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Airport Firefighter Simulator Review (PC)

By
John
– 22/02/2012Posted in: PC, PC Reviews, Reviews

Airport Firefighter Simulator | Rondo Media | PC | £24.99 | Released: 17/02/2012

The next in the long line of weird and strangely intriguing simulators from the guys at Excalibur Publishing has now arrived in the form of Airport Firefighter Simulator. There is obviously potential in a game based around the concept of fire fighting but have developers Rondo Media managed to put the fun in function this time around?

Just a little cheesy joke to break the ice and it’s probably required too because it’ll be a while before you see any fire in this game.

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The opening day tutorial involves you following your superior around the airport passing his many identical looking co-workers along the way as he shows you such interesting sights as the break room and conference room. Eventually you will make your way to the vehicles and this is where you start your extended tour of the airports many attractions such as “The Old Tower”.

The tutorial just continues to drag as the game forces you to follow your ambling superior who has absolutely no concept of urgency. This would all be acceptable if the information provided in the tutorial was at all required, which because of the nature of the game’s map makes this all unnecessary. All in all the game’s guided tour can take about 15 minutes to complete, far too long.

The game requires you to train up so that you can access new vehicles to perform different tasks around the airport and the first of those tasks is patrol. The first portion of the game basically involves you driving around the outer edge of the grounds checking that the fence is still working. I’m sure that enthusiasts will enjoy or at least appreciate this inclusion it becomes dull fast, especially when you are regularly called away to respond to alarms which are often false alarms half away across the grounds meaning you then have to head back and restart the outer edge patrol.

The game is split into days and you are required to perform all of the necessary tasks before the day ends however the game is very generous with this time limit. Note: If my superior asked me to work a 24 hour shift I think a hand gesture and a call to the trade union might be in order.

Eventually you will come into contact with fire in the form of smoking bins, truly a life of kings. You will eventually come up to the duty of tackling the fearsome flames of the burning planes but after all the effort required to get to that point, the end result just wasn’t satisfying enough to make it worthwhile.

The presentation of the game is on the whole rather poor. It becomes apparent very quickly that the game is a low budget release. Graphically the game (even on max settings) is seriously lacking and coupling this with the game’s bland design and dark toned colour scheme it’s just not that nice to look at. This does however provide some unintentional humour such as your superior walking through doors and driving through other vehicles while you crash at over 100mph and take no damage. On top of this the game chugs along at a very choppy rate which takes away from the visuals that little bit more. Musically the game is a lot better however this isn’t really enough to make up for the visual issues with the game.

On top of this there have been many occasions in which the game’s translation has been lacking from its German origin providing some rather unintentionally humorous moments. In fact many of the game’s models and animations retain the original German lettering.

All in all Airport Firefighter Simulator is a game that offers very little for those not interested in the base concept and offers little more for those who are. If you are looking for a better simulation on offer from Excalibur Publishing why not try Demolition Company Gold (8/10 from Christian) or Traffic Manager (6/10 from Owen).

Review

ProsCons
Unintentionally humorous moments, Includes all duties.Poor Presentation, Repetitive and dull tasks to perform
Rating
30%
1

The Simpsons Arcade Game Review (PSN/XBLA)

By
Christian
– 14/02/2012Posted in: 360, 360 Reviews, PS3, PS3 Reviews, Reviews

Simpsons Arcade Game | Konami | PSN/XBLA | £7.99/800MSPs | Released: 03/02/2012

As anyone who grew up in the 90s will know, Konami fledged war on the British seaside arcades, with their weapons being great games, committing a coup d’etat on our pocket money. Their atom bomb was the Simpsons Arcade Game, first released in 1991, and a personal favourite of mine. – Now in 2012, with it’s Playstation Network and Xbox Live Arcade port, does it hold up decades later at home?

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Smithers has kidnapped Maggie during a diamond theft, and it’s up to Homer, Marge, Lisa and Bart to travel across Springfield to save her. While extremely out of character for Smithers to take up thievery; the story in the Simpsons Arcade Game is merely there to have the Simpsons characters traverse through Springfield. And traverse they do, with the game featuring many locations from the show, such as Springfield’s downtown, Springfield’s forests, Springfield’s discount cemetery, and Moe’s Traven. All littered with show references that Simpsons fans will love.

Like many of Konami’s beat them ups, such as the Ninja Turtle games and Sunset Riders, The Simpsons Arcade Game is 4 players and very simple, with 1 button to jump, and 1 to attack. It’s a very simplistic setup that’s great for a quick 50p play on an arcade machine; and not so great for a £8 home game. Because of the simple nature of the game, it suffers from getting very repetitive, especially in single player; despite the short half hour it takes to complete. The port does retain the game’s local multiplayer though, as well as adding online play, so the arcade experience of a friend stealing your power ups can break up the repetitiousness.

Online multiplayer isn’t the only addition from the arcade original though. A small photo gallery of Simpsons artwork, the easier and rarer Japanese version of the game, leaderboards and graphic smoothing on the dated graphics are added to the re-release. They’re welcome additions, but whether they make a great, but very short nostalgia buzz worth the price of admission is debatable.

In conclusion, the Simpsons Arcade Game is a perfect port of the 1991 arcade favourite. The small amount of bonuses, and the £8/800MSPs price, does make it difficult to recommend though. It’s a very short game with little replay value, so as good as it is, the Simpsons Arcade Game is only recommendable to those in desperate want for some nostalgia.

Review

ProsCons
A perfect port of an arcade favourite, with online multiplayer added.Being an arcade game, you'll breeze through it from start to finish in a half hour. It's hard to justify £8 for a game so short.
Rating
65%
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Tour of the Original CrassCast Minecraft Server

By
Christian
– 12/02/2012Posted in: Articles, PC, PC News

WillPie, who’s helped CrassCast since the beginning, has produced an awesome tour of our old Minecraft server map. I know quite a lot of players are fond of the old map, and it’s amazing to see all the builds again. If you liked the video, give WillPie a sub on his Youtube channel.

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Demo’s Friday – The Simpsons: Arcade Game

By
Owen
– 11/02/2012Posted in: 360, 360 News, Articles, PS3, PS3 News

The first episode of Demo’s Friday, and most likely the last. In this episode, I cover the demo for the newly released ‘Simpsons: Arcade Game’ on PSN and Xbox Live. Also, a kind of first impressions video considering I’ve never played this game before.

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Skylanders: Giants – The Sequel… Already

By
Owen
– 07/02/2012Posted in: 360, 360 News, 3DS, 3DS News, Articles, PC, PC News, PS3, PS3 News, Wii, Wii News

So, it’s official, the next Skylanders game will in fact be called ‘Skylanders: Giants’. Information was released today by the Wall Street Journal on the new Skylanders game. It says that 8 new Giant Skylanders (almost 3 times larger than regular Skylanders – and probably 2 twice as expensive) will be added to the collection along with 8 new regular Skylanders and on top of that, 4 remakes of characters (nicknamed ‘Bright Light Skylanders’) from the first game that will also light up when near, or on, the Portal. The old portal works with the game too, so the game will still be available in a Starter Pack for $69.99 (£49.99) again but will also be available for a cheaper price without the portal.

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Along with this information, a trailer was also released.

Is it too soon? Yes and no. Yes because not all Skylanders are out yet and no because everything from the first game will still work on this one so you’ve got the advantage of being able to pre-collect a bunch of Skylanders. No news on the systems yet, but from the looks of the trailer it’s still going to be on the Wii  and presumably a PS3, 360, PC and 3DS version are also planned. Apparently they’re “looking into” getting a Wii U version of the game. The game’s set for a Q4 2012 release, but for now we’ll have to wait for more information on the game, which will be released some time during the New York Toy fair between the 12th and 15th of February.

Meanwhile, you can check on the Skylanders walkthrough page on this website for occasional updates on the first game.

I’m not gonna have enough room to store all these larger figures ):

Edit: The starter pack will include a Giant (presumably the life one we’ve been seeing), one of the new Skylanders and a Bright Light Skylander (probably another version of Spyro).

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Snuggle Truck First Impressions (PC/Mac/iOS)

By
Frazer
– 04/02/2012Posted in: Articles, Mobile, Mobile Reviews, PC, PC Reviews

The hit toy smuggling game from iOS Snuggle Truck got a Steam release today. Frazer gives his initial impressions on this new PC release from Owlchemy Labs:

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Titan Attacks First Impressions (PC/Mac)

By
Christian
– 03/02/2012Posted in: Articles, PC, PC Reviews

Titan Attacks, the Space Invaders inspired indie game by Puppy Games made it’s Steam premier today. And with me loving my indie games, I had to try it and share my first impressions;

2

Zack Zero Review (PSN)

By
John
– 03/02/2012Posted in: PS3, PS3 Reviews, Reviews

Zack Zero | Crocodile Entertainment | PSN | £9.99 | Released: 11/01/2012

With the emerging indie game market many of our favourite game genres of old are making a triumphant return to the HD console generation. One of these genres is the 2D Platformer genre made popular by games such as Mario, Sonic and Mega Man during the 8 Bit generation and the latest game to try its hand at this is Crocodile Entertainment’s Zack Zero, priced at £9.99 on the PlayStation Network.

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The game’s story involves Zack Zero an intergalactic hero going on a journey to rescue his beloved Marlene from the evil Emperor Zulrog who is attempting to obtain a rare and powerful substance that will allow him to travel back in time. The game’s story is told through animated comic strip type cutscenes which fits the theme of the game very well although the voice acting throughout doesn’t really add much that text wouldn’t have.
Graphically the game does its job, while the game doesn’t look spectacular it does what it needs to do and provides a nice blend of the more realistic look of the environment with the cartoony and bold appearance of the HUD and pop ups which is also carried over into the game’s animated comic strip style cutscenes.

The main selling point of the game is its use of elemental abilities based on fire, ice and rock to aid in platforming, puzzle solving and combat. The abilities last as long as the meter isn’t empty which continues to drain so long as you use that element. These elements are easy to switch between using the corresponding directional button on the d-pad. Some of the ideas are interesting here such as being able to float on thin air or slow down time however these are assigned to elements that are unrelated making them confusing to find at first. Not a huge issue but something that threw me off at first.

Unfortunately the gameplay doesn’t deliver on any real promise provided by the concept. For a platformer I found the jumping in the game to be very temperamental and would often either decide to not jump or to switch plains for no apparent reason throwing me off to the side and causing me a lot of frustration. Using certain abilities can also cause issues such as the fire element ability to float on thin air which seemingly can’t be activated if you are even jumping forward the tiniest amount causing you to fall into constant pits (playing the same death animation over and over even though it doesn’t fit).

Combat in the game is also a bit of a let-down. The enemies that appear are very repetitive and they will quickly swamp you on screen meaning that fights (especially at the start of the game) involve a lot of hopping and attacking meaning that all in all there is very little combat strategy at all. Speaking of the attacks in this game they are heavily projectile based which would be fine if they had sufficient range or aim to hit the enemy that is floating just above your head just out of range. Puzzles in Zack Zero are generally rather simplistic to figure out but are often very difficult and annoying to traverse with a lot of effort for little game. The puzzles in Zack Zero involve large amounts of backtracking to solve puzzles and can take a large amount of time to complete meaning that levels take significantly longer to complete giving the player the feeling that they are making little to no progress in a long period of time.

Overall Zack Zero is a game that has failed to live up to some of its initial potential and its interesting concept, and so falls significantly short of the games that it has attempted to emulate. If you are a big 2D platformer fan with nothing to play and the money to spend then this may be for you. If not I would recommend skipping over this one in favour of for example Mega Man 9 or 10 which are cheaper and in my opinion better quality games.

Review

ProsCons
An interesting concept with somewhat plain but well suited visuals.Platforming is weak while combat and puzzles leave a lot to be desired.
Rating
40%