Cosmo's Reviews » killing floor

Editorial – Top Ten PC Games of 2009

Cosmo — Sun, 27 Dec 2009 12:58:42 +0000

2009 was a full year, and we’ve had quite a few nice games. What gaming ‘blagh’ would this be without a top ten list of gaming’s brightest stars of 2009? So by popular demand, i present to you, “The List”. Keep in mind Cosmo’s Reviews is a PC-centric gaming site, and as such, this list will be just of games launched this year on PC.

#10 – F.E.A.R. 2: Project Origins

FEAR 2 was a game that we can call a true successor. It relied on the same tried and proven awesome scares that got our juiced pumping in the first FEAR and ofcourse the same level of slow-motion-bullet-spraying-headshot-making-kick-to-the-face action that we grew to love. Sadly the scares were a bit few and far between, and the cliffhanger was a major turnoff… literally. Still, compared to the rest of the games launched this year, it deserves tenth place.

#9 – Killling Floor

Killing Floor initially started as a mod for Unreal Tournament 2004, but quickly made its way full-sized and commercially available on Steam. Saying this is a mod is like saying Counter Strike is “just” a mod. Killing Floor is a game on its own, featuring great survival action and co-op gameplay that really focuses on being co-op and dynamic. Having to run half the map away to the next trader/safehouse while monsters are nabbing at your feet can be quite nerve-wracking. While a great achievement from a small team, it could use some polish and maybe some updated graphics to put the punch back in the game. Killing Floor receives a well-deserved ninth place.

#8 – Cryostasis

This is a title you might not have heard of. It’s a russian FPS featuring a very novelesque storyline that really rewards the player for thinking through it, and not just spraying bullets randomly. Most russian games have a unique strenght and crippling flaw.. they have great ideas but poor application of them. Oddly, Cryostasis pushes away the crippling flaw and delivers a very polished gameplay experience, with great visuals and an intriguing storyline to boot. Sadly, the story is so deep and complex, that it may be possible for you to finish the game and then wonder what the hell just happened since while it does a great job of telling the story, sometimes it just feels like it’s outside the player’s grasp. Eighth place goes to Cryostasis.

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Blog – So i’ve been killing on the floor this weekend..

Cosmo — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 04:07:22 +0000

.. with Killing Floor. The free offer on Steam and the fact that i had just came off playing and finishing Risen made me try it out. The game is a sort of Counter-Strike meets Left 4 Dead’s Survival mode with the focus on actually surviving rather then meeting a time frame.You have perks you can choose, which are classes/acheivements really, and by completing certain tasks you upgrade the perks, which offer…well… more ‘perks’ in form of additional stats and bonuses which related to the perk/class you upgraded. It offers a goal to strive for and all of the upgrades to the classes are noticeable. We’re not talking 2% more damage.. we’re talking jacking it up all the way to 100% extra damage, weapons 95% cheaper and really, good stuff that really defines a class.

Oddly, enough, the perk/class i gotten the most fun out of was the Medic class, which allowed me to get a gun and fire ‘healing’ darts at my team-mates. Sadly while it does make a significant difference, i noticed people don’t get a confirmation that they were healed by me, so usually they just shrug it off and not notice their health even dropping, or think that self-heal they did totally healed 90 points of damage.

The game is brutally hard, really. Imagine that a team of 6 people, the max you can have in a normal ‘campaign’, even if they’re half decent and know some good spots on the map, are rarely able to finish up a game on Normal difficulty. And normal is the second easiest difficulty in the game! You have Beginner which is pretty much a tutorial mode, made very easy, normal, which is challenging but not unbeatable, hard, which is.. well, very hard, and Suicidal. Suicidal is purely impossible from my point of view without knowing exact locations where to sit, having all people know exactly what to do, and having those people in exactly the right classes, managing funds as optimally as possible.

Overall, the game is decent, but i can’t see myself playing it every day, maybe once or twice a week.. and that doesn’t warrant a purchase. Sorry.

News Roundup 21/10/09 – The Saboteur new trailer!

Cosmo — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 01:39:48 +0000

The Saboteur trailer, Global Agenda interview&pricing, new Aliens vs Predator using DirectX11, Killing Floor free weekend, Lego Universe preview, Surfacescape-play tabletop digitally.

The Saboteur new trailer

Featuring more stealthy-stealthy-boom-boom action, we get another look into the ‘artistically’-styled Saboteur. As much as the game tries to hype me, i really did not see anything new in all the inveterviews and trailers they’ve shown, and get a ‘more of the same’ vibe. Still, these days stealth games are rare, so we might as well make the most of it.

Global Agenda pricing and setup

Global Agent is an upcoming spy-MMORPG that focuses on offering action-orientated gameplay similar to FPS multiplayers while covering it all up in MMO goodness. The ideea of the current interview is that they will offer a retail package, and the possibility to pay for a subscription afterwards. Still.. separating free2play and pay2play has never been a good ideea. The problem is that as much as you try to not make free2play players gimped, you’re going to have to gimp them. In this case, lower max level, no auction house priviledges, no participation in Alliance vs Alliance and a few other tweaks. Half of those options are content, you might want to upgrade to paying to access them, while others are functional, you might want to upgrade so the game just doesn’t piss you off… Auction House is an example of the latter. In the end, as much as they want it otherwise, it will come down to simply ‘if you like it.. then you’ll upgrade, if you don’t, then you’ll stop playing’.

Aliens vs. Predator up on DirectX 11

I told my oppinion on the matter back when Call of Prypiat said it’s going to use it. The differences are too small to warrant the upgraded OS/GPU requirements. We’re slowly hitting that wall of how much HDR, bloom and fancy godrays you can stick in an engine before it just doesn’t offer anymore quality. You either make a game to impress with graphics or you don’t. Crysis and the Cryengine knows what they’re doing and good for them, but for the rest of the lot.. just offer us decent quality, and great scaling performance and we’re good. No need to kill our rigs when we just want to play the actual game. Quoting a guy from the evilavatar link to the newspost.. “DX11 shoots lasers directly from your monitors into your frontal lobe.”

Killing Floor free weekend on Steam

Never tried it? Go ahead and pre-load and be ready. I’ll be spending some time with friends in it, but i think the weekend is reserved for Borderlands. Killing Floor is just a tad too buggy and exploitable for my liking.

Lego Universe preview

Lego Universe is an upcoming MMORPG involving our little block-made friends. From what i read and gathered they’re trying to take the cuteness of games like Lego Star Wars/Lego Indiana Jones into the MMO realm. Everytime i see this happening with the original ideea of a game, i imediately picture the game universe, and guys standing around and yelling “WTS BLUE BLOCK +5 IMAGINATION POINTS!” and “OMG BUILDER CLASS IS GAY! TAKE PIRATE, THEY’RE OP!!!”. So yeah, i don’t know who the game target is, but the 8-14 year olds are playing Runescape and the 14-50’s are playing World of Warcraft.. so that leaves a bit of a steep challange either way. Returning to the matter at hand, i really wish it luck, but a lot of things can go wrong.

Surfacescape bringing tabletop to.. Surface table level

I can see this having amazing potential. It decreases the clog of paperwork, and makes it a tad more accesable to people new. Not to mention the idea of also supporting board games and such which are a lot easier to work with. Really, if the Microsoft Surface did not cost 12.5k $, this would be quite useful to have/bring to your local tabletop/boardgame meeting.

News Roundup 15/10/09 – Killing Floor free weekend!

Cosmo — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 22:45:25 +0000

Killing Floor DLC&free weekend, Stargate Worlds still in freefall, L4D2 Demo and the boycott is dismissed, Torchlight launch date announced, Alpha protocol delay confirmed, CryEngine 3 trailer and a quick 32 minute gameplay vid of Borderlands.

Killing Floor free weekend 22-25 October + DLC

In case you missed it, or got put off by more-painkiller-then-zombies gameplay or purely bad reviews, you get a chance to try it out next week for free on Steam. Ofcourse, no free weekend comes alone, so we’ll be joined by a fresh new DLC for it, “Level Up”. Free co-op shooter?! I’M SO IN!

Stargate Worlds is getting further and further away

This is not really news just a reconfirmation that they’re pretty much screwed financially. To be honest, i tried it a bit back, when it was pretending to be a “closed beta”, and while i can’t divulge much due to the NDA, all i can say is that i was unimpressed. I’m sure they made progress by now, but i doubt this will ever see the light of day. Sad story, not so much for the game, but for the people that worked on it so hard, and with a couple of months without pay on top.

Left 4 Dead 2 boycott campaign abandoned

L4D2’s quick announce after the first installment got a lot of people rattled. Not long after, a Steam group named “L4D2 Boycott” was made, and got to over 50k users as far as i remeber. Still, after getting the two founding members to Valve HQ and giving them a behind the scenes look at it, they came around and decided the campaign reached it’s goal. To assure that L4D1 will still get some love even after it’s .. upgrade.. reaches the scene. For the people that still hold a grudge, check the next news below:

L4D2 Demo details revealed

If you preordered the game, you’ll get to start popping zombies and achieving achievements as soon as October 27′th, if you still think L4D2 is the coming of Satan then feel free to check the world-wide-free-demo on November 3′rd. That’s unless you have a normal Xbox Live account and get to play it on Novemeber 10th, but on this blagh, i decide to totally ignore the fact that consoles exist. So, sorry.. ;p

Torchlight launch date revealed

October 27th’s the day, and ofcourse, on Steam. Seems october-november’s the hotspot this year, last year all bunching up in september. Anyhows, it’s going to be up, competing with Borderlands at a day distance for the heart of action-RPG fans. Which one will you choose? Both? SOLD!

Alpha Protocol delay will happen

We’ve had a newspost a while back hinting to a possibile delay of Alpha Protocol. Now it’s official.. And also, the reason is “best commercial release window possible”. What? Sure, bunch it up with a number of hard-hitters such as Assassin’s Creed and Splinter Cell Conviction, that’ll SURELY increase the chances of selling your game. Don’t launch it in December/January when it’s pretty clear. We’ve proved publishers times and times again, that they SUCK when connecting with the gamer mentality… here’s another ball for the bin.

CryEngine 3 trailer

Oh cry me a river. Of pixels. And vertex lighting. And bump mapping. And god-rays. And super-antialiasing. And bloom. And HDR. That’s a damn nice river. Right?

Wrong.

32 minutes of Borderlands gameplay

I honestly am not getting these TONS of HUGE gameplay videos. Really? I can understand trailers to hype you up and all, but just showing half an hour of gameplay? That’s what the guys that leaked production gameplay videos should be doing, and getting fined for it. It’s the whole idea with the cat and the lenght of string. If you dangle it in front of the cat, it’ll be interested to no end. The moment the cat gets the string, it loses value and leaves it there. Same thing with offering these kinds of gameplay videos. Interesting and useful, but bad.