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Controller1.com Focus Test 2 PODCATS!

Focus Test is Fable II. Watch Clint ridicule, George admire and Cam in the middle.

Controller1.com Focus Test ep 2 Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Now Playing: Fable II

So… playing Fable II.

I have a tendency not to read previews very often. For someone who loves games, it seems weird that i cut out 50% of the content on Game Websites and zines. But it also means I don’t always buy into the hype. I never thought about buying Bioshock until about a week before it came out. Same with the Xbox 360. And 4 years ago, I bought and played Fable on the Xbox and enjoyed it since I didn’t hang on every word coming uot of peter Molyneux’s mouth.

So when Fable II was approaching release, I was cognoscente of the fact the sequel to a game I quite enjoyed was due. Even though I was more pumped for Fallout 3, a game series I had never previously played from a developer whose only game I had played couldn’t hold me for more than 10 hours; and I really don’t like traditional medieval era, Tolkienesque RPG’s- I am so glad I got this. I might even put off playing Fallout 3 for a few months just so the Fable II experience I’m having has some room to breathe.

There will be a review on controller1.com in a week or two (probably two) but for now, suffice it to say, this game really builds upon the successes (rather than the perceived failures) of the first game.

Why you should go out and play this?

Its fun to play. Its funny. It looks pretty good. The story is usual ‘chosen one’ are but it is done very well. And the presentation and amount of stuff to do is phenomenal. Its like a single player MMO. Oblivion, but done better and less po faced without the crash zoom cutscenes.

Why might you want to skip this game?

You think Peter Molyneux is a hack who makes shitty games and steals cabs.

We recorded a focus test where this game has much manure heaped upon it, although it received an equal amount of sweet smelling praise. So if you own a 360 and have any inclination to play western style RPG’s, go and get this. Now.

You still here?

IN THE BARGAIN BINS…

Today I went shopping and looked around for some games in the bargain bins. I’m usually too impatient to wait six months before I buy a game. I mean, I don’t need game on Day 1, but I usually aren’t able to wait until a game is in the big sales.

I saw some games that might been OK had I been in the mood like Frontlines Fuel of War with a T shirt and a book for AU$35 and a number of other games not worthy of writing about (ie only the stuff you’d expect to be in the bargain bins, shovelware or flops). But one title did catch my eye.

God of War: Chains of Olympus for PSP for AU$25 (about half the RRP). Its the only PSP game I’ve seen in the Top 10 in All Format Sales Charts for a long time. So OI thought, what the hell, I’m going away for a bit and I might need something for the travel.

So of course, I haven’t actually played my PSP since Ratchet and Clank: Size Matters in 2007. Its a first gen PSP-phat. It might be heavy and slow but its built like a brick shithouse. It also has, I disovered when i returned home, a dead battery. Time to try and find a cheap replacement.

BUYING A GAME FROM EB

As soon as I finish writing this, I’m off to put Fable II in the 360. Last night I was at the shops on an errand unrelated to gaming and saw an Electronics Boutique. I rarely buy games from EB (Despite having bought my PS2 and my 360 from there over the years) mainly because the prices they charge are usually unspectacular aside form the moral reasons to avoid their preowned titles or trading games.

So Fable II was out and riddled with stickers (see picture) so rather than drive to somewhere with decent prices, I thought I’d try their price guarantee. They may have a higher price on the sticker, but if somewhere else advertises a lower price (and has it in stock), they will match the price. There was a @20 difference between JB Hifi’s price and EB’s so I asked if they might price match.

The store was utterly empty and I was alone apart from the sales clerk. It was certainly uncontaminated by customers. She said, sure but I’ll have to ring a store to see if they have it in stock. The way it works is I have to say which store I would have bought it from and they ring the exact store to see what price and if its in stock. If it was in stock, I’d get it for the cheaper price and save myself a 10 minute trip in the car.
A few years ago, a small electrical retailer got so sick of large chain stores like Big W, Target and K Mart undercutting them with loss leaders that they decided to teach the big boys a lesson. The retailer advertised Playstation 2′s for far less than the then current price. They only had one in stock and sold it quickly. After that, all customers were directed to K mart and informed about K mart’s pricing guarantee to not only match a competitor’s offer but beat by an extra 10%. K Mart was soon swamped with potential PS2 customers demanding to price match the small retailer’s offer, despite assertions they would be selling at a massive loss. Irate customers unable to access the below cost price soon bombarded the local current affairs programs with complaints. Since then, price matching offers had a rather large list of qualifications to make it more or less useless nine times out of ten.

I was in luck, Fable II was in-stock at the other store and so I would be able to walk out with the game paying 80% of the store advertised price. The only previous time I had tried this was when GTA IV came out and an even worse retailer, would not price match since the competitor had sold out in the one store he rang.

If stores near you have a “We will not be beaten on price” promotion, would you pricematch?

PODCATS IS BACK! controller1.com Focus Test #1

Focus Test#1

The one where George explains the site, Cam defends opinions and Clint queries the URL.

Let us know how you liked it in the comments

controller1 focus test #1 Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Welcome to controller1.com

If you’re here, chances are you wandered in looking for a-g. Well, here’s our new site. Its still under construction so come on in and kick the tyres. Still lots of work over the next few days, ie getting the podcast feed to work. (the button at the top won’t work just yet).

GAMES OF OCTOBER

Well the storm begins this week with Little Big Planet and Fable II and next week, Fallout 3. Its not possible to play all of the big games coming out at once. So far this month I have already cut out of my ‘To Do’ list, the following big titles: Dead Space, Far Cry 2, Mercenaries 2, Fracture, Wii Music and Saint’s Row 2.

Why?

Dead Space: Because its a horror game and I can live without horror. Yes I’m a big scaredy cat.

Far Cry 2: I played a bit of the PC original and about 99.9% of Far Cry Instincts on the original Xbox. I though the PC one played a bit ‘meh’ but the console version (a completely different game) was really quite nice. Apart from that cheating bitch of a final boss who never ever died. I liked the game a lot and all I can remember is trying to beat that final boss over and over until he got stuck in the mesh and I stopped caring.

Mercenaries 2: More sandbox and no compelling reason to play. The demo promised much and delivered little. I wasn’t a huge fan of the original.

Brothers in Arms: Hell’s Highway: I did beat the first game in the series but never played the second, despite my professed love of WWII shooters. Its not really a shooter and its not Full Spectrum Warrior either. I played the demo and was unimpressed. I was unmoved.

Fracture: Another demo that showed off all you need to know in 5 minutes. Generic story and gameplay built around an overused gimmick.

Wii Music: If I wanted to play a music game where all the songs sounded like a Casiotone, I would have bought Casiotone Hero.

Saint’s Row 2: I played the first one even though I wasn’t impressed by that demo. I think I’m just not that keen on sandbox games per se and having played GTA IV, I think I’m done with the genre. SR1 did do some stuff that GTA IV either stole (or should have stolen) but it’s not so great and I’m not that keen to pop caps in people’s asses anymore. I was keen once, but they say you can never go back.

So what do I want to play?

Little Big Planet. One of its major selling points is completely lost on me. I was quite happy to leave all of my spore creations untextured. I do not wish to gain employment as a level designer. I do not wish to make maps for TF2. I just want a platformer. And really, there’s this and Banjo and that’s really it for this year.

Fable II. I must one of the few people who doesn’t hang on Peter Molyneaux’s every word. And hence I wasn’t disappointed in Fable- I was able to ignore the hyperbole and just enjoy what was a very finely crafted game. I only had two minor complaints against Fable 1- you could beat enemies by running circles around them, and you were likley overpowered by the time you reached the final boss. The rest of that game was so much fun I am very much looking forward to number II.

Fallout 3. I have never, ever played a Fallout game. Somehow, this looks like I might enjoy it.

So I’ll get it.

So it looks life Fable II and Fallout 3 on Xbox 360, and Little Big Planet for PS3. Wii and PC go home empty handed.

HAIL TO THE KING, BABY!

So rather than release a new game, or outsource a 3rd person Duke Nukem game to someone else, as happened on PlayStation and N64, 3D Realms have instead just stuck 1996′s Duke Nukem 3D onto XBLA

So Duke Nukem 3D is exactly the same game from back then. Except its got 8 Duke co-op, MP over Live and a rewind feature. Considering the difficulty levels in the game are pretty high that’s a bonus and a half. Some people say the vita Chambers in Bioshock made it too easy. To them I say, “your mother is a whore.”

So Duke’s witticisms may seem old hat now, as well as pandering to the then target audiences more base instincts, but this game still has it with clever level design that made you explore, think and try new stuff. It also begs the question: “What the fuck have 3D Realms been up to for the last 11 or so years?”

How many engines does it take to build a Duke Nukem game? The Answer, apparently is thirty-nine. In the time since Duke Nukem Forever was announced we have already laughed at how long Daikatana, Spore, Too Human, Prey and Team Fortress 2 took to come out. There have been three entire generations of consoles in the meantime. PC has gone from being at the vanguard of gaming to being the ugly stepsister you take out of the cage and slap a dress on at Xmas time – the dress being so you don’t eat the wrong turkey when you’re drunk.

Duke Forever, the sequel to Duke Nukem 3D was begun in 1997.

We’ve had wars, 4 Olympic games (which means 4 crappy Olympic games games) and the Olsen Twins became legal and suddenly everyone didn’t care. In 1997, The Simpsons was good. In 1997, the internet was slow and Amazon was a river, a jungle and a compliment to a hot chick. In 1997, Kristen Bell was in elementary school. In 1997, Google was just a big number. In 1997 Paris Hilton was an expensive hotel with whores in the lobby (as opposed to an expensive whore who owned Hotels). In 1997, nerds in South Korea still attempted to get dates. And since development on DNF was started, I have gotten to 55% of a PS3 firmware update downloaded

We’ve come along way in that time. How about you guys at 3D Realms?

How controller1.com rates games

How controller1.com rates games:

Numbers are meaningless. But we’re going to give in a scale that makes sense
0- Don’t buy. It is a terrible game that you will instantly regret buying
1- An average game. Rent if you’re still interested or buy it very cheap
2- A good solid game. You should enjoy this but don’t lose sleep if you don’t play it
3- Excellent. You must buy this game

We also realise that we aren’t necessary the target market for some games. A game may not click for us but may be fantastic for others so we often include a qualifying score such as:

Controller1.com rating 1/3 (or 2/3 if you’re a fan of previous games in the series)

The overall score out of three is our opinion but there maybe a higher or lower score in brackets for some people.

If you really must translate our scores into percentages use the following metric:
(on a 0-10 scale this would translate to 0 = 1-3, 1 = 5 or 6, 2 = 7 or 8, and 3 is 9 or 10)

Also- when we review a game that is more or less the same on multiple projects, we list the title in each of the platform is available. We’re reviewing the game, not obsessing over minute frame differences or counting pixels, but we make clear which platform the game was tested on in the review title.

MEDAL OF HONOR: AIRBORNE

Reviewed on Xbox 360. Also on: PS3, PC. Developed by EA. Published by EA

It’s a recent oldie if there’s such a thing. One thing’s for sure, no one does Call of Duty Medal of Honor better than Infinity Ward EA.

So EA’s most recent MoH game is not a bad game for MoH fans. What’s new? You start every level by jumping out of a plane, and indeed every time you die, you jump out of a plane again, though any objective’s you’ve successfully completed are still intact. Of course, most enemies also respawn after you die, but you can land almost anywhere on the map. Indeed, this is encouraged because although there are safe landing zones (green smoke) there are also 5 skill drops in each level (these are more difficult landing points you can aim for as a collectible for those of you who look for such things in this type of game). But really, think of it as a game with branching paths rather than the scripted events of yore because you still have to complete all of the objectives in a level before the more linear ending area is unlocked.

Many people forget MOH started off as a successful PSOne series before 2001′s PC hit Medal of Honor Allied Assault, which was of course excellent and 2002′s PS2 (and later Xbox and GC) MoH Frontline, which was also pretty good. Of course, despite two decent expansions on the PC, Call of Duty hit PC in 2003 and changed everything for Medal of Honor (Most of Infinity Ward’s leads came from 2015, makers of MoH: AA).
Suddenly MoH looked tired (DESPITE CoD BEING THE SAME GAME) by comparison and the two MoH games set in the pacific were universally loathed (Rising Sun was particularly awful). There was one last hurrah on PS2/Xbox called European Assault which tried to get away from scripted, linear levels and make scripted open levels. It was okay, but didn’t feel like MoH (as well as being cuntingly hard) while even the two PS2 / Xbox CoD games (Finest Hour and Big Red One) were quite enjoyable. Now MoH Airborne (which came out in late 2007 for PC and 360 and later on PS3) is trying to recapture the magic.

It does and it doesn’t. It plays like a fine antique since once you get past some of the innovations – it plays like the older games, particularly when it puts you on rails (funnily enough, the more linear areas feel like very good classic MoH). The game is not easy and you will be jumping out of the plane a lot. And in an effort to make the game feel less scripted, the AI is waaaay too good. You often will be surrounded. In one particularly obnoxious example is in the penultimate level when you have to destroy a pimped out battle train and a new Elite group of Nazi troops attacks you and you are swarmed from all sides and FUCK YOU EA!

Graphics are decent if nothing special. It does at least look better than Too Human or Resistance Fall of Man. Sound is pretty good but then MoH games were one of the first games to treat sound as a feature rather than an afterthought. I can’t tell you about MP because it seems more or less dead but considering I basically swapped this for Assassin’s Creed (which i found initially fun but eventually boring), I think I’ve gotten a hefty amount of fun out of this title. If you like FPS games, particularly MoH or older CoD games, give this one a spin. If those games aren’t your bag, baby, then you might want to try something else.

It’s definitely a product of ‘old’ EA, but since the single player of Battlefield Bad Company is very similar, it remains to be seen whether ‘new’ EA can make this series sing again.

C1 rating: 2/3 (if you ever liked MoH or older CoD games)