11am. Saturday. There was a chill in the air. An electric feeling pulsed through my veins as I picked up what can only be described as a masterpiece in the field of video games. Then I put GTA 4 down and picked up Dark Sector. Oh yeah. I totally zinged Dark Sector.

As you may know, Dark Sector was released a couple of months back on the PS3 and 360. The game combines environmental puzzles with "the deadly power of the glaive". What little story there seems to be involves a zombie virus outbreak (Reference: Resident Evil), set in an Eastern European country. Innovative, no?

What drives this game away from absolute generic status is the use of a boomerang style weapon with blades attached. This "glaive" is used for many purposes in the game, from solving small puzzles to chopping off dude's heads. Many interesting gameplay mechanics have been created that revolve around this weapon such as the "afterTouch", which allows you to control the path of the Glaive after throwing it. All of this is good, but nothing to propel the game into legendary status.

I'm making my way through the game now, so expect to see a review within a couple of weeks.

Matt

Labels: Dark Sector, First impressions, Matthew Meadows

I have found some time in-between revising for my exams and learning to drive to bring you guys a short review of Haze. Now I'm sure you have all seen the nasty reviews that many sites have given Haze. In many ways these people are right, Haze is not brilliant but still has some good qualities about it.

The first good quality is probably is that of some of the multiplayer scenarios, if you want you can just go for the regular Deathmatch or Team Deathmatch but theres also a different mission based scenario for each map. For instance there is a swamp type map in which the rebels have to burn patches of Nectar farms with flame throwers before the Mantel Troopers can turn on the sprinkler systems on to save their precious Nectar. This provides a good balance of gunplay and tactics.

The second good point is that I'm positive that they can improve on the multiplayer system with more maps, game types and mission variations for the current maps. It's good to know that a game can be improved post release.

The third good point is the Mantel part of the story line, the rebel's story is boring but Mantel is a weird company that has its own private army that took over the real army and powered them by drugs (Nectar). It's pretty cool and provides (in my opinion) a pretty mature, well rounded view about drugs, propaganda and troop morale.

Anyway there will be a full review which should be sometime after monday.

Gr1mmy

Labels: First impressions, Haze

Matt says:
Hey guys, I'd like to welcome our special guest, Amit. He's an avid gamer who knows his stuff.

A.L says:
Hi, glad to be here.

Matt says:
No problem. Let’s start with Haze. Are you going to be picking it up?

A.L says:
Originally I was planning to buy it, but after playing the demo and reading reviews I am not overly impressed. In my opinion from the demo, Haze is just an ordinary shooter with nothing special, however IGN's 4.5 review score was particularly harsh as the demo wasn't that bad.

Matt says:
I think one thing that can be said about Haze is that, undoubtedly, it is a victim of circumstance. If we saw this game come out before Call of Duty 4 then this would have gotten higher scores. But I agree, it didn't look great on the demo.

A.L says:
Also being a PS3 exclusive didn't help, as soon as a game is named as an exclusive the hype train begins and a lot of games fail to deliver Haze, Lair and Heavenly Sword to name a few.

Matt says:
For sure. Let’s leave Haze there. I’m going in to town in half an hour to pick up a PS3 classic I missed out on… Stuntman: Ignition (Joke). Did you play it?

A.L says:
I played the demo, wasn't too bad but it didn't interest me too much. Never been much of a fan of the Stuntman series.

Matt says:
Well, to be honest, I haven't played any before, but the demo seemed fun. I like the kind of game where you have to be perfect to win. What about you?

A.L says:
They actually get on my nerves, I hate re-doing sequences/levels over and over again I find it really repetitive and tedious.

Matt says:
Well that’s the thing you see. In some games I hate it, such as GTA, but for others I relish the challenge. Anyway, what is your most anticipated game of 08?

A.L says:
Good question, it’s actually FIFA 09 since GTA is already out. A pretty unusual choice I know, but I love football games and FIFA 09 is set to be brilliant with rumours flying around of 10vs10 online and an updated match engine, it looks set to blow Pro Evo 09 (unfortunately) out of the water.

Matt says:
I wouldn't count Pro Evo 2009 out yet. I think it will kick FIFA's ass this year. But for me, my game of the year has got to be either LittleBigPlanet or Fallout 3. LBP because of its creative prospects for users on the game and Fallout 3 because it sounds like a nice fresh idea; going from cradle to grave in a game is compelling to me for some reason.

A.L says:
I like the idea of LBP for sure, but I will reserve judgement till I play it and see how it is in action. Also Resistance 2 is shaping up to GOTY contender for the PS3. 60 players in 1 online match is going to be intense. Looks like its shaping out to be a good year for the PS3.

Matt says:
For sure. But that’s not to say it’s not looking good for other platforms. Fable 2 looks amazing. You can have a dog. Need I say anymore?

A.L says:
Haha. One 360 game I’m looking forward to is Gears of War 2. The trailer really got my hyped for the game as I completed the 1st one on the PC on a mate via co-op. I really wanted to play Bioshock and it looks like Microsoft has lost that exclusive too, as its coming on the PS3.

Matt says:
I can't wait. Bioshock nearly pushed me to getting a 360. I didn’t get one. It’s not that I don't like 360, but I can't afford two consoles and have always been impressed with the Sony brand. I have to go now, but thanks so much for your time.

A.L says:
Was glad to be here, bye!

Labels: Gaming Conversation, Matthew Meadows

Hey guys, just came on here to tell you that me and James probably will not post until after the 2nd of June. Even though we love blogging, our college work is all piling up into four weeks of hell.

Anyway, I have completed GTA IV, its awesome (duh!) and yeah...buy it, a full review will come after the exams.

Later,

Matt

Labels: Matthew Meadows, Misc.