No more Mr Nice Gaius
The Grand Theft Auto IV trailer was just released, which caused the instantaneous implosion of Rockstar’s website and any game site foolish enough to mirror it.
Its back in Liberty City and from the few seconds of footage it looks schweet. Jury’s still out on revisiting old ground again though.
I don’t know how they do it but the brilliant cast and crew of Battlestar Galactica have managed to surpass themselves again. The series three finale is simply stunning. I’m so glad it was renewed for a fourth season as it ended on one mother of a cliff hanger.
I’ll have more thoughts once the UK has caught up.
Some screenshots of my travels so far. Yes I know its one in the morning, the game is strangely addictive.
The other day I ordered Jade Empire Special Edition which was recently released for the PC. I have a great respect for the Bioware, the developers who also created (in my opinion) the greatest RPG of them all: Baldur’s Gate II. After hearing some positive things about Jade Empire I picked it up. It got it for £17.99 which was quite reasonable, it came in a ’steel-book’ case common with Xbox 360 limited edition games, a poster and an art book. The poster is not brilliant and the art book is a short staple bound pamphlet- Half-Life 2 Raising the Bar this isn’t.
On the whole I’d say I’m impressed with the game. There are only three core attributes: body, mind and spirit as opposed to the array available in Baldur’s Gate or Oblivion. This makes it easier to pick up and play, there isn’t much in the way of customisation to be done. It is a very different game to a traditional RPG. You don’t loot the dead for their belongings to sell to merchants, you receive silver automatically. The primary customisations are not what class of armour you buy- in fact as far as I can tell so far you will be stuck with the same paper doll that you start with - but martial art styles and spells. They all have their different powers and chaining some of them together unleashes ‘harmonic combos’. The only one I have found so far slows an opponent and with the second blow obliterates him leaving behind a health power-up. I think the general feeling I get is that it is a very streamlined RPG, revealing its Xbox origins, but a good one nonetheless. Very much more pick up and play than its larger cousins like Baldur’s Gate or Oblivion.
Graphically it has aged okay though having got this after playing Oblivion you can see the difference. After seeing the emotion conveyed in the characters of games like Dead Rising and Gears of War, the NPCs here show the game’s true age. The plot seems deep enough and there are hours of fully spoken dialogue, exposition and conversation trees. Its not however, without its faults which mainly are a result of its porting. A lot of the core assets of the game have not been updated with the port. As a widescreen user this is particularly noticeable with stretched loading screen artwork and menu screens (though it does support my screen’s resolution in true widescreen in game). My main gripe is with the frequent cut-scenes. These FMVs rendered in the game engine but saved as video files are extremely low resolution and are no doubt the same files that were on the Xbox version. The definition of analogue television would have let them get away with it then but now it is a glaring eyesore in an otherwise well produced game.
Despite these complaints its a fun game and I’m enjoying playing it. Its also quite crazy at times. I have the ability to turn into a giant frog and poison my enemies and just this evening I managed to pick up a pair of table legs and wield them like dual katanas, as you can see in the screenshot. Madness. Worth the £17.99, I can see a lot of potential for a ‘next-gen’ sequel.
I downloaded the hefty demo of Command & Conquer 3 last night and gave it a bash this morning. I mentioned before that I had my reservations about it, but I am glad to say that they are mostly unfounded. The game seems much better than Generals (too ‘War on Terror’ for me) and its great to be back in the true C&C universe. Although the demo is short it does give you chance to play with staples such as the Ion Cannon and a new version of the Mammoth Tank. It seems like a solid game but it’s not going to win awards for originality. It may be superior in visuals to the voxel-powered Tiberian Sun but its still the same game underneath. Fine with me to be honest. I’m also pleased with the nods to the previous game, including a description of what happened to the behemoth Mammoth Mark II down to the familiar architecture of the walls and gates. I’ll no doubt pick it up once I have some more cash as I just bought Jade Empire, even though I have yet to play it. Oh and the best bit of a C&C game: hammy cutscenes!
I’ll end the post with a before and after shot of the wonderful new Ion Cannon in single player.
Before:
After:
Just picked up the Dark Angel Season 1 DVD box set from HMV. It was twenty pounds but thanks to a lovely gift voucher it was nothing. Yes it can be had a smidge cheaper online, but it was a gift voucher and everything else they have is majorly overpriced!
Dark Angel is a vastly underrated TV show. It only lasted two seasons and at the time I was shocked to hear it wasn’t being picked up for a third but replaced by another underrated show, Firefly (which didn’t even last one season). With hindsight though you often see that shows have two or three good years but then go on for too long (I’m looking at you, Lost). I think I’d prefer a couple of seasons of excellent quality rather than ten seasons half full of filler.
Wow. The episode of BSG that just aired in the States was a real return to form for the series and had me stunned as the credits rolled. If you are keeping up in the UK please, please, please don’t put Battlestar into Google News or similar or you’ll spoil the surprise. I had heard it was a stunner and I tried my hardest to avoid spoilers before I watched it.
On a lighter note the CGI in the episode was top notch, I’ll describe it some more once Sky One catches up.