Shadow Complex has been on the lips of every gaming media outlet known to man.  So, quite naturally it is on ours as well.  I’m am still jonsing to pick up the controller again and run amuck within the complex.  I’ve already made it quite obvious that more of these types of games should make their way to XBLA and PSN.  So here’s what I’ve thought on the latest gem from this emerging trend.

Presentation-8.5

Chair, the developers behind Shadow Complex, showed that they were taking great strides to truly craft a game that sucks the player into the world.  Cut scenes were well designed and not to over the top, and they were quite exquisite to look at.  At times I completely forgot that I was playing an arcade title.  Another struck of genius, the scripted events that would play out while you were trapped underneath a floor board, or stuck in the next room.  The way that more of the story unfolded while you were sneaking above guards head lends itself to Bioshockess (Boo-yah! made up word on display) radio tapes.   It managed to keep me engaged in the story without interrupting the flow of what I was doing; it also gave me the sense that I was eavesdropping to garner the secrets for a covert operation.  While I enjoyed the cut scenes, I wanted more of the scripted events to play out while I made my way through the complex.

Gameplay-9.5

Now this is nostalgia!  If Super Metroid, Castlevania, Mega Man, and other old school adventure games where exploration was pivotal, came together to make a baby;  Shadow Complex would be the son that grew up and made them all proud to call their own.  The 2d platforming with the twist of having enemies to shoot at in a 3D background kept the game fresh.  And the different amount of ways to take an enemy out keeps you thinking of new and sometimes comical ways to get the job done.

Lasting Appeal – 9.0

While it’s heavily encouraged to be the fastest to beat this well crafted game, does not make this a short romp at all.  Seriously skilled gamers will find it a joy to get some of the speed based achievements while casual players will enjoy exploring every nook and cranny to get to all the goodies.  Plus with the Proving Grounds challenges, the persistent in campaign leader board will keep every player coming back for more.

9 out of 10

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That’s right the mysterious count down clock that was pulled before it counted down during E3, to later go back up and show a mysterious short trailer of some sort of destruction.  Which lead to almost every type of breakdown imaginable from about every website that tried their hat at it.

Most of the breakdowns seemed to be grasping at some link between the teaser and Master Chief, most of the websites had a few general things about the trailer correct.  Those were that it was going to be an expansion to Halo 3 of some kind, it would be squad based, and it would be sans Chief.  Well Bungie confirmed all of that and then some when they released the full version of that teaser trailer at the Tokyo Game Show.

And Bada Bing, Bada Boom, Bungie annouces Halo 3 Recon.   It will be a standalone expansion to be released fall 2009 and it will not be a squad-based shooter it will stay close to it’s fps roots according to 1up.com: 

“The base concept for Recon is “a side-story campaign in the Halo universe starring a guy who’s not Master Chief.” Specifically, an Orbital Drop Shock Trooper (those fellows in black armor that pop up to fight alongside you on occasion in both Halo 2 and 3) who’s been inserted into hostile territory. For those of you who eat up the Halo lore, Bungie writer Luke Smith elaborated that the trailer takes place during the sequence in Halo 2 where Master Chief and the High Prophet of Regret are leaving Earth and going to Delta Halo. In fact, the drop pods are entering Earth’s orbit as Regret’s ship zips into the slipspace rift to Delta Halo. “

 This video interview with writer Luke Smith and Community and PR Manager Brian Jarrard from Bungie pretty much says it all.  There is a slight delay before the video starts.  Enjoy:

 So now lets look at the facts at hand.  There’s going to be

• 4 player co-op campaign
• No Master Cheif
• Forge, and Video Sharing
• An early Map Pack release named Mythic Map Pack for Halo 3 which you’ll be able to use for Recon
• You’re not a super soldier but you fight the same way as you would in a Halo game.
• There will be multiplayer, 1000 acheivements to gain and it’ll be here by fall 09

Verdict: Sign Me Up For Awesomeness!!!!!!

It looks like close to this time next year my Halo Fridays will take on a whole new meaning, but that don’t mean I’m going to stop blacklisting cowards who drop out of my game.  If this game is as good as other Halo games then MS will kick themselves if they strain the relationship with Bungie to the point where they start multiplatform development.  Me personally…while I love Halo and I like to see the continuation and further exploration into the depth of the universe; I would of like to seen something a bit different from Bungie.  Perhaps I will as the studio continues to evolve.

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Love them or hate them, Avatars is getting ready to make their debut this fall when the new xbox experience rolls out to consoles worldwide. Now most of the buzz around this new feature has been all over the place. With most of the comments ranging from the blatant copy of Nintendo Mii’s and Sony’s Home Avatars to other commenter’s saying how it’s ok as long as there’s more to do with them then the Mii’s. Most owners of the Wii console feel the whole Mii concept was good, but somehow became neglected by Nintendo. Will Microsoft avatars fall to the same fate, or will they be truly Mii-Too???? Well from this new video that was posted by Major Nelson himself it seems that off the bat there’s a deeper customization feature which should appeal to the most diehard hater. However one must question how much will this customization grow in the future. Giving it some thoughts here’s some of the things I would personally like to see from dashboard avatars.

The Sidious Wish List

1. Mount’s/Pets.  I have an avatar cool, but can I get a horse or some crazy beast to romp around with?
2. World of WarAvatar.  Now I’m not talking about a Sony’s HOME like experience; I’m talking about a full MMO staring the millions of Avatars with quests and beasts to slay.  Come on I know I can’t be the only one who’s thought of this
3. Please make the rumor of unlocking armors and game related material for the Avatars a la Achievements real and not for play play damn it!!!  We all heard of this idea before with Achievements being linked to gamer pics and themes but haven’t seen any of that at all!!  We don’t forget things like this; so do this right and stop the bullshit!!! 
4. Can we work with EA and roll out Sim’s The Avatar Edition?  Don’t steal my idea Microsoft…wait I forgot who I was talking to.
5. Last but not least, Avatar Shorties.  That’s right let me get a Hot Chic Avatar to rock with.  I’m sure you can work with Rockstar and work something out.  It doesn’t have to be as hot as coffee, but there’s nothing wrong with some warm ass coco. 

Well I know most of the things I want are just a pipe dream being held by a crackhead with a pocket full of rocks.  However it shows that with some thought behind it Avatars can eventually carve out a life for themselves.  I mean if Sony can take Second Life and give it a new name I’m sure MS is capable of the same thing.  They already took the first step, now just run with it.  Oh and enjoy the video.

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Do you love RPG’s as much as I do?  Where any of you one of the original Xbox owners who craved rpg’s both western and traditional jrpgs, but found the offering lacking???  Well worry no more; for it seems that Microsoft has courted RPG’s in a big way for their Xbox 360.   I can’t believe that I’m actualy saying this but I do think I won’t be able to play them all this year.  Isn’t that a crazy statement???  However It’s a true one, with a solid lineup of rpg’s for this year and the next, rpg fans have reason to rejoice.   And with Infinite Undiscovery on the horizion for September 2nd, it seems to be the appetizer for the feast to come.  Enjoy the video.  And for info on the battle system check out the Battle System Discovered over on ign.com.

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Over on <a href=”http://www.pwnordie.com/”>pwnordie.com</a> they not only display mad skills with unlocking all the acheivements for Geomtry Wars 2 Retro Evolved, but the put it all together in a handy dandy walkthrough video.  Want to see it, here it goes:

Happy Friday Everyone!!

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There isn’t to much for me to say, so without further ado take it away Kevin:

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Now I’m sure you’ve all read my Too Human Demo Impression and know exactly how I feel about this game that is set to release in a week or two. I bring to you now a preview done by gametrailers.com. Being that everybody is all quite and closed doors now that E3 is over, lets hope that Lipzeig brings some more gaming goodness. I for one hate a slow and quite news week.

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Ensemble Studios known for there development work on some truly popular rts games for the pc.  Is now deep in the mad sceintist lab cooking up Halo Wars, a real time strategy game built for the Xbox 360.   I must say that I have never been able to handle the lure and depth of play that real time stategy games offer.  All of the multitasking, and resource managment that is required can become a bit daunting for yours truly.   I have been lured with titles such as Lord of the Rings: Battle for Middle Earth, Civilization Revolution, and Command and Conquer.  Alas, fearful that these real time strategy games may be to much for me to chew; I played safely from the demo and no further.  Will Halo Wars change my trepidation of real time strategy games?  Only time will tell.  But, for those of you who are well versed in rts’s; this game looks to be another solid one to add to any game library.   And don’t be shy to drop me some pro tips, this game genre is one I’ve alway felt that I was missing out on.

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First I would like to start this off by saying that I’m am not a professional journalist.  I don’t get paid to give out previews or reviews or for running this site.  I do it all for the fact that I want to be able to share my views and thoughts about games with other fellow gamers.   With that out of the way, on to the impression talk.

Too Human Is Not  A Masterpiece But I Love It To Death!!!!

Now before that subtitle is taken out of context let me explain what I mean by it not being a masterpiece.  Too Human is going to suffer from not holding up to titles such as Bioshock, GTA IV, MGS4, Gears of War or any titles coming out in the future that are really going to push high graphic fidelity.  Personally, I like the graphics of this game, and feel as if it’s looking for it’s own charm.  Though Crackdown is no Uncharted,  I liked both the feel and look of Crackdown.  

Now I know this sounds like a backhanded compliment but honestly, it’s not.  I dig the graphical style they were going for, period.  I find that what Silicon Knights has presented to us is a very solid and quite deep action rpg game.  It’s a beautiful dungeon crawling, loot dropping game, and that’s what I love about it.

The Camera Was A Problem Until It Wasn’t A Problem

I have to admit; I’m the type of gamer that’s really embedded into thinking that the left thumbstick is for character movement and the right thumbstick is for camera control.  I fought like a madman trying to figure out why the camera was fixed in Too Human.  Until, I suddenly stopped and realized that the problem is not with the camera, it was with me!!! 

I was so defeated by the camera, I didn’t pay attention to the fact, that there are different camera settings that can be utilized.  And instead of me crying a river about not having the camera attached to the right thumbstick, I simply went with the flow of combat that the right thumbstick now provides.  Basically, I picked a losing fight with a game design, and now I love the flow that comes with the combat.

You Do Not Want To Step To Me In Too Human

The way you fight in this game is quite a process.  We’ve all seen the gameplay videos where the main character slides around and kills enemies.  Well let me just say all the enemies, cannot be killed as simple as that.  Some enemies will put up quite a fight while others, will kill you if you’re playing a little too reckless.  Switching between melee and ranged weapons is seemless and quite enjoyable to mix when you want to juggle an enemy or two.

The one aspect of range weapon combat I truly enjoyed; is when your character is wielding two pistols, you can target one enemy with each hand.  Effectively allowing you to kill two enemies at the same time.  Fighting the trolls are extremely enjoyable especially when they become vulnerable enough to mount for the one hit kill.   There’s other aspects that go deeper with the combat like launching spiders and gaining the battle cry ability; plus if you push up at the same time with both sticks you get a weapon specific attack that can take out a flock of enemies that may be swarming you.  Now all of this glorious combat is nothing without all the glorious loot.  Some of the things that come out of that game is so good it’ll make you want to slap somebody’s momma!  Not only will the game give out some good loot but, there’s also the possibility to find blueprints for armor and weapons to craft.  Which all lends to the deep rpg aspects of this game.  The amount of customization, and leveling is almost endless; that is until they cap you off for the next game in the trilogy.

Too Human, for all it’s purposes is a game that I look forward to having in my library.  Now I know that this game is never going to warrant a mixed review. You’ll either love it or hate it, and I for one, love it.  Now while I love it, I can see why this game will not have a huge mass appeal, but hopefully it’ll gain just enough of a cult following to warrant the continuation of the trilogy.

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