Fable II

Rating: 4/5

Price: Xbox 360 – 2195 INR

The original Fable title, released back in 2004, firmly established itself as the leading action role playing game exclusively available on the XBox, and Fable 2, once again exclusive to the XBox 360, looks to reaffirm the series’ position at the top of it’s genre.

As we have all come to expect from Lionhead Studios, and in particular Peter Molyneux, Fable 2 had promised so much from the moment it was announced and throughout all of the press releases, development screenshots and trailers through to what we have in front of us today - proper working demo’s and the ability to write about Fable 2 from a hands-on perspective.

In Fable 2, five hundreds years have passed since the days of Fable - which your hero of Oakvale brought an end to the Jack of Blades - but once again the sleepy yet intriguing vicinity of Albion is in dire need of a hero, and believe it or not, that is where you come in once again.

At the beginning you are able to choose between playing as a young boy, or a young girl. Do not let the fact that both characters are young fool you - both will soon develop into highly capable, skilled and experienced adventure characters that you will not be able to help growing attached to as you progress through the world of Fable 2 in their shoes. It will not take you long to realise these kids are tough - tougher than children their age really should be to be honest, but they do not remain kids for long so it does not give the game a sense of absurdity by any means.

As you begin to get into the game you will cross paths with a trader known as Murgo who has all kinds of goods, most of them completely useless, to offer you. However he does have some items that are worth having - notably a music box which is said to grant a wish to whoever comes to have it in their possession, but at a price of five gold coins you will have a little work to do before you can your hands on it and this is ultimately where the game kicks off with any real meaning. To earn the five gold coins that you need to purchase the music box you will need to complete a few quests which you will be given by various people that you come across.

The quests can be a little tedious as they make the beginning of the game drag a little at times, but there is just enough about each quest to keep you going to the end and the rewards of completing them are certainly worth the effort that you put in. Especially seems the music box does not just grant a wish, but according to a mysterious woman named Theresa, it also has magical qualities which makes obtaining the music box too intriguing to resist. One of the first quests you have to complete will charge you with tracking down a number of arrest warrants which have blown away throughout the Bowerstone area of Albion. You may at times find yourself a little lost as the areas in Fable 2 are so vast, but a trail of gold dust will help guide you back to the heart of the action.

Other quests will require you to find a tramps grog which has been stolen, and to clear beetles from a warehouse with a pop gun. If you played Fable, you will know that one of the features of it was the ability to choose whether or not to help people throughout the game, giving your character a unique personality as you progress as you see their presentation and popularity change amongst other civilians of Albion as depending on the choices you make. This feature is again prominent in Fable 2, allowing you to take a path of good or evil in almost every situation that you are faced with.

The storyline, as fans of Fable and role playing games in general would expect is terribly deep and will take all kinds of twists and turns depending on the paths you take and the decisions you make as you progress through the Fable 2 world, but rest assured whatever path you choose in Fable 2 you will find nothing but gripping plots and there is rarely a dull moment to be found. A particularly enjoyable touch to Fable 2 is the choice you are given when caught breaking the law - you can choose to resist arrest, accept a fine or do community service - with resisting arrest being the most fun, accepting a fine being the easy way out, and doing community service facing you with a small but usually simple quest to complete.

The overall presentation of Fable 2 is as close to flawless as you could expect from a game of this type. The graphics are by no means life-like when compared to recent works of art such as Metal Gear Solid 4, but in the world of Fable 2 you would not want things to look ‘real’, so it is certainly not a criticism. The detail level is high, and the animation of the characters is as smooth as anything you will have seen before.

For fans of role playing games Fable 2 will be a relatively short game if you are playing it simply to complete it, and by the admission of developer Peter Molyneux it will only take you around ten hours to do so. However if you want to get as much as you can from the game and to experience all quests and minigames within Fable 2 as well as the multiplayer modes and trading aspects of the title, Fable 2 will give you far more in terms of gameplay hours than most other role playing titles you will get your hands on such is the depth built into the game. You will also want to play through at least twice, if not to play it as both a boy and a girl, then to take the paths of both good and evil.

Fable 2 is a must buy for all role playing game fans, and may even be the excuse some gamers have been waiting for the invest in an XBox 360. For those who do not typically enjoy role playing games, Fable 2 is probably not the best game to introduce you to the series. It has a lot to offer, but may prove too deep if you are a gamer more used to every day fast-paced fun-focussed titles.

Dead Space

Rating: 3.5/5
Price: PC – 999 INR Xbox 360 – 1999 INR PS3 – 2499 INR
Requirements: 2.8GHz processor, 1GB Ram, 7GB HDD Space, 256MB Video card

Description for my rating:

Isaac Clarke is a space engineer, who fixes problems in intergalactic mining ships, which go to distant planets and asteroids to harvest their abundant minerals. The USG Ishimura, the largest vessel of its kind, has some trouble on board – and Clarke and his crew are sent to check it out.

Clarke’s spacecraft crashes into the Ishimura, where he finds that an alien presence has either taken over or killed most of the crew. What follows is a weakly-scripted tale on an alien race that attaches itself to humans, and turns them into zombies. Playing as Clarke, you and your two teammates – Hammond and Kendra – are now mankind’s last hope. It’s a struggle to stifle a yawn here.

After splitting up, you don your special space-mining suit and roam the spooky corridors alone; trying to fix the ship and fragging any alien you came across: tiny and fast critters and huge mutants. In fact the character art and designs are the best part about the game – be it the wretched aliens or Clarke’s masterfully-crafted suit. Developers Electronics Arts (EA) has excelled in the lighting and shadow effects-pivotal factor for horror fictions.

Dead Space delivers on each front: good design and graphics, great gameplay, smart enemies, and so on. In fact, the zero gravity portions of the game are particularly noteworthy.
You can jump from one surface by simply pointing your crosshair to the desired location and pressing the key. Couple that with zero-gravity portion battles and puzzles, and you have one of the most innovative gameplay modes in recent times. Now if only EA would take this and develop a whole game around it.

As for Dead Space, the game is worthy buy, and fans of BioShock and the System Shock series will have a good time with it. Horror aficionados might be left a little disappointed, but the game makes up for that by providing a fairly lengthy campaign, making this one a worthy purchase.

FARCRY 2

Far Cry 2 is the sequel to Far Cry and was developed by Ubisoft Montreal. The developers for the original Far Cry are not involved in the development of Far Cry 2. It is a first person shooter game. In January of this year, they announced that Far Cry 2 would be available, not only for Microsoft Windows, but also for the PlayStation 3 and the Xbox 360. All three versions will be shipped together in the 21st of October of 2008 in North America and a few days later in Europe.

GAMEPLAY
Gameplay is concentrated on the player’s character as he manhunts through a made up area of Africa. The gameplay is completely open-ended because the player can ally with anyone. The player’s choice is a free-for-all, which allows the player to be in control of the game and the pace of the game. Rather than the use of individualized maps, the game is set in a vast Africa landscape that ranges from jungles to the enormous and treacherous deserts. The actual area for gameplay is about 50 square km. Members of the Ubisoft Montreal team traveled around Africa focusing on photographing the animal and plant life. The Ubisoft Montreal team is going to use what they captured on film to kick unbelievably realistic detail into the game.
The choices of action the player takes may have large and lasting effect on the environment. Some of the missions may take special force to complete but if the player floods an area to complete that mission, it may stay flooded for future missions.
A variety of vehicles will be available to the player. Enemies will include human mercenaries, and the creatures that were part of Far Cry will not be featured in the game. Additionally, the player’s untamed abilities from Far Cry Instincts will not be part of Far Cry 2. However, a sweet new weather system has been added that changes the weather according to the abilities of the player. For example, if the player is doing great and kicking it, the sky will be clear, but if the player runs into trouble the sky will turn dark and stormy.
SETTING AND VISUALS
Far Cry 2 is realistic in that the player will have to use a map to get around, use tools to recover from bullet injuries, and pat themselves down when on fire. Weapons break down over time, giving them a dirty look. When the weapons are aged they will jam and actually explode in the hands of the user. Many different types of African wildlife can found in the game.

The wildlife can distract the enemy and share with them your presence. All the big animals that are featured in the game are herbivores, like buffalo, zebras, gazelle, impala, wildebeest and so on. The game does not feature large predatory animals because with the realistic effects, the predators would need to feed on something. The player will have the ability to tag objects and locations of their choosing like cars, sniper towers and ammo pickups for monitoring.
MULTIPLAYER
Multiplayer mode tries to include the super-sleek effects of the single player mode like fire propagation and to provide as much access to gameplay as possible. This allows for a larger playing audience because a wide variety of skill levels is available. Players can design their own maps in the map editor.
One map can support up to 20 players. The game comes with 14 maps predesigned to be anywhere from small to outright immense.

MODES
There are four different modes in the game: 1. Deathmatch 2. Team Deathmatch 3. Capture the Diamond (like capture the flag) and 4. Uprising (each team captain must capture certain points on the map and then assassinate the captain of the opposing team.)

CLASSES
The multiplayer mode is based on class. Each class gets to pick a main weapon and a side arm; they also get to carry explosives. Players can advance weapons by spending 3 blood diamonds. Blood diamonds are earned by killing other players and completing objectives. The upgrade for weapons cascades from operation manuals, maintenance manuals and bandoliers.
The six classes include:
1. Commando- he specializes in mid-range attacks.
2. Sharpshooter – he specializes in long range attacks.
3. Guerrilla- he specializes in short range attack and ambush tactics
4. Rebel- he specializes in fire and heavy explosives
5. Gunner- he specializes in intense weapon power
6. Saboteur- he specializes in stealth tactics with his silenced weapons.

Fallout 3

Rating: 5/5
Platform: PC, Xbox 360, PS3
Requirements: 2.4GHz processor, 1GB Ram, 256MB Video card with Shader 3.0
Price : Available Unofficially


The post-Nuclear war FALLOUT 3 easily becomes Lou Keston's Games of the year.

Fallout 3 has been arguably the most anticipated game of 2008, and it’s recent release has seen it fly to the top of sales charts pretty much across the globe. Now it’s time to see if it will be well received, or considered a huge disappointment.
The amount of hype surrounding Fallout 3 has been without doubt unrivalled this year, so much so that you can be forgiven for forgetting it has only just hit the shelves - with the game being on the lips of everyone at gaming industry events throughout the year so far.

The build up to Fallout 3 promised much, including a game world with the kind of freedom that has never before been seen in a computer or video game of any kind, but at the same time being a glimpse into the future of how games after it will be constructed in terms of fully explorable environments. Thankfully Fallout 3 appears to deliver on all the promise displayed in the preview trailers, interviews and screenshots.

From the very beginning of Fallout 3 you are sucked right into the immersive storyline which is far too elaborate to fully explain here and is best experienced on your own, but we’ll give you a quick summary of what to expect. You and your father are living in Vault 101, one of many incredibly large post nuclear structures which are protecting you and the rest of Earth’s residents from being wiped out - the year is 2277. Before long, your father escapes Vault 101 without giving a second thought to leaving you behind, so you find your own way out and set off to track him down again. You soon become embroiled in a power struggle between political and scientific factions that will eventually allow you to change the world’s future.

As you progress through the many areas of the world you will come across a number of twisted adversaries including an old guy named Harold who is an interesting character to say the least, but just one of many. Nobody you come across takes to you immediately, and the decisions you make throughout the game will help or damage your chances of gaining peoples trust which ultimately affects events later in the game when the trust of certain people would have come in very useful - and if you chose to do them wrong earlier in the game, they will be much less helpful later on than you would like.

It is this freedom and decision making which sets Fallout 3 apart from other first person shooter and adventure role playing titles and to be honest puts it into a completely new level of it’s own, and it will certainly be the title that others to come will aspire to match when it comes to the depth and variety the game offers you as a gamer. Also it boasts a huge replayability factor thanks to the various affects that your decisions have on events in the game - you will always be wondering how things would have panned out if you had done something a bit differently in the early stages of the game.

The combat system in Fallout 3 will appeal more to role playing gamers than to first person shooter fans out there, as the most satisfying way of taking out your enemies is with the Vault-Tec Assisted Targeting System which features, in some form, in previous Fallout titles. This system allows you to pause the action mid-battle and spend action points to target specific limbs of your enemy which in turn unleashes a gloriously gory slow motion cut-scene of your hit, that is if you do manage to land the hit of course. If you do not have much patience, this combat system can become frustrating, but there are many out there who will gladly sit through the extra few seconds as the results look so good and brutal.

The complete game experience is incredibly difficult to sum up in a simple review such as this, as the depth is like nothing I personally have experienced before in a game. Taking a few short runs through the game allows you to discover things you did not expect, and things that you may never come across again such is the freedom you are given from the outset.

What can safely be said is if you are a proper games fanatic, Fallout 3 is quite possibly the best you could expect from the power of today’s gaming systems. If anything is going to better Fallout 3, it will appear on the next batch of consoles in four or five years time. Fallout 3 is today’s gaming at it’s best, and is a must buy so go get it.