A demo for the upcoming racer Split/Second (grab it here) released on Xbox Live Marketplace this week so I decided to check it out on my lunch break.  I’ve mentioned before I do not play a lot of racing games but this one if from Black Rock Studio who made Pure which I really liked. Split/Second has been getting some comparisons to Blur because the both are coming out around the same time, and both feature the use of power ups. I don’t think the comparison is very fair though as they are very different styles of games. Blur is along the lines of an HD Mario Kart meets Project Gotham Racing. Split/Second reminds me of the demos for Burnout but with a lot more explosions.

The Split/Second demo has only one single player level. It takes place at an airport. The race track ranges from on the airport’s runway, to inside hangers and on surface streets. As you race you fill your power meter by drifting, drafting and jumping. It is pretty easy to get your power meter filled to level 1 by drafting right at the start of the race. Once you hit level 1 you can use the power up to destroy cars that are in front you or trigger short cuts. However, if you wait and get your power meter to level 2 then you can perform race track altering stunts that change the entire flow of the race. In the demo’s level there are a couple of these. The first is right after the starting line where you can blow the ground out causing the race to go underground through the parking garage. The other forces you from going around the runway, where planes are landing, to strait down it. Both of these track adjustments make the race more technical as you have tight turns to navigate and planes to dodge.

There is virtually no heads up display in Split/Second. When you have the ability to perform any of the power ups an indicator pops up on screen. It also shows you the lap and position information on your rear bumper. However, there is no mini-map showing the track layout and the position of racers which is fairly common in most racing games. There are on track clues when major turns are coming up but I found the lack of a mini-map frustrating because I could not easily tell when an opponent was drafting or attempting to pass me. There is an option to look backwards but in such a fast paced race I never even felt like I could take the time to do that without risking crashing.

Another aspect I did not like is that there is not any defense. If an enemy has you in their sites and triggers a power up you are going to get wrecked. After playing Blur where you can use many of the power ups defensively I found this really annoying. I could be driving a great race and then have someone blow me up and win at the last second without any way to stop them. While Blur and Split/Second are two very different racing games I found that playing Blur has made it hard to play other racing games. Blur is so much fun that switching gears to Split/Second does not feel as enjoyable. If you like Burnout style racers then check out the Split/Second demo, but if you have been really enjoying Blur then be prepared for some major differences.

If you’re interested in Split/Second Amazon has a $10 bonus currently for pre-ordering.

After my love for the Splinter Cell: Conviction demo it is probably no surprise that I’m thoroughly enjoying the full game. I’ve completed both the single player campaign and co-op campaign on Normal difficulty and have about 1/3 of the Deniable Ops completed on Realistic. I’ve been enjoying all of the components of the game and that Ubisoft is releasing small additions to the game every Thursday.  So far it has been a new gun and proximity mines. I started writing the review and it got pretty massive so I split it into two parts.

Here is my Splinter Cell: Conviction Single Player Review and then here is my Splinter Cell: Conviction Co-op Review.

Oh, and Amazon has it on sale for $49 currently if you don’t have it yet.

I have been playing Sacred 2: Fallen Angel for about 3 weeks now and I’m still just scratching the surface of it. So far I’ve completed the main story quests for one of the seven character classes and have done the first third of the main quest line for a second character. My main character is the Shadow Warrior class who specializes in physical damage using pole arms.  I’ve got about 35 hours in that character and when I completed the main story I had explored just over 30% of the games world.  So, that gives you a little idea of the size of the game.  There are over 500 side quests in this incredibly deep role playing game. The sheer complexity of Sacred 2 makes it quite difficult at first.  However, after around 5 or 6 hours everything started to click and the way the character’s skills, equipment, runes, combat arts and attributes all tie in together.  Sacred 2 supports 4 player co-op matches so if you are just getting into it try to find a couple experience players to play with who can help you get started.  You’ll get more experience that way and they, hopefully, can keep you from completely messing up your character before you know what you are doing.

Once you get a hang for Sacred 2 is it incredibly deep and offers literally hundreds of ways to customize your character.  The main story line takes a lot of seemingly random twists that are fun to explore. The side quests are quite varied and many are hilarious.  Most of the side quests do not have voice over but if you take the time read them you’ll be rewarded with some stories. Graphically the game looks good for being a year old.  The camera takes some getting use and I wish it would zoom out a little more at times, but overall it is not too bad.  It helps that you can control it if you want to let the game control it if you prefer.The achievements are going to take a lot of time to complete.  There are a good set for completing main story quest line pieces but the rest of them take a lot of time to explore. I have 35+ hours in the game so far with 27 of 48 achievements, and I was trying to get as many as possible with my first playthrough.

The game is not perfect, but I can overlook the faults for the most part.  The co-op gets laggy at times which is lame since there are only 4 players in the match at most.  There are no load times as you explore the giant world, but even playing solo you’ll have time where the game slows down as it loads. Especially if you are in one of the 42 cities in the game.  The  loading off all the building will grind for a few seconds even if you have it installed to the hard drive. Also, there are times when the side quests will glitch on you.  Especially collection ones.  You’ll get 19 of 20 items and then the map icon for the quest will disappear because the 20th one does not exists.  This has happened to me three or four times now, which out of 500 I guess is not terrible, but it is annoying.

If you like fantasy role playing games I would definitely recommend giving Sacred 2 a try.  You can find it pretty cheap at this point since it is a year old. Once you get a hang for the complexities of the game it is a lot of fun. Plus, it is a mammoth game that you can play solo or cooperatively. I expect I’ll be playing Sacred 2 off and of for many month to come and still discovering new and fun stuff to do.

I picked up a set of KontrolFreek’s FPS Freek control mods last week when they were on sale for $10. So far I’ve been liking using them for pretty much all my gaming. I put together a review of them here:  link to review of ‘FPS Freek’ from KontrolFreek

I took a break from playing my Shadow Warrior in Sacred 2 for a few hours this weekend to check out Eufloria. It is a very minimal RTS. To the point it is less a game and more an experience that you play.  A very mellow, relaxing and soothing gaming experience.  So far I’m enjoying it but it is very slow paced.  Fortunately it does not require fill screen play so I play it while doing other things at the same time.

My first impressions of Eufloria

I did not really have much of an interest in playing Just Cause 2, but after reading and hearing a lot of people’s reviews of how much they loved it I decide to give the demo a try. I can see why people are enjoying Just Cause 2. It is a huge open world with a great grapple hook and parachute mechanic. However, after playing the demo I just don’t really care for Just Cause 2.  The weapons all felt pretty weak and lame. The story, at least in the demo, seemed to be there just to give you a reason to run around and blow stuff up.  Which can be fine but combined with the really bad voice acting I found it really annoying.  With games like Red Dead Redemption and Crackdown 2 coming out in the coming months I’ll be getting my fill of open world, sandbox games very soon.  No reason to play a mediocre one now.

I got into the Lost Planet 2 multiplayer this week and while the demo is pretty limited I am enjoying it.  Over on AC they have published my first impressions.  Here is the link

I started playing Sacred 2: Fallen Angel last week with some friends to fill my co-op addiction and I’ve been enjoying it quite a bit so far.  The game is huge.  My character is at around 13 hours played and I just hit the 20% complete achievement.  And there are 6 other character classes to check out.  It is a good thing the next game I’m looking to play, Splinter Cell: Conviction,  is not out for another month because between this and Battlefield: Bad Company multiplayer I’ve got a lot of time yet to invest into the games I’m currently enjoying.  Once I get one character through the main story line in Sacred 2 I’ll get a review together.  Right now it is too soon because I feel like I’m just scratching the surface of the game.

I finally got around to playing though Wet (only 6 months after playing the demo) and while it was pretty short in length I really enjoyed it.  It makes for a great weekend rental as long as you are not looking to get all of the achievements.  Getting all 1000 Gamerscore will require playing through four times. For me that was not worth the effort, but aside from that it was fun.

My full review of Wet is up on AC

Perfect Dark, and GoldenEye before it, were some of my most played N64 games.  My roommates and I played for hours almost every night. So, when the Xbox Live Arcade version was announced I was pretty excited. I’ve spent some time with it now that it released last week and I’ve really been enjoying it.  You can check out my full review over on VGRevolution.