tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-85432829528792764392024-03-12T19:10:20.236-07:00The Entertaintergames are as good as you let them to beGyZhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00377347348312331089noreply@blogger.comBlogger10125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8543282952879276439.post-59021665500155711372013-12-03T12:41:00.000-08:002013-12-03T12:41:56.269-08:00Fallout New Vegas review<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/pqU2fNm9uA4" width="420"></iframe><br />
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A review of Fallout New Vegas.<br />
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<span class="fullpost">Fallout New Vegas information :</span><br />
<span class="fullpost">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fallout:_New_Vegas</span>GyZhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00377347348312331089noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8543282952879276439.post-23984503262658166362013-10-09T08:07:00.000-07:002013-10-09T12:18:11.403-07:00Outlast review<a href="http://tinypic.com/?ref=28qrguu" target="_blank"><img alt="Image and video hosting by TinyPic" border="0" src="http://i44.tinypic.com/28qrguu.jpg" /></a><br />
Outlast elevates immersive suspense to the logical next level that already should have been explored and utilized in earlier interactive horror efforts. The elegant narrative solutions found in this gem of a game oftentimes are overlooked by major media outlets, likely because said superb implementations are presented with such fluency and efficiency that they indeed become optimally transparent and almost - paradoxically - invisible. We will elaborate on these elegant solutions in detail.<br />
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The game invites you to take on the body of an investigative reporter who is armed only with a digital camcorder and with rampant curiosity, while the area of interest is the Mount Massive Asylum, an institute that has been closed in the '70s, and now it is operated by a private corporation that boasts the type of reputation Satan could construct a reliable business model on. A little while ago I had to criticize the fresh Amnesia effort - <a href="http://theentertainter.blogspot.com/2013/09/amnesia-machine-for-pigs-review.html">Amnesia - a Machine for Pigs</a> - for leaving a little too much to the silly enormous thing called imagination, in the sense that the game oftentimes gets crushed by its mere - otherwise doubtless sublime - ambitions, proving to be evidently unsuccessful at delivering and revealing - even modeling - the horrors that it seeks to convey in its textual/written context. What you actually experience in the gameworld of Amnesia - a Machine for Pigs, is but a sorrowfully shallow and dated representation of the eloquent/intact madness found in the text and in the voice acting.<br />
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Outlast is a vastly more serious and disturbing effort than that, one which manages to accomplish all things A Machine for Pigs aspires to : the notes you find in the gameworld of this title -Outlast - are the only stimuli that give a moment of bitter respite from a relentless modal setting/environment that is openly out there to rip your sanity to shreds just to wipe its loathsome ass out with it. Read on to know more, and welcome, perv!<br />
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<a name='more'></a>The prime component that makes Outlast - in my opinion - a truly special game, is its conscious choice to remain consequently superfocused on what it wants to convey right from the start to the finish. The effort has a nicely laid out narrative base structure, with each major component of this foundation requiring you to soak yourself deep into the confined environmental results of what humane heartlessness can accomplish in the pursuit of power. Though no particular spoilers will be given in this review - I guarantee you this, otherwise you can voodoo my hide in the comment section, it will work, I'm receptive to it after completing this game -, I'd like to cast a light on the very important fact that Outlast tells its story with great cunning, believability, consequence-faithfulness and rigor. You WILL, in fact, get an answer for what the terrible purposes of the horrors you have witnessed were.<br />
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Close to its brilliantly realized and supremely disturbing culmination, the game will prove to be discomfortingly logical and almost unbearable to think through, because by the time you will have all the key information of what exactly and WHY exactly has happened in the Asylum, you won't only have the question figured out - (what diabolic REASON could there be that they committed these atrocities for?) you will know the answer already, too. To put it into a clearer perspective : the game indeed will give you a staggering and stone cold heartless-sober reason for the atrocities committed in the institute, and you will realize that you have been subjected to the bitter answer of the unavoidable question all the while : yes, have zero doubt about it whatsoever, certain segments of humanity will be all good and dandy to pay THIS price for THAT End Product. I won't be getting into plot details, yet I'm going to say this : at the culmination, the game will throw in an environmental change, and this new environment - the mere necessity of it - is the reason that the whole experience eventually unfolds as a soul crushing revelation. Brilliant storytelling with a keen affection exhibited towards consequential environmental believability. <br />
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Certain major media outlets criticize Outlast for throwing in supernatural mumbo-jumbo at its end in a desperate attempt to elevate its own appeals and flamboyancy, yet this notion is fueled by malicious arrogance and simply refuses to submit its inherent awareness to the actual-, very powerful message the game definitely is capable to deliver. All such accusations are ridiculous, cynical and ignorant statements that outright fail to appreciate the cunning and skill Outlast handles the supernatural material - oops. - with. Think about it : something that has the capacity to occur/manifest, no longer can be regarded as "supernatural". There simply is no such thing as supernatural, because everything and anything that has the potential to express itself - something expressing itself IS potential itself - is necessarily a perfectly valid sub-set of the unquestionably existent. <br />
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In this game, someone indeed will make the assertion : "there is no such thing as supernatural", and this sentence alone is more relevant than the overall world history of certain media outlets, 'nuff said, and no hard feelings, of course. One of the primal reasons I have written this review for, is to point out the malicious interpretation that Outlast would throw in the "supernatural" just to serve out various Saturday Night Ghost Hunt cravings. That could not be farer from the truth. Outlast handles this topic/theme with relevant cunning, top tier storytelling, and I would go as far as to say that the ultimate intended message of the game is of philosophical significance. (If you agree with me on this one, then you know the gameworld notes I'm referring to. If not, then it is time to replay "teh" gaem, biatch.)<br />
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The experience, once you are serious about taking it - which means you are WILLING to take it without giving yourself the option to press ESC at every corner - is "fantastically" toilsome on a psychological level and will probably require you to reconstruct yourself on an emotional level, too, due to the mere psychological/emotional fatigue Outlast eventually will bestow upon you, provided you are willing to stare into its eyes all the way to the end of the narrative. Taking in the experience As It Is assumes that you have not yet previously completed the game, and, as such, uncertainty - a key aspect during the title - is rampant/evident and uncompromisingly operational throughout. This is not a kind game at all, in fact, it is a very consequent effort that does not want to see you get through it alive at ALL - and be wary that completing the game will not necessarily mean that the title fails with this primal agenda, either.<br />
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The premiere gameplay components entail environment exploration, and finding the method to progress while being subjected to the harassment of the Asylum inhabitants. Outlast freely and smartly borrows key gameplay elements from both the great/notorious Cthulhu game Dark Corners of the Earth, and from Amnesia - the Dark Descent. Your only means of survival is to evade confrontation altogether, while all other beings in the gameworld will be insistent to put a stop to all such efforts of yours, or, for that matter, to put a stop of any and all efforts you are willing to exhibit in order to continue to exist. Fear not, - hah. - Outlast does not fall to the other side of the horse, and the majority of the confrontations are presented in the context of carefully researched situational scenarios : these - in character - labyrinth-like chase-segments are unavoidable, and your only way out of them is running through them - quite literally - and the game does not at all mind if it occasionally turns into a horrific dark parody/burlesque, as you run from your pursuers in intricately built environments desperately seeking for the means of progression while being uncompromisingly pressured. Hiding IS a relevant component, but not always reliable : as soon as your presence is known to an NPC, the only means of survival is to escape, or, to hide. Best to do both.<br />
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In this sense, the game operates on the sober decision of letting you explore in relative peace, - continual pressure is established and guaranteed, courtesy of having to collect batteries for your swiftly depleting camcorder nightvision, OR having to face darkness (the game remains playable in complete in-game darkness, but very tolling to endure) - while maintaining the right throughout to subject you to that aforementioned-, uncompromisingly pressuring behavior whenever the narrative script demands. As such, the game doubtless is linear to the bone, yet this linearity is organized of quite efficient modal segments of well varied narrative character. Jump scares are somewhat frequent, yet not overdone, and, strangely, they have a tendency to work even when you know they are coming - the reason for this is the ability of the game to telegraph the jump scares with unprecedented patience and impertinence through its eloquently soul-sickening environmental atmosphere . Looking back on the whole experience, I think it is safe to say that the fabric of the game is free of holes - though I'm not too enthusiastic about that tar-dark segment where you have to stroll around the yard for a while.<br />
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The game has a masterfully presented "fake-resolution" and an unusually unsettling culmination, built out of the mere astral-flesh of a very cleverly and maliciously presented psychological pressure-tactic which you will experience all throughout the last narrative region of the game, and this segment, in my opinion, truly places Outlast a cosmos or two above all other horror FPS-s I personally am aware of, but please share your input if you know worse than that. Once you are willing to believe that you are there, and that what is happening there, is - REAL, your mere concept of reality is challenged by a metaphoric question mark that is about to crush you. Masterful narrative, if you are willing to play along with it, if you are willing to thoroughly submit to it. And by the way, I'm not getting paid for this review, nor am I part of the development team. HA!, how I wish I was!<br />
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I have mentioned certain psychological tricks the game will play on you, and these are of great relevance, in my opinion. Outlast finds the cunning of confronting you with pseudo-catatonic madmen who are separated from your physical body by a fence, and you will have the opportunity to listen to their conversation set on the intricate methods they will kill you by, all this while they are eyeballing you in emotionless fashion, from the depths of naked, muscular male bodies - pretty disturbing, and yet another precedent to the game's superb capacity of telegraphing its direct threats. This method also is one that will stick around during the narrative, as there will be other key characters who won't relent trying to put an end to your physical existence, and their occasional-, yet constant/unavoidable re-surfacing truly dials in your "are you STILL intact in there, Sunshine?!" registers. Whenever your gameworld machinations culminate in the eventual graphic demise of such a re-surfacing pursuer, the emotional impact is unprecedentedly tremendous as far as interactive narration goes, and the ultimate pattern you take away from the experience is up to you to construct and amend. <br />
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This is what the game truly is about - it simply does not care that you have endured this particular ordeal seven times already - because you are about to occupy a position of having to showcase if you are ready and able to endure it for the EIGHT time - if you don't like it, you can always chicken out. Though the game is a masterful accomplishment in the context of design and programming, - not something you could say of the latest Amnesia effort, <a href="http://theentertainter.blogspot.com/2013/09/amnesia-machine-for-pigs-review.html">A Machine for Pigs</a> - it goes without saying that outlasting Outlast is what Outlast is all about - and once you do that in no more sitting than two, - one, if you are a perv - you will be an individual who needs to rebuild oneself on many many layers of your being - and this exactly is what a successful horror game needs to accomplish. Easily one of the most well made and most relevant survival horror FPSs to date, and an immediate recommendation for all fans of the genre.GyZhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00377347348312331089noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8543282952879276439.post-2498088352387289102013-09-12T20:20:00.000-07:002013-10-09T08:10:19.277-07:00Amnesia - a Machine for Pigs review<a href="http://tinypic.com/?ref=qyz2af" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;" target="_blank"><img alt="Image and video hosting by TinyPic" border="0" src="http://i40.tinypic.com/qyz2af.jpg" /></a>Amnesia - a Machine for Pigs, unfortunately and ultimately, is a disappointment if you are harsh, or, if you are very very generous, then at the least a relative disappointment. As I will attempt to solidify my claim, saved for a great story, the game is a vastly inferior experience to its polished predecessor Amnesia - the Dark Descent in almost all aspects, and as mentioned, it's merely the textual narrative that I personally find at least that IF not more interesting than that of the Lovecraft Lovetter story backdrop of the first Amnesia game. (If someone says "ImPOSSible Geometry!" - then you know that the joke is on <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ahKstn38CFI">Cthulhu</a>.)<br />
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Amnesia - a Machine for Pigs, while ambitious in its scope of portraying
the layered ordeals of a (highly.) radical industrialist who is intent
to cleanse the scenery of all humans Mayan
style, if you are looking to immerse yourself into the obscene amount of
gore
and creative methodologies of digital death intricacies the mere premise
promises - the developer urged citizens of the Earth to send in WAV
files of death growls and torture sounds, you could imagine the
terrified "anticipation" - then you are in for a rude - awakening? <br />
NOT really. Read more, or don't.<br />
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<a name='more'></a>If you'd be outright hurtful in assessing your gameplay experience in this title, which I have no intention to be, you would have little problem calling this game a yawnfest, and you could burst out a healthy amount of valid arguments to solidify this claim, unfortunately. The level design in this game is sub-par eloquence pretty much all the way through. The world of Amnesia - a Machine for Pigs is not a real life place like that of the much more skillfully-, hell, even masterfully - in this regard - realized <a href="http://theentertainter.blogspot.com/2013/10/outlast-review.html">Outlast</a>, or the acceptable - in this regard - first Amnesia. You will spend no vast amount of time before realizing that a Machine for Pigs offers its environments to scatter rudimentary puzzle elements amidts the respective components/regions of a given setting, - house/cellar/cellar/cellar/cellar/cellar/cellar/:/ and the essential gameplay mechanics revolve around you collecting various items at various extremes of the level, so you can finally assemble the means of your progression at the functional peak locale of the given area. This pretty much equates with all the gameplay satisfaction this title has in store. Nothing more, nothing else. The pig people - the only kind of enemy you will encounter - are not too insistent at chasing you down once you are serious about evading them, there will be no occasions like in Outlast, when the game turns into a twisted kind of burlesque, in which though you can not afford to laugh without that laugh being your last one. So there is almost nothing to be afraid of in this game - the first pigman and his squeel is efficient enough - but the title most often seeks to utilize SOUND BASED jump scares, which I personally find very unethical towards your hardware - I was playing using headphones, and I can tell that some of those sounds pushed the capacity of the headphones well beyond the extremes, even though I deliberately set the volume to 8 out of 10, because I was anticipating such nonsense. It is perfectly all right to scare the player - but do that in the confines of the comfortzone of the hardware! The sound designer made an unacceptable decision when she/he deliberate overdriven some sounds in an attempt to soulkill your subwoofer.<br />
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DON'T do that, game designers.<br />
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As suggested, the gameplay mechanics are pretty predictable, and frankly, are super-obsolete now, that the first Amnesia already has delivered these elements, though the Penumbra games did an even greater job than these two Amnesia games altogether, at offering intuitive puzzles. The <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g6d6tY-sehk">Surface Station</a> level of Penumbra - Requiem for example? What a great narrative and unfolding! It REALLY gives you a sense that the gameworld reflects your actions. Keeps you occupied and thinking all the while, and forces you to make CREATIVE USE of your environment, which actually forces you to reach beyond the usual conduct of get this item "there", then come back, and use the item "here". Intimacy/Involvement/Immersion is delivered and maintained on multiple layers in said Penumbra - Requiem <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g6d6tY-sehk">level</a>, and the almost complete lack of these true subtleties herein are definitely not optimal. A Machine for Pigs is a vastly less successful accomplishment in each respect, despite being an alleged member of the current generation. Oh well. I dare say it is an inferior game to the Penumbra series, and it's not like I wanted this game to be like that. Not at all.<br />
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There is no thinking or intuitive problem solving in Machine for Pigs. Why? Is thinking a think king? I'm sorry to report that the game considers the gamer to be challenged in many regards, and even the puzzles you afraid that will be difficult, prove to be quite - to be honest - laughable pseudo-riddles, and each can be solved with the "let's try all variations then, shall we??" "approach". Like a tablet with 9 toggle switches on it, - essentially 18 factorials - show me JUST three buttons and I scream a one note song of cosmic horror until you kill me - and you can interact with all these switches. How disconnected from your true gameplay awareness it is, isn't it? Let me clarify what I'm talking about : according to the conduct of this title, it does not matter that the game does not give you ANY information/backstory at ALL of what this machinery is supposed to BE at the first place, and it does not matter either that pushing rows and rows of random buttons around on an essentially alien - to you - intricate machinery normally would be the last thing you'd want to do in real life - weeell, it's just a gaaaame innit!!, so just go ahead, Beavis, and do it, because you simply can't give in an improper combo, see?? Sounds incredible? Indeed. But, in the GAME!world of Amnesia - a Machine for Pigs, - in its nightmare-TOYworld - it also happens to be true, unfortunately.<br />
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Having completed the game, I can inform you that the pathetic idea in Amnesia - a Machine for Pigs unfortunately is to pull every lever you can pull and turn every valve you can turn and push every button you can push, and then you can pad yourself on the back. I'm not kidding, nor I am being cynical. I despise cynicism. I write this review out of love, and with discontent, that the game does not REALLY takes ITSELF-, and, as such, nor its PLAYER seriously, like <a href="http://theentertainter.blogspot.com/2013/10/outlast-review.html">Outlast</a> or the Penumbra games do.<br />
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When compared to its spiritual originator, Amnesia - the Dark Descent, a Machine for Pigs tells
a decent, if somewhat self-congratulatory and ultra-insistent story via a yawm-inspiringly
prolonged stroll-around sequence in a bleak, semi-acceptably realized steampunk/Lovecraftian
environment. (Why self-congratulatory? Well, the protagonist refers to the act of turning two valves and reaching an ensuing Exit as a series of "Herculean tasks" - it certainly is Herculean to put up with this amount of narrative egotism.)<br />
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The premiere reason I have written this review, is the frankly,
ridiculous stance of numerous mainstream mediums that claim that the game looks
awesome/very impressive or outright incredible - what a loud of troglodytefesces with trollcancer remnants and sausage chunks in it. These statements could not be farer from the truth, and you can handle this statement as FACT. The recent horror title "Outlast" outlasts -
pummel the pun - Amnesia - a Machine for Pigs by a galactic mile in every
visual stimuli department you can think of, and I do not at all mind if I have
to be the first to voice the seemingly perfectly defendable opinion that Amnesia - a Machine for Pigs looks
pretty post generation, I dare say : outright OBSOLETE, actually. And it is vastly less efficiently optimized than "The
Dark Descent", don't even start ourselves on that. The overall graphical appeals and the majority of the environment unfortunately
reek a tint of low budget-, altoguh doubtless enthusiastic amateurism, almost to the point that you feel you are
playing an exceptionally ambitious and well made - when witnessed as such - mod
by the Amnesia community.<br />
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But the game ultimately just drowns in its strategy
- more precisely, in its excuse for one - of putting you through one deliberately convoluted environment after the
another with the plot - both narrative and environmental - exhibiting minimal to mild psychological pressure on you, - if you are a Penumbra vet, you'll hardly raise an eyebrow per level - and, what I feel as unacceptable, is that numerous are the times,
when the game outright fails to cultivate a level of intimacy/involvement/immersion with
the player. By these frequent and highly tedious segments, the title arrogantly/incompetently assumes that it is jolly good if you have no other method/means
at playing the piece than to wonder around practically aimlessly, until you find the intentionally hidden, obscure means
of progression after 15 minutes of stale passive fuckaroundery, - you know exactly what I'm talking about, YES, THAT one, which YOU despise, too - and don't forget that you gain NO prior information in the gameworld about this sleazy tricks that the piece impertinently seeks to outlive its actual longevity and full face value by. "Here, we have built it, so you are expected to walk around in it for a while all right, after all, we've put effort into it, and, because it lets
you." These malicious decisions always are the hallmarks of sub-par production appeals seeking to conceal the wrinkles deep enough to forecast a soul with a sorrowfully hollow true sound to it. I do not want to see SUCH diabolic machinations in a game wearing the Amnesia title. I want to see TRUE DIABOLIC MACHINATIONS in an Amnesia title. Instead, you can read about them, here.<br />
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The map layouts, while efficient for what they want to do - inviting you for a thorough exploration to collect the items you will need to get through - are far from
impressive as far as their well roundedness are concerned. Just take a look at
the balcony above the front door when you first have your eagerly anticipated "outdoor experience" in
this game. You could not park a body on that balcony, let alone two with a lady's involved. Such nonsense breaks the illusion mercilessly and tremendously, - no architect builds that and lives - and it is beyond me how it could be a part of the final product. Same goes with the doors opening to the outdoor areas. They are the same, nice, comfy Sherlock Holmes doors you find at the interiors. Superunlikely. No one believes you.<br />
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These outdoor sequences are deeply constrained, almost 99% vacant - the only moments you'll be interacting with someone is when you'll get chased by hostilities, briefly. This is a premiere problem with this game : it wants to depict so much, and all you get, is the mere afterthought/remnants of what the story is about. A "fake"-, a "toy" representation of the narrative, unfortunately. I know : it is a game. But I want a game that is NOT a game. You know that you are at a horrific place, but its prime horror lies in its tremendous loneliness and in the disconnectedness which you ACTUALLY "have" with the setting almost all the while - no intimacy and true being there-ness is achieved, the environment does NOT really reflect the narrative in a way that you believe it. Harsh words, but legitimate ones, I'm afraid. The layouts too routine-like, their function to make you run around, painfully/annoyingly obvious. Oh, and you are not even pressured to find a moment of peace out of the dark, like in Amnesia. You can stop for a coffee no problem. I would never do that in the first Amnesia.<br />
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To further illustrate my point of how I consider the gameworld of Amnesia - a Machine for Pigs a mere and almost casual toy-representation of its textual story, let me give you another example that utterly convinced me that the game's stature, much to my sorrow, is a disappointment. At a peak moment, you can hear London being ravaged by the beasts you have invented, but the way all this is expressed towards the player, is the odd-, perplexing combination of the sound of fireworks and the rabid shouting of people - first you go "WOW, there is a wild, wild party in town! Let's arm then throw a oneliner at a real lady or at least at a plastic transvestite!" - and then you find a note, informing you that naaah, this is not a party, actually, what you hear in the background, it is London being ravaged, "aiaight??" (GTA SA's CJ style). Uuuuh. OK. Not a single soul around, saved for one or two scripted sequences triggered and showcased at the proper location and time of people being abducted and/or slaughtered by pigmen, - with about 5 animation frames per "horrific" scene - since the developers themselves must have felt that it is super-pathetic and kind of unacceptable - I'm sorry to say this - that they simply had no means/resources/ to realize this great narrative idea of Victorian London being ravaged by pigmen with the due immersion and realism it demands and deserves in the context of gameplay. You have a visual storyboard, on which you can walk around. This is something of a hallmark of the whole game, unfortunately. You get a very scarce and mild representation of the horrors the game dwells on in the text. Or watch the human meat grinder texture in the environment - you wanted to see this machine IN ACTION, in the new AMNESIA GAME. This was the pinnacle of the upcoming title, in your mind. I know that, you know that. Yet, the title does not feature that <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5OAm1bjOPNo">human meat grinder</a>, which is unacceptable. <br />
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Don't believe your delusion, and stop convincing yourself that Amnesia - a Machine for Pigs is the fresh and hot horror stuff on the scenery. Nope, it is a plain and evident disappointment. Amnesia - a Machine for Pigs is the game of missed golden opportunities, and the game of semi-acceptable excuses presented as solace for each and every of these missed golden opportunities. Not a bad game. Worse : mediocre. <span class="fullpost"><br /></span>GyZhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00377347348312331089noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8543282952879276439.post-36525170905369407142013-08-30T23:20:00.000-07:002013-08-30T23:23:16.072-07:00Prototype 2 review<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/hMS3JUDA3kA" width="420"></iframe>
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Prototype 2 information :<br />
<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prototype_2">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prototype_2</a><br />
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Music used :<br />
"La Piovra - Theme Principal" by Ennio Morricone<br />
"Break Those Bones Whose Sinews Gave It Motion" by Meshuggah<br />
"Do Not Look Down" by Meshuggah<br />
"Swarm" by Meshuggah<br />
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a GyZ reviewGyZhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00377347348312331089noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8543282952879276439.post-86020895947460248912013-06-20T12:17:00.000-07:002013-06-20T13:42:00.594-07:00SHODAN Rejects you, insect - The Female Function in Games<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://ago18.deviantart.com/art/Shodan-Nowadays-187692578"><img border="0" height="240" src="http://i43.tinypic.com/b89289.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<i>Click image for its source</i><br />
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In the narrative context of video games, where lies the boundary between the substantial portrayal of the female ethos VS the sexist objectification of it?
At two main places: in personality portrayal - or, in the complete lack of it - and, in your mind. Both aspects are crucial. The entertainment industry long has realized that the female figure and its inherent symbolic message is the ONE no marketing campaign or movie poster can go non-efficient with, simply because women are the BEST, but it takes men to recognize this.<br />
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<i>You're perfect, yes, it's true, but without me, you are only you."</i><br />
<i>- Faith No More</i><br />
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The following is observable: whether we are talking about female or male protagonist characters in video games, they almost always tend to approximate the average attractive archetype per both genders. Counter-examples are accessible, but those surely represent a mini-minority. You would have a hard time naming a deliberately obnoxious main character in a triple A title. The misplaced and fruitfully antiquated assumption is that the video game woman has a moral obligation to exhibit optimal physical characteristics, whereas the truth is much more uncomfortable: women are autonomous unique individuals and it takes work and commitment to simulate and portray such a being. Read on to know more about it.<br />
<a name='more'></a><br />
In most mainstream instances, the protagonists simply are attractive and charismatic digital people, seeking to conform to what the developers think the collective mind of mainstream awareness holds as an optimal-, "trendy" and desirable cultural image per gender. This intention to serve what is assumed to be desired, is key. And also, it is one with numerous misinterpretations that are about to count their remaining days on the stage. Narrative expectation levels towards character depth and character drama are rising, and the sexist overtone is becoming a laugh, armed with a dismissive hand gesture, AND a bitter of those.<br />
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Developers will not want to see YOU doing that towards their product.<br />
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Sexism is not something to be proud of beyond 13, simply because it fails to recognize the dignity of the female. Even though nothing turns women on more than showing true curiosity in mapping out their personality and dignity. True enough, for man, the female necessarily is the most optimal and most desirable, - on multiple levels, not just literally - and it is easy to over-emphasize, to exploit the surface characteristics of the female figure in an attempt to appeal to the receptors of the lurking inner sexist the developers assume each male secretly/silently cultivates in the psyche. Ahhah! Do we really really do that, gentlemen? Yes. Then we grow up.<br />
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Provided that you show any level of success at the prior, you start to cultivate this tendency as a naturally constrained one from then on, without propagating it as a liability, a creep-tendency on the representatives of the female population you are fortunate enough to encounter. Every wobbly-booby-flash in games, in magazines, in movies is a compliment offered to your creep-tendencies, and here is why: it is evident to be fascinated by the female 24/7 on multiple layers, and it is creepy to voice those inherently private affections at any second of the day. They are your responsibility to control and to get comfortable with, as is to build up the interpersonal connections on which you may have a channel to express those. It is not to say that sexist games should not be available - it is just saying that the exhibition of sexism is becoming a character trait that shapes to be more and more incompatible - as result of being of no consequence - with the ethos of top of the food chain narrative gaming - and that is good news.<br />
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What women might need to understand is that succumbing to the trite machinations of sexist manipulation, or needing this type of manipulation is greatly dependent on the quality of the mere consciousness a given male observes such an attempt at manipulation with. As a man, you do not need to sport Buddha consciousness to find redundant sexist overtones in games pathetic and repulsive. Why "redundant?" Because it has nothing else to say, and I already know that I adore boobs, no need to remind me of that. Isn't "repulsive" a strong word? Not at all, because the sexist overtone assumes that this is what you are craving, as a man. This is your worth, your level of related sophistication, this reflects your inner image of the woman. The emergence of redundancy happens whenever a female-centered narrative structure has no other meaning in it/agenda to it than to showcase the anatomical depth-map of the female. <br />
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Personality portrayal is of key importance. The most important one, no doubt. Interestingly enough, it makes even more accentuated sexist overtones tolerable, even if their presence is not at all called for. Here is a well defined screenshot of Miranda's butt from Mass Effect 2 that borders on "what the hell this is for, Madame?", and this is not me positioning the camera, mind you, this is a fixed Director's Cut dialog camera, so you will stare at Miranda's ass like there is no tomorrow, regardless of your preferences.<br />
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<b>- There is a part of you that NEVER existed.</b><br />
<b>- Might wanna double check THAT.</b><br />
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Ironically enough, it really is the personality portrayal through which even sexuality may flow through in a more simultaneously rampant/subtle way. For a living example of this, you need to look no further than the doctress of the Mass Effect series, who - minor spoilers ahead - is a stone cold sober realist, and lonely as a derelict spaceship, and embodies absolutely everything about the ethos of the elegant cougar looking for a quickie in the solitude of the infirmary. These percepts - which are personal, by the way - have risen without any sexist overtone offered in the context of the character herself - other than the fact that you can drink with her at a particular point of the game, during which she shares eloquent details both of her professional life and of her more private sentiments. This is BEYOND sexism, and has much more to do with a legitimate interpersonal relationship, of which sex may or may not be a part of.<br />
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Sexism has no true weight other than its capacity to cause repulsion with its retardation, because it provokes, exhibits and abuses the Evident, - sex drive - hereby devaluating both its object and its cultivator. Your sex drive is not special. It is the most mundane thing like - EVER, and if you are enticed by any narrative flow which attempts to project your own sex drive as a demonstration of higher value in the context of your very self, then you simply are an immature idiot, who is paying for the developers to make him feel happy and jolly good about being an immature idiot.<br />
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The sexist overtone is slowly and surely becoming a "pseudo-narrative" platitude of superficial staleness, even an obstacle, which hinders the end product more than it benefits it as a whole, since the portrayal of digital women whose identity equates with their sculptured silhouettes, has a harshly limited - if any kind of - narrative value contained in it beyond the good looks you can interpret by the mere blink of an eye.<br />
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<b>"-So you have swords, wings and tits. Okay, now what?"</b><br />
<b>"-What??"</b><br />
<b>"-My point exactly."</b><br />
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What I'm getting at is the contextualized portrayal of sexuality, VS the unsubstantial portrayal of it. The latter, I feel, is becoming more and more risky - and thank God for that -, because the gamer audience that consumes high profile titles, has a more sophisticated and intricate taste now than to willingly stomach an entirely new frontliner-generation of sexy chicks in narrow latex suits. Those days, in a sense, were evolutionarily needed, and they also belong to the past from which the present can learn from to shape the games of tomorrow. Sorry for going Carl Sagan on you. The days of Karate Latex Chicks with Boobs might choose to stick around, but then they will be represented by a related sub-genre, assuaging the cravings of its fans. For-the-sake-of-it sexism needs to accept that it has nothing to offer to a high profile narrative game, simply because for-the-sake-of-it sexism is totally and completely non-consequential.<br />
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But what can you do with the female in a narrative context, when you strip - TUK! - her of the sexist overtones? Are you even serious? The female metaphorical "role model" of games is equally as narratively fruitful and operable as is the male, provided you take your female character seriously, and you operate her through spirit, thought, and emotion. Sophia Lamb in BioShock 2 does not likely reign at the Epicenter of your sexual fantasies, - unless you have noteworthy imagination - yet she is such a masterfully written egotistical ultra-villain that she surely invites Lord Vader to make a move for his notebook. The Sophia Lamb character also MUST be female, so she is capable to reveal the perverted antitheses of motherhood, and she, too, is quite attractive with her imperturbable ice queen aura. But definitely not sexist. Imagine Sophia Lamb in a sexy outfit - it would totally KILL the character. Why is it so? Because the Sophia Lamb character is serious. Sexism is not, it's childish. This, I feel, is a legitimate example of how to convey an attractive female character who sports monstrous ideas to fuel a great narrative.<br />
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In extremely rare instances, the utter lack of sexuality invites to the fervent mind the most transhumanistic connotations of it, all by the absence of female flesh exploitation, as there will be none around of it, this time. The timeless main-villainness of the System Shock series, SHODAN, - Sentient-Hyper-Optimized-Data-Access-Network, the word "Shodan" also is a rank in JUDO - even though she is an artificial intelligence, is the most impertinently sexual female character EVER in gaming history. Not SEXIST! But sexual, and let's observe, how. Here is an introductory quote from her:<br />
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<i>"Look at you, hacker: a pathetic creature of meat and bone, panting and sweating as you run through my corridors."</i><br />
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Tell me more about it. SHODAN arises as the non-conquerable female "IDEA", the primordial female 2.0 form, simply as result of her true, final, and imperturbable contempt towards the human condition. As a pathetic - for the narration's sake - male of flesh and bone, how could you amuse and satisfy the incomprehensible ideals, values, and favorite pastimes of a perfect, digital Machine Goddess of virtually infinite capacities like SHODAN? I'm sure she shows no interest in your spirit either, I've tried, trust me.<br />
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SHODAN is YOUR Constant Rejection. Embodied. Evident. Rampant. <b>Final.</b><br />
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It's the natural order of things that nothing puts sharper of a knife into a man's heart than the rejection of a woman he finds intriguing on all layers, and the most miserable and twisted kind of "digital love" is pervertedly cultivated in the background in System Shock 2, as you do absolutely ALL and EVERYTHING the Machine Mother is asking you to do, good willingly hoping that you are "a team", - hah! - but simultaneously fearing that you might just be nothing more than her avatar/puppet, the operational field of her stone cold sober machinations through which she conducts her own agenda. And, being a human, there is a part of you that craves the acceptance of the <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_WZSR2zT0zw">Machine Mother</a>, and here is why: because you know that you will NEVER get it. NOT from SHODAN. She is the Ultimate Female in the sense that she is the female who is non-conquerable. Making SHODAN a female character is one of the most brilliant decisions ever that have happened in the gaming industry. Uncompromisingly female, and equally uncompromisingly narrative-driven.<br />
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Unsubstantial sexism - the kind that has nothing more to say than "lookigotboobsandepicass" - in games is not something worth being outraged at, because really, the whole thing is just simply sad and pathetic, and, this is my prediction, is a dying trend in the context of top tier games. There ARE and SHOULD be places for the visual exploitation of female flesh, it just simply is that those are the places you can not venture to without dropping off your dignity at the front desk prior, and you will find no female dignity inside, either - no pun intended.<br />
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The days are near the corner-, in fact, they very well might be on your screens via recent games - when the over-sexualization of the woman will be a hallmark of sub-par narrative/production values, or even will "warrant" an almost assured and utter lack of high quality narrative content. Think of the game Dishonored, and of how realistically the brothel is represented in that game. Sexist? Nah. "Just" realistic. Or check out the evolution of the breasts of Lara Croft for a more direct example. Even "better", back in the early days, Lara exhibited sensual sounds while she was climbing ropes, as she was having an orgasm. Good jaub!<br />
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Why do I claim that I, as a man, practically am humiliated when such an attempt of pathetic manipulation is made on my receptors? Because such a manipulation assumes that these are my NEEDS, this is what turns me on, and also assumes that these are the sole and exclusive tools I think the female possesses to fulfill those needs with. Ruthless devaluation of both genders, which, I feel, still has a totally legitimate place in a deliberately sexist form of narrative entertainment, but I once again predict herein that a truly high profile game will no longer be able to validate its status by utilizing the increasingly stale and cheap method of female over-sexualization. In fact, it will prevent it from emerging to any degree of renowned consensus prestige. See game examples above that already have delivered serious female characters, so it is just logical that the consecutive titles will have no other choice than to perform in this important department.<br />
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The games with wobbly boobs in them will most likely be a niche market to fulfill the interest of the adolescent generation, - and I find nothing wrong with that - but in robust top tier titles there will be less and less place for female flesh exploitation, as there really is nothing wrong with female flesh exploitation, except for one thing: you, who it is happening for. <br />
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Easy! You will outgrow it, and there will be plenty of boob-silhouette-flashing titles around to help you in it, but, once again, those declarations will have the acknowledged trait to emphasize these cravings and tendencies, while the robust titles will no longer have the misplaced luxury of female flesh exploitation, as the act of doing so would immediately taint their ambition of emerging as a legitimately robust accomplishment. <br />
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<b>- Hey creep, you're checking out my BOOBS??</b><br />
<b>- Your boobs are checking ME out, Lady.</b>GyZhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00377347348312331089noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8543282952879276439.post-22932284821858097962013-06-20T07:08:00.002-07:002013-06-20T07:08:56.123-07:00Deeply Underrated - BioShock 2 review<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/Yoh0HuFZvSc" width="420"></iframe>GyZhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00377347348312331089noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8543282952879276439.post-12411972384508480872013-06-20T07:00:00.000-07:002013-06-20T07:02:05.099-07:00Deus Ex - Human Revolution review<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/kZ-eUby6k4A" width="420"></iframe>GyZhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00377347348312331089noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8543282952879276439.post-1470737142059092582010-03-25T16:09:00.000-07:002010-04-21T10:55:25.968-07:00Dragon Age Origins review<span style="font-weight: bold;">Fade to Black</span><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">Order a Spellbook! from Amazon</span><br /><br /><a target="_blank" title="ImageShack - Image And Video Hosting" href="http://www.amazon.com/dp/B002BWONIU?tag=opinonio-20&camp=14573&creative=327641&linkCode=as1&creativeASIN=B002BWONIU&adid=1SF3QJ4HQHD52AEPA8QN&"><img src="http://img7.imageshack.us/img7/7012/dragonageb.jpg" align="left" border="0" /></a>Dragon Age is a thorough testament and related love letter written to no lesser of an inspirator than the mere beauty of party based role playing gaming, summoning hyper-traditional, yet cleverly satisfied aspirations to enrich the genre it seeks to worship with ultimate consent and fervent determination. While the title does meticulous work at presenting the portions of its own world the main storyline unfolds along, Dragon Age's inherent nature is more of an - ultimately - linear kind, as the player's path is entirely constrained to the main story arcs the developers present.<br /><br />Note: a nice attribute of the game is the option to add downloadable content to the core experience. This is something that may exhibit tremendous potential in the future, provided the developers will release a software kit fans could construct new locations, characters and quests with.<br /><a href="http://theentertainter.blogspot.com/2010/03/dragon-age-origins-review.html"><br />Read more!</a><br /><br /><span class="fullpost"><br /><br />As you will see, Dragon Age is a game of three major portions and consorting sequences: exploration, communication, extermination. The player arrives to a certain location, learning that there is imminent danger tainting the scene and vicinity, and it usually is up to the party to eliminate the threat via the traditional RPG conflict management of putting an efficient end to the dire existence of all abominations cultivating ill will in the nearby quest areas.<br /><br />Dragon Age really is the prestigious title Baldur's Gate, now realized in three dimensions. The camera is strictly constrained according to various sticky principles, perhaps a bit more constrained than what true flexibility would demand. On the other hand, this kind of rigor undoubtedly adds a certain kind of palpable extra seriousness to the game, along with the message that the title does not really care if you like the way it presents its charms and challenges. When all is said and done, Dragon Age gives you the option to experience its world both from a tactical-, and, from an exploration point of view, each suitable to offer fluent gameplay functionality, let alone the mere variety these two primal modes are able to entertain the deeper tissue of the game, which, ultimately is: tactical combat. Tactical combat which is nothing short of epic.<br /><br />The title's presentation values, while enthusiastic, are relatively inconsistent, tainted by occasional design flaws and - staggeringly enough - utter lack of imagination. Dragon Age particularly shines in its written areas, as the textual information you collect in the game's Codex, is of literary quality, inviting you to read an effective Guide to the world you are about to be immersed in. Yet, a design flaw is right there to mock a possibility which was unacceptably banished from realization: where are the illustrations? Where are the illustrations? Do I need to ask everything twice? Do I need to ask everything twice? What is the reason that I can read about a Revenant and enjoy quality shivers stalking on my spine, but I can not see an illustration of the creature?<br /><br />The game presents open areas and dungeons, the latter elements usually delivered as sub-locations, accessible from the open areas. These regions of healthy-, yet far from vast perspectives are nothing less and nothing more than safe havens the player can familiarize herself/himself with the local folklore and the present situation in. As hinted, the initial setup usually is a dire one in the world of Ferelden. The game has the noticeable narrative tendency of inviting the party to locations that promise no good, yet - paradoxically enough - promise all of it: fight, experience, loot. Dragon Age uses a strict, calculable formula in order to deliver a motive to the player. Once a new location is reached, a sequence of thorough exploration is about to entertain/fall on the narrative. These segments are not reduced to area scavenging though, in fact, they are more reliant on - usually - one sided interaction with the local Non-Player Characters. While this is an acceptable method of building up the story, the inherent formula of<br /><br />"You! YOU will be the Leader of the Resistance!"<br /><br />becomes super-evident along the road, as you will hardly hear anything else from a Non-Player Character than an account of how terrible a day it is indeed, due to the rampant presence of nearby abominations unconceivable to mind and psyche.<br /><br />Dragon Age does an acceptable, yet, usually far from stellar job at realizing its notable locations, occasionally parching to surprisingly uninspired settings, just to make one endure below-average hack and slash action taking place in an ineptly constrained "toy-forest." The Dalish Woods sequence of the game is a proper example, in my opinion, of how the title showcases its thorough understanding of relentless cliché abuse and uninspired environment design on some - and some, only - occasions. What about Orzammar, the Dwarven City? There is this public informant, shouting the news to the locals. Well, too bad Orzammar did not see anyone walking around, except for the party. Solution: the informant shouts all day long to the grating he is placed in front of. Have you considered - talking - to someone? Pun: intended.<br /><br />As hinted, the player soon will see that the game has its coherent, nevertheless relatively limited awareness of two kinds of places, and but two kinds of places, only: dangerous places, and very dangerous places. There are some very-very dangerous places in the game as well, but they are located in the Fade, thank the Maker for that. The major difference between a dangerous place and a very dangerous one, is that the dangerous place is but an information base telling you how TRULY dangerous the very dangerous place will be, provided you are foolish enough to cultivate the thought of intersecting with their shady vistas. These locations are the practical dungeons the fights will take place in, and they usually are accessible from the introductory location, which will be suitable to harvest all the gratefulness in the world from the locals upon ascending from the dungeon as primal savior of the scene. What makes a very dangerous place a spatial construct worth its title and reputation? The answer is simple, and the one the game truly shines massively at: fighting.<br /><br />Before examining the fighting system though, let us see how Dragon Age delivers as a narrative accomplishment, with keen curiosity focused on dialog work. Not surprisingly, yet quite welcomely, Dragon Age has an immense amount of spoken lines in it, and, while this review will not address story elements as result of the purpose of keeping the new player's experience unblemished, it will claim the liberty to offer a cautious suspicion on how eleven out of ten Dragon Age characters suffer from the unfortunate condition consensus regards as borderline personality disorder.<br /><br />Clarification: interaction with party members is of - theoretically - great importance herein, and an element of the game that supposed to bring steep entertainment value to the fray. On various points along the plot, the main character you personify will encounter Non-Player Characters that are ready to join your rankings, effectively making Player Characters out of them. You can command up to four Player Characters at the same time, usually assembled upon exiting from the camp locations that are safe havens suitable to upgrade your characters, equipment, and be immersed in dialog with your current allies. This, of course, is not the only opportunity you can cultivate discussion with the Player Characters: you can do that at any time you want, at any place you want, provided the character you want to discuss with is a member of the current party configuration. At the camp site, all characters are available, though.<br /><br />Dragon Age has a relatively limited set of interpersonal channels to offer dialog and related moods along, but, fortunately, it does everything conceivable with the communicational tools it chooses to model and deliver. First and foremost, the game has its "serious" tone and related register, by which each character - let it be Player or Non-Player - is ready to resonate her/his background story and current situation, which is an acceptable method to address the world locations and consorting conditions they are from and/or subjected to, giving you an account, impression of a certain place of the game world you are not necessarily to experience tonight, but, it certainly is more to hear from those at least, than to be left with narratively idle character models with no relevant thoughts to share.<br /><br />This serious tone is enriched by Dragon Age's noticeable intent to smuggle irony into the mix, something it fortunately excels more at than it fails miserably with it. The most ineptly realized aspect of all communications taking place in the game, is that which is characterized by deep emotions though, as this is the exact spot the characters are ready to exhibit their borderline personality disorders on, delivering radically realized, super-clumsy facial expressions of abusive effect crave, making you feel helpless for not having the dialog option:<br /><br />"Have you considered talking to someone?"<br /><br />Fortunately, Dragon Age delivers quite a few memorable Non-Player Characters to enrich your rankings, but, in my opinion, the so called "good guys" of the game are but testaments of - sorry about that - ineptly presented emotional superficiality, waiting to be addressed so they can spill all their spiritual content on you without remorse. You will like them though, and this is the main idea. You will like them for not being able to.<br /><br />Alistair. This is too much to take for you. You should end this. Now. Secretly, silently. Wait - you want me to do it for you? All you got to do is ask, you know that. I'm here for you. Always.<br /><br />Clarification: while the game attempts to offer seemingly relevant twists to character interaction through the dialog work, your options to go deeper along a particular communication channel, are much scarcer than what the game frequently suggests to you. There are myriad occasions when your unfriendly reaction to a particular problem/inquiry will not yield different result than the one you end up with if to play as the benevolent hero archetype. Though there are some plot spots you could exhibit a more significant temporal influence on consecutive happenings by making a decision which is not that of the aforementioned heroic archetype, in reality, these decisions will resonate on a very short scale, and you will swiftly find yourself on the same narrative spot the game wants and NEEDS you to be at, with but a couple of short references echoing your previous decisions - if at all.<br /><br />But, the ultimate relevancy of these dialog based sentiments is fragile at best, as the vast majority of gameplay time will be characterized by explicit conflict management. Delightfully enough, the primal form of conflict management of the game is to spill blood and spill loads of it. This is not only great fun for the whole family, but it summons the oldschool-, yet timeless Baldur's Gate style of fighting in three dimensions.<br /><br />Whenever a combat starts to unfold, you are free to pause the action at any time in order to work out a strategy. This is something you will spend a massive amount of quality time with, as the game has the fruity tendency of presenting enemy lines that are rather challenging to prevail against. To be quite honest, in other prestigious games, like Star Wars - Knights of the Old Republic for example, it is common practice to grind down 90% of the enemies by doing little else and little more than pushing some buttons around, but, in Dragon Age, you surely will fail if you refuse to employ and enforce a strategy. The tactics you choose to be reliant upon in a fight, truly equates to the respective differences between glorious triumph, desperately fought struggle, and: plain failure. Fortunately enough, Dragon Age measures challenges with rigorous sobriety, emphasis on rigorousness: it is easy to assume a fight as an encounter which is hopeless to prevail in, and regard the challenge at hand to be nothing more than a difficulty spike, and, as such: a flaw in the tissue of the installment. For example, there is a segment in the game in which you need the defend a small village from invading undead hordes. If you do not first convince NPC soldiers to join the fight AND you fail to keep an eye on them - meaning: heal them during the fight - then it is very likely that you will fail epically in this particular sequence. But, if one is careful about keeping as much of the soldiers alive as possible, then the sequence in question may actually seem easy to accomplish with minimal-, or, with no casualties at all.<br /><br />The game, of course, is heavily reliant on good old character and inventory management, and you probably will spend a healthy amount of time examining the contents of your backpack for one or two presents you could offer for all the fans around. Luckily enough, there is a nice row of empty hotkey slots per character you can assign Skills, Talents, Spells and Items to at your will, making it easy and comfortable to have a go with the particular style of playing you think you may find success with. The combat itself really boils down to three particular aspects: melee combat, ranged combat, and spells related combat. Naturally, you want to handle your characters in a fight according to their respective character classes. As such, fighters will be your meat grinders, while your mages will heal and aid them, with keen emphasis placed on entertaining the baddies around via all possible - and, of course: effective - magical means accessible for you at the given time.<br /><br />Dragon Age sports a pretty sanely balanced spell tree, making spells more of a nice palette of extremely useful accessories than immediate instruments of a radical verdict of instant stopping power. Spells are the most effective when used in harmony with other means of existence molestation. A nice and successful Vulnerability Hex spell, for example, will make sure that the ice arrow your rogue shoots out AND connects with, will cause extreme discomfort on the target affected by the spell in question. There are a couple of spell combinations, as well: while the palette of combos is not extremely rich, there are quite a few nice tricks you can pull off under your sleeve, especially if your party configuration sports multiple mages.<br /><br />It is quite possible to lose total control in the fights, the main reason for this, is that it is not easy to GAIN it, at the first place. This total control of dictating how and where the fight takes place is of essential importance. Once you lose the ability in a fight to dictate the place and means, then the tide of battle is about to turn away from your favor utterly, so it is of essential importance to keep your mages at a safe distance from the meat grinder, or, to ensure their safety through magical means. When your fighters are busy protecting your mages, then it is not the collision you want to participate in, as the price you will pay for it is much steeper than the price worth to spend: as such, you want to be able to protect the fighters WITH the mages, instead.<br /><br />The effective Dragon Age gameplay time which is out of the fruity boundaries of dialog based story exploration, is primely based upon consecutive fights and the consorting despoliation of the practical dungeons these collisions will take place in. The duration of the fights is oftentimes pretty long, yet the game chases these minutes away like seconds, as you will spend those with exhibiting steep attention and meticulous care on how possibly you could prevail at the given fight with the most optimal results harvested. Dragon Age nevertheless sports a very steep difficulty factor, oftentimes delivering a combat experience which is nothing short of epic qualities, indeed.<br /><br />With its number of - in my opinion - not particularly fortunate screen estate decisions spoiling an otherwise intact interface structure, Dragon Age comes to you as a title of solid playability. As for these minor discomforts, the player, for example, is forced to cycle through her/his characters by the molestation of one particular arrow to reach the desired character she/he plans to conduct modifications on. This is a delicately weak decision from the developers, though they probably had the idea that it is only good if the player has a chance of being subjected to other character sheets than the one she/he is currently looking for.<br /><br />With its story featuring traditional high-fantasy motivators, yet delivering quite a few remarkable additional qualities shaped out of delicious, darker tones and moods, Dragon Age weighs in as an acceptably solid narrative accomplishment, occasionally tainted though by brief periods of being encumbered by its own mass and being proud of it. As it stands now, Dragon Age is a healthily thick, interactive adventure book written by Steve Jackson and Ian Livingstone, - this was a metaphor, mind you - coming to you though through multiple mediums stimuli can register along, particularly excelling at giving its players rather steep challenges on the battlegrounds.<br /><br />Never forget and do not take the notion lightly that Dragon Age DARES to kill you, and it WILL. Winning a combat in this game demands focus and properly placed attention, making you notice upon collision completion that you spent the last thirty minutes in an entirely another world. Summoning this intimate immersion is the primal agenda and operational field of every single CRPGs, and it also is one Dragon Age claims to itself with dainty, yet lethal fingers. As noted, what the game delivers in the form of fighting is nothing less than epic, and, as such, Dragon Age necessarily weighs in as an accomplishment that has a super-solid understanding of what it ultimately is about.<br /><br />Check out videos I made on YouTube:<br /><a href="http://www.youtube.com/my_videos?feature=mhw4">Videos I made on YouTube </a><br /><br />If you enjoyed this here article, check out my comic: <a href="http://planetseedcomic.blogspot.com/">Planetseed</a><br />If you are to circulate magnificently pleasant vibrations: <a href="https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_donations&business=zoltangyalog%40gmail%2ecom&item_name=fluent&no_shipping=0&no_note=1&tax=0&currency_code=HUF&lc=HU&bn=PP%2dDonationsBF&charset=UTF%2d8">Buy me Beer</a><br /></span>GyZhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00377347348312331089noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8543282952879276439.post-66672064600256216192009-09-23T23:23:00.000-07:002009-09-27T15:26:41.163-07:00Deux Ex Invisible War review<span style="font-weight: bold;">Deus Ex Invisible War is the cyber-augmented action-stealth mini game with mini choices that have mini consequences in a mini cyberpunk world.</span><br /><br /><a href="http://theentertainter.blogspot.com/2009/09/deux-ex-invisible-war.html" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img src="http://img228.imageshack.us/img228/1173/deusexinvisiblewar.jpg" width="141" border="0" height="200" /></a>Oftentimes regarded as inferior smaller sibling to a game of rigorous consensus cultivation, Deus Ex sequel Invisible War is a steady silhouette among underrated pieces of cyberpunk sentiments. The most obtrusive shortcoming of the effort is identical with its delicate charm, as a toy game it is, no doubt, characterized by persistent limitations that define a game environment more similar to an obstacle course than to a sentient world, ready to exist without the average bystander NPC informing you of its current workings.<br /><br />As an FPS delivery, Deus Ex Invisible War attempts to blend core gameplay components of various genres, fueled by the intent to offer the cyberpunk experience that remains capable to confront you with varied challenges and their consorting playing styles. Though the design decisions these elements are amended by do show moderate and even some severe imbalances, the game remains able to deliver a memorable moment for each and every mistake it commits.<br /><br /><a href="http://theentertainter.blogspot.com/2009/09/deux-ex-invisible-war.html">Read more!</a><br /><br /><span class="fullpost"><br />It is of no surprise that the driving force behind the whole story architecture comes in the form of different political and even religious factions, each pursuing their own agendas, making steep efforts to convince the player to line up for their cause. Deus Ex Invisible War is a multi-layered hybrid which seems to find solid fun harming itself at areas it delivers decently at. While the story paints a plot of solid movie script intricacy with elegant twists and an efficient use of the orthodox cyberpunk components, there are no records stored of the faction transmissions and of the dialogs the player will be involved in. The result of this utterly flawed design decision is that you will not be able to cultivate the fictional immersion which is served by the game, as the title fails to realize the obtrusive necessity to store the provided information for later scrutiny. It dismisses data into thin virtual air, instead.<br /><br />The <a href="http://yetanotherstaggeringcomicstrip.blogspot.com/2009/08/cybernetic-organism.html">importance of the metal endoskeleton</a> - just to try and be appropriate - is missed on by the living tissue. You will be subjected to the narrative building blocks by small snippets of textual and voiced transmissions, oftentimes arriving to you when you are busy interacting with the game world. What remains as a recorded form of the story is but the list of your current objectives, practically leaving you with just enough information to know where you should go and who you should give a hard time to. The absence of a verbatim record of the textual narrative content is the most painful shortcoming of this delivery and remains clearly unacceptable.<br /><br />Immersion might pleasantly crush on you when a game exhibits sane wits on how to manage, how to offer its own resources. The developers of Doom 3 made a masterful decision when they did let you soak into your PDA to read emails and/or listen to audio logs with the effective game world being closed off from you for the time of your data consulting - though you could listen to audio logs while roaming on the map. When you closed off the PDA screen, the world of Doom 3 jumped on you again like a ferocious beast, knocking you off your feet with a very steep chance. One has to have the impression that this feeling is deliberately invoked by the developers and it is depressing to see the gap its absence is causing in the body of Deus Ex Invisible War.<br /><br />The game has tall promises and an almost charming form of clumsiness when it struggles to fulfill the most focal ones of those. Deus Ex Invisible War is the cyber-augmented action-stealth mini game with mini choices that have mini consequences in a mini cyberpunk world. Though there is a healthy number of conflicting factions and related ideologies sketched with a steady hand, your choices of teaming up with any of them will be limited to two factions for a steep amount of gameplay time. To render these narrative constraints even more pronounced, your decisions sadly will have no particular effect on the future events to unfold, you have to be content with varied text messages from the respective factions. An even more weighty and quite legit criticism towards the game could be that you are free to decide among the four possible conclusions with the press of a button, regardless of the playing style and alliances you have cultivated up to that point.<br /><br />It is worth mentioning that Deus Ex Invisible War delivers some decent dialogs along the way, many of which will give you more precise insights of the respective agendas of the different factions with central emphasis placed on what the factions think or do NOT think about the current prospects of humanity.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">If the World</span><br /><br />Though the game suggests steep ambitions about presenting an alternate reality with all things cyberpunk to- and in it, these small scale obstacle course environments do force the title to create a coating of passive pseudo detail around the world using tools of textbook linearity. While the mere accessibility of these elements are pleasant to recognize, their number is scarce and they exhibit zero function in the game world, except for their mere-, nevertheless somewhat fruity existence.<br /><br />These atmospheric narrative solutions are constrained to be little else and not much more than interactive newsstands and passive conversations between NPCs. Sadly, the news and the occasional ads have a tendency of repeating themselves as result of a limited number of reported events, while the fresh ones are not exercising influence on the game world at all - understandably, as it is usually the outside world that influences the content of the news.<br /><br />Conversations between the NPCs are passive in a sense that you do not get a chance to be involved in these triggered bystander affairs. They will be activated or deactivated when you are in the appropriate vicinity and there is usually but one conversation available per pair of talking NPCs waiting to be approached to deliver their dialog about the current ideological state of the world/room you are in. There could be two additional choices. First of all, you may have the chance to initiate a branching conversation tree on your own with an NPC, or, you could start up the one sided smalltalk sequence pretty much all characters of the game prove to be excellent at. Luckily enough, the writers have put effort to give charm and relative relevancy to these lines and it is never a bad idea to click each and every sentence out of an NPC.<br /><br />While all of the above initial observations might seem to be legit pointers of the memorable-, almost delicate shortcomings of the delivery, once you accept these conditions and examine the elements Deus Ex Invisible War fills its playground with, you could find a precious commodity among them which you could call fun.<br /><br />The settings of the game are structured into individual hubs, connected by brief loading times waiting to be triggered once confirmation is given of the inherent rampant desire to invade another location of the world. The general pacing-, the general tempo of the title is rather smart and simple in its nature. Reminiscent to the mythic RPG hack and slash delivery Diablo and its spiritual follower Hellgate London, Deus Ex Invisible War gives you relatively safe locations the other hubs are gravitating around.<br /><br />A thorough exploration of these safe areas involves the collection of all available information, which is happening by talking to all the NPCs you can find in these central areas. This is the number one- and the only method to access and automatically commit to side quests, as rejection opportunities are even scarcer in the game than side quests are. Having obtained the necessary information about your current situation and related options via interacting with the NPCs and getting automatically subjected to direct transmissions from the rival factions, you are free to play as you wish to play. At least, it is the sweet promise of eternal contact comfort you are so accustomed to hear and so ready to experience. Also, it is the sweet promise Deus Ex Invisible War is not afraid to deliver, either.<br /><br />One has to recognize that the game does a better job than what it does get consensus credit for. First let's see the types of challenges the obstacle course environments will shock and/or entertain you by. The game invites you to cultivate a unique playing style composed of the respective elements of the two general approaches it offers: covert ops and terminator. Do you want elements from the Duke Nukem style, or would you prefer to remain unnoticed and get the job done with minimal - if any - damage caused in living tissue?<br /><br />What prevents you though from deliberately leaning to one particular side? Nothing at all, even better: Deus Ex Invisible War almost makes a good job of recognizing and implementing the concept of flexibility, invoking though blatant shortcomings as hideous mates to the solid and smart solutions it also exhibits in the exact same area.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Cyber F(r)(i)ght</span><br /><br />The central problem - if you want to call it that - with Deus Ex Invisible War is the game's incapacity of sanctioning the player efficiently. The worst thing that could happen to you in this game is the necessity to live on with the word conscience written in your soul lettered from the casual gallon of blood you HAD to spill in a certain hub of the game. No matter who they were or were not, your radical verdict will have no actual effect on the gameplay, the most you can confront with as a narrative result, are text comments, whenever you do something that you were not exactly asked to, yet the developers took the time and researched every paths you could take and delivered a sentence to reflect on those with practically passive, weightless words lying interactivity and living awareness. Do not worry, or do JUST that: you will not be able to kill vital characters. Whom you can kill: the game has no need for. Who the game needs up to a certain point: will remain alive to that point.<br /><br />Deus Ex Invisible War does not seem to excel at rewarding the player who shows willingness to complete objectives with a more delicate approach. If the game world is unable to present dangerous consequences if you kill the guard and no additional results are plausible if you exhibit delicate presence - then why wouldn't you kill? For the sake of immersion? Immersion is what you play for, immersion is not what you do not kill for.<br /><br />Fortunately, fighting is a decently realized aspect of the game with many solid ideas invented and successfully incorporated into- and in it. Deus Ex Invisible War exhibits a large chunk of its charm throughout the fight sequences. There are these Spider bot grenades in the game, for example. Once you throw one of these, it will assemble itself to a mechanical spider and will do a decent job of protecting you. When I tried to pick a lock with a Spider bot companion around, the little machine suddenly started to observe what I was doing and warned me that lock picking is clearly unacceptable and I really should stop this behavior. On the other hand, Deus Ex does not come short of hilarious moments when it tries to resonate a sentient spirit in itself. You kill a soldier with a sniper shot. The soldier dies. The animation of his teammate instantly switches to the "!alerted!" mode. He proudly jumps to the exact same location his teammate was just killed off from, in order to reveal his devotedly realized "!alerted!" mode, assuring the player of being the grateful beholder of a gaming experience that finally has that cinematic drama and sense of proper life in it. I showed mercy to that dude. Wait, did I?<br /><br />The related challenges are not particularly diverse. The stealth aspect of the game greets you in the form of organic and robotic guards on observable patrol patterns, backed up by security cameras with the urge to spot you and sound the alarm, let alone their capability of activating the turrets. Fortunately, there are different methods to imbue your actions with an EMP - electromagnetic - punch to them, while you could always rely on even more dramatic methods, granted that the right equipment is at your disposal at the right time. The scramble mines and scramble grenades are among your most valuable tools. One has the impression that their power harms balance. The huge military bot of the game is not a construct to be afraid of. It is a construct you feed a scramble grenade for. The military bot will become your ally for a decent amount of time, which will be enough to let the military bot kill every hostile entities in its vicinity, even better/worse: it twill be enough to let you demolish the military bot itself. It will not switch back to hostile once you, as its master, harm it to de-function and beyond.<br /><br />The maps of the game that are connected to the central hubs are mainly small and moments which they truly shine by, are scarce. Scarce, yet, present. I especially like particular portions of the Antarctica sequence which I regard as the strongest architectural extreme of the game, while the Black Gate Ruins in Trier takes the meaning of the word "uninspired" to places only untamed cosmos dared to dream of so far.<br /><br />Level design, in its nature, is fond of utilizing the exact same techniques and finds little if any urge to deliver surprises later on. The main approach the program utilizes is to offer multiple paths to reach certain (check)points of the maps. This, of course, is totally welcomed and gratefully acceptable, yet, these alternate paths are oftentimes identical to different vent shafts. You will spend a healthy amount of time in vent shafts in the game. Not too much, but a healthy amount.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Item Romantic</span><br /><br />The title delivers acceptably in spite of the accessible items you will find throughout the world. As mentioned, grenades and mines are highly useful and their types do come in crystal sobriety and much welcomed predictability. Let us be sane for the sake of one stolen moment. If you would place an armed concussion grenade beside a locked container or a wooden door, the damage probably would be enough to convince these material constructs to submit to entropy so you could take a peek of what they were concealing from curiosity up to this point. Oh. Wait. The contents of the locker probably would be massively damaged, as well. Deus Ex Invisible War is kind enough to mimic the behavior of matter in the fluent sense that it will not force you to have your inner ninja take over whenever something is locked AND remains content with the state, as the game gives invincibility to non-activated inventory items. You are free to blast away almost every door and almost all containers, which is not to say that you should, but it is nice to see that the developers kept evident focus on imbuing the storage- and environmental devices with a realistic durability model.<br /><br />The number of items the player is capable to carry around at a given time feels sanely-, yet strictly limited. The carrying capacity could be increased gradually using Biomodification. The game shows inconsistency in the inventory management and remains proud of it, as you will be able to stack up additional pieces of a certain item if you already have a slot occupied by that type of item, but an additional and different kind of item will require a free inventory slot, regardless how much extra pieces you could pick up of an item type which is already in your possession. The game remembers the position of objects you have dropped, so stashing is a solution, too. There is only kind of ammo used in the game, with decent, nevertheless mini fiction backing up this model. Weapons are modifiable by weapon Mods, while their duration remains infinite. The cause of this: their durability is not being measured. As result, it has no awareness that it should do anything else than being infinite.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Plug and Play Inter-Race</span><br /><br /><a href="http://img9.imageshack.us/i/deusexinvisiblewarsomar.jpg/"><img src="http://img9.imageshack.us/img9/8079/deusexinvisiblewarsomar.jpg" alt="Image Hosted by ImageShack.us" border="0" /></a><br />The game delivers the cybernetic implant component by the introduction of the Biomod system. A Biomod is gained upon selection, while the right of the selection requires the accessibility of a Biomod canister. Deus Ex Invisible Wars delivers both standard issue and black market Biomod canisters, these illegal ones being illegal because their color is different and they house the modifications that you will find especially shady uses for.<br /><br />The most profound problem with this subsystem is the scarcity of the available Biomods. Simply put, there is not a whole lot of them, in fact, there is but a few of them and it seems rather hard to find modifications of which you will instantly know you simply not want to exist without.<br /><br />Granted, the game exhibits an occasional, nice sense of balance and a related readiness of keeping it, but, one has the impression that this cited sense of scarce balance is only present so you could be staggered by its total and complete absence later on. Let us see an example. There are three basic methods of becoming hard to detect in this game, with an additional fourth approach of bewildering efficiency of not playing the title at all. As for the first three, Deus Ex Invisible War quite fortunately recognizes the different surfaces and makes the sound of your footsteps behave according to the intensity you move with, plus, the game remains welcomely aware of the material quality of the floor, as well. You make even less noise when in a crouching position, even better: crouching reduces your visibility, too. For short: you could make yourself harder to detect using the strictly analog way. Then, there comes the Biomod method.<br /><br />Smartly enough, Deus Ex Invisible War simulates two different kinds of outer awarenesses that could detect you: organic awareness and artificial awareness. Both require a different kind of Biomod to be cloaked from. How does all this relate to balance? Well, your player character could possess the Thermal Masking Biomod to shield her/him from artificial awareness such as cameras, combined with the Neural Interface Biomod that lets her/him connect to computers and hack them in order to take solid control of surveillance or even turrets on higher Biomod levels. It is safe to say in this regard that the game lets you play the silent hacker archetype with all the required tools accessible, but if you would want to conceal yourself from organic enemies by Biomodification, then you would not be able to connect to a casual computer, as the Cloak Biomod - the one that conceals you from organic awareness - and the Neural Interface Biomod - the one that lets you hack - are in the same category and can not be relied on simultaneously. Which, of course, is an obstacle that would be the first to be eliminated by every sane trader in the game world.<br /><br />Fortunately enough, the system does not show interest of forcing you behind certain boundaries. You have three options per modifiable body part regarding the extra function you want for the respective anatomical region. But here is the catch: only one modification per category could be selected and activated. In other words, there are certain things you will not be able to pull off in one run. As mentioned, Biomods are obtained or perfected by using up Biomod canisters. Activating a Biomod is but one step-, and also is the bigger part of the fun. The smaller part of it is the mere absence of it, as activating these delicacies will require energy. You can replenish your energy levels by using up Energy Cells or by visiting a Repair Bot.<br /><br />If you would want, you could overwrite your current Biomod with a different one, then, if need would dictate, you could rely on the original Biomod which you changed earlier. Notice that this is the moment by which the game exhibits flexibility with an elegant price to it. You could change your Biomod configuration, but it would cost you and the currency is called a canister, be that a regular- or an illegal one. In addition, the mere accessibility of a spare canister is not necessarily sufficient or fruity enough to realize a transformation you may have plan for. Suppose you have the maximal level of 3 of a certain Biomod. Want to change the Biomod? You could. But the new Biomod you select will start out at level 1 and you will need 3 canisters of the appropriate kind to regain the configuration that you are currently riding with.<br /><br />These RPG elements are begging to be played with, but they are clearly lacking resources, unfortunately. The fact that the game is rather fond of giving away Biomod canisters, does not seem to be as a result of flawed resource considerations. One has the impression that the developers wanted the player to be able to play around with her/his Biomods on a more involved level and change the body configuration frequently, as need dictates. But need does NOT dictate and this is the saddening part of it. There are chances that you will end up with two separate collections of canisters, one composed of regular- and one composed of black market hardware. There are simply not enough options offered, the game screams for a Biomod palette three- four times the size of this mini selection. A shame and even a bitter of it, as the developers found some truly memorable moments to showcase and emphasize elements that were realized in the game pretty much flawlessly.<br /><br />One example would be the Speed Enhancement Biomod, which, in my opinion, is one of the most essential and most solidly and sanely implemented function of the palette. With level 3 Speed Enhancement, you will have a harder time colliding with the incoming rocket than you will have trying to avoid it, but, what I found to be extremely rewarding, were the occasional comments coming in from the game world whenever I activated the function in order to improve my position in a dicey situation. I recall being spotted by a pair of the big, bulky, power armored soldiers of the Templar faction. Though there is a split second of hope asking me if I would like to cultivate it, I dismiss it on the voice of the Templar instead which I am about to hear with cautious astral ears, checking my initial options behind the large crate that serves as a temporal cover. Massively temporal it is, no doubt, as the Templar finds the corpse of my hope and probably invokes the iron pleasure of it I never knew it was part of. In the next moment, I hear them exchanging words and then the heavy sound of metallic footsteps rumble across ignorant concrete. It have seen and heard all before, horror and even twisted fun of blood included. These Templar hulks are a literal pain to kill as they blow into your face upon their submission to the proper ideology, so I choose mine in a rather orthodox fashion: it IS shameful to run. But it DOES have its uses. Especially if you are fast at it. I active the Speed Enhancement Biomod, I take five steps backward, then, when there is only the width of the crate which separates me from the ones who seek radical revenge on me - I run and I jump. The mere experience of leaving the two Templars behind me with my body being in the air 15 meters up from the ground, is hugely rewarding on its own. But Deus Ex Invisible War gives me the definite shiver on the skin and in the casual soul and I remain eternally grateful for this for its developers, as the virtual wind brings the frustrated groan of the Templar to me:<br /><br />"BGAARGH! Biomods!"<br /><br />And the one question to remain, to roam and roam in cyber-augmented cerebral cortex under pale cable rainbow, is this: what multitools are used for in the game?<br /><br />If you enjoyed this here article, check out my comic: <a href="http://planetseedcomic.blogspot.com/">Planetseed</a><br />If you are to circulate magnificently pleasant vibrations: <a href="https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_donations&business=zoltangyalog%40gmail%2ecom&item_name=fluent&no_shipping=0&no_note=1&tax=0&currency_code=HUF&lc=HU&bn=PP%2dDonationsBF&charset=UTF%2d8">Buy me Beer</a><br /></span>GyZhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00377347348312331089noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8543282952879276439.post-14063369944439657202009-09-06T13:40:00.000-07:002009-09-06T13:47:22.427-07:00TestThe Shadow of Your Smile, When You Were Gone <span class="fullpost">Will Color All My Dreams and Light the Dawn.</span>GyZhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00377347348312331089noreply@blogger.com0