Halo Wars – For those on consoles that missed a good RTS, this is simply the best you’ll play on any console.

It’s a fantastic game, minus the negative of a short campaign mode and several features that could have been added to your unit and map controls. There are no map controls, and unit population is very low… but, for good reason.

In a recent 2 vs 2 Live game, we had a mass of units battling it out at one of the enemies bases, and there was lag and choppiness in the game, as though the console engine could not handle the mayhem.

That was 2 vs 2, so I am betting 3 vs 3 will be a lot worse.

I wish there were control functions where you could line up and queue units together and lock them, while you can select from a quick menu that overlay the screen to the left, where you can choose a platoon and send them to points using the mini map (HUD), so that it selects units faster and specify unit type squads easier and moves them without having to position your cursor using the analog stick across the map… it’s slow, time consuming process to do that, which is a shame, since Ensemble is no longer around to fix that in a downloadable update or in a sequel.

Those are the negatives, and sorry, but that’s honestly a big negative in my book. How that went overlooked is beyond me.

However, I feel at ease with the controls and don’t struggle to manage my base and units, the controls are simple to use.

The graphics are pretty decent, and the Halo universe is well defined in this RTS incarnation

The combat is fun. Really fun when you get to the Carpet Bombs, MAC and Spartan use. Spartans, like in the Halo games, can take over an enemy vehicle. There’s Heroes you can choose from in either Human or Covenant side in Vs.

If you’re into RTS combat sims, this is a nice pick up. If you’re a big Halo Fan… you’re getting even more goodies to drool over.

Give it a rent, at least to see how you like it.

(Maybe some live video action will be posted on my YouTube and added here soon.)

Here’s a quick unfinished game review. And the last thing I played before my console Rom went wiggy on me and won’t read games anymore, and the tray locks up sometimes… Now I have to send it in for repair. Might just buy a new Elite Core system instead…

Anywho-
Remember Matt Hazard on the old 8 bit Nintendo?

Remember him on the newer classic consoles?

Well, he’s back!
And with a vengeance… well, not really a vengeance, more of a try at a comeback which looks like a failure so he’s going back to his couch eating potato chips watching TV.
Anyways,

This game, Eat Lead, is a complete parody of all games and the digital world. With the premise and concept very funny and good for nostalgia, the actual in game playability wreaks. There is no blood. It’s like digital pixels that blast apart the enemies while they disappear and fade out of digital existence.

There’s some lines in there that are funny, and the intro was entertaining… bringing back so many memories and parody of modern games. Ones of note: Gears of War, Bioshock and a few others, but instead it’s Matt Hazard as the lead role.

It plays like a bad movie where a has-been actor, kinda like Mickey Rourke, makes his triumphant return to popularity.

After the first few lines of “haha” it becomes repetitive and annoying. The first fights are a tutorial, while Hazard makes fun of it from a gamers perspective. You’ll get the drift of the game that it was designed for hardcore gamers who know the ins and outs of gaming from the old Atari 2600 to now, and all of the language that is part of gaming.

Bad puns, no blood, and the graphics are sub-par at best. It’s a third person shooter, no search and find stuff, just straight out shooting. In fact it pokes fun at the whole “Mission Objective” text, and Hazard tries to read this long ass direction but says screw it, can you summerize this please?

Then it reads, “Shoot Everything in Sight”. Then  he goes on to say, “That’s more like it”.

Cheesy, simple and lackluster.

The only cool thing is the amount and variation of shoot ‘em up enemies within the game. It takes you to a Japanese steak house to start in this virtual world, and then it switches up to Asian organized crime to some Shogun like cat straight out of that old Blacksploitation Martial Arts movie… Dragon something or whatever.  (*Last Dragon this goofball means)

Yeah, it was pretty bad, and the dialog was straight from the 70s as was his outfit.

But, it’s purpose is parody. That is so obvious, well, not just by playing and seeing it, but they actually say it in the game.

You even get to shoot out with cowboys in this old west setting, and there’s also a sci fi setting, there’s Zombies, monsters and all sorts of enemies… Did I mention it’s a parody of gaming and the character, Matt Hazard?

I’d say don’t waste your money, wait for the 5 dollar bin in a few months for this one.

BTW – Most game stores have big time deals going on. There’s brand new games on racks for under 15 dollars these days.

Thank you, Bush and Obama! Thank you bad economy!

You make my wallet happy.

Oh wait, I don’t have a wallet.

Fable 2 (XBox 360) by Paul R. Theimer

With a long wait, much anticipation, and another string of huge promises from producers “Lionhead Studios”.

However, Fable 2 has arrived on the Xbox 360.

The original Fable had a lot of talk attached to it; Lionhead claiming it would be the greatest RPG ever with the most immerse and unique style of game play the world had ever seen. With that said the game had a lot to live up to, which the final product turned out to be your everyday common RPG that lasted gamers all of eight hours to complete. That absolutely did not meet the criteria of being one of the greatest RPGs ever, and was overshadowed by Lucas Art’s phenomenal release of Star Wars: The Knights of the Old Republic.

Many were disappointed with the short, but entertaining final release of Fable, and expected a lot more than what was just a very basic combat focused role playing game. So, with the expected hype and anticipation of Fable 2, did it succeed where the original failed? Or was this just an unfixed sequel to it’s slightly above-average predecessor?

Let me start by stating that I did for the most part enjoy this game. I’m going to stress this, as I was reasonably happy with the game, but I also have quite a few things to dig into it about as well. The game itself is beautiful. It holds a very fantasy driven and colorful art style. From the landscapes and the weather effects to the characters and enemies scattered across the world of Albion. Fact is; it’s a much bigger game with a higher level of replay-ability including much more to explore, accomplish, and things to stray you from the linear storyline. Albion in Fable 2 is easily five times the size of the original world found in Fable, and this time around you are open to more exploration. You can jump fences in some cases, explore through the woods and find there really is life outside of those wooden boundaries and the dirt path. It offers a good variety of landscapes and environments, especially if you decide to try the Knothole Island expansion, and everything is pleasing on the eyes. Unfortunately, with the open exploration, there are environmental contact problems, you tend to get stuck on the strangest areas, especially when swimming. You eventually do get yourself out of these problems, but they should have been simple fixes and non-occurring in the final release.

Another unique addition was your sidekick, and I’m not talking about the horribly disappointing online cooperative mode which I’ll get to in a moment, but your dog. You have your own personal flea bag that follows you around that you can teach tricks that include beg, roll over, and target urination.

Oh yes, with your own potential to learn crude expressions, you can teach your canine to urinate on the leg of that annoying villager that just won’t leave you alone.

Outside of personal entertainment, your dog does serve a purpose. He will sniff out dig spots, where an indicator will appear above his head, and he’ll begin barking and circle around an area that you need to dig up to find the treasures hidden beneath the dirt. He will also sniff out treasure boxes and let you know if you are close to one. It comes in handy, and different skill books allow your dog to find more digable or treasured areas throughout the world. A nice addition that really hasn’t been accomplished in a game, regardless if your dog at times tends to get stuck much like yourself in odd terrain areas and disappears for a few minutes.

The decision making for some choices the developers made in this game just blows my mind. Seriously. My first gripe should have been a no-brainer. Instead of armor, you can collect different types of clothing that effect your attractiveness and your personality. Why they decided to include so many unwearable clothing items that has zero reflection on self protection is beyond me. Even the few pieces of armor determine how attractive people find you, and offers no kind of armor or defense bonus. You will take as much damage wearing full plated steel armor as you will wearing “paper” clothing. Really Lionhead? This is inexcusable in a role playing game, and just a flat out bad decision. Which brings me to my next major complaint. Much like the original, there are Demon Doors scattered throughout Albion, those in which you must solve a riddle or find a way to satisfy this talking slab of rock to allow you passage for the tremendous treasure beyond. You spend hours trying to figure out how to open it, to go in and find an item worth 500 gold pieces. At the point in the game when I had over 6.5 million gold and opened a few demon doors, I almost wanted to throw my controller at the ridiculously invaluable treasure that was hidden in here. And it’s not just the demon doors, you discover cool areas, or hidden parts of caverns, with large rooms devoted to one treasure box, you get all excited as you approach it thinking if this entire room is for one treasure box, this must be one of the few scattered legendary weapons. Your anticipation builds up, the chest pops open, and you find… an economy necklace that holds next to no value. It almost makes you wonder if the scattered treasure is randomly generated because of how horrid the placement is, but for whatever reason, this is actually what the developers felt would be good items to place in these hard to reach areas. At the very least, each of nine Demon Doors should have included either a legendary weapon or a unique character outfit. I can confidently say 6 out of 9 Demon Doors turned out to be worthless. Large failure in my eyes, at least you were satisfied with what you found at these locations in the original Fable.

The combat system is for the most part fun, you carry both a melee’ weapon which ranges from swords, to hammers, to cleavers, to ranged weapons that gives you the option between bows, crossbows, rifles, and pistols. I found that I personally enjoyed a longsword in combination with a rifle, it worked for me and gave me a good balance of power and speed. You gain experience from combat, which you can apply towards making yourself stronger, faster, or apply it to learning one of six possible magic spells. Yes, only six. Your experience is rather quickly spent and you find yourself in the upper two or three millions of experience built up that there’s nothing left to spend it on. Again, more options would have been nice. Your decisions in combat and what you do around people determine if you are good or evil, become evil and people will run from you screaming, in extreme excess, which gets annoying very quickly. If you are good, people will flock to you, at times not allowing you to move toward your destination as literally 75% of each town or village will fall in love with you and let you know about it every second they see you. Should you decide on one, you can get married, and have children if you decide to have unprotected sex, which may also result in an STD. If only the focus on the more important things were as detailed as the intimacy in this game. What it comes down to is really, neutral is the best option. If you are too good, you are constantly blocked by fans of you, that will literally follow you into your house and herd around you, at times not allowing you to leave because there’s fifteen villagers in your stairwell. Your ability to purchase properties, and either live in them or rent them out is a very welcome feature though, and a good way to earn money even if you don’t play the game for a few days. If you own shops, you gain a percentage of what they make during the time that you play and while you are away. A valuable feature.

With exploration does come a pretty good amount of extras, you can explore the world to find invaluable properties that you can purchase, ranging from just a few hundred gold to 1,000,000 gold to own Fairfax Castle. Each property comes with it’s own benefit, if you either make money off of them, gain a hidden quest or ability from resting there, or at times a decent treasure. There are also scattered silver keys, that open very few silver chests that yet again, contains a mixed bag of either decent equipment or something completely worthless. It’s frustrating to find 25 silver keys, and blow them on a mystery chest that contains something you have absolutely no use for. There are also 50 gargoyles around Albion, which are stone structures that mock you as you walk by them. Your purpose is to shoot these and turn them into gravel, finally shutting them up as you at times hear them for a while before finding them. Some are relatively easy to find, but a handful are just ridiculously placed and seem like they would be impossible to find without consulting a strategy guide. For every ten you find, you gain a treasure from Gargoyle Trove, and I think you can guess what I’ll have to say about what it offers. For the purpose of “The Completionist” achievement, the first treasure you do unlock after shooting ten gargoyles is “The Growl” dog trick book, as this is the only place to find it and was the last thing I needed to learn every expression, dog trick, and ability. Besides that, everything else is useless until you get all fifty and gain the last treasure which actually is worth the exploration.

I can’t express my disappointment enough with the online Cooperative mode. It sounded so good, being able to find your friends in the form of orbs floating around and be able to join their game in progress and complete tasks together. They kept it secretive exactly how it would play out until the game released, and probably the biggest failure in the game, you can not play as your own character during co-op. What?! You join a friend and you pick one of six “henchmen” to play as alongside your buddy. Why would they not let you go into their game as your own character is completely beyond me. You can only play as some lame pre-built default character with basic weaponry. Horrible decision, especially considering how much they hyped this up yet failed to tell anyone “Well, you can play co-op, but you can’t play as your own character.”

Fable 2 fixed a few problems, but still did a lot of things wrong. You are at times left scratching your head thinking to yourself “Did this game even go through bug testing?” or “What were they thinking when they decided to put this here?” It’s frustrating at times, but luckily for the most part, it’s fun. It again didn’t live up to it’s potential or hype, and in the future, Lionhead needs to lay off of the big promises and focus on making it just a solid RPG experience. They tried twice to make this an epic, unique, and groundbreaking title, yet some elements show promise but never come together, and some additions are just flat out questionable. Then need to iron out a few problems should there be a Fable 3, back away from the heavy focus on expressions, personality, and character appearance and just add in the basics that every RPG should contain. I’d like to see more weapon variety, more legendary weapons especially, and actually have them placed in those difficult to reach areas to give you a better sense of accomplishment when you do unlock a Demon Door or find that secret path after breaking a wall. You’ll spend 25+ hours playing this if you want to complete it and find everything, and it’s worth one play through, but probably nothing more than that. It does pain me to say that Lionhead did not deliver on their end again, it is a solid game, but nothing like everyone felt it would be.

Game Play: 7.25

Where do I start?

It’s fun. The combat is good, but you are so incredibly limited.

With a decent variety of weapons comes literally worthless attire, dumb treasure placement, buggy terrain problems, and very annoying interaction with villagers and other Albion residents. There is a good variety of unique quests, but you’ll complete half of them and max out your character making experience virtually worthless. Online mode should have flat out not been included if this was their approach to it.

Graphics: 9.0

The game does look nice, there’s not many graphical problems, not much slowdown. Everything is bright, colorful, and offers a pleasing variety on the eyes. Spells are pretty, although limited, the character models are good, although could have used more variety. At times it’s hard to find your wife (Or Husband) as twenty other women in the town look almost identical minus a different colored bonnet or dress.

Replay-Ability: 8.0

A big step above the brief original. There is options to explore, and there is more to do outside of the quests this time around. Collect silver keys, shoot down the 50 Gargoyles, and if you don’t get too frustrated with the resulting hidden treasures, attempt to unlock all 9 Demon Doors. You probably won’t want to go at this one a second time.

Overall: 7.75

Lionhead Studios, how nice it would have been if the simplest of things hadn’t been overlooked. Or if the person in charge of placing items around Albion had been fired in early development and someone with a brain figured out how to make opening Demon Doors worthwhile. Balance and just standard RPG basics could have made this game so much better, but for some reason, it didn’t happen. It’s a fun, yet a little more than mediocre role playing game that you will for the most part enjoy but will have you screaming at the same time. Would a patch be out of the question? Or an extra week to fix the minor but hampering problems that are embedded in Fable 2? I guess that’s too much to ask. I say for the last time, I really did enjoy this game, but my frustration levels were high during portions of it. Probably a rental or a purchase when the price drops a bit. But don’t expect Lionhead’s promises to be fulfilled this time around.

Assault on Dark Athena Game Review (XBox 360)

I do want to begin by clarifying, the newest Riddick installment released on the Xbox 360 is titled “The Chronicles of Riddick: Dark Athena”. What I did not know before purchase was that this also includes the stellar title released on the original xbox formally called “The Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay”. This particular review will cover the new game, Dark Athena, and will not include Butcher Bay as I will be reviewing that separately.

The first Riddick game on Microsoft’s first console shocked a lot of people. Many wrote it off as a typical mediocre film to game title that contains bland gameplay and clunky controls like many do. What those of us did play it discovered was the complete opposite, Escape from Butcher Bay was absolutely fantastic. It received a lot of praise from many gaming sites across the internet, was a multiple Game of the Year nominee and winner, and is questionably the best looking game ever released on the Xbox. It snuck up on people, as it offered very tight gameplay, excellent visuals, and an overall innovative experience.

So with the announcement of the newest installment, Dark Athena, I was very quick to learn more in great anticipation. In an “Orange Box” like fashion, they revamped the original Butcher Bay and packaged it up with the new Dark Athena and put it on shelves. Make no mistake, Riddick has impressed again, and the new experience is just as good, if not better than the first.

You begin on a beach outside of an enormous metal building. The world around you is vibrant, the water effects from the ocean are beautiful, and it throws you right into the action from the get go. One of the first things you notice is that in the beginning, stealth is key. You do have Riddick’s eyeglow ability allowing for exceptional night vision, which means you can crouch in the shadows and see the world around you, when your foes cannot. The stealth is nice, if you are in a position where the enemy cannot see you, your vision will tint blue indicating this. Lights around you can be destroyed to create more shadows increasing your chances of silently killing drones and guards within this building, so shooting out fluorescent bulbs becomes necessary.

Head-on combat is definitely possible, but difficult. You can run and gun if you choose to, but it’s hard to recommend without using tactics with the darkness. You can also pull corpses out of the light into a darker area of the room you are in to avoid other guards seeing their fallen comrades and alerting security.

As the game progresses, you find yourself on a Mercenary Slave spacecraft, where if you did indeed play Butcher Bay, some faces may be familiar to you. There is a decent level of puzzles to figure out as you navigate the ship. There are also a heavy amount of collectable Bounty Cards scattered throughout Dark Athena, they unlock bonus content when you pick them up, and you gain an achievement for locating all of them. Some are easier than others, and it adds a little depth to the experience. At points you do control for various mechanical weapons, including Drones and Mechs. The physics are just flat out fun, and the concept behind it is brilliant. You do not spend the entire game on this spacecraft, but a good portion of it is indeed on the gigantic steel vessel.

Some of your personal weapons may be very familiar, but they did add just a few others, including the SCAR. The SCAR, once gaining it is a very fun and vital piece of weaponry. You can fire up to five mines at a time, which do fire out like a rifle so you can be precise, and detonate them when you choose with the Left Trigger. This gun is about all you’ll use after you obtain it, it’s handy, powerful, necessary for some bosses, and all I have to say is spider drones, oh those freakin spider drones.

The visuals in this game are exceptional. They aren’t nearly “wow” worthy like the original is, but they are extremely well done. Lighting effects are among the best I’ve ever seen in a game, the glow of flashlights, the shadows cast, down to the incredible reflections. The enemies look great, especially the drones, along with some great animations to coincide. The character models are just awesome, at times you do wonder if you are watching a cut scene and not in-game footage. Riddick is undoubtedly modeled after Vin Diesel, and it’s almost a dead on likeness. If you enjoy good looking games, this is one of the best on the console to date.

There is online play, with a decent population playing, and it’s honestly average at best. You can tell it was influenced by Unreal Tournament, with the fast paced action, scattered spawning weapons, and furious gameplay action. Pray and spray applies well here, but it’s just not as good. Straying from the single player mode, the controls don’t feel nearly as good, I did drop on average of one out of every two games due to someone quitting or a connection error.

The players move around fast, almost too fast for the lack of spray the weapons have. You have one laser dot to aim with and hit your target that is reasonable accurate, which makes it very difficult to hit strafing enemies at a short distance.

Better weapons that had more of a wide spray range would have been much better, but the lack of weapon options and the speed of gameplay makes skill turn more into luck. Much like most online games, there’s too many quitters to have the game end when the host leaves, resulting in your stats for that game disappear. Very fustrating when attempting to gain achievements such as “Gain 100 kills in multiplayer”, as you can have a 22 kill game, the host leaves, and those kills just go away. Blah.

Dark Athena was a reasonably lengthy campaign, about 10-12 hours depending on skill and difficulty level, and with the original Escape from Butcher Bay not only included, but remastered and tightened up for the 360, This is a great value and two phenomenal titles for the price. There isn’t too much to go back for once you complete both games, unless you decide to go again at a higher difficulty, which you may avoid. Even normal difficulty is quite difficult. I loved this game, and look forward to my 2^nd plunge into Butcher Bay, and I can easily recommend this to anyone that owns an Xbox 360 console. Two great games and a great value, check out the demo on Xbox live today.

Gameplay: 9.5

Although difficult and at rare times seems unfair, Dark Athena is an excellent experience. It handles well, the controls are tight, there’s a lot of varied and innovative gameplay, and definitely lives up to the original. There’s enough here to please fans of both First Person Shooters, and Stealth Games, and they both work well together. Points lost unfortunately due to the poor multiplayer.

Graphics: 9.75

Just amazing. Everything about the visuals capture the environment around you, and you will stop more than once just to look at the quality of some of the lighting effects. It stacks up with some of the best looking games on the console to date, and you don’t see too many games beat this one out graphically. Very well done.

Replayability: 7.5

You may enjoy the multiplayer, but I really didn’t. Regardless, there’s two games here, with a lot of gameplay and some may be driven to play this one through twice. With collectables available, there is a certain level of replayability in the campaign, but not comparable to other current titles.

Overall: 9.25

I was impressed yet again by how well Dark Athena was produced. It’s fun, it holds your attention, and everything about it just feels like a fresh experience and a nice break from your typical shooters. It’s got something for everyone, and if you just want to replay the original hit Escape from Butcher Bay, well that’s here too. A nice bundle, especially for fans of the films, and I can easily recommend it to next gen console owners everywhere.

By Paul Theimer