Geometry Wars 3: Dimensions - Lucid Games - PC (2014)

The Geometry Wars franchise returns with Dimensions, the third title in the series and its most polished yet. If you’ve played either of its two predecessors you’ll be instantly familiar with its mechanics. Move with one analogue stick, shoot with the other. Randomly spawning shapes populate the screen with their own characteristics. Blue diamonds will hunt you down, purple stars aimlessly wander and the green square gang will dodge your bullets and cause you no end of trouble. It’s a case of score big or go home and this simplistic gameplay brought Geometry Wars kicking and screaming out of minigame humdrum and into stand-alone glory. Lucid Games have done a wonderful job of keeping the original title’s feel while adding their own spin. Job well done for a developer that, to be completely blunt, hasn’t done much else prior to this.

Aside from being more polished and shiny, Geometry Wars’ level design is opened exponentially by Dimensions. Gone are the days of only having a floating rectangle in space. In addition there’s cuboids, spheres, capsules, curved rectangles and cones. Pardon the pun, but they really do add a new dimension to the gameplay. You’ll need to adapt your movement in accordance to what’s thrown at you, a nice touch if you consider yourself to be a bit of a pro.

The adventure mode consists of 50 levels including bosses. There’s enough variety to keep you coming back for more yet it struggles with its own difficulty curve. The levels are cleared easily enough but if you’re aiming for a 3 star score you’ll be looking at carrying out a perfect run. Even for a seasoned veteran isn’t necessarily the most easy or guaranteed achievement. This wouldn’t be a problem if the levels unlocked following a win of the previous level, there’s blockages. You’ll need 16 stars to face the 2^nd boss on level 10. That’s 7 levels out of 9 requiring 2 stars. On paper sounds easy enough, in game, not so much. Lets face it, I really don’t want to be forced to go back into a level I’ve beaten 5 minutes ago to try and squeeze out those extra few thousand points to be given access to this boss. Its more frustrating than fun and albeit a nod to its arcade roots, seems like a stinky method of extending the adventure mode.

Its online mode does have some nice mechanics. The Stock mode is a tug-of-war style of game where you and the opposing team attempt to kill a boss the quickest. It can add a frenetic feeling knowing that the other team has almost killed their boss at the same time as yours. It feels almost like a fighting game where you and your opponent are on extremely low health and somehow managing to sneak in that low jab for the win. I did find it reasonably difficult to find a game online as I assume there’s not a tremendous playerbase for the online mode, however, pick this up with a few friends and I’m pretty sure you’ll have a fair few hours of fun with the online modes.

Local Co-op also adds another mode which is in effect the adventure mode but with you and a partner. It unfortunately suffers from the same flaws as the adventure mode does, and having two players on the screen at any one time can cause what can sometimes be a particle effect hell when playing solo, into a Michael Bay film. What I would have loved to see would be some split screen player vs player of which there is none. It’s not a massive complaint, but would have been a nicer addition than the co-op mode.

Geometry Wars Dimensions, isn’t Game of the Year material, but it isn’t bargain bin fodder either. Its one of those titles that I strongly suggest picking up in a sale or as part of a bundle. It has all the makings of a solid game, yet is let down by some minor problems but I still feel that Lucid Games should be given a pat on the back for driving Geometry Wars into new territory. Dimensions is better than the first two titles, but there’s not much evolution left for a game that was already Retro Evolved when it was initially released. 

Qora - Curve Digital - PC (2014)

It might not be the best looking game of all time. It might not have the most complex of mechanics. It might not even be a game, but Qora deserves to be looked at and admired, even in a small burst of around 3 hours. Its controls are incredibly simple, left and right, one button for actions. It could run on a toaster but it really doesn’t matter. It’s charming and quirky with just enough intrigue to keep me interested throughout.

Playing as an un-named old man sees you meet your neighbours in the local village, and venture into the wilderness on, for what feels almost like a pilgrimage to learn a little bit more about this world and its inhabitants. From early on in the game you are given the ability to see into an alternative reality of the screen you are visiting, there isn’t one on every screen but some of them are very curious and are well thought out when combined into the foreground of the scene. The pixelated art style seems to push and pull a bit. At times it’s absolutely stunning and at others seems to be used to remove your focus from what’s going on around you and to focus on the narrative, both spoken and unspoken.

The story itself isn’t a full A-Z event. Often you will be treated to some vision or memory of what happened in a certain area. A snapshot of its history or future. There’s a character you’ll meet along the way who almost speaks in riddles and never explains his purpose. It left me with more questions than answers, but with enough insight to make my own decision on what it represented. In my opinion, a very powerful demonstration of when good design makes great experiences.

The simplicity of the controls allow for you to forget that you’re even really playing, prompts for action are handled by a simple button press and can let the story evolve. It does suffer from Marioitis, that’s the disease of running right for all eternity, it’s very linear and that does begin to grate, even over a 3 to 4 hour title. This can be excused by the stellar world building however, I was always keen to progress the story and there’s enough mystery to keep you pushing on.

Musically, this game is pretty solid. The world of Qora seems to come alive with its soundtrack. It’s a surreal trip through a surreal world, and only begins to become repetitive if you stay on one screen for far too long.

For all of the compliments and intrigue I was pleasantly surprised to find, I find it hard to agree outright that this is a game. It’s an interactive story, there’s no fail state which means you can’t lose. You can’t miss a jump over a gap or be attacked by marauding bandits. In what is depicted as being a harsh, unusual land, there is no element of danger. I realised, very early on, that this was all about the story. This is not a bad thing, but sucks the life out of any possibility of replayability. It’s a once and done title, not to be sniffed at, but after completing it, you won’t go back in a hurry.

I felt let down by the ending I was given (1 of 2), there’s no nicer way to say that. I was oh so very intrigued and keen to find out what happens to the old man, and well, let’s just say that without spoilers I sat there shaking my head thinking “What is this?” If I’m being harsh, which I am, until the ending it felt like sitting in a grandiose museum listening to a string quarter play some Mozart. Chilled, relaxed and alone with my thoughts. All of a sudden I’m whisked away to some basement pub in a seedy neighbourhood with Cheryl Cole whining out of a speaker that hardly works and some old guy pissing himself in the corner. It was going so well then I lost interest. A pungent ending to a solid story was all I was looking for. Now I assume that the other ending is exactly that, but I do not have the patience to go back through the game to experience this, not for a while anyways. It has its failings and I find it hard to recommend at full price when looking at the meat and bones of what you’re getting for your buck. Pick it up on an offer, set aside a few hours, and I reckon you’ll be pretty pleased. Just try get the right ending!

Pure Heavy Prepared: World of Warcraft, The Burning Crusade

"Look to my coming on the first light of the fifth day, at dawn look to the east." is exactly what I said to my mum the night before the release of World of Warcraft’s second expansion The Burning Crusade. In truth though, my body gave up after the third night. This was my favourite time whilst playing World of Warcraft and for me, no other MMORPG will come close to its level during The Burning Crusade. Even before its release Blizzard was having fun and sent a lot of demons to attack. You know, like sending a Raid boss to attack a main city. That kind of stuff. It was all in preparation for the release of the expansion.

It was 1.55am, standing outside the Dark Portal, waiting for that realm restart to then make your way through. I still remember my excitement. It was a journey into the unknown, a feeling that you don’t really get with games these days, even new Warcraft expansions. In those days, there was no cross-server play, all the players you came across were from your realm. The dark portal stairs were packed!

Being on a PvP server (Thanks James), there were dead bodies everywhere. Players trying to be the first to enter the world of Outland, and failing miserably. We made our way, slowly and surely to the steps and waited for the clock to strike two. It seemed to take an eternity, constant fear that some dick of a Tauren would have his way with me, but it didn’t come and when the clock struck 2, we charged forward! I’ll never really forget that feeling, running through to be greeted with the warzone that is Hellfire Peninsula. Covered with Pit Bosses and demons, fire from the sky and destroyed settlements, Hellfire was a furious place. It doesn’t have the same lustre nowadays, but my goodness was that an awesome sight. We pillaged, looted and levelled. Items being constantly linked into guild chat, chat on Teamspeak or Ventrillo about how much more damage we could all now deal, and the occasional expletive when one of our merry band were stomped by a Fel Reaver.

The second night was our first LAN and it as enjoyable as the first night, journeys into Zangarmarsh and Nagrand were as fruitful as our exploits in Hellfire Peninsula and onwards we pushed. Fuelled on coke-cola, pizza and a ton of sweets we had a smashing night at our Rogue’s place. I don’t remember if we done anything out of the ordinary that night. We maybe ran a few of the new dungeons, probably got pissy with each other if we both needed the same item and then just laughed it off an hour later when something better dropped. The sun came up again, and we ventured to Microplay for the 3rd night.

Microplay was a gaming centre just behind Central Station in Glasgow. It’s no longer there, like literally no longer there, they demolished it. I have nothing but fond memories of Microplay. Many a Counter Strike: Source game was had in that hallowed room. Several hours killed between lectures at Uni and some good friendships started. Occasionally, I do miss it. My fondest memory is definitely that LAN. Our merry band of adventurers, now sitting around level 64 or 65 decided to run Zul Gurub, a level 60, 20 man raid. We had 7. So you can imagine that it levelled itself out. We fought and fought and eventually killed a few bosses and grabbed some loot. Bloodlord Mandokir was our last kill after numerous attempts, and we cheered louder than anyone in Glasgow that night when the boss dropped down dead. These bosses, in that form, are now no longer available and some of the items are gone for good. I still have a few for nostalgia and a just a little reminder of that night.

There was one zone in The Burning Crusade that was more enjoyable than the rest. Karazhan, this was a 10 player raid and was balanced beautifully. It was difficult enough to be enjoyable, yet allowed you to progress at a level relative to your gear and skill. In my honest opinion, it was, and has not yet been matched, to be the most balanced raid experience in an MMO. We cleared Karazhan on a number of occasions but it did have its scope for a little fun.

For example, by breaking crowd control intentionally. Crowd control is a term used to control a pack of enemies. For example, you could stun an enemy, turn them into a sheep or a frog or if they were undead, shackle them with chains of light. Further into Karazhan when you are ascending the tower itself there’s a room, full of undead enemies. Packed. It took a lot of time to slowly pick off each enemy one at a time and plan your route through the room. What made it more fun was to break the shackle. This was extremely easy to do even by mistake. An area of effect spell that hit that enemy would allow it to run free and attack. Honestly, there was nothing more fun than breaking a shackle when James ws your tank. He hated it. Literally hated it, you see it made him work harder as the tank and you could just stay back and fire off spells or attacks. If the group dies, doesn’t matter, James’ fault. This was similar to fighting “Shade of Aran” who would cast a flame wreath around you and if you moved through it, it pretty much exploded the raid. Not as fun, as you got the blame, but still quite fun if you had enough time to keep going and you wanted to piss off someone in the group!

My utmost fondest memory of Burning Crusade was within Karazhan. Prince Malchezaar was the last boss of the dungeon. Famed for being notoriously dickish with his infernal spawns that would constantly spread fel fire across the room, and for knocking everyone’s health down to 1HP with a spell. An unlucky run could see you go down to Prince several times without it really being your fault. It’s about 4am, we’ve been in Karazhan for about 3 hours. We took our sweet ass time at this LAN, stopping for pizza midway through and then with a groan “Suppose we best finish this then”. One of our rogues wasn’t at the LAN. He was with us on Ventrillo though and knew the score. Prince Malchezaar was being a King Troll. We had died a few times, gear needing repairs, frustration setting in. Another run came and we got him down to about 10% health, at this point an Infernal came down and pretty much landed on James and he went down. Still watching his health tick away whilst the boss was now loose killing everything in sight. 5…4…3…2… Only our Rogue left alive and while Prince made his demonic charge towards our helpless softie, something wonderful happened. A massive critical hit brought the demon to his knees and down he went. The place erupted! We scared the cats, hell we probably scared half the neighbourhood. 4am on a Sunday and BOOM! Milton on Campsie was rocking! I don’t even remember what loot we got that night, does it really matter? I just always picture our Rogue sitting in the dark, by himself, and letting out the smallest “Yas” he could muster.

Shattered Planet - Kitfox Games - PC (2014)

Following an ever increasingly popular trend of “Rogue-like” games, Kitfox Games opted to return to the roots of the genre with Shattered Planet. An isometric turn based RPG with some very interesting mechanics thrown in for good measure and it’s harder than your Granny’s stew!

Playing as one of four playable clones you descent through Shattered Planet looking for scrap metal and crystals and trying to not die horribly. You’ll lose everything you were carrying when you die except the scrap and crystals. These can be used to purchase strength, wits and health upgrades for your clone and also used to create randomly generated items or summon companion pets. When you’ve spent your hard earned resources it’s time to dive back in for another randomly generated shot. Rinse, repeat, Rogue-like.

Exploration is at the heart of the title, you’ll constantly be pushed to find the next teleporter plundering further into the unknown. Being nudged to fill a research catalogue to level-up is also a very nice feature. Levelling up will unlock summonable companions, other classes and items. If you’re a completionist, like me, you’ll find it hard to resist coming back to Shattered Planet. Even if your goal is just to collect new entries to the log. The daily challenge mode offers an experience in itself and the exploration mode, where the real meat of the game is, is long enough to keep you interested in progressing.

The environment Shattered Planet is set in is a perilous yet lovely world. The soft palette of colours coupled with the cartoon style seems to pop off the screen, you will not have a huge amount of time to explore each environment as with each move a spreading area of damage known as “Blight” will spawn into the area. Not only does blight damage on contact, it will spawn reasonably difficult enemies to contend with and ultimately will lead you to your death or to the next teleporter. Unfortunately, it feels like a mechanic solely used to push you further on. For me, I’d find it much more entertaining to clear the area of enemies and reap the rewards of the zone before moving on, it doesn’t add tension, only frustration.

The combat is refreshing, there’s been quite a few Rogue-like titles recently that fixate on the action being live rather than by turn. Rogue Legacy, Tower of Guns and Risk of Rain all done this, all successful in their own right but all having larger difficulty curves. Shattered Planet isn’t an easy title to master, but it is to learn. Being played solely with the mouse makes it easy to plan your next move through the world and decide which path to take. Clicking on your character will cause you to wait a turn which can also be useful to bait enemies into coming into your range. Focusing mainly on Swordplay means being kept to melee range and this can lead to some hectic situations. Being forced into a corner by two adjacent enemies can be extremely frustrating but is usually avoidable.

Shattered Planet does a lot of things right. The combat works well as does the music and sound and being able to fill a codex of everything you’ve seen a goal in its own, however, where the game frustrated me most was with its randomness. Rogue-likes, by their nature, are designed to have random elements. Levels are generated, randomly. Items dropped, at random. Enemies spawn, at random. It’s random. Kitfox may have pushed this a little too far. Before beginning a level you will be given the option to buy consumable items for crystals, these items rotate in options of three and if the Gods of RNG aren’t with you, you could end up buying quite a few grenades and no healing items. Throw in the fact that the crystals are also used to generate your equipment (either a weapon or an armour) and you could very possibly be equipped like Rambo with a headband and 6 grenades and no sword or you could be Robocop with regenerating health and a plasma sword, most of the time it’s down to sheet luck. There’s ways of circumventing this outcome, your inventory will store equipment, healing items and companions and there’s the very real option of saving for that one run that you’re going to throw everything at. Only to be squashed with more RNG from bottled pick-ups or unfortunate enemy spawns. Some more focus on guided gameplay, for example, by telling the player what the bottled item does, and a more forgiving item roll algorithm would help Shattered Planet greatly. When the outcome of your run is down to more luck than skill, that sense of being gripped to keep playing fades quickly.

Shattered Planet is on the right track, it does a lot of things right and with a bit more structure to the randomness it would be a highly enjoyable title. In its current form, and asking for £10, its worthy of your time. Throwing half an hour at it at a time is how to get the most out of Shattered Planet, playing it for a few hours on end will leave you frustrated by its heavy reliance on randomness.

Vanilla Confessions: World of Warcraft, the Early Days

As World of Warcraft approaches it’s 10^th anniversary I thought this would be a great time to take a look back on some humorous memories I have of when I first started playing. 2004 was the year it began for me. Halfway through my first year at University and at the age of 17 I took my first foray into the world of MMORPGs. Armed with and a copy of World of Warcraft and 4 friends who had been pushing me to get the game since I stepped foot into my first lecture. It was on that fabled Boxing Day that a Dwarf Warrior with 2 handed axe in hand stepped foot into Kharanos, and my World of Warcraft story was to begin.

172 Days of game time later (yeah, really) I can now look back on my time with WoW with fondness. For me, Warcraft was never about pushing to have the best gear or the most achievements or even being just that little bit better than your peers. No. For me, it was all about the social interactions. I could babble on about Stratholme 45minute runs, Sunday evening Upper-Black Rock Spire or 6 day long Alterac Valley fights but those are atypical of the nostalgia of Vanilla Warcraft. I’d like to share some of the less desirable pastimes that my companions and I were fond of participating in.

For those of you unfamiliar with World of Warcraft or its “Vanilla” version. Stranglethorn Vale was one of the most evil places in all of Azeroth. Being on a PvP server (Thanks James) meant that we could be ambushed by higher level players from the opposing faction with relative ease and dispatched before you could utter “oh not a-fucking-gain”. However, every cloud has a silver lining as they say and this opened up some fun ways for the 5 of us to bully lower level characters, for example, by drowning them.

Back in Vanilla, you had a pretty realistic breath meter. As far as I remember you had maybe a minute tops before you started to take damage from being underwater. They did change this and you now can breathe for a lot longer, making this pretty much impossible nowadays. Our Warlock at the time made sure we could breathe underwater and we went hunting.

It all started with our Priest mind controlling a low level hunter into the water, my warrior landed a concussion blow (5 seconds in those days), James, our mage would frost nova, the rogue would gouge. We’d cycle this round until the last droplets of breath escaped and the corpse fell to the ground. Yeah we probably could have just killed the poor fellow on the shore, but, where’s the fun in that? It’s a bit sadistic, but we planned that forced drowning very carefully! Happy with our handiwork, we’d then wait for him to respawn again under the water and well…drown him again. It was malicious but our Ventrillo was full of hilarity!

It wasn’t just the Horde that felt the force of our nastiness. Oh no, this is to date, one of my most favourite memories within a game. I don’t think I’ve laughed so hard at a game like I did on this night in a long, LONG time. Volchan, a level 60 elite (powerful) creature resided within Burning Steppes, an end level zone. This creature was formidable, he’s what’s known as a Molten Giant, a huge lumbering behemoth, dripping in lava and rock and on occasion firing off a huge fire blast in a circle from his feet outwards, causing some pretty hefty damage to end level players.

Close to Burning Steppes is a very low level area known as Redridge. Within Redridge is a town called Lakeshire, safe haven for the inexperienced and weak. Well not on the day we decided to take Volchan for a walk. Back in Vanilla you could partake in a technique known as “Kiting”, kiting works by periodically attacking a creature whilst moving away, then attacking, then moving away. Again, nowadays it’s pretty much impossible, the vast majority of creatures will only chase for a certain distance and then run back to where they were. Volchan liked to be kited.

After several failed attempts and a lot of patience, Volchan was a new resident of Lakeshire. I made sure that I kept Volchan’s attention our Priest would be heal my health back to full after each fire blast and our band of merry bandits were riling up support from the locals: “Come help us slay the giant” they’d yell, often followed by “We need help” and the most blatantly nasty one of them all “He drops Epic Loot!”. In their bucketloads the newbies responded. Volchan disposing of their puny attempts at battle with ease, one fire blast after another. Guards and NPCs fell like leaves in the wind and with each satisfying death yell from members of our own faction we laughed. Oh how we laughed and laughed. Eventually our priest forgot to heal me, or I forgot to attack (could have been both due to the giggles) and Volchan was now free to pilage as he pleased. A few minutes later he ran back, undefeated, to his magma covered home of Burning Steppes. We still laughed.

To be honest though, we weren’t that bad all the time. We had several enjoyable evenings and weekends working as a team to kill enemies and become closer friends. World of Warcraft gains a bad reputation at times and sometimes it is deserved. However, if you can disfranchise yourself with the game there’s some solid foundations of social interaction and it’s with these I remember Vanilla Warcraft with fondness. I’ve built quite a few friendships through Warcraft to the point of being one of my Uni mates Groomsman at his wedding (She plays too in case you were wondering) and although I may have spent 172 days in the last 10 or so years playing Warcraft. Most of the time, it was time well spent. Who knows if I’ll be playing and if it’ll even last another 10 years. One thing’s for sure though, we’ll still be laughing at the memories. 

Transistor Review - Supergiant Games - PC (2014)

Abandon hope all ye whom expect anything short of the full 5 stars for Transistor. It’s what it deserves and rightly so. I’ll cover the sum of its parts in more detail throughout the review, but if you want the short version, it’s as close to perfection in a video game that I’ve seen for quite some time. Supergiant are a small, exceptionally experienced team and for their second effect have really hit the nail on the head. It’s not what you would define as a game, it’s an experience.

2011 saw Supergiant release Bastion to high critical acclaim, its unique narrative, style and story helped it on its way to several Game of The Year awards. For Supergiant, it’s a case of if it’s not broke then don’t fix it. But don’t bring out the exact same game again! I could spend the whole review discussing where Transistor is heavily influenced by Bastion, it’s not a bad thing. It would have been crazy for them to abandon a formula that has worked so well.

One similarity that wouldn’t have been left out regardless of how different Transistor could have been to Bastion is its art. It’s a similar isometric viewed plane in Third Person, however, Cloudbank is a completely new universe. Dashes of neon and a haze of noir bring this Cyberpunk inspired playground to life. It feels like a real city, a real world. The character design of Red, the game’s main protagonist fits the world wonderfully, along with the Transistor sword itself. Add The Process also don’t feel out of place, they’re well designed and feel dangerous in the environment, their often clinical whites offset by the softer environments. All of these elements, right down to the UI fit the title wonderfully, and I honestly could not find a fault with the artistic direction. Thanks for the 100+ screenshots I took whilst playing through!

Darren Korb returns with another absolute blinder of a soundtrack also. This is a man that knows how to create music and sound for a game and helps bring Transistor’s art to life. His music is memorable, and comfortable without detracting from the immersion of the title. It’s quality is perfect and there’s not a single track that sounds like it’s from a different game universe. Another job well done and a huge thumbs up. 

Another stalwart of the Supergiant arsenal is its narration. Bastion’s narrator returns to voice the Transistor, the games’ only weapon. The story is driven in a different way from Bastion. The Transistor acting as a companion for Red. The chemistry between sword and wielder is solid. They work as a perfect pair and the story flows well through the sword talking to Red and the game’s OVC stations dotted around the world of Cloudbank.

With the Transistor being the only weapon in the game, it poses a unique problem. How do you control the strength of the weapon so that it believably struggles in the early stages yet comes true by the end? Well if you’re Supergiant you answer that question with a fantastic mechanic. The Transistor has 16 different abilities or “functions” which can be used as either a main usable action, a buff for a main action or a passive ability. This system, along with the Turn() function, which I’ll cover off later helps keep the combat fresh through the playthrough and will adapt itself to pretty much anyone’s playstyle.  This system allows for thousands of combinations, and is a masterstroke by Supergiant. Within these 16 abilities you can play Red in whichever way you like. There’s a maximum amount that can be equipped as some abilities pack more of a punch than others but you’re almost guaranteed to find a combination that suits you.

At its heart Transistor is an Action RPG, its fast and frenetic pace will keep any seasoned veteran a run for his money without using the Turn(). I found the Turn() to be pretty unique spin on the combat system, using the power of the Transistor you can stop time, plan and use actions and execute within a short period of time, this will disable you for a few seconds but allows you to chain actions together, thinking through a unique challenge each time. There’s not a huge variety of enemies but it’s nice to pick and choose your enemies whilst keeping a safe distance to plan your next attack.

Couple all these elements with a thoroughly engaging story and you’ve got gaming gold. It may be short, I clocked my first play through in around 6 hours, but it’s a beautiful 6 hours. At £14.99 on release it’s a very pair price for the quality it provides. There’s very little I’d change about Transistor it impressed me thoroughly and my attention is very much focused on where Supergiant go from here. I don’t see the wheels coming off this cart anytime soon! 

Age of Mythology: Extended Edition - SkyBox Labs - PC (2014)

Once bitten, twice shy for the “HD” remake of Age of Mythology with Microsoft opting to bring you the “Extended” edition of Age of Mythology for PC. Ensemble Studios, a name so common-place in RTS folklore you’d be forgiven for thinking they done more than the Age of Empires and Mythology series before being outcast to that illustrious list of Studios that didn’t deserve to be closed. However, Microsoft is and Microsoft does and has cashed in on the brand.

Last Year we were gifted with Age of Empires II HD edition. I for one was pretty excited for this. I spent most of my childhood fondly cutting down trees, mining gold and dancing in the rivers of blood of thine enemies. The year was 1999, the internet was making funny noises, everyone was scared of the Millennium Bug and Mr Oizo’s Flat Beat was number 1 in the UK charts. A fond time! I let my excitement build and was let down. The “HD” remake allowed you to play Age of Empires II in 1920 x 1080, no upgrades textures, mechanics, music, sound, gameplay, campaign or units. So after that disappointment trudged on and when Age of Mythology: Extended Edition came knocking, well, I got excited and I got let down again.

For all intents and purposes it’s the same game. It follows the usual practice of base building and in turn army building. The mechanics don’t hold up as well as they used to. Real Time Strategy games in general have evolved a lot more than other genres. You can’t really force an early rush. There’s no real expansion processes and games generally take quite a while to get going. If it’s compared to games like Starcraft II, I’m fully aware that Starcraft II is a direct sequel but when you lay it side-by-side against Age of Mythology you really notice how far the genre has moved on. I also feel that it is fair to hold Age of Mythology against Starcraft II as far as comparisons go. At the time of writing Age of Mythology is £22.00 on Steam and Starcraft II able to be purchased from Amazon for £21.49. As far as value of money goes I’d stick with Starcraft, unless your nostalgia is simply aching for Age of Mythology. It’s the little things that also grate on me whilst playing in the modern age. There’s no sense of altitude of terrain, Age of Mythology feels incredibly flat, there’s no solid differentiation between your hero and standard units and there’s no cover or protection system minus garrisoning your units. Let’s take a run through the new features: Time of Day, Improved water, Shadows, Bump/Specular maps, Global Lighting and Antialiasing. Achievements and Steamworks Integration was also added, but unless you’re a huge fan of the game it doesn’t go far enough in my opinion.

It might seem preachy but its just lazy development. Build it from the ground up, throw some real money into the studio and let them make a new game. There’s no harm in keeping a steady IP going. I’d be the first to buy a new Age of Mythology game on release. The problem here is though that you’re given a repackaged game from over 10 years ago. Half the problem is down to the HD-remake phase we’ve been going through. In my honest opinion it works well with some titles. God of War, Devil May Cry, FFX. All solid games and when ported to have proper HD visuals is a fair enough cash in on a well established IP. What I can’t stand are the repackaged games, along with Age of Mythology and Age of Empires II, the recent Final Fantasy VII and VIII releases unfortunately fall in this category. There’s a few games I’d love to see ported to HD from back then. Give me a fully graphically updated HD remake of No-one Lives Forever and you probably won’t see me for a week. Decade old RTS upscaled to 1920 x 1080 just don’t cut it I’m afraid. 

Luftrausers - Vlambeer - PC (2014)

Wagner’s Ride of the Valkyries, you know the one! Apocalypse Now. “DUN DUN, DUN DUN DUUUN DUN” if you’ve ever had a remote liking to that piece, Luftrausers is the Valkyrie personified. That blaze of destructive glory taking down as many foes with you as you can. You don’t win, come on no one wins in war, you just do a little better every time!

Developed by Vlambeer and published by Devolver Digital and available now for PC, Mac, PS3 and Vita. Luftrausers is an arcade-style 2D dogfighter with a bite. It may look like a simple game from screenshots but when you get your hands on it you’ll soon realise that there’s more than meets the eye with the game.

Luftrausers gives you the control of a “Rauser” (Plane) to kill as many enemies in the sky and sea as you can before you are blown to smithereens yourself. Luftrauser’s mechanics are what gives the title its longevity. Each Rauser is composed of three sections. A weapon, a body and an engine. Each combination of these three attributes will give you a unique “Rauser” to pilot and rain bloody vengeance on your enemies. These not only add a fun experimental feel to the title by trying to find a combination that suits you best and even then, each Rauser will make you adapt your playstyle accordingly. Having a tougher body and a close range blast for a weapon may make you more melee in nature, whereas the turbocharged engine with the laser weapon will rely on your agility and ability to keep out of range of your enemies. It’s what gives Luftrausers a bit of breathing room as, with say 5 or 6 Rausers, its charm would wear thin very quickly.

Speaking of its charm, Luftrausers sticks to a retro-inspired theme, from its audio to its art style and right down to its simplistic yet intuitive control system it’ll pull you back to your days of throwing quarters into those big shiny arcade machines and it’s the arcade style that works best. The art style is very basic yet gives feeling of layered combat, your Rauser will fly in and out of clouds, arch around incoming bullets with ease and the frame rate stays at a constant high. The controls are simplistic, aim your Rauser in the direction you want to fire and let loose. It has a very nice thrust and stall mechanic, and the physics applied feel proper. There’s no better feeling than being chased down by a jet, only to cut your engines, spin quickly in mid-air and let him have it! Speaking of its arcade-style don’t go into this expecting to be made to feel guilty for blowing that jet out of the sky, instead, have some combo points! Also, don’t expect to be survive for more than 10 minutes maximum, unless you’re extremely good. It might have simplistic controls and have a singular style but this is a game that will punish you if you’re not too careful.

What will keep you coming back for more is its ability to always have that “Carrot on the Stick” feel. Each part of your Rauser will give you a set mission to complete and completing these will provide the experience needed to level up and unlock more components. You’ll also unlock colour schemes along the way, giving cosmetic customisation options to the title. These aren’t exactly a highlight however, some of them feel shoehorned in and after a while will be completely unplayable. Blue on Purple…No Thanks.

Luftrausers is worthy of your time, no doubt. It’s in its simplicity that allows the title to flourish. You can pretty much just pick it up and play without having to worry if you’d set your Y-Axis correctly or that your wing flaps are titled to the right angle. I’m not saying there’s anything wrong with games that go into that much depth with flight, however, if you’re looking for a quick blast through some enemies then Luftrausers will fill that niche very easily.

M0B1US Review - Mental Universe - iOS (2014)

From a world filled with Flappy Bird and Temple Run comes M0B1US from Glaswegian developer Mental Ultimate. It's an endless running released for iOS. It has a bit of a unique spin, where the screen will not move at all during the game, instead, the player will run along the ground, then onto the other three walls in a lap around the screen. It’s a bit disorientating at first but after a while it becomes natural.

It makes good use of the mechanics of iOS titles with a simple tap gesture allowing the runner to jump over boxes and a swipe of the finger will slide you under any oncoming obstacles. It's responsive, which is just as well as the window of opportunity to make your action is very small. The obstacles themselves aren't very varied. You either have the box to jump over or the box to slide under. I can't really argue that other games of the genre have hugely varied obstacle sets. Temple Run has its holes and trees, Flappy Bird just has tubes. It just feels pretty repetitive. There's no real reason for running, again looking at other games: Temple Run has you escaping dark creatures of a tomb, Jetpack Joyride has you blasting at high speed through a science lab with goodness knows how much horsepower on your back. M0B1US feels like a cyber-gym, I don't know why this guy is running and jumping around the corners of the room, I don't think he knows either, ignorance is bliss I suppose.

Not only that, most running games will give you the sense of progression. Collecting coins or rings or shiny stones to unlock customisation options for your experience. None of these games would be as entertaining without the customisation, the genre runs thin without it and M0B1US is lacking in this regard. Likewise with its gameplay. Being given set tasks and goals help extend these experiences. It gives you a goal within a main goal and can sometimes alter the way you play the same game. It keeps it fresh and interesting. Again, M0B1US doesn't have any of this, it's just running with no real structured reason or set goal.

What it does do well though is its theme. A lot of these endless runner games make use of a varied and bright colour pallet whereas M0B1US’s charm lies with its futuristic blue hues and glowing orange obstacles. It's a change of pace for a genre that is mainly aimed at kids and the music keeps the whole game tied together nicely.

For 69p you can't really argue. It's entertaining enough to keep you busy on travelling to work or waiting on a train, but you won't go back to it over and over again, which is what these types of games rely on. I'm usually a non-believer of free to play models, but when you look at running games, their strength is in the customisation. M0B1US has none which is unfortunate as may have kept me playing a little longer. It's built well and has been bold enough to go for its own theme, disappointingly, it's not enough to stand out in an already saturated genre. 

Written and Published for CalmDownTom

Mobile Blizzard Gaming: Hearthstone for iPad

Hearthstone has been released from the PC and has finally come to iPad but how does this mobile version stack up to the PC counterpart? Firstly you will not notice much of a difference, some minor UI changes to deal with touch screen instead of mouse. Graphically the game is the same, although you will notice a difference if you have been playing on a high end PC until now. Your account transfers so you need not worry. You can take your full deck with you on the move as well. So you’ll be able to continue beating your friends while on a bus or train, making their humiliation that much worse.

The upsides are the game is the exact same. Board modes look exactly as you would expect from Hearthstone and its extremely polished, as is expected of Blizzard. With that being said, on my iPad Mini Retina, it does crash and bug out a fair bit. Up to the point of me losing matches and therefore rank stars due to the game crashing. You also feel a little bit of slowdown, if you try and play the game as fast as you normally would on PC version. With it feeling like its trying to catch up to your actions as you do them. This is especially true with games involving Nozdormu or a lot of play on the field. For example, if you intend on comboing maybe 3 or 4 cards together it’s going to have a hard time keeping up.

I’m not the only one seeing this. If you look on blizzard’s forums, or on your favourite social media outlet, you see lots of the same complaints. I would suspect this will be patched and fixed soon before the new single player expansion / update Curse of Naxxramas. Which is coming later this year.

Adding 30 new cards and 5 dungeons to battle though. The first being free and the other 4 at a cost. The new cards are guaranteed to add more to the already deep meta and card building of the game. This is what may take Blizzard longer, as they try to bleed new cards into the game. Personally, I love the way they are doing this. They’re not just throwing cards in and saying “buy these”, there’s an additional layer of content. Hopefully, this will be playable offline when you’re on the tube with your iPad.

There’s no denying Hearthstone is the latest big thing, everyone you talk to knows what it is and more and more people are trying it out. The iPad version just made it far more accessible to a bigger audience and despite the small bugs, that we know will be fixed in time, it shot to the number one app on iPad within a day. It’s made a game that already had the gamer population addicted far less easy to put down. I have found my hour long commute to be far too small, and when you add toilet breaks into the equation, you’re more than occupied!.

Blizzard are also doing meetups for the game, now called fireside gatherings, encouraging groups of 5 to 100+ to get together in book stores, coffee shops or conventions to play together. Even giving a new card back to those who do this. Actively making players seek out face to face games and combat in the style of a non digital card game is a master stroke. Will we see Hearthstone groups start to meet in the way, magic or table top ones do? Only time will tell. It certainly has the scope for huge tournaments without the hassle of bringing your whole collection to the event!

Coupled with android and windows phone versions, which have already been confirmed, Hearthstone is undoubtedly in the running to become one of the most popular free to play games worldwide. It’s a beautiful equation that Blizzard have compiled. Take one pinch of gaming heritage, add mechanics that are easy to learn but deep enough to keep pros busy, a very reasonable business model, simple yet informative UI and enough polish to see your face shine and they’ll be taking the world by storm.

A lot of fans groaned when Hearthstone was first announced and it goes a long way to show that Blizzard know games. They know when’s best to enter a market, they know how to bleed it dry and they know how to make solid titles.

If you can’t get enough Hearthstone then why not check CalmDownTom's League

Written and Published for CalmDownTom with Paul Russell