Chronicles of Riddick: Assualt On Dark Athena Review

Score: 90 / 100

Good: Great gameplay, a true sequel, amazing storyline, You get 2 games in 1 (Escape From Butcher Bay and Dark Athena), multiplayer added to the chronicles

Bad: Bad textural detail, gun-play kind of sucks, ridickulously hard at times (see what I did there?)

Whether you saw the movies or not, the Riddick game from 2004 (Escape From Butcher Bay) was amazing. The graphics were outstanding for that time, the gameplay was innovative, and the storyline was fantastic. All of these features, and more, added up to making it one of the best movie to game titles ever produced.

Now, five years later, we have Assault On Dark Athena. The storyline picks up right where Escape from Butcher Bay left off. You are floating through space with Johns in cryogenic sleep. The twist, and your first introduction to Dark Athena, is a missle hook that attaches to your ship and drags it into a port that is controlled by spider like claws.

While the storyline is top notch, again, I’m sure you would rather know about the gameplay. Dark Athena, in keeping with true sequel fashion, is almost identical with Butcher Bay. In fact, it is almost the same engine as Butcher Bay, with a few additions and adjustments. If you don’t believe me you can just play Butcher Bay yourself…Dark Athena comes with it.

You will find yourself doing the usual. Sneaking, seeing in the dark, and stalking your prey until that opportune moment occurs and you pounce. But the biggest difference with Dark Athena is the ability to kill a drone enemy and use their weapon while it is still attached to their body. Though the animation is you using their body as a shield, this is not so. This feature is a great innovation, but honestly I love the outstanding melee combat Dark Athena has to offer.

Another great addition is all of the new weapons that have been added. While I will say that the guns are a lot of fun, I really think that they take away from what Riddick is supposed to be about: sneaking and assassinating with gusto.

Dark Athena has also added the ability of multiplayer. You aren’t going to find many servers up, but this provides for some great LAN action. And who doesn’t like multiplayer added to great games?!

The first downfall to Dark Athena are the mooshy textures. Though I think Dark Athena sports some pretty graphics, frankly the engine is almost the same one from 2004. This means that things as a whole look nice, but textures look like mashed potatoes. A massive upgrade to the graphics engine would have been extremely welcomed (and kind of expected). On a side note though, the graphics of this game really do give it its charm. Think Half Life 2.

The other downfall for the game are the old game mechanics and UI from the 2004 game. Don’t get me wrong…I love that they kept it the same to ensure that this sequel was really a sequel. But in doing that, they brought along everything that was bad with the old game. The health 'boxes' are overly simple, the lean feature is kind of useless, and using guns feels just straight out wonky.

I am a huge Riddick fan and this game delivers. Though parts of it feel rehashed and beaten into the ground (due to lack of innovation), the overall game is great. If you have any interest in the Riddick universe, or a great storyline in a game, I strongly recommend you check Assault On Dark Athena out.

– Tyler (Chiko)

Nintendo: Where Has All The Fun Gone?

Nintendo has been the king of innovation and new devices hitting the gaming scene like clockwork for the past couple of decades. With everything from the first NES to the new DSi, Nintendo keeps’em coming year after year. What that said though, I myself have grown a little bored, and somewhat cynical, of what Nintendo has to offer anymore.

Let’s start with the SNES. I know the NES was revolutionary, but I’m starting here…so deal with it. The Super Nintendo was a ground-breaking, industry shaking console. The graphics were amazing, the games were fun, and stores couldn’t keep them on the shelves. You truly could bring the 'arcade' into your home, except with far more variety in games. I personally love my SNES and find myself hooking it back up from time to time to enjoy the 'good old days' of gaming.

Next came the Nintendo 64. Talk about another ground-breaking device; this bad boy came with 64 bits of graphics and hours of some of the best gameplay seen yet in the industry. Nintendo was still, in my opinion, the leader of the finest gaming experiences on the market at that time. From Zelda to Goldeneye, Nintendo had fun down to a science.

While it was never really an 'era', the time of the Nintendo hand-held devices has been all over the place. With everything from the first GameBoy color to the release of the NDS, Nintendo almost had a new hand-held coming out every year. They also have had a new Pokemon game coming out almost every six months for one game system or another.

Which brings us to the gamecube. Ok, that’s all I wanted to say about that.

Nintendo knew they had to do something to enter the next-gen era with a bang. Their solution? The Nintendo Wii. I am very aware that you know all about it and so I don’t have to say much here. I will say though, that the Wii is…innovative.

I think that is enough Nintendo history though. What I really want to talk about is how the Wii, and now the new DSi, are nothing more than novelty items to add to your collection of gadgets. Which leads me to my biggest question: Where did all the fun go?!

Nintendo has done such a great job over the years with truly capturing what makes gaming fun. I mean, who knew they could turn a plumber into one of gaming’s most celebrated video game characters?

My theory is that the Wii has made Nintendo in to something that it’s not. With the addition of the Wii to Nintendo’s line up, they have turned the company into a company that is centered around innovation. While some may argue that this is revolutionary for gaming, I will have to argue that it is detracting from the one thing that I want from my games: fun. Yes, the Wii was fun when it came out. No, the Wii is not fun for me anymore.

Now we have the DSi to add to their laundry list of hand-helds. This is another example of how Nintendo has truly run out of ideas and is turning to 'gadgets' and 'innovation' to make up for the lack of fun in their games / systems.

I am not trying to Nintendo bash. I love Nintendo and what they have done for the gaming scene. So I guess I will end with a statement to Nintendo:

Dear Nintendo,

I don’t want cameras, touch screens, or gyroscopes implemented into my games/systems without a purpose. Doing this makes developers feel the need to show off the 'equipment', rather than make fun and interesting in depth video games.

Nintendo, I want you to bring the fun back. Yes, Mario Galaxy was fun, but can we please move on from the characters you keep beating into the ground like a dead horse? Also, please make a system fun before you make it innovative. Trust me, we all get it. Your company likes to turn the gaming world as we know it on its head. This idea is nice, if there is fun included.

So, I will ask this again. Please hold the bells and whistles and make games/systems that are fun and innovative, not novelty items that show how truly 'creative and innovative' you can be.

Click Here to discuss this article

– Tyler (Chiko)

Update:

Though most people have cast their opinion about this article already, I wanted to clear some things up that I have read around the net.

For one, I don’t hate the Wii. While I think it is largely a novelty item, it was still fun. Honestly, the Wii just got old…that’s all I am trying to say here.

Secondly, I don’t hate Nintendo. While it doesn’t surprise that saying something 'bad' about Nintendo automatically makes me a Nintendo Basher on the internet, it does surprise me how much people have got their panties in a twist over this.

Finally, I am not saying that the PS3 or Xbox are better than the Wii. All three systems have their ups and downs.

Thank you for your time.

Sacred 2: Fall Angel Review

Score: 79 / 100

Good: Beautiful graphics, addicting click and slash play, tons of quests

Bad: Pretty generic click and slash action-RPG, not a lot of spells and no spell bar, not a lot of innovation, poor storyline

I think we can all honestly say that at some point in our lives as gamers, we have all played an action-RPG. Whether it was Zelda style or Diablo style, we have all spent a good portion of our gaming careers grinding to hit that next level.

Enter Sacred 2: Fallen Angel. If you have played Diablo or Titan Quest, then you should have a pretty good idea as to what is going on with Sacred 2.

With all of that said, and out of the way, Sacred 2 does possess some elements that set it apart from its almost identical twin brothers, Diablo and Titan Quest. For one, Sacred 2 is sporting some fancy new PhsyX action. A few places in the game that have been beefed up with PhysX are the ground, the wind, and spells just to name a few. The big question though is: can you actually see the places that PhysX has been added? The answer to that question is both yes and no. Yes, the spells and environment look absolutely amazing. And no, footsteps on the ground look like preloaded textures…not freshly simulated by your character. What I’m really trying to say here is that the game is beautiful.

The second thing that, kind of, sets Sacred 2 apart is the character design. With everything from ancient guardian robots equipped with laser cannons to sexy leaf-wearing women druids, Sacred 2 offers 6 pretty unique characters/classes to choose from. I should also make mention that you get the ability to obtain some really unique mounts throughout the game depending on your class.

The last great thing I want to tell you about is the multiplayer. You can effectively hop between singleplayer and multiplayer seamlessly for some great co-op action. I am always of a fan of co-op and any game that implements it is alright in my book.

Enter Sacred 2’s draw backs. I love any game that brings back the old “explore, kill, loot, quip, quest” gameplay, but Sacred 2 doesn’t seem to offer enough variety from its brothers in the genre. As soon as you load the game up, which takes a while, you immediately ask yourself, “whoops, did I accidentally click on the Titan Quest icon?”

Another problem with Sacred 2 is how shallow the skill/equipment systems are. While you are given quite a variety of skills and equipment to choose from, they just don’t seem to work well with the overall game. Skills are passive most of the time, so you don’t use them really, and equipment drops so often that you never get the time to become fully acquainted with anything.

As far as the spells go, forget having a lot of variety here as well. You can really only use two or three at any given time. This might have been an effort to make the game more straight forward, but I think it hurt the game more than helping it. While not having a spell bar is a unique feature, I found myself really missing it.

A final problem with Sacred 2 is that it has no real storyline. Sure, there are tons of quests, cheesy witty humorous quips, two sides to choose from, and speeches given at the start up of choosing a character. But a solid immersive storyline is nowhere to be found.

Sacred 2: Fallen Angel has a few problems, but it is surprisingly addicting. This game takes the old Diablo style of gaming and really does nothing to change it (especially when compared to Titan Quest). Is this a good thing? Yes, if you love to do nothing but click and slash.

All in all, I think the time of simple action-RPG gaming has come to an end and Sacred 2 didn’t get the memo. With that said, if you love Titan Quest and are bored stiff with it, pick up Sacred 2 for sure. If you are looking for an in depth 'Diablo III', you frankly won’t find it here. While Sacred 2 sports some beautiful graphics, fun multiplayer, and tons of quests to keep you busy, the overall game is missing a certain charm to really bring anything great to the 'video game table'. If Sacred 2 had come out a few years ago, before Titan Quest, jaws would be dropping. But the truth is that it didn’t and they aren’t.

– Tyler (Chiko)

FEAR 2: Project Origin Review

Score: 80 / 100

Good: The ever fun slowmo, great enemy AI, interesting storyline

Bad: Not that scary, pretty short, lackluster weapons, just a basic shooter at its core

I remember back in 2005 visiting CPL and seeing a giant booth for FEAR. I had heard of the game and was pretty excited to see what it had to offer. Little did I know that I was not only going to get to play it that day, but also have an exclusive interview with a promotions guy from Monolith. Needless to say, I was sold on FEAR.

Fast forward four years and now we have FEAR 2: Project Origin. Being such a big fan of FEAR (minus the mediocre expansions), I picked this game up with out hesitation.

FEAR 2 picks up where FEAR left off. Though you are a different character, Alma is still the main problem. In FEAR 2, Alma has been set free from many years of being locked away from the world and she is pissed as hell.

A side not I want to make really quick is about the storyline. For all who played FEAR, you know how complicated and impossible to follow the storyline was. FEAR 2, while complicated at times, has really produced a solid and easy to follow storyline that fits right in with what FEAR was all about. FEAR 2 also introduces a whole new pack of characters from another evil military dude to your lieutenant lady friend.

Moving on to the actual gameplay; you can’t talk about FEAR without talking about the slowmo. And yes, FEAR 2 has it. You can also still do crazy kicks through the air that absolutely annihilate the enemy. The main point I wanted to make here though is that FEAR 2 successfully carries on the slowmo portion of the series that we all know and love.

The next thing I want to mention is the AI’s ability to create cover. FEAR had snippets of this where enemies would topple over desks or racks to create some form of cover, but FEAR 2 has taken it to another level. Not only can you create your own cover now, but the AI will assault you in ways I haven’t seen in gaming yet. I can distinctly remember one squad turning over a desk, thinking I was going to flank them, and thus turning over another desk to make sure they were covered from both sides.

FEAR 2 also brings back the ever loveable mechs that were so much fun to kill in FEAR. The best part about this time around is that you get to pilot your very own. While I thought this would just be a stupid 'side mission', I was soon proven wrong after getting in, booting up, and mowing throw tons of enemies. All I can say is that FEAR 2 does a great job with mech play…a feat not easily accomplished.

Moving on to the problems with the game, the main thing I don’t like about FEAR 2 are the weapons. While they are some what innovative, they are nothing new. They also felt a little clunky. Maybe I am just too big of a fan of FEAR, but the FEAR 2 weapons just don’t seem as solid.

A few other things that hurt the game are how short it is and how it really isn’t that scary. Though I can forgive a game for being a little short, I just can’t let a horror game that isn’t that scary slide. In fact, the only time I was really 'scared' was when I was in the school, lockers started rattling, and Alma appeared. Other than that, the game is a pretty straight forward shooter.

All I can say is that if you are a FEAR fan, you will enjoy what FEAR 2 has to offer. If you aren’t, just go pick up FEAR 1 and call it a day.

– Tyler (Chiko)