Baldurs Gate: Dark Alliance

Well, I got it, I played it - I'm spent. Simply a beautiful game, well put together, is a Diablo freaks wet dream. If it had online play they'd be leaving D2 in droves.

9 hours later and I have completed it with a Dwarven fighter clad in full plate with an ice burst double edged axe. I did bluster through it - mainly because the weapon acquisition/gold collecting and character levelling and development spurs you on. There was always another skill on my agenda, another piece of armour, a couple more damage points to the weapon. There are side quests, I did a few of these early on, but I found the drive of the main storyline quest enough to want to make progress.

The graphics are beautiful. The different areas have a nice characteristic feel to them, the ice lands are barren and icy, the swamp lands are swampy, some of the castle-type dungeons really are nicely engineered. The water effects are the icing on the cake for me. It is a joy just to go jumping in the puddles and watching the ripples. At one point the effect is essential in taking care of whipping dogs that cloak with invisibility. You quickly cotton on that the water is your best friend. As you see through their invisible veil using their water trails to aim your axe.

There are some simple jumping puzzles, some lever puzzles, but all in all its pretty straight forward - and you are more or less led to the conclusion of each dungeon - simply by strolling around adventuring. The bosses are nice, some of the mobs are MASSIVE and scarey. From rhino type dinoasaurs emerging from the swamp mud to fecking HUGE mechanised warriors. There is even an ice dragon in there for us PSO ver2 dragon lovers who never managed to catch a glimpse of the ice dragon in Sega's tawdry update.

You get three class/race combinations to choose from, dwarven fighter, elven sorcerer and human archer. My nipper wanted the dwarf first. But I started a sorcerer just to get a feel for the magicks. The dwarf is pretty much a diablo slasher. You can block, or twirl around and slash. Many of the mobs can be dispatched with jumping and twirling taking them from behind. Although if you get surrounded by 6 mobs all pounding down you cannot jump out over them, you have to break the circle to get out. Later on there are two specific disciplines that allow you to impart damage on multiple mobs (one with an axe - a spin, and one with a warhammer - a bash to the ground that affects all nearby mobs). At least one of these disciplines was essential for the later stages - I found I could kill 5 or 6 minotaurs easier with my axe spin, than I could taking them carefully one at a time.

Alot of the loot dropped off mobs isn't as good as you can buy from the shops until very much later on in the game. So you tend to scoop up the trash and sell and save for the good stuff. Theres something lovely about a dwarf in full shiny plate armour. It took me to the last level of the game to get him fully kitted out.

It may seem a little short, 9 hours, but given that there are three character types to play and they seem to handle quite differently (although I found archery with the dwarf a bit tricky and the damage dealt was piss poor compared to my axe) - I think nearly 30 hours of play is pretty good. Plus the two player co-op game will add to this nicely if you can find someone to team up with for 9 hours. It's a shame they all go through the same story though. So you will know the route through the game the second time round, I'm using this as an advantage because the sorcerer (steamy sexy temptress that she is) is way below par at getting going - the initial magicks don't seem to help her much and she hasn't got the hit points to take the blows. She can however use her cunning knowledge of whats up ahead to plan round-the-corner toastings.

BTW the tits on the barmaid at the Tavarn are unbelievable and put DOA to shame. The beauty of independant movement brought about by arm gestures is mesmerising. I had to run through it at least another couple of times - just to get it out of my system. Did I mention every bit of kit affects the characters look? So in theory, you can de-armour the sorcerer and have her running around almost naked in a very skimpy leather thong and bra. If her magicks could hold the mob off thats how I would take her through the whole game :)

I'm off to spray fire from my fingertips..

Devil May Cry

I grabbed this yesterday. Mainly because I had an £8 GAME voucher burning a hole in my pocket and the terrible realisation that Baldurs Gate: Dark Alliance doesn't look like its going to hit the shelves over here till after christmas. Now I like the idea of a red velvet glad goth boy slaughtering the undead with a God of a sword and twin
rapid fire pistols. The graphics look nice and crisp something Crapimusha couldn't boast). I can live with the "alone in the dark" camera tracking - only just - it seems to handle it better than aforementioned "musha" product - although there is still a lot of "distance play" - I guess to give the game a bit of scale this has to
happen. At least no climbing stairs/opening doors loading cut scenes.

But you can't get away from the fact that its got RE breeding. You can't shake that feeling that you are playing a cool idea trapped in the body of a dire genre (my thoughts on the RE series being well known). I'm hoping theres less of the shite puzzles and more of the kill em action, with progression, rather than just endlessly spawning monsters in the same couple of areas. Theres some cool moves, shooting whilst jumping backwards, reminiscent of max payne a bit as you hang in the air - matrix style. I wanted to like this game so much. I wanted to block out the capcom RE influences. But as I began to get stuck - traversing the same corridor - over and over again - meeting
the same monsters over and over again - endlessly spawning - getting more and more frustrated I am starting to get that Onimusha feeling. I'm feeling cheated again...

Admittedly, I haven't played it much at all. Give it about an hour. I will take it by the horns and see if it develops much more - I want to be an action packed red gothchild of hate. But I'm not prepared to put up with tat game mechanics for a few bursts of action.

Camelot: Arthurian Excitement

DAoC, has the levelling treadmill in there, but it isn't as painful as EQ. The quests system is very clever and keeps you busy. You can get "kill tasks" of any guards for experience and cash. Also, there is a bonus if you don't camp a mob. Rare items drop less and less the more you have been camping. It promotes moving on to kill rather than sitting in one spot and raping it.

You get to level 5 and then specialise. After that you are free to specialise in your trained disciplines. The game is geared towards making levelling a nice and fairly fast experience - they want you in the Realm vs Realm game. So you level up to 20+ in player vs environment (a la EQ) then you take an army of you into another realms frontier lands and try to kill them and/or take over their forts and keeps. You earn realm points for kills and victories. You can spend these later of special realm items. It takes what EQ started and makes it more enjoyable, nicer to look at, and adds the spice of not only gearing up to level up, but specialising your character to be successful in battle.

I play a cleric. Now in EQ clerics heal. Mainly. In Camelot, you specialise and you can be a healing cleric, or a smiting cleric (mainly direct damage spells and area mezmerise). You can balance your skills between the two, or go with one or the other. The classes are much more flexible and you can tweak them as you want. The Realm vs Realm stuff bristles with elements from Team Fortress Classic and other combat based games, advancing over EQ's player vs Player stuff. You are battling for land and territories and ancient artifacts that bestow statistical bonuses on all players in your realm. Top stuff. Very exciting. Lovely to look at. I can see me playing Camelot a lot longer than EQ or PSO ever held me, and thats saying something!!!

Dark Age of Camelot: Excalibur

Well, my life has been taken over by this game. I knew it would be big, but not this big. An obsession that equals my PSO one.

It's basically a much nicer to look at, well rounded online role playing game. It caters for people who can't afford massive time committments. Levelling isn't as arduous as in EverQuest. The questing mechanism relaly is entertaining and enjoyable. The characters are based in Arthurian legend (on the realm I play) and there is good scope for taking each class and specialising them in different ways (eg. a cleric could be a smiting force, or more healing and enhancements).

Watch this space for some of my antics within the game. Since I imported Camelot from the US, I haven't really touched any other game.

Zax: Suck my Heavy Barrel

I have to say that Zax online is everything I imagined it to be. And as long as you can get a decent connection (ping <250ms) then you should have a riot with the multiplayer games.

Having just finished a gaming session with JoWood's Plex (thanks again) - if you are a modem user, then hosting the session will be advantageous. Your ping will effectively be zero. When another player (ctx?) was hosting the game, I was getting a ping of around 250+ and the game was bearable, but when an extra player joined my ping zipped up to 300+ and the game quickly became unplayable. Presumably because the server is communicating with more people and the connection degrades because of more traffic. Anyway, the key is keep the ping down and Zax will be a pleasure to play.

Although the game seems like a straight forward blaster (that some people would call mindless) - the multiplayer game has got some tactical play that is necessary to use to become a winner. Certain parts of the map can hide a player, ready for an ambush. The lightning weapon is very good for hunting out and locating hidden players (mainly due to is long range and large arc of electricity). Grenades and proximity mines are always handy for a retreat making the hunter think twice about following. And I had a glimpse of a weapon the "Heavy Barrel" that is devastating in its use. Even more powerful than rocket launcher. One shot, one kill. Switchable electricity pylons and floor traps can provide valuable protection and also act as enemy detectors (because you can hear them go off). I really enjoyed the session. With a bit better netcode (allowing a number of modem players connect without too much lag) and a map editor, Zax could well become a large online community.

It certainly has a step beyond Diablo in that you can pitch player vs player using weapons and strategy to battle online in a fragfest, gem collecting, flag capturing way. It's pure action and pure fun. Time for me to find that Heavy Barrel gun again and sit in wait for Plex to run by. If I don't kill myself with the damn thing first.

Zax: Love or Hate

I guess Zax polarises people into the love or hate categories. People who love it, love the simplicity of the fundamental need to mow things down with an array of guns - they usually appreciate the quake style control mechanism. People who hate it, want something more involved, with 3d graphics, and plenty of micromanagement, or they just can't get the hang of the quake style control. As a person who appreciates 2d isometric games and what they can offer, Zax gives me an unrestrained ability to go wild with the killing, where most other 2d isometrics play heavy on the roleplay. The storyline is captivating if a little formulaic. The voice acting is second to none - with plenty of it. The only gripe is that Zax is could have had a more elaborate RPG background and this could have enhanced the killing so much more. As it stands its a quality action puzzler, with a killer multiplayer game thrown in. It's a shame that the polarity will mean plenty of people will dismiss it, and due to lack of net popularity, plenty more net gamers will overlook it.

Zax The Alien Hunter

Imagine Diablo with guns. Imagine a multiplayer Diablo with Deathmatch and capture the flag. Imagine the bastard son of Diablo and Quake. Meet Zax the Alien Hunter.

The single player game is a Diablo clone, with gun toting action. Fast and furious. Isometric arcade action. Reminds me of Alien Breed a bit. You are a space hunter, who crashed on a planet, having to help your ships computer rebuild the ship. Meanwhile you take part in a natives vs robots conflict, salvaging what crystals and ore you can - so that your computer can help you manufacture better weapons and shields and equipment.

There are simple puzzles, lever switching, laser light bending and key collecting along with plenty of mowing down robotic cannon fodder and having a bash at some bosses. The levels are nicely rendered, colourful and lead you through the story. Zax himself can run in all directions whilst shooting his guns in any direction the mouse is aimed. He has laser pistols, beam spray weapons, grenade launchers, and rocket lauhchers along with proximity mines and triple dart guns. Its simple, its arcade carnage, its fun. The storyline unfolds gently, but soon has you dispatching many wild creatures and robot guards. They spawn from generator pads which have consoles that need taking out to prevent the metallic horde from descending. The currency is crystals and ore, collected from the planet surface. You return to your ship and craft bigger and better weapons as your ships computer researches them. I don't think there is any way to influence what your computer researches in the form of a tree - she just gathers more and more information as the game progresses and you are then able to buy/craft the new weapons.

Its the multiplayer game where the real fun begins. Arcade blast em action all the way. Three multiplayer modes are supported: Deathmatch, Salvage King and Capture the Flag. Only Salvage King requires any explanation - you collect as much crystals and ore as possible - the one with the highest amount wins. These are strewn across the levels floor, sometimes easy to reach, sometimes strewn around controllable electricity beacons that zap anyone who tries to get them. Players can turn these electric traps on and off. If you take a bullet too many and become a pile of gibs, then you drop all your stash in a pile for the next salvage queen to come along and steal your crown. The multiplayer levels are well thought out, and have weapons and power ups spread around to keep everyone topped up with killing hardware. Doors and traps serve as interesting mechanics to be used against your enemies, coupled with well placed proximity mines or a couple of correctly bounced grenades gives you a lethal but effective blast chamber to dismember your opponents.

It's not too deep, it's not even that clever, but what is does, it does good. Fast paced action shoot em up, for the Diablo generation. It's refreshing to play a fragfest game in an isometric view, instead of the predictable first person.

Worth it for some therapeutic zapping and killing.