Archives for 2010

After my little experiment, I am revitalized, gaming-wise, for the foreseeable future. So I plan to get some good, solid gaming in this weekend. I recently purchased all the in-game content for Mass Effect 2, so I’ve distanced myself a little from the finale of the game but I’m okay with that. I have been having a blast with the game and I’m in no hurry to finish it. That being said, I’m getting antsy to find out how things do end, so I will be making the most of this weekend playing ME2.

I’ve also had a bit of a renaissance playing multiplayer games with our small little group of gamers, so I’ll probably get a little Halo 3 or Modern Warfare 2 in. Or maybe some more Borderlands? Won’t you join us?

What will you be playing this weekend?

This week’s rankings are going to be a little tougher to do, as there is such a deluge of information to digest during E3 that I usually give up a day or two into the process and just let the wave of information pour over me. Sometimes, dramatic releases and announcements are made. Other times, we’ve heard it all before. But that won’t stop us.

1 & 2. (-) Nintendo – I know it’s pointless to declare a “winner” to E3, but let’s do it for the sake of the argument. Nintendo wins the 2010 E3, for whatever that means. The new Zelda, the combination of Twilight Princess/Wind Waker I’m just not sure it’s going to work. The look of Wind Waker worked because it wasn’t in 3D. It was cartoony and we (at least I) loved it for it.

And then there’s (2) the 3DS, already boasting an impressive launch library. Everything I’ve read and heard has said that the 3DS has to be seen and experienced to believe. After hearing the Giant Bomb guys talking about the Face Ace tech demo for the 3DS, I am already in with both feet for it. You throw in Kid Icarus, a favorite of mine growing up and we’re more or less at the point where Nintendo can do no wrong. Hence, #1 in the VGPR.

3 & 4. (8) Kinect – So if we went off the weird Cirque de Soleil presentation, this wouldn’t have even charted. But everything that they showed after that actually impressed me quite a bit. But a caveat there: what they showed with the Kinect is not gaming, per se. It’s going to sell a lot of 360’s and it’s going to change gaming, but it still isn’t gaming.

Maybe we’re looking at a new “thing”. It’s not gaming, it’s doing. I think Your Shape: Fitness Evolved may make Wii Fit look like old-fashioned jumping jacks. If it gets people off the couch (which it practically forces) then the hundreds of Kinect mini-games are going to be popular. Add into that all the dancing games (something we’ll touch on more later) and I think we’ll be seeing a shift in games. Just as Just Dance was wildly popular with the Wii playing set, games like Dance Central are going to become very popular very quickly.

And that doesn’t even touch on all (4) the real games that were announced or shown-off for the 360. Throw in a whole Red-Ring proof new console, and Microsoft had quite the showing.

5. (-) Sony – I don’t know where to start with Sony. My notes were pretty simple: MOVE MOVE MOVE. Then it was 3D and buy a new TV. Not really sure how that’s going to work out. As Josh points out, it’s clear that Sony has the advantage of simpler compatibility with older games. I was and remain mostly underwhelmed. Getting Steamworks on the PS3, though, could be huge.

6. (- ) Michael Jackson: The Game – This past weekend, the wife and I watched Michael Jackson: This Is It, the last documentary about the King of Pop. He may have been strange (understatement much?) but he was unbelievably talented and unimaginably popular. I may be going out on a huge limb here, but the Michael Jackson: The Game game (ugh, typing that over and over is going to get old) could possibly be bigger than Beatles Rock Band. I know The Beatles have worldwide appeal, but I would say that Michael Jackson’s fame eclipses theirs. Couple that with the popularity of dance games in Asia and MJ’s popularity in those countries and we could have a cultural phenomena. And that’s not even discussing the DLC possibilities. I’m sure Ubisoft has dollar signs for eyeballs already.

7. (-) Epic Mickey – Another thing we watched over the weekend was some old-school Mickey Mouse cartoons, back when Mickey Mouse was a hero, not some moronic CGI freak with a weird house. With someone like Warren Spector at the helm, it’s hard to think that Epic Mickey will be anything but great.

8. (-) The Grinder – This, for me, was the surprise of the show. I was a huge fan of the Hunter: The Reckoning series, so as soon as I saw the banner at the top of this post at Joystiq, I knew that joy was contained therein. And I was right! If this next-generation version of the old hack-slash is any good, I’m up for it. All in the spirit of mindless fun. I don’t need any high-brow story and deep, nuanced characters. Just give me a 2011 version of Gauntlet that isn’t actually Gauntlet, and I’m good.

9. (-) Star Wars: The Old Republic – I’ve said it before, I’ll say it again: whoever is doing the Star Wars: The Old Republic trailers should just be making CGI Star Wars movies. I have been mostly out of the MMO game for a few years now, but The Old Republic may pull me back in.

10. (-) This Website – Buttonmashing dot com turned six years old last week. I have to get in a plug for that this week. Thanks for all the readers and commenters over the years.

I know I glossed over tons of stuff at E3. What tickled your fancy?

It may be showing through the lack of posts and uninspired content from me, but lately I have been in a gaming funk. The avatar is willing, but the brain is tired.

So I came up with a little gaming experiment: I decided to play a little bit of every game I currently have in my 360 library (I would love to add a bunch of my new games, but IGN’s Collection Lists aren’t working). I’m ashamed to admit I actually own multiple games that, up until this past weekend, I hadn’t even played. Ever.

Having finished Splinter Cell: Conviction, I wanted to hold an audition to see what game grabbed my attention. What would I play next? Yes, I am very close to finishing Mass Effect 2, and I will be finishing that, but I also want to get back to some other games I had previously started. Or maybe find a hidden gem I hadn’t started yet.

I noticed that after I had made it through the stack that three or four games rose to the top. First and foremost, I couldn’t stop thinking of how much I wanted to get back to playing Borderlands. I don’t know if it was the little numbers bouncing out of the bad guys as I shot them in the face or if it was the never-ending lootfest, but I want to play it and never stop. The other game I wanted to play more of was the Mercenaries side-game (it doesn’t feel right to call it a mini-game) of Resident Evil 5. I am an unabashed Mercenaries lover.

Of the games I hadn’t previously played, I was most taken in by Half Life 2 (of the Orange Box) and Dead Space. It’s a shame it’s taken me this long actually get around to these games, they both seem like they are going to be fun. I was even surprised to find a lot of people playing Team Fortress 2 on the 360, as I previously thought it was dead there.

I know there are a lot of new games I could be playing right now, including crowd favorite Red Dead Redemption. And I will make my way through that game. Plus, there are a few games in the near future I’ll be sinking my teeth into. But for now, I’ve got quite the collection sitting in front of me, waiting to be played.

This is quaint: releasing any type of video game blog content this week that isn’t E3-related. Ahh, but we’re pioneers here at Buttonmashing dot com. We continue to blaze new trails. So on with the rankings:

1. (1) Red Dead Redemption – The Western-fueled excitement has not died down. This game is still dominating Twitter/Facebook/Your favorite social network. The podcasts are still talking about it and “best Rockstar game ever” has been floated out there more than once. My non-hardcore gaming friends are playing it or asking me if they should be playing it. http://kotaku.com/5556788/my-highlight-of-red-dead-redemption-isthis-song

2. (-) E3 – Sorry, guys, it’s unavoidable. E3 is going to dominate the discussion for another week or two, and even if we mostly ignore covering the majority of the fire hose of data that comes out this week, we can’t avoid it entirely. So for something a little different, here are ten titles from last year’s E3 that haven’t been heard from since.

3. (-) – Fallout New Vegas – New Vegas returns with a vengeance. We’ve talked about the pretty FNV collector’s edition that is going to be available in a previous Power Ranking. Now, to complicate matters, there will also be retailer-specific perks for preodering the game. UGH. Enough with that crap, let’s all watch this video full of gameplay. I need this game in my brain right now (if you’re reading this in a feedreader, you’ve got to come to the site to enjoy the Fallout video goodness):

I’m drooling post-apocalyptic drool.

4. (-) iPhone 4 The new iPhone was announced to the thronging masses to rapturous cheer. The feature prominent in this year’s rip-off iteration is the gyroscope! Yay for awkward gameplay while you’re on the bus! You thought yelling “BLUE!” into your DS made you look weird.

5. (3) Super Mario Galaxy 2 – Yes, this is strictly personal. It’s on here again, this time because as I watched my six year old nephew play SMG2 and I realized that Mario and Nintendo is once again shaping the gaming minds of the next generation. And they are LUCKY.

6. (6) Steam on the Mac – Steam is still hanging around, this time for the addition of Team Fortress 2. Every TF2 player loves them some goofy hats, so I’m sure the free ear buds, usable on any player, was quite the hit.

7. (-) Hulu to Xbox360/PS3? – Netflix Instant Watch may have been the consumer killer app for the 360 (and PS3 and now Wii) but you throw Hulu on there? Well now you’ve got a bona fide media/entertainment/why would I ever leave my leaving room piece of electronics there.

8. (-) Kinect – Even though this is probably going to dominate next week’s E3-heavy VGPR, the news came out Sunday that Microsoft had changed the name of Natal to “Kinect.” Aside from the phonetic failings, why are we teaching our children bad spelling? MICROSOFT YOU’RE RUINING IT FOR EVERYONE. Also, the name itself is wrecthed and if they play Stereo MC’s “Connected” (see how I spelled that, Microsoft?) while they show it off, I’m going to puke. (I’m also going to wish I was 18 again because the song is OLD).

9. (-) You got 384 pounds of meat – I shed no tears that Farmville has been hemorrhaging players. But who cares?! Frontierville (aka The Oregon Trail, Facebook edition) is on its way!

10. (-) Dungeon Siege 3/Obsidian – I played the first Dungeon Siege a lot more than it deserved. It was a paint-by-numbers Diablo 2 clone in 3D. It lacked heart and soul. I ignored Dungeon Siege 2, but when I heard that Obsidian was going to be developing the third game, my ears perked up. Count me in as interested. Even if Alpha Protocol didn’t exactly deliver.

Honorable Mention: Alpha Protocol was it as bad as originally thought? Sort of? Maybe?

I pre-ordered Alpha Protocol back when it was an October 2009 release. I have a knack for that, like when I pre-ordered Halo 2 only to have that pre-order sit for over a year and then have Gamestop tell me they might not be able to honor it. I’m somewhat wiser these days, with Alpha Protocol only delayed 8 months and the pre-order from rock solid Amazon.com. However, with a new gaming PC I had switched my pre-order to PC shortly after confirming the new June release date. Lucky me to find out that the PC version is the most temperamental of all platforms for Alpha Protocol.

To answer the most obvious question, “Is it the unplayable mess everyone says it is” the answer would be “No, but kinda yes, except for when it works.” Ugh. Let me just go down the list of common complaints.

The controls, particularly the mouse, are unusable:
Honestly, this is sheer hyperbole. Everyone I’ve read who has played this game have made significant progress into it. I’ve played my share of poor control schemes and very rarely does ANY game ship with the controls in an “unusable” state. They are extremely dodgy and inaccurate, which is problematic because the game often seems to ask for more precision than it provides. If anything, I would not attempt this game on a game pad as some of the mini-games are greatly facilitated by the mouse. Except for computer hacking which is horribly broken and basically was poorly designed even if the control scheme worked.

The graphics are extremely dated:
Alpha Protocol is not one of the most high fidelity games I’ve seen, but at worst this is the kind of game you might have seen in the early XBox 360 days. Again, this is more hyperbole. For some reason people are overly harsh on graphics when they want to criticize a game. Alpha Protocol does facial expressions better than most games on the market, and the graphics are adequate to the story, which is all that is necessary. Are they terrible? No, not even close.

Texture pop-in is horrible:
Ok, the game has an obvious bug somewhere in the code. I’m well above the minimum system specs and running plenty of memory, I still see texture pop-in. I can’t even imagine how bad this must be on the XBox 360.

The AI is stupid:
The only really stupid AI’s are the ones armed with shotguns. Everyone armed with a shotgun is trying too hard to get too close. All I can figure is that every weapon seems to have an optimal range and the AI is trying to get to where the pellet spread can potentially hit 100%, which would be point blank range. The rest of the AI’s are pretty dumb as well, but the “everyone charges to hand-to-hand range and shoots me” claims are overblown. However, only a handful of opponents ever bother to duck into cover. Great AI this is not.

Combat is bad:
I think the designers saw Fallout 3 and thought “We can make our game based on math as well”. Two problems with this assumption. The first, Fallout 3 would give me a percentage so that I could understand why I missed 2 out of 3 shots. Even then, a 33% in small guns did not mean only a 33% chance to hit. I would likely still hit the target but could not do pinpoint aiming as easily. The second is that Fallout 3 has the VATS system which let me essentially do turn-based combat. Alpha Protocol has neither of these things. The skill system and how it affects your combat abilities are not clearly linked. This is especially painful in the early stages when you’re bad with every weapon and yet rely heavily on combat.

Stealth is impossible:
Yep, sometimes you just seem to be randomly detected, and that’s very annoying. I do everything right. Avoid cameras, silent takedowns, using a silenced weapon, and yet I swear it’s like someone sees me through a wall. The worst part is that once your discovered, that’s it. No more stealth. I get the idea that guards are on alert, but they can all find my exact location even if I eliminate everyone nearby and disable the alarm system. Actively looking for me and knowing my exact location are not the same thing.

The cover system is broken:
The cover system is no worse than the original Mass Effect and better in many ways. I have never found myself “stuck” like many claim, and actually had more problems with the original Gears of War. What is difficult is that it is not always clear what you can take cover behind, and sometimes you can’t maintain cover if you’re crossing under a window. You have to “unstick” yourself, duck, and then go into cover again. Not the most refined cover system, but if they didn’t do anything to this it wouldn’t be a deal breaker.

I think a lot of what is going on is high expectations being dashed by a development team that failed to make the most out of the extra 8 months of development. This game was hyped up bigtime and it seems like all the rumored problems from last year weren’t even touched. This is an extremely rough game and the comments about it being in a “beta” state are not entirely unfair.

The game does have some strengths. The dialogue system is actually pretty good, although Thorton can spout some non sequiters you wouldn’t expect. The reputation effects can be wonky. On one reply I had my reputation go both up and down at the same time. That seemed kinda dumb. If the net effect is zero why even bother showing a reputation change? One thing I really did not like is that the dialogue timer is too strict. You often have to make your choice before the other side finishes talking, and much of the critical information is at the end of their monologues.

I really like the safehouses and how you interact with them, I just wish there was more to do. In particular though, I wish more games allowed me to do pre-mission preparation. Although its a different style of game, I’m irked that Call of Duty preselects all of my weapons and equipment for me. I think an elite government agent should be able to figure out what they need for a mission.

What I really hope for is that despite its flaws, Alpha Protocol will at least spark some interest in RPG’s set in a contemporary setting. I like the espionage aspect as well, but mostly it was the ability to play an RPG that was not fantasy or science fiction. The game has tons of potential and plenty of good ideas, but was executed poorly. Hopefully someone else will see what the game could have been and we’ll see other developers follow Obsidian’s lead. Either that or Alpha Protocol just single-handedly killed the contemporary RPG concept, which would not make me an Obsidian fan at all.