Previews (Warhammer, PC FPS titles)

PC back catalogue

With a gaming PC in the house after a long hiatus, I've naturally seeked out demos of interesting PC titles I've missed over the years. Some initial impressions, then:

Far Cry: highly interesting. Runs super-smooth with high settings and looks lovely. The sense of freedom is something I haven't previously experienced in a shooter title and it really feels like you can approach situations any way you care. I was initially lured by the bright, tropical graphics, but the gameplay feels like a winner, too.

I played the demo through obsessively, delighted at how challenging it was. As a sidenote, I remain a fan of the checkpoint system. I don't want to break my immersion with quicksaves - which often leads me to forgetting to save my progress if the game doesn't have a checkpoint system. Checkpoints also split the game into bite-size chunks. This demands further play.

FEAR: FEAR is perhaps the PC title I was most looking forward to, but I'm a little disappointed. The controls feel as off as they did with the 360 version (a Monolith mainstay, unfortunately) and the graphics stutter more than they do on the Xbox. I remain intrigued by the premise, so I'll likely look more into it, but with diminished expectations. It could be I'd be better off with the 360 version, which runs smoother.

Half-Life 2: that's correct, I haven't played Half-Life 2 yet, though the original game is among the best games I've ever played. I intend to, especially after playing the demo. The game still looks good and runs super-smooth.

Gameplay feels more like, well, playing than running and gunning in the classic FPS sense. With limited ammunition and the environment-manipulating gravity gun, you're left thinking of other ways to solve the problem of staying alive. The aesthetic design is so cool, too.

Warhammer: Mark Of Chaos

I only briefly treid the demo of the new Warhammer real-time strategy title. It felt a lot like actual, miniatures-based Warhammer, which is only a good thing. I'm not sure, but it looked like they were even playing by the "real" rules. Units are counted in models, not "men", and that kind of thing. There is an option customize some unit colors, although it would be awesome to be able to actually "paint" the models.

I was worried they'd go the popular Warcraft way of candy colors and high fantasy, but it seems they've kept the premise down low and gritty. My other fear was that they'd go all Warcraft on the gameplay, too, with base-building and whatnot, but this seems unfounded. You pick forces, set them up and go at it.

This is very much the way I envisioned a computer-Warhammer back as a kid when playing around with the models. Only that with a computer game, you can field a thousand-strong army and it'll only cost you the 50€ for the game.

Online leaderboards (feat. Doom), 3D platformers (feat. Sonic), Defcon

Doom

I purchased the 360 version of classic Doom at 800 MS points (roughly 9€). It's a no-frills conversion, exactly what I wanted - no tricks done to the original graphics or sounds, all four episodes, controls work very well. It's a great game. I have one thing to complain about: the map is utterly worthless on a non-HDTV. Really, you need to take the massmarket (like all of Europe) into account when designing your game views.

A couple of things came up during playing the first episode through in one sitting.

First and foremost are the online leaderboards, viewable per level. All games need this feature. It plays straight to my competitive spirit. It feels so good to be the best player among your friends and to, say, finally break the global top-1000.

Leaderboards are what keeps me playing Geometry Wars, too. It bugs me that I'm sitting right on the average level (according to MyGamerCard.net). I need to break that half a million to get above the crowd!

Then there are Doom's controls. As per the original version, there is no Y-axis; you don't aim up and down. The character automatically targets monsters above and below you, provided that they line up with your gun. I'd really like to see a modern shooter do the same. Sure it needs some clever level design (Doom's essentially flat), but it would keep things much more free-flowing and immediate.

I recall the makers of the original Unreal Tournament's Xbox version attempting something in this vain, via level design. I don't know how that worked out, though.

I didn't buy Doom merely because I loved it as a kid. I imagined that it would be a great game, period. And it is. If anything, provided you can look past the low-res graphics, it's even better today. It absolutely wipes the floor with so many modern shooters, despite being released in 1993. The lighting is very effective, the level design is engaging, the overall aesthetic design hasn't aged at all.

Oh, and like reviewer Kristan Reed on Eurogamer put it, this game features bodies which do not disappear. Thirteen years ago. Get with the times, shooter designers.

Sonic: The Hedgehog next-gen

I've said it before and this latest offering only enforces my position: platform games should never have made the jump to 3D presentation. It doesn't work! I tried and tried and tried and simply could not hit the lines of rings with any confidence. The automatically aimed spinning attack does work, but as usual, the camera is worthless (you wouldn't believe how slowly it spins).

There's been a single instance of 3D platforming working well - Prince Of Persia: Sands Of Time - but even that one stellar example of the genre had some problems with the camera.

So in a nutshell: kill 3D platformers, kpls.

Allegedly the original Sega Megadrive/Genesis Sonic is coming to XBLA in the near future. That's an almost guaranteed sale right there and I imagine it will work much better than this entirely competent, but by its nature, awkward offering.

Defcon

I've liked Introversion ever since I found Uplink, the awesome hacker game they released in 2001. Their latest release Defcon has generated a lot of hype. The game was released a few days ago and the demo is now out, too, go get it.

I had trouble imagining how the game would play out in practice, but having played through the tutorial, it's all clear now. I've yet to try a full-fledged game, but it's pretty safe to say at this point that it's a sure sale for me (PC hardware permitting, my home machine's ancient). At 14€ for a brand new game, I really can't complain. Although I might go for the boxed copy, which is priced a little higher, but even that's a ridiculous 21€! And it feels good to know that you're paying straight to the developers themselves.

It's also interesting how cool and distinctive Introversion's games look, despite the authors claiming that it's all "programmer art". Their soundscapes are thoughtful, too. I hear that Defcon sports "situation room ambient" consisting of cigarettes lighted, coughs and so on, which is really a magnificent idea. Can't be witness to that myself, yet, because I didn't have audio on the laptop I tried it on.

Update: Defcon runs just fine on my 900 MHZ/512 MB RAM home system. I've taken a beating from the computer twice, now. Well, at least it runs fine with only two players, that is.

Epic miniatures

I came across an almost pristine copy of Games Workshop's Space Marine (1st edition of the current Epic system). I hold the game dear. As a kid, I had a good-sized Blood Angels army. I remember being humiliated by a friend's Squat (aka space-dwarves. No, really!) army time and time again.

So yesterday I evaluated the contents of the box, assembled the cardboard buildings and washed the miniatures. I set aside two vehicles and four squads. The box holds twice as many Space Marines as it does Orks and Eldars, so I thought I'd paint two varieties of Space Marines.

My first instinct was to recreate my childhood army, but frankly, the all-red force is boring, and the Ork army will most likely sport black and red as their colors. Since I always wanted an Ultramarines force but was too much of a deviant to go for the obvious choice (they're featured on the box coverart), now it's time to indulge myself.

The other Space Marine army I always wanted is the Space Wolves. Their white and grey ought to be simple to reproduce.

With these two armies selected, I began experimenting with the paint schemes. The Ultramarines were easy; just simple blue with highlights. I believe they'll look all right with little effort.

Two Ultramarines squads. These guys are really small. The scale is 6 mm, so a trooper is about the height of a regular 25-30 mm miniature's foot! Also, I'm not sure what I'll do with the base. It's a street-grey, now, but I'm thinking of making it brown and maybe adding some texture with sand.

Space Wolves Land Raider with supporting troops. This is the same vehicle that's in the post's title image. It turned out fine. You can't see it from this angle, but the doors have been accented with white, sort of like UN vehicles, with a unique unit designation - in this case, "I". I was thinking of maybe painting the guns with the chapter colors, too, instead of the usual gunmetal and black.

Two squads of Space Wolves. These are the same guys as in the picture above, but they're here in proper focus. I had a lot of trouble getting the paint scheme right. Plain grey and white looked boring. The squad on the left is the result of three attempts at a plain grey or white base, black ink and light grey highlights. Not too convincing.

The squad on the right I'm pretty happy with. I went for a straight white coat, with a black helmet as an accent, washed with brown ink, shoulders cleaned and the whole squad highlighted with white. Now they look all grimy and seasoned, as they should! The bases haven't been cleaned yet.

Holiday bliss

As the increase in my Gamerscore may indicate, yesterday I played Oblivion some nine to ten hours straight. It was good. I cleared the entire Arena quest in one sitting and got some mileage in the Fighters' guild. My 360 is happy.

I was pretty surprised to find the energy to install and begin playing the original Fallout in the evening on top of the day's unheard-of-in-many-years gaming stint. I've only played the sequel and Fallout Tactics previously, so it was rather exciting to embark on the original Vault-Dweller's journey. The interface was a little clumsy and the resolution is low (looks kinda muddy on my laptop), but otherwise it rocks a lot. The soundscape is excellent.

Today we're off to Tallinn for three days; gaming is probably limited to Dweller on the phone.