The Good, the Bad, and the Videogame

LA Noire: The Good, the Bad, and the Vice

2011-07-21T14:55:00.001-07:00

I actually finished LA Noire 3 weeks ago, but just haven't had the time to do my write-up on it. The game itself had caught my attention early on because not only was it an open world game from Rockstar, but it also had you playing as 1940's police officer in Los Angeles. The golden days of Hollywood, and the height of police corruption in the Golden State. Needless to say that as a fan of film noire, fedoras, and the 1940's I was intrigued. The question is though, is LA Noire the beginning of a beautiful relationship, or just a petrified forest?

SYNOPSYS

You are Cole Phelps, recent discharge of the USMC turn LAPD cop. Starting as a beat cop you will work your way up through the police ranks through the scum and low life of the LA criminal underworld. Along the way you will come across colorful partners, criminals who will test your deductive skills, and a plot of corruption the sinks to the very foundations of the city itself.

THE GOOD

There has been much touting about the facial capture system that was developed for the game, and I have to say that praise is well earned. Every nuance of the actors is captured perfectly to allow the player to be able to read subtle details to identify if they are telling the truth, withholding information, or outright lying to you. This is actually a core part of the game itself as you must conduct interrogations of witnesses and suspects in order to gain information to progress on your current case. Use the wrong method and the person may clam up, or not give you the information that you need. Along with the interrogation there is crime scene investigation where you have to examine evidence, find clue and look for the subtle details that can make or break a case. This evidence becomes the ammunition you will then use in your interrogations, and allow you to outsmart your quarry.

The game is not all static investigation; in most cases you will have 'Action' sequences that can range from chasing down a suspect on foot or in your car, shoot outs, fist fights, even stealthy tailing a suspect to learn more information. You will also have random dispatch calls about street crimes happening in the world that you can respond to, most of these tend to be short action sequences, but provide a nice ambient challenge during a case.

The world itself is a faithful reproduction of 1947 North LA and Hollywood up to the LA river. Details range from building that no longer exist, the Pacific Electric Redcar lines, even locations that weren't even developed yet. Having been to LA many times in my life I can tell you that while some parts were very familiar, others I just barely recognized because of how much they had changed in 70 years.

Many people have been complaining about the game not allowing you to do random shooting sprees, run down every pedestrian you see, or other general bit of mayhem. What they fail to grasp is that LA Noire is not Grand Theft Studebaker; it is a detective game, you are a cop, you're job is to maintain public order, not create total anarchy and break the laws you are sworn to uphold. Many people saw that the publisher was Rockstar and that it was an open world game and automatically assumed it was just 1940's GTA, it isn't. The game is about deduction, critical thinking and plot advancement, not chaos, destruction, and popping a cap in a hooker you just solicited.

THE BAD

As mentioned before, this is a deduction game, and critical thinking for clues and interrogation is key. Part of this comes back to interpreting the facial gestures of suspects, how evidence is linked to the case, filtering red herrings, and using some good old fashion intuition. If you can't do this, you'll need to use walk-throughs. Along these lines also with most interrogations there is only one correct interrogation path; though getting a few questions wrong is not a game ender, it does change how the case progresses.

One of my biggest pet peeves in the game is that when you are chasing suspects on foot or in a car no matter how fast you go they will be able to just keep ahead of you or catch up to you over long distances. Mind you, this is a classic pet peeve of mine from the days of the arcade racers because besides violating the laws of physics, it feels like you are being forced along a scripted sequence.

A common complaint is actually that even the the game is open world, the storyline is quite linear. Once you are on a case you can only progress by following the chain of investigation, action and interrogations that have been set out for you. You do have the ability to roam freely in the game, however this is basically site seeing, or easter egg hunting for all the hidden film reels, landmarks, or badges.

THE UGLY

Well, consider this for a moment: its 1947 LA, and you play as a cop who handles everything from Traffic to Vice cases. There are naked corpses, racist language, drugs, sex, booze, profanity, gore, even child prostitution. In the games defense, you are trying to stop most of this, however the developers pulled no punches with the reality of the times.

CONCLUSION

The game has a spectacular polish to it, however it is aimed more at the story driven gamer over the action/multiplayer online gamer. Voice acting, and character acting is film quality with several acclaimed actors putting on excellent performances. Gameplay is challenging, but more inline with an old school adventure game than a modern sandbox chaos fest. The world is very deep for those who wish to delve into it, however for those looking for a frag fest they will be bored quickly.

An excellent game and a fine example of gaming as art, but not for everyone. I loved it, but I know that there are many who wouldn't.

HIGHLY recommended.

2011-06-23T17:44:00.000-07:00

Portal 2: the Good, the Bad, and the Lemons

Following up on my last posting about catching up with reviews I am now doing my write-up for Portal 2. Now, if any of you have read my previous review of The Orange Box you'd know that I really liked Portal, but didn't like how short it was. I was rather surprised when Valve announce that Portal 2 was its own stand alone expansion and that it was going to be “Twice as long” as the original. With these in mind, I sat down to Portal 2 on my PS3 with my companion cube, a piece of cake, and humming Still Alive. It's go time.

THE GOOD

Portal 2 had a lot to live up to from the first game. Graphically Portal 1 was rather bland, however the development team must have sat back and said “Yeah, we can make it look better”, because they did just that. The boring white test chambers have been replaced by a world that nature has partially retaken. In the beginning of the game the whole of Aperture Science has been overgrown and decaying from years, if not centuries of neglect. The pallet doesn't just follow this design either, as in the bowels of the facility you come across test labs from the 50's, 60's and 70's; as well as the reconstructed and cavernous test labs that make up the heart of the modern Aperture Science.

Gameplay is still the same usage of portals to traverse and physics obstacle course. Added to this mix is the addition of color gels that let you change the properties of a surface, lasers for powering switches, hard light bridges and tractor beam emitters for moving items, gels, or even yourself. The gels add a unique puzzle element because they can be used to make a surface bounce you like Flubber, accelerate you like a race track, or place portals on surfaces not normally usable. Added to this is using the portal gun, tractor beams, and even basic gravity in order to apply the gels in a manner to let you proceed forward.

The story itself starts off with you meeting a new AI core, named Wheatley. Wheatley is a nice change from the GlaDOS AI who seems to be hell bent in killing you in a very passive aggressive fashion. He is more of a lovable goof-ball who lacks common sense, or any real ability, but makes up for it with gusto and ambition. This also leads into your introduction to Cave Johnson in the old test labs in the bottom of the facility. Through recording made over the years for different test projects (i.e. insane experiments for the sake of insane experiments), you can start to build a picture of the company through the 30 years of 'Science' they perform. This also gives you insight into the origins of the GlaDOS AI that has been your taunter and tormentor since the first game.

One of the unique features of the PS3 version of the game is that it actually links to Steam and allows you to download a PC version of the game for free as part of this link, and allows you to share Steam and PS3 achievement/trophies from whichever format you are playing. Along with this comes the 2 player Co-op mode where you are a friend (or random stranger) play as two bots created by GlaDOS and use two player portal usage to complete your own small storyline in the series.

THE BAD

The most common complaint about the game is that on the PC version there are a series of downloadable items one can purchase with real money for visual add-ons to the Co-op bots. They change nothing about the game, but cost between $2 and $6 bucks for visual comical items.

Puzzles in the old section of the test labs can be challenging as well since the large environments and sometimes hard to spot portal location can frustrate the casual gamer, along with that there is only one way to solve the puzzles and you need to hit it correctly in order to proceed.

While not a problem with the game itself, this is also worth mentioning. Shortly after the release of Portal 2 the PSN network went down for a 3 week period, and for those with the PS3 version and no gaming PC the Co-op game was completely locked out for them, causing quite a stir among online gamers and people reviewing the game on marketplace forms.

THE UGLY

Nothing. Seriously, the game is rated T and up, and has no mature content of any kind in it.

Seriously.

CONCLUSION

Portal 2 is a fun game with many hours worth both a first time play through and repeat play-through for the challenging puzzles, the witty dialog and the well told story. The puzzles are challenging and when solved will give the player a feeling of accomplishment as well as a wicked brain cramp at times. Co-op is well implemented with greater challenges in the puzzles that require team work, but also with hilarious dialog from GlaDOS in her comments to both robots, and long with the robots' child like enthusiasm in their task.

This game is a Must Buy.

Crysis 2: The Good, the Bad and the Nanotech

2011-06-13T22:12:00.000-07:00

It's been a while since I've done a review, mostly because life has been catching up with me, making my review writing up time very limited. In this time I've had a chance to play several games, including some major releases, such as the one I'm reviewing now. In the past, Crysis was considered the Gold Standard at testing a computer on its capabilities for processing and video rendering. This was in part due to subtle details of environmental physicals, particle details, lighting, rendered detail, and the massive scale that the maps had. When it was announced that Crysis 2 was coming to consoles as well as the PC, well, I was a little skeptical to say the least. The question is; did it live up to the original Crysis, or is it a pale shadow of its progenitor?

THE GOOD

Crysis 2 follows the path of the first game of make it real, and make it gritty. Moving from the Philippines to New York City we find yourself in a world under siege. Gone is the KPA from the first game, and instead they are replaced by a private security company employed by the in-game designers on the Nanosuit. The Nanosuit itself has been given both graphical and technical upgrades, including a thermal 'nanotech' vision, speed and strength skills being blended into a single 'Power' ability, being able to make running slides to improve visceral combat, and the ability to upgrade talents within the armor itself by collecting nanotech samples from the Ceph aliens.

Story wise the game is well paced; with in game cinematic moments that engage the player but do not force you into a control locked cinematic sequence. Music is scored more like a film to help build the tension in firefights, or stealth objectives, and keep the adrenaline high when you need it. Added to this is the familiar New York locations being seen in the light of total war from both the alien invasion, the alien plague, and the in-fighting of the US military and the PMC faction. The game also takes a much more vertical approach to the environment, giving you the option to vault between buildings and structures, and pull yourself up for new strategic options.

Part of the new scope function in the game is the classic ability to highlight enemies and vehicles so you can track their movements, but also being able to highlight weapon caches, strategic positions, objectives, and options for combat. Along with this also comes the new Alien infantry types who are no longer 'flying squid robots' but well armed infantry who vary from standard shock trooped, to armored assault units, even walking tanks and aerial gunships. Each has their own strengths, and weaknesses and require strategic use of both the nano-suit and weapons at hand in order to take them down.

THE BAD

My first complaint to the game is you can only carry 2 weapons; not just 2 rifle weapons and a pistol, but 2 weapons period. You would think that with a multi-billion dollar, advanced prototype nanotech weapon suit that they would at least include a leg holster for a pistol as a back-up weapon... You know, kind of like what they had in the first Crysis. This is also a complaint I've had with the Halo series, but at least in that you can dual-wield pistols and SMG weapons from Halo 2 forward. No such luck here.

Secondly, the game very much feels like it was made for consoles first, then ported over to the PC. The maps are rather small, very linear, and lack the true 'open' feeling that the first Crysis had. Case in point, in Crysis 1 you had an early missions of "You are here" and you had to get to the other side of the coast by using whatever route, method and combat/stealth strategy you wanted. In Crysis 2, it is more of follow the corridor, enter open area, see that you only have 3-4 options presented to you in this combat arena, and then lather, rinse, repeat. For a game series and a developer who have prided themselves in large scale, open combat style this was very disappointing. Along with this game the total redesign of the alien Ceph. We no longer see their trademark cold based weapons from Crysis 1, or their aerial attack squids. They play more like the human enemies and seems like a complete and total departure from the aliens in the first game.

Along with the changes mentioned early about the modifications down to speed and strength, they also modified the armor ability. Before, armor was the default setting for the suit; you run out of juice, system kicks over to armor mode while your power regenerates. Now armor mode slows you down and constantly drains energy from your suit; making you a slow moving target that can only take a few hits in combat before you zero out on power. In the multiplayer part of the game, it seems all but useless. Having spent several hours playing the multiplayer just to get a complete feel for it, I can tell you that even in armor mode it sometimes seems like 2 or 3 direct hits from an SMG or assault rifle will go right through armor mode, and kill you. Basically the same effect as if you didn't have it on at all.

This makes a good lead into my multiplayer complaints. First off, the multiplayer is basically Call of Duty 4 with nanotech armor. Let me see if this sounds familiar: Small close quarter combat maps - Check, Skill perks - check, Kill streak skills - Check, skill levels that unlock new weapons - Check. When I first started playing it, I kept thinking that 2007 called, they want their idea back. It is so much like the multiplayer game play of Call of Duty that it almost feels like a direct rip-off. The injury to the insult of it was on the PC version on release there were already people using hacks to give unlimited nanopower in multiplayer, with no apparent fixes from EA or Crytek until several weeks after release. At that point the damage had already been done, and people lost interest in playing it.

THE UGLY

In this case, we have people dying of a nanotech plague and being liquified by alien technology. Some language issues, but in all no worse than your average summer action flick.

CONCLUSION

This game had a lofty pedigree to live up to, sadly it doesn't measure up. The game is limited by working within the constraints of being playable on consoles as well as the PC, environments are linear, multiplayer is about as generic and over done as one can get, and the feel is that of a 2nd unit production over a 1st line director.

The story is well told however, and the single player is fun to play, but feels more like a Micheal Bay movie in compared to the J.J. Abrams feeling of the first game.

In the end, rent for your console, get some achievements/trophies, but it's just not worth buying.

Halo: Reach – The Good, the Bad and the Fall

2010-09-22T12:22:00.001-07:00

As some of you may know, I’ve been a fan of the Halo series for a few years now; played all the games, read all the books, even have some swag as décor in my apartment. The series has had a good long run over the last decade, starting as an RTS for the Mac, being converted into an FPS for a launch title for the Xbox, and creating a huge sci-fi mythology involving the war between humanity, the alien Covenant, and the Forerunner legacy that links to two sides. The game does have an equal number of critics over the years as well; people who were upset that the player could only carry 2 weapons at a time (in the days when carrying 7 or 12 pound weapons in a game seemed common), others claimed that the multiplayer game types were derivative and uninspired, and even more so some people claimed that the game taught children to become mindless, blood thirsty killers. The game, however, has become an icon on the console generation, LAN Parties, and social gaming since it was first released. Halo Reach is to be the last Halo game from Bungie studios, and afterwards Microsoft may create new games for it, but so far we don’t know. Since it is the last one from Bungie will it be their swan song, or a flash in the pan?

SYNOPSIS

Humanity has been at war with the Covenant for 30 years, slowing being pushed back world by world, system by system by a highly advanced collection of aliens in a religious fervor over the destruction of humanity. You, as a Spartan-III class super soldier part of a blacker than black squad attached to Office of Naval Intelligence (ONI) must make a stand on planet Reach, the last step for the Covenant before the inner colonies and Earth. Your enemies’ mission is clear: extermination of all souls on the planet, but they never expected the fierce defenses you are your squad are ready to bring to ensure the survival of your very species. Suit up Spartan, and be the soldier you were bred to be.

THE GOOD

First off Bungie created a whole new engine for Reach; and it makes the graphics in Halo 3 and ODST pale in comparison. For example, the trusty assault rifle has been completely retooled to give it a more visually robust look with intricate details taken from real world inspiration. Environments and landscapes also were given a polish to give lived in look to the world with everything from foliage to a more naturalistic look to civilian residences and structures that you come across in the world. Even classic enemies that we all know and are familiar with were given an overhaul and help bring back the menace of the Covenant from the first Halo game.

New weapons have also been added for both sides, ranging from the grenade launcher for the humans, the return of the scoped pistol, a needler rifle that replaces the old Halo 2 carbine, to a Covenant plasma launcher that when charged fires multiple explosive rounds that track infantry and vehicles alike. Hyped during the multiplayer Beta on Xbox live, the armor function ability in campaign and multiplayer give a new aspect for how one can play. The armor abilities replace the equipment from Halo 3, and allow the player to do everything from boost their running speed, lock their armor so they don’t take damage for several seconds, engage a radar jamming cloak, create a holographic decoy of themselves or even fly using a limited jet pack. There was also a new ‘assassination’ move added to both campaign and multiplayer that allows the player to hold their melee button when attacking an enemy from behind and will give them a short killing move sequence as you take them out.

As a Spartan-III in the game you need to remember that you aren’t Master Chief from previous games and don’t have some of his strengths. Let me explain to those new to the series. Master Chief was a Spartan-II. He was 7’4”, stronger than a bull, had heavier armor, stronger shields, and moved faster than a Spartan-III would. The II’s were genetically superior and trained to be elite soldiers from age 5, and augmented heavily at 15 to make the better than any human. The III’s were war orphans from the Covenant war who were less than ideal candidates for augmentation process, and therefore are not the 7 foot tall powerhouses that the S-II’s were. The image below will show the difference in size between you and the Covenant Elites.

The new VTOL Falcon in the game functions much in the same way as a Vietnam era UH-1 Huey Gunship with 2 mounted gunnery positions and a chin turret in campaign and acts as both a ferry in some points or flyable in other places as well. One of the features I particularly like about the falcon is altitude lock, where when you press the Right bumper the game will retain your relative vertical height so you don’t have to constantly fight to maintain your altitude in battle. The covenant banshee also received a bit of tweaking, having removed the engine pods from the wing tips and made the fuel rod cannon as a secondary weapon that can be changed at will. Added to the alien vehicles is the Revenant type assault vehicle which is half Wraith Tank, and have Ghost quick attack vehicle. It has a light plasma mortar that is controllable by the driver, but the speed and boost function of a lighter vehicle with a passenger seat for fire support.

Even though Firefight was added into the game during ODST, Bungie decide that it could (and needed to be) improved and added a match making system to it (finally), as well as the ability to create custom skulls to be used as the match continued. They also allowed for custom settings of what type of enemy arrives in each wave, customizable player shield strength, heath, weapons, damage, speed, and abilities. It is possible, in fact, to create a Spartan that is immortal, with triple over shields, 300% damage, can jump 120 feet, run faster than the road runner, and have weapons that don’t reload. I know, because I did for some achievement hunting.

One of the new set pieces in the game is the Sabre battle in space. Aircraft combat is not a new thing in Halo, as we’ve had Banshees and Hornets in previous games; however, this is the first time they’ve taken it into space. The Sabre itself is reminiscent of the fighters from Wing Commander and is armed with auto cannons, tracking missiles, shields, and a regenerating armor ‘health’ system. Even though it is only two short missions it is a nice change from the ground battles that Halo is famous for, and adds a new, larger scale to how the war is playing out.

The update Forge system improves upon several of the shortcoming from Halo 3, including being able to settle and object within the terrain or other objects, minute adjustment tools so you can change the X, Y and X axis of an item and the new “Forge World” map. Forge world is a HUGE map that has multiple islands, land masses and areas that can be used to create whatever kind of combat area you want, including being able to dock items in the sides of mountains, in land masses, even in the water. For those who wanted an environment to play with in forge this is truly it.

The musical score gets a special note here from me as it also takes a new direction for the series. Halo: Combat Evolved used a sweeping, orchestra soundtrack with elements of rock in it to give that blockbuster film feeling, while ODST used a more somber jazz audio narrative to tell the story of the rookie. Reach uses a much more percussive tone for combat but also a feeling of desperation to reinforce what we all know going into the game; the planet is going to fall and millions are going to die by Covenant weapons, and all we can to is delay the inevitable.

THE BAD

For people who are not fond of the series this section will just reinforce what you don’t like. As mentioned before you are not as strong as the Master Chief in previous games, so your melee attacks do less damage against brutes and elites, hunters are faster than you are, your shields take more damage on higher difficulty levels, and you need to use health packs if your health gets to low levels. On the Heroic difficulty or higher this is very noticeable as the higher ranking elites take ridiculous amounts of damage to their shields before they finally collapse, and hunters seem like an invincible monster as you can no longer just spray them with bullets as their armor deflects most weapons.

Even though you have allies that can be used in combat most are not as aggressive as the enemies can be and tend not be a contributing factor in combat. In fact there are times when if you use an AI driver on a vehicle they tend to get stuck or lost and are more trouble than they are worth. Added to this that on the higher difficulty enemies are very accurate with their weapons and excessively trigger happy, and more often than not they tend to focus solely on you instead of your allies.

Like with ODST there are section that are set up to follow the Firefight scenario of hold a position while enemy drop ships ferry infantry and armor in to take you out. Pretty much every level has one of these in some way or another and they get to be a familiar annoyance. This leads nicely to a wish for the system when using Forge mode. When creating a forge map it would be nice to create a firefight scenario in Forge World or other maps that allow you to choose what type of drop ships come in and where, allowing you to tailor make your own last stand.

One minor complaint I have is that some of the armor types can only be unlocked by using Halo Waypoint, which normally involves reaching certain achievements in Halo 3, and Halo 3: ODST. Mind you, getting credits to purchase armor can be done either in campaign or in multiplayer, for those who have not been playing Halo religiously will not be able to get some of these armor styles.

THE UGLY

As mentioned before, the game is about the genocide of an entire planet and the tone is equally dark. Early on you come across civilians and soldiers who have been murdered and tortured by the Covenant to which even your squad mate comments that it’s a ‘nasty piece of work’. The Flood is absent from the game, however in more than one section you will come across unarmed civilians who the enemy will massacre without mercy, and it is possible to kill these civilians as well, either intentionally or by a missed shot. Enemies also still bleed in day glow colors when shot, which has been a standard in the series since day one.

CONCLUSION

In my opinion if Halo was Combat Evolved, then Reach is Combat Refined. The worlds have been given a greater depth than seen in previous titles. Combat has been made challenging but rewarding. New weapons allow for game play changes, and the updated Forge and Firefight system give players a new level of game play possible. The story, while darker than previous titles, is well told and well orchestrated and creates a nice segue way leading towards the first game.

HIGHLY Recommended.

Monkey Island 2: LeChuck’s Revenge SE - The Good, the Bad, and the Undead

2010-08-31T13:25:00.001-07:00

Continuing on this Ron Gilbert/Monkey Island trend I’m reviewing the second special edition release of the Monkey Island Series, LeChuck’s Revenge. Considered by many to be the best in the Monkey Island series for the twists in its plot and the puzzles whose solution can span multiple islands the original game itself used a more robust render system found in later games like Sam and Max, and Full Throttle. Like with the original Monkey Island, the team at Lucasarts gave this one a complete overhaul and brought it from the VGA generation to the nVidia age gamers of today. One does have to wonder: Does it work, or is this a game that should have stayed in the 16 bit world?

SYNOPSIS

It’s been two years since you, Guybrush Threepwood Mighty Pirate, defeated the evil Ghost Pirate LeChuck. Since then you’ve made a fortune in booty from pirating, broke up with your girlfriend Elaine, trying to grow a beard, and looking for the mysterious treasure of “Big Whoop”. After you get robbed blind by LeChuck’s former henchman, Largo LeGrange and unwittingly provide the crucial ingredient to resurrect the former Ghost pirate you have to set things right. All you need to do is defeat a murderous, blood thirsty zombie, find the impossibly hidden “Big Whoop”, and make-up with you ex-girlfriend who is more than likely to shoot you on sight. Easy, right?

THE GOOD

Like with the last Monkey Island SE the graphics received a full polish from the pixilated style of the original release. The cartoony style of the original series was retained well in the conversion, down to the goofy double takes of Guybrush, and the inexplicable logic for items and puzzles. Some of the new changes made in the game include being able to control the character movement directly by using the left thumb stick, a hint system for when you get stuck, and a highlighting system to show you items that can be picked up in the game.

The game play in this game actually takes place over three islands through the first half of the game requiring you to solve puzzles on one that may require you get items or materials from other islands in order to proceed. These can range from checking out books at the library on Phatt Island, to getting “Near Grog” from one pirate on Booty Island in order to use it on Phatt Island, and so on. With that said, the game play is very much the same as the first Monkey Island game, albeit without the insult sword fighting. Anyone who has played a graphic adventure game will be familiar with the system of combing items in ones inventory to solve puzzles and for ones own personal amusement just to see if they will combine out not.

THE BAD

This comes back to the fact that some of the logic for a few puzzles requires you to follow a specific path of thought in order to figure the problem out. The hint system does make this easier, however if you are a new hand to this game you’ll probably get stuck in a few places. The new control system using the left thumb stick down have some issues where it has trouble converting the 2D environment to the exact motion you are trying to make Guybrush walk.

THE UGLY

This part is identical to the last Monkey Island review. Some cartoon mischief, fictional alcohol, and a Zombie pirate. All in all, nothing major.

CONCLUSION

This is another one of those “blast from the past” games for me from the days where graphic adventures were king, comedy was cartoony ridiculous, and it was all about thinking rather that just blasting away like the Terminator. In my rather biased opinion this is a great game for someone who is tired of the twitch fest games and are looking for a good laugh, a good adventure, and to fulfill their own goofy pirate adventure fantasy.

HIGHLY Recommended.

The Secret of Monkey Island: Special Edition - The Good, the Bad, and the Voodoo

2010-08-26T10:24:00.000-07:00

So, we are on a Ron Gilbert trend here, as the next reviews will be for Monkey Island 1, Monkey Island 2, and Tales of Monkey Island. I’m just getting through my back log of Xbox 360 titles, as well as episodic titles I’ve been playing in my free time. I do go into this review stating that I have been a long time fan of the Monkey Island series since I was in the 8th grade and got a bundle of free software from a friend of my parents. In retrospect I blame them for my particular love of videogames, particularly for the nearly forgotten Graphic Adventure genre. Time to settle down for some nostalgia, open up a root beer, and find out the Secret of Monkey Island me hearties, argh...

SYNOPSIS

You are Guybrush Threepwood: Mighty Pirate… well, actually wanna-be Mighty Pirate, but nothing will stop you in your quest to become the Mightiest Pirate in the Caribbean. Whether it be the three trials of pirate hood, a Ghost pirate wanting your death, the beautiful Governor Elaine Marley, or the ever enigmatic 3-Headed Monkey this is a quest for a brave soul with nerves of steel and whose wits are sharper than their sword. Since they weren’t available it’s time for Guybrush to step up and become the Mighty Pirate that he thinks he is.

THE GOOD

So, being that this is actually game from the Golden age of PC gaming (see Amiga) that has been recreated for the Xbox Live, Playstation Network, and the PC as well the only change that has been done from the classic game is a graphical and audio update, as well as a new interface as well. The new changes bring the old pixilated graphics to a easier to view (and better resolution) art style influenced heavily by the original concept art as well as the in game art from the original game. There is also an option for you to switch back to the classic mode if you are feeling nostalgic or if you were born before 1990 and never saw what the original game looked like… and yes, we really did play games that looked like this, and we thought it was awesome looking.

On the audio front all the original in game music was re-mastered with live instruments and the voice actors from the curse of Monkey Island returned to reprise their roles for their characters. While the game is a faithful recreation of the Secret of Monkey Island, the developers also decided to clean up some of the rougher elements from the original; such as the docks area which was rather bland in the first game, as well as the inventory interface being more controller friendly than original one.

The game is all about using your head and a cartoon sense of logic in order to figure out the puzzles you come across. The insult sword fighting was also faithful recreated with all the jabs, taunts, and insults acted out faithfully and with the right level of ridiculous bravado that the series demands. For those who didn’t play the original; line up to be beaten here… no, I mean for those who never played the original game it is divided into four parts: your Quest for the Three Trials, your attempt to get to Monkey Island, Monkey Island itself, and the ending finale (a.k.a Guybrush Kicks Butt).

THE BAD

OK, if you are a twitch gamer who believe that Halo, abusive trash talking and excessive amount of Mountain Dew are required in order be called a gamer then don’t bother playing this; in fact I’d prefer if you drowned in a puddle of Mountain Dew , but that’s another matter. Puzzles in the game require you to use the correct item in the correct way in order to proceed, which sometimes when you get stuck my end up with you trying to use everything in your inventory until you figure out how the developers wanted you to do in order to proceed. The Insult Sword fighting can also be tedious to go through and collect all the correct taunts and come-backs in order to be able to defeat the Swordmaster, but far less than, say, grinding for 3 hours in WoW in order to level.

THE UGLY

Considering that this is a direct remake of a game from 1990 there isn’t much to talk about here. No foul language, no sexual content, semi-fictional alcohol (grog, it eats through metal), and the only people that die in it are already dead.

CONCLUSION

It’s a funny game of the golden age of computer gaming where humor, plot, and puzzles were king, before the twitch gaming of Doom took over the market place. I am admittedly biased on this as it was a pivotal point of turning me into a gamer, and holds a special place in my heart next to Full Throttle, Grim Fandango, Quest for Glory, Kings Quest.

I Highly Recommend this if you like a good laugh, a good puzzle, or can’t get your old floppies of the game to work on your Windows 7 machine.

Deathspank: The Good, the Bad, and the Thong

2010-08-24T09:47:00.000-07:00

I fully admit to being an old school gamer from the days before Doom 1 was released in 1993. Games from the golden age of Lucas Arts Such as Sam and Max, The Monkey Island series, Loom, Full Throttle, and Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis were the bread and butter of my core gaming experience in high school and elementary school. With that said, Deathspank comes from Hothead games, known most recently for the 2 Penny Arcade games, and Ron Gilbert, the wacky mind behind The Secret of Monkey Island. It is a top view Brawler in the tradition of Diablo with an over the top level of cartoon logic twisted humor. The question is: does it pull off the look, or fail with an atomic wedgie?

SYNOPSIS

You Are Deathspank! Mighty Purple Thong wearing hero, Champion to the people, righter of wrongs, punisher of evil do-ers, and biggest self-absorbed ham this side of an American Idol contest. When a prophecy tells you that you must recover an ancient artifact call “The Artifact” you embark of a heroic journey of pummeling bad-guys, out houses, demon poop, and many, many orphans.

THE GOOD

Considering who this game is from, it’s a given that the humor on in borders somewhere between wacky and wet your pants funny. The voice of Deathspank himself sounds like The Tick from the Fox cartoon series (bloated ego included) and the conversations between characters in game are just laugh out loud funny in the level of sheer random insanity of what people say. This can range from an old adventurer who regularly breaks the 4th wall talking about RPG stats and quest logs to the farmer who needs you to literally beat the crap out of demons to fertilize his farm.

Combat in the game is classic brawler style with the four thumb pad buttons being assigned to a specific weapon, and the D-pad with support items such as potions, “bomb” weapons, and food items to recharge heath. In classic brawler fashion you regularly receive tons of weapon, armor and support items from random drops from slain enemies, as well as leveling your character from greater attack power, speed, money drops, and other stats. Health is regained either from potions you can find/buy or by eating foods also found/bought in the game. These include things such as fries, cheese burgers, pizza, Root beer, nachos… Hmmm…. Sounds like my fridge actually… creepy. Ahem, moving on, when using these you will hear Deathspank scarf down his snack, and if you area attacked or attack in that time you will only get a partial restoration of health.

Save points in game are in the form of outhouses across the world… yes, outhouses. They also act as a quick transportation system as well, but I don’t think I really want to know how that works. Dying in battle restores you to the nearest outhouse with ¼ of full health, normally far enough from enemies that you can take a moment to sneak a snack or two and rethink the strategy that got you pummeled like a one legged man in a butt kicking contest. There is a block system in the game; however it’s only really effective when facing off with single enemies rather than a mob of them. Some weapons are also capable of doing special attacks when your Justice meter is fully charged such as a spin attack, ground smash, chain lighting and so on.

THE BAD

First off, I’ll say that if you aren’t a fan of Diablo, brawler games, or strange humor this game will be lost on you on most levels. At its core these are the three biggest features of the game itself and its main selling point. Along with this is that like with any RPG or dungeon crawler game there is a lot of fetch quests to be found for every random villager and stranger you come across. These range from just kill a certain number of enemies, to figure out how to make a unicorn poop rainbows (no joke).

Enemies can sometimes also vary from being underpowered to painfully overpowered, requiring you to level accordingly in order to proceed. Exploration is a large component of the game, however for the most part it feels like a very linear path that regularly has you traverses the entire map to go back to the main village in order complete quests or pick new ones up. There are also no markers on the main map menu to show locations, only on the close up map for the specific area you are currently in.

THE UGLY

Well, besides the fact that Deathspank wears a Thong, and the Villian’s name is Lord Von Prong, nothing really bad him, some metaphorical and literal toilet humor, but nothing really bad.

CONCLUSION

Death Spank is a solid brawler game with ridiculously funny humor, great voice acting and a twisted sense of logic that only a cartoon could have. I personally liked it, however it may not be for everyone.

Red Dead Redemption – The Good, the Bad, and the Outlaw

2010-06-26T22:17:00.000-07:00

Sorry for the delay on this one, decided I was going to go for 100% completion before typing up my write up. Westerns in video games have always had a hit or miss chance in the last few years, such as games like Gun, Call of Juarez 1 & 2, and Red Dead Revolver. Strangely, for such a story and action rich period of American history the Old West has been rather lacking in games for it, particularly when compared with WWII games as the war only last 6 years and the Old West was from the end of the Civil War up until the First World War. That’s roughly 50 years for those of you who were asleep in American History in school. There have been previous attempts at an open world Western, namely Gun; however it came up lacking in substance when compared to the ambition of the game and story. Even with Call of Juarez: Bound in Blood, which had the feel of a western, it was very linear and had the player following a straight path for gameplay. Is Red Dead Redemption an improvement upon these two games, or will it ride off into the sunset to be forgotten?

SYNOPSIS

It’s 1911, automobiles and telephones are starting to become common place and the once wild American West is being tamed by the US Government and the Railroad system. Enter John Marston, former outlaw turned rancher who has tried to walk away from his past life, only to have some gentlemen from the government kidnap his wife and son as ransom for him to hunt down his old gang. When the soft touch fails on his old gang members, Marston must dig them out the hard way, and maybe even find redemption for his past crimes.

THE GOOD

As this is an open world game from Rockstar, the developers of the highly acclaimed Grand Theft Auto series, one goes into it expecting a large living world. However, was I didn’t expect was it really would be as true to life as it turned out to be. Besides the frontier towns, bandit hideouts and general riff-raff of the western landscape you have active animal life, wild horses, stage coach robberies, lynching, escaped criminals, and ambushes around just about every corner. Combined with a draw rate that makes me want to see exactly how far away I can shoot an enemy with the sniper rifle, and the usual GTA style huge number of missions in the game this makes me want to pop the disc into the holodeck and play my own version of the “Fist Full of Datas” episode. Character models also use the more realistic approach to the west, meaning no one is dressed line Gene Autry. They all look world weary and more what one would expect from frontier folk.

Weapon selection in the game is much larger than in the GTA games, with dozens of real world weapons that existed from the end of the Civil war up to the beginnings of the WWI. Each has their own unique feel to them, though I must admit that the 1874 Sharps Buffalo Rifle is my favorite. It lets me feel like Tom Selleck in Quigley Down Under, but I digress. Since it’s a western you also have items like a lasso, skinning knife, dynamite, and whiskey bombs (Molotov cocktail) that have other uses outside of fighting the enemies you encounter in the game. For example, you can lasso the wild horses in the game, and break them to acquire a better ride, or with the animals you kill you can skin them, and sell their pelts, meat and other body parts at the local shops. Plant life also provides an income source and ambient challenges, as you can collect local varieties for both skill challenges and sale to the shops as well.

Mission ranges from raiding bandit hide-outs, cattle herding, horse racing, helping local law enforcement, and even assisting a snake oil sales man con unsuspecting buyers. Like with GTA4 there are also the “Strangers” that you come across in the world, each with their own unique stories and quests for you to follow, as well as hunting missions, treasure hunting, marksmanship challenges, gambling, and odd jobs in the towns you come across to make sure you are never bored. Many people have called the game Grand Theft Horse, or other joking terms of it just being GTA in the Old West. Personally I disagree with that, as there are features from GTA that are similar, such as the random missions scattered across the world, a law and crime system, and a third person combat mechanics, but the similarities end there. In GTA you were pretty much limited to being a criminal with all the missions you did and how the story unfolded, however in Red Dead Redemption you actively choose whether or not you are going to operate within the law, or actively choose to commit crimes against the people and the government. Along with that comes that you don't need to steal a mode of transportation; in fact you just give a whistle and your horse will gallop over to you and away you go.

THE BAD

While the game and story are very good, it seems rather short when compared to the 20 – 30+ hour game time of GTA4. Much of it is spent in transit to one destination from another while on your horse or some other means of transportation. The main voice actors do very good work in it, however some of the ‘extras’ in the game sound really bad, like middle school play bad. Compared the well voice characters like Marston, or the Snake oil salesman Nigel Wesdickens it is that much more glaringly obvious. I also noticed several bugs in the game that required me to reload from a previous save because my character became stuck in the scenery. It would have been nice if something like that was caught in beta testing before it went gold.

THE UGLY

Well, besides obscene language, booze, and shootings there is also the bloodiness of when you skin animals (i.e. you get blood splattered across your screen), racist and anti-semetic shop owners, sometimes you will see cowboys jump off the horse along the trails to ‘irrigate the desert’, innocent people being hung by outlaws, and walking in on a character as he is passing his genetic information on to a half naked Mexican peasant girl. Surprisingly not as bad as GTA4 was, but has something that is didn’t have as well.

CONCLUSION

Red Dead Redemption is a very well written and implemented game with a fresh look upon both open world gameplay and the western genre in video games as well. Solid combat, storytelling, and stylized off of the classic spaghetti western style that made Clint Eastwood famous, it does not disappoint.

Highly recommended.

Alan Wake- The Good, the Bad, and the Darkness

2010-06-09T15:51:00.000-07:00

Sorry for the delay on this one, been working through Red Dead Redemption and Prince of Persia: The Hidden Sands in a major gaming Marathon. Alan Wake has had a rather interesting development history, dating back to 2005. Most of us had given it up for Vaporware, like Duke Nukem Forever or a good Wii-ware title. Surprisingly this is one of the few games that came out of endless development and made it to a release date. The Question is, is the game worth the wait, or better off in development hell?

SYNOPSIS

You are the titular character, Alan Wake, a mystery suspense writer who has taken holiday in the Pacific Northwest to help break his 3 year stint of writers block, as well as help mend his trouble marriage with his wife, Alice. Before they can unpack a mysterious force steals his wife from their cabin into nearby Cauldron Lake, and Alan goes headfirst in to rescue her. Waking up a week later, with no memory of what happened since, his wife still missing, the cabin they were staying at being destroyed over 20 years before, and finding mysterious manuscript pages for Alan’s next book that he never wrote. Alan must find the truth about Cauldron Lake, where he’s been, and how to stop the dark force he unwittingly released.

THE GOOD

The game takes an interesting approach to the suspense/horror game genre in using the ‘less is more’ approach, relying on atmosphere and excellent storytelling to create the mood instead of overwhelming the player with monsters, demons, ghosts, ect. The enemies in the game are known as the Taken, humans who have been forcefully consumed by the dark entity after Alan, and are immune to damage until the shroud of darkness around them has been burned away. This is done with a flashlight Alan carries with him, or flares, lamps, and flash grenades littered throughout the game. The key to surviving is light and darkness. Enemies and possessed items can only be stopped by exposing them with light, and in the case of the taken, unloading 38 caliber or 00 buck shot into them until they don’t get back up. Since the Taken use melee weapons to attack Alan the game has a dodge mechanic in it that when done properly gives a cinematic ‘bullet time’ slow down showing the player avoiding the attack and gives you a split second to counter attack that enemy.

The game itself is played out with heavy influence from Twin Peaks, Lost, and Stephen King; in fact that game starts with a narration from Alan that directly quotes Mr. King. Each chapter of the game uses a Television style “Previously on Alan Wake” recap to explain the story so far, and ends with a short credit roll with an episode appropriate song played from artists such as Charles Brown, David Bowie, or even Roy Orbison. As you play through the game Alan will actually given an internal monologue as if he was narrating the book, explaining the importance of what he comes across, people, even his own internal feelings. This, along with the incredible graphics used to create the Town and surrounding wilderness of Bright Falls creates less of a feeling that you are playing a game and more that you are involved in an interactive storytelling experience.

The story has heavy influence of Slavic folklore, such as Baba Yaga, and a H.P. Lovecraft sense of ancient evils that have been disturbed and seeking to gain power over our world. In the case of Alan Wake, everything he wrote in his missing week is coming horrifyingly true with nothing that seems to be able to stem the tide of the darkness that is coming after him. You could almost replace the character of Alan for Special Agent Dale Cooper from Twin Peaks as they has the same dynamic in the roles and the feeling of a man taken up in events he really doesn’t understand.

THE BAD

My first complaint is that like with most third person games the camera can get in your way every once and a while, while you aren’t fighting it for control like in some other games it does break that feeling of interactivity when you need to wrestle with the camera so as not to die. Secondly Alan does feel rather sluggish sometimes when controlling him. Mind you I understand things like him getting winded if you have him run too much, but I would also think that with the adrenaline in his blood stream from being chased by darkness possessed puppets he’d run until he passed out. Ammo actually becomes overly plentiful in the game if you find the hidden caches in the different areas. Since Alan Wake is a psychological game of suspense and fear having enough 38 caliber ammo to drop a herd of wildebeest does take away from the effect a bit. There is also some rather blatant product placement in the game for Energizer batteries and Verizon Cellular. Mind you, it’s nice to see a non-fake brand for in game items; it makes me wonder what under the table deal was done to get the endorsement added into the game. The developers also leave you with a cliff hanger ending, while promising more to come as downloadable content. It bugs me that Developers would rather make expansions as DLC instead of just taking the extra time to finish the game and package what would have been the DLC as the game’s ending. Sorry, but that’s my two cents on the matter.

THE UGLY

Mostly some language issues, however the game is a dark, psychological Thriller that likes to mess with your head as you play it. So while I wouldn’t say it is or is not suited for younger players I will say that it did creep me out a little in places, and I was tempted to turn all the lights on in my apartment and sit in a corner while mumbling “Can’t turn off the lights or the darkness will get me” until dawn. (Not really, but it makes a good story.)

CONCLUSION

The game has solid storytelling and excellent voice acting; is visually wonderful with an excellent sense of atmosphere and contrast between the day and night sequences. However some minor control issues, and some annoying build in advertising, the ending of the game being DLC down the road, and the over abundance of ammo for the player. In all it’s a very well done game, worthy of a rental for most, but if you like games that follow the Twin Peaks style of storytelling it is well worth the purchase.

Recommended.

Aliens vs. Predator: The Good, the Bad, and the Facehuggers

2010-03-28T16:05:00.000-07:00

So, I’ve been delaying this one a bit, partially because of job hunting, but also partially because of my conclusion about the game. The kick in my pants to actually write this up was that God of War III came out and as a matter of professionalism I should review them in the order they came in. So I give you now my review of Aliens vs Predator.

SYNOPSYS

The lore of both the Aliens series and that of the Predators is a popular one in the geek world. Besides all the movies, comics, books, toys, and games made for the individual series there are numerous cross-overs including the famous duel between the sneaky Aliens and the big game hunter Predators. The most famous in the gaming world is the 2001 release of Aliens vs Predator 2 on the PC and Mac platforms (Mac gaming, that existed once?). This new version of the game, inspired by the recent string of AvP movies, tries to pick up on the franchise after nearly a decade in hibernation. The question we all wonder about is ‘Will it be a worthy hunt, or game over man?’.

THE GOOD

Visually, the game captures the claustrophobic nature of both the alien hive, as well as the human bases. Improved over the 2001 game is a much better open environment in jungles and swamps for the classic “Predator” feel. Like with the predecessor game the main story is broken up into three campaigns; Alien (Xenomorph), Predator (Yuatja) , and Human Marine (dinner). Each of these plays differently from one other, requiring the player to adapt specific tactics to suit the strength and weaknesses of their race. Aliens, for example, blend perfectly into shadows, can see enemies through walls and are strong on sneak attacks and melee, but very vulnerable to firearms. Predators have their thermal and Alien vision modes, can cloak, jump to high vantage points, and have their unique & powerful weapons. Humans have motion sensors, a wide variety of firearms and explosives, but lack the melee skills of the other two races.

As a Marine in the game you can only carry two rifle weapons and a pistol, or just the smart gun when you find it. The Predator’s main weapon is their wrist blades; however through the game they acquire the smart disk, the shoulder cannon, proximity mines, and the combi-stick. Aliens are limited only to their claws, jaws and tail; however they specialize in stealth type kills over open combat. Unlike previous games where the Predator cloak would drain your energy supply it now can be used continuously and a new feature is the ability to use the “duck call” ability from the movie in order to lure Marines into ambushes. As a marine you now have unlimited use of the flashlight (something that they should have had anyway) as well as a limitless supply of marker flares. One of the more fun abilities as a Alien is being able to duck into an air vent, in order to ambush humans as they pass by. You can also see your tail behind you if you turn around too quickly, which actually resulted in me chasing my own tail for a moment in game (now I know why dogs do it).

THE BAD

Sadly, this will be the longest section of the review. While this is AvP, it was heavily influenced by the last two movies that were made, meaning that they left out all the good that came from the series in 2001 and brought in a lot of the crappy stuff from the movies. In the human campaign there is nothing particularly unique about it. It feels like every other space shooter that has been on the market since Halo 1, combined with the fact that they used the whole ‘Oooo… it’s dark, can’t see anything’ premise for encounters with the Aliens that after the first 3 or 4 times it loses whatever edge it may have had. Mind you, there was one point in the game where you were being attacked inside of a bar with pounding ‘stripper’ music playing, but the presentation of it was rather sub-par.

As a Predator in the game it feels like the developers shackled what you could do in order to make you balanced for the multiplayer feature. As well all know, the Predators are heavily armed, no-nonsense killing machines who have to rely on their skill and their weapons in order to survive. So why is it that in this game you only have 4 weapons besides your claws and the combi-stick is turned into a Javelin instead of a powerful short ranged melee weapon? It feels like you are being punished for being such a powerful creature throughout the series that you’ve been ‘nerfed’ to the point of barely being a Predator Initiate, much less an Elite.

The Alien campaign is the absolute shortest in the game, feeling very unsatisfying on so many levels. Besides lacking the classic feel of being a powerful member of the horde from the previous games, the developers completely removed both the Facehugger section as well as being a Chestburster that defines the series. It quickly is whittled down to: sneak past guards, head chomp them, destroy object to proceed, lather, rinse repeat. The dialog of the marines in the game across all the campaigns also weakens the game as a whole because they only have about 3 things to say, but more often than not it’s just simply “Keep your guard up!”. The voice work by Lance Hendrickson is a rare gem in the game, however almost all of the other characters feel flat and of the Half Life 1 era, circa 1998.

While there is a multiplayer component to the game, with some rather interesting gameplay styles, such as Predator Hunt and Alien Survival, it has that same lacking as the Bioshock 2 multiplayer experience. As of the early edition today there are next to no players online in the PC format of the game, simply because there are better alternatives out there for an FPS multiplayer experience. I had so many hopes for this, as the multiplayer in AvP2 was one of the classic parts of PC game for me after high school, however it missed what made the classic game so great.

THE UGLY

So, we have both Aliens and Predators in the same game; that means we have lots of bloody and gore filled execution moves made by both species. We all expected this, as it’s been a hallmark of the series since they were movies. Along with some language issue this is about as bad as it gets.

CONCLUSION

Had such expectation for this but was rather let down by it. The campaigns can be fun; however they range from repetitive to derivative. Multiplayer has potential but just miss the mark in implementation. Voice acting has some high points, but it is mostly the same few lines being recycled.

Unfortunately I can’t recommend this one to players.

Halo Legends: The Good, the Bad, and the Odd One Out.

2010-03-01T20:03:00.001-08:00

So, this is a bit of a change for me. Normally I just review video games, tell you my opinion on what they did right, what went wrong, and why they got their particular rating. I decided to branch out a little since Halo Legends is based on a video game franchise known the world over even to people who don’t even play. In this case it was seven (Hidden joke or not, I like the easter egg of that) internationally renowned anime studios producing their own visions of stories from the Halo universe. With the exception of one episode in particular, all the stories are canon to the franchise and share parts of the story line we may have only guessed at, or did not even know. I’m also going to change format a little here and instead of doing my “Good, Bad, Ugly” routine instead just go through each episode and give a description and my thoughts about it. There is also the irony I cannot help but smile at when I do this review. I watched a Halo anime, on a Blu-ray disc, on my PS3. So many levels to that one I don’t know where to start.

ORIGINS I & II

This story is narrated by the AI Cortana to Master Chief as he lays in Cryosleep in the remains of Forward Unto Dawn after the end of Halo 3. In it she talks about the Forerunner’s first encounter with the Flood, the war between the Forerunner’s and the parasite, and the eventual choice to catalog life around the galaxy before activating the Halo Array to wipe out both the Flood and its food source. The second part talks about the rise of both the Covenant and the humans in the galaxy, with a particular emphasis on how humanity always seems to be at war with itself. In this episode it also shows how Cortana is slowing degrading as a program as she’s reaching the end of her 7 year life span, and starting to ‘glitch’.

This episode was done in a similar manner to the 2nd Renaissance of the Animatrix and gave a lot of back-story about both the universe, and the fabled Forerunner race who are so cornerstone to the Halo storyline. The animation was nothing ground breaking, however it did show parts of the universe and storyline players had never seen before. A good intro for the series to both fans of the series, and those who know next to nothing about the series it acts as a “Cliff’s Notes” for the whole Halo saga. My only real complaint on it was that the humanity tied with war idea in it came out as rather preaching, even though it is sadly quite true.

THE DUEL

Like with Halo 2 and its Arbiter campaign, this episode focuses on a non-human character, who also happens to be an Elite Arbiter. In this story we are taken back to the formation of the Covenant where the Arbiter is not a mark of shame, but a high honor position equivalent of General or Supreme Commander. In it, the Arbiter refuses to join into the Covenant’s religious belief of The Great Journey because he believes it to be both false, and a lie to keep others in check. In response to this the Covenant first send an assassination team, an army, and finally a message in the murder of his wife to silence the Arbiter. In final insult they make his position as Arbiter a shameful post to those who have dishonored themselves in the eyes of the Covenant.

The visual style of this one is in that of a moving water-color painting, even though it was animated in CGI. The influence in the characters is very Japanese, not surprising considering the studio that did it had just finished a animated film about Musashi, and that the Elite culture was based heavily upon the concept of the Samurai. I did have a little problem with it that when the Arbiter was talking with his wife they looked too human with no obvious mandibles and she had a far too human face. This is minor in comparison with the well told story about a warrior’s honor and how far he fell in order to protect both it and his people, but ultimately failed. This is also a hot spot episode with the community because some say it’s far too Japanese and far too different from the Halo we know. I agree it is very Japanese, and it is very different from how we’ve seen the story so far; but it works here because the Elites are based from this culture, and that the different perspective lets us see the culture from a different angle. Not as religious zealots, but as proud warriors.

HOMECOMING

This episode is told mainly through flash backs of a female SPARTAN-II as she recalls escaping from the program to go home only to find that she’s been replaced by a sickly fast-clone of her who is dying. I think this episode shows the human element of the SPARTAN-II project that most people didn’t want to think about. It was said in the books that they had replaced the abducted children with clones who’d die of congenital conditions, however most readers hadn’t or didn’t want to think about what the human cost was in doing that. Though the style reminds me of other narratives like the Ghost in the Shell series it does raise a question about the emotional cost of kidnapping the children who then became SPARTAN-IIs for both them and their families.

ODD ONE OUT

As the name says, this is the odd one of the collection. Done as parody to the series with SPARTAN 1337 (geek speak for ‘Leet’ or Elite), it involves him falling off a transport onto a world with dinosaurs, super human children, a enormous Brute sent to kill him, and his own massive ego. I admit I didn’t like this one very much, but that’s in part to I’ve never been a fan of this style of anime. I never liked Dragonball Z, Naruto, Full Metal Alchemist, or of the other series that use a goofy sense of comical style. This one was more towards that crowd and just not my cup of tea.

THE BABYSITTER

About a group of ODST’s set into on a sniper mission with a SPARTAN as the shooter; this episode shows some of the rivalry that the ODSTs carry against the SPARTANs, along with how they sometimes can earn a grudging respect for the super soldiers. While most like something out of Jin-roh or an episode of Ghost in the Shell, this one shows the black ops side of the Halo universe where teams are sent in to assassinate Covenant targets instead of mounting full scale operations. While not a spectacular episode it was an interesting one.

PROTOTYPE

I think this particular episode goes back a little to the Starship Trooper inspiration for the Halo series. It involves and battle hardened Marine using a prototype battle armor system to hold off a Covenant attack, while at the same time ensuring this armor system self-destructs in order to prevent it falling into enemy hands. Part of the story revolves around him dealing with that he has sealed off his humanity in order to be a better soldier, but also that he always seems to be the survivor and everyone else around him gets killed in the war. The armor unit itself looks exactly how I pictured the Marauder armor from the Starship Trooper book should look like, and the action scenes in it are both entertaining and very well animated. It does slow down a little when he has the flashbacks to his unit dying, but I liked it none the less.

THE PACKAGE

This episode is more closing associated with the style most gamers know from Halo, with a little of Shinji Arimaki’s unique style thrown in. A team of five SPARTANs on booster frames are dropped by a stealth ship into the middle of a Covenant fleet in order to locate and acquire a captured package before the fleet jumps out and is lost forever. This turns out to be a trap to lure the team out in order to cause losses to their limited numbers. This one has both the unique style of the Appleseed films, but also the high adrenaline, high action style that Halo fans crave. It also helps a lot that the lip sync has been done for English rather than Japanese. Compared to episodes like the Duel or Homecoming who were about story, this one was all about the visuals and giving the viewer a wonderful action experience.

And yes, I really liked it.

Bioshock 2: The Good, the Bad, and the Splicer

2010-02-27T23:40:00.001-08:00

Ok, so, like I said last post, it has been the year so far for the sequels. This time the review is for Bioshock 2, and in my case, specifically for the PC since I prefer this platform over a console. So, after an extended period of messing around with the game’s multiplayer I sit down with “La Mer” playing in the background to write up my review of Bioshock 2. Does it live up to the first game? The answer may surprise you.

SYNOPSIS

It’s been nearly 10 years since Jack freed the failed underwater capitalist Utopia from the clutches of Andrew Ryan and Frank Fontaine. Unexpectedly young girls have been abducted from coastal areas by strange diving suit clad individuals. Perhaps Rapture isn’t quite as dead as we thought; and perhaps your character, a Big Daddy prototype dubbed ‘Delta’ is linked to this mystery down to his very genes.

THE GOOD

Like with the first game Bioshock 2 is an odd mixture of classic art-deco and underwater decay. The city that was once a shinning, hidden jewel of the North Atlantic Ridge has suffered greatly at the expense of the gene civil war, and at the cold, merciless waters of the ocean itself. Where Rapture in the first game was slightly leaky and in need of a really good janitor crew this time around it is on the verges of falling apart at the seams. Whole sections are flooded, and as a Big Daddy you have several chances to explore the parts that the ocean has reclaimed, along with areas outside on the ocean floor itself. Along with this decay of the city the physical decay of the bodies of the splicers is reflected as well. Last time they were slightly deformed in the face, now they have rewritten their genes so much that many are losing their human features and becoming more monstrous.

As a Big Daddy you have access to weapons that before were normally only dreaded as a normal human. Besides the iconic drill and rivet gun Delta can use a 3 barrel .50 cal machine gun, a double barrel elephant gun, the harpoon launcher, and the grenade gun. Since you are also a Big Daddy you are strong enough to heft all weapons in your right hand, leaving the left free for plasmids that can now be charged for more devastating effects. Also gone is the hacking game of Piperunner, but instead a real time hacking tool that allows to remote hack turrets and devices without pausing the action. You are also given small remote turrets which can be set to protect your flanks in combat against other Big Daddies or Splicer hordes. Instead of the single shot camera used to research enemies in the first game you have a movie camera that gives you greater bonuses for using more varied attacks against your targets, which grants you more experience and upgrades.

As a Big Daddy you also can collect Little Sisters and use them to collect Adam. Like last time around you can choose whether to save or harvest them, saving them resulting in you getting bonus items and plasmids, harvesting resulting in a huge Adam bonus. However when you have your Little Sister collect Adam from corpses you must defend them from the mob of Splicers who wish to get the Adam they are collecting, like drug addicts jonesing for a fix. This means setting up a strategic perimeter of traps, sentries, proximity bombs and yourself in a position with a clear field of fire. These fights can get rather tense as the Splicers sometimes don’t come from the direction you expect, meaning you need to think on your feet. Once all the Little Sisters have been dealt with in an area you then have to contend with a Big Sister. Suited up like a Big Daddy, Big Sister is a feral, highly aggressive enemy who uses acrobatics and plasmids against you, and is probably one of the few enemies in Rapture who can go toe to toe with Delta in a down and dirty fight.

The plotline of the game picks up with your waking up after nearly ten years after apparently being hypnotized into shooting yourself in the head on New Year’s Eve 1959; the date Rapture descended into civil war. Dr. Tanenbaum of the first game explains to you that someone has restarted the Little Sister program and has been kidnapping girls from the outside world. Leadership of Rapture is now in the hands of a woman who believes that the individual owes everything to the whole; in contrasts to Andrew Ryan’s idea that the individual keeps what they earn. While not as strong as the plotline of the first game, it is told well.

One of the new features is an online multiplayer system told as the civil war of Rapture. You have an apartment where you can keep track of your plasmids, gene tonics, and weapons, but also unlocked audio logs of the different characters in the Multiplayer scenario. The game types are pretty standard with CTF, Territories, Slayer, Team Slayer, and an oddball clone involving a Little sister. During game play in random locations a Big Daddy suit will appear, allowing a player to become a rivet gun wielding juggernaut. While you cannot use plasmids in this form you can toss out proximity bomb and do an area affect stomp. As you level up new plasmids, weapons, and weapon mods become available to you to change how you fight. As an added perk you can sabotage ammo dispensers so they drop a power explosive when the enemy tries using it. No matter how many times it happens I still chuckle a little when someone falls for it.

THE BAD

Sadly, the game just isn’t as good as the first, nor did it really improve on anything. The visuals remain pretty much the same on the surface, and gameplay is nearly identical with the exception of the drill arm and the hacking mechanic. You are also trapped in a linear path with little room for free exploration. Where Bioshock allowed you to roam Rapture once an area was cleared Bioshock 2 forces you only to continue forward without the ability to go back to earlier areas. Something in to me feels that as a Big Daddy you should feel like a nearly unstoppable hulk, however two or three good hits with a pistol are enough to bring your health down to dangerous levels. Even against the other Big Daddies your weapons are hard hitters, but it feels like you have a glass jaw to their attacks.

The story is also not as strong as the first game, feeling like it was put together to try to fit within the world in order for them to make a new game. It’s not horrible, but it feels like it can’t get out of the enormous shadow of the first game. The Big Sister battles also only happen once all of the Little Sisters in an area have been dealt with, so you know when it will happen. If they were random they would be more terrifying knowing that she may attack when you least expect it, but most of the time you are well prepared for the encounter and normally have already set up a trap for her when she arrives.

My biggest complaint deals with the multiplayer of the game. While the multiplayer combat is solid and fun, it uses Windows Live Match Making for the PC version of the game. For those who don’t know what this may mean (all two of you, one being my mother), it means that the match is set up with a local host rather than a dedicated server, like on Xbox Live for the 360. If the person hosting has a bad net connection everyone else gets terrible latency, or if they leave early the game will shut down completely (thought you do keep the Adam you collected in the match, thankfully). Live Match making works well enough for console gamers, but most PC gamers are used to, if not expecting dedicated servers. To add insult to this injury the netcode sometimes causes an unbearable latency issue that gives the appearance of your connection having a ping of over 2000m/s. Oddly, hitting alt-tab to leave and re-enter the game sometimes corrects this, but not all the time because it sometimes might very well be someone on a slow internet connection.

THE UGLY

Well, besides the Splicers really upping the bar for hideous and ugly there is the moral dilemma or harvesting or adopting the Little Sisters, as Harvesting kills them. In one section there are bodies stapled to walls and messages written in blood, along with the multitude of dead bodies found throughout the game. You also are given the choice in several places whether to kill or forgive the lackeys of the main villain. In the case of two of these people that are normal (looking) humans, one even begs for his life when you get near him. In comparison the foul language seems tame when compared with that.

CONCLUSION

Gameplay is solid, but nothing we haven’t seen already. Visuals still impress, however too similar to the first game. Plotline required a little more suspension of disbelief than the first game, but was entertaining. Multiplayer is fun; however the use of Live Matchmaking over dedicated servers for PC players and the net code issues bring it down dramatically.

The game is fun, however, too many issues for me to give a solid recommendation on this one.

Mass Effect 2: The Good, the Bad, and the Collectors

2010-02-15T23:52:00.000-08:00

It seems to be the time for sequels. We have Uncharted 2, Assassin’s Creed 2, Bioshock 2, and Mass Effect 2. Besides all being releases close to one another, and the first games being well worth the purchase, each of the original titles all set a standard in gaming for compelling narrative, visual style, and unique gameplay. Today we are doing Mass Effect 2, the sequel to the 2007 space opera from Bioware.

SYNOPSIS

You are Commander Shepard; Officer in the Earth Alliance, N7 commando, the first human SPECTRE, Captain of the SSV Normandy, the one who stopped Saren and his Geth fleet from capturing the Citadel. When your ship is attacked by an unknown alien vessel and you are spaced while trying to get your crew to the escape pods death seems like the only inevitable outcome. However when a shadowy pro-Earth splinter group called Cerberus brings you back from the folds of death you get a second chance at saving the universe, however, nothing is what is seems on this mission. Even if you and your team succeed survival is not assured. Even for a dead man this mission is certain suicide.

THE GOOD

Like with Assassin’s Creed 2, Bioware listened to what the players had to say and improved upon both gameplay and narrative in the game. This is rather refreshing in comparison to other developers who just shovel the same thing out year after year. Planets a have unique and lived in appearance to them with details ranging from advertisements signs that flicker from disrepair, audible conversations from characters around you, and most importantly no two worlds look even remotely similar. Bioware seemed to be very adamant about not reusing textures or styles between the different planets you visit; again keeping to the individuality of each place. Some of the updates range from the subtle, all the way to the practical. For example, the new Normandy frigate you command now has a mess hall, crew bunks, and even rest rooms. On some planets you go to you will see things like water dispensers or coffee makers among the many normal daily items that you might expect from a living world. It’s the attention to detail that sells something, and in this case they really sold it well.

Combat was changed up a bit from the last game. In ME2 cover mechanics are more stream-lined and are required in order for you to survive a firefight. In the first game you could stroll into combat like some Juggernaut with little fear of dying. In the new game if you pop your head up for too long you are going to have it turned into a smoldering stump. Your team mates can now be given individual orders to move positions or attack certain targets, allowing you to be able to effectively set up flanking positions or multi-angle cross fires. Removed from the game are the grenades that you had from the last game. Replacing those are your heavy weapons which can be anything from guided rockets, a flame thrower, particle beam cannon, to something that can only be described as a mini-nuke. One of the other changes is no longer do your weapons overheat, but rather you have a thermal clip that collects the heat from the weapon and is ejected after a certain number of shots. This means that you need to keep collecting these thermal clips like ammo magazines and can very possibly run out of ammo in a firefight if you aren’t careful. They also removed the Mako sections of the first game were you’d land on a planet and explore it in your ATV tank for resources and side missions. Instead resources are gathered by launching probes from orbit along with finding beans where you can land a squad for your mission. The hacking and over-ride mechanics in the game were changed from the match the button combination to something that felt much more suited, like you actually were over-riding a circuit. They also added a feature in what would normally being a cut-scene to have your character do either a Paragon or Renegade action which would change how that scene would play out.

Since this game is a much darker narrative, being a suicide mission for a shadowy organization that border of being domestic terrorists, your team is equally of colorful backgrounds. As you recruit each person you are given an optional loyalty mission that can be done for them which will get you a new usable ability for the character in combat, along with increasing your chances of surviving the mission. Where there first game had to paired up with idealists, soldiers and scientists who mostly stayed on the right side of the law, ME2 takes a whole new path. Your team now consists of mercenaries, criminals, assassins, zealots, and even a Geth synthetic organism. Two of them are characters from the last game, however in the time since you last saw them the galaxy has changed them, taking away their idealism and replacing it with cynicism. The rest are equally of the universe-weary and run the loner’s path following a potentially self-destructive course. Where Mass Effect was “Band of Brothers”, Mass Effect 2 is “The Dirty Dozen”.

One of what made me really appreciate this game was some of the epic set piece battles that were given to the player. These went from normal infantry combat with dozens on enemies on all sides, battles with large scale mechs whose firepower could take down a whole platoon, to boss battles with, well… I won’t give away the surprise, but let’s just say that you will want to boast after you take them down. In many ways the game feels more like an interactive film where you decide what happens. The voice talents of many big name actors include Martin Sheen, Tricia Helfer, Michael Dorn, Seth Green, Adam Baldwin, Carrie Anne-Moss, Michael Hogan, and Claudia Black. Martin Sheen is particularly excellent as the head of Cerberus, ‘The Illusive Man’. His portrayal is charming and chilling all at the same time as he pulls your strings like a master puppeteer in order to suit his goals.

THE BAD

There were a couple of things I didn’t care for that they did in the new game. The first one is that your squad members only get two abilities that they can use in combat, three if you do their loyalty mission. Secondly I did not like that you were stuck with only 3 choices per weapon class to use and give your squad. Tagged onto this you cannot sell weapons for extra cash as there are no ‘dropped’ equipment from enemies you encounter. While the Mako was rather frustrating to use sometimes in the first game it did given that large world feeling to some of the planets. In many of the worlds in ME2 it feels like there is more to look at, you actually have less space to do it in. Lastly, in order to travel to other planets away from the Mass Relays to explore for resources for upgrades you need to buy fuel and probes for your ship. This can quickly bleed you dry on money if you are not careful. Which brings me to another small complaint; the process to scan planets for the 4 minerals you need for upgrades can get tedious if you aren’t a patient person.

THE UGLY

Well, besides the prerequisite language issues that comes with having a squad made up of mercs, criminals and assassins, there is also the same romance option from the last game. Though the developers took it a little further this time and made your choices of who to woe be more than one person of the opposing sex of your own species and an Asari. Instead you are given a rather wider choice of potential romance interests that are not only just human, but of species that make me shudder at the thought. Lastly there is some disturbing imagery in the game related to the villains “The Collectors”, and with some of your potential team members, as they are hired guns after all.

CONCLUSION

A very well told story, improved on a lot of the technical issues the first game had (no more texture popping), and feels like a big budget block-buster film (and no, not a Michael Bay one, go to your room for that!). Characters interact with one another wonderfully. Combat is fast, visceral, challenging, and fun. The storyline keeps you wanting to know what will happen next, and the twists and turns in the plot will keep you guessing at what will happen next. Bioware has always been good at telling a story, but they are set a new standard I think for not only games but Sci-fi narratives as well in Mass Effect 2.

This game is most certainly a “Must Buy”.

Uncharted 2: Among Thieves – The Good, the Bad, and the Adventure

2010-02-10T21:43:00.001-08:00

Ok, before anyone starts complaining about things; yes, I know it’s been a while since my last review, yes I know this is for a PS3 game, and yes I know it’s been out for a few months now. I did a little bit of horse trading for my old, useless laptop and ended up with a factory refurbished PS3 and Uncharted 2. I figured, “Why not? Let’s review it!”.

SYNOPSIS
For those arriving late, Nathan Drake is the descendant of Sir Francis Drake, a tomb raider, and a petty thief of antiques. When a simple job gets Drake pinched for robbing a museum our hero ends up on a quest in search of clues for Marco Polo’s lost fleet. With help from old friends and new enemies, Nathan will uncover a mystery hidden at the top of the world for over 400 years.

THE GOOD

First things first, the game-play is like watching a movie. Things that would normally be scripted FMV’s in this game involve player interaction in what is happening. I don’t just mean like quicktime events or dialog trees, but rather actual game play where you need to run, fight, shoot or evade in order to progress with the game. These can be anything from the truck chase scene, to sliding down a collapsing walkway while shooting at an enemy or evading debris in a collapsing building while being shot at by a Hind-D gunship. Included in this is the ability to scale buildings and signs and use them as improvised cover. The game itself is a mix between third-person action shooter and an action adventure platformer with climbing elements. Combat is fast with a good selection of weapons available to the player and with the added feature of stealth take-downs. On the action adventure side players can scale structures, perform movie style ‘leap of faith’ jumps, and solve a variety of puzzles in classic ‘Zelda’ fashion.

The visual landscape of the game borders on the photo realistic. Everything from the jungles of Southeast Asia to the temples of Tibet look like the character stepped into the real world with every detail rendered with life-like accuracy. The highlight of this was the train sequence, a long time problem in video games I might add. I’m not sure how it was done; however, the result was absolutely spectacular with seamless transitions between different environmental areas, terrains, and lighting elements. An interesting step the developers took was to have the voice actors actually act out the scenes in motion capture, so the words and actions are in perfect unison with one another, also adding to the games cinematic feel. Along with this comes the wonderfully witty and well acted work done by those portraying the characters. Again, this wasn’t someone sitting in a booth reading lines, but actors really acting and interacting with one another and it was a joy to watch.

THE BAD

Just a few small gripes here and I really do mean that. Firstly, the puzzles in game seem rather easy. It happens that Drake has a notebook that basically has all the answers you need to solve each puzzle (not to mention some rather eye-brow raising sketches he’s done that make you question his sanity). Secondly, ammunition reserves are rather small, and most enemies require several direct hits to take them down, or are heavily armored and require dead on aiming.
Like I said, only small things.

THE BAD

Nothing really bad, in fact it’s tamer than most games I review. There are some language issues, little bit of innuendo between characters, and some blood, but no worse than most PG-13 movies.

CONCLUSION

A roller coaster ride of a game filled with humor, action, romance and a lot of fun. It shows off the PS3’s real power, but more importantly shows that the system can have an exclusive game that is fun to play. Plus you can get two trophies for playing “Marco, Polo”…seriously.

No, really, you seriously can.

HIGHLY Recommended

The Witcher: Enhanced Edition – The Good, the Bad, and the Neutrality

2010-01-03T14:19:00.001-08:00

For those of you who know me in real life you probably know I’ve had this particular game for a while. I should have written a review up for it sooner; however my professional pride requires me to finish a game before I can say I know enough about it to do a complete review. Besides being distracted by several other games, jobs and generally life itself I finally did sit done and play the game to the very end. How does it stack up? Well, you’ll see,

SYNOPSIS

Unless you grew up in Poland or speak fluent Polish you probably never heard of Andrzej Sapkowski and his book series about the Witcher, Geralt of Rivia. Geralt is a professional monster hunter, a Witcher. Renowned for their neutrality, their abilities with the sword, their skills in magic, and ways with the ladies the Witchers are warriors who undergo harsh training and are finally subjected to mutations that make them an unstoppable force in battle. In the game you play Geralt of Rivia, probably one of the most famous Witchers of all; partially for his exploits, but also because he died trying to stop a massacre. Seemingly revived by magic you have no knowledge of yourself, your past, or why you now live. All Geralt knows is how to fight and how to be a Witcher. When the Witcher fortress is attacked and precious secrets of mutation are stolen it is up to Geralt to find those who have done this and bring them to justice at the tip of his sword.

THE GOOD

Visually, the game is beautiful. Towns, cities, forests and swamps are rendered with an excellent sense of realism and natural design. In the towns and cities people go along on their daily business, guards make patrols, children play in the street and in some areas even musicians will play. Weather effects also change the behavior of the NPC’s. For example if it starts raining the regular civilians will duck under roofs, run home, and generally try to stay dry, while characters like Guards will complain about the weather while they continue to run their patrols. Character models are also wonderfully rendered to give a life like sense to the varied people you meet. Having seen the pictures from the ‘original’ edition I can tell you that CDProjekt did an excellent job polishing the character art for the Enhanced Edition.

Combat consists of an over-head view where you click on your target to attack. You have two types of swords that can be used. One is the Witcher’s silver blade for use against monsters and other nasties, and the steel swords to be used against humans, wolves, ect. Both swords have three combat styles for use against heavily armored foes, fast foes, or a group of enemies. Along with those two weapons you can also carry a single handed blade like a knife or small axe, and a heavy weapon, however neither of these allow you to use the before mentioned three combat style. Geralt also has magic at his disposal which ranges from a blast that can knock down enemies and some obstacles, to a burst of fire, and even magical traps. To enhance your abilities in combat you have bombs, oils for your blades for certain effects, and potions that can be ingested to augment your Witcher skills. The potions do have a price, however; since they are made from varied wild and poisonous plants and animals they build up toxicity in Geralt’s system. Ingest too much and you can very well kill yourself.

The plotline of the game involves you searching for those who stole the Witcher secrets; however, along the way you do many a side job for the locals for coin, new potions, experience, and occasionally the companionship of a lady. The characters you meet range for the Zealot members of the Order of the Flaming Rose, the non-human freedom fighters, a rakish bard named Dandelion, even the Lady of the Lake from Arthurian myth. When you interact with the different characters and groups there really are no good/bad scenarios as no side is truly better or worse than the other. For example, the Order of the Flaming Rose is protecting humans from the non-human freedom fighters; however the Order uses fear tactics and executes innocents if they get in their way. On the flip side of the coin the non-human resistance are trying to win back the land that humans stole from them so long ago; except they fervently hate all humans and will kill any that get in their way, armed or not. Choices are less about choosing a morally right or wrong point of view as nothing is so black and white in the game. Actions that you make early in the game can have long running consequences later on and effect the standings you have with the different factions.

THE BAD

First off, if you didn’t like Dragon Age: Origins, or any top down RPG, you’ll probably hate this game. At its core, The Witcher is a classic RPG with everything that people like, or hate, of that style of game. Characters send you on fetch quest for a certain number of monsters ‘whatever’ in order to pay you for your services. In order to collect these certain parts you need to purchase books to allow you to research that creature in order to properly find that particular part. Along with this you also spend quite a bit of time collecting wild plants in order to make your potions, so if you aren’t big on the idea of having to collect flowers this probably isn’t the game for you.

The big problem I’d sometimes notice during the game is when you try to loot a body, monster, ect that sometime you need to rotate the camera to a certain angle in order for the interface to know that you wanted to go through that particular corpse’s pockets. Along that same line, in order to rotate the camera you had to move your mouse to the very edges of the screen. Unfortunately the edges were also where your inventory interface, weapon interface, and even your clock were, making in semi-frustrating if you wanted to just eat an apple but instead flipped the world 180 degrees.

THE UGLY

Well, considering the game does have swords there is a lot of blood and dismemberment. There is also drinking a game you can play which result in Geralt getting thoroughly sauced and making your screen becomes sickeningly blurry. As mentioned before Geralt LOVES the ladies, considering that he is sterile and immune to all diseases can you blame him? You can have encounters with a variety of women from lowly peasants, prostitutes, a sorceress, even a spoiled princess. While you don’t see anything with these encounters and only hear something in another you will get a card showing a picture of your conquest. These can range from the cheeky to the obscene, and in the normal American versions they are all censored. However if you download the Directors cut patch from the website it unlocks the European version of the game for you. Besides making these pictures rather naughty it also makes it so the Dryads no longer have their hair falling over their ‘attributes’.

Lastly for this section, there is also quite the cornucopia of swearing in the game. It ranges from the lowly seller of stolen goods who swears with every other word, to the spoiled princess and her bawdy jokes, to random characters in pubs and taverns who make statements about people’s mothers and what they do with dwarves.

CONCLUSION

An unexpected jewel of a game from a developer I had never heard of before out of Poland. Voice acting was good, game play was solid with an engaging storyline, and most importantly it was fun to play. Some minor complaints about the interface and language was a little excessive in places where it didn’t need to be. The whole thing about Geralt and the ladies is actually canon in the books, but just be warned about it if you are sensitive to that that sort of thing.

All in all it is a very good game, but not for everyone. If you don’t like this type of RPG you are better off skipping it. However if you are a fan of games like Dragon Age: or even World of Warcraft you might very well like The Witcher.

Assassin’s Creed 2: The Good, The Bad, and the Dual Blades

2009-12-08T13:39:00.001-08:00

Finally getting around to doing this review as job interviews has taken a priority this last week. I’m certain that if you have played any gaming console (not including the Wii, it’s not a real gaming console) that you’ve heard of Assassin’s Creed and how it offered brilliant free running in the Holy lands during the Third Crusade, but was rather repetitive. Ubisoft, doing something that no other developer ever has, decided to listen to all the complaints that people had about the first game then sat down and corrected them all. Did it work? We shall see.

SYNOPSIS

Stepping back into the shoes of Desmond Miles you escape from Abstergo with the help of the lab assistant and fellow Assassin, Lucy. However, time is running out for the World as the modern Templar’s plan is coming together. You now must dive back into the Assassin’s Animus and learn the skills you need to join the fight for free will. This time around you move forward three hundred years to the Italian Renaissance and all the wine, woman, intrigue and murder that go with it. You are Ezio Auditore de Firenze, and like your father before you, you are an Assassin.

THE GOOD

As mentioned before, Ubisoft did a total over haul of the game and the visuals for series. In the first game you had roughly 4 or 5 different pre-assassination missions that you would do in order to gather intel on your target. Changing that up the developers decided more on a Grand Theft auto approach by having you do everything from leading mercenaries through a Tuscan city, to following your intended target through the city while listening to their plans. Along with this they added some optional side missions that include a timed free running course, assassination missions for Lorenzo de Medici, defending the honor of women who have cheating husbands or courier deliveries for famous individuals such as Casanova. Thankfully the hundreds of flags that littered the cities and kingdom of the first game are now gone, they do have 100 feathers that can be found, however it is nowhere as frustrating as trying to collect 500+ flags hidden across the holy lands. Along with the feathers there are pages from the Codex Assassin that are kept under guard in all the cities. These, however, automatically show up on your map when you sync in the local area, and while not required, they do add to the story of the series.

Combat also received a major update as well in the series. In the first game it was defend yourself until attacked, counter, kill, next target. In AC2 they’ve made it so you can grab enemies and pummel them with punches, knees to the gut, and head butts. They have also changed the game play mechanics so if you attack someone from behind with any weapon it is an automatic kill move, and that heavy weapons such as axes, spears and halberds can break through normal sword defenses. To balance things they made combat so you can disarm your enemies and turn their weapon against them, or pick up a weapon from a fallen enemy and use it against his allies. The weapon selection in the game makes the first game seem rather stifling. Since this is the Renaissance banking has taken hold, and therefore money instead of barter is the way things are purchased. With the money you acquire in the game you can buy weapons, armor, ammunition, health and poison refills, along with repairing your armor. There are a few upgrades and assassination moves that are scripted in the game and acquired from Maestro Leonardo da Vinci (yes, that guy. He’s your own personal Q from James Bond). These range from the twin hidden blade, the poison blade, and the hidden gun. Each of these change how you view your assassinations, as well as if you want come in as an angel of death, to be stealthy, or pick your target off at range in order to keep your distance from the guards.

Speaking of the guards, those also went through some upgrades as well. In the first game you just had normal city guards, archers, and the rare Templars and they had certain stages of alertness before they attacked you. Since we’ve moved forward a few centuries the guards also have evolved into the heavily armed and armored Brute, the Agile who can keep up and sometimes even catch you, the long weapon armed Seeker who will investigate places you might hide and destroy your cover, and of course, the ever annoying roof archer. To help you counter these new threats the blending system which seemed rather tedious in the first game was also evolved to allow you to hide among the crowds walking down the street. This allows you to seamlessly blend with the civilians then switch to a different group while still keeping your stride. You also have allies you can hire such as thieves, courtesans, and mercenaries who act as both a moving cover, but also can be set on guards to distract them with that group’s particular ‘skill’. As you clear certain areas you also acquire capes that lower your notoriety level so that unless you actually commit a crime in front of the guards they will completely ignore you, or in the case of your families’ cape, will automatically make them suspicious of you.

Thankfully lacking from the game is the tedious Kingdom area, and rather they just incorporated a fast travel system where you lay a couple of Floren’s down take a carriage to where ever it is you are going. In many of the cities, such as your assassin strong hold and in Tuscany there are surrounding areas outside of the city that can be explored, offer side-missions, and hide hidden secrets. These are also some of the few areas to allow you to use horse riding, and along with Venice, allow you to pilot a canal boat on the water ways. Even the cities seem to be much larger than in the first game both on the area they cover, but also how high some of the buildings are. In the AC1 the tallest building was the cathedral in Acre; however that is easily dwarfed by most of the landmark structures in Firenze (Florence) and even by the towers in Tuscany. The help show this off the game has hidden Assassin’s tombs in most of the major cities that let you explore certain key landmark buildings on the inside, but also give you a Prince of Persia style agility challenge as you free run your way to the tomb itself. For completing these challenges you are awarded a seal to a lock that will allow you to acquire the armor of Altair, along with the black robed Master Assassin’s outfit.

THE BAD

Ok, I’ve been harping on and on about what’s good in the game, but I must make a few notes about things that I did complain about. First off is that Ezio tends to grab or jump in places you may not want him to. For example you are trying to free run across the beams sticking out of the side of a building, and if you are too close to the roof ledge he will grab that instead of taking the next jump; a little frustrating when you are trying to keep up with a guy you need to assassinate. I also didn’t learn until halfway through the game that you can turn sub-titles on, which will translate it when characters start speaking in Italian. They use Italian the same why Firefly used Chinese to cover up when they swear, however there was nothing that told you that if you want the translation to turn on sub-titles. The camera can also sometimes be your enemy in the game, like with most third person games, but nowhere near as frustrating as, say, Grand Theft Auto 4.

There are also some quicktime events in the game that require you to press a button at a certain time for the scene, while these will not lead to death like in other games, it does mean that you may only kiss the girl instead of showing her your ‘other’ hidden blade. I was also a little disappointed that you can only use the flying machine that Leonardo da Vinci invented for one particular mission. They made such hype about being able to fly over the city of Venice, but in the end it only covered about 20 minutes or so in the actual game.

THE BAD

Well, for starts, Ezio is not the serene monk character that Altair was. With that said, Ezio tends to fight more like a brawler, doing everything from bashing enemies in the head with war hammers to running them through with their own weapons. He will also do rapid stab attacks with the twin hidden blades, cut throats, and even stab enemies through the eyes with the hidden blades. As a man of the Renaissance Ezio also likes to woo the ladies, and in one case he sneaks up to her room for a night of passion; nothing is shown except her bare back (if you follow the on screen prompts right), but quite a bit is implied. There is also some rather harsh language in both Italian (spoken and subtitled) and in English. In a few cases what is said would make a Marine Drill instructor do a double take, and for some reason just seemed really funny to me, but I will leave it at that.

CONCLUSION

Ubisoft actually improved upon the first game by listening to what the players wanted to be fixed, they expanded game play, updated the combat system and fleshed out the visuals of the world in a way I never expected. Game play is fun, challenging, a little bloody, and there are some things not recommended for younger players, but in all it is an incredible game that shows what can be done with a realized living world. Visually it is nothing like anything else on the market and gives you the level of freedom in the game world only seen previously in the GTA series.

HIGHLY recommended.

Left 4 Dead 2: The Good, the Bad, and the Spitters.

2009-12-02T00:38:00.000-08:00

Sorry for the delay on this one, was slightly fixated on Assassin’s Creed 2, but more on that in my next posting. Left 4 Dead 2 has had its fair share on press in the gaming world, such as player boycotting it because they thought it should be an add-on of Left 4 Dead 1, Germany and Australia threatening to ban it unless the gore was toned down, and promises of bigger and better game play from Valve. So, the questions today are: is it worth a purchase; is it more than just an expansion; how gory is it? The answers might surprise you.

THE GOOD

First off, the game is so much more than just an expansion to the original game. Besides the new characters, locations, in game missions, enemies, weapons, and visuals the game also pushes the boundaries of the Source engine further than the first Left 4 Dead ever did. When you start off, just missing the last evacuation chopper, you have to escape a burning hotel with the lobby engulfed in flame and smoke. It’s more than just the “oh, look at the pretty flames” that other games have done, rather you can barely see with the thick smoke in the air, and the brightness of the fire obscures your vision even more. In a later mission you actually have to fight your way through a Hurricane that hits the area on your return trip through the area. Besides being only able to see about 30 something feet in front of you the wind also makes it impossible to hear what’s around you, and the ground beneath your feet has become a thick bog, slowing you down drastically. If there is anything that could be called hell, I’d say it’s a zombie attack in the middle of a storm like that; the atmosphere in it was so good that I swore that it was raining outside when I was playing it.

Besides the effects of the Hurricane, Valve decided that they really needed to break up the rather stagnant levels of the City, small town, and woods with much more visually interesting, and very southern locations. Places like a Carnival, a 3 story shopping mall (Finally!!!), New Orleans French Quarter, a bayou and southern plantation house, even a sugar mill and cane field. Each of these has their own unique mission styles to them, and end mission scenarios. The one to top them all, though, is at the end of the Carnival you have to set off a rock concert with pyrotechnics in order to get the attention of a helicopter in the area. For some reason listening to southern rock while slaughtering zombies by the cubic butt-load just seems to be as picture a perfect as possible, don’t ask me why, I can’t explain it.

Along with updating the visuals, the valve team went back and completely redesigned all the normal and special infected in the game, besides the new ones that added in this installment. Boomers now come in male and female variants, hunters and smokers were completely remodeled to up their freaky factor, and the witches now wander around during the daylight maps; as if they didn’t worry you enough when they were stationary. With the new infected types each map has their own unique semi-special infected who have their own strengths and weakness, along with the 3 new special infected types who up the ante for both campaign and multiplayer game types. Of the semi-special infected there are the Biohazard suits who are immune to fire damage, the riot cops who can only take damage from behind, the clowns whose squeaky shows draw mini hordes, and the mud men who obscure you vision with, you guessed it, mud. The new special infected characters are the Spitter who hurls acid at your location and erupts with acid when killed, the charger who will run at the players then body slam a player they catch, and the Jockey, who pounces like a Hunter, but will ride the player to run them into danger.

Valve also responded to the complaints about the limited weapon selection by adding in 3 more assault rifles (including the AK-47, choice weapon for any and all zombie invasions), 2 more shotguns, a magnum pistol, a silenced mini Uzi, a semi-automatic tactical sniper rifle, and a grenade gun (a.k.a. an M-79 “Bloop tube” or “Thumper”). Not to be sold short, they also include 8 different melee weapons, ranging from frying pans, police night sticks, to a Katana and a chainsaw (they must have read Max Brooks’ Zombie Apocalypse Survival Guide.) Apparently even after that they weren’t satisfied because they added a vial of boomer bile as a new grenade type, a set of chest paddles to revive dead allies, a Adrenaline syringe to make the player temporarily faster and stronger, laser sights, and fragmentation or incendiary deployable ammunition upgrades. So, I say yes, this is more than just an expansion.
Of the new game types in campaign and multiplayer they’ve replaced many of the ‘defend this position‘ and the end of each chapter with things like fill the car with gas, shut the alarm off that is drawing the horde, and run for your life to the safe room while fending off waves of infected. All of these require you and the people you are playing with to work together in order to survive; otherwise you will all be picked off one by one. More than anything in this installment Valve seemed to want to focus on players working closely with one another by beefing up the enemy AI in game to act more like a real player might. Besides the enemies getting smarter, so did the AI Director; and he is slowly on his way to become the next true Skynet system of the Terminator Movie fame.

THE BAD

That makes a nice intro into one of the bigger complaints I’ve heard so far. The AI in the game can be unforgiving, even on Normal mode. Where in Left 4 Dead 1, Normal was for when you wanted to casually play through just for fun. In Left 4 Dead 2 Normal mode feels like Advanced with the AI Director no longer being George Romero with masochistic tendencies, but Jeffery Dalmer with the hand of god control over the hordes, the placement of supplies, and even control over the weather in one chapter. It’s so sadistic it makes a spoiled rotten 10 year old with a magnifying glass and a trail of ants look nice in comparison. Every chance it can get it will pummel the players with special infected, hordes, and as mentioned before, a full on Hurricane. This also is part of the areas where you need to turn off the alarms that is drawing the infected towards you. If you and your team aren’t working all that well together you quickly get overwhelmed or picked off one by one by the special infected types.

Even though they changed up the possible scenarios in the levels they still seem like doing the same thing slightly differently. As mentioned before, surviving a rock concert while killing infected is awesome, or running along the tracks of a roller coaster is almost as fun as riding it, there just seems to be something missing in the variety section. Mind you, I haven’t a clue what that might be, but there is just the nagging feeling in the back of my mind that there are other things that could have been done. Strangely enough, the inclusion of more weapons has actually be detrimental sometimes, as I’ve seen players sitting there, debating whether they want to swap the shotgun for a SCAR, or use a melee weapons over a pistol. Choice is good, don’t get me wrong, but some people can’t decide because they’ve grown attached to a certain weapon (won’t even go there) and it slows everyone else down.

THE UGLY

Much of the same things from the first game, although in this one not only do infected get dismembered when shot, some will still come at you with a limb blown off, or will be disemboweled when shot in the torso. The fact that there are riot cop infected in it must be noted as in some countries (cough, Germany, cough) you aren’t allowed to be able to shot riot cops in the game. I will also say that the Hurricane part really does get the player on edge as you can’t see, you can’t hear, controls are sluggish, and I swear you will feel like you are being rained on.

CONCLUSION

Definitely more than just an expansion pack, Left 4 Dead 2 stands quite well on its own merits. Game play is fun though challenging, visuals push the Source Engine to their limits, and the new locations give a much needed real world grounding to the series. If you liked the first game, it’s worth a rental at the least to you console players (i.e. uncommitted, casual gamers), and a purchase to you PC gamers (i.e. true gamers).

High Recommendation

Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2 – The Good, the Bad, and the Whiskey Hotel

2009-11-11T23:58:00.000-08:00

This is the second of the big multiplatform releases, and one of the most highly anticipated games of the year. It has also had a fair share of controversy surrounding it as well, particularly regarding to several sections of the game which might be uncomfortable to many people. I intend to give the whole truth on the game, as it’s the professional thing to do.

SYNOPSIS

Five years after the end of Call of Duty 4 the world has taken a turn for the worse. Imram Zakhaev is a national hero of Russia, even though he tried to start a nuclear war and a devote follower of his has risen as a new leader of terror. The war is brewing, and no one knows where it will lead. Lock and load, we’re going loud.

THE GOOD

Like its predecessor, Modern Warfare 2 is very much a cinematic game, playing out more like a summer action blockbuster than your typical first person shooter. Added to this new style are things like snowmobile chases, Navy SEAL style under water deployments, even being extracted from a crumbling fortress with a skyhook by a helicopter. This is particularly enhanced by the soundtrack written by Hans Zimmer, of noted film score fame, along with the A-list voice acting used in the game.

Combat is fast and dynamic, requiring you to think on your feet and always check your corners for possible bad-guys. Added to this is the staggering number of weapons that are possible to use in the game. The original Modern Warfare had 30 something possible weapons that could be found in the game; the sequel has nearly twice that. If it’s an infantry weapon that has been fielded in combat within the last 20 years it can and will be found in the game, and even a few that are still in development. On top of that new add-on for weapons include under-barrel shotgun, scopes that let you see body heat, sensors that let you detect the enemy by their heart beat, and even the ability to fire air to ground missiles from an orbiting UAV.

Like with the last Modern Warfare, the environments are true to life and convey a sense of realism to the world that was created. The Rio de Janeiro level in particular looked as if you were really in the hillside slums of Rio. The blizzard and sand storm levels also help bring this sense of realism into play by obscuring your vision to only a few feet. Most importantly the world in the game looks like something that has been used in real life, not a sterilized depiction of what someone may want to see.

Part of the new game type is a co-op mode called Spec Ops, where you and a friend can play through specialized missions to test the players’ skills and ability to work as a team. These range from stealth missions, assault types, even one mode where one player is on the ground and the other is directing fire from an AC-130 gunship. These changes are also seen in the multiplayer modes that have customizable kill and death streaks, along with new perks, rewards, and even the ability to take command of a UAV attack or AC-130 strike.

THE BAD

Yes, it does exist; I’ll make that clear now. While the game itself is an epic thing it does have problems you should know about. First one is that the game itself is rather short; perhaps even half the length of Call of Duty 4. It almost feels as if the developers spent more time on the multiplayer over the single player portions of the game, to be honest. On top of this the main plot requires a major suspension of disbelief by the player for a number of things, including the Russian Airborne invasion of Washington D.C.

I make no qualms about it not being possible to attack the capitol, as it happened in the war of 1812, however the way it was played out in the game seemed very unlikely, perhaps even ridiculous. Related to this is part of the sheer number of weapons in the game. I have trouble believing that someone living in a slum in Rio de Janeiro can afford a multi-thousand dollar state of the art assault weapon, or that the Russian infantry carry Belgian, German, and even American rifles and equipment. I know that Infinity Ward wanted to show off the number of possible weapons that could be used, but I just see it as rather impossible that a slum militia man would be carrying an FN P90 with its specialize ammunition and high price over an AK-47 which they could buy with a couple of goats.

Several of the parts of the game seemed overly Hollywood-like as well, including the snow mobile chase sequence and the second villain that rears his head near the end of the game. I know that part of the series is to make a suspenseful and riveting title, however it helps if you raise the bar higher than the film Armageddon, perhaps. The game also ends rather suddenly, leaving it very open to a sequel, but feeling unfinished.

Several levels also gave the distinct feeling that you were being attacked from all sides, and in the case of the Rio de Janeiro level it was intensified by the tight, claustrophobic alleys of the slums. These same levels also had the long hated constantly respawning enemies which only made the challenge that much harder.

THE UGLY

Now here comes the fun part. Besides the shooting and language the thing that got me the most was in some parts of them how excessive the amount of gore was; such as well the driver of your car is shot and there are pieces of what I suspect as his brain across the dashboard. Along this same line is when you take damage you will actually see blood across your screen as you become more and more wounded. At the end of the game also includes you pulling a knife out of your character’s chest in order to use it against one of the villains. It just looked painful to be honest.

The really touchy one is the scene where you, as an undercover CIA operative, participate in a massacre of civilians and riot police in an airport with other terrorists. They do give you an option to skip this part, because it is particularly disturbing to watch, and thankfully there is nothing it in that tells you to specifically kill civilians. Either way though, it sends a strong message as to how evil a human is capable of being.

CONCLUSION

While the campaign seemed rather under whelming compared to Call of Duty 2 or 4 it is fun to play. The multiplayer is much stronger than the single player campaign, but the presentation of the single player is more along the lines of a big budget film than a video game. There are some disturbing parts of the game, however for the most part can be avoided, and most certainly not recommended for younger players.

High recommendation.

Dragon Age: Origins – The Good, the Bad, and the Blight

2009-11-11T22:27:00.000-08:00

So here we are at the Holiday Video game rush. A two week period and four huge games are being released across the major gaming platforms. For a gamer, this is the time when you hunker up with your medium of choice, stock up on Mountain Dew, tell your family goodbye for a while, and Febreeze yourself every 16 hours whether you need it or not. It’s crunch time!

SYNOPSIS

For younger gamers the words “Balder’s Gate” will draw blank stare, or maybe even a slight look of “I’ve vaguely heard about that”, while for most veteran gamers it will bring back memories of dungeon raiding, late nights, and time wasted that you could have studied in, but you didn’t want to anyway. Dragon Age: Origins comes from the same developer of Baldur’s Gate, and the more recently released Mass Effect. Like its older brethren, Dragon Age follows the idea that you make your own destiny in the game. Instead of being forced along a linear path with only one possible outcome you have many choices to make that can result in you becoming a great hero or falling into selfishness. In it you are a Grey Warden, the vanguard of defense against the demonic Darkspawn and their ensuing Blight. Once you choose your race, birth origin, class and even your physical appearance you step into a world where no choice is simple, no path is clear, and nothing is what it may seem.

THE GOOD

As mentioned before, this game is MASSIVE on the possibilities available to you. You have 3 races and 5 origin stories to choose from as well as 10 party members that can be acquired through the game itself. Each character has a story, side quest that they will give you, and their own personality that may compliment or conflict with the path you may choose. Part of the game itself is keeping these party members happy by way of doing things they approve of, or giving them gifts that suit their interests. Should they become dissatisfied with you characters may abandon you, or even force you to fight them. Each character has a skill tree that they progress on allowing you to choose what combat style they specialize in; along with special talents they can perform to aid the party in combat or exploration. Certain characters provide specific talents for you while playing, and in order to keep you from having to tell everyone of them individual commands there is a battle macro system, similar to that of Final Fantasy XII, that allows you to preprogram action that they will do under certain rules. For example, you can set your mage to cast a large area spell over enemies clustered together, or have your tank class distract enemies so that everyone else can swarm them. You will still have to pause once and a while to order your party around, however in most cases if you have the right tactics set for their strengths they will remain mostly self sufficient in battle.

Voice acting is a particular point to bring up in the game, as it has the talents of Claudia Black, Steve Bloom, Steve Valentine, and Barry Williams (Greg Brady, fyi) for a short list. Characters range from the dry sardonic wit of Shale the golem, to the witch Morrigain’s pessimistic outlook on the world, and even to jesting humor of fellow Grey Warder Alistar. All rolls are very well acted and come off as quite natural, particularly Alistar’s singular wit and Morrigain’s biting attitude.

Gameplay combat consists of being able to jump between character to issue the specific orders (if needed), but also being able to play as that particular character and taking advantage of the unique skills that they possess. To put it into perspective I’ll use the example of to four of your engaging a High Dragon in combat. With a few preset tactics, and perhaps even some orders given to the characters in the pause mode you can have your ally with the shield distract the dragon while your melee fighter attacks the flanks. While they are doing this you can have you mage staying back to rain magic down on the beat and heal allies, and have your rogue class pummel the creature with arrows from afar. If you choose to do so, you can constantly micro manage the characters, or step into the boots/sandals of one of your party for the duration of the fight and control just their actions.

The visual style of the game is very cinematic in its approach to both narrative and combat, so much so that in the battles when a large boss creature is killed the game goes into a slow motion moment showing the kill stroke being made by a member of your party. These can range from the character tackling an Ogre to bring him down, to actually clinging for dear life on the neck of a dragon as the fatal blow is delivered. This is also seen in normal combat too as enemies don’t just drop when they run out of health, but rather the party member that killed them may go through a finishing move animation to show that the particular enemy is, in fact, dead.

THE BAD

Sadly, as great as the game is, I do have some complaints over it. The first is the tough learning curve in the game when playing even the normal difficulty. In some cases if you are not an experienced Real Time RPG player it’s possible to get stuck at the same point simply because you are being overwhelmed by the enemy. Thankfully Bioware did release an automatic update to help fix this problem, but there are some points the game can be truly unforgiving in battle. Secondly, the loading screens between areas can get rather tiresome as they range from only a few seconds to over a minute long. If the environments were as open world as games such as Elder Scrolls IV Oblivion I wouldn’t mind it so much because going from open world to a dungeon is quite a change. However in the case of Dragon Age it follows classic RPG elements of going from dungeon to dungeon. Don’t get me wrong, they are beautifully rendered, however they lack the free flowing style found in Elder Scrolls or Fable II.

THE UGLY

Actually, this game has its fair share of reasons to be M rated. The most obvious thing that comes to mind in the blood and gore that comes from battle. As I said earlier there are finishing moves, and these range from just stabbing the target in question, to a full on decapitation and will result in your characters to be splattered with blood. On top of this is the option to engage with sexual relations with certain members of your party. Similar to Mass Effect when certain party members like you enough and you’ve told them to correct things you can choose to have sex with them. This includes homosexual sex with certain party members as well. While these are very difficult to initiate and when they are you don’t actually see anything less than a PG-13 rating, it’s best to mention them as it’s not something I recommend for younger players.

CONCLUSION

An amazing RPG with immense replay value, just to see what other possibilities and choices could have been made. Game play will keep you occupied for 40 hours plus just on your first play through, and the expanded content and quests will easily add several more hours on top of that as well. There is a steep learning curve for the inexperienced RPG players; however it quickly becomes second nature after you’ve played for a few hours. Several very mature elements to it; not recommended to younger players for those alone.

HIGHLY recommended to the fan of Dungeon crawling RPGs.

Brutal Legend: The Good, the Bad, and the Brutal

2009-10-25T14:13:00.000-07:00

Ok, anyone who knows anything about me knows that I’ve been anticipating this game for over a year now because it combines three of my favorite things; Tim Schaffer, Hard Rock, and Videogames. While it has had a rocky development cycle with Activision trying to turn it into the next Guitar Hero game, and EA picking it up after Double Fine wouldn’t let Activision take advantage of it, it has finally came out as promised, and perhaps a little bit more.

I’ll say this right off. If you think that Ozzie Osborne is famous for reality TV, or if someone says, Lita Ford, Lemmy Killmeister or Rob Halford you respond with “Who?”, walk away now. The gods of metal disapprove of you.

SYNOPSIS

You are Eddie Riggs, worlds greatest roadie stuck on tour with a rock/rap/boy-band who he absolutely detests. When an accident on stage causes Eddie to be trapped some of his blood drops into the cursed belt buckle he wears, summoning the spirit of Metal to come forth through the stage itself and send him back into an ancient age of Metal, Demons, and a Revolution of Rock.

THE GOOD

Before I even get into the game itself, I’d like to mention the video scene you get before the game loads of Jack Black taking you to a record store in the L.A. area showing you this epic album he had found, explaining that no one knows where it came from, just that it has always been there. The album is Brutal Legend, and when you open it up all your menu options are on the different layers of the jacket and the record itself. For those of you born after 1985, a record is a black vinyl disk with music recorded into a, requiring a record player in order to listen to it. Unlike a CD, which uses a laser to read the data encoded in binary, a record uses a needle on an arm to play back the analog audio data. Depending on whom you ask, records are supposed to have better clarity of sound, but are pretty much obsolete these days.

The first thing that caught me with the game is how good the dialog and voice acting is in it. Besides having Jack Black as Eddie Riggs, Tim Curry is the main villain, along with metal icons Ozzie Osborn, Lita Ford, Lemmy Kilmeister, and Rob Halford in two separate roles. The dialog itself outright funny, over the top, and well executed. Everything from the enthusiasm of Jack Black to Lemmy’s dry, almost dead pan approach fits the atmosphere of the game. Added to this is the extensive sound track of metal and rock songs from Ozzie, Motorhead, Jack Black’s own band Tenacious D, even Marilyn Manson. There are an equal number of more obscure artists and songs, however they all seem to fit in quite well with the game itself and particularly the scene they are used with.

The game play itself is a mix of several varied and wholly different genres. For example, when you start the game is a third person brawler with Eddie using a battle axe he found, and an electric guitar that came back with him. The axe is self explanatory. The guitar however, does pyrotechnics, hits enemies with lightning, and later on can literally do face melting solos, or call in a famous burning zeppelin from a Led Zeppelin album cover. Very quickly you get introduced to a chop top ’32 hot rod called the Deuce, which allows you to drive across the land, and upgrade it with a variety of defensive and offensive weapons. The one that seems out of place, but works quite well, is the battle of the bands section. While I know that if I say RTS most of the action players will walk away, but that is exactly what it is. You have your stage which acts as a spawn point for your units, fan geysers that you build merchandise stands for in order to collect fans, and units that you order around in battle.

Now, you are not some eye in the sky general over a map table during these battles. You are on the ground with your units, giving orders, fighting, and performing guitar solos to summon attacks, buff allies, or erect merchandise booths on fan geysers. You can also double team with your units for more powerful attacks. With your headbangers you form a mosh pit, with your ranged unit the girl jumps on your shoulder and fires a more powerful shot, and so on. Each is very unique and range from the silly to the outright devastatingly awesome.

Your main enemies in the game are the Glam Metal minions of General Lionwhyte, who have sold humanity out to the demons, the Emo/Goth crowd of the Drowned Doom, and the demon Death Metal army of Emperor Doviculus who has humanity firmly under his hoof. Each faction has different strength and weakness, requiring you to think before you rush blindly into battle.

There are also side missions you can take on which include racing a Rat-fink inspired demon, putting the deuce up on a hydraulic lift to do turret defense, or engaging in ambushes with your units. Completing these missions, along with freeing bound serpents, finding view points and performing stunt jumps earn you “Fire Tributes” to show you pleased the metals gods. These tributes can be spent with the Guardian of Metal (Ozzie) to upgrade your attacks, weapons, or customize the Deuce with weapons, armor, performance, and paint schemes.

The landscape itself follows the idea of open world environments, allowing you to explore, drive your car, and engage in battles with enemies and the local wild life. The design is inspired by metal album covers and by the music itself. You have rock spires formed like guitars, trees made of scaffolding, chrome exhaust pipes sticking out of the ground, ferns made of drum sets, ect. Pretty much any of the locations in game can be taken as a snap shot and make a sweet album cover, which was the whole idea in the first place.

THE BAD

Sadly, some people will be put off by the stage battle sections of the game, as the real time strategy elements are either too simple for the experienced player, or too challenging for the rookie RTS player. Not that there is anything wrong with it, but RTS games have normally been reserved for those who like being the eye in the sky general without having boots on the ground with the different units. You are also limited to a certain number of units based on their point value. While I can see this as a good way to keep players online from spawning a massive horde of infantry and ‘Zerg’ rushing, or a platoon of the heavy assault units to overwhelm their opponents it still feels like you are being held back. The hidden items, such as the bound serpents and memory keys can be rather tricky to find sometimes, considering that you have 120 of the serpents hidden in the land. Mind you, it is good fun, but for those who aren’t into Easter egg hunts that will most certainly be lost on them.

THE UGLY

Not too must to report here actually. While Eddie is a chain smoker, most of the time in the game he lights up only to end up losing his cigarette for any number of reasons. There is some rather harsh language in the game, but you are given a choice in the very beginning to have it uncensored, or for it to be bleeped out. Gore is the same way in the game as well. You can choose to have no gore at all, or to have, and I quote this from the game itself “Only when it would look really awesome!”. The demons of the Tainted Coil are into bondage and quite creepy looking, and for them alone I’d say this game is definitely not for younger players. We won’t even get into the Emo/Goth hybrids of the Drowned Doom, they are self explanatory.

CONCLUSION

Thoroughly enjoyed playing it, and have been going through to find all the hidden things. I admit I’m very biased in this review because I’ve always enjoyed games from Tim Schaffer, however even with that said the game is very fun, funny, and never a bore to play. I was kind of disappointed that there wasn’t any Metallica in game, but knowing them that isn’t all that surprising. The RTS elements may be lost on some players, but for the most part it is easy enough to pick up and learn rather quickly. Thankfully they slowly work you into that particular game type so you don’t get over whelmed.

Highly recommend.

Wow, I made it through the whole review without any reference of cranking it up to 11. Opps, spoke too soon.

Halo 3: ODST –The Good, the Bad, and the Firefight

2009-09-25T18:54:00.000-07:00

Sadly, this review is two days behind everyone else due to having to wait on UPS, so most of what I will be saying everyone has already heard. Now I go into this review saying that I am one of those strange persons who is more interested in the Halo story line over the multiplayer components. This is in part to do with the tale that Bungie has woven, but also related to the number of abusive, racists, and sexist 12 year olds that seem to be breeding in the Live Multiplayer world. So, with that said, my review will be on the merits of the game play, storytelling, graphics, sound and fun factor.

SYNOPSIS

Picking up halfway through the Halo storyline, you are an ODST part of squad being dropped to help capture the Prophet of Regret’s Carrier in the beginning of Halo 2. However, when the carrier jumps away in atmosphere you and your squad get knocked off course and scattered throughout New Mombasa. Waking up six hours after the drop, you take the role of the Rookie, trapped alone with no squad, no clue on what happened, and an occupying army of Covenant looking to make you into ODST stew. Saddle up, it’s time to dance.

THE GOOD

The storytelling of the game is a major change from the series, having you play as the Rookie in the ‘hub’ of New Mombasa with the city’s AI providing support for you. When you find a clue of what happened to your squad mates, however, you jump into that character’s boots at an earlier point in the game. Added to this that you can do any of these memory missions in whatever order you choose so it takes away from the linear feel of storytelling and gives more of a choose your own adventure take on the game. The hub itself is a night area that shows signs of heavy combat as well as general evacuation chaos. In this area you find roaming Covenant troops of varied types including the long awaited Engineer who provides overshields to your enemies.

In a nod to the “I Love Bees” ARG that was done for the Halo 2 releases there are audio logs of a teenage girl named Sadie that starts just before the invasion, and continues through while the Covenant start landing troops and equipment. I was surprised at how well acted these scenes were, reminding me of an old radio show with the attention to background sounds and character personalities. If you are one of those players that are only interested in playing the game to shoot things then this part will be completely lost on you; however I believe it gave a sense of grounding to the world and the characters in the game to help bring the world to life.

The voice talent this time around includes Nathan Fillion, Alan Tudyk, Adam Baldwin from Firefly and Tricia Helfer from Battlestar Galactica as the main squad. Compared to Master Chief who was a silent character in cut scenes, these characters will make smart comments during battle, announce when they reload, and even tell you when they are down to their last magazine. It’s less that you are these characters, as it is more that you are reliving what they went through and seeing it through their eyes. It helps to separate the memory scenes from what is happening in real time for the Rookie.

New additions to the game are the silent SMG and pistol, both of which have a sighting system that can be used for more accuracy, the Engineers as mentioned before who provide support for enemy troops and explode if you get to close, the long awaited Firefight mode and the return of the old style hunters from the original Halo. It may seem like a minor thing to bring back the old hunters, however it makes more of a challenge because instead of the long charge time for the ‘beam’ hunters of Halo 2 and 3, the older ones can fire faster and therefore are more a threat to your unshielded ODST hide. This changes the tactics that you would normally use to fell these monsters and keeps you thinking on your toes. Another change to the game play is actually related to the fact that you are not a Spartan II. Since you are not a 7 foot 1 inch tall, power armor enhanced super soldier, most of your enemies are taller, stronger, and more rugged than you are. What you would normally shrug off with your shields in Halo will actually completely reduce your stamina and start tearing down your health very quickly as an ODST. These factors requires the player the think about cover more strategically and not try to take a pack of Brutes on toe to toe, otherwise they will make you into a red puddle of ODST chowder.

The music gets a particular shout out because it’s quite a change from what we are normally used to from a Halo game. In the hub section the music is very somber, with alto Saxophone strains that remind me of a film noir sequence, but also help convey the feeling of mourning for the city, for the squad, and the people who were once here. In the memory sequences the style is more action packed, with electric guitar, heavy brass and percussion to motivate you to fight harder and to win. At the point when past and present catch up in the game the two styles actually merges, creating a feeling of desperation to not only escape, but to beat the Covenant.

THE BAD

OK, so I know the diehards will probably kill me for a few things in here, but they did bug me so I must mention them. The first is how the counters for a few of the Achievements will reset between scenarios. For example, was working the “My Clothes!” achievement, and did one of the memory sequences and when I came back to the rookie the counter had reset. This is just a minor annoyance, but worth mentioning. Secondly, each of the endings of the different areas in the game all turn into a firefight scenario. Let me explain, you get to where ever you are going, and then must hunker down against unrelenting waves of enemies being flown in via drop ships. It did take me a while to realize this, however once I did it made me wonder if they game was made originally just for Firefight mode, or was that just a by-product.

Sadly, the game is much shorter than previous Halo games. It can be beaten in about a day if you don’t take any breaks on normal mode, longer if you are playing Legendary. Mind you the story telling is very well down and game play is fun, but the game feels somewhere between DLC expanded content and a new full game.

Unfortunately also is the lack of matchmaking on Firefight mode. Unless you have 4 people ready and willing to fight with you it will just be you in a very lonely battle. I’m hoping that they release an update in the near future to add match making to the game, as I think it probably should have had it at the time of release.

Lastly, while I know everyone has been wondering when Bungie would be unlocking the Recon armor, and I know that the Vid Master challenges are quite difficult, I fear that in two weeks time we’ll be seeing every 12 year old twerp on Xbox Live shouting into their microphones “I HAZ RECONZ!!!” Maybe Bungie should put an electroshock function in when someone says that? Just an idea…

THE UGLY

Pretty short section, some blood, some language, no worse than any previous Halo title. Perhaps even a little better as there are no Flood sequences.

CONCLUSION

A well made game that is more than just a spin-off of the franchise. ODST stands well on its own two feet for game play, storyline, and originality. While there are some fan service things in the game, it doesn’t feel like it’s made purely for those who own all the novels, and bought a limited edition Halo 3 helmet. If you are new to the series then much of the back story will leave you wondering, however I think that it would be easy enough for you to catch on. Game play is shorter than expected, but feels rewarding and worth playing again. Highly recommended.

Brutal Legend Demo: First impressions

2009-09-20T17:27:00.000-07:00

O.k, since I got the demo in a preorder bonus with Gamestop I figured I might as well let everyone what my thoughts were of it. Before I get into that I need to give everyone just a little bit of back story about the game, and the developer. Back in the day before the invention of the Playstation, the Xbox, and dare I say it, even the N64 the gaming world existed on an ancient and archaic device called “the personal Computer”. These “computers” ran off of strange things called “floppy disks” and later even used “CD’s”; things that look kind of like DVD’s but with much smaller storage space. In this ancient era of gaming companies such as Sierra, Activision, and Lucas Arts made a huge number of games such as “graphic adventures”, and “flight simulators”; such strange ideas they had about games then, don’t you think?

Lucas Arts released a game called Full Throttle created by Tim Schaffer; a hard rock, biker adventure game with a kicking soundtrack and top rated voice acting. A few years later he released another game for Lucas Arts titled Grim Fandango, a film noir inspired journey through the afterlife over a four year period with mystery, murder, and enough intrigue to make Humphrey Bogart proud. Fast forward a few years and with his own company, Double Fine, Tim Schaffer brought Psychonauts to us. Psychonauts was a new direction for Tim Schaffer’s work; it was a trippy world of psychics, distorted realities and a slightly eschewed way of seeing the world. In other words, it was brilliant, but sadly the sales on it initially were less than stellar. It’s become a classic now, but like many classics it wasn’t appreciated in its own time.

Fast forward to today and we have the imminent release of Brutal Legend on October 13th, 2009. As mentioned previously, Gamestop has been giving out a code to demo the game to those who preordered by a certain date, hence why I’m writing this up as well. What the demo gives you is the first 10 minutes or so of gameplay, including the opening cutscene. The sum it up you are Eddie Riggs, the world’s greatest roadie, stuck touring with a Rock/Rap/Boy-band called “Kabbage Boy” who is popular with the “Tweens”. Needless to say, Eddie is less than thrilled with this arrangement because he is a metal head at heart and dreams of being in the business with metal was at its hey-day, like the early ‘70s.

When the lead guitarist decides to go dancing on top of the set that Eddie had build for them (in a dance that is an homage to Psychonauts), and loses his footing, Eddie unwillingly has to go out there to save the guitar, and the twerp who decided to disregard Eddie’s warning about not climbing on the set. With the wanna-be rock climber rescued, the set comes crashing down on Eddie and blood from his injuries seeps into the mouth of his tusked, steel demon belt buckle. This causes the matching set piece to summon forth a monster of steel and fire from beneath the stage and starts Eddie on his journey in to the ancient world of Rock and Heavy metal.

Combat in the demo involves a double-headed broad ax called the Separator, and the Gibson Flying V guitar called Clementine. The guitar itself is used to summon lightning and fire to strike enemies, and well as doing power chords, called Earth Shakers, to literally bring down the house. After fighting it out with a few demonic druids and a demon battle nun creature and picking up partner in the form of Ophelia , the two make their escape in a ’32 chop top hot-rod (The Deuce, aka Druid Plow) Eddie builds from relics in the temple. After a short driving sequence and a boss battle with a giant three tongued Lamprey thing Eddie and Ophelia escape and the demo ends, with a short video showing what is to come.

My impression of the demo thus far is that the combat is fun with combos that can be made using the axe and guitar, as well as a team attack with Ophelia which is a cross between a fast-ball special and a rotary saw. The driving sequences handle well, with the Deuce able to use nitro to boost speed at the cost of turning, and also able to do handbrake turns for quick 180’s. While the numbers of controls were limited I’m not going to worry about that too much right now, since this is not the complete version of the game. From what Double fine has been saying the Deuce will be upgradable, along with the possible attacks that Eddie himself will be capable of performing, so my hopes are up.

Sound on the demo, particularly music and voice acting were very well done. The music is of course classic heavy metal, with a listing of artists that is the “Who’s who” of metal for the last 30 years. It’ even includes, dare I say it, Ozzie Osborne in both the music and as a character in game. The role of Eddie Riggs is voice by Jack Black who is pretty much acting himself with all the sarcasm, one liners and attitude undiluted for the role. Added to this is the classic Tim Schaffer humor, twisted views of reality, and imagination.

The trailer at the end promised a multiplayer mode that involves a literal battle of the bands for the title of Rock God between 4 players simultaneously. So far I’ve only seen and read very little about how this will work, and apparently this will also be part of the main storyline as well, so my biggest hope is that it doesn’t distract from the general style of the game.

So far I have a good feeling about Brutal Legend, however I will want to see and play more before I make my final judgment. So we shall see on October 13th if Brutal Legend plows through with a rock anthem, or if it sells out.

Batman: Arkham Asylum – The Good, the Bad, and the Dark Knight

2009-09-10T13:53:00.000-07:00

Sorry to everyone for my delay on this review, it’s amazing how World of Warcraft can mess with ones priorities.

SYNOPISIS
Joker’s back in Arkham, but the patients are running the asylum, with the Joker planning his own insane surprise for all of Gotham. As the Batman you have to navigate the gothic world of Arkham, face unrelenting foes, super villians, and the very spirit of Arkham itself. Strap on your utility belt, grab your extra batarangs, and make sure you remembered you’re spare set of tights; it’s going to be a long night.

THE GOOD

There are so many things, so let start with graphics. Being that this is a Batman title the atmosphere is dark, gloomy, and deliciously gothic. The environments are built around the idea that Arkham itself is run down and decrepit with the look of years of neglect. In many ways the location is less like a prison and more like the creepy abandoned hospital in horror movies, but in the case you are the one picking them off one at a time.

Game play is a pleasant mix of several different styles that seamlessly transition depending on what you need to do. First off you have the melee mechanics which allows you to fight off multiple enemies simultaneously. You have one button for attack, one to counter, one to evade, and one to throw a powder into the enemy’s face to distract them. Added to this are combinations for throws, grapples, and using your arsenal of bat-tools against them. The animations for fighting are smooth with the emphasis being on free flow combat and building your combo meter. In inspiration to the recent Batman movies, fighting it also brutal and fast; on more than one occasion I saw Batman do a ‘combo-breaker’ move by catching the leg of a goon trying to kick him, then bury his fist into the goon’s groin. Effective? Very. Painful? Extremely!

On the other side of the coin is the detective mode of game play where you use the visor on Batman’s cowl to look for evidence, track villains, and even find hidden areas. The visor is also incredibly effective for the Hidden Predator game play where you must take down Joker’s gun wielding henchmen without being seen. This can be done by nabbing them from gargoyles, setting traps, glide kicks, or just sneak up behind and put them into a choke hold. Part of this is also messing with the Henchmen by laying explosives that you can detonate when they walk past or collapse ceilings with. With each goon you take down the more nervous they become until the last two are terrified and get reckless. It’s such wicked fun.

Voice acting is particularly top notch as they brought the voice actors for the Batman Animated Series in to redo the voices of their characters, with a large shout out for the true voice of the Joker, Mark Hamill.

THE BAD

I think my first complaint has to do with the story line, as there are things the Joker does which seem out of character, same with Poison Ivy and Bane. I won’t spoil anything, but I was rather dissatisfied with the ending, and with the final encounter with the Joker. Some of the minor boss fights also got rather repetitive of you throwing a batarang at them when they charged, dive out of the way, then pummel them. My biggest complaint was for the level in Killer Croc’s sewer, where you had to walk quietly, or face instant death, and toss a batarang at Croc’s electroshock collar whenever he’d try to attack you. If it were a short level it wouldn’t be so bad, but it was long than it should have been, breaking the flow of the game.

My other big complaint is that throughout the game you keep finding upgrades for equipment from the Batmobile, in the secondary Batcave on the Island, and even from the Batwing. My thought is that as Batman you should have all of those already because you are Batman! Added to this frustration is that some of the Riddler Challenge items can only be found by having certain tools in order to get to a certain area. When you finally do get the right item you need to back track and remember where you saw that particular challenge item in the labyrinth of corridors. I’m all for exploration, but I’m not a big fan of playing hide-an-go-seek with an optional side quest, particularly when the only way to find what it is you are looking for is near the end of the game.

THE UGLY

As mentioned early, the hand to hand combat is brutal, but is very fitting for where the game takes place and who you are fighting. While Batman doesn’t kill anyone in the game the joker and his henchmen do, so best be aware of that if you are looking to get this for a younger player. There are some minor language issues, but nothing to really get concerned about.

SYNOPSIS

As with Wolverine: Origins, this game breaks the curse of the bad superhero game. The combat is challenging, the style is well orchestrated for the characters, and most importantly it is fun to play just to see what happens next. I highly recommend it.

Call of Juarez: Bound in Blood - The Good, the Bad, and the Quickdraw.

2009-08-08T10:09:00.000-07:00

Unfortunately the video game world has only a few entries into the category of Westerns. Off had I can only think of a few, the first being Outlaws from Lucas Arts, Red Dead Revolver, Gun, and the Original Call of Juarez. Compared to other genres such as Sci-fi, WWII, J-fantasy, or even Disney franchises it is probably one of the most over looked areas for video games. The question is does this in the OK Corral or do we hang it high?

SYNOPSIS

You play as the McCall Brothers, Ray and Thomas, two southerners disaffected by the Civil War who have turned outlaw in order to find an ancient Aztec treasure in order to get enough money to rebuild their family estate in Georgia. Following them is their deranged former commander who is hell bent on using the treasure to finance a new Confederate Army to overthrow Union control of the South. Along for the adventure is their younger brother William, an in experience priest who is doing his best to keep his brothers from falling into damnation.

THE GOOD

The developers at Ubisoft captured the classic Western feel quite perfectly in the game. Everything from the back ground environments, action of the weapons, and even the level and scale of the environments looks like it was pulled out of 3:10 to Yuma or The Man with No Name series. Dust devils swirl down the streets in town, environments look natural and not like someone had just taken a couple of buildings and stamped it down on a psuedo-desert environment. Character rendering follows the same rules, so you will never see anyone wearing a 10 Gallon hat and fuzzy chaps like the cowboys of the 40’s and 50’s movies. The game is less John Wayne and Randolph Scott, and more Clint Eastwood and Unforgiven.

The story takes place as either the older brother Ray, or the younger brother Thomas. Ray can use a pistol in each hand, toss dynamite, and can take more damage; while Thomas can use throwing knives, a bow and arrows, toss a lasso to get to higher areas, and climb up obstacles in order to give Ray a boost up. Both have a wide range of period pistols and rifles that can be used ranging from the classic Colt Army Six-shooter, to more exotic weapons of the day such as the Volcanic 12 or the LeMat revolver. The most important thing to remember though is that the weapons in this are 150 years old, so you can’t just slap a new magazine in and be off, but rather rounds need to be loaded individually, and nothing is fully automatic.

Both brothers have what is called Concentration mode, where they do a quick draw like action in order to clear the screen of enemies. For Ray you pass an eye icon over enemies on screen to mark that part of their body to shoot, while for Thomas you hold down the right trigger and rapidly ‘fan-tail’ your right stick to do quick shot.

Multiplayer consists of new twists of classic game styles. There is manhunt where each team trades off defending their wanted man until time expires, at which point they score a point. The Western Legends game type has the two teams recreating classic shootout of western fame including such classics as the gunfight at the OK Corral, along with variations of slayer, team slayer, and capture point game types that we all know so well.

THE BAD
What caught me first was that lip sync for the characters would seem off many times in the game, while I know the developers of the game didn’t speak English as a first language I did rather hope that they would at least try to sync up the characters to their native language. Unfortunately I was rather disappointed that the game was so linear in the way it played. When I think of a Western the ideas of a free open world environment come to mind, but in this case you only have two levels where that really is the case, and they are just side missions for bounty cash.

My biggest complaint actually has to do with multiplayer. What most multiplayer games turn into is the other team stacked with the Sharpe’s buffalo rifle spawn-camping your team with one hit kills. Either they need to put a cap of the number of certain classes, or find a way to keep the other team from camping where players spawn. As a long time gamer I can tell you that there is no greater deal breaker with most players than to be spawn camped in a game. It takes the fun out of multiplayer to be killed within a second of you respawning and then having to wait another 10 something seconds to have it happen all over again.

One of the more frustrating parts of the game is the quick draw duels with basically act as boss fights. You and you opponent circle one another while you try to keep you gun hand near the grip of your pistol. When the bell rings you need to actually grab the gun, and as the sights come up plug the other man before he shoots you. Simple right? Not so much. Be prepared to meet your maker at least 5 to 10 times with these sections.

THE UGLY

Well, let’s see. There is quite a bit of drinking, swearing, sexual references, and not to mention the Confederate officer chasing you is the worst racist I’ve heard in a long while.

CONCLUSION

While a fun game, and a welcome addition to the Western game genre, there is just something that feels missing in Call of Juarez: Bound in Blood. I’d recommend a rental first before you buy if you’re not sure.

Overlord II: The Good, the Bad, and the Minions

2009-08-01T15:58:00.001-07:00

As much as I like a lot of the games that are coming out right now, they all seem like a tease to what comes out in the fall. With titles such as Modern Warfare II, Assassin’s Creed II, Halo 3: ODST, Brutal Legend and Diablo 3 everything we have now just feels like the bread sticks you get before huge bowl of fettuccini carbonara. It’s enough to hold you over until the main course, but it only teases you at what is to come. Well, we have 2 months or so until the main courses hit the plats, so lets see if this will keep up hungry or satisfy us enough until dinner gets here.

SYNOPSIS

Have you ever wanted to be that hero who topples the evil ruler and bring peace and justice to the land? Yeah, neither did I. Now being the Evil Ruler is what’s it’s all about. Oppressing the unwashed masses, building your dark kingdom and crushing the lands under you boot are the little things that make a despotic tyranny worth having. In Overlord II you actually start at the very seeds of evil, as the Overlad, and grow your evil power to dominate or destroy the world as you see fit. Along the way you recover your army of minions, grab a few wenches as your mistresses, and have the ever evil advice from the ancient minion master, Gnarl, pointing you along the dark path of being a truly evil Overlord.

THE GOOD

Most importantly, the game is outright funny. You have your army of mouthy minions (who you can pummel whenever you wish I might add), parodies of the Roman Empire, satirical depictions of hippy elves, obese Roman citizens, and magical creatures who are a farce of how they normally get depicted. Added to this is Gnarl with his evil musings, advise, and humor, along with your Jester, Quaver, who acts as a goofy foil to Gnarl’s serious attitude about how an evil Overlord should behave. The minions themselves are the main brunt of the physical and vocal humor in game, with them pummeling enemies with Three Stooges like energy, making smart comments are you march them around, and even having them sing when they are disguised as soldiers in the Glorious Empire.

Gameplay is a mix of third person brawler and minion management. As the Overlord you can attack directly yourself, use magic, and turn the general population into obedient slaves, however your true power lies with the minions. You have four classes to choose from; the Browns who pummel first, then jump up and down on the carcass later, the Reds who throw fire and believe that ‘burned to a cinder’ should be the only way to cook, the Greens who are your ninja class and are able to cloak when stationed on a guard marker, and finally the blues who resurrect fallen minions on the battlefield and can ‘blink’ through enemy formations when swept across the battle field. Each has a purpose and all have their own unique function in battle. The reds for example are poor melee fighters, but when stationed on a guard marker they can set enemies alight with concentrated fire. Or the blues who are terrible fighters, but can swim and heal minions who fell in battle. The challenge is to learn how to use these classes in battle to ensure that your evil will be done.

Also new to the game is no longer do you have the choice between being a benevolent tyrant, or a village burning monster. Instead you can choose to enslave the peons so they work for your will and produce tributes of gold, souls for minions, and weapons; or hunt all them down and smite them for resisting your evilness. The choice is yours.

Your enemy this time around isn’t the fallen heroes who took down the last Overlord, rather it is a parody of ancient Rome called the Glorious Empire who are on a quest to collect and dispose of all magical creatures in the land and have you as Numero Uno on their hit list. Being that there can be only one world dominating master in the land you haave the job of smiting them for their cheekiness of thinking that they fit the bill. The Empire units focus on shield wall formations that get defensive bonuses and make them tougher than your minions in most cases. The trick is to out maneuver, out attack, and sometimes out firepower them. You can now use your minions to power siege engines such as catapults, siege crossbows, and even ships of the seas in order to crush, smash, spear, and sink the Empire’s soldiers.

Another new thing added is that your minions now have mounts that they can use to give them new skills. Browns can ride wolves which let them charge though formations and jump gaps, Greens ride giant spider to let them crawl along walls to make stealth attacks out of reach, and reds ride fire breathing salamanders which allow them rolling attacks that can break baracades and throw fire on the roll.

THE BAD

My biggest complaint about the game, and this applies to most third person games; the camera always seems to be your worst enemy in it. You will spend more time fighting with it than you will fight the Empire. Added to this is that minion control still feels rather imprecise, causing you to run them into walls when you sweep them across the landscape, or making them miss that hard to reach bag of gold you’ve been trying to get.

My other big complaint is that in order to forge equipment, upgrade your minions or make new armor you now need to find pink forge crystals and Dark Crystals (no, not that Dark Crystal, no Gelflings here). The Forge crystals are quite abundant, but require you to grind away at killing gnomes, elves or other fairy creatures to collect them. The Dark Crystals, however, are limited and well hidden in the game, and unless you wish to back track through every area you’ve already conquered they are quite hard to find.

While the random humor when you are walking around towns is funny the first few times eventually you will hear your minions and the town folks repeat themselves quite a bit, making you wish you had smite them earlier.

THE UGLY

Even thought the game is rated T for teen, it does have a few things to take note on. Foremost is that you can sweep your minions over bottle of alcohol, resulting in the little blighters chugging the whole thing and eventually vomiting from being drunk. You also now can get three mistresses, and can, well, please them together in an extended Dark Tower shaking session. While nothing is seen a lot is implied. The overweight fairies are borderline areas because they are wearing flower petal bras that resemble what they cover.

CONCLUSION

Some issues for gameplay, but still fun. The legendary Pratchett humor is still there, and nothing is sacred in myth, folklore or for the evil folk. If you like satire, particularly British satire this is right up your alley, but not so much if you are more fond of the more action intensive games genre. After all, Evil always finds a way.