Thought I’ll do a data dump on the latest Computer Games around or are coming out that have caught my eye. Just in case anyone would just like an idea of what’s out there without have to endure tons of computer news sites. This allows me to practice my short reviewing skills as well.
- Eastside Hockey Manager 2005 – more of personal choice than anything else as I’m far more interested in ice hockey than I am in Soccer. Done by the same company that did the ever popular Championship Manager (now Football Manager) series, it is actually more than just using the same game engine with different players and sporting terms.
Time has been spend to include into the game, traits that are actually unique to the sport such as the trading system, player rights and contracts and pre-season try-outs training camps. With the NHL currently in a season lockdown, this is about the next best thing for hockey fan to tide themselves over with.
- BattleField 2 Demo – Eagerly awaited sequel to the breakout online multi player FPS hit in 2003, Battlefield 1942. BF1942 showed to mainstream gamers that there was more to online FPS gaming that just simple Counterstrike with the addition of vehicles and objective based battles over huge maps that would stretch out to 20 mins at a time.
BF 2 now brings the series up to focus on modern day warfare and adds all new features to support the notion that teamwork is indeed the way to play. While the gameplay is top notch, the quality of the game itself is somewhat in question as there are basic features missing, mainly in the game user interface menus, which gives, the demo at least, a feel of incompleteness.
EA and DICE, publisher and developer respectively, seem to be targeting this version of the franchise to be sustained on the gamer radar for some time as it seems to be designed to take current and future graphic technology in consideration, so much so that the game only runs on graphic cards no older than 1 to 2 years.
- Fate – Part of the reason for the longevity of Blizzard Games Diablo series had to do more with the gameplay than the storyline. The atmosphere of the game gets overly oppressive after some time, and while to makes for a good first time experience, it gets really old fast when repeated. Eventually it just kinda got into the way of collecting that next item or getting that next skill.
Here is where Fate steps in. Taking just the basic and best gameplay features of Diablo, Fate then creates a bright flashy cartoonly world where the plot is thin but the action fast paced and random. Fate also adds some well needed additions to the gameplay such as a fish-eating transforming dog/cat pet which can also carry as many items as your character can somehow and a system that allows you to constantly add improvements to items that have already be modified, for a price of course. While I am concerned about long the game can last without a meaningful story to ground it, it can’t be beat for it’s price especially when compared to how many hours the game can still burn away.
- Auto Assault – Another reason for Diablo lasting so long was the multiplayer. Auto Assault takes it further by expanding into a Massive Online environment. And then shakes things up by throwing all the magic, fantasy and demons out on the road and then running them over. Then backing up and doing it again.
Currently in development by Netdevil for NCsoft, which also published City of Heroes and Guild Wars, Auto Assault breaks away from the high-epic fantasy theme choking the genre by introducing a world ravaged by nuclear and alien containimation and where gun-mounted road vehicles rule. Also using a dynamic item generator found in Fate, the other main feature of the game besides the compelling gameworld, is the use of an actual physics engine in an MMO. This allows for totally destructible environments that all players are interacting with at the same time, allowing for the vehicles to perform high-flying stunts and hair-splitting turns in the mist of combat. This title has my pick for MMORPG to watch towards the end of and start of next
year.
