When Batman Arkham Asylum came out in 2009, it blew me away. Admittedly I had very low hopes for the game. The fact that it fulfilled every bat-fuelled fantasy I had as a kid made it one of the best games I have ever played period. However, when details about the sequel started to leak out, I began to get a tad worried. Sure developers Rocksteady had delivered with style, but it seemed that they might be overdoing things with Arkham City. Open world design with side quests? Thats the exact opposite of what Arkham asylum was.

Well, looks like Rocksteady have this Batman thing down pat.  If you happen to be the sort that does not like long worded reviews, let me save you some time. Arkham City is the best super hero game out there.

It seems the developers really listened to all the complaints I had from the first game. They not only corrected them all (with one major exception) but also took everything I liked about Asylum and cranked the awesome factor by ten. The unreal engine has been reused but tweaked enough to give the game a bit more color. Mind you, Gotham never needed it; this is a city that’s never been the colorful type. Not much has changed in terms of presentation but where Asylum had very restricted level design; Arkham City is a different beast all together. After the tightly scripted opening, which was a surprising twist to begin with, the game lets you decide where to go and how to get there. But before I get to that, let me vaguely lay out the plot. Do not worry, there are no spoilers here.

The game begins with Gotham city’s mayor Quincy Sharp, cordoning a section of the city using some pretty deft political tricks. This section, called “Arkham City” has been presented as a solution to Arkham Asylum. All criminals are essentially let loose in this area and stripped of all rights. No one except a private security firm (Tyger) is allowed in or out. It does not take a Batman level detective to figure out that this is a really, really bad idea. Long story short, things start going to hell, it becomes apparent that someone called Dr Hugo Strange is manipulating Sharp but no one knows why or for what. To make things even more complicated, Strange knows Batman’s secret, i.e., he is Bruce Wayne.

The story plays out across different sections of the city which means the player will spend a lot of time going from point A to point B looking for clues and hunting down leads. It a good thing then, that travel is one of the highlights of the game. The grapple gun makes a return, as does gliding, but they have both been given an upgrade. Given the large distances, Batman can now “dive bomb” while gliding to build momentum before spreading his cape and taking off again. It’s a brilliant mechanic and do not be surprised if you spend the first few minutes just shuttling form one place to another just for the heck of it. The grapple can be used as before and if you are feeling lazy, there’s always a low flying Tyger helicopter around to hitch a ride on (as long as they don’t see you).

From the get go, it’s obvious that the game allows for a lot of freedom. This is not really as free form as GTA or Oblivion, Batman can’t break down every door and enter every building for example. He can however, decide to snoop on some suspicious characters and gather some intel before heading out to see the Penguin. Or he could beat it out of them. Or he could pick up a ringing payphone and be lead on a psychopath’s version of “Simon says”. Personally, I am glad that this isn’t a true free world experience. To me, it makes zero sense for Batman to enter abandoned apartments and rummage through drawers to find “loot”.

It does however; make sense for him to look for clues and forensic evidence using “detective view”. Unlike Asylum, where this was overpowered, in Arkham City, it is just about adequate. As a result, I did not find myself using it as the default view. You will use it frequently for sure and if anything, it drives home the fact that above all, Batman is a detective. It’s a subtle thing, but goes to show how well Rocksteady “gets” the character.

But the real star here is the combat. Asylum had nailed the combat to feel very “Batmanish”. Every move executed felt like something out of a comic. It was brutal, free flowing and blow your socks off awesome.

And it does not hold a candle to what Arkham City has to offer.

I won’t waste time by using fancy words here. The combat in Arkham city is the best I have seen in any third person action game. It is almost like Rocksteady used some techno magic to plug directly into my cerebral cortex and find out what it takes to make me feel like Batman. One can get through most fights with using a handful of basic moves but once you master the range of special moves and gadgets at your disposal, every battle transforms from a brawl to a carefully executed ballet of badassery. It’s the sort of thing that’s an absolute joy to play and just as fun to watch someone else play. Seriously, who ever came up with the combat system deserves a raise. One caveat though, to really get the most out of it, you are going to need either a gamepad or multi button mouse (I used the Razer Naga for my play through). Using a standard keyboard is fine and will more than suffice for getting through the game but some of the harder combos will need some pretty nifty finger yoga.

Strangely enough, in spite of everything that Batman has going for him, he is still extremely vulnerable. Regardless of all the ninja moves and techno gadgetry at his disposal, the game constantly reminds you that this is still a normal human being in a bat-suit. In many ways, this is definitely a harder game than Asylum. The number of bad guys is larger, there are more weapons in their hands and charging into the middle of a gun totting mob is suicide. That’s the beauty of it, it’s one thing to swoop down in the midst of a dozen unarmed goons and utterly destroy them, but give one of them a shotgun and it’s a completely different game. Attacks will have to be planned carefully and executed with precision. Again, very Batman. Just like in the first game, there is a “challenge mode” available outside of the campaign. Apart from giving some solid replay value, it can also let you hone your combat skills.

Another enticing extra is the option of playing as Catwoman. Though the main campaign is centered on Batman, there are bits where the player will take control of Selina “Catwoman” Kyle. Here, the play style switches a bit. Selina’s moves are more restricted than Bruce’s and she only has a handful of gadgets at her disposal. But what she lacks in physical strength, she makes up for with speed. And really, really bad puns. Expect some eye roll moments when she starts to speak. This is the only part where the writing felt weak. Thankfully, this does not happen often and even when it does, it is short lived. You can however, continue to play as Catwoman once the main story is finished. If nothing else, it’s a nice change of pace.

Sound production is of very high quality across the board. The voice work is spot on. Mark Hamill and Kevin Conroy make repeat appearances as the voices of Joker and Batman respectively and I really liked Nolan North’s cockney twist on the Penguin. The music is suitably broody and once again, is very reminiscent of the movie “Dark Knight”. All epic wins in my book.

One thing that I faulted Asylum for was the terrible boss battles. Well ok, maybe terrible is too strong a word. “Unimaginative” would be more apt. That complaint has been addressed in Arkham City. Though I hasten to add here, people seem to be divided on this. Quite a few players still hate them. For what it’s worth, I certainly felt they were well executed. They are still not perfect but I enjoyed them nonetheless. The Mr Freeze battle in particular, is fantastic. In fact, I’d go as far as to say that its one of the highlights of the game.

This does bring me to one complaint that I do have. In their effort to give players more of everything, the devs might have overshot a little with the villains. Batman’s rouges gallery is the most interesting one in the world of comics by far. I have heard more than one case of how the reason Batman is so awesome is because of the kind of people he faces off against. Regardless of whether that is true or not, it does take time to develop a character within any story. This is particularly challenging when the medium used to tell that story is an interactive one like video games. I won’t give out a list here for fear of spoiling anything but suffice to say there are a few villains that make an appearance just for the heck of it. There is no good reason for them to exist within this particular story except to satiate fanboys like me. It is a small thing and ultimately does not affect gameplay in any way at all but does make the overall story seem just a tad rushed in places.

The second issue I have with the game, and this one really pisses me off, is how messed up the save system is. Just like Asylum, there is just one save slot that the game automatically saves to, ie, there is one master save file that gets constantly overwritten automatically. If ANYTHING goes wrong with it, you are pretty much boned and have to start all over again. The same applies if you want to go back to specific point and replay it. The only option is to start a new game from scratch. This is just unacceptable. Especially when you consider that the game is integrated with Games for windows live (GFWL), ie, the most hideous and broken thing to exist on the platform. It essentially makes it impossible for save games to be transferred between systems. So if you plan on playing across 2 systems or are in the midst of an OS/HDD upgrade, forget it.

Overall however, Arkham City is a damn near perfect game. Its a title created by and for Batman fans and it clearly shows. The story is excellent and well written, the combat is fantastic and it really does make you feel like Batman. If there is any higher praise, I can’t think of it. Now if you will excuse me, there’s a certain clown that has a date with my fist.

FINAL SCORE: 9.3/10

Ninjas.

I’m just going to let that word hang for moment. As a kid… alright dammit I admit, even as an adult, I can’t think of anything cooler. Except maybe cyber ninjas. But I digress. Total War: Shogun 2, makes it possible to recruit and command an ARMY of ninjas. That’s like, a whole army of nothing but pure awesomeness. This was one of the first goals I had going into the game. It took a while, but I finally had me an army of nothing but “shadow hugging-smoke bomb throwing- stab you in the face and disappear” dudes. Snickering with glee, I watched as an enemy force of mixed, cheaper and technically inferior (albeit numerically superior) troops wandered right into the path of my death dealers. With a mouse click, I unleashed hell.

And had my ass handed to me.

Let’s recap shall we? The Total War franchise has been a favorite of mine ever since the first Shogun came crashing into the RTS scene way back in 2000. With its mix of turn based grand strategy coupled with real time battles that allowed players to control massive armies in a glorious spectacle of virtual carnage, it quickly wowed the gaming community. Over time, developers Creative Assembly have taken the series from strength to strength. The historical settings have changed of course; Total War fans have waged wars across the Roman Empire, medieval Europe, colonial Americas and rubbed shoulders with Napoleon. For its latest release, Creative Assembly has come full circle to their roots and brings the messy era of 16^th century Japan back to glorious life. Its a bloody chapter in Japanese history, rife with political intrigue, religious unrest, bloody wars and yes, ninjas.

If you have never played any game in the series before because, you know, that rock you were living under was too hard to move, here’s the skinny:

Every total war title is essentially two games rolled into one. The first part is akin to the popular board game “Risk” where players look upon the entire map that covered all regions of the “world” available in the campaign. This is the grand strategy bit. Special emphasis on “grand”. The sheer number of things that go into one single turn can be mind boggling but extremely satisfying.

The second part is all about real time battles. This is where players get to command their armies/navies in massive areas or engage in siege warfare. Total War battles have always been visually spectacular with hundreds of units going at each other at once. The action here is hectic and will tax a players tactical prowess.

As far as presentation goes, visual fidelity has always been one of the franchise’s strong points. With Shogun 2, the devs have upped the ante. To be honest, there is nothing in the strategy genre, real time or otherwise, that comes even remotely close to this. The game is stunningly beautiful. Everything from the loading screen, to the tactical maps, right down to the level of detail on a single soldier’s armor is rendered exquisitely. Shogun 2 has an artistic style that permeates through every aspect of the game. Even the heavily Japanese accented English spoken by the advisers add to the atmosphere. Every battle commanded by a general starts with a rousing speech (another staple of the series). Only in this case, the speech is not translated from its original Japanese. It is subtitled of course, but the force of your katana wielding badass’s words comes through without losing anything in translation. The music only adds to this. The title score in particular, is one of my favorites. No doubt about it, with respect to presentation, there is now a new benchmark for strategy titles everywhere.  Expect your system to get a good workout.

In terms of game mechanics, not much has changed. Just like the older games, the overall goal here is to occupy key cities and control enough territory to secure your position as supreme leader (Shogun in this case). This is nothing like the usual “build your base, raise an army and rush em” strategy that most RTS games are like. If anything, it’s very similar to the “Civilization” series. Anyone with even a passing interest in turn based strategy will feel right at home here. It brings home the fact that managing an empire of any sort in real life must have been a logistical nightmare.

The sheer amount of information the game hits you with can be overwhelming at first but a little patience will go a long way. I daresay games like this cater well to a certain type of gamer, i.e., the one that likes to take his/her time. The ability to see things a few turns in advance is easy at first with a handful of cities but the more your empire grows, the more complicated things become. There is tremendous depth here if you are willing to learn the ins and outs. The fact that Shogun 2 has its own built in encyclopedia to help players should give you a good idea of how much there is do.

There are cities to develop, treaties to sign, trade routes to secure, assassinations to conduct and counter spying to initiate. Religion is a huge part of this, adopting Christianity for instance, may get you access to guns but pisses off the local populace resulting in revolts. It also makes you a hated enemy of every neighbor within range of a yari thrust. On the flip side, you could always use religion as a weapon by spreading your faith to those outside your borders. Do this long enough and the people will “see the light” and overthrow their rulers, making your job so much more easier. I have literally spent an hour on some turns although most will be resolved in a few minutes. Wars are expensive, maintaining a decent city is even more so and taxing your populace can only take you so far. Trade routes are things to be protected and diplomacy is key to victory. In short, this is where the meat of the game really is.

Even managing your family is a game in itself. The bloodline needs to be kept strong and protected. Enemy ninjas will undoubtedly be looking for ways to dispose of the player’s most promising heirs. Marriage is an excellent political tool and crafty individuals will quickly realize that having a bunch of women of marriageable age can be an excellent resource used to garner support from that nasty clan that’s got a military machine twice your size and is breathing down your neck. Like everything else though, this too can backfire, any rejected offer will lower your Daimyo’s honor which adversely affects the whole clan. Armies, generals and even family members of a Daimyo with poor honor can easily be bribed over to the enemies’ side.

Unlike the previous games, the map here is a lot smaller, this focused on Japan after all. So there is only so much land to fight over. It is still an epic campaign (expect 50 hrs plus at least) but this focus comes at a cost, since all the clans are Japanese and share the same cultural roots, there is not a lot to distinguish one form the other. Unlike Rome for example, where a Germanic barbarian horde functioned, looked and played completely different from a “civilized” nation like Carthage, there is little to distinguish the Shimazu clan from the Chosokabe. Sure one may train better archers and prefer the color green but that’s about it. In terms of variety Shogun 2 is found wanting against older games in its own franchise. This is not huge deal for someone new, but for old hands like me, it will seriously affect replay value.

When all the planning is done, when all the pieces are in place, it time to unsheathe your sword, get on your trusty steed and take to the field of battle. Regardless of good your political strategy is, war is inevitable. Thankfully, in Shogun 2 war is also a whole lot of fun.  And in this respect, it is the best game in the series. It’s hard to get a sense of how stunning the game looks via screenshots. One really has to see in engine in motion to appreciate just how good it is. Horses stomp the ground restlessly, no daichi samurai shrug and adjust their armor while the general waits, and all the while, birds fly overhead as cherry blossoms waft over the armies. My first few minutes were spent just admiring the astonishing level of detail.

Though it is viable to play out a battle in real time, there is an active pause system that allows one to pause the action at any time and queue up commands. This is a very handy feature as battles can be very chaotic affairs. If you are a control freak like me, you will probably end up using it every few seconds although this is admittedly, overkill.

The kind of units engaged in battle, their gear and level of experience, topography of the battlefield, skill of the generals and even the weather, all have a role to play. So it was no surprise to see my army of ninjas decimated by a force that was much more balanced. Speaking of which, combat and the way it plays out is a lot more believable this time around. Previous Total War games though always fun, were frequently capable of being unbalanced. Rome Total War especially, had me often best a force 3 times my size. Technically superior troops almost always trumped a larger inferior force. In Shogun, being out numbered is a serious handicap. Superior troops will still need numbers on their side and a large force of technologically inferior forces with competent leadership will usually win. Another notable difference is how devastating archers are. Heavy armor was an unusual sight during the Sengoku jidia period and as a result, a melee heavy force will need to move quickly to close the gap between it and any enemy ranged forces. Even cavalry can be decimated by a few accurate volleys. One thing that I did notice was that having the advantage of higher ground did not give much of a range bonus to archers. The fact that the opposite holds true for every game before this seems to suggest this may be a bug which may be patched out. That being said, the AI in Shogun 2 is the best I have seen in the franchise so far. Though not completely immune to stupidity, it usually presents a good challenge in most battles.

There is an “auto resolve” option for people who do not wish to bother with the real time aspect of the game though the results here tend to be hit and miss.

Two things have changed dramatically. First off, generals are a lot more hands on. There is direct control of how the player decides to improve them. This brings in a RPG flavor which I absolutely loved. Where they were little more than portraits and no personality in previous titles, here, I knew each one of my favorites my name. Suddenly, the idea of losing one in battle became a scary prospect. This is made even more interesting when you consider how their presence affects the outcome of an engagement. Depending on how they were leveled, generals get special abilities that can be used in the thick of a scrap. Having a competent general makes for some exciting “victory from the jaws of defeat” scenarios but this almost always involving putting him at risk. Make no mistake; losing a good general comes as huge strategic and personal loss.

Secondly, siege warfare has completely changed. Unlike the castles and fortresses of Europe that were designed to keep the enemy out at all costs, Japanese structures were built with the idea of funneling enemy troops into killing grounds. The theory was to make the idea of gaining every inch of ground a very costly affair. Defenders do have an advantage but only with comparable numbers on their side. Defensive or not, castles can be easily swarmed by a numerically superior force especially if they are quick. This is another example of where having a competent general makes all the difference.

What has not changed unfortunately is the boredom of naval battles. Though more refined from previous iterations, it still remains a weak spot in the Total War arsenal. Expect to use the “auto resolve” feature a lot with them.

Things have also been taken to a whole new level with multiplayer. Players now have a persistent avatar. Winning battles and gaining experience will unlock new abilities for your general and cosmetic upgrades. Match making seems to work for the most part but I have had some laggy games. No surprise given how few people play this in my part of the world. To be honest I have not spent enough time online to give an unbiased opinion but for what it’s worth, what little time I did spend was enjoyable.

At its core, Shogun 2 is a balancing act. All aspects of 16^th century Japan need to be catered to. It is a game that is easy to play, but hard to master. On default difficulty settings, Total War vets will likely tear through the campaign like a hot katana through sushi. Bump it up however, and its whole new game. I have been playing Rome Total War (still my favorite in the series) since its release in 2004 and have yet to beat it on the highest difficulty. Shogun 2 will undoubtedly pose the same challenge. But yes, the polish that comes with such a focused approach has come at the cost of variety in both number of units and type of factions. If you are new to the series, this is an excellent place to start. If you are a fan of the series, there is enough different here to make it seem fresh for at least another few months. And besides…..

Ninjas.

FINAL SCORE: 8.8/10

(This is a re-write of the Crysis 2 review which was supposed to be published on the 27th of April but ended up getting lost in internet limbo. The game since then has been updated to v 1.8 which brings a lot of tweaks to the multiplayer side of things. As such, my criticisms of the single player campaign still stand but multiplayer has certainly become a lot more enjoyable. The scores have been updated to reflect this.)

When Crysis first came out, it made the PC gaming community go nuts. The press around the game made it seem like it was the pinnacle of the FPS genre. The graphics were rig meltingly awesome, the world was a huge playground, the AI was usually competent and the Nano suit was just plain cool.

Too bad I hated it.

Well ok, maybe “hate” is too strong a word. At best it was “meh” imo. I should add here that I’m not much of an “open world” player. I like my shooters to have a tight scripted feel without being a strict corridor affair. Half life would be a good example. Regardless, even if I personally did not enjoy Crysis as much as the press did, I could still respect it for what it was, ie, a decent open world shooter that did give you a myriad of ways of making things go “boom”. It was in many ways, a landmark for the genre.

Why the sequel decided to piss all of that way then, is a true head scratcher. Sorry folks, if you are looking for a glowing review (at least for single player), you should probably stop reading right now. Crysis 2 is so generic it makes me want to take a boxed copy over to the developers, slam it on their heads and scream “WHYYYYYYY?!?!?!”

Where do I even begin? The game starts with a yawn worthy cinematic with a bunch of spec op guys doing their chest thumping routine. “Rah Rah bring it on blah blah”. This quickly launches into a scene that seems copy pasted from CoD4. Escape from a sinking vessel. Great.

This is followed by some other sleep inducing cut scenes which show the Statue of liberty on fire (Oooooh, never seen THAT before have we?) and the inevitable rescue by generic mystery man number 3417. I suppose the whole point of this exercise was to drive home the fact that the aliens from the first game have totally taken over. Fine. From this point on though, the story from the first game is effectively flushed down the toilet. Let me say this as clearly as possible: Apart from the nano suit that you quickly procure and a guest appearance by a character from the original Crysis there is absolutely no connection to the narrative of the first game. None. That doesn’t have to be a bad thing; I can totally live with the revamp of an existing plot if it makes any sense at all. Though the story does come together towards the end, chances are that most players would have long lost interest in it by then.

The aliens look completely different, none of the characters I meet seem to shed any light on wtf is going on and somehow, there is some kind of plague to content with. Oh, and for some damned reason, I’m a target of both the aliens AND humans. Crysis 2 went to extra ordinary lengths to confuse the hell out of me (plot wise) in the first 10 minutes.

Soon I’m out in the city looking upon a rather stunning urban landscape. Ill give Crysis 2 this: it does look pretty. Sunlight glints over shattered concrete, trees sway realistically and shadows play across everything. The engine is by far the game’s biggest strength. And perhaps the only thing of note. Oh btw, forget about tweaking your graphical settings beyond pre-defined options. Obviously it was too much to ask for even though its been a key feature on the PC for decades. That being said, you can still expect some stunning graphics even on a mid-range system.

It soon becomes apparent that the rest of the game is divided into mini levels giving the illusion of being in a huge expansive world. The key word here being “illusion”. The world is full of walls and not all of them are the visible kind. For all its bluster and media hype, Crysis 2 is just like your average shooter with some extra options thrown in. The devs refer to these as “action bubbles”, ie, small areas of freedom that are connected to each other within a huge world. I call them disappointment centers. It is nothing more than a design crutch and a flawed one at that. What they have effectively done is strip away the sense of wonder that was to be had in not knowing which way was the “right” way. There is no exploration here. I’m shaking my head even as I write this; Crytek excels in free world exploration. Look at Farcry 1. That was a great example of how to do exploration right. And this was a game the same people made 8 years ago! How could they get this aspect of it so wrong?

Oh but there’s more, not content with flat out locking me into these tiny areas, they actually felt the need to hold my hand throughout missions. The so called “tactical mode” is a joke. It essentially highlights the options I have available for completing an objective . I could see how highlighting foes and ammo caches can be helpful but do I really need to be told “Look! A ladder. You can climb this!!”? Oh right, I DO need to be told, because as I mentioned, the world of Crysis 2 isn’t really open at all. You can only climb ladders that the “tactical” visor tells you about. Sure, the other ladders look perfectly climbable, but unless a certain path was clearly highlighted for the player, it’s not an option at all. May as well give me a compass that points me in the right direction. Oh wait, there’s no need, the game highlights where to go anyway. Silly me.

There are even parts where the player will be prompted to press a key so as to not miss a pretty but pointless explosion. Or click the left and right mouse button alternatively to “crawl”. If you are thinking of Call of Duty right now, don’t worry, so am I. I don’t mind mechanics like that if they make sense for the game in question. CoD4 was nothing but a series of corridors glued together with cut scenes and quick time events. But they were executed brilliantly. They gelled and came together in a fantastic climax. In Crysis 2 they just plain suck. Level design, narration, gameplay, all suffer as a result.

Not content with diluting the core experience, Crytek also decided that it would be an excellent idea to slap on a ridiculous checkpoint save system. You know, so when those wall hopping aliens manage to get the drop on you, you can repeat the last 10 minutes of sneaking. Sigh. Speaking of which, expect to do a lot of that. Sneaking, that is. Unlike the first game, Crysis 2 does make stealth a less frustrating option. But there is only so many times one can play the “shoot and stealth behind wreckage” game before it gets tedious. And therein lies one of the biggest problems. There just isn’t enough variety in the battles. There is the occasional vehicle mission and mandatory boss to spice things up but by and large these are just tacked on fillers.

It would have helped if there was strong sense of narrative but there isn’t. Most of the time you are on your own. The only company you keep is the annoying voices in your ear piece telling you where to go and what to do. Who these people are and what their deal is remains a mystery to me even after finishing the game. The story is a loosely written mess that did little more than bore me. On the rare occasions that you do meet people, you will wish you were back on your own. Every person I came across was essentially a card board cutout with zero personality. And the voice acting does not help matters. Lines are delivered flatly with little or no emotion (with some exceptions). One small consolation is the music, which is surprisingly well done. The title score in particular is excellent. Overall, the sound in the game is of high quality. Gunshots sound just right, the aliens sound suitably otherworldly and metal crunches convincingly. Too bad it’s not enough to dull the pain of the biggest hurt of all.

You guessed it. The Nano suit. I honestly think Crytek should change the title of the game to “How to nerf a Nano suit”. The original Crysis made no bones about the fact that it was all about the suit. It was the real hero. The guy in it was just along for the ride. By all accounts, this worked just fine because the suit was truly awesome. In Crysis 2 however, it feels totally gimped. Super speed is little more than an average sprint and the super jump just, isn’t. It boggles the mind how the game has you jumping across buildings like a would be spider man only to be foiled by something as simple as this:

As for strength mode, granted, its immensely satisfying to grab a foe by the neck and send him flying into a wall, but why is it that the same “maximum strength” that can falcon kick cars across a street finds its nemesis in a wooden door? The fact that the suit can be “upgraded” does little to help in the beginning. Towards the end of the game, when the suit is tricked out, it does become a lot of fun. Its tragic that it takes too long.

The AI does a good job most of the time and had the suit actually been any good, it would have been truly wonderful to use its abilities to out jump and out run the competition. Unfortunately it’s just too easy to die in the first few hours. This effectively forced me to stealth my way through places I did not want to.

Everything I criticized the game for would have easily been forgotten had the Nano suit been implemented correctly. Unfortunately, it is easily the biggest disappointment in the whole game. And considering how Crysis 2 is essentially a long string of disappointments, that’s saying something.

The game does have its moments of brilliance now and then. But that only goes to remind the player of what a fantastic game it could have been. As it stands however, Crysis 2 has become (for me at least) the poster child for hype over substance.

I expected this sequel to address the complaints I had about its predecessor. What it ended up doing was take out everything that made Crysis fun in the first place and fill it with things that either have no place in a game like this, or just do not work. I hate to say this, because in many ways, Crysis was the PCs flagship title for FPSs. It is a game I desperately want to like. But the console bug has bitten it’s pretty little head right off. The gratuitous hand holding, pointless story, gimmicky mechanics and severely restricted world make it precisely the kind of game I have no interest in. And though I admit I enjoyed the last couple of hours immensely, it hard to forgive the initial hours of drudgery.

The multiplayer aspect of the game does redeem it somewhat. Going up against human opponents with their own upgrades to the Nano suit opens up new possibilities. Unfortunately, the ping I got playing from India made it difficult to give an unbiased opinion. I kept getting disconnected frequently which was annoying. Whether this was the game’s fault or just the initial server load, I cannot say. What precious little I did play was certainly enjoyable.

As is becoming the norm, the stats for multiplayer are persistent, ie, a player gains experience points which unlocks new ranks and bonuses. Crysis 2 also has a direct rip off of the kill streak rewards that Modern Warfare has made so famous. Although here, it isn’t as over powered. The tight level design actually works quite well in multiplayer where unleashing the suit’s powers becomes an act of sheer joy. The feeling of satisfaction I got from pulling of a powerful ground slam move to instantly kill three enemies from above is something to make one feel truly badass. It’s a pity the same sensation never came across even once in single player.

Rounds are hectic and short which make Crysis 2 perfect for thirty minute sessions. The single player may be an exercise in mediocrity but those looking for some human vs human action might find the game worth the money. Give the demo a go to see if it holds true for you.

Whether the multiplayer keeps me hooked for long still remains to be seen. But for the most part, it looks promising enough for a couple of months at least.

In closing I can only say that Crysis 2 is not a bad game. It’s just not nearly as good as it should have been. In an effort to cater to the console crowd, it has given up most of what made its predecessor special. Whichever way you look at it, the single player campaign is still a disappointment.

FINAL SCORE: 7.0/10 (Single Player campaign) 8.1/10 (Multiplayer)

Update: The game is now patched to version 1.8. The constant disconnects seem to have been fixed as have many minor bugs and crashes in the single player. The game runs stable now with nary a crash. There is a definite improvement in pings as well. It runs a lot smoother and as a result is more fun to play now.

Well hello world!
I should explain why I haven’t been seen here for a bit. There is no way of saying it without sounding lame but, for what it’s worth, here it is: I had way too much happening at once. The last 60 days have been beyond hectic. And a little unfortunate as well. Most of April had me making regular trips to the doctor and the medications prescribed left me drained. I actually had a couple of posts good to go in the last week of April but a WordPress update went horribly wrong and wiped out everything. And I do mean EVERYTHING. Luckily I had a backup that was good till the DA2 review so “Whew!” But the real kicker was the holiday that Naina (my wife) and I took to Canada which basically swallowed the entire month of May. So essentially, not only have I not played anything, I have been out of touch with all that’s been going on in the PC gaming world. The rest of the world too, to be honest.
That is all soon set to change however. The Crysis 2 review (which was one of the things that I lost in April) is being rewritten, and I have Dawn of War Retribution and Shogun 2 lined up next. As soon as I see a good deal on the Witcher 2, that’s getting done as well. But what I’m most looking forward to is Deus Ex Human Revolution. I’m actually having dreams about that one.
So yeah, sorry for the Houdini act. Stay tuned.

(Btw I’ve added a Facebook “like” button to all existing posts. So if you enjoyed reading some of the earlier stuff, do click it)

I remember going on an awkward date once. It was with a lovely young lady I had known for a while and who I thought, knew me pretty well. But on that particular day, everything went wrong from the moment we said hello. I was dressed the way I always did when I was 18 (some would say even now) faded denims and biking boots etc., while she showed up like she was headed to the prom. I was in the mood for a pizza, while she was hoping for a more “fancy” experience. At one in the afternoon no less. As for our choice in movies, well…. you get the idea. All signs pointed to the date being a disaster and a major disappointment for both of us because remember, we had been friends for a few years.

At some point however, things began to change.

She started laughing at my jokes; I actually found myself willing to listen to her talk and as afternoon turned to evening, we realized that we were having a hell of a time. By the end of it, it turned out to be a lot of fun.

Dragon Age 2 kept reminding of that day regularly.

The first Dragon Age (DA) was an RPG epic. A throwback to the old school days of gaming where it was all about being a hero and saving the world. About exploring a huge world and meeting a host of interesting characters. Oh and killing pants pissingly huge dragons. It was also more than a 100 hours long and a title that belonged to the PC by its very nature. Needless to say, I loved it.

The sequel however, changes so much, that, at first, I wondered why Bioware kept the name Dragon Age at all. Yes, the game is still set in Ferelden, the same land featured in DA and yes, it’s still about using your party of four to decimate legions of bad guys. But the focus has changed. You can’t really create your own character and choose his/her origin. No, you are Hawke. Like Commander Shepard in Mass Effect (ME), you are a badass. You just don’t know it yet. Choose a first name if you want, it doesn’t really matter. No one is going to refer to it anyway. Don’t be surprised if even YOU forget. The presentation is what matters. No wait, let me rephrase that. Presentation is what the developers want you to care about. And that’s where the alarm bells began. The intro to the game is essentially a series of cut scenes wrapped around a threadbare tutorial. The story is presented as series of flashbacks. One of your friends is being interrogated by a member of the Chantry (the game’s version of the Church) in order to figure out what Hawke did and why. It’s not the most original plot device but works well enough. What it does is divide the game into slices of three years. Since the story is spread over a decade, the choices made in each of these slices have consequences in the following ones.

The first DA was about your character being swept by events larger than him/her. You could get lost in the sheer size of the continent you inhabited. But for all its epic scale, the game never really did much with its lore. DA2 on the other hand, suffers from the opposite. Your adventures are limited to a single city and its various sections (with occasional forays outside). It relies heavily on the lore of the world and gives its various factions a strong sense of character. It also tries to make the game about YOU more than anything else. You are not saving the world, just your part of it. And you do it in the most dramatic way possible.

The problem is, the first few hours of the game are very weak in terms of emotional involvement. It felt like the initial hours of an MMO. Follow the arrow on the radar, talk to the man with the sign over his head, listen to him moan about something in a cut scene, go solve his problem. It’s almost symbolic how the game literally sees you sold as a slave right at the beginning. It doesn’t help that your team at this point comprises of a dull sibling and a warrior that’s drier than a heat rash in Delhi. I won’t lie; almost the entire first chapter (about 3 hours for me) was extremely disappointing.

Soon however, the shackles are literally and figuratively broken. It almost as if the developers realized this isn’t Mass Effect and should be treated as its own game. And boy does it recover. The companions you pick up are suddenly interesting. The banter between them actually surpasses those of games like Baldur’s Gate. And that’s not something I say lightly. The interactions between them are a joy to behold and the conversation wheel taken from ME gives you an additional choice. Instead of “positive” and “negative” one can also choose the “wise ass” option. Brilliant. One small complaint however, the wheel only gives the option of what “stance” to take, so in some cases, Hawke ends up saying something you certainly did NOT want him to say. If nothing else, the result of this can be quite hilarious. In one instance, it ended up making my genuine attempt at comforting a friend turn into consent to a gay relationship. Whoa!

The quests themselves become a lot more involving and I frequently found myself having to pace around in my room to decide what to do. Some of the choices presented in the game are deliciously grey. Some of the supposed “right” decisions I made, helping a friend for instance, came back to bite me in the ass. Bite me HARD. The quality of writing is much better than that of the original and it clearly shows.

Also improved is the skill system. The depth here is surprisingly good. It completely blows DA out of the water. The alternatives presented are excellent and one could play the same class across three playthroughs yet have a different experience each time. The visuals complement the skill tree perfectly. A back stab isn’t about running behind someone and initiating a boring stab move. No, in DA2, the rouge throws a smoke bomb at his feet and disappears only to materialize behind his victim to literally tear him apart.

The tactical camera from the first game is history, but the good news is that the close up camera isn’t as bad you think. The battles are bloody and gorgeous. That’s right; they look bloody gorgeous (sorry). Having the camera positioned the way it is simply ensures you don’t miss the visuals. Speaking of which, the engine is still the hideous one that was used in DA, only this time around there is a lot of polish to it and ends up looking rather good. If you have a beefy GPU, you can install an additional 1 GB of high res textures which will make it look even better. Grab the texture pack here.

I cannot stress this enough, the combat is spectacular. It retains all of the tactical depth of the original and adds to it in most places. Pausing to issue orders is an absolute must even on “normal” difficulty. Pushing it up to “hard” makes it decidedly tougher primarily due to friendly fire from the more powerful spells. DA veterans will have no problem getting back into it (I would actually recommend “hard” to vets). One of the biggest delights is pulling off a “cross-class combo”. So if a warrior’s special attack “staggers” a target, the rouge’s backstab will do 200% damage. Or a mage’s “freeze” spell could make targets “brittle” which can make them shatter with a powerful blow. Expect to be taxed with some of the boss battles too. Killing a dragon should always be an epic feat. The boss battles were the only times I missed the old tactical view. Switching between characters becomes a hassle without it.

The characters are well voiced and I must admit, having Hawke talk back does make a huge difference to the feel of the game. A mute protagonist like the one in the original just doesn’t cut it anymore. Gordon Freeman is the only exception. The well written script is put to good use by Hawke’s companions as well. It’s particularly refreshing to see an elf with a Welsh accent. We need more of those.

It’s not to say that it’s all sunshine and roses however. As I mentioned earlier, since the entirety of the game takes place in a handful of places, you will end up going to certain areas multiple times. Hawke is the hero of the city of Kirkwall. Not the continent of Ferelden. That’s all well and good, but if the said area has not changed even an iota, it becomes repetitive. But what shocked me the most was how some of the places that are supposed to be different areas (not connected in any way what so ever), end up looking exactly the same. And I do mean EXACTLY. Even the loot boxes are in the same spot. It’s a blatant copy-paste job that one does not expect from a developer of Bioware’s stature. Bad Bioware!

The inventory system has been simplified thank goodness but, any armor found is restricted to Hawke. Companions come with their own threads that improve as they gain levels. This one had me scratching my head. Part of the charm of an RPG is being able to customize everyone in my party the way I want. Not being able to do this in 2011 is stupid. At least the gear they get is pretty decent. In some cases, depending on how you treat them, they get a huge boost to their stats and equipment. Speaking of companions, I preferred the idea of having a common “camp” in the first game. It was easier to gear everyone up and talk to them if you wanted. In DA2, every companion has his or her own home which leads to needless shuffling from one spot to another. Especially considering you HAVE to talk to them in their own residence. It sometimes breaks immersion when the party member you have been adventuring with for the last few quests says something moronic like “Oh, I didn’t think you would visit”. Erm…. I didn’t leave your side for the last three days mate but, whatever.

I can’t really tell you at what point I started enjoying it as much as I did, somewhere midway through the second chapter I guess. But it quickly became the sort of game where I lost track of time. Suddenly the half hour session I had promised myself stretched itself way past 1 AM. Ferelden is still a good place to adventure in. And the city of Kirkwall has enough to keep you engaged for 40 hours or so. From looking like a Mass Effect wannabe, it flowers into something between the original DA and ME2. It is a refreshing take on something familiar that is different enough to be valued on its own merits. There are some aspects that could be better but even the worst parts of it do nothing more than annoy for a while. If anything, I can’t wait to go through the game a second time.

In the end, just like that evening I had so long ago; it turned out to be a lot of fun.

FINAL SCORE: 8.6/10

I recently read an article by one of my favorite games journalists. Someone whose writing I have been following for around a decade. Tom Francis, who writes for PC Gamer, has always struck me as the kind of person that seems to eloquently (and often hilariously) verbalize exactly how I feel about games and the games industry in general. This last piece however, had me feeling extremely defensive. You see, Mr Francis hates CoD Black Ops.
And as much as I hate Activision’s way of doing business, I thoroughly enjoyed it. No, that’s not true. I freakin loved it.

Over the last few years, it’s become fashionable to hate the CoD franchise. I have frequently been critical of it myself. But, it seems to me that this hate is now beginning to take an almost fanatical bent. What bothers me the most is how many self-proclaimed “real” gamers use it as a badge of honor. As if hating everything Activision does automatically grants them entry into the “Intelligent Gamers Club”. And though I’ll be the first to admit that the CoD franchise hasn’t done anything to revolutionize the FPS genre in a while, I shouldn’t have to defend my enjoyment of the franchise in any way.
Was Black Ops a corridor shooter? Yes. Just like all corridor shooters. Did it have a lot of scripted events? Yes. Just like 90 percent of all shooters in the market today. Did it frequently try to make it seem like you were in an interactive movie rather than a pure “game”. Yes, yes, yes. Did I enjoy it in spite of all this? Absolutely.  And here’s why:

I knew EXACTLY what to expect when I pre-ordered it.

I wasn’t looking for the FPS genre’s second coming. I wasn’t expecting a Pulitzer winning plot (though I would argue it’s the best plot in the franchise) and I sure as hell wasn’t expecting a campaign that would last more than 10 hours. For some strange reason, the second I mention how much I enjoyed the game, it immediately makes these PC elitist wannabe assholes bracket me as a “console noob”, a 12 year old prepubescent brat or my personal fave “the reason why games have been ruined”. So let’s set the record straight shall we? The only thing I hate more than Activision, is consoles. I will be turning 30 in a couple of months. My favorite games include Deus Ex, Baldur’s Gate, Jagged Alliance and Planescape Torment. All of which I frequently go back to. Does that make me a gaming connoisseur? No more than liking Black Ops or any other corridor shooter makes me a pre-pubescent console lover.

The fact of the matter is this: the market isn’t what it was 10 years ago. Today, it costs millions of dollars to get a game out in the hands of a gamer. It just makes plain economic sense to bet on a winning horse. The CoD franchise is worth more than all of its competitors put together. Black Ops alone generated a BILLION dollars in revenue. And the reason it did is simple. People enjoyed it. If I was to invest in a game tomorrow, I would be smart to invest it in Cod 49 than I would in Jagged Alliance 3. One could argue about which is a better game (no contest JA hands down) till the cows come home. But the fact remains. The FPS genre hasn’t seen anything innovative since Half Life 2. Everything out there is a variation of a pissed off man with a gun. Everything. To single out one series in the midst of all that is just plain stupid.

Why is it, I wonder, that the gaming community went so easy on Mafia 2? To my mind, it was nothing like the first. The prequel was a true PC title, in spite of all its flaws it was a gem. The only good thing about Mafia 2 was its story (which btw, is excellent). The graphics were unremarkable, the driving was annoying and it had more quick time events than any CoD game I can think of. Yet it hardly comes up in any conversation that bemoans how games have been “dumbed down” (and yes, I agree they have). There a lot of other games I could add to that list but what’s the point? Haters gonna hate right?

I’m not against playing something a little more cerebral. Hell, I’m just sick and tired of waiting for it to happen. All the games I have enjoyed the most over the last couple of years have been sequels. Mass Effect 2, Bad Company 2, L4D2, Civ 5. It’s no different from the crap Hollywood shoves my way (cough, cough Transformers 2 cough, cough)

There are developers that will inadvertently try and break the mold. But more often than not, their efforts will culminate in either outright failure, or at best, lukewarm success. If you don’t believe that, wait till the sales figures of Witcher 2 and Red Orchestra 2 come out. I don’t need to be psychic to tell you right now that both those titles combined won’t have anywhere near the numbers Modern Warfare 2 had.

If great games like Deus Ex and Planescape are the gaming world’s equivalent of a six course gourmet meal, then the CoD series is a cheeseburger. Guess which one is going to see more consumers? Indulging in one culinary experience over the other is a matter of preference (and budget). In a perfect world, I’d go for the gourmet option every time.

But dammit Tom, sometimes that ol cheeseburger sure can hit the spot.

Day three begins with me making some drastic changes. Every forum I read over the course of the weekend had confirmed that my character build was flawed from the very beginning. A sorcery- melee build will always be an uphill battle. I could focus on damage dealing and be fine in PvE but with power points being a rare commodity in the game, my role as healer would be unviable. This means the chances of me performing well in a raid or instance would be negatively affected. With a heavy heart, I decided to axe Shadeheart.

Time for a second character then. This time around I have a good idea of what I want my role to be. So I choose “Fire” as my power of choice and “Martial arts” as combat style. I’m keeping acrobatics as movement style as I love moving with the aid of a grapple gun. I am sticking with Batman as a mentor. Just for kicks, I choose a PvE server called “Brave New World” to house the new hero. As much as I like PvE, the long wait times on a heavily populated server are not something I’m willing to put up with. The creation process is a lot quicker as I know exactly what to do. In a few minutes, Dreadknight is born.

Almost immediately I can see how combat is going to be a lot easier. Leveling up is a breeze as this guy is just devastating in battle. The downside is having no self-heals. This is a temporary situation as I can see some powers further down the chain that do provide healing. As I’ve already done these quests before, it takes a much shorter period of time to go through them. I know exactly where to go and what to do. At this point I realize that one of the advantages of being on a PvE server is not having to scan the area for possible threats. I can just concentrate on getting to my objective without having to take longer and possibly safer routes. Before I know it, I’m already battling Scarecrow and compared to the last time, I handily whoop his scrawny ass. Oh yes, Dreadknight’s future looks very promising indeed.

At level 10 I also have the option of choosing an additional weapon style. I’m tempted to give dual pistols a shot but the martial arts tree is proving to be a lot of fun. The combos seem easier to pull off and the animation is excellent. Besides, even though there is nothing to stop me from picking all the available weapons; it is worth focusing on one. At higher levels, weapons skills can give you innate stat bonuses. Martial art for instance, has good critical damage skills that can be further improved with more points.

A note about skills, it turns out gaining skill and power points have little to do with levels. The deciding factor is “feats” or in game achievements. In the beginning, these come hard and fast so you will find yourself gaining points easily. But soon enough, the process slows down. The game has a level cap of 30, which by most MMO standards is pretty low. Hitting this cap should not take long, but what makes a character truly powerful will be the amount of skill /power points one has. Hitting the cap for skill points (I believe it is 80) is not going to be easy. But those feats are going to be critical if you want to handle the end game raids. Speaking of which, I should probably keep my eyes open for a good “league” (DCUO’s term for guilds). So far I have not had to team up with anyone for any of the missions but then, I’m only about a third of the way through.

At level 9 Dreadknight is also eligible for “Alerts” which are essentially repeatable dungeons. Queuing up for one of these is easy. It’s just a matter of clicking a tab and the game automatically puts you in a team of four. As I understand it, this is the standard team size. Only the end game raids allow for a team of eight. At level 30, a player becomes eligible for “Duos”. As the name suggests, these are two man teams for smaller dungeons. It will take a while before little Dread has a go at one of them. In the meantime, something interesting has happed. Oracle informs me that I’ve been invited to the “Watchtower” or in other words, the JLA headquarters! The Alert can wait, this, I HAVE to see.
To anyone that in not familiar with DC comics lore, this would look like any other generic space station, albeit, a huge one. But to a comic nerd like me, this is big deal. The HQ looks fabulous and once again I’m amazed at how the devs have made judicious use of the Unreal 3 engine. This is by far, the prettiest MMO in the market. I spend more than a few minutes just looking around the place and getting lost in the process. Impressive as this place is, it is a little confusing to get from one part of it to the next. I later realize that the HQ also acts as “bridge” of sorts, allowing players to move from Gotham to Metropolis.

My curiosity sated, I head back to Gotham. My primary focus is now getting to level 30 asap. So far, I must say leveling certainly feels a lot quicker than any other MMO that I can think of. This makes the quests seem less of a grind than they should be because honestly speaking, there is not a lot of variety here. The boss battles are a highlight for sure but the rest of the quests are not much different from anything else in the MMO sphere. Nonetheless, I did jump into a couple of the alerts and these were decidedly fun. The battles do need some amount of team work but since these are starter level dungeons, I expect them to be easy. One thing that did stand out was the way party wipes are handled. If an entire team does get knocked out, it doesn’t necessarily mean that the instance needs to be repeated. There are several respawn points across a level and so long as even one person is standing, team members can join in an ongoing battle. In some cases, a party wipe will mean having to do a small part of the alert again (usually the bosses)and even then not the entire level. This to me, is an excellent design decision.

One last thing I did before logging off for the day was try my hand at some PvP. DCUO has a unique mode in which players can battle each other in simulated arenas as famous characters in the DC universe. If you want to fight as Batman and faceoff against a human controlled Joker, this would be the place to go. At the moment, the only character I have access to is Robin. I did not spend too much time in this mode so my impressions will have to wait. It certainly is a cool idea though.
By the end of the day I have hit level 17 and feel a lot more confident in my abilities. More alerts have been unlocked and I cannot wait to see more of what the game has to offer.

Compared to day 1, the next couple of days were a mixed bag. For starters, I had to look at this as I tried to log in:

In a way its good news, people are obviously playing the game and there should be no dearth of players to team up with. A healthy player base is what defines how successful an MMO will be in the long run.

Once I do get in however, I get right into the business of being awesome. I had already picked up a few quests yesterday and it was time to get cracking. It did not take long to see that the quests are pretty standard fare. What makes it tolerable though is that respawn time for mobs and essential quest drops is pretty fast. This makes going through quests relatively quick. Teaming up with players is easy and instant and even if you don’t want to create a group, getting a few hits on a foe is enough to net you XP. This is a huge help as there is no unnecessary pressure to be the one to “tag” an enemy first or land the killing blow for that matter. As long as you made a worthy effort in the fight you get your reward/loot. There is also the added benefit of not having to run back to the quest giver for every single quest. Just clicking on the “done” button in the log is enough to get whatever reward is due. Even collecting loot is as simple as holding down the control key. No repetitive clicking on corpses here. Even if one has to look for an NPC, it’s a short trip from wherever the action is. Besides, as I mentioned earlier, travelling around is fun. The world does a good job of looking huge without actually being very expansive. At the moment, as a low level character, I am sticking to Gotham but it will be interesting to see how different Metropolis looks.

A bunch of quests later, I’ve gained enough levels to take a serious look at the skill tree. This where I realize there is one part of the game that does need to improve. The skills and powers on display lack any kind of concrete info to make an intelligent decision. For me to shed more light on this, I shall have to explain character development and combat in more detail.

Every character has a health bar and a power bar; the latter can for all intents and purposes be considered a mana bar. In combat, all skills and special abilities use power. Causing damage will replenish this. This makes pulling off combos and causing high levels of damage critical. Every character has 8 slots at the bottom of the UI, 6 of these can used for skills, 1 for a consumable item and 1 for a trinket. This means than any character “build” will rely heavily on those 6 skills. So far, so good. The trouble begins when it’s time to actually pick a skill and realizing it tells you very little. For instance “Inferno” will cause set enemies on fire and cause widespread destruction while replenishing health. Sure, it sounds cool but it does not tell to the details, ie, it has a terrible casting period, is easily interrupted and will heal you for a pitiful amount. Oh, and good luck guessing what the power cost is. What happens of course is that the player ends up spending a hard earned power point on something useless. And the only way to learn this at the moment is the hard way. (Edit: I found out much later that there is a way to re-spec your character but it costs 500 bucks each time you do this. Not an option for newbies.)

Well actually, you could ask for aid. This is an MMO after all. With servers running full, it’s not that hard to find someone who would be willing to help. This is where the game’s biggest and most annoying failing comes to light. The chat system is TERRIBLE. There is no other way to say it. It’s a terrible, terrible mess. In fact, the whole UI is. The launch may have been smooth and stable, but the games console focus really grates on my last nerve when it comes to the UI.

Now before this sets off any unnecessary alarms in your head, let me make it clear it isn’t bad enough to make me stop playing the game. But it is annoying as hell.

However, there are bigger concerns right now. Scarecrow is loose and Batman himself is looking to me for help. This is another example of how my inner fanboy is willing to let certain faults slide. It is becoming obvious that a showdown with the psycho is imminent. It’s a good time too, I have just unlocked a summoning power that allows me to call forth a minion.  It’s hard to say how much of a help it really is, there’s no kind of feedback to tell me how much damage it does or how much health it has. If nothing else, it does give the baddies another target other than me. I have also managed to unlock a skill that allows me to rocket glide (essentially fly) at will. Moving around the city is now even more fun.

Before I can get to scarecrow however, I get another rude shock. A level 30 (that’s the level cap btw) player decided to make my life miserable and promptly attacked me. As a level 6 I obviously had no chances of putting up a fight. That’s fine; I knew the dangers of a PvP server before I got in. What made it frustrating was that he was camping out in an area where he knew newbies had to go. After getting my ass handed to me by this punk four times in a row, I finally put out a call for help using the bullshit chat system. Here is where the advantage of being in a busy server paid off. Within a few minutes I had a bunch of guys to come help me out. It was payback time. There were five of us, a mix of low to mid-level players with no level 30s but it was enough to send the evil doer packing. The only tragedy here was that I forgot to take a screenshot. Doh!

Anyway, after this little incident I headed straight into scarecrows hideout. Compared to all the quests I was doing so far, this one was a lot tougher. I got knocked out (there is no “dying” in DCUO) a few times before realizing I had to take things a lot slower. Timing my attacks and pulling off combos was absolutely essential now. The experienced gamer in me began to see how choosing a melee healer might not be such a good idea after all. It took a while but I finally made it to Dr Crane himself. For my first boss fight, it was exciting stuff. I got to kick Scarecrows butt while saving Batwoman’s. All in all, a pretty good day for this newbie hero I’d say.

Finishing this quest has also bumped me up to level 7. This prompts a visit by a funny dude called “Ambush Bug” who hands me a ticket of some sort. Using this ticket sends me to an area called “Joker’s house of fun”. At first I nearly crapped myself as I had just finished a hard quest and was not looking for any more action before repairing my equipment. However, I quickly realized this was actually a “Vault”, a repeatable instance where you go in to essentially play a game of chance. There are no enemies or missions, only random present boxes to break open. Doing so nets you some free cash and if you are lucky, some rare items. Usually though, it’s just “style” pieces. Speaking of which, one cool feature I nearly forgot to mention is how equipping new gear that is different in style from what you have currently donned need not make you look like an idiot. The equipment screen can be “locked”. So, if you really like the new cloak that gives you some stat bonuses but hate its look, you can wear it without the change showing. It’s a brilliant little trick and one that I’m sure I will appreciate even more as the game goes along.

I am certainly enjoying my time with the game, but still can’t shake off the feeling that this dual wielding sorcerer might not be the best combination for me. The next few days should clear this up sharpish.

When DC Universe Online was first announced my first thoughts were anything but positive. The very idea of being a spandex wearing peon grinding through dull urban environments was enough to make me gag. Besides, I don’t really like MMOs to begin with. With the sole exception of Guild Wars, my attempts at trying to get into anything else (WoW, EVE Online, Champions online etc) failed miserably. After a point, every one of these “games” starting feeling too much like “work”. The exercise of “grind till you level” is pretty much the opposite of fun in book. As an added headache, having to pay a monthly fee made me feel like I HAD to play the damn things even if I didn’t feel like it at all. This is part of the reason why Guild Wars grabbed me. There was no feeling of obligation plus no grinding of any kind.

However, seeing as how there was suddenly a huge amount of positive press around DCUO right before launch, I must confess I was more than a little intrigued. And let’s not forget Sony Online Entertainment (SOE) has had some good titles in the past. Everquest was THE game to play before WoW came along.

Arguably, reviewing an MMO is almost pointless. The very nature of the product means it is constantly evolving. The game that is reviewed today may be completely different six months from now. EVE would be the best example. At this point, even WoW may as well be a different game altogether.  So keeping that in mind, I am not posting this as a review. It will simply be a dairy of sorts, a record of my experiences in the DC universe as it were. Hopefully it will give most readers a good idea of what to expect from what is still essentially, an MMO.

Before I start however, I must make this very clear: your enjoyment of DCUO will be directly proportional to how much of a comic nerd you are. I frequently found myself giving the game a lot of benefit of doubt purely because it caters to my inner fanboy. If you couldn’t care less about Batman and company, your mileage will vary significantly. That being said, let’s get to it.

After a hefty install, the first thing I had to do was choose a version of the client to run, ie, US or EU. I chose US as in my experience; the 12 hr time difference is actually less awkward than the 5-7 hrs in Europe. It makes putting a group together a lot easier. Secondly, I had to decide what kind of server I wanted, PvE (player vs environment) or PvP (player vs player). I chose “Death and Glory”, a PVP server. To the uninitiated, the difference between the two is significant. In a PvP server, any player of the opposite faction can essentially battle with you regardless of whether you want to or not. It’s not uncommon to find a bunch of high level players ganging up on some poor newbies just to mess up their day. If you have had bad experiences at the hands of a bully during childhood, you might want to stick to PvE, where any player on player combat is allowed only under specific areas. The advantage of a PvP server should be obvious; it’s a lot more interesting.

The character creation came next. The options at hand are not as robust as seen in Champions online but is still enough to keep one busy for a fairly long time. I spend 40 minutes creating “Shadeheart”. The key things here are choosing a mentor (Batman in my case), a weapon style (dual wielding), power (sorcery) and ofcourse movement method (acrobatic). This should be an interesting experiment as the “Sorcery” line is tagged as “Healer”. Anywhere else the idea of a dual wielding healer running into combat would be suicide.

Oh, I should mention that the game does have a feasible story. I won’t spoil it, but if you are even remotely interested, you should check out the intro video here. Trust me, it’s pretty awesome.

For what is essentially a tutorial level, the first few minutes of the game are impressive. I seem to be held prisoner on one of Brainiac’s ships. Time to bust out then. With a little help from Oracle of cource. This is also the point where I recalled something Sony was making a huge deal about, ie, the game is fully voiced. There are no lines of boring text to read in order to get a quest. NPCs will literally tell you what needs to be done. How this holds up throughout the game remains to be seen.

It doesn’t take long to realize that the real star here is not Shadeheart but the combat system of DCUO. The game plays like a third person console brawler like God of War or Darksiders etc. I haven’t seen anything like this in any other MMO and it is obviously going to take me a while to get used to. I mean it’s got “combos”! This should prove to be very interesting indeed.

Alright, so I’m a few mobs in, the battles aren’t as tricky as I thought they would be. It certainly looks spectacular and has me feeling like a bad ass. This dual wielding sorcerer thing might just work. I’ve also gained a couple of levels real quick. There are skill points and power points to distribute and it’s way too early to decide how to progress. The summoning line looks like fun though.

A few minutes (and some weak mobs) later I run into Superman! The tutorial ends with a mega free for all with Mr Krypton giving me a hand. If there’s more of these “fight alongside your fave heroes” scenarios on offer I shall be most pleased. For now though, it’s time to get off this ship and head to: Gotham City baby!

Well a Gotham City Police Station to be more precise. This is obviously a safe house of some sort. The MMO equivalent of a friendly city where one can gear up, check e mails and collect quests etc. After taking a quick look around its time to go out and beat up some bad guys. And who better to send me on my way than the Dark Knight himself. Voice acted to perfection by Kevin Conroy himself no less. My inner child smiles.

At this point the movement system really comes in its own. Running up buildings and gliding off them is a lot more fun than I expected. I end up spending the next five minutes just jumping around.

As expected, the first few quests are easy. It’s typical “go there beat up ten of those or collect five of them things” fare and after the impressive tutorial, it is mildly disappointing. The only draw here (apart from the combat of course) is the fact that Batman wants me to do this stuff. It seems silly, but having his voice tell me that the Scarecrow needs to be stopped brings a sense of urgency that would otherwise not exist.

Right before I log off for the day I realize that in my first few hours with the game, there hasn’t been a single typical launch day hiccup. No crashes, bugs or glitches at all. This is without a doubt the smoothest MMO launch I have seen or even heard about. Even more amazing is the fact that there is no discernable lag of any kind. Excellent job devs. I can’t wait to jump back in tomorrow.

2010 was a great year for the PC. We were treated to some truly splendid titles and now that 2011 is finally here, I can give some thought to what I think was the year’s best. It goes without saying that this post will be a little redundant for those of you that have been looking at various other gaming sites or blogs, everyone seems to have picked their Game of the year almost a good month ago but I’m putting my two cents out there anyway. Besides, I’ve had a few emails requesting to do this. So without further ado, here are the nominees for (my) Game of the Year 2010.

Battlefield Bad Company 2

For what was essentially a console port, Bad Company 2 did impress me tremendously. The single player campaign tried hard to match Infinity Ward’s magic with the Modern Warfare series but never quite gets there. The multiplayer aspect however, was a revelation.

Mass Effect 2

Bioware has always been at the helm of crafting high quality RPGs and ME2 is its finest moment yet. An original IP that impressed me when it first came out for the PC in 2008 it was undoubtedly an excellent RPG. The sequel pretty much blew me away. This one was a no brainer.

Starcraft 2

Another “2” at the end of a title. Anyone else seeing a trend emerge here? If there is one thing any developer can learn from Blizzard, it’s how to polish a game. Right form the word go, StarCraft 2 screams “polish”. Hardcore fans were always going to judge the game by its multiplayer but the single player was surprisingly refreshing for a game that still sticks to mechanics that are over a decade old. Blizzard, you have done it again.

Call of Duty: Black Ops

Yes, Activision pretty much gave PC gamers the finger with Modern Warfare 2 but he way I see it, it only set the groundwork for Treyarch to fill the void. An astonishingly compelling single player campaign with a story that actually made sense this time, Black Ops makes it as a nominee primarily due to its multiplayer aspect, which is quite simply; the best the series has to offer.

Fallout: New Vegas

Obsidian’s treatment of the Fallout universe makes for a more reverent experience that’s stays true (or rather “truer”) to the original isometric games of the 90s. The wastelands are still as dangerous as ever and New Vegas is bursting with adventure. A rock solid RPG that plays to the developers strengths and is all the richer for it.

And the winner is (cue drum roll):

Mass Effect 2

Mass Effect 2 is quite frankly, Bioware’s magnum opus. An action RPG with an epic story, fantastic characters and spectacular atmosphere, it is full of moments that made me get out of my seat in excitement. The music is phenomenal and complements the game perfectly. The writing and presentation is better than that of most movies I’ve seen this year.  Coming up with a new IP is always tricky, but with the Mass Effect universe, Bioware have conjured something truly special. Where games like Black Ops try to make things cinematic by taking control away from the player, ME2 does it by a combination of everything, ie, backdrop, characters, music, occasional set pieces etc. It also has one of the best endings in any game EVER. If you managed to bring your whole team back from the suicide mission, I dare you not to feel a feel a sense of pride during the last cut scene. Take a bow Bioware. And hurry up with Mass Effect 3 please.