Man Vs Machine: Review

Man vs Machine is a browser-based FPS, designed as a world-record attempt and tech demo by MuchDifferent.

The aim is for 1000 players to simultaneously battle it out as either Man or Machine: Man is equipped with an explosive projectile dealing splash damage, whilst Machine uses piercing, precision lasers to deal damage to single targets.

First up, the main site was unable to take the strain, and had a Google redirect slapped on it.  I found a mirror; a page with unstyled CSS but most importantly, the option to get in and play.  I managed to get in (as Man) long enough to see a mass of machines under shields on the horizon..

I fired a shot or two before the connection dropped.. I got one kill, anyway.

I reconnected, and was placed on the side of the Machines where I was killed as soon as spawn-protection was over.  This happened over and over, and I don’t think I even killed a single enemy.

Man has splash damage, meaning they only needed to keep firing in the direction of the Machines to guarantee a kill, while Machines have to wait for the shield to disappear before firing, find a target and aim.. and then hope to hit something.

Machines are bunched up in groups, there is no cover, and nowhere to run out from to try and flank the humans.  I feel the Machine’s model is too large as well, as your allies all-too-effectively block your view of the enemy.  A larger map might allow players to get out and move around, and let this be a bit more fun.

Sure, this is a world-record attempt and tech demo – but this wasn’t even close to fun to play as a Machine.

Resident Evil 5 – Completed!

A friend and I played co-op Resident Evil 5 this weekend, with him playing as Chris and me as Sheva.  I haven’t played the game in single-player, but the campaign is the same in both, and co-op allows you a more intelligent partner! 😉

I liked the co-op controls and teamwork in this game.. rather than simply running along with two sets of eyes and guns, we had to work together to get through the missions.

Like with Resident Evil 4, the controls needed some getting used to, with turning in particular being rather slow, and I resorted to flailing at the keyboard when first being swarmed with enemies! The flailing added to the panic, especially after the execution cutscene, when we had to hole up in a small house, and met our first Executioner!

The other problem we had with the game was Games for Windows LIVE dropping our connection.  This was annoying at the best of times, but infuriating when it happened after a hard fight which we then had to re-do.

However, that aside.. there were plenty of enemies and some really good boss fights!  There were, however, a few sections relying on quick time events, which I can’t really say I’m a fan of, especially when the failure leads to instant death.. and playing with keyboard and mouse, I sometimes felt those keys weren’t the best: I found F+V hard to reach in time.

I loved the Road Rage section of the game: firing on motorbike-riding enemies was fun, and though there were more quick time events sprung on us, they didn’t lead to disaster if failed.  The end of this chapter brought a huge enemy, with people clipped to his belt!  Fortunately he wasn’t as tough as I expected.. though he destroyed our truck by landing on it 😉

We got another change of pace in the next section, with a boat ride on crocodile-infested waters. We first attempted to kill the crocodiles, going all in but then finding ourselves surrounded.  Then we found some of them could be outrun, as could the enemies on the different islands too.  We killed most of the enemies we came across, though, which is how I would normally play if I was playing alone.. I kill all the enemies, check all the rooms, and try to find all the collectible items and secret areas too!

An enemy I would have liked to avoid was the second Uroboros, despite the flamethrower being quite fun to use.  We couldn’t get him down for a long time, with a lack of ammo adding to the problem.

And then there was the Wesker and Jill fight..

As my friend had played before, he suggested that we use the corridors rather than staying in the open.  After a few attempts, we managed to put Wesker down, and went on to the section with Jill.. but then experienced one of our GFWL drop-outs.  Annoyingly, this meant having to start the section again before the fight with Jill.

This turned out to be a rather long job, as we kept killing her!

There was another interesting weapon to use, the Laser Targeting Device, for aiming an orbital laser onto an enemy!  The enemy in question was Excella, transformed into a hideous Uroboros with several glowing nodes to aim at.

Wesker was of course the last boss, with the first fight aiming to inject him with the Uroboros, and overdose him.

This was hard as he seemed almost immune to our weapons.. the proper way to kill him was in the dark using the rocket launcher, which stumbles him so you can grab and inject him.  Following this was more quick time.. with a nasty neck-snapping for my friend when I missed one!

We then had a good few fails on the last section, with the trouble coming from the part where we were split up rather than from the final showdown.. both of us aiming for his weak spot 🙂

Awesome game.. and after completing it, we were able to access the extra mode: Mercenaries.  This is a timed game mode, counting down from two minutes, in which you need to kill as many enemies as you can to get the best score possible!  You can also play as Chris, Sheva, Jill or even Wesker, each with different weapons, which I think is a nice way of making it different each time.

Renegade Ops

Renegade Ops, by Avalanche Studios and published by Sega, arrived in my Steam game collection over Christmas thanks to a friend.  Although Tim had already picked this up on the 360, the game has four player co-op, so having it on the PC as well was no bad thing!

While the Great Gift Pile objective list was up over Christmas, we had a quick go at it, with the aim of killing Santa and collecting one of his presents.. and although we discovered that the present only drops for one player, we had a lot of fun destroying things!

If your vehicle gets turned over, the game resets your position without taking up one of your lives.  This was just as well, because we crashed into each other a lot while slipping on the ice or even just trying to overtake each other.

We decided we should play the game properly..  though, that said.. we ended up playing the Coldstrike DLC before the original storyline.

The game has a choice of characters to play as: I played as Steam-exclusive Gordon Freeman, with the ability to summon a pack of Antlions.  During the chase for the objective, I had unlocked some upgrades which meant their deaths would spawn a health pack, or repair kit, depending on how you look at it 😉

As well as Antlion-related upgrades, I had the two other skill trees common to all characters: a defensive tree with upgrades to add extra lives, auto-repair and so on, and an offensive tree, with upgrades focused on improving weaponry.  I took a balance between the two trees as with friends, the game isn’t too hard and we were there to have fun!

For my secondary weapon, I found the Rocket Launcher and Flamer the easiest to use, with the Rail Gun less easy as you had to keep aiming at the target while charging, and I didn’t want to sit still.  I also continued the theme of crashing into everything as we went along, with plenty of smaller enemies and buildings being destroyed this way!

I really loved the sections of the game where we were given helicopters to control..

There was a little niggle in that we weren’t able to fly up and over certain obstacles, and had to go round.. but otherwise these were easy to fly, which meant I was able to focus on the destruction 🙂

The game is easy to play, though that coupled with playing in co-op meant more silliness and therefore more deaths.  Definitely a fun game, though!

From an Elevator to The Blind Monk’s Society

Two mods came to my attention this week: Elevator: Source, a mod built on Garry’s Mod, and The Blind Monk’s Society, a mod for Half Life 2.

Elevator: Source is an elevator simulation by Pixeltail Games.  You get on the elevator, and then wait until it stops on a one of the 28 randomised floors..

First I got to look out into a freezing world.. I wanted to step out and have a look, but there was an invisible wall 🙁

After this, there was a dingy corrridor from which an NPC appeared.. she joined me and waited.. the next stop had the doors open in space, with a strange spinning kaleidoscope pattern.  There is an end-level where you can leave and walk around a games room, play pool and watch TV, but I just didn’t feel like sitting through more floors to get there.

I had the second mod to get to.. Blind Monk’s Society, where you play the part of a blind monk!

The game has no visuals, so to find your way around you have to listen very carefully.  I had read about this game over on Rock, Paper Shotgun and seen a recommendation to shut my eyes.  This actually helped a lot as it removed the distraction of my room and forced me to just listen..

You are greeted by two other monks, who really are channeling Monty Python with some very strange voices, silly singing and random phrases.  I got told off rather a lot as they explained my first task, for not keeping up as they started walking!

The first task is to collect a wind-chime, making your way alongside the river and up to where you can just hear them chiming.  My path up to the chime was extremely hesitant, after I stepped into the river and quickly backpedalled to get out, then didn’t want to end up lost.  The return journey was guided by the ringing of a bell, although I was nearly distracted by a crazy monk chattering about sitting in the grass and getting a wet bum!

I consider my hearing to be poor, so I was surprised to find that on the second mission, I was able to follow the audio cues rather easily, retrieving the second wind-chime and returning rather quickly.

I would have loved to see an overview of the path I’d made afterwards, but as the game was made as a project in navigation, there weren’t any visuals.  I would also rather like to see a horror game using some mechanics like this.. scary as it would be!

More Geomon

I wrote about Loki Studios‘ Geomon a while back.. it’s actually become my bedtime and waking up game, as it’s fairly easy to grab the iPod and have a battle or two.

Unfortunately, I can’t make full use of the game as I’m playing on an iPod Touch: for the most part, I’m limited in location to a few wifi points.  As well as appearing in certain weather conditions, and at different times of day, Espers appear in certain locations, such as in parks, near graveyards, and so on.. so I know I won’t be able to fight all Espers, or therefore be able to complete certain missions.

However, that still leaves enough missions to be getting on with, and with the game having been updated to version 0.7.1, the Bounty system has now been added.  Bounties are simple tasks for quick reward.. collect three of a particular sample, defeat a set number of Espers, or train a particular Esper up a few levels.  I like this task the best, as it gives me a new Esper and new abilities to try out.

I also finally caught an ‘Iris’ Esper!  I had my eye on this particular Esper since I first browsed the website and saw the image.

Yes, I named her Rainbow Dash.. this one’s for a brony friend! 😀

Cut The Rope

Cut The Rope is an iOS physics puzzler developed by ZeptoLab and published by Chillingo back in 2010 for both iOS and Android, and later for the iPad.

I’m very late to the party with Cut The Rope, I know.. but I finally got to play it after I saw on RockPaperShotgun that a browser version had appeared!

The object of the game is to feed candy to a cute green monster called “Om Nom”.. said candy being attached to ropes which you must cut so the candy falls into Om Nom’s waiting mouth.  After the first few levels, this means cutting the right ropes in the right order so you can get the candy into his mouth.

As well as guiding the candy to Om Nom, there are stars to collect on each level, which can mean swinging the candy away from Om Nom.. going for the stars means thinking then cutting 😉

If you drop the candy rather than getting it to Om Nom, he’ll be sad..

Later levels require more planning and timing, as you have to use bubbles and bellows to help move the candy, while avoiding spike traps, and other hazards.  These include spiders.. good because they snare the candy and swing it into stars, but bad because they then start reeling in the candy too!

There’s also a Behind the Scenes section on the site for those wanting to know a bit more about HTML5 and the development of games such as this one!

Mists of Pandaria – Pet Battle!

As well as adding the Pandaran race, a new continent, the new Monk class, and an overhaul of the Talent Calculator, the Mists of Pandaria expansion also brings with it a pet battling system.

There’s a review of the system on MMO Champion.. collection, levelling and training of pets, battling and stats, which sound a little like Pokemon and Geomon, two ‘pet’ collecting and battling games I’ve been playing a bit of recently.

Pets will now be tradeable, even once trained.  Some pets will only be out in the wild during certain seasons or weather conditions, so trading will be a nice option for those pets you can’t find yourself.  This reminds me rather a lot of Geomon, where I’m a little frustrated by the idea I can’t collect all the Espers myself.. and I like to aim for a full collection once I start!

I particularly like the idea that pets will become account wide.. I have a great collection on my main character, Kirria, including many which were gifts from friends, and I wouldn’t fancy my chances at collecting them all again.  I look forward to trying the system out for myself when I eventually get enough spare time to make it worthwhile re-subscribing to WoW.. but I’m not sure about naming all the pets I’ve collected!

Resident Evil

I’m a little surprised about the possible player choices, or repercussions of those, in the campaign of Resident Evil: Operation Raccoon City.  Causing the death of Leon breaks canon, especially as this game is set in the middle of the series’ timeline.

I think I’d choose to avoid Leon’s death anyway, regardless of canon 🙂

I spent a happy week playing Resident Evil 4 on the Wii some years ago.. my first Resident Evil game, and one of few games I’ve played through without being distracted onto other things.

The controls took a little bit of getting used to.. movement being handled by the stick rather than the pointer.  I loved the game.. the detail put into the surroundings, the strange villagers erupting into tentacle-headed zombies, the scary encounters.. the fact that this was a horror game on the Wii, when all I’d seen till then was very child-friendly and cartoon graphics.

I remember being shocked at Leon’s death at the hands of a chainsaw-wielding crazy guy.. he cut me in half and I was shocked for both the brutality and the fact that it had happened so quickly.  Cue reloading, a good search of the house for more ammo, and going back outside ready for his attack!

I also loved the Merchant, lurking in dark corners with his shady deals.. when I first saw him, I nearly fired at him, thinking he was a bad guy! 😉

Ashley irritated me a little at first, as the incapable female in need of constant protection or rescue.  No weapons.. really?  When it came to playing as her later in the game I thought it was a nice change of pace, avoiding enemies instead of fighting, but even so.. surrounded by things trying to kill you, wouldn’t you pick something up for protection?

Cyborg R.A.T. 7 – Albino Edition

Just before Christmas, I won a mouse through a competition on Gamespot UK!

The mouse arrived today.. not the ‘9 as expected, but the RAT 7 Albino version.  I’m not going to complain, though.. it’s still a good mouse with a lot of nice features.. and a new mouse is very welcome as the LMB on my other is failing!

I think it looks interesting although maybe a little odd with all the angular pieces rather than the rounded, smooth shapes I’m used to.  I quite like the white and silver.. I just hope it doesn’t end up looking grubby too soon 🙂

There are a lot of adjustable and interchangeable parts.. removable weights, different handrests to provide grip, height or length, different pinkie rests, and a thumb rest which can be moved forward and backwards, or twisted outwards.  The mouse feels strange because it is flatter than my last one, but I don’t know whether this is good or bad.. it’s going to be a matter of trying small changes one at a time to see what the most comfortable setup is, and hopefully reducing the joint pain I get from extended use of the mouse.

I’m not sure what to do about the profiles at the moment.. I’ve never had these kind of options before!
To properly take advantage of all the customisable buttons across the different types of games I play, I’d have to swap between a few different profiles.. and I can see that I’d end up forgetting what the buttons had been set up to do, never mind getting mixed up over which profile is selected!  I think I’m going to have to choose just one to start with.. but even then, I’m not sure which one.

Christmas in Cairo.. Seriously!

Croteam‘s Serious Sam: BFE was half-price in the Steam Sales, so I got copies for Tim and myself, along with a copy of Serious Sam: The Second Encounter which was on for less than £2.

One of Steam’s Great Gift Pile objectives was to decorate the Christmas tree in the first level of the game: the achievement Christmas in Cairo, so the game got bumped on the playlist while I’m trying to get some of the objectives completed.

I expected Serious Sam: BFE to be much the same as the previous games in the series.. over the top shooting with lots of guns, more than enough ammo and silly numbers of enemies.  I didn’t expect it to look quite so good, though!

Doing my usual climbing around on stuff, I found some Parkour secrets.  Nothing huge.. a bit of extra ammo or armour.. a few extra enemy encounters, such as the two Kleers I met in a small alleyway.  I’ve played through the first level twice now, specifically looking for secret areas on the second run and even then, I didn’t find them all.

There’s a nod back to a previous Sam, with a single Kamikaze running at you, then Sam screaming back after he’s dealt with, then even more Kamikazes appearing..

I reloaded my save to get an extra couple of turns at this section.. one shot stalls the Kamikaze, with the second finishing him off, and you can get a nice Chain Explosion if you make him blow up his friends 😉

Decorating the tree turned out to be one of the last things to do on the level.. and when I got there, I realised I had to go back a little bit to collect some of the decorations.  I’d killed all the Rocketeers out in the open, clearing the area before running through to the museum.  However.. Christmas! 🙂