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.

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!

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.

Fallout: New Vegas Post of Everyone’s Kind of a Jerk

As of this writing, I have reached the maximum level of 30 in Fallout: New Vegas. Constant questing and constant murder helped to maximize my endurance as well as my use of traditional weapons in the Mojave Wasteland. However, I am not quite finished with the game’s main storyline quest. Most of my time in the Wasteland is spent discovering new areas, not only as a means of exploration and satisfying my curiosity, but in terms of practicality it will allow me to ‘fast travel’ to locations if I have to be at a specific location for a quest. It beats having to deal with the creatures of the Mojave. Speaking of the fauna of Fallout: New Vegas…

I want to shove whoever designed the Cazadors down a flight of stairs.

 

 

Cazadors are giant mutated butterflies that will attack you on sight and constantly pounce on you with a hard thud. These harbingers of death can inflict an insane amount of damage, especially if you are at a low level and have mediocre armor. The worst thing about this is that Cazadors travel in swarms. Apparently it just isn’t enough for one to attack. Cazadors are the new Deathclaws, and that is saying something considering the Deathclaws make a return in New Vegas.

One new feature in New Vegas is the ability to find and travel with companions. I’ve discovered and helped up to five people and convinced them (mostly with a high Speech skill) to join my cause and head for the gambling paradise of New Vegas. One character, Veronica, is pretty damned useful in her ability to punch something with a hurricane-level amount of force although she is prone to falling unconscious a few times if enemies overwhelm your party. Companions make the game a more pleasant experience and ease the journey and the number of fights you will get into, provided you give them the right items. Of course eventually they’ll need a favor from you that involves exploring an aspect of their past.

For a game about surviving in a post-apocalyptic wasteland, there is a much more social aspect to the story design. In addition to having traveling companions in your wandering journey, New Vegas and the Mojave seem way more rife with settled communities and flourishing businesses. The developers boasted a much larger game than Fallout 3, which nearly double the locations and double the quests. The random NPCs of New Vegas are marginally more diverse than its predecessor. This time not every old man has the same “old country guy/general store owner/sweet grandpa” voice. One of the more entertaining aspects of New Vegas is its humor, much of it based on pure cynicism from the locals most likely brewed from the troubling war between the ambiguously heroic New California Republic and the brutal, insane yet somehow civilized Caesar’s Legion. A new feature allows your character to make connections with certain factions, and your actions determine whether they like you, sort of like you, think you’re a threat, or solely unpredictable and can’t decide on your character’s motives either way. You could very well be your own Ben Linus in the wasteland!

Fallout: New Vegas didn’t give me a warm reception, and I certainly returned the favor. I was displeased with the game originally, because I found it so frustrating. Even at higher levels, enemies can be cruel. Make sure you have armor in strong condition. After a while, I felt pretty at home in the Mojave, much like the Capital Wasteland. I understood how everything works and how people and creatures work. The game succeeds in making you feel a part of the wasteland. Having a high Repair skill helps along the way. Now if you’ll excuse me, I have business in The Strip.

Fallout: New Vegas post of Everything Wants to Kill You.

In a decision I rarely exercise in role-playing games, my character in Fallout: New Vegas is female. She has the hair the likes of Veronica Lake or Jessica Rabbit with a darker shade of red. When the game begins, she is bound, waking up from a state of unconsciousness and is watching the thugs who attacked her for her package dig a grave no doubt for her. The leader of the group gives a villainous monologue and shoots her, leaving her for dead. It’s a bleak and suspenseful event, although not as emotionally connecting as the introduction of Fallout 3, where the wife of a scientist dies giving birth to the protagonist, setting the game’s events in motion.

My character survives thanks to the efforts of a doctor in the nearby town of Goodsprings. After a brief tutorial on how to control my character, I leave the man’s house and step out into the Mojave Wasteland. Wow. The first thing I learned upon my first view of the wasteland is that everything in a post-apocalyptic world will look the same whether on the east coast (Fallout 3 took place in a post-apocalyptic Washington D.C./Baltimore area, Pittsburgh if you purchased ‘The Pitt’ expansion) or the west.

Ah, so we aren’t even in New Vegas in the beginning of Fallout: New Vegas. From what I understand, New Vegas is the protagonist’s prime destination. The goal is to find the people that left her for dead, so far. I have put in close to 11 hours into the game, developed by Obsidian Entertainment. Fallout 3 was developed by Bethesda Game Studios, a division of Bethesda Softworks, which published both games. Part of me is comfortable with the game, after investing well over 100 hours and more into Fallout 3 and every single one of its expansion packs. It makes me feel like I know my way around. Part of me is nostalgic for the gray skies of the Capital Wasteland, because it seems like the Mojave has much, much more vast, open stretches of desert (as it should), and I actually enjoyed the urban environments and settlements of Fallout 3. Most of the communities I have come across in the Mojave are shanty towns and military (AKA the New California Republic) forts, all of whom complain about their posts in one way or another. Part of me is also immensely frustrated at how relentless the game is when you’re a level 1 scrub armed with a “Varmint Rifle.” I’ve been viciously attacked by just about anything out in the wild. The human enemies aren’t even my biggest beef, but with the mutated insects like scorpions and hornets and lunge and pounce at you. When you fire at them, most of the time the enemies have a shield icon next to their health bar which means I will be wasting more ammo taking them down. Ammo is easy to come by, but the supplies to trade and get a good deal for the ammo are not so plentiful. Part of the problem, however, is that I always try never to spend a bottle cap. I always trade enough goods so that anything I need, healing items, bullets, armor, is either free or at least very low in price. It’s worked so far, but to my surprise, or perhaps because I am not looking hard enough, guns are hard to come by. At least, they are hard enough to come by so I can use them to repair other guns for more power and reliability. So the more I use weapons, the more worn-out they become, and deteriorate, and then I lose ammunition, all because every enemy has some invisible barrier.

I’ve tried my hand at a number of side quests, attempting not to dive into the main plot too soon. Unfortunately, a lot of the side quests are put to a halt because I need a higher skill level at any particular talent. I spent two hours infiltrating an NCR base to activate a satellite, nearly getting killed by the heavily armored robots, only to discover I need a higher Repair and Science skill to complete the objective. In frustration, I dart out of the case and proceed elsewhere. Like the world of Pandora, everything is out to get me, and with their stunning accuracy, they usually do. Thank goodness I’m not searching for Unobtanium!

Dead Rising 2 post of rocking with the undead and Zombrex.

One thing I can’t stop thinking about in regards to Dead Rising 2 is why Chuck Greene, the game’s protagonist, controls and moves the way he does. Almost any action he performs ends with an abrupt stand-still that leaves him open to zombie attacks. If I jump to a new direction, he has a slight-second pause before I can command him to move. When I have him roll out of harm’s way, it’s usually into a new form a harm and he stands there again. He needs to admire EVERY last outfit I change him into, because I think jeans, a T-shirt, and a pair of Chucks (ha!) make for a much more comfortable ensemble for getting around than a thick leather jacket, jeans, and boots. Usually that’s when the zombies make their move, and it’s always just ONE zombie that knows I can’t control him, and so by the time I’m able to control Chuck I am wiggling the left stick to shake the damned thing off from attacking me. This is all familiar from the original Dead Rising, and it is something that Blue Castle Games, the development team for the sequel but not the original, felt the need to keep. This is only more frustrating because I was playing this game at 2:30 in the morning this morning tired out of my mind collecting supplies to make weapons like a rocket launcher. Despite this one aspect of frustration, Dead Rising 2 is a damned fun game, thank goodness.

Dead Rising 2 continues the story of the zombie outbreak that occurred years ago in the original Dead Rising, released in 2006. Dead Rising introduced a different take on the zombie horror genre by having the player use regular, everyday items as weapons as opposed to automatic weaponry like pistols and rifles, which are actually some of the weaker weapons in the game. It is also set in a mall in a small Colorado town, and anyone who has seen either Dawn of the Dead will feel right at home with the homage. The goal in Dead Rising 2 is the same: survive for 72 hours until the rescue arrives. Like the first game, there is also a conspiracy to investigate, only you aren’t photojournalist Frank West this time, you are motocross game show superstar Chuck Greene.

I find it interesting that in the already fun premise of Dead Rising of running around, gathering supplies, and taking out the undead in entertaining ways while waiting for help to arrive isn’t enough for Capcom, but they need to add a plot to get the ball rolling. In the original, Frank worked to discover what caused the outbreak in the first place. Chuck, a game show contestant, is framed for unleashing the outbreak in Fortune City, a gambling resort outside of Las Vegas. He must find out who framed him and why, all the while keeping his daughter healthy with a zombie bite treatment known as Zombrex. The issue with Zombrex is that it must be administered every 24 hours, for the rest of that person’s life… How depressing. As fun as watching the tale unfold can be, I personally wish for a zombie survival game where the goal is to survive until the rescue arrives, minus the conspiracies. Basically, the ultimate “What would you do in a zombie apocalypse?” game. These games come close to it, of course, but imagine making choices and maybe even throwing in a BioWare/Mass Effect type of morality wheel. One can dream.

Dead Rising 2 plays very similarly to the original, with a number of additions and improvements. The first thing I noticed when I actually played a demo of the game in San Diego this past summer is that the survivor AI had improved slightly. They aren’t as idiotic about their actions as they were in the original game. There are still some hiccups, like them standing there for no reason long after I’ve ordered them to follow me. The key word here is SLIGHTLY, because for every survivor’s ability to not get themselves killed by the zombies, giving them any type of firearm is a terrible idea. Doing so will get you and other accompanying survivors shot. This does significant damage to the survivors, but whether this can cause a survivor to defect and attack Chuck, I don’t know. A baseball bat or a tomahawk will suffice. Rescuing the survivors can feel like a lather, rinse, repeat process, but each situation can definitely be a unique one depending on the player’s next move. Sometimes I will tempt fate and take survivors with me to rescue other stranded folk. Refreshingly, it’s not as dangerous as you might think. You can simply store survivors in an enclosed space, such as a maintenance closet. That’s where the game’s second-largest addition comes in: making weapons.

Take a baseball bat, place it on a work table. Combine it with a box of nails and you have yourself a nice bat. In possession of a flashlight and a computer tower? Make a “Hacker” and use it to shock zombies as well as loot ATMs for $10,000 a machine. Progressing in Dead Rising 2 will earn Chuck Combo Cards. They allow the player to earn double the experience points as well as use said combined weapon’s stronger attack, usually by holding down on the attack button. My favorite combined weapon? The Power Guitar (electric guitar plus an amplifier). Watch as Chuck plays a few notes and the sound waves make some heads explode…literally! Other favorites are the Plate Launcher (cement saw plus plates) and the Laser Sword (flashlight plus gems — the combination alone is hilarious to me).

The biggest addition? Cooperation. Two friends can jump online and play the game together. My friend, who was already maxed out in his stats, actually helped me a whole lot with Dead Rising 2. One of the more notorious aspects of both games is how difficult it is in the beginning. The games are meant to be played more than once, as they allow the player to carry earned experience over to a new game after a game over or a case failure. Playing with a friend, especially a friend with experience, helps ease the pain a bit. The difficulty and strategies the player will need to implement make leveling up feel like an accomplishment and it’s definitely a rewarding experience. The only problem we’ve been experiencing is that usually if I save, the joining player is disconnected. It’s VERY annoying, especially if the player has issues rejoining the game afterwards. Capcom needs to get on the issue immediately.

As of this post, I’m at level 41 or 42 of 50, I was told. I have a small number of cases to go. I can carry many items, pull off many moves (I love the elbow drop), and survive the boss battles better than I could at level 5. The boss battles are marginally better than its predecessor’s. I can fight them any time, leave at any point, prepare at my leisure, and reenter the fight. They don’t require that much strategy. Avoid their attacks and then strike, although with the awkward way Chuck controls, taking hits is inevitable.

Additionally, I recommend downloading Dead Rising 2: Case Zero. Not only is it a pretty fun sample of the full game, but reaching its max of level 5 will transfer over to Dead Rising 2 itself, giving the player a slight advantage in the beginning moments.

Making a full stop.

The last new game I played this summer was, well, Scott Pilgrim vs. The World: The Game (a fun homage to beat-’em-ups of yesteryear I had the pleasure of reviewing). Because my attention span continues to diminish these days, what should have been maybe a two or three hour trek became a weekend of beating up punks and leveling up across seven stages. Still, I felt I breezed through the game rather quickly, and the only other new game I had left to experience was Transformers: War for Cybertron, which I briefly wrote about entries ago.

Two days ago, I finished the Autobot campaign, which I quite enjoyed. War for Cybertron is probably the best Transformers game out there, and yet it can still be better. I understand the game is set on a planet made entirely of metal, titanium, and other alloys, but maybe next time the developers could put a little more effort into making Cybertron look vibrant, even in its obviously war-torn condition. I would have absolutely no objections to a cel-shaded game that shot for a look of the many animated series over the years. I also appreciated its storytelling to an extent, setting up the events and motions that lead the Autobots and the Decepticons to Earth. I always knew War for Cybertron was telling that story, and yet I was still relieved to find Megatron was not, in fact, the final battle. Now I’m working my way as the Decepticons, although I clearly picked a strange route, as the Autobots make up the second half of this tale. The game opens up with the Decepticons’ side of the story. I expect to breeze through that campaign pretty quickly, and that’s it until Halo: Reach.

I came to a realization over the summer that I have too many games and DVDs (some of which I switched to Blu-ray disc), and so I actually sold a number of them. Most were games I had played to death (Quantum of Solace, Lego Indiana Jones), games I played through but had no interest revisiting (Tomb Raider: Underworld), and then there was Crackdown 2.

Where do I begin? Crackdown is one of my favorite Xbox 360 games and I had considered it the second-best game of 2007 behind Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare (Portal was number three if you’re curious). I played it to death with friends, and hunting for all of the agility and hidden orbs was a sick sport. Killing gang members in the most extreme ways on a clear day in Pacific City was just a luxury. Once I had exhausted just about everything the game offered, I shelved it, waiting for a day where I am in the mood for some open-world destructive brand of justice. The studio that developed Crackdown, Realtime Worlds, went on to another project called APB, an online game that I didn’t even know had actually made its way to retail until looking up the Wikipedia entry this very second. It seems to have mixed reviews. Anyway, it was apparently unsure whether Crackdown would be a bankable franchise despite its high sales (I imagine mostly due to the Halo 3 beta participation included). Sure enough, a sequel was officially in development, and in the rare occasion I get excited for a sequel, I squealed. I didn’t look up any information on the game. I’m actually not that type. I don’t follow screen shots, trailers, and written previews.

Somewhere along the way, I had either blown an excitement gasket, or I stumbled across reviews that gave the game a so-so, “it’s okay” reaction. Okay, people felt that way about the original Crackdown, but I loved Crackdown, it would only make sense that history repeats itself. I played the timed demo once with a friend, but something about it was so off. Then I finally got my hands on my copy that I ordered from Amazon. I played it for about four days before I decided I didn’t like it. First of all, I was put off that Crackdown 2 apparently had to be set in a post-apocalyptic version of the original game’s city. I was strangely bothered by the polluted, orange sky. I remember the original game’s weather usually being clear, gray, or night. I’m sure there was a dusk, but everywhere I went in the sequel, I felt claustrophobic. I am in an open city inside too many nooks and crannies. As usual, I was enjoying the orb hunting and desperately wanted to become harder, better, faster, stronger, Daft Punk style. Then night arrived, and the Agency disembodied voice warned me about the freaks that take over the city at night. Oh, boy. I remember them from the demo. Crackdown 2 plays into the trend of zombies, now officially joining the ranks of Survival Modes*, Omaha Beach, and the Battle of Hoth as the most overused game design modes ever.

*For the record, I enjoy survival/”Horde” modes, especially in Gears of War 2. Hoo, boy.

So, because killing terrorists isn’t enough, I have to deal with freaks, who serve as a big part of the game’s story. If the strange claustrophia was the first mistake, and the freaks were strike two, then strike three is Crackdown 2 attempting to have a narrative. Granted, the first game’s “Kill these gang members because you’re an enforcer of (ambiguous) justice” qualifies as a plot of sorts, but why in the sequel am I collecting audio tapes about how these freaks came to be? About the quarantine placed on certain neighborhoods of the city? Do we really need another “The government is screwing with poor people keeping their illness away from everyone else with no cure” scenario that we saw last year with Prototype? The freaks being there is only half the reason I am displeased. There are just too many of them and they are completely irrelevant. I always liked the serene moments the city took pleasure in before I decide to blow up a truck filled with crooks and start a war. Now, in Crackdown 2, it’s all chaos, all the time, and it just isn’t fun. There is the main criticism I have: Crackdown 2 is not fun. I’m sure down the line there will be an open-world sandbox zombie apocalypse game that will do the idea justice, but they just don’t belong here.

As much as I enjoyed the Agency’s chief voice in Crackdown, I was actually getting tired of being reminded not to slaughter innocent people who get caught in the crossfire of the many terrorists and freaks I kill… with my car… with explosives attached… and then I use a rocket launcher just to make sure. Don’t give me explosives if you want me to be careful with them. It was then I had decided I did not like Crackdown 2. I have no intentions of ever experiencing it again, and if I were ever in the mood I would happily, joyously pop in the disc to the first game. My heart was broken, because a game where I found greatness in something that really isn’t that great for this generation spawned a sequel that feels like a science project your kid needs you to make the night before the science fair.

And so with my having to set Crackdown 2 free, I am left with Transformers: War for Cybertron, and whatever I go back to until I buy Halo: Reach on September 14th. I haven’t even checked out the big Xbox Live games that were out this summer except for Limbo, which I enjoyed, but I tend to realize that there will be a day where these games will be an Xbox Live Deal of the Week. I’ll be able to snag something like Limbo, Castlevania: Musical Lexicon of the Human Emotion (“WHAT IS A MAN??”), or Lara Croft and the Not Tomb Raider. I’ve been looking at my PS2 with an apologetic sentiment lately. It’s dusty, and there are a few games I need to play on it, namely Sly Cooper 2 and 3. Of course, I bought Sly Cooper over the spring, and what happens? An announcement that the trilogy will be remastered in high definition for the PlayStation 3. Jerks. I’ve also been in the mood for Silent Hill 2 and Metal Gear Solid 3. You would think with my Xbox 360, PS2 and PS3 name-drops I don’t own a Wii at all. I was looking at it the other day with a sense of disappointment. The reviews for Metroid: Other M went up yesterday, and while they’re mostly positive, a few of them were quite critical of Team Ninja’s take on the Nintendo franchise, most notably G4′s review. Whether you agree with it or not when the game drops, leave it to gamers to take a criticism for a game and make it a personal attack on them.

E3 2010: Sony and Nintendo: ‘Hey! This isn’t Harry Potter…’

Time passes rather quickly. Already my writing an entry on E3 may already come off as ancient history, but while the event was taking place, two major events captured my attention: the madness of pre-ordering an iPhone 4, and the madness of the 2010 FIFA World Cup and the vuvuzelas that come with it.

I say this time, let’s cut to the chase so we can get back to our soccer/football/futbol, shall we?

Nintendo’s approach to appease its ‘hardcore’ fan base, the folks who enjoy jumping on Koopa Troopas and launching fireballs as the company’s mascot plumber Mario over a shooting gallery at a virtual carnival starring their Mii characters, used to offend me. Their only answer to this ‘problem’ was to just throw another Mario game at them, but folks ate them up. Games developed by third-party developers that aim to a less casual audience tend to flop and appear dead on arrival (Sega’s The Conduit and MadWorld, and EA’s Dead Space: Extraction are two examples). This year, Nintendo brought in the big guns, and while I won’t be playing some of their future titles right away, it brings me a sense of relief that they will be there. We have a new Legend of Zelda game, titled Skyward Sword, for the Wii. I have yet to play Twilight Princess, released in 2006, and during that period I had considered myself “retired” from the franchise. In 2007, I had attempted to play the Phantom Hourglass game on the DS, but gave up on it for a number of reasons. Skyward Sword boasts a visual mixture of Twilight Princess, and the love-it-or-hate-it Wind Waker (Gamecube, 2003). It has an extra flavor of an oil painting/illustrated storybook look that drew me in despite series creator Shigeru Miyamoto’s awkward demonstration of the game at the Nintendo presentation last week.

Nintendo spent a lot of the presentation discussing the capabilities of the Nintendo 3DS, and with games like a new Golden Sun (the first since The Lost Age, the second episode, released for the Game Boy Advance in 2003). I had to actually look up the title of the second Golden Sun game. I hadn’t played it since 2004. In addition to the first-party games (a potential new Star Fox and a Kid Icarus game after all these years), there is a lot of third-party support from the big names, including a Resident Evil game from Capcom, a Splinter Cell game from Ubisoft, and a Metal Gear Solid title from Konami. Color me sold.

I regret that I don’t have a whole lot to express about Sony’s time on the stage because, as I remember it, I was physically tired having been awake for a lot of the previous night. Sony discussed their premium service, of which I have no interest in. They managed to show up the Kinect with Move, their take on motion control, by showing a demonstration of a wizard-ing game called Harry Pott– I mean Sorcery. It can be generically described as “interesting,” and absolutely nothing to get excited over. I will stick with my Wii, that I have even decided to touch for the first time in over a year (thanks, Super Mario Galaxy 2!). One of the stronger highlights was the appearance by Gabe Newell, co-founder of Valve, and his promotion of the much anticipated Portal 2. That wasn’t the big deal. We all knew that. The extra added punch came in the announcement of Steamworks, which allows Mac and Windows users to play multiplayer games on the same servers with one another, and its compatibility on the PlayStation 3. That about topped off the sundae, chock full of Kevin Butler and his motivational “We’re gamers!” speech that provided some genuine humor, with the cherry on top that was the development of a Twisted Metal game, the first since Twisted Metal: Black (PlayStation 2, 2001).

That about does it for this year’s E3, among other things. I need to dock points here, though, or maybe throw a yellow flag on the field.

Microsoft — 5-yard penalty for that creepy Kinectimals segment.

Nintendo — 5-yard penalty for the awkward Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword demonstration. An addition 10-yard penalty for the GoldenEye remake and failure to understand why it was the monster that it was in 1997. They announce the 3DS and its lineup. The penalty is declined. First down.

Sony — 10-yard penalty for an uninteresting presentation. Kevin Butler speech and PS3 Steamworks. That penalty is declined. There is an additional 5-yard penalty for the inability to sell me on a PSP after five years, as well as the failure to sell Move.

Next time: I talk about the iPhone 4.

“Vacation” and a “Red Dead” trip to the Old West

It’s been more than one month since my last entry. I hadn’t forgotten to write anything, but I came to realize it’s hard to keep a blog updated frequently when you have very little to say that could be construed as interesting. This brief sabbatical was brought on by a lack of topics, and spending little time with a small number of games. I’ve barely progressed in Pokemon: Soul Silver, for example.

A few weeks ago I’d written a review for Final Fantasy XIII you can find here.

The last thing I’d written about was Splinter Cell: Conviction, which is a good action game that’s worth checking out, but the real fun lies in the Deniable Ops/Co-Op modes that reflect the Splinter Cell games of yesteryear. One thing worth mentioning is Ubisoft’s decision to release free downloadable content every Thursday, which can be found in the Extras menu in the game’s main menu.

I finished The Misadventures of P.B. Winterbottom two weeks ago, which has become my favorite game this year thus far. A simple puzzle game that has a balanced difficulty in its puzzle-solving, the real charm lies in its macabre. silent film-era look. It also contains a wonderful soundtrack.

Now we come to the reason for this return. May has been big with releases, but the one I’ve gone with is Rockstar Games’ Red Dead Redemption, a massive take on the Old West that’s more Unforgiven than Paint Your Wagon. I’ve mostly spent time with the free-roam multiplayer. Future entries will cover impressions of the game, developed by Rockstar San Diego.