Need For Speed Undercover

There are a few series that need no introduction and Need for Speed is one of them. The legendary franchise has sold more than a gazillion copies and is often considered among the best racing games in the history of gaming. But to be honest, I am rather disappointed with the last few games in the series as they lacked innovation.

I had high hopes from Undercover, as it seemed to be a revised version of NFS: Most Wanted, the recent best in the series, and although it does go back to its "Most Wanted Roots", it still is disappointing from a technical point of view.The concept behind the game is simple, you play an undercover cop in a fictional city called Tri-city and your job is to go up the criminal ranks in Tri-city. You have to take up petty crimes like stealing cars to infiltrate a group of car thieves, who are being controlled by a much bigger gang.

 

STORY: Well. This bitch puts you undercover to take down "thugs". The game takes place in a fictional (yet i'd like it  to be true) called Tri City. We earn rep ripping of others rep. AH gawd...too tired to mention the whole story. Let wiki do the job. Story

The car thieves enjoy street racing and you gain their respect by competing against them - a plot and idea similar to Most Wanted. The game has been presented like a movie, with drama driven plot and established actors (Not) like Maggie Q. The concept is great but the execution is mediocre at best, but I will come to the presentation a little later. First let's look at the core gameplay, the racing controls and the open world environment.

Unlike the last game, Undercover is an open-world game like EA's own Burnout Paradise, which gives the player more freedom. The entire Tri-City area is split into different zones and stretches over 100 miles, making it the biggest NFS city ever. These are basically three cities linked together by highways, hence the name Tri-City.  Although the city size is commendable and really impressive, the gameplay isn't as liberating as Burnout Paradise. Let me elaborate on the not-so- burnout-like agenda. You see Burnout is an open world game, which means you can choose your own route in the city.

So when the object is to reach from point A to point B, choosing your own route in a huge city gives you freedom and the win is more satisfying. NFS Undercover has a weird system, as once you start racing, all the other routes are blocked and you have linear track to race on rendering the open-world environment useless. There are traditional race modes in the game, as well as some that are inspired from other games like Outrun and Cops and Robbers. The objective in Outrun is to basically maintain a certain distance between you and your opponent for a brief period of time, do so and you win the race. Cops and Robbers is an online mode, more about that later in the review.

There is a huge selection of cars in the game, including some unreleased cars like the Nissan 370z, making the cars roster highly impressive. The cars look great as the engine has been tweaked up a lot, making the game look really good (but trust me the performance is just as bad). Winning races will make you money, which in turn can be used to get better parts and customize your car to look unique. There are a decent number of customization options, so you can spend a lot of time fine tuning the looks of the car. There is a really odd system that lets you transfer real world money from your PSN or XBLA account in the game, so if you have more cash than you need, go ahead and burn some of it.

The single player is quiet easy, even new comers will be able to finish the game quickly, so jump in if you're new to the series. The real challenge is online, and lets all thank EA for that. The single player includes a lot of cop chases, in a system that is fairly similar to Most Wanted. As you race, the cops take notice and keep track of your activities and over a period of time more and more cops take a keen interest in bringing you down. With every passing chase the number of cops increases and so does the difficulty. However, what makes evading the cops easy are the relatively empty and wide open roads. There are times when the cops will block the road but you can use the Speed-Breaker system to pass through them and continue racing. The pursuit breaker system makes a comeback here and can be used to evade a large number of cops. Once you gather enough heat, you will be required to dump your upgraded car to lower the heat level, which I think is rather unfair. The single player is mediocre at best, redemption lies in the multiplayer.

The game has a decent multiplayer package, which consists of an online eight player multiplayer mode. Online play is good fun, and depending on your connection, quite stable. There is a cops and robbers mode, which basically splits the players into two teams. One team has to steal and transfer some cash, while the cops try to stop them.

Well. Its got class and standard but can get annoying too. Give it a try. The cars rock. Esp tha Audi TT and Shelby GT500KR.

Hitman:Blood Money

Hitman: Blood Money is a 3rd person action/adventure game released by Eidos in 2006. The game is a continuation of the popular Hitman franchise in which the player takes control of the mysterious assassin, Agent 47.


PLOT

The majority of the game takes place as flashback sequences that occur through the meeting between a journalist and a former FBI Director, “Jack” Alexander Leland Cayne. The two discuss a number of contract kills over the past two years (2004-2005) and Agent 47's involvement in them. The reporter, Rick Henderson, arranged to interview Cayne in regards to a recent attack on the White House. It quickly becomes clear that Cayne's real intent is to discuss his views on human cloning and his obsession with capturing the genetically engineered super assassin. Cayne lies about many of the details that he gives Rick Henderson such as stating that 47 stole cloning data from Ort-Meyer to sell to the highest bidder.

The story of 47 is gradually revealed as the player completes the various contracts they receive. The main story really begins when Diana informs 47 that they are the only two left in the agency. It is implied that the others have been systematically wiped out by Mark Purayah II and Mark Parchezzi III - two of The Franchise's best assassins.


Diana finally decides to close down the agency but not before she gives 47 one final contract. This is the mission "A Dance with the Devil", where 47 must infiltrate a party at the CIA headquarters and take out the assassins who are trying to kill him. Once this is complete he and Diana split the funds and go their separate ways. 


After what seems to be 47's final contract he is approached by an old CIA acquaintance named Smith (who 47 has previously rescued from a rehabilitation clinic in the mission "Flatline"). He requests that 47 take on a mission to kill the men who are trying to assassinate the President of the United States. These men are Vice President Daniel Morris and Mark Parchezzi III, who are both working for Alpha Xerox. This is a political organization which owns "The Franchise" and wish to monopolize the cloning facility that created 47. They want the President taken out before the elections so that he is definitely not elected and so he cannot forward his pro-cloning policy. This would prevent Alpha Xerox from attaining the monopoly on cloning. 

During this mission 47 successfully kills Morris and also finally takes down Parchezzi in a shootout on the roof of the White House. After this mission a newspaper article is shown which states that the authorities believe Parchezzi to be Morris' assassin. As he is now being hunted by both enemy operatives and the police 47 retreats to his hideout. Here he is approached by Diana without warning which instantly arouses his suspicion as they rarely meet face to face. She proposes a plan which should secure both of them safety from "The Franchise". As 47 is considering the idea and reading the briefing he expresses his doubts about its success. However, before he can say any more Diana injects him with what seems to be a poison. 47's body is quickly surrounded by SWAT members, and Diana, announcing that bringing down 47 was "surprisingly pleasant" is inducted into "The Franchise" by Cayne, it's founder. 


After this event the plot suddenly returns to present day, with Cayne and Rick Henderson, where 47's body is about to be cremated so that rival cloning companies cannot take a sample of his bone marrow and no more non-defective clones can ever be made. Diana approaches 47's body and places his signature Silverballer pistols on his chest during his funeral and kisses him after applying lipstick. It then becomes clear that the "poison" that Diana used on 47 was actually a fake death serum which is used earlier in the game and that her lipstick contained the antidote. This shows that this was Diana's true plan to save them both and she did not betray 47. The game can then end in one of two ways. As the player watches 47 lying on a pedestal before he is cremated a faint heartbeat can be heard. If the player does not react in any way then 47 will be lowered into the crematorium and will perish. However, if the player keeps spinning both of the analog sticks then 47 will come back to life and the player will have to control him as he takes out all of the witnesses to his revival. Many of the witnesses try to escape but it becomes apparent that Diana has locked the gates of the exit and no one survives except 47 (and Diana, who had left earlier). 




 


The game ends with a cut-scene in which Diana states that she has made the Agency operational again using the funds of "The Franchise". She is on the phone with someone who she refers to as "Your Majesty". Diana then says to this mysterious person that the Agency has lost track of 47. The game finally ends with 47 in a brothel having a conversation with a traditionally dressed Chinese man on what can only be assumed is another job. 




Hitman: Blood Money, the fourth installment of Eidos' successful murder-for-hire series, slickly builds upon the franchise with more of its gripping signature stealth-action gameplay. All 13 of the game's missions are well crafted and challenging, but after four iterations of this series, I felt a need for a new challenge. So I created my own task, one particularly appropriate for a game that asks you to become cold-blooded murderer Agent 47: Break all 10 of the Commandments. If I'm going to sin, I might as well go all-out.

There are approximately a dozen missions in all and most of them takes place somewhere around the United States such as an Egyptian-themed casino in Las Vegas, a rehab clinic in Northern California and also the Mardi Gras celebration in New Orleans. As 47 complete all these missions, he discovers a mysterious agency that is threatening him and his employer and slowly learn and reveal their motives, all this leading up to a climatic and unexpected conclusion.

Like in previous games, Hitman offers open-ended stealth gameplay where in all the missions, you are required to exercise caution in eliminating the target and escape undetected. All this requires careful planning and stealth but if you do make a slip-up, you can always run and gun away eliminating everyone in your path. This will of course considerably affect the money and rank that will be given to 47 at the end of each mission. Of course, if you are observant and careful, a single round of bullets is not even required for the missions.

The game offers two camera angles that is the default behind the back angle and the first person perspective. It also offers a wide array of realistically modeled real-world weapons of pistols, rifles and also submachine guns. However, blood is not necessarily needed to be on 
Agent 47's hands as there are alternative methods to eliminate the targets. Poisons, explosives, knives and other accessories are at the disposal of 47 to eliminate the targeted enemy most of the time. You can even arrange for an accident to happen on your targeted enemy to avoid killing the target directly. This can be tricky most of the time but if you accomplish it and complete the mission successfully, it will also give you a higher ranking and more money for these types of cleaner kills. 
Planning an attack in the missions is pretty straight-forward like in the previous installments of the series as there is a GPS real-time map that lets you locate all the other characters including your targeted enemy. Tougher difficulties show fewer characters, make enemies more lethal and also limit the amount of games saves during each mission. Music in Blood Money is rather impressive with a combination of choral tracks and a few other soundtracks that further add to the ambience in the game. Voice acting and sound effects are generally reasonable as a whole. Unfortunately, artificial intelligence in Blood Money is not perfect under close examination but it still does a believable job generally. If you decide to shoot your way thorough the mission, you will find that the enemies would only stand a chance to beat you only in sheer numbers. However, artificial intelligence in the game is not all that poor as the characters can patrol the place, chat among each other or even go for a break to smoke or to go the bathroom.
At normal difficulty setting and above, there is also a notoriety system that is gained by leaving a trail of corpses for the other guards to find out. The higher the notoriety system is achieved, the easier for enemies to recognize Agent 47 in the next mission. However, for a fee before the next mission, you can bring back the notoriety down to nothing which makes this an irrelevant aspect of the game.

At the end of each mission, there is also a sleek feature that tells you the headlines about what happened in detail in a dynamically generated newspaper but this gets predictable after a while as the game progresses. Other trivial issues of the game are the changing of clothes by 47 to disguise himself throughout the mission. Like the previous installments, 47 changing the clothes seem to look as abnormally as ever as he magically wears the slain enemies clothes while the old one is neatly folded nearby. The characters in most of the missions also look repetitive especially in the mission of the Mardi Gras celebration. However, all these issues are just insignificant ones that could go unnoticed easily during the missions.


Every level is constructed to let you off your prey in any number of ways, so the hard part is deciding how to make your kills. I staged unhappy accidents like sabotaging a backyard grill to incinerate a target. I sniped the bottom of a glass-bottomed hot tub at that smutmeister's mountain retreat so that everyone in it fell to a spectacularly messy end. I put live ammo in an actor's prop pistol. 


Sometimes I do think if Agent47 is descendent if Altair or Ezio. But the fact that 47 is clone rules that out. Come to think about  it he could be cloned using their genes. Nice family. :)

Overall the game has hardly any negatives though the folded clothes gets on my nerves (were does he find time to fold it ??!?). Keep walking and plan the assassinations to make it look like an accidents rules out the gunning and shredding people. Takes time but the gameplay is awesome and worth. So I'd recommend it if you got patience and the nerves to be an assassins. 

Prince Of Persia : Two Thrones (The Dark Side of Me?)

Intro:
The Prince of Persia, a seasoned warrior, returns from the Island of Time to Babylon with his love, Kaileena. Instead of the peace that he longs for, he finds his homeland ravaged by war and the kingdom turned against him. The Prince is rapidly captured and Kaileena has no choice but to sacrifice herself and kill the Vazier. Now cast out on the streets and hunted as a fugitive, the Prince soon discovers that past battles have given rise to a deadly Dark Prince, whose spirit gradually possesses him.
Utilizing the concept of "duality," the player can play as two separate warriors with different combat styles, attitudes, and histories. The Prince, using the Dagger and another disposable weapon, uses a Speed Kill system that focuses on timing and precision. The Dark Prince utilizes a style that is based more on violence and aggression, and he makes deadly use of the Daggertail, allowing for long-range attacks.

True to the Prince of Persia franchise, the game provides a variety of action combat, agility, and story-driven puzzles - all masterfully blended together to provide a rich gaming experience. Explore incredible platforming environments such as the dangerous urban babylon. Dominate enemies on the perilous rooftops, dodge through chaotic streets, and ambush pursuers in dark, underground passageways. You can even seize the reins of a chariot to fend off hordes of enemies at breakneck speed in impossibly tight pursuits!
Manipulate time to surprise enemies: Execute powerful attacks against entire armies by slowing down or rewinding time, or surprise them by using some all-new Sands of Time powers.

Play and master two distinct characters: Wield the powers and weapons of two master warriors with different combat styles, attitudes, and histories.
Expanded Free-Form Fighting system lets destroy enemies in your own style--strangle from afar with the deadly Daggertail or use a new stealth art to inflict surprise decapitations and other attacks.

Battle freely through Babylon: Dominate enemies on the perilous rooftops, dodge through chaotic streets, and ambush pursuers in dark, underground passageways.
Immerse yourself in a dramatic story: Experience unparalleled depth in storytelling as you fight your way through a twisting tale filled with adrenaline, tension, and discovery. And as usual you have to watch his womanizing character and at least one female gets into trouble because of him. :)




























    






Whilst The Two Thrones might fail to strike a perfect balance, it does still indeed have a balance and that itself is worthy of investigation. The core problem with The Two Thrones is that it borrows from previous games without understanding what fundamentally made the borrowed material effective in their respective titles. The whole game is narrated by his "wife" Kaileena. Though the game starts with the Prince trying to rescue her, he does a good job in forgetting her when he sees Vazier and Farah. Good job Prince. 

Ubisoft does attempt something of a “zoom out” of the trilogy at the end, attempting to somehow link everything to Sands of Time, but it’s a total after thought. It’s not a complete fail though as, according to developers, her role is to be the objective overseer 3rd party who watches over the conflict, in which she follows out the role well.

The narrative joints between Sands of Time and Warrior Within were forcibly creaky. In The Two Thrones though the assumptions made between games are further farfetched and disjointed, only confusing to the player, particularly players new to the universe. Even as someone who has intently played through the previous games, I was left clueless. Reading the Wikipedia article later for context had me baffled too. How did I miss all that?

This is initially problematic as Warrior Within ended with either one of two conclusions, one which is rejected and the other accepted as cannon in The Two Thrones – I got stuck with the dud ending.

The Two Thrones revisits the original setting of Sands of Time, which itself would be fine if Ubisoft hadn’t become so ambitious as to over complicate the narrative. Supposedly the events of Warrior Within meant that the events of Sands of Time never happened, ie. the Vazier is still alive and the Prince never met Farah.

This results in an intentionally heavy amount of Sands of Time redux as the various characters reprise their roles, and the events unfold in similar fashion. It’s both good and bad. Good because the Prince and Farah’s romantic quibbling and the tale of maturation is all very nostalgic. Bad because this retread tramples all over the ethos on which Sands of Time’s narrative was created. While the events from the Sands of Time remain lost in another dimension, the Prince still experienced it – he’s the outlier in this whole equation (it’s also the reason he knows Farah’s name). This is itself rather clever in a very Back to the Future 2 kind of way. Now, SoT’s story is a metaphoric telling of a boy becoming a man and said boy growing affection for girl. Therefore, by the end of the game the Prince is suitably the hero of the story. The Two Thrones unflinching regurgitates this component of Sands of Time. The narration dot points the Prince’s personal growth, yet the reasoning for his maturation here is weakly supported. Hasn’t he already become a man? Well, yes, but now he’s on the path of redemption you see. Somewhere along the road the Prince did something bad (I still haven’t figured out what it is yet) and he’s determined to redeem himself for it, all the while being a little too mopey for comfort. I don’t believe that his sins are ever clearly made apparent to the player which makes the maturation part of the tale seem completely unfounded and therefore unnecessary.

Either way, one thing is made clear: this evil he is trying to free himself of exists within the persona of the “Dark Prince”. Early on in the game, the Vizier does a whole bunch of evil stuff which in turn causes the Prince’s right arm to be infused with a daggertail (you know, a whip made of sharp blades) and talking evil persona who butts in whenever he feels like demeaning the hero.

 

One of the best parts is the way Dark Prince makes fun  of when the Prince and Farah are having their "moments". Believe me he's got sense of humor. he doesn't find time for all those lovey dovey talk and is rather focused on killing on the Vazier. Honestly he is much better than the "real" him and he rocks.

This good and evil dichotomy (alternatively: Sands of Time/Warrior Within) is the main theme of The Two Thrones and is made a central element by the regular and dark personas of the Prince. Rather than mixing hot and cold water, the two factions are individually broken up into sequences of play piecing together the linear progression. You begin as the normal Prince and then upon reaching a certain area the Dark Prince will take possession and the gameplay alters before switching back – and so forth. Cleverly Ubisoft chose water as the means to transform the Dark Prince back into his former self. Those who’ve been observant in prior games will note that within the trilogy water is symbolic of life (and hence anti-evil). Drinking water heals the Prince’s health, while waterfalls acted as path blockages to fend off the evil Dahaka. In The Two Thrones water is the gateway between personas.

The regular Prince is as you already know him from previous games – no changes there. The Dark Prince is rather different though. In terms of platforming he can use his dagger tail to pull stone slabs out from walls and use them as makeshift platforms. He can also use the daggertail to swing along the interior lighting. Essentially this action is the same as swinging via rope except that the player must prompt the swings.

Combat sees the majority of character divergences. The Dark Prince’s primary weapon is the daggertail (everything links to the daggertail!) which he swings about in a very God of War fashion, albeit without the finesse or appeal of Kratos.(It’s more like a lassoing cowboy). The new set of abilities gained by the daggertail play into this touted free-form combat system which basically means a lot of random button pressing. The system isn’t as punctual as the regular Prince’s move set, instead it’s more of a far- flung twirl of pain which hastily obliterates enemies. The haste is very much required as in Dark Prince mode the Prince’s health is constantly draining, with the sands from downed enemies (or simply random tables and chairs) acting as the magic elixir. Designing around the constant draining of life essentially means that when playing as the Dark Prince, the player will move from quick breaths of platforming, into a mild combat refresher and then back again

The switch between personas also chapterizes the game a little better. So you’ll play the game for an hour or so and then the Prince will swap into the opposing ego implying the closure of that particular sequence of gameplay.

The most significant additions to The Two Thrones though are predominately shared between the two personas. Stealth kills are a new feature and are very much a welcomed middle ground between both of the previous games, a clear example of Ubisoft getting it right. When in range of unsuspecting enemies the Prince will duck into a sneak, allowing him to get behind enemies and launch into an efficient context sensitive stabathon. These moments vary per enemy type and allow the Prince to avoid the sluggish combat. In fact, their frequency creates a huge sense of relief as it ensures that combat is (optionally) kept to a minimum. Fortunately blood has been removed from The Two Thrones too which acts in taste to the rest of the series yet the stabbing and strangulation aligns itself with Warrior Within; a happy compromise.

The platforming also sees a number of fresh faced additions to the chain of ledges, open walls and columns. Namely we’re talking about dagger mounts and squishing between closed walls. Dagger mounts are circular mounts built into walls which allow the Prince to drive his dagger into and hold himself up above ground. They more or less function as a brief stopgap between rounds, and due to their singular form comfortably integrate amongst the existing objects. Similarly, squishing between closed walls is simple and effective. Basically the Prince can push himself between two walls, allowing him to climb up or slide down at will.

The final new addition to The Two Thrones are the chariot races. These fixed set pieces splice their way into the game occasionally and provide a good distraction from the regular routine. In such events the Prince rides a chariot through the streets of Persia fending off an onslaught of enemies while avoiding obstacles along the way. The controls aren’t perfect but do a solid job.

The Two Thrones is much more sophisticated in the way it melds play styles. Platforming deviates from pure free running to stealth, the stealth provides the player with greater options on how to tackle combat, combat is now split between the two egos with chariot races making occasional appearances. By never hanging onto a single approach and giving choice to the player, The Two Thrones in terms of gameplay structures alone is the pinnacle of the trilogy. The Two Thrones is an overall more focused entry in the series and admirably achieves an interesting concoction of gameplay styles. I would say its one of the best   of the series and the credit goes to Dark Prince.