The Orange Box

As I write the end-song to Portal is playing, its now over two days since I purchased The Orange Box and I must say it is everything I had expected, more so in some places. Here’s a brief summary of what I mean:

Half Life 2 & Episode 1 with full commentary in decent graphics is awesome enough, I was expecting at least Deathmatch to make an appearence, but that is alright.

We can break the rest of ‘TOB’ into three pieces, “The Story – Episode 2″, “The Gimmick – Portal” and “The Multiplayer – Team Fortress 2″. Lets talk about Episode 2.

I must admit, the first sections of Episode 2 were extraordinariliy dull. Tunnel after tunnel, cave after cave and filled with those annoying as hell Acid Antlions. A good hour or so in I was wondering when it was really going to start. It started to warm up a bit, as we progressed onto the next series of puzzles involving acquiring a vehicle.

As soon as you get said vehicle it is a whole different game. Open spaces, grand fights and decent numbers of fucking combine. Something the first half of the game seemed fairly devoid of, much to my dismay.

I don’t want to spoil the end of the episode for you, or any of the relevant plot, but rest assured you will not be disappointed. Shock, awe and rage will ensue at various intervals and the “Epic” fight everyone is talking about is good and reasonably difficult. Not COD epic, but definitely epic enough.

Lets talk about Team Fortress 2 a bit. Although, so far, there isn’t a lot I can say about it. You see, 360 users are getting the shaft because of lag and lack of activity at the moment. We are assured a patch is on the way, theres just Microsoft certification left to do.

What I have seen is good though; Sharp stylistic graphics, dynamic and interesting gameplay (not to disimilar to some Ultimate game of Trumps) and interesting map design. Although, its a shame 2Forts is the most played map, because it is arguably not the best.

Balance is an issue though (pre-patch remember) as I think Scouts for one, and Heavy Gunners /w Medics are so ridiculously overpowered. The scout’s advantage may well diminish as latency problems improve, but as things currently stand they can be almost impossible to hit. As for HG + Medic, his high HP and brute force fire power, coupled with the almost overpowered Medic healing gun make him not only a force to contend with, but a practically invulnerable one.

Now, I have left the best (or at least my favourite) till last. Portal. It’s produced by the students who brought you Narbacular Drop (I would hope you’ve tried it by now) and were hired into Valve to produce a similar game in their uber engine.

So far, so good. Uber principle, uber engine. Now the problem with a game with so much potential, is that it will often go wasted. Heck, email me if you want a list of examples. And for the first half dozen or so levels I laughed plenty but admittedly, I wasn’t challenged or particularly intrigued.

Soon enough, it became much more challenging, but you overcome them if you are persistent. You see, the key is in the trailer; You really need to think with Portals. Once you learn how they think you will follow suit soon enough.

Even though I wasn’t expecting much plot besides “I’m an AI – Watch me torture you to death” I was pleasantly surprised. It was entertaining and evocative at the same time. This game MUST be played. Now. By everyone.

Now for a bit of General chatter: The Orange Box is easily worth £40, realistically I would purchase it all for a princely sum of £100~ (if you threw in HL:DM, CS:S and DoD:S) but such is the nature of Valve that they’ll give you pretty much everything.

Sure, I already own HL2 & Episode 1, but why not own it on a 360? With full Commentary? And no Render problems? Ultimately though, PC gamers have a distinct advantage thanks to community maps et al. The true power of the source engine has nothing to do with Valve, but their modding community.

In the future, when my budget catches up with my PC, I will purchase Episode 2, Portal, TF2, L4D, etc again and it will get an even higher score than i’m about to give you simply thanks to the modding community.

Episode 2: 8.8/10
Portal: 9.5/10
TF2: 7.0/10

I Say “The Orange Box is everything I love about Valve.”
One word: Full-Life
It’s: Portal > Half Life 2 > Team Fortress 2
It’s not: Tired > Moddable > Finished yet

Score: 96%

Orange Box Review

Nobody here at WSAG has actually played it yet, but we don’t let things like that stop us!

Graphics: The source engine is the most awesome engine ever and games that don’t use it and claim they have the best graphics like Killzone, for example, can fuck off. 349,561 out of 10.

Sound: There are explosions and guns and things. Sometimes people talk and there is music too. Clearly better than anything else on the market. 276,834 out of 10.

Gameplay: These are the best games ever and are even better than Half-Life 2. Anybody who tries to say any other game is better is a liar and knows it, and should shoot himself in the face. I say himself because girls don’t play games. ∞%

OTHER THINGS THAT THE ORANGE BOX IS BETTER THAN:

Orgasms
Chocolate
Super Smash Brothers

THINGS THIS POST RIPPED OFF:

UK: Resistance

(I agree whole-heartedly with this in depth analysis of the Orange Box product. – James)

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Stubbs the Zombie Review Anyway!

Because I should live up to promises even if Sony doesn’t. Because Sony doesn’t.

Zombie games are pretty fucking obvious, so it makes you wonder why companies took so long to get their shit together and figure it out. Almost as if they wanted Toast with Jam, and started by looking for the Jam in the fucking garden while spreading butter on the toast with their foreheads like a bunch of Mario worshipping spastics. It’s only in recent times they only started to actually arrive, and now we might possibly have too bloody many, which is rather ironic when you think about it. But you probably don’t.

Anyway, Stubbs the Zombie says a big “Fuck You” to the traditional serious approach, choosing instead a more cartoony style, which is starting to catch on with fuckwits who have eschewed real games and bought a Wii. But since it came out before people were even aware of the stupidly named gimmick shitbox, it can be forgiven. It uses the Halo engine, which means it looks decent enough for an Xbox game, though I’m not sure whether the use of the Halo engine was for the sake of convenience or so they could show off they used to work for Bungie like a bunch of hype building cockbags.

In any case, you control Stubbs the Zombie, though you only know that because the game is CALLED that. It’s depressing how nobody can actually use the Halo 1 Engine to tell a decent story and prove the critics wrong. Seriously, it’s not that fucking hard. More is revealed by the game goes on, but I only learnt most of the character names using Wikipedia so frankly I don’t care too much (I do have to wonder how Wikipedians worked it out, but it’s really not important). Suffice it to say, the game takes place in Punchbowl, a fictional city of the future in the 1950’s, built by – get this: Andrew Ryan. Shit, no, I mean Andrew Monday. Whoops.

Anyway, Stubbs comes back to life and bursts through the ground in a rather amusing scene with apparently only the endearing goal of eating brains, which might be hard considering the craptacular AI of the average enemy. In any case, Stubbs goes around eating brains and building a zombie army, occasionally discovering other goals and so on, and eventually finding out about his past. The game is played from the third person, and you have a array of abilities at your disposal, such as throwing your own organs at people, bowling your head, possessing people with your hand and so on. The usual contrived nonsense. There’s also an incredibly unfunny fart ability. Because farting is funny, apparently. Personally I find it as funny  as killing newborn kittens. (For the record, I find killing newborn puppies highly amusing, kittens very much not so).

Anyway, the game is fun, especially at first. It’s fun to hear the cries of people as you bite into their skull, and building up a small army is a fantastic feeling, as is driving vehicles about and running people over. Unfortunately, the game has a difficulty curve like walking up invisible stairs in the middle of a volcano, and soon your fellow zombies become useless, killed within a few shots, and you are forced to take on entire platoons of soldiers on your own. Ad the final boss is both lame and stupidly fucking hard. The kind of boss you have to take advantage of by hiding and doing sneak attacks to win, therefore undermining the whole point of being a FUCKING ZOMBIE.

Stubbs the Zombie isn’t particularly brilliant, but it is very funny and is occasionally a true joy to play, despite the difficulty.

7.5 / 10

Oh, and the PC controls kind of sucked, so if you want to try it, get the Xbox version. Don’t have an Xbox? Then you’re a festering wank and we don’t want your type around here.

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Battlestar, Condemned and Atonement

I’ve been putting off any real content article for a few days now, honestly I’m just hesitant to try and textualise my thoughts until I’ve completed a review of Warriors Orochi I’m doing for Xbox Elite – but it has yet to arrive and my thoughts are rattling through my head now.

So here we go, you get a Triple header – Three reviews in one post!

Battlestar Galactica Series 3

I missed watching BSG series 3 on television by about two weeks, and decided that rather than miss an episode or two I would painstakingly wait over a year for it to come to DVD. Well last week the time came to watch it, all 16 Hours, in one go and let me tell you, it was entirely worth that wait.

Admittedly it peaked early and within the first 5 episodes it became a bit too much filler and not enough thriller. But saying that, the first few episodes were more thrilling and entertaining than all of DS9 and Voyager put together. The scene were the BS:G FTL’s into the atmosphere … I could’ve died happy then.

Sadly, the season didn’t end on quite a high … I won’t ruin specifics, but we discover identities of all but one of the remaining human cylon clones. You won’t be shocked and if you’re anything like me, you won’t give a shit either really. It started at a 10 and ended on a 9 … Depending on who you like anyway (Oh and Fat Apollo will disturb and scar you).

Overall it gets a solid 9.5/10, not the best series yet … but it has some of my favourite episodes/moments.

Condemned

Voiced by that chap in heroes, I was sold Condemned on the grounds it was a Police game with some Horror aspects. Wrong. Its a Horror game with some Police aspects. I was quite disillusioned initially as it felt like they were grasping at straws and the plot was … well … thin in places, but it was actually very atmospheric.

Although the difficulty was a little too easy with only one or two parts even requiring tactical fighting … since medikits were so common, you could basically do whatever you wanted and not really about the consequences. Also, its supposed to be made more threatening by the lack of firearms (or at least ammunition) to protect yourself with … but sadly, in many parts of the game guns are quite common. In fact, if you have any kind of aim and ammo conservation habits from more stringent horror games then you will be trying to decide which gun to take from like … 3. Times like that made me wish I could at least carry two weapons -.-

All in all, its a good game. Quite probably the best Horror game I’ve played in years … Sure, Bioshock has its scary moments … But condemned was pretty damn horrifying from start to finish. 8.2/10

Atonement

This, I will keep brief.

I can put up with some chicky flicks and stuff … but this was fucking awful.

If I didn’t get to see so much of teh nipples, I probably would’ve left. The sequencing was schizophrenic, the dialogue painfully cliché and the plot fell short of my expectations … neigh … It ran head first into them like an angry bull determined to destroy my fragile existence.

1.5 Stars /5 – Nipples are win. Keira Knightley haf secksy body. Otherwise, shit.

It’d only be fair to mention in retrospect that the main guy’s acting was actually pretty good, sadly … He couldn’t bring the rest of it back from the brink of suckitude. Oh. and the Library sex scene was pretty good.

Until next time boys and girls, have fun! Mark assures me he has something planned, but not a Stubbs the Zombie review.

Regards,
James.

Ps. For the Record, I wanted to see that 3:10 to Yuma, but apparently cowboy movies “look boring”. Sheesh.

PPs. I was quite proud of my comment on this video. (I’m JamesPR87 btw)

Bioshock Demo Review

Fuck me!

10/10

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Transformers: The Movie

Originally posted on Nobody Reads This.

A Michael Bay Destruction.

Kek. Just kidding! I will admit now, I wasn’t huge on Tranformers as a child so I was pretty apathetic about this particular piece of Cinema. I do however carry a torch for the Preservation of Classic Media, so my expectations were pretty low.

I’ll categorise my critique to make it easier to scan through.

Script – 2/10

This was probably the single worst Blockbuster Script I’ve heard in quite some time. It’s a shame really, because they did a semi-respectably job of the casting. But a bad script can tarnish the work of even the best actor.

It was tacky, clichéd and had literally no substance. A Good two thirds of the lines could’ve been taken from any other generic title. Although due credit has to be given, because it was genuinely funny when it wanted to be. The President has one line … and he asks for a Ho-Ho.

Characters - 4/10

Referring exclusively to the Humans, we’ll come to the Transformers later. I thought the casting in places was awesome and it really showed in the characters. The Secretary of Defense (Jon Voit) was extremely well played as I’ve come to expect from him. Josh Duhamel is also a personal favourite and did very well untill some complete dickwad wrote in a retarded motorcycle slide for him.

Seriously, however did that – Get the hell away from Hollywood.

However, I must say that it pretty much ended there. Most of the characters were 2D, pointless and totally cliché rubbish! Seriously, they wasted so much precious time building up “Sam” and his tart and completely neglected almost all of the Transformers. Wtb Time Management.

Tranformers – 6/10

Well, I’ll just get it out of the way and say I don’t like the new updates they gave them. The Flame Stickers … the Tarty Poser Cars … It was a complete wreck. But they were very much the Transformers we knew and were pretty epic when it counted.

The problem is … For the first hour or so, we only saw one Autobot and One decepticon. They weren’t even Optimus and Megatron … And even when we met the rest of the Autobots, their time on screen was reduced to silly plot motion and just driving around.

The Decepticons were even worse! Besides the first one, we didn’t see the others untill really late into the movie. There was no background for any of them … No explanation of how and why they ended up on Earth fine when Megatron didn’t

They were just faceless automatons apparently with a Grudge against us. Fair ’nuff.

One other little annoyance … The Little Infiltrator Robots;
- They made stupid sounds
- They were apparently invisible, because nobody ever seemed to spot them when they were 1yd away making all that noise and flashing their lights. Completely. Retarded.

Oh and one footnote, the changes Bay made turning them into MTV Friendly Pimpmobiles made them all look identical in Humanoid mode. When two robots got into grapples, they just became a mesh of metal rather than two fighting robots.

Special FX – 7/10

Decent enough, we can’t blame the Design crew for the horrible stuff they had to work with, but I couldn’t help but feel that it was a bit scrappy in places.

Their Pyrotechnics was considerably better, and I nearly wet myself when the A-10 strike came in with the Spectre Gunship following. That scene alone is worth 5/10 >_>

Summary

Anywho, I don’t have alot more to say than that. It was a decent enough movie, entertaining in its own way – But a Complete bastardisation of Transformers.

Sure, some scenes were just epic fighting – but most were complete drivel – and often entirely irrelevant.

An average of the above scores only gives about … 4~/10 but I feel its worth more than that because it was quite alot of fun to watch.

Score: 7/10

Fun, but that seems to be all Michael Bay is good for. Some things are best left untouched.

Tomb raider: Duplo Edition

I see what you’re thinking, A new Lego game perhaps or maybe a secret that I’ve just found in a Tomb raider game or Maybe a new Kids Tomb Raider?

Well no. Sadly no Lego tomb raider is planned. Instead it’s what I refer the new Tomb Raider Anniversary edition as, because like Duplo – it’s bigger and easier to see what your doing than normal Lego. (Ye oldie Tomb Raider) Also like Duplo it’s far easier to do stuff with. Now don’t get me wrong I’m actually enjoying the Anniversary edition, Crystal Dynamics have done a fine job of recreating the first game.

Take the environments, they’re different but the same if you know what I mean. It’s like going to a theme park then returning after a few years it’s the same layout more or less. But there are new rides and stalls. That path to your old favourite ride has now been moved. Well that’s what playing the new Tomb Raider is like, and I love it. Everything looks better, prettier and smother but that’s to be expected. The way out is a tad different but you still know your way around.

And the puzzles they’re bigger too. Anybody who’s played the original will remember the Fire puzzle in the Midas Section. Your in a room with a pool of water at the other end is a ledge, on said ledge is a Lead bar you need to turn into gold. Now the only way across is a few raised blocks easy. That is until you start to cross and find out they are timed to release fire. Getting across involves carefully timed jumps and grabs.

Now for the anniversary edition it’s essentially the same, but this time you also need to get to two switches, which are in alcoves at the side of the room. So to get to the first switch you need to jump into the water and pull a lever. This raiser a circular ledge with hand holds onto the second platform. so I start to hop my way over there, Here’s where the anniversary edition lets me down, I’ve timed my jump wrong and landed in the fire to my surprise Lara just takes some health damage that’s all, no screaming in pain as she is set on fire like the first generation of games just a loss of health i dont feel as if i’ve been punished for my mistake but rather just a slight tap on the wrist. As for the puzzle it’s becomes easy now infact most of the puzzles are easy but that’s probably because there so similar to the original so I’ve done them all before

There are a few of these niggling disappointments not enough to put you off but there are enough to wish you could do something about them. Take the grappling hook, you can use it to wall run but even with all the help functions turned off the game will still show a big Square button picture where the grapple will latch onto a metal object. This only happens where you can wall run.

Another thing, like PC gamer said the game has really lousy collision detections. I thought seeing as they’re using a Keyboard and not a control Pad it might just be them, but no the PS2 suffers from it as well. Spikes will graze you and cause a lot of damage animals can miss you entirely and you’ll still get knocked down. And this may just be me but you get a bullet time when you enrage an animal normally done by just shooting it. When enraged it’ll charge you and you get put into bullet time with a chance to dodge but with me this only seems to happen when I’m in mid air >_> but worse this game still has those terrible on rails button mash sections. Press X to jump now press R1 to shoot the raptors. Interactive cut scenes like this tend to spoil great moments in the game luckily there are few and far between.

But look past these flaws and you are left with a great enjoyable game when you not fighting it’s tomb raider as I remember here back in the day only nimbler and easier I’d recommend this to anyone who wants to get into tomb raider forget the legends go straight for this. Then when you feeling up to a proper challenge buy your self one of the first 3 games.

Ghost in the Shell

Website

Ghost in the Shell is one of those long running manga series that everyone in the loop knows all about, and anyone who hasn’t been interested in manga probably hasn’t even heard of. I myself do like GitS, but I don’t consider myself to be a proper fan. Here is my list of GitS productions that I know about.

Films:
Ghost in the Shell
Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence

The GitS films are very different, both from eachother and from anything else you’ve ever seen. I recommend seeing the first one, although the secong one is a bit trying, I don’t think you should watch it if you don’t really like GitS. I don’t want to give any of the plot away, so I won’t discuss that here. The shortcomings for both is that they have very complicated stories, and first time watchers might find the concepts intoduced a little hard to digest. The voice acting is quite good, but sometimes the characters (especially Batou, Aramaki and The Major) sound like they are reading, although this might be intended because they have electronic bodies and thus eletronic voice-boxes.

TV Series:
Ghost in the shell: Stand Alone Complex
Ghost in the Shell: S.A.C. 2nd GIG

I have only seen the fist half of the first series, but I consider the S.A.C. episodes to be better than the films. They have more action, attractive and vibrant art, and good characterisation. The Major and Batou both seem more interesting, funny and happy in the series than they do in the flims, which is refreshing, and there are other additional characters like Saito which further liven things up. The series just seem to have more character than the films, and are not bogged down with so much philosophy. I hate the Tachikomas.

Games:
Ghost in the Shell (Playstation)
Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex (PS2)

I only had the demo of the PS1 game, so I can’t really talk about that. It seemed pretty good, but I do remember it being quite tricky to come to terms with. I do on the other hand own the PS2 game, so I can talk about that one. Although it’s called S.A.C., it doesn’t really have anything to do with the TV series other than the characters. I would go into the plot but I really have no idea what the game is about; which is my only real complaint: the story is way too difficult to follow and the player has almost no idea why they are doing what they are beign told to do. It has something to do with terrorists and micro-machine rice (?) but it’s just too complicated and weird.
The game itself though is fine. Graphically it’s pretty good and looks quite like the cartoon series (it’s not cell-shaded), I think it has voices from the series too. The levels are varied and fun, and there are 2 playable characters to choose from (plus more once you’ve completed the game). The melee system is basic but fun, and the multiplayer is pretty average.

So that’s Ghost in the Shell. Overall, I reccomend watching the first film and the TV series. If you like what you see, play the game and watch the second movie, it’s up to you what you think about those.

Live-D

You might enjoy the GitS game, but here’s a REAL computer game.

Transformers: The Videogame

Transformers

I’m talking about the video game here, the one for PS2. Since there’s a new game coming out next month for the film (and it looks pretty good to me), I thought I better get this self-titled game out of the way before all the hype kills the old, good looking Trannys.

One million years ago (when browser based games were still good), the Minicons escape Cybertron. I don’t know why they were fleeing. The game then goes to present day, where Megatron is taking over Cybertron, and kicking Optimus Prime’s arse. Suddenly, when Prime looks like he’s about to lose, a hologram appears, telling both Megatron and Optimus that the Minicons have landed on Earth. They both cease fighting immediately to watch the short film, and straight after Optimus escapes, and taking Red Alert and Hot Shot, the three flee to Earth. They arrive on Earth instantly, even though it took the Minicons a million years to get there. And that’s basically the storyline: collect all the Minicons before the Decepticons do, so that Megatron cannot use their power to become even stronger.

Now, the story does seem a bit crap, and it soon degenerates to: Get to the end of the level and kill the Decepticon there. However, despite this it’s still a really fun game.

You soon find out, if you didn’t already know, that Minicons are actually tiny Transformers who will work loyally for whoever finds them first. As you move through the (pretty well rendered) levels, you will come across Minicons and Datacons (After the first level you also have a Minicon partner depending on your character, which will fight with you and can allow you to go into a kind of Max Payne ‘focus mode’). The Minicons you find can be used to upgrade your transformer, my favourite ones being the stealth, the wings, the sniper rifle and the grenade launcher, while the Datacons will unlock special features, such as comics to read or music to listen to. You can pick from Red Alert, Optimus Prime or Hot Shot to play as, each with their own attributes. Only three Autobots might seem crap, but I think it’s good that you even have the option to choose different characters.

Gameplay wise, it’s pretty fun all round. Different Minicon combinations allow totally different play styles, and the ability to transform at will is always fun. Melee is also supported by the combat system (and there are Minicons for it), so there really is something for everyone. The boss fights are varied and fun, my favourite being Tidal Wave, a huge Decepticon whose only weak point is his head (and he transforms into a full sized aircraft carrier, which serves as the level before the boss fight). The regular enemies are also quite varied, and even the standard Decepticlone foot soldiers receive upgrades throughout the game to make them tougher, including hand grenades and Halo-like energy shields.

The graphics are quite good, and sometimes a motion blur has to be used to hide the fact that the PS2 can’t keep up. When you get near an enemy, the vivid colourings and the style of rendering still manage to make them look like they did in the cartoon, yet the levels have a very serious and broody feel to them. The game also has Rag Doll, which it makes full use of (it’s funny shooting a heat-seeker at Starscream and then watch him plummet towards the ground, arms flailing). The landscapes are very varied, and the game has you visiting the jungle, a blizzard-covered arctic circle, and even a tropical island. There are always areas in the levels that are unnecessary, but have Mini/Datacons, just so those of us who like to explore don’t feel so trapped.

Overall, I am very happy with the Transformers game, and I’ve done it on all three difficulty settings just because I enjoy it so much. The only disadvantage is that it is sometimes very hard indeed, and if I could make a change I would give the player the ability to duck and roll, since they need to make use of cover so often (It’s also frustrating to see Decepticlones rolling out of the way of your grenades, knowing full well that you can’t). I recommend that anyone who doesn’t hate transformers at least gives this game a try; you can enjoy it even if you have no idea what a Tranny is.

Live-D

On the running of shadows

Originally posted on Diary of a pr0 gamer

A futuristic fantasy FPS? It’s certainly a fresh concept. The intro sequence to Shadowrun explains it perfectly and concisely: The rules of combat just changed. We see a guy picked off by a sniper, only for his teammate to glide in on wings and ressurect him before they run off together. (See it here)
This pretty much sums up Shadowrun. With a wide range of futuristic tecnology combined with various ancient magics, nothing is ever a certainty. Think you’ve got that elf finished off? Watch him turn to smoke and run off to regenerate. It really throws a spanner into the works of normal tactics.
Instead we see a whole new host of tactics best suited to this new gameplay. The four races each have their own strengths and weaknesses, making them better suited to certain types of gameplay. The most popular seems to be elves, which is understandable given their regenerative capabilities. They’re fastest of all the races, but also have least health making them better suited to hit-and-run tactics. Dwarves are pretty much your magic users. They have most essence (mana) of all of the races, and while it regenerates slower than other races, they can also drain it from other players/spells. You’ve just got to be careful not to accidentally drain your own tree of life you just cast to heal yourself. Humans are, naturally, the most well balanced of the races with a couple of small bonuses, but no real downsides. Humans start each match with $500 extra to spend, so you could get a spell and a gun in the first round, where other races are pretty much restricted to one or the other. They also get a reduced essence penalty from using tech. The final race, Trolls, I haven’t yet seen used in online multiplayer, which I find strange as it’s my preferred race. They’re much bigger and slower than other races, but their skin hardens upon taking damage, meaning they can take a lot more punishment than any other race. They’re also a lot stronger, meaning they can heft the biggest weapons without taking any speed penalty. Their biggest downside is that they have least essence to use.

Obviously, the biggest tactical combat comes from the magic. The most basic spell is teleport, intantly leaping you 8 feet in the direction you’re moving, allowing you to escape danger quickly or just get where you’re going without taking the long route. The healing spells Resurrect and Tree of Life are sure to make you popular. Although Resurrect comes with a catch. If you rez someone and then get killed, anyone you rezzed will begin to bleed out and quickly die if they do not get within range of a tree of life or get another rez soon. There are a number of other spells, too, each with their own tactical considerations. Smoke makes you almost invulnerable, but the spell gust will then damage you where it wouldn’t have beforehand. Gust also comes with a multitude of other uses, such as beaking a high fall or downing an enemy glider.

Being set in the future, there’s also a lot of technological gear at your disposal. Simple stuff like smartlink and wired reflexes simply improves accuracy or speed. Enhanced vision allows you to scan your surroundings to see players through walls. The AntiMagic generator destroys all magical constructs and the glider allows you to.. well.. glide. These extra abilities come with a penalty, though. Equipping them will lock a certain amount of your essence, so you won’t be able to cast as many spells.

The final consideration is that you can only equip 3 pieces of tech or magic spells at a time, so you have to decide how you want to play. You could dedicate yourself to healing or equip all the combat enhancing tech and become a minigun-wielding troll tank.

One of the disappointing factors of the game for me is the lack of a single-player mission sequence. They spend a great deal of time setting up a back story to it all, with the revival of magic and the war between the RNA Corp and The Lineage terrorist group, and then there’s no more to the game other than a series of 6 tutorials, to make sure you know what everything does, and the multiplayer. there could have so easily been a single player mission. Even if if had been no more complex than “Lineage has stolen our valuable magic artifact, go get it back”.

Overall, it’s pretty enjoyable, though. It’s different enough to make it stand out amongst a host of other FPSes. I’ve heard a number of complaints about the Games for Windows LIVE system, but it’s nothing that bothers me. If it can match me up with some guys for a game, I’m happy. I don’t honestly care about being able to distinguish between 360 and PC players. It’s a testament to the design that both formats are indistinguishable in a match.

I you wanna track me down for a match, this is one I probably will be playing for a while yet, ’cause I’m enjoying it a lot.

Icefox out.