Dead Island Riptide

Dead Island Riptide, the follow-up to Techland's cult hit Dead Island, has washed ashore, bringing with it all the highs and lows that made the original so addictive . . . including the game interfering bugs. Not quite a full blown sequel, yet infinitely more than simple DLC, Riptide commences immediately after the concluding events of Dead Island. The four protagonists - Sam B., Purna, Logan Carter, and Xian Mei - have narrowly escaped the infected island of Banoi and the wickedness of Ryder White. But their sigh of relief is short lived as the helicopter they thought would transport them to safety quickly lands on a nearby aircraft carrier preparing to brave the impending monsoon that was hinted at so often during my original play through of Dead Island. Unsurprisingly, the four companions are imprisoned aboard this vessel to research their immunity from the infection just long enough for mother nature to assume control and violently launch them headfirst into the storm. The result sets the stage for the next chapter in what I feel has become one of the best zombie survival franchise of this console generation.

Although Riptide doesn't innovate or promote much advancement from the likes of Dead Island, it does offer just enough updates to keep things interesting; the most notable providing the option to import your playable character from Dead Island - an option I took full advantage of. Having enjoyed the abilities, quirks, and character that Logan Carter offered, it was a simple decision for me to continue playing as the former American Football star and all-around zombie curb stomper. His current level and prior abilities were seamlessly ready to use at the start of Riptide. The only thing not brought over from Dead Island were any of the items or modded weapons that were so lovingly crafted. In a way it makes sense as the opening cut scene to Riptide strips you of all your possessions.

If you're new to the Dead Island franchise, or have made the decision to simply start as a new character, the developers at Techland have provided you with the option to select any one of the (now) 5 playable characters (the 5th being John Morgan - a former Australian Defence Force soldier) beginning at level 15 - thus allowing you to pick and choose which skill trees you would like to enhance.

From here the game is very much a continuation of the events and game play of Dead Island. Although you've been shipwrecked on a new island - Palanai - the objective is still very much the same: 4-player cooperative survival, questing to upgrade your character, all while looking for a way off the island. The story is mostly unimaginative, the characters you encounter are bland and uninspiring, and the zombie hordes continue to attack with the same ferocity.

Although it may appear that Techland has simply taken the the code from Dead Island and put a new skin on it (which they pretty much did), they've also added enough "new and shiny" to keep things interesting. Aside from the fact that experiencing this game in 4-player co-op can be indescribably fun, they've also added a number of new special infected to keep players on their toes and constantly fighting for their lives:

• The Grenadier - A zombie that rips off chunks of his own body to hurl at the survivors
• The Drowner - A play-dead zombie that floats in the flooded waterways of Palanoi only to spring to life when your character gets close enough
• The Wrestler - A hulking brute whose arms have mutated into massive clubs
• The Screamer - Think of the Witch from Left 4 Dead

Also new to Riptide is the ability to travel through large portions of this flooded island by boat. This game play element helps promote the idea that you're not only the survivor of the zombie apocalypse, but also the survivor of a devastating monsoon. Similar to travelling by jeep, the waterways of Palanoi are just as infected with zombies as the streets of Banoi were. Running over - or through - them is just as satisfying, yet it also poses a new threat. The water-bound undead are considerably more active. Get too close to too many and they will claw their way onto your boat, inciting an up-close-and-personal mini-game similar to when a zombie grapples you on dry land. Correctly following the on-screen controller button prompts (ala QTE) will result in smashing their heads against the hull of the boat. Fail to remove them in time and you'll be pulled overboard and quickly surrounded.

Lastly is the inclusion of some tower defense style game play elements. Throughout the campaign you'll have the opportunity to fortify a variety of camps by blocking a number of entrances with rolled up sections of wire fencing. Against the horde of zombies that come at you these barricades will only last so long. Thankfully, you're also provided with a variety of mines and, on occasion, the placement and mounting of some much needed mini-machine guns stripped from a downed military helicopter. These sections of game play are a nice break from island exploration but can last a little longer than I felt was necessary.

As much fun as I've had with Dead Island Riptide it's not without it's bugginess. Although the game would be hard pressed to match the same level of irritating bugs the original Dead Island offered, they do still make an appearance; some more annoying than others. The frame rate is probably the most egregious and can slow to a crawl during some of the more frenetic moments. I also encountered an irritating, yet mildly entertaining, bug when attempting to use my first boat during a single player mission. After carrying the motor through hordes of zombies (easier said than done), I located the awaiting boat via the waypoint - except the boat wasn't there. Invisible except for the floating (yes, floating and spinning) motor placement indicator, it took me several minutes to time it just right. Had this mission been a side quest I could have easily overlooked it and moved on. Unfortunately, this was a part of the main story and was detrimental to the game moving forward. I was eventually able to move beyond this "interesting" obstacle and continue my play through. Other bugs may have reared their ugly head but nothing as drastic as that which I was forced to endure during Techland's first foray into the Zombie Apocalypse.

On the one hand, Dead Island Riptide is more of the same: a melee focused, first-person zombie hunter that some might not agree was necessarily needed. On the other hand, the somewhat more stable game play, inclusion of new gaming mechanics, and new enemy threats is just what the evil doctor ordered. In the end I found it to be undeniably fun, oddly addictive, and enjoyed my time spent playing co-op with fellow A Band of Gamers members; as well as wandering the island from bloody shoreline to bloody shoreline. Techland has proven to me that they can take a solid idea and build upon it with the necessary steps. Riptide may have taken baby steps, but at least they were steps in the right direction.

Below is some game footage of my single player campaign using an Elgato Game Capture HD:

**Dead Island Riptide is available on PS3, Xbox 360, and PC. For the purposes of this review the game was played entirely on the PS3**

Dead Space 3: Awakened

Dead Space 3 was one of my most anticipated games of 2013 and, after playing through it entirely in co-op with fellow A Band of Gamer Cylinder 1024, it's an early contender for my FotY (Favorite of the Year). You can check out our co-op review on Episode 15: Full on Funk. 

Based on our enthusiastic response it's no surprise that we were both excited for Awakened, the DLC that was released shortly after the full retail game. To give this DLC its proper due it would be nearly impossible to talk about it without including some full-on spoilers to Dead Space 3 . . . so readers beware!

Awakened picks up immediately after the concluding moments of Dead Space 3. Isaac Clarke and John Carver have amazingly survived the terrors of the Necromorph infection and have been given a second chance to escape Tau Volantis and return home - return to Earth. How they survived the end of Dead Space 3 - the explanation - is probably the one and only complaint that I have about this DLC. It's just not provided in much of any detail. The situation could not have been any more dire for both protagonists, and their ending (what many might consider the conclusion to the franchise) was nicely done. Although always wanting more Dead Space I was content with how things were resolved. I was ready to move on. The opening moments of Awakened changes everything.

Isaac and John may have rid the planet of Necromorphs and destroyed the alien signal that was the root cause of it all, now their primary goal is to find an available escape shuttle to leave the planet. Easier said than done, especially when a remaining cult that takes the Church of Unitology to new heights of craziness is determined to stop them.

What begins as a routine mission quickly transforms into the Dead Space reminiscent of the first game: action set-pieces are replaced with scenes of terror, human mercenaries give way to self-mutilating lunatics, and most important of all, hallucinations are turned up to 11. More often than not you are unsure of what is real and what is purely the result of the Marker's influence - and it's done to near perfection.

Having played all of Dead Space 3 as Isaac Clarke I was often left out of the hallucinatory madness that John Carver was more prone to experience. One explanation for this is that Isaac has better adapted to the Marker's influence will while John Carver is a straight up noob. Still, continuing my Dead Space experience as Isaac Clarke during the Awakened DLC I was finally able to experience this exhilarating - and terrifying - form of co-op. Similar to Carver's experiences in Dead Space 3, I was given several opportunities during Awakened to break away from my co-op partner and defend myself from my inner demons and fears - and it was wonderful. Difficult, but wonderful!

Although this review may have some spoilers associated with Dead Space 3, I won't spoil the ending of this final chapter. I will say that it changes the course of the series, provides a glimpse of where things may go (it's awesome), and immediately puts to rest all those nasty rumors that EA was closing the door on the Dead Space franchise.

Altman be Praised!

Aliens: Colonial Marines

To say that I've been a fan of the Alien movies is somewhat of an understatement. Aside from the lackluster Alien Resurrection, I love everything those movies have to offer. Ridley Scott's Alien was an experiment in tension and fear; James Cameron's follow-up, Aliens, was an action-based sci-fi adventure; even David Fincher's (Director's Cut only please) Alien 3 was an enjoyable experience. After hearing that Gearbox Software, hot on the heals of the successful Borderlands 2, was set to release Aliens: Colonial Marines after one of the longest development cycles known to man, I was extremely excited . . . maybe too much for my own good.

Leading up to its February 2013 release, fans of the series were provided with countless videos, screen shots, and interviews from the developers. Up until the day I finally got my hands on this "direct sequel" to the Aliens movie, all looked extremely promising. It was to be a first person shooter - set weeks after the concluding events of Cameron's film - provide for up to a four player co-op campaign, and add in the option for a robust multiplayer experience. Everyone who saw footage of this game at E3 the previous year couldn't help but rave about it. This was finally gonna be the game Alien fans have been waiting years for. What we got couldn't have been further from the truth.

Upon first starting the single player campaign I immediately realized that it was lacking the polish that was demonstrated several months earlier. Interesting, I thought. Normally when videogames are seen early in their development cycle they are interpreted as a work in progress, with months left to give it the attention and detail it usually needs. Somehow, somewhere along the way, we entered bizarro world, where the opposite is the norm. Instead of visuals that represent a game at the end of a console generation (i.e. mind-blowingly awesome) Gearbox Software delivered what I consider to be an average title from the PlayStation 2; bland and uninspiring hardly come close to describing the final version of Colonial Marines.

I can live with sub-par visuals in a current generation videogame. If the developers saw fit to focus more on the game's experience - the story and the controls - rather than spend valuable resources on making it look pretty, so be it. Unfortunately, that simply was not the case. Aliens: Colonial Marines was just a sorry excuse of a video game and was an even bigger disappointment for those die hard fans of the series.

The story, if you can call it that, was laughable at best. I'm actually shocked that Twentieth Century Fox allowed this game to exist as a part of the canon. Not to give away any spoilers, but the writers for Colonial Marines saw fit, in all their wisdom of the series franchise, to end the game in a way that alters what I always thought to be a mostly solid story - from start to finish. That, in and of itself, is unforgivable and enough to turn away fans of the franchise. As your typical space marine, you are sent in to investigate the final distress call from Corporal Hicks from the ending of Aliens. As one might expect, things don't go as planned and you and your fellow Colonial Marines find themselves in one desperate situation after another as they look for a way to leave behind planet LV-426 and the zenomorph infestation. Not a bad premise for a videogame, but each alien encounter felt more like a nuisance (like swatting at a bothersome fly) rather than what it should have been - a constant struggle for survival.

As much bad as there was about Aliens: Colonial Marines there was still some positives about the game . . . just not enough to save it from its inevitable poor reception. Where the visuals and story fell well short of acceptable levels, the sound effects and musical score helped ease the pain of playing this game. This speaks more to having fond memories of the Alien's hiss and screech, the power of the pulse rifle, and the engaging blip-blip-blip of the iconic motion tracker. In addition, much of the music that accompanied the game was direct from James Horner's epic score. It was the sound, and sound effects, that helped me to look past the other shortcomings of this game; but even that only lasted for so long. After the first hour or two it was clear that man (aka, gamer) cannot live on sound alone.

Maybe I'm letting my inner Alien fanboy get the better of me as I continue to look for excuses that help me to digest this game. As bad as the visuals, story, and overall experience was, I was still searching for reasons to accept Aliens: Colonial Marines . . . until I recall the unending stream of glitches that came with this full $60 retail game. Bugs - and I'm not referring to zenomorphs here - were in abundance and broke an already damaged game. Doors had trouble opening, weapon load outs wouldn't always function, audio consistently dropped out, the list goes on and on and on. Probably my favorite (and recurring) defect was watching Aliens approach me, drop through the floor (while the tips of their tails still poked through), and then reappear directly in front of me - clawing, spitting, and biting with no longer a chance to defend myself. This was a level of "fun and excitement" I had not experienced in many years.

Aliens: Colonial Marines is not a game for the faint of heart. It may have been developed with the best of intentions, but good intentions will only get you so far. Although the high number of easter eggs throughout the game - dog tags of fallen Marines, Hadley's Hope in disarray, Newt's doll head floating in the sewers - was somewhat of a treat, it wouldn't be enough to satisfy and please those super-fans that were the most excited about this game's release.

Although there is a multiplayer component to Aliens: Colonial Marines, my single player experience has left enough of a bad taste in my mouth to prohibit me from ever considering placing this game back into my PlayStation 3. I have yet to hear anything to suggest that the multiplayer is the game's saving grace. As I am mostly disinterested in multiplayer games to begin with it's a safe bet that I have completed the game as much as I ever intend to.

Randy Pitchford and Gearbox Software should be ashamed of themselves. For months leading up to this game's release they provided their fans with images, videos, and discussions that were misleading. I've heard references to this game being a classic "bait-and-switch" and, in all honesty, that's a fairly legitimate description. Borderlands may be the developer's claim to fame, but it'll take nothing short of a miracle for me to trust this studio again or have any interest in giving them my hard-earned money. Had I been playing this game in space you most surely would have heard me scream.

Sacred 2 Gold

Sacred 2 Gold is an action RPG that's all that and a bag of chips.

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Metal Gear Rising Revengeance

 

 Revenge is sweet but Revengeance is sweeter. So you liked the new Devil May Cry? or you really enjoyed the button mashing fun that is Lollipop Chainsaw? Well Metal Rising Revengeance is for you! I had my doubts about this game but they've been all washed away. An action Metal Gear game with Snake wouldn't work but an action Metal Gear game with a cyborg Raiden does thanks to Platinum games. For a game that went through development hell it turned out pretty good. Also I would like to point out since the demo didn't have tutorial guess what the full game does so there you go!

  Raiden is back with a vengeance taking on the evil of the world. This story is not for the weak of heart it has slicing and dicing and it's just plain wicked. It has all the crazy Metal Gear story going on. Enough about the story just experience it yourself and enjoy. I had very little faith in this game until I brought it home popped it in my ps3 and let the carnage begin. Im not going to  bore you with all the graphical detail and such because well there will be plenty of other reviews that have that but it does have that gritty war torn Metal Gear Solid 4 look to it which is nice and not a bad thing. Don't get me wrong, it's a pretty looking game, I just think seeing it for yourself will speak more about it. Now on to some important factors that matter.

  So you played the new DMC and liked the controls? Well you're in luck MGRR controls about the same way which is a good thing. You slice you dice and occasionally throw a grenade or use a rocket launcher and it all works well. Raiden movements are smooth and elegant for the most part. The LOCK-ON system works pretty well for what it is. I didn't really have much trouble with it but sometimes it would go whack-o on me. Slicing and dicing and parrying all work very well especially when you enter blade mode at a certain time and can chop the enemies up or in half if you prefer. Which gets really detailed and bloody at the same time. Raiden can do what they call a ninja run by holding R1 (PS3 controller) that lets him move super fast and automatically jump over boxes, slide through holes and whatever else gets in his way. I would almost say the control is perfect if it wasn't for having no lock on and occasionally the camera going screwy at certain times.

  While it is an action game it's not terribly long there's only seven chapters but with lots of replayability and collectibles. If you're not trying to improve you grade your collecting intel from computers or trying to severe that one enemy's arm to collect, oh yes one of the collectibles is certain enemy's left arm for data. As you play through you get points which can be used to upgrade Raiden and purchase new skills and weapons. So there's plenty to do even though it's only seven chapters there's still lots to had. Put down the COD and the Halo and try something that's a button mashing good time. You might surprise yourself and smile the whole time you're playing and have some good old fashion fun, you don't even have to be a fan of Metal Gear to enjoy this game.

 In closing controls are not perfect but what controls are? Graphics? Nice and pretty with the war torn gritty look to them. Sound? It's good and Raidens new voice fits. Just don't pass this gem up and all the pop culture references with it. Like I said in the beginning, I had no hope or excitement for this game but that's all been washed away and im glad I decided to give this game a shot and you should too. Now go pick the game up and GO NINJA GO GO NINJA GO!!