Dead Island had everyone’s attention since their amazing cinematic trailer that came out of the blue and stunned us with it’s reverse girl zombie family story. After an announcement stated that such event would not actually occur in the game, claims arose to whether the game would actually be decent.

A different Dead Island slowly emerged from the chunks of gameplay released every now and then until a full picture of how the game would actually play came alive (20 mins of gameplay). An open world zombie game of epic proportions, consciously or unconsciously combining elements from successful games like Fallout, Left 4 Dead and Dead Rising and making something unique, huge and (hopefully) a lot of fun.

Issues that I see that might hold the game back from GOTY?

From gameplay we’ve seen the faces of characters in the game look good, but aren’t super realistic, they are stylised. As long as other elements of the game bring you into the game that shouldn’t be a problem.

The voice acting seen in the demo leaves a little to be desired, but to be honest Techland is a Polish developer and I respect the fact that it may have been difficult to understand the nooks and crannies of writing in English for an English-speaking audience.

Comparing a game like Dead Island with Fallout 3 or NV might become commonplace when the game launches and people figure out more about the goals of the game and how it plays in detail. The thing that kept me going back to Bethesda FO games was there were no randomly generated dungeons or houses. Everything had something to discover or a story to unravel, completely optional and engrossing usually created using a combination of voice logs, images, text or physical evidence. Hopefully Techland employs such elements in their game instead of feeding people quest lists and focusing on voice acting to tell you where to go or what to do. It’s the little details that count, and variety.

As a PS3 gamer, the co-op aspect of Dead Island is not necessarily a main draw card for my purchase of the game. So hopefully it has a co-op experience similar to Borderlands where you won’t be penalised for playing on your own. The words co-op and immersive story don’t usually go hand-in-hand, but as far as the gameplay footage shows, playing on your own should be a completely unique experience compared to playing with another.

If Dead Island is to be truly successful then it will aspire and achieve an endless gameplay experience or at the least, playability after the main campaign has finished

That’s pretty much all, I’ll leave full reservations until the game releases next week. Hopefully I’ll get it and have a full review! You can listen to three tracks from the Dead Island soundtrack at this link.

Dead Island (Pub. Deep Silver) releases on the 6th of September 2011 in North America and the 9th of September Globally

More of my reviews/ideas/thoughts/bizarre at twitter.com/warmanator

Well, its been a month and a bit since Portal 2 came out, so I was ready to be wowed again by the second game to drop on my most anticipated list for 2011. Firstly I forgive Rockstar for releasing the game in Australia two days after the US even though it was developed in Sydney, cos I’m just a nice guy, but as I sit here listening to the free Portal 2 soundtrack, it’s kinda apparent that LA Noire didn’t have much of an impact on me. It might be because I’m too dumb, I thought the game was well made, but nothing special. In this article I will go through the negatives I experienced in the game, if people think I’m hating on it then don’t, I’m just going through what I found was wrong. Correct me on it if you want, write your own fanboy article if you want, be my guest.

Before I properly start, this article will judge the game for game’s sake and not on the fact that Rockstar published it or Team Bondi developed it or SCEA originally funded it before Rockstar bought it. That’s just arbitrary, the game is what is actually important about LA Noire.

I played LA Noire on PS3. It took me 24 hrs of game time to get through the main story, play all the Street Crime side missions and achieve 45% trophies (unfortunately including trophies from DLC missions which I can’t get on PSN yet due to the Store still being down).

First up, if you haven’t bought the game and are worried that the game wont look like the screenshots and the trailers, then fear not because it looks just as pretty… Alright that should be enough being nice, time to go nasty.

This game will be great as a present if you know anyone who wants to spend most of the game failing. Even by the end of the game I’d be dished out with 2 stars out of 6 because I failed most interrogation questions. I even knew what I wanted to do in the questions, but picking ‘Lie’ instead of ‘Doubt’ because I misunderstood evidence. I think that happened wayyy too much for me to take it as an error on my part.

It was unclear whether some evidence would be relevant because they don’t note all the details of the pieces of evidence in Phelps’ journal. For example you will find a list of names and Phelps will note it in his journal in a very basic form so when the time comes to interrogate the suspects, it’s difficult which person the list would be relevant to or if it would be relevant to the case at all.

And speaking of names, Team Bondi assumed that my memory was immaculate. I have trouble remembering names in real life, so it doesn’t help that each case in LA Noire requires you to have an encyclopedic knowledge of the suspects names, then after the case is over you have to forget them and remember a whole other set of names in the next case. Then they go and make references to previous cases (like during specific Street Crime side-missions) expecting you to remember who people they are out of a collection of at least 50 names and faces from past cases. I just ended up letting it skim over my head as there was no way in the world that seeing a former suspect for 5 seconds was adequate time to remember what he was accused for and which case(s) he was in.

They used ‘revolutionary’ facial capture technology (which everyone would know by now) and assumed that you’d be able to remember faces better that way. I don’t want to sit here and say that it was game that sold entirely on a gimmick alone but, aside from the excellent use of shadows/shadowplay, the facial capture technology was the most impressive part of the game. Plus, I personally don’t think it was a technology properly utilized in the game. To be honest I remember different faces in Final Fantasy 7 for the PS1 better than I can remember and distinguish faces in LA Noire. This probably could have been solved easily by just adding in more close ups of character’s faces which not only familiarize yourself with the character but also enable you to better emotionally relate to them. I suppose they could be excused by saying that their facial models weren’t detailed enough for shots that went any closer than shoulder-to-head, but I’m pretty sure they could have done it.

The hidden vehicles all look awesome and are fast but they aren’t practical because they don’t have a siren or a dispatch radio which, in a game that doesn’t encourage free-roam except for an impossible list of useless collectible film reels, means you wont spend more than a minute enjoying a fancy fast car before ditching it for the stock standard police vehicle. On the topic of sirens, in LA Noire they are pretty much useless if you’re trying to get anywhere fast because 1) traffic stopped at traffic lights will not pull over for you to pass them 2) Moving traffic wont move to the side until the last minute, especially if you are driving fast 3) If you are on the outside lane the moving traffic will still pull over to the side of the road, resulting in them crashing into you 4) cars coming across intersections wont stop or move out of the way also resulting in them crashing into you. In a game that judges you for vehicle damage among other things, that’s a long list of unrealistic elements within the game’s traffic mechanic which shouldn’t have been too hard to get right.

LA Noire claims to be made up of 90% historically accurate buildings. It’s great to see that they are also 90% historically accurately racist toward African Americans and sexist toward women, props to you LA Noire.

Flashbacks seemed like spoilers that dull the main storyline in an attempt to make the game shorter to fit on discs for consoles. They don’t really reveal anything important about the story and just serve as breaks between cases.

Every element in this game that they used just seemed to immerse me less and less emotionally in the story. The game went downhill in the Vice cases after a plot point which stumped me and many other players as to why it happened and what actually happened. For a game that explained everything to the dot, it definitely marked the rest of my experience of the game. I suggest playing the game on repeat during the Homicide missions, which I think is where the game really shined and should have climaxed. Some criticized Portal 2 for being too short, but in my opinion it is the opposite for LA Noire. It will be interesting to see if Rockstar will disown the game as a publisher after the DLC cycle like Bethesda will most probably do with Brink.

Let me know in the comments if you found the same issues as I did, if you think I’m wrong, if I saved you 60 bucks or if this article made you like the game even more because you wanted to decide what you thought about it yourself. Like I said, LA Noire was a decent game, I finished it and the side missions, but I’m just listing the holes I found in the otherwise smooth road. I didn’t mention anything about the graphics or the shooting mechanics because they were good… well the cover system was a little sticky… but the half of the game before you hit Vice was really darn good.

More of my reviews/ideas/thoughts/bizarre at twitter.com/warmanator

Well everyone, Portal 2 was released early for everyone, after a lengthy and slightly unrewarding ARG campaign that all hardcore Valve fans would have had an ear on for a while. Portal 2 is of course the sequel to the Valve tech demo Portal, which ended up being massively successful, and rightly so, it was an ingenious blend of FPS (Except you never shoot a bullet or kill anyone) and puzzles topped off with an immersing story that keeps you on your toes until the very end.

I must say, if you are one of those ten or so people who didn’t like Portal then this isn’t the article for you because, ladies and gentlemen, Portal 2 is definitely worth the hype. I played on the PS3 and have completed the single player campaign that took me 8 or so hours, this article will not spoil any twists or important information that you will come across during the game.

I’ll start by telling you that if you are expecting a ‘jump in and understand’ approach like the first game that was mainly focused on puzzles and a reasonably simple to pick up but boldly portrayed storyline then you might be surprised by the different approach that the sequel takes. It’s very much a cinematic game, more so than I’ve ever played. Ask what I was looking forward to Portal 2 for was and I’d say to get to the bottom of Aperture Science and more tough puzzles – Valve has delivered both of those things, sacrificing very little in the process.

I worried for quite a while that Portal 2 might end up suffering from the same ‘syndrome’ as PixelJunk Shooter 2 or Little Big Planet 2, and just lose a lot of what made it fun to begin with. Let me explain, LBP was a great game for people of any ages, with simple and constant puzzle mechanics that was lots of fun and compelled you to play many times and work hard on getting trophies. LBP2 on the other hand was also fun but lacked the replayability, in my opinion, because it complicated puzzle mechanics beyond the what younger players could grasp. If you tried making games with the LBP2 creator mode, you’d understand what I mean. In LBP you could make levels no matter who you were, but in LPB2 you’d have to be a rocket scientist to work out what all the motherboards and microchips meant. Something that LBP2, PJS2 and Portal 2 shared was an increase in the number of puzzle mechanics which, in the first two games I mentioned, make gameplay very vague and don’t settle to recap what you had just learnt. Portal 2 does not make that mistake though, giving you the exact amount of time to learn about a new mechanic (like Gels that repel or propel or create portal surfaces). All new mechanics have a history that you may choose to learn if you so wish, and usually have three or four chambers or tests of increasing difficulty. Conversely, no mechanic lingers too long, everything is kept fresh and interesting. Also there’s a couple of real mind bending puzzles that you hardcore portalists will enjoy.

Aesthetically, Portal 2 looks brilliant. The opening sequence of the game is jaw-dropping, as the room around you falls apart (and none of the debris ‘fades out’ to compensate for MORE debris). The destruction all the way through the game that happens right before your eyes made me stop many times and have a ‘how did/could they do that?!’ moment. It was reminiscent of when I was younger and had triggered something to happen, I’d just sit back all slack-jawed and just watch hopelessly as the incredible events unfolded. The graphics draw you into the story, making it believable and cinematic. The use of shadows in some parts of the game is a fine drawcard for Portal 2 also. Later in the game the graphics began to look more and more like Portal, but I didn’t mind because the story picks you up and throws you a mile (in a good way).

The story is worthy of Valve’s Half-Life universe, everything is just the way it should be, Chell remains mute and can only be seen through portals and all new characters only add more wonderful layers to the game. I feel that I should reiterate though, the story is unlike Portal, there are a few plots throughout the game that are played separately, so dropping in as an outsider in a later level would be confusing. But that said, when played start to finish the story is possibly even better than the original, with plot twists left right and centre. First game in a few years to make me properly laugh and also properly cry (Not ashamed to admit, it did make me cry..at the end…for a little bit). One notable segment of the game is like a live-in history book where you learn everything you’ll ever need to know about Aperture Science, GLaDOS and the other characters of Portal 2 who shall remain nameless. If you are expecting to learn lots about other things like Black Mesa or Gordon Freeman or the Combine, squash those expectations because this game has the same amount of crossover as the first Portal game. Probably the best way to describe it without spoiling anything would be a good movie sequel of the original, it’s very cinematic. If you play Portal 2 and you aren’t a crazy fan like me and you feel a little dissapointed, trust me, at the end everything is all worth it. All I’ll say about the end is that it finishes one story and begins another that will leave you thinking, ‘thank you Valve for not doing like other games do and leave the ending open for another pocket-pinching trilogy’.

I would suggest playing the single player campaign first before the co-op if you are one to keep the story arc in tact (The multiplayer happens chronologically after the single player has finished), I haven’t played any coop yet so I’m not sure how much from the single player campaign will be revealed, if valve is sensible (which they usually are) then probably not much.

So save up your pennies/dollars/rupees and grab yourself a copy of Portal 2, this game will not disappoint. If you have a PS3 I suggest you get Portal 2 for it instead of the Xbox 360 (the old news that you can play using Steam on the PS3 against PC and Mac players and with the PS3 copy you get a code for a free PC and Mac copy). And make sure you play Portal before this because there’s a lot you wont understand if you play Portal 2 first. Watch out all-other-games-being-released-this-year, Portal 2 might just be the one that bowls you all over.

That’s all I’ll say for now, please feel free to comment on this article, let me and everyone at GamerHusbands Radio know what YOU think as well because, lets be honest, everyone has an opinion.

More of my reviews/ideas/thoughts/bizarre at twitter.com/warmanator

Thought I might share my 2011 (or as I like to call it ‘year of the games I really want’) list I want to place in my permanent ‘care’ this year, share a bit of my fanboy love of serieses (or is it serii?) and brand new innovations that really caught my eye.

Quick note: Some of these are PS3 exclusive, but the majority will please everyone

Resistance 3
Resistance 3 Trailer

Welcome back to Insomniac Games’ alternative history WWII game that introduced me personally, with a handshake and a Hedgehog Grenade, to online multiplayer. Slightly disappointing that they would decide to make their teaser trailers in live action (like the Halo franchise did once I believe), but the idea of this game is fresh. At the end of Resistance 2, something major happens which I shouldn’t really disclose that basically ends this World War, and Resistance 3 is essentially the aftermath of the battle. Judging by what it looks like, you are following the story of Joseph Capelli from Resistance 2 (my description of him if you don’t know who I’m talking about is “the guy who you don’t really care about but comes up and does something pretty badass at the end of R2″) something happens to his wife and he’s sad. He’s joined by the strange little Russian scientist Dr Malikov, and they do something that involves somehow killing Chimera even though you’ve already rendered them harmless by killing their leader in R2. Anyway, even if the “Half-Life 2″ inspired campaign bites, I’m still looking forward to the multiplayer with it because Resistance games are pretty much the best you can get for PS3 exclusives at the moment

Deus Ex: Human Revolution
Deus Cinematic Trailer

I’ve not played any of the previous games but from what I’ve read/watched/heard, it looks to be a graphically stunning, non-buggy version of Fallout 3/New Vegas

Portal 2
Portal 2 Gameplay Trailer

The puzzler and tech demo turned amazingly successful game finally returns with new puzzles and ways of solving them. The best way I can describe what I think Portal 2 will be like is the way LBP2 took away the child-achievable level of puzzles of LBP by complicating them. Since it’s not a kids game it should add up to being the hardest and most rewarding puzzle game you’ll gain access to this year, that’s why it’s a must-get for me. Well, that and PS3s are getting SteamCloud support and PC/PS3 crossplatform multiplayer

Oddworld: Stranger’s Wrath
Oddworld Stranger’s Wrath Original 2005 Trailer

I didn’t have an original Xbox so I missed the follow up games of Abe’s Exoddus and Abe’s Oddysee set in the Oddworld universe. Those games would be Munch’s Oddysee and Stranger’s Wrath. The latter would have to be one of the games I really wished I had the original Xbox for, but luckily for me Just Add Water are rejiggering and rereleasing on the PSN and maybe XBLA if Microsoft raise their size limit above 2GB. Also, Abe’s Exoddus is also being rereleased as a HD side-scroller copy of the original

Dead Island
Dead Island Trailer

The trailer was shown to me recently, and it was so emotive that if you think you wont want to buy this game after seeing it, then you are truly mad. Very pretty looking game originally set to be released in 2008, is now arriving this year. It apparently is a solely melee zombie game

L.A. Noire
L.A. Noire Facial Tech Demonstration

Seriously, when the facial recognition tech is put into operation in May with this game, I’d find it hard to believe many developers would be able to go without it. Gameplay-wise it sounds like Blue Toad Murder Files but not a piece of absolute scat

Final Fantasy Versus XIII
Final Fantasy Versus XIII Extended Trailer

Almost definitely not coming out this year, but it probably should if Square knows what’s good for them. It’s Final Fantasy, but not as you’ve ever known it

More of my reviews/ideas/thoughts/bizarre at twitter.com/warmanator

Some of you may be looking forward to playing Dead Space 2, some may be cuteing it up in Little Big Planet 2, some might be looking for some thrills in the Killzone 3 Beta, but me? I’m looking forward to next week’s release of the Double Fine downloadable game Stacking, a stealth/class based action adventure about a Russian Doll trying to rescue his family.
If you weren’t keeping tabs, this is the second of four planned downloadable games from Double Fine that was to be the alternative to a sequel to Brutal Legend, which I thought was a good game but didn’t definitely need a sequel. This series of new games has sated my need for Tim Schafer’s quirky comedy games while also putting a different designer at the helm of each of the four games to be released. I’ve been a fan of downloadable games since I got my PS3 and realised the online games were soo cheap. Right up my alley.

Now, this post is obviously not a review of Stacking, since it isn’t out yet, so what could you possibly read in this post? How about my opinion of the first of the four games (Costume Quest), and maybe chuck in a bit of a glimpse DeathSpank 1 & 2? Ok then, you’ve got yourself a deal!

Costume Quest was released Halloween last year which is an indication to the theme of the game. It’s a story about a cute brother and sister who aren’t too happy about being forced into each other’s company by their parents during the trick or treat festivities in the neighbourhood. The story unfolds as a cutesy but not too sweet tale of teenagers raiding stores and kidnapping whichever sibling you chose NOT to play as at the start of the game. They aren’t actually teenagers in the game, they are mystical trolls and crows, but it is assumed they are teenagers from the perspective of a child’s over-imagination and adventurisation (if that’s a real word) of the game.
The gameplay is in the form of a turn-based RPG with the mechanics pretty much like a Final Fantasy, you see the enemy on the screen and when approached a separate battle sequence is initiated. In Costume Quest when a battle is encountered, the child (and later when you find companions, children) transforms into an awesome version whatever costume they are wearing – which makes things more bearable for the men out there to keep their machismo in check. There are plenty of costumes to pick up and battles don’t get tedious. The combination of costumes and ‘battle stamps’ give your characters powers that would be best described as picking character classes in a more tweakable way. For example, if you dress up as the jack-o-lantern (high attack power) you’d be wise to pair it with a counter-attack battle stamp which would make battles much faster and more efficient. Strategy aside, when in battle you are required to press a corresponding button/buttons/stick rotation (depending on the costume) to deal the maximum damage or defend against the maximum damage dealt by the enemies. This is a fresh addition to the turn-based RPG genre and creates more of a challenge, less of a button mash, and more fun for the kids (That’s if you let them play, since you’ll be too busy playing it yourself)
I thought Costume Quest was a lot of fun for little money, would be good for kids or hardcore gamers wanting a little time playing a reasonably challenging game with a child-like quality and trick-or-treat nostalgia. It’s been bug free since day one like most DL games available which is a plus. Costume Quest has no voice acting, so if you were planning on spending a sleepy/inebriated night looking at pretty colours and following forgivable quicktime event battles you should be prepared to do a bit of reading, or a bit of skipping dialogue which is a viable alternative. The only concern I had was after I played it once there was no reason for me to ever boot it up again, which is something DL game developers still haven’t worked out a solution to yet.

DeathSpank! From the name you can tell you’re in for a wild ride, and with the brain of Ron Gilbert of Monkey Island (I’ll promise to stop talking about that LucasArts piece-of-wonder after this post) your bound for a funny and completely customisable Diablo alternative. For a bit of money and a bit of gigabyte you get plenty of jokes, charm, action, character and undergarments.
DeathSpank and Deathspank: Thongs of Virtue (essentially episode one and two of the same game) are two action adventure slasher stories about a knight who loves to kill things in the name of Justice, and with the guidance of the mysterious Sandy, he goes about making the world a better place, one town at a time. It’s a mildly open world game at times and the quest system is good until you run out of quests. The weapon selection system is reasonable in getting you to use a variety of ranged, melee and thrown weapons in combat. The variety of weapons is also tremendous, you’ll spend most of your time picking out your best gear and thwarting enemies until you are strong enough to wear that even better and interestingly-titled armour you have been eyeing off since you picked it up an hour ago. Other things to look forward to is two player co-op with a Steve the Wizard obsessed with his own name or Tanko the man-spider, the presence of voice acting (!), top shelf – usually toilet – humour and fun, balanced combat that won’t make you cringe with difficulty or pout from easiness.
I’ll stop there to keep this review short and sweet, you can all shuffle off and read some more about DeathSpank elsewhere if this has tickled your fancy. Heck, maybe you’ll even buy it, stranger things have happened.

Stacking IGN Trailer

More of my reviews/ideas/thoughts/bizarre at twitter.com/warmanator

Hit me up if you want to be in the GHR Skate crew.  If not, and I see you in game, I WILL SHRED ALL OVER YOUR FACE.  That’s how I roll.

See you in May. 

Lego Harry Potter Confirmed! It will cover the first 4 books in the Harry Potter series. I asked my son and he’s officially pumped for it!

You were right. Following reports of disappointing holiday sales, Electronic Arts announced cutbacks in their quarterly conference call on December 9th.

EA CEO John Riccitiello announced a ’3 prong’ attack in order to boost income in fiscal 2009 – less games, focus on games with strong online and ongoing content, and reducing expenses (i.e. laying people off).

Anyone who looked at the release calendar for Oct/Nov/Dec and didn’t see this coming needs their eyes checked. There is such a thing as too many games, and I think we saw it in quarter 4 of 2008.

Read Giant Bomb and Joystiq for more.

I remember spending hours on the old Commodore 64 version of Ghostbusters. Ecto 1 and the State Puff Marshmallow Man were staples on my computer. Now we can get ready to relive that glory. Today, Atari announced a June 2009 release date for the new Ghostbusters video game. This ties in with the 25th anniversary of the original release. It is billed as Ghostbusters 3 and is being written by Dan Ackroyd and Harold Ramis. They along with Dan Aykroyd, Bill Murray and some others have signed on for the voice acting. So start saving those pennies and get ready to bust some Ghosts.

GLADOS returns to XBLA on Wednesday. I am excited to see if the cake is still a lie. Other notables this week are Far Cry 2, Fable 2 and Spiderman : Web of Shadows.

Whether or not you are excited about this game, the main question has been answered. When will we get a chance to play it for ourself? This monday according to Microsoft as a part of it’s bring E3 home series on Xbox Live. Silicon Knights president Dennis Dyack has created a whirlwind of controversy through his crusade to battle gaming forums and defend the negative previews that this game has received so far. If you enjoy Norse Mythology or enjoy insane amounts of character micro management, then this game might be for you. This is just a preview so gamers should give it a fair shake and not review the whole game based on the demo.