Role-playing games tend to be heavy hitters but focus on the story and characters more than anything. A unique combat system is something that usually sets them apart, but nowadays the world you explore is also the character. There were some outstanding RPGs this year, and I wish I could choose more than one top contender, but they all deserve merits. This year’s RPGs saw some great world explore to explore as well as excellent characters.
This was probably expected. The Elder Scrolls series is huge and the world of Skyrim is even bigger. With great visuals and tons of areas to explore, a great overarching story, fun combat, and lots of perks and ways to customize your character and level up it can’t be beaten. The music, voice acting, characters, and attention to ultra-fine detail is something that Skyrim offers that most RPGs can’t. This one will go down in history and will never be forgotten.
Technical graphics aren’t so much the art style, but what’s under the hood. Usually, games that introduce new engine or technology tend to be the best. This year was huge for DirectX 11 games on PC which can not be down on consoles. State of the art graphics cards are needed and a few games really showed this off this year. Usually, high-resolution textures, great modeling, lighting, water effects, weather, and other elements make up a good-looking game.
Were you surprised? Battlefield 3 was the only game to truly use DirectX 11 exclusively and completely left out DirectX 9 and 10. While the PC version only got this treatment the console versions looked pretty close. Battlefield 3 sported some amazing lighting effects as well as water and the textures looked real. Nothing really pushed graphics cards harder this year than Battlefield 3 so it takes the cake.
Multiplayer can be put into any game, but a good multiplayer (whether it be cooperative or competitive) has to have balance, a good amount of modes, and something to set it apart from the rest. Shooters tend to be the main course when it comes to multiplayer. However, those tend to always be the same, but something needs to set it apart. Usually, it’s well-made maps, balanced weapons, and customization. Even something like poorly run servers can make online play bad. There were a lot of shooters this year, but only one topped them all.
Great maps, a beautiful game engine, vehicles, and a change in pace for unlocks and perks is what makes Battlefield 3 the top dog this year. All the rest were just perfections of what has already been down, but Battlefield 3 perfected and added on to what’s already been done. Excellent maps, great balancing, and starting you out with crappy load-outs to force you to be good makes this one shine. Not to mention up 64 players on huge Rush or Conquest matches is an absolute blast and no other shooter can pull this off.
Graphics are great when it comes to textures, resolutions, and lighting but what about the art itself? Some games are living breathing pieces of art and are one of a kind. Sometimes a game may be inferior technically but surpass in style and better art. This year was more geared toward technical showcases, but there were a few artsy games that popped up.
Alice won over everything else because it is just oozing with art and substance from American McGee’s crazy mind. It brings out the darkness in Alice in Wonderland and every single speck on the screen has something unique about it. It has been a long time since something like this has come out where you want to hang every screenshot on your wall. Alice truly deserves this award hands down, but all I can say is you have to play it to understand why.
Great sound design isn’t the music but everything else you hear. Not only is variety good, but it has to match and be unique to the game and atmosphere. Everything from the wind blowing through cracks, swords clashing, breathing, grass rustling, and bullets whizzing it all makes the audio experience.
What makes the Battlefield series in the general top most games in sound design is the audio directional placement and just the sheer realism of battle. No other war game has pulled off such rich and visceral sound from bullets whizzing by your head to being able to find a sniper from distance and direction. Everything sounds hyper-realistic, but also completely ensnares you into the battle. This realistic and technically phenomenal achievement puts it over the top of everything else.
The Best Music award goes to a game that delivers emotion, atmosphere, and tension through the game’s soundtrack. Whether it be orchestral, licensed, or anything else it must feel just right.
This was a tough call against Portal 2, but Skyrim came out on top thanks to composer Jeremy Soule’s amazing passion for the Elder Scrolls game. Every piece of music moves you and sucks you into the world like no other video game soundtrack can do. There are dozens of songs and each is masterfully composed and that is extremely hard to do. Every piece fits everything you do, see, hear, or interact with within Skyrim. The sweeping and dramatic theme song to the softer tones of exploring the world is perfect and nothing can match this kind of instrumental beauty.
So the military shooters march on and seem to bring with them new multiplayer ideas, updated graphics, and at least trying to make more realistic and tenser single-player campaigns. Battlefield 3 drops the Bad Company name and picks up the original name. It has nothing to do with BF2 or that line in the series, but it keeps the Bad Company multiplayer, so it mixes it up a bit. BF3‘s single-player mode gives you a taste of the new graphics engine, Frostbite 2, as well as a chance to test out some guns. The story is actually interesting, with a couple of plot twists, but nothing sophisticated. You jump around different people trying to find a portable nuke that was stolen. You go from the Middle East to Russia and to a few other parts of the world, and BF3 tries throwing a few new things out there.
The characters are good, and the voice acting is great, but you won’t get much out of a military single-player campaign. The campaign nails the atmosphere with lots of explosions; the excellent Battlefield ambiance is back and sounds more realistic than ever thanks to the new engine. The campaign does lack the scripted cinematic set-pieces we grow to enjoy in these types of games. There are a few, such as the earthquake in Iraq, the beginning train scene, and the jet scene in the middle of the game, but the rest is just running a gun through open terrain and buildings. The pacing is good, but I wanted more action and some more scripted sets to make the campaign feel more punchy. BF3 does add some detail that other military shooters haven’t, such as great animations. One scene has a Russian jet shooting your squad down. Running from cover to cover and ducking shows your character sliding into cover and falling down like you actually would if you died. Getting up is just as great to look at because you stumble out of being prone, so it feels so real and awesome.
The graphics are probably some of the best ever seen so far. Being on the PC, the game is DirectX11 only, so you get just some amazing lighting, excellent-looking textures, and the most realistic water I have ever seen. The lights and coronas off the sun and flashlights blind you; everything reflects like it would in real life. Plus, the sound is amazing and is actually useful in multiplayer because distance makes a difference in sound here. Gunfire sounds different at different ranges rather than just quieter. Bullets whip and whizz past you with realistic sounds; gunfire sounds incredible; and the explosions look too real. The game does require a seriously (like within the last year) powerful rig to run because there’s no DirectX9 option here.
While the graphics are really the only major thing going for the campaign, it is nice to play and has some replay value just to look at everything alone. The difficulty is all over the place, and some spots are just extremely tough, and you can die very quickly in this game. This isn’t a run-and-gun arcade shooter like Modern Warfare or other military shooters. My only other complaint is that the game doesn’t recognize gamepads very well, even the Xbox 360 controller, which most games have as a built-in standard. I did notice the mouse and keyboard felt better because it seems the game was built around these controls.
The multiplayer is where the money’s at, and BF3 delivers with new modes and some great maps. Using EA’s Origin client, you get a browser-based experience with filters and all the greatness of using a PC. The new model is Deathmatch, which is greatly welcomed, and back are Rush and Conquest. This time you get to play on large maps that can hold 64 players, and it really does feel like a battlefield. The new maps are great, and Deathmatch is addictive, but DICE refined the unlock system. You don’t get perks, but you do get to add things to your loadout, like an infinite sprint, defibrillators, med packs, etc. It does take a long time to start unlocking good stuff, and you’re stuck with crappy load-outs. Weapons have no scopes (except the sniper rifle), plus you only get one main weapon per class to start with. Be patient, wait to unlock scopes for rifles, stick to close-range combat, and just tough it out.
Using vehicles is back and standard in Rush and Conquest, and while these remain the same, they never get old. The new engine helps make the online fights feel bigger and badder with the sound coming into play, plus shooting down boats and helicopters with four guys in a tank never gets old. I didn’t find any stability issues, and EA is constantly updating Origin and the browser experience for online play, so just stick with them and enjoy them. Battlefield 3 may not deliver a riveting single-player experience, but the new engine and excellent multiplayer will keep you hooked. You can also jump in for a co-op campaign ride, but you will come back for the multiplayer thanks to the slow yet steady unlocks, which make you feel like you truly earned them.
The Alice in Wonderland series isn’t something you would expect to be a game or even good at. American McGee took the series and twisted it into a sick gothic horror adventure back in 2000 on the PS1 and PC. The game’s atmosphere, art, and overall design were amazing for the time, but everything else was subpar at best. The game returns 11 years later and with tons of improvements. If you haven’t read the books or seen any of the many films or TV shows, then you’ll be fine. The story is kind of confusing, even at the end, but the story is supposed to be. The whole world of Wonderland doesn’t really make any sense except for the fact that Alice has been locked away in an asylum because she can’t get over the death of her sister. She lost her family in a fire that burned her house down, but there are some shady characters around her that seem to be manipulating her. She falls into Wonderland (her own mind) and has to stop the Infernal Train from destroying the place.
You get to meet classic characters like the Cheshire Cat, Caterpillar, The Mad Hatter and March Hare, the Door Mouse, The Queen of Hearts, and so on. Each character is wonderfully designed for the atmosphere, and they are just sick and twisted, unlike anything I have ever seen. However, the game is made up of two main parts: combat and platforming. Each is equal in flaws, but both are better than the last game and are a lot of fun.
Platforming consists of puzzles, shrinking down on the fly to find invisible platforms, hiding keyholes to find hidden items, jumping around, floating, gliding, pulling switches, avoiding traps, and heading through obstacle courses. Each level is very unique and looks completely different from the last, but the same elements apply to each level, and towards the end, it gets kind of boring and repetitive since it’s the same thing over and over without end. The combat and platforming are balanced, but by the end of the game, you just get too much of both because the whole game mainly focuses on just that.
The combat is fun and violent, but it’s very simple, with just one button for light attacks and another for heavy ones. You can use the pepper grinder and teapot cannon to shoot; the auto lock-on works well; but overall, you can only upgrade your weapons, and there aren’t enough of them. The hobby horse is for heavy attacks, and the vorpal blade is for light attacks, but those are the only four weapons in-game. You slowly acquired them, but I wanted to see more. The combat feels repetitive because there’s not much substance to it, and the enemies all play out almost the same. Each level has its own unique enemies with different weaknesses, but executing them is pretty much the same for each one.
While combat and platforming are the same, there are some mini-games tossed in for good measure, which is a sigh of relief. These involve sliding puzzles, chess games, and 2D platforming sections. These are fun, and each level has its own unique mini-game. Speaking of uniqueness, that’s exactly why I rated this game so high. The art, atmosphere, characters, and everything combined are just so amazing, and I have never seen anything quite like it. It’s also the fact that something so sweet and innocent like Alice has turned into a screwed-up gothic adventure (some scenes are really messed up, trust me) with dismemberment, cursing, gore, and downright freaky images. That’s what I love about Alice so much, and you always look forward to new levels to play. Even Alice’s dress changes with each level, so you can tell there’s a lot of detail going into the game. The game technically is a little dated, with some pretty bad low-resolution textures in spots, and there are a few collision detection bugs that can make you restart.
If you can get past the repetition and sometimes very difficult spots, then you will fall in love with the game. The game is amazing to look at, the characters are great, and it just oozes creativity. I just wish the combat and platforming weren’t the same throughout the whole game and were lacking in depth.
Being a regular human in a shooter has been done hundreds of times, but being a true one-man army with technology built into your nano-suit is something that hasn’t really been done before. Meet Alcatraz. The poor dying soldier or nobody whom the Prophet chose to stick his suit on and kill himself. Now you are thrown into the war that you wanted nothing to do with and are the key to helping stop the invasion of Manhattan.
A lot that you remember from the first game is different now, thanks to the game being streamlined for consoles. You no longer have a power wheel, and two of them have been taken away and put into the other two. You get to switch between armor mode and stealth mode. You can use your superpower moves in armor modes, such as powerful kicks and punches, as well as absorbing long falls. Stealth mode allows you to cloak and sneak up on enemies or just go right in the past without being detected. Both of these are key to staying alive, and you will be switching constantly.
Another thing that changed was the lush jungle you got to roam around in freely. You are now stuck in a concrete world, and the game is more linear this time around. That’s not all bad because you still get to choose your approach to firefights, and some areas are massive. Using your tactical visor, the game will give you options on how to approach the battle, such as certain weapons, high perches for sniping, or complete paths to totally avoid all enemies. This still gives you the sense of battle control like in the first game without making it feel like a Halo/Call of Duty hallway clone.
You have two enemies in the game: Ceph aliens and the CELL army, trying to capture and use your technology for their own good. The story isn’t exactly the most cohesive thing we’ve seen; it wasn’t the first game either. The story is kind of confusing, and you never really know what’s going on between all the characters, and it doesn’t get really good until the last couple of missions. In the middle of the game, there is a lot of back and forth between Hargreaves and Gould, who are two scientists with completely different views. The CELL enemies are just like regular humans, but later on, the game throws countless Ceph at you, and they have different types of Ceph that come after you, from grunts to huge walking tanks. Of course, this makes the game feel very repetitious due to the low enemy type, and the game doesn’t really look different from area to area except for different levels of destruction.
There is a little more to it than just shooting everything in sight. You can upgrade your powers this time around by collecting nanocatalysts from dead Ceph, and the stronger the Ceph, the more you will get. Press the upgrade button, and Alcatraz’s hand will be displayed with five different areas of upgrades on his fingers. A few examples are bullet tracers, longer stealth mode, and the ability to see cloaked enemies. While it does change the gameplay a bit, it doesn’t do a lot to truly enhance the experience. Not to mention the fact that you have to watch your energy meter when using the power because it runs out in a matter of seconds. Using your night vision plus stealth while running will run it down in less than 10 seconds, so you never truly feel powerful or get the ability to upgrade your energy meter.
Of course, you can still customize your weapons with different sights, silencers, and other attachments, but I wish we could use every attachment for every gun instead of each gun getting its own special options. There are some new guns, however, and there are plenty, but they are fun to shoot, so don’t think that the weapon selection is weak at all. There are some other things thrown in, like a few turret sections, and some quick-time events are thrown into the cinematic parts of the game, which are thrilling and very fun, but they are too short and too far apart from each other. The linearity of the game allows this type of cinematic control, and it’s welcomed, but I would have liked to see more of it.
You’re probably wondering about the graphics. Since this is streamlined for consoles, do we get DirectX 11? Do we get higher-resolution textures and extra graphics options? When the game launched, it was no. We got exactly what the consoles got, but a few months later the DirectX 11 patch was released as well as a high-resolution texture pack. With this, the game looks phenomenal and is probably the best-looking shooter to date. Of course, you need a monster rig to run the game with these settings enabled. Even my rig dropped in the single digits during certain scenes, but man, is it gorgeous to look at? The game also supports 3D, so if you have the GPU, then enable it because it does enhance the experience a lot.
Overall, there are a few bugs that can sometimes hinder the game, and it is also very long for an FPS to run for about 10–12 hours. The multiplayer is also very addictive and fun for a while, with perks and upgrades, and there is a good variety of maps available. I had a lot of fun since using the suit powers kind of makes playing an FPS different online. However, it still doesn’t have the addictive quality of Call of Duty or Halo to keep you playing for months or years after release. So, with an underwhelming story and a low enemy variety, just stomach the repetition for a while, and you’ll be treated to one gorgeous and fun shooter.
This is the story of Michael Altman. The origin story existed before the comics, before the animated films, and before the first game. This is the actual discovery of the original marker and how everything came to be. The original appearance of Necromorphs and how they were brought to our Earth. The novel really gives Altman some life and also creates new and interesting characters to help this along.
The book isn’t all action-packed like the game with the creepy monsters you’ve known to want to dismember. 3/4 of the books is all psychological horror and what the Marker does to people in their minds. This is actually scarier than the zombie-like manifestations themselves, but towards the end, when they are brought along, it does get creepy. The book also shows a lot of how humanity’s greed tends to get the best of us, and it just shows what it’s like to not be in control of your own life.
The story slowly progresses into complete chaos and terror, and B.K. Evenson does a good job with the build-up. Just when you think the worst can happen, something else happens that’s even worse. Most of the story is about the discovery and dig-up of the marker at the bottom of the Chixulub crater. Evenson really has a good sense of pacing, but there are a few occasional dry spots, but thankfully they don’t last very long. For a video game novel, Martyr is also a good entry point for nonfans of the series or just sci-fi novel fans. If you love the game story-wise, you will love Martyr, but if you just like the action, then don’t bother.
thebinarymessiah.com 
Yeah, it's pretty damn awful. Notoriously one of the worst games on the PSP. A 4 was actually being generous.…