Games based off of popular licensed products are generally not very good. They are usually rushed onto shelves in order to coincide with the release date of the movie that they are derived from with low production value and a huge marketing budget hoping to ride the wave of popularity that comes with a big Hollywood release. Luckily for GRIN, Warner Bros decided to give the developers an extra nine months to get Wanted: Weapons of Fate released.

Weapons of Fate is based on the immediate aftermath of the movie’s conclusion and sees the player controlling the ultra-assassin Wesley continuing his quest to find information about his family and continue to wipe out the various other Fraternity organisations around the globe. Intercut with this story are several flashbacks to Cross, Wesley’s father, and what he was doing before the events of the film. These flashbacks provide some variety to the story and help fill in some blanks along the way.

Fun happens when you shoot the barrels.

The gameplay in Weapons of Fate is your standard 3rd person, cover based shooter with a few extra mechanics thrown in. The most obvious of these mechanics is the ability to curve bullets around cover to hit your targets. You build up adrenaline basically by shooting guys in the face a lot. When you have enough adrenaline you can use them to bend a couple of bullets. This is done by aiming at an enemy and adjusting a line that travels from your gun the enemy until the line goes white which means you have a clear shot. More often than not the bullet will not kill the enemy but it will be enough to remove him from his cover allowing you to clean up what is left of him. On the rare occasion that you manage to pull off a headshot with a curved shot, you will be treated to a glorious slow motion shot with the camera following the bullet all the way into the unfortunate enemy’s cranium.

Unlike most other movie-based tie-in games, Weapons of Fate’s gameplay is solid throughout. The cover system works well and with the touch of a button Wesley and dive, roll, slide and sprint his way between various places of cover. This method of movement can be used to confuse your enemies as well. By blind firing in a bad guys general direction, he will usually take cover, at which time you can quickly hop to another hiding place and watch as said bad guy furiously tries to kill the inanimate object you were just behind. This can be fun a couple of times, but just isn’t satisfying enough due to the AI’s stupidity.

"Gimme a powerslide! Full throttle!"

For a force of soldiers sent to kill a near superhuman assassin, the enemies in Weapons of Fate are pretty dumb. They will more often than not decide that the best place to hide is next to, or directly behind, some sort of explosive barrel or gas canister which leads to the inevitable blowing up of both themselves and whichever giant glowing red object they were previously hiding behind. Some enemies act slightly different from others, some are able to dodge bullets and others initiate a button mashing minigames to see who gets stabbed, but they don’t pose much more of a threat or challenge than the regular enemies.

Despite being fairly solid gameplay, during the incredibly short campaign mode offers very little variation and such becomes tiresome fairly quickly. The game gives you the ability to do everything straight away which doesn’t leave you much to look forward to. The only real deviations from the cover-shoot-curve bullet-move on style of playing are annoying turret firing sequences (in which it is difficult to see what it is you are actually shooting at) sniper rifle sequences and ultra slow motion sequences which are an eclectic mix on a lightgun shooter and a quick time event where you must shoot down incoming bullets. The challenge however isn’t in your reaction time but rather seeing the poorly lit circles that the bullets are surrounded by. These scenes look pretty good but they become more of a chore than a gameplay mechanic.

Sadly, that funky orange neckerchief can't repel blades.

Wanted: Weapons of Fate suffers heavily from a lack of content. There are some comic books scattered throughout the levels and you can unlock the ability to play as boss characters and alternate costumes for Wesley but in reality they are just different skins and have the exact same moves and animations as Wesley does. Even in the cutscenes, no matter who you are playing as, the default Wesley model will appear which seems like a strange mistake to have been made. With no multiplayer modes and the campaign mode only lasting about five hours, there is very little to actually do in Wanted after the first playthrough.

The game also seems to not have taken full use of its extended development time as both characters and the environments look very rough around the edges and there are all sorts of crazy animation glitches such as weapons floating in mid air and dead bodies seemingly having a fit. When shot with a curved bullet, enemies will often stumble right through the cover they were just using which is far too obvious a problem for the developers to have just missed. The loading times are both long and frequent enough to be annoying and this problem was unfortunately not relieved by installing the game to your hard drive. The frame rate also seemed largely inconsistent especially when entering a new area for the first time.

The Final Word

If video games were only made as tie-in products for movie releases, then Wanted: Weapons of Fate would be one of the best. Sadly for GRIN, there is a world of video game that are head and shoulders better. Repetitive action, lacklustre visuals, and a complete lack of variety really drag down an otherwise decent shooter.

- MonsterVine Rating: Mediocre

By Andy Jackson

Wallace & Gromit Grand Adventures: Fright of the Bumblebees is the first of four episodic games from Telltale games based on the much – loved Wallace & Gromit series. Wallace, the loveable, bumbling inventor and his faithful dog (who can knit, drive vans and fly planes) Gromit have set about creating a business based around selling honey. As you can expect things quickly turn bad and it’s up to the affable duo to put things right using their wit and ingenuity.

One thing that should have been vital in the development process of this game is to capture the charm of the original series. And they have done just that.

Gromit is confused by the exsistance of cheese

Graphically, the game looks very similar to the stop motion TV shows. There are a few corners cut in terms of graphical quality for background items, but the objects that matter look like they have been pulled straight out of one of the shows. The lip – sync is slightly off the majority of times which closely mirrors the way that the characters speak. There are both old and new characters introduced in the game and they all look as if they were made by the original artists. The two lead characters both move in their signature styles with Gromit’s high – leg movement and Wallace’s ‘limp wristed trot’ that will delight many a fan when wandering around.

You know something is wrong when someone exclaims this much

The music suits the visual style almost to perfection. Its jaunty upbeat tunes coincide with the happy – go – lucky style of the characters. When working on the same stage for long periods of time the music can beginning to wear on you a bit as they are slightly on the repetitive side. The voice acting is generally very good, and one character who spends most of the time shouting out of a window really steals the show. In the original episodes, there are little to no recurring characters so the only main voice actor is that of Wallace. The voice actor sounds different to the one from the TV episodes but does a fairly good job of impersonating the bumbling tones.

In terms of gameplay, Fright of the Bumblebees is a fairly standard adventure in which the main goal is usually to collect objects to obtain other objects in order to make something else work, thus completing the goal. There is nothing that really stands out about the gameplay in that sense but it works well enough mechanically but it may not be engaging enough for serious adventure game players. The controls are fairly ordinary although actual character movement can be a little clunky at times and turning around can be a somewhat laborious task in certain situations. Objects are examined / obtained by clicking on them and the same happens with initiating actions.

This lady REALLY likes purple flowers. Also, her chest gets a teabag. No really.

The game is mainly set around the area surrounding the home of Wallace and Gromit with a simple map system to easily jump between areas. These areas are well designed and they fit in well with the rest of the visual style. There are some great cutscenes in the game as well including a fantastic egg – frying mechanism involving a badger on a thin wire and a giant mallet.

The difficulty level is about regular for an adventure game with some puzzles a lot more obvious than others. There is a hint system integrated but it is not really much of a help. Your character will usually just repeat their goals with no indication of how to go about completing them. This can lead to situations where the player may have missed something but then have no idea of how to go about rectifying the problem. The lack of supportive hints can wind up being frustrating and leading the player to investigate objects randomly in order to try and progress.

This bee just stole your vinyl record. How do you feel about that?

The game lasts for a few hours which is about par for an episodic, downloadable game but there is no real replay value given the nature of episodic titles. For what the player gets out of the game though it is definitely worth the money and well worth the fairly short amount of time that the player will invest to complete it.

The story is the typical Wallace & Gromit storyline of things going wrong and the two having to solve the issues that Wallace has created, with Gromit pulling most of the strings and cleaning up his owners mess. This is very much in line with the distinctive style of the previous episodes of the series and is a great way to start of the episodic series. That said, the rest of the series will most likely have a different main quest but there is sure to be some sort of over – arcing storyline of some sort.

The Final Word

Wallace & Gromit Grand Adventures: Fright of the Bumblebees is a great game in its own right and it is also a good way to begin an episodic series. The game is packed with all the charm and originality of the original Aardman classics, which will no doubt please fans of Wallace & Gromit. The only problem with this is that people who are not overly familiar with the series will probably not enjoy the game as much without that prior knowledge of the series. That being said, the game presents the player with a decent amount of content. The game is a great way to start the series and the future looks promising for the upcoming series.

- MonsterVine Rating: Good

By Andy Jackson

This is pretty much as good as it gets

Although SNK is mainly known for their in depth fighting games, that is not all they have done and this is proved by the selection of games in the pack.  There is a wide array of genres from fighting to sports and the variety will please many a fan of the console.  That said, the original versions of the games would probably work better than their emulated counterparts.  In all of the games sound effects appeared to be on a half-second delay the first time they were heard, then fine for the remainder of the session.  As an example, the first time you throw a grenade in Metal Slug, it will explode and just as the animation is finishing, you will hear the explosion.  This problem is off – putting but easily forgettable once all of the sounds have loaded properly.  The main exception here is Shock Troopers which actually freezes up momentarily when loading up a new sound which makes the game almost unplayable for the opening instances of each level.

SNK doesn't only make fighting games. . .

Frequent, extensive loading times are another problem with this collection.  Just loading up the menu of games to choose from seems to take an age and then once you have selected which game you wish to play, there will be another lengthy loading time.  Coupled with the loading times and the aforementioned sound problems, the majority of the games have the tendency to freeze up occasionally for about half a second seemingly at random.  This can really mess with your enjoyment and ability to actually play the games especially during the more important moments.

. . .But it's what they're best at

The collection may not be an ultimate compilation of Neo Geo games but the games that are there are certainly enough to get somebody who was a fan of the console interested in purchasing the collection for nostalgic purposes.  It is could also be a good buy for those who wish to experience some of the games that paved the way for more modern titles.  That being said, some really jarring technical issues and downright brutal loading times can really be a put off to those not really dedicated on playing these olden classics.

The Final Word

SNK Arcade Classics does have the subtitle vol.1 which surely means that a second collection is on the way. Hopefully the second version will perform much better in a technical sense. That said this collection is definitely worth a look if you are a die – hard Neo Geo fan or if you are interested in these games given that you are able to put up with the various performance issues.

- MonsterVine Rating: Average

By Andy Jackson

28 October, 2008 March 28, 2009

The King of Fighters Collection: The Orochi Saga is a strange game. Not strange in terms of content, just strange in that it exists. The collection is available for the PS2, PSP and the Wii and features the King of Fighters ’94 thru ’98. But unless you are seriously into any of the previous games, it is unlikely that the game will be used for anything other than ’98: Dream Match Never Ends which is almost universally regarded as the series’ Magnum Opus.

The game starts by having you select from a menu which of the five games you want to play. On this menu there are also various challenges, such as winning a match with no visible HUD, which upon completion will unlock artwork and music from the games. Like most artwork / music unlocks this option seem more like a space filler than anything else although the challenges are fun enough in their own right.

FIGHT DUDES!

The games themselves are almost identical to their original forms. In terms of a fighting experience they are some of the best 2D fighting games in history. The fights take places with two teams of three against each other. When one fighter is knocked out, the remaining fighter will regain hit points relevant to the amount of time left on the clock, while the team whose fighter has just been beaten tags in their next fighter. In terms of looks, the games look pretty much identical to their mid nineties originals with the only major difference being that they look a bit sharper on the PSP screen.

A collection of fighters in a collection of games

In terms of emulation, the games are pretty much fine, but there are some pretty brutal loading times that are sadly all too frequent. Even during matches when one fighter is swapped out for another the game switches to a loading screen for a good 5-10 seconds which really detracts from the fast paced nature of the fighting. The controls are all the same as the Neo Geo versions that they are ported from, but for whatever reason they are set backwards by default. These long loading times also seem to contribute to the occasional sound lag which can be almost embarrassing when you hit someone with an attack, see the effect then after the hit player has reacted you will hear the sound of the attack landing. This does not happen too frequently but is just often enough to be a noticeable annoyance.

Er...FIGHT CHICKS!

It can be hard to justify the £24.99 price point of the game when it is almost exclusively designed for hardcore KOF aficionados who probably still own the original copies. Orochi Saga is essentially a collection of 2D fighters that don’t change radically over the course of the series and while it seems unlikely that players will try anything pre – 98 other than for nostalgic reasons.

Whilst attempting to start up a multiplayer game I was unable to find any players so the game seems to only be for a single player experience. There is multiplayer support for all five games though if you can actually find somebody to play it with.

The Final Word
The King of Fighters: The Orochi Saga will probably only appeal to hardcore KOF or SNK fans. Although even that audience will probably go straight to playing the ’98 version. The other four games just seem so inadequate and seeing as nothing really changes throughout the years so there is hardly anything to go back for. Horrible loading times are another major problem, but fans of the fighting genre may be interested in one of the most over-looked fighting franchises in history. Other than that it seems like a strange buy and is probably best avoided.
- MonsterVine Rating: Mediocre

By Andy Jackson

February 17, 2008 February 17, 2008

If you liked Grand Theft Auto IV, chances are you will have purchased The Lost and Damned expansion. And if you liked Grand Theft Auto IV, chances are that you will enjoy playing The Lost and Damned. More interestingly though, is that those who did not enjoy GTAIV could end up liking TLaD.

In The Lost and Damned, the player takes control of Johnny Klebitz, the foul-mouthed hard on the outside, slightly less hard on the inside Vice President of the Lost Motorcycle Club based in Liberty City. The game starts with you picking up the President of The Lost, Billy Grey, from a rehab centre. Almost immediately after being released Billy inserts himself back into a life of crime and drugs. This causes large clashes between him and Johnny as both want to see The Lost run in different ways.

The story is ironically ‘more GTA’ than the GTAIV story was. Its over-the-top ridiculous and humours yet contains enough moments of gravitas to keep you immersed. The story syncs with the gameplay in a much more playable fashion than its originator. Playing as a pissed-off biker randomly causing havoc around the city is much less detracting because it fits the character and storyline in a much more convincing way than GTAIV.

With the exception of new bikes, a few new semi-interesting weapons, improved bike handling and a slightly tweaked camera, the world and gameplay of Liberty City is much the same as it was before. You will spend most of your time on various motorcycles thanks to the vastly improved handling and seemingly superglue smeared saddle. The majority of side-quests can only be attempted whilst at the helm of a trusty hog. The only other major addition is mission checkpoints that negate the need to replay large chunks of a mission you have just failed.

The side-quests essentially amount to gang wars and bike races. The gang wars see you team up with some other bikers from The Lost, leading them to some rival bikers, and slaughtering them. A few select bikers can be upgraded to be more useful in fire fights and can eventually be bought along as back up for the storyline missions. This gives some incentive to level up these characters, but they only really act as distractions for the enemy allowing you more time to shoot the enemies. The bike races are the standard circuit street races only the racers wield baseball bats which can be used to knock the opposing racers off their bikes. These races feel fairly contrived and no matter how much progress you seem to be making, one small mistake and you will be watching the entire field go speeding on by.

The bike races are just one of the six new multiplayer modes. The modes feel kind of tacked on and everyone is bound to try each mode at least once but they do not posses anything revolutionary to invest any length of serious time in. There are also a few minigames and activities added but again, they will most likely be tried once and then forgotten.

Despite having great original content and a brand new 8-10 hour story, TLaD cannot escape what it is. It features the same aggravating issues that GTAIV did as players will become stuck in the landscape, react in the wrong ways and suffers from some frequent frame rate issues. The funniest problem is that the cut scenes including The Lost characters that are just making up the numbers will blurt out The Lost catchphrases for no good reason. This can prove to be (albeit unintentionally) hilarious to see one of the more serious scenes interrupted by someone yelling: “Lost MC for life motherf*cker!”

The Final Word
The Lost and Damned is a great expansion to Grand Theft Auto IV. It brings 23 new missions into brand new story that feels well worth the entry fee. If it were stretched out to the same length as the original GTAIV story, then the story and characters might have deteriorated, but TLaD does a such great job of introducing a concise, satisfying adventure in the Grand Theft Auto world, that is not a problem. If you found Niko’s adventure too serious and / or depressing, then Johnny Klebitzs’ The Lost and Damned could be just what you need.

- MonsterVine Rating: Excellent

By Andy Jackson

But still, I’m looking forward to the announcement trailer, and I hope that the sheer mass of people playing Street Fighter IV online at that point won’t disrupt any of the Live user-quality. But I admit that it would be hilariously ironic.

Oh, and check back at Monstervine.com to find out what the release is on Monday.

The game was officially announced at D.I.C.E 2009 (which Will should be covering) and it’s unknown how far along into development right now.

American McGee, the senior creative director at Spicy Horse had this to say about the upcoming title:

This new project is a dream come true for me and the fans who’ve kept the Alice flame alive. EA gave us creative latitude and support on the original game which resulted in something beautiful and daring. This trip through the looking glass promises to be even more exciting.

This is really promising to me considering EA lost a bucketload of money due to them switching to a more quality over quantity scheme what with the releases of game like Mirror’s Edge and Dead Space. It good to see that they haven’t panicked about that and thrown out a bunch of games that might have been deemed ‘too hardcore’.

In Battlefield: Bad Company 2, the ‘B’ company fight their way through snowy mountaintops, dense jungles and dusty villages.

Which hopefully means we won’t be playing through the same look-a-like places that Bad Company’s Campaign had. (Check out the screenshot at the top of this post.) The game is once again being developed by DICE and will be available for the Xbox 360, PS3 and PC.

Before that is released though, players will be treated to another Battlefield game, this time we’ll be going back to World War II (again.) Unlike Bad Company, Battledfield 1943 is solely a multiplayer experience, much like SOCOM: Confrontation on the PS3. The game offers endless hours of 24 player multiplayer action over three classic and tropic locations; Wake Island, Guadalcanal and Iwo Jima. Battlefield 1943 will also have players battling in aerial dog fights and trench combat, according to the release which sounds pretty awesome to me. The game will be available to play at New York Comic Con (Booth #1441) from February 6th-8th. Much like Bad Company 2, Battlefield 1943 has no release date but when it is released, will be available on the Xbox 360, PS3 and PC.

My main question about all of this though, is where the hell is the Battlefield: Heroes game? That was the MMO for both casual and ‘hardcore’ gamers. That’s been in Beta since WWII. Hey-Ho!

Wallace:

An endearing and affable inventor. Ever enthusiastic, Wallace’s hair-brained, over-ambitious, yet well intentioned ideas consistently get him and his faithful hound into trouble. A definite penchant for cheese and crackers, not to mention fashionable knitwear.

and Gromit:

Wallace’s long-suffering loyal pooch. Gromit cares greatly for Wallace even though he’s often railroaded into his master’s mad-cap plans. Though cultured and sensitive, preferring order and the quiet life, Gromit displays amazing courage and heroism when it comes to getting his master out of self-made scrapes. Always showing astonishing initiative, Gromit is definitely the intelligent one of the pair. He can also drive vans, planes, cook breakfast, bake bread and knit.

Back to gaming! Tell Tale announced an Xbox LIVE exclusive episodic series to be released this Spring. The game will look much like the TV series claymation design. Seriously, find a way to watch ‘The Wrong Trousers’ and ‘A Close Shave’ and then buy ‘The Curse of the Were-Rabbit’ movie. You won’t regret it.

Here is what Telltale had to say about the whole thing:

Wallace & Gromit’s Grand Adventures will deliver all of the humour and charm of the duo’s popular animated films, with a monthly series of brand new interactive stories in Telltale’s unique episodic format. Alternating between the roles of quirky inventor Wallace and his faithful canine companion Gromit, players embark on their own style of entrepreneurial business ventures, tinker with creative contraptions, and interact with an ever-expanding cast of fun and endearing characters in each episode.

“Our episodic series focus on story, character, humour, and cinematic presentation—very much like a television or film production. This all makes for a great living room experience through the gaming console,” says Telltale CEO Dan Connors. “We’re looking forward to expanding our catalogue onto Xbox LIVE Arcade.”

The series’ launch follows the record-setting Christmas Day premiere of Aardman’s new Wallace & Gromit short film, “A Matter of Loaf and Death,” the most watched TV program in the United Kingdom on Christmas Day with 14.3 million viewers. The film also recently won an Annie Award for Best Animated Short and secured a BAFTA Award nomination in the same category.

Showcasing visuals modelled closely after franchise originator Aardman Animations’ clay creations, Wallace & Gromit’s Grand Adventures is Telltale’s most cinematic series to date, immersing fans in the stories and interactions with the colourful personalities of West Wallaby Street. The game also features a new direct control scheme for gamepads, designed specifically for Xbox.

I really cannot wait for these games.