Red Dead Redemption: Undead Nightmare

Now, I don't normally review DLC; but just like The Episodes from Liberty City; RDR's Undead Nightmare is more-or-less another stand alone, single-player game from Rockstar Games. And considering that it's Halloween, i figured "What the hell, I'll do something special".
Anyone who was looking forward to my Fallout: New Vegas review, I apologize.

STORY
Undead Nightmare takes place during the story of Red Dead, following John Marston as he fights off hordes of the walking dead while he tries to find a cure. If you've finished RDR, you may ask, "Where would that happen in the main story?"; and the answer to that is as follows.
Undead Nightmare takes place during the Homestead section of Red Dead Redemption. For those of you who haven't completed the game, look away now!

SPOILERS
After John did away with his former gang members, he returns home to his wife and son to start working on his ranch. The "Undead Nightmare" takes place sometime between then and the end of the game.
END SPOILERS

Now, John's loved ones have caught the strange sickness, and its up to him to solve this mystery. Because everyone else is drunk... its the West!!
While not being the solid, often emotional story from the original game, Red Undead Redemption retains alot of the humour it had; and the game plays out alot like a good Horror B-movie.

PRESENTATION
The landscape of RDR will be familiar to many, with its sprawling plains, endless snowy forests and sun dried desert vistas. While all of this is indeed present in Undead Nightmare, everything that may have seemed familiar once, is now creepy and a little bit off.
The once clear skies above the prairie have been replaced with murky clouds with a green tinge, piles of corpses lie burning on the roadside, and the whole land looks more desolate than ever.

Fires burn across once lively cities, as citizens retreat to the rooftops until help finally arrives in the form of Marstons bullet through a decaying brain.
The music of Undead Nightmare is also really creepy, and as high quality as it was in the original title.
The moans and groans of zombies are a constant reminder of the bleak world you find yourself in, and the crack of thunder can be heard through the clouds as you ride for your life.

Many characters from the main game are featured in undead nightmare, and have been voiced once again by their awesome voice actors. A lot of work has been put into this DLC pack.


GAMEPLAY
While Red Dead Redemption's core gameplay was based around cover-based gunfights and riding your stallion from point a to b; Undead Nightmare takes the more survival horror route, giving you a near unstoppable foe that completely ignores cover, and has hundreds of friends to back him up.
Your only defense against the undead, is a Dead Eye meter, and as many bullets as you can get your hands on.

Headshots are preferred, as ammunition is a valuable commodity in this apocalyptic landscape; and unloading into a zombie may take down a zombie, but theres always going to be more than one. New weapons have been added to the mix, to tip the scales in the gunslingers favour; and the demonic hordes will find themselves on the fiery ends of the explosive rifle and blunderbuss. The more tactile zombie hunter will find zombie bait and holy water to lob at their enemies.

While new enemies and guns are awesome, Undead Nightmare brings more to the table than that. New game mechanics include saving towns from the horde, and trying to cleanse graveyards. Graveyards are Undead Nightmares version of gang hideouts, and players might recognize some of the "Boss" zombies that appear. Saving towns on the other hand serves a slightly more practical purpose, as a bed to save at and ammunition are scarce when the world goes to hell.

My biggest complaint about Undead Nightmare is that they took out the fast travel system. That said, it makes sense that Mr. Marston wouldn't camp out in a wilderness infested with anything more than cougars and bears.

Also, theres zombie cougars and bears. Most of (if not all of) the dangerous animals in Red Dead make a return, but you'll find that half their faces are missing. Or they're stained with blood. Little things like that really hit this one home for me.

Last thing, and this really made me love Undead Nightmare; the inclusion of Mythical Beasts. While the buffalo aren't mythical (just rare.. and can be hunted to extinction), and Jackalopes are find and dandy (so long as you have the Master Hunter outfit), nothing quite compares to riding through an undead horde on the back of the flaming horse of War. One of my favourite moments in gaming to date.

SPOILERS
Oh and Sasquatch appears, with a funny in-joke titled trophy/achievement "Six years in the making", (LOL San Andreas, how we loved you so).
END SPOILERS

REPLAYABILITY
As I mentioned briefly before, Undead Nightmare has many more challenges for players; some involving taming a certain 4 mythical horses, some involving the hunt for zombiefied critters. Along with this, more trophies are included, as well as two new multiplayer modes and many new skins. This is bang for your buck; THIS is what DLC should be!
Rockstar are possibly the best DLC providers I've ever seen, and should be applauded.

OVERVIEW
For $16 Australian, you could do a whole lot worse than Red Undead Redemption. Its about 6 hours long, which is almost the length of a standard full length game (Not counting your Fallout's or standard Red Dead Redemption style games.). If you loved Red Dead, Undead may be for you, but only if you aren't looking for more of its mostly serious story. If you wouldn't mind a bit more quirk with your Marston, go ahead and buy this add-on.

For those of you without access to PS Store or the XBL Marketplace, don't fret! This game, plus all of the add-ons to date should be coming out on a physical disc. Have fun with that!


Once again, I'm sorry to anyone who was waiting for my Fallout: New Vegas review. Next week, I promise! Heres a sneak peek. It pretty good. Real Buggy.
See you next time!

Medal Of Honor

This week I've been getting into Medal of Honor (that should be Honour, shouldn't it?) and Fallout: New Vegas; however Fallout is gonna take more than a few days to get the experience that I know it's capable of. Medal of Honour, on the other hand, is like many other current day first person shooters, and was over quite quickly.

Medal of Honor is a reboot of EA's war franchise that was primarily focused on World War II. This years reinvention of the series takes place in Modern times, taking place during Warfare in Afghanistan. Not unlike other FPS Franchises.

STORY
The single player campaign follows various American (Allied) soldiers during the war in Afghanistan, taking place directly after the September 11th attacks. Players control Tier 1 operator "Deuce", Navy Spec Forces "Rabbit", Army Ranger "Specialist Dante Adams" and (for one mission) Apache gunner Captain Brad "Hawk" Hawkins.

The story is an entertaining one at the very least, but adheres to many Hollywood style cliches like the out-of-touch General who makes bad calls, the Colonel who disobeys orders because hes a "good guy" and the badass, yet still sarcastically comedic soldiers who are fighting a losing war.

This would be all well and good, if MoH hadn't been billed as a game "about the soldiers". Theres so many unrealistic and action movie-esque scripted events, that you get the sense that EA might not have thought the real soldiers were that interesting. But I digress, with all that, it comes up as a really exciting campaign.
And at the end of the day, would you prefer a gritty, realistic story where none of the Tier one operators communicate or a game with well written dialogue and awesome set pieces?

PRESENTATION
Medal of Honor looks absolutely amazing. Seeing this for the first time almost blew my mind. The particle effects and lighting effects are outstanding, and it runs really smoothly; even with all that's going on on-screen. I very rarely saw any evidence of a drop in frame rate, and the overall performance of the game was smooth.

That's not to say it didn't have any problems. I often noticed some texture problems, mainly in the pre-mission in-game cutscenes. These were rare, but pretty obvious when they happen.

The sound effects are possibly my favourite thing about this game, which may sound weird, but the action around your character is all the more real to you, if your senses transport you there; and the amazing sound effects really help with that.


GAMEPLAY
Medal of Honor plays out just like any other Modern War game out these days. You can crouch, go prone, aim down the sights, shoot, jump, melee attack... it's all there, and the controls work nicely.
The peek and shoot mechanic was a nice touch, allowing you a more tactical approach to fighting.
This must be mentioned; guns have a decent weight to them, and firing them feels as realistic as it ever will in a game.

However, the tactical approach goes out the window when you realise that your opponents don't act like real enemies. Instead of laying down covering fire and trying to flank you, they maintain their positions and pop in and out of cover. It turns into a game of Taliban whack-a-mole.

Some parts in the game do feel really awesome to play through though, whether its sneaking around an enemy village without getting killed, or laying down cover fire on an entrenched enemy position so your squad can advance.
Without giving anything away, the game puts you on the edge of your seat while defending a surrounded position and doesn't let you sit back till it looks like its too late.

In short, the single player campaign is fantastic. Not as "out there" as certain shooters that fling you over cliffs on snow mobiles, but very enthralling all the same.

The multiplayer gameplay deserves a mention separately from the campaign, as they were developed by different companies. EA DICE developed MoH's multiplayer, and they're best known for battlefield: bad company 2; apparently a stellar game.

Now, I'm an avid MW2 player, and didn't go into this game thinking it could match up; but I was quite happily surprised. Not only does MoH equal Modern Warfare 2 in many aspects, it surpasses it in some too. The epic sound design and visuals remain from the campaign; but because of the many players capable of joining one game; you get a chaotic, intense battlefield like none you will find in many other games.

Though the game caters more for Snipers in many of the maps, the class system is pretty balanced on the most part. Due to the class system, you'll find more people are adhering to a specific role, instead of camping or noob tubing.

REPLAYABILITY
With an outstanding multiplayer, and trophies/achievements galore; many gamers will spend hours and hours on EA's reboot of their classic series. If that's not enough, theres also Tier 1 mode, which pits you against the clock in an effort to finish the campaign levels on the highest difficulty.

Not for the faint of heart, i assure you.

OVERVIEW
With its amazing multiplay, entertaining single player campaign, and a bunch of OH MY GOD moments, I'm happy to say that Medal of Honour's reboot lives up to the franchise's former glory. It might not be a Modern Warfare, but at least it's storyline wasn't some crazy James Bond/Cold War conspiracy theorist's wet dream.


Next week, I should have a review of New Vegas, but at the moment, its shaping up to be extremely similar to my Fallout 3 review. Feel free to read that one till next week. See you next time!

Spiderman: Shattered Dimensions

First thing's first, I am a huge fan of superheroes and many things comic related. Batman: Arkham Asylum was one of my favourite releases of this generation and in my opinion, Spiderman 2 is one of the only worthwhile movie tie-in games.
After picking up what many hoped would be Spiderman's "Arkham Asylum", I can't say that its quite there. Not to say that it isn't good though.

STORY
Spiderman: Shattered Dimensions puts players behind the mask of Spiderman. Well... multiple Spidermen. You see, Mysterio is trying to pull off a massive heist; stealing an ancient tablet with the intent to sell it to the highest bidder. Spidey crashes this party, however, and breaks the tablet in the process; sending fragments of the artefact throughout the many universes.

Each universe has its own webslinger, and they are called upon to reunite the segments of The Tablet of Order and Chaos before the universe is torn apart. Its not some simple treasure hunt though. With each spiderman, comes a slew of enemies who have gotten their hands on the tablets, which increase their individual powers.

As a whole, the story doesn't work too badly, though its not the most intelligent story ever. Most of the actual levels aren't connected at all. Apart from the Spiderman Noir missions and the Spiderman 2099 levels; there is NO connectivity between levels, with the only similarity being the tablet fragment.

PRESENTATION
This games presentation is definitely one of its high points; with the visual styles and voice acting of each universe being different and of high quality.
For instance, Amazing Spiderman's universe has a comic book feel to it, whereas Ultimate Spidey's universe is more cel-shaded. Spiderman Noir's presentation in particular is really cool, with everything being dark, with a sepia tone in the light; or just plain black and white in the shadows.

The voice acting is really awesome; with multiple voice actors from Spidey's animated past reprising their roles; and with each villain having a distinct and almost familiar voice.
Alot of the script is really cool too; from Amazing Spiderman's classic quips, to Noir Spidey's inner monologue.

Levels are mostly varied, and this helps the game from becoming too repetitive.


GAMEPLAY
With four different Spidermen to control, you would think that gameplay would never get boring. And for the most part, you'd be right. Each Spidey controls rather differently; Noir Spiderman relies on stealth due to his weaker physical form, where as the black suited Ultimate Spiderman relies on his strength (which manifests as a rage mode).
Spiderman 2099 has an accelerated vision mode which comes up as bullet time, and the amazing Spiderman relies heavily on web based attacks and agility.

While this sounds pretty varied on paper, in-game you realise that 2099, Ultimate and Amazing Spiderman are essentially the same. Sure 2099 and Ultimate have their slo-mo and rage modes respectively, but when it comes down to it, each one, you'll be button mashing or inputting combo's to win.
And there is NO problem with that! What makes it ok for God of War to be repetitive button mashing? The fact that its fun! and that's what Shattered Dimensions is!

Now, I mentioned that Noir was different, and he definitely is. In the Noir levels, you have to stick to the shadows, and take enemies out one by one. Spiderman Noir doesn't like bullets at all. If this sounds familiar at all, you may have played the predator missions of Batman Arkham Asylum.
While not as strong as that game, the stealth sections are really fun. What let it down was when Noir Spidey is faced with open combat. He lacks the finesse that Batman had in Arkham Asylum, and it devolves into button mashing again.

Spiderman games of late have been open world swingers, so if you're expecting that with Spiderman: SD you're in for a surprise. Activisions normal simulated New York has been replaced with linear, well designed levels that lack the need for exploration, but have alot more character than previous games.

One thing that really annoyed me about Shattered Dimensions was that it was short. Theres about 3 levels for each spiderman, not including final boss or tutorial; and unless you're playing on Hard, the game wont take long to beat. Even on hard, its only about 8 hours.
While gameplay was pretty solid, Spidermans biggest enemy wasn't Goblin or Mysterio. It was the camera. It often stopped me from crawling on ceilings, or would make me accidently take down the wrong target in the Noir levels. A minor gripe, but still annoying.

Speaking of annoying, my most hated thing about this game was definitely having to protect citizens. I mean, how long does it take to open a door? Ad they had two scientists working on it!!! All the while, Spidey 2099 is getting his ass handed to him by hundreds of scorpion creatures.. Fucking scientists.

One last thing. Sometimes during boss battles, you go into first person fist fights with the boss; and that would have been fine if it was for the 3rd level of each universe, but its in almost every single one. It gets repetitive, and Spiderman (in my eyes) isn't known for his straight up brawling.

REPLAYABILITY
Like i said earlier, Shattered Dimensions isn't long. All up, you're looking at around 13 levels; which is a bit weak. The game makes up for this somewhat, by setting many challenges for each level; as well has having upgrade screens and secret costumes to unlock. It should keep gamers preoccupied for a while, but not too long.

OVERVIEW
I enjoyed this game, but i may be biased. I'd highly recommend it to Spidey fans, and superhero fans alike; but maybe if you're just an interested gamer, rent it. Could save you some money! I mean, the next few months are filled with games galore!
But yea, its a good game with fantastic visuals and design, as well as solid controls, but with a rather lacking story. Narration by Stan Lee though, that's kinda cool. OH! And theres a Spider-Ham reference!!


OK, next week it'll be Medal of Honour, hopefully. Failing that, New Vegas comes out around Thursday i think. WOOHOO! See you next time!

FIFA 11

Oh dear god, that was horrible. If you were expecting anything different, you're an idiot.


Gotcha! I had a chance to sit down with FIFA 11 for some good old fashioned video game SOCCER this week; so I'll be doing a quick review before I head off to Bathurst for some excellent times.
Now, many publications have agreed that FIFA 10 is the must have soccer game these days. It took some huge steps from its predecessors; and was met with great amounts of praise. Does FIFA 11 do as well?

STORY
Well... this being a sporting game, it doesn't ACTUALLY have a real story to it. It has the career mode; which merges the "Be a Pro" mode and "Manager" mode from FIFA10, and allows users to be a player, a manager, or a player-manager. In this mode, player growth can be improved with advice from your coach, and your managerial contract can be extended if you meet certain criteria.

It seems to be a lot more in-depth than last years efforts; so hardcore soccer fans should love this mode.

PRESENTATION
Like most sporting franchises; one of FIFA11's biggest improvements are in the graphics. Everything looks really quite amazing; the field in particular has stopped looking like green-painted concrete.
Facial details of players and referees are some of the best to date, and the commentators truly raise the immersion. Each game in FIFA 11 feels like an actual match.
Adding to this are the stats that often pop up on screen, indicating the possession, and other various details.

One thing I've always hated about the FIFA series (at least i9n recent years), is the soundtrack. Its all really pop-oriented; and to be honest, if I'm playing a sports game, I want to feel like a badass, unstoppable player; whether in game, or in the various menus. And this just doesnt do it for me.

GAMEPLAY
FIFA 11, at first glance is largely similar to last years release; however, once you get into the harder difficulty settings and new features, you really notice the changes. First things first though; the game controls really well. Players run, kick, pass and tackle the way they should; although, as per usual, its not perfect.
Sometimes, just angling the left stick incorrectly, or holding a button for slightly too long will mess up your play; but this doesnt happen often enough to be truly frustrating.

One of the newest, and most interesting aspects of FIFA 11 is the Personality Plus feature. Basically, what this does is take any players real life stats, and apply them to their in game animations and playability. While you may think thats what they used to do too; it wasn't nearly this in depth.

Say you have a low ability player, and a high ability player. Mr. Low recieves a pass and attempts to pass it out at a 90degree angle; but due to his attributes; the shot will often go 120 degrees or more. Mr. High on the other hand, will only be off by a matter of 10 degrees or so. What this does in the big picture, is force you to think about who your passes are going to, and how you can play around their abilities.

The AI has seen a vast improvement, as I'm yet to see any of my own players running into me, and goalkeeper reaction times seem fucking unreal! It amazes me that many have saved goals that have changed direction mid-air due to a deflection, but it happens. Or at least, it does now.

Speaking of Goalies, you can now play as a goalie during matches. While this may not seem particularly fascinating; its surprisingly fun, and extremely satisfying when you save a legendary shot. That said, gameplay between attempted shots on goal will probably get boring.
On a purely trivial note; the gameplay celebrations are better... if a little gay. MAN HUG!

But yes, back to actual gameplay. The improved AI and personality plus do add a fair amount of difficulty to the game, and while not a huge step, it does bring a welcome challenge to the often boring formula of past FIFA titles.

REPLAYABILITY
Being a sports game, there are always opportunities to play against the AI, or friends in exhibition matches; as well as the online opportunities presented with gaming today. Apart from that, i suppose you could play Career mode over and over and over again.

Oh, and theres trophies.. and achievements. Thats about it from what I can tell.

OVERVIEW
While FIFA 10 was the truly groundbreaking title in the series, FIFA 11 makes some good ground on that. Updated graphics, tighter controls, smarter AI (both opposing, and team) and more features than you can take a dive at make this game a must have for "Football" fans. If you like the fifa games, and you picked up FIFA 10; this years outing may not give you enough to warrant paying full price for the brand new game.

So, as it goes with sports games, if you bought last years one and you AREN'T a soccer fan; you could live without FIFA11. Although, I was surprised at the changes, so maybe there is enough to warrant you forkin out full price.


Ok, so this weeks was early, next review should be Sunday the 17th. Which is kinda crap, coz I'll have New Vegas the week after, hopefully. Any ideas for the next one?

Dead Rising 2

This week, i picked up my copy of Dead Rising 2, ready for some mindless, zombie killing fun. And while I did indeed get that; i honestly got more than i expected. Allow me to elaborate in my review.

Dead Rising 2 is a zombie based action game developed by Capcom and Blue Castle Games. It's out now for the PS3, X-Box 360 and PC; and is a sequel to Dead Rising.

STORY
Dead Rising 2 follows Chuck Greene, a survivor of a previous zombie outbreak; and his daughter, Katey, as they get caught up in the latest Zombie outbreak, this time in Fortune City. This is where things get interesting, you see, Dead Rising is one of those games where absolutely everything is optional.
You may do the main story missions, and save chucks daughter with her medicine... or you may just ignore all that and kill zombies for the 75 in game hours you have.

When it comes down to it, you are Chuck. You are trapped in Fortune City, with thousands of hungry zombies and 75 hours to kill. The summary of this game is pretty much, play it your way.

While completely optional, the actual story was better than i had initially expected. Its got its twists and turns, and has a unique gameplay feature, in that every mission is timed. You didn't complete an objective in time? The story has been failed, and you get a new ending. This also adds a new layer of difficulty.

PRESENTATION
So, DR2 isn't the best looking game, but it certainly is adequate to say the least. People look how they should, but the game lacks any CG cutscenes; so all the story driven cutscenes are performed within the game engine. Helping the look of the game are the various locations there are within Fortune City.
Places like the Western Themed casino or the under construction hotel really add some variety to the locations you experience in Chuck's adventure.
ALSO there are a cubic buttload of zombies on screen at once, with minimal technical issues; which is a feat in itself.

Now, there is also some horrible pieces of dialogue. Theres nothing wrong with the voices saying the lines, but the lines themselves are atrocious. The script is full of innuendo and horrible puns; so bad that it makes the script kind of endearing. That doesn't excuse it from being horrible though.

Along with some fairly good voice acting, the soundtrack to the game is really quite excellent. From mall style music (similar to elevator music), to heavy metal music for the "boss fights"; Dead Rising really does create a unique feel with its in game music.

GAMEPLAY
The gameplay of DR2 has 3 main focus points. First of all, Zombie Killing: it's really quite entertaining, even though its more or less the same action over and over again. The variety of weapons AND weapon Combos really makes the zombie killing experience a more unique one than games like, say, Left 4 Dead.
While guns are available, your main arsenal will consist of every day items you'll find in the casino/mall city that you're trapped in.

Second of all, you have the fetch quests. These include saving survivors and getting items for certain saved survivors (or medicine for your daughter). As well as these, though not really "Fetch Quests", are the "Boss Fights". All of these missions are set to a time limit; which normally lasts a few in game hours.

This leads us to the 3rd gameplay mechanic; Time Management. In Dead Rising 2, you're required to do any of the missions you choose, in the time that has been set. This is displayed by a bar in the right side of the screen.
This makes it easy to know exactly how much time you have left to do a certain task, and allows you to figure out what you want to do with your time; as not every mission can be accomplished.

Everything in the game gives you Prestige Points, which allows you to level Chuck up. PP is earned from killing zombies, saving survivors, killing psychopaths, or doing certain random tasks (such as rolling a seven on the giant craps table).
Levelling up gets Chuck new skills and higher levels of health, speed and attack damage; making each replay easier and easier.

My biggest problems with the game are as follows. First of all, at lower levels, some of the boss fights are absolutely cheap and rather difficult; while offering very little in the way of hints to defeat them. Secondly, if you die, you get transported to your last save. While I applaud this title for using this mechanic to make the game more difficult, I find it annoying when I forget to save, then get gang raped by fifty zombies. Oh well, perhaps that's my fault.
Also, money is sometimes hard to come by (aside from a few missions). Though not essential to the gameplay experience; to get some cool additions to the game, you will need money.

REPLAYABILITY
As it stands, I have played through Dead Rising 2 three times; and yet I haven't gotten all of the endings yet; let alone found all the combo cards, or survivors; and i have a hell of a lot more zombies to kill.
This game offers a lot of mindless zombie killing; and anyone who picks this up is practically guaranteed to play it again, if only to level Chuck up to the level cap.

As well as this, DR2 offers the "Terror Is Reality" multiplayer mode; where players compete in various zombie killing games for in-game money. While not a core part of the game, it offers an excellent distraction to the main game. Think of Dead Rising 2 as a big juicy piece of steak; well the T.I.R games are like the big, golden, crunchy chips that are served with it. God I'm hungry.

Lets not forget about the trophies/achievements for all you hunters and whores out there. Some of them are really a lot of fun, and I intend to get as many as I can. Happy hunting!

OVERVIEW
Dead Rising 2 isn't the most intricate, arty game around. And it doesn't ever try to be. Dead Rising knows what it does best, and that's Mindless Zombie Massacre. However, in addition to this, Dead Rising 2 also offers a surprisingly well thought out story, and lots of variety; in both locations, music and combat.

It also offers a lot of replayability, so if you like killing zombies, you will cream yourself over Dead Rising 2. Unless you're more into guns and fast sprinter zombies (as opposed to the classic slow movers), in which case, GO BACK TO LEFT 4 DEAD!

Should hopefully have a review of FIFA 11 between now and next Thursday, in a special edition of Tophat Gamer; if not, go to hell. See you next time! =D