Borderlands

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

Developer: Insomniac Games
Publisher: Sony Computer Entertainment
Released: 4th November 2009
Price: £39.99 Buy Now

So I am a bit of a platformer takes me back to my childhood and the good old days of Sonic and Mario on the Megadrive and SNES. I enjoyed Ratchet and Clank tools or destruction and the PSN title Search for Booty so when I heard that there was a new title out I just had to get it. Ratchet and Clank is a fun little 3D platform game based on Ratchet a cute cat like alien called a “Lombax” which is handy with tools both repairing things with them and using them to defeat the hordes of alien creatures that seem to want to exterminate him. Ratchet is support by his friend a Intelligent little robot known to the universe as clank. Ratchet and Clank set out to save the universe from numerous Aliens that want to take over the galaxy. Along the way they meet friends that help and Guide Ratchet and Clank with there Quest. The other main character that has been in all the games is “Captain Qwark” a cowardly idiotic super hero that rather than helps the two stars normally just gets in the way. As you play through the game you collect a wide range of weapons that help you dispatch your enemies in new and unusual ways including turning them in to chickens, and Gadgets to interact with the worlds you end up on.

I was so excited when I loaded the game up and I was not disappointed. You do have to play without your good friend Clank which is sad because you don’t have from the start all the skills that you had in the other titles. The one that I missed the most must be the ability to glide when you jump it is amazing how much I had learned to depend on that skill to get out of trouble. Without spoiling it to much you do get gadgets that compensate for your missing companion. Playing through the game I did feel and have heard that others feel that the game play is very similar to other games in the series. I personally don’t see this as a down point as the new weapons , gadgets , worlds and the story are more than enough to keep you drawn into the game and want to keep playing. This similarity also allows for you to be able to pick up the controller and play without a large learning curve ( or any learning curve ). Its kind of like a old friend that you know very well , you don’t have to fuss with the pleasantries you can just get on with the adventure. Saying that new players to the game will quickly pick it up. The game play in this outing is however different in my opinion they have made space a lot more sand box like. Once you are in space you are free to explore the moons and help ships in order to complete mini quest these normally lead to the collection of “Zoni” ( Having the “Zoni” with you upgrades your ship allowing you to get further in the game ). The other major difference is you play a lot more of this game as Clank who is given his own powers these allow you to complete much larger quests than you had to in the other games. I find that these sub-quests could be very frustrating as they mainly involve solving logic problems in some form. The frustrating part is that these problems involve doing a certain set of tasks in the correct order to open a door and proceed with the level these can get very repeative. The exciting thing as always is the array off new gadgets and weapons that you are able to buy in order to defeat you enemy. I was sad though that so far I haven’t found the crazy gun like the one that turns your enemies in to chickens. This is however made up by some of the other awesome and powerful weapons that you are able to purchase ( and of course do every time a new one appears ). you have also been able to modify your weapons by collecting “mods” throughout the levels these allow you to change the behaviour of the weapon and by using certain mods in the right order you can completely change how a weapon works making it more suited to the enemy you are fighting. You also receive what must be the most awesome gadget of all time I wont tell you what it is because I don’t want to give away too much but you will know it when you get it.

This is another awesome game in the Ratchet and Clank series don’t expect something that is very different to the other games in the series but if you have enjoyed the previous outings then you will certainly enjoy this one. It does include some new game play features with the weapons modifications and the extend time playing as clank who has a much more important role in this game.