6. June 2008 by Costas Taliadoros.

I downloaded the demo over the night and played for around 40 mins single player this morning. What can i say. It feels like a board game of the Civilization series. Not much to do compared to the PC versions. Although i will need to play a few more sessions i can’t see myself playing the single player mode. Is too simplistic.  Maybe multiplayer but only time will tell.

The controls are quite good though. Easy to access most things like units and cities and since most Civ options are missing this makes it even more accessible.

I will write a more in depth impressions during the weekend.

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20. May 2008 by Costas Taliadoros.

Just a very quick post. I bought, downloaded and played an hour and a half of LostWinds on WiiWare. First of all let me just correct a mistake i made in my earlier post. Not all WiiWare games cost 500 points. Specifically, LostWinds costs 1000 points which is GBP7 or Euro8.79.

Believe me when i say that it is worth every point or euro cent. It’s supposed to be around 4 hours long. LostWinds is the first Wii game that has made me smile and have that warm feeling inside when playing (disclaimer: have failed to play Super Mario Galaxy). You move your character, Toku left and right using the nunchuk while he automatically jumps when running off the edge of a platform. All other actions are on the Wii’s motion sensing controller. Every motion is easily performed and recognised even while leisurely lying on your couch. I love the art and LOVE the chillout music (except in the presence of enemies) and the sound effects.

What can i say. A gem. A real gem.

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5. May 2008 by Costas Taliadoros.

After a couple of months of non-gaming activities (i.e. working hard to meet deadline after deadline at the office) I finally managed to clock a few hours of gaming in the past 5 days or so.  

Last Wednesday I played an hour or so of GTA IV on a friend’s console and I have to say I really enjoyed it. Although an hour is not enough to make a judgement on a game like GTA IV I have to day that what I loved most about the game was the convenience of it all. The use of GPS to always direct you to your target, even when missing a turn, the use of the mobile phone to call contacts, get ambulances and also arrange missions and finally the ease of how one can replay missions. Rockstar have greatly reduced the choreload of previous GTAs and instead allow the player to just enjoy game. So it’s a positive start to the game and I hope I play some more this week.

I also made a return to Settlers of Catan on XBLA combined with finally playing the actual board game with friends twice over the weekend. This game is truly exceptional. Probably the finest board game I have ever played. There are many kinds of strategy you can use, one game is almost always different than the others and it allows great comebacks. Superb board game and I really recommend both the excellent XBLA version and of course the physical board game. One thing I should stress about the XBLA game is that I always managed to find people to play against online. It seems that there is a dedicated fanbase for this game.

Last but not least I continued playing Panzer Tactics on the DS. It’s an obscure turn based strategy game during WWII. It is a shame that while Advance Wars is getting all the fame and sales this is a little gem just waiting for DS strategy fans to discover it. I have been playing the single player campaign which has three levels. In the first level, the easiest, you take control of the Axis and start invading Poland, Norway, Belgium and France and so on. Then these are followed by more difficult stages with you leading the Soviets and Allies against the Axis. There is only a US release so anyone interested will have to look in stores on ebay or something. A highly recommended turn based strategy game.

Although I am swamped at work I hope I will able to keep gaming a bit as well. I would be interested in playing cops n crooks with some of you guys on GTA IV.

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16. January 2008 by Costas Taliadoros.

Your PE teacher takes you and your classmates to the school’s basketball court, gives you a basketball and says “Ok guys let play some football!”. Stupid?

Well, that is what Bioware is asking you to do with Mass Effect’s combat system. In an age of space travel and super biotic abilities it seems that the fundamental principle of the enemy’s AI is to charge head on. As soon as a battle begins at least 50% to 75% of your enemies (an arbitrary percentage which gives you an idea of the frequency and magnitude of the problem) will charge on you even if they are holding a pistol.

They should be holding spears or swords. It would then make sense. They should also give these weapons to the human player to arm his squad for that matter as when that same enemy charges you won’t need to keep backing off to get a clear shot with your assault rifle 10cms away.

The enemy AI just complements your squadmates’ AI who habitually get stuck behind doors or keep moving despite you having placed them behind a crate or a wall and thus dying all too frequently or just getting in your way if you are lucky. One time i had to go back a 3-4 rooms to locate one of my squadmates (i am not revealing names!) who got stuck behind a door which opens automatically!!!!

The game introduces some of the most unreliable weaponry I have ever seen. How can your weapon overheat in 2150 something because you fired it two times in a row in the space of 5 minutes…..

Mass Effect gives you all the elements of a shooting game while it is asking you to play it like an RPG game. In the end it does neither genre’s combat system any justice.

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15. January 2008 by Costas Taliadoros.

All the information that follows was taken from the game’s booklet.

Name: Adam Marcus a.k.a Kane

Brief history: Kane’s son died at the age of two in an accident when he got hold of Kane’s police service gun. Kane’s wife blamed him for the death of their son and left him. He has not seen his daughter since she was five years old.

Years later Kane became a member of The7, the most powerful clan of Mercenaries in the world. A mission that went badly wrong led to the death of 25 Venezuelan citizens. Kane was the only survivor from the mercenary group and it is rumoured that he escaped with a vast amount of loot. Kane was arrested soon after his return to the USA. He was found guilty, sentenced to death and awaits transportation to death row.

Name: James Seth Lynch

Brief history: James Seth Lynch was found guilty of the murder of his wife and sentenced to death.

He was interviewed after he received the death sentence. Lynch remained calm throughout the interview, pointing out that he had only admitted his crimes in court on the advice of a lawyer and added that he was innocent. He presented himself as a perfect husband but when it was pointed out that this did not actually coincide with the crimes which he admitted having committed, he responded excitedly and forcefully that he had given everything to his wife “including the occasional beating”.

Lynch displays all of the common characteristics of schizophrenia.

to be continued

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8. January 2008 by Costas Taliadoros.

I finally started playing Mass Effect a few days ago. About 5 hours into the game and i have some mixed feelings about it. Things started to go wrong from the start.

Let me explain. When choosing your character’s class you are given 6 options. But after reading some reviews and listening to podcasts it was clear to me that apart from the Soldier and Vanguard classes the other 4 were somewhat broken. It made finishing the game from normal to extremely difficult and frustrating. To be honest if i had not known about this i would have chosen either the Engineer or the Infiltrator. Instead i chose the Soldier. I find it incredible that a role playing game can miss the balance of classes so much so that it makes the game harder instead of just having a different experience.

Once i made the remaining choices in my profile off i went to be finally impressed. I love the dialog tree from Bioware and although not revolutionary it is a great touch combined with the fact that what you choose is the basic context of your conversation and not the exact words. It makes the whole conversation feel more real.

But then there is the actual combat. It feels clumsy and so very gamey. While it is a nice touch to have to use cover, when shooting the controls feel imprecise. Plus, the AI of my squadmates is ridiculous. They keep dying on me and even though i place them in safe poistions, they keep moving on their own and getting killed in the process. Worrying about them takes more of my time than the actually killing of the bad guys.

Then you have your technical issues with the frame drop being an issue throughout the game and the pop ups especially just after a screen has been loaded. I mean come on Bioware…

My last grievance has to be the inventory system. This is one of the most unfriendly RPG inventories i have encountered. I usually like to mess around with the equipment or other items i pick up but to be honest in Mass Effect i hesitate to enter the menus because i have to scroll through all the items i have, even when in dublicate, to find what i want. In addition visually the difference between equipment is not the most accessible it could have been. I am not sure whether it’s the colour or the way these are presented but it just not user friendly.

I might be giving the impression that i am not enjoying Mass Effect. On the contrary, i am enjoying it but when compared to other titles this year (well of 2007) , Mass Effect is doing so many things wrong. I can not accept that it is because it is so ambitious.

Having a decent AI is ambitious? A simple, easy to use inventory is ambitious? An RPG which is restricting your choice of characters due to the inconsistency of difficulty is because of its ambitions? Bad impressions indeed.

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2. January 2008 by Costas Taliadoros.

Before i begin my impressions on the new iteration of the Silent Hill series which recently came out on the PSP, let me just tell you that my only previous experience with this game was the original Silent Hill on the PSone. In fact i finished the game with a friend, while in university, twice in 2 days. Since then i have not seen nor played a Sillent Hill game.

Until of course Origins came out on the PSP. My first reaction and of course the reaction of anyone who knows what Silent Hill is all about, is does it work? Can the horror games genre possibly work on a portable gaming device? The answer is both yes and no.

This is not a game to be played on buses, planes or while your family is visiting your grandparents. Once you insert the UMD disc you receive a recommendation from the developers. The game is best experienced with the lights off and headphones on.

Immersion is key.

And Origins is great at that. Once you follow the developer’s recommendation you will be lost in the world of Silent Hill and it works. The use of the lighting effects, grainy graphics and sound are effective and create the vital atmosphere which is the whole essence of a horror game. If you are a fan then you will love this.

So far this is honestly the main positive thing i have to say about the game.

The combat is clumsy with melee weapons disappearing from one’s hand once they have been used a few times. How can a wrench be destroyed? Too often you will get hit by an enemy cause your character was too slow or just a little bit further away to hit anything. There is locking system which helps but it slows the character’s movement. All too often i found myself cursing the controls while watching the game over screen. Maybe the game wants to empasize that your character, Travis, is an ordinary guy and has some basic combat skills. Maybe.

What is even worse than the combat is the camera angle. I am about 3-4 hours into the game and i have encountered a lot of situations where i simply could not see where i was going or where my enemies were coming from. In fact you will find yourself locking and shooting at enemies which are are not on your screen. You are guided by the sound they are making. The game’s camera is simply poor.

Silent Hill also has its puzzles which vary. You have your run of the mill “emblem” or “sign” on the door then find the key, to figuring out the combination of a lock based on the clues you have uncovered. They are fine but to be honest i usually don’t actually know what i am looking for and where to find it until i stumble upon it. This can leave you wondering around trying to find out what you are supposed to do next.

As for the story you start off with you almost hitting a girl with your truck and then you go off to Silent Hill trying to figure out what is going on with her. So far the feed of information has not been great but you still get an idea of where this is going. Typical Silent Hill plot. And this is not a complaint. Just stating a fact.

Don’t get me wrong. It is a very interesting game and certainly unique on a portable console. But what it offers in atmosphere i think it lacks in terms of gameplay. At least so far.

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27. December 2007 by Costas Taliadoros.

Memoirs of Giapanta Zolos
Atletico Madrid manager since 1 June 2007

After 20 matches i am in 4th position but barely, as there are 5 more teams really close to me while the third placed team Valencia are 5 points clear. Real Madrid (managed by El Rey Kokanza) is leading the title chase with Barcelona while Sevilla (managed by Bastian Tsangos) is 7th just 2 points behind me.

My Uefa Cup run is going really well managing to finish top of my group and now facing Empoli in the last 32 teams phase. If i go through i will probably be facing Werder Bremen once again (also faced them in Bremen in a fantastic 2-2 match in the group stage).

I have been busy in the January transfer market bringing a defensive midfielder and a defender. But alas, as soon as my expensive (13.5million) DMF signing played a couple of games, he went off to play for Cameroon in the African Nations Cup. And it looks like Cameroon is going through to the next stage. GRRRRRRRRRRRR!!!!!

It has been a tremendous season so far. But not without its hiccups. I have some complaints about the game.

1. Disallowed goals - In almost every match a goal is scored where the striker was either in an offside position or a foul was committed and the goal was disallowed. In almost every game! In real life this does not happen that often and it is really annoying.

2. Inconsistency - Match difficulty can be fairly inconsistent in the sense that you win games where you wouldn’t not expect to win while lose games you really shouldn’t. For example Athl. Madrid have the second best away record while having the 17th best home record. And every time a team visits Vincente Calderon there is a constant wave of attacks and pressure from the away team. It just does not make any sense me.

Despite some grievances however this is a brilliant game. And having two more human players to interact with takes it to another level.

Did i mention that Arsene Wenger feels that we could be friends?

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21. December 2007 by Costas Taliadoros.

Just started a session with 2 of my friends on FM2008. One room, three managers, three laptops, three teams, one game!

Its not everyday that we manage to find the time to squeeze in enough hours in our calendar for every football fan’s dream game. But it’s the holidays and things are on our side. Started the session today in Spain’s first division. My friends got Seville and Real Madrid while i am managing Athletico Madrid as you can see from the title….

The team has some great midfielders like Simao and Maxi Rodriguez while in front it is Forlan and Aguero. The defence is the weak line but i have not been able to attract any good signings to strengthen it.

Now here is the plan.

Short passing, quick pace and attack minded. The Arsenal way. The best defence is a strong offence.

I love this game!

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20. December 2007 by Costas Taliadoros.

I played my first game yesterday. To say that i had no idea what was going on and what i was supposed to do would be an understatement. Simply put, the game does not have a very user friendly interface or a Civilopedia kind of feature. Fortunately Bill Harris at Dubious Quality has some detailed playthrough posts for gamers first try with the game. It helps you understand firstly the interface, then the units and then how it all plays together. You should play your first session while reading this - click here.

In any case i choose the Humans and whithin 45mins my unguarded HQ was captures by the Xenopods. Didn’t really understand the battle mechanism, i mean how it all works out.

It definitely has an element of luck due to the dice rolls for most events and also at the start of the turn to decide which faction goes first and how many action points each faction has available to play in that turn. However, you do have some important decisions to make like sacrificing resources (which you use to build units) to increase your chances of getting a higher roll and therefore more action points to use during your turn.

One of the most interesting aspects of the game is that you a very limited amount of resources and units at your disposal. This creates a connection with your units and makes every decision you make even more critical.

Right now i am in my second game (again chose the Humans), and was doing better for a while as i managed to establish another base nearby (my recon units discovered some friendly people who joined my faction). I was able to build more units and armies but i lost a very big battle. Lost 1 Hero, 1 Unit of Artillery and 1 Unit of Fanatics against some independent units i thought i could take on. To take revenge i sent an Air Unit but was intercepted by Xenopods and was destroyed. So in just two turns i lost most of my units.

Despite its unfriendliness to newcomers this game really draws you in. All PC strategy game fans should download the demo and have a go.

Me, i am thinking of how to quickly set up my defenses against the incoming Indepenents and Xenopods.

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