F1 2010

F1 2010
Codemasters

XBox360
PS3
PC Download







Ok petrol heads so here I am, stuck in the Dungeon of Reaper Towers left alone with the new F1 game, so does it live up to the hype? The short answer is O hell ya it does… and then some! F1 2010 has been brought to us by Codemasters, who also brought us TOCA - Grid and Dirt series, so you would bet your left nut that F1 2010 is going to be good and you would be right... great news for your left nut, eh! So let’s empty the bladders, zip up the fireproof suit, and get your ass comfy in the chair… let’s Go! Go! Go!


Each of the nineteen grand prix circuits have been designed perfectly even the Korean Grand Prix is here complete with grand stands. When you come out of your garage and onto the pit lane, you get a real sense of apprehension as you hear the cars going down the track beside you. With three different career paths to choose from ranging from three, five and seven seasons in length. The career you select will determine the different experiences you are offered. Pick a seven season career and you start off in a Lotus, Virgin Racing, or Hispania Racing where you get an opportunity to work your way up the grid. Then there is a three season career where you’re offered to drive with BMW, Williams, Force India or Turo Rosso and the like. But to access the top dogs you have to prove your worthiness of getting a seat in Ferrari, McLaren, Mercedes, Renault or Red Bull. Alternatively you can jump straight in to the quick race, custom race or time trials, plus there’s the multiplayer mode, plenty of options for the hardcore to the casual race head alike. That’s the real beauty of this game! Just by adjusting a few options it goes from a easy ride for the casual gamer who just wants to blast around a track into a full on simulator for the hardcore enthusiast. Mostly though, this will appeal to the formula one nut’s with all the set up options and fine tweaking that can be done to get that tenth of a second you need for pole position.

The racing itself in the single player is very close to reality and mimics what you see on TV with only a couple of seconds between cars. The cars themselves have a real sense of weight with massive turn in and exiting speeds which just keep pushing you to find that sweet spot. Choose the wrong set up for a track or go too soon on the accelerator and you will be doing donuts all day. Don’t worry if you’re not into locking wheels and burning out back tyres, you can turn on the ABS and traction control in the options setting which does make the cars much easier to drive but doesn’t remove any of the high speed enjoyment.


The race weekends can be customised to your liking with either short or long weekends. This will determine how many practice and qualifying session there are. During the weekend you get challenges, one of which is – beat your teammate. Completing these challenges unlocks new R&D parts that can be used for upgrades and you can work your way into the number one spot on the team… race heads know how important that is! Completing objectives and scoring points also brings you to the attention of teams higher up the grid who will all want you to drive for them… if you’re good enough!

The flag and penalty system tends to lean on the heavy side, a slight tap that in real life would potentially end up in a tangled mess of metal and bone but in the game it could result in a ten second time penalty instead, a bit unrealistic to say the least. At no stage in the game can you drive through cars, except in the pit stop… coming into the pits other cars just ghost drive right through you and into their pitbox, this breaks the illusion of realism successfully and it sucks. Added to this that your lollipop man won’t release you until they’re gone and you have one huge WTF!!! When tight on time or points, this is really, really annoying! That aside the pitstops are as you see on the TV in fact the only thing that’s missing is Ted Kravitz giving a running commentary.


During the various single player modes you have to deal with the press. Slag off the team or act like an obnoxious dick and it goes down like a fart in a space suit. Answer it like a champion and the team will love you! Yay! Your agent will be sitting in the motor home keeping an eye over the whole picture and don’t worry she will let you know how you’re progressing and what the team thinks of you!


Familiar tracks such as ‘Circuit de Catalunya’ (Spain), ‘Silverstone Racing Circuit’ (England) and ‘Suzuka Circuit’ (Japan) may make an appearance in other games like Forza 3 or Grand Turismo but they do not feel the same as they do in F1 2010. If you think you know what to expect from playing tracks in other games then you’re in for a fright. Everything here is different, the bumps, cambers, curb height and general handling around these tracks are greatly different and far more realistic. The best way to approach a circuit that you think you know is to forget everything - cornering speeds, grip levels, everything! Because they are all different here, they are faster, stickier, and bumpier so be prepared for a very real experience.

Multiplayer consists of four different game modes ‘Pole Position’ which is a twenty minute qualifying session where the winner is the player with the fastest time. ‘Sprint’, this is a single three lap race with random cars and grid slots. An ‘Endurance race’ consisting of a twenty percent race length track with dynamic weather, random grid slot and one pit stop, and lastly the ‘Online Grand Prix’ complete with a fifteen minute qualifying session and a seven lap race with dynamic weather and a pit stop. A mode to suit all moods and an enjoyable experience when shared with other serious racers.

The graphics on this game are very good with the detail that has gone into each car short of amazing. It is evident that the development team really benefited from having technical assistance from a current F1 driver and it seems the information he was able to provide has really come though adding to all aspects of this game. The “dynamic” weather system is one of the best weather systems in any racing game to date. Coming out of the La Source hairpin and up Eau Rouge with the rain pissing down is truly breath taking, you cannot see where you are going because there is water streaming off your screen and the car in front has disappeared into a cloud of mist, and you know there is a corner coming, but where? Just like the real thing! The audio is realistic, perhaps a bit too real… take my advice on this - go into the settings and turn the engine noise down! Your ears will thank you for it! Although each car has its own sound, after a while it just bores into your head and this being the dominant sound for most of the game, it just might drive you mad!

Granted the customization option or car selection do not have the same easy appeal as Forza or Gran Turismo but then again you wouldn't by Fifa and bitch about not being able to play as the NY Jets would you? Comparing this game to any other would be like comparing Doom to Modern Warfare – yes, they are both FPS games but they don’t share the same level of involvement. That said, Codemasters have omitted a few things that would have been nice to see and many race heads would perhaps expect in a formula one race - no formation lap before you start the race, no nutter running on the track with his ballsack flying in the wind and no safety car! I suppose they have to keep something in the bag for upcoming patches / F1 2011.There are also many bugs with the most serious being a corruption to save files which the developer is aware of and is addressing. There are also other small issues scattered throughout the game but future patches are promised and the problems should be corrected in time.

F1 2011 is not perfect and is really just for the F1/Petrol head fans. Casual race fans may find it fun initially but could soon be put off by the range and complexity of technical options. That said it is a high quality racer for the eyes and for the thumbs, personally I love it! True, I am a confessed petrol head and love nothing better than a hi octane experience, throw in a few pedestrians or even zombies and it would be nirvana… but as it stands the only thing better than watching the Grand Prix on TV is being in it and this is the closest many of us will ever get. Pound for pound this is the best racing game out there.

Buy it, love it, smell the rubber!!!

SpiderMan: Shattered Dimensions

SpiderMan:
Shattered Dimensions
Marvel/Activision/Beenox

Xbox 360
PS3
PC
Wii
PSP

Ok web slingers here we go with the latest instalment from the folks at Marvel and Activision/Beenox. That’s right, one of comics most exploited characters is back on our screens in this little dimension hopping adventure. So let’s put on the tight latex suit and standard face coverings so we can swing right into it... No, not the Gimp suit! The Spidy suit, all four of em!


Spidy has made a balls of things by mistakenly creating four dimensions, this accident sets off your quadrupole adventure of webbed mayhem. The objective of the game is to search through the four new dimensions and find pieces of a mystic tablet to save reality before it all goes pop, right so no pressure then Spidy! Cross dressing has never been so heroic, you will get to be the Classic Neighborhood Spidy that we all know and love/hate so well, the 'Noir' Spidy of a by gone age who is a bit of a bad ass. There is Ultimate Spidy in his cool black S&M looking spandex and the least popular, Spidy 2099 who is a arrogant cock! All have their own dimension and surroundings to fit their persona's and all in all its an interesting concept. During these various themed levels you will face a heap of spider-mans favorite bosses along the way, which is cool. Throw in the obligatory hidden spiders and collectibles scattered about, and you more or less have a typical spider-man game but be warned, this is not the Spidy game you are used to playing not by a long webbed shot. That’s right, feel the Spidy senses tingling, anyone hoping for a nice big city that's free to run around in is going to be really, really, disappointed! It’s A to B stuff, the sandbox format is gone in the bin. Booooo!! But that doesn't mean its a crap game... or does it?


Game play is fast, you’re thrown into the action straight away, from the moment you start the level you are corralled down a linear path, there is nowhere to go but forward. You meet and chase Spidy's first Nemesis 'Kraven the Hunter' through out the level, eventually ending up in a jungle based thunder dome arena. This begins the first boss battle of the game. After wearing down Kraven's health something new and interesting happens, you go into a first person view for a punch up during the last moment of the final fight. You move the left and right analogue sticks for punching and dodging, a bit like EA's boxing games of late. This was a really nice surprise that is very well executed and is a pretty fresh feature to this type of game and probably one of the games better qualities. That said, all boss battles follow this format, they are rinse and repeat affairs - find the weak spot, hit it, hide, hit it again etc... Next!!


The general formula is also the same all the way through each level, beat up the weak bad guys, beat up the strong bad guys, beat up the stronger bad guys, fight the boss, rescue the civilians, then beat up all the bad guys again, then beat the boss... Again! Arg!
Initially this is fun for each level but eventually it looses its excitement and becomes a routine affair.
The controls in general are straight forward enough, but the overloading on some buttons can cause a bit of finger frustration. The targeting system isn't great and causes issues when trying to quick zip to surfaces but you end up swinging into the enemies target area instead, its just poorly done. What was wrong with the old system Spidy... WHAT!!??

The level design is boring and lazy, the designers need to hung upside down in shame and covered in web-goo I recon, how could they come up with this when they had four strong individual characters and four different versions of New York to play with, all with four different time periods to pour over it all? Tut, tut! Not to mention some past Spidy games as inspiration that were of a high quality. It's a missed opportunity to improve on previous games rather than to reboot it poorly but I guess that was a gamble they were willing to risk... unfortunately!

Visually its not bad, graphics are not ground breaking by any stretch of the imagination but having the four different dimensions with their own “unique style” was a nice touch and a solid idea. However its all a bit overwhelming on the orbs, mixing bright colours in one dimension with cell shading for another then to the dark and dirty style of the next, it’s a bit of a messed up mind fuck. Although it is trying to give contrast between levels it just makes it visually inconsistent and confusing. I felt that it falls short of what the developers were trying to achieve.

The audio just meanders along like some depressed worker looking forward to a day in the mines, it does what it does just enough to get by. Ok, so Spider man himself has been voiced by 4 different actors giving Spidy a “unique” quality each time and our favourite web head has also been armed with all the smart answers you would come to expect but after a while it just blends into monotony and repetition. The only really cool thing is having Stan “The Man” Lee as narrator but even then you’re looking for the skip button.


This game is a fun filler at best, after you complete the game it will sit on the shelf never to be touched again. That’s of course if you could be arsed to even finish it. Personally I like to finish every game I start, but even this is going to push me to my limits, and trust me I have played some doozers in my time... 'Spider-man Shattered dimensions' is a level based platformer that unfortunately offers very little new to the genre. The early novelties soon run out of steam and you just start ploughing through it, perhaps real Spidy heads will enjoy it just because of its brand but not for its merits as a game. I can tell you this, if I had spent my hard earned cash on it, I‘d be very pissed off.


Rent it, play it, forget it.

Dead Rising 2: Case Zero Review

Dead Rising 2: Case Zero DLC
Xbox 360
Capcom

Case Zero is the prequel to the upcoming zombie smasher ‘Dead Rising 2’ from our crazy friends in Capcom. In this DLC you get to take control of Chuck Greene, a man with a past in motor cross who has a big dilemma. His Daughter Kathy has been bitten by a dead meat sack while escaping Las Vegas, to make things worse Chuck decides to stop for a pee or whatever in a little shitville town gas station. Things soon go tits up when the truck with all the precious, pricy ‘zombrex’, a drug that holds off the zombie infection, gets stolen and he gets stranded in this small town of ‘Still Creek’. Here’s where the fun starts, commence Zombie dismemberment!
The overall objective of the game is to build a motorbike so you and your daughter can ride off into the sunset before the military arrive to cleanse the town. This involves searching around for bike parts, fighting your way through hordes of the undead, meeting some helpless survivors and of course a run in with the local fucked up, shit crazy redneck boss. During all this you will have the opportunity to see the new physics and weapon combos in action, along with much improved survivor AI...Thank Christ!! Because the last lot were as dumb as a bunch of retarded rocks!

The clock is always ticking in case zero, the timelines given to get things sorted are tight and like the original are quite punishing if you make a mess of things and leave yourself short of time, frustrating is one way to describe this and ‘Aww Fuck It!’ is another. You will also notice a big difference in the overall feel of the controls, it is much improved over ‘Dead Rising’ and far less annoying.
There is also plenty of zombie killing antics to keep you happy with a wide variety of weapons that help you paint the town red, literally. Take a chainsaw, take another chainsaw, get a paddle, and what have you got? Canoeing… Jason Voorhees style! Chuck also gets to use shotguns, machine guns, broadswords, moose heads, handbags, etc. Nearly anything that’s not nailed down can be used as a weapon to chop, crush, blind, skew, run over or splat the drooling meat heads and this is where the true fun and guts of the game lie.

Following on in the blood splattered footsteps of the original ‘Dead Rising’ there are the silly costumes for you to change into, although smashing heads in the maids dress is just wrong, it’s funny and sickly pleasing… but wrong! The blender makes a welcome return and allows you to mix all sorts of food types together for those special smoothes that keep you alive or boost your abilities. For the Alco’s among us you can mix the booze together, one bottle of bourbon not enough, hell mix two. But remember drinking too much alcohol will make you sick… but the zombies do love a pile of puke to lick or slip on... yum! The level up books also make a reappearance but only some of the abilities you learn from them are permanent while others last for a short time. The whole experience is all very familiar, yet all quite new in a strange way.

Yes there are a few flaws in the game, loading times, graphics glitches and the lack of audible speech when dealing with survivors... all of which I’m hoping will be addressed in the full game, because if the loading times are that bad in ‘Dead Rising 2’ that will really suck zombie balls. Having said that, this is just a ‘demo’, all be it for 400msp, it’s a great mini game at that price and the ability to carry across your character points from ‘case zero’ into the main game is cool… up to a max of level 5, which will no doubt come in handy for Chucks next adventure.

At the end of the day this game is designed to give you a taste of the blood and guts that waits on a much grander scale and to basically get you started on the zombie paved road to Vegas, and boy does it deliver with every squishy footstep. It is a riot from start to finish, and I found myself playing it again and again. So if you’re a Zombie fan, flash the cash and get it! Trust me - there’s some serious blood and guts fun to be had with a bucket load of zombie bashing in ‘Dead Rising 2: Case Zero’.

Buy it, Play it, Love it!