Sniper: Ghost Warrior

The first level of Sniper: Ghost Warrior is entitled 'One Shot, One Kill'. I can only assume this is meant to be an ironic title...

There are many problems with this game (from the first level at least which is, quite frankly as far as I could be bothered to play this before popping it back in the Lovefilm envelope) and since it doesn't really have any redeeming qualities over the average FPS, that's all I'll be posting about.

1. "Ok, coast's clear!" BANG! DEAD

You go into the level as a pair of snipers. The other one wanders off on his own right at the start. Together you take down a couple of guys in syncronisation and from then on his job is to tell you what to do. 3 minutes in, he tells you to hide in a bush. You do so. You hear talking further up the road but can't see anything because of the wall you have to hide behind. About a minute passes and he tells you its safe to go on.

It is not.


2. "No, you're not doing it right. No. Oh here, let me!"

You need to use a rope to get down a wall since a single story drop will kill you. As you approach the point of decent a message pops up "Press down on the D-pad to select the grapple". Ok, selected, game takes over and points the camera up at a grapple point. I grapple it and climb up, only to be gunned to shit near instantly.

Reload, walk back.

"Press down on the D-pad to select the grapple."

Yeah, whatever - I want to make sure there aren't any enemies around first this time you bastard game. Walk a bit on, the game automatically selects the grapple for you and points up at the grapple point. As far as I can tell it is simply the will of the Gods that decides whether you live or die at this point, since I can't see any enemies around before I have to grapple.


3. "Nah, I'll stay here. You've got this buddy."

You, eventually, make it to the sniper point. So much for one shot, one kill. I've already reloaded twice and killed about 8 people. You line up to take the shot you came here to make. Naturally your AI partner is happy enough to fob the responsibility onto you. Time to make that one shot, one kill! You fire.

For some inexplicable reason, there is a huge explosion in the base as this happens.

Your target survives somehow and jumps in an armoured vehicle and drives off. One shot, no kill... You are ordered to decend via rope into the base, chase after the vehicle (on foot) and finish the job. Just you though. The other guy'll sit there on the cliff. He doesn't even offer you cover fire. What a dick.


4. "Sniper Rifles?! Nah, I'll just use my AK thanks."

You are crouched, on a cliff, about 300m away from and above the enemy. He has an assault rifle, he is shooting from the hip. He is as accurate, if not more accurate, than you.


5. "He's pretty stealthy... Good job I'm a psychic!"

The enemy can track your brainwaves. I'm not entirely sure how but its the only explaination as to how they can see you crouched on a cliff 250m away in a bush while wearing a ghillie suit that makes any sense. Maybe they have telekinetic powers too. That'd explain how they can be so accurate with their guns so far beyond their intended range.


6. And the rest.

Its jerky, it doesn't look very nice, it has a clichéd bootcamp tutorial at the start, it checkpoints rarely, the above make it difficult to the point of being unfair... The usual really.


Summary

One Rental, No Purchases.

Legend of the Galactic Heroes

I've been putting it off and putting it off (and putting it off) but last night I finally decided to watch the first episode of Legend of the Galactic Heroes. I saw the original film months ago and really enjoyed it but knowing the length of the series (110 episodes. I know, it must seem like a joke to some that I consider that long compared to the 400+ episodes of Naruto there must be now) it always seemed like a big job considering the rather slow speed it runs at.



To steal ANN's summary; "For decades, the Galactic Empire has been locked in an interstellar war with the Free Planets Alliance, a conflict that involves thousands of spaceships and millions of soldiers on both sides. Two new commanders enter the conflict with great hopes: Imperial Admiral Reinhard von Lohengramm and the FPA's Yang Wen-Li. As they deal with superiors and subordinates, maneuver through complicated political arrangements, plot strategies, and win battles, each will be tested and ultimately, changed, by the reality of war."

So two sides, fighting for 150 years. A genius tactician appears on either side and they play a game to decide the fate of the galaxy. In the grim darkness of the 35th century there is only battleships.

I won't lie, the big hilight of LOGH for me is space battles. Battles in LOGH are huge. The battle in episodes 1 and 2 has a death toll of about 1.7 million soldiers (rounding to the nearest 100,000). Also the battles actually use tactics which are all explained, quite extensively in some cases. This is mainly the reason why I say its rather slow, as maneauvering fleets into the optimal position takes up a large part of the battles. There's lots of quiet moving around for a better position usually followed by the mass slaughter of whoever failed to do so. The battles fell quite realistic because of this.

Of course it can't all be battleships (well, it could but, you know), the two main characters on either side are actually pretty cool. Reinhard is constantly given a hard time about getting his position by riding on the coat tails of his big sister, the Kaiser's favourite concubine. Yang is a bit of a slacker, hates war and would like nothing more than to end the conflict ASAP so he can get back to studying history.

I can't really say much more since I'm only starting ep5 now myself. I will say though that I'm really enjoying this. It also looks really good visually for an OVA released between 1988 and 1997.

I've posted the first part of the movie 'My Conquest is the Sea of Stars' below which starts off the series. Below that I've linked to a Youtube account that's been uploading the series (currently its up to ep29, though updates seem sporadic, might be worth switching to torrents after then).



http://www.youtube.com/user/whoguardstheguardian#p/u

Xenonauts

I made mention of this in the XCOM thread but the more I read while lurking on their forums, the more I think it deserves a thread of its own. Xenonauts is a turn-based strategy game similar to the original X-Com games. Its the first game being developed by a small UK-based team called Goldhawk Interactive, its for currently for PC only and is expected to arrive around this Christmas.

No actual screenshots have appeared yet but they do have some nice concept art on their website.



So far it all sounds pretty good. Like 2K's game its set in the past, the Cold War this time. It'd be nice if it could echo the tensions of the time still going on in the background while you fight off aliens but I doubt it'll go that far. It does, however, ground your starting technology. Instead of the rather generic 'X-Com Interceptor', you'll be knocking UFO's out of the skies with F-17's and Mig 32's.

Oh, and you'll be able to bring a T-80 along with you on missions:



You'll be able to customise them too. You've researched a plasma cannon? Awesome! Now you can mount it on your T-80's. Where was I before I was distracted by tanks? Oh, aircraft. Air battles will be very different to X-Com, played in real-time on some kind of tactical map (not much about air combat has been said though but it sounds like it could be fun).



They've only shown the first kind of alien you'll encounter so far; the Andron, a cannon fodder robot.



Geoscape, tactical combat, research, base building, light tanks, air combat, so far it sounds like its shaping up pretty well. Obviously it'd be nice to see a few proper screenshots, especially with the tentative release date only 5 months away, but I have faith that this should be pretty good. Do take a look at the website (especially the Sitrep archive at the bottom of the sidebar) if you'd like to see more.

XCOM

God, when I first heard someone was rebooting X-COM into an FPS I felt a bit sick. Now I just want to crawl into a hole and die...

50's setting, fighting oil and geometric shapes? The least you could do was stick a Floater in that shit...

Microsoft E3 2010 Keynote

Just got on and saw a bit of chopper flying for CoD Black Ops, now its straight onto MGS Rising.