Fallout New Vegas is the follow up to the hit RPG Fallout 3. Fallout
is my favorite franchise of all time so maybe my review is slightly biased but
I can'tbelieve the reviews for this game on most sites. First off, New Vegas is
buggy, very buggy but it shouldn't hinder your experience with this game very
much if any at all. I'm only about 40 hours into the game but from what I have
seen so far the game is great. New Vegas is HUGE. There is more interaction
with the inhabitants of the city and there looks to be more weapons. Also the
most rewarding of my experience so far, Weapon Mods. You can add silencers,
scopes, bigger magazines, and Mods that even improve overall damage for that
weapon. Combat is pretty much the
same. Your going to have little luck with aiming on the run or even standing
still for that matter. The game says you need to stop, crouch, and aim for
maximum effectiveness of your weapon but who has time for that with a 500 pound
Supermutant charging at you? VATS is still your best bet at taking down foes
and is just as rewarding as it's predecessor. You can target specific limbs with
VATS, even shoot the gun out of the baddie's hands if your good enough. New Vegas
looks great. A giant leap forward from the drab and depressing Fallout games of
the past, but traveling through the desert feels more lonely than ever. Your
actions in the game determine how certain towns and factions feel about you. I
helped the town of Goodsprings
defeat their enemies which gave me the 'Idolized' status there but in return
the gang i fought now hates me so you have to use strategy more than before. I could go on, and on
about New Vegas but the bottomline is it is still a great game with TONS of
stuff to do. You have to expect bugs with an eviroment so expansive. Yes New
Vegas does play like Fallout 3 but shouldn't it? Fallout 3 was such a huge
success(Game of the Year) that it makes no sense to fix what isn't broke. The
new makeover and content is amazing and the game shouldn't be judged poorly for
being so much like it's previous installment.
Publisher : Bethesda
Softworks Developer : Obsidian Entertainment Genre :RPG Platform(s) : PC / XBOX 360 / PS3 PC Release Date : 19-October-2010
Minimum System Requirements:
Operating System : Microsoft Windows XP / Windows Vista / Windows 7 Processor : Intel Pentium 4 at 2.4 GHz / AMD Athlon XP 2600+ Video Card : 256 MB VRAM – NVIDIA GeForce 7800 / ATI Radeon
X1900 Memory : 1 GB RAM Hard Disk : 7 GB of free Hard Drive space Sound Card: DirectX Compatible Direct X : 9.0c Controls : Keyboard & Mouse Installation :
DVD-ROM Drive
Recommended System Requirements:
Operating System : Microsoft Windows XP / Windows Vista /
Windows 7 Processor : Intel Core 2 Duo at 2.66 GHz / AMD Athlon 64 X2
5200+ Video Card : 512 MB VRAM – NVIDIA GeForce 8800 / ATI Radeon
3800 Memory : 2 GB RAM Hard Disk : 7 GB of free Hard Drive space Sound Card: DirectX Compatible Direct X : 9.0c Controls : Keyboard & Mouse Installation : DVD-ROM Drive
It didn’t feel like we were playing Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit for very
long before EA came out and introduced us to the next game in the franchise,
Need for Speed: The Run. Now here we are several hours later watching the
credits roll on our HDTV. So was this game worth the relatively short wait?
Need For Speed: The Run is a strange one really, if I had to describe its
purpose then I would probably call it a stop gap between Hot Pursuit and the
next game in the series. The reason I think this is because there just isn’t
that much meat too it. I mean sure, outside the single player you have
challenges based on the routes you unlock along the way, multiplayer modes and
the autolog, however we had most of this in Hot Pursuit, so was there really
any need for yet another game in the series? Let the campaign tell us the
answer.
The story behind The Run’s campaign puts you in control of Mr Jackson “Jack”
Rourke. When you join him he is in a rather bad way, having fallen on the wrong
side of the Mafia; not a good place to be I’m sure you will agree. Anyway,
after escaping The Mob, an associate known as Sam Harper directs him to a
competition known as The Run, a 3000 mile journey across the continental United
States, starting in San
Francisco and ending in New York.
What’s good about this is that the prize for coming first is $25,000,000, which
is enough to pay off his debt and give him a rather comfortable life.
As you would expect, coming in first place and therefore winning the cash is
not going to be easy, after all, you do have to take care of 200 opponents,
avoid the police, the mob and put up with a whole lot of mundane cutscenes and
QuickTime events which see you pressing buttons based on prompts to get
yourself out of certain situations. Thankfully what The Run does best is the
driving, giving gamers access to a whole load of different vehicles over the
games 10 stages.
Each stages is broken down into three or four different events, sometimes
more. Most of the driving will have you trying to gain positions in one way or
another, for example, in one race you may be tasked with getting to the finish
line ahead of ten other cars in order to gain on the overall leader; while in
another race you may have to catch an opponent and keep the lead until the time
runs down, before repeating the process with the next opponent. There are many
other types of events too, such as racing to checkpoints and going one on one
against boss characters.
Obviously you won’t always win races and if you do then its simply a case of
the stage being over, with your only option being to restart. Thankfully to
combat this, the developer has included a rewind feature. The amount of times
you can rewind is based on the difficulty you choose and when used throws you
back to the nearest checkpoint, giving you another chance to win. What annoys
me most about this feature is that it seems to take forever to load and get you
back in the race, while on occasion it will also place you in a position from
which its just impossible to win, causing you to have to start the race again.
To mix things up a little the developer has thrown a few spanners in the
works in the shape of the police and later, The Mob. Obviously since you are
speeding about the US, the police aren’t happy about it, therefore during many
of your races they will be in your face, trying to knock you off the road or
throwing road blocks in your way to try and stop you winning the race. Once The
Mob are involved things get even tougher, since they shoot at you and later,
even use a helicopter to try and bring you down.
Thankfully despite all this nastiness, you do at least have some tricks up
you sleeve; during a race, you can drive into a petrol garage and you will be
able to swap cars, going for speed or muscle depending on the environment you
are driving in. Another bonus is that when you can gain experience during a
race, allowing you to increase in level and unlock perks such as nitrous boost.
Increasing in level also gives you even more ways to gain experience, later
awarding you for ramming opponents and police cars off the road, or for
avoiding road blocks. As you gain in level you will also unlock other items
such as custom profile icons, backgrounds and the occasional vehicle.
As is always the case in NFS, the driving in The Run is a joy. The cars are
fast and fun to go behind the wheel of, offering a great, arcade-like
experience. The roads in each stage are also a pleasure to drive on, while also
offering a wide ranging experience, placing you in city streets; wide open
country side and hazardous, snow covered mountain tracks, which have you biting
your fingers to the bone. There can certainly be no complaints about the
driving, it’s just a shame that there isn’t a little more variety in terms of
the campaign.
Outside of the campaign you can also take part in single player challenges.
Each challenge is based on the stages you unlock as you play through.
Challenges consist of various events from the simple such as finishing first in
a race to things like beating the clock or a rival. Depending on your time in
each challenge you will win a medal and as per Hot Pursuit, any time you set
will be placed on the Speedwall.
Obviously, thanks to Autolog and the Speedwall, friends always know your
score, so can challenge you on any of the stages you have unlocked. You can
also check out friends individual stats and of course any recommendations which
the game has for you. The Autolog section also has an area where you can change
your profile and view friends individual stats.
The final section of the game is the multiplayer. Here you can set a
playgroup by inviting friends, or you can just jump online and take part in a
random event, trying to meet any of the objectives which are available to view
before the race starts, which in turn will earn you XP.
Like I said near the start of the review, Need for Speed: The Run is a
strange one. We could have done without another game in the series so soon as
to be perfectly honest, Hot Pursuit is still an amazing game with a more than
sufficient multiplayer aspect. If you don’t own Hot Pursuit then The Run is
definitely one to consider, however if you are looking at The Run for the
campaign alone, then you may find its petrol tank is half empty, rather than
half full.
Publisher: Electronic Arts Developer: EA Black Box Release Date: November
15, 2011 Genre: Racing Platforms: Microsoft Windows, Nintendo 3DS, PlayStation 3,
Wii, Xbox 360, iOS
Minimum System Requirements
* OS: Windows Vista SP2 or Windows 7
* CPU: 2.4 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo or equal AMD
* RAM: 3 GB
* HDD: 18 GB free disk space
* Graphics: 512 MB Graphics Memory
* DirectX: Version 10
* Network: 512 KBPS Internet connection or better Recommended System Requirements
* OS: Windows Vista SP2 or Windows 7
* CPU: 3.0 GHz Intel Core 2 Quad or similar
* RAM: 4 GB
* HDD: 18 GB free disk space
* Graphics: 1 GB Graphics Memory
* DirectX: Version 10/11
* Network: 512 KBPS Internet connection or better Supported Graphics Cards:
Minimum – NVIDIA GeForce 9800 GT or ATI Radeon 4870
Recommended – NVIDIA GeForce GTX560 or ATI Radeon 6950
F.E.A.R. 3 features many of the integral pieces necessary to deliver frights
– haunting sound effects, an arresting atmosphere, and foreboding environments
– yet too often the game recycles old techniques that proved scary in 2005 but
do little to raise my blood pressure now. Alma’s
apparition has strolled across my path so many times at this point she’s more
like an annoying pest than a fearsome poltergeist.
The uninspired story does even less to make the hairs stand up on the back
of your neck. At the end of Project Origin, protagonist Michael Beckett somehow
impregnated the demented psychic. Now estranged brothers Point Man and Paxton
Fettel have reunited, and Fettel wants the family to attend the birth of their
new sibling. Before they start buying Hallmark cards, however, the brothers
have some issues to work out. The primary gripe? Point Man murdered his bro in
the first game.
This uneasy alliance sets the stage for the campaign, a five-hour experience
best played in co-op. One user plays as Point Man, a weapons expert who can
momentarily slow down time during battle. The other controls Fettel, the
infinitely more interesting apparition who can suspend enemies in the air,
shock them to death from afar, and inhabit enemy bodies for a short time to use
their weapons. It’s a shame the abilities aren’t more balanced, because his
unique skills make Fettel the clear-cut preference.
F.E.A.R. 3’s campaign is short on terror, but the satisfying action keeps it
from being a complete loss. The enemies are more aggressive than typical
shooters; opposing soldiers constantly trying to flank you in open spaces, the
dog-like scavengers attack in packs, and cultists rush at you like hordes of
brain-dead zombies. The few mech encounters in particular are menacing. These hulking
machines proved surprisingly agile, making their way into areas I thought were
safe.
Some levels are so poorly designed it’s hard to tell where you’re supposed
to go next, but many have a memorable atmosphere. As you move through the
quarantined city’s abandoned prisons, desolate suburbs, and ruined commercial
districts, the bleakness of the circumstance is palpable. My favorite locations
were an abandoned bulk retail outlet, where a crazed group of freaks spring
from behind walls of glowing HDTVs, and the creepy suburban neighborhood, which
featured candlelit homes defaced with demonic ramblings scribbled in blood on
white walls.
While playing through the campaign, each player racks up points for
completing specific challenges. Though the game never tells you outright, these
scores determine which ending you see. If Point Man has a higher score, he
becomes the dominant character in the conclusion. If Fettel wins, his decisions
drive the finale. It would have been nice to know beforehand, because it may
have encouraged more backstabbing and point hoarding during my playthrough,
during which Reiner and I often shared the wealth.
The single player campaign may lack suspense, but the multiplayer delivers
it in bulk. Day 1 Studios deserves credit forgoing the deathmatch/team
deathmatch/capture the flag multiplayer mode holy trinity in favor of more
colorful choices. The star mode is F---ing Run, a speed trial that tasks four
players with pressing through enemies at a breakneck speed while avoiding the
Wall of Death chasing them from behind. Contractions is another winner – a
frantic spin-off of Call of Duty’s Zombie mode where you must scavenge for
supplies in between waves of enemies. The last two modes, which revolve around
possessing enemy bodies, are also a welcome change of pace. A universal ranking
accrues points for your campaign and multiplayer exploits, but without a system
of unlocks or rewards I wonder how long players will stick around.
In many ways, the F.E.A.R. story feels like it has run its course. Like most
long-running horror series, the scares that thrilled us years ago no longer do
the trick, and as I learn more about Alma’s
family, the less interested I become in trudging forward. However, if you
hardly pay attention to narratives and are looking for a fun multiplayer
experience, F.E.A.R. 3 is worth checking out.
Publisher: Warner Bros.
Interactive Developer: Day 1 Studios Release Date: May
24, 2011 Genre: First-person shooter, survival horror Platforms: Microsoft Windows, Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 Minimum System Requirements
* OS: Windows XP, Vista or Windows 7
* CPU: Intel Core 2 Duo @ 2.4 Ghz / AMD Athlon 64 X2 4800+
* RAM: 2 GB
* HDD: 10 GB free disk space
* Graphics: 512 MB Graphics Memory
* Sound Card: DirectX 9 Compatible
* DirectX: Version 9.0c Recommended System Requirements
* OS: Windows XP, Vista or Windows 7
* CPU: Intel Core 2 Quad @ 2.66 GHz / AMD Phenom II X4 @ 3.0 GHz
* RAM: 4 GB
* HDD: 10 GB free disk space
* Graphics: 1 GB Graphics Memory
* Sound Card: DirectX 9 Compatible
* DirectX: Version 11 Supported Graphics Cards:
Minimum – nVidia GeForce 8800 GT / ATI Radeon HD 3850
Recommended – nVidia GeForce GTS 450 / ATI Radeon HD 5750
confess, as a diehard PC fan, I had my doubts about Crysis 2
– particularly in the compromises (both technical and gameplay) required to
drag this intelligent, open-plan game to other formats. However, although some
ambitions have been tempered, this is still a hugely daring and different FPS,
whichever platform you play it on
Let's start with the graphics, because some forums have been
noting the PS3 version lags behind the 360 (and naturally the PC) version in
both screen resolution and frame rate. Having only had a brief time with the
360 version, I can say that whatever difference there was, it was not easy to
spot and the proprietary CryEngine 3 can comfortably hold its own with any FPS
around. Compared to the photo-realistic textures of Killzone 3, it does
occasionally look a little washed out, and the brightness settings may need
some adjusting on your TV. However, the water and lighting effects are stunning
and, combined with the destructible scenery, ensures that almost every vista;
from ravaged bullet-ridden streets to panoramic horizons, are dripping with
natural light and shade.
In terms of gameplay, as with the original, the generous single player
campaign can be approached in three different ways. If you want to sneak
around, you switch your nano suit to Stealth mode, whilst Armour mode allows
you to charge in all guns blazing and Strength powers up your speed and jumps.
All three use energy, which is the only real restriction on how you approach
your task of liberating New York from alien invasion, but the ability to
instantly swap between modes takes Crysis 2 to a level of tactical flexibility
that most FPSs can only dream about.
EA took serious flack over the recent PS3 multiplayer demo, particularly
with connection and frame rate problems. PS3 servers were still intermittent at
the time of writing, but what I can attest to are 12 richly detailed maps and
six online modes, unlocked as you gain experience and including the usual
Deathmatch and capture the flag variants. In play, Crysis 2 multiplayer harks
back to the twitch-reactions of Quake Arena rather than Call of Duty's more
methodical squad-based approach. The key difference is the nano suit, combined
with a huge supply of upgrades that allow you to unlock new weapon or suit
abilities as you level up. Balancing so many different abilities may yet take
some work by the developers, but even now the shock induced by one rival
power-jumping into your midst while two more blink out of sight in mid strafe
is quite unlike anything else around.
So far, so good. But Crysis 2 on this platform has a few niggles that
collectively make a difference to the final score. For a start, neither of the
two controller layouts felt particularly comfortable – particularly mapping
Fire to the L/R1 buttons rather than the more comfortable/conventional L/R2.
Also, compared to the open-plan nature of the original, Crysis 2 is decidedly
more linear. It may focus attention on the action, but it's a pity the total
freedom of Far Cry, compromised for the original Crysis, continues to be
constrained here. There are technical glitches too; some (such as occasionally
dodgy enemy AI) that can be patched, others (this was the first game to crash
my PS3 repeatedly) that add to the suspicion that Crytek is still far from
mastering Sony's hardware. Crysis 2 is an impressive beast – but maybe you need
to see it on a PC to appreciate just how impressive.
Publisher: Electronic Arts Developer: Crytek Frankfurt, Crytek UK Release Date: March
22, 2011 Genre: First-Person Shooter System Requirements
* OS: Windows XP (32-64 bit) / Windows Vista (32-64 bit) / Windows 7 (32-64
bit)
* CPU: Intel Core 2 Duo 2.0 GHz, AMD Athlon 64 X2 2.0 GHz or better
* RAM: 2 GB XP / 3 GB Vista – Windows 7
* HDD: 9 GB free disk space
* Graphics: 512 MB Graphics Memory
* Sound Card: DirectX 9 Compatible
* DirectX: Version 9.0c Supported Graphics Cards:
NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GT or ATI/AMD Radeon HD 3850 or higher
Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim ... yes, there are dragons to
battle. You were expecting kittens?
For those of you who haven't played any of the Elder Scrolls franchise, it
is a series of open-world, sandbox RPGs that take place on the fictional
continent of Tamriel. Leveling up in this series is done by leveling up various
skills and in order to get better at each of these skills, you must actually
use the skill in-game. Also, in essence the player is able to be whoever they
want and do whatever they want within the confines of the game. The player is
even able to entirely ignore the main questline if they wanted.
Just like the rest of the series, at the start of Skyrim, the player must
create a character. The main difference however is that, normally the player is
allowed to pick a race, alter their appearance, and then select their class,
major attributes, and birth sign; in Skyrim, selecting a class and major attributes
is almost entirely thrown out the window. Instead, the player builds up various
skills through using them, and eventually building up a more abstract set of
major attributes. This means that as the player uses specific skills more often
based around how they play, the skills they use more often affect their ability
to level up more than using skills that they use less often, thus their
"major attributes" are they skills that they use more often. Also,
through the removal of classes, the player's style of play is no longer
confined by their class like in past Elder Scrolls games.
Birth signs were also not entirely removed, but were actually replaced by
various stones, each representing a specific sign, found throughout Skyrim,
where if the player activates one of these stones, they get a special perk from
it, based off of the sign specified.
Another detail that has been altered between past Elder Scrolls games and
Skyrim is the level up system. The requirements for leveling up remain
unchanged for the most part (the exception being that any skill increase
contributes to leveling up instead of only increasing major skills), the main
difference is in the process of leveling up. Normally, the player would have to
find a bed and rest in order to level up and then select three stats (choosing
between Strength, Enderance, Wisdom, Intelligence, Speed, Agility, Personality,
and Luck), each of which governing various skills. In Skyrim, this has been
changed to just choosing between increasing their Health, Magicka, or Stamina,
and then selecting a perk for one of their skills (which each skill has their
own, separate skill tree).
Outside of creating your character and leveling up, the actual gameplay of
Skyrim feels more fluid and realistic compared to past Elder Scrolls games,
especially in the battle system. In past games, when the player attacks, it
usually felt very floaty and before Oblivion, when the player attacked an
enemy, the game would decide whether the attack actually hit or not and how
much damage was done, based off of the level of that individual skill. In
Skyrim however, if the player attacks an enemy, it is guaranteed to hit, only
the damage is determined around the level of the individual skill used. The
player is also able to dual wield weapons and/or magic if they wish, unlike in
past games.
Also, many battles tend to be very interesting, especially with the fact
that almost every dungeon (if not all) features a "boss" at the end
ranging from especially powerful mages and undead heroes to giant spiders and
dwemer centaurions (which are like giant ancient mechs).
Minimum Specs
Windows 7/Vista/XP PC (32 or
64 bit)
Processor: Dual Core 2.0GHz
or equivalent processor
2GB System RAM
6GB free HDD Space
Direct X 9.0c compliant video
card with 512 MB of RAM
DirectX compatible sound card
Internet access for Steam
activation
Recommended Specs
Windows 7/Vista/XP PC (32 or
64 bit)
Processor: Quad-core Intel or
AMD CPU
4GB System RAM
6GB free HDD space
DirectX 9.0c compatible
NVIDIA or AMD ATI video card with 1GB of RAM (Nvidia GeForce GTX 260 or
higher; ATI Radeon 4890 or higher).
What does the American Dream
mean today? For Niko Belic, fresh off the boat from Europe. It's the hope he can escape his past. For his
cousin, Roman, it is the vision that together they can find fortune in LibertyCity, gateway to
the land of opportunity. As they slip into debt and are dragged into a criminal
underworld by a series of shysters, thieves and sociopaths, they discover that
the reality is very different from the dream in a city that worships money and
status, and is heaven for those who have them an a living nightmare for those
who don't. [Rockstar Games]… or
GTA IV reinvents the series with a renewed version of Liberty
City detailed to the last pothole
and rooftop vent. There are now four boroughs to explore plus extra area
outside of Liberty City
proper. With the ability to climb obstacles, drive cars, steer boats and pilot
helicopters, the world of GTA is more accessible than ever before.
In this fourth installment of the popular series, players take on the role
of Niko Bellic, a rough-around-the-edge chap from Eastern Europe.
Niko has arrived in America,
in Liberty City
-- a land full of promise and opportunity. His cousin convinced him to
emigrate, to join him in his mansion and life of luxury, but as soon as he
steps off the boat, Niko discovers the truth about the American way. Still, the
wealth, the comfort, the bliss of the good life, it all really is here ... And
it's all for the taking.
GTA 4 Minimum System Requirements
Processor:
Intel Core 2 Duo 1.8Ghz
or equivalent AMD Athlon X2 64 2.4Ghz
Memory/RAM:
1GB for XP and 1.5GB for Vista
Video Card:
256MB NVIDIA 7900 or 256MB ATI X1900
Hard Disk Space:
16GB free
Operating System:Windows XP SP3 or Windows Vista
SP1
is a weird game, and that's probably exactly what it needs to be to stand
out. Driver 3 was a
real mess of a game, and the sloppy 1970s-tinged follow-up, Parallel Lines,
wasn't much better. Driver: SF adds some interesting mechanics that help keep
the action--which is otherwise comprised of your basic open-world driving game
missions--from getting too stale. It's backed up by some interesting
multiplayer options and a fun story that helps justify the game's mechanics
while also giving the entire production a real "basic cable TV show"
kind of quality that keeps the whole thing light and entertaining.
In the opening moments of Driver: San Francisco,
your character, John Tanner,
is put into a coma during a prison break by his longtime nemesis, Charles Jericho. But instead
of just giving you eight hours of staring at a hospital bed, the game takes you
inside Tanner's head, where everything seems to be proceeding as if nothing
ever happened... except for the part where he can leave his body and hover high
above San Francisco.
Once you're having an out-of-body experience, you can warp back down into any
vehicle in the city. Your possession of people works Quantum Leap style,
so you'll look like Tanner, but when he looks in the mirror, he sees the body
of the person he's possessing. Same goes for any passengers. With this ability
at your fingertips, a lot of the typical driving game missions become a lot
easier. Need to take down an opposing racer? Or stop a fleeing criminal? Warp
into the driver's seat of a big rig and take them out with a head-on collision.
Need to get across the city in a hurry? As you progress through the story, you
can go higher and higher, making it a snap to cover great distances. It's pretty
cool.
Of course, Tanner still thinks all of this stuff is happening in the real
world, and he's a little shocked by these newfound abilities. So a lot of the
fun comes from seeing him freak out about it and, eventually, start to figure
out what, exactly, has happened to him. The story is broken up into chapters,
and much of the actual story unfolds in cutscenes. It all feels like a cheesy
buddy cop show with a bit of supernatural weirdness thrown in to freshen it all
up a bit, even if it all comes together precisely the way you think it will.
The game is set in an open-world version of San
Francisco, which works well because of its varied
terrain and extreme hills. That said, if you're a local, don't expect to find
your house. It's a stylized take on the city with a handful of the bigger
landmarks. The basic districts are where they belong, at least, but the roads
are way wider. It also models a bit of Marin
County on the other side of the
bridge, but the game is so unrealistic that it doesn't even feel that strange
that the game always mispronounces the word "Marin." That aside, it's
a great-looking version of San Francisco
that runs at 60 frames per second, which goes a long way. This helps the game
with its sense of speed and makes the whole experience just a little bit more
pleasant across the board.
MIssion-wise, Driver: San Francisco sticks fairly close to the standard sort
of design you'd expect from a game that doesn't let you get out of the car.
You'll race around in checkpoint races, you'll takedown escaping criminals, get
away from chasing enemies, and perform stunts in specific areas. Most of the
missions aren't too difficult, though the open-world nature of the game does
mean that sometimes the traffic will be lined up in a way that specifically screws
you over, which is, of course, frustrating. That said, I only had to retry
around four or five missions over the course of the entire game. One of those
is the second-to-last mission, which is an amazing moment that I won't spoil,
but it's worth noting that at one point it bugged out and prevented me from
shifting out of my car, making it impossible to complete the objective. A reset
and reload of the game got me back in with no further issues. Shifting from car
to car freshens up these old mission ideas, but if you're already totally burnt
out on this type of game, it's probably not enough to suck you back in.
On top of the story, which will last you six or seven hours if you skip the
superfluous side stuff, the game has an interesting multiplayer side that
builds a lot of quick mini games around the shift mechanic. Having a group of
cops chasing one runner becomes a lot more interesting when the cops can jump
into oncoming traffic, which turns any car into a cop car. When you're getting
away, there's a sense of paranoia that comes from knowing that any of the
oncoming cars could turn into a cop at a moment's notice and attempt to ram you
head-on. Tag and other modes keep the action varied, and you'll earn experience
along the way that gives you more multiplayer abilities. If you like, you can
also just free-drive around the city with your friends or get into realistic
races that disable all of the game's abilities.
It's short and light, but that doesn't mean that Driver: San
Francisco is insubstantial. It has a good open world
with a lot of options, and its supernatural cop tale builds to an effective
climax that gives you a super-crazy ability that's absolutely worth
experiencing for yourself... even if it only lasts for one mission.
Publisher: Ubisoft Developer: Ubi. Reflections Release Date: Aug
30, 2011 Genre: Modern Action Adventure, Driving Minimum System Requirements
* OS: Windows XP, Vista or Windows 7
* CPU: Intel Pentium D 3.0 Ghz or AMD Athlon64 X2 4400+ 2.2Ghz
* RAM: 1GB Windows XP / 2GB Windows Vista/7
* HDD: 10 GB free disk space
* Graphics: 256 MB Graphics Memory with shader 4.0
* Sound Card: DirectX 9 Compatible
* DirectX: Version 9.0c Recommended System Requirements
* OS: Windows XP, Vista or Windows 7
* CPU: Intel Core2Quad Q6600 2.4Ghz or Athlon II X4 620 2.6Ghz
* RAM: 2 GB
* HDD: 8 GB free disk space
* Graphics: 512 MB Graphics Memory with Shader 4.0
* Sound Card: DirectX 9 Compatible
* DirectX: Version 10 Supported Graphics Cards:
ATI®: Radeon HD2600XT & above, HD3850 & above, HD4650 & above,
HD5650 & above, HD6450 & above. nVidia®: GeForce 8600GT & above,
9600GT & above), GT130 & above, GT240 & above, GT320 & above,
GT430 & above, GT 530 & above.
You are Alex Mercer, the Prototype: a shapeshifter with amazing powers of
combat, destruction, and deception. Consume targets for their form and memories
to assume a perfect disguise, or instantly transform your body into an array of
deadly biological weapons, cutting your way to the heart of the conspiracy
forty years in the making. Stalk the streets of New York
City, searching for the life you lead before. Take the
form of anyone in your path, using an arsenal of identities to confound,
exploit or annihilate your enemies. Mankind is your mask. Wage a secret war
against factions with complex agendas of their own, out to capture or kill you.
They are your greatest threat and the key to the secrets of your past. Confront
them, find those responsible and make them pay. Shapeshifting: Attack with
brutal and devastating powers; instantly triggering hundreds of power
combinations (Attack, Defensive and Sensory). Disguise: Assume the perfect
disguise by transforming into any character and assuming the victim's powers,
skills and abilities. New York City
is your hunting ground! Jam-packed, vibrant, fully interactive city filled with
thousands of people and enemies out to destroy you. Delve to the bottom of a
conspiracy that has haunted the American government for decades. Who is
responsible for your condition? Only you can find out
Windows® XP (with Service Pack 3) and DirectX® 9.0c or
(Windows Vista® with Service Pack 2)
Video Card: 256 MB 3D hardware accelerator card required - 100% DirectX® 9.0c
with Shader Model 3 support*
Processor: Pentium(R) Intel Core® 2 Duo 2.6 GHz or AMD Athlon 64 X2 3800+ or
better
RAM: 1 GB of RAM for Windows ® XP / 2 GB Windows ® Vista systems
Hard Drive Space: 8 GB of uncompressed hard disk space (Plus 500MB for swap
file.)
Sound Card: DirectX 9.0 –compliant sound card
DVD-ROM: DVD-ROM
Peripheral:
100% Windows(R) XP/Vista - compatible mouse, keyboard and drivers
100% Windows(R) XP/Vista - compatible 4X DVD-ROM drive or better (600
K/sec sustained transfer rate) and drivers
*Supported Chipsets for Windows(R) XP and Vista
All NVIDIA® GeForce™ 7800 256 MB and better chipsets
All ATI® Radeon™ X1800 256 MB and better chipsets
Well somebody at Ubisoft’s been watching Inception. Assassin’s Creed: Revelations begins with chronically plank-faced protagonist Desmond washing up on a sad-looking desert island. He’s told, by a digital ghost, that this is the default setup of the device that lets him explore his past lives – the Animus. Essentially, he’s trapped inside an autoexec.bat file.But in a move that would make Christopher Nolan blush, while you control Desmond’s Renaissance ancestor Ezio in Constantinople, Ezio is himself discovering magical memory-unlocking keys left behind by his 12th century ancestor Altair. If time travelling, science-fiction oddness is what put you off Assassin’s Creed in the past, prepare to groan a decade of groans as Revelations routinely expends drastic countermeasures trying to avoid doing what it does best.
What it does best, of course, is death, and the third game in the trilogy has entire morgues of the stuff. Arriving in Constantinople in search of his keys, a bearded, greying and creaky-shouldered Ezio ends up embroiled in a conspiratorial Templar powergrab. Cue the series’ most championed features: Ezio shadowing targets, infiltrating enemy strongholds, free-running and executing choreographed, riotous assassinations. Stabbing somebody in the neck has never looked so much like ballet.Bombs and bomb-crafting have arrived too, in case you don’t remember requesting this feature. Ezio can use bomb ingredients to construct dozens of different kinds of exciting explosives, from sticky shrapnel bombs and stink bombs to poison-gas tripwires and pedestrianslowing caltrop grenades. The usefulness of these devices varies depending on whether or not you remember they exist, and it’s remarkably easy to forget that they do. The game seems awkwardly obsessed with its new bombs. Almost every chest in the city contains a sort of gunpowder or bomb casing, and the cities you conquer shower you with daily deliveries of bomb ingredients. But bombs feel as brash, blunt and clumsy as Ezio isn’t, requiring you to reconfigure your fingers and brain to unfamiliar positions to use them. The alternative of open combat or impromptu parkour requires less mental effort, and you’ll find yourself relying on these escape methods more. Rather more saddening is that you’ll soon be carrying as many bomb ingredients as is permitted, until your magpie instinct for looting chests withers and drops off entirely. Instead you’ll ignore those hitherto glistening treats, with glum resignation.
Minimum System Requirements:
- Windows XP or Vista
- 2 GB RAM
- Dual core processor (Intel Pentium D or better)
- 256MB Direct3D 10 compatible video card, or Direct3D 9 card compatible with Shader Model 3.0 or higher
- DirectX compatible driver
- DVD-ROM dual-layer drive
- 16 GB free hard disk space
- DirectX libraries (included)
- Vista compatible sound card
- Keyboard, Mouse
- Microsoft Xbox 360 Controller (optional)
Recommended System Requirements:
- Intel Pentium Core 2 Duo, or better processor
- 3 GB System RAM
- ATI HD2900 series, Nvidia GeForce 8800 series, or better video card
- 5.1 sound card
- Microsoft Xbox 360 controller
- Supported Video Cards at Time of Release
- DirectX10 compatible cards, recommended ATI HD2900 series, Nvidia GeForce 8800 series
- Direct3D 9 card compatible with Shader Model 3.0 or higher
I should recommend having a dual analog controller while playing, check out my post on Gamepads for more help .
