i got the Lego Star Wars game thingy
very fun game so far, dunno if I would spend money on it tho :) 

I am a total GW whore now. Nuff said. 

Ok, I've been on a bit of a console-playing binge for the last couple of months, and I've got an arseload of games I've been meaning to do reviews of, but I'll start with God of War for the PS2 because it's fresh in my memory atm.

Summary: Ridiculously OTT Greek mythology-themed 3rd person hack-and-slash fest, with platforming and puzzle-solving elements.

Review: On the whole, this is an arse-roastingly good game, with probably the best graphics I've seen on the PS2 so far, and probably the most fun and visually impressive combat i've seen in the hack'n'slash genre as you become a whirlwind of flaming death, spinning your ridiculous fiery twin swords-on-elastic-chains about in a seemingly endless variety of ways, all akin to watching a catherine wheel on an acid trip. It's got awesome music too. I'd say the technical polish of the game is pretty much flawless.

You can level up your weapons and magic, and acquire new moves and combos as you accumulate red shit that comes out of monsters as you kill them. After twatting a monster for a bit, you can then do a sort of 'finishing move' which involves some nifty button-mashing, and if you get the combination right, it yields extra health and magic orbs. Very cool.

Some of the level designs are truly awe-inspiring. About one third of the game takes place inside a single vast temple of insanity; when you get a chance to go outside the tower and look down, you see that the temple is actually being carried across the desert on the back of a colossal crawling giant.

The platforming and puzzle-solving aspects are for the most part extremely well done, imaginative and balanced. The checkpoint/autosave points are well positioned, and you (generally) never find yourself having to spend more than a minute or two catching up if you get killed.

I say 'for the most part', because the game seems to lose the plot a bit on the penultimate level. This is the only really shitty bit I've come across so far. Maybe some hobo broke into the level designer's house and stabbed his pet dog or something, because whoever made this map was in a really, really shitty mood. Ok, imagine having to vertically navigate the most drawn-out, frustrating, impossible multiple spinning blade trap, which would take you about 10 minutes to traverse if you did it perfectly the first time without ever fucking up once, but then consider that there are approximately 12,527 unique opportunities to fuck it up along the way, and that when you do fuck up, you get kicked all the way back to the beginning. Yeah. I'm probably fine with calling it a day here to be honest, because I understand I'm basically at the end of the game, and the end boss will probably be more of the same bollocks, but even so >:{

So, yeah, in conclusion, the first 95% of the game rocks hard, but the QA guys kind of dropped the ball on the last bit - but it was fun while it lasted! 

Yeah, Kinn, I saw a guy playing that at Red Storm this summer. It looked pretty cool, and I can attest to the cool graphics.

I wouldn't be too harsh on the QA guys, though; they can't actually change the game. 

...quicksaving =) 

I wouldn't be too harsh on the QA guys, though; they can't actually change the game.

True dat :{ 

sounds to be some nice and inspired shit at least on the plot/art department... 

I just finished a 4 hour session of the Dystopia demo for HL2, and my mind needs readjusting to reality O_O

Outrageous exaggerations aside, this is really quite spectacular. It takes about 2-3 sessions to really get familiar with it, and definitely be sure to read the instructions, or you will be totally lost.

Right now there is only 1 map, but it's quite excellent. and has a lot to explore, so you won't get sick of it quickly.

The coolest part of it though, is that an integral part of the mod involves the player 'hacking' through cyberspace to unlock doors and areas on the rival facility. It looks like Tron, but there is no gravity or friction, and you have to hit certain areas in such a manner to get right side up and "hack" your objectives. What's awesome is that the other team is hacking too, so you end battling in cyberspace while the rest of your team is battling the "real world," waiting for you to unlock doors for them. It's a really unique and great gaming experience, and I highly reccomend it.

http://www.dystopia-game.com/ 

Dystopia is going to go retail.

Although I'm not remotely interested in it. 

tried ssam2 - same thing again

it just throws monsters at you, locking out areas until you kill all you are supposed to..yawn
and even at this, very limited, gameplay Sam2 is worse than PainKiller

there are some trendy "vehicles" (which dont change gameplay really)

everything looks like some cartoon that lacked good art direction

there are some spacious impressive environments (like city) but overall it seems tasteless and garish

I think I bothered to play 4 levels before giving it up

You might remember the game from ~`95 called MDK - great action with same-ish basics: fast massive combat, cartoonish designs, boss battles, humor, even some "snowboarding action
But it had more style, much more variety in gameplay and it was definitely more fun

and 10 years later we get this - plenty of pretty effects and absolutely shallow game
Fek, I would even say its less fun than many old school 2d arcades that wer about the same - brainless shoot and evade 

that was 

that style of gameplay is beginning to bother me more and more now... it was fine when i first played it, but having just replayed the game a short while ago, i was a lot more frustrated with being always trapped in an area until i cleared it. 

Wow, I remember that. I think it came with my parents' iMac, or something like that. Headshots were fun :) 

http://red.planetarena.org/

Another id-source-based free deathmatch game. Just released a couple days ago. Has anyone tried it? 

I tried looking at the screenshots, but I couldn't really make out much beyond the all-encompassing neon-glowing bloom-haze

http://www.planetquake.com/cor/codered/aa2006_4.jpg 

Bloom aside, is it normal practice to have someone saying "die bitch" in the chatbox on publicity screenshots? :) 

dude, you know if maps could be made entirely out of bloom, someone would do it, right? ;) 

Iv been talking with local developers team making some arcade-ish racing. It looked kinda shit and they admited, that they didnt care about the visual quality of the tracks and the the cars much. They just (ab)used glows and bloom and motion blur NFS-style to hide it and get the modern look :(

To me the excessive effects are not just unpretty and usless, they are mostly unwanted cause they only obscure the view and make playing harder and even frustrating. I dont want to crash or get fragged cause couldnt see much beyond the nearby huge glowing sign or overwhelming bloom effect.
NFSs, UT2k etc - I have to turn the effects off to make it playable for me.
The only game Iv seen where it was done well is Prince of Persia, IMO 

Just bought Doom 3, $20. Yay. Haven't really been excited for this game but figured I'll give it a try. 

I'm just reaching the Hell level of Doom3, and just for it, it's really worth playing till the end ! If you like "infernal satanic" level, you will be pleased for sure... ;) 

The only game Iv seen where it was done well is Prince of Persia, IMO

The version for mobile phone? =) 

I agree with you about the Serious Sams - both of them. I remember giving up on the last map thanks to suddenly realising, "Killboxes! All I'm doing is hopping through killboxes!"

Croteam had a good idea, but their overuse of the killbox style of gameplay ruined both games. Virtually no real use of 3D either. 

Over-the-top sillyness with inconsistent game/enemy design and hordes isnt my idea of fun.

I would however, like to see the SS2 engine in something like a Chrono Trigger of 2005. 

Chrono Trigger in the Serious Engine... you on crack or something? O_o

Oh, and I must be weird, I still find playing a bit of serious sam once in a while fun, and I actually laughed a few times at the stupid jokes and secrets in SS2. 

Chrono Trigger in the Serious Engine... you on crack or something? O_o

Chrono Trigger
- http://www.nofrag.com/images/0007e0.jpg
- http://rome.ro/rhaluka/hello/1830323/640/ct-screenshot-2005.06.06-16.07.42.jpg

Serious Sam 2
- http://www.nofrag.com/images/0007e0.jpg

Now imagine CT in 3rd person, isometric or whatever - with the colorfulness and expanse of SS2 in that screenshot. Remember that Chrono fan project that got canned? It looked quite nice... When I tried SS2 demo and the village level, I thought of CT's outdoor areas and especially it's map.