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The Walking Dead: Episode Two – The Verdict

The Walking Dead: Episode Two – The Verdict

Zombies are everywhere. Not in the literal shambling around eating your loved ones sense perhaps, but in terms of popular culture they’re ubiquitous. Comic books, films, TV series and of course games are rife with the bitey buggers. One zombie brand in particular has made the leap across multiple formats, from comic books, to TV and most recently to games.

AMC’s The Walking Dead television series, adapted from Robert Kirkman’s comics at first promised to be a breathtaking serialisation of the zombie apocalypse. We watched in our millions as that bloke from This Life and Teachers did his best silly American accent, all the while wielding a giant handgun that gaming’s finest zombie-killer (Barry Burton) would be proud of. It’s inevitable in zombie fiction, that the tale becomes not about the zombies themselves, but the breakdown of human society and the collapse of morality in an ailing world. It becomes about humans being human and humans turning in monsters of a different sort. Sadly, for the Walking Dead TV show, it also seemed to be about sitting around on a farm, awkward love triangles and silent black men standing in the corner, their only form of communication; the frantic look in their eye that screams ‘please, just give me one line this episode, just one! I promise I won’t mess it up’ It’s a show that frequently fails to deliver on the compelling premise and becomes mired in melodrama, though it sprinkles enough Zombie thrills that we yet retain some hope that it will eventually come good.

The Reticule at Rezzed

The Reticule at Rezzed

E3 2012 was criticised by many for being bland, overhyped and predictable. None of these adjectives describe Rezzed, a PC and Indie games show set up by Eurogamer and Rock, Paper, Shotgun. This year our very own Jordan Harling attended. Here are some of his highlights.

Far Cry 3 – Hands On Preview

Far Cry 3 – Hands On Preview

Beginning a demo with a cut-scene of a half naked woman is a risky manoeuvre. It can put people off the game instantly, making people think that it is shallow, attention seeking and even misogynistic. Yet this is how the demo to Far Cry 3 opened, a game which could possibly be the most intelligent and abstract FPSs of the past few years.

The demo was available to play at Rezzed where I got a hands-on preview. The first thing that was noticeable was how beautiful the game looked running on a high-end PC. After the opening cut-scene the demo started out in a thicket of jungle, every leaf on every tree stunningly rendered. A path led to a cliff overlooking the island and the pristine blue sea that surrounded it, showing off the game’s impressive draw distance. On a dock on the island a man was casually tipping corpses into the sea.

After a dive into the lagoon and a brief swim the game really began. The jungle’s thick foliage and the default weapon, the bow and arrow, made stealth the most obvious tactic. Picking off enemies with the bow gave a satisfying sense of power. The tension of being seen while drawing back the string countered by the elation of an enemy dropping to the ground, bolt protruding from his body.

This feeling was somewhat lessened though by the relatively quick drawback speed of the bow and its one hit kill effectiveness, regardless of where you shoot an enemy. However, it’s possible that both these issues were due to the difficulty settings of the demo.

Thomas Was Alone – The Verdict

Thomas Was Alone – The Verdict

Claire is special. Despite her plain appearance as a large blue cube, she hides a special gift. For once in a lifetime a hero will arise, one whose powers will set her above those around her. She will stand against the injustice and exist as a symbol of hope in a dark world. For Claire is no ordinary large blue cube. When Claire is immersed in water, her hidden powers will emerge. She becomes, well, buoyant. She can float.

Appearances can be deceiving. Screenshots of Mike Bithell’s Thomas Was Alone portray a simple puzzle platformer, in which you must use a series of individual blocks in conjunction with each-other to reach the exit. But Thomas Was Alone is so much more than the sum of its parts. Where many puzzle games will just give you the tools to play with, Thomas Was Alone gives them life.

Thomas wakes one morning to find himself existing, which has never happened before. What follows is a long journey of exploration as Thomas tries to learn about both himself and the strange world in which he finds himself in. But whilst Thomas may start out alone in the world, his solitary existence does not last for long.

In his pilgrimage of discovery, Thomas soon stumbles across a variety of characters who choose to accompany him. Each new companion brings a new talent to the situation, but they all have their limitations. Whilst Claire may have super powers, the fact that she’s an enormous cube means she’s no good for reaching switches hidden away in small crannies. That’s where Chris comes in; he’s short enough to enter the smallest of holes, but as a bad jumper, he’ll be reliant on Laura’s ability to get him up there. And so on.

Quantum Conundrum – The Verdict

Quantum Conundrum – The Verdict

Being a small child related to a mad scientist is not easy. At least when the scientist is a recluse, you are spared the indignities of being experimented upon, of being ordered to pull the switches or feeding the unspeakable horror in the tank but when you are dropped off at your uncle’s ridiculously extensive manor, everything inevitably goes horribly wrong and of course you have to be the one to fix it. In Quantum Conundrum by Airtight Games, you…

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Faster Than Light – First Impressions

Faster Than Light – First Impressions

Emily has had a rather bad year. After finding herself stranded on an isolated planet for months, she thought her luck had finally changed when a passing ship came to her rescue. Now that same ship is on fire, oxygen is slowly venting into space via a number of worryingly large cracks in the hull, and the rest of the crew is rather inconveniently dead. All Emily has to do is fix the ship by herself, get the heavily damaged…

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Game of Thrones – The Verdict

Game of Thrones – The Verdict

The land of Westeros. An island of lords and serfs, castles and whore houses. One fat and lusty king rules seven kingdoms which threaten to tear themselves apart at any minute if  endless hordes of wild folk, the walking dead and worse do not pour over a 500 foot-high Wall and destroy everything in their path first. And here I am walking from tedious cutscene to tedious cutscene and occasionally hitting men until they fall over.

This is the Game of Thrones ‘action adventure roleplaying game’ by Cyanide Studio. Confusion is understandable. So far there is this; the real-time-strategy game Game of Thrones: Genesis; a collectible card game; a living card game; and a board game (which is like Risk+ and is awesome, by the way).

GoT is set from a year before the beginning of the books/TV series up to about half way through the first book/season. It is an intertwining story of two primary characters: a Nights Watchman called Mors (he of the men who guard the gigantic wall of ice in the North) and Ser Alester, a knight of a minor house sworn to House Lannister and a red priest of R’yllor who has recently returned from a self-imposed exile across the sea. In the game’s fifteen chapters, control and story is alternated between the two characters.

Scania Truck Simulator – The Verdict

Scania Truck Simulator – The Verdict

I was bitterly disappointed by last years Trucks and Trailers, a title which I felt damaged the growing reputation that was being enjoyed by SCS Software’s Truck Simulator series of games. Fortunately, the precursor to European Truck Simulator 2, Scania Truck Simulator, is a much more enjoyable experience.

As you might guess by the name this title features a heavy influence from truck manufacturer Scania. This is felt most keenly with the presence of only one cab to drive in, a Scania truck. But SCS have done a really good job modelling the cab, both on the inside and out, this is all thanks to the new engine they are using which was developed for ETS2. The new engine is shown off best in the Dangerous Drives mode which features a variety of extremely challenging missions where you must drive your truck, sometimes with cargo, from point to point in the quickest time while avoiding hitting any obstacles. The first mission takes place on a route with a passing resemblance to the Road of Death. Things only get more challenging from there, while one mission really shows off what the new game engine is capable of by making you drive through a flooded town with rain lashing down. It is quite a sight and shows how far the series has come.

Warlock: Master of the Arcane – The Verdict

Warlock: Master of the Arcane – The Verdict

Okay, let’s get this out of the way first – that bad Sean Connery imitation has to go. I mean, I know Warlock: Master of the Arcane is set in the same fantasy world as Majesty, but I’m starting to hear that voice in my sleep. Then the real Sir Sean appears on the telly and I weep big salty tears for my homeland. We don’t sound like that, honest to god.