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Review – Tribes Ascend

Tribes Ascend is a skill-based shooter and a true breath of fresh air in an industry saturated with military shooters aimed only at maximizing yearly profits (*cough* Call of Duty). Thank christ there are exceptions! I mean, where else can you find a game with graphics that rivals that of Crysis 2, let alone a free game?
Say hello to Hi-Rez Studios (makers of Global Agenda and Smite), bringing forth with them a free-to-play MMOFPS that holds its own against the best of the AAA set.

If you’re not a mouse and keyboard vet like me, or just suck at FPS games in general, it will be almost impossible to get a decent score in your first few attempts at Tribes Ascend – until you learn and master the skills anyway. That’s probably the biggest drawback to this game; noobs beware… It’s not friendly. In the first few hours of playing, I found myself constantly getting my ass handed to me.
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Review – TERA

No, you’re not imagining things, I did say last month was my last as a full time writer – but honestly, do you really think I would pass up the chance to review TERA? Considering how much I have been looking forward to this title there was no way I was going to let another writer get their grubby mitts on it!

Now while most of our readers will be well aware of TERA, I know that some of you may be wondering what the hell I am on about, and more to the point – why am I so eager to be the one reviewing it?

In its own words, TERA is a ‘True Action Combat MMO’. In real terms, this means that instead of going with the time-tested action bar based combat found in most online games, the developers, Bluehole Studio, have built a more action based system. Read More

Review – The Walking Dead: Episode 1 – A New Day

I should start this review by admitting I’ve never had an interest in episodic, QTE adventure games. But when it comes to a mega franchise like The Walking Dead (zombies, yay!), I couldn’t resist the pull of the genre any longer. I feel confident in saying I’m not the only one who’ll be jumping into new territory to play this game either, such is the pull of The Walking Dead ever since it’s TV debut in 2010.

But if there’s one thing I do know, it’s that developer Telltale Games is a powerhouse of this field, and despite never playing them, the success of their takes on Sam & Max and Monkey Island have resonated throughout the industry. At least my episodic virginity is in safe hands, then.

Episode 1 – A New Day is the first of 5 planned episodic releases, each based on the universe created by Robert Kirkman’s original comics rather than being directly inspired by the popular TV series itself. Not that this represents much of a deviation for those who have only seen the TV show – the earlier episodes are surprisingly faithful to the comics. Read More

Review – MUD: FIM Motocross World Championship

MUD holds three major licences to do with motocross gaming (MX1, MX2 and MxoN), so you would be forgiven for thinking this game is a serious-as-Sam take on the dirt bike racing world. The kind made to appeal to fans more interested in a simulation style motocross game than a high energy arcade style racer. However, Black Bean must have reckoned this would halve their potential player base, so it seems the development team have tried to fall somewhere in the middle. The result is an interesting but ultimately unworkable mixture of Mario Kart style starts with the nitty gritty track deformation of reality.

The game starts by offering you Official Mode, World Tour and Multi-player. Off the bat I choose Official Mode and jumped into a quick race to get my bearings (and to see just how bad I really am.) After deciding which character you want to be, you’re good to go – simple as that.
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Review – Legend of Grimrock

Legend of Grimrock plays very similarly to the Eye of the Beholder and Dungeon Master games, putting a modern twist on the grid based dungeon crawler RPD while still packing it with old school dungeon goodness. Grimrock casts you as four prisoners thrown into an ancient and deadly dungeon. Your only hope is the proclamation that should you survive to escape the hellhole, you would be acquitted of all charges and released to live your life.
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The Cursed Crusade – Review

The Cursed Crusade launches you back to the time of the Fourth Crusade during the early 13^th Century.

It all revolves around co-operative combat, putting an Army of Two style focus on you and your partner battling your way through various stages together while using all manner of weapons, from swords and maces, to axes and spears. The combat is bloody, gory and the finishing moves can be extremely gruesome. Beheadings and impalings, anyone!? Read More

Review – Mythos

It’s hard to start any review of Mythos without at least briefly touching on its development story.

Created back in 2006 by Flagship Studios, Mythos was actually little more than a network testing tool for their other project at the time, HellGate: London.

When they saw Mythos had the potential to become a game in its own right, a team was created to make it happen.

However, shortly after the game reached an open-beta stage, Flagship had to close its doors, meaning ownership of the IP was handed over to Hanbitsoft.

Now, after partnering with top online publishers Frogster, the game is finally finished. Having recently come out of beta, its time to give the game a review and find out if Mythos was worth the long-ass wait.

Mythos is free-to-play MMO set in the world of Uld, where a bunch of once peaceful races are now at war. An alliance based on cooperation was held between the Humans, Gremlins, Satyr & Cyclops, but as always, all it takes is one greedy person to destroy it for everyone. A Human mercenary decided to steal an ancient Cyclops artefact, causing the entire world to lose the plot; normally peaceful animals became feral, attacking anything and everything that moves. This is where you enter the world.
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Review – Starpoint Gemini

It takes a special game to pull off an immersive, sandbox space sim. X3 is arguably the daddy of the genre – a game full of exciting combat, intricate politics and a realistic economy.

At first glance fans of X3 could believe that Starpoint Gemini will satiate their need for more hardcore space action. Sadly, they would be mistaken. Starpoint Gemini may tease greatness on the back of the box and in the trailer, but in actuality the game is a dilute Freelancer, filled to the brim with horrific voice acting, dodgy controls and poor-looking character models. Starpoint may look pretty, but under the hood it’s not got a lot going for it apart from the story.

Like most space sims, you can go through an optional tutorial at the beginning, which consists of a rigid, pasty figure in the top right corner walking you through the menus in a terrible Russian accent. It’s all easy enough and the menus aren’t as complex as many other sims, but if you dare do something you’re not supposed to, like move a bit, you actually fail the tutorial.

That’s right – the hokey Russian kicks you out of freelancer school just for doing a little control experimentation. Either let us use the controls or don’t! Don’t penalize us for trying to figure out how the game works.
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Review – Portal 2

Occasionally, something comes along that completely changes the way we think about games. Sometimes its their gameplay, others its the art-style or the story. In 2007 Valve managed to hit the triple with a little game called Portal. Bundled as a bonus game with the second expansion to Half Life 2 and based on a indie game made by students, nobody could have imagined it would become as popular as it did.

But popular it became & the memes sprang forth. You couldn’t go anywhere online without seeing a reference to the cake or a companion cube. Obviously, this meant a sequel was as inevitable as death by neurotoxin. That sequel is now upon us, so it’s my job to analyse & test that it stands up to the reputation of its predecessor…..for science, naturally.
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Review – The First Templar

Strategy developer Haemimont Games have made the brave move of switching to an action/adventure/RPG hack-fest with their latest release, The First Templar.

Reversing the role from similar-yet-not-quite-ripped-off franchise Assassin’s Creed, The First Templar has you playing, you guessed it: Garfield. Only kidding, you’re a crusader in the olden times when massacring for religion was a jolly pastime, putting you at the forefront as a Knight’s Templar on a quest for the Holy Grail.

Note now that I’m going to try my damnedest to refrain from Monty Python references for the rest of the review.

So it’s the late 13th century and you’re French; what else are you going to do than swan off to find some ancient doohicky? You play as Celian, a young knight who has undertaken this quest but soon finds he is on the cusp of a full-scale conspiracy within the Order of the Knight’s Templar itself. Celian teams up with foxy heretic Marie to unveil the conspiracy and avoid the Inquisition in the process.
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