Last game you finished, tell us about it

When I played as a Gangrel, unleashing the claws popped me out into 3rd person if I remember things correctly.

JDR13 said:

Sounds like fun, I would have to play as a male though. I just can't do the female thing when it comes to "role-playing", .

Also, does the game play more naturally in 1st or 3rd person?

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I have no problem playing female characters ... and Bloodlines makes it quite a bit of fun as it actually treats you like a woman.

As for perspective, I tend to stick to teh default '1st for everything but melee'.

I have to say that it is sad looking at how little support Troika got from Valve on optimization stuff.

Gears of War
A must for action fans, the rest might be convinced by the superb graphics.

Story
Playing Gears of War is like reading a few chapters in the middle of a book. The game begins with Dominic Santiago getting Marcus Fenix (you) out of a demolished prison, and as the game goes on, it feeds you bits and pieces of information that hints of what have happened before that. Appearently you were part of Gears, a military force, and human civilization is almost completely overrun by an enemy force of monsters. Appearently you are brought right back into Gears now, right into a mission to get hold of a way to map the underground where the enemy forces are. This is a bit confusing at first and the entire game is like one long battle that almost never end. The characters are pretty well made, with their own personality.

Graphics & Sound
Gears of War is one of those games that keeps making you taking a halt, just absorbing the scenery. This is really the game that first showed off the Unreal 3 engine, and it's definitely the game which brings most out of it. Not only is the engine great, the models, the architecture in the maps, the monsters, everything is extremely well designed. It's almost too well designed and it's almost too bad you do not get to see much of it while the action is going on. I am not exaggerating when I say that the graphics in Gears of War is among the top games available on PC in terms of graphics. I was happy to be able to enjoy it all in 2048x1536 resolution at full speed. The only thing that stood out as poor was the fire/flames, and there were some areas towards the end which were unneccessary dark. Soundwise the game is simply great. I noted specifically that when you are going out of ammunition the weapon begin to sound funny, which was a great tip to reload. Monster sounds is very well made, and especially some explosive crawlers you meet later on have a scream that is really one of the most disturbing monster sounds i heard. The music is quite good as well.

Gamplay: Duck & Cover
In most shooters you fight by strafing left/right and try to aim as good as possible, preferably headshots. Gears of War has a special form of gameplay in which you are meant to duck and take cover as much as possible as trying to strafe/shoot through the game wont work. This is really the essence of Gears of War gameplay and it lasts through the entire game. But that's not the only innovation. Since Dominic stays with you throughout the entire game, he can be controlled by a second player, and thus you have co-op gameplay. When you play yourself, Dominic is controlled by the computer. Then I noted that the game have a unique reload feature, if you time the reload correctly you will boost your damage. Beyond that, Gears of War covers most of the latest trends, squad based gameplay, vehicle driving, manuvering turrets etc. I was a bit annoyed that headshots really wasn't as effective as they are in other games, a single Bomber can take several clips in the head, even on Casual. Maybe it's because the game was planned for a console.

Final Thoughts
For an action fan, Gears of War is one game not to miss. For one who doesn't like action and who aren't impressed by good graphics, Gears of War might not be for you. Personally the graphics kept me going, but since I am no real actionfan the endless action sometimes got a bit boring to me. The story, meh...

In my review I found it decent but not living up to the hype of the console version ... a theme that widely represents 2008 to me

Which reminds me... I hope that the reviews on Gothic 3: Forsaken Gods will pop up soon and convince me to not even get started with it.

Talk to Mr. Dhruin ... I know my 2nd Handheld RPG article is waiting, and I think G3:FG is next.

Some people seem able to play video games 24 hours/day.

JDR13 said:

Some people seem able to play video games 24 hours/day.

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I'm a mutant.

I wasn't refering to stamina, but rather the lack of an apparent work schedule.

JemyM's a student between semesters, so he's got nothing better to do than game 24-7. I'm actually amazed at the stamina...

School is free over there?

Yes, school is free, and you also get payed a minor sum every month for your studies. On the other hand, it's almost impossible to get a part-time job next to school so it's not like I have a choice. Luckily, my cohabit is the one dragging in the cash in our household. Eventually I might end up earning more than her though due to my education.

It's Europe, JDR. Everything's free over there. Rainbows and unicorns everywhere you look, doncha know.

JDR13 said:

Some people seem able to play video games 24 hours/day.

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hehe ... not nearly as much as I used to, but the change after our second son to my sleep needs to only a few hours has persisted and therefore I still do my late-night gaming on a regular basis.

You gotta be sh*tting me. They pay you to go to college over there? I assume you have to reimburse them later?

JDR13 said:

You gotta be sh*tting me. They pay you to go to college over there? I assume you have to reimburse them later?
That's it......I'm moving to Sweden.

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Yes, they pay you to go to college, although not much. You get around $300 per month. Then you can take another $5-600 as a loan. You get extra if you have kids.

There is no pay for going to college here, only a kind of ... what's the word ? Well this here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Student_loans_in_Germany

Finished GTA 4 after playing 51 hours in about two months, and even then only completed 68% of total in-game quest.

Overall the game provided an enjoyable experience and high production value. The story rather underwhelming, typical crime narration of hate, poverty, betrayal, etc and etc. The game technically very stable, with very minor bug and inconsistency (door to weapon sellers occasionally locked). I tried playing the game with Keyboard + mouse and Xbox game pad, both working well with their own small short-comings, basically nothing major to worried about control.

Nico Bellic at the end of the game.


The graphics rather demanding but on medium level of texture quality, everything looks pretty nice such as this rainy night scene...

Mirror's Edge
A fresh new game, but maybe not for everyone.

Story: Do not give up your freedom for security
In a dystopian city controlled by a totalitarian regime obsessed with security, the Faith Connor end up in trouble after her sister Kate is blamed for murder. Faith is a "runner", messengers who know the city well enough to quickly get past all cameras and police patrols, skills that will prove useful when it comes to getting the clues required to free her sister. The game is deeply inspired by the french parkour, a street culture that uses acrobatics to quickly get through an urban area through jumps, rolls, running on walls and jumping from high positions. The story is told mostly through in-game animated cutscenes but those who keep their eyes open can also get more out of what's going on in the city by reading signs, computers, watching television etc in-game. The game delivers the classic message "do not give up your freedom for security" and Faith herself is uncommonly fleshed out, so the story is more than an excuse to build a game, even if it's not particulary great or unpredictable.

Engine, Graphics & Sound: One of the best looking games of this generation
If I say that Mirror's Edge is among the best looking games in this generation I wouldn't exaggerate. I actually believed that the game used an enhanced version of the Half-Life 2 engine but it actually use an enhanced version of the Unreal Engine with improved light. It's not so much the engine that makes it look great, but the art design that is really over the top. Most of the game takes places on sun-lit rooftops in a city that is extremely clean (even if it's dirty within), but it also uses other sharp distinctive colors like green, red, blue and yellow that shines against the white background. I do not remember a game that so beautifully crafted a modern city like Mirror's Edge. It's almost as if they had help with both architects and room designers to build the game. The design doesn't stop with the in-game visuals. The cut-scenes themselves are animated like cartoons, kinda like the short manga-scene in Kill Bill, again with it's distinctive artstyle.

The voiceacting and sound effects is what you would expect from a game like this one, but the aerial music is really good and fits well with the atmosphere. The lead team with Lisa Miskovsky also fits the game.

Gameplay: Parkeur
By the first glance, Mirror's Edge looks like a first-person shooter, but it's more like a first-person runner. You control the game just like a FPS and you can pick up guns and shoot them, but that would be missing the point. What you want to do is to run through the map as fast as possible and you have a great amount of moves that have never been seen before in a game like this one. Faith is a really acrobatic woman and when you get skilled at controlling her you will be running up walls, softening falls with a roll, sliding on the ground etc. When your escape fails you will be able to melee your opponents through jumpkicks, slidekicks and disarms.

Unfortunally, despite it's unique flavor, the gameplay have some problems, one of them is that the path through an area is very controlled and there are usually just one way to finish an area. That doesn't allow you to play around too much, but rather spend your time wondering how the developers wanted you to do it, like a puzzlegame. While running you will see objects in sharp-red which means that you should use it, so it assist you finding the right path, but I would have prefered a more open area where I could simply go loose my way. There were also areas in which you would be able to solve a problem by other means in reality but had to go with a more complex solution in-game since the game doesn't support the required move. It happened that I thought "hey, Lara Croft would have a better solution for this one than you Faith". Also, towards the end of the game the distinct sound of Faith falling down on the street below and getting crushed will be familiar to you. I know, I know, it's my fault not Faith, but it's still frustrating. The repeated trial-and-error kind of gameplay might get many too frustrated to go on.

Final thoughts
I would encourage people to at least try the game, for it's refreshing new gameplay and it's supreme and unique design, but beneath the surface might be a game that relies too much on frustrating trial-and-error to be enjoyable. I believe that if you tried the game, you would either love or hate it. I cincerly hope that there will be a Mirror's Edge 2 with all those issues ironed out, and if it that happens it will be a truly great game.

I am saddened that there was no PC demo for Mirror's Edge despite there being one for PS3 & X360! I did a 'discussion review' of it at VGBlogger.