We got next - Street Fighter IV review

Street Fighter IV has a lot to live up to. It's the first 'numbered' game in the legendary franchise since 1999's Street Fighter III: Third Strike, a game that was widely considered to be the ultimate 2D fighter, one of the most beautifully balanced and technically proficient fighting games ever made. It was also widely considered to require expertise beyond the ken of mere mortals, and although this could produce some truly memorable moments, its complicated parry defense and super arts combo system made it a game to be intently studied rather than picked up and played. In this, Capcom failed to reproduce the mentality behind the legendary Street Fighter II, which appealed to all ages, skills and gamers. Has Street Fighter IV managed to recapture that elusive audience?

The first thing that strikes you about Street Fighter IV is the visual style. Although there have been 3D Street Fighters before, in the shape of the black-sheep EX series, you've never seen one quite like this. The game has embraced cartoon influences and rendered its characters as big chunky caricatures, ripped straight out of an action figure design manual. It's a very effective move, the style instantly suiting and bringing a new dimension to familiar designs, with it particularly benefiting the more outlandish and comic characters. The thick lined design is accompanied by a distinctive trademark in the form of splashes and splatters of black ink that fleck the screen upon powerful attacks or impacts, an effective stylistic touch and a throwback to the game's original calligraphic trailer. The background stages are slightly more realistic, but are without fail strongly detailed and highly animated, with little touches like children cheering on a battle or tourists taking pictures breathing life into every vignette. The upshot of all of this is that Street Fighter IV is an amazing looking game, with a style and flair all of it's own.

The game can be stunningly pretty

However, good looks count for nothing in a fighting game if you don't have decent mechanics (take a bow Rise of the Robots). Despite the full 3D graphics, all the combat in Street Fighter IV take place on a strictly 2D plane. Combat is largely built on the bones of the classic Super Street Fighter II Turbo model, with parrying and multi part super combos eschewed in favour of standard blocking and a single super per character. The game remains finely balanced, and it's a lot harder to win by mashing buttons than many other fighters. Exquisite control has always been a SF mainstay, and the precision and feeling of contact have been well replicated here.

A welcome addition however is the inclusion of the EX special moves first seen in Street Fighter III: Second Impact. This divides the super gauge into four separate segments. Once a segment is full, a player can use it to enhance a special move by pressing two buttons instead of one. These EX moves are the same as the originals but more powerful, often adding an additional hit or an unblockable state. This creates a nice risk/reward conflict - do you EX your moves to boost their power or save your meter in hopes of unleashing a super combo once full?

The first major tweak Street Fighter IV makes to this system is the inclusion of the Focus attack. Designed to replace the parry system from Street Fighter III, this is a much simpler concept that merely involves holding medium punch and medium kick. This puts you in a charged state in which you can absorb one attack. Releasing the buttons triggers a unique attack. Holding the buttons long enough will result in the attack auto triggering, but as an unblockable version. Both attacks will leave the opponent to crumple to the floor, but if you're fast enough, the split second they are stunned is long enough to launch a new combo.

The focus attacks are where the signature 'ink splash' style is most obvious

Though the focus attack sounds simple in principle, it's a minor stroke of design genius, a simple and elegant way to counter move spamming and turn the tide on an opponent. It's far from invulnerable - certain moves can break it and it will only absorb the first hit of any multi-hit combos - but it's an invaluable skill to lean. Newbies will appreciate the protection it offers, while high level players are already discovering further ways it can be useful (for cancelling out of extended combo strings for example).

The other big innovation Street Fighter IV offers is the Revenge gauge. Unlike the Super gauge, which fills when you land attacks, the Revenge gauge fills only when you are damaged. After you've taken a certain amount of damage, the gauge enters 'Ultra' mode. At this point, the grandstanding Ultra combos become available. By far the most spectacular moves in Street Fighter IV, these combos are hugely damaging, often outlandish and are accompanied by fantastic swoops and pans of the camera. Despite the eye candy on show they're also another important part of the tactical game, allowing comebacks from nearly impossible situations. In another neat move, the revenge gauge will continue to fill even after the trigger point has been reached, and the fuller the gauge the more damaging the combo becomes. The upshot of this is that it's rare to see a match that doesn't have one of these mighty combos unleashed at some point, and improbable turnarounds suddenly become much more likely. They're not impossible to avoid or even to block, so there's still skill required to implement one successfully, and they offer tremendously satisfying payoffs.

Ultra finishers are hugely spectacular.

A good solid roster is the other essential for any fighting game, and Street Fighter IV has a strong lineup. All 12 of the original World Warriors from Street Fighter II return, and are joined by four brand new characters, grappler Abel, tubby karate expert Rufus, businesswoman Crimson Viper and Lucha Libre wrestle El Fuerte. The new characters fit in well for the most part, and the console versions are graced by the presence of six additional characters - Cammy and Fei-Long from Super Street Fighter II ,and Gen, Sakura, Rose, and the evergreen Dan Hibiki from the Street Fighter Alpha series. Also present and eventually playable are Seth, the game's new boss, the long time hidden boss character Akuma and a first ever appearance for Ryu and Ken's master Gouken (aka Sheng Long) to give a total roster of 25. For the most part the characters are highly varied and offer plenty of different moves and techniques, although it's possible that there are a few too many Shotokan (Ryu-style) fighters. Nevertheless it's a good solid lineup and every player should find a fighter they are fond of.

Despite the addition of Rufus, Dan retains his crown as king of joke 

characters

Most of the standard fighting game modes are offered, with the main attraction being arcade mode, the usual series of fights followed by an encounter with Seth, the game's big bad. This however is one of the game's most serious weak points. While offering a wide range of difficulties to sit all sorts of players, the fact remains that Seth is hideously overpowered and even on the easiest difficulty defeating him is often a hugely frustrating task. Bad boss design has plagued fighting games for years (Tekken 5's Jinpachi is a notable recent example) but Seth is the worst of the lot, and sucks a great deal of enjoyment out of the arcade mode.

You'll say nasty words about him

Elsewhere the game chooses to mix up the traditional Survival and Time attack modes, instead setting a ladder of challenges with certain conditions, such as enhanced defence or no ultra combos. These come in medium and hard varieties, with the hard versions having online leaderboard support. There's also a trial mode designed to teach you the various moves and combos of each character, which is appreciated but a little bare-bones. A more dedicated tutorial wouldn't have gone amiss. Despite all the tick boxes having been filled, I still would have liked to see some additional features. There's no support for saving or replaying matches for example, and I personally think a persistent mission based mode, like Soul Calibur's could have greatly increased longevity. There is a neat hook included in the form of the title and emblem system however. Titles are exactly as they sound, and emblems are small icons that accompany them. These are earned through various feats, which you aren't told about, and obviously the rarer and cooler titles are gained through more difficult feats. You can then set one title and one icon on your profile to intimidate, or trick, any opponents you might fight. Title hunting quickly becomes addictive, and there are literally hundreds of titles and icons available, meaning you'll likely be unlocking them for some time.

Facial animation is a particular highlight

Finally, there's online play. I'm playing Xbox 360 code, so the connection here is made through Xbox Live. There's support for both ranked and 'Player' or casual matches, though combat is strictly one on one, which seems a shame given the durable lobby system from Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix allowed four players to rotate with spectators, giving a more arcade feel to the whole match. Matchmaking also seems a touch broken at this point, with most of the games I'm attempting to enter flagging as already full by the point I hit the button. Once you're in a match however, performance is very impressive, with barely any lag, and a performance similar to the offline mode. There's a persistent ranking system for ranked battles going on using 'Battle points' which determine your rank and you accumulate when victorious. Defeating opponents with a high BP total nets you more BP yourself, and vice versa with opponents ranked lower. Leaderboards are of course available, and your title and emblem are also taken online with you. In addition there's a system of medals that are only available in online fights, chronicling particularly great or desperate feats.

You don't mess with Akuma

Overall then, it's difficult to paint Street Fighter IV as anything other than a triumph. It's not perfect, and hopefully certain issues (like replay functionality) will be addressed by upcoming patches, but at its core the game is supremely solid and a hefty amount of fun. Built on solid foundations, and dressed in the wonderful day-glo cartoony graphics, this is the most complete fighting game in years, largely because, like its legendary forebear, the appeal is instant and universal, blending casual and expert in the best way possible. It perfectly fulfills the maxim of 'easy to learn, impossible to master', and for that reason, it looks like this new challenger is here to stay.

[9]

Catch the Wind - Flower review

Flower is an incredibly unique experience, something that could only exist in the downloadable space. It's received a lot of press in the run up to it's launch, a lot of it due to the debate over whether it is so-called 'interactive art' and whether, in fact, it is a game at all.

The first thing to clear up is that second point.  This is most definitely a game, though a rather relaxed and sedate one.  The actual progression through the game is a simple case of item collection, in this case of the titular flower, but it's in the implementation that Flower excels.  Sixaxis motion control has been very much an afterthought for the majority of games that use it, but in Flower it is implemented near perfectly.  Any button on the controller causes the wind to blow, and tilting the controller changes the pitch and direction of your collection of flower petals. Gusting over other flowers causes them to open and add petals to your collection.  And that's it. But the result is a gloriously free feeling of flight, great tactile wind physics combining with the excellent sixaxis mapping to help create the illusion of soaring and swooping across verdant meadows.  It doesn't hurt that the game is alarmingly beautiful, green grass and lush vegetation creating a wonderful atmosphere.

If it ended there, Flower would merely be a fine 'gimmick' game, a neat exercise in motion control.  But it's elevated beyond that by the narrative progression. Though the game has no real story, each there is definitely a trend that runs through the game, moving from the dappled meadows of the opening level to darker and sadder territory as time passes by.  Music and graphics conspire to create a real atmosphere, each level having a defined mood it tries to capture.  This culminates in an astonishing final level, which, without spoiling things, is a euphoric cap to everything that has come before.

That Flower is able to mix a clever and interesting mechanic with such an interesting attempt at imbuing the game with higher meaning and pull it off makes it a very unique experience.  It's uplifting, relaxing, and very beautiful and deserves the comparisons to the equally idiosyncratic Rez. Transcending expectations, it manages to both stake a reasonable claim to be the aforementioned 'interactive art' and also a very fine game indeed.

[9]

State of Play

So as I rather abruptly pointed out in my previous post, my Xbox 360 rather catastrophically failed. This was not a good state of affairs, what with the then impending release of Street Fighter IV. Rather than wait the month or so for the repair, I decided to pick up an Arcade unit, and hunted down one of the new 'Jasper' chipsets, which are hopefully less prone to this sort of thing.  I also recieved some bad but far more predictable news, namely that my Tournament Edition Fightstick was delayed, and won't be arriving for several weeks. These disappointments were offset by the arrival of Street Fighter IV two days early. My first impressions are that it's very very good indeed, and a full review will be forthcoming.  With my old Xbox safely ensconced in Germany, I'm also continuing my backlog play, making another run through MGS3, completing Rez HD and will probably grab Noby Noby Boy soon. Further updates soon.

So my Xbox red ringed....

Finish the Hype - Halo 3 retro review

Note: As anyone who's read this blog will know, I'm not a big multiplayer guy.  This review is therefore centred only on Halo 3's qualities as a singleplayer experience, with no multiplayer discussion or judgement.

18 months after its launch, Halo 3 is still a big noise in videogames.  Widely regarded as the defining title of the Xbox 360, the question is, how well has it held up in the time since launch?

Visually at least, the answer is 'not too bad'.  Technically it's clearly outshone by more recent titles, and the graphics can look a touch jaggy (remember the game is only rendered at 640p) with texture work often coming across as flat.  But this is compensated for by the strong design, the Covenant particularly remaining an aesthetic highpoint with their brightly coloured technology and sleekly organic design.   Sound too remains excellent, with some good voiceover work and plentiful explosions.

It's when we get to the gameplay that gaps begin to appear.  Halo's mantra has always been '30 seconds of fun' and that's still applicable here.  Combat remains satisfying, with enemies treading the fine line between smart and stupid well, and the weapons give satisfying feedback, with the option to dual-wield at the expense of grenades and melee returning from Halo 2 for a nice touch.  But why so many weapons? There are 20 different weapons in the game, and many are duplicates of each other, such as the human SMG and the covenant Spiker, both of which are standard machine pistols.  My opinion is that there's too many different varieties here, and a slimming down of the arsenal would have better balanced the various weapons.  As it is some are practically useless while others (most notably the energy sword) are god weapons.  To be fair, there are some standout additions here, most notably the scenery-wrecking gravity hammer.

Level design is something of an issue as well.  With an upgrade to a next gen platform you'd expect a vast leap in scope, and while the game occasionally wows you, most notably in the battles against the colossal Scarab walking tanks, the truth is an awful lot of it feels underwhelming.  Haven't I seen this underground base before? Haven't I driven along this beach before? Haven't I attacked this control room down these corridors before?  Deja vu sets in quite early, and there's little real spectacle for the eye to feast on.  Some might argue that this isn't the point of a Halo game, but considering that one of the draws of the original was its sense of scale and outstanding art design, this falls a little flat.  The same goes for the story, so taut and well paced in Halo 1 but now expanded to a confusing mess of alliances and betrayals.  One of the game's main villains never actually appears onscreen, the other is killed well before the end of the game, and the strange pseudo love story between Cortana and practically every other character is laughable.  There's little sense of pacing and although there is a clever twist near the finish the finale ends up being another lame retread, lacking the intensity of its celebrated forebear (though it's better than the non-ending of Halo 2).  The game feels rushed, not helped by the fact that this is a very very short experience.  I finished it in a day, and I'm very bad at console FPS's. 

 And that's when it struck me - this entire singleplayer campaign feels phoned in, like it was very much a secondary concern.  It lacks polish, pacing and the major setpieces needed for a truly Triple-A game and compared to efforts like Bioshock and the masterful Half-Life 2 feels very immature and inconsequential.  The core strengths of Halo are as good as they have always been, the great feel of the weapons, the smart enemies and clever combat design.  They should have been the bones on which a much greater experience could have been fleshed out.  Instead, they're the bright sparks in a sea of average.  This is not a bad game, in fact, it's a good game. But, crucially, it is not a great game.  Which is a shame.

[7]

In these challenging economic times...

So, long story short, I don't have a great deal of money this month, due to a mistake involving my own rampant stupidity.  This subsequently means that new games are pretty much off of my list of purchases this month, which in turn affects what I'll be writing about on this blog.  There's still going to be some up to date stuff, as I shold have a copy of the Street Fighter IV collector's edition winging it's way here which I'll review, alongside the most indulgent thing I've ever purchased.  Also, provided it ever arrives, there'll be a Chrono Trigger DS review as well, although that depends on how long it takes to complete.

Howeve, the vast majority of this month will therefore be spent playing games from my 'pile of shame' and sbsequently writing them up on here.  I've already finished up Halo 3, and a review shold be up later, and there's some big hitters in there, such as Lost Odyssey, Dead Rising and Motorstorm: Pacific Rift as well as some older quirky stuff like Odin Sphere, Persona 3 and a real gem I dug out of the local GAME's preowned bin, Gregory Horror Show.  All of this stuff will hopefully be played and/or written up at some point, so that's what lies ahead.

Demo impressions triple tag team! - Killzone 2, FEAR 2, Halo Wars

Killzone 2

The first thing that's worth saying is that Killzone 2 is probably the best looking thing ever to appear on a console from a purely technical standpoint.  The high level of detail genuinely brings atmosphere to the world, particularly the grit and grime, with dust in the air and surfaces realistically worn and chpped away. It lends the game a very brutalistic fell that's matched by the gameplay.  The chunky, realistic weapons, the decidedly non sci-fi settings and the slow paced combat, complete with a nicely clunky cover system conspire to make the pace of the game quite slow and the feeling very far away from the 'one man army' approach of supposed competitors like Halo.  Overall, it's fun to play but the whitewash of genericism, plus the reports coming in that the story is utter rubbish probably means I'll put off grabbing this one for some time.

FEAR 2: Project Origin

I was a huge fan of the first FEAR (full stops omitted because I'm lazy). I loved its spooky premise, its insane weapons and the gorgeous slow-mo combat that saw enemies pirouetting away in a hail of bullets, blood and masonry.  From this brief demo all those things seem intact, but there are a few caveats.  The graphics are certainly shinier, and the scares more sophisticated, but the truly outlandish aspects of the first game have been played down.  The shotgun, which was a god weapon in the first game, seems nerfed, which is probably a good thing if you're sensible, but I miss being able to dismember people with it.  And why have all the enemies suddenly turned into space marines? The mech section also feels hopelessly out of place to me, and overall although it's scary I miss the grim gritty tone that made the first FEAR (and the underrated Condemned) so compelling.  That being said, there was still lot's of good stuff in here, so I'll probably pick this one up in the late spring drought.

Halo Wars

I've always been a firm believer that the RTS is one of the genres that has no place on anything that doesn't have a mouse and keyboard.  Halo Wars has partially solved these problems howeever, by eliminating a great deal of the depth.  This is very much RTS lite, with base building stripped back to an absolute minimum, and the prevailing tactic once again being the rush (something which is acknowledged by the existance of a 'select all units' button).  But these are actually all good things, with the trade of instead being an emphasis on action and spectacle that fits nicely with the console platform and Halo license.  The two levels in this demo, are nicely packed with spectacle, hammy cutscenes and neat map design, and since I do tend to like my RTS's less complicated I think this one might be on my radar also.

The world's latest best of 2008 post

I know this is very late.  Apologies, I'm trying to get back on the blogging train.

10 - Apollo Justice:Ace Attorney

No, it's not a notable evolution on the previous games.  But the Ace Attorney series has always delivered great gameplay and terrific soap opera storylines, and this is no exception.  And it is a Phoenix Wright game no matter what the title says, the trademark everything-and-the-kitchen-sink plotline returning and delving back into the storyline of our favourite spiky haired practitioner of the law.  As a franchise evolution, this needs serious work for its next instalment, but even without a major step onwards this is still one of the best interactive yarns you'll see this year.

9 - Super Smash Bros. Brawl

Yes, it's just a glorified fan game, but what fans and what a game.  Takes the anarchic sumo of Smash Bros. past and cranks up the insanity factor, which may or may not suit your taste.  Regardless, with an expanded roster, better level design and a raft of gameplay tweaks, including the new final smash attacks made this an outrageous, fast and heady experience.  The much touted singleplayer story mode was a letdown, and online play was totally broken, but a keen eye for detail and a great sense of free-for-all fun keeps this in here.

8 - Devil May Cry 4

This is one of the most stupid games ever released, an anachronistic throwback to a bygone age.  Fortunately, it knows this.  Instead, it chooses to put its efforts into its super slick graphics and a balanced and highly entertaining combat system.  The guns 'n' swords action is more balletic than ever before, new character Nero brings the action to the masses, while Dante provides depth and difficulty that the hardcore crave.  Combined with some striking level design and dialogue so horrifying it's hilarious, it produces a game which is no masterpiece, but is a fantastically enjoyable old school romp.

7 - Rock Band 2

The sequel gets the nod here, but really this is an endorsement for the whole rock band experience, regardless of platform or guise.  Harmonix took everything that made Guitar Hero so great and slipped it into a slicker, more grown up shell.  Adding in a superb song selection and friendly interface made the entire experience that much better, and there's still no better game to be played at a party.

6 - Burnout Paradise

I'm no big fan of driving games, but Criterion's latest is impossible to resist.  A huge, shiny mass of twisted metal and nitrous oxide, this is by far the best of the open-world racers, blending a hugley impressive city full of backstreets, junctions and improbable jumps with Burnout's trademark smash and crash racing.  Seamless online integration completed an excellent package, and generous downloadable content expanded the appeal and rightfully kept the game in the public eye.

5- No More Heroes

This could go 5 places either way and it would still polarise opinion.  There'll always be those who say that the abundant technical errors, grainy graphics and poorly realised open world break the immersion, and the repeated and repititive jobs and missions are simply no fun.  They'd probably be right.  There are also those who would proclaim that the outstanding characters, super sharp dialogue and irrepressible sense of style are enough to carry the game.  They're also right, since this is a game of deep flaws which you choose to ignore.  And if you can, there's a funny and clever experience like no other in here.  For better or worse, Suda51 at the height of his powers.

4 - Braid

The arguments that it is pretentious, that it is over-wordy and that it is deliberately and frustratingly impenetrable all hold true.  But it is so unlike anything else, and holds your attention and your interest far beyond its much talked about ending.  Beautiful and mechanically clever and deep, it deserves its much heralded status as the gem in a year of superb downloadable titles.

3 - Gears of War 2

I loathed the first GOW, so the fact that this ended up this high is a testament to its high quality.  Taking the stop-and-pop gameplay of the original, every single aspect is then scaled up to produce a gargantuan epic the scale of which has barely ever been seen in videogames.  Like the world's most expensive B-movie, giant worms, risible dialogue and some sledgehammer storytelling combine with endless spectacle to produce a rollercoaster ride of a game.  As far as third-person shooters go, this is the biggest, dumbest and best of them all.

2 - Prince of Persia

In any other year this would have won.  A game of endless polish and innovation, its revamped parkour makes it flow like no other platformer, while the new combat system suits well, neatly splitting the two parts of the game.  The much vaunted 'no death' mechanic slots in so well you'll wonder why it isn't in every game, and the plot reboot produces a pair of very different and but very likeable new protagonists, while the plot they're dropped into is clever and ambitious.  Add to that the fact that it's possibly the most beautiful videogame ever made, its fantastic environments and painterly backdrops creating a world of unparalleled visual glory, and you have a game that will go down as an instant classic.  The best game of the year.  Almost.

1 - Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots

Some would argue this isn't even a game.  They're wrong.  But they may have a point in the sense that it isn't the game parts of this experience that make it so special.  The revamped combat, the enhanced weapon loadout, the revamped controls, the repositioned camera, these all help, and they bump the purely game parts of it up to a very high standard indeed.  But really, it's the chance to immerse yourself in Kojima's world one last time, to see his beloved cast end their adventure together.  Long, pretentious and unwieldy, it is also a game of deep sorrow, a sad and tired game almost unique amongst all the games ever made.  Supplemented by astonishing production values, including amazing graphics, superb voices and outstanding music, this is less of a game, more of an experience.  And as experiences go, it is unmatched.