PC review: SUPERHOT

SUPERHOT is the most innovative shooters I’ve played in years. It relies on a couple of key gimmicks that bolster its success and fun factor, the most obvious being that time slows to a near-standstill each time that you, the player character, stop moving. Enemies freeze mid-jog, thrown objects hang in midair, and bullets push forward at a snail’s pace as you observe your surroundings and prepare your next move. You can attack foes with your fists, throw objects to disarm them and steal their katanas, pistols, shotguns, and rifles, and even make use of a new ability introduced late in the game to really mix up the formula in interesting and creative ways.

The story mode is not particularly long – it will last most players around two hours. There is a narrative thread woven in that, while not too greatly in-depth, reaches a satisfying conclusion within that limited time frame, and does very well to match SUPERHOT’s aesthetic nods to works like The Matrix, Killer7, and a dozen other action films/games. The white backdrops of office cubicles, a narrow alley, bar, mansion staircase, and parking garage all require different approaches, and forcing players to plan out their plans of attack as well as adjust on the fly is refreshing in an era when most shooters would opt for the simple ‘run-and-gun’ formula.

That isn’t to say that SUPERHOT is devoid of any flaws – there are a couple of stages where enemies are so tightly packed that the slightest movement of your character can cause you to end up in their line of fire, resulting in a retry of that stage. And the aforementioned gameplay mechanic that is introduced late in the experience (the nature of which I will not spoil, given how much it turns familiar strategies on their heads), does not see as widespread of use as it probably deserves. Still, predicting enemy movements is fun, gauging the distance between yourself and a red polygonal foe intuitive, and for a first outing, SUPERHOT is fun, responsive, and visually engaging game with its minimalist digital style.

For anyone turned off at the notion of a two hour story mode, fret not – there is plenty more to be explored in SUPERHOT’s additional game modes. Endless mode sends waves of increasingly well-armed foes your way, and asks you to take down as many of them as possible before they overwhelm you. There are variants of this mode that act as a time attack, or simply ask you to execute twenty kills in a row. Challenge mode, meanwhile, requires you to revisit the stages of the story with a specific weapon, like a katana, in hand, and asks that you kill all the foes with only that type of weapon.

Some of SUPERHOT’s stages will be easy to breeze through, others may require you a half-dozen attempts or more, as an unfortunate sidestep from behind a pillar could place you on the receiving end of a buckshot spray. But calculating enemy moves and besting them is a really satisfying feeling, especially when you get to view the real-time playback of your Hollywood bad-assery. There is a strange charm to overcoming a stage, leaving polygon thugs in a heap of shattered red gems, and hearing the repeating words: “SUPER. HOT. SUPER. HOT.”

My rating: 9.25 (out of 10)

PC review: Lethal League

Lethal League is neither a particularly complicated nor expansive game. But it is a game that knows what it’s all about, and strives to offer an energetic and fun party format that pits players against one another in intense, high-stakes racquetball matches. Drawing its rule set from arcade fighting games and utilizing an experimental technopop soundtrack that would make Jet Set Radio fans proud, Lethal League is truly a one-of-a-kind experience.

The rules are straightforward – players try to smack a ball around a two-dimensional space in order to K.O. one another and be the last man standing. The ball is able to bounce off the walls, floor, and ceiling, and successive hits to the ball will increase its speed, which can reach an absurd velocity. It’s a risk-reward system – jumping in the ball’s path to smack it back at your opponent gives you a chance to knock them out of the ring, but at the cost of placing yourself in the ball’s path of destruction. Multiple hits from a single player will reward them a power move, which varies from character to character, but includes a bounce, the ability to stop the ball and relaunch it at a new trajectory, and even pass through the walls to strike from behind.

Each of the half-dozen playable characters boasts a different degree of mobility, speed, and agility, making the selection process prior to a match more complicated than simple aesthetic appeal. On that note, the characters bear cel-shaded designs with comic book sensibilities, while stages are largely urban, all of which matches well with the aforementioned soundtrack direction. Menus are simple but clean, and character animations on the whole look smooth. Hit detection is about as perfect as anyone could hope for in a game that falls into a such a grey area between genres.

While the default mode pits all four players against one another, there is an option for team-based matches. Lethal League even includes an alternate game mode that requires players to aim for targets instead of one another, though this mode is admittedly less enjoyable than the default scoring system on account of the tense risk aspect being almost wholly removed. A single player mode progresses in strikingly similar fashion to the Classic Mode of the Super Smash Bros. series, while online play is presented for players who do not have opponents readily available to play nearby. Lethal League may not be a very big game, but it knows what it’s aiming for, and – for the most part – hits high notes.

My rating: 8 (out of 10)

PC review: Fallout 4

After their release of the fifth major Elder Scrolls title, Bethesda has returned to the post-apocalyptic setting of the Fallout series, with Fallout 4 being set in the Commonwealth, formerly the area surrounding Boston. Fenway Park has been reorganized into the central hub known as Diamond City, and the cityscape is a hodgepodge of old New England brick buildings with towering paneled steel skyscrapers. Following the example set forth by Obsidian’s Fallout: New Vegas, Fallout 4 effectively allows players to roam freely once the hour-long run of tutorial quests has been cleared.

Prior to the core game taking place, players bear witness to life before the bombs dropped in the small suburb of Sanctuary. Character creation grants a great degree of customization options, including the gender of the protagonist, and for the first time in the series, the main character speaks to allies and enemies alike. After being visited by a Vault-Tec representative and reserving their space in Vault 111, the happy family life is interrupted as news breaks on the television of the first bombs dropping. Grabbing their infant son Shaun, the protagonist and his/her spouse run for Vault 111, and are sealed inside just as a mushroom cloud paints the horizon.

Inside Vault 111, the couple and their baby are ushered into cryostasis pods, where they are frozen in time to outlast the nuclear radiation above ground. However, the protagonist’s sleep is interrupted early after a small band of scientists and a raider crack the seal on their spouse’s pod, and kill them in a struggle to steal their baby. The protagonist is forced to watch helplessly as their child is taken away, and they are left as the only surviving adult in Vault 111, drifting back off to cryostasis-induced sleep for a bit until their pod is finally cracked open, and they are freed to venture forth into the wastes of the Commonwealth in search of their son and the individuals responsible for his kidnapping.

Fallout 4 suffers from a similar problem as The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, in that the main story doesn’t offer a particularly compelling narrative, and that side quests relating to the game’s various major factions are consistently more interesting, more widely varied in their offerings, and generally more challenging. Simply playing the main story missions will not last particularly long, and the ultimate goal of finding one’s lost son pales even in the company of bringing clean water to the people of the Capital Wasteland in Fallout 3. It is far easier to sink hours into establishing the band of regional do-gooders known as the Minutemen, helping human-like Synths who wish to escape their Institute overlords via a new-age Underground Railroad, and uncovering the twisted goals of Vault-Tec in the other regional Vaults.

While the option to roam largely wherever one’s heart desires early on is very much appreciated, the game world, though large, is still much smaller than other open-world contemporaries like Grand Theft Auto V or Xenoblade Chronicles X. Still, the Commonwealth is littered with many locations to discover, and exploration feels rewarding. Leveling up in Fallout 4 proceeds faster than in Fallout 3 or New Vegas, and Fallout 4 technically lacks a level cap. This is partially due to the much broader offerings of the perk system – classics like Bloody Mess, Lady Killer, and Mysterious Stranger make their returns, but a whole slew of new ones round out the list, and all serve comparably useful ends. The V.A.T.S. system, which slows time for players to hone their attacks to specific body parts on enemies, remains effectively unchanged from the last outing.

A core part of the Fallout series’ identity stems from its 1950’s retro-future aesthetic, while the games are also largely recognized for their dark humor. Bethesda has selected many catchy tunes for Diamond City Radio to broadcast, though a good handful of these songs are reused from Fallout 3. The humor in Fallout 4, meanwhile, is split quite evenly between dry, situational humor and the less effective instances of characters taking a none-too-subtle push of exclaiming just how much violence and death can be entertaining in this decayed world. It’s an unfortunate step backwards, as both Fallout 3 and New Vegas excelled at the much more engaging approach of ‘showing over telling’.

Fallout 4 also utilizes a small selection of dialogue options when interacting with quest-specific characters or companions. Generally, two of these options end up resulting in the same responses, while one is a negative response or decline of engaging in conversation, and the fourth and final option is almost always a sarcastic statement. The sarcastic options rarely add anything valuable to the conversation, while the three other options are often vague descriptors for the full sentences that your protagonist will ultimately dish out. Dialogue options that are colored in yellow, orange, or red are persuasive and threatening approaches, and their respective color is dependent on how far you have leveled up their associated perks. Nine times out of ten, though, it feels like the dialogue options serve more to boost your affinity ratings with companion characters than they do to progress whatever quest you are currently undertaking.

In a similar vein, Fallout 4’s quests and indoor environments are more linear in design than those in Fallout 3, New Vegas, or even The Elder Scrolls titles. While they may not be as expansive overall, these locations are much easier to navigate, reducing the likelihood that you will find yourself lost in some deep and winding labyrinth. The wait times as these areas load is longer than one would expect from a game of this generation, and Fallout 4’s bugs and glitches are plentiful. While I never encountered any hiccups that were game-breaking, I did find three or four glitches each time that I fired the game up – whether it was a stray bullet that ricocheted off a car and caused it to fly forward like a Frisbee, NPCs pushing one another around during dialogue sequences, full sentences being skipped for no discernible reason, or Deathclaws clipping through buildings only to launch sky-high and immediately die upon their return to the ground, Fallout 4 lacks a considerable amount of polish in this department.

Conversely, character models look quite good on the whole. Standouts include companion characters like Piper (whose animations are highly expressive), Nick Valentine (with a network of mechanical pieces visible through his cracked facial structure), and the Mr. Handy models (whose eyes are constantly zooming and retracting, while bobbing up and down, independent of one another). In fact, the companion characters are one of the game’s strongest points. While human-friendly Super Mutant Strong and canine pal Dogmeat operate almost exactly the same as their equivalents in previous games, Piper is a reporter determined uncover a Synth conspiracy in Diamond City, Nick Valentine is a slick trenchcoat-wearing private eye with considerable knowledge of the Commonwealth, Deacon is a ‘far-out’ beatnik master of disguise assisting The Railroad in their aims of freeing runaway Synths from the enigmatic Institute, and Curie is a pre-war Miss Nanny robot who fills the role of questioning ‘where do the lines between man and machine blur’ with her insistence on research and finding a way to be inspired beyond her programming. On the whole, Fallout 4’s characters are a nicely varied bunch, with a few being among the best the series has seen to date. Upon reaching maximum affinity levels with each companion, players earn an additional perk specific to that companion’s behavior, while some companions can even be romanced.

Helping NPCs on various quests can unlock new settlements for you to establish and build structures, defenses, workbenches, food, water, and energy. It’s a welcome addition that not only increases the play time value of Fallout 4, but also finally makes use of the various junk items you discover in your journeys. Cans, toy rocket ships, fallen trees, turret switchboards, old cameras, and many other assorted items can be taken to workbenches and broken down into base resources, which can then be recycled for constructing settlement necessities. While this settlement management system is neither the most fleshed-out, nor the most actively rewarding version of such an addition to an open-world game, it does bring something fresh and coherent into the mix.

Additional workbenches can be used to concoct health items, and customize weapons and armor. Pieces of Power Armor can also be repaired here. The iconic Brotherhood of Steel Power Armor functions differently than in previous games, effectively acting as a limited exoskeleton or vehicle, able to take its own damage before you yourself are physically wounded. Power Armor also runs on energy cores than can be gathered from generators scattered across the Commonwealth. The more of these cores in your possession, the longer you can make use of the Power Armor. Pieces of the many versions of the Power Armor can be swapped out and paired with one another, and there are many Power Armor frames in the Commonwealth to scavenge these pieces from. The Power Armor is especially useful for taking on stronger foes like Deathclaws, which appear more frequently in Fallout 4 than in previous games, and can also make short work of Super Mutants or Ghouls, two enemy types which travel in generally larger numbers than before. It is not uncommon for eight or more Ghouls to attempt to overwhelm players, while Super Mutant ranks often include one suicide runner who will attempt to rush players with a Mini Nuke in hand.

As is tradition for the series, Fallout 4 requires you to keep an even eye on your health bar and your radiation level. The higher your radiation level, the greater portion of your health bar it takes up, temporarily reducing the maximum level you are able to heal to until you are either able to find RadAway or pay a doctor NPC with the Commonwealth’s bottlecap currency. By and large, Fallout 4 feels surprisingly less the part of an RPG than its predecessors. It isn’t uncommon to find high level, specialized weaponry during one of your many quests, even during the game’s earliest hours. This sort of negates the need to hold onto common weapons for customization. The wide selection of perks is truly a high point of Fallout 4’s ‘play-as-you-want’ design, but the game feels more like an open-world adventure/survival title with a mild amount of RPG elements thrown in than a proper RPG.

My rating: 7.5 (out of 10)

PC review: Dear Esther

In some ways, Dear Esther is a video game, yet in others it is not. You are given control of a man who is seemingly alone on an island. He has decided to trek from one side to the other, passing by abandoned brick houses, the wrecked hulls of ships that have run ashore, and through colorful caves whose walls are marked with chemical equations. As the narrator/protagonist makes his way across the island, he relays his many messages to a woman named Esther – a character whose identity and fate will be explored before the final destination, referred to as ‘the aerial’, is reached. Eventually, you will have to move forward to make any progress, though Dear Esther does allow literally as much time as you so desire to explore and area before moving on. Some areas are a bit off the beaten path, but visiting them will reward you with even more dialogue elaborating on individuals known as Jakobson, Donnelly, and so on.

One of the most important bits of information the protagonist relays early on is that there is an infection on the island – one that affects not only the body, but also the mind. This line is intended to get players thinking about just what is real and what is imagined, while also lending itself to the game’s eerie nature. At a few points during the journey, there will be a shadowed figure visible from a distance. Sometimes this figure will be in an area that is altogether unaccessible. Other times, it will be on top of a hill or around a cliff, but should you decide to chase after it, you will find absolutely nothing outside of the rocks and grasses that already decorate the area. The cave portion, which acts as Dear Esther’s midway point, and everything that follows, will perform a duality of answering more questions and forcing you to question the mental state of the protagonist.

Though it is a Half-Life 2 mod and is thus graphically a bit aged compared to more recent releases, the lighting effects, environment designs, and occasional cryptic messages that line cave walls and cliffsides make this one of the most gorgeous looking games I have played in a long while. With a fog that hangs low, partially obscuring rocks and buoys out in the sea, and a radio tower whose blinking red light is constantly visible from practically anywhere on the island, there is a beautiful, haunting contradiction between abandoned, rusting man-made objects and the natural beauty of the island; between the old brick houses and the modern shipwrecks. The soundtrack goes above and beyond – its delivery mostly gorgeous and sometimes eerie, not unlike the tale being woven.

Portions of the story are left open to interpretation, though by the conclusion of Dear Esther, you will have quite a clear idea of who’s who and why each character and place mentioned is important. It’s a pattern of repetition, with each mention of the aerial, Jakobson, Donnelly, and the museum slowly revealing more and more about their nature. To consider it exclusively as a game would render the experience sub-par. It is more accurate to consider it an interactive story – one that is poetically written and beautiful to take in.

My rating: 8 (out of 10)

Xbox 360 review: Fallout 3

I'm not particularly familiar with the other entries into the Fallout series, but I am familiar with Bethesda's work on the Elder Scrolls series. In Elder Scrolls, players were allowed to choose their race and class, and then follow a series of quests relevant to the main story as well as a number of other optional side quests, and the basic formula is carried over to Fallout 3. The major differences, though, are the amount of freedoms in play style granted in Fallout 3, as well as the genuine development of the Lone Wanderer, the game's main character. For an American style RPG, Fallout 3 is surprisingly involved and the story quite engaging.

The Lone Wanderer (as he/she will later come to be known) is the character players assume control of, and begin the game by customizing their looks and attributes. While no two Lone Wanderers will look quite the same, their intended outcome in the story will carry only slight variation. Growing up in Vault 101, the Lone Wanderer is constantly told that life outside the vault is impossible. When the character's father escapes the Vault, the overseer's daughter suspects that her father may not have been entirely honest with Vault 101's inhabitants and aids the Lone Wanderer in his escape. What lies outside in the remains of Washington D.C. is a struggle for power, and players will encounter the many people caught up in it as they travel through makeshift towns and across the Capital Wasteland in search of their father for answers on why Vault 101 was isolated and - more importantly - why he left so suddenly. With all of that in mind, this is still an American style RPG, and the characters that players encounter will be more fleshed out and interesting than the Lone Wanderer, regardless of what path players choose to take from beginning to end.

Interacting with as many individuals as possible is the best way for players to open up new side quests. Some side quests will require players to interact with characters in a positive or negative tone, which can affect the Lone Wanderer's karma. Ultimately these side quests can earn players small rewards, such as new armor and weaponry, or more valuable rewards, such as the ability to enlist the aid of a partner in combat.

Players are given some freedom in how they wish to take to combat. The option of real-time traditional gun-wielding requires players to aim manually, but (assuming they can hit the broad side of a barn) will almost guarantee a direct hit on an enemy AI. VATS mode freezes the game temporarily and allows players to target specific body parts of enemies. While in this mode, players can see the chance they have of hitting said body part from their current range and the damage already dealt to the body part. This mode has a limited numbers of subsequent uses, and players must wait for it to recharge before using it on the next enemy. VATS mode also generally deals less damage to an enemy, unless a certain body part has reached critical state. This keeps players from becoming too reliant on the system, though when facing down hordes of mutated wildlife in the Capital Wasteland - many of which come charging at players full speed - the usage limit can be a minor annoyance.
Even if players choose not to utilize this system frequently for combat, it can still be a helpful tool for scoping out enemies before they spot you.

Combat is not the only way that players are able to earn experience points. Conversations with the Capital Wasteland's populous and completion of side quests can net players experience points, as can picking locks and hacking terminals. Upon leveling up, players are allowed to choose whichever skills and attributes they wish to improve, as well as a perk they can add to their repertoire. If a player started out with one primary character type in mind but decided later on that they wanted to change their character to better fit a different role, it's no problem. That said, as with any RPG, leveling up takes time and players cannot simply switch their character's strengths and weaknesses back and forth at a moment's notice.

There are some minor inconsistencies in the difficulty setting of Fallout 3. For the most part, the game seems a little too easy on the 'normal' setting, as missions are quite straightforward and players will find they have ample supplies. A few scenarios may require a trial-and-error process from players, but there are almost always loopholes to be found when facing down small groups of enemies. However, on a handful of occasions while travelling the Capital Wasteland from one mission point to the next, players will come across enemies that are either too strong or in too great of numbers to allow them to advance. Players can either temporarily dumb down the difficulty setting and deal with the issue immediately, or they can scour the Capital Wasteland in search of side quests in order to level up. This drastic shift in difficulty is only present a handful of times during the main game, but it stands out enough to cause a bit of an annoyance. In some instances, players will receive aid from the Brotherhood of Steel or partner characters in the Capital Wasteland. In these situations, players can more or less allow the AI to do most of the heavy combat if they so choose, though it will be at the cost of gaining fewer experience points.

Graphically, the game is quite impressive. As much of a decaying city as Washington D.C. has become, colorful advertisements reminiscent of the 1950s plastered over a drab post-apocalyptic world carry a great deal of aesthetic appeal. The attention to detail is impressive - any building that players can enter and explore does not look recycled from any earlier area, and subway tunnels are comprised of varying layouts. Even the rubble and random junk lying around Washington D.C. is varied from one location to the next. The soundtrack is a mixture of licensed and original pieces; the former complimenting the more colorful and amusing elements of the Fallout world, and the latter conveying the epic scale and dire circumstances of the situation at hand.

Despite an overall play style that seems to aim more for a shooter-based RPG experience, there is plenty of variety to be found in Fallout 3. While there are some minor inconsistencies in the main game, the side quests generally allows players more freedom and range from relatively simple to rather demanding, and the rewards tend to reflect this. While the main game's story is very well-executed, it ends all too quickly and Bethesda could have devoted some more time to this aspect. Still, there's rarely a dull moment throughout and RPG fans will find plenty of replay value in scouring every nook and cranny of the vast Capital Wasteland.

My rating: 8.5 (out of 10)

Shogun 2 Total War update: assassinations

New gameplay footage from Shogun 2 Total War was released just a few days ago, highlighting the new assassination option. Check out the video below:



I have to say, the environments look phenomenal and the detail in each soldier's armor is impressive. You can see these in greater detail in the gameplay trailer:



Finally, for those who have not yet seen the original announcement trailer for Shogun2 Total War:

Xbox 360 review: Bioshock 2

Flashback to New Year’s Eve, 1958. It is a very short while before the midnight attacks at the Kashmir Restaurant, and Delta and his companion Little Sister, Eleanor Lamb, begin their rounds searching for ADAM. Eleanor, being a playful child, decides to run off ahead, but is cornered by Splicers. She screams for help, and Delta rushes to her rescue, making mince meat of all but one of the Splicers, who manages to throw a Hypnotize plasmid at Delta. Sofia Lamb then appears, reminding Delta that Eleanor is in fact her daughter and not his, despite what his conditioning has taught him. Sofia then instructs Delta to remove his helmet, put a pistol to his head, and pull the trigger. The last thing Delta witnesses is Eleanor screaming “DADDY!” before he blacks out. Then the ominous Bioshock 2 logo appears.

Thus is the beginning of 2K’s sequel to their 2007 smash-hit Bioshock. Players can now finally return to the dystopian city that Andrew Ryan built. The 1940s and 50s art style is still present, though much of the city has been reclaimed by the ocean. The levels are all new – no area has returned from the first game. Each of these new areas is largely a retooled version of a level from the first game (Fort Frolic has been altered to become Dionysus Park, Apollo Square has become Pauper’s Drop, and Hephaestus has become Persephone). However, these new areas are different enough that they don’t feel like a rehash, only as if there is something hauntingly familiar about them. And yes, the soundtrack follows a similar pattern, combining both Garry Schyman’s original compositions with songs of the time period, including Artie Shaw’s “Nightmare”, Todd Rollin’s “The Boogie Man”, and Eddy Duchin’s “My Heart Belongs to Daddy”.


Though Jack was technically tied to Rapture, he played the role of an outsider looking in. As Delta, you are a Big Daddy who – despite his free will – has lost everything and is left only with a desire to seek out his former Little Sister, Eleanor. As such, the story is less about discovering Rapture as a whole. Bioshock 2 begins with the presumption that you have played the first game and gets off the ground much more quickly than the first game. One of the largest focuses of Bioshock 2 is the Big Daddy-Little Sister relationship. As a liberated Big Daddy, Delta is both directly linked to this and removed from it, as he is no longer attached to his Little Sister.

Your guide this time around is Augustus Sinclair, a character who was only briefly mentioned in the first game. He is a businessman who wanted to capitalize on everything he could during Rapture’s heyday. Since the Civil War and Sofia Lamb’s takeover, Sinclair has been trying his best to survive. When he pairs up with Delta, he leaves the moral choice fork-in-the-road segments up to the player, as opposed to Atlas and Tenenbaum’s attempts to sway Jack in regards to the Little Sisters in the first game. While Delta’s choice to harvest or rescue the Little Sisters does affect the final outcome of the game, players are also responsible for determining the fates of three normal human characters as the story progresses.

This is a game that is just as blood-spattered and violent as the first. An M-rating is only fitting. And while the conflicting ideals of Ryan and Fontaine are not central to the story this time around, the material in Bioshock 2 is still a lot to stomach for anyone younger than 17 years old. 2K has weaved together a fantastic story and it will undoubtedly make evoke emotions from players. The entire mood of the game is incredibly melancholy and quite frankly depressing at times. As brilliant as the first game was, it simply cannot compare to the emotions conveyed in Bioshock 2.


With the first game, players were exposed to a human vs. human conflict between Ryan and Fontaine. Players were meant to determine for themselves which of the two characters was the lesser evil, if either was better off at all. In the sequel, who is good and who is evil is more heavily implied (though still not explicitly stated). By the end of the game (or perhaps only a few hours in if they are skeptical enough), players will be convinced that Sofia Lamb is desperate and insane.

With all that in mind, the story isn’t nearly as complex. True, much of the underlying politics between key characters is left unexposed until the last few levels of the game. In fact, Delta’s true identity isn’t even touched on in the slightest until roughly ten hours into the game. This isn’t entirely a bad thing, as it allows more time to focus on and develop the other characters. But the true identity of Delta will understandably not offer as great of a plot twist as the true identity of Jack did in the first game.

A large part of Bioshock’s story came from the sequences in which players were unable to interact with Jack, and the fact that any given cutscene was carried out from a first-person perspective. That is still the case in Bioshock 2, and the non-interactive sequences deal out some excellent shock value.

The side stories players can discover through audio diaries cover a much broader spectrum than in the first game, and offer some unusual perspectives on the game's events. Delta's story is the main focus of the game, and the conclusion of the game will likely spark some controversy among fans.

Though Bioshock 2 uses the same Unreal engine as its predecessor, there are many noticeable changes. The graphics have been updated, but don’t sacrifice the merging of real world with cartoon-style that was introduced in the first game. The AI has undergone drastic alterations and the game is both more challenging and more immersive because of this. Though Delta is able to fire his plasmids and weaponry at the same time, this increase in power is balanced by increasing the number of enemies he encounters at any given time. Hacking has been retooled and now uses a timed minigame involving a moving bar and various colored areas, as opposed to the previous pipe puzzle minigame. While it does move much more smoothly than the pipe game, this new style of hacking can leave players exposed to enemy attacks, as it plays out in real-time.


The plasmid powers available in Bioshock 2 aren’t much different from those in the first game, save for one notable exception in the last level. As players acquire more ADAM, however, they can upgrade the plasmids, which will in turn alter the way they work. For example, the Electro-shock plasmid will jump to multiple enemies when upgraded to the third and final level.

In Bioshock, players were encouraged to build up their ammo and EVE hypo reserves before engaging a Big Daddy. Considering players now control a Big Daddy, these particular fights aren’t quite as challenging or spectacular. True, the newest Big Daddy type, the Rumbler, will deal out more pain to players than the Bouncer or the Rosie. But the most impressive fights come from two events very closely knit with the main story. The first are the Big Sister fights, which occur directly after either harvesting or rescuing the last Little Sister in any given level. While a Big Sister’s health is comparable to that of a Big Daddy, she is significantly faster and more agile, often latching on to Delta’s helmet and punching him in the visor. The second challenging battle sequence arises from a Little Sister gather. Delta can adopt the Little Sisters associated with the other Big Daddies in order to have them extract ADAM from corpses around Rapture. When a gather sequence occurs, players will be met by an onslaught of Splicers until the Little Sister completes her extraction. As the game progresses, players can utilize trap rivets, hacked security bots, the cyclone trap plasmid combined with other plasmids, and miniature auto-turrets to fortify the radius around the Little Sister.


One of the largest selling points for the sequel is the inclusion of online multiplayer. Included are deathmatch and team deathmatch modes, known as Survival of the Fittest and Civil War respectively. Also included are Capture the Sister (a clever spin on the traditional capture the flag), ADAM Grab and Team ADAM Grab (both keep-away variants), Last Splicer Standing, and Turf War (where players compete for territorial control).

The multiplayer mode allows players to choose from a host of characters specifically designed for this new mode. Players can customize their plasmid and weapon loadout, as well as unlock gene tonics as they level up. The level-up system will allot points to a player even if they aren’t victorious in a round - they will just earn significantly less in experience points than a player on the winning team. The multiplayer also has a story mode woven into it, chronicling the events of the selectable characters during Rapture’s Civil War.


Overall, the multiplayer works very well. It feels similar to Team Fortress 2, unsurprisingly as both games use derivatives of the Havok gaming engine. Although players can utilize the Big Daddy suit during certain points in a round, it will allot the user greater damage resistance in exchange for use of their plasmids. As such, the Big Daddy still is a force to be reckoned with, but doesn’t feel overpowerful so long as the other players are smart when they attempt to take him down.

Bioshock 2 is a fitting sequel in every way. It can never replace the original, and it doesn’t try to. Instead it offers a new story from a new perspective and gives players a truly gratifying experience. Every improvement made in the sequel shines through brilliantly, while the mechanics that were left untouched flow just as fluidly as ever. I am glad that 2K pushed the game back from its original November 2009 release to February of 2010, as nearly everything was fine-tuned to perfection. Players can delve deeper into the mystery and horror that lurks in the halls of Rapture and experience some of the most solid gameplay available on this generation’s consoles.

My rating: 9.5 (out of 10)

25 Days of Christmas - #6: Rome: Total War

Few strategy games can hold a candle to the Total War franchise. Shogun: Total War started the acclaimed series, bringing plenty of new ideas to the table. Medieval: Total War solidified the game mechanics and expanded the world and units available to the player. And while both of these games are great in their own right, Rome: Total War towers over the other two as the greatest game in the series.

Rome: Total War puts players in control of various nations during the height of the Roman empire. Initially, players will be constrained to the three Roman houses of Brutii, Julii, and Scipii. There are two campaign modes available, each with different objectives. The shorter campaign is a good way to unlock more nations quickly, but puts a greater constraint on resources for the entire campaign. The longer campaign requires players to take hold of fifty provinces and capture the city of Rome. While these objectives are far more challenging, the time allowed and long-term resources available help ease stress on players.

Each city requires its own specific attention, and players will be required to attend to these in order to prevent revolts from occurring. In conjunction with this, players must also balance their troops in the field with those left behind to defend cities. Building types range from religious temples to gathering halls to military barracks and stables. Early on, cities will require the most basic construction, laying out roads and setting up defensive walls. Thankfully, all of the construction management requires the player to merely select what they want to be completed and the buildings will be erected over a predetermined number of turns.


Military units vary from one nation to the next. The houses of Rome, for instance, use the Vilites as their range spearmen, the Equites as cavalry, and the Principes as their elite swordsmen. The Egyptians on the other hand, rely on axmen as their grunt footsoldiers and horse-drawn chariots as their cavalry. Some nations, such as Carthage, will have exclusive units such as the war elephant. Apart from the traditionally trained units, mercenaries can be hired while travelling in territories outside of the player’s home nation. These units are expensive, but do not require time to be trained. Recruiting mercenaries improves a general’s reputation as a commanding officer.

Other specialist units can be trained, including diplomats, spies, and assassins. Diplomats can bribe the troops of other factions to disband or sometimes convince military leaders to defect to your army. Diplomats can also develop friendly relations with other nations, setting up trade routes and alliances. Spies are useful for scoping out the number of troops in a unit or confirming the defenses of an enemy city. Spies will level up with each successful infiltration. Assassins are the most limited unit reserved mainly for an easy kill on an enemy general or royal family member.

The overworld map of Rome: Total War is set up as turned-based strategy. Each group of soldiers is limited more or less in their range of motion depending on whether their army is comprised primarily of footsoldiers, cavalry, or a combination of the two. The combat system switches to real-time, and players can pause the game at any point during the battle to issue new orders to their units without being distracted by the chaos of the ensuing battle.


Outside of the main campaign, players can set up their own custom battles in a large number of battlefields. They can include up to four nations on two sides of the conflict, and can alter the rank of each individual unit. Even tiny details, such as the weather and time of day can be tinkered with, and have a major impact on the outcome of the battle. Players can also engage in historical battles, which are some of the most challenging in the game. An online mode of play is also available, further expanding the extra material available outside of the main game.

Rome: Total War is a unique PC gaming experience that few other strategy games can even come close to rivaling. The controls are fluid and the menus are easy to navigate. While the main mechanics remain consistent through the entire game, each nation has its own strengths and weaknesses, as well as unique units. Rome: Total War forces players to think twice before making diplomatic decisions, as declaring either war or an alliance has its consequences.

25 Days of Christmas - #8: Half-Life 2

In 1998, Valve released their landmark game Half-Life, which took the FPS genre in a whole new direction. This was a game that focused less on the run-and-gun gameplay of popular titles like Doom, but rather chose to present players with obstacles and allow them to figure out how to get around them. Some of these obstacles were enemies, who needed to be killed in order for hero Gordon Freeman to continue his journey. Other obstacles were barricades that could be torn apart with the crowbar. Some obstacles required Freeman to carry out a side mission in the style of Metroid and do some brief backtracking in order to restore power to a generator or find the correct switch that would open a door. Half-Life was an incredibly linear game, but offered some very creative environments and forced players to watch their moves carefully.

After much toil at Black Mesa, Freeman is finally able to close the portal between Earth and Xen, cutting off the alien forces. However, Dr. Freeman doesn’t receive a traditional heroic ending, and is instead put to work for the mysterious G-Man. His life spared, Freeman enters a stasis sleep for almost two decades. When he awakens again, Freeman finds that Earth has been conquered by another alien race known as the Combine. The human race has been spared, but people are forced into following strict living conditions and constantly live in fear of the Combine.


This dystopian world is the setting for Half-Life 2. As Gordon Freeman fights the Combine forces alongside his new partner Alyx Vance, he encounters many former colleagues from Black Mesa. Barney Calhoun, a former security guard, aids Gordon by opening passageways for him and rallying people to fight against the Combine. Scientist Issac Kleiner gives Gordon directions and later uses hijacked television channels and radio stations to inform the citizens of City 17 of what they should do after the human revolt has started. Eli Vance, Alyx’s father, was wounded sometime after the events at Black Mesa, but is constantly watching out for the safety of Alyx and Gordon, as well as offering moral support to the duo.

However, another former Black Mesa employee shows up in City 17 as the primary antagonist. Dr. Wallace Breen carries out the role of being the human representative to the Combine, as well as a Combine propaganda tool. His broadcasts can be heard all throughout City 17. Later in the game, once the human revolt is well under way, Breen will focus his broadcasts directly at Freeman, fruitlessly attempting to stop him from dismantling the Combine rule.


The world is visually stunning in Half-Life 2. Scattered around the drab streets of City 17 are various propaganda posters of Dr. Breen. Most of the buildings are old and the doors and signs bear writings in a dialect of Russian. Outside of the city walls, the sands of the shoreline are bright and largely untouched. In contrast, the oldest part of City 17, Ravenholm, is dark and almost completely devoid of life, save for the headcrab and zombie infestation, as well as the lone surviving human Father Grigori. These distinctly different environments work events to their advantage brilliantly. The narrow streets and building interiors focus heavily on combat with zombies and Combine forces, while open areas give players more freedom to explore in the vehicles.

While physics played an important role in the original Half-Life, they become the center of the sequel’s gamplay. Initially, Freeman is limited to his crowbar in order to break boxes and solve puzzles. Not too long into the game, however, he acquires the gravity gun, which plays a dual role as both a weapon and a tool. Players will find the gravity gun useful for stacking boxes in order to reach a certain height, or hurling heavy objects at Combine troops during combat. There is a well-balanced variety of weapons in the game, from the classic pistol, to the melee crowbar, to the one-hit-kill crossbow. But racking up kills with any of these weapons doesn’t quite give you the same satisfaction as disposing of an enemy by hurling a toilet or oil drum at their face.


The AI in Half-Life 2 in fantastic, and only hits one or two snags throughout the entire game. The friendly forces think before charging into an area heavy with gunfire. Likewise, Combine forces will always try to take on Dr. Freeman in numbers, and will stay a safe distance from him if fighting solo.

Half-Life 2 takes everything from the first game and turns it up more than just a few notches. The gameplay is fluid and never stops for cutscenes. Every event is scripted into the gameplay, making players feel immersed in the world. The game will last players a decent time length – not too long, but not too short either. Half-Life 2 is easily one of the most creative FPS titles ever released, topping even its prequel.

25 Days of Christmas - #14: Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic

Over the past few years, BioWare has had an explosion of successful titles released. While Mass Effect and Dragon Age: Origins may be the two most talked about titles from the company at present, a large part of the company's success can be traced back to their first big licensed game: Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic. It was one of the more successful games on the Xbox, a system that, aside from Halo, struggled to find big games that would leave their mark. The game’s impressive sales on the Xbox were surprising due to the fact that the title was primarily marketed towards the PC audience. Regardless of which port gamers played, they were in store for a Star Wars game that would change not only the LucasArts franchise, but the RPG genre as a whole.

The thing about Star Wars that separates it from every other licensed series is that most of the games are actually good. Certainly there will be the occasional piece of rubbish that is released, but for the most part LucasArts has a great track record with their published games. Knights of the Old Republic broke away from the traditional Star Wars story, focusing on neither the Galactic Civil War, nor the Clone Wars. Instead, the game took players back thousands of years to the great war between the sith and jedi for control of the old republic systems. Players assume command of a character with no past, and can name him or her whatever they so choose. They can focus attributes and skills into three classes, which can be customized at the player’s discretion as they level up. And although the story mode forces players to complete the jedi trials at one point, players can choose to refrain from using the force and/or their lightsaber if they so choose.

The characters in Knights of the Old Republic are ingeniously designed, and play off one another perfectly. The fact of the matter is that – no matter how hard you might try to be a peacemaker – not every character is going to get along with one another. Canderous will always view himself as one of the greatest warriors the galaxy has ever known, and isn’t afraid to boast about it. Carth has his own inner demons to deal with and is never completely trusting of anyone. Mission lives for adventure, but is more concerned with the well-being of the party than herself. Every one of the characters that joins your party has been scrutinized by the developers down to the tiniest of details. Even assassin droid HK-47 has a personality all his own, offering the player with sadistic humor and advice that is somewhat insulting to their intellect.


The planets are so vastly different from one another that things rarely feel repetitive. The only exception to this would probably be on Taris. It serves as the central hub before the quest for the Star Map begins, and players carry out a large number of tasks there. This requires a fair amount of backtracking which can be monotonous at times, but the payoff for most missions on Taris grants the player with large boosts to their combat skill and overall experience points.

Combat plays out beautifully in Knights of the Old Republic, and is in large part why BioWare’s later games were so successful. When encountering an enemy, the game pauses temporarily, allowing players to assign targets and attacks to each party member. Once everything has been determined, players can un-pause the game and watch their party fight it out. But players can also choose to pause the game again in the midst of battle if they wish for characters to switch targets or attacks.


The variety of weapons available in the game is impressive. Melee weapons range from the milder vibro blades and stun batons to the more powerful lightsabers. Firearms are divided into two groups: dual-wieldable and the larger two-handed guns. Blaster pistols are provided in plentiful amounts early on in the game, but scouring sith weapons caches may occasionally reveal an assassin pistol or two. Rifles are the heaviest weapons one can find on Taris, but Dantooine and Kashyyyk hold plenty of disruptor rifles and crossbows, which are far more accurate and deadly. Most party members have trademark weapons that can be customized with additions such as the hair trigger and energy cell. Lightsabers can be altered in attack focus and blade color by swapping out crystals. Even armor can be upgraded with mesh underlay and reinforcement.


Depending on whether the character chooses the light or dark path, different force powers will be unlocked. Light-side powers tend to focus more on healing and stunning enemies, whereas dark-side powers are centered more around injuring enemies and crippling droids. Every character you interact with, every decision you make in the game determines the outcome of the story. This coupled with a truly creative story makes the experience all the more engaging. Knights of the Old Republic also deserves a round of applause for its inclusion of one of the greatest plot twists ever included in a video game.

Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic is a title that every Star Wars fan should experience. There are some traditional RPG fans who criticize the game for using a real-time combat system. But to me, it wouldn’t make sense to do it any other way. The soundtrack feels new and creative, but the overall vibe is still classic Star Wars. The buildings and spaceships foreshadow those in the films and other Star Wars media. While Knights of the Old Republic definitely deserves recognition as one of the best Star Wars experiences, it also deserves recognition for redefining RPG titles and PC gaming.

25 Days of Christmas - #16: Roller Coaster Tycoon

When it comes to simulation games, most are just a flash-in-the-pan. Sure, SimCity did great, as did The Sims. But Railroad Tycoon, Mall Tycoon, and SimTown were all names that got swept under the rug and were forgotten. It came as somewhat of a surprise to me when Chris Sawyer’s big take on the simulation genre was released, titled Roller Coaster Tycoon. How in the world could the prospect of managing a theme park be a legitimately enjoyable experience?

Roller Coaster Tycoon both limits you as a player and allows you to do almost whatever you desire. There is a cap on how much money you can take out as a loan, but the way the park is setup, the number and types of rides and their intensities, the landscaping, the food and drink available – all of this is up to the player’s discretion. The profits made off the rides will largely depend on the guests attending the park. Most guests have a tolerance for a medium-intensity coaster and carry enough money to pay for a few rides on said coasters, as while as the various thrill rides and any food purchases they might make. Occasionally, a guest with tolerance for high-intensity rides will enter the park and find that the thrill rides and wooden coasters are not exciting enough for his or her tastes. It is for guests like these that you build steel and inverted coasters – the rides that will perform loops, corkscrews, barrel rolls, helixes, and the like. On the other end of the spectrum, there will sometimes be guests who look for more tame attractions, such as go-karts, haunted houses, and log flumes. The dynamics of all three guest types forces the player to accommodate to each of their preferences if he or she wishes to make their park a success and meet the criteria to complete a level.


The sheer number of rides available is an impressive feat in and of itself. While wooden and steel coasters are the foundation of the game, the various water rides and fun houses will flesh out the park. Players can choose to decorate the park with various trees and flower beds to up the positive rating their park receives, though this is not necessary to complete most rounds. Keeping mechanics, security guards, and handymen on staff is necessary, however, as they will keep the park running smoothly. While the mechanics are there for obvious reasons, the other two employee positions affect the park rating, overall guest happiness, and monetary earnings. In short, the better you park looks, the happier guests are, the more money they spend at your park, and the better reputation your park gains.

Weather and terrain will affect your earnings and guest happiness as well. More flat environments are both ideal for building rides, as well as keep guests from needing to travel long distances to reach them. The early levels provide players with land that is easy to work with, letting them get their feet wet. Later levels, however, will prove to be incredibly challenging, placing many parks on semi-ridiculous inclines or areas with significant water coverage. While the weather only changes to rain every so often, it will cause many guests to shy away from rides temporarily and has a noticeable impact on sales.

Roller Coaster Tycoon uses a simple yet effective building tool. The parks are diverse and give players a greater challenge with each new park that is unlocked. There is no specific way that players have to go about meeting these challenges, and a great amount of freedom is granted to the player without making things too easy for them. An addictive and cleverly designed title, Roller Coaster Tycoon deserves a spot at the top of the mountain of simulation titles.

25 Days of Christmas - #23: Rise of Nations

If there is any single gaming genre that I find to be incredibly underrated and unexplored, it is real-time strategy. By the end of the 1990s, the hype of PC gaming was fading. With the Playstation and N64 dominating the industy, it would be a while before PC gaming picked itself back up. And while PC gaming today is not at the height of its former glory, it certainly has risen in popularity over the past few years. Even so, there were quite a few games that were largely ignored during that dormant period of almost a decade. One such real-time strategy title was Rise of Nations.

While licensed material such as Star Wars: Galactic Battlegrounds played out well enough, it really didn’t bring any new ideas to the table. Starcraft, widely considered one of the greatest RTS games ever, was past its initial hype factor. Medieval Total War was one of the last PC titles to receive much coverage for some time. Both changed RTS gameplay significantly, and became staples of the genre (the first arguably more so than the latter). A year after Medieval Total War was released, Rise of Nations came out. While it certainly didn’t sport the greatest graphics, Rise of Nations offered some solid gameplay and left the entire outcome up to the player’s discretion.

One of the larger criticisms of Rise of Nations is its lack of a core story. The reason for this is the option to play as any one of 18 distinct nations. These range from the more traditional French, German, and Russian, to the less mainstream like the Aztecs and Bantu. Each nation has specific unique soldiers and vehicles. The game breaks the mold of RTS titles before it by allowing players a sort of ‘level-up’ system, in which they can race to research the technology of the next era in order to try and gain a leg-up on their opponents.


Resources are varied and plentiful, but players will have to choose what is more valuable. The easiest to manage are farms, which allow for more citizens to live in a city, and therefore construct more buildings. Constructing a city near a mountain or forest allows for the construction of mines and logging camps. The payoff is distributed to the player in the form of gold for overall spending and metal/wood for constructing buildings and training military units. Trading posts can also be set up around the more valuable resources, such as marble and silk, boats can gather fish, and oil platforms can be constructed. While these earn you money much more quickly, they are generally set between your land and that of the opposing empire, making them highly contested. So while the initial few levels are fairly simple to complete (in part due to the fact that the world map is largely unexplored at the start), the challenge increases greatly as the player advances through each major era. By the time one has reached the modern age, managing your resources is based on what is necessary and what is expendable.

The game has several difficulty settings that will largely affect the time it takes to complete a round. The clock is generally set at 90 minutes per round, which is more than necessary on the ‘easy’ setting. However, some players may find themselves pressed for time when playing on the hardest difficulty.

Rise of Nations included a surprisingly smooth-playing and enjoyable online multiplayer experience outside of the core game. Players were allowed to choose from any one of the 18 nations and go head-to-head in a race to build their defensive and offensive forces, as well as research tech. Also available was a map creation tool that allowed players to choose from a number of environments (desert, jungle, deciduous forest, etc.) and create custom battles.

Rise of Nations was one of those rare gems of a game that managed to slip under the radar due to the release of the new Gamecube, Playstation 2, and Xbox systems. Nonetheless, it is one of the best RTS titles I have ever played. It offers an astounding amount of freedom without sacrificing the challenge of managing your troops and resources.