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!).

My veredict: 7/10

We’ve finally launched our new website! Unfortunately we cannot talk much about the game that we’re currently developing, but as you can see, our collaboration with 2K Games is now official! No way back guys! If you feel curious about our company or you’re just interested on applying to any of our current job offers, you’re very welcome! Go Yager! (Fuck you Pyro)

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.

My veredict: 10/10

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*

My opinion: 8/10

I will continue after a break…