If only you knew the power of the Dark Side - The Force Unleashed review

Lucasarts have certainly set themselves a high bar with The Force Unleashed.  Combining cutting-edge videogame tech with a heavily scripted, canon-approved script, the game is the highest profile Star Wars release in years, and is tied into a larger campaign of toys, novels and comics just as Lucasarts did with Shadows Of the Empire many years ago.  At the heart of this however, lies the game itself.  There've been too many Star Wars games that have been all hype and no substance.  Can The Force Unleashed rise above this impression?

It certainly makes a good first showing.  Visually, you've never seen the Star Wars universe like this before.  Everything is beautifully lit and immaculately textured, and the environments immediately feel right.  Old stuff is painstakingly recreated, new stuff is carefully designed and fits in well.  It's a good job that the game looks so beautiful too, because a major portion of the gameplay involves smashing up and tearing down this remarkable vision.  Much has been made of The Force Unleashed's revolutionary technology, in particular the Digital Molecular Matter tech which causes the environment to deform in realistic ways.  I couldn't begin to tell you how it works, all I know is that it does, and it looks astonishing.  Metal bends, glass shatters, wood splinters and all hell breaks loose as the environment is radically altered with extreme force.  Nowhere is this better demonstrated than in the game's bravura prologue, in which you take control of none other than Darth Vader himself.  Tasked with clearing out a Wookiee village, and armed with your lightsaber and a full complement of turbo-charged force powers, incredibly fun havoc ensue.  The entire level is an onslaught of  satisfying destruction, throwing massive boulders through treehouses or blasting down enormous barricades.  The opening highlights everything that is great about Force Unleashed, the impressive visuals, the visceral gameplay, the outstanding environments and the overall 'Star-Warsiness' of the experience combining to deliver a showcase of gaming at its very best.  Sadly, it's sort of downhill from there.

This is what we like to see

The first problem occurs when the game proper begins and you take control of the main protagonist, Darth Vader's secret apprentice Starkiller.  Running into the first room, you get ready to let slip your astonishing force powers, only to discover that most of them have gone.  It's not so much the Force unleashed as the force mildly contained, and l

leads to a huge overreliance on  throwing boxes around, making the game feel like a lightly more polished version of Psi-Ops.  You can also attack with your lightsaber, but again, you've got practically no combos at this point, so it descends into mindless button-mashing.  The idea of a 'look what's possible' teaser is good in concept, but translates to a letdown in reality.  The idea of stripping you of your powers is to implement an RPG style 'level up and choose your talents' progression, which again is interesting in theory but redundant in reality, since the game itself will only dole out new powers at certain points and some upgrades are noticeably more useful than others.

Combined with the lack of power is the creeping feel of uninspired level design.  Though immaculately detailed, level design tends towards the repetitive, often falling into the dreaded 'series of rooms and corridors'. The large number of level set in starships/space stations/industrial facilities doesn't help either. Furthermore, realising that your powers make you nearly unstoppable in small scale skirmishes, the developers have chosen to instead throw dozens of enemies at you at once in huge battle chambers, often reducing the situation to a 'kill everything to get out' model.  Though this is rarely difficult (in fact the game generally is slightly on the easy side) it can be hugely frustrating, particularly when later enemies either resist your powers or can keep you a long way away with uncannily accurate projectiles.  Combat is particularly wearisome during boss battles, where the camera inexplicably assumes a locked perspective that is rarely ideal.  Nowhere are the failures in design highlighted batter than the infamous sequence where Starkiller pulls a Star Destroyer out of the sky.  What should have been the game's defining moment instead becomes an exercise in frustration as you're constantly interrupted from the spectacle by irksome enemies.

For a junkyard, the world of Raxus Prime is astonishingly atmospheric

Despite all the griping however, there is a very fine game within.  Although the environments can often be uninspired, they are never less than beautiful.  The junk planet of Raxus Prime is a superb example of how to do an apocalyptic wasteland right, its mustard sky and rusted landscape an oddly beautiful setting.  And once you crank your force powers up a few notches, the game regains some of its blood and thunder and becomes massive fun to play.  Throwing screaming stormtroopers into an abyss or blasting rancors with force lightning is a pleasure every time, and the terrific feedback that the game world gives never gets old.  There's a few big surprises as well, the first being how replayable the game is.  Your powers and abilities carry over to a new game, so you can monster the early levels with maxed out force powers, and while the game is totally linear, the unpredictable nature of the battles mean that every new fight is fresh.  Hidden holocrons unlock goodies such as new costumes and lightsabers, giving an item hunt aspect to old levels.

The other big surprise is the story, which is deep, interesting and surprisingly relevant to the rest of the Star Wars universe.  It's fair to say that what happens in the game adds a significant dimension to the events of the original trilogy.  Bar the predictable and predictably rubbish love story, the narrative is strong and the voice acting excellent.  There's old faces aplenty (including one gleefully out of place cameo) and a few great new characters.  Special mention goes to PROXY, the Apprentice's loyal droid sidekick who has been programmed to try and kill him at every available opportunity.

In summary then, it's a missed opportunity, a flawed gem.  The game reminds me a lot of Assassin's Creed - technically superb, and with moments of genius, but ultimately held back from greatness by failure on some of the most basic levels.  There's no excusing some of the poor design in Force Unleashed, nor the frustration and repetition involved therein.  Equally, there's no denying how fun it is at it's very best.  The deep and through integration of the Star Wars universe earns it an extra point from me, but at the end of the day this is an entertaining toy rather than the new dawn we were hoping for.

[7]

'A little bit of magic' - The themes and mysteries of Braid

Braid has provoked more talk and discussion from the community than any title in a long time, partially over its fascinating and deliberately ambiguous themes. In this post I'm going to poke into them a little. Obviously spoilers are rampant after this point, ye be fairly warned.

SPOILERS

Although none of the themes of Braid are entirely clear, the most obvious one to me seems to be a commentary on the linear nature of time, and how humans do not necessarily perceive it as such. This is rooted in the game's basic mechanics of course, exemplified in its time manipulation gameplay, but is also highly prevalent in the surrounding text. Many passages talk of how time appears different to Tim than to others, and the text that opens the first level (world 2) in particular ruminates on how a less strictly linear progression would allow learning from mistakes without punishment. Directly attached to this is the idea that time progresses differently according to perspective, a theme which underpins the game's unique conclusion of course, but is also very clearly exemplified in World 6, where the ring which Tim carries is both a gameplay device but also an item of great emotional significance in the plot. Ultimately, the entire game hinges upon the concept of time and how it shapes our perception of those around us.
A second theme that I personally see within the game is an understanding that appearances are often deceiving. The 'princess' Tim is searching for may not actually even be a physical person, but rather an emotion or ideal, and in any case, she is actually actively fleeing from him. Remembering that the events of the final level take place chronologically before anything else in the game, so the Princess has already fled, and the entirety of your quest is futile, though you obviously don't know it until the end. Perhaps the most telling moment occurs at the end of world 6, which chronologically is the last moment in the game, where the dinosaur that emerges confesses that he has never even met the princess, before he asks the killer question 'Are you even sure she exists?'. The correct answer is of course 'No', since the princess has long vanished from the game. Her absence can be seen in the progression through the levels which become increasingly dark and damaged as you play through, possibly in direct correlation to the increasing distance of the princess. Of course, you'd be totally aware of this deception if you had seen the game's chronology correctly, which leads back to the idea that time is perceived differently depending on person and viewpoint.

As to the more specific details of the plot, I'm pretty much as clueless as anybody else. It's possible the entire idea of the narrative is as a Macguffin to carry the themes, a theory seemingly supported by comments made by creator Jonathan Blow. I'm not convinced, and I think that although the plot by no means has a traditional coherence there is more to it than a series of random statements. Based on the close, near obsessive nature of their relationship as described in the texts, plus the creepy nature of the final level (man waits outside womans bedroom, then chases her as she tries to stop him), I'm going to suggest a possible Tim-as-obsessed-stalker scenario. It explains his undying infatuation with her, as well as hinting at the 'mistake' that he made that he's striving so hard to eliminate. What if his mistake was merely meeting her? It also explains why he believes they had such a deep and meaningful relationship while she runs immediately at the sight of him, and the way that the game is a delusional 'quest' for someone who is already long gone. Theres plenty of holes, but it carries a certain logic and certainly adds a dark undertone.

The other common theory is that the entire narrative is actually an allegory for a real life event, namely the creation of the atom bomb. There's certainly plenty of evidence for this idea, most prominently the flaming city that opens the game and ultimately closes it (a set of twin towers is clearly visible from the attic, suggesting it's New York) as well as the direct quotes pulled from the epilogue. This idea recasts the role of the Princess not as a person but rather as an idea, a concept that seems within reach, but always keeps escaping at the last moment. I like the proposal, and it's certainly a bravura idea, but it also seems a little loose and takes no account of the text given outside of the epilogue.

Both of these ideas fail to take into account huge chunks of the game, and no explanation I've yet seen can do so. For example, what is the meaning of the four paintings built from the jigsaw pieces, which seemingly are totally disconnected from the plot in any sense (clearly the person in them is different every time, and is not Tim). The flags at the end of each world are apparently naval signals, what do they say and how do they fit into the levels? What, if any, is the significance of the dinosaurs? Nobody knows, and this is part of what makes Braid so fascinating. Like Lost, it's inscrutability provokes debate, and allows each player to create his own personal context and motivation for the game. Until Jonathan Blow reveals the purpose, if ever, Braid remains an mystery wrapped inside an enigma, and that only enhances it's lustre.

EDIT: Apparently, finding all the hidden stars in the game unlocks an alternate ending, which, suffice to say, seems to corroborate the 'bomb' theory. It certainly fills a major piece of the puzzle in.

Time and Mystery - Braid review

Braid is probably one of the hardest games to pin down in a long, long time. In short, it's a 2D-side scrolling platformer, except that it isn't. It's actually a fiendishly intricate puzzle game, a series of self-contained challenges. A puzzle game that is, however, themed around a fairy tale search for a princess, in the best traditions of an epic quest. But that seemingly simple story is in fact an allegory for the fleetingness of time, the contradictory nature of love and the creation of the atomic bomb. Then again, everything I've said may just have been total bollocks.

All of those statements are open to debate to a certain degree, and this is the fascinating and yet frustrating thing about Braid. It is maddeningly ambiguous, from it's play style to it's story and it's themes.

Let's start simple then. What is undeniable is that Braid is a very pretty game. It's drawn from a traditional 2D perspective, but uses a thickly daubed lineart style, with the backgrounds being washed out watercolours. Rendered in HD it's utterly gorgeous, and is complemented perfectly by the music, a selection of classical string quartet pieces.
Things only start to get difficult when you try and describe the gameplay. At it's root it's pure Mario, move from left to right and jump on things to kill them. The only major difference here is that you have a 'rewind' button, allowing you to turn back time Prince of Persia style. That's where the similarities end however. The first major difference here is that your rewind power is infinite and unlimited. Death therefore becomes simply a minor inconvenience. This in turn leads to the major point of the game. 'Completing' the levels is not difficult, but the point of playing is to collect the jigsaw puzzle pieces that lay scattered around the environments, and these often lie in seemingly inaccessible locations. the only way to obtain them is to use your time-bending powers to manipulate the environment to your advantage.
This then, is where the puzzle aspect lies. The game introduces several ideas that alter the game's timeflow, but the most basic is the idea that objects outlined in green are unaffected by your rewinding power. So in a very basic example, you can use a key to open a green outlined door, then rewind so that the key is in your hand again, but the door remains open. From this basic concept the game spins some of the most astonishing puzzles ever imagined, with concepts so insane you'll have to wring your brain out to solve them. These are often accompanied by changes in the world in which you're in, for example the world in which time stands still when you do, advances when you move right and rewinds when you move left. It's important not to understate the ferocity and brilliance of the puzzles, they really are amazing and had they been incorporated into any other game they would have been the standout feature. But not here.

Braid has been much compared to Portal, and the comparison is extremely valid, not only because they are both extremely clever puzzle games that used a dimension (space and time) in a new way, but because both offered more than that - namely a tangible narrative that connected players to the experience beyond the technical. Braid's is told through a series of textual excerpts at the beginning of levels. These are long, and use clever and elaborate language, often asking interesting questions and raising valid ideas, but they are also clunky and come off as rather pretentious. Much more effective is the gradual tonal shift throughout the levels, as they gradually become darker and more gothic, and the subtle hints given through the narrative that all may not be as it seems. These ideas only really pull together in the final hour, leading to one of the best final levels ever seen in games, and that is not an exaggeration. The elaborate dialogue is junked in favour of a chapter told entirely through the gameplay, with a shocking twist leading to an impossibly tragic conclusion. It's a mark of Braid's mastery that it not only manages this bravura slice of innovation but also manages to evoke more powerful emotions from a 2D platformer than from almost every 'cinematic' game ever made.
What follows this incredible ending is a beautifully baffling conclusion that fails to provide any sort of closure or any answers at all, ultimately leaving you (literally) right back where you started. In many ways this seems to be the point. The game deliberately makes it's point vague and non-specific, and it's unclear whether the story is genuine, partly imagined or entirely allegorical. It's a story which leads and captivates through intangibles such as mood, curiosity and emotion. And despite it's great technical and aesthetic achievements, that is perhaps what is the most amazing thing about this wholly remarkable game.

9/10

Welcome back to the stage of history - Soul Calibur IV review

Soul Calibur has always been my favourite series of fighting games for a number of reasons, namely the wonderfully unusual setting, and the gameplay, perfectly balanced between hardcore and more relaxed. By conservative estimate I poured more than a hundred hours into the original and also put in a fair share of time with the Gamecube version of Soul Calibur II, so the franchise and I have history.
First impressions of the title are good. It's graphically stunning, with the characters redesigned and remapped into amazing high-detail models. Backgrounds, clothing, weapons and animation are all top notch, and there's some genuinely clever level design, such as the circus level, set in a cage that can be gradually unfolded.
It's looking upon the character roster that doubts may initially set in. Soul Calibur III's character roster returns in full, when it arguably could have used some trimming. There's only two completely new characters, though they're both good. Pike and sword wielding fraulein Hilde brings an unique style to the table, while final boss Algol avoids the problem of badly balanced super-enemies (Jinpachi Mishima in Tekken 5 anyone?) and proves both powerful and fun to play.

Not broken, honest

The roster is bulked out by five characters designed by prominent anime artists, all of whom, are net designs, but use other characters movesets, so don't really count. Finally, there's the controversial inclusion of the Star Wars characters. Now look, I'm a huge Star Wars fan, and I haven't played the PS3 version, but Yoda and the Apprentice simply do not feel right here. Yoda is ridiculously difficult and ungainly to play, while the Apprentice is utterly broken and in the right hands (ie the AI's) can simply attack spam you to death.
Leaving that particular controversy behind, once in the ring the game plays beautifully as it always has. Minor tweaks have been made to improve the flow, and the brand new Critical Finish attack is both spectacular and useful, preventing turtling and encouraging a more open and attacking play style. Great for button-mashers but deep enough for dedicated players, the vast variety of styles mean the game is exciting to watch and to play.
One of the things I've always personally liked about Soul Calibur is that it has possibly the deepest and most interesting story and set of characters in the fighting genre. Many cast this aside as unnecessary, but I like anything that gives context within a game and thus was very fond of the elaborate story-cum-mission modes in the previous games which culminated in Soul Calibur III's hugely elaborate Tales of Souls mode. Unfortunately, these aspects have been slimmed down considerably, with Story mode being reduced to an extremely short series of battles and the new Tower of Lost Souls mode being nothing more than a glorified survival mode. There's little of the inventive objectives that made the originals' Mission mode so compelling, or the insight that Tales mode provided. In some sense, this is made up for by the generous online play, which works well. Lag is kept down, although obviously response time is nowhere near offline levels, and matchmaking is excellent, producing good battles.
There's one final ace up Soul Calibur IV's sleeve, and that's it's lavish character creation mode. You can either edit existing characters or create entirely new ones based on preassigned styles, and the breadth and depth of the customization options is huge. There's a ton of costume parts available from the outset, with more unlockable as you progress through the game, and everything from finely detailed armour to jester costumes are available, enabling your avatar to be as noble or ridiculous as desired. The character creation adds literally hours and hours to the game's lifespan, and it's flexibility is remarkable, as evidenced by some of the creations already out there.
Overall then, this is an evolutionary rather than revolutionary step for the series. Though it occasionally feels oddly under-featured, the core gameplay remains an untouchable strength, and the excellent presentation means that it's very enjoyable to play. Unlikely to hit the heights of perfection as the original so regularly did, it remains the best fighting game around.

7/10

Let There Be Rock

So I finally gave in to temptation and picked up Rock Band, the whole shebang. It's ludicrously overpriced, but fantastic fun. Having played it a lot round a good friend's house, I can safely say that it becomes more fun the more people you have. On your own it's basically an enhanced Guitar Hero but even then, that's hardly a bad thing. One thing I'm very impressed by is the DLC, with a huge variety of tracks, weekly updates and good integration into the main game. I won't post up a review because it's pretty much review-proof, but I'm enjoying it a great deal, and considering the announcement of full compatability with it's sequel, it may have been a wise investment.
One thing that I will certainly be reviewing is Soul Calibur IV. I own the original and played it to death, and have also sunk a fair old bit of time into Soul Calibur II, so I was extremely interested to pick this up. I'll be posting up opinions very soon, perhaps even later today.

A Trick up your Sleeve - Devil May Cry 4 review

Devil May Cry is a hugely divisive series in videogaming. Many love it for it's old school score-attack mechanics, intricately gothic design, deep and complicated fighting style and outrageous camp, and predictably, many hate it for those exact same reasons. It hasn't helped that the series has been so wildly inconsistent, with the excellent original followed up by an awful sequel and a third game that was so infamously hard it was re-released just to neuter the difficulty. So combined with the shift to new hardware, this fourth game marks something of a rebirth for the series, and oddly enough it does this by ditching one of it's most appealing aspects, it's cocksure antihero Dante, recasting him as the game's antagonist. In his place is a new protagonist named Nero, a younger, more serious and angry character. This shift is mirrored in the general tone of the game, which adopts a far more serious, epic and artistic style than the moody darkness of previous DMC's, with ancient temples and demonic towers replaced by snowbound castles and sun-dappled forests. The visual design is spectacular and when allied to a powerful graphics engine the result is a game which is often stunningly beautiful, both statically and in motion
Nero doesn't just revitalise the look and feel of the game, but it's whole style of play as well. Although his sword 'n' gun attacks are similar to Dante, his moveset is reduced in favour of a new toy, his possessed arm, known as the Devil Bringer. This allows long-range grabs and powerful close quarters throws, meaning combo chains can be kept going for longer and the guard of enemies can be more easily broken. Although it initially feels cheap, with time and the introduction of harder enemies the balance is just right, and combined with the new 'Exceed' system, which allows Nero to rev up his sword for extra damage, it can lead to spectacular chains of attacks in trained hands. By the mid-point of the game, controlling Nero feels instinctive and exciting, with the player effortlessly dishing out huge combos and epic juggles. Which is why it's such a shock when it's all suddenly taken away.
Without wishing to get too spoileriffic, it's fair to say Nero suddenly becomes incapacitated, which means Dante, who up until this point has appeared only as an enemy, suddenly takes over as the main playable character. The stylistic shift is not total, but it takes a good while to get used to. As in DMC3 Dante has four separate styles of fighting, Swordmaster, Gunslinger, Trickster and Royal Guard. Each accentuates a different aspect of combat, and each adds a different set of moves on top of Dante's basic skillset. The net result of this is that Dante has huge variety of moves available to him (and we're not even considering the alternate weapons yet), and combined with his obvious lack of Devil Bringer attacks, he's a much deeper and more difficult character to play as. For a while - quite a long while actually - this irritates as you're forced not just to relearn movesets but to retailor your entire fighting style. But gradually, another feeling emerges - the feeling that the training wheels have been taken off. There's a lot more variety available with Dante, as well as the ability to mix up your styles for more grandstanding kills. Further sweetening the pill is Dante's ludicrous selection of weapons. The undoubted show-stealer is Pandora, a cursed briefcase that transforms into a variety of other forms, such as rocket launchers and laser cannons, and ultimately into a giant floating missile platform that rains spectacular death on nearby enemies.

'Overkill' springs to mind

There remains a lot to criticise about the game, most obviously the terrible environment recycling (Dante's levels are just Nero's levels in reverse) and the archaic backtracking and forced puzzles. And while the bosses are hugely spectacular and great fun to fight, that doesn't quite justify their inclusion three times. The camera is often flawed and can't decide whether it wants to be fixed or player controlled, often copping out and offering a weak mix of the two. Yet despite these totally valid criticisms there's something inherently lovable about the the game. I mentioned near the beginning that this is a more serious, mature Devil May Cry, and that's true, but we are speaking in relative terms here, and you've still got cutscenes filmed by an anime fanboy and dialogue written by a pantomime director. Particularly once Dante enters, the game practically implants its tongue in its cheek, with several scenes in particular raising the bar for hammy dialogue (to those in the know, I'll simply say "I'm here to reclaim what is rightfully mine!").
Overall then, this is a big, brutal, lovable beast of a game. It doesn't claim to be be clever, in fact it often goes out of it's way to prove it isn't, but the core appeal still lies there. Only now, it's smart as well, it's difficulty curve perfectly pitched, it's story touching and interesting as well as funny and silly and it's core gameplay just as challenging and rewarding as it ever was. It isn't perfect, but you'll be having so much fun you won't care

8/10

E3 or not E3?

Okay, so again I lied about the regular blogging thing. Let's all just leave that behind us shall we, and concentrate on the important stuff, namely, the recent showings at E3. Or rather the lack of them. As an outsider looking in on what's now an industry focused event, I have to say that it was the safest, most predictable and most boring for many years, only just bettering last year's snooze-fest. New game announcements were few and far between, and there were few truly shattering revelations about currently existing titles. As for how the Big Three did...

Nintendo

Promised repeatedly that there would be massive announcements but honestly showed very little of substance. Biggest announcement was the Wii Motion Plus peripheral, which looks interesting but runs the risk of splitting the userbase badly. Will still probably sell gazillions. Animal Crossing Wii was seen on the horizon months ago, and it's actually quite dispiriting how little it seems to add both graphically and gameplay wise. Wii Speak shouldn't even really be an announcement, given the robust online chat of XBL and PSN. Which leaves the hugely controversial Wii Music as the only real point of interest. The demonstration was foolish and embarrassing, and early reports have indicated a game without much depth, more a toy or gimmick, but that worked well for Wii Sports and the idea remains intriguing, so this one gets a stay of execution from me. However, this was by far and away the worst showing. Nintendo seemed to forget that at E3 it's preaching to the hardest of the hardcore, namely gaming journos, and instead delivered an immensely smug lecture-cum-lifestyle course which came off as amateurish and childish. Miyamoto gets away with prancing about on stage, but take note execs, he's the only one for whom it's acceptable. D-

Sony

In typical Sony fashion, promised great things but delivered not much. Clearly seeing this as an opportunity to consolidate rather than forge ahead, most of the focus was on already announced blockbusters like Resistance 2, Killzone 2 etc. There was lots of talk of figures and lifecycles, but the main pillars of the presentation were once again LittleBigPlanet and Home. LittleBigPlanet was charmingly and cleverly used to demonstrate some facts and figures in the form of levels built into graphs, and the abundant possibilities and firm release date of October mean that the possibilities are still bubbling under nicely on this one. Home on the other hand is getting old alarmingly fast, and Sony's inability to release what's essentially a glorified Second Life is concerning, especially considering it isn't really a game in and of itself. Sony are leaning rather heavily on it, and that's not a good move in my opinion. In Sony's defence, a strong lineup of PSN titles was also shown, including new announcements Ratchet and Clank:Quest For Booty and Fat Princess alongside highlights of standouts such as Pixeljunk Eden and Flower, both of which demonstrate the kind of clever alternative software that could never end up on XBLA. The announcement of the video store was also a vital bit of news, and should only enhance the PS3's reputation as an excellent media box. Speaking of boxes, the new hardware SKU was thoroughly unremarkable and also raises fears that the final of the back-compat units is going to die.
Games demoed were rather short on the ground, with Sucker Punch stealing all the credit for an excellent showing of inFamous. DC Universe Online was shown to interest, but the lack of game footage meant that the buzz was only moderate. Arguably the show stealer, even though it was inevitable, was the official announcement of God Of War III, complete with ultra-corny trailer, which pleased all and sundry. And finally, the unveiling of MAG was an interesting move towards a genre that's lain dormant for a while now, but the spectre of PlanetSide still hangs heavy over all massive online shooters. We'll have to see more of this one before judgment is passed. Overall, a solid performance from Sony, but no surprises, few real points of interest, and a creeping sense of deja vu means they'll have to try harder next time. C+

Microsoft

Made by far the biggest splash this year, but it was a highly schizophrenic press conference. Had games in spades, with demos of 360 exclusives Gears of War 2 and Fable 2 and exclusive demos of Resident Evil 5 and Fallout 3. All demoed well and added much needed buzz, and the announcement of exclusive DLC for Fallout 3 shouldn't be underestimated. Gears 2 especially looked far far better than it's initial showing and with both it and Fable 2 locked for winter releases Microsoft is ensuring it has a solid Christmas lineup. Rock Band 2 also appeared, and it's time limited exclusivity is a big coup for Microsoft. All went a bit wrong when they veered into casual territory. To be fair, the dashboard update would have caused a much bigger stir if it hadn't been leaked months ago, and the NetFlix announcement is great for US customers, but overall it felt staged and very much a combined rip-off of Nintendo and Sony. Lips too seemed overhyped, being what looked like a perfectly good Singstar clone, but hardly a massive genre-redefining title as it seemed to be bigged up as. Of course, Microsoft still had their massive bitch-slap to Sony to end on, and it think it's fair to say the Final Fantasy XIII announcement was the most sensational turnaround in many a year. The actual effect on the game has yet to be seen, but as a crucial one-up over Sony and a demonstration on the Xbox's position in world gaming it could hardly have been a stronger statement. It was a solid and interesting showing by Microsoft, and though they didn't show just exclusives, the stuff on show made it the best bet of the three B+


Mirroring the Big Three, very little happened outside as well, with most publishers opting to show off what had already been seen or announced. Probably the biggest news was not even given in a press conference, with John Riccitello confirming that Knights of the Old Republic III was in development, by BioWare, and was an MMO. I'm not going to go over all the other announcements made, but suffice to say E3 was a slightly damp squib this year. My personal theory is that developers are keeping their powder dry for the autumn events, namely Leipzig for the western publishers, while the Japanese always have bombshells to drop in Tokyo. We'll have to wait and see how that pans out.

Endless Brawl

OK, so I lied when I said I'd be posting regularly again, but in my defence I do have an excellent reason, namely that my Freeloader finally arrived in the mail a few days ago, and ever since then I've been solidly stuck into Super Smash Bros. Brawl. What I've found has been interesting to say the least. I'm not going to write a proper review because I doubt I'd be able to be fully objective about the game, but it's certainly compelling. My main attraction to it is twofold, firstly the pure fun of the random four-way brawls, which are as silly as they've ever been, but secondly the pure nerdiness of the entire experience, which basically boils down to a smorgasbord of Nintendo related cameos, trivia and collectables.. For those unfamiliar with the company, I've no doubt it's baffling and bewildering, but for those of us who eat, sleep and breathe videogames, it's thrilling to see KK Slider playing in the background of the stage, or watch the Great Fox fly through the sky. introduced the idea of trophies as a reward for constant play, and Brawl takes the idea further, introducing not just more trophies, but stickers, soundtracks and classic demos to be collected while playing. It simply adds to the game's addictiveness, boiling down into an obsessive item hunt. In fact, my only real complaint with the game is the showcase singleplayer mode The Subspace Emissary. What was promised was an epic side scrolling adventure with a plot that tied together all the various franchise mashups into a cohesive whole. What we got was a run of the mill side scrolling beat 'em up with a load of (admittedly very cool) FMV cutscenes and a shameful amount of recycling. It's not really an exaggeration to say t6hat the last third of the game is material recycled wholesale from the earlier two thirds, and what started out as a fun, if lightweight jaunt through the cast rapidly becomes a brain deadening series of fights tapering off to a tepid finale. I completed it and can honestly say without a shadow of a doubt I will never touch it again. It's good for unlocking all the characters and laughing at the hammy cutscenes, but apart from that it's deadweight. Just as well that the rest of the game is so much fun. I'll hopefully be starting the 'Top Ten' blogs soon, provided I can tear myself away.

Grand Theft Nothing

Apologies for the length of time in between blog posts, unfortunately some other stuff has prevented me from getting writing. One of those things definitely hasn't been Grand Theft Auto IV, since I have neither a PS3 nor an Xbox 360. As a result it's been quite interesting to sit in and look from the outside as the twin trains of hype and controversy collided in a spectacular explosion of sales figures. I hope Rockstar issues a confirm or deny on the possibility of a PC port soon, otherwise I'll probably pick it up. Apart from that, I've been going through a bit of a drought recently, precipitated by both a lack of money and an absence of quality new releases. So I've mostly been replaying games, mostly Call Of Duty 4, Resident Evil 4 and Mario Kart Wii. The PC schedule is pretty quiet until Mass Effect drops at the beginning of June, and because my Freeloader is still missing in the post there still no Smash Bros.
Anyway, what I wanted to explain in this post is what will be going on over the next ten posts. Basically, it's going to be a rundown of my own personal top ten, each accompanied by a little mini-review/retrospective. Bear in mind these are my personal favourites, not necessarily the 'best' or most technically accomplished titles I've played. The first should be up later tonight.

Nothing is True - Review: Assassin's Creed Director's Cut

It's been a long time since I've anticipated a game so much, and equally long since I've been so baffled about my reaction to one. It's a testimony to Assassin's Creed that it can elicit such a complex response, as for better or worse, this is one of the most interesting and elusive games I've played in quite a while. The premise is reasonably simple - you are a medieval assassin, tasked with killing 9 important historical figures across three open world cities - but buried beneath are layers which are often bafflingly complex.
Good stuff first then - the game is gobsmackingly gorgeous, with some of the finest lighting and texturing work ever seen. Similarly, lead character Altair is also a triumph, this time of animation, his every leap, bound and movement choreographed to a tee, so for the first time a character in a video game moves like somebody who is truly alive.
Assassin's Creed also offers a fairly unique setting in gaming terms, namely that of the holy land circa the era of the third crusade. Emanating from this are the game's three main cities of Jerusalem, Damascus and Acre. These cities are arguably the game's greatest achievement, vast, highly detailed, and teeming with people. The cities truly feel alive, and walking their streets and prowling their rooftops it's easy to become immersed in their culture and communities.
That aforementioned walking and prowling is easy due to a clever set of controls that allow for great flexibility in your movement and fighting. Basically, Altair can be triggered between low profile, in which his movements are subtle and restrained, and high profile, where he becomes an acrobatic killing machine. In high profile mode he skips effortlessly across beams and scrambles up walls, while in low profile he stalks the streets silently, blending into the crowd.
It's perhaps mission structure where the game shows the first signs of stumbling. The 'investigations' you undertake to scout out your target are interesting to begin with, but they remain exactly the same throughout all nine killings. The assassination attempts themselves are refreshingly open, but too often degenerate into mass brawls where you can kill the target almost by accident. And the game suffers badly towards the end, as it descends into a series of uninspired melee battles and abandons it's open world ethos. The ending in particular feels rushed and ends on the worst cliffhanger since Halo 2, basically as if somebody had arbritarily cut the game midway through. It leaves the player utterly baffled and cheated.
Despite this, my love for the game burns undiminished. It's not the more conventional videogame aspects such as the missions which make the game great, more the sense of immersion into an entirely different world. Similarly to GTA, the greatest moments in this game are those of your own making, be it a frantic chase through the markets of Damascus, crowds scattering everywhere, or a lonely climb to the cathedral spire in Acre, giving breathtaking views over the entire city. In short, the game may not suceed on every level of traditional videogame standards, but as an experience it is unique and a triumph.

8/10

Here We Go!

Apologies for the length of time since the last post, I've been rather caught up in various other things. What i wanted to talk about in this post is two big releases that I've been waiting a while for, both of which landed this past Friday.
The first of these is Mario Kart Wii. While I was never a big fan of my contemporary childhood version, Mario Kart 64, I loved the DS version and subsequently revisited the classic SNES original. I've been stoked for the Wii version since it was announced, but I became worried by the lack of news flowing from Nintendo HQ. The game seemed to go under the radar for a long time and even when screenshots started appearing the whole PR seemed remarkably low key. No major announcements have been made since the original, and the game easily made ship date of Q2.
I shouldn't really have worried, as the final product is more than up to the series' usual high standards. I had the great advantage to be staying round a friends when this was unleashed, and together with another mate we basically played the game until the small hours. There's not too much to say that hasn't been said about all previous Mario Karts, save that I love the motion sensitive steering, and thus the plastic wheel packaged in is not a complete waste of time after all. Still probably the worlds greatest party game.

The other release this week I've been anticipating for a long long time. It's the PC port of Assassin's Creed, about 6 months late and with a huge fallout from the console release to deal with. It's only fair to point out first that this game ticks nearly everything on my gaming dreamlist: developed by the Prince Of Persia team at Ubisoft Montreal and marrying that game's flowing acrobatics to huge free roaming environments, sprinkled with intelligent crowds and cold-blooded contract killings, I was sold on this game the moment I heard of it, and the mixed reaction from the console versions did little to temper that.
I'll offer more fully detailed impressions once I've completed the game, but I must say that my first impressions are overwhelmingly positive. The only downside is that this game will kick your system, and kick it hard, and as a result, although I'm running in high resolutions, it doesn't look quite as stunning as the console versions. There will definitely be more words written on this one soon.

The End Begins

Enjoying God Of War as much as I did, it was only natural that I'd pop out soon and pick up the sequel. All I have to say about it is that it's generally more of the same, but astonishingly even more epic and over the top. Boasting possibly the best opening in gaming history, as a god powered Kratos fights the Colossus of Rhodes on a destruction packed rampage through the city, the entire game is a series of bombastic battles and set pieces. It's the first game in ages that I've marathoned through a game in a single day, and the fact that I'm replaying it straight away is a testament to it's quality.

I've also regrettably had to give up on Gears of War, not because of any issues with the quality of the game, but because I've now had all my savegames deleted twice.
Graphically and gameplay wise the game is an excellent port, so it seems odd that it's afflicted by so many bugs, and that something like this hasn't been addressed, as a brief sweep of the internet reveals I'm certainly not the only one to be afflicted. Regardless, it goes into cold storage for a while until I feel motivated enough to pick it up again.

"That exit called paradise"

The big release this past weekend in Europe was No More Heroes, which I picked up on launch day. This in itself is kind of telling, as this isn't normally the kind of game that really gets me excited, which says something about the continuing software drought on Wii. Nevertheless, I'm glad I did, but it comes with some serious caveats.

Essentially, this is a game of two halves. There's no doubt that the game is very seriously broken in some aspects, most notably technically. The textures are poor, framerate drops frequent and the camera is obnoxious. The most talked about aspect of the game in reviews has been the 'job' system, which tasks you with completing boring, menial jobs in order to earn cash to participate in the more exciting battle segments. While I can appreciate that this is done for dramatic effect, and it certainly lends strength to the themes of the game, there's no denying that it's really quite boring, and that's a major problem. I love story and atmosphere in games, but that should never be generated at the expense of gameplay, and that's exactly what No More Heroes does, it mortgages satisfying interaction in order to make a point, a tradeoff I for one definitely don't feel is worth it.

But, in time honoured review fashion, we'll move onto more positive aspects. Though the graphics are basic, Grasshopper Manufacture's trademark cell shaded style renders certain areas, especially characters, terrifically. And speaking of characters, they're the games ace in the whole, from your in game persona, nerdy loser Travis Touchdown, to the various bosses who bar your way. They're a wonderful collection of freaks and monsters, some bloodthirsty, some polite, others just flat out insane, and the wonderful faceoffs, full of great cinematography and loaded dialogue are definitely the game's highpoint. Combat fits in well too, being satisfyingly over the top, and with excellent Wii remote integration. I actually prefer the 'censored' Euro/Japan release, where the enemies dissolve into black pixels (very reminiscent of the effect from Twilight Princess actually) to the full fat US version, where everbody explodes like a broken ketchup bottle, though the Euro versions lack of dismemberments does lead to some very odd discrepancies with the cutscenes.

What I found most surprising about the game is how much of a hardcore gamer's game it is.
It lacks all of the elements that have been introduced over the years to make the experience easier. You have to repeat tasks, slog through corridors and put up with absurd technical and gameplay limitations. But this is compensated for by the numerous in-jokes and references, like the 8-bit graphics, old school sound effects and the brilliant plot, which becomes increasingly irrelevant and ludicrous as the game continues, and frequently contradicts itself. How many other games offer a menu with 'View Ending' or 'View True Ending' as options?

Ultimately then, it's flawed but fascinating. The game is infuriating, and at times downright tedious, but it appeals to the heart and soul of gamers in a way few titles can or indeed want to these days. And for all the niggling problems, that makes No More Heroes a gem.

Here comes Justice

So I'm a big Ace Attorney fan. And I mean really really big. And that's the reason why I had Apollo Justice:Ace Attorney imported from the States before Euro release. Having devoured it in two days straight, I've got some interesting things to say about this supposed reboot of the franchise. Namely that it isn't even a reboot at all. OK, so it's got shiny upgraded sprites, new 3D sequences and some DS specific features, but crucially these are taken far less advantage of than you might think. In fact, it seems as though the level of interactivity has actually taken a step back from Capcom's last effort at a DS Ace Attorney, namely the truly outstanding extra case that was included with the English language version of the original game. Intriguing and original concepts do pop up, most noticeably a very neat X-Ray machine minigame, but these are absurdly underused.

The other main problem with the game is the characterization, unusual as creating memorable characters has always been a forte of the previous games. And to a certain extent, that's the problem here. Previous games introduced us to such a compelling cast of individuals that shrugging them off here is a big issue. Apollo himself and his assistant Trucy are straight cyphers of Phoenix and Maya, and the rest of the cast simply doesn't click so well. Major culprit in this case is the new prosecutor, Klavier Gavin. He's a perfectly good and interesting character, but he lacks the nasty, spiteful edge that previous prosecutors brought to the courtroom, and as a result, you never really feel any enmity towards him.

Having Phoenix Wright himself around doesn't really help break the mould either. He appears in every case in some capacity, and the overarching story arc also focuses on his fall from grace. In fact (SPOILER ALERT!) by the last case, the game drops all pretence and actually morphs back into a Phoenix Wright game (brilliantly the scenes set in flashback are downscaled to use old-school sprites), via some truly bizarre moments where the fourth wall is totally broken.(END SPOILERS)


So that's quite a lot of words ranting off against a series I profess to love. So here's the real kicker.

The game is brilliant

Despite everything I've said above, it retains all of the series's fantastic trademarks, namely terrific scripting (very well localized indeed), a genuine sense of tension and drama in the courtroom and some of the finest, most gripping stories ever told in games. It's one of the few games you can laugh out loud at one minute and then be deadly serious about the next.
So my final thoughts? The game is a missed opportunity for sure. But it still plays to the strengths of the series, and remains a brilliantly written and executed slice of adventure gaming. And that's good enough for me.

Dog of War or Cog of War?

It so happens that for the past week I've mostly been playing two games that end with 'of War'. Firstly, there's God of War, a title that's been languishing on my pile of shame for quite some time now. I actually picked it up about a year ago and got about halfway through the game, but then other shiny things distracted me. This time however, I ploughed all the way through in half a dozen sittings. It's a spectacularly visceral game, in more ways than just visually, although nobody could be disappointed with the amount of dismemberments, decapitations and all round bloodletting involved. The controls are tight and responsive, with excellent use of pad rumble and the combo system walks the line between simple and complex very well, allowing even cack-handed idiots like myself to chain in spectacular sequences extending into the hundreds of hits.
It's not all about the combat though, as the level design extends to some truly brilliant puzzles, especially the fiendish Rings of Pandora, where almost a third of the game is one huge puzzle. There are some decent platforming sections as well, although there's one particular platform bit near the end, involving rotating towers of blades, which deserves to be buried and never brought to light. This aside however, the game is truly a masterpiece of polish, with some of the most epic scenes imaginable. Glorious graphics, and a complex meandering storyline, making outstanding use of its inspired ancient Greek setting, provide some truly special moments, like seeing the Titan Chronos emerge out of the desert with a mountain strapped to his back, or reading the ramblings of the temple's architect as he slowly loses everything, including his sanity, to accomplish his work. One infamously immature moment aside, the game is also a great lesson in how to make a violent and explicit game which nevertheless uses these factors to it's advantage. In short, it's a masterpiece, and the second installment is high on my must buy list.

The second game I've been playing is the beer drinking fratboy's favourite, Gears Of War, and that opening sentence sums up my attitude to the game, more of which later. I'm late on the bandwagon for this one as well, but for good reason, namely that I physically cannot play shooters on consoles, so I've waited for a PC release. First impressions are good. The game runs well, and with a high resolution and plenty of processing, looks absolutely stunning.

This tends to happen a lot

It plays well too, the cover and popout controls adapting well to a keyboard. I'm only on the second chapter of the game at the moment, so I'll reserve judgment until the end as always, but at the moment, the firefights, weapons, terrain and level design are all top notch, while the story is rubbish, the atmosphere lacking and the chracterisation risible. And having said that I'm finding it terrific no brain fun. An open verdict on this one then, and I'll get back to you when it's done and dusted.

Multi-Tasking

I know I mentioned in the last post that I was going to take a step back from gaming for a bit, but what the heck. With a dearth of new releases at the moment, I've taken an opportunity to look back and sample some missed treasures on the creaky old PS2. Foremost among these is something which, to my great shame, I've never picked up, that being ICO. I've played and been entranced by its 'spiritual sequel' Shadow of the Colossus. But I've never played the original game which so many became attached to, so I went to the trouble of sourcing a brand new copy. First impressions are interesting. I'll hold off on any sort of review until I've completed it, but let me just say that it's not short on atmosphere.
I don't need any time at all to make up my mind about Burnout 3:Takedown which is some of the most wacked out fun I've had in a long time. This is pretty amazing considering driving games are among my most hated of genres, but Burnout isn't really a driving game. I think of it more as Smash Bros. at 150mph. Racing is a lot more fun when you have to smash your opponent off the road while avoiding him trying to do the same.
Tomb Raider:Anniversary is the third of the titles I picked up. Again, I'm not going to talk too much about it until I'm finished, but the most astonishing thing is how amazing the level design is considering it's largely based on a ten year old game built on previous generation technology. It's rather refreshing to revisit a more non-linear acrobatic adventure after the (still excellent) Legend.
Finally, there's God Hand, something of an ace in the pack. The last game from Capcom's tragically short lived Clover Studios, who produced one of my favourite games ever, Okami. it was largely on the strength of their reputation that I picked up the game, and it fits the stereotype entirely, being funny, interesting and totally off the wall. Graphics are rudimentary, stage design basic and difficulty infuriating. Balanced against this is a terrific fighting system that often leaps into cartoon style zaniness while retaining a fine balance. I'm going to keep plugging away at it, but I can foresee controller-smashing levels ahead.
I tend to focus on one game quite a lot, so trying to keep four on the boil at the same time is a new experience for me. Nevertheless, although Burnout has taken the lions share of my time, all four are proving very entertaining. Still, I'm pretty stoked for a few new upcoming releases, such as No More Heroes and Apollo Justice:Ace Attorney. Better speed up then.

Music Riding

So first thing first, I finished Resident Evil 4 and it's generous extra content. I'm truly impressed by it, and I'd even go as far to call it a masterpiece to be honest. The gunplay is great, the bosses astoundingly over the top and I even quite enjoy the storyline ( while acknowledging it's served on huge slices of cheese). The most interesting thing about the game in my mind is that it successfully marries the gloom and darkness of a traditional horror game with quintessentially videogame touches. Why does Ada Wong wear an evening gown to infiltrate a militaristic religious cult? How does the Merchant carry around twice his own body weight in weapons and still get everywhere first? The knowing winks in the direction of the audience and the stylisation of the whole thing successfully walk the knife-edge between believability (relatively speaking of course, this being a game where people sprout tentacles from their necks) and lunacy. Perhaps my only criticism of the game comes towards the end as it abandons the more earlier more atmospheric confines and resorts to more typical Resident Evil locations (underground labs, military complexes etc), which is coupled with the climatic rise in action to occasionally make you feel like you're playing a militaristic third-person shooter more than a tense horror game. That said, high quality is maintained and there's a great ending to wrap it up. So it's a fantastic game, and probably makes it onto my personal top ten.

In the wake of such a gripping adventure, I've taken a step back from 'core' games for a while to focus on some more relaxing pursuits. Chief among these has been Audiosurf, a fantastic little bit of fun that was a finalist in the Independent Games Foundation awards earlier this year. essentially the game is a score attack that involves flying a ship along a track hoovering up coloured blocks, very similar to Harmonix's twin titles FreQuency and Amplitude. The clever bit is in the coding, which will take any of your own music and transform it into a playable track ingame. Combined with trippy wireframe visuals ala Rez, this makes it, depending on the music, and deeply relaxing pursuit or a frenzied score attack, and global leaderboards allow you to compare your performance against others. The game is on Steam now, and priced at just $10 US, it's a bit of a steal. Play it, and I recommend 'Bittersweet Symphony' by The Verve. I'm not normally into indie games as I prefer my games to have a great deal of depth and polish, but this one is a gem, and I can see myself playing it a lot in the upcoming weeks

Third time's the charm

So, this being a first post and all, and considering the name of the blog, you can probably guess what I'm going to talk about. That's right, Resident Evil 4.
I've tried to play Resi 4 on two previous occasion, both on PS2, and both time I've given up a short way into the game. It's not that I didn't acknowledge it's masterful quality, it was just that something about the game rendered it awkward to me. But since it was rated so highly, I picked it up again on Wii hoping to make some headway with it, and surprisingly I've found myself totally drawn into the game. I think a big part of this is the improved aiming on the Wii, with the Wii remote much faster and easier to point than the analogue control on GC and PS2. Some argue that this removes much of the difficulty and tension, but the rest of the controls are still as archaic as ever, and the game is still a masterpiece of atmosphere and scares. I'm very much against the overwhelmingly brown and grey 'realistic' look of games these days (Gears Of War, I'm glaring at you) but the drab colour palette gives fantastic mood to Resi 4, particularly in the earlier village scenes.

I'm pretty much near the end of the game now, so I should polish it off in the next day or two. I'll give further impressions once it's over and done with.