The gameplay of Unreal Tournament feels just like it always does! It has all the weapons I love and the fast pace I came to know in the first Unreal Tournament. However, it now has an odd plot. The plot should be simply that Liandri Corporation is having a tournament. In UT3, some aliens attack a planet on which the main character lives, and he gets hurt. After he heals up, he wants revenge. There’s a bit more to it than that already, and I’ve only played one level of the campaign. There was a substantial amount of cut scenes already, but they looked good besides the faces, which looked very undetailed.
After he wakes up, he finds himself in what looks to be a monastery of some sort, and it appears that it belongs to people he and his friends are working for as mercenaries. The main character’s sister wants to make sure he’s ready for battle, so she decides to have a one-on-one match with him with rocket launchers (although when the match actually starts, you do not start with the rocket launcher, and other weapons are available). He question the safety of this, and she points out that respawners are used on the battlefield. Although the main character seems familiar with respawners, he’s surprised they’re used in the field. She says they’re portable units.

 
Of course I’m familiar with the concept of respawning, but I’d really prefer it if the characters were not.
Oh! I forgot to mention that the main character is Marcus Fenix from Gears of War. His armor’s a little different, but it’s basically him with a different voice actor. The aliens look like Locust also. I’m glad they’re proud of their new Gears franchise, but it should be kept out of Unreal Tournament. Everyone has the bulky, thick look of characters in Gears of War. Their armor has that same look as well.
Most dissapointingly, the buildings have the ugly bulk too. I played CTF on Facing Worlds, and the buildings just seem needlessly thick. I realize that previous incarnations of UT had altered the map to have much “thicker” looking towers, but those were also different, thicker towers. This map is a recreation of the original. It looks like the original except extra bulky. I also feel like they overuse textures on the buildings, especially the walls. Not every wall needs a little monitor or some flashing lights. People loved this map for a reason! Epic really didn’t need to change it. The towers also seem to have an Asian theme now, with some sort of futuristic paper lanterns hanging on them.
I’ve done a lot of complaining about things, but that’s because the core game feels just like every previous Unreal Tournament game – pretty awesome. I think I just prefer the clean, classic Unreal Tournament over any of the sequels. In fact, what I didn’t like about 2k4 was that it felt clunkier and bulkier. Here’s hoping for an Unreal Tournament 3 Lite Edition.

Monster Madness: Grave Danger almost instantly reminded me of Zombies Ate My Neighbors. This is a very good thing. However, it falls pretty short of it (at least in the first fifteen minutes). The sound effects are really nice so far, giving the game a definite B-movie horror flick feel. The voice acting is just horrible though, and the graphics look like a PS2 game. While not great, it didn’t really hurt the game too much, but there were times that things looked disappointing. I’ve only played one stage so far, but so far it’s been more of a button mashing monster-fest than Zombies Ate My Neighbors. Zombies just kept running at me, and I could just stand in one room swinging my weapon at them. There wasn’t a lot of strategy to it. Maybe subsequent levels will get better. Unless the game gets significantly better, I could see playing now and then when bored, but I doubt I’ll play it too much. It does have co-op though, so I’d like to take a look at that. For thirteen dollars I feel like it wasn’t too bad, but I’m definitely glad I didn’t spend anymore.

Everyday Shooter is an impressive indie PSN game that really reminds me of stereotypical indie music. It’s a multidirectional shooter using dual analog sticks. It has a very simplistic design, and each level has it’s own song and different rules called “chaining.” Each type of enemy seems to make a different sound when killed, and this sound blends with the guitar music. However, the music that’s generated by killing enemies doesn’t blend with the background quite as well as it does in Rez. By playing the game you earn points you can use to unlock various features. One of the interesting features I noticed was the ability to play in “shuffle” mode, giving the stages a random order. I’ve heard the game compared to Geometry Wars. It seems more artsy to me and less “awesome” in an adrenaline sort of way. I’m enjoying it.

I found TrackMania Nations Forever on Steam when searching for free games. Expecting it not to be very good, I didn’t play it for months. Today I finally tried it and was very impressed! As soon as I played the first course, I was reminded of the PC game Stunts. If you’re not familiar with that game, don’t worry. I’ll explain the game. There are four difficulties, each with fifteen tracks. Only the first five tracks of each difficulty are unlocked by default. Finishing a set of five unlocks the next set. There’s also an additional difficulty with only five tracks; these are locked and have high requirements.
You race alone or against ghosts. There is online races, but even then, you’re basically racing ghosts. You can’t physically interact with other cars. While you’re driving, you can respawn at anytime in case you get stuck as well as restart with the press of a button. Some tracks require you to complete multiple laps, but most are one lap in length. In addition, a lot of courses involve tricks such as driving off ramps and aiming to fly through holes. There’s also a level editor in it, which I haven’t tried yet.

 
TMNF looks great. The textures aren’t very amazing, but the models are very nice, and the lighting is also great. It’s not going to drop anyone’s jaw, but it does look very slick. There’s even a mode for 3D if you have the red and blue 3D glasses.
The game is very enjoyable. You can play in short intervals, and it’s very fun. With many tracks, online leaderboards, and a pricetag of zero dollars, there’s no reason to not try this game out! You’ll be in for a treat.
And if anyone does try it out, add me to your TrackMania friends list! It uses a separate list than Steam. I’m MrUser!

Super Magnetic Neo is a 3D platforming game for the Sega Dreamcast. It’s a classic platformer in the same vein of games such as Super Mario 64 and Gex: Enter the Gecko. The game is definitely focused on jumping as well as collecting assorted small, spinning things. What makes this game a little different than other 3D platformers is the magnetic gameplay element. Your character can run, jump, produce a positive magnetic field, and produce a negative magnetic field. Enemies are all (at least so far) polarized, so you can either make enemies fly off or attract them, sucking them into a cube on your head and then turning them into small pellets that you can throw at things. The magnetic mechanic is not only for fighting but also for the platforming element. Throughout the stages are pads that are also polarized. Producing the same polarity field than a pad you’re standing on will shoot you into the air perpendicular to the pad. This allows your character to reach great heights and also to propel through the air. Similarly, you can produce the opposite polarity magnetic field than a pad to be attracted to it, useful for attempting to land on pads when you’re moving past them. I’ve enjoyed what I’ve played of it. Super Magnetic Neo isn’t amazing, but the magnetism mechanic does give it a little something extra to warrant some attention.

Finally I was able to try the game at which I’ve been aiming! Guilty Gear XX ^ Core great graphics and character design, cool music, and challenging fighting. The aesthetic is great. Characters are varied and extremely interesting with quite beautiful sprites. Heavy metal music plays most of the time, and the levels have pretty interesting also. The whole thing has a futuristic, industrial, fantasy vibe to it. There isn’t a story mode, only arcade, versus, and survival. I haven’t really got a good feel for the tension gauge and special moves; I’m pretty new to fighting games actually, so I’m not sure I’m going to get the hang of it! I’m enjoying it so far though and plan to put more time into it.

Summary: Cool claymation graphics, but not much else going for it.
Platypus for PSP caught my eye because it was a horizontal scrolling shooter with an interesting look. The graphics are entirely claymation. The game was created by Squashy Software, who is actually one man, which is impressive.
The game has a relatively simple story: Aliens are attacking the planet, and you have to defend your home. I’m fine with playing a scrolling shooter without caring about a complicated story. The music is satisfactory but nothing special. The levels all seem pretty similar as do the enemies. The only real difference in the enemy types are their speeds and how many hits it takes to destroy them. There are a handful of powerups which change your attack for a limited amount of time. Because they’re time based, there is no reason to hold your fire. Platypus includes a survival mode that seems interesting. There’s also online co-op, but I didn’t have any luck finding someone with whom to play.
The game is moderately fun, the graphics are pretty cool, and it’s impressive that a single person made the game; However, I would recommend skipping this PSP purchase unless it’s very cheap. If you really want to take a look, it’s available for free on the PC. Check Squashy Software to download it.

Summary after 15 minutes: Rather ugly, bland, and cliché. I’m interested in getting a little farther to see what it feels like outside of the tutorials, but I don’t think I’ll play it after tonight.
Extended summary: The combat system is more interesting than I originally thought, but the game seems average overall. It’s hard to overcome the clichés and bad voice acting.
Guilty Gear 2 Overture seems to be a cross between a 3D hack and slash like Devil May Cry and a 2D fighter. The introduction was very bland. The game gives a little background, teaching the player that giant, living machines called Gears were used in a great war, but they’re no longer used – an overused idea. You play as a bounty hunter who now has been forced to simply hunt rabbits. You seem to hate anything to do with the monarch of the kingdom. Your apprentice for some reason demands that you train, asking you to move, jump, slash, and other things that an apprentice should not ask of a master. You also don’t seem to know the apprentice. Is this another overused concept, amnesia, or something else?
The graphics started out pretty bland through the long and boring introduction. The training area is not skipable and simply teaches controls that could be guessed. The left stick moves, the right stick moves the camera, A jumps, X and Y attack, and the right trigger locks-on. Like most 3D hack and slash games, hitting different attacks in different orders causes your character to do different combos. I was amused that the achievement that unlocked for finishing the training mission was titled “Hello World.”
The game seems to borrow some flavoring from Japanese RPGs in a minor sense. In addition to being able to use items during battle, the character designs remind of common Japanese RPG or SRPG characters. Also, when the characters talk, a portrait of the character appears along with the text of what he is saying. The voice acting was rather bad so far.
The music is decent enough and fitting, but the graphics were darker than I expected. I was hoping for bright, colorful, beautiful characters but was instead greeted with dull, dark colors, characters who seemed apathetic (common in Japanese RPGs it seems), and a sword that clipped through the ground when the character stood still.
After that first training mission, I was able to start the next mission. The game changes to focus on the monarch that was disliked earlier. While the castle was rather dark, the monarch and his guards were colorful and detailed, giving me what I was hoping for in terms of aesthetics.
I think I made the mistake of trying out Guilty Gear 2 Overture when I should have been looking at some of the previous Guilty Gear titles.
Added after an additional 15 to 20 minutes of play:
The combat is a bit more interesting than I originally thought. You can attack certain structures to gain various other units/soldiers that fight alongside you, with each offering a different advantage. This is very similar to use of different types of units in RTS games. Guilty Gear 2 Overture actually has a quite interesting game mechanic, making it a 3D strategy hack and slash. The clichés, including a character with cat-like ears, mixed with the original strategy mechanic makes this game remind me of the niche strategy and SRPGs made by NIS or Atlus. That said, I think this game is missing the charm that those have. To fully see the intrigue of this game to see if you like it you should definitely play at least a half hour, but I still think the game is just average and will not continue to play it.