Moving to youtube

I've started up a youtube channel, I will probably end up updating this blog more because I can just post the transcripts for videos for people that would rather read. the youtube channel can be found at https://www.youtube.com/user/EntryNodeVideo/videos?view=0&flow=grid

An Open Letter To EA™

Dear EA™

It's quite clear that your DRM doesn't work, most games are cracked in days by scene groups, and playing SimCity™ offline is becoming possible. Constricting the consumer is a noble cause and I appreciate your efforts, however I feel that you are perhaps being a little soft, so here's my proposal to you. Every new game should come with a fingerprint scanner and DNA test. This may seem peculiar but trust me, it works. Using this patented method we can make sure that only customers that register their fingerprints and genome may play the latest EA™ titles. You can ban dirty trolls from origin genetically and permaban anyone even related to them darn dirty pirates!

Perfect DRM like this will cost, but think of all the money you could make from threatening to ban people who refuse the latest map packs or dare unsubscribe from the next stellar EA™ MMO. Customers will flock to your products when they hear that you finally abolished piracy and lead the industry into a new golden age, even valve will be begging for you to buy them out. Secure the future of videogames, adopt DNA today!

Best Wishes
Bobby Kotick

Hotline Miami Review - Worth the Buzz?

Seemingly from nowhere Hotline Miami was released on steam, causing a major buzz online, is this buzz justified? Let's find out. Hotline Miami takes on the top-down shooter genre in a way that I don't think has ever been done before, it's fast, brutal and pulls no punches, with one hit kills and one hit deaths. You will die a lot.

The gameplay mainly consists of dashing around a 2D plane turning everything in your path into bloodied piles of meat using both melee weapons and guns. You can only carry one weapon at a time and bullets only have a single clip of ammo in them, making for some fun scenarios that force you to think about what you are going to do next using the relatively small amount of abilities you are given. It's frantic, gratuitous and yet still manageable. Masks also play a large part in the gameplay, in most missions you get to choose a mask which gives you abilities, these masks can be unlocked through high scores or being found in levels and really add to the replay value of the game. The difficulty is pretty brutal, with one hit kills being dished out for mistakes however it is never completely unfair to the player it just forces the player to improve to beat the game, which personally I see as a good thing. However there is a forced stealth segment which really should have been scrapped in my opinion

Whilst all this is going on an electronic soundtrack is pumping in the background, it really compliments  the fast paced gameplay well and help to "pump" the player. In my opinion one of the best soundtracks to a game I've heard in a while.

The story elements are very interesting. The game is set in an alternate 1989 where you receive cryptic answerphone messages giving details of who to eviscerate next and where. The story also has some very surrealist elements that I would rather not spoil in this review. Overall the story builds and builds until about 3/4 of the way through where it falls flat on its face, crawls around on the ground a bit and then fades out with a whimper instead of a bang leaving me thoroughly disappointed, and honestly I think it devalues the entire buildup.

The visual style is fairly unique for a modern game, the colours are vibrant and it all has a very distinct style, which I really quite like. It's all very psychedelic and colourful, and even the main menu hes a very unique 80s look 

Overall I think that this game is well worth the purchase even with some of its flaws, it's probably one of the best indie games I've played in along time, and a good contender for my personal game of the year, however its very buggy nature and story failures really do detract from the overall experience.

Dishonored Review

Dishonored is a stealth-action hybrid from Arkane Studios, the studio behind Dark Messiah of Magic and Might, another stealth-action hybrid. The inspiration from Dark Messiah is very apparent in Dishonored both in the stealth and the action segments, most notably in the sword combat.

You play as Corvo, bodyguard to the empress of the city of Dunwall who sadly gets assassinated and her daughter kidnapped, the blame is put onto you, naturally. You then embark upon a quest for revenge against the men who did this for power. Admittedly a lot of the main characters are relatively weak and not much characterization takes place but there is some wonderful plot twists

The city of Dunwall itself is a very interesting location, the city is very industrialized and looks to be based off of late Victorian England in some sort of alternate universe industrial revolution where great minds have harnessed the power of whale oil and created amazing Tesla-like technologies. A plague is currently ravaging the city and a large portion of the population has been killed or infected forcing the somewhat dystopic rule to to kill and dump the infected. Its a cheery setting isn't it. But this really sets the tone and story for the rest of the experience, although a lot of it does depend on your choices.

Dishonored has a very interesting moral choice system in the sense that it doesn't just say "here's a good option on this side and a bad option on this side pick ok thanks now your face has more scars" Instead you are generally given a lethal and non lethal option in missions but that's not the only thing that affects potential outcomes. Your general approach to the mission also factors in, with more kills increasing your chaos level and actually affecting the city around you. Other characters also respond to what you do and how you do it, but I won't say how because that would lessen the impact of it, and some of it can really affect you as a character and a player. The game often makes you question yourself and your actions, but revealing how would just be pure spoilers.

The gameplay itself offers much variety, the game caters well to both stealth and combat gameplay, both styles are viable options for completing the game and very satisfying to play as, grizzly stealth kills and combat executions are plentiful in this game. You can dual wield your blade and something else like a grenade or a power. A lot of variety comes from the powers system. There's a variety of powers available but none of them are useless which is surprising given how many games have terrible balancing in systems like these. The powers themselves are quite diverse, ranging from teleportation to time bending to summoning swarms of rats and more. The combining of these powers can lead to some very creative ways to kill, sneak and distract, upon mastering these abilities and learning to use them fluidly the game really conveys the feeling of being a highly efficient badass very well as all the powers blend very well into each other in the heat of the moment.

Visually the game is very stylized and I really like that, you can tell what kind of character they are merely by the shape of their head, the only problem I have with the style is that all of the female characters look exactly the same apart from their clothing. The style of the city and technologies within it is very reminiscent of half life 2 with the oppressive architecture.   From a technical stand point the game is about what you would expect for a game at this point in time, very pretty but nothing special

Overall I think that this game is a solid contender for GOTY, it's very immersive and the variety of playstyles it supports combined with the multiple endings means that I'm going to be spending a lot of time with this game over the next few weeks very much worth the purchase

XCOM Enemy Unknown Review - A Simplistic Take on a Complex Genre

I've been a fan of the turn based tactics genre for a while now, I've spent many hours on the Jagged Alliance games, WH40K Squad Command and Silent Storm But never actually played the original XCOM games so with this new reboot I decided it might be time to finally enter into the franchise.

The recent reboot of Jagged Alliance had me skeptical of another one in the genre and to be honest, the gameplay itself is very disappointing.  All actions on the battlefield are handled very simply, you can move twice, move and do something, or just do something. That's it. You're limited to 2 actions maximum per character per turn. An AP usage system is a standard convention in this genre and with good reason, it gives the player more strategic choices to make, which really should be the case in a game that's supposed to be about making tactical decisions.

Another feature that serves to limit your tactical options is the shoehorned class system. Troops Fit into 4 different class archetypes, Assault, Sniper, Support and Heavy, these are completely randomly assigned and you have zero control over them also these classes cannot use weapons that are specialized for one class, for example only the heavy is able to use rockets, so even if i really wanted to give my sniper a rocket launcher I couldn't, but don't worry, it's not like this game has an inventory system anyway and everyone has infinite ammo. However they do have a leveling tree which grants them different perks on leveling up, generally either offensive or defensive which can mean an ability or just a passive trait for the soldier, this system does help with specialization of soldiers and potential tactics but there is only three stats to level up for the soldiers, which is ridiculous considering how many other games in this genre have for you to play with.

What really, really bothers me about this game though is the cover system. There are two types of cover, half cover (chest high) and full cover (full height) with their respective defensive values, doesn't seem so bad right? Well, instead of stopping projectiles all cover does is decrease the hit percentage of the enemy, provided of course that the enemy is on the other side of the cover to you. From what I've seen even if the environment is in the way shots can still go straight through concrete and hit you if you just happen to be facing a different direction, presumably this system is used so that they don't have to do any projectile ballistics calculations, but it comes off as being lazy. This kind of percentage hit system means that it's also impossible to free aim, attempt to get a kill where you suspect an enemy is, or spray into a crowd and hope to hit someone you weren't even aiming at. Once more this all very much detracts from the tactical options given to you by the game, options which in my opinion are very important to a game like this for replay value, and general longevity.

All these reductions do not mean that the game is completely casualized though, the difficulty at times can be very punishing, there is a fair amount of resource management, the research system is well implemented and the base building elements add a very slight amount of depth. In fact sometimes these reductions can reduce some of the tedium that's quite common in turn based strategy games however I still think it detracts from the overall experience.

The story is fairly simple, aliens have invaded earth and its up to you, the leader of XCOM, to repel the extra terrestrial invaders. That's about it really there's a few interesting plot points but nothing too groundbreaking to be perfectly honest. Admittedly it does work well as a driving force for your actions throughout the game.

The graphics of this game are heavily stylised and cartoonish which is a refreshing change from all the grimdark brown and bloom games that appear to have overtaken the mainstream market, it actually works surprisingly well. From a technical standpoint the game is about what you'd expect at this point in time, pretty to look at but nothing major.

The enemy designs are a really refreshing change from current trends, there is a really good variety of shapes and sizes for you to kill, ranging from generic little gray men to half cyborg monstrosities and even more (but that would be spoilerific)

Overall XCOM enemy unknown is not a bad game, its just one with a lot of missed potential, I'm still planning on sinking some time into this title but it doesn't offer the same replayability and versatility of other similar games which is really quite dissapointing

NEO Scavenger preview

I have recently had the pleasure of being able to play the indie game NEO Scavenger. Set in a post-apocalyptic earth where some sort of global disaster has plunged the world back into the dark ages, ruined cities litter the landscape, horrific monsters roam the surface and the remaining humans live as nomadic bandits or cling together in urban fortresses. The game has a permadeath system, meaning that if you die your saves get instantly deleted, and with the unrelenting difficulty of this survival simulator that's going to happen quite a lot.

First Impressions Count

"You wake up disoriented, slumped over the base of an empty cryosleep pod, still damp from cryo fluid. The thick dust from the floor clings to your skin, leaving a clean spot on the ground, where a large 05 is painted.

Across the room, there is an open door to the hallway, and a broken window leading outside.

Just as you gather your wits, an unearthly scream erupts from down the hall beyond the doorway. Something is coming. Fast"

The game then gives you a choice to make, based on the traits you select in character creation. Do I dive out of the window? Should I hide in the corner? Or is attempting to fight off whatever is approaching the best idea? This introduction to the game really reflects the choices given throughout the rest of that game, but more on that later.

The Big Wide World

The world in NEO Scavenger is what you would expect from a post apocalypse, ruined cities, destroyed towns and natural growths cover the landscape. The world map is handled in hexes much like civilization 5, and movement and actions are turn based. For every playthrough the world is randomly generated, assuring a fresh experience every time you die. which will be often. There are many locations that can be scavenged for items, of course items are not the only thing you could stumble across, you can choose to scavenge in a number of ways, for example using your strength, hiding skills or a crowbar, these choices affect your looting, safety, and stealth levels, meaning that if you decided to strength loot somewhere with a crowbar more than likely someone will hear you and attack.

Fisticuffs

This brings us neatly on to the combat segments of the game. Combat works very much like a roguelike, you pick an option from a number of choices, the game calculates what damage you did to where, and on the surface it seems very simple. In fact the combat manages to be very dynamic, there is a large number of combat options but not all of them are available at any one time and there is a numerical distance system, stealth system, and stance system worked in too. You can even threaten enemies with your weapon to scare them off! However like a lot of roguelikes battles can leave you with long lasting wounds, which means that every battle is a hard choice to make, is this guy worth the loot? or should I run away and hide in the woods? This game offers choice at every turn, and its stuff that actually matters gameplay wise. Just winning the fight isn't the end of it though.

Patch Me Up, Doc

NEO scavenger boasts a rather in depth wound system in comparison to most other games, limbs can be crippled, wounds must be bandaged and the amount of pain the character is in actually affects the actions they can take. If a wound is not treated properly infections can occur, which require you to find antibiotics and hope for the best, to avoid this a clean rag is required, which is hard to come by in the post apocalypse. Due to the long term ramifications of wounds, a lot of thought has to go into everything potentially risky in the game, even in scavenging a building floors can collapse and give you a nasty cut that could end up being the death of you. Your character also has needs that need to be tended to, a sleepy overburdened thirsty survivor is hardly going to last long out in the wilderness.

Items, A Survivors Best Friend

Naturally a game like this has a lot of items, and being in a beta state even more are to come. The inventory in NEO Scavenger is handled very realistically, with backpacks being used to contain a finite number of items arranged into a grid, items can be rotated to optimize space usage, similar to games like Resident Evil 4. Items of clothing have item slots in them too, like pockets in hoodies or jeans. small plastic bags can also be found which adds believably to the game world. There is also a crafting system which adds to the survival elements of the game, meaning that you don't always have to scavenge everything you need and can just instead make do with what you have

And Of Course, The Graphics

The graphics are a pretty standard affair for an indie game, high quality pixel art is the name of the game here. The pixel art for characters is what you wold expect, however occasionally events happen that have their own special pixelart, which is honestly astounding. From a distance these scenes can look like photographs, but on closer examination you can clearly see that a lot of work has gone into them, take this for example:

Its a very high quality rendering, and really helps drive the imagination of the player.

You can check out NEO scavenger for yourself at Hereand back the steam greenlight at Here. I would really recommend that you check this game out, its very good and from a clearly passionate developer.

Core Online - full HD browser based games?

Square Enix recently launched a new service named "Core Online" with the promise of full HD games in your web browser for free, seems too good to be true right? Suprisingly enough they managed to deliver, unlike the similar service Onlive the game itself is rendered on the local PC with all the required data being downloaded between levels, this means that if you can cope with a long load screen you don't need a super high speed connection like with Onlive, and that there will be no problems with input lag. This of course does have its drawbacks, because your PC is rendering it you have to have a fairly good PC to be able to run some games, which begs the question of who is this service intended for? Presumably for network optimization purposes all of the important graphics options are unavailable for tweaking which means that low end PCs will not be able to run the games very well if it all, and if you have a meaty PC more than likely you can just buy the games and download them, instead of in the browser for free.

Currently the only games it has are "Hitman: blood Money" and "Mini Ninjas" with more to come in the future. They manage to keep these free by having the player watch adverts to "earn" game time the game time earned is based on the length of the advert, with roughly one minute advert time being 20 minutes gaming time or you can purchase the game or levels and remove ads. The ratio seems intentionally non intrusive which I quite like, I'm not sure how this kind of approach could potentially affect the future of gaming, in its current state its a harmless alternative to purchasing games, but its definitely one to watch out for.

Check it out at http://beta.coreonline.com/ .Personally i'll just stick to the old fashioned way