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Archives for 2009

Weekend of Gaming

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Man, it sure got here in a hurry. Not that I’m complaining. I’m waiting to travel home (my flight is most likely going to be delayed — LaGuardia is the place where flights go to die) so I can only dream about gaming right now. But when I finally do get home, I’m planning on picking up Shadow Complex and giving that a play-through. I’ve also got a couple games coming from Gamefly, but they probably won’t get here until next week.

So I have a decision to make. I recently finished Fallout 3, so I could pick up one of the DLC packs (probably Broken Steel) or I can go back to Mass Effect, something I’ve been meaning to do for a while. I’m planning on starting over with a fresh new character and playing it start to finish. Any suggestions?

I also will be playing some NCAA 10 as a primer for the upcoming football season.

What will you be playing?

Cheap Game of the Week – Iron Man

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Overview: The videogame adaptation of one of the best comic book movies ever made.

Pricing: This one is scattered but I think $15 is a good median, typically used. Can be found for $20 new.

Rip-Off Warning: Very little danger here. $20 across most console platforms is pretty standard.

Platform: DS, Playstation 2, Playstation 3, PSP, XBox 360 (Reviewed), Wii, Windows

Is it worth it?: Let’s get a giant disclaimer out of the way. Iron Man is one of my favorite superheroes. The very concept of using technology as the basis for superpowers instead of magic, radiation, genetic mutation, or “scientific” accidents was different and creates a whole new wrinkle in the debate over what makes a hero. Is Iron Man a person or a gestalt entity that you can become by possessing the armor? Is it Tony Stark himself a hero at heart even without the armor? These issues were barely brushed up against in the movie and the game doesn’t acknowledge them at all. Despite the film being heralded as one of the greatest comic book movies of all time, similar care was not taken with the game.

The Hulkbuster throwing a tank, naturally.
The Hulkbuster throwing a tank, naturally.

This is a shame because there is a ton of potential for Iron Man in a video game context, but the game doesn’t seem to know what to do with the character. One suggestion made to me was to treat Iron Man like a “jet fighter that can walk”, and this is a fair analogy but it doesn’t work well. Iron Man is not a plane even though he often controls like one. Your three basic modes are fly, hover, and walk, there is no in between. You can strafe targets on the ground but trying to engage them at slower speeds is nearly impossible. In fact, most problems are solved by merely hovering in place and using repulsors until the target explodes.

Combat should be more satisfying than this, but it’s difficult to enjoy because even if you accept the jet fighter conceit in flight, the controls are just too imprecise to be useful in making Iron Man a tiny dogfighter. He is too vulnerable running on the ground and it also feels silly when he has boot jets.

The missions themselves are repetitive and the difficulty curve is all over the place and often hampered more by the poor controls than intentional design. For instance, a base defense mission is nigh impossible even on the easiest difficulty because of the shoddy controls but the final boss is easily defeated using the same hover in place and blast away tactic used throughout the game. Granted, you might have to fly away and let yourself repair for a bit.

The one highlight of the game is the ability to unlock other Iron Man armors, with the XBox 360 version having the “Silver Centurion” (A personal favorite) and the Playstation 3 version having the Iron Man Armor from “The Ultimates”. Various other suits like the “Classic” or Hulkbuster can also be unlocked.

Allow me to geek out for a moment. This would be the Iron Man "Silver Centurion" Armor
Allow me to geek out for a moment. This would be the Iron Man "Silver Centurion" Armor

Final Judgement: Unless you are just a die-hard Iron Man fan I would PASS on this game. It is another typical hasty movie cash-in that completely squanders its potential.

2 Minute Review: Shadow Complex

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An old school throwback with all modern bells and whistles

DO: Indulge your sense of nostalgia over a game genre that’s time has largely past. Alternatively, if you’re not a gaming dinosaur, find out why everyone loved Metroid so much.

TYPE: Side-Scrolling Platformer

PLATFORM: XBox 360 (Reviewed)

PRICE: $15

MEAT: You play as Jason Fleming (sidenote: More protagonists should be named “Jason”. It’s an awesome name.) who appears to be an everyman in the same way Steven Seagal’s character in Under Siege was “just a cook”. In a very brief flashback we’re given that Jason’s mysterious background includes some kind of training because his father is some kind of super-spy and/or warrior badass and wanted his son to follow in his footsteps. Despite his attempt at a normal life he finds himself unwittingly drawn into a plot against the United States when he, and I’m not making this up, stumbles into the base of a homegrown terrorist organization thanks to an outing with his “girlfriend” that was supposed to be nothing more than some hiking and spelunking. I used “girlfriend” in quotes because despite the marketing materials for the game they also establish that Jason and Claire have been dating for all of two days. The lengths he goes through for a woman he met at a bar is nothing short of epic.

I wouldn’t usually bother with the back story, but in this case the story is very much part of the gameplay and it does a great job. For a side-scroller I don’t expect much since you’re artificially confined in your actions, yet the action onscreen and the story presentation flow together perfectly. Your character is upgraded gradually and as you unlock new abilities you can backtrack to previously visited locations to acquire upgrades that were inaccessible before. Despite all the backtracking, the ability to explore a section in a way that wasn’t previously possible keeps the game interesting even though you may have visited the same room multiple times.

Just a minor spoiler, but what you have is a guy who starts out with a flashlight and the ability to jump who gradually ends up with a suit of incredible power armor that gives him abilities beyond that of normal men.

PERKS: In my opinion these kinds of retro-retreads are unnecessary since technology has since advanced enough that we can move beyond the old “side scroller”. There is a reason the Metroid series went first person. The only reason why I’m reviewing this game is because I downloaded the demo just to see what all the fuss was about.

Then something miraculous happened.

The game was just ridiculously fun to play. Save points occur often enough that the game can be played in short bursts, if you can actually force yourself to turn it off, but are far enough apart that there is a real challenge. The controls, for the most part, are excellently done. One of my long-standing complaints with platformers, even those that fuse with side-scrolling shooters, is the lack of precision in controlling the character. Aiming your weapons is a bit of a challenge at first, but with practice becomes fairly simple. I never felt like I was struggling with the controls and that is incredibly important.

The actual “Shadow Complex” is vast with many varied environments, hazards, and enemies. The game has an excellent pace, keeping the player engaged and allowing them to flex some muscle on occasion while making sure they get fresh challenges. I really appreciate that as you acquire new abilities some of the early opponents that are quite difficult become easy to dispatch in a variety of satisfying ways. Naturally, the game keeps ramping up the “bosses” so it never gets too easy but the player is not exposed to a challenge too early either.

The first boss fight sold me the game
The first boss fight sold me the game

SCREAMS: The game is “2.5D”, so there are times when you have side hallways that enemies can approach but you can’t travel down. In theory you can aim and shoot them, but sometimes you have your gun pointed at enemies and other times it’s pointing straight up. In this case the controls try to interpret your intention and it doesn’t always work.

Your ability to “wall climb” is limited, which is ok except that sometimes the game doesn’t register your attempt to jump off one wall to another Jackie Chan style. Also, one of your abilities is a grappling hook which is tons of fun but has the same problem as the wall climb. It can be very frustrating to see your grappling line bounce ineffectually off of a wall or ceiling.

Perhaps a personal preference, the game has many areas that are inaccessible early on that you can later unlock by using upgrades the game gives you. The problem here is that the upgrades needed seem to come about midway through the game, but then come quite often. This is kind of frustrating though because you can see areas that have extras you could get to but have to continually ignore because you haven’t acquired missiles yet or can’t double jump.

A common complaint is that you can trigger the endgame by accident. The good news is that if this happens you can simply end and restart from your last continue. This way you can still get any upgrades you may have missed. You cannot trigger the endgame sequence without at least having the basic abilities to beat it, so the game at least gives players the possibility of winning, though the challenge may be greater than it has to be if they are not sufficiently prepared.

Screenshots will not do this game justice
Screenshots will not do this game justice

VERDICT: Let me be clear here, this is my “2009 Game I Can’t Put Down” and I truly do feel this entire genre is well past it’s prime. This is a game I was determined to hate and love it anyway. You can’t rent it and I would recommend this as a BUY even if you could.

Section 8 Demo

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Another game I’ve had my eye on is Section 8 from Southpeak Interactive. In many ways it seems to emulate Robert Heinlein’s vision of Starship Troopers. I guess I’m not following the game closely enough because it was to my surprise to see a demo on X-Box Live this week.

Sadly, they’re not going to let me touch the story, but there is a very satisfying instant action mode that reminds me a lot of the Battlefield style games but with more of a Halo setting. Dropping in from orbit is an absolute scream and I love how they implemented it. I do find the game a bit overwhelming at times and perhaps it needs a tutorial. On the other hand, just blundering around the battlefield was still a lot of fun and I see a lot of potential for this game. We’re way overdue for a new IP in the FPS arena and I think this is a contender.

Cheap Game of the Week – Rock Revolution

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Overview: Proof that some people think all they need for a massive success is a “me to” attitude

Pricing: $5, new. Seriously, that’s it. You might be able to find it for $10 if you search hard enough.

Rip-Off Warning: Considering the criteria for “Cheap Game of the Week” this might sound odd, but it can be found for $20. However, when it sells for $5 new that is a huge difference!

Platform: XBox 360 (reviewed), Playstation 3, Wii, Nintendo DS

Is it worth it?: Konami has a history of music rhythm games long before we had Guitar Hero or Rock Band, so it would seem that Rock Revolution is more of a continuation of their GuitarFreaks franchise and less of a cheap cash-in, right?

Well, in truth this game has zero to do with GuitarFreaks and is an attempt to jump on what seemed like the insanely popular music rhythm bandwagon. The big oversight on Konami’s part was failing to notice that Guitar Hero and Rock Band were both created by the same development studio and that Guitar Hero’s ongoing popularity had more to do with Harmonix starting the franchise than Activision’s attempt to cram plastic controllers down everyone’s throats (or up other orifices if you prefer cruder visualization)

Rock Revolution is essentially Rock Band with a poor interface, no vocals, and terrible covers of well known songs. Worse, pretty much every song in Rock Revolution is in some iteration of Guitar Hero or Rock Band. This could well be the most unnecessary game ever produced. There is an attempt at a career mode which isn’t half bad, but does anyone care when the actual gameplay itself is so lackluster.

To be fair, the game isn’t terrible, it’s just superfluous. I will say that it is incredibly difficult to calibrate an HDTV with the controllers, but once that is accomplished you can begin a fairly safe journey of mediocrity.

Final Judgement: This is a pass. If you already own guitar or drum controllers there are plenty of cheaply available Guitar Hero and Rock Band copies out there for every platform that Rock Revolution is on. There is no point to owning this game at all. Even with the price difference you are much better off spending anywhere between $10 to $20 more for a much better music rhythm game.

Can turn-based games be saved?

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I’m not so curmudgeonly that I don’t understand that gaming trends will change as demographics do so I understand why turn-based strategy games aren’t as hot as they once were. Believe it or not, there was a time when playing a game with alternating turns against the computer was quite popular. Not only did we have strategy and tactical games that did this, but a majority of the computer role-playing games were done this way as well. In many ways the modern Japanese RPG is a throwback to this bygone era.

I’m sure my fellow contributors are waxing nostalgic as they read this.

Oddly, while adventure games were pushed out of the market by technological advances and hardcore sims pushed themselves out by their cost, turn-based games are likely a victim of their own inability to adapt. The last three turn-based games I played all shared the same problems and flaws of every game I’ve played in the genre. Turn-based games will never have the same fan-base as say, first person shooters, but they still have a niche if someone could properly exploit it. Just consider changing the following.

Mission Time
Let’s not beat around the bush, getting a single mission done simply takes too long anymore. A standard mission can easily last for an hour and as the game introduces grander set pieces I have spent four hours trying to get through one mission. When I say “trying to get through”, I don’t mean attempting, getting beaten, and then trying again. I mean the cumulative time I’ve spent between the saving and loading of the same mission because I simply did not have the time to do it in one sitting.

Even worse if you have to replay a mission. If I spend four hours to fail a mission and the game doesn’t allow mid-mission saves, I’m going to walk away. I simply don’t have that kind of time to spend.

The problem with the length of time per mission is that there is no feeling of progress. A minor scuffle with a random encounter or a minor force should not take more than half an hour. Oddly, tactical games are often worse than strategic games. These games lack pacing, which makes even a well designed game a complete slog. Remember, this is a GAME, something to be done as a recreational activity. As much as I love turn-based games, when it becomes work I’m going to move on to something else!

Difficulty
Like the old arcade shooters, turn-based games or all stripes have continually focused on their more hardcore players. This is a grand mistake that will only shrink your customer base. This is not a difficult concept.

“Easy” should be easy. This should be a difficulty that casual players have a reasonable chance of beating the game at without going through some of the intense strategic exercises and elaborate resource management that a game might offer. Easy does not mean the game is without a challenge, it simply means that someone who has not read Sun Tzu’s Art of War still has a reasonable chance of victory.

Also, in all cases you should include difficulty levels. A huge mistake is trying to make a single difficulty for all players. What usually ends up happening is the difficulty curve fluctuates between “casual stroll through a warzone” to “apocalypse now!” and frustrates everyone. I know it takes more work, but “Easy” for casual players, “Normal” for experienced veterans, and “Hard” for obsessive compulsive fans.

AI
I’m going to pick on tactical games here specifically, but this still applies to their more strategic oriented cousins. Any attempt at “realism” goes out the door when I am assaulting a force twice my size or greater. If these games were attempting true guerilla style warfare, where I could perform more “hit and fade” attacks I wouldn’t mind. Since the victory condition is often to wipe out every enemy though, the idea that my group of six soldiers is going to defeat thirty enemies who are often better equipped and completely fresh for the fight is ludicrous.

Also, if hits are based on a skill percentage against a random number generator, then that means at optimal range my trooper with a 75% marksman ship should hit 3 out of 4 times, not 1 out of 5. On the flip side, if the enemy is supposed to represent an untrained militiaman they should not hit 4 out of 5 times. If I’m the skilled force of soldiers able to take on five times my number then their performance should indicate some competency at combat. Either that or the level of incompetence should be spread equally between my troops and the enemy.

Furthermore, and this ties into the pacing problems, my victory condition should be met without having to find the one enemy guy hiding in a closet or hiding in the bushes.

Modern Graphics
For the most part the recent games I have played actually had serviceable graphics and that is all I am asking. However, I continue to see attempts to do things on the cheap. If you think “This is a Strategy game so graphics aren’t important” then you need to go play Dawn of War. That game makes it feel like there really is a battle taking place in front of your eyes rather than having a bunch of pixels who simply move to your commands. Real-time strategy games have figured out that what happens on screen can affect the level of immersion.

I want to be drawn into these battles, I want to care about the units, I want to see what is happening on screen. The technology has been available to go beyond wooden animations and obtuse sprites. The graphics don’t have to be spectacular, just “good enough”.

Recognizable IP
How many more people would play a game if it was G.I.Joe vs. Cobra instead of an obscure historical campaign or a bunch of mercenaries we’ve never heard of before? Without doing a specific movie tie-in, there are plenty of recognizable IP’s to be licensed that are a perfect fit for this genre. Even without taking something like Star Wars, Transformers, or G.I.Joe, the genre still needs a new franchise. The Panzer General series had many spin-offs and sequels, Jagged Alliance was a name so strong that we still see derivatives trying hard to associate with it. (“Jagged Edge”, “Jagged Union”, etc.)

Fix the above problems and find an audience. Quit focusing on a handful of grognards who still worship a time before fully realized 3D graphics were even possible. Make the genre modern, make a quality game, and then focus on building your audience rather than pandering to a tiny niche. It’s probably too late to do a new Jagged Alliance or Steel Panthers. Above all, quit trying to copy the old games because all we’re cranking out are pale imitations that make the same old mistakes but can’t claim the same level of quality.

Weekend Gaming

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So I’m on my way home from my last (hopefully) two-week business trip to New England (this time I’m in Maine) and I’m looking forward to a nice long weekend of gaming (and taking my wife out for our anniversary, of course).

I picked up Pure a few weeks ago, which is the greatest racing game you didn’t play in 2008, so I’ll be putting some more time doing my best to not fall off my four-wheeler while racing at insanely high rates of speed. I also started back up with Fallout 3 before I left for Maine, so I hope to get back to the Capital Wasteland this weekend. Other than that, I’ll be playing some New Super Mario Bros. and NY Time Crossword on the DS as I travel home. Oh, and some Punch-Out!! on the Wii.

What gaming does your weekend have in store for you?