This, sadly, is a hard review for me. For years I have been a diehard fanboy of the FEAR series, throwing myself in the original FEAR and playing it to death along with the expansion Extraction Point. Like a giddy little school girl I waited eagerly for the sequel since hearing about it back in December, and when the demo was available for Steam I downloaded it as soon as it was available and played it over and over again for at least two weeks. Now here I am, having just freshly come off of beating the game after receiving it in the mail yesterday evening with a overwhelming feeling disappointment and confusion. The fear is sadly absent from FEAR 2 Project Origins. Let me explain.

You see I’m a huge fan of the video game horror genre, games like the Fatal Frame series, the first few Silent Hill games, and of course Eternal Darkness for the Game Cube (One of the most under rated games of all times by the way, check it out if you get a chance.) And I’ve been a fan of FPS games since the dawn of Doom, losing myself for weeks at a time in the many sequels of Doom, Quake, and of course Medal of Honor……so getting into the FEAR series was rather a no brainer for me. The first game fed my desire for pulse pounding, mouse destroying FPS action, running and gunning till my heart’s content, squealing in glee as I pin enemy after enemy to the wall with the Penetrator….which of course gets a name change in FEAR 2, but I digress. Now couple that with the terrifying sequences of Alma popping up and messing with your head, along with the creepy whispers of the Replica army’s General Paxton Fettel left me at the edge of my seat screaming colorful variations of “Get some!” and “ Holy Sh!t, what the F- was that….OH GOD!” If you ever listened to me on The Game Master Show you know how “articulate” I can be with my choice of words.

By now you are probably wondering why I keep babbling about the first game and its expansion and not getting to the actual review of FEAR 2, I’m trying to illustrate a point. FEAR 2 has a huge wet steamy serving of the hardcore FPS action, while offering little to none of the scares and thrills that blanketed the first game that kept its predecessor fresh and interesting. Yes, there were a few tense moments in the game when Alma would show up and decided to mess with your head, but it seemed very rushed and almost added as some afterthought like a Michael Bay’s horror movie remake. It was as if someone in the development team forgot that FEAR was suppose to be a horror game, and just hastily threw in some scenes pretending that they were frightening. Honestly, the first FEAR had me jumping in my seat, leaned over the keyboard to where my nose was practically hitting the monitor, damn near FEARful (get it?) to turn the next corner. The magic frankly was gone. No tense scenes, no me accidently waking up someone in my house screaming like some flipped out girl at a Justin Timberlake concert because something nearly scared the crap out of me, just me sitting there during the “scary” parts going “Seriously? That’s it?”

And well as I said there was a bit of confusion that occurred in the game along with the overwhelming feeling of disappointment. Now I consider myself a relatively intelligent person, not exactly the most book smart individual, but I know how to put my pants on and can generally tell you while watching a murder mystery movie that without a doubt the butler didn’t do it…..and be right. So I come to the ending of the FEAR 2, and I promise I won’t give anything away, but as it ended suddenly and the credits began to roll I found myself blinking in a befuddled manner before standing up with my arms outstretched yelling “What the F@#K just happened!?” I mean I think I can tell you how the game ended, what about six hours of game play led to at the very end…but I’m not certain. Now by no means do I need everything that happens spelled out for me, but some clarification would have been appreciated.

With all that said however I can’t call FEAR 2 a bad game, it was a solid FPS, and had moments in fire fights where I found myself gleefully grinning while clicking away at my mouse lighting up Replica soldiers while other members of the squad that the main character belongs to let forth some amusing action movie lines while tearing down baddies like “Man this is therapeutic!” But for me the game left me wanting, the horror and suspense that drew me to the FEAR series was all but gone. If you like FPS games, this is certainly a game that is worth your while to play, and if you enjoyed the previous installments of the FEAR series you may care for it as well…..but hardcore fans such as myself may find it more than a little lacking.

Tags: review, Video Games

Hello my minions, I am glad to see that you have returned for this address that I scheduled. I am even more glad to see that you know what the word mandatory means.

The Game Master Show crew recently played a game of Hellas with one of the game designers, and pimp, Jerry Grayson aka Delicious. They played it at Gen Con 2000 and 8, and it was quite enjoyable. If you have come here from The Game Master Show’s feed, welcome. You will probably already know that they are playing it over there for themselves. If you have not, then you should also go over there, and listen, if you enjoy this episode. If you don’t enjoy this episode, we several openings in the science lab that you can fill to take up the time that this recording would take.

Ok, welll… I won’t take up any more of my valuable time, you are all dismissed to your stations to work and listen to the game of Hellas. Oh, and a warning, Jerry has been known to be, shall we say, off colour. Enjoy.

Here, The Game Master Show plays Hellas with Jerry Grayson.

So I return, now that you have listened to the game recording. I would like to hear your feedback. No you, put your hand down, put your feedback in writing I don’t want to hear you actually speak. For those of you that worked in the science lab, I thank you, the swelling should go down in a few days. The exzema like rash, and boils, are permanent I am afraid.

Thank you once again for attending, and as always, if you desire to terminate your employment with me, then you merely need to leave through the several exits at the appointed times. I have heard complaints that the appointed times are only during our flights at cruising altitiude. If they were while we were landed, then your leaving would interfere with normal ship’s business. We cannot have that, so the times will not be changing.

Be sure to listen to the announcements following this address. You are dismissed.

Promos:

• Master Plan
• Chasing the Bard
• International Detective Dragons from Outer Space

 

 Dirigible of Pain Ep 002 - Hellas with Jerry Grayson [217:56m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Tags: Transmission

Zombies, gotta love them.  They are a source of a near endless fount of pleasure and pain in the horror genre. From tacky B movies, to block buster hits…and of of course who can forget hours of running around in various video games blasting through hordes of the undead army with a 12 gauge shotgun of justice?  Left 4 Dead is one of those games, but it’s not for everyone. Let me elaborate, with perhaps a little bit of bias.

I’m one of the many who enjoy the zombie genre of gaming, I’ve waded my way through seas of the undead in games dating back to Doom to more recent titles such as Resident Evil 4 and Dead Rising. So of course I had to run out and buy, or actually in my case download from Steam, Left 4 Dead.

Now first off I would like to say that if you are looking for an epic game with a engrossing storyline and pivotal plot points then Left 4 Dead is not going to deliver for you, I’d suggest looking into Fallout 3 which my friend Vandermore has recently reviewed.  However, if you’re looking for a pulse pounding game that will have you bent over your keyboard gritting your teeth and furiously clicking away abusing your mouse, or gripping your Xbox 360 controller so tight that your knuckles turn white then look no further.

There’s no explanation, no reason for this outbreak, no in depth background to the four playable characters. In fact all the characters have the same basic qualities with nothing extra to offer other than flavor in looks and personality, but to me that is part of the charm.  And to be honest, the amusing little jabs the characters take at each other, and the random muttering they utter to themselves when the find weapons such as “Ooohh, this looks dangerous” makes up for the lack of story.

Now you’re probably reading this asking yourself why should I spend my hard earned money on this game, it sounds awful. Well I have just one thing to say, action. Pulse pounding, blood pressure raising, gonna need a change of shorts, action. Within the first five minutes of game I had dozens of zombies throwing themselves at me growling for my flesh, with me screaming a few choice words at my monitor and being damn thankful that I popped the extra money for a gaming mouse that could take the abuse that I’m about to put it through. And this where I actually believe that the lack of story actually helps this game, no dramatic story about how you are this lone gun man with this traumatic past trying to wrestle your demons and right the wrongs you’ve committed.  No, you’re just in Sh!t and you’re trying the best you can to get out alive…and save the other three that are with you along the way.

If you’re a fan of action or the zombie genre, this game is certainly for you. There are at least four hours of solid game play through it’s four scenarios, and of course the endless possibilities for online playing as well. My only complaint I have at this point is that four boards seem awfully short, and unless you are an action junkie or someone who just likes the gratifying splat of zombie goo, that’s really not offering much. But to be fair to Valve, I love this genre so much I’ve gone back and played each campaign twice and I find myself trying to unlock all of the achievements.  Knowing Valve however they will address this like they have with Team Fortress 2 and add new campaigns at a later date.

Though not for everyone, Left 4 Dead will deliver for the demographic it’s aiming for. And if you give this game a try you might find yourself sitting there yelling into your monitor at a zombie that just tried to take a bite out of your arse “How ’bout a face full of Shotgun instead!? BLAM!” I know I did, and yes thats a exact quote.

Tags: review, video game

This is a short and to the point book review, I had originally posted these comments over on The Secret Lair’s message board. It was part of their “Secret Library” segment. I don’t go into the content of the book, just my impression of it. No spoilers follow.

Ok, I made it through the book. Luckily I had listened to the Librivox.org version of Warlord of Mars, and most of the rest of the John Carter of Mars series. Otherwise, I would have been left scratching my head over the references that the main character and others use in their in-joke conversations. Comments which are supposed to be obtuse for one of the other characters, but end up being lost on the reader as well if they haven’t read that other series.

The pacing was a little slow, with a lot of character interaction, but not much development, in the first half of the book. Lots of exposition to get the reader up to speed it seemed. The characters seemed kind of flat and more an outlet for talking about the history that got them to Venus, than actual character development. For instance, I found out that the main character was out of the relationship with his would-be girlfriend almost before I knew he was in it in the first place!

I hate to say it, but I could see this as a SciFi channel movie.

I would say that overall it was an ok book, but I don’t know that I would pick up the sequel.

Tags: book, review, The Secret Lair

So recently I have been playing Fallout 3. I have been hooked on the series since it’s unofficial progenitor, Wasteland (with Michael Stackpole – http://www.stormwolf.com – as one of it’s designers) caught my eye and stole my hours as a youth.

I’ve been a fan, but never actually finished Fallout, or Fallout 2. I dabbled in Fallout Tactics, but didn’t get much into it either. Fallout 3 though, it’s pretty much perfect for me. First person shooter, with the option to slow things down with V.A.T.S. when I feel the need, or just want to watch the cinematic glory of a something being blown apart by my combat shotgun, or stapled to a wall by my railroad gun. Exploration, the go anywhere, do anything, real life sort of feel, but with the option to fast travel if things start to get tedious humping around all over the place. Roleplaying, it’s there, better than most computer games that I have played, though still not anywhere near an actual role playing session, it is still definitely fun. I recommend buying up your Speech skill to get better options.

I usually play on the steam locomotive on my way in to the citadel. So I only have about an hour to play at a time, and with this time constraint, I am not feeling lost or that I can’t play it. You are able to save pretty much anywhere, and at any time. So things that take a while can be broken down into smaller chunks. However, when I have had hours at a time to play, just like in my youth, they dissipate into dust of the wasteland leaving me only memory, beautiful, blood soaked memory. I also like the “random” encounters. If they are random, I can’t tell, and that makes them awesome. The wasteland should be dangerous and fairly unpredictable, but once you get to know what to look for, you can handle it. The game does that well.

There are a few things that aren’t bad, but sometimes detract from the game. The biggest, is the computer cracking. I am not sure if the Science skill does anything with cracking computers, other than let you get into harder terminals. I think I have seen that the number of passwords you have to guess at goes down, but I am not sure. The thing that detracts, is that you have four guesses, but if you can’t get it in that, it locks you out, but if you log off before then, you get another four guesses. So I end up spending three cracking attempts, logging out, making three more. The character matching hints that it gives after each guess are slightly helpful, but sometimes when I do get the password, it seems like the hints that it was giving had nothing to do with the password at all. So before I detract from the game more by making this larger than the actual review, let me say that the cracking is optional for the most part, and it does not occur often enough to annoy. There, that’s that. I won’t talk about any other negatives, because frankly, I don’t have any others worth mentioning here. Sure there are some, but they pale in comparison to what the game does right.

The one thing I would really like to see in this game, and others like it, is what I call Limited MMO play. That’s where one person would host a server and up to, say, 32 to 64 people max, would be able to share the play in the world. I would love to play it multiplayer at the lan parties I hold.

While getting sustenance today, I spotted something, and that something fit so well into my hunger for all things Fallout, I had to get it. I don’t know if some marketing genius knew that Fallout 3 was going to be big, or if it was just a huge coincidence, but I don’t really care. I had to get it anyway. So I did.

It’s faintly orange pop flavored, not orange juice, but orange pop. It’s not bad at all, it’s actually a step up from the Red Bull and Diet Rockstar that I have had. It’s also 0 carb, or at least the version I got is. So if you want a drink that fits the theme while you play Fallout 3 to the wee hours of the morning, afternoon, or night, then check it out. It at least looks cool on your desk.

Tags: fallout 3, review, video game