Tag Archives: review

Wii U: My first impressions

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It’s been 10 days now since I got my Wii U and after spending some quality time with Nintendo’s new console I am ready to provide some first impressions.

Sadly, the first minutes with my Wii U were one epic user experience flaw: Instead of jumping into the new console experience I had to download a huge day-one patch after booting, which took nearly 40 minutes. But after that painful process of waiting the typical lounge and zen music starts and you are back in the family-friendly Nintendo universe.

The Wii U gamepad works better than I remembered (I played a few Wii U games at gamescom Cologne this summer). It is fairly light and the touchscreen works quite well – although it’s still less reliable than current gen smartphones or tablets with capacitive touchscreen technology. And compared to more traditional game controllers the Wii U gamepad is huge. I have really large hands, but it still feels a bit odd. I think I will get used to it the more I play. Personally, I had some problems with the position of the right-sided buttons. In contrast to the XBox360 an PS3 pads, the buttons are beneath the right analogue stick and – even worse – the button for canceling menu options or actions (B) is on the exact same position of the button to confirm actions on the other consoles (XBox360: A, PS3: X). I bet this is also a thing I have to get used to, but at the moment I often confuse the buttons and pick the wrong one. The Pro Controller looks pretty much like a XBox360 pad but shares the same button layout on the right side as the Wii U gamepad. I prefer using the Pro Controller over the Wii Remote & Nunchuck combination if possible (sadly, not every game supports the Pro Controller).

Enter Nintendoland. It’s a collection of minigames themed with different Nintendo classics like Metroid, Pikmin, Mario etc. It’s cute but the forced tutorials with the ugly robot avatar really killed my experience at the beginning. Instead of exploring Nintendoland by yourself, the robot guides you in every little step you make – there is even a tutorial you have to pass to get to the game’s settings. Nevertheless, I really enjoyed playing through the Metroid-themed minigame, but the Nintendoland really shines in Luigi’s mansion, the Harvest Moon and the Catch-Mario games. All three games are a great example for asymmetric gameplay, in which one player takes a special role (e.g. the ghost) using the new Wii U gamepad and competes against the other players (e.g. the ghost hunters) with oldschool Wii Remotes.

A pretty similar approach can be found in ZombiU – one of the few exclusive core games for the Wii U. In its multiplayer you can choose between the zombie king and a survivor. The survivor has to kill zombies with the Pro Controller (or Wii Remote & Nunchuck) in FPS-style, while the zombie king drops zombies on the map using the Wii U gamepad. The zombie king mode looks a bit like a RTS-game and I had a lot of fun dropping zombies all around my colleagues playing with me the local multiplayer. The singleplayer uses the Wii U gamepad to scan, use items or pick-up stuff. Although I like the usage in most cases, it sometimes feels a bit too forced compared to the great multiplayer.

The third game I got is New Super Mario Bros. U, which is a great Mario game but makes only little use of the new Wii U pad. I am really curious to see how other upcoming games will use the new Wii U gamepad – in my opinion, the asymmetric local multiplayer is the way to go and the only chance to compete against Microsoft and Sony for now.

My recommendation: Wait and see. There are only a few games, which make great use of the new gamepad and two new consoles are around the corner. Nintendo and the 3rd party developers have to deliver more exclusive games to make this console a must-buy for gamers.

Review: XCOM: Enemy Unknown (PS3)

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Although I’ve been pretty busy in the past month I managed to play through XCOM: Enemy Unknown. Back in the 90s I invested far too many hours in the original game and killed aliens, built up my bases and did research. The beauty of he new XCOM game is that it takes the formula of the original game and extends and streamlines it in a perfect way. I was really surprised how well the gamepad controls work. Firaxis did a good job in using the buttons for the different actions and it I was very pleased to recognize that you need two or three missions to adapt the interface.

Nevertheless, there are some small issues I came across. The game lets you only rotate in steps of 90 degrees, which helps a bit to orientate (where is the landing zone, where is my target) due to only four possible setups but often generates confusing situations in smaller rooms or complex installations like larger UFOs. I often tried to get the best possible perspective on the situation but discovered that all four possible camera setups were not satisfying. Another issue relates to the selection of actions of your marines. With growing experience your marines receive new abilities, which is a great feature. But the abilities are all lined up in the interface, sometimes continuing in a second line of boxes representing the abilities. I often tried to skip some actions by moving the cursor down or up between the lines, but this is not possible. The only way to get to the second line is scroll left or right until you reach the end of the first one.

I mastered the game once in normal mode and started a second one in the impossible mode, which is really tough. The aliens hit better and harder, you hit worse and your marines panic more often. But the missions are not the real difficulty (at least if you’re not playing ironman mode) – my problem was the meta game with the panic level of the countries you have to protect. One mistake I made in my second playthrough was not directly going after the engineers, which would have been necessary to build more workshops, receive even more engineers, build a satellite uplink and dispatch more satellites. The game won’t tell you, that it is better to start looking for engineers early. I think this is fine for an impossible mode, where you have to look after every detail but I wish there were more hints on this issue.

I had a lot of fun with my first playthrough and I am still confident that I’ll master the impossible mode in my second attempt. I also had a lot of fun modifying my marines to look like my friends and telling them how they are doing in the game (see the LEGO version of my squad above). XCOM: Enemy Unknown is a great game and if you’re into round-based strategy games you should consider buying it.

Why Nathan Drake’s latest adventure isn’t as much fun as it could have been: Golden Abyss Review (PS Vita)

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After spending some quality time with Nathan Drake in his latest adventure called the “Golden Abyss” on my PS Vita I am double-minded how to judge this game. It is one of the best looking games on the Vita and catches a lot of the atmosphere of Nathan’s adventures on the PS3. I also like the shorter episodes, which work very well being on tour.

But there are some things, which really got me frustrated and I am looking especially at you, mini-games. To those of you who haven’t been in touch with the game: There are several mini-games like shooting photos, cleaning items or tracing stone markings on paper. Most of these games force gamers to use the motion or touch controls and it’s not difficult to imagine how these mini-games made it into the game, considering the fact that Golden Abyss is one the main launch titles for Vita and here to show the full potential of the console. The idea may sound right to introduce the different input methods by mini-games but most of them are dull and repetitive or suffer from inaccurate controls. In addition, there is some much stuff to collect (and to miss) in the levels, it’ll be too frustrating for most players to collect everything to unlock the correspondent trophies.

The mini-game I probably find most frustrating is cleaning-up the archaeological items you find. You have to use the backside touch of the Vita to rotate the item and the front touch controls to clean it. Sadly, the developers implemented a spherical model, which is quite difficult to control. I often find myself making random inputs on the backside touch controls after I lost control of the rotation. The cleaning gets even more frustrating because the texture size you have to clean with your finger movement is often a bit larger than the model shown on the screen, which leads to random cleaning moves on the front screen because the visualization says you’re already done.

In addition to the mini-games, some flawed controls can be also found in the main game. Balancing on a stem with the accerelometer or performing swipes on the touchscreen during close combat make me feel like playing one of the cheaper smartphone games with a lack of precision. This wouldn’t bother me that much if those were optional controls but sadly they’re the only way to interact with the game in this situation.

Still, Golden Abyss is a good game but I could have been much better without the mini-games and if the developers decided not to throw every potential way of interaction of the Vita into the game with no alternative input options.

Everything’s better with lasers…?! My first weeks with SWTOR

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I spent some quality time with Star Wars: The Old Republic during the past weeks and want to share some thoughts on Bioware’s fresh-faced MMORPG. Although I did not expect a revolution of MMORPG game design, I was surprised that Bioware took very little risk by sticking to many well-known and established MMORPG standards. On the other hand, Bioware did a great job of capturing the atmosphere of the Star Wars Universe. Sound, art and character design are top-notch, although the texture quality is some years behind. Another thing that bothers me is that in the vast openness of the galaxy, the space combat runs on rails (here’s my hope that Bioware will release a full-fledged space combat add-on).

Surprisingly, Bioware did not so well with the whole graphical user interface (GUI). There are only a few options to modify your GUI, but it is far away from the freedom of interface modifications within games like World of Warcraft. That wouldn’t bother so many players, if only Bioware delivered a great GUI right from the start. Here are some examples for what went wrong:

The sum of your characters’s and companion’s actions grows fast and with them the need to organize all the fancy little icons across the screen. With only three control bars on the left, right and in the middle, Bioware offers only little room for placing all those action icons or additional items like medipacks. Especially the companion’s standard interface is far away from being intuitively understandable and easy to control.

Several pop-up menus like the inventory or the skill trainer options feature tabs, which can be found at the bottom of the pop-up window and not – as most users would expect them – at the top. Futhermore, they are comparatively small, with a dark font (cause it is a deactivated tab, right?) on a darker background and for this reason quite difficult to spot. It took me 10 minutes of searching and asking other players to find the mission items in my inventory (which have their own tab).

Another flaw is the button for leaving a flashpoint (instance) – it’s so tiny, that I wouldn’t have registered it without the help of my guild mates. The beauty of an MMOG is that you can ask people if you do not find the right button or option (which people do a lot in the general chat), but especially for MMOG newbies it would have been helpful to provide a more intuitive GUI.

But there are also some interface improvements in comparison to other MMORPGs. I really like the vertical beams of light, which direct you to the NPC’s loot.

After some weeks with SWTOR I have mixed feelings about the game. On the one hand I really enjoy the whole Star Wars atmosphere, the great character and art design and the dialogues. But on the other hand the characters and dialogues cannot draw off the attention of the fact that this a standard MMORPG that has a lot in common with the last generation of MMORPGs – except the great Star Wars license. In addition, the interface is neither intuitive enough for beginners nor offers enough modification options for experienced players to adapt their interfaces to their play style. Hopefully, Bioware will fix this soon – because if there is one further common ground in MMORPGs, it’s the regular updates.

In the grim dark future is only war… and annoying grenades?

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Last weekend I played through Warhammer 40K: Space Marine on my PS3 (yeah, I know I am bit late with that one). First I have to admit that I always enjoy visiting the Warhammer 40K universe with those fancy space marine servo suits, orks in space and the over-sized weaponry. Sadly, the story and the dialogues are completely forgettable and the game would have been more enjoyable with a bit more variety within the level and art design.

But we’re in the grim dark 40th century and looking for some action, right? In most cases you start approaching the enemy’s forces by some short-range shooting with your guns but end in close-combat surrounded by a group of enemies. That’s not only because your Space Marine rocks in close-combat but also due to the fact that the only way to regenerate health is dropping finishing moves on your enemies at close range.

Sometimes the third-person camera comes so close to your servo suit hero that you have to manually zoom out, while bashing buttons or continue bashing buttons and pray to the emperor that you’ll hit some foes. You may get used to this issue, but close-combat has a much more serious problem. If you’re starting a finishing move a fixed animation starts and will last some seconds with optional quick-time event button pressing to overwhelm your combatant. During this fixed finishing scene no other enemy can touch you in close-combat, which works similar to the quick-time events and finishers in God of War or other hack’n slay games. I am ok with the fact that other enemies can shoot at you during the finisher, but which really annoyed me was the fact that – especially later on in the game – there was a high chance that someone would throw a grenade right to your feet during the finisher phase. You see the grenade landing nearby, hear the warning – and can do absolutely nothing. Neither can you stop the finisher nor can you kick back the grenade or evade it. You just sit there and watch your Space Marine die. Dear Relic Entertainment – why not include another quick-time event to add a chance to escape this situation?

Shooting works out pretty fine until you come across a stationary weapon that is even larger than your super-sized weapons you already carry around. To use the weapon you have to approach the weapon and press a button, which shows up when you stand in the right area of interaction. Sounds pretty easy. But the tolerance for the area of interaction seems to be pretty small, so I often walked back and forth several times to exactly hit the right spot in order to use or rip-off the super-sized weapon in front of me (ripping it off is always better to keep moving and make a use of cover). Being veteran gamers we all know that big guns are there for a reason (e.g. large waves of enemies or boss fights) and that’s why it is a frustrating experience when you approach the weapon and cannot use it immediately because those enemies won’t wait until you are ready. Come on, Space Marines are not known for their fine motor skills, so why do I have to take several attempts to use the big guns?

That said, Space Marine delivers great combat action but it would lead to less frustration if someone would have taken care of these issues.

Review: Star Wars – The Camera Unleashed (PS3)

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Ich darf mich ja eigentlich nicht beschweren: Bevor ich mir “Star Wars – The Force Unleashed” für meine PS3 gekauft habe, wusste ich bereits, dass Kamera und Steuerung nicht perfekt sind, da nahezu alle Testberichte dies ausführlich thematisierten. Aber ich habe zwei Ausreden für meinen Kauf: 1. Ich habe nur 35 € dafür gezahlt (Dank der Duisburger Saturn-Eröffnung). 2. Es ist ein Star Wars-Spiel!

Das Positive vorneweg: Das Spiel sieht (fast) immer toll aus. Die Charaktere sind cool und die Story gelungen. Und, hey, ich kann Darth Vader spielen (jedoch leider nur im ersten Spielabschnitt). Allerdings ist die Kamerabewegung – oder besser: die nicht vorhandene Kamerabewegung – in vielen Fällen extrem nervig. In großen Arealen und Räumen mit Angreifern von mehreren Seiten verliere ich regelmäßig die Übersicht und versuche mich notgedrungen am Laser-Sperrfeuer zu orientieren, anstatt durch die Charakterbewegung die Kamera so zu drehen, dass ich einen besseren Überblick erhalte. Die manuelle Korrektur des Kamerablickwinkels ist nur manchmal hilfreich, aber in jedem Fall ein unnötiger Zeitaufwand. In engen Gängen macht die Kamera aufgrund des geringeren Spielraums noch mehr Probleme. Gut das ich ein Jedi bin und automatisch viele der auf mich gerichteten Schüsse abwehre. Ansonsten gäbe es vermutlich noch mehr Frustmomente ;) Komisch – in Spielen mit ähnlichem Leveldesign, wie “Heavenly Sword” oder der “God of War”-Reihe funktioniert die Kamerabewegung und -steuerung deutlich besser.

Die Machtnutzung ist, wie der Titel des Spiels erahnen lässt, ein Kernelement des Gameplays. Theoretisch zumindest, denn in der Praxis ist es zwar echt cool Sturmtruppen mit Kisten wegzukegeln, jedoch gerade bei zeitkritischen Passagen oder sehr mächtigen Gegnern greift man lieber auf das zuverlässig reagierende Lichtschwert zurück. Denn die Selektion der Gegenstände in Verbindung mit den Machtkräften ist sehr sensibel und nicht immer ganz fehlerfrei – was in hektischen Momenten leider häufig ein Ausschlusskriterium für die Anwendung dieser Spezialfähigkeiten ist.

Für knapp 70 € fällt das Spiel relativ kurz aus (ca. 8-10 Stunden Spielzeit) und besitzt einige unnötige Frustmomente. Dennoch ist es ein sehr stimmungsvoll inszeniertes Star Wars-Spiel, welches Fans des Universums sicherlich begeistern wird – alle Unentschlossenen sollten sich aber die Demo anschauen, bevor sie überlegen zuzuschlagen.