Oddworld’s Abe hitting PSN: Oct 21st 2009!

It is the year of classics and nothing makes me happier than to reveal that the smooth-talking, wind-breaking, cheeky little Mudokon known to the world as Abe, is making an appearance on the Playstation 3 store this Autumn.

That’s right folks! The two games that made Abe the protagonist you love to play, are heading they way to PSN on October 21st 2009 – So spread the word and get yourself ready!

Originally released in 1997, Oddworld: Abe’s Oddysee is a game about slavery, homocide and fart jokes. You play Abe, a poor little Mudokon who has been enslaved and forced to work at Rupture Farms (the biggest meat processing plant on Oddworld) for a mean ol’ Glukkon. Upon chance you discover that your life is in danger, along with those of your Mudokon brethren, and it is up to you to escape the clutches of evil while ensuring you rescue as many of your fellow Mudokon slaves as you do so.

The sequel to the multi-award winning game Abe’s Oddysee is another multi-award winning game, Oddworld: Abe’s Exoddus. Released in 1998, Exoddus sees our lovable hero Abe heading off on another mission to stop those evil Glukkons once again. More enslaving has been had, but this time the Glukkons are intent on using Mudokon bones and tears to create their top-selling product, Soulstorm Brew.

For those gamers who just can’t wait that long to pick up and play Oddworld: Abe’s Oddysee and Oddworld: Abe’s Exoddus, they are both available now on Steam for download. They are priced 4.99 GBP individually, or you can pick up the Oddworld package for 7.99 GBP.

And if THAT hasn’t tickled your Oddworld-bone, than I know what will. A little birdy told me today that, “Rupture Farms is turning on the lights again!”. Take it how you want, but after last year’s announcement of a new President taking on Oddworld Inhabitants, we here at VGR Network are definitely getting our hopes up of seeing Abe gracing our gaming world once again.

Keep your eyes peeled and your hands off of my Soulstorm Brew!

Wolfenstein

Overview

 

Title: Wolfenstein

Release Date:18th August 2009 (NA), 19th August 2009 (AU), 20th August 2009 (EU)

Developer/Publisher: Raven Software, id Software, Pi Studios & Endrant Studios / Activision

Genre: First Person Shooter

Platform[s]: Microsoft Windows (PC), Xbox 360, Playstation 3

Storyline

 

The SS Paranormal Division (based loosely on the Ahnenerbe) are back in full swing and so are you Agent Blazkowicz (aka B.J). You’ve conquered Return to Castle Wolfenstein, so now it is time to take control of your sequel, Wolfenstein, and stop those damned Nazis and their supernatural ways….again.

The tale begins when you come to hold a special medallion of great unusual power. You are sent deep undercover to the town of Isenstadt to learn more about what you discovered. Your cover is quickly blown and you soon release that the town has been overrun by your German foe who are intent on obtaining powerful crystals that are needed to access the “Black Sun”. Thankfully you have allies in many shapes and forms in Wolfenstein; the Kreisau Circle, a group of resistance fighters who want the Nazis out of Isenstadt; the Golden Dawn, a collection of scholars who study the occult and hand their knowledge of the “Black Sun” and the “Veil” over to you; the Black Market, a self-explanatory band who are useful when you need to purchase upgrades and ammo.

It is up to you, Agent B.J, to help free fictional German town of Isenstadt from the clutches of the Nazis, their inhuman creations, and to put an end the madness, once and for all.

Gameplay

 

Single-player

Wolfenstein is a very smooth first-person shooter. At lot of FPS games can feel quite stunted in movement and feel very “sluggish”, but like the top games of out shooting generation (name Call of Duty), Wolfenstein is very much up there. You can freely explore the town of Isenstadt through scaling walls, jumping across rooftops, exploring the sewers, sneaking through houses or just walking the streets with your gun at the ready.

Isenstadt is very much the main area of the game. As you progress through the story you are loaded onto vehicles and cast off (through the powers of a loading screen) to a variety of locations such as a dig site, a church, a hospital, a farm, the SS Headquarters, a Paranormal base, a General’s home, an airfield and a large Zeppelin. All of which are very linear-based and generally “Get from Point A to Point B to achieve Objective X”.

Wolfenstein offers up an arsenal of eight weapons, five of which you will find in the history books, three of which are supernatural and, unfortunately, non-existent in the real world. The history-book weapons include an MP40, an MP43, the Kar98k (my personal fave), a Panzershreck and the Flammenwerfer. The fictional weapons include a Particle Cannon, a kick-arse Tesla Gun and the Leichenfaust 44 – the ultimate weapon of destruction and mayhem.

Aside from your array of weaponry, you also hold the Thule Medallion. Through this you can enter the Veil, a barrier between our dimension and the elusive “Black Sun” dimension that your Nazi adversaries want to master so badly. With this you are given four new abilities, which unlock as you progress throughout the game and that can be upgraded through collecting material that I will explain later and heading to the Black Market to part with your hard-earned gold.

Veil Sight – The ability to see hidden pathways, doorways and secret treasures. Once upgraded you can also see through walls.

Mire - A very useful skill that allowed you to slow down time.

Shield - Very handy to have when up against a wave of bullets. Once upgraded those bullets will bounce back.

Empower - This talent gives you a significant increase in the damage caused by your weapons.

All of the above will become very important to you once you realise just the type of enemy you are up against as you move through Wolfenstein. Gone are the days of taken on just human soldiers, you are now facing a powerful army of specialised foe. There are assassins, who are invisible; scribes. who can shield themselves and non-supernatural soldiers, and large brutes wielding powerful weapons (which you can pick up upon killing them).

The pack-rats of the gaming world will love the collecting aspect of Wolfenstein. Throughout Isenstadt and the various other locations you must conquer, there will be Intel, Gold and Tomes of Power for you to find. Gold is an obvious collectable and without it you would not be able to upgrade your weapons/powers and purchase ammo when needed. Intel provides you an interesting background to the story, plus weapon unlocks. Tomes of Power unlock Veil upgrades.

Multiplayer

Eight multiplayer maps are offered up with three modes for you to choose from.

Objective - You have an attacking team and a defending team. The one on the offensive has to achieve certain objectives to win.

Stopwatch - Both sides take turns in trying to complete the listed objectives, the team that does it in the least amount of time wins.

Team Deathmatch -  You should all know this one by now. Team A versus Team B – Have at it!

There are three classes available, the Soldier, the Medic and the Engineer. Each class has a specific role to fill, such as the Engineer who can rig/disarms bombs. Each class also have their own Veil Powers, for example the Medic has the “Healing Aura”, which would replace “Mire” which is found in the single-player. Your weapons and Veil Powers can be upgraded the more you play the MP side of Wolfenstein and the more experience you earn (which is converted into money).

As for playing as a Nazi or a Resistance Fighter? It does not really matter as there are no noticeable differences between the two sides, which is very disappointing to say the least. Each side has the same weapons and the same classes. I would be a lot more excited if the developers decided to mix things up a little and give each side something unique.

Graphics

 

The single-player graphics are very much on par with what we picky gamers demand from our games these days. I have to admit I was not expecting this, but from the moment I had control of Agent B.J, I was very impressed. Nothing is jagged or pixelated, running water looks very realistic and even affects your vision if you stand underneath a stream of it. The physics are top-notch in the SP side of the game and really add to how impressive this game is.

Wolfenstein’s environment has great attention to detail and you really feel as though you are in a war torn German town. From the multitude of propaganda posters through the town to destroyed tanks scattered throughout, you can tell that the developers really put effort into creating a believable world.

There is a downside to the pretty eye-candy. I found that the game could be a tad laggy at times, even the loading screen would lag ever so slightly on occasion. This is easily overcome however by downloading the game to your hard drive. I had no lag issues with the single-player of Wolfenstein, and it’s purdy graphics, once I’d it was on my 360’s hard drive. I cannot comment on the PC/PS3 versions of the game.

Having read the above praise, you may be saddened to hear that the amazing graphics of Wolfenstein do not carry over to the multiplayer. The quality drops significantly and your world suddenly becomes very blurred and quite choppy. Unfortunately we are not going to see an improvement in the look and feel of the multi-player as the team behind it was quickly laid off soon after it’s release.

Audio

 

I am always very nervous when it comes to voice acting in games as it can be the make or break for a title. Thankfully the voice actors hired did good and Wolfenstein has successfully jumped a difficult hurdle. You have a mixture of accents throughout the game – American, German (speaking German & speaking English) and Russian. All NPCs will talk back to you, when you are in a group there will be commands shouted out to you and even the Intel you pick up has a voice over, which was a nice surprise and adds a nice element to the game.

As for the musical score? There is nothing noteworthy about the music of Wolfenstein, which is a shame. I really enjoy games which have a soundtrack that will create anger, instil fear into you and get your heart racing. Although I love the work of Bill Brown, of Rainbow Six and CSI: New York fame, there is a lack of atmosphere from the music. It can really get lost in the background and is very unnoticeable.

Overall & Replayability

 

I have to admit, I did not get my hopes up with Wolfenstein, but I was pleasantly surprised and will be the first to say that it is a very enjoyable game. The single-player is sexy, smooth and perfect for any FPS fan looking for a solid game to get their teeth into.

Wolfenstein was severely let down by it’s lack of attention to the multi-player aspect, but all it needed to do was look at any Call of Duty review to realise that multi-player is extremely important nowadays.

 

As for the achievements/trophies? They are pretty typical of the latest FPS games – Kill W amount of people using X weapon or in Y fashion, complete campaign in Z mode, and so on and so forth. The achievements seem split 50/50 between the single player campaign mode and the online multiplayer.

In conclusion, a very solid single-player FPS game which I would recommend to any FPS fan (or lover of the Wolfenstein series), but do not purchase if you are looking for a game to jump online with.

The Hazards of Dating a Gamer: Love At First Frag

It’s every nerds dream and it is one that many social-networking sites have built their empires around. Gamers dating Gamers. In theory, and sometimes in practice, the relationship between two gaming geeks can be a truly marvellous act of passion and love. Like getting that first headshot or finally dinging 80. However, there are many occasions where having a gamer for a partner is not something of hope, fun or joy.

Today we are going to be looking at the dangers that can arise in choosing a fellow gamer as your beloved and the issues you may face at the beginning of your relationship.

Endurance Training 101

Congratulations! You have passed the first major hurdle and have managed to attract yourself a gamer girl or a gamer boy. You didn’t screw it up and are on your way to living the dream, busy Twittering about your new love like there isn’t a 140 word limit. Your phone rings and it’s a very excited person who is clearly full of The Squee on the other end of the line. It takes you a few moments to realise who it is. After your little gaming superstar has managed to find time to breathe, you realise that they are squealing about the sequel that has just been announced for their All Time Favourite Game Ever.

The game that you absolutely detest.

You feign interest, trying to hide the sound of that frown on your face, and ask when the release date is. Your real-life-emoticon drops from a 0-bracket to a 9-bracket when you are informed that you have are going to have to endure another 18 months of this kind of conversation. That’s a year and a half of hearing about a game you cannot even pretend to like at gunpoint. And that’s if you’re lucky enough. Most games nowadays get delayed. Unfortunately, you are not a lucky person. Remember what died on you the day before the release of Bioshock and you had to beg your best friend to borrow theirs just so you could get some game time in?

You sigh and resign yourself to your fate.

This is what you get for dating a gamer.

Performance Gaming

It’s game time and you have settled yourself down for a good long session on your favourite multiplayer. You have re-stocked your drink supply and you’ve just got back from the toilet. Your headset is all plugged in and you’ve hooked up with your gaming buddies online; the game is about to start. That’s when a message pops up: “Hey baby, can I join you?”. Now you are all for gaming with your lovely partner, the only problem tonight is you are slightly inebriated and this is the first time your gaming god-or-goddess has played a competitive game with you. That means you’ve got to impress, and impress you shall.

Ten minutes in and you are throwing down all your cards and playing all of your top moves. Your adrenaline is pumping like a true gamer, you are doing everything you can to stay on top and keep yourself in the limelight. You just know that your partner’s silence over chat is a clear sign of them sitting there in complete and utter awe of you.

Mission accomplished.

Life is good.

Or so you think. Lets take a look at it from the other side of the screen, shall we?

You log on one evening to see your love online with a group of other gamers. You send a quick message to them to see if it’d be okay for you to join. You are considerate like that. Naturally, they say yes. Game time begins and you start to focus on the job at hand. You try to remember if you’ve ever played this game together, but while you are pondering this, you are rudely interrupted by your partner shouting in your ear “WHOO! ALRIGHT! YEAAAAH!”. Snapped out of your recent reflection, you get back into the game. And that’s when you start to slowly shrink back into your chair, embarrassed of your beloved’s behaviour.

“DID YOU SEE THAT BABY? DID YOU?”

“OHNOOHNOOHNOOOOOOO!”

“AHAHAHAHA! THAT’S WHAT YOU GET FOR COMING UP AGAINST ME MOFO!”

“BRING IT AWWWN!”

You are left completely speechless. Everyone else in chat have gone quiet and all that can be heard is YOUR partner making a fool of themselves. You sit there hoping that they do not act like this with people IRL and certainly not when you host that LAN party next week.

You do something that you have never done before in this relationship.

You face-palm.

This is what you get for dating a gamer.

Quality Time Together

Picture the scene, if you will. The lights have been dimmed, there is a sweet melody playing the background – two love birds sitting in front of an open fire, gazing into one another’s eyes with candles dancing seductively around the room.. And then your partner asks if you could stop playing your new JRPG and come spend quality time with them.

To a gamer “quality time” generally means “All of my games are boring me right now and I need entertaining.”

The plus side of dating a gamer means they are really understanding when it comes to all things games-related. Be it queuing up outside a store from 12 midnight for the launch of a new game, to purchasing a game they know nothing about on a whim because “the cover looks good”.

The down side to dating a gamer is the high chance of them catching what we in the industry call “gaming mojo burnout”. This horrible condition is when a gamer’s poor mojo has been driven to it’s limits by an influx of fantastic games, so much so that all of a sudden, out of nowhere, they can’t find something to play. The same way an artist or a writer will sit and stare at a blank page, these poor gamers spend hours just sitting and looking at their pile of games feeling lost.  The lucky gamers out there only ever find their gaming mojo gone maybe once every few years, others will be burnt out every six months.

So now it is up to you. You must re-kindle your partner’s gaming mojo or face the prospect of endless nights of: “What do you want to do?” “I dunno, what do you want to do?” “I’m not fussy, I’ll do whatever you want to do.” and so on and so forth.

You run to your computer to find your “thinking cap” which is in the shape of a website you find all of your gaming news from. There you spend hours trying to get your partner interested in upcoming game releases. You’re waving your arms around, you’re speaking in a higher voice than normal and you’re practically bouncing on the chair in a bid that some of your excitement will rub off of them.

After you have exhausted all of your brain power online you move onto the idea of co-op games and throw yourself into setting up a session you can both get involved in. You are the perfect team mate, letting them take the lead and giving words of encouragement every 30 seconds in a desperate hope that your gamer geek would take the bait and get back to their happy-go-gaming-self.

And when all else fails you offer to buy your pouting partner a brand new game of their choice.

“Well…” they say with their eyes suddenly coming back to life, “There is one game..”

And just like that, the mojo has been resurrected. You may now pat yourself on your back, you have successfully averted disaster. Although you have just lost a good chunk of cash.

This is what you get for dating a gamer.

The Present Question

There are many occasions throughout the year that generally require you to purchase a gift of some sort for your significant other. Birthdays, Valentines Day, Christmas.. All of these holidays generally mean you need to head into the nearest town centre and hunt down the perfect present.

So there you are, standing at the entrance of the mall, desperately trying to think of what to buy your gamer geek. Clothing? Crap, you forgot their size. DVD? Nah, might as well torrent that. And then it hits you – A video game. Duh. You click your heels with glee and run off to the nearest game store. Now it’s up to you to pick the right game for your gaming god/goddess. And it doesn’t matter who you are or how long you have been with your partner, the first game you pick up will ALWAYS be something that YOU would play. You hold it in your hands, you pause. You re-think your choice and move onto the next shelf. Rinse and repeat about nine or ten times until you return to the original shelf where you hover around the game you picked up first.

“Yeah.. Yeah they’ll enjoy this. I can totally see them getting into this.” you convince yourself. In your head you are picturing your sweetheart gaming their little heart out on the game in your hand and then, for a brief second, you see yourself playing it too.

Money exchanges hands and you skip out of the store with a spring in your step. “I’ve bought the best present ever!” you sing to yourself internally.

And that, my dear friends, is how I ended up with a copy of Onechanbara: Bikini Samurai Squad for my 21st birthday.

Yes, the hack ‘n slash samurai game with half-naked women with their ill-fitting clothing and their big bouncy boobies. I spent about five minutes playing it before I returned to F.E.A.R 2.

But that’s what I get for dating a gamer.

—

I hope you enjoyed the article, and I look forward to hearing your stories about you ‘n your gaming girl/boyfriend.

The Hazards of Dating a Gamer: Part 2- Coming Soon!

TGS 09: Final Fantasy XIII Gameplay Montage!

New gameplay footage for the upcoming Final Fantasy game from Square-Enix has just hit the net and it’s in the shape of a summoning montage. Shiva and Odin are back baby, although this time things have changed.

Shiva, the ice summon, can be seen spinning tyres and unleashing some seriously frosty firepower onto her foe. Yeah, you read the first part right. Shiva, the biker goddess!

Odin, the not-so-headless-horseman, has lost his head.. and apparently the rest of his body too. The fearsome fighter is now a stampeding steed which you can climb aboard and utilise in battle.

And if you thing I’m talking a load of Odin manure, just take a look for yourself.

TGS 09: New Assassins Creed 2 Gameplay Footage

Assassins Creed 2 is the game of 2009 for me and it has yet to even be released. With every new screenshot and video I get more and more excited about the prospect of holding this game within my hands.

Only 57* more days to go!

*54 if you live in North America, you lucky sods.

Peggle Nights: Coming Soon, and exclusively, to Xbox Live Arcade!

PopCap Games, the developer and publisher of the highly additive game Peggle have just announced that it’s sequel,

Peggle Nights, will be released for Xbox Live Arcade later on this year in the form of DLC.

So in view of that announcement, we’d also like to say that we’ll be shutting down VGR from the time of release until the next Peggle game hits our boxes!

…

Just kidding!

New Xbox Live Arcade Announcements!

It’s buzzing at this years Tokyo Game Show and Microsoft have just announced a number of new and exciting releases that are coming soon to an Xbox near you! These include; “Toy Soldiers,” “Snoopy Flying Ace,” “Bomberman Live: Battlefest”, “0 Day Attack on Earth” and “Ray Storm HD.”

Snoopy Flying Ace

Snoopy Flying Ace takes addictive, fast-paced airborne combat to new heights, with solo and co-op challenges that will test your skills against the Flying Circus of the dreaded Red Baron. Remember, it ain’t the size of the dog in the fight … it’s the size of the fight in the dog! – via Xbox.com

Toy Soldiers

Toy Soldiers is a strategy-based game where you’re cast into a fantastic, miniature world where antique toy soldiers fight for survival using an exciting arsenal of weapons including tanks, fighter planes, and flame throwers in vintage WWI dioramas.

Developed by Signal Studios exclusively for Xbox 360, you can commandeer the action or sit back and watch as your assembled troops defend the area before the enemy storms over the top! Integrating multiple game genres, soldiers can fight on their own, or be controlled from a third-person mode. The game features more than 50 unique units across two distinct armies, as well as drivable tanks and flyable planes and zeppelins. – via Xbox.com

More information on these upcoming Xbox Live Arcade games is coming soon, straight from Japan! Keep watching!

Batman: Arkham Asylum Second DLC Pack not available in North America?

We are going to have ourselves a lot of unhappy Xbox 360 owners from the US today as Eidos announces “Prey in the Darkness”, the second DLC pack for the hit game Batman: Arkham Asylum is going to be a Playstation 3 exclusive in North America. The content is available for download from today, Sept 24th, and is FREE.

On a more positive note (sorta), Prey in the Darkness will be available to PS3 and Xbox 360 users in Europe. Phew!

As of yet there has been no official explanation given for the PS3 exclusive to our neighbours across the ocean, but we are going to keep a close eye on this one.

Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell: Conviction – Release Date Announced!

Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell: Conviction is due for release on the 23rd of February 2010 according to the spiffy new trailer released a TGS 09.

If you don’t believe me, take a look for yourself.

Left 4 Dead 2: Demo release date & new footage!

Over a the EA’s TGS (Tokyo Game Show) press event tongues are already wagging and Valve’s lead designer, Kimberely Swift, has announced that Xbox 360 and PC gamers who have pre-ordered Valve’s next big hit will be able to downloaded the demo next month, on October 27th.

So you had better get those pre-orders in now folks!

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