PlanetWeb Browser 2.0 Demo Information
Toothfairy of DCTP has the new software, and posted his impressions of the game demos included yesterday:
I completely forgot that they had some demos on the disk for the PlanetWeb browser 2.0, so I just popped it in today. The games available are Tomb Raider 4 (groan), Fur Fighters (Yay!), Super Magnetic Neo (what the…), Rail Road Tycoon 2 (ummmm…) and Silver (yes!).
I didn’t finish the demo in TR4, but that’s partially because it is just confusing and too dark. Yes, I can change the brightness of the TV, but I don’t see why I have to constantly fiddle with my TV settings to play a game. Add to that a choppy frame rate, no shadows and a general feeling that the developers ran out of ideas for cool settings, and I know why TR4 didn’t sell that much.
Rail Road Tycoon 2 – I think it was a mistake to bundle that as a demo. This is the kind of game where you need a 50 page manual to understand it, and it’s just incredibly frustrating without it. Beats me what to think of it. I guess it’s pretty much for people who like SimCity or Theme Park.
Super Magnetic Neo….. well, ummm, it’s actually kinda cool. The magnetic stuff changes the gameplay quite a bit, and you end up with a fruity but fun traditional platformer. Think Crash in Candy land with magnetic powers. The humor in there is quite off-the-wall as well…
Now we get to the meat of the demo: Fur Fighters and Silver.
Fur Fighters is a very, very cool game. It just jumped to the top of my buying list, if for no other reason than that it has a 4 person death match mode! It’s a very polished game, and while the controls do take some time to get used to, they do become quite natural after a while. Circle strafing is entirely possible with their setup. Furthermore, they had the foresight to re-center the sight once you let go of the analog stick and start running. No more staring at the sky while trying to run away.
Also, the enemies are quite bright – well, compared to the usual fare at least. Even though their behavior is entirely scripted, they duck, roll and hide with aplomb, to the point that you really feel as if you’re inside a cartoon, and not a doom clone. Puzzles are clever and well pointed out, so there’s no running around trying to find some item or place you overlooked, because you thought it was just eye candy. Then again, they might just try to go easy on us in the first level.
This is definitely a must-have in my list.
Then there’s Silver… it’s essentially like Baldur’s Gate, with a decent plot and voice acting. One problem with it is that it lacks any sort of overhead map, so it is a little difficult at times to figure out where you are and where you’re supposed to go. Furthermore, each area is quite small, which means that you are often looking for ways to exit the area you’re currently in. Since the backgrounds are all pre-rendered, you have to perform the RPG equivalent of cursor-trawling: run everywhere and see if you can use it or interact with it. The other problem is that the scale of the characters is quite small at times. Considering that you actually have to fight your enemies by slashing, lunging, swinging and blocking in real-time, their small size become a major impediment in trying to figure out where you’re aiming. Fight scenes tend to degenerate into some sort of semi-directed button mashing.
In general though, the plot is good, the voice acting ranges from uninspired to competent, and it has a good atmosphere. I might look into buying it if I need a quick RPG fix.
