Game of the Year 2012 — 90s_underconstruction.gif

For a second year in a row, I participated in voting for the best games of the year on NeoGAF. It is a work in progress, as the deadline is in mid-January and I have a number of games to get through (and some to even open, like Nintendo Land). I’m pretty confident about these right now.

You can read my comments for these games here, but here is the quick list, ranked:

1) The Walking Dead (Telltale Games, PC)
2) Sleeping Dogs (United Front Games, PC)
3) Kid Icarus Uprising (Sora Ltd., 3DS)
4) Journey (Thatgamecompany, PS3)
5) Theatrhythm Final Fantasy (Indies Zero, 3DS)
6) Sound Shapes (Queasy Games, PS Vita)
7) New Super Mario Bros U (Nintendo EAD, Wii U)

Honorable mentions:
a) Binary Domain (Yakuza Studio, PC)
b) Tokyo Jungle (SCEJ Studio, PS3)

2011 “Late to the party” award: Yakuza 4 (Yakuza Studio, PS3)

There are a handful of titles I’m trying to give attention to, and Persona 4 Golden has gotten most of it. It’s definitely more upbeat compared to what feels like the more serious, somewhat darker tone of Persona 3 Portable. The color scheme is incredibly vivid and accompanied by great art design, especially on the Vita’s OLED screen. I’m enjoying the writing so far and even the English voice-acting. It’s the social link system, bonding with characters so you can create more powerful Personas in battle, that keeps me hooked. I love experimenting with the fusion system that allows the creation of powerful Personas. I’m 60 hours into it, but nowhere near finished.

A surprising contender for the best of 2012 is Crimson Shroud, from studio Level 5 for 3DS. Superb writing: a fantasy novel cross-bred with a tabletop RPG. Its characters are affixed to bases like game pieces, no less. The battle system requires careful planning based on various circumstances. I enjoy its characters so far and its narrative. I’m only on Chapter 2, but so far a positive experience.

‘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.

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!

Bond, James Bond Post of My Hands, Your Throat, Activision

First of all, happy holidays, everyone.

I technically have two games to write about at the moment: the town remodeling at the expense of dead soldiers I’ve been attending to in Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood, and exploring ONE cave so far as a racist elf in Dragon Age: Origins, a game I am finally getting to play.

There is one thing I’ve made clear everywhere but here. I’m a pretty big James Bond fan. I’m no superfan. I haven’t read every book, I can’t recall every gadget used in every scene of every movie, and although I’ll say Connery is the number one Bond, I put Daniel Craig under a hairline second in spite of his two-film-three-game resume. I like the character. Even if you may not like WHAT he does (kill, but you know, he’s licensed to), but you have to respect HOW he gets it done. I like many interpretations of the character even if I don’t always agree on them. I have an eerie fascination with the style of the 1960s as seen in films like Goldfinger, Thunderball, and From Russia with Love. Overall, James Bond is awesome.

After Licence to Kill in 1989, the world didn’t see another film in the franchise for six years until Pierce Brosnan debuted as the famous spy in GoldenEye. Two years after the film, Nintendo and Rareware released GoldenEye for the Nintendo 64 console. A strange wind swept over us all as nearly every single N64 owner fell absolutely in love with everything about the game. It’s a first-person shooter we could play on a console and not with a keyboard and mouse. For 1997, the details, miniscule ones like bullet holes in the walls, were amazing. Hit detection, textures, they were all worth applauding. It gave the player tasks to accomplish that were beyond shooting your way from Point A to Point B, something I wish would return to modern shooters. In addition to an already fantastic single-player, there was a multiplayer mode included with dozens of characters to choose from and many modes and special options to configure, and this is before the explosion of the online deathmatches we all know and love today. In short, GoldenEye was gold.

Many attempts to recreate the game’s success had been met with decent to lackluster to awful reception. The videogame adaptation of 1999′s The World Is Not Enough was a decent entry, but forgettable. It was developed by Eurocom, as after GoldenEye, I believe MGM Interactive had the license and put out the games for Tomorrow Never Dies (an apparently terrible third-person action game) and 007 Racing (…). EA Games had it for the 21st century, releasing Agent Under Fire, which I’ve never played and never will and apparently I’m not missing much. Nightfire was a rather good game for 2002, although when I tried to play it last year good lord was I terrible at it because of the mechanics. 2004 gave us Everything or Nothing, which boasted some good production values. It featured R&B singer Mya in a role as well as the artist for the game’s theme song. It casted Pierce Brosnan, who had filmed his last Bond movie, the mediocre Die Another Day, two years prior, as well as Judi Dench as M and Willem Dafoe as the game’s villain. I actually managed to buy the Gamecube game for $5 and intend to finish it soon. In the decent attempts to make magic happen, it seems we all hoped to see another great game like GoldenEye.

Then EA released GoldenEye: Rogue Agent. I never played it and I never will. It received pretty mediocre to scathing reviews, and a lot of comments touched upon its use of the “GoldenEye” name to try and attract buyers. Studios, in whatever efforts they could exercise to bring in the cash, seemed to think we wanted another GoldenEye in name. We loved GoldenEye on the N64 because it’s a GREAT game. I’ve personally never had conversations with folks about how much they loved the movie as much, or the movie in context to the game. It’s a great adaptation of a James Bond movie, sure, but at its core it is a fantastic game that was incredibly well-realized and designed. We’re not in love with the name; we’re in love with the game. Certain evidence might point against me, as Rare did release a spiritual successor in Perfect Dark in 2000, which didn’t sell as well I believe but received equally acclaimed remarks. I personally argue that Perfect Dark could have seen more success if it hadn’t been released towards the end of the N64′s life span, as we were gearing up at that point for Project Dolphin (the Gamecube), and anticipating the next Legend of Zelda installment in Majora’s Mask. Plus, we needed the expansion pack to actually play the solo mode, otherwise we were reduced to shooting it up against bots (made for a disappointing summer rental at that time). Perfect Dark is a great game and worth revisiting on Xbox Live, but I digress!

Apparently Activision didn’t completely realize or correctly interpret our love for GoldenEye, since they thought their best attempts and best use of the license was to remake the golden goose with Eurocom. It’s seeing good reviews, but it personally leaves a bad taste in my mouth that we clamor for the name itself. Activision released their first 007 game: Quantum of Solace, in 2008 the same week or month the film saw its theatrical release. It was developed by Treyarch, the beta team for the Call of Duty games and remember when they did awesome ports of Tony Hawk games for the Dreamcast? It was a toddler’s version of Call of Duty, reflecting mostly on the Casino Royale film and story (my favorite Bond movie now) and just feeling like a shameless attempt for cash. I scored every achievement in that game. It required zero effect, and did not feel like much of an achievement at all. If you can snag it at a flea market for $5, I recommend it.

The reviews for the game were decent (a generous adjective) to critical (again, generous). They also did the inevitable comparison to GoldenEye, and it was at that point I had come to the realization that I wish everyone else would: WE’RE NEVER GOING TO SEE ANOTHER GOLDENEYE AGAIN AND IT’S SOMETHING WE WILL ALL HAVE TO COPE WITH IMMEDIATELY. Even Rare, who’s been sitting around twiddling their thumbs as a Microsoft property, doesn’t seem to have the incentive to make great games like they used to. Activision, with their reputation for being another money-and-power-hungry megalomaniacal corporation (to whose surprise?), acquired this potentially fun and great license just so no one else could have it, and squander it with mediocrity like Quantum of Solace. That sounds harsh for just one game from one company, until they released Blood Stone last month. I enjoyed what I played of Blood Stone, developed by Bizarre Creations (the folks behind Project Gotham Racing and the Geometry Wars series), when I tested it out at the New York Comic-Con months back. The game gets released to negative reviews, citing an apparently short campaign (four hours, I hear) and I guess not much in the way of multiplayer. Activision dumps this license on a talented team they couldn’t care less for as they count the profits from their latest Tony Hawk’s Call of Duty Shredding Hero game. It saddens me. Because this is the internet, it will all be met with indifference, and I will say to those people that they are part of the problem.  I understand that a mediocre game isn’t worth marketing, and that’s where it should start. Activision should at least pretend to care and put out ONE good game in this franchise that’s not a remake that misses the point even if it is decent. GoldenEye has actually seen a lot of marketing, way more than Blood Stone. My bias lies in my decision not to embrace the GoldenEye remake. I will play it eventually, but the whole philosophy behind it makes me feel a little dirty.

So today, Activision is taking another stab at Bond, with Raven Software. They are the fine folks behind Marvel Ultimate Alliance, Wolfenstein (which you probably didn’t play or enjoy), and the recent Singularity (heard of it?), which is apparently decent, but Activision won’t tell you much about it since it doesn’t have the name “Call of Duty” on it. I can already predict that the next Bond game will be met with a constant stream of average to decent reviews, marked with scores between 4 and 7, and will sell two copies because there will be absolutely no marketing for it, and people will just wonder why they bothered in the first place.

I would personally attempt to trust EA with this license again and, of all developers, hand the license off to BioWare. Yes, THAT BioWare. Mass Effect, Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic BioWare.

One of the things about James Bond games is that they’re straight-up shameless action games. You’re pretty much in the action setpieces of these attempts to recreate the mood and feel of James Bond movies. Between cut scenes of awkwardly rendered and animated Bonds spitting out some quip about women’s genitalia, we’re shooting at the same turtlenecked henchmen over and over until we see “MISSION COMPLETE” on the screen. M doesn’t really tell Bond to go to Exotic Location A and shoot up guys who give you the slightest dirty look (oh, and take this MP5N with you). Believe it or not, Bond movies TRY to have a story behind it. Heck, even the GoldenEye game had dossiers and case files that set up the context of the who, what, where, when, and why of how many Walther PPK bullets you put into those Commie Nazis. Bond, before he’s the killer, is actually quite the investigator. The train scene in Casino Royale will demonstrate that he’s one hell of a detective and great at surmise, and can read ANYONE like a book. It’s the whole incentive for his playing poker in the film. Incidentally, said scene, a battle of wits and words between smooth Daniel Craig and the luscious Eva Green, is a mission in the Quantum of Solace game: a literal battle with guns as Bond chases some drug czar on his way to the poker game. That’s what’s so great about these ridiculous and mediocre movie-games: every scene is a quest of survival! Anyway, Bond talks to folks, finds clues, gets leads, which will mean doing some talking. Since developers are obsessed now with trying to flesh out characters and have cutscenes interrupting my dynamics with their games, why not have the one developer who’s mastered the art of dialogue? Bond can play just like Mass Effect. If you want to keep the idea that Bond is already skilled in combat, then it doesn’t have to be a role-playing game. It would admittedly be strange for Bond to JUST learn how to be a sniper 10 hours into his mission. Bond can find clues, talk to people on the Citadel–I mean, well, wherever in the Bahamas he’s sent. The dialogue trees can even let the player play as the Bond they prefer: be the smooth yet aggressive Connery, the cold, no-nonsense Dalton, focused but reckless Brosnan, or stoic and overall badass Craig. Hell, most, if not all BioWare games let you create your protagonists anyway. It could be one hell of a licensed game. Why am I the only one who’s thought of this? Or am I?

Please, do something worthwhile with this license or let someone who might give a damn take a shot. Don’t be greedy, Activision*.

*Yeah, futile, I know.

Castlevania: Lords of Shadow post of Uncharted God of Inferno.

I hadn’t really kept up with the Castlevania series until Lords of Shadow was announced at E3 of this year. I’ve played a majority of the games in this franchise, don’t get me wrong, but somewhere along the way my fondness for Castlevania had dwindled until Lords of Shadow surfaced. One intriguing detail about it was the involvement of Kojima Productions, who worked on the massively popular Metal Gear Solid games. I then later discovered another team was involved: MercurySteam Studios, a Spanish development studio. I have no idea who they are outside of their work on Clive Barker’s Jericho, a game I have not played. The game is marketed as a “reboot” (that dastardly word) of the franchise, and it became later known that Lords of Shadow was originally supposed to be a new intellectual property, which sounds like what had happened with Silent Hill 4: The Room, another Konami franchise in addition to Castlevania. I think what had interested me in Castlevania this time around was, admittedly, the involvement of producer Hideo Kojima, but a larger reason were the voices of actors Patrick Stewart and Robert Carlyle in the trailer and their involvement in the game. I’m not even sure if the teaser trailer even feature anything from the actual game, but I joined in on the warm reception it received. Eventually as the game neared release, I decided to order the PlayStation 3 collector’s edition version that came with an art book and the soundtrack CD composed by Oscar Araujo. I was pretty astonished that the music would not be done in-house. I was actually a little surprised Kojima didn’t employ Norihiko Hibino or Harry Gregson-Williams, although I’m not certain how much of Lords of Shadow he and his people were involved.

I didn’t play the demo. I ordered the game on pure faith. I hardly ever do that anymore. In fact, I’ve been much more discriminating in my selection of games. This means I am usually now reduced to buying the big-name big-budget games since my money must go elsewhere now. I’ll be getting Fallout: New Vegas, 007: Blood Stone, and Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood and will call it a year. The reviews had started coming in and received positive marks for the most part. I popped in that disc into the console and my adventure began.

Lords of Shadow has received criticism for playing similarly to games like God of War and Dante’s Inferno. My thoughts on that amount more or less to how else would a game like this work? The game was originally supposed to be another new game altogether, and when they decided to make it “Castlevania”, their options were either to make it a 2D “Metroidvania” game and throw it up on Xbox Live and the PlayStation Network, or make it a 3D action game where you slay monsters and explore copious amounts of land and different settings. It’s not like running around a large environment and pressing two buttons to attack creatures is a specific, unique game mechanic to begin with. God of War might have helped make it a popular mechanic, but I don’t know if I would call it ripping off. Derivative, maybe. Nothing more. Nothing less. This is one of the more important aspects of Lords of Shadow, and I quite enjoy it so far.

As of this post, I am on Chapter IV or Chapter V. There is a lot of exploring and a lot of climbing that is familiar to anyone who has played games like Uncharted or the Crystal Dynamics-developed Tomb Raider games. Much of the game seems to take place outdoors in a forest setting filled with castle ruins and temples and what have you. I like the exploring to a point. Eventually you will use your weapon, a crucifix with a hidden iron chain, to swing on hooks to other locations. The game lets you know there is one near by looking for the blue glow surrounding them. Sometimes I find I need to be in a specific spot in an annoying camera angle in order to see one and then to be able to use it. The game has a number of pitfalls and high locations and of course I fall a lot because I am too dumb to see whether something is actual ground for me to step on, or part of the background and not meant to be interacted with by Gabriel, the protagonist and therefore, the player. I am not trying to make it sound like a game-breaker, because it isn’t, but the exploration needs a small amount of polish. A sequel was announced or is planned, I believe, so hopefully the exploration expands. The game is actually in stages like the games of yesteryear. I was taken aback and a tad disappointed. I was actually hoping to just explore one big territory and just have new areas load during the cut scenes.

It feels like you do more exploring than fighting. As you make your way to Point B, you’ll wander into some enemy territory, and wolves and goblins and trolls will be waiting to kick your ass. The enemies are such a pain, but in a pretty challenging way thankfully. They never, ever stop attacking. They do not follow the pattern of a bad martial arts movie where enemies wait until their own is beaten to a pulp before launching their own attacks. They will all come at you at once, and they’ll bring their pack leader with them a lot of the time. I had to learn to roll and do parry blocks quite often and I’ve had my ass handed to me a few times, especially in the boss battles.

All of the characters I’ve come across, especially Gabriel, are characters that have undoubtedly seen the Lord of the Rings movies often and are pretty much stock fantasy characters. Gabriel constantly has the look of a trouble, tortured man on his face but is so soft-spoken because all that’s on his mind are vengeance and the love of his (dead) wife Marie. He has a few guardian angels watching over him, like Pan the mythical fawn and, um, Patrick Stewart (I forgot his character’s name. Let’s call him Zardoz!). Stewart actually narrates the story between loading screens and it seems like he’s really into what he’s reading. I remember IGN actually criticizing Stewart’s performance because it was too melodramatic and over-the-top, and I disagree. Okay, MAYBE it’s a bit over-the-top, but I’d rather take fantasy exaggerated narration than him reading his shopping list any day, although I’d love to hear Stewart read his shopping list. One of the more interesting parts of the storytelling is constantly watching Gabriel in motion, slaying these dark beasts while Patrick keeps referring to him as a man obsessed and going down a dark path. One moment in the story had me questioning whether this was one of those stories where Gabriel was actually a villain in a way, but he is a Belmont. I forget if he is actually the first Belmont chronologically, as Lords of Shadow is set some time in the eleventh century. Perhaps something goes down that future Belmonts need to salvage? That would be pretty interesting.

I just read about a glitch in the PlayStation 3 version of Lords of Shadow where loading a save file might lead to said file’s corruption and will erase your game. That sounds fun. I may have a flash drive to back my save up, but I think I’ll put the game on hold until Konami puts out a patch soon. Remember when studios released final versions of their games?

The Trainwr–Tester

Whenever a new “reality” competition makes its way to television, usually the promos leave me intrigued and I always think maybe I’ll give the show a shot. I don’t really consider myself an avid viewer of this kind of programming, but I have sat through my share of contests: an entire season of CBS’s Big Brother and Survivor, two seasons of Fox’s American Idol, and a handful of episodes of The Amazing Race.

A month or two ago, I watched a trailer for The Tester, a show made available by Sony and Dr. Pepper and available for download on the PlayStation Network. It was nothing short of cringeworthy. On the show, a number of twentysomethings go through a bunch of Double Dare-inspired Physical Challenges(™) in order to secure a job at Sony Computer Entertainment America to become the next PlayStation tester. The goal itself, right from the beginning, put the mother of all dumbstruck looks on my face. My understanding is that being a tester is an awful job, to say the least. People are under the impression that any kind of job where you “get paid to game” must be the best job in the universe since turning the letters on Wheel of Fortune. I’m curious as to whether The Tester’s ‘con-tester-ants’ (har har) are aware of what they signed up for.

In the first episode, we meet the gang, excited at all the PlayStation gear they get to collect, and proudly wear their “Tester” badges. They then meet the host: model, cutie pie, and real trooper Meredith Molinari. She explains what is in store for them, and they meet the two main panelists: Brent Gocke, release manager of first-party quality assurance, SCE etc., and, um, comedian Hal Sparks, because he needs something to live on while he slowly waits until VH1 spits out I Love the ‘10s and ’20s.

The contestants on The Tester answer to what I assume to be their PSN user IDs or the names the show gave them. Some of them already crack me up, like Amped (real name Amanda Brockman), who may have clearly been signed on to be the “cutie” for all the hopeless nerds out there. Hey, maybe she can kick my ass at Modern Warfare 2, too. I’m not at all disputing her gaming skills at all because she belongs to a minority group of ‘hot gamers.’ Regardless, based merely on my assumption on how reality programs work behind the scenes, she could fail miserably at everything the show throws at her, but I can’t see her going anywhere just yet, even if it would leave Meredith as the only eye candy. Big D, well, nothing particularly outstanding except he needs to shave that beard ASAP. Then there’s Doc, whose ear studs, guido haircut and the vomit-inducing desire to pour beer in Apple Jacks just scream “Jersey Shore reject” from the top of a mountain.

I suppose if it weren’t for the fact that this is a program targeted towards what I’m guessing is the 18 – 34 male demographic, and “only” available on the PlayStation Network, and the “prize” for winning games that test important tester-level skills like launching footballs into a bucket, I’d probably dismiss it and move on to something else. But! Watching their “excited” reactions to everything Sony, including one contestant’s orgasmic reaction to guest panelist, Twisted Metal and God of War creator David Jaffe, folks, we might have a spectacular train wreck on our hands. The only thing that saddens me is that the contestants will, as of episode four, face PlayStation Home producer Katherine De Leon. I’m assuming the contestants have either scripted dialogue or at least certain directions to follow but man, I’d totally tell her how I feel about Home, if I were there facing elimination anyway. Can’t. Turn. Away.

Next up: Part One of my most-likely 3,619-part series of my time with Final Fantasy XIII.

Heavy Rain (The Conclusion)

Unexpectedly, I’ve come to the end of Heavy Rain. I couldn’t find my total time, but my estimate is somewhere between 10 to 12 hours. This may seem like a short game to many, but Heavy Rain is played in a variety of ways, and from what I’ve seen there are multiple outcomes. The first ending I saw was tragic, and loading the last few chapters to see a different outcome was a lot like rewinding the clock. In essence, I’d become Marty McFly, desperately trying to get his (future) parents to kiss at the Enchantment Under the Sea dance. Don’t take that reference too literally. I promise, no spoilers here.

My reaction is based on only one run through, but Heavy Rain is a fairly simple thriller in its core. There are a number of things involving some of the characters that go unexplained and some segments are baffling in terms of cohesion. Either you find out what those things are in other runs, or the game just dismisses it all in a happy ending that your choices brought. I liked the characters for the most part, and I like the big reveal. Despite this reveal, I expected something bigger from a game where I’m controlling four characters all after the same goal. By the end I was neither disappointed nor particularly placated, either.

Heavy Rain is fun in the same way you find watching Memento, Seven, or Zodiac fun. The shame of its multiple outcomes is that in your second runs and beyond, the mystery is already solved for you and everything you felt when it was revealed has vanished into the air. One of the more outstanding features is the soundtrack. The only time I ever remember the soundtrack bringing any comfort was in the beginning of Heavy Rain. Most, if not all of it, has a Clint Mansell type of intensity. The music does an astronomically better job with the drama than a few of the actors do.

This leads to my biggest gripe with Heavy Rain: the performances. There are a number of characters in Heavy Rain. After the prologue, there are very rare comforting moments in the story. Everything else is either intense, tragic, or angry. Despite this atmosphere, the characters always tell themselves to focus and remain calm. The actors have to be able to reach inside themselves and bring out their characters at their worst. Some don’t live up to that. There are scenes where the characters should be angry, or should display fear, but instead of that, we get awkward line deliveries that can’t even be excused as the characters keeping focused or remaining confident. The character most guilty of this is Ethan. Ethan is searching for his son, and yet hearing him mention that his son might die or something similar so casually makes me cringe. I wanted an angry, scared, but determined Ethan. Instead, he says “Shaun might die” like he’d say “The bank is closing at one o’clock!”

Most people will tell you they aren’t fans of quick-timer events. I believe they just aren’t fans of seeing the same scene over and over and over. The detractors have nothing to fear from Heavy Rain. If you do something you believe to be screwing up, the story will continue unless you say otherwise. The button combinations are usually simple. Sometimes you’ll be putting your fingers in awkward positions, but there are never impossible moments. Sometimes the button symbols look the same. Usually the symbol for pressing up on the right stick is an up arrow, but sometimes I’ll see a PS3 controller symbol with an arrow pointing up or down and I’ll still hit the stick in that direction rather than do the proper action of shaking the controller. The symbols also shake frantically to represent the fear of the characters, but sometimes they shake so much I can’t tell whether to repeatedly tap the button or just press it. On top of that, there are moments where the symbols are all over the place so you’ll really have to train your eye.

This is a story worth checking out at least once, despite its inconsistencies. Heavy Rain does a fairly good job establishing relationships and connections between the characters and between the player and the characters. It’s not the psychologically stirring game I was expecting, and good lord some characters are horrible clichés, but like the final season of Lost, you want to see what happens next.

Grade: B

Next up: Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell: Double Agent (original Xbox version)

Heavy Rain (or Strangers Are Linked in One Giant QTE)

The subtle yet curious cover art in Europe. The NA art defines mediocrity.

On recommendation, I downloaded a game to my Xbox 360 console called Indigo Prophecy (AKA Fahrenheit just about everywhere else), developed by Paris-based studio Quantic Dream. After maybe four hours of guiding a schizophrenic and two NYPD detectives through a murder “mystery,” I stopped. I remember a part where the female detective was claustrophobic and started panicking as I had to navigate her to a computer in the dingy archives room. I kept screwing it up and I just gave up. I haven’t gone back to it since. I might some day, which will be another addition to the hundreds of games I already have backlogged.

Quantic Dream and Sony have come together for a new release: Heavy Rain, for the PlayStation 3. The game, like Indigo Prophecy, is billed as an “interactive drama.” You guide a number of characters caught up in a plot to stop the Origami Killer, responsible for the deaths of young boys in an unnamed town. Heavy Rain is supposed to be a “choose your own adventure” kind of title. The game is the story, and the story is the game. It will unfold no matter what, and with simple button presses and however good your hand/eye coordination is, you will determine the outcome one way or another. In most games, if you didn’t push the button right away during the cutscene and you fail to reach the current goal, usually it’s regarded as a failure and you’ll have to sit through the scene again until you get it right. Supposedly this is not the case here. I read very little about Heavy Rain prior to its release yesterday, knowing only that it is developed by QD and would “play” similarly to Indigo Prophecy. I stayed away from reviews, although I am aware of its 87 score on Metacritic.

The case of Heavy Rain being essentially one long quick-timer event may put the title in the “love it, or hate it” camp. So far I’m enjoying it and I’ve had a number of really tense moments. So far the game succeeds at building relationships between me and the characters they will meet. I’m not too far in, having completed a chapter starring Ethan. I know those interested are shutting themselves in as much as possible to avoid spoilers, so “Ethan” is as far as I’ll go. My biggest gripe thus far is some of the voice acting and some of the performances. I feel some characters react to certain situations in no way any real person would, and I believe this to be a flaw because I sense that QD was going for heavily intense drama.

Next up: More Heavy Rain thoughts, and a revisit to the original Xbox with Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell: Double Agent.