Star Wars: The Old Republic, first impressions

Today, I had the chance to actually play the current build of the Old Republic, and the short play session definitely left me wanting more.

The game started out with some dialogue, which was very Mass Effect like, which in this case is a good thing. After I received my quest, I had to go to a nearby temple. The controls really reminded me of World of Warcraft. The combat is more fluent though, but the “kill 5 of those” quests are also in the Old Republic. I have to admit though, that if you receive these quests in The Old Republic is does seem more normal and you feel like your doing it for more than just experience points.

A lot of people seem to worry about the graphics. I have to admit that it’s a different type of style, but once you play the game, it grows on you, and it even looks pretty good. The graphics are timeless like the ones in World of Warcraft. I think this is a good move seeing as while World of Warcraft might not be the best looking game, it’s still a good looking one. The Old Republic tries to take the same approach.

The sound in the game was very good, and the music really reflected well on the environment you were walking in. The voice acting is also nicely done, the quest givers really seem to care about the assignment they bestow upon you. This really gives the The Old Republic universe a lot of character, seeing as when you would receive a quest in World of Warcraft, most people just skipped the dialogue and went to complete the quest as quickly as possible. In The Old Republic you listen to these people and you want to help them out with their troubles.

After some questing, killing monsters and evil NPC’s and walking around, my game time was up and I had to get off the computer. So, unfortunately, I can’t tell you an awful lot, aside from my first impressions. I can tell you though, that if you are looking out for this game, do so without a doubt, it was a great experience and my thirst for this game has grown even more.

Once I get the opportunity to play a beta or something like that, I will gladly share more information with you. Until that time, keep checking Nisute.com for more Gamescom news!

Jean’s Top 20 Of All Time, The Final Countdown!

“It’s the final countdown~” Sorry, couldn’t resist. Anyways, here’s the final list of the last 5 games listed in my Top-20! But first, let’s recap:

20. Street Fighter

19. Mega Man

18. Jedi Knight

17. Soul Caliber

16. FreeSpace

15. Pokemon

14. Smash Bros.

13. Super Mario 64

12. Halo

11. The Elder Scrolls

10. World of Warcraft

09. Dragon Age

08. Secret of Mana

07. Baldur’s Gate

06. Planescape: Torment

Now that’s out of the way, let the countdown continue!

5# Half-Life

Well, this is the game I referred to when I was talking about Halo and Baldur’s Gate. I remember it was hard dividing my time between the awesomeness that was Baldur’s Gate and this magnificent shooter. This shooter revolutionized the shooter genre, by adding a different way of story telling. Clever opponents were also a part of Half-Life and the multiplayer was a load of fun.

The story starts of with Gordon Freeman, working as a mere scientist at the Black Mesa organization. He works on an experiment, which unfortunately goes very wrong. Portals are opened and aliens make their way into our world. Gordon fights for not only his survival, but also of his fellow teammates. The army eventually comes in, assuming to help clear the aliens out.. but that too isn’t the case. Read more

Mass Effect Universe Part 3

Okay, so I’ve covered Mass Effect 1 and 2, what more is there to cover you ask?

Well, there is also a Mass Effect iPhone game, but I haven’t played that so I can’t comment on that.
What I can comment about are the books. Now this article is all about giving kudos to the developers that take the time to expand on the universe that they’ve created and just enriches the overall franchise.

At the moment there are two Mass Effect Novels written by Drew Karpyshyn and onefour-part comic series still in progress(written by the lead writer of ME2 and published by Dark Horse Comics) with a third novel in the works.

Before I took my first step into the massive universe of Mass Effect world I had already had dipped my toes into the water. Back in may 2008 when ME1 was released for the PC, I had to wait for my order to get imported from the U.S.  Now in that time I was all hyped by the amazing review scores it got on the Xbox 360 and the amazing trailers that were released. I couldn’t wait to get in. So while I was waiting for my copy I thought of checking out the first book Mass Effect: Revelation which was set as a prequel to the events of ME1. So I got myself an audiobook copy and dove right in. Upon “reading” the first few chapters I was introduced to the world and the technology of Mass Effect.

Now I have to mention that these Novels have their own story and their own main characters and are stand alone novels. Read more

Mass Effect Universe Part 2

Mass Effect 2

So, now we continue with the 2^nd part of this article which is the Mass Effect 2 review.
Now I wanted to review ME before ME2 because I wanted to go over the changes that have been made to ME2 and because your story, yes, YOUR STORY….continues.

Yes, at the end of ME one your game makes an end-game save-file which stores all the important information  about who you interacted with, what you told them, who you saved and what you did in the game. And when you start up ME2 you can load up that save-file and continue your adventure. This isn’t just a numbered sequel set in the same universe, no, this is a true sequel picking up where the story of the last game left off with the characters of that story and with your personalized Shepard from the first game. Read more

Mass Effect Universe Part 1

Pushing the boundaries of personalizing a game.

So first off I want to start by saying that I am a Bioware fan, I love what they’re doing with their games and what they are offering to the Gaming Industry.

Bioware is a game developer company that makes computer and console video games. They are best known for their games Baldur’s Gate, Neverwinter Nights and Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic.
They were also behind the recently successful game Dragon Age: Origins.
Bioware majors in creating Role Playing Games and have recently experimented on mixing other genres with the RPG formula, and have been mostly successful at that. Read more

SEGA: Alpha Protocol at Gamescom

Alpha Protocol, a self-proclaimed “Espionage RPG”, is a third-person action adventure game similar to Mass Effect. The game was demoed for us at Gamescom, so we were able to get a good impression of what the game promises to deliver. Read more

New DLC Mass Effect revealed on Swiss website.

The Swiss Xbox website has revealed the contents of the Pinnacle Station DLC for Mass Effect.

This “remote, top-secret space station” offers 13 battle scenarios for Shepard (at Spectre level) to tackle, and adds around “2-3 hours” of gameplay in total. And that’s it, according to a translation on the ME forums.

Pinnacle Station costs 400 Microsoft Points (£3.40 / €4.80). The file is 237MB and has a publish date of 16th June on the Swiss website, which is evidently wrong. No other region with an Xbox website mentions the content, as far as can be seen.

The listing follows the appearance of three extra Achievements for Mass Effect, which are based on the new content. BioWare has been talking about making an arena or Fight Club-style addition for Mass Effect since February, although we’ve heard little of late.

Source: Eurogamer.net