Consolation Prize

Wednesday, 30 January 2008

The Quest Goes On

Following on from my deliberation whether to play an existing game or start something new I decided to continue with Puzzle Quest: Challenge of the Warlords. I've been playing the game (on and off) since it was released on Xbox Live Arcade last October and I'm determined to finish it, especially as I never finished the DS version. It's certainly providing excellent value for money but I think I'm on the home stretch now as I edge towards a final confrontation with Lord Bane.

In between playing Puzzle Quest there's been a glut of new demo's to try out (impressions will follow in the near future), the occasional game of Catan and a co-op session of Undertow.

Rez: HD was released today and immediately made a good impression persuading me to shell out for the full version. The game also suits my current preference for quality games that can be played in small bite sized chunks. I'm in no doubt that I'll be playing more of this game in the days ahead.

On another note, Consolation Prize has been going for a few months now and I thought it was about time I performed some general maintenance. I've finally managed to add an "archives" section to the sidebar and customised the monthly results page to show post headers by date rather than the full post details. Hopefully my tinkering hasn't caused too many problems.

Monday, 28 January 2008

Devil May Cry 4 Demo

Capcom’s Devil May Cry series has been around since 2001 and the highly anticipated fourth installment is due to be released next month. A demo of Devil May Cry 4 was released onto Xbox Live Marketplace last Thursday (24th) and should be available on the Euro Playstation Network later this week.

In previous games the lead character was Dante, but the demo introduces you to the new character Nero via two playable missions to showcase the different aspects of the game. The first mission "Exterminator" allows you 10 minutes to experience the core of the game as you move from area to area in an opera house plaza clearing enemies with the odd simple puzzle thrown in. The second mission “Executioner” lets you play a couple of set piece battles, firstly against some “Icy Frosts” before the final showdown with the impressively huge flaming boss character “Berial”.

The controls are all fairly straight forward and moves and combos are slowly introduced throughout the demo. Like Dante, Nero has both a sword for melee and a gun for ranged attacks but his right arm is not human and has a couple of “Devil Bringer” attacks that can also be used. There are some great attacks to play around with in the demo. Whether it’s launching enemies into the air or grabbing enemies and hurling them around with his demonic arm when “B” is held down, which is particularly great to watch against the boss “Berial”, all of them look impressive.

Both sword and gun attacks can be charged up for additional damage by either holding down the left trigger or “X” respectively. As with the previous instalments in the series each encounter is graded and the key is to try and chain combos together, not only to dispatch an enemy as fast as possible, but also to get the best rating.

The camera, which for the majority of the game provides a fixed viewpoint of the action, can only occasionally be moved by the player and it does take time to adjust to this, especially as the viewpoint will change as you're running along or between areas which can cause some disorientation.

The demo of DMC4 looks fantastic, with some great looking cut-scenes, decent character and enemy designs and a great boss encounter. However, the game mechanics all feel very familiar and don’t seem to have changed significantly from its predecessors, which on the one hand will appeal to fans but may alienate newcomers. The demo is well worth investigating and fans will be happy with what’s on offer until the games release.

Thursday, 24 January 2008

KUF: Circle of Doom Demo

Kingdom Under Fire: Circle of Doom is a fantasy third person hack and slash action role playing game. A demo of the game is now available from Xbox Live Marketplace and is a rather chunky 1.2GB download.

According to the written prologue, which you can view if you’re really desperate, the world was once ruled by a pair of deities, Nible the lord of light, and Encablossa the lord of darkness. Each lord would take it in turns to rule and shape the world as they see fit and then after an age had passed hand over the reigns of power. However as is usual someone always gets fed up with the arrangement, in this case Nible throws his toys out of the pram and refuses to hand power back to Encablossa, thus igniting a war between the forces of light and darkness.

Upon starting the demo you can choose from one of two selectable characters. The final version of the game features six characters but in this instance you can play as either Leinhart an assassin, or Kendal the paladin. As you’d expect each character has strengths and weaknesses and specific weapons and armour types are only available to certain characters.

There are quite a few controls to get your head round in KUF:CoD but the demo will walk you through both the controls and item management. Different weapons can be assigned to both the “A” and “X” buttons whilst “B” and the right trigger are used for special abilities and the two shoulder buttons reserved for item assignment. Although this kind of configuration allows easy access to attacks, abilities and items as with most RPG’s item management forms an essential part of the game and you will frequently have to re-assign buttons as you find better equipment or learn new abilities. The tutorial can be skipped at any point but it’s worthwhile putting up with it the once before deciding to head off into the unknown world.

Any kind of attack, whether it be melee, ranged, or the use of an ability will cost “SP” points to perform. Your character has a total number of “SP” points available indicated by a blue bar at the bottom of the screen but once depleted the character will no longer be able to attack or use abilities. Although the SP bar does replenish fairly quickly (or via potions) having depleted can leave you vulnerable to attack for a period of time. This is compounded by your characters complete inability to block any type of attack.

Along the linear path that your character travels “idol sanctuaries” will be found. At these locations the player can buy, sell or synthesise items together. Alternatively you can choose to sleep and enter the dream world, a place where you can learn new abilities and discover more about the characters and the story.

KUF:CoD looks quite good. The demo environments all look OK and the main character models are decent enough but there is a lot of screen tearing throughout. Unfortunately I found the AI to be very poor with groups of enemies standing around and quite happily ignoring the player until trigger points are crossed. Similarly when fleeing to a previously cleared area enemies will only pursue you so far and will suddenly break off and return to there original stating location.

The camera is frustratingly poor, needs constant attention, and will frequently get obscured by a bush, tree or other object whilst fighting large groups of enemies. By holding down the left trigger you can change the camera to an aiming view. However this view seems rather pointless because although I could see a group of enemies and fire at them they were invulnerable until a trigger point was crossed. Once triggered the group would be upon you in seconds leaving only enough time to loose off a couple of ranged attacks.

On a positive point the game has a wealth of equipment and special abilities with which to customize your character. Levelling up a characters hit points, sp points, and luck works quite well with a pot of “attribute” points that allocated how the player sees fit.

I wouldn’t say that KUF:CoD is a terrible game, just average. It does quite a few things competently enough but there are some key areas in the demo that it falls down on, not the least of which is that it is repetitive. If you’re a fan of hack “n” slash RPG games then it’s worth giving the demo a cursory glance.

Wednesday, 23 January 2008

US December Hardware Sales

I’ve only just noticed that December’s 2007 NPD hardware figures for the US were released recently. Looking down the list it’s more or less the same pattern that has been evident every month throughout the year, excepting the occasional surprise, just with a heck of a lot more units sold during the festive season.

Nintendo is top of the heap once again but the Xbox 360 managed to get within touching distance of the Wii, albeit due to the Wii’s stock shortages. The grandfather of the current generation, the PS2, now over seven years old is still showing the new boys on the block that there’s life left in the old dog yet.

The PS3, while having fairly decent sales, lost more ground to its rivals and 2008 is shaping up to be a crucial year in determining the success of the platform in this region.

1. Nintendo DS (2,470,000)
2. Nintendo Wii (1,350,000)
3. Microsoft Xbox 360 (1,260,000)
4. Sony PS2 (1,100,000)
5. Sony PSP (1,060,000)
6. Sony PS3 (797,600)

The total sales for the year also follow the same pattern:

1. Nintendo DS (8,500,000)
2. Nintendo Wii (6,290,000)
3. Microsoft Xbox 360 (4,620,000)
4. Sony PS2 (3,970,000)
5. Sony PSP (3,820,000)
6. Sony PS3 (2,560,000)

Monday, 21 January 2008

Boogie Bunnies

Boogie Bunnies is a new puzzle game that has recently been released on Xbox Live Arcade for 800 Microsoft Points.

The aim of the game is to match three or more groups of “bunnies” in varying colours either horizontally or vertically by launching bunnies from the bottom or the left / right sides of the screen. Every time bunnies are successfully matched the “bunny bar” will fill up and once filled the player will advance to the next level. Every few seconds an additional row of bunnies is added to the top of the screen marching the crowd of bunnies further on and edging them closer to the trap (pit, water), which they will fall into, at the bottom of the screen.

There are a few minor variations in the game-play to that outlined above as every now and then the bunnies will dance acting as a double point’s multiplier for the duration. In addition red bunnies, in the roll of suicide bunny, will explode clearing the surrounding area when matched.

Boogie Bunnies is a very colourful game and has a nice isometric perspective of the action but doesn’t really break any new ground with this genre of game. Apart from being able to launch bunnies from the sides of the screen as-well as from the bottom the principles are similar to older games such as Puzzle Bobble.

With it’s cute graphics and bunnies that yelp “yippee” when successfully matched this game is probably more suited to the younger generation and is just a bit too saccharin sweet for my tastes. However, the game still plays well enough and I’m sure plenty of people will find it addictively engaging.

Thursday, 17 January 2008

Metal Slug 3

The Metal Slug series of games have been around for quite some time now and spawned a host of games on a number of platforms. I've even got a copy of Metal Slug 1st Mission and Metal Slug 2nd Mission for my Neo Geo Pocket Colour, that ill fated hand-held that I thought was particularly good for the time.

This time it's the Xbox 360's turn to receive a port of Metal Slug 3. The game is a run and gun side scrolling shooter which sees you taking on hordes of enemies, rescuing prisoners for power-ups and taking on the obligatory boss at the end of the stage.

During a stage you will come across different types of "Metal Slugs" (vehicles), increasing your firepower and overall effectiveness, and are essential for ensuring your survival if your reflexes are as bad as mine. One nice aspect about this game is the branching paths that are available within a stage adding to the games replayability as you explore the different routes available.

The controls are nice and simplistic with the left joystick used for movement and for the direction of fire with "X" used to shoot, "Y" to throw grenades and "A" to jump. Graphically things all move smoothly and the sprites, some of them surprisingly huge, look great.

The full version is available for 800 Microsoft Points and is well worth a look if you're into arcade shooters.