My review of TrackMania Forever, both Nations and United has been published over on 411 Mania and I say some funky little things like this.

TrackMania is a whole load of fun, there is noting about this game that makes you think “oh this isn’t fun…” as you are constantly racing around outrageously crazy tracks making your car do stuff that shouldn’t be possible but that just is brilliant to witness. The actual driving is fun purely because you are not worrying about gears, downforce and all the other stuff that comes in racing games today. Without a doubt this is the most fun you are going to have with a racing game for a long while.

So go and check it out right here.

This is a review I started a couple of months ago but only now have gotten round to finishing it off! The Club….read on for my take!

A dash of third-person perspective, a healthy dose of non-stop action, a sprinkle of arcade scoring with a dollop of random bad guys on top. Something is wrong though, this would be the basis of a very good shooter, but to become a great shooter it will require that special ingredient that elusive to all but the very best of games.

Read the rest of this entry

There is a fine line between success and failure in games where getting a big score or appearing on a leader board are the driving features of the game. Games like Peggle have done fantastically well with this format, The Club however failed to perform as well as it could have.

Fortunately we have a new game to add to the list of successes, that is Red Lynx’s Trials 2 Second Edition. Trials 2 SE is based on the earlier Trials games and probably some even older imitators which I have never heard of or played. Trials 2 SE is the latest edition to the franchise, it is a heavily revised version of Trials 2 offering loads of new features and better chances for gaming fun.

Read the rest of this entry

So the latest episode of Sam and Max Season 2 has been released. I have been able to review the game thanks to my work on 411 Mania, so continue to read my review!

Read the rest of this entry

Everyone loves music; everyone (I should hope) loves games. Mix the two together is surely a winning combination, and in the case of AudioSurf it most certainly is a winning combination. Created by Dylan Fitterer and distributed on Steam using the Steamworks tools this is a game that truly shows the great potential of the independent gaming scene currently on the PC.

AudioSurf is a racing-puzzle game that takes your music and turns it into a track within seconds of selecting what you want to play. The shape of the track is entirely dependent on what type of song you chose; a slow acoustic song will generate a gentle uphill track while (this would be my choice) a heavy thrash metal song will give you a hell of a ride racing down hill all the way. It really is fantastic the way Dylan has made this possible, the track will undulate and take you on a trip following the pace and beat of the music, this is brilliant as it allows you to easily chose whether you want an easy or a very challenging game, purely by your selection of music.

The focus of each track is on the blocks that litter your path, you must hit the coloured blocks to create a grouping and score the big points. There are different characters which you use to race the tracks, however many of them are quite similar with just some small abilities adding a twist to proceedings. However once you find a character you feel comfortable with then you can have a whole load of fun with it.

Controls are simple and intuitive, there are three lanes on each track, and depending on what character you go as there is a rest lane where no blocks will appear. You can easily use the mouse or keyboard to shift your ship from lane to lane weaving between different blocks in your aim to get the high scoring ‘warm’ colours like red and yellow. The graphics are very nicely presented, you can choose what background you want and on that there are some funky patterns and designs that change colour and shape depending on what the song is.

You will find yourself racing again and again to get a high score; if you create an account with the game your high scores will be submitted to a central hub which allows you to see the scores achieved by everyone around the world, local to you and even your friends you can add in the game. If someone beats your top score you receive an e-mail informing you that you have lost your spot at the top which, in me at least, gave me the drive to go out and try harder and harder to reclaim my top spot. AudioSurf is one of the first games to utilise the Steamworks utilities provided by Valve and the immediate signs are that it is a great set of utilities. AudioSurf has achievements which provide another great incentive to knuckle down and get some great high scores and really go out and play the game to the max!

The sheer fact that one man has been able to create this game is quite some feat, making the game based on your music means that if you enjoy the racing/puzzling of the main game then you really should have no complaints as you are the one choosing what kind of track you race on. This is a very innovative game, while it may lack depth it is a great game to jump into and spend your time listening to your favourite tunes and having a great time. Further evidence, if needed, of its quality is the fact that it is nominated for the Seumas McNally Grand Prize at the Independent Games Festival.

Highly recommended purchase.

Puzzle Quest, well I finally got round to doing a proper review for it. I must say, despite all the things that irritate and annoy me about this game it is really quite good….and addictive.

Anyway find my review of it on 411 Mania right about here.

In a move shamelessly stolen from Dan at Graffiti Gamer I am introducing my ‘Review in a Pie Chart’ or ‘What a game is made up of in a Pie Chart!’

Below is Peggle Deluxe…Pie Charted!

Puzzle Quest, the ultimate mash up between the puzzle genre and RPG/questing is a great game.

Need I say more? I probably will do soon!

Viva Piñata has finally arrived on the PC nearly a year after it was originally released on the Xbox 360. Along with Gears of War, another recent 360 to PC conversion, Viva Piñata has been released under the Games for Windows banner, and also like Gears of War proudly boasts it is part of the Games for Windows LIVE group of games. Involving living Piñata of varying types and colours your job is to manage your garden and become a legend on Piñata Island for your skills as a Piñata gardener.
Read on for the full review

The Orange Box

The Orange Box (OB) is the latest release from the gaming giants, Valve. The OB is a collection of three new games, and two old ones thrown in for free, and it costs the price of a single game at retail. So what are these games you ask? Well let me tell you!

First off we have Half-Life 2 and Half-Life 2: Episode 1, these are the two free games I mentioned. The three new games are - Half-Life 2: Episode 2; Portal and Team Fortress 2. As Half-Life 2: Episode 2; Portal and Team Fortress 2 (TF2) are the new games, I will take each in turn and review them separately! On with the show….

Half-Life 2: Episode 2

Playing Episode 2 is like waking up from a long long sleep and being immersed into the best day of your life straight away. It has been a long while since Valve’s first shot at episodic content was released (Half-Life 2: Episode 1) 16 long months of waiting, but here it is, Episode 2, the middle part of the trilogy of Half-Life 2 Episodes, and it is well worth the wait.

The story picks off from where we left Episode 1, that is the end of the gameplay experience, not the video that appeared upon completion of the game, and you can also discount many of the teaser trailers Valve released last year. I will avoid giving away and more spoilers, but I will let you know that the story is magnificent and has been written with a style that anyone who has played a Half-Life game before will be accustomed too, and newcomers to the series will find to be a breath of fresh air compared to many other current First Person Shooters.

The gameplay is a brilliant; we are taken out of the oft claustrophobic depressing environment of City 17 and put into a race to White Forest where Dr. Kleiner and Eli Vance await your arrival with Alyx. This journey takes place in underground Antlion tunnels, a road trip in a muscle car that is a great improvement on Half-Life 2’s buggy and an amazing forest area and a couple of others besides. The changes of gameplay areas provide for a much more refreshing experience than achieved in Hall-Life 2 and Episode 1, and the pacing is exquisite, the game ebbs and flows without leaving you over-burdened with action and bored with travelling. This is something that many modern games get wrong. I must also say here that the end section of the game is much better than in Half-Life 2 and Episode 1, this time you are presented with a monolithic battle, of which I shall say no more except that it shows Half-Life at its best.

The Source engine that powers Episode 2 (and everything else in the Orange Box) has been given a stunning face-lift, all the models and textures have been improved in every way, and it is evident that the artists have utilised the new environments they worked in excellently. Facial and body animations are as ever brilliant, in particular with the mysterious G-Man. Everything just seems crisper than they have done; it was worth some delays to see the engine like this!

Overall I think Episode 2 has the edge over Episode 1, and in some ways over Half-Life 2 due to the tighter pacing and the fact that I love the new environments. The achievement and Director’s Commentary provide you with many reasons to go back and play this game again, and you will love to do so. Valve have really done themselves proud with a must own game for any gaming fan.

Portal

Portal wakes you up from a long long sleep. Hang on…I already made the sleep analogy in the Episode 2 review….hmm. Well at least in the case of Portal the sleep comments are justified as you start the game waking up from a deep sleep in your room in Aperture Science. You are a character known as Chell and you are in for a crazy ride!

Portal is the second part of Valves’ Orange Box and it is a short piece clocking in at 2-3 hours of gameplay in the main mode and a whole lot more replayability in the other game modes. It may be short, but it is very sweet, kind of like a cake if you will. Your character Chell is tasked by GLaDOS (Genetic Lifeform and Disc Operating System) to complete a series of tasks set inside Aperture Science. These tasks are made special by the use of the ASHPD (Aperture Science Handheld Portal Device) which as the name suggests is a Portal device. What is a Portal device I hear you ask? Well it is a device which allows you to create Portals in the game world through which you, and pretty much everything can travel through.

Yes, Portal is a puzzle game, but it is a great one involving dark-dark-humour, cake and great fun. The writing of Portal is perhaps the best writing I have ever had the pleasure of witnessing and listening to, GLaDOS is a machine whose personality is evident from her introduction and comments during the various levels of Portal, and even the gun-turrets are magical with their comments after you kill them.

I must talk about the gameplay, Portal has been built upon the Source engine by a group of students who were hired by Valve after showing off the spiritual predecessor to Portal, Narbacular Drop. You open portals using two buttons, the left and right mouse buttons and the portal can be placed anywhere allowed by GLaDOS in the level you are currently on. You step through one and you come out the other, do this at speed and you can go flying. Pretty simple eh? Well it is until you get to some of the latter challenges which can be very challenging!

After completing the excellent main game you can take part in the Bonus Maps, with ‘Advanced’ maps where different restriction are imposed upon you and ‘Challenge’ maps for you to complete by using the least portals, in the least time and the least footsteps. These along with the Achievements add a layer of replayability well beyond that of many ordinary games making this somewhat special.

Overall this is an amazing game with very few faults, I may have bought the Orange Box for Episode 2, but I came away enjoying Portal the most of anything that came with it. Get this game, and get some cake to play it with. Amazing.

Team Fortress 2

Team Fortress 2 is here! Finally the sequel to Team Fortress Classic has been released after numerous attempts by Valve to make something they felt was right. And boy have they done it! Team Fortress 2 is a game that breathes a new lease of life into the online first person shooter genre moving away from the current trend of realistic modern-day Middle-Eastern warfare and futuristic alien invasions to a setting of fun! That is the key to this game, fun! Team Fortress 2 is a class-based online shooter that is immensely fun and cool.

The graphical design of Team Fortress 2 is in stark contrast to the other games in the Orange Box, providing us with a visual style that immediately grabs your attention. Everything is semi-cartoony but with a basis of reality, I can’t give it justice with words, but trust me that it looks, and more importantly feels right! In fact everything about this game feels right, the look of everything, especially the classes fit in, and the voice acting also perfectly matches what you expect them to be like.

The gameplay itself is brilliant, all the classes have specific styles of playing, a Scout quickly nips in and out of areas, an Engineer builds defences and a Sniper picks off the enemy from a distance, throw in the rest of the classes and you have a nice blend of approaches you can take to play the game. The weapon load outs for each class suits them perfectly, and looks as they should, powerful and might cool.

The maps, while small in number provide quality entertainment, there is a Capture the Flag map, 2Fort which has been reincarnated from Team Fortress Classic and Territorial Control maps, both game modes do exactly as they say on the tin. Grab the Flag (Intelligence actually) and control the map with control points. They are nice and simple, but more importantly fun to play on. Get a group of mates together, find a server and go wild, I assure you that fun will be had!

The achievements are back again which along with a stat tracking system will keep you coming back for more just to be able to clinch the final kill that you need for an achievement. With the Steam Community you are also able to compare your stats with those of your friends who have played Team Fortress 2.

Overall this is a great new addition to the PC multiplayer scene, everything seems to be spot on which is what we come to expect from a Valve game. Everything about Team Fortress 2 is fun, it is well worth playing!

Overall

The Orange Box combines three of the best games to be released this year, and with the bonus of Half-Life 2 and Episode 1 you are getting a great deal. The standout game is Portal for providing us with something new and exciting, while Episode 2 continues the excellent legacy of the Half-Life series and Team Fortress 2 provides and exciting new multiplayer component to the online gaming scene. Due to all the games being built on the Source engine they should all run on any modern PC with a graphics card from the past several years. The Orange Box can be had for about £25 from most retailers and from Steam, a bargain for five games. A last note is that the internet is required to activate the game.

Go buy it, right now.

By Christopher Evans

This review was originally published on haflife2.net