Game Review: Lord of the Rings: War in the North

 The Lord of the Rings: War in the North was developed by Snowblind Studios and published by WB Games on November 1st 2011 for the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and PC.

An action RPG with a focus on cooperative multiplayer through the untold story of the war in the north on the world of Middle Earth, famous for being the setting for Tolkien's epic Lord of the Rings saga.


How does it play?

Right from the start you are introduced to the events taking place in Middle Earth if you haven't seen the movies or read the books. Your journey will take you through familiar and new areas of the world alongside a group made by Andriel the elf Loremaster, Farin the dwarven Champion and Eradan the human Ranger. Each character plays a bit different with unique looks, weapons, skills and abilities.

 The Heroes.

If you are familiar with other RPGs you will quickly grasp the gameplay behind each character, the Loremaster is your typical mage or sorceress, low on stamina and armor but has powerful spells that can heal friends and damage large number of opponents. The Champion plays like the classic warrior or tank with high armor and melee damage with powerful buffs for friends. Finally, the Ranger plays like an archer or rogue utilizing stealth and long range attacks to fight their enemies.

Through each character's skill tree you can customize their abilities and powers, as an example, the Loremaster can only utilize staves as weapons but, once you spend the required skill points she can also duel wield swords, maces and axes alongside her staff.

The game lends itself to a lot of user customization, not in looks but certainly in how you want to play, there is enough variety and experimentation.

Inventory.

Although you play as 3 original characters you will meet several characters you might have heard of like Gandalf, Elrond, Gimli, Frodo as well as others who you haven't like Elrond's sons Elladan and Elrohir, Radagast the Brown and the great eagle named Beleram . Some are crucial to your journey while others provide information and history about the world and its current conflict.

When approaching NPCs (non playable characters) you will be given choices of dialogue and unlike other RPGs there is no moral ramification to these choices, its all about learning more lore.

 Gandalf is one of the iconic characters you will meet.

 The game is split in 8 chapters with each taking place in 2 or 3 areas as well as a town (to buy, repair and get new quests). There is one main quest per chapter as well as a few side quests which might provide additional rewards. Once you reach the end of a chapter there will be a boss fight.

Your journey will take you around 8 or 10 hours to complete depending on how much you play, it isn't a long or challenging game and its pretty linear with a few detours here and there. Each location you visit has a different look to it as well as the creatures and enemies that inhabit them.

In one area you might fight a group of goblins and in another giant trolls which take several hits to take down. The enemies themselves are not very smart and some just serve as cannon fodder, very few enemies in fact will present a challenge.

These 2 aspects of the game are what bring the experience down, even if the game does provide higher difficulty levels to play through with more loot and harder enemies.

Pesky trolls!

As a hack and slash RPG it is easy to think its all about mashing buttons and while this might be true for the most part the game feels fresh with different combination of abilities and attacks. The game itself tries to mix things up a bit with enemies that require different use of abilities to take down and even throwing some turret (or in this case, giant crossbows) gameplay too.

Finally the coop multiplayer is what the game is designed for and should you purchase the game with the intention of playing it alone please keep this in mind. While the game can easily be played with your AI companions, the experience is so much more rewarding if your playing with human players who can communicate and interact.

How does it look? 

 Before the game was released, I read several comments from people saying the game looked like a Playstation 2 era game, I find these comments to be used quite often for lesser known games or when users believe a game is not good. This game does not look like a Playstation 2 game and in fact I doubt a PS2 could even render it.


The graphics look great, particularly when you look at the armor on your characters its incredibly detailed and well designed.


Some areas do have a lack of polish as well as some animations, but for the most part the game looks the part burrowing heavily from the style set in the movie trilogy.

Also the game sports some great audio with orchestrated music and weapon and spell effects that sound just right. There is a full voiced cast for all the conversation and scenes some characters sound great while others sound bad. None of the actors from the movies reprise their roles here (as far as I know).

Final veredict?

I think its easy to dismiss the game as a typical hack and slash action RPG and therefore nothing worth a look. Its true, it did release a few weeks before this year's massive The Elder's Scroll V: Skyrim which had a lot of player's attention (and money) but me personally, I went with War in the North and you might ask why?

LOTR: War in the North provides something Skyrim does not and that is a cooperative multiplayer experience, which might be short but at the end of the day its enjoyable if you like this genre.

It probably will be lost to other more popular games and its been receiving some pretty harsh criticism but I enjoy it and I think its pretty fun and at the end of the day isn't that what games are about?

Presentation: 4/5 (great character design but some things lack polish)

Gameplay: 4/5 (short and a bit easy, but enjoyable multiplayer)

Fun: 4/5 (some repetitive gameplay)

Final Score: 4/5

Updates and New Game Reviews

My apologise for not updating the blog these past few months, been busy with real life and the gaming world hasn't been interesting until now.

Got my hands on a couple of new games I will be reviewing in the coming weeks.

Thanks for sticking around!

Game Review: Test Drive Unlimited 2

 

 Test Drive Unlimited 2 developed by Eden Games and published by Atari on Febraury 8 2011 for the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and PC.

A massive multiplayer online racing game (MMOR) that puts you in the shoes of a racer driving for fame, wealth and luxurious cars in an open world, set in Ibiza and Hawaii, both recreated as realistically as possible.


How does it play?

There is a basic story to the game, although it isn't its main focus. Your a valet working in Ibiza who dreams of racing in the Solar Crown competition, after some initial test drives you get into the championship with the help of a few people and your journey to become rich and famous begins.

 Character selection.

First you select a pre-defined avatar which will represent you in the game (eventually you can customize his or her look) and after a few initial missions your given free reign over what to do and where to go.

The game has a single player component which you can play at any time, this includes some single specific challenges types like driving someone from point A to B in a set time or driving at a set speed, these challenges reward you with money and are pretty easy to tackle.
Cups and championships are also part of the single player and include a wider variety of races from time trials, long lap races and getting your speed tracked by cameras. Out of all of these the hardest by far are the timed trials, which are very challenging and unforgiving, they require very precise driving skills against defined time.

As an MMOR, the game also includes a wide variety of multiplayer modes which include some of the same ones as single player. These are set up all across the maps and you can join specific ones or let the game find one for you. Once you join a lobby you and the other players get to see each others avatars and cars while waiting to start the match.

 There is a heavy emphasis on community and social play as each player has their own profile they can customize and can also create their own challenges to share with the TDU2 community. However, although this is encouraged very few players I have met online are willing to take part of this aspect of the game as you can issue instant challenges against other players while driving or invite them to drive in your car, barely anyone will accept either.

Speaking of cars, there is a great variety of licensed vehicles raging from British, Italian, Asian and US brands. Im not a car buff so I really don't care about this, but there is a quite the selection to choose from. You can also further customize your car by expanding its capabilities for speed, breaking and handling as well as changing their color or adding decals to the chassis. 

 The map screen.

 TDU2 has a leveling system which splits into different categories for the overall level of 60. The categories split into: Competition (championships, duels), Collection (cars, houses, clothes) Discovery (finding roads, shops and wreck cars), Social (inviting people to drive with you, friends) leveling these up will help you increase your overall level.

You can also create and join Clubs which act as specialized groups of people who can race other clubs, hang out at the clubhouse and take part in challenges, they act as guilds or clans like in other MMOs. The idea of owning property is mostly as a storage for your cars but you can also change furniture (which is limited) and your clothes.

It is a shame however that you can't throw parties or put on music while you hang out at your place, but at least you can invite friends over.

 Player profile.

As an MMO, the game requires hours of commitment in order to do everything, earn all the cars and houses and beat all the challenges and cups as well as exploring Ibiza and Hawaii, which are massive in size. But there is no rush to do everything and you can take your time with each event as you wish.

The game (as many other MMOs) launched with some rough technical issues which caused the servers to be brought down for a few weeks preventing players from using the game's features to their full potential, this was eventually fixed and the game works as intended now.

There is also a Casino you can take part of to have fun with some mini games and win money and cars, but this feature is separate from the game as it is a DLC.

How does it look? 

 The game has a nice look to it when your driving, the cars look great and the avatar models aren't that bad either although their clothing options could have been better, the enviroments get the job done as well but are a bit unpolished sometimes.

 Some buildings have very bland and rough looking textures as well as the models missing certain parts of their structure, this isn't very noticeable but Ive stumbled upon it a few times, it isn't important unless your hunting for them.

 Sadly nothing like this ever happens.

Many of the game's trailers showed a heavy emphasis on the luxurious lifestyle of racing and partying, specially since your introduced to it in the first 10 minutes of the game, but after that initial sequence with the dj and the guests your never going to see something close to this again, which is very disappointing.

TDU2 has 2 radio stations, Harriba Radio and Road Rock, the choice of music tracks is a mixed bag and some of them just don't make sense with the whole look and feel of the game but at least there is some variety for everyone. Your going to hear the same tracks often though so you will probably switch between stations often.

Final veredict?

Ill be sincere, Im not a fan of racing games at all (unless you consider Mario Kart one), but when I saw and read what TDU2 was doing I got interested its certainly about racing but it takes it a few steps further.

Hopefully this will eventually get expanded in future installments but the idea of having an open world where you do more than just race is an interesting one and thats why it caught my attention. 

The game is not perfect by any means and I think some of the reviews at the game's launch were a bit too harsh as the game was not working as planned during that time. Once you get past a few of the issues present today there is a very complete and fun game to play, the possibilities of the game expanding perhaps to include motorcycles or other vehicles is thrilling as well.

If your expecting a hardcore racing game like Grand Turismo this isn't the game for you, it has a more arcade feel to it, the difficulty can jump from extremely easy to absurdly hard. But I do recommend this game if your interesting in the concept of the whole game, it certainly did for me.

Presentation: 4/5

Gameplay: 4/5

Final Score: 4/5

Game Review: Majin and the Forsaken Kingdom

 Majin and the Forsaken Kingdom released on November 23 2010, developed by Game Republic and published by Namco Bandai Games for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. 

  The game is set in a fantasy world where Tapeu (the hero) befriends Teotl (the Majin) to rescue a lost kingdom from an ancient evil which is spreading across the world. Your journey will take you through several different locations of the kingdom, from forest ruins to a crystallized town. Along the way you will fight enemies both large and small requiring good use of the Majin's power to effectively beat your opponents.

Tapeu (left) and Teotl (right) the protagonists of the story.

 The story isn't very unique but it does have some nice twists that make it interesting, sometimes its not delivered very well however. As an example, during a boss battle, the boss will narrate how the "new" kingdom was built over the ruins of the old one and suffers from no disease or poverty. The boss asks the question whether you are the real enemy, this kind of moral dilemma isn't explored sadly but it was refreshing to hear.

How does it play?

  Majin and the Forsaken Kingdom is an action-adventure game that utilizes gameplay mechanics similar to the Zelda and Metroid franchises. The game has an interconnected map that you can explore at will, however, certain areas or items won't be available to you until you gain the required power or item to advance further so be prepared to backtrack a lot. Luckily, this is made easier with a fast travel room which lets you warp to the 4 main locations of the map, this however is accessed only after you've beaten each area's boss.

 Right from the beginning of the game, you will notice a very close relationship between your character and the Majin, this relationship is a key aspect of the game and both characters complement each other in several ways.

  As an example, Tapeu can attack enemies but his strength is rather weak and it will take several hits to bring down enemies, particularly later in the game. Enemies are not killed when Tapeu beats them, the Majin needs to be close to absorb their souls and kill them for good. You can command the Majin to help you in battle, his powers deal more damage and he can take more punishment than you, he is however very slow and can be swarmed by smaller and faster enemies quickly.

 Using and combining the Majin's powers will help you dispatch of enemies more effectively.

 Although the game isn't too deep about customization, there are several items you can collect to increase the Majin's powers or enhance several stats for Tapeu through items of clothing.

The journey will take around 15 or 20 hours to complete depending on how much you play, its taken me around a month to complete the game and I still have some items to pick up as there are plenty to collect.

 One of my problems with the game is that its not that difficult, the puzzles are pretty easy to figure out. Some of them might force you to think a bit more but overall their not that deep. 

 The combat isn't very complex either, battles are more about utilizing the Majin's abilities effectively rather than figuring out attack patterns, its not boring however and once you know how to defeat your opponents it will be more fun and faster to deal with.

 

The game sports some colorful and varied visuals.

How does it look?

 The game has a particular fantasy look that shares some artistic aspects with games like Zelda and Shadow of the Colossus, the graphics aren't particularly that great but they get the job done. There are night and day cycles as well as rain. 

 The world and characters look good and the environments are nice and varied, although I couldn't shake the feeling that throughout the whole game I felt I was playing through an underground maze rather than an open world.

 Sound on the other hand can be a mixed bag, while there are some nice music tracks they are often recycled through the game which makes them a bit repetitive. Voice acting could have been a lot better as well, while I don't have a problem with it, the voices themselves don't feel too convincing at times, particularly the Majin's, there isn't much dialogue or conversations as other games though, so it shouldn't be an obstacle.

 One thing I noticed is that the game burrows some name ideas from Aztec and Mayan civilizations names like Teotl, Ixtab or Tlaloc seem to resemble names from those cultures.

 

Feeding the Majin with different fruits will allow him to get stronger or gain new abilities.

 Final verdict?

 To be honest the game itself might not feel unique if you have played games like Zelda or Metroid, but lets consider something for a moment, how often do you see these types of games nowadays? there are very few and thats why I recommend this game to adventure and puzzle fans.

 Throughout my play through I noticed no game breaking or technical issues, only once was I forced to relaunch the game as the Majin seemed to got stuck on a wall after a battle and wouldn't move, so keep in mind this game has no checkpoint or auto save feature, be ready to save constantly.

  Majin and the Forsaken Kingdom might not be on equal level of quality as the games it burrows ideas from, but despite being a budget title it is money and time well spent if your looking for a fun and different kind of experience in today's gaming world.

Gameplay: 4/5
Presentation: 3/5
Final Score: 4/5

Girls at War : Women in Video Games

When it comes to games these days, there is one undeniable rule as far as female characters are concerned, either their included as eye candy or their not included at all, at least thats what most games seem to follow.

 However, we can't deny how long we've come from saving the princess in Super Mario to having female heroines like Lara Croft or Chell from Portal, but we still have miles to go nonetheless.

 Chell from Valve's Portal.

One of the first action heroines in games was Samus from Metroid, although her true identity wasn't revealed until the end of the game which surprised a lot of people back in the 80s. She became an important icon of video games and she is still as cool as she was decades ago.

 But what separated Samus from other female characters is that, although she was revealed in a "sexy" outfit at the end of the Metroid games, she was still wearing a big and powerful suit of armor giving her powers beyond human level and yet still being something other than eye candy.

 What gamers were "rewarded" with at the end of Metroid for the NES.

As video games began to grow up and its users along with them, the demands of gamers began to change. In the 90s a lot of the kids from the 80s were entering their teen years and this was eventually used by having female characters that exploited that demographic.

Lara Croft is an icon from that era, a voluptuous heroine that hunted for treasure and rare items across the world, a female Indiana Jones if you like. Still, she was eventually used as eye candy to promote the eventual sequels of games up until recent years. Its not that the games utilized her female body to sell the games because they were good, but it did create an image of women that for some reason still lingers around today.

 There were other female characters in the 90s that also followed the idea of eye candy, fighting games were clearly one of them in series like Street Fighter, Mortal Kombat, Tekken and so on.

Female fighters from Mortal Kombat.

 When we were fast approaching the 2000s, it seems that there was another shift in how women were portrayed in games, which I still tie to the gamers who played them. During this decade, we saw women starting to be portrayed with a little more respect and not just eye candy.

 Some female characters like Alyx Vance from Half Life 2 or Violet Summer from Velvet Assassin, were women that starred in games that wanted to portray authentic female heroines, eye candy wasn't good enough to gamers now as their demographic had aged as well and demanded more.

Violet Summer from Velvet Assassin, a fictional character based on real life WW2 heroine Violette Szabo.

 There are still a lot of lingering trends in games regarding women like I mentioned above, their still added for the most part as eye candy and very few games actually care for a respectful and honest portrayal.

Mass Effect from BioWare is an excellent sci-fi RPG that allows the player to choose the gender of the main character, who nonetheless behaves very "manly" through the game itself. Here, the player is allowed to flirt and eventually romance other characters depending on their gender, but a lot of the women portrayed in the game serve as eye candy, particularly Miranda Lawson an interesting character herself but still used in the same old ways.

Proper and respectful use of female characters in Mass Effect 2.

What seems to be interesting is that now women also play games and their an untapped demographic that developers could take advantage off. The percentage of women who play games is still not as big as that of men, but it is a bigger number than previous generations.

As a gamer myself, its not that I cringe when I see female characters as eye candy, but it does bother me that this is the norm still and their inclusion in games, particularly those of the action or shooter kind is mostly avoided. Is it because of authenticity? or scared to cause unwanted attention? or is it simply that we haven't reached a point where it doesn't matter whats between the legs of our heroes but what they do and stand for?

 Anya Stroud, formerly a communications officer in Gears of War now suits for battle in part 3.

I applaud developers who want to do justice to female characters in games and I encourage them to continue to do so. Epic games finally decided to include women as combatants in their next installment of Gears of War, after a lot of requests from fans through the years.

There is some big potential to create female characters and heroines to be "cool" just as male characters are, it has been hit or miss through the years, but it seems were reaching that point, hopefully the male demographic understands and accepts that playing a woman is not "girly" or "weak" but a different way of seeing and experiencing games, their worlds, stories and characters.

Good or Evil?

 For years we have been in the boots of heroes and heroines, helped the poor rebels fight against the oppressive empire or destroy an ancient evil hungry for power and control.

 But how many games do we get the chance to play as an evil character? I really can't remember the last game I saw or played that let you play as "evil".

 And this is why I'm making this post, in games, movies or books, a great majority of times we see good and evil personified pretty easily from the onset of a story, this is the bad guy because he wanted power this is the good guy because he fights for the people.

  Wouldn't it be interesting to have a game where you play a neutral character? or perhaps 2 characters who begin as neutral and depending on your actions they end up being good or evil, but your perception of their moral standing depends on you not a heavily scripted and restricted story.

 In the real world, no one is born being "evil" or "good", these people who end up being frowned upon by society because they did X or Y is most of the times due to what happen to them before.

Perhaps someone was brought up in a family that beat them up, or maybe they suffered an accident that completely changed their perception of life so now they try to do what they think is better.

Why are Batman's foes so successful as villains? most of the time its not because of what they do, but what they are. They are characters that even though oppose what Batman fights for (justice and order) they are as troubled and confused as he is, they are victims of their life experiences and that makes them what they are, they weren't born to do evil just as Batman wasn't born to fight against it.

 My problem with games like Mass Effect, Dragon Age or Fable is not that their not done well, because they are, my problem is that no matter what you do in each of them you will always have similar results. If your good you save the world if your evil people die, why can't I have a game where I can do either without the moral implications developers put on us.

 Maybe it wouldn't be a marketable or profitable game, I mean, would anyone out there like to play as Hitler? I don't think so, but would it be interesting to see their life and how it was shaped up before they became the "good" or "evil" characters in a game? Im pretty sure a lot of people would love to see that.

If there is one thing that I hate about story driven games is this exact problem, the boundries developers force on people with their moral compass. Im pretty sure you wouldn't think your character is evil because you experienced their life situations leading up to the end, but to someone else it could be the exact opposite and that is what I think would make for a very personal and compelling experience.

 What do you think?

Have You Seen Me?

This is an add campaign to bring awarness of the Gears of War character, Alex Brand, in the hopes that she gets included in the third installment of the series.