Batman Arkham Asylum: PS3 versus XBOX 360 (Review)

     I had wanted to finish both versions(XBOX360/PS3) of Batman Arkham Asylum for a while now and I was getting a little bogged down with all the new games coming out until after work tonight.  A friend of mine wanted to have a tag team play session.  She wasn't exactly thrilled with some of the tougher later parts of the game.  I initially told her that it was her own fault for playing on Hard.  But I acquiesced and we played for around 2 hours.  Just the last few levels and as I passed the controller back to her so she could beat the crap out of Joker's party hat wearing thugs I began to review in my mind all the great moments I had playing the game.

     Batman Arkham Asylum begins with Batman catching the Joker once he had managed to capture all the rest of the villains in Gotham.  Everybody ends up in Arkham Asylum and as luck would have it Joker has a plan to capture Batman in the walls of Arkham surrounded by all the worst criminals that helped put there.  It is a classic Batman scenario executed to perfection by the guys at Rocksteady and incredible voice talents including Mark Hamill as Joker.

    The game is a wonderful mix of action platformer and brawler.  Probably on the order of Metroid.   Although I hate Metroid and I love Batman, who would have guessed.  The combos in the game and way the fighting works are some of the main shining points in the game.  The gadgets give you strategic advantages and the stealth in the game is first rate.  There was never a moment in the game where I felt anything but thrilled with the way they had executed a particular section or problem.  There is also a collection element where you must solve all of Joker's riddles.  These riddles range from mildly amusing to kind of hidden and annoying but that's cool with me.  The game throws lots of super villains at you.  Unfortunately the variety of the villains isn't very wide.  There certainly is some variety here and there.  But it seems as if the developer was more interested in mixing up the environmental stuff than the actual boss battles. I really wasn't actually tired of the way most battles played out until near the end of the game.  But for a super hero game just the sheer quality alone is a giant step forward. 

     Batman Arkham Asylum unlike many other titles does not occur in a static world.  The areas in Arkham that you once passed through are all most never the same when you must pass through them again.  All of the changes are story specific but the for some reason the very occurrences of these changes make the player feel all most as if they are playing an entirely new level rather than replaying an area.  Also using new gadgets that you find and earn throughout the game drastically changes just about every part of the game including challenge missions.

     There are definitely two parts of Batman Arkham Asylum.  The challenge mission part and the single player part.  More than most other titles these two are disconnected.  They do use areas from the single player in the challenge missions.  But the skill sets don't tend to cross over.  I definitely feel the brawling challenge mission stuff crosses over.  But the invisible predator missions are a little too complicated in the challenge missions compared to the single player campaign.

     Batman Arkham Asylum is probably not only the best super hero game ever made but also one of the greatest action games ever made.  If you have ANY interest in Batman you will definitely want to purchase a copy of this game. 

    The real deal here is less how good the game is.  And more about the differences between the XBOX 360 version and the PS3 version.  The XBOX 360 version controls a little tighter when dealing with the actual movement and positioning of Batman.  However, the PS3 has superior handling when it comes to using batarangs and other gadgets in conjunction with movement.  The graphical differences while slight are certainly slanted in the PS3's favor.  However, if you have the game installed on either machine's hard drive, you won't have ANY framerate issues on either one.  Certainly the PS3's Joker bonus content is worth the price of admission if you have a PS3.  However, I wouldn't also discount the fact that the PS3 also got some exclusive DLC as well.  So why buy the game on the XBOX 360, no idea.  Unless that's all you have.  Then yeah, the game is definitely still worth the purchase.

    In closing I would just like to say that the PS3 version of the game is probably the best all things considered but a game this good really should be experenced from beginning to end by everyone.  Even if it is just sitting on the couch next to the person finishing it.

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Why Video Games Matter so Much and other stuff...

In the last week I have discovered a few things about popular culture and reviews.  Perhaps too much.  There is may be no such thing as ignorance being bliss; but at least you can be mildly satisfied that life is one way and that your cool with that fact.  What I'm talking about here is that Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen and X-Men Origins: Wolverine are not as awful as everyone seemed to think.  They were both derivative in a very pathetic way.  But neither were ACTUALLY bad movies.  Like House of the Dead or Dungeon Siege.  Which was kind of the impression I was given.  Its amazing how an idea gets into popular culture and then seems to be taken as gospel.  It will be interesting to see how G.I.Joe really is; except I'm still kind of afraid of that one.

   On to more serious matters.  The above picture is the FIRST video game I EVER played.  Yes, I'm kind of old or maybe I just was too young at the time to pick something really good like Donkey Kong or Defender(I did have an Atari 2600 world record in Defender when you had to mail in the screenshot etc... I think it lasted a few days. I dunno, I killed the game and would probably be happy to kill an arcade version of Defender for you.  I was six years old, what did I know).  I think my obsession with video games probably never made it out of somewhere around 7th grade or so.  I can't remember exactly but at some point I just stopped being interested in them.  Perhaps it was my alternative obsession.  The writings of Stephen King, Clive Barker, and Anne Rice.  I wanted to be a horror novelist; really badly wanted to be a horror novelist.  But once I reached around eighteen or so I realized that I couldn't write anything beyond around 150 pages or so.  Which does not a novelist make.  Certainly there were other reasons as well, but hey that isn't something I need to write about here.  Anyway...

    I picked up video games in my sparest of time along with the odd movie.  I was really into a little series called MORTAL KOMBAT!

   I was older, had more free time, and had a girlfriend.  But every time I had the chance I would play Mortal Kombat and I even frequented arcades where the really hardcore people hung out.  These guys would regularly kick my butt at the game and there was even a particular guy that could beat everyone in the arcade on a regular basis.  He beat me regularly as well; but for some reason I wanted to beat him, just once; for real.  So for the price of a quarter I could take my chances.  He was a chain smoker and probably a real jerk.  But I could watch him play people for hours and I grew to absolutely hate his favorite character; Sub Zero.  Of course, I hated Sub Zero until I finally too was able to pull off every single one of Sub Zero's moves.  At the time I preferred Raiden but I took Sub Zero as my second character just to see if I could beat him at his own game.  I never did really beat the guy at more than a round or so. 

At the time, I never really considered any of this.  I viewed video games as most people did at the time.  Like sports, movies, or TV.  Just something to do to kill time.  I guess as a teen or a child you have a lot more free space in your head and these kinds of strategies and complexities that would make most adults say,

     "That's too much work just to get good at a game."

The guy lived Mortal Kombat and was a freaking machine.  So even today I'm not surprised.  But many of my friends were incredibly shocked at how easily I could beat them.  For years none of my friends could touch me on Motral Kombat in arcades or on consoles.  But I never really pursued this, I just liked Mortal Kombat.  That was all.  I did however, play EVERY SINGLE version of the game that came out and have up until DC versus Mortal Kombat came out.  That game wasn't even something that I was interested in, it seemed more like a marketing ploy to recover an ailing company than anything else.

  In general until I was around 25 or so, I hated competition and I also usually hated a challenge.  But in video games, this didn't even seem to be an issue.  I would play Starcraft and lose horribly only to fire it up and play again.  I can't tell you how many times I restarted Super Mario Bros.  I really can't; it was more than a hundred, that I can say.  I did love playing video games, but I didn't really love a system or a particular game.  I was more into just playing everything and having lots of different experiences.  Some good, some bad.  I didn't care.

     All of this however, is really only my introduction to what this article is really about.  That being; why I write about video games, why you read about them, and how all of this came about.  Because as a kid back in the 80s or 90s I could have NEVER even dreamed of the world we live in today and the games that we are playing today or even this whole console cycle for that matter.

     The idea for this article came about not while I was watching Transformers Revenge of the Fallen or while I was watching X-Men Origins Wolverine.  No, it came about while I was playing Torchlight and watching television.  Torchlight just came out and I was trying my hand at the Diablo style dungeon crawler while watching some cartoons.  This is why I love playing SOME games on the PC.  I don't have to be totally absorbed in them to have fun.  Just absorbed enough to know what's going in both places.  Which is wonderful.  This was one of the reasons why I initially fell in love with MMORPGs.

     I was kind of wondering why I play this way.  Why I can play hours of PC games while watching movies or TV and then play hours of console games completely absorbed.  Seems vaguely conflicting to me.  I mean if I really want to get absorbed in a movie I certainly don't want to be doing something else while doing so.  This is probably not the way most people prefer to play.  But I have heard a few friends over the years while playing World of Warcraft that do this.

      The other side of this coin are the times while playing something so atmospheric and engaging that it demands your full attention.  I've also found this to be the case with really complex or dramatic televisions shows or movies.  But video games even more so.

      Does this make the experience of playing Torchlight or World of Warcraft of a lesser quality or worth than playing something like Bioshock or Uncharted 2 Among Thieves.  No, I don't think so.  Just different.

      But this doesn't end here.  Because while we certainly all play video games in inevitably similar ways.  They have grown to matter to some of us in more extraordinary ways.  The same way in which media like movies and music have mattered to our peers and parents.  I don't think there will be a Rolling Stone Magazine equivalent for video games.  At least not for a while and we will probably have to wait a few years before there is truly a Lester Bangs or Chuck Klosterman of video games.  Probably I won't be around to see the Roger Ebert for the video game industry.  Seems today the most recognizable and popular voices in video game journalism are probably Morgan Webb, Adam Sessler, and Geoff Keighley.  There are probably about ten other notable folks but no one who doesn't work in the industry in one way or another would probably be able to name them or recognize them on the street.  That kind of celebrity basically comes from being on television.

    Few people reading this have probably seen the above picture of Chuck Klosterman before; some may have read his work and others may just know that he used be the editor of Spin Magazine.  So Chuck Klosterman is famous for what he has written and essentially who he is.  Which is a rarity in video game journalism.  Probably only Ngai Croal is an analog and he is no longer a video game journalist as much as a consultant to developers.  What Ngai Croal hasn't done is written a book about video games that has made enough money and hit a high enough readership to give him cultural cache.

   No matter how much we wholly believe that video games MATTER.  Video games usually end up being filed somewhere between Saturday morning cartoons and porn.  If you can figure that one out your better off than I am.  I have seen comic books become more socially acceptable than video games. While Chuck Klosterman can make money talking about the musical and cultural relevance of Kurt Cobain.  No one wants to hear anyone's opinion on why Uncharted 2 Among Thieves is a breakthrough for the video game industry and storytelling as a whole.

     Why do we feel differently than everyone else on this topic.  By we, I mean; the people who grew up playing Atari 2600, NIntendo, or heaven forbid Playstation.  The people who didn't need to start fiddling with their Wii to know which way the wind was blowing in 2001-2002 when the new consoles were coming out.  You know who you are.

      Are the reasons simply that games hooked us.  Like some kind of addiction like smoking or pot?  Does this make us some kind of strange advocates by absentia?  If only it were that simple.  Whole subcultures have grown up around World of Warcraft, Halo, and certainly the grindfest Asian MMORPGs that seem to have no end or any positive purpose other than grinding away for the next thing.

     So how can so many people love something so much, even so much as to dress up like their favorite characters and other people just not care at all.  To such an extent that they even brand this thing that they don't get as bad.  To some degree this can be discounted as a generational disparity.  But I believe this to be more about the not enjoying than about the not seeing a cultural relevance in it.  I don't seriously believe that everyone will one day be as interested video games as the people who are hardcore fans now.  But I do hope that one day when someone refers to something in a video game that people actually know what they are talking about and have the feeling that it is cool.  The way that people think that Chuck Klosterman is cool when he waxes philosophical about Kurt Cobain.

     I'm not sure how many years this will take or what will have to happen.  As I can remember it; when I was young and you talked about something in Mortal Kombat or Street Fighter people by and large knew what you were referring to.  Nowadays this isn't really the case.  Unless they have seen the movies or something.  Considering the general penetration of the market that the average console has you would think that more people than ever would have this affinity for video games.  I suppose I was living in video game Avalon or something because when I was growing up everyone I knew had a console or at least had a love for arcade games.  But I guess this was not so for other people.  I have had the strangest conversations about video games in the past few years.  Here and there someone will know exactly what I'm referring to and we will have a nice conversation.  I even had  a friend that was so into pinball that we could talk for hours about it.  I know something about pinball but this guy was in deep.  Then other times I get a blank look like the last time someone talked to them about video games they were talking about Pac-Man.

   So why do video games matter to us and why do we play them and write about them.  I've come up with only one real reason.  Video games do for us what other forms of media cannot.  They make us a part of whatever activity we are participating in while we are playing them.  We are a treasure hunter, a martial artist, a race car driver, or perhaps a member of a troop of Space Marines.  This is completely and wholly unique.  One can watch a hundred movies, read a hundred books, or even watch as much television as anyone can stand.  But you will never be a part of any of them.  Movies, television, and books are windows while games are actually the act of you being outside that window.

     These experiences, because that's what they are in the end. Are so important to us because they are just that, experiences.  This isn't a story someone is telling.  This is something that is happening to you.  Which is why all of this matters so much to us.  Perhaps this is also why we are stilling toiling away in the action movie genre rather than moving on to more mature material.  Because all most all of us have the fantasy of being in said action movie.  This is what video games are good at, wish fulfillment.  As the industry matures and as we find we need more than simple wish fulfillment we will assuredly begin to see more mature material being dealt with.

   What will this gain us?  Will we find the critical diversity and artsy recognition that I was talking about earlier?  Perhaps, but this is crystal ball gazing of a type that is really worthless.  If I anyone would have told me ten years what technology would look like today I would have called them crazy.  So to know what it will look like in another ten is pointless to try and predict.

    In closing I would like to thank the reader for putting up with my philosophical ranting.  Until next time, enjoy your gaming "experiences."

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One Day Before Launch Giant Bomb Quick Looks Torchlight!

Dragon Age Journeys: This game is incredible and FREE!

 

          This is not a review of Dragon Age Journeys!  This game is freaking incredible and you might as well head over there RIGHT NOW and play it for a couple of hours and then come back and read the rest of this.  The game is 2D and a turn based strategy game.  The game allows you to create and customize a character and head out into the world of Dragon Age and into the Deep Roads.  Which is a pinnacle part of the novels that have been presented so far; so I'm guessing it will be a big part of the Dragon Age Origins at least in part.  You are able to team up with random group members and go off and kill monsters, level up, and find loot.  But the BEST AND MOST INCREDIBLE PART of the game is that the when you unlock enough achievements in Dragon Age Journeys you get to unlock in game items for Dragon Age Origins.  These are not crazy unlockables that you have to find over the course of the game or do something stupid like killing the same mob 150 times.  The achievements are actually just for normal game progression.  So EVERYONE who spends enough time on the game will eventually get them all.

     The game seems like it would be annoyingly simple and boring.  But the game is actually very addictive and deep.  I am around 6 hours into the game and I still love it.  Yes this game is long, it's a little grindy, but it is FREE and the story is pretty good.  Not great, but pretty good.

    I just kind of wonder why Bioware or EA spent the money necessary to create this game.  I guess Dragon Age Origins is one of the most important games for them this year.  Which I was a little surprised by.  I can't wait to see what else they do to market the title.  This is definitely an incredible first step.

    I know I was raking on both Bioware and EA for charging for day one DLC.  But if this is the kind of thing that, that stuff pays for.  I might be talked into thinking its worth it to pay the price.  The more I see of Dragon Age Origins the more I like it.

   No matter how you feel about Dragon Age Origins so far, go over and try Dragon Age Journeys; its lots of fun.  Oh yeah, 5/5.  Get it for your browser for free today.  That's it, my game rating for the year.  Now go out and get it.

Technorati Tags: dragonage,PC,xbox360,PS3,sony,RPG,dragonagejourneys,2D,flash,Bioware,EA

 

The Gleam of your Brilliance is Blinding(Game Reviews)

      We live in interesting times.  Perhaps even desperate ones considering the general state of the US economy.  There are plenty of people standing in line for too few jobs and too many people sitting on the butts at home because they were laid off and they can't do anything else.  Back in the day(about a year or so ago), there were probably a handful of really incredible titles.  These days, at least according to Metacritic, a lot of games seem to be far better than the average.  In the last few months each console has scored 48 games combined that scored 80 or higher(that's just PS3 and XBOX360).  Which is by all scales WAY better than average.

      IS this the truth?  Are all these games wonderful?  Perhaps they are?  But in my brief experience with some of these titles, there are issues that call into question the universal marks of quality of that reviewers bestowed upon them.  For instance, Halo ODST is a great game but selling it for $59.99 to people who by and large all ready own Halo 3 seems a bit much.  But everyone universally gave the game at least an 8.0, some even more the average on Metacritic sits at around an 84.  Really guys?  For what boils down to an expansion pack for a two year old game?  Maybe the press should not be constrained in thinking about value when doing game reviews.  But in this economy and with most video game sites advertising the  heck out of the game.  I think maybe some extra care could have been used.  At the very least, the appearance of impropriety should have been enough.

   But this is not the only example of this.  How about Beatles Rock Band?  This game with an average score of 89.  Even higher than Halo 3 ODST.  But this game dropped with a smaller than normal set list and a big box of expensive instruments.  Even though all the instruments have basically the same technology in them as the Rock Band 2 instruments.  Now they want to sell us the rest of a set list that should have been on the disc to begin with.  Considering historically for Rock Band, Rock Band 2, and all the Guitar Hero games this was one of the shortest set lists of all.  Also, they have stated that they are NOT in fact going to use new art assets for each song or album to make it easier to download new songs?  I'm sorry, no matter how positively they try and spin this; there is no excuse for this kind of thing.  The actual game itself which is usually the only thing that is reviewed certainly doesn't have anything to do with the their DLC model.  However, at the time most these reviews were done the reviewers were well aware that the rest of the Beatles catalog would be sold to players as DLC rather than included as part of the game.  The game also does not allow players to play the songs they have on their hard drives from other Rock Band games.   This has been defended, by saying that it is a package unto itself and therefore the other content does not belong there.  I see, so we get a game we can ONLY play Beatles songs in and you won't even give us all the Beatles songs unless we pay extra.  So why isn't the game cheaper than the regular full price Rock Band 2 game was when it came out?  And why isn't the game itself cheaper than $60 if all we can play using said game are Beatles songs.  This should have been taken into account before giving the game a 9.0!

Perhaps the worst sin against the public as a whole is the utter lack of responsibility most reviewers seem to have when it comes to high profile games.  These games are many times sold as pre-orders to people based on reviews.  So when some reviewer writes that this or that game is THE BEST SINGLE PLAYER GAME they have EVER played it smacks immediately of hyperbole that should never appear in a serious review.  Especially when the game is certainly above average but the BEST SINGLE PLAYER ever.  Perhaps you should play more games or try and calm down before you write a review next time.  Everyone gets excited after playing a good game or a good demo.  But people who are supposedly professional are supposed to be able to separate themselves from this and write an unbiased and critical review.  In fact, in the game I will not mention that the reviewer said was the best single player game ever there are QUITE a few things that could have been pointed out as negative about the game to balance all the positive. I.E.  A balanced review, rather than a fanboy lovefest.

  I also really enjoy reading a magazine where 5 out 7 games in their monthly reviews section get perfect scores. It starts to make all their ratings useless.  This is why I don't give ratings.  I just give explanations about why games are good or bad and tell you if you should buy it.  I completely agree with all reviewers who refuse to give refuse and only give detailed explanations.  Ratings or scoring games are too similar to scoring movies.  And I think anyone who has watched a summer action movie knows how accurate those scores and ratings usually are.

   In closing I would like to say that I have every respect for the people who write about video games for a living.  I have even more respect for those who make video games for a living.  Video games of late have been better than they ever have before.  If we are going to criticize them we will need to look beyond what we did in the past and take a more critical look at them.  We also may need to consider removing ratings for good.  Nothing is easy when comes to change and this will not be an easy change for people to except either.  Don't judge the future in the terms of the past when it comes to media.  It doesn't help anyone.  Least of all the people who are supposedly being served by these reviews; the gamers...

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Uncharted 2 Among Thieves Review (PS3)

Publisher:

Sony Computer Entertainment

Developer:

Naughty Dog

    I just want to get out of the way that I absolutely hated Uncharted Drakes Fortune and by my estimation the game is virtually broken.  Uncharted 2 Among Thieves however , is a completely different story.  Most of the problems from the prior game have been addressed.  But there are a few new and old problems that still linger in the very long shadow of greatness that this game casts over the rest of the industry.

    The story in Uncharted 2 Among Thieves is definitely torn right out of action movies.  Everything from the heist sequence at the beginning to the final battle at the end of the game.  The game has a definite cinematic look and feel.  There is an amazing flashback setup tying the beginning and middle of the game together.  This kind of thing is absolutely incredible and the extent to which they hold on to the movie feel throughout the game is something other developers could learn from.  Unlike in the last game the story doesn't revolve mainly around any one set environment and the player will end up going from jungles to icy caverns in the space of just a few hours.  There is still a definite lack of indoor environments with the exception of a few temple areas; but that can be forgiven due to the game's break neck pace.  There are plenty of double crosses and triple crosses but most the player will see coming and there really aren't too many surprises in Among Thieves unless you are VERY young or not a big action movie fan.  I have been purposely vague here about the specifics of the story because it is probably one of the best parts of the game; so I don't want to spoil and part of it for the reader.  I will only say that the use of the current main villian was poor in the context of the story and the support villain Harry Flynn would have been a much better main villain as he was fleshed out and made human.  The choice they made was an inhuman soulless tool of the plot.  That is certainly a personal and somewhat literary criticism which might also say something impressive about the story as a whole.

    Uncharted 2 bares a graphical quality that in most cases is unmatched in rest of the industry.  There are certainly hiccups in areas like a goofy animation or perhaps a wall texture that isn't complete and you can see light under or in some cases through it.  But these are minor nit picks.  The continuity between in game cinematics and actual gameplay are very close and in some cases near the end of the gam the player actually believes they have control in for a couple seconds before realizing it's actually a cinematic.  The animations in the game are great overall.  The facial animations are very expressive when it comes to Nathan Drake.  The problem are just about everyone else, who have the tendency to recycle animations which sometimes makes people's emotions hard to read or just uncannily unrealistic.  But the very fact that we are discussing such details shows just how far gaming has come in the past couple of years.

     The sound design and music in the game is absolutely incredible.  Every part of the game is loving scored and all the effects in the game are used to ultimate impact.  Every part of this game needs to be heard to be experienced fully.  I would put Uncharted along side any academy award winning film and let them fight it out for sound superiority.  The voice acting is incredible, but it's little surprise with actors like Emily Rose and Claudia Black voicing some of the leads.  I feel that only one other game comes even close to the musical and sound effect greatness that Uncharted has; that would be Bioshock; and that won how many awards?

     All of the presentation elements in Uncharted 2 Among Thieves are amazing and really I have little or nothing to complain about them.  The real meat of Uncharted 2 Among Thieves is the gameplay as it should be in any game.  The game has an excellent blend of shooting, platforming, and puzzle solving.  I will try and tackle each in that order. 

   The third person shooting in Uncharted 2 is a definite improvement over the first game.  Most enemies now take around 2-3 shots and most die when hit with a headshot.  But the "boss" enemies in the game; like the gunners, the shotgun wielders, and the snipers can take far too many shots.  Also there are some "special" enemies in the game near the end that REALLY take the idea of realism out of the game completely.  I have to say also that the fact that you have complete control of your aim and that there is no auto-aiming made me really think where I hit the enemy would have an impact.  I shot so many people in the crotch and not one dropped afterward.  Trust me if ANYONE gets hit there, they are going down.   I did appreciate the variety of weapons in the game and the fact that they had 4 different handguns, a couple of shotguns, and some special weapons like sniper rifles, mini-guns, and RPGs.  Grenades also are much improved over the last game allowing you to actually aim the grenade throw without shaking the dual shock controller.  The totality of the shooting is very good, but in the end it seems like Naughty Dog took two steps forward and one step back.  I think they should have simply peppered in more enemies and made a few more with riot shields rather than trying to make enemies harder to kill.  Also the cover mechanics in the game seem to have the issue that some surfaces don't allow you to cover against them even though they look like they can be.  Other times, Drake won't pop to cover as he should and leaves the player standing the open looking stupid.  The cover system was a great idea but the geometry of every level needs to be considered before giving it the green light; at least in my opinion.  Also the end game interest in trying make the player run and gun is annoying and I tried to avoid doing this as much as I could.

  I will add hand to hand combat in here as well considering it doesn't fit anywhere else.  The game did a good job of making hand to hand combat more useful and certainly doing the stealth kills later in the game is rewarding.  But the hand to combat is unbreakable and sometimes enemies can initiate it.    Making Drake vulnerable to gunfire and grenades.  Also at the beginning of the game there is a long string of stealth sequences that must be done to proceed.  This mechanic throughout the game work just fine but due to the geometry of the level many of them don't work properly.  Making the level frustrating, many reviewers have had to play the level over and over.  Which seems to show that there were definitely some errors made.  Its a shame considering most people will not realize that the rest of the game is good and this is not representative of the game.

    The platforming in Uncharted 2 is in some ways much better than the first game in other ways falls into the same problems that game had.  Uncharted 2 gives the player ample opportunity to jump, climb, and shimmy over lots of surfaces.  There is no map and in this way Drake's Fortune was a little better, as there the path was very well defined and getting lost was difficult.  In Uncharted 2, I guess as a nod to open world games; they give you other paths.  Paths that lead no where and in some cases simply end with you finding a little piece of collective treasure and in some cases lead you only to a impassable wall.  This to me is a waste of time and resources.  If you want to have the player go down a particular path, don't give the player an illusion of having a choice to go down another.  Also, if your going to have game hints, don't say things that are obvious like,

        "Climb to the open window"

   Or unnecessarily vague like,

        "Climb up the column."

    Really Naughty Dog?  What column there are many?

     The long and the short of this is that; if your going to remove the map; give me some other way to find my way other than a strategy guide.  I can't tell you how many times I went to jump to a particular area and fell to my death; only to find out that I wasn't supposed to go that way.  There also doesn't seem to be a logical or consistent extent to which Drake's abilities can be gauged.  By the end of the game I had an "idea" of what Drake could or couldn't do; but this gets the player into a more trouble than necessary.  Also the A.I. characters in the game move too quickly to perform their tasks; to go even so far as to knock the player off of platforming pieces.  I never died but I did have to go back an redo it the area because of it.  The action in itself is no big deal, but when it occurs the sense of immediate frustration can be depressing to the player.

    I will say that the puzzle solving in Uncharted 2 Among Thieves has the BEST PUZZLE SOLVING in ANY GAME.  The game gives you hints but never actually tells you what you must do.  The puzzles cool and appropriate to the context.  Never did I feel lost or frustrated.  EVERY OTHER DEVELOPER out there should take note of the masterful job Naughty Dog did with this game's puzzle mechanics and design.  The designers of these puzzles should all get raises.

    I would like to discuss a couple of wonderful areas of the game.  There is a train sequence in the game where Drake is climbing on and through a train while it's moving.  It is probably the greatest train sequence in any game ever made and it is SO COMPELLING that I would not mind to see it copied by subsequent titles.  The sense of speed and the idea of doing platforming, cover, and shooting all on that train while it's moving were amazing and made the level very fun.  The other area I found incredible was the one in which Drake is jumping from one truck to the next while shooting guys and doing hand to hand combat.  The surfing itself is better than any other.  This was what WET was trying to do and Naughty Dog nailed it in the head.  There was room for error and the sequence isn't on rails.  Like just about every part of the game nothing is on rails.  I would also like to comment that the sparing use of quicktime events in this game are perfect.  EVERY OTHER DEVELOIPER should take note at the perfect use of this mechanic in Uncharted 2 Among Thieves.

    Finally there is the multiplayer.  I certainly like the multiplayer in the game and the beginning choice of maps and modes is great. But the matchmaking system as I experienced where matches can be made up of teams where the players are as much as 20 levels above your level can be frustrating.  This is really an issue for the beginning player who hasn't memorized the map and doesn't start with even one booster(which are Uncharted's version of perks).  The idea that not only does your team have to win but you have to have had a part in that win makes leveling up a grinding process.  I played around 6-8 hours of multiplayer when it was in beta and once the game came out I've played around 2-4 hours.  While the multiplayer is definitely good.  It will take ALOT more people playing it to make it a lasting quality experience.

     Overall Uncharted 2 Among Thieves is a wonderful game.  But most players will probably find that they need a strategy guide to get through it to the end.  I would definitely recommend a try before you buy.  However, Uncharted 2 has elements in it that make a seminal game for the PS3 and gaming in general.  In a year or so if you haven't played this game you probably won't be able to call yourself a gamer.  My only hope is that the people making God of War 3 have played this game and take some of the relevant pieces into their own title and maybe even make them better.

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Dragon Age Origins Sacred Ashes Trailer HD

Dragon Age Origins Day One DLC!

       According to good old Kotaku it looks like Dragon Age Origins is getting some premium DLC on Day One. Warden's Keep will set you back 560 Microsoft points on Xbox Live Marketplace and $7 on the PC when the game goes out Nov. 3, and then for $7 on the PS3 when that version hits Nov. 17.   There is also the "The Stone Prisoner" DLC which is apparently a pack in DLC for the people who purchased the game new or pre-ordered it.  This is all wonderful...  But it kind of begs the question,

    "Why didn't they include the Warden's Keep and Stone Prisoner, on the game disk?"

     Seems kind of odd to me.  I know that a lot of developers feel like they need to have some day one DLC but most of the time its free or some small amount like 80 Microsoft Points.  And charging for DLC on the PC?  Geez guys, that seems like a little much to me.  Bioware has always been such a cool company.  Bringing us games like Neverwinter Nights which was composed primarily of an incredible story with an incredible editor that allowed players to create hundreds of stories for people to play for free.  But that was back many years ago,when all these companies didn't feel the need to charge the consumer for filters, weapon packs, etc..  Now it seems like it's perfectly acceptable.

    Randy Pitchford went off today about how horrible Valve is to Publishers and Developers and that they only help consumers.  Well, I guess they are the only ones.  Because EA and Bioware are obviously more than willing to get the consumer however they can.

  Bioware hasn't publicly released how long the actual main story arc of Dragon Age Origins is.  I think at E3 they mentioned it was around 20 hours.  Which is a fine length for a RPG, so why would they need to release DLC on DAY ONE?

   Don't get me wrong, I love Bioware games; I've been a fan for years.  But along with the last premium DLC they had for Mass Effect which seemed to be absolute garbage.  It appears that the economy or the politics of the video game industry have gotten to them.  Because this isn't the Bioware of Neverwinter Nights, Jade Empire, Baldur's Gate, and Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic.  Just wait guys your cash in is coming, Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic Online.  I can't wait to see how much they will charge for server transfers, character changes, and dye kits.  Welcome to the modern age of video games folks.  Hide your wallet, buyer beware and try not to gag.  Oh just so I'm clear, if this content is wonderful you think you need to have it; buy it.  But don't complain when this happens again and again.  Because we are the reason they are doing this and we are also the reason games cost $60 on  consoles.  If we didn't pay they would cut the prices.

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WET Review (XBOX 360)

Publisher:

Bethesda Softworks

Developer:

Bethesda Softworks

XBOX 360 and Playstation 3

      When I was younger and a little console called the XBOX was the rage with people who loved first person shooters on the console and wanted something really different from time to time.  I can remember games like Oddworld Stranger, Nightwatch, and Armed and Dangerous.  All these games were wonderful titles and I really loved playing through everyone of them.  But they all had one thing in common; they had some major mechanical issue that made them unplayable to the average player.  Wet is another such game.

     In WET you play as RUBI a no holds barred killer who doesn't take kindly to people screwing her over.  Which is by all accounts awesome.  She could have been a touch prettier but hey who am I to judge.  Eliza Dushku of Dollhouse and historically Buffy the Vampire Slayer fame voices RUBI and does an excellent job.  A couple of lines seem a little too enthusiastic but really this is a Grindhouse action game; what did we really expect.

      WET is best when it is running a full speed and you are doing acrobatic slow-mo kills of a screen full of enemies.  Where it has problems is when it is doing virtually ANYTING else.  RUBI seems to even run and walk in a funny way.  The shooting allows you to wield two guns and each gun can be aimed at different target.  She also has a sword that she can kill guys with when she gets close enough.  Its all about Devil May Cry or Club style combo accumulation.  These parts of the game are wonderful and I really even loved the quick time actions which allow the player to have time to see the button and press it rather than just trying to hit the button as fast as you possibly can.  It all worked wonderfully.  But there is another side to WET; something that is just SO BROKEN, that it should have been axed from the game.

     The main problem is with the constant platforming that WET seems to be committed to making the player deal with.  The second problem are the horrible off the wall sequences in the game that have nothing to do with anything like dodging plane wreckage.  Please folks don't copy bad sequences in movie games and call it anything but filler(X-MEN ORIGINS: Wolverine, had exact same horrible sequence).   The platforming is a issue because it has no REAL rhythm to it.  Unlike games that ACTUALLY DO platforming, this game just sets up one jump after another and makes the player find each one; rather than being carried naturally along to the next one.  By the time you get about half way through WET you will figure out some of the all too subtle touches that the designers felt the mercy to put in.  But this is a trial by fire that this game doesn't need.

.

    The unique things about WET basically begin and end with the style that the game has throughout.  The absolute committment to the Grindhouse movie theme is run like a spine through the whole game.  The music is INCREDIBLE and I REALLY am looking for this soundtrack; so twitter me if you know where I can get it.  The blood soaked areas of the game that have RUBI and the music going insane are wonderful except that it would have been nice if they weren't pre-scripted and they allowed RUBI to be invulnerable or have unlimited shotgun ammo or something.  Something that made the shift anything more than an artistic indulgence.  Everything in a video game needs to serve story or gameplay.  Very little in WET does this, at least the stuff that is broken anyway.  I'm not going to complain about this, but there should never be a mandatory challenge mode in a non-racing game.

     By this point, as a reader you are probably wondering if you should buy, rent, or skip WET.  Well, I have to admit I enjoyed some of the highlights of WET and I was abysmally frustrated by the things that were broken in the game.  I really wanted to like WET the way I liked Nightwatch, Oddworld Stranger, or Armed and Dangerous; but I just couldn't.  Unless you have a deep love for Eliza Dushku, Grindhouse, or really hard games you might want to skip this one.  If you like any of those three, rent the game first.

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Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2 Review(XBOX 360)

   Sometimes you choose the game and sometimes the game chooses you.  In this case, the game chose me.  I was just going to start Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2, just to see how it was.  That was 2 days ago and I've finished the game.  Insane I know...  What's crazier is that I all ready restarted the game on the higher difficulty level to see what its like and I still like it.  Now, that's crazy!

   The cinematics in the game are incredibly well done.  I only wish there was some magical way they could have the heroes in your group all ways appear in the cinematics.  Rather than the normal cast of characters that appeared in them no matter what team members you had chosen.  This is a very minor thing of course and in general they did handle all the situations pretty well.

   I did appreciate the smaller number heroes; making each one of them more unique as a power set.  However, some still seemed a little less than stellar and some of the heroes that appeared as NPCs might have been more fun to play.  I would have liked to play Havok for instance, as the fusion with Wolverine probably would have been cool.  More playable X-Men would have been nice as well.  The general lack of a large variety of playable characters may mean that there will be more to download in the future but for right now it just makes for fewer unlockables now.  Which tends to make people less likely to play through the game multiple times.

    The entire game is pretty much exactly the same as Marvel Ultimate Alliance, except that the fusions which allow two team members to combine their powers; tend to add more enemies to the game.  Even on the harder difficulty setting it isn't anything the average player couldn't handle.  But it sometimes make you think about different tactical ways you can approach a situation.  The puzzles in the game are pretty worthless but this again, like the story seemed to be secondary.  The main focus of MUA2 is pretty much to do the most damage you can to the most stuff you can.  Which is lots of fun and even with the few technical glitches here and there it makes it worth a play through.  I would have to suggest you find at least one more person to play the game through with.  The hero A.I. can be pretty horrible sometimes.  I found myself battling a boss in some instances and all the other A.I. controlled heroes would just stand there.  Or move off the corner of the screen and just stand there.  It was more than a little annoying, but after a while the game seemed to catch up and the heroes would go back to fighting again.

      The story in the game which is somewhat secondary to the gameplay is from what I've been told a rip-off version of Marvel Comics Civil War story line.  But I'm also told, not in a good way.  I felt the story was fine and the voice acting for the most part was very good.  So whatever problems the story has its probably due to its similarity to the comic book story; which they should probably stay clear of in the future as it probably does more to detract from the game rather than enhancing it.

  

       In the end, Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2 is a wonderful game that does what it seems to want to do.  Be the best dungeon crawler style beat'em up with super heroes in it that it can be.  I would have liked to see more of the fan service touches like multiple costumes, more characters, and more hidden bonuses similar to the first Marvel Ultimate Alliance.  But considering my inital reaction, I have to admit that the game is at the very least worth a rent.  Especially if you are even slightly interested in some super hero fighting action.

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Aion after 12 days...

I've been spending quite a lot of time with my new MMORPG Aion Online Tower of Eternity.  The game went live to everyone with a pre-order on September 20th at around 2PM EST.  The game has two factions Elyos the Angelic Looking folks with emo-looks and white wings and the Asmodians the black winged dark skinned folks that are less emo, but still a little.  I was working during the first couple of days of the game being live and I tried to catch up but I have to admit I'm not anywhere near the level I should be by this point.

     My first character was a Gladiator who is pretty much like a Fury Talented Warrior from World of Warcraft.  I use this comparison so that all you folks out there who are playing World of Warcraft and are bored know what you are getting into.  All my characters are Asmodian as the longer I played with the character customization tool with each faction the more I  realized that the Asmodians were much prettier than the Elyos which seemed strange to me at first as I did play an Elyos throughout the beta.

            The game as a whole is excellent as MMORPGs go.  Some of the quests in the game are grind heavy; but World of Warcraft as a comparison is probably a little easier to get from level 1-20.  This shouldn't keep the average hardcore World of Warcraft player from giving Aion a try.  The diversity in experiences in Aion is pretty incredible everything from full scale player versus player to player versus environment.  The game can throw a lot at the player before the player might be ready; but just as in World of Warcraft the player simply needs to dial it back and grind in the lower level zones.  Grinding in Aion is a more viable course than in games like World of Warcraft.  Quest rewards in Aion are high but not as high World of Warcraft or similar non-grind focused MMORPGs.

      Aion on the surface seems to be more simplistic than most other modern MMORPGs.  However, the game has better graphics than just about any other out there.  The game currently is so popular that the ques to get in were, at one point, a 5 hour wait. Since then, they have added servers and the ques have gone down to nothing.  The game is pretty addictive.  Much more so than World of Warcraft or any other MMORPG I've played recently.  So far I think the game is going to be a big hit and I can't wait to crack into the higher levels of Aion where I can begin doing PVP and Instances.

     Certainly just like any other MMORPG the value of the game is based on the community's dedication and enjoyment of the game. This is the exciting thing about MMORPGs and also the sad part of those MMORPGs that don't work out.   There are perhaps some issues with balance but then there all ways are in PVP based games.  Currently however, nothing appears to be unbalanced.  It certainly isn't as simple as the rock, paper, scissors balance of some MMORPGs.  Aion is excellent in this way.  All the class seem wonderfully balanced.  We will see how all this plays out in a few months when thousands of people are high level characters rather than currently where 60-80 percent of the populations on servers are between 1-20.

   Some advice to new players...

         Just because you THINK you know how a class plays based on its description doesn't mean you do.  You may want to try all the classes until level 11.  So that the grind you have is the grind you want; not one you feel obligated to based on the time you have all ready invested.

        Campaign quests(gold quests) as you move through levels are usually for groups of people not solo players.  They normally don't say this, so once you hit level 12-14 make sure you don't run head long into a situation where there are so many enemies you will be dead before you can even get the lay of the land.

        The regular quests (blue quests) are mostly for solo players but there were occasions where I needed to team up with folks.  All quests are pretty optional except for one or two so if you REALLY hate one skip it.  However, just remember that in most cases the killing of the enemies for these quests and the quest reward XP together are probably MUCH greater than any amount of grinding you could do in the same period of time.

     I did quit World of Warcraft for Aion. So thanks NCSOFT for having all those wonderful video podcasts to get me to think about playing again and thanks Valve for providing such an easy and safe way to download the client.  However to any new players I would suggest grabbing the physical version of the collectiors edition at your local Fry's Electronics its a better value.

Aion at IGN.com

 

    Take a look at the podcasts for yourself, IGN has hosted most of them or head over to Aion Online's official home page for more.

 

More to come....

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