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by Crimson

The Misadventures of P.B. Winterbottom was released on Xbox Live Arcade on February 17th, 2010 in North America. Winterbottom is a 2-D side scrolling puzzle game developed by The Odd Gentleman and published by 2K Play. It is a black and white style game, where color is present only to add focus to specific objects in the game. The game uses a film-grain effect and projector-effect trimmings in an attempt to make it have a classic movie feel to the game.

The story in P.B. Winterbottom is, for the most part, pretty non-existent. P.B. Winterbottom has a quirky obsession with eating Chronoberry Pies. He is willing to do anything it takes in an attempt to snag and eat as many as possible. Winterbottom travels through time in order to scour as many pies as he can. The devious Winterbottom even goes as far as stealing the delicious pies from innocent children, in his mad journey of stealing these pies.

The game is witty and charming at its heart. It uses rhymes, its art style, and music style to really immerse the player into the puzzles you are trying to solve. The narrator of the game relays information to P.B. Winterbottom through catchy rhyming lines, and clever remarks. Along with the catchy tune in the background, and black and white filter, the game stands out artistically from most games.

The game starts off when P.B. Winterbottom wakes up to discover he has the power to record his actions, and then watch his copies reenact what he had just previously recorded. He uses this new-found ability to steal pies from innocent citizens, and solve puzzles throughout his world in order to reach the pies at the end of the level.

Winterbottom uses a hub-world in order to break apart the different sections of the game. The five main worlds are black and white, until completed, where they then have a color poster on the door of the world. In each world the game introduces a new element that the player must master in order to progress further in the game. Each of the five worlds has nearly 10 levels each, resulting in a total of 51 story levels for the entire game.

The story levels of P.B. Winterbottom are where this game really shines. The levels in each world vary in length, with the first few levels being merely tutorial levels that introduce you to the new recording-time element featured in that world. Later levels use the new element and have the player implement this way of thinking in order to solve various puzzle.

Puzzle difficulty ranges from simply recording a version of Winterbottom and using his copy to flip a switch so the real Winterbottom can go through the door and nab the pie. To recording a few recordings, having them complete certain tasks, all the while you have to collect the pies presented in the level in a specific order.

It is difficult to describe the different elements that this game has to offer, but in a similar manner as Braid, each new element has you thinking in a different way, and using the time-recording ability in a way that you most likely wouldn’t have thought possible. One example of this is when, early on in the game, Winterbottom enters a world where only the copies of himself can collect the pies. This presents new challenges where timing really matters, and you must use some real thinking in order to progress through the game.

One my complaints about the “every world has it’s own time element” approach is that just as you begin to master the element that the game presents you at the current world, it pulls the rug right out from under your feet and presents you with a whole new time-recording element to master. I almost wish the game wasn’t separated into different worlds at all, but was more of a progression with P.B. learning more and more abilities as he went on throughout the game. I guess you can’t have a cake and eat it too, though. Right?

However, as the difficulty of the game ramps up, so does the satisfaction it presents. Every puzzle the game offers makes you think in a new and unique way, and upon solving a puzzle you will have that moment where it all clicks, and you figured out what you need to do. Once you have completed a level, you will feel a moment of satisfaction because you had to really think your way through, before immediately acting on the situation.

Each level has a limit on how many Winterbottoms can be created for that level. For example, if the level only allows you to record Winterbottom one time, if you try recording him again, the previous recording will be overwritten and the new recording will take its place. Similarly, if a level allows you to record several Winterbottoms, all the Winterbottoms will move in unison, playing out what they were recorded to do, but the last person in line will be the one that is overwritten.

One of the downfalls for some of the puzzles are when the game allows you to record up to more than just a couple copies of yourself. You would think that this would open up a whole new door of complex puzzles, but whenever this opportunity is presented it feels more like a cluster of Winterbottoms going every which way. There are some puzzles that make good use of the multiple-copy feature, but this happens few and far between. Nevertheless, the puzzles in Winterbottom are still challenging and unique, and force you to think in different ways each time.

The controls of P.B. Winterbottom are fairly simple and straightforward. The A button is used to make your character jump, X makes Winterbottom pull out his umbrella and whack other Winterbottom recordings across the screen, and the Right Trigger is used to record your character’s actions. While holding the Right Trigger, a film-like border goes around the screen, and the sound changes. Any action you complete while this is occurring will be repeated back once you release the trigger.

Overall, the main story levels are where this game really shines. The unique use of puzzles, and recording features allows for a diverse gameplay experience.

The Misadventures of P.B. Winterbottom also offers a time-trial feature, and uses the Xbox Live Leaderboards to track players progress. The levels presented in the time-trials are drastically different than those offered in the main story levels. The player is judged on how fast they can collect all the pies, and the fewest amount of copies they can collect the pies in.

While this feature is a nice addition to the game, it could use a bit of fine-tuning to make it seem less like a last minute add on to the game. It is almost comparable to the time trial feature in Mirrors Edge, for those that have tried that out before.The time-trial levels add nice replayability to the game, and force the player to hone their skills to reach the top of the leaderboards. Most of the achievements for this game are tied to how many time-trial medals you receive, and how many copy-trial medals you receive. So if you are looking to perfect this game, this is where you will be spending most of your time.

In conclusion, The Misadventures of P.B. Winterbottom is a clever game that uses a black and white filter to make it have a classic black and white movie feel to it. The story levels are each unique in their own right, and each world uses a different time-recording element to make them stand apart from one-another. The art style, catchy music, and character design all blend together nicely to make this game stand out from the traditional XBLA game. If you’ve got any doubts about whether or not this game is for you, think of it as the Clank levels in Ratchet and Clank: Crack in Time mixed with a little Braid. Still not sure? Try the trial, that will definitely let you know if it’s for you or not.

I’m giving The Misadventures of P.B. Winterbottom a hearty thumbs up because this game really implements everything I like to see from puzzle platforming games. It’s only 800 Microsoft Points, which is comparable to $10 I believe. I believe that is a fair price for a gem like this, and on sale, the game should be a definite pick up!

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No story spoilers ahead, only minor weapon/plasmid/and level spoilers

by UltraBean v2.0

Bioshock 2 is the sequel to 2007’s Bioshock. Bioshock took players to a utopia, the remains of one anyway, and had you battling through crazed splicer’s as you fought your way to the surface. Bioshock certainly did set the bar as to how RPG FPS’s should be made, but the question is will its sequel be any good or just fail completely.

Story

Its 1958, you are Delta, the first big daddy, and you are trying to keep up with your little sister, Eleanor, as she runs through a party. After some unfortunate events you awake from a coma like state ten years later.

The story is given to you pretty much the moment you wake up. Tenenbaum contacts you through a radio message and tells you to rescue Eleanor so you and she can escape together from the decaying utopia. However there is a certain bond between Delta and Eleanor which makes the search for her all more valuable.

So after the events of Bioshock and many people saying, “Would you kindly” people questioned how a story could be any better. While the story to Bioshock 2 is definitely not as good as the first the way the story and history are told is better.

The story is given to you when you wake up however additional details are dolled out through audiotapes. While this was the case with the first more of the audiotapes were for historical purposes instead of a focus on story, which was shown through ghosts or Atlas. But if you are not the search and find kind of guy, then don’t fret, important audiotapes are places practically in front of your face, so you don’t have ot search every nook and cranny.

History is another thing that is better than the first. The first one left many questions as to how Rapture was built, and who exactly were the previous inhabitants. The perfect example of the tale of Rapture would be the Ryan’s Amusements level. This was basically one of those boring amusement parks that were supposed to be educational; however this is quite interesting for the gamer as it shows how Ryan built his city, along with the propaganda he pushed upon the children of Rapture.

The story all together is pretty much stand alone and does not require you to have played the first Bioshock. However I must recommend playing the first as it will let you get the Easter eggs hidden throughout Rapture. I don’t want to give too many of the hidden surprises away, but in one part you may find sunken remains of the crashed airplane from the first one.

Game play

Game play is pretty much identical to that of the first one with you being able to use plasmids and shoot guns. But the minor improvements to the game make the sequel a lot more of an enjoyable experience than the first.

I shall begin with the basics. Many weapons lay around Rapture, and there were some you couldn’t use it Bioshock. But with your new found strength in the form of you being a big daddy you can use these enormous weapons that no ordinary man could use. Rivet Guns, the weapons a Rosie would wield, are you main weapon of the game along with the drill, Mr. B’s weapon of choice. The weapons you get later in the game are basically the same weapons you got in the first game except with a different look. You’re a big daddy though so this gives you some extra ammo that Jack couldn’t use. These new bonus ammo range form rocket propelled spears, mini turrets, and trap rivets.

With these new weapons there certainly must be better upgrades right? Well of course. While the Power to the People stations are still operational, you are able to get a total of three upgrades per weapon. The first two upgrades are pretty standard; make your weapon more powerful, increased clip size, that good stuff. However it is the third upgrade that is always the best. In order to get the third upgrade you must get the previous two but it is worth it. These upgrades basically change your bullets. Heated rivets ignite enemies in flames, machine gun bullets ricochet; these are but a few of the upgrades that are available to you through out the game.

Along with deadly weapons there are weapons that are not meant for combat but used to increase your power against others. These weapons are the hack tool, which I will go over later, and the Research camera.

The research camera form the first one was a camera that took pictures, and while you had this camera you were pretty much vulnerable to attacks as alls you could do was just take pictures. That is changed as the research camera of Bioshock 2 is a video camera. Equip the camera and select a target and it will record them as you fight them.
Research points are gained based on how you fare against them and the variety of weapons and plasmids used to defeat them. This definitely made me happy as no longer did I have to stand their like a jack ass taking pictures but I could actually do something to combat them while I researched.

The weapons, while they are the same, do seem to be a bit more interesting with the changes that have been made to your arsenal. However that being said some of the weapons used in the game don’t seem as potent as they should be. The rivet gun and drill are the only ones that seem more powerful than the weapons you had from the first game, but it is the others that just don’t seem to pack the extra punch, at least not as much as one would think. But in the end they do their job and kill everyone in your path.

The enemies that you encounter are more or less the same as the last. Their deformities do seem to have worsened a bit more but I will delve into that later. Besides the regular group of splicers and big daddies there are new enemies that have come to Rapture, and they are definitely a harder challenge.

The big draw to Bioshock 2 is the Big Sisters. Your first encounter with one of them is intense as you see her running around, teasing you into chasing her, and that’s when she shows you what she is made of. It is the same wakening call we got when we were first introduced to the big daddy. But in good time you will fight her.

There is more than one big sister in the game, and one comes every time you either save or harvest three little sisters. I would suggest that you prepare yourself thoroughly before you save or harvest the little sisters. While they wield the armor and force of a regular big daddy their acrobatic skills and use of plasmids definitely make for a tough fight. And while dieing was a sure fire way to get out of a daddy fight you couldn’t handle, don’t expect this to work on a big sister as they will chase you relentlessly until they are dead.

The other new attacker is the brute splicer. Think regular splicers except beefed up on steroids. They have a very simple set of attacks but each hurt quite a bit. One is the shoulder ram where he just charges at you and rams you up against as wall and just lands punch after punch into you. If the brute isn’t in the mood to punch he will retreat and grab something to throw at you which will knock you of balance and make you vulnerable for several seconds.

The new enemies offer a more difficult challenge but I loved it. Unlike the previous Bioshock you are forced to combine your weapon and plasmid use to defeat these creatures. Cycling through your plasmids in order to stun a brute in charge or use telekinesis to stop the objects he throws at you are some ways you will have to gain mastery over the interface of the game, and the challenge is much welcome.

Vendors are everywhere in Rapture, and sometimes you just don’t feel like paying full price for health or ammo, and that pipe mini game you were forced to play in the first one would get so old and sometimes impossible that occasionally I didn’t bother with the hacking at all and paid full price. Luckily Bioshock 2 has had a massive update for the hacking tool that has made it more bearable and more useful.

The hacking in this game is now radar across the bottom of the screen with a needle that goes back and forth. On this white bar there are green, red and blue sections. If you hit it on green you move on to the next phase of the hack, red triggers the alarm, if you hit the white area it’s a miss and you are hurt, blue gives you a little something extra. If you’re hacking a vendor and hit the blue area you get a free item or if you hit blue while hacking a safe you get some more cash. Hacking can sometimes go up to around three phases, each time the green and blue areas getting harder to hit.

Since the hack tool is used as a weapon, it has weapon like qualities, of course. Your hack tool can only be used by as many hack darts you have, except if you get up close and hack. However that is not advised as hacking is now done in real time. Since you can hack from afar, if there is a turret with some unknowing splicers around it you can hack the turret and watch as it wastes the splicers around it.

While there are vendors that take normal money there are machines that use only Adam, The Gatherers Garden machines are used to buy gene tonic, improved health/eve and better plasmids. But there are now more ways to get the Adam than just rescue or save little sisters.

So while you main source of Adam comes from little sisters you can get a lot more Adam from them in the form of escorting them to dead bodies. Using your little sister, she will smell sources of Adam for you and you will follow this cloud like thing as it flows down the halls. Once found, press x and she will start to gather the Adam. The process takes quite sometime and during this time splicers will come to get her, so it is up to you to protect her.

Preparation seems to be a big part of the game, and I like it. Sometimes the little sister escorting does get old, but the Adam rewarded keeps me doing it. With splicers coming out of hallways and the ceiling, ammo can run scarce; luckily the new plasmids can always help.

The plasmids are the same as the last game, incinerate, shock, wind trap, however it is the upgrades that separate them from Bioshock. While in the first one upgrading them would just simply make them more powerful but in this one an upgrade to shock will allow you to chain splicers through one shock attack. It is more incentive to buying the upgrades and made me want to buy upgrades to plasmids I don’t normally use just to see what they do.

Besides the events of the main storyline, 2k decided to add multiplayer, and just the mention of it was enough to have some people on their knees and shouting at the heavens with a shaking angry fist. However I am here to say it is not terrible, but it also isn’t very good either. It finds a balance at mediocre.

The game developers added a reason to the multiplayer, basically after the events at the Kashmir restaurant; you are to test the new plasmids. You awake in an apartment, this is basically where you store you inventory. It is here where you can find games with your bathysphere, change your characters appearance, and customize your weapon/plasmid load out. While I liked the use of an apartment as your source of navigation, it would have been better if you could have made it look better by buying stuff for it, or having people in an xbox live party come to your apartment. This is just one minor knit pick I have with the game, but after playing assassins creed 2 I kind of have grown fond of the customization options.

The game play itself is the same as single player, use plasmids, shoot weapons, kill stuff. The multiplayer games can only have up to 10 people, which isn’t a whole lot considering a game of MW2 can hold up to 18. But while it can’t hold as many people as MW2, I did find it rather enjoyable for a good half an hour. It also added research to it, so when you find a dead body on the floor you can research them and gain a damage boost to that specific character, but not a whole lot to where they don’t have a fighting chance. The maps of the multiplayer are areas of the previous Bioshock, but with a less chaotic look to them. Maps are small enough to where players always running and gunning.

In the end the multiplayer was just something tacked on to increase the dollar. It is alright, but since most of the people bought the game for the single player experience I would suggest to at least giving it a shot. Even though it is not a multiplayer game I did find one enjoyable experience about it, and that is the fact that there are no campers.

Audio/Graphics

The audio and graphics of the game still have that 1950’s feel to it, which makes me feel like Danny wandering the halls of the Overlook Hotel, except with more of a sea theme.

Graphically the game does not look to much different then Bioshock 1, which is kind of disappointing. While the graphics looked really good back in 2007, they just don’t look that good as of today. Don’t get me wrong they look good, but it just seems like they didn’t bother to polish it anymore. It is this feeling that made the beginning feels so similar to Bioshock 1.

While the atmosphere over feels similar, players will also notice a more of the sea taking back Rapture. This is shown through coral growing on the walls, and the increased flooding in some areas. While some of the rooms look similar it is the growing sea life that looks truly awesome. While this may sound lame it does add some nice details to the ever aging Rapture.

Along with an aging city, the deformed citizens of rapture have grow themselves. Splicers now have a more eerie vibe to them, as it looks like their faces have a piece of cloth sown over it in some areas. The look of the new enemies is refreshing, but in combat situations, not much difference could be told between previous and the new splicers.

The music of the game still compliments the atmosphere as well as the previous Bioshock. This time there seems to be earlier 1900’s music, probably because of fallout? However, in times of traps or combat scenarios the music is traded out for more of a symphony type style of music. Plucks of violin strings and the notes of a piano being struck just build up on some anticipation.

Conclusion

Bioshock 2 is definitely a good game and lives up to the hype. While being a sequel to a Game of the Year it somehow manages to do something’s better then the previous Bioshock. Whether you are a newcomer or a veteran of Rapture, it offers something for both. I would say it is a Buy.

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by SmokestormX

Darwinia+ for Xbox Live Arcade is one of those types of games which can be quite hard to explain to people, however I find it best to describe it as Cannon fodder with RTS type elements, with a very retro tron feel.

Darwinia is essentially a cyberspace world populated by little cute Darwinians. Dr. Sepulveda, a computer scientist has made it his life’s work to create this new form of computer AI, the Darwinias, who not only learn and evolve over generations but also have a virtual soul. You arrive in the game just as a massive virus has broken out sending Darwinia into chaos, it’s up to you to eradicate all remnants of this virus and try to rebuild the Darwinia population which dwindles on the brink of extinction.

Whilst you cannot control the Darwinians directly you have various computer programs under your control. The simplest of these is your Squad (Deathsquad) which you can move around fire lasers, throw grenades and in the later levels they get more improvements.
You move your squad around with left thumbstick, whilst the right thumbstick controls the direction that you shoot your lasers, your basic twin stick shooter controls familiar with console games and because of this the controls feel very nice for what was a keyboard and mouse game.

Another basic unit is the engineer, these handy units seem to be straight from tron and they go around recapturing special points on the map, or collecting souls which is also another important feature of the game. You really get the feel of a whole ecosystem in Darwinia, everything whether your Darwinians or the evil computer virus drop souls behind when they die, your engineers can collect up these souls and bring them back to an incubator where they are turned back into your Darwinians, likewise however the virus creatures replicate by eating the souls.

The different levels of darwinia are connected via Trunk Ports, which in essence are little stargates. As you progress and get your engineers to control these trunk ports you open up the routes to the next levels all visible from the hub world, the centre of which is made up off all the souls that have floated up from the world, a soul repository.

The art style of Darwinia is very beautiful in it’s simplicity, and there is something about seeing your little 2D Darwinians march around over the world that give this game it’s uniqueness. It’s defiantly a case of less is more.

Multiwinia, the multiplayer version of Darwinia is also included with Darwinia+, where as on PC these games were seperate now they are rightfully together in one complete package.

Multiwinia is set a few years after the events of Darwinia in where a Darwinian civil war has broken out resulting in factions fighting over the lands. It plays slightly different than the main game as finally you can control your darwinins directly and send them around the map or into you opponents bases.

This multiplayer darwinia is much more hectic and fast paced than it’s solo campaign sibling, you can promote darwinians to send troops across the map, you can even promote them into little armies that march in unison creating defensive fronts (but are weak to rear attacks).

Whilst in multiplayer there are crates that drop around every 40 seconds (default) and if you send your darwinians over to capture one of these crate drops you get a special power-up which nearly always tips the balance in your favour. Such power ups include airstrike, engineer (picks up dead souls), squad (lazers & grenades) to much more devastating power-ups like Meteor shower and Nuke (Subs from Introversions Defcon launch warheads). There might of been an army of 400 darwinians holding that middle point, but oh look, now their all screaming and on fire, time to send in your troops and capture it for yourself!

There are five main game modes in Multiwinia these are:

Domination - Each player controls an initial spawn point, there are other incubators around the map you must fight to control as many spawn points as possible with the aim of completely dominating your opponents.

King of the Hill – There are special rings marked around the map that each player must control, for each ring you control you get 1 point per second, the winner is the person with most points at the end of the round.

Capture the statue – Statues spawn around the map and you need to send a lot of darwinians over in order to lift these heavy things back to base.

Rocket Race – You must fight for control of the solar panels in order to fuel your rocketship as fast as possible, then once refueled you must fill up your ship with 100 darwinians and launch! First person to do so wins.

Blitzkrieg – Each person has a main base and fights for control of specific flag points on the map, usually you cannot attack the main base until you control the flag point attached to it. You each start off with Armour Transport and Battle Cannons.

Final Thoughts

Introversion has quite the reputation for making charming games and Darwinia is no exception, there is something very charming and retro about this game whilst at the same time providing one of the most unique gameplay experiences your likely to play. The single player campaign of darwinia lasts around 8-10 hours then once you’ve had your fill with that you can put all your experiance and go head to head with other players in multiwinia giving the game lasting appeal, and there is something very satisfying about watching the little darwinians fight. The downsides of this game are so minuscule that they would really be considered nit-picking, and come down to not reading a bit of text Dr. Sepulveda says, which ultimately didn’t matter as he repeats it if you click on the object your having trouble with.

For 1200 Microsoft points you can be the owner of this charming addictive game, and I urge all of yo out there to try the trial and see for yourself. Thumbs Up!

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by XxBarrettxX
White Knight Chronicles (WKC) is a fantasy role-playing game created by Level-5 that was originally released in Japan in December of 2008, and then re-released in the rest of the world in February of 2010 as the White Knight Chronicles: International Edition including all the new Online missions, a Georama system (Which let’s you create your own cities to use as lobbies) and voice chat. This is Level-5’s first game for the PS3 and are renown everywhere by RPG lover’s for creating stellar RPG’s such as the Dark Cloud series, Dragon Quest 8-9, and Rogue Galaxy. White Knight Chronicles is the first entry in the White Knight Trilogy.

Story: The Story of White Knight Chronicles begins like your typical JRPG, and is basically the Fellowship of the Ring of the Trilogy, the first 70% of the game is typical average meh, the next 29% is grea,t and the last 1% is this astounding story that makes you wonder “Where was this the entire game?”. You start off as Leonard, you live in a large country that was once at war with the neighboring country “The Magi”, but then decides it would be better to make peace. Leonards job is to deliver wine to the castle for Princess Cisna’s ball and the announcment of this new peace between neighboring countries. When Leonard then delivers the wine all hell breaks lose, the neighboring country (The Magi) storm the castle, kill the king, and go after the Princess. It is then when Leonard goes to rescue Princess Cisna with his companions that he stumbles upon the White Knight, a weapon created by “The Anicents” that has chosen Leonard as his “soul-sharer.” Leonard then uses his power to defeat the magi thats tormed the castle but is to late as The Magi and there leader The Black Knight have kidnapped the Princess. After this you and the people you have met must venture across the land to save the Princess. But before you embark on this journey (or even start the game) you must create your avatar for the game. The customization for WKC is quite deep and let’s you put a lot of detail into the facial and body customization of your character.

After this event the next 12 hours are you traveling to invidual predicatble JRPG towns, the desert land and the desert city, the small farmer town etc. But then White Knight Chronicles really begins to open up it’s atmosphere with some unique things. Messages in the game are sent from owls that project lazers from there eyes and can be used for spying and other things. Airships exist as well as ships that are well.. monsters that humans and other races can controlCities also begin to open such as Greede, a city that exist on the back of a monster that travels during the mining city. It is also said that Greede isn’t even themost wonderous of cities, cities in the sky and water can easily be infered for the sequel. Also humes are not the only race in this game, and although names of races are never really mentioned, most of them existed in Dark Cloud series, the Rabbit people, Mithra (cat people), The “Galka” who are tall strong Orc looking people (there not called Galka but they’re Galka) as well as other races that are only briefly shown/mentioned. Along the time you first eneter Greede the story really begins to pick-up, you meet new and interesting characters, who you find youself actually wanting to know more about. The plot then begins to thicken, and becomes more then your typical JRPG, while picking up that Level-5 charm we all know for the last 8 hours. The only problem with that though is that the story only feels to really start after you played through 3/4 of the game, and at the end your left with this amazing story that has just really feels to have just started, which is why I refer to this as “The Fellowship of the Ring” of the White Knight Trilogy. Thankfully White Knight Chronicles 2 has been in production for a little over half a year now and hopefully will not takes as long to be brought to the rest of the world.

Gameplay: The battle system in White Knight Chronicles is a real time combat system that can be somewhat compared to Final Fantasy XII’s, but is no way a copy and paste, and is indeed better then Final Fantasy 12’s system. To choose an action you scroll through a small horizontal bar at the bottom of your screen using the D-Pad where you move across 3 rows of 7 actions and one of 5 to choose up to 26 different actions and combos. The bar makes combat feel fluid and less of a hassel as you never have to pause to choose actions or scroll through numerous menu’s when compared to games like Final Fantasy 12 or Dragon Age’s Battle system. To excute special moves that do critical hits you must build up action points by fighting in battles. You can also instruct your companions on what to do in battle, but a replica of the gambit system would is much needed as Computer AI doesn’t recognize somethings. Such as is when fighting elemental monsters your mage will just use random elemental spells that can do can be that same elemental monsters element, it doesn’t automatically pick-up Fire>Ice, Lighting>Water, Earth>Wind Etc. Also there are only about 15 varaiations of enimes in the game, with different color palletes used on them throughout inividual dungeons, and you might get sick of seeing attacked by killer wasp half-way throughout the game. lso traveling between lands in the game is much like Rogue Galaxy were you simply leave the area and then “teleport” to the new area, no teport stone or money needed.

You can also create your own custom combos in the game using the attacks that you unlock with whichever skill system you have choosen. You can name your combos and have them react to each-other in anyway of your choosing. For instance I have 3 attacks that projects blade-bleams, so i comboed them and called my combo Omnislash. Executing combo’s are usually used though always speed up the combat. The Main character Leonard can transform into a White Knight that is used primarily for boss fights, and wiping out giant monsters, although I personally found it fun to fight many of the giant monsters without the White Knight. My only wish is that there were boss fights that didn’t involve the White Knight as all of them do. Another problem is battles tend to always be easy because your character is usually level higher then them and your custom character is ranked higher due to online play, making no battle feel difficult.

Yea the White Knight may be the star, but the Black Knight has wings!

There is also a skill system for characters, although some characters are limited to what they can learn. For instance one character may be a assassin therefore can not use staffs or heavy sword but can use bows and knifes. Your custom character however can be customized to any class of your choosing. Also let it be known that you can mix class’ such as an archer who can cast magic or mage that uses swords.The trees are Lance/Spears, Sword/Shield, Giantswords, Staff, Elemental Magic, Staff, Healing Magic, Archer, Dagger and Blunt Weapons. It is a good system, every time you level up you get 4 points to spend on actions/attacks that cost around 1-3 points each. By level 15 you should be comfortable with 1 class to move onto a new class, unless you are a mage which really gives you a free roam of spells, from different class’ to choose from.

Online: The online of White Knight Chronicles is definitely the star of this game. You can do up to 50 quest that last anywhere up to 20-40 minute each depending on skill and resources. Your and up to 12 friends can reside in a town that you or a friend have built using the Georama system. For those unaware Georama is a system for creating a functional living town in the game that can be used as a lobby. As you move different people into your town your stores unlock different specialties items, more farmers equal better items at cheaper prices, more warriors/miners= better weapons etc. The Georama system is the same to that of Dark Cloud, gather items, pay small fee and ban a house with a farm appears. To gather items though you have to search the ground in which you battle in during both the main quest and online, often the areas containing these items are shimmering or have a butterfly above them. The online quest though are very fun as you and up to 3 buddies can tag along on a multitude of different quest from eliminate the boss, to rescue/fetch quest. Mic chat though helps so play with friends as much as possible since only about 50% of people who own PS3 ‘s have Mics.

Graphics & Music- Well White Knight Chronicles graphics is a game that released two years ago and the graphics sure show as they ramian sub-par. Although they the world doesn’t feel ugly, it just doesn’t live up to some people exceptations. The town though are very well designed and coordinated, as it doesn’t feel you have to travel across town to pick up an item or talk to someone. Although the game definitely has a new atmosphere as I stated earier in the story portion of the review. The world opens up and becomes something unique only to this game and sets even more to imaine with the end of the game. I only hope that the world continues to become so unique in future enrties in the trilogy.The music is very RPGish, and comparable to the music you would find in the Dark Cloud series. Nothing about the music feels boring or overused, the music just won’t stick with you when refelecting on the game.

The Traveling City of Greede

Closing Thoughts- Overall I really enjoyed White Knight Chronicles and I am happy I bought it at $60, but it does leave some things for White Knight Chronicles 2 to improve upon. Although I trust Level-5 to make improvements for it’s sequel. As many hours as you get in this game, I can only suggest this to hardcore RPG fans with all the games releasing soo,. Although I can easily reccomend this at $40, because of all the hours of enjoyment that one will get from playing this game, with friends and by yourself.

Thumb Up Rent

Sideways Buy

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by Gravehound

Formats
PC and Xbox 360
Release date
September … no, October 7th, no wait … the 13th, thats the one.
(which means its out now)

Tropico 3 places you in the shoes of a Cold War era dictator, putting you in control of various Caribbean style islands and leaves you to decide how to build up these island states and run them. The game is a typical City Management sim with a grass roots approach to running a town and a huge emphasis on politics. Will you be a man of the people, a political genius or a vicious tyrant? Will you be a communist, capitalist or a mixture of the two? All these choices, plus many more are put at your feet in this very unique strategy game.

What the game gives you

The game has a 15 level campaign, a sandbox mode allowing you to play any of the campaign islands or a randomly generated island and a challenge mode that allows you to create your own islands in much more detail that you can upload and share.
The Campaign mode put you into various scenarios on different islands with their own objectives. These vary from exporting a certain amount of goods, earning a certain amount of money to merely staying in a position of power until the end of the game whilst reaching certain targets.

The sandbox mode, lets you play an island until either the end of your term or until you lose your seat in power. You get given a choice of either one of the campaign islands or you can have an island randomly generated to your specifications. You can also choose other parameters for the game such as how quick your populace are to take up arms, how far from the US the island is and how often random events happen.

The game has also added an avatar system, where you can choose to play as one of the games pre-set dictators (Including real ones such as Fidel Castro and Che Guevara) or create your own custom one. Each avatar’s looks can be customised and then given different traits that effect various aspects of their leadership. Their backgrounds, good and bad traits and the way they came to power effect how the different factions feel about your dictator, how much buildings cost, how profitable some industries are and whether you gain free buildings from the start of the level.

The gameplay

This plays on the surface much like any other City Management Sim. You lay down buildings, roads and various other structures in order to make a working town that makes you money allowing you to continue the process until the end of the level.

Tropico 3 however relies heavily on immigration to expand your town. Over time, trade ships stop at your island bringing immigrants and exporting goods, but people will only come to your island if you are providing the services people want. Good housing and jobs are essential for gaining new people, as is good healthcare and entertainment, and if you don’t keep your industries full of workers you’ll never earn any money to keep your town expanding and you bank balance in the black.

Getting into debt early on in a level is actually pretty commonplace, but luckily the superpowers (Depending on how much they like you) will send you yearly aid packages to help you along, and the world bank allows you to keep spending into $10,000 worth of debt, which can actually make the world of difference when trying to expand your economy.

When constructing buildings, you lay down the foundations after which you must wait for your builders to begin their shifts and start building. This can be a lengthy process especially if your construction office is understaffed but does add a more realistic approach as opposed to buildings appearing instantly. The same problem can be applied to the teamsters (the guys who move your exports from where they’re made to the docks to be exported) with them apparently on vacation for the most of the first half hour of a level, thus almost always putting you into debt.

As you play the game, various scenarios are put to you to deal with which can effect various aspects of the game either instantly or over time. These include business deals, political turmoil, shady dealings, assassination attempts and anything else they could think of throwing at you. The results of these scenarios vary from gaining or losing money, political standings, buildings and civilians.

Your choices for expanding your towns and economies vary greatly from level to level. Some are agricultural havens, others industrial powerhouses and the rest tourist paradises, but all are fairly simple on the surface to get to grips with.
Unfortunately for you however not everybody likes change, or at least the changes you try to bring about, and so eventually somebody’s going to step up and try to stop you. Don’t keep your demanding populace happy and you’ll quickly find people rebelling against your regime. In order to combat this consistent problem, you’ll need to build up your army to keep them at bay or fight them when they attack. However this in itself can force people into rebellion for a larger army means even less liberty for your people.

The biggest annoyance with the basic gameplay as stated is the lacklustre approach to work by some of the builders and teamsters, with it sometimes taking a good five to ten minutes for any of them to get on with any work. The other downside is with some of the structure placement, with it not being obvious as to why a building will not go down in an area.

The Politics

Tropico 3 handles politics far better then any other strategy game I’ve ever played. For a start it has a very ground level approach to politics with you having to cater to the needs of the individual people rather then just yourself. It being the Cold War, military coups, uprisings, assassinations and invasions are commonplace, and so keeping yourself on the good sides of the masses is vital to staying in power.

The games populace (known as Tropicans) all have their own political inclinations, some are communists, others capitalists, some are religious, and others intellectuals with other such groups to boot. All these groups have their own personal agendas for the island, as well as their own opinions on your leadership. Failure to provide these people with what they want, and you’ll find the rebel populace on the rise, or your own army beating down your door.

Luckily the game gives you an almanac full of information about each political group and what they want, and loads of personal information for each and every Tropican on the island, allowing you to quickly and easily see what they want from you as a leader.
With this information you can decide what route you want to take with your island, what structures to build and what edicts to activate. The edicts are essentially the policies you can activate to effect your populace on a wider scale. Edicts can effect the views of the whole populace, single groups, the foreign superpowers or the islands different industries. For example, you can activate the literacy programme once you’ve built a high school so that students and workers learn skills at a quicker rate, or the Mardi Gras edict to increase your tourism rating and attract more wealthier tourists, and the Military Modernisation edict to improve the housing and healthcare of soldiers, as well as their skill in battle.

The great thing about the politics is that its in no way a one sided affair, there’s just as many shady actions available to you as there are good ones. From giving bribes, to forming secret polices, wire-tapping and assassinations there’s plenty of ways to play the corrupt tyrant.

Being the leader of what is supposedly a democracy there are elections held every 4 or 5 years, which means you’ll have to work hard between elections to get people to like you in order to stay in power. The elections allow you to give speeches to your people where you can raise issues, praise and promise things to your people in order to gain their votes, as well as abusing edicts and fixing the polls in order to secure your presidency.

The best thing about the way politics effects the gameplay is that there’s only a couple of actions in the game that are universally liked by the people, with everything else managing to piss someone off. This makes it very difficult to try and do everything at once forcing you to take risks and make concessions in order to advance.

Presentation and Controls

Tropico, although being a hugely detailed game with loads of depth, hasn’t taken the usual bland approach to its presentation like many of its counterparts (SimCity being an obvious one), it has instead adopted an almost tongue in cheek look at the Cold War era and all the events surrounding it.

From the start of every level you’re introduced to your resident local radio DJ Juanito who will comment on various events that take place on the island as well as actual events that happened at the time (JFK assassination/Cuban missile crisis etc.). His approach to news reading is both entertaining and light hearted but also probably very reminiscent of the government controlled radios of the time. The messages you receive throughout the game in the scenarios are usually over the top and very unbelievable situations. Being blackmailed by witchdoctors and being struck with Llama flu pandemics is hardly your typical Cold War era crisis.

Visually the games stunning. All the pre made islands in the game are gorgeous and brilliantly crafted full of beautiful little touches you wouldn’t notice unless you looked for them. The detail in the level design is on par with that of Company of Heroes, in that the game is just as detailed from a distance as when you zoom right down to ground level. In this case its probably far more detailed the closer you get to the ground.
One thing that is a shame on the visual front is the lack of event specific animations in the game. There are so many edicts that could’ve had animations attached to them in one way or another that weren’t which just screams wasted potential.

The music in the game is also brilliant. A wonderful mix of exotic, vibrant tunes that make you want to bounce around and have a bit of a dance. The only problem with the games soundtrack is that its only around a half hour long and as such, repeats itself a lot due to the length of the levels.

The interface the game uses is very simple, with all the essential information on money, populace, happiness etc. all being focused around the mini map in the bottom left of the screen. There you also have your time control options which are essential seeing as some of the maps last for over 30 years in game which is bloody long even at the fastest speed.

The controls for the game are about as easy as you’re going to find. All of your actions are executed via the mouse and the camera with the d-pad. The right mouse button accesses the building options, and the short cuts on the bottom left of the screen provide access to the almanac, edicts and other statistics pages.

The Conclusion

If you’ve ever been a fan of any City Management Sim then you have to play this game as it is by far the best game of its kind I’ve played. Barely any of the other games of the genre get both the city building and the politics right and this is the only game I’ve played that does both excellently.

If you’ve never played a game like this or never got into one before, then there’s nothing wrong with having a crack at this game. Seeing as there’s demo’s on both the Xbox 360 and PC (via steam, impulse or directly from the Tropico 3 website), there’s no shortage of ways to get a hold of it. Plus the demo gives you the first 2 levels of the game which are about 2 hour apiece.

Tropico 3 has an excellent blend of city management and politics, with a wonderful sense of humour and enough content to last you a good 30+ hours.

Thumbs up.

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