Shine a Little Light Over Here!(Alan Wake’s American Nightmare Review)(XBOX360)

        In all most two years we have heard all most nothing of Alan Wake and his world.  Alan Wake’s American Nightmare was announced back at E3 2011 and was a complete shock to everyone considering it was an XBOX LIVE ARCADE game and not a full fledged title.  Since then, the crazier news that there would be a wave based survival mode in it(Horde Mode).  Made people even more unsure as to what to expect from this latest installment in the Alan Wake Universe.  Personally, I never really liked Alan Wake very much.  I found the story mildly interesting but the gameplay never really caught me.  I watched the whole first game and DLC add-ons primarily on Youtube.  So I knew the previous events going in.  If you have never heard of Alan Wake or played the first game, you might be a little lost at first but about 2/3 of the way through American Nightmare they catch you up.  Most of the way anyway.  One of the things they don’t really explain is that Alan is trapped inside the show he wrote before he became a novelist.  This is a Twilight Zone type of program called, “Night Springs.”

     The focus in the Story is definitely on the action.  I enjoyed the story while it was rather simplistic and once I was near the ending I knew what was going to happen.  But that was OK, the game never wears out its welcome and if you ask me this game could be an incredibly important first step in the future of video games.  Just think another Halo or Call of Duty with a 3-4 hour first episode and then some multiplayer for $15.  Additional episodes would cost the same with upgraded features in the multiplayer and more story.  This would solve everyone’s problems with story length; while all ways giving people something fresh to play.

   The only problem with American Nightmare is the repetition built into the story.   This was obviously done because when doing a game of this size you can’t have too many assets and set pieces or your going to go over budget and end up with a $60 game for $15.  The player either makes the leap of faith or they don’t.  If you don’t make the leap, there is nothing I can say or explain that will make you like the story.  If you do make the leap, then you will notice that every time Alan revisits an area a lot of things are different even within the sameness.  Characters comment on what is going on and that they shouldn’t remember that everything happened before but they do.  So and so on….  It’s fun and campy stuff.  If you don’t like that sort of thing; then why are you playing Alan Wake games at all?  Anyway, Remedy is definitely giving the player a $60 for a $15 price.  So if you like the original Alan Wake, you will probably enjoy this game.  If you have never played Alan Wake before; you may want to pass this up unless you are a rather patient sort.

     The Arcade Mode’s wave base survival isn’t a fresh innovation but it certainly adds something to the game.  Where the Story mode can be a little too easy perhaps, for the average gamer.  The Arcade Mode rarely gives the player any quarter.  For instance, I had forgotten that in the original Alan Wake, your flashlight battery would recharge if you stopped aiming it for a little while.  I only remembered this when I was down to 3 batteries in the Arcade Mode and was getting nervous.  If I hadn’t all ready finished the game, I could go back and never have to replace my batteries.  Well, maybe not never; but you get the idea.  This combat focused mode is great for folks who love the combat in Alan Wake.  Honestly, I was a little burned out by the time reached the end of the Story mode.  But I would recommend playing the Arcade Mode during the time when you play the Story not after.  I think you’ll like it a lot more.

      I have to say that I really enjoyed American Nightmare.  I was a little surprised at how interested I was in finding out what happened.  And while the story might not be the most original in the world, it definitely was meaty enough to draw me in.  I would say that if you’ve played Alan Wake and it’s DLC; but still wondering about picking this up.  You definitely should for the low price of $15.  Also, if you’re are at all interested in seeing what could possibly be the future of video games, you might want to check it out as well.  9/10….

Reckoning with Something???(Kingdoms of Amalur Reckoning Review)(XBOX360)

         Kingdoms of Amalur: The Reckoning has quite a pedigree.  A famous artist designed the art for the whole thing(Todd Mcfarlane), a bestselling author wrote it(R.A.Salvatore), a famous game designer is involved(Ken Rolston), and just to top it all off a famous baseball player owns part of the company(Curt Schilling).  Which is cool and all, but the more they pushed these facts; the more I thought, “God this is going to be a complete mess.”  After playing a buggy demo that was the first demo to ever lock up on me; I was really thinking, well this is it, it’s going to be a disaster.  Then I played the full game, I can’t say the game is terrible; but the Kingdoms is definitely not that good.

        The game was offered as an open world, action fantasy RPG.  Well, one of those genre conventions is just completely wrong.  That would be open world; you cannot freely jump, vault, or even traverse a small log in front of you.  Without ANY kind of freedom of movement, except choosing which road to walk down; there is no way that this game could be considered open world in any way.  For more than 60% of the enemies they are arranged in little groups like in an MMORPG.  Otherwise, they are activated when the player sets off some kind of trigger(walks into an area or hits a particular switch).  There is a day/night cycle which is only important because there are mechanics associated with some weapons tied to them in a minor way.  There are no weather effects of any kind, not even rain.  But all this I could completely be fine with and ignore.

        The action mechanics in the game are the stars of the show.  Everything from magic to melee works incredibly well.  Every weapon handles well and has an incredibly fast pace which breaks a lot of conventions; At least for RPGs anyway.  The player can make his character dodge enemies at will, do combos, you can even snipe some enemies with your bow to a point.  With upgrades spells will hit more guys if they are close together and there were even instances where groups of enemies were hit with only one strike of my long sword.  Although at some point in my time with the game, I just felt like I was just pressing X a whole lot.  It might have been nice to actually have to do some more complicated combos.  But then that would probably have required more complicated enemies.  Also, stealth is useless; only being able to go after 40% of enemies renders it so.  The actual stealth system is great and has definite chops; be we need to have opportunities to use it.  I felt like at some point the character would be better off if they could turn invisible.  Because that’s about what it would take to stealth attack most of enemies in the game.

       The story in Kingdoms of Amalur is by far one of the weakest parts of the game.  Your character is completely silent.  That is a very 90s way of doing things, but hey Skyrim did it, so I can forgive that.  Your character, while customizable is not exactly a complete blank slate and considering the game is not exactly running in DirectX11 at 60 FPS what difference does it make.  Many of quest givers sound exactly the same, even in the main quest.  Which really detracts from the feeling of the world.  They could have used the same voice actor and just have them change their voice.  The whole thing just feels lazy and cheap.  There were some interesting side quests that were good and there were some faction quests that were good.  The main quest definitely felt like the most fleshed out of any of the material I experienced.  While I enjoyed the disparate material, none of it really interested me to the point where I HAD to know what was going to happen.  There have been plenty of people saying that Kingdoms of Amalur is very MMO-like and I’ll join the chorus.  The game has the power and capacity to change the world the character was in but doesn’t at every turn.  Because, if the designers chose not to have a completely open world, the very least they could done is have the actions you do effect the world in some permanent significant way.  There were some interesting aspects of the story given through dialogue in the main quest and in a couple of the faction quests.  But most of this was described to me.  This was a prime example of show don’t tell.  That’s Creative Writing 101, what happened here.  There were a few cutscenes for big moments in the game but these were very few and far between.  In them my character STILL didn’t speak.  It was very out of place.  Also, considering the size of this world, it would have been nice to see more than around 6-8 enemy types.  If I see one more reskinned Brownie, Sprite, or solider.  This is very noticeable when your playing have to get right on top of your enemy to realize they are a Tuatha Solider and not a Freeman Assassin.  Really? I mean at least the Sprites and Brownies are different colors.

         The thing that after 14 hours, I could no longer deal with in Kingdoms of Amlur the Reckoning however; is the freaking menu design!  I have not, even in Fable 2, or even freaking Elders Scrolls IV Oblivion found a menu system SO INCREDIBLY annoying.  The system has too many tiers, you must manually compare EVERY SINGLE FREAKING item in this game.  With a game that is basically about collecting, making, and adjusting loot; the game completely and utterly fails in this arena.  I’m a pretty intense RPG guy.  I beat Dragon Age Origins on PC and XBOX 360.  I beat Dragon Age 2 on XBOX 360.  Little things like badly designed quests or reused content doesn’t bother me too much.  But make a game about loot collection and then put every obstacle that you possibly can in my way and I will eventually snap.  PC RPGs from the early 2000s had better inventory management.

      The inventory size limit is too small, I have to constantly be managing my items, because more than half of everything I get I don’t need.  I have to fast travel constantly to a town to find a Blacksmith table so I can salvage; this takes me completely out of the world.  Weapons and Armor degrade which is fine, but if my stuff is degrading and it only costs a very small amount to fix it.  Then why not, when I get a hoard of stuff ALL THE TIME that I neither need or is very valuable.  After around level 8-9 there stopped being anything I could or wanted to buy that was any good.  I was much happier just crafting my weapons and armor or socketing gems into pieces that were usable from the main quest-line’s loot.  Making everything in the character menus a list, might have sounded good in a design meeting; but in practice it is about the worst thing ever. 

    Even worse than the menus were the absolutely terrible maps.  Every time I had a quest with more than one goal, I was constantly hunting on the freaking map.  It’s not on the local map, maybe it’s on the world map.  It’s not on the main level, maybe it’s above me or below me.  There was no consistency except that it was consistently hard to find anything that had more than one goal.  The game does not allow you to fast travel to people, only places but it constantly marks the quests as people to just add that extra step so that you have to move the cursor to fast travel to the place instead.  There were also a couple of instances in side quests and in the main quest where the quest indicator showed I’d completed the quest when I had not and I would just have to go through the quest and hope it worked in the end.  The main quest one did, the side quest one never did.

     Kingdoms of Amalur the Reckoning is at most a 20-30 hour game in a MUCH BIGGER SHELL.  There is no reason for anyone to play anything except the main quests and the faction quest-lines.  Any cool stuff you could possibly get from anything else is immediately completely useless once you get a drop from either of the above quest-lines or even go to the nearest store.  The Rogue class is all most completely useless and ended up only being good for bow proficiency and applying a magical poison effect to all my weapons.  Seems like the designers, from the loot table; wanted the player to have a lot of warrior or Might abilities.

     Let’s see, a single player linear RPG where the main character is a Warrior who has two party members, one who is a Rogue and one that is a Wizard in a game that is around 20 hours long.  It’s a formula SO OLD and SO rote that the designers and writers probably would never have dreamt of using it.  Too bad they didn’t change the game accordingly.  The game has had around three years of development and they really should have taken more time with it.  Because the game, in this state feels unfinished.  I did experience two game freezing bugs that crashed the game and made me save in 4 different slots all most constantly for the rest of my time with the game when transitioning from one area to another; as this was where the crashes occurred.  There is nothing so absolutely terrible or broken in Amalur specifically.  It’s the culmination of all the slightly poorly designed and badly implemented things that add up to just not wanting to play the game anymore.  If your actually forcing yourself to give time to a game; it’s time to stop playing.

     If you really need to play this Kingdoms of Amalur: the Reckoning, play through the entire main quest and faction quests.  Ignore everything else…  You will be much happier and done a lot sooner.  But then, I only made it to 14 and a half hours, I couldn’t take this poorly designed game anymore; so you’ll have to let me know how it ends.  On second thought, I don’t really care.  4/10…

Preview: SSX Demo!(XBOX360/PS3)

     I can’t say that I have played more than the two missions that are in the SSX demo and I haven’t played SSX since I owned a PS2 back in 2004.  So, I was not shocked that everyone on my friends list was better than I was.  But I was shocked at how incredibly good this game is.  Actually getting your hands on the demo makes a huge difference on how you feel about the game.

  The graphics in the game are pretty amazing but what are better are the incredible mechanics running under this game.  You can go anywhere, do anything, with momentum you can make some incredibly high jumps and pull off any trick in the book.  This is not a game where you are on rails running down a slot.  You have the entire mountain at your disposal and finding every little winding avenue and run is incredibly satisfying.

   Even if you have never played an SSX game ever, you will want to try this demo out.  Can’t wait to get my hands on the full final game.  The game is going to be practically limitless.  Looks like players are going to have at least a hundred hours of fun with this one.

Preview: Binary Domain(PS3/XBOX360)

    I went into the Binary Domain with no preconceived notions.  I had only seen the game played once a few months ago, so I really didn’t know exactly what to expect; except that it was a third person shooter where you are shooting robots.  But there is a ton more.  The robots are bullet sponges, first off.  You have to take out their legs most of the time and then work on the rest.  Unless you are rocking the sniper rifle, then one shot anywhere makes them explode.  Ammo is limited, even though some of the ammo can be purchased at in-game kiosks along with other upgrades for your character and team.  Yes, your not alone, you have a little group of teammates that are basically there just to revive you and carry medpacks.  They also move the story along, but that’s about it.  I see them shooting but rarely see them hitting anything.

    The limited amount of time I had with game told me two big things about it.  The game is very eastern shooter oriented.  Much like Vanquish or Lost Planet, the game has a VERY eastern feel.  Which is great.  I would love to see more eastern developers take on shooters; because they have a flair and style all their own.  The A.I. of both enemies and allies is TERRIBLE!  I just hope that the final build is at least a little better.  I was able to run up to enemies and shoot them at point blank range; many times my teammates could revive me right in front of a a group of enemies without being shot.  My teammates often purposely seemed to run in front of me while I was shooting.  As this effects your relationship with them, that really sucks.

   The controls and systems in the game seemed great and I really grew to like my teammates when they weren’t running in front of me while I was shooting that is.  The only real problem I see in the game is that if the enemy A.I. doesn’t get better.  The game will not only be too easy to play(I was playing on essentially normal difficulty), but it will also take away from some of the tension of the game.  My advice for anyone playing the demo is to make sure you buy lots of ammo at the store because you will probably run out; often.  At one point between store kiosks, I was trying to kill enemies with my pistol.  Which was pretty terrible.

    As much as I had a problem with the A.I. in the demo.  I did really love the time I spent playing the game.  It seems like a rather unique little game and I can’t wait to play the final version on 2/28/12.  It might well be a hidden gem of this year.  Good on Sega…

Why is Size such an issue?(Video Games)

        Recently, the old ghost that has been haunting the video game industry for the last few years reared it’s ugly head in many recent reviews of the Darkness 2.  Not mine…  But there were plenty of folks out there that felt like the Darkness 2 was just too short.  Back in November, folks complained that Uncharted 3 Drake’s Deception was too short.  Seems like every year some degree of hullaballoo is made over the fact that the Call of Duty campaigns can’t seem to escape the 6-7 hour mark in length.  But I’ve got to say that the worst offender in all this were some of the recent reviews of Asura’s Wrath that complained that there was no replayability because once you know the story what’s the point.  Otherwise, the game was practically perfect.  I’m starting to wonder what the point to all this is; after all, what are we interested in achieving from all this?

       Are we interested in bang for our buck or something worth playing.  Especially considering these days most gamers don’t finish games.  In fact, the numbers run around something like 60% of all gamers don’t finish them.  What is the point then in having a 20+ hour campaign when a 5-10 hour one would do.  There are more important issues in gaming other than length.  Most reviewers seem pretty married to innovation as their benchmark of excellence until the rest of the game doesn’t meet their unwritten rules as well.  Lets take a look: no names, no sites, just what the game industry is up against right now.

       The game has a great story but it’s too short(Uncharted 2+3, Darkness 2, MW3).  It’s a great campaign, but this tacked-on multiplayer come on!(Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood, AC Revelations, Darkness, Bioshock 2, Dead Space 2).  The campaign is great but the game is too short and there is no multiplayer(Mirror’s Edge, Asura’s Wrath, Bioshock(yes, really), Shadows of the Damned, Batman Arkham Asylum, Bayonetta, Vanquish, God of War 3).  So let’s see the perfect games that get 100% every time should be Elder Scrolls(all of them), Grand Theft Auto(all of them after 3),  Gears of War 3, Saints Row the Third, all the Persona games, Borderlands, and LittlebigPlanet 1+2.  Then we have the “bad” open world games where there isn’t enough to do even though the game takes upwards of 20 hours to complete(All the Assassin’s Creed games, Infamous 1+2, Kingdoms of Amalur: the Reckoning, Elder Scrolls Oblivion, Saints Row the Third, and Darkness).  Then there is the other extreme that is even more hilarious, the game is just too long(Skyrim, Batman Arkham City, Final Fantasy(take your pick)).  I will point out in case you haven’t noticed that no matter what the game industry does; they are wrong.  People complained after Bioshock that it would be cool to have a multiplayer and it would really increase the replayability of the game.   With Bioshock 2 they had one that everyone said they never wanted.  What?  They made it based on the fact that you wanted it.   

      Being an innovator is great, having a new IP is great.  But the game has to be fun.  That’s all I ask.  It doesn’t have to be especially long or feature rich.  Just fun.  Otherwise, even if the game has a laundry list of features and modes; no one will play them, because they aren’t fun.  I think any reviewer that is going through a mental checklist to decide if something is a good value; is doing a disservice to the people they are writing reviews for.  Even better, just do exactly what you want to do and tell the rest of the world to go to HELL!  I hated Heavy Rain, but at least the developer made the game they wanted to make.  Vision rules all, compliance in art is for suckers and posers.  Until we learn this in the game industry we will just keep creeping closer to the TV and Movie industries who can’t see their way clear to make anything but the same old crap every single year just because they are too scared to do anything else.  But then games aren’t art, maybe we just making widgets; that’s a whole other argument that I REALLY don’t want to get into.  Because if video games aren’t then movies certainly aren’t.  Not anything that’s been made since 1970 anyway.

   Reviewers are not there to tell their readers to buy something or not; based on how good of a value the game is.  We are not doing consumer reports here.  We should not be interested in whether the game is water proof or how long it runs if you leave it running for an extended period of time.  Game Reviews are most akin to book reviews.  I’ve never heard a book reviewer say, “Well, I liked the book, but really it is just so expensive for how many pages it has. 3/5 stars.”  Books are getting expensive, the last Stephen King book came out for a retail of $35; it’s a big book.  I think I can get 849 pages for a lot less money.  It’s what’s on those pages that makes it important.  I’m wondering how often people think about that when reviewing games.  Because a game is usually the work of hundreds, not just one person.  But then, most people probably don’t think about that, given they don’t see the credits because they rarely finish these games that are too short.

  I have loved a great many games that many reviewers on Metacritic think are just not that great.  I’m an 7-8/10 enthusiast, I play 9,10/10 games too.  But the games that I love, I mean love! Are usually not quite there.  Bastion, Shadows of the Damned, Bioshock 1+2, Saints Row the Third, Bayonetta, Vanquish, Phantom Dust, Darkwatch, and there are many more.  I love new IP, I love games that try to do things differently.  But I also love good games.  I will be happy to play Mass Effect 3, Max Payne 3, and Ultimate Marvel versus Capcom 3 right along side; Syndicate, Asura’s Wrath, Last of Us, etc…  Because games should be about what happens from the START screen to the Final END credits.  Not how long it takes to get there.

I Need Some Cover here!(Mass Effect 3 Demo)

       Bioware has been pretty quiet overall about what the Multiplayer in their new game; Mass Effect 3 will look like.  They have also been a tad unclear, about what this multiplayer will ACTUALLY consist of.  So with the new Mass Effect 3 demo; you can play out all the E3 demos that they have had for Mass Effect 3 over the past couple years and the multiplayer.

     The multiplayer, is a team/class wave based 3rd person shooter(Horde mode with different classes).  The player can unlock weapons, powers, mods for weapons, different appearances, and even new characters.  One of the ways to level up is by earning experience points to level up.  Which is exactly the same as in the single player game.  The other way is to earn credits where you can buy different packs from the in-game store.  The packs consist of random items, which makes them a pretty risky deal.  Perhaps if the packs were cheaper or there was more of a variety of different packs at different prices.  I would feel better about them as a whole.  But as it stands right now; it’s the way they are doing it.  It is unclear as how this system will function and what your choices will be in the final version.  I will say that this system is pretty unique for a regular AAA product; it reminds me a lot of Free 2 Play models except that instead of real money it’s in-game money(for now at any rate).

    The single player game mechanics are exactly the same in the multiplayer.  With the exception that the choices are very reduced.  The game typically only allows you to have access to two weapons and two powers.  Which is certainly much reduced from the single player’s wide variety of options.  The mechanics work fine in a multiplayer setting which surprised me.  I was only a little disappointed that with all the very tactile feeling movements and actions; the charge melee move has absolutely no feel at all.  It’s SO out of place in fact that the first few times I did it; I thought I’d whiffed the move.  Otherwise, the aiming is snappy and I was even able to score some headshots with assault rifles and submachine guns. 

    For as much as everyone was so concerned about this aspect of Mass Effect 3 and even by extension all of Mass Effect 3; I have to say it’s pretty nice.  I began thinking I had a couple of hours to play and I ended up playing for 4 hours.  I will be VERY interested to get my hands on the final game.  I’m incredibly glad I didn’t give in to the general apprehension and cancel my pre-order.  Bioware may have made some questionable decisions with their games in the past year or so; but this game seems just as good as it was back in Mass Effect 2.  If anything brings down ME3, it won’t be multiplayer.  There is still a whole story to explore, I can only hope it’s as good as ever.  So far, so good.

What I learned from the 2012 DICE SUMMIT, and I wasn’t even there!

      I’m going to break one of the first rules of video game journalism, right now!  I watched a whole slew of videos over at Gamespot on the 2012 DICE SUMMIT and wow were they good.  You can watch them too, head over here…

    Why do I do this, break one of the first rules of running your own thing. “Don’t link to and endorse other sites, especially those that are much bigger than yours.”  Because in the past two years Gamespot has gotten better and better.  Probably due to the involvement of a certain VP at CBS.  But hey, who knows… Right…  While I leave you with that little nugget, I’ll tell you what I learned on my journey through DICE 2012.

    I was once told by a very trusted friend that as a game journalist that I would someday need to learn exactly how games are made and what goes into making them.  I never really believed them until a couple of years ago when I found that this knowledge became more and more necessary to write effectively about games.  So I started to get very interested in conferences like DICE and GDC and tried to get as much information as I possibly could from them.  I read extensive essays on the internet, I watched video presentations.  But never had the quality and quantity of that information been as well done as it was this year from Gamespot and DICE 2012.  So what did I learn.  I learned a lot of things.  Here are a few of them…

      First, Game Developers are people…  Yes, I know that sounds crazy.  Of course they are people.  I find this to be an insanely important thing to say however, because the internet loves to complain and focus on just one person as a figure head for a group that could be as large as five hundred.  All people, all have lives, families, hopes, dreams, and worries.  And of course, they all have problems.  You know those things that keep popping up at your job.  That guy in marketing keeps hitting on you or maybe you just got a new boss and he makes you feel that homicide might actually be the correct response in some situations.  Yes, these offices are not the lands of elysian that many gamers and students may believe wholeheartedly.  These ordinary people, in some cases or perhaps most cases.  Also happen to be brilliant.  Yes brilliant, how else do you explain something like a modern video game with a million moving parts and all most as many bugs actually coming out to ship at the end of the day?  Luck?  No, I prefer brilliance.  When the games aren’t as good, this just means things didn’t go as well.  Sometimes this means funding didn’t come through or “gasp” someone didn’t do their job.  Yes, just like your job.  There is all ways that one person that just won’t play ball.  It twas all ways thus and all ways thus shall be…

     Second, I learned that many times the people that we put out as figure heads for their studios are usually more brilliant managers and leaders than they are game designers.  Someone like Ted Price or Mike Morhaine probably spend more time dealing with people than code.  This is what makes the games we play great.  Not some lone visionary sharing their genius with their team so they can create some amazing piece of art.  No, it’s more likely that there are hundreds of people responsible for your favorite game, not just one or two.  In fact, that is why I usually talk about a given studio in my reviews and not one person.  Because no matter the success or failures, it’s the group who is ultimately responsible not just one person.

    Third, every gamer needs to listen to at least one of these DICE SUMMIT talks.  Not every one of them and certainly not every year.  But as a gamer who reads, plays, and watches stuff on the games industry it’s important for you to understand how these things come to be and what kind of places they come from.

    Finally, I love listening to developers talk about business and game design structure.  It makes me feel like everything has a solid plan.  No matter how insane a game seems to be designed that somewhere a bunch of folks had a design doc and a plan.  It may not have all gone well or perhaps they ran out of time.  But there was a plan…  Lastly, the cold hard truth is that bad things some times happen and the consequences of which are out of everyone’s control.

   Of course, this Summit was all about grand ideas, philosophy, or HOW-TO…  No, it was was also about people trying to sell their company on others.  Sometimes more blatantly than others.  These talks really turned me off, but then they weren’t aimed at me.  But I will say that if your going to sell your business you might want to be both funny and entertaining rather than just TRYING to be.  Otherwise, even the people you ARE trying to reach will just go off and do something else(the summit is in Vegas after all).

   That’s it, I’m done.  If you want to see some of these talks for yourself; hit the link at the top of the article.  Please hit me up in comments and let me know what you think of the talks or perhaps if you’ve been to DICE or GDC what you got out of them.  I love games and game developers so it’s nice to get to know them in equal measure as much as possible.

Not what most of us should take away from DICE but hey, why not?

    This was from the Games Jam video that Todd Howard had in his session at this year’s DICE.  It’s brilliant!  And the talk wasn’t bad either….

Preview: Agent Down! (Syndicate Multiplayer Demo)(PS3 version)

        I just managed to get down to playing the Syndicate Co-Op Demo the other day on my PS3.  The game was just announced last year and the folks over at Starbreeze Studios have been working over time on this one.  Starbreeze have an amazing pedigree with games like Darkness and Chronicles of Riddick.  This shows mostly in the incredibly good shooting mechanics.

        In the multiplayer demo, which is called Co-op.  There is a choice of being one of four different characters that can have any of 4 different loadouts.  You can pick and choose how you fill out those loadouts.  Everything from healing to hacking is covered.  As you level up, you have access to mods for weapons, different skills, and upgrades to your actual agent.  It’s incredibly interesting and I can’t wait to see how all this stuff evolves.

     All of this is only hinted at in the demo.  I really liked playing the available missions a few times in order to level and try to do better.  As the final boss in the level is pretty tough.  This game is looking up to be an exciting alternative to games like MW3 and Battlefield 3.  I can’t wait to play the final product and get my hands on the single player campaign which also looks amazing.

    While there are plenty of shooters out there.  At least games like Syndicate, Darkness 2, etc…  Are distancing themselves from the boring modern military stuff that has choked the market in previous years.

Stay Out of the Light!(Darkness 2 Review)(XBOX360)

    Back in 2007, I played the Darkness from Starbreeze.  I really liked the game, although it did have it’s problems.  Now, we have Darkness 2; which is from Digital Extremes.  Darkness 2 picks up basically where the player left off in the first game.  Except that, rather than a hitman, Jackie is now the head of the crime family.  There are certainly some marked differences between the first and second games; but not as many as you would expect with a new studio and a span of 5 years separating the two games.

     One of the most noticeable differences between the first and second game.  Is the cell shaded style the second game has adopted.  Digital Extremes has said that they used the cell shading to portray the connection that game has with the source material, that being comics.  But I’m not entirely sure that it was used to good effect in this game.  It’s not that the game doesn’t look great.  The game looks SO GOOD that there are too many places where the cell shading just seems to interfere with the periphery details both in the characters and in the surroundings.   Most of the time these inconsistencies are completely invisible.  In fact, I would have to say that in most cases the cell shading doesn’t effect anything at all.  It’s just here and there where things just look, wrong.  The game is graphically amazing and certainly looks better than the first, but that may also be a symptom of the first game being 5 years ago.

    Digital Extremes also decided to change the pacing and general design of the Darkness in Darkness 2.  This game is a down the corridor FPS, not an FPS with open world elements as the first one was.  There is a subway, there is a television and there are even some quiet moments with Jenny.  But all of these are more tributes to the first game than anything playing into something substantial in this one.  I did like all these references but some of the moments seemed a little forced.  They appeared to be in there not to serve the game; but to say to fans, “Here! Come look at this.”

    The gameplay is extremely tight.  Using two weapons and your darkness tentacles is extremely satisfying and by the end you will be using your Darkness powers and guns all most unconsciously.  The actual gameplay is incredibly satisfying.  The overall design however, is pretty boring.  I really liked some of the areas in the game.  But I don’t want to see anymore abandoned junkyards or buildings in a Darkness game.  They are annoying, boring, and far too trite.  There are some great moments in the Darkness 2 that really stand out.  Everything from a Haunted House to a sequence where you take direct control over a darkling.  These pieces seem to be far too few and far between.  In fact, the last half the of the game seemed the best part of the entire game.  I would have been happy to give up the mansion entirely if there was more in the beginning half like there was in the end half.

      Overall, I was pretty happy with the short primary campaign.  With two endings a new game plus to explore.  It’s not totally unreasonable to have your game’s primary campaign clock in at around 5-7 hours.  Throughout the campaign, Jackie levels up and you work to fill in a talent tree.  Each part of the talent tree informs how you play the game.  Or vice versa, depending on how you want to do it.  This plays into new game plus I’m sure.  The second ending no matter which you pick the first time, is pretty hard to figure out; so that alone could be enough to play through again.

   There is also a co-op campaign called, “Vendettas.”  That tells the story either solo or with 4 people.  Each person takes on the role of one of 4 different characters with four different darkness based weapons and one darkness power.  This was pretty interesting, but I would have really like more in the way differentiation from one character to the next and I would have also liked to see something of a little bit better quality with that secondary campaign.  It kind of reminded me of a MMO shooter rather than a fleshed out game that I just played for around 7 hours.  I will say that playing Solo in the Vendettas will remind the player more of the end of the single player campaign right off the bat.  In the way that the game throws a lot of enemies at you all at once, practically right away.  The main Vendetta campaign is around 2-4 hours long depending on the difficulty.  The Hit Lists which are individual character specific missions are even shorter.  So the entire game with this included will probably take you around 10-13 hours maximum.

    All of my criticisms should be taken in the context of the fact that I played all the way through the Darkness 2 in a single sitting; because I couldn’t stop playing it.  This ran around 6-8 hours which I practically never do.  The game is a lot of fun.  But it isn’t great, its just good.  That’s why I’m giving it a 7.8/10.

Here we go again! (Skylanders Giants Reveal Trailer)

Unblockable! (SoulCalibur 5 Review)(XBOX360)

       As you may or may not know; I usually put up my reviews a little while after the game actually releases.  This is mainly due to the fact that I don’t get review builds, I don’t have a devkit, and I usually rent games rather than buying them(with some exceptions of course).  I’ve all ready logged around 10 hours into SoulCalibur 5.  I’ve only had the game for around 72 hours.

      I am a huge SoulCalibur fan, but I haven’t found a descent version of game since #2.  I hated the character creation system in previous versions and found many of the additional modes to be pointless and terrible.  I was pretty happy with the fighting system in Soulcalibur 2.  I played hundreds of hours of that game and even competed in a few tournaments for 2 and 3.  But as this was a transitional period in my life, nothing ever came out of it.   I didn’t start seriously playing fighting games again until 2010 with Marvel versus Capcom 3 and later Mortal Kombat in 2011.  But as these are 2D games, they are a little different.

      I explain all this only to explain my feelings toward SoulCalibur 5 and why for one of the first times; I haven’t bothered paying too much attention to the reviews of other people.  I usually at least read a review or two before I write my own.  But I knew that there would be no help found in any of them.  I could tell just by the scores.  People are looking at fighting games the way they would a FPS or perhaps a brand new RPG.  What’s the story?  Who cares?  How many modes are there?  What difference does it make, are the modes any good; that’s what I need to know.  How many characters are there?  Really?  No one scored Ultimate Marvel versus Capcom 3 higher for having more characters than any other modern fighting game.  Fighting games are more like sports games, they more or less live or die based on their fan community not how many boxes you can check off on the back of the box.

     I write this review for the folks that haven’t played a lot of fighting games since 2009 or ever.  SoulCalibur 5 has a pretty steep learning curve.  Even if you’ve played Soulcalibur or SoulCalibur 2.  The Arcade mode consists of six standard fights and they seem to be rated as a ladder would be.  Concluding with the fifth and sixth fights which can be seriously challenging to anyone not 100% familiar with the character they are playing.  While typically in fighting games these ladders usually consist of 7-12 fights.   Which doesn’t really mean that the fights will be easier near the end, but many times the player is a little more familiar with the character by then.  Also, there are no cutscenes in this mode at all.  Just normal 6 fights in increasing difficulty.

     There is a Story mode which tells a rather ridiculous story dealing with time travel, different dimensions, etc… Not that this is really an unusual thing for SoulCalibur or really any fighting game.  The Story mode is not of a very high quality and while there are some wonderful cutscenes the majority of it consists of terrible motion comics.  I certainly would have preferred a cutscene ending for each character in arcade mode rather than the entirety of the Story mode.  But it is just a distraction from the core of the game.  The Story mode is 21 episodes long which basically translates into 21 mildly difficult fights.  It was worth the trouble but only just.

     The Quick Batlte mode included is a very similar to the Ghost modes in previous Tekken games.  This consists of A.I. opponents that are of different styles and difficulties based on the play of both top players and developers.  This was one of my favorite modes from Tekken 5 and 6 so playing this was a wonderful and very compelling.  The player earns titles, achievements, player points, and costume pieces for these fights; so they are well worth doing.

     The Creation mode is where players can create either their own characters based on the cast of SoulCalibur 5 or make alternate costumes for the existing cast.  The creation pieces are unlocked primarily based on Player level which is done by playing the game in any way, shape, or form.  This is also similar to the way they did it in Tekken 6, which is wonderful.  Except that in Tekken there was a currency and a player rank.  Which I might have liked more, but it certainly works well enough the way they did it in SC5.

     The Online modes are great, you can play a player match; which is not ranked on the leaderboards.  A ranked match, which is ranked on the leaderboards.  Finally, a Global Coliseum mode; that is done by region.  Here you can participate in regional random matches, tournaments, etc…  It’s wonderful addition.  The player can enter a room and watch matches as they play out and play “quarter up style”  which is similar to that which is in Mortal Kombat.  The system is great, and unlike many fighting games the online is silky smooth and so far in the local matches I’ve played, I haven’t experienced any lag at all.

    The training mode that does exist, seems pretty good.  There are multiple modes within it and plenty of little tutorials in there available.  I wasn’t very helped by what there was on offer.  But I usually prefer practicing in actual matches like Quick Battle, Arcade, or Online rather than using training modes.  Only the KOF13 training mode has helped me in any way since I played Mortal Kombat Conquest back on the PS2.  I’m not sure how ANY fighting game could create a better training mode than what’s on offer these days.  But other than online tutorials and Youtube; there really is no substitute for just doing the work yourself.  Which usually separates the diehards from everyone else.

    SoulCalibur 5 is definitely a game for diehards or hardcore players.  As stated before there is a steep learning curve and while it is similar to SoulCalibur 2,3, and 4.  The addition of some of the new moves that are similar to super moves in other fighting games and the fact that guard impact now costs meter also play a part in the SC5’s separation from the others.  Characters in the past have also had unblockable moves, but it seems like there are many more in this game than the others.  Finally, the whole of all these additions and changes; seriously increase the difficulty of the game.  I was pretty happy with the game on the whole.  But I’m still learning the game myself.  This game seems more of a Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3 than a Mortal Kombat (2011).  If the player doesn’t feel like devoting a serious amount of time to the game; they are probably not going to be very happy for very long.  I think that is probably what Namco was after with this game.  They packed it full of hardcore player goodness and then made sure the arcade version was just difficult enough to turn off the average Joe.  9/10…

Guess I’m Happy I renewed my Gameinformer Subscription!(Last of US cover reveal)

           As a journalist I’ve all ways had a problem with the amount of fluff in Gameinformer Magazine.  But as a reader, I’ve all ways loved their wonderful cover stories.  This next issue is no exception, The Last of Us was definitely a standout from last year’s VGAs and any information is certainly welcome to all of us.  So grab your copy of Gameinformer from your local Gamestop or go over and subscribe digitally to the magazine on their website.  Because even if I don’t agree with their editorial decisions; they have a right to have people pay for their content.  I just wish everyone felt that way.

 

Hey man, your SO ELITE you don’t even need a Pass!

     This story from Jim Sterling of Destructoid today got me thinking about subscription services as opposed to online passes and season passes.  Modern Warfare 3’s Elite Service is in lieu of online pass, season pass, etc..  They certainly got slammed for this in the beginning; people felt it was a blatant cash grab.  However, if your going to purchase the DLC for the game to begin with, it’s a good deal.  Actually, the subscription service model is perhaps the only way to go.  Certainly this requires people to have a love of the franchise and the franchise to be a known quantity.  This would be an excellent fit for games like Madden, Fifa, SSX, Forza, Need for Speed, Gears of War, Battlefield, Halo, and even Bethesda games like Skyrim.  I’m not talking about a monthly fee, I’m talking about a one time fee of under $30 that would cover a year of DLC, online pass, etc…

    Considering the industry is so committed to adopting these crappy online passes.  I think this would be a wonderful alternative.  Also, considering all the crazy pre-order downloadable content garbage going around this would also get rid of that problem.  For $25 you get a pre-order bonus of your choice, a years worth of DLC, and the ability to play online.  Now that, sounds like a deal.  They can certainly sell the DLC independently of the service to those people who don’t want it all or don’t know if they are invested enough in the game to do so.

   While this doesn’t solve every problem for every game and some people will probably think that this is yet another cash grab by publishers.  The COD Elite service does include game statistics, contests, and other advantages besides the early access to downloadable content.  While most games not only don’t need this kind of support but will probably not want to make the investment to build it out.  That would be the argument in favor of having a much cheaper service that covers whatever content the publisher and developer can cover.  But not SO little, that it just becomes another season pass.  If your game has a season pass option you should never have an online pass, for instance.  Being that EA has a Sports Pass but still can’t figure out what they are doing wrong with their online passes, is pretty troubling.

    These are half steps and ideas to try and get rid of the ridiculous online pass once and for all.  While some people may feel that online passes are”no big deal.” if you only buy games new anyway.  That isn’t really the point.  Online passes are a symptom of the disease that finds its root causes in piracy, publisher mismanagement,  and fans apathy toward an industry that is more interested in making money than supporting their products.  Innovation and support after launch are really the only ways of getting rid of the used games market that publishers don’t like.  If you want people to keep your game, make a good game and keep on putting out content after launch so people think it’s worth keeping.  If you put your game out to die, it will; simple as that…

Previews: Twisted Metal Multiplayer Demo(PS3)

     I used to play Twisted Metal on the Playstation.  Back in those days kids probably were able to get about 2 games a year, maybe 3 or 4 the most.  For the entire life of the first Playstation I think I had around 7 games.  For the PS2 maybe 25(I was older by then).  This is all just to say that in order for me to play and purchase the Twisted Metal series, it had to be pretty important.  It was…  While this game does offer the classic control scheme, it’s been far too long for me to think it worth using.  I used what is called the racing control scheme.  As I won one of my matches, I’m assuming I chose correctly.

    The multiplayer demo allows you to choose any of the base vehicles from the primary game and play in either Deathmatch or Nuke.  Deathmatch, is basic and your kill count is your way to winning.  Nuke is a team based game where one group tries to arm their nuke by capturing the team leader of the opposite side.  You can also play offline, in a training or challenge mode.  Both of these offline modes are basically just there to make sure you are familiar with the controls before you jump online.  If I’d have to guess I’d say this was a tweaked version of the E3 or PAX demo.  I was able to get into a game, but not without a SERIOUS wait, not sure why this was; but I hope it gets fixed in the final build. 

    The controls are tight and the vast assortment of crazy weapons make sure to switch things up constantly.  I really liked how each vehicle handled differently and while each vehicle has access to a wide array of general weapons each vehicle's most devastating weapon is their signature weapon.  Everything from a homing exploding gurney to a dude popping out of the roof of your vehicle with a minigun to spray your opponents.

    While there is definitely an air of repetition in the gameplay.  I DO have to admit that last night, the first night the demo was out, where you earn no XP or player points; I played for 4 hours.  By the end, I was wondering whether or not I wanted to play more today.  So to say that the gameplay is repetitious but addictive is an understatement.  I will be really excited to play the final game when it comes out on Valentine’s Day this year; Awww….