Crysis 2 (PC)

Developer:

Crytek

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Release Date:

2011

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Systems:

Windows, PS3, Xbox 360

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This week on Super Adventures, I'm playing Crysis 2, the second game in the Crysis trilogy. (Warhead's a stand-alone expansion so it doesn't count.)

I also played the original Crysis this week so you might be wondering 'Why the rush?' Well, the game starts on the 23rd of August 2023, so it actually takes place today. So I should really get on with writing about the game and stop wasting time with this intro.

Actually, there are a couple of things I should mention here. First, the game's story was written by Richard K. Morgan, author of the novel Altered Carbon. He also wrote the Syndicate shooter that came out the following year. Second, I want to mention how the game's theme is kind of one note. Well, two notes I suppose. It's like an alarm. It's one of a handful of songs on the soundtrack by Hollywood composers Hans Zimmer and Lorne Balfe, and honestly I prefer Lorne Balfe's theme to that new Dungeons & Dragons movie, Honor Among Thieves.

Alright, I'm not going to be able to get away with just playing an hour or two of this like I usually do, so expect SPOILERS for the entire first half of the game.

Sonic Generations (PC)

Developer:

Sonic Team

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Release Date:

2011

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Systems:

Xbox 360, PS3, Windows

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This week on Super Adventures, I'm playing Sonic Generations, which is something like the 73rd or 74th Sonic game I think. Somewhere around there.

The reason I'm mentioning this is because this year I'm (mostly) writing about games that have made it onto someone's top 10 list. So when I say this reached #9 on Polygon's The Best 12 Sonic Games Ranked list, you can picture how many games it had to defeat. Sonic's Schoolhouse, Tails' Skypatrol, Sonic Kart 3D X... none of these games could stand against Sonic Generations' might.

Here's some more trivia about the game: it was the first mainline Sonic game to make it to Windows PCs since Sonic Heroes 7 years earlier, it has nothing to do with the movie Star Trek: Generations, and it was made to celebrate Sonic's 20th anniversary.

Oh, plus it's 10 years old, as it's Sonic's 30th anniversary today... which means it came out the same year that Super Adventures started now that I think about it.

I've never been the biggest Sonic fan to be honest, I usually get bored of the games after a level or two, but I've actually finished Sonic Generations before. You'll have to keep reading if you want to know what I think about it though. Or you could just scroll down to the end I suppose, but then you'd be missing out on all the screenshots, many of them with whole paragraphs of text underneath!

Dungeon Siege III (PC)

Developer:

Obsidian

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Release Date:

2011

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Systems:

Windows, PS3, Xbox 360

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This week on Super Adventures, I'm taking a look at the last of the Dungeon Siege games, unless they suddenly announce a new one out of nowhere again.

The first two Dungeon Sieges were developed by Gas Powered Games, but Square Enix decided they wanted a western RPG series and bought the franchise from them, putting Obsidian in charge of making the third game. Personally I'd be more curious to see the game would be like if Square Enix made it themselves, but games like Knights of the Old Republic 2, South Park: The Stick of Truth and Fallout: New Vegas have shown that Obsidian are masters at taking other people's properties and making magic with them.

It seems they're also pretty good at making pretty main menus. It doesn't look so great in a screenshot, but in game it's all animated, with birds flying by in the background, sparkling moonlight reflected in the water, and the logo flag gently blowing in the breeze. In fact I don't even want to start the game any more, I'm just going to sit here and listen to the music and the rain for a bit. It's not the classic Dungeon Siege theme but it'll do.

Also I just noticed that the statue is of the protagonist of Dungeon Siege 1! Well the amber-haired woman with the flaming sword from the box anyway, as you can make your own characters in the DS games.

(Screenshots can be viewed at their original resolution by clicking on them. Not that their original resolution is all that great.)

The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim (PC) - Part 2

Click the highlighted text if you'd rather be reading part one.

The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim (PC) - Part 1

Today on Super Adventures I'm finally done with that awkward 22nd letter of the alphabet, and the last 'V' game I'll be taking a quick look at this year is... Elder Scrolls: V (also known to some as Skyrim).

Released in 2011, five years after Oblivion, Skyrim is the fifth of the main Elder Scrolls series, and the first to sound like it's a James Bond movie title. This theme music on the other hand sounds more like what you get when 90 people chant their own made up lyrics to the Elder Scrolls theme introduced in Morrowind... it's basically amazing. Here have a youtube link, may it make your day just that little bit more epic.

I sank a considerable number of hours into this game a considerable number of months ago, so I'm not coming into the game blind, but I can't remember any of it in any kind of detail. As always I'll be playing it utterly unmodded, like a fool, to give you the most authentic screenshots possible. I'm not really a fan of mods to be honest, as I don't like the idea of tweaking a game to suit my tastes. For me it's a bit too much like getting out the red pen and scribbling edits over the pages of a novel I'm not liking. Once I've tasted the power of godlike power of an author I can't immerse myself in the experience in the same way.

(Click to view images in an astoundingly modern 1280x720 resolution. Actually I've just upgraded my PC at bloody last, so this time I've thrown in a few at 1920x1080 for you to enjoy. That's 125% extra pixels, free!)

Deus Ex: Human Revolution (PC) - Part 2

Click to jump back to part one.

Deus Ex: Human Revolution (PC) - Part 1

Due to overwhelming demand (one person almost asked for it) I've decided that the final 'H' game is going to be... Deus Ex: Human Revolution! But why does this get shoved down the alphabet when my article on Invisible War appeared earlier in the year under 'D', you may be wondering in your brain. Well, it's so I can play them in order, like duh.

Actually the order of the games isn't necessarily so straightforward, as although this is was the third Deus Ex game released, it's actually a prequel set 25 years earlier in the timeline. But as prequels go, will this be another Snake Eater or will it be an Arkham Origins? More importantly, which game am I implying to be the bad one out of those two? Perhaps we'll never know.

Human Revolution was released on PC, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 in 2011, but it received a Director's Cut two years later to accompany the upgraded Wii U version. I'll be sticking with the original version though, mostly because it's what I've got sitting in my Steam library right now (but also because I want to whine about the original boss fights at some point).

(Clicking screenshots will bring up a slightly higher resolution version for you to scrutinize.)

E.Y.E: Divine Cybermancy (PC)

Super Adventures' ambitious "Year of Games That Begin With a Letter" gimmick continues in an alphabetical fashion with another requested game for you: E.Y.E: Divine Cybermancy. Uh, sorry I mean E.Ψ.Ǝ: Divine Cybermancy. Always nice to have a legitimate excuse to use an italic letter psi.

I've been curious about this one for a while, because I've seen the name mentioned a few times but I've never really formed a clear impression of what kind of game it actually is. Though the ambient knowledge I've absorbed through the internet is whispering to me that it's a little like an ambitious indie Deus Ex clone, constructed by a tiny development team and held together with sheer willpower.

(Click the pics to view them at double the size.)

Driver: San Francisco (PC)

Today I'm having a look at Driver: San Francisco by Reflections, makers of Shadow of the Beast, Destruction Derby, Stuntman and a whole lot of Driver games.

To be honest I've never been much of a fan of the Driver series; I found the first game to be pretty painful to play, Driver 2: Are You Sure You Want to Restart is astoundingly unforgiving, the third game seems like it's a broken mess and Parallel Lines... I can't even remember why I don't like that, but I'm sure there must be a good reason. Still it introduced me to the track 'Suffragette City' by David Bowie, so it's not all bad.

There's actually two versions of Driver: San Francisco: the Xbox 360/PlayStation 3/PC game I'm playing and the Wii version which has an entirely different story despite the fact it has the same name and cover art. In fact the Wii game is a prequel to the first Driver, so basically they were straight up trying to mislead people with it. Hey Ubisoft, here's an idea: if you're releasing a different product DON'T SELL IT IN THE SAME BOX.

(Click the pictures to expand them into a glorious 1280x720 resolution).

Duke Nukem Forever (PC)

Here's a game I've been wanting to play for the site for a while. Today I have the pleasure of being able to show off the first few hours of the controversial Duke Nukem Forever!

Everyone knows that Duke Nukem Forever was left in the oven a little too long and if you've ever visited http://duke.a-13.net/ you could probably list a fair number of things that have come out while the game's been in development as well (like six Final Fantasy games, the first seven Call of Duty games, every Infinity Engine game, the entirety of the Unreal and Half-Life franchises etc.). But it's hard to visualise exactly just how long FIFTEEN YEARS really is... unless you have a handy chart full of games to compare it to I guess.

Luckily I just so happen to have one right here:

Bulletstorm (PC)

Today on Super Adventures in Games Beginning with 'B', I'm taking a quick look at Bulletstorm made by Painkiller developer Epic Games Poland back when they were still called People Can Fly.

The game is part of the small but growing 'post-apocalyptic sci-fi craphole first person shooter' genre, along with games like Fallout 3/New Vegas and Rage, so it's in good company at least. It came out for Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and Windows, but I'll be playing the PC version, as it is superior for two very important reasons: I own a copy and it's easier to take screenshots of it.

First though I'm going to link to the theme music as it's surprisingly epic: youtube link. Stick that on while you read to make the next few paragraphs seem even more intense.

(Clicking pictures will likely show you a clear higher res version.)

Rage (PC)

Today I'm having a quick go at 2011 post apocalyptic FPS/racing hybrid Rage, aka. RAGE. I'm not entirely sure why they've used the circle-A anarchy symbol there in their logo, but I imagine it's for much the same reason that Neversoft used it for Apocalypse: because they could.

This came out on Xbox 360, PS3, PC and Mac, but I'll be playing the PC version on my beat up old rig. I've actually tried the game on my system once before when it first came out but I was kind of put off by the way it was a sluggish glitchy mess. But it's been a few years now so I'm hoping that all the patches and drivers updates since then have gotten it into shape. Shouldn't take long to find out.

(Click the pictures to view them at twice the resolution. That's FOUR TIMES the pixels!)

Batman: Arkham City (PC)

Today on Super Adventures I'm taking a quick look at Batman: Arkham City, the second game in the universally beloved Arkham trilogy. Can't promise it'll be a quick read though.

Okay maybe the series isn't universally beloved, as a few people seem less than enamoured with the latest game, Arkham Origins. But this one's by the original team at Rocksteady, so I fully expect it'll turn out to be basically the same thing as 2009's Arkham Asylum, which I already played just a few months ago. In fact with any luck I'll be able to copy/paste most of the text over from that post and save myself some work.

I actually bought this a while back, way before the pay what you want Humble Bundle deal going on this fortnight, but I'm only just getting around to it now. Because I'm an idiot. The moral of the story: always always always wait for a sale. Or, you know, play your games when you buy the things.

(Click the screenshots to expand them to immense proportions. Well, they'll be twice the size anyway. Plus I'm running it in DirectX 9 mode with no tessellation or PhysX enhancements so it's not really going to be looking its best I'm afraid.)

Battlefield 3 (PC)

Today I'm taking a quick look at relatively recent Modern Warfare clone Battlefield 3, though considering the length of military shooters these days I may accidentally finish the whole thing. So there's a non-zero chance that I'll end up spoiling the entire game's plot here, consider yourself warned.

I've heard a few rumours around that the game's multiplayer mode is fantastic, far better than the single player campaign, so I'm of course going to ignore it entirely. Not that I've got anything against multiplayer, it's just not really what I do here.

(Click the images to view them at 1280x720 res. Not exactly mindblowing I know but it's the best I can do with my ancient relic of a PC).

Wizorb (PC)

One last PC game for a while, something light this time so that my computer doesn't explode into searing hot silicon shrapnel in this moderately ridiculous heat.

Today I'm loading up Wizorb for an hour or so (not to be confused with Sensible Software's Wizball, which is... something different.) This one was kindly donated to me by a friend who assured me that it was very very cheap, so I've adjusted my expectations accordingly.

Saints Row: The Third (PC)

Today I'm taking a look at sandbox gangsta shooter, Saints Row: The Third, released for Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and PC way back in 2011. Because I feel like it.

I've barely seen anything of the first two Saints games, but I've played the Grand Theft Auto games so I have a few suspicions on how this is going to play out. Lots of shooting, driving around in cars, shooting while driving around in cars, and prostitutes. With guns.

Click the screenshots to see the full size images, which are in an ancient resolution I'm afraid.

Terraria (PC)

Super Adventures at Christmas - Game 4:

I have played this one before, and I know it isn't exactly technically a Christmas game. But I've heard that the new v1.1.1 update adds something Christmassy, and I'm determined to find it.

Bastion (PC) - Guest Post

This game is Bastion by SupergiantGames https://supergiantgames.com/ and you can find it on Steam here: https://store.steampowered.com/app/107100.

(Click the pics for full sized images)

Planet Stronghold (Demo) (PC) - Guest Post

Indie contributor Ocean has found another RPG that might be worth checking out. You can get this demo yourself for PC, Mac or Linux here: Planet Stronghold Demo

Click the pictures to see a nice large clear version with text you can actually read..

Planet Stronghold!

Eternal Grace (PC) - Guest Post

RPG fan Ocean cunningly uses this opportunity to advertise his friend's game.

OK, now playing Eternal Grace! I know the people who made it so they asked me to play it. You can get the demo here, or support them by buying the full game! http://www.eternal-grace.com/

OK here we go! I wasn't sure what kind of game it was but I really don't tend to look up much about it before I play.