Current/Upcoming Games and 3D

Just FYI, Hard Corps: Uprising hit the XBLA today. It is Contra in everything but name. Same music, same run-and-gun 2 player coop, weapon power-ups, etc. I was going to wait and get this game on the PSN due to the Dualshock having a better d-pad, but after playing the demo this morning on Live, I have no problem with the stick. I don't want to wait, since I still haven't heard a release date for PSN, plus I've been sitting on 2400 points for a while waiting for something to buy.

Also, I traded out Black Ops this week and put my trade-in credit towards Bulletstorm on the 360. Crazy, over-the-top FPS with skill kills and an interesting scoring system. I loved the demo and the game has a 4-player coop mode. I've tried to convince some of you to get it, but nobody seems to be sold. Maybe it's just because you didn't like it, or maybe it's for financial reasons, which is fine. I'm just putting it out there that I'll have it so if anyone wants to join me, that would be sweet. It releases on the 22nd, but I won't be able to pick it up until the 25th because I'll be out of town on a work trip.

And finally, 3D in games. I read some articles a few months back about how 3D in Call of Duty: Black Ops wasn't all that terrible. I tried it out in that game, but since it was on the 360 it wasn't really a "true" 3D, so I withheld judgment. However, I have now tried out the 3D in the Killzone 3 beta, and I have to say that I'm not really a fan. I don't know the ins and outs of 3D that well, but it just seems that when I flip on the 3D feature, the game instantly loses resolution and the colors become muted somehow, losing their vibrancy. I haven't played enough to see how long I can go before I get a headache. It seems inevitable, though, since it does seem to put a weird strain on your vision. You get a little bit more of a sense of depth, but it just really does not seem to be worth all the hoopla. I don't see it catching on.

Updating... Please Wait...

Although I'm sure I could google a quick solution to this quandary, I also want to vent.  Why, tell me why, does my PS3 update every single time I do something with it.  I know I don't game on it as much as some people, but I feel like every time I play, watch, try, move, download something, my PS3 needs to restart and update.  And I know it's not just me - I was playing with 3N3MY the other night, and we decided to hop into the Killzone 3 Beta, and it updated on us.  Not a quick install, not a loading screen for the menu (both of those were there too, rest assured) but a full blown, let me sit there, don't you dare shut me off while I'm thinking, update.

I can't help but notice that my 360 does this maybe once or twice a year. I'm not using this as flame bait, but as a comparable example.  I know the PS3 infrastructure is very different from the 360, but could it possibly be that different?  My mac doesn't even get updates this frequently, and I feel like there is a new version of itunes every week.  Gah.

When playing feels like work...

Alright, so the title of this post is probably a little misleading, because in truth, I'm talking about actual work... like a job or vocation.  There are games that feel like work, and some games require a great deal of effort to get through, but I'm talking very specifically here.

Working at a game store, I get privileges to check out used copies of games to try out.  This not only allows me to expand my tastes, but also inadvertently makes me more knowledgeable to what else is out there, so I am able to speak/sell confidently about products that I may not have purchased myself, otherwise.  I used to love to take advantage of this, but lately (and by lately I mean, the better part of 18 months) I've just felt so burned. I spend all my energy at work talking about games, getting excited about upcoming titles so that customers will share in my excitement, that when I get home, I don't feel like playing... nothing new, anyways.  I always have my constants I go back to, but I go because they are familiar, and don't require any effort on my part. Halo, Pokemon, Zelda, Mario, Call of Duty, even... fun titles to be sure, but in reality, these are the games I trust.

In short, anyone know where I can get a new job, if for nothing else so I can enjoy gaming for gaming's sake again?  Ir is it all like this no matter the career? I have plenty of friends who game almost exclusively in multiplayer on COD, and their careers have nothing to do with games.  And when I talk to them about why/how they play what they do, it all seems laced with similar undertones like my own.  After a long day, something familiar and comfortable is a more natural choice than something new and unknown, as beneficial as the unknown may be....  Food for thought.

Side note: I've started reading the new Halo novel, Halo: Cryptum, which is the first part of a three book series surrounding the forerunners.  As lost as I am in this world (seriously, not much makes sense yet) I am enjoying it, aside from one detail I don't ever expect to have worked out - why would the forerunners call themselves that? The story (so far) has been written in the first person perspective of one of the forerunners interacting with some humans, but he refers to himself and his species as forerunners... I haven't read all the Halo novels before this one, but am I missing something?

What the hell will Kotick whore out now?

Apparently Activision head dude, Bobby Kotick, realized he's driven the plastic instrument genre into the ground and is firing pretty much all the Guitar Hero staff.

I truly feel for those guys that are about the join the unemployment lines, but what really stings is the new that the newest True Crime game got canned too! Bummer cause I was really looking forward to it and there were already some neat trailers out that showed like the game was far along in developement.

Kotick is a retard because he's cutting good games without giving them a chance while not empowering new ideas or IPs. This type of management can only run for so long until it collapses because all he really has left is CoD and honestly I'm CoD'ied out and I think the general public is getting there, too. I got rid of Black Ops and have zero desire to buy or play another one.

Playstation Plus

Alright I'm going to say it and I expect to get some heat for it, but oh well.

I'm a Playstation Plus guy. I know I've shouted from the rooftops about how crappy the XBOX Live Gold Membership is, but Playstation Plus actually seemed like a good deal and honestly....it's a phenomenal deal.

I got it after I read that article I posted a while back that got me called a "fanboy." In it the writer said that Playstation Plus is a lot like Costco or Sam's Club. It's a subscription based service where you get a ton of stuff discounted or totally free. If you're not aware it's $50 bucks a year.

Already I've gotten over $100 dollars worth of stuff for free and I've had it a month.

Below is a list of what I can remember/find on my PS3 that I've gotten for free. Keep in mind that this isn't a total list of free items. They are always taking stuff out and putting new stuff in.

All 5 Sam and Max episodes = $35 bucks/This is a series I've always wanted to try.

Lead and Gold = $15 bucks/I wanted this game since it launched. It's like a 3rd person Team Fortress

Digger HD $10 bucks

Mini Games: Karimogi, Hero of Sparta, Fieldrunners, Pipe Madness and A Space Shooter for 2 Bucks! $10-$15 bucks and all are playable on my PSP as well.

PSOne Games that are all playable on my PSP: Spyro the Dragon, Spyro 2, CTR: Crash Team Racing $21 bucks

Possibly my favorite download just happened.....Stacked, the new Tim Schafer game. $15 bucks.

Add in over 10 themes that are $2-$3 bucks a pop and I've more than earned my money back.

The thing that bothers me is that I didn't sign up sooner. Originally, the Wipeout HD game was free so I can only imagine what else I've missed cause that game is $20 bucks.

True you have to keep Playstation Plus year after year to always keep the games, but this is just the tip of the iceberg and it's already huge savings. Now a lot of the games I'm too busy for right now and not to mention the stuff I haven't got cause I'm not interested or cause the games suck, but this is the type of yearly based subscription I can get behind. A "club" with a low cost compared to what you get....especially when it's something I'm interested in, I'm looking at you Live Music player on LIVE or 1vs100 or ESPN Redzone.

I also just read that Sony is in the works of allowing Playstation Plus members to back up their harddrive saves to their servers in a "cloud" based system. This is good news cause if my drive ever fails I'll be covered.

This post is an absolute mess so sorry for the poor format and errors and all, but I only had a couple minutes to squeeze this out cause just seeing that Stacking was on there for free just gave me a big hard one.

P.S. There's always half priced deals on here too that aren't available to everyone else.

The Darkness 2!

Will suck!

I love the first Darkness game. It's gritty and epic and twisted and amazingly well crafted. It's another game that takes the standard brainless FPS formula and turns it on it's head. The reason it rocks so hard is because the amazingly badass Starbreeze studios developed it. Unfortunately that studio is no longer around, but from what I've read it's pretty much still intact with all the talent it's just under another studio name that I can't remember at the moment.

Anyways, I just read that The Darkness 2 is coming out, but I was sad to see that Digital Extremes is making it. DE sucks....big time. They've yet to make a shooter that was anything above boring or "I guess it's okay" status. The only game that they really have a claim to was the original Unreal, but that was a long time ago and Epic helped.

So I was excited for a moment and then my dreams were dashed. Oh well...I'll just keep replaying the original.

Game Informer, Skyrim, and BF3

Since Game Informer was getting first dibs on Battlefield 3 information, I decided to stop by (get it???) my local Gamestop and purchase it. Turns out it's the March issue but I saw the Skyrim issue and picked that up with my subscription. $6 per magazine as opposed to $16 for the subscription? Of course I want the subscription...

Anyways, the Skyrim info was amazing. I know some of you won't want to hear it this far ahead of time but the game sounds amazing... and the screenshots looked incredible.

(DON'T READ IF YOU DON'T WANT INFO) I like the idea of the skills you use leveling you up, no matter which ones you use. You can really craft your own class. Plus they are adding perks (similar to Fallout) which is a part of leveling that I definitely enjoy. Lack of HUD, fighting dragons, reorganized inventory and menu system, skill specific quests, and the list goes on to make this an incredible game.

With the release of Skyrim, potentially Diablo III, and Battlefield 3 this fall, there goes my life. Those 3 combined can easily eat up hundreds of hours...

Considering I put 845 hours into Battlefield 2 and 605 into Battlefield 2142, Battlefield 3 could potentially destroy my life...

Confessions of a Halo Fanboy

A while back many of us were having a discussion during a game of Call of Duty (I can't remember which one, which will further my point later in this post) about why we were enjoying COD over Halo.  COD had stolen our hearts away, showed us the light, and gave us killstreaks.  It's like they tapped into the part of my brain that loves to cause destruction and they put it in a playable format.  At the time, the phrase "my first shooter" was used to describe Halo's gameplay, design, and overall look.  Looking back, and openly admitting that I loved my time in any of the multiplayer experiences I had with friends, I couldn't have been more wrong when I agreed with that comment.  (For the sake of discussion, this article will be referring to Call of Duty Black Ops, and Halo Reach unless otherwise noted).

Reasons why I love Halo

1. Sense of Team - I think Halo does team gameplay better than any other shooter on the market to date.  There are a number of reasons this could be, but at the end of the day, I've never felt more on a team in Halo games.  Even the original one.  Free-for-fall games and team slayer games felt intrinsically different.  The COD series all feel so jumbled and busy. That's not always a bad thing, but when everyplayer is fighting for their own selfish kills, so they can get their own selfish killstreaks, the "team" that wins is the team who had the best players, not the team that worked together.  We usually played objective based games in the older Halo's anyways, but even the most chaotic fight out there still had a sense of cooperation for me.

2. Objectives - I'll openly admit that I haven't given the objective playlists in COD a fair shake like I have with Halo, but my experience with them has been miserable.  It seems like all the objective stuff in COD has to do with bringing something someplace AND killing the other team.  It's that big AND that frustrates me.  The objective isn't the only goal, which distracts from the point of an objective gametype.  Domination, if it can be called an objective gametype, is probably the closest fit out there, but I think it's because everything happens so fast and close together, the objective is barely noticeable.
       Halo, on the other hand, rewards players with a strong focus on the objective.  A player is rewarded with communication and teamwork.  Counter to COD, killing isn't always the best option.  Letting the enemy attack your base for a while could allow some sneaky guys to get in and get the flag unopposed.  I'm sure that COD could be played with that level of coordination, but the general feeling and aesthetic aren't nearly as conducive to it.

3. Films/Photos -  Hey, look what COD took from Halo! Obviously, both games now have a film and and photo mode, but I'm gonna go on a fanboy limb and say that Halo's is overall better (and if any of my reasons are wrong, do correct me).  Halo's has a vertical navigation that makes capturing that perfect angle easier than ever before.  Halo automatically tags photos of you that are connected to your gamertag, which makes it fun (and sometimes humiliating) to take photos and post them online.  Bungie.net support allows the players to come in and download high res versions of their photos for personal use.  The only thing COD has is the ability to string clips together with a crude editing system, a function that is cool in and of itself, but frustrating as all get out to use with their other tools.

4. Map/Game Editor -  This one might not be the biggest selling point for some, but the level of control Bungie has released to the player in their map editor is disturbing.  They've blessed the player with a fantastic selection of items to use, reached out to the fans of older halo games and included full set pieces to recreate favored structures and maps, and given the game editing tools to change how gametypes work on the players own terms.  I sometimes wish I was more deeply involved in the custom game community due to all the possibilities.  I'll post photos of my own map, and maybe videos of it in gameplay sometime.
      The map editor also allows bungie to rexamine their game all the time, and not have to release full patches of the game - removing or moving items and weapons, changing gametype set-ups, and anything else they need to do, is all updated through the playlists, not the software (in other words, due to it being integrated into the game, no one needs to download additional elements or information since it's already there!) This leads to my next point...

5. Post Launch Support - I can't think of a game studio who gives more post launch support than Bungie.  Additional maps (both free and of value), new gametypes, new playlists, an array of challenges to always be looking for.  Maybe Epic Studios, but do all those updates and game fixes really count?

6. Character Creation - Another one that probably isn't the biggest deal, but as a dabbler of game philosophy, I really appreciate it.  I think it's amazing how people can interact in a digital world.  Lead Salad's facebook has recently posted photos of me - well, it's Halo me, but anyone who plays with me knows that there is no difference - that is me, avatar or not.  When he and I or anyone else interact in this virtual world, it's us.   (Even without the pretentious reasons, it's really fun to customize your guy and make him cool to your own liking).


7. Well-rounded - I won't bother listing everything here, but Halo is really well-rounded too.  You could have that game for a few weeks, and besides everything being shooting based gameplay, you could play a different style of game, with a different goal and objective every day.  Where's the coop campaign Black Ops?

Things I don't like so much (to be fair)...

- Grenades work like stink bombs, causing not much more of an irritation to the enemy.

- Armor lock - I won't even bother... actually, most of the armor abilities big me, but that's just a big one. Hopelessly broken...

- No ranking system for matchmaking - The leveling up system has nothing to do with player skill or ability, so sometimes the matchups online feel unfair.  Fortunately the times it feels unfair are generally balanced out with times it feels unfair in your favor.  (and anyone playing a sysmetrical CTF games against my brother and me will always feel like they got robbed!)

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Feel free to respond... or just read it... or don't. I felt like writing something and this one's been on my mind due to a conversation I had with a buddy from my church.  Heck, I still play COD - Black Ops is (statistically speaking) the COD game I've been the best at so far.  And nothing is as smooth as COD on the consoles control wise.  That still won't keep me from loving Halo.  Peace, brothers.

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.

2010: A Good Year to Game

I mean that as kind of a general statement, as the industry put out a lot of quality titles. We got sequels, reboots, remakes, and even a few original games, too. Some barely got by and some made over a billion dollars. We got Microsoft and Sony trying to copy the Wii and steal the casual game audience (what a waste of time).

But on a more personal note, I'm pretty sure I've done more gaming this year than ever before. I was thinking about this earlier and it got me curious about just HOW much I've played this year. I took a look at my Achievement and Trophies lists to get a record of this and here's my list of games completed (for the first time) in 2010:

XBOX 360: Star Wars: The Force Unleashed, Battlefield: Bad Company 2, Castle Crashers, Assassin's Creed, Assassin's Creed 2, Splinter Cell: Conviction, Red Dead Redemption, 50 Cent: Blood on the Sand, NBA 2K6, Half Life 2, Half Life 2: Episode 1, Half Life 2: Episode 2, Portal, Prince of Persia, Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands, Alan Wake, Bayonetta, Castlevania: Lords of Shadow, Bionic Commando: Rearmed, Transformers: War for Cybertron, Street Fighter IV, Left 4 Dead 2: The Passing, Left 4 Dead 2: The Sacrifice, X-Men Origins: Wolverine, Halo Reach, Vanquish, Call of Duty: Black Ops, Trials HD

PS3: God of War, God of War 2, God of War 3, Uncharted: Drake's Fortune, Uncharted 2: Among Thieves, Resistance 2, Heavy Rain


I'm too tired to make a long list of awards, but I'd like to make 2 special "shout outs."

Shout out #1: Platinum Games just completely PWNED me this year. They made 2 of my favorite games of 2010, hands down: Bayonetta and Vanquish. Both games are so sharp in presentation, gameplay and style. It's just too bad they can't marry all that with decent stories, especially since (being a Japanese company) they just LOVE to use a boatload of cutscenes. I'll probably buy anything they make.

Shout out #2: Most addictive game goes to Trials HD. It's so simple, yet so difficult at the same time. The first time I played it, I said to myself, "I'm just gonna check this out to see what it's like." Two and a half hours later, I'm still playing trying to earn gold medals and beat friend's times. Plus, I got it on sale for 400 MS points. It's probably the best $5 I've spent on a videogame.


I'm curious what all everyone else played. Any special awards for anything?

2011 looks to be just as good, if not better, than 2010 (especially for the PS3 - LOTS of good exclusives coming up for Sony's machine).

Well, that does it for me. A late Merry Christmas......Happy New Year......and HAPPY GAMING IN 2011!!!

IGN 360 Head Switches to PS3 as personal preference....

....like me! He covers some very good points and I agree with just about all of them.

The PS3 had a terrible start, but it's gaining tons of momentum (thanks Kevin Butler!) and I'm happy that they're finally getting some positive recognition.

Uncharted 2: Among Never Ending Spawns and Shark Jumping Moments

I'm on chapter 22 of this game and it's awesome in a ton of different ways, but last night, while doing a 2 and a half hour Uncharted 2 marathon, I got really sick and tired of the infinite amount of bad guys I keep killing.

The thing about the Uncharted games is they have tons of charm and, in my mind, are somewhat realistic. The comparison has been done a million times, but it's very Indiana Jones and the games are very good. I love everything from the amazing graphics, gameplay, script, voice acting, cut scenes, humor and plot, but my goodness....can I get either some better enemies or just fewer of them? I'm pretty sure I've killed more nameless nobodies in Uncharted 1 and 2 than Grunts, Elites and Brutes in all the Halo playing I've done......ever.

Drake is not a super human and that's what I love about him. He's a normal dude (physically speaking anyways) and the fact that I've killed hundreds and hundreds of guys, tanks and even 2 helicopters is a little crazy and really hurts the overall quality of the game.

The game is amazing and I don't really know what else Naughty Dog could do when pretty much all games need a bad guy (except Flower and Flow...all you need there is a mini game with motion control and a slick spit shine finish and it's all of a sudden art).

Did anyone else feel as I do when they were playing?

PSP Impressions

I am the proud new owner of a God of War Ghost of Sparta PSP Bundle. I got it for Christmas and this is my impressions post.

After having had 2 Nintendo DS systems I have a good appreciation for what that system can offer and while I liked them both very much I never felt compelled to play them so they sat until they were sold. Considering that I may be doing some traveling in the near future for some time I thought a new handheld system with more versatility than the DS would be a good thing for me if I'm to be away from home. The only other natural choice is the PSP.

Before getting this one the other day I'd only held a PSP one other time. I only really know what I've read about it on gaming sites. It gets beat up a lot in The States as being 2nd choice to the DS and after the PSP Go launched the PSP has been considered pretty much dead ever since. The truth is that the PSP has some amazing titles (both new and old and in the future), is very functional and has a lot more to offer a gamer like me.

I bought a 16gb flash drive for 30 bucks on Amazon and am using that to store all my games on. Already I have Resident Evil 1, 2 and 3 on it as well as Final Fantasy 7 and Tekken 2. As far as downloaded PSP games I have GoW Chains of Olympus and Patapon 2 on it. I also have several hundred songs on there as well.

On the seperate 2gb flash drive that came with the system I've loaded movies (a surprisingly simple process). I have The Fountain and Inception on it (I'm thinking Pan's Labyrinth next) already and they play and look fantastic on the PSP.

Okay so now on to the "Likes" and "Dislikes":

Like:

The look of the sytem is great and I really like the feel of it. It's a relatively light system and the D-pad and face buttons are awesome! I was happy to see and feel that the buttons are all quite pronounced. It's nice that it's a handheld and that the buttons feel like they belong on a console controller. Even the shoulder buttons feel more analog than the "click" of the DS. The D-pad is much better than the DS's pad.

The large screen is a nice change for a handheld and it's menus function almost identically to the PS3.

The joystick is surprisingly good. Even though it looks more like a "nub" than anything it handles precise controls for racers (Burnout Legends) very well. Now if it only had a 2nd one.....

It's a surprisingly powerful system. Playing GoW I was very surprised and thrilled to see that the game looked far better than the GoW HD remakes for the PS3. To pack such power in a handheld is still impressive to me. I know that the ipod, iphone and ipad are all great power wise, but I still find playing serious games on any of those to be a bit of a joke at this time.

The functionality with the PS3 should obviously be great and it is. I've tranferred all the PSOne games and a ton of songs to the PSP with just a few click of the buttons.

Web browser functionality with wifi will help me kill time when it's available. Connecting to the PSN from my wireless at home was very easy and browsing DLC and games is a breeze.

It's user friendly and that was one of it's selling points. I can't tell you how excited I was to be able to easily throw ripped copies of my own DVDs on it. Watching the ending of The Fountain on it last night still gave me chills.

There's a large catalog of good games to play. I'm really looking forward to diving into more JRPG stuff when I finish what I have already. The system doesn't have the Nintendo exclusives with all the endless Mario and Zelda stuff, but it's still very solid because the PSP is still a big deal in Japan. Kingdom Hearts, Persona and Final Fantasy: Crisis Core are all games I'm really looking forward to.

Dislike:

Battery life is a given for sure. I know that I'll be plunking down the extra cash down the road for the "extended battery."

I will never stop believing that the clamshell design of the DS is vastly superior to the PSP. It protects itself and the screens are always out of harms way. With the PSP if you drop it the wrong way it could be game over. I've already placed a great screen protector on it and the hardshell case I purchased is nice as well because it allows me to play it while it's still protected in the case.

Bottom line:

I'm very happy with my decision to get a PSP for Christmas. Having only really played with it for a handful of hours I can already tell I'm really going to love having it. Having a great console, movie player, music player and an (somewhat limited/lack of keyboard) internet browser all in one is a big deal for me personally. It's a solid machine with enough horsepower to give me modern day console thrills in a handheld because that's what I've been wanting with my portable all along.

Dead Space 2 Demo

I just finished it and it's officially my most anticipated game of 2011. Even up against the mammoths of Mass Effect 3 and Elder Scrolls. While those games will undoubtedly be astounding there's still something to be said of the more contained, less epic game that bottles down so much atmosphere, action and tension into a package.

I was thrilled to find (at least from the demo) that the overall Dead Space formula is very much intact. Audio plays a very large role still and the game mechanics are all still in place.

I was very concerned that Visceral Games would Resident Evil 5 the series and take it all the action and leave out everything that made the 1st so great. Talking to Lead Salad I did admit that they did change the control scheme ever so slightly to make it more "action friendly" then the original and it's a little bit of a bummer. For example, in the 1st game if you want to heal you have to pull up your menu and manually select health. In this one you just hit a button. Your stasis recharges automatically where before if you ran out....well....you better not miss your shots.

The brutality of the original was well on display here as well. From the camera perspective while fighting to the animations when your attacked it all still looks like it really hurts.

All in all I went from super pumped to official boner of the month for this game.

"Altman be praised."

I know what brjahu will say, but I can't help it...

...that I still get a big hard one for Tomb Raider (Lead Salad too). Blu Ray FTW with all 3 games on one disc. This is a big deal for PS3 because Legend and Anniversary aren't currently available on the console.

Vanquish - Review

Picked up Vanquish over the weekend as i had a few days of gaming to fill in before Christmas break. Played the demo a while back and quite enjoyed it. Pretty much played it flat out over the last 2 nights and here's my thoughts.

Controlled-chaos. It's balls to the wall, over the top, don't blink or you'll miss something kinda game. At it's core it's essentially a 3rd person cover based shooter, it's super fast paced and exhilarating and turned out to be quite addictive.

Loved

Gameplay

There's plenty of over the top methods to go about the shooting madness. The controls are pretty standard for 3rd person shooting games but there's a nice little addition. You have a boost button which is used speed things up, you can do the boring stuff like sliding into cover but I found it far more exciting to do things like boost about on my knees while shooting, at this moment the game goes into bullet time and it's pretty badass. Bullet time can also be activated while jumping over cover and evading which makes out for some pretty spectacular shooting. I know bullet times been done like a million times before in games but this really makes use of it well and suits the game perfectly.

Spectacular moments

I lost count of the number of times I said "wow" to myself, there's a ton of show stopping moments, not just gameplay induced but stuff going on in the background was pretty impressive also. The scale of the game is generally pretty impressive, not quite as comparable as God of War say but it really does have wow factor moments.

Cinematics

Some brilliant cut scenes to go with the over the top action. Some neat touches where you switch to an FPS view where the mission briefing is delivered to you, hard to explain but it's a nice touch.

Graphics

Highly polished and super slick. The action gets very intense and the game handles it very well, no slow down or pop in.

Hated

Gameplay (variety)

Although I absolutely loved the gameplay it's a shame there wasnt a little more variety to break up the intensity.

Story

Haven't got a clue what i was fighting for or why. Some of it was a little predictable but it didnt really matter tbh.

Length

Was over a little too fast, tempted to go thru it again on a harder level as it was a little easy on Normal.

Evaluation

I'd recommend Vanquish to anyone who likes fast and frenetic action games, it's like a cross between Gears of War and Bayonetta with some God of War epic scale throw in for good measure. Although it was very short and didn't have a lot of depth to the experience I really enjoyed it and would like to hear everyone else's thoughts. Try the demo which is on the market place it pretty much gives you a perfect taste of what the game's all about and how it plays.

Diablo III

Diablo III
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sc54_bK604s
Monk Gameplay
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=31VpcWV2R9E

Skills
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s_dacPRA7p4

Demon Hunter Gameplay
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cP49rxDOPHQ

Arena
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uNaT19XM6SM

Mixed Gameplay
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s6kYbXb1MAk

Caravan Upgrades
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i28eWXEuHuY

Poor and (never getting married)

This is a sort of add-on to brjahu's post on upcoming games. And since I'm not married, these will be the games that prevent that from happening as I turn to my girlfriend and let her know I just frankly won't have the time... :P

1. Diablo III - rumor has it it will come out at the end of next year. This is the action RPG of all action RPGs. Another product of the beloved Blizzard, this will probably force me to use some PTO days, maybe even take a weeks' vacation as I have been waiting for this game for close to a decade. There is another rumor Blizzard is hiring for potential console development. D2 was not on consoles but the first Diablo was on the PSONE. So if you like action RPGs and this comes out on consoles, get it. I love plowing through hordes of enemies, gathering tons of loot, while keeping a great story light and quick.

2. Brink - this has been looking pretty good for a while from the parkour moves, slightly cartoonish characters, to the teamwork focused XP rewards. Could be a great shooter... and could be a huge fail. Still hesitant to preorder this one...

3. Elder Scrolls - as much as I HATE teaser trailers... cuz they are just teasing me :P if this follows the path of Morrowind and Oblivion, it will eat up several hundred hours of my time. I still to this day can pick up Oblivion and be swallowed alive and have trouble turning it off and playing any other games. If they add co-op to this game, OMG! I'm always hesitant to play these on the console (since I love my mouse/keyboard so much) but Oblivion plays amazingly well on the 360 so this may be a console purchase, especially if there is co-op or some way to play with other people. Can't wait to join the thieves guild and make some of my own epic gear...

4. ME3 - I wasn't very excited about playing ME2 but after playing it through, I'm definitely looking forward to them wrapping up the story. The attack on earth seems pretty cool too. This may very well be a day 1 purchase for me.

5. Heart of the Swarm - The Zerg storyline and next expansion for Starcraft 2. The singleplayer for Starcraft 2 was amazing and I've already played through it 5 or so times. :P

6. Lego Star Wars III - and being the kid at heart, I'm always down for another Lego game, especially Star Wars. They always add just enough to each new Lego game to make it feel like it isn't just a rinse/repeat title.

...and the Vietnam expansion pack comes out today for Bad Company 2 (which I already have 5 days of play time on) so it's off to see if the servers are up... :D

Donkey Kong Country: Returns

As the only person on this blog (correct me if I'm wrong) who has the resourses to even play Donkey Kong Country: Returns (DKCR) I decided to write up a quick break down. 

Loved:

The Nostalgia - oh my goodness, Retro nailed it here.  The original Donkey Kong Country worked me over from every angle.  I got sent a VHS tape in the mail pitching all the hype from Nintendo, I got it on Christmas, something that never ever happened in my family with new releases, and I played it until I couldn't any more... then continued to play and look for secrets.  This wii-make captures the essence perfectly.  Music, style, humor, dialogue, opening, etc.... good stuff.


The Difficulty - in a time and age of video games that seems to have a trend of games getting easier and easier, this game is tough.  Not just for a Wii game, but for any game.  Retro really raised the bar a few feet on this one, almost to a point that I think this game might alienate a little bit of the Wii's fan base.  As a culture of gamers, I think we've gotten to comfortable overall with the ease of our games.  I know that most games have difficulty modifiers that make the game next to impossible (Bioshock without vita-chambers anyone?) but that leaves the difficulty of the game up to the player, not the designer.  I bet most of us could count on one hand the amount of current gen games that are intrinsically difficult, with no option to make it easier or harder. 

Step in the Right Direction - DKCR isn't perfect by any standard (keep reading), but it is a solid step in the right direction.  It shows that a series can be revamped without cloning it's old self, but still retaining the core feeling. It shows that not all Wii games need to be built for morons.  It also shows how the Wii can sidestep some of it's graphical limitations to still deliver on an impressive front.

Cranky Kong - "I can't say I expect to see you again, but you might get lucky, I guess..." Brilliant. 

Hated:

Forced Motion Controls - DKCR affords the player a few different options for play.  One uses the remote and nunchuck, a favorite for those who just love to wiggle their arms all over the place, and the remote on it's side ala NES style.  I definitely opted for the classic type, thinking I would be able to run, jump, pound, and late-jump with the same ease I did in the SNES days.  Although a majority of the simple mechanics are still intact,  the more complicated moves by Kong are done with subtle gestures, even playing in classic mode.  The ground pound (a definite favorite mechanic here) is not executed by holding down and hitting a button, but a shake of the remote.  The forward rolling attack/cartwheel aren't exectued by a direction and a button, but a direction and a subtle shake.   There are only a few instances where the shaking of the remote feels like a natural choice for motion controls.  It almost makes me wonder if Retro wasn't allowed to use the older mechanics, or encouraged to go a "fresher" route than the oldies, in order to draw in the newer, less jaded, Wii audience.

New Moves - Remember the move in the original Country games where Kong knelt to the ground and used his Kong breath to blow away dandelions and flowers to solve puzzles? Me neither...

Where are the Kremlings? - Maybe they were too edgy for Nintendo's family friendly image, but I miss the Kremlings as antagonists.  My guess is that they were tied up in copyright stuff with Rare, but that's all conjecture.  The Kremlings made awesome baddies... they didn't fit in the world, were obviously counter to your goal, and made some sweet noises when you killed them.  The new baddies are these tiki drums that hypnotize and possess the creatures of the world to do their evil banana hoarding bidding.  The saddest part to me will probably come later upon completion, when I don't get to run through the Krem-co industrial levels, far and away my favorite levels and music from the original game.

Evaluation:

I would highly recommend this to any Wii owner who is looking for something fresh and a little more challenging.  I think it was doubly challenging for me, due to the fact that I am constantly needing to fight against my natural instinct to get Kong to do some of his more complicated procedures. (still haven't quite figured out the late jump timing.)  It's a must by for anyone who's looking to the Wii for nostalgic appeal as well - DKCR doesn't disappoint.   It definitely rounds out my collection. My only wish would be for a patch that allows the player to play with the classic controller or something.

(This experience was playing through the first three and a half worlds, in single player. DKCR supports simultaneous cooperative play with two people, as well.)

January of Joy/JoJ if you will.

Just a reminder to not talk, call or text me the 2nd half of January because Mass Effect 2 and Dead Space 2 are coming to PS3!

Just read yesterday that the PS3 version of Mass Effect 2 looks a lot better than the 360 because they are using the Mass Effect 3 engine on it. Looking at side by side videos on ign and it's clearly a better looking game. Demo coming within the next week.

Dead Space 2...nothing else to say about this game other than it'll own my face. Demo coming December 20th!

Poor and Divorced

The following is a guest post by former Backseat Gamers blogger Brjahu:

Poor and Divorced.

That is exactly what I will be after this next year. To be more specific, after November of next year. The list of of "must own" games just grew exponentially after watching the VGAs last night. I'll admit that I almost needed a change of pants after watching two specific trailers. Even if they were just teasers, that is all I needed to see.

The list of required purchases that keeps growing:

Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim (I turned and said my last good-bye's to my wife after watching this)

Mass Effect 3 (yes, I squealed a little... like a girl)

Uncharted 3 (I will have exactly 10 days to beat this game before Skyrim comes out)

Gears of War 3 (I admit, I'm pumped for the campaign)

Resistance 3 (early release as compared to the rest)

Portal 2

Assassins Creed 3 (if it is indeed launching)

Other games I'm interested in:

Arkham City (I plan on playing Arkham Asylum at some point soon)

SSX: Deadly Descents (I am a huge fan of SSX: Tricky... the source of my alias Kuix)

Killzone 3

Rage

A year with a new Elder Scrolls, Uncharted, and Mass Effect could probably equal the greatest gaming year ever... just saying.

AAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!

BOOYAH!

My Very Own Black Ops Post

Alright, I figured I would chime in after playing for a couple of weeks. I have not touched the single player yet, but now have 25 hours into the multi. I started off pretty rough just due to lack of knowledge of the maps, lack of good weapons, etc. I did some combat training to learn the maps a bit and find some guns I like, which was helpful. I moved back into the multi and started playing pretty decent once I got the Galil and the Famas.

It can still be a frustrating experience for me just because I'm a pretty streaky player. I'll have a great game, then I'll play like garbage in the very next one. I'll have a great night of gaming, then the next night it'll feel like I'm using my feet to play instead of my hands. Well, this was a really crappy week for me in the world of Black Ops. I'd like to think it's because I'm sharing a really spotty hotel internet connection, but I can't say for sure. I mean, I don't play this bad at home. Other than the questionable connection, two HUGE frustrations have reared their heads this week......

Number 1: The Knife. Ohhhh, the knife. Of all the things wrong in Call of Duty, this has to be Number 1. Sure, there's no Commando perk anymore, but the knife is still beyond busted. There are still times where players will do a short lunge, but those are very few and far between. The biggest problem for me is when an opposing player and I both run around a corner at the same time and kinda run past each other. When this happens my instinct is to turn and shoot, while the real solution (in a Call of Duty game, anyway) is to mash that melee button. Even if you knife the air, you get the kill for it. I watch the kill cams and sure enough, their knife hits nothing but air, yet I die. It makes no sense to me. It really makes me angry. I think Bad Company 2 has the right idea with the knife. In that game, it's basically for use ONLY if you've managed to sneak up on a guy, due to the fact that it takes a good 2 or 3 seconds to go through the knife animation. I also like Unreal Tournament's use of melee weapons. That is, they're pretty much a non-issue unless you go to the trouble of pulling out your Impact Hammer and charging it up for 5 seconds and actually getting close enough to a guy to use it.....which never happens. Too bad I could NEVER play a lag-free game of Unreal Tournament III because I love those games. In summary, the knife in Call of Duty can go to hell.

Number 2: Weapon damage. Is it just me, or are the weapons in the game too weak? Is the hit detection okay? I feel like the game sometimes gives me hit markers when I'm not really hitting anything. Case in point, I was using the Commando gun and had to get six hit markers to kill a guy. Yes, SIX. Granted, I was at a distance, but six hit markers? I wasn't shooting through walls, so that shouldn't have been a factor in "weakening" the bullets down or anything. There was also a time where I shot a guy with my M16 from pretty close distance (20 feet or so?). I hit him with 2 solid bursts from the gun, in the chest/neck/face, and got NO kill. I couldn't even count the hit markers on that one. The M16 has one of the higher damage rankings, too, so....I'm just really confused about that one. I've got both of these instances saved in my file share for any 360 users that are interested in seeing them. The obvious solution to this is to switch over to Hardcore mode, but that doesn't really work for me, either. I like the rules (no radar and higher gun damage) but for some reason that translates into a massive camp fest. People just lay prone and point their gun at a doorway. I can't even move.


Alright, that's about it for me. Like I said, I had a really crappy week with the game, but I'm not ready to give it up or anything. I'll try again when I get home tonight. I'm hoping that connection had something to do with my poor performance. Or maybe I just suck. But I really don't think that's true.

PS3 Super Computer

I remember hearing about this a long time ago, but it's finally done and it's pretty impressive. The fact that you can link that many PS3s together and make one super mega powerful computer is just downright impressive!

I wonder what it is about the PS3 that makes it the better choice for this over the 360? I don't know enough about that stuff to make a good guess, but my first thought would be that it would be hard to keep a super computer running when 65% of the 360s kept RROD.

Fighting Games

Any fans out there that aren't Asians? I've very recently rediscovered, along with Silent (my brother-in-law), Tekken 2. It's 6 bucks on the PSN and it's marvelous. We've spent the last 2 days playing the Arcade mode back and forth to unlock everyone and it's been a stellar experience.

Tekken 2 is a game that I only ever rented and played a lot during those times. I loved the game way back then and to this day it's still a heart pounding fighter. Silent unfortunately pounds me into the ground with Law, but when I get my Heihachi skills back up to snuff I'm hoping to embarrass him on the daily.

Were there any fighter games you played a lot and actually got good at? SoulCalibur 1 and 2 were it for me. Kalik in 1 and Spawn for XBOX in 2.

Anyways, this has inspired me to get Tekken 6 from Goozex on PS3. I've done a lot of research and decided for that over Street Fighter 4. I was never really that into SF and I keep reading that several of the characters are overpowered.

Maybe I'll see some of you online.

P.S. Don't play Mortal Kombat against Lead Salad....he'll push your poop in.

Are there fanboys amongst Popular Science editors?

I know that the Wii and Kinect have an audience, but you have to love this backhanded comment from a very well respected magazine.

I'm impressed at their knowledge of the device. I guess it's their jobs, but I didn't expect that zinger at the end.

Black Ops: Declassified

Black Ops has done pretty well for itself so far.  I don't think there's a person on this blogroll that doesn't own it.  This title provides us with a unique opportunity, however, because as a group we're all getting to know it better on different platforms.  I'm curious to what might be different about the game depending on the community of players, style of play, or open communications. I'm also wondering what set-ups are working out for you all best.  Customization has become a staple gameplay element in the last few COD games, and the game seems to thrive pretty well regardless of set-up one may use.  Black Ops balances this better than some of the preceding titles, in my opinion - the modern warfare games seemed to encourage different weapon set-ups as apposed to Black Ops that seems to make sure that everyone can have fun as they wish.

I'm currently fiding great success with the M14 and the FAL.  I do a fair amount of hardcore TDM, but the guns still pack a punch so they end up working out pretty well in core TDM as well. I've yet to venture into any of the objective playlists, but those all seem to be variations on a theme (read, "kill everyone") anyway.  Perk wise, I've been sticking to Ghost, Warlord, and Ninja, all "pro" as I've earned them.  Occasionally if I run into it more often, I'll use Hacker instead of Ninja, but I don't prefer it.  Equipment really doesn't become a huge part of my set-up, but the claymores seem to do nicely.

The reason I am curious at all about this is due to the success I've seen with this set-up.  It seems like everyone on the 360 is rolling out with some variant on this set-up.  You run into different styles of groups, but for the most part, Ghost seems used all the time.  I'm not surprised either - it seems like all of the killstreaks revolve around being seen by the enemy in some fashion and avoiding that should be priority one. It probably doesn't help that there isn't much of a better choice for the first slot of perks either.  Lightweight isn't bad, but without the runners having their dominance, lightweight seems to be a waste of a selection for me.

What's taking control of your platforms set-ups? Am I the new "runner", or "noob tuber", or is my set-up legit? Anyone else think the RC-XD should be a bonus for 4 or 5 kills, not 3?

Singularity Review

I finished Singularity last night and it's the best SP FPS campaign I've played since Bioshock. A neat trailer for you here.

The game was developed by the underappreciated "Raven Software". The guys that do a lot of work for id games with Quake and if my memory serves me right they ported Doom 3 (too lazy to fact check). Bottom line is they make a fine shooter with tight controls.

The game takes place between 1955 during the Cold War and 2010. You're a trooper sent to a mysterious island where there's been large energy readings and when you get there a bunch of crazy cool time stuff happens and to make a long interwoven story very short....you save a very bad Russian man in 1955 and he pretty much rules the world in 2010. The rest of the game is spent trying to right what you screwed up. The "butterfly effect" if you will.

Likes:

Controls were very tight and the gunplay is immensely satisfying.

Time Manipulation Device (TMD) - You'll eventually get the TMD and with if you solve a lot of puzzles and use it in combat to totally screw over the bad guys.

Time travel and pulses. Switching between 1955 and 2010 and seeing your actions affect the game world in such drastic ways is a friggin blast and is very well done. Shockingly well done at times. I found myself marveling at the details over and over again.

The story was a lot of fun to watch play out and while it wasn't anything too ground breaking it was refreshing to actually play a game where I cared about what was going on instead of going through the motions.

Puzzles are pretty easy, but nothing too complex.

Using the TMD in imaginative ways. One of my favorite ways to dispatch enemies was to basically make a "slowing time ball" (my term) and shoot it at a group of guys. Anyone caught in it moved slow and their bullets were slowed. What you do is you unload a ton of bullets into the ball and then use the TMD to get rid of the balls. When you dissolve the ball the enemies are hit with a hail of gunfire. Not super needed or necessary, but a lot of fun. Using the time ball as a sort of shield to dodge bullets was neat, too. You can def use your imagination in this game.

Perfect length for the game. Not too long and thankfully, unlike most big shooters nowadays cough CoD cough HALO cough not too short.

3 different endings and 1 of which is a mind screw!

Dislikes:

Unreal Engine 3. When the shit will developers stop using this damn thing. I hate it!

The game borrows, stylistically, from Bioshock pretty heavily at times, but they do it justice IMHO.

Puzzles can get repetative.

Really there wasn't a lot I didn't enjoy about the game. Even the boss fights were pretty cool...esp for an FPS.

All in all it's a great game that will most def get passed over by just about everyone because Activision didn't promote it at all.

It's a great game that plays like a great mix of Bioshock, Half Life 2 and even Dead Space.

I know most of you guys don't play many SP shooters, but you should def give this gem a chance because there probably won't ever be a sequel.

"Wii is a piece of s&*$!"

Ran into this a week back and thought it was funny and figured I'd repost it. It's 3 years old now and this guy was hating it back then. I like that he not only said it sucks because it's underpowered graphically, but also the CPU is too weak to make a complicated AI. Got to give him credit for not sugar coating it.

The next day he apologized, but I just read another article that was written yesterday of him defending what he said, but that he regrets the way he did it. Still funny.

5.6 Million people can't be wrong...

As of this moment, I'm not impressed with Black Ops.  It's hard to put my finger on since I've only played through the campaign once and dumped a couple hours into the multiplayer, but I'll try...

Memento did it best...
Campaign wise, I feel like it was a pretty weak story overall. For the sake of spoilers, I won't go into specific story details, but I didn't like the story structuring.  The flashback nature of starting each mission worked pretty well as a means to diversify the gameplay (new locations, etc.) but as it's own I always have felt this be a very lazy way to construct a story.  If done well, this narrative layout can be extremely powerful, but if done as a justification, it comes off feeling a little bit forced.

Why can't you be like your older brother?
Multiplayer is probably my biggest disappointment so far.  I remember hopping into MW2 and getting giggly with 3N3MY over how cool it was.  As time went on, we obviously found things that annoyed us, things that we would have done differently, but I still distinctly remember that feeling of knowing that I had something special in my hands while I was playing.  It wasn't perfect in the end, but that initial response really set the tone for the whole experience, and for the most part, it was accurate. Black Ops just hasn't done it for me yet.  It almost feels like it wants/wanted to become it's own new multiplayer experience but was left with a strong sense of obligation to look and play as much like MW2 as possible.

Missed Opportunities
My experience so far in Black Ops is already riddled with so many lost chances to do something cool and unique...
- Should we clean up the messy pile of killstreaks and perks we had in MW2? Nah...
- Should we add in some social and political commentary into this incredibly controversial point of American Military history? What?
- Should we use the F-word more? Mos Def.

I'll do some more playing with the Multi before I dive into details about it all. It wouldn't be a fair review it now - I'm dead tired and haven't past level 7 yet, so it wouldn't be all that beneficial to discuss it...

Sam Worthington Sucks

I was just texting to Lead Salad last week about my gripe with Black Ops SP is that it's main voice is voiced by none other than Sam Worthington. AKA "the guy that still can't sound like he's American and keeps landing huge roles in Hollywood playing Americans and now he's ruining video game immersion as well."

Avatar and Terminator are two very large blockbuster movies, but Terminator sucked huge goat balls. This guy tries to fake an American accent for 2 to 3 hours and fails miserably the whole time. Now he goes and does it to Black Ops, too.

I don't get casting directors....I really don't. It could be that he's even worse than Kevin Costner in Robin Hood, but at least Kevin Costner seems like he's not a flipping prick in interviews.

It's also been studied that there are very few actors that pull people to the theatres and Sam Worthington def isn't one of them. Will Smith, Brad Pitt and Cher are like the only ones.

LA Noire

Finally a trailer for a game announced like 4 years ago.

Trailer

Looks promising..take note of the phenomenal facial animations, best i've seen in a game yet.

Black Ops

Impressions Time!

I believe that just Skatch, brjahu and myself are the only ones that have the game and have played it. These are my initial thoughts.

Multi (3 hours played so far):

-Plays EXACTLY like every CoD since MW. Not that that's a bad thing because if it's not broke don't fix it.

-Balancing. While Treyarch may be known as the company that puts out CoD games between the real CoD games I find their MP to be more balanced. World at War, while not without faults, was far more balanced than MW and Black Ops feels a lot less "asshole" friendly than MW2. Kill Streaks don't build towards other kill streaks so there's a lot less crazy amount of crap going on. Only saw 1 or 2 games where someone had a very large K/D ratio unlike about every game of MW2.

-Perks. Everything is available from the start, but now you have to "buy" them. They took out some oldies like "Juggernaut" and "Stopping Power" which I am very happy about. Now the perks feel more like a preference and play style attribute and not a "use this or die" type of thing.

-Kill Streaks. Again, these are all unlocked, you just have to buy them. The RC car was particularly annoying to me at first until I realized that it replaces that rocket that you control which almost always guarantees a kill. At least the car needs a little more skill to find and kill a guy.

-Buying anything and everything. Talked about this with brjahu and he agreed. Not only do you have to reach a certain level to be able to unlock a gun, but then you have to buy that gun just to see if you like it. Not that that's a huge deal, but when you're trying to find a setup that works best for you, depleting all your funds to realize you hate that gun is frustrating. I've found after a couple hours you have so much money that it isn't as big a deal as it first seems.

-Audio. What's missing from it? I can't seem to pin it down. Music? There's something that's missing and it irks me and I can't figure out what.

-Maps. Not only do I feel Treyarch makes a better MP, but they undoubtedly make the better maps. Every one of the maps I've played has several levels and almost all of them are much larger than most of the maps in MW2. One of the snow maps in particular is a little too large with too many hiding spots, but other than that I like the complexity of them.

-Knife. It's back and retarded as ever. Why the hell you can lunge is beyond me, but at least there's no "Commando" anymore. I have seen, probably 10 times now, guys flat out sprint at me and try to knife me like in MW2, but it's only been successfull 2 or 3 times so while there's still frustration with it it's not nearly as problematic as MW2. It's funny watching kill cams because you can totally tell who is trying to recreate that perk setup of "Marathon, Light Weght, Commando." It's just sad that this game is the proof of how viable a strategy running at someone with your knife actually was.

Single:

-It's official, the CoD formula has grown thin. You can make the most riveting story, over the top action shooter ever, but when it's every iteration of CoD trying to "one up" each other it starts to feel grating.

-It's very over the top with so much action and explosions going on that it is actually difficult to tell who the hell you're supposed to be shooting. I found myself rolling my eyes at one point just wondering how much more of a hard on they could possibly have for Michael Bay.

-Story does seem cool though as it actually has a plot with mystery and intrigue.

(Impressions) Verdict:

After my first hour of MP gaming I was a little worried that I had bought a game that was less than thrilling. After unlocking stuff that doesn't suck and teaching myself to play with new guns I got that old CoD boner that we all love from time to time....or all the time. It's a very solid online shooter that does (so far) fix some gripes of MW2.

I'm pleased with my purchase because it's a shooter that will hold me over till Gears of War 3....brrrrt.

P.S. This is awesome. Because of the new theatre mode you can have proof of people glitching and Treyarch isn't gonna stand for it!

Dead Space 2 Lullaby

Consider my pants and the chair I'm sitting in...totally ruined.

Reminds me of the Dead Space "Twinkle" trailer.

Reminisce

Ever get nostalgia for a game and desperately wish they would make a sequel (and not a crappy one)? One particular game has always stood out to me and in particular, helped pull me into PC gaming.

Freelancer

It was a space-simulator, think Wing Commander or X-Wing, that involved a pretty decent plot with aliens and artifacts and what not. I forget if it's another part of the galaxy or whatever but these world ships settled on all these planets and systems. Anyways, you get better ships and weapons and there are secret weapons you can find and collect from areas of the different systems. The side missions were all generic and pretty much summed down to 3 different missions. You could also mine asteroids, trade, and just explore the different systems. There were hidden areas in clouds of gas and minefields and you can see my love affair with this game, haha. It was release in 2003 and I bet any computer could play the game nowadays and I suggest any gamer give this game a try.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freelancer_(video_game)

It really needs a sequel...

Dead Space on the brain....

I know you all know, but there are few games I've played that stick with me like Dead Space. Something about it's mix of horror, atmosphere, mysterious story and ominous setting just mix perfectly with me. I have very few criticisms with the game and have played through it an embarrassing amount of times.

Should I be surprised when I find myself seriously considering purchasing the Playstation Move to play Dead Space: Extraction when I get Dead Space 2 in January? It's a rail shooter, but still one of the better Wii games in existance and from what I've read actually does the genre a favor by showing that it doesn't have to suck.

I can find no better reason or game type to get the Move for. Not that I'm looking for a reason to buy one, but the thought of playing a great game in one of my favorite IPs in a style I absolutely loved as a kid (Lethal Enforcers or Time Crisis anyone?) just seems like a perfect storm for me to throw it on the Christmas list.

Plus, Killzone 3 will be Move compatible, but let's be honest....that'll probably play like garbage.