Wrecked: Revenge Revisited
Originally published on 8th April 2012 on Ready Up.
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Several generations ago, Micro Machines was undoubtedly the big daddy of multiplayer gaming. The racing mechanic was unique, requiring you to outrun your opponents in toy vehicles to gain enough ground on them to destroy them and earn yourself a point. A refreshing change from the usual first-past-the-post approach. Micro Machines V3 was launched early in the PSOne’s lifespan, but quickly become one of the finest titles to grace the console. Introducing 3D graphics, its top selling point was the inclusion of weapons, further adding to the vehicular carnage.
It’s a real shame, then, that the series’ greatness diminished over the following years.
But then Mashed came in.
Saints Row: The Third
Originally published on Ready Up on 14th December 2011.
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Open world sandbox games have been hugely popular since their inception and have diverged down two paths over the genre’s evolution. On one hand, you have your serious titles, focusing on gritty stories following tortured characters with dark and mysterious pasts taking on drug deals, shootouts and heists in order to survive. Think games like Grand Theft Auto, Prototype andInfamous.
On the other, you have games which take the piss out of themselves to a stupid degree. Ones where you partake in a number of ridiculous activities, visit hilariously-themed shops and generally have a good time just dicking about. The Saints Row series most definitely fits into the latter category: the first introduced us to the idea that sandbox games needn’t be serious to be fun and the second beefed up this idea with the inclusion of a story lined with hilarious moments, several audacious side missions – such as spraying as much shite from a refuse disposal vehicle as possible over passing pedestrians and buildings – and two player co-op so you could enjoy all the nonsense with a pal.
Read the rest of this blog on Ready Up.
Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary
Originally published on Ready Up on 15th November 2011.
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It’s hard to believe it’s already been ten years since Halo: Combat Evolved was released for the original Xbox. Nowadays it’s one of the most recognisable franchises in gaming, expanding into books, comics, animation and even Lego, but it wasn’t always plain sailing for the Master Chief. Back when Halo was released, the Xbox was on shaky ground and its future as one of the main operators in the videogame market was far from certain. It was Halo that became the format’s killer app, redefining the console shooter and making an icon of Spartan John-117 in the process. As such, its importance can never be overestimated.
So it seems fitting that 343 Industries, the development team splintered from Bungie when it was snapped up by Activision, has returned to where it all began for its first solo release. But is this remastered version worthy of celebrating Halo’s tenth anniversary, or just a shameless attempt at raking in cash from the Halo faithful?
Battlefield 3
Originally published on Ready Up on 12th November 2011.
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Last month, Dunk and I got our eager mitts on Battlefield 3 for the first time. You’ve read our initial thoughts: now’s the time for our verdict.
Battlefield 3’s story mode starts off promisingly enough. Through some excellently rendered cutscenes, you’re introduced to Sergeant Blackburn, a soldier being interrogated by the CIA regarding his claim that the city of New York is in grave danger. The action is fitted around these scenes, flashing back to important events in the story from the point of view of several characters, including Blackburn himself.
The first mission sees you fighting the Peoples’ Liberation and Resistance, an Iranian insurgent group bent on pushing American forces out of the country. What follows is your standard storyline of making your way into the city with your squad and defending it to the end. It’s good enough…
And then a building falls on you.
Hard Reset Review
Originally published on Ready Up on 13th September 2011
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In our Hard Reset preview a few weeks back, it showed itself to be a competent, satisfying and high octane piece of shooting fun. Eschewing all the conventions of other modern shooters, it aims to rejuvenate the shooter genre, taking it back to its roots while still remaining up to scratch with its contemporaries. We loved the ‘unashamedly burly balls-to-the-wall action’ offered throughout the short two level preview build.
So does the full version remain a rigid pillar of enjoyment for its entirety, or does it fall limp under the weight of its own hot air?
Hard Reset places you in the shoes of CLN Agent Fletcher, who gets caught up in a violent robotic uprising taking place amidst a dystopia plagued by impoverishment. With the aid of his buddies, who are snug-as-a-bug holed in command headquarters, it’s up to Fletcher to find out who’s behind the mechanical uprising and put an end to it.
Hard Reset
Originally published on Ready Up on 29th August 2011.
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Let’s face it: the first-person shooter is becoming increasingly stale these days. Sure, the occasional gem appears now and again, but every shining example of the genre is accompanied by twice as many substandard copies. For every Halo, there’s a Haze; for every Battlefield and Call of Duty, there’s a Homefront; for every Timesplitters, there’s a (Christ) Duke Nukem Forever. Gone are the days of blasting everything in front of you until it falls down dead. These days it’s all about ducking into cover, popping your head out every so often, aiming carefully to conserve your ammo and not getting hit to regain your health like a pussy. The genre is in dire need of a reset.
So it’s a good thing there’s a Hard Reset on the way.
Star Trek Online: Captain’s Log from The Final Frontier
Originally posted on Ready Up on 21st July 2011.
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So, it’s been a good few weeks since we ventured into Star Trek online and held the reins of our very own starship. We’ve ventured far from Earth Spacedock to every sector of the galaxy, travelling to a multitude of planets and systems both new and familiar, aiding friendly alien species, battling hostile ones and working our way up the Starfleet ranks as we did so. Having spent so much time in the StarTrek universe, we’ve now got a solid idea of our thoughts on it.
The first thing you’ll notice on your maiden voyage is just how huge the game world (well, galaxy) truly is. Each portion of the map is split up into ‘blocks’, each with their own number of ‘sectors’. These sectors host a multitude of planets, meaning there’s a huge number of worlds to visit and investigate over the course of your adventure. As a result, nearly every location from the series, movies and books you can think of, be it Deep Space 9, The Briar Patch or Memory Alpha, can be explored. The fact that you can also travel to a number of ‘clusters’, each with an infinite amount of randomly generated systems, means that the scale of Star Trek Online’s landscape is truly vast.
Alice Madness Returns
Originally published on Brash Games on 18th July 2011.
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Almost 11 years ago, American McGee’s Alice, a radical reimagining of Lewis Carroll’s beloved Wonderland fantasy realm, was released on PC. Continuing on from Alice Liddell’s last adventure Through The Looking Glass, the intervening years saw the family household go up in flames, leaving her family dead. As a result, Alice’s mind snaps, causing her to be committed to a mental asylum where, ten years later, she’s recalled to a version of Wonderland that’s more twisted, deranged and horrifying than ever before. With the aid of The Cheshire Cat, now hairless, tattooed and pierced, Alice must overcome her madness to defeat the evil Queen of Hearts and restore Wonderland to normality once and for all.
It became a critical darling on the basis of the story: the acceptable and mechanically-sound gameplay was outshone by the daring reinvention of a world many gamers had grown up with. Look past the often simple and uninspiring gameplay and you’d find an intriguing world corrupted by the macabre mind of its designer, one worth investing your time in.
So it’s strange to find that, over a decade later, nearly the exact same thing can be said of its sequel, Alice Madness Returns.
Read the rest of this review on Brash Games.
Red Faction: Armageddon
Originally published on Brash Games on 6th July 2011.
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Red Faction: Guerrilla was undoubtedly one of the highlights of 2009. Taking on the role as Alec Mason, a disgruntled miner on a Mars governed by the fascist Earth Defence Force, it was up to you to lead your comrades in the Red Faction to freedom against your oppressors and declare the planet your own. The switch from a first- to a third-person camera worked out to be the correct choice, lending greater gravity to the shooting action that both the lengthy campaign and multiplayer modes offered.
Every weapon be it the Assault Rifle or the hyper-destructive Nano Rifle, felt meaty and powerful, making the shooting highly satisfying. Blowing everything up with Detonation Charges was a blast, as was destroying buildings just for the sake of it. And then there was the hammer. The iconic weapon of the game, every swing contained the power of 30 rhinos, decimating enemy soldiers, vehicles, buildings and everything else in your path. Each impact landed with a ‘thunk’, making it immensely entertaining to use. There’s little else that comes anywhere nears as gratifying as donking an opponent in the face in multiplayer.
So it’s with eagerness that we embraced Red Faction: Armageddon.
Suffice to say, we’ve been left more than a little disappointed.
Lady GaGa – The Edge of Glory
Every once in a while, a song comes along that makes you remember how important a part music can play in your life: rather than being an amalgamation of rhythms, melodies and sound effects that you just happen to think sounds nice, something comes along that redefines how you listen to music simply because it sounds so good. A song you’ll compare every one you here thereafter to, with nothing after sounding nearly as good as it. Lady GaGa’s The Edge of Glory, the finisher to her latest album Born This Way, is one such song.
Starting off with a heartbeat, the track quickly segues into one of the satisfyingly pounding drum rhythms that define the album, with GaGa lamenting the loss of a man that played a hugely important part in her life. ‘Sounds good so far’, you’ll think as the first verse plays out as a pretty good electro song.
And then the chorus kicks in.
All at once, you’re overwhelmed by the simultaneous attack of thumping drums, buzzing bass, skittering synth and Miss Germanotta’s typically powerful vocals, gelling into one harmonious sound that will rouse something deep down inside you with just how awesome it sounds.
You’ll go through this cycle again before you hit the breakdown in the middle, reducing down to only a few instruments but never losing pace. In a tribute to her past playing in jazz and rock clubs on the New York circuit, ephemeral keys back up a sultry sax solo as the drums beat out a rhythm akin to the heartbeat heard at the beginning of the song, causing its every part to coagulate into one fantastic entity.
And that’s what this song: an entity. It’s the living, breathing embodiment of what music can and should be. It demands your full attention as you let it wash over you, soothing and cleansing something deep within your soul as it does so. Lady GaGa wrote this song as a tribute to her late grandfather and he should be proud to have such a talented granddaughter write such a fantastic and fitting tribute to his memory.
Lady GaGa’s The Edge of Glory is more than a song: it’s an experience. An exercise in what music should be and possibly the greatest track this reviewer has ever heard, the song cements her place as one of this generation’s most important musical talents. GaGa’s current magnum opus, not much gets better than this.
5/5
