Review: FIFA 11
FIFA 11 stays true to the brilliant FIFA formula, but also adds a number of new, interesting features that keep the experience fresh and the gameplay undeniably fun.
It’s been more than a few years since I last got excited about the FIFA franchise. To me the series has always been like that best friend from primary school that you just don’t see any more. Sure, there was a time when you were inseparable, when you thought you’d be friends forever and that nothing could ever change. But then, day by day, you grew apart. Now you’re two completely separate entities, each one entirely disinterested by the other. And yes, you might wonder from time to time how that old buddy of yours is getting on, but for the most part you keep your distance and move on with your lives.
This is essentially how my experience with the FIFA series has panned out for the last decade or so. I spent an inordinately huge amount of time playing FIFA 2000 with my brother, with memories of improbable scorelines and spectacular goals dominating most of my early teenage years. And then… nothing. The experience grew stale and we both moved on. First-person shooters were becoming more and more popular, and the annual FIFA installments ceased to feature on our Christmas wish lists.
But sometimes you meet that old friend again by chance, and you remember just why you spent all those years in each other’s company. Suddenly it’s like a day never passed, and everything’s back the way it used to be. Ladies and gentlemen, I give you FIFA 11.
Continue →Review: “Scott Pilgrim vs The World: The Game”
Scott Pilgrim vs The World
With the last of Brian Lee O Malley’s Scott Pilgrim Comic book series released last month and Edgar Wrights feature film only a couple of weeks away, Scott Pilgrim vs The World: The Game hit the Playstation Network this week and due to appear on xbox arcade on August 25th. With both the comics and film heavily influenced by video games the question is how do you make a game based on a comic based on games? The answer: You make a retro styled beat ‘em up stuffed with coins, extra lives, continues, heart points, combos, co-op and game overs and hire pixel artist Paul Robertson and chiptune artists Anamanaguchi to put it all together.
As well as visually being based on the Comic’s Artwork it also loosely follows the story. Scott Pilgrim is dating Romona Flowers and must defeat her seven evil-ex boyfriends, his own personal issues and everyone else he meets for that matter. The game starts off on a Super Mario World style overworld stage selection screen. From here each stage is selected. Once in a Stage you and up and to three friends playing as Scott Pilgrim, Ramona Flowers, Stephen Stills and Kim Pine proceed to punch, kick and generally Streets of Rage your way to an end boss. All the while listening to Anamanaguchi’s top class retro score which seriously deserves an award of some kind. The whole experience is stuffed with nods to popular games, highlights including a guitar hero inspired base battle and the glitchy subspace highway.
OK!
Several modern touches have been added to the old genre, characters gain experience for every enemy defeated which allows them to level up and gain new moves. Coins are dropped which and be collected and used in Shops, which can be entered during the levels. From here power ups can be bought in the form of books, food and bionic arms in order to buff up your stats. This isn’t just a tacked on feature either, even before the end of the first stage and on the easiest difficulty you’ll need to put some money into power ups. The enemies get much tougher very quickly and you’ll seriously start running through those lives if you don’t constantly return to the shopping district.
Speaking of lives get used to using them! You start with three and at every game over screen get 3 back. In order to progress you must complete an entire area (which can include 3 zones) and defeat the boss or bosses. There’s no checkpoints between each boss so if if you run out of lives its back to the start for you! The only way to get extra lives is to either beat one specific boss character over and over again (fans of the comic will know who I mean) or to buy them at a huge price from a hidden market on the first level. At the start of a new stage I recommend getting game over on purpose if you’ve lower than three lives so they’ll be refreshed, which is silly.
The game really shines when you’ve four people playing together in one room not just because it’s more fun but because it’s easier. Not that many extra enemies are added and there’s a handy revive mechanic where team mates who are still standing can button bash a fallen friend back to his feet. There are also multiplayer exclusive moves when characters work together that cause serious damage. Unfortunately for some crazy reason there’s no online co-op meaning your friends have to be present with one controller each.
Overall the Scott Pilgrim vs The World shines as a wonderful nod to the games of yore that captures the spirit of its comic roots and at only €10 is well worth it. It’ll have you jumping for joy one minute and throwing the controller out a window the next.
4 buritos out of 5
Continue →Retro Review: The Secret of Monkey Island “Special Edition”
In the winter of 1990 I was six years old and my memories of games from this period (now 20 years ago) has become somewhat faded, but one memory still clear in my mind was the day that my brother booted up the Amiga 500+ and inserted the first disk of Lucasfilm Games (now known as Lucas Arts) “The Secret of Monkey Island”.
Fast forward 20 years and “The Secret of Monkey Island” has returned bigger and better than ever on multiple platforms (Xbox live arcade, the Playstation Network, and on the PC through Steam). This game following the adventures of wannabe pirate Guybrush Threepwood struck such a chord with gamers that Lucas Arts felt the time was ripe to re-release it in the form of “The Secret of Monkey Island: Special Edition”.
Continue →
Just Cause 2 Review
I did a lot of things playing Just Cause 2 so many things that I couldn’t put them in words, which is why I made this video, which barely has any words at all.
Just Cause 2 is insane. If you didn’t watch that video or watched it and simply refused to believe it, then yes, that was me surfing a jet then grappling to airliner mid flight. That was also me quad biking off an exploding crane, driving an ice cream van off a mountain, gracefully base jumping off a skyscraper and down a water fall, jumping onto the roof of my moving truck to clear a road block with a grenade launcher and last but not least, attaching a sports car to an air liner and driving/taking off into the sunset.
(more…)
Batman: Arkham Asylum Review
There’s four henchmen below me, three armed and one with a pipe. They’re close together and calm. No chance of knocking three out before one pulls the trigger and the batsuit is far from bullet proof. The un-armed man leaves the group, getting board. He walks underneath a stone gargoyle the same gargoyle I happen to be perched upon. I drop and suddenly he’s strung upside down hanging from the statue. That’s one. His companions rush towards him while one stays behind frantically looking for the bat. But he’s too late, I’m two feet away from gliding feet first into the back of his neck. That’s two. The two remaining henchmen stand back to back but they’re afraid. Pulse rates are averaging at 140bpm when I emerge from the floor grates between them, a swift punch to the back of the neck forces the first to drop his gun, the others gets two followed by a boot to the face knocking him unconscious. That’s three. The first has recovered, he grabs his gun and spins to greet a batarang to the face. That’s four. I AM BATMAN.
First of all “Batman: Arkham Asylum” works, which is a huge relief for myself and the millions of Batman fans who had the horrible feeling that it all looked too good to be true. Here’s the story, Batman has caught the Joker again, he throws him in Arkham Asylum again, turns out the Joker planned it all along and has taken over the Asylum and set free all the villains it contains. Batman must stop him. It all works for a very simple reason; it knows exactly what it wants to be.
Continue →// Chronic Authors
Stephen Colfer (141)
Neil Fitzpatrick (13)
Chris Slack (10)
Ruairi Burns (6)
Paddy Dunne (6)
// Latest Comments