Artsygamer
4 those who see(k) the art in games
Ace Combat: Assault Horizon [gt review]
0Though I’m not one for simulators I must say this game seems to me to have a certain temptation judging on the video/review. The flying and stuff…
On another note I had a bit of nostalgic/amazement moment realizing people today are actually complaining about being able to move the camera a bit during the cinematic moment, as opposed to exploring: goes to show how far we’ve progressed. I was totally impressed and blown away in Shadow of the Colossus and especially Metal Gear Solid 3 by the little moments of first person control even if it was just to turn/twist a bit… though then again maybe that’s what made them special.
Dark Souls [gt review]
0To be honest the visual artwork seems a bit dry to me, but I must say I suspect the story and atmosphere might make up for it. Color me curious about this one… hope it comes to steam!
Assassin’s Creed: Revelations – trailer
04 months ago
by Void
in Cinematics
Another great piece of artwork(s) from the Assassin’s Creed team. Models, animations and video editing top notch!
artsygamer domain renewed!
1Just wanted to let everybody know that this weekend I payed for the renewal of the domain for another year so we’re here to stay :D
gameSketch week off
0Sorry folks, but it’s been some xtra busy times recently and I decided that against all odds I’m gonna take a week off of the daily gamesketch to enjoy the last summer days. See you next week!
Return of the Voxels?
1To me it seems too good to be true (why isn’t it implemented with actual game content?), but if it’s real it would be a major game changer. Beyond just graphics this would finally open up something i’ve been waiting for for ages: truly physics based environments, objects with volumes, not just polygons….
Does anybody know more about this?
Risen – quick impressions
0- getting into the island, awesome sense of discovery
- the dialogues have ABSOLUTELY no choice, you click through all of them
- the island is quite cool (on the surface… literally, the under ruins I didn’t like)
- no first person view :(
- no gamepad support :(
- the ending part was quite bad, none of the exploration, no new island, just revisiting and overly complicated unimpressive ruins
- the end boss (like all bosses?) was just hooorible… a lot of needless deaths, if for no other reason than this i would not recommend this game (more than the first hours?). Such immersion breaking is impermissible in an RPG!
- the first disappointment of the game was when i was instant-killed by a trap i could not have known was there. Very bad for immersion. You should at least have a chance/warning that such areas are instant deaths.
- it manages to be a perfect Gothic 1-2 clone without any of the words/stories repeated: a camp for bandits, one for mages, and militia, there’s even a new form of scavengers… this is not necesarely a bad thing: there’s a certain amount of location based choice in there.
- there’s some very cool secrets… which would have been mindblowingly awesome BUT they are mandatory… which nullifies any bonuses it’d get for that. Stuff for which in any other game you’d be SUPER rewarded (a secret room, a secret mountain pass, a very hard puzzle) here you MUST do it…
Overall impression, on a -5 to 5 scale i’d give it a 1: the exploration and island is indeed awesome, but the lack of more choices and the very punishing immersion breaking deaths are a major no-no! Still if you wanna play a Gothic 2 game this is pretty close replica without being the same… though i don’t think it’s as elegant or immersive …
hmmm… i don’t wanna end on a bad note. I’m still under the close influence of the unpleasant last couple of hours of gameplay through mazes and time wasting hard puzzles (would be okay if they weren’t mandatory) and the very frustrating boss fight BUT there’s obviously a reason I did play it and finish it: I hope the developers and others will make more games with it’s medieval and exploratory atmosphere… the settings are very cool, the geography is fascinating, from swamps to awesome mountain places… very cool stuff! If i’m being so critical about it is obviously because I care so much about the world… it’s this kind of a world (but with much more choices including ones to allow you to not die even once) I have the highest expectations of. So, despite my complaints: a thumbs up to the developers, I hope they make more games and improve on the recipe! And I hope other developers join the genre… hopefully with first person view options.
Artsy Photo Duel Round 4: Farcry 2 VS Gothic 2
97 months ago
by FireFish
in Photography
 |
 |
At last, the long awaited Artsy Photo Duel is baaack!
…drumrolls…. In the left corner we have an exquisite image from the heart of the central african territory taken by Void in Farcry 2; while in the right corner we have a nocturnal picture taken in the enchanting woods of Khorinis by Firefish in Gothic 2.
Let the voting begin (-5 to 5 scale)! Arstygamers, come and pick your fav!
And for those of you that have the courage: we’re waiting for your artsy screenshots to start a new duel! :D
E3 2011 game of the show
07 months ago
by Void
in Games Industry
I think what’s worth listening for is the way the winner is introduced: the industry is maturing, it’s tired of games being just another shooting mechanic, we want to go past that, we want worlds, stories, artwork, content…
Darksiders – impressions
6
He he, a 3rd ending this weekend :D the months of effort have payed off :D so, while it’s still fresh:
- the artwork is just fantabulously good
- great comic book story, heaven, hell, war, council in between, riders of the apocalypse… delightfully twisted. Fabulously complex and interesting characters.
- boss battles stink: you die a lot, have to learn patterns, then die some more, then retry a lot of times, and sometimes u get lucky
- towards the end of the game you are forced into backtracking a LOT … a loooot!
- did I mention the artwork is super mega awesome! It’s like straight out of the best concept art + the best sculptures and architecture all rolled into one yummy ball of visual delight!
- I often thought of this game as “the god of war game for PC only people”. It borrows heavily from that game and a bunch of others… but that’s not necessarily a bad thing. For example it was a huge surprise to see Portals :D (though at that particular section there were a bit toooooooo many puzzles!)
- there are a lot of very ingenious puzzles, but slightly too many and sometimes VERY hard to figure out. Got stuck a bunch of times!
- did I mention the visuals were aaaamazing?
- and as a last goodie that I’m sure has been mentioned much less than the God of War similarities: this game is the closest I’ve seen any game step in the footsteps of the fabulous Legacy of Kain games! From artwork style (even visual symbolism) even down to puzzles in the real-spirit world jumps :D