Today was the day, it was the long awaited day! At the time of this writing it's the day Limbo was released on the PC. After seeing it come to the 360 last year and the PS3 a few weeks ago, it was the PC crowd's time to play it.
Limbo is at it's core a 2D platformer like Super Mario Bros or any of the numerous other games. There is a dash of Another World with the way the game feels. The one thing that you'll notice about Limbo from the outset is the art style. It's a silhouetted look with the boy you play as being all black except for his white eyes and everything else is either grey or black. It looks nice but now I've see a few games do it too so it's not as special anymore.
Game play is simple, you move through the world and solve puzzles. Again a lot like Another World or other similar games. But I insult Another World mentioning it in the same sentence as Limbo. Why you may ask? Because Limbo is a giant piece of shit, it sucks so hard.
What the hell? The indie darling of last year is a bad game? Yes it is, for starters you can barely call it a game. It feels like a tech demo, it feels unfinished.
Where to start? I don't know, I guess on the story or the total lack of one. I can understand minimal story but you are NEVER clued in on what's happening. The game starts and ends and you never find out what's going on. The developer said it's open to interpretation, well here's my interpretation! You're all lazy and just didn't want to write a story so you went with the old let the players decide what it all means. LAZINESS!!!
The puzzles are simple, it's obvious what to do at all of them but Playdead made most of them a pain in the ass to complete. One in particular I did the solution multiple times but the game just didn't except it. Eventually I made it past, I guess the game decided to let me continue. A lot of the puzzles are repeated multiple times in different levels. The one in my mind right now you have to deal with 4 times! You get this worm on your head that makes you only move in one direction until you get hit by the sun. It's not fun it's poorly designed and you have to do it 4 freaking times, absurd! I prefer puzzles that are tough to figure out but actually doing the solution isn't the hard part, this game is the opposite. Like I said above every puzzle's solution is easy but doing the solution is infuriatingly hard to do most of the time, because a lot of the puzzles are time based. You throw a switch and you have to hurry to do the next part before the time runs out, THAT IS NEVER FUN! And it's never fun here, the controls have a clunkiness to them that makes rushing to do these tough but for the wrong reasons. Then when you mess up a part you have to wait for everything to reset so you can try again, it doesn't have to be an instant restart like Super Meat Boy but waiting like that is horrible.
The checkpoint system to garbage too, you die and sometimes it sends you way to far back. If I die on a puzzle I should start before that puzzle not the one before it. I've passed the old one, I've proven I can do, what do I have to do it again? Because this game is crap and the developers are assholes.
I played Limbo for 3 hours today, it took me 3 hours to beat it and that 3 hours I will never get back. The game is utter and complete crap, overhyped and I have NO idea why the gaming world was so in love with this game. It boggles my mind! A lot of people compared it to Braid, Braid wipes it's ass with Limbo. It's crap, I hate it, it's one of the worst games I've ever played, actually it may be the worst because it's getting the lowest score I've ever given a game. If you like the art style go to Newgrounds and play Coma it's actually fun and it's free. DON'T waste your money on Limbo, don't, please don't!
Limbo - 0 out of 10 (Fuck this game)
Showing posts with label Steam. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Steam. Show all posts
Tuesday, August 2, 2011
Sunday, February 20, 2011
60 Dollar PC games
For the current generation of consoles the games on the 360 and PS3 have been 60 bucks. For the first part of this generation their PC counterparts have been 50 sometimes 40 bucks. We PC gamers were happy to be getting the better looking, sometimes mod-able versions of these games at a better rate.
In 2009 this was about to change. Activision thinking everyone wants to pay more for games decided to release the PC version of Modern Warfare 2 at a 60 dollar "premium" and lots of PC gamers were sad but they still bought it. Then EA decided to follow this up with a 60 dollar Medal of Honor which some people bought but not as many as Modern Warfare 2. These two games alone were proof enough for EA and Activision that PC people will pay 60 dollars for a game.
In the last few months we've seen Black Ops, Dead Space 2, Bulletstorm and Crysis 2 at this 60 dollar price. It's getting a little crazy. I know these companies sell these games to make money but some companies do the right thing and keep these PC games at a reasonable price. Capcom is one of these companies. They've released some of their big name titles on the PC for 40 bucks, Dead Rising 2 and Lost Planet 2 are two games that come to mind.
Recently I've decided that some of these games especially the PC version don't need to be bought the day they come out. I have a crazy backlog and will be busy for awhile. The solution to this is to simply wait for Steam to have a crazy sale and get these 60 dollar games for 30 or less. I love Steam!
In 2009 this was about to change. Activision thinking everyone wants to pay more for games decided to release the PC version of Modern Warfare 2 at a 60 dollar "premium" and lots of PC gamers were sad but they still bought it. Then EA decided to follow this up with a 60 dollar Medal of Honor which some people bought but not as many as Modern Warfare 2. These two games alone were proof enough for EA and Activision that PC people will pay 60 dollars for a game.
In the last few months we've seen Black Ops, Dead Space 2, Bulletstorm and Crysis 2 at this 60 dollar price. It's getting a little crazy. I know these companies sell these games to make money but some companies do the right thing and keep these PC games at a reasonable price. Capcom is one of these companies. They've released some of their big name titles on the PC for 40 bucks, Dead Rising 2 and Lost Planet 2 are two games that come to mind.
Recently I've decided that some of these games especially the PC version don't need to be bought the day they come out. I have a crazy backlog and will be busy for awhile. The solution to this is to simply wait for Steam to have a crazy sale and get these 60 dollar games for 30 or less. I love Steam!
Tuesday, December 7, 2010
Super Meat Boy
Another game I've been spending a lot of time with recently is the PC release of Super Meat Boy. Let me tell you this right now, this game is AMAZING! I've played a lot of newer 2D platformers in the last few years and I don't think anyone has nailed the feeling of them like Team Meat in this game.
I had played the original Meat Boy over on Newgrounds and was eagerly awaiting the release of Super Meat Boy.
You can play the original Meat Boy here...
http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/463241
Anyway what makes Super Meat Boy so good? It's pretty much everything it does, first off the controls. The game has some of the tightest controls I've felt in a game for a long time, especially a PC 2D platformer. I started out using my keyboard completely ignoring the game straight up telling me to use a controller. After getting my ass handed to me I dug out my wired 360 controller and was back to playing in no time. Even with the crap 360 D-pad this game controls flawlessly. Meat Boy does exactly what you want him to when you want him to do it. It feels great when you jump and weave your way through a particularly tough section only to survive and move on to the next level. There isn't ever a time when you're fighting with the controls, I can't stress this enough, they're great.
The game looks and sounds good as well. The graphics are nice 2D and the cutscenes are done in what I call the Flash Cartoon format. They also do a lot of shout outs to old games. The intros to each chapter are taken from old school games and it's really cool when you notice and remember the game they're imitating.
Super Meat Boy also has some of the best music I've heard in a long time. I'd consider it up there with Cave Story in how good the music is. I still think Cave Story has this game beat in great music but SMB is a close second. I really like that the music doesn't restart when you die it just keeps on going. With many hard games it can be annoying when the music restarts when you die, even to a point of grating on you.
The main thing Super Meat Boy has going both for and against it is the difficulty. This game is crazy hard! It hates you and everything you stand for. Super Meat Boy wants you to suffer, it will never be nice to you, it would kill your pets if it could and laugh about all of it. Now this will turn some people off but if you're like me and hate seeing games hold your hand then this is the game for you. I still haven't finished it but I keep plugging away at it making a little progress each time I play. Another thing about death in SMB is that when you die you are almost instantly back to try again, there is a slight moment before you respawn but it's so short it's never an issue. When you're in a warp zone on the other hand there is a wait as it shows a screen with your lives and you have to wait a bit before trying again. Think of it like the original Super Mario Brothers, but it only happens in the hidden Warp Zone levels and Glitch levels, not in the main game.
SMB offers around 300 levels to try and get through. The main path, darkside versions of those levels which offer more of a challenge, and hidden Warp Zones. The Warp Zones can be throwbacks to old school games, either looking like an Atari 2600 or a Game Boy among other graphical looks. Warp Zones can also offer other characters to play as. Team Meat reached out to their Indie dev friends to bring in all kinds of characters from other games. The 360 and PC version share some of the same characters but they each have a different set of Bandage characters, these are characters you unlock as you collect the often difficult to grab bandages in the levels. The only character from the 360 version I would of liked to see in the PC version is the guy from Spelunky as I'm a huge fan of that game but with Spelunky coming out on the XBLA it makes since he's in that version.
I want to also mention the support for this game. When SMB came out on the PC it has some bugs on release. I only saw the crash on exit bug but some people couldn't even play the game. Team Meat has done an amazing job of patching this game in the short amount of time it's been out. From what I understand it's just one dude doing all the code and they're churning out patches like mad. Most major developers take ages to patch a game and these guys are on it all the time. I commend Team Meat for this and even with the buggy (for some) release of SMB they have earned my money for anything they put out! Huzzah! To them!
At the time of this writing I have not finished SMB as I'm stuck on World 4 and it's really kicking my butt. But I can safely say this game is really high up there for being my game of the year and in a year of a lot of disappointing releases it's awesome to see this one come out and rise to the top.
Super Meat Boy - 10 out 10, Play it! Even if you just play the demo everyone needs to try it out. See how two guys can make a game that's better than most big studios.
I had played the original Meat Boy over on Newgrounds and was eagerly awaiting the release of Super Meat Boy.
You can play the original Meat Boy here...
http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/463241
Anyway what makes Super Meat Boy so good? It's pretty much everything it does, first off the controls. The game has some of the tightest controls I've felt in a game for a long time, especially a PC 2D platformer. I started out using my keyboard completely ignoring the game straight up telling me to use a controller. After getting my ass handed to me I dug out my wired 360 controller and was back to playing in no time. Even with the crap 360 D-pad this game controls flawlessly. Meat Boy does exactly what you want him to when you want him to do it. It feels great when you jump and weave your way through a particularly tough section only to survive and move on to the next level. There isn't ever a time when you're fighting with the controls, I can't stress this enough, they're great.
The game looks and sounds good as well. The graphics are nice 2D and the cutscenes are done in what I call the Flash Cartoon format. They also do a lot of shout outs to old games. The intros to each chapter are taken from old school games and it's really cool when you notice and remember the game they're imitating.
Super Meat Boy also has some of the best music I've heard in a long time. I'd consider it up there with Cave Story in how good the music is. I still think Cave Story has this game beat in great music but SMB is a close second. I really like that the music doesn't restart when you die it just keeps on going. With many hard games it can be annoying when the music restarts when you die, even to a point of grating on you.
The main thing Super Meat Boy has going both for and against it is the difficulty. This game is crazy hard! It hates you and everything you stand for. Super Meat Boy wants you to suffer, it will never be nice to you, it would kill your pets if it could and laugh about all of it. Now this will turn some people off but if you're like me and hate seeing games hold your hand then this is the game for you. I still haven't finished it but I keep plugging away at it making a little progress each time I play. Another thing about death in SMB is that when you die you are almost instantly back to try again, there is a slight moment before you respawn but it's so short it's never an issue. When you're in a warp zone on the other hand there is a wait as it shows a screen with your lives and you have to wait a bit before trying again. Think of it like the original Super Mario Brothers, but it only happens in the hidden Warp Zone levels and Glitch levels, not in the main game.
SMB offers around 300 levels to try and get through. The main path, darkside versions of those levels which offer more of a challenge, and hidden Warp Zones. The Warp Zones can be throwbacks to old school games, either looking like an Atari 2600 or a Game Boy among other graphical looks. Warp Zones can also offer other characters to play as. Team Meat reached out to their Indie dev friends to bring in all kinds of characters from other games. The 360 and PC version share some of the same characters but they each have a different set of Bandage characters, these are characters you unlock as you collect the often difficult to grab bandages in the levels. The only character from the 360 version I would of liked to see in the PC version is the guy from Spelunky as I'm a huge fan of that game but with Spelunky coming out on the XBLA it makes since he's in that version.
I want to also mention the support for this game. When SMB came out on the PC it has some bugs on release. I only saw the crash on exit bug but some people couldn't even play the game. Team Meat has done an amazing job of patching this game in the short amount of time it's been out. From what I understand it's just one dude doing all the code and they're churning out patches like mad. Most major developers take ages to patch a game and these guys are on it all the time. I commend Team Meat for this and even with the buggy (for some) release of SMB they have earned my money for anything they put out! Huzzah! To them!
At the time of this writing I have not finished SMB as I'm stuck on World 4 and it's really kicking my butt. But I can safely say this game is really high up there for being my game of the year and in a year of a lot of disappointing releases it's awesome to see this one come out and rise to the top.
Super Meat Boy - 10 out 10, Play it! Even if you just play the demo everyone needs to try it out. See how two guys can make a game that's better than most big studios.
Tuesday, October 12, 2010
Some thoughts on Left 4 Dead and Left 4 Dead 2
Left 4 Dead is a series I overlooked when it came out. I tried the demo on the Xbox 360 and didn't really think a lot of it. I never picked up the full release even after hearing it was a great game. Flash forward to about a month of Left 4 Dead 2's release and I still hadn't played the full version of the first game. While browsing Steam I saw that with a preorder of Left 4 Dead 2 you could get Bill's Hat to use in Team Fortress 2 and I am a sucker for Team Fortress 2 stuff so I decided to preorder Left 4 Dead 2 so I could get the hat. Steam also had a deal that you could get the first game with a preorder of the second and save some cash so I bought that one too.
A few days later I decided to fire up the first Left 4 Dead to try out the full game. After playing for a bit I found myself having a really good time playing the first Left 4 Dead. I wasn't playing it online, I like to play through a game in single player before I take it online. I beat all the campaigns and around that time Left 4 Dead 2 came out so I moved on to that one. I cleared all the campaigns by myself and then I just moved onto the next game. A few months later I decided to take Left 4 Dead 2 online and you know what? I really suck at it! I was doing campaign co-op and I was just so freaking bad I couldn't believe it. Again the game went on the shelf and I didn't look back. Recently I started playing the two games again and I have some thoughts on them both and the series as a whole.
First off I know this is probably common knowledge but the second game is far and beyond the better of the two. I remember the community getting up in arms about the release of L4D2 about a year after, saying it should be an expansion pack and all that jazz. Almost everything about the second game from a mechanics standpoint is improved. From the melee weapons added to the way the Zombies act and the number of Special Infected. I think the second game does a better job of telling the overall story even with what little is presented as you play the game. Now to me the one thing the second game has that does not surpass the original game are the actual survivors.
The cast in the first Left 4 Dead is one of the best game casts in the history of gaming. The way Bill, Francis, Louis and Zoey interact with each other is done so well. These characters are just so likable, they each have a roll and they all fill it perfectly. Now with Left 4 Dead 2 the cast isn't nearly as strong as the first game. To me the weak point is Rochelle, she just isn't a good character. I can't think of any memorable things she has said and I know absolutely nothing about her back story. I'm shocked that Valve went with her as a character especially after having a really strong female character in the first game. Next is Coach, by himself he's not really a great character but his interactions with Nick and Ellis are fantastic and really makes him come to life. With Nick you get the mysterious dude in the group. You know he's a gambler and some kind of criminal but as you travel through the campaigns he drops hints that he may be darker than first thought. He makes references to getting brains and blood out of his suit and his coldness to the other survivors shows what some could think of as a darker side.
Finally we have Ellis, Ellis is to me the best character this series has ever seen and could be considered one of the best FPS characters in the history of the genre. With his stories about Keith and his overall optimism in spite of the Zombie Apocalypse is fantastic. The way he interacts with the other characters make them all stronger just because of him and I think that says a lot about Ellis' strength as a character.
With the DLC The Passing you learn that Bill was killed and in the Sacrifice you get to play the events leading up to his death. When you play the newer of the two the group picks who sacrifice and it's not Bill each time but the official story is that Bill died. I know the Left 4 Dead series isn't about cinematics and grand story but the way Bill's death is handled in the game is not that great. You run from the group to hit the generator, die and that's it. You get a few lines from the other survivors yelling about Bill's death. I would of liked to see a cinematic or something for Bill dieing. For a series that's all about these guys to kill off one that a lot of people loved and only have it be a passing moment to me is kind of messed up.
That leads me to the one thing I don't like about this game, which is the story telling. I know for a co-op focused online shooter the story isn't really important. I would of liked to see the story fleshed out more at least in the single player mode. The characters do talk back and forth to each other and you get some insight on them as people and such but if you interrupt any of it you miss out. If they had done some beginning and end campaign cinema scenes to flesh out the story it would of been awesome.
I've been playing the online versus lately and it's really fun but I do suck at it. Playing as the infected is really cool but I really suck at that. I've been going back and forth between the first and second game and they are quite different. I actually played the second game before I played the first so going back and being online with the first game I was wondering why I kept spawning as the same three infected but then had to remind myself I was playing the first game! Earlier today I decided to try Survival in L4D and again I suck at it. I'm not use to being this bad at a game online but I am still having a great time playing and I'll continue to do so.
What really got me interested in playing these was playing the Call of Duty: World at War Nazi Zombie mode. That has some neat things in it with them including the Perks from the multiplayer and some really fun to play as characters. While Left 4 Dead is a more complete game it could take a Que from COD:WAW. I would love to see a perk system included in the eventual L4D3 and even more variety to the weapons.
As many people know the Left 4 Dead games are great and I wish I had started playing these games back when they first game out but now I'm having a really fun time playing them.
A few days later I decided to fire up the first Left 4 Dead to try out the full game. After playing for a bit I found myself having a really good time playing the first Left 4 Dead. I wasn't playing it online, I like to play through a game in single player before I take it online. I beat all the campaigns and around that time Left 4 Dead 2 came out so I moved on to that one. I cleared all the campaigns by myself and then I just moved onto the next game. A few months later I decided to take Left 4 Dead 2 online and you know what? I really suck at it! I was doing campaign co-op and I was just so freaking bad I couldn't believe it. Again the game went on the shelf and I didn't look back. Recently I started playing the two games again and I have some thoughts on them both and the series as a whole.
First off I know this is probably common knowledge but the second game is far and beyond the better of the two. I remember the community getting up in arms about the release of L4D2 about a year after, saying it should be an expansion pack and all that jazz. Almost everything about the second game from a mechanics standpoint is improved. From the melee weapons added to the way the Zombies act and the number of Special Infected. I think the second game does a better job of telling the overall story even with what little is presented as you play the game. Now to me the one thing the second game has that does not surpass the original game are the actual survivors.
The cast in the first Left 4 Dead is one of the best game casts in the history of gaming. The way Bill, Francis, Louis and Zoey interact with each other is done so well. These characters are just so likable, they each have a roll and they all fill it perfectly. Now with Left 4 Dead 2 the cast isn't nearly as strong as the first game. To me the weak point is Rochelle, she just isn't a good character. I can't think of any memorable things she has said and I know absolutely nothing about her back story. I'm shocked that Valve went with her as a character especially after having a really strong female character in the first game. Next is Coach, by himself he's not really a great character but his interactions with Nick and Ellis are fantastic and really makes him come to life. With Nick you get the mysterious dude in the group. You know he's a gambler and some kind of criminal but as you travel through the campaigns he drops hints that he may be darker than first thought. He makes references to getting brains and blood out of his suit and his coldness to the other survivors shows what some could think of as a darker side.
Finally we have Ellis, Ellis is to me the best character this series has ever seen and could be considered one of the best FPS characters in the history of the genre. With his stories about Keith and his overall optimism in spite of the Zombie Apocalypse is fantastic. The way he interacts with the other characters make them all stronger just because of him and I think that says a lot about Ellis' strength as a character.
With the DLC The Passing you learn that Bill was killed and in the Sacrifice you get to play the events leading up to his death. When you play the newer of the two the group picks who sacrifice and it's not Bill each time but the official story is that Bill died. I know the Left 4 Dead series isn't about cinematics and grand story but the way Bill's death is handled in the game is not that great. You run from the group to hit the generator, die and that's it. You get a few lines from the other survivors yelling about Bill's death. I would of liked to see a cinematic or something for Bill dieing. For a series that's all about these guys to kill off one that a lot of people loved and only have it be a passing moment to me is kind of messed up.
That leads me to the one thing I don't like about this game, which is the story telling. I know for a co-op focused online shooter the story isn't really important. I would of liked to see the story fleshed out more at least in the single player mode. The characters do talk back and forth to each other and you get some insight on them as people and such but if you interrupt any of it you miss out. If they had done some beginning and end campaign cinema scenes to flesh out the story it would of been awesome.
I've been playing the online versus lately and it's really fun but I do suck at it. Playing as the infected is really cool but I really suck at that. I've been going back and forth between the first and second game and they are quite different. I actually played the second game before I played the first so going back and being online with the first game I was wondering why I kept spawning as the same three infected but then had to remind myself I was playing the first game! Earlier today I decided to try Survival in L4D and again I suck at it. I'm not use to being this bad at a game online but I am still having a great time playing and I'll continue to do so.
What really got me interested in playing these was playing the Call of Duty: World at War Nazi Zombie mode. That has some neat things in it with them including the Perks from the multiplayer and some really fun to play as characters. While Left 4 Dead is a more complete game it could take a Que from COD:WAW. I would love to see a perk system included in the eventual L4D3 and even more variety to the weapons.
As many people know the Left 4 Dead games are great and I wish I had started playing these games back when they first game out but now I'm having a really fun time playing them.
Wednesday, July 28, 2010
Kane and Lynch 2 demo has a virus?
Well I tried to download the Kane and Lynch 2 demo from Steam the other day and my antivirus popped up with a warning. It detected a bad file in the download from Steam and stopped the download. With a little research I found out it was a false positive associated with my NOD 32 not liking something it saw. Maybe Eset were not fans of the first Kane and Lynch and decided to show their disliking in the form of false virus warnings? I don't really think that but it sucks I'm having trouble downloading it as I am a big fan of the first game and I'm really looking forward to part 2. I've read a couple of workarounds for this issuse and I'll try them a little later today and hopefully I can grab the demo and write some impressions on it.
The game comes out next month which is pretty sweet, and you can save 5 percent if you preorder on Steam before game comes out. Even with all the issues from the first game I'm just really looking forward to part 2 and seeing the continuing story of these two guys.
The game comes out next month which is pretty sweet, and you can save 5 percent if you preorder on Steam before game comes out. Even with all the issues from the first game I'm just really looking forward to part 2 and seeing the continuing story of these two guys.
Monday, July 26, 2010
Valve banning Modern Warfare 2 players...
Over the weekend Valve banned a good number or people from playing Modern Warfare 2 online through Steam. Steam has this Valve Anti Cheat (VAC) software that detects cheating and gives you a permanent ban from playing Steam games online. Apparently some MW2 players were banned for what Valve is calling a software glitch.
From Valve's Statement -
"The problem was that Steam would fail a signature check between the disk version of a DLL and a latent memory version. This was caused by a combination of conditions occurring while Steam was updating the disk image of a game. This wasn't a game-specific mistake. Steam allows us to manage and reverse these erroneous bans (about 12,000 erroneous bans over two weeks)."
I'm glad to see Valve stepping up and taking the blame for the wrongful bans. It's nice to see a company admit it's fault and make things right with the fans. On top of unbanning the falsely banned Valve is offering them a free copy of Left 4 Dead 2. It just goes to show how much of a class act Valve is. I think when the history of gaming is written Valve will stand on the top of the heap as the single best company in the industry.
From Valve's Statement -
"The problem was that Steam would fail a signature check between the disk version of a DLL and a latent memory version. This was caused by a combination of conditions occurring while Steam was updating the disk image of a game. This wasn't a game-specific mistake. Steam allows us to manage and reverse these erroneous bans (about 12,000 erroneous bans over two weeks)."
I'm glad to see Valve stepping up and taking the blame for the wrongful bans. It's nice to see a company admit it's fault and make things right with the fans. On top of unbanning the falsely banned Valve is offering them a free copy of Left 4 Dead 2. It just goes to show how much of a class act Valve is. I think when the history of gaming is written Valve will stand on the top of the heap as the single best company in the industry.
Saturday, July 17, 2010
Gaming without Internet Review - Solitaire
So where I'm living right now the internet has been really hit or miss. For about a week now the connection keeps randomly dropping off and when it is running the speed is slower than dial up. This makes doing anything on the internet impossible even posting stuff here. With the slower speed logging into Steam is a challenge in patience and it's one I'm not really looking to try so I've been keeping busy with other stuff. Mainly I've been sitting here playing the Solitaire that came with Windows 7. I've spent a good amount of time over the years playing the various Solitaire games that came with Windows, 3.11 all the way to 7. I have to say Windows 7's Solitaire is the worst version I've played. I like all the fancy animations and such but from a game play stand point it's just bad. When you're dealt your cards you can lose the game without being able to put any cards anywhere. You can scroll through the deck but then the game over kill screen comes up and you have to start over. Now I understand there is a chance if using real cards that you could deal yourself a losing hand right from the start but this is a program, a program that should be able to weed out any chance of this happening. I've never experienced this in any other Solitaire program be it a Windows version or some other company's game. When you do not have any moves left the game gives you a "No More Moves" popup and you are asked what you would like to do and I do think that's great because it lets you know you're done, well you know when it works. The box will pop up about 90 percent of the time but I've had several times where the game is in a state of not being able to make a move and the box will not come up. When I'm in a situation like this I hit the "hint" key to make sure I'm done and all it does is have me cycle through my deck endlessly. This can be a little annoying, I mean I can tell when the game is over but when you have a feature that's actually useful in some cases it should work all the time. Overall this game is Solitaire everyone knows it and you may like it or not but this version is flawed. Now you may be thinking why I'm reviewing Solitaire of all things well that's what happens when the internet is crap.
Solitaire - 7 out of 10
The game is fun because well it's Solitaire but this version is flawed.
Solitaire - 7 out of 10
The game is fun because well it's Solitaire but this version is flawed.
Monday, July 12, 2010
PC Game Review - Trine
Trine is a game that came out last summer for the PC and on the PSN last Fall. I picked it up during one of the big Steam sales at the end of last year and never got around to playing it. I decided to give it a try this weekend and to my surprise it's a really good game.
The story isn't really anything to special but it does do a good job of setting up the premise and getting you right into the action. You control three characters, a Wizard, a Thief and a Knight. They've been fused together in a freak accident with the device known as the Trine and you're guiding them along to free themselves from this predicament. Trine is basically a clone of Lost Vikings with three characters you play as and each offers their own abilities to help navigate the levels. The Wizard can summon blocks and planks to build steps and bridges and later on he can create a floating platform to get around on. The Knight is all about combat, sword and shield in hand he's you're go to guy for killing all the enemies in the game. Now the thief is a hybrid she has a grappling hook to swing around on any wooden surface and a bow to shoot the enemies. You'd think you should just use her through the whole game and I made that mistake at times but for the most part I relied on the Wizard for navigation and the Knight for combat. Switching between the three people is easy and I never had a problem doing so in the middle of the action.
Another thing about Trine that really stood out to me were the graphics, this game is just beautiful looking. The colors are bright and the environmental effects such as heat rising from lava are really well done. You feel as though you're really exploring this fantasy world rich with fiction, fiction that just isn't there because it's not really fleshed in the story but still the world is just so well done. The sound is good too, the crunching of the bones of the skeletons as you kill them sounds right and what little music the game has fits in with then overall feel of the fantasy world.
The controls are spot on, using the combo of the mouse and keyboard for a 2D action game just feels right in this game. Keys for moving and changing characters and the mouse is for using the various skills the characters have, be it the Knights attack or summoning with the Wizard. Doing some of the crazier platforming near the end was very fluid and I never felt the controls were working against me. A bright spot for the PC platformer.
Now you'd think I was all about love for Trine but I do have some complaints. One is the checkpoint system. Each level has several checkpoints and they're fairly spaced and all but if you quit out in the middle of a level when you come back to the game you start at the beginning of the level. All XP vials and treasures you've collected are still collected but you still need to go through the level again. It can be a pain to be near the end of a stage quit and have to do the whole thing over again. But I can say none of the levels are so long where anyone shouldn't be able to just sit down finish a level before quiting. Another complaint, the amount of enemies. This game only really has one enemy type with variations on that type. I expected to see a little more variety in the foes and with the graphics being so fantastic I wanted to see the developers imagination go a little crazy and see some more monsters. Finally the game is really easy, but still a lot of fun. None of the puzzles are hard and most navigation can be done with the Wizard summoning a few blocks and jumping on them. With this fact the thief is borderline useless and I feel the game could of been done with just two characters or done the thief in a different way. I don't know exactly what but I think this stuff just takes away from the game.
In the end I thought Trine was a really good game. For 20 bucks you could do a hell of a lot worse. The few short comings I mentioned didn't really take anything away from my enjoyment of Trine but I felt just needed to be mentioned. If you liked Lost Vikings 1 or 2 and want something similar you need to check out Trine. If 20 bucks is to much for you this game goes on sale with almost every Steam sale so wait and grab it for 5 dollars or something around there, but even at 20 bucks it's worth it.
Trine - 8 out of 10
The story isn't really anything to special but it does do a good job of setting up the premise and getting you right into the action. You control three characters, a Wizard, a Thief and a Knight. They've been fused together in a freak accident with the device known as the Trine and you're guiding them along to free themselves from this predicament. Trine is basically a clone of Lost Vikings with three characters you play as and each offers their own abilities to help navigate the levels. The Wizard can summon blocks and planks to build steps and bridges and later on he can create a floating platform to get around on. The Knight is all about combat, sword and shield in hand he's you're go to guy for killing all the enemies in the game. Now the thief is a hybrid she has a grappling hook to swing around on any wooden surface and a bow to shoot the enemies. You'd think you should just use her through the whole game and I made that mistake at times but for the most part I relied on the Wizard for navigation and the Knight for combat. Switching between the three people is easy and I never had a problem doing so in the middle of the action.
Another thing about Trine that really stood out to me were the graphics, this game is just beautiful looking. The colors are bright and the environmental effects such as heat rising from lava are really well done. You feel as though you're really exploring this fantasy world rich with fiction, fiction that just isn't there because it's not really fleshed in the story but still the world is just so well done. The sound is good too, the crunching of the bones of the skeletons as you kill them sounds right and what little music the game has fits in with then overall feel of the fantasy world.
The controls are spot on, using the combo of the mouse and keyboard for a 2D action game just feels right in this game. Keys for moving and changing characters and the mouse is for using the various skills the characters have, be it the Knights attack or summoning with the Wizard. Doing some of the crazier platforming near the end was very fluid and I never felt the controls were working against me. A bright spot for the PC platformer.
Now you'd think I was all about love for Trine but I do have some complaints. One is the checkpoint system. Each level has several checkpoints and they're fairly spaced and all but if you quit out in the middle of a level when you come back to the game you start at the beginning of the level. All XP vials and treasures you've collected are still collected but you still need to go through the level again. It can be a pain to be near the end of a stage quit and have to do the whole thing over again. But I can say none of the levels are so long where anyone shouldn't be able to just sit down finish a level before quiting. Another complaint, the amount of enemies. This game only really has one enemy type with variations on that type. I expected to see a little more variety in the foes and with the graphics being so fantastic I wanted to see the developers imagination go a little crazy and see some more monsters. Finally the game is really easy, but still a lot of fun. None of the puzzles are hard and most navigation can be done with the Wizard summoning a few blocks and jumping on them. With this fact the thief is borderline useless and I feel the game could of been done with just two characters or done the thief in a different way. I don't know exactly what but I think this stuff just takes away from the game.
In the end I thought Trine was a really good game. For 20 bucks you could do a hell of a lot worse. The few short comings I mentioned didn't really take anything away from my enjoyment of Trine but I felt just needed to be mentioned. If you liked Lost Vikings 1 or 2 and want something similar you need to check out Trine. If 20 bucks is to much for you this game goes on sale with almost every Steam sale so wait and grab it for 5 dollars or something around there, but even at 20 bucks it's worth it.
Trine - 8 out of 10
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