Dead Space 2

Has THE coolest unlock ever when you beat it's unbelievably old school taunt of "Hard Core" mode. Hard core mode is the hardest difficulty where if you die you don't restart at a checkpoint you restart at your last save....not a big deal right? Oh wait....they only give you 3 saves for the whole game.

If you do manage to beat it though you do unlock the greatest unlock I think I've ever seen. I foam finger and when you pull the trigger Isaac says "BANG" and "PEW"! Apparently it's incredibly powerful. My resolve to win on Hard Core is strengthened.

Dead Space 2 Review

The first Dead Space is in my personal top tier of games. The atmospheric and moody game breathed new life into a struggling survival horror genre that has been fighting to stay relevant in todays game market. It's HUDless game structure mixed with astounding audio design, great controls, amazing mood lighting, cramped corridors, believable game world, mysterious story and the awesome "Cut off their limbs" shooting strategy all mixed together perfectly and was polished to perfection.

I love Dead Space.

Dead Space 2 was the game I was most looking forward to in all of 2011. Even over Elder Scrolls V and Mass Effect 3 I wanted to take up the mantle of Isaac Clarke again and cut up some bitches! Below is my official review.

Liked:

Isaac Clarke: I love this guy. In today's gaming world it's very common to have a faceless and voiceless protagonist that comes off lazy and half assed to me. In the first game Isaac wasn't faceless, but he was voiceless. He does come off as a 3 dimensional character in the first game though when you come to realize why he is where he is and especially at the end of the game. In DS2 Isaac has a voice. He talks a lot and I'm happy to say he has a normal man's voice. He's not super gruff or super anything. He's a normal guy. In DS1 he seemed like an engineer just doing anything he can to stay alive, but in DS2 he's a veteran. He knows what he's up against and he's the most likely to survive. You still never feel overly badass, but you do feel competent.

Audio: It's still top notch.

Weapons: One of the most interesting things about Isaac is that he IS NOT a soldier. He's an engineer and most all of his guns are tools for mining. This leads to some interesting weapons with some really interesting alternate firing modes. There were actually almost too many new weapons in DS2, but they're still awesome.

Enemies: Necromorphs are some of the coolest bad guys in any game ever.....period. They're scary and tough and fearless. In DS2 they're are numerous additions to their ranks and they're some of the harder ones in the series....damn you Stalkers and Spitters....damn you.

Difficulty: The first DS wasn't very tough. It would run you through your paces at times, but never really threw more at you than you could handle. I've beat Impossible mode 2 times and as long as you know what you're doing and keep yourself backed against a wall you could handle just about anything. That's not the case in DS2. This game will rail you every which way from Tuesday if you aren't on your toes. Even my tried and true strategies were worthless when the game threw the amount and variation of enemies all at once.

Set pieces: There wasn't a lot of amazing stuff in the game, but the train sequence and the mirror sections were really neat. Always seeing Jupiter on the horizon was pretty good looking as well.

Zero G: DS1 was the first game I'd ever played that made no gravity not only fun, but scary and disorientating. DS2 actually gives you the ability to fly around in Zero G and it was always really fun to me just how badly disoriented you could get. I don't think it's a fault of the game, but more of an acknowledgement of how hard it is to keep your bearings when you can float or move in any which way you want. Where the hell is the ground?! Luckily they put in a button to reorient yourself to the ground.

Story: I love the story in this game. I love that it's kind of X Files in the way that they give you enough meat to chew on, but never reveal the wizard behind the curtain.

Tension: The game isn't a very scary one, but I'd be lying if it didn't keep you on the edge of your seat.

The Ishimura Level: My love for DS1 is huge and when I realized that I'd be getting to go back onto the Ishimura (the giant ship the first game takes place in) 3 years after the first game I almost shit my pants. It was all there. Seeing everything a little more run down and broken was really neat. Also, getting to see where the tram would drop you off in the 1st game in the 2nd was really neat.

No Loading: In DS1 after every level you would go to a loading screen and they did a good job of explaining the load because it was you traveling by tram to another part of the ship for another level, but here the game was seamless. The only loads that happened were when you started your game from the main menu.

The Controls: I'm actually glad they made them more "action game" friendly because you get your ass handed to you at times.

The Intro: It was awesome. Who doesn't love running away from Necromorphs totally helpless wearing a straight jacket?

Disliked:

The levels: Apparently a lot of people bitched about the level design of the first game. That you did too much backtracking and that you were just an errand boy. I never had that problem and I really loved getting to know each level intimately. You would revisit the medical area 2 different times and there were new things. New evidence that people were there trying to impede your progress or other people just trying to survive. It's nothing that the game even pointed out, but something you gathered from observation. I loved that the more you played the more the levels opened up for you. It had a very Metroid/Castlevania feel to it. Locked off areas that you could access later once you had taken the proper steps. That's simply not the case in DS2 at all. It's all just keep moving forward and it really hurt the progression of the game as well as totally cheapened the atmosphere. While the levels did look good they felt a lot more static and cheap than DS1.

Pacing: I think this goes back to level design, but DS1 just really had it together better here. You always knew what you were working for and what your next task was. In DS2 I didn't really know what was going on a lot of the time....I was just...ya know....walking forwards still.

Puzzles: Or lack of them. The first game didn't really have a lot of puzzles, but it did have some puzzle elements that helped break up the action and tension.

Too much shooting: I love shooting games and I love DS1 and even DS2, but this was too much at times. Especially towards the end when you walk into a room and wait to get attacked by about 15 guys. You knew it was coming because that's what the whole game was like. DS1 did a better job mixing it up and keeping you guessing, but here you knew you'd always be fighting. Also, you would get your ass handed to you at times because you would just get overrun with the sheer amount of enemies. That's not a bad thing and I'm not saying I couldn't handle it, but it is slightly annoying to trying and fight off 6 guys from 3 directions when you handle how you do. Not that the controls are bad at all because honestly I don't think they could be any better, but Isaac is not fit to fight well in some of those circumstances.

Length: Salad and I talked about this a bit, but it wasn't as long as the first. I had under 10 hours into it and in DS1 my first playthrough was 14 hours.

Suits: Don't get me wrong the outfits in this game are great, but I really loved the organic feel of the 1st game's suits and leveling it up one bit at a time. It was a lot more cohesive.

Overall:

I really liked DS2, but it doesn't beat DS1. DS1 was the complete package and while it wasn't a perfect game I think that they changed the formula a little too much and hurt the overall experience. It's a great game and one I'll enjoy playing again and again, but DS1 is still king.

Bottom line is if you love all that is great about video games then you should be playing this series. Def play the original first and then give this one a spin.

Dead Space series is king.

Altman be praised.

Dead Space 2 Impressions

Since I'm the uberfan on the blog I wanted to write something first.

Like

-The game throws a ton more at you than ever before.

-Same good old Dead Space feel.

-Updated controls weren't necessary IMO, but make the game more manageable when the crap hits the fan.

-Telekenisis is much much more powerful and is a welcomed change.

-Isaac talks this time around an his voice acting is normal and it's nice. Not over done and cheesey.

-Isaac is even more effed up this game than the last. Is what he's seeing really happening or is it in his head?

-Isaac feels like a crafty veteran in this scenario as opposed to a rag tag guy just trying to live.

Dislike

-The game is linear. The original was as well, but had many many more "locked" areas that would unlock later. This is much more A to B and that's it. It makes the game world feel much less like a real world and much less interactive.

-I have such a love for the original and I miss the darker smaller areas and rooms, but that's just a preference more than a complaint.

That's it for now! So far it looks as if EA made another great game, but only time will tell if it's better than the 1st.

YouTube Channel

Hey, guys, I'm going to be posting up gaming videos on youtube. Maybe doing some commentating or what not so I'd appreciate the views and whatever support you can offer. Doing some Black Ops, Bad Company 2, and maybe some other shooters when they come out. Brink, maybe Homefront if that gets good reviews.

Thanks... :)

http://www.youtube.com/user/juniperred12?feature=mhum

God of War Trilogy/Not Review

Salad already did a wonderful review on God of War 3 a ways back so I won't go beating that again, but I did just beat GoW3 last night on Titan/Hard mode and it was the best action game I've played since Ninja Gaiden Black IMHO.

I recently played through the first two hd remakes on the PS3 as well and they were astounding games. Especially the 2nd which very amazingly displays some huge vistas. I just kept wondering to myself how on earth could the PS2 pull this stuff off. From the giant 4 horses that were a gift to the Sisters of Fate to walking around and jumping on Atlas's back the game was huge.

GoW 3 was only bigger and better. The graphics are hands down some of the best I've ever seen. I think that Uncharted 2 and Killzone 2 are some of the best looking games out today, but pale in comparison to this game. I do agree with Salad that where the game doesn't look as good it really shows because of the super resolution of Kratos and the maps.

It was nice to see GoW 3 really nail down the best magic/weapon system as well. It was nice to finally have a weapon like the Nemean Gauntlets that weren't an afterthought to the Blades of Exile.

A couple of complaints are the "quick weapon change" which is done by using L1 and X. L1 is block and I spam the hell out of that button and a lot of times when I'm trying to do a spin attack and bolt the hell out of there I would accidentally change weapons! It happened at the worst times with bosses and when severely outnumbered. I wish I could say it wasn't the cause of a good many deaths, but it was.

Also, by the time I was to Zeus I didn't feel like fighting him 14 different times like GoW1 and GoW2. I understand that it's the end of the game and all, but man...it would just be nice to get to the end of a GoW game and only have to fight a boss once or twice. I think the fight with BIG Ares in GoW1 is by far my least favorite battle.

Finally, why the hell do the gods in the game keep gloating at me and saying I'm stupid and retarded and won't succeed when I keep killing them all? That got annoying. I kept saying to myself, "I've killed everyone and have half killed you and you're still mocking me?!"

I talked to Salad a few days ago about the absolute brutality of the game that was shockingly portrayed at times. I found myself cringing more than once. Manly the first time I gutted a centaur, beat Poseidon to a bloody mess and especially when I cut off Hermes legs. About Hermes I was shocked to see GoW 3, of all the games I've ever played, actually make me feel pity for someone. After you cut off his first leg he's crawling away and he yells, "Please leave me alone!" I don't know what it was about the way he said it, but I felt immense pity for this asshole that was just mocking me 10 minutes earlier. I was like...maybe he's suffered enough....but not for Kratos. Even though the game was very brutal it never made me roll my eyes. It never seemed forced like some games *cough* Splinter Cell swearing and Black Ops everything *cough*. It always seemed totally in line with the character of Kratos. He's going to kill everything and he's going to do it in style.

In the end I guess I was surprised how much I ended up caring for Kratos. For the first 4 hours of the first game I hated the guy. He's just an asshole with a chip on his shoulder the size of South Africa, but that's just not the case. After the first game and the beginning of the 2nd I really came to want to kill the gods as well. They lied to him in the first game and then screwed him over in the 2nd (he was being a douche, but they still screwed him big time). The gods had it coming in my mind. Sure Kratos may have destroyed the world in the process, but they still had it coming.....so did the titans.

Bottom line was this series owned my face and GoW 3 is my new standard for action. It wasn't just fluff, smoke and mirrors it was a great game that really gave me a run for my money on Titan mode and I haven't been that pissed at a game since the fight with Alma 1 in NGB on Master Ninja difficulty.

Sorry if this was a mess. I just woke up.

Demos

Thought I would make a post about demos, since many do not offer a good representation of the game as a whole.

The Dead Space demo seemed really cool with creepy atmosphere, scary aliens, and a survival/fight-for-your-life feeling. However, it throws you right into the middle of a horde of Necromorphs. I had no idea what was going on. I found out later I should have been blowing off limbs instead of shooting torsos. I tend to aim dead center and doing that in Dead Space definitely does not help you out at all.

Batman: Arkahm Asylum was another demo that was similar. I died a couple times but still felt awesome playing Batman so I gave the actual game a try. And of course, once you start from the beginning, just like Dead Space, you have a completely different experience since by the time you actually encounter the level the demo takes place on, you know button combos, how to shoot limbs off, curbstomp heads, swoop down from the sky, which weapon works against which enemy, etc., etc...

This seems to be a trend in many demos. I'm not quite sure when this came about or who thought it was a good idea. Personally, I think it sucks. Demos can definitely give you a good taste of what is going on in a game but for some *cough* Dead Space *cough* it can mislead you into thinking the game is unusually difficult in some way. Many games pit you against very weak opponents in the beginning or one enemy, then two enemies, and by the time you are swarmed with Necromorphs or Nazis or Joker goons, you can handle it since you've "mastered" the controls.

I think the Just Cause 2 demo got a taste of how to do it right. They let you play a good chunk of the open world but limit your time to an hour. An hour seems a bit short but I like the idea of being able to play a whole game with limited time. And that hour was too short since I didn't get hooked on it. When I played the actual game and the first two missions were awesome, it made my wonder why the demo didn't just consist of those two missions...

I'm also a big fan of playing the first level or two and leaving it at a cliff-hanger, making you want more so you go out and purchase the full game. Maybe developers believe you'll be turned off by playing the first (tutorial) level. Some games offer you 14 day trials, such as World of Warcraft. Blizzard can do this since the game is extremely long and a 2 week trial period will only give you a brief glimpse of what the game has to offer, but a good enough glimpse to "sell" the game during the trial period.

Their purpose seems to be to sell more games yet demos can turn many people off when they are thrust into situations and environments they aren't prepared for since the "tutorial" in the demo consists of three brief screens making a horrible attempt at showing you how to play.

I say developers focus on trial periods of full games or at least give you earlier levels in the game. Demos can sell games if they are done right... all three demos I named are really great games but two of the demos turned me off to the game. Aside from the awful PC version, Dead Space was fantastic but I wouldn't have played it again on the 360 due to the bad demo. And I would never have played Just Cause 2 after the demo except a friend bought it for me (I bought black Ops for him since he's helped me so much with PC issues). Now I have 18+ hours into the game and it's fun times. And the Batman demo sucked buuuuut it was Batman so I gave the full game a try...

Apology

Well, I tried Dead Space for the 3rd time and I still stand by my statement that the PC controls SUCKED!

On the other hand, the controls on the 360 or amazing. With cross-platform games like Borderlands, every CoD, Bad Company 2, Hitman, etc., etc. that all have tight, crisp controls and movement on the PC as well as consoles, it makes me wonder how the developers could have screwed up so badly with Dead Space.

My first attempt with the game was the 360 demo which turned me off because you are immediately swarmed with Necromorphs and you have no idea what you are doing (I think that demo section is in the 3rd Chapter where you fire up the engines... that huge room with tons of Necromorphs). I thought the game could be cool but maybe I would fare better on the PC since I tend to play that way with any game requiring aiming.

And then I tried it on PC... I noticed this slight, fraction of a second camera lag on the 360 that adds to the feeling of movement and reminds you that you are playing as some engineer regular type guy and not a superhero. It's done really well on the 360 but I think they attempted to transition that feeling to the PC and all it did was throw your aim off and make the whole controls lag. Areas that I struggle through or died a horrible death at on the PC were a breeze on the 360. Typically, it's the other way around. It's just what controls I'm familiar with and best at (I'm not saying PC is better).

Anyways, I am taking my foot out of my mouth and admitting I was way off on this game. The 360 controls are just as awesome and tight as ME2. The atmosphere is creepy without making you feel panicked the whole time (i.e. F.E.A.R.). I enjoy leveling up the RIG and guns too. (I'm trying to play through with only the Plasma Cutter). Has anybody else made multiple runs into certain areas as you horde all the ammo and health packs??? My storage at the store has a ton of stuff in it...

So with great controls and now knowing what I'm doing as I played from the start (that demo sucked, btw), I'm well into Chapter 3... and I'm kind of addicted. My money is limited this year but I may have to pick up the 2nd one on release day...

So thanks, fellow gamers, for giving me another game I have to buy...

Heavy Rain - Review

I actually finished this PS3 exclusive last month and I've been putting off writing about it for no particular reason. Here goes...

Heavy Rain is definitely unique. Literally...there's nothing else quite like it. It is the result of someone trying to convert a murder mystery film into a video game. It tells the story of Ethan Mars, the unluckiest man on Earth. In the 2nd chapter of the game, while at the mall with his wife and 2 sons, 1 of his boys wanders off and into some traffic and gets run over by a car. As a result of this, the Origami Killer kidnaps his other son and sets up a series of tests for Ethan to see just how far a man will go to save someone he loves. The tests include driving the wrong way down the highway, crawling through tunnels of broken glass and walking through electrical cables, cutting off parts of your own body, killing another man, etc. You have a choice of whether to complete all the trials or not, which in turn has an impact on the outcome of the game. I'm guessing if you don't complete the trials you don't get to save your son. I went the super happy way, completed all the trials, caught the bad guy and everyone lived. I would really like to go back through and make different choices to see what else can happen, but it probably won't happen. You alternate playing time between Ethan, Madison (a reporter), Scott (a PI) and Norman (an FBI guy, I think).

The "gimmick" of the game is its abundant use of Quick Time Events. Pretty much everything you do, aside from walking, requires a QTE of sorts. Want to open the fridge? You'll probably have to make a semi-circle motion with the right stick. Put dishes on the table for your son's birthday party by gently pressing up on the right stick. Make the movement too quickly and you might drop a plate and break it. All very interactive.


Like

-The music is very moody and appropriate. I dug it.

- The whole game is just very intense. I already touched on this a little bit while mentioning the plot. When you lose your son in the mall and have to search for him, the music ratchets up a notch and you walk around a sea of people (I've never seen a mall that crowded) looking for him. All the trials are very creepy and kind of unnerving. When you're driving down the highway the wrong way, the game gives you a ton of more standard QTEs (that is, press a certain button or make a movement with the joystick really fast) in really rapid succession. When you have a fist fight with someone you'll have to nail your QTEs to either dodge or land punches. If you fail them, you'll get laid out and the bad guy may get away. There are many more examples, but I was just very "into" the game during these moments. I couldn't blink and didn't want to fail them.

-I watched some special features included on the disc about the casting of the characters, etc. The developers really did a phenomenal job of modeling the characters after their real life counterparts, especially the characters Ethan, Madison, and Scott. Check it out here.

-It's something completely different.

Dislike

-The movement controls are.....mutilated. You have to hold R2 to move and you kinda move around old-school Resident Evil style. I've thought about it and thought about it and I can think of absolutely NO reason why I should have to hold R2 to walk. Why can't I just move around with the left stick?

-Texture loading. It happens quite frequently. It really happens with a lot of games, but oddly enough, the only time I ever hear about it is when people critique Gears of War and Gears of War 2. "Texture loading and pop-in is very noticeable and distracting." Well, I agree, but why do I only hear about it in reference to the Gears games?

-The game has plot holes. They have been well-documented. I think it's GamesRadar that has compiled a pretty comprehensive list of them, but here are a few that I noticed.
-At one point, the police suspect Ethan of being the Origami Killer. They've already talked to him in his hotel. He knows they suspect him, but he continues to stay at the same hotel.
-Apparently, Norman can tell what kind of car someone is driving just by examining tire tracks. I didn't know that was possible.
-Norman goes to ask a dude some questions and discovers a decomposed body in an oil drum. Why would you ever keep a dead body in your garage, your place of business?

-And finally, some of the voice acting is questionable. Some of it is downright terrible. The voice actor for Norman SUCKS. The kid voice actors are atrocious and have French accents. Why couldn't they just get American voice actors? I get that they wanted to use the same voices as the actors portraying the characters, but they should have just gotten different voice actors for all of them, as they did with Madison (the lady she was modeled after was just TOO French). As a result, she's probably the most convincing character in the game because I wasn't distracted by an awful accent every time she uttered a word.


Wrap Up

Obviously, the game has problems, but I'm willing to give it a break since it's really the first of its kind. With better writing, refined controls (NO holding R2 to walk!!), and better voice acting, a game like this has potential to be really really outstanding. Even with its flaws, this game sucked me in to the extent that I actually reloaded a save after one of my characters died and redid that section so that they wouldn't. I didn't really expect to do that, but when it happened, I was kind of like, "NO! You're going to make it through." I think it's definitely a game to be experienced if you have a PS3. Give it a try.

Skyrim First Details

Maybe this is old news but I just discovered this today. I'm a teaser trailer hater so this is the real info, the real meat I want to sink my teeth into. Game should be the same cross-platform so just ignore that it's on a PC site...

http://www.pcgamer.com/2011/01/10/the-elder-scrolls-v-skyrim-combat-levelling-and-quest-details-revealed/

I hear crickets...

Well, its awfully quiet out there. That's pretty sad coming from a guy who has an on and off again relationship with this blog. So, to try and break the silence I'll give some opinions on the 2 games I am currently playing

Fallout: New Vegas

Despite being an almost identical game to Fallout 3, the small changes in gameplay give it a very fresh feeling. I spent countless hours on Fallout 3 playing through every main mission and all the expansions so I wasn't sure what to expect when playing this. From the beginning it felt like it would be just more of the same... and it is. But what makes it feel fresh are changes like weapon customization, damage threshold levels, enemy armor, various ammo types, and constant companions. The biggest change, however, is the inclusion of reputations. The game is full of different factions of people. This could be as small as a town or gang, and as large as an entire army. Every major decision you make influences a factions opinion of you. What makes this so interesting is that when you are faced with a choice, it will almost always negatively affect one faction while making another accept you more. Besides affecting your reputation, I find that the choices you make often cause you to either gain another quest or prevent you from ever finding others. An example of this is where I am at right now. Right after I spoke with a certain character I unlocked around 6 new quests from one conversation. When I look at these quests, I know that no matter which one I do first, the result of that quest will cause me to immediately fail several others. Because of this I'm constantly second guessing myself, and have even decided NOT to play the game in over a week because I don't know what to do next. Regardless, these choices and feelings are something a lot of games are missing and I welcome this change. It makes the game feel more immersive and creates a more enjoyable experience.

Batman: Arkham Asylum

Ok, first things first. I'm not even a quarter into this game so take my opinion with a grain of salt.... BUT, although the game is good, I'm just not sold on it being great. In fact, I find myself feeling quite bored while playing it. I don't know if its because my expectations are so high, or if its just not the game for me. Either way, I am just hoping something more... interesting happens. So far, it is simply go in, kill guards without being seen. Crawl through these vents and shut off poison gas to save these people. Then solve a couple of riddles, and kill a big BOSS bad guy. Every missions feels exactly the same. While talking to Skatch, he was raving about the Riddler side quests, but even while trying to do those, I just kept finding it rather monotonous. Maybe I just having given it much of a chance, but if it keeps up this pace, I may find it hard to put the game back in to finish. And I ALWAYS finish my games (FFXIII doesn't count as a real game).

In closing: I did not re-read or proof read this so if it doesn't make any sense... well, I don't care.