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Random Game of the Week #3 – Sentinel Returns

Chris Cerami
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1

Sentinel Returns – Playstation – 1998

And we’re back for our latest random game. When my random number generator landed on the original Playstation I got a little worried. I have some really great games on the PS1: Parappa the Rapper, Klonoa, and Oddworld to name a few. On the other hand, I also have some real garbage. So, we spin the wheel and the answer is Sentinel Returns, a 1998 title published by Psygnosis (the back of the case also lists No Name Games and Hookstone as the licenser and programmer respectively). Much like my first game, Solaris, I have no idea what to expect with this one. I picked it up used from my local video game story about a year ago mostly because it had the Psygnosis label and it has been sitting in a box ever since.

The interesting cover and Psygnosis logo prompted my purchase of Sentinel Returns.

The case certainly looks interesting enough, which is perhaps why I dropped ten bucks on a game I can hardly remember buying. The front cover features some sort of evil totem pole looking thing with laser eyes (I assume that’s the sentinel). The back describes it as eerie with “white-knuckle gameplay”, and apparently it’s based on Sentinel by Geoff Crammond. I’m not familiar with it, so that doesn’t really tell me much. From the looks of it, I’d guess that it’s some sort of puzzle game involving avoiding detection by this sentinel. I guess it’s time to start it up and find out.

My first thought upon watching the pre-menu cutscene is that you really don’t see this type of creepy, dark and dreary type of stuff in games anymore. The sort of eerie, gory imagery of games like Phantasmagoria or D is something that’s just not that common anymore. There are still horror games, but maybe this type of thing was just a relic of the 90s. Basically what we have is a collection of strange images flashing in an incoherent, seizure-inducing manner much like you’d see in metal music videos on MTV back in the 90’s when they still aired music videos. It sort of reminds me of a cheesy knock off of the X-Files, and I’m not sure if I mean that in a good way or a bad way yet.

I’m pretty sure I saw this exact logo flit across the screen for a frame or two, except it was about one-third this resolution.

Now that I can see they’re really trying to sell the fact that this game is supposed to be scary (or at least creepy), allow me to play it and see how that holds up…after the CD loads of course. At least I’m playing it on a PS2, so maybe I won’t have to wait so abysmally long.

…2 minutes later…

I have absolutely zero idea as to what’s going on. From what I can gather, I’m in some sort of…field? Canyon? I don’t know. I’m somewhere. And there are tall silver…spikes? Look, I don’t know what anything is, alright? Just bear with me as I attempt to describe this. I have a targeting reticule which I can move with the D-pad. R1 seems to turn me 180 degrees around. L2 seems to change the reticule when held, although I have no idea for what purpose. R2…does something. I really don’t know what, but it looks like I’m using or losing something whenever I press it because an icon disappears from the bottom of the screen each time. The face buttons and analog sticks don’t seem to have a function whatsoever.

I know what I’ve written doesn’t make any sense, but that is exactly how I feel. Perhaps in my disjointed descriptions and lack of clarity I have instilled in you just a fraction of the confusion I’m feeling. There is also a very loud noise constantly playing that sounds kind of like steam rushing out of a pipe, and the music is decent enough but it’s a pretty short loop. I’m going to have to consult the manual again.

These are the spikes I was referring to. Stay tuned for the revelation of what they actually are!

 

It seems that even the instruction manual isn’t quite sure what’s going on. It talks about a substance of unknown origin which can be injected into a specimen of equally unknown origin, and apparently the consequences of failure are unknown. I’m glad I’m not the only one who doesn’t know anything.

It seems that the gameplay revolves around absorbing things in the environment in order to gather energy while avoiding detection by the sentinel. If he spots you, he’ll absorb your energy. The sentinel can also create sentries, which are mini versions of himself, and both the sentinel and sentries can create, I kid you not, “meanies”. These meanies can teleport you from where you are to a less advantageous spot on the map. The ultimate goal seems to be to gain enough energy and get to a spot from which you can absorb the sentinel itself. Or at least that’s what the manual says. I suppose I’ll restart the level and see if I can figure this out.

“Meany by name, mean by nature”, here is the game’s version of a meanie (right) compared to my interpretation of a meanie.

Surprisingly, knowing the rules does not really help all that much. I’ve managed to absorb a few “trees” (I put that in quotes because these trees are actually the huge silver spikes I mentioned earlier), and to warp back and forth between two equally useless locations before wasting all of my energy. I’m really just stumped. I think the real problem is that while the manual is quite verbose in describing what you’re supposed to do and how you’re supposed to do it, there are very few pictures.

Usually when describing a HUD or interface, a manual will have an image of it with captions and labels. I also think I’ve figured out that you need to create robots (apparently in this game robots are smaller totem poles) and you can move around by jumping from robot to robot. Unfortunately, I can’t figure out how to get to a higher vantage point because I only seem to be able to create robots at my level or lower. I would really hate to give up on this game without even being able to make sense of the first level, so perhaps now is time to head to the internet to see if it can be of help to me.

As always, YouTube has provided me with a bit of a clue as to how I should proceed. I don’t know why I hadn’t considered this before, but the answer is quite simple. Apparently apart from creating robots and trees (aka totems and spikes), you can also create boulders. Hey, what do you know, the boulders actually look somewhat like boulders! Anyway, you can stack a robot on top of a boulder to reach higher locations. Now that I’ve figured that out I’ve made a bit of progress in moving about and I’ve absorbed a few more trees. Unfortunately, once I got a few levels higher than where I started I saw my scan bar filling, which means the sentinel has spotted you and is about to either drain your energy or create a meany to warp you away.

Wait, where is the sentinel? I looked all around me, up and down (mostly up since he has to be above me), but I have no idea where he is scanning me from. Therefore, I have no idea where I can go to hide from him. I think the main problem is that moving the camera around and aiming the reticule is incredibly slow and clumsy. It takes forever to look around you to see where enemies may be or where you can and should move to. Apparently this game can also be played with the Playstation mouse, which I didn’t know existed until right now, and it’s also available on the PC. I’d say it’s probably a much more playable game on the computer, and unless you have a mouse to control it, it doesn’t seem like you can really do too much.

A comparison of the PC version (left) with the much muddier looking Playstation port.

Well I failed to make it through even the first level. In fact, I wasn’t even close. I think that’s as far as I’m going to go with Sentinel Returns. I think I gave it a pretty fair shake, but unless I was to resort to looking up a guide or a video on what exactly to do I don’t think I can really make it much farther, and is that really how you want to play a puzzle game? Like I said, I think it can probably be pretty decent (or at least playable) on a computer with a mouse, but this Playstation version seems pretty weak. If you’d like to see the game in action the way it’s meant to be played, feel free to check out the YouTube video embedded below this, uploaded by spicyechidna94.

So for this entry, rather than giving you my thoughts on the game, I suppose I’ve shared with you my confusion and frustration at trying to figure this one out. I expect that this kind of thing will happen from time to time, and that’s to be expected when you choose games randomly, but that’s exactly what I wanted. Even if I don’t love every game I play, I want to get a feel for all different types of games. Some I’ll love, some I’ll hate, some I won’t be able to figure out for the life of me, and some will probably be downright mediocre. So join me again next time, when the hands of fate shall guide me in an unknown direction, to find an unknown substance, to be injected into an unknown specimen, etc. etc. etc.

Catherine’s animation to sync with the voices of the English cast

Travis Bruno
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1
Catherine’s animation to sync with the voices of the English cast

One of the biggest gripes that players can have about games that were originally released in Japan and then later are dubbed in English for a Western release is the fact that the animation and characters don’t move their lips or sometimes even act accordingly for their new dialogue. But this will not be the case with Catherine.

Talking to Siliconera, Ms. Ruff (the woman voicing Katherine, Vincent’s actual girlfriend) revealed that she has been told to match all of her lines to a certain time and then Katherine’s actual lip motions are modified to fit her dialogue as good as possible. If the scene was already fully animated then she had to sync her voice to the character’s lips. Atlus itself has set the release date for the psychological horror puzzle for some point this Summer on the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3.

Warhammer 40,000 Space Marine gets a more definitive release window

Travis Bruno
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1
Warhammer 40,000 Space Marine gets a more definitive release window

THQ and Relic’s Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine finally has a little less vague of a release window. Today the companies announced that rather than a Summer release window the extremely changed Warhammer game will be available some time in August of this year.

Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine takes a different approach from the normal RTS game that is Warhammer (or table top game for major fans). The game will take place in third person and appear to be quite similar to Gears of War. Of course this game will have plenty of Orks to kill instead of locusts. Currently few titles have been even announced for an August release date which currently puts Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine in a good selling position when it releases for the Xbox 360 and the PlayStation 3.

Wizardry: Labyrinth of Lost Souls to be localized by XSEED

Travis Bruno
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1
Wizardry: Labyrinth of Lost Souls to be localized by XSEED

Nothing says a strong Western fan base like getting a classic looking title from Japan localized for the U.S. and other countries. XSEED is going to be handling the localization and of course the release for the classic, old school looking dungeon crawler series Wizardry. The title itself is going to be an exclusive release for the PlayStation 3.

The dungeon plays as a first-person crawler where the RPG itself grew out of originally. The series as a whole is well known for creating some of the most recognizable changes to the RPG ever since its creation years ago. The enemies and sprites will all be hand drawn by Yuki Hayabusa and will consist of 120 different enemies and give players a chance to play with a party of six that they can create from five different races and assign eight different classes. Currently XSEED has only just announced the fact they are localizing the title and only has a release window of Spring 2011.


SEGA auctioning off rare collectibles to raise money for Japan

Travis Bruno
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1
SEGA auctioning off rare collectibles to raise money for Japan

If you have a decent amount of disposable income and want to help further a good cause while also getting some interesting game merchandise at the same time then now is the time to do it. SEGA is currently holding a video game item auction where they are selling a number of cool and rare items related to some of their popular franchises.

There are a number of items up for auction and is performed by eBay and everything is currently still available. All proceeds from the auction will go to the Red Cross to help fund efforts in Japan. The current item that has the largest price at the moment is the above Valkyria Chronicles promo poster. At the time of this writing it is at $560.00 which means it will certainly be a great collector’s item. If of course you don’t have enough money to enter these auctions you can still donate to help Japan through our own fund raising efforts here.

FEAR 3 given May 27th release in UK

Travis Bruno
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1
FEAR 3 given May 27th release in UK

It looks like everyone will start getting their FEAR on a bit sooner than expected. With the previously release window only being Summer of 2011 it is now been announced by Warner Brothers that FEAR 3 will be released in the United Kingdom on May 27th. That means that in under three weeks, people in the UK will be able to see what Alma has in store for everyone this time.

Then again the rest of us in the United States, and Australia of course, have yet to hear any release date for ourselves. One can assume however, that considering the release dates between nations often varies only by a week or two then the US release date could be anywhere between May 20th to June 3rd. However we have contacted Warner Brothers themselves to see if there is any sign of a definitive US release date.

3DS AR Card Android App saves your pocketspace

Travis Bruno
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1
3DS AR Card Android App saves your pocketspace

Sure this was bound to happen eventually. There may be an app for this already on the iPhone, or you could of course just store the pictures themselves onto your phone and have the 3DS pick them up but I digress. There is now an app for the Android phone which you can pick up here that makes it so you won’t have to worry about carrying those Augmented Reality cards with you in public if you want to do something involving the 3D camera outside.

Of course the APP downloads for free and contains all of the AR cards that otherwise come free with the Nintendo 3DS: Question Mark Block, Mario, Link, Kirby, Samus and the Pikmin. For those who do not know what the AR cards do, they allow the 3DS to place 3D objects ontop of the card as if they were there in real life, even though they are not.

Ghostbusters: Sanctum of Slime Review

Travis Bruno
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2


Ghostbusters: Sanctum of Slime
Developer: Behavior Studios
Publisher: Atari
Consoles:XBLA (Reviewed), PSN, PC
Release Date: March 23rd 2011 (PC, XBLA), March 22nd 2011 (PSN)
Price: 800 MSP – Buy Now!

Overview:
Ah… Ghostbusters. Is there any franchise that is more recognizable involving ghosts? Perhaps so but the Ghostbusters’ logo and theme song will always pull at the heart of gamers for being an amazing movie franchise. After the release of Ghostbusters: The Video Game back in 2009 fans of the franchise have been waiting to see what would happen next, and now we have Ghostbusters: Sanctum of Slime on the XBLM. Will G:SoS live up to the franchise name?

Story:
The year is 1989, and being the year Ghostbusters 2 came out, the story picks up with the museum curator Janosz Poha being submitted into a mental hospital after the events of Ghostbusters 2 and his work with Vigo. Once in the hospital he meets a man named Ismael, the last member of the cult of Dumazu whom is seeking the Relic of Nilhe. The relic contains the power to bring back Dumazu the Destroyer and without much hesitation, Janosz agrees to help Ismael as long as he gets his reward; Dana Barrett.

As years pass we come to modern day March 2011 and it seems that things have gotten so busy around New York City with countless ghost manifestations. So much so that the Ghostbusters themselves are getting worn out from running all over the city. In an effort to lighten their load they recruit a team of rookies: Bridget, Gabriel, Samuel and Alan to help battle the ghosts while they get some rest. The rookie team then must track down the source of these outbreaks and this takes them to many different venues familiar to Ghostbusters fans such as the Sedgewick hotel and others.

The story itself is told through unvoiced comic cutscenes and through little dialogue blips that appear during gameplay. The rookie Ghostbuster team feels relatively similar to the original team, with Bridget being the comedic relief most of the time and the rest of the team providing the scientific outlook of what is going on.

Graphics:
The comic like cutscenes are hit and miss at times. Most of the time the drawings look relatively impressive and show the characters’ likness quite well but sometimes it is hard to tell who exactly you are looking at, especially involving the classic Ghostbuster team, due to the drawing. Also considering the game is not voiced the player must read the comic dialogue bubbles that show up.

Unfortunately, much like the comics, the dialogue itself is hit and miss because there was a number of times that, due to a large panel of a comic being shown off, it was hard to read what the dialogue even said on a 50” HD screen. This problem can lead to the player having to either move extremely close to the screen to understand what is going on or simply ignore that dialogue bubble in the hopes of it containing no dire information.

Audio:
Unfortunately the game itself is not voiced so that means while Behavior Studios was able to avoid paying the original actors for taking part in the game, it also means you won’t be hearing Dan Aykroyd or Bill Murray in Sanctum of Slime. But what it does have thankfully is the original theme song which is a huge plus considering how die-hard fans can be for Ghostbusters. The background music that plays during each level is suitable enough, attempting to provide a

Gameplay:
Ghostbusters plays as a twin joystick shooter, with the left stick moving your character around and the right stick aiming wherever you want your proton pack to shoot at a ghost or piece of furniture. The camera angle stays at a nice overhead angle and gives the game a Gauntlet-like feel, especially when played with friends. There are a few levels consisting of the players riding on the Ecto-1 where the players have to watch the car’s health as well as their own.

Since the original Ghostbusters are worn out after the above mentioned spree of ghost sightings and the rookies are in charge that means that you will have to choose between Bridget, Gabriel, Samuel and Alan when you begin a level. As you enter a level you will be attacked by a number of different ghosts, which are color coded by the proper weapon you should use to defeat them.

When you first start the game you will only have the red proton beam (ah… the classics) to start out with, and thankfully enemies are only of that variety at the moment. As you progress through the game you will unlock a yellow spread shot weapon and a powerful blue shot as well which then can be used on ghosts of that color variety. It is possible to defeat ghosts with weapons of other colors but it is more difficult because they do less damage.

Now even if you happen to play solo you will still have three other Ghostbusters to back you up at all times. The AI partners seem to understand their job quite well and will usually do a good enough job reviving you and each other if you happen to go down from being hit too many times by a ghost. Reviving your teammates involves rapidly pressing the A button until a small bar fills up. It isn’t the best way to revive however and can sometimes involve getting knocked down yourself simply because you took too long.

But who would want to play a Ghostbuster game alone when it is easy to see the fact that it was meant to be played with friends. There are two different options for multiplayer, local and Xbox Live. Local is self-explanatory, giving players the option to have four different players on the screen at one time with each player taking over one Ghostbuster. Xbox Live will give players the ability to jump into any created match by searching for active lobbies, or making a quick match of your own. From my experience the game played fluidly online without any major lag between players with four on screen at one time.

Now what would a Ghostbusters game be without destructible environments? Not a Ghostbuster game but Sanctum of Slime neatly jumps that hurdle by allowing most furniture and even items on the wall to be destroyed via your proton blasts. There are even collectibles hidden throughout the levels which the player can find by destroying the objects containing them.

Overall:
Despite a new team and a new playstyle Ghostbusters: Sanctum of Slime still provides the classic feel. Unfortunately the original team does not return outside of a few minor comic book appearances and the comics themselves can be a disappoint most of the time. Despite this however there is plenty of fun to be had when playing with a group of friends on your couch or online.

I give Ghostbusters: Sanctum of Slime

7-5-capsules-out-of-10

 

Ghostbusters: Sanctum of Slime
Developer: Behavior Studios
Publisher: Atari
Release Date: March 23rd, 2011
Price: 800 MSP – Buy Now!http://marketplace.xbox.com/en-US/Product/Ghostbusters-Sanctum-of-Slime/66acd000-77fe-1000-9115-d80258410a89

Overview:
Ah… Ghostbusters. Is there any franchise that is more recognizable involving ghosts? Perhaps so but the Ghostbusters’ logo and theme song will always pull at the heart of gamers for being an amazing movie franchise. After the release of Ghostbusters: The Video Game back in 2009 fans of the franchise have been waiting to see what would happen next, and now we have Ghostbusters: Sanctum of Slime on the XBLM. Will G:SoS live up to the franchise name?

Story:
The year is 1989, and being the year Ghostbusters 2 came out, the story picks up with the museum curator Janosz Poha being submitted into a mental hospital after the events of Ghostbusters 2 and his work with Vigo. Once in the hospital he meets a man named Ismael, the last member of the cult of Dumazu whom is seeking the Relic of Nilhe. The relic contains the power to bring back Dumazu the Destroyer and without much hesitation, Janosz agrees to help Ismael as long as he gets his reward; Dana Barrett.

As years pass we come to modern day March 2011 and it seems that things have gotten so busy around New York City with countless ghost manifestations. So much so that the Ghostbusters themselves are getting worn out from running all over the city. In an effort to lighten their load they recruit a team of rookies: Bridget, Gabriel, Samuel and Alan to help battle the ghosts while they get some rest. The rookie team then must track down the source of these outbreaks and this takes them to many different venues familiar to Ghostbusters fans such as the Sedgewick hotel and others.

The story itself is told through unvoiced comic cutscenes and through little dialogue blips that appear during gameplay. The rookie Ghostbuster team feels relatively similar to the original team, with Bridget being the comedic relief most of the time and the rest of the team providing the scientific outlook of what is going on.

Graphics:
The comic like cutscenes are hit and miss at times. Most of the time the drawings look relatively impressive and show the characters’ likness quite well but sometimes it is hard to tell who exactly you are looking at, especially involving the classic Ghostbuster team, due to the drawing. Also considering the game is not voiced the player must read the comic dialogue bubbles that show up.

Unfortunately, much like the comics, the dialogue itself is hit and miss because there was a number of times that, due to a large panel of a comic being shown off, it was hard to read what the dialogue even said on a 50” HD screen. This problem can lead to the player having to either move extremely close to the screen to understand what is going on or simply ignore that dialogue bubble in the hopes of it containing no dire information.

Audio:
Unfortunately the game itself is not voiced so that means while Behavior Studios was able to avoid paying the original actors for taking part in the game, it also means you won’t be hearing Dan Aykroyd or Bill Murray in Sanctum of Slime. But what it does have thankfully is the original theme song which is a huge plus considering how die-hard fans can be for Ghostbusters. The background music that plays during each level is suitable enough, attempting to provide a

Gameplay:
Ghostbusters plays as a twin joystick shooter, with the left stick moving your character around and the right stick aiming wherever you want your proton pack to shoot at a ghost or piece of furniture. The camera angle stays at a nice overhead angle and gives the game a Gauntlet-like feel, especially when played with friends.

Since the original Ghostbusters are worn out after the above mentioned spree of ghost sightings and the rookies are in charge that means that you will have to choose between Bridget, Gabriel, Samuel and Alan when you begin a level. As you enter a level you will be attacked by a number of different ghosts, which are color coded by the proper weapon you should use to defeat them.

When you first start the game you will only have the red proton beam (ah… the classics) to start out with, and thankfully enemies are only of that variety at the moment. As you progress through the game you will unlock a yellow spread shot weapon and a powerful blue shot as well which then can be used on ghosts of that color variety. It is possible to defeat ghosts with weapons of other colors but it is more difficult because they do less damage.

Now even if you happen to play solo you will still have three other Ghostbusters to back you up at all times. The AI partners seem to understand their job quite well and will usually do a good enough job reviving you and each other if you happen to go down from being hit too many times by a ghost. Reviving your teammates involves rapidly pressing the A button until a small bar fills up. It isn’t the best way to revive however and can sometimes involve getting knocked down yourself simply because you took too long.

But who would want to play a Ghostbuster game alone when it is easy to see the fact that it was meant to be played with friends. There are two different options for multiplayer, local and Xbox Live. Local is self-explanatory, giving players the option to have four different players on the screen at one time with each player taking over one Ghostbuster. Xbox Live will give players the ability to jump into any created match by searching for active lobbies, or making a quick match of your own. From my experience the game played fluidly online without any major lag between players with four on screen at one time.

Now what would a Ghostbusters game be without destructible environments? Not a Ghostbuster game but Sanctum of Slime neatly jumps that hurdle by allowing most furniture and even items on the wall to be destroyed via your proton blasts. There are even collectibles hidden throughout the levels which the player can find by destroying the objects containing them.

Overall:
Despite a new team and a new playstyle Ghostbusters: Sanctum of Slime still provides the classic feel. Unfortunately the original team does not return outside of a few minor comic book appearances and the comics themselves can be a disappoint most of the time. Despite this however there is plenty of fun to be had when playing with a group of friends on your couch or online.

I give Ghostbusters: Sanctum of Slime

7.5

Medal of Honor’s second coming

Kellie Wallace
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2
Medal of Honor’s second coming

With the tragic release that was Medal Of Honor, EA hopes to redeem themselves with confirmation of a sequel to the first person shooter coming this year. Medal Of Honor failed to deliver in 2010 that EA’s stocks fell and fans were left scratching their heads over the developer’s motives. Retailers saw a huge increase of returns and trades of the game and many were left to drop prices significantly in order to resell it.

With the fallout between Infinity Ward and Activision running rife throughout the industry, left many Infinity Ward staff running to EA, who in return decided to make MOH with the new talent. No one could predict the outcome. The game was highly anticipated, in demand and many believed the title would finally take back its award winning rank from the Call of Duty series.

When it was released in mid October, the military shooter met with an influx of eager fans awaiting to play the newly renovated title. Within days, MOH saw an early death.

EA took its time to announce a sequel to the shooter in fear it will encourage a public backlash. However so far, the newly titled Medal of Honor 2 will resurrect its predecessor and shed a new light on the brandished title.

Resident Evil: Revival Selection Announced for the PS3 & Xbox 360…

Dustin Spencer
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1
Resident Evil: Revival Selection Announced for the PS3 & Xbox 360…

Over the years we have seen many incarnations of both Resident Evil 4 & Resident Evil: Code Veronica, but it now appears that both titles are looking to get a new HD coat of paint and a release on the Xbox 360 and PS3 under the name “Resident Evil: Revival Selection”. A recent posting in this week’s Famitsu mentioned that these two titles would be getting a single disc release in the future. With Resident Evil: The Mercenaries & Revelations just right around the corner for the 3DS, it makes a lot of sense for both of these classics to be next in line for the HD treatment.

No other details have been given but now the cat has seemed to have come out of the bag, Capcom should be coming forth soon to shed some light on exactly what this selection will truly hold.

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