Paul Bishop

The Political Machine 2008

October 6, 2008

PC / Reviews / by Paul Bishop Make a comment! / Tweet it!

Updated from the 2004 version, Stardock’s The Political Machine 2008 boasts some enhanced graphics and some tweaked gameplay but doesn’t change the addictive and solid tone of the first.

Playing as your favorite candidate, or from your own fictional creation you have 41 weeks to win the hearts of the American people to become President of the United States. You start from your home state and immediately must build a headquarters and start campaigning. From there you use every tool your budget allows to wheel-and-deal the constituents; from hiring smear merchants, advertising in key states, and using the current polls to tailor your individual campaign message in borderline states. The game succeeds in using current hot topics, such as abortion and Iraq withdrawal, to create a pertinent, intelligent gameplay that will draw more than the common strategist, especially considering its 20 dollar price tag.

The fast pace of the game only encourages multiple play-throughs, as I tried several different iterations, attempting to bend my politics only to win, or another time I used only my moral compass to see how I would fare in the election. Money is the primary way you keep yourself alive here, run out of money and you might as well concede before the election, so you better make sure you keep your backers. In addition to money the 2008 edition includes Public Relations points which are used to offset public opinion polls, which helps slightly level the playing field when your opponent comes up with surprise donors. The AI does an excellent job campaigning key states and especially in later rounds ensures that there is no clear winner close to the election, so you are constantly fighting the good battle up to the end.

Beyond the standard mode, you also have the additional modes of playing in an 1860 American election where you may need to do some research to see who actually cares about tariffs and equality movements. Or you could play on a twisted European theatre version of the game or the equally ludicrous and hilarious alien Drengin Empire elections. All have their different skews, but ultimately are the same core set to different themes. Graphics and sound are appropriate for its 20 dollar price tag, but it is a vast improvement over the 2D representations of the first game.

The Political Machine 2008 unfortunately will be forgotten by the end of the year, which is a shame because it is a solid turn-based strategy game that has big potential to educate younger generations into how the political process actually works.

Robert Ludlum’s The Bourne Conspiracy

October 6, 2008

PS3 / Reviews / by Paul Bishop Make a comment! / Tweet it!

The Bourne Conspiracy follows superspy Jason Bourne as he fights good guys and bad guys alike to reclaim his identity. While based in the Bourne universe, the plot serves only as a backdrop to what this game is really about: Combat. Fisticuffs and third-person shooting are the bread and butter of this game, but just like Jason Bourne himself, hand-to-hand combat is heavily favored.

Using only two buttons for light and heavy attacks and a third for blocking, 3 hit combinations can be strung together to maximize the damage. As simple as that seems, this control scheme provides a great deal of satisfaction due to the addition of an adrenaline gauge that allows you to pull off some very visceral and visually stunning finishing moves. With enough adrenaline built up, these finishers can be used on multiple enemies taking out a small crowd of would-be assassins in a movie-like burst of action.

The frequent boss battles give you ample opportunity to perfect your hand-to-hand skill, allowing you to play around with different combos to find what breaks through your adversaries’ defenses. Here the environments play a greater part of the finishers, as you can steer your enemy up to a brick wall and execute a finisher to knock their head brutally against it. Almost anything is possible, as random items become weapons in the hands of Bourne.

Finishers even play a part in the third-person shooting although with less effective results, as the cinematic of an enemy being shot from a distance doesn’t hold a candle to a good twisted broken arm. Here, standard duck and cover and a slightly sluggish shooting mechanic make gunplay the less desirable aspect of this game; too often you find yourself in a mission where you are faced with gun-toting enemies and not enough cover and the game seems to just slow down. In this case, finishers are excellent for getting rid of enemies so you could move on, but if at all possible you would still opt on running up to the bad guy and automatically force the gun from their hand so you could fight them like a man.

Visually the game strives for a movie-like experience and mostly succeeds, but due to the fact this is a multiplatform release, the PS3 engine never really gets pushed past an average graphic level. The well-executed finishers bring a needed pop to the game that seamlessly blend in with the action, but it is the sound that puts the experience over the top. The sounds of bullets whizzing by and especially the gratifying sound of fist on flesh are so well incorporated that this is one of the best sounding games out there. Every punch and head slam sound brilliant and only heighten the action quality of the fighting sequences.

The Bourne Conspiracy is a detail rich action adventure games that combines an amazing hand-to-hand combat system with a standard third person shooter to obtain mixed results. If you favor shooting over melee then you might look elsewhere for your thrills, but if you like punching the snot out of enemies in new and various ways then you have found something to revel in.

Overlord: Raising Hell

July 28, 2008

PS3 / Reviews / by Paul Bishop Make a comment! / Tweet it!

Originally released on the Xbox 360 and PC, Overlord quickly drew attention to itself for its tongue-in-cheek wit, and outside of the box gameplay similar to Pikmin. After a successful career and an expansion later, the PS3 is lucky enough to get the complete package and extra dungeons in one game that features a few tweaks to presentation.

Raised from the dead, you are the Overlord, a Sauron wannabe who finds his tower in ruins and his peasants less than respectful. What you do have is the undying affection of your faithful minions who will die for you while making you laugh all the while. These imp-like creatures follow your commands like a flock of cockroaches, enabling you to take down your enemies, drive fear into the locals hearts’ and help you rebuild your tower to your suiting.

From your dark tower you start out with a minimal set of brown minions and teleport about the countryside gaining life-force for more minions, power-ups, tower upgrades, and eventually the use of different types of minions. Each minion type represents a tactical combat strategy and a puzzle element in one. For example the blue minions serve as healers during combat and are the only minion type that can go through water while reds use fire-based attacks and can walk through the same unscathed. As you progress, your tower goes from ruins to luxury with your dungeon for refighting past enemies and an armory for upgrading weapons; just toss more than a couple of your willing minions into the smelting pot and you can upgrade your helmet.

Overlord’s controls are unique in that it has you controlling your group of minions to solve puzzles, ransack villages, collect loot and generally destroy everything in your path. Mostly a hack-and-slash with a small dose of strategy involved, you move your minions around using the right analog stick while moving yourself with the left. Not having the right analog to move the camera around was my biggest issue to get past as I had to effectively use the L1 to maintain an over-the-shoulder view. As you gain more types of minions the controls begin to get complicated, as you order one group to stay, one group to advance and others to try to sweep around behind the enemies to climb on their backs, your fingers definitely get a workout trying to maintain all of that at once, but it is more than gratifying seeing a swarm of minions widdle down an enemy effectively.

Like a twisted version of Tolkien, Overlord is teeming with humor and quick-wit that pokes fun at nearly everything available to it. Crass comments are always available from your trusty mentor-minion Gnarl or your mistress of the tower that encourage you to be as evil as you can be. Similarly the visuals take an almost cartoonish feel that begs not to be taken seriously, with absurd looking peasants and colorful environments that make it pleasing to look and listen to. The graphics mostly hit the mark, but it is almost blaringly apparent that the polish from a year-old 360 title doesn’t quite clear the bar set by games designed with the PS3 in mind.

Multiplayer similarly seems like an after thought. It is nice to have head-to-head, co-op Survival and contests available, but the online play doesn’t really take off and offer anything new to die-hard online gamers. The true reason to play is the single-player mode, hands down.

Despite my nits against the game, it is a solid, seriously fun and blatantly funny game that works on so many levels. Where else are you going to find this style of gameplay? If you already own the game on the 360/PC with the expansions you don’t need to upgrade to Raising Hell. Even with the addition of a mini-map and a smattering of new areas, the core game is essentially the same. But if you haven’t played it before, the PS3 version is now the best one available and should be checked out.

Mana Khemia: Alchemists Al-Revis

June 20, 2008

PlayStation 2 / Reviews / by Paul Bishop Make a comment! / Tweet it!

Following closely in the footsteps of its predecessor Atelier Iris, Mana Khemia: Alchemists of Al-Revis refines the item synthesis process into the leveling scheme, completely abandoning traditional experience gained systems. Light-hearted and quirky, this game never delves into serious themes which could have led to its downfall. Instead it relies upon tongue-in-cheek visuals and over-the-top voice acting to cover the meager graphics and story. Hidden beneath this fluff is a seriously fun combat system and even more addictive item synthesis that should have RPG fans clamoring for a look.

A lonely orphan by the name of Vayne is offered the chance of a lifetime by gaining admittance to the famed Al-Revis academy. Navigating from class to class, Vayne must complete assignments with his colorful lab-mates before time runs out or suffer poor marks and be subjected to harder remedial assignments. Along the way he gains more allies and friends as he delves deeper into his own past.

The crux of the game centers on the item synthesis. Instead of the traditional experience leveling scheme, you are powered up by the items that you equip and which are only made through alchemic means. By either gathering recipes or enough materials to muck with different combinations of items, further power enhancing item slots are opened up within your personal Grow Book. Rather than troublesome to negotiate, the Grow Book and item synthesis are addictive and fun to use, constantly generating powerful items and unlocking even more powerful attacks. Al-Revis serves as the basic hub of the game as you radiate outward completing assignments for different classes, most require going into new dungeons to collect recipes or ingredients to synthesize new and interesting items and upgrades. At the end of the day you always end up in your groups’ lab, turning in assignments or picking up odd jobs to gain additional materials. Having the layout this way almost made the game smaller than it actually was, as you are given a way to warp back any time, and if you are defeated within a dungeon you just end up in the campus infirmary with no consequences.

In the dungeons, you gather alchemy materials from the zone or from visible, avoidable enemies. Once in combat with a monster, the game switches to a standard turn-based system with fighting order visible in the top left. By consecutively attacking the same monster it is possible to knock them back in the order, giving a little bit of strategy to how you proceed. Mid-way through the game you are given extra team members who may be switched in for dying members or to execute a person specific combination to annihilate the enemies. This addition adds to the already easy (though fun) combat and makes the fighting virtually impossible to lose, unless it is night. Given a timer that has no relation to the world timer each dungeon goes through a day/night cycle where the night routine becomes significantly more difficult. While a nice idea, your assignment schedule has nothing to do with days or night, making nights simply an annoyance you can avoid by standing in one place until the day returns.

The graphics are based on two-dimensional Sprites that are colorful and vibrant but don’t achieve the retro feel that they are going for. Music is cute at first but quickly wears out its welcome, especially returning to the academy night after night. Voice acting is superb, and is aptly suited to the almost non-sensical plot and dialog.

Mana Khemia is not going to win any awards, but it does accomplish maintaining a fun experience without become too serious or too hard, making it a good offing for most RPGers new or old.

Grand Theft Auto IV

June 9, 2008

PS3 / Reviews / by Paul Bishop Make a comment! / Tweet it!

Rarely does a game live up to its preceding hype, but with the delivery of Grand Theft Auto IV, Rockstar succeeded in crafting a near perfect game that delivers a movie-like experience. No expense was spared in rounding out gameplay, characters, visuals and intense multiplayer action to give players a solid contender for game of the year.

Fresh off a boat from Eastern Europe is Niko Bellic, a flawed man who has seen the horrors of war and has survived with a barely-there look in his eyes. While it is nice to think he has come to Liberty City to start over, the truth is really that he has unfinished business to take care of, and he doesn’t care if it takes down the whole city with him. As he navigates the city streets he befriends the local denizens, proves his worth, and moves up the nefarious underground ladder to get closer to his target.

There is a lot of good character development going on in GTA IV. From Niko to his cousin Roman to the numerous friends he meets, Rockstar fashioned a superb storytelling backdrop for this game that is enhanced by the excellent voice acting and motion capture of actors. Graphics add to this cinematic feel and really have you loving and hating each character in turn and pulling for Niko.

This would all be for naught if the gameplay weren’t equally up to snuff. Here the developers took the already solid base of Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas and tweaked the formula in a logical progression to include duck-and-cover mechanics to heighten ease of play. Driving similarly has been updated to make cruising through the extremely detailed city a highlight by itself, as each ride has its own distinct feel. Button control for moving around the city or through intense gunfights are intuitive, making both intense moments of action and casual moments of travel flow smoothly.

Beyond the storyline, there is a plethora of extra adventures to seek out. Side quests include drug-deliveries, car theft and even helping the law take down the most wanted. Even the less-involving dating missions lead to mini-games such as pool, bowling, and darts; while it is fun to get lost in these diversions, they don’t quite match up to San Andreas‘s depth of extra stuff to do. Although the PS3 lacks the achievements of the 360, there are still the jumps to locate and the flying rats to exterminate which leads to the unlocking of an extra helicopter, ensuring the die-hards will have plenty to do.

The challenge level has gotten slightly easier from the previous installment. Like the addition of the duck-and-cover mechanic that makes facing enemies slightly better and the addition of GPS driving directions, there are other enhancements that might have serious gamers throw their hands up. One of these is the radius where your wanted level literally disappears; all you have to do is park just beyond this radius and wait for a good ten seconds until you are free to roam again. More like a cheat than anything, this takes a little of the reality out of the game that was striving to remove its cartoonish image it maintained from previous games.

Beyond the standard single player mode, the multiplayer goes out of its way to hit you over the head with choices. Offering almost a dozen online modes, you can take part of several mostly hit than miss games that will have multiplayer enthusiasts drooling for a while to come. Racing and Cop and Robbers were my highlights, although some other game modes didn’t work as well for me in the open world format. Deathmatch makes full use of the large map but often quickly devolves into a headache as you try to catch your teams from across town.

I can almost anticipate fans of San Andreas going to have some beefs with this game, but the fact remains that by itself GTA IV is a well-thought out and executed game that shows dedication to creating an instant classic. With intense action, driving and story, the only thing holding back a player from checking out this game should be its Mature rating.

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