The Elder Scrolls V: SkyRim – Review

Buy It.

Two Worlds II – Review

Let’s go in this from the start and say that you need to play this with any expectations to match up to Oblivion will be gone.

If you go into Two Worlds II with low to average expectations, you may actually have some fun.
This game did nothing more that take bits of Lord of the Rings and Star Wars and mashed it into a pedestrian RPG that may be ok for the dry months of gaming until more AAA titles come along and by the time you have forgotten about this game, Elder Scrolls V will be here.
So far it’s more playable than the original version. I bought the first one with high expectations and within 3 days I took it back.  This so far looks and plays better and it’s MUCH better than Gothic 4 which just came out 2 months ago.

The story is somewhat interesting where your character is actually so far working WITH the orcs that occupy Antaloor. It almost starts like Oblivion where you have to escape the King’s dungeon and figure out how to rescue your sister Kyra with whom you share a mystical bond with. King Gandohar is torturing her to find out how to get her power so he can become a god and of course, you are what’s stopping him from doing so.
As per usual, the first few levels act as a bit of a tutorial for you to learn the mechanics of the game. One of the issues that arises of course is there are still some things you have to figure out on your own, one being the lock picking mini game the other is how to create spells for the spell book but at the same time the game takes it time to show you have to kill multiple enemies with a bow.

Another little surprise is the ease of switching gear in the game. I was mixed about the fact that I have 3 slots in which to mix and match armor and weapon setting and that you can switch it on the fly.  While it may seem like a good idea in some instances, it takes away from what is usually standard in RPGs that when you go into combat, you go in with the gear you have on and not be able to ‘pause, change and fight’.

Something else that I caught is that the setting for this game isn’t your standard medieval type setting. Most of the game feels more of an African/Middle Eastern/ Asian type of flair although most of the armor looks standard for this type of RPG.

Also it’s one of those games where your choices do seemingly affect the outcome. For instance, early on, you get a mission to try to get through a gate to get to another city. I have so far the option to: fight my way out, get someone to forge a note, pay someone to smuggle me through work with town leaders to earn their trust to let me out. Not all of them work of course and depending how you do certain sequences, you relationship may change with one or several NPCs based on what you do…that’s a big plus for this game.

Graphically speaking, it’s a fairly decent game but part of the problem that I have with this game is that during daytime sequences, the back drops looks too washed out from the sunlight and no matter how much I adjust the graphics settings, it won’t change. But when you do find a happy medium, the game looks pretty decent other wise. There is a lot of texturing and bump mapping that looks just great, when it works the lighting effects really work with the background. The buildings are very well detailed also.  In some places it does tend to look better than Oblivion but considering that was 5 years ago it should! Some of the character models are outstanding including one who has some serious headlight issues going on!!!

The character creation is fine and a bit more detailed than what imagined and if it had more hairstyles to choose from it may have even beat Dragon Age in this category.

As far as game control goes, it’s the one main reason why i have not given up on this game yet. It’s pretty easy to get around, use in combat and do what you need to do to get through. Some games of this type fail because they try to make the control scheme overly complicated. But once you get it figured out, you are pretty much set.

The only combat issue I have to far (and I will have to refer back to the instruction book) is that creatures you come across you don’t always know how and what you can beat. I have beaten things as large as an Ostrich, as fast and numerous as baboons, but a fire ant kills me in two blows…there is an unbalance in that somewhere!

That is the other quirky thing with this game. While you still have a number of bizarre monsters to kill, nothing will bug you the most than the fact that you are in a fantasy safari hunt and you track down wild boars, and rhinos.  Well it beats having to always fight dire wolves or enraged rats in other RPGs…LOL
The voice acting in this game is just bad, bad baaaaaaad. It’s laughably bad. The guy in the cemetery, the street beggar, heck even your character who sounds suspiciously like Geralt from the Witcher (I mean Two Worlds 2 is another Polish game) try but they all don’t quite fit. One leg up it does have is that your character has his own dialogue through out the game.  But this again comes back to that this is not a game done in America by the tops of the industry. There are a few other minor issues where the cut scenes don’t quite fade right when transitioning, lip synching sometimes is off and the music rises and ebbs and some of the most peculiar of moments but the bottom line is that this game is more playable than the first one was but you have to be willing to give it a chance. You get tons of gear, an easy crafting guide, on the fly customization, multiple missions and side quests right out of the gate and even a multiplayer side which I have yet to try and it’s really a decent package. I repeat if you go in not expecting this to be on the level of Elder Scrolls, then you can do ok.

Get it only if you have an Oblivion itch you need to scratch but don’t feel like closing about gate…
On a scale of 1 to 10 it gets a 6.

— DreddheadedPoet

HellGate: London first Impressions.

Whom ever thought of the concept to merge a First Person shooter with RPG elements and lace that with an MMO must have thought it to be a task for the Gods. Well, thank God there is Flagship Studios headed up by some of the EX-Staff of a little game development company called Blizzard. So, of course, like shuckers (changed so I don’t get sued. ) you know it’s going to be good.

Review – Flatout: Ultimate Carnage

Overview:

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Title: Flatout: Ultimate Carnage
Official Website: FlatoutGame
Developer: BugBear Entertainment
Publisher: Empire Interactive
Distributor: Warner Bros Entertainment
Review System: Xbox 360
Release Date(s): 06/22/07 EUR
08/01/07 AUS
10/02/07 USA
07/19/07 XBox Live (Demo)GamersVue Score: 7.5 out of 10Bottom Line:
FlatOut: Ultimate Carnage (FOUC) is an enhanced remake of FlatOut 2 featuring new game play modes and graphics. But you don’t care about graphics do you? it’s all about the game play right? Well, FOUC is not only a beautiful game but also well done. If you are familiar with the Burnout series (or the Flat out series itself) then you already know what to expect. If you aren’t, then you are looking at a racing/destruction game with a natural physics engine. Would you like to know more? (Read more to see the full review and links.)