“Rise of the Godslayer has the potential to make Age of Conan one of the best MMO games on the market”

Funcom’s second MMOG packed a lot of promise. Before launch, it won multiple awards at E3, and from the world’s top gaming sites. It won Best Original Score at the IFMCA awards (surely you remember?) and the game’s composer was nominated for Best Original Score at the Hollywood Music Awards. Weeks before launch it sold out both pre-order copies, and knocked Grand Theft Auto IV off the charts as the number-one selling game in Germany and Sweden.

Despite the fact that AoC sold hundreds of thousands of copies, many of the players who bought the game couldn’t even run it. Others who managed to meet minimum requirements could at least log in, but with slideshow-like frame-rates, it was unplayable. To make matters worse, the game had a severe memory leak that caused constant crashing for players who could play.

Funcom also misjudged the way that the ‘WoW generation’ played games. Developers estimated that it would take 250 hours to reach level 80, yet players were doing it in 48. Gamers had been trained to race to end-game, but Conan had none. The first 30 levels were fun and well designed, but high-level quest content was lacking, end-game content was sparse, and players were bored. Shortly after launch, there was a mass exodus of players and the game was labeled a failure.

Nearly two years have passed now, and the game is maturing nicely. Developers have been focusing on improving the original game, solving existing issues and beefing up content. According to the game’s Director, Craig Morrison, the first year was spent solely on addressing existing issues, and an expansion wasn’t even considered until those issues were resolved.

Now that they have their house in order, the first expansion, Rise of the Godslayer, has been announced. Funcom is known for thinking outside of the box, and this expansion is a solid example of their atypical perspective. Unlike normal expansions which add more levels and leave old content in the dust, Funcom is thinking laterally. The new content is intended to flesh out the existing game and give players more to do with the characters they have.

Players complained that the instanced content ruined immersion. Funcom addressed this issue in its new landmass, Khitai. The Asian-themed continent contains zones that are interconnected. Travel NPCs have been removed and players cannot only see the surroundings zones from their current location but they can also move through the border lines from place to place.

They also recognize that the mature, time-limited audience they’re aiming for doesn’t want to spend hours waiting for other people so that they can play. Most of the new content is intended to be solo-friendly. While the focus is on increasing content for high-level players, there is also added content for lower levels as well. The new race, Khitan, will level 1-20 in Tortage, but from there they move to Khitai to pursue their own destiny quests in content developed for leveling up the characters.

As further encouragements for solo players, new factions are being introduced, each with their own ranks and rewards. These include some amazing armor sets and very interesting mounts. The mounts are obtained through special quest chains and must be caught, tamed, raised and trained by the player before they can be ridden. Instead of giving the typical speed increase, the mounts have special abilities such as enabling the player to stealth while riding. The already remarkable combat system is also being enhanced with some fantastic new fighting moves with martial arts flair.

They’ve also declined to add new classes and instead have introduced an ‘Alternate Advancement System’. This system uses experience that players gain from normal activities (questing, raiding, or hunting) and opens up new feat trees, giving players access to a lot of new spells, abilities and combos for their existing characters.

Age of Conan has always displayed the potential to be something different from other fantasy MMOGs. Funcom seems to have spent a great deal of effort attempting to make that potential a reality. With their new project – The Secret Life – receiving so much hype, much will ride on the success of the Rise of the Godslayer expansion. With the ill-fated Hyborian Adventures launch, more of the trouble was due to unrealistic expectations than the poor design. Developers simply underestimated their players leveling methods and simply overestimated their computer systems.

As it sits, the game is good, but Rise of the Godslayer has the potential to make Age of Conan one of the best MMO games on the market. The expansion will directly target the mature gamer who has a solid gaming system and who is tired of entry-level MMOGs. People who don’t want to stray too far off of the beaten path, but who are looking for new twists on old ideas will likely enjoy it.

“It’s Trek Jim, but not as we know it…”

From our preview article we went deeply into what Star Trek Online is. How it works, what you do, where you go and how you look. Rather than rehash old ground, let’s just say that the full release has barely changed from the worryingly thin-looking Beta, and that Star Trek Online is splitting opinions among everyone who plays it. Not, we hasten to add, splitting that opinion along a love/hate line. Sadly, it’s more of a hate with a passion/tolerate until something better comes along line instead.

The full release of STO hasn’t fixed any of the deep-rooted problems that plagued Beta, from the horrible misuse of the setting – cramming tried, tested and now long-tired MMO grind staples into a universe that just doesn’t work that way, eschewing any of the core values of Trek (character, story, emotional engagement) for a simplistic and quickly repetitive combat engine – to a completely under-developed Klingon experience, a lack of variety in actual mission content, and having little-to-no endgame to speak of.

What does it do right? Certainly it looks pretty. The ship and character models and planet locations all look spectacular, despite the over-abundance of colorful laser beams and glowing power effects turning everything into a Jean-Michel Jarre concert from the late 90s. There’s a lot of fun to be had with character creation and this is extended from the Champions Online model here by letting you customize your ship and crewmates as well as your own get-up.

But for all the technical finery, the simple truth is that as it stands, as a game, Star Trek Online simply isn’t worth a monthly subscription of anyone’s money. The content isn’t there, the appeal for their Star Trek fans or simply gaming fans isn’t there, and the sense of any kind of appealing gameplay isn’t there. What’s worse is that all the individual design decisions that make up the greater fail are going to prevent STO from ever becoming worth a monthly fee. With the selected core mechanics now in place, all Cryptic can do is just add more of the same content (but with higher DPS output requirements) and different graphical components.

A flawed structure

The underlying structure of the game is going to remain as is, and it’s that structure that is flawed from the outset. No amount of extra high-level missions is going to change the fact that space combat is repetitive chore of Pavlovian button pushing with a fancy interface masking the lack of any genuine challenge, actual tactical necessity during combat or adherence to the actualities of Star Trek combat. Nor will it disguise the embarrassingly poor ground mission engine that for a game released in 2010 – even an MMO game – is shockingly insulting to both the rich legacy of the license is based upon and the expectations of the game that requires a regular visit to your bank account.

Cryptic knows it hasn’t had to try here, and that’s perhaps the most insulting thing of all. It’s hurriedly slapped a basic game engine onto a lucrative license in order to get it out on shelves while the coattails of the new movie are still rideable. It’s also known that all it has to do is include as many nods to Trek touchstones as it can – regardless of whether they make any sense from a gameplay point of view – to snare in the fanboys. Half the references in the game feel so forced, so contrived just so the game can say “Look, it’s suchandsuch! That’s cool, right? And there’s so-and-so from episode X series Y! How great is that, eh?” Well, it isn’t great and it’s not cool in the slightest. It’s fanboy service with no purpose or reason. It’s C-3PO being built by Anakin Skywalker, if I might jump universes for a moment. It’s the product of lazy designers with no faith in their own ability to tell a captivating story or create an engrossing gameworld.

Annoyingly, the draw of the license will be enough for many people, and that number will no doubt be significant enough to make this a commercial (if not critical) success. What galls more than that is because it will be deemed by the publisher and its accounts department to be a financially viable entity, the servers will stay up, the license will stay in place and those of us that really, really want a decent, worthwhile multiplayer Star Trek experience are going to go on wanting for many years to come, and all the while this travesty of a wasted opportunity will sit there, servers taunting us, grinding our dreams into dust. And that, ladies and gentlemen, is the definition of the no-win scenario. For gamers anyway.

“Players can expect linear plot progression with expertly crafted dialogue”

The year 2033 really doesn’t sound as far away as it should now that humanity’s survived the Noughties. According to 4A Games, there will be another 23 years of relative peace before downfall of mankind due to massive nuclear war.

It’s a setting gamers have seen plenty of times before but this definitely isn’t your average first-person shooter, as it’s a very atmospheric and polished experience. Comparisons with the S.T.A.L.K.E.R. series are inevitable due to the dev team being almost exclusively made up of formerly GSC Gameworld staffers, but with a new setting of Russia and no sign of any RPG progression, this is an entirely different experience.

Based on a novel by Dmitry Glukhovski, players can expect linear plot progression with expertly crafted dialogue and a gradually escalating story. The game begins in one of Moscow’s oldest safe havens, Exhibition underground station, which has been home to dozens of malnourished and scared survivors for over 30 years. Nobody dares go above ground due to the threat of mutants and other survivors. Gamers assume the role of Arytom, a young station dweller who has recently learned of an impending mutant menace which has the power to wipe out the remnants of mankind. He, meaning you, needs to leave the safe confines of Exhibition in order to warn other people of the danger. The story continues in earnest, but as you would expect, all doesn’t go according to plan…

While walking around decrepit station the sense of desperation hangs thickly in the air as you see survivors discussing the political impact of their plight, occasional muttering drunkards and children playing with dilapidated and broken toys.

Metro 2033’s pulpy origins are obvious, and gamers will relish exploring areas which are full of character. The game’s many stations function as stop-off points where you can purchase new ammo, additional weapons and supplies.

Venturing out of the station is easily equitable to stepping out of Vault 101 in Fallout 3, it’s just as dramatic and empowering. The feeling that your presence isn’t wanted is accentuated by the need to wear a special suit to protect yourself from the environment.

Players will need to make sure there’s enough for the entire journey, otherwise Arytom will become slower, breath harder and eventually capitulate to the hostile atmosphere.

Some may be disappointed with a linear single-player shooter without multiplayer in 2033, but after our short time in Metro 2033, we were gagging for more. The intriguing setting mixed with the sort of detail only a novel can provide culminates in a desperate, scary and fulfilling experience. It tickled areas we always wanted the S.T.A.L.K.E.R. franchise to with great character design, atmosphere and a layer of believability.

We convinced that Metro 2033 is sure to be one of the most intelligent and thought-provoking first-person shooter you’ll play this year.

“The action is relentless right up until the campaign’s thrilling conclusion”

The disappointing sighs from the legions of PC-playing Battlefield fans was practically audible when EA declared that Battlefield: Bad Company would be a console exclusive. Two years on, with the promise that Bad Company 2 wouldn’t just be a console port but built specifically for PC, that enthusiasm had been rejuvenated somewhat. Finally, we all get to judge whether DICE has managed to create a game that lives up to the quality of previous Battlefield titles.

The campaign storyline picks up from the last game, where ‘B’ Company’s four AWOL squadmasters marched off into the sunset (Three Kings-style) with a barrow-load of gold. Here, it’s a more serious tale that follows the four troops on a run-of-the-mill intelligence gathering exercise in Alaska, where they discover that the Russian are building a weapon big enough to take out the US. In typical first-person shooter style, you come up against stiff opposition on your hunt for those involved as you travel across a variety of impressively detailed locations in North and South America, taking in snow-capped mountains, jungles, villages, deserts and urban environments, causing bedlam with your array of weapons and vehicles.

The impressively produced yet totally over-indulgent cut-scenes, full of the tongue-in-cheek humor and brash Americanisms, give some meaning to the missions ahead, but in reality the storyline pales into insignificance the further you progress as you get swallowed up by some of the finest FPS gameplay that we’ve played this side of Call of Duty 4. The mesmerizing mix of dramatic scripted sequences and aggressive gameplay makes Bad Company 2 the powerhouse that it is, while the combination of fast-paced action and varied gameplay – in addition to some top-notch audio and visuals – sucks you into the unfolding drama with some style.

Bad Company 2 is a bombardment on your senses, delivering a symphony of sounds and a visual spectacle of destruction that has a Crysis-like feel to it. Smoke billows in the air from spent grenades, buildings crumble under the weight of a well-placed RPG, tanks thunder through militia outposts toppling trees in their path, while wood splinters and cover spots crumble leaving you open to attack. There are some wonderfully poignant and contrasting moments throughout the 13 missions. One minute you’ll be creeping through some exquisite scenery where tranquil sounds, such as birds chattering and wind blowing gently through the trees, lures you into a false sense of security, and then suddenly the peace is crudely broken by the powerful sounds of war. Machine-guns chatter, explosions thud in the distant, while the whirring blades of helicopters and the unmistakable whizz of bullets create an aggressive sound that compliments the graphics, set-pieces and wide-spread destruction. There’s no doubt about it, this is an intense and enthralling single-player campaign.

The destructible environments aren’t just a visual spectacle either, but have a real impact on the gameplay and give you the freedom to use them to your tactical advantage. You can gain the upper-hand by changing the battlefield ahead by perhaps bringing a whole building crumbling to the ground so that it can’t be used for cover. You can even make pathways through areas that look inaccessible, which opens up the battlefield and gives you even more choice. Bad Company 2 doesn’t feel as linear as the likes of Modern Warfare 2, as there’s plenty of freedom and choice in battle. There’s a good variety of missions too: assault, defend, capture, sniping, driving, rail-shooter sequences, plus a few surprises along the way. Weapons handle well, the vehicles are a joy to drive and enemy soldiers react intelligently to the action, providing a real challenge by consistently bombarding you with pressure. The action is relentless right up until the campaign’s thrilling conclusion.

The good news carries on over to the multiplayer mode, which is really where Bad Company 2’s longevity and extra value for money lies. It’s all about customization, freedom and choice. The eight maps on offer, and the two downloadable ones – Laguna Alta and Nelson Bay – offer such a wide range of tactical opportunities. The open ground of the Atacama Desert is perfect for large-scale armored battles, whereas the woodlands of Laguna Alta give snipers elevated spots from which to stalk their prey. The expansive range of kit variations and weapon customization opportunities once again give you an endless amount of choice, and the finely tuned vehicles handle like a dream. This is Battlefield as we know it, but bigger better and badder, with more choice than ever. With brilliantly designed multiplayer maps, excellent weapon and vehicle choice, and the promise that DICE will support the modding community, we can be confident that the online component will shine for a long time to come.

When you put both components together – the compelling single-player campaign and solid multiplayer action – you’ve got one hell of an explosive package. Battlefield Bad Company 2 offers war on the grandest of scales, the likes of which we rarely see.

Rating: 9.0

“SupCom 2 will make you feel like you can take on the world with units to spare.”

It would appear that the actor Nolan North gets everywhere nowadays. Not content with starring in practically every major game under the sun last year, he’s back again voicing a key character in one of the three story-based campaigns in Supreme Commander 2. It isn’t that there’s anything wrong with the American voice actor, it’s just he’s too damn likeable! A cocky statement here, a perfectly delivered pun there and more importantly than anything else, he’s in Gas Powered Games title. Games which are usually geared towards the hardcore gamer that you need a GF Fermi graphics card just to look at screenshots, or at least that used to be the case.

Gameplay once again features the same base-building shenanigans you’d expect from an RTS, with units gaining experience, metal to be harvested, energy to be collected and researched to be, um, researched. Everything is built either using the MCU (Mobile Command Unit), a giant robot where your commander resides, or by helpful engineers that won’t build as fast but are expendable. Battles will end when an enemy’s MCU is destroyed, culminating in a powerful nuclear explosion. The core dynamic hasn’t changes but everything has gone through a dynamic and every worthwhile transformation.

Graphically, this title has an entirely different style to its predecessor. Shrinking the dull greys and browns, SupCom 2 is over-brimming with electric blue and enough hot-rod red to start a Fifties revival. The engine has been optimized for any system from the past two years, and even with almost 600 units on screen at once, the framerate dip is hardly noticeable.

The plot has also been given a badly needed tune-up as well, featuring the same factions from the original – UEF, Cybran Nation and the Aeon Illuminate. This is where Square-Enix’s feedback has factored into the game’s production the most, as real attempts are made to try and engage gamers in this interesting sci-fi universe, with some predictable yet enjoyable characterization which rarely breaks the anime staples of betrayal, faction politics and self-sacrifice. The cut-scenes themselves resemble more Eastern traditions though, but the fact that most of the time you’re listening to commanders in giant robots only further accentuates that ‘Gundam’ feel.

Unit design is completely off the map with Chris Taylor’s wacky brilliance to be seen everywhere. Even after playing for a considerable amount of hours, many gamers won’t have sampled anywhere near the mind-boggling 27 different experimental units spread across air, sea, land and even buildings. Each of these delightful devils is massive and completely dominates the battlefield. Most of them have a crucial weakness though, such as lacking air defenses or mobility, but when in action they look absolutely spectacular.

There are 21 different maps on offer, set across different terrain and with equally different setups. Nine of which can accommodate four players, with five maps suitable for six players. Then the scale goes down, with only one map playable for three and eight players respectively. It’s unfortunate that there aren’t more choices for the maximum multiplayer count, as it would appease some of the fans of the original’s overly exuberant map design.

Across land, sea and air, each of the game’s factions have appropriate hardware to protect themselves and properly attack. Where Supreme Commander 2 forces you to divert your specialization is when it comes to research. As you build research facilities or find caches across the map, research points are earned to be spent on five different specializations – ACU, land, sea, air and building. There are minor advantages such as gaining an extra 10% health or increasing regen speed, and these will set you back three points, but the real bonuses, such as new units, electronic shields and additional cannons, cost around nine. It’s worth waiting for the bigger bonuses but sometimes it’s best to consolidate than go for the big win.

Supreme Commander 2 was always going to be a big event on the RTS calendar. Some of the hardcore staples may have been sacrificed but the experience is so much more sleeker and enjoyable than the original. Maps may have gotten significantly smaller, but the gameplay is much tighter as a result.

Every RTS should empower gamers and SupCom 2 will make you feel like you can take on the world with units to spare.

Most sequels just give gamers more of the same; Gas Powered Games have proven it doesn’t have to be that way. A fantastic improvement on the original in every aspect.

Rating: 9.0

“Each choice you make helps dictate which one of the 21 endings you’ll see”

There’s no greater word to describe Acquire’s latest feudal Japan-‘em-up than ‘peculiar’. It’s a title full of conflicting values as modern game design collides with antiquated traditionalism; as the whiff of liberty offered by the game’s sandbox structure clashes with its ever-present threat of a sudden game over. It’s a game whose pause screens – filled as they are with equipment loadouts, inventory menus and statuses – allude to a deeper RPG experience than the light third-person hack-and-slash quest-fest WotS3 actually is. It’s distinctly Eastern – and given the subject matter, appropriately so – but with a subtle Western vibe at the same time. Which gives this fascinating culture shock a certain appeal.

Way of the Samurai 3 tells the story of a nameless samurai during Japan’s Sengoku Period, where a handful of clans are fighting for authority over the fictional land of Amana. Amana’s a fully openworld filled with various districts to explore, people to meet and jobs to undertake, and though relatively smaller than your average sandbox, each area is filled to the brim with life, from farmers tending their crops and shopkeepers touting their wares, to young maidens being hassled by rogues.

But while that may provoke images of a rural GTA-lite, closer comparisons to WotS3’s structure should (surprisingly be drawn to Quantic Dream’s Heavy Rain and Mass Effect. You see, WotS3 is all about choice, and deciding which places to visit, which faction to side with and when and where to unsheathe your sword is entirely down to you. Much to our surprise, you can do the latter whenever and wherever you like (including within the game’s cut-scenes), and each decision you make can have far-reaching consequences from the very get go, each subtly helping dictate which one of the 21 endings you’re likely to see.

The system comes into play immediately, exampled perfectly by us raising our sword to wanderers offering to heal our wounds during the game’s opening cut-scene, leading to them scarpering and our lone warrior left fending for himself. Unfamiliar with our surroundings, we stumble into a nearby town where we unwittingly challenge someone to a duel. We die – no surprise given the game’s lack of of tutorials or control familiarization – and, after a curious ‘game completion time’ screen, are plunged back to the main menu. Take two.

This time we accept wanderers’ help and are transported to Takatane Village, home to one of the game’s three clans. But once again we find ourselves swiftly dumped, thrust into an area we don’t particularly want to be in and even less so understand. We’re unsure of our objective, or even if there is one; wandering around, approaching as many people as possible and hoping for something to trigger. We even continue on to the next town, hoping for just a hint as to what we’re supposed to be doing. No dice. After almost 30 minutes of aimless wandering, we decide we must have missed something and head back to Takatane. Finally we’re offered a glimmer of hope as we bump into an old lady who has a job for us. ‘Please find my underwear’, she asks. We turn the game off in disgust. You could argue that we’re playing it wrong, but then how are you supposed to play a game like WotS3, given the level of freedom offered to the player? There seems to be a complete lack of direction, the idea of creating your story perhaps going one step too far, failing to offer any sort of waypointing or hints as to where to go next whatsoever. Instead, progression appears to boil down to stumbling into the right place at the right time, and even then it seems to be hit and miss. Even the save points, which we eventually realized to be an NPC, are failed to be marked appropriately as such, while the lack of a map on the HUD meant that we were constantly flicking back and forth between the pause screen to work out where exactly we were supposed to be going.

Of course, even if your experience goes somewhat more successfully than ours – and good for you if so – you’ll have to put up with WotS3’s graphical incompetency, which is something perhaps acceptable at the time of the game’s Japanese release 14 months ago, but less so now. It’s an ugly collection of stiff animation, poor texture work and draw distances, and there’s a certain ‘lat-gen’ vibe to the whole thing.

But much to WotS3’s credit, even after the ludicrous old woman’s knickers escapade, we tried again, eager to be sucked into the world of Amana (in case you’re wondering we did eventually find her underwear, before they somehow got stolen from us by a raven). It’s a game of acquired taste, that you can’t deny, but, if nothing more, one whose sense of freedom and individuality should keep you coming back for more.