Liviu's blog

Well , I haven’t been around for a while and after some time felt like coming back and writing a bit.

Since the last time I was here (July – saying no interesting games will come out) another month has passed of the summer which somehow is one of the slowest times in the game industry.

But after every slow time like that a rain of games starts to shower.

We are seeing the beginning of this in September – but it will get way “worse” in the upcoming 2-3 months to come.

So let’s begin (some titles are already out and even played and finished some of them):

Deus Ex: Humen Revolution (Released in Aug):

The third game in the Deus Ex series – happens chronologically before the first one. I have to admit – I was not a big fan of the first one and I hated the second one at the time. This latest title though managed to intrigue me.

This game is a kind of a 1st person RPG / Shooter hybrid with a lot of stealth and careful strategy involved (Especially in the beginning of the game while you are not that strong).

You play as Adam Jensen – an ex SWAT member working at Sarif Industries as chief of security. One day everything goes to hell when Sarif is attacked , his girlfriend is killed and he is left heavily wounded. He is healed and fixed using augmentations – replacing many parts of him by improved mechanical parts. The game takes a nice design theme from the baroque period and reminded me somehow a bit of the design of 1927′s metropolis as well. While I wanted the game to be more like Mass Effect 2 – I guess I was setting my expectations bar too high.

At the end of the day – It’s simpler – and it’s world feels kind of empty between missions. Still I got a good 25 hours out of the main campaign and it’s a solid RPG / Shooter.

Dead Island (Released September 6th):

While not big on zombie games – this one managed to intrigue me. An open world zombie game with a huge island to explore and some great trailer to the game.

I mainly wait on this to drop down in price a bit and give it a go (although it’s getting mediocre review scores).

Ico & Shadow of the Colossus HD Collection:

I Have to admit – I bearly played ICO and Shadow of the Colossus. Somehow I missed these 2 games that are considered among the best the PS2 had to offer.

I might try to play them in this HD Compilation coming out on the 23rd this month. Hopefully they hold up well.

In some place I do this only because Team Ico’s latest game – The last guardian was pushed to 2012.

I know there are some more big titles I didn’t mention (Gears of War 3 , GOW – Chains of Olympus compilation , Resistance 3 , White Knight Chronicles 2 , Disgaea 4 , PES and Fifa 12 and a few more). A lot of games are coming out this time of the year – I just “save myself” for the ones I’m more expecting.

Mainly – I would recommend holding on buying anything.

The coming 3 months are bringing a crazy number of amazing games – Arkham City , Ratchet & Clank , Uncharted 3 , Elder Scrolls Skyrim , New Zelda , Saints Row 3 , Final Fantasy XIII-2 and a lot more – so the best is yet to come.

Liviu

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Absolutely nothing

Yup, That’s right – not a single interesting title is coming out this month.

It seems like July was abandoned by the game companies and this month has no title I am looking forward too.

Good time to spend on titles you might have missed this year.

Hopefully I’ll make some time this month though to give the blog some much needed TLC and perhaps add some programming related topics.

Have a good one,

Liviu

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Another month went by (with some incredible games if I might add) but a new one has come with some interesting offerings:

First of all I’ll start with Outland , a PSN / XBLA title that came out during May and kind of took me by surprise.

Coming from Ubisoft – Outland is a 2D platform game with some similarities to Prince of Persia with a twist and Tron combined with Inca aesthetics. As you walk through amazing landscapes (the landscape are colorful while the walls and platforms are black) you use different colors and abilities to interact with different elements in the screen.

While choosing some colors – you are able to ignore some elements but cant hurt others and vice versa.

It gives an interesting gameplay mechanic and something new for those of you missing this genre.

On June 7th’ Infamous 2 is coming exclusively to the PS3.

Infamous 2 is a third person sandbox game where you continue to play as Cole – a regular guy finding himself in the middle of a catastrophe in his city while suddenly having amazing superpowers.

Since adleast I missed the first title when it came out – I will wait on that one. But the good news are now the first one is free.

Since the PSN outage ended – Sony promised a Welcome back free games pack for users. One of the offered games is the first Infamous, and from the list (Dead Nation , Infamous , Little Big Planet , Wipeout fury and R&C Quest for Booty – in Europe) – It’s one of the best.

On the 17th – Duke Nukem Forever is finally coming out.

Coming to us from Gearbox Software – 14 years in the making – It will have a lot to prove. Are stripper jokes and one liners tagged with absurd action enough nowdays to hold a game?

Nothing to do but wait 3 more weeks to find out.

Other titles worth mentioning in a sentance:

• Red Faction Armageddon - The continuation to Guerrilla takes a step in another direction.
• Alice: Madness Returns – Second version of American McGee’s version of Alice.
• Fear 3 – a third title to perhaps one of the more intense horror games of our generation.
• Legend Of Zelda: Ocarina of Time 3D – A slightly updated port of the classic N64 Zelda game. Though if you want to play a modern take on Ocarina – Twilight princess is probably the way to go.

Well that’s it for this month, though expect more gaming news as this is E3 month and a lot of reveals and trailers should be upcoming.

Also coming during this month is Apple’s WWDC which should bare more info on Lion , the new mobile service and iOS 5.

Till next month,

Liviu

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And I thought it’s going to be a slow month.

2 very important titles (and 1 promising one) are coming out this month – so here we go - chronologically:

Lego Pirates of the Caribbean:- May 10th:

Maybe It’s just me – but I simply love these titles.  Although the last one (Lego StarWars 3) was kind of weak, maybe because of the relativly dull source material, Pirates of the Caribbean seem well fitted for the medium.

Coming as usual from Telltale games – This game will cover all 3 movies and the new fourth movie releasing around the same time. With a lot of pirates (one of the classic Lego themes) and humor to be used – I hope this will manage to innovate the Lego formula and bring out something fresh.

 

LA Noire – May 17th:

Rockstar studios (the guys behind the GTA series and the amazing Red Dead Redemption game) venture into a new scenery – Detective stories in the 40′s USA.

This title has been a long promised title that began it’s development cycle around 2004-5 .

In the game you’ll play a detective and investigate various crime. Since I like being surprised again and again by Rockstar – I am trying not to read to much about the game and come into in with a clean slate. Hopefully they will integrate the great story telling and a compelling sandbox world the way they know how to and bring some  interesting twists to it.

The Witcher 2 – May 17th:

The first Witcher game took me by surprise. A small European developer that came out of no where managed to bring to the table one of the more innovative and capturing RPG’s in 2007.

The original version suffered from a tremendousness amount of bugs and bad voice recordings that together with a very strong RPG lineup that year and the fact it came out only on PC pushed it out of the light. However Projekt RED studios not only did not give up on it – but a year later – totally revamped the game and brought it out again as an Enhanced edition (free upgrade to the original game’s buyers) at the level it deserved.

The Witcher 2 continues the tales of Garret – a Witcher – Traveling monster hunter for hire. I can highly recommend the first game – which up to this day is one of the better RPGs I’ve ever played (You can get it on http://www.steampowered.com for 10$ or so) and will definitely check out the squeal.

 

On other gaming news matters:

• Mass effect 3 – delayed for 2012.
• Heroes of might and magic – delayed to September.
• Duke Nukem forever – delayed to June (as if we believe it will ever come out )

If you want to see a detailed list of whats coming up with some trailers – As always – GamesRadar compiled a great list – HERE.

A short recommendation for you iOS owners – This month I stumbled on a true gem.

A puzzle platformed game (might still be free) called Robot Wants Kitty.

Based on a flash game (http://www.kongregate.com/games/Hamumu/robot-wants-kitty) and expanding on it – Robot wants Kitty is an addictive  little game in which you play a robot (yes – you guessed it) trying to get the kitty locked away.

In order to get to her – you need to go through a huge screen looking for various powerups that give you all kind of abilities.

It contains 6 levels (and a level builder) and it’s just a must for old school gamers.

Till next month (and more updates)

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Last week I downloaded a demo for a puzzle RPG name Might & Magic: Clash of heroes for the PS3.

This game is a port of an existing game for the DS.

Although loving the M&M world and stories from previous games (Both original M&M and Heroes series), I am not to fond of Puzzle RPGs as I find them a bit shallow. This one however surprised me, The tactics in it seem simple at the beginning but are very fun and engaging in the long run.

In short – you are one of 5 characters (depending on the campaign) that are out to stop demons trying to take over the world. Not the most original eh? Good thing the gameplay more then makes up for it.

The demo is a bit dull, but you get the basic hang of the game and the battle system. The game itself seems to be pretty lengthy and is rather challenging at the 8 – 9 hours mark. (In which I’m towards the end of the 2nd out of 5 campaigns – -Nice for a 15$ Downloadable nowadays).

For me this also helps me get back into the world of M&M as the upcoming Heroes game is coming out in 2 month.

Enjoy,

Liviu

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Another month has come and new games are coming out.

This month should however be an “easy” month. Only 2 major titles worth mentioning (in my opinion):

Mortal Kombat – April 19th:

The classic fighting game comes with a new iteration to the current generation consoles.

Taking a step towards the classic titles in the series – Mortal Kombat returns to 2D. It also departs from the latest softer titles in the series and goes back to the macabre grotesque violence we used to love in the series.

A demo is currently available on the PSN network and should be definitely checked out. This looks like a definite must to lovers of fighting games that were more into MK rather then street fighter 2 at the time.

Portal 2 – April 19th:

Another important title is the continuation of Portal.

A puzzle shooter based on Steam’s engine.

One of the more important news with this game is that it brings Steam’s infrastructure to the PSN – integrating cross platform play and voice chat.

Also – If you purchese a PS3 copy – you will get a Steam PC copy of the game as well.

On the game play side – I have to say Portal was not my cup of tea , but the tech news around it is definitely intriguing (and hopefully is the first sign of a bigger collaboration between Sony and Steam) and it is considered to be an excellent game.

 

If you want to see what else is coming out this month – GamesRadar comprised a list of most titles which can be found here.

Till Next month…

Liviu

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Well, February went by without major releases (Bulletstorm here , Killzone there… nothing major ), hopefully you saved some money for March. It’s a crazy month.

First – a little PSN treat – PixelJunk Shooter 2 is set to hit the stores today, at a price of 9.99$ – you just cant go wrong with this game.

What seems at start like a cute twin stick shooter with some elements turned out to be a really charming experience and an awesome 2 player local co-op experience. If the second one is anything like the first (and the reviews say it is) – it should be great.

 

The second game this month is Pokemon Black / White for the Nintendo DS – on March 4th.

For those of you raising your eyebrows over this title – You should really give this frenchise a try.

This is not a small kids game and each title in the series serves as a reminder that the games were here before the kids tv series.

Don’t be fooled by the cute childish graphics – Pokemon is a serious RPG monster collecting series with a lot of strategy and classic JRPG elements. This title pro misses to keep to the classic formula with minor improvements to the battles – presenting a new 3 characters battle system.

On March 8th comes the more important release of this month – Dragon Age 2 from Bioware (perhaps one of my favorite game companies).

While the first one was a bit of an unsung game which a lot of people missed (especially after being greatly overshadowed by Mass effect 2 from the same company that came soon after and being released in a pretty bad time and mediocre version for the consoles) – Bioware took some time to rethink the title and how it plays and is bringing to the table a much more coherent action RPG.

From the looks of the demo – much has changed – the entire style of play moved from a classic Baldur’s Gate style (which this game was kind of it’s successor) to a more Witcher style action combat with some radial battle pausing party control menu.

To me the demo felt really fresh and I’m looking forward to see if the full experience will indeed combine the good story and design of the first one with a better suited mechanic for the consoles.

3 more releases worth mentioning in a few words:

Crysis 2 Is coming to consoles and PC this march 22.

The successor to one of the more graphically advanced FPS games is promising to bring new graphics to the table and present another leap forward (and perhaps a torture test to the current gen of computers and especially graphic cards).

 

Lego Star Wars 3 – The current game in the Lego universe brings Star wars the clone wars story arch to the beloved Lego world games.

While the demo is nice, and I feel the Star Wars universe suits the Lego mechanics best (by design, humor and gameplay) the demo kind of lacks innovation and looks a bit of more of the same.

If you loved it before – You’ll love it now.

Though not a game release but rather a hardware release – the Nintendo 3DS is also being released this month.

Nintendo is bringing us for the first time a glassless 3D experience, the Dual screen design of the DS together with more graphic horse power and the top screen is a 3d screen with no need of glasses.

The current price point for the system is 250$. A bit steep in my opinion.

The 3D looks like a nice gimmick but the system (in my opinion) looks like it kind of lacks real innovation, price advantage or good game lineup.

But hey, It’s Nintendo – They proven us wrong more then once.

 

2 (actually kind of 3) more gaming related news:

Beginning with the local one – PSN Store has arrived to Israel , after 4.5 years of promises – Ishphar – the local representative fulfils its promise to bring a local PSN store.

While DLC and online content price is almost on par with the European store – Games that have a physical media version have outraging prices (probably in order not to compete with the high price point of games in retails in Israel). Well , I guess that you can’t win them all.

A local store to buy DLC with a local credit card is better then nothing.

The second news item is the announcement that came during February of the Playstation portal device future.

Sony’s strategy is divided to 2 devices:

• Android base phone and suite – using a regular Android platform to bring the PS world to your phone – more hardcore then angry birds – less hardcore then PS3.
• NGP – Sony’s next PSP iteration – together with a quad core arm CPU and quad core GPU (think of the current iPhone hardware X 4 – same architecture both for the CPU and GPU) – it promises a PS3 level of graphics in the portable world.

I have to say both of the devices are very intriguing. Meanwhile only basic tech specs and some titles were discussed – But I’ll probably go over the details as the devices come closer to final product.

The third bit of news is the apple conference that’s suppose to start sometime today (March 2nd). iPad 2 – here we come

Have a good month – and more updates as they come (and I have a feeling this time – they will come)

Liviu

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Sorry for not updating as often as I use to latley.

I recently changed my work place and after 5.5 years at Check Point in the QA Security area I moved to develop for the iPhone at a nice company called Applicaster.

Soon I will get back to speed with free time and updating the blog.

About this month’s games:

Killzone 3 – FPS for the PS3.

BulletStorm – Duke Nukem over the top style FPS.

Dragon Quest 6 remake for the DS.

My opinion? Save your money for next month – Lot’s of good titles are coming.

Liviu

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A new year has began and with it news of some new games (well one of them is new).

Both games are coming out on the 18th (in the US) and specifically on the PS3.

Mass Effect 2: After a long time, this long awaited RPG series is coming to the PS3. What started as a Microsoft exclusive franchise is finally coming to the PS3.

For those of you who haven’t had the chance to get in on the action – The game follows the story of commander Shepard following the events of the first game and starts with him being killed by a strange alien race called the collectors, or is he? The Game is an RPG / Shooter mix in the style of Knights of the Old Republic (not surprising when you look at who developed it). It is very conversation heavy and very cinematic and for me – was definitely the game of the year last year.

So why should you pick it up? Well – first of all – if you didn’t play it – Get it! Second, it contains all the DLC and add-ons since the release and it’s running on the new Mass Effect 3 engine (upcoming later this year or early next year). Maybe it’s not up to par visually with a strong computer – but better then the Xbox 360 version as far as I could tell. A definite must.

LittleBigPlanet 2: Media Molecule kind of took me by surprise with the first title in this franchise. I have to say I pretty much ignored the hype around this previous iteration of the game until it was out. Once I picked it up though – it was a different story. Me and my wife spent lots of hours on this game by ourselves and more importantly – together – finishing the game and story.

For those of you who didn’t get a chance to play it – LBP is an puzzle platform game with a strong emphasize of doing original things with the engine. Everything almost is customizable to some extent and the community levels are absolutely amazing sometimes.

So that’s it for this month (unless I forgot something – which means – I’ll add them ),

Until next month, enjoy.

Liviu

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The time of the month has come again to cover the games coming out this month.

First of all – a game already released on the Xbox 360 Live Arcade and on the 1st of December on the PC – Super Meat Boy.

Super Meat Boy is an indie game that takes pixel art aesthetics combined with old school platforming and a hell of a difficulty level and turns them into something great. You play as Meat Boy who is trying to save his beloved bandage girl from the evil Dr. Fetus. The difficulty level is insane – so be prepared to get pissed, and a lot. But the game has a certain charm in it that reminds me of old platforming games where we didn’t mind dying a 1000 times and felt a great satisfaction from finishing another level.

Currently available mainly through Steam for 15$.

Second title coming out this month manages to be even more nostalgic. Super Mario All Stars is coming out to the Wii on December 12th.

This compilation celebrating 25 years of Super Mario collects the same classic 4 games the original Super Mario All stars collected on the SNES:

• Super Mario Bros.
• Super Mario Bros. 2
• Super Mario Bros. 3
• Super Mario Bros. – The lost levels

In plus – the bundle comes with a 32 page history book of the Super Mario Franchise. The main downside of this is the fact that at the end of the day – its the SNES game on the Wii. nothing new and the content is (in my opinion) too slim.

Worth a mention:

Two other releases are worth a mention and perhaps will turn out to be as major as the 2 I just noted:

• Fallout New Vegas – Dead Money – Coming out at December 24th on the Xbox360 only (at this time), this is the first DLC introduced to this great game. Hopefully it is coming very soon to the PS3 as well.
• Back To the Future – Telltale games – the guys behind the current iteration of Sam & Max and Monkey Island are starting a new series based on the same quest engine for Back to the Future. Looks promising, but after the last Sam & Max which was pretty bad (and the unimpressive closure of the Monkey Island titles – I’d rather see how it starts).

Till next month – have fun – and spend it wisely (Time and Money),

Liviu

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