The Walking Dead Review

The Walking Dead Review:
There’s something to be said about a game developer that takes on the videogame adaptation of one of the biggest franchises out there right now, knowing full well that they have to make it amazing to satisfy fan’s desires and make up for the mistake that was their last title. Yet despite this monstrous feat, Telltale Games still decided to take on The Walking Dead and I’ll be damned if they didn’t do a brilliant job setting up the series with an amazing first episode.
If you’re familiar with Telltale’s take on adventure games, the same formula applies here. The Walking Dead is a beautifully drawn episodic point-and-click adventure game, with A New Day being the first of five episodes. The title is very foreshadowing of the events about to unfold, but then again, I guess that’s the idea. A New Day clocked in right around three hours for me, so it’s safe to say that the full experience will end up running close to fifteen hours. These three hours are exceptionally story and character dependent, as is the nature of the game, so I’ll keep things basic and avoid most spoilers.

Look, in the road!
The game opens on Lee Everett, a convicted felon on his way to the big house, who is stuck with a ride from the world’s most talkative police officer. As they’re driving down the Atlanta highway, the officer can’t help but question Lee, claiming that he believes he’s innocent and all sorts of mumbo-jumbo. Out of nowhere, the car hits a person walking out the middle of the highway and flips into the embankment. Lee come to and escapes, only to find the officer dead on the ground – or so he thinks. The officer springs to life and starts clawing at him. Lee has to make the choice to shoot him, not knowing what is happening. The shot echoes throughout the embankment and, unfortunately for Lee, calls a horde of ‘walkers’ right toward him.
Without giving any more of the story away, he must find help and get away from Atlanta, all while coming to terms with what is happening. He meets plenty of characters from the comics and TV show along the way, but it’s clear that this is meant to be a separate group of people. More importantly, he meets Clementine –a small child hiding in a tree fort– whom he befriends and promises to take care of until they can find her parents.

There aren’t many child characters in games who manage to be anything but an annoying crutch, Clementine is the exception. Her relationship with Lee is so extremely personable and heartfelt that I felt the immediate need to protect her and make my decisions based on what is best for her. Sure, he isn’t her father, but as the story progresses, they start to treat each other as such and I found it to be one of the most ‘human’ parts of the game (no pun intended).

Decisions, Decisions
The core gameplay of the adventure game remains in tact, you walk around clicking on items in the world to solve obstacles that are put in front of you, with quicktime events that require you to stomp a zombie’s face in or choose which member of the crew you want to save. But there’s another layer of gameplay that makes actions much more meaningful and actually alter the way that you choose to play the game. Dialogue between characters is a significant portion of the gameplay and the way that the story plays out will change depending on the choices that you make. It isn’t as simple as “choose X to have it play one way, choose Y for the other” either.
These dialogue options fit right into the conversation at hand, but often have you choosing very definitive sides. In one instance, I sided with a particular character that directly contradicted what another was for. It didn’t seem like anything came out of that, but later in the episode, the character that I sided against betrayed me and left me for dead, barely leaving enough time for my friend to come back and save me. This was a situation that could have played out differently and will, depending on which side you choose to take. Throughout conversation, answers that seem meaningless trigger other characters to make mental notes (designated by a little notification) and these can change the outcome of your character’s path.

WALKERS!
Telltale wants to so strongly get across that life is full of difficult choices that can come back to haunt you. It’s filled with situations that might not seem like much, but they can mean the world to others. The Walking Dead is all about these moments in this unfortunate situation that these characters are in and how they react to them. There’s a deeper level of humanity tied to the characters that makes it extremely easy to become emotional toward them in the way that we would in real life. A New Day is an exceptional start to a five-part series that has me completely hooked and engrossed in a world that I can’t even begin to imagine, let alone speculate about where it will go next.
Want more information on how we score reviews? Read the "How G4 Reviews Work" article here. 
Editor's Note: The Walking Dead was reviewed using a PC copy of the game; however, we also played the PS3 and 360 versions, and found no differences. If further investigation reveals any differences between the PC and 360/PS3 of the game, this review will be updated to reflect those differences. 


Source : http://www.g4tv.com/games/xbox-360/65677/the-walking-dead/review/

Risen 2: Dark Waters Review

Peg legs. Eye patches. Parrots. Rum. Think "pirate," and these images spring immediately to mind. Risen 2: Dark Waters features all these tropes and more, yet this pirate-themed role-playing game handles its inspiration with care. There are some grizzled pirates and ships flying the Jolly Roger to be sure, but Risen 2 never relies on the usual campy cliches to provide entertainment. Instead, it sends you on an island-hopping adventure to unearth treasure and defeat a sexy sea titan called Mara. This tale isn't just about grog-swilling drunkards sailing the high seas--it's also about a nobleman seeking political gain, a rambling freak with his soul split in two, and an ambitious tribesman proving his superiority.

The pirate's creed: finders, keepers!

Risen 2's central quest has you scouring the seas searching for magical artifacts to aid you in the battle against Mara. She's not much of a villain; she appears a few times, but her presence isn't as strongly felt as you'd expect, considering the role she plays in the plot. But the game is more about the journey than the destination, and there is enough variety and joy to keep you fixated on the continuing tale. You use voodoo dolls to take over a hiccuping boozer and infiltrate an enemy camp. You discover a shocking case of stolen identity. Missions rely a little too often on the same fundamental setups--following a quest-giver to a cave, and killing the creature inside, for example. But there's a lot to chew on: collecting fur for a wannabe fashion designer, disguising yourself as a messenger, spearing a gigantic kraken, or just searching for buried treasure.

Humorous dialogue and some sparkling voice acting brighten the tone, though it's unlikely you'll get attached to any of Risen 2's characters. Patty returns from the original Risen, refusing to be treated as a weakling simply because she's a woman. Like other cast members, she's got attitude to spare, but few of them ever threaten to steal any given scene. They give Risen 2 plenty of foul-mouthed color but never come into their own. That included the returning nameless hero, who speaks in the same monotone as in the previous game. It doesn't help that sound levels are occasionally off, allowing the soundtrack to overwhelm the main character's flatness. But at least it's a wonderful soundtrack: the main Risen theme is riffed on in countless subtle ways, never intruding, yet heightening tension when it's called for.

Pro tip: kick the warrior while he's doing his fancy gymnastics.

Lackluster lead aside, Risen 2 pulls you into its world, which is not a single spacious territory, but rather a set of scattered tropical islands. If you enjoyed the expansiveness of the original Risen (or the developer's Gothic games), the new structure can come across as disjointed. But each island offers plenty of room to explore and scavenge. Besides, what would a pirate game be without some high-seas travel? (Sadly, you never sail the ship yourself; you only witness it leave the harbor and arrive at its new destination.) Luckily, a few of these islands have their own visual identities, from the burning cityscapes of Caldera to the amber hues of a sacred underworld, and the game makes it easy to travel from isle to isle with a few clicks of the mouse.

Most islands, however, are blanketed with jungle foliage, though there's enough environmental variety that your eyes won't tire. Palm trees cast long shadows on the riverbank as you slosh toward the nearby native village. Investigate the beach near Puerto Isabella, and you can practically feel the sand and stones under your feet. Periodic thunderclaps make for a disquieting trek near alligator-infested waters. If you own an Nvidia card, you could run into some performance issues, but you'll likely enjoy smooth visuals and quick loading times on your journey. That's as it should be: Risen 2 isn't at the cutting edge of modern graphics. Flickering shadows, vegetation that grows into place before your very eyes, and robotic animations are among the blemishes that might distract you.

You're occasionally treated to slow-motion murder. But like the combat, the kill-cam execution is rather clunky.

More problematic are the quest bugs that could interfere with your journey. Do a certain set of quests in an order the game doesn't expect, and your yo-ho-hoing is over, brought to a halt by missing dialogue options. Another apparent bug requires you to exploit the AI so that you can complete a story-critical task. Yet while Risen 2 isn't the most elegant role-playing game, it's a notable improvement over its clumsier predecessor, at least where technical execution is concerned. But it's also not as intricate, or as open-ended. You make some choices that determine how quests play out, but the consequences of the choices you do make are less far-reaching, and there are fewer puzzles to solve and hidden mysteries to uncover.


Source : http://www.gamespot.com/risen-2-dark-waters/reviews/risen-2-dark-waters-review-6374881/

MacGuffin's Curse Review

It all starts off with a museum heist gone wrong, a cursed medallion, and one man's effort to feed and clothe his destitute family. While that sounds like the setup for some desperate Leonardo di Caprio crime drama, it's actually the backdrop for MacGuffin's Curse, a thoroughly upbeat, and sometimes silly puzzle game. While it shares some elements with the graphic adventure genre, including conversation trees, a cohesive storyline, and recurring characters, at its heart MacGuffin's Curse is a fairly straightforward, room-by-room puzzler.

"Straightforward" shouldn't be confused with "simple," though. MacGuffin's Curse begins with a pretty easy level of difficulty, but gets increasingly dastardly pretty quickly. Essentially, you're presented with a single room at a time, and usually have to unlock a door so you can progress (a la Portal). Sceneries change from museums to junkyards to everything in between, but the basic challenge will remain the same. MacGuffin's Curse relies on the titular "curse" for most of its puzzles: early in the game the main character will put on an amulet that allows him to shapeshift into a huge werewolf when standing in specific, "moonlight" squares. Not much of a curse when you can do it essentially at will, but the upshot is that as a human you have dexterous fingers to work control panels and such, and can fit through narrow gaps. As a werewolf, you're strong enough to push heavy objects, and scary enough to intimidate guards, opening up new pathways.

You'll need to shapeshift your way through a variety of puzzles, making sure that you don't get caught up by trapping yourself somewhere as a human when you'll need werewolf strength to get out, or vice versa (you can always restart a room with the click of a button). As you progress MacGuffin's Curse cleverly and rationally builds challenges based on what you've already learned to overcome. You'll encounter steel boxes, for example, that even the werewolf isn't strong enough to pull, and can only be pushed; or moats of water that the wolf form can't traverse, but the human form can easily swim through. As the types of puzzle elements increase, the complexity of each puzzle room does, too. By the end of the game, you'll be facing some real head scratchers, although you can call a mysterious detective pal for hints (or even skip rooms entirely if you're really stuck).

The truth is, though, you don't need hints if you're willing to put in some trial-and-error time. While the puzzles in MacGuffin's Curse can be extremely clever and intricate, the single-room nature of most of them means that you're pretty much assured of figuring them out eventually if you try enough stuff. There's only so many buttons to push and batteries to drag into sockets, after all. This isn't necessarily a bad thing, brute force has its uses, but it does take away some of the sense of challenge and it gives the gameplay a grinding feel after a while, without enough reward at the end.

Although speaking of rewards, MacGuffin's Curse does offer you plenty of bells and whistles around the puzzles themselves, including an extensive mini-game in which you'll search for hidden treasures in puzzle rooms. These treasures can then be used to purchase amenities for your poor-as-dirt family – there's nothing quite like seeing your little red-headed daughter's eyes light up when you're finally able to afford a ratty kitchen table for her to eat on. You'll also get plenty of interesting third-parties (sometimes helpful, sometimes not) to interact with, and an occasional funny one-liners (plenty of groaners, too) really flesh these interactions out. These "extras" placed around the main puzzle element do wonders to keep you emotionally invested in what's going on, and help elevate MacGuffin's Curse above a basic point-and-click experience. One thing you don't get much of is music, though. MacGuffin's Curse's soundtrack is understated to say the least, so make sure to dust off your CD collection if you want some auditory diversion.


Source : http://pc.ign.com/articles/122/1224301p1.html

Lone Survivor Review

When you think of "intense" games, you might recall some shooter's bullet-laden climactic scene, or a particularly impressive combo in a fighting game. But intensity doesn't just exist in moments of over-the-top violence or during awe-inspiring displays of skill. It can come from the way a game affects your mood and your mind as you play it. In that sense, Lone Survivor is one of the most truly intense games in recent memory: it's a game that, from the opening menu, grabs a hold of your senses and keeps them locked onto your monitor until the adventure is over.

The neighbors are restless.

You play as the nameless title character, seemingly the only human left after a plague has turned most of the population into faceless, shambling zombies. Despite this devastating catastrophe, you encounter other "people" with whom you can interact: a white-faced man, a man with a cardboard box on his head, and a few others, but how real these people are (and whether or not they're outright malevolent) is a matter of perspective. See, the main character is in a constant struggle against not only the mutants outside his apartment, not only his own hunger and fatigue, but sanity itself. Choices you make in the game--whether or not to carry on a conversation with a stuffed animal, for example--have real effects on how the main character keeps his marbles together; although to the game's great credit, it's not always clear what will be beneficial and what will be detrimental when you choose.

However you treat your character's mind, though, you face a series of challenges once he inevitably decides to sally forth from his lonely apartment into the world beyond. The halls of his apartment building are home to some of the aggressive mutants, but you are presented early on with a radio broadcast urging survivors to head to an apartment on the other side of the building. To be sure, you have to come back to your apartment over and over to sleep (which is also the only way to save your game) and because it serves as a base of operations for everything you do. Apart from trying to sort out the aftermath of the zombie plague, your character can focus on smaller, side-quest-type goals, like repairing a stove to cook more-palatable food (good for your sanity) or taking care of a houseplant--and all of these are centered on your apartment.

It's life's little surprises that keep you going during a zombie apocalypse.

Fortunately, a series of mirrors placed throughout the gameworld let you teleport to and from your home base instantaneously (and also serve to give you a sense of your overall health and sanity). Unfortunately, the game's mapping system leaves a great deal to be desired. For one thing, the maps are rendered in an overhead, bird's-eye-view format, while the game itself is entirely side-scrolling. This leads to a lot of going the wrong way as you try to spatially reorient yourself. Merely annoying most of the time, this disorienting discrepancy between map layout and gameplay perspective is absolutely hair-tearing during a couple of chase sequences in which you have to figure out where you're going, orient yourself properly, and avoid being killed, all in real time. Opening the map does not pause the game, and you can easily become zombie food while you're trying to remember whether it's a right or a left you need to take.


Source : http://www.gamespot.com/lone-survivor/reviews/lone-survivor-review-6374889/

Elder Scrolls Online confirmed for 2013

Skyrim fans yearning to explore the game's fantasy world with other people will get the chance next year, as Bethesda Softworks today announced The Elder Scrolls Online, a massively multiplayer online role-playing game take on the long-running series, set for release in 2013.

The Elder Scrolls is finally going online.

Bethesda didn't reveal any gameplay details, but a Game Informer tease for the magazine's cover story on Elder Scrolls Online revealed that the game will be cover the entire continent of Tamriel, including the lands featured in previous Elder Scrolls games like Cyrodiil, Skyrim, and Morrowind. The game will be set 1,000 years before the events of last year's hit Skyrim, and put the players into the world on the brink of demonic assimilation at the hands of the daedric prince Molag Bal.

Elder Scrolls Online will also feature three player factions, though they were not detailed. However, a rumor that made the rounds in March and correctly predicted the game's announcement suggested that they will be represented by animals: a lion, a dragon, and an unspecified bird of prey.

The Elder Scrolls Online will be the debut game from Zenimax Online Studios, which was established five years ago with Mythic Entertainment cofounder Matt Firor (Dark Age of Camelot) heading up the operation. Firor is also serving as game director on the project.




Source : http://gamespot.com/news/elder-scrolls-online-confirmed-for-2013-6374918

The Unfinished Swan preview

Sony has been making a huge push for independent games as of late, looking to make PlayStation Network the home for original efforts that deserve to find an audience.  Shawn McGrath’s Dyad is certainly making a few waves, as is the upcoming Papo & Yo.  Joining the party this week is The Unfinished Swan, a game that began development way back in 2008 under the guidance of a young Ian Dallas.  Now, with the help of his team at Giant Sparrow, it’s just about ready for its unveiling on PlayStation Network this year.  Ian and his fellow programmers recently invited us to get a first look at the game in action.



There’s an interesting story behind The Unfinished Swan.  A boy finds himself orphaned when his mother passes on, and the only thing he has to remember her by is a series of unfinished paintings, as she never found the motivation to complete them.  Upon being transferred to an orphanage, he’s told he can only take one with him, so he chooses an Unfinished Swan drawing, since that’s most endearing to him.

One night, the Swan actually disappears from the painting, and on his quest to go searching for it, the boy finds himself in an alternate world, one which was once ruled by a king and has now been left in a solid white state.  Seriously.  Everything — the walls, the ceiling, the floor, the statues — have been colored white.  In order to navigate his way through the world and find a way home, the boy must literally paint his way out by throwing paintballs at everything, staining objects a solid black (and possibly other colors later on in the game) and eventually finding his way around.

The way that The Unfinished Swan uses a world that isn’t there one minute and then comes completely to life is startling, and a rather neat effect.  Each object you hit with paintballs reacts to the splatters in real time, so you can see the forms of statues, collapsible walls and other things as you hit them.  It plays out in a first-person perspective, and it works remarkably well.  Furthermore, objects you paint stay painted, as you’re able to see by peering out into the distance and seeing what’s been impacted by your paint.

Along with painting your way around this white world, you’re also able to discover bits and pieces of the story, figuring out why the king left this world the way he did, and the significance of the swan itself.  You can also locate hidden items, including little swan footprints and balloons that you can collect in each stage, which enable you to unlock a few Trophies.  In addition, the game supports PlayStation Move, if you’re looking for a new game to support that peripheral.

Though it may look simplistic at first, The Unfinished Swan has a superb graphic engine — one that really sucks you in as you discover bits and pieces of the world during your journey.  It’s definitely a startling effort that’ll shake up the PlayStation Network, perhaps even in the same way Journey did last month (but for different reasons, obviously).

The Unfinished Swan also includes a mysterious “Toys” extra feature, though Dallas and his team are keeping that under wraps until around E3 time.  We’ll learn more about it then.



For a game that’s been in the works for some time, we’re happy to see that The Unfinished Swan will soon be, um, finished?  Released.  Yeah, that’s a better word.  We’ll let you know how it’s progressing when it shows at E3 next month

Source : http://gamezone.com/previews/the-unfinished-swan-preview

Saints Row: The Third gets stand-alone expansion

Saints Row: The Third is likely to get even more ridiculous, as THQ today announced Enter the Dominatrix, a stand-alone expansion to last year's over-the-top open-world crime game.

Anyone up for another dose of Saints Row: The Third?

Set for release on Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and PC, Enter the Dominatrix will introduce super powers to the world of Saints Row. The game will see the Third Street Saints targeted by aliens who view their leader as the only possible impediment to their plans for world domination. To eliminate that impediment, the aliens kidnap the gang's leader and trap him in a virtual replica of Third Street Saints stomping ground Steelport nicknamed the Dominatrix.

The original Saints Row: The Third launched last November to a strong critical reception. The game picked up with the Third Street Saints after the gang had grown to the point of becoming a brand, complete with licensed sneakers, energy drinks, and bobbleheads. However, that success put them at odds with a criminal fraternity called the Syndicate, drawing the group into a new turf war. The game has been added to four times through downloadable content, but Enter the Dominatrix will be the first stand-alone expansion for Saints Row: The Third.




Source : http://gamespot.com/news/saints-row-the-third-gets-stand-alone-expansion-6374914

EA 'destroying' gaming, says Minecraft creator

FIFA, Battlefield, and Mass Effect publisher Electronic Arts is "destroying" gaming, according to Minecraft creator Markus "Notch" Persson.

EA is ruining the gaming industry, says Notch.

Persson sounded off today via his Twitter feed about EA's newly launched Indie Bundle, which is presently available on Steam. Notch said, "EA releases an "indie bundle"? That's not how that works, EA. Stop attempting to ruin everything, you bunch of cynical bastards."

Persson later said his studio, Mojang, is no longer indie (something he had alluded to earlier), and offered a more damning take on EA.

"Indies are saving gaming. EA is methodically destroying it," he said.

[UPDATE] After the publication of this story, Persson dispatched a tweet of clarification. He wrote, "I got into trouble on the interwebs again! The games in the bundle are good, I'm not questioning them. I'm questioning EA."

Persson is not the first to speak out publicly against EA. Earlier this year, readers of consumer affairs blog The Consumerist named EA the "worst company in America," following more than 250,000 votes.

The EA Indie Bundle in reference launched this week on Steam, and includes DeathSpank, DeathSpank: Thongs of Virtue, Gatling Gears, Shank, Shank 2, and Warp for $20.98. The offer expires on May 9.



Source : http://gamespot.com/news/ea-destroying-gaming-says-minecraft-creator-6374907

EA 'destroying' gaming - Minecraft creator

FIFA, Battlefield, and Mass Effect publisher Electronic Arts is "destroying" gaming, according to Minecraft creator Markus "Notch" Persson.

EA is ruining the gaming industry, says Notch.

Persson sounded off today via his Twitter feed about EA's newly launched Indie Bundle, which is presently available on Steam. Notch said, "EA releases an "indie bundle"? That's not how that works, EA. Stop attempting to ruin everything, you bunch of cynical bastards."

Persson later said his studio, Mojang, is no longer indie (something he had alluded to earlier), and offered a more damning take on EA.

"Indies are saving gaming. EA is methodically destroying it," he said.

Persson is not the first to speak out publicly against EA. Earlier this year, readers of consumer affairs blog The Consumerist named EA the "worst company in America," following more than 250,000 votes.

The EA Indie Bundle in reference launched this week on Steam, and includes DeathSpank, DeathSpank: Thongs of Virtue, Gatling Gears, Shank, Shank 2, and Warp for $20.98. The offer expires on May 9.

Source : http://gamespot.com/news/ea-destroying-gaming-minecraft-creator-6374907