Ratchet & Clank Trilogy (parte 1)

Dopo una lunga assenza, in questo nuovo articolo parleremo del gioco Ratchet & Clank Trilogy.

Questo gioco, come si capisce dal nome, contiene tutti e 3 Ratchet & Clank della prima serie ma per adesso, tratteremmo solo del primo episodio.

Il gioco ci introduce a due personaggi molto diversi: Ratchet, una specie di gatto alieno, portato per la meccanica e la cui arma principale è una chiave inglese formato XXL...

E Clank, un piccolo robot, dotato di grande intelligenza e cuore; possiede inoltre varie capacità che si dimostreranno molto utili nel gioco.

I due si incontrano mentre Clank cerca aiuto per salvare la galassia dal terribile Drek,un alieno poco scrupoloso che distrugge pianeti a fini personali.

Man mano che si va avanti nella storia, diventano disponibili molte armi e gadget che i due eroi dovranno usare con astuzia per proseguire.

Il primo gioco, uscito nel 2002 su Playstation 2, è un mix di sparatutto, aventura e piattaforma, tutto in terza persona. E stato prodoto sia da Insomniac Games che da High Impact Games, ed poi distribuita da Sony Computer Entertainment. 
Anche se il gioco Rachet & Clank 1 è uscito nel 2002, Ratchet & Clank Trilogy è uscito solo nel 2012, sia su Playstation 3 che su PS Vita.

La grafica è molto alla cartone animato, il che rende il gioco rinfrescante e divertente, ottimo per tutte le età, e c'è anche un buono uso del touch pad posteriore della PS Vita, il quale permette acrobazie nelle corse e di correre lateralmente (anche se la console percepisce solo quando si tocca la parte superiore del pad).
 
La storia vi fa esplorare vari pianeti, ognuno con i suoi nemici, ambienti e sfide.

La serie Ratchet & Clank, iniziata nel 2002, ha avuto un enorme successo e ha fatto il giro del mondo. Ormai, si possono trovare anche alcuni fumetti, pupazzi e giocattoli, oltre a degli spin-off.

Per il 2015,  anche stato annunciato un film in 3D, basato sul primo episodio della serie. La data precisa di rilascio è purtroppo sconosciuta ma sono sicuro che gli amanti del gioco non vedono l'ora che arrivi.
Per il momento, solo il trailer è disponibile su youtube.

Il gioco in se, secondo me, merita un bel 9/10!! Sia per la sua grafica, la storia e le incredibili armi e gadget che si trovano, che per le corse e i piccoli bonus che si possono ottenere, una volta finito il gioco.

Ci vediamo presto per un prossimo articolo!!

Saint Row IV

Saint Row IV will be the subject of this article.

 

Saints Row IV is a action-adventure video game, developed by Volition and published by Deep Silver. It was released in August 2013 for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. The view is in 3rd person, even the shooting part.

The world is open, kinda like GTA V, and the game is the sequel of Saint Row: The Third. We control the same character that in SR 3, who became the new USA President, and the story is set 5 years later, in a virtual universe (reminding of Matrix) which is controlled by aliens and you have to take control over them.

However, thanks to the fact that this universe is virtual, physical rules can be bend easily, allowing you to run faster than any car, jump higher than the building and punch enemies miles away.

The player can buy upgrades, vehicles, weapons and clothes. Those last are used to personify the player avatar. In fact, the personification, is free, as you modify your character however you want: making him tall or small, thin or fat or muscular; everything can be modified.

The more you progress in the game, the more help you will get, from your old gang, to be precise, which you'll rescue through the story.

You will be able to use alien technology (weapons and vehicles) and powers, like telekinesis, fireballs , lighting and such. All of them can be upgraded, and you will need those upgrades as you go, because, while the enemies are usually weak, they happen to come in great number, forcing you to run away, unless you wish to die and start the mission again.

A funny part of this game is the civilians aspects: while they will often normal, can also look very comical, as they will wear bunny or bear suits, be deformed or even looking upside down.

While this game is very good, it's very simple and could be summarized in a few words: fusion of GTA and Matrix, but once you're done with the story, there are a tons of little games and quest to do, and nothing stops you from just messing around in the city.

Jeuxvideo.com gave this game 15/20; Gamespot, a 7.5/10; as for me, a 7/10 is in order.

Thanks for reading and see you all again for a new article.

Castelvania: Lords of Shadows 2

After a long time, let's write a new article; this time, on Castlevania: Lords of Shadows 2

This game is the sequel of Castlevania: Lords of Shadows and was released in February 2014 in Europa and in August of the same year in Japan. It's an action/platform game, playable on Xbox360, PS3 and PC.
The publisher of the game is Konami while the developer is Mercury Team.
Logically, there is only the one player mode, so we can't enjoy it with our friends but it's still a wonderful game.

If in the first game, we played as Gabriel Belmont, a Knight of Light, a slayer of the force of evil,

 in this one, we play as Dracula, the lord of darkness.

While the character clearly changed, the main weapon is basicaly the same: Gabriel used a chain/whip weapon, with the shape of a cross, called Vampire Killer, as main weapon; Dracula use the same movements but with a blood whip, called Shadow Whip, as his.

At the begin of the game, set in the medieval age, we start by fighting an army of knights, who came to our castle to destroy us. Of course, we easily eliminate them, even if they're helped by a giant robot (quite advanced for their time, aren't they?).
Later, after a good but forced sleep, we awaken in modern days, in a cathedral, weakened because of no drinking blood or eating anything in near 1000 years and also with no memories of how we got here.

Through the game, we will alternate between modern days and medievals ones, in a quest to regain our former power to, in the end, defeat our enemies.
We will not be alone in this adventure: we will find allies in Zobek (in his case, forced) and his bodyguard, a sword man in heavy armor, later reveled to be Alucard.

As for the scenery and graphics, we really cannot complain: both are incredibly well done,

but maybe something less... "squarish" would have been more enjoyable. The details are excellent and we can see every little thing, which make this game more funny, and, for the one who like blood & Co, violent. We'll travel in castles, churches and sewers and enjoys every pixel of it.

The gameplay is quite simple and very similar to the first episode, and the vampire powers are one of the most noticeable changes.
In fact, we will have access to the Void Sword, which has the power to absorb Dracula's enemies' life force and give it to its owner; the other weapon are the Chaos Claws, that are used to destroy the defenses and shield of our targets.

Also, when he obtain a fair level of skill and power, we are able to unlock some kind of "sub weapon", a variation of the Void Sword and the Chaos Claws; of course, the weapons can be upgraded as well.

However, once this game is done, there's not much left to do, except play it in a harder mode, which is quite a shame for a good game like this one. The freedom is also very limited and the path is straight, with only little curves of side story for enjoyment.

Jeuxvideo.com gives this game a nice 16/20; Gamespot is giving the game a fair 7/10; I think, given what is told and done, that a 17.5/20 is fair.

The last great game of Ubisoft will be the subject of this article: Watch Dogs.

First of all, I want to say that I'll try to not spoil the story (too much), for all the people who have yet to play it.
This game, released on June 27th, should have been released in October 29th 2013 but at the same time was released Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag,

 

 and the the release of Watch Dogs was postponed. The game is released on Xbox 360, Xbox one, Playstation 3 and 4, with another version planned for Wii U

The game's plot is all about Aiden Pearce, who seeks revenge and justice for what was done to his family and use of illegal methods to achieve his goals.

Beside guns and his nightstick, Aiden's most useful weapon is a special phone, called "Profiler" which can hack every system of the city, allowing him to withdraw money from other people's bank account, use public cams to spy, cause blackouts and many other things.

Said city is Chicago, which map is quite large and open and Aiden Pearce can act as a masked vigilante or as a criminal; either way, the police is always in the way and tries to kill you.

In each zone of the city, Aiden have to unlock an access to allow his phone to hack into either the cameras or into people's accounts and progresses in the story.

The combat's movements are a mix of stealth and parkour and the sight is in 3rd person, very useful for the shooting side of the game.
The game's hacking element can also be used in combat situations to eliminate opponents, create diversions or cover. It can also be used as a stealth tool to sneak past guards, which is highly recommended when the enemies are numerous.

Another interesting point is the skill's tree, where you can choose which skill improve through the game.

It is possible to choose among driving skills, fighting and shooting skills and hacking skills. Of course, with time, all the skills will be unlocked fully.

In Watch Dogs is also available an Online Multiplayers mode, where players must implant a "virus" by joining the "one player" mode of a player. There are also eight-player free roam mode, a multiplayers modes with car races, competitive decryption combat, and CTOS mobile challenge.

An Smartphone and Tablet application is also available to challenge other players.

The story tells about Aiden Pearce, who after having a his niece murdered, seek revenge on those who killed her and the ones who gave the order. He'll use any mean necessary to find the culprits and make them pay.

Watch Dogs fabrication started in 2009 and Ubisoft used a new game engine called Disrupt, which was first going to be used for a driving game. As for the hacking part, Ubisoft asked help from a Russian anti-virus firm: Kaspersky Lab, and eased the hacking to one button, so the hacking isn't to hard and almost immediate.

Developers even went to Chicago to get the necessary informations to make the map as realistic as possible.

jeuxvideo.com gives Watch dogs only 16/20, while gamespot notes it with a 8/10. Myself, I'll give this game a 8.5/10.
Thanks for reading and see you all soon with another article.

Goodbye.

Nintendo

An article on the most famous video game company: Nintendo!

Nintendo is world's largest video game company but it wasn't always so.
It was founded in 1889 in Japan, by Fusajiro Yamauchi and was at first a company which produced handmade playing cards, called "Hanafuda", which means litteraly "flower cards", for the flowers pictures painted on the cards.

It was Fusajiro Yamauchi's grandson, Hiroshi Yamauchi, who expanded the sight of the company: in, 1956, after a journey in the U.S.A., he realized the limitation of playing cards and after getting access to  Disney's characters, he put them on his cards to increase the sale.

Nintendo tried different sectors of entertainment but most of them failed. Nintendo barely did it, staying on the market as a toy company, and it was thanks to Laser Clay Shooting System, a light gun shooting simulation, that Nintendo founds what will really make it great. Gunpei Yokoi is now the one who runs the company; he will step down around 1996.

 From 1974, Nintendo started dealing with video game stuff. The first console sold by this company was the Magnavox Odyssey console and Nintendo starts creating its own hardware in 1977.
Several important people are hired from here: Shigeru Miyamoto, who created some of the most famous Nintendo games and designed the casing for several of the Color TV Game consoles. There is also Genyo Takeda, Nintendo's first game designer, who created EVR Race.

However, it was the creation of the game Donkey Kong, designed by Miyamoto, that dramatically changed Nintendo's fortunes, bringing in many licensing opportunities and a huge increase of profit. Around the same time, an earlier version of Mario was released; back then, it was known as "Jumpman"

Since then, Nintendo never stopped growing, both in console and in game.
One of the greatest successes were the Nintendo Entertainment System,

and Super Mario Bros.

In 1989, Nintendo launched the Game Boy (left) and in 1998, it was follow by the Game Boy Color (right).









In 1996, it was the turn of the Nintendo 64 but at the same time, Sega launched the Saturn and Sony, the Playstation.

In 2001, both the Game Boy Advance and the Game Cube where released.

In 2003, Nintendo gave us the Game Boy Advance SP, smaller and with the possibility to close to prevent damages on the screen.

In 2004, Nintendo released the Nintendo DS (in which DS stands for Dual Screen) and it is Nintendo's best selling handheld gaming system. The innovation was also due to the touch screen (the lower one).

2005: the Game Boy Micro was released, a version similar to the Game Boy Advance, just with a smaller form.

 

In 2006 Nintendo released the Wii, successor to the GameCube, featuring the controller motion controlled Wii Remote (on the left). The Wii was the best selling console of the seventh generation, regaining the market share lost by the 64 and GameCube. At this time, Nintendo also released the Nintendo DS lite (on the right), the first revision of the DS, smaller and more compact.

In 2009, Nintendo followed up the success of the DS with the release of the Nintendo DSi, similar to the DS lite but with a camera and WIFI access.

In 2011, Nintendo continued with the DS legacy by releasing the Nintendo 3DS, which featured 3D effects. A first tome on a handheld console.

In 2012 Nintendo released the Wii U. It sold slow at first but it was the first eighth generation console. By September 2013, however, sales had incredibly increased.

In 2013, Nintendo hoped to make a cheaper handheld system to appeal to more people by releasing the Nintendo 2DS in 2013 (left). Nintendo also released the Wii Mini, another console redesigned to be cheaper (right).

In matter of game and characters, Nintendo created so many, just telling the half could take days. Let's keep it to the most famous and liked.
The firsts we must name are the games of Donkey Kong and Super Mario (who will become Nintendo's mascot).

Next we have Fire Emblem.

Then we have Kirby.

There is also The Legend of Zelda, with the Princess Zelda and the Hero Link.

Another well known game game is Golden Sun.

The Star Fox series is, of course, a must.

For the last one I'll name, I've chosen the world most famous game, which you either played or know so well it's as if you did: Pokemon!

There it is, the end of this article. I hope you liked.
Thanks for reading.