Starcraft II unboxing

I recently brought well pre-ordered the Starcraft II collectors edition. Thought I would share with you guys the unboxing pictures.

Developer: Gearbox
Publisher: 2K Games
Released: 23/10/2009
Price: 28.99 Buy Now

This was one of the best games of late 2009 in my opinion. It is a SCI-FI First Person Shooter style RPG which to me sounds like an amazing combo, don’t know about you. Borderlands has a ceil-shaded look and feel and is based on the very popular unreal engine from epic, it was created by the same people that made ‘Opposing Force’ the mod for ‘Half-Life’ which saw you playing as the soldiers sent to investigate. The game takes place in the future on the planet of Pandora where legend tells of a hidden ‘vault’ full of treasure. You can choose to play as one of 4 characters , your choice here kind of determines what would be your class in a normal RPG. The options are light Melee , Sniper / Range weapons , standard all rounder and a heavy melee specialist. Each one of the characters have a special skill that can be gained early on in the game and then enhanced through earning skill points. I played through the game as the sniper characters who special skill is ‘Blood Wing’ a bird of pray that you can command to help you kill enemies from a distance. By leveling him up you also get him to give you more items when an enemy is killed or to attack multiple targets. I also better say here that apart from the first part of the game I played it in co-op with a friend on-line. The co-op aspect of the game is fantastic , having 3 options in the way that you play co-op ether connecting over the internet using the PSN , over a LAN not usual seen in playstation games or split-screen. Playing over the PSN was pretty effortless , you could ether choose to start the game in co-op where you host a game invite your friends to join you ether before or during play or you could invite a friend when you saw they where online and the game would start a co-op session for you. Though this did involve exciting then rejoining the game in co-op it wasn’t too frustrating. What was frustrating however was the fact that on some evenings for whatever reason the game would completely fail to start due to connection issues.

So you start on a bus traveling to the town of firestone on pandora. On arrival at firestone you get to choose your character from the 4 people traveling on the bus. Exiting the bus you meet clap-trap a small robot that acts as a guide and will run you through a relativly short tutorial. You also meet an outer body guide that appears to you as a vision to help guide you on your hunt for the vault. After customizing you characters name and appearance at a ‘new you station’ you can start on you adventure. Clap-trap will then guide you through using the controls, skill points, combat, quests as well as giving you the basic load down on the locals and introduce you to pandoras medic ‘Dr Ned’ you will then play what are group of static quests to advance the story and to get you use to how the game works, and unlock the car. The car is the 2nd fastest way to get around pandora and comes equipped with ether a light and heavy machine gun , or a light machine gun and a rocket launcher and can be occupied solo or in pairs. A nice feature is when you are playing multiplayer each person can have their own cars , or one person can drive and the other shoot which is very useful,

Once you start getting into the game it is very fun , the level of difficulty is such that the enemies in the current area of your quest are a fun challenge but never too hard that you are going to get frustrated and throw your controller at the TV. The side quests are interesting though can like so much of the game get a little repetitive but I do find this a feature of many RPG’s. The characters are well balanced but you can tell that the developers never really intended this game to be played solo as some characters are very specialist and lack the all round skills that you would need to play a solo adventure. For example the character I played as was a long ranged character and lacked short range skills meaning that if you were ambushed (and you frequently are ) you could quite easily end up dead on your own. The game basically consists of completing quests that can be found in a number of ways. Some quests will advance the main story and help you to find the vault, other quests will give you background information on pandora , its residents both human and non-human and some will give you nothing more than experience. There is a wide range of these human and non-humans living on pandora and for some reason they seem to want you dead so finding a good gun and upgrading your shield is a must. As with most RPG when you kill these enemies they give you a range of items these can then be used or traded. The games inventory system although a little complex to get your head around to start with especially with the special shields, gun, equiptment and character mods that you obtain does add an interesting and worthwhile aspect to play. Unlike other sci-fi RPG on a similar vain examples been ‘Mass Effect’ and ‘Fall Out’ borderlands does draw you so that you want to complete the quest , side quests and find out the secret of the vault. This is where I personally felt most let down, the ending to the story was shocking and at the same time very disappointing and made it feel like the hours that you had invested in the game had somehow been misspend. Saying that the game does make it feel worthwhile as you play and is very enjoyable adventure. I think that if you are a fan of RPG’s and of Shooters then Borderlands is definitely worth a play. I don’t think however that it has much replayablity , after going through it once I have not had the urge to go back to pandora this may change in time and I am playing to get all the huge amount of DLC that has come out for it.

Information on Screenshots

So I recently Interviewed Alex Sim-Wise from front magazine (please note content on the site linked here is not suitable for under 18′s) in the UK. I asked her about her gaming habits , what this year had been like in gaming so far and what the future held for games. Here is what she had to say.

1. What have you been playing recently , though I have notice you have been traveling alot and so have you had a chance to play anything?

I’ve been playing a lot of Warcraft on my travels whenever I get a spare moment (which admittedly isn’t very often) mainly because I take my laptop with me wherever I go and I just got the Cataclysm beta so I’ve been pretty much obsessed with it. My consoles however, are laying dormant at home.

2. What kind of games are you into?

I like RPG’s and survival horror games mainly. I’m not a big fan of shooters, but I do play them (badly).

3. What got you into gaming?

My Dad, I guess. I think he just threw computers at me hoping they would stick and they did.

4. When i was growing up gaming was considered something that was done by boys in their bedroom what do you think has made gaming more appealing to girls.

I never had that view point, growing up I always played video games with my friends who looking back were mostly (if not all) boys, but they never made me feel like I was weird or odd for doing it. It was never like “eww she’s a girl and she plays games”, it was just what we did for fun.

5. How did you get into writing about games?
” It was just a case of “ere, Sim-Wise, you like games – do you wanna do the reviews?” and I said yes. “

Well a few years back I started doing games reviews for Kerrang radio as they heard I was big into games, and then that kind of developed into Front magazine offering me a job doing games reviews when their guy left. It was just a case of “ere, Sim-Wise, you like games – do you wanna do the reviews?” and I said yes.

6. Whats your favorite game?

Silent Hill, without a doubt, no question.

7. Do you play a lot of games outside of work?

Yeah, I play a lot of games with my friends, and some of my favourite games have been ones that I haven’t reviewed, like Dragon Age: Origins. Plus, I play A LOT of Warcraft.

8. What do you think about Microsoft Kinect and Playstation Move?

I am far far too lazy for shit like that, although the Kinect dance game is fun. I play games to relax, if I wanted to exercise, I would go out and exercise.

9. Do you think that the classic style controller is dead?

It’s definitely harder to go back to the classic style controller, esp now we have the dual analogue sticks. I was trying to play Shenmue again the other day and the controls on it make it so much harder to play, it feels so much more limiting. But then on games like Mario, it just feels right having a few buttons.

10 . What do you think is the future of games?

Games will become more and more like movies (as shown by games like Heavy Rain and Alan Wake) until eventually the lines will just cross and movies ARE games and you’ll probably be able to walk around them and shit like in Lawnmower Man.

11. What up coming games are you personally looking forward to ?

I’m looking forward to Mafia II, Fallout:New Vegas and Demon’s Forge, because I’m a sucker for dungeon crawlers.

12. What games do you think 2010 are going to be remembered for?

Probably Heavy Rain, it really pushed the boat out in terms of what video games can achieve nowadays.

13. Do you have a game of the year yet?
“Controversial, but for me it has to be Final Fantasy XIII”

Controversial, but for me it has to be Final Fantasy XIII as it was such a huge event and I’d been looking forward to it for so long. I some people really hated it, but I really really enjoyed it.

14. Other than video games what are you into , I saw you report on a lot of music festivals this year is that another big interest of yours?

Yeah, although by the end of the summer I will probably be sick of them as I have to go to 10 in all and I’m only on my 4th… the travel has been a nightmare, I’m really not having much luck with planes at the moment and have been stuck in a lot of airports. I’m shooting a series for MTV HD which should go on air the beginning of September.

Other stuff I’m into… I’m big into comics, new school ones rather than the old superhero ones though. My current favourite is one called Chew by John Layman. I try to go to gigs and stuff, but mainly I just hang out at home watching movies with my pals. I’m pretty boring.

15. And lastly which is better?

Playstation on Xbox? – Playstation, I’ve always been a Playstation girl.
Nintendo DS or PSP – DS – I don’t know why, they’re simpler but they are so much more fun. Plus they have better games.
Rockband or Guitar Hero – Guitar Hero – it was the original, although the new Rock Band looks like it could trump it with all the new instruments.