Demo Station

This week was a small one for demos on PSN and Xbox Live, but here I will still give the my opinion on what dropped this week in this late edition of Demo Station.

Demo Station

This week on Demo Station I look at the First Templar, Pixel Junk: Sidescroller and Under Seige. As if that wasn't enough for one week to follow up I am joined by Pixel Punk as we take on Syndicate's Co-op multiplayer, giving you two opinions for the price of one!

The Infinite Stream 02/02/2012

The Infinite Stream is where we post about items that are news-worthy but not necessarily require their own full article.  Check after the jump for news from 02/02/2012!

Demo Station

This is a section of the site where we look at the demos that are made available during the PlayStation Network, Xbox Live Marketplace, Wii Shop and eShop updates from the previous week before singling out those worthy of praise or humiliation.

Infinity Feed's Top Video Games of 2011

Those game making people outdid themselves this year, giving us so many amazing games to play. So we at InfinityFeed have all picked our favourites, and figured we would share our thoughts.  See our picks after the jump!

ICO & Shadow of the colossus Classics HD Review.

It has been way too long.

Like a retired hero asked once more to strap on his breast plate only to find that his once rippling abs have turned to jelly, his sword is seemingly much heavier than he remembered after 5 years of enjoying life once again I set off on my quest to save a fair maiden by killing 16 innocent monsters, knowing in the back of my mind that I no longer was the colossi killing god I once was, but accepting the task without fear regardless.

Battlefield 3 vs Modern Warfare 3

Battlefield 3 vs Modern Warfare 3

By Bieber

It's that time of year again when the latest batch of first person shooters are released, just in time for the festive season. As usual there are two main contenders, Activision's Modern Warfare 3 and EA's Battlefield 3. These two titles have had massive advertising campaigns and boast a host of new and improved features and gameplay but do they deliver? Well lets pit them both against each other and see if we cannot separate the noob from the vet.

The single player experience of FPS's has been neglected of late in favour of an enhanced multiplayer experience. Do either of these games break the trend?

The Modern Warfare 3 campaign mode tries to be an epic action story but ultimately fails to deliver. The game attempts to build tension through different mission types and game play styles, but isn't at all engaging and I found myself not caring about the fate of the characters. Activision tried to make the player feel like a badass right out of a Schwarzenegger or Stallone movie, but due the inept enemy AI most of the time the player is left feeling more like Reb Brown.

The Battlefield 3 campaign mode on the other hand is much more engaging, I found myself truly caring about the characters from the get go. The in mission banter between NPC's allows you to get to know the characters, reminiscent of the scene where Ripley meets Hicks and the rest of the marines in 'Aliens' for the first time, leading you to actually care about your team when under fire from the rather intelligent enemies. The gameplay is mixed up from time to time allowing you to be an airplane gunner or driving a tank, this succeeds where Modern Warfare 3 failed to deliver.

Modern Warfare 3's online experience is disappointing, feeling more like an expansion pack for Modern Warfare 2. Some things have changed slightly, such as the rewards system being split into offensive and defensive rewards, however this doesn't offer much new over its predecessor. The survival mode is back, sans-zombies. This time around the player is pitted against waves of increasingly difficult enemies, similar to Gears of War's Horde mode. While this is good it isn't anywhere near as ground breaking as the original Zombie Survival mode.

Battlefield 3's multiplayer experience imposes a bigger emphasis on working as a team opposed to running off on your own trying to be a hero. While it does not have a plethora of extra modes the customisation options available allowing for a more unique experience, keeping players engrossed and wanting to play more to unlock new content. This feels like a totally new experience rather than an expansion to previous content.

The graphics of Modern Warfare 3 are not much of a leap forward from its predecessor. The character models and environments still look great but the graphics fail when it comes to the backgrounds. This isn't so much of a problem when fully engaged in the action but once noticed it becomes hard to ignore, disengaging the player from the experience.

The graphics of Battlefield 3 are very detailed and compliment the intended game style very well. However this realistic approach can occasionally have a detrimental effect on game play as sections can sometimes become too dark to see the enemy. Despite this the game looks stunning and you may find yourself staring off into the distance.

In conclusion Battlefield 3 rules supreme over Modern Warfare 3. Whereas the latter lacks in depth, graphics and innovative ideas, Battlefield 3 delivers in all these areas, only lacking the extra modes. Clearly InfinityFeed recommends Battlefield 3 over its competitor as it is much greater value for money, rather than feeling like a glorified expansion pack. 

Batman Arkham City Review

Batman: Arkham City is one of the most anticipated releases of the pre-Christmas game surge due to hit the high streets around the world alongside the Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword, Uncharted 3: Drakes Deception and Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, to name but a few, all vying for shelf space it will take something special to keep Arkham City’s disc spinning in your disc drive for longer than a week.

For the most part Arkham City is the same as Arkham Asylum in terms of visuals, audio and fighting mechanics. This is by no means a bad thing as Arkham Asylum was met to critical acclaim in these fields. The main change between Arkham City and its predecessor is the shift from linear game play with room for exploration to a more sandbox setting. The feeling of openness in Arkham Asylum is true testament to how well designed the game was as it was extremely linear with a few hidden baubles for you to go off the beaten track to find. Yes, as Batman you had to go from A to B with nothing much to do in-between but you had the choice of how to get there. This does not ring true for Arkham City.

Arkham City takes you, as Batman, and dumps you slap bang in the middle of the newly created segregated portion of Gotham known as Arkham City. At first this can be a little imposing as you get the sense of being Batman, lost behind enemy lines where pretty much everyone wants your head. Arkham City is very much a living, breathing city, albeit one based on the incarceration of its inhabitants, with enemies and NPC’s reacting in different ways to actions happening around them. I can recall once witnessing, whilst perched atop a gargoyle naturally, two inmates exercising together, one doing sit ups whilst the other held his feet down. Arkham City is as much of a character in Batman: Arkham City as Rapture is in Bioshock, you get glimpses of what the buildings were once used for (such as courthouses, theatres and steel mills) when they still belonged in Gotham and you now know that they are filled to the rafters with those for whom the prison was built.

Getting around Arkham City is one factor of the game where the game falls flat. Commuting around in Grand Theft Auto (except for Grand Theft Auto IV) was tolerable because it was interesting and ultimately fun as the game allowed you to pull handbrake turns in a mule. In Arkham City travelling around the city is far from fun, feeling more like a chore than anything else. This can most probably be attributed to the size of the city and the lack of motorised transport available to Batman resulting in any attempt to travel across the city taking much longer than would be considered necessary.

The addition of a playable Catwoman was a masterstroke by the folks at Rocksteady. She controls the same as Batman but plays in a much different way. Catwoman is inferior to Batman in terms of physical strength and technology, requiring the player to become more adept at hand-to-hand combat and rely heavily on stealth, but as she is more agile than Batman she seems to move much quicker than our hero. She also has the ability to cling to certain ceilings and crawl cat-like through much smaller gaps than Batman can, opening more potential routes and hidden areas available only to Catwoman. The fact that she also uses her trademark sex appeal during fights, kissing enemies to distract them, adds to the feeling that Rocksteady know and understand the character, her motivations and, more importantly, her mannerisms.

Many of Batman’s rogue gallery are also present within the city with my only criticism being that there are perhaps a few too many crammed in when fewer, with acknowledging nods to others ala Arkham Asylum, would have sufficed. Too often there was a feeling that the story was being disjointed and split into very noticeable chapters where Arkham Asylum’s story flowed believably between the chapters to the point where you didn’t notice that a new member of the rogue gallery was the current focus of the plot, this lesson seemingly forgotten between games.

Arkham City is a fantastic game packed to bursting point with side missions, collectables and challenges to keep gamers occupied for weeks, for those who are easily distracted (i.e. me!) hours will be spent doing everything they can find to do before continuing with the next chapter in the story. Even once completed there is a plethora of challenge modes, collectables and side quests to do giving you plenty of bang for your buck. Visually it is stunning, Arkham looks and feels like it could be a very real threat to those who don the cowl unprepared for what lies ahead and this is further enhanced by the accompanying audio and musical score to really hammer home Batman’s feelings of apprehension.

Overall Arkham City is Arkham Asylum only bigger, better, more polished and well deserving of the 9 out of 10 score I was going to give it ... until I reached the ending. Like a good anecdote which should gradually build into a joke deserving of the prolonged build up the game was building up nicely only for the punch line to be forgotten to the disappointment of those whom had been gripped only to be let down at the finale. The ending was such a disappointment for me that I verbally exclaimed “WTF? Bullcrap!” and immediately docked the game a review point for the ending. Petty? Maybe, but I bought this game, played and loved every minute of it only for it to let me down in the most epic of ways imaginable at the finish line.

Score: 8/10

Uncharted 3 Review

"Who wants to find some treasure...?"

The Uncharted series is undoubtedly one of the gems in the Playstation's crown, the combination of puzzle solving, exploration and wild gun battles makes you want to grab your fedora and leather jacket and sign up for a crash course in archaeology. The latest instalment in Naughty Dog's hugely successful series then, has a lot to live up to, especially after seeing Drake sell out in the form of advertising Subway on national TV.
As with all Uncharted games the story feels much more like a Hollywood movie than a computer game. There exists the usual compliment of stunning set locations, beautiful but deadly female co stars and a fair amount of explosions, but that's not all. As we explore Drake's past in order to uncover the secret truth about his ancestor Sir Francis Drake you cannot help but be drawn in by the mystery; like a good book or film the plot will keep you glued to your controller and all thoughts of time, schedules or work go out the window. But be warned, whilst the plot is intriguing enough to keep you guessing right up to the end, the big reveal is a bit of an anti-climax and doesn't really provide the closure that is needed, considering all the time and emotion you have invested in the characters. 

Much like Tin Tin or Indiana Jones, Drake has survived some truly remarkable events, from multiple plane crashes to going one on one with a Hind, and Uncharted 3 does not disappoint in terms of its action. The story keeps Drake hanging on the edge of disaster, sometimes literally by his fingertips, and keeps the player on the edge of their seat. There is no moment to relax in Uncharted as once you think you're safe and you can stop to catch your breath a new, and often deadly, challenge turns up. This keeps the game flowing, and even the slow areas are still very intense. 

It's not just the story that helps the game feel and act like a movie, the game-play itself is also an integral part. As those of you who have played the previous Uncharted games  know they are a mix of freestyle exploration and puzzle solving with intense 3rd person gun battles. Uncharted 3's predecessors managed to link these two different game styles well and Drakes new adventure is no exception, each level feels expertly designed to give the player that smug little buzz that comes from solving a particular puzzle or clearing an area silently. The flow of the game has also been designed skilfully, with each section subtly hinting the right direction whilst making it feel as if it is the players own desire to follow that path, this continues to make the game feel more like a movie, but one in which you are the star. The interactive cut scene style events, where the player still maintains control further elevates the game into being more like blockbuster, giving real satisfaction when you not only survive the burning building, but you made it look good also. The addition of player interactive cut scenes have also been used in some of the slower parts of the game, such as trudging through the desert, making then much more compelling.

The new additions to the fighting controls further add to the game's movie-like flow with Drake now being able to dodge and counter enemy attacks much like the fight system used in the recent Batman games. Drake can also interact with his environment during fights creating some hilariously cool and unique moments that look almost as if they have been choreographed into the story (my personal favourite being using a giant fish to beat down one of the goons).  Whilst the addition of the advanced fighting controls has added a new element to the game there are some changes that are not so welcome.

Firstly, the free running controls have been tweaked so now you sprint automatically by just using the control stick, whilst X is now jump or climb. Whilst not a big change from the previous version which had X as sprint, jump and climb it has created a noticeable drop in the feel and therefore the flow of the game. Previously, holding X down would make Drake run, jump or climb when reaching an area where you could do those actions. This gave a feel of continuous movement that echoed that of a live action film, which is one of the unique characteristics of the game that make it so appealing. Whilst it is still possible to achieve this with Uncharted 3, Naughty Dog seem to have made the process much more difficult and frustrating. As now you need to time when you press X in order to achieve that film-like flow, otherwise you'll have Drake bounding forward in a pointless leap or off the edge of cliff making you restart what should have been a simple section from the beginning. 

The second failing in the gameplay is the shooting; whilst I understand that Drake is not a military standard marksman, he does have some proficiency with weapons but in this version cannot seem to hit the broad side of a barn door, requiring you to take extra time and care in aiming just to hit your target. This in conjunction with the fact that the AI appears to be a supremely intelligent sniper who, no matter the situation, will get headshots and continue to attack even during sandstorms and tidal waves, makes for some rather one sided gun fights, that will often leave you frustrated and confused as to where you went wrong.

In terms of the continued playability of Uncharted 3 once you have completed the main quest and found all those nice and cunningly well hidden treasures (and if like me you're a bit of a trophy nut) got all those special kill rewards then there isn't much more you can do offline. Online however Naughty Dog have expanded the  multiplayer first used in Uncharted 2 adding new weapons and game types, however much like Uncharted 2's failing, the multiplayer can never recreate that movie like flow that you get from the main game that is Uncharted's secret charm.

Overall Rating 7.5