Amnesia: A Machine For Pigs

I began playing last night and thought I would make a quick post on my first impressions, the first thing I noticed about this new instalment is that it feels dumbed down a little as far as mechanics are concerned, for example the signature lantern no longer requires a supply of oil, I found this odd to begin with but then I realised that the darkness was not making my character insane any-more.
After realising the dark no longer poses a threat it makes sense that the lamp has infinite power as clamouring around in the dark for oil and tinder-boxes would feel utterly stupid and a waste of time.

Now do not let the simplification of mechanics here put you off playing, because as before Amnesia truly shines when it comes to it's terrific sound design and writing, the plot this time around feels much more established and adult, touching on religion, monetisation and industrial issues in Victorian society. As before the diaries and notes are back and work as a great supplement to the story and sending chills down your spine in fear of what is to come.


One downside to Amnesia is that textures are rather flat and bland in places, which removes you from the experience, this along with glitches like the player climbing the walls when you back into them, and enemies not ever leaving your vicinity forcing you to reload to proceed, now the latter two issues i am sure will be corrected through a patch, but I can't help wishing the visuals where a little more impressive, especially after playing the gorgeous Outlast.

I will have more on Amnesia when I complete it. Here are a few links for reference.

Trailer:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cm_cNilIvgs
Steam Page:
http://store.steampowered.com/app/239200/
IGN review:
http://uk.ign.com/articles/2013/09/10/amnesia-a-machine-for-pigs-review

Outlast, my first impressions

Yesterday I began playing a new horror title known as Outlast brought to us by the talented team at Red Barrels, for those of you who haven't heard of  them, the team consists of designers whose previous works include Assassins Creed, Splinter Cell and the Prince of Persia series. On top of this Outlast is one of the first Unreal Engine 4 games, it looks great, texture resolution, lighting and particle effects all look gorgeous. If this sort of quality can be achieved with relatively new software I have high hopes from what we can expect games later down the line when the software can be used to it's maximum potential.

Immediately Outlast triggers memories of playing Amnesia: The Dark Descent, from the use of dynamic lighting, chilling audio cues and your complete weakness as a player, Outlast clearly takes inspiration from Amnesia and other older horror classics like the Silent Hill series, and rather than simply trying to emulate those titles it takes the genre in a direction of it's own which feels new and interesting.

If you haven't played Amnesia and you are a fan of horror go
pick it up on steam before the sequel is released on Sept 10th.

I have only played around one hour of the game so far, and I have heard if you are fairly quick at beating it the game will last around four hours; so this post is in no means a review.
From what I have gathered so far you play a reporter sent to investigate a series of strange events at an Asylum, this approach allows the game to introduce the video camera mechanic without it feeling ham-fisted.
Basically you use the video camera to document your finding, akin to the mementos in Amnesia, except unlike Daniel your character will not document his thoughts unless you have the camera out at the time. This I really enjoy about Outlast as I find myself  sweeping every inch of the beautifully detailed asylum looking for clues, reminds me of playing Metroid Prime and scanning absolutely every item.

In addition to this the camera also has a infra-red mode meaning in Outlast there are no torches or lanterns, just your trusty camera, such a simple change makes a huge difference to the atmosphere of the entire game, the eerie green hue an hum of the camera replace the flicker and crack of a flame perfectly, as this would have felt rather out of place in Outlast; and don't even get me started on how the game makes you feel when your trapped in a dark room and your cameras batteries begin to beep and die out.

I'm going to finish up this post with a video link to the game trailer for you guys. I will be posting my full review of Outlast once I have completed the entire game. Enjoy.