Another year goes by...
By Tylea002 5 Comments
7 Games! Now read on and hear my thoughts about all of them.
- Fable II
- Stranglehold
- Fusion Frenzy 2
- Devil May Cry 4
- Mirror's Edge
- Lego Star Wars: The Complete Saga
- Bully: Scolarship Edition
7 Games in one day!
I'm pausing for a moment to allow that to sink in...
Ok, I assume you are over that particularly un-astounding fact, and now want me to tell you all about what happened yesterday.
Well, first off, I was sick. Yeah. I came downstairs, started opening them, and then was coughing and coughing. Felt like shit, went back to bed. Which earnt me some time off school.
So after I spent most of the day in bed, I then awoke to leave with my dad for a while and see what he got me, then returned, saw what some others got me and proceeded to pass out. I felt spoiled by the sheer amount of games that I had received, but convinced myself to get rid of the guilt and instead bring out a long...long...LONG blog which will explain my thoughts on all of the above games.
I played each game for around 2 hours to get an impression here so I could blog about them, so without further ado...
Fable II
The first thing that struck me about the game was the voice acting and writing. The game welcoming screen starts with Zoë Wanamaker instructing you on what to do, which started my alarm bells ringing. A Well known actor voicing the instructions often spells disaster for voice acting - think of that Spyro game with the celebrity voices. Well thankfully, the voice acting didn't drodge into shittyness - it was amazing. The random people in Bowerstone and Oakfield give off immersive banter, and repeat lines less often than in the last game. Though, you will hear the same line alot in 5 minutes if you are doing the same thing for that long. Which you will be.
Combat is extremely fun, even at the low level that I am, where you just hammer X or Y to kill the enemies. As you level up, the moves get more complex. Rolling, blocking, precision aiming and flourishing are all introduced eventually, though I have only just got Rolling and Blocking, but will accquire the others as soon as I can. Unfortunately, the lack of difficulty is apparent. Enemies die very, very quickly. You die very, very slowly. And I have not died yet, even though the penalty is...well...jack shit. I really wish they carried up on the idea of children taking over from you, that would work very VERY well if they did it right. So if you died you actually lost stuff. But I won't dwell on what isn't there, because what is is damn fine.
You need to work to earn money in this game as apparently heroic deeds are no longer paid for. Which makes sense, but working isn't all that fun. Here is what you do in every job:
- Look at meter
- See when meter hits the green area
- Press A
- Repeat
- Buy house
- Rent out
- Wait
- ??????
- Profit
This game does achievements right. They reward you for doing the main quest, and venturing in other areas. However, they managed to make the whole system get FUBAR. You see, there are two ways to earn achievements.
- Earn them
- Watch someone else Earn them
So put simply, I enjoy the game, there are just a few things that annoy me about it. I'll play it to completion twice being both good and evil, and will attempt to get most achievements (as they aren't Dead Rising Hard) anyway, and little bugs like my TV being so crap it cuts the top of the screen off, and therefore the words, will not stop me from playing it a lot more and enjoying it. Right...seven to go.
Stranglehold
Its not very clever or sophisticated. But it definately meets the awesome criteria. In fact, lets use another simple list to see just some of the awesome things in the brief hour or so I spent with the game. In no particular order:
- Diving Through the air in slow motion while killing 3 dudes with 3 bullets.
- Going into barrage with a Shotgun, blowing up about twenty makeshift houses, and killing off many drug launderers.
- Brilliantly cheesy, clichéd dialogue. (See...its really not sophisticated).
- Dodging out of the way of a rocket blast before shooting the guy that shot it in the balls at long range.
- Said dude with rocket reacting appropriately to perfectly placed shot.
And the story is actually pretty good too. A quick pre-credits exposition, tells you everything you needed to know in about a minute. In Hong Kong, a cop is kidnapped and shot. In Chigago, a previous girlfriend of Tequila is kidnapped. And you find this out in about 4 lines of dialogue. I can see it keeping me engaged throughout the rest of the game: Its a suprisingly good excuse to go and shoot lots and lots of people with lots and lots of bullets.
And the shooting you will do! The 4 guns I've used so far all pack a punch and feel very powerful. Even the meager pistol will make you feel king when you shoot 10 people in the head in slow motion. In a row. Almost everything blows up or gets destroyed in some way, and enemies have a suprisingly bad habit of standing next to things wich either blow them up or fall on their heads. Heavy things. It would be extemely good anyway, but Stranglehold adds some more elements on top of it.
Firstly, slow motion. Activating slow motion works very well. Pressing the left trigger will make you dive, or interact in an awesome way with a railing or trolly, and if there are enemies around you will automatically go into slow motion. Diving through the air, shooting many dudes in slow motion has yet to get old. It then adds "Tequila Bombs." Basically power ups which use a meter that will charge when you do stylish stuff or collect paper cranes. They are:
- A simple health boost. This is very helpful at times where diving constantly and covering isn't working that well.
- Precision Aiming. Zoom in in slow mo for a shot with a close up reaction. Cue shooting many guys in the balls.
- Barrage! Unlimited ammo, Unlimeted health, Short amount of time. Do this with a shotgun, and you will lay waste to the world around you, as I did.
- I haven't unlocked it, but you basically press the button and a beatiful cinematic appears whith you spinning round, doves flying, killing EVERYONE.
The final element they add is standoff. You are fixed in place in a mexican stand off. Dodge the bullets, kill the guys. Its all very simple, yet very cool. Three have occurred so far, and shooting everyone in the face is very satisfying, as it always is. Which is what the whole game is about. Shooting guys in the most stylish and awesome way!
Fuzion Frenzy 2
I did get a chance to sit down for a while and play the game show mode with my sister, thankfully, so I can talk a bit about the Multiplayer capabilities.
The show starts off with a really annoying announcer talking instructions and introductions over the same animation. Meaning he is not lip-synced in any way. Same lip animation, different words. He is more annoying that the Digimon Rumble Arena 2 announcer. And that one is pretty bad.
Then we chose some minigames and played them. They were, as I said, varied enough, and fun enough to keep the atmosphere good, and in a party, I'm sure it would work pretty well. But put simply, there isn't much to say on it. It has a nice set up to the mini games, and the card system works well. You'd break it out in a party if you didn't have any Rythm Game to play.
Devil May Cry 4
This opening cutscene starts with Nero running towards a gigantic hall in the middle of this city, where his (I assume) Girlfriend is singing. Demons appear and impede his progress. Awesomness occurrs. The fight scene is wonderfully coreographed in time to the song, with swinging camera angles, slo-motion and lots of death. It was a joy to watch, and I think its time these people made a CGI movie. NOW! The opening scene features two more fights, which are just as well coreographed, and a tutorial is weaevd into the final one.
Dante vs Nero.
OH GOD ITS EPIC! Dante arrives in spectacular badass style, and says nothing for about five minutes. Nero is blasting off some spectacular one liners, being very "cool," yet Dante isn't even breaking a sweat, not saying anything until Nero actually proves himself worthy of speech.
The actual fight can't really be described, you need to watch it. And you even get to play some of the fight. Thats right, the game does hand over control to you. It is very much like Fable in that you start off with about 2 moves, and you will unlock more as you go. The combat is fun. Its frantic, its stylish, and its really really good. Dragging an enemy over to you, juggling him in the air and slamming him down is damn satisfying. I'm sure when I upgrade my gun a bit more, the gun combat will actually be good, for currently, my gun shoots pees.
The camera is OK, its not caused me too much annoyance yet, but there is always time, I suppose. The camera is often fixed for cinematic views of stylish fights, to make the game look that much more awesome, even if it may make playing it that little bit more frustrating. But it does its job while you fight swarms and swarms of demons. These demons seem to love attatching curved swords to some part of their body, and they look very cool. They have quite a unique design among other action games that just have humonoid opponents, but they won't be alive for that long.
The bosses, on the other hand, will live for a while. I only fought the one in the picture and it was both hard and awesome. Using the Devil Bringer at the right moment to grab onto the big "Flame Horse Thing's" head, is very very rewarding, and using the righ combo at the right time will allow you to absoloutley pwn the boss. However, you will not always be pwning the bosses, as they pack a punch. Bosses will often kick YOUR arse instead, not the other way around. I know I had to retry my boss once, which meant replaying the whole level. I'm sure I just missed the button to retry boss as otherwise, that's terrible design.
So overall for DMC 4, its fun. Its not as good as Ninja Gaiden, but while these action games are very similar, they are also at odds. The DMC combat engine will take some time to woo me over, but I'm sure it eventually will, as so far, its great!
Oh my...I still have three more left. Anyway, on with the blog...
Mirror's Edge
You see, the way the animated cutscenes are done is at odds to the way the game is done itself. The world is not stylised, its just simple. Its clean and artificial, and you cannot capture that style in the cutscenes. Thats not to say the scenes aren't bad, its more that the game could have made a story that fitted in with the game and the art style much better.
The first person perspective is great, and running up walls, on the ground, rolling, dashing, jumping, up, down.... Oh its just great. Completing a complicated series of jumps is as satisfying as shooting 20 guys in the face in Stranglehold. Though its much more challenging.
Trial and Error does play a big part of the game. On levels that you have not seen before and do not know what to do, the B button is priceless, giving you a nice view of your destination. Without this, many a casual player would be extremely stuck. In fact, so would I. Runner vision is priceless, and I'm now beginning to see the design concept behind how they are going to reduce it later in the game. In some parts of a level where there is no runner vision, you rely on your knowledge of what you can do to get you through. If you see a box next to a fence with barbed wire, you know you need to jump on the box and over the fence.
I have yet to play any of the Time Trial modes, but from replaying certain sections of what I have played I can tell that I will get drawn in. The game is essentially a series of puzzles come races, which you want to complete faster than everyone else.
To wrap up, its an innovative idea, that works very well, and I see myself playing long after I finish the campaign.
Lego Star Wars: The Complete Saga
I have played the first few missions of the Phantom Menace, and the Gameplay is great fun. Its really simple and accessible, and I can tell that I'll be able to sit down with a friend who sucks at games and have a nice experience. You control your little lego character with the left stick, attack with X and jump with A. Thats really it. B is special ability and Y will switch to another on screen character, but thats really all the depth too it at the moment. There are a few combos, but its not about fighting.
With these characters, you can replay levels in "free play" mode, which is pretty cool. Playing as Darth Vader against Darth Vader is just one stupid crossover moment i will eventually initiate. Theres even avchivements for killing Ja Ja Binks and shooting Han as Greedo.
In jokes like that make the game what it is. Its loving towards its source material, yet it won't hesitate to pick apart holes in it. The voiceless cutscenes are damn fine, and the little "lego" noises that every little thing makes just adds an extra touch onto this already great game.
So overall, I really like it. Its a casual game compared to most of the others, and is an extremly unique experience among my collection.
Bully: Scolarship Edition
Bully is an open world game a la GTA in many ways. First off, its made by the same company, except the vancouver branch, and while it borrows many things from GTA, its a unique experience in its own right.
It takes the piss out of everything to do with school, and has something to say on every single social group. The characters are well done, and always go just beyond the steryotype to give both depth and humour to them. The faction system works very well, and it gives you a great feeling that the school is alive and watching your every move.
This school has lessons, like all schools do, as you know. And these lessons are more worthwile than real school as they actually teach you things (Arf!) and give you real benefits to the out of lesson gameplay. For example, PE will make sure that you can fend off Bullies better, or run faster. English will mean you are much better at apologising and getting out of trouble with bullies and so on. It adds a layer of life to the school, as the way the lessons are handled is expertly humourous. Whats more, these lesson mini games are actually fun. Bully is the closest to a good dodgeball game that this world has ever come.
The out of class missions are also well done, as you would expect of Rockstar. The characters are funny, as I said, and will draw parallels to your very own school memories. They will. Trust me. A lot of the missions so far involve, for example, protecting Nerds or finding things for people. However, they all use fighting off bullies at somepoint, and its a good thing to combat is fun. Hand to Hand combat gets school fighting nailed. Headbutts, wedgies, noogies and good ol' kicks to the balls are all here, and beating up a Bully is always satisfying.
There is also a world outside the school, but I have yet to explore it, though I'm sure it will be bursting with detail. Thats practically this whole game so far. Its bursting with detail. Detailed jokes, characters and mini-games. Its all there, which is why this one lasting me a long time.
Closing Thoughts.
OH MY GOD. That took me years. YEARS I SAY. I actually started writing this, on and off, and 3 o' clock GMT. Years ago, I'm sure you agree.There are bound to be spelling mistakes, as my spell checker is refusing to work, but my englush riles.
Anyway, I hope you liked the blog, please comment on it about what you think of the above games, and I will attempt to review them soon!