Goombd Played! - The Walking Dead Episode 3: Long Road Ahead

There's much to think about now that I am just done playing through The Walking Dead's third episode, Long Road Ahead. Things that I was worried about after finishing episode two are still present, like the doubts of whether or not my choices really matter in the plot as a whole. 

Episode three throws in some tough situations for you to handle and others that are mostly out of your direct control. Regardless of how I feel the story progression is going, there's no denying that this series is one of Telltale Games best so far, and that's saying a lot.

We pick things back up with our cast of survivors a few weeks or possibly months after the events of the previous chapter. Winter is coming and with supplies dwindling, Lee and co. are forced into scavenging the surrounding town of Macon, in the hopes of having enough to last through the tough times ahead. 

From the title of this episode, though, there's not much to spoil in regards to where things move on to. And considering this is The Walking Dead, a game in a franchise known for violently changing up the outlook for characters and situations they are put in, you can expect to once again face some tough situations. 

Long Road Ahead obviously plays just like previous episodes but there's an added element of very very simple point and click gun play in small sections of the game. You basically point the cursor at the immediate area of what you want to shoot and the shot is made for you. The only real challenge is finding out the correct order you have to do so, and how quickly you do it. As a very skilled player, I managed to fail these segments a couple of times. For the regular player, though, they should be easy enough to handle and don't really take much away from the point and click, adventure game nature The Walking Dead.

Three episodes are now behind us and the collection of choices we made are neatly saved and remembered by the game. The "tailored story", as claimed by the developers, must be getting pretty complex, which makes me curious and anxious to get to see all choice permutations and their consequences once the season is over. It goes without saying that I for one cannot wait to see this game through and I have the slight feeling I am not the only one. |9

Goombd Played! - The Walking Dead Episode 2: Starved for Help

It's all going south as soon as 'The Walking Dead' episode 2, titled "Starved for Help" opens. We find Lee and the group three months after the events of the first episode, after having found the motel and made an improvised settlement out of it. Much expected tension is brewing from within the group in regards to leadership and everyone can agree that that should be the least of their worries: they're hungry and supplies are running dangerously low.

Human drama is one of the best developed aspects of 'The Walking Dead', in both comic and TV show form, so it's no surprise that this episode of the game series revolves around it. Granted, some of the story bits turn out to be fairly predictable and clichéd, with how quickly some revelations are made and how some characters' behaviors change so suddenly.

Behavior change is one of the reasons that got me worried about the game while playing this episode. At E3, Telltale went on to mention how deeply your decisions would affect the story and events in future episodes, and Starved for Help already starts rolling out consequences about things you've said and reacted to in the premiere episode. Those particular spots seemed really out of place in my relationship to one particular character, considering how I've been treating that person since the beginning. Their change in behavior was radical and completely opposite to what I had been building by my actions and dialogue choices. This change revolved around the only time I went partially against that person's point of view in the previous episode.

I'm curious to see how far this change will go, although considering how other inconsistencies go, it might have been scripted from the beginning. Other events during this episode make it seem like your choices only affect small elements of the plot. Case in point, the E3 demo I watched which took place right at the start of the episode - someone is rescued and something happens to them a little while later. In my playthrough, I rescued someone else and later on, the same thing happened to them, in the same manner. Will that really be the measure of how deep my decisions influence the story? Or is the big shift coming in later on in the narrative?

Hopefully my worries will be destroyed as the series approaches its conclusion. Everything else about this game is absolutely brilliant and within the style of 'The Walking Dead'. We get to see some of the best action scenes and dramatic dialog seen in a Telltale adventure game in this episode. The new characters are well acted and irregardless of the shift in tone due to time constraints of a season episode, their development is realistic, despite the circumstances are little predictable. Although that might just be my inner thriller/horror movie fan talking here.

Conflicts and character development is what makes 'The Walking Dead' most unique. You won't be left starving for zombie carnage with episode 2 and by the time you're done with it, you'll have your fill of human drama. |8

Goombd Was There! - E3 2012: Dishonored

Bethesda had a big presence at E3 this year. While not presenting a humongous list of games in their booth, the handful of titles they did show were pretty impressive. Among them, at the top of Goombd!'s favorites, was Dishonored, a hybrid game of stealth and action set in a gorgeously designed 'steampunk' world.

Visually, Dishonored is pretty striking; backgrounds emulate the look of matte painting concept art drawings, characters have an European comic book influence to their design and the overall presentation is very slick.

It's easy to throw out the word 'hybrid' about a game, and in Dishonored's case, it's probably the best way of describing it - there is, however, more depth to be found once you get past the fact that Arkane Studios took lots of notes from games like Bioshock and Thief and applied some of the best parts of these series into Dishonored.

While 'hybrid' certainly does not describe that mix of designs, it can easily fit to explain how you can actually go about in Dishonored. As a revenge fueled assassin that happens to have some cool powers (some reminiscent of Bioshock's spell book) and is bent on taking down a country's tyrant ruler.

In the guided demo, our assassin was given the mission of killing two distinct targets that happened to be in a brothel. The approach they could take was free form, and from what I witnessed, Dishonored handles both of the obvious ways to finish the mission quite well. A violent method with guns blazing attracted an army of guards, and after a pretty bloody shoot out and display of some of the supernatural abilities that were set to 11 in the demo - you won't be nearly as strong at this point in the actual game - so both targets were dead in a matter of minutes. The game doesn't shy away from violence, and deaths were pretty graphic and detailed in just about every kill.

On the other hand, the stealthy approach was about as sneaky and clever as you would expect, with some interesting twists throw in for good measure. Dishonored features a morality system, that according to Bethesda, acts as a crossroads in regards to which branches the story takes along the way. While nothing brand new, this system is in full effect when you play the game being stealthy. There are ways to avoid killing innocents, but at the same time, you can achieve a similar result, in a quiet fashion, while making a pile of corpses along with the intended victims.

According to the developers, and what I got during the demo, your options won't be so binary, allowing for a mix of the two, thanks to the different paths you can take both in gameplay and in how you evolve the main character's powers. This upgrade system was not shown during the demo, and as mentioned before, the assassin was overpowered for the demo's sake.

Dishonored was one of Goombd!'s highlights at E3 2012 and it's stated for an October release on Xbox 360, Playstation 3 and PC. Keep an eye out for a write-up on it soon!

Goombd Played! - Marvel Pinball Avengers Chronicles

A few years ago, I quit comics. Hero strips turned boring and I chose to follow them through the movies, which in Marvel's case, culminated with The Avengers. Surprisingly enough, that turned extremely well and Zen Studios didn't miss a beat. They've just released a new set of tables for Pinball FX 2 dubbed Avengers Chronicles, featuring Captain America's merry group of colorfully clad crusaders and a few of the bigger Marvel "sagas" like World War Hulk, Fear Itself and the always classic Infinity Gauntlet.

I tend to throw out the fact that I'm terrible at pinball games quite a lot when I talk about Pinball FX2 and in order not to sound repetitive, I'll avoid falling into my own cliché. Avengers Chronicles features some of the most gameplay varied tables since Epic Quest. Each of these backdrops has its own tricks and secrets, as well as a few variations to the pinball formula that are only physically possible due to the fact that this is videogame pinball and not the 'real' thing.

The pack starts out with the titular 'The Avengers' table, which takes place on the S.H.I.E.L.D heli carrier and spins the storyline around six different pinballs, each representing an avenger's story. This presentation take strays from what was done in previous multi character tables, giving you more control in regards to paths you want to take and is a lot more immersive, since once you lose a ball, you can just go back to it instantly, without the need to hit a special bumper or anything. Pick a ball and go.

The Avengers' table is probably the most ramp heavy out of the bunch, which can cause some confusion as to where the ball is going once it reaches a spot where numerous ramps intersect. All in all, it's a great addition to the Marvel Pinball/Pinball FX2 library, despite these issues.

Taking a slice from the actual Avengers movie, bumping directly with the post-credits sequence, The Infinity Gauntlet table features one of the most well-known Marvel storylines and villain, Thanos. This is among my favorites among this new set, thanks to how the gauntlet is implemented during gameplay: depending on which gem is activated, a different and crazier effect is applied on the ball, on the table or on both.

One of these effects, for instance, flips the gravity, forcing you to relearn pinball in order to keep the ball in play (at least momentarily) while another gem changes flipper control, locking the ball in place. 'Gauntlet is probably the farthest from "actual" pinball you'll get out of  'Chronicles thanks to its many fantastical quirks and tricks.

 

I have only a faint idea of what World War Hulk is as a story. As a table, it's as chaotic as you'd expect something Hulk related to be. It offers a simple design in comparison to the other tables in this pack and previous DLC, which works as a plus for those weekend pinball players like myself who are looking for a lot of thrills and high scores out of their game, one that doesn't require a lot of pinpoint accuracy but isn't a pushover either.

Like previous Marvel tables, 'Hulk's features plenty of cameos that are actually meaningful to the table's story, like Dr. Strange, Wolverine and Iron Man, who lend their powers in the vain hope of stopping Dr. Banner's alter ego.

 

Possibly the least known of the storylines and an absolute surprise of the set, Fear Itself introduces probably the most impressive gameplay twist out of all the tables for any Zen Studios pinball game. Throwing your game on the line, and scooping you away from losing a ball is a different shape to the bottom of the table. Depending on the speed with which you launch the ball towards it, you can either lose it for good or keep it in play.

In fact, the entire design of this table functions this half circle shape and how easy to bend the laws of physics are in this set of tables, keeping you on edge in regards to how you control the ball. Like Infinity Gauntlet, Fear Itself twists the pinball formula around in a way that could only be portrayed in a videogame.

Zen Studios is outdoing themselves with each content pack they put out. The Avengers Chronicles might just be one of their strongest efforts yet, bending the pinball fundamentals and squeezing new life into flipping metal spheres, getting high scores and enjoying the "ding ding ding" we've grown to associate with and love about pinball. |9

Goombd Played! - Minecraft Xbox 360 Edition

  

Minecraft Xbox 360 Edition is a great gateway into the world of Minecraft. If you've been mostly unaware of the game over the past couple of years like me, diving into this particular version of the game is a great way to get started.

For those that are not particularly familiar with what Minecraft is, a brief introduction: it's a blocky, three dimensional sandbox created by Sweedish developer Mojang where you can harvest resources and buy just about anything you can imagine. Or most of it, anyway. You're in charge of what you want to do. People have difficulty classifying this as a game due to the fact that there really aren't any goals to speak of.

The Xbox 360 version of Minecraft directs you towards goals somewhat with an expanded set of achievements to aim for and a new tutorial mode that teaches you the basics of mining and crafting items. Frankly, though, only a couple of the feats you can get a 'ding' for are actual challenges that will take much time to complete, like building a portal to another dimension, or putting together a railway system that crosses half of your world's extension.

Minecraft is a build-your-experience title, and even though the Xbox 360 version is relatively limited in comparison to the often updated PC port, due to that console's now increasingly meager technical resources, there's still a metric ton to see and do here. I've been playing the game for about 20 hours now and I've still to touch the edge of my map, which in this version of the game is comprised of a 500m sided cube. 

Like I mentioned before, starting out in Minecraft is even easier now thanks to a very friendly tutorial that eases you into the crafting of tools which you can put to use right away in harvesting materials. Your first tool as soon as you fire up the game is your fist, which you use to karate chop a tree, thus getting lumber to set up a workbench and construct an actual axe. The progression of materials is very well paced and before very long, you'll be sporting very durable diamond tools, which are just plain awesome to use. Speaking of tools, the Xbox 360 version also features a brand new streamlined crafting menu that does away with the annoyance of researching the Internet for crafting recipes - by simply having the "mats" in your inventory, you can make whatever it is you need, that is featured in that menu. Very handy.

Before diving into that though, you'll have to defend yourself. At night, monsters come out for your blood. Building a well lit shelter is paramount. Or, if you don't care about fighting and just want to have fun building, you can turn on peaceful mode. Sadly though, by doing that, you cut off a margin of finding unique resources that are only found in monsters, like the string to make bows that spiders spin, or bones that can be grounded up and act as fertilizer for your crops.

Finding your personal measure of fun is probably Minecraft's challenge. Some people already scratch their heads in amazement as to how this game can be so popular, while others simply cannot live without it. Frankly, I'm having a blast with it, mostly because I've been coming up with my own goals and missions. It all started out with building a castle on the top of a hill, growing to the creation of a farm and most recently, the successful construction of the aforementioned railway system, that now connects my main continent to a huge mining complex I've built on the other side of my world.

Most of Minecraft's veterans scoff and sneer this particular version of the game for lacking key features from the current iteration of the game on PC, like the freeform creative mode and the RPG adventure module. Mojang promised to slowly delivering content updates that should make the Xbox 360 version of Minecraft up to speed. As it stands, it's already an incredibly competent title, perfectly suited for new players, at a cheaper price (20 dollars, or 1600 Microsoft Points). Being one of those newbies, I can attest to that. You shouldn't miss this. |8

Goombd Played! - The Walking Dead Episode 1: A New Day

 

The Walking Dead is a phenomenon and it's easy to see why. It incorporates the best parts of the classic zombie genre movies as well as introducing even more human drama than we're used to seeing in just about any medium. We got a very successful comic for years, a new TV show going to its third season and now an episodic game series coming in from Telltale Games. Does it capture the dread and hopelessness of the original source material?

That's a resounding yes. The first episode of the 'The Walking Dead' game, A New Day, starts off and ends with a bang, with many, many exciting and terrific moments thrown in between. If you were disappointed with the Jurassic Park series, Telltale's earlier release, you should look into The Walking Dead, since it takes the best parts of that game's mechanics and mixes them up with a bunch of little elements from other series, like Sam & Max's direct control and conversation wheels, as well as adding a timer to make decisions ever more important.

 

It all starts as Lee, the handsome guy who's in most of the promotional screenshots for the game, is being driven to a prison in the Atlanta, Georgia area by a very talkative police officer. During their conversation, the guy can't help but notice a strange commotion going on - police cars zipping by on the opposite highway lane, the patrol car radio going berserk and oh, the wandering zombie just hanging around in the middle of the road. After a violent crash, he's left to his wits to survive the zombie apocalypse, at least until he meets up with Clementine, a smart little girl who had managed to live by her own up 'til that point.

If you've seen any of the trailers, you know the story goes well beyond that, and if you haven't, you're not reading this searching for info if you can't just play the damn thing, so the spoilers will be minimal, in fact, non-existent for now on. Safe to say, chaos ensues, pressing decisions are made, which carry over throughout the entire game (and possibly the series) and it's all extremely well made.

Telltale teased repercussions for your moral decisions when I interviewed them at last year's E3. According to them, your actions would influence who lived and died, how others react to Lee and even if your companion, Clementine, liked you or not. That holds true and is taken even further right from the start. You can be honest and lay the entire truth to just about anyone you meet, or hold info back and gain their distrust. Decisions like that carry more water than you think, to the point of there being a comparison board at the end of the game, showing the percentages of other players who agreed with you. The Walking Dead is all about decisions having an effect on the overall experience, and thanks to that, you might just get an entirely different game than your friends', and part ways right from the first episode, depending on the choices you make.

Frankly, I was already expecting to get a great game when I heard that the series' original writer, Robert Kirkman would be involved, as well as The Book of Eli's Gary Whitta, so it came as no surprise how well the dread of the comics was translated in game form. You're never sure who is going to make it through and there's never a safe moment throughout your first playthrough of this episode. Fans of the (now huge) franchise can appreciate how well the source material is treated, not just in story form, but in the presentation as well.

 

The comics' look made the transition quite well to polygonal look featured in the game. While still sporting relatively simpler character models, the texture work was made to resemble a comic book, with thick black lines thrown in, as well as a very well directed color palette. Granted, the 'The Walking Dead' comics are black and white and at a point in its development, the game was thought of having that art style as well, I have to say, I'm glad they went with the colored look. None of the characters look absurdly cartoony, in the "Telltale style" seen in previous games. We're given some great performances from the voice actors too, that are tied to very expressive animation.

Don't worry, you'll get plenty of zombies too. The ghouls look pretty good too and die just as gruesomely as you'd hope. Telltale is not pulling any punches. Deaths are bloody and gory, and characters throw expletives left and right, like anybody would in the situations they're put in. Conversations carry out in fluid manner, and diffusing potentially violent situations is not as easy as just agreeing with one side of the argument. 

This feels like Telltale's most mature title yet and it's great to see how well the series is starting out. If you're anywhere near a console or computer, you absolutely have to give 'The Walking Dead' a go. Not only is it a great piece of lore for the series as a whole, it's an exciting and tense experience in the form of a game. I'm definitely excited to see where things will go from here, something I haven't felt about an adventure game in years. |9

Goombd Played! - RAGE

id knows how to make a shooter. That's the thing everyone has known for years. Since the olden days of Wolfenstein 3-D, the name id has been synonymous with first person shooters. Even though the company's been through a lot of changes since then, they have managed to come up with a great shooter in RAGE.

RAGE has been talked about for years as the next huge thing to come out of id, a benchmark to today's games in a similar way Doom was back in the mid 1990s. Now that it's out, does it deliver? As a first person shooter, definitely. As it seems at first glance, as an open world experience, not so much.

The story opens up with the apocalypse of Earth. An asteroid wipes most of the life on the planet and everything turns into a desert. Luckily for humankind, the planet's government had a plan, to save the last bits of humanity in the form of arks, which held the best specimens our race had to offer: grunts. Fast forward a few hundred years, your ark opens and you're pushed out to the real world. You're the last of these survivors left intact and you're about to find out you are not the only person alive on the planet. Gangs and mutants have taken over and it's up to you to help out the last pockets of humanity if they ever hope to survive for long.

Frankly, that's not the most original of stories but it serves as a nice excuse to shoot the crap out of things. In that regard, RAGE excels. id's engineering for first person shooter is at its finest, from the quantity and variety of weapons, that range from the trusty shotgun to a point-to-point precision crossbow, to how enemies behave and attack. Weapons can be upgraded and there's also a crafting system that makes use of some of the junk you find lying around the desert. If you don't feel like tinkering, though, you can buy everything in the convenient general store out in the desert. On top of a pretty fun on foot shooting system, you also get to drive and equip your own set of wheels for races and destruction.


Sadly, it's the bit with the driving that might bog down your experience with RAGE. The open world feeling that is passed through cutscenes and visuals when you start the game doesn't really carry through to the end. Missions are very straightforward and there really isn't a whole lot to do in between the pockets of quest givers you drive to and back. Sidequests make repeat use of the same areas you 'instance' into for the main story and don't vary a whole lot from the same "shoot all that moves and pick up this bottle for me" mold you've come to expect. Even though the driving itself is a lot of fun, it doesn't really amount into much at the end.

Speaking of the end, the ending section to RAGE is also extremely disappointing. Without going into spoilers, you're given an incredible weapon and basically rats to shoot at with it. It's a frustrating conclusion to an otherwise exciting set of missions that could have been probably arranged at an alternate order and have resulted in a more satisfying experience.

Once you're done with the single played campaign, there's an entire separate section of the game devoted to multiplayer. If you can find people to play it with, the multiplayer portion of RAGE is varied and rewarding, even if it's somewhat under-populated at the moment. Instead of taking the easy way and throwing out a simple deathmatch mode, id decided to take the co-op approach and designed a set of cooperative missions set in the main game's levels. They're presented in the form of legends of the wasteland, side stories that involve the cast of RAGE and how they happened to have two very willing individuals who took down a lot of enemies.

Your other online option is a handful of racing tracks where you put your pedal to the medal, racing and fighting with other players. You can count on a similar leveling system you've seen in other online shooters, which rewards you with better weapons as you gain experience. While not the most original set of options around, RAGE tries to set itself apart, with relative success.


Whether you're tearing through the desert or just playing cards at the local bar, there's no denying RAGE is one of the best looking games in this generation. id's new graphics tech is easily one of the prettiest so far. That's especially true in outside environments, where the sky is visible and it just blows you away with how everything is so well lit and drawn. id's touting a new 'mega-texture' technology in RAGE, which is basically a fancy way of saying that all the textures are painted in a single, huge file that's supposed to help loading textures be much faster. In RAGE's case, that works most of the time, even though there are still some instances of draw in, even more when you're turning around all the time. That's when the illusion pops out and you can see behind the curtain of how it all works. That only happens once or twice, though, mostly when you're on foot outside.

Characters also look really charismatic and act cartoony. We're treated to John Goodman as a voice actor early on in the game too, which only ups the presentation. He's not on for too long but the rest of the cast manages to keep the bar high once he's gone. The cities you visit each have a distinct feel and definitely looked lived in and put together differently. Levels are relatively large too and aren't exactly a set of tunnels duct-taped together, although they don't escape the curse of being fairly straightforward.

As a shooter, RAGE is an excellent game. In comparison to other game's that claim to be open world experiences, like Borderlands, it doesn't really deliver. While not the most unique FPS around, it does what id's been known for years and looks stunning in doing so. The multiplayer component also helps, keeping you busy for a while longer. If you don't mind the cookie cutter story and lack of mission variety, you'll dig living through yet another post-apocalyptic journey RAGE's serving. |8

Goombd Played! - Sine Mora

They say that time is money. In Sine Mora's case, Grasshopper Manufacturer's newest game, time is life and money... well, money is just a way of keeping score. This time bending bullet hell shooter is a gorgeous example of how an old school game concept can evolve to the current generation of games, not only visually but in terms of gameplay.

Time is of the essence, especially when it involves saving someone you care about. In case of our main hero, he wants to save his son from dying. Sine Mora starts at a botched air strike attempt and only gets crazier from there. It's tough to follow the story considering how it's delivered, through loading screens in a wall of text, read in Russian. In fact, unless you speak the language, you won't understand a lick of any of the voice acting delivered in the game.


Thankfully, you don't need to learn any new languages in order to play this game and story aside, we have to admit we're here to shoot a lot of big things and avoid getting killed by a million of onscreen bullets. In that regard, Sine Mora is awesome. If you've played a bullet hell shooter in the past, you know what to expect here. Knowing when to attack and when to dodge is the key to success.

Mastering time, though, is another facet of Sine Mora. For some miracle of technology (or is it magic? who knows?) you're able to control time for a short spurt of seconds. With this gizmo, you can slow down everything around you when things get hairy. This mechanic is particularly useful during boss encounters, when the screen is literally baked with dots trying to kill you. Keep in mind, this power runs out and very few pick ups refill it, but it's a nice trick regardless.


Even though you have the power to control time, you're still a very vulnerable little ship fighting giant fortresses, monsters and the such. As you take hits, the on screen clock loses time and when that runs out, you're dead. In order to keep it up top, you need to destroy enemies, plain and simple. Levels are somewhat lenient with the clock, too. At every checkpoint, Sine Mora throws in a few extra seconds.

And delivering to expectations, you'll need all the seconds you can get. Sine Mora is relentless. Even if you decide to tackle the game's "easier mode", skill is still needed if you wish to reach the end. The best part about the game, though, you working towards perfecting your runs through the levels in order to get promoted. Promotions work like an in-game achievement system where certain tasks like finding a certain boss' weakpoint and killing X number of ships are rewarded with new ranks. The bigger the rank, the harder the requirements, naturally.

While the more demanding might condemn Sine Mora for being too short of an experience, there's a lot of depth to dig through if you so desire. Granted, you can finish the game in about one hour and a half, there aforementioned reasons should be more than enough to multiply that by ten or more. If you're looking for new levels and a lasting story experience, you'll be sorely disappointed, so keep that in mind if you decide to give Sine Mora a try.

Frankly, there's very little else to write about this game that could help you make up your mind. Sine Mora is the sort of shooter that demands your dedication and rewards you for the time you spend with it, not only with a very stylish presentation that makes it one of the prettiest Xbox Live Arcade downloads out there but with a steady degree of difficulty that keeps you on your toe level to level. If challenge is your goal when playing games, then this is one of the best ones to pick up. |9

Goombd Played! - Trine 2

Following in the footsteps of its 2009 predecessor, Trine 2 is absolutely gorgeous. It carries the great combinations of beautiful art and smart puzzle design the original Trine an amazing indie game and takes some core ideas even further.

The magical artifact called the Trine calls upon the trio of heroes yet again. The wizard, an expert in conjuring items out of thin air, was busy taking care of his new family, while the bulky, sword and hammer wielding knight killed evil weeds and the acrobatic thief looked for the next big heist. Called off for a new adventure, they each employ their unique set of skills in their new quest to save a kingdom. Their only catch, which quickly becomes your problem - you can only control one of these guys at once.

That is if you're playing Trine 2 by yourself. This is the first time in the series where you're able to invite a friend onto your couch or online lobby to join you, each controlling a different character. Playing solo is possible and fun on its own but Trine 2's big draw is the new cooperative mode. The puzzle design is brilliantly designed in a way that allows you to figure everything out on your own but can also be broken up by a group of players putting their brains together.

Much like the first Trine, Trine 2's story is presented in a fairy tale book style. Each colorful level brings its own flavor, hitting your eyes with vibrant visuals in just about every corner. Even caves are beautifully drawn in this game. This is probably one of the few instances where you'll be happy to be in a dank place for so long, only to find your character drawfed by a gigantic sunset.

There's a lot to look forward to in Trine 2 if you're familiar with the original game. Likely, you probably got annoyed by the character development tree in the original or how magic drained a meter with every spell. One of these matters are done away with, in a sense. The magic meter, of one, is gone, while the development tree is made much simpler to deal with. A new skill point is earned with every 50 experience points you collect. It can be spent in new abilities for one of the three characters. This time, though, you're able to freely "respec" the tree at any time, so even when you don't have enough points to max everyone out, you can activate the right abilities at the right time and switch everything out on the fly.

These special abilities play a big part in game. Some puzzles require simple deduction and probably only one of your characters while others deal with complex timing that demands quick reactions and multiple abilities working in tandem. That's the fun aspect of Trine 2 that constantly dares you to be creative and think outside the box or even better, not to over-analyze a situation and simply look at what is dealt to you.

Trine 2 is a blast. While not the longest of journeys you'll embark in anytime soon, it's one hell of a ride. It's gorgeous, smart and mostly importantly, it doesn't hold you by the hand. This is one the best sequels out there and it can easily fall into anyone's 'favorites' list like it did with me. If you're into puzzle games with charm, personality and a little something extra, you should look no further. Trine 2 is just that. |8

Goombd Played! - The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim

What can you say about a game like Skyrim? Possibly, that it's a huge undertaking for anyone planning to play it. Like previous Elder Scrolls games, Skyrim is immense, filled with little bits of content just about everywhere. Are you ready to get started?

Dragons are back to terrorize the Tamriel continent of Skyrim, the snowy home of the proud Nords. Sadly for our viking friends, the drakes aren't their only worry. The Empire is moving into their territory as well in their quest to gain even more power. But that's not for your lowly character to worry about. He or she has bigger problems. They're about to die at the gallows.

Without spoiling anything, it's obvious that your avatar in the game survives and it's exactly at that point that Skyrim begins. You're left alone, in the middle of a destroyed town with only a nudge about where to head next. Do you follow your fellow prisoner to safety or will you trust an Imperial who just moments ago was ready to lob off your head?


Skyrim is a game about decisions. They start with whether or not you want to help a greater cause or with the mundane task of deciding about your character's gender or race. If you don't want to focus on the main story, that's fine. Wanna rush it all and get it done with? Cool. You'll find something cool to see and mess around with at just about every corner of the icy lands of Skyrim.

Like in Oblivion, the guilds are easily best distractions in terms of quest content in Skyrim. Sadly, some of the groups seen in Cyrodil, like the Fighter's Guild, are nowhere to be seen. On the other hand, the groups that did survive the cut manage to provide some of the coolest quest lines in the game. If you were like me and loved the Dark Brotherhood missions in Oblivion, get ready to be blown away in this one as well.

Most of the action in Skyrim is reliant on how you build your character and how you decide to use your powers. In the Elder Scrolls tradition, abilities level up as you use them, for instance, if you're a heavy bow user, your marksmanship points will go up as you line up and make shots. That also goes for involuntary skills like heavy or light armor, as you take hits. Unlike previous games, though, you can also level up by talking to certain trainer characters and pay your way up the scale or by reading special books that you can find by exploring.


Irregardless to how you decide to take your character, there's always a companion just around the corner that will easily counter balance your development skills. Bethesda took one of the best aspects of their other RPG series Fallout and applied it to Skyrim in the form of companion characters "for hire". These guys are very damn useful, especially for less resistant character builds like wizards and can take a lot of punishment. Unfortunately, they aren't as well developed as your buddies from the Capital Wasteland and very rarely bring more story elements for you to mess around with.

In terms of story, I'll have to admit that I was a little disappointed with Skyrim's main quest line. The build up for the most of the game is very well developed but it just doesn't go anywhere. The ending is not satisfying at all. The world keeps going, people go back to their routines and heck, even though you did something that should have rid the world of a particular kind of problem, as soon as you step back into the world and keep playing, lo and behold, they're still around causing havoc.


Still, if you take into account the sheer number of things to do in this game, the fact that the main story is its weakest element is pretty much forgivable. The guild quests, allied with just about a ton of extra tidbits and areas to spelunk in are easily more exciting and will be the main crux of your activities in this game.

I'm very much looking forward to see what Bethesda will do with Skyrim in terms of DLC, especially after loving what they had to offer in Fallout 3 and finding most of the areas that heavily hint on possible threads to explore in future downloadable content in this game. You can be sure that once you're through with everything this game has to offer, you won't be done.

Skyrim is easily recommendable to just about anyone looking for a fantasy world to dive into. The content is rich and the shortcomings are easily overcome by the sheer amount of awesome stuff to do in the frigid land of the Nords. Whether or not you decide to be a hero or a villain, one thing is for certain, this is one of those gaming experiences that are not easily forgotten. |10

Goombd Played! - Pinball FX2 Vengeance and Virtue DLC

I haven't been making much of a secret how much I enjoy Pinball FX2. Even though I completely suck at pinball, this is one of my favorite games of 2011. So it comes as no surprise that its latest piece of DLC, dubbed Vengeance and Virtue, is such a ringer.

Following in the footsteps of previous Marvel Pinball releases, Vengeance and Virtue features Marvel Comics themed tables for you to play in Pinball FX2, each with its own unique hero motif and gameplay style. This time, we get to bump some pins with Ghost Rider, the X-Men, Thor and... Moon Knight. The first three choices are easily solid picks in the Marvel Comics pantheon of heroes, but Moon Knight? You're probably scratching your head over this just as I did, right?


Well, once you start playing, you'll start loving this table, just as I did. Moon Knight is a fairly obscure character for any casual comic reader but his table is anything but. In fact, it's probably the best one out of the bunch. Not only did it get an unique intro 'cutscene' but it also sports some of the fastest designs out of all Pinball FX2 tables. It makes for some crazy high scores and it's an easy table to pick up in terms of doing missions, too. A very varied mission selection also makes this table a blast. Midnight Man, you're absolutely insane!

The other tables in Vengeance and Virtue are pretty good too. Thor follows the more contained and more straight forward style seen in the core Pinball FX2 tables, with steep ramps that require a lot of speed and less careful aiming. In terms of presentation, it's extremely flashy but in terms of actual pinball, it's probably the least exciting out of the new tables.

Professor Xavier's crew, the X-Men, are given their own table and it's much like the previously released Fantastic Four level. Villains show up in just about every corner to hinder your progress. For instance, Magneto uses his trademark powers to slow your ball down and Blob shields certain ramps with his... uh... glut. Out of the new tables, this is probably the most visually busy and distracting one, but it still packs a punch.

Ghost Rider's trip to a hellish carnival is easily Vengeance and Virtue's most unique table. Heck, it features a freaking shotgun that is often used during gameplay and that's a big plus in my pinball book. In terms of crazy ramps, this table has plenty to offer right out of the launcher, with a very different way of scoring a skill shot that mimics old carnival ball toss games with the ball you're putting into play. The motorcycle dare devil nature of the Ghost Rider character is also explored in the lane and ramp design, that provide fast turns and some crazy jumps.

If you've been enjoying what Zen Studios has been dealing out in terms of Pinball FX2 DLC, you'll find a lot to like in Vengeance and Virtue. They explored the darker corners of Marvel Comics and came out with some of my favorite tables. If you're new to Pinball FX2, this is one of the best DLCs so far and a great chance to start playing.

Now I want to read up on Moon Knight! Who would've thunk he'd make such a great theme for pinball? |7

Goombd Played! - Jurassic Park The Game

It is said that some things are just better left extinct. In the game of videogames, certain styles of game design can fall under that category. One in particular was born in the 1980s, with Dragon's Lair as its shining example. It showed how colorful and well animated games could look but how boring and non-interactive they could be as well. You could only guide the knight Dirk by pointing which way he should head and depending on your choice, he either lived or died. Since then, we haven't gotten hardly any games fully based on that concept. It was pretty much dead and buried after a few other disastrous attempts a few scant years later.

What we now know as QTE (quick time event) can somewhat be associated with that concept, although very rarely do we get to play games that are solely reliant on it. It's usually used as just a gimmick, a break between action scenes that more often than not tends to be plain irritating, demanding precise timing and in most cases, brain dead button mashing.

So it came as a surprise when Telltale Games, the people behind episodic games like Sam & Max and most recently Back to the Future The Game, announced that they had acquired the rights to the Jurassic Park film and would be making an adventure game that would exclusively use this sort of mechanic instead of giving direct control of characters on screen. The resulting works mostly well but isn't rid of a few annoying problems.

Similarly to Back to the Future The Game, Telltale's pick for a niche to place the story for Jurassic Park The Game is rather interesting. Rather than being a sequel to the somewhat lackluster Jurassic Park film franchise, Telltale's game is centered around a can of shaving cream. That can of shaving cream. Barbasol. The one Dennis Nedry, Wayne Knight's obnoxious computer hacker character from the first Jurassic Park movie tried to smuggle dinosaur embryos out of the island in but ultimately failed. His contact decides to send two agents into Isla Nublar in order to recover the prize and that's where the game begins.

Scenes play out and don't give you direct control on what's going on with the characters and the situations they are placed in. Instead, you're given the task of correctly (and timely) pressing the buttons shown, like a quick combination of controller buttons and analog stick tilts. For most of the time, the intensity and demand of what you have to press fits with the chaos that's going on, while in others, it's just frustratingly obtuse.


Telltale has managed to convey a sense of immediacy for what happens to the game's characters into the indirect controls you're given to do but sometimes the game's interface manages to do a great job getting in your way. The graphics and character animation do a great job of showing emotion (mostly of desperation, as it's to be expected when dinosaurs are trying to eat everyone) but in some instances, amidst all the action it becomes extremely difficult to see some of the prompts or get the timing wrong due to how often the indications on screen become obscured by the camera that is often shifting positions and moving along a predetermined path.

The timing in which to press the buttons was my most frustrating issue of contention with this game. I rarely reached a point where I just wanted to give up, due to how well the check-pointing works in this game, although some people might get turned off after seeing their unlucky fictitious friend get eaten due to a mistaken or missed input. Regardless of how forgiving the action is for most of the game, allowing a fair number of mistakes before slapping you with a game over screen, it's still disappointing to see it happen instantly in some of the more exciting parts of the game, in "insta-kill" mode.

If you persevere, though, you'll be rewarded with a surprisingly well developed story that is delivered in the confines of this four part episodic series. Telltale once again manages to develop an exciting plot that plucks an overlooked element off the movies, all the while creating their own original elements that perfectly fit in the mythos of Jurassic Park, something that both of the movie sequels failed to do. Two other islands? Really, Mr. Spielberg?

While it's a little annoying that you don't get to guide much of what happens in the story, it's mostly up to you to uncover additional tidbits of background information on characters and the Jurassic Park canon. They're hidden behind certain dialogue choices and button prompts that can be easily missed if you aren't looking. The overall script is set, though. Certain character deaths, for instance, are written from the beginning and happen regardless of how perfectly you execute action sequence button prompts. The way you get to certain points in the plot can somewhat differ but it's nothing dramatic or short of a few extra bumps and awkward falls on the way to an objective.

It'd be easy to classify Jurassic Park The Game as passable if the scope of comparison was focused on action adventure games like Uncharted. But as an adventure game that strips the 'point' out of 'point and click' and replaces the 'click' with button prompts, analog stick movements and a few cases of insane button mashing, it works relatively well. You're still picking dialogue choices, examining items and solving a half of a handful of puzzles, even though most of what you do is firmly strapped in on a story that moves along a pre-determined track. Jurassic Park The Game might not be one of Telltale's best titles, but it's certainly the most unique of the bunch. |6

Goombd Played! - A World of Keflings DLC: It Came From Space

The concept of playing a game with absolutely no confrontations and violence might seem foreign to many videogame fans. Killing and being victorious over your opponent always seems to be the goal of just about 90% of all games. Luckily for us, the 10% left sometimes turn out to be amazing. That's the case for Ninja Bee's A World of Keflings.

I already made a case about how much I love that game a while back, when it was released as part of the Summer of Arcade promotion that Microsoft likes to make during U.S summertime. It's an absolute blast putting together your own towns and not have to worry about anyone coming around to demolish it. It was truly a "busy busy bee" game.


So it comes as no surprise that we're getting to play a set of DLC for that game, a little more than a year after its release. It Came From Space features a whole new set of blueprints to build, a new environment to pluck resources from and a handful of crazy characters to laugh at. As the name suggests, this DLC is centered on aliens. They crashed on the Kefling world and lo and behold, it's up to you (mainly, your Xbox Live avatar) to help them get back home.

Luckily for your E.T friends, all of the materials they need happen to have come along with their ship. You'll get things going by putting some of them to work and harvesting the base items like bars of radioactive materials, wood and clay but soon enough, just like in the original game, you're steered towards turning these into more specialized materials.



The gameplay structure It Came From Outer Space follows is right on with what we saw in 'Keflings. Those base materials are harvested into a single building at first and from there, you expand and build new structures as objectives are met and blueprints are learned. This time around, though, there's a catch. Some of these buildings are living beings and can be mutated into other types of structures. This might sound pretty complicated, but it's really not. You basically build the core structure and feed it a carrot filled with alien mutagen. Mutated buildings can then produce other types of much needed raw materials.

Another new type of unit introduced in this DLC is the robotic minion, which already starts out at high levels on just about every job you could put him to. And you'll need to put him to work right away since he's the only one capable of handling the nuclear materials and junk parts required by your schematics.


As you might have picked up by looking at these screenshots, there's only one environment to play in It Came From Outer Space. It's relatively smaller than the usual A World of Keflings stage and takes about as long to play through as well. You're likely to take around 2 hours to complete all the objectives and get every achievement, but there are incentives to keep building even after the story is done.

There are plenty of good reasons to pick this new DLC pack up. It's charming to no end, brimming with the sort of personality we've seen in previous Ninja Bee games and the pokes at science fiction tropes are hilarious. The writing is quick and witty and just like A World of Keflings, it's very reverential to pop culture and loves to make fun (in a fun way) of the tenets of videogames. It Came From Space is a great excuse to pop A World of Keflings back in, no probes abo...er... doubt about it! |8