The El Shaddai “This is NOT a Review,,,”

  El Shaddai Ascension of the Metatron is a wonderful game.  That being said, it has some SERIOUS problems.  But first, I will discuss what I love about the game.  The beginning of El Shaddai starts with you as Enoch.  You are trying to shackle and purify fallen angels in order to prevent the Great Flood.

      The wonderful part of the game is the way it slowly and airily builds up in both tone and difficulty.  El Shaddai is a game about beauty and style.  Every part of the game seems handcrafted to make the player appreciate some form of aesthetic.  Even the the fact that the player can just mash a couple of buttons and come back to life; makes the player believe initially that the game is more about the journey than the destination.  There is a wonderful lack of HUD.  The game shows the player all they need to know with visual cues like armor breaking as the main character loses health.  The whole game is a kind of anime inspired Bible story.  Which the subject matter of the game is based on the Book of Enoch.  An omitted book from the Bible.  This is pretty cool, but most players won’t need this basis for enjoying the game.

      The combat which takes place in arena style areas; with the ability to use only one weapon at a time and not be able to switch weapons except when the player steals the weapon of their enemy.  Soon, the player learns how to rotate from one weapon to another to get the best effect.  Most of the bosses in the game are more vulnerable to one weapon or another; and in these cases you are allowed a limited window to pick the weapon of the player’s choosing to defeat the boss.  The combat is pretty mashy but it is also very tactile and satisfying.  I also, love the fact that not every boss battle is winnable.  For story reasons, the game sometimes makes some boss battles unwinnable.  Which is unique and cool.

      There is a lot of variety  in the environments and gameplay in the El Shaddai.  Everything from a light cycle sequence to platforming through sidescrolling moving vistas.  Unlike most games these days El Shaddai allows to player to experience a varied experience with all most every part of the game, making every area a joy to play through.  This is mainly because, if the player doesn’t like an area they know that the next area will be different.  As I can remember only Uncharted as done a similar or better job of achieving this.

    The difficulty of the game can only be set as to how hard the enemies are but not how hard the platforming puzzles are.  Which makes the enjoyment of the actual story hinge on how good of a platformer the player is.  Which unless the player is a Super Mario Galaxy profession you might have some trouble.  By the time the player is just a few hours into the game.  The platforming in the game which was originally a fun distraction takes center stage.  The platforming in the game is too floaty and inaccurate to take that kind of leading roll in a game that really seems more about story, style, and combat rather than jumping from here to there in 2D or 3D.  The platforming made me stop playing the game many times; whereas in earlier sections it was difficult for me to stop playing.  But in these later sequences I kept wanting to stop playing because the difficulty had spiked SO severely.  In a game with no manual camera control, that much platforming is really too punishing for even the most experienced player.

    In a game that does everything else SO WELL, it is really disappointing that it’s perfection is held back so severely by unreasonable platforming.  This game is manageable as a platformer as long as it sticks to the 2D plane.  But when it tries to be tricky and go for a fully three dimensional view, it shows its deficiencies completely.  As much as I love what El Shaddai is trying to do, it just fails to deliver a game the average gamer would or should want to finish.  While I’m certainly not saying that no one should play this game.  I am saying that before you pick up the game you should know what your getting.  An action platformer and not an especially good one; at least on the platforming side anyway.

Looks like the Best Thing Ever!

Excellent Chinatown Fair Documentary

Chinatown Fair: a documentary from Mark Hayes on Vimeo.

Bastion of Greatness!(Bastion Review)(My 1 Minute Review)

      “Sitting in front of his keyboard, the reviewer feels the pressure of anticipation as he begins to review Bastion.” The calm cool voice of the narrator expounds.

          Bastion is an action game that begins with the player being dropped into the role of “the Kid.”  Who will be the hero of the game.  The player is given a variety of weapons and  tonics to choose from, along with many other enhancements that can be obtained through building different structures throughout the Bastion.  Which is a small island of safety in the Post apocalyptic world of the Calamity.  Of course, throughout this process a wonderful Narrator tells your entire story, fills in backstory, and even comments on your actions.  The player can make the game harder or easier based on how many idols they turn on in the Shrine.  Doing this will make the enemies much tougher and can certainly change things in the game drastically.  Bastion is a very fair, but not necessarily easy game.  There is definitely a learning curve, even without the idols.  There are no difficulty settings, so you just need to learn the game or die.  The game also has a NEW GAME PLUS feature, which while virtually unheard of in XBLA games; it has made just about every premium title that has ever come out at least 25% better.  And in Bastion it is no different, this feature is like the frosting on the all ready incredibly delicious cake.

       I have to say that I loved everything about Bastion.  The art, the music, the gameplay, the story, everything!  I wasn’t a big fan of the automatic save system, I would have much preferred a manual save system.  But as the rest of the ENTIRE game is better than just about anything else I’ve EVER played, I will give it a pass.  Unless you are a horrible, crazy person, you will love Bastion.  And even if you are, you may still love it.  10/10! 

A Legacy Best Left Unknown(Dragon Age 2 DLC Review)

    My One Minute Review:

              Dragon Age 2 was released on March 8th of this year.  Almost 4 months later this lone piece of downloadable content has arrived.  This piece of content is around 4 hours in length, if you fully explore as I did.  The piece of DLC tells the story of a Warden Prison that was set to hold a Darkspawn named, “Corryphus.” Might have the spelling wrong as I couldn’t find a reference for it.  I won’t give the simplistic story away but lets just say you will have it figured out long before the end of the content.

             The content does introduce a new enemy type, a new weapon called, “Hawke’s Key” which you can customize through the latter half the content.  While the add-on can be played at any point in the main game.  Even after the main game.  I played it on a clear save.  My characters ran from level 18-20 throughout the content.  I never died until the final battle against the boss.  Which seemed to me to be a strange spike in difficulty.  Considering the rest of the content, there is little to no challenge; this is an unexpected spike.

           The final boss is an area specific battle reminiscent of the final boss fight in the Deep Roads in the main story.  Except that this battle is even more area specific.  The characters must all run into a different specific area for each phase of the fight.  But the A.I. characters have a tendency not to do this.  With only one character remaining, I did beat the boss. But as a whole the fact that none of the tactics would have needed to be touched throughout the whole game and then they be required in this one battle.  Seems odd to me.  The prize for beating the boss, absolutely NOTHING!

         In fact, the whole piece of content adds virtually nothing to the game as a whole.  Hawke’s Key is a relatively weak weapon compared to others in the game.  If I didn’t all ready have the best armor in the game, there was an armor set you can acquire by exploring that might be helpful later.  But as a whole unless you just need to level up beyond the main game; there is really no reason to play this content.  While there are new cutscenes in the content there is nothing here you can’t live without.  I would have really liked to see a new mage character or perhaps a linking piece of content between Dragon Age 2 and 3.  Than what amounts to at best a side story and at worst a waste of time. 3/10…

I Sincerely hoped that this was a joke(Mortal Kombat)

    Some people think that characters from different franchises ruin the integrity of a fighting game.  I think this goes FAR beyond that.  I normally trust the vision of creators but this seems like a pure cash in and while it may be fun or funny right now.  In a year or two it’s going to seem like a very crappy move.  This very thing is the reason why Capcom won’t have console specific fighters or funny cameos.  If it doesn’t make sense they don’t do it.  Freddy might be in the spirit of Mortal Kombat.  But really, it just makes no sense.

More Arkham City Gameplay off screen from Japan Expo 2011!

If you thought the E3 2011 walkthrough was the whole demo, you would be wrong!

Of Elder Gods and Archons!(My 1 Minute Review) (Dungeon Siege 3)

        Dungeon Siege 3 is a story heavy, action RPG.  The game follows the Legion, a group of knights, for lack of a better description; that have fallen out of favor with the world when this game begins.  Your battle throughout the game is mainly with Jeyne Kassynder and her forces.  The game is very loot driven, but about 2/3 of the way through this stops really being an issue.  I loved the game for the most part, playing it single player.  The choices you make in the game REALLY influence the ending that you get; and that’s cool.  I have to say that the only REAL issue I had with the game was the fact that there is no new game plus and that the loot that you get near the end of the game looks pretty but most of it is crap.

       However, the problems with the multiplayer/coop are probably too much to surmount for this title.  You cannot use your own character in someone else’s game, there is no loot segregation so playing with random people online is out.  And finally, when playing local multiplayer, the game constantly is trying to keep up with having two moving characters on-screen at the same time.

       While I love what this game was TRYING to do; I think it would have been a better game without it.  Perhaps, in Dungeon Siege IV.  But I DID love it single player, at least one time through.  For all these reasons I give Dungeon Siege 3 a 8/10 (XBOX360 version).

 

Klassic Noob and Smoke Skins! (MK9)

G4’s Fighting Words MvC3 with Clockwork Part 3 (Phoenix)

Xbox 360 Games - E3 2011 - Marvel vs. Capcom 3: Fate of Two Worlds

  Fighting Words is a great series, especially these episodes with Clockwork.  Clockwork is a Legendary Marvel vs. Capcom 2 player.  He also has had a descent career in Marvel vs. Capcom 3.

Skullgirls from ReValations Tournament(IPW)

   This game is coming out this year on PSN and XBLA.  It’s going to be a top tier fighting game as a downloadable.  It’s SO AWESOME! More videos incoming as the developer makes them available.

Graphical Future of Video Games is here! Tomb Raider!

     This is a CGI trailer but many screenshots have shown the gameplay to not be THAT far off from this.  I hope that developers will see CGI trailers like this one and think about the possibilities for projects on new hardware that is inevitably coming down the pipe.

       On side note, don’t expect too much from me as far as video next week. I won’t be at E3 and while I will be following developments; I probably won’t comment or put anything up until afterward.

Your Behind the Wheel! (My 1 Minute Review) (L.A.Noire)

      L.A. Nore is the most uniquely engaging game story wise that I’ve ever played.  But the rest of the game is terrible. The open world aspects, while used in an interesting way later in the game, really drag the entire game down.  I believe it’s the amount of voice talent and world streaming that made this game too big for its own good.  I would have much rather had three discs for the 360 where the game was rendered in the highest possible resolution rather than the odd high resolution original Xbox bodies and environments that we received instead.  And while the actual game blows Heavy Rain away, I think that the whole in the case is greater than the sum of it’s parts.  While interrogation is the main focus of the game, this too breaks down a little, later on in the game.  While there are certainly realistic reasons why the developers had to use the very limited system they did for the interrogations.  It doesn’t help the finished product’s quality all that much.  I can live with pop-in, getting stuck on geometry, and terrible A.I.; because this game is so different and so out side of everyone’s current experience.  This is a great first step to bring games one step closer to being more dramatic and more mature.  L.A.Noire was a great experience, but I’m glad to be done with it. 8.5/10…

Another Crash!(My 1 Minute Review) (Motorstorm Apocalypse Review)

      I’ve played ever Motorstorm since the series began, to greater and lesser degrees.  I finished the first, was put off by the second, and by the time Apocalypse came out I thought the online would save the series.  I was deathly wrong.  In Motorstorm the player crashes quite frequently.  Even with some knowledge of the map, there still can be instances where you make a wrong turn and end up in the wall.  While in the single player, this is relatively a minor thing, and while you might lose a few places; the general ineptitude of the A.I. covers any problem you might have.  However, online, where this game should shine.  Is where the problem REALLY surfaces.  I’ve gone from running 3rd to running 8th from just one crash. Even with a descent lead, it seems that the respawn takes SO LONG, that it just doesn’t give you a proper chance.  Considering all the stuff the developer decided to have sticking out of surfaces.  It’s really hard to predict on a regular basis as to what is and what is not an obstacle that your vehicle will wreck on.  Sometimes your car bounces off, sometimes it crashes.  My favorite crashes are when the Semi crashes on a single lamp post or burning car.  This makes you wonder what your real advantage is by playing a big vehicle and why many people drive bikes or ATVs.

     While I normally don’t mind a little challenge, especially in multiplayer.  Running last in every race, just because I can’t keep from crashing or falling into bad situations.  Really stopped being fun for me after the first 2 or 3 hours.  The game just ceased to be fun for me.  This is when I knew my patience with Motorstorm had worn through.  I wish the actual racing elements had been improved from the last games to this one.  It just seems like yet another Motorstorm and this one in a city rather than somewhere else.  The destruction in the cities was fine, but it was even less interesting than those of Split Second.  I think the Motorstorm team needs to make their game a good racing game first and worry about everything else second.  Because the festival is truly over folks.  I really wanted to give this game every chance, but it just got too frustrating and annoying too fast.  6/10.

Playing like it’s 2006!(Gears of War Review)

       I can remember it like it was yesterday.  The XBOX 360 had around 30 games and the PSN had around 10.  We hadn’t played Bioshock yet, and the motion control craze had not even begun.  Things were different back then…

      I can hardly remember playing Gears of War campaign.  I don’t think there was even a website with my name on it back then.  I remember loving playing the multiplayer with my friends from my ex-employer, XBOX Evolved.  But I really wasn’t feeling the campaign.  In fact, after the bud had fallen from the rose of the multiplayer, I never touched another Gears of War game again.

      Then I had a chance to play the Gears of War 3 Beta and I jumped at it.  After I’d played the Beta for the entire period; I decided to try and play the whole series, in preparation for playing #3 when it arrives.  Well, apparently 5 years makes all the difference.

     Upon playing Gears of War again, I found the campaign incredibly interesting.  While the story wasn’t anything special, it was comparable to something like Call of Duty.  But the real star of this game are the gameplay and sound design.  Each area in the game was incredibly well designed, enemies coming from not just one place but multiple places.  These aren’t exactly monster closets, at least most of the time.  But rather, in most cases; a logical place where enemies would be coming from.  There were some great scenes with the Reavers where you had to straddle light sources to move across the map and survive.  There were also some incredible instances where you had to get to the end of the level in a certain time.  This was awesome, because there would be real situations where you couldn’t just sit in cover and shoot guys forever.  One would actually have to escape before terrible things happen. 

     The sound design was amazing.  Locusts would make guttural noises at the right time in the right place.  I’m completely in love with the chainsaw sounds that are so wonderfully accurate in all the Gears games.  I loved the interactions between characters, and music that fits perfectly into all most every situation.  This was prior to Bioshock’s industry setting sound design; but this was definitely a really good step toward that level of perfection and polish.

    What I found most impressive about Gears of War is that today, as someone who has played a lot of video games in the past 5 years; the game holds up.  If someone put this game out tomorrow, it would probably get a 7 or 8 out of 10.  Other than Halo, I wouldn’t want to try that with any other game.  There really is very little here that could be considered dated or backward in a technological sense.  Some of the character models, could be better.  But that is a very small thing in the end.  Even the kind of arena map style design can still be seen today in many modern games.  This isn’t saying that, it’s great; but the design is still being used today.  While the multiplayer matchmaking system and style is dated.  The actual multiplayer is still good.  And Gears was the first game on the consoles to have full campaign co-op which many games don’t have today.  Makes this game an incredible milestone in the history of video games and something that even another ten years from now, could be pointed to as a great game.

   I have to say that this series just keeps getting better and I can’t wait to play Gears of War 2.  As it is supposed to be even better than #1.  Back in the day, if asked I would have given Gears of War a 7/10.  But today, I would give the game a 9/10.  I guess some things really do get better with age.