Wednesday, February 24, 2010

Borderlands: Secret Armory of General Knoxx

           I recently went back to Borderlands, playing the PC version with my NEW USB 360 controller.  Yay! I finally discovered what I was having a problem with.  I was tired of holding down the left mouse trigger to aim.  I love the game now.  But it will be a LONG TIME til I get to Knoxx.  I will be happy to hit level 30 by the end of March considering all that is coming out.  But I can finally see what is so cool about this game.

Some Bioshock 2, before the review!

"...It does bring me to an interesting point: What's your motivation when you play a video game that allows you some agency? Are you writing a story and creating a character? Or are you using the medium of interactivity to express your own self -- and see how the environment responds to you?

What determines your harvest-or-rescue decision, for example -- something inside the game, or something inside of you?"Sexyvideogameland...

 

              The above part of the whole post which is sourced above are incredibly interesting questions.  It really made me think and certainly this is a interesting way for me to expose my readers to these questions and please read Leigh Alexander's whole article because she is an awesome writer and comes up with wonderful things like this.

             So on to the questions.  I usually don't play a game in a role.  For instance, If I'm playing a game where you can choose good or evil like Fable.  I usually try to pick actions that I'm comfortable doing within the confines of the game world.  Some times I will make up a role, like my Mass Effect 2 character I chose to be "Jack Bauer in Space."  So I tried to make those types of decisions in the game.  But in general, I don't do this. I usually simply play the way I feel is right. Unless I purposely want to be evil; I believe the last time I did that was Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic 2.  But I'm going to try that with Mass Effect 2, eventually....

           In both Bioshock and Bioshock 2, my feeling was to rescue them.  I just couldn't stand hearing the Little Sister's reaction to the harvesting.  It seemed just too evil.  Too amoral. But as a journalist and someone who reviews video games, I might actually play through Bioshock 2 again harvesting all the way just to see how it changes things.  But as I stated above, that isn't how I choose to play.

         How about you?  Have you played Bioshock? Bioshock 2?  Are you a rescuer or a harvester?  And why?

         

Friday, February 19, 2010

9 down 1 to go SSFIV video!

A New Virtua Fighter is coming... To Japanese Arcades

Yakuza 3 Demo Impressions...

 

       I really didn't think I would enjoy the Yakuza franchise at all which is why when I booted up the demo for Yakuza 3 I really didn't have the best of expectations.  I think I saw Yakuza 2 in video review form a when it came out and decided it was too GTA for me.  But this demo shattered my preconceptions.  The main part of the demo seems to jump from a kind of cinematic story telling to an in-game engine hit the X button RPG element.  The story was pretty unclear but I'm sure it is explained more throughly in the actual game.  The player is given objectives via the main characters cell phone.  Which while this very much like GTA, Infamous, and every other open world game out there.  The thing that isn't is the combat.

      The combat in Yakuza 3 allows you to pick up items in this brawler/fighting game style system.  The game is good at mixing these two elements and the two fights in the game also included boss characters that need to be the concentration of your focus during the fight sequences.  There don't appear to be any guns and one of the bosses had a sword.  But this didn't seem to give him an unfair advantage.  I was playing on Normal, so until I got my head around the combat system I did die a couple of times.  But the combat was so much fun and had a really nice depth for a brawler that I really wanted to keep trying.

    

     There is the promise of a couple of arcade games to play and a karaoke mini-game that I didn't get a chance to try; considering I got into a fist fight on my way to it and the demo ended. 

      The demo certainly wasn't long enough to show what the entire game will do.  But the promise of this game is what really sold me on it.  The fact that the fighting aspect of the game, seems to be pretty central makes me even more interested.  Because rather than being repetitive and a throw away.  The fighting is deep, fun, and every fight seems to be a little different.  Will this pan out throughout the entire game?  I don't know, its a demo.

     So go out and try the demo out.  Because, if this demo was good enough to get me interested in getting the full game.  Perhaps it will at least entertain you for a while.

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Heavy Rain Demo Impressions(PS3)

 

       I like Quantic Dream.  I was a big fan of Indigo Prophecy; although I never actually played it.  My girlfriend at the time played through it while I watched.  But it was a lot of fun talking about the game and discussing what she should do next, etc... Tonight, I took the opportunity to download and play Quantic Dream's demo for it's latest offering, Heavy Rain.  After seeing another friend play through the demo, I thought perhaps I would make different choices and perhaps get some different stuff.  Besides, I needed to feel how the game handled.

    The basic premise of Heavy Rain is that you are trying to catch a serial killer and you go about this through the eyes of different characters within the game.  In the demo, you get to see two of the many characters you meet throughout the game.  Also, even in the demo, the choices you make in conversations and who you decide to converse with, will make a some difference as to what you find out about the story.

      The problem was, I hadn't seen the game played on a large screen until I played it myself.  I was watching it on a computer monitor the first time.  Some of the textures in both the environment and the people are a little off.  This is a demo after all, but I was expecting a little more.  Also, the whole game is REALLY dark, not in grim Gears of War way.  No, more like you can't see half of the environment because the game won't let you.  Considering the whole crux of the game is making you care about and believe in the world; the combination of dark environments and invisible walls don't exactly help matters.

    The voice acting is pretty descent but Uncharted 2 was a lot better.  Which, considering again, that the game hinges on conversations and story; this seems a little odd.  Perhaps it's due to the fact that the game wasn't made in America and it is trying to match a place in a fictional America.  This is certainly not evident everywhere in the demo, but there IS a distinct European feel to both the character models and the dialogue.  The faces of most of the people in the game seem strange in a way I can't put my finger on.  They are definitely realistic but not the MOST realistic I've ever seen, just the pretty good.  Better than average for sure, but not the best.  As bad as it is to say, Final Fantasy XIII has more "realistic" looking people.  This is probably uncanny valley territory which is why I can't exactly explain what I find so imperfect about the characters.  Also, they all wander around too much, normal people don't do that.  Mass Effect 2 had this as well, people generally stand in one place while they are talking or explaining something; or they walk around VERY SLOWLY.  Which just isn't there, in either game.  Again, this wouldn't be that important, it wasn't in Mass Effect 2.  Except that Heavy Rain is trying to mirror reality or at the very least a movie type world.  Which makes this little details more important than it normally would be.

    The gameplay in the demo, if you want to call it that; consists of many quicktime events.  Another words a symbol pops on the screen of a control button or gesture and you do that gesture or button press before the action disappears or fills up with white highlight.  This doesn't happen all the time and when it does, it has a 50% chance of being completely unexpected and seemly pointless.  Like ducking under police tap, or opening a car door.  This game seems more interested in you babysitting your character than committing to some actual game play.  Also, at least so far, there is very little reason for you to have control over the character's movements.  It just seems annoying rather than realistic or immersive.  In fact, the controls in the game are what really taking the player out of the experience.  I would have liked to JUST do the quicktime events.  It would have been more seamless and it would remove some of the horribly gamey moments like running into a solid wall made of police tape.

    There are certainly some great moments in the demo; but they don't seem to pay off, perhaps in the end there will be a more general payoff and I'm guessing that's why the game is taking baby steps in the demo.  But if the game is a 10-20 hour experience and there is only one real payoff at the end; that might be too little.

      I was a little put off by the concept of the game when I first heard about it.  But I did think there would have been a much larger leap in technology and story telling than is all ready evident from the demo.  Which while impressive from the standpoint that I didn't shoot anyone or cause anyone's demise. Unimpressive because what I did do was rather unsatisfying.  I will, of course, reserve final judgement for the full game.  You should certainly download the demo for yourself.  Cause you don't need to take my word for it.

Tuesday, February 16, 2010

Live Activity for Week of Feb 8th! Plus Some other stuff!

"LIVE Activity for week of Feb 8th

I’ve decided to expand many of these lists to include the top 20 titles. I think this gives a much better idea what the 23 million Xbox LIVE members are playing.

Xbox 360 Top LIVE Titles (based on UU’s)

1     Modern Warfare 2
2     Halo 3
3     Aliens Vs Predator Multiplayer Demo (Pre-order the game)
4     Call of Duty: WaW
5     Battlefield: Bad Company 2 – Demo (Pre-order the game
6     FIFA 10
7     Call of Duty 4

8     Mass Effect 2
9     GTA IV (Purchase the full game for direct download )
10    Madden NFL 10 (Download the demo)
11    Left 4 Dead 2
12    BioShock 2
13    Gears of War 2
14    Forza Motorsport 3 (Download the demo)
15    Assassin's Creed II
16    1 vs 100
17    Halo 3: ODST
18    Borderlands
19    Trials HD
20    NBA 2K10

Top Arcade Titles (Full Versions purchased)

1    Turtles in Time Re-Shelled
2    Marvel vs. Capcom 2
3    Trials HD
4    Castle Crashers
5    Madden NFL Arcade
6    Chime
7    'Splosion Man
8    Battlefield 1943
9    Darwinia+
10    UNO
11    Hasbro Family Game Night **
12    Magic: The Gathering
13    Invincible Tiger: The Legend of Han Tao
14    Worms 2: Armageddon
15    Zombie Apocalypse
16    Marble Blast Ultra
17    Shadow Complex
18    Serious Sam HD: TFE
19    Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 1989 Classic Arcade

20    A Kingdom for Keflings

The above arcade list is based on full versions purchased.
**Combined sales of all Hasbro Family Game Night titles

Top Indie Games (Full Versions purchased)

1    Yet Another Zombie Defense
2    The Impossible Game
3   I MAED A GAM3 W1TH Z0MB1ES!!!1
4    Avatar Drop

5    Avatar Meet Up Live!
6    Dont B Nervous Talking 2 Girls
7    Head Shot 2
8    Who Did I Date Last Night
9    Miner Dig Deep
10    Rate My Avatar
11    Avatar Golf
12    Samurai vs Zombie
13    Your Doodles Are Bugged!
14    Mind Warp

15    Hockey Fights
16    Inside Lacrosse's CL2010
17    KGB Episode One
18    Beat Hazard
19    RC-AirSim
20    ZP2K9

Original Xbox Top Live Titles (based on UU’s)

1    Halo 2
2    Star Wars: Battlfrnt 2
3    Counter-Strike
4    Splinter Cell Chaos
5    Fable
6    Conker: Live Reloaded
7    Star Wars: Battlefront
8    Doom 3
9    SW: KOTOR
10   SW: Republic Commando

These lists are based on global unique users connected to Xbox Live or in the case of Arcade and Indie Games, full versions purchased during the week.
Some content (and therefore the links) may not be available in all regions. "Major Nelson

         There is little in the world that surprises me anymore.  Honestly, I have to admit that the fact that Halo 3 is still #2 when it came out in all most 3 years ago is amazing to me.  Also, it amazes me how much the press have dumped on some of the games on this list and been totally fine with the short comings of the games in the top ten of this list.  This of course, excludes the demos in the top ten.  Demos are all ways popular because they are FREE!  If you want to give your game away I'm pretty sure it will move more units than any game in history no matter the quality.  But let's not get off topic...

         Call of Duty World at War is a World War 2 FPS, Halo 3 is a 3 year old FPS with no progression system, and FIFA is among one of the ugliest modern sports games in history, oh and Call of Duty 4?Modern Warfare 2 is the bestselling game in history and there are enough dudes on Call of Duty 4 to make it #7 out of 10?  That seems crazy to me.

         Again, I digress...  Let me say that when reviewers complain about Borderlands, Bioshock 2, or Left 4 Dead 2.not being original enough or too repetitive I would like to ask what about the games in the top ten of this list.  The games that sold a ton of copies but even in their day were nothing even close to original or non-repetitive.  Mostly they were just more of the same, piggy backing on the success of others.  But the fact, that people were down on all three of the above games before they came out rather than being jazzed about them.  Another words, the pile on mentality works both ways.  I say this because it is often hard, without playing a game to know who is being hyperbolically positive and who is being hyperbolically negative.  Besides the fact that if you don't do this sort of thing for a living or a very serious past time; you might just take the "professionals" word for it.  Don't believe everything you read or see on the Internet.  If you think a game appeals to you, try it.  Rent it... Then decide...  Use reviews as a guide, not gospel; it's best for everyone that way.  That's all I'm really saying...

 

 

Monday, February 15, 2010

Final Fantasy XIII: No DLC planned! Really?

 

        According to Kotaku and Joystiq," The developers of FFXIII... Have no plans for DLC..."

     What is perplexing about this is that not that there won't be any DLC; but that the game has been in production since before 2006, which there wasn't even a PS3 or XBOX 360 before 2005 so, this seems like a rather long time.  There was also the news that Final Fantasy 13 started out as a PS2 game.  Really?  The current state of the game, with amazing cinematics and the complicated battle system was going to be on the PS2?  What on 5 discs?  Even lower resolution textures, I'm sure would not have made that much difference in the space requirements and considering the developers stated that the long development time was to convert the game from PS2 to PS3 seems to indicate they didn't add all that much from the one version to the other.  So with the conversion, the game is complete? Well, that seems like a REALLY long time, considering it took 6 months to shift God of War 1 and 2 to the PS3 with upscaling and Trophies.  So I would give them two years to convert it.  So that would still make the game a 2007 or 2008 release.  The game shipped in Japan last December.  What happened there?

       The whole excuse about not having time to make towns or DLC.  Sounds like the recent string of Japanese Developers who brazenly state that they don't play other games in their genre and don't need to.  Much like the Polyphony Digital folks stated a couple of years ago.  Now they still haven't shipped a game and their closest competitor shipped 3 games (Forza, Turn 10) in less time than it is taking Polyphony to ship one. Makes me wonder if the Japanese just assume that their lead of 6 or 7 years ago hasn't changed.  Well, it has.  There really hasn't been a big hit from any Japanese developer except Hideo Kojima(Metal Gear) and Hideki Kamiya(Bayonetta) in all that time.  Both of those gentlemen certainly aren't the typical designers in the industry as a whole; let alone Japan.  But they are the exception and not the rule.  There are certainly plenty of talented people in Japan making video games; but it seems like the bigger the franchise the less the developers care about their competition. 

        Final Fantasy 13 will undoubtedly be one the biggest releases of this year.  Considering that fact alone, I think that it's the developer's responsibility to put out some downloadable content.  Like maybe some costumes for Lightning or SOMETHING.  I don't know, if I made games for a living I wouldn't be writing this, I'd be coding.   Also, considering the game is reportedly very short perhaps adding in the cut content would also have been a good idea.  I'm not sure what that content is, or if it's only in Japanese and that's why or what the reason might be.  But if Final Fantasy 13 launches without plans for downloadable content and if Final Fantasy versus 13 never materializes.  Then I think Square, needs to get a grip and figure out what they trying to achieve financially.  Because here in America, if a game has no downloadable content and no plan for it; that game generally gets purchased used more than it does new.  If you know what I mean.

 

Saturday, February 6, 2010

Mass Effect 2: Perhaps the Greatest Game in History!

 Click on the image to go to it's creator's page

        First, I would like to say that this isn't a traditional review and that I am assuming that you have, by now; read the reviews from other sources.  To punctuate this difference I have chosen a fan made image as my lead picture for this article.  Please click on the picture to be taken to his page.  His work is amazing as you can see.  Anyway, I know I have made a bold statement that Mass Effect 2 is the greatest game of all time.  Perhaps some of my readers may remember that I dubbed Bioshock the greatest game of all time.  Which it was, until Mass Effect 2 came along.  That is how good Mass Effect 2.

          Mass Effect 2 begins like no other game.  The game begins with the death of the main character.  Seems like the absolute worst way to start a game.  But it works in some many ways; one of them being effectively divorcing the player from the previous game.  This works for both the new player and the returning one.  Basically the game is saying, things are different now, REALLY DIFFERENT.

         The biggest part of Mass Effect 2 that makes it more than any other game is simply the fact that it has an intense RPG structure and an intense 3rd person action structure.  It's basically Elder Scrolls Oblivion and Gears of War fused together.  This sounds messy and gimmicky but the execution is anything but that.  There is a smooth flow from one area to the next and one type of style to the next.  The cinematics are so blended into the game that very often the player doesn't realize when they have lost control.

          Here we come to where this generation's hardware and this generation's software begin to stop talking to each other or perhaps speaking two different languages at once.  What I am referring to here are not only all the little problems Mass Effect 2 such as long loading screens(not that they really bother me, but others have mentioned this), audio drops(happened 3 times in 25 hours of playing, shouldn't have happened at all), and my favorite which was the reason that Uncharted 2 Among Thieves didn't get my greatest game of all time moniker, getting stuck in the environment to the degree that the game crashes.  Although Uncharted 2's crash was much more severe and more complete; the fact that it exists at all is horrible. 

        This is not all, unfortunately.... This, however, is much more subtle and not something that can be fixed with a patch or pointed out on an excel spreadsheet of bugs.  No, this is the fact that in Mass Effect 2, the player is restricted from saying things that are obvious and forced into saying things that are clever but can be lethal.  There is SO MUCH emphasis put on the spoken word in Mass Effect 2 that saying the wrong thing to the wrong person at the wrong time; will result in a loss of their loyalty.  Now, this is to some degree governed by your meter of Paragon points or Renegade points.  You either must be REALLT GOOD or REALLY EVIL to get some discussion choices.  This is fine and all, but when you know that keeping the loyalty of these team members will eventually result in whether they live or die.  It seems kind of crazy that a minor disagreement in philosophy could be lethal.  After all. your Commander Shepherd; the Hero of the Citadel, etc...  Seems like people would be more likely to trust your opinion and leadership.  That you don't have to all ways agree with them or do what they think you should.  But inevitably until you get very high up on your respective points meters you lose friends or missions based on how good or bad the game allows you to be.  Not how good or bad you want to be.  Similarly, sometimes in a conversation you want Shepherd to say something or ask something; and the game will not allow him to do so.  Also, I tend to have a problem with the fact in the beginning of the game it seems like there is a lot more squad interaction than there is throughout the game.  I would have liked to have seen more of this as there is in Dragon Age Origins.  But I guess the processors can only handle so much and there is only so much room on the disc. 

       This last criticism of the game is really a symptom of how incredible Mass Effect 2 is.  No other game has ever evoked such feelings of having being cornered into the way the game wants or requires itself to be played.  Mass Effect 2 achieves what no other game can, it makes the player so emotionally invested that it makes the player angry when the wrong thing happens and there is nothing you can do about it.  The power of the story and the characters in that story seem to demand emotion from the player.  It is completely unique.  As Thane would say,

     "Entropy, Entropy all ways wins!"

     The only way Mass Effect 2 could be made better is to allow the player to ACTUALLY ask the NPCs questions.  Which of course, was hinted at using the upcoming "Project Natal."  Not that I think Natal will be functional enough to work with Mass Effect 3.  No, maybe if they do a sequel series to the trilogy in 2013.  Then, perhaps with a new console they might be able to make such a dream game.  But then, we would have something so amazing and so great.  That it would probably make people rethink what video games are or could be.  Which is why Mass Effect 2 is the greatest game of all time.  It makes the player wonder what IS POSSIBLE, not just what is happening before them.  It gives the player a sense of the broader world even though you never really see that world first hand in it's entirety. Someday. we will all be Commander Shepherd and when our voices are coming from his lips and our choices are exactly his choices then, my friends we will be beyond the uncanny valley and beyond MMORPGs we will truly be in the future.

       

Thursday, February 4, 2010

Aliens Vs. Predator Multiplayer Demo, Video, and Comparison(Updated 2/5/2010)

          I was able to play this demo(360 version) this afternoon; it's about as difficult as any modern shooter.  However, playing as a Space Marine seems a little uneven from the other two.  Playing as a Predator or an Alien both seem like comparable experiences.  But the Space Marines, at least in free for all deathmatch mode; seem to be unconscionably under powered.  Having the motion detector doesn't help enough to compensate for not being able to see in infrared or just being able to see any opponent in outline.  I would say that most of the time I died as a marine either in head to head conflict or getting stabbed in the back without knowing that the enemy was there.

          Update Starts here: Decided I'd drop the full update here and change the title a little.  First and foremost I would like to thank all of the wonderful people who read my Twitter and that have PS3s.  Because I got some serious response when asking for some people to play with.  Thanks guys.  If you don't have the power of Twitter on your side you might have a SERIOUSLY hard time finding people to play with in this multiplayer demo on the PS3.  In fact, I was unable to find anyone BUT the people who I specifically joined because they were on my friends list.  This is sad, as the PS3 versions controls are a little tighter than the 360s, once I got used to them.  And the game in general does look a little better than the 360.  Not that you would really notice too much in multiplayer as you will be zooming around trying to find people to kill.  But I would think in the campaign mode things would be quite different.  This is a free demo, so if there aren't people playing now... You get the idea right?

       Moving on to the PC version.  The PC version, with everything turned up, looks far and away better than the other two, has no lag and is probably the one you should buy if you have a good PC that can handle it.  The demo is free on Steam so go download it.  The controls will take some getting used to, but frankly I found myself making a lot more kills on the PC. Only because the controls are MORE responsive than either of the two versions.  This could also be that lack of lag, I was referring to earlier.  Also, for some reason the sound seemed a little better.  Maybe it's my HD audio card, don't know... 

       So in the end, the PC version wins, followed closely by the PS3, with the 360 bringing up the rear.  However, this IS a demo and things could change with the 360 when they hit final code.  Also, I have to say that once you get used to the lag, in both the PS3 and 360 versions things are fine.  Finally, if you don't have a lot of friends that are online ALOT and have a pre-orders for this game.  You might consider the 360 version anyway considering there are all most as many people playing the 360 version as the PC version.  Average wait time was less than 30 seconds for the PC and less than a minute on the 360. PS3? About an hour unless you have people on your friends list playing.

      BTW, this game rocks, it's addictive and lots of fun.  It isn't complicated but it hooks you and won't let go, and I haven't even played the team modes or the campaign.  Get the idea? Download the demo! No matter the version.  The game releases for 360, PS3, and PC on February 16th 2010.  Look for a review sometime after that.  Because I WILL be picking this one up!

         

Tuesday, February 2, 2010