PS3: Uncharted: Drake's Fortune Massive Attack Trailer

I have to say, its looking pretty cool. Coming on November 19th. Enjoy...

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Writing a Game Review

Writing anything that resembles a professional game review isn’t something that can be done in 10 minutes and forgotten right after. It takes time and dedication. This is a small guide to help anyone who wants to create a game review. Note that I am in no way a professional game critic, nor did I receive any extra education on the subject. I would just like to share some of my techniques and advice and hope that it’s helpful in any way.

1) Don’t be redundant. If you wrote something that is pretty self-explanatory then there is no need for further explanation. For example, “Supreme Commander is an RTS or Real-Time Strategy game where you take control of a set amount of units on the battlefield and wage war against the enemy by using strategy”. That’s completely unnecessary information, especially if it’s for a hardcore gaming website. “Supreme Commander is an RTS”, and then you add specific information about the game and not the genre.

It’s important that you make your review coherent and to the point. You don’t want to bore your readers. Instead of saying “Your character is easy to control by moving your mouse and hitting the WASD keys to move your character” you can just simply say “Enemy Territory’s control scheme is simple to grasp”. That’s much more pleasing to read and much more to the point.

Don’t write overly fluff material, such as descriptions on all the weapons and vehicles found in the game or an entire strategy guide. Just write about the weapons or vehicles that stand out from the rest that are noteworthy.

2) Don’t be vague. If you write “Command & Conquer is fun” then write about what makes it fun. If you write “I hate Lair’s control scheme” then explain yourself a bit more by adding “I hate Lair’s control scheme because it relies on the Sixaxis’ inaccurate motion sensors” or something like that.

3) Focus on the aspects of the game that stand out, whether it is for good or for bad. Don’t go off focusing on meaningless things and things that are taken for granted, such as “In multiplayer you can hit a key and a chat box opens up”. That’s nothing special. However, “In multiplayer, you can’t type to other players”, that’s noteworthy information because it’s an important standard feature that wasn’t included.

4) Use spelling and grammar checkers. It is important that your review can be read and understood. Don’t write like a 3rd grader and use complete sentences.

5) Read your review aloud. If you read it in your mind you can accidentally skip over important mistakes, whereas if you read it aloud those mistakes can be identified by your ears. Make sure you read multiple times. If you have a feeling that something isn’t right then something isn’t right. Sometimes it’s best if you just tear down the entire paragraph and start from scratch. Be sure to let others proof-read so that they may contribute any important input that you may not have thought of. Don’t rush your review.

6) Vary your choice of words. Don’t be monotonous and basic. You want your review to catch a person’s attention and be entertaining at the same time. You can do this by being witty or funny, or write the review in alternate ways. Don’t make your review “Doom is an FPS. Doom is fun. Doom has 17 levels. Doom is scary”, write it like “Every second of the 17 levels contained in Doom is a heart-pounding shooter-fest where enemies may lurk in any corner, ready to scare your pants off…”

7) Try to put yourself in the shoes of a person who has never played the game but is interested in it. What do they want to read? What information is important to them?

This is just some advice from an amateur reviewer who has a lot to learn herself. I hope it helps a little.

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Crysis Single-Player Demo Review

Here's another game review for FiringSquad.com's Games Review contest. This time its on the Crysis pre-release demo.

Quite possibly the most anticipated (and hyped) PC game of 2007, Crytek has officially released a taste of what’s to come in the form of a pre-release demo. Does it meet the sheer amount of hype that the game has garnered? No, it obviously doesn’t. Nothing ever meets up to its hype. However, the Crysis demo does not disappoint nor does it ever cease to be fun.

The plot goes like this: the USA sends in a highly advanced Delta Force team to battle North Korea over a bunch of kidnapped American archaeologists in an illegally occupied island and more importantly over a strange “meteorite” that had recently crash-landed. Crytek has already revealed enough of the story as is and if that’s not enough you can read the entire game script in a file called english.pak. Just open it up with a file extractor and enjoy the various documents within.

The most hyped facet of Crysis is its graphics and they’re just amazing. Unfortunately for some, it comes at a price. In order to play the game at any degree of superior visual quality, you must have at least a GeForce 8800 card and an Intel Core 2 Duo. Without these you will suffer terrible framerates or a not so pretty game.

The gameplay is equally as impressive as the graphics. You take control of a commando clad in a nanosuit who can utilize several impressive superpowers or abilities. These include a Predator-like stealth, superior strength and jumping, super-fast sprinting and armor. These powers use up your energy rather quickly, so use them smartly. In addition, you can customize your weapons by adding flashlights, suppressors, different aiming and tactical devices, etc. to suit your needs.

Crysis’ AI is pretty advanced. Enemy soldiers flank, take cover and coordinate with each other to take you down. What really struck me was the life in them. When you are overpowering the North Koreans, one of them may fire a flare gun to signal for reinforcements. While not in combat or on patrol, enemy soldiers may occasionally stop for a leak and chat with each other. When you begin attacking they will show some emotion, be that a sense of urgency or fright. This is just as well displayed facially.

The physics in Crysis are very advanced. You can mow down trees and crash through roofs which adds an extra degree of gameplay. There are some neat subtle effects, too, such as when you swim underwater and surface, water will drip down your HUD. Voice-acting is excellent although I wish there was an ability to activate Korean-speaking enemies on different difficulty levels and not just on Delta (the highest difficulty setting) as their broken English is a serious turn-off.

The Crysis demo includes an unprecedented 1 hour of somewhat nonlinear gameplay (not as much as Far Cry, though) that can be elongated by using the included Sandbox Editor to add all of the game’s weapons, an alien enemy, vehicles (including helicopters) and much, much more, whether by design or accident on part of Crytek.

The Crysis demo, just as any other pre-release demo, still needs some polish and bug fixes but so far the game we’ve all been waiting for appears to be very well worth the wait, kick-butt computer or no kick-butt computer.

RATING: 9/10

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World in Conflict (PC) Review

Here's a copy of a review I did for FiringSquad.com's Games Review contest. By submitting a 500 word or less game review you can win an unannounced AMD/ATI GPU and/or an AMD CPU! Be sure to rate it and give me your opinions.

From the opening scenes of the Soviet Union’s invasion of Seattle all the way through World in Conflict’s short campaign will you be full of heart-pounding adrenaline as you witness the game’s beautiful explosions and sheer destructive mayhem. You won’t see a more spectacular artillery barrage or nuclear explosion than the ones that World in Conflict offers. But don’t fret, two year old PCs should be more than able to handle the game without suffering from that icky taste of visual inferiority.

The game takes place in 1989 and pursues a “what if” scenario in which the Soviet Union went to war with NATO and the US rather than dissolving. The story borrows heavily from the 1984 film “Red Dawn” and Tom Clancy’s “Red Storm Rising” of which the latter’s co-author, Larry Bond, was a main consultant for Massive Entertainment.

World in Conflict is an RTT or Real Time Tactics game, rather than an RTS or Real Time Strategy game. There is no base-building or resource collecting but rather a set amount of reinforcement points that you use to buy units to send to the battlefield. If those units die then you are automatically reimbursed. There’s also “tactical points” which you spend on airstrikes, artillery barrages and single-unit reinforcements.

The campaign is well written and features some excellent voice acting and cut-scenes but is unfortunately too short at only 14 missions. The campaign’s ending, however, hints at a possible expansion to continue on the story. The multiplayer portion of the game is excellent and addicting. Instead of having each player command an entire faction, players take on the role of either air, infantry, armor or support and systematically coordinate with other roles to successfully defeat the opposing army. Statistics are clearly tracked in-game, there’s also various achievements medals to play for and WiC features VOIP functionality leading to an excellent multiplayer game.

Overall, World in Conflict is an amazing game that many, including those who don’t normally play strategy games, will enjoy. Definitely one of the best strategy games of the year… and that’s saying a lot with previous excellent releases such as Supreme Commander and Command & Conquer 3.

RATING: 9/10

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TECH: OS X 10.5 Leopard Coverage

Engadget has an in-depth review and mounds of coverage of Apple's latest OS X operating system. For anyone who has a Mac and is looking to upgrade, be sure to check it out. The beta version had some nice touches, and the final version no doubt sets OS X further beyond the reach of Windows Vista.

Read via Engadget
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TECH: Eye-Fi Wireless SD Memory Card

Its been a while since Eye-Fi first mentioned word of their wireless memory card, but here it is at last. Able to transfer pictures, images and just about anything else directly from the memory card to a PC or Mac. At the moment the card is available with just 2Gb, but expect that to increase as the product stays in the market. Interesting...

Read via Adorama

Eye-Fi, a California-based company, announced this morning what they say is the world's first wireless SD memory card for digital cameras. The 2GB card, which will retail for around $99, is said to make it possible to send photos wirelessly from a digital camera to a Wi-Fi-enabled Mac or PC using wireless networks (also known as "hot spots"). The card works with any current SD-compatible camera, and will automatically upload photos onto pre-selected social networking sites or on-line photo labs when the camera is turned on. The feature, if it works as promised, could very well save photographers time spent uploading images to computers and then to web sites. The card is expected to be available immediately.

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TECH: Asus Debuts its $299 Eee PC Notebook

This is a bit late, but better than never. Last week Asus launched their newest endeavor in the sub-notebook (read: tiny laptop) market dubbed the "Eee PC". Laptop Mag have already called this "pound for pound the best value notebook on the planet". And running at the same price as most mobile phones, there could well be a lot of people interested in this. Mind you, it doesn't run Windows or OSX, its missing a DVD drive, stacks up with only 4Gb of hard drive space and only has a teeny 7" LCD - but it does come with Wi-Fi, and its minus Windows - what more could you want from a laptop thats smaller than the size and weight of a hardback?

Read via LaptopMag

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TECH: Asus Debuts its $299 Eee PC Notebook

This is a bit late, but better than never. Last week Asus launched their newest endeavor in the sub-notebook (read: tiny laptop) market dubbed the "Eee PC". Laptop Mag have already called this "pound for pound the best value notebook on the planet". And running at the same price as most mobile phones, there could well be a lot of people interested in this. Mind you, it doesn't run Windows or OSX, its missing a DVD drive, stacks up with only 4Gb of hard drive space and only has a teeny 7" LCD - but it does come with Wi-Fi, and its minus Windows - what more could you want from a laptop thats smaller than the size and weight of a hardback?

Read via LaptopMag




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TECH: How Vinyl May Be The Final Nail In The Coffin For The CD

One of the Wired blogs has an interesting article on how vinyl is going through a renaissence, and what that might mean for the recording industry (i.e. not much, its just a 6-month hipster trend, right?). Unfortunately, the article doesn't really tell us anything we didn't already know - i.e. vinyls are strictly for the very nerdy, very rich, or those looking for another trend to call their own. Regardless, time to dust off those 1200s!

Read via Wired

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PS3 / PC: New Unreal Tournament 3 Trailer

Looking good, but boy does it resemble Gears of War...

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