Uncharted 2 Review
One of the best games to date on the PlayStation platform is Uncharted Drakes Fortune developed by Naughty Dog studios. They brought back are favourite womanizing witty character Nathan Drake. What you get with the Uncharted franchise is a mash up of James of bond meets Laura croft. By this I mean you get the action intense sequences with a male character that all the women love. Then you have you have the exploring puzzle solving aspects from the Laura Croft franchise. Combine these together and have Uncharted 2 Among Thieves.
From the moment you start Uncharted 2 you will notice how gorgeous this game is, in fact I will say I don’t there is a better looking next gen game. This games audio is a reason to get a surround sound system or a very end set of headphones is to experience the audio. The gun sounds; the rain and music simply compliment and go hand in hand with this game. The voice acting is simply brilliant throughout the game Nathan Drake will simply leaving you laughing at the remarks he makes. The supporting cast in the game also has some tremendous voice acting. The actors can only do so much with a script that the writing team gives them and wherever Naughty Dog found these writers they deserve a big pay raise.
Uncharted 2 does not do a whole lot different from the first game but it just does it better. The combat in Drake’s Fortune was one of the weak spots of the game, the team over at naughty has greatly improved the shooting mechanics and it certainly shows. Enemies are no longer bullet sponges unless they are completely covered in Kevlar armour. The cover mechanics have also greatly improved allowing Nathan slide from cover to cover effectively. Blowing enemies up with grenades is always fun but it was a real struggle in first game which involved using the D-pad or six axis. Now all you have to do is aim and tap L2. It’s much easier and more effective. Melee combat is just more fun to use as well and there are several trophies available to encourage melee combat. There is also a heavy focus on stealth whether it be shooting enemies from ledges, pulling enemies off of ledges or running down the very quietly and then knocking out the enemy.
I played it on normal and beat the game just under 10 hours that has Nathan Drake searching for a mythical city of Shangri-La because he wants unravel the mystery of Marco Polo’s voyage from China in 1292. After spending time with Kublai Khan, Marco departed with 14 ships and 600 passengers and crew but when he arrived at destination he only had 1 ship and 18 passengers. Throughout the course of the game Nate encounters friend Flynn who turns into a foe, Chloe, Zoran Lazarevic, our good friend Sully and Elena.
One of the biggest editions to the game is multiplayer. There is Co-operative multiplayer as well competitive multiplayer. First up for co-op will allow 3 players to take on roles of Nathan and 2 other characters as they make their way through gun fights and team based objectives. Should one of your comrades should fall you will need to revive them and I have to say as someone who was downed a lot good teammates are key to this mode. Gold Rush has players team up to get a treasure and return it to their base. You also have survival mode where you take on wave after wave of bad guys or girls. For competitive play you get the usual deathmatch, elimination and capture the treasure and much more. There is a bit of RPG element to the multiplayer as you can gain ranks and in turn allows you to buy perks or upgrades with the cash you earned in game (if you finished Uncharted you’ll start with 80k). Levels have been taken right out of the first player campaign so that means you can climb up to the get the higher ground on the other team. Naughty has also implemented a party system that works extremely well for a Playstation 3 game.
If you own a Playstation 3 there is no reason why you shouldn’t play this game. It’s gorgeous looking, it’s funny and it was one of the first games in a long time made me completely lose track of time. The single player campaign is epic and multiplayer is quite fun and for 60 dollars this game is a steal!.
read moreRecap of the Sony Holiday Preview Event
Last night I was able to very lucky to attend the Sony Playstation Holiday Preview event at the Burroughes Building located in the Queen Street West area. This was my first time attending a Sony event and there were plenty of games and as always there wasn’t enough time to check everything out.
Assassins Creed II
First game I was able to get a demo on and hands on time with Assassins Creed 2 from Ubisoft Montreal. The objective of this demo was to kill 5 archers and replace them with our own guards and then proceed to assassinate our target. In order to get to the area I needed to I didn’t look for a group of monks to blend in with like the original Assassins Creed, I throw some cash on the ground to try and cause a distraction it barely worked. I then hired some courtesans to cause a bit of distraction while the thieves and mercenaries I hired set off to take care of the guards. While I took care of the first 2 archers, the thieves took care of archer’s number 3 and 4 and left me to deal with the last archer who had the chance to meet my sword and ultimately die by it. I then returned back and reported in and was given my assassination target. On my way over there I stopped by a local merchant and bought some clothes for Ezio. Unfortunately I died during assassination and that crashed the demo which happened to be a known bug. I have to say overall I’ m very impressed with the changes and am looking forward to the release date.
DJ Hero
This was my second play through of DJ hero as I briefly had the chance to check it out last week at X09 where I completely sucked at the game. I was determined to get more hands on time to improve my skills and help me decide if I should buy the game or not. I initially watched several people take their turns playing their 2 set mix. Each of the individuals started on easy and gave medium a go. Don’t worry there are hard and expert modes for you hardcore DJ’s. I was able to check out the tutorial and actually learn how to play the game and I definitely going to go buy the Renegade edition when it comes out.
Tony Hawk Ride
As soon as I walked into the event I walked around the area and as soon as I saw the Sony Hawk set up I dashed right for it as I had a blast with it at X09 and I’m hooked on the game. I explained to Kelvin Lu the Activision publicist that I had already played the game and didn’t need the full demo on how to play. I started off on the half pipe where it’s all about busting tricks and getting high scores. When I was done I asked if I could do a free run on medium so I could experience going down the course and having the ability to fully control and move my character using the board. It took a few seconds to get use to the movement as in the beginner mode the game is on rails and you don’t have to worry about moving your character. I ended up with a high score and then it was time to check out the controller. There is no real difference between the Xbox and Sony Skateboard other then the buttons. As long as the pricing doesn’t get out of control on this game I will be picking up.
Where wild things Are
I was told I should check where Wild Things Are developed by Griptonite games by fellow blogger Justin Amirkhani. I was glad he pointed out it to me. As the game title states it’s based off the movie that is coming out in a few weeks. Yes I know generally movie games aren’t that good however this game looked great and played very well. The game pits you as a character named Max as he journeys across the land which is almost destroyed. He helps the Wild Things find a way to escape to a new safe land before its way to late. The game looked great and the controls were easy enough for a child to pick up and play the game.
Also on display were Uncharted 2 Among Thieves, MAG, Little Big Planet PSP, Heavy Rain, Avatar and a slew of other solid titles. With the recent price drop of the PlayStation 3, the new PSP Go! And all the amazing exclusive titles and multiplatform titles on display will surely lead Sony to the forefront during this Holiday season.
read more