3DS Review: Luigi’s Mansion 2

Cast your mind back, if you can, to the year 2001. The GameCube, for some time codenamed “Dolphin”, had just been released. Boasting far superior computational and graphical power than its predecessor, the Nintendo 64, Shigeru Miyamoto (Nintendo’s creative director) hatched a plan to demonstrate just how far the Cube’s lighting powers could be pushed. One result of his plan was the enjoyable but widely criticised Super Mario Sunshine, brimming with bright beaches and expertly-rendered water effects. However, Shigsy had a double-whammy up his sleeve. Designed to use all ranges of lighting and animation in original ways, Luigi’s Mansion featured the famous younger brother clearing a haunted mansion of mischievous ghosts with a modified vacuum cleaner. Luigi’s Mansion went on to become one of the best-selling games of the time. Although criticised for its short length, its creative blend of puzzling, action and exploration earned it critical acclaim.

Skip forward a few years to 2009: Canadian developer Next Level Games announces a collaboration with Nintendo to bring a sequel, Luigi’s Mansion 2, to the then-unreleased handheld 3DS.

And this brings us to the present day. Luigi’s Mansion 2 (known as Luigi’s Mansion: Dark Moon in America) kicks off the official Year of Luigi on a high note, plunging the other brother into darkness once again. A mysterious presence has shattered the ghost-pacifying Dark Moon that protects Evershade Valley, driving the resident spirits to violence and chaos. Paranormal researcher Professor Elvin Gadd, returning from the first game, is forced to hide in his underground bunker and drags Luigi, kicking and screaming, down to help him.

The gameplay consists thusly: E. Gadd “pixelshifts” (teleports) you (Luigi) into a spectre-occupied haunted mansion, leaving to you to explore and capture ghosts as you will. Evershade Valley’s five themed mansions are each split up into individual levels that see you advancing to continue the story. Speaking of narrative, there isn’t too much for the main body of the game, as Luigi must simply recover a shattered shard of the Dark Moon from each mansion.

If he plans on succeeding, however, he’s going to need a bit of help. E. Gadd’s modified vacuum, the Poltergust 5000, allows the green crusader to stun spectres with a charged strobe flash and snatch the spirits with a suck of the hoover nozzle. Some ghosts are more resilient and try to escape, requiring you to pull back and wear them down for a while, while others possess physical objects and have you do battle with them. Although somewhat repetitive, the ghost-busting is satisfying and enjoyable, while also giving some serious challenge in crowded rooms.

The mansions are varied and individual, ranging from a botanist’s lab to and abandoned mineshaft, and each mission is self-contained and unique, all contributing to significantly more replay value than the original game. The ghosts are less varied this time around, however, with 5 main types that gradually adopt different strategies against capture as you progress. The basic grunt-level Greenies will pick up helmets, shovels and even swords in an effort to take you down, while gooey purple Creepers can melt onto the floor and catch unsuspecting feet. The Boos are back, as well, with one of their mischievous number hiding in every level. Although they can’t put up much of a fight, it’s a huge challenge to track down every one, and catching ‘em all unlocks a bonus stage in each mansion. There are also piles of gold, cash and gems hidden in every nook and cranny, with bonus loot for grabbing lots of ghosts.

Luigi must use his Poltergust 5000 in ingenious ways to advance, as well. It seems the designers have found a new use for it every level. From turning fans, activating machines, launching Toad assistants and even removing dust, it is constantly in use. We in the Laggacy dungeon kept thinking, “that was genius, how can they top that?”, only for Next Level to show off an even better idea.

The Poltergust isn’t Luigi’s only new gadget, either! E. Gadd keeps up to date with his surveillance system, the Parascope, and by phoning his acquired ghostbuster over the DS, or Dual Scream. Luigi can scan for illusions, ghosts or footprints with the Dark-Light device, an add-on for his torch that reveals hidden objects and invisible ghosts. Constantly scanning for hidden items can be a bore, especially as using the Dark-Light reduces your walking speed for some reason, but doesn’t waste too much time and can be pretty useful in tracking down a particular evasive lost soul.

In addition to the central Dark Moon quest, you can also sink some time into cooperative multiplayer, over Download, Local and Online play. The option of Download play bodes well for showing the game off to your 3DS-owning mates, while Online allows you to form a team and climb the spooky Thrill Tower (Scarescraper in America, because apparently there aren’t any tall buildings in Europe or Australia). You and your team must dash through a randomly-generated mansion, searching for ghosts or other items within a time limit. This is great fun the first few times or playing with friends, but anonymous online play or going solo quickly become repetitive, as you are forced to the bottom of the tower upon failure or success and there are only a few room designs that repeatedly appear in various configurations. The option to adjust the difficulty or specific target has little effect on the actual gameplay, and the limited conversation phrases (“Hey!”, “Help!”, “Good job!” and “Thank you!”) don’t help to this bum note in an otherwise superb game.

Luigi’s Mansion 2 has clearly had a great deal of effort put into making it look fabulous. Every little detail is lovingly designed, from the body language of the ghosts to Luigi’s terrified facial expressions; from the spooky music to Luigi’s shrieks of terror; from the adorable squeaky footsteps of E. Gadd’s Toad assistants to his chortles of mirth as Luigi cowers in terror. Next Level’s adorable animations and Charles Martinet’s subtle-as-ever voice talents form a terrifically polished game.

In summary, Luigi’s Mansion 2 is a brilliant game, improving in all the areas its predecessor failed in and retaining the simple joy of vacuuming poltergeists. Its fun campaign and entertaining style are slightly sullied by a repetitive multiplayer mode, but this is still a game with serious, ahem, spirit.

Conclusion: This game must be possessed. 9.5/10

An In-Depth Look at Star Conflict

“Three thousand years have passed since the first colonists left Earth. Now the galaxy is divided between the militant star empires and independent mercenary groups. In a remote corner of the galaxy — Sector 1337, the area of the dead — a world has been left behind. Here, the ruins of a great civilization of Precursors have recently been discovered. Huge factories and sprawling cities are falling into decay. Fragments of ships lie on the fields where massive battles were once fought. But there is not a living soul. Everything has been destroyed by a mysterious Cataclysm — a pulsing anomaly that burned out all life within this sector.” – Star Conflict Steam Page

Star Conflict is free-to-play spaceship simulator action combat game made by the people over at Star Gem Inc. and published by Gaijin Entertainment and is currently in open beta. Having recently been released on Steam I thought I’d give it a look.

After completing the initial tutorial you’ll enter the hangar, here you’ll be able to customize, buy, and upgrade your ships, upgrade your pilot’s perks, accept contracts, observe the skill trees, enter matchmaking and pretty much do anything else apart from fighting. The Hangar layout and structure is very similar to the garage in World of Tanks. Much like of World of Tanks you’ll be able to unlock new ships from three different faction skill trees large enough to keep you occupied for quite a while. Beyond that there’s a plethora of other customization options such as your ships’ equipment, unlockable perks, and most importantly ship decals. Factional quests are also available offering money, and faction loyalty (required to unlock new ships with a certain faction’s ship tree) in return for completion of certain objectives giving you something to aim for in each match.Image

Like many other F2P games of its nature, the in-game economy of Star Conflict operates on two currencies. Galactic credits which are primarily earned through playing the game and completing missions, and Galactic standards which are primarily earned through paying real-life money. Where Star Conflict’s business model differs from most F2P games, is that you can earn Galactic Credits through participating in weekly polls and by logging in 7 days in a row. Admittedly the payout is very small but I still find it nice that the game doesn’t entirely restrict all “premium” content from non-paying users. Galactic credits can be exchanged for Galactic standards (at an absurdly poor rate,) and also allow you to buy many upgrades and items such as “premium” ships, “premium” weapons, permanent decals, and a few passive bonuses.

Passive bonuses aside, all other payed items are actually shortcuts rather than upgrades. Premium weapons are identical to the final tier of that weapon which is readily available to any player but requires research. Premium ships are also just pre-leveled ships that are already maxed out so again; they merely speed up a user’s progression rather than give them a direct advantage over other players. The only exceptions to this rule are passive bonuses, small bonuses that give minor temporary stat boosts such as +3% speed or +2% damage, they won’t exactly change the tide of a battle any time soon and the prices but they’re still annoying and very expensive.

For the few days of that playing the game, you’ll find yourself earning absurd amounts of cash and leveling up like no tomorrow thanks to your nifty license that you’re presented with upon registering. With a whopping 50% increased income, experience gain increase of 75%, and a loyalty gain increase of 50%. Once your license runs out your rate of progression becomes absurdly slow in comparison with the only way of renewing your fancy license being through payment with Galactic standards. Aided by the fact that prices drastically increase as you go up in tiers, by the time you reach tier 2 you’ll be playing about 2-3 games before being able to even purchase a new piece of equipment for your ship which equates to a lot of grinding, not to mention the fact that missiles and other consumables cost credits to restock and also the repair costs after each match. The slow progression is partially offset by the usual double payout for the first win of the day, contract completion, and the aforementioned rewards for logging in for multiple days in a row, but the progress is still a lot slower than I think it should be and with definitely annoy people who don’t have the time and/or patience to grind for an hour just to get a new weapon.

Once you’re ready to launch off into the fray of the battle you’ll want to direct your attention the big glowing button that says “LAUNCH” where you’ll then be presented with the choice of 3 different game types, Battle (PvP), Mission (PvE), and practice  PvP itself features three separate options, the, being Arcade, Realistic, and the as of yet unimplemented Sector Conquest. Arcade sees you entering one of four randomly chosen gamemodes and being able to respawn indefinitely with Realistic working effectively the same way, with the exception of only being able to use each of your ships once.  Missions allow you to take on waves of AI enemies and complete objectives with up to three other people and are somewhat interesting, but I found the PvP to be much more engaging.

Once you’ve selected your gamemode you’ll be put into the matchmaking queue and then sent into the game. Although you can invite people into your ‘squad’ and enter matchmaking together, it is slightly disappointing that there’s no server browser or dedicated server functionality. Matchmaking itself is rather good and it usually matches you with players of the same equipment level as you, but of course equipment doesn’t equal skill meaning that (from what I’ve seen) a professional player and a first-time player could be paired as long as they have roughly the same ship tiers and equipment.

Once you join the game you’ll be given your objective and have 30 seconds to prepare and familiarize yourself with your fellow pilots before jumping into the sector. From the very second you enter the map it’s clearly evident that the developers have put a very large amount of effort into making the levels look amazing. On maximum settings the sectors are breathtaking, giant asteroids, destroyed ships, and gargantuan planets off in the distance all add to Star Conflict’s strong very strong space sci-fi theme. Despite the visual quality of the maps, there aren’t many of them at the moment and as such they can become a bit repetitive after a while.Image

Movement feels natural and fluid and really adds to combat in terms of movement and evasion. The high level of customization and variation available for ships keeps combat fresh and interesting and allows you to experiment with which weapons and loud outs work best for you.  Combat itself is fast-paced and enjoyable with lots of satisfying explosions and enough deadly laser beams to satisfy any super villain/amateur optometrist.  Ship abilities are almost as awesome as they are useful, ranging from invisibility to warp drives and guided torpedoes  Combat complexity drastically increases as you go up in ship tiers with crazier weapons and abilities at your disposal and more weapon slots allowing for a much more varied loadout.

Overall, solid gameplay and well very well polished visuals and interface. Good amounts of customization and lots of things to unlock, purchase, complete, and achieve. Grinding and slow progression can be off-putting for people who don’t have much time on their hands. Star Conflict is a great space action game that can be a great time if you’re willing to overlook its minor pay-to-win discrepancies and are willing to put some hours into it, I definitely recommend checking out.

(Disclaimer: Star Conflict is currently in Open Beta and as such isn’t entirely representative of the final product, therefore, the entire game will be subject to change before final release.)

Half-life 2 Mod Faceless Indefinitely Postponed

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The up and coming Half-:ife 2 mod ‘Faceless’ has undergone more than a few name changes and development issues over the past few months despite receiving ModDB’s “Best Upcoming Mod – Editors Choice 2012Best Upcoming Mod – Editors Choice 2012″ award, overwhelming positive feedback, Steam Greenlight support, and sparking interest in gaming giants IGN and Kotaku. Now the mod’s development has been indefinitely postponed until further notice by it’s creator.

The ambitious mod project started in August last year and promised an in-depth Slender experience with 4 player co-op, a complex hand-crafted storyline story-line, multiple detailed maps, and multiple game-modes. It was a bumpy road for the creators straight from the start having undergone 5 name changes due to various issues, but after many months of work the project has been postponed due to the developers’ personal problems and development problems.

The mod’s creator Sklarlight hinted towards the mod’s return saying “ Despite this indefinite postponement, we would like to say that there is a chance we may return to development, however that comes with its own weight of risks, we may not come back to develop Faceless. But I sincerely hope we do. We, as much as the fans, want this to be done to its best possible form, and because that can’t be done at this current stage, we’ve decided to wait until if and when we can.”

Source: http://www.moddb.com/mods/faceless/ne…stponement

Google pulls off another April Fools prank

Google has done it again and they have made April Fools Day a day to remember. This time YouTube has revealed that their entire site was just a competition and it’s time to pick a winner.

Google also unveiled their new Google Nose service which will allow end users to smell all kinds of aromas using Google.

Starting again

It’s been a while since I’ve updated Laggacy at all.I can admit that. Earlier this year I decided to start Laggacy again, I’ll be keeping the blog posts from last year on the site but the old videos on the YouTube channel are now gone.

I thought that Laggacy would be something like a switch that could be turned on and off at will. Stopping the creation of blog posts and videos for several months now has made it even harder to start again. All the hardware and software is readily available, it just needs to be put to use.

Next week I will be uploading a video preview of Slender: The Arrival, and in the meantime I am in the pre-production phase for a review of Treehouse. I am hoping to get the Slender video up by next Monday, but at this stage I can’t be certain.

When the video comes out, please watch it and give me your thoughts on it, because I need to know if I’m doing it right. If you don’t want to make a public comment then just send an email here.

Thanks for reading this, it’s been a while since I’ve written a blog post (or really done anything on Laggacy), if you have any constructive thoughts you wish to share with me, leave them in the comments section below.