|
TheTome /
ZenStarReviewsArchivesYou are on the archive wiki. The new wiki is here.
everything contained on these (Zenstar's) pages are the intellectual property of the author(s) and may not be used without permission
current reviews here -> ZenStarReviews review 1: ragnarok online (pc game)date: 23 may 2003 imagine diablo 2. imagine 10,000 people all ready to join a party and go monster hunting. imagine anime heavy characters with many choices of classes. that's basically ragnarok online, and it's still in it's beta (and free at the moment). you start as a lowly novice and slowly beat your way into a new class. experience is gained by going out into the field and fighting monsters. after a couple of levels you'll be sitting, expressing emotions and ready to join a party of adventurers. there are many different classes (once you break job level 9 and do a little quest) including what i think is a great innovation: the merchant class. this class gets skills that allow it to buy goods from npcs (shopkeepers and so on) at a big discount and then sell it from a pushcart. this means as you wander around a city you find all manner of little shops selling all sorts of goods. you get specialty shops, traders from far off cities, junk merchants, everything... it's great. as for the rest of the classes: you get your archer (the shooty), your swordsman (the bashy), your mage (the wizard), your priest (the healer) and more... and when you get a high enough level in your first class, you can change into the next level of your class. swordsmen become knights, archers become hunters, thieves become assassins, etc... all with a range of new skills to learn. and the gravity team are still adding more to the game as it gets further on its beta road to completion. Promised things in developement are such things as new classes, pets, more quests (only class quests currently), player v player areanas, and more. all this souns great doesn't it? well there is a slight problem: there are only two servers running the game (chaos and loki, each broken down into subservers that serve different map areas) and the game sounds great to a good deal many people. result: 10,000 people on each server every night, and their servers can't handle the load properly. unless you got an uber-line connecting you to the net then you will get lagged. sometimes (if you're lucky) things will go sweet for a night, otherwise (more normally) you'll be lagged so much every monster you spot will be killed by three other people before you can walk over to it. on nights like this the 570 meg client you need to download is 570 megs of wasted harddrive space. all in all a great mmorpg (massive multiplayer online rpg) that is let down by it's laggy servers. i give it 2.7 stars with laggy servers. if they sort their servers out then it'll be worth 4.5 stars. <<update:] 1 june 2003>> ragnarok has started charging a monthly fee for it's service as of today. this struck me as a little too soon as the are still adding features and working on the game (most quests aren't implemented yet, neither are all the classes and features). the price they are asking is, in my opinion, a little too high and (unless a lot of people stop playing due to price) as far as i know the servers are still under heavy strain. taking all this into consideration ragnarok is worth 2.7 stars. it would be much better if they'd sort the lag out and if the monthly charge was more realistic/ if they had a one-off payment. as is i won't be playing anymore. it's just not worth the price with the amount of lag. it's a pity because it really is a cool game, just badly handled on the connection and price side of things. review 2: buffy the vampire slayer seasons 1-4 (dvd boxsets 1-4)date: 23 may 2003 mmmm... buffy :p pant pant. ok. buffy looks good but this review isn't about how cute she is. this is a series that at first glance may seem like days of our lives with vampires, but it's not. it is days of our lives with vampires, wit, humour, great characters, flashy fights and spike. and lets all be honest now, does that sound so bad? no. it actually sounds quite interesting. buffy has something for everyone. buffy and willow (and occasionally faith) for the men to drool over, angsty relationship stuff for the girls to get caught up in, wit and humour at every corner with wisecracks and putdowns from every character, well choreographed fight scenes, and such great characters that get built up with every episode. to get the full effect of buffy you have to watch it all though, in sequence. preferably in one sitting (but that might kill you: there's days worth of buffy to watch). the storyline that runs through buffy is actually very good. every episode builds a little more character onto everyone and you can watch buffy's friend willow go from a quite little nerd to a sexy, confident, powerful witch. giles goes from being buffy's watcher to an out of work sort-of hanger on, to a guy with a really interesting past that always seems to be coming back for him, to a guiding source and teacher again. spike goes from being a ultra-cool bad guy to an archenemy, to a hounded and helpless vampire who can't hurt a fly, to an ultra-cool part of buffy's scooby gang. Zander goes from being a geeky kid to being a geeky guy with a hot girlfriend. and buffy goes through many life changes too, from an outcast to a runaway, to a solid warrior for good, to a lost highschool kid in colledge, to a real kick ass vampire slayer. there is definetly something which grips you as you watch more. a certain something, or mix of things that weaves itself through all of the above and takes you on a fun story about a slayers life living in a town that's on top of a hellmouth. i've seen many people going from "buffy? whatever" or "buffy... nah... that sucks" to avid watchers who cannot wait to get their hands on the next season after they start watching it properly. the best way of watching buffy (in my opinion) is to get the dvd box-sets and watch as much as you want, when you want. this allows you to take in the story at your own pace and before you know it it'll be 4am and you'll be telling yourself "just one more episode, i just want to see what happens with..." overall the ride has been great so far and i look forward to the other seasons. i give buffy the vampire slayer (seasons 1-4) 4 stars. review 3: grand theft auto iii (ps2 game, pc version is basically the same)date: 26 may 2003 do you like to blow stuff up? have a penchant for mindless slaughter? like avoiding cops while running over pedestrians, going loco on an unfriendly gang, and generally causing trouble? then gta3 is just what you need. gta3 has a storyline which runs through it and you follow the storyline by visiting certain spots and being given missions. the missions tend to be along the lines of: ferry someone around the city / kill off some people / pick this person up and go blow up that boat / be genarally beligerant. as you complete these story missions you meet more of the bosses and dons of the city and eventually open up new parts of the city with more missions. if you fail at a mission... no problem, just go back to where you were given the mission and try again. if you die you lose a little cash and step out of the hospital good as new. get arrested? same thing but you come out of the cop shop. the nice thing about gta3 though, is you don't need to do any story missions (unless you want to finish the storyline). sometimes you'll pass a ringing phone and be able to do a side mission just for cash and fun, or you can run around mugging people with a baseball bat, or go cruising for ho's (they cost cash but give you life back). occasionally your beeper goes off and informs you of interesting stuff too. currently i'm collecting cars for some shady dudes at the docks and once i complete the list i get some bonus. you can do whatever you want. normally after doing some of the missions i get sidetracked and go on a killing spree, getting chased by cops in a beat-up car looking for ramps that'll result in insane stunt bonuses. the game was made for you to have fun however you want, and you can (and do). another nice addition are the "car specific" missions... nick a cop car, hit a key, and you go on vigilante missions chassing down bad-asses and killing them. a taxi: taxi missions ferrying people form place to place as quickly as possible (more fun than it sounds). an ambulance: paramedic missions getting people to the hospital. a fire-engine: firefighting missions (self explanatory). each different car you get into handles differently and you'll need to learn to drive well if you want to avoid cops and complete some of the missions given to you (especially when the triad take a dislike to you and every time you see them they start gunning for you and their trucks try ram you off the road). as for the interface: very nice. you get a little map display in the corner that zooms more the faster you drive, a simple health meter and weapon icon, and some rudimentary stats (occasionally another bar will pop up if it's neede in a mission). the camera position can be changed from a "tomb-raider" view, through a few other types, to a "gta classic" view. the controls are nice and responsive and the save feature is just great. to save you go to your appartment in the city and walk in the door. "what's so great about that?" i hear you ask... well next door to your appartment entrance is you garage. any car you park in there is saved with you and will still be there whe you load again later (which they never did in any previous version of gta as far as i know). i like storing a hotrod there for races and generall city mayhem. the only downside to gta3 is there are no bikes. i really enjoyed ramping around on a crotch-rocket in gta (one) and kinda miss it a little in this game. but barring that one small problem i really recommend gta3 for anyone who likes tonnes of action or for anyone needing stress relief. gta3 is better than any of it's predecessors and i think the only thing that will beat it in it's genre is gta: vice city (and only simply because it has bikes). until i get my hands on vice city, gta3 will definitely be my stress relieving, action favorite. my proverbial hat off to rockstar games. i give grand theft auto iii (ps2) 4.5 stars. now if you'll excuse me, i have to steal a car and grab a ho before getting revenge on those triad bastards. review 4: invader zim (cartoon series)date: 27 may 2003 well, since MoonFlake brought the subject up (and pointed to me as a watcher of zim) i'll do a review of it for all the worm-babies that have no idea what it is. after much downloading and copying around i have managed to watch what was made. invader zim is all about a little green invader named zim who gets sent to earth because no-one wants him around cough i mean, becuase he is an integral part of mission impending doom 2 and is to ready earth for defeat by the irken armada. to help him do this he is given what is called an advanced s.i.r. unit named g.i.r. (pronounced gir)... zim lands on earth and sets up some very silly disguises (a hairpiece and some contact lenses for zim, making him look like a little green boy with no ears, and a green doggy suit with a huge zipper up the fron for gir). he soon discovers that "skool" is the best place to learn about the planet and is soon enrolled into mrs. bitters' class. one of his classmates is dib, a wannabe paranormal investigator who is the only one who sees zim for what he really is: a little green invader. what ensues is a bunch of funny episodes mostly based around zim's insane plans to take over earth and dib's crazy attempts to stop him. the shows are filled with zany characters and plotlines. just what you'd expect from the creator of johnny the homicidal maniac and squee. that's right, jhonen vasquez is the genius behind this cartoon. unfortunately nickelodeon only let just over one series and two specials get made before canning the project. (and they had plans to do a movie at the end of series 2. sigh) rumours are that there are some episodes (form second season) that are still to be aired/ made available for download etc... the series is a must-see. there are some real laughs scattered around the show with a lot of tongue in cheek episodes ripping off this and that. as with all series's there are some stronger episodes and some weaker episodes, invader zim has only a couple of lows and some very good highs. if you've never seen it, watch it, even if it's just to see mega-pepe (the giant mutant hamster that's just too cute to shoot missiles at). i give invader zim 4.5 stars. get it! review 5: alien vs predator 2 (pc game)date: 31 may 2003 there will be lots of comparisons to alien vs predator (avp) the original in this review. avp was a great game (for those who never played it) with 3 playable races, the alien (for people who liked being super fast, super strong, and super sneaky), the predator (for people who like being cloaked and hunting things that have no hope of defending themselves), and the comparitively tiny human marine (for people who like to be permanently scared). now avp2 has the same 3 race options with a stronger storyline running through the whole game with each race having some part of what's going on. the problem is that the races have all been changed subtly to make them more naff. lets discuss each race seperately the alien is no longer as fast as it was, has had its great pounce turned into a crap attack, and seems to be spotted almost wherever it is: middle of an open, well-lit room, hiding in the roof above the lights, crawling on the roof in darkened hallways, wherever. i've even spotted some guards looking my way without spotting me as i was so far away, then snuck all the way around them to approach from behind to find that they are now lookingat me again. this doesn't always happen, but it happens often enough. the alien has gon from being a sleek, fast, killing machine to a strong man in a monster suit with claws. too much time is spent running on the floor straight for a squad of marines hoping to get in a headbite to pump your health before you're too badly shot up. (the alien gets health by biting peoples' heads off {best way} or by clawing at their bodies) there is a cute pair of levels at the begining where you play as a facehugger looking for a victim, then as a chestburster looking for a cat, but overall the alien levels are a bit too bland and lack the adrenalin that the avp alien used to enthuse. the predator is a bit more fun to play. it also seems to run/walk slower than in avp but has a nice range of weapons and even has a little trophy counter at the bottom of the screen (predators are hunters and take the heads of their fallen enemy as trophies). unfortunately the levels do begin to get a little tedious and repetative. also his different views (the predator has 4 views: heat {spot human}, biochemical {spot alien}, predtech/light {spot disc/easy navigation in dark}, and normal) are not as good as in avp. the views work well enough for spotting enemies, but walking around with them gets real annoying and you end up using normal view far too much just to see where to go. another problem i had was being hit by a certain plasma/emp weapon which stunned me, and then stunned me before i came round again, then stunned me bef... you get the idea. 5 minutes later i had died and got ready to reload. this only happened to me once however as i generally managed to sneak up on my prey cloaked so they never spotted me until it was too late. and this fact ruins the predator levels for me. in avp, when you completed a level you were shown a bunch of statistics about how well you did the level (kills, accuracy, favoured weapon, etc..) and you had certain goals to reach which unlocked cheats that you could use on levels you had already finished. it also kept your level bests here. one stat (and goal) was time spent cloaked. this encouraged the player to only cloak when in dire need which, to me, is far more in the feel of the predator. the cloaking device is just not sporting, but there's no encouragement not to use it in avp2 (in fact, with the number of heavily armed synthetics {robot marines} you are almost encourage to stay cloaked). one major problem i had with the predator was a pair of synths on a certain level, both armed with rocket launchers, both of whom seem to spot you even at huge distances while you are cloaked, both of whom cannot be killed by shooting at them. i spent ten minutes trying to figure out what the hell was up until i accidently shot a small stack of fuel barrels which blows one synthetic up and knocks a crate onto the other, and blows a giant hole in the building (where you escape). standing aghast facing this huge hole, wondering what the hell the programmers were thinking allowing heavily armed ai to be invulnrable, a door opened up somewhere behind me and i was killed by another sythetic with a big gun. the level designers seem to like doing this throughout the game. one minute you're walking down an empty passage, the next minute there's a squad of marines ahead of you, and suddenly a squad behind you too (through some door you can't open and can't get through before it closes after delivering this backstabing squad). it makes me think that the usmc have cupboards of marines for protection against alien invasions. finally, the marine. this is probably the best species to play in avp2, but it is also the hardest. there's lots of scary atmosphere (the first level has no enemies you can find in it, just growls and rooms where you see someone just get snatched and killed before you can get to them) which really builds up the scene. the marines arrive shortly after the incident (ie: the alien breakout) to investigate and help. you get lots of guns to play with, none of which are really usefull. generally running is the best option. all the time you have your buddies talking to you over radio. they're not with you either because you've been cut off, or because they're too chicken to enter the hive but will keep the apc warm for a quick getaway if you make it out alive, or whatever, but you always get the feeling that you're alone and have to run for safety which is normally through a load of aliens. there's even a little marine on marine action a little way in, as you uncover some dark dealings, which makes a nice change in the action. i think the marine is a little stronger in avp2, but the paranoia is still the same. graphically the game is nice, not the greatest, but still very visually pleasing and the multiplayer options have been beefed up for some very nice game possibilities (although you'll need lots of people to get the best out of all the multiplayer options). the levels are, on the whole, nicely designed with only one or two annoying or confusing levels. i do have a problem with the control setup but it is minor (the alien has a seperate crouch and wallwalk button now {in avp it was one button for both} but the wallwalk button crouches you anyway, so i'd rather replace my crouch with the wallwalk button, except i can't do that for just the alien as the crouch button is shared and will change for all the species if i change it... annoying, but not game-breaking). i mourn the loss of the locked missions though. avp had some bonus missions for each race that could only be played if you had finished all that race's levels on a certain difficulty, thus encouraging the player to replay at harder and harder difficulty levels as you tried unlocking the new levels and completeing all the set goals for each level. avp2 has no reason to replay the single player at all. i played on normal difficulty, found it a little too easy, but have no intrests in going back on a harder difficulty, it's just not interesting enough. avp2 looks pretty enough, and although the alien and predator aren't as good as they were in avp they're not unplayable. the story is mildly interesting (but forgetable) and the overall game is worth 3.3 stars. some will love it (they probably didn't play avp when it first came out) some will hate it (not everyone likes first person shooters) but i think most will find it "allright". personally i'd prefer the graphics of avp2 with the gameplay of avp and the goals of avp. back to ZenStar |