Warhammer Quest [iOS]

The Games Workshop board game, Warhammer Quest, has been out for sometime on iPhone and iPad but it has been released free to play for one week. Then it goes back to $6.49 AUD. Sad news for Android fans though, with no plans from Rodeo Games to launch it on your favourite little robot.

The game is played out on a map where you can choose quests, visit towns and take care of your merchant/leveling up needs. Then you will enter dungeon crawl mode, which looks almost exactly like the board game, with squares laid out and all combat taking place in a turn based manner. The story is explained to you through text and is moderately interesting. It's mostly standard RPG fair but if you like the Warhammer world, there is a little extra appeal here. You get quite a lot for free but if you want variety, you are going to have to pay for extras. New heroes, new enemies and new dungeons to play in, cost extra. This is fair enough and the characters you start with are quite interesting it's just the monsters and world you fight, that is extremely repetitive. You are probably gonna want to get a region pack if you love this game and I think they are fairly priced for what you get. Dungeon packs on the other hand seem like an experiment in seeing how much you can rip someone off. Given that this is aimed at Warhammer fanatics, the answer is a hell of a lot.

In general I find combat quite exciting but like a lot of Games Workshop's games it can be a bit erratic. One turn your warriors are carving up every enemy in their path and then the next they are missing everything, like a bunch of drunken school boys. The Winds of Magic are incredibly erratic, they can make your wizard unstoppable or useless, which makes it hard to level him up early on. At times, combat can be free flowing, which I find to be the most fun but often due to the cramped nature of the dungeons, the heroes end up walled together, with no way to move, just chomping away at the tide of enemies. I suppose it's designed like this but it happens a little too often and takes away from the feeling of choice you have as a player. Also the turn based movement throughout the dungeon can get a little grating, especially when you are led down the wrong path and have to backtrack.

Aesthetically the game is a little mixed. Animations range from well done, to immensely poor. Often enemies will float across screen without moving their limbs at all, though most of the combat animations are done nicely. The music is quite nice but it is very repetitive and it ultimately becomes grating. Again the monsters and world are a little too repetitive to really keep your interest for long. There are lots of minor niggles with the UI et cetera. Accessing your inventory by switching your phone or tablet to portrait, is a cool idea but there is something of with it's sensor code. Plus, playing on the iPhone makes accessing your inventory and abilities a pain in the arse, as it's just too small. Also you can't skip the enemy kill screen shown at the end of every dungeon.

At the admission price of free it is well worth it, I can see myself getting an expansion pack for it and having a lot of fun but having to buy the game and then pay the same again for an expansion, I would feel a little ripped off. It has gone on sale for a dollar previously and that seems reasonable too, there is a lot of questing here. You can go on endless quests if you like but they all end up feeling the same without adding some new content to it. It's a cool little game, it gives you that board game feeling and it works well on iOS. It just lets it self down in a bunch of small ways that ultimately add up 7.5/10.

3 Short Reviews [Windows, iOS]

Age of Wonders III [Windows]

Age of Wonders III is very similar to Heroes of Might and Magic VI but I think the combat is a little more tactical. That said it does suffer a bit from Might and Magics problem where basically you just amass the largest army you can and then you can crush everything in your path. Still it's a lot of fun and it just has a ridiculous fantasy setting that is so enjoyable. It has everything from flame tanks to undead dragons. Also it looks incredible. It has a huge set of skills and abilities to allow for all of this, which can be pretty difficult to grasp at first. This can also lead to unfair battles as you may have a range of fire units, that then come up against something that is immune to fire. Remembering all of this is going to be a nightmare for most but hardcore turn based fans will love it. This is what Might and Magic should be 8.0/10.

Goat Simulator [Windows]

Created out of a game jam Goat Simulator was never meant to become an actual sellable product and it borderline isn't. It will always be held up as a fan favourite and yes you can get a lot of fun out of it but only if it really appeals to you. Want to be a goat and run around looking silly, being silly, in a bug riddled and silly world? Good then that is the point. There is a free content patch coming out next month which will add a new world to explore plus a lot of other things. So perhaps with the patch and a Steam sale it would be worth picking up but otherwise leave it to the goats 6.9/10.

Sun Flowers [iOS]

Sun Flowers is now available for free and sees you in the role of the sun, looking after... flowers. Basically you need to send sun rays through clouds to water your plants and get them to grow. Be careful though as you could burn the plants by hitting a thunder cloud or missing a rain cloud all together. Then you get play around with the plants you found in your garden. There is a game here but it isn't much of one. It's all very cursory and doesn't keep my interest at all. If you really like the art style and flowers maybe it's for you but I wouldn't recommended it 5/10.

Titanfall [PC, Xbone, Xbox 360]

Titanfall, the most talked about game of the year so far and finally I get around to reviewing it. Thanks to an anonymous donor for a copy of the game. If you haven't heard Titanfall is a First Person Shooter (FPS) with no single player campaign, it's multiplayer only. It's not the first of it's kind but it is probably the first from a big studio with lots of backing.

There is still a campaign but it is a multiplayer affair and it needs to be completed in order to unlock everything. Honestly, it kind of sucks for a lot of reasons. As Kotaku pointed out, you can finish the campaign without having ever fired a shot. It's really just a set of multiplayer matches that have to run their course. Secondly, I'm not impressed with the story at all. People yell stuff at you, there is the odd interesting idea but it doesn't impact what you are doing at all in terms of gameplay. The other factor with this is that, paying attention to the story will wind you up shot in the head; it is too fast-paced to stop and smell the CGI. Finally, it's really hard to find a match, especially for the particular campaign mission you are up to. The campaign seems to be amongst the worst for this but as you'll find out, matchmaking in general is a big issue.

Matchmaking is almost totally automatic, which could be nice but it is riddled with troublesome issues. You can choose which data centre to use, whether that be Australian, US, etc. and which type of match you want to play but you can't see a list of servers to choose from. Titanfall offers 5 game modes at the moment but if you want to login and get to a match straight away you'll just be playing Attrition. It's so hard to find a match of anything else except for maybe the Variety Pack mode. Titanfall does not support cross-platform play, which I think really contributes to the server desolation. I thought Xbone and PC players would be able to link up, at the very least. Also there is no autobalance of any kind, you will not even be swapped to the other team if they have several less players, let alone if you/they are kicking arse. It's incredibly rare to find a match that approaches an approximation of even.

Titanfall Makes up for all of this by having awesome gameplay. It's frantic and the rewards come thick and fast. Whether it be a new weapon or you've just received a burn card, something is always causing you to check your build. The burn cards are a cool idea, they give you a little boost such as a more powerful version of your gun but once you die it's gone. A lot of thought went into making this game accessible to a range of players. The clever thing about it is by adding those dumb AI minions into the mix even poor FPS players like myself can build up confidence. You kill a couple of those and then you are in the swing of things. I have done stuff in this game I never thought I would be capable of in a FPS, going on kill-streaks, actually detonating a satchel charge on time, the list goes on. However I think some fudging does go into this. It seems easier to kill someone in this game then in other titles. The hit-boxes seem to be larger than average and I swear I have killed people when technically they should have been around a corner. It certainly happens a lot to me in the replays. This is not to say there is no skill in it, there is a lot to learn from good parkour technique, when to activate your special abilities and of course, being accurate enough to get a headshot.

Respawn Entertainment have announced they are working on matchmaking and perhaps in time it will be a lot better. There is also a promise of some free DLC as well. Either way, Titanfall is a great game, that just has a few niggling issues. As long as you are willing to focus on playing the Attrition mode, (face it, it's the best anyway) you'll never have to worry about getting into a match quickly but then what is the point of all these other modes? Still, if you want a shooter to play with your friends who aren't the best at them, this could be a way to encourage them to join you. In that sense Titanfall really achieves it's purpose. Go buy it and join a non-Attrition mode, maybe I'll see you waiting in the lobby... 8.4/10.

Mavericks 10.9.2 Review

There comes a time in everyone's life when they must update their operating system to the latest and greatest. So a mere two patches later and Mac OS Mavericks seemed usable. With great trepidation, a Time Machine and a (fully bootable) SuperDuper! backup, I set out to ride this wave.

I came from Lion not Mountain Lion but the first thing I noticed and liked, is that it really isn't that different. There are a lot of features Apple has listed to wow you but most of these are really only for a minority of people. Enhanced Dictation is a bit of fun but it only has limited appeal and gets half of what you say wrong anyway. It is great that iBooks is finally on Mac but at the same time I don't really see myself reading that many books on it anyway. The power saving features are probably the biggest boost to most users with LAPTOP reporting a 41 minute gain in battery life during their testing. The main features I like, are the iCloud features introduced in Mountain Lion but now I get all that for free. I think this is the update Apple had to have. Firstly it's free, secondly as much as they want you to think it, it isn't that exciting of an upgrade. Instead it focuses on getting the core things right and although it took them two iterations, in my testing at least, it is finally stable.

Oh look, Apple Maps how great! I can't wait to delete that. Oh, you can't, what a surprise.

It gives you features that nobody wants like Apple Maps and a harder to read yet still kinda ugly calendar. The notification centre is a combination of cool and annoying. I find it most useful for iTunes and extremely annoying for text messages, as it means I get one notification on my Mac and then a spilt second later on my phone. Yes I know you can turn it all off but there isn't even a simple way to default it to all notifications off. Instead you either have to do each app manually, or set "do not disturb" mode up, which will still leave a 1 minute gap where you could receive notifications.

Now onto performance. First I'll start with my 7 year old MacBook Pro 3,1. Now I have to say it does not have a functioning battery right now, so it is underclocking itself as a result. Both of these tests were performed without a battery though so they are even. As you can see in the NovaBench scores below, Lion performs better, though Mavericks' graphics performance is much higher.

Lion

Mavericks

Now onto my 2011 iMac 12,2 testing in Xbench. This time Mavericks outperforms Lion hands down.

Lion

Mavericks

It isn't particularly surprising that Mavericks only improves the newest machine but I would like to do some more testing on the MacBook Pro as soon as I can get a new battery for it. The most disappointing factor for my sad old MacBook, is that there aren't really any customisation options, out of the box, that increase the speed of Mavericks at all. Yes there are Terminal commands one could run and plugins to download but there isn't really any option to turn off the bells and whistles and just focus on the core tasks.

Overall I am pretty happy with Mavericks, it was easy to get everything up and running, even things like Logic Pro and Ableton were easy to get going again. I didn't have any issue with getting both of those programs talking with my MOTU 828mkII, so I was back recording again in no time. I also really like Safari 7.0.2, mainly because Safari 6.x can't handle browsing most websites these days. There are probably only one or two, major new features that most people will use in Mavericks, so there is little to be excited about but I think it is worth the update because of some of the more boring things going on under the hood. Whilst older computers aren't going to see an upgrade in speed you may want to upgrade them just to get around any compatibility issues you may have. For those who are Mac purists and aren't familiar with using iOS, I think Mavericks may be a little alienating, though it doesn't change a huge amount, it is a definite step in the direction of linking the two together. My official recommendation is to backup heavily then upgrade and I'll see you when 11.0.2 is out.

South Park: The Stick of Truth [Windows, Xbox 360, PS3]

The coveted stick of truth, whoever controls it has limitless power. This much delayed title is finally out and I've been playing it on PC. Yes I have the unedited version and no, I don't think you'll be missing out on anything exciting if your copy is censored. It's just a couple of disgusting mini-games that in terms of gameplay mechanics are pretty boring. Anyway on to the experience as a whole!

Gameplay is broken into two distinctive parts, roaming the world and turn-based battles. Roaming about the world is mostly about puzzle solving. Using things like your long-ranged weapon, your allies abilities and fart-magic, you unlock the path before you and find hidden treasures. When you encounter enemies as you are roaming about, you can hit them with an arrow to stun them in combat, or, if you get the first hit on them, you get to strike first. Then you enter the turn-based battle screen. The style of fighting is akin to a Mario RPG title, where timing and the mashing of buttons will ensure successful attacks. It's mostly pretty fun and you get to learn a lot of different attacks but by the end it is all a little repetitive.

The storyline is great but if you couldn't see yourself watching three episodes of South Park back-to-back this game isn't for you. The story takes a lot of the classic South Park episodes and mashes them into one big plot with a few new ideas for the game. Whilst this does mean it often treads on old ground there are plenty of hilarious and unexpected moments to keep you going. However, there are some moments where the gameplay/storyline overlaps in strange ways and doesn't really feel cohesive. For example, I had already spoken to the goth kids and learnt that I had to dress like them to hang out with them but as this later becomes a quest, I was forced to hear it all again. Mostly though the next plot twist or silly joke is what really keeps you driving along into this game. I wish as much time was spent on the design elements as they had put into the storyline.

Some poor design choices have stopped this from being the game of the year. When you see a mob of monsters on the screen, you battle them all as one, yet when it comes to picking up loot you have to search each monster. Why not streamline this into one loot bag and make it funner for everyone? There is no way to easily see how your weapons and armour compares to what you are buying. Some of the gameplay mechanics are immensely frustrating to use and the game teaches you these fart mechanics that you don't actually need to use in the game. Throughout the whole game you use the WASD keys to move but all of a sudden you need to use the arrow keys to do dance moves. I can't tell if this is a bug, a joke, or Matt and Trey being arseholes, either way it just comes off as frustrating. Plus half the time you are doing the right thing but just not standing in the right spot which adds to the frustration. Of course seeing as I played it on PC there are plenty of bugs and work-arounds but I guess this is the new normal.

It's a good game with good ideas but not enough time has been spent developing it. You will go through moments of pure joy, laughing at the gags and enjoying most of the gameplay, only to be snagged by poor design choices and bugs. South Park: The Stick of Truth is one for the fans and whilst I had hopes it could transcend that status and be an all round fun title it's gameplay isn't solid enough. There is a huge adventure here but only someone who is a fan of the series, could actually stand to play it for that long 7.9/10.

Creating Music for a phone game.

So a friend and I are currently developing a game for the iPhone and hopefully, if it receives even modest success, Android too. It is going to take a long time for us to finish this project as we are only doing it in our spare time, so I won't go into too much detail just yet. What I want to talk about now is a song I have recently created for it. If you just want to hear the song, scroll down to the bottom.

The Setup

iMac mid 2011
Logic Pro 9.1.8
MOTU 828mkII A/D
Newer Technology miniStack v3 (explained below)

The Instruments
Korg Microkey 25 key USB keyboard
Roland TD 15

The Cables
1x (Extra Long) Firewire 400
1x MIDI
1x USB, type A to type B
1x Firewire 800 (explained below)

The Music Creation Process

It's hard for me to say how I create music, because I don't think I really have a technique per se, it's more that I just blurt something out and then I begin working with the mess I've created. This whole song began because I was testing out a Christmas present, the Korg Microkey. I just wanted to have some fun with it and out came this riff. I used some sneaky short cuts to help me create this song. There is the obvious copy and paste of sections but also copying and pasting sections into different instruments to help me get an idea of the sound. Then I would take out unneeded notes, lengthen them or move them as necessary. Once I had finished using the keyboard and editing notes in the piano roll I moved onto the drumkit.

The Problems

Some of you may notice straight off the bat that the 828mkII uses firewire 400 and the mid 2011 iMac only has firewire 800. So to fix this, I used my powered portable hard-drive/hub, which handled all my connection issues. Next we come to the latency issue. I've never really noticed any latency issues with anything but drums in Logic and of course I wanted to record some drums, via MIDI in this project. I switched on Low Latency Mode in the options, which did nothing. So I Googled and read manuals and tweaked this and that to no avail. Turns out you have to switch the button in the arrange window, the option in settings does nothing. I guess it's a feature.

Mix for Mono

The first thing I noticed about my mix was that it sounded terrible through the tiny iPhone mono speaker. The combination of a stereo mix and the heavy bass sounds of Logics instruments meant I was getting some problems with sound going out of phase. To correct this I changed to a monophonic mix and I tweaked every sound I used. Mainly I needed to take out the bass, pretty heavily but on some sounds I had to cut some high frequency and adjust their volume/compression levels. After nine mixes I was happy to say it was listenable on that tiny iPhone speaker.

Read Before Listening: A Warning

Because Google are not the masters of the internet we thought them to be, mp3s are quite difficult to load into Blogger, so I have uploaded a video instead. I decided to use some footage I had taken with my iPhone at MONA and a gig I went to.

Warning: The video contains strobe lighting that may be dangerous for some viewers. Also it is of such poor quality it is recommended that you close your eyes and simply enjoy the song.

Banished [Windows]

So, you are in charge of a small group of people who have been banished and you need to start your own town. The game plays something akin to Sim City and The Settlers and it's set in the medieval era. This seems like a winning formula so let's check it out.

Depending on which difficulty you select you'll start out with a bunch of goods and some people. The harder the difficulty the less goods and citizens you will have. Then you will have to look around the landscape and start planning out your town. Food and firewood, are important resources to start gathering and they will need to be stockpiled for when the harsh winter rolls in. Surviving the winter is one of the biggest challenges of the game and not being prepared for it can kill your towns inhabitants. The game also has disasters like tornadoes and fires, plus infectious diseases can break out amongst your livestock and crops. So yes, survival is the main aim of the game.

Unfortunately Banished is not without its issues. I did encounter a few bugs, the most annoying of which was my cursor disappearing. I also had the bug that only allows you to install it on C: drive though there is a work around for that here. I also had a known bug that causes the game to crash when you are viewing the paths your citizens use.  They are fairly minor issues and they are being looked into but as the developer is only a very small company, it may take sometime to resolve all this, which is one thing to consider when purchasing. There isn't a huge amount of content in Banished and the late game suffers a little from this. Sure you can collect every last type of seed and livestock but that isn't as rewarding as having something completely new and different to build. However, the developers will be launching a modkit soon which will hopefully alleviate this problem. The only thing is again you are going to have to wait.

I know a lot of people like me were looking forward to the release of Sim City but were bitterly disappointed with the poor decisions made by Maxis and EA on that title. I think a lot of people who felt that way will really enjoy this game because it has so much more charm and even comes in a DRM free version. For those of you who are big fans of this genre it is a must have right now, for everyone else, it is worth waiting and picking up on sale. Once the modding community has got its hands on the modkit, the major issue of lack of content will disappear and judging by it's current success it may even see an expansion or two. This game is like a fine wine, it needs time to reach its full potential but I really think it will make it there 7.9/10.

Titanfall Beta Hands On [Windows, Xbone]

There is a lot of buzz around Titanfall and when I was sent a free beta code to stress test it I couldn't resist. I do love the idea of giant mechs running around blowing each other and everyone up. Titanfall is by Respawn whose main claim to fame, (which the ads won't shut up about) is that it has people who once worked on Call of Duty.

It starts you off in a pretty in-depth training "simulation" where you learn how to run about as a pilot and as a titan. There is a lot to this game and the lengthy tutorial is very much needed. As a pilot you can parkour off walls, double jump, kill other pilots in a variety of ways and you even get an anti-titan weapon as part of your arsenal. Titans can do a swift dodge, fire their main gun, fire their powerful secondary weapon and even put up a shield that catches bullets and fires them back. Plus you can get out of your titan and have it follow you or guard itself. It's a lengthy list of abilities and something that you are going to forget instantly as you jump into your first multiplayer match but it shows the game has a lot of depth.

Running on my computer

I was surprised at how well the game ran on my computer which is starting to show it's age now. I turned everything to low but ran it at my native resolution of 2560x1440 and it still looked beautiful and ran smoothly. I had no issues with servers either, unlike some players, it was quick for me to find a match and get playing. I had a fairly high ping at times but I didn't really notice any major lag issues.

The full beauty according to EA

There are some odd things about this game and I'm not quite sure how I feel about them. Polygon called it the perfect game for people who are terrible at first person shooters and in a way I agree. There are only 6 people in a match but there are also minions that run around and mostly just wait to be blasted, sort of like in a MOBA. They can be fun and even put up a bit of resistance at times but many have complained that they'd rather have more actual live humans playing the game. Respawn have yet to announce how many gameplay modes there will be and currently in the beta there are 3 plus one that randomises all 3 together. As the game is going full multiplayer only, I really think they should add a mode with double the players to keep things interesting. We'll have to wait and see on that though. It's also weird that despite these hugely powerful titans you have at your disposal there, is basically no object destruction in game at all. I guess I have been a little spoiled with the Battlefield series but it seems odd that the world itself is so static.

I've had a lot of fun with beta so far and there are a lot of cool ideas in it. Things like evacuating to a dropship when you've lost the game for some bonus xp and jumping on a titan when you are a pilot and  blowing it's brains out are cool additions but I'm not convinced yet. For a full price game it's really gotta have some exciting modes and whilst I found Attrition and Last Titan Standing fun, the Hardpoint mode seemed a little lacklustre. I say go and give it a bash in the beta if you can but it hasn't made me want to preorder it. I want to wait and see what the full offering has in store.

Oh and if anyone has an Xbone, I have a beta code for it, just message me.

Octodad Dadliest Catch [Mac, Linux, Windows, PS4]

This game is killing me. I was so excited for a full-blown Octodad game but now I just can't play it. I fire it up for a bit and then after a few minutes I want to stop. This makes it nearly impossible to review but I have stuck with it. I am going to make this a short review because I need my sanity.

The controls are fun because they are so wild and a little bit unpredictable but that also makes them so taxing. The most fun I have, is when I get so frustrated that I go on a rampage and do all the wrong things, or the game glitches out a little bit and something whacky happens. Unfortunately, that isn't the aim of the game. I just don't care to complete the games puzzles as they don't feel rewarding at all. The only reward is more awkward puzzles and more frustration. I'm sure there are sadomasochists out there who would love this game but that really isn't my style.

I hate these escalators so much!

Octodad is fun at times but the frustration overtakes the moments of joy. Sure the graphics might be better and there is a bit more polish but when Octodad was a freeware game it was short and to the point, unique even but it lacks any real new ideas since then. Playing this game makes me sad, why would Octodad want to live the life of a human? Everything is so hard for him. I think the best thing to do is put him down 5/10.

That's it, leave me alone, I'm off to shock my genitals or anything more pleasurable than this. Happy Valentines Day!

Broken Age Review [Mac OS, Windows, Linux]

Man that was a short ride but what a ride! Broken Age is a point and click adventure that has been broken into two parts. For the price of $25 US dollars you get Act 1 now and when it's ready Act 2 for free later. Or you could have kickstarted it but that was a long time ago now. It even has a tie in with Australia in that the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra recorded the soundtrack.

Right off the bat you'll notice how beautiful this game is, they have gone for an animated style rather than realistic but it totally suits the theme. Perhaps the most captivating aspect is the animations. The main characters are animated so smoothly that they blend beautifully into the world and there are plenty of whacky on screen antics to keep you amused. The music is incredible, as are the sounds and the voices are supplied by a star studded cast. There is that hobbit guy and the Adventure Time guy and even that women who is in all the games.

 

Gameplay is what you would expect from an adventure game. You talk to people, get items, make the items do silly things and solve logic puzzles. In general I found the logic to be pretty understandable and you were guided enough to know what to do, without it taking away from your sense of discovery. There was one time though, when I tried to combine an item with another item but I did so too early and not in the right screen. This meant I stomped around in frustration not knowing what to do next. Aside from that I found it to be quite flowing if a little short.

You'll want to take your time with this game, get stuck on puzzles and stare at the odd animations as it is all over very quickly. This is only Act 1 though and Act 2 will be free, so it isn't a big deal but that second Act is going to take a long time to come out. To get the first half done it took 2 years but at this point the optimistic view is Act 2 will be out next year. This is disheartening because the game leaves you on such a brilliant cliffhanger. I need to know what happens next and I need to know now god damn it!

That's sort of the thing with Broken Age it was all a bit of a gamble and it still is. I feel pretty invested in the story now and I really want to know what happens next but will it be as good as what I have just witnessed? We'll just have to wait and see. Because of this it makes the game really tough to score. I had a lot of fun with it but it just leaves me wanting more and there is little to no replay value. I think I'll give it an optimistic 8.5/10. It really is a joy to play and I highly recommend it but I'm worried about getting caught in the hype and promise of the next act.