly using the metro tunnels. One person (Artyom) sets his foot on an adventure in order to save his home station and that is where the story begins.

There are a lot of interesting details and features in this game:

The Communists are fighting wars with Nazis, while the people are trying to survive under the attack of monsters. There are also paranormal activities in the metro that I don’t freaking believe it!

Gas masks

There is poison gas on the surface and you have to put on your gas mask to keep you alive. You can even hear the sound when the character breathes. You can check you watch to see how much time you have left if you can’t find new (mask). (Which is useless, the character will change the “mask” automatically and it shows how many “mask” you have got left. During battles with those monsters, you mask can be damaged and has cracks. Once the glass on your mask breaks up, you will only have about one minute to find new mask before you get killed by the gas. So keep the monsters away from you!

Weapons

You can carry one pistol, one knife, 5 stealth knives, 2 rifles and two kinds of bombs. You can buy guns (EXPENSIVE!) every station but it turns out that you don’t have to since you can get nice weapons for free throughout the storyline. Stealth knives can kill enemy by one throw and you can pick them up and reuse them. Arrow guns shoot arrows that can also be recycled and reused. Silent sniper pistol is my favorite, one kill per shoot. Plus scope in and silent features, it is even better than silent machine guns.

There is also a very interesting air pressure gun. You have to compress air to fire bullets and if you don’t compress the air using the air pump, it will do less damage. So I don’t like it.

Bullet

In the world of Metro 2033, bullet is everything. People use bullets to trade, fight war or kill monsters. You can pick up bullets along your adventure, and it is your decision whether to keep your bullets for shooting or buy better guns or supplies. Different bullets are for different guns, so you can keep using a few types of bullets and sell the others.

Stealth mission

In some levels where you have to fight some bad people, you can kill them stealthily one by one. And in a level where you have to navigate your way through a frontier between Communists and Nazis, you can sneak through it, stealthily kill everyone, or just turn it into a war zone where everyone will be shooting at you.

Environment

The environment is my favorite aspect about this game. The sandbox of the city after destruction, the dark metro tunnels, and the cry of the monsters bring up the fear inside of you. Plus the poison fog, snow and cloud covering city environment, and the breath of the character, I would say that Metro 2033 does a better job on environment than Aliens vs Predator.

Others

The first person view interface is very clean or I would say realistic. It only shows the bullet number when you switch guns or pick up bullets. You can take out a map (like in Far Cry 2) to navigate yourself and a lighter to see the map. The character has a flashlight that you have to charge it using a universal charger (use man power to charge). Although in half of the game you are fighting alone, there are levels you are fighting in pairs or along side with 5 other teammates. There are also audios played about what the character is thinking when the game is loading the level. It is a good way to keep player away from boring waiting.

Alright! What do I hate about this game...?

In the library level, there is a huge monster that will chase you all the way while you have to find your way to get a map. I threw all my bombs and shot many shout gun bullets on it while it only needed a few punch to kill me. After I died like ten times did I realize that it can’t be killed!!! The only thing I can do is to run and never look back. I hate monsters that can’t be killed and you know what, that monster got knocked done and killed by a CAR at the end of the level!!! (Ok, maybe an armed vehicle) But that is still ridiculous! I should have killed that thing ten times! (Same as the flying monster!) And for the normal sized monsters, when they run towards you, they can go through your body so I can’t see or shoot them!

Some ridiculous stuff: there is a blue electrical ball that travels in the metro and kills all the monsters that it meets. There are some human shadows that can kill you if you touch them. And there is also a kind of super natural alien-like people will whisper to you and turn you into a dream-like world where they are trying to kill you. They keep saying in the final level:” Stop him…he is going to destroy us….kill him….” I don’t freaking believe these!!!

In the levels where you have to fight armed people, once you fire everyone will know where you are even though you are in the dark or they can’t see you. It’s like that they all have x-ray eyes. You can also get stuck when you are walking up or down the stair and you have to use jump.

The character doesn’t feel like alive. When the teammates are talking to your character, he says nothing. He never says anything and that just makes everyone so dump like robot. I remember there is once when someone said something like:” Are you ready?” then silent….and then he said “Good, let’s go.” The character didn’t even say anything. It is always good to keep the character interact with the NPCs (Non player characters).

In the second last chapter, you have to deal with some weir creatures. There are lots of bubble-like bomb that will climb toward you to blow you up, and they will spill juice on your view screen when they explode and you can’t see a thing. So you will need a nice computer or you can’t even run the game smoothly and get killed. The boss of that chapter is a……I can’t even describe it. It looks like the one in the Prototype. Why do they put all these strange stuff into the game? It is good as long as you keep fighting Nazis and small monster. Not spiritual enemy or monsters that can’t be killed or big fat red meat with tentacles and you aren’t even expected to kill it in this game. (You partner says:” We will come prepared next time for this.” which means there is going to be Metro 2034 something like that)

Last

Never the less, it is a good game but not magnificent. I still enjoy it in one way or another. It is definitely worth a play but I don’t expect you to love it.

SIGGRAPH 2010 Los Angeles

I just got accepted into the SIGGRAPH 2010 Student Volunteer Program from July 26 to July 30!!!!!! I am going to Los Angeles!!!!!!!! It will be fun~

My goal

My goal

Alright, something other than game reviews. I think it will be a good idea to introduce a little more about myself. I am a Chinese student, CS major and CGT minor in Purdue. I want to work in a game company like EA in the future and make my own game.

So I am learning programming, and have joined some club to learn drawing, modeling. I have joined student groups and organization to participate in game making. I feel like that I want to learn all skills and everything about making a game. But then I realize I have to be focus on one point in order to get myself into the industry.

So I want to be a game designer. Since I am just a beginner in both programming and computer graphics, ideas and design are all I have got. I am doing these game reviews to learn more about a game and what is a good game design.

However, game designer sounds like a pretty high position. I wonder what kind of skill can get me into the industry and get myself to that position. There is no way I can just get hired by keep playing computer games and making these game reviews.

I really want to go to the GDC, but I also don’t want to miss any of my classes. I also want to go to the E3 show one day (hopefully) when I am in the industry. Anyway, I am applying for student volunteer for SIGGRAPH 2010 Conference in LA. Hope I can go there and meet some professionals from the game industry.

The game school SMU Guild Hall in Texas and Flashpoint Academic sounds sweet. I am thinking about going to one of these schools after my graduation. But who knows what will happen after 3 years; maybe I will already be working in some great game companies.

Hope that you can find my name in some game credit in the future and maybe I will be giving speech of my game on E3! : )

Bad news!

Late news: I was sick and coughing, and will continue coughing for the next 4 weeks.

Plus the final month of college is going in April, essays and projects will rush towards me at the same time. So.....I guess I have to save my energy for my education and body health. No games in the next month! How sad is that......

Good luck for all the college students!

Oh! By the way, Metro 2033, so far so good.
I have played about 2/3 of Metro 2033 and although there are some thing I don't like about it, it is pretty good! I have never played Fallout 3, but I heard that they are basically the same thing. It is a better game than Avatar, good work Ukraine 4A.

Seriously, forget about the Fools Day, I am sick!

Zero Punctuation - Ben "Yahtzee" Croshaw's game review

I have just found these interesting short game review videos on this websites.

"Zero Punctuation is The Escapist's groundbreaking video review series starring Ben "Yahtzee" Croshaw. Every Wednesday Zero Punctuation picks apart the games so you don't have to. Called "hilariously cutting ... first legitimate breakout hit from the gaming community in recent memory" by Boing Boing, see why gamers love it and developers fear it." -Zero Punctuation

Ben "Yahtzee" Croshaw has made a lot of good points on the games and these videos will blow your mind and make you laugh your ass off.

Although you may not agree with his points, it is still worth to check it out: Zero Punctuation

Aliens vs Predator game review

Aliens vs Predator (AVP)

Today’s review will be Aliens vs Predator, the two greatest characters collies again.

Aliens vs Predator (PC/PS3/Xbox360), created by Rebellion published by SEGA on February 12th 2010. It is a first person shouter game (but basically only the Marine and the Predator can shoot) in which player can choose among the three species-Aliens, Predator and Marine.



Player can do single player mission of each species or do multiplayer campaign on Steam.

The single player mission is basically boring and inflexible. The lengths of the three species campaign are so unbalance. The AI of the enemies is bad and that makes the bosses stupid. It is fun for the Predator and Aliens to sneak around and get all kinds of an animated finish kill (Stealth Health) at the first time, but it becomes boring and you just want to go through the single player mission fast. The collective items in the game for all species are really not necessary and it is boring to spend time to collect them.


A clean bloody stealth health

In the multiplayer campaign, people may think that the Predator is the most powerful specie and therefore whoever chooses it can win the game. However, they are wrong; this game requires good game play skills of the player in order to win the multiplayer campaign. The power of each species is balance and designed especially for each other.


Marine

The Marines are actually the prey. The flashlight that can barely see the enemies and Motion Tracker that will beep even the enemies are upstairs (like the one in the movie) to expose the enemy and eliminate them. The cry of the Aliens, the flashing sign of Predator, the beeping of the Tracker and the Aliens that occasionally shows up under the flashlight, it is both threaten and exciting to be a Marine.



By the way, the guns……kind of …..make me feel different than the guns in other games like Modern Warfare or Counter Strike. It just makes me feel weird using guns in AVP that I am not used to them. I can stand the shaking AK47 in Counter Strike, but not this freaking machine gun that makes me die so many times in multiplayer, even after hours of “practice”.


The deadly Aliens tail

Aliens (Xenomorphs)

Aliens are the master of dark and silent killers. Even when they are dead, the acid blood can still kill you. They can jeep very far and high, climb walls and walk on ceiling. They can get to basically everywhere to kill, but your brain and eyes have to be able to catch up with the Aliens motion. One time you are walking upside down, the next time you may be walking on the side wall or on ground. They have sense that player can see enemies (even invisible Predator) through walls in a middle range. Then they can sneak behind you and kill you with a Stealth Health that you can’t resist. They can sprint very fast to attack and nothing can catch them when they run away. They can destroy light and camp in dark where the flashlight can barely see them and the Motion Tracker doesn’t work when they don’t move.

Predator

The Predator can stay invisible using Cloaking devise until they attack. They have Thermal vision that can only highlight Marine and Predator, and Alien vision that can only highlight the Aliens. Health Shard is used to regain health. They can also sneak behind Marine or Aliens to get a clean stealth kill. The Predator has to gather weapons himself and in that case it makes them less powerful without their fancy weapons.


Combi Stick can kill enemy with one throw and can come back to the Predator automatically (that is fake). And it will be great if player can use it in melee combat.


Trophy kills under Alien vision

The highlight of the game is the fear you have when you play it especially when you aren’t in groups. No matter what species you are, the dark environment and excellent sound effect can always let you fear the sniper, the Aliens and Predator’s stealth kill, or the blast form the Predator.



After all, the single player mission is not very good, but the multiplayer mode is definitely worth playing. You will need a lot of practice and a high speed computer or game console to be a true hunter in the game. Spread the fear my friend.


Trailing

However, after hours of boring single player mission and a few hours of exciting multiplayer campaign, this game sucks! The stealth kill looks good but is almost always the same and took a lot of time when you just stand there and get kill from behind. Mines are placed by Predator and you just walk up and die. Aliens get kill because they lose direction when they fall from the ceiling to attack but get dizzying. The melee combats are just like boxing when everyone is watching and want to kill whoever wins the boxing. There is nothing impressive about this game. People may remember Halo for the next few decades like Mario but definitely not this one.