Recent reviews by edhe

Run eScape

Good fun. Kill zombies, save survivors, fight psychopaths and uncover the truth behind the zombie outbreak at Willamette Parkview Mall.

The main draw of Dead Rising is its vast quantities of zombies on screen, and the many means to dispatching them. This can range from various conventional items like sledgehammers, firearms and furniture, to Frank (the protagonist) and his growing repertoire of hand-to-hand skills, to a selection of vehicles dotted around the mall. Many items can be picked up and repurposed as makeshift weapons, which is just as well, because while nothing lasts forever, you're never too far from an opportunity to restock - even a bench is deadly in a pinch.

Frank, being a photojournalist, is equipped with a camera from the outset. This tasks you with snapping photos during your adventure for bonus PP, or "Prestige Points" (experience points). Each photo has one of several subjects, with increased bonuses earned during interesting moments (a psychopath, mid-swig of alcohol, for example).

Speaking of which, it won't just be Frank and thousands of zombies; also present are survivors, some of whom have gone completely insane during this traumatic event, and are presented as occasional boss battles. I find this one of the most interesting aspects of the game, personally, it being an aspect that cannot be portrayed with just zombies. Some of the psychopaths are truly tragic. These encounters culminate in a boss battle, and depending on how equipped and well prepared you are, some of them can be pretty tricky. Overcoming them rewards you with a significant PP bonus.

Fortunately, the majority of the survivors you'll meet in the mall are not so deranged - these are referred to in game as "survivors", and its your job to rescue them. Or not. You can leave them to die if you want - a lot of them seem to have a death wish anyway, as they are particularly difficult to corral and lead back to the safety of the mall's security room. Survivors can be given weapons in most cases, and commanded to follow or head to a designated point, although some require to be carried or shouldered, and in this state, you are unable to send them to designated points.
The main issue I've noticed is that survivors often get stuck on corners, requiring you to babysit the particularly slow survivors. Woe betide they get surrounded, as they will then proceed to attempt to fight off each and every zombie in their vicinity, instead of just following the man like he wanted them to.
However, if you persevere, rescuing survivors nets you precious PP, so it's not always a bad idea to rescue the odd survivor if its convenient for you. Even getting them to join you gets you an advance of PP, so if they keep getting themselves killed, and you find yourself reloading, you can always recruit them and then cave their skulls in.

As PP is gained, Frank will level up - each level bestowing him an increased attribute (speed, attack, throwing and health), and in some cases, a new skill, for when you don't have a good weapon to hand, or are trying to conserve durability.

Now, onto the flow of the game. Frank - a photojournalist is dropped onto the roof of the mall by helicopter, with 3 days to investigate, then escape. During these 72 hours, events occur, as relayed to you by a character in the security room. He may have spotted someone in distress on the mall's CCTV network. These are called scoops, and can culminate in discovering survivors or psychopaths, and are entirely optional. If you aren't quick enough to get to where the event happens, they will expire.
Also present are 'unmarked' scoops which work in the same way, except you won't be alerted to them by your friend in security.

Also optional, although with graver consequences are the main story 'scoops' you'll need to get to at various points during those 72 hours. These concern the truth behind the zombie outbreak, and missing any of these (a chance sighting of a suspicious person for example), results in Frank missing an important lead, and effectively dooming himself to a bad ending.

Thus, the game is a balancing act between killing loads of zombies - PP is awarded for every 50, 100, and 1000 killed, rescuing survivors, dealing with psychopaths (and getting their weapons), exploring the mall and trying on hats, and meeting the important story deadlines - if you want that perfect playthrough, anyway.
This may seem like a frustrating time, but Dead Rising allows you to roll over into a new game with your accumulated levels, along with attributes, skills, and more importantly, knowledge of the most useful weapons, how to rescue survivors effectively, and how to more easily defeat those tricky bosses. It's because of this, that I feel Dead Rising is a game that is fun on multiple playthroughs.

I can't pretend I'm at all experienced in the games of the Warriors series, but compared to the more recent spinoffs I've played, in my opinion, Dynasty Warriors 8: Xtreme Legends is much more to my liking.

Another thing I can't pretend is that I've had any prior knowledge on the period or on the Three Kingdoms books on which this game is based, and yet, ultimately, the story, the characters and their struggles was one of the aspects that really appealed to me.

At it's heart, Dynasty Warriors 8: Xtreme Legends is an action game where you take on your foes and assist your allies in a variety of different battles and scenarios. You can choose to play as a select few in the story mode, but in Free Mode, you have the choice of 1 of 82 different character - each with their own preferred weapon (although you can equip any weapon as a character with varying levels of effectiveness). Although the game can be played as a button masher on the easy difficulty levels, there's a deeper system of weapon choice that I makes the game deeper than simply hitting the attack button over and over.

As such, at 100 hours, I've completed all 6 story campaigns on Medium difficulty, and I've still got the harder difficulties to master.

I've played approximately 99.9 hours of this game with an XBOX USB controller, and as such, I can't not[/it] recommend the keyboard control scheme, even if the controller pad option does come with a few ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥.
Primarily, the on screen prompts are the keyboard shortcuts, and so on your first time with the game, it's really trial and error as to which prompt performs what action.

The graphics are quite detailed, although there are a few instances where the textures are very low resolution. One example is a protagonist might be talking to some peasants - and the peasants have an extremely low resolution on their model and face compared to the main character to such a degree, it's quite jarring. Some of the environments are equally low resolution, and noticeable when one of the textures is in the foreground.
As for the character models, they are suitably detailed as they are often showed off in the spectacular special attacks that each of them can perform - their character and outfit design are particularly interesting.

So while I've reached a hundred hours with the game, I'm by no means finished with it yet. The game includes a wealth of extras and modes which can be played on varying levels of difficulty. A particularly interesting feature is a gallery mode where you can listen to a character's voiced lines, see their attack animations, and a seperate option where you can read all about every character that appears in the game (including approximate birth dates for all 1000+ officers who appear in the expanded Three Kingdoms works). Info on events, battles and a glossary can also be browsed that explain the world of Early China, which I found helpful.

In summary, the three aspects I enjoy most about the game are its roster of diverse, interesting characters, the weapon variety and the challenging action gameplay that ties it all together.

Released in 2012, Crusader Kings II still receives sporadic updates and new DLC, some of it cosmetic, some of it more substantial. Personally, there are some pieces of DLC I can't go without, but I'll attempt to review the game in its vanilla state.

Crusader Kings II is billed as a grand strategy. Where it differs from more conventional strategy games is that you control a single member of a particular dynasty of your choosing (with some limitations - Muslim, Indian, Jewish, or Pagan characters cannot be played without various pieces of DLC as well as Republics (like Venice), leaving Christian Europe and what is modern day Ethiopia) and guide them to prominence.


And unlike conventional strategy games, you don't have a carte blanche to paint the world in your colour, as you will have obligations as both a vassal and a liege.

The most important aspect of this is the family member you control could die. At this point, you will pass on to the next viable heir - in the period this game is set, male heirs are more common, and you will need to change royal laws to even gain the possibility for daughters to succeed you. Your domain - be it a kingdom, empire or even county is full of other characters eager to take power for themselves or their offspring, and will actively work against you - plotting slandering, and in some cases, openly rebelling. As such, a lot of your time will be spent keeping your realm together. In any case, a large realm means more people, and a greater risk of rebellion.

Another factor that differentiates Crusader Kings II from conventional strategy games is its casus belli system, whereby you'll need a just cause for war before you can declare, and in some cases, you are restricted to what you can aquire after any given war. While heathens and heretics are fair game to any Christian, you are restricted to declaring on a duchy-by-duchy basis (a duchy being a collection of counties), and after winning that war, you are entitled to take only that duchy. This and other casus belli along with an added threat meter prevent a strong domain from rapidly expanding.
Then there are the Crusades (or Great Holy Wars/Jihads, for the other faiths), whereby the religious head will call for a war on a Kingdom (commonly Jerusalem, as part of the Arabian Empire), in which case, whoever contributes most to the war in the event of victory is awarded the title (unless a Christian lost the title in a previous Jihad, in which case, it goes to them).

As a lord, your vassals are obligated to provide taxes and troop levies to you. If they don't particularly like you, what they give may be substantially diminished, but in most cases, a lord will retain a army of their own, which they can raise as they wish. Simiilarly, as a vassal, you will have an obligation to your liege if you are in such a position to provide troops for them.

To boost your troop numbers (as well as pay for mercenaries and mitigate the spread of technology within your domain), you are encouraged to develop your holdings. Building up your capitals, and even those of your direct subordinates will boost your standing in the realm (whether to theaten your liege or to safeguard against rebellion), although there's always the risk of losing any or all of them to succession if you're not careful.

These aspects make playing Crusader Kings II a much more satisfying time in some ways than other games of its genre. Not every realm starts equal, and each realm of a different culture and religion has nuances that alter how they behave - for instance, Norse pagans can sail down rivers to raid, and can conquer any coastal county as well as any neighbouring county. Muslim successors are determined by which dynasty member has the most land at the time of the lord's death.

Combat in Crusader Kings II is very detailed, yet hands off. Army composition (cavalry, heavy/light infantry, ranged and any culturally unique units a realm may have), terrain river/strait crossings a 'marine' landing's effect of the attacker's morale, technology level as well as a simple dice roll for each battle phase all contribute to the success or failure of any given battle. Often, numbers will be all you need, but oftentimes, a battle can go awry very easily.

With free updates and substantial DLC (admittedly, some of which is superfluous) it can be a bit hard to get used to the game as they introduce new features. Thankfully, some particular features can be turned off or altered in a (relatively recently added) pre-game options menu.

The game has what can be described as a steep learning curve, and there are many intricacies that need to be grasped in order to play a successful game (partly why I haven't finished a full game yet), but I'd recommend this game to anyone who likes strategy games, and has an interest in the medieval period.

Tropico 4 tasks you with building a settlement on an island, gathering resources and maintaining your grasp on the populace.

To advance through each level; of which there are 20, you need to complete a number of tasks to achieve a particular final goal. There's plenty of variety in these missions, and you can see why when you boot up the comprehensive challenge editor. Needless to say, winning levels is more than just gathering so many resources.

It is a bit of a drag how you have to start each mission from the beginning. As such, missions begin with about half an hour of placing down clinics and churches and placating the communists before you can get to the interesting stuff of going through those missions. They won't dissapoint - for example, in one, you have to host the olympics.

You can run your island as a benevolent ruler or a tyrant by enacting laws, denying/permitting elections and executing/arresting your opponents or having a free press.

Recommended.

Action-Adventure game in the vein of Grand Theft Auto where you take on the role of a fully customisable (even after creation) gangster who is plopped into a city (an admittably small city) and left to create large amounts of havok.

Obviously, there is a story as well, but even after completing it, you are free to do what you want.

Speaking of the story mode, many of the missions tend to be based around the activities you can already do across the city (i.e; transport 4 hos to a bordello) which is a bit dissapointing.

Nevertheless, the production values (voices, graphics, presentation and writing) more than make up for it.

Way too much DLC (most of which is inconsequential clothes and vehicles packs, which can be safely ignored unless you like giving THQ money), but otherwise an enjoyable game with lots to aim for (83 steam achievements that tie in with the in-game achievements) and plenty of scope for replaying as a different personality.

My favourite SimCity game of them all (and they are all so good), simply because of its depth. Plan city sized commercial districts to feed residential and industrial sectors respectively, or build small villages across a region area that you (with a lot of donkey work, it must be said) can design yourself.

As in some other SimCities, you'll plan neighbourhoods, fund services, enact policies and balance a budget to build a working city.

With a mix of strategy and RPG, create a hero, form an army then watch hopelessly as the opposing forces tear through them, killing almost all of them.

Once you get the hang of it, you learn to pick your battles, and you too could whizz past a viking on your horse and clobber him 'round the head. with a wooden club

Fun, but quite fiddly and very unforgiving.

Tricky in places, but an otherwise compelling and very charming management sim/Action RPG game.