2014. nov. 12.

Generally I like crossovers in every area, because if the creators are combining the elements of various genres well, the mix can be something good, even if the product shows no really new or unique content in the depths. Since the re-adoptation of Blood Bowl the name of the french Cyanide started to be the synonym of quality entertainment, and the fine-tuned crossover of Of Orcs and Men wrote it onto the list of companies drawing attention. Even the title grabbed my attention, because it refers to Steinbeck‘s Of Mice and Men, and the similarity goes further. We get the small and agile character as well as the slow giant, and there is a sentence in the synopsis of the book that fits well on this very game: “…clinging together in the face of loneliness and alienation.” The trailers bought me with the story: Humans wage total war against the greenskins, a part of the orc race is already eradicated, and the other part is mostly enslaved. But humans did not take an important thing into account: The orcs seem wild, unorganized and barbaric on the outside, but in fact they have an advanced culture with mostly strength-based but solidly contoured power hierarchy in it. And, you know, they have an elite squad. These elites are the Bloodjaws, and have a jaw tattoo on the right breast – and of course the main hero, Arkail is a part of the team. You get the mission summarized in a very orcish way: Get through the wall, search and kill the emperor! Really, this is it. But the completion is much more difficult than the summary of the mission. The first and most important thing: They hire a guide for you to lead you through the city wall. He is no other than Styx, the only goblin in the world ever heard speaking and ever showed signs of intelligence. Not to mention, he is the narrator of the story and swearing is not far from him. So that’s it, you have the odd couple, and their only mutual attribute is their green skin. The differences would make an enormous list, so I stick to the essentials....

2014. nov. 11.

When talking about fantasy MMOs, LotRO mustn’t be left out. This online variation of the the world of Lord of the Rings is worthy of the big ancestor and namegiver, and although gameplay is not so unique, you won’t find too many flaws in it. It is free since September (2010.), for which cause it was left by thousands and started by millions, so the conversion seems like a valid pull. There is a disagreement on the web between the fans of f2p (free to play) and pfp (pay for play), but I won’t go into it: I see reasons in both the fully paying and the microtransaction model alike. I rather write about the game. The American publisher, Turbine (and Codemasters in Europe) follows the same principle in LotRO than in Dungeons and Dragons Online (DDO): A free player can have such points that he/she can use for paying in the online store of the game, so this way even free players can have almost anything that paying players get. While in DDO you need to complete the quests again and again (this repetition was why I get bored of it time and time again, but otherwise it’s a good game), LotRo handles this part of the system as a separate type of tasks. These are the heroic deeds, and although they are in a defined number, but playing with two characters (free game allows only two) you still can get enough Turbine Points to get horses, maybe remove the money cap, buy some quest packs (each belongs to one or other lands of Middle Earth), etc. If you create the two characters to augment each other in ways, you can easily find yourself undecided regarding which one you will play next time you start the game. I ran forward a little. I was at the tasks: Besides heroic deeds there is an epic story, and between the quests of it you can handle all the sidequests, your hobby, your crafts and the events of the war. Ups, this sounds a bit too many in the same breath — indeed it is. It is so many that I mostly neglect the main story,...

2014. nov. 11.

Unfortunately, there are only a few unique games in the front lines offering fun to a family. Among them there are almost the whole LEGO series, and I don’t remember any more at the moment. A lot of people got shaking with nerves when they hear the terms LEGO or Harry Potter, but if you can step over your prejudices, you will have a good chance of having fun. Once upon a time LEGO Star Wars gave pleasant experiences, but today I wouldn’t play with it. I wouldn’t, after the controls were much better in the second part, what’s more, a few games later we could push it on split screen. By the time they put the first four Harry Potter movies into a LEGO video game, Traveller’s Tales programmers could put all the pieces together proficiently. Gameplay is the same here as what infants in nappy used to play with little colorful building cubes: go and smash everything apart. Of course, there are more difficult tasks than this, and sometimes the game puts your dexterity to the test, but on the whole you always move on a smash/collect line. This is not so enticing, is it? However, LEGO stuffs are really not about gameplay. Maybe it sounds strange that the point of a whole video games series is not about what to do and how — but this is surely the point where LEGO series become family entertainments. Littlest ones (I don’t write age, because it’s up to the parents when they let their children watch computer games) get pretty cute figures, and not so little ones can not only roam around in the scenes of one of the most popular movie series, but they can do it with a bro, a sis or a friend. Because LEGO games are basically cooperative. After they here come the twenty years old kids, who don’t necessarily fill their free time with video games, but they doesn’t necessarily count as a targeted audience. Fathers (and in fortunate cases, mothers) replacing them on the game market, because the jokes balance between the “childish” and “adult” categories relatively good. And so we listed three groups which can have...

2014. nov. 11.

GTA IV killed my trust in Rockstar Games, but I gave them another chance with the L. A. Noire. I didn’t regret it. Although I’m still suspicious about the fifth installment of GTA, in the case of Noire very few bad word comes into my mind. It is because Rockstar made a big step and raised its TPS-adventure-driving receipt to a new height; started to mix mediums. Even the title tells a lot: L. A. as Los Angeles, and Noire as that certain film noir from the 40s which means dark crime dramas with moral questions in them. Thus, based on the title it is given that the game world is Los Angeles in the 40s, supposedly, and there is a strong connection with film noir. Let’s add the gameplay well known from the GTA series and a little extra; besides shooting and car chasing you have to find tracks and lead interrogations. This latter two game element perks the almost boring Rockstar-style up in such a measure that forgave the repetitive characteristic easily. Because there is some repetition here too – tell me a game in which there isn’t some. You are a detective, so do the bebop and find some evident, investigate the crime scene, drive here and there, interrogate some people, shoot them and chase their cars. These are the constant elements of the game, only the order changes, and this wouldn’t be enough to make the game more than a monoplane flick. However, with the above mentioned mix of mediums Noire became a game that should be called rather an interactive series of movies than only a game. Computer game is mixed with movie, and not a little. With the triple frame you get more than twenty stories that is told with the instruments a in the environment of film noir; you can even switch the screen to monochrome, if you feel the atmosphere more authentic this way. In the meantime you can find yourself watching cutscenes again and again, and movie intertwines with game and vica versa. But this doesn’t necessary mean a linear story-leading. The brightness of Noire presents itself partly here; although there always is someone being...

Now, what should I do? I’ve never experienced such mixed feelings. Here is a game I MUST play every day, but every day I loose the mood, then I must take it out again, because I wanna play it again. How is it possible anyway? There never was a game left such doubts in me than Game of Thrones. Here is a review in which bias fights against objectivity, and pain and disappointment join bloody battle with outstanding experiences. The Game of Thrones video game is based on a TV series that is based on a cycle of novels. There is two basic problems here: both television and game adaptations usually leave much to be desired. (Unfortunately, it is more typical in the case of games.) [All my hope is in The Walking Dead – Garcius] The reason is usually the haste, because the game should be released in time to serve the Main Product as promotion – the saliva-churning of the fans shouldn’t subside because it means less buyer of the fruit of the work. So, the stuff have to be made hastily and scratchily, and it will be remembered by the future generations regretfully at best, instead of being glorified. These types of games are mostly just morsels of marketing. I must remark that I won’t be objective a bit, because the works of George R. R. Martin, and mainly the Song of Fire and Ice cycle (that is the foundation of the TV series) is very close to my heart (and partly, to be loyal to the spirit of Gamedroid) – it inspired and transformed me as both a thinking being and an author. This is why I more or less feel these books and the world of the seven kingdoms, Westeros my own, so I watched the adaptation for television very censoriously, and I wasn’t entirely satisfied with the result. I don’t say that the series is bad, what’s more, it brought so many new fans for Westeros that it would never get by the printed version. Don’t beat about the bush; this is one of the most costly and most successful series recently, and it made a lot of...

2014. nov. 11.

Bethesda took a hard row to hoe by trying to revive a legendary series, the Fallout saga of Black Isle. Ancient Fallout fans of the gamer population – who got into this post-apocalyptic, radio active world in 1997 and 1998, Anno Domini – were making grimaces on the first pictures and videos. Most of them were seeing just a post-apocalyptic Oblivion behind the trailers, and this scared off a lot of players even at the beginning. Somewhere I can understand it because the IV. episode of the legendary Elder Scrolls series, Oblivion was dividing RPG fans seriously. After Morrowind, a classic CRPG, Oblivion from the Spring of 2006 was an action-adventure game full of RPG elements. It was disappointing for a lot, so they had the right to be afraid of an “Oblivion with guns!” – quoted from Todd Howard, leading producer of Bethesda. Todd felt like this, but what we got in the end was much more than a new Oblivion with firearms in a nuclear setting! The story and setting of the Fallout series is based on America in the 50s. This was an era of nuclear arms race, silly songs, cold war producing the antagonistic America Dream, exemplary life in a carefree consumer society which raises and feeds perfectly sterile plastic emotions. However, the creator of the Fallout setting, Tim Cain was dare to go further and changed history. The world of Fallout is like a future imagined in the 50s. The main characteristics are the wanton use of nuclear energy, the advancement of technology to a point where robots are serving a softened puppet society and cars are fueled by fusion power, and finally, the frenzied nuclear arms race. Cold war lasted longer than in real, till in 2077 the fear of a world in flames came true. As a requiem of the long war against China, the whole planet was sprinkled with atom bombs. Of course, the American Dream must have not to dissipate, and a chosen lot escaped to underground shelters built by Vault-Tec. Years passed, generations grew up before the huge airlocks opened again, and people could start a new life on the wasted surface of Earth,...