Kireatic

Recently, Valve killed TF2. They might not have noticed yet, but the most recent update of Team Fortress 2 sealed it’s fate for several communities and clans which I know – including a large portion of the community of which I am a part. They did it quite simply – they took something generally hated, the random drop system, and added some more weapons only obtainable via that system, as well as more completely pointless hats.

For me at least, this was the signal Valve had lost it, and I shut off TF2 until the Engineer update (where I hope for sweet heaven that they fix the drop system). As I do so enjoy my multiplayer games, I instantly latched onto Battlefield: Bad Company 2.

On the whole, BC2 is a solid multiplayer game, provided you have a squad full of team members. It is a good game, of this there is no doubt, barring the few niggling balance issues that DICE have promised to fix (the M60 soon, apparently). However, it has a very high skill ceiling, unlike TF2.

Let me explain. Team Fortress 2 clearly has excellent skill ceilings in the form of airshots, movement prediction, sticky carpets, and so on and so forth. However, most of these skills are tactical and not physical. Once you can aim, you can, in theory, learn the other skills, the most important of which is being able to work in a team. Because these skills are tactical, the physical skill ceilings for TF2 are actually very low. Take the Pyro. It might be my favourite class, but I’ll be the first to admit, it comes down to flaming everything that you can, and shotgunning or flaring the things you can’t flame. The reflects are one of the rare ‘skills’ in TF2, akin to aiming, but the Pyro can be played by anyone, and you’ll eventually kill anyone without too much difficulty. This is the same with all the TF2 classes – they are all very easy to pick up.

Bad Company 2 is different. Because of the lack of hit points, and the high weapon variations and damage outputs, physical skill in the form of aiming, jumping and movement in-game becomes an extreme indicator of how quickly you are going to die. This hasn’t been much of a problem up to now, as the game has been new; so players have been adapting. Now all the weapons are unlocked however, and people are settling into certain roles, players are beginning to pull rapidly away from public server skill levels.

This is great for competitive play. But it will make the game extremely newbie unfriendly. Counterstrike, anyone? And it’s already begun – I personally can’t aim for shit, when compared to the gamers I typically end up playing with. Yes, I’ll outshoot the majority of gamers, but this is just because I’m at the very bottom of the top. I’m good at games in comparison only to those who aren’t good. I’m terrible at games compared to almost anyone on my Steam Friends list.

Because of my personal lack of ability, BC2 is already dying for me – it can’t hold onto me when I die every 30 seconds. And it’ll be interesting to see if it manages to keep drawing new players to it when they join a server full of rank 40 players only to get fragged almost instantly.

In the end, it’s inevitable; TF2 held people by adding new content, and now it’s gone too far for the original playerset. Bad Company 2 will hold the hardcore players with its range of tactics and it’s high skill ceiling, but without fresh blood, all games die. But I can’t predict either of the games lifetimes, I can only say that every game dies for someone eventually. It’s just a matter of holding the majority.

Part of the One Hundred Plus Game Review

EVE Online is a particularly tricky game to play compared to most MMO’s, largely due to it’s persistent nature. Many games claim persistance, but in a game where your actions don’t affect the game world for more than a few minutes at a time, those claims are so much garbage. In EVE, almost everything you do is permanent. And this can be unsettling.

EVE is a large scale MMO published by CCP Games – it has a large userbase, and one of the least whiny communities around. It has also made the news, at least here in the UK, a few times due to some big time scams done in game, stealing billions of the ingame currency, ISK (InterStellar Kredits). And its precisely this that draws people to the game; the chance to do something that actually affects others playing.

The new user experience has been reworked several times recently in order to try and give better and better feels for the game. Because of the player-driven nature of the game, the different ‘jobs’ avaliable are effectively limitless, you just have to find your niche. The tutorials keep this in mind, and offer starter missions from NPC’s to learn combat, more advanced variations thereof, industry revolving around manufacture and selling your goods, mining, exploration and business. I made do with combat, manufacture and mining when I started, but I went and had a look as a now-explorer at the new tutorials, and you can at least see how the game tries to explain itself to newbies. However, it can’t disguise one simple fact. EVE is hard.

Take my line of work in game. I’m an explorer, specialized in scanning, hacking, archaeological surveying and simple recon. For my corporation (a guild or clan in EVE), I typically scan down a signal inside the wormhole we live in, identify it, summon a few corp mates to help kill the sleepers (a nasty type of NPC that exists in wormholes) and then use my specialized skills to open up the loot canisters. And we sell the loot or use it to make cool stuff. But all this takes a very long time to figure out, new players don’t have much hope without aid.

It’s often said about EVE, the game doesn’t take off until you find a good corporation for yourself. As yet, I haven’t settled down – I may jump corp if something new comes up, but it’d have to be awesome, I’m a loyal person – but once you find one, EVE does have a lot of possibilities. It’s a giant sandbox.

Graphically, while pretty, you are just looking at ships and planets. Which gets dull. Incarna, the code-name for walking in stations, where you get to walk around outside your ship, isn’t out yet. Which is a shame, and puts lots of potential players off. Me too, actually. I want my /emote dance.

Combat is, like everything else in game, very technically minded. You have to outfit your ship very specifically, and know how to use each module you fit well, not to mention be trained in-game to use them, as well as increase the amount of CPU and capacitor energy your ship has…although when you actually get into combat, it’s more “turn everything on, see who dies first”. Which is a shame, given all the work that goes into planning the ship equipment, that it’s ultimately background noise.

I can’t really comment on the industry or market, as while EVE’s economy is incredible, and one of the most advanced economies in any game…I’m an explorer who sits around cloaked in wormholes. I don’t sell things, and I’m rarely even in systems with a station, let alone access to items and a market terminal. I’m told it’s awesome though. I’m also yet to reach the endgame, but with an absence of levels like in other MMO’s, it’s more because I’m terrified of the null-security space that surrounds hi-sec rather than my inability to access it. In most games, PvP’ers or player-killers are confined to certain places. In EVE, we like to refer to PvP’ers as ‘subscribers’. And if you lose your ship, you lose your ship.

And god help you if your clone wasn’t up to date.

I’m not going to give EVE a traditional score like the other reviews, as because of its open and unending nature, the game is still evolving, and I haven’t explored anywhere near a quarter of it, let alone finished it. I’d say it’s worth giving the trial a go, and seeing how it works out for you, but it’s complexity, and lack of instant rewards make it hard to get into for many. It’s a long term game, not a short term one.

Contact me on Steam or post questions in the comments for more information – it’s truly a hard game to pin down in a few paragraphs.

Part of the One Hundred Plus Games Review.

So, after my non-review of NeoTokyo, I went back over to the listings to see what my next game was. Regrettably it turned out to be Peggle Extreme. So, this looks to be a very short review, yet again.

Peggle Extreme is the free edition of Peggle, given out with Nvidia graphics cards along with a Portal demo, Half Life 2: Deathmatch and Half Life 2: Lost Coast. It’s a casual game, basically revolving around you trying to hit all the orange blocks and pegs on a board before you run out of pinballs to do it with.

It’s oddly fun, as casual games are, and seeing how the game is free, I would recommend at least trying it out to see if you want to purchase the actual version. The ‘extreme’ version has Half Life, TF2 and Portal themes throughout, with a brief bit of CS:S, but is terribly short which is a shame.

Graphics are terrible, as Popcap don’t ‘do’ high resolution games. Best played in windowed mode. Provided you aren’t trying to full screen it, it looks okay.

Gameplay is addictive, but thankfully in this version, short, as I don’t want to be stuck playing Peggle all day, to be quite honest. Re-playability is quite high, as while the layout doesn’t change, the position of the orange blocks does.

What else can I say? There’s an attempt at some sort of story involving headcrabs, but…you know. It’s Peggle.

Peggle gets:

Gameplay: 6/10
Graphics: 4/10
Addictiveness: 8/10

Overall score for Peggle…6/10. Well, what did you expect? It’s Peggle.