Paragon? Renegade? I'm the one with the gun

Now I'm a HUGE BioWare fan, I love their games, Neverwinter Nights, Baldur's Gate, Knights of the Old Republic and Dragon Age to name but a few, so while I did get Mass Effect way after the fact, infact just after Mass Effect 2 was released, I had heard nothing but good things. Oh was I disappointed.

Now before people dive at me, claws out and flamethrowers at the ready, I'll explain what I didn't like about the game, and if you disagree then I will take the flames. So here is my list of Mass Effects problems:

1. The driving segments, these parts of the game drove me to fucking madness and seeing as roughly fifty to sixty percent of the game are these driving segments, if not seventy to eighty percent, don't even tell me it's not that high, as nearly EVERY Assignment is on a planet you have to use the Mako and every one of the main missions after the first planet has one of these fucking sections. Now I wouldn't mind if it handled like the Warthog in Halo as everyone told me it did, but it doesn't it handles like a drunken Hippo on a unicycle, has a gun that won't fire past a fifteen degree so getting in close to enemies is a right pain. All this makes me wish I could just run around the planets and while I can on some it'd take ages to traverse and then you need to be in the Mako to leave the planet.

2. The size of the 'levels', the game felt very small, now I know Dragon Age and Neverwinter weren't exactly free roamers, you had limits, but they felt bigger than this. Every planet once you got into a base was basically the same four room shooting gallery as the last. Even the main mission planets were just corridors with a few open rooms for shooting, a real pity this game could have really done with more open areas.

3. Lack of towns, there was the Citadel and that was about it, for an expansive galaxy full of colonies and inhabited planets full of great civilizations, it's a pity you never get to see them, even the Citadel felt small for a huge space base. I really feel like there should have been far more freedom to explore, even Denerim felt more impressive to the Citadel.

4. The money, never in all my life playing video games have I come across one with a more useless currency, ok in other games like Fallout 3, Morrowind and Oblivion, Neverwinter and even to an extent the Zelda games, after awhile money becomes a moot point, due to not needing to buy anything. But Mass Effect takes this one step further making money basically needless from the start of the game! Seriously, I was rolling in guns, armour and upgrades by the time I left the first planet you come to after the main mission kicks off from the Citadel. Hell by the time I was half way through the second planet I got the one million credits achievement, all I spent my credits on were the grenades and medi-gel upgrades so I could carry more, I did get the Licenses for my quarter master, but I didn't buy any of the new armaments he sold, I had better from the enemies.

5. The length of the game, ok this is kind of a complaint I have with a lot of games recently, it seems the better the graphics a game has, the more voice actors and what not it gets the shorter the game becomes. If you remove all the side missions and just focus on the main mission by planets there are only eight missions, and those without to many cock ups can be breezed through. Now I'm not trying to blow my own trumpet as really I'm no gamer speed demon trying to finish games fast, I like to enjoy them, but if I take all the time played I think it took me forty to fifty hours to complete the game and I did mess around with side missions just as it was my first play through.

Now that, that's out the way, on with the review.

Your character in Mass Effect is Commander Shepard, with the first name John or Jane, but that can be changed, in my case I went with my default non-fantasy character name Eric. You have three main classes Adept, Soldier and Engineer, these specialize in Biotic Powers, the 'wizard' sort of class, Combat, the 'warrior' type class and Tech, the 'rogue' type class, then there are Vanguard, a Biotic/Combat class, Sentinel, a Biotic/Tech class and Infiltrator, a Tech/Combat class. Later on you get 'upgrades' for these classes, Bastion, for the Adept and Sentinel class, Commando, for the Soldier and Infiltrator class, Medic for the Engineer and Sentinel class, Nemesis for the Adept and Vanguard class, Shock Trooper for the Soldier and Vanguard class and finally Operative for the Engineer and Infiltrator class. You also get the special Spectre upgrade to your stats when you become one. To help you in your mission you gain six companions to aid you, each one with a modified version of the player classes.

The game is your basic BioWare RPG, morale choices, micro managing your gear and an epic storyline, add the fact that for the first time in a BioWar game (First that I've played anyway. ) you're not a silent protagonist, Shepard talks! Having a full voiced acted main character is great, especially as I felt that was seriously lacking from Dragon Age, seeing as you could choose a voice for your character, he should use it more than random combat speech. The combat is pulled off in a third person shooting style with the option to zoom in for better aim and stability, while trying to think a game that has a similar combat style I fail to come up with any. At least any I have played myself.

The story in a nut shell is that there is a renegade Spectre Saren and it is your duty as the new human Spectre to hunt him down and stop him, thus proving humanity's worth in the alien council. Saren is using a race of 'synthetic life forms' called the Geth to help in his scheme, his plan is to release the Reapers, a legendary race that wiped out a previous galactic empire that belonged to the now dead race the Protheans. The Reapers are believed to be gods by the Geth, but during your mission you find out they are not some mystical being but an ancient machine race and Saren's flag ship Sovereign is a Reaper left in the galaxy to await the coming time when his kind could be brought back from dark space using the ancient relay device that, a larger form of the smaller relays used to make space travel over wide expanses faster. Through out the story you are given morale choices that effect the game and later Mass Effect 2, once you're on the planet Virmire near the closing missions of the game you lose one of your human crew members when given the choice to save one or the other.

Once off Virmire the game is coming to it's conclusion with Saren and his ship Sovereign ahead of you heading for the ancient Prothean home home world Ilios to activate a relay gate into the Citedal which is the relay to dark space. After Saren and his Geth have gone through the relay to the Citadel you follow and the epic battle for the survival of all races begin. You fight your way through the space station making your way to the Council chambers to confront Saren in the final fight. Once in the chamber you have the chance to fight Saren or talk him into blowing his brains out, once you've decided the route you have the option to save the Council or let them die during their escape attempt, then when you send your team mates down to check Saren's dead he morphs into a Geth based Husk creature due to Sovereign's influence over him and forcing him to 'upgrade'. Once you've gunned the techno zombie down the chamber collapses on you. Then the ending FMV starts and you're given a few other choices and you head off to make sure the Reapers are ended once and for all. Then roll credits.

One last thing I should mention before I wrap this up is the infamous 'sex scene' that caused some controversy when the game was released, I don't have much to say here beyond that fact I felt that the game handled it very well and very tastefully, I've seen many movies with a fifteen age certificate and even the odd twelves rated movie with far more graphic sex scenes than this. It was mostly in a dark room with silhouettes and the odd very brief half lit side angle, in short calling the game 'Mass Erect' and the 360 a 'seX-Box' are very uncalled for by the sensationalist news.

To wrap it up, Mass Effect is good for all the faults it has in my eyes, it's a good BioWare game and I'll be doing another play through at sometime, though I think I shall play through Dragon Age again first. Need some fantasy over sci-fi at the moment!

Halls of Valhalla

So I just finished Viking: Battle for Asgard and I decided I'd give my view on it.

To start with I love vikings, anything with Norse mythology or influences and I'm there, Rune: Viking Warlord, Mount & Blade, Nords in Elder Scrolls, Beowulf The Movie The Game for video games and 13th Warrior, Pathfinder, Beowulf, Beowulf and Grendal, Valhalla Rising for movies, in the long and short of it I love Norse things. It was the reason I got Viking: Battle for Asgard and even with all the bad reviews I had read I went into this thinking, 'I'm going to love this!', pity I was wrong.

Ok so to start with, you play Skarin,a viking warrior with a shrouded past, who fell in battle then was brought back from death to be the chosen champion of Freya ( Or Freyja to be more exact. ), Norse goddess of love, beauty, fertility, magic, gold, death and war. As her champion you are recruited to fight Hel, the goddess of the underworld and Loki's daughter's army of Hell-spawn and stop her bringing about the Ragnarok by her releasing Fenrir the wolf who would start the end of the gods and destroy Asgard the realm of the gods.

The game is a hack and slash in an open world environment, but also has stealth elements which seem to be unneeded in my view because to be honest it just doesn't work that well, by the time you sneak up on an enemy they have normally turned and seen you, by then you're charging in to hack him to pieces, plus you're a viking they weren't exactly known for being sneaky. The controls are good, but then again it's hard to screw that up, though I admit blocking never seems to do much, as you can block everything but end up just being swamped and unable to get out the unending block cycle even with your push from it or dodge, though dodging is good, it works on the big heavy enemies. You get Runes for your weapons which use a 'mana' bar powered by red orbs, this is a good way to deal with your enemies but best used with a full bar or it just runs out on you so quickly, these come in three flavors, Ice which well freezes your enemies on hit or can be released to freeze those around you then let you shatter them more easily the higher the level, second is Fire which well burns your enemy and can be released in a burst of flame around you, obviously the higher the level the rune gets the more it burns and hurts the enemy, finally lightning which shocks your enemy on hit and basically does a little damage over time but just there for smack damage, you can release it's power in a bolt of energy.

Ok, I mentioned red orbs and now you're either thinking 'God of War rip off!' and I will admit yes it pretty much is in a more open area, also it has my "favorite" thing in a game, quick time events! JOY! Well I'll be honest these QTE's are at least some what forgivable as they don't randomly change, like God of War which I will say now, the QTE battle with Zeus at the end of GoW2 just pissed me off to no end.

You get your basic hack and slash combos, the two to four hit then heavy attack and your special 'rage' attack which gives you like a mad hack up combo or a massive one hit shield breaker type move. Beyond that you get items, but they're basically useless, apart from the healing potion, which helps a lot as the green healing orbs are so rare to come from the hell-spawn corpses. The other two items are a throwing axe, which I used once and it did bugger all damage so gave up with that, the other is a grenade item vial of napalm type substance that bathes what it hits in flame and a few others around it but also that doesn't do a lot.

The games relatively short at only three levels long, and all are around the same basic thing, save vikings in cages or tied to stick, get the dragon amulet, summon a dragon, do the big war part after getting the dragon or save an area do a quest for them to mix it up, there are no real bosses before you get to Hel, so I don't have much to say on the story beyond Freya tells you to save vikings, recruit dragons and beat Hel's forces. Though I do feel that Freya gets a bit bloody thirst at the end. The fight with Hel annoyed me, it's in two stages the first is to break some pillars and fight of hordes of enemies who you can knock into the flame walls around the pillar sections, after you have two of the four pillars down enemies will spawn more frequently with harder ones added in, but nothing you can't beat with knock into flames. Once the pillars are down you kill off more small enemies while waiting for Hel to turn into a large grotesque monster who is essentially the giants you fight earlier in the game, with a fire breath. Essentially you just stay at her arse and beat up her legs till a button prompt appears on screen for a longer than normal QTE. Don't you love bosses who you finish with a QTE?

WARNING! SPOILERS!

So the ending, well after killing Hel, Skarin goes before Freya and asks to be released from his bound and made mortal once more so he can prove himself worthy of Valhalla. Freya then denies him this, going back on her deal and this annoys me as in all these games that deal with gods, the gods end up being utter bastards and betraying the ones they made promises to. So in his anger Skarin decides to release Fenrir bringing about Ragnarok, so much for stopping Hel! It ends saying that though the gods are dead and humanity now leads a life of free will, the essence of the gods still live in them. Which just hit the 100 on the cheese-o-meter.

So what do I feel on this game? Let down, I hoped for something better and got well something that feels unfinished or rushed out and crammed with things that didn't need to be in it, but I picked this up in a two for thirty pounds at my local game station, pre-owned, so fifteen quid it's a budget title, it'll give you some enjoyment I guess, just don't get it expecting a great game, it's pretty average.

TimeSplitters Retorspective

TimeSplitters Retrospective




Awhile ago  I bought TimeSplitters and TimesSplitters: Future Perfect, I already owned TimeSpliters 2 and thought I might as well try the others, and seeing as they were made by the creative minds behind Goldeneye probably the greatest FPS ever brought out on the N64 and to me the greatest FPS game ever. These games are still in essence Goldeneye but with so much more, and really contend for the Goldeneye spot in my heart.

All the games have co-op story mode, wich removes the drudgery of solo play and gives you a much better change of finishing the levels when played on normal mode, also it's just great fun and as I have them on the PS2 you have to play them with a buddy round so atleast you're not with a random yelling profanities and racists slurs at you, even if you're whiter than a albino covered in tipex, everytime you make a small mistake. Add the fact that the deathmatch allows you to have four players and up to ten bot AI players, with the abilty to make your own multiplayer maps, you have a game that efys belief for games of it's time.

TimeSplitters

The first in the trilogy and one of the first release games for the PS2, TimeSplitters was a turning point, it's graphics at the time may not have been the best of the best but it had a style, being cartoony and never taking it's self to seriously. The story mode was'nt much of a 'story' you were just going through the level to grab an object then take the object to a designated hand in area, yet even this was challanging, some of the levels are a basic and easy A to B even on the normal dificulty, but one some levels like the mansion you're again zombies that will only die with headshots, with a double barreled two shot reload shotgun. When you start hitting the harder levels you will find yourself going S.W.A.T. and taking everything slow with military accuracy, wich though frustrating makes the game seem so much more epic. You don't et an ending for completing the game, it just keep the time you took so if you go back you can try to beat your old time also one thing I never got was the Timesplitters, later on they get unique models but in tis they're just zombies that hock plasma flem at you so it's hard to distinguish them from the reguler zombies. The arcade mode is your basic FPS multiplayer stuff, Deathmatch, Capture the Bag (instead of flag, duh. ), Bag Tag (King of the Hill. ), Knock out a sort of collecter scavanger hunt, Escort wich speaks for it's self and Last stand an assault type where you protect key objects for as long as you can from bots. All in all the game short and sweet and for it's time it ticked all the boxes, fun and frantic a game you should definatly give it a try.

TimeSplitters 2

The second installement in the Free Radical TimeSplitters tilogy, and to me probably the jewel in the crown, in this one we're introduced to a story wich revolves around a war between the humans and the TimeSplitters in the year 2401, our protagnists are the space marines Sergeant Cortez and Corporal Hart, a more musculer Riddick and red haired woman with a re-breather. We're told that the splitters are using the Time Crystals to infiltrate Earths past to change the course of history, so using a Stargate looking time portal Cortez is sent back to retrieve the crystals while Hart stays to hold back the flood of Splitters trying ot break into the bridge and taking out the portal. So diving head first into the portal Cortez and quantum leaps into the bodys of people from the timeframes he goes to, using them to get the time crystals and save the timeline. The levels themselves are very Goleneye esque and so are the missions but the one mission that always stays the same, get the time crystal. One of the most Goleneye like levels is the Soviet Dam, I know Goldeneye was made by the Free Radical, but really want to show of that they done it. Some of the levels seem to be in the near future to now, like Neo Tokyo in 2019, wich is also the obligatory 'stealth' level. The levels start off reletively easy on normal mode a few you may forget some parts of the mission and end up back tracking, but as they progress, even on normal difficulty they do get to a point of rage inducing frustration when you get turned into a colinder for the millionth time, forcing you to take to it with military accuracy as there are near to no medi-paks and armour is few and far between this being your only way to regain some durablity it angers you thats theres not more or that the enemys don't shoot with amazing accuracy and do more damage with the guns than you do once you get a hold of them. This may seem like a complaint but it's not, it's fun and the more angry you get the more fun it becomes as you're really having to think before you do anything, taking it slow so you can survive and feeling the tension build when you're out of armour and down to a fraction of health left and a few bullets in your gun and a wave of Timesplitters between you and your portal out.

The guns in this game are like an FPS rainbow of firepower, you have pistols like the revolver, luger and silenced pistol ( All these can be duel wielded. ) and finaly the sci-fi handgun wich has bouncey laser bullets that do more damage to you than the enemys most the time, also the auto crossbow that can get it's bolts ignited to deal with tree-ents. Then you move up to the rifles and shotguns, tommy guns, Soviet rifles ( AK-47's with grenade launcher capablities. ), SBP90 Machinegun and my personal faverote the magazineless Plasma rifle, though prone to over heating in tense battle leaving you unable to fire till it cools off it fires sticky plasma grenades on the alternate fire wich makes enemys run around like headless chickens screaming for mercy, you get the vintage rifle and sniper rifle both are just sniper rifles, as for shotguns you have the double barreled sawed off and the tactical 12 gauge autoshotgun, another fave of mine, gotta love fast firing shotguns just what the doctor ordered for infintry problems. Lastly you get the heavy weapons rocket launcher, homing launcher, grenade launcher, flame thrower and the minigun that is great for runnin' n' gunnin', then you have the more exotic Electro Tool used to stun robot enemys mostly and overload power nodes. Lastly the explosives these are just your standard Goldeneye remote, times and proxy mines with a make over to make them look more distinct.

The level creation tool is kept in this installement, the challange mode that is a bunch of levels with goals like behead the undead, break windows, collect bananas and other odd objectives, these unlock more charcters for multiplayer deathmatch and cheats, wich again taken from Goldeneye such as paintball, unlimited ammo, big head mode, gorilla mode and so on. Finaly you get the Deathmatch mode, again with bots, the modes are your basic deathmatch and team deathmatch, bagtag, capture the bag plus whole new ones such as monkeytag. All in all TimeSplitters 2 took the series to it's pinicale, and dodgey console aiming and levels that will frustrate you to no end, but with cratoony graphics, a sense of humor and distinctive levels, enemys and Timesplitters the game shines through, also the game is so amazing, so cool it features in the begining of Shaun of the Dead as the game Ed is playing. Pick it up if you have'nt it's out on the PS2, X-Box, ( Original. ) and Game Cube.

TimeSplitters: Future Perfect

The third and currently final installment in the series, TimeSplitters: Future Perfect took the second game and polished it to a mirror shine, then added better graphics, more humor and a nice little time paradox system. The storyline takes place directly after the second game with Sergeant Cortez on his way back to earth and Corpral Hart unfortunatly K.I.A., with the time crystals in his posestion. Once arriving on Earth you find out the TimeSplitters have not been defeated and are attacking the planet on full scale, once you and your friends blast your way to the military base, the time crystals get stolen and you are sent back in time to find them and destroy them so you can prevent the present from happening and banishing the Time Splitters into the void of time space. Or something like that. With that plan in action you travel through difrent times as Cortex, not as a hero of that time, though the second player can control that times 'hero', as you progress through levels you have your 'future self' appear and help you out via temporal time holes and then you have to go back as your future self to help your past self so you can advance to become your future self in the past. God I hate time travel.. Once you get the time crystals and get past the balls to the wall last two levels, and beat the end boss who shows just how good this game is by parodying Citizen Kane with the end bosses death, genious! Games done but believe me, it's not easy again you will find yourself taking levels slowly, going special operations through them and focusing fire, taking good shot and making sure not to cock up. If you're going to go through the story mode, I'd suggest recruiting a friend, not only to give you greater fire power, but because the games ALOT more fun with a second player there.

The guns in this game are basicly a revamp of the previous game, though alternate fire is change to up on the D-pad wich can take you by suprise at the start but easy to master, but while the guns are'nt bad, there does seem to be less than before, but player one gets an arm mounted 'telepathy grabber' as I call it, wich lets you pick up objects and throw them instead of his mini map finder from the second game. Not alot to say on the guns other than they are good but limited a little compared to the second game. As for the multiplyer some levels have vechicles now, so it's sort of like Halo multiplayer death match, wich is really fun. Also you get a ton of charcters to choose from as per normal, one of wich is the Timesplitter monkey in a veriety of costumes, also al the standard TimeSplitter death match options such as Capture the Bag and Team Death Match, but thats not a bad thing, you can't really improve on the death matches in the TimeSplitter series really though. Again the Map Maker is there and it's got extra bits, but it's only able to make interior maps like the first two, wich though not a bad thing is a little dull in the end of the day. Again if you have the chance to pick this up for the major consoles, X-Box, Game Cube and PS2, do so for one as the games well worth a play.

Conclusion

From game one to three TimeSplitters is unique, inventive and very humoris, though while Free Radical has been bought up by Crytek they have not over looked the popularity of these games and in 2008 some leaked screen shots and concept art. In 2009 it was Crytek UK, formaly Free Radical, declared the project on hold till the market had a high industry demand for this game. I for one say there is a HUGE demand for a game like TImeSplitters, after the drudgery of recent FPS' in dull brown or gun metal grey we need a colourful, wimsical and fun game like TImesplitters to swing in, sweep us off our jaded feet and take us on wild and exciting adventure through time and space with monkeys!