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In Space No One Can Hear You Sigh
- Title: Mechassault 2: Lone Wolf
- Developer: Day 1 Studios
- Publisher: Microsoft Game Studios
- System: Xbox
- Reviewer: Zonk
- Score: 6/10
At kickoff, MechAssault 2 puts you in the role of a Mechwarrior as he and and his crew find themselves in a hostile situation. You're given the chance to run through a tutorial session while simultaneously repelling a hostile force. This puts you directly into the action, a nice choice. There's no need for plot or motivation before you start blowing things up. Players who have played through the previous title will start to glaze over during the tutorial, though, as the controls are almost exactly identical to those in the original game.
In fact, that statement is the basis of all of the issues with the MechAssault 2 experience. If you've played through the first MechAssault title, you've basically experienced everything that MechAssault 2 has to offer.
The big difference comes in the form of the the compact "Elemental" style power armor. The tiny mech handles just like the larger constructs, and has some impressive armament for its size, but the big draw of the tiny suit is the ability to "Neurohack" your way into full-sized mechs. Not only is this a potent combat ability, completely disabling a successfully targeted mech, but it allows you to enter and control the hacked mech if you choose. The game mechanic itself is easy to use, requiring you to hit a series of buttons on the controller within a certain period of time. Besides the new power armor, you're also given several opportunities to use more traditional vehicles such as tanks and a VTOL. And, of course, you still have access to the giant robotic walking tanks that typify the Mech genre.
The single-player campaign provides a decent framework both to develop piloting skills and to do some urban renewal with your mech. There's nothing spectacular in the background or composition of the plot, though, and only a few levels after the tutorial ends the gameplay will get repetitive. The Word of Blake opponents, the primary bad guys to the Mechassault 2 tale, eventually all blend into each other and every tank you stamp out of existence begins to look like the last. As in the first game, the backdrop to your rampages is entirely destructible, and even a single stray shot with the high-powered weaponry you utilize near the end of the game can take out a city block or two. The game's musical background consists of licensed songs from bands like Korn. Maybe it's the pen-and-paper purist in me, but I had a hard time associating Korn with Battletech. The rock soundtrack does add to the atmosphere, but recognizable bands seemed to detract from rather than enhance the experience. The story is simply Mechassault 1 with a new coat of paint, and singularly familiar gameplay ensures there are few new experiences to be had for the veteran Mech gamer.
As with Halo, the real reason to play the first MechAssault was the multiplayer capability. MechAssault 2 upholds the original game's tradition of Xbox Live enabled multiplayer carnage. There are several different modes available, with all the types you'd expect, like capture the flag, deathmatch, etc. The designers gave the online game a new twist, though, by incorporating a "conquest" mode: In conquest mode you hook up with one of the houses, the clans of the Inner Sphere, and go on the warpath for your chosen allies, attempting to gain as much territory as possible with the aid of other house members and opposed by other house factions. Unfortunately, the number of players online is rarely sufficient for this kind of play. Satisfied that they'd already played this before, many gamers have long since chewed through this game and resold it to Gamestop for another title.
Mechassault 2 is a competent, but overall unnecessary sequel to the original title. The first game was a completely valid expression of the shoot-em-up mech genre. While the urge to create a sequel to a successful franchise is a logical one, it's hard to see the real need for this game. The action mech genre is a fairly well-developed one, and while the neurohacking gimmick provides some differentiation from other titles, this straightforward license vehicle could have been so much more. I recommend this game to fans of the original title who are looking for more maps to play on, or an action gaming fan who's looking for familiar territory, but unless you go to sleep at night wearing a Mech King crown made of cardboard you can afford to pass on this sequel.
Screenshots are from Microsoft's official MechAssault 2 site, (c)2005 Microsoft Game Studios.
Nexus: The Jupiter Incident is a dramatic name for a game that manages to be a thorough disappointment. That's a real shame, too, because Nexus has a lot of elements that make you want the game to succeed. Visuals and voicework ingratiate the world to you, but the lackluster gameplay makes you wish you hadn't uninstalled Homeworld.
- Title: Nexus: The Jupiter Incident
- Developer: Mithis/HD Interactive
- Publisher: HD Interactive
- System: PC
- Reviewer: Zonk
- Score: 4/10
The shooting at least, looks good. Majestic 3D expanses are your playgrounds, with really nice looking ship designs and a slick interface makes play ve. In particular, I appreciated the swept-back designs and utilitarian choices made by the ship designers. I'm getting pretty tired of Star Trek pretty and Star Wars uglytech. The problem comes when you consider the pace and method of the shooting. Nexus has you issuing orders to your forces, which can range from a single vessel to a large fleet. Like many RTS games, you don't control your units directly; You simply give them an instruction and let them go do their thing. Combat breaks down to two choices: Either you instruct your minions to attack the hull of an opposing ship, in the hopes that the crew will flee and the ship will eventually be destroyed, or you order them to attack specific subsystems of the ship. This provides an element of the strategy sometimes missing from so-called RTS titles. What I found most effective was to have ships target the weapon systems of opposing vessels, as they seemed to be some of the most vulnerable components.
At issue here is the pace of combat and the intelligence of your units. Despite ordering my flagship to target a subsystem of a specific enemy vessel, I would often return to my combat unit after handing out some additional orders to find it either hanging dead in space or chasing after another ship entirely. Reaffirming my target of choice seemed to be seemed to be the only way to ensure the battle would go how I intended. Additionally, combat in space, apparently, is deadly. Deadly dull. The weapon systems look nice, and seem to be firing at an acceptable rate, but the armor plating of even the most insignificant weapon system is apparently very tough. It will take over a minute of a concentrated barrage to take out even a single subsystem. Actually destroying a ship, causing its crew to abandon the vessel and the hull to crumple, can take upwards of three minutes. This turns what should be tense and quick encounters into adventures in frustration as you are forced to concentrate your fire on one ship as the only viable strategy. Despite combat appearing to be a situation with tactical possibilities, you are reduced to ganging up in order to have any chance of victory. Missions with large numbers of enemies are particularly annoying, as the AI and combat pace combine to ensure that -- unless you are very on top of things -- you'll do barely any damage to the opposing force. You can order your entire fleet to focus on one ship in a blizzard of twenty or more, but the wandering AI ensures that their focus will quickly be elsewhere. Fifteen minutes into a mission and you'll find yourself with a swarm of 10% damaged enemy ships crawling all over your very spread out fleet.
All of this is a real shame, because Nexus has some very charming aspects: There is a ship modification element to the game, mostly straightforward and nowhere near as well developed as a Pax Imperia or Galactic Civilizations, but there nonetheless. The voicework for the characters is fairly well done, despite some occasional poor dialogue and endless exposition. And did I mention the ship designs?
I spent most of my time playing Nexus: The Jupiter Incident leaning far back in my chair in a passive state. The style of the game seems to be aiming for a combat-rich deep-space adventure, but the pace is that of a more leisurely strategy simulation. This confusing mishmash turns what could have been a worthy addition to the genre that is almost defined by the Homeworld games into simply a poor substitute. I lament the game that's resulted from the ideas visible in this game, as there really seems to be something worthwhile here below the surface. As it stands, though, Nexus: The Jupiter Incident is a game that you can take a pass on unless you simply need an excuse to get back out into the big black.
Screenshots are from HD Interactive's official Nexus: The Jupiter Incident site, (c)2005 HD Interactive.
Duh! I forgot you were here, too. His mom sure loves an AC gangbang.
First, there was a plan: how to bring together the different development groups at work? My boss said there was a sort of tension he thought could be eased by some social interaction. Not easy. Almost all of the different development groups despised each other, each thinking its "art" was more important and eloquent than the others'.
There was the kernel extension developer group, coding mostly in C and some PowerPC and x86 assembler. They worked on making our PCI board work with Linux, *BSD, Mac OS X, QNX, and Solaris. They worked "special hours," coming in at one and staying late, supposedly, until seven or eight at night. They enjoyed Red Bull and had a penchant for ThinkGeek t-shirts and cracking jokes about Win32 API calls and the dreaded Blue Screen of Death.
We had XML developers too. They worked on our website, documentation formatting, and simple apps to configure the driver software. They used HTML, XSL, JavaScript, and a bit of Java. They typically dressed casually, drank coffee and tea, and liked to work straight from the spec: no "Learn XSL in 30 Days" books were to be found in their cubicle farm.
Then we had the guys who wrote full-out Linux apps. These guys and the products they wrote had been acquired from another company, and were the source of most of the tension: they'd never really been integrated into our group except that they were physically present with the rest of us. They all had beards or mullets or long, unwashed hair. Many wore suspenders or the afore-mentioned ThinkGeek clothes; some even had Penguin tatooes or small C app code tattooed on them. Their cubicle farm was known for the bleating laughter that exploded when one of them found a "silly" bug on someone else's code, and for the rotten, fetid stench that could only be compared to three-day-old shit reeking from inside a rotting corpse's abdominal cavity.
So, in order to get the guys to "know each other" my boss had asked me to organize a during-hours, alcohol-friendly party. My ideas ranged from a keg or two to live entertainment, AKA strippers. But as to what to get them to actually talk to each other in a human manner I had no clue. So I let it go til the last minute and decided to let my inherent creativity mull it over in the back of my head.
When the day of the party had arrived, the catering company brought in a few trays of lunch meat, chicken, pizza, and side dishes, I had picked up the kegs (all four) from the local brewery, and the big-screen TV and DVD were set up ready to blast the Matrix into the eyes and ears of my co-workers. The eagerness in the the air was encouraging and I thought that loosening up and smiles going on even now were a good sign. I even saw some of the guys who'd known each other previously begin to bunch up, bringing along the co-workers they knew from everyday work.
The first thing everyone did was hit the food line, loading up their plates and grabbing a cup for beer to wash it down with. A few approached me and thanked me for the food; it seems appeasing the belly really did tame the beast. After a few minutes of silence and eating and a few second and third courses, they guys were ready to sit down and be entertained. After asking if anyone needed anything else before the movie started, the lights went out and the Matrix began playing. I heard a few enthusiastic comments and jokes being told.
About half-way through the movie I noticed a lot of the guys, especially from the Linux app group, were getting up and presumably going to the restroom. No suprise, as the second keg was history by now and the third was probably half-way gone. I also noticed some of the guys bumping into things and stumbling. Alcohol's the social lubricant, eh? Well, not long after, my bladder beckoned and I answered. As I made my way to the restroom, I had a self-satisfied smile on my face: my little plan was working, my boss would be happy, and it might even a Christmas bonus or a promotion (even if in title only).
Well, as soon as I push
What is going on here? An editor submits his own crappy story to slashdot -- makes it fron page news AND reviews games that nobody cares about. Give me a freaking break. If this is not abuse of Zonk's privaliges i don't know what is.
/.
/. bitch and do you job -- post NEWS that we would care about.
I mean, come on. If i wanted reviews of games then i would go to a game review site. I am interested in NEWS of the game industry here on
I swear, perhaps editors should have to submit to other editors in order to have their stuff posted.
If you want to post your opinion on the web, zonk, then use your own goddamn site. Quit being a
Anonymous Cowards are more than likely Anus Cowards:
While posting drivel on Slashdot, two trolls today made a life changing discovery. Although they've lived the first 15-20 years of life convinced that they are "normal" human beings, it was revealed to them that they've been mistaking their buttocks for their faces and their anuses for mouths. Professor J.Q. Ass, of Columbia University Medical College reported his findings, "When these two young men came to me earlier this week complaining of incredibly bad breath that offends everyone they know, I was a bit struck by the fact that they weren't facing me but had their backs to me. Not only that, but their anuses were doing the talking! I've never seen anything like it! It's astounding. I asked the one gentleman, 'You do realize you're talking out of your ass'? and he wanted to start a fist fight. I told him, 'no seriously, you are literally speking through your anus. I've never seen anything like this".
The Slashdot Connection:
After showing the two young adults some basic anatomy videos and their own images in the mirror, they were both driven to tears. How many years had they been using their anuses for speech? Too many. According to special biologist Ruth Ann Pudendum, "Cases like this are extremely rare, but it does appear that the incidence rate is quite high among the AC posters of the online community/blog Slashdot. Unfortunately, we've only had a few ACs come forward and acknowledge their disability".
Is there hope?:
Of course, the question that everyone wants answered, "Is there a possibility of a normal life after the discovery of anal speech"? While most disabilities can be treated through the use of various therapies, counselling and medication, it does appear that anal speech is an irreversible condition. The best that sufferers of this illness can hope for is to find a place where they can fit in. Extensive research shows that there are many positions within management, politics and some areas of the IT sector where anal speech does not preclude one from excelling to the top of their field. Some examples of famous anal speakers are, CEO of Microsoft; Steve Ballmer, CEO of Oracle; Larry Ellison, Governor of Ohio; Bob Taft and President of the United States; George W. Bush.
Taking time to smell the roses:
A few ACs who made this same discovery last year, when asked what they did after the discovery, were quoted as saying, "It's all about perspective. I used to have overly high self-esteem because I was convinced that my opinions mattered and that I knew what I was alking about. But when I discovered that I've spent my life, literally, speaking out of my ass... well that was a life changing event. At first I was in shock and then denial. But when I finally accepted it, I was able to put it in perspective. So many things became clear. The difficulty keeping food down. The high frequency of being called an 'ass' or 'asshole'. The incredibly strong case of halitosis. Today, I choose to see the event in a positive light. Once I realized exactly what had been going on, I toned down my loud opinions and stopped using Listerine. Instead, I've discovered that life is better if I take the time to smell the roses. Not to mention it covers the stench. A lot of people may look at me and think that this is a curse, and it can be. But knowing my condition is definitely a blessing from God".
Support Groups:
The most prevalent online support group for those stricken with this disability are:
http://www.slashdot.org/
http://www.littlegreenfootballs.com/
http://www.freerepublic.com/
http://www.whitehouse.gov/
Source: AP Newswire (C) 2005