Half Life 2: Episode 1 Review (360)

Unlike those lucky PC owners the rest of us have not yet had a chance to continue the adventures of Gordon Freeman. Now with the Orange box we have episodes one and two available to a new audience. Here we will look and see if Episode one is up to the standard of the Half-Life legacy.

Following on directly from the end of Half-life 2, Episode one revolves around Alyx and Gordon trying to escape from city 17. It is not the longest title in the world, clocking in as it does at around four hours. As you would expect it does not deviate massively form the Half-life 2 formula but it does have a couple of nice ideas that help to carry it along.

The most notable thing in Episode 1 is the pace. Half-life 2 has many sections where the player will stop and take a breath while they try to figure out a puzzle or admire the scenery. In Episode one the pace is mostly relentless. It seems you are always running from or to something. Also you have Alyx by your side for most of it.

Alyx acts as far more than some dumb NPC who must be looked after and protected. In fact for a large portion of the game the exact opposite will be happening. Until you can find a decent firearm Alyx will be looking after Gordon. Players will be very glad to have her along for the ride as many sections are cramped and filled with enemies. You do not have to worry too much about Alyx dying, as she is near indestructible. If however she does die you will have to go back to a previous save.

Despite its short length there is still a fair amount of variety and each of the five chapters introduces something a little different to keep you wanting to push on. Much like with Half-Life 2 just as a section is beginning to become tiresome you reach the end of it and have something else to engage with. The story is also excellent and once it is over you will really want to know what is going to happen next (so it is handy that Episode 2 is just the next box along).

Episode one may well be short but it still contains enough stand out moments to make it worth playing. There is not really a point where you think you are playing anything they should have put in Half-Life 2 first time round, but it is a highly enjoyable made for TV version of its big screen brother. It more than maintains the standard of the Orange box as a whole and once more we are pleased to see it here instead of arriving as twenty pounds of downloadable content.

The game may not standout as much as Portal or Team Fortress 2 but any Half-Life fan would be mad not to see the continuation of the story and the further adventures of Doctor Freeman. It seems Valve can do no wrong and long may it continue.

Overall 7/10

Portal Review (Xbox 360)

Not too long ago a game named Nebula Drop arrived on the PC. It contained a number of very good ideas and with a bit more play testing could have been refined into a nice little gem of a title. Portal is the spiritual successor to this game.

Portal is an odd little game. Imagine if you will (and it may be difficult) a first person shooter crossed with a puzzle game without anyone to actually shoot. Odd yes but that is indeed what Portal is, a very strange mix that holds together exceptionally well due to its strong design and originality.

Starting with your character awaking in some kind of scientific laboratory you are then told by a computer voice where to go and what to do. It seems somehow you have found yourself in a strange facility and must undergo a number of tests. All is not as it seems however as there is no one else around and the computer seems to be malfunctioning. This adds a very uneasy tension to proceedings. You are never sure if what the computer is telling you is the truth or something to try and see how you react under pressure.

Portal remains somewhat of an enigma throughout and certain things such as who you are and why you are here are never really explained. It all helps to add to the atmosphere though as you try to work out some wonderfully designed puzzles. The main trick Portal employs is the use of the portal gun. The gun can be used to fire both entry and exit portals onto any suitable surface. You must use this gun to work your way through nineteen puzzle orientated areas.

Though the concept is simple there is a lot of depth involved. Far from being about sticking an entry door on a low level and then an exit door on a high level you are often asked to think and act quickly to change portal placement and your own momentum. Yes forward motion is a very important thing here. Quite often you will have to fall through a portal a number of times to build up your forward motion, this requires expert placement of both portals. It sounds a little odd but once you have the concept understood it becomes highly addictive.

The title has a nice clean clinical look that fits the setting perfectly. There are also little hints as to what is actually going on and how the game relates to the half life universe subtly tucked away. The main game itself lasts around four hours but once completed a number of additional challenges and advanced maps open up which may well have you pulling your hair out.

Portal itself is a very nice package of invention and innovative game design which apart from a slightly overcooked last section is remarkably clever and fun to play. You can not help but think that the portal gun will be making a more prominent appearance in the half life world at some point. Right now we not sure if this is a good thing as the whole concept works so well in its current format- given the choice we would probably take more portal puzzles than puzzles based on application to the ‘real’ world.

To sum up, Portal is more than worthy of being a part of the Orange box and may well surprise a few people not expecting much from it. It is focused and great fun to play with lots of moments that require clever thinking to overcome. Even if it was released on its own we would highly recommend it.

Overall 8/10

Team Fortress 2 Review (Xbox 360)

Look to the far right of the Orange Box menu and you will see the one game that does not quite fit with the rest of the Half-Life-based goings on. Team Fortress 2 is the follow-up to the real grand-daddy of the class-based team shooter. Now, after what seems like an everlasting wait, it has made its way onto the Xbox 360.

Looks can certainly be deceiving; in the case of Team Fortress 2, the graphical style is a cross between Wacky Races and a cartoon version of Predator. However, the unique appearance is somewhat misleading as the gameplay that underpins this facade is very much aimed at the hardcore.

Team Fortress 2, more so than almost any other game, needs players to work as teams. The breadth of classes and options available means players must be aware of who on their team is playing as what type of character in order to evenly balance out offence, defence and support. It is good that classes are visibly distinct in battle due to the big and bold designs.

There are nine classes in all, three in each category. For the player wanting to just jump in and blast away, there is the Soldier, who uses a bazooka and can rocket jump around the place, or the Heavy, who wields a huge mini-gun. The battles are won and lost with the more specialist support classes, though; there is a medic, who heals players by shooting them with a ‘healing gun’, and the spy, who can cloak or disguise himself as any enemy unit (once the enemy is fooled, he can sneak up behind them and stab them in the back!).

Each class has three weapons: generally one specialist weapon, a close range gun and a melee weapon. The classes also have a unique taunt that can be called upon to really rub it into the enemies’ faces when you take them down. Adding to the spirit of competition, the game will soon tell you if a player is ‘dominating’ you by placing the word “nemesis” above them. This leads to highly competitive grudge matches starting up.

There are six maps in total to choose from, many with different sections that are played through over different rounds. On the face of it, the map selection would seem to be somewhat small, but in practice, the multi-section approach goes some way to alleviating repetition. The only real gripe some may have is that each map is designed with a certain play type in mind and this cannot be changed. ‘2Forts’, for instance, is a capture-the-flag map, so if that is not your cup of tea, you will have to stay clear of it.

This idea is actually more plausible than in many other titles. When searching for a game to join, a list of every host available will present itself, showing the amount of players currently in the game lobby and which map the game is based on. This means players can easily avoid or play the game of their choice, something more games should take account of.

Many players may find they do not take to Team Fortress 2 right away, and we found it took a few matches to really get into the right frame of mind to play it properly. Once it clicks, however, the game is immense fun. Matches will often last well over an hour but rarely become tiresome due to the chaos going on and the brilliant humour woven throughout.

Team Fortress 2 represents the Orange Box’s attempt at multiplayer online gaming and, although some may have preferred see Counter-Strike, this really has a chance to make an impact on Xbox Live. TF2 is different from the current kings of the online FPS and may well carve itself out a market. What can we say? It is yet another reason to recommend the Orange Box and something that could so easily have been added as twenty pounds of downloadable content later in Half-Life 2’s life span. Well done to Valve for including it. Now just make sure you all give it the time it deserves.

8/10

Lego Star Wars: The Complete Saga Review (Xbox 360)

The last few years have shown that the combination of Lego with the Star Wars license can be both enjoyable and highly lucrative. With the first title containing episode I through to III not coming out on the Xbox 360 this package gives anyone late to the party the complete experience.

The first impressions of the title are not the best. To start with players are placed into the Mos Eisley Cantina which acts as the main hub. From here you can choose doors which lead to Episodes I-VI, Two player arcade mode and various other extra content. Unfortunately there is very little to play around with here. Both previous titles have had fun hub worlds to explore but this one feels uninspired, empty and flat.

Luckily the same cannot be said for the rest of the game. All of the levels have been given a graphical face lift which makes them look a lot slicker and smooth. Furthermore the vehicle sections in Episodes I-III have been changed and improved so that they are not so frustrating and clunky. It means all six episodes now work to the same rules and have the same look which adds coherency.

Lego Star Wars games have always been fun, but the characters have been somewhat clunky and slow to control. The Complete Saga deals with this problem admirably. It is very noticeable how fluid the game now is, especially in Episodes I-III (which were the worst offenders). Character movement is much more dynamic and smooth and they now respond instantly to commands. This makes a huge difference and everything is now much more enjoyable.

Another of the irritations that persisted through the series to this point was that though the titles are aimed at younger gamers there are sections which can be stupidly frustrating. This was always most evident when trying to collect enough Lego studs to fill the Jedi bar at the top of the screen. This has partly been solved through the more responsive controls but also by putting more studs on each level.

Players may argue that these changes have reduced the challenge of the title and though this is true it is not a bad thing. The franchise has always been about having fun and collecting things. Though the game is easier it is also undoubtedly more fun than before as much of the difficulty came from frustrating issues. We even played through some sections of the title with the ‘invincibility’ power up on and the game still stood up as satisfying and fun.

The perceived lack of difficulty may put a few people off because they do not think the game will last long enough. This is also not an issue. Believe us when we tell you that there is always something left to do. We played through all the levels at least three times collecting various things and we could still go back to do the new challenges that have been added. As well as the main levels there are also twenty bounty hunter missions to try. Then you can go into the extras room and try out the new and old levels placed there such as Episodes I-III vehicle sections as they used to be, the hidden episode IV level, new Anakin level and two Lego cities. Even that is not everything, to finish this game one hundred percent will take a very long time.

The simple an easy to use drop in co-op play only adds to the enjoyment and longevity as well. Players can join at any point, play as long as they wish then disappear. It is uncomplicated and well executed and it is hard to see how it could have been improved upon.

Even the achievements keep the good fun tone of the title going. For example being rewarded for smashing Jar Jar Binx twenty times can only raise a smile. While the ‘Did I break your concentration’ achievement for breaking the Emperor with Mace Windu (played by Samuel L Jackson) shows the development team have a sense of humour. A sense of humour that also comes to the fore in many of the excellent cut scenes.

Overall, Lego Star Wars: The Complete Saga achieves everything it sets out to do. Here we have a fun well constructed title that gamers of all ages will enjoy. If you already have both instalments separately you may want to hold off unless you can find it cheaply. Though the improvements are good this is still basically the same two games with shiny bits added. For anyone else looking for something that takes video games back to being fun rather than acting as a second job this should be top of your list.

Overall 8/10

Shadowrun (Xbox 360)

Shadowrun, as many of you will know, started life as an excellent paper and dice role playing game. Over the years, it has remained in relative obscurity (a few exceptions to this rule exist, most notably the excellent Super Nintendo game and a more hardcore Megadrive title); now the license has been dusted off and used by Fasa Studio.

The Xbox 360 is a platform crying out for a decent RPG, so naturally Fasa have made a team-based first person shooter. Let's get this out of the way straight off: Shadowrun, the 360 game, bears only a passing resemblance to anything Shadowrun-related; even the art style is some way off what fans would really expect. The storyline is vaguely the same in that an ancient magic has reawakened and humans start mutating into and giving birth to magical creatures (remember we did say vaguely).

Another thing to be aware of is that this review comes at quite a lengthy period after the initial release and as such we are in essence reviewing Shadowrun V 1.2. Due to the two very good patches that have been made available, the game is a very different place from that of a few months ago.The title itself is designed to be a completely multiplayer affair and, apart from bot matches, there is no single player mode available - something that never seemed to bother Quake 3 Arena too much. The result is a highly focused and highly skillful team-based combat game.

There are two main game types available: 'Attrition' has your team simply trying to wipe out the other team while 'Extraction' is the Shadowrun version of capture the flag, only this time with a magical artefact. A slight variation on Extraction is 'Raid', which has one side trying to remove the artefact while the other team defends the position. Each team has a choice of four different races to choose from: humans are good all-round characters with the added advantage of suffering no penalty to magic when they have tech equipped; trolls have high health and can take huge amounts of damage but little magic power; elves are quick but weak with a lot of magic power; and dwarves have the most magic, need two head shots to kill, are almost impossible to 'bleed out' (thanks to the patch) but are the second weakest race in terms of health.

Each race, when used properly, can be highly effective; on the other side of the coin, in the wrong hands, any race can die within about three seconds of a game starting. As well as the choice of race, players can equip their characters with both magic and tech items which must be bought between rounds. This is where the team responsibility comes into effect; if no one buys a tree of life to heal allies, or resurrection to bring people back to life, chances are you will not last long.The magic and tech can be combined in near limitless ways and can really help to customise a character that suits your playing style.

Already, people online have worked out combinations that may seem a little odd but, when used correctly, are nearly unstoppable. Magic ranges from summoning huge demons to attack your enemies to the very subtle 'Gust' magic used to push your enemy away from you. Tech is equally wide-ranging, spanning devices that let you see through walls, put laser sights on your weapons or use a glider to leap out of harm's way. All require mastery and any can be the difference between life and death.Weapons available are fairly standard items such as shotguns, SMGs, sniper rifles and rocket launchers. The most interesting are the katana which can be used to sneak behind opponents and, if caught unaware, 'bleed' them out. This causes their health to rapidly drain away unless they are resurrected by an ally.

The battle rifle is also worth a mention as not too many games have a highly effective mid-to-long range steady fire rifle. Shadowrun has a fairly small collection of maps, one of which is randomly selected each time a new match begins. It is lucky, then, that all of the maps are of a decent to excellent standard. Even now, ledges and hiding places in the multi-tiered maps are still being discovered. The need to select different weapons, magic and tech depending on the map also remains crucial.

Shadowrun has set aside its heritage and aimed to be a highly flexible, highly skilled team-based online shooter, and it achieves that very well. After the patches, servers are much more stable (though lag does occur a touch too often) and the races have really been levelled out against each other which makes a huge difference to the experience. The biggest problem with a game of this type is that, although the tools may be excellent, there are always going to be some absolute morons online spoiling it for everyone. Thankfully, there seem to be more decent players than annoying ones, but it only takes one idiot to ruin the fun.

The title may seem somewhat limited in terms of options and a general finesse, but what is there works almost perfectly and, in our mind, is one of the finest online multiplayer experiences available. If you look past the tenuous link to the license and the admittedly dodgy art design, you may just find a game that is quite unlike any other, and is excellent to boot.

8

Geometry Wars: Retro Evolved (XBLA)

It starts with a vector and a grid. No back story, no explanation of why, it just does. Shapes start to appear on the screen, but only a couple at first. You blast them to shards. Easy. More enemies appear, you take them out. Then more. Many more. Glowing wormholes suck in your foes and explode, firing small blue circles, purple cubes split in two as they’re hit, sending smaller purple cubes toward you. Glowing snakes wind their way around the screen at you. Everything is out to get you. All you can do is take them out. There are no levels and – seemingly – no end to the game. Just more and more to destroy.

Geometry Wars is one of the most primal gaming experiences currently available on XBLA’s service. Even its spiritual grandfather, Robotron, has levels and a story. What Bizarre has created is a proper, old-school, show-us-how-good-you-are arcade title. You shoot things, you survive, and your score increases. That really is all there is to it; but it is just so well executed.

The neon lines which form everything in the game have a satisfying eighties look to them. Simplistic yet beautiful, basic shapes swarm over the screen, sparks fly, and wormholes pulse, leaving you mesmerised in the same way most stoners are when they listen to Pink Floyd. Geometry Wars owes a debt to Jeff Minter in terms of design. It could almost be a companion piece to the great llama’s Tempest 2000. It really is a beautiful game, but – as we quickly found out – you won’t have much time to admire it.

Blasting at everything and evading collision with the colourful shapes is the order of the day here. A few minutes in and you won’t have much space on the grid to yourself. You are aided by a decent multiplier system which increases with every 25 enemies killed, an extra life every 75,000 points and an extra smart bomb every 100,000 points. Your fire-power is increased for short periods at certain times. Not only does this help you rain hot laser death on your enemies, it also causes the grid backdrop to ripple in a very pretty fashion. Nowhere to hide, no OTT power ups, no gimmicks, that’s it. The player must rely on nothing more than pure skill, much like the retro titles the game pays homage to.

Geometry Wars is one of the few games on 360 where the two words “Achievement Unlocked” really matter. A solid test of the player’s reflexes mixed with eye-melting visuals make this a title worth more than its weight in Marketplace points. If you complete all the achievements and make the top 100 on the leader board, we will buy you a drink. What are you still doing here? Go earn some points.

9/10

Written by Dan Gill

Street Fighter IV Review (Xbox 360)

Street Fighter IV Review (Xbox 360)

It's been far too long since Capcom gave us another proper instalment of Street Fighter. While we love all the Capcom vs. Marvel/SNK games there is just something extra special about the series that revolutionised the fighting world.

This game moves away from the relatively hardcore aimed Street Fighter III and is clearly meant to get as many people as possible back into the fireball throwing groove. Gone are the quickly forgotten characters of before and in their place sit the far more iconic combatants from the original Street Fighter 2.

Capcom has also picked some of the best characters from the other Street Fighter games. Cammy, Akuma and Fei Long join from Super Street Fighter 2, Sakura, Dan, Rose and Gen are brought in from the Alpha series and several newcomers are added for good measure. All the characters, with the possible exception of Rose, fit the new look and style of the game perfectly.

It is clear right from the start that Capcom have put an awful lot of care and attention into this title. The opening cinematic of characters fighting in a whirl of inky lines and splashes of black on white sets a dramatic and beautiful scene. The new art style of the characters and stages is nothing short of breathtaking and helps to really give that extra level of personality and flair to the bouts.

Characters are also much more different than in some previous games. For example, all the characters that use the basic fireball, dragon punch and hurricane kick move set all pull the moves off at different angles and heights. This makes often ignored characters like Sakura and Dan absolutely devastating in the right hands.

Most of the techniques, such as air blocking and the different Alpha styles, of the previous games have been stripped away and replaced with new systems. The super moves remain and are now joined by an Ultra move which can be initiated when your character takes a certain amount of damage. These moves are spectacular to watch and can often swing a match back in your favour.

Standard special moves can also be powered up by using a section of your super move bar. Using this technique imaginatively can help rain blows down onto your opponent. The most technical addition is the introduction of focus attacks. These work by holding two buttons down to charge and then releasing. While charging the attack your fighter can absorb one hit. This means you can use the move to counter an unsuspecting opponent. As you play the game more you soon realise just how important this seemingly simple technique can be.

As well as the main arcade mode the home version now has a number of different challenges to pit your skills against. There are survival and time trial modes and a mode which teaches you about each characters move set and combos. They aren't amazing but it's nice to see them included all the same.

However, the big draw is the ability to go online and take on opponent from all the over the world. We are absolutely delighted to say that we had hardly any trouble with playing online. Games run smoothly and it is very rare to get lag even against opponents on relatively poor connections. Of course you do get the odd bad game but we only experienced this a few times in over a hundred matches.

As wonderful as Street Fighter IV is there are still a few imperfections. Seth, the final boss is one of the worst characters we have ever seen. We expect more from a Street Fighter game than a cheap character that is merely made up of moves from other people. He is also incredibly cheap. Furthermore, Rose just doesn't seem to fit in, She's a great character in Alpha but both her new design and how she plays seems out of place here. The only other minor gripe we have is that it may well take players a good few hours to really get into the feel of the game.

A few minor points aside Street Fighter IV is arguably the best game in the series history. Once you get into how it works and find a character that suits you, hours of your life will simply disappear. Even on the Xbox 360 pad moves are fairly easy to pull off and playing online is a joy. There is really no reason why every fight fan on the planet shouldn't own this game. It's a modern classic and one of few games we will look back on in years to come and get that feeling of nostalgia about.

9/10

Fallout 3 Review (Xbox 360)

We have to admit that, when we first heard about the direction the new Fallout game was taking, we were a little worried. Fallout 1 and 2 both follow the tried and tested formula of excellence that other games such as Baldur’s Gate and Planetscape: Torment had great success with. These games were all of a certain time and made by teams with a certain attitude for a certain type of player. Grabbing one of these titles and trying to make it all shiny and ready for a console audience was never going to be easy. We are pleased to say our fears were unfounded; let the love-in begin.

Fallout 3 is set in an alternate reality, 1950s culturally-locked, post-apocalyptic America. In this reality, the year 2077 signalled the end of a long-running conflict with China with a huge globe-destroying nuclear war. Many people took refuge in massive vaults under the ground. It is here that you are dropped kicking and screaming into the world as a baby. You spend nineteen years in the vault (a relatively brief time that allows you to decide what type of character you want to play as) before venturing out into the wastelands in search of your father.

As soon as you step outside the vault, you are free to do whatever you want. You can try and follow your father or just wander off into the wastelands to explore. This is one of the great things about Fallout 3; at no time does it restrict the player from doing what they want to. You are also not required to follow a strict chain of events in order to progress the story. It is quite possible to stumble across the location of various artefacts and characters long before you would have found them if following the main quests. The world is out there acting independently of you and it is up to you how you want to discover it.

The same applies to the many interesting characters you meet along the way. People are always moving around the wastelands. Sometimes they end up dead, sometimes they get to their destination, it just depends on what they encounter along the way. As the characters are far more interesting than the bunch of drones you usually find in games, it can be quite emotional when you find someone you liked dead in the middle of the waste. Emotional trauma aside, it is things like this that show just how much thought has gone into the game. Don’t worry about important characters being killed off, either, because there are a number of safe guards to stop this from happening to storyline quest-givers. Even most side quest-giving characters will only end up dead if the player decides to do away with them.

Here we have an amazing landscape to explore, filled with interesting characters, which puts the level design and character interaction of Oblivion to shame. Fallout 3 is smaller than Bethesda’s other project but it is also much more refined and focused and all the better for it. The combat mechanics also work extremely well. Like many other aspects of the game, we were worried that the VATS targeting system wouldn’t work as intended and it would become dull, constantly pausing and targeting areas of enemies to shoot. Again, our fear was completely unfounded as it works brilliantly. Should you find it difficult just to point the weapon and shoot, you can use VATS to pinpoint an area to damage. The use of the system is integrated brilliantly and fits in with the style and pacing of the title well. The two combat systems blend cleverly together to create an excellent FPS/RPG hybrid.

The game is not just incredibly flexible in terms of combat, either. Almost everything you can do in Fallout 3 can be done in a number of different ways. Your character can be set up and tweaked to play the game exactly the way you want to. If you want to go in all guns blazing, then fine; but if you want to solve things through stealth or by talking or thinking your way through, along with numerous other ways, you can do that too.

The quests themselves are also much more original and inventive than your normal fare. One in particular, where you have to solve a dispute between some vampires and a small village, is particularly well constructed. If anything, the main story quests are the least imaginative of the lot and we found ourselves eagerly scouring the wastelands in search of more quests to solve in new and interesting ways.

So there you have it. Fallout 3 is an incredibly well-accomplished game that lets players explore a rich, diverse and interesting landscape however they see fit. Along the way you will meet interesting characters, help them out with original and varied quests, fight intimidating monsters and find plenty of the Fallout humour that graced the other games in the series. Or, if you prefer, just set off an unexploded nuclear warhead and wipe everything off the face of the earth. Whatever you want to do, quite simply, the choice is yours.

9/10