Plane and Simple – Altitude

Out of the blue comes Nimbly Games and their stunning 2D aerial combat game Altitude.  Billed as stemming from a variety of multiplayer heavyweights of recent years, Altitude is competitive without being aggravating.  Fast and fun without losing a sense of skill-based accomplishment, Altitude is balanced and nuanced.  Altitude shouldn’t be this fun, but it is.

Nimbly Games, comprising of two ambitious gamer-developers, have created a genuinely exciting multiplayer title, falling under the oft-used cliche of bearing old-school sensibilities.  Inspired by games such as Call of Duty 4, Erik Measure and Karl Sabo crafted Altitude out of strong currents within the multiplayer arena.  While there might not be a visual compatibility between the latest competitive first-person shooter and Altitude, there are comparable  traits in terms of balance and user-defined nuance.  Altitude captured the recent fixation of in-game achievements by boasting its own slew of awards.  But the comparisons do not help to describe what Altitude really is, so a closer look at this clever little game is pleasantly warranted.

The Xenomorph Speaks – PSP No Go

Once more from the bowels of snark and spite GigersALIEN stalks forth, this time in reaction to the recent unveiling of the Sony PSP Go at the 2009 E3 convention.  What follows is a vicious snapping of jaws at the audacity of Sony allegedly trying to pull the wool over consumer’s eyes.

The PSP Go!  Woohoo.  Sony’s new revision of the PSP was shown at this year’s E3 for all to go ga-ga over.

Thunderous applause.

Nerds’ hearts skipped a beat.

iPhone lovers drooled.

$250 dollars.

I puked.

Screenshot of the week – UFO: Aftermath

ALTAR Interactive’s X-Com-inspired UFO trilogy began in 2003 with UFO: Aftermath.  A decimated world lies in twilight, with the Reticulans having laid waste to the global population.  While the trilogy only got better in terms of gameplay mechanics, Aftermath purveys an eerie desolate ambience as humanity tries to crawl back against a vastly superior and unsettling adversary.

To the Summit – Mountain Sheep after Super Hind

After the tireless effort put in by the small Finnish company to get their debut PSP title Super Hind into the hands of PAL-region gamers, the road ahead gave Mountain Sheep some exciting choices.  Even in the face of a global financial meltdown, Timo Vihola and his team learned from their experiences and have come up with something new.

As stated in the previous Mountain Sheep story on the trials and tribulations of getting their terrific Super Hind title from a concept to a tangible commercial product, a small developer faces incredible challenges when undertaking a project.  As yet, Super Hind remains unreleased in both Japanese and North American  markets.  Timo Vihola, co-founder and creative director of Mountain Sheep, as well as being a good friend of 4X.Scope, has granted a wonderful insight into where a small development house can go after a a major production and what was learned along the way.

Screenshot of the week – Homeworld 2

While Relic has gone on to contest Blizzard for RTS King via Company of Heroes and the Dawn of War series, their most artistic franchise will always be the Homeworld series.  Homeworld 2 touts stunning production values of equal amounts in all areas:  an engrossing story, brilliant aesthetics yet to be matched, a broad variety of units and tactics set inside a majestic universe.  Homeworld 2 epitomises elegance and style with substance to match.

Sunday Punch – The Cold War of DEFCON: Everybody Dies

Introversion Software – makers of Darwinia, Multiwinia and Uplink – create crisp, stark digital playgrounds.  While each of their games evoke differing responses in gamers, DEFCON: Everybody Dies is one that, more often than not, chills players to the bone.

While the threat of thermonuclear war has been superseded in society’s eye by climate change woes and, more recently, the global financial crisis, it still remains a sobering phenomenon.  Some games have tackled it, with a Call of Duty 4 level having the player experience the last gasping moments of a soldier dying in the wake of a nuclear detonation.  Konami’s Metal Gear franchise has mostly concerned itself with the malignancy of nuclear arms proliferation.  Massive Entertainment’s World in Conflict showcases the stunning devastation of a tactical nuclear device in action.  There are other games that treat the concept of thermonuclear attack as a Hollywood-style fireworks extravaganza, or simply as a precursor to start a post-apocalyptic adventure.  DEFCON, however, has the ability to give the player goose bumps and evokes a clammy sense of dread. 

Screenshots of the week – Imperial Glory

Departing from their award-winning Commandos series in 2005, Pyro Studios produced a thoroughly engaging Napoleonic empire-builder in the form of Imperial Glory.  Touting a turn-based strategic element centred around the great powers of Europe, players build their land and naval forces to take part in thrilling real-time engagements.  Although somewhat eclipsed by Creative Assembly’s Total War franchise upon the release of Empire: Total War, Imperial Glory remains a brilliantly-produced and enthralling piece of strategic gaming. 

Military Spending – OPERATION7 the MMO

OPERATION7 is a divergent title from the slew of free-to-play online offerings by NetGames; rather than just another fantasy-themed online quest, OPERATION7 is a fast-paced and brutal first-person shooter multiplayer experience with the addictive facet of total weapon customisation. 

OPERATION7 is difficult to pigeonhole due to a number of reasons.  The gameplay is not as fast as those dedicated deathmatch standbys of yore – primarily the Quakes and the Unreals – but nor is it like the slower, more tactical games such as SWAT4 or Rainbow Six.  The weapons within OPERATION7 are actual military hardware, but the style of the game eschews the feel of heavyset military titles such as Call of Duty 4, heading more in the direction – dare it be said – of something like Bizarre Creations’ The Club.  The colour palette, for the most part, is bright and clean, with some suggesting it bears aesthetic similarity with DICE’s Mirror’s Edge – see the map “Depository” for a good comparison.  OPERATION7 offers players a chance to create a number of weapons best suited to their style of play and – unlike Nexon’s Combat Arms – allows the player to keep it indefinitely.  Like most micro-transaction-supported titles, the game gives players the choice of levelling up to access higher-tier weapons or outright purchasing them using a credit card, as well as offering a slew of premium items only available if purchased  with a card.  The most impressive aspect of OPERATION7 on a whole is the sheer scaling of the engine itself.  The 4X.Scope PC laptop is a fairly weak machine, but the game itself runs beautifully and looks terrific.  But further investigation of why OPERATION7 warrants a look by gamers, even by those jaded by the first-person genre, is needed to examine the finer points of this frankly impressive experience.

The Xenomorph Speaks – Monster Hunting and Cowards

It snarls and spits, it eats simpering, cowering children.  GigersALIEN returns this week from its hive of pure spite to pour the icy cold fluid of truth into the gears of liars, apologists and Johnny-come-lately types.  The maw snaps open today on the topic of why instant gratification keeps the fools from staying in the kitchen to endure the heat.

It literally irks me that many "American" gamers hate on the Monster Hunter Freedom games for the PlayStation Portable.

Screenshot of the week – NavyField

Another testament to the variation in free-to-play MMO titles, Navy Field is a tactical isometric strategy boasting wonderfully-rendered graphics and an impressive combat system that is anything but a simplistic click-and-shoot affair.  With a slew of different vessels and a host of statistics to mull over, SD EnterNet’s strategy on the high seas continues the argument that not every MMO out of Korea is a mindless fantasy grind.