Lucidity Review

 

Lucidity is LucasArts re entry into game development. After a lengthy break(only the occasional Star Wars licensed games that were developed by other development studios), LucasArts did the re worked Secret of monkey Island with new art work. The team behind that then stared working on this title. Done very much in the spirit of indie games, simple gameplay with gorgeous artistic visuals, Lucidity is quite deceiving in terms of its innocent look.

 

 

In actual fact, Lucidity is a brutal puzzle platformer that belies the innocent child like art style. This game is really, REALLY difficult and frustrating. Lucidity’s gameplay basically revolves around the character Sofi, as she wakes up from her from her slumber, she finds that her grandma is missing. The levels basically consist of a start point and the exit in which Sofi moves across the level herself. You can’t control her movement directly.

 

 

You use pieces of blocks that you get randomly that have special  abilities like a ladder or a slingshot that flings her horizontally. Much of the frustration comes from the fact that you get these blocks like in tetris, randomly. A lot of the times, you might not get the piece you wanted. You could hold on to the one single piece and if the next piece is also a useless piece you need to place it anywhere to get the next piece etc. You can’t view the levels as a whole(or get a preview of the entire level) or scroll further up to see the obstacles in front.

 

 

Of course you could just ignore the challenges of collecting fireflies(collectible mechanic in this game) in a level(which are totally unneeded to complete levels other than to just to unlock achievements and some bonus levels). By focusing just on completing a level, you’ll reduce the level of frustration involved. Later levels do get very tough though. You’ll often need to quickly place blocks down before she plunges to her death.

 

 

It also does not help that block placement is sort of finicky. The levels themselves are just one giant block of square invisible grids and the blocks you place automatically snap into these grids. Due to this, you don’t get exact precise placement of blocks. I got pretty mad many times just not being able to place a block exactly where I want it to go.

 

 

The art and music is top notch. The levels are imaginative and pretty, and the music is fittingly charming. If you like challenging platforming games, you just might enjoy the levels in Lucidity. But for the rest, it will probably be an incredibly frustrating experience. A pity really, as they could have solved a lot of the frustration if given more time to further polish the game. As it stands now, Lucidity is a slightly above average game.

 

Rating: 6/10

 

Price: USD $9.99

 

Buy it here:

http://store.steampowered.com/app/32410/

Osmos Review

Osmos doesn’t grab your attention much in a glance. Play it and you’ll find it an exquisite little game. If you’re a science nerd like myself, I bet Osmos will make you smile when you see the levels it has to offer. Slow, yet beautiful and alluring, it revolves around the simple premise of growing your cell and defeating other cells that compete in this ‘primordial soup’.


If you’ve played Spore, you’ll remember the first cell stage, which was arguably one of the best stages in Spore. Osmos is a lot like that with some differences. These other cells(called motes) do not have any intelligence in them. Their movement depends entirely on physics. Bump into them and they start moving. The faster you go the more momentum you have.

The catch here is that to accelerate and steer yourself, you’ll have to propel your mote with its own matter which means the more you accelerate/steer the smaller your mote gets. This leads to some interesting resource management like situations where you need to just give your mote the gentlest of nudges to move where the smaller motes are.



There are three types of levels, one in where your objective is to grow huge.  The first few stages are pretty straight forward and do not offer much of a challenge. The later levels of this sort become more like a puzzle game as you are blocked by motes bigger than you(if you touch them they absorb you). You need to nudge them a side by propelling streams of yourself against them and inch your way in.



The next type of levels have AI motes that have certain attributes. Some of them run away from you, some chase after you when they are big, some are aggressive and absorb smaller motes, some a more passive. The later levels have multiple of these AI motes and it becomes a rush to get the early smaller motes.



The final type of levels are the most magnificent ones. Called the ‘force’ levels, they involve a heavy gravity matter in the center(often acting like a sun in a solar system) that cause all the motes around them to swirl around this matter. I can’t tell you how cool this looks and it reminds me so much of Keppler’s law of planetary motion and Einstein's general theory of relativity. If you fling your motes just at the right angle and momentum, it will start to orbit around this matter. move to fast and you’ll spiral out of orbit.



Osmos is a slow paced game. You’ll be waiting for your mote to travel across the level most of the time and thankfully you can speed up time(and even slow down time to make minute adjustments). The music is relaxing and adds to the ambience of the game. It’s also not a very long game but for the price of USD$9.99, it’s a great appetiser of a game. Relax, sit back, and let Osmos charm you with its simple, elegant, physics based gameplay.



Price : USD$9.99

Rating : 8/10

Buy it here:
http://store.steampowered.com/app/29180/

Demo:
http://store.steampowered.com/app/29200/

Razer Abyssus Review

What’s the most important part of a computer that is vital to a PC gamer? Apart from the graphic cards and CPU that is. Yes you probably guessed right it’s the mouse. It’s the thing which makes PC gaming what it is. The direct feedback you get and the precision that you can never get from a controller. I was fortunate enough to get my hands on the Razer Abyssus, a new mice from Razer, a company that is well known for its high quality peripheral for gamers.

What’s evident to me upon opening the box is that the Razer Abyssus isn’t like your higher end Razer products. It’s a more basic no nonsense mouse. What this means is cutting out the extra buttons and fancy quick macro buttons without sacrificing quality. It’s still a top quality product. It has what you need in a mouse, two button and a mouse wheel(which also acts as mouse button three as usual).

But what I was really impressed with was the fact that it has the sensitivity of a higher end mouse. Simply put, Razer cut out the extra fluff and maintained the quality. Have a look at the specification below:

Razer Abyssus Specification:

3500dpi Razer Precision 3.5G infrared sensor
• 1000Hz Ultrapolling™ / 1ms response time
• Mechanical dpi/polling rate switches
• On-The-Fly Sensitivity™ adjustment
• Always-On™ mode
• Ultra-large non-slip buttons
• 16-bit ultra-wide data path
• 60-120 inches per second and
15g of acceleration
• Three independently programmable
Hyperesponse™ buttons
• Ambidextrous design
• Scroll wheel with 24 individual click positions
• Zero-acoustic Ultraslick™ Teflon feet
• Seven-foot, lightweight, non-tangle cord
• Approximate size: 115mm(L) x 63mm(W) x 40mm(H)

The sensitivity options are placed at the bottom of the mouse. You can can adjust the frequency from 125hz to 100ohz(polling rate, basically how often it refreshes the movement). You can change the dpi from 450, 1800 to 3500dpi. This give you a range of sensitivity that you can pick depending on your preference. My only complaint about this is that the placement of these buttons(at the bottom) makes it easy to accidently press the other mouse buttons.

The top half of the mouse is rubberised, which gives you a good grip and the other bottom half is mostly in a glossy black finish(you could get fingerprint smudges easily if you thumbs wonder to much to the side). The mouse fit my hand perfectly and is of a good size(not at all like a puny laptop mouse). However, its quite light and doesn’t have much weight to it which may turn off some people who prefer their mice to feel heavier. Eventually I got used to its weight and it became a non issue.

All in all the Razor Abyssus is a good entry level gaming mouse that has the sensitivity of a high end gaming mouse for a much lower price(it has an MSRP of RM149). If you are looking for a good optical mouse that offers precision with an affordable price tag and without the extra buttons, the Abyssus does a good job fulfilling this role.

Price(MSRP) : RM 149

Pros

• Great value
• Good quality
• Good grip
• Very precise and sensitive
• Good size

Cons

• A little light
• No extra buttons
• Sensitivity adjustments not in the most convenient place
• May develop squeaky noise(mouse wheel) after prolonged usage of mouse wheel

Review Rating : 7/10

Quake On Your Browser

 

No not Quake Live but the original Quake. A classic which I played to death. Someone’s ported it to flash and you can play it here. Controls are a bit laggy(it is flash after all) and you need to hold down your mouse button one to use your mouse with your WASD keys(Ctrl to fire). Bad news is that it’s only the shareware version but you’d probably still waste a lot of time playing just this. Great stress relieve :P

Napoleon: Total War Footage & New Screenshots

Creative Assembly hasn’t really shown Napoleon: Total War much in terms of gameplay footage. There have been some previews detailing the changes in the game but no actual footage. I managed to find this footage of a demo in a Russian games convention(off camera). Quality isn’t great but its perhaps only footage you’ll get right now. Also, you can invite people on Steam to play in you campaign! Yes multiplayer campaign will be included! Footage and screens after the jump:

Napoleon: Total War is planned to be released on February 2010

Need For Speed Shift DLC Trailer

 

If you’re one of those people that bought EA’s reimagining of the Need for Speed series, Need for Speed Shift, then you’ll be glad to know that they are releasing new DLC for it on 1st December. What’s even better is that this DLC will be free. It will feature 5 new cars(mostly classic muscle cars) and a new game mode where you challenge another team. Video below:

 

Supreme Commander 2 Developer Walkthrough

 

It’s been a while since we’ve heard anything about Supreme Commander 2, but here’s something to wet your appetite for huge scale robotic destruction. A new developer walkthrough(video) in which Chris Taylor gives you the low down on the massive units and graphics in the game. The games been given a release date of Spring 2010. Video below:

 

Command & Conquer 4 Mechanics Trailer

 

Gametrailers has an exclusive new trailer on what should be the final installment of the Tiberium storyline for the C&C franchise. EA are making some pretty drastic changes to the mechanics of the typical RTS game they have always used in their RTS’s. Perhaps you could say many of the inspiration have been taken from Relic’s treatment of Dawn of War II. This new trailer introduces the new crawler units(that act as walking bases) and other mechanics of the game.

 

Video Games | Command & Conquer 4: Tiberian Twilight | Exclusive Mechanics Revealed Trailer

XBox 360 | Playstation 3 | Nintendo Wii

 

It does look a lot like it’s been heavily streamlined(to a single base unit) and the number of units have been reduced. The persistent online stat tracking sounds interesting, almost MMO’ish.

Warhammer 40k: Dawn of War 2 Chaos Rising Dev Diary Video

 

Relic’s Dawn of War 2 is getting a chaos filled expansion next year. Here’s a new dev diary that has some good new info on the upcoming expansion pack. Corruption will be a new game mechanic that will have an impact on the game ending and perhaps other bonuses too. Video below:

 

 

Dead Before Dawn Mod Available Now

 

The infamous Left 4 Dead mod that recreates Crossroads Mall from the movie Dawn of the Dead, Dead Before Dawn has finally been released. It is currently in Beta and this is a full blown mod not just a custom campaign. This mod includes new custom sounds and new scripted events. Links after the jump.

 

 

Torrent link:

http://www.mininova.org/tor/3106067

 

Direct Download:

http://www.gen-yujo.com/DeadBeforeDawn.zip

http://www.fileplay.net/file/6632/dead-before-dawn

 

Mega upload part 1:

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=N8A5J93Y

Mega upload part 2:

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=7TVI6EP1

 

Official site:

http://www.l4dmods.com/

 

Installation instructions here

Modern Warfare 2 Dedicated Server Hulabaloo

 

An innocent looking interview, a genuine looking answer and the internet exploded. PC gamers have done it again. Causing a major storm over the internet over the choice of a video game developer. But do they have a legitimate concern? Or is it all just hot air?

 

In a webcast, Robert Bowling revealed plans for IWnet that will be the gateway for Modern Warfare 2’s multiplayer. The bad news, dedicated servers were being dropped. No support for dedicated servers. PC gamers were up in arms with this revelation and have started an online petition to demand Infinity Ward to reconsider this.

 

Much has happened since with other developers taking potshots at Infinity Wards, clans, and major PC gaming sites criticising this move from Infinity Ward.  Inifnity Ward has since given their own explanation for why dedicated server were being dropped which you can read here.

 

Frankly I think the reasons given are pretty lame. It doesn’t offer a good reason why they had to drop dedicated servers. Considering the fact that dedicated server are such a huge part of shooters and the multiplayer community, this is a big omission.  There are a few that point to the StarCraft 2 dropping LAN issue which is different. LAN is not the same with dedicated servers. Almost most modern FPS have communities thriving on dedicated servers.

 

LAN was a feature that is not used often these days and Steam has proven that having online authentication to have LAN parties can still work(the popularities of Counter Strike hasn’t dwindled with the introduction of Steam). PC gamers can forgive Blizzard with that. I personally do not want my PC games to end up feeling like a console games(especially wit the online community).

 

Lets give PC gamers more credit for all the cool things mods and dedicated servers have allowed. Infinity Ward, you need to think twice about this. Either serve the PC platform with its strength(stop trying to turn it into a console), or don’t make PC games anymore. We have other developers that do a great job serving PC gamers.

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