Episode 10: Sheep Dragon Goes Blarghh
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This week the gang welcomes Nicole Spag from the Ladies of Leet podcast! We celebrate our decasode (10th Episode) in style with awesome discussions on everything gaming. Lots of gaming news and a little “hint” of humor. While the episode isn’t “explicit”, it isn’t for the faint of heart! Oh yeah, and we might talk about Mass Effect 2 a little.. Just a warning. |
Don’t forget to email us your questions or comments to info@polygamerous.com OR
call in to our voicemail at 407-584-POLY (7659)
Episode 9: Boots With A T
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Russell finds the “sweet spot” this week and rejoins the crew. Lots of Mass Effect 2 talk (was there any other news?), Sims 3 is the best selling PC game of 2009. Some rumors including a possible Oblivion MMO and the skinny on the Playstation Arc. Also, our Twitter Question of the Week: Do you Preorder Games?
Also: Next week we have a special Guest! Nicole from Ladies of Leet podcast! It’s an awesome podcast so go check em out (after you listen to ours first.. of course) |
Don’t forget to email us your questions or comments to info@polygamerous.com OR call in to our voicemail at 407-584-POLY (7659)
Listener Game Review – The Saboteur
Another listener review! Stop from TheStoppableForce blog has sent us in this great review of the recently released game, The Saboteur. Take a read and leave a comment on your experiences with this game.
Story
You are Sean Devlin, Irish race car mechanic turned race driver, just before the German invasion of France. Sean loves the good things in life – hard liquor, fast cars, and faster women – but when a prank in retaliation for a fixed race goes wrong and the Nazis kill his best friend, Sean finds himself down on his luck in a Nazi-occupied Paris.
Through chance, Sean is recruited by the French Resistance, and has only one goal in mind: make those Nazi bastards pay for killing his friend, by doing what he does best – blowing @#$@ up. Along the way, Sean meets a variety of characters in the Resistance, while evading the SS and keeping the people he loves safe and alive.
Gameplay
The Saboteur steals some of the best elements from other games and combines them into one solid whole. You’ll find suspicion meters like Assassin’s Creed, stealth and infiltration elements like Metal Gear Solid, driving elements like Grand Theft Auto (specifically GTA: San Andreas), and third person combat with a cover system like a stripped down … well, any of the above. The combination is very satisfying, but some of the elements could use some tightening up.
For example, the driving – one of the most-called out elements of the game. The cars perform decently well, and anyone who’s played GTA: San Andreas will recognize the driving system; however, there’s not a lot of differentiation between the cars besides top speed and the occasional cannon, and anytime you’re in a tank, it handles about as well as trying to drive a slippery piece of bologna controlled by two strings across the tundra in January. (It’s still better than Mass Effect 1’s Mako, but not by much.)
The suspicion/alarm meter is another element that isn’t QUITE as good as the games it’s cribbed from, namely Assassin’s Creed. Sometimes it’s far too easy to do suspicious things and NOT around suspicion, other times it just seems how unrealistic it is to not be suspicious just because you’re five feet away from a dead Nazi wearing his uniform instead of six feet away in your ordinary clothing.
If you accept that the elements of The Saboteur are not as fully-fleshed out as the games that originally spawned them, though, you’ll find yourself having quite a good time. One thing that does work very well are Perks. These should be familiar to anyone who’s played the Modern Warfare series of games, and they work much the same way. Blow up enough Nazi outposts, you get to carry more dynamite.
Blow up the REALLY good stuff, and suddenly planting explosives while wearing a Nazi uniform doesn’t raise anyone’s suspicions.
The actual structure is pretty typical for an open-world sandbox game:
you have mission-based gameplay, interleaved with things to do on your own. It’s up to you whether you want to go perform some missions for the French Resistance, or just go out and find a village occupied by the Nazis and blow up their radar towers and gun emplacements.
Completing missions or blowing up what the game calls ‘ambient freeplay targets’ – radar towers, tanks, fueling stations, and so on – yields contraband, the currency of The Saboteur, which you can use to purchase new guns, upgrades, and more.
Presentation
The most-hyped element of The Saboteur’s presentation has to be the black and white game world, and it lives up to its expectations. You won’t see it right away (you get a brief glimpse during Sean’s first mission, then lose it during the entire playable flashback sequence that follows), but it’s pretty great once you do, and effectively sets up the "film noir" feel of The Saboteur. In areas of Paris still heavily occupied by the Nazis, the world is shown entirely in black and white, except for primary color elements – the red of Nazi armbands or spilled blood, the yellow of light coming out of an upstairs window. In these areas, the citizens of Paris are oppressed and hopeless, and Nazi patrols are more numerous. Through the story and side missions, Sean will inspire the people of Paris, returning color to the city and encouraging them to fight back. If he gets into a scuffle with an SS officer in these areas, he can usually count on the people to step in and throw a punch or two as well.
The soundtrack is made up of period-appropriate jazz and big band numbers, and help immerse you in the wartime Paris setting of The Saboteur. It’s a mix of original pieces composed for the game as well as licensed music, and it is completely criminal that EA has not made this soundtrack available for sale. Many of the new pieces are just as good, if not better than, their licensed counterparts, and you’ll hear them everywhere – from driving a car to getting a burlesque show in the basement of La Belle Nuit. It’ll get stuck in your head, even if you’re not a fan of the music in question.
Speaking of La Belle Nuit, this is definitely not a game for kids. The Saboteur earns that M rating, with lots of blood, foul language, alcohol use, and – if you’ve got the Midnight Show downloadable content installed, which every copy of the game comes with a code for nudity as well. It’s never gratuitous, though, and it really enforces the ‘booze, broads, and murder’ attitude that Sean exemplifies.
Summary
There’s a lot to like about The Saboteur. If you felt like picking apart each piece of the gameplay, yes, there are flaws. However, taken as a whole, it’s a fantastic example of how to do an open-world game well, and it’s worth at least renting just to see the style and try it out for a while. The characters, no matter how rough around the edges, are likable. The missions never get monotonous, which can make or break an open-world game like The Saboteur. I highly recommend you check it out ASAP.
Listener Game Review – Mass Effect 2
Yes! We have another awesome review. This time it’s of Mass Effect 2, an epic space adventure from BioWare. Our good friend, Ninthbatter, has gifted us with this awesome look at the game which comes out on PC and 360 on January 26, 2010. Enjoy!
Incredible.
No other word could be used to start this review but incredible, anything else would not do Mass Effect 2 justice. Many will try to classify this game as either a shooter or a RPG but neither is correct. Mass Effect 2 is a true shooter/RPG that has managed to deliver great shooter game play with all the options and depth or a RPG and also gives truly remarkable cinematic story telling.
The Story
Bioware’s Mass Effect 2 puts you back in the shoes of Commander Sheppard as you prepare for a suicide mission against the Collectors. I kid you not, if I told you what happens in the first 10 minutes of the game I would feel bad for spoiling it. Instead I’m going to just say you end up working for Cerberus which you may remember as bad guys from the first Mass Effect. Cerberus is led by Illusive Man (voiced by Martin Sheen) who realizes that the Collectors are the biggest threat to the galaxy and if they wait around for the Council of the Alliance to act it will be too late. He sends you out to recruit the best of the best in order to defeat the Collectors.
Characters
The characters of Mass Effect 2 are the true driving force behind the game. Featuring an all-star cast including: Martin Sheen, Seth Green, Keith David, Tricia Helfer, and Michael Hogan; Mass Effect 2 delivers both diverse and deep characters. Whether it is the emotionally torn assassin or the psychopathic biotic you feel real emotion for these characters. Each once is deeply developed and are honestly the most intriguing characters I have ever seen in a game (hell if it was a movie some of these characters should be nominated for best supporting). All of them have side quests and one in particular has a very grim reality to it. After all, not every story has a happy ending.
Gameplay
Mass Effect 2 is a fast pace shooter/RPG that has both a very impressive shooter component and has deep specialization trees for 6 different classes. The combat is amazing, enemy AI will try to flush you out and flank you. Your companions will also have their own unique play styles that will show. While your Krogan is running around like a drunken buffalo your assassin will be taking out the enemies legs so that the buffalo can run over them. Yes that’s right, you shoot someone in the legs and they’ll crawl around. Shoot them in the arm and they’ll nurse it. Plus instead of just swapping out armor for the one that’s better, you’re able to upgrade your gear and customize it.
Exploration
Are you sitting down? Trust me you’ll want to be seated for this. Ok ,are you ready? No more mako. That’s right no more seizure tank. Instead when you travel to a new planet you’ll be able to rotate the planet until you find a point of interest then you’ll land right at that point. Another new addition is your ship has a fuel gauge now. You’ll be exploring the traverse and you’ll need to watch that fuel gauge or else you’ll have to burn precious resources that you went out there to get in the first place.
The Cons
The main story is a bit of a disappointment when compared to the companions’ side quests, but I understand that when writing the second part of any trilogy you can only give away so much without spoiling your third installment. Also mining still sucks but then again I’m pretty sure mining isn’t very fun in real life either.
That’s it, out of everything I could only pick out that as the cons and they as so minor it’s ridicules to consider them as facts that would stop you from buying this game.
The Verdict
Mass Effect 2 is a masterpiece that delivers amazing gameplay with a immersive world. When all is said and done and you have explored every world and done every quest you feel a little sad knowing that it’s over. But take solace my good gamer for there will be a Mass Effect 3. So for having a amazing cinematic presentation, having excellent combat, and having a supporting cast of truly remarkable characters and a dynamic lead; Mass Effect 2 gets 5 Krogan testicles out of 5. Seriously 5/5 go buy a copy.
iTunes Issue
There seems to be a small issue with iTunes and Epsiode 8. When you go to our page on the “store”, you won’t see it there right now. If you subscribe though, it will be there as the most recent episode. So, either you can subscribe and get it that way, or download it directly from the site. Hopefully we can get this fixed and Episode 9 will be correctly setup in the store!
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