Binary Domain — I, Shoot Robots

I had a lot of interest in SEGA’s action game Binary Domain, so I was glad to see that the Windows version was on sale for $10 at Amazon. Binary Domain is produced by Toshihiro Nagoshi, more known as the producer behind SEGA’s Yakuza games, a series I have grown to love over the years. After completing a run of Binary Domain, I quite enjoyed myself. The game is gloriously clichéd, but its cyberpunk inspiration, aesthetic, and Hollywood-level of silly plot kept me rather engaged, and so did the game’s shooting mechanic.

The plot centers on “Hollow Children,” robots with extreme artificial intelligence and look and act human. This is actually a violation of the New Geneva Convention, and when one is seen acting insane and attacking people in a public area, a strike force team called the “Rust Crew” is assembled to bring in its creator to answer charges. The backstory also centers on the world being destroyed by global warming, and a new world emerging from its ruins, with Japan now an isolationist state.

Dan Marshall and “Big Bo” are the Rust Crew members you start with, until you meet up with a few other characters as the story progresses. The game allows the player to pick certain squadmates and give them orders (“Attack!” “Regroup!” “Hold position!”) through selected dialogue options or voice command. It was my experience that the game couldn’t really understand a few of my commands and would pick the wrong response. There are options to adjust the microphone settings nevertheless. Binary Domain also has a trust system in place, where certain responses and actions build squadmates’ confidence in Marshall, which actually influences the outcome of the final battle. Even how much you contribute in a battle will result in praise or a scolding or somewhere in between. Here is one issue with this system: friendly fire will cause a loss of trust. It is unfortunate and likely that your squadmates will run into your line of fire quite often and hurt your relationship with them.

Binary Domain features the now standard cover and blind fire mechanic seen in other third-person shooters today. You’re fighting robots the entire way, but have certain behavioral traits depending on where they are shot. Legless robots will crawl towards you like the way the T-800 crawled after Sarah Connor. If a robot loses an arm, it will look for any weapon to attack you with. Headless robots don’t know friend from foe, and is likely to attack their own allies and make battles a little easier. It makes battles pretty fun, and there are different kinds of weapons to mess with although nothing extraordinary: the typical shotgun, sniper rifle, submachine gun, the more extreme light machine gun arsenal. Marshall’s default assault rifle which can be upgraded via vending machines, comes with an energy shot that can stun enemies or, upgraded, wipe out entire groups of enemies in one shot per charge.

The thing I found interesting about the story is that a lot of its characters are actually developed as the story progresses and there are certain personal motivations behind their actions. The characters all share a strange chemistry with one another, especially since a lot of the dialogue is back to back banter and one-liners. The voice acting is well-directed and feels intentionally silly. Marshall as a character is basically another version of Sam Gideon of SEGA’s Vanquish, another sci-fi shooter from 2010, with a lot of loud and obnoxiously outspoken tendencies that the others characterize as “American.” Big Bo is basically the “Roadblock” (of G.I. Joe) of the group, the overly muscular black guy with the heavy machine gun who, like Marshall, just wants to kick ass. I’m not particularly sure how much the story changes if you really mix up your squad, as I only ever traveled with two squad members: Faye, a marksman expert from China, and Cain, a robot with a French accent who honestly became my favorite character in the game because of his friendly nature and, in a script filled with one-liners and jokes, is the game’s comic relief.

The plot has a few twists as well as a moral discussion taking place on the existence of the Hollow Children and the ethics of allowing them to exist at all. The Hollow Children not only look human, but believe to be human, and the prejudices they experience in a future shared with these machines. When they find out they are machine and not man, well, they actually go insane, which is more or less what kicks off the story. It’s the kind of discussion seen in Ridley Scott’s Blade Runner or maybe I, Robot (I’ve never read the novel).

Binary Domain is perhaps the second attempt by a Japanese developer to try their hand at the third-person cover shooter that the west helped popularize since this generation of games began five years ago (unless we’re counting Resident Evil 6). Although robots are not the most unique foes you can attack, that the game has you consider your aiming is a nice sort of challenge for the player. I found myself thinking about the situation at hand during firefights. It also features an incredible boss battle against what I can only call a reject from Michael Bay’s Transformers universe. Its characters are ridiculous, but the visual design has a nice “mecha” aesthetic to it. It’s a very fun game.

E3 2012: Am I already too old for this?

Last week, the big game studios showed up for the 2012 Electronic Entertainment Expo, better simply known as E3, to give us a taste of what’s to come in the next few months to a year. I didn’t go, because I am not press or a developer. I can only write as someone whose relationship with these companies extends to me handing them money for their product. Spike TV and its associated web site Game Trailers were nice enough to broadcast all sorts of game demos as well as the major press conferences themselves.

I honestly wasn’t sure how I wanted to approach this piece. Even after the official first day of E3, I had talked about the conferences to death on Twitter and message boards. With the exception of Ubisoft, who showed some great-looking content, none of the conferences did anything that ‘surprised’ me or grabbed my attention. After Halo 4 footage that does its best Metroid: Prime impersonation, Microsoft began to sell the idea of the Xbox as an entertainment brand, beyond playing a game and paying for extra content. Watch television shows and movies on Netflix and Hulu Plus. Catch up on Game of Thrones and Veep on HBO Go (which requires paying for a cable subscription, HBO, and then an Xbox Live Gold membership). Their big moment came when they introduced Internet Explorer and their Smart Glass app, which serves as a sort of PDA for entertainment. Get cast biographies for the movie or show you’re watching. Turn your tablet (iPad) into an interactive map for an adventure game. While this may sound convenient or fun, the way it was demonstrated indicated that Smart Glass seeks to solve a problem that doesn’t exist. I’m not sure I need an interactive Westeros map while I’m already trying to remember names on Game of Thrones. I’m already using GameFAQs to get help with games, and also I’m not using my tablet with my entertainment as frequently as Microsoft wants me to.

The real stars of the show were South Park creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone who took the stage to quickly talk about the upcoming South Park: The Stick of Truth, developed by Obsidian Entertainment, but delivered the conference’s only major highlight with this quote:

“How many times have you been watching an episode of South Park and thought, ‘I’d like to be able to watch this on my television, while hooked into my mobile device, which is controlled by my tablet device, which is hooked into my oven,’ all while sitting in the refrigerator?”

Somewhere in the conference was an Usher performance and a Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 demo where people shot things and were shot at. It was everything I was already expecting from Microsoft after their terrible conference last year and it delivered for all the wrong reasons.

Last year, Ubisoft delivered upon the world Mr. Caffeine, a manic gentleman who informed us of upcoming “Tom Ca-lancy” games and used Wayne’s World references to do it. Survivors of the conference refuse to talk about it to this day. This year, Aisha Tyler took the stage for Ubisoft, and I’m not sure if ever a huge upgrade took place than having her host, because she was great and very enthusiastic. Her only crime honestly was having to share the stage with a Tobuscus, a YouTube ‘personality’ who went by Toby where silly, scripted back and forth banter ensued, and then we saw games.

Ubisoft had probably the most solid line-up with Far Cry 3, whose demo was one of the strangest, drug-fueled demos I had ever seen. Rayman Legends, which is exclusive to Nintendo’s upcoming Wii U system, is looking like a solid follow-up to the fantastic Rayman Origins, which I talked about earlier this year. I’m hoping Rayman Legends will feature as great a soundtrack as its predecessor. Ubisoft also showed new footage of Assassin’s Creed III, which I have ordered from Amazon despite its October release date. Perhaps the biggest and most talked-about surprise is the new game coming titled Watch_Dogs. The demo showed a man walking around a huge virtual recreation of Chicago and proceeding to gather information about its residents with a device that allows hacking of mobile devices and also jamming communication signals and even manipulate traffic lights as he sees fit. The demo concluded with this man in a shoot-out with his antagonists, which honestly presents a slight concern over how much taking cover and shooting I will actually do in Watch_Dogs. Regardless of this, although I’ve never visited Chicago, the world was stunning and was also impressed by the number of NPCs walking around the town without a hint of frame rate dropping. I’ll definitely be keeping an eye on it.

The evening of “Day Zero” closed out with Sony’s press conference which, aside from Naughty Dog’s The Last of Us, Quantic Dream’s Beyond: Two Souls, and footage of the Vita game Assassin’s Creed: Liberation, did very little to catch my interest. We got a demo for God of War: Ascension, the next title in the seven-year PlayStation series, where Kratos kills more things in the same way he has for the last seven years. I’m sure the fans have already eaten it up, especially when Kratos killed an elephant minotaur by cutting it in half. One thing I was looking forward to was Sony’s plans for the Vita. It’s almost common knowledge at this point that the PlayStation Vita isn’t off to a particularly strong start across the globe, with its predecessor the PlayStation Portable outselling it in Japan. I’ve seen more doom and gloom comments than positive ones despite the device being four months into its launch in the United States. Sony unveiled… a Call of Duty logo and an Assassin’s Creed spinoff game. In fairness, I do think the Assassin’s Creed title has plenty of potential to get major use of the device’s hardware, but E3 is the center stage to show people what you’re up to and what to look forward to and to get the folks excited for it (a point I will reiterate with Nintendo). Instead, we got Wonderbook. Wonderbook, from what I understand, is an augmented reality software that utilizes the PlayStation Eye Toy device where you have interactive experiences with storybooks. It might sound fun for the kids, but it didn’t look “explain this product for 15 to 20 minutes” fun. While I think SCEA President Jack Tretton did a decent job onstage and successfully got the crowd excited for God of War and The Last of Us. Quantic Dream showed footage of their newest game, Beyond: Two Souls, which stars actress Ellen Page. I’m not sure what kind of game it will be. Will it be another “interactive experience” (i.e. quick-timer event) game like 2010′s Heavy Rain?

A few nice details here and there about games, mostly lackluster, and then there’s Nintendo, which I will talk about tomorrow because there’s a lot to address.

Kid Icarus: Uprising — “Sorry I kept you waiting!”

Unlike a number of Nintendo’s franchises, I truthfully have no history with Kid Icarus. I never played it on the NES. Years ago, I downloaded it from the Wii Virtual Console service and gave it about a half-hour of my time and shut it off after one Game Over. I wasn’t even aware until recently that there is a sequel on the Game Boy. Unless I’m mistaken, the games’ playable hero Pit last appeared in 2008′s Super Smash Bros. Brawl, the Wii sequel of Nintendo’s mascot fighting game series. It’s always interesting how Nintendo utilizes its franchises and also how often. Super Metroid, for example, launched in 1994 on the Super NES, and although there were plans to bring Metroid to the Nintendo 64, we didn’t see another game until Metroid Prime and Metroid Fusion appeared for the Gamecube and Game Boy Advance systems in 2002. When Nintendo revealed the 3DS two years ago, it had shown a number of planned games. Among announced works like Luigi’s Mansion 2, Pilotwings Resort, and Animal Crossing, it seemed rather amazing that Nintendo hadn’t forgotten its cult favorite Kid Icarus.

It was through positive word-of-mouth, a Best Buy discount, and generally being on the hunt for something to try on my 3DS that led me to a purchase. Something unexpected happened: Kid Icarus: Uprising has become my favorite 3DS game to date. It is an action game that combines aerial combat with ground third-person shooting and melee combat. When Pit takes to the air, it is an angel-versus-demons version of Nintendo’s Star Fox or SEGA’s After Burner games. The (adjustable) 3D helps distinguish Pit and his enemies and they pop out quite nicely against the game’s various landscapes. Even some of the more labyrinthine areas pop out effectively. The player uses the stylus to move the targeting reticle while the L button fires Pit’s weapon. The circle pad moves Pit himself. If the player waits until the targeting reticle completes itself, he can fire a stronger charged attack that makes it easier to take down stronger enemies. Holding down the button allows him to use rapid fire and clear as many enemies that fill the screen (which can be a lot at times). Also at his disposal are two orbs that, when tapped on the touch screen, will launch a barrage of light arrows and clear the screen of enemies.

Pit, do a barrel roll!

The first chapter teaches the mechanics of the game through banter between Pit and his superior Lady Palutena. It also sets up the story of a resurrected Medusa (the villain from the NES game) launching a war against humankind and upsetting the balance of light and dark. I enjoyed the tutorial for simply instructing me on how the game works and giving me full control the entire way through as opposed to automatic demonstration and limited movement. I also enjoy its customization of various features. The player can set a difficulty level ranging from easy, normal, tough, all the way to brutal on a 1 to 10 scale (I was a wimp and didn’t go past 5). Hearts collected throughout the adventure are wagered (the higher the difficulty, the more hearts are bet) and will either be earned in victory, or lost in defeat. They can also be redeemed in the main menu for weapons. Weapons are also found in hidden areas and earned by meeting certain game conditions and can be fused to create newer, more powerful items. Pit also has special powers that are set up on a grid in a way similar to the Perks from the Call of Duty games. Almost anything you do in the game unlocks pieces of several picture puzzles, though I’ve yet to complete the three that I have. The pieces themselves offer differing rewards like new modes or powers.

Twinbellows, unfortunately not found in Nintendogs + Cats.

The ground combat is the larger portion of most chapters. While Pit can fire weapons on-foot, I much enjoyed the satisfying “POW!” sound of a charged melee attack. The variety of weapons gives ranged and melee combat advantages and disadvantages. Clubs, for example, do much more melee damage than, let’s say, cannons. Bows make for great ranged weapons while blades provide a balance between both combat types. There is always, always a new weapon to try. Some chapters provide vehicles for Pit to control, which I don’t think control all that well, although I’m kind of fond of the robot suit. Its levels overall are linear enough so that the player doesn’t get lost, but open enough to find hidden areas and secrets. One feature I like are the Zodiac doors, which can only be access when a chapter is played at a particular (usually hard) level. Even at a normal difficulty, the game requires some skill to take down enemies akin to The Legend of Zelda: finding their weakness, dodging when required, and striking at the right moment. This is a rather large campaign overall.

While its story is a rather standard good versus evil tale, its biggest strength is in its dialogue: full of humor, wit, cleverness and is very self-referential. The translators seemed to have been given free reign with the Japanese script. Even as someone who did not fully experience the previous games, I enjoyed the 8-bit audio track homages for certain enemies and references to the older days of videogames. Admittedly, I missed some of the dialogue because battles can get heavy-handed at times and I can’t always focus on the banter as much as I want to. The characters themselves are all interesting and Nintendo even recruited a few veteran voice actors for the English dub, which means the performances are a step above the usual quality of a localized game.

There is also a multiplayer mode for both local and online play. There are two standard battle modes: the free-for-all where one person tries to score the most points with defeats and the Light vs. Dark mode where one group tries to eliminate the rival group’s angel similar to Team Leader matches in other games. The multiplayer mode provides some hectic fun and there are weapons and other bonuses earned for being the top player that keeps the player coming back. The game also takes advantage of the 3DS StreetPass functionality that allows weapon gems to be traded for the creation of new weapons.

I think this is a fantastic game, overall, in terms of scope and gameplay, and I got the sense that Project Sora put a lot of love into this adventure. It’s absolute fun even when it gets a bit on the tough side.

Telltale’s The Walking Dead: Episode 1 — Zombies take a backseat.

The first game I played from the people of Telltale Games was the first episode of Wallace & Gromit’s Grand Adventures on my Xbox 360. They helped popularize a genre that hadn’t seen much success since the late 1990s: the point-and-click adventure. After tugging at the heartstrings of geeks with interactive adventures based on beloved properties like LucasArts’ Monkey Island series and Steven Spielberg’s Back to the Future and Jurassic Park, they have taken on a darker route with the first episode of Robert Kirkman’s The Walking Dead.

The Walking Dead, available on Steam, Xbox 360, and PlayStation 3, is based on the popular comic series which was later adapted into a hit television series for AMC. Rather than adapt the story of Rick Grimes and his family again, the game goes farther back into its timeline around the beginnings of the outbreak. It is told through Lee, a professor convicted of murder, which plays a significant role in the core of the game. The game introduces its mechanics with a simple conversation between Lee and a sheriff’s deputy, and then suddenly there is a car accident and he is having his first zombie encounter.

We are now in a time where games featuring the undead feel one and the same, where studios try to capture the same influence Resident Evil carried with it in the late 1990s, and Left 4 Dead in the late 2000s. Even the hit Call of Duty series has a bonus mode that crossed tower defense with first-person shooting. The Walking Dead, thankfully, brings a newer perspective to games and zombies. In true Telltale fashion, it’s an interactive story, focusing more on characters, relationships, and overall decision-making than a direct conflict with the monsters.

What I enjoyed about Episode 1 of this five-episode series is how we learn a lot about Lee without knowing too much about him. His first interaction is with a young girl named Clementine, whose parents were away and it is presumed did not survive the outbreak. Lee offers his help, and the player can guide their relationship as they travel for help. There are a number of environmental objects to interact with, and while some objects come into immediate use, others are stored away for potential use later in the story. While I didn’t get to play much of Back to the Future or any of Jurassic Park, it would seem that the focus of the game is the player’s snap decision-making as opposed to the puzzle solving and logical implementation seen in other point-and-click games. Every response to an action, a question, or statement has a time limit on it. Any non-player character interacting with Lee will take account the player’s decision, which will either benefit them or hurt them later. I hastily had one character punch another and towards the end of the episode, I paid for it.

As slow as they are, zombies sure are a pain.

There are actual confrontations with the zombies in timed presses of a button and highlighting the cursor in the right area for interaction. Sometimes you’ll mash a button until a meter fills up, and hopefully you’ll push the right button after that or become a zombie’s next meal. Nothing too difficult, but it is definitely a secondary mechanic compared to the interaction with other characters. The zombie scenes add a lot of tension and a sense of urgency and fear when it’s time to accomplish an objective.

There is a new cast of survivors, each with a different attribute in mind. They don’t behave in very distinctive ways, but they are not empty in personality either. They simply survive “until the whole thing blows over.” There are familiar faces who play important roles as opposed to a simple cameo. I think the one surprise is that these particular characters have, so far, seen the most sympathy from me compared to most of the comic and TV series’ leads. It is that sympathy that makes the decision-making even more integral, since it can be assumed relationships will change and roles will come into question.

I had little interest in the game since I’m not great at these kinds of games, and I am a casual fan of The Walking Dead comics, not so much the TV series, but if my input and direction help drive the story as I would live it, I’ll gladly stick around for longer. I suppose if I took issue with the game, it’s that sometimes the timer for the decision-making is a little too fast for my liking, and the lack of the wonderful and intense TV theme. Regardless, I hope the rest holds up.

‘Yakuza’ has helped me live a second life in virtual Tokyo.

What better way to kill time waiting for a download from the PlayStation Store to finish than to write something?

I recently finished Yakuza 4 for the PlayStation 3, a game I thoroughly enjoyed. When I finally saved my finished game data I came to realize that I have developed a particular fondness for this series. I don’t believe this series from SEGA has a large audience outside of Japan. I have played every game in the series since the first game made its way to North America in 2006. I had been sold on its story, written by a famous Japanese novelist named Hase Seishū. I am not actually familiar with his work outside of Yakuza, known in Japan as Ryu ga Gotoku (“like a dragon”).

First I was into the series for its over the top combat, which requires breaking in and adjusting. Although the games feature characters pulling off impressive martial arts techniques and moves, the draw is using objects in the environment (traffic cones, store signs, bicycles) to do extra damage, turning a street fight into a brawl. Getting in enough hits will cause the character to enter into ‘HEAT’ mode, which allows for special moves to be unleashed on a poor (but deserving) thug. When accompanied by brilliantly evocative rock/techno soundtrack by Hidenori Shoji, the fights bring out the bad-ass in all. I suppose playing these games is like playing a yakuza film, although I haven’t seen too many of those in my time. Along with one-on-one battles, there are typically scenes where one person has to pretty much fight an entire organization inside corridors of office buildings to get to the big boss or hostage or prize or whatever.

A high kick is the least of that guy's worries, frankly.

The combat is part of the fun, but then I started to appreciate the notion that many games aren’t set in a reality-based modern Japan. The games have spanned across Tokyo, Okinawa, and Osaka, with real-life inspired locations like restaurants, bars, and convenience stores. The games allow you to put the main story on hold in order to explore this virtual Tokyo and experience a number of side quests and mini games, so much so that by the fourth game the side quests were taking precedent over the main plot for me, which is rather telling since Yakuza 4 features four player characters with four separate plots that tie together. This exploration is perhaps why Yakuza is often compared to SEGA’s last-generation opus Shenmue, yet combined with the fighting, this series also harkens back to River City Ransom on the NES.

The main stories themselves are effective in a way in that they aren’t based on the fantastical or surreal, but written as anything else but what we typically see in a game. For all the combat sequences we interact with, there are quiet scenes where the characters sit in reflection of their goals when their dialogue isn’t driving the plot. When they aren’t setting up the next chapter, they are reflecting on character, and given what this series is about there will be many a conversation about death, honor, and greed. Many of its characters are sullen although there are always one or two crazy characters to help deliver the series’ few surreal moments.

"What? My clan is in danger of folding under and there are criminals after me? Give me an hour."

Breaking from the main plots are the side quests that allow the player to help strangers all over Tokyo and help the player gain experience points for new fighting moves. They also shift the mood of the game as many of the strangers we meet can be surmised by some of the awkward requests made or the desperation in the help they seek. Some are games within the game, like the series’ famous hostess club dating sim games. Take all that yen you earned punching thugs in the face to woo the hostess of your dreams and wine and dine the night away. The fourth game included a karaoke mode I never explored and frankly forgot. Batting cages and golf courses help build skill while enjoying a side activity. Some of the quests also exist in a more emotional plane, like when the character of Saejima helps a young orphaned boy reunite with his sister. In the big picture, I enjoy that these side quests help its world feel alive, as Kamurocho (based on the real-world Kabuki-cho) is already bustling with non-player characters with shopping bags or on the side chatting away having a cigarette or deciding where they should eat.

It is all of this that have helped make Yakuza one of my favorite series, which now pains me to say that. SEGA of America has been hit with layoffs and restructuring that might prove trouble localizing future Yakuza titles. Recently, Yakuza: Dead Souls has seen release on the PlayStation 3, which sees four characters from previous games taking on the undead. You read that correctly.

Yakuza. Zombies. Makes sense!

Metal Gear Solid HD, Part 2: “Commencing Operation Snake Eater.”

In Part 1, I talked about Metal Gear Solid 2.

Although players had infiltrated several enemy fortresses as Solid Snake since Metal Gear in 1987, Big Boss seems to be the center of its universe. Nearly every game uses Snake to drive its plot, but Big Boss is the focus of it, which became more prominent by Metal Gear Solid in 1998 when the PlayStation hardware successfully allowed for a more theatrical perspective in games. I revisit my favorite entry in this series in glorious high definition and an impressive 60 frames per second.

Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater is the debut of Big Boss as a highly-trained CIA operative code-named Naked Snake, whose assignment is to rescue a defecting Russian scientist in 1964 Russia, which means the Cold War serves as a backdrop. When the game is booted up for the very first time, you see the menu feature Snake using a technique to bring an enemy soldier down, the screen surrounded in a color and camouflage pattern. What’s great is that the menu tells you just about everything you need to know about the game. The opening scene of Snake performing a HALO jump plays, describing the events that lead us to where we are in the present: the scientist Dr. Sokolov wants to defect, Washington, D.C. wants his talents, and altered Cold War history to fit the plot of the game with references to Yuri Gagarin, the Cuban Missile Crisis, and John Kennedy’s assassination. The first chapter of the game is known as the “Virtuous Mission,” which not only sets up the story but helps the player become familiar with the features of Snake Eater.

There are features in Snake Eater not seen in then previous installments of Metal Gear Solid, all of which are part of what helps the player stay drawn in to the mission. The first is camouflage. Most of the game takes place outdoors, and so Snake is given a set of patterns to help blend into the flora of the jungle and helps to sneak past patrolling enemies, depending on how well he blends in as marked by a percentage index of 0 to 100%. Second is close-quarters combat, or simply CQC, which allows the player to take down enemies in a variation of judo and stun them, or implement a chokehold and demand information that could aid the player, or simply slit the enemy’s throat with the knife. This is a bit more evolved from the previous games’ punch, punch, kick combination in order to deal with enemies.

The two features that help drive the theme of survival are the concepts of healing and stamina fulfillment. In Metal Gear Solid 2, if a character had taken enough hits, the player might see an orange bar in the health bar that indicated severe wounds that would prevent a full recovery (by consuming a ration). Applying a bandage “stopped” the bleeding and healing could resume as necessary. Snake Eater requires removing bullets with a knife, applying disinfectant, bandaging cuts and using splints on a broken bone if the player even found themselves in that situation. If stamina is lost as a result, Snake could eat a number of animals or mushrooms in the environment, where Snake’s tastes determine how much stamina is recovered, which allows for improved health.

Healing wounds, changing camouflage patterns, and recovering stamina all require pausing the game and navigating to their respective menus. This should absolutely sound like a chore and a turn-off, but it isn’t. I suppose it’s the idea of the player having an opportunity to change the situation as they see fit and still giving input to the circumstances of the mission. It is rather akin to customizing equipment, items, and spells in role-playing games, like managing inventory. The player can customize Snake as they see fit. We also tend to learn what exactly Snake is willing to consume (ramen noodles and most snakes) and what will make him puke (Russian MREs and any type of frog).

"Do you guys think The Boss will like this outfit?"

The Virtuous Mission does a fantastic job of serving as a tutorial and to understand overall what players are in for and also serves as an effective prologue that helps demonstrate what is at stake in the game. Here we meet its antagonists, the rather legendary Cobra Unit, a group of soldiers with superhuman abilities (at this point a Metal Gear staple) who have a plan in mind with a secret weapon, which requires kidnapping Dr. Sokolov, yet the bigger point at hand is the betrayal of Snake’s mentor, a ridiculously skilled soldier simply known as The Boss, who finds herself in collusion with these warriors-turned-terrorists. The wrench in these gears, we soon see, is the second-in-command Colonel Volgin firing an American made nuclear weapon over into Russian territory. This sparks an international incident between the U.S. and the Soviet Union… and then we get a theme song and opening credits as if a James Bond film had just begun.

Snake Eater is a game filled with conspiracy, Cold War tensions, and a number of great moments. Whether I have missed this discussion in 2004 or not, one reason it stands out as a noteworthy and great game is the character of The Boss. It is true that games have seen their share of women who exist with a far more crucial role than as something to ogle at for a few hours, but my instincts will tell me the ratio of, for example, Lara Crofts to The Bosses is rather high. The Boss has a somewhat plain design, not particularly exaggerated in terms of looks. More importantly, The Boss is one of three primary women that appear in Snake Eater, yet she undoubtedly demonstrates the largest presence of authority, dignity, and rationale even with a character as power-hungry, sociopathic and authoritative as Colonel Volgin, who fears and respects her. Everything that is The Boss is not particularly political, either. Although actual history may say otherwise, the world of Snake Eater treats a female highly-skilled warrior of the 1960s as something that just is, especially since she was a World War II veteran. The Boss is given perhaps the most characterization because of her relationship with Naked Snake, who she refers to as “Jack,” as a term of endearment. Her story has been seen as rather emotional in the face of typical Kojima style of plotting, and I agree.

Colonel Volgin himself features slightly progressive characterization. Much like The Boss’ gender not serving a political purpose, we come to discover at some point that Volgin is bisexual, with a fondness for a young major named Raikov. This relationship doesn’t seem to exist to send a message, and treats it as something that just is in 1964, however likely it was in our 1964 (minus Volgin’s ability to summon lightning and electricity). It does, interestingly enough, serve as a plot point to meet an objective. Treating this sexual identity as a normal thing in its setting perhaps sends a very strong and needed message, even if Volgin is portrayed as a psychopath.

Lethal, deadly, The Boss is legendary.

The game tends to feature humorous call-backs (or call-forwards?) to previous games, including one of the bigger roles of the game, a young and hotheaded major code-named Ocelot, who is eager to prove himself and impress the heck out of Snake. One of my favorite jokes involves the idea of Godzilla movies still in production 50 years after the events of MGS3, with 2004 having been Godzilla’s 50th anniversary. Major Zero, Snake’s primary handler, goes from being a rather stoic military man to an overexcited fanboy when Snake talks down on the “authenticity” of James Bond movies. “I wouldn’t be surprised if they made 20 more of those films!” The balance between humor and drama is well-done, particularly if the player decides to explore the humor by contacting several handlers during the mission.

Side trivia: In 1964, three James Bond films released: Dr. No (1962), From Russia with Love (1963), and Goldfinger (1964). As of this writing, there are 22 James Bond films with the 23rd, Skyfall, currently filming.

The game also boasts some memorable characters. It wouldn’t be a Metal Gear Solid game without The Pain, for example. The Pain has the ability to manipulate hornets and use them as bullets and grenades. He is the second major battle of Snake Eater, and the one that tests your willingness to take this game’s style at face value. The Fear moves superhuman-like, able to manipulate his joints and jump around from tree to tree at high speeds. The Fury is a rather angry full-time pyromaniac and part-time cosmonaut that provides one of the game’s biggest WTF moments.

I had complained that Metal Gear Solid 2 failed to hold my interests in terms of grand boss battles, and Snake Eater made up for that by simply giving us The End. The End is a 100-year-old sniper who, according to one character, can be described as “photosynthetic.” You enter into a sniper duel with him across three different areas, where you must stalk and blend in and try and beat him at his own game. While The End is an expert sniper, he also has his vices to take advantage of. This is a fight that tests the player’s familiarity with the game, as well as patience and skill. This is a boss fight that challenges. Over the past few years, it has been praised as one of the greatest battles in games, because it’s not meant to be a difficult battle, but it creates a mood and creates tension you might only find in films. There is no actual bitterness in the battle. Just as The End wants to test Snake, he is also looking to test us. The fight can last 20 minutes or three hours. In a sort of black comedy, The End is able to be killed long before the actual battle is supposed to take place.

Then there is The Sorrow. Explaining The Sorrow spoils part of the story (and emotion), but fighting him is not so much a fight but a strange perspective in how the player has handled the game’s enemies. If you’ve killed enemies during your play, you’ll meet them again and watch their suffering as you dispensed it. A strange out-of-body experience if there ever was one.

The one character who probably should have made an impact for me but failed to do so was EVA, which is a bit disappointing. She is a double agent, and goes into what it is that causes a person to defect (her reasons are not very convincing), but it’s overshadowed by her role as Miss Fanservice. She is still somewhat interesting as EVA, if only because EVA is her actual competent if not aggressive personality versus her role as a damsel-in-distress type serving as Colonel Volgin’s mistress.

Metal Gear Solid 3 as a game has a lot to offer in terms of storytelling, hidden extras, inside jokes, different ways to meet an objective. It’s the emotion that makes it such a fan favorite, I think, as it features one of the most popular endings (and meme images) of the last generation into this one. Having played through it again, I find it to still be a fantastic experience. It combines wackiness with tension and emotion and does it well.

You thought I was going to paste the “salute” image, weren’t you?

Metal Gear Solid HD, Part 1: “And we will become the Sons of Liberty!”

One of the most popular franchises gets remastered.

Last Christmas, I was pleasantly surprised with a copy of the Metal Gear Solid HD Collection for PlayStation 3, a series I’d wanted to revisit for some time. It is both unfortunate and brilliant to not be able to play your PlayStation 2 games on the PS3, since it becomes incentive to purchase these packs and play your favorite games in high definition. Having owned Ico & Shadow of the Colossus Collection HD, I personally think these have value. Hopefully I feel the same way when I revisit two more favorite games of mine, Silent Hill 2 and Silent Hill 3, in HD next month. I also just realized Sony is releasing PS2 titles on the PlayStation Store for a $10 price, although not remastered, it means you can now play the 2006 cult hit God Hand without tracking a copy down!

The Metal Gear Solid package includes two PS2 games, Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty, and Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater, first released in 2001 and 2004 respectively, and then updated (respectively) as Substance (2003) and Subsistence (2005), which are the versions appearing in this HD set. Also included is the 2010 PlayStation Portable game Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker, which continues the Snake Eater story, but I have not spent much time with it. Side note: the HD collection is also available on the Xbox 360.

Metal Gear Solid 2 HD is the first time I have completely played the game from start to finish since November 2001. As a teenager then, never had a game disappointed me more. What I wanted was the further adventures of the anti-hero Solid Snake. Snake has his ability and curse to be a soldier going for him. His military prowess, his stamina, his determination, and his cold, arguably pragmatic approach to life were noticed by players, which says a lot because the point of Metal Gear is to avoid the enemies, rather than fight them, on the screen and reach the objective. It was through creator Hideo Kojima’s not so secret love of storytelling and film did we watch the characters of Metal Gear Solid gab away about ideals and their roles on the world stage and almost start picking sides as to who might have a point and who is dreaming. The thought of experiencing this a second time, on a more powerful system no less, was too good to be true.

Instead, the sequel divided players as we excitedly snuck around in a tanker operated by the U.S. Marine Corps and then watched as Revolver Ocelot (and his grafted arm played by the deceased Liquid Snake…) destroyed it, leaving Snake as a scapegoat close to drowning in the Hudson River.

Do I shoot him in the leg? Or go for the headshot?

It was realized then that Snake aboard this tanker was the prologue. Then, we met him.

A rather effeminate man in a tight sneaking suit with a teenager’s voice is swimming to the docking area of a facility called Big Shell. A familiar voice, belonging to Colonel Roy Campbell, the Codec handler of MGS, referred to this person as “Snake,” but no way did this “Snake” sound like voice actor David Hayter. This was apparently his first time on the field, and so his codename would have to change. We came to know him as “Raiden.” You may suspect that this is where I trash the character and argue that he is a stain to this series, yet time itself and I would tell you that this is not necessarily the case.

This will make a bit more sense later... maybe.

As I played through MGS2 in 2012, some of why I wasn’t too pleased with the game had begun to familiarize itself. It is lazy in design, for starters. The Big Shell plant does not stand out in any way and is representative of the common “corridor” complaint often seen in first-person shooters. Each Strut was a rearranged version of the last one and is not particularly interesting to explore. Despite its bland look, the areas fit the then new mechanics of Metal Gear well enough. The second is the dialogue and the cutscenes. It is rather tiring by now to make any sort of comment on the length of every scene in these games, but it isn’t how long they go on as much as how well they’re paced, which is not very well. The smallest action by the player leads to a long cutscene where nothing particularly exciting is happening and does not advance its plot while we listen to a speech about the ideals of life and death in the name of being a warrior. This leads into the biggest offender of Metal Gear Solid 2 for me: Its cast of characters aren’t at all interesting, compelling, or engaging.

Raiden works because he serves as a surrogate for the player, who is constantly fed ideals and schemes to interpret and what it means to play a role in this modern world. Its villains spew them out, each with a personal stake in the overall objective, which is then given up in the name of a shadowy organization called the Patriots. As far as I realize, the Patriots act as puppeteers for American events and history, all of which sound nutty but plays a crucial role in Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots. Raiden communicates with Colonel Campbell, and Raiden’s girlfriend Rosemary who pesters him about April 30th and its significance and why Raiden is the way that he is. The “Sons of Liberty” themselves provide no memorable fights at all, except perhaps for Vamp, who incorporates flamenco as part of his combat training. Fatman is a man who enjoys explosives, cocktails and roller-skates and his only interesting attribute is being named after the bomb detonated over Nagasaki. Fortune, daughter of the commander who drowned on the tanker Snake infiltrated, seeks to take revenge on Snake. She lives a life wondering why she can’t die, delivering hammed up speeches about wanting to be relieved from this world. Her voice actor’s performance is monotonous and empty, which makes it incredibly hard to feel for Fortune’s misfortune. Worse off is that you never even get to fight her, instead forced to survive her blasts from her giant energy rifle.

The most interesting plot comes from Revolver Ocelot, who is cursed with the spirit of Liquid Snake (which expands in MGS4) by living in his new arm. He serves as the wrench in the gears to this Patriots plot, turning the Sons of Liberty on its head and. Ocelot (and Liquid Snake) is the twist in this soap opera players expect in this series, successfully leaving us desiring more explanation (again, covered in MGS4). His cohort Solidus Snake is also fleshed out well as the game’s primary antagonist. He represents the series at its most political, an ex-President of the United States looking to set Manhattan free in perhaps the same way Tyler Durden intended to set people free at the end of Fight Club. The unfortunate part of this is I had to research these stories again, which is a testament to how complex these twists get for better or worse.

The third act of the game is the most memorable, above all. Campbell and Rosemary grow insane (“I need scissors! 61!”), Raiden runs around in the nude, we fight dozens of Metal Gear Ray robots, and have a one-on-one duel with the main antagonist Solidus Snake, and we learn the lesson that we must believe and think freely and combat censorship (I think). This is why the ending that did not completely work for me in 2001 worked for me in 2012 in an age of combating internet censorship and the change in societal norms with the advent of social media and linking. Raiden throwing away his dog tags communicates this well. It’s not that they all have a direct relationship with Metal Gear, it just impressively feels more relevant ten years later.

I am glad to have played Metal Gear Solid 2 this time.

‘Rayman Origins’ tests skills you haven’t used in years

In my run of Rayman Origins I discovered you don’t necessarily need a relationship with Ubisoft’s platform franchise in order to enjoy the newest entry. Although the plot involves Rayman and his friends stopping an army of creatures sent to take over their land, I almost forgot the story partway through and still had a great time. By the way, why are they stopping these creatures? Because Rayman and his friends SNORE IN THEIR SLEEP and it annoyed the granny of the Land of the Livid Dead.

Rayman Origins embodies the spirit of the platform games of yesteryear, like Adventure Island or Donkey Kong Country (and even R-Type). Its bright, colorful, and sharp high-resolution 2D visuals lure you in, welcoming you to what initially seems like a happy romp through some levels, until the difficulty kicks in. Rayman Origins then becomes sixty something levels of pushing your ‘old school’ limits.

Why not commemorate the occasion?

You will jump, punch, kick, swim, climb your way to victory, and along the way you can collect a number of Lums (glowing golden bee-like… things), which help to free the Electoons (magenta-like… Wonka candy creatures…) that help open up new paths to new worlds and treasure. Each new path has a wondrous design with its own elemental theme: sky, earth, water, ice, fire, along with some fun, almost random choices thrown into the mix: there is one level comprised of cooked foods, another with pieces of fruit as the backdrop. A lot of the game’s challenge comes from its requirement of timing and planning. In the beginning, the timing and planning is typically for catching a hidden group of Lums or grabbing a gold medal. The later stages practically require practice, possible memorization, which in turn requires trial and error. Luckily the game gives you an infinite amount of chances to get it right, and even takes pity on you if you have failed repeatedly.

On top of the challenge, Rayman Origins offers a lot to keep coming back: cooperative modes, secret treasures to collect, characters to unlock, and even a time attack mode. It is an amazing package of classic platforming, gorgeous graphics, and also boasting a soundtrack comprised of bluegrass medleys and Afrobeat pieces that set the friendly atmosphere, which would be almost relaxing if not for the whole ‘trying to not die’ thing.

It’s ‘Resident Evil’ Day! (Update: Now with trailer!)

Well, sort of.

Starting today, if you head over to the eShop on your Nintendo 3DS, you’re bound to find the demo for Capcom’s upcoming Resident Evil: Revelations, due for North American release on February 7th. Fan favorite Jill Valentine will be the main (playable) character, and it is set in 2005, taking place between Resident Evil 4 and Resident Evil 5. The game will also release bundled with the controversial Circle Pad Pro accessory, which is exclusive at GameStop. In a rather strange decision, 3DS users are limited to 30 uses of the demo. The demo itself uses 1,146 blocks of memory.

Perhaps the bigger news today is this image that sprang up like a wild Pokémon:

Resident Evil 6 will see a release date of November 20 of this year, available for Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. Perhaps we’ll see Resident Evil 6: Wii U Edition some time in the future. The game will feature Chris Redfield and Leon Kennedy, debuting in the first two games respectively, together for the first time in a series entry. Ada Wong supposedly plays a role also and will be a playable character.

Credit to IGN for the image. They have more details here:

Link 1
Link 2
Link 3 

Update! The first trailer for Resident Evil 6 has been released via Capcom Unity!

In the midst of Microsoft’s customer “service,” we find a heroine.

Happy new year, everyone. This is not the first post I intended to open 2012 with, but this a very interesting development:

Back in late September, I had written a piece about my friend whose Xbox Live account saw unauthorized access and unauthorized charges to her credit card. What followed was an aggravating attempt to communicate with Microsoft, who claimed to have suspended her account in order to investigate the matter even though she was still able to access her account. They came up short. Furthermore, they flat out refused service on the basis that she used an alternate, shortened form of her name which violated their terms of service.

Yet according to Xbox Live Director of Policy Stephen Toulouse, no such policy exists. So, what’s up?

No solid answer has yet to surface. Some are claiming it is a Windows Live ID issue, according to at least one testimony in this article from Joystiq. Microsoft has denied otherwise. Their response is akin to running around like headless chickens or perhaps like an ostrich with its head in the sand.

I mean, Christ, there’s yet another NeoGAF thread about it made on January 6 of this year. In this entire mess, though, someone has gone the extra mile.

Her name is Susan, who was victimized and had her Xbox Live account stolen and sold overseas. She went above and beyond and tracked down where her account ended up and eventually made contact with the person who bought the account. She got all the information Microsoft failed to do.

You can read her story and the plight of other frustrated customers on her page: Hacked on Xbox

So thank you, Susan, for all of your efforts. I wish I could have helped out my friend more on the matter but hopefully Microsoft sees that this is not a problem to be swept under the rug.

To a productive year!