Space battles are awesome; it's a proven fact. Space shooter sequences will give anything you throw them in instant credibility. They're fun, flashy, fast, and more times than not, pretty tricky to complete.
The space battles thrown into the mix in BioWare's latest Star Wars offering, The Old Republic look fairly simple. You head in one direction, on rails, blowing up whatever is threatening your ship and weaving through asteroid fields. Simple, yes, but a welcome change of pace in the MMO landscape that seems to be same old thing game in and game out.
A few things I'd love to get some clarification on: How customizable your ship is, will you be able to install upgrades that affect the space battle segments, and what happens if and when your ship is finally destroyed.
I don't know how BioWare expects us to wait until next year for this game.
Fresh from EA's keynote at Gamescom 2010 comes the latest Dragon Age 2 trailer, and I gotta say it looks pretty badass. Normally I don't put much stock into the full CG trailers, but these recent ones have been too ridiculous to not make me tingle in the pants. DA2 is continuing the trend of staggeringly beautiful full motion video clips, with protagonist Hawke squaring off against a vicious horned Qunari.
When did Qunari grow horns? Is Hawke a battle mage? Will the game be any good? Can you make me a grilled cheese sandwich? These questions remain to be answered, but in the meantime, enjoy watching Hawke summon otherworldly demon hands of furious vengeance.
The latest trailer for Infamous 2 is a little on the slow side. The camera pans through a frozen shot of a town being ravaged to the timeless sound of House of the Rising Sun; people dying, cars flying, lightning striking. Eventually the pan leads to Cole, not the Raven-haired sack of boredom character design we've seen previously, and not quite the David Beckham clone the last character sketch teased.
The new Cole looks a lot like the old Cole, which at this point I think we should just take and stop complaining about. It's not going to get any better, and I'm tired of writing about it. So fine, I'll deal with it as long as the game looks incredible and plays smoothly. So far so good, but hopefully we'll get a more exciting trailer next time.
Not a big Disney guy. I was when I was like eight. These days, not so much. For obvious reasons, I had been ignoring Epic Mickey as much as possible, and I'd like to think I've done well at it. Rumblings of Disney's whiny-ass mascot have been brushed aside without a care in the world, swiftly and with extreme bias.
Since Epic Mickey's introductory cinematic has been released, I could no longer maintain my vow of indifference. No, watching 4-plus minutes of adorable rodent hi jinx has enlightened me. Enlightened me to the fact that I was right not to think Epic Mickey would be anything world-shatteringly awesome.
Maybe not even remotely so. I don't mind Warren Spector, but he's doing his best Peter Molyneux to get the snowball rolling on Epic Mickey. Bold statements and extravagant intentions? Check. Unfulfilled promises? Maybe..
Don't get me wrong, I'm not a Disney/Mickey hater, I just happen to think Disney Interactive is trying to cash in on property gamers are already wary of with a less than adequate product. Maybe you guys should just keep milking Kingdom Hearts? I guess we'll see what happens on November 18th.
It's simple, fun, and addictive. Best played at work when you have nothing else to do. Especially if you're a boss with a hot-piece-of-ass secretary who you sexually harass, and you're bored of Farmville.
Previously on the Metroid Other Msaga, we saw Samus doing some platforming, running, ballmorphing, walking, inspecting, jumping, and other yawn inducing tasks. We also saw ourselves falling asleep to the tune of that horridly boring shit. Now here we are, just a shade over two weeks before Other M's release date, and we have an exciting new peek at the gameplay that excited me in the first place.
The Other M trailers have been Jekyll and Hyding the hell out of me with it's boring gameplay, exciting gameplay, boring cinematic, back and forth. I guess Team Ninjatendo did the right thing by saving the best for last. Samus is looking good in this latest tease, showing off a bunch of her killer moves in the most stylish ways possible. Hayabusa would be proud.
I want to start by saying "Good fucking job" to Irrational Games. Good fucking job, Irrational Games. In this day of hacked accounts, lost information, and leaked info, Irrational has managed to keep a game they've been working on for three years behind closed doors. Impressive. Infinite's viral site, www.whatisicarus.com, was well-handled to build the hype to today's reveal. What started as a dot on a black background, slowly became an animated infinity logo, and at 1:45pm Eastern today, became the game's reveal trailer.
But enough about closed doors and hype machines. Let's discuss the meat of this thing, Bioshock Infinite. The slickly crafted trailer did it's duty in planting thoughts of the Bioshock series in my mind right from the start. My heart sank a bit as I realized all of Irrational's work was put into just another Bioshock title. Do I really want to go back to Rapture? No, I don't. We're teased with a familiar looking boot and robotic arm; a Big Daddy if I've ever seen one. I wanted something new, why won't you give me something new?! The Large Papa (Ken Levine has confirmed that is not a Big Daddy) flings the trailer's first person viewpoint out of a closed window.. And into a free fall.. In cloud specked blue sky, populated by airships, flying cities, and American flags. Did not see that coming at all.
In essence, this is just another installment in the Bioshock series. The dystopian city, fallen from it's once heralded grace, the enhancing of human physiology through (what appear to be) plasmids, monstrous enforcers lethally protecting the city. These are all familiar traits of a game we know too well. However, Irrational feels as if Bioshock Infinite is a creature entirely independent of previous Bioshock games. I guess we won't know until we play it.
For now, I'm cautiously optimistic. I like the Bioshock series, even though I was hoping Project Icarus would be a new IP, I'm not disappointed with the direction Irrational has taken things. I don't know if what we've heard of the story and gameplay thus far has done much to distance itself for it's predecessors, but however Bioshock Infinite may turn out, Irrational has done well to lasso us in. No point in tuning out now.
For a detailed rundown of Irrational Games' reveal event (to which my requests for a formal invitation were ignored) check out Joystiq's preview.
It seems there's a new trend gaining popularity with developers; including a super-easy mode in their games. It differs from your typical very easy difficulty setting, which makes enemy attacks weaker, the player's attacks stronger, etc. This beginner's mode, for lack of a better universal name, encourages and rewards button mashing.
Previously found in Bayonetta, currently gracing BlazBlue: Continuum Shift, and soon to inhabit Vanquish, the easier-than-easy mode allows the player to get away with not knowing button schemes, combos, attack patterns, and strategies. Core gaming elements are foregone in favor of the beleaguered art of the button mash, which consists of swirling the analog sticks maniacally, and blindly hitting every button on your controller in rapid succession. This technique more often than not leads to an easy win! Not really. In fact, hardcore gamers will suck their yellow teeth and wrinkle a zit-marked brow at button mashing tactics. Don't try this at your local arcade, folks.
My Mother Brain knows that anyone other than the casual gamer wants to learn the game's system and master it, which is good enough for me. Though my Contra heart has a feeling that games with unforgiving difficulty levels, if imbued with the beginner's mode, could be quickly mastered and defeated by a casual, which doesn't sit well with me. It's like going through the school system without learning how to write, yet graduating with a degree in journalism. What the fuck, that ain't fair!
On the other hand, my lady sometimes watches me play fast action games and says they're too stressful for her to play. I'd love to get her into games, but I can't blame her for not wanting to be overwhelmed and easily defeated. No one likes getting their ass kicked. Enter beginner mode. Wow babe, you're really good at this game. A little positive reinforcement along with a whole 'lotta button mashing could possibly turn the most condescending gamer girlfriend into the best gamer you'll ever make love to.
So, my stance on beginner-easy-automatic-casual mode is still undefined. I want an even playing field for gamers, but I want gamer girlfriends to have an easy in. What does the interwebs think, yay or nay?
This year's highly self-touted Summer of Arcade saw a pair of releases that caught my eye the way Xbox Live Arcade games rarely do. After spending my sparse free time the past two weeks thumbs deep in the XBLA, here is my late-albeit-great take on Limbo.
After months of excitement, knowing that soon I'll be able to get some brand new NBA Jam in my life, EA has ripped my heart out. Now, the only way I'll be able to beat the snot out of the Miami Superfriends with a big-headed threesome of Danilo Gallinari, Amare Stoudamire, and Bill Clinton, is if I buy NBA Elite '11. While EA will continue with NBA Jam as a standalone Wii release, the only way to play everyone's favorite arcade sports game on a system with a competent online feature, is to purchase a different game that will most likely continue to be inferior to the competition.
I'm not a big fan of sports games, mainly because I don't want to have to buy the same game every year for roster updates, bug fixes, and marginal improvements. Isn't that the point of DLC? I have been wanting to buy an NBA game though, if only to go 82-0 with my beloved Knicks. I wouldn't mind buying Elite to get a free copy of NBA Jam if the Live series didn't suck. I realize EA made improvements to the game this year (like changing the name,) but 2K11 put Jordan in the game. You know Jordan, right? One of the most profitable, iconic athletes of all time?
So, EA throws a do want into a not sure if want in an attempt to increase sales against a more appealing competitor. Will it work? I hope not. If you're going to have NBA Jam ready to play on 360 and PS3, let it be it's own game and generate it's own sales instead of piggybacking it onto a stale franchise that you're doing nothing to freshen up.
Tuesday, August 17, 2010 at 5:00PM 
