Expansion!

I’d been giving this some thought. As of late, I haven’t played anything frequently enough to provide any sort of substantial commentary. I’m just now continuing my game of Golden Sun: Dark Dawn for the Nintendo DS, which I started all the way back in December. Since the Xbox Live Summer of Arcade program launches in July, I’ll at least have something to try out. To be honest, I’ve been sitting on writing an entire piece on L.A. Noire for quite some time, but I have to start collecting my thoughts.

In fact, lately, I’ve been watching more films and reading than playing games. So, as of today, I am expanding this blog to include all forms of entertainment. I simply hope to come away a better writer from this experience. The first will be commentary on X-Men: First Class.

See you then!

E3 2011: Nintendo’s iPad, the Wii U.

Color me intrigued, Nintendo.

I have owned my Nintendo Wii for three years this month, and my library has never exceeded more than ten games. It would be a disservice to call the console a failure, because the sales numbers would point and laugh at the idea. Much of the system’s charm came directly from Nintendo themselves, with games like Super Mario Galaxy and Super Mario Galaxy 2. The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess, Donkey Kong Country Returns (my personal favorite), and the Metroid Prime trilogy offer some quality software for this console–except for the fact that this was the company’s attempt to please the “core” fan base while they showered those darned “casual” folks with mini-game compilations and time-wasters, some providing genuine fun, some amounting to nothing more than shovelware. Yesterday, as I watched Nintendo give their presentation at E3, I started to wonder whether I personally ever gave the Wii a chance at all. I’d been critical of their decisions, as have others: an internet service that is almost at an atrocious level compared to the likes of Xbox Live and PlayStation Network, delays for their own releases when their third-party support is weak and those third-party games that ARE critically well-received seeing no marketing, thus no sales, thus another criticism of the lack of third-party support. Combined with the fact that the Wii is incapable of high-definition past 480p, there is some justification to be critical of the Wii. Maybe I should have looked harder for the games, but these companies should have made more of an effort to show me, to wow me. I remain indifferent about the concept of motion-controlled gaming. It works when it works, and it doesn’t the rest of the time.

Nintendo heard the critics, for the most part, and unveiled their successor to the Wii: Wii U.

The Wii U Controller, resembling a tablet with a button and pad interface.

If you see the image above, this is not the console itself, but the controller, which Nintendo is far more keen to show us than the base on which it operates. It is, according to their web site, a pad with a 6.2-inch, 16:9 touch screen. It features the typical button face, two circle pads (like their 3DS handheld device as opposed to an analog stick), a camera, accelerometer and gyroscope, stylus, rumble, and a microphone. The first disappointing news already is that the touch screen is of the resistive variety, not capacitive, so it may not be as accurate using your fingers, but I imagine at least the stylus will suppress that. What was rather impressive is the ability for video chat on the controller, which I imagine will be just one of many features Nintendo will cook up for that camera. Oh, and the Wii U will still make use of the original Wii remote.

The Wii U will support HDMI output, along with S-video, component and composite. Nintendo will finally, finally deliver in HD.

Now here is where the real challenge lies for Nintendo. One of the major criticisms of the Wii was the lack of third-party support. Nintendo was rather ecstatic to show you the kinds of titles it has lined up, such as Ninja Gaiden (Tecmo), Batman: Arkham City (WB Games), Darksiders 2 (THQ), Assassin’s Creed (Ubisoft), and all things EA Sports. This could work for them. Could. Wii adopters were mostly classified as casual players, and now Nintendo has to sell these games, most if not all will appear on the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3, to them (which shouldn’t be too difficult) but especially convince the ‘core’ audience to play the Wii U version of the big-budget game. The issue here is that Nintendo has caught up in a race where the competition is ready to move forward. Sony’s PlayStation Vita will sync from handheld to the PS3 console just as the Wii U controller will do. In fact, the PlayStation Portable already does this with the PlayStation 3. Sony has mentioned that they are working however which way on the PlayStation 3 successor. Microsoft is keen on giving the Xbox 360 a few more years by adding more games for its Kinect motion-control device and whatever they are planning for the Xbox 360 successor.

I hope Nintendo is listening to the critics, no matter how asinine the argument, and I hope they have learned from the Wii. With this investment and the kind of technology you are delivering to curious consumers, there is no falling back on Mario or The Legend of Zelda for the numbers. They will have a number of things to consider, also. Ergonomic design of the controller, battery life, comfort, aesthetics (although it does look friendly). Your internet service needs to get people interested, finding a less cumbersome way of security that will give people peace-of-mind in the wake of the PlayStation Network but feel friendly, too. You need online stability as well. Above all, there is price. The price is always the moment you stand on thin ice. Too low depending on production and design costs, you sell at a loss and won’t see profits for at least two or three years, sell high, you drive away the customers and you have your “FIVE HUNDRED NINETY-NINE U.S. DOLLARS” moment you can’t live down for some time. There is absolute promise in this console, though. A Nintendo console offering HD visuals is good enough for now to attract the folks, but think ahead, especially in terms of 3DS cooperation.

Nintendo, what have U got?

Pokémon Black — The journey is halfway over.

It’s amazing that once you’ve defeated the Elite Four and all of the subsequent story battles, your journey in Pokémon Black is far from over. There’s a whole other half of the region to visit, where trainers hold Pokémon as high as level 65 and there seem to be far more of them around than any point before the Pokémon League. I had spent hours and hours taking down Audinos, whose sole purpose is really just to help you level up faster. They even HEAL you during the occasional battle. I turned a Level 32 Axew into a dominant Level 72 Haxorus, wiping out every Pokémon in sight with Dragon Claw, Outrage, and Guillotine. I didn’t really want to do it that way. Any time I try to break into a new Pokémon game I always attempt to train my six team members evenly, but this time around I was desperate to teach Haxorus Outrage. As a result, it far outclasses even my Level 57 Gurdurr which, by the way, I’d love to turn into a Conkeldurr.

Although I am practically still getting my feet wet when it comes to this franchise, Black seems to tell one of the more interesting stories that still doesn’t make a lick of sense, at least if applied to the context of how our world operates. Although there are more motives afoot, you go about your journey in an attempt to prove yourself as a trainer, naturally. You’re introduced to the game’s antagonists, Team Plasma, whose goal is to set all of the Pokémon free and eliminate their relationships with human beings. The strange take on this is that from a certain standpoint, Team Plasma would probably be in the right given that Pokémon are used as tools and for the purposes of battling. The game has a few moments where it tries to address these issues from the actual creatures’ point of view through one of the antagonists, N, who communicates with them. Again, there are bigger motives in play, and I do appreciate the issue of how Pokémon tend to bring balance to life. It is definitely one of the better stories in this franchise that I have personally come across.

I have to talk about the music. The music has always been one of the stronger features of the franchise, I think. The main theme that everyone is familiar with plays with such flair when you’ve brought down a gym leader to his or her last Pokémon, and it plays with a gusto that you may as well play Bill Conti’s “Conquest” from the Rocky 3 soundtrack. The Team Plasma battle music has a very tense feel to it, which is almost funny considering most of the battles against them aren’t that difficult. I’ve always loved the feeling of serenity in the tunes you hear when you’re walking along any route to the next town. That serene feeling if taking in the roses brings a nice little marching tune to it once your trainer begins walking. It’s all done so well, and I’d totally buy an orchestral version of the soundtrack if one gets released. Fantastic score.

The visuals themselves are somewhat standard for a Pokémon title. 2D sprites are always fun to look at and admire. One of the things I enjoyed was the liveliness in the battle animations, filled with idle animations, breathing, etc. The standout feature for me was the architecture and the environment design. I’m used to wandering through small suburbs and little towns, but Game Freak went all out and gave us bustling towns and villages — people all over the place strolling, working, having drinks at a café, dancing, etc. A lot of the buildings and bridges get a lot of focus, with a third dimension added to them and they are viewed in such a way as your trainer walks around them or past them that I suspect Nintendo might have had plans for this game to utilize the tech of the new 3DS system in some way. There are a few close-ups and certain shots leave you in awe of the kind of world Unova is in comparison to Johto or perhaps even Sinnoh as well as some of the more majestic features of certain Pokémon.

I have much more work to do in this game, beyond the story, although I would like to go back to Platinum and SoulSilver while I still have this high of feeling good about beating a Pokémon game for the first time in forever.

5/5

Oregon Trail — Eagles will take your kids away.

The other day I was watching a rerun of G4′s Attack of the Show when the hosts interviewed one of the actors from film director Zack Snyder’s newest excuse to use slow motion: Sucker Punch. Either I didn’t pay full attention to the interview, or the entire interview was just the hosts asking about said actress’s “love” of videogames which amounted to her saying she loves games on her iPhone, like Oregon Trail. This got my attention in the strangest way that I can’t quite possibly expand on. It was already one thing to say you love videogames then name one that’s exhausted its nostalgia factor and is now just another internet meme, but Oregon Trail just sounded so random to me. Then I remembered I actually downloaded Oregon Trail for iOS but never actually played it until yesterday.

"A broken leg? I hope you like running!"

Well, of course if you were ever a kid in the ’80s or ’90s you probably played Oregon Trail in computer classes or at a public library. Beyond the “edutainment” label, I wouldn’t know what to call it beyond time management although so many events that go down along the Trail feel random and cheat you out at the same time. Instead of the deliciously ugly visuals on the Apple II, we get a cartoony design worthy of a syndicated comic strip. Many options are stripped down, I noticed. From what I remember, you actually decided how many oxen, sets of clothes, pounds of food, bullets you’d take on the trip depending on your profession. In the iOS take, you basically pick a profession, weigh out the pros and cons, and have everything decided by two meters: food and everything else. You can still buy stuff at the general stores at the many settlements you come across during the journey, but now these items affect how ahead you keep to schedule and how often these supplies will be used on the trip. Bullets seem infinite, and simply tapping on the animals to shoot at them takes away the entire challenge of the arrow keys. Everything has a mini-game attached to it instead of what amounted to rolling a die and seeing how your chances held up. You tap berries as they appear on the bushes to collect them in your basket before they disappear. You fling your fishing line and try and capture X number of pounds of bass and Sharktopus-sized catfish. You hammer nails as they align to the circle for the perfect hit a la many music rhythm games. The strangest one is the Simon-like post office game where you tap on different telegraphs in a pattern for experience points and, I guess, contact people back home?

Some strange additions to this game. Some narrator type yokel makes fun of you for declining to hunt for game. If I’m good on food and I need to keep up to schedule, why would I lose a day to hunt? Screw off! Were eagles snatching children a big problem in the 19th century? To be fair, if you tap the screen at the right time you can bring that sucker down and contribute to the extinction of the American bald eagle. Although they’re just relegated to “snakebites,” why in hell are giant snakes eating children? There doesn’t seem to be any way around that. My personal favorite is the family riding you for picking up an extra passenger who just lies on his ass and doesn’t contribute anything to help ease your journey and you get a measly (well, by 2011 standards) $5 that won’t buy much. At least they had the foresight to design crossing rivers in a way that I won’t die from wading in two feet of water.

Honestly though, I CAN, in fact, recommend this 99-cent app at the App Store, if only because they recognized some of the lunacy of the original games and made it just a little wackier and much more colorful.

Alpha Protocol — Just hand me a pistol.

I am a little late to the party on this one. Thursday I celebrated my 26th birthday and, along with getting Marvel vs. Capcom 3, I got some extra cash and paid Toys R Us a quick visit. Inevitably heading over to the games area, I started browsing until I happened to notice all the way on the top shelf hidden in a corner was a game I had always been curious to experience: Alpha Protocol. The Sega game was developed by Obsidian Entertainment, who brought us the sequel to Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic and recently Fallout: New Vegas. This is an action RPG game that borrows a lot of its design from Bioware’s Mass Effect titles. One of the more intriguing features in its premise is that this is pretty much a spy RPG, which you don’t see much.

I’ve played through the tutorial and the first two countries and at this point I think I have the mechanics of Alpha Protocol down pretty well. The beginning has you run through an institution that ends up as a test to see how well the protagonist, Michael “I Swear I’m Not Boring Ass Sam Worthington” Thorton, handles himself in the field. One of the more hilarious moments in the tutorial is the agency chief’s way of explaining CONVERSATIONS WITH PEOPLE, and Michael acts as if he’s never had different chats with different people in his life. I don’t know if real spies just have dialogue that’s only relevant to their assignment, or they stop to chat about the latest episode of Dexter in between neck-snapping, but hearing that acting like a douche bag might not always be the best approach to people or that you even have a choice to be nice, sarcastic, or professional/stoic. Although one of the finer points made is that people react to different approaches. One character might actually prefer that you’re a jerk, and flirt too much and you’re just a creepy stalker who needs to keep his libido in check.

 

"No, I was NOT Jake Sully in Avatar!"

 

 

Actually, the conversational system is one of the bigger, more impressive draws of Alpha Protocol. Typically, RPGs that give players the choices to respond to NPC phrases almost always have a black and white approach to them. One response is typically the polite, stoic, harmless response. The other is either incredibly polite, nice, on a knight-in-shining-armor level, or the incredibly evil, mean, plain douche-y response, and of course how you respond affects your relationships with other characters whether in a romantic sense or as allies or whatever. Alpha Protocol follows a milder approach to it, where Thorton’s replies can be aggressive, modeled after Jack Bauer from the series 24. Then there’s a suave response, which takes some phrases after famous spy James Bond, typically used as sarcasm and especially flirting if Thorton speaks to a woman. Jason Bourne of the Bourne books and films inspires the ‘professional’ responses, that tend to get to the point. This apparently genuinely affects the story and how mission circumstances play out, for once. I spoke to a gentleman who appreciated my professional, stern approach, and offered to assist me in my next mission. Apparently had I been an ass to him, I would be fighting his troops at the end. All of this happened because I spared someone close to him rather than shoot her face. I can even buy more weapons from the black market as a result.

When the fun chats aren’t going down, you’re on a mission that will require you to steal information, or kill someone important. After outfitting yourself with your preferred choices or weapons and armor, you can either go on your mission and just shoot up the place or take a quieter approach, sneak up on the bad guys and you have a choice of lethal and non-lethal takedowns. The gameplay is modeled after Mass Effect in that how you distribute skill points across the board affects how effective your weapons and your abilities are throughout Alpha Protocol. I’ve decided I like silence, and a challenge, so I’m honestly putting my points into stealth and pistol rankings. You can also upgrade health/resilience, and melee combat, another field I’m tinkering with. I actually kind of enjoy beating up bad guys when I can, but sometimes the bad guys will take a step back with their guns and Michael apparently has the reach of a nine-year-old.

The shooting can get frustrating if you come in expecting Gears of War style of combat. Your stats and weapon modifications can affect how powerful your gun is and how fast you can take them down. This is primarily why I like to sneak and take down guards. Sneaking is actually pretty easy although sometimes you’ll be forced into firefights.

Sneaking is honestly easy because all of the enemies in Alpha Protocol are, well, DUMB. They have zero peripheral vision, and take a while to recognize you as a threat. Plus if you upgrade your stealth ranking, you can unlock an ability that renders you invisible for a few seconds to get away before it all goes sour. However, in firefights they can get grenade-happy and chug frags your way. This is frustrating sometimes because if you’re crouched against a wall for cover, leaving cover will keep Thorton moving slowly and you have to stand up quickly enough to get far away from the explosion, which can do a LOT of damage. On top of that, the camera gets really stupid and closes up on random things, the wrong locations, and tricks you into thinking you have a shot that will just hit a piece of the concrete or whatever it is you’re using for cover. Bad guys also like to charge, and I HATE when enemies charge at you. Most people wouldn’t mind because enemies in shooting games tend to just stand there and fire away reducing their entire existence to cannon fodder. Luckily you can easily take them down if they charge down your way with a simple tap of a button.

One thing I can’t stop thinking about is that the game is kind of ugly. The cutscenes tend to have a washed out look with strange filters on the screen that’s supposed to emphasize the drama and down-to-earth attitudes of the narrative, but games don’t do this well at all. There’s also the frequent screen-tearing and ugly modeling.

The other thing I can’t get off my mind is that Alpha Protocol has one of the worst title screen tunes ever. It’s not even music. It’s like what evil scientists would blast in your ears to ‘experiment’ on you: just a bunch of random screeching noises with no rhythm whatsoever and I’m always desperate to hit the Start button.

I don’t know how far into Alpha Protocol I’ve reached, but this will be part one of a two-parter.

Dead Space 2: Permanent Markers

It takes a crazy man to face the trauma, horror, and insanity a second time that haunted him years earlier, and Isaac Clarke is crazy enough to do it. He took on monsters that invaded the doomed spaceship the Ishimura in 2008′s Dead Space, a surprise hit from EA and Visceral Games (then EA Redwood Shores). The game drew its plot and mood from films like Alien and Event Horizon. It drew its control from Resident Evil 4 and even improved it in ways. The combination worked well enough to continue Isaac’s troubled journey in Dead Space 2, set years after the events on the Ishimura.

We find Isaac this time in a hospital on a station called the Sprawl. Seemingly, he’s being treated for the trauma from the Ishimura, but his reintroduction is so brief that before you take in the fact that he now has a voice, you’re practically hitting the ground running the moment the game begins. Isaac is strapped in a straitjacket and you have to dodge the game’s enemies, the Necromorphs, as you make your way to an elevator to escape. The game feels like it really starts the moment you acquire the first of a few engineering suits in the game.

Isaac is greeted by an old friend.

Most of Dead Space 2 will feel familiar right away: the RIG (health meter), the stasis function that allows you to freeze enemies in place, the weapons, the overall feel and mood. The gameplay bears the same concept: proceed to an objective, battle the Necromorphs hidden everywhere, get something done, upgrade equipment, try not to die. The kind of game that Dead Space is means it doesn’t require a whole lot of retooling, just a few fixes here and there, a few this game did get.

As you guide Isaac through the Sprawl, you will encounter a few characters along the way: fellow patient and crazy guy Stross, who seems to be the key to destroying the Marker, the symbol of being and hope and life for the game’s Unitology cult that spawned the demonic and murderous Necromorphs. There is also Ellie, a pilot for CEC, the mining company that made the whole “planet cracking” process possible that more or less allowed this whole mess to happen.

Throughout the story, Isaac has moments of hallucination and breaks down as he is haunted by the ghost of Nicole, his girlfriend who served aboard the Ishimura before the Necromorphs took over. One of Dead Space 2′s themes is acceptance, and Isaac is struggling to accept Nicole’s death, but that part of him that can’t let go is infected by the Marker, who wants Isaac to get to it.

Certain elements of Dead Space are gone. In replacement of boss battles and shooting asteroids, the game has ramped up the amount of Necromorphs you fight. There are many moments where Isaac will have to destroy a swarm of them and they come in waves. In one fight, I counted about five or six in one swarm. Sometimes it gets frustrating and can feel cheap, especially when some of the monsters appear from right behind you without you even knowing. The final segments of the game take this to a whole new level, for better or worse. Hopefully you will have enough ammo for your weapons. Speaking of which, in addition to their upgrades, done at benches that can add more ammo to a clip or increase damage, you can actually reverse the process. For 5,000 credits, you can remove nodes from upgraded weapons and place them somewhere else. I didn’t actually use this feature, but it’s certainly nice to have.

The zero gravity areas are back and improved upon. Isaac can now travel anywhere in the Zero G area rather than find hopping points. If he strays too far from a landing point, a simple push of the button will orient him to the ground for landing. There weren’t that many to be found and, although it’s nice to see improvements, add very little to the experience.

Although the game remains identical to the first, the overall plot was underwhelming. Although I truthfully consider the entire Unitology and Marker plotlines to take a backseat to the intensity and fear, one aspect of the plot that was especially disappointing was its exploration of Isaac’s mental stability, or lack thereof. His anguish actually has a purpose, but its primary source feels like a copout. That could have been something, and didn’t deliver. The game also doesn’t do a well enough job to get the player to sympathize with the broken relationship between Isaac and Nicole. We didn’t know that much about them before the Marker entered their lives although we’re supposed to assume they were very close. I actually saw more chemistry between Isaac and Ellie.

Dead Space 2 is an improvement in all of the right places, and leaves alone what isn’t broken. For better or worse, it takes the “action packed sequel” route but does a decent enough job in execution. It is wonderfully produced though. The visuals are some of the most beautifully dreary set pieces in a game, and the lighting is exceptional. Although I find it to be a decent at best sequel, I commend Visceral Games for the effort they put into its design.

4/5

Vanquish: Ballet of Bullets

I do apologize for not having written anything in almost two months. Although I have been playing my fair share of games, I don’t necessarily feel 2011 is starting off as hot as I would have liked.

One of those games I’ve been playing (and playing over) is Vanquish, Sega’s attempt at a Western-style third-person shooter a la Gears of War. It was developed by Platinum Games, makers of Bayonetta (played by millions) and Madworld (played by three people). I only played Bayonetta as a demo and while I did get a kick out of it, at the time I didn’t feel it was for me. It’s pretty cheap now, so maybe I’ll give it a go.

 

Seriously. It's like Iron Man versus Mega-Michael Bay-tron.

Vanquish is the story of a group of Russian ultranationalists (videogames’ new Third Reich apparently) who annihilate San Francisco and seize an American space colony, demanding the surrender of the United States government and oh really who cares? Let’s kill robots!

Yes, in what seems to be a subversion of sorts from other action games that wage virtual human against virtual human, Vanquish launches its own Judgment Day and decides humans should be fighting robots. The Russians have robots, lots and lots of robots. The US has DARPA, the Marines, and Sam Gideon, who the player will be controlling for the duration of this war. Sam is testing DARPA’s new fancy Augmented Reaction Suit that they dreamed up after watching the Iron Man movies far too many times. This suit is so advanced and cutting-edge that throwing a punch overheats the suit, taking too many hits overheats the suit, it allows Sam to fly skate around with boosters on his feet (ROCKET SKATES!), and did I mention throwing a punch overheats the suit? To be fair, he’s using the suit’s boosters to really drive the point home.

More or less the moment you take control of Sam, you’re in what is typically referred to as “bullet hell.” The robots are everywhere firing at you and your squadmates. Sam is armed with a number of weapons, although to be frank I pretty much ran through Vanquish twice with mostly the assault rifle and heavy machine gun. Along the way, you’ll find green cubes that allow you to upgrade the weapon, allowing for more ammo and greater firepower. In a nice addition, if your weapon is fully loaded, picking up the same weapon also upgrades it one rank.

Vanquish features that oh-so-familar cover system that you probably won’t be using that much if at all. Sam’s rocket skates allow him to glide all over the area and fire at enemies. When he does this, he enters into the Augmented Reaction mode, which is the nerdy way of saying “bullet time.” Everything slows down, allowing you, and thus Sam, to get better aiming at his foes without them ever getting a chance to turn their guns to you. Of course, do this for too long and the suit overheats. When the suit overheats, you better take cover immediately because those bullets WILL find you and the game does that annoying thing games do when you take damage, the screen turns red and starts having a seizure. Why do games do this? Hey, your screen is turning redder and redder and pulsing like the human body does! Although it’s now harder for you to see the screen and make out the situation to devise a quick strategic retreat, it’s just going to keep doing this until — ahh, there we go. Dead. Enjoy making up the last twenty minutes!

Speaking of those twenty minutes, it wouldn’t be a Japanese game without ridiculously cheap boss battles! I originally ran through Vanquish on Normal mode, and even then it was pretty damned tough. When I fought the first sub-boss, I was doing pretty well. The bosses have glowing parts that scream “PLEASE SHOOT HERE!” so that their core opens up for the smacking. I had almost taken him out, and then he shot what would be Iron Man’s chest beam times a thousand and boom, I am dead. Despite having destroyed the giant robot’s legs, I had to do it all over. 20 to 25 minutes gone. It wasn’t like the boss was difficult, either. The bosses are bullet sponges for the most part. Hell, it happened AGAIN when I had to fight two of them AT ONCE. Japanese developers love to do that, because they’re sadists. The strange thing is that you will fight some tough bosses, but the final boss is actually a piece of cake.

Vanquish is a pretty fun game for the most part, especially if you don’t think too much about it. I mean, you’re shooting robots in third-person with a regular assault rifle (or a rocket launcher, the “LFE Gun” that shoots like an energy bubble at enemies). It’s not new. In fact, it should be pretty stale, but I loved what a mess the battlefield was and how crazy the fights got. Marines get shot down, and if they’re hurting Sam can revive them for bonus ammo and new weapons. I ended up saving like 10 of 80 or so wounded. I wish the robots had been programmed not to shoot at people being treated like in World War II.

It can have some serious frustration at hand, but Vanquish both drove me crazy and entertained the heck out of me.

Do I have to start scoring things now? I guess if that’s how this goes now. 4 out of 5!

Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit Post of Spike Strips and Helicopters.

The last racing game I had gotten involved with was Grid in 2008 for the PlayStation 3. I had read some positive impressions and just picked up a copy during my vacation in San Diego. I’m not particularly genre-saavy when it comes to the racing games. I don’t care much for Gran Turismo, or NASCAR, or just racing in general, but occasionally something will put me in the mood to cruise. This time, it’s Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit from EA Games, developed by Criterion Software, makers of the Burnout games.

The game does a really good job helping newcomers to adjust to its design, teaching the basics and allowing you to become comfortable with its controls, the tracks, and its vehicles. One thing I admired was the selection from the beginning. Most racing games require you to claw your way to the top in your Volkswagen before you hop into the driver’s seat of that Ferrari you bought the game to drive in the first place. Here you already have a selection of nice sports cars and unlocking the faster, superior vehicles is rewarded through the game’s bounty system: race well, earn bounty points, level up, get new vehicles and equipment. The downside is that certain missions have circumstances where the vehicle you want may not always be available for that specific event. Nevertheless, the game’s track designs and the environments in general make the racing worth it. The blazing speeds you will go might send you back in time, just be careful you don’t collide with an oncoming family sedan.

In addition to racing, you can pursue a career as a police officer, driving equally slick vehicles equipped with some fun gadgets like the spike strip, which will stop a racer dead in his tracks temporarily. It’s best used when the car’s “health” meter is in the red zone, and would make for a nice bust. As an officer, with more experience, you can call in support in the form of roadblocks and helicopters. Helicopters will try to stop racers with the spike strips, although unfortunately there can and probably will be instances where you’ll end up with tires blown out in a form of friendly fire. I tend to notice as you further in your career as an officer, the gadgets will be upgraded, but racers will seem more attuned of your next move and are almost ready to execute their own counterattack with almost perfect execution, as racers are also able to have gadgets equipped, like frequency jammers that prevent the police from using any equipment on hand. Nothing is more annoying than meeting a spike strip as you near the rear bumper of that Porsche 911 by slipstream.

I don’t dip into the more social aspects of games as often as I would like, but the Autolog feature, which crosses racing with a Facebook-like atmosphere, is pretty interesting. Your best times, cars used, and even attempts at specific events are recorded for your friends to see. I enjoy the challenge of trying to take the number one spot of my Speedwall, or at least trying to top the time of the friend the game recommends I challenge. I felt good about myself after a friend sent me a text message saying “I don’t know how you got some of those times. You’re a beast.” You can also share photos of events that go down during your races or pursuits: a crash, a great drift turn, finishing by a nose. I think a lot of games could benefit from a feature like this.

When I insert that game disc into the Xbox 360 tray, I am lost for hours racing (there is even a free-roam mode to test cars out and practice), trying to beat my own times as well as those of my friends, but I can’t help but call this game out for some lackluster choices. EVERY hit you deal to an opponent will be met with a short animation of the car taking damage that will kind of put your race to a halt and take you out of the control of your vehicle. This might occur during a dangerously sharp corner or even on a straight path with an oncoming vehicle you weren’t prepared to dodge. It’s equally annoying during the pursuit races, when your vehicle’s scanner picks up an upcoming police car, cut to the animation, back to the race and an obstacle you might not be completely ready to take on, or you’re still holding on to the gas pedal when you probably should be braking for that next drift. The game is guilty of something notorious in a lot of racing games: Rubberbanding AI. Get too far ahead of the competition in your 201 MPH Maserati, and that 180 MPH Audi is breaking the sound barrier and it’s right behind you. It never devolves into flat out cheating, but certain cases make it a very annoying thing to deal with. The game also likes to mess with you and put civilian vehicles smack dab in the middle of very sharp turns so you have to be extra careful not to sideswipe it and let the other racers (even the one in last place) catch up, because they – absolutely – will.

Call of Duty: Black Ops — Clean up this mess.

One may argue that at this juncture, the Call of Duty franchise is almost exclusively about the multiplayer mode. It’s undoubtedly why this series has broken so many sales records. However, having just plowed through the single-player campaign of the latest installment, Black Ops, may I suggest Treyarch and whatever other possible development team Activision hires to pump these games out like weekly cartons of milk to either drop the single-player mode or, you know, make them good? Call of Duty 4, World at War, and to a lesser extent, Modern Warfare 2 managed to be the fun ones. Let’s keep that going, shall we?

Black Ops is what happens when you put The Manchurian Candidate, The Deer Hunter, Forrest Gump, and Lost in a blender and you accidentally spill the mixture on the floor. You switch between soldier Alex Mason, under interrogation by shadowy figures for the location of a Russian broadcast station, and Hudson, a special agent who worked with him on a few missions spanning most of the 1960s. It’s an entire game filled with the most bizarre, seizure-inducing cutscenes in a game. It does that annoying thing you see in psychological thrillers when the audience discovers the protagonist’s psychological makeup has completely cracked: quick camera cuts, bright white lights, horrible ambient noises that are what ghosts might sound like, and too much screaming for my liking. The game itself is the same single-player that used to be fun on some occasions. From Point A to Point B, shoot at everyone not speaking a word of English. One of my first complaints is that there are too many scripted events in this game. It’s a whole new take on dragging cut scenes. Stand there, only able to move the camera, while your other characters talk to each other setting up the exposition for the upcoming mission. “Follow me!” someone will shout. Do this, do that. Then the action comes, and Treyarch certainly did not hold back in the action department. While you’re going to be in some heavy combat (one mission is a battle in the Arctic Circle and many missions are set in major conflicts of the Vietnam War), the way combat and brutality is depicted is enough to give someone a headache. Explosions are so common it’s amazing you can get anything done. There are some levels where an interior location is collapsing, and the rumbling of the floor, and the camera convulsing, and dust and other debris in your face have long stopped being the cinematic thrills that are in your face and are now just irritating moments that put the action to a complete stop. One level has you running through a city street bombarded in a lethal nerve gas that completely halts your ability to see anything yards ahead of you. You’ll see bullets hitting your gas mask to a point where it bursts open, exposing you to the nerve gas, and you’re restarting at the checkpoint. There is an achievement/trophy for getting through this segment without dying. Why should this be an achievement? “Hey, we’re going to intentionally blind you for half of this area, and if you actually make it through, well you’re good!” That’s not a challenge, but then again, there has never been a single thing “challenging” about this franchise. Although you get a variety of weapons in Black Ops, the game’s clipping and hit detection issues mean bullets will pass through your targets a number of times in an already frustrating environment. Be prepared for the usual Call of Duty staples like targets only firing at you, your teammates’ ineptitude, impossible sniping, heavy use of heavy artillery where situations don’t call for it*, etc.

*I mean seriously. Why are you arming several villagers with rocket launchers when we’re a squad of like four guys?

The real guilty party is the game’s cast and its story. I already have a distaste for Sam Worthington, a terribly boring actor who has the knack for playing characters with absolutely no charisma. Mason is no different. Worthington might actually be putting in the most solid performance of his career to date with his constant shouting and dropping F bombs. I really enjoy how strenuous it is for him to use an American accent and constantly slipping back into his Australian one and making a strange mixture of the two. I also love the game’s horrible dialogue, with every other line that isn’t explaining the plot being “We’re going to kill the son of a bitch!” “[Villain] is going to pay for what he did!” “You messed with my mind, you son of a bitch!” Ed Harris voices Agent Hudson, and would have put in a chilling performance if his lines weren’t recycled from bad espionage movies. Gary Oldman returns as Reznov, the Russian soldier from 2008′s Call of Duty: World at War. Reznov is the real star of the show. Oldman was undoubtedly the only person who shared something with his character and his monologue about everything that went wrong in his life during World War II is the only, only highlight of the game, unless you want to include a John F. Kennedy impersonation that may as well be from the old cartoon series Clone High.

The story itself tries to mix in suspense, as Mason is converted into a Russian sleeper agent (and the key to the entire plot, sadly) and hears numbers in his head and everyone tries to discover “WHAT DO THE NUMBERS MEAN?” Drinking game! Take a shot every time someone asks that question. Only he knows the location to a broadcast station that holds information about a super deadly nerve gas and plans to invade the United States with it. There are no compelling characters to help the player connect with the story, and the one character worth anything, Reznov, is reduced to cameo appearances and a tour guide through certain maps. I’m impressed that the story doesn’t completely go into insane directions, like in Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater, also set during the Cold War. This is the only Call of Duty that feels completely like it glorifies war, as although you are simulating combat with a game controller in your hand, Infinity Ward had managed to strike a balance between entertainment and the “war is hell” philosophy that is not present at all in Black Ops. Heck, even the pro and anti-war quotes are gone completely, and considering how much turmoil surrounded the Vietnam War in the United States, that’s a bit disconcerting. The final shot of the game is the most nauseating Michael Bay-level of American jingoism I’ve seen in a game since, well, maybe Modern Warfare 2.

Fallout: New Vegas ‘Dead Money’ DLC Now Available

Now available exclusively on the Xbox 360, the first expansion pack for Fallout: New Vegas, titled Dead Money, is now available to download from the Xbox Live Marketplace at a cost of 800 Microsoft Points.

From the Bethesda web site:

“As the victim of a raw deal you must work alongside three other captured wastelanders to recover the legendary treasure of the Sierra Madre Casino. In Dead Money, your life hangs in the balance as you face new terrain, foes, and choices. It is up to you how you play your cards in the quest to survive.”

I have not seen a trailer (which you can view here), although I probably won’t be able to download Dead Money until after the holidays. Heck, I need to get started on Red Dead Redemption’s Undead Nightmare expansion!