OK so it's not as bleak a thought as "Winter is coming" perhaps, but it does herald a new round of struggle and frustration and a battle against pale and dead eyed hordes- I speak of course of my fellow Christmas shoppers.
Most years I can barely summon up the kindness to pity them as they bob and weave, getting in the way and generally clogging up the place, acting as if collecting vital sacrifices of paper and faff for an unreasonable festive god.
This year is a bit different, however. I'm feeling a certain sort of sympathy for them as they worry their way from one toyshop to the next, hoping that the item they set their hearts on will be in stock, that they won't have to compromise and get something slightly sad and rubbish... A last-moment gift that screams "lack of forward planning" and whispers "You care about this person slightly less than you make out, don't you, you bastard". All of that is now my own little festive nightmare.
I've reached this point though the simple fact that I'm an uncle. I have a wonderful niece and nephew who I don't see nearly enough of and that puts me squarely in the middle of the "must not fail" present buying camp. Every uncle worth his eccentricities feels the same way around Christmas and birthdays I reckon (Aunties seem to have the festive gifts sewn up in August- how I envy them) ; He feels he must buy gifts that strike a balance between being fun and being formative and this creates a bit of a mountain to climb; how do we get that balance spot on to avoid that split second of Christmas day disappointment in the eyes of a small child?
I've decided to jettison a little of my pride and go for the figurative jugular. I have deployed a secret weapon- my mum. My mum, being the one who knows is a reliable source of inside information for those of us who are stuck where we are for most of the year. Hopefully by combining her insider knowledge and my maverick gift sourcing skills we'll make this a PGP to remember, at least until the kids lose the tags from their gifts and forget who bought them.
Sunday 20 November 2011
Saturday 19 November 2011
Phnglui mglw nafh Cthulhu R'lyeh wgah nagl fhtagn, my dear Watson...
Sherlock Holmes: The Awakened is an odd hybrid of point-and click and first person engines which powers this adventure, as Holmes is called upon to investigate the seeming decampment of an aborigine manservant. His initial findings draw him and his long suffering whipping gentleman Dr Watson into a web of intrigue that appears to involve... well, the Elder Gods themselves.
From the notionally foggy but angular streets of London to a Swiss Asylum with a surprise inmate to the waterfronts of New Orleans the darkness is closing in. Can Holmes and Watson put a stop to the dark machinations of the old ones, or are they destined to join the ranks of Lovecraft's failed and broken heroes? Only your trusty lens, pocketknife and razor-sharp wits can keep you one step ahead of tentacled doom!
The game is a simple -perhaps too much so in places-but engaging PaC with puzzles that should challenge without frustrating (they reward lateral thinking rather than absurd logic) while the A.C. Doyle meets H.P. Lovecraft setting is certainly intriguing, if only as an exercise in trying to spot inconsistencies between this and the written subject matter.
It's clear a lot of love has gone into this title. The clue finding asides are always brief and satisfying, leaving you with a sense that you really are upon the trail of some Victorian do-badder and each footprint, scrap of cloth and bloodstain is bringing you closer to the denouement and Holmes' customary dose of boredom slaying marching powder.
As I mentioned briefly before, if this game has one weakness aside from the painfully dated visuals (which, lets be honest, count for very little if the game itself is good) it is that the puzzles are too easy. Holmes (or indeed Watson as you play as both at various stages) will always give you verbal queues as to what needs doing where, although they aren't actually giving you the solution on a plate and a little light head scratching is still on the cards.
All in all a decent game and one I strongly recommend to anyone who was able to enjoy Dark Corners of the Earth despite it's age.
From the notionally foggy but angular streets of London to a Swiss Asylum with a surprise inmate to the waterfronts of New Orleans the darkness is closing in. Can Holmes and Watson put a stop to the dark machinations of the old ones, or are they destined to join the ranks of Lovecraft's failed and broken heroes? Only your trusty lens, pocketknife and razor-sharp wits can keep you one step ahead of tentacled doom!
The game is a simple -perhaps too much so in places-but engaging PaC with puzzles that should challenge without frustrating (they reward lateral thinking rather than absurd logic) while the A.C. Doyle meets H.P. Lovecraft setting is certainly intriguing, if only as an exercise in trying to spot inconsistencies between this and the written subject matter.
It's clear a lot of love has gone into this title. The clue finding asides are always brief and satisfying, leaving you with a sense that you really are upon the trail of some Victorian do-badder and each footprint, scrap of cloth and bloodstain is bringing you closer to the denouement and Holmes' customary dose of boredom slaying marching powder.
As I mentioned briefly before, if this game has one weakness aside from the painfully dated visuals (which, lets be honest, count for very little if the game itself is good) it is that the puzzles are too easy. Holmes (or indeed Watson as you play as both at various stages) will always give you verbal queues as to what needs doing where, although they aren't actually giving you the solution on a plate and a little light head scratching is still on the cards.
All in all a decent game and one I strongly recommend to anyone who was able to enjoy Dark Corners of the Earth despite it's age.
Tuesday 1 November 2011
Sadly not quite free of taint.
A little while ago I took a slap at the demo for WH40K: Space Marine on PC. It's fair to say I predicted another weak product licence akin to Fire Warrior with little to recommend it over any other game of it's type.
Oddly enough, it turned out that I was right and wrong all at once. Right in the sense that the demo was poorly put together and that it showed off perhaps the weakest of Space Marine's features, wrong in that I fully expected all of these weaknesses to be present in the finished game.
The plot of the game is your standard Relic fare- the Ultramarines (bio-engineered troops of the Emperor of mankind) have turned up to evict some dirty, green, mockney aliens from an important forge world that just happens to also make Titans. The Space Marines don't like the idea of these greasy xeno yobs getting hold of any of these walking death contraptions, so they drop by to kick the invaders' collective teeth in.
Of course it's never that simple for the boys in blue as they push back the Orks and seemingly achieve their objective some gentlemen from the Eye of Terror show up fashionably late and throw a daemonic spanner in the works. Cue a massive battle for the soul of a world with your small squad of marines caught in the middle; will you emerge victorious or will you be just another victim of the ruinous powers?
In terms of gameplay Space Marine has borrowed much from Gears of War, the third person perspective, the aiming, the regenerating shield, the combat system; in fact the only thing it hasn't taken as inspiration is the cover system. It doesn't exist.
I mentioned this in my overview of the demo and thought it might become a real issue in large battles, but I'm happy to say I was a bit premature there. You'll still miss the ability to take cover like a frostbite victim does their toes, but you'll also come to realise that the game compensates for this lack in other ways.
For instance leaping out of danger then capitalising on the enemy's missed swing is a lot more exciting and in keeping with the Space Marine do-or-die idiom (I'm aware of the tabletop game and the PC RTS game's reliance on cover yes, but roll with it a bit). I do still wish the option to block had been included though as here melee combat without blocking feels a little like two children sloshing at each other with nerf bats until one falls over crying.
Other problems have made it over into the finished article as well. The QTE finisher system, while fun for the first twenty or so kills soon becomes a boring hindrance, being the only way you can restore your core health bar which does not share the regenerative abilities of your power armour. The fact that you can't move while executing remains a consideration and will get you killed unless you unleash it at just the right moment. Sadly the right moment is usually when you don't need the health boost.
Although some have argued that it adds a thin layer of tactical thought to the otherwise hack and slash nature of the game I have to stand by my initial thoughts here. The system needed to be thought through a bit better, perhaps having killing blows generate 360 degree knock-back?
Cover isn't the only apparent inspiration Space Marine has taken from Gears. When your squad voxes in to report or give updates you'll slow to a gentle strolling pace a la Marcus Phoenix; even the "hands free" pose is the same. It was almost enough to make me think I'd mistakenly paid money for a fan-made total conversion.
The action is brutal, albeit a bit disjointed; there are some points in the game where you'll be wondering where the millions strong green skin horde have managed to hide themselves; other times you'll be fighting through seas of the damn things. It blends melee and ranged combat well, making chopping up a small horde of enemies (using the limited but effective set of combos) while occasionally taking time out to pot-shot snipers who hang back a joy to experience.
Regarding the hardware you get to play with, it's pretty much a full house. You'll get your hands on all the signature kit like Melta Guns, Plasma Cannon, chain swords and even a skull-mashing daemon hammer. These toys are what made the game for me, as each different melee/ranged weapon combo alters the flow of battle by expanding or restricting your tactical options. It still boils down to simple two-button combos, but the effects are drastically different. For example, choosing to take along the two-handed daemon hammer will rob you of almost all your ranged power, restricting to the puny bolt pistol.
Visually the game is rugged and pleasing, faithfully reproducing the grim industrial mega-structures, post-dystopian habitations and scorched battlefields of the far future. Fans of the Dawn of War RTS series will recognise the art style used also, as familiar structures and units get a nice 3-D makeover. The player characters feel authentically chunky and macho as you stomp along dealing out the Emperor's justice from the muzzle of your chosen murder tool as befits controlling a seven foot tall ubermensch bred for war.
Enough with the gripes I think. Behind all of the niggly problems Space Marine is still a lot of fun to play. It successfully captures the atmosphere of the WH:40K universe as well as we have come to expect from Relic who really do have a lot of love for the licence. Space Marine loses ground for seeming to ape so very much of the Gears of War franchise, for having spotty combat and for being too damn empty in places, but manages to rally a bit with it's solid if predictable gameplay and decent (in form if not in implementation) multi player modes to keep you in the fight.
Oddly enough, it turned out that I was right and wrong all at once. Right in the sense that the demo was poorly put together and that it showed off perhaps the weakest of Space Marine's features, wrong in that I fully expected all of these weaknesses to be present in the finished game.
The plot of the game is your standard Relic fare- the Ultramarines (bio-engineered troops of the Emperor of mankind) have turned up to evict some dirty, green, mockney aliens from an important forge world that just happens to also make Titans. The Space Marines don't like the idea of these greasy xeno yobs getting hold of any of these walking death contraptions, so they drop by to kick the invaders' collective teeth in.
Of course it's never that simple for the boys in blue as they push back the Orks and seemingly achieve their objective some gentlemen from the Eye of Terror show up fashionably late and throw a daemonic spanner in the works. Cue a massive battle for the soul of a world with your small squad of marines caught in the middle; will you emerge victorious or will you be just another victim of the ruinous powers?
In terms of gameplay Space Marine has borrowed much from Gears of War, the third person perspective, the aiming, the regenerating shield, the combat system; in fact the only thing it hasn't taken as inspiration is the cover system. It doesn't exist.
I mentioned this in my overview of the demo and thought it might become a real issue in large battles, but I'm happy to say I was a bit premature there. You'll still miss the ability to take cover like a frostbite victim does their toes, but you'll also come to realise that the game compensates for this lack in other ways.
For instance leaping out of danger then capitalising on the enemy's missed swing is a lot more exciting and in keeping with the Space Marine do-or-die idiom (I'm aware of the tabletop game and the PC RTS game's reliance on cover yes, but roll with it a bit). I do still wish the option to block had been included though as here melee combat without blocking feels a little like two children sloshing at each other with nerf bats until one falls over crying.
Other problems have made it over into the finished article as well. The QTE finisher system, while fun for the first twenty or so kills soon becomes a boring hindrance, being the only way you can restore your core health bar which does not share the regenerative abilities of your power armour. The fact that you can't move while executing remains a consideration and will get you killed unless you unleash it at just the right moment. Sadly the right moment is usually when you don't need the health boost.
Although some have argued that it adds a thin layer of tactical thought to the otherwise hack and slash nature of the game I have to stand by my initial thoughts here. The system needed to be thought through a bit better, perhaps having killing blows generate 360 degree knock-back?
Cover isn't the only apparent inspiration Space Marine has taken from Gears. When your squad voxes in to report or give updates you'll slow to a gentle strolling pace a la Marcus Phoenix; even the "hands free" pose is the same. It was almost enough to make me think I'd mistakenly paid money for a fan-made total conversion.
The action is brutal, albeit a bit disjointed; there are some points in the game where you'll be wondering where the millions strong green skin horde have managed to hide themselves; other times you'll be fighting through seas of the damn things. It blends melee and ranged combat well, making chopping up a small horde of enemies (using the limited but effective set of combos) while occasionally taking time out to pot-shot snipers who hang back a joy to experience.
Regarding the hardware you get to play with, it's pretty much a full house. You'll get your hands on all the signature kit like Melta Guns, Plasma Cannon, chain swords and even a skull-mashing daemon hammer. These toys are what made the game for me, as each different melee/ranged weapon combo alters the flow of battle by expanding or restricting your tactical options. It still boils down to simple two-button combos, but the effects are drastically different. For example, choosing to take along the two-handed daemon hammer will rob you of almost all your ranged power, restricting to the puny bolt pistol.
Visually the game is rugged and pleasing, faithfully reproducing the grim industrial mega-structures, post-dystopian habitations and scorched battlefields of the far future. Fans of the Dawn of War RTS series will recognise the art style used also, as familiar structures and units get a nice 3-D makeover. The player characters feel authentically chunky and macho as you stomp along dealing out the Emperor's justice from the muzzle of your chosen murder tool as befits controlling a seven foot tall ubermensch bred for war.
Enough with the gripes I think. Behind all of the niggly problems Space Marine is still a lot of fun to play. It successfully captures the atmosphere of the WH:40K universe as well as we have come to expect from Relic who really do have a lot of love for the licence. Space Marine loses ground for seeming to ape so very much of the Gears of War franchise, for having spotty combat and for being too damn empty in places, but manages to rally a bit with it's solid if predictable gameplay and decent (in form if not in implementation) multi player modes to keep you in the fight.
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