Initially, you start in the early 1980s in your garage with no employees, limited money and a limited amount of choices. As you make more games and gain more money, more options are unlocked such as new consoles and the ability to create your first game engine. With making more games, you will gain more research points to research new topics and choices and your game development skills will improve. After amassing over $1 million, you can upgrade to a new office and starts hiring your first employees which can help you make better games. After making more hit titles, you will be able to move into even larger offices and hire more employees to develop more larger and sophisticated games.

When you are creating your first game, you have to think of a name, a genre and a topic of choice. Each genre and topic combination has different effects on the sales of your game. Next, you are brought to a menu of choices where you can adjust the bars to match what you think the game should include. In the first stage, you have to adjust the time spent on the engine, gameplay and the story/quests. The next stage includes the dialogue, level design and AI. The last stage includes the world design, graphics and sound. The amount of time spent on one aspect versus another can affect how your game would turn out. When you are finished, you will see how reviewers rate your game and how much money in sales have you made and you have just created your first game.

MediEvil takes place in 13th century England, where the Kingdom of Gallowmere is invaded by an evil sorcerer named Zarok who steals the souls of all the villagers and turns them into a zombie army. Zarok’s energy also revives a dead champion knight named Sir Dan Fortesque. Fortesque was widely believed to be the hero of the first battle against Zarok, but he finds out he was the first to die, and his reputation is based on a lie. Knowing the only way he’ll be sent to the hall of heroes, Fortesque goes to defeat Zarok for one final time.

The settings of the game are in the kingdom of Gallowmere. MediEvil is a platform game so each level has secret challenges and areas to find. The levels are fairly large, and for the most part do a good job of creating a creepy vibe. The environment’s are all dark and full of coffins and other things of that nature. There are a lot of blocky textures, but it’s expected since this game came out back in 1998. However, the graphics are definitely a weak point for MediEvil. Dan’s movements aren’t fluid at all, and his attacks are all choppy and don’t have a natural ebb and flow other games such as Spyro and Tomb Raider. Also the enemies are very blurry, and could’ve been made more scary. Like I said before, the graphics definitely aren’t a strong suite of this game. However, since this was made in 1998 it’s unfair to really bash them too bad. The sound is good for the most part, some sounds are generic, but the music is surprisingly good.

Graphics: 3/10

Sound/Music: 3/10

Story/Setting: 6/10

Controls and Gameplay

The gameplay of MediEvil is both a strength of the game and a weakness. The gameplay is very simple, but it doesn’t do anything revolutionary. The game is third person, and you control Sir Dan Fortesque and navigate through levels searching for keys to unlock doors, and other items. You can fight zombies and other enemies with a variety of weapons that include swords, throwing knives, clubs, and more. The levels are all fairly big, but can become repetitive. In each level there is a “chalice” that is awarded if you beat 100% of the level. Beating a level is done by defeating all the enemies, and exploring the whole area. This can be both fun and frustrating. It’s good if you like searching and finding things in a game. If you just want a quick playthrough, it’s annoying when you think you’ve beaten the whole level but the progress bar isn’t showing 100%.

The enemies you face are mostly zombies but there are other creatures as well. The fights are very easy, but they do get progressively harder. I wouldn’t say anything in the game is particularly difficult though. The game feels just like any other platform game. The controls are fairly standard, with movement done with the directional pad. The square button is used for power attacks, circle lets you jump, X is used for short, quick attacks, and triangle allows Sir Daniel Fortesque to block attacks. One major problem with the controls is running, in the game running is done by tapping the directional pad twice and holding it down. It can become annoying getting a fight and than having to double tap to run. Another major problem is selecting a weapon from the inventory, you have to continuously press select to access the inventory. It would have been better if Sony just allowed you to access weapons without having to press select. Also, the camera angles in the game are terrible. Naturally, since the game is third person

Controls: 5/10

Gameplay: 5/10

Rent or Buy? Final Thoughts

MediEvil is one of those games that was great when it came out, but hasn’t aged gracefully. If you played this game when it new, than I’d recommend getting it purely for the nostalgia trip. I played this game in 1999, and I don’t regret buying it because I enjoyed it as a child back than. But from an unbiased point of view, the graphics are blocky and the textures don’t look good, the character movement and camera angles are jerky, and overall it has very repetitive gameplay. I’d honestly not recommend you buy this game if it’s your first time hearing about it.

Breakdown

Graphics: 3/10

Sound/Music: 3/10

Story/Setting: 6/10

Controls: 5/10

Gameplay: 5/10

Overall: 6/10.

The World

Players encounter a whole new world in Dragon Age Origins, filled with weird and wonderful races, the Quinari for example, and enemies to take on, and a mythology that has deeper roots than some well-established RPG’s which have been around for longer. There are many areas in the game which introduce elements never considered by other games, such as The Circle. This is the central hub for all those with magical powers, asserting control over those who practice the dark arts and training others to use the light arts well.

The Mythology

The mythology in the game is still celebrated as some of the deepest in gaming history. The world is littered with various volumes on certain aspects of the game, offering the player who chooses to read them all the wealth of knowledge of an entire world. As far as the core history goes, a group of mages attempted to enter the game’s version of heaven, and when they did they tainted it with their darkness and desire for power. As a result all of the beings, thought to be gods, living in the realm became dark beasts, which were buried deep underground by the dwarves. The Darkspawn, creatures tainted by this darkness, seek out these gods and once every few hundred years do find one, known as an Arch Daemon. These old gods must be destroyed to stop the Darkspawn spreading across the world, and every time they find one of their gods the ensuing rampage is known as a blight.

The Heroes

The Grey Wardens are the heroes of Dragon Age Origins, a group of warriors from all races which have consumed Darkspawn blood and survived its effects, making them stronger. Players create a character which becomes a Grey Warden in the game, and so follow the current blight to its end, in which they must kill the Arch Daemon. Interestingly the Grey Warden to kill the Arch Daemon will also themselves die, and a choice is offered to players before they kill it which allows them to choose to live on or die a hero.

The Characters And Choices

The main characters in the game are a group of warriors from across the races in the game. Players interact with each of these characters in their hub area between quests, making for some very touching and often comedic conversations. This is where Dragon Age Origins opens up, because players can make other characters either love or hate them, each achieving specific abilities within them. The choices given to players range from the trivial to the unbelievable, often resulting in irreversible, world changing effects.

The story of the game takes place in 16th century France, during the time of King Henry II’s reign. Well mostly, because originally, you are from the present time, but the ghost of Diane de Poitiers appeared in front of you and transported you back in time. If you do not know who Diane de Poitiers is, she is actually the most favorite mistress of King Henry II. The task that was then set for you is for you to find the real cause of her death and find the conspirators to her murder before you get to go back to the present time.

Even though the story of Amulet of Time: Shadow of la Rochelle is based on historical accounts, I suggest you do not learn history from the game since most of the storyline is inaccurate. Well, that is quite understandable really, because in order to successfully sell a game, the story should have more drama and should grip you to play as long as possible. Amulet of Time: Shadow of la Rochelle does this very well. And I should say that this is one of the best hidden object game stories I have experienced this week.

In terms of game play, I must say that overall, the game is very beautiful. The overall graphics is very nice. I especially loved the beautifully illustrated journal that keeps track of your progress through the game. The sounds are subtle and not annoying like most games and the puzzles range from pretty easy to moderately challenging. Amulet of Time: Shadow of la Rochelle is mostly hidden object scenes though, so there is few adventure gaming involved. Anyway, this does not make the game less addictive, as I enjoyed every moment of playing while the story unfolds.

One thing I really appreciate about this game is that it actually has a campaign of sorts, and also tries to get you emotionally attached to some of the virtual drivers participating in the various races. I find it really cool that drivers in GRID 2 have regular names, and you actually meet some of them a number of times on the track. The game is pure racing, though, there are no cops, mafia, or anything like that, so the story is exclusively built around the drama that happens on the track.

Of course, there’s nothing wrong with that, as GRID 2 features one of the very best car handling systems ever seen in a racing game. Even though the developers from Codemasters are calling it TrueFeel, the handling system’s goal isn’t to make controlling the cars feel particularly real. The developers have aimed to strike a good balance between a realistic and an arcade feeling, and it’s safe to say that they have done a wonderful job. This is not Need For Speed, because it’s actually very easy to completely waste your car, should you enter a turn with too high a speed, but at the same time the game is very fast-paced and packs a tremendous amount of action, which makes it feel like more of an arcade-style racer. GRID 2 is also a great racing game thanks to its variety of gaming modes. You can do traditional races, but there are also some more exotic options like Drift, where you specifically have to excel at drifting. Thankfully, the singleplayer features a custom race mode, where you can just pick the track and the car that you want and race against the AI. A really cool option is the split-screen mode, where two players can race against each other on the same machine.

The original Race Driver: GRID was simply gorgeous, and thankfully, the same thing can be said about GRID 2. The tracks, environments and the cars are absolutely beautiful, without being too complex in their nature, and without being too demanding on your system. Various effects like smoke, dust, lens flares and glows add color to the visuals and are simply fantastic. The only poorly-looking part of GRID 2′s graphics are the fans scattered around the start/finish line, as their models are very low-res, but once the race begins, the crowds of people around the finish line actually start looking great at high speeds, when you can no longer focus on the small details.

The sound approach in GRID 2 is also very good. Since most of the game is a campaign mode, you often hear your buddy navigating you while you’re in the middle of a race, warning you about potential obstacles ahead or providing you with other valuable information. Effects like engine screams and crowd noises are fantastic, while the music during the cut-scenes is awesome and helps you get pumped up about the upcoming race. The one thing I dislike here is that music is largely absent during the races themselves, which is simply mind-boggling, as it can be such a powerful tool in action-packed moments, such as the ones that GRID 2 is so full of.

In the first game you had four very different and outlandish classes to play as. This one is no different. The only class that plays radically differently is the Assassin class, also known as Zer0. What makes him different is the fact that his melee attacks are generally useful. I went with this specialization throughout the game, and it was very different to play as a guy who’s meant to slice and dice rather than use one of the bajillion guns in the game.

Actually, that’s one of the game’s many strong points: the vast array of weapons. Most of the time you’ll find some common trashy ones but sometimes you’ll catch a break and pick up something truly amazing. At one point I had a gun that talked back to me every time I reloaded or zoomed in. Yeah, sure, eventually it got a little old but I couldn’t help but chuckle every time he said something off the wall.

If you played the first one, then of course you’ll recognize the outlandish sense of humor. In fact, I think it’s possibly one of the funniest video games ever made. The main adversary Handsome Jack is deviously hilarious with his off-putting sense of destruction. He makes for a way better bad guy than in the previous game. Every time I saw him pop up on the top right of my screen I knew there was going to be something worth listening to.

Not everything is perfect. There are some really, really mundane missions. There definitely could have been a little bit more variety when it came to quests at hand. You’ll fight through an area, come to a big open spot and you’ll no doubt be encountering the boss of that area. Sure, the boss might have something humorous about him but when every other quest is a kill mission you might expect a little bit more of a unique way to get to him.

That’s another gripe I had with this game: the traveling system. With such a big game space to play in, I would have thought they would try and polish the driving mechanics in this game. Though not terrible, the vehicles seem to always be driving with soap-covered wheels. It’s just not responsive enough for such a polished game- the only change that they’ve given them is that they’re able to use an emergency break which in many cases just leads to more problems. That’s one of the gripes I had with the first game but there were minimal changes to it with this sequel. Luckily, you won’t find yourself in any vigorous vehicle missions.

Finally, I need to touch upon the amazing cooperative mode. This game is truly made to be played with your friends on PlayStation Network or Xbox Live. Sure, it’s fun to just blast around with random people but if you actually know the guys you’re playing with you won’t have to worry about random jerks stealing all your loot. I just wish they had some sort of loot based system like some of the Massively Mutliplayer games out there. Maybe a need before greed loot system or something. Other than that, the multiplayer is great and was essentially lag free every time I loaded it up.