Today is one of those important milestones for Yager Development. Our game makes its first contact with the gaming community. Spec Ops: The Line Exclusive Multiplayer Beta is already OUT and you could be one of the lucky gamers that can play our Multiplayer mode many months before the game will be released! Just SIGN UP HERE and wait for the answer. If you are selected, your feedback will contribute in the improvement of our MP experience. You can be part of the game! I have my key already. See you in the battlefield! ;D
Tiger Style, creators of the popular hit “Spider: The Secret of Bryce Manor”, was awarded last Friday with the “Best iPhone Game” Award in the IGF 2010 (Independent Games Festival 2010). Why should I be interested? Well, because I translated this game into Spanish, and somehow I kinda feel part of this success.
Congratulations to the team! You made an awesome game and should be recognized as such. You totally deserved this award. Let’s hope is not the last to come!
If you want to know more about Spider: The Secret of Bryce Manor, check the following video and get the game HERE if you are a lucky iPhone owner.
Last week I’ve been playing two games highly recommended by some of my colleagues. The first one is Shadow Complex, recently published for XBLA and available for 1200MS, and the second one is the well-known Assasin’s Creed. I must say that both of them were surprisingly good, even when I was expecting exactly the opposite thing.
I’m usually pretty cautious when a game gets highly popular among the gamers. If something is popular should be either a sign of good quality or fun experience… but then I remember Halo 3 and I’m right back into the cautious thingy. Fortunately, Shadow Complex was a nice surprise, an enjoyable and fun experience which has brought back a genre that was almost lost in the past: 2D Adventure games. It’s hard to hide the close relation that this game has with one of my favourite games of all times, Castlevania Symphony of the Night, because it’s basically the same game, with a modern setting and different mechanics. But hey! This is not bad at all! Shadow Complex is good enough to survive to that comparison. Apparently the plot is somehow related to a novel written by an homophobic dude that gave some bad reputation to the game before it was released, but just forget about that shit and focus on the game! It’s good. Damn good! Probably it would be better if you wait a couple of months until it drops the price, but if you cannot wait, I can asure you that this game is worth those 1200MS. Oh! Did I mention it was developed using Unreal Engine 3.0?
My veredict: 8/10
Yeah, I know… Assassin’s Creed is already old. I had the game since last year, but until last week I didn’t finished it, and I did it in one long sitting session. First I will talk about its flaws: it’s repetitive, it’s repetitive, it’s repetitive and it’s damn repetitive. YES, everybody knows that already. The gameplay is basically a sandbox game split in 6 challenges: climbing towers (In order to unlock more challenges), sword fights, thievery, interrogatories, races and assassinations. You will have to repeat them like hundreds of times along the game, and I have to admit that I enjoyed playing them (Specially the sword fights), but of course, this is only my opinion. Many people felt tired and abandoned the game after a couple of hours, and I cannot blame them, because I did the same long ago. Everybody missed some variety in the missions, specially the main ones had no difference with the secondary ones at all. In the other hand, the game is very well polished, looks solid and the ambience is just perfect. Also, the plot was deeper than I thought in the first place (which really caught me by surprise) and opened a lots of questions that hopefully will be answered in the second game that is about to be released. Let’s hope that many of the problems this game had will be fixed in the upcoming sequel (Specially about the variety!).
Now it’s time for the Playstation 3. After getting a RROD in my 360, I spent more time than ever playing my PS3, and I rediscovered some of its awesome titles, but let’s start with another downloadable game:
I heard about this game long ago, specially about it’s controversial gameplay. Allow me to say that I cannot see any controversy at all in this game, but tons and tons of funny ideas brilliantly implemented. Fat Princess’ main mode is basically a Capture the Fat… Flag mode *ehem*, which turned to be challenging, strategic and also pretty fun. The only problem that I can see is that most of the noob players focus only on killing enemies and don’t bother on collecting resources for the team, creating frequent frustrating moments. In the other hand, the most skilled and experienced players know pretty well that the first minute is crucial to capture the enemy’s princess, because most of the players are outside their castle collecting resources or fighting and sometimes they even forget to build their own main gates. So, it would be nice if they implement some kind of communication system for the players to give some extra information to the team, although the english native narrator who is commenting the game works pretty well in that subject. There are also many annoying bugs, such as princesses dissapearing under the world, lagging problems, stupid AI and a really unbalanced Gladiate mode (Is not a bug, but MAN I hate it!).
My veredict: 7/10
Last but not least, one of my new favourites franchises… EVER! Uncharted is everything a game should be. The fun gameplay, outstanding graphics, memorable music, believable characters, interesting dialogues and very smart level design turns this game in an instant classic, a must have that rises Naughty Dog to the top list of the most respectable game companies in the industry. This is the only Single Player game I’ve played 3 times in a row, having the same fun over and over again. I’m looking forward for the sequel and surely it will be as good as this one. If you own a PS3 and you haven’t played this finest piece of digital art yet, go and buy it NOW. Seriously, do it.
Last month I’ve been filling my spare time with some old and new games that I really wanted to try. You know, never is too late! I will start talking about the worst disappointment I had recently (gaming wise):
Trust me when I say that is hard to confess how hard I hate this franchise, specially when there are millions of fans out there that show an overwhelming devotion for this game. I could understand that many aspects of this game are way to attractive, like the rich Universe, the complex yet simple plot (That I didn’t get at all) and the several-times awarded multiplayer mode. But… seriously… this game is overrated, so… SO overrated. I played in the most challenging difficulty level with other 2 friends via XBOX Live in an supposedly EPIC game, 8 hours streak, NON-STOP. Well, I can surely say that we had some of the most frustrating moments as gamers in our life. And I don’t want to blame the difficulty level, but I blame (Oh yes, I do):
The poor level design (Go from A to B, then from B to A… there you go. Half the work, twice the gameplay time!)
Cheesy weapon design (Are they patented by Mattel? C’mon… seriously?)
Unforgiving enemy spawning points (Because is not FUCKING fair to have enemies spawning behind you, specially if they can shoot and take cover!).
Annoying flashback-ish moments (Being Halo 3 the first Halo game I play, I don’t give a fuck who the hell is the blue woman, seriously)
Awful Warthog controls (Looking to one side is not the same than TURNING to that side! God Dammit!
But hey! The Master Chief is soooo fucking cool that all these flaws are not really important… *ehem* No, seriously, I will never understand why people worship so much this game. *sigh*
My opinion: 5/10
Even if I’m going to talk shit about this game, I have to confess that I really enjoyed it. Trials HD was released long ago in Steam and, although this newest version features a polished gameplay and softer graphics, it leaks in one aspect that every single player shares about this game: IT’S FUCKING FRUSTRATING !!! Time proved that the difficulty curve works pretty well, at least for me, being able to jump easily some obstacles that were impossible in the first place, but things get trickier as soon as you reach the hard and extreme levels. If you want to have a reason to yell at your screen or drown yourself in a pillow while screaming cursed words you never heard about before, this is your game. Just as a proof of how miserable this game makes you feel, there is an achievement called “Marathon” which consists on finishing 24 tracks in a row without failing a single time (No bails, no respawns). I checked the worldwide scoreboards and, guess what? There is only one guy over the world who did it. Yes, only one of, who knows, 100.000 players? *Sigh*
Today I’ve purchased Battlefield 1943 for Playstation 3 (I would have bought it for 360, but I got a lovely red ring of death last week) and it made me think about how clever some companies are refering to downloadable games. For not much money (Around 12€) you get a really fun game, very complete with a high replayability value.
Flaws? Well, the maps are not so different to each other (except for the sun’s position) and there is not much history happening… but who the hell wants that? This is the kind of games that must be downloadable. It wouldn’t be so damn good if it would be sold as retail in a game store.
As I said before, my 360 is cursed by the damned red ring of death, but at least I still have a fully functional 360 belonging to my roommate. Last saturday he purchased Splosion Man. I didn’t know nothing about this game until last week, when I saw a video on Kotaku showing a walkthrough of the first levels. I found it quite interesting, and it didn’t dissapoint me when I had the chance to try it out with my roommate. Somehow, it reminded me to Little Big Planet, with another setting. There are puzzles, you need to work together with your mate to progress, and jump, and explode… plain gameplay, but effective. I cannot see how this game can be fun without a friend sitting next to you. I’m slave of my first impressions, but for this game I have to make an exception. However, it’s worth trying…
Last but not least, one of the finest pieces of digital art I’ve ever played. This game made me switch on my Wii after 8 months collecting dust. NyxQuest: Kindred Spirits (AKA Icarian: Kindred Spirits) has been developed by only four spaniards that also worked at Pyro Studios some years ago. In less than one year, they managed to create a wonderful tale, with stylish graphics and a beautiful soundtrack. Even if the game is short (Between 3 – 4 hours), it serves the purpose of entertain the player through a smart design, easy controls and probably the best content that any WiiWare game can offer to date. If you like oldskool platforming and you’re looking for a good reason to play your Wii since Super Mario Galaxy, this is your game.
