Review: Dead Island

When there’s no more room in hell, the dead will go on vacation.

She's probably gonna want to turn around...

Dead Island, the latest addition to the somewhat crowded and ever-growing zombie family, is one of those rare games that’s a little hard to classify since it tries to do an awful lot, combining a variety of elements from different genres, while trying to bring its own new mechanics to the table. Comparisons can be drawn to Borderlands, Condemned, Left 4 Dead, and more, but while Dead Island certainly contains ideas and systems taken from other games, as a whole it feels like a fresh and unique addition to the wonderful world of slaying the undead.


The story, like an awful lot of zombie fiction, is about as barebones as you can get. There‘s been a zombie outbreak on the tropical island of Banoi. You play as one of four survivors who happen to be immune to the virus, each having their own back-story, combat specialities, and unique skill trees. You then proceed to make your way across the island, helping people out and slaughtering a lot of zombies along the way, with the obvious ultimate aim being to get the hell out of there. There’s some brief semblance of exposition along the way, mostly in the form of cut-scenes involving a mysterious voice on the radio that seems to be trying to aid your escape. The plot is most definitely not the game’s strong suit, but it does all tie together at the end, so that, should you care enough to pay attention to what‘s going on, you’ll get some sense of closure from the finale. Even if the story isn’t your thing, you won’t be short of motivation while playing Dead Island, the thrill of trying to stay alive, level up, and find more loot within this tropical nightmare will keep you playing for many hours.


A lot of hype was generated over the early teaser trailer for Dead Island, showing a family of holiday-makers being overwhelmed by a horde of zombies, a father brutally attacked by his own daughter, combined with some beautifully haunting background music, the trailer packed a punch. While the game could never have been expected to live up to that sort of hype, it still manages to do a great job of capturing the powerful emotions associated with the desperate scenario these survivors find themselves in. You’ll walk into safe houses and hear people sobbing and screaming, stumble on a group of partying teens relying on booze to see them through the nightmare, find a lonely desperate man who sadly asks you to put his family to rest after they became part of the horde. Some people have turned to religion, some will task you with finding their treasured possessions just to retain some normality in their lives, most just want to go home. Some great voice acting and sound design is used throughout the game to build this oppressive atmosphere, and while outside in the streets the action may all be about hacking limbs and loot-hunting, any time you go inside and talk to these people you can’t help but realise the sadness and utter despair of their situation. 

Moments like this go some way to realising the emotion of the trailer

This is a game about survival. In fact, it very much captures that feeling of survival horror that you might have forgotten in recent times. Unless you’re amongst groups of survivors or inside an armoured truck, you never feel safe on Banoi. No matter how well-armed you are, if you aren’t concentrating, at any moment or around any corner a crowd of infected could rush you and bring you down in seconds. Dead Island makes you pay attention, it puts you constantly on your toes, it forces you to really think like a survivor, it won’t punish you too harshly for dying, but it makes you care enough to want to avoid death at all costs, the game essentially captures the very essence of what makes a good survival horror experience, combined with the desperation and tension associated with how we imagine a zombie apocalypse might be.


Banoi is divided into three huge main areas, the beautiful resort with its sandy beaches, poolside bars, and the grand hotel where the story begins. Then there’s the city, dilapidated and claustrophobic, with a surprise waiting around every street corner. Finally, the dense jungle, eerily quiet, with an endless canopy of towering trees looming over you, letting in little rays of sunlight here and there. Techland do a fantastic job of making each area not only look wildly different, but feel and play very differently too. At the resort you’ll have wide, open spaces with which to conduct your battles, but once you enter the much more densely-populated city and find yourself amongst narrow allies and dead ends, with new zombie types being thrown at you, the fight to survive becomes much more difficult. 


Speaking of fighting, since you’ll be doing such a lot of it, it was imperative for Dead Island to have an enjoyable combat system, and fortunately it does. There are guns to find but the focus here is primarily on melee weapons, of which there are an awful lot. At first you’ll find yourself having to make use of paddles and kitchen knives, but very quickly you’ll be able to pound away at zombie heads with maces and sledgehammers, or slice off limbs with katanas and scythes, the variety of weapons keeps the combat interesting, and, similarly to Borderlands and in the style of an MMO, all loot will have its own statistics and colour-coding to denote usefulness and rarity. The drive to seek out new weapons and find more loot is as powerful as it’s ever been, and I found myself going to great lengths in my exploration just to find new weapon chests. You’ll also be able to improve any weapon you pick up at one of the game’s many workbenches, here you can upgrade, repair, and modify your implements of destruction. Repairs and upgrades are simply a matter of spending money, but modifications require specific items that you’ll find scattered about the environment; batteries, duct tape, the usual sort of stuff. These mods can add elemental effects to your weapons, adding more layers to the already rich combat customisation.

Combining swords and batteries has never been so much fun!

The fighting itself is one of the game’s strongest points. Two control schemes are available, by default you’ll hit a button and swing whatever you’re holding, having some loose control over which part of the body you’ll attack. Bones will break, limbs will slice off, and the overall damage model on the zombies is incredibly good. This isn’t something I’ll say often with such enthusiasm, but the flesh-tearing technology in this game is outstanding. Without going into too much grisly detail, you’ll see some very gory and realistic damage effects from your attacks. The other control scheme is the one I used throughout much of the game, and is surprisingly hidden away in the options menu. This analog control scheme allows you to use the right stick to control the direction of your swings. Pull the stick back to ready your weapon, and flick it in any direction you like to attack. The system takes a little getting used to at first, but works very well once mastered, allowing you to strike with precision, breaking legs and cutting off heads at will. Whichever control scheme you choose, the fighting in this game is immensely satisfying, combined with the loot-hunting and levelling, you have so many reasons to get out in the world and kill some walking dead. That’s right, there’s levelling too, with each character having their own skill trees to sink points into. The trees are more than diverse enough to make everyone feel and play differently, and offer a decent level of character customisation. If you want to focus on staying alive and picking locks, the survival tree is for you, should you wish to do more damage with your specialist weapon set, there‘s a tree for that too. Each character also has their own ‘Rage’ ability to wipe out hordes in seconds, very useful for when you get overwhelmed, these abilities, again, have their own skill tree, allowing you to spec your character to your style of play.

He just wants a cuddle

The world of Dead Island is huge and you’ll want to explore as much as you can, not only does the game encourage you to stray from the beaten path, it rewards you most handsomely for doing so. Whilst navigating some sewers during a particularly creepy side mission, I took a little detour, discovering a ladder leading to a makeshift shrine where I discovered and collected a secret skull. Initially believing it to be nothing more than a collectible, it turned out to be the key to unlocking a secret weapon, the details of which I shall not divulge, suffice to say it quickly became one of my favourite tools for dispatching a crowd of zombies. Neat little secrets like this are commonplace in Dead Island, and you’ll have a hard time not stumbling onto some of them regardless of how you play. I.D cards, recordings, hidden weapon chests and mods, you’ll even spot a few little easter eggs and nods to the likes of Lost and Friday the 13th, and come upon extra side quests and survivors should you choose to explore areas thoroughly enough. 


Speaking of which, the numerous side quests, while mostly being little more than thinly-veiled fetch and escort missions, manage to stay fresh and interesting throughout and I rarely found myself getting bored. The zombie apocalypse setting allows Techland to play with the typical side quest formula in some pretty unique ways, you‘ll rarely be doing much more than running from point A to point B and back again, or clearing out a house of zombies, but the way each mission is presented, and the various ways you can go about them thanks to the open-world nature of the game, provide added impetus to take on these side missions, not to mention they will often reward you with a bounty of XP and new weapons. 

The movies lied! One shot to the head doesn't work!

An open world is only as good as the things you can find in it, and Banoi is simply crammed with goodies. And zombies. An awful lot of zombies as a matter of fact, in all shapes and sizes. Techland took the age-old dilemma of “Should our zombies be fast or slow?” and said “Both!”, you’ll not only be accosted by slow-movers and fast-runners, but a whole host of other specialised zombie types, all of which exhibit some quite fantastically repulsive designs, like the fearsome Butchers who will attack you with their own sharpened forearm bones. Variety is such a big part of this game, and it’s great that not only can you find such variation in weapons, quests and locales, but in the enemies themselves too. All of the zombie types require the use of different combat strategies to effectively take them out, and this is just one more way in which the combat and overall experience of Dead Island stays fresh throughout the entire game.

He doesn't want a cuddle

Unfortunately, not everything in Dead Island is quite as rich as the combat or beautiful as the landscape, there are a significant number of issues, bugs, glitches, confounding design choices, and general “Why is this happening?” moments that most players are bound to encounter at some point. However, during my time with the game, around forty hours of play, I did not once experience anything game-breaking or anything that made me want to quit playing. The bugs I did encounter ranged from comical to frustrating. Weapons vanishing after being thrown, the mini-map consistently requesting I walk through walls to reach my objective, and character’s eyes rolling back in their heads were just a few of the hiccups throughout my zombie-slaying adventure. Despite the lengthy list of technical problems, I happily played on and would encourage others to do the same, which goes to show just how enjoyable Dead Island can be, even with its drawbacks. 


Where this enjoyment is most readily apparent is in the multiplayer, Dead Island can be played co-operatively with up to four players and this is where I feel it excels. Alone, the island can feel a little overwhelming and scary, but when accompanied by a couple of buddies to watch your back and steal all the good loot, the game quite simply becomes a lot less atmospheric, but a lot more fun. As with the likes of Borderlands and Left 4 Dead, you can’t help but feel Dead Island was designed with co-operative play in mind, even the skill trees contain abilities that only really make sense with multiple players. The co-op works well and is nicely integrated, even popping up every now and then to let you know if there are any joinable players around the same part of the story as you. This doesn’t mean that the singleplayer should be avoided, the game can be just as good by oneself, but, if you have the opportunity to play co-operatively, it’s definitely worth checking out.

Hey look, zombies

There are an awful lot of zombie games around and Dead Island somehow manages to feel like all of them and none of them. There are parts to the game that literally feel as if they were plucked directly from other titles, yet the new ideas Techland have developed serve to make Dead Island an experience unlike any other. Left 4 Dead took us on bite size journeys through a zombie-infested America, where the goal was always to get to the next safe house. Dead Rising was all about having as much fun as you could by killing the undead in hilarious ways. Dead Island tries to let us experience the emotion, drama, tension, and sheer horror of the fight for survival in an open world overrun with the walking dead. While it is certainly punching a little above it’s weight, and suffers from a myriad of technical issues that hamper it from ever fully realising its potential, Dead Island is an experience all zombie fans should enjoy and Techland must be commended for setting themselves such lofty standards and very nearly reaching them.

For the purposes of this review, the Xbox 360 version of the game was played.

Views: HD Collections and You!

There's a growing trend in the game industry. It began around March 2010 and has spread like a virus. A virus that gives not-so-old games slightly better graphics. Yes, I'm obviously talking about the inevitable uprising of the HD collection. A couple of last-gen games bundled on a disc, dolled up to look a little better than you remember, and sold for a little less than a new game. God of War, Prince of Persia, Metal Gear Solid, the list is growing and growing as more publishers realise they can make a pretty easy buck for throwing one of these things together and getting it on shelves.

Witness the terror... again... with slightly better graphics and party chat. 

Personally, as you may have gathered, I am not a fan. I'm not someone who is blind to the positive aspects, I can certainly appreciate the merit to re-releasing some of these games, all of them are, arguably and in their own right, fantastic games, and great examples of the best that last-gen has to offer. Metal Gear Solid 3, Resident Evil 4, Shadow of the Colossus, Beyond Good and Evil, they're all 'classics' in a certain sense of the word, so clearly the choice of games is reasonable so far, and it's definitely fun to revisit some of them, particularly for those of us who misplaced our copies or no longer use the older consoles. Similarly, for new gamers out there who only have current-gen hardware and never had a chance to check these games out, the collections provide them with an opportunity to see what all the fuss is about and witness some of the finest experiences to ever grace consoles.


That's all well and good, but the fact remains that some of these games are barely half a decade old. In gaming, that's really not a long time, or rather what I mean to say is that you can go back and play games from five or six years ago pretty easily. I very recently bought into this trend and downloaded Resident Evil 4 HD on my 360 to see how good it looked. I played through the game within two days and remembered every little bit of it, that's because I only bought the original game in 2006 and played through it about five times back then, not to mention that it had already been remastered and re-released on Wii. Nothing had been added to the package aside from a simple set of achievements. It certainly looked better than before but overall I had just spent money on the same experience I could've had by booting up my PS2. If this is the intention of the product, then the developers have succeeded, but then I have to ask what is the point?

As different as apples and... a slightly different brand of apples

These are not remakes, nothing substantial is ever really added, it's not as if the old versions of the games are unplayable or unattainable, and the graphical upgrades are rarely impressive, so why do companies insist on using their own development time to release these collections? Well, the obvious answer is money so my question is somewhat pointless. 


It's just that, personally, I feel the gaming industry has more potential than any other media form on the planet, look how far we've come in just a few decades. Pong to Starcraft. Galaga to Halo. It's an ever-growing, fast-changing industry with limitless possibilities, and developers should realise that they are part of that, part of something truly special. All of them are pioneers, taking this media format/art form/whatever you want to call it, to brand new heights. I love how quickly the industry progresses, that's one of the things that attracts me most to gaming. Yet it seems that for every step forward, like for example, the release of a God of War or a Metal Gear Solid, the industry always has to take one step back with these tedious moneymaking exercises that do nothing to help, merely serving as reminders that above all else, this is a business.


People have been clamouring for remakes for as long as I can remember. Final Fantasy VII is a good enough example, die-hard fans have been begging Square Enix to re-release that game for years. The PS3 teaser from a few years back showed us all that, should anyone at S-E ever say "Hey let's finally do it!", then the current generation of hardware would allow for some astonishing graphical upgrades and make that game much more playable to a modern audience. I wish they wouldn't do it at all, in my mind the idea of remaking games like that would be the equivalent of Gerard Butler playing the lead in a 2012 release of Casablanca, but if developers insist on resurrecting their famous games, that is how they should do it in my opinion. Not by lazily updating textures that are only five or six years old, but by taking much older games, games that younger fans weren't even born for, classics that deserve to be seen again, titles that some people would call 'unplayable' in their current form due to graphical or technical limitations, if you must dredge up your best-sellers, take games like these and give them a full and real remake that can be enjoyed by new and old fans alike. 

What I'm really saying is they need to remake FFVII. No, wait...

Either do a full remake of an old classic so that it makes a real difference and can be enjoyed by a new audience, or leave it be, and above all else, have respect for your own franchises. Cashing in on games from 05 by bundling them together on a disc and upressing the textures a little is a pretty poor way of treating these great franchises and serves no real purpose other than making some easy money, which obviously means it's not going to stop. Developers should be trying to push the industry forward, these re-releases do nothing towards that. That's my view, and were this article being read by a lot more people I'd love to know yours.

Impressions: Gamefest

So! As it turned out, I wound up going to both day 1 and day 3 of gamefest. I saw quite a lot, it was a surreal experience from the moment I stepped off the train to be honest. I never quite acclimatised to the whole 'game show' environment, it's a tired and predictable old saying but I really was like a kid in a candy store. For someone who loves games, it was like heaven. So many screens and sounds, theme songs roaring throughout the hall, other attendees dressed as their favourite characters, booths decorated in ways that would make even the most stony-faced games fan want to squeal with excitement. I must've spent so much time wandering around in abject awe and amazement when I could have been, well, queueing. 


Yes, queues, a lot of them, of course I wasn't as naive as to expect I'd walk on every game I wanted to see, but I couldn't have imagined the literal lengths some people will go to in order to play these games. Queues well over 3 hours long for the likes of MW3 meant that I missed out on a few big titles, but I still managed to see enough, and really it was an experience unlike any other. I enjoyed every moment.

The Battlefield Booth was nicely presented. I sat in the chair behind the guy in blue!

For anyone out there who wonders what it was like, I apologise for the lack of personal pictorial accompaniment to this post, these pictures you see are from the official photo feed, frankly, I forgot to take photos. In a way, that fact alone can help to explain what it was like. I went out with a game plan, hoping to see x number of titles, make pages of notes, take plenty of pictures, not waste a single second with the likes of food and rest, and from the moment I stepped through the doors my plan went out the window. I couldn't have anticipated what it would be like and honestly, for a place like that you don't really need some sort of complex military-grade itinerary, the game show experience seemed like the very definition of 'let's just see how it goes'. So the lack of pictures can serve as testament to how, upon entering, I managed to completely abort most of my carefully-conceived plan. 

It's like with anything, you have the eternally unpredictable variable; people. Their numbers, their habits, which queues they would join, which games they would pass by, how long they would play for, when they would eat, when they would rest, when they would leave. I couldn't predict any of that, so it really became the sort of experience, at least for me, where I just went along for the ride to see where it took me, not concerning myself with missing out on big titles or wasting valuable gaming time or anything like that. And all in all, the ride turned out to be pretty good. Oh and remember those queues I mentioned...?

Hey look a queue!

Another wild queue has appeared!

At least they got to queue next to some sweet posters

Yeah. Those pictures don't even tell half the story, if I was to take those pictures of queues and photoshop them onto the ends of pictures of other exceedingly queues maybe you'd be able to appreciate how ridiculous it was. Believe it or not I actually waited in two of those, spent about three hours of my life in two lines, in fact now I'll go ahead and tell you how it all happened.


Day 0


Thursday, the day before the event began, I already had my ticket for day 3 and had plans to attend with friends, but for some reason, maybe it was my exceptionally high excitement-levels, maybe it was the part of me that always loves being the first to see something, maybe it was the worrier in me imagining the queues once I saw Saturday and Sunday were completely sold out, whatever it was, it made me, at around 11pm Thursday night, buy a ticket for day 1 and make plans to go by myself. 

I'm glad I did this, for the obvious reason of getting the chance to play twice as much, and the not-so-obvious reason of being able to just walk around by myself and witness all of that excitement on a more personal level. I'll try and think of some way to explain it... You know how, when you go to an amusement park with a big group of people, you sometimes end up going on rides that you'd rather not have gone on and doing things you'd rather not do? Whereas, imagine if you went on your own, you obviously wouldn't get the fun of having friends there, but you'd literally be able to do your own thing all day long and go ride whatever you liked. That's part of why I went on my own on the Friday, primarily, because I wanted to have a day of just me and the event, whereas on Sunday I would have a group of friends with me. 


Day 1

Friday, day 1, the grand opening and I sure as hell wasn't going to miss it. After an early awakening and rushed train ride, I found myself at the entrance. Or rather, about a quarter of a mile from the entrance because of the giant queue ahead of me consisting of people who were closer to the entrance than my humble self. To put this in perspective, I was there around 9.30, half hour before opening, and by 9.55, five minutes from opening, the queue behind me was probably twice as big as the one ahead of me.

Eventually, the grand moment arrived, I apologise for over-dramatising this event somewhat but hey it makes it more exciting to read (hopefully). The doors opened and the queue began to surge forward at an alarming pace, my compliments to all of the staff working the doors that day, they did a fantastic job, and within a couple of minutes I was inside.

Now, it'll be hard to put into words exactly what I felt as I stumbled into this giant arena of gaming, being pushed along by a sea of (mostly) boys and men with medium to long hair and internet-slogan-branded t-shirts, looking around to see a life-size model of Princess Zelda, countless screens flashing with bright colours, and a seemingly endless purple carpet, hearing the triumphant soaring choir of the Skyrim theme combined with the ambient bassline thud of so many noises ringing throughout the massive hall and my small, insignificant ears. Bewildering, overwhelming, time-freezing amazement shall be my feeble attempt at conveying whatever the emotion was that I felt right then. I was astonished, in awe, strangely happy, I wanted to just take that moment and preserve it forever as one of the most defining experiences of my young life.

Onward, straight past the tables of maps without remembering to pick one up (a mistake that would haunt me later in the day), I proceeded further into this grand showcase of gaming for a day of queueing, gazing, and playing that I won't soon forget.

Now I won't bore you with every single detail, so, a quick summary of the day; I explored the hall, tried to see every single booth, queued quite a bit, and managed to play several games, the highlights of which included Battlefield 3, Rage, and Dark Souls. More in-depth actual game analysis will be posted a later date, this post is mainly just my feelings on the event itself.

Or, more appropriately, 'Prepare to queue!'

I enjoyed the day, despite waiting over two hours in the Skyrim line to wind-up only seeing a video that I had watched online that very morning. Surprisingly, considering it was the first day of the first Gamefest ever, was organised and set-up very well. There were certainly things that could be improved for next year, but overall it was a great show. 

Day 3

For day 3, I arrived shortly after the event opened, meaning there was virtually no wait to enter, but by the time I got inside, the monstrous queues had already formed for the likes of Battlefield and Modern Warfare, I was glad I'd already played some of the big titles on Friday because the Sunday seemed to be twice as busy. Every game station was occupied, every big title had a queue of at least an hour. 

So, again, I spent a great deal of the day wandering around, but the good thing about how Gamefest was laid out, was that just by walking about the place, you could really see a lot. Video screens showing demos and trailers were everywhere, along with people in costume, beautifully-decorated booths, a store selling discount games and consoles, and reps handing out free swag, there was so much on show that even if you weren't in a queue or playing a game, you could still have fun just being at the event. 

Wandering around in awe at all of this was certainly fun, but I quickly found the need to play some games. Luckily, the 3DS booth was relatively empty so I waited there a few minutes and quickly nabbed the first free handheld I could spot. Pokemon Rumble Blast was the game, I won't give overly-involved impressions as I only played for a few minutes, it seemed pretty fun, collecting Pokemon and fighting as them in real-time. 

More importantly, this was one of my first encounters with a 3DS, and I have to say the 3D was disappointing, although it was most likely simply this particular game, the effect was blurry unless viewed from the perfect angle, and it added little to the gameplay experience. Whilst at the booth I also checked out Resident Evil: Revelations, which had incredibly good graphics for a handheld game, and Mario Kart, which had markedly better 3D effects than the other games, and played exactly as you would expect a Mario Kart game to play. 

This is not just food...

From there I continued to make my way around the event, hopping onto any free game stations I was lucky enough to spot first. Rayman Origins, Journey, and more Dark Souls were some of the highlights. 

As the day wore on, the event began to become much less crowded. Queues were shorter, many of the stations were free, and, all-in-all, the final few hours were the best bit of the entire weekend. I managed to play much more than I could have imagined, and while the big games like CoD were still off-limits thanks to their queues, the 'lesser' games were far more accessible. Starhawk, Soul Calibur V, Spiderman: Edge of Time, X-Men: Destiny, Tintin, Sonic Generations, Ridge Racer, and, obviously, a bit more Dark Souls were just some of the games I got time with as the day wore on. 

Eventually, it was time for Gamefest to shut up shop, the stations were shut down, reps began to pack away, and satisfied gamers made their way slowly out of the hall.

It was a fantastic event, one I'll be sure to attend again in the future and would recommend to all. Gamefest not only lived up to my hopes and expectations, it somehow surpassed them. While I didn't get to play every game I wanted, I managed to see and experience more than I could have imagined. It not only confirmed but conclusively re-enforced my overwhelming desire to work in the games industry, and I learnt a few lessons along the way too. The game show experience isn't about how many things you get to play, it's about how much you enjoy it, and I loved every minute of my time there. Finally, here's one picture I did take, just now, of a few things I have to remember the event with.

Yes, I got a map eventually

Bring on Gamefest 2012.

Looking Ahead: Top 5 Most Anticipated Titles at Gamefest

There’ll be a lot on show this weekend, and I’m interested in seeing as much as possible, but here’s my five most anticipated titles. After the event as a little experiment I plan on writing a “Top 5 Titles I Saw at Gamefest” to see how well the event itself matches up with this list and my expectations, I'm sure there'll be a few surprises.


Gears of War 3

I suppose it’s a little needless to include this game on the list since it will be out very shortly after the event, but it’s still one of the games I am most excited to see. The Gears of War series is one of the most visually impressive, hard-hitting, blockbusting, action-packed group of games to ever be released. To this day, it can easily be argued that no other title has a better cover system than Gears, while the first game definitely took some pointers from the likes of Kill Switch and Resident Evil 4, the series has gone on to help define the third-person shooter genre in its own way and is undoubtedly a heavy contributor towards the success of the Xbox 360. 


With Gears 2, Epic fully delivered on their promise to make the game bigger and more badass, featuring some of the most ridiculously intense and over-the-top boss fights and action sequences ever seen in video games. Along the way they tell a pretty darn decent story too. The competitive multiplayer is outstanding and the games have always clearly been designed with co-op in mind, since it has worked brilliantly in both of the games so far. 


Gears 3 looks set to be, if it’s even possible, even bigger and yet more badass than both of the games that preceded it, and I’m supremely confident in Epic’s ability to justify the hype. If they can conclude the story in a satisfying way, finally perfect the multiplayer formula, and give us plenty of opportunities to chainsaw some Locust in half then I fully expect Gears of War 3 to be a big contender for Game of the Year.


Uncharted 3

From one of Microsoft’s biggest franchises to one of Sony’s, in a way Uncharted treads a similar path to Gears of War. Both franchises are arguably the best-looking games on their respective platforms, both involve a ton of cinematic action and breathtaking set-pieces, and both involve a healthy amount of shooting guys from behind cover. They are both wonderfully charming gentlemen, but where Marcus Fenix is a bulky hulking soldier slaughtering his way through an army of murderous monsters, Nathan Drake is a little more down-to-earth. 


I’ll readily admit that the first Uncharted game did not quite live up to the hype for me, I adored the story and characters, and still played the game to completion within two days, which is really a testament to how well that game draws you in and makes you want to see the story through. Personally, the problems began to arise with the actual gameplay, specifically the gunplay, after experiencing the likes of Gears of War, the shooting in Uncharted felt somewhat mediocre, it wasn’t necessarily bad just decidedly average. 


Uncharted 2 fixed that problem and so much more, the shooting felt better, the story got crazier, the set-pieces even more ridiculously outrageous, and the Nathan Drake charm-o-meter was off the charts. Uncharted 2 is, in my humble opinion, one of the greatest games ever made. Like a book you never want to stop reading, putting down the controller while playing that game was wonderfully difficult. Each new area you entered was more exciting and beautiful than the last, each new quip from Drake would make you fall in love with the characters even more. 


Now Uncharted 3 is finally drawing near, and while I don’t expect as much to have changed this time around (after all, there was very little Naughty Dog could do to improve on the formula of U2), I’m hoping for yet another amazing adventure that I cannot wait to experience


Batman: Arkham City

Considering that Batman: Arkham Asylum was only developer Rocksteady’s second game, it is quite incredible how good it turned out. It was a game that strayed from the conventions of tired superhero beat ‘em ups and weak movie tie-ins. Rocksteady took an established and respected character and universe, and did something that no other developer has ever really been able to do with a superhero game, they made it work. They didn’t try to build a game around Batman, they built Batman and his world into a game. 


At its core, Arkham Asylum was little more than Castlevania or Zelda-style gameplay, roaming an island, solving puzzles, beating bad guys, and collecting tools and equipment that would let you access new areas and explore further. The formula had been done countless times before and surely will continue many more times in the future, but the way Rocksteady blended this gameplay with the world of Batman in such a seamless way was truly something to behold. It made one wonder how no developer had been able to do something like this before. Arkham Island and its inhabitants were fantastically designed, staying true to the fiction whilst adding a little of Rocksteady’s own unique touches, and some of the boss battles and action sequences had me glued to the screen. 


It is hardly up against much stiff competition, but Arkham Asylum is easily the best superhero game to date. That could, of course, possibly soon change with the release of Arkham City. In the traditional manner of sequels involving bigger worlds, more bad guys, and lots of new toys to play with, the sequel looks set to pose Batman with a much bigger challenge this time around. I expect great things for this game but remain slightly cautious, from the pre-release material Rocksteady have shown, it certainly looks like they’ve created a bigger world with plenty of new faces, I just hope they’ve made enough meaningful changes in order to really make the game feel like a sequel and not just a new environment.


Dark Souls

Demon’s Souls was very much a love/hate game, and I am very much in the former camp. There were certainly things to get annoyed with in the game, the unresponsive controls, unrelenting difficulty, and unforgiving systems made Demon’s Souls something of an acquired taste. 


Frankly I didn’t find it so much difficult as it is brutal and demanding. You could fight your way through a goblin-infested poisonous swamp, using all of your wits, combat skills, and healing items to finally be within touching distance of the next level, only to mistime a sword swing or roll and wind up being eaten by a giant spider or falling off a ledge to your doom, forced to reply the entire level. The game could be so punishing, yet so rewarding at the same time. Rarely would you feel cheated, a death barely ever felt cheap or made me complain, it was nearly always my own fault and I learnt from each loss, which is exactly what the game wants you to do. It wants you to get better through practice and repetition, and understanding the harsh punishment for your mistakes. Checkpointing and hand-holding are commonplace in modern games, these days you can die countless times getting through levels, respawning in the same area you died and trying again until you get it right, and all of that really does take away from that traditional feeling of triumph one used to get from completing particularly difficult game stages, stretching all the way back to Super Mario Bros. Demon’s Souls brings that back. Of course, it does it in a very extreme and punishing manner, but that just makes the feeling of success all the greater when you finally figure out the perfect way to get through a level and execute your strategy to the letter. 


Dark Souls, despite being touted as only a ‘spiritual successor’ as opposed to a direct sequel, looks incredibly similar to its ‘spiritual predecessor’, and expanding the audience by going multi-platform can only help From Software gain more followers. I hope that Dark Souls simply builds on the outstanding framework laid down before it. 


The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim

Saving the best for last, Skyrim has been my most-anticipated title since its announcement at the VGA’s last year, and I am thrilled that I‘ll get a chance to see it this weekend. There are countless reasons why Oblivion is regarded as one of the greatest RPG’s of all time, and Skyrim looks set to improve on it in every imaginable aspect. 


Bethesda are masters at delivering the ultimate role-playing experience, setting you loose in a vibrant, living, fantasy world and letting you do whatever you want in it, this is only one of the many ways in which their games are so exceptional. If you want to be a warrior, mage, rogue, assassin, thief, archer, gladiator, hero, villain, criminal, vigilante, or all of the above, you can. If you want to save the world and defeat the ultimate evil, or run around in your underwear punching crabs to death with your bare fists, the choice is yours. Oblivion literally let you play however you wanted, giving you as much control as possible over how you go about your own story in Cyrodiil, ensuring no two adventures would ever be alike. While the main story would always turn out the same way no matter what, the ways in which you could approach it, and the fact that at any time you could decide to abandon your quest and go climb a mountain, made the experience of Oblivion entirely unique. The countless dungeons, side quests, secrets, characters, and opportunities available to you make the world feel so rich and full and alive. I’ll be writing a little more on Oblivion soon as I’m currently playing through it yet again. 


The Elder Scrolls V certainly has a big name to live up to, but, as with many of these big holiday titles, early signs suggest it will justify the hype, and personally I can’t wait to jump into a new Bethesda world and begin my own adventure in Skyrim.


And the rest...


The full list of games I want to see is growing longer by the day as more games get announced, suffice it to say that while these are my top 5, I am incredibly excited about a  lot of other games this weekend and don't wish to take anything away from them, as such, here is a list, in alphabetical order no less, of other games I will be trying to check out:


Assassin's Creed: Revelations
Asura's Wrath
Battlefield 3
Dance Central 2
Dead Rising 2: Off the Record
Dragon's Dogma
FIFA 12
Forza Motorsport 4
Halo CE: Anniversary
Inversion
Kid Icarus: Uprising
Kinect Sports: Season Two
Mario Kart (3DS)
Mass Effect 3
Metal Gear Solid HD Collection
Modern Warfare 3
Motion Sports Adrenaline
Need for Speed: The Run
PES 2012
Prey 2
Prototype 2
RAGE
Rayman Origins
Resident Evil: Operation Raccoon City
Rise of Nightmares
Saints Row: The Third
Silent Hill Downpour
Skylanders: Spyro's Adventure
Sonic Generations
Spider-Man: Edge of Time
Star Wars: The Old Republic
Street Fighter x Tekken
The Adventures of Tintin: The Secret of the Unicorn
The Gunstringer
The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword
The Lord of the Rings: War in the North
Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon: Future Soldier
WWE '12
X-Men: Destiny
Your Shape: Fitness Evolved 2012


Told you there was a lot.

Looking Ahead: Gamefest

So! The reason I've kicked off this blog on this particular week, is because this weekend, Sunday to be precise, I'll be attending Gamefest. For those not in the know, Game is the UK's biggest video game retailer, and they're holding their own show for the first time this year. Tons of games are going to be there and I plan to get hands-on time with as many as possible. Mass Effect 3, Modern Warfare 3, Arkham City, Uncharted 3, Dark Souls, Skyrim, Rayman Origins, Street Fighter x Tekken, Asura's Wrath, Battlefield 3, RAGE, Assassin's Creed: Revelations, and a few Kinect titles are top of the (lengthy) list of games I want to see. I've always dreamt of attending an event like this and this is my first real opportunity so, frankly, I'm pretty excited. I also have very little idea what to expect, I might manage to see everything I want, or it might be so crowded that I'll be lucky to only play one or two games. Either way, it'll be an experience, and hopefully the first of many game shows for me. I'm also hoping for free swag but don't want to set my expectation bar too high.


Before the end of the week I'll try and post a little more pre-event rambling about the games I want to see and my expectations, then next week I plan on writing quite a bit about my experience at the event and impressions of everything I saw there, along with any pictures I manage to take on the day. So look forward to that!

Hi!

Hi there!
I doubt I'll get too many visitors to this page (if any!), but if you're reading this then welcome. My name is Mike and I'm a big fan of video games, have been since a very young age. I've spent an awful lot of my life playing them, in fact I'm not nearly as passionate about anything else as I am with gaming. Now I'm at the point in my life where I hope to be able to realise my childhood dreams of getting involved in the industry, and while I may not possess the technical prowess or computer skills necessary to go into game development, I have always enjoyed writing and would love nothing more than to get into that wonderful world of games journalism. Of course it's notoriously one of the most difficult fields to get into, but the internet has opened new doors and at least made it easier to share your work and opinions with the masses, so that's how I plan to start.


So here I am, this blog will mainly serve as just a portfolio of my work, a place to put all the reviews and retrospectives and articles I write. Then if a few people notice this over time and enjoy what they read then I'll hopefully be doing something right. It might take a very long time for me to reach where I want to be, in fact it might never happen, but I'm determined to at least give it a try and I'm sure it'll be fun along the way. 


I'm somewhat obsessively organised, so posts will be divided into a bunch of different subheadings to make it easier for both me and you to differentiate and find specific types of articles. So you'll see things like "Impressions" and "Review" and such at the start of every title just as an indicator of the post content, there'll probably be a few random unique articles along the way too. I hope you like what you read here.


Mike