Now I know what your thinking what a garbled title and most likely so is the blog it has two recent demos and a game that is one year old and none of them relate to each other at all…and I have to agree this will probably be random but as of right now there really isn't much to talk about other than the new (best kept secret) slim PS3 and but I think that topic was beaten to death by both the fans and haters…so ya lets get into this impression…lets start with section 8

Section 8 demo

When I first saw and heard about this game I was quick to bring it down I called it a uninteresting "halo" clone it has space marines in power armor fighting other space like marines or creatures in power armor and they look veryyy uninteresting and the locale looks VERY haloish

But the multiplayer Beta came out and I have to say I was blown away the game is very unique it blends almost every hit multiplayer game now it might sound like the game is very sporadic and cluttered but it's not the game has the Quake wars mission and drop in weapons system, the battle field spawn system, and the halo like armor system(sorta) and 32 players s what makes this game overly fun is that you can customize your whole arsenal and powers…I will explain you can have both a sniper and missile launcher (or shot gun) with a grenade and repair add-ons and then upgrade your stats (lock on time, damage, damage resistance, speed, recoil, etc etc) the game is a blast its fast paced and the guns are fun to use and the drop-in system (calling in either weapons, supply crates, powered up mech) is both epic and fair (you need to kill and do certain objectives to gain money to get them) another epic aspect is that you can spawn ANYWHERE yes you drop in from space (which for some odd reason never gets old) and once you hit the ground you do whatever you want but you can't land on the enemies bases..unless the anti-air gun is destroyed

The bases in the game are a cool aspect in the map I played on had two bases, you capture bases you get points and you can spawn there with ease if the enemy owns the base there is anti-air cannons that shoot you down and cover a very large area so it makes spawning very difficult and forces you to move towards the middle of the map when spawning

The game does have some problems the map was very small (but I think it will be larger in the full game because the map just looks bigger and the demo only allows 16 players instead of the standard 32) everyone seems to take too long to die because you have to drain and armor bar and health bar but to be fair the health bar is incredibly fast to drain the lock-on feature (similar to metroid's) feels a bit cheap there are vehicles but they really don't do much or not used properly you can't customize the armor (but this was a demo so it can change) finally I know it's a demo but they showed so much like different drop-in weapons and supplies but it says "no in demo version" also only 1 map it was disappointing it left me wanting more..which I guess in a way is what demos are suppose to do overall I was shocked about this game I enjoyed it try it without a doubt you will be pleasantly surprised

Lost Planet 2 Demo

This demo has to be one of the worst demos in the history of demos I was iffy about the first lost planet game I just didn't like it the heat system and I HATED the grappling hook at times all I wanted to do was just hang from something instead he automatically jumped up and I just never liked how the character controlled so how about the sequel that addresses the problems and overall makes the franchise more playable….quick answer…nothing has changed

Yes the demo is a 4 player co-op demo that has you take down a huge monster sounds fun right? How wrong you(and I) are the game starts out with amazing graphics but you notice something your characters look like samurai warriors with guns then they tell you basically nothing you have to manually read like 5-8 placed signs in-game which is hard to do when your teammates run off and fight the monster and you just sitting there the game might look nice but everything from the first lost planet is there the annoying grappling hook and camera angle all they did was give the game a graphic over haul they didn't change the engine at all so everything I hated about lost planet 1 is still in this game except the heat going down every second instead you can make the heat manually heal you

So anyway how about that monster well it looked like a weird frog and iguana hybrid with the trademark "shoot here" red spots and the battle field is a weird tropical environment that has unlockable spawn points and mech vehicles all over the place and some NPC's who you can replace with a thorn bush and it would do more damage to the creature now me and my team were fighting the monster dying a couple of times from horribly stupid things (falling into the water and dying..really?) to the monster only following one person and squashing him to pure accidents then the demo was over…yes you see me and my friend replayed that co-op demo 4 times and some matches were literally 4 minutes long and the creature took no damage then we realized we all share a team counter what this counter does is when you die it loses points and when your up to zero the game is over basically even with a team counter refill (you get more if you unlock the spawn points) if someone dies more than twice your team is at a serious disadvantage there was only one good moment in the game when you damage the creature enough it swallows you and you have to fight it on the inside and its fun

So let's break it down so far the A.I. of both your NPC team mates and the creature itself is horrible the creature will either A.) walk randomly around or B.) chase only one person until they die , the team counter is pretty bad, the grappling hook is just as annoying, and they didn't change anything but the environment and graphics I know this is just a demo but what I always say is I never once in my life played a demo that was drastically different from the main game this was highly disappointing

Sins of a solar empire +expansion/DLC

This game is the main reason this blog is so late (I started Monday and today is the wee morning of Thursday..lol wee) it's the type of game that somehow sucks you in my friend always told me to get it I never liked the look of it finally I cracked down bought it and when I first played I was lost it was like staring at my S.A.T.'s all over again I actually had to go to the tutorials and it's the type of game you need to play the tutorials some are long as hell and I was like this will be no fun at all

The game is a RTS space sim that stars 3 factions (T.E.C, Advent, Vasari) who have completely different ships and looks and ideals and basically about conquest who can capture the galaxy and rule it? Or whose empire will be just another page in a history book?

So I started playing and the game is pretty good all the teams are balanced(which is rare for a RTS game) but there is no story line at all its just pick a map, factions, symbol and colors of factions play game the maps range from puny to OMFG Gigantic yes there are maps with multiple galaxies with untold amount of planets to conquer the game just absorbs you into its world and you will keep you playing until the sun comes up..which is bad if you have exams in the next few hours

Yet there is a few problems with the game the first right off the back its too long!! Even on a medium map it can take 10 hours which is kinda a bad thing when you play on multiplayer me and my friends are playing a medium sized map so far its taking us 2 days and no end in sight (the good news is you can save in game and jump right in with the players again the next night or play that scenario by yourself with the A.I.) and honestly the game loves to take its time you need to buy certain techs to get more powerful ships and stuff but the wait time for your resources, tech training, ship building and more are just too long and makes the game feel drawn out

Another element is the expansion called entrenchment and it's really not an expansion its only 10 bucks what it does is add new defenses (because the main game lacks defensive structures) and that's it all it does is add more defensives no new maps or anything now this isn't a bad thing but it makes the game feel incomplete hell right now I hear reports in 2010 there will be a new expansion called "diplomacy" so you can strike better deals with your alien neighbors..which once again makes me feel like the game is incomplete and was rushed

Well that's it for now try out the demos they are out now (actually have been for awhile thanks Sins) college starts tomorrow and I really not looking forward to it at all and batman is a great game just got it today don't miss this gem sometimes the popular things are popular for a reason thanks for reading