Hoodwink review

Now I want to state for the record that I am a massive adventure game fan. I remember back with fondness to the days of The Dig and Full Throttle, the film noir brilliance of the Tex Murphy detective stories, the complexity of The Longest Journey and the sheer wit and inventiveness of
the Monkey Island jaunts.

I'm all for originality and trying something unusual and clearly the guys behind Hoodwink (E-One Studio) thought they'd go for an impressionistic look to the graphics here, in a post-environmental catastrophe society where the citizens of trash city Global-01 are ruled by a corrupt megacorp. The only problem is, they ended up with both interiors and exteriors that look mind-numbingly drab. For example:

The hero, Michael Bezzle, is a thief (em-bezzle, geddit) and you're hoping at the outset that maybe he will use his skills to take on the evil business empire. But no, all he wants to do is get some chocolates, flowers and a ring together to propose to his wheelchair-bound girlfriend. To do this, he approaches corny Flower Power babe Saffy who sends him on a fetch mission.

This is where the inventory kicks in. You know, the bit in adventure games where you collect loads of random items and guess how to use or combine them to solve a task. Only instead, you collect an item, put your cursor over the intended target and the correct item in your inventory immediately appears, ready to be slotted into place. And the challenge is...?

Of course you must meet some quirky characters - like the cat detective above that you burn alive in the first scene and then see reappear completely whole about twenty minutes later. And yes, there's a robot with a human brain that has the screamingly unfunny name of Brycke Shithausen. In fact, thanks mostly to some Grade-C voiceovers, I was hard pushed to find a single sympathetic role and my heart sank further when I learnt this was only the first of a series of forthcoming episodes.

Even the mini-games lack any sense of urgency or danger as they mostly involve grabbing something before you get attacked and the puzzles usually demand that you rotate the cursor until something moves. Seriously, there's more animation in one of the Myst games than in the whole of Hoodwink's episode one. And don't get me started on how sluggishly all the point 'n' click movement operates...

But as I'm ever an optimist, I'm hopeful that by the time E-One Studio have got round to making episode two, they will have spent several weeks studying Tex Murphy, Monkey Island, & Co to realise that adventure fans can't be hoodwinked into accepting basement bargains.

Score: 1/5

Dell C3765dnf review

If you're thinking about a new multifunction colour laser printer for a medium size office, then check out my review of the Dell C3765dnf at PC Advisor

The URL is:
http://www.pcadvisor.co.uk/reviews/printing/3370199/dell-c3765dnf-review/

Spec Ops: The Line review

Joseph Conrad's "Heart of Darkness" novel has often resonated through some of the blacker historical episodes of the 20th and 21st centuries with its journey into doubt and despair in desperate times. The horror at its centre was iconically captured in "Apocalypse Now" and was given a nod in the first "Alien" movie where the crew were aboard the ill-fated Nostromo (the title of Conrad's other bleak novel).

Now it's given new impetus in Spec Ops: The Line where the clue is entirely in the title. 3 Delta Force soldiers led by Captain Walker are despatched to a Dubai that has been destroyed by titanic sandstorms to locate a possibly rogue Colonel John Konrad (ah, that resonance!). He and his 33rd Infantry were supposed to be rescuing trapped civilians but nothing has been heard for 6 months apart from a faint radio message.

When Walker's team arrive, they find the landscape dramatically transformed into deep sand dunes, deep chasms and shattered skyscrapers. Amidst all the signs of former luxury they discover makeshift hovels and camps and severe devastation, with little indication of civilians or soldiers.

Within minutes, however, they find themselves fighting the very people they thought were their allies or victims of the tragedy and it's at this point that they start to question which side of the moral line they should be treading. Unusually for a third-person squad shooter in the tradition of Gears of War, it's not just about how many headkills you can rack up but also about an assault on the true evil of war itself.

In terms of gameplay, it's largely the usual formula of seek cover, blast enemies, re-arm, move on. The enemies come in waves, your two comrades can be issued orders to take out specific targets or heal each other and the AI can be quite smart at out-flanking you when ammo is running low. Checkpoint saving means you have to be canny at avoiding reckless head-to-heads, especially as three shots can put you down.

Another homage to "Apocalypse Now" is the inclusion of rock tracks played by a mysterious Radioman via a rigged PA system during the firefights. The main novelty is the ability to bury opponents under sand dunes by blasting away supports and windows but overall you'll find much of the conventional fighting in the Campaign will take about seven hours. Co-op and multiplayer modes provide a few extras to the usual Deathmatch shoot-'em-ups but the ethical ambivalence isn't as prominent here.

Ultimately you'll remember Spec Ops: The Line principally for the sour taste it leaves in your mouth at the end, after you've followed Walker and his men from one atrocity to another - some of which you have been willingly or unwillingly responsible for. As such, it will make regular fragfest lovers profoundly uneasy as all they want to do is blow away body parts without a conscience. Yet although the graphics are not up to Modern Warfare standard, the battles are often predictable and the story has a number of unanswered questions, the developers should be applauded for trying to capture the spirit of Conrad's novel in such a jaded genre.

Score: 4/5

Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon: Future Soldier review

I was busy downloading the latest desert warfare shooter, Spec Ops: The Line, on Steam when my mate Roger Jephcoat burst into the office clutching a review of Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon: Future Soldier which he's been playing non-stop on Xbox since it's release.

Being a charitable sort of guy and Roger being enormously tall and wide and very scary on dark nights, I promised faithfully to print his thoughts once I'd removed his arm from my windpipe. Over to you, Rog....

You know how it is when new games come out? You get hold of a copy of a new title and if you're lucky enough not to have been swept away by any pre-marketing hype, you load it into your Xbox360 and expect sumptuous graphics lovingly crafted to enthuse realism. You know, games like the Modern Warfare trilogy, Crysis 2 and the Gears of War saga ...

Well, you get that with Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon: Future Soldier... but only just! In a way theirs is refreshingly different but I do so wished that they touched on more attention to detail.

The campaign has 12 decently mapped levels providing very challenging missions to play on your own (with three AI counter-characters) plus co-op with up to three online friends.

TCGRFS also provides impressive accuracy when it comes to weaponry, sounds, environments and the peripheral scenery with long-range distant vistas that other games developers tend to "fog out".

I've played and completed the campaign on Recruit and Veteran difficulties both solo and with co-op buddies and it's immediately re-playable, especially if you're a stickler for in-game challenges, achievements or trophies. I'm now gearing up to tackle Elite difficulty and facing a tough choice: opt for the stealthy approach or go in all guns blazing...

The game also has the obligatory on-line multi-player facility with many combinations of team-based modes as well as Guerrilla Mode where wave after wave of ever increasing enemies try to defend an imaginary Headquarters. There are 50 waves to master so banish sleep!

Although there's never been a truly perfect, well balanced, exceptionally programmed, graphic paradise of a game all rolled into one, TCGRFS certainly has been a remarkably executed and considered game and is definitely a strong contender amongst the current crop of heavyweight first and third person shooters.

The Tom Clancy genre has continued perfectly - all we need now is Rainbow 6: Patriots and Splinter Cell: Blacklist to complete the perfect trinity...

Score: 4.5/5

Lovely bloke, Roger - the guys at the Home are missing him badly though...

Brother DCP-J140W review

If you're on a tight budget and are thinking about buying a relatively cheap and basic all-in-one inkjet printer that produces reasonable results without breaking land speed records, then it might be worth having a quick look at my Brother DCP-J140W review on PC Advisor.

The URL is

http://www.pcadvisor.co.uk/reviews/printing/3367919/brother-dcp-j140w-review/

Max Payne 3 Review

If you grew up loving the films of Humphrey Bogart at his grittiest and virtually all the hardboiled gumshoe movies of the 'film noir' era, then meeting Max Payne for the first time is like having a reunion with an old friend.
An ex-cop who virtually invented the phrase 'bitter and twisted' after the death of his family, Max turned violent revenge into an art form, thanks to the invention of the infamous 'bullet time' slo-mo technique that changed third-person shoot-'em-ups forever.

With its semi-cartoony style and Max's gravelly voice-over providing a cynical take on the action, this was the perfect antidote to all the squad-based shooters on the market. For this third instalment, Rockstar Games (home of that other beloved gangster series Grand Theft Auto) has dragged Max reluctantly from boozy oblivion in a New York bar via a Mafia bust-up to the seamy cesspits of Brazil. As you can see, this has resulted in a new bald-with-beard image which contrasts strikingly with his relatively clean shaven look in the States.

Persuaded to take a job as bodyguard to a rich South American family, Max is immediately drawn into a complex web of deceipt, corruption and betrayal which keeps you guessing until the final chapters.

If you're a PC owner then you're in a for a visual treat as Rockstar have pulled out all the stops to make sure you make the most of your graphics card. Apart from several spectacular set pieces, the attention to detail (especially in the extended sequence in the poverty-stricken favelas of Sao Paulo) is astonishing. It's been a while since I've played a game where you could swear you could smell the city as realistically as this.

And before you ask, yes, bullet time is still there and will be just as necessary in some of the hairier battles. In addition, there's a cover system which provides partial relief, as well as the ever-popular painkillers to keep Max's perpetually battered body in the land of the living. The visuals cleverly wobble out of focus whenever he has too much to drink (which is most of the time) or takes some more painkillers and each completed mission segment is punctuated with FMV sequences and split-screen cartoons.

As you progress, clues can be gathered to fill in gaps in the narrative and 'golden guns' can be assembled from parts scattered throughout the game. When you've finished the main game (around 10 hours) you can either replay earlier chapters or move into multiplayer mode and indulge in some good old fashioned gang warfare.

Make no mistake, this is by far the bloodiest and most vicious Max Payne game yet, with scenes of brutal executions and torture that some may find hard to deal with. You will need to have your wits about you for the fight scenes, too, as enemies will constantly try to outflank you, weapons can suddenly be stolen or lost and both time and timing will determine how often you die.

Will Max finally find peace of mind and lay all his demons to rest? Yeah, right. Can't wait for the next cynical sequel...

Score: 4.5/5