Third Week

Third week of the year next week, and it's time for another review!

A storm is brewing, the maws of destruction are closing and death incarnate walks again.

Starcraft 2

And, few of the people I talked to guessed right.
Actually... No one did.

Also, one new thing in this one! I left overall grades of the game at the bottom of the page, so just scroll down if you feel pressed for time!

So, I'll reveal the logic behind the clue.
"A god revived."
Starcraft is one of the best and most succesful games ever made, and it has been revived in a second one.
And the rest of the sentence points towards the different races.


So, to start off I'm going to bash this game into the ground.

Starcraft 2... A game so far away from the original game that it can barely even be called Starcraft.

First off... Graphics, they are fucking amazing, I mean literally, amazing.
But, it fails to capture "Starcraft".
It feels like I'm watching a cartoon, the atmosphere is far from as serious and dark as it was in Starcraft, and therefore does not appeal to me that much.


And the campaigns. I have to bash them as well.
What is up with that anyways?
It feels like they literally hired some cheesy hollywood director.
The moment I watched the trailer I knew it would this "Epic journey for righteousness blah blah blah" shit going on.
Sure, epic journeys are fun.
But try to keep the cheesyness out, please.
Aside from the obvious cheesyness though, excellent campaign!
The story writing was good, cheesy, but good. And the missions were fun in all its glory.
Definately recommend playing through the campaign if you happen to get it!

And the multiplayer part... Blizzard personifies Evil Greedy Bastards.
They copyright every fucking custom map, DotA was being made for Starcraft 2, until this was announced...
You cannot as a respectful developer make a map for Starcraft 2 without feeling a sting in your soul.
They really failed in this.
Warcraft 3, I love you for making that game. The map editor. <3
And Starcraft 2 showed so much promise... Switching to C++ and all.
But no, they had to ruin it with their greedy policy.
This... Was a huge dissapointment.

And that's pretty much all the bad I have to say about it... So on to the goodies.


Gameplay... Brilliant.
It is one of the most masterfully balanced games I've ever seen.
And all the races are unique and fun in their own way.
Although it failed to keep the dark atmosphere that I so loved in the first Starcraft, it is still one of the most awesome RTS games I have ever played.

And of course the voice acting that the Blizzard staff are so fond of.
I fucking love them, they are hilarious.
I can just sit clicking units to hear the fucked up shit that all the units say, this really adds an edge to the game!

And to finish off...
This is a love/hate relationship game.
I hate Blizzard for not reviving my god, but I love them for making this game as awesome as it is.
I definately recommend buying this, regardless of price. It is an epic game for RTS lovers out there.



Overall scores:
Graphics: 7/10 Amazing, but fails to capture me as much as the first did.
Gameplay: 8/10 Also amazing, wonderfully balanced and fun overall.
Campaign/Storyline: 6/10 Amazing (Feels like I use that word a lot...) but extremely cheesy.

Overall: 7/10 Amazing game, but not enough to get my nerdgasm going.


Nuclear Launch Detected.
Abandon Battle Stations.

A Peek

The game for next weeks review has been decided.

I will give you a riddle like text to give you a hint of what's to come.
However, after this game. You will be deciding what game I will be reviewing, so post in the comments what game you would like me to review!

An old god is revived, fight for survival, righteousness and evolution.

First Review

Now, to my first review.
Constructive criticism is welcome.

The game I will be reviewing is... Armoured Core: For Answers!



When I stood inside the gamestore looking at the game, I was really excited about buying it, I mean. Come on. Mechas, what's not to love?

And I had already played an Armoured Core game, that I found quite fun.
What intrigued me the most was that it was the first AC game that featured Co-Op campaign. I have not been able to try this feature out yet as I just recently recieved another controller for my Smexbox 360.

But, Single-Handedly I went out on my epic journey to play this game.

When I started it up I was absolutely stunned by the intro. Really, that is some amazing animation. It's so life like it feels like I could reach in and touch it.
Thumbs up on that! I love it.

Moving on, what annoyed me about the last game was the lack of an actual plot... You were just thrown right into the action with next to no idea of what was going on.
And, with a title like For Answers you'd guess that this would clear things up...
Well, it did. But. It left me just as dumbstruck as the first game.

The game is filled with plot holes, not to mention the end bosses. What the fuck?

I won't spoil. But if you're looking for a good story you're in for one of the worst rides of your life.

Moving onto graphics, seeing as the intro was so masterfully done.
Also, a big dissapointment.
I'm not sure, but the graphics may be even worse than that of Armoured Core 4.
It might be the fact that I'm now playing at Full HD and thus the details are revealed.
But it seems they put a lot less effort into it... The explosions are not near as awesome.
And the scenery is boring... It's way too plain. Every map is basically a straight line on some open space.
In the last game you were running around cities or fields strips or dropping down giant tubes while hundreds of defence turrets were shooting at you.
Where did all this go?



Enough bashing, on to the one part I actually enjoyed.
The gameplay.

Even though the controls were a bit uncanny you get the hang of it pretty fast.
The auto aim is immense though, so there won't be much getting the hang of.
I had terrible fun playing through this game the first time, there's just not much that mounts up to piloting a giant mecha the size of a 3 story building, flying around shooting other mechas.

And combine speed with dual Miniguns and you get unprecedented carnage. They do awesome damage at close range, it's a shame they weigh a ton and takes a tank model mecha to carry.

And as I said, the first time it was awesome. The second time... Meh, it just didn't cut it.

In short terms: Awesome but repetitive gameplay.

But... Here's what makes the game so great.
Most reviewers have said that what made the Call of Duty games great is customization...
Well then you obviously haven't played mecha games.

Oh the customizations... There are hundreds of weapons, chassies and so on.

The game restricts this alot though, since mounting twin heavy bombardment cannons to a lightweight mecha would be... Strange.
There are basically 4 types of Mechas, Heavy, Light, Medium and... Energy.

Energy you ask?

Well, there are two types of weaponry. Conventional and Energy, which both have Heavy, Light and Medium categories.
Energy weapons are laser guns and were slightly overpowered in the last games, but that has now switched over to Conventional weaponry due to the nerfing of a certain energy gun and buffing of the Minigun.


To finish it off...

Definately worth the 150kr I put into the game. But not more.
It's a decent game at best, and it barely cuts it for me.

Buy it if you find it cheap and want to waste a couple of hours of your life on pure Mecha combat.
However, if you're looking for something to absolutely blow your mind, stay away.