Monthly Archives: February 2013

Review: Timeshift – Saber Interactive – 360

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Another shooter that got decent-to-good reviews which doesn’t actually deserve decent-to-good reviews. I picked it up cheap both on PC and months and months later for like $12 on 360 (yes, I’m a sucker), and have ended up playing it on the 360, partly because big screen and can’t be arsed installing, but mostly because I was looking for something semi-disposable I could put on and shoot away through while watching DVD commentaries for Goodfellas on the other TV.

Sometimes it takes a game like Timeshift to show just how well done something like Treyarch’s shooting mechanics are done on a game like CoD:WaW, which were criticised somewhat at the time. Seriously, this game’s shooting is shitty compared to WaW. A not-especially-intuitive control scheme doesn’t help either. The plot, such as it is, is told initially using some confusing and badly-paced and written cutscenes involving a magic suit, some scientists, a facility that becomes exploded, and you putting on the suit and being sent back to an alternate-reality 1939. Once there, you’re greeted by Orwellian viewscreens of the glorious leader guy doing his best Half-Life 2 impersonation while you hook up with a resistance group (how do I know they’re not the terrorist insurgents?) and proceed to begin to murder your way through about 9 million near-identical guys for the rest of the game.

This looks pretty unique, doesn’t it?

Yeah, there are only about a half-dozen different enemies. Soldier Guy (with and without helmet, in a few skintones). Worker Guy in jumpsuit (in a few skintones – identical to soldier guy but dies faster), then much later you meet Speedy Guy, Electric Shield Guy, Flying Guy and that’s it unless I’m about to meet some other slight variation on a theme. It’s pretty repetitive.

The 1939 thing is clearly to invoke an allusion to WW2 and the Nazis, and the bad guys you kill a lot of occasionally have a banner with a single Sig Rune on them, so that makes them clearly as bad as Hitler, though tyey also appear to be American, and have full racial integration in their army. Their gear in this alternative-1939 is a mixture of Starship Troopers armour (Verhoven version), Modern M4/203 type rifles, plasma guns, Chewbacca’s Boltcaster which fires explosive sniper bolts, jet packs, laser shields, giant walkers, quad bikes and so forth. You know, just like they had back in ’39. There are a couple of badly-designed airships and a silly looking seaplane, so I guess that’s the Steampunk nod.

Anyway, the gameplay. It’s mostly just a long-feeling very linear repetitive shooter. The game has 24 levels, and I have 6 to go. There’s repetitive shooting in tunnels, industrial areas, that warehouse that’s in every FPS game, several interchangable endless building complexes, some outdoor areas, and some train tunnels. There are pretty frequent puzzles that utilise the game’s point of differentiation, or gimmick – the timeshift device. Basically, you can use it to freeze time, slow it down, reverse it, or heal yourself (!?) Since your character isn’t some indestructible Marcus Fenix-type, you need to pretty much constantly use the slow and freeze abilities while in shootouts, or die. The puzzles aren’t too hard, and range from “Ok that was decent” to “Oh god, boring but tricky but painful.”

Brown, with some grey and some grey-brown to round things off..

Anyway, this is a bog-standard, completely-forgettable shooter with a dog’s breakfast of a plot (I turned the sound off after awhile to better hear the commentary tracks). It’s not short, but due to it’s generic nature, I’m both finding it overlong and wishing it was long-over. This is married to an interesting idea that has potential if it were done by someone like Valve. It’s not a terrible game – I did actually finish it – but by the same token it’s really not worth your time to bother playing when there are so many better things out there. For me, it’s served it’s purpose, as I’ve gotten through 3 DVD commentaries with it. Now it’s done, I’ll probably never look at or even think of it again. In a year or two’s time I might see this post and remember “oh yeah, I played that thing.” Ah well, at least I can say that I started and finished it within a few days!

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Verdict: Don’t bother. There’s better stuff to play.

Realm of Chaos – “Oldhammer” Part 2

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So after the positive feedback I received for the first batch, I thought I’d put up some more of my old Realm of Chaos models for perusal.

First up is a Champion of Slaanesh. This guy is counterpart to the Champion of Khorne (3rd from the top) posted last time, and like the Khornate fellow, was sculpted by Mark Copplestone. This was one of my early attempts are painting properly pastel armour, and I’m still happy with it to this day. When I rebase this guy I’ll have to paint his mouthparts with gloss, though! His shield has a decal – not freehand on this guy.

This guy isn’t especially amazing, but he’s bloody old – predating the RoC books. I’ve included him here partly because of that, and partly because of the freehand on his shield and tabard/groin protector. Funny – even back then, I’d often rise to a good sculpt with one of my better paintjobs, and just try to get it done when on a lesser sculpt.

Technically, this guy isn’t a chaos model at all. it’s actually the Troll figure from the Talisman series. Given his small size (he’s on a 25mm square base) I painted him with flesh tones and called him a beastman, since they had a lot of flexibility of appearance back then. Goat-heads were just one of many types…

Again, not strictly speaking a Chaos model (well, sometimes but not always, depending on packaging over the years!) This familiar was a quick and easy paintjob. and I still have an affection towards the little blighter all these years later.

I don’t recall exactly which range this guy came from, and until I rebase him down the line I don’t plan to pry him off the base to find out. I suspect that he might be from the old Night Horror line. The Night Horror figures were a Citadel Fantasy figure sub-range that included all of the typical Hammer Horror-type figures – vampires, mummies, werewolves, etc – as well as tombstones and gargoyles and other odds and ends, both scenic and character-based. I drilled into the base of the decapitated guy’s head and left a pin hanging out, which I put some droppy gloss PVA onto, along with some segmented paint to represent spinal column, and of course, some blood.

Aside from all that – he makes a fine beastman!

An actual Beastman this time. I’m still happy with how his face and teeth turned out and still mildly annoyed at how his shield hides it all. The drybrushing on his chest is a little rough, but I’ve never noticed that before posting up this picture. Isn’t it wonderful how large photos magnify all the minor flaws in our painting and make them look huge and hideous?

One of my favourite beastmen of the day. I still really like the figure and sculpt, the paintwork I did, and the freehand on his shield (no decals involved at all here). If I had to criticise my own work here, I’d perhaps point out how the clean and bright shield doesn’t quite gel with the more grungy figure holding onto it.

Lastly for this round, an old Champion of Nurgle, sculpted by Jes. It looks a little shitty in the picture, but the armour is deliberately corroded and messed up looking – and it looks quite decent in person. Note the early version of the symbol of Nurgle on his gutplate and helmet. I always wondered about that, and wasn’t in the slighted bit surprised when it got changed to three circles/flies/etc.