Age of Empires Online Beta Impressions - More MMO Than RTS

Ah the free to play PC game market. The new battle ground for triple AAA publishers on the PC platform. With Age of Empires Online, Microsoft is attempting to resurrect an old(and classic) IP with a new guise. As free to play MMORTS. The game was first developed by former Ensemble Studios folks at Robot Entertainment and is now being polished up by Gas Powered Games(of Supreme Commander fame). Does it work? Read on...

Magicka: Vietnam Impressions - “I put on my wizard robe and helmet”

Magicka: Vietnam, was almost written off as an April Fool's joke (despite the fact it was announced a full month before) when they dropped a trailer on that day. It continues Arrowhead's tradition of trying to squeeze as many parodies and game references as possible, while trying to remain somewhat fantasy related. From the trailer, it's pretty obvious which was the priority for this DLC.

Champions Online First Hour Impressions

As I’ve reported previously, Cryptic’s Champions Online just went free to play. You can download the client here. I’ve given it a spin and here are my impressions of the early starting area of the game. Champions Online is an MMORPG set in a super hero filled city, Millennium City. Things have certainly gone awry in this city. Bugs called the Quellar are attacking.

DigiTanks Demo Impressions

Do not restart your PC. The DigiTanks have taken control of your PC. Oh noes! DigiTanks is a turn based strategy game where you fight back a dastardly attack on the denizens of digiverse. The inside of your computer. The theme is similar to Darwinia but instead of a virtual world, DigiTanks are supposedly your computers defence force.

Conquest Demo Impressions

Conquest is a turn based strategy game that is about, you guessed it, conquest. Developed by Proxy Studios, Conquest is a simple and fast moving turn based game that is not heavy with rules that bog down the game. It’s relatively light and easy game to get into. No fluffing about with diplomacy, or city management here, just pure mayhem. Impressions after the jump…

The Undergarden Demo Impressions

Underwater teletubby creatures and musical monkeys? That’s what you get in Atari’s The Undergarden. The Undergarden tries to recreate a mystical underwater playground(I say recreate because of another much better under water game called Aquaria) where your teletubby creature goes around pollinating the world.

The Ball Demo Impressions

Developed by Swedish developer Teotl Studios and published by Tripwire Interactive, The Ball is one of those indie darling games that won the ‘Make Something Unreal’ competition Epic put out for indie developers. The Ball has been released since the end of last month and the puzzle adventuring first person games got a demo now. I’ve given it a try and below are my impressions…

Test Drive Unlimited 2 Beta Impressions

Test Drive Unlimited 2 is the sequel to, you guessed it, Test Drive Unlimited brought to you by the fine folks at Atari. Developed by Eden Games, Test Drive Unlimited 2 has a similar vibe as Burnout Paradise as you drive around a city which acts as the hub to all your racing activity. Unlike Burnout, this game takes place in Ibiza, Spain and features real cars. Recently, they had a stress test and invited people to try out to game. Here are my early impressions from my brief time with it.

Shank Demo Impressions

Shank, the EA published 2D brawler that was released for XBOX live arcade and Playstation Network earlier, has been released for the PC on Steam. You can also download a demo that is also available on Steam now. Developed by Klei Entertainment, Shank is at heart, a throwback 2D brawler with amazing visuals.

Din’s Curse Demo Impressions

Din’s Curse may look like a generic Diablo clone which doesn’t have the same graphical chops that Titan Quest had, but peel through the layers of poor presentation(mainly the graphics) and what you find is quite a unique action RPG. It’s still pretty much the same Diablo formula but with a few interesting twists.

Lionheart: Kings Crusade Demo Impressions

Neocore Games are back with their second attempt to try to make an alternative total war strategy game with Lionheart: Kings Crusade. I wasn't too impressed by their previous entry, King Arthur: A Role Playing Wargame which was simply quite unbalanced and the strategic layer was too paper thin. However this time around, they went for a more realistic historical period(as opposed to the mythological Arthur storyline with magic and the sorts) of the medieval era.

Tom Clancy’s HAWX Demo Impression

 

Ubisoft released a PC demo from the upcoming Tom Clancy’s HAWX flight simulation game and here is my take of it. The demo, like all demos is a little underwhelming with actual content. It comes with one tutorial mission and a combat mission both taking place in Rio De Janeiro.

 

Tom Clancy’s HAWX was developed by Ubisoft Romania and is a multi platform release. This is not a realistic flight simulator but more of an arcade take on the genre. The controls are a little light and movement(using the keyboard) is instant. You can use normal or expert controls that allow you to control more complex things like pitch and yaw while the normal control mode does a good job of presenting an easy to learn control mechanism.

 

 

Arrow keys control the bank or roll of your fighter while the W and S keys control acceleration and brakes. Q and S will allow you to strafe turn. Using your fighters brakes and turning will be the key to most dogfights as you will need to do this to avoid enemy missiles and get your enemy under you target range.

 

Tom Clancy’s HAWX also employs the same voice recognition technology that was in Tom Clancy’s End War. If you have a mic, you can give simple instructions to your wingman as well as turn on or off assistance or other features. It is not as full blown as what was seen in End War and you certainly can’t play HAWX solely with voice command.

 

 

The oddest feature is the assistance whereby turning assistance off actually pulls the camera back to an uncontrollable nearly schmup like camera angle. In this mode, playing the game was frustrating as I found it difficult to judge where I was going or make any sense where my enemies were. For a flight simulation, minute and precise movement is very important and this sort of throws that out of the window.

 

This leads me to my issue with the game. HAWX really feels more like  shooter on a car racing engine. Movements seem imprecise and controls feel too light. This really isn’t a good flight simulation as there are definitely others that are better than this like IL-2 Sturmovik(a WWII flight simulator). The sensation of flying a plane is an important aspect to this genre and HAWX fails in this.

 

 

Which is a crying shame as the game is visually amazing. Presentation is top notch as the detail on the fighters look life like and realistic. A lot of modern day fighters have been modelled very realistically like the MIG and F-14A. Ubisoft used ‘GeoEye’ satelite imagery of actual locations to map the levels in the game. The locales in the game look really good and you feel like you are flying over a city(Rio in the demo).

 

Tom Clancy’s HAWX is not the return of a waning genre. No, flight simulators are not coming back and certainly HAWX isn’t the title that will do that. Its flaws with the controls and camera angle are just too big to call this a proper flight simulator. If seen as an arcade fighter, It doesn’t do better than the Ace Combat series.

 

 

It seems like Ubisoft were in two minds whether to make something more realistic or more arcadish and HAWX essentially end up being this odd amalgamation that  never does anything well. It’s just really pretty.

TF2 Update 11.12.08 - Impressions

Valve updated TF2 recently and revealed the next class update. The scout will be the next class to be updated. But today I'll look thourgh some of the changes made in the new update. The change log:

Team Fortress 2

• The Engineer's teleporters can now be upgraded to level three. It will recharge faster the higher level it is
  
• The Engineer's dispensers can now be upgraded to level three. It will give out metal and heal faster as it is upgraded
  
• Spies will be able to recharge their cloaking ability by picking up ammo off of the ground or from health cabinets
  
• Some changes to the second part of the first stage of Goldrush to give the attackers more of an advantage
  
• Any weapons that fire bullets (shotguns, sniper's machine gun, heavy's minigun, etc.) can now break apart the Demoman's stickybombs
  
• The icon on the HUD for a person calling for Medic will now give more information to the medic (if the target is low on health, on fire, etc.)
  
• Added an achievement tracker that will allow people to choose specific achievements that they are trying to get
  
• There is now a custom icon for death messages when the player was killed from a critical hit
  
• Added a new particle effect for when a player enters the water
  
• Added smoke to the feet of a rocket jumping soldier
  
• Players will now have some particles swirling around them so other players can see when they are overhealed
  

The major changes made were the ablility to upgrade the teleporter and dispenser to level three and the spies ability to fill up the cloak meter by picking up dropped ammo or at the health cabinets.

It would seem like Valve wanted teleporters to play a bigger role. The upgraded teleporters transport players to the frontline very fast. The cool down is reduce for each upgrade that its almost instant at level three. The dispenser now dispenses health and ammo with each level. A fully upgraded dispenser can be a very powerful ally to have.

With the upgradable dispenser and teleporters, they have given spies the ability to replenish his cloak meter. I find this a vital balance to balance out the new upgrade level for the engy. It does make playing spy a tad bit easier, you can remain cloaked a lot longer. However it is more important to sap teleporters now. It's a more obvious strategy now. Be more alert now! There is bound to be more spies and they will be more irritating now!

There are now new particle effects that show a player overhealed and a medic that has an uber charge full. Very useful information that I'm sure makes people live easier picking a player to target or ignore. There is also new message that show if a player was killed with a crit hit. Cool...not such a big deal.

Medics can also see how injured a player is or if he is on fire when they call for a medic. Quite handy this one for the medics. As a medic it is easier to prioritise who to heal behind the battle line.

Valve has also change the first stage of Gold Rush a bit. The sniper deck in the second part of the stage has been made enclosed and defenders have a window to fire from. A small change to map that might make a small difference. No biggie again!

All in all, a good update....Spy Sappin' Mah Sentry!