2 Idiot Gamers

Games come out daily, if not hourly for the iPhone and iPod Touch.  Most of the time these titles are awful and money sinks, even at 99 cent or free.  Yesterday NHL2K11 came out for Apple’s handhelds.  Before I start reviewing the title, I have to give everyone a heads up that this game has a whole host of hardware restrictions.  Now this might be because of the higher end graphics, however I think it has to have with IOS 4.0 support.  It only works on the iPhone 3gS, iPhone 4, or iPod Touch 2nd Gen devices.  Although they phrase it weird in the description.  Multi-tasking seems to be the major reason for this as it is the heart of playing a whole game without issue.  You can pop in and out of a game on the fly.  This is huge on a mobile device so you can use it on the fly and swap back and forth in between talking on the phone  and checking e-mail.  There is never a break in the action while doing this.  However over my 5 game experience over the last 10 hours or so, I did experience a few crashes.  Now these crashes did restart the application from the start with no in-progress game save.

This is a full fledge hockey game.  It is comparable to one on the original XBOX or PS2.  It has a good selection of modes, including Quick Game, Season, Free Skate (practice), and Shoot out.  Season mode is full-featured, including salary cap, trading, 41 or 82 game seasons, playoff series length, etc.  It is huge and extremely robust, especially for a mobile version of hockey.

Full Review after the break.

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I’m a big fan of  Bioshock.  I loved almost every minute of the first game with the notable exception of what I thought was a relatively lackluster final boss fight. The underwater utopia of Rapture was one of the most wonderfully realized environments I’d ever encountered in a video game and I thoroughly enjoyed the Ayn Rand-ian storyline.  The only other complaint I can lodge with the original Bioshock was it’s duration.  At a little over ten hours, I would have liked to have spent a couple more hours in Rapture.

Well, that’s what Bioshock 2 delivers. Another ten hours in Rapture. Everything I loved was still there; the gorgeous water effects, the foreboding atmosphere, the several varieties of Splicers with which to do battle, etc.  Even the soundtrack, chock full of old-timey goodness was back.

And herein lies the problem.  Almost nothing is new.

I was so excited to be playing the part of a Big Daddy, clamped into a diving suit, possessed of  the strength of ten men and protecting the Little Sisters.  Alas, it turns out that a Big Daddy is just about as tough as Jack was in the first game. That’s right! The lumbering leviathans that turned up every so often as boss battles in Bioshock take regular human damage.  This flaw makes the experience of Bioshock 2 an almost insurmountable disappointment.  Add to this the inclusion of a really cool drill-bit attachment to the right arm that runs out of fuel after about three uses and there really seems to be no advantage to playing as the character whatsoever.  Basically, the limitations of the characters abilities makes being a Big Daddy virtually useless.   Oh. You can walk underwater but you won’t see any combat there.  It just gives the player the opportunity to walk a little slower than usual.

This is about as tough as you'll feel as a Big Daddy.

Another new twist is the gaining of ADAM, the element that allows you to upgrade your plasmid powers.  There’s now the ability to have adopted Little Sisters harvest ADAM for you from random corpses along the way. Unfortunately, as the little gal is extracting the serum, it causes a steady and annoying wave of Splicers to rush the area to stop her.  You now have the ability to set traps that will hold off the first few of these enemies, but it basically comes down to a swarming firefight.  These events aren’t difficult to get through, but they are tedious and after the first few times,  it just becomes easier to murder the Little Sisters and take the ADAM from them.   Sure, you won’t get as much ADAM and you’ll get the “bad” ending, but choosing to stave off the Splicer throngs time and time again provides a pretty accurate definition of monotony.

Apart from one new flavor of Splicer, the only other new foe is the Big Sister, and she’s a colossal pain in the ass.  She shows up every now and again, leaping from wall to wall, throwing fireballs and diving in for the occasional melee smack.  She’s not particularly tough to beat, but her sudden, unavoidable appearances elicit a frustrated sigh more than the dread of, say,  the Nemesis from Resident Evil 3.

Now this sonuvabitch knew how to make an entrance!!

...this chick? Not so much.

Add to it the complete lack of an epic final battle and the whole experience just doesn’t work as a sequel to a great game.  If anything, the whole thing feels like a lengthy expansion pack. The storyline is passable, but not as good as the narrative from the first game.  There’s a twist at the end that was somewhat satisfying, but to go back and replay it for the different endings just seems like too much labor for too little result.

It pains me to put these words down. I was very much looking forward to a return to Rapture, but there is quite simply not enough new to make it worth the time it takes to get through Bioshock 2.

Ain't No Rest for the Wicked!

From great advertising to a unconventional art style, Borderlands is that first person shooter with a loot system like Diablo that you might have been waiting for.  Borderlands carries a weak story setup by a bus ride into the desert, once there you and your crew are out to find the elusive Vault.  This vault is fabled to carry untold riches and unrivaled alien technology.  Then starts the first person goodness.  To start out you have four classes to pick from.  Each has their own specialty and special ability.  One of the nice things about this game is you can level up any gun skill, you are not limited to your gun proficiency you start with.  So if you pick up a gun you really like, just use it, your XP will come.  There is a soldier class that starts with proficiency machine guns and shotguns, special ability: deployable turret.  There is a berserker who is melee and heavy weapons, special ability: beserker rage.  There is a hunter who is snipers rifles and revolvers, special abilities: Pet Bird.  There is siren who is shotguns and handguns: phasewalking.  Each of these classes has their own tech tree which they can level up to help themselves, others, or enhance the group.  Each one offers plenty of benefits. Oh and I forgot to mention, it is multiplayer!

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In a strange and coincidental turn of events, I can name two moments of deep disappointment over the past few years after picking up a game that I had really been looking forward to.  One was the original Assassin’s Creed and the other was the next-gen debut of Prince of Persia. I ditched AC after only a few days ofter realizing that it was way more repetitive than I liked, and I sold PoP back about an hour after  I finished it because it came across to me like a childrens version of a once-great franchise.

See, I like climbing stuff. I like climbing really, really tall stuff. I enjoy the feeling that I’m going to fall from a dizzying height if I make the wrong move while climbing really, really tall stuff. That’s why Ico finds its way into my play rotation at least two times a year.

I was crushed by how little enjoyment I got out of AC.

Now, here comes Assassin’s Creed 2 with a different historical tableau to explore and a new protaganist to control. I had little interest originally, but after reading some advance impressions, and seeing some of the early gameplay, it looked like the folks over at Ubisoft had really listened to some of the gripes about AC and were setting out to address, fix and improve them.

Holy shit!

Not only did they turn out a much better game, but I got my PoP fix to boot!! Seriously, I seldom play a game for more than a few hours at a time before I’m either too drunk to continue or I’m distracted by some murder show on the Discovery Channel.  Nine straight hours in one night later, the only thing that pried my controller from my hands was my inability to keep my eyes open from need of sleep.

Graphics – Everything here is gorgeous. World characters repeat, but not so frequently that it becomes distracting. The city maps make me want to travel back in time and start stabbing people because it looks like so much fun!!!

Story – Fantastic. Engrossing and rich like a fine plate of  mezzaluna ravioli slathered in bolognese sauce. There will never be a time where you’re not interested in Ezio’s next mission. And the added bonus? I’m playing a videogame and I’ve picked up a little Italian along the way, you “bastardos”! See? It’s just like “bastard” but there’s an “o” at the end.

Gameplay – Nice to see that the people behind AC2 have fixed the problems of the original. The rooftop antics of this game would be enough to make it worth buying. As far as free-running is concerned, this game not only tops Mirrors Edge, but actually fixes the problem in THAT game as well!! There is the occasional, “oops, I jumped the wrong way” moment, but 9 times out of ten that’s my  fault. The fighting, on the other hand could use some work. A little bit rockier than I normally like.

Although in a few instances, this scenario......

...nearly led to THIS scenario!

Sound – The hand to hand combat sounds like a guy hitting a wall with a nylon full of meat. Other than that, I love it. The music, the NPC dialogue and the swordplay sound great. Have fun standing in front of a herald and hearing what he has to say.

Replay Value -  Not quite done yet, but I look forward to going back and finishing up the side-missions and trying to actually cap out the achievement points.

Summary – Well worth a buy. Buy two in case the first one gets scratched by that raccoon that lives under the sink. Seriously, I haven’t been this re-interested in a product since Tomb Raider got their shit together.

Much love,

Max

Yup, you can fight this guy and he looks that scary!

I’ve been spending time with Demon’s Souls since right around it’s American launch, back in early October, and I must say it continues to punish and amaze me.  This game has the feel of say Castlevania, resident Evil, and Shadow of the Colossus rolled into one.  The story is simple enough, the world is shrouded in darkness, brought on by the old one.  The world is besieged by demons and those looking for mortal souls.  You are the lone hero out to fight to return the light to the world.  You do this by slicing, bashing, piercing, and shooting your way through 5 would stages, each with a various number of sub sections.  You start out in classic RPG fair, choose your class, set you look, then be thrust into the tutorial level.  There are 10 classes total, from a heavily armored warrior, to the subtle and fast thief; there are also the extremes of a unarmored barbarian to the lightly cloth armored magician or priest.  The nice part about this game is the class only determines your starting attributes, gear, and soul level.  Over time, you can add points to any of the 8 stats and develop yourself to wear, use, or cast anything in the game.  It is all up to you and your play-style.

The controls are simple, although I must admit took me a while to get used to.  The right triggers control the item in your right hand and the left triggers handle the left.  So for instance, I want to block and move, I hold L1 and move with the left thumb stick, if I want to attack light, I hit R1, attack heavy, R2, if I want to parry and riposte, L2, then a quick R1.  The digital left and right help you quickly choose from one of 2 designated times per slot.  Say ranged and melee, or spear.  You can also wield all weapons two-handed, which increases their effective attack power, however lowers your defenses due to the lack of the shield.  This can be done at anytime by hitting triangle.  I know I have gone rather deep into the control system on this game, that is because it is crucial to your success.  Knowing it, learning it and being able to effectively use it determines your success in the world of Boletaria.  For instance, left thumb stick (direction) and O determine side-roll, jump back, or sprint.   Square is your consumable button, all of which can be cycled through using down on the digital pad.  All these abilities are tied to one of three bars – Health (your overall health, duh), Magic (your mana pool to cast spells from), and Stamina (your ability to block, attack, run, evade, etc).  Many a death comes from an empty stamina pool.  So quick usage and learning of these systems makes your survivability skyrocket.

The gameplay is simple enough, fight enemies, collect their souls, level up, fight a boss, lather, rinse, repeat.  Ah how I wish it were that simple.  On a fundamental level it is, however it is so much more complex.  Some of which I have not even fully understood.  You have two forms, physical form and soul form.  You start out in physical form, when you die, you enter your soul form.  When in physical form you gain more souls per kill, have a full  health bar, and can summon Phantoms to help.  When in soul form you get less souls per kill, have half your health bar (can be augmented with the Cling Ring!), are stealthier, and can become the Phantom helping a person in physical form.  When you die in a level when in physical form you affect the world tendency, to become darker, when you kill a boss, you turn the world tendency lighter.  When you are at a full range of this spectrum you have additional bosses you can fight.  You can get back to your physical form three ways, help a player with a task using the blue stones, kill a boss, or use the rare soul restore stones you find throughout the world.  I hope you stayed with me because now is when it gets fun, the online component.  As you play through the game, you will see some white, ghostly silhouettes running around, these are other players playing through their world.  It is great for planning strategy or looking for someone to help in your game.  The other compelling component of the online portion is that of the blood stains.  When you find a blood stain on the ground, you can touch it to see that players last few moments in their world before they died.  You will see a red, ghostly silhouette run around and then die.  This is designed to help you form ways of defeating enemies, avoid areas, or see where someone may have jumped to their death trying something.  This can be key to learning that next area.  You can also leave canned messages to people trying to help them along or prepare themselves.  These messages can then be rated and help yourself level up.  However, as always, beware of false messages.  Messages not rated frequently, will be deleted.  So this can help keep some of the false ones to a minimum.   There are two other online components, Phantoms, both blue and black.  If you are a blue phantom, you are summoned to a physical form, persons game.  While there you are helping them accomplish their task, if successful, you will return to your physical form.  When in physical form you can be a black phantom, this allows you to attack other players in physical form; this can yield plenty of souls.  The online component of the game is very neat and leads to plenty of helpful hints, both directly and indirectly.  This online portion is one of the things that makes this so unique.

Shadow of the Colossus anyone?

Now on to what makes this game brutal.  It is hard, and I do not mean the Rio level in MW2 hard, I mean original Castlvania hard.  The biggest destinction I can make though is Castlvania was cheap, if you die in this, you more then likely were not prepared.  You collect souls, which are the currency of the game.  You use souls to level up, you use them to purchase goods, you use them to repair.  So they are precious and must be protected.  You can run around killing things and farming levels for thousands of souls, then go to fight a boss and die.  When you die, you restart your section from the beginning in soul form (or still in soul form if you were in soul form).  Where you died, you left a ghostly blue blood stain.  You have to fight your way back through the enemies to claim your remains.  If you do and are successful, you will get your souls back and keep the ones earned in the process, however if you die again on your way back, those souls are lost forever.  The other day I was cocky, went for it, and lost 7,000 souls in one stupid move.  At the beginning, it will not seem like much, however when an upgrade is costing you around 20K souls for one point, you start to become very cautious of where and what you are doing.  Death will come, it is inevitable, so be sure to plan your routes and upgrades carefully.  I know this is a short paragraph, it is the key to the game, the punishment system for death.  You can very easily, be wiped out with out even knowing it.

I have played through a few worlds, including killing a white tendency boss and have loved every minute of it.  Do not get me wrong, I had more then a few almost controller breaking moments, normally brought on by my own ego or lack of patience.  This is a game that is worthy of its difficult nature, gamers will wear their ability to play this like a badge of honor.  It is a game where every level gained feels like an accomplishment and boss fights feel like you are on top of the world.  That truly is epic gaming when you can accomplish it.  If you consider yourself hardcore, you have to pick it up and try it.  If you are unsure, or worried, borrow it or rent it first, you more then likely will not be disappointed by the originality and scale of this game.

Liked:

Leveling Up – Everyone can use everything, despite starting class, eventually.

Epic Boss battles

Great Level Design

Combat system – I felt like I was in control of a warrior.

Difficulty

Look – This game is gorgeous, has great atmosphere

Audio – The subtlety of the audio can give plenty of clues as to what is coming ahead.

Online – All those features make this a one of a kind game

Disliked:

Difficulty – Yup this works and does not.

Controls – Can be confusing sometimes, leading to misuse of consumables

Menu System – There is no pause, so find a safe spot or return to the nexus.

Loot – The system for using and understanding gear stats and bonuses can be very confusing at times.

This review was based on a retail copy of the game, purchased by the reviewer.  It has yet to be completed by the reviewer.  This is a PS3 only title.

The fights are really this epic!