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Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker

Martin — Mon, 14 Jun 2010 19:36:15 +0000

Hideo Kojima spent years polishing his vision of the Metal Gear series for the PlayStation 3, so it still comes as a bit of a surprise to see the spec-gobbling developer opt for the PSP with his cherished series’ next iteration. It’s very serious business: Peace Walker has often been touted as the spiritual Metal Gear Solid 5. Unless it doesn’t sell very well, that is, and in that case Konami will do its best to forget it ever happened.

Kojima can’t seem to let go of the series despite his frequent proclamations otherwise – make no mistake, he’ll be producing Metal Gear games long past the point people stop caring. Our latest jaunt, pressed up against the walls and shrubbery of Costa Rica, is because the venerated director, alongside the whole of Japan, has gone a little crazy for Monster Hunter. Which means 4-player co-op is in (for some of the game) and there’s plenty of references to Capcom’s gaming giant during the lengthy cutscenes. The game doesn’t strut around with the po-faced priggishness of MGS4, either, so if you grind enough hours into the game (how many I’m not certain – let’s just say lots) you can even play some Monster Hunter themed levels.

It’s still a convoluted medley of world politics between America and Russia, with Kojima’s preachy message about advocating nuclear disarmament occasionally blurred by his desire to express how chuffing awesome it would be to have a fleet of bipedal robots that could shoot nukes. Later into the game, for instance, Snake and his apolitical mercenary band acquire a Metal Gear for themselves with the belief that the only way to deter countries from meddling with their affairs is to acquire their own cache of nuclear missiles.

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Dead Space 2

Martin — Sat, 15 May 2010 18:48:40 +0000

Isaac Clarke was a mute as he reduced alien foes to limbless chunks of blood and mush within the twisty corridor confines of the USG Ishimura in the original Dead Space. In the sequel, though, he’s not afraid to flap his gums. You’d think it would be the opposite, but it’s just more proof (if proof were needed) that Isaac has a stronger constitution than most.

After cracking hundreds in half, he’s also seen fit to grow his own spine. He’s not the errand boy anymore – this, according to developer Visceral Games, was the biggest flaw of the original – and is now taking charge of sorting out the latest undead invasion pickle.

It looks, sounds and feels almost the same as the original. But the familiarity should not breed contempt; Dead Space after all was a splendid action-cum-horror game that was the greatest tragedy in 2008’s flood of underappreciated titles, and the core of the game requires very little tweaking to competently put competing titles to shame.

Continue Reading @ Xbox360Achievements

Undead Knights

Martin — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 14:21:05 +0000

You know this is definitely a Tecmo property when you see the Queen of the game’s kingdom or, more specifically, her giant breasts and revealing dress. Years of unsatisfactory back support have made her insufferably cranky, so she suggests the King order the execution of the game’s three main characters and their entire clan for speaking out against her. Some hocus pocus causes them to be reborn as undead ass-kickers, which is very useful because otherwise Undead Knights would be little more than watching your murdered triumvirate slowly decompose.

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Alan Wake

Martin — Sun, 21 Feb 2010 17:46:00 +0000

“I’m Alan Wake, and I’m a writer” narrates the eponymous protagonist before a sweeping camera shot showcases Bright Falls, roughly thirty minutes before he starts exploding the town’s shadow-covered inhabitants with a combination of torchlight and plenty of bullets. Crikey. In my experience the lifestyle of a writer involves being able to have a nap on command and spending hours every day worrying about whether or not you’ll ever be seeing another paycheck.

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Dante’s Inferno

Martin — Fri, 12 Feb 2010 17:39:00 +0000

Nobody has actually read the whole of Inferno, though many Literature students keep a copy on their shelf to look clever. Dante Alighieri’s fourteenth-century poem opens with Dante, a middle-age man, pondering his existence in a dark wood. Pretty boring. Dante’s Inferno, the 2010 videogame, starts with Dante pulling off a 100-hit combo in Jerusalem, killing Death so he can nick off with his scythe and falling into hell so he can rescue his woman Beatrice. Cha-ching!

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Zombie Shooter 2

Martin — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 10:31:00 +0000

Collate the headshots clicked out in a decade of Counter-Strike alongside the number of Diablo’s minions felled by frenzied depressions, and you’ll end up with a number to put dual-stick controllers to shame. Sigma Team’s Zombie Shooter 2 is determined to exist as the most extravagant example of the venerable work-and-play input device’s clicky-clicky gore-dealing abilities. So hyperbolic is the game’s penchant for guts, limbs and blood spatters that the terrain of most levels is quickly obfuscated by the entrails of popped zombies. Well, some zombies, as the title is both entirely apt and a misnomer: the game is hardly discriminatory in what constitutes its eponymous monsters, instead opting to present all sorts of grimy nasties to disembowel, including dogs, giant fat women and hulking, steely beasts toting enormous rocket launchers, with spikes protruding from their back end.

Continue reading @ Resolution

Assassin’s Creed II

Martin — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 14:00:00 +0000

The first twenty minutes of Assassin’s Creed II, which kicks off from the very moment the previous game finishes, nicely summarises what’s gone on since the credits scrolled: former lab technician Lucy has popped out of her lab jacket and squeezed into something less comfortable, Desmond can finally go through the front door and new Renaissance man Ezio has the personality that Altair sorely lacked. Ubisoft have been mindful of the criticism levied at the first game, but their ultimate goal is clear: to evoke the series’ central concept of using swift, agile parkour skills to nip across glamorous historical architecture, and then jamming pointy objects into the faces of naughty men. That’s what we’ve seen so far, anyway.

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Star Wars: The Clone Wars – Republic Heroes

Martin — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 16:47:00 +0000

The Star Wars franchise is very interested in your wallet, and with the approaching holiday season comes a deep annual scraping of its lucrative barrels. This year’s fare is the lengthily titled Star Wars: The Clone Wars – Republic Heroes, which has Krome Studios translating the poorly-received 3D animated children’s series into a lukewarm 3D action platformer.

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Splinter Cell: Conviction

Martin — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 15:56:00 +0000

Whilst Splinter Cell Conviction’s slick E3 demo featured Sam knee-deep in his vendetta to find out who killed his daughter, the level on show at TGS 2009 has Sam wading through the middle of another problem: EMP bombs scattered around Washington DC. Despite his grumbles, Sam stalks around the terrorist’s run-down building like a natural. Not bad for a man supposedly born in the 1950s. It just goes to show that you can take the man out of his SIGINT ninja suit, but you can’t take the ninja out of the man.

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Army of Two: The 40th Day

Martin — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 12:54:00 +0000

Bringing back Salem and Rios was never going to be easy. It would be like inviting a pair of frat-boys back to a party after they stole your toilet seat and urinated in the punch. It’s hard to imagine the direction EA would take with the sequel, but it was never assumed they were going to try and tone it down. Instead of cruising into their sequel in a party wagon with pounding hangovers, they show up to Army of Two: The 40th Day in casual attire, menacing hockey masks nowhere to be seen, and casually saunter about downtown Shanghai. To report for work, of all things. Which is probably for the best: Salem and Rios were about one fist-bump away from causing serious damage to their hands.