For those of you who remember Stunts (aka 4D Sports Driving), just the mere mention of the name will bring back a lot of great memories of the track editor, racing against those crazy AI opponents, the strange glitches and trying to get yourself to ricochet off an obstacle and fly hundreds of metres into the air… For those of you who don’t know what the hell I’m talking about, prepare to be schooled…

Like many other DOS games of the time, it had killer music… though not much of it, only the intro and start menu from what I can remember. It’s the kind of music that you immediately remember when you hear it and associate it to this classic game… in fact, here’s a YouTube video to highlight exactly what I mean…

The game is a pretty simple concept… you have fast cars, you race them around a track with obstacles, such as jumps and loops, against a timer or a computer controlled opponent. There were a number of preset tracks and a selection of real world cars to choose from including the Lamborghini Countach, Porsche 911 Carrera 4 and Honda NSX… though don’t expect Gran Turismo realism out of them… this was a DOS game after all.

Going up against the timer was pretty fun, but nowhere near as fun or as crazy as challenging the computer controlled opponents. When going head to head against the computer, you’re actually able to choose from a number of profiles to race against… basically just a more fun way of setting the difficulty level of the AI. Although, and it may just be misguided memories from back then, I’m pretty sure the computer player’s personality would change depending on which profile you chose for the opponent. For example, one profile would go absolutely nuts, swerving all over the place if you passed him and took the lead… but another profile would drive more aggressively and end up taking back the lead in what has to be hax driving.

Of course, the best part of Stunts came from its track editor. I remember I used to spend hours making up the wackiest tracks with the most stupid obstacles until I eventually discovered that you could send your car flying into the air if you crashed a certain way… so then I spent hours created tracks that would allow me to fly as high into the air as possible…. I think I remember doing that with San Francisco Rush: Extreme Racing on the N64 too…

It would be truly awesome if this game was remade… it’s the perfect time for a Stunts revival with people swapping track data and seeing crazier and crazier tracks being built and conquered. In fact, this is such an awesome game, I think people should have a copy…

• Download Stunts (For members only)

There’s nothing much going on under the sea, just a whole lot of salt water and a whole lot of sea life… and then there’s that underwater utopian society of Rapture, a haven for the working man to make his living, the artist to express himself and the Big Daddies to protect their Little Sisters. Too bad things went oh so terribly wrong…

When you think of a first person shooter, most people think of a game based around some kind of war where most of the gameplay is channelled into the multiplayer elements rather than the story. Few first person shooters bother to break away from that mould, but when they do I tend to take notice, which is why I have much praise for games like Half-Life and BioShock.

BioShock

Some people may find this strange, but what really got me into BioShock are the similarities I discovered between the mechanics of the game and the mechanics of Metroid Prime. There’s plenty of good back tracking thanks to its non-linear level design as well as areas only accessible once you get certain items or go through certain events. There are also logs to collect that will explain the background elements of the story in more detail. Hell, you can even “scan” enemies to learn of their weaknesses by taking pictures of them with a camera. It even has the feeling of isolation and a great atmosphere, with you against the rest of Rapture, even though there are plenty of supporting characters interacting with you every step of the way… I felt right at home.

As you progress through Rapture, you get a real sense of history to the place and it really does feel like it’s been lived in… Though to be honest, I kind of wonder if any of the pastries you eat to replenish health are actually safe to eat in the first place.

Unlike Metroid Prime, however, BioShock is a much more brutal game in many ways. A perfect example of this brutality can be expressed with your trust wrench. Large, heavy and covered in blood… perfectly suited to stalking down your prey from behind and… Damn, the sound it makes when it hits… *shudders* The way the Big Daddies operate is pretty similar and it’s a real treat to watch them in action. I remember moments in the game where I would try to get Splicers to accidentally attack a Big Daddy in the area when they were trying to attack me. I’d let Big Daddy lose his temper and watch as the blood splattered across the walls… great fun.

When the game came to its brilliant finish, I thought it would be a one off game of its own with no need for a sequel…

BioShock 2

A sequel may not have been needed, but a hell of a lot of people sure wanted it when it was announced. After playing through the first and then heading into the second, there’s not much that can really surprise you considering you’re familiar with the world you’re plunging into. You’re back and Rapture with the familiar sights and sounds, though some time has passed, the same pastries that were eaten in the first game can be eaten in the second… they surely must have rotted away by now, urk.

I haven’t really bothered to go through the multiplayer side of things with BioShock 2 since I’ve been too busy with other things, but a lot of gameplay improvements were made over the first game, though these were mostly relating to the ability to do more things at once with your plasmid powers and weapons being more accessible. The fact that you play as a Big Daddy also changed a few things but overall it’s still the same old BioShock you knew from the first game.

By the end of the game, which also ends brilliantly, it seemed pretty obvious that 2K Games was using BioShock as a springboard to launch an entire series of games. Expect to see a BioShock 3 and more… Rapture was just the beginning… and I don’t mind more BioShock, just as long as the sequels are as good as these two games are.

Ubisoft knew that they had something special brewing with Assassin’s Creed, and anyone who has played the game will know first hand that they have set it up to be a trilogy or possibly a long running series. But not even Ubisoft themselves were prepared for the high sales that the first game saw. Their efforts had struck an extremely good nerve with gamers, and their surprise is very understandable too since the first game of a new IP never does anywhere near as well as Assassin’s Creed did.

Even better than that, Assassin’s Creed II blew everyone away, from reviewers to the gamers themselves. I know I was blown away by the improvements they made and… some other things…

I had played a few hours of Assassin’s Creed when it was first released and liked what I played, but I hadn’t actually finished the first game until very recently. In fact, I got to experience both games in a very interesting way. Over the Christmas weekend, I happened to play Assassin’s Creed and Assassin’s Creed II back to back in one big epic marathon run. I finished the first game for the first time and got to start the second then and there… those who have started the second game know how PERFECT that situation is, though the transition from the first game to the second was a pretty big hit in terms of the visuals.

Minor spoilers ahead…

The very first second of Assassin’s Creed II takes place the very second after the credits roll for the first game. It was a bit of a shock to the system when the room you were looking at in the first game and the characters suddenly look so different because of the upgraded visuals and effects… even more so when you have just finished the first game and immediately started the second. It would’ve been nice if Ubisoft had have kept the visual style of the first game exactly the same way how it was for the first game in that one area you were familiar with, then did a cowboy switch when you escape from the building and are in those darker corridors… but that’s just me.

/ End spoilers.

Anyway, let’s have a look at the two games separately…

Assassin’s Creed

When you start Assassin’s Creed, you don’t really know where it will lead you. Despite what many people saw in the promotional material and trailers of a medieval environment, you find yourself in a near present day setting playing as Desmond Miles, a seemingly average guy who has been abducted by members of a global corporation. The events that you see in those trailers are experienced by Desmond using the Animus, a device that essentially allows a user to go back in time and experience moments of their own ancestor’s life through memories recorded in their own genes.

Desmond finds himself in the memories of Altaïr, a member of the Order of Assassins at around 1191AD. The events of his ancestor’s life are slowly revealed to him as well as the realisation of who his abductors are and what they are searching for.

An intriguing concept… it certainly made me want to find out where it was all going to lead…

Once you master it, the gameplay for Assassin’s Creed is a pleasure everyone must experience. When you first play you’ll be unsure of yourself and attempt to over compensate for many of the actions you’re trying to perform. The key is to let yourself go and trust that you’ll be able to do all of the amazing things you’re seeing happening on screen. Once you do, you’ll find that you’ll be running across rooftops at great speed, outwitting guards and climbing towers with great ease.

The environments and general presentation is well done and there’s much to do in the game with plenty of exploration. The game itself is set in a way that allows you to do as much as you want or as little as you want depending on how much you enjoy collection-fests or not. I personally loved climbing up every building I could find and finding the highest places in each area… though, personally I couldn’t care less about collecting all of those various different flags. But don’t worry, collecting stuff isn’t really that important to the main story of the game, it’s just really there for those who like to explore game environments in their own time.

Most players will happily stick with the main story as I did, which is fine, even if the game gets you to do practically the same thing over and over, if you’re clever you can figure out ways of doing things differently. I think that’s really the key to the game, it’s easy just to pull out a sword and start carving up your enemies, but it’s more fun to act as a true assassin, stalk your target and kill them without anyone realising you were even there… those moments are made of pure awesomeness if you’re prepared to go through the work to pull them off.

Ubisoft has put together a nicely polished game, though it does suffer from some very obvious and sometimes frequent AI glitches. I’m sure if you searched through YouTube, you’d be able to find plenty of videos of some of the funnier/stupid AI glitches that occur during the game.

One of my own experiences in the game was when the guards protecting the target I was meant to assassinate suddenly decided that they would try to kill the target themselves for absolutely no reason. Of course, what followed was just a confusing mess. My target would jump from place to place trying to avoid the strikes of the guards and the guards would follow him, jumping around the room… this occurred for awhile until I realised that no one would catch up with each other and it would just keep on going endlessly… so I attacked a guard and they all turned their attention on me… finally.

Despite that, the game is a must play… and if you’ve played the first, you MUST play the second…

Assassin’s Creed II

After their success with the first game, Ubisoft had a lot to prove with Assassin’s Creed II. The first one took people by surprise at the amount of quality this new IP had, the second one had better follow suit or heads would roll. From what I’ve been hearing on the net, people are very pleased with the second game and the review scores seem to favour it above the first.

The second game continues on directly where the first left off and without going into too much detail and spoiling things, Desmond is going to find that he’s going to end up playing a much bigger role in the events to shape the future. To that end, he needs to be trained as a true assassin. To achieve this he will learn from the beginning as his Italian ancestor, Ezio, had learned.

Of course, just like the first game, there’s more to it than just that, and you’ll get to find out just how deep the rabbit hole goes the further along in the story you get.

Gameplay has certainly been improved in this second coming of Assassin’s Creed. I particularly like how streamlined things have gotten and that all of the good aspects are still intact. Free-running and climbing have been greatly improved, even though they were pretty slick in the first game to begin with. I didn’t notice any really stupid AI glitches plaguing this game like I did with the first which is a big plus. One of the best additions I love though is the ability to hide among the regular people as just another face in the crowd… even though you’re wearing flowing robes and some pretty decorative armour lol. Oh, and the chicks are great *winks*…

The different weapons and the ability to buy and upgrade and also to use your enemies weapons is a nice feature, though doesn’t seem to have that big an effect on overall gameplay to make things seem strategic. Either way, I like the effort that has been put into the customisation options for Ezio. Though, when it comes right down to it, once you get that special someone’s armour, there’s no looking back.

I did find that there was a bit of a down side with fetch quests integrated directly into the main story. It gets a little annoying having to carry stuff back and forth and act as a courier… but overall, this isn’t a big deal unless you’re just impatient and want to kill things right away.

Minor spoilers ahead…

I did mention that the first game had some pretty interesting things in it, but Assassin’s Creed II takes the cake when it comes to complete mindfucks… for this series and probably for 99% of other games out there. I mean, going into the series, you know it’s not going to be your average stab and slaughter your enemies type thing. Ubi decided they’d try and screw with your head too… which is always fun.

/ End of spoilers.

I do have one problem with the release of this game though… I hate how they release different versions of the damn thing. What I hate even more is that people who don’t buy those extra special versions end up missing out on some extra stuff, as unimportant as they may be, it’s the principle of the matter.

Either way, I can’t wait for the next instalment of this trilogy or series depending on how far they want to take it. Anyone who has played it knows it’s got the potential to go into some pretty wild and out there places…

I’ll try to get through this without giving too much away in terms of spoilers for all those concerned… and there will be warning where I have given some it away…

Following paragraph contains some minor spoilers.

The scene in question where you, the player, take part in massacring innocent civilians in a terrorist act during the game was apparently leaked to the public not long ago. Before too long, the game and developer, Infinity Ward, was being accused of promoting terrorism. It has even made a few gamers question whether they really want to play through this themselves.

// End of spoilers… for now.

Obviously it’s going to make people feel uneasy (or worse) about taking part in such a horrifying act, even if it is just pixels on a screen and no one real is getting hurt. You aren’t meant to feel good about it no matter where you stand on the issue… and that really is the point of why that scene is in the game.

There are some more minor spoilers in the following paragraph.

I did feel like this was wrong and that I shouldn’t have been there, I did feel like shooting my “comrades” to stop them from continuing the massacre… as a person with common sense, I can easily separate video game fiction from real life. These weren’t real innocent people that were being shot down, but I did still feel something from the scene from the very first moment I played through it (which happens to be about 20 minutes ago from the time I’ve written this part of the entry).

// End of second set of spoilers.

What makes some movies great while others are mediocre? The answer is that the great movies tend to evoke an emotional response from the viewer to pull them into what is going on on-screen. Of course, not all of the emotions felt while watching certain movies will be positive emotions, and that really is the point.

Strong spoilers ahead!

You’re an undercover agent that has infiltrated a terrorist organisation and you happen to be taking part in a terrorist attack on an airport in Moscow. As the innocent people start dying around you as the other terrorists open fire, you are given a choice. You can do one of three things during the first part of the scene (from the way I see it)… You can start shooting along with them; you can aim high and fire, missing the civilians and shooting over their heads; or you can simply not fire a single shot at all.

I chose not to fire a single shot during the first part of the level and simply let the others take the lead. I was actually surprised by the fact that the other terrorists didn’t notice that I hadn’t fired a single shot at a civilian yet. I was half expecting the leader to turn around and say “What the hell are you doing? Shoot!” I felt that Infinity Ward missed out on a very good opportunity to really put some extra pressure on the player during that scene if they didn’t fire a shot.

After playing through it, I understood what Infinity Ward was trying to get from the scene. They want people to feel outraged and sick at what was going on. You had to take part in something so horrible but being an undercover agent with an objective that involves saving the lives of potentially millions of people, you had to grit your teeth and suffer through it. After the level ended I started to understand, in a small way, what it must feel like for undercover agents who may have to do some horrible things for their mission.

// End of spoilers.

When you start the game for the first time you’re informed that there\is some “offensive content” and are given a choice whether you want to view/play through it or not. The choice is there for you to make yourself. If you choose not to play through them then the game will skip over those parts and you won’t have to go anywhere near them at all.

I for one am not offended by the content of Modern Warfare 2. I think it’s great that Infinity Ward and Activision went ahead with this game with all of its content. It pushes the boundaries and it creates discussion and debate over certain issues. I don’t want to turn away from such things; I want to see and play it for myself and see what it’s all really about.

I enjoyed playing through that scene because it made me feel so bad. The game has been called “barbaric and awful”. The scene in question is exactly that… barbaric and awful… just like how real terrorism is barbaric and awful and just like how war and the slaughtering of people no matter who is doing the killing is barbaric and awful. Now if only some people could get more outraged when it occurs in real life rather than in a video game…

But anyway, that’s it for me… don’t forget to vote on the poll that was posted not long ago. I’ve had my take, now it’s time to hear what you have to say about it.

The first words you’ll hear anyone utter when you ask them about Dead Space is most likely going to be, “It’s like Resident Evil 4″… and it is for the most part, though that’s definitely not a bad thing. In fact, as you play through this game you will realise that they made it to try to do everything that Resident Evil can’t or has stopped doing recently.

Shadows and sound are the two elements Dead Space uses so damn well throughout the game. You’ll be walking cautiously down a corridor onto a mission object when all of a sudden a shadow is cast from behind you of something running by. You turn to find nothing there but the same empty corridor… and you love how the game just made you do that. You’ll have a lot of those kinds of moments in Dead Space where you’ll be keeping an eye out for things and also keeping an ear out for strange sounds. Hell, the game even goes as far as to try to take away your sense of sight by putting you into a pitch black environment or into an environment where the noise is deafening that you can’t hear the Necromorph about to stab you through the heart right behind you.

The way I describe Dead Space is that it is what you would get if you smooshed (yes, smooshed) Resident Evil 4 together with Metroid Prime. Many of the gameplay elements are present from Resident Evil as well as the whole survival horror premise, however it also borrows from the Metroid series’ ambience. It goes so far to put you inside the world of Dead Space that your HUD is in fact a holographic projection of your own suit. Now at this point I could go on about the story… but I think I’ll just leave it to a YouTube video to do that for me lol.

It seems strange to me that this game hasn’t sold very well. In fact from what I hear, it sounds like that Resident Evil: The Umbrella Chronicles has actually sold more copies than Dead Space has.,, and RE:TUC was only released on a single platform… Wii. Why haven’t more of you gone out and bought this game? I demand an answer!

EA has made a conscious choice to try to bring this franchise to the masses by releasing various media on different platforms. While the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and PC gamers get to enjoy the game on their respective platforms, they’re also able to download an animated comic which focuses on the events before the game from XBLA, PSN and some gaming sites around the net. Along with this, an animated movie that is also set before the game called Dead Space: Downfall was released on DVD and Bluray. Wii gamers don’t miss out either with the release of Dead Space: Extraction later this year… and also the recent information that Dead Space 2 is being developed as we speak.

It seems that EA is very confident of this franchise and its ability to grow, and I hope it does… if the quality of their later works is anything like the original game then we’ll be seeing some good stuff. I hope the series can grow and evolve and I hope that more people get into it because it certainly deserves the attention.