Dragon Age II

PC gamers have been up in arms about this game since its release, yet alot of Console gamers are championing it as one of the few game sequels that are better than the original. However, the actual quality of the game goes far deeper than either of the views from each side. What dragon age II definitely is, is an example of how if you change just ONE thing between games, you're alienating someone who loved the original.

STORY
Dragon Age II follows the story of Hawke, an emigrant to Kirkwall, having escaped his hometown of Lothering during the Blight (as seen in Dragon Age: Origins). The game is presented in the fashion of a framed narrative by way of one of Hawkes companions, Varric. It tells the tale of Hawke as he rises from emigrant in a new land, to Champion of Kirkwall. It spans many years, and the city of Kirkwall, as well as it's political state are both main focuses of the story, as well as the adventures of the Champion.

Many who missed out on DA: Origins might be left a little bit out in the cold when it comes to the greater history of this world, however DA2 isn't as wordly as Origins. DAII presents a more personal story, and the character growth benefits greatly for it. The actual story style is one that's not explored often in games, and it presents opportunites for the narrator (Varric) to embellish parts of the story a little bit. It makes for one or two hilarious sections, as well as an awesome tutorial, which gives us a peek at the fully levelled Hawke.

PRESENTATION
Anyone who played Dragon Age: Origins on a console will be pleased to hear that DA2 recieved a massive graphical overhaul. Instead of looking like something from the PS2generation, Dragon Age II is one of the better looking games of this generation. Aside from the typical stare that characters get during conversations, all the faces and animations look realistic and believable.

The music is fairly epic, though maybe not as epic as Origins, and the voice acting has taken a big step forward. Hawkes voice is really cool, as are his companions. My personal favourite was Anders when he goes a little nuts.
The setting of the game, Kirkwall, is interesting and varied, despite being made with a metric fuckton of beige rock. The Lowtown market and Hightown market look distinct, but revisited areas such as sewers, caves and dungeons all look the same. Its a shame that such a good looking game repeats so many lackluster environments.

GAMEPLAY
The biggest changes to the formula come here. PC gamers are hit hardest by the lackluster camera for more tactical playing, whereas console players are treated to a more fast paced game. Tactical playing is still a huge focusw, but strangely enough, it feels more fluid on the Console, as opposed to the PC version. Another cut feature is the ability to customize other companions' attire, although their outfits can be upgraded. A large list of weapons and armour remain, solely for the benefit of Hawke, who can be male or female; rogue, mage or warrior.

The customization choices are fewer than in Origins, but thats because this is Hawke's story, not all of Fereldon's. As Hawke's story, one feature remains the same, through all the legends: He/she was Human. Conversation's also play a big part in Dragon Age 2, and instead of having a list of options like in Origins; DA2 makes use of the Dialogue Wheel from Bioware's other awesome RPG, Mass Effect 2.
Alot of the story comes down to the decisions Hawke makes during conversation, and it's cool to see that your impact is so huge.

Crafting has almost been taken out completely, which I dont mind too much as I didn't use it. Romances remain, and are a little bit easier to plan; and there is no lack of quests for Hawke to embark upon. I do have to say though, that DA2 is rather difficult. Not AS difficult as Origins, but it hasn't gotten soft either.

REPLAYABILITY
Dragon Age II offers numerous choices and decisios in the story that lead to new quests, new equipment and multiple endings. Its entirely possible to play through this game 2 or 3 times almost entirely differently. As a Bioware game, you can pretty much be sure that there will be a lot of DLC to back up this already huge game.

OVERVIEW
While not as huge as Origins in many ways, Dragon Age II streamlines things to a degree where I can't honestly complain about too much. Yes, the dungeons etc. are repeated way too much, but the combat is a lot faster paced which almost completely made up for it for me. And while I did enjoy the entire world encompassing story of Origin's, that game set up Dragon Age 2 for more personal, and frankly, better crafted story. Nods to the original also made parts more interesting for me. So in short, I loved it. I really did.

The most annoying part of this was not being able to use my online pass code, which was stupid, but I'm sure its not the case for everything. But seriously, WTF is the point of those codes? It has to be greed, to discourage from pre-owned sales; WELL IT DOESN'T WORK. EA are the biggest offenders here. Anyway, thats Dragon Age 2; hopefully Crysis 2 next Sunday, otherwise, I don't know. So, see you next time.

Killzone 3

Well, this is familiar. I started this blog almost a year ago, reviewing Killzone 2 as my first attempt. Now, I'm reviewing Guerrilla Games' sequel, Killzone 3. Funny, no?

STORY

The story of Killzone 3 starts of just after the events of Killzone 2; Scholar Visari has nuked his own city, and Rico has just killed him. The ISA have to escape t

he planet before the shit hits the fan. Sev and Rico are separated during their escape and their plan crumbles. The remaining ISA forces, including the player (Sev) are trapped in the hostile environment of Helghan, while the Helghast hunt them down like rats.

6 months later (where the majority of the game takes place), Sev and Rico are reunited, and must try to save their fellow ISA soldiers from the hellish planet, a

nd its terrible inhabitants.

Killzone 2 had a fairly solid story, and KZ3 expands upon that. It instills a sense of hopelessness as you play as the significantly smaller, and weaker ISA against the ruthless fury of the Helghast. There's also a little side story about the power struggle between two of Helghan's most powerful citizens, in the wake of Visari's death. This was the most interesting part of the story for me, and I wish it had been explored further.

PRESENTATION

Killzone 3 may be one of the best looking games I've ever seen. Crisp graphics, a smooth framerate, and realistic character models really push the PS3

to it's limits. Speaking of looking amazing, the environments of Helghan are much more varied than the previous game. While boltgun grey and dystopia br

own aren't gone completely from the games colour pallette, there are some really cool settings like the Arctic and Jungle levels. Whites, blues and oranges assault your eyes and leave them satisified, while the blacks, browns and silvers keep the game feeling somewhat hopeless.

The soundtrack is powerful and fitting for many of the

amazing gun fights and epic set pieces, and the voice acting is fantastic. Malcolm McDowell plays Johan Stahl brilliantly, as does Ray

Winstone, opposite him as Admiral Orlock. However awesome the cast of voices may be, it doesn't sound like McDowell is giving his best performance, but that may just be me.

GAMEPLAY

The biggest problem I had with Killzone 2 was the control scheme, but it was saved by the fact that it was chang

eable. Luckily, KZ3 begins with control modification, but one of the most annoying things is still prevalent. The use of L2 as a crouch button is just weird. I believe it should be assigned to a face button, but oh well, it doesn't make a huge impact on playability.

The controls of Killzone 3 retain the series' trademark weight, as running, jumping and even aiming all feel realisticly heavy. It has been toned down a little since last time, and for good effect. While every action does feel realistic, the reduction in the "weight" makes gunplay a lot more fluid.

Also making the action feel a bit more fluid, is taking away the old weapon wheel and replacing it with a new 3 weapon system. This allows you to hold one

pistol, one assault rifle, and a heavy weapon, while taking away the knife completely. In lieu of this, Guerrilla Games have offered a new brutal melee system. While still being able to hit Higs with the butt of your rifle, you're now able to perform some truly killer melee moves when you're close enough. For example, a knife in the eye, or crushing the Helghasts' head against the wall.

The AI has improved, mainly in the area of your companions not being as thick as wet cement. Rico accompanies you most places, and you'll still have to revive him occasionally; but it's bearable, because he can now revive you too, assuming he in't pinned down. It's nice to see that you get a hand every now and then. The enemy AI will still flank you, or pin you down with covering fire, or even flush you out with grenades, which me

ans they provide sufficient challenge.

And as per usual, there are some pointless vehicle sections, which more or less devolve into on rails sections. That's a shame, because the space flight section could have been so much more. Oh and there are jet-packs, which are kind of cool, but will let you fall slowly to the ground, like a balloon with a target painted on it.

REPLAYABILITY

Killzone 3 features the usual fare when it comes to current gen FPS games. There are multiple difficulty settings with which to challenge yourself, as well as online modes such as Guerrilla War (classic team-deathmatch), Warzone (which is an objectiv

e based mode where objectives change on the fly) and the new Operations mode, which features the ISA attacking a Helghast base, in a three level mini story. The draw of this is that the best players on each team will be showcased in the mid game cutscenes. It's great incentive for players to do their best for higher bragging rights.

Aside from the online component, these games can be played offline in the botzone, which is entertaining enough for what it is. My only complaint is that players who have mastered the game will absolutely destroy anyone new to it.

OVERVIEW

Killzone 3 has what it takes to stand up to the very bes

t FPS games out there. The gameplay is as solid as any CoD game, and in my eyes, KZ3 can rival almost any Crytek game. The story is fairly high quality when compared to titles like Halo, and the variety in environments is amazing. Guerrilla Games deserve to be commended for their work on this title, and congratulated for fixing most of the problems from Killzone 2, including the gratuitous swearing.

Not too sure what I'm reviewing next week, though I am open to suggestions. Keep reading, and feedback is still appreciated. See you next time!

Bulletstorm

Are you sick of "Realistic Shooters" set it "Unspecified-istan" while you battle either Russians, Middle Eastern Opfor or a combination of the two? Are you sick tough, gritty space marines, with plastic mattel guns that fire with an unsatisfactory "pew-pew"? You know what? Bulletstorm may just be for you. This game comes to us from the makers of Gears of War AND Painkiller, so expect something new!

STORY
Bulletstorm follows the misadventures of infamous space pirate Grayson Hunt, and his journey to revenge and retribution. It all starts with Gray crashing his ship into the cruiser of his former boss, General Sarrano, in an ill-fated attempt at revenge. However, Grayson has trapped himself and the only other surviving member of his crew, Ishi on the former resort planet of Stygia.

Adding to that problem, his friend Ishi has to be revived through the implantation of the onboard computer system, causing him to go all "Red-eye terminator" and the planet is overrun with gangs of criminals and mutants. So, the game follows Hunt's journey to save his loyal crewmember, as well as completing his revenge against General Sorrano.

Despite the writing being extremely crude, and fall of dick jokes, Bulletstorm's story was actually quite good. You get a real sense that Grayson feels he's let his crew down, and he'll stop at nothing to set things right, by killing Sorrano, or getting Ishi off of Stygia. However, all the characters of Bulletstorm pale in comparison to Stygia itself. The story behind it is interesting, and I found myself playing solely to see how Stygia became the place it is now.

PRESENTATION
Bulletstorm is a really good looking game. Not in the usual way like how CoD or Halo look good, however. The landscapes in Bulletstorm are bright and varied, and the enemies and weaponry share this quality. There's a severe lack of gun-metal grey or dystopia-brown; instead, we're treated to luscious greens, deep blues and blazing orange's.

The sound design is also really great. Each gun has unique sound effects and the soundtrack varies from area to area. On the other hand, the enemies spout the same lines over and over again. This will make you want to kill them even more. So perhaps this was a good design choice?

The voice acting is fairly standard, with Grayson Hunt being voiced by Steven Blum (of CoD Zombie Nazi's fame). Seriously, does no one see that alot of his voices are exactly the same?


GAMEPLAY
This is where shit gets real for Bulletstorm. In it's most basic form, it is an Arcade Shooter, wrapped in the jacket of your standard linear FPS. The focus of the game is on getting points, which I'll get to in a moment.

The core gameplay of shoot, kick, leash and run is smooth and flows really nicely. Grayson's melee attacks have a good sense of weight to them, and the game is filled with some truly kickass weaponry. Regular readers may know that I have a special place in my heart for Insomniac, due to their imagination when it comes to weapons, so it may not surprise you that Bulletstorms arsenal does NOT disappoint.

Now, the game focuses on it's tagline: "Kill With Skill". This means, you have to use your environment, weapons, melee attachs and your leash to (in the words of Cliffy B) play with your enemies like a fat kid plays with cake. The points you earn can be used to buy ammo, upgrades or new weapons, and it provides a nice amount of variety to the usual run and shoot gameplay.

On the downside, this mechanic is shoehorned into gameplay pretty badly. The "Leash" that Hunt acquires allows him to fling enemies around and also access weapon Drop Shops. However, it will only serve him, if he can get enough points to pay for these things. While it works as a currency system, it would be less annoying if it just wasn't mentioned in the story.

And another thing, this may seem like a minor gripe, but who the hell decided there was going to be a button to activated your weapons secondary fire, instead of just FIRING IT. It just means more movements between seeing your target and exploding their ass with lead, and thats the wrong way to go about good design.

REPLAYABILITY
While there are multiplayer modes, theres very little to dwell on. Basically, theres Anarchy mode, where you play as one of four "Dead Echo" recruits, working together to reach a preset score to proceed to the next round. Echo mode gets you to play through single player sections in order to get a higher score than anyone on your friends list. Go nuts. It still doesn't compare to a decent competitive multiplayer.

Aside from that, the only reason to replay the main story is for the trophies or achievements. While I have no problem with that, the single player mode just doesn't have enough extras to bring me back again and again.

OVERVIEW
The actual length of the game is just over the average length of a CoD game on normal difficulty. It's long enough that the skillshots don't get too repetitive and it doesn't wear out its welcome. The gameplay is solid and fluid (ironic?) and Grayson, as a character is genuinely likeable sometimes. At least, moreso than most characters in Shooter games. Im looking at you Marcus Fenix!

If you want something thats not taking itself too seriously, Bulletstorm is for you. If you like Dick Jokes, this is perfect for you. If you like having to work for your currency, then this game is for you. If you're looking for a deep story, well... you could do worse than Bulletstorm, though I doubt this will satisfy your needs.


Anyways, see you guys next time! Killzone 3 review is on the way, feedback is still appreciated. =D

Dead Space 2

It seems like it's been quite some time since my last review, and for that, I apologize. Last Sunday was taken up by Soundwave, so that was totally worth it. However, I realise that I may not be able to review alot of games coming out around now, and my back catalogue will only grow.

Anyway, today I'm reviewing Dead Space 2 which is obviously (unless you were dropped on your head as a child) the sequel to Dead Space.

STORY
Dead Space 2 begins in a mental hospital on the Sprawl, a densely populated metropolis built on a shard of Titan, one of Saturn's moons. The game takes place 3 years after the end of the first, and resumes with Isaac Clarke waking up with very little memory of the time that has elapsed. It just so happens that the Necromorph's are attacking the Sprawl, so clearly, it's just not Isaac's day. It soon becomes apparent that Isaac will have to face these monstrosity's alone, while being tormented by his own mind. Hey, he was in an asylum for a reason...

Now, If you have NO idea about what a "Necromorph" is, never fear! Dead Space 2 provides a nifty little "Previously, on Dead Space" cinematic, which sums up the events of the previous title quite nicely. While I've played little more than a demo of the first Dead Space, I found that I had caught up with the story very quickly.

The story itself isn't bad, but it's far from award winning. The plot, as a whole, is fairly predictable, as many times you'll find yourself having to take the long way around because something unforseen went wrong. That is, unforseen by Isaac, not the player. It would take an idiot not to see these plot twists coming.
A few of the characters are quite likeable, though Isaac falls into the cliched action hero role more often than not.

PRESENTATION
Dead Space 2 looks really good, but so did its predecessor. What seperates the two, is a brand new environment, in the form of The Sprawl. While the Ishimura was a dark and uninviting spacecraft, The Sprawl is a metropolis, filled with hospitals, shopping centres and school buildings. While it all takes place in a space station style layout, each area does have its own unique feel. I'll never look at a preschool the same after this game.

While the environments look great, and the characters look quite well made, the Necromorphs just have too much going on. They look far too cluttered to be particularly frightening. This is why I found the ones closer to human form most scary. Speaking of "scary", Dead Space 2 does the usual thing of using high pitch violin squeals to get the player startled, and it works as well as it was ever going to here, even if its been used a bit much over the years.

Oh, and I thought this was worth mentioning; there is NO Heads Up Display. At least, not on the borders of the screen. Instead, you have Isaac's "Rig", which displays your health bar, as well as other meters. Along with this, your weapons laser sight comes directly from the gun, and the ammo count is displayed as a hologram from it. I know some people will find this unimportant, but I thought it was interesting.

GAMEPLAY
Dead Space 2 makes no huge changes from the core gameplay of the original. You run around various blood splattered areas lit by flickering lights and you use some rather heavy duty weaponry to strategically dismember the horde of disgusting alien zombie things. Now, the "horror" element of this action horror game pretty much gets thrown out the window when you get given guns that can slice the heads of five aliens in one shot. It works well enough, but it detracts from the overall scariness of the game.

Yes, I jumped a few times, but that was more from surprise than being genuinely scared. Also, the Necromorphs are cheap bastards. More often than not, you'll find yourself facing off against two monstrosities, then a third will drop from the roof vent and claw off your man bits.

The most unsettling bit of Dead Space 2 has to be the fact that your ammo and med-packs are scarce, and this is what horror games should be, conserving your shots if you can because, before you know it, you'll have to start smacking the necromorphs to death with the least lethal part of your gun.

Now, when you aren't blowing the limbs off aliens with huge guns, you're probably solving puzzles with your stasis and kinesis modules. The puzzles aren't the most complex things, but the features themselves are pretty cool. Stasis lets you freeze enemies/objects and kinesis allows you to pick things up, which is helpful when your ammo is gone.

Oh, and there are some trippy zero gravity bits. They were a nice touch and they add some much needed change to the gameplay. The use of thrusters, in conjunction with Stasis and Kinesis makes for some interesting segments in the game.

REPLAYABILITY
First of all, once you finish the single player game, you are able to restart, on a higher difficulty with all your previous gear available to you from the first vendor. That's kind of interesting, but it certainly didn't make me want to do it again. Though, that's just me; theres tonnes of audio and text logs to convey some more of the somewhat interesting story to players who want more.

As for multiplayer, Dead Space 2 adds a Left 4 Dead-esque game mode, where 4 players control humans and 4 players control necromorphs. The human players have to complete an objective, whereas the necromorphs just have to kill the humans. At the moment, it's pretty unbalanced, but can be fun on occasion. I say, go buy L4D and play a more refined version of this mode. Dead Space 2 didn't impress me with it's multiplayer.

OVERVIEW
Dead Space 2 isn't a bad game. It's environments have a lot more variety to them compared to the first Dead Space and some of it's characters are interesting and some are even likeable. The story is a bit weird, but I can accept that a few people can get into it. It was nothing, if not interesting. If anything, my main problem was the gameplay. A horror game can't be that scary if you keep giving players an arsenal that would make Bulletstorm blush. I'm just saying.


Next time on Tophat Gamer, I plan on reviewing Killzone 3. Or Bulletstorm. You guys should vote on it. Not that you will. Oh well. See you next time!