Author: MoreLikeAndy

Contributing Writer at Geekscape.

Geekscape Games Geek Peek Review: ‘Retro/Grade’

by MoreLikeAndy

Retro/Grade ends up winning the award for “I didn’t know that was possible.” It actually had me thinking back to an old episode of The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air where Will Smith had the idea for a book called ‘Celebrity Houses…At Night!” Both ideas are insane and shouldn’t work at all. Somehow, the folks over at 24 Caret Games managed to mash together a shoot-em-up and a rhythm game and have it actually work better than I expected.

 

Retro/Grade has you jump in the role of Rick Rocket who has to restore the space-time continuum before the whole universe is destroyed by the temporal anomaly. The only way you can restore the balance is to play in reverse. Essentially, you are undoing everything that was already played out before you take control. The rhythm part of the equation comes into play in that you have to time your button presses to your shots that are collected as you go in reverse. While doing this, you need to avoid the enemies attacks that appear behind as well as in front of you at times.

Using a crazy neon color scheme, it can be hard to keep track of everything, especially the higher you go in the six difficulty levels. I had a hard time in pro mode due to the colors blending in with the things I was suppose to avoid thus losing track of the shots I was suppose to collect. I didn’t have a PS3 guitar controller to test out but with dexterity and speed you need in order to go back and forth on the note lines reminded me how bad my reaction times are lately. The electro-pop music is charming and I was never in full head-bobbing motion while trying to keep my multiplier up, although I could just use my limited meter to reverse time and correct my screw-ups.

The only thing wrong with this elaborate mix-up of game genres is that there is not enough to keep you engaged past the ten campaign levels. There’s a challenge mode but that just rehashes the same levels with a specific objective for you to do. Even the music seems to sound the same after awhile. Taking a chance seemed to payoff for 24 Caret Games in creating Retro/Grade, it just left me wanting more of its goodness.

Everybody’s Gaming For The Weekend Of August 17th, 2012!

by MoreLikeAndy

With the insane amount of info pouring out of Gamescom combined with three really big games released this week –one of them being Sleeping Dogs which I reviewed, You might not have time for anything this weekend. For those few that have all the time in the world or power through their new games too fast, here are some things you should look at this weekend.

 

Iron Brigade – PC, XBLA

I can be one of those people who said, “I played this when it was called Trenched“, but that wouldn’t benefit me other than showing that I am a douche. One of the few Tower Defense style games that I really love playing, Iron Brigade comes to the PC with the Rise of the Martian Bear DLC free that console players had to pay for. It’s not as fun protecting your base alone so grab a few of your friends and fire up those mobile trenches for some Monovision stomping fun.

Tales From Space: Mutant Blobs Attack – PC, PS Vita

 

Everyone that was smart enough to purchase a PS Vita already experienced the wonderful Tales From Space: Mutant Blobs Attack. Using the touch screen controls mixed with some traditional 2-D platforming as a blob makes its way to the PC as well, without the touch controls of course. Getting Steam achievements, cloud saves or new mini-games might not be enough for PS Vita owners double dip but we can at least show the naysayers what a great puzzle-platformer they’ve been missing out on all this time.

Hero Academy – iOS, PC

 

Hero Academy is a great turn-based, tactics style game that feels so much like chess that it brings me back to my high school days of 5th period study hall. Trying different strategies for your turn in the match before submitting it to your opponent is perfect for when I am in the line at the bank or at the grocery store. Robot Entertainment decide that we all need this kind of distraction in our lives while on the PC. Bringing Hero Academy to Steam, you will see everything that is in the iOS version. You even get the Team Fortress 2 team on your iOS version if you buy the Steam version of Hero Academy. If going through emails in-between writing and playing game for review were’t a distraction enough, with Hero Academy running minimized until it is my turn against someone that could be on their iOS device or Steam, I don’t think I will ever get anything done at all!

 

Geekscape Games Reviews ‘Sleeping Dogs’

by MoreLikeAndy

Switching what seems a decent amount of identities since its conception –from Black Lotus to True Crime: Hong Kong, Sleeping Dogs is what Square Enix is calling this open world action game set in Hong Kong. Whatever Square Enix saw in this title that was worth saving from being shelved, all of us should thank them for picking up the pieces Activision left behind.

Sleeping Dogs does its best to bring the Hong Kong cinema feel to open world gaming. What we get is a story of an undercover agent Wei Shen teetering on the edge, in-house fighting with the Sun On Yee Triads –which is based of the real Triad gang Sun Yee On— and a lot of double crosses. For the most part, United Front Games nails the story in making it feel like most Hong Kong action movies. There are some slight pacing issues in the middle of the game that made me want to just move on with things, but the hooks were in me so deep that I looked past the slow parts. How it all ends also leaves a little more to be desired. Maybe that is my biggest gripe with it all. Sleeping Dogs could have pushed the envelope more but seemed to err on the safe side.

The story was able to shine in Sleeping Dogs due in part to the great cast of voice actors. Just look at this stellar cast:

Everyone nailed their lines and since it seems everyone did their lines in the studio together, there weren’t any long, awkward pauses between characters in the game. Edison Chen seems to channel his inner Bobcat Goldthwait at times. Could you picture Jackie’s character modeled and voiced by Bobcat? Maybe Police Academy 8 will be set in Hong Kong? All I could see when Uncle Po was on screen was James Hong as Lo Pan in Big Trouble in Little China. “They have returned. And this time they are not alone. Egg Shen is with them. Little bastard sorcerer has brought them through the Bog of the Dead Trees.” See? He was foreshadowing meeting Wei Shen in Sleeping Dogs!

What should have been an amazing thing fizzled with Emma Stone’s character. It’s not that she didn’t do a good job, cause she really did. It’s the fact that love interests were whittled down to a two-bit part with the only thing coming out of it being the special bonus to finding items on your mini-map –health statues, lock boxes, security cameras, etc. I would have liked to have seen the ladies play a bigger role in the story of Sleeping Dogs. Having them be something an enemy can use against Wei would give have given the story a more emotional sting to it.

The action in the game is great. Utilizing the school of combat mechanics from Rocksteady’s handbook, dispatching tough guys trying to stomp a mudhole in you is a lot of fun. Although you can sit back and just mash the counter button when enemies turn red, it will be incredibly boring. Instead, the more you treat this like a martial arts movie scene, the more fun you will get out of the combat. There’s enough moves that you will acquire throughout your Hong Kong adventures that it won’t feel that repetitive. You could always use a table saw to slice someone’s face. Or, you could drop their body on some swordfish heads. Death by swordfish, such a terrible way to perish.

Guns are rarely used in Sleeping Dogs, which I love a lot. The few times guns come into play, the controls are a little on the loose side. Thanks to the generous auto-aim, it’s not much of an issue. Sitting behind cover will get you killed so your best option is to slide over cover and enter slo-mo mode, picking off everyone around you with ease. The shootouts that happen during the vehicle chase scenes are a lot of fun but I can see where shooting the tires out of a car for the 15th time can get monotonous. Still, having everything go into slo-mo while leaning out the driver side window making a car flip over from blowing the tires out was a joy for me to do. Boat chases weren’t as fun but that’s because I wanted the boats to flip 20 feet in the air like the cars. I know, how selfish of me.

The promise of quick transitions from combat to chase didn’t quite translate well from paper to video game. Sure, going from a shoot-out in a warehouse to racing down a highway in one mission worked, but when Wei Shen spends 8 seconds too long playing with his crotch rocket, I get a prompt telling me not to lose the person I’m chasing before I even get the damn bike out of park. The animation time of Wei starting up a bike could have been cut down to 3 seconds to make it feel more like an action-packed scene instead of Wei revving the engine trying to look cool for absolutely no one.

Chasing people on foot was great. Free running, sliding over tables, running up walls made it really feel like a good foot chase scene. You’ll still get some issues with the person of interest you’re chasing slowing down enough for you to catch back up if you screw up a button prompt to vault over a table faster. This is still a video game, after all. Wouldn’t be any fun if you had to start over at the very generous checkpoints every time you ran into a wall or jumped up the wrong railing. Vehicle chases are a little more frustrating since not only is it a pain to drive a car in Sleeping Dogs, the camera can also gets away from you since it’s really sensitive. If you can help it, use a bike. They were much easier for me to control.

Now, not having access to the console version of Sleeping Dogs, I can’t say if the PC version is better. I can say that it looks amazing to the eyes, if your PC can handle it. My specs for the system used to play Sleeping Dogs with everything set to medium were:

AMD Phenom II X4 925 2.8GHz

8GB of RAM

ATI 5770 Video Card

Even with some of the assets in the world being flat jpeg images, when using the HD texture pack option, Hong Kong looks sexy to the eyes. You spend most of the time playing at night even though there is a day/night cycle, at least to me. It just seemed like most of the time it was either night time, day time with a cloudy overcast and raining, or night time with rain. Everything looked really good and made me feel like this is what Hong Kong would look like having never stepped foot there myself. Neon lights, street vendors yelling at me to buy cheap suits or food and the random people just chatting about whatever was on their A.I. programmed minds. I found myself driving around the massive areas you can access for at least an hour just to take in all the beauty. If I could only remember to drive on the left side of the road, I wouldn’t have flown 20 feet off my bike every 10 minutes.

For all the side missions you are given in Sleeping Dogs, I never felt implored to go and do them. Racing cars, collecting money from deadbeats, helping random strangers with their issues and hacking security cameras to bust dealers from the comfort of your apartment never felt engaging enough for me to do more than a handful of each.

Unless you want more money or ‘Face XP’ to get access to more choices in the clothes you can wear or the cars you can drive, the benefits you get from doing these side missions don’t outweigh going straight through the story missions. The bonuses and upgrades you can pick from the skill trees you get just by going through the motions of the story is more than enough to make it through to the end. At least you can mop all the unfinished business when you complete the game.

Sleeping Dogs is a open world game that will stand in the limelight with such notables as GTA IV and Red Dead Redemption as an amazing accomplishment. Over the top action, good story, amazing voice work, and the immersive world make this a surprise hit of 2012 and a serious contender for Game of the Year.

 

Everybody’s Gaming For The Weekend Of August 10th, 2012!

by MoreLikeAndy

With crippling back pain these past couple of days, I won’t be moving much, if at all, this weekend. At least my timing is good since this week there are a plethora of games to play on portable and non-portable devices alike.

 

Super Stardust HD Bundle – PSN

An oldie but goodie, the wonderful folks at Housemarque decide for the 5th anniversary of releasing the first Playstation Network game to offer trophies, they would put Super Stardust HD in a bundle for $7.99. Getting the game as well as all three DLC items released for it is a great deal for a fantastic twin-stick shooter that is as close to any game could possibly come to the beloved Geometry Wars series on XBLA. If you are one of the few that haven’t bought this in the five years it’s been out, now’s the time to jump on this deal for Super Stardust HD.

 

Sound Shapes – PSN, PS Vita

 

Buying once, playing everywhere in the confines of the Playstation ecosystem, is something that I want to happen more. Even if your game is not that good, I would buy it just to have the option of either using my PS3 while at my desk, or my PS Vita while out getting groceries to finally eat something other than ramen noodles. Side-scrolling platformer with a huge focus on the musical aspect of each level. Traversing the levels collecting dots that increase the number of tones playing in the background of the level is the main focus of Sound Shapes as well as user created levels. This musical Little Big Planet-esque gem is a must for PS Vita and PS3 owners alike.

 

Gasketball – iOS

Tell me this doesn’t reek of late night infomercials:

 

Even with the 100 pre-made levels, the big appeal here is playing all the user created content. Hopefully, enough people shell out $2.99 for the the complete level-building kit so we have a never-ending flow of crazy Gasketball levels.

Everybody’s Gaming For The Weekend Of August 3rd, 2012!

by MoreLikeAndy

Man, it’s pretty dead out there in gaming releases this week. Luckily, I found some gems that you should take a look at.

 

Transformers: Fall of Cybertron Demo – Xbox 360, PS3

Activision decided to give us a little taste of High Moon Studios’ latest take on the ‘robots in disguise’. Transformers: Fall of Cybertron demo will let players check out the first mission in single-player mode as Bumblebee. We also get to take control of Vortex, flying around destroying whatever is in our path in the non-linear level. If you just want to check out the multiplayer and the new customizations, Team Deathmatch and Conquest modes are in here for you as well. Gives you plenty of time to sharpen your skills when Transformers: Fall of Cybertron releases August 21st.

 

Orcs Must Die 2 – PC

I’ve been playing a little of the sequel to Robot Entertainment’s 2011 hit Orcs Must Die and so far, it’s more of the same great tower defense style that I fell in love with in the first game. This time around you have co-op so of course the levels are more intricate to accommodate two players on the field. Even without a buddy to play with, Orcs Must Die 2 is still a lot of fun. Our review should be up soon if you want to hear more about it but really, you should just go and buy it on Steam and play with me. I could use some co-op buddies to smash some Orcs’ faces in.

I know it’s only two suggestions in this week’s edition but it is sparse out there right now! I’m sure next week will bring us more goodies than I can fit in this article.

Geekscape Games Geek Peek Review: ‘The Expendables 2: The Video Game’

by MoreLikeAndy

Why oh why do we have to endure games such as these? Yes, movie tie-in games are down right TERRIBLE for the most part. Still, marketing departments think any publicity is good publicity. That said, Expendables 2: The Video Game is another “must avoid” game.

Let’s start off with how bad the voice acting is. I’m sure they pulled some people from the front desk to read the lines of horrible dialogue. I’m sure that I could do a better impression of Sly Stallone than whoever they cherry picked to do it. For my fellow Asian’s out there, I am deeply sorry for the horrendous Jet Li impression that is in The Expendables 2: The Video Game. I cringe ever time I heard it, which thankfully wasn’t a whole lot.

Having The Expendables 2: The Video Game play like a isometric, old school arcade shooter only solidifies my need for breaking out my old NES and just play Ikari Warriors and the tons of other Commando clones. At least I could tell with those games that I was hitting what I was aiming at. Just hitting an enemy is an accomplishment in The Expendables 2: The Video Game. No feedback, bullet sponge enemies and horrible controls in general frustrated me to the point of expending all my patience.

Multiplayer works but there is almost no reason to play with others. Even with a full lobby of 4 players local or over the network, the fun that should accompany the fact that four manly men decimated their surroundings while explosion went off around them was never present. It ended up being more of waiting game with trying to get other players to follow you to continue the level instead of sitting behind cover killing what seemed to be endless waves of baddies.

 

The Expendables 2: The Video Game is another shining example of how not to do a movie tie-in game. Better to save your money on this and just use it to see the movie. At least on the big screen, you will have more enjoyment sitting through the whole movie than 10 minutes of the game.

Geekscape Games Geek Peek Review: ‘The Book Of Unwritten Tales’

by MoreLikeAndy

Having been released in 2009 in Germany and late 2011 in the UK, King Art’s point and click adventure The Book of Unwritten Tales finally comes to the U.S. and the rest of the world thanks to digital distribution. Does this 3 year old adventure deserve your attention? For the most part, yes.

I was surprised that The Book Of Unwritten Tales barely plays like a classic point and click adventure. It felt more like I was playing an interactive Nickelodeon cartoon that had puzzles easily solved by the many things you can interactive with in the environment. Combine that with the odd modern pop culture reference sprinkled throughout the fantasy themed story, I was charmed into the world King Art crafted. Although I love a challenge, the lack thereof was offset by the wonderful environments explored and the whimsical story.

Even on low settings, my 13 inch Macbook Pro, the game looked beautiful. The art design, layout of the menus and the in-game cutscenes were fantastic. It seems that a lot of time went into the art in The Book of Unwritten Tales. From the beginning of the game flying on a dragon to the depths of the dungeon in the Tower of Evil, you will find it hard to call King Art’s adventure game anything but a visual treat for your eye holes.

Voice acting was spot on. It never felt like they were going over the top, which seems easy to do with the given dialogue for the actors in The Book Of Unwritten Tales. The dialogue gave the voice actors enough rope to have a little fun yet not hang themselves by being too goofy. There are spots where the story falls flat but those little bumps in the road are easily overlooked.

With so many choices in point and click adventure games, The Book Of Unwritten Tales might get lost in the shuffle, which would be a shame for adventure game fans. Still, with a story that is serviceable, art design that is easy on the eyes even at the lowest settings and pleasant voice acting, the simplistic nature of the puzzles might just be the break your brain needs in-between other tantalizing adventures.

Everybody’s Gaming For The Weekend Of July 27th, 2012!

by MoreLikeAndy

Sorry to all about missing last week. I had a family emergency that prevented me doing any kind of writing all weekend. With the recommendations this week, I wish I had some of these when I had no access to any gaming devices but my iPhone.

Spy Vs. Spy – iPhone, iPod Touch, iPad

Ahh, the good old days of playing Spy Vs. Spy on my Commodore 64. I had more fun trying to find all the different ways to set traps for my opponent than I did looking for the items I needed to escape. Thankfully, Robots and Pencils put a “retro” mode in the iOS version so people old as I can relive those fun times in front of their C64’s. There is also a slew of new features and modes as well as multiplayer so you can grief your Game Center friends. Get the mobile reboot of Spy Vs. Spy on iTunes for $1.99 here

 

Party Wave – iPhone, iPod Touch, iPad

While it’s no Kelly Slater’s Pro Surfer, the latest game from Mistwalker can hold its own with the rest of the surfing games. A little off the beaten path for the creator of the beloved Final Fantasy series, Hironobu Sakaguchi’s love for surfing translates into a fun, arcade-like experience on the go. Put on some sunscreen, wax your board and head on over to the iTunes store to pick up Party Wave for $1.99

 

I Wanna Be The Guy: Gaiden – PC

The only explanation you need for this game is this video (Skip to the 8:30 mark):

 

If you feel like you are man enough for this game, then point your browser to GameJolt.com and download I Wanna Be The Guy: Gaiden for free.

 

Geekscape Games Geek Peek Review: ‘Test Drive: Ferrari Racing Legends’

by MoreLikeAndy

Test Drive: Ferrari Racing Legends wants to take you for a ride in some exotic cars and to give players a history lesson of the Ferrari brand. What I ended up getting was a lesson in bland and missed potential.

Coming off the successful Need for Speed: Shift and Shift 2: Unlimited, I was ready for Slightly Mad Games to bring the exceptional stylings put into those titles to Ferrari Racing Legends. Right away you get a bare bones menu system. Nothing but the video that was in the announcement trailer and two button prompts greet you when the game loads up. Jumping into the campaign, things were too monotonous. From the bland scenery to driving the same track over and over ad nauseum, I never wanted to fall asleep more than I did while at the wheel of Ferrari Racing Legends.

Even with all the driving aids turned on, the controls were so damn touchy that any mistake made meant starting the race over from the beginning. Having the A.I. in the game make all the turns perfectly on the lowest difficulty setting was a good way of mocking my inabilities to control the same cars they were driving. The one thing I was going to praise about the game was how in your face the engine sounds were. The sounds left an impression that this is what it would really sound like racing one of these fantastic exotic machines. That impression turned into that bothersome feeling you get when a bug is buzzing in your ear after an hour of playing.

Test Drive as a series never quite hit home for me. With most of the titles in the series, you could see something of a good racing game forming but the muck and grime of poor controls, bland environments and not enough diversity makes Test Drive: Ferrari Racing Legends stall before leaving the show floor.

Wadjet Eye Games’ ‘Resonance’ Now On Steam

by MoreLikeAndy

The wonderful sci-fi influenced adventure game Resonance is now out on Steam. Although I already own a copy, having it on Steam with achievements is enough for me to double dip on this title which is on sale for $8.99 (10% off the regular $9.99 price)

 

Check out my review on Resonance and download the demo over at Resonance-Game.com. If you’re still not sold yet on one of this years great adventure games, we have some codes from the nice folks over at Wadjet Eye Games to give away! All you have to do to win one of these codes is to leave a comment below with your best adventure game moment and we will pick 3 random commenters by 5pm PST today as winners.

UPDATE: Congrats to Tomasz K, Raj and Auspex for winning a Steam code for Resonance.

Another Giant Swarms Onto The Portal of Power

by MoreLikeAndy

Even with no release date, Skylanders Giants is poised to take all of our money. Still in need of two more Skylanders to complete my collection, Toys For Bob wants to tease us all with another character reveal.

This time, we have Swarm. If you are into bios:

SWARM
Bring the Sting!
Element: AIR
Character Type: Giant
Bio: Swarm was once a prince from a proud race of mysterious insect warriors that had built their entire civilization inside a giant honeycombed pyramid. Growing up as one of the 9,000 members of the royal family, he was never permitted to leave the hive. But unlike his brethren, there was a magical quality to Swarm that caused him to grow much larger than the rest of his kind. No longer able to fit amongst the rest of his colony, the young prince broke the long standing tradition and stepped out into the open world – where his size and strength would be put to good use in the legendary battle between the Giants and the Arkeyans.

Check out the vignette of Swarm in action and start making that list now of what Skylanders Giants you need to get when the game release date is announced.

 

Make Your Own Transformer In The Latest Trailer For ‘Transformers: Fall Of Cybertron’!

by MoreLikeAndy

From the looks of the new multiplayer trailer for Transformers: Fall of Cybertron, everything we at Geekscape loved about the multiplayer in War for Cybertron is back. More customizations, bigger maps and faster gameplay will make jumping into multiplayer worth it when Fall of Cybertron releases August 21st. I just hope the customization of your character allows for me to make a Dinobot to use.

 

Revenge, Mrs. Chu Style In ‘Sleeping Dogs’ Latest Walkthrough Video

by MoreLikeAndy

With the release of Sleeping Dogs looming, Square Enix decided to let loose another walkthrough video to tease us even more. This time, United Front Games’ Producer Dan Sochan narrates a mission that has Wei Shen doling out some street justice for Golden Koi’s owner, Mrs. Chu.

From the driving to the amazing combat scenarios that play out in the mission walkthrough, I am yearning to play Sleeping Dogs. All the points are hit for an action movie lover such as myself. Fast cars with the sense of darting in and out of traffic at really unsafe speeds, Seamless transitions from cutscene to action, fluid combat that makes Batman lurk in the dark filled with envy and story beats that any Hong Kong action film fan would be happy with. Ok, enough with the talking. Just push the damn button already!

 

Sleeping Dogs releases on PC, Xbox 360 and PS3 on August 14th, which is still not soon enough for me.

More Conundrum To Contemplate In The Quantum!

by MoreLikeAndy

Extending the already wonderful puzzler, Quantum Conundrum, two new downloadable packs has just been announced by Square Enix.

First up is The Desmond Debacle. For a drinking bird, Desmond sure is devious with the puzzles he produces for us to solve in a new, unexplored wing of the Quadwrangle Manor. The Desmond Debacle will hit July 31 on Steam, August 14 on PSN and August 15 for XBLA.

Coming almost a month later, IKE-aramba! will put everyone back on call for rescue duty. IKE (Interdimensional Kinetic Entity) ends up being the one needing the rescue this time in place of Professor Fitz. Expect IKE-aramba! to release August 28 on Steam, September 11 on PSN and September 12 for XBLA.

Both DLC packs will be $2.99 each or if you were savvy enough to get the season pass for Quantum Conundrum, the DLC will be free.

Geekscape Games Reviews ‘Heroes of Ruin’

by MoreLikeAndy

Heroes of Ruin seems great when you skim the surface. A dungeon crawling, loot based game that’s portable with actual controls instead of using your fingers to manipulate a virtual D-Pad or buttons is perfect. Almost too perfect. As with most of the games that fall into this category, the addiction is hard to deny. Searching every corner of the current dungeon you’re in looking for that one piece of loot that will make the difference in some of your stats is more important than the actual battles in these cavernous mazes.

Loot seemed to be the only thing keeping me going though. With a story that is too generic, Heroes of Ruin fails to stand out in the crowd of typical fantasy stories. Trying to find the lost relic that will revive the king in the land of “insert name here” while trying to figure out who is trying to deceive you in order to wield that power has been seen all too often and recently with games such as Diablo 3. Since games that fall into the loot finding category are never about the story, I can’t fault Heroes of Ruin too much on that respect.

I was enamored by every piece of loot I found even if it wasn’t something my Gunslinger could use. n-Space was smart enough to incorporate an easy way to sell items in your inventory, at a lower cost than selling at a vendor in town. Considering that you can only hold 34 items, which include the ones equipped in your inventory, you will be using this feature a lot. Near the last quarter of Heroes of Ruin, selling loot found in the dungeons won’t be an option due to your gold capping out at 99,999. This makes searching for loot, what makes games of this caliber fun to play, a painstaking task. Hovering over every piece of loot to find something you can use that is better than what you have equipped becomes tedious. Considering you would be better off just spending all your gold at the character specific vendors in town for gear, such tasks seems worthless.

Playing as the Gunslinger, everything felt a little too easy. A perk in one of the three skill trees lets the gunner have a good chance to knock back enemies with each shot as well as damage enemies close to each other. As soon as I heard a any noise at all, I would let loose with my pistols and let the auto-aim do its thing. I tried playing as a Vindicator class, think paladin in World of Warcraft, and combat was still easy but I had to adjust my tactics a bit and use more abilities than the Gunslinger. The only trouble I ended up in while playing Heroes of Ruin was getting stuck in attacking animations. Not being able to quickly react to anything is something developers have to get in their head as being a bad thing. Yes, your animations for the character models are pretty but having me locked into said animation is not doing the player any favors.

Multiplayer seems to work for the most part. In the time that I played for the review, I ran into very little lag and finding games was actually easy. I tried using the mic to talk to others that where in the game with me but it seems that people have the option to use voice chat turned off. Either that, or they didn’t understand how to turn it on in the options menu. The one thing that actually made my online experience with strangers horrible in Heroes of Ruin was the way loot was setup for online play. I would barely get any of the loot since the people I was playing with would just take it as soon as it dropped, even if they didn’t need it. Even though the best loot is usually at the vendors in town, it’s still annoying to have people join your game, steal all the loot and then quit. The separate loot system is the one thing Blizzard got right with Diablo 3.

Diablo 3 is wearing thin and Torchlight 2 is nowhere in sight. What’s a gamer to do while waiting for Runic to toss a bone our way? Heroes of Ruin may seem like the answer but ends up being nothing more than a temporary fix for the dungeon crawling loot junkies.

 

Everybody’s Gaming For The Weekend Of July 13th, 2012!

by MoreLikeAndy

With San Diego Comic-Con in full swing this weekend, the unlucky few need something to distract them from not being at nerd haven this year. Speaking of unlucky, it’s Friday the 13th! So to celebrate this, I decided to mix in some frightening games for this weekend.

 

Condemned: Criminal Origins – PS3, Xbox 360, PC

To this day, the mannequin level in Sega’s Condemned: Criminal Origins is the scariest level in a game for me. Walking around with just a flashlight, hearing noises and turning around to see what looks like the lifeless molded pieces of plastic following you is creepy enough. What happens later in that level makes anyone eek out a noise of almost crapping themselves in their chair. It could be hard to find a copy of Condemned so if you have a PC that is capable of playing games, download it on Amazon for a good price.

 

DayZ Mod – PC (Need Arma II: CO To Play)

Still in the alpha phase, DayZ has garnered over 500,000 downloads and spawned insane amounts of videos on YouTube documenting gamers making their way through the wastland. Before jumping into this, know that setting this all up can be a pain in the ass so use this guide to help you with any issues you might have.

That said, the way a player can get immersed in survival of the zombie hoard is amazing. You start near the shore with nothing but your wits. You have to roam around looking for weapons, food, water and first aid items. You have plenty of other things besides zombies to worry about. Looters and bandits will try to take your supplies to survive longer. If you want to prepare for the zombie apocalypse, this is a good way to start. Even better, the game you need to play the DayZ mod, Arma 2: Combat Operations, is on sale for $24 on Steam right now!

 

Amnesia: The Dark Descent – PC

I didn’t see what most saw when playing Frictional Games’ Amnesia: The Dark Descent. It could be that I never tried setting the mood before starting Amnesia. Dark room with headphones on would have made me more into it, I assume. The one part that the people in love with this game say is the best, and scariest, is the water monster. Not being able to see what is chasing you and having to rely on the noise the monster makes as well as the waves in the puddles is terrifying. Amnesia is also on sale for $10 right now on Steam. Good price to give this game a shot.

Terry Crews Ties You To A Chair, Makes You Watch ‘The Expendables 2: The Video Game’ Trailer

by MoreLikeAndy

Some of us at Geekscape have already written off The Expendables 2: The Video Game when it was first announced. From the screenshots alone, we passed judgement on Ubisoft for even thinking of publishing this game. With the gameplay trailer released today, the naysayers might just have to eat some crow.

 

The Expendables 2: The Video Game will launch July 31st for $14.99 (or $11.99 if you’re a PS+ member) on PSN since it’s part of the Playstation Play promotion that Sony is running from July 24th to August 27th. XBLA and PC versions will launch August 17th when The Expendables 2 premieres in theaters.

Get In On The Fun Of ‘The Splatters’ With 50% Off Sale This Week!

by MoreLikeAndy

While some of you are going through that backlog of games you have next to your gaming consoles, maybe you should take a look at some games on XBLA that you might have missed.

 

For instance, The Splatters is a great little physics-based puzzler that I reviewed a couple of months ago that I am sure most of you missed out on. SpikySnail would like to help you play their game by cutting the price in half. Now, this sale will only last until July 16th so don’t wait on this. 400 MS Points is a deal you don’t want to pass on.

Everybody’s Gaming For The Weekend Of July 6th, 2012!

by MoreLikeAndy

Another week on the East Coast, another hot ass week. Perfect time to stay in the nice cool air-conditioned house and play some of this week’s recommendations.

 

Spelunky (XBLA – 1200 MS Points. Original version free on PC)

Tired of Super Meat Boy or Trials Evolution and want another game to kick you in the balls? Well Spelunky has got you covered this weekend. 2D platforming with rouge-like style is perfect for punishing you while getting caught in the repeating cycle of playing the same level over and over. This ends up being a good thing for Spelunky since there is so much to see that the only way to see everything is to risk exploring the levels and hope you survive long enough to find all the secrets. Just don’t dawdle too long or the ghost will one-hit kill you.

 

Theatrhythm: Final Fantasy (3DS – $39.99)

Somehow, making a Final Fantasy rhythm game actually works. It helps that the music Square Enix decided to put into Theatrhythm is the original music selected from Final Fantasy to Final Fantasy 13 and not some sort of new style remixes that mix it with speed metal. Ugh. With all the action that happens beneath the notes you must press on screen, it’s a shame that you can never take your eyes off the notes long enough to enjoy the visual masterpiece playing out during the song. Curious as to see what characters people put in their teams.

 

McPixel (Pc, Linux, OSX – $9.99)

I could try to explain this game but all you really need is the trailer to see just how insane McPixel is:

Going into this thinking that logic will help you solve the puzzles in the required 20 seconds will be your undoing. Usually the most stupid answer is the right choice.

Metroplex Flexes His Joints, Brings ‘Fall Of Cybertron’ A Week Eariler To Gamers

by MoreLikeAndy

Not often do we get a bump up in a release date for video games. Coming a week earlier than previously announced by Activision, Transformers: Fall of Cybertron is now releasing August 21st in the U.S. and the 24th for Europe.

To celebrate the good news, I present METROPLEX!

Multiplayer In ‘Halo 4’ Not Possible Without 8 Gigs of Space

by MoreLikeAndy

Players will need an Xbox 360 hard drive or a minimum 8 GB Xbox 360-compatible USB flash drive for “Halo 4” multiplayer gameplay. For an optimal experience, we recommend players use an Xbox 360 hard drive with at least 8 GB of free storage space. For more info, go to http://storage.halo4.com.

That is the official word from a Microsoft spokesperson letting us and everyone else know for a fact, you need a hard drive to play multiplayer. I still don’t understand the reason other than maybe it has something to do with caching the game or something to do with the DLC that will eventually come down the pipes from 343 Industries.

Either way, if you are one of the unfortunate gamers without a hard drive for your Xbox 360, you might start looking around for some deals before Halo 4 launches November 6th, 2012.

Vivica Fox Shows Off Her ‘Kill Bill’ Skills In ‘Hitman: Absolution’

by MoreLikeAndy

When seeking out the voice and motion capture actress to fill the role of the leader of “The Saints”, a deadly team of assassins that dress as nuns in Hitman: Absolution, the smart play would be to go after someone with experience in killing, in movies that is.

Vivica Fox is a good choice in my opinion. Having the training during the filming of Kill Bill makes it easier for Vivica Fox to take some of the bumps and scrapes that one would assume would happen during motion capture for an action game as she says so in this video interview:

What’s a mystery is if The Saints are actually in the game and if so, why show us the team getting decimated by Agent 47? The only person you see not get killed is the character played by Vivica Fox. Did she survive? I guess we will all have to wait until Hitman: Absolution launches November 20th, 2012 to find out.

Atlus Invites Everyone To Celebrate ‘HOJAEFJAAM’ On PSN

by MoreLikeAndy

Before you gorge yourself on too many beef products and cheap beer this 4th of July, turn on your PS3 and have a look at the 50 percent off sale Atlus has going for most of their catalog of games on PSN.

The “Half Off Just About Everything For Just About A Month” sale has something for everyone here. Here is the list of games on sale:

Class of Heroes — $7.49 (originally $14.99)
Crimson Gem Saga — $7.49 (originally $14.99)
Hexyz Force — $7.49 (originally $14.99)
Kenka Bancho: Badass Rumble — $7.49 (originally $14.99)
Riviera: The Promised Land — $4.99 (originally $9.99)
Shin Megami Tensei: Persona — $9.99 (originally $19.99)
Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 2: Innocent Sin — $14.99 (originally $29.99)
Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 3 Portable — $9.99 (originally $19.99)
Knights in the Nightmare — $7.49 (originally $14.99)
Yggdra Union — $4.99 (originally $9.99)
Droplitz — $4.99 (originally $9.99)
The Cursed Crusade — $14.99 (originally $29.99)
Catherine — $19.99 (originally $39.99)
Trine 2 — $7.49 (originally $14.99)
Rock of Ages — $4.99 (originally $9.99)

Notable ones on that list are the whole Persona series, Trine 2 and Catherine. This is as good as a time as any for PS Vita owners to get some really good RPG’s. I mean, it’s not like you have anything else to really play on your PS Vita, right?

In case you are already drunk, not to worry. Once you recover in the emergency room at the hospital from blowing your fingers off, the sale will still be around until July 31st. Plenty of time to learn how to use a Playstation controller with your remaining appendages on your hands.

Mount & Blade Devs Want You To Meet Their ‘Caribbean’ Queen

by MoreLikeAndy

For anyone old enough to remember that song, you’re welcome for getting it stuck in your head for the rest of the day. Snowbird Games, the developers of Mount & Blade: With Fire & Sword has announced a naval action-RPG that takes place in the Caribbean, of course. The time period will be during the ‘Golden Era of Piracy’.

Over at Snowbird Games’ site, they go into a little detail explaining that this will mostly be ship-to-ship combat. There will be some out of ship combat, it seems, with Caribbean having players siege towns and ports as well as boarding other ships.

“True ‘Caribbean’ atmosphere of the vast and dangerous world” is one of the bullet points for Caribbean. That better mean either we get the option of naming our ship the ‘Billy Ocean’ or have the crew sing the song while hoisting the sails.

Firmware 1.8 Will Unlock ‘Classic Mode’ For Playstation Vita Owners

by MoreLikeAndy

No date has been announced yet for the magical 1.8 firmware that will finally let PS Vita owners play PS One games on the go sometime this Summer. As shown at Sony’s E3 2012 event, not all of the PS One games will be available upon the 1.8 release and with little info to go on right now, we have no idea just what games will actually work, except the ones shown at the E3 2012 event, when the 1.8 firmware is released.

Now if we can only get Sony to work on having PS2 game support on the PS Vita, I can give up holding on to my backwards compatible PS3.

 

Source: Andriasang.com

Everybody’s Gaming For The Weekend of June 29th 2012!

by MoreLikeAndy

Having your power out during 90+ degree weather for 5 hours is not a good way to start off your gaming weekend. Thankfully, the drought of releases hasn’t hit us yet so there are plenty of new things to check out this weekend. Here are my recommendations:

Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim: Dawnguard DLC

Those of us unfortunate enough to not own it for the Xbox 360 will have to wait another month before we get our chance to play Dawnguard. For the lucky ones though, just having the option of either being a werewolf or a vampire lord is enticing enough to jump back in to the world of Skyrim. The fact that the story for both vampire lord and werewolf are around 10 hours each make the $20 asking price well worth it.

Telltale Games’ The Walking Dead: Episode 2

If werewolves and vampires are not your thing, may I offer you zombies? Just beating out the monthly timeline that Telltale sets for their episodic games, The Walking Dead: Episode 2 will continue the story of Lee and the survivors along with all of the awful choices you were forced to make in the previous episode. From the early looks of Episode 2, it’s going to get even tougher to make those on the spot choices… not to mention the addition of some very tense scenarios when another band of survivors discovers the group.

I Remember The Rain

I became aware of this game through IndieGames.com and was very thankful for it. But a word of warning: you have to go into I Remember The Rain knowing that it’s all story. Very little interaction is required by the player. Although being only 5 minutes long, the story that Jordan Browne constructs after only working on the title for a month is stunning. I must have played it 3 times in a row and each time I was blown away by how I Remember The Rain pulled at my emotional strings. I guess I am a sucker for a good story. I think you will be too.

Geekscape Games Geek Peek Review: ‘Spec Ops: The Line’

by MoreLikeAndy

Spec Ops: The Line is suppose to pull on your emotional heart strings with the fact that you are fighting your own kind, the U.S. military. For me, there is a disconnect in what the story of Spec Ops: The Line is trying to tell me and all the killing I am doing. Just by having Nolan North and Christopher “Kid” Reid say to each other “we’re killing our own people!” doesn’t do enough to pull me into the right and wrong situation I think the story is trying to tell. Maybe I have been desensitized by all the war movies and games I’ve played in my life that the story just doesn’t hit home.

It feels like 2K Games focused more time on the sand effects and how they can manipulate the battles more so than the story. Throwing grenades or any other large explosions will cause the sand to swirl up and create a fog that makes it hard for both enemies and your team to see one another. The roaring sounds of the scripted sandstorms in the middle of a firefight added to the craziness of the action. If I was ever in a sandstorm, I think 2K Games got damn close to what it would feel like to be in one.

Feedback on shooting is excellent and the enemy AI at times seems to be pretty smart with cover, though few occasions you will see suicide like tendencies with shotgun and knife wielding enemies as they charge towards your team. Handing off multiplayer duties to Darkside Game Studios was a mistake due to how vastly different the look and feel from the campaign is.From the stiff animations to the cruddy PS2 era textures, it’s anyone’s guess why 2k Games decided to add it in the first place.

Maybe with all the cover-based shooters flooding the market for gamers, developers should draw a line in the sand and start finding a different way to tell moral stories like Spec Ops: The Line tried to.

Test Drive: Ferrari Racing Legends Shows You What It’s Like To Drive Something You Can’t Afford, Ever

by MoreLikeAndy

Being a Lamborghini fan myself, I can’t deny that I had a Ferrari Testarossa poster taped to my wall in the late ’80s. With Atari’s Test Drive: Ferrari Racing Legends, I am curious as to my loyalty for Lamborghini and how it holds up today.

With 52 vehicles and a campaign mode that spans the whole history of Ferrari’s legacy, that should be more than an adequate ‘test’ of my loyalty.

 

Test Drive: Ferrari Racing Legends releases July 3rd, 2012 on PC, Xbox 360 & PS3

Geekscape Games Reviews ‘The Amazing Spider-Man’

by MoreLikeAndy

Spider-Man. Most know him as “your friendly neighborhood” Spider-Man. A select few know him as Peter Parker. With the movie coming out next week, Beenox wants to show you the all-new, shiny Amazing Spider-Man.

It seems like every year we get a new Spider-Man game. People will argue that the series peaked with Spider-Man 2. As great as Spider-Man 2 was (and the overlooked Ultimate Spider-Man), I think that Beenox’s honorable efforts with Shattered Dimensions and Edge of Time can’t be completely dismissed. So how did they do with The Amazing Spider-Man? Unfortunately, The Amazing Spider-Man is not Spider-Man 2, but it could be a step back towards returning Spider-Man to the fonder end of gamer’s memories.

As is well documented in video game history, any video game that comes out while tied to a movie’s promotion, usually ends up being pretty lackluster. Before you blame the developers for choosing to work on these titles, just remember that the developers hardly ever get to choose what project they get to work on. Combine this with the lack of time for development that most of these games have and they are usually doing the best that they can while swimming upstream.

The Amazing Spider-Man tries to skirt around spoilers by having the story take place after the events of the movie. Beenox gets away with it, until about an hour into the game. If you would like to avoid what I think is a major spoiler to the movie, put playing this game off until you go to the theaters. Speaking of the story, although it introduces classic villains such as Rhino, Vermin, Scorpion and of course, The Lizard, it ends up being pretty bland. Experiments gone wrong, city-wide infections, Gwen Stacy in trouble and only Spider-Man can save them all. Except for the Gwen Stacy part, you could almost picture this being Prototype.

In fact, the textures and the overall look of the Manhattan could be reused assets from Prototype. When you are outdoors taking a leisurely web-swinging stroll through the city, the sense of speed at first seems great. Once you do it for an hour or so you start to see just how slow Spider-Man is actually moving. Only when you get close to the streets does it feel like I am moving really fast. It could be due to the fact that the camera is pulled in really close to Spider-Man. I am not sure if the camera pulled further out would make the sense of speed any better. Regardless, like much of the game, it stops being impressive and the shortcomings start to show.

One highlight of the game is the combat system. What should be mandatory for all superhero video games is to look at what Rocksteady has done with the combat in Batman Arkham Asylum and Arkham City. The fluid nature and ease of multitasking a group of enemies is how I think a superhero would fight, especially one with a Spider-Sense. Beenox nails it when it comes to the style of combat that Rocksteady is praised for with the Batman titles. Although more animations could have been done since Spider-Man repeats the same moves way too often, everything feels like it should for Spider-Man. It’s fluid and fun for the most part.

 

Yes, much like the Arkham games, the combat is a light mix of hitting ‘x’ to attack and ‘y’ to dodge with the combos automatically happening. When you start to take into consideration that there are objects in the environment that you can utilize, you will see just how fun the combat can be. The stealth attacks in The Amazing Spider-Man is pretty simple yet it makes you want the noir Spider-Man game with stealth mechanics the Beenox did in parts of Shattered Dimensions. Stealth is the best way to take out the one enemy I detest in the game, soldiers with assault rifles. Since you cannot dodge them without doing a web retreat, taking them out before engaging the weaponless enemies makes things easier on you.

I never like Spider-Man indoors so I was a little upset that a lot of the game takes place inside buildings or sewers. But not all of it.  There is a boss fight sequence near the middle of The Amazing Spider-Man that really blew me away. Zipping through the city’s skyline while being chased by flying robots at dusk was exhilarating. To stop mid-swing in order to turn around and Web Rush (in slow-mo) and target the robot never got old. Web Rush, the new system for targeting areas or enemies and quickly zip-lining to them, is not just made for getting around the city faster, you know. For a game going back to the open world theme, Beenox should have had more of situations like this. Hell, they even open big with a nice boss fight as your first encounter.

If you are a person that needs to collect everything in a game, well The Amazing Spider-Man has a ton. 700 comic book pages are scattered throughout Manhattan and it seems like every ten seconds, I was running into one. The more you collect, the more comic books you can unlock to peruse in the extras menu option. Most of them pertain to material Beenox used for characters and settings in the game. You also can’t be Spider-Man without Peter Parker taking pictures. Finding Oscorp logos helps you to unlock new costumes for Spider-Man that you can wear during the game. I was okay with the default suit so I never felt the need to go hunting for those logos and the new skins don’t add anything to the gameplay.

Side-quests are back as well but felt unnecessary in order to complete the game. If you just want to breeze through the main story, you can. You won’t upgrade your abilities to the maximum but that’s alright. The upgrades you get for your abilities in the easy to use ‘OsPhone’ menus are enough to get you through on normal difficulty. After the game’s credits roll, you are thrown back into the game to clean up all of the petty crime and investigations that you didn’t do earlier so it is nice to be able to return to clean up Manhattan. Or you can be like me and just spend time swinging in the sunset, since the selection of what time of day you want is available before leaving your apartment. There’s nothing like swinging through the game’s bloom lighting effect.

Being an epilogue for the film helped the game avoid the major trappings for the most part. Repeat voice dialogue, a monotonous story and too much indoor scenarios reared its ugly head though and bogs down what could have been a fuller experience. With the open world back, fluid combat and some great set pieces, most of that can be overlooked. In the end, especially if you’re a Spidey fan, The Amazing Spider-Man is a fantastic time. Hmm. The Fantastic Spider-Man… has a nice ring to it. I’ll have to see what Stan Lee thinks…