Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince Review

Platform: PC

Genre: Basicly Action/adventure, but I think it's something totally new and revolutionary: WS (walking-simulator)

While installing the game I was asking myself: "Do I really wanna do this ?". I played all Harry Potter games (except for the Quidditch world-thingy) and finished all of them till Order of the Phoenix. The first 3 were childish but pretty fun and time consuming, the 4th ... eh

eh... and the 5th introduced the move-your-mouse-this-way-to-do-this-spell (something like in Arx Fatalis) which, for me at least, didn't work so well... so I watched it fly from my balcony (now, that was magic). After 30 minutes of gameplay, the mouse-drawing-spell-thingy was in this one too, but it worked better, it didn't mix up the spells. While playing, I actually said to myself "Hey it might be pretty good, of course now I'm just following stupid Ron everywhere, but this is just the tutorial or something." .... well..... WRONG !!!!!

The whole game you walk around Hogwarts, collecting (if you wish) stupid shit just for the fun of it... oh and you get some upgrades from time to time, but

nothing too spectacular. Your HUD is empty, no life, no spell (cause you have a different mouse scheme for each one), in fact, why need one, when all you do is walk...and walk... and collect Hogwarts crests . There are 125 big ones which you just run over, or jump on some carpets, or throw stuff at them (if they're nailed to a wall), and 25 which you get from collecting miniature crests. The little ones you can't see but you release from certain object which have a "aura" around them. Of course, they have a bad habit of pouring out and going through anything, so you will lose some of them.

If you do something right with the aura (I finished the game and still didn't get what), even more crst than usual will come out

The graphics are ok, I couldn't find my 1680x1050 resolution, so I had a nice black line, but no problem. If you like gothic architecture, then you will love walking around Hogwarts. One problem though, from the middle of the game on, Dumbledore and Slugthorne have lost their will to move their lips when talking. Oh, I get it.... it's magic ! And sometimes the voice-acting is bellow average. I don't know who recorded the voices, I didn't have the nerves to read the credits.

I haven't seen the movie, but in the game a lot of details are skiped... or the producers of the game think that everybody read the books. All the out-of-Hogwarts, Riddle's memories and other major/important events are presented in the form of cutscenes. It would've have been nice a little bit of interaction. Like for instance, when Harry and Dumbledore go for the Horcrux in the cave (this is actually the only one where you interact a bit), until you go out it 's only a boooring cutscene, that in the book may awake inside you a bit of pity for Dumbledore, but here you only get to hate him and want to kick his face. At the end of the cutscene you get to kill the undead (I know they had a name, but I forgot it, and it's not mentioned in the game) that come from the water.... This reminded me of space invaders. Good game that was. You move Harry left and right and shoot. WOOOOW. Also very touchy scene from the book, Dumbledore's funeral where everyone is gathered watching Hagrid put the body on the white tomb and Fawkes sings one last song.... they just decided to put credits instead. It just shows Fawkes fly over Hogwarts and a white light (which you can see if you stare at the monitor). Also the game is clearly made for a younger audience, because at the scene where Harry casts sectumsempra on Draco Malfoy and blood should start pouring from every one and each of his holes it just shows Harry cast the spell and then... Snape comes in... dialog... loading.

Besides the walking, there are 3 mini-games, actually 3 "clubs". The potions club, the duelling club (divided in 4 minor ... clubs, one for each house) and the Quidditch matches. At the potions club you have to follow a list of instructions (turn X until it gets yellow, put in 5 whatever, mix it and so on.... of course, you use your mouse to make the exact moves.... annoying), at Quidditch the only thing you have to do is to control your character with your mouse to get inside some stars (no acceleration or brake or whatever). The interesting one, and the thing that kept me playing are the duels. You get to fight 4 opponents from each house. You can use stupify (basic attack, which can be charged up) by left-clicking, protego (blocking) by right-clicking, Expelliarmus (stun) by moving your mouse counter-clockwise, petrificus totalus (freeze enemy) by moving your mouse verticaly and levicorpus (turn enemy upside-down and stun) by moving mouse horizontaly. (note: i might have mixed up the moves for the last, didn't use them as much). The duels are pretty fun, you can combine them so you don't get hit at all, but the opponents are Retards so ... don't bother.... just expelliarmus, and while he's down you go beside him and stupify the shit out of him.

So.... ..... well.... no.

Oh I forgot. There are two scenes when you play as a drugged (actually someone who took a potion) character. First you play as Ronald Weasley who drank a love potion without knowing. Everythimg is pink, hearts fly everywhere, the mini-crests are shaped as hearts and... it's the dumbest thing I've ever seen. Second you "play" as Harry after taking the Felix Felicius potion, which makes him lucky. Harry moves on his own, you see from a first-person perspective, you can't do anything only get mini-crests out (and they always come in large numbers). Of course that scene is wrong too... it's just too... happy. There is a golden aura around the screen, some jazz music in the background and a running Harry.

the bad: potion-making, voice-acting, too much walking, Should be called Harry Potter ZERO (no sugar, no action)

the good: Visualy nice, perfect for children

Call of Juarez: Bound in Blood Review

Platform: PC

Genre:FPS

I'm a single child, I have no brothers or sisters, so I have never felt that brotherly jump-on-the-grenade-for-your-kin love. After some movies, books, games, I acknowledge that it is something really deep and only something really bad could break this bond....like a woman.

A while ago Call of Juarez appeared, and it got a lot of good reviews (my own will come soon), so I tried it. After some swearing (at the stealth missions) I flushed it out from my HDD. Now when Bound in Blood was announced I tried it again so I could follow the story. After I finished it I found out that Bound in Blood was gonna be a prequel... well whoopeee.

The game is centered around the McCall brothers: Ray (the Pastor

from Call of Juarez), Thomas (Billies father) and William. After deserting from the army to save their home and family Ray and Thomas become outlaws and are living on the edge, always running and shooting. They also take their little brother William with them, who is a priest and tries to guide them on the right path but that sorta seems to be in vain. The characters are very well defined, you will just love them. Through most the game, aside from a couple of chapters, you can choose to play as Ray or Thomas. Ray cannot jump higher, can carry a gatling gun, and is good with dual-wielding pistols while Thomas is the agile type, he can climb, use his lasso to get to high places and is a excellent sharpshooter. I used Thomas the whole game.

The story is well written, you interact with all of the characters from Call of Juarez and see how they got where they got. Even old Calm Water has something big to say in Bound in Blood although his name now is Running River (you will see why) and you will find out (if you haven't played Call of Juarez) why the sudden change in Ray's temper. From the killing-machine to the peaceful Priest.

The graphics are .... well I drooled all over my keyboard. They are great, it really resembles the (few) western movies I've seen.

You get to visit a Ghost town, kill some indians in the forest, shoot from a moving wagon.

The sound is also good, I liked the voice-acting a lot, but I encountered a problem. If the person talking was behind me, i couldn't hear anything he said until I was facing him. Must be my computer, but i didn't have this problem in any game... so it must be from the game. Maybe I'll try it again when I put my 5.1 system back.

The HUD is very simple, well...actually it's empty. No health bar, the health regenerates (pretty fast) when you stay behind cover a bit (call of duty style), the only thing that appears is a meter .. concentration-meter... when it's full you can enter concentration-mode ... and well that's a different story. If you play as Thomas when you enter the concentration, the time slows down for a bit, and you can one-shot-kill every enemy that was is sight when activated.Tthe target will

automatically be put on a enemy and you just have to draw your mouse back and click. For Ray, the time slows down as well, but you have to move your mouse over the enemies, and mini-targets will appear on them... when the concentration-mode is over, he will automaticly shoot those targets this consumes no ammo....and you can enter the concentration with one bullet, put as many targets you can, and he will shoot them all. Also, another thing that was put in this game was the auto-aim... since i have a mouse, and not a X360 or PS3 controller in my hands I think it kinda ruins the game a bit. But, it did come in handy sometimes. Also the game offers a cover-system, a pretty god one actually. You don't get into cover every time you approach something bellow your belt (mass effect, gears of war), but every time you stand next to something the character moves his gun/guns/rifle, around the thingy you are facing so it can shoot. It took me a while but I shot someone from underneath Ray's arm.

Saving the best for last. The duels. Instead of Boss-fights, at the end of some chapters you get to duel with a character. This consists of you (camera centered on your hip) and the other one facing each-other. You can move left or right so you will always face him (he moves too), and when the bell rings (which is kinda weird when you duel is in a collapsing Aztec ruin.... WHAT BELL ?) you draw and shoot. That feels great, there is almost no sound, everything except your opponent is blurred, and you draw your hand closer and closer to the gun... and then the bell rings...and BAM! Really nice.

One major problem would be that it is too short. I finished it in less then 5 hours on normal difficulty.....

the bad: auto-aim, too short, sound problems, no health

the good: graphics, atmosphere, voice-acting

The Lord of the Rings: Conquest Review

Platform: PC

Genre: Third-Person Action

So EA Games thought it was about time to milk the LotR franchise again.

They took a look at Battlefield and thought... why not put swords and axes?And they did. What world should we create? After some days of counting the dust-bunnies, they had the solution. Let's use Middle-Earth.

I will admit now that I haven't played any Battlefield games, only Star Wars Battlefront ... which I heard was pretty close to them, and LotR Conquest is very close to SW: Battlefront...so .... it resembles Battlefield... I guess.

Anyway, the game is mostly directed on it's multiplayer part. In singleplayer you have two stupid/stressful campaigns. First is the good campaign, then you unlock the evil campaign. The Good campaign let's you play through some of the key battles from Lord of the Rings. Before each mission a cinematic with clips from the movie will be played (getting somewhat tiresome...after so many LotR games). Then you get to choose a character. There are 4 classes each with their different weapons, attacks and special attacks. Each have low/medium/heavy strike mapped on the mouse (in my case the medium attack was set somewhere in the void of the keyboard, my mouse-wheel just won't click). Anyway, except these basic attacks, when something fills up (what fills up, depends on the class you are playing), you get yo use the "specials". So, the classes:

Warrior: the most stupid class to play, At first this was my choice, I always like playing with the guy with a biiiiiiiig sword. It has some combos and fierce special attacks but it dies quickly and.... that's it.

The scout: a.k.a. the rogue. He can sneak behind the enemies and insta-kill them. Also he can single-handed beat any enemy as long as he is in stealth-mode and gets behind them. Even Mumakils, trolls or siege towers.

The archer: no clue, only used him in the tutorial, where I had to.

The mage: the most powerful class. In one mission where I had to defend a spot, I went with the warrior. It didn't work so well, but when I tried the mage... well I went through the whole game only with the mage afterwards. He has healing, a spell-projectile shield, fire wall, chain-lighting and physical-staff-in-the-head-bonk attacks. And as Baku would say, the greatest class in the game would be Gandalf.

Heroes: They are more-powerful versions of the above only with one extra-damage-doing-thingy (Aragorn has the army of the dead).

Well, I haven't played the game in multiplayer, but it doesn't really look balanced to me. The campaigns are short. After doing the good campaign, comes the evil one. Here, I was expecting (as always) a plot with a some side-turns or whatnot, but instead in every mission you have to kill another one of the fellowship's

members while resurecting some of the bad characters (Witch-king, Balrog).
The sound is pretty neat, well it's the LotR OST which I listen tosanyway when i play Oblivion/Morrowind. The graphics look old and dusty, but sometimes they can catch your eye.



the bad: no saving (I know it's a multyplayer based game, but they could've made a quicksave), crappy balancing (my opinion), faded graphics
the good: it ends quickly, the soundtrack

The Elder Scrolls IV: Shivering Isles Review

Platform:Cheese powered PC

Genre:RPG

"Everywhere I look, I see ... butterflies. They come with me everywhere, all the way to Sheogorath's Palace. How did I get here ? I found a strange door in the water. The door was calling me, shouting my name with the power of cheese. Walking towards the palace I came back and went on the other way. I lost my mind, the despair caught me ...everything lost it's color, my lips couldn't form the shape of a smile.

Everything was hard. I could barely place a foot in front of the other.

When I finally arrived, Sheogorath spoke to me. I couldn't make any sense of it. The pure genius of his madness overwhelmed me. I think he was one of the most brilliant men ever created. My bag and it's content made me remember of my previous days spent in Cyrodiil but as time passed it got full of new interesting things. I started collecting madness ore so Cutter could make me mad armour.

I met a lot of interesting people on the way, they were... unique but most of them needed help. I helped them and I had to go to the craziest places. The landscape, either if it was gloomy or colorful amazed me all the time.

The only thing I started to dislike were the corridors. I think I went through a lot of them, especially upon finding out the truth and ending the madness.

Overall, this was one the most amazing adventures I've ever been on. "

the bad: maybe a bit too many dungeons at some point (but this is a thing of taste), the really bad part is that it ends

the good: it's a piece of art

Starcraft (the Boardgame)

Platform: Your own livingroom/floor
Genre: Boardgame

Finally me and Baku got this boardgame. We waited for a long time to see how it is. The first problem we encountered on this epic journey was the high price. After solving this little incovenience, we rushed to the mall and got a huge beautifully colored box. We took a cab home. On the way we couldn't erase the big grins on our faces.

After washing our hands and decontamaniting the area we opened the box. A green-ish fluid started pouring out and ... wait wrong story. A awesome smell of "new" came out. We started opening the bags with the beautifully modeled pieces and cutting out the rest of the pieces we needed for the game. At first we were amazed by the sheer number of different pieces the game had to offer.

We took the liberty of trying to guess the rules, but then we turned to the rule-book. 
.......
5 hours and 2 pacs of ciggaretes later we knew the basisc and how to start the game... at least.

Now, more than two weeks later, we can proudly say that we know how to play the game. Of course we had a little bit of help from people who already played the game before.
At the start of the game you choose a faction you play, represanted by a.... representant
(disclaimer: this phrase was not meant to make any sense). So, you have two representants for each race from the original PC game (Zerg, Terran, Protoss). After choosing your side you get to choose your starting planets, and you have to link your planet to another existing planet on your map. Anyway there a lot of rules and very complex.

Generally speaking, while playing you will have the opportunity to build more bases on other planets, buils and army, upgrade or build buildings, research new technologies, attack another player or just advance with your army. There is a Event card deck, from where players will draw cards under certain circumstances.

The winning conditions are numerous. Players can win by having the most Conquest points, by fullfilling theyr special victory condition or by killling every other player on the map.

This game, although it's complex, is extremely fun. It consists of a lot of situations, where you have to backstab even your best friend so you can achieve victory in the end. Imagine that you bought the game and a figurine was broken. After throwing away almost 100 euros on this one, you start feeling sad, but then you have a bit of glue and a idea and you fix the broken figurine. After a while a friend comes over to play, and you show him the broken figurine, he doesn't see it, but you tell him " watch out, there is a broken one, take care !", and then he victoriously pulls another figurine from beneath him and says "Oh, you mean this one ??" And then, while still pointing at the one on the map... you hear that devilish sound "I'll kill you !!", but still the expression on your face and on the other players faces that know about the only figurine broken is priceless. The only thing you can do, is to say "no problem, I'll fix it" and move on with the game.

But still "I HOPE YOUR LUNGS WILL BE EATEN BY A CANCEROUS SQUIRELL". Ok, I'm calm now.

Whatever you do, after you get over the twisted manual and the rules, you will have a lot of fun with your friends playing this game.

the bad: Pretty hard to learn by the rulebook
the good: Fun, it's never the same map, it's never the same game