Gaming – Page 51 – Welshtroll

City of Heroes/Villains: Review

So over the past 3 months I have strayed from my normal bunch of games (Planetside/Guild Wars/BF) and I have been playing City of Villains after Rach started playing it 2 months before that.

Infact I bought the combined Good Vs Evil edition, so I have the ability to create heroes and villains but I tend to favour the darker side of things.

So I thought I'd write a simple review so people can get an idea of the game and how it all hang together.

For those of you that are unaware of the game it’s a MMORPG designed by Cryptic Studios and published by NCSoft. As you may have guessed it is based around superhero/villain genre and delivers a lot of content for your monthly subscription.
There are numerous areas that are populated by NPC's and other players, which area you can safely visit is determined by your level. Going to a high-end area is sure to bring you a lot of pain.

To progress through the levels you will need to accept and complete missions, while each city/island area is massive and you'll bump into other players frequently, each mission is instanced and it will be you and your team versus NPC enemies. As for the NPC's there are various enemy groups at work depending on your location, over time you learn more about each group and how best to fight them.

Another feature about the game that I feel is well implemented is the chat functionality, where as chat system is some game is bulky and cumbersome Cryptic seem to have designed a system that is easily mastered.

And finally I come to the 2 elements that really make the game unique and give it alot of appeal and longevity for players.
First are the fully customisable costumes and looks for your character using a well built designer, which can pretty much handle millions of combinations allowing you to give your character that perfect look.
Secondly are the Powers.

Upon character creation you get you choose the type of character you wish to play. Each of these is unique even the hero and villain options aren't the same.
Once selected you get to choose 2 power sets, depending on your type of character depends what you are offered there are normally 6 options to choose from in each set.
You start off with 2 powers and gain more as you advance through the game, each power can be customised with enhancements the allow you to increase damage or perhaps decrease the enemies resistance.

There are standard pool powers that everyone has access to; these include the wonderful travel powers options such as fly, superspeed, teleport and superjump.
Well that’s all I can think to write at the moment, but if you are thinking or looking for a new game to play then I'd advise giving the 'City of' games a go.

There are a few trails out there so you can get your teeth into the game before deciding if you'd like to purchase it.

World in Conflict

Dok pointed out this new RTS game that is currently under development.

In this alternative history game, the year is 1989, in the middle of the cold war. Soviet forces move into Europe drawing the attention of NATO and their forces into the fray. Meanwhile a second front heads into North America. You job is to command the force hoping to retake the lost cities and suburbs from the Soviets.

The game uses the Massive MassTech engine, giving user complete control of the camera viewpoint. All game objects with the exception of terrain appear to be destroyable. Unlike other RTS games there is no resource to capture or money to allow you to expand your base, in WIC you start each level with a set amount of resource how you spend it is up to you. If your building or vehicle is destroyed you re-gain the resource to spend gain perhaps altering your choice will sway the battle to your favour.

Reading up the game it appear there is more to it that just a solo RTS, for instance in a multiplayer team game there are 4 roles that can be undertake by seperate teammates (Air/Armour/Infantry/Support), thus allowing for varied gameplay that can draw on each players strengths on the battlefield.

Due for release on 07/09/2007

Browser games

I discovered these games while on my travels around the internet.

Most are simple but there are few in there to tax your brain. The Chess related games remind me of the puzzles in 7th Guest, they would have me pulling my hair out sometimes.

These games can also be added to your Personalized Google Homepage (iGoogle now I believe).

You can check these games out here : http://weihwa.feedback.googlepages.com/home

Enjoy

Guild Wars

Taking a break from my usual game Planetside, I've begun playing Guild Wars again.

The 3rd campaign named Nightfall has taken alot of the need for teamwork out the game, which is kind of ok if you like to play as a solo player but sucks for teamplay.

In addition to playing solo, I've roped dok into playing GW again, and we've been quite effective as a warrior/monk team, tho i think my monk skills and timing leave alot to be desired.

Here is a screenshot of me and dok, i'm the short one.

If you fancy playing Guild Wars then Play.com has all 3 games for £9.99 each.

Note : each game is an independant game that works without the others.

S.T.A.L.K.E.R

S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl, previously known as S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Oblivion Lost is due for release 23/03/2007, I’ve been waiting for and watching the development of this game for 3 to 4 years.

If you haven’t hear of this game, you can take a look here http://www.stalker-game.com and here http://www.stalker-videogame.com

It uses a Game Engine called X-Ray that has been developed just for this game and has been the main reason for the delay, no matter how much THQ pushed for a release the developers wanted it to be everything they set out to do and more and hopefully bug free.

To give you a quick idea of the game here’s the blurb :

“In S.T.A.L.K.E.R., the player assumes the identity of a “Stalker”, or illegal explorer/artifact gatherer, in “The Zone”. “The Zone” is the location of an alternate reality version of the Chernobyl Power Plant after its 1986 explosion which contaminated the surrounding area with radiation, and caused strange otherworldly changes in localized fauna, flora and even the laws of physics.”

So from March 23rd onwards that is were I shall be