Posts Tagged ‘reviews’
Posted on November 2, 2008 - by Jordan H
Far Cry 2
Well, it’s been a great week off for me, and what better way to end it than to get a fantastic new game! As usual, here’s a review…
Far Cry 2 is a game set in a fictional un-named African country, with a stunning varied landscape and a storyline which can go in many different ways. It comes from Ubisoft Montreal, the same guys who brought us Assassins Creed and Rainbow Six, both great games in their own right.
The open world is truly endless, original and varied. I’ve been through savannah, jungle and a whole lot more and that’s just the beginning. The realism of the game is much more than any other. For example, if you pick up an old gun off the floor and use it a lot, it’ll get jammed. You can unjam it and continue using it. However if you keep using it, you risk it blowing up in your hands.
You can also set off forest fires, which is pretty funny. Blow up a car, use a flamethrower or throw a molotov into trees and before long you’ll have a fire burning, and spreading rapidly too! (more…)
Posted on September 7, 2008 - by Jordan H
Spore
If my calculations are correct, then Spore came out exactly 8 years and 7 months after The Sims took the world by storm. From what I’ve played so far today, then it wouldn’t surprise me at all if Spore did for the new generation of games, exactly what The Sims did to the previous generation - reinvent the game.
Spore is a combination of many things. In case you hadn’t realised yet, the man behind this epic is no other than Will Wright, the creator of the other epic I mentioned above (: The game has the personality, relationship and skill aspects of The Sims at its heart, but branches out to have the SimCity element of gameplay along with a great amount of customisation options.
In the game, you start off as a cell, swimming around in a very big ocean. You can be a herbivore or a carnivore, and as you eat more food (and other fish if you like), you earn more DNA ‘bits’ which can be used when mating to expand your character. Soon you end up on land, and your creature can be seen in its full 3D glory. Your creature develops land-life-like features like legs, hands, and even wings. Your task is to work your way up, by either creating alliances with other creatures, or killing them off and having them for supper. (The herbivores among us will be glad to know that there are fruit trees around too!)
The game moves on to the city-like aspects, with the “Tribal Phase”, “Civilization Phase” and lastly the “Space Phase”. The latter of these phases is like all Sim-games, never ending. There continues to be a wealth of things you can do when flying between planets.
The character customisation is amazing. You couldn’t create two characters the same if you tried. The way you can develop your character, and how your character can develop personality-wise too. There is just too much to mention to fit it in this article!
I bought the Galactic Edition from GAME for £39.99. It includes an Art book and two DVDs, plus a poster and an expanded manual. I also picked up the Prima Guide, which was £12.99. So far I’ve only managed to play the first two phases (mostly owing to the fact that my sister decided she wanted to play on it all evening), but the game seems so intuitive and new, pushing boundaries where games have never gone before.
There’s only one gripe that I have with the game - the gameplay can be a bit slow. There are times when you feel as if you’re repeating yourself a lot (mainly in the second phase), continuing to do the same things - alliance or kill - over and over.
However, I’m really looking forward to playing the further levels and creating buildings, vehicles and even spaceships too! (:
Posted on July 12, 2008 - by Jordan H
Deadline - By Simon Kernick
This is the latest in an epic collection of novels written by author Simon Kernick. I’ve been a huge fan of his books since I read Relentless last year. I’ve since read Severed, another great read, and now today at Tesco I saw Deadline and picked it up. So, this afternoon I sat down and started to read, and didn’t stop until I’d finished it. I thought I’d put a review up on here with my thoughts.
One of the great things about the Simon Kernick books is that they’re impossible to put down. There’s always an urge to keep on reading the next chapter. I’m glad to say that this book is no exception. It’s filled with twists and turns at every level, and leaves you guessing so much that your brain yearns to find out what happened!
There’s a fast-moving plot with no lapses of action, but Kernick sometimes goes into the history of the characters at times when you just want to keep on with the story. However, these pieces of information are vital to the end of the story.
As in many modern crime-fiction books, there are some chapters which have horrific events, and some which are downright disturbing. One of the great things about the books, and this book inparticular, is the immense accuracy that Kernick applies to his story about the Police and their relevant departments. Combined with the odd facts about the Police, the story doesn’t leave the fictional “tracing that call takes ages” feeling after you’ve read it.
I think this book is a must-read! If you enjoyed it, then I recommend also reading some of Simon Kernick’s other titles too - Relentless and Severed. Let me know what you think in the comments section.
Hope you enjoyed reading the first book review on JordanH.net!