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Review: Battlefield 3

2011-11-14T15:00:27Z

The anticipation leading up to the release of Battlefield 3 has been steep. Since Battlefield 2 debuted in 2005 there have been eight Battlefield branded titles released, not one of them was Battlefield 3. Now in 2011, the series that raised the bar with 64 man battles is in its third official edition and the message is clear: Don't fix what isn't broken...lately

]]> First thing you may notice is an entire second disc of game in your case, containing the single player campaign. One of the more popular sentiments regarding Battlefield is "Why include a single player at all?" Battlefield is about multi-player, large scale multi-player at that, but Battlefield 3 strives through an entire disc to stack up to the modern warfare (lower case) games currently available in terms of visual storytelling. Unfortunately it gets more of a "nice try, thanks for playing", rather than raising the bar. The single player was a bug riddled adventure through looping/game-crashing loading screens, teleporting AI, sound glitches and more. The story is yet another interrogation-based "play through the back story" game (Dragon Age 2, Call of Duty Black Ops, Prototype...), but this one reads a little more derivatively. The many Quick-Time-Events strewn throughout the story to help facilitate the non-shooting action are very poorly put together*, and the plot just fails to take any chances. Slight spoiler, but most of the good guys are dead by the end of the game and even the final scene is a major downer. There's no real sense of personal victory at all at the end of it all and so the campaign is just not enough to attract even campaign-only players to the table.

*Side rant: During the final QTE of the game, if you miss one of about a dozen, fast-timing inputs you fail immediately and are killed, forced to sit through another loading screen. However, you can miss the final input of the game and it will pass you no problem. Bad form. For lessons in QTEs see From Software's Ninja Blade. Load fast from a failure, and give the player a cue..

Onto the meat of the sandwich, Battlefield 3's Frostbite 2 engine is amazing. In single-player level design holds back the full power of this great tool, but in multiplayer there's no shortage of jawdropping effects to enjoy. The laser beams from snipers in your vision is a great touch both to balance gameplay and for look and feel, while systematically destroying the whole building the sniper is in is both accessible and satisfying. When being fired on the new supression system blurs your vision, numbs your hearing and messes with your accuracy, adding a new level of intensity to close quarters combat. Vehicles such as tanks, jets and choppers dot the map. Devlish though they are to control, they are one of the main draws to the Battlefield style of game. Nothing beats picking up a squad from the spawn, delivering them to a drop point as they rain hell on enemies in the LZ, and doing it all again. Good luck dealing with greedy teammates however, as most of the good vehicles go fast and the good pilots keep them.

The four staple classes (Assault, Medic, Recon, Support) have all been given slight facelifts, with new equipment like the tactical light, bipods and the radio beacon rounding out the arsenal. The game modes now include Team Deathmatch (finally), but outside of this and the previously mentioned changes Battlefield 3 feels a lot like Battlefield Bad Company 2. "Don't fix what isn't broken," is definitely in action here, and to good effect. The co-op campaign is a great distraction from the solid multi-player, but you'll probably have more fun sticking with the traditional Conquest and Rush modes. For those not familiar with Battlefield, the pace of single player can sometimes be a little trying (Run for half a mile, get blown away in seconds. Rinse, repeat).

On a personal note: this reviewer greatly misses the 64 player battles of the franchises PC heyday. If those massive fights, and the Commander class made a return in the next console update, Battlefield would realize its maximum potential. Those were two key bullet points that should never have been toned down/removed from the core of the game.

It's the season for multi-player, and Battlefield just makes it over the bar. Ignoring the campaign all together it's an attractive package to compete with the Modern Warfaring crowd, though the slow pace might turn off those who aren't already familiar with Battlefield-type game play. Battlefield is about working with your squad as a team, as having each other's back is a necessity towards playing effectively. Modern Warfare, in contrast, is about the lone wolf soldier, maximing personal potential. Depending on the type of experience you want, pick the right game to play. If you want large scale maps, vehicles, medium-paced battles and the best looking multi-player engine available to date, it's definitely Battlefield 3. But if you don't have Xbox Live... you should probably hold out instead.

The reviwer bought his own copy of Battlefield 3 for the Xbox 360, played the entire single player campaign, half of the available co-operative missions, and several hours of multiplayer. It was developed by EA DICE, and published by EA.

Review: Wireless Speed Wheel

2011-11-05T17:00:12Z

Looking more like a plane's yoke than a car's steering wheel, the new Wireless Speed Wheel from Microsoft is a unique device just to behold. But be surprised, when using the little peripheral transforms your normal virtual driving experience into a thrilling, smile-inducing good time...for some games.

]]> The wheel comes priced at $59.99, and is packaged with a driver update on an included disc. Nice touch for those without internet connections. The driver for the Wireless Speed Wheel tricks most racing games currently available into thinking it's the Wireless Steering Wheel, the larger one with pedals and the whole works, and newer games like Forza 4 come with support for the Speed Wheel specifically. This works for and against it, as you'll note immediately that the Speed Wheel lacks Right and Left bumpers, as well as an analog stick. This make navigating menus a crapshoot sometimes, but it compounds with this unique problem: If the game you're playing lets you use manual transmission, but doesn't let you remap the controls to put shifting on the face buttons or D-pad, you cannot use the Wheel to play that game. Some Need For Speed titles, and Driver San Francisco both suffered that fate.

Once around the hardware's limits, the hardware's virtues shine bright. I sampled about six racing games I had lying around my place, some on the Xbox Live Arcade, some on disc. Outrun Online Arcade, the new Daytona USA and Forza 4 were the best two supporters I found (despite only being able to use Automatic Transmission in Outrun). The wheel lets you cut through drifts in Outrun like a fine razor, instantly transporting you back to the arcade racing machines of your younger days. Forza 4 lets you rewind, change views and even shift using a clutch if you want, all mapped to the wheel, and the racing is just as razor sharp as in Outrun. You can make minute adjustments, carefully feather the brakes or gun it in the straights and all your movements make it to the car with barely any perceptible delay.

The wheel itself has large grips with very substantial Left and Right Triggers, and access to the D-pad and face buttons feels good, with Start and Back hidden on the center of the unit. It's not too heavy, and you can rest it in your lap comfortably. I never felt fatigued using it, and it's "pick up and race" design makes it great for just that. No set up, just go. Forza 4 actually supports the Speed Wheel specifically, with five different buttons configurations available for all tastes. Daytona USA cleverly maps the four gears to the four face buttons, so you can shift with them on the Speed Wheel just as easily. Great support like that will hopefully will make it into future racing titles from all developers.

The Wireless Speed Wheel is pretty damn cool. For sixty bucks it's only a little more than buying another Xbox 360 controller, or less than the cheapest wheels available right now. If you just bought Forza 4 and haven't ever owned a wheel/racing peripheral the Speed Wheel is a must have. Combined with Forza's Kinect head-tracking feature, it's a fast and easy solution that'll get you behind the wheel like never before. With future support from the industry, the Wireless Speed Wheel may just avoid getting swept under the rug as a gimmicky toy, and take its place along side some of the best designed and implemented peripherals we've ever seen.

The reviewer bought the Wireless Speed Wheel, and played it with Driver: San Francisco, Need For Speed Shift, Need For Speed Most Wanted, Outrun Online Arcade, Daytona USA, Sega Rally Online Arcade, Forza Motorport 4 and Skydrift, just to see what would happen.

Review: Daytona USA

2011-11-04T17:00:03Z

I want to refrain from calling this game Daytona USA "2011". It's a picture perfect port of an arcade classic, reviving exactly what made the original game such a standard. Even though most of us don't have the cash for a massive home cabinet, now ten dollars and some nostalgia is all it takes to get back in the saddle with Daytona USA, and it's actually better the second time around.

]]> Sega has been pulling a slew of games out of their attic, and Daytona USA is the next one out the gate. Joining Sega Rally Online Arcade and Outrun Online Arcade, the perfect trilogy of arcade racing has been finally constructed. There was a time when any arcade worth their salt had a whole wall of Daytona USA machines ready for teams of players to hit the tarmac. It was fast and fun, the perfect "One Credit" play you can sit down, enjoy losing at, then leave for the next time. The plastic chairs, the force feedback wheel and the ROCKIN' Sega AM2 soundtrack. That experience has been distilled for the most recent home port down to the game itself: Three tracks, choice of transmission, and go. That's all the customization you get, and that's all the customization you needed to have a great time.

Daytona USA has a number of updated features and modes to give more bang to your buck. There's traditional Arcade mode, a multi-player mode for online races over Xbox Live or PSN, a Challenge mode with a number of stages to beat for better times and medals, Endurance mode as well as a Karaoke mode: You race around the track as the lyrics for one of the game's four songs scroll along the bottom of the screen for you to sing along with, forever. No judging, no scoring, just driving and jamming. Combined, all of these modes make for a hefty amount of features in a ten dollar port.

The racing is quite fast and most certainly furious. When all the racers are using the same car it makes for quite the test of shifting and drifting. The Arcade mode has you blasting from checkpoint to checkpoint on three different courses of increasing length and complexity. A clever manual shifting solution lets you play with the Wireless Speed Wheel's full capability if you've got it, smoothly cutting through traffic and carrying drifts. I'd say this is one of the best new games for the device besides Forza 4. Online was a little jumpy at times, but with a solid connection the matches played were great pick-up-and-play sessions. It helps that there's no customization of the cars besides transmission choice: not having to customize means an even playing field for all involved, everyone has to rely on their skill as a driver to win the day. In modern racing games customization and choice can greatly skew a field in favor of one car, or one abusive tuning set up. Daytona USA is like a breath of fresh air in this modern racing world, and its only by taking control away from the player.

Look how much fun he's having. There's a good chap.

The graphics haven't been touched, aside from 16:9 support, but somehow they still look slick as hell rolling at a full 60fps. When it debuted, Daytona USA was one of the first games to use fully texture mapped objects over polygons, so while its not winning any beauty contests the game utilizes the smooth as cream frame rate to deliver some pulse pounding racing action. Rival cars throwing themselves into drifts, billowing smoke, your smashed up ride after a bad collision...its all there. The bar was being set and the gateway opened for games like San Francisco Rush and Burnout. So for a game that came out in 1993, it looks pretty darn good.

In motion it really shines. 60fps and so smooth.

One of the more famous aspects of Daytona USA, Takenobu Mitsuyoshi's distinct soundtrack, has been carefully preserved. For a game with only five songs, each has one has just "got what it takes" in terms of game music. It fits the feel of what AM2 was going for with most of their games at the time, and still today: Let's have some fun. The Karaoke mode may feel like an afterthought, but there was something to the music of this game that resonated with its fans. Good game music goes a very, very long way.

Daytona USA cuts the fat in favor of the meat. It delivers a better, more concise and competetive racing experience than a lot of modern racers available, at a fraction of the price. Sega continues to dig up little gems of their past to share with the new generation, and Daytona USA proudly joins those ranks. Worth it for the price, the nostalgia, and the proof that it doesn't take a lot of fancy tricks to pull it off exactly right.

The reviewer recieved a review copy of the game the day of release, and has played all of the games modes. Daytona USA is available for download over the Playstation Network for $9.99 and over Xbox Live for 800 MSP.

The Thrill Of The Chase

2011-07-25T14:00:56Z

So this time, I'm going to take the commonly accepted concept of "romance" and apply it to game development. Seems like a connection that doesn't make a lot of sense, at first. Games are just fun ways to pass time, romance is that mushy, gushy stuff best saved for Lifetime Network and real life. What do we want romance in our games for? And where does Romance fit into Halo, or

There's some very good reasons why the best games deeply involve the concept of romance in their creation, and more importantly, in their execution. During this article I'm going to talk a little bit about what romance means to me, and how it affects a game during its design and after its release.

]]> Romance can be quite a few things. Any language derived from Latin is romance, for instance. And yes, there's the definition of romance as "pertaining to love/love-making". But there's a deeper meaning, one that exists in parallel with the first two that I like to focus on; something "romantic" has "no basis in fact" or, my favorite definition so far, is "marked by the imaginative or emotional appeal of what is heroic, adventurous, remote, mysterious, or idealized".

Now we're talking. This is the kind of romance that we have in books and movies, in the romantic scenes from real life. When we look at romance novels and romantic ballads what we're getting isn't the happily ever after. We're given the lead up, the build up to the big moment. Romance by my definition is all about the chase. The romance has to have at least two subjects, something doing the chasing and something worth being chased. Once you've established those two concepts in a story or situation, there's romance between them. For example: A fantasy couple that lives happily-ever-after doesn't have anything worth chasing, because they should already have achieved their goals (Get princess/prince and big-ass castle). So romance is the chase, the lead up to that moment (lose the princess, get the armor, train a little, fight the dragon, train a little, fight the kraken...etc). It's a negative and a positive, a lack and a need. But it also can be amazingly rewarding, both during the struggle and after the goal (just think: you don't see a lot of actually, realistically depicted sex during movies we'd consider romantic, because it's not about the sex it's about the build up. And you don't see legit porno filed under the "Romance" section of your local Netflix queue). During the struggle, you better yourself and/or the world around you to achieve your dreams, sometimes even destroy it if need be. And most importantly, romance is the time when the Hero gets to do heroic things (fight, climb, bleed, sacrifice, hunt, track, protect...) or die trying. Now we're beginning to see where games fit in.

Games are, ultimately, systems of rules we master in order to complete some objectives and win. It's a very unsexy, technical way to look at a game like Halo, but that's all it is. It's systems of rules (aiming, weaponry damage, covenant AI tactics...etc), we spend hours trying to master. And we do it very well, mastering them to the highest human levels of precision. Mastering the system isn't necessary for winning the game, though. We can win through luck, or patching together skill into some sort of flawed, yet effective technique. But to truly master a game's systems and rules is to win super effectively, and the payoff is proportionally greater both practically and emotionally. You set leader board records and win tournaments, and then feel like a god for doing so.

Games are designed from the ground up to offer attainable goals, and the steps to obtain them. Romance is chasing the goal, the path from start to finish and not one step beyond. By designing games with romance in mind, the experience for the player becomes romantic by holding their goal in clear sight. The player's objectives are clear and direct, and in most action games they're only moments away, easy little victories for the player to accomplish. The grand goal may be story driven, but the checkpoints and the crux of the game's goals will be game play driven. This pits the player versus the system of rules directly, a battle of patience and persistence over hard facts and artificial intelligence. The goal is progress, the romance is the struggle to achieve it. The best and most memorable games all find a way to write the path to victory in a way that leaves the player breathless, aspiring to greatness, filled with emotion and, to speak frankly, begging for more. Sounds romantic to me.

Let's get opinionated.

Games with good romance:

Bayonetta. The payoffs in the game just get bigger and grander, and the game play just ramps and ramps. Tack on leader boards, tack on multiple levels of challenge, and tack on the presentation of the game and you've got not just a fantastic example of how to show a player a good time, but a truly romantic adventure that'll take you from button mashing bad ass to a god of timing and destruction. Every inch of the game feels like it was carved from red lipstick, and the love for the world they're inhabiting comes through with each catchphrase, special move, hidden costume, secret playable character, cut-scene and song. What. A. Ride. (The reason that I use Bayonetta and Luka pictures during this article is because their relationship is based on the idea that she's unattainable to him, to anyone...and yet she still shows him more affection than anyone in the game. That's true romance.)

Final Fantasy VI. The only video game to make me shed tears. Not at flashy, but the stakes were high in this 16-bit opera. And just knowing around every corner was another character, around every corner was another dungeon...the world felt like it never ended. And the Armageddon does hit, a little over half-way through the game, the sense that all your hard work has rolled back leaves you feeling crushed...but not broken, as the game walks you through one character's after-apocalypse side-story to regain your confidence, and see the story through to the end. Freaking great.

Need For Speed Hot Pursuit. Talk about a racing game. You get the best of both worlds (Criterion's Burnout series and EA's NFS licensed cars) in this absolutely gorgeous, white knuckle racer. Cut out the dumb-ass fake TV shows, cut out the stupid story about pink slips and just give us the goods...and they did. It's got one premise: cops vs. racers. And...GO! The whole game is designed to put you into situations where you're managing three things at once. For instance: your drift angle, as you corner around this currently-exploding other racer, who was taken out by an EMP blast from a cop in a Lamborghini. That's for starters. Add in the Autolog, which shows your INSTANTLY if anyone in your friends list is COOLER THAN YOU...which had me hitting "Restart" even after some first place finishes. The game gets you fired up to win.

Honorable Mentions: Mass Effect 2, Bioshock, Killer 7, Lost Planet 2, God of War...

Games with bad romance:

Red Faction Guerrilla. So my reward for giant things blowing up in a really sweet way is that I get more tools...to keep doing that...for...hour and hours...It didn't add up, for me. The structures could get bigger and boomier, but they never really rattled the screen more than the first few whoppers. The pay off was too soon in this game, and the story didn't hold up. The bottom line: the game was about the thrill of destruction, and that was really it. Destruction has a fast and immediate pay off. The romance just isn't there.

Brink. Bought it cause I thought maybe everyone was wrong. Maybe there's something to be had here amidst a sea of mediocre reviews and chatter. So I played through it. And...the story was short, pretty lackluster. The battles were also really, really frustrating with the AI help, and the combat didn't really escalate or develop. One mission had me almost stop playing in entitled disgust, as all I did was guard the first checkpoint of a map against dumbass AI for ten minutes to win. That was one complete level, all objectives complete, in a campaign with eight levels. Again...there's no chase here. And certainly no pay off.

Vanquish. A shame, really, that three shooters occupy this side of the list but I had high hopes for Vanquish and...it let me down. Same as before: it was short, the only escalation in Vanquish comes through harder enemies. Your character never evolves beyond bigger clips for the games weapons, and the game's light features list leaves you feeling more like you've had a light lunch than a healthy supper. It has ramping difficulty...but no romance at all. This fate almost befell Shadows Of The Damned...but Suda 51 and Akira Yamaoka know a thing or two about romance that Shinji Mikami had better remember for his next project.

Honorable Mentions: Split/Second, Fable 3, Timeshift, Shadowrun, IL-2 Sturmovik...

So that's what romance is, why it's important for games, and some of the games I feel encompass a romantic feeling, and some that don't. The inspiration for this article? Catherine, the new game coming out from Atlus. It's about climbing, literally, to escape the demons that would prevent your ascension to the happily-ever-after, and about Vincent's romance with two women of the same name. Such a fantastic way to marry the game's play with the narrative, don't you think?

I hope you enjoy reading if you made it this far, and take some time to look at your favorite games. What makes them romantic to you? What sort of feelings stir when you hear that your princess is in another castle? I know how I feel. "Marked by the imaginative or emotional appeal of what is heroic, adventurous, remote, mysterious, or idealized"

DLC Review Round Up: Mortal Kombat, Marvel Vs. Capcom 3 and Super Street Fighter IV Arcade Edition

2011-07-24T16:00:11Z

As a final nail in my fighting game article coffin, I bring you an honest, unbiased review of the downloadable content for three of the biggest fighters out there. There's EVO this weekend, and you'll be able to catch the world's best fighters duking it out for the championships live on stream. You gotta be ready with the knowledge, ready with the skills to step up to all the casual lobbies that'll be running during the weekend...so here's some info on the major DLC available for MvC3, MK and SSFIV, if you're considering stepping up your game a little.

]]> Marvel Vs. Capcom 3: Jill and Shuma-Gorath

Two characters from Marvel Vs. Capcom 2 return to the stage with gusto. For fans of the characters back in the day, take heed: Shuma-Gorath plays very much like he used to, and all of his familiar moves are intact with only a few changes. Jill however got completely overhauled ala Resident Evil 5 "Angry" Jill Valentine, and now darts around the screen with fast kicks, a pretty neat super that's perfect for delayed hyper combos, and a "powered-up" mode where she no longer walks, but teleports at the press of a button! To be honest though, If they're the only two DLC characters coming out before Ultimate Marvel Vs. Capcom 3 I'll be a tad upset. They are currently five bucks apiece, which seems to be standard fare for characters these days. I'd take Shuma over Jill if I had to start with one.

Mortal Kombat: Skarlet, Kenshi, Rain (To be added: Freddy Krueger)

Mortal Kombat is a truly fantastic fighting game. Very fun, on its own pace with its own feel...but that pace is one of great combos, lots of specials and perfect timing. Worth playing, if you're even remotely interested in fighting games. The DLC for the game so far has been pretty great, adding three characters to an already impressive and interesting roster of Mortal Kombat favorites. Skarlet is a "Princess Ninja" type character, with a nice throwing knives attack, teleport, two GRUESOME fatalities and a command run that I never use. Kenshi's like Ermac with a razor. His combination of close/medium/far sword skills, telekinetic shoulders and flurries leads to a character able to handle being zoned by other, fireball heavy characters. He's fun, truly, and his second fatality is among my favorite in the game. Rain I've only just got, and played about 5 times. Another "Male Ninja" type like the rest of half the male cast, he's got some fun options for his water based skills. If you're going to start with one, start with Skarlet and work your way up. I'll be excited to get my hands on the latest reveal to the roster in two weeks...Freddy Krueger! The three DLC characters that are out now are five bucks apiece, on Xbox and PS3.

Super Street Fighter IV: Arcade Edition

Arcade Edition, like Super Street Fighter IV before it, is not just a character roster update but also an overhaul of many characters moves. Four fighters were also added to the roster. Two Third Strike favorites Yun and Yang, Evil Ryu and a new character known as Oni (or "Oni Akuma"). Yun and Yang got a whole article basically devoted to their defense, and it shows. Against the existing cast they're fast, strong and freaking deadly additions with their power-up supers and palm strikes. Oni's got his merits, I love Evil Ryu, and the rest of the balancing feels good. If you started with Street Fighter IV, and haven't tried Super or Arcade edition yet you're doing yourself a disservice. Fix that, by picking up Arcade Edition as DLC on PSN or Xbox Live (15 bucks, if you already have Super Street Fighter IV), or buying the disc-version of the game for forty bucks new. Very worth your time.

There's the round-up. Look lively, as Street Fighter X Tekken, Tekken Tag Tournament 2, Soul Calibur IV and Ultimate Marvel Vs. Capcom 3 are only just around the bend. It's going to be a year for fighters, so do your best to keep up if you've got the will to fight!

Why You Should Be Excited About EVO 2011

2011-07-13T16:00:34Z

Over the last week there was a little brouhaha involving a certain journalist's coverage of competitive gaming. Her article was panned by readers for its anti-e-sports tone, sarcastic word choice and lack of research, earning itself a follow-up article to cover all the response.

In reality it's hard to really justify getting that excited about watching someone else play video games. For most of my life I've have little exposure to the pro-gaming community, aside from watching King of Kong a few times. The Billy Mitchell's of my world were lost to me for a long time but now...now I'm starting to see into a whole side of gaming I'd missed out on. Like realistic racing games and street basketball before it, I tackled the world of competitive gaming with gusto.

And I'm so pumped for EVO. Here's why.

]]> 1) I know the Billy Mitchells and Steve Wiebes of the world.

Justin Wong, Daigo Umehara, Ricky Ortiz, WolfKrone, Mike Ross, Floe, Clockw0rk Filipino Champ, Combofiend and MORE. There's a wild set of very regular, everyday gamers taking their game to unheard of levels. When I say regular every day I am not talking about skill level, the fact they're pros makes it obvious they're skilled. What I mean is they're black, white, asian, gay, straight, fat, skinny guys and gals who just have a passion and enthusiasm for virtual combat. Read this article by James Chen, which does a great job outlining the evolution of the Marvel Vs. Capcom 3 scene and names some of the big players this year.

Having gaming celebrities used to just mean watching Kevin Pereira on TV, or reading an interview with Cliffy B in a magazine. There was a golden age my (I'm 24 years old) generation missed out on in the 80s where the gaming chic was in full swing. For a while we didn't have Billy Mitchell, and by that I mean record breaking, people screaming, big competition...Remember that great Fred Savage film "The Wizard"? Did it ever feel like that outside of the movies for anyone? Not for me, at least. Not until point #4 on my list.

2) I'm learning the games

So after I started hanging out with Joe Endzel I started watching Starcraft II streams on the internet. Starcraft II is competetive as hell, but it's also really hard to watch a game that's mostly people trying to keep their actions-per-minute above some god level. That's a lot of mouse clicks. I switched channels to fighting games, and would just have them on in my room as I worked, as background noise. Soon though I was watching and learning about technique, combos and more. Watching some random gamertag go 30 wins with Sakura is thrilling, and on some weekends I'd catch a live streamed tournament. The tournaments became deeply interesting events, where commentators (some better than others, Chris Hu being among the best) give me insight into what I'm watching, more than I'd glean from watching the weekly streams. Soon I wanted in, so I went on a little shopping spree.

Super Street Fighter IV: Arcade Edition, Tekken 6, Mortal Kombat 9, Arcana Heart 3 and Marvel vs. Capcom 3 later, I was equipped. Joe and I sat down to destroy some games, and I quickly learned the ropes. Focus Attack Dash Cancelling, Dragon Punching, Delayed Hyper Combo, Level 3 X-Factor, Breakers and X-rays, On-The-Ground attacks...these are some of the phrases I know have more or less engraved on my thumbs. By gathering the knowledge of the games watching the games has become more fun. Just a little patience and a thirst for competition got me through hours of losing match after match to my friends, leading to my first victory. And it was sweet, though short lived. Sweet enough that I wanted for more. And in the world of competitive gaming there's always a fighter somewhere waiting for an opponent, which means there's always something new to learn...and new challenges to master.

3) Mob mentality

My friends play a lot of games. On top of that, a few thousand people play most of the games I like too. Online and off. This means that the lifespan and, in my opinion, the worth of my multiplayer games stays higher than my other single player titles. I can get crazy salty (fighting slang for "Filled with a boiling, all-consuming desire for revenge") grinding a team against my friends better skills in Marvel Vs. Capcom 3, learning from each failure and passing the controller, studying the other players choices and movements. There's lots that can be discussed about what you can observe in a good match up, and the eventual degeneration into gripes about win streaks and money match challenges makes it all the more fun.

Having a community makes a game strong. We define online communities by their shared interests. There's the Counter-Strike players, Starcraft players, Team Fortress 2 players, Bejeweled players, Xbox Live, PSN, Steam...There's a body of people looking to play games with each other, and there are games to support those communities. The ideas of clans: online teams bonded like brothers in arms with everything from entrance rites to codes of conduct. I was invited to a Modern Warfare clan by a friend of mine who I met at GenCon, and he described it like a gamer fraternity. Ultimately it wasn't for me, but the circle of friends I have for fighting games and high competition does have a name: The Dojo. And we like to kick ass. Cheesy as it sounds, friendship makes games more fun.

4) Evo Moment #37

No list about EVO would be complete without mentioning this fateful day in 2004. Daigo Umehara drops Justin Wong's Chun-Li, parrying perfectly 15 times before unleashing one of the finest counter supers in history. EVO is about the top level, the highest caliber of play. There's a chance each year that we'll be watching the next "stand up and sh*t yourself" moment of the decade, for the one past time we can all agree on. Isn't that exciting? Hell, even if you don't like baseball you freaking LOVE a Grand Slam. The thrill of victory is shared by the crowds that support the winner, and at top tier competitions the energy is definitely there, in person or via stream.

The numbers may be looking great or grim but the passion will always be there for competitive play. EVO is July 29th-31st, in Las Vegas at the Rio Hotel and Casino. More information can be found on their website. I'll be in Baltimore working Otakonthat weekend, so I'll be tuned in on my phone. I hope that if you've never given tournament spectating a chance you take this opportunity to try something fresh. It gives back what you're willing to put in, so treat it like the E-Sports Superbowl and throw a party. But be sure to drink plenty of water...it's going to be a salty day.

Review: Shadows Of The Damned

2011-06-25T21:00:07Z

Suda 51, Akira Yamaoka, Shinji Mikami. When you hear those three names are coming together to give you some interactive media, you get your wallet ready. I admit to being hyped about Shadows Of The Damned before I thought it looked like an alright RE5 knock-off during the early trailers. But after playing the game it feels less like a copy-cat and more like a spiritual successor.

But there's more...ohhh...there's so much more. You see, Shadows Of The Damned, is the ,most entertaining third person action game I've played since Bayonetta...and that's saying a whole hell of a lot. Garcia Hotspur and Johnson have charmed me, the game play has me hooked, and it would have only taken *one* feature to skyrocket this mad tale above the games it stands firmly on the shoulders of.

tl;dr version: I love this game, needs stat tracking.

]]> To me, Shadows Of The Damned deserves a special breakdown pre-review. Here's some information about the headliners behind this game.

Executive Director Suda 51

Goichi Suda's "Hello!" to North America was my #2 Favorite Game of All Time: Killer 7. From that moment on it was obvious we had a winner on our hands. He's worked on the gorgeous Samurai Champloo adaptation for the PS2, created No More Heroes, the ethereal Flower, Sun and Rain and even got his hands dirty with co-designing Super Smash Bros. Brawl's "Subspace Emissary" mode. Play any of his games and you'll get a sense that something's not quite right with this guy. In the best of all possible ways. He's a self-proclaimed punk game designer and his studio Grasshopper Manufacture has a way of delivering everything but what you'd expect in hardcore packages that leave you smiling.

Creative Producer Shinji Mikami

Mr. Mikami created Resident Evil and went on to work on God Hand, Devil May Cry, Dino Crisis, P.N. 03, Viewtiful Joe, Vanquish, Resident Evil 4, Onimusha, Phoenix Wright and more. What a resume! He's a king of the action arcade genre, after starting off as the king of survival horror. In a way he's defined the evolution from the slow-paced puzzle solving style of survival horror into the current style of high action shooting-gallery games we're now used to. And we love him for it. There are a few definable "styles" to Eastern Action games, and Shinji Mikami's is one of them.

Composer Akira Yamaoka

When you think "Silent Hill" you think Akira Yamaoka whether you like it or not. He started off as the series' composer and his music became legend. The haunting riffs of the absolutely incredible Silent Hill 2 Theme are hard to beat. His influence on the series peaked when he became a producer on the series. His music sets a tone like no other game composer can...a tone that can only convey the type of melancholy and doom that shrouds the darkest of mysteries. Prose? Sure. That's how his music makes me feel.

Shadows of the Damned contains direct, and easy to spot influences from all three of these men, from top to bottom. It's hard to imagine three unique visions coming together so sweetly, but looking at their track records it seems destined. I hope the breakdown helps convey how excited I was about this game's release, and why I think we should all be pretty excited to get our hands on it.

The game opens by tossing the player into the boots of Garcia Hotspur: badass demon hunter and boyfriend of Paula, who's been kidnapped by the Lord of Demons, who's name is Fleming. The damsel-in-distress is motivation enough for Garcia to leap into the underworld and demand his honey back. Along for the ride is Johnson, a magical, talking, flaming skull torch who morphs into the various weapons Garcia employs. The banter between Garcia and Johnson turns the game's plot hole riddled narrative into an enjoyable written buddy comedy, and once the dick jokes get spaced out a little there's actually a lot to enjoy when listening to G and J bicker and tease each other.

The denizens of Shadows Of The Damned are dangerous and hysterical. As Garcia and Johnson track their way through the underworld, they face dangers from lower and higher demons, including savage demon VIPs (Bosses). The VIPs each have their own storybooks hidden in the game that explain their history, and little about why they're demons in the first place. The storybooks delighted me with their artwork, and the narration provided by Garcia/Johnson was appropriately dramatic/funny when need be. The monstrously cheerful shopkeeper Christopher rounds out the cast, and was probably my favorite character in the game. A little one eyed monster named William (Yes, "One-eyed Willy") is your checkpoint man, dropping a deuce every time you wake him up and saving your game. It's charming, in a Beetlejuice sort of way.

Combating the citizens of Hell is fun as...hell. The three weapons each have a special mode/feature that helps in specific situations, and as they evolve throughout the game they change from three similar acting firearms to three totally unique weapons of demon destruction. You can feel games like Vanquish and Resident Evil 5 in the controls of this game as you instantly dodge in any direction, and perform melee attacks against crates and enemies with Johnson. Garcia's got a great "blind side" attack for handling enemies behind him, and when you get in the thick of it working through rooms full of foes is a joy. Using the Light Shot and Hot Boner bomb shot is essential, I found, for stopping enemies in their tracks and cleansing them of darkness, and you'll find yourself defaulting to the Hot Boner (Garcia's pistol) for most of the game. The few puzzles in the game are easily solved, and the "Red Keycard, Red Door" system helps pad out the progression, lacking the finesse of a truly puzzling game (see Resident Evil). Ultimately it's about balancing combat with darkness wrangling, and when it works it's hot.

The setting is hell, and the graphics take you there. Littered around the scenery are the heads of lost souls, their bodies are used as support for the beams of the structures. There's blood everywhere as well as bones, garbage and other trash. The animations are as gruesome as the enemies themselves, and while each of Garcia's deaths seems to be a little comical in nature the path to his death is filled with blades to dodge and demons to kill. There are halls and pathways in the darkness that have you running through phantom dimensions, and each one is more twisted than the last. One great loop the game threw me for was a side-scrolling shooter segment, complete with story book graphics and music to match. It was a charming change of pace from the high-res slaughter-fest, and its strangeness just added to the appeal. I never got tired of looking at Shadows Of The Damned, that's for sure.

And the music! Akira Yamaoka outdid himself here. There's stylings of Silent Hill with the discordant boss music, laced with screams and wails. But I also could sense some No More Heroes in there. The loading screen music is charming (and I saw it a lot...I tended to die a bunch during the end of the game), and the in game soundtrack is on par with Yamaoka's best work. The prolific Steve Blum (Cowboy Bebop's Spike) provides the voice of Garcia, and the voice acting in the game is high quality. Even when you hear "Taste my big boner!" a hundred, thousand goddamn times during, thankfully, the only Big Boner segment in the game, it at least sounds good. The voice actress who does Paula gets points for creeping me out.

Now, unfortunately, here's where the ride that is Shadows Of The Damned starts to derail for me. The game only took me about 7 hours to get through its 5 acts. It just feels short. As you play you can find and buy red gems to upgrade your arsenal, but I hadn't fully upgraded anything at all by the time I beat the final boss. There's only three guns, but the guns evolve enough during the game to have three unique uses for several enemy types/forms/situations so I never really wanted more from them. Each upgrade had substantial effect but still...I didn't really feel like I'd made much progress on the upgrade tree, even after finding all the red gems I could and buying them every time I had the money. There were also some moderate graphical bugs such as screen tears or stuttering video Mostly minor complaints, though, as the game play itself was interesting and fun. The ride was great...it just ended so fast. Like a roller coaster.

My main gripe with the game, however, is the total and complete lack of online/competitive/record keeping features. I don't mean online coop or multiplayer, I just wanted a leaderboard at least. Maybe some challenge rooms? It was the one influence I think this game missed, from games like Resident Evil. There's just enough room in Shadows Of The Damned to fit in something that keeps track of your time compared to others playing the game, or your accuracy, or how many enemies you killed...but there's none of that. It's such a thin experience, without any utilization of the technology it's running on, and I could feel it. It reminded me a little of my feelings playing Portal 2, but at this point I think Portal 2 is more worth keeping at least. Shadows Of The Damned is solely single player adventure, and silly as it sounds, it suffers a little for it. And for those who care: the ending was fast, very fast...but worth sticking through. Still, when I'd finished the game I felt like I had absolutely no reason to play it again. That doesn't sit well for a $60 purchase.

Shadows Of The Damned is a wild ride. A well scripted, beautifully realized ride that ends all too soon. Suda51, Shinji Mikami and Akira Yamaoka came together and delivered, though, and that alone stands for something. Shadows Of The Damned is for those who love their story, love their high action, and love a little strange in their games. For a good time, call Garcia Hotspur and ask him about his Boner.

DLC Is Not Ruining Fighting Games

2011-06-24T14:10:07Z

There is a prevailing attitude among some of the fighting game community that DLC is ruining fighting games. Characters like Jill and Shuma Gorath for Marvel vs. Capcom 3, or even the Street Fighter IV Arcade Edition which adds four new characters to the game are causing a bit of a schism between tournament players and the developers. Some players say "I will never support you!" to downloadable content, while others say "Suck it up and but it," to the people who opt out.

Why do people think DLC is ruining the community comes up, and why they're all wrong comes after.

]]> How it used to work, versus how it works now.

Back in the day...maybe five years ago, there was no DLC for fighting games. There was an almost yearly King of Fighters installment, and a semi-regular Soul Calibur/Tekken cycle we were all used to. Street Fighter IV came out hard and strong as the public face of new fighting games by cementing the fast pace of 2D fighting with the glorious look of polygonal graphics. Other games like BlazBlue and the triumphant return of Mortal Kombat helped get the fighting game communities up and running, into full swing with new material to divide and conquer. But then a dark shadow crept over us all...

Downloadable Content can go a few ways: it can be free or paid, game changing or just aesthetic. Thanks to the internet, games with broken/cheap characters can receive little tweaks to make them more competitive or fair, new costumes/arenas/modes can all be added to the game as well as entirely new characters to pad out the roster. The yearly game is a thing of the past, the yearly update is in . Street Fighter IV slowly got into that groove by releasing Super Street Fighter IV with updates to the roster and game play, then back in April Super Street Fighter IV: Arcade Edition came out with four more new characters and tweaks...but as DLC, not as a standalone disc (at first, the disc version comes out June 24th). For only a fraction of the full game's cost, and without having to go trade up for a new disc players can grab some new content for a well received game. This is the new way of things as the retail world subtly shifts from discs to digital releases. A few bucks can go a long way, or it can backfire big time.

What the issue is.

Sometimes, you get a Gill.

Gill is broken as hell. Tournaments are inclined to ban him, and watching the video above it should be easy to see why. He's able to do an abnormal amount of damage, juggles, stuns and more. His specials are strong, he's fast...etc. A tournament that allowed Gill to be playable would face an onslaught of Gill vs. Gill matches. It wouldn't be very competitive or very fun to watch...to most people. Gill enthusiasts might get a kick out of it. So the fear is that DLC will add a character or two that throw off the balancing of a game's roster. REALLY throw it off. Most recently the twins Yang and Yun of Super Street Fighter IV: Arcade Edition have been dive kicking their way through the tournament brackets. Their fast, tricky and versatile making them a top choice for high level players. Having the ability to switch back and forth between Super Street Fighter IV and Arcade Edition makes it a little easier to avoid the two roster skewing fighters, but some still feel that their inclusion in the "complete" roster has ruined the experience.

Why it's not an issue at all.

Back when patches for fighting games came in the form of yearly installations in the series, balancing an expanded roster post release was just not something that happened. But with DLC, and with the internet we now have that reality. New characters are coming out for Mortal Kombat, BlazBlue, Marvel vs. Capcom 3 and other fighting games, and each one is a roll of the dice. But with patching, there can be a future for suddenly imbalanced rosters. Players give feedback, communities learn the little ins-and-outs and those fixes get folded into updates and new editions. The Arcade Edition of Street Fighter and BlazBlue's "Continuum Shift" update are the new face of the "yearly incarnation" of the fighting game genre. Add a character or two, change a few systems maybe add a few details, and you've got an update. SNK did this for over a decade with the King of Fighters series and we were there the whole way. Now that consoles are the new arcade machines, though, developers and publishers both will be looking for new ways to deliver content without having to do a full disc release.

Another complaint is the spending of money. Some players are miffed that developers would ask for money money after paying full price for a game, just to get some new characters and updates. This could get us into a discussion about "gamer entitlement", the sense that because they've paid the price of admission a gamer is owed a certain respect from the developer. The truth is, however, that if Capcom released a new Street Fighter once a year, for full price, no one would buy it after year two these days. Things like Arcade Edition happen because those disc versions do not, and they happen because of community interest mixed with publisher's awareness of need.

On top of the price, some would argue that having DLC means an unfair advantage at tournaments. What if you don't have the DLC character someone is using as their main? You can't practice against them, so you lose in seconds. Was it fair? Absolutely. It astounds me that this can even be brought up as an argument against DLC. DLC is a product that directly supports your passion, you have every opportunity to save for and get it (you did buy the game in the first place), and still somehow you can find it in your heart to claim that having it gives other people an unfair boost. DLC character complete the roster, adding depth a life to a game. Balancing comes with time (and good design helps), so when it comes there needs to be an enthusiasm for it, or there could end up being no more of it.

Overall it looks like the community supports DLC. There's griping, and there's some SERIOUS butthurt going on but them's the breaks in this industry. You're going to love or hate what your favorite game has in store for you next and can only hope and have faith that the developers are on board with what needs to be done. Remember: Yun can be beaten, there'll be another patch, there'll be another tournament. Remember to support downloadable content for the games you love, and the games will support you.

Review: Portal 2

2011-06-19T13:00:36Z

Back when the Orange Box came out, Portal was the odd man out. Amongst steady Valve greats like Half-Life 2, the Episodes 1 and 2 and Team Fortress, it was hard to think that only a few years later Portal would be the only one with a proper sequel. And here we are, our appetites wet for testing with a brand new adventure for our heroine Chell to tackle. And this time it's not just her and Ms. GLaDOS...

Fair warning, Spoilers may be shared to enhance the quality of this review.

]]> The story of Portal was strong, and Portal 2 continues the tale of Chell as she tackles the various and numerous challenges inside the long abandoned Aperture Sciences facility. After waking up in a rehabilitation room, you're taking on a mad dash for freedom by your new friend Wheatley, a rogue personality sphere who aids you on your quest to escape the massive, metal prison. Along the way you grab your trusty Portal Gun and use it to connect two points in space at regular intervals, to solve massive 3D puzzles as GLaDOS watches and critiques. Harshly. And Portal 2 just takes off from there.

Graphically the game has that "Valve Engine" feel to it: smooth textures and physics combined with truly breathtaking reveals and vistas. Aperture Sciences has never looked better than in Portal 2, and *SPOILER* when you get to explore the lowermost levels of the facility it really shines. Dilapidated, crumbling structures give way to more modernization as you explore the strata of the facility itself. The development and evolution of the narrative take off during this part of the game, and I was on the edge of my seat to learn more about what Aperture was like pre-"neuro toxin shower".*SPOILER OVER* Where Portal relied on slowly drawing out GLaDOS' betrayal and dementia Portal 2 hits the ground running after her resurrection. She constantly berates you as her world falls apart at the seams, her own minions revolting...it's a madhouse, and it's brilliantly conveyed. The final encounter includes one of the coolest "OH SHIT!" moments in Valve's history, enjoy every second.

What Valve did to build on Portal for the sequel was just the right combination of new and old techniques to keep the puzzles moving, my brain in a bind, and my face split in a permanent smile. New to the game are launch pads, hard-light bridges, laser-bending cubes and three special gels that give surfaces different properties. By the time you finish Portal 2 you'll be able to walk into a test chamber and immediately get an idea for what needs to be done. The game promotes exploration, often hiding useful surfaces just out of sight, but perfectly in line with your goals. During the story, the game slowly works in all the new features seamlessly and you'll be a doctor of portals by the final fight.

The biggest new feature for me, was the addition of cooperative play in Portal 2. Two-players over the internet or on the couch can tackle a separate, special set of chambers designed for the two testing bots Atlas and P-body. Built specifically for testing they're tasked by GLaDOS to run the gauntlet, and sometime do a few special errands for her outside the testing chamber walls...The puzzles are even more devilish in the Co-op as you try to bridge the communication gap between you and your partner, catching cubes in mid-flight or sending each other to their dooms/victories. Online there's a very useful set of features for working with your counterpart, from a "Partner Cam" button to gestures specifically for "Go into this Portal" or "Stand Here" or "Look Here" or even, and this is my favorite, a 3-Second countdown timer for simultaneous events. Took the issue of chat lag right out, didn't even need a mic to play the game half the time. Valve's handling of the Co-Op was brilliant here, and despite it's relatively short length I found myself spacing out my play sessions, playing with different friends and racking up my score. The multi-player is only made easier by a smart "hub" system made for accessing any chamber, at any time. It's great for seeing what stages each player has beaten, or picking a specific one to start one during your run. Adventuring and testing as two of the most charming characters in gaming history is a new high point for the Portal franchise.

Here's a video of myself and Joe of JoeEndzel.com playing through some of the Co-Op stages in Portal 2, captured just last week!

And here's three more videos, if you're interested in our further misadventures!

Though it is definitely fun the first time through, the enterprising gamer who beats the game will have to develop patience for new player's baby-steps. It can feel like a grind to go back and play the same simple stages over and over each time a new friend comes over/meets up online, and the "Score Attack" game play (replay it to top your own best!) doesn't quite work for Portal. Better would be a level editor, maybe a free chamber once a week? Something regular to keep the content fresh, and not just good, so the players who've beaten the game have something to look forwards to while helping their new friends through the game. There is the promise of some juicy DLC, adding leaderboards, modes and more chambers though, so maybe that will pad out the experience for people who've already flipped the single player.

Portal 2's presentation is professional, high-quality, and overpriced. It's exactly what the world wanted from a Portal sequel, but I have a feeling I paid just a little too much for it. All together the game will take about 6-7 hours to beat the single player, and maybe 5 hours on the Co-Op (if you're just rolling it.), which is on par or better for most of the other FPS games out there but at the same time replaying Portal is not like replaying Halo. With a lack of active adversaries Portal can be speed run. Then there's the Developer Commentary track to play and listen to (a great addition, though it usually distracts me while I'm playing. Definitely for round 2 of your play through). After that...well there's nothing. For sixty dollars, that's a little steep. Despite how good it is, despite the pedigree and the faith in the name I think Portal 2 isn't quite sixty dollars worth of game. I got a feeling the game was "thin" after beating Single Player and Co-Op. Maybe "Portal Sports" should be next, cause the game needed to go that extra mile to keep it on my shelf. It has very little staying power, like watching a good movie you'll only want to every once in a while once its over. Worth the price of admission? At the end of the day, I'd say so. Good experiences are worth showing a little appreciation for.

All said and done, Portal 2 is classy. It's a great experience, a roller-coaster ride single-player and a fantastic online or offline Co-Op adventure. Valve outdid themselves with this game, and as far as sequels go it's one of the greats. We have to see a Portal 3, there's simply too much testing left to do.

Bored? Watch: Warpprism.com

2011-06-14T14:00:15Z

Got some free time? Head on over and check out Warpprism.com, a website designed as an easy interface for watching streaming games/game related videos. The streaming community is becoming bigger than ever, with new stream celebrities like Idra and Spanishiwa, ladder rooms like PeacefulJay's Coliseum, and tournaments like Community Effort Orlando and ReveLAtions reaching viewers across the globe thanks to the net. E-sports are poised for a massive outbreak into the public domain. Warpprism is a step in the right direction. Cut it down to just what we need: streams with chatrooms, streams of all kinds.

If you're new to the streaming community, or looking to watch some high-class matches of your favorite e-sports, check out Warpprism today.

Click the jump for the origin story of Warpprism.com, as told by the website itself.

]]>

Review: Wheelman

2011-06-13T14:00:01Z

There are some things Vin Diesel can be. Many things, actually: A fast and furious driver, a secret/special agent, a mobster, Richard B. Riddick or even the Iron Giant. Thankfully though, he decided to be a game studio owner one day and formed Tigon studios, responsible for making games specifically starring the man himself. Tigon released the amazing Chronicles of Riddick Escape from Butcher bay, followed by the game of the moment, 2009's Wheelman. Luckily it wasn't their last game...cause it feels like what was started by working with Starbreeze (The Vin Diesel video game empire) was slightly marred by the late Midway Newcastle...not that badly, but Wheelman is a dry experience...a sandwich without sauce.

But even a sandwich without sauce has meat.

]]> Wheelman stars Vin Diesel as Milo Burik, CIA undercover agent infiltrating Barcelona's gang society who gets swept up in the events of a massive heist. There's the every class of criminal in this game, but their portrayal drips Hollywood, and not in a good way. Essentially, you become everyone's errand boy and participate in two main types of missions: story and side missions. Story missions are the more interesting of the pair, unlocking more areas of Barcelona and delving into the story of Wheelman which, even as a Vin Vehicle, is about as hardcore as a T-rated game about hardened, cut-throat criminals can be. The side missions are grouped into types (Taxi, Escape, Rampage...etc), and are required playing if you want to level up any of Milo's abilities, so you spend most of the game sweeping up the dozen or so side missions in between story missions...a pretty standard experience for most of us by now, done no injustice here. But you'll despise every side character, have to replay missions with hard to follow objectives a few times, and generally loathe the process of moving through the game. It just didn't have that good play rhythm, supported by story, that a AAA budget single-player game should.

The driving is a little different, focusing almost exclusively on car combat. Driving in Wheelman is actually a pretty entertaining affair, and Milo has a full arsenal of abilities ready for wasting his opponents. With a flick of the right stick you're shunting left and right, or giving the car a quick boost to fit through a narrow roadblock. With pistols and SMGs you can shoot through the window at the tires and occupants of enemy vehicles, as well as activate one of two special moves that let you slow down time for some one shot kills against vehicles. Driving faster and taking down cars gives you more special focus, while driving slow and crashing into walls takes it away. And that's it. Seems like plenty, yeah...but you unlock his only two special moves pretty early in the game, and the rest of the game is just using them over and over. This feels like a racing game, in which all you do is pick an event and drive it, instead of an action game where the goal is creative locations and interesting situations for using those powers. Not to mention a slower development of them. After all is said and done the driving in Wheelman is its greatest strength, if a bit touchy at times. But it alone was not enough to keep my interest for long.

For me the draw to Wheelman, was the promise of fun car combat, but the experience is broken up, unfortunately, by some gunplay. The on foot segments in the game require you to duck and weave through thoughfully placed crates and barriers, popping cookie cutter enemies as you go. But while these segments are playable (thanks to a helpful lock-on system) they don't do the other half of the game much honor. Vin Diesel up close looks like a plastic doll, probably the worst he's digitally looked so far, with over the top facial animations that simply make him look goofy half the time. Hard to take seriously. So when you're finally back behind the wheel you actually feel a little thankful. If Mr. D is really the reason you're here...skip Wheelman for the two Riddick games. And the last icing on the cake is the world. The explosions and cinematic effects are plentiful and welcome, but the presentation as a whole doesn't add up.

Wheelman was announced with some great fanfare, including a promise of a movie starring Vin Diesel and directed by Rich Wilkes (of xXx). Ultimately it looks like that didn't follow though, and all we have left is one mediocre game to show for a promise of a franchise. Tough noogies. And at the end of the day Wheelman kept my interest for about a week. Honestly, I think that's just about right for this game. If you want, try it used. There's a few genuinely good hours of entertainment in there, but not for full price new. So when the cards are all on the table, it turns out that Wheelman has no game.

Review: Test Drive Unlimited 2

2011-06-06T14:01:22Z

Test Drive was just off my radar. It was during research of games with ambitious story modes that I finally crossed the line, jumping right in with the latest in the series Test Drive Unlimited 2. It promised customization of my own apartment, persistent online multi-player, hundreds of cars, realistic terrain on two islands and more. I was skeptical. I want a racing game, first and foremost, so will Test Drive Unlimited 2 deliver both story and game elegantly...or fall on its face?

]]> Instead of using typical paragraph headings like "graphics", "sound" and "game play" for this one, Test Drive Unlimited 2 (TDU2) gets its own set. The game has all of the features you expect in a next gen racer (Single player, multiplayer, online racing, multiple views...etc) but it's really the way they've chosen to put it all together that needs to be addressed. You see when Test Drive Unlimited 2 came out it took a hit for some serious connectivity issues, dropped games and even corrupted save data. But, after a series of patches it seems the game's stable enough for a good try. Gave it some time, let the community settle...jumped right in.

Story mode madness kicks off TDU2. Starting from the top you get to pick a preset characters, six shining examples of the ethnicity of the world. Besides clothing and hair, that's all the customization you get on your character. Moving on, you have a delusion of grandeur, followed by getting fired, followed by getting offered a job as a professional racer in a racing tournament spanning two island...from the very woman who fired you who is also a racer in the race...right. Moving on, you're given a motor home for free, go spend a mysterious $20,000 you have in your pocket on a new car, then have a device installed on all your cars that actually pays you (from some unmentioned, limitless slush fund) for driving recklessly. But don't worry, there's no civilians on Ibiza or Oahu to terrify, though there are cops who mostly ignore you. And both of the radio stations broadcast in English, by English speaking DJs running some of the worst (seriously bad) written radio spots in human history. Finally, as if to put icing on this nasty cake, the animations for the characters don't look like humans move, the words the characters say don't sound like phrases humans use, and the voice acting is on par with that. I want to slap the face of every single main character of the game, and you will as well.

The story is everywhere in TDU2, it's meant to be thick, and rich and good but in the end what you get falls soooo flat of good that it's laughable. Fly through the story, the races and game types keep it fresh, the license tests make it boring but one of the best features of the game is lightning fast load times. Take advantage of that, cause the next two parts of the game make it worth playing.

The driving is hot in TDU2. The three different kinds of driving (Classic, Asphalt and Dirt) all feel different enough that you can hop from one to the other, adjust your driving styles for each one is a true blast. To do some comparisons: Precision driving in TDU2 feels tight, but not too realistic. Not quite Forza. It's truly a great blend of what makes driving games fun. There's always something to do, tons of races to enter with loads of players online. You'll regularly be racing with 8 people, and the map pulls up dozens more to interact with in and out of the cars. One of my favorite features is hopping into a car with another player and letting them drive you around. It's a great way to get a sample of someone else's driving lines, or just to enjoy some great views with a friend. With over a hundred cars to buy, customize and plenty of good DLC (Caterham Superlight, Bugati Veyron...mmm...), there's plenty of variety stuffed into a rich experience. The car interiors are modeled, the windows can be lowered, the doors can be opened, etc. There's lots of little extra features thrown into the car side of the game that raise its entertainment value incrementally each time, but they're very welcome increments.

Finally, the game's presentation is pretty damn clean. With the exception of certain nagging issues (bugs still sometimes crash the game, and the collision physics are a little goofy), the interface is useful and chock full of good intel. The music is actually pretty great once you get past the radio calls, the GPS system works well and the map is always dotted with great points of interest. But nothing beats going into your garage, looking at your beautiful line up of expensive cars and a sighing with happiness. Winning money in the game feels good, spending it feels great. There's one thing you can count on and that is TDU2 will always give you something pretty to look at. As long as its not people. And wrapping it all together is a leveling system, where you can spend time working four different angles (Social, Collection, Competition and Discovery) to upgrade your character's homes, access to cars, islands, events and more. It'll take some adjusting, but once you're done doing some races why not take a joyride to find some wrecked cars for more parts? Why not head to a club and find some challenges to try? Participate in a police chase to take down a dangerously driving player in your game, why not? There's a blue line on the map that shows all the roads you've personally driven down...why not fill in the map for a bit, with some good tunes on? Just tons to do here, really loads.

I don't feel like I've wasted my money with Test Drive Unlimited 2. Not at all. When I turn up the music, turn down the voice volume and take to the streets I have an absolute blast. The persistent online just shines here, makes this game a forward thinker in terms of how single and multi-player should work for sports titles, racing titles specifically. All it needs is a decent writer or two, and maybe some motion capture sessions. If Test Drive Unlimited 3 has double the amount of attention to the story, and just polishes out those bugs early on, we could have a truly great staple of racing gaming on our hands instead of just...well...a pretty good one.

I bought my own copy of the game for review on the Xbox 360, played up to Level 11 in the story mode trying all racing styles, some DLC, and a few hours of online racing and challenges.

Full List Of L.A. Noire Credits Makes The Net

2011-06-05T14:02:18Z

Kotaku pointed me to Gamespot Australia, where I learned about http://www.lanoirecredits.com/. A team working with Team Bondi employees has put together a definitive list of credits of a game six years in the making. A daunting task, but as the anonymous developer of the website put it.

"...The main reason we wanted to do this was so that we could use L.A. Noire's obviously large profile to ensure that future developers, both in Australia and overseas, can use our story as an example. Especially those new to the industry, who might not be immediately aware of how credit practices work."

Credit is always a murky area when a few hundred people work on a project, but I believe full credits should be included on disc in every game produced. And hopefully this will be a nice heads up that it's possible to pull off a beefy credits list for a long project...so it should be worth trying. For more details on the website visit the link below, or head there directly with the link above. Maybe give it a Facebook like...to spread a little awareness about the great effort that went into a great game.

L.A. Noire Devs Shunned From Credits? [via Gamespot AU]

Games for Non-Gamers

2011-06-03T13:00:02Z

I'd consider myself the "video game guy" in my circle of friends, go figure. And as such, I have some friends that are my antithesis: the never gamers, the "I'm cool with watching" crowd. God bless their tolerance of our antics as gamers, it's nice to have an audience sometimes. But every blue moon there's a game that can appeal to everyone, or one that gets close. Those games can light up a room, focus its attention or just provide something amazing to watch for a while to tolerant friends and family.

What are those games? What are their names?

]]> They Like To Watch:

Sometimes you just want to kick back and enjoy watching someone go through the maneuvers of a great story, or a great visual event. There are games that are joys just to observe.

Silent Hill

The Silent Hill series and I have had a long history, stemming back to playing Silent Hill 2 sitting beside my best buddy in high school Jim. We kicked that games ass, then moved on to 3 and 4, enjoying the process every time. Silent Hill is a cerebral adventure into the protagnoists madness, and when you print out the entire walkthrough before sitting down at the controller the game becomes a team sport: One man navigates while another drives. The terror is shared, the killer good storyline are enjoyed and everyone can savor the madness. For the best time play Silent Hill 2 first, then try the freaky Silent Hill 4: The Room.

Mass Effect 2

The antics of Commander Shepard and his companions is the perfect bite-sized space opera to invite someone along for. It's got the pace of a TV show, with missions split between quick, fierce battles and engaging story moments. Mass Effect knows its audience and it knows how to make a game like watching an episode of a great sci-fi TV series. Each play through can have the feeling of watching a great movie you love, where the details just change slightly each time.

Shadow of the Colossus

It's like watching a Disney movie: an old animated classic adventure for the times. Shadow of the Colossus is 16 perfectly balanced events in the life of a lonely young man with big ambitions and a sleepy girlfriend. The story doesn't need many words to be compelling, and the challenge of besting the various colossal enemies culminates in a mind blowing final chapter. I've seen rooms of people raptly staring at someone playing this game.

Also See: Rez, Heavy Rain, L.A. Noire

They Want to Try:

The middle ground. These are games with a little helping hand for people who aren't all that into playing games, or simple enough controls to be deeply enjoyable. There's some games that come out as nice little balances of intense and accessible.

Bayonetta

There's a great mode in Bayonetta called "Very Easy Automatic", where mashing the "Y" button will have the lovely woman slinging across the screen, executing combos automatically and tearing it up. It shows off some of the games animations at the cost of a little difficulty, but for someone not that into action games, or not able to get into the more technical side of combo stringing this is the perfect way to enjoy Bayonetta's wild story and vibrant visuals.

Minecraft

Legos for adults. If you're not on Minecraft's wagon by now you will be someday. It's an amazing game, affordable and fun, easy to enjoy on lots of levels. There are videos of people who've built CPUs inside the thing, entire replicas of the Enterprise and more. You can enjoy it alone or hop online to get a real taste of one of the more versatile titles to come out in a long, long time.

Metal Slug Collection (Wii)

"Heavy Machine gun!" The cry goes up. Metal Slug is one of the best platforming games ever made. It's a madcap series with challenging levels, memorable enemies, tropes and a very unique sense of humor. From the ever entertaining "Fat" mode to the crazy vehicles (Tanks, Submarines, Mechs, Mastodon with Lasers, Camel with Lasers...the list goes on) Metal Slug delivers. Play it pass-the-controller style for the best effect. Every time you get a continue, pass the control to the next player!

Also See: Wii Sports Resort, Burnout Paradise

They Want to Play:

And sometimes the competition heats up. There's times even the people you'd never expect to pick up a controller will want to destroy you at some game, and you'll need that game at hand. What's a game everyone can feel good at playing?

You Don't Know Jack

A fantastic stand-by to Trival Pursuit, You Don't Know Jack is one of the best written, best presented trivia events in interactive entertainment history. I played this game on PC when it was entering its first stride, and I got most of the questions wrong then too. You Don't Know Jack is a staple of parties and groups of friends with 20 minutes of free time. The episodes are fun and fast, cheap DLC means lots to go around, and once again the writing is just top notch. No game has funnier commercials, or more attention to the little conversational details like YDKJ.

Warioware Smooth Moves!

Motion gaming had to make an appearance somewhere on this list, and Warioware Smooth Moves! is probably my favorite motion controlled game right now. It's quirky mini-games take everyone who plays it by surprise at first, but it works wonders on a crowd Be sure to unlock all the multiplayer options before your friends all sit down for a round so the game really shines. It's a great example of a game that knows its place in the multiplayer world: have a lot of people sitting around a wii, with only 1-2 controllers? Whip this sucker out.

Super Smash Bros. Brawl

Back when I was doing my time down at the US Space and Rocket Center, our downtime was so preoccupied by this game we had special regulations over when it could be played. It consumed us. Brawl is a nice even playing field for fans of the series and casual fans of the fighting genre. A fighting game made for fanboys, the game features a colorful cast of gaming greats with some truly unique entrants (R.O.B., Solid Snake and Sonic, for example), and a plethora of game modes to enjoy. Don't doubt the power of Brawl for large groups.

Also See: Kinect Sports, Mario Party

Why Are There No Good Casual Simulations?

2011-05-31T14:00:33Z

There's the Backyard Football/Baseball series, aimed at children. There's the old standby, the Street series, featuring NFL and NBA but still aimed at pro sports fans with story modes that center around conquering the odds and challenging the top. There's Swingerz Golf, Hot Shots, Mod Nation Racers and a host of other "casual sporting/simulation" titles that promise good times without the seriousness of other more simulation heavy titles.

So why do I still feel like most developers are missing the point? And what features get the closest to that magical "Just let me drive/fly/play already!" kind of game that I'm looking for?

]]> Games are systems of rules we put on real life to make things more interesting, right? And when we get a bunch of humans involved, where the only random element is the humans involved, we get sports.

Sports games cover a lot of group. Ultimately we look up to Madden as an example of the modern model of sports gaming: TV-style coverage of the in-game events. Announcers. Sponsors. Star players. The works. It's like watching ESPN, but being involved. Each play can be meticulously fiddled with, flipped, hidden from view. There's tournaments and big events packed in. Tiger Woods 12 even lets you play alongside the Masters tournament as it happens in the real world! There's a deep level of simulation that these games are trying to achieve and every year we get baby steps closer as features change and evolve, or disappear entirely. These features are all designed around giving the player an accurate experience of the sport at hand. The goal is simulation: the real world made digital.

There's a push for a "natural" feeling in the sports game genre, despite the overblown presentation. Madden introduced a "QB Vision" feature, where the player could actually control where the QB was looking during a snap to either focus a pass, or fake out the defense with a nice no-look throw. Tiger Woods has the "Shot Stick" shooting method. EA did it first, though, with Fight Night Round 3's one-stick punching system. It was all about making the controller move like the avatar, having the players hand work buttons with some semblance of what they might be doing in the flesh, mixing in a little of that natural finesse and accuracy we develop as sportsmen...but with button presses instead of actual punches and passes. It's a great plan in all honest, but it hits a tough brick wall: We don't have good enough motion controls.

The Wii tries so hard. Move is pretty cool. Kinect is nifty. Why do all the sports games for that feel so thin? It's like bowling Granny-style: Feels good knocking the pins down, yeah? Well your form sucks and they'd laugh at you on the tour. There's nothing "pro" about motion controls right now, with their jittery misreading of your fine movements and lack of truly tight control. There's boxing on Kinect, but it's like shadowboxing more than competition. There's Frisbee and archery and more on the Wii, but it feels so proprietary and very un-simluation. Casual, sure...but too casual. The cartoony presentation of Kinect Sports and the lack of fidelity in other motion controllers means that high fidelity sports games are just not an option. Which brings me to my issue.

I want a game that makes me feel like I'm there. Not just the car that "I" am driving to take the cup. Not just the player that'll "Rise to the top of the ranks in blah blah blah shoot me." I just want to play some damned golf/football/etc. Why can't we simulate a little of what I, the average Joe can access, while blending in that nice sports simulation that games like Madden and Tiger Woods have perfected. There has to be a way to recreate the feeling of just going out with your friends to throw the ball around, or drive the car around, or whatever sport it is you want to play without having to cram in the "Climb to the top of the ranks!" rigmarole that's shoved down my gullet year after year. I'm tired of being the best! Just let me play some goddamn golf!

You all know I love lists. Let's make one.

1) No frills.

FIFA 11 has a great menu. You just shoot at the goal, over and over, with no HUD. This is probably my favorite mode in the game. When simulating the real world we don't have cameramen following us around. We don't have sponsors, we might have fans (Hi, mom), and we still manage to enjoy ourselves playing the sports our athletic heroes have mastered. The overcomplicated HUDs can become context sensitive. Not hitting? You don't get a meter. Not aiming? You don't get a reticule. Etc. Bring it down to what we want: us and the game. No fantasy information that we don't need, no overstuffed presentation. Just the game and us.

2) House rules.

Mulligans do not exist in Tiger Woods. No pick up games of NBA Elite are played with a single hoop. When we, John Q. Public, play sports we like to sometimes bend the harder rules to make the game more fun. By allowing players online or offline to take mulligan shots, change what the point values are for certain things or even just play a game without the score being kept sports games could tackle a wholly new market: People who just love the game. Even the more lax titles like Hot Shots hold you to some pretty tight golf rules...but while I'm out with my friends and I slice the ball into last week they let me drop another one on the tee box...they let me drop on at the trees where I think the ball went out of bounds. There's a level of laziness to the rules that only friends out tossing the ball can achieve with no refs, no score cards and passion for the game itself.

3) Let my friends get involved.

Online multiplayer needs to explode in a specific direction. Only some games truly need it, but when they use it right it shines like a brilliant star. Test Drive 2 Unlimited lets you drive around the island with random players, Tiger Woods 12 lets you shoot on the same hole simultaneously with four friends, Red Dead Redemption lets you free roam with mates, rolling as a posse. There is a great thread starting where some games understand that it's truly best with friends, and they're including ways to make it easier than ever to connect with them and interact. Need For Speed Hot Pursuits Autolog feature is pretty awesome, and the Rockstar Social Club even manages to make a single-player epic like LA Noire into a bit of a competition. Tackling challenges and trying your skills is always more fun with friends, especially in the wide world of sports and simulation.

4) Make me feel like a human being.

One thing I hate about most racing games is that I'm a disembodied racer, a ghost essentially, who possesses cars that my ghostly manager says I am driving...but I feel like I'm getting ****ed off when he tells me that I'm going to have to rise to the top, or take on tournament after tournament. That's not me, that's just some ghost driving that car A faceless, personality-free Any Pro who I will be possessing for a while. There's no humanity involved in a crash, no sense of blood and sweat when my player takes a bad hit in the finals. Some games cross that line hard (Blitz the League), some completely skirt it (NFS Hot Pursuit: head on, 200mph crashes send you head over heels into the air but your sunglasses will stay on your avatar when the car hits the pavement). Editing my character's appearance barely counts. It's how my character acts that I'm concerned about more. A lot of it comes from emoting, which there's a distinct lack of in sports titles. If we had a truly casual sports game, you could laugh and jeer opponents and teammates, call time out for any reason at any time, drive the golf cart from shot to shot, high five each other, pull out a brewski while you wait for someone to shoot...there's lots of ways to make me feel more involved without sacrificing the game.

5) Do not sacrifice the game.

The best thing about sports games is that there's no waiting involved. Or very little. If you want to you can skip a shot's replay camera in Tiger Woods, in Madden you can speed up the snaps, etc. There's a lot of get up and go that the player has direct control over...and keeping that intact is important to the pace of a game. By letting players decide if they want to take advantage of these features you can build a base game type with some really tight pacing. Like I said earlier, the HUD could be context sensitive, the controls could be just as complex or natural feeling as the best that EA has to offer with their one stick methodology...but don't lose that just to add the casual stuff. And don't think casual means cartoony or kiddy or fantastic because it doesn't. A casual game can look as good as real life, without the ESPN presentation or the ACME Sports presentation, and still evoke the spirit of competition and skill that professional sports maintain. And if you really, REALLY want to...build in a little tourney system players can fire up to keep score. Make it so you can throttle the game, in the game.

Is this a blind stab at a niche market? Nope, lots of people play sports games. Is this not hardcore enough for the hardcore? Maybe, but Hot Shots has a few sequels and Blitz The League II was pretty fun. Is this impossible to pull off? Not at all. I submit Test Drive Unlimited 2 as the best example of a simulation title where you feel like you're really there. You have a house, cars, places to go like clubs and casinos...etc. It's like living another life for a little bit, losing yourself to the idea of being in another place and doing another thing...and having complete control over it. That's what I'm looking for...and it's damned hard to find.

So finally there it is, a recipe for greatness. Now all we need is a company brazen enough to make my smash hit idea "Let's Play Some Golf."

Seriously, golf rules.