Clive-Barker’s Undying (PC)

Game review by Gavin Martin

Publisher: Electronic Arts

Genre: First-person Shooter

Engine: Unreal Engine 1

Release Date: February 07, 2001

Cost: $17.99 (originally $49.99)

400 MB of hard drive space
Windows 2000/XP/Vista (32-bit or 64-bit)
Mac OS X 10.4 or better (PPC or x86)
Linux Kernel 2.2 or better with glibc

“You get to hunt crazy stuff, levitate, and shoot dark energy forces from your hands. It’s like Dragon Ball Z corrupted by something more sinister than a work of Edgar Allen Poe…and you love it. (There are guns, too.)”

Undying is a book by acclaimed horror writer Clive Barker. If you haven’t heard of the guy, he is so good that Stephen King said he is influenced by Barker and thinks he is one of the best horror writers of all time. Granted, Stephen King isn’t the greatest authority on such things, but he’s also not a guy to hand out compliments.

In other words, Clive Barker earned it.

What makes the game version even cooler, besides the fact that it doesn’t suck like many other cross-media ports, is that Barker worked with the developers every step of the way to turn his words into visions and concepts, and those visions into concepts into a very kick-ass single-player experience.

Gameplay: 9/10

Check this out:

You see that? It’s only a graphic example of what you get when you launch yourself into the interesting gameplay of Undying, but it still gives you an idea of what I’m talking about.

The game is a shooter but also has an added bonus of spell casting as you can see above. You have a full arsenal of guns to choose from with only so much ammo, and you also have your mana supply for spellcasting. Furthermore, certain creatures are better defeated by guns, while others fall more quickly to magic. Others require a combinations of the two. This gives a great amount of balance to the game, and also gives you (the player) a varying, exciting, and dynamic gameplay experience.

You also have in this game the ability to scry using the the stone above. You can only scry in certain locations, but when you find the right ones, you are thrown into this vision where you can see the past which adds a cool element of depth to the story.

The story works so well with the gameplay that you really wish that Barker’s book were something like 3,000 pages. In any case, I don’t want to give anything away, but I will tell you that it focuses on a troubled family with a dark past, and you are sent to investigate WTF is going on. As it turns out, part of your job description is risking your life with every step in this evil house (located on the south Jersey shore.)

Control: 9/10

The controls are standard for any shooter, with the exception of the fact that you have standard and alternate fires for not only every gun, but also for every spell.

Even with that level of depth, it becomes intuitive quite quickly. Best of all, however, is the fact that it seems really easy to aim in this game. I guess maybe they spent some extra time  making sure that the game reads mouse movements correctly. In any case, the only improvement that could be made to the controls would be if the controls when you fly (yes, you get to fly in this game too like a crazy God-wizard-thing) were more smooth and less chaotic. But then again, who said making a human fly would be easy?

Graphics, Look, and Feel: 8/10

It’s interesting that I give this a fairly high score, for as you can see below, it seems very unpolished. Honestly, when I first played the game I thought it was stupidly bad for a game that was released in 2001. But then I had an epiphany which you can read about below this lovely picture:

That epiphany was that the graphics were what they needed to be. I mean, let’s face it, horror is designed to be dark, mysterious, and somewhat disturbing. For this particular storyline, the graphics were perfect. In fact, I think that if they were to make a second version of the game, to mess with the graphics and the way the game feels to make them more appealing would be a mistake.

Much in the same way that dusty black-and-white photos have the ability to be more eerie than a color photo, this game hits on all of the right visual notes to give you the feeling of, “STOP IT…DON’T OPEN THAT DOOR!”

Okay, well there’s no badly voiced-over Wesker in this game, but when you do open that door above, there’s a wolf that wants nothing more than to eat your face. That’s what your gun is for…

Sound: 10/10

Wow…
That would be all I needed to say, but I will elaborate for those who still aren’t convinced that this game is compelling, awesome, and also has an epic storyline.

The sound is crisp, has warmth, is timed perfectly, and sounds insanely realistic. If I were to be stuck in a haunted house with God knows what, I would probably expect those same eerie sounds to resonate through the house. And with my Z-550 speakers, they resonate quite strongly.

I mean, honestly, the sound effects were part of the great experience of the game that gave me cold hands and feet, and rushes of adrenaline every time I entered into a new part of that accursed house. Seriously, the audio guy was that damn good.

Undying vs Related Games, and Final Thoughts:

I really cannot relate Undying to another game except for something like Heretic or Hexen. But even those examples fall so far short of what Undying is. Undying is an experience, artfully mastered and brilliantly pulled off. The storyline is awesome and it makes you become a big fan of Barker’s work. If his aim was to sell more books, he would have by patronage.

Undying needs no comparison, even in the way it came to me. I met a goth girl on a strange date where I started the night in her bedroom. I didn’t get what you guys think I did, but she did give me a copy of this game and told me to check it out. On a cold winter night, I did, and I realized I didn’t need more girls, nacho cheese, or more cowbell.

What I needed that night, and on the nights when my brain wants to be amazed, tricked, messed with, and worked up, I needed and still need more Undying.

It’s eight years later, but…sequel please?

Heroes of Newerth (PC)

Game review by Gavin Martin

Publisher: S2 Games

Genre: MOBA (Multiplayer Online Battle Arena)

Release Date: TBA (Closed beta started July 2008)

Cost: $30 (Closed beta is free)

400 MB of hard drive space
Windows 2000/XP/Vista (32-bit or 64-bit)
Mac OS X 10.4 or better (PPC or x86)
Linux Kernel 2.2 or better with glibc

High Quality/Recommended

Processor – 2.0GHz Core 2 Duo / AMD 3500+ or faster
RAM – 1.5GB or higher
Video Card – 256MB Geforce 7800+ or Radeon X1900+
Network Connection Required (Broadband)

Low Quality

Processor – 2.2GHz Pentium 4 / AMD 2400+ or faster
RAM – 1GB of RAM
Video Card – GeForce 5 and ATI 9800 w/ 128 MB VRAM
Windows XP, Win2k or Windows Vista
Network Connection Required

“It’s DOTA (Defense of the Ancients) with a different name, and much like DOTA, it is friggin’ awesome in every aspect.”

Let’s be clear about the history of Heroes of Newerth (new earth?): The guys at S2 Games went to Icefrog, the guy who makes DOTA, and said, “Hey, we like your mod (DOTA is a custom game / mod for Warcraft 3.) Do you mind if we blatantly copy it and then make money off of it? Icefrog then said, “Sure, go ahead.” Icefrog is a philanthropist so we found out. He’s also been hired by Valve. Icefrog = superwin.
Anyway…

S2 rejoiced and Tiny Tim even celebrated with them just like he did during “the Muppet’s Christmas Carol.”

God blessed everyone, and now S2 has a closed beta for their DOTA clone.
Normally when a developer blatantly copies a game, we, as gamers, mentally flick them off and laugh at their nonsense. However, S2 has accomplished something quite rare, and that is they have managed to clone an already perfect game, and they’ve made it…well…better.

Gameplay: 9/10

Heroes of Newerth is only available as a beta release, and the beta is closed. To play it now, you have to be one of the very special invited people. Friends can, in fact, invite other friends. Don’t have any friends who are part of the sensation? Well, get some new friends…

The fact that this game is beta, however, is very much worth mentioning. The reason being is that beta normally means that there are still a lot of bugs. I can honestly say that Heroes of Newerth has been one of the most feature-packed and reliable games I have ever played in my life, and is definitely not plagued with a lot of the bugs that even mainstream releases are shipped with. Something like the first release of “Rise of Nations” comes to mind, where the game would crash very frequently and you felt like your $50 was wasted on a sad excuse for an early beta, much less an actual release.

Heroes of Newerth is standalone from Warcraft 3, currently boasts 52 characters, and has 116 items. Each player has 4 skills, one being their ultimate, and each player can hold six items at a time. Each player also gets a stash to hold six additional items, though you’ll never need it really. What’s better is that S2 has been consistently adding characters and items, as well as tweaking things to make gameplay not only more fun, but more balanced.

I mentioned earlier that you’ll almost never need your six-item stash. The reason is that – for those who have never played DOTA – your character is chosen on a per-game basis. Each game is a multiplayer team battle, ranging from either one versus one all the way up to five versus five. The only thing that is saved from game-to-game are your stats, which are tied to your account.

Aside from team size, you can choose from three different maps and from a plethora of game settings. What do I mean by that? Well, take a look:

Now we hit the actual gameplay deal. When you join a game with your team, you then pick a hero. You have your choice of either the Legion heroes, or the Hellbourne Heroes, or, if the game is an All Heroes Game, then you can pick from both sides – so Hellbourne can pick Legion and Legion can pick Hellbourne…you get the idea.

The Hellbourne / Legion sides refer to a number of things. Those are the halves of the map, the type of creeps, and the team you are on. Your team members are not only your fellow online players, who are humans (I hope), but also your team creeps. Creeps are essentially non-playable monster-things, and both teams have them. There are also neutral creeps in the forest for players to kill for extra experience, if needed / wanted.

You level up your character by killing creeps at the beginning, and eventually you can better gain levels by killing other players. It has a PVM and PVP aspect built into one key strategy, to move toward one outcome: Your team winning by destroying the other team’s base.

With towers, extremely balanced heroes (for the most part), a ton of items, and the clock ticking (timing is pretty much everything…you better hope your opponent is better at managing it than you are), Heroes of Newerth requires a ton of strategy and thought to those who are unaccustomed to a DOTA-based game.

The reason the gameplay is only a 9/10 is not due to some downfall of the game itself, but merely due to the fact that not everyone will have the patience to keep sucking and being insulted by the multitude of experienced players who comprise the majority of the HON player population. But hey, it’s to be expected. Most of the HON fanatics are very experienced DOTA players, and, as I said before, HON is pretty much the same game.

Really though, the gameplay is awesome. Check the image below to see some of the key features, and then become envious of the fact that I have a beta key and you do not.

Control: 9/10

You can rebind all of the hotkeys if you don’t like them, and the rest of it depends on you being able to point and click. There’s not much to it, honestly. The only reason it gets a 9/10 is due to the fact that many times your intended target is hard to actually target. The reason being is due to the fact that between the similarity of color schemes between all of the heroes, the “bees on a hive” effect that comes with the fact that everyone is trying to kill the creeps and each other, the other graphical aspects which make the element of pure visual confusion really screw you to the point where you ask, “Umm…okay…what the f*** is going on? Oh, crap…I died,” and the two waves of creeps  (one from each side) which create a cluster-intercourse (family friendly) in the middle of each lane.

Graphics, Look, and Feel: 8/10

Can you say perfect transition? I will go ahead and address the two-points-short situation here since it plays off of what I mentioned before about the controls: There somehow is not enough contrast between everything so that the player can clearly distinguish who he or she needs to target to do their job correctly. Again, for experienced players this is no big deal, but this for newbies this will be one of the biggest reasons HON has such a steep learning curve for some.

It’s hard enough to focus on when to kill the creeps, when to hold your ground, when to run away, what skills to get, how to manage your gold, watching your minimap, and what items to get. The last thing we should have to do, as players, is try to sift through the ocean of creeps and players just so we can target the right person during a team battle. I’m not sure how to remedy this, but there has to be some way to make this a bit more intuitive and less stressful.

The other eight points are well-earned, however. It’s pleasing to the eyes, and it pulls you into the world of Newerth. I always know that the graphics and feel of the game are awesome when I find myself pumping with adrenaline – hands shaking – during the heat of battle.

Sound: 10/10

It’s everything you would expect, meaning it has that Warcraft 3 / World of Warcraft-esque auditory appeal to it. You are in a world where there is magic, swords, warriors, and a struggle for earth. In other words, you are in a Tolkien novel on steroids.

Most players disable the music, but it’s cool and suits the whole theme. It’s sort of mystical, but also compels you to get in the game and do something. The sound matches not only the intensity of the game, but it also has a non-serious element which is also typical of a game like Warcraft 3. Granted, this is not Warcraft 3, but it is basically DOTA, and DOTA is a mod / custom game for Warcraft 3.

I could go on and on about how it is perfect for the game and all that, but you really need to listen for yourself. The best I can do at this point is give you a side-by-side of Warcraft 3 and Heroes of Newerth, just to show you what I mean by “similar.”

And before I forget….
It also has one of those cool Quake / Unreal style announcers who emphatically throws out intensely delivered phrases. In this case, “DENIED!!”

Heroes of Newerth vs Related Games, and Final Thoughts:

I played DOTA a few years back, and I remember sucking at it compared to some of the pros. Fast-forward to today with S2, and I still pretty much suck. But I love it.

And that makes two rare things with me about Heroes of Newerth. First, it is a clone game and generally speaking I think games which basically copy another game are nonsense, but in this case I am extremely glad they did. Sometimes it’s good to copy things closely, like when a blue moon happens and a movie actually follows the book quite closely. This is another case where that is a good thing.

Second, I suck at the game and I’m happy about it. Normally if I’m bad at a game, I try harder until I get better. If I don’t get better, then I quit. This is what happened with Black and White, Rise of Nations, Command and Conquer, Tekken 5 (*gives middle finger to Paul Phoenix*) and Contra. With Heroes of Newerth, I want to finish writing this guide so I can go play, get insulted by experienced players, and suck. Part of it is the fact that I know I’m getting better, but the other part of it is how compelling the challenge is.

To knock off the comparison aspect of this article, all you really have to know is Heroes of Newerth is DOTA, without the Warcraft 3 characters, buildings, and graphics. For Warcraft 3 fans, this is not a good thing since part of that “lore corruption” is fun to experience. In other words, they took the original characters, models, sounds, and graphics, and modified it from its original purpose to serve a new one – ergo corruption.

Heroes of Newerth has a more solid netcode with zero base ping, meaning if you have 80 ms ping to a server then it is a flat 80 ms rather than 80 ms plus a 150 ms base ping, much like you would get with Warcraft 3. This fact works in tandem with the fact that S2’s dedication to detail, constant character balancing, item quantity, character selection, and pure quality of gameplay allows DOTA to become what it should be: It’s own awesome game.

Heroes of Newerth is on my new “must play” list. And if that doesn’t sell it for you, then consider this: Most games cost at least $50 these days, and anything new in the Warcraft game line is almost certainly going to cost you money every month you want to play, meaning you buy the game, and then by the game – and repeat buying the game times 6.023 x 10^23.

Heroes of Newerth is made by S2, and S2 doesn’t deal with that kind of BS. You pay $30 for the game, and you’ve got it. There are no monthly fees, and there aren’t going to be (*crosses fingers*). Play online, get owned, but have a ton of fun doing it.

S2 has done more than just create an improved version of DOTA, they’ve created a new yard-stick.

Blizzard has some catching up to do…

[TMC Approved]

Nexuiz (PC)

Game review by Gavin Martin

Publisher: Alientrap

Genre: First-person Shooter

Release Date: May 02, 2009 (current version, 2.5.1; first version: May 31, 2005)

Cost: Free (GPL License)

400 MB of hard drive space
Windows 2000/XP/Vista (32-bit or 64-bit)
Mac OS X 10.4 or better (PPC or x86)
Linux Kernel 2.2 or better with glibc

High Quality/Recommended

A 1.5 Ghz Intel Pentium 4 chip or AMD Athlon 1500+ or better
9600ati or 5700fx or better
512 MB of ram or better

Low Quality

1 Ghz Pentium III or AMD Athlon
Geforce2 Video card
512 MB of ram

“Take Quake, introduce it to a aesthetic-savvy ninja who knows a thing or two about movement and netcode, mix in some trace-elements from Unreal Tournament, and you’ll more-or-less have Nexuiz. Yeah…it’s completely free too…”

I first heard about Nexuiz through a Linux distro which touted the game as a selling-point for switching over. I noted the name, noted the fact that it’s a FPS, and went on with my life. Fast-forward a year later to today, and I finally made the 600+ MB plunge into Nexuiz.

When I say 600+ MB, I’m referring to the download itself, which, for Windows anyway, is a .zip download available on the website (alientrap.org/nexuiz). Oddly enough, the download itself was the first impression I got from the game. The reason for that is the fact that Nexuiz, when extracted from the zip, is just a folder with a self-contained file structure. In other words, there’s no exes or registry BS to deal with. You just download, unzip, and run the exe from the folder itself – you can throw it in Program Files if it makes you feel better.

I, just wanting to get to the action, left it on my desktop. I loaded it up, set my keys, binds, graphics, mouse sensitivity, audio to how I like it for FPS’s, and clicked on the “Instant Action” button. The Instant Action deal threw me into a game with bots – giving a very similar feel to actually being in a server. This was reminiscent of games like Quake 3 Arena and Unreal Tournament, where the server-esque experience is always readily available.

Nexuiz has 24 official maps, 15 player models, and 15 guns. Let’s jump right into the nitty gritty:

Gameplay: 8/10

Just as small forward: The game is based off of a modified version of the Quake Engine called the DarkPlaces engine, but for simplicity and nostalgic value, I’ll refer to the Quake Engine primarily.

Why 8/10 you might ask? Well, I’m a huge-fan of fast-paced shooters. But even more than that, I adore bunnyhopping and this game has it. The bunnyhopping is really intuitive for anyone who has ever bunnyhopped in any game based off of the Quake engine, like in the hay-days of Half-Life, for example. Just as small forward: The game is based off of a modified version of the Quake Engine called the DarkPlaces engine, but for simplicity and nostalgic value, I’ll refer to the Quake Engine primarily. The game has a built-in speed meter for those who want it, frame-rate monitor, and endless customizations and mutators for you to play with.

Just to give you an idea as to how many details, settings, tweaks, and customizations there are to Nexuiz, I’ll just say this: After roughly 20+ hours of intense gameplay, I still am figuring out a handful of new things every time I load the game. What’s even better is the fact that the endless possibilities to this game aren’t overwhelming, and, in fact, they allow the game to be formed to anyones preferences. So, for example, if you don’t like how powerful a particular gun is, you can either have it not spawn on your server or you can change how much damage it does. Want low gravity? No problem. Instagib? No problem. 1V1 Arena Mode? Well, you get the point.

Lag isn’t a real problem, the netcode makes aiming fairly easy and only troublesome at times (like it is with any game,) and camera angles aren’t a problem since it’s first-person. There is one quark, however: Not all headshots are created equal, so I found out. The “very top of the head” headshot is an instant kill with the sniper rifle, whereas the “middle of the head” headshot is something like a two-shot kill. I guess they have hard heads…

In short the only real problem with the gameplay are the maps. To put it not so nicely, they seem amateur It’s not the look of them or anything, but they aren’t built toward the faster-paced gameplay that the tagline of Nexuiz touts. That tagline being “Simple, fast, intense, and completely free!”

It has the intense, completely free, and simple parts down, unfortunately the fast-ness, if you will, is reamed by the maps which are completely non-conducive to things like bunnyhopping, rocket propelling, and circle-strafing. The exceptions to this are there on the larger maps, but it’s still a big enough deal on enough maps to make me uncomfortable.

The maps are also leave something to be desired as far as complexity, depth, and explorability. As a contrast, Half-Life’s default maps were very interactive, fun to explore, and they were inherently challenging Figuring out exactly when things spawned and where they were. Where the longjump was and how to get to it. Where to fire the gauss gun to nuke that annoying camper. These were things that made HLDM so insanely fun and popular. Nexuiz is lacking that. Much in the way that the Playstation 2 trumped the XBOX just because of the game selection and availability, other Quake forks like Half-Life make Nexuiz seem sub-par by comparison solely because of the maps.

Control: 9/10

It has bunnyhopping, endless customizations built-in the GUI rather than through a .cfg file like some other games I’ve played before, crosshair customization, game mutators, tweakable gameplay modes, FOV settings, etc etc. You can really make this game fit your playing style with the controls. What’s more, the bunnyhopping is truly integrated into the game rather than having to use a special jump script to avoid sticking, like you would with Team Fortress back-in-the-day.

For newcomers, don’t expect the controls to be intuitive if you haven’t messed around with Quake-based games before. Just about any Quake-based game has a somewhat steep learning curve for anyone to truly become proficient. For Half-Life, Quake, and Unreal Tournament veterans however, you’ll feel right at home. Furthermore, the sense of control and the ease-of-movement that is nearly everpresent in Nexuiz will almost certainly provide you with many fun hours of gameplay.

Graphics, Look, and Feel: 6/10

Let’s be frank about this: It’s not the prettiest game you’ll ever play. The textures are fairly dated-looking, the models show their polygons proudly (along with their literally retarded-looking faces,) and the colors themselves are less-than-stellar leaving the game feeling more like a cartoon than an adrenaline pumping shoot-em-up experience.

Now, in defense of Nexuiz, it doesn’t really need to fall back on aesthetics accomplish being a good game; the other parts of this review have shown that. Furthermore, in fast-paced shooters having a extremely low-lag gaming experience is vital to the fun-factor of the game. Having simpler models, textures, and graphics make lag a non-issue for those with lesser graphics cards. This also allows a multitude of people to get in on the action, thus helping keep both servers and players’ wallets full. But when I compare the graphics for the amount of resources the game uses – which is relatively low – to a game like Half-Life, for example, (yes, I’m a broken record) I feel as though they could have spent just a little more time in this department. But with the current trend of video games having orgasm-inducing graphics and “throw that crap out the window”-inducing gameplay, I’ll cut Nexuiz a break on this one and just be thankful for the already rock-solid gameplay and controls.

Sound: 7/10

By default, Nexuiz will play this techno sort of music in the background while you play, which is cool for awhile. Eventually, however, you throw on the headphones so you can hear your opponents footsteps throughout the map, and with that, you turn the darn music off. Once that’s done, you’ll really get a sense for how valuable the sound in this game is, as it is with most shooters. Each gun makes a distinct sound, which is nice when you’re trying to decide whether or not to open that door (assuming you don’t take Wesker’s advice.) All of the other sounds make sense, and the sound quality itself isn’t bad either. What’s also cool is the fact that when you hit somebody, you get the same sort of sound you get in Quake 3. It’s kind of like an instant feedback system to tell you whether or not your futile efforts are even noteworthy.

The only real downfall here is this: While the sounds are good and suitable for the gameplay, they aren’t intense enough for me. In Quake when you get quad damage or shards of armor, you are kicking ass. When you fire a rocket you are kicking ass. When you fire the nail-gun and hear the very distinct ricochet against the walls, you are kicking ass. The sounds in Quake are so intense, so full of bass and authority, that they pull you into the zone of kicking ass, even if you are AFK and eating a taco, or something.

In Nexuiz, you don’t get that same sense of intensity or excitement, and without intensity and excitement, enthusiasm is that much harder to come by. Throw in more bass and more intensity to the sounds, and you would have a better and more compelling gaming experience. Or you can do what I eventually did: Overwrite the default sounds with Quake sounds.

Nexuiz vs Related Games, and Final Thoughts:

I remember the hay-days of Half-Life induced synesthesia thanks to the god-like Adrenaline Gamer mod which so produced so many top-notch gamers. Garpy from the UK, for example, became the pro he is today because of the fast-paced, intense, competitive, and communal nature of AG Mod. Hell, I became good at shooters thanks to AG Mod. It had everything. It became my yard-stick for shooters to live up to. It’s the kobe beef of FPS experiences for me.

Nexuiz has reached the level of a dry-aged prime strip-steak when I compare it to the kobe that is Half-Life 1 with AG Mod. Furthermore, I would prefer a T-Bone. What I’m really trying to say is I want there to be a longjump, a gauss gun, and fun things like tripmines, satchels, hand grenades, and – PLEASE – better maps. I also wish the guns weren’t so heavily balanced. They are all so mild and moderate. There’s no single gun that can kick ass under all circumstances unless you count the vaporizer-rifle-thing in instagib mode. Again, it comes down to two things for me: Give me a gauss gun and a longjump, and I’ll be much happier.

But to get back to it…

I often referenced Half-Life, Quake, and I occasionally referenced Unreal Tournament. Really, Nexuiz is a smoothie of a game – a blend, a mutt, a smörgåsbord When you play Nexuiz, you’ll really see how the pieces from all three of these legendary FPS’s have come together to influence the growth and development of Nexuiz. When you take three very solid ingredients and mix it up, you generally have a pretty good result. That’s Nexuiz – A free, fast-paced, FPS which draws from other great FPS’s. Some games would try this same recipe, and end up with a “fruitcake” of a game. Nexuiz has come up with a three-part side-by-side milkshake, which, I might add, is free. I’m ready for more.

Metal Gear Solid 4

Developer: Kojima Productions
Publisher: Konami
ESRB Rating: M (17+)
Genre: Action Adventure > Modern
Platform: Playstation 3 (Exclusive)

Well-versed gamers will be no stranger to the world of Solid Snake. Metal Gear Solid has established itself as one of the mighty in the realm of stealth gaming. As one of the most anticipated releases for the PS3, Metal Gear Solid 4 hits its target.

Bluntly, MGS4 is a pretty game. Easily one of the best looking games on the PS3. However, while the style of the game fits perfectly into the series, the graphics are not as great as one would expect. While being a definite upgrade in graphics, the jump from MGS3 just does not seem to have the same visual impact that MGS2 and MGS3 had. Enough bashing of my perceived visual shortcomings of the game, it is a great looking game. The textures are clean, lighting falls properly (although light does not play quite a large of a role as in the Splinter Cell series) and the various locations around the world that are visited in the game are rendered beautifully. The game is set in the near future, so most of the settings will be recognizable as most know them currently. And Shadow Moses rendered on the PS3 is quite nostalgic.

The sound in MGS4 is outstanding. On a surround system, it should be discernable as to where things are coming from and even in stereo, the game is great. The score by Harry Gregson-Williams is quality all-around. The music of MGS has always been great and this one does not disappoint. The cow noises are a bit disconcerting though. You may wonder where they are coming from, trust me, it’s not a cow.

The gameplay of MGS4 is outstanding. It is basically the same system from the last two games, only refined to be friendlier. The camera in previous MGS games was top down with ability for a first-person view. This limited the range of sight in the games unless you hopped into first-person. The views needed to be combined for a proper view of the surrounding area. In MGS4, the camera is a hybrid of Splinter Cell-like (360 degrees) control and a target reticule in third-person that allows for running and gunning in a semi-controlled manner. You can hit stuff, but first-person is always more accurate. The performance of the game overall is great for the amount of detail on screen. There are times where a visible change from smooth frame rates to slightly more choppy ones can be noticed. The game does not suffer because of this though. The only real issue that most people will have is with the game’s cinematics. If you have played any previous MGS, you know what you are in for. The cinematic quality of the game is in its mixing of gameplay and cinematics. This is just as much of a movie as it is a game. The cinematics are good yes, but most of the time they are excessively long. The only saving grace is that most of the long cinematics have a save near the half way point, but it is still advisable not to play this game if you are in a rush. In a break from tradition, MGS4 allows for much more access to your average gamer. The previous MGS games were sneak heavy and limited the amount of ammunition that was available. This made for a game that pushed sneaking by trouble more than gunning it down. In MGS4, Drebin is the limit. If you are so inclined to sneak, you can. If, however, you want to lay down all your previous pent up frustrations with sneak games and go through ammo like water, you can do that too! The game allows for all comers to gun as they like. Finally, the camo system is back. Snake now sports a suit of camo that adapts to the setting around him for greater stealth. This as well can be played as hardcore as one wants as well. There is an auto setting that will allow the suit to adjust colors automatically or if one wishes, it can be done manually. Overall, MGS4 is a blending and advancement of the systems from other MGS games.

Controls in MGS4 are fluid. There may be a lot to grasp at first if you have not played a MGS game in a while or never at all. Old MGS fans should not have a problem getting back into the game’s controls though. They are mostly the same. For newcomers, the controls are intuitive, but could be overwhelming at first. A few trips around the interface and most gamers will be ready to rock. The main issue with control will probably be in the sneaking area. Wall crawling might be slightly awkward at first. Hitting the wrong button at the wrong time and other mix ups could be problematic at first. Popping out from a wall instead of pulling a weapon can end nastily. More than likely, a certain play style will develop for the player. One player might like to crawl along the wall and pop out on enemies and another player may like to stay off the walls, but stay near them for cover and not physically interact with them.

Metal Gear Solid 4 is a Metal Gear Solid game in style, substance and gameplay. It is the evolution of many MGS games into something that should be fun to play, intriguing, and beautiful to look at. The game’s story may only suffer from it being back story heavy. Players not well versed in the MGS world might have a bit of confusion at times. Mostly things are explained, but some things might require a bit of outside research. Nevertheless, it is still a fun game for the uninitiated. This is a worthy entry into the genre of sneak games. Its near future setting and themes discussed in the game make for a politically relevant story while still allowing for some science-fiction license. There are other sneak games like MGS in gameplay, but the story makes MGS4 stand out.

Metal Gear Solid 4 is a must-have for any MGS fan. The game is accessible enough that it might draw in new players that may be intrigued enough to go back and play its predecessors. Still plagued by ridiculously long cinematics, the game does feel like it offers a bit more gameplay than cinematics compared to earlier MGS games. And the game is just beautiful. Metal Gear Solid 4 is a worthy addition to the MGS family at a 9.5 rating.

Dirge of Cerberus: Final Fantasy VII

Developed and Published by: Square Enix

Genre: Fantasy Action Adventure, Third Person Shooter

Platform: Playstation 2

Cost: $19.99 (now)

Released: August 15, 2006

A part of the “Compilation of Final Fantasy VII” being released by Square Enix, Dirge of Cerberus was released about five months after the movie sequel to the game Final Fantasy VII, Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children. Dirge of Cerberus follows Vincent Valentine, a mysterious character that you encountered in Final Fantasy VII and appeared again in Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children. Dirge of Cerberus reveals much about Vincent’s past as he tries to stop a group of people known as Deepground, who are trying to bring about the end of the world.

Unlike other Final Fantasy games, which are RPGs, Dirge of Cerberus is a third person shooter. The gameplay graphics are not that fantastic, but the cutscene graphics are amazing, reminding one of graphics in the CG film Advent Children. The colors throughout the game seem pretty washed out, but the washed out colors really seem to represent the state of the world after the movie Advent Children. The graphics are realistic, especially when it comes to the world you are playing in. The in-game sounds are helpful with finding your enemies, although 3D sounds would be much better. The soundtrack is reminiscent of Final Fantasy VII, which is just nice and nostalgic for those who have played VII. Gameplay is actually pretty irritating. The camera angles are very poor and most of the time it has to be adjusted by the player. Along with the camera angles, aiming your gun is a pretty big pain, mostly because they are the same controls. Even with a training mode available, the gameplay is not very player friendly.

Of course, I have to compare this game to all other games from the Final Fantasy series. It is an incredibly different type of game compared to the other Final Fantasy games, which were just fantastic RPGs. Dirge of Cerberus has a great plot much like the other Final Fantasy games. The gameplay is nothing like Final Fantasy fans are used to, but it cements the fact that Final Fantasy games all have fantastic stories and interesting, original characters.

Overall, while it tells a great story and sheds light on a character that was once very mysterious and everyone was curious about, Dirge of Cerberus was a bit of a pain to play. It was frustrating to try to aim and keep your camera straight. The beauty of the cutscenes and the story make the painful gameplay almost worth it. I would give this game a six and a half or so out of ten and recommend it to diehard Final Fantasy fans just to help complete the story. If you’re not into Final Fantasy, I would stay away because the frustrating gameplay is just not worth it.