I haven't blogged in over a month time but I have a few things to blog about today. Namely game reviews! I have three of them completed. Mafia 2, Left 4 Dead 2 and Amnesia: The Dark Desceent. You can read them by following the links or just read my quick summaries below!
If you played the Penumbra games think of Amnesia as a natural evolution of those mechanics, but picture it with better presentation and well crafted scares and you get the picture. Basically Amnesia is a very good game with cool puzzles. I wish there were a few more physics puzzles like Requiem but I can't complain. Highly recommended unless you don't like scary games :P
Wanted to get this review out, yes it's a bit of a rant and I spent a lot of time on the negative aspects. It does look great and combat works well. It really does feel quite atmospheric at times and the music / cars are amazing. The rest is not so rock solid - I found it generally inferior to the original and I couldn't stomach the ending. Apparently the new DLC is pretty much a waste of money too from what I've been hearing. I just call this an average-good game, nothing amazing
I've played 184 hours of this game so far and there is a ton of stuff to talk about. I tried to keep it to the basics but map design, new infected and new survivor tools just take it up a notch from the original. Good news is new DLC is on the way for the game and we get to play no mercy with melee weapons and new infected. Can't wait to spit corner campers while they wait at the elevator.
NOW PLAYING
Playing Worms Reloaded, which is pretty fun online actually. Lot of problems actually getting into a game sadly but it can be pretty funny to watch people do brilliant and stupid things at the same time. It's also a nice change of pace from other games, laid back turn based
Finished Starcraft 2, really enjoyed the campaign and even went back to play the other missions in the sections where you need to choose which mission to complete. It is nice to have a base building RTS with good quality missions and attention to detail. I did try some multiplayer, but only played a three games online, of which I won two. I wish I played more but I didn't get much enjoyment even out of winning. I think I definitely need the adrenaline rush of FPS games in multiplayer. Even still great single player well worth it
Xfire has been particularly slack of late. As many of you would know Titan took over Xfire (apparently at no cost) and have been moving servers and slowly learning to add updates. It took them a month to get an update out and they only added one game - Mafia 2. Many games still remain unsupported including worms reloaded, kane and lynch 2, amnesia.
The support has been pretty poor and they are effectively slowly killing a great tool with many opting to use Raptr or just stick with Steam. It would be a shame to have the xfire program fade into oblivion because the new owners can't update it frequently enough but it appears to be the way it is going
UPCOMING GAMES
Sadly most of the game I was waiting for have been moved to early 2011 (Dead Space 2, Crysis 2, Max Payne 3 to name a few) but there are still a couple of releases that should tide me over until the new year
Fallout: New Vegas - Hoping this one has as much side quests and exploration as Fallout 3, not completely phased that it looks much the same as Fallout 3
Call of Duty: Black Ops - Dedicated servers are back, albeit restricted. Still hopfully I can get many good hours of multiplayer out of this game. Lots of game modes so chances are there is good replay value if it is balanced enough and I'm sure the community will be there.
Saw the movie Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time recently and have to say its one of the better game movies I've seen. Funny enough with good action and a decent storyline. I think so far only Hitman, Prince of Persia and Resident Evil 1 (not 2 or 3) are decent game movies. I would certainly watch sequels to Hitman and PoP.
Long blog! Thanks for reading.