 |
Dishonored (PS3)
by Danscomp
Dishonored is a game that immediately underwhelms. On the PS3 the graphics are dated. Colours are washed out, water is unconvincing and detail missing. In fact, it looks a lot like Half life 2 at a time when we expect much more from a full price title.
The game world of Generica (My own name for it, I'm afraid) could stand a ... whole more fleshing out. Compared to the bustling cities of GTA4 or Assassin's creed 2, Dunwall is positively deserted. The game cries out for setpieces that never happen. I was looking forward, for example, to a level on a whaling ship where you might get the option to free a captured whale or sabotage a vessel - or feed an assassination target to an enraged humpback.
No such luck. The missions are all fairly simple in scope. Navigate from here to here. Remove this person/s. Get back to the boat. The voice work throughout is standard, with the exception of Chloe Moretz, playing the contested daughter of the empress.
But if you stick with it, you'll find a game worth playing underneath.
Dishonored succeeds when you don't follow the default kill 'em all path, which feels a decidedly inferior experience to playing as Etzio Alditore in AC2. Rather than simply off the assassination targets in the game, you have the opportunity of removing them while leaving them alive. Sounds lame, but this typically involves a fate worse than death.
You are (sort of) rewarded by keeping the body count down by having less rats and zomb.. sorry, weepers walking the streets. Unfortunately, there does seem very little point in spending thousands upgrading your pistol or gathering grenades, spike traps and incendary bolts if you're not going to use them.
Thankfully, there is plenty of scope to buy and upgrade powers in support of your non-killing ways. Teleporting from building to building, slowing time to get a choke in or a few sleep darts off. Using possession as a means to surmount obstacles is a great touch. Combined with a few other maxed out powers, you can realistically go after the trophies where you remain unseen by everyone.
The game's plot does liven up a little towards the end, and the very last rain-soaked level gives a tantalising glimpse of how good this game could have been.
Maybe next time, Arkane?
Read the complete review |
|
|
Fallout 3 (PS3)
by ThatHelpfulGuy
Fallout 3 is a huge step up from Fallout 2 and Fallout 3. After Bethesda bought the Fallout franchise from Interplay, they decided to make it very different and much like their Elder Scrolls series. Fallout 3 is set in the year 2277, 200 years after a massive nuclear war that completely wiped out everything. You start out growing up from ... year 1 to 19, getting your stats the way you want it. You realize your father has left the vault 101 and no one is allowed to leave (or no one HAS ever left). They believe the world is still highly radiated to support the human life. After you bash your way through some vault guards and overtake the Overseer (which you choose to kill him or not), you will find the vault door leading to the outside. When you open the door, you see yourself seeing the outside world for the very first time. You end up learning your in Washington D.C. The setting is mostly D.C. with parts on Virginia and Maryland. (Their are add ons where you go to Lookout State Park, Maryland. Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. And a simulation of the resource war against China in Anchorage, Alaska).
The game has game play very similar to The Elder Scrolls. Just in this way, you have guns. They brought back the "VATS" system where you press a button and choose what body part shoot at with a chance (%). Your S.P.E.C.I.A.L. skills help your normal skills (SPECIAL stands for Strength, Perception, Endurance, Charisma, Intelligence, Agility, and Luck). The normal skills are what you think they are. Big guns, small guns, laser guns, sneak, lock picking, etc. Doing quests, killing enemies, discover locations all gain you EXP. When you level up, you distribute skill points to your normal skills, the higher your Intelligence is the more you can distribute.
I give this game a 8 out of 10!
Read the complete review |
 |
Fallout: New Vegas (PS3)
by StormchaserHat
Fallout: New Vegas centers on you, a courier with the Mojave Express, pursuing the men who stole your package and left you for dead. However, you'll quickly realize that there is far more at stake as you encounter the various factions vying for control of the region, until eventually you'll be forced to choose a side, or make a stand on ... your own, with the fate of New Vegas hinging upon your actions. The story is epic in scope and will have you sent to every corner of the wasteland, running into trouble every step of the way as you hump it across the desert, but the game also rewards you for going off the beaten path with a huge number of side quests and unmarked challenges which can be ignored or pursued at your own discretion. As you progress through the game you'll gain experience which will allow you to level up, improve your skills and select perks, allowing you to tailor your character to your own preferences. There's also the option to play the game in 'Hardcore Mode', which adds to the experience by introducing hunger, thirst and sleep requirements to the game, adding to the immersion as you scavenge for vital food and water.
As much as I like New Vegas, however, it does have some serious problems. Because the game is built using the modified Fallout 3 engine, rather than anything new, it very quickly becomes easy to tell the difference between the new and the 'lifted-from-the-previous-game-with-a-new-paint-job', particularly with the game's new enemies, which have much more dynamic and natural-looking animations than their rehashed (and oddly rigid) counterparts. Some of the environments can also feel lazy and rushed, which is a shame considering Bethesda's usual dedication to quality aesthetics. The game is also prone to graphical glitches, bizarre gameplay anomalies, lagging and even freezing at times, making the game everything from frustrating to downright unplayable at times, a fact made all the more annoying as Fallout 3 didn't have any of these problems.
When all's said and done, Fallout: New Vegas should be a great game. It's massive, open-world environment and huge, branching mission structure provides hours and hours of entertainment and adventure, but with so many bugs it's hard to give this game anything more than a good recommendation. I love this game. If you can look past the faults and glitches, this game will keep you gleefully exploring the Mojave for days at a time but, if not, then you may find this game more of a chore than fun.
Read the complete review |
