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UnlivedPhalanx's Reviews
UnlivedPhalanx
is gonna spend some quality time with Banjo
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-- Transmission Received
-- When Metroid Prime debuted back in 2001 for the Gamecube no one
could have foreseen the unmistakable impact that the game had on all
other shooters since its release. Many developers have tried, but none
have succeeded where Retro Studios has in making a compelling game
world as rich as Metroid's. Playing as the female bounty hunter Samus
Aran, alone in the universe to uncover secrets of ancient alien species
and mysteries. Starting in the first game with the Tallon IV incident
and continued on a compelling sequel to unearth more answers with even
more questions on a world split in two, Samus is called upon for the
riskiest mission she's ever undertaken. A mission that could mean the
end to the pirate threat – or danger to the entire universe. Only you
can take the journey this fall, on the Nintendo Wii. The game opens in the same reasonably tame manner you've come to expect from a Metroid game, giving the same air of vacancy in the universe when suddenly you're overtaking a huge fleet of warships identified as the Galactic Federation. For the first time in a Metroid game you'll actually get to see and hear the characters behind your contracts. While the voice acting seems relatively poor for more of the actors given some of the games with some great voicing in them, (The Darkness and Gears of War), it's passable but not by much. Most of the voice cast seems to have little acting experience and carries the feel of the dialog poorly, which is a shame because the opening cinematic would be memorable otherwise. However, the voice of the Aurora Unit and Sargent were noticeably well done. In terms of other audio design, Corruption is simply flawless to the untrained ear. All typical sounds you expect to hear in a Metroid game are back, well updated and others added and glossed over to feel very Metroid at heart. I was pleased that all missing music from Echoes was masterfully re-implemented (such as the overworld theme and the space pirate attack song). Once you get your orders everything goes to hell and the G.F.S. Valhalla is attacked and the game begins! Corruption embraces the same opening structure as the original Metroid Prime planting you on a sinking ship and then thrusting you into a world with no directions. Once you make planetfall however everything changes, you're then given instructions throughout the rest of the game via a comm system with actual spoken dialog instead of just a computer readout (don't worry, the readouts are still there). Which is depressing since the lure of Metroid (at least from my perspective) is the amazing sense of being completely alone in the world which is usually conveyed with a sense of destruction and abandonment – something that is hard to do if you are interacting with other characters, but it certainly does lend to the realism. Samus would certainly receive mission-critical updates from the authority that hires her. Yet another first in the series, in the beginning of the game after you escape from the sinking ship the Valhalla you land on the nearby planet where a Galactic Federation outpost has been constructed you'll do battle with space-pirates alongside 3 other bounty hunters that will mysteriously disappear once some stuff happens (and you'll get through the PED suit craziness) and makes for interesting encounters throughout the course of the entire game. A new feature for any Metroid game previously released is an AI that aids you. Rather than a Halo-esque single AI unit like Cortana, Corruption features multiple linked AI entities that act as a single intelligence. These beings are unlike most (if not all) game intelligences seen before in gaming, they are organic beings. Called Aurora Units these semi-synthetic beings act as self-aware super-computers able to process and analyze data as you gather it during your adventure. This also allows a more realistic approach to how Samus discovers information about weapons caches and Chozo technology. Speaking of the Chozo, while they are not the focal point or a side investigation via hieroglyphics, there are many amazing Chozo locations spread across many areas that Samus will investigate throughout the course of the entire game. This far exceeds the previous games in terms of scope. Spanning a spaceship, a planet and a town floating in the sky (with a couple more surprises) this is by far the most expansive Metroid game ever. Not only expansive but each area has a singular and distinct feel. By the time the game is over, you'll feel as if you have covered quite a bit of ground. Mainly since for the first time ever, you'll be able to move your ship from place to place on command as well as use it for air-strikes amongst other things which expand the feeling of depth on a planetary scale. With all the space to explore, many were concerned with the graphics from previews shown the on the internet and at E3, it was said that it looked no better on the Wii than on the Gamecube. Unfortunately, the true beauty of Metroid can only be seen in person on a widescreen 480p TV screen. Unlike previous installments, the graphics are crisp, clean, and looked anti-aliased to an extend we haven't seen on Wii games yet. Most noticeably, without looking at the textures and environments – particles and effects will jump out at you and make you pay attention to them. These effects are much more advanced than anything possible on the Gamecube. A benefit that the Wii has, that the 360 and PS3 certainly do not, is the ability to run a first-person shooter at an easy 60 frames a second with dozens of characters on-screen with rapid aiming movement and no image-tearing by the GPU. Someone playing Metroid Prime 3: Corruption may not notice, but going from that to The Darkness or a Tom Clancy game is a noticeable difference, even Gears of War looks slow by comparison. Like any exploration she's had in the past, Samus will face enemies like she's never seen before. As you would imagine, controls would be an issue for any game developers, any but Retro Studios that is. Seemingly painstaking options for controls were given for any playing style. Newcomers can have a watered down system for a lock-on fire mode simply by holding the “Z” Button, while people familiar or able to quickly adapt to the Wiimote controls can have 2 other (aim speeds vary on these) control options. These last two options allow for independent aiming while having a target lock which allows for the most precise aiming and movement. Since the Wii is the only machine that you can make a game where the shooting is the most fun and the most involving, they made the enemies much more difficult because as a result, were more fun to fight. When you see a space pirate or two coming at you instead of blowing them off with a couple rockets, they'll roll to the side, flank and try to pin you down in a very fun and a very overwhelming “oh sh*t” moment. Unfortunately, the studio decided to forgo a multiplayer mode of any type in the third installment of the series, deciding to focus the efforts on a geat single-player adventure. While the studio successed without question, it is regrettable and dissapointing that when Nintendo finally decided to include an online structure in their system – one of the biggest titles this year would ignore it. All is not lost, Corruption is not only of the largest games in the franchise, it is also one of the longest. Initial play-throughs of the game yeilded nothing under 23 hours of game time – although I'm more than sure some people out there will finish it in around 20 hours, I can easily see a more casual approach taking 25-30 hours to complete. With all things said and done, Metroid Prime 3 successfully trumps the original Metroid Prime as the most impressive and expansive action-shooter of all time. Even the (still) iffy principal of having other bounty hunters to deal with, the story was delivered with as many twists and turns as you could expect from any Metroid game you've ever played before. This review can't even begin to cover half of the new and amazing title from Retro Studios. ** Some of the content in this review has been specifically glanced over or detail has been omitted to prevent the public from spoilers or story elements ** 
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This review of an Xbox 360 game ain't what you were expectin'. However
no one was expecting a good shooter based on New York gang tensions
from the same studio in Sweden that brought us that one Xbox game that
was better than the actual movie. Anyone remember The Chronicles of
Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay? This time, instead of being based on
a movie, The Darkness is based on an old comic book, published by
Marvel, of the same name.
Set in a fictional section of New York, the story takes place following the events surrounding a young contract killer named Tony Estacado. On his 21st birthday Tony is fulfilling a contract for the Frachetti crime family when something goes sour on the deal. Driving back home, Tony and company are trapped inside the downtown tunnel going 90 mph in the wrong direction. Needless to say they crash and Mikey, the driver, dies at the wreck site. Surviving unharmed, Tony proceeds with his contract to “whack” a construction site foreman when things go even worse. The mob boss, “Uncle” Paulie has already had someone kill the foreman, and when you get to the top well....there's a bit of a surprise waiting for you. The entire game that follows is a whirlwind adventure following Jackie Estacado and The Darkness, which is a demonic possession that takes a hold of the first-born male member on his 21st birthday. Jackie, whose birthday could not have gone any worse, gets caught up in not only his family's cave-in but his own Darkness as well. Perhaps a first in any first-person shooter is the notion of an open-world environment where, as the character, you can visit any available location in the game. Only if areas are blocked off or restricted for mission-specific purposes are you unable to go anywhere in the game. The fictional New York the game is set in feels very limited given the potential scope of that city and having only a couple blocks per street available seems very restrictive. However, due to cutting in and out to large-scale war scenes (won't go into too much detail for spoilers) and back again several times throughout the game gives it a larger sense of scale than it would if it did not. The ability to travel between these areas in the game lends to scale, but more importantly, allows for more sensible back-tracking that's needed for the story to be told properly. Needless to say there is a bit of motivation as you attempt to take your former employer for setting you up on the construction site hit and as such you'll be running back and forth through these locations quite often. Luckily they are set up identically to real-life city streets so navigating them is a breeze if you remember which intersection goes where. Getting easily sidetracked by your own Darkness, the game is half gun-play and half learning how to use these darkness powers properly. It's hard to describe a game that really doesn't fit into any category established before. Sure it's a first-person shooter like anything else, but The Darkness powers allow for some interesting puzzle solving and there are also platform elements in the game. As you progress with your plans to take down Uncle Paulie and the corrupt cop Eddie Shrote, you'll be cutting in and out of World War One, which is a narrow (almost corridor) sequence that takes place inside Jackie's mind or The Darkness, it's not clear, however these sequences bridge portions of the game and allow for some intricate story telling. Allowing Jackie to wake up places that he wasn't before, etc. One thing that The Darkness really has going for it is the interesting use of The Darkness itself. The first power you acquire immediately after your 21st birthday occurs at the same time The Darkness manifests itself. This power, called “crawling dark” is a vine-like tentacle-with-a-head that Jackie can use for stealth killing or to (more commonly) crawling through air ducts or under gates to unlock a door on the other side or pick up a key. The power is also good for taking ammo out of dangerous locations that are still under fire. The “crawling dark” is Jackie's most stealth weapon and most useful more times than not. The “demon arm” is the second power Jakie acquires shortly after visiting WWI for the first time. The demon arm is extremely helpful for putting out those pesky lights that you'd otherwise be shooting at without expending any ammo. But perhaps the most obvious use of the power is to move large obstacles out of the way or to fling them at enemies. Alternatively, simply tapping “RB” will impale the nearest enemy on the demon arm instantly killing them, but the range is very limited. The Darkness guns are perhaps the most lack lust Darkness power to speak of, simply a pistol and what appears to be a handheld gauss rifle that simply use the Darkness energy as ammo. The black hole power is simply the most powerful (and some would call it cheap) power in the game. It consumes the entire supply of Darkness energy (which protects you from bullets so watch out when you use this power) and generates a black hole, pulling everything and anyone into it besides yourself killing them instantly upon touching the center of the black hole. Like I said, cheap but lethally effective. These powers combined create a new challenge in a strategic sense, but then again add a depth to an otherwise average shooter. Throw in some amazing mafia-esque voice talent and that creates the perfect recipe for success. The Darkness powers combined with tense gun play and a great sound cast make The Darkness one of the best Xbox 360 games out this year.
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In a season where Wii games are exceptionally rare, not to mention good
games, people tend to notice any sort of release. Instead of a new
Resident Evil adventure, Capcom chose to (yet again) re-release
Resident Evil 4 following the adventure of former cop, now secret
service agent Leon Kennedy and his quest to save the President's
Daughter. Now adapted for Nintendo's revolution, the Wii.
For those not already familiar, this review will be a mere glance back at Resident Evil 4, and take the most notice of the controls and bonus missions rather than go back over the game's story yet again. Taking place in a foreign country Leon Kennedy is tracking the president's daughter on a rescue mission. Apprehended by terrorists, Leon stumbles onto a conspiracy to revive the now defunct Umbrella corporation with the help of a thought-to-be extinct species of parasite called the Las Plagas. The mission remains the same, but the inclusion of Wii controls allows for a much more controlled and precise aiming method not available on any other console. As with Metroid Prime 3, after playing Resident Evil 4 Wii Edition, it's extremely hard to jump to a normal control pad controlled first-person shooter. Even though on any controller the initial impression of the control scheme is “clunky” at best it takes only a short while to become accustomed to the Wii version and only a bit longer to start appreciating how good the set-up really is. When moving using the control stick, to aim all the user has to do is press and hold “B” to enter the aiming mode. The camera then zooms in to just barely over Leon's shoulder and the Wiimote then serves as the aiming medium easily allowing the character to shoot arms, legs, or the head of an enemy much faster and accurately than a standard joypad. The inclusion of the Wiimote for aiming also allows Leon the ability to instantly react to a flying projectile, simply hold “B” and aim for the axe flying at his head and fire – all can be done in a split second and virtually impossible to execute in the same amount of time on a standard controller. Reloading is even easier and much more intuitive than before. While in aiming mode, simply wave the Wiimote up and down rapidly once and Leon will reload his gun. This movement in a side-to-side motion when walking or running will cause Leon to pull out his knife, which is excellent for twitch reflexes when a zombie is right around a corner or there is a box to break and ammo (like all great Resident Evil games) needs to be conserved as much as possible. Resident Evil 4 had this great game mechanic in which during a cinematic input was required by the gamer in order to survive a situation and then leaked into the game as a scripted dodge maneuver for boss fights in real-time! That great bit of gaming survives into the Wii version, and is arguably the most fun since instead of tapping “A” to dodge, you'll actually be waving the Wiimote to jump out of the way, shaking it back and forth to climb up from a ledge, or sweeping down to duck as a sword comes at your head. The Wii version showcases as many great uses of the Wii remote without over-doing it or feeling like the controls were tacked on. With the inclusion of “Separate Ways” the Ada side-missions to those Leon was on, Resident Evil 4 Wii Edition is the best 30 dollar at release title ever and certainly on the Wii. If you're looking for something to do before the next big thing, grab Resident Evil 4 off the shelf and have another go at those pesky zombies.
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Devil May Cry is a longstanding franchise that traditionally has been a
Playstation exclusive is now out on the Xbox 360 to great surprise and
joy of the user base. Finally, a great hack and slash game for a new
group of people to try, but is it worth your 60 bucks?
The first thing to keep in mind is that Devil May Cry 4 is not just a hack and slash game but also an action-adventure game set in a fictional world. Unlike the previous games though, DMC4 may be considered a departure from the series for multiple reasons, the foremost being that you only play as Dante for less than half the game. The game introduces a new character as well who is the main focus of the story and the first half of the adventure, and since Dante is also motivated by his actions, that would make him almost more important of a character in the grand scheme of things. Nero, the new character, is not a religious man. He and one of singers at his church, Kyrie, have a little something going on. So naturally the game starts off with Nero being late and Kyrie looking for him while singing her piece during mass. Kind of typical; that being said, Kyrie is also the sister of Credo, a member of "The Order" a nefarious organization that you'll learn about over the course of the game, so I won't give too much away here about it. If you're a hardcore Devil May Cry fan and you're immediately disappointed by the lack of Dante in the game you won't be upset for long. Less than halfway through the opening cut-scene Dante drops in on a church session that Nero and Kyrie are attending for seemingly no other reason than to assassinate the pastor leading the mass, Sanctus. Thus, the events set off by him turn the cogs of destruction and mayhem that lead the course of the newest iteration of the franchise. The playing style from experience players will have to be slightly refined to match Nero, as he's the character you'll play for most of the game. While not too dissimilar from Dante, there are a couple key differences that make him a unique character. Both Nero and Dante have gigantic disproportional swords, but Nero has a sword with a handle that resembles a motorcycle allowing you to rev it up to make the blade get red-hot to increase the damage with doing a move combo. This allows you to do some really damaging moves if you time your button hits right. Nero also has an arm called the "Devil Bringer," it looks and acts like a demonic arm should. When doing combos with it you'll pull off some extremely damaging combos that you can even pull off in boss fights. Imagine picking the boss up and throwing him across the stage! Other than those two differences though, the Devil May Cry formula hasn't really undergone very many changes and retains the same basic puzzle structures and fighting moves you've come to expect, and that's not all a bad thing either. While the game has a variety of environments you'll traverse, it's worth saying that this game looks amazing. From the first cut-scene you watch up until the last one, you'll be oohing and ahhing at the gorgeous videos and the extreme attention to detail that is still rare in gaming today. The loading times are minimal taking only a couple seconds to load each area. However, the areas are small and sometimes you'll be wishing they took a couple more seconds to load a bit of a bigger area since you'll be hitting a load every few minutes it seems like. However since there is no actual loading screen and it seems fairly instant, the only legitimate annoyance would be the noise it makes when you enter and exit an area. Talk about annoying! The other annoying trend is also a major complaint with the entire game. Once you get exactly halfway through the game (which takes only about 5 hours) you're forced to switch to Dante. This wouldn't be so bad if you didn't have to unlearn the "Devil Bringer" mechanic and retrain your mind without any kind of intro to the character (which would have been nice for newbies to the series like myself). However at this point, you have to backtrack through the entire game, fight every boss over again, and return to your starting point to finish the game. This both is annoying and obvious filler which they don't even bother to cover up. While you're backtracking though, Dante acquires the most powerful moves and equipment for your face-off with "The Savior" (again spoilers I won't mention). Some of the equipment includes Pandora's box, which is basically a super-weapon that you can pull out at will. Dante can transform Pandora's box into about 2-6 of the 666 possible combinations. Clocking in at just 10 hours of game play for the average player who's never touched a Devil May Cry game before, it's the best hack and slash adventure game you can buy right now for $6 an hour. It's not going to change your mind if you hate the genre, and it's certainly not going to be the most innovative title you've ever played. But while the replay and the achievements might not be that fun or worthwhile, you'll want to at least give this game a rental because of its phenomenal story and genuinely interesting characters.
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Dark Sector is a game that manages to pluck a chord with fans of the
Gears of War style third-person shooter with that familiar
over-right-shoulder camera viewpoint. Unfortunately, being a clone
often means that doing something new is out of the question. Dark
Sector manages to take an old style, bring new game-play to it, but
fails to do much more than that.
Immediately after putting the game in, one will notice the breathtaking graphics of what you can only assume is the latest build of the Unreal Engine. The prologue takes place entirely in black and white, just like an old film. Adding context to the feeling of it being non-color is the fact the series of events takes place in an alternate reality Russia in the 1980's. During a deep-sea excavation a mysterious, yet highly infectious plague has come back with the naval team and has infected most of what we would consider the Soviet Union. Since the game struggles so hard to be the new Gears of War, you'll find that all the cover mechanics work pretty much the same, just less elegantly. Instead of being able to run directly into cover you have to stop and hit up on the analog stick + A, this just slows things down and can cost you a life or two when playing on the harder difficulties. The other controls are borrowed from other places and there's no real issue with any single one of them apart from the cover system. The new idea that Dark Sector uses to set itself apart from the (now) highly over-mentioned Gears of War is a weapon called "The Glaive." This is a cross between a boomerang and a knife. Curved into a circle this highly destructive weapon can cut limbs off of enemies as well as retrieve distant items and power-ups. After a while your character gains the ability to control the Glaive in mid-flight. This can be useful for hitting specific points on a boss creature or decapitating an enemy for a quick kill. Unfortunately, in the night levels, the overuse of blur effects makes hitting a target near impossible. The worst part about Dark Sector's controls is that apart from the Glaive, there is no tutorial telling you which buttons do what, so for the first part of the game if you didn't know better, you wouldn't know there was even a cover system in place. This can be highly annoying once you realize you have to test every button and figure it out. This isn't to say there aren't sequences later on when you acquire new powers, there is just nothing upfront in the first level like you would expect to find in a Gears of War or similar title. For the moments you can't hit targets with the Glaive, there are guns in Dark Sector that you can use. These are armed with a device called "governors" which will destroy the weapon within around 30 seconds after you pick them up. This is because at some point during the game you become infected and the device prevents the use of weapons by infected people. You can buy guns without governors in the black market (for a price of course) but most of the time if this happens you'll be trying to melee the enemies. Due to the inclusion of a finishing system you can pull off brutal kills in short cinematics after you damage an enemy a certain amount. The bad part is that it is never quite clear how much damage is required until an enemy turns red indicating you can do a finisher. Most of the time you'll simply kill off the attacker in your attempts. However, usually when these annoyances occur you'll be overwhelmed by a sense of immersion and anticipation because the graphics carry this title a long way. Unreal Engine 3's latest update contains some of the best visuals ever seen on consoles. It doesn't make the same leap as the original Gears of War did, but it certainly makes vast and noticeable differences right from the first level. Color correction and particle effects are all highly elegant and realistic. During the game you can add elements to your Glaive by running it through fire or an open electrical field to get the desired effect. In fact, some of the fun of Dark Sector is taking these new elements like ice and fire and using it on enemies and the environment just to see how it looks and affects other things around it. The game's real flaw isn't where it copies from or where it tries to go. It's the complete lack of a story coupled with waves of enemies over and over again in every level. Mainly the waves of enemies are controlled and not completely ridiculous, but the lack of story really gets in the way, and when new characters are introduced it is almost never clear who they are, why they are important, and where they belong in the back-story. In fact, the story is so lacking, that if there was one the game would've enjoyed a ton more success and been a really interesting place to explore. Overall Dark Sector isn't a bad game, but if you're looking for a really new experience or an interesting story you won't find it here. Instead of being a blatant copy, this title manages to introduce a lot of new elements that, if you're a fan of third-person shooters and you don't mind a bit of repetition, is definitely worth a look at the very least.
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DougBuffone
Vote for Me! -
alpha99
Month-In-Review: November 2008 -
HallwayGiant
Games x 3 -
Spencer
Poor decisions were made today -
Gearhead
Too Much Stick! -
Jeff
Giant Bomb on 360voice -
War77Machine
It's been quite a while... -
AndyWilliams24
Why am I having so much ... -
MB
Original, One Of A Kind Dave ... -
MarkM
The scariest game you'll NEVER play! ...
