As a fan of God of War, I was surprised when I learned that
Kratos’ adventures didn’t end with the third. Now I’m ecstatic to see something
never done before for the series—multiplayer. What does this mean for GoW fans?
It could mean that you may finally stick it to that friend who says they’re
better than you. But this could also open up the series to new gamers who will
play this and consider taking a step back to the previous releases just to get
up to speed. However, Santa Monica Studios is going up against other
multiplayers especially recent titles such as Call of Duty and the upcoming
Halo 4. On the other hand, this is happening for a series that hardly anyone
thought to go multiplayer. Plus, this move keeps God of War fresh and with so
many games offering online play, how could Santa Monica resist?
Even though it is still in the early stages, the proposed
multiplayer scene which features four Spartan warriors taking on a giant
Cyclops is impressive. I hope this number gets raised. Sony Santa Monica is
really upping the gore factor for this edition (look out Mortal Kombat). And the amount of detail in this little
snipet shows that they are planning to use the full capabilities of the PS3.
This just a sneak peak! Imagine what the finished product will look like.
First off, let me say that I’m glad that Kratos will soon be back in action. There was no way
Santa Monica Studios could let his adventure end with the cliffhanger left by God of War 3.
Seeing this reveal trailer begs the question of how are they going to top part 3? As awesome as
GoW 3 was, I can’t imagine how Santa Monica Studios can better themselves. Releasing the
two PSP games helped keep the Spartan in the lime light and a graphic novel written by a New
York Times bestselling author gave us a behind the scene look at the first game. It seems Athena
may still be present in this sequel. I wouldn’t be surprised if she is. Sony will release more
information as it becomes available and I’ll be keeping track of it.
Platform(s): Playstation 3, Xbox 360 Developer(s): CyberConnect 2, Capcom Publisher(s): Capcom Genre: Action Rating: T
Looking for a good action game? Then take a look at Asura’s Wrath. You are Asura, one of the Eight Guardian Generals, godly warriors who fight to protect Heaven and Earth from a destructive force known as the Gohma. Returning from an epic battle, Asura is summoned to the Emperor’s throne where he discovers the Emperor has been slain. He quickly finds himself being pursued by Imperial Guards after he blamed for the crime. Asura rushes home to protect his family only to find his wife dead and daughter, Mithra, kidnapped. His former ally, a god named Deus, reveals himself to be the Emperor’s assassin. Enraged, Asura attacks Deus for his betrayal, but Deus gains the upper hand and tosses the beaten Asura off the platform and falls to the Earth.
Twelve millennia pass and Asura finally escapes the underworld to discover that his former comrades have used his daughter’s power to amplify their godly abilities. Asura swears to rescue his child and nothing will stand in his way.
Right off the bat, you are thrown into an epic battle that takes place high above the Earth. Taking control after the opening cut-scene, you unleash Asura’s powers upon the enemy horde attacking the Imperial Armada. The target mechanic allows you to attack several enemies at once. Place several cursors across the screen and Asura will launch a powerful attack that will damage all his foes. The scene is something out of Star Wars with an armada of giant spaceships locked in an orbital dog fight with lasers blazing. Asura’s Wrath is a straight forward beat ‘em up action game that is on tier with other hack-and-slash titles like Devil May Cry and God of War. Your weapons are your fists and a lot of pent up rage. Combat in the game is done mostly through contact-sensitive sequences. Press the button at the right time for the best score. You’ll spend most of your time building up Asura’s Boost Meter that will grant him extra strength when activated. This is mostly used as a finishing move.
PRO: The action in Asura’s Wrath goes over the top especially in the boss battles. I was impressed with the game’s opening cinematic, wasting no time throwing me to the wolves during a climactic battle much like Bayonetta’s opener. And the larger-than-life Dragon Ball Z inspired boss battles are truly something. The first boss battle is against the weakest of the Seven Deities, Asura’s former comrades. Asura fights against this mountain sized titan until the god releases the power stolen from Mithra. The boss grows to planet-sized proportions. My immediate reaction, after making a Transformers-The Movie reference, was ‘I gotta fight that?!’ Imagine my surprise after witnessing a man-sized god defeat his planet-sized adversary by attacking his finger that covered an entire country. This scene truly sells the size this god has achieved. CyberConnect 2, the same company behind the Naruto Ultimate Ninja Storm series, left no attention to detail unchecked in the design of the characters and epic battle scales.
CON: However, the game’s strength is also its weakness. Though Asura’s Wrath is chock full of action, it wasn’t varied enough to truly satisfy. The enemy sets were minimal, maybe six to seven at one time on-screen, when compared to the aforementioned titles. If Asura was supposed to be in an all-out battle, it would’ve been more pleasing to see him take hordes of foes or several enemy sets. Granted that ending the scenario by activating the Boost Meter is an option and enemies continue to spawn if you don’t, I would’ve liked it to be a part of normal gameplay instead of putting spawning enemy sets on the back burner. Ok, we all know cut-scenes tell the story otherwise, you’ll have no idea what’s going on. Asura’s Wrath is no different except they use too many of them. I like how each chapter is set up as if you watching an anime but most of these chapters are told through cut-scenes. There’s a cut-scene followed by a bunch of fighting, another cut-scene, more fighting, rise and repeat until the epic boss battle. I can deal with the storytelling but I would’ve preferred the scenes to be a bit shorter; some run for nearly three minutes, a couple times the scene was almost four minutes, before you get back to the action.
OVERALL: Despite all that, Asura’s Wrath is still an enjoyable game with intense action, out-of-this-world battles against the gods and a raging avenger that will even make Kratos cower in his sandals. Asura’s Wrath gets 3 out of 5. See you on the next level, Brian M.
Thanks to gamer "Safer Sephiroth VII", we are blessed with a "Final Fantasy XIII-2" demo strategy guide to help the new and old RPG fans who happen to be curious about the world of "Final Fantasy XIII-2". How in-depth is it? Trust me when I say you will fully understand how the game plays!!
We have now come to the end of the year and we have seen the best the industry has had to offer. Now, we must decide, what were the games this year that really pushed the industry forward, what made us say wow, what will we still be playing for years to come. Ladies and gentleman, let us begin.
Sound Design:
The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim
In gameplay you can actually use the sounds in the game to locate bad guys, make yourself harder to find, make enemies investigate curious noises, and identify what’s running toward you, trying to eat you (bears and wolves announce themselves from a ways off, dragons shout challenges, skeletons rattle like old bones should) . All this plus weapons unsheathing have different sounds (which change based on which enchantments you place on them), arrow’s impacts sound differently based on what they hit, and no loud annoying click announcing that you just scrolled through a menu. Games like this are the reason people bother to hook their consoles up to surround sound.
Graphics:
L.A. Noire
If you really read the above description, you would have to know why this game had to win this award. The facial motion capture improvements used in this game really put people to shame. This was the first time that a game really fooled me into believing that what was moving on the screen wasn’t just normal mapping and pixels, but human flesh, muscle, and skin. There were prettier games this year (Battlefield 3, Uncharted 3, arguably Crysis 2) but this game has now reset the bar for facial animation in engine (that is to say, not a cutscene) and their advances will no doubt disseminate into the rest of the industry.
Best RPG
The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim
Multiple main storylines, interesting NPCs, almost unlimited builds and play styles possible, and more enemies than you can shake a six foot glass warhammer at. This game is quite possibly going to be the Final Fantasy VII of its console generation, the new official heavyweight champion of RPGs. And its not from Japan! Bad news though: not that many hot chicks to cosplay as (except Aela).
Best Mulitplayer
Super Street Street Fighter 4 AE 2012 Ed
Yeah, I went there. Call me a fanboy, but when you look out over that room, and all you see are faces of people who paid through the nose, and waited forever in line just to sit (or mostly stand) and watch people play a game, you have to give props. Ask yourself this, have you ever cheered while watching someone play a FPS like this roomful of people cheer while watching Daigo play?
Don’t get me wrong, Mortal Kombat 9 has more players, and lets not even talk about MW3, but the design of Street fighter really does allow for great multiplayer fun through the integration of big comeback moves (Ultras), enhanced moves that significantly change the characters abilities for a moment, the ability to save your online matches to watch again in the future, spectator mode, and mostly lag free online. Plus, at high level, the game is still fun to watch: not just who gets first hit wins, or who picks Bob first, or who has the best near-infinite combo. Now that Yun, Yang, and Fei have been put in their places after the new update, we should have some great matches for the next year.
Best Shooter
Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare 3
Think of a big Hollywood movie. Got it? This game made more money than it. How about a book? Still more money. Game? Same answer. CD or record of your favorite artist or group? Not Even close. In the first day of sales, MW3 sold $400 million plus, and in a week, blew right past $1 billion. And guess what, the game ain't bad either. Kinda settled the MW3 vs. Battlefield argument right there, huh?
Best Fighting Game
Mortal Kombat
While Street Fighter is traditionally always the better gameplay-wise, Mortal Kombat has been more fun. And while Mortal Kombat once again borrowed heavily from its fighting game counterparts (Ultra vs X-ray, Enhanced vs Ex, 2d gameplay with 3d characters, Tekken juggle system and four limb control…), the package they came up with is well, fun. With the challenge tower, and deep story mode, Mortal Kombat even added value for people who didn’t have friends. Granted, at high levels, the game basically becomes less about fun, and more about meter management, first hits, and 40 to 60% combos (yeah, really); but really, who didn’t want to watch Kratos fight Freddy Kruger?
Game of the Year
The game of the year is not the game that had the best graphics, although they were pretty good. It’s not the game that sold the most copies, although it did ship more than $450 million worth of copies in the first week. It’s not the game with the best multiplayer or co-op, because it has neither of them. If there was an award for most ridiculous glitches, it would win easily. This is game of the year, because it exceeded what we at J1 Studios thought was possible to do in a game. It won because there will never be a good reason to trade it in. It won because it simply blew everything out of the water as far as sound design, attention to detail, story, and depth of gameplay.
Our Game of the Year is The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim.
Here’s how it broke down for the top ten list of 2011 GOTY Nominees (and conveniently, the last ten games for 25 Days of Begging)
Well, we’re
winding down to the last few weeks of begging and chances are you have already
offended everyone you know with your incessant chatter about what presents
you’d like for Christmas. But soldier on! How else do you expect to be able to
get everything on your list? The trick is to nag them to the point that they
give in and buy you everything you want just to shut you up. And that’s okay:
who needs real friends when you have electronic ones? And just so you know, this
is the last set of five before the J1Studios.com Game of The Year top ten list.
And yes there will be surprises!Everyone loves suprises.
15. Mortal Kombat 9
Mortal Kombat came
up 1000% since its last outing. They set a new standard for story mode for a
fighting game, brought the series into the new millennium with a fighting
system made for high level play, and really upgraded the graphics with the
additions of x-rays and visible damage. And some of the fatalities are just
silly (link). If you don’t have this game yet, it’s a must
buy. Or I’ll send Reptile over to give you a kiss.
14.Ico and Shadow of the Colossus
HD
Sometimes you need
to play a game that doesn’t just consist of shooting people in the face,
curbstomps, and mindless violence. There’s were real gaming art lies: story,
art, design, and interactivity all coming together to make an experience that
moves the player. A great example of that sort of game is the Ico and the
Shadow of the Colossus HD Collection. As you play these games, you encounter
characters you care about, story lines that engage you, and game play that is
just amazing. Not having a game like this in your collection you are really
missing out on a major portion of the gaming industry.
13. Deus Ex: Human Revolution
This game is purdy
darn fun. You have multiple ways of story progression, multiple ways of
defeating your enemies, and multiple endings. It’s one of the few shooting
games in which you literally don’t have to shoot anyone, outside of cutscenes.
Granted there are a few issues, but there’s nothing that should keep this from
showing up on your list.
12. Catherine
In one of the
deluxe versions of this game, Atlus sends you a copy of underwear, a t-shirt
for your lovely lady to wear as pajamas (or I guess you could wear it too, but
trust me, you won't look as good), a pillowcase, and a pizza box. Everything
you need for a night out. Persona Team has ever come out with anything that
hasn't been hot, and Catherine is definitely a game worth grabbing. Just make
sure you're faithful to your girl or it will turn you into a sheep-man, and
have a screaming baby try to kill you.
11.Super Street Fighter 4 Arcade Edition
Without a
question, Street Fighter is the franchise that innovated the fighting game to something
enduring that we actually want to play. If it wasn't for Ryu, then there would
be no Morrigan, Fulgore, Marstorius, Jack the Ripper, Joe Higashi, or
Scarlette. Street Fighter has continued to be a frontrunner in innovating the
fighting game genre, and is still the ruler to which we hold everything up to.
That said, if
you're a serious fighting game guy, and you have been kicking around the idea
of getting AE, but just haven't pulled the trigger yet, or if you're holding
out because a character you like got nerfed, the 2012 update just came out
(free), so the balancing and little details are worth taking a look into.
Honorable
Mentions
Blaz Blu Continuum Shift 2
Until Guilty Gear
makes Badguy in HD, this is what ya got. Be happy with it.
Beyond Good and Evil
You should get
this game before the NDAA passes and we all go to jail.
Sonic Generations
Sega made another Sonic
game. But this time they decided to leave out the suck! (cough cough Shadow
cough)
Well, week one is gone, and you
still can’t be sure that your loved ones have made the right gift decisions,
maximizing the awesome and limiting the suck. To improve your begging
effectiveness, part two of this article has five more awesome games, more great
honorable mentions, and another neat bit of kit for you to open, and then
scream over like an eight year old kid.
20.
Super
Mario 3D Land
Let it be known:
I am no big fan if the 3DS, it’s just not my thing yet. But more games like
Super Mario 3D Land are going to change my mind in a hurry. I think this might
be the first three dimensional Mario game that I like. Almost all the old
suits, neat camera angles, Shadow Mario. and more await you when you pop this
in your 3DS, and seeing as it’s the first new game just for the 3DS, it’s a
must have.
19.
Metal Gear
Solid HD Collection
If I have to
explain to you why more Metal Gear Solid is a good thing, then I’m not even
sure how you found this website. Computer glitch? Monkeys typing on your
keyboard? That’s how this is getting written: some Reese monkeys, a couple cans
of Four Loko, and some bananas. Bradjelina adopted all my child workers, so I
had to diversify.
All jokes aside,
this is a remake: you probably had great fun beating Solidus, Liquid, Boss, and
company already. But that doesn’t mean that you can’t enjoy doing it again with
shiny new graphics! Plus, if you didn’t get the PSP entry Peace Walker, then there’s
a whole new game waiting for you, complete with a brand new control scheme.
Plus, Snake Eater: Subsistence still comes with Metal Gear and Metal Gear 2:
Solid Snake. And a boss mode. And then there’s the online multiplayer to think
about. And it only costs $50.
18.
Halo:
Combat Evolved Anniversary Edition
I heard that
‘Chief shows his face in this edition. You just have to put in the special code
on your Game Genie. What, you can’t use a Game Genie on your 360? Well, no face
for you. But what you do get is a completely reskinned edition of the reason
that shooter games got hot on our current generation of consoles. Yes,
Goldeneye did it big, and Doom before them, but the reason why we are able to
enjoy the Battlefield, Call of Duty, or Gears of War franchises is because of
the innovation in the genre by Bungie.
So, what makes
this game special? Well, HD graphics for the first two games in the series are
a good start, and you can actually toggle between the old look and new in game
with a button press. Pretty neat. Second, achievements and online multiplayer
on the new XBL has been added, so if you’ve found yourself missing the three
shot pistol of death, or the green gun combo, then you’re in luck. Just don’t
expect them to add sword sniping back in.
17.
Resistance
3
If you have a
PS3, and only a PS3, you don’t have the new Halo. You don’t have Gears of War.
You almost didn’t get Half Life. But what you do have access to is a downright
silly roster of weapons, enemies, and game play options in Resistance. In Resistance,
it is normal to get attacked by a facehugger. Or an Invisodemon. Or a platoon
of zombified aliens. And to defend yourself you have a shotgun that lights
enemies on fire, a gun that shields and shoots through just about anything,
biological weapons, and everything gains perks over time. Plus, let’s not
forget that if there were a competition of whose game has humanity at the most
desperate position in any game ever, Resistance may well be a winner.
16.
Ultimate
Marvel vs Capcom 3
You could make a
reasonable fighting game from just the characters added in the new edition of
the Vs series. It doesn’t matter if you gravitate for traps, chainsaws, penance
stares, or objections, there’s probably a new character you have been looking
forward to fight as, or beat up. This game is literally mind blowing, every
match by similarly skilled players holds excitement and drama. Matches between
uneven competitors become combo expos, which hold their own entertainment value.
Don’t feel bad though: pwning builds character.
Honorable
Mentions
Bulletstorm
Get rewarded for violence. What’s better than that?
Yakuza 4
Tired of old, fat Italian gangsters eating pasta, and killing
each other with Tommy guns? Well prepare for young, tattooed gangsters drinking
sake, and killing each other with katanas!
Crysis 2
Pretty enough that if your wife sees you playing with it, she
might get jealous.
Fifa 12
Maa-den? Who ees Madden?
L. A. Noire
Use the lessons of sniffing out lies taught to you in this game
to figure which one of your friends is in fact the one that dealt it.
Hardware
The Playstation Vita isn’t out yet. It won’t be out by Christmas.
It won’t even be out by New Years. But in Febuary, we will finally get a chance
to see Sony’s view of the future of portable gaming. One of the major gripes
about the PSP, lack of killer games, seems to be a thing of the past, with AAA
titles like Bioshock, Uncharted, and Call of Duty developing games just for the
new system. With two touch screens, dual analog sticks, wifi and 3g, and by far
the best portable graphics ever, the Vita will be finding its way into many
happy pockets soon after all the Eggnog has been drunk.
Games to watch for:
Ultimate Marvel vs Capcom 3 (w Cole from Infamous)
So, 2011 has gone by and you have been
woefully behind in your gaming. Maybe you have been out with the in-laws in
Amish Country, maybe you have been dodging cholera and dysentery encamped
outside your nearby city hall (you dirty hippies, you), or maybe you have been
trapped beneath a rock and you haven’t quite managed to free yourself in the
last twelve months with your dull pocket knife. Good luck with that. For all of
you, this article will detail the 25 games you need to beg for the hardest,
shiny new hardware to meticulously wipe fingerprints off of, and a whole slew
of honorable mentions that are good 26th choice games in case they
won’t buy you what you really want. This is also something like J1Studios game
of the year awards as well, so pay attention kid, you might learn something. After all, you don’t want to get stuck with this.
25.
I
love Bastion, and I fought hard to get it on this list in a year full of better
than average gaming. Between the low price, replayability, solid action-rpg
gameplay, and overall polish, the main fundamentals of the game are good. But
what really knocks it out of the park with this game is the narration that cues
off of actions taken during the game. Its sort of like that post apocalyptic
Family Guy episode, but completely not annoying. One might be tempted to
compare this mere downloadable game to full disc RPGs like FFXIII or a
throwback like Eternal Sonata. That same person should also conclude that it’s
better than most of the RPGs that have come out in the last few years. A lot
better.
24
The sort of
people who like and play Dark Souls are the sort of people whose leisure
activities involve safety words. If you like punishing difficulty in which
anything can kill you at any time, in many ways, congratulations, this game is
for you. Mind you, there’s more to this game than insane difficulty, but its tough
to enjoy its amazing graphics, sound design, story, and dungeon architecture,
when that angry monster keeps insisting on gnawing on your skull like he’s
trying to open an extra difficult bakugan. “Fun”, right? To its credit, if your
self-esteem somehow manages to survive getting killed again and again, and you
make it through the dungeon and kill the dragon, the sense of accomplishment is
like almost nothing else in gaming. Go treat yourself to an ice cream cone, you
earned it.
23
This may well be the
last KOF ever. Since the last editions have not had the commercial impact that
they needed to, despite the recent renaissance of the fighting game, SNK has
brought us this swan song to bid farewell to Kyo and company, possibly forever.
But, if this is the last game they make, then it’s a darn good one to go out
on. As is consistent with the newer editions of KOF, the fighting system has
gotten a major revamp that the advanced players can use to make even more
stylish combo mayhem onscreen. The new cancel system allows you to combo
someone with a series of normals, then a special, then a super, then an
upgraded SDM (bigger than the leader SDMs from KOF 2003), if you get my
meaning. Also added was a Street Fighterish ex system, except you can ex a
super as well (like the old SDM). It looks and plays just as ridiculous as it
sounds: every character has the capability to play like Dante with the Devil
Trigger and X Factor. Get ready for some YouTube combo exploits.
22
I love Tekken. With the
exception of Tekken 4 (hot trash), Namco hasn’t let me down yet. The latest
release Tekken Hybrid, is a sort of a combo pack of Tekken awesomeness. Namco,
more than many of the other studios, really understand value for their fighting
games: Tekken has had bowling games, beach ball fighting, side scrolling 3d
beat-‘em-ups, space combat, secret characters, four games on a disc, 3rd
person action games, and much more. So what are they giving us this time?
Tekken Hybrid comes
with Tekken Tag HD, Tekken Tag 2 Prologue, and Tekken: Blood Vengence movie for
only $40. It’s a great price for a great game: just hope your friends aren’t
cheap and use True Ogre all the time.
21
There’s a talking gun
that shoots glowing octopi onto people’s faces who then get hypnotized,
becoming friendlies. Until their heads blow up like a pound of c4. Dildos are a
legitimate means of killing someone. Every weapon has individual balltap
animation. Do I really have to explain to you how bonkers this game is? Prepare
for nonstop insane slapstick humor, punctuated by occasional outbreaks of good
gaming.
Honorable Mentions for
this week:
DC Universe Online
Since this console
and PC based MMO went free to play, it got a whole lot more attractive.
Definitely worth a look.
Little Big Planet 2
I honestly don’t know
how this didn’t make the list. I might flame myself.
NBA 2k 12
One of the best
sports games ever. Take that, EA.
Dead Space 2
Who would have
thought that Dead Space 2 would be more of a survival horror game then the
newest Resident Evil?
Must Have Hardware: 3DS
Portable glasses free 3d
sounds like something from a Sci-fi show, but Nintendo has worked its magic on
its newest handheld. Better yet, now that there’s actually some games out for
it, and a nice price drop, look forward to your nearest Gamestop being sold out
for the next few months. Even more new games, as opposed to retreads and
remakes, should be on their way soon.
Developer(s): Bethesda Game Studios Publisher(s): Bethesda Softworks
Genre(s): Action/Role-Playing Rating: M for Mature
There was a lot of hype surrounding the release of Skyrim, especially since its predecessor, The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion was such a world-raved success, and because Bethesda Studios had more than 5 years to work on it. The important question then stands, “Is the hype worth it?” especially since such vicious competition as Modern Warfare 3, Arkam City, Uncharted 3, and Ultimate Marvel Vs Capcom 3 were all released within 14 days of each other?
I think so, Yeah.
The first impression of the game is the graphics. Thick mountain forests with non-cookie-cutter trees placed at irregular intervals, a touch of frost on patches of grass or collected in the base of one side of the trees and rocks, and splashed onto the faceted faces of the surrounding mountains. The wagon you are in creaks and warps and splinters as it’s slowly pulled over an irregular landscape, and the faces of the surrounding initial characters with their several days of stubble, old battle scars, and an articulation of the mouths that match the well-voiced acting. If you look around, since it takes a minute to realize that the opening scene is in-fact *not* a CG rendered cutscene, you can watch as a small town looms out of the woods, clearly behind on the upkeep as the splintered wooden buildings break under the elements. Then a sense of doom washes over you as before you can even control yourself yet, you are shoved forwards towards your execution.
And just when you think you finally get a sense for the spectacle, the Dragon appears, and all hell breaks loose.
The opening tutorial mission is chaos incarnate for an opening mission. The fog of war holds no greater meaning then when you and your allies are fighting tooth-and-nail against unknown enemies in the dark of the cave, and you can’t differentiate friend from foe among those struggling silhouettes in front of you. The landscape is proven to be destructible as it is literally torn apart around you. When you can finally move on by yourself into the world, the sheer scope of the world is laid bare and boy are you tiny in comparison.
Gameplay is in many ways an improvement over Oblivion. Each hand is now an independent entity to which you can assign a weapon, shield, spell, torch, or go barehanded in any combination you may like. Skills are once again independently leveled based on use, and your own personal level is increased by the improvement of skills, but now there is no limitation to “talented” skills or not. Stat points are reduced to general stats that improve automatically with levels. Finally, skill-related perks are no longer gained automatically with skill rank. Now you have to buy those perks with leveling points, meaning that you really do need to specialize this time, since it is impossible to buy every perk in the game. Another big improvement is that weapons and armor don’t break anymore, so you never have to worry about wasting weight limitations with stupid blacksmith hammers.
The AI is a major improvement over the predecessor. A pack of wolves will fight like *a pack of wolves!* meaning, one will draw your attention while the others flank, and then they’ll hit and run until you’re dead or they get injured enough to flee. People will press you with melee and defend while their partners pick you off with arrows, and dragons will roast you with their breath from above, strafing runs, or directly in your face on the ground, depending on what is most likely to kill you first.
Some downsides to the game: The shortcut menu is too limited. With so many spells, weapons, enchanted armors, and powers at your disposal, having only 8 or 9 shortcut buttons simply isn’t enough. The favorites menu quickly fills up into a ridiculously long list to sift through for your chosen thing, and it’s an annoying break in the action to pause in the middle of a fight just to jump through several screens of articles to equip the next thing you need. The game sometimes glitches, rendering some missions impossible, such as the one where I needed an NPC to open up the wall to the dungeon, but he’s already further along leaving me trapped in the foyer. Finally, no matter what kind of character you want to play, smithing seems to become a necessary skill to level, since it’s the only way to get any decent, or matching, high level equipment in the game. Enemies rarely ever wear anything more than Fur stuff, and hoping to find a type of weapon or armor underground is a crapshoot at best.
All in all, though, it is incredibly easy to lose yourself for hours, days, and weeks at a time in World of Tamriel across the snowy mountains of Skyrim . Since I had to struggle to find faults with the game, I’d say that Bethesda used these last 5 years of development wisely, and that the Elder Scrolls V is in fact all that it was hyped up to be.
As one of the pieces that make up J1 Studios, you will learn, experience, and become knowledgeable about the gaming world. If you don't succeed, press The Reset Button!
Even though it is still in the early stages, the proposed
multiplayer scene which features four Spartan warriors taking on a giant
Cyclops is impressive. I hope this number gets raised. Sony Santa Monica is
really upping the gore factor for this edition (look out Mortal Kombat). And the amount of detail in this little
snipet shows that they are planning to use the full capabilities of the PS3.
This just a sneak peak! Imagine what the finished product will look like.
