Moody Gamer

As a gamer I had a great time playing video games this year. Maybe its not the best gaming year but it  certainly was impressive. During this year we saw the return of  fighting games with Street Fighter IV, Sony Playstaion 3 awaking from its long sleep, Financial crisis casting its shadows on a number of game development studios like Pandemic and GRIN. We also witnessed the appearance of a new contender in the gaming war, the iPhone. But most importantly, lots of great video games titles were released this year on all the platforms. To sum everything up, Here is a list of the best games of 2009:

Demon’s Soul (PS3)

From Software brings an action RPG game unlike any other you have played before. Demon’s Soul is the game that will make you weep with it’s unforgiving difficulty. If you can overcome that then you are about to face a game with deep tactical combat and customization along with the amazing level designs. The game also offers some excellent and unique online features.

Street Fighter IV (PC-Xbox360-PS3)

Capcom was able to return to the roots of the series with the release of Street Fighter IV. The game offers deep gameplay and competitive online multiplayer. Whether you are a fighting game expert, a newbie, or even if you aren’t into fighting games, Street Fighter IV is worth checking out.

inFamous (PS3)

One of the best new IPs in 2009, inFamous gives  you the freedom of movement and awesome electrical powers that make you feel like a true super-hero. The combat is fast and fun. I also liked the karma system and the upgrades they were both outstanding. The fate of the city is in your hands as you can either be a real hero and save it or just be evil and destroy everything that comes in your way.

New Super Mario Bros. Wii (Wii)

Playing The first Super Mario Bros. in co-op was every gamers dream. Nintendo finally made that happen with New Super Mario Bros. Wii. Nintendo reminds everyone in this game that they are the masters of 2D platforming. The game offers magnificent platforming and brilliant level design. The multiplayer is fun and hilarious. the game is also very challenging unlike the previous DS version. But most importantly, the game has a nostalgic feel to it that is just amazing and will make you shed a tear easily.

Forza Motorsport 3 (XBox360)

Its a beautiful racing game with an entertaining Career Mode and an excellent online multiplayer, not to mention the selection of hundreds of cars and the varied tracks. The game also balances between simulation and arcade style to make the game playable by anyone. All of this make Forza Motorsport 3 the racing game of this generation, for now at least.

Batman: Arkham Asylum (PC-Xbox360-PS3)

This is how a Batman game should be. Batman: Arkham Asylum gives you Fun stealth gameplay with a strong story that is loyal to the comics and over the top voice acting. Its simply the best comic book game ever made.

Mario & Luigi: Bowser’s Inside Story (Nintendo DS)

Be prepared to have a hilarious time with the third and best installment in the series. Its a fun Mario RPG game with varied gameplay and hilarious dialogues .. inside Bowser.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 (PC-Xbox360-PS3)

It is the newest phenomenon in the gaming industry. Modern Warfare 2 gives the best online multiplayer experience out there. The game also offers a short yet great single player campaign and a well made co-op mode.

Assassin’s Creed II (PC-Xbox360-PS3)

Nothing beats jumping over the artistic buildings of 15th century Italy. Unlike its predecessor, Assassin’s Creed II is an incredibly polished game with improved gameplay mechanics and a decent story. Ubisoft learned from their mistakes in the first try and gave us a masterpiece. Oh and who is a better side-kick than Leonardo Da Vinci himself.

Dragon Age: Origins (PC-Xbox360-PS3)

With its incredible story and character development, Bioware has made another great western RPG title. Dragon Age: Origins is easily the best RPG of the year

The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks (Nintendo DS)

The sequel to Phantom hourglass proves to be an even better game than its predecessor. Join link in an adventure through brilliantly-designed dungeons, new items, innovative boss fights. The game will also take you through challenging puzzles and you will solve them with the help of princess Zelda.

Killzone 2 (PS3)

It’s the game that took everyone by surprise when it came out. Nobody thought Guerrilla would be able to match their game with the famous E3 trailer back in 2006. Killzone 2 is a great FPS shooter game that offers an action-packed campaign mode combined with stunning visuals and sound effects. It also has a remarkable online multiplayer that will keep you hooked.

Halo 3: ODST (Xbox360)

Halo is back but this time its more like an expansion than a sequel. Halo3 : ODST offers a great and unique campaign mode even though its a bit short. It also introduces a splendid new Firefight mood. This game is a must for all Halo fans.

Uncharted 2 (PS3)

Most critics and gamers agree that Uncharted 2 is the game of the year. Naughty Dog were able to turn their weak points in the previous Uncharted into powerful ones. This is a blockbuster game and an adventure you will never forget. Uncharted 2 offers brilliant combat system, remarkable voice acting, great story, incredible script, stunning graphics and smashing online multiplayer. All of this makes a thrill-ride that you will be remembering for the rest of your life.

Borderlands (PC-Xbox360-PS3)

One of the hit titles of 2009, Borderlands is a game that came out strong & unexpectedly. The FPS/RPG game offers a crazy amount of customized guns and an interesting art style. It can be crazy fun when other players join the party co-op style. And it can become a bit boring and lonely when played by a single player.

Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars (Nintendo DS – PSP)

The handheld version of the GTA franchise is certainly up to its name. The incredible work that has been put in the game, like the great story and the varied missions along with all the new features, make this a must experience for all handheld gamers.

Left 4 Dead 2 (PC-Xbox360)

Fans went mad when Valve first announced the sequel to Left 4 Dead in such a short period instead of releasing it as downloadable content. But Left 4 Dead 2 proved them wrong and turned out to be a true sequel with its  marvelous campaigns and the new modes as well as the improved gameplay. Left 4 Dead 2 is the best co-op multiplayer experience since the first installment.

I guess that sums it up. It was truly a wonderful year. I know there are other awesome titles that I didnt include  but this is the cream of the crop.  2010 is coming up and its look like its going to be an even better year for gamers than this one.  Our poor pockets are gonna get a hard beating as well !

I was debating whether to write something or not, but since I have a lot of things to write, I decided to keep on going. As I promised from the previous post, here are my impressions and thoughts about the new Prince of Persia.

First thing anyone would notice from the Prince of Persia (2008) is that the Prince doesn’t sound like a prince from Persia, but rather a western dude. That aside, this new Prince of Persia game is pretty good.

It uses the same engine that powers Assassins Creed but with added Cel Shading effect to give the game its new distinctive and magical look. The animation department is pretty good as expected from a Ubisoft game, especially a Prince of Persia game.

Unlike the last Trilogy, the new Prince uses the aid of princess Elyka in this adventure. So no more messing with time element here, this is all gone since this is a different re-imagining to Prince of Persia story, so it has nothing to do with the previous Trilogy.

Story wise, the game is ok and has a very predictable story so nothing really impressive in that department.

What really is cool about the Prince of Persia, is the platforming element, which is taken to the next level, Ceiling walking anyone? Also, a departure from the last Trilogy is the more focused one-on-one fights. No more the Prince going against a dozen guards. With that, there is now more complexity to the fight and more depth to it, or so I thought. As soon as you learn the controls, all the fights are really the same, from the first mob to the last boss. There are some encounters that have some small gimmick changes to make them less repetitive which helps a bit. Also, Elyka adds some depth to those encounters. It almost transforms to some sort of reduced Soul Calibur fighting game.

Also, the game doesn’t have any kind of loading, it is one seamless world and it is very very beautifully designed. Just going through them is enjoyment on its own.

The game is moderately lengthy, you can expect 15 hours of gameplay if you aim to reach the end, or you could go and collect every sphere there is to add more length, but that is merely a small thing to keep you doing that.

All in all, this is Prince of Persia as you would expect it. Is it better than the last Trilogy? Story wise it isn’t, that is for sure. Gameplay? It can go to preference, I would say they are both great and give you different yet similar experiences.

Wow, it has been about 2-3 months since I last written a post in here. As usual, I have been busy with life and the same stuff I mention before are keeping me from blogging.

Anyway, so lets kick off from where I stopped. Games wise, I managed to finish the epic gory/thriller game Dead Space and I must say, if you can get your hand on it, do so. The game is full of amazing scares and horrors that are just well done. It has also a nice ending chapter with an epic finale. The game will take you around 10+ hours to complete and even though it is repetitive at some places, such situations are far and few. The graphics are both great and have a nice tone to it and includes some nice space-sort of effects when it comes to going in and out of the space ship. It also runs very well and so you can probably crank the graphics fidelity all the way to the max with hardly any performance drop. One annoying aspect is lack of proper Anti-Aliasing support but with the dark environment, sometimes it is hard to notice except on the main character’s armor suit which, to be honest, is cool but blocky. It also gets uglier as you upgrade it. The monsters themselves are the stars of the show since they behave as such and can cause you a lot of pain. The variety is nice if not extensive but the way the come to you on each encounter is fresh. What you will really love about the game is “oh no, am in trouble” situations that you get in that usually end with your character becoming food for someone else and hence you need to be swift with using your weapons and movement AND you need to be sure you be conservative with some of the more powerful weapons since ammo for those aren’t that abundant. In the end, you will feel that you have really gone into that messed up space station and got involved with lots of scary horrors and end up trying to get out of it by doing lots of missions that involve you going into the scariest parts of the station to fix, get, replace items that will help you in leaving such place.

After that, I managed to get Red Alert 3 (normal edition) and started with the Campaign. Finished the Soviet side story and am going through the Allies side. What can I say, corny story, cheesy dialogue and accents and the shortage of clothes on the females during a world war era. Then again, Red Alert 3 was never meant to be serious. The missions themselves are fun as long as you crank the difficulty to Hard since medium with a Co-Commander is quite easy. Switching to hard makes it even hard for your Co-Commander as well (Human or AI). Oh and if you have been wondering what i mean by Co-Commander, it is the other team that is helping you get through the campaign. It can be a human player or the AI based on what you select before you start the mission.

The main Red Alert 3 game is fun both in single player and multiplayer modes. Though the recently released expansion, Red Alert 3 Uprising, is lacking at best since it only includes single player missions and nothing new added to the multiplayer. Based on various reviews, I decided to skip it.

I think I have written enough for now but be sure that I will be do more follow ups more frequently so stay tuned.

Command and Conquer 3: Kane’s Wrath is the expansion pack for the successful Command and Conquer 3: Tiberium Wars. This is the first foray into 3D for the Tiberium Universe of the C&C series which started the RTS genre as we know it. Kane’s Wrath adds more units, sub factions, more multiplayer maps, a global conquest mode and 13 new single player missions to the core Tiberium Wars game.

The single player portion of the expansion focuses entirely on the NOD faction and Kane’s survival after the second Tiberium war, what led to the third Tiberium war and what happened next at the end. So through all the 13 new missions, you play as NOD only. The cut scenes do answer some questions about what happened between the second and third Tiberium wars from NODs perspective and explains some of the events happened during the third war in addition to the end. You will feel some disjoint sometimes if you aren’t familiar with the Tiberium universe story. The missions themselves are nothing special yet are fun for one or two days play, since they are easy and pretty much require destruction of your enemy’s base. Nothing ground breaking there.

The new global conquest mode is nothing new as well. It is very similar to the Lord of the Rings Battle for Middle Earth 2 War of the Ring mode. The idea is you have the whole map at display and you get to try taking as much territory to win or either by achieving curtain goals for each faction. The game plays in a turn based way. You make your moves and go for the next turn. Conflicts then can be resolved either by real time game play or via auto resolve which lets the computer determine who will win by comparing the two forces’ strengths. Personally, the global conquest mode doesn’t feel right and you really need to be good to win since making one or two mistakes can end the game easily.

Kane’s Wrath adds a lot of cool new units that change the balance of each faction yet still enhance the overall balance during conflicts. In addition, each faction has it’s own Epic unit. These are huge and powerful units that can seriously turn the tide of battle if properly used. Though they are left at the very end of the tech tree and are seriously expensive to build.

The new units are either shared or split throughout the six sub factions, two from each main faction. These sub factions are a more specialized version of their parent faction in a certain area. For example, the Black Hand NOD sub faction focuses on infantry and flame and has no stealth or air technology. The factions are marginally much more balanced when compare to C&C Generals Zero Hour sub factions.

Kane’s Wrath main feature is really the multiplayer section of the game. The layout is still the same of Tiberium Wars multiplayer where you can either ask for an auto match or go check the lobbies for matches that you want to participate in. With all these new units, maps and sub factions, Kane’s Wrath is really a lot of fun online. Add to that the dedication EA is giving to the C&C series, that new patches are more and more common these days with balance changes which are always important when dealing with online exploits. This is no Starcraft polish, but it is good enough to have a fair and fun online experience.

Nothing spectacular in terms of the graphics since it is really the old SAGE engine used in C&C General’s years ago with more shaders. So the game is smooth and will run on a wide selection of PC configurations. The music is mostly untouched and is the same from Tiberium Wars bar one track which is a remixed version of the NOD faction from the previous Tiberium game.

Kane’s Wrath is more of a fans’ expansion pack than for the general audience, yet if you are into online multiplayer RTS games, I strongly recommend you try this since it is fast and fun to play.

Yes people it is official, Grand Theft Auto is finally coming to the PC as many anticipated. With a North American release date of November 18th and a European release date on the 21st of the same month, PC gamers will finally get to experience the best GTA game to date.

Rockstar Games, a publishing label of Take-Two Interactive Software, Inc. , is proud to announce that Grand Theft Auto IV will be arriving on the PC on November 18th and 21st in North America and Europe, respectively.

Expect the Middle East region to get it around the same time in November.

For more information regarding the announcement, head over to VE3D.

Lost Planet Colonies is actually Lost Planet game from Capcom with additional maps for multiplayer. The game was released on the XBox 360 and PS3 first then later on PC. Few months later Capcom released the Colonies Edition which didn’t change the single player element but rather only settled with updating the multiplayer portion with new maps and items.

The story is about humans trying to colonize a snow covered planet that host huge bugs called the Akrid. These Akrid also have an energy source which is their weak point as well. Humans had to develop Vital Suits (VS) to help them battle the Akrid more evenly. So the plan is to rid the planet from all the Akrid for humans to live happy, very original huh!

Story aside, you control a guy named Wayne. The controls are very similar to a first person shooter game except you play it from a third person view. He gets to use normal sort of weapons and grenades. You are required to get Thermal Energy to sustain your health. TE can be obtained from any heat source and mainly from your enemies. You can also get TE from checkpoint like posts. If you get hit, your health goes down but is quickly replenished from your TE but one fierce attack can kill you instantly since it takes time to replenish health from TE. That is where VS suits come to play. They control similar to Wayne when he is on foot but are heavier with armor and better weapons. VS also provide faster movement, jump and even limited flying abilities. Lost Planet contains various VS suits that have different abilities. In addition, the weapons mounted can be replaced easily.

The game is fun and mostly revolves about getting a good VS suit and getting through most of the obstacles to the end boss. The obstacles come in the form of Akrid which themselves come in huge variety and sizes to other humans that are either mounted in a VS suit or on foot. Really one of the best parts of the single player part of the game is the end level bosses. They make the other Akrid puny in comparison and are tough until you figure out the way to beat them but even then it is still fun and challenging.

The game graphics are nice and uses directx9/10 very well. You get cool snow and blizzard effects when you are traversing an outdoor area. In addition, the explosions create a distortion effect and I must emphasize that there are plenty of explosions in Lost Planet. Nothing special about the music or the sound effect though.

The performance is a bit unstable. You get areas with very smooth frame rates and other that jitter a lot. Even the cut scenes aren’t smooth for unknown reasons when there is nothing obvious that can indicate that the performance should get affect, something like huge explosions or heavy weather effects. Still, none of these performance issues had any affect on the game play. They were more of an annoyance rather than a hindrance.

Capcom are really putting some serious efforts into porting games to the PC which are indicated in Lost Planet, especially noticeable when you compare it to the previous port from them. They are even did an awesome job when they ported Devil May Cry 4 to the PC. Stay tuned for that review.

What you get when you slap Prince of Persia gameplay with Grand Theft Auto freedom, historical setting and DirectX9/10 graphics? You end up with Ubisoft’s new and ambitious game Assassin’s Creed.

Ambitious as the game may be, it ended with a big flaw I will address later in the review. The game is set around Jerusalem (Al Quds) and just around the third crusade war. You play as an Assassin who works his way to take out key personnel to make sure that the war is under control. Of course Ubisoft are using fictional characters and story even though the setting is historical and so are some characters (Saladin and King Richard). They did a very good job of blending such a setting with a story of their own. So whatever you will be doing in game, it really didn’t happen in reality. In addition, you are actually playing in a simulated history kind of way. The main character is put into a machine that allows you to go back into the characters past, up to whatever grand-grand father memory and few his memory. In our case, the memory goes back to the third crusade era and your great grandfather is actually an assassin. The story might seem complex but it really is simple and there are hardly any twists in it.

If you have ever played Prince of Persia (The Sands of Time Trilogy) then you will be right at home with the controls of Altair (The assassin you control). The idea is that you are give names to go and assassinate but you aren’t pointed to who or where they are. So it is your task to look around in the city for clues. They are given by other assassin’s who work with you in your Creed. A step before that is to find where they are and is done by climbing a View-Point. These are tall buildings (Marked on your map) that you can scale in a remarkable way to get a view of your surroundings. Which also allows you to see any information giver that allows you to get closer to your assassination target in addition of getting more details about how to get to them with the least trouble. The View-Points also allow you to see other “side quests” such as helping citizens, roof-top race against time, assassinating some guards. The missions span three major cities and each city is literally huge with a lot of people going about their daily lives, preachers, guards and even pigeons.

The game graphics is marvelous and so are the character animations (at least the main character). The graphics support high textures and awesome use of HDR and bloom effect. This game is one of the very few that properly implements these settings so that they really contribute to the immersion. You really just can’t believe how well a city looks with all the people in it until you see the game in motion. This brings us to the animation part of the game which is so smooth and realistic that walking in the cities is jaw dropping. Add to that some great roof top maneuvers and jumping and you can see how much fun it is to move around in the city without doing much anything.

The visual effect is combined with some great music that really fits that game and changes based on the event, whether you are being chased, stalking someone or fighting.

The biggest flaw in the game, and I am sorry to say so considering how much I praised it, is that it is very repetitive. You can argue that most games are repetitive, but Assassin’s Creed repetition is so obvious. The main mission asks you to gather information and assassinate a person, which is almost the same every time. The side quests are worse. Hardly any variety from the same scale that tower, help that citizen, get that flag (which is useless for both the PC and PS3 versions), kill that templar and so on. If you do all of these quests, you can easily clock over 50 hours of play, though you will feel that you are forcing yourself to do them rather than trying to have fun doing them.

So a great game with great ambition but plagued with hideous repetition. I still recommend this game but don’t force yourself to do all the side quests after you experienced the main ones, since it gets repetitive after that.

I don’t think there is a game recently out there that can give you a good laugh like Sam & Max.If you want a game like that and is a point and click type of game, then you are in for a treat.

The story is about a detective dog in a suit named Sam and his sidekick, a rabbit with an over sized head and mouth and dots for eyes, named Max. They are the freelance police. Naturally, they get to solve cases but not in a traditional way. Instead, they do it in a wacky and seriously funny way.

An old two dimensional version of the game was released in the 90s which I missed. Then Telltale (the developer) announced they will make a new Sam & Max game using 3D graphics with the same old, and loved, point and click system. That game got scrapped and then reintroduced as episodic releases. Currently, Seasons 1 and 2 are out each containing five episodes. Each episode is worth about 1-3 hours of gameplay (depending on how good you are in solving problems in weird and stupid ways). I won’t be talking about Season 1 but most of what is talked about here applies to the first season. It is a good idea to pick up Season 1 before delving in to Season 2 but not necessary. The season’s episodes have their own story (case) which are connected together to form the season story, so playing in sequence is prefered.

The game is played, as stated earlier, in a point and click fashion. You mouse over an object and will get a tool tip about it. Click it and either Sam or Max will comment on it, in a funny way, or will interact with it. The inventory system used is so simple and basic even a young kid can understand it (kids these days understand even more complex games!). The idea is to connect the objects to the right elements, be it a person, a machine or whatever that makes sense (or doesn’t) to get a solution. There a lot of times you will get stuck wondering what to do or how to move forward. Honestly, I myself rushed to look into walkthroughs which can save you the time but no recommended. Especially when you figure out that the answer was so close if you had a little patience to look around more.

The requirements for the game are very forgiving almost all current and last generation (even two generations) of PC hardware can run it at maximum settings. What is nice about the graphics is the art style which maintains a very cartoony element. The animation is also nice and it is this combination of art and animation that makes you feel connected to the plot and the game world overall.

Sam and Max themselves are great characters in addition to the other characters you will interact with in this helarious world. From start to finish of each episode you will continue smiling and will throw in a lot of laughs until the season ends in which you get hinted to a third season coming soon. I must say when that point is reached, you will want Season 3 sooner than later.