Big Rigs: Over the Road Racing(Retro Review)

Hello again everyone.

I got some nice feedback for my site now. I need to make a few "Feedback" posts every so often, just to keep up with the Jones. 

First thing I learned wasn't exactly a huge shock: My Sleeping Dogs video sucked balls. I had formatting issues with the video files, I forgot to make the gameplay capture videos fit the screen, and the back ground music clashes with the gameplay sounds and my voiceover. Plus I used the camera and mic for my computer, which was bound to be crappy. Need to find my HD flip video recorder and a better microphone. Thinking about using my Rock Band Mic, but might opt for something more professional. 

I will keep this all in mind during this week's video review of Farcry 3; with any luck, it will rock the house and give it the right kind of exposure.

Anywhoha, let's start with a bit of news and a follow up review

First the news: Remember that game I reviewed yesterday called The War Z?

Steam removed it from it's store.

Sergey Titov, the man of this unfortunate hour

You read that right. That controversy I wrote about earlier was a lot more intense then I thought. Apparently they had to make a formal apology and everything. You see, the people who made War Z, aka Hammepoint Interactive, tend to have a bad history of making promises they did not keep. They posted on the Steam store about having more levels then they had, more features then the game actually had, and when they promised to put more in with patches the fans were dismissive. Why?

Because the executive for Hammer Studios, Sergey Titov, did a similarly bad move in some of his previous games. Among the more infamous titles around the net is a PC game called  "Big Rigs:Over the Road Racing". And like the now-up-and-coming War Z, it did not deliver what it promised on the packaging. This is the subject of today's review

Simply by seeing the box that the game was made in illustrates the point. You clearly see a cop car trying desperately to cut off a huge flaming Semi. It was supposed to be a game where you had to avoid dealing with cops while smuggling illegal contraband across the border before your competitor does. 

Problem is, you never actually see any cop cars. And your opponent doesn't move. And if you turn too fast the game becomes more glitchy then an Atari 2600 in a magnet factory. The videos I posted should illustrate how bad the game was, and the fact of the matter is up until War Z, this was Titov's most famous title. Only due to the negative press. 

I did not play the game, of course; they stopped even trying to sell it before I even heard of it. But I think I saw the entire game experience, if you can even call it that, with just these two videos. I think I was lucky not to waste my money on this.

The pattern might be what is called a Texas Sharp Shooter Fallacy, (Click this link to find out more) but it does justify the intense backlash up to a point, and makes it clear why such a mistake might have been made.

Especially when you compare it to a game made by Howard Scott Warshaw that you might have heard of follows the same pattern that both Big Rigs and War Z follows. Can you guess what that pattern is? 

Howard Scott Warshaw's catastropic failure

No? Big Rigs, War Z, and Warshaw's ET game each and all had HORRIBLE production schedules. War Z tried to make an entire virtual world within a year, as promised. Big Rigs was originally supposed to be a small part of a bigger game that got split in two midway in development; only the pre-alpha title was released. And ET? only a few weeks before the holidays was what Warsaw started with. Not ideal. 

Video games are a work of art; comparable to the Eiffel tower and The Last Supper. both were made with care, precision, time, and effort. You can't build Rome in a day, and you sure as hell can't make 10,000+ km of lush, detailed environments within a year, even if you are using parts from other games. 

This and the fact that he seems to admit no true responsibility for the blatant mislabeling inspires a very special Seven Word Synopsis for him and him alone.

Seven Word Synopsis:

Get your 

head out 

of your ass!

Seriously, it's one thing to make a bad game. Even the best developers go though it; Warshaw is still hailed as a great designer, and continued making good press well into the 2000s.

It's another thing to mistakenly label your game. The only thing you really did wrong is fail to correct the description of your title prior to launch, and failed to mention that it was an Alpha. Not exactly something that gets you sent to hell.

But what will convince Saint Pete to pull the level and dip you into the Devil's flaming lava Jacuzzi tub is the fact that you turned right around and blamed the same fans who supported you every step of the way until you dropped the ball and blamed them for "Misreading" the information. Why don't you just post a picture on your twitter post of your middle finger? Save the 140 letters for something constructive.

Anyway, that's my Retro Review of Big Rigs:Over the Road Racing. The public spanking of Titov was free. 

Your welcome :)

The War Z Review

Okay, it looks like this week is going to be dedicated to Steam games for the time being. Unless I get a chance to play some PS3 or Wii, and/or fix my Xbox 360 this week, I will need to use the most handy game console I have at the moment; my PC.

Thus, lets look at a recently "released" game called 

This game has sprung some rather surprising controversy with the release of it's Alpha on steam only because the Dev team promised a lot for its release and initially given very little. While still undergoing some major patching, people all across Reddit are complaining that it had only one level, which was only 72 km, no hardcore mode, and no private servers.

 A lot of this is bunk, only because the game is obviously in Alpha stages, and even so has a hardcore mode in which you die and never recover. Plus, even in normal mode it takes up to several hours for you to be able to "revive" a dead character. The only thing the people behind War Z really did wrong is fail to communicate to their consumer base. Beware the wrath of fanboys; they want what you have promised! War Z is still a pretty decent game despite the uproar, fortunately. There are a lot of things War Z is not, however.

 Foremost, War Z is not a Left 4 Dead game. 

Why? Here is an explanation as to why, and what you can expect from the game, what it means to you the player, and weather or not you should probably spend $15+ on this title. 

Overview

Are you the kind of person who enjoys long hikes in the wilderness with no company except the chirping of birds and the swaying of the wind? If yes, then this might be your game.

Do you like feeling atmospheric suspense in desolate urban environments while reliving the most epic scenes in your favorite horror movie? If yes, then this might be your game.

Does the idea of not only fighting the undead, but starvation, thirst, the elements, and your fellow man make you want to press start? If yes, then this might be your game.

Will you only buy a game if it helps you live out your fantasy of being a one man zombie-killing machine? If yes, then this might be something you want to avoid.

War Z follows in the tradition of the ARMA II mod DayZ (not by the same guys, mind you) as a game that uses the mechanics of a shooter style action game and uses it to create an open world modeled after the zombie apocolypse. Think a Halo/Gears of War style game with a World of Worldcraft server in the setting of Walking Dead, and you got a good description of War Z. This is about survival and exploration, not violence and devastation. The game gives you a huge wilderness that you can spend hours if not literal days just walking your character through. The only thing keeping you from wandering aimlessly through lush graphics and beautiful nature sounds is the fact that your character has a hunger and a thirst bar. The only way to quench your virtual thirst and satisfy your avatar's hunger is to collect supplies from the nearby abandoned settlements. And they are usually teeming with the zombie horde. The only way you can kill the zombies (in game, mind you) is to shoot/stab/bludgeon their heads until they die. You get experience for each kill, but sadly the game has no leveling system as of yet. Once you learn to point the cursor up and spam the zombie with attacks, however, the threat of the zombie horde becomes, shall we say.... stagnant. The zombies become a lot less terrifying when all you have to do is lead one away from its brethren and smash it with a bat until its dead. Rinse and repeat, and you might as well be playing Left 4 Dead. 

The real threat, of course, isn't the people who are dead, but those who are playing just like you. If you kill enough of your fellow players (which is very easy to do, since it only takes a few hits to die in this game), you will be branded a "bandit" and will be able to kill players for their supplies. This makes it almost too easy for someone with a shotgun/rifle/crossbow/take-your-pick to simply troll the entire map until no one is left. Also, it makes it possible to be betrayed even by those who deem themselves trustworthy. I actually teamed up with someone who wound up hitting me with a bat when I wasn't looking. Had to make a new character yet again. This gets rather tiresome when you are exploring the game for the very first time, as a lot of players can never shake that "killer instinct" that has served them so well in every other multi-player game, from WoW to COD to L4D. I'd hate to say it, but sometimes games can make you over-competitive. Not school shooters or psychopaths, but definitely over-competitive. 

The game is still balanced rather well, despite its unusual harboring of trolls. I was ready to rip this game a new one for giving out micro transactions in the huge qualities my screenshot displays below, but I actually looked at the market, and while they do sell ammo and melee weapons, no firearms or projectile weapons are sold in the game's marketplace. Good thing too; Bandits are powerful enough as it, and need some serious nerfing in the Beta version. 

 How it Compares

Beyond the obvious comparison to DayZ, the only games that come close to this kind of experience are Minecraft survival mode and an old MMO called Anarchy. I mention Anarchy due to the hauntingly captivating music score and jarring sound effects, and Minecraft to the idea of changing daylight hours and of course needing to eat food and avoid zombies. Both make game like War Z an experience you won't soon forget. Even if you remember playing DayZ and the like.

The music gives you that much needed feel of tension and anxiety that seems almost inappropriate during the day. Even so, it only triggers when you are near an abandoned settlement or a place occupied by the living dead. Until then, it's blue jays singing and wood peckers pecking. One minute your singing zippity do-da to yourself, the next you realize you are alone in an abandoned trailer park with thirteen shambling ghouls. The fact that it mixes industrial music sound effects with a slow and steady ominousness would make both Hitchcock and Reznor proud. 

Also, the game tends to treat zombies not just as easy targets, but what they were always meant to be used as; a threat to your sense of security. As suggested by the Zombie Survival Guide, you must only aim for the head, never waltz in a town without a backup plan, and try to make as little noise as possible. If you shoot one zombie in the head, ten more will hear the shot and come in after you. These things aren't George Romero's shambling shufflers either; they run like the wind until one of you is dead. If you don't kill them before likewise and/or enlist some help, you will need to either wait a good few hours or make a brand new character. both of which makes dying in this game strongly discouraged. 

If it wasn't for the fact that killing your fellow man gave you Bandit status and resources, I would say that this game gives the tribute to human life that most games severely lack. But then again I got shot twice before I even had a chance to find food. so some players will need to adjust. Expect a lot of them to tell you how much this games suck, and then prepare yourself to look past their biased BS. This is not a shooting gallery game with zombies; it is an apocalyptic simulation with the walking dead. I am shocked and appalled at the number of chats I read by people who couldn't wrap their heads around it to save their lives. We really need to grow up in this industry. 

Conclusion

Judging by the things I can't click on yet alone, it is obvious this game is far from finished. It would have been very nice of the developers to alert their potential buyers of this upon releasing it on steam. If they do not put in the features they promised in the upcoming patches, there is going to be some serious backlash from the community they took so much time to build. Don't make promises you can't keep! Take it from someone who had to learn the hard way...

Seven Word Synopsis

Amazing Concept

Features Vacant

Buy when finished

Until Next time....

Arctic Combat Review

Alright, here we go. Going to make games like this in rapid fire now; It'll have to be PS3 and Xbox 360 on one week and Wii +PC the next. Only because I have my PS3 and Xbox at my Dads and my Wii at my Moms. If I have to, I will move them around of course :)

Now for today's review, we will be going over a free-to-play game for the Steam Virtual Console released December 6th. It will be my most recent review so far this week.

The Title is of course

And I can sum up both the experience and the idea behind it with one single sentence.

It is a poor man's Call of Duty.

Of course, you didn't click my link just to hear someone state what was probably obvious to begin with. So let me break down exactly how and probably why this game is so much like the COD franchise, and why it is very different. The good, the bad, and the ugly, as always.

The Overview

Call of Duty is considered by  many an expert to be the best selling video game franchise of our current generation. It has millions of players logging on to its multiplayer base for every stroke of the keyboard I make. I type about 45 words per minute, so that's about 45 million people fragging, shooting, and dying on a virtual video game every sixty seconds. These numbers aren't based off of any actual statistics of course; I say this only to emphasize my point. 

They say mimicry is the best form of flattery. If that is the case, consider Call of Duty to be the most flattered game on the market. From Battlefield to Medal of Honor to pretty much any game with a soldier and gun on the front box cover is based in a lot of ways off of Call of Duty. Arctic Combat pretty much takes this kind of unoriginal thinking to the extreme, borrowing everything from weapons to perks to kill streaks and game modes and putting them in a free to play game, where you buy the upgrades with points instead of simply leveling. It works much in the same way as Farmville does, as in you pay for the things you need to play the game with fake money, and buy extra cool stuff for real bucks. Farmville joins COD in being so very flattered.

Arctic Combat, on the other hand, has no real originality to deliver at all, and the only thing that keeps me from calling it a total crapfest is the fact that it is a free version (as opposed to sixty bucks plus $25 season pass!) and it has adjustable graphics.

These adjustable graphics are, to be frank, godsend to those who have computers with dubious quality video cards. If you have something that still runs Windows XP, set your graphics to low. If your computer has internal parts comparable to something from Star Trek, you can get more bang for your (hopefully) non-existent buck. This allows gamers who don't have cray supercomputers to play alongside those who are overclocking their PCs at home while I type this.

How it compares

If I had to chose between sawing my own leg of and play this game for two hours, I would wind up playing for four. That said, If someone gave me the choice to have Black Ops 2 for free or have a zillion points in this game, I would tell them to take their virtual money and shove it up their derriere.

There is simply no comparison; cue the music, Sam. 

Anything AC can do, COD can do better. COD can do anything better then AC. End of music. 

COD has, among other things, better selection of EVERYTHING, from kill streaks to weapons to perks to upgrades to YOU F()&*(& NAME IT! Plus, the graphics on AC (even in "very high" settings) are infinitely lower then COD, especially when you play on a good console. And if you want story, COD delivers on a very cinematic (if not always top notch) narrative while AC offers absolutely nothing. Killstreaks are boiled down to pick-me-ups and temporary weapons, and even your own team mates litter the playing field with "health packs" that look like they belong in a 1999 game. AC is like the caboose at the end of an steam engine locomotive, while COD is more like the Japanese bullet train at warp 9. If you can afford it, pick COD over AC any day of the week.

That being said, give it a try.

It is a free to play game, and so long as you don't get shopping fever over the purchases, you will get more for less, only because free is better then any price. Sign up, try it on different modes, and see how many kills you can rack up. It won't remotely compare to anything else you actually pay for, but try it before you spend your hard earned money at GameStop. Might be worth it. If not for stellar game play, at least a laugh and a new experience.

Conclusion

The description still stands: it is a poor man's COD. Do not let yourself be fooled into thinking otherwise. It will not make or break any conventions, and the real COD is hardly shaking in their boots. Still, it is free to play, and as Benjamin Franklin liked to put it, a penny saved is a penny earned. So if you ever feel like waiting for the next COD, save yourself 6000 pennies with this game. Won't kill you in real life. 

Seven Word Synopsis

Free Game

Uninspired Design

Try When Broke

Okay Wow; I am done for the night and can finally get some shuteye. Not sure yet what game I am going to review next. If I don't have time, I might just retro review another old game I played in the past. 

See you tomorrow morning!

Batman: Arkham Asylum (Retro Review)

It is time to turn over a new leaf.

No Longer will I keep my fans waiting. I will give you the schedule as promised, and will do my best to stick to it. If I cannot, I must instead give you a post explaining why.

In this case, it is because I was learning to use new Video capture software and making thatn video took a lot longer then I anticipated. I will need to start on my Video Reviews a lot sooner. 

Anyway, I am going to take a crack at making a Retro Review this time around. For those of you in the dark  about that concept, it basically means I will review a game that has been out for years (as opposed to my usual months) and reflect on both its historic significance and what it brought to its current generation and/or genre. In this case, I will be reviewing

It might be hard to remember, but there was once a time where people dreaded the oncoming release of a new Batman game. The Batman franchise had a rough time entering the game industry, to say the least, as it's earlier titles were most often either bad cop-in of movie titles or sloppy, glitch riddled games made more to cash in on the Batman trademark rather then do it justice. Games like "Dark Tomorrow" and "Return of the Joker" seemed to almost prove that Batman wasn't destined for video game stardom. At least not until a little development team called Rocksteady came along...


I remember the first time I saw this game on shelves. I was getting Dead Space 2 for my Xbox 360 over at the local GameStop when I spotted a rather professional looking Joker illustration on Gameinformer Magazine. I decided to skim through it a bit, and noticed two things: one, that they were obviously making a new Batman game, and two; judging by the screenshots, it looked pretty good. I felt a rather amusing mix of excitement and disappointment at the prospect (I had plans to make a Batman game of my own) and looked forward to seeing what this new team had to offer. I preordered a copy of my own, bought it when it was released, and played it on my PS3. That was about six years ago; my jaw hasn't left the ground since.

Batman: Arkham Asylum is one of the most important games to be released in our generation; not just because of what it did for the Batman franchise, but the impact it and it's better known predecessor "Arkham City" did for the way games are made today. Without it, the intuitive counter button systems and the AWESOME cinematic in game moments of today would probably have been overlooked in favor of some flashier gimmick. Plus it demonstrates how strong of a story you can tell with the interactive medium. The opening scene by itself give the player an unrivaled experience that even modern day movies have a hard time achieving. While it can be argued (and rightfully so) that it borrowed a lot of elements from a previous game called "Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay" (a great title for a movie tie in, recommend buying it.), it does offer a lot of psychological and dramatic elements that were unusual for a game at the time, in particular a Batman game. It proves to this day that our medium, the video game, is just as good a storytelling medium as any blockbuster movie or best selling novel; if not more so.

The thing is, Batman: Arkham Asylum is the brick and mortar that made games like Arhkam City, Sleeping Dogs, and any other video game with grapple guns, unlockable secrets, and simplistic attack combinations. Generations are paved with these kinds of games, and Arkham Asylum proves how taking a big risk (and making a Batman game at the time was a big risk!) can not only make you stand out, but rocket you into first place and make your game and its predecessors revered for ages to pass. Not bad, Rocksteady; not bad.

Anyway, now is the time for my traditional Seven Word Synopsis. It will do the same as it ever did; two word for the good, two words for the bad, two words for the recommendation. This time, however, I will assume you are buying it used, only because most copies of the game are either used, dirt cheap, or some sort of "Greatest hits" brand nowadays. So here is my Seven words if you want to brush up on your video game history over the last decade.

Seven word Synopsis

Made Franchises

Batman Oriented

Great Superhero Game.
For those of you wondering why I changed the last three words for this game, I am following the request of a commentator. You see, kids? Ask and ye shall receive!

Thanks +Michael Tunnell. Your feedback is appreciated.

That's it for the retro review. If you have any interesting tidbits about this game's history that I overlooked, leave a comment and share it with the world. 

For Tomorrow:

See you then...

Sleeping Dogs Video Review

Hello Folks.

Sorry for the two day delay. I had to create a video for Saturday at the last minute due to finals.

As promised, from now on I will do a single post for every single day, starting with this one.

And for waiting so patiently, today I will write for you not one, not two, but three reviews. This review will be the video review that I promised on Saturday. The next one will be a retro review for today, and the next will be a PC game review for tomorrow. Until then, do enjoy my video review of Sleeping Dogs.

Disclaimer: Sleeping Dogs is an M rated game, and the review shows characters dropping the F bomb several times and breaking peoples legs-literally. Do proceed with caution, and be advised if you are showing this to kids.

Also a few technicalities put to light; The game takes place in Hong Kong, and I use "Chinatown" as a euphemism for that. If this bothers you, tell me in the comments POLITELY.

Also, His name is Wei Shun, not Wei Ling.

See you in a bit!

Hitman: Absolution review

Okay guys and gals, I think I let you poor souls wait long enough. It is time to review

Now, for those of you who follow my blog, you might have noticed that with each new game I review, I try to mix things up. I started with a top 10 list, tried to start a survey on another game, and made a quiz about yet another game. This time I am going to do something completely different. Cue dramatic music...

I am going to make... a normal review

That's right ladies and gentlemen, I am going to shelf the fancy stuff, get my head out of the clouds, and focus on the one thing that really matters in a game review; actually critiquing the frickin game! I do this not just to break from my usual routine (quid pro quot, lack thereof), but to establish something I desperately need as a writer and something that will hopefully prevent any more "bad news" articles from popping up; I plan to create workflow. If I can make a streamlined standard by which I review and critique each game I play, I might be able to deliver more content more quickly. I will still have my seven word synopsis, and use it in place of a regular 10 point system used by most game review sites. I do this not just to be unique and Twitter ready, but to give my reviews the objective perspective most game reviews severely lack. We all don't like playing checkers and/or Call of Duty, and putting an arbitrary number on video game reviews does not do that fact justice. Thusly, I will base my reviews on recommendations to those that the game are clearly targeting, and I will do so with a seven word verse. I hope that someday this kind of honest objectivity will become a standard in our medium. This kind of standard practice will make it possible come the 15th to review games old and new on a daily basis. And once I get my HD recorder hooked up, I will provide my own exclusive high quality screen shots and videos. Celebration.

But with that being said, I doubt you are even the least bit interested in my plans for this website. You are probably more interested in the actual game called Hitman: Absolution and wheather or not its worth retail price. With that firmly in place, lets begin our review.

Overview

 I will start this review with what has become a standard for game reviews across the media; I will start with a description of the game.

To be brief, Hitman is a very long winded franchise that has been around since it's inception as an innovative PC game. The premise is simple; you are an elite assassin hired by a mysterious conspiring organization known only as "The Agency". You have a set number of objectives,among which is the execution of people targeted by the Agency. These targets are usually holed up in big mansions, or secure building, and are almost always heavily guarded and have security measures out the wazoo. The game challenges you to find a way to sneak into the building, take the target out, and sneak back out in one piece. This was one of the first games to allow you to complete a level any way you want; you could poison the target, wade through every guard with guns blazing, take out a guard and wear his suit as a disguise, etc. The possible ways to kill a target are mind boggling, and the game is as much as puzzle as it is an action game. You get the best score if you can kill the main target(s) without causing any collateral damage whatsoever; dubbed "Silent Assassin", after the series' first sequel. Absolution is the fifth game running in the series, and revolves around the same kind of game, with notable changes in story and game play mechanics.

Hitman: Absolution stars the same character it always did; an anonymous assassin code named "47" who is sent with a contract to kill a target. In this game, the story starts with a rather conflicting twist as it reveals the first target in the game. It is 47's long running voice-over-the-radio handler and contact known only as "Diana". She was basically the woman who gave you your contracts and instructions in every previous Hitman game. Long running fans of the series should recognize the name and voice of their first target and feel the internal conflict of the main character when they play. Well done, Square Enix.

I won't reveal weather or not 47 goes through with killing his long running comrade, but the real premise of the story is the girl that was with Diana. To cut this short, she is the reason Diana defected from the Agency, and becomes the ward of 47 throughout the game. The story then is not simply about a contract killer, but a man on a mission to discover the truth, and who does so by killing key targets for his informant. That's the basics of both Hitman: Absolution and the series in general. Now lets move on to something most reviews for other mediums do that video games reviews tend to sink on; comparisons.

How it Compares

I wish I could say that Hitman: Absolution is a game that stood up on its own. But sadly, it borrows the stealth mechanic from Metal Gear and now shares it's stealth mechanics with games like Thief, Splinter Cell, Assassin's Creed, and my favorite, Dishonored. And yes, I was somewhat sarcastic with that last title; Dishonored was a disappointment, if not an abomination. That being said, Dishonored wasn't the only game that failed to live up to it's E3 showcase.

When I went to E3 last June, I was lucky enough to play the demo of this game. In fact, I am pretty sure that floating somewhere out there is a live recording of me giving my feedback to a camera crew reviewing E3. I will have to show it to you, if I can ever find it. Anyway, one of the brand new features of Hitman: Absolution  is a new viewing mode called "instinct". In the official unofficial tradition of recent stealth games, it gives the players the ability to perceive guard from behind walls and doors "x-ray vision" style, making predicting their movements less complicated and frustrating. It is similar to the "detective mode" in Batman: Arkham City and the "dark eye" power in Dishonored. This is a nice step up for Hitman, as it was always a challenge in previous games to figure out how to sneak past guards and not be caught doing something suspicious by accident. Quite convenient, albeit unrealistic. The game also lets you "mark" targets with the mode in place ala Splinter: Cell Conviction. For those of you in the dark, you basically mark a target with the cursor and your badass character shoots them with perfect accuracy before they knew what hit them. Essentially, you can execute multiple targets rapidly. 

When I played the game, however, I noticed that the instinct mode had a meter. Don't call me out on this; the demo might have had a meter that I wasn't paying attention to at the time. But I could swear upon my grandma's grave that the meter was added after the game was demonstrated. Now the instinct mode, when activated, slowly drains as you use it, and can also be used to prevent other people from recognizing your disguise (guards tend to recognize their own).  Smart move, since marking targets can make the game too easy and instinct mode in general can take away the thrill of the hunt. 

Another similarity this game has to Dishonored is it's almost repetitive use of dumpsters; you can hide in them, peek out from them, and of course hide bodies in them. Almost reeks of the same kind of "convenient hiding place" that most stealth games use. Makes it easier if somewhat over simplistic to dispose of guards and targets. Would be neat to find a more unique hiding spot and use your imagination.

In some levels, as I found in the E3 demo, you are no longer a man on foot infiltrating a compound. You instead get to play sniper, and view the whole scene through the lens of a high powered rifle targeting someone too far to even know where you are. That challenge here is to take out the target before he realizes a sniper is gunning for him and/or leaves. This becomes similar to an old arcade game called Silent Scope, where you pretty much did the same thing, but instead of placing a hit, you were taking out a terrorist with a hostage. Neat stuff, really. 

Conclusion

If you like the Hitman series, and get a kick out of coming up with creative solutions and fantasize about being a contract killer, this is and always will be your game. The options these games give you are something to treasure, and you cannot go wrong with this addition. 

Also, the story is something that appeals to fans well and is a great continuation of the story behind Agent 47s life. If you are the kind of geek who likes to keep track of his favorite video game character's exploits, you should get a kick out of this. If you never played a Hitman game, you might find the plot line corny and a little confusing.

These games challenge players to come up with the solution of their choice, but makes some of the most awesome challenges (undetected, Silent Assassin, Chameleon, etc.) have something of a barrier to entry. Scores are tallied in this game based off of micromanaged "achievement" style tasks. If you target certain tasks, you will either be challenged or frustrated. Maybe both.  Like a Rubix Magic Cube or a crossword puzzle, it is best appreciated by intellectuals with patience. More casual players might feel left out or underachieved. 

Thus the Seven Word Synopsis is thine;

New Features

Patience Required

Perfect for Fans

That's all I got; see you around the bend!

More Bad News, More Good news...

The title says it all, my friend.

First the Bad news; I will not have a review of Hitman: Absolution. YET. I simply procrastinated more then I should have. I will review it as soon as I can.


Then the Good News; first, I figured out how to fix my Xbox 360 and will have it up and running soon. Xbox fans, keep your fingers crossed.

Second, I am pleased to announced that instead of simply once a week, I will be writing posts every single day starting on the 15th of this month (its when my classes end). I will be making written reviews of games new and old as they come to me. Many of them will be retro reviews, and I will try to stay as current as possible. Weekly I will have video reviews, a feat made possible by buying a better (and much more expensive) HD video recording device. That should make video production smoother and less complicated. Also, I will make a special posting once a month concerning hot-button issues of the gaming community, akin to the spirit of "What Gamers Want". It was my most popular post yet, and I am a strong believer in giving fans what they want. I will need a month for each article only because inspiration takes time, and so does research.

The New Ryan's Video Game Review schedule, on December 15th 2012, will be thus:

Saturdays will be video reviews

Every 4th Sunday will be "Gamer's voice" type reviews,

Every other day will be a brief review of a game I played either recently or in the past.

I will still be using the seven word synopsis, as it makes it easy to post on Twitter and puts a more subjective spin on the traditional numbers system.

If this sounds like a good system to blog with, give me a shout out. If this sounds like a dumb idea, please give out constructive criticism. Either way, your comments are encouraged, so long as they are civil.

Thank you and have a good day :)