TBB Summons “The Games of May!”
crafted by: PaulApril was kind of a crappy video game month. Just typing this I can't think of a game that came out. Oh yeah, Splinter Cell, zzzzzzz. Buy May! Wow! So many AAA games that it feels like March! MAYBE BIGGER? It is a month of big but sorta bizarre sequels - Red Dead Redemption is a sequel to Red Dead Revolver which no one played, The Forgotten Sands is a sequel to the Sands of Time and not the actual last Prince of Persia, and Super Mario Galaxy is the first straight-up sequel to a Mario game. Lots of weird racing games too, but I think I'm too old to care. -Paul
Wait... Mario 3 wasn't a straight up sequel?? -Alex
May 3
Picross 3D (DS)
Paul - Ask Alex...
Alex - I LOOOOOVE the original Picross on DS. It would have to fight with Peggle for my favorite casual game of all time. I'm a bit worried because I think making the format 3D may make this too complicated. Even in 2D, Picross required some pretty complex thinking. To be fair I know nothing about this game other than seeing about a couple of pictures, but i have high hopes.
May 4
Iron Man 2 (everything)
Paul - I'll never play this and will never think about playing this. The movie looks RAD but I'm a little sad that it's the only AWESOME movie coming this summer.
Alex - How do you make a game fail? Give Sega the summer's #1 movie license. OHHHHH!!! (Side note to self: Read Iron Man comics.)
Fat Princess: Fistful of Cake (PSP)
Paul - I heard that this game was not that good. To be honest, any game with "King" or "Princess" or "Fat" in the title just passes me by.
Alex - Paul, why did I tell you to add this to the list? It's not like I care enough to even look up a trailer for the PSP version of the game. I was a little interested in the original until I heard it was completely broken.
May 11
3D Dot Game Heroes (PS3)
Paul - I sorta want to play this. It's cheap and I've been wanting to play a new 2D Zelda game for a while. The cutesy self-parody is unappealing, but Zelda games have that junk anyways. I like the surprisingly high-quality graphics, but the forced perspective effect makes me a little nauseous. Oof!
Alex - Everything about this game looks great EXCEPT that it looks exactly like the original Zelda. Don't get me wrong, I really like the original Zelda, but it just seems a little too simple and boring for a lengthy modern game. Then again I really, really liked Darksiders and that game is probably more like Zelda than even 3D Dot Heroes is.
Skate 3 (everything)
Paul - Who still plays skating games?
Alex - Skate 1 was the first game I got when I bought a 360. The original holds a special place in my heart. I played the demo for Skate 2 and 3, but I just can't get interested in them again. Skating games need a renaissance.
Lost Planet 2
Paul - I owned the original Lost Planet for a while when I first got my 360. It was impressive but wayyy too Capcomy for me. Very difficult even when you're not under a constant time restraint. As soon as they showed that the Gears of War guys were in it I lost any interest in the sequel. But then I heard there were submarine mechs??
Alex - The original was a generic, good but not great game. The sequel looks to be the same. Looks like a great bargain bin item.
May 18
Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands
Paul - I loved the last Prince of Persia game, so I was sad they didn't continue on with those characters and art style. I never played the original Sands of Time, but this just reeks of movie tie-in. Ubisoft is so annoying.
Alex - I'm with Paul on this. I really liked the PoP reboot. Reboots of pretty much every series, movie or games, in the past 8 years have been great, why the hell would they go backwards? Oh, because the scrawny kid from Donnie Darko did steroids? Okay that makes sense.
LOLOLOLOLOL
Attack of the Movies 3D
Paul - A budget 3D game. I feel like this fell back in time from 2012 when there will be lots of crappy 3D games like this.
Alex - Holy shit, a theme park ride for your living room! I love how on gametrailers.com it has a user rating of 10 because one person rated it. This game looks hilariously great if it were only a dollar.
Alan Wake
Paul - I was very interested in this when it was first announced years ago. My excitement has cooled the more I've seen of it because it looks more actiony than I hoped it would be. However, playing Deadly Premonition got me excited again for a mysterious game set in a small lumber town that actually has good graphics and play mechanics.
Alex - Wasn't this supposed to be a launch game or something? Only 5 years late. Long enough for me to not care too much anymore. It does sound pretty good though, and if it's highly rated I'll likely pick it up. I'm curious to see the whole "light as weapons" mechanic.
Red Dead Redemption
Paul - I am very excited for this. The world, graphics and gameplay all look good, plus it feels like it will be more of an open-ended adventure than Rockstar's GTA games. Got me excited to ride a horse for the first time since Shadow of the Colossus!
Alex - Despite everyone being really excited for this game I jsut seem to find myself not looking forward to it. I think I'm still disappointed with GTAIV and so it's hard for me to separate this game far enough from that. This is a good time to plug an old blog that Paul and I used to maintain 2 years ago (it only lasted 2 months, we are doing much better now, but I think Iwas funnier back then.) So check out this post about GTAIV from our old blog and you'll see why I was so disappointed.
Split/Second
Paul - This looks like a Beetle Adventure Racing for 2010. I'm sure Alex will get it.
Alex - I really like the burnout series and this game looks pretty close to that experience except you make shit blow up and cause persistent changes to the track? Yeah, I'm in. Also I like any game where the term "persistent" applies.
May 23
Super Mario Galaxy 2
Paul - I admit I want to play this, but only because I never played the first Galaxy. So I guess I should play that. Too bad I don't have a Wii... Alex, give me your Wii.
Alex - Paul, you have 3 Wiis in your living room, why do you need mine? I'll probably pick this game up. I wasn't excited for Galaxy when it came out, but damn that game was great. I'm not excited for this either, but i'm positive the game will be excellent. I feel pretty much the same way about all of Nintendo's "hardcore" franchises.
May 25
UFC Undisputed 10
Paul - Another game I'll never think about. UFC is the WWE with all the fun taken out.
Alex - My dad and I beat the shit out of eachother in the first UFC game, and that was fun. I'll never buy this but I hope my brother or dad get it so I can beat the living snot out of them. I did hear that they are making the controls more accessible which is good because the original required more study time than Turbo Mega Alpha Super Street Fighter Omega 15 in order to play decently.
Blur
Paul - Whenever I see this I get confused because Blur is my favorite band. Blur the racing game is supposed to be like Mario Kart but with real cars. Sounds cool if I was 13 and at a sleep-over.
Alex - I can't believe this game and Split Second are coming out at the same time. Unfortunately for Blur, Split/Second looks more original and therefore better. Sorry Blur.
Modnation Racers (PS3, PSP)
Paul - I really dig the Kevin Butler/PS3 commercial for this game. I don't know much about it but it sorta looks like Little Big Planet but with karts... but crappier than that would be.
Alex - Does anyone remember Penny Racers? This game sort of reminds me of Penny Racers for N64 which was an AWESOME game...until i played it a few years later...
May 26
Hexyz Force (PSP)
Paul - Games like this always trick me into wanting a PSP. I like RPGs that have different quests with different main characters, like this has. I think I can now say that iPad RPGs are cooler than PSP RPGs. Thanks, Chaos Rings!
Alex - Paul, Chaos Rings is only for iPhone right now, the only reason I don't buy it is because they already said they are working on an ipad version, which I would rather have. Now on to Hexyz Force. This game SCREAMS mid-generation Japanese PS1 RPG, everything from the style to the music to the gameplay. And wow...shit I want this game.
May 30
Rocket Knight
Paul - The original Rocket Knight/Sparkster games are really forgotten classics. I'm excited to see Konami go back to the franchise with an all-new game (no updated port). The art style is really impressive too, creating this storybook, pseudo-puppet show aesthetic that looks like a lot of fun.
Alex - As a Genesis owner back in the day, I LOVED renting Rocket Knight. I recently played Sparkster for Game-A-Day and it still holds up as a great game. I hope with the increased screen space they can do something with Rocket Knight's extreme mobility. I'm cautious about this game for fear of being really disappointed.
The Best That 2009 Had to Offer! ODST Edition
crafted by: PaulI don't think that many game critics put Halo 3: ODST on their 2009 year end lists, but it was certainly one of the biggest releases of the year. Alex and I recently had a chance to sit down and play through the co-op campaign for a few hours. Here are my thoughts (after you re-watch the excellent ODST commercial):
Like a lot of males under the age of 30, I was heavy into Halo and Halo 2 on the original Xbox. Yes, their multi-player defined my high school years in more ways than I would care to admit, but I actually liked the first Halo's story and brief portrait of the Halo universe. Halo 2's single player took all that in terrible directions, with Master Chief becoming a Jesus-character-thing. And the Flood is the worst, laziest video game enemy in the history of the medium. Halo 3 was entirely forgettable, but I was actually excited when I first heard about a Halo spin-off where you controlled a non-Spartan, regular human soldier in a fight against (and only against) the Covenant.
The actual product got mixed reviews and I didn't consider picking it up, but having so much history with the franchise (and being intrigued by the Halo Reach beta) I was excited to be given a copy of the game.
The opening cinemas were a big turn off - not only is the Halo engine severely dated, but the characters were just so terrible. When we finally got out of our drop-pods and onto the streets of New Mombassa, I have to admit I was impressed with the atmosphere. A night-time, post-traumatic city is an interesting local to battle aliens (even if the city has nothing really going on in it). The music was a far cry different from typical Halo and FPS fare, with some ambient electronics and dissonant jazz thrown in. ODST felt distinct from the mainline Halo games, and I was really enjoying myself until we "flash backed" to the experience of one of the other ODST soldiers and it became Halo 3 all over again, with the same, stale "HALO" set-pieces. Drive the Warthog! Blow up the Wraith! Hit those two big boss dudes in the back! Accidentally pick up a Needler!
Despite being a "regular solider", I noticed very little actual difference between my ODST guy and Master Chief (he doesn't talk and can still flip trucks with no sweat). The VISR combat scanner was a nice addition, especially during the night missions, but felt more like an afterthought to make those portions of the game easier.
We stopped a few hours short of beating it, but ODST left JUST enough of an impression with me that I will be picking it up in the next few weeks to see how it all wraps up. I hope that Halo Reach brings out more of the impressionistic, sad side of the Halo universe that was on display here.
The Best that 2009 Had to Offer!
crafted by: PaulWhile in Boston at PAX I borrowed a stack of "Must Play 2009" games from Alex, and have been slowly working my way through them in the past few weeks. I was fortunate to finally purchase a PS3 last summer (pre-Slim, thank you very much *hardcore*), and spent all the coins I could scrounge from the sewer collecting the backlog of excellent titles available for Sony's excellent system. As such, I could only go for those games I REALLY, 100%-knew-I'd-love wanted. So that left a lot of titles that I sorta really wanted to play out in the cold. But as I said, I've been playing some of these big hitters from 2009 and I thought I'd talk about them!
Batman: Arkham Asylum
Earlier this week I beat Batman: Arkham Asylum, a truly solid game and excellent Batman sim. I was extremely impressed with the first half of the game, impressed by the fluid gameplay mechanics and the great level design. Don't get me started on how great the cape looked. I loved it until about halfway when they stopped presenting new ideas, and just repeated variations of the same thing. Another boss fight where you have to dodge ramming brutes, another encounter with Scarecrow where you have to avoid his stare-beams, another gargoyle room where you have to stun every enemy. Even the upgrades got to be repetitive (more batarangs, more grappling hooks). I think a sequel would really take everything good about this and make it great.
Also, a side note, that I'm tired of the Unreal Engine and it's super shiny textures. Sure, it's an easy way to look good, but it in Batman I found it sometimes distracting. Batman's mouth, for instance, could barely move when he was talking. And, it's just so... Unreal looking.
Red Faction: Guerilla
I played the demo for this game on Xbox Live and wasn't blown away. But it seemed like in every Year's Best of 2009, Red Faction was the game that wasn't in the top 10, but was always the "Secret Best". Playing the full version of the game, there's still some lame stuff that turns me of: combat is pretty janky, and some of the controls and open world mission structure things are illogical. But blowing things up with this games masterful engine is SO much fun and SO addicting, that you could say the crappy stuff is DEMOLISHED.
This is the most fun I've had in a sandbox game since Mercs 1, and in many ways it feels even more like a real SANDBOX than any other game of its type. The developers give you tools and toys, and you're just out they're fuckin' around with them. From what I've played of Just Cry 2, the world is interesting and you can traverse it interestingly, but you don't feel in control of the world. In Red Faction, you feel in control of the world, like that kid in his sandbox with his action figures and exploding sandcastles.
If anything bad can be said it's that the candy of destruction in this game is too sweet, too addicting. I'm sort of burnt out on it already, and I hate doing anything that doesn't involve hammering or bombing away at walls.
A Boring Premonition
crafted by: PaulI already espoused my difficult love for Deadly Premonition here, but now that I have played further in, I have to re-emphasize how shitty the game can be. I'm gonna break this down piecemeal so I don't drive myself cuh-razy!
(make sure you listen to this song while you read for maximum Deadly Premonition-ness)
The Open World
Driving around is such a chore. The cars I've driven max out at 50 MPH, which is to say that instead of any acceleration they just stop moving faster when they hit 50. This becomes a hassle when the distance to travel is quite long: I went from the police station to the crime scene in the woods, and it took almost 5 minutes to get there. Even going slow, it would have been more interesting if there was any scenery. Ancient driving games like Need for Speed II (one of my secret favs of all time) have much more to see. It doesn't help that the same goofy saxophone music loops the entire time you're driving and often drowns out any dialogue.
Speaking of which, I appreciate being able to listen to Agent York talk to Zach (am I Zach?) about cult 80's movies (The Spawn, Attack of the Killer Tomatoes) while driving. But it almost comes off like they producers are ramming quirkiness down the throat listing off these movies, their directors, the year they came out, etc.
I'm curious if there is any branching paths because I have already pissed off the Sheriff (by accidentally getting out of the car, which means the Sheriff has to go ahead to the crime scene) and has led to cutscenes talking about how annoying I am/York is.
Most annoying? The full screen map doesn't stay fixed. When you press the "Back" button to view the town, it looks different every time as the map rotates around the arrow (you), not the other way around. Match this with a zoom that doesn't zoom out far enough and it's impossible to become familiar with the town and its surrounding area.
The Missions
There is a sort of Silent Hill thing going on where the world turns "dark". There is almost no explanation for it, and no one else seems to notice any changes. I'm sure that York is crazy in the head.
When you're in these missions and you "kill" a "zombie" it takes them forever to disappear. This wouldn't be a problem if they weren't impassible until they disappear and if most of the mission area weren't very narrow hallways. Often I could not progress in an area until a "zombie" had finished it's slow, clunky death animation and disappeared.
The quick time events that ended the last mission I played found York being chased by the main killer of the game so far. I haven't played Heavy Rain, but I imagine the QTE's are much better implemented than this. Not only are Deadly Premonition's QTE's cheap and annoying, but the game can't seem to handle what is happening on screen. The framerate drops considerably even with the ultra-low-rent graphics.
The Investigation
I've never been one who is interested in murder mysteries. This game just grabs you so hard with it's quirkiness that it's hard to stop thinking about it. But every time I've played the game this past week, I've become so enraged by the game's crapiness, that I have turned it off to play something that is of AAA quality. I haven't felt this love/hate with a game in a lonnnnnng time, and I think I honestly have to say that the game is interfering with the investigation!
Horsin’ Around with Deadly Premonition
crafted by: Paul
I first saw some cutscene footage from Deadly Premonition via some links on Twitter from Shane Bettenhausen - a long-time writer for EGM and 1UP who now works at the company that localized the game. Judging by the baffling cinemas and overly-enthusiastic Tweeting by Mr. Bettenhausen and some other notable game journos, I just wrote the game off as a "so bad it's good" horror game. It wasn't until a few reviews popped up here and there that I picked up on the game's "quirky" slant - comparisons to cult classic Twin Peaks abounded, and my interest grew. It wasn't until I saw Deadly Premonition get a "it's so terrible but really, actually great!" write up on Something Awful by Lowtax himself that I knew I had to have it.
In most ways this game is awful. Like, awful to the point of questioning even paying $20 for it. Load times are long, text crawls along and makes annoying "beeps" when there is no recorded dialogue. The control scheme for combat doesn't make any sense (right trigger to ready weapon, left to aim, A to fire??), and combat tools (pipes?) wear out too quickly. Most sound effects are laughable (and even inappropriate: a cat squeel for a squirrel), though the voice acting is surprisingly decent. Driving around town is next to impossible, the steering is so broken.
The prologue section wherein our hero Agent York arrives to town was super linear and visually tedious - narrow paths with wooden fences all around. I almost quit playing so I could go back to the comfortable world of Batman: Arkham Asylum (which I am playing for the first time, and yes, it's awesome). But when I emerged from the woods and found myself on the long road into town, I really realized the potential in the game (even with the scenery of PS1-grade mud textures and pixel trees).
Once in town, I slept up at the hotel and had breakfast with the "wacky" proprietress. Then I drove (more like crashed) the short distance to the Police station where I had to find keys with squirrel-shaped fobs and sort out which was a Southern Flying Squirrel so I could progress to the evidence room. It should be so terrible but I couldn't stop!
I actually think an apt comparison for this game would be Earthbound. Like Deadly Premonition, Earthbound was not a pretty game when it came out in the USA, but it's specialness was in it's tone. There is a charming Japanese-take-on-American culture here that I haven't seen since and it is funny and successfully self-aware just like Earthbound.
Anyone who really likes video games and has for a long time will find a lot to appreciate in this game. I know that I am more excited to play this than to beat Arkham Asylum. I woke up thinking about Deadly Premonition, and I've been thinking about it all day. Unlike Arkham Asylum, which is polished to a T and made to appeal to as many people as possible, what's appealing about Deadly Premonition isn't obvious. In fact, it dares you to probe its mysteries and eccentricities.
The only thing nagging me is the "what if?". Imagine if a studio like Rockstar had put their all their technology and gold into a game like this? This is THE game I wanted to play high school: a game combining the atmosphere of Silent Hill with the open-world possibilities of GTA III. If this came out for PS2, Xbox or (even better) Dreamcast, it would have been one of the best of its generation. As a 2010 game it can barely compete, but the game is so ambitious and honest in its quirkiness that I have to love it.
On a side note, I actually read on Wikipedia (snort!) that Deadly Premonition was so similar to Twin Peaks at it's E3 debut in 2007 (?!) that it was significantly delayed to find a more distinct identity. If you haven't seen Twin Peaks, I strongly reccomend you do. I think that Twin Peaks' first season (only six episodes) is fantastic - one of the best examples of what TV can achieve as a medium. It combines the supernatural and offbeat characters with soapy melodrama to be really interesting and unique. But the second season is boring and aimless enough to rival anything on TV in the 90's or 00's - with a leaden sense of confusion drowning any plot development. If you thought Lost was bad at having no purpose, Twin Peaks alredy did that twenty years earlier.
Boss Battle: Bioshock 2 vs Paul
crafted by: Paul
Bioshock 2 attacks: Shoots fire at Paul! Paul's on fire!
- Vastly improved game play - dual-equipping guns and plasmids speeds up action
- Most levels are more interesting and varied than in Bioshock 1
- Smoother difficulty curve doesn't leave you pissed off at the end like Bioshock 1
- Some genuine spooks, shocks, and disturbing set-pieces
- No crappy final boss battle
- Better hacking mini-game
- A pleasure to revisit the world and mythology of Rapture
Paul attacks: Drains some life
- ...Doesn't add anything that crazy to the Bioshock and Rapture experience
- Not many new or impressive plasmids
- Been-there, done-that weapons and ammo
- One or two boring levels (design-wise)
- Protecting Little Sisters as they harvest Adam gets tedious
- Fighting Big Sisters not as fun as fighting Big Daddies, doesn't require and different technique
- No "Welcome to the Circus of Values" clown voice
TBB Summons the “Games of March”!
crafted by: PaulNot since pre-history has there been such an exciting Q1 for video games. Mass Effect 2, BioShock 2, Heavy Rain have all been released to critical acclaim and that's just in the first two months of 2010. Of course, as you've probably read a few times, this was the result of the mass-migration of AAA-titles out of the Modern Warfare 2 pre-Holiday blast radius and into 2010. But it looks like March is where the AAA-ness is going to reach critical mass.
Alex and Paul give our their two cents on the big and less-than-big titles coming out in March.
March 1
Mega Man 10 (3/11 PSN, 3/31 XBLA)
Paul: It breaks my heart that Mega Man 10 isn't the Mega Man X crossover storyline that it should've been. I also wish that new Mega Man games had lush sprites - now that they can get away with these retro remakes, Mega Man is just gonna fall into the same pattern that made people hate Mega Man 4-6.
Alex: Mega Man 10? When did Mega Man 7-9 come out?? I'm kidding, but seriously, I don't really care. The last (non-Legend's) Mega Man game I owned was Mega Man 6, and you all need to shut up because that game was great! Centaur Man is classic. I tried the Mega Man 9 demo and died jumping over the first pit about 6 times. You can tell me I suck if you want, but really, a game design based around memorizing level layouts - like a Simon Says with slightly better graphics - is bad game design.
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