In this blog I will be talking about the role of the player in a video game, illustrated by a very recent example: Prince of Persia.
Don't read this blog if you haven't finished Prince of Persia.
Wherein we discuss Prince of Persia, mostly the story. I found it a very interesting game. First off, you're put in the shoes of the Prince, who is a total enigma, and does not really open up much throughout. He talks a little about his travels and how his parents died, and I guess he robs tombs, but we don't really know anything about his past. While plenty of games cast you as a blank slate, like Fallout 3 or Fable 2, the Prince does have a personality and a past, we are just not given it. We know he is a good guy at heart, obviously, but at the same time he only seems to trust himself. That he trusts Elika seems like an exception, to me. I found myself talking to Elika at every opportunity just to learn more about these characters, the Prince (I call him that because we aren't even given a name) especially. At one point the Concubine, an awesome villain, alludes to him being a Prince, but she could be referring to the future as well, as it's all rather vague. Obviously the game's title is meant to make you think he is/was/will become a Prince, but that could be a red herring. So throughout the game we steer the prince towards his destiny without really knowing his true motivations. That's fine, most of the time, we are used to doing what games tell us to do, especially if it is the Right Thing To Do. Which it is throughout. Until the end.
Where the game really starting messing with me and making me think was the ending. Again, I must warn you, this is a total spoiler zone, and it is an ending so shocking you'll want to see what happens for yourself. After having gone through all the trouble of healing all the fertile grounds and killing Ahriman's four corrupted Lieutenants, we finally get to imprison Ahriman himself. Elika uses all her powers to restore life to the tree that keeps Ahriman imprisoned, which costs her her own life. At this point, the Prince picks Elika up and we get control again. The only thing we can do at this point is walk outside of the temple, and we do, and we put Elika on the stone slab outside. The Prince doesn't say word one during all of this, including everything that happens after this. Four radiant trees have grown in the area surrounding the temple, which I assume are keeping the tree of light, Ahriman's prison in the temple, intact. Hesitantly, I make my way towards the trees. Surely, he can't mean to do the same thing Elika's father did? At this point we start hearing Ahriman, who has two voices, male and female, whispering, softly. Being given no other choice, I cut down the first tree, and the area surrounding it is drained of life and color and grows corrupted again. At this point my worst fears are confirmed. The game, or rather the Prince, wants me to cut down all the trees, and that is all you can do, save for turning off the game. With every tree I cut down, the whispers grow louder. Ahriman is convincing me, the Prince, to free him to save Elika. But has the Prince already made up his mind? Is he controlled by Ahriman or does he know full well what he is doing?
Having cut down all the trees, the temple reopens. I return to the tree of light, Ahriman's prison, and the Prince takes the essence of the tree, which is the orbs of light we have been collecting throughout the game. With the orb of light in our hands, we return to Elika. The Prince infuses her with the light and she returns to life, blurting "Why?". The Prince picks her up, carries her off into the distance in silence as the temple collapses behind them, the land is ravaged by darkness and Ahriman escapes.
To Be Continued.
The reason I find this so very fascinating is not just because the story makes me want to see what happens next, but also for academic reasons. We are used to following a linear path in videogames because we're doing the right thing, or in rare cases, playing an evil character. We are almost What was he thinking? Did he really care so much about her that he was willing to sacrifice the entire land? We'll have to wait and see...always doing things that reflect the character's nature. In some cases, you determine this nature for yourself. But in Prince of Persia, what you do in the end undoes everything that led up to that point. And worse yet, we get no insight whatsoever into why the Prince is doing this, because he doesn't say anything. Throughout the game, while we learn little about his past, we learn quite a bit about the Prince's character. Despite his devil may care attitude, he clearly cares about Elika and wants to help her save this land. He's a pragmatist. So why would he sacrifice everything just to save Elika? Was it Ahriman's influence? Was it his own choice? By making the player do these things, we are encouraged to consider the Prince's motivations. Ours are simple: Finish the game to see what happens, even if it means doing something that, in the context of everything that has been told to the player in the game, is a Very Bad Thing. Personally, I think the Prince knew full well what he was doing and it was his own choice, because we retain control of the Prince, even if we have no true control. This ending in itself would be surprising, maybe a little shocking, if it had been a cut scene, but because we, as the player, are forced to commit these acts ourselves, their impact is increased dramatically. Just think about that for a second. By simply being interactive, as opposed to a static cut scene, we look upon these events in quite a different light.
Be warned, the following paragraph also contains spoilers for Metal Gear Solid 3 and minor spoilers for Shadow of the Colossus and Bioshock
There have certainly been moments in games where you have to do things that you may really not want to do, but we know why Snake had to shoot The Boss at the end of MGS 3, even if it wasn't easy to do. So when I was destroying the trees, I felt incredibly conflicted. I knew what was going to happen and I really didn't want to do it, but the story demanded I do it. To stop playing would mean simply ending the game before it has truly ended. We are, in essence, slaves to the game's demands. I think the designers have been heavily influenced by Shadow of the Colossus here, where you are going around killing these colossi, who are mostly pacifistic, to restore life to a girl. But even there, you aren't sure that you're truly doing an evil thing. But somehow, it just feels wrong. Every slain colossus is another step towards the game's tragic conclusion. What makes this so interesting is that you are given the illusion of control in videogames, but there are really only two choices: follow the path you are given or stop playing the game, which isn't even a real choice given by the game. Bioshock did a similar thing where it is revealed you have been manipulated all along, and even after you break the manipulation, you are still a slave to the game's whims.
This new movement of games that have something to say, implicitly, about the player's involvement in a game (in this case, that control is an illusion) is incredibly fascinating to me. Games where you get to make choices that influence the story have been around for a while, and while some of them are fairly succesful at creating the illusion of freedom, ultimately you're still doing the things the designers intended you to do. Forcing you, the player, to do things you really don't want to do, or things that just feel wrong, instead of just watching them happen in a cutscene, can evoke an incredible feeling of dread or sadness. And that, my friends, is what makes video games so special. They can evoke feelings no other medium can. And that's why we're all here, isn't it? Feel free to agree/disagree/discuss, I'd love to hear what you guys think.
Here it is, the list you've all been waiting for, the list to end all lists! Or, maybe not. But in case anyone cares, here are the top 10 games of this year, as decided by me and me alone! Rather than just make a numbered list, I'm just going to name all 10 nominees and then "anounce" the winner. I feel numbered lists are pretty arbitrary, and so 1998. Let's get to it then, shall we?
Fallout 3
I've never played a previous Fallout game, so I didn't have any preconceived notion about what a Fallout game should or shouldn't be going into this. Having played Oblivion, Bethesda's last game, prepared me Welcome to the.. Okay I'll stop using that line now.pretty well for the experience though, as it's mechanically quite similar. However, where I felt Oblivion was a bit soulless, Fallout 3 was simply brimming with atmosphere. The Wasteland totally immersed me and made its mark on me more than any other game's setting this year. The main story was a bit too short and anti-climactic, but the volume of great side quests made up for it. One of the most engrossing games of the year.
Braid
More than meets the eye!Unlike the other games on this list, Braid is "just" a small downloadable game, but that doesn't stop it from having huge ambitions. You are Tim, on a quest to save his Princess, but everything soon reveals itself to be more than it appears. Brilliant puzzles that will tax anyone's mind and probably the most thought-provoking story a game has ever produced, Braid held me in a delirium for weeks. The discussions surrounding the game eventually died down as everyone moved on to whatever shiny game was on the horizon, but that doesn't stop Braid from being one of the most enduring games of the year, in my mind.
Metal Gear Solid 4
The conclusion to the Metal Gear Solid saga was the reason for me to buy a PS3 earlier this year, and it was worth it. It's easy to poke holes in the frankly outrageous story, but the gameplay is rock solid, a vast Solid Snake's last hurrah.improvement over its predecessors, and if you've come this far you'll want to see the conclusion, and in terms of emotional gravitas it does not disappoint. Long-winded, pretentious, hammy and clumsy, yet still compelling. Is it voodoo? I don't know, but Metal Gear Solid's ridiculousness will always be near and dear to me.
World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King
Sylvanas Windrunner looking better than everSurprising absolutely no one, Blizzard has once again gone and set the new gold standard for MMO RPG's. Cribbing from other games' ideas and improving upon them by adding Blizzard's trademark polish and endless testing, WoW still towers like a colossus above its peers. I can't think of any addition that hasn't made the game better or more approachable, from the new Death Knight class to the more casual-friendly nature of raiding and more subtle things like quest design and placement, it's all handled with a great critical eye. The implementation of story is also commendable, as the game finally makes you feel like you aren't just a bystander anymore, but rather a key player.
Grand Theft Auto IV
Veering away from the silly nature of its predecessors, GTA4 tells a pretty good tale of crime drama. The gameplay hasn't evolved much from the past games, new cover system notwithstanding, but in terms of Sorry Niko, things won't be differentstory and emotional impact it's a pretty big leap forward for the series. Let down a little by some dodgy mission design overreliant on scripted events and repetitive structure, it is nonetheless one of the more memorable games of the year.
The Witcher: Enhanced Edition
Geralt, the White WolfSurprised? So was I, but The Witcher is a game sadly a little bit overlooked, presumably because it is a PC exclusive, so hopefully the upcoming console version will give it the attention it deserves. The Witcher thrusts you into the role of Geralt, a (surprise!) Witcher, basically a monster hunter and general occult-fighting dude. The world of The Witcher is not your typical idyllic fantasy world. It's a world wherein the status quo opresses the non-human minorities (dwarves, elves and the like) and where racial tensions are surpisingly similar to some.. ethnic tensions in today's world. It is this gritty, dark world that makes The Witcher stand out from other fantasy RPG's. It's basically the antithesis of Fable 2. It's also one of the few games to present choice as a realistic concept, often with unexpected effects, rather than asking the player "do you want to be a good guy or a bad guy?" The Witcher is a game of grey areas and a mature story, and if you have a PC that's up to it, I strongly recommend it.
Gears of War 2
The continuing heterosexual adventures of Dom and Marcus manage to keep thrilling. Better than its predecessor in every way (except dialogue), Gears of War 2 keeps bombarding the player (or players, as it is Dueling chainsawsideally played with a friend) with epic, grand set pieces, so much so that you can't help but wonder how they'll improve on this for the inevitable sequel. Gears 2 is the summer blockbuster of video games. It's big and dumb but expertly paced and brilliantly designed. Multiplayer modes for both competitive and co-operative game types give the game longevity long after you've finished the 10-ish hour campaign. Personally not a huge fan of Gears' multiplayer, but Horde mode is brilliant and Wingman with a good teammate is also quite fantastic. Shooter of the year.
Rock Band 2
My ridiculous ION drum kitWhile not a quantum leap in terms of features or gameplay modes, Rock Band 2 streamlines the experience to what it really should've been, but regardless, it's a much more approachable game because of it. Song list is of course always subjective, but what keeps me coming back to Rock Band is primarily the DLC, and Harmonix's devotion to weekly content is already enough reason for this game to be here. Every single week, they deliver, which is really commendable. More polished than its competitor, better note charts, it's just no contest. Rock Band 2 is simply the best rhythm game ever made.
Mirror's Edge
Mirror's Edge is certainly not perfect. Indeed, it can be frustrating at times. But when I look back on the experience, I remember the brilliantly refreshing art style and the times when I performed fantastic feats of Take a leap of... Oh, never mindacrobatics without a hitch, not the times Faith did something I didn't want her to. The debate of whether reviewers should excuse flaws for innovation aside, I am willing to look past some blemishes for an experience this fresh and unique, and ultimately, I just enjoyed the hell out of this game. The campaign was entertaining, but I think there might be more potential in the time trials. Doing away with the fighting and finding the perfect line to the finish makes the game is incredibly addictive, and it's a great rush to pull off the perfect run.
Super Street Fighter 2 Turbo HD Remix
Super Combo Finish!Ridiculous name aside, and the fact that it's a remake of an old game, there was nonetheless no game that surprised me as much as HD Remix did. I never expected to really get into a fighting game, but HD Remix drew me in and made me want to get better so I could beat all those Ken scrubs online. The quality of the net code is incredibly impressive, and that alone deserves Backbone massive props, but Udon's new art makes the game really pleasant to look at to boot. Not being experienced with Super Turbo, I can't say that the new changes are better for sure, but they sound really smart and I haven't heard any hardcore players complain about it. And there are tons of options for purists to change little things, as well as the option to play the game as it was, 1994-style.
And the winner is...
Braid!
Yup, that's right. An XBLA game. It's impossible to ask me to look at the game separate from its artistic merits, but even as a pure puzzle game, Braid is probably the most clever game I've played this year. Add to that the fact that Braid does what no other game has ever done, deconstruct age-old game clichés and present a truly thought-provoking narrative, and you have what I consider to be the most important game made in years. It's probably not reached as many people as I'd like, simply because it's a downloadable game and a lot of people don't bother with them, but I hope developers will look at this and realize what can be done with games. Not every game needs to be a Braid, and I'm not evangelizing Braid simply because I want more people to play it, but it's legitimately the most impressive game I've played this year. No other game has ever lingered in my mind and provoked as much debate and discussion as Braid has.
So there you have it, those are my favorite games of this year. Some games that barely missed the list are Fable 2 and Little Big Planet, and I have Left 4 Dead and Prince of Persia sitting here still unopened, but I'm pretty happy with this list. Thanks for reading, if you've come this far, and see you next year!
I don't write enough. So this is me, writing about whatever games I have been playing/buying the past week or so. Hang on, folks.
I've bought a shitload of stuff.
As if being knee-deep into World of Warcraft isn't enough to keep me occupied, my Rock Band obsession has reached new heights as well. I've purchased the ION drum kit, a $300 piece of equipment. It's anAin't she a beauty? absolute joy to use. As a mostly expert-level Rock Band drummer, I found the stock kit to simply be inadequate, it was holding me back and preventing me from having as much fun as I could be having. The Guitar Hero kit isn't ideal either as it maps the charts to weird pads in Rock Band from time to time. So for me it was totally worth the money. Smacking away at a real crash is much more satisfying than smacking on a pad. However, the foot pedal wasn't entirely to my liking so I've also gone ahead and ordered the Rock Pedal, costing another $75. Someone needs to tell me I'm fucking nuts.
Aside from that, I've ordered Left 4 Dead and Prince of Persia for the 360, and I'm looking forward to shooting zombies with some Giant Bomb buddies. What's that, not enough games, you say? Well that's why I also ordered Chrono Trigger DS and Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia. And I'm set till February at least!
Great title screen. 9/10I've been waiting for a portable version of Chrono Trigger for ages. Did you know this is actually the first time Chrono Trigger has gotten a European release (even though it isn't actually out in Europe yet)? It's a shame it took so long. Chrono Trigger is the RPG that anyone who has ever wanted to try a Japanese RPG should play. It's amazing how well it's held up over the years. I guess what's more amazing is that the genre has basically barely changed since that game. I've been saying for a long time that the genre has been stagnant, which is why I welcomed FFXII's new approach. Don't get me wrong, there is still a place for the traditional RPG, but when a SNES game showed you don't need to have random encounters in a traditional RPG, what's the excuse for an XBOX 360 game to have them? Certainly not technical limitations.
Meanwhile, back in Azeroth...
As I've said, I'm also playing Wrath of the Lich King. Once again, Blizzard has set the new gold standard for MMORPG's. The integration of story is very well done. Instead of having the world change around Chilling with the Queen of Dragons and her Prime Consort.you without your input, or not changing at all, completing certain quests and events causes the world to change for you, whereas other players may still see it as it was before. It's a fantastic way to make you feel like you are actually advancing the story, as opposed to just being a bystander. As a lore nerd who's read almost all the Warcraft books, it's immensely gratifying to actually interact with Thrall and Sylvanas to retake the undercity, or to see Alexstrasza, the Dragon Queen, Aspect of Life, in full glory. Like I said, lore nerd. Bioware may like to believe they will be the first to make story important in an MMO, but they're not. It will be interesting to see what they can come up with regardless.
I'm taking my time leveling though. Only level 75 at the moment, I'm enjoying exploring Northrend. It's a (mostly) beautiful place, and massive to boot.
That's all for now. Tune in next week(?) for another instalment, and my thoughts on Prince of Persia and all that good stuff.
This blog is about Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix, which is both the stupidest game name ever and the best fighting game I have ever played.
You see, I've never been all that big on fighting games. I've enjoyed the occasional bout of Soul Calibur and Dead or Alive, but the only fighting game I've ever really gotten into was Smash Bros Brawl, which
God help you if Akuma fills up his special bar.despite what anyone might claim, has a good deal of depth to it and is super fun played with people of similar (somewhat competitive) skill level. I maintain this even though I appreciate that it's a very different type of fighting game from, say, Super Turbo. So my experience with fighting games is limited to say the least. I've always found them too hard to get into, with too many arcane button combinations to remember and myriad moves per character to cram into my head. It just didn't seem like that much fun. But Super Turbo is different. Being that it's sort of the granddaddy of modern fighting games, it is more simplistic, but that does not mean it has no depth, obviously, unlike what many people will have you believe. Most characters have as many special moves as you have fingers on one hand, if that, and the combinations are not hideously complex sequences. The only drawback is that the 360 controller is simply not equipped to deal with precise movements of the analog stick, or god forbid, the d-pad.
So I set about mastering the game's simplest characters: Ken and Ryu. Which quickly led to me messing about with Akuma and Sagat. And while I get destroyed 9 times out of 10 online, I'm still having a hell of a time. The game's balance is simply impeccable. I never felt like I lost because my character simply wasn't able to fight back, rather it was I who was not able to fight back adequately. It simply motivates me to keep playing and get better.
For a long time I had hoped to finally play that fighting game that would get me serious about wanting to learn the moves and get better. God knows why it took me this long only to end up at the fighting game, but there you go. So kids, even if you think fighting games aren't really for you, if there's any one that is easy to learn but difficult to master, and fun during the whole process, it is the revamped Super Turbo. The netcode is great, so online works like a charm providing you both have decent connections, and it no longer looks like ass on HDTV's.
Also, it got me mad excited for the upcoming release of SF4. Bring on February.
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So yeah, I played the L4D demo on the 360, and was decidedly unimpressed. I really want to like this game, and I'm not completely writing it off yet, but I was disappointed in several aspects of the game.
Unsatisfying weapons. Combination of weak sounds, lack of great visual feedback when firing, I can't quite put my finger on exactly what it is, but the weapons "feel" underpowered.
Mediocre graphics. I know they need to keep detail down a bit to preserve a stable framerate, but it looks like it should've come out alongside Half-Life 2.
Biggest one: It does not feel like a co-op game. Sure there are moments where you have to save your teammates from a zombie but that's pretty much it. It seems like the action is too fast and too random to provide any meaningful sense of teamwork beyond "stick together and shoot the zombies". A game like Gears 2, which is not even marketed as a pure co-op experience, feels like a much more satisfying co-operative experience because there are plenty of moments where you have to split up and support each other in different ways and so on. I haven't actually played it with friends yet so maybe that will be a better experience, but right now the whole thing just feels undercooked, which is strange because this game has been a long time coming.
So yeah I really want to like this game, but I feel like I totally just got caught up in the hype, as everyone has been saying positive things about this game almost exclusively. I can see it getting repetitive really fast. So the zombies come from different places, big deal, you're still just shooting zombies the whole time. I think it'll provide some cheap, fun thrills that will wear off pretty quickly. I'll play the demo some more but unless I have an epiphany I can't see myself getting this game, it's not like I'm starved for games this month so that would work out just fine.
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Because I've played a lot of games recently and because I don't feel like doing reviews for each individual one, I'm going to briefly review them in order, like so:
Fable 2
Fable 2's brand of action role-playing is fun, if a bit shallow. The main quest is quite short and not particularly memorable, but there are loads of optional quests that flesh out the world and feel like a meaningfulLight-hearted fun but ultimately forgettable. 4/5
Spider-Man: Web of Shadows
Probably the best Spider-Man game yet, besides Spider-Man 2. I already wrote detailed impressions on this, which have pretty much remained unchanged. Flashy but repetitive combat, and the same goes for the mission structure. Story is ridiculous and just an excuse to throw as many villains as possible in there and making symbiote versions of them. Peter's voice actor is awful, sounds like a whiny 16-year old. For more, read my impressions. Rent if you're interested.
3/5
Penny Arcade Adventures: On the Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness - Episode 2
Besides having the longest title ever, it's also one of the funniest games I've played, along with the first episode. The second episode does what you expect from it, more of the same with some improvements, Mike Krahulik's art is brought to life beautifully in both the game and the cut scenes, rendered in stunning two dimensions!namely a bit more variety (but just a bit), improving the blocking mechanism to make it easier to know when to block, and continuing the madcap story. I felt it wasn't quite as funny as I remember the first game being, but it's still appropriately riotous at times. If you're not a Penny Arcade fan, there's not much here for you, but if you are, and you liked the first game, you have no reason not to pick this up. Really, this review is kind of pointless as fans will get it and those who don't like Penny Arcade obviously have no business here. My main complaints are that enemies have too many hitpoints and fights take too long without ever really challenging you, apart from the boss battles, making them feel more like a chore. Also, one of the achievements on the 360 is glitched for a lot of people, which kind of sucks.
4/5
Gears of War 2
This probably deserves a full review, but I feel I don't have much to say about this that Jeff hasn't already said, and really, as a Gears fan, you know what to expect. It really is bigger and better. Stunning graphics, EXPLOSIONS!amazing set pieces, the best co-operative shooter experience I've ever... experienced, as well as a great variety of multiplayer modes. Playing the campaign by myself though, I was not having nearly as much fun as I was when playing it with friends. The co-operative play is the heart of the experience here, as is clearly emphasized by the many opportunities for teamwork in the campaign, and it really just isn't the same by yourself.
5/5 (with the caveat that you're playing the campaign with a buddy)
I'm copy/pasting my review here as a blog because these seem to get more comments, and any feedback, positive or negative, is always appreciated :)
Welcome to the Wasteland
Fallout 3's Capital Wasteland is a cruel and inhospitable place, fraught with danger. A nuclear armageddon has eradicated all but the most basic signs that this was once the capital of the USA. You might see some rubble that was once a house, now inhabited only by relics that were once a person's belongings, now charred and rusted. A school building, its notice board still partly intact, now serves as a home to a group of raiders. It's a terrible, dreary place where no one in their right mind would want to be. Yet I found myself drawn to that place, soaking in every ugly detail.
You first set sight on this wasteland when you leave the relatively safe confines of Vault 101, an underground shelter where people attempt to lead normal lives and uphold the values of a society that died alongThe Wasteland with most of Washington's population when the nuclear holocaust hit them. Your father just left without telling you anything, and you set out to find him. It's hard not to be impressed when you trade the claustrophobic Vault for the sprawling wasteland, spreading in every direction. You're temporarily blinded by the sun, never having felt its light, and then... wasteland, as far as the eye can see (which is far indeed in Fallout 3). And so begins your quest. Look for your father, wherever he may be.
Anyone who's played Oblivion, Bethesda's previous game, will tell you that that game was all about the side quests, and so too is Fallout 3. The main story takes you past some of the wasteland's highlights but skips many of them. You can play through the entire game without even stopping by the ruins of the White House, or Abe Lincoln's memorial, as I did. Fallout 3 is a game that gives back proportionally to what you put in it. The game is all about your interactions with the world and its inhabitants and the impact you choose to make on their lives, be it positive or negative. Some quests have very visual payoffs, others are much more subtle in nature. It may take the form of the devastation of an entire settlement, or a report by a radio disc jockey about how you found a new home for a young boy who lost his parents. While the main quest involves you going a lot of places and shooting a lot of people and creatures, the side quests often have more creative solutions, ending in several possible ways. Being a violent jerk, a greedy mercenary or a good samaritan is all viable, as you can shoot or talk your way out of quests in several ways. You can even outright lie to some NPCs about your mission progress and bypass some quests entirely, though the success of this may depend on your speech skill.
Fallout 3 being a role-playing game, it wouldn't be complete without character stats. A lot of it is similar to Oblivion. You pick some primary skills which get a small boost at the start of the game, and every time you level up you can distribute some more skill points across all categories, like Sneaking, Small Guns, Lockpicking and the like. I intended to make a sneaky character relying on melee, but I found out that sneaking is almost entirely useless and melee isn't the best option when you have to charge some raiders with guns standing 30 feet away from you, so the game is a little bit more limiting in the combat department than you might think. Fortunately, within a few levels I had compensated for this combat deficiency and I could fire a rifle with the best of them, so regardless of your starting skill set, you can still adapt your play style as you go.
The game looks like a first-person shooter, but the accuracy of your weapons is determined by your skills, so while player skill is still a factor, it is not really feasible to rely on your twitch gaming skills throughout That dude's lost his head!the game, but this is where VATS comes in. In VATS mode, time freezes and you can select different body parts of your enemy to fire at, and the actions you selected then play out in slow motion. It looks really gratifying blowing a Super Mutant's head off in slow-mo. You only have a limited number of action points to spend in VATS though, but these regenerate fairly quickly, so using VATS, finding some cover or retreating for a while before popping VATS back on is perfectly viable. Your chance to hit a specific body part still relies on weapon skill, distance and line of sight though. I found combat to be satisfying when in VATS, but not so much when shooting enemies in real time. The gory death animations definitely make the weapons feel powerful and the action visceral.
Where Fallout 3 shines is its quest design and the general aesthetic of the Wasteland. As I said, it's an ugly, inhospitable place, but it's crafted with so much attention to detail it's almost unsettling. All around the wasteland you'll find places that were once everyday venues, like a diner, only to find corpses nailed to beds or human meat in refrigerators. I found an audio diary recorded by a woman who was, at that time, watching the nukes explode in the distance, acted out eerily well. It made my skin crawl and actually made me slightly emotional. It's one of the most immersive, well-realized settings I have experienced in a game. It feels, for lack of a better word, human.
Unfortunately, the game is not without its flaws. For better or worse, it's inherited a few of Oblivion's flaws, the most noticeable of which is the haphazard AI, especially for friendly NPC's. They can behave... erratic, at times. For instance, you might find everyone running around felling in terror for no discernable reason, but then you go and walk up to someone and they might face you and say "good morning" like nothing is going on. As it stands, this is pretty much the only thing holding the game back from total immersion, and it's a shame, as I found every other part of the game to be expertly crafted.
I can't speak for the console versions, but the PC version seems very well optimized. Playing on a Q6600 quad core, 2 GB of RAM and a Geforce 8800GT, I played with the settings on Very High and it ran mostly without a hitch, except on some very rare occasions in specific spots where the framerate would chug a little, and this was usually outside of combat. It also supports Live so you can just log in with your Live account and earn the achievements as on the XBOX 360.
Fallout 3 is a beautiful game. To use a cliché, more than the sum of its parts. Any of the disparate gameplay parts have been done elsewhere, and arguably better, but it's all bound together by the setting, the Wasteland, which is the real star of the show here, and its oppresive atmosphere will almost certainly grab you by the throat.
A couple of people have asked me for my opinion on Web of Shadows, so here it is. I haven't finished the game yet, but I spent a good 4 hours or so playing it, and according to some I've seen most of what the game has to offer, which, in a nutshell, is fighting, lots and lots of fighting. And of course the requisite web-swinging.
Spider-Man: Web of Shadows, Duel in the skyThe good news is the fighting is exactly what is was billed to be: Very fluid, cinematic and it makes you feel like Spider-Man. Though it takes a little while before you get access to the more spectacular moves, once you learn the web-zip moves early on that let you zip towards enemies and either kick them, throw them or slam them into the ground you can start to build some pretty awesome combos, bouncing from one enemy to the next and potentially never leaving the ground until they're all dealt with. Add to that the fact that you can switch between both the black suit and the red suit at will, which definitely have a very different feel to them, combat-wise, and your only real limit is pretty much your creativity within the game's large move set. There is a good amount of depth to the system, and while you can technically get by using very basic combos, that just isn't a lot of fun, and you'd be shooting yourself in the foot not trying out both suits and their moves extensively to find what works for you.
The web-swinging feels a lot like Spider-Man 2's, with slightly different controls, and slightly simplified, though not nearly as much as Ultimate Spider-Man's were. The big sticking point (pun intended) is that Spidey's webs don't actually attach to anything when swinging, which is kind of a bummer, because I sort of liked using the buildings as a tether, it made rounding corners and such feel intuitive and realistic. You still need buildings to use web-zip, though. Of course the upside is that getting around areas without a lot of tall buildings is no longer a hassle. When I heard that the webs don't attach to anything I was initially very bummed out, but it didn't bother me as much as I thought it would, mostly because you don't really notice most of the time unless you're paying attention. And I feel I need to mention that the web-swinging is a little... random. Sometimes it just won't attach to anything when there are no buildings around, like when you're on the top of a tall building, and sometimes it will. It's weird, it's like, why didn't the just make the webs attach to the buildings in that case? But it's not a huge deal. Overall I prefer Spider-Man 2's web-swinging, which was about as perfect as it could possibly be, but it's still pretty good in this game.
The most critized part of the game is usually the repetitive nature of the mission structure, and on this point I kind of have to agree. I mean on one hand there isn't much you can do as Spidey besides swinging and fighting, and the previous games have kind of proved that missions outside of this mold usually weren't very fun, but it's still a bit disappointing to see that pretty much every mission consists of you fighting dudes or occasionally getting somewhere within a (lenient) time limit. There are optional missions as well, but they are pretty much MMORPG-like kill quests and don't amount to much. Don't expect anything special out of the game's open-world structure, basically.
The story hasn't really taken off for me yet, but I'll be curious to see how all the symbiote stuff plays out. Graphically, the game is kind of sparse. It looks like a HD version of Spider-Man 2, kind of. Major characters look nice but the city lacks character and charm a bit.
If you're a huge Spidey nut like me and you liked Spider-Man 2 a lot but thought the follow-ups were disappointing, I think this game is worth getting, depending on how many games you were already planning on buying. I realize this holiday season is crowded as fuck, and this probably isn't the best game to buy, but it does scratch that Spidey itch, and it's certainly not bad. At the very least worth a rental.
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Guitar Hero, eat your heart out? I guess?If you need any more proof that money will make anyone go totally batshit crazy, one needs look no further than Miyamoto's latest attempt at settling you Wii Music. This is the man who made all the Mario games that mattered, the man what brought you Zelda, the man whose games used to sell themselves. And, to be fair, the Wii does sell itself. But Wii games may sell well, critics are often left cold by them. So who is Miyamoto trying to convince here? The casual crowd that buys the fifty million copies of Wii Play and Carnival Games won't be reading games websites on a daily basis, and the "core" gamers are too busy playing actual good rhythm games to care about Wii Music's approach.
The writing is on the wall: Nintendo doesn't care about "us" anymore. "Us" being the people editing Giant Bomb pages, the people buying games like Bioshock, Fable 2, and yes, Zelda. And why should they, right? The Wii, 3 years on, is still outselling the PS3 and 360 combined, even with the lack of games that appeal to the "core" gamer demographic, the 16-30 year old males, which probably constitutes most of us.
But can the Wii's popularity last forever?
The Wii has clearly proven itself to be more than just a fad, and it may well carry Nintendo into the 201x's. But how long until people tire of novel mechanics? On one hand, I think the Wii, and the upcoming Wii HD, will remain popular for quite a while. Casual gaming is still proving very popular, and the Wii is the ultimate party machine, in a sense, as it is easy to get to grips with the controls and most games aren't terribly complicated. But software sales are lagging far behind. The Wii's attachment rate (number of games sold compared to number of consoles sold) is quite low compared to the other consoles. Third party games, with some exceptions, fail to achieve the sales figures of Nintendo's own games. Nintendo has tapped into their demographic's needs and wants in a very impressive way, bundling games like Mario Kart with wheel peripherals that are nothing more than plastic molds, but to children and the easily impressed, it's like you're actually driving! Then there's Wii Fit, which comes with a peripheral that is actually slightly less gimmicky. But only slightly. Nevertheless, for games like skate, I think it can prove a worthwhile addition. But can Nintendo keep innovating and appealing to the casual crowd like this? When they run out of ideas, how many versions of Wii Sports can people stand to buy before the novelty wears off?
More of this, please!I don't begrudge Nintendo.
I am glad that they have managed to climb out of the dark pit they were in during the last generation of consoles, and to a lesser degree during the N64 days. But it's hard not to feel left out in the cold. When they're only making 2 games a year I care about, and third parties not even reaching that figure, how couldn't I? I just wish they would throw people like me a bone, show us that they still care about their fans, the people that stuck by them through the dark days because of games like Metroid Prime, the Zelda series and the other franchises that have kept them alive throughout the years and endeared them to the "core" gamers companies are so keen of speaking about these days. 15 Comments
I am pretty excited about this Star Wars RPG in development at Bioware. Bioware make pretty rad games, and I am definitely excited in seeing their take on the MMORPG. Will I try it out when it comes out in 201x? Almost certainly. Will I stop playing WoW? Hell, maybe I won't be playing WoW by then. I play WoW off and on anyway, so I guess it depends at which point in that cycle I am when it comes out. Though I might wait a bit, as Age of Conan made me swear never to play another MMO at launch ever again.
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