The Vanishing of Ethan Carter PC Game Review

Are you are looking for a first person horror/mystery game that feels like a cross between Alan Wake, and Murdered: Soul Suspect with a dash of H.P. Lovecraft thrown in for good measure? Then this might be what you are looking for!

First, let me talk about the graphics! The graphics are gorgeous! Right from the start when you find yourself standing on the train tracks at the end of a tunnel, surrounded by a dense woodland area. It’s probably one of the most beautiful games I have played. In fact you might spend more time wandering around the game world, looking at the scenery than you do solving mysteries. In my 8+ hours of playtime I spent 2 hours of it just looking out over oceans and frolicking around in the woods.

(Actual gameplay screenshot)

In terms of gameplay, the game starts off telling you that it’s not going to hold your hand, which it doesn’t. this is a double edged sword in my opinion. On one hand, you don’t have some clumsy UI detracting from the immersion of the game. On the other hand, the games definition of “Hand holding” apparently includes: Explaining controls, explaining your abilities, explaining why you are wherever it is you are, letting you manually save and letting you view an inventory(or notebook system….or map). So, in the end it’s kind of cool that you have a nice clean screen to enjoy the visuals of the game, but that also means that if you quit playing for a few days and forget what you have collected, or what you were trying to do, yer pretty much up a creek without a paddle.

-Pros-
Beautiful graphics.
Challenging yet logical puzzles(mostly)
H.P. Lovecraft vibe
Good voice acting
Excellent controls
Clear UI
Flawless gamepad support

-Cons-
No tutorial explaining controls
No manual save
No inventory/journal system
Insanely short(I beat the game in 6 hours with 100% achievment completion)

Battlefront Open Beta Opinion

Recently I cancelled 2 preorders I had. The 2 games were for Battlefront and Rainbow Six: Siege, both cancellations might be surprising to anyone who REALLY knows me. Everyone knows I love starwars, and most people who know me personally also know that I enjoy Tom Clancy stuff! So, why would I cancel both a Tom Clancy title, and a Star Wars title? The answer is simple! I discovered that neither games contained a single player campaign.

See, for me gaming has always been about the story! The main reason I get a game, is going to be for the story. Sure, I’ll play online too, but the first thing I will always do is play and complete the single player campaign. Basically I look at games like a cake. The story, is like a cake. The main bulk. The online mode is frosting. Now, you can certainly eat that cake without frosting, and it would be enjoyable, but it tastes so much better with frosting! However, I sure as hell wouldn’t want to just eat the frosting without the cake.

Unfortunately, a lot of games are starting to do that. Skip the cake and force feed you frosting, while still charging you for a frosted cake. If a game doesn’t have a single player story, that’s just lazy. If that same game charges you the same amount as other games that have BOTH….then that’s highway robbery! Especially when you consider the DLC they will eventually be trying to sell you later on down the road.

So, while many of these games are going down this lazy road(Evolve and Titan off the top of my head), these games normally fail. Evolve and Titan both have a fairly poor user base these days, and yet they are still charging you full price for the game. Also, what happens when the server inevitably goes down? You don’t  even have a single player experience. You just got a game you can’t do anything with. You literally are buying a game that at some future point you KNOW will be absolutely useless!

So, naturally I cancelled my preorders. Mainly for the principle. Sure, both games look good, but I refused to pay 60 bucks for a partial game that will in a few years be unplayable. I’m no sucker!

Then the battlefront open Beta came out. I decided to try it out. It’s free after all! Couldn’t hurt! So I downloaded it to my computer, and after an insanely long installation I was in and playing, and I do admit that it was pretty cool! Sure, it’s your typical “Run around and shoot your enemy til you get killed then respawn and repeat” formula, but it feels so much better in the star wars universe!

In fact, I enjoyed it so much that I am half tempted to reinstate my preorder, but then I remember that Fallout 4, a game with an actual epic long lasting plot is being released around the same time, and for the same price. Just makes more sense to give the money to them to award them for their lack of laziness. A thing DICE seems to have an abundance of. In the end, despite it’s coolness I most likely will still pass on this game due to the reasons stated earlier in this post

Hey DICE & Ubisoft! Next time, add a single player campaign(Even a short one) and I’ll consider being a customer again.

Related articles

• Rainbow Six Siege Confirmed To Have No Single-Player Story
• EA Confirms ‘Star Wars Battlefront’ Open Beta For October 8 — Here’s What To Expect
• ‘Star Wars Battlefront’ Players Will Play On Dedicated Servers

The wait for DCUO

Image by randomdialogue via Flickr

Have you ever really looked forward to the release of a highly anticipated movie or game? I know that I certainly have! When I am looking forward to a game or movie, I tend to watch other movies, or play other games that are similar to the one I am waiting on.

For instance, When I was waiting on Mafia II, I went and replayed The Godfather: The Game. When I was waiting on the last Indiana jones movie, which was a major disappointment by the way, I watched the previous Indiana jones movies, as well as several of the clones, including Romancing the Stone, Allan Quartermain flicks and even that lame one with Chuck Norris and Louis Gosset Jr. called “Fire Walker“.

Now, I am doing it all over again! I am waiting in anticipation for the release of DC Universe Online, and in doing so I decided to get another Super Hero MMORPG to hold me over. However, there wasn’t a whole lot of Choices. In fact, there were 2 choices really. I could get and subscribe to City of Heroes, or I could get and subscribe to Champions Online.

It was a hard choice at first, I mean on one hand City of Heroes has a ton more content! I mean, you could be playing for years and never experience all that the game has to offer. Champions Online however has much better graphics and sound! See? Not an easy choice! Well, not an easy choice for most people.

I do admit, I was leaning in favor toward Champions Online. The better graphics and sound was more important to me than the content. Only because I hadn’t planned on playing it but for a few months! Remember, it was just to hold me over til the release of DCUO. I didn’t need a game with a plethora of content. I didn’t need a game that will keep me occupied for years to come.

However, what really pulled me over to champions Online was the fact that it was compatible with the Xbox 360 gamepad for the PC. I don’t mean that it supported it, but you had to calibrate and configure it. No! I mean it is fully supported and integrated right into the game! If you have your 360 controller plugged in, and start the game up, it’s ready! Just pick up the gamepad and begin playing! Even the onscreen commands tell you what buttons to push on your gamepad! For instance when you start the game up, and you are on the character selection screen, it tells you to press the green A button on your gamepad to begin playing.

I am a huge fan of gamepads, because I have been using them since I was 6. Using a gamepad to me, is about as natural as using my fingers. Is it any wonder that I went with the one that had full gamepad support?

After playing Champions Online for a few days though, I came to realise that this game truly does kick ass! It is an incredibly enjoyable game, and while I might have only planned to be playing it up until the release of DCUO, I have decided that I will most likely keep it as well as DCUO and play them both, assuming DCUO is even half as enjoyable as Champions.

I used to think I took games too seriously!

Once upon a time, I used to think I took video games too seriously. That’s what I thought until I read the following article about this french gamer I mean!

Counter-Strike player Julien Barreaux stabbed a victim, identified only as Mikhael, in real life “to see his rival wiped out for killing off his character”.

For seven months, the 20-year old plotted his revenge and finally tracked his online killer, who lived only a “few miles” from Barreaux. After Mikhael opened the door, Barreaux plunged a kitchen knife into Mikhael’s chest less than an inch away from his heart. Despite him making a quick escape, police arrested him within the hour.

Barreaux has been sentenced to (only) two years in jail for Grievous Bodily Harm and will be undergoing psychiatric tests and anger management classes. Judge Alexiane Potel called him a “menace to society” and stated, “I am frankly terrified of the disproportionate reaction you could have if someone looked at you the wrong way in the street.” Whatever it is, Potel, I suggest you stay from sharp objects for the next seven months.

Best RPG….EVER!

Well, I have been playing Mass Effect 2, I got off to a slow start, but recently had some free time and just ripped through this game. Once I got playing, it was like I couldn’t stop! It’s easily one of the best RPGs ever released in my opinion. If you love RPGs and you love sci-fi then you REALLY should check this game series out(Starting with the first one of course).

So, after MANY hours of playing, I finished the game. Granted, I didn’t get the best possible ending, I lost some crew, but that just gives me a reason to play through the game again. However the one where I lost some of my crew, will be the saved game I use when Mass Effect 3 comes out, because unfortunately, thats originally how things played out for me, and I want my shepperd to have to face the consequences of his actions.

In my oppinion the best part of the game is where you take control of joker. I mean, it wasn’t long, and there weren’t any gunfights, but it offered a different view of things, and it was suspenseful! I loved that, and I hope Mass Effect 3 implements more of that when it’s released.

Speaking of Mass Effect 3, I seriously can not wait for this game to come out now! I am drooling at the mouth. The third Mass Effect game will be the final title in the planned Mass Effect trilogy, so anything could happen, all bets are off!

So, now that I have finished Mass Effect 2, what am I going to be doing in terms of gaming? Well, originally I had planned on grabbing Splinter Cell: Conviction, but it got delayed yet AGAIN. Big surprise there right? I swear, I seriously doubt that game will ever see the light of day. The game was due out way back in ’07 and has been getting delayed ever since, so it’s not a huge surprise that they decided once again to push back the release date.

So, with no Splinter Cell game to play, and no Mass Effect to play, most likely once I get my WoW account unhacked I will go back to playing that some, in the meantime, I will most likely play Grand Theft Auto: Vice City, and probably the few DLCs for Fallout 3 that I haven’t gotten a chance to play yet. Then of course there’s Second Life!