Special Forces Team X: Review

Special Forces Team X looks like Team Fortress, and feels like Counter-Strike, but what does it play like. The game released last week on the X-Box Live Arcade, and was making plenty of noises on my X-Box Dashboard, so I finally decided to try it out this weekend. So how did this brand new 3rd person shooter multiplayer game pan out for me, was it any fun, read on to find out.

First thing first, Special Forces Team X is multiplayer only; it has no single player campaign. Its a team based third person shooter, with cover mechanics (not unlike Army Of Two, or the recent Dead Space 3) pitting you in different multiplayer modes. I played in 3 of them:

1.  Team Death Match (TDM): Your everyday staple kill your opponents and make points for a limited time. The team with higher points after time is over, wins.
2. High Value Target (HTV): 2 or more teams of 2 people each fight against each other. A HTV cycles between the teams, if he is in the opposing team kill him, and if he is your team, defend him. You get points for all that and killing random people from different teams.
3. Hot Spot (HS): Its basically king of the hill, with a randomly generated flag point after some time. The first team to reach 350 points win. Just 2 teams compete in this mode.

Story N/A

The game is different in the way that team play is awarded more than solo work. The more team-mates you are with, the more bonus points you earn. Apart from that the game plays out more or less as other multiplayer shooters out there. You start off with certain weapons, you earn experience, level up and unlock new weapons and clothes and stuff, which you can then use to kill even more and earn even more XP. I didn't play enough to check if there was a level cap, but it seemed unlikely. Also instead of traditional 2 teams head to head, most game types have smaller teams (up to 6) of 2-3 players each, hence its more like "You and Your Partner against the World". There are cover mechanics involved and you can take cover when you are under fire, but the screen doesn't tell you which direction you are getting shot from, so unless you can see the shooter himself, you might as well stand like a man and take it.

Gameplay- 8/10

The game has a cell-shaded feel to it, and feels almost like a throwback to good old Counter-Strike. You can easily distinguish an enemy from the surroundings (something which I sorely miss in most multiplayer) and even most weapons are what you would have already used in your CS hay days. Unlike Counter-Strike however, most locations on the map are open ended (as opposed to CS, where you mostly just had to care about your front and your back). Its colorful and gory (your head bursts ope like a balloon on a head shot), and mostly non serious about killing people (a bit like Team Fortress). The sounds are as good as you can hope they can be in an arcade game, and definitely doesn't spoil the fun. It doesn't try to be too realistic or too fancy, and props safely in the middle.

Graphics+Sound- 7/10

There was a clear lag in the game, at all times. More than once, my grenade exploded in my hand because my screen showed it wasn't cooked enough, while in reality it was. Other times, you can clearly see, bullets firing after you had pressed the button. People teleporting from one point to another was less frequent but not rare enough. While I put most of these lag issues down to the fact that I play in games hosted half way across the Earth (I live in India), it's still not nice to see blowing yourself up. I was disconnected from 2 different games and didn't earn any XP for them (which was sad),

Mojo 6/10

I enjoyed myself playing this amalgamation of Team Fortress, Counter-Strike and Modern Warfare. But the frequent lag issues, coupled with my own suckiness at shooter multiplayer, I wasn't much good at it. I would suggest this to anyone who has an X-Box, wants to play multiplayer and does not want to buy Call Of Duty. To everyone who already has their choice of multiplayer shooter set in stone, Special Force Team Alpha X doesn't do anything special (except for the part where you run like crazy holding a chainsaw above your head).

Kabelled Score- 7/10

Fable 3: A game for the in betweeners

First up a big thanks to all the surfers who made January a massive month for my blog. In the past seven months my site had just about 1000 visitors, all this was changed as the blog garnered an unprecedented 1600+ hits this month alone. I am over the moon, and really appreciate that both Google and people are taking my posts seriously. Now only if people would start commenting also, and this would be a dream come true.

Moving onto the business at hand, which today is Fable 3. I had never played Fable before, but ever since the first game out in 2004, I always wanted to try this new kind of R.P.G. (and for some reason I loved the name). Sadly however, as is the case with many of the games during that time, I neither had the proper system to run it nor the console to play it on. 7 years later and here I am finally able to put Fable 3 into my X-Box disc tray. It's been a long time coming, so how was it?

Fable 3 came out in 2010, so this review is almost 3 years late. But the fact that the game is still available for a dirt cheap price (along with many others), I guess letting the people know how good it is, make sense right!

The story of Fable 3 continues as Albion enters the Industrial Age, and follows the lives of Fable 2's hero 2 children. The older one is a ruler and is quickly turning into a dictator. The first part of the game is how you build up your forces against your brother and overthrow him as king/queen of Albion. The second is how you rule as a ruler yourself, and whether you decide to follow in your brother's footsteps or become a benevolent ruler. Straightforward with minimal twist, the story is both threadbare and enough to keep you going. Especially the part where you get to make decisions as a king is quite novel, and you hope that the game had more of that.

Story- 7/10

When I played the game for the first time, it gave me signs of a game meant for kids, or at max childish teenagers. The hero rarely speaks, and expressions such as hugging, dancing, tickling along with bullying, farting and beating people replace actual conversations (a part and parcel of R.P.Gs worldwide). Even the conversations that do happen are straightforward and quite understandable, giving you the impression that the game means to convey its message as clearly as possible with as less dialogue as possible. The violence too is quite clean and the tech/skill-tree is easy to understand and upgrade. The visual model, and even the script is written in a very kid friendly manner, and nothing rarely goes edgy in the game. You actually hold the hands of people you like or to get them somewhere (puppy love at its best). The sounds, the visuals, the complete design is harmonious and smooth, inciting a happy go luck feel to the entire game.

Graphics+Sound- 7/10

All that is fine and dandy, but for condoms, the concept of sex, marriage and infidelity, and a particularly dark tone in later levels (especially during the quest 'Into The darkness'). There is sex, but the actual act is a black screen with noises. You have werewolves and dark shadows which are a far-cry from the initial bats and witty spirits that you have to fight off initially. There is a real edgy and dark quest, suddenly in the middle of the game (after you have played through the sunshine and rainbow quests before) and then its back to that "go there, get that, fancy little prince" affair.This leaves you wondering whether the game is to be enjoyed as a childish or adult comedy.

Mojo- 4/10

There are few innovations here. The game rarely takes you to a pause menu. Instead pressing 'START' takes you to 'Sanctuary' which is a room catering to your gaming needs (like changing weapons, costumes etc.). Most of the menus are represented as galleries and there is very little actual pause. There is also no Quit button, and you actually have to quit directly out to the X-box dashboard (which put me off a bit, I actually searched on the net if there was an option I was overlooking). The map while sucks at navigation, is a nice little tool for managing your finances and fast-travel. Your dog, is another innovative addition, tagging along everywhere and helping you locate treasures and other buried objects. There is also a selective mapping to your d-pad, which can act as a quick key to either the map, the 'road to rule', and your spouse's home, depending on the situation.

In the vein of making the game streamlined the combat is mapped to the 3 face buttons, and the combat is never that hard (you can easily complete a game without ever being knocked down). Range weapon and spell casting works fine, while adjusting to Melee block and attack (mapped onto the same button) can take some time. There are an adequate number of side quests and plenty to keep you involved. Play a flute, bake a pie, catch a thief, woo a girl/guy, or manage real estate. It is an surprising mixture of the conventional and the new, and while some work, the others not really.

Gameplay- 6/10

The game has some really novel and new concepts to show. It also has a very streamlined feel to its R.P.G. element. However, it really falters in its vision. In order to appeal to everyone and have everything, it is failing to cater to one age group. Most parents would not like their child to play a game, which encourages polygamy, while most adult gamers would be put off by all the other stuff meant for kids (even the sex and condom thing is really mild).

KABELLED SCORE- 6/10

Review Mashups and more

Some of the reviews I would be posting today are almost a decade too late. Two of these games are in their third iteration, the other too have already received millions of updates. But for the benefit of a poor soul, who doesn't own a cutting edge PC and a billionaire's bank balance (like me), these games are either free to play or would be available for dirt cheap prices, not to mention they won't shred your PC and console when they run.

Lately however, its been all physical sport for me. Was involved in a intro-corporate cricket tournament spread over 2 weeks. This meant that when I was not on the field, I was either at my desk or in my bed. All that sport, left no room for my X-Box though, as I was too tired to guide Commander Shepard after I was run ragged on the field daily. Anyways, all my labor bore fruit and we ended up as the eventual champions of the tournament; Check out the tournament and the celebrations in photos by clicking on the image below.

The Trophy that we won

When I did return to Mass-Effect, it was after 20 days (the longest gap I have ever had ever since I had bought the console). I didn't suffer from any gaming rust however, as I finished off the first play-through of the game, notching up 6 achievements along the way. I started my second play-through on Hardcore and have already notched up 2 more. The game achievement list is such that you have to play the game multiple times to get that elusive 1000. I am probably the most lazy gamer that you would see in this regard, I absolutely hate multiple play-throughs(with some notable exceptions; more on that below), Dead Space, Arkham City and Borderland never pinged the 1000 because of my taste (this btw extends to movies too, never seen a movie worth a second watch). Mercifully, Mas-Effect main story is quite short and quite frankly quite intriguing; the game-play is tight (shooting can be a pain sometimes, but expected from an old game), the graphics are neat and tight too, however the game does go through the motions when rendering textures. Then there is this small matter of 50-60 side quests that should be concluded with various team members for different achievements. I don't know if I have the patience for all that, especially since my laptop has been wooing me with MMOG recently. But I will say this, Mass-Effect's real punch is in its story, and if you are not a cheevo hunter like me, I would suggest you skip as many side quests as possible and jump into the story as soon and as deep as possible.

Kabelled Score- 7/10

Moving on, remember the MMOGs I mentioned above. I recently installed an unlimited Broadband connection into my house, and decided it was about time I gave my laptop a run for his money. Installed League Of Legends and played it like for 6-7 hours straight. I sucked at it, but at least I didn't suck at it longer than 45 minutes at a stretch. The game looks and feels like Warcraft, but is actually a hyper fast R.P.G. if you ask me. You and 3 others like you are asked to choose a character and are then pitted against either bots or more human players. Each team has castles, which you need to bring down, once that is done, you win. Simple and addictive with loads of layers. I would have played more, if I hadn't sucked less, or if my room-mate would not have left my X-Box alone. The games is simple in its pick and play appeal and amazingly addictive.

Kabelled Score- 8/10

Another MMOG that I recently picked up was D.C. Universe Online. The prospect of playing a super-hero in the DC universe is too much for a comic book buff like me, and as soon as I came to know that the game was now free to play on PC (yup I am a cheap Indian), I signed up for an account and got busy. Its too bad the game would probably never make it on a X-Box (its developed by Sony Entertainment), because my laptop is not really cutting edge. The game hung up a few times, and played with an absurd amount of lag sometimes. Visually, again limited by my computer's prowess, it didn't break any new ground. I only just played the opening tutorial mission to comment too much on the story, but whatever I have gathered from the opening sequence, and the trailers and videos on You-Tube, it looks nice and as convulsed as a DC story arc . The game also provides various option to customize your character and you can create your very own superhero or super-villain, with a wide range of powers. The inventory and your equipment is probably the most varied I have seen  in a while, though it kinds of contradicts the fact that you design your hero to look a certain way, and then it is over-ridden with what you equip yourself with in the actual game. Other multi-player options such as PvP are also available, but the game's biggest asset is the nostalgia of playing in the DC universe.

Kabelled Score- 7/10

Now to Diablo-2. Yup you heard me right, not 3 but 2. Just a few days ago, my brother (who is on a ship somewhere off the coast of middle East) called me up and asked me how to install Diablo-2 on to his laptop (he was bored and found the setup file lying around). Not completely sure, I did a dry run on my system and then helped him go through the motion on his machine. Once installed, I wanted to test if it was running fine, and so I fired it up. What was supposed to be a test run, ended up in a 4 hour run with me finishing up the first chapter. That's how addictive the game is. Its been almost 12 years since the game released, and I keep coming back to it after a gap of 3 years of so every time. This ancient dungeon crawler by Blizzard, kept me more involved than Shepard, LOL and DCNU could only hope for. If you haven't played it, do give this game a chance. Graphics wise, its 12 years behind the curve, but the beauty of the game is that its not driven by visuals but by the point and click game mechanics, which are a treat to play with. A varied character selection and millions of combinations available for everything from weapons to boots, Diablo-2 never becomes too hard or to easy to play. In a world where games are reviewed and dissected under a microscope, I am sure Diablo-2 would have made a perfect 10 everywhere it went. I am telling you if you haven't played it, find it and do.

Kabelled Score- 10/10

So that wraps up the most of last month. 4 games and a lot of cricket, is what it was all about. I am still trying to juggle between Diablo, Mass-Effect, LOL and DCNU and work and life, but as of now I am losing. That's why I tend to stick to one game at one time, not a multitasker I am. Each one of these games, have a cult following; and I would hate for you to miss out on any one of them. All of them are RPGs, but each one is inherently different from the other. I am gonna try buying Halo-4, or WWE-13 next, and try posting a proper relevant review next time. I am also planning to brush up on my Gears Of War, before judgement comes out next year, also I have this little itch to play Fable-3. May yours and my gaming wishes all come true this year or the next.

Signing Off,

Ayush 'Kabel' Chauhan

Borderlands 2: Shoot Loot and Squinting

So once I was finished with Witcher 2 (killed the dragon thrice, and earned every achievement before I was done with it), I turned my attention to the latest version of the "Shooter R.P.G" game, Borderlands 2. This was my first tryst with the Borderlands series, but I was intrigued by the concept of a Diablo like weapon system, and an R.P.G. like leveling system only this time the weapons are guns, and you are actually in a F.P.S.. The fact that the game provided a local co-op option made it a much more tempting buy, and the rest (doubts if any) were taken care of by the anticipation and the excitement built around the game by the gaming industry. This is probably the first game, that I have owned right from its release date, and thus this review is probably the most relevant one ever. So with further ado, lets drill down to Pandora(that by the way is the name of the planet where the action happens).
Check out the reveal trailer before reading the review:


So the first thing Borderlands is that its BIG. Now I haven't played Skyrim, so I don't know if it matches those scales, but the game has huge sprawling environments. Most of them are are icy glaciers or barren wastelands agreed, but they act as big expansive battlefields which give you ample clear space to run and shoot. The both of which you would end up doing a lot. After about every 15 min or so, you will run into a hectic set-piece, which will have waves of enemies, a lot of swearing, and a lot of healing you co-op mate, so he can do the same later. The look and feel of the game is that comicy shade that you see now and then in animations. So I can't really say how amazing the game looks, but it looks okay for the most part.

The menu text however, is something I have a problem with. The menu is akin to what you have in Dead Space but the text is so skewed that you have to squint and read them inches from your TV screen. Especially when you are in Co-op, the menu becomes vertically scrollable and more often than not the more important info is not the first thing you see (happened more than once that my partner picked up a gun before I was able to properly evaluate it). As you go along you learn to compare you weapon by the arrows rather than the numbers, otherwise avoiding the menu in most cases (just pick up a mission and follow the square on your mini-map is what I did for most part). I do believe this makes you miss out on a lot of extra fun information which would not have been the case if the text was much more readable. Apart from that no real complaints, textures, framing and all other things run just fine. You can find yourself in a graphically tight corner (like in-midst of some icicles which you have jumped into and are not able to get out) sometimes, but overall it works for me.

Graphics And Sound- 8/10

The game is a shoot and loot. As is obvious, there is a lot of shooting involved. There is something awkward however, in watching yourself shoot and hit-points bleeding out of your opponent, especially when its in a F.P.S situation. What this leads to is you spamming your shoot button heavily (which by the way is a solid strategy), which again is a deviation from regular shooters in which the onus many a times is on how you use your ammo. Ammo is something though, which you will frequently run out of, but worry not, the loot is plentiful in this land, and everything from enemies to their frozen poo pile will spring you guns, money and ammo bountiful. You would hardly start a mission with low ammo, and you are sure to end one with a high count. This brings me to the guns, of which there are basically 5 categories: Shotgun, Sniper, Assault Rifle, and S.M.G. This in no way means that you have a limited arsenal, instead different random combinations of ammo size, damage, status effect (yes bullets have status effects, this game is awesome or what?), accuracy and the like present you with a gazillion options to choose from (remember how I said the weapon system is like Diablo). Thus, you can never have the ultimate weapon, and you are always on the look-out of that next big thing.

From the guns, lets move to set-pieces, which for me are the highlight of the game (yes even the plethora of guns to choose from pales before it), after every 15 minutes or so, you will run into an ambush, and as goes the rule ('NEW is always BETTER'), each ambush is bigger, badder and awesomer in every way.  While in the battle, you have little time to relax, as the enemies come from all directions, and because the enemies are diverse, you never find yourself using the same gun, even in the same battle. Apart from that the R.P.G. elements will not exactly engross you (thanks to the difficult to decipher menus) but they provide you with strategical relief from the frantic action. The game even rewards you in two ways, not only do you level up your playing character by killing enemies, but you also strengthen fields(like health re-generation, and shield capacity) which you can carry over to any of your character by finishing challenges. All in all the game doesn't meddle too much with any genre and concentrates on keeping the game shallow and fun, which in the end works out just fine.

Gameplay-9/10

Story wise, its no Halo to be sure. I am told that the story this time is an improvement on the earlier game, so that's that. There is Handsome Jack (he wants to kill you), then there is Sanctuary(a city where other people Handsome Jack wants to kill lives), and then there is a race for a vault(which currently hold an old ancient Alien warrior who is controlled by the one who opens it). The rest are just smaller sub-lots with a splattering of humor, which is nice. The game at no point takes itself too seriously, and even the most serious situations are presented in a tongue in cheek manner.

Story- 5/10

The game is as fun as it could be to run headlong into an army of henchmen, difficult but definitely not impossible. I remember having 3 guns equipped and 2 in my inventory with full ammo for all of them, and by the time I was finished defending a beacon (a mission from the game) I was almost out of ammo in all of them (I was down to my least favored weapon). That's how frantic the game can be, fast-paced, swearing filled, umpteen minutes of bullet pumping action. The only downside is that so-much adrenalin and the squinting that you have to do every time you open the menu (the menu is the only down side of the game), doesn't let you play the game for long hours (which I believe should be a facet for a R.P.G.). Anyhow, I can't fault Borderlands for the shooting, leveling up and the bad-ass moments it provides almost every 15 minutes

Mojo- 8/10

Kabelled Score- 8/10

Signing Off,

Ayush 'Kabel' Chauhan

A leave of absence, and Witcher 2

Its been a busy first week. I shifted my residence, attended my first ever Test Match in a stadium (an account of which you can find here ), was a part of the very first Comic Con in Bangalore (the account of which you can find here:)and of course burning the midnight oil at the office (my project just got deployed, an account of which is both traumatic and confidential). Add to that the fact that I have been without a proper internet connection for the past 2 weeks, means I am way back on my blog-work. It has been so demanding that the past Wednesday, my body just decided to rest (I came out of the shower, and it went "You ain't going to office today nigga!"). So I didn't, what I did do on Wednesday was play the Witcher 2 at length. It was an ideal day off, and ideal way to play a R.P.G.. I had the quest handbook, the online wiki for the game, and snack at my hand's length and nobody to disturb me for hours at length. This was how a game is meant to be played and it was thoroughly enjoyable.

First up, my initial and lasting impression of the game is this: "Its not all that its made out to be". I mean everyone out there is praising how it is not a dumbed down R.P.G., which I quite frankly don't think is such a good idea. The last R.P.G. that I played was Kingdoms Of Amalur, and Witcher 2 is in no way like it (you will see a lot of comparison below). Yes the game has skill trees, yes the game has resources, and crafting and potions, and magic and trolls and golems, but somewhere in the process of being old-fashioned (if that was what they were aiming for) they lost a bit of what I was looking for in the game.



Witcher 2 is relentless, even its tutorial isn't really a tutorial. Its more of a test, after which you will be told, what difficulty you should be playing on (I am told the PC version didn't even have that, I feel sorry for them). The game on face value, is simple enough, there isn't much to confuse yourself, and you know everything you need to know to survive out there by the end of the first quest. Mastering and learning how to use them effectively however, is a completely different matter.

The game does not allow you to play to your own style (Kingdom of Amalur thrived on that). The best (read only) way to fight is hit one, move around a lot, don't let yourself be surrounded (you get whacked so fast, you can't even say Witcher), and keep looking for an opportunity. Preparation is vital in Witcher, if you think you are getting into a fight, you better oil your sword, drink your potion and keep your skill of choice riled up, cause once you get into the fight, you won't be able to do any of this once the fight starts. Actually you won't be able to do this in most areas, as you need to "Meditate" to drink potion and for that you need to be in a safe area. Add to this the fact, that there is no real concept of Health or mana potion, and your health doesn't regenerate when you are in combat (at least I haven't come across it my game-play as of yet). I know a lot of people put a positive bling to this, but for me it was a simple fallacy (I mean that's like making Diablo without Diablo). There are something that you shouldn't touch in a R.P.G. and I believe Health potions is one of them.

Further, this emphasis on preparation and not winging it mostly lands you up into the following 3 situations:
1) You exit town well prepared and by the time you enter a fight, all your status effects, are almost over.
2) You are not prepared, and you end up in a boss battle, with the auto save not in a safe area and your own save, days before the battle.
3) You save often, and you learn where to prepare, by first dying.

Gameplay- 5/10

None of the above is as you may know is ideal. But I am a gamer, and I move on. The games is adult/mature material and it makes no bones about it (nude women, and vodka-loving trolls, if you still didn't get the drift). The decisions are difficult to make (some choices may make you skip complete chapters) and have a long range effect. Gerarlt is not a knight in shining armor, and this is where the game shines the most: the storyline. Its intriguing, multi-path, choice oriented, and there is no high or low road. Unlike other R.P.G. the other N.P.C. (non playable characters) are much more fleshed out, your interaction with them is often more fun than earning glory in the battlefield (another contrast to K.O.A.) especially when there is an opportunity to end up in someone's pants (of which there is plenty).

StoryLine- 8/10

A final word before we end up with a judgement. There are a lot of glitches and bugs that I noticed while playing the game, especially in combat. Your moves seem out of place sometimes and the movements are not in sync with others around him (you would end up doing an elaborate counter-attack with you jumping around while the other guy just kind of slide back and then dies at the end of it). This I believe is because it was initially made for the PC, and while most of it is ironed out, there are a lot of bugs and glitches that I came across.

Graphics+Sounds- 7/10

All in all Witcher-2 isn't a game that you can switch on when you come back from 8 hours of office. It requires your undivided attention for you to make any progress in it. Its  like a frustrating challenge, that you really want on your trophy case. I really wanted to fall in love with Witcher and I tried, but I end up playing Red Dead Redemption (more on that here) instead everyday. I will get through it eventually, and it is by no means a bad game, but it wasn't the addictive gaming experience that I was expecting from it. Its like that movie that everyone praises so much, but you have a hard time understanding.

Mojo- 4/10

Kabelled Score- 6/10

Signing off,

Ayush 'Kabel' Chauhan