Developers Shouldn't Use Cliff Notes.

Right off the bat, I should say that I'm really enjoying Castlevania: Lords of Shadow so far. I've only just started chapter 2, but I'm currently appreciating the slow-burn of both the game play and story. Be that as it may, I've already found my first brow-furrowing moment in the game. Ever heard of Shadow of the Colossus?

Well, the dudes at Konami sure have. The first boss fight in the game is, well, a rip-off from SotC. I don't say "complete rip-off" because the experience of actually fighting it isn't anywhere near as awesome as every encounter was in the PS2 classic. The fight in Castlevania is a dumbed-down version of the structure SotC used, but with a couple ground attacks thrown your way every now and then. Tell me if this sounds familiar:

First, you have to wait for the titan to slam his fist hard enough into the ground so that it gets stuck. When that happens, you run over to his fist and grab onto it, holding down the "grip" button so as to not fall off. You then proceed along the titan's body until you get to the round, glowing symbol, so that you can stab the shit out of it. Repeat on a couple more parts of its body, and you're done.

Yea, it's basically the Cliff Notes version of fighting a colossus. I could assume that someone on the development team just wanted to pay homage to a great game, and that would be relatively fine with me, I guess. But if you're going to steal from something, STEAL from it. Don't do a half-assed job.

A big reason the titan fight feels like a rush job is because your hand is held the entire time. Right when its fist gets stuck in the ground, the part you're supposed to latch onto starts glowing. Just as you begin holding the "grip" button, the titan's arm raises up and the next section for you to jump to glows like the last. There's not really any exploration or figuring out how to get around on its body; it's a shame, since those moments really stood out in SotC, and probably could have in Castlevania.

I ultimately came away from the fight with a better understanding of why no one has tried imitating SotC before now. It's hard to do well, and is made even harder by the fact that SotC isn't concerned with a lot of things other games are concerned with. SotC relies on atmosphere and implication for narrative; Castlevania's story is told in a similar vein to other action games. SotC's main game play mechanic involves giant, moving puzzles for the player to solve; Castlevania has multitudes of enemies, levels, combat, and bosses to take into consideration. What it all boils down to is the fact that such a boss design should at least be on par with its source material, or we're all just wasting our time and effort. I could go kill 15 other, better ones instead of a shitty retread.

I'm still enjoying the game, so I'll try to talk about some of the stuff I like next time. There's actually quite a lot.

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John Marston is the anti-Niko Bellic.

Really, it's true. And it's a funny thing that Dan Houser wrote one of the absolute worst video game characters in history and also one of the best. I think Rockstar was trying to create a John Marston-type of character when they made GTA IV, but for whatever reason they failed miserably. The 2nd time was a charm, however, because Red Dead: Redemption accomplishes everything narratively that GTA IV tried to.

The first, and most glaring issue with Niko Bellic was his motivation. Namely, he had none. Why did he continue to murder, steal and be an all-out asshole in the face of his repeated lamenting of that lifestyle? Beats me. As far as I can tell, he's just a poorly-written dick. He came to America with the hope of starting fresh; killing was a part of his past, but he tired of it and wanted to be a better person. That's what we're supposed to believe, anyway. But as the story unfolded, I couldn't help but shake my head at the horrendous dialogue and situations Niko put himself in, and for no reason. The whole game is done a huge disservice by having the main character make absolutely no sense, and it's one - but not the only - reason I'll never bring it up as a high or even interesting point in gaming. It's just a big, sloppy mess.

Fast-forward a couple of years and we have ourselves a masterpiece in Red Dead: Redemption. Is the game perfect? Not at all. Does it erase all the past mistakes of Houser's writing? I don't know about erasing them, but it sure as hell washes the bad taste out of my mouth (interesting fact: epic fail tastes like the ass-end of a chicken). John Marston is basically the same character as Niko Bellic, only with real motivations, a believable moral code, and a surrounding game world with much less disconnect between the player and the "reality" presented. All of those things combined to make a more engrossing experience, and also stop me from puking in my mouth a little once I finished the game. I was pretty grateful for that last part.

But why is Marston more believable? Well, the premise of his single-mindedness is simple: he had to track and kill people or his family would die. In the changing world of the early 20th century, the newly-formed U.S. government was totally fine with resorting to thuggery to get a job done, and Marston was the perfect pawn for their plan. And in a stroke of narrative genius, Houser made sure Marston never got too caught up in other people's problems. Sure, he helped out a lot of people and even felt bad for some of them, but he constantly reminded the people he was helping exactly why he was doing it. And there were some folks Marston absolutely hated, and it was during those moments that the player became privy to his darker side. Marston, at his own admission, wasn't a "literary person." He was, however, someone who tried to start a different life and got savagely pulled back into the one he already left. The difference between him and Bellic, in this regard, couldn't be any more stark.

There's a lot more about Red Dead: Redemption to talk about - and I've only scratched the surface in terms of Marston's character - but I'll save it for future posts. I think I'll just end by saying I have renewed faith in Rockstar as a developer, and for game writing in general. I think it might have a bright future after all.

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Well, Now I'm Just Creeped Right Out.

I think I just experienced the first real "should I be doing this?" moment in my game playing history (with qualifiers, if asked). So I'm playing Heavy Rain, and I take control of Madison Paige for the first time. She wakes up in the middle of the night, apparently after falling asleep on the couch. The t.v. is still on, which I turn off. I have her look at her watch, and it's almost 3am. She seems frustrated at the late hour, so I figure she could use some freshening up. I start walking around the apartment looking for the bathroom, and I find it soon enough. But once I enter it, my mood changes from curious to thoroughly disturbed. I've never played anything like this before, and that includes Indigo Prophecy or any other narrative-driven game.

Once inside the bathroom, I head straight for the sink. I turn it on, and she splashes water on her face. Mission accomplished so far.

I want to quickly digress to make a side point. The Uncanny Valley is a very real thing, and it's no more evident than with Heavy Rain. Everything looks so authentic and genuinely impressive that it's the little things that stand out. For example, as Madison goes to the sink to splash water on her face, she turns the faucet on and water comes out. So far so good, but when she cups her hands and motions toward her face, the water disappears. Nothing actually splashes her, and her hands don't make contact with her face. Things like that are instantly noticeable when everything else is so incredibly detailed. I'd venture to say this could be the best-looking game I've ever played as far as believable, real-world environments and characters go, but it's evident that true photo-realism is still a little ways off. However, the strides that have been made toward that goal are immense, and such efforts will only get better with time.

Anyways, back to the reason for this entry: me being creeped out. After splashing the water on Madison's face, I look around the bathroom, and move her towards the toilet. I've had two other characters use the bathroom so far, so why not her? Well, that was the first wrong move. As she was sitting down on the toilet, the camera switched angles multiple times, and some of them were wide shots of her sitting. It felt invasive and weird to watch her, and I wished I had skipped that action almost immediately. But once that was over, I had her walk around the other side of the bathroom near the shower. She has a big-ass shower, by the way. Three nozzles in a row, even. So I decide to have her take a shower, and that's when I started really feeling like I was doing something inappropriate and sleazy. For starters, there are two contextual actions: moving the analog stick up, or down. When moved up, Madison takes her shirt off. When moved down, she takes her underwear off. Then she immediately walks into the shower and turns it on. There are gratuitous close-up shots of her breasts and ass, and multiple camera angles from which the show continues. It goes on for what seems like forever, and once she's finished, I had to manually put her clothes back on again. I wasn't sure at first the reason I felt so uneasy about this. After all, I've seen hundreds of movies with this exact same scene before, and I'm not sexually repressed, so what's the big deal?

The big deal is agency. I had to take her clothes off and get her to take a shower, and I sat there and watched while she did it. It felt like a huge, huge invasion of privacy, and also manipulative. It was exactly like all those movie scenes I've watched, but with one big difference. I actually felt like I was preying on her in some strange way; like she just didn't know I was watching her every move. This brings up a very unique situation for me, and it's one that I wish more games were capable of handling. Heavy Rain doesn't feel anything like the countless fantasy or role-playing games I've played in the past. All those games had stories and dramatic character arcs, but none of them ever made me feel like I was watching and interacting with someone else's life. Heavy Rain does that for each character, and with Madison Paige, for the first time in a game I felt like I shouldn't be doing what I was doing. If she knew about it, she would be horrified.

There were other reasons for my unsettled nerves, though. As I said, it was almost 3am, and all the lights in her apartment were either off or very dim, and her waking up the way she did made me apprehensive about....something. Also, I tried putting some clothes on her besides basically a bra and panties, but I couldn't. I was forced to have her walk around a disturbing environment in what I deemed a vulnerable state, and I wasn't happy about it. Now, bear in mind that the opening scene of the game entails a man waking up and taking a shower (if you so choose, which I did). I felt none of the emotions I was experiencing with Madison, and for good reason. The character in the beginning of the game seems at peace with himself and his surroundings. Everything is nice and bright, almost idyllic. There's a beautiful back yard that's accessed by an awesome balcony, and I was able to have him lazily walk out and stare out at the nice, sunny morning. When I had him take a shower, there was nudity, but it was relatively quick and it just felt natural. He's in the shower, so he's naked. No big deal. But as I watched Madison take hers, the shots lingered, and I also had much more agency with her character. Couple that with the uneasiness of the surroundings and it's easy to understand the difference between the two scenes.

All these feelings came about before Madison started seeing things. As I sat her down to flip through a magazine, she suddenly looked up and became startled. Did something move? I wasn't sure, but I decided to have her walk around a bit. Once she made it to the other side of the apartment, I turned her around, and the fridge was open. I had literally just closed it, so I immediately wanted to get the hell out of the apartment. I tried to put some clothes on her but there was no option for it. Again, the vulnerable state of a woman by herself when something seems off started freaking me out. There wasn't anything really happening at this point; it was all just in my head. And to those who would say that I shouldn't be feeling like that because a woman can take care of herself, give me a fucking break. There are factual differences between men and women, and there are times when a woman is more vulnerable than a man would be in the same situation. This was one of those situations, and I didn't like it. Anyways, like I said, I've never played a game that presented me with something like this before, and I was really conflicted over how the overall scene made me feel. It was almost like I was the person stalking her, while at the same time acting on her behalf. I'm pretty sure the confusion was on purpose, and it definitely set the desired mood for what was to follow.

And this, my friends, is the nearly untapped potential of gaming. Agency can elicit all types of emotions, but up 'til now it's only given me a very narrow spectrum of samples to choose from. Heavy Rain looks to be significantly broadening the scope of what a game can be, despite some shortcomings I've noticed with certain characters. The voice-acting is really hit-or-miss, depending on who's talking. But when it's good, it's damn good. My hope, though, is for it to continue poking around inside my head, looking for different responses than I'm used to giving to a video game. And even if it can't sustain itself for the duration, moments like tonight will stay with me for a long, long time.

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And Now, For Something Completely Different.

Going directly from Bioshock 2 to Heavy Rain is jarring. Both games seem to have clear purposes, but their implementations couldn't be any different. One is philosophical in nature and hits on what it means to be part of human society, and the other is, in part, about a family tragedy. Bioshock makes you think, while Heavy Rain makes you feel.

I only played for a couple of hours, but the most startling thing about Heavy Rain so far is its capacity to move me. The game starts as everyone's morning usually does: getting out of bed. Only it's not a cut scene. I used the right analog stick to manually rise out of bed, go to the bathroom, take a shower and get dressed. From there, I went downstairs and drank a cup of coffee before the wife and kids got home from shopping. One of them was having his birthday party later in the afternoon, and the gameplay consisted of getting some things ready for the party. After that was done, I went outside and had some fun playing in the backyard with the kids. This might sound boring to some, but it was an epiphany for me. The emotional strings are going to be pulled tightly with this game. Never have I projected my wants and desires so fully onto a digital world, and that was only within the first fifteen minutes. The only reason it's not revolutionary is because Quantic Dream tried the same kinds of visual tricks and gameplay with Indigo Prophecy, but the emotional impact was nowhere near as profound as the opening of Heavy Rain was for me. So, evolutionary seems to fit a lot better. The one thing that was noticeable for me right away, though, is the sometimes-awkward voice acting. The line delivery isn't always good, which is odd for a game that thrives on believability in terms of characters. But it's not nearly enough to really pull me out of the moment, at least so far.

After a bit of foreshadowing involving telling my son that death is something that just happens even if we don't want it to, I got the feeling everything was just too perfect. This family is everything I now want in life, but Heavy Rain being a thriller about a serial killer, I was waiting for the other ball to drop. And drop, it did. Once tragedy hit, I found myself in control of a completely different character. For the moment, I'll just say that all the characters I've played as so far have their own immediate draws to them. It's late and I need some sleep, so I'll save more of my impressions for later. But holy hell, this game is impressive. It's looking like my 2-plus years of waiting won't be for naught.

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Introducing the Pii.

BWAHAHAHAHAHAHA.

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A look back at: Heavy Rain.

Shortly after finishing Heavy Rain, I thought to myself: Did I just finish 2010's game of the year? It's barely March, and already we have been blessed as gamers with the likes of Mass Effect 2, Bioshock 2, Darksiders, and more. But, as I sat there on my couch watching the credits, I couldn't help but think: "What's going to beat Heavy Rain?"

Moreover, is Heavy Rain even a game? Well I guess that depends on your definition of "game". If to you, a game is you controlling a character on screen and running around environments, then yeah, Heavy Rain is a game. The difference here is that, instead of moving level to level taking out bad guys, then encountering a boss, you are really just interacting with scenes.

And these "scenes" are what set Heavy Rain apart. By presenting the gamer with scripted event after event and letting you make decisions that impact each character, Quantic Dream grips you the way that a great movie would. Fully invested in these characters, each with his/her own demons, you care that much more about them. Couple that, with a good story, and you have a great piece of entertainment.

So that brings us to the presentation. Heavy Rain is a great looking game, not the best, but great. What really helps the presentation here is how everything flows together to make a cohesive experience. The camera angles are well done, often adding to the drama. The biggest part of all this is the "Quick Time Events" that make up a major part of the gameplay. With Quantic Dream's last game, Indigo Prophecy, the QTEs were always right in the middle of the screen, more times than not punishing you for paying attention to the scene rather than the button prompt. In Heavy Rain, they are used to draw your attention to the action by putting the QTE in the middle of the action. This really does go a long way to drawing the player into the scene.

Will Heavy Rain be game of the year this year? Way to early to tell. But what I can tell you is that I am ready for more of this "Interactive Drama".

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How to be truely InFamous...

Oh Ps3... Nobody loves you like I do. Rather than give me sequel, after sequel, you give me new I.P. And not just average new I.P. You deliver the best of this generation. Heavenly Sword, Valkyria Chronicles, Uncharted, and now InFamous.

Let me just say firstly that InFamous doesn't do a whole lot new when it comes to open world games, it just does everything BETTER. From the first time you pick up the DualShock, you will find that our hero moves around so fluidly. He is fast, jumping from building to building feels fantastic. Sucker Punch nailed control and movement in their first outing since Sly 3.

The gameplay is a mix of platformer and third person shooter, with the latter more prevalent. You have upgrades that you can use to empower Cole, and even your decisions, good or bad, will give you different abilities.

The story is great if you take it for what it is, a comic book style narrative. I found myself often playing just to see what happens to Cole. With one of the better endings I have seen in a few years, there was no disappointment in finishing the tale.

So, without going on too much longer, I will leave you with this: In a sea of yearly sequels and reboots, its nice to see new games come out that are truly new and refreshing. If you pass this gem up, it is you who will become InFamous!!!

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Killzone 2's Controls Are Fixed!!!!!

Yea, this is old news. I just thought I'd share this bit of information for those who didn't know. I knew about it since the patch went live, but I was waiting for the opportunity to pick it up again cheap used. I already bought it once, so I'll be damned if I'm going to give Guerrilla my money TWICE. Anyways, the controls are totally fixed now, and I'm having a fucking blast with the game. I'm not done with it yet, and I'm not going to review it since we already have an ass-load of Killzone 2 shit up on the blog. I'll only say that my happiness level has increased immensely with this much-needed fix, and now I'm definitely going to finish the game. Kudos do Guerrilla for not being total douches and owning up to the fact that they fucked up. That's something I can't say for every company. Read more...

Rockstar has a few things to learn about "their" genre.

Because Saints Row 2 is, in every important way, vastly superior to GTA 4. Let me first admit that I was on the anti-Saints Row bandwagon. I never played the original, and from a few early screenshots, I thought the sequel looked like shit. This just goes to show you that a well-informed opinion can't come from stuff like that. So, at the behest of a friend, I picked up Saints Row 2, and I can now say that I enjoyed it so much more than Niko Belic's disjointed and confused adventure.

Since there are so many things this game does better, I've decided to just make a list of everything, in no particular order, and I'll elaborate on a few points later.

• Features a garage where you can store any car you want, and here's the sticker: you can dump the cars from your garage anywhere in the world, and they'll always be available for you to take out again from any owned garage in the game.
• Missions have a lot more variety. Sure, a lot of them just involve going somewhere and shooting someone, but most of the time, the story and situations the game puts you in make them far more interesting.
• Once you complete certain activities, infinite ammo is unlocked for specific sets of guns. This makes everything a lot more fun, and the game doesn't take itself seriously enough to warrant any gripes about it ruining the realism or any such nonsense.
• The entire game - missions, activities, diversions, everything - can be played co-op. Obvious plus. Roughly half of my overall playtime was with a friend.
• Vehicles are fully customizable. You can upgrade them with nitrous, improved tires and overall durability, etc. It makes the garage feature that much more awesome when you know you have a pimped-out, bad ass ride waiting for you wherever you want it.
• Almost everything you accomplish in the game has a tangible gameplay reward attached to it. Finishing certain activities, for example, will give you the ability to have more homies ride with you while on missions, or increase your health or stamina. Basically, you're working towards a goal even when you're lighting people on fire with a friend.
• Fully customizable avatar. Once again, the game lets you decide how you want your game to look. Your character can be male or female, and the range of options available for changing their appearance is pretty great. If you want to have a 19-year-old skinny chick that sounds like a 50-year-old guy working in a mine, go right ahead.
• The story is flat-out better and more entertaining. I'll go into more detail below.
• You can actually, for the most part, accomplish missions and objectives the way you want to. One big problem I had with GTA 4 was the fact that Rockstar had a specific vision for how a lot of the missions played out, and if you deviated from the way they wanted them to, it was game over. In Saints Row 2, if you want to jack someone's car to chase the guys on motorcycles that you're after, you're free to do so. You don't have to take the vehicle they provide you with.
  
• Humor. it ties in with the story, which again, I'll go into further down. But it's a lot funnier than you'd think.
• Cribs. For whatever reason, GTA 4 didn't want to let you feel like you owned the city. Saints Row 2 does. There are about a dozen houses for you to buy, and you can - yet again - upgrade them and pimp them out.
• You can replay any story-related mission in the game as many times as you want. Durh, that's awesome. The same goes for all the activities as well.
• One of the perks of co-op is that if you die, your friend has 15 seconds (on hardcore difficulty) to revive you. Extremely welcome, especially when you have a five-star wanted level.
• You can carry way more weapons on your person at all times, including an SMG, rocket launcher, shotgun, dual pistols, samurai sword and satchel charges.

All of those examples are off the top of my head, so there's probably other stuff that I forgot to mention. Of course, the game isn't perfect, and Rockstar probably has more money and staff to polish their games a bit more than Volition does. Graphically, GTA 4 is superior, but it really doesn't matter. Saints Row 2 looks just fine. On the other hand, the game can be a little buggy at times, and clipping is a common occurence. But again, it doesn't hamper the fun in any meaningful way.

That's the thing about this game - I had way more fun with it than I ever thought I would. Even before I played Saints Row 2, I was disappointed with GTA 4 in a lot of big ways. After playing it, my disappointments with GTA 4 stand out even more, in stark contrast to what Volition has accomplished. I think sometimes Rockstar is more concerned with being "mature" and controversial than they are with making a cohesive story. With GTA 4, they set out to tell a tale of sin and redemption, but ended up with a pile of shit. Niko's motivations were explained as being forced into violence by outside forces, when all he wants is to lead a better life. Fair enough. But his actions showed a totally different person. He doesn't want to kill people anymore, yet if you were to flash a twenty in his direction, he'd probably shoot everyone in the room and snatch it from your cold, lifeless hand. The whole thing doesn't make a damn bit of sense in that regard, and I just got turned off about half-way through the game. Not to mention the fact that you commit countless random acts of violence and murder while you're driving around aimlessly, but that's more of an inherent problem with trying to tell any kind of realistic story when the player is allowed to do whatever they want.

Saints Row 2 isn't trying to tell a realistic story at all. It's instantly recognized as ridiculous and over-the-top, and that's exactly what I liked about it. In a game where I can use rocket launchers to blow up helicopters while someone is driving me around, I expect to see the same shit happen in the cutscenes, and it delivers just that. A lot of crazy shit happens in the story, in fact, and I found myself laughing out loud at the insane stunts the main character pulls off. Speaking of cutscenes, they were suprisingly well-directed. A lot of them had a great kind of movie quality to them, and it was nice to see Volition take the time to make such a non-serious story at least look awesome. Overall, the story is really just the standard get out of jail, start up your gang again kind of thing, but it works because there are no pretenses of being gritty or serious. Make no mistake, there are a lot of fucked up things that happen, and I would say it's on the same level of hardcore that GTA 4 was on, but the big difference is the non-contradictory way it all played out.

Look, if you were left wanting after you finished GTA 4, then this is a no-brainer. Get this game, you'll love it. If you can get someone else to play it with you - holy shit - the satisfaction is increased by a factor of about a billion. Rockstar should look at this game and weep in their feathery-soft pillows.


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The Replayability of Resident Evil 5

I think the review we have up for the game sums it up pretty nicely, but I would like to briefly expand on the controls. If RE4 retooled the formula, RE5 perfected it. The game gives you the ability to strafe while walking around, and honestly, that's all it needed. I don't ever feel the need to move and shoot - the game is built on the fact that you can't - and if I could, it would make it far too easy. As it stands, though, the combat is intensely gratifying, and there's no mistaking it for any other game. The controls, as they are now, are a defining aspect of the series, take it or leave it. If you leave it, it sucks to be you.

So let's move on to what I really want to talk about: the replayability of RE5, and why, after about 50 hours in, I'm still planning on playing all weekend long.

If you finish the game on Veteran difficulty, you'll unlock Professional mode. Let me tell you, it's aptly fucking named. Pretty much everything is a one-hit death for you, and at one point early on, I was freaking out because I was being killed by a chicken. If that's not a measure of difficulty, I don't know what is. Also, enemies take a LOT more damage, and good luck finding any ammo. You'll find a few rounds for the handgun, but that's about it. It seems like Professional is built to be ran through with infinite ammo, or a lot of punching and slitting of throats. It's a great ramp-up, but it probably won't be the difficulty I play most often. Veteran is just right, so if you play a ton of shooters, that'll be the way to go on your first play-through.

I say first, because I've completed it on Amateur, Normal, Veteran and Professional, and I'm still playing through various difficulties for specific reasons. The higher the difficulty, generally the more money you'll collect, and you'll also get more exchange points at the end of each chapter. The exchange points are used to buy extras once you've finished the game, and they range from novel items like figurines to essentials like infinite ammo for every gun in the game. Of course, you have to buy infinite ammo for each gun separately, and the cost ranges from 10,000 to 15,000 per gun. I have almost every gun, and I'm still working on buying the infinite ammo for all of them. Currently, I have it unlocked for the M92F, H&K P8, AK-74, Ithaca M37, M3, H&K PSG-1 and S&W M29. I have basically every situation covered, from up-close and personal douches with stun rods, to attackers shooting flaming explosives from 30 yards away.

And that's the joy I get from this game: I can continuously replay the same shit over and over again, but each time find a new reason to do so. Like I said, I still need to buy infinite ammo for a ton of weapons, and I'm going to try and get all the figurines. Right now, I'm working on trimming my play time on Amateur to under five hours so I can unlock the infinite Rocket Launcher and beat even more ass. That, by the way, is something I really appreciate about the game. Ok, so you have to beat the game in under five hours to get the launcher. Fair enough. But the great thing about it is that once you beat the game, you can go to the chapter select and see how long each chapter took you to finish. You can then decide which ones you could trim some time from, and just play the ones you want to. You'll see the overall play time on whichever difficulty you go through becoming less and less, and eventually you'll hit the magic five hour mark. Bravo, Capcom, that's some high-level genius shit right there. I'm at about 6 hours on Amateur and 6-and-a-half on Professional, so I still have some work to do.

Making it seem less like work is the massive arsenal I've stockpiled, and it's pretty amazing how different every gun feels. Even the three kinds of magnums have their own strong and weak points. There's the classic Dirty Harry .357, which does massive damage but has a lot of kickback and a slow rate of fire, and the more modern Desert Eagle, which does slightly less damage but fires about three shots a second and is really shiny. Apply the same comparisons to all 18 guns, and you've got yourself a lot of choices, and a lot of different ways to play the game.

Another high-level genius move by Capcom was to allow all your inventory to be available across every difficulty, both single player and co-op. This has let me acquire mass amounts of ammo, grenades and herbs to the point where I now laugh in the face of death as I piss in its mouth. Most bosses go down in under 15 seconds, and that's only because I lack the infinite Rocket Launcher. Once I get that, go ahead and reduce the boss fights to one-hitter quitters. Simply put, there isn't any better possible way to approach the design of this type of game. No matter what I'm doing, everything I pick up and achieve counts. Whether it's finding gold for buying more weapons and upgrades, or tallying up exchange points for unlockables, it all stays constant with my profile. What more could you ask for in an action game?

And let's face it, RE5 is an action game. It's not scary in the classic sense by any stretch of the immagination. So in that respect, you could argue that RE4 is superior. On the other hand, by giving you so many different weapons that can all unlock infinite ammo, in my book that equals Oblivion-like hours of decapitations and bloody mayhem. RE4 gave you the Chicago Typewriter and infinite Rocket Launcher, along with one of the greatest costumes in any game ever. But once you got those, there wasn't much else left to work towards. Which, mind you, I had no qualms about. I played through that game 4 times spanning 2 systems, so that's obviously not a complaint I have against it. But once you realize the sheer amount of options RE5 gives you in terms of firepower, if your jaw doesn't drop, it must be wired shut. Name me one other game that lets you play as a girl in an Amazonian bikini shooting zombies with a longbow. No, the one in your head doesn't count.

Last, but definitely not least, is Mercenaries mode. This mode completely changes the gameplay (it actually reminds me somewhat of The Club) into a fast-paced race against the clock to score as many points as possible by killing everything that moves as quickly as you can. Killing different kinds of enemies, along with the way you kill them, adds points to your score total. There are time extenders located throughout the maps, and you break them open to get, durh, extended time. You can play by yourself or co-op, and it's just insane how intense this thing can get. It really is like a separate game; the tactics that worked for much of the campaign simply don't hold up to the number and ferocity of the enemies in Mercenaries. The best way to go about it is to stick and move, killing a few guys at a time before relocating to a totally different spot. I think there are a total of 8 maps, and you have to rank at least an "A" on the previous map to unlock the next one. Once you do that, the main goal is to get an "S" rank, which, in co-op, is 150,000 points. To put that into perspective, the first time my friend and I tried the mode out, we scored about 45,000. We've yet to get over 60,000 (tip: dead chicken = 2,000 points). It's a total blast to play, though, and the drastically different gameplay is what makes me love it so much.

With everything now laid out, I really won't accept you not loving this game. If you don't, you've either been deceived somehow, or you're a charlatan with ulterior motives kept secret from the ever-prying eyes of your enemies. I am one of those enemies, and I don't like you. However, if you like shooters, and RE4 in particular, then this is a no-brainer. It's everything that made RE4 great, improved upon. That's high praise right there. Read more...

Final thoughts on RE5

Everybody has a gaming tradition or two. One of mine is with every new Resident Evil release, I take a few days off work, stock up on food and sodas, and cruise through yet another entry in my favorite franchise. That's exactly what I did this weekend, with the release of RE:5. After hearing months of criticism about racism and cumbersome controls, needless to say I was a little skeptical. Now all I have to say is: thank you Capcom, for reminding me why I love games again...

Story:
RE:5's story returns to the series roots, dealing with the Umbrella Corporation. No rescuing the President's daughter in this one. As a fan of the overall story arc of all of the Resident Evil games, I was relieved to see Capcom push the story forward, rather than have another detour. The cut scenes are for the most part well done. You can tell the Dev team took some cues from the likes of Metal Gear Solid 4. The over the top scenes do a great job of sucking you in. No Spoilers here, let me just say the game brings back some old characters, answers some questions, but also is friendly to newcomers as well.

Gameplay:
I am going to be upfront with this: I loved the way RE:4 controlled. RE:5 is VERY similar. The gunplay is handled with the left shoulder button to bring up your gun, right stick to aim, right trigger to fire. And by the way, you can't move when aiming. I can see why this might bother some, but I think it does a great job of adding white knuckle suspense. There is nothing like being surrounded by zombies(?) and choosing your shot and fighting your way through. There are some puzzles along the way to mix it up, but this is no Tomb Raider, action takes center stage here. Bosses are nothing mind blowing, but for the most part, they are fun.

Graphics:
RE:5 uses Capcom's new proprietary engine (MT Framework) and it really shines. Open environments, some of the best character models I've seen, and great effects (Especially the lighting). Sure there is a bland texture here and there, but overall RE:5 will impress, and it runs butter smooth. By the way, I played on PS3.

Final thought: Resident Evil fans, you owe it to yourself to pick this up. It is not as spooky as some of the originals, but it is intense. Action fans new to the series, try the demo. If you can learn to work with the controls, you will find a great experience to be had here. Read more...

My take on Killzone 2, a.k.a. "It's Not Fucking Halo So Who Gives a Shit!!!11!!1!! Noob!!1!!"

My first impression of Killzone 2 was pretty much the same as my colleague's - that of utter amazement at the sheer badassery of it all. Everything about the presentation, from the graphics to sound design - the overall immersion - is fantastic. I color myself a pretty well-versed FPS player, at least on consoles, so I think I know a good shooter when I see one. And Killzone 2 definitely looks the part. But once I really dug my heels into the game, all my initial amazement slowly grinded to a halt, and it became more of a chore to play than a wonder to behold.

Don't think I'm not aware of the situation; I'm in the minority here, and that's fine. I don't feel like I should be forced to love a game just because its Metacritic average is 94 (I don't know Killzone 2's numbers, but whatever), or because everyone says you have to play it or you're an idiot. Point of fact, I'm not an idiot, and that's exactly the reason why I traded this game in after two days of playing it. Like I said earlier, when I first popped the game in the disc loader (it's not a tray, so...), I was floored by what I was experiencing. Graphics, and more specifically, graphics in an FPS, go a long way toward pulling you into the moment. Explosions rock the screen, bullets whiz by your head, comrades-in-arms are screaming for help, and a flood of evil Nazi-esque baddies are storming your position. It's fucking intense, to say the least. I was intently focused on everything going on around me, because, well, the game demanded I do so. "Look at me!!!" it screamed, and sure enough, I watched with a smile on my face and an itchy trigger finger.

But as the game progressed, more and more I found myself cursing under my breath at the movements of my character. The simple act of aiming at someone was getting cumbersome and, quite frankly, obnoxious. It's not the slow movement speed that bothers me; if that was the case, I could just turn the sensitivity up and be happy. No - because in Killzone 2, you feel like a real person holding a real weapon. I get that, and I actually like it. The problem comes when I want to move and shoot at the same time. It's hard to describe to someone who hasn't played it, but there is a swaying effect that occurs whenever you look around in any direction. The reticle is not instantly responsive to your input, which makes quickly and accurately aiming at an enemy an ordeal in itself. I said the general slow running speed didn't bother me, but add to that the imprecise aiming, and it gets real shitty, real fast. I felt like I was playing under the influence; like I had somehow lost a step or two. It wasn't fun anymore, so I stopped playing. Simple as that.

And no, the fact that I play Halo 3 does not have anything to do with my distaste for Killzone 2. I've also played Far Cry 2, Mirror's Edge, Bioshock, Half-Life 2, Timeshift, Shellshock 2, Resistance, Call of Duty 2 & 4, F.E.A.R. & F.E.A.R. 2, Left 4 Dead, Portal, Rainbow Six: Vegas & Vegas 2, Prey, and Call of Juarez - and that's just the FPS games from this generation. I judge every game on its own merits, and I think Killzone 2 has many in its favor, actually. Just not the one that makes me want to play it. Does that make me a 360 fanboy? Am I lauding the mechanics of one game over another? No, I'm not. I'm simply saying that if the main character of Killzone 2 was to take a breathalyzer test before firing his weapon, he would fail. And I, for one, can't kill anyone unless I'm sober. Read more...

Killzone 2: quite simply....baaadaaaaassss!

I do not profess to be some some sort of expert gaming guru. My years of reading Gameinformer on the shitter or checking the latest 1UP post does not qualify me to tell you about about pop-in, grain, or anything else you techno-wannabe-whores out there may want to hear about. I'm just your average joe gamer, but I know video game bliss when I play it! In the couple of hours I have spent with it, KZ2 has smashed me in the balls with the fun hammer and all I can say is.......more please!

We all know the game looks fan-fuggin-tastic, but beauty alone does not make a game great. I'm also no FPS authority so I realize that some hardcore enthusiasts may have some trouble with the slightly slower control scheme. To this I must simply say "fuck off and return to the kid's table to play Ha-blow with all the other 12 year olds!" Fighting the Hellghast and using the cover system to set up your "killzone" is a blast! I also love the fact that you are basically only allowed one major weapon at a time. I tend to try to stick to guns that I love, but here comes KZ2 with a big F-U you're out of ammo! This forces you to experiment with different arms that are littered throughout the battlefield..........brilliant. The A.I. will also kick your ass by flanking you and making you leave your precious cover. Being chased out into the open where you'll surely be turned into man-mulch by the enemy is an adrenaline rush. (They are supposed to be even better at higher difficulty) I have yet to play any online modes, but I know I'll be ready to once the campaign is over. So far it's fun, fun, fun, till your daddy takes your six-axis away! An exclusive game like this is the reason I'm a PS3 owner. Nuff said. Read more...

First Impressions - Siren: New Translation

Much to my delight, I recently received my hard copy of Siren: New Translation in the mail. You see, I had to import the damn thing since Sony seems to be hell-bent on pissing off at least some people all of the time. Anyways, now I can play it, which makes me all warm and fuzzy inside. I actually played the demo when it first arrived in the Japanese store, but for whatever reason, it didn’t instantly grab me the way the final product did. Maybe I just wasn’t in a survival horror mood, or I could have been in the middle of playing a bunch of other stuff – who knows. But for a first impression, the Siren I’m playing now nailed it from the get-go.

The game starts off with a suitably creepy home video-like perspective of some bizarre killings being performed by people in hooded clothing. The people behind the camera are part of a news crew who are on a supposedly deserted island in Japan. Why they’re there, I’m not really sure at this point. What I do know is that they soon find themselves on the run from the disturbing locals, and they’re none too happy about it. The game takes a really interesting approach in the way its levels are spread out – each chapter is broken up into episodes, just like a TV show, and so far each episode lasts between 5 - 15 minutes. You play as different characters, and switching between them during the episodes gives a unique perspective to the way the story plays out. One episode has you playing as a high school student, while another starts you off as one of the TV crewmen. Each person seems to play the same, but I’m guessing the developers opted for multiple characters as a way of fleshing out the story in an interesting and different way than what's normally seen from games in this genre (or any genre, for that matter).


With Siren being a survival horror game, the atmosphere needs to have a certain dread in the air, and it certainly has that in spades. Some of the characters carry flashlights, but even with them turned on, you can’t see very far in front of you. Everything is near pitch-black, and ambient noises from within the blackness surrounding you add to the creepy-as-shit vibe the game has going for it. You can also hear the mumblings and crazy laughter from the zombie-like enemies in every direction, and a lot of the time you don’t know where they are until you’re right on top of them. That is, until you get the “sight-jacking” ability. “Sight jacking” allows you to see from the enemies’ perspectives, and the mechanic is implemented with a vertical split-screen – the normal third-person view of your character on the left, and the first-person viewpoint of an enemy on the right. You might think it would get confusing, but I found it to be a really cool effect, and it’s also pretty damn useful. I used it one time to wait for a guy to turn a corner, and as he walked away, I beat him about ten times in the back of the head with a shovel. It was awesome. That’s not to say you can run around beating people with gardening tools all the time – your best bet is to avoid contact as much as possible, because they can fuck you up pretty bad if they get a chance. When you’re nearby an enemy, the controller vibrates a bit and you can hear a heartbeat sound that can only mean bad things. Once they’ve spotted you, the screen turns all kinds of trippy colors, and pants are shat as you run away like a little girl. By “you,” I mean me. And by “run away like a little girl,” I mean just that. What you often find yourself doing is running into a house to hide in the closet or under a bed or something. Your pursuer follows you, and you can see them searching for you from the safety (or lack thereof) of your hiding spot. Once they leave, it’s up to you to either stay put or book it the fuck out of there. So far every encounter like that has been insanely tense, and I can’t see the mechanic wearing thin any time soon.

Overall, Siren has really impressed me. I wasn’t sure how it would fare, since I actually have the original PS2 version of the game, and I found it really hard to control. The controls in the new version still hamper your movement in a lot of regards, but not to the point of the fun being taken away. I’m a firm believer that for a survival horror game to be genuinely effective, you have to feel – at least on some level – totally helpless. Siren does just that, and if the suspense can sustain itself over the course of the entire game, I might have just found my new favorite series. Fatal Frame is one of my all-time favorites, but the next entry is on the Wii, so fuck that. Luckily for me, Siren seems able enough to take the place of that once great franchise, and gives me a new reason to turn the lights off again.
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Killzone 2 Demo Impressions: A Very Short, Very Sweet Example of PS3 Development Perfection

It happens by simple chance that I had the privilege of playing through the official Killzone 2 demo (several times). After having a rather pointless conversation about arcade sticks for Street Fighter IV with a local GameStop rep, he ended up offering me one of the download codes for Killzone 2 preorders, with the great exception that he didn’t make me preorder. Free Killzone 2 demo? Sure, why not!

Before saying anything about my actual impressions of the demo, let me say that if you plan on getting this demo early with any amount of anticipation, you should know that it is short. Very short. I don’t think it would be unreasonable for me to say that it might be one of the shortest demos ever produced, for any platform. My first run through the demo took me only 10 minutes and 30 seconds (it will actually provide you a completion time), and it even felt like a short 10 minutes at that.

The demo’s ten minutes basically consist of you storming along a short beach front, and then taking an elevator up into a storage hanger to fight off a few rounds of Helghast soldiers. One that’s over, the demo ends, and you’re simply left with a lingering of wanting more.

That probably works to the developers’ advantage as far as marketing goes, because now I totally want this game on launch day.

After you play the demo, so will you.

That's because what the demo lacks in quantity, it more than makes up for in demonstrative power and quality. Immediately upon booting up the demo and opening cinematic, you will be given a glimpse of in-game graphics posing as a cinematic. Yes, that is correct, I did not write that backwards. After the initial E3 trailer for Killzone 2 came out a few years ago, and touted that the video on screen was in-game graphics, there was a lot of skepticism from a lot of people who weren’t ready to believe it. Now, having experienced the demo, I can safely say that it was all true.

Without a doubt, this game speaks to the development potential that is just now finally being utilized from the PS3’s hardware. If this game is any indication, we have barely seen the beginning of what the PS3 can do, when the system is chosen as the lead platform.

You begin the demo on a flying drop-ship, which is carrying you and several of your soldier brothers towards a war-torn beach, as you witness some of the other drop ships getting blown up and narrowly missing yours as they fall from the sky. As the flying “boat” lands on the beach, one of your fellow soldiers yells at you to get up, and suddenly your HUD appears with gun in hand, and you’re in control. Similar to Metal Gear Solid 4 in the way the game seamlessly transitions from cinematic to gameplay, Killzone 2 never deceives you away from the game engine. There is one exception: Killzone 2 looks even better than MGS4. No, the facial animations might not be quite as robust, but the in game environments and sheer amount of activity on-screen easily outweighs Kojima’s opus.

One thing of note: During my first play-through, I wasn’t immediately blown away by the game’s visuals. At first, I simply just felt they were great, but there wasn’t that initial shock and awe that I was expecting. Then on my second play-through, I realized that the reason I wasn’t blown away was because I had already seen the E3 trailer for Killzone 2, and this looked exactly like it. So in that way, the game’s visuals meet expectations, and actually exceed them at the same time. You will also really notice the difference once you play Killzone 2 a few times, and then try and go back and play another FPS, like Call of Duty. The visuals in Killzone 2 really outclass everything else that’s come before it.

The gunplay has a very different feel from other console shooters. Unlike Call of Duty or Halo, where control and gun response is immediate and fast, Killzone 2 offers a very deliberate weight and delay system to looking and aiming, which adds a sense of realism by accounting for gun weight and movement delay. It will take some time for newcomers to adjust to the changes (especially if you’ve been sinking a lot of time into COD World at War’s multiplayer lately, as I have), but once you get a feel for it, you will be surprised at how “arcadey” and unrealistic the movement in other FPS games feels when compared to Killzone 2. It has similar aiming mechanics to Call of Duty, with the ability to both fire from the hip as well as aiming down the sights, and there are several control options available to where you can even configure the game to share the same button layout as Call of Duty if you’ve already grown accustomed to that.

What remains to be seen is how robust the multiplayer options end up being in the final product. So far, it essentially sounds like a blending of all the previous multiplayer experiences ever made into one game mode. Whether that will make for the most brilliant multiplayer game ever made or a haphazard stumbling of multiplayer chaos will only come with time.

Look for my full review of Killzone 2 shortly after its launch. Read more...

Under the Radar Vol. 1

Under the Radar will be a weekly article on the games I think aren't getting much press, or there just isn't a lot of buzz about them for whatever reason. I'll feature a single game each week until the well runs dry, and hopefully that won't happen for a long while. This week's game is.......dum dum dummm...........F.E.A.R. 2: Project Origin.

The origin and evolution of F.E.A.R.

The first thing I think of when I see the name F.E.A.R. is the combat. The team at Monolith provided me with the sweetest slow-motion shotgun action I could ask for, and A.I. that was pretty much unmatched at the time. Blood gushed profusely from your foes in glorious bullet-time, and the fact that they were more than a match for you made it even more satisfying. Fast forward a few years, and it's easy to see the game's shortcomings. Every level was basically the same office building or warehouse complex, only the layout was slightly different. The story was a little confusing at times, even if you knew all you had to do was track down someone and shoot the shit out of anything that got in your way. But there was a creepy atmosphere(replete with a J-horror ghost girl), a sinister corporation bent on creating clone warriors from a psychic, and the guns felt great. Shooters are a delicate species; the lion's share of them tend not to age so well. The weapon mechanics and player movement have to gel just right, otherwise its other merits and accomplishments are easily forgotten. To make a long story short, F.E.A.R. did for FPS gameplay what Shadow of the Colossus did for story.


Which brings me to the fan subtitled sequel, F.E.A.R. 2: Project Origin. There was a bit of a licensing issue between Monolith and ActiBlizzard for a while, and Project Origin was the settled upon name which came out of a contest Monolith held on its website. The situation eventually got resolved, so they rightfully put F.E.A.R. back into the title, and here we are. I think it's important that they were able to do so, because there's probably a lot of people who didn't know Project Origin had anything to do with F.E.A.R., and their sales might have suffered for it. Regardless, everything is now as it should be, and the game's coming out next month.

10 minutes of gameplay from F.E.A.R. 2

The first thing I noticed from watching the above video is how it still looks like F.E.A.R. Seeing is believing, and based on what I just saw, Monolith obeyed the cardinal rule and didn't try to fix what wasn't broken. You might say to me, "But it looks exactly like the last game." While that's true, I think it was done on purpose. That footage was put out a long time ago, and the developers probably wanted to keep the new scenarios close to their chest. John Mulkey, the Lead Designer of F.E.A.R. 2 -- from an interview with IGN -- had this to say about the game's level design. "We had a really limited art palette to work from in the first game, so things ended up looking pretty repetitive. For Project Origin we have really set out to present a greater visual variety of environments and a greater variation in locations you will be visiting over the course of the game." It's too early to take those comments as fact, but Monolith has earned my respect and I simply have faith that they will make good on their promises.

Will manning a full-bodied mech give F.E.A.R. the variety it needs?

One thing I would like to mention very quickly is the health system. Unless Monolith changed their mind since the gameplay trailers were released, they've decided to go with regenerating health. I'm still not sure how I feel about that system in general. Sometimes I miss being able to hoard health packs for that ever-looming, pound-your-ass hard boss fight. Other times I don't really mind it. It's a personal preference, but I just wanted to point out the one glaring difference between this game and the original. As long as the A.I. is programmed with the same loving care and attention it was given last time and the gameplay isn't given a complete face lift, I can see no reason why this game won't surpass its predecessor in every possible way.


[update] It looks like a demo for the game will be released on January 22nd. That's great news; I plan to try it out on both 360 and PC.

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