Metal Gear Solid 4:Guns of the Patriots review

Gameplay – 9                                   Overall – 9.4

Graphics – 10

Sound – 9

Longevity – 9

Reviewer’s opinion – 10

If you are not aware of what the Metal Gear Solid series is at this point, it’s unlikely that you are reading this review.  Solid Snake is back on what has been confirmed by Hideo Kojima as his last mission-and what a mission it is.  MGS4 delivers in every way, from its incredibly cinematic cutscenes to its modernised gameplay, it’s a fitting to coda to one of the greatest characters in the history of video games.

War has changed.  Coming from Solid Snake this statement is somewhat contradictory to his previous war related philosophising, but it turns out to be factual.  The war economy has changed the face of war, causing them to be fought out by Private Military Companies.  Surrounded by this war, a rapidly ageing Solid Snake sets out to find Liquid Ocelot and unravel whatever maniacal scheme he may be cooking up.  If you have yet to play any of the games in the MGS series, the story will be nigh impossible to follow and really get anything from, and even if you have, the story may have you desperately trying piece things together in your mind once or twice.  However if you know your Metal Gear lore, MGS4 provides an amazing and frankly surprisingly clear closing to the series.  Kojima ties up almost every crazy loose end with a convincing and well thought out conclusion.

The events of MGS4 are conveyed through many in-engine cutscenes that achieve a visual quality and cinematic level that most games can’t copmpete with.  Given the length and frequency of these cutscenes (which make up a large portion of the 15-20 hour game themselves), MGS4 could become a litle tiresome for some people who are looking for a faster paced game.

The gameplay of Metal Gear Solid 4 has been made much more accessible than previous games in the series.  The fixed camera has been replaced by a more traditional, movable third-person camera and Solid Snake has now mastered the art of moving while in the crouched position.  These changes have made noticing guards ahead of you a much easier task than it used to be.  Also aiding you in your stealthy missions are the solid eye, which acts as a radar, night vision and binoculars, and the octo-camo, which gives Snake the chameleon-like ability to blend into whatever surface he is pressed up against.

The combat has also been modernised with an over the shoulder view from which to shoot as well as the ability to move while firing from the first person perspective.  These changes make the sections of MGS4 where firefights are obligatory more enjoyable and less of a chore than they were in previous games.  This is especially important in parts of the game where you are caught in the crossfire of two rivaling factions and helping one out in combat may make reaching your objective a simpler task.  These sections of gameplay are new to the series and provide some variety as they allow you to approach a given scenario in different ways.  They also make MGS4 less centered around stealth, which may be a welcome feature for people who are not a fan of the genre.

Along with the traditional health bar, Solid Snake also has what the game refers to as a psyche bar.  When this drops to a low level, the only real consequence is less accurate aiming due to Snake’s hands shaking around.  This usually has little effect on gameplay though as it can be easily replenished and is used  more  in the context of the story than anything else. 

Like its predecessors, Metal Gear solid 4 features several boss fights.  Saying much more about these could potentially spoil parts of the story.  Suffice to say they are the most challenging parts of the game and that two of them provided my personal favourite moments of the game.

Metal Gear Solid 4 features some of the best graphics seen on the PlayStation 3 to date.  The general quality of environments and textures is fantastic but what MGS4 truly excels in is the facial expressions of the characters.  They animate very realistically and give the cutscenes a more cohesive, movie-like quality.  Other impressive aspects of the visuals include the sheer amount of detail included by the developers, the number of soldiers on screen at once, the numerous visual effects and how the frame rate is able to stay constant throughout this.

The sound in MGS4 is in keeping with the quality of the rest of the game.  The voice acting is for the most part, superb, with David Hayter turning in another incredible performance as Solid Snake.  The only complaint I would have with the voice-work is the return of some unconvincing crying which has become common to the series over the years.  The soundtrack of MGS4 is mostly terrific and fits well with whatever is happening on screen.  Again, one complaint I would have with the music is the disappearance of the main Metal Gear Solid theme which has been present in the other games in the series.  This is by no means a large flaw, but would have been, as a fan of the series, a welcome feature of the game.

Metal Gear Solid 4 is both a tremendous conclusion to one the of the greatest video game series’ of all time and the reason you should own a PS3.

–Stephen

Note- this is a review of only the single-player portion of MGS4.

God of War III Trailer

In the end there will be only chaos. This was the claim made by Kratos in the announcement trailer for God of War III, and finally we have a glimpse of Kratos causing some previously mentioned chaos.

Two things struck me as odd when I first seen this trailer. Firstly, are these the amazing graphics I’m supposed to be dumbfounded by? and second of all, why are there only a matter of seconds worth of gameplay. A quick scroll through the comments and I discovered that the trailer wasn’t made using the current build which would explain why the graphics have not rendered me speechless, and we are assured by the lucky people who have seen the game that it will blow everyones minds. Sony seem really determined to keep what they show us to a bare minimum and it will probably stay this way until we get close to the release date (which they havent even announced yet!!!). Being such a massive fan of the series, I fear I may burst with excitement before then.

- Matthew

Last Remnant developer shows his colours

You could say that Square Enix is the most indecisive of all the current game developers.  First they were in bed with Nintendo, then Sony and now Microsoft and Sony at the same time.  Come on Square!  Make up your RPG-developing mind.

Despite being in bed………I had better put an end to this analogy before it gets out of hand.  Despite developing games for both Microsoft and Sony systems these days, Square has made it clear that it has no qualms about picking favourites.  Last Remnant developer Hiroshi Takai has recently stated which console he would rather be developing for:

  “It’s been the team’s first time working with Xbox 360 and the Unreal Engine.  In both cases the experience has been a positive one.  In fact, as we’ve only just finished working on Last Remnant I don’t even know what my next project is going to be at Square Enix.  However, I’m very much hoping it’ll be for Xbox 360 as it’s been a lot easier to work with than PlayStation 3.”

Considering that Last Remnant had more than it’s fair share of technical problems (many of which are common to Unreal Engine 3 games on the 360), it seems like an odd showpiece for a positive development experience on the system.

–Stephen

Gears of War 2 Review

Gameplay – 9                           Overall – 9

Graphics – 9

Sound – 8

Longevity – 9

Reviewers Opinion – 10

Since Gears of War came out for the Xbox 360 in 2006, people have been eagerly anticipating the inevitable sequel to the hit third person shooter. The hype and anticipation for Gears 2 was massive, putting pressure on the developers to make sure the game was bigger and better in every way.And this game delivers in a BIG way.

The story begins with humanity in trouble. The locust forces are to strong for the gears to cope with and the city of Jacinto stands as the last stronghold humanity has. This is due to the locust somehow being able to sink entire cities, and it is seemingly impossible to defend against. This leaves Marcus and the rest of the Gears with only one option, to wipe out the locust before Jacinto is taken. It could be seen as a suprise that Dom’s search for his wife features quite heavily in the story, but this gives the hard men of Delta Squadron a more realistic feel because they now show some emotion instead of shooting down locust after locust whilst humanity collapses around them, and it not bothering them on any noticeable level.

The general gameplay will be extremely familiar to anyone who played the original Gears of War, mostly because it remains almost exactly the same, but if it aint broke dont fix it seems to be the approach taken by the developers in this part of the game. This is in no way a problem, because the weapons, enemies and settings have all became more extreme and the game even features a few decent length vehicle sequences, which I didn’t think would work, but actually do a good job and make the game more varied as opposed to just cover, shoot, cover, shoot all the way through the game. One of the biggest differences between Gears one and two is that the 2nd has a lot more weapons than its predessesor, the picks of these new weapons are the flamethrower and a kind of missile launcher called a mortar which fires missiles up into the air and these will rain down on your enemies. One of my favourite moments of the game was obliterating an approaching horde of locusts with this. I was however, slightly disappointed with the games final fight,because it is a massive anti-climax and is over in a minute. I will say no more as I fear I will give away what happens if I continue to talk about this, but compared to fighting RAAM at the end of the original Gears, this is a disappointing final fight.

Gears 2 is one of the best looking 360 games around and the frame rate is solid throughout. My only problem with the graphics is sometimes as cutscene ends and the gameplay begins, it takes an extra second or two for some of the textures to load. This is not a big problem because they always load fully after a split second and by the time you have noticed they are not right they have loaded and everything is at its usual high standards.

As well as having a top quality single player campaign, Gears 2 is an excellent game to play with friends, both online and locally.The online gameplay has the usual selection of online game modes and a wide range of different maps. The multiplayer is most enjoyable in the new “Horde” mode, which is my favourite thing about the game.Basically, wave after wave of enemies attack the players and each wave gets more difficult as there are more dangerous enemies and they come in greater amounts. After wave 10 the difficulty goes back to the easiest level, and then builds back up again with level 20 being as hard as 10 (then 21 goes back to the easiest) and it continues in this manor, finishing at wave 50. The best way to enjoy this game is to get 3 friends, put the difficulty up to insane, and “hoard the horde”.

The best way to sum up Gears of War 2 is to say its like Gears 1, but more bad ass.

- Matthew

Final Fantasy X + III = The Following:

Another day, another trailer. This time it’s Final Fantasy XIII’s turn at wowing us with something we may or may not have expected. Anyway, here it is:

Putting aside for a moment that the game’s protagonist appears not to be the spiky-haired androgynous young man that we’re used to, the trailer looks phenomenal. At least we know what to expect from the pre-rendered cutscenes, but as far as the gameplay goes, less has been shown. From my understanding it will use a similar system as seen in Final Fantasy XII. Take that as you will.

According to the video, we should see Final Fantasy XIII released next year on the PS3 and 360 (although the 360 version wasn’t mentioned in the video, we know it to be true). Given the release date, it looks very likely that there will be only one (normal) Final Fantasy game for this generation of systems. I guess that is the result of longer development cycles: fewer games.

–Stephen

First footage of Star Wars: The Old Republic

Star Wars: The Old Republic, the long rumored MMO from Bioware, is the latest game to take a stab at World of Warcraft’s stranglehold on the genre.  The following video gives a first glimpse of some very KotOR-esque gameplay, new screenshots, concept art and some commentary from the great doctors over at Bioware.

While it does look interesting and like something I will almost certainly play(given that I have a PC capable of running it at it’s time of release), I can’t help but long for a single player KotOR 3.  There is also the problem that bringing out an MMO at this point in time and expecting it to make any sort of dent in World of Warcrafts immense user base is unrealistic.  Although, if anything could do it, it would be a game with Star Wars in the title.

In any case, with talk from EA about the game lacking a monthly fee but instead being microtransaction based, Star Wars: The Old Republic could certainly throw a compelling wrench in Blizzards ageing works.

–Stephen

The PS3 is amazing, but……

It is a mere 13 days until Christmas now, which means outside is extremely cold. This chain of events has led to me catching a cold and after an enormous amount of complaining about how poorly I felt, I managed to make this pass for flu. My first reaction was YES!! because this left me “unwell” enough to have a few days off school and finally get those last few stars on Super Mario Galaxy. My plan backfired spectaculary. By half past 11 on my first of four days off I had finished what I had planned for the rest of the week (Mario is addictive), which meant I had time to hunt for my Christmas presents. First place I looked I found a brand new PS3, which had me giddy with excitement about all the amazing PS3 games I could finally play, problem is, after littlebig planet and MGS4 I could not think of another really top quality PS3 exclusive, which is the one and only problem I have with Sony’s big powerful Blu-Ray machine, there are hardly any good exclusives,but when they do get it right, the results are sensational. Haze is the one which stands out from the crowd, but only in the sense that I dont think such an eagerly anticipated game has ever been recieved so badly. I decided I must be mistaken about the whole no good games thing, but even after looking around online all I could come up with was Motorstorm and Uncharted: Drakes Fortune. Looking further into the future I thought of Tekken 6 and Final Fantasy XIII, oh wait….. they now come out for the 360. I suppose after I have finished MGS4 and LittleBig Planet I can just look my PS3 and think “only about a year then God of War 3 will be out”.

God of War 3 does look damn good though……

- Matthew

Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune review

Gameplay-8                                                          OVERALL- 7.6

Graphics-9

Sound-8

Longevity-6

Reviewers opinion-7

 Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune is a wholly unoriginal game. It does very little to separate itself from its peers, and despite some great production values, proves to be a forgettable experience. The games’ shooting mechanics are straight out of Gears of War and its platforming from the Tomb Raider series.Uncharted follows Nathan Drake, a descendant of Sir Francis Drake (apparently), as he searches for an ancient treasure. Nathan proves to be a typical action movie style, smart mouthed protagonist, who attempts to save the day. He is joined on this adventure by his cigar smoking friend Sully and inevitable damsel in distress (and TV reporter as it happens), Elena. As usual several villains rear their ugly heads, an English pirate and the leader of the goons you’ll be fighting for most of the game. The story has several twists but they are so glaringly obvious that it’s difficult to be impressed by them.

In Uncharted, the gameplay is split between shooting sequences, platforming and some light puzzle solving. In order to survive in the game, you have to use cover effectively and only pop out to take down your enemies. This can be pretty difficult sometimes, as the game tends to overwhelm you with a seemingly never-ending amount of foes with extremely good aim and a nack for absorbing bullets and feeling fine about it. It doesn’t help that Nathan isn’t the most resilient guy in the world. This makes Uncharted feel a little cheap at times, but since the games checkpoints are so tight, you never have to repeat particularly long sections. There is some extremely stylised hand-to-hand combat when you get up close to an enemy with a few basic combos to perform, which look savage and can be quite satisfying.

The other main gameplay element to Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune is the platforming. This involves jumping between ledges, swinging on vines and other typical acrobatic moves. Making Nathan perform these feats is awfully simple to do and in comparison to the shooting sequences, feels extremely easy. This however can offer some much needed respite from the often-tedious gunfights. The puzzles that appear in the game are few and far between, but when they do show up, they are usually simple. If you are however having trouble, the game will prompt you to hit L2, and then essentially tell you what to do.

The only outstanding feature in Uncharted is its graphics. The lush jungle environments look phenomenal, as do the old ruins and industrial areas. The water also looks fantastic and Nathan’s clothes will get wet in the specific areas that he has been in the water. The game also shows great attention to detail, as there are never any bland environments, which really makes the game a lot more immersive.

The character models in Uncharted all look relatively realistic and animate very well. Nathan runs realistically, flails his arms on long jumps, and runs up and down stairs in an appropriately awkward way. The story is told through in engine cut scenes which look as good as the rest of the game and offer a cinematic experience.

Uncharted has a decent original soundtrack, which amps up at expected moments in the game. The voice acting is excellent, and fits perfectly with the look and feel of the characters. The guns in the game generally sound all right, but some of the pistols sound a little poor and toy like.

Uncharted will take most players around eight hours to complete and the patched version offers Playstation trophies for completing various tasks.  These include collecting hidden treasures, getting headshots and being proficient with melee combat.
There is no multiplayer to be found here and the game does suffer from a lack of replay value, with only a higher difficulty setting as reason to play again.

Despite some great, production values, Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune proves to be a forgettable experience.

-Stephen

E3:Microsoft Press Conference

Microsoft kicked off this year’s E3 with their press conference and the Internet exploding news that Final Fantasy XIII is coming to the XBOX 360 and on the same date as the PS3 no less. FFXIII was one of the main reasons for me to get a PS3 and although I still plan on getting one, I’ll probably end up playing the game on the 360, you know, achievements and all that. This seems to be a huge blow for Sony, considering how many people were perhaps waiting for this game to come out as a reason to buy a PS3. It is understandable however, that Square Enix would do this, the best way to make money is to have people buy your game, and the more systems it is out on, the more people it will be available to. I guess this is what E3 is all about, massive news.

Unfortunately, due to Gamespot not loading up as the press conference went live, I missed the Fallout 3 demo, a game that I would have wanted to see more of. I did however manage to catch the latter half of the Resident Evil 5 demo, which looked amazing. I’ve never really been a fan of the series but playing the game on co-op with a friend looks like a lot of fun, it also looks as if they have made the game a lot more playable then previous games in the series. A release date of FRIDAY THE 13TH of March 2009 was also announced.

Next up was a rather short demo of Fable 2 by its enthusiastic developer Peter Molyneux. He stated that the game was finished, showed off the intro cut scene and then proceeded to try and blow our minds. Its easy to mock Peter Molyneux, but I do like his enthusiasm. I can’t wait to play Fable 2, even if it isn’t quite as open-ended and innovative as he claims (not saying that it won’t be, but….), it will probably still end up being a great game. A release date of October was announced.

The next demo was Gears of War 2, with Cliff Bleszinski playing some co-op campaign. I enjoyed the first Gears a lot but never really got into the multiplayer, so the campaign is what I’m looking forward to in the sequel. The demo was very impressive and showed off many of the new weapons, one of which appeared to be a flamethrower that is pretty cool. The more destructible environments seem to make the gunfights more intense, which can only be a good thing. The game was announced to have November 7th release.

After all the excitement of demo’s, Don Mattrick, went on about some business figures etc, basically a fight with Sony. After that however, Xbox live business guy John Schappert, announced and showed off the new dashboard and the avatars that are to replace gamer pictures which looked like slightly more realistic Mii’s. The avatar will now appear on the re-designed gamercard next to your gamerscore, rep etc. I think it’s really just a rip off of the Wii’s Mii’s but if they are used in a interesting way, it could be relatively exciting. As for the new dashboard, I really like it. Its much more slick than the current interface. This new stuff will be rolling out as the ‘fall’ update.

Next announced were some XBLA games, Geometry Wars 2, Galaga Legions, a nebulous South Park game, and Portal: Still Alive, which is the most exciting for me personally. There were also trailers for Rare’s Banjo-Kazooie Nuts and Bolts which looks very interesting and Viva Pinata: Trouble in Paradise. They then showed off You’re In The Movies, a game from ZoeMode (developers of Crush), which basically looked like an Eye Toy rip off with a movie maker tagged on. An already leaked game was then shown off called ‘Lips’, which is basically Singstar only you can use your own music, which is pretty cool if that’s your thing. Rock Band 2 and Guitar Hero: On tour were then spoken about buy their respective developers. The rhythm music genre has become strangely competitive all of a sudden. Sqaure Enix announced some other RPG’s which were overshadowed by FFXIII, those being, Star Ocean, The Last Remnant and Infinite Undiscovery.

Sony and Nintendo’s Press conferences are tomorrow and will no doubt have some big news of their own. Damage control at Sony’s no doubt. I hope to see some information about God of War 3, Killzone 2 and LittleBigPlanet. As for Nintendo, I want to see anything that might interest me, maybe something on a new Kid Icarus or Animal Crossing Wii. Either way I can’t wait to see what Sony And Nintendo have up their sleeves.

–Stephen

New Skate announced for Wii and DS

 

After the Xbox 360 and PS3 versions of EA’s Skate pummeled Tony Hawk’s Proving Ground in sales last year, Nintendo Wii and DS versions of the game have been announced with a slightly altered name: Skate It.  The control scheme which previously relied heavily on the analogsticks of the PS3 and 360 controllers, now incorporates the Wii’s balance board and the DS’s stylus.  Given the rather steep learning curve of Skate’s controls,  a re-designed control system could make the game easier to get into, depending on how you feel about dancing around on the balance board.

This announcement was made especially interesting beacuse of the news that the Tony Hawk series is taking a year off to re-evaluate and hopefully get back to it’s best.  This means that EA has the skateboarding genre all to itself this year and Skate It has been given the vague release window of 2008.  When the Tony Hawk series returns in 2009, I only hope that they don’t try to make the game more realistic and Skate-like.  Instead, they should go the opposite way and make it even more crazy.  Skateboarding in Space.  Enough said.

–Stephen