Game History-Interplay

Interplay is one of those companies just like Atari that was big back in the day and is now a shadow of it’s former self. Interplay had many IP’s including Earthworm Jim, MDK, Decent, Bard’s Tale,Baldur’s Gate, Clay Fighter, and Fallout. With all those games it seemed like Interplay would be on top of the world. Interplay was founded in 1983 by Brian Fargo (Now at InXile Entertainment). Interplay soon made a name for itself by creating great CRPG’s with The Bard’s Tale and Wasteland. Interplay also had a similarity with Bethesda, they both loved making Star Trek games. About 14 years after Interplay began, they released one of the greatest role-playing games of all time, Fallout. Which was the spiritual successor to Wasteland (EA had the rights to Wasteland so a sequel could not be done at the time) the mix of retro-futuristic elements and the post-apocalyptic setting made Fallout a smash hit. But not one of Interplay’s big IP’s. That was Bladur’s Gate a D & D game developed by Bioware.

In 2001 Interplay just like Atari was purchased by a French publisher, Titus Interactive. This led to many bad things including the departure of founder and President Brian Fargo. They then shed most of their publishing functions and made a deal to have Vivendi Universal (Now Activision) publish all their games. Interplay then went and is still in a dark place full of debt and bad luck.

To avoid bankruptcy Interplay had to sell its Fallout IP to Bethesda Softworks for  $5.75 million. After the transaction Interplay restarted in- house development announcing sequels to MDK, Earthworm Jim, and more. Hopefully Interplay can reclaim their former glory.

Resident Evil 5 Review

Resident Evil 5!!!!!

Resident Evil 5 has been 4 years in the making since Resident Evil 4 debuted in 2005. Rather than continuing Leon’s story your placed in the shoes of Chris Redfield, the hero from the first Resident Evil game. Which means that Albert Wesker is involved. Also RE5 innovates the series with cooperative play locally and over Xbox Live or PSN. Plus the game takes place in Africa very controversially. And it is the first Resident Evil game to appear on a Microsoft system.

Better Than Resident Evil 4?

No. Resident Evil 5 albeit visually stunning is not on par with the much better Resident Evil 4. A comparison can be with the two latest James Bond movies, Casino Royale and Quantum Of Solace. Casino Royale was the first James Bond movie to change the theme of the series from cheesy,over the top,and unrealistic, to intense,gritty,and real. Resident Evil 4 turned what was a horror game that was mainly a zombiefest into a horror game that was a moodyfest. Quantum of Solace was just nonstop action. Resident Evil 5 is just nonstop action.

C0-Op?

That’s right! In Resident Evil 5 you and a friend can team up and destroy the Las Plagas. Just like in Resident Evil 4 and Left 4 Dead you need to have your teammates’ back and make sure they don’t bite the dust. Rather than some games that have co-op as an element of the game RE5 is built on Co-Op. There are specific areas that need co-op like having your partner shoot a lock off a door and you cover them and  help them avoid death.

QTE’S!!!!!!!!!!!

Resident Evil 5 is full of quick time events and sometimes the game will look so good that it’ll make you forget about the qte’s and to quote Aerosmith “you’ll soon end up dead”. An example is if you forget to hit a button your partners head will get snapped.

Closing Comments

Resident Evil 5 is not as good as Resident Evil 4 and is a complete disappointment and I personally do not like where they went in this rendition of the RE franchise. Hopefully they go back to the old Resident Evil formula.

Hits

• Stunning Visuals
• Sometimes Fun
• Great Game To Play With Friends
• Fun Guns

Misses

• Horrible Story
• Horrible Enemies
• Huge Disappointment

I Give Resident Evil 5 A 7 out of 10

X-Men Origins: Wolverine Uncaged Review

Movie/Game Lost In Translation

Movie games don’t have the best track record with the masses. Mainly negative ones with games like Wanted: Weapons of Fate and The Incredible Hulk which are abysmal and are poor excuses for next-gen games. However XO: Wolverine could be a movie/game that is actually good.

Wolverine Uncaged!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Wolverine is probably one of the goriest movie games I have ever played. It is actually the first Marvel game to have an M rating, I can now see why. The smart thing is that Wolverine Uncaged is different from the Wolverine game on the PS2 for example because there is less violence on the PS2 than PS3 which means kids can play a not so violent Wolverine game and teens/adults can play an ultra gory God Of War/Ninja Gaiden clone.

Better Than The Film?

Yes. Wolverine Uncaged is better than the movie. Since the game actually has the story set up better than the movie. Because you are flashing from the present to the past.

Repetition Repetition Repetition

This game suffers from repetitive enemies and you can basically predict what’s going to happen. Maybe if they did something like Dead Space where they introduced a new foe whenever something was going to be stale there wouldn’t be repetition.

Genuine Voice Acting

Wolverine has the voices of Liev Schreiber,April Stewart,Will.I.Am, and Hugh Jackman giving it the feel of a movie or basically the Wolverine movie done right.

General Gameplay

The general gameplay is button mashing just like the aforementioned Ninja Gaiden and God Of War so you basically are tearing your enemies apart literally. You can actually impale people which some sadists out there will love. There are also abilities you can use like increased rage which if you didn’t know increases your damage and makes you like a Juggernaut.(Wink.Wink)

The Subtle Things

The small things like Wolverine looking at his claws or the way he is when he retracts them is nice. Also after a fight when Wolverine’s wounds are healing you see them start to heal, and if you get smashed up you can  actually see Wolverine’s skeleton. These little things make it feel like you are in there with Logan fighting Stryker’s men.

Closing Comments

X-Men Origins: Wolverine Uncaged Edition is actually a pretty decent movie/game but it is basically the same thing level after level boss fight after boss fight. Hopefully the guys over at Raven Software can improve with a different Marvel character like The Hulk or Iron Man.

Hits

• Fun Tearing Guys To Shreads
• Good Subtle Effects
• Nice Visuals
• Authentic VO
• Impaling (For Sadists)
• Nice Easter Eggs
• Better Than The Movie
• Best Marvel Game
  

Misses

• Can Be Very Repetitive
  
• Ninja Gaiden/ God of War Clone

I Give This Game An 8 out of 10

Game History-Raven Software

While I may have what some may call a hatred towards Activision for how they milk IP’s I am fond of one of their subsidiaries Raven Software. Raven Software based in Middleton, Wisconsin are the developers behind games like Quake 4, Star Wars: Jedi Academy,the recent Wolverine game, and the upcoming Wolfenstein which is a reboot of the grandfather of the FPS genre. Raven was started back in 1990 by Brian and Steve Raffel.  Raven Software, although owned by Activision is a group of really talented people.

Gameography

• Black Crypt (1992)
• ShadowCaster (1993)
• CyClones (1994)
• Heretic (1994)
• Heretic: Shadow Of The Serpent Riders (1994)
• HeXen (1995)
• HeXen: Deathkings Of The Dark Citadel (1996)
• Necrodome (1996)
• Mageslayer (1997)
• Take No Prisoners (1997)
• HeXen II (1997)
• HeXen II: Portal of Praevus (1998)
• Heretic (1998)
• Soldier of Fortune (2000)
• Star Trek: Voyager Elite Force (2000)
• Star Trek: Voyager Elite Force: Virtual Voyager (2001)
• Star Wars Jedi Knight II: Jedi Outcast (2002)
• Soldier Of Fortune II: Double Helix (2002)
• Star Wars Jedi Knight: Jedi Academy (2003)
• X-Men Legends (2004)
• X-Men Legends II: Rise of Apocalypse (2005)
• Quake 4 (2005)
• Marvel: Ultimate Alliance (2006)
• X-Men Origins: Wolverine (2009)
• Wolfenstein (2009)
• Singularity (2009)
  

Wanted:Weapons Of Fate Review

Movie-to-game translations haven’t been very successful as they are some of the worst games for example E.T. is regarded as possibly the worst game ever made due to the development being only six weeks long since it was made by Howard Scott Warshaw who designed Yar’s Revenge and Raiders of The Lost Ark. But games like Goldeneye,Chronicles Of Riddick:Butcher  Bay,  Scarface,and others have actually sold well and played well. Last year the film adaptation of the Mark Millar graphic novel Wanted was released and it became a smash hit with it’s unique bullet curving and action sequences. Now the inevitable video-game tie-in is out.

Before and After The Film.So wait there’s no Angelina Jolie?

Wanted:Weapons of Fate takes place before and after the film so yeah there’s no Angelina Jolie but her character is mentioned not in a good way though. Since it’s a before and after game you play as two characters(first playthrough)Wesley and Cross and it gives some backstory to Cross’ character and what really happened to Wesley’s mother.

Some Familiar Voices

The VO of this game is not that bad. It may not have James McAvoy or Morgan Freeman but Common,  Terence Stamp, and Thomas Kretschmann lend their voices. Which adds a bit of authenticity to the game. Even though Common is playing a different character and he’s starting to go down the Ron Perlman route of voicing characters in every game.

Bullet Curving To The Max But Not Much Else To It

In Weapons Of Fate the bullet curving made famous by the film returns. But there isn’t much else to be pumped for. Although the game has quick time events, it is done way better than other games (Ninja Blade). With quick time events you aren’t really immersed in it since you are just pressing a button before time runs out. In WOF you are doing amazing action moves and you are aiming and shooting enemies and even bullets themselves. It just makes things seem more alive and make you want to do these amazing moves rather than just pressing A or X.

Only A Few Weapons To Use

Yeah in Wanted: WOF you only use two guns. Both of these guns being pistols. The first is just a standard gun. While the second is a gun that was used by your father, and these aren’t just some standard burst pistols, in fact when you use the bullet curving mechanic with the pistols they bullets detonate as soon as they hit the target. But even that gets boring after a while. You do use other guns but they are locked in sequences. An example being a sniper rifle you use as Cross when covering Wesley’s mother evading enemies. Also you use a turret doing basically the same thing in a different area.

And That’s Basically The Game

And that’s basically the game. With that there really isn’t much to hold up this title as a purchase. My recommendation is to rent the game. Trust me you will thank me.

Closing Comments

Wanted: Weapons Of Fate is a game that suffers from a severe lack of replayability. If there was more time spent on the game to add more to it, maybe it could be a buy.

Hits

• Bullet Curving
• Exploding Bullets

Misses

• Not Much Of A Story
• Barely Any Replay Value
• Very Short Game
• No Angelina Jolie!
• Everything Else

I Give This Game A 6 out of 10