RENT

The sequel to Earth Defense Force 2017, Earth Defense Force: Insect Armageddon takes place on an Earth that is once again devastated and infested by giant alien insects. Naturally, only Earth Defense Force can stop them. it’s up to you and your team, Strike Force Lightning, to defend the city of New Detroit against the otherwordly invasion by deestroying the hordes any way you can (even if that means using a building to crush them into an alien insect version of crunchy peanut butter).

 I’ll be honest: I’ve never even heard of the  Earth Defense Force series of games so I didn’t have any expectations when I loaded this up on my Steam account. The game is a third-person shooter, and you can play through a Campaign, Survival  or Co-op mode, each consisting of your generic military dude working his way through wave after wave of alien insects. As Pvt. Hudson would say, it’s  a straight up bug hunt and that’s it. There isn’t much in the way of character customization, there isn’t much in the way of story, but there is a lot in the way of killing big alien bugs. A lot. It was super boring after about ten minutes.

Now, my finding this game boring could be due to a few factors. First, I mainly stuck to Survival Mode because I didn’t have any Steam friends to play Co-op with and I got tired of there being no checkpoints in Campaign (you die, you start the entire mission from the start). Second, because there isn’t a story this is mainly a game where you repeat the same thing over and over again, horde after horde of gigantic alien bugs you have to make your way through. Grinding, in the video game sense, is not my forte and it makes me very sleepy very quickly. Third and finally, I had issues with trying to control the camera and my PC on a massive scale. This one I’m willing to take on as user error since I’m not the most expereinced computer gamer beyond the point and click story games. I feel like I would have had less issues (and less motion sickness) if I were playing it on a console istead, but like I said that’s definitely a personal issue and not a game issue specifically.

The good points of the game were that, before it got old hash, mowing down huge bugs was just good old fashion fun, especially in a destructible environment. All the vehicles scattered about the city streets could blow up, all the buildings could crumble to the ground, and both could damage anything around them in the process. Again though, playing single instead of multiple player made the process of destruction seem to drag on forever (the entire game itself isn’t very long - three chapters, each consisting of five missions), and I feel like if I had friends to destroy stuff with I would have been left with a more enthusiastic attitude toward this game. If you’re a lonely bug hunt like myself, you’ll be left with the feeling that you’re destined to repeat Groundhog’s Day until you reach that final mission. If you have it in you to reach that final mission.

After finishing my second beta weekend, and with the NDA lifted, I wanted to splurge about how much I love the new Star Wars: The Old Republic – and how I don’t see it as an MMO. And that’s what’s getting me to play it (I’m not much of an MMO player).  A Bioware game through and through, there are a lot of things that I love and that have got me excited for the release this December. A warning for possible spoilers, though I’ve done my best to avoid anything major.

As of now, I’ve levelled two different classes into their mid 20s, and my partner has played two as well – Sith Inquisitor and Smuggler for me, and Sith Warrior and Republic Trooper for him. We played on PvE servers for the most recent beta, and got to see both the Imperials and rebel scu – I mean, Republic side of the galaxy. I won’t deny – we ended up playing dark side for all of them. Sorry, no screens from the gameplay – I forgot, and was too busy playing! 

1. The Voice Acting

Bioware has lauded this as the main reason for what makes this MMO different – and there is no escaping it. YES this makes the game different, it’s engaging, it’s hilarious, it made me interested in the characters and what they were doing. The voice acting is amazing, not only for your PC and companions, but for everyone you interact with as well. Nuanced, talented and varied, the voice acting adds a level to this game – and honestly? This is what makes it a Bioware game to me. 

2. Companions

You get a variety of companions based on what class you play, and your actions in the game affect their opinion of you. It’s an affection system, with them approving or disapproving of what you do – and you can go in the negative! You also gain experience from interacting with your companions! Which I thought was a great motivator. 

Your companions are engaging – if they’re present when you’re in a conversation with an NPC, they often chime in. As they start to like you more (based on conversation approval/disapproval and gift giving), they want to talk to you about your life and theirs. They have interesting back stories, are the types of companions you want (one word – WOOKIE), and make the game more immersive. 

My example for this is the smuggler merchant you get with the Smuggler class, Corso Riggs. A chivalrous farm boy who went to find adventure after personal tragedy, his attitude fit perfectly with the swarthy, snarky smuggler I was playing. He’s sweet, he’s tough, and he’s on your side. To me, he seemed cater made for someone wanting to find the ‘Bioware touch’ in this game – loved him to bits. He makes me want to play Republic, when I’m a pretty hardcore Imperial!

3. The Stories & Writing

I’m not a classic MMO player. I’ve looked forward to SW:TOR because of the RPG aspects, and I don’t think Bioware let this one down. I think it’s been worth the wait – and I can remember when they announced the Star Wars MMO all those years ago. The quest lines I got involved in were engaging, got me charged – and I can’t wait to play again because I want to find out what happens. Even side-quests seem worthwhile and have stock – in many ways, because of the voice acting. 

The writing does not let down in my opinion, and stays true to what Bioware has established themselves as – great writers of story AND dialogue. The lines the characters use are hilarious, snarky, cruel etc. — I listen to it all, because I want to know what they say and how they react. And yes – you can flirt with lots of people hah. Which I loved (and may have done, making poor Corso incredibly jealous).

4. The connections to KOTOR

Yes! They are there! In any of the classes I played, it was possible to come across side quests that related back to things that happened in KOTOR. It tickled me pink to see this – to see what happened to some of the people and places. 

Seeing Taris a few hundred years after the orbital bombardment was stunning. Learning what people think of Revan (you know I have a soft spot) got me giggly. There’s more too, but I don’t want to give too much away.  

5. Alone or with friends

My first beta weekend I was playing by myself – I got in, and my partner didn’t (much to his dismay). I can be pretty anti-social, so I went at it alone. I mostly followed my class quest story-line. It was easy enough to do – though I did find random groups for some flashpoints and heroic (harder) group missions with relative ease. This past weekend, my partner and I were able to play together almost from the get go, because we chose complimentary characters – we were on the same starting worlds. It was fun to see the quest lines (you watch other classes as a spectator – and get to see the cut scenes), I loved the cut scenes, I loved the dialogue – it felt like a co-op RPG most of the time. There were the two of us, and our two companions, kicking ass and taking names. And we were all out of bubble gum. 

When you’re in a group, you roll for dialogue options – but are still rewarded if you are the one to speak or not and there’s a dark/light side choice involved. NPCs also acknowledge that you’re in a group a lot of the time, which I was surprised by.

6. Expansive worlds, environment/presence

The worlds feel big – and honestly? I found them beautiful. They aren’t Skyrim quality, but for an interactive, expansive galaxy, I found the landscapes and cityscapes made you feel small. I wanted to look at them. I wanted to go through them. The architecture suits Republic or Sith, and it adds to your experience. I am the type to get in the head of my characters, and think about where we’re going and why, and the environments helped do that.

As well, the music in the game is amazing. I love the Star Wars themes, and a lot of them make a reappearance, in addition to new themes. It changes based on battles and location, and it can really add things to not only fights, but cut-scenes and quest lines. 

7. Light Side/ Dark Side — ethical quandries

If you want to be evil, you can be really REALLY evil in this game. I don’t have as much experience with the light side choices, I won’t deny. You can shoot people in the back when they don’t do what you want, you can threaten to torture children, you can electrocute prisoners to gain information from them, take bribes, or sell plague cures for profit – and more! 

Sure you could do this in any other MMO, but in this game you hear it all. Once more, this is where the voice acting really shines. When you threaten people, they beg and plead, when they die, they scream and cry. I wanted to see how far my character could go – how evil and malicious they could really be. You hear the indignation, you hear the suffering… and you end up feeling bad for it. 

8. Multiple games

Overall, I think it’s obvious that this game has been in the work for as long as it has been – and that it’s been worth the wait. The care and time put into it shows – it’s amazing. I don’t know what else to say about it. I want to play each of the classes because I want to experience their story lines, companions, loves, hates, trials and tribulations. I’m going to sink a lot of time into it. But I think it’ll be worth it. I never felt like I was grinding, because I loved the stories, the side quests, the voice acting and interactions. Classic MMO players may not like it because it is an MMORPG – with stress on the RPG.  There is a lot you can do in SW:TOR. Whether it’s questing, grinding (if it’s your thing, not mine), there are space battles (simple, but I won’t deny I loved them), exciting PvP warzones that are a game (huttball) or actual combat. I tried them all, and I liked them all. You can go do different activities based on your mood – and you get rewards and experience for all of it. 
As well, there were visible and worthwhile improvements from one beta to the next (a month’s time) – so I have no doubt only more time and love will go into keeping it amazing. I want to see the end games – I want to see if there are ends to these characters stories. For the few months I played WoW way back when, I can’t ever remember thinking anything remotely like that. Sounds more like a stand alone RPG, eh?

I’m eagerly awaiting mid-December – when my pre-release access opens and you’ll all stop hearing from me. Needless to say, I’m concealing the real reason for my ‘staycation’ this holiday season.

Rating:

TRY

PayDay: The Heist has been highly anticipated since its announcement, as it allows for co-operative shooter gameplay without the zombies AND it’s on the PlayStation 3. As you can probably gather from the title art to the left, PayDay is all about committing heinous robberies and stealing ginormous sums of cash. A couple of missions vary from this boilerplate, but the overall gameplay is about the same. You can do so either alone with three AI bots or with friends, much like Left 4 Dead. Also like Left 4 Dead, it’s really not that fun to play alone or even with strangers over the PSN. You need friends to go a-heisting.

PayDay pits you in some crazy plot devices for your acts of thievery, many of which seem like they’d be better suited in an episode of Mission: Impossible. It’s all to keep you interested and to lengthen the time of the heist, but they’re too obviously so. After five or six “go here” and “do that” objectives, the mission becomes stale. Even though the leveling system and skill trees change every heist–new weapons, items, or bonuses–it’s not enough to keep you going for extended periods of time. At least…not by yourself.

If you play alone, then you are responsible for every little piece of the operation. You have to fetch the drill, place the thermite, load the loot, etc. The bots will help you shoot the cops and security guards, and they’re really good about reviving you if you get shot too many times, but don’t expect them to help you get any Trophies. For those, you’re going to need companions with a working brain who can follow instructions other than “follow me” and “shoot that!”

However, the only way to play with companions are with your friends. Playing online with total strangers is not pleasant, to say the least, and it’s actually harder to successfully coordinate a heist with people you don’t know than with bots. At least with friends, you can dole out orders or announce which cop you’ll chase down without inadvertently making another player mad or prompting them to call you an idiot (or worse). Honestly, find at least one other friend to play with or don’t bother loading up the game at all.

The game’s mechanics are sound, but the game’s presentation is not. None of the game’s controls are explained to you at the outset or even in the main menus. I couldn’t figure out how to crouch down for the life of me until I sat in a corner and pressed all of the buttons to see what they did. The game’s skill trees are also never fully divulged while playing. I didn’t know I could swap between three different skill trees until I heard Greg Miller discuss the game on his IGN podcast. I checked the main menus to see if I missed anything, and they mentioned the skill trees, but not much beyond “oh yeah, they exist.”

Even when a game is based on co-op play, a game should still teach players how to play. No one wants to sit and read a bunch of instructions about how this works when you have three other people waiting on you. All it takes are some carefully placed pop-ups.

In the end, if you have three friends you’ve been dying to play some co-op shooter action with on the PSN, then this is a perfect game for only $20. If your only option is to play alone or with strangers, then I strongly urge you to download the demo first.

Also available on: PC

You start off in the starting zone and move through quests that follow a very martial arts feel to them. You have to fight training dummies, apprentices, and then a master before being sent to help protect a village and save supplies. The world itself is absolutely stunning in appearance and the new mobs look fantastic. You can tell that they’ve put a lot of work into this just for Blizzcon, so I can only see good things for when they have more time and can really sit and focus on expanding the art style and improving the look and feel of the game.

Now as for the new race themselves, that has been getting the most mixed reviews. Some players don’t like it since it seems too cutsey while others are actually pretty happy that they can get to play pandas. Not surprisingly only the male pandaren were available to play and had concept art shown. We were even told that this is not the final model for male pandaren and that it will see several tweaks done to it up until the release of the game. With all of the time they took to make over, for example, the Worgen before Cataclysm and the design changels that happened with the models shows that they will work up until close to launch to make sure that the models look good and will make the majority of the community happy.

As for how the Monk plays, the biggest thing for me was not being used to seeing an auto attack. Other than that the resource bar and management was actually pretty well done and pretty easy to pick up on. Once I got the hang of how to use the attacks, it’s actually a pretty fluid class to play in the beginning stages. It made me interested to see how the class would play once you get past level 10 and begin to focus on your talents and what spec you will go into. Based on what was talked about during the WoW Q&A, I’m super interested to check out how healing on a Monk since they will apparently be more mobile and have some interesting abilities, like setting down statues that will help to heal party members that they’re near as the Monk DPSes.

All in all I don’t mind how the male pandaren look right now. I wouldn’t mind if they could turn out more rugged as I think it would be more ideal, but for a start it’s not that bad. I also don’t mind that things are brighter and not as dark as they have been the past couple of expansions. I think this change along with the fact that we’re going back to Alliance and Horde fighting against each other will make for a good next expansion. I look forward to all of the updates that are going to eventually come out regarding MoP, and of course the eventual beta invite that I know I will get with my WoW Annual Pass!

First we were shown some new images from the game and a trailer to give us a taste of the game.  After we were given the choice to pick the roles we’d like to do the boss encounter with. I chose the archer since it’s a class I’m most familiar with. Our Editor-in-Chief, @Cherithe, was with me and she sat in to play the Mage.  Once everyone was ready to go, we started off this mini-dungeon. After a Leroy Jenkins type trash pull, we started in on the boss. And let me say, doing a boss fight with two developers on your team can make for pretty good party banter.

Now the boss fight itself was actually pretty interesting. Since Tera is all about the action part, no matter what role you have, you’re gonna be moving. Even the healer was moving around a lot more than I’m used to seeing. In general though I did enjoy the fight. I felt like I was mostly button mashing with the skills since I didn’t have much of a chance to really see what they all did, but for the most part i was able to get the hang of the archer. My one complaint though is that while running to avoid attacks the archer does not auto-shoot.

About the mages (a note from @Cherithe): Since we were thrust into the battle without a lot of explanation about the many, many abilities of our leveled up characters, other than their basic classes, it took me some time to get my mind to catch up with what my mage was capable of.  See, I play a lot of mage characters, and I’m very used to standing in the back, like any ranged dps, and spending my spells as the cooldowns let me.  But here, I got to be upclose and personal with the boss we fought, and several of my spells both did damage to the enemy and kicked me away from them, to keep out of reach between spells.  This was pretty handy, even if I was slow to catch on that’s what was happening.  It’s an interesting change from traditional mages, and it definitely makes it feel like the mage action is a little faster and more on par with what other character classes experience.

All in all however Tera has intrigued the both of us, and it’s definitely going to be on the list of MMOs to check out once it is finally released in 2012. The graphics are well done and the environments look stunning. Most controls feel rather standard for an MMO, and relatively easy to pick up on. The story has piqued my interest and it’s something I’d like to see what it develops into. It was great to be able to go to En Masse and get a great first look at Tera, a big thanks to the developers that sat with us through the demo.

Rating:

PASS

I kind of wish I could kick this game’s ass.

I knew the relationship was going to be a dysfunctional one after the first few minutes. I’d selected my character (a tall, oddly-styled woman) and my difficulty level (easy), and started my journey at the local dojo. The dojo in question, by the way, was currently overrun with frat boys. Frat boys who just happened to be my enemies.

Granted, this isn’t too far away from my day-to-day life. You should’ve seen the epic bar brawl I witnessed last weekend. Frat boys may indeed be a worthy enemy, but I almost start to worry about the person who made these decisions. The game itself almost seems like a caricature of someone’s real life. That someone hates frat boys, the police and politicians. I understand the last two, but the first one makes no sense, given that AGO Games is a French company. Je suis désolée.

That someone also has a serious ass-spanking fetish. (Since the game’s name is The Asskickers, I’m going to use “ass” as much as possible, because I normally wouldn’t get to. If you hate this, imagine that I’m talking about a donkey.)

Actually, the donkey thing is pretty much the perfect way to describe the game. From far away, you think it’s a horse, with a beautiful mane and tail. Get there, and it’s actually a stinky burro.

I hate to say that, I really do. If you know me, you know I’m a huge fan of beat-em-ups, and on its face, The Asskickers is supposed to be a funny, insightful game with social commentary on the current economic climate. Instead, it is unwieldy, absurd and at times, just plain broken.

I get that part of the game’s intent is to be just a little bit harder than what we’re used to, but I think the wrong things were done to make that happen. The hard things here aren’t working. It takes a perfect storm to create the kind of hard game that you want to tackle over and over again (see Demon’s Souls), but here, the lightning never manages to strike.

You fight the same enemies over and over, use the same three(ish) moves over and over and every level ends with…well, take a look:

See what I mean about a spanking fetish? This could have been hilarious, but the context just makes it creepy.

I have to admit, I couldn’t finish this game. There’s one reason why: Aside from clunky gameplay that feels more like a Flash title, a great majority of the difficulty comes from the fact that once you lose your lives (all three of ‘em), you’ve got to start over from the beginning of the level, whether you’ve made it past the first screen or not. Your “continue” here is really more like a “retry.” There’s not a hint of continuity about it. Take points away from me. Do something that doesn’t require me to play the same boring level 20 times.

It’s 2011. Here’s what I expect from my beat-em-ups:

• Character motion that makes sense. If I press up, the character should just walk up, not turn around and walk up.
• More than four attacks, and more control over which moves I perform. Punch and kick should not be the same button.
• A story that at least makes a little bit of sense, even when it’s translated from French.
• More than two kinds of enemies per level.
• Item pickups that don’t require surgical precision.
• A “continue” function that lets me pick up a lot closer to my place of death.
• No spankings.

Unfortunately, The Asskickers just can’t deliver.

I do have one positive point here, and it’s the fact that the game does look pretty nice. If only looking okay was worth 1.6 GB of space on my hard drive, I wouldn’t be deleting this.

I should probably finish my story, right?

So, I pick my girl, I kick some frat boy asses, and I reach what should be the end of the level. But nothing happens. I can’t exit the room, and my Sensei is just standing there, saying nothing. I spent fifteen minutes just walking around that screen, doing anything I could to avoid playing that short section of that very first level over again.

I still had to restart to get him to open the door the next time. I hoped that wouldn’t be indicative of the rest of the game’s quality, but after that first ass-whipping…yeah, those dreams were shattered. I’m genuinely disappointed. In concept, the game shows so much promise, but the execution isn’t worth your time. Or a friend’s — the game features a two-player mode (best played when you have a full-size keyboard), but I recommend not putting your friends through this.

BUY

I have been an Age of Empires fan since the Age of Empires II days. It was my first RTS that I’ve ever played and it cemented my love of the genre. So you can imagine when I heard that there was going to be an Age of Empires Online game, I was intrigued. I figured it would have a lot more PvP aspects to it, and ones that would hopefully be easier to find others to play with than the random matchmaking that had frequent disconnects that I remember from previous titles.

Well I’ve spent approximately the last week playing Age of Empires Online and well, I liked it. Now there are some things that I didn’t really like or were a bit clunky, but overall I enjoyed myself and will for sure play it more. I think the one thing that makes me happiest is that it can be played offline without penalties if you so choose. Good to know I can go offline and my city won’t be sacked.

Like previous AoE games, anyone familiar with the game will be able to breeze through the starter quests with ease. These quests guide new players through the general mechanics in order to familiarize then with how to move around villagers, build army units and improve their culture’s knowledge and defenses. Each quest starts you off with armor and skill points in order to get you started. Once this is over however, you will have to work hard to get better armor and upgraded military. This of course all goes towards furthering yourself with the PvP aspect of the online game.

Unfortunately I didn’t do so well with my PvP games since it seemed that others had spent a lot more time with the game and really leveled up and skilled up much more than I did. Given time though I hope to prove to be a formidable force. The PvP runs better than I thought it would, and I enjoy the interface for it. Players can find 1v1, 2v2 and Ranked matches, while also seeing who the top ranked players are.

Right now only the Greek and Egyptian civilizations will be available at launch, which is fine by me as a fan of all things Egyptian. Civilizations are available as premium packs to purchase, and Gas Powered Games plans to release quite a few once the game is launched. The game is free to play, but only through about 40 hours into the Greeks or Egyptians. This is where a lot of the MMO feel came in for me. You can tell that they have their micro-transactions thought out well. The civilizations will all be priced around $19.99, which can seem a bit steep, but if you plan to just stick with one main civilization isn’t that bad of a price to pay. From then on they plan on releasing more standard cash shop items like special items and armor.

Well I think that’s enough on the good things, let’s delve into some not so good. The graphics are way too cartoonish for me. I know that they’re trying to get more of the kids playing, but the slightly more realistic graphics is why I liked previous AoE games. I can look past it, but it does kill a bit of the asthetic fun of the game for me. The other thing was loading times. Granted most of this can be explained away as a beta issue, which is why this isn’t a complete strike against the game for me, but it is something I’m going to keep an eye on after launch. I also will need to remember that since this is a Game for Windows title, my Xbox friends will actually know when I’m on, and try to invite me to play games and such with them when I’m really on my laptop. I do, however, enjoy that there are achievements.

All in all the good outweigh the bad, and since the game is free to play (for a time) I do highly recommend checking it out at least. As I said, I will continue to expand my Egyptian empire and improve on my city defenses to try and win back some pride in PvP.

Zeboyd game’s first title was “Breath of Death VII.” A parody of RPG games, with a retro style and various fun elements and humor.

Breath of Death VII starts with an atomic weapon detonating in a desperate attempt to end the war, causing all life to be wiped out across the world.  But not all was lost, as an undead civilization began to prosper evil in their midst and it was up to four brave heroes to rid the land of evil.

The game starts in a dungeon where quickly you learn how to move your character.  Yet Zeboyd games were clever in the introduction of the controls, as they flash a photo of an Xbox controller showing you that is available for the Xbox Live indie Arcade. To be fair, Breath of Death VII was originally developed with XNA for the Xbox, but it found a home on the PC as a Steam indie game.

The main character of this story is DEM, making fun of Final Fantasy games from yonder years.  The humor and connections to previous RPG’s do not stop there. Having towns like “Palad-Lennus” (Paladin’s Quest) and “Motherbound” (Earthbound) are just a few of the many nods and references the game possesses.  Somehow, this does not distract you from the game, instead it made me grin at knowing what they did or just completely ignore it if you don’t know the reference.  As you move through the game, your first companion is a ghost named Sara who quickly joins you to form a party.  With her, you can combine powers and have special attacks that allow you to target more than one enemy.

Leveling is done automatically, but gathering experience points as you fight through dungeons or open plains.  You usually have the choice of two different specs you can take: one the warrior path, the other the more magical one.  After you exit the first dungeon, you encounter the first town, where Sara lives, and you are allowed to buy weapons as well as armor.  The “merchant,” a very obvious reference to Resident Evil 4, speaks in the same manner and the phrase “What are you buying?” echoes in your head.

The relationship between DEM and Sara seems to be an odd one, as the ghost has some feelings for DEM, yet DEM is oblivious and just simply does not understand women at all.  This leads to some very funny comebacks and one -liners from both characters.

The fighting mechanism is simple and turn based.  You can select to simply attack, thus not using your mana -like points, or use tactics which lets you hurt the enemy more than once or harder than a simple attack.  Graphically the game is basic and I dare to say that between Breath of Death VII and Cthulhu Saves the World, the graphics have improved, while still keeping the nostalgic 8/16 bit look.   The music was nothing but great and true to the genre.  With melodies that sound familiar yet different and tunes that you’ll find yourself humming for the rest of the day.

Breath of Death VII, just like Cthulhu Saves the World is a simple game, full of fantastic humor and references, that will captivate you with its story and the fate of its heroes.  A game where it’s easy to pick up and go, or never put down, since it does become addicting and make time fly without you noticing it.  I strongly recommend to get both games, for all of you RPG fans, as you won’t regret the purchase.

BUY

Cthulhu saves the world is like no other game. First of all, Zeboyd Games take Cthulhu, strips him of all his powers and makes him a hero?? Yes, that is right!  In order for Cthulhu to regain his devastating powers, he has to become a hero.  yes, this is not your typical H.P Lovecraft demon, but one that has a sense of humor, is full of himself and is ready to kick some butt!

This is a game for the nostalgic in all of us and the gamers who like to have fun while playing.  The graphics are done in 8/16 bit, making it feel like the golden days of “Dragon Warrior” for the NES.  You are first greeted with a short video telling you the story of Cthulhu and how he came to be without his powers.  The game runs you really quickly trough the controls of the game, but we start to see the humor in it.  Cthulhu talks to the narrator of the game and pokes fun at his ability to run since he will be able to finish the game faster.  Not only that, but it also pokes fun at the sale of used games.  I started to laugh right away!  the controls are simple and easy to remember.  The game posses an easy to navigate menu with a quick and comprehensive list of things you want to know like: Your party status, how much gold you have, potions, 1-ups, and a small menu allowing you to chat with the member of your party, check status of each character, fight (no need to run around looking for monsters to level up), equip, save the game (which is recommended to do at all times) and Teleport to the last village you have visit.

The game tosses you into action right away as you have to  fight some slimy guys in order to save Umi, your first party member.  Umi is a very special girl, who sees Cthulhu like a hunk and falls in love with him.  Cthulhu sees the relationship as a “Rockstar and groupie” relationship, so she joins you to help you battle the enemies to come.  As you progress to the game, you see how well balanced and entertaining the game becomes.

Is a none stop laughing riot that is guarantee to satisfied your Cthulhu hero needs in a pinch!  Only downside is that, where you play it, that’s where your save is.  Accustomed to been able to play Steam games anywhere with the “Cloud” system, I learned the harsh and cruel reality that I had to start over again when I wanted to play it on my laptop.  The good thing was that since I already knew how to play, I was able to recreate, and perhaps change a couple of choices I made on my first play through, in a matter of minutes.  I was right back where I had left it and perhaps in a better position.

The game is simple, but what lacks in complexity it makes up on the story and the humor.   A great game that guarantees the player to not have a dull moment.  plus you can play the game with commentary on, which gives you an inside on how the game was developed, more about the game information, or just purely comedic notes from the developers.  It also has an amazing soundtrack, that fits the game perfectly and is available for free at zyboyds.com website for all your ringtone and computer sounds needs.  “In his house at R’lyeh dead Cthulhu waits dreaming.“ …for you to buy the game and play it!

Some of you are nervous about this title, mostly because we have seen other Star Trek games that have come and gone. Some good, some bad, some terrible and some that seemed like the developers never watched an episode of Star Trek in their life!  This title is different.  How so? Well let’s go through the stats…

• In development for more than a year and a half, and not shipping for another year, by the same team behind Bioshock 2, Unreal Tournament, Dark Sector and the Darkness II: Digital Extremes. They are also working closely with Bad Robot, K/O Paper Products and Damon Lindelof.
• The demo was based on a pre-alpha version and it looked fantastic!  I saw games being released the week after E3 that did not look as good and sharp as this version did.
• They have been working closely with the Star Trek filmmaking team since this game has sort of a movie to video game take.  I use “sort of” because anything you know about movie to video game titles, this one seems to break that mold.
• BAFTA award winner and God of War writer, Marianne Krawczyk, in collaboration with the writer/producers of the 2009 Star Trek films, Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman.
• The whole game was built around “co-op” with the capability of player two to jump in and out.
• The game is slightly different depending on who you play: Kirk or Spock.
• 23^rd century Weapons. PS3 getting a phaser to use with your “Move” controller.

So we have Kirk with unique Captain Issue phaser and Spock with Vulcan combat, including the mind meld, and weaponry. The video cut scenes to action is less noticeable, allowing you to always feel like you are in the game and part of the story.  At this point the game is working towards 12 hours of game play, which you can double by replaying it as the other character.

Much of the story as well as the enemies were not revealed at this time, and the game has still a long way to go as its release date will be sometime in 2012. Star Trek will be available on PC as well as on consoles.

Taking on a title like Star Trek is a very gutsy move, since it is world renowned and beloved by fans who have grown up and dedicated their life to it.  They are very few TV series who command unconditional fans like Star Trek does, but by the same token, they are some of the most unforgiving fans as well.  Digital Extremes knows this and they have made sure that when they do deliver this game they can say “we did all we could” and for a pre-alpha version it shows the passion, the love and the authenticity of the title.   Next year is going to be a very interesting year for games, and Star Trek is one title I am happy is not being rushed for the 2011 holiday season.