This episode of Game Review Battles has been changed up a little bit so that it can more entertaining, more interesting, so leave your comments let me know what you think and enjoy the more in – depth view of how this game performs. KING OF FIGHTERS 12
This episode of Game Review Battles has been changed up a little bit so that it can more entertaining, more interesting, so leave your comments let me know what you think and enjoy the more in – depth view of how this game performs. KING OF FIGHTERS 12
A job listing has been posted on the Visceral Games (EA’s recently rebranded Redwood Shores Studio) has revealed that the sequel to the highly acclaimed horror title Dead Space is in the early stages of production.
EA’s senior recruiter Jeff Ballard posted this job listing “Lead Combat & Controls Designer at Visceral Games.” The internal studio is “Seeking a highly motivated lead combat designer for the Dead Space franchise on Xbox 360 and PS3.” The listing also goes on to give more info about the title “This M-rated action/shooter sequel will set new standards for an action-packed story-driven console experience,” so this is pretty much a sure thing that Dead Space 2 is real and that development will begin very soon. This announcement is very great news for me because Dead Space was one of my favorite games of last year and I strongly recommend that you give the original Dead Space a try.
Although initial reports suggested that the latest Wii update automatically only removes traces of the homebrew channel, there seems to be a much larger issue: It’s breaking some consoles.
The main issue lies in the actual update process. A program that allows the Wii to boot properly – boot2 – has also been upgraded but it apparently has a high chance of causing write errors. Because of this, some people are experiencing a frozen download screen when trying to download menu 4.2. The Wii will not respond if it’s frozen, and when you take the plug out…Nothing will happen when you boot it back up. This incident doesn’t seem to be happening to every Wii owner, but it looks like this could be a pretty significant problem.
Fallout has had some loose involvement with aliens during the series, but the Mothership Zeta expansion is the first to directly involve the player with extra-terrestrials. It’s also the final planned chapter for Fallout 3, but will the saga end with a (big) bang? Or will it be sucked into the black hole of mediocrity?
As the name would suggest, Mothership Zeta takes place on an alien cruiser. After being roped in with a false signal the player is taken captive aboard the ship. The expansion chronicles how the player manages to escape and subsequently take over of the ship. Along the way there are a few characters to meet, although much like in Operation: Anchorage, they are used for little more than plot devices. Mothership Zeta actually shares many elements with Operation: Anchorage. It’s very combat-heavy, in fact there aren’t any plot-related choices the player makes other than to kill “innocent” worker aliens. Even the regular aliens don’t speak any sort of intelligible language, so even though they’re a clearcut enemy there’s no moral grey area as with other expansions.
Where the greater Fallout 3 expansions excelled are in exploration and storytelling, Mothership Zeta misses the mark on both of those with a linear story and section-driven environment. There is almost no opportunity for role-playing as it’s focused entirely on objectives. While the combat is enjoyable, there isn’t any variety to it and the aliens are very weak, it only takes a few shots to take out even the strongest of them. It’s surprising that Bethesda chose to go the same route as Operation: Anchorage, seeing as it was the least popular expansion.
Although it has its shortcomings, Mothership Zeta is still a fun and interesting experience, to say the least. The first encounter with the Abominations, the Death Ray battle, and the final battle are all absolutely fantastic, and are worth it to go through on other characters. The spacewalk, although fairly boring in terms of gameplay, gave such a great view and sense of scale that it merits honourable mention. It’s these moments that really help to define Mothership Zeta as a solid expansion, but it’s a shame that there are only a few of them.
One of the biggest drawing points of the Fallout franchise has always been the items and armour and as far as Mothership Zeta goes, the collection is fairly average. The Destabilizer is one of the best guns in the game, with an enormous clip size and great damage, but there’s nothing really to differentiate it from any other guns in the expansion. There’s a very cool set of Samurai Armour as well, however to get any sort of distinct outfits killing allies is necessarily, which might be out of the question for some characters. Even if alien blasters aren’t in a player’s style, the Alien Epoxy found around the ship can bring any other weapons up to 100%, meaning that aging Gauss Rifle can be restored to its former glory. It’s a nice feature and helps to create an endearing quality.
However, there isn’t really much reason to play through Mothership Zeta again. As the story is extremely linear, there isn’t much scope for diversity. There are a few extra perks to gain, and the Alien Epoxy could help to make further play-throughs more unique, but it doesn’t really feel enough.
Conclusion
While Mothership Zeta wouldn’t be a first choice for someone looking to purchase their first Fallout 3 expansion, it does provide some interesting set pieces and a few reasons to re-visit the area. It’s not particularly difficult, and it certainly doesn’t bring anything ground-breaking to the game, though it’s still Fallout, and the last scene will blow anyone away. In the end, it’s not the best of the Fallout 3 expansions but worth picking up, if only to experience some more of the Fallout 3 lore.
