The fifth book of the RE series from S.D. Perry is as tense and exciting as you would expect. If you have been keeping up with the series, you know that Trent is the mysterious character Perry has planted in the storyline. He’s back and gets his hands into another character’s mind: Carlos Oliveira. He is sent to Raccoon City with a bunch of other Umbrella goons to investigate the outbreak and “rescue” survivors. In the meantime, several agents are part of Operation Watchdog, which is to gather all incriminating evidence and destroy it. However, one greedy Russian man named Nikolai wants all the information for himself to gain a profit. You follow Carlos, Jill Valentine, and Nikolai through Raccoon City, and it is very intense and fun to read.
Nikolai is a sick and twisted individual, and you grow to really hate this guy but are also fascinated by him. He enjoys killing people and watching them die. Perry really lets you get into the mind of this sicko. Carlos is probably my least favorite character because he just seems average, but Jill is brave and clever as always. She’s actually running from the Nemesis monster Umbrella created while trying to escape Raccoon. She runs into a few people, but this book is filled with the same puzzles you run into in the game. It is interesting how this would work out in real life, but honestly, wouldn’t you just climb the fence or gate? Climb over the roadblocks. It seems silly, but those annoying puzzles are nicely integrated here.
What keeps you going is the desperation all the characters are in. They are in this zombie-infested town that is completely abandoned, and they just want to get out. Umbrella blocked all outgoing communications; they need ammo, and Nikolai is a sick and twisted human hunter. The book is nicely paced, with a lot of action and intense fights with the giant monsters Umbrella created; it just makes you hate them even more. There is some sexual tension between Jill and Carlos, and I’m not sure if I’m glad that Perry held off on that or if she should have let them go at it. It happens quite a lot with internal dialog between the two, but knowing you will never hear of Carlos again after this novel just makes you not care.
Overall, Nemesis is a great novelization of the third game in the series. Nikolai is probably my favorite character, with his sick and twisted personality. The book is full of monsters, zombies, gore, blood, guts, shooting, explosions, and conspiracies—everything a RE fan loves.
Armored Princess is a fairy tale game about a princess who gets sent back in time to awaken Teana (Mother Earth in a way) to help stop an evil force that will destroy the world. You are also trying to find a man named Bill Gilbert along the way who plays a key role. To awaken Teana, you need seven stones that are scattered across a few islands. Of course, this involves a few boss fights and many battles. Armored Princess is extremely difficult, to the point that 90% of the people who play will uninstall it after you get off the first island. This game is brutal on any difficulty other than easy and using the warrior class.
The problem with Armored Princess is that it requires too much grinding. For a turn-based strategy, this is expected, but this one goes way too far. You need leadership points to increase your mass unit capacity. Each unit requires a different amount of leadership. You also need gold to buy them, and the problem is that this comes way too slowly. You either need to be able to level up quicker or enemies need to be scaled back. You run around the world in real-time, collecting things in between battles like leadership points, runes for acquiring skills, gold, units, scrolls, and other items. Some enemies roam around the world, and some are blocking loot. You can right-click on the unit to see how you will fare against it. Enemies that are very weak compared to you will run away, and you can end the battle by just letting them go. Enemies that are all the way up to invincible are impossible to kill. You need to level up and acquire more powerful troops. Sounds simple, right? Not at all.
The problem started after leaving Debir, the first island. I was killed very quickly, no matter what strategy I used. You can buy more units, but they are in limited stock. Once you buy them all out, that’s it for that location through the whole game. You have to wander around the islands, finding stores that sell them. Most units are pretty useless, such as horde units. You can have over 1,000, but each unit only does 2–3 damage. They also get killed very easily, and they are just a waste of gold. So, I found myself running around exploiting the game, trying to scrounge up what leadership points I could find, scrolls, gold, and anything else I could get. This is not fun at all. I don’t want to inch up behind a roaming enemy just to get 70 leadership, which can get me one lousy unit. Even if you find all the leadership flags on every island, it isn’t enough. You have to level up and buy equipment to gain a lot of leadership. At one point, you can fly around, which means you won’t run into enemies, but you can only travel to other islands by ship.
Battles are really fun and addictive, and that is what kept me going. All the units are very unique and have awesome abilities. You also get a dragon that sits off on the side of the battlefield and can use its abilities. You also have a spellbook that allows you to cast one spell per turn. Enemies move around the hexagonal grid and attack. You eventually learn what units are good against others. The more units you have stacked, the more damage they do. Yellow numbers are the overall damage total, and red is the number of units in that group that have been killed. It feels great when one of your groups can knock out a large one from the enemy. There are things that block parts of the grid off that you have to walk around, as well as neutral obstacles that will attack the troops or give them passive defensive abilities. Battles are just so much fun and become really addictive, but how you level up your character and choose the right troops is key to winning.
That is, if you win any battles at all at one point. Being forced to do side quests to level up to earn leadership and gold is just a real pain. Several times, I wanted to give up because it was so unfair. I would wipe out all the armies that were equal in strength to me and lower. I would level up a bit, scour the islands for weaker enemies, rinse, and repeat for 50–60 hours. It does get tedious and boring after a while because this is all you do. When you finally level up enough to get stones, you feel like you are finally making progress. In all honesty, 1C should have just made you a bit more powerful and allowed you to level up faster or something. The whole scrounging thing was just insanely annoying and difficult. It doesn’t help that if you run from a battle, you lose your entire army. If you are wiped out, you start off at Debir Castle with a few lousy units. What if that one powerful unit was the last at that store? Where am I going to find another one? Who knows. There are dozens and dozens of stores spread out, and that one powerful unit could be anywhere.
There also aren’t any extremely powerful troops overall. They only become powerful in quantity. There are troops that you can only have a few of, like Red Dragons, Ancient Ents, Ogres, Golems, and other large troops. I wanted to see a few one-unit troops that were extremely powerful. The troop availability is also random, so you never know what you are going to get. I just found going from island to island after each battle to restock just got tiresome.
The story itself is mediocre, with the typical text-based fairy tale adventure of elves, orcs, and dwarves. You won’t remember the story a year from now, but it is entertaining while you are playing. I just wish this game wasn’t impossibly difficult because it makes it less fun. Most people will cheat by using the console command to acquire levels and leadership. When you get to a high enough level, the game is fun, but until then, you will struggle and probably quit.
Third-person shooters weren’t very frequent on PS1, and when they did come by, they were usually pretty bad. Syphon Filter proved that you can make this genre work on the PS1. The game is still really fun today and was way ahead of its time. A well-done camera, a great lock-on system, a decent story with memorable characters, a kick-ass arsenal of guns, and genius-level design. Who would have thought a third-person shooter would be this good in the late 1990s? Eidetic and 989 Studios did.
You play super spy Gabriel Logan, who is a CIA agent trying to stop a dangerous terrorist named Eric Rhoemer. A Syphon Filter virus that targets specific DNA demographics has been created by a man named Phagan, and it is up to you to shut down their operations and stop them from spreading the virus. You start out in New York with the streets being shot up by Rhoemer’s thugs. There are objectives in each level to complete, but it is way beyond throwing this switch, pulling this lever, or shooting this amount of bad guys. You usually have to kill a certain number of scientists, administer vaccines to victims, disarm bombs, and turn off power grids. The objectives vary, but what is fun is figuring out how to get there.
Syphon Filter has some of the most memorable levels I can remember. This is a game you play several times and remember where every enemy is, every castle location, and even how to kill each enemy. The levels vary with stealth sections, climbing, and timed areas. The game features a smart lock-on system because there is no camera control. It is surprisingly smart and follows you wherever you go. Enemies wearing flak jackets can only be taken out with headshots or very powerful weapons. This requires aiming in first-person mode and taking them out. This flak jacket element is a staple of the series and will go on to be in every game. It is actually an element all on its own and not just body armor for you or the enemy. You can die very easily, and if you don’t stop and aim for headshots, you will waste ammo and/or die very quickly.
There are a couple of boss fights thrown in, such as a helicopter midway and Rhoemer himself at the end. I found all gameplay elements to be evenly tossed up, so you are never bored. The stealth elements need a bit of work and are probably the worst thing about the game, but they are very minor. Crouching and sneaking around work fine, but enemies tend to see you at unknown distances. Maybe a line-of-sight cone on the radar would help with this. You also have to get in headshots; otherwise, they won’t die right away and alert other guards.
Weapon selection is also a bit flimsy because you have to hold down select and use L2 and R2 (strafe buttons) to select the weapon. I would have preferred a radial menu instead. Some levels can be a bit hard to navigate and are too dark to see. Thankfully, you get a flashlight you can equip because some levels are nearly pitch black. I found myself lost a few times because, even though the level design is fantastic, some levels can look the same with confusing hallways and misplaced crates and boxes.
I actually learned about weapons as a kid from this game. Real-world weapons are in here, some of which I have never seen in any other game before. The weapons are almost a character all on their own because they feel so good to shoot in the game. The K3G4 will cut through flak jackets easily and is probably the only weapon that will do this. The G18 is a super-fast sub-machine pistol, while the silenced 9mm is a staple of the series. The shotgun, combat shotgun, PK-102, BIZ-2, Nightvision Rifle,.45, HK5, and a few more are all excellent weapons. It was also the distinct sounds the developers used that made these guns so memorable. The game has a great sniper scope that was unseen in games back then. There are grenades and gas grenades, which are great for taking out a group of enemies stealthily. There are a lot of great weapons in the game, and they are very memorable, unlike most shooters.
While the game itself is amazing, the graphics were pretty good at the time. Looking pretty realistic art-wise, the game had some good lighting effects and a lot of detail everywhere. I also have many fond memories of this game from when I was a kid. I actually accidentally rented Silent Hill because I forgot the name of this game. I got all the way to the Pharcom Warehouse levels and had to turn the game in. I rented this game many times over and played it to death as a kid. I purchased it a few times here and there, and every time I play it, it brings back fond memories. Syphon Filter is one of the greatest games ever made, and every gamer should play this masterpiece.
Sly, Bentley, and Murray return in an attempt to obtain the stolen Clockwerk parts from the Klaww Gang. After defeating Clockwerk in the first game, they were obtained illegally, and the gang must get them back to destroy them. Along the way, Carmelita Fox is still trying to capture them while a few new faces show up. The game is the same at its core, but everything around it has completely changed. This really feels like a whole new game.
For starters, you will notice there are no individual levels anymore. The game is more of a sandbox, with various missions you can take on when you want. You can play as all three characters this time around, and each one has its own specific missions. Each character feels different. Murray is a huge lumbering hippo who can’t use stealth and instead whacks away enemies in just a couple of hits. Bentley is equipped with a sleeping dart crossbow and has various gadgets he can use to get around. In fact, they all have gadgets and abilities you can purchase with those coins that were useless in the first game. 100 no longer gives you life because that whole system is gone. Instead, you now have a life bar, and when you die, you restart at the last checkpoint. This game plays a whole lot easier and relieves a lot of the frustrations from the first game.
Additionally, the interior areas of the game are mission-specific, so you won’t be going back. I honestly preferred the individual levels because navigating these hub worlds can be a pain. Getting to certain places requires climbing around certain areas to get there. Some areas are a real pain, and you have to figure out how to get there. Just to get to the main mission, this is pretty lame. I don’t want to spend 5 minutes climbing around a confusing level just to start a mission. It doesn’t help that enemies respawn all the time when you kill them, and they are everywhere. It gets really frustrating when you just want to get on a mission and you have to keep killing the same enemies all the time. Thankfully, some abilities like a smokescreen, shock cane, and paraglider help Sly get around easier, but the other two have to find their way completely via the ground, which means long, roundabout ways to get to a mission marker.
When you start a mission, you will notice they are varied and pretty fun. Bentley has a new hacking mini-game that is a dual-stick shooter; Murray punches things a lot; and Sly has a new pickpocketing ability that he can use to get coins and loot from guards to sell for abilities and to get those keys. A lot of the gauntlet-style levels are really fun and require quick reflexes. There are 8 episodes, and the game is just as tough as the last one. Boss fights now have meters and don’t go down in a few hits anymore. You have to slowly chip away at their health to beat them, and it requires patience. Overall, the game feels mostly the same, with missions just varying from hacking mini-games, beating this or that up, or pickpocketing X amount of keys. It starts to feel old towards the end, plus the navigation of hub worlds will just drive you nuts after a while.
There are still clue bottles and vaults to be found, but they just have extra abilities in them and really aren’t worth searching for. The clue bottles will take over an hour to find on each level because the hubs are so difficult to navigate. There are 30 in each hub, but good luck finding them all without throwing the controller. Besides this, there are no extras in the game, like the last one, which is disappointing. Despite all this, I think the large open hubs are what hurt the game the most because of how annoying they are to navigate. The mission variety is really nice, but by the end, they just repeat themselves.
The graphics have been greatly upgraded with better physics, better-looking textures, and higher resolution models. The controls are a little tighter, and the camera was fixed a little, but it can still get stuck or lost sometimes. Overall, Sly 2 is an excellent game, but it just feels too similar to the last game. With the whole sandbox idea, I feel they are hard to navigate and get in the way of getting around to different missions.
There are very few games that are 100% driven by your imagination. That is the game: you. Whatever you decide or think up is what you’re going to play. Impatient? You’re not going to have a fun time. Don’t you like thinking? Look elsewhere. LBP is a game all about using the tools in the game to create your own world and an idea of a fun game. LBP2 expands this by gearing the tools towards genres of games rather than just platforming. While the tool section may turn most players away, don’t fret! Enjoy the thousands of well-made levels from other players to keep you busy. I am not a sandbox, build-it-yourself type of person, so I didn’t spend much time in the editor. Open your mind and enjoy the delightful papercraft world!
The story mode consists of four very fun worlds to play in to whet your appetite for the world and how everything works. The story is really weird and doesn’t make much sense. Your only goal is to stop the Negativitron from destroying Craftworld, and you have to rescue a few people in the process. With the weird story aside, the levels are really fun and show you all the different genres of gaming you can play in this game. Races, 2D shooters, platforming, fighters, and many others. Each level is completely different but plays similarly to the last game. You have to get through each section to the next checkpoint, where you can respawn if you die. The main point of the story is to find new stickers and materials for the level editor. These appear as bubbles in the game; some are easy to get, and some require a bit of puzzle-solving.
LBP2 is really co-op heavy, and I found myself finding people to play with online or having friends join me. The game is a blast in co-op and probably the best way to play. I loved the entire story mode because it was just so much fun. Plain and simple. One level had me using different weapons, like a sprinkler helmet, to put out fires on platforms and grow vines into platforms. Another level used a cupcake launcher, which acted as a remote mine. A later level used a few different animals as vehicles, such as a bunny, a hamster, and a bee as a shmup vehicle. It was all fun, colorful, and filled with imagination. The papercraft art style makes you feel like a kid again, playing with paper and toys. LBP2 is just one of the most imaginative games you can get your hands on these days.
The controls are solid but feel a bit floaty and slidey, which is okay after you get used to them. One of my favorite features is Pop-It, which is a simplified menu you can bring up to place stickers in the world and customize your Sack Thing. If I were to really complain about the story mode, it would be that some sections are ridiculously difficult and require several restarts, but nothing you won’t get past. Once you beat the story mode, you can either play user-made levels or make your own. I won’t go into the level editor because it would take 10 paragraphs just to explain, and even then you would be confused. It is more simplified than the first game, but there is more to it, so it feels more complicated. I honestly could not build a single decent level, so I moved on to user-made levels.
There are thousands of levels that are organized into categories. Ones that Media Molecule picked (which I recommend playing first) as well as levels sorted by rating. Some are pretty bad, some are spam, but some are amazing or even better than the ones on disc. Thankfully, you don’t have to download these levels to your HDD, so don’t think you have to use precious space for all these levels like most games. I also liked that you can sort by category, which really brings out one of the main new features of LBP2. These user-created levels just show how powerful the tools in this game are and how imaginative people can be. Of course, it is the most fun with more people, but you can still enjoy the game by yourself.
It goes to show that a developer doesn’t have to create an entire world for you to enjoy it. This is some of the most fun I have had in a game in a while, and I absolutely loved it. However, think carefully before buying this game. Are you a creator or player? If you are just a player, you will have fun, but you won’t be using 80% of what’s on the disc, the editor. Enough time has gone by for thousands of excellent levels to be created, so it isn’t a huge loss.
I am not sure why I passed this game up all these years, but I am sad that I did. Finally being able to play it, I realize just how well it stands up today. Sly Cooper and his gang are trying to retrieve the Thievius Raccoonus, which is a book of secrets passed on from thief to thief in Sly’s family. The evil Clockwerk and several of his henchmen stole a page each, and it is up to you to get them back.
The first thing you will notice about the game is how well it controls. The movement is buttery smooth, with great platforming and gameplay mechanics. Sly can double jump, but his main mechanic is his cane. He can use it to swing around and attack, but there are also ways to sneak around like a thief that just feel really whimsical. When you see blue sparkles on ledges, you can hold a circle and sneak around them. When Sly moves around, a sneaking sound plays instead of footsteps, which are really neat. This also goes for poles and other areas to climb. Just jump near it and hold a circle, and Sly will cling on. This mechanic is very well done and makes platforming a lot of fun. Combat is pretty simple, where you just whack away with your cane and all enemies die in one hit. This isn’t as easy as you think because you die in one hit too. There are traps and obstacles to avoid, such as lasers and spotlights. Sometimes you will have to think a little to find a way around an enemy who is blocking the path.
There are five levels, and four of them focus around a central hub with branching mini-levels. There is a level to infiltrate each hub, and within these hubs are clue bottles to open a vault at each level. These vaults contain new moves for Sly, which come in really handy. It is a lot of fun to find these bottles because the levels are pretty short and aren’t too hard to find. Some levels are actually mini-games that consist of covering Murray on a turret, a dual-stick shooter mini-game, or even a race. These are really hard and require quick reflexes, or you will die often. Before you ask, yes, there are lives in this game, but 100 coins give you a 1-up, but other than that, the coins are useless.
The boss fights are really fun in this game, but also really tough. They require precise movement and patience, because one hit and you are dead in this game. Yes, that sounds really brutal, but it is true. You can get magnets that act as free hits, but these are pretty rare. In fact, probably the most frustrating thing about this game is that with just one hit, you are dead. This includes falling in the water or off a ledge. Later, in vaults, you can find a page that prevents you from dying when falling off ledges or in water, which is a lifesaver (literally). Before that, though, you will die dozens and dozens of times because there are some cheap deaths in this game, but because of how fun it is, you will quickly get over it.
The art style is beautiful, with a cell-shaded comic book look that wasn’t really seen in games before Sly. The graphics look great even for today, but that probably has a lot to do with the art style, which hides the lack of technical prowess of the PS2. The voice acting is a bit spotty, but it brings out the characters, which are nice. I just wish I could have played Bentley or Murray more. They are all great characters and need more time in the spotlight. If this game wasn’t so short and infuriatingly difficult in spots, it would be perfect.
Overall, Sly Cooper is a great entry into one of the best franchises ever created and is a pinnacle for the PS2. Solid controls, excellent platforming, fun combat, and a whimsical art style make this a must-have in your collection.
Ever since the entertainment industry was born, man has always loved to be scared. Despite our curiosity about death, we loathe it every day, yet we surround ourselves with it in an ironic twist. Dead Space 2 is just a dot on the timeline of horror and death in the media, and we suck it up like candy. What makes Dead Space 2 quench our curiosity for horror and push the human mind to its psychological limits? The story of Isaac Clarke aboard The Sprawl and returning to the Ishimura may hold the answers.
Isaac Clarke wakes up in a straight jacket and is being chased by Necromorphs once again. He has to destroy the marker, but he doesn’t know how. His journey through The Sprawl is very dangerous and gut-wrenching, but I guarantee you’ll love it. The combat is pretty much the same but feels slightly tighter and a little more responsive this time around. De-limbing Necromorphs is as satisfying as ever and proves to be pretty scary and gruesome. You can now use your telekinesis module in combat, such as throwing limbs and objects at enemies to kill them, but I rarely use this method.
There are a ton of weapons at your disposal, but upgrading them all takes a couple of playthroughs since power nodes are harder to come by, and you really need to rely on buying them. The new weapon (there’s only one, sadly) is the javelin gun, which lets you launch spears at enemies and impale them on walls. A secondary fire mode allows you to electrify the spear to shock nearby enemies or do extra damage. It seems a little overpowered, but it works well on larger enemies.
Speaking of new Necromorphs, there are a few great ones. The Stalkers are really great enemies because they hide, peek around corners, and rush you. Using the force gun, or the javelin gun, and using alt-fire are great ways to stop these guys, or just planting mines. The pack is screaming evil-morphed children that rush you into well-packs. The force gun is the best way around these guys, or the flamethrower. Another new enemy is crawlers, which are morphed infants that cry like babies and whose bodies can explode. Using the force gun or flamethrower works great here too.
Despite the combat being the same, the pacing is great, and the atmosphere is extremely haunting, especially during the first few chapters. The storytelling is deeper thanks to Isaac actually talking and interacting with the characters. The ending is excellent, but the game runs out of steam after the first few chapters and just becomes a hallway grinding shooting fest. This isn’t to say that’s bad because the varied environments are nice to see, but I would have liked more scripted moments.
Some other key elements have changed, such as zero-gravity gameplay. Instead of jumping from fixed point to point, you can now move around freely, and the sections are much longer and more involved. Sometimes a whole chapter will be in zero gravity, and this includes being out in deep space. I really liked this change, which is probably one of the biggest in the game.
I really feel as if the story mode was well planned out, but the middle of the game is pretty straightforward and keeps the game from getting a higher score. The game is also a lot harder and pretty relentless in doling out enemies at you without stopping. You really need to stay on your toes this time around, and strategy is key to figuring out which weapons work in which situations. So, with the first few chapters and last few being the best, the rest of the game is just mainly atmosphere, but it’s paced well, and that matters a lot.
The multiplayer suite is unusual, but only addictive for a little while. This isn’t like Call of Duty or Halo, where you’ll be coming back for dozens of hours at a time. It plays a lot like single-player where you blast away Necromorphs, but human players control those too, and they keep respawning until the objectives are met. You can collect health packs, ammo, etc., but Necromorphs are pretty relentless. There are four types you can play as, and each has its own unique abilities. Ganging up on humans is the best strategy, but sometimes the whole ordeal feels unbalanced since this is a tricky way of doing multiplayer for a game that wasn’t designed for that. The multiplayer is thrilling after a while, but once you play all the maps and classes for a few hours, you’ll be done.
The visuals are slightly better than the first game, but they show their age a bit. There are some nice lighting effects, but the textures can look downright ugly in spots, and the character models could use some cleaning up. The PC doesn’t really get any enhanced features except some anti-aliasing and slightly better lighting effects. This was a huge disappointment and could have taken advantage of the new DirectX 11 graphics infrastructure. As it is, you can run this game on a mid-range PC, and it will barely break a sweat.
Everyone is so used to games with explosions, gore, death, and spoken dialog that we have lost touch with what games are truly designed for. There have been very few games that tell a story as a book or painting would, with no words and nothing but pictures. The only game that I feel comes close to Journey is Shadow of the Colossus. Games have the advantage of adding music and sound that are missing from books and paintings. Music and sound can trigger emotions in humans that no other type of stimuli can. Journey is one such game that uses only visual cues and sound to deliver a sad tale and a magical experience.
This game is like no other; you don’t mess with options, controls, settings, or anything like that. You just start the game, and bam, you’re there. You just wonder; there is no compass, no mini-map, and no annoying narrator to tell you where to go. Just go and trust your instincts and senses. As you wander around the desert, you will naturally go where you see something of interest. This vast desert looks endless, like the Sahara, and feels that way. You only have one ability, and that is to glide, but the length of your scarf determines how long you can jump and glide. This is your only ability. The Wanderer will hop up on small ledges automatically, but during your first level, you will just go. That’s all there is to this game. Just…go. When you do get to the end of the area, you are told a sad story using hieroglyphs. Like a book, you figure out what is happening and going on in this story.
Once you get the hang of everything in the first level, you just keep going. The music in Journey helps deliver the emotions and senses that drive the spiritualism of the game. The music is touching and one of the best-orchestrated game soundtracks I have heard since The Elder Scrolls. The music is magical and just hits home and delivers all the emotion of the game. The best parts of the game are when you are sliding down the sand, having the music kick up to a climax, and letting the visual experience just soak in. Nothing can express this more than watching a magical world come to life in 1080p. This is really one of the most beautiful games I have ever seen.
There are a few gameplay elements, like finding secrets here and there and power-ups, but Journey has been one of the most interesting uses of online play since Demon’s Souls. You will sometimes run into another Wanderer, just like you, but there is no other way to communicate other than the echolocation you use to bring fabric to life in the game. You use this to help each other out, and because of the lack of human interaction, it forces gamers to actually help and experience this touching story with each other. No mics, no text chat; there isn’t even a name above the character; they just appear. If you spot a rare white-cloak player, they will probably help you find all the secrets in the game. My second favorite moment is when you are running away from the giant monster thing that flies in the air and targets you. The dark atmosphere, foreboding sound effects, and care for The Wanderer just add so much tension. I never felt so scared for a character in a game when running from a boss.
The graphics are also technically impressive, pushing the PS3 to its limits. Journey uses a very technically advanced sand displacement technology that no other developer has used. Naughty Dog actually asked that game company for help on how they did the sand displacement for use in Uncharted 3. Naughty Dog needed to use this technology without degrading graphics quality or using up all CPU resources on just the sand. The lighting effects are also amazing and some of the best I have seen on consoles. This game almost looks like a DirectX 11 game on PC with advanced lighting techniques. The game is just gorgeous and has to be played to be understood.
The only issue with Journey is that you can beat it in less than 2 hours. Sure, there is a boss that you run from at the end, and you can die, but the game is just way too short. This, of course, allows you to go back and experience the game again and find the secrets, but I would have loved to see this as a 4+ hour adventure. I have never played a game that drew me into the world as much as Journey, but it wasn’t just the atmosphere. The fact that you are completely disconnected from the world means that you have to use your own imagination to help paint the rest of the picture. I hope that game company has more under its belt for Journey, and if this is it, it will go down in history.
It took quite a while for a DLC to come out for Skyrim, but here it is. Vampirism is where this one will take you, and while it is a fun ride, it is quite short and a bit lacking in content. You can choose to side with the vampires or Dawnguard, but the main storyline is the same. I found all the quests fun, with some beautiful new locales, but I really wish this DLC was more.
You start by hearing about a rumor of a castle off Solitude. Once you arrive, you are greeted by vampires, and the lord of them all asks if you want the gift or not. I, of course, chose to, and I am glad I did. The new vampire form has its own set of perks and skills. Using melee to attack or magic spells is fun, plus the bat teleportation spell is great to use. The vampire design in Dawnguard is fantastic and stays away from cliché looks. They look more like beasts than the typical Hollywood vampires. I chose to side with the vampires, so I can’t tell you how the Dawnguard quests went. The side quests are fun and vary greatly in what to do. The same goes for the main quests, but I have one major complaint about a particular main quest.
One quest has you trying to figure out how to get Auriel’s Bow from the Snow Elves, yes Snow elves, and this is one confusing quest. You have to pass through 5 different portals that take you to new areas, but the quest marker doesn’t point to them all like most quests. You really have to figure out where to go and this quest will take almost 2 hours to complete. It takes you through vast areas such as icy caverns, phosphorescent caves, and Falmer territory. Because these areas are so vast (probably more vast than any other interior area in Skyrim), you will get lost easily. I spent most of my time trying to figure out where to go because there were so many branching, confusing paths. Some people may like this, but at least make the quest marker point in the right direction.
The DLC is also extremely buggy, with quests that you can’t complete, items that won’t appear or drop, and many other things. I had to advance some quests using the command console because a bug prevented me from moving on. The story is a disappointment as well, because you feel like you’re just the middleman in some family dispute. Serena is a great companion, but the other characters are hard to like because you don’t visit them very often except to get quests. There weren’t any crazy plot twists or anything like that. I honestly felt like this was something that could have just been kept in the main game as a faction quest. For the high price point ($20), there isn’t much loot that you can walk away with and feel satisfied with. The biggest loot is Auriel’s Bow, which is useless for people who aren’t using archery. There are a couple new enemies thrown in, but overall, this DLC doesn’t feel like it is worth $20.
The most important thing is that it is more Skyrim, which is what people want. There are more quests that are fun and allow you to continue leveling up your character and looting. Skyrim may not ever have a Shivering Isles-type expansion, but let’s hope that the future DLC will be more enjoyable than Dawnguard.
I saw this little guy on a shelf at Fry’s one day, and it looked very sleek and ergonomic. I was surprised at seeing something so well made from a third-party peripheral company like Nyko, which is notorious for making crappy products. I love collecting controllers, so I kept this guy on my radar. I finally got it as a Christmas gift, and I am very pleased. It has become my favorite PS3 controller thus far. When you put the thing in your hands, your fingers just mold to the controller. It is more square in shape than a rectangle like the OEM controller. The texture of the controller feels great and is made of very smooth, silky rubber. The triggers are designed more like the Xbox 360 controllers and are much better than the OEM controller, which I found my fingers slipping on a lot. The controller is slightly heavier than the OEM one, but it just feels so much nicer. The analog stick orientation is set up like the Xbox 360, so your thumbs don’t bump into each other during frantic movement. The sticks are much smaller, and the tops have a pretty deep dip, so your thumbs stay nice and snug. I love how tight the sticks are—not too tight, but not as loose as the OEM controller. They click very nicely, and the D-pad is small and gives a great response when using it.
The overall look of the controller is great. It is all black and sleek, with the PS Home button being a large square in the middle with a picture of a raven. The face buttons are clear, with nice designs set inside. However, there is one useless feature that this controller has that I have no idea why anyone would use. On the back, there is an A-B switch that will swap the functionality of the shoulder buttons. I have no idea why this would be used, but it’s there if anyone needs to use it, I guess. The controller has a nice USB dongle (no Bluetooth, unfortunately) and comes with a USB charging cable, which is rather short. There is a square LED right below the home button that will stay solid when charging, flash fast when charged, and slowly flash when low. This is a great, hassle-free way of telling what status your battery is in. The controller lasts quite a while, with a whopping 25 hours of battery life per charge. The larger battery may be why the controller is slightly heavier.
My only real issue is that the L1 and R1 buttons are a little too close together because of the controller’s square shape. It takes a while to get used to this, and you have to force your fingers into the right position, but after about 4-5 hours of playing, it starts to feel natural. Other than that, this is a very nice, well-made controller that doesn’t feel like cheap plastic. For the low price, I was surprised at how well made this was, especially being wireless, having rumble, and having SixAxis control built-in. This is probably one of the best wireless controllers I have ever used and will be one I recommend to everyone.
![37653-Syphon_Filter_[NTSC-U]-6](https://thebinarymessiah.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/37653-syphon_filter_ntsc-u-6.jpg)
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