I started a thread some time ago which i'd intended to keep up to date, but lately never seem to have the time to do. I've now forgotten how I labelled the thread (morphine induced) and can't find it lol (only looked briefly though). Anyway, we've had a few months of excellent to mediocre games released. The autum (Fall) is always the buisiest time of the year for game releases and this autum hasn't been any different. I don't want to be the sole author of reviews in this thread if possible because its just not possible to play every game being released, so if the community could post their views on up coming games that they think they will buy (including arcade games), I'd be most appreciative. Please only stick to games you think you're going to buy because I think you'll be much more enthusiastic to tell the community what you think.
I'll change the name of the game in the title as and when new games are posted, or add to the title until theres no space.
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My first (4th December) is called Sabateur. I've copied a review of the game and added screenshots and some videos. I'll be adding my own opinion of the game once I've played it for a while. It certainly looks like an unusual WWII shooter. It's an open world game where you can wander at will around the city of Paris, and the French country side. There's elements of Grand Theft Auto in that you can drive vehicles around at brake neck speeds and crash into things as well as the game Damnation and possible even Mirrors Edge where you climb and jump from roof top to roof top. Buildings are destructable and can affect the way the game is played. Anyway, here a review by someone whose already previewed the game:
The Saboteur:
The Saboteur is, as the nonsensical intro probably indicates, set in France. It's also set during World War II and, as such, is crawling with Nazis. It is not, however, remotely like the million other WWII games that have been cropping up since the beginning of time. Don't expect to be running around in a tin hat helping fallen squad members pull shrapnel out of their face, or doing your thing for Queen and Country. It's not so much a war game as it is a revenge story set during a war. You avenge the loss of your loved ones by hunting down your sworn enemies in Nazi-occupied Paris.. This is an important distinction and this, as you'll see, is a game all about making distinctions.
The main man, Sean Devlin, is a stroppy Irishman whose mouth only leaves the gutter long enough to light the latest in a seemingly endless stream of cheap cigarettes. He's also partial to the odd drop with, stereotypically enough, whisky being his tipple of choice. With such lofty concerns it's no wonder Sean isn't too interested in the war effort – especially when his bedroom happens to be behind a large poster in the dressing room of a cabaret bar (nipple tassels and lingerie ahoy!). When the Nazis start whacking his mates, leaving Sean with the prospect of drinking alone, he swings into violent action.Underneath all the boozing, cussing and window-shopping, it turns out the angry Mick is a dab hand at sabotage. His weapons of choice? Stick grenades and good old-fashioned dynamite (which was probably bleeding-edge tech back then). Thankfully, there are plenty of targets, from sniper nests and guard towers to fuel dumps, spinning radar things (possibly not the technical term) and tanks.
At first Sean can only carry eight sticks of dynamite which is pretty inconvenient considering the sheer volume of Nazi paraphernalia waiting to be blown to kingdom come. He also takes his sweet time planting the charges, and it's hard not to reach for the screen and prod him as he waggles his lighter in the general direction of the fuse. Unlockable perks help the process along, and this is true of the entire skill set. Some sweet sniping, for example, unlocks a perk that reduces shake and, at the 'silver' level, removes most of the recoil, allowing for faster pewpewing from the safety of the grassy knoll.
Such are the distractions offered by the wanton destruction of 'free play' that it's easy to forget about the actual story. The huge playable areas, from the French countryside to urban Paris, just beg to be explored – and liberated - and we often went an hour or two just causing mischief and listening to the wonderful in-car music – the main campaign didn't get a look in. It's worth sticking to, if only to watch Sean get deeper and deeper into the Resistance effort while, at the same time, watching the dialogue get more and more hackneyed and ridiculous. Some of the lines are so cheesy you'd think they'd been lifted from an old episode of 'Allo 'Allo. At first, it's extremely tedious and off-putting but, suddenly, there comes an epiphany where lines that once made the blood boil instead bring a wry, if slightly pained, smile. Dierker the racing-driver-slash-Nazi-butcher deserves special mention for his perfectly realised blend of uber-camp and Aryan menace.
Just a short aside from the game review:
There’s a very very 'tenuos' link with the game 'De Blob' in that you have to bring color back to the world by avenging yourself on the Nazi’s, lol. (though in De Blob, you have to crush the employees of the dreaded Ink Corporation instead of the Nazis. If you’ve never heard of 'De Blob, it’s a freeware game developed by some students from one of the Scandinavian countries (I forgot which one) - the students set up a booth in a shopping mall that had PC's loaded up with the game and left the shoppers to play the game with user comment left behind. It got very favourable reviews so was released to the gaming community a couple of years ago It's only one very large level, but it's a great little game that was also ported over to the Wii earlier this year (the Wii version isn’t free and may have extra content, but I'm loath to purchase it because of having the free version, plus my kids still haven't played the several Wii games we bought them last Christmas, lol). The aim of the game is that you have to color the city you’re situated in by rolling around, squashing various colored people to colorize yourself, then you bash yourself against buildings, tree,s vehicles etc to color them in, completing various tasks as you travel around the city. The baddies are colored black (the ink corporation employees) and if you get caught by them everything turns to Black. You can wash the colors and the blackness off by jumping into the river that runs through the city. Its a very well made game that my kids used to play for hours last year when I first came across it. You can find a link to download it via the free games synopsis.
We hinted earlier about making distinctions and deliberately held off the real doozy until now. The impact of the Nazi invasion colours the entire landscape in a spectacular, but slightly unsubtle, fashion. Free France is brightly coloured, with birds twittering (tweeting?) in the background, babbling brooks – the whole shebang. The only thing missing from the sickly sweet Disney tableaux is some talking animals and some vaguely uplifting sing-a-longs.The German neck of the woods by stark contrast is terminally overcast, and bathed in everything from black and dark grey to, uh, slightly less dark grey and grey. The only colour comes from the vibrant reds of the Nazi flags, banners and arm bands and the neon blue markers that guide Sean to Resistance safe-houses. It's oppressive and deeply unpleasant, which is kinda the point. French citizens still live there, but they're miserable, sallow-faced swine, completely unlike their miserable but brightly-coloured brethren in the liberated zones.
Apparently you can jump, run and scramble along the roof tops for as far as
the eye can see. You can even scale the Eiffel Tower if you feel the need to, lol.
Smashing Nazi supplies, vehicles and machinery loosens their grip on a zone, making it easier to avoid detection and increasing the 'will to fight' of the locals. (much like in Red Faction guerilla). For the most part, they really aren't much cop, acting like chumps and making the place look untidy. Start filling up the Assassin's Creed-style suspicion meter and the Hun will start gearing up for a scuffle. Upset them enough to raise the alarm level to Four or Five, though, and the locals start to earn their keep, with pockets of resistance springing up on the mini-map; (again something similr to the guerilla's that join you in battles against the EDF in Red Faction Guerilla)These havens are populated with gun-wielding Resistance fighters and stacks of guns and ammo (actual weapons, rather than the magazine). If you're stuck for somewhere to hide, an out-and-out firefight can be just the ticket.The success of the Resistance counter-measures are measured by a handy status bar on the top-right of the screen which states simply: 'Kills.' Slaughter enough fascists and the rest of them will turn tail, fleeing the area and cancelling the alarm. For some reason this strikes us as slightly inaccurate, and it was hard to escape the feeling that it was a clever ruse on the part of the Germans. Surely they weren't really running away, but going to unlock the door to the cage that holds the Giant Enemy Alsatian? Sadly, it turned out that they really were running away, despite our repeat attempts to lure the boss monster.
As it turns out, running away is a pretty effective tool in a saboteur's arsenal. Alarm signals bring up a search perimeter on the mini-map a la GTA, and as soon as you breach the perimeter the Nazis call it a day. Seriously. It doesn't even matter if a car full of the buggers hoons round the corner straight into you within a nanosecond of escaping the initial search party. It feels a little silly, and we found ourselves – quite unexpectedly – wishing the Nazis would man the heck up.
Attentive readers will note that we avoided a curse word just then, even though we were quite hoping to unleash a couple of f-bombs and maybe a c-diddy on the malodorous invaders. We are, however, decent folk and with women and children present we don't feel the need to resort to such base language. Sean Devlin, on the other hand, has a mouth that would put the womenfolk of the Cross to shame. Any excuse and he's 'Eff this' and 'Eff that.' If you could buy soap in-game we would use it to clean that dirty little mouth of his, to be sure. It was quite unnecessary most of the time and certainly didn't add to the atmosphere or fun factor, coming off as puerile and forced. Look ma, I said a swear!
Closing Comments:
It’s an odd little saucisson, this one. Sean is distinctly unlikeable for the first two or three hours of gameplay, but gradually grows on you. The story is reasonable, although hampered by some laughable dialogue – which we hope was deliberate, and steaming ‘round the city and surrounding countryside giving the Nazis what for is entertaining enough that you almost don’t need a story.While it’s a little rough around the edges we enjoyed this game more than we thought we would. It’s far from perfect, but it’s great to see Pandemic going out with a bang.
Reference http://uk.ps3.ign.com/articles/105/1051052p1.html accessed 2nd December 09
Video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l2gClnlzo4o
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=buj7dR5AdKY
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=klUtsBR7H0g
The game retails from between £24.99 to £32 (approx $37 to $50) depending upon where you purchase it from.
I love sandbox type games and have just pre ordered this, though it’ll come a little late because it’s actually out tomorrow and it usually takes up to two days for my favourite games shop (Game.uk) to send games out. :) It’s not available on Steam as far as I can see. If it does get put on in the next few days you’ll probably find it’ll cost somewhere around the higher price quoted. Wow, that’s three games to round the year off (for me at least; I’m getting Colin McRae’s Dirt 2, Avatar the Game and now Saboteur tomorrow or Saturday), and I've still not played most of my recent purchases from all the Steam, Direct 2 Drive, GOG and Stardock deals..... I wish this recession would end just to stop all these deals appearing. They are too much of a temptation for me...... I'll tell you now; I found giving up cigarettes easier than stopping myself from buying the latest gaming deal..... (really)
Which to play first – decisions decisions, lol. I’ll post an informed opinion of the game after I’ve spent some time playing it. :)