You guys like Pokemon? Do you *want* to like pokemon but hate that it entails liking something that 5 year olds like? Do you just like just seeing fantastical looking creatures? If any of the latter describes you, then take a look at this amazing artwork (fanmade). Click on the thumbnail to see it in its full size.
On the left is Giovanni (final gym leader of original series and villain) with the gargantuan Nidoking looming in the back. Also shown here are Nidoqueen, what look like a male and female? Rhydon, a Golem, a Dugtrio and finally, Mewtwo wearing it’s robotic inhibitors.
In the middle is the series main protagonist, Ash with the giant Charizard in the back. Also shown are Lapras, Venusaur, Blastoise and the still somehow cute Pikachu.
Finally on the right is Jasmine, a gym leader from the second series with her trademark steel pokemon, Steelix and Magnemite.
Click on over to this user’s pixiv account to see more from them. They apparently also do re-imaginings of final fantasy creatures which look incredible. Pixiv is a Japanese site, so everything is in Japanese. You also need an account to fully browse people’s work, of which I cannot obtain. But keep reloading, it will cycle through some of their stuff.
Is anybody reading this out there old enough to feel the nostalgia of the great pinball machine? Going in your local arcade, popping in a few coins and rumbling your way to glory. Well even if you arent old enough to think back that far, it has announced that Marvel Pinball is coming to a console near you in December.
On the Xbox 360 it can come as a DLC for Pinball FX 2. No confirmation on whether 360 gets a separate game also. Ps3 will get it as a package of 4 machines. Those 4 machines are Blade, Spiderman, Wolverine and Iron man (as seen above). Zen Studios also added that regular DLC will likely come for Marvel Pinball. More machines equals more fun to go around.
Game Name: Baseball Superstars 2011 Platform(s): iPhone/iPod Touch Publisher(s): Gamevil Inc. Developer(s): Gamevil Inc. Genre(s): Sports, RPG Release Date: 4th November, 2010 Price: $4.99 (BUY NOW!)
Overview
Gamevil has done it again. The latest addition to their popular baseball franchise is not to be miss by any baseball fanatics out there. This game will even appeal to the non-baseball fans. Do not be fooled by its name, it is not just another sequel. In fact, many new features and enhancement have been made in this new version that it feels totally different than the previous versions.
Gameplay
Gameplay wise, there is a huge amount of content for both casual gamer and hardcore baseball fans here. If you want to have a quick game before you leave for class (for example), you can try Exhibition mode. With all the different settings allow (chance setting, inning setting, detail setting), you can have a quick game in 5 minutes, or one full game which completes in an hour, your choice. These settings allow you to determine in which situation you would like to play, and how many innings you would want to play. You could also choose to play in the stadium of your choice. There is just so much room for customization here.
Then, there is this “My League” mode to those who want to develop their own baseball character, let it be pitcher or batter. Baseball manager-wannabe is not left out either, as there is the Season mode for team-managing purposes. If that is not enough, there are also Homerun Race to enjoy the excitement of hitting homeruns combo (which I love), Mission mode and Match Play to satisfy all your baseball desire.
In addition to the already-robust game modes, RPG elements were embedded within the game. Different endings can be achieved as a batter or a pitcher with vary popularity and fame stats as you proceed in “My League” mode. Players can visit the stadium, downtown, school, hospital, or the broadcasting station to unlock various events with various NPCs, which adds more twist to your game. Also, your batting position may be change depends upon your batting performance; you may negotiate your salary (and get turn down after, with some very horrible punishment).
Overall, the baseball gameplay is much more challenging than the previous version, but that is in no way a bad thing. Pitching and fielding are much more robust. The batting timing is way different from the previous versions, which takes some time of getting used to when you first lay your hands on the game.
Many people might disagree with their in-app purchase (IAP) model. Not to worry though, you do not need to spend anything more than $4.99 (to buy the game!) if you do not want to. It’s optional. Buying golds through IAP is faster, but you can choose to earn them yourself instead. It does not restrict your gaming experience at all since it’s not hard to earn the gold coins, by completing achievements and missions in game. Ongoing events will help players in accumulating gold coins as well. For a start, Gamevil announced their latest event which allows you to earn up to 10,000 coins per game. (For more details, look HERE).
Graphics/Sound
The graphics in this game is absolutely stunning. So much improvement from the last version. (Of course, I also love the bigger-size-batter). It is not Retina Display graphics as expected, but it goes easy on your eyes. Its sleek interface complements the game’s graphical presentation to give you a comfortable baseball-ing experience throughout. That is what’s important and Gamevil nailed it down perfectly.
The audio aspect of the game has got to be one of my favourite. There is an amazing mix of soundtracks, which immerse you into the game and keeps you entertained throughout your gaming session. Not to mention that the sound effect is so well designed, it feels extremely realistic. The different collision sound effect between the bat and the ball, the crowd roaring, the voice-over commentator (Strike! OUTTT!), everything is right on, awesome.
Controls
The controls are nothing too complicated. The game fully utilize the on-screen touch controls like the previous releases and honestly, that is one of the best control scheme you can have in this genre. Nothing beats having dedicated buttons for specific action in sports game. The controls are further enhanced with customizable controls, in terms of size, visibility and placement. No more worries about your thumb being too big or the buttons being too small. I do look forward having gyroscopic/accelerometer control in future releases, adding more difficulty to the game.
Conclusion
I am not going to lie. This is one of the best full-featured baseball simulation games yet on the App Store, hands down. It’s the brightest superstar in the franchise, a highly recommended buy to everyone unless you really really hate baseball. You will not be disappointed. There is one problem though, it is highly addictive. Be warned. *evil grins*
Lord of the Rings: Aragorn’s Quest Developer: Headstrong Games Publisher: Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment Genre: Action/Adventure Platform: Wii (PlayStation Move, PlayStation 2, DS) Released: 29 October
Lord of the Rings: Aragorn’s Quest sees you revisit the land of Middle Earth made popular in the trilogy of films by Peter Jackson. Set after the events of the films, you play as Frodo in times of peace and tranquillity. But this isn’t the Frodo you were thinking of. No, not Frodo Baggins but Frodo Gamgee, Sam Wise Gamgee’s youngest son whom he has named after his dear friend. As you will remember if you watched Return of the King, Frodo Baggins embarks on a one-way trip with Gandalf, Bilbo and a number of others to a mystical world of eternal peace, whereas Sam remains at the Shire and has the family he’d always dreamed of. This part of the movie was open to artistic interpretation, so the developers’ reading of the ending forms the basis of the game.
As it is Aragorn’s Quest, the focus of the game is still Aragorn therefore the majority of the gameplay is spent in control of the heir to Isildor himself, but this use of Frodo Gamgee and the central hub world of the Shire adds some relevance to the repeated tour of the war for Middle Earth. Time spent at the Shire is utilised by teaching you new skills which can then be used as Aragorn in the actual levels, earning extra coins to buy upgrades (known as Artefacts), and generally just having a good time fulfilling challenges set by other village-folk and exploring the map. The developers cleverly link the Shire to the quests through your father acting as story-teller until you are eventually engulfed in the tale and become Aragorn, with Sam Wise Gamgee still providing narrative in real-time while you carry out the mission. Other small additions echo well thought-out game design, trying to stay loyal to the Lord of the Rings franchise, whilst giving an active experience at the same time. For instance, although the legions of Sauron have been destroyed and the war is over, enemies still populate parts of the Shire through Frodo Gamgee’s wild imagination and are intelligently indicated as such by ghost-like blue form.
Primarily, the title is built up of missions played in control Aragorn, completing main quests crucial to the progression of the story which follows that of the films, as well as the occasional side quests and the hoarding of a number of collectables and bonuses. A gold star of the Dúnedain denotes a main quest, on the other hand a silver star of Dúnedain signifies a side quest. In total there are 10 stages, though this is including the brief prologue level which only purpose is to add some background to the plot and lead on to the brilliant, lengthy beginning cutscene. This total also includes the hub-world of the Shire, which may not be regarded as a full level by some.
All in all, the campaign can be sped through fairly briskly, unsurprising considering the title’s target audience and aims of being family-friendly. But when you take into account the huge number of collectables and secrets to be found, the game actually offers a more than sufficient amount of play time, especially for completionists who are willing to traipse through each level completing every last side quest and collecting every last item. There is even a wealth of Lord of the Rings trivia-style knowledge available, with obscure yet intriguing facts about the character backgrounds or the history of Middle Earth revealed when you collect the ‘Lore items’. There is no way you could have known some of this information just by watching the films, giving it real appeal amongst fans of the Lord of the Rings.
Having the license of the Lord of the Rings movies works wonders for this game. Cutscenes are sublime with sound clips from the films used for the most part, and seeing famous scenes fully-realised in the slightly cartoony graphical style will envoke feelings of nostalgia in fans of the franchise. The voice of Sam Wise Gamgee even features with all new dialogue, fronting a running commentary of the story. Unfortunately, when the story unfolds in-game it’s a little less spectacular, with the character animation not on the same level as the speech, By this I mean that despite talking, the characters’ mouths don’t move which, if anything, looks a bit creepy. The music is up to the same high-standards of the cutscenes, with emotive and instantly recognisable melodies from the cinema transferred with the same resounding emotional effects, as well as new pieces of music which also prove successful; not only has it been stylised to the different regions of Middle Earth, but it possesses similar excellence at creating mood and atmosphere.
The controls are also very well-done in Lord of the Rings: Aragorn’s Quest. Gameplay in hack ‘n’ slash adventurers such as this can often be tedious affairs when it comes to combat, but Aragorn’s Quest ensures this is not the case with intuitive elements of motion control present. Flicks of the Wii remote control sword strokes, and the Nunchuk also plays its part. One section of the controls which I was particularly impressed with was the archery. It makes great use of the Wii pointer instead of opting for a lock-on mechanism, resulting in an extremely satisfying bow and arrow experience. In addition, the levels on horseback offer a refreshing change of pace from the monogamy of fighting and travelling on-foot. Battling atop a horse is exhilarating and provides a break from the on-foot sections, meaning when you return to walking, your enthusiasm will be well and truly revitalised thanks to the inclusion of this variation in level structure.
Couple this with a nicely crafted drop-in, drop-out two player co-op system and you’re looking at a decent title. There are some extras only achievable through the use of a second player, and in general the game, like most, is just a lot more fun when played multiplayer. One limitation of the co-op mode is that you are both forced to stay together by fitting on the same screen, although this only puts an emphasis on teamwork, rather than having both players running off separately, completing different quests individually.
On the whole, Lord of the Rings: Aragorn’s Quest is a solid adventure allowing you to enter the realms of Middle Earth once more, only this time with the added bonus of exploring it in the alternative art-style. While people who buy it on the PlayStation 3 would be understandably disgruntled at the graphics when contrasted with other titles on the system, considering the Nintendo Wii’s capabilities it is, in fact, a fairly good-looking game. Well-thought out controls and a simple easy-to-use co-op system make gameplay a joy to play, even if the hack ‘n’ slash nature of the game does mean it can become repetitive. Fans will not only appreciate roaming the levels indulging in the quirky visual style, but also seeing their favourite moments from the films fully-realised in virtual form. Combine this with the music we know and love and you’ve got a winning formula where fans are concerned. Some more dedicated fans may not appreciate some inaccuracies, but they are only included to make the game more engaging, and to be quite honest, detract from the adventure very little. It is aimed at being a more family-friendly take on the Lord of the Rings, and although there is the option to change difficulty settings at any time from the menu screen, the game won’t present too much of a challenge for veteran gamers.
Pros
Fully-realised scenes from the films will appeal to fans
Well-crafted control scheme
Sound and music we know and love
Drop-in, drop-out co-op action
Cons
Poor in-game character animation and dialogue
Hack ‘n’ slash gameplay can become tedious
Lacks a significant challenge for more experienced players
Game Name: Call of Duty: Black Ops Platforms: Xbox 360, PS3, PC Publisher(s): Activision Developer(s): Treyarch Genre(s): Shooter Release Date: 10/12/2010 ESRB Rating: M (Mature) Price: $59.99 (USD)
Story “Go deep behind enemy lines in Call of Duty: Black Ops, and engage in covert warfare and classified operations across the globe.” [Via Xbox.com]
That description is literally all that can be told about the story of Call of Duty: Black Ops without giving too much away. In my opinion, this story is the best one out of all the recent Call of Duty games. The game starts off with the main character being interrogated and you play the entire game through a series of flash backs that come up in the interrogation. As you progress through the flash backs more of the story is revealed, until you reach the epic climax right near the end when everything suddenly makes sense.
Gameplay Singleplayer The singleplayer experience is great, and holds some of the best moments in this game. Sadly, in order to enjoy the full experience it is probably best to start off on an easier difficulty and then replay it on a harder setting. The reason for this is quite simple. If you start off on the hardest setting, it will take a while to progress through the game and the intricate story is deluded by having to do the same part of a mission over and over again. While key moments are still highlighted nicely, some of the dull moments in the game are quickly forgotten and they create blank spots within the overall story.
Since this game takes place around the time of the Vietnam war, most of the weapons are modern enough to feel awesome while still fitting into the time period. During Treyarch’s last game, I just couldn’t enjoy myself while using the ancient weapons that were supplied to you. Another key feature is that this game may take place during Vietnam, but it follows a covert group of soldiers who were told to do stuff in the background that the world never knew about. This feature lets Treyarch have fun with their game, while not worrying about staying historically accurate and also create an incredible story.
Infinite spawning enemies and a gameplay mechanic that is constantly pushing a player through the game ruins some of the fun within the singleplayer experience. While it is hardly noticeable on easier settings, the harder settings are full of these moments. The rushed feeling simply creates an experience that seems too quick and doesn’t let the player fully grasp where they are. This keeps the action constantly flowing, but also doesn’t give the player any breathing room.
Gameplay Multiplayer The multiplayer has been simplified and geared towards all players. While newcomers may have trouble jumping in at first, they can soon be on par with the higher level players. Everything is balanced pretty well, and the perk system has been redone in order to remove the overpowered perks. On the other hand, other aspects of multiplayer have been dulled down.
Everything costs money now. The money if Black Ops are called COD points, and are required to buy new weapons, new equipment, new perks, and basically everything else. Pretty much everything is available to you right in the beginning and you have to collect COD points by playing games in order to buy more stuff. There is a good and bad side to this. On the good side, you don’t have to wait for your favorite perk or equipment type and everyone can be on even ground but on the bad side nothing is unique. The reason nothing is unique is because everything is purchased, including the callsign designs and emblems. Certain things still require certain levels but a majority of it have been opened up and made available to everyone as long as they have the points to buy it. There is no longer a need to complete challenges, other than gaining bonus EXP.
Gambling is a new fun way to make points and experience. With wager matches and contracts, you can spend your own points in order for a chance to win larger amounts. Wager matches are little minigame type gametypes that don’t play like the normal multiplayer matches and have a certain special feature that makes them unique. These matches are fun and if you win you are able to receive a major payout that enables you to buy even more stuff. Contracts are small challenges that you buy. If you complete the contract you get bonus points and experience, but if you fail you lose the money you spent on the contract and don’t get anything out of it.
Black Ops has changed a lot of aspects online, and the sound has been dulled down as well. Nothing is hectic anymore and everything seems quite docile. As always camping is normal and actually made easier by some of the equipment, but the multiplayer still plays like a normal Call of Duty Multiplayer; except this time with a few more character customization options as well as new maps.
Gameplay Extras Black Ops has two extra game modes to offer. Zombie mode and Dead Ops Arcade. Both of these game modes are completely extra and have almost absolutely nothing to do with the actual game. Both also have you killing waves of zombies while staying alive, the only main difference is how you play them.
In the Zombie mode, you are thrown into a level by yourself or with up to 3 other friends and are tasked with surviving as many waves of zombies as possible. As you kill zombies you gain money, which lets you buy new weapons or open more of each level. The mode starts out slow, but as you advance in waves the zombies get increasingly harder and come in much larger ammounts. According to a few friends of mine, Zombie mode in Black Ops is much harder than the previous installment. The mode is fun and lets players get away from killing people online or being slaughtered a whole bunch in singleplayer.
The second mode is Dead Ops Arcade. This is a top down, dual stick shooter that tasks you with killing tons of zombies. You start out with a basic weapon, and as you progress through zombie waves you will get new weapons and upgrades that will help you kill more zombies. Between waves you travel to different zones and can sometimes stumble upon bonus rooms that have tons of gold and can raise your score greatly. The game is simple, yet enjoyable and acts as a special little hidden bonus mode that you have to unlock. The way you unlock it is hidden though, but it really isn’t that hard to discover. Along with this mode is a Text Based Adventure under the code name “Zork”, but I’m not exactly sure how that one works precisely.
Audio & Graphics The audio for some reason dies down and becomes dull when you venture into online multiplayer, but during the singleplayer experience the audio is spot on. For some reason, the audio doesn’t work properly in multiplayer and everything seems hushed and silenced. This is particularly noticeable while using the Ninja Perk. The perk is supposed to increase the volume of enemy footsteps but it doesn’t work properly. Other aspects of multiplayer simply don’t seem hectic enough, there is supposed to be 12 to 16 players but it just sounds like 1 or 2 fighting it out. Singleplayer on the other hand, has tons of explosions and the firefights sound epic and intense. On the other hand, if you die regularly you will end up hearing the same lines over and over again which gets incredibly annoying.
The graphics are split between Singleplayer and Multiplayer. Multiplayer has more graphical issues, but the reasons for it are pretty obvious. In order to keep lagg down, they have to reduce the detail in everything and that creates lousy textures and some pretty lame explosions. Singleplayer on the other hand, looks great and has tons of color in it to make it look good no matter where you are located at on the globe. While the graphical Issues are pretty minor, they are still present and at first seem odd until you get used to them. There is also severe lagg occasionally both online and offline when things become too hectic for the game to keep up.
Achievements
The achievement list is a nice list that rewards hard work and has you doing every part of the game. There are achievements for beating the singleplayer experience as well as beating the singleplayer experience on the hardest difficulty. There are also achievements for zombie mode, and then a few achievements that unlock by finding the secret extras in the game. The achievement list is nice, and rewards both casual players and completionists. There are now 45 intel, which is increased amount from earlier CoD variations. Overall, the achievement list is set at a nice difficulty and none of them are extremely difficult. Based on skill, the full points should be obtainable within a week or two (unless of course you get distracted by the multiplayer). The list is a pretty basic Call of Duty achievement list.
Overview While Call of Duty: Black Ops has a great story and a bunch of extras, the entire game feels dumbed down. The singleplayer AI are completely stupid, Infinite Enemy spawns and rushed moments hurt the singleplayer experience as a whole. The multiplayer also feels like it is missing something. Since everything is unlocked by reaching a specific level and then buying it with your cash, nothing feels unique. Everyone can get anything simply by reaching a specific level and then buying the item. Overall Black Ops feels like 4 different games packed into one, which creates something for everyone. Singleplayer is available for people who want a good solo experience, multiplayer is available for people who want to compete and play with friends, Zombie Mode is available for people who want to enjoy some good old fashioned zombie killing with friends, and Dead Ops Arcade is available for people who want a top down shooter experience without dropping the extra cash for one. There is tons to do, and all of them have their own strong points and their own weaknesses. While Treyarch still has a ways to go before they finally perfect a Call of Duty game, Black Ops is easily their best attempt yet.
I give Call of Duty: Black Ops
Since last week’s release of Sucker Punch’s Sly Cooper Collection, many fans of the series have been buzzing over a easter egg in the game that can be seen by apparently getting platinum status on the title. A silhouette of Sly is shown popping up in the clip with the words “Sly 4 ?” following.
This is a very interesting find as Sucker Punch have been busy working on Infamous 2 and while a few teases have been made in the past to mark the true return of Sly, this new footage certainly concretes that a sequel is imminent. I personally would love to see a new Sly Cooper game as we have been in a dry spell on the Playstation 3 for those titles and Sly fans should now have something to look forward to going into 2011. You can check out the footage below which was posted by Youtube user “tatermoog” and if any news rises from the base at Sucker Punch, we will be sure to let you know.
Remember Osmos? That game that simulates some form of Osmosis (get it now?) and you move a ball around the screen creating bigger balls until you have a really big ball? It is kind of like Feeding Frenzy, except with orbs of orbiness stuff.
But in all seriousness, the game was an Indiecade finalist last year, and actually has you playing as a celestial body trading off mass for movement (as you move you become smaller) and always trying to eat orbs bigger than you are (in order to become bigger again and get to move around). The game will be on sale on Games For Windows Live for $2.50 up until Wednesday of next week.
Indie Games don’t always get the coverage they deserve, and many times awesome indie games will fly right under the radar. Luckily Microsoft realizes this, and after making the huge mistake of hiding the indie marketplace they have fixed it and placed it somewhere more visible.
Now the “Indie Games Winter Uprising” is coming. A new developer-led initiative, calledIndie Games Winter Uprising, will hopefully shine even more light onto the indie marketplace and the many great games available there. According to the website (which is that link above) this timed promo will highlight many “great games” on the service with “prices as low as 80 to 400 Microsoft Points.”
This promotion will only last during the first week of December. Check it out, and hit up some of those awesome indie games.
Game Name: Faery: Legends of Avalon Platform(s): Xbox Live Arcade, PSNetwork, PC Publisher(s): Focus Home Interactive Developer(s): Spiders Studio Genre(s): Adventure, Role Playing Release Date: November 10th, 2010 (AUS) Price: 1200MSP US$15.00
It may not seem like much, but if you ever dreamt of reliving your childhood, or visiting some of those oft imagined fairy tails from some long forgotten dream, then French production house Spiders Studio may just have the game for you. Read on to find out how the legend of Avalon lives on in Faery.
GAMEPLAY
Publishers Focus Home Interactive, have a curious beast of a game on their hands with Spiders Studio breakthrough game Faery: Legends of Avalon. A gentle, charming game for the young at heart, it lends elements of role play, as well as text-adventure but also turn based combat more often seen in Japanese RPG. To be fair the whole concept is closer to the point and click adventures of days gone past, wrapped up in a loving art style and 3D animations- and yes, it is a game for girls.
I don’t think it is said often enough these days, but if there is one demographic for Faery it is young, or younger girls. Or perhaps a mother, daughter combo to help with all the reading. For reasons unknown, one can only assume budget; while the game sports some nice graphics- there is little to no voice acting or dialogue. Instead waves and waves of less than excellent English text. Playing as either an Elf or a Faery, the premise is simple as it is refreshing:
Magic has left the world(s) as man has moved outside of the realm of creatures and wishful thinking and slowly all the places that used to be full of such delight are being faded away into non-existence. The King has awoken you from your sleep to visit these worlds and find out why and how to stop the disappearance of all things magical. Played from the 3rd person view of a flying nymph, there are 5 worlds to visit, each based on a mythical or fairytale location.
The Sword in the Stone
Despite the fact that there is a lot of text to read through, and the turn based combat, while good- can be avoided entirely, Faery:Legends of Avalon does a number of unique things right. Weather or not you like the idea of playing as a pint sized creature, the perspective of the game is one of being very very small. It makes the game all the more interesting, when Seagulls can become ‘boss’ monsters and even small animals like ants are reasonably large. Playing through such imaginations as The Flying Dutchman or a giant Celtic tree of life brings new meaning, when you finally meet Humans and they are the size of the screen, trees and pirate ships come to life with the ability to literally fly to the top in between each and every leaf.
Another way, to spin it is, if you like the genre of high fantasy fiction then chances are you may just like this, but with a French twist all of it’s own. The production is obstinately European taking liberty with some of the best myths like the Flying Dutchmen, Oberon King of the forests and even Shakespeare and a number of other personality. Faery is not the longest game, padded out with some simple combat mechanics and a lot of side questing and although Spiders Studio obviously care about their IP the polish is not quite there.
Come fly with me
The constant flying, may take some getting used to, but for all intents and purpose it works well, despite an obvious lack of physics and animation. What is perhaps more dull than the tedious reading of so much text is the combat. There are 6 companions you can have at any one time, but swappable so that only 3 are ever in combat. As expected, enemies and AI take it in turn to attack each other, cause DPS and can buff with healing and magic.
Obviously, some care has been taken as there is a lot more depth than meets the eye, but Spiders have made it simple enough that everything fits into categories of Iron,fire,water,electricity and healing. Rather than actually level your character, you can assign “metamorphosis” to your character each level which includes additional wings, horns a tail or tattoos that buff and change the levels of your resistance or damage with the elements. This is not as compelling or smooth as Fable III and results in not much more than dress ups, with each enemy weaker to a different element.
Further more combat can mostly be avoided all together and this is where Spider Studios fall flat. As an arcade game, and with only 12 achievements, Faery: Legends of Avalon just doesn’t know where to sit. Each island area consists of a long list of fetch quests, reading copious amounts of poorly written English, until an area is clear and you move onto the next. Fighting has been included for those who want it, but the puzzles of combining objects to solve quests and consistently flying around can quickly become tedious for anyone over the age of 10. The levels themselves are rather small but well conceived with a beautiful art style.
GRAPHICS
You would think, that with a basic understanding of the English language and so much text, in-game the developers could have used spell check. Given the turn based nature of combat, at first glance you might be forgiven for thinking that this is a Jap-Euopean poorly translated port. Truly, within minuets of playing the spelling errors and grammar became apparent. Despite this, there is a very “cute” backwards manner in which all the creatures and magical beings speak.
The point about an adult being present, is well made though ,as not only will a youngster require someone to talk them through it, it may just be more enjoyable. The game is written like a bed time story, but hinges largely on better than average graphics.
The graphics employ cell shading over some detailed characters, with very unique and identified creatures including the half Human/Elk King and a large number of very small nymphs, gnomes, fairies, fawns and birds. As with other games that use this method though, issues arise with the cell shaded graphics and mix of low and high polygon models.
All the colours of the rainbow
Because of the nature of cell-shading; there is no brightness or contrast settings in the game. This can mean that at times the colours look either too dark or muddied as the dark outlines accent blurry or flat textures. The actual detail still exists in the models though, with uniquely crafted animals and AI partners. It may also be the first 3rd person game where you can swap your wings for butterfly, dragon fly or bird wings. Avalon is a very bright place for all intents and purposes and truly the more you play the game, the more you may fall in love with the levels. What starts out as a pretty average island level of sand and water, turns into a giant tree of mushrooms and little people living inside, where literally an intrepid explorer can fly up between each and every leaf.
Although the levels are rather small and can be traversed easily whilst flying, they stand as set pieces stereotyped into “the scary level” and “the desert level”. Again there are strong elements of Fable throughout and perhaps rightly so as the game was clearly designed in Europe. Clearly, Spiders Studio have put a lot of love into the game with well thought out levels and characters.
Further, and borrowing directly from other games like Mass Effect, all the text and dialogue can be either good (blue) or bad (red) resulting in less or more love from your friends. When they love you enough, things get awkward and then you are presented with a gift of armour or weapons. This copy and paste though of ideas is evident throughout the game, as there is never ever any incentive to say the “bad things” and at times, will result in being unable to complete missions (because the character hates you). In fact this is rather redundant and flawed gameplay mechanic smacks of Spiders trying to do too many things at once.
It would have been nice, if Spiders put some more effort into combat animation and effects for Faery, as well as cleaned up the dialogue and love/hate idea, rather than taking them on as an afterthought. Clearly it wants to be a game for young children, but tries to balance some more ‘grown up’ ideas in with mixed results.
SOUND
In a game like Faery, sound is relative, as one could argue the game is rooted squarely in either text based or point and click adventures. With that in mind, the insistent lack of dialogue or any voice acting is forgivable; however given the rest of the production perhaps music and effects, is not.
If there is particular music for combat or even a game theme tune, it is hardly remembered as the most obvious sound comes from the beating of your wings. This can in fact get rather annoying, but eventually tunes out to other noises like the birds and grunts of animals. To be fair, it is hard to fault Faery for not having ‘sound’ as this is obviously a deliberate and “artistic” choice. It works to focus the senses on reading the text and looking at all the pruurdy graphics. Anyone young enough to be interested may get bored, but may just skip all the text anyway.
VALUE
If you measure value, by the sheer size of file then Faery: Legends of Avalon is an afternoon delight. Weighing in at under 1GB there is a lot of full 3D graphical bang for your buck. On top the game lasts for anywhere between 10-15hrs, although as stated it is quite possible to get very bored long before you finish it. There are 12 achievements standard and a price point of 1200MSP which is reasonable considering the quality on offer. That said, try before you buy because the game really is not for everyone and only those who know exactly what to expect should consider purchasing. Also, sadly Spiders have not included any avatar awards: To dress up your Avatar like, well, a Faery.
CONCLUSION
When an unknown studio tries, at least tries to emulate some of the great gameplay from today: including evolving characters, cell shading, good/bad dialogue options and even turn based fighting- props to them. Inidi production crews deserve all the compliments for taking an idea and running with it. Unfortunately, the core of Faery really lies in the innocent nature of storytelling and text quests and does not need the added confusion of combat and “role playing” and romance. Someone should tell Spiders Studio that it is ok to make games for girls and ok to make games for children.
A lovingly crafted game, that is bigger than the sum of it’s own ideas, an enchanting tale but one that may ultimately- put you to sleep.
Two lousy days* is all that separates us. Two days until we can bring freedom. Two days until we bring victory. Two days for glory. Two days for unity. Two days until we can stab some corrupt villains in the back. Two days to take back Rome with some old school tanks. I ask the villians of Rome, “Is two days enough to settle your affairs? You know you won’t be taking care of anything for awhile.”
