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A Comics Rundown!!!

2012-01-24T21:10:00.000-08:00

Comics: It's time again for another quick check-in on my regular reads…

Frankenstein, Agent of S.H.A.D.E. #5 - I've got to admit, I'm really puzzled by this one. The idea of Frankenstein’s monster (with a sword, no less) teaming up with a rogues gallery of assorted creatures seems like an absolute win, and that's even before mentioning that this book is written by Jeff Lemire. His work on Sweet Tooth and Animal Man is absolutely fantastic, and both have become recent favorites. His work on this book, however... I'm just not feeling it.

The characters don't have much personality, the action isn't very interesting or exciting, and the artwork doesn't click. The pencils by Alberto Ponticelli are decent enough, but everything has a sloppy, ugly look to it that gives each issue a cheap, tossed-off feeling. It's bizarre to me that I can be so captivated by Lemire’s other work and feel absolutely nothing for this one, but there it is. I'll probably hang in for a few more issues just to give it time to breathe, but if I stopped reading it right now, I'd forget it even existed in an hour.

Suicide Squad #5 – I’ve praised this one before, and I'm praising it again. To recap: super-criminals are forced to work together to accomplish impossible missions. Everyone is expendable, but cooperating with their captors is their only hope of eventual freedom.

The action in each issue is enough to keep the pages turning, but the characters aren't ignored, either. An added layer of suspense comes from the fact that any member of the team can be killed at any time, and it seems as though no one has any problems doublecrossing anyone else. Also, one of the characters is a giant shark, so obviously, bonus points.

Superboy #1,2,3,4 - I've never been much of a Superman fan, and I didn't jump aboard when he was "killed" way back when, so I'm not too familiar with the history here. However, Scott Lobdell has made it very easy for a non-fan to pick up the book and feel right at home.

The gist of this book is that this incarnation of Superboy is a powerful telekinetic clone created in an underground lab. His DNA is a combination of that taken from Superman, and at least one other person who is still a mystery. (If it turns out to be Lex Luthor, I'm going to be quite disappointed...)

Anyway, this Superboy has been bred to be an attack dog by some super-secret government agency, and he manages to break loose of his containment and starts to explore both his powers and his identity. This in itself wouldn't be all that interesting, except for the fact that he seems to be quite lacking in the morals department and comes off as a bit of an anti-hero. Thumbs up so far, and I've added this one to my regular pull list.

Blue Beetle #5 - This book is about a Hispanic boy who finds a damaged bio weapon and inadvertently bonds himself to it. The weapon tries to assert control of the boy's body, but he fights back and the two of them have to work together to overcome various super-assassins who are sent to recover the technology now inside of him.

I'm going to be completely honest here... the writing isn't that great, and the art is pretty decent, but it's nothing outstanding or particularly memorable. However, I've got a massive weak spot for stories about bio weapons. Don't ask me why, I don't know, but it's a concept that has always fascinated me and it's the only reason I'm reading this book.

In related bio weapon news, I've heard whispers that XO Manowar is being prepped for a relaunch. I had great affection for that book back in the day, so let's hope that rumor pans out.

Invincible #87 - The story of Invincible is too long to tell in any coherent way here at the blog, but the best way to sum it up is to say that it's about a half-alien boy raised on earth, and who eventually becomes the planet's most powerful hero. I realize that may sound incredibly familiar to anyone who's ever heard of Superman, but let me just say that Robert Kirkman’s writing has been funny, human, relatable, thrilling, and shocking. I've loved it since the first issue, and I still love it.

If you've never tried it, pick up the first trade paperback and see what you think. I'm betting you'll dig it.

Also, for no particular reason…. JEM and the Holograms!

TRULY OUTRAGEOUS!

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PR/NEWS/INFO

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Today, Capcom confirmed that Capcom Digital Collection will be available in North America on March 27, 2012, exclusively for Xbox 360.The collection will be available on a disc at retail for the first time for the value MSRP of $39.99.

The full list of games in the collection includes: 1942: Joint Strike, Bionic Commando® Rearmed 2, Final Fight™ Double Impact, Flock!, Rocketmen™: Axis of Evil including Rocketmen™: It Came From Uranus expansion, Super Puzzle Fighter® II Turbo HD Remix, Super Street Fighter® II Turbo HD Remix, Wolf of the Battlefield™: Commando 3. Each game preserves all the features, online functionality and Achievements from their download versions.

The ESRB ratings of the games in Capcom Digital Collection range from “E for Everyone” to “T for Teen.” For more information onCapcom® Digital Collection, please visit: http://www.capcom-unity.com

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CD Projekt RED will reveal all of the important facts regarding Xbox 360 version of The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings during the upcoming conference held in Copernicus Science Centre in Warsaw on the 26th of January.

The live stream from the conference will begin at 7 p.m. (GMT +1) on the 26th of January and will be available on the Witcher facebook fan page (facebook.com/thewitcher).

CD Projekt RED will be unveiling many exciting details about the game such as its release date, brand, new trailer, additional features coming to the console adaptation and many more.

"Witcher 2 on Xbox 360 is not just a simple port of a PC game, it’s an adaptation. Our newest game has been enhanced with many new features, and according to many specialists it’s one of the best looking games on Xbox 360 ever" – said Michał Nowakowski, Member of the board, CD Projekt RED S.A..

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Dreamfab and Tactile Entertainment today released the Lite version of their hit fish-flinging puzzle game, Saving Yello. Even after one million tactful players successfully saved Yello, Mathilda just won’t stop denying him the chance to breathe! Download the Lite version for iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch here: http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/saving-yello-lite/id492632414?mt=8

Saving Yello Lite gives potential Yello saviors who might not want to stay out of the water too long a taste of their rescue mission. It will include a selection of 10 levels from the Play Room, the first area, free of charge!

Haven’t saved Yello yet? Want to see how explosions, pins, and dynamite can save a fish? View the official trailer here: www.youtube.com/watch?v=w7-mW0XQNrg

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Tripwire Interactive and the Rising Storm team are proud to present you with a little something to whet your appetites for the forthcoming Rising Storm expansion to Red Orchestra 2: a teaser video showcasing the Iwo Jima level. This map features the beaches and tunnels of the heavily defended 'home island' with its iconic landmark, Mt Suribachi. This is the first map-specific material to be seen and hints at some of the goodies and new features coming in Rising Storm.

You can see the video on the Rising Storm Youtube channel: http://www.youtube.com/user/risingstormgame/videos

As you can see, with TWI’s support, this is a mod that is able to punch above its weight in terms of the quality of its crew. This is particularly so as RS has long been recruiting from the fertile gounds of the modding communities which grew up around TWI’s previous hits, Red Orchestra: Ostfront 1941-45 and Killing Floor. We do, however, still have openings for a couple more talented modellers to round off the ranks and applications can be made through the RS website.

And, as a little extra, we are now inviting applications for beta testers, so we have a team ready for when the beta testing starts: http://www.risingstormgame.com/beta-tester-application - so head on over!

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WHAT:

QuakeCon® is the ultimate video game festival and party. QuakeCon is open to the public and attendance is FREE thanks to the support of id® Software and Bethesda Softworks®, the QuakeCon volunteer staff, and the 2012 event sponsors and exhibitors.

WHEN:

QuakeCon will take place August 2 – 5, 2012.

WHERE:

The Hilton Anatole Hotel in Dallas, Texas.

You can make reservations at the hotel by calling: 1-800- Hiltons or 1-800-445-8667 . Special room rate of $154 per night when you reference QuakeCon 2012!

WHY:

QuakeCon will once again host North America's largest BYOC (Bring-Your-Own-Computer) LAN party, with thousands of gamers hooking their systems up to play on a world-class network.

QuakeCon offers nonstop fun and entertainment for those that don't bring their own computers. Bethesda Softworks will offer the first chance anywhere for gamers to get their hands on upcoming titles, and the world's leading technology companies will be on hand to demonstrate their latest hardware and software. Every day of QuakeCon is packed with contests, entertainment, announcements, panel discussions, and parties!

Every year QuakeCon hosts a diverse line-up of companies showcasing the industry's most influential games, hardware and services. Last year's exhibitors and sponsors included Alienware, Ventrilo, at&t, Intel, nVIDIA, PNY, Fatal1ty Gaming Gear, Air Force Reserve, Cooler Master, Diamond Multimedia, inWin, Plantronics, Bethesda Softworks and many others. For more information visit http://www.quakecon.org/.

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Today, Ubisoft® unveiled the Mediterranean Traveler Map Pack, all-new downloadable content for Assassin’s Creed® Revelations for the Xbox 360® video game and entertainment system from Microsoft, PlayStation®3 computer entertainment system and Windows PC.

The Mediterranean Traveler Map Pack enriches the Assassin’s Creed Revelations multiplayer experience with features that include:

• All-new multiplayer maps to maneuver through: Jerusalem, Constantinople and Dyers

• Fan-favorite Italian Renaissance maps from Assassin’s Creed® Brotherhood to revisit: Firenze (Florence), San Donato and Siena

• All-new Trophies and Achievements to earn

The addition of six multiplayer maps introduces new gameplay opportunities through each map’s varied terrain, perches and hideouts. The new collection of Trophies and Achievements will allow players to try their hand at kills and escapes that are as impressive as they are effective.

The Mediterranean Traveler Map Pack is available for download at a price of 800 Microsoft Points on Xbox LIVE® Marketplace for Xbox 360 and $9.99 on PlayStation®Network and Windows PC. For more information on Assassin’s Creed Revelations, please visit: assassinscreed.com and facebook.com/assassinscreed

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Beloved Pinkalicious™ Story Comes to Life in GameMill Entertainment’s Silverlicious™ Game for Nintendo DS™ March 2012

GameMill Entertainment, an independent publisher of entertaining mass-market video games, announced today its plans to release Silverlicious™ for the Nintendo DS™ hand-held system, a fun-filled exploration video game based on the Silverlicious™ story from the best-selling Pinkalicious™ children’s book series. Silverlicious the game is set to hit store shelves this March.

Following the enchanting storyline of Silverlicious™ written and illustrated by Victoria Kann, Silverlicious the game lets players set out on an adventure as Pinkalicious who has lost her ability to taste anything sweet. Help Pinkalicious regain her sweet tooth as you practice kindness, good manners and helping others in need. Unlock magical rewards including butterflies, sparkle rides and fireworks, as you explore the beautiful lands and meet new friends. Along the way you’ll learn that true sweetness comes from much more than cupcakes and cookies. Whether playing alone or with others, Silverlicious the game creates an imaginative and fun way to drive home the importance of kindness and manners.

Additional Silverlicious In-Game Features:

Collectables: Dress up Pinkalicious in three different costumes from a beautiful dress to fairy catching gear; accessorize her outfits with over 20 collectible accessories!

Meet Fun Friends: Explore across holiday-themed neighborhoods and meet new friends like Carlos Cupid, Edgar the Easter bunny, Easter chicks and more!

Holiday-Themed Neighborhoods: Twirl, glide and dance in three holiday favorite lands including Very Valentine’s, Easter Excitement and Christmas Caroling.

Positive Messages: All modes and gameplay focus on the importance of practicing kindness and good manners, like using “please” and “thank you” to increase the sweetness meter.

Rewards: Gain special rewards and bonus items for performing acts of kindness!

Developed by First Playable, Silverlicious for Nintendo DS is rated “E” for Everyone by the ESRB. For additional information about GameMill’s line of products, please visit: http://www.game-mill.com/.

Yakuza 3, Preorders, and DLC in Mass Effect Action Figures.

2012-01-22T21:45:00.000-08:00

Games: Although there are some must-reviews coming down the pipe pretty soon, the industry is more or less in a big lull right now, and that's perfectly okay with me. I've really been enjoying knocking games out of my backlog, and the latest one up at bat is Sega’s Yakuza 3 (PS3).

Straight up, I love Yakuza. Love it. It's got some of the best writing and characterization in the history of videogames, and it’s so damned mature in the truest sense of the word (most of the time, anyway) that there's really nothing else out there like it for me. Having started Yakuza 3, I was trying to remember exactly why it was I let myself get two games behind in the series, and being honest, there's really no excuse. I am now mad at me.

I'm not sure if I'm going to review it since I suspect my review schedule is going to fill up rather quickly, but I may do some sort of feature or retrospective... the series is so criminally overlooked by critics and players alike that I feel a responsibility to help get the word out. (Also, for info on the upcoming fifth game in the series, scroll down to today's PR section.)

More to come.

Games: Portables-wise, I've put money down on a Vita (WiFi version) and reserved Army Corps of Hell as my first game. After having spent a brief period of time with a unit at the most recent PAX and being pretty impressed, I know that it's a sexy piece of kit. I've also really enjoyed my PSP despite its many tribulations -- it really does have quite a few excellent games on it, and it's never gotten the respect I think it deserves.

(Although to be fair, Sony shoulders most of the blame for the catastrophic mishandling of the system, yo.)

Anyway, I may be a bit of a Pollyanna here, but I'm hoping that Sony has learned their lesson from past mistakes and will get the Vita into the proper position. Job number one? Games, games, games and more games. Job number two? Get some goddamned advertising out there. The system is nearly here, and I haven't seen a peep about it anywhere except for some hands-on previews from the usual media outlets. Job number three? Games.

In other portable news, I just started Aliens: Infestation on the DS.

I wasn't able to put much time into it, but I'm looking forward to doing so. I'm really intrigued by the reported ‘perma-death’ of the player’s squad members and how faithful the game will end up being. It took me a long time to find a copy in a brick-and-mortar, so this one has been on my radar for quite a while.

Games: I've been on the fence about buying Mass Effect 3 (day one) ever since being burned with the worst game of 2011, Dragon Age 2, but I finally decided to go for it. I may be feeling like the world's biggest sucker if BioWare doesn't get their act together, but ME1 is still one of my favorite games of all time and despite the lackluster performance of ME2, I am hoping against hope that the end of the trilogy will restore the series to greatness and deliver the kind of experience that I want.

Regardless of how it turns out, I definitely plan on reviewing it, and make no mistake, if it's not up to snuff, I won't be shy about saying so.

While on the subject of Mass Effect, I just learned from @PeterSkerritt (who you're already following, right?) that the action figures based on the game will each come bundled with some sort of mystery DLC, and apparently the only way to get these unknown things is by purchasing these figures. Personally, I think this is pretty cheesy and extremely aggravating to the completist in me, but it's pretty clear that DLC is here to stay. I doubt this will hardly be the last time we see some unusual cross-promotion of this sort.

I don't plan on buying any of these figures because I really don't think they look that great, but in case you're interested, you can check them out at Big Bad Toy Store. I've done tons of business with BBTS over the last ten years, and they are an outstanding online retailer. They’ve got a pretty incredible selection of stuff, too.

My opinion on these particular figures aside, BBTS gets my highest possible recommendation.

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PR/NEWS/INFO

NIS America is happy to announce that Hyperdimension Neptunia mk2 ships out on February 28, 2012 in North America, and February 24, 2012 in Europe!

Hyperdimension Neptunia mk2 is the sequel to the popular RPG Hyperdimension Neptunia, in which you control personifications (humanoids) of videogame consoles with the objective of protecting the world of Gamindustri. In Hyperdimension Neptunia mk2, the four heroines are the younger sisters of the CPUs (Console Patron Units) from Hyperdimension Neptunia. Once again, fans can indulge in the mysteries and adventures found within Gamindustri!

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Yakuza™: Dead Souls, this next iteration of the iconic Japanese series, is set in the infamous red light district of Tokyo, which is under attack from hordes of zombies. The game features gunplay for the first time in the Yakuza™ series, where everything from pistols, machine guns and rocket launchers can be employed against the zombie invasion. Players will not only face armies of the undead and incredibly powerful mutants, but a treacherous Japanese underworld that is just as merciless. Playing through the eyes of four of the most infamous characters of the series, witness allegiances shift quickly and the line between friend and foe lost. With all the depth and story of a Yakuzatitle, plus the addition of exciting shoot-outs and previously unplayable characters Ryuji Goda and Goro Majima, Yakuza: Dead Souls is worth dying for.

For more information please visit www.sega.com/yakuza/.

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The Fallout: New Vegas Ultimate Edition is coming.
This complete package, which includes the full version of Fallout: New Vegas as well as the Dead Money, Honest Hearts, Old World Blues andLonesome Road add-on packs, allows you to experience everything that New Vegas has to offer. To sweeten the pot, you’ll be armed with the latest cache of unique weapons, ammo types and recipes from the most recent add-on packs Courier’s Stash and Gun Runners Arsenal.

Fallout: New Vegas Ultimate Edition will be available in retail stores across North America on February 7th 2012 and throughout Europe on February 10th.

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Dungeon Fighter Live: Fall of Hendon Myre Coming to Xbox LIVE Arcade

NEXON Korea Corporation today unveiled a new promotional trailer of “Dungeon Fighter LIVE: Fall of Hendon Myre,” an Xbox LIVE Arcade version of the popular “Dungeon & Fighter” (“Dungeon Fighter Online in North America) PC game. “Dungeon Fighter LIVE: Fall of Hendon Myre” will be published by Microsoft Studios and is set to launch later this year. The game will be available via Xbox LIVE Arcade. “Dungeon Fighter LIVE: Fall of Hendon Myre” will provide the same familiar control system as the original game, but will be playable at 720P resolution.

To view the new trailer, please visit: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6nwB12MQR3k

“Dungeon & Fighter” is a 2-D massively multiplayer online role playing game (MMORPG) for the PC that currently has more than 300 million registered users worldwide and has a maximum concurrent user record of 2.6 million users playing at once in China.

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Independent developer Strange Loop Games, in collaboration with indiePub, today announced plans to release its groundbreaking liquid physics puzzle game Vessel on PC March 1, through digital distribution platforms including Steam andStrangeLoopGames.com. A finalist in both the 13th Annual Independent Game Festival and the 2010 Indie Game Challenge, Vessel allows players to solve puzzles by bringing to life physically-simulated liquid (water, lava, glowing goo, chemicals and more) and animating it into living machines called Fluros.

In Vessel, players take on the role of Arkwright, a renowned inventor whose inventions - living liquid creatures known as Fluros - have gone awry, turning on their users and disrupting machinery throughout the world. To fix the flawed Fluros and restore order, players must create, manipulate and destroy a wide variety of Fluros and operate complex machinery to solve challenging puzzles. Vessel takes players on an exploratory adventure through four fascinating worlds, fixing the work sites where Fluros are employed and ultimately leading the player to complete Arkwright's next great invention, "The Accelerator."

Vessel will be available on Windows PC March 1 for $14.99 via Steam andStrangeLoopGames.com. Vessel will also be released on Xbox LIVE® Arcade and PlayStation®Network at a later date, to be announced.

For more information, please visit: http://www.strangeloopgames.com/

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There are 14 Adventure games on tap at the AGS Bake Sale - And you name your own price! This bundle of 14 brand new games has been cooked up for the sole purpose of raising money for the Child's Play Charity. Indie gaming has never tasted so good.

All of the games in the AGS Bake Sale are made with Adventure Game Studio -- the same engine behind retro-styled adventures like Gemini Rue and the Blackwell mysteries -- but the genres are all over the map! Here's a sampling:

9 Months In: a traditional adventure game about a pregnant woman in prison trying to clear her name before her child is born.

Indiana Rodent and the Raiders of the Lost Cheese: the biggest, most ambitious platform game ever made with AGS (quite an accomplishment considering the engine wasn't created with Mario-style platforming in mind!)

Escape The Barn: a classic "escape the room" puzzle game, suitable for all ages.

RAM Ghost: an adorable virtual house simulator in the style of Little Computer People. Adopt an abandoned, unloved bit of code floating in the endless sea of information and tend to it in the hopes that it will one day grow up to be a proper program.

Abner The Amazing: a fantasy adventure in which a boastful knight and his sidekick must find out who stole all the colors and left the world a grainy black and white.

Zombie Attack: a top-down retro arcade shooter that has you battling waves of monsters, accumulating power-ups, gathering weapons, and unlocking new characters -- all in a desperate attempt to stop the forces of evil from taking over the earth.

You can see the full list of bundled games on the AGS Bake Sale website: http://www.agsbakesale.com/
The Bake Sale bundle has "pay what you want" pricing, with one small caveat: a minimum of $1.50 is required to cover payment processing. Beyond this, any money donated goes straight to Child's Play to give sick kids a bit of gaming cheer. The developers themselves aren't making a cent -- they've pitched in their time, their talents, and their bandwidth to raise some money for a really good cause.

More info about the AGS Bake Sale and the people involved can be found on the AGS Blog: http://ags-ssh.blogspot.com/ SALE ENDS 2/29/12.

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The AbleGamers Foundation Awards the 2011 Accessible Mainstream Game of the Year Award.
Star Wars: the Old Republic earns the annual award for extreme accessibility in any mainstream game for BioWare and LucasArts

The AbleGamers Foundation is proud to announce BioWare’s Star Wars: the Old Republic is the winner of this year's Accessible Mainstream Game of the Year award. Each year, the AbleGamers Foundation looks at all of the mainstream video game titles released in a given year for the best use of accessibility in a game. Recipients must demonstrate excellence in accessibility by including options that allow for gamers with a wide range of disabilities to fully enjoy the game.

Many of the larger releases cut accessibility or place it on the list of things to be patched in later on down the road, but SWTOR took the time to add things like colorblind friendly options, full subtitles, and control options to let those with mobility impairments play the game as easy as possible.

“It's very rare to see a game of this caliber initially released with so many accessibility options,” said Mark Barlet, president of the AbleGamers Foundation. “BioWare did a wonderful job including a large number of options right at launch with the promise of including more as soon as possible.”

“We were absolutely inundated with requests to review Star Wars: the Old Republic before the game was even released,” said Steven Spohn, editor-in-chief of ablegamers.com. “Thousands of gamers regardless of their disability wanted to know if they would be able to play this highly anticipated game. Fortunately, we were able to report the majority of disabled gamers will be able to play SWTOR.”

Read the story on AbleGamers.com, our community website for gamers with disabilities.

PSP Minis, Kingdoms of Amalur, Dead Island's Ryder White, and TONS of news/info

2012-01-19T20:58:00.000-08:00

Games: I haven't been up on my download titles and the way I should lately, so I've been trying to rectify that over last week or two. I decided to comb through the PSP Minis store alphabetically and see what caught my eye. There’s a whole lot of junk in there, quite frankly, but there are some nice titles if you look hard enough.

Here are some real winners that I recommend:

Fighting Fantasy

Fighting Fantasy. I've mentioned these before, but they're worth mentioning again. Taken from the book series by Steve Jackson Games, both The Warlock of Firetop Mountain and The Talisman of Death are text adventures that the player reads through like a book. At certain junctures, you make a choice (do you go down the tunnel, or do you climb the ladder?) and a combat minigame pops up when enemies are encountered. For those of you who like to read, or those of you who grew up books like FF or Choose Your Own Adventure, these are absolute gold.

Jelly Pops

Jelly Pops. I'm a big fan of PomPom Games, and everything I’ve played from them has been a winner. This one is no exception, despite the completely absurd and nonsensical title. The player takes control of a snake-like creature and scrolls constantly from left to right. The snake’s life is constantly depleting, so it's a race against time to keep eating life-ups long enough to get a high score. Each level has different variations (color combos, avoid spikes, etc.) that give the game legs, and there are different faux-Achievements for each level that keep you coming back for more.

Babel: the King of the Blocks

Babel: the King of the Blocks. Kind of a three-in-one title, this game stars a little Egyptian kid who needs to earn his stripes by completing three different physics-based challenges. One is building a tower with differently-shaped blocks that fall similar to Tetris. The second has him piling blocks on a balancing board, and the third challenges him to stack blocks over a pit by carefully arranging them so that they support each other without falling. It might not sound that exciting from the description I've written, but I've found myself coming back to this one time and time again. The physics are spot-on, and it's easy to get a few quick levels in on the go.

I still have a few more letters to get through in the Minis store (I was going alphabetically, remember) so if I find any more worth talking about, I'll update.

Games: The demo for Kingdoms of Amalur: The Reckoning hit the 360 a few days ago, so I gave that a whirl. I've been hearing from some sources in the know (also known as @finalmacstorm) that this was one to watch for, and after having gone through the demo, that info seems to have panned out.

It's a little hard to describe (and of course the final version will have features that the demo couldn't cover) but it's best described as a third-person action game combined with dungeon crawling loot elements and some quests/open areas that are vaguely Skyrim-Lite-ish-ish.

From what I played, my gut is telling me that this one will be kind of a straightforward grinder with a whole bunch of magic and weapons to keep the player going until the end. Nothing wrong with that at all, and when you're in the right mood for it, this type of game (if my impression ends up being correct) can be fantastic. I will definitely be giving the full version a look-see.

Games: The Ryder White DLC for Dead Island was unexpectedly announced for launch on 1/31 (PS3) and 2/1 (360), $10 on both systems. I was fortunate enough to get my hands on an early copy and I've played through the entirety of it. Reviews are still under embargo, but I can share a little bit of information…

It's a one-player campaign that runs about 4-5 hours, give or take. It's much more focused and linear than the main game, and Ryder himself is at level 15 for purposes of stats and such. There is no skill tree or leveling up, so players will have to make the most of this military man as he is in order to get to the end of the content. PROTIP: The difficulty is much higher here than it is in the core game, but to balance that out, guns are about 42,000 times more useful. If you plan on checking this DLC out, REMEMBER THAT. (Props to sandwich eater @MitchyD for hipping me to that fact.)

I'm working on the review now, so you can look forward to that hitting GameCritics sometime after the embargo lifts.

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PR/NEWS/INFO

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CAPCOM CONFIRMS RESIDENT EVIL 6 – 11/20/12

Capcom®, a leading worldwide developer and publisher of video games, is very proud to announce thatResident Evil® 6 is in full development and scheduled for release on the Xbox 360 ® video game and entertainment system from Microsoft and PlayStation®3 computer entertainment system on November 20, 2012 with a Windows PC version to follow. Blending action and survival horror, this latest instalment in the multi-million selling franchise is the most ambitious, immersive and feature rich title of the series to date and promises to be the dramatic horror experience of the year. (see the trailer here, courtesy of IGN: http://ps3.ign.com/articles/121/1216867p1.html)

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Do you feel a chill on your neck? A feeling of anticipation as an unseen force inches closer to you? It could be that you know Resident Evil Revelations is right around the corner. Releasing in North America on February 7 for the Nintendo 3DS, Resident Evil Revelations returns to the classic survival horror style with infected enemies lurking in dark confined corridors. To help ease your anxiety before the full game is out, a downloadable demo is available beginning today from the Nintendo eShop. Download the demo now to experience the outstanding visuals and immersive gameplay.

Resident Evil Revelations introduces a brand new storyline, locations and characters to the series. Playable , characters include BSAA members Jill Valentine, Chris Redfield and Keith Lumley with their partners Parker Luciani, Jessica Sherawat and Quint Cetcham.

Jill Valentine and BSAA partner Parker Luciani have been sent to search for Chris Redfield, whose last known GPS data positions him as being onboard a supposedly abandoned cruise ship. Danger hides around every corner as they explore the confined space of the ship and face a menacing new enemy and virus: the T-Abyss.

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WARNER BROS. INTERACTIVE ENTERTAINMENT AND WIZARDS OF THE COAST UNVEIL DUNGEONS & DRAGONS ONLINE®: MENACE OF THE UNDERDARK™

Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment and Wizards of the Coast unveiled today Dungeons & Dragons Online®: Menace of the Underdark™, the first expansion to the award-winning free-to-play massively multiplayer online roleplaying game (MMORPG) developed by Turbine. Menace of the Underdark launches in the Summer of 2012 expanding for the first time into the beloved Forgotten Realms setting and the vast subterranean world of the Underdark, an increased level cap, the new Druid class and much more!

Players can download and play DDO Unlimited for free by visiting http://www.ddo.com/.

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Kalypso Announces "Tropico 4: Modern Times" Expansion

It's a new year, and with that, come new challenges - especially to the beloved El Presidente and his regime! Today we are pleased to announce a new expansion forTropico 4 for the Xbox 360® video game and entertainment system from Microsoft and Windows PC. The expansion, dubbed "Tropico 4: Modern Times," will offer players a huge variety of new challenges as El Presidente must modernize his island nation while battling sinister underground forces that threaten the future of Tropico itself in an extensive new single-player campaign. New buildings, fresh challenges, additional presidential edicts and more will all be part of Tropico 4: Modern Times when it is released in March of 2012.

Tropico 4: Modern Times will be priced at 1200 Microsoft Points / $19.99 USD when available.

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THE KING OF FIGHTERS XIII, NOW AN OFFICIAL EVO CHAMPIONSHIP SERIES 2012 TITLE, GETS TWO NEW DLC CHARACTERS: NESTS STYLE KYO AND MR. KARATE!

ATLUS today announced the availability of two new downloadable characters for THE KING OF FIGHTERS XIII, the latest in the legendary fighting franchise, for PlayStation®3 computer entertainment system (PS3™) and Xbox 360® video game and entertainment system from Microsoft.

Martial arts master Mr. Karate and NESTS Style Kyo, a fan favorite from the series' past, join Iori with the Power of Flames and 33 other fighters in a roster already bursting at the seams with some of the most popular characters in KOF history. Both fighters are now available for download from Xbox LIVE®Marketplace for 400 MS points. In the PlayStation®Store, Mr. Karate is available for $4.99 while NESTS Style Kyo will sell for a discounted $2.99 for a limited time in recognition of his tardy arrival on PlayStation®Network.

For more info, visit http://www.atlus.com/kofxiii.

***

Under Siege, the real time strategy game for PSN, is getting a massive update. We listened to our friends, fans, and critics and took all their opinions very seriously. So we went back and decided to improve Under Siege in every way possible. Today’s free 1.02 update adds the following features:

Upgrade to 4 players online and local

Antialiasing in both 720p and 1080p

Players can now continue the campaign from any level they have already finished, instead of only the last

The first few levels of the game were rebalanced to make the game more accessible to new players and the casual difficulty was completely redone

Cooperative maps are unlocked from the start

General performance improvements and shorter load times

News feed from the team directly on the Main Menu

***

DISNEY UNIVERSE STEPS INTO THE WILD WITH THE NEW “JUNGLE BOOK COSTUME PACK”

Disney Interactive Studios introduces new content to its latest video game, Disney Universe, with a downloadable “Jungle Book Costume Pack” that is available now. The “Jungle Book Costume Pack” is the latest installment of downloadable content available for Disney Universe on the Xbox LIVE® online entertainment network and the PlayStation®Network. Inspired by the stories about the feral child Mowgli from the book of the same name, players can suit up and battle friends in five brand new costumes including the independent man-cub, Mowgli; the ferocious tiger, Shere Khan; the rowdy King Louie; the nurturing black panther, Bagheera and the adorable Baby Elephant.

Individual costumes for the “Jungle Book Costume Pack” is available for download for 99 cents on PlayStation Network or for 80 Microsoft Points on Xbox LIVE. The complete set of costumes is also available for $2.99 on PlayStation Network or for 240 Microsoft Points on Xbox LIVE.

For additional details about Disney Universe, please visit http://www.disneyuniverse.com/ for more information.

***

ZACK ZERO, THE DEBUT GAME BY CROCODILE ENTERTAINMENT, IS NOW AVAILABLE ON PLAYSTATION®STORE

The worldwide launch for the PlayStation Network coincides with the release of the new trailer.

Crocodile Entertainment studios, founded by Carlos Abril and Alberto Moreno, creators of games like Premier Manager 97, present Zack Zero, their first development for PSN.

Experience a great action platform adventure with Zack Zero boasting incredible 3D graphics and the playability and enjoyment of the classic games. Help Zack Zero to save his beloved Marlene, captured by the evil Zulrog with the intention of exchanging her for the kelestinia, a unique material with the power to travel in time.

***

ROCK HITS 60’S-70’S DLC NOW AVAILABLE FOR UBISOFT’S ROCKSMITH

Songs included in this pack are “Space Oddity” by David Bowie, “Barracuda” by Heart, and “(Don’t Fear) The Reaper” by Blue Oyster Cult.

Each song will be available for individual purchase only for $2.99 on the Playstation network. Each song will be available for individual purchase for 240 Microsoft points on Xbox Live.

For more information on Rocksmith, please follow the game on Facebook at www.facebook.com/rocksmithgame, or visit http://www.rocksmith.com/.

***

Capcom announced SIX new characters have been introduced for Street Fighter X Tekken. From the Street Fighter corner… Balrog, Juri and Vega have now been confirmed, and from the Tekken side… Paul, Law and Xiaoyu will be playable in the game. Fight!

Street Fighter X Tekken delivers the ultimate tag team match up featuring iconic characters from each franchise, and one of the most robust character line-ups in fighting game history. With the addition of new gameplay mechanics, the acclaimed fighting engine from Street Fighter IV has been refined to suit the needs of both Street Fighter and Tekken players alike.

Street Fighter X Tekken for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 launches in North America on March 6, 2012 and March 9, 2012 in Europe. More details on the PlayStation Vita and PC versions will be announced soon.

***

Red 5 Studios and its CEO, Mark Kern, have launched a non-profit organization for gamers and developers to help fight against anti-industry legislation like SOPA and PIPA.

Introducing the League For Gamers (LFG). Founded by Red 5 Studios and Mark Kern through a $50,000 pledge, it was established as a true alternative to the Entertainment Software Association (ESA) and its subsidiary organization, the Video Game Voter’s Network (VGVN).

LFG is a gathering place for gamers, developers and industry supporters who want to stand against legislation that's detrimental to the games industry. Its first action was to petition the ESA to withdraw its support from PIPA, which still looms large in the senate: http://www.leagueforgamers.org/2012/01/17/help-lfg-join-now/

***

DUSTFORCE available Now On Steam for PC

Independent studio Hitbox Team is proud to announce the global release of Dustforce via the platform, Steam for $9.99 on PC (Windows). Dustforce earned an Honorable Mention for art at this years’ Independent Games Festival, and also took the Grand Prize at indiePub’s Independent Developer Competition in 2010.

Clean up the world with style! As an acrobatic janitor, you are an adept force against dust and disorder. Leap and dash off walls and ceilings, and deftly traverse 50 precarious environments varying in difficulty. Cleanse each level swiftly and thoroughly to achieve mastery in this 2D sweep-‘em-up platformer.

***

NEVER SAY NEVER: ATLUS TO BRING GROWLANSER: WAYFARER OF TIME FOR PSP SYSTEM, LONG-REQUESTED ENTRY IN CLASSIC RPG SERIES, TO NORTH AMERICA IN 2012

ATLUS today announced plans to bring Growlanser: Wayfarer of Time for PSP® (PlayStation®Portable) system, the enhanced and expanded remaster of the strategy RPG classic, to North America this summer in both retail and downloadable (via PlayStation®Network) formats.

Never before released outside of Japan, patient North American fans can look forward to a long list of improvements and additions over the original game: new characters, scenarios, and events are complemented by dramatically improved loading times and a message skip option that allows players to advance the story at a faster pace. Blending a sprawling 40+ hour narrative with over 40 different possible endings; deep tactical RPG mechanics; the character designs of the legendary Satoshi Urushihara; and a host of enhancements over the original release, Growlanser: Wayfarer of Time continues the proud ATLUS tradition of epic adventures set in breathtaking worlds and gives PSP system owners something to look forward to in 2012.

ATLUS also revealed that while the PSP system version's many anime cutscenes would be fully voiced, the remainder of the game would not include Japanese or English voice work. The Japanese track could not be included due to licensing restrictions, while the sheer scope of the game's script -- expanded and fleshed out over and above the original PlayStation®2 system release and already one of the largest localization projects in the publisher's two decade history -- was prohibitive to the prospects of a new English voice track.

Growlanser: Wayfarer of Time for PSP system is currently scheduled for release this summer. For more info, please visit http://www.atlus.com/growlanserpsp.

Five Reasons You Should Write For Free

2012-01-17T00:00:00.000-08:00

Writing: So for the last couple of months (and especially over the last few days) there's been a resurgence of “no one should ever write for free, ever, never never” among freelance games writers and paid career professionals.

As someone who takes games writing very seriously and who's also worked as a mostly-unpaid-but-not-always reviewer for the last twelve years, I wanted to take a few minutes and share my thoughts on the subject.

Now, I think the goal for pretty much everyone out there is to get rich by hanging out with cool people and playing games all day, and there's absolutely nothing wrong with that. It is, after all, The Dream. I also agree that if a site is large enough and successful enough to pay for their normal content, then they absolutely should. That's not in question.

However, the available number of opportunities for reviewers and writers out there is a fraction of a fraction of the number of people who want those gigs. There's just too much supply and not enough demand, so unless there's some kind of worldwide moratorium, people who want to write for free (and who do so) are always going to be around.

Instead of being browbeaten by the people who've worked hard enough (and who maybe got lucky enough) to make it as a paid pro, here are five reasons why I think writing for free may not be quite as awful for your karma as kicking puppies or drowning kittens.

You’re a newcomer.

It's a little silly to expect someone who's just starting out (and probably still in their late teens) to have earned the skills and experience necessary to be a good writer. The likelihood of such a person being a great writer? Even lower. Why would anyone want to pay such a person, and how can such a person honestly even expect to get paid?

I've been a freelancer in a non-games field for over sixteen years, and in my other profession, it's not only expected that newcomers work for free -- it's often required as a way to earn the knowledge and experience necessary to perform their jobs well. There are volunteer opportunities, mentorships, and a wealth of work-related activities that can help someone improve to the point at which they can call themselves a competent professional and start looking for a paycheck. I don't see any reason why games writers should be different.

Networking, baby.

When I started out as a freelancer in my non-gaming career, I got my first breaks thanks to people I had met during volunteer opportunities and from instructors at my college. They knew me, they knew what I could do, and they opened some doors that lead to getting paid work. Even with that leg up, it was about two years or so before I actually met enough people and made enough contacts to support myself independently. If I’d tried to go paid-only out of the gate, I would have starved! Literally!

When it comes to games writing, it's no different. The best way to get gigs and assignments is to know somebody. That's the absolute truth, and anyone who denies it is trying to pull the wool over your eyes. Writing for free (again, for sites that can’t afford to pay, or as an internship, etc.) will help anyone start building their own network of contacts and resources. You meet the right people, shake their hands, make the right friends... and of course, prove over and over again that you are reliable and can produce. Then, before you know it, all sorts of paid opportunities present themselves that would never be offered to Random Games Wannabe off the street. This is How It Works.

Smaller sites need content to become bigger sites.

With the exception of some lucky individuals who manage to procure a pile of venture capital and go big from the start, I think the norm for a lot of websites out there is to begin as a volunteer operation with the hope of growing and becoming a success. If every writer demands to get paid, then how will these no-income startups ever get a chance to become paying destination sites? You reap what you sow, after all. Many organizations (gaming or non-gaming) have started as personal grassroots efforts, and then gone on to become larger, more established, and more financially stable. Then… they cut checks!

There are also some sites out there that are not-for-profit from the start, and use their position as a way to shield themselves from the financial influence of publishers and paid advertising. They might be rare, but they're out there. Volunteers are crucial either way.

You do it for yourself.

Most of the freelancers I know are not exactly what you'd call rich people. Fortunately, most don't seem to have many financial obligations. On the other hand, they often don't have children, houses, or even health care. It's a bit of a precarious situation to be in, and it isn't exactly the most stable base upon which to build a future.

For people who want certain things out of life, it's far easier to get a job that offers better compensation, more opportunity, and more stability while keeping games writing as a passion that they partake in on the side. Such a person should have no qualms about writing for free if it's something they enjoy. Additionally, by writing for free, they are leaving a paid opportunity open elsewhere for people who actually need that source of income.

You are crazy.

Let's say that you've got a fire in your heart to write about some subject that no editor on the planet would pay money for; some subject so esoteric and arcane that your reading audience would likely number in the single digits. Or, maybe your point of view is so contrary to the prevailing opinion that people laugh off your pitch or simply delete it and never reply.

Sometimes these can't-win projects turn into labors of love that can only blossom when published among kindred spirits, open-minded editorial staff, and most likely, websites with empty bank accounts. You may not get paid for such work, but sometimes simply sharing it with the world is reward enough -- especially when no one but you and that one weird-looking guy over there thinks it's worth a cent.

So there you have it, five good reasons why someone might want to write for free.

Now, with all that said, I do want to reiterate that just because it's okay to write for free sometimes, doesn't mean that it's all right to be taken advantage of.

Although there is no clear-cut way to know which sites are technically "big enough" to pay for content and which aren't, new writers looking to get paid should ask around and do some homework before agreeing to start producing content for people. Know who you're going to be working with, and know what you’re getting into.

If everything clicks, then have fun, improve your skills (and if it's your goal) work towards getting that paycheck.

*****************************************

PR/NEWS/INFO

NinjaBee Letting Fans Pick the Next Keflings DLC!

Ever play a game and wish you could tell the developer what they should add as DLC? Well, now you can. Indie game developer NinjaBee has teamed up with PlayXBLA.com, the official blog of Microsoft Studios’ Xbox Live Arcade, to bring its fans the opportunity to join in the development process and choose the next DLC for its hit XBLA city-building game, A World of Keflings! As part of the promotion, one lucky fan will win the chance to be ‘Kefling-ized’ and turned into a Kefling character that will appear in the game!

Fans can choose to vote for one of three simple themes – Graveyard, Candy or Pirate. The winning theme will be taken and built into a new kingdom that will be released as an add-on to A World of Keflings. The new themed kingdom will include a new environment, new characters, new storylines, new buildings, new resources and hours of additional gameplay.

***

Derek Paxton has posted a new developer diary on the Fallen Enchantress forums that breaks down the various factions in Fallen Enchantress, complete with the first new screenshots in a long while!

Fallen Enchantress is a completely redesigned, standalone fantasy strategy title in the Elemental universe from Stardock due out later this year. http://forums.elementalgame.com/415163

***

Deep Silver Announces Dead Island's Ryder White DLC Campaign

The Ryder White DLC campaign follows the story and perspective of the main game’s antagonist character and allows players to experience the events on Banoi through his eyes. Players will take on the role of Ryder White as a playable character in a single player campaign with several hours of gameplay as well as brand new weapon blueprints.

Developed by Techland, Dead Island combines first-person action with a heavy focus on melee combat, character development and customization of a vast array of weapons. The engaging survival-focused gameplay aspects are combined with a rich and immersive storyline in which a small group of people find themselves in a tropical paradise turned into total chaos and carnage after a mysterious zombie outbreak. Cut off from the rest of the world, the player’s only chance to survive is to fight to the death and find a way to escape from the island.

Dead Island’s Ryder White DLC will be available on January 31, 2012, for $9.99 on PlayStation®3 system and on February 1, 2012, for 800 MSP/$9.99 on Xbox LIVE Marketplace and Steam.

For more information, visit the official website: http://www.deadisland.com/

***

Gears 3, AMY, Cabela's Survival, and LOTS OF INFO!!!

2012-01-12T23:21:00.000-08:00

Games: The wife and I finished Gears 3 a couple of days ago, and I've got a review in the works. It's been a fairly difficult one to write since I focus more on the story and character aspects than about how many weapons are available in multiplayer modes, or how explosive the setpieces are.

I'm not quite sure how well it will go over since I think my reaction to the story (and especially the ending) are not typical... that's never stopped me before, though. We’ll see!

I also spent about three hours with the new XBLA title, AMY, and have submitted a review already. It's not exactly the smoking wreck that everyone says it is... well, I mean, it is a smoking wreck but it's a very strange one because the biggest offense it commits is that it feels as though it was developed a decade ago and only just recently discovered in some lost vault or archive. I really can't imagine how anyone could have greenlit a game that feels so outdated and atavistic. I mean, it's as though the developers were living in a cave on some remote, isolated mountaintop and haven't played anything since the PS1 days.

In any event, it's a real shame that the game went south because I think the premise is strong and I would have been quite interested to see the concepts go in a different direction. Unfortunately, that didn't happen, and under no circumstances am I suggesting anybody should pay for it. DO NOT RECOMMEND.

After AMY, I took @KayinAmoh’s advice and spent some time with Cabela’s Survival: Shadows of Katmai on 360. You may not believe it, but the game is completely awesome.

No, seriously. This is not a joke. It's awesome.

Basically, it's Uncharted at the core, except that the story moves at a breakneck pace and the developers have taken the liberty to approach the title with tongue firmly in cheek. There are so many goofy things that happen that it's utterly brilliant; it's so absurd that it's pure genius.

After crashing his plane in the remote Alaskan wilderness, the main character must rescue his passenger and her mysterious cargo. Along the way, he scales mountains like Spider-Man, kills a nature preserve’s worth of wolves, dogsleds like an F1 driver, stuffs a woman inside a moose to save her life Empire Strikes Back style, travels with a magical teleporting husky, finds the cabin of someone who could be a stand-in for a retired Solid Snake, collects vials of medicine as large as his own body and shoots a bunch of cougars and bears RIGHT IN THE GODDAMN HEART.

I don't see how anybody can not love this game. I haven't finished it yet, but from what I've seen so far, this looks like a total RECOMMEND.

My good friend @ChrisGreen87 tackles the question of what it means to be Batman in his latest blog post. It's an interesting read and examines the merits of constructing Arkham City in open-world fashion.

You can take a look and see what he's got to say right here.

If you're a regular reader of this blog you may remember that a little while ago, I was considering including PR releases and general games info at the bottom of my posts. I asked you, my readers for feedback, and I didn't get anyone who thought that sounded like a bad idea, so tonight will be the first night that I'll try this out...

Everything below is basically cut and pasted verbatim from the numerous press releases I get every day. I'm not endorsing any of the games or products below, I'm simply passing along word for those of you who may be interested.

If you don't want to be subjected to a whole lot of information overload, feel free to stop reading now. Also, if you’ve got a minute, drop me a line and let me know whether you actually like seeing this stuff, or if you'd rather have me not include it.

Thanks!

****************************

PR/Games Info

FALLOUT® MMO RIGHTS RESTORED TO BETHESDA SOFTWORKS® IN INTERPLAY LITIGATION

All Fallout® Intellectual Property Rights Belong Exclusively to Bethesda

Under the terms of the settlement, the license granted to Interplay to develop the Fallout MMO is null and void, and all rights granted to Interplay to develop a Fallout MMO revert back to Bethesda, effective immediately. Interplay has no ongoing right to use the Fallout brand or any Fallout intellectual property for any game development. ZeniMax will pay Interplay $2 million as consideration in the settlement, each party will bear its own costs of the litigation, and Bethesda will continue to own all Fallout intellectual property rights. Interplay will be permitted to continue to sell the original Fallout ®Tactics, Fallout® and Fallout® 2 PC games through December 2013, after which time all rights to market those games revert to and become the sole property of Bethesda. Under the original agreement pursuant to which Bethesda had acquired the Fallout property, Interplay was granted certain merchandising rights to sell those original Fallout games, but those merchandising rights will now expire on December 31, 2013.

***

Feeling angry? Having a bad day? Then unleash that rage with the official demo for Asura’s Wrath, available on PlayStation Network and Xbox LIVE in North America.

Introducing a brand new style of game, players will control Asura in a blend of action and cinematic sequences, delivering a fresh take on the genre. Download the demo and face off against distinct enemies in two episodes from the game. Meet the planetary sized boss Wyzen and Asura’s old mentor Augus on this journey for revenge against each of the eight deities who betrayed Asura 12,000 years ago. Execute a mix of range attacks and visceral close quarters action to fill Asura’s ‘Burst Gauge,’ unleashing the full forces of his rage and devastation.

***

The Demon Slayer Beckons: Third and final character class rounds out the massive MapleStory Legends update

The third and final character class to complete MapleStory’s Legends update has finally arrived in the form of the Demon Slayer, who joins Mercedes and the Canonneer to round out Maple World’s elite roster. As a former underling of the Black Mage, the Demon Slayer came to his senses and discovered where the real truth in battle resides, within the Resistance movement.

In his quest to free Edelstein and atone for his evil past, the Demon Slayer fights with a mighty one-handed mace and defends himself with the Demon Aegis, a shield made exclusively for this formidable class. His unique energy gauge, known as Demon Fury, charges as the Demon Slayer defeats deadly monsters. Through his Demon Impact skill, the Slayer’s dormant power is instantly activated to target multiple enemies at once, becoming more amplified as the power is used against boss monsters.

***

Kalypso Media is pleased to announce that Jagged Alliance: Back in Action, the next installment in the much loved Jagged Alliance series of tactical role-playing games, will arrive in North American retail outlets on February 14, 2012. Jagged Alliance: Back in Action puts players in control of a private military corporation that has been hired to depose an evil dictator, who has taken over the tropical island of Arulco. Sector-by-sector, inch-by-inch, the player’s squads of mercenaries will recapture the island using their wits, willpower, tactical skills, and of course – plenty of guns.

***

An Open Letter to the Gaming Community from CD Projekt RED

In early December, an article was published about a law firm acting on behalf of CD Projekt RED, contacting individuals who had downloaded The Witcher 2 illegally and seeking financial compensation for copyright infringement. The news about our decision to combat piracy directly, instead of with DRM, spread quickly and with it came a number of concerns from the community. Repeatedly, gamers just like you have said that our methods might wrongly accuse people who have never violated our copyright and expressed serious concern about our actions.

Being part of a community is a give-and-take process. We only succeed because you have faith in us, and we have worked hard over the years to build up that trust. We were sorry to see that many gamers felt that our actions didn't respect the faith that they have put into CD Projekt RED. Our fans always have been and remain our greatest concern, and we pride ourselves on the fact that you all know that we listen to you and take your opinions to heart. While we are confident that no one who legally owns one of our games has been required to compensate us for copyright infringement, we value our fans, our supporters, and our community too highly to take the chance that we might ever falsely accuse even one individual.

So we've decided that we will immediately cease identifying and contacting pirates.

Let's make this clear: we don't support piracy. It hurts us, the developers. It hurts the industry as a whole. Though we are staunch opponents of DRM because we don't believe it has any effect on reducing piracy, we still do not condone copying games illegally. We're doing our part to keep our relationship with you, our gaming audience, a positive one. We've heard your concerns, listened to your voices, and we're responding to them. But you need to help us and do your part: don't be indifferent to piracy. If you see a friend playing an illegal copy of a game--any game--tell your friend that they're undermining the possible success of the developer who created the very game that they are enjoying. Unless you support the developers who make the games you play, unless you pay for those games, we won't be able to produce new excellent titles for you.

Keep on playing,

Marcin Iwinski
co-founder CD Projekt RED

***

Yesterday, EA announced not only that the Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning demo is coming January 17th, but also that the Reckoning team is teaming up with Mass Effect 3 to offer players a cross promotion of exclusive in-game items for both full games. For more info please visit reckoningthegame.com.

***

Today we’re announcing the complete list of Versus Modes for Resident Evil: Operation Raccoon City. Players will be able to experience online 4 vs. 4 team battles playing as either a member of the Umbrella Security Service (USS) or US Spec Ops. Check out all the details on the modes below and visit the press site to download the brand new gameplay trailer.

Take on the role of the bad guys with USS members Vector, Beltway, Lupo, Four-Eyes, Spectre or Bertha. Alternatively play as the good guys and experience the horrors of Raccoon City as Tweed, Dee-ay, Harley, Willow, Shona or Party Girl, members of the US Spec Ops that we revealed earlier this week in the Triple Impact trailer. Meet the US Spec Ops characters in person by downloading their new character art on the press site. Breaking the conventions of traditional third person shooters, players will not only have to compete against their team’s opposing squad but tackle a third unpredictable force as zombies and B.O.W.s add to the mix.

In Team Deathmatch, battle for the most kills in brutal triple threat chaos that leaves players never knowing what’s behind them, an element that could only exist in the twisted Resident Evil universe. Ensure that samples of the G-virus are returned safely to their base in Biohazardmode while fighting off all the competing forces at play in Raccoon City. Try to survive the horror just a little bit longer while waiting for rescue in Survivors mode. There’s limited space on board a helicopter so fight off the opposition and survive the hordes of hungry zombies, risking infection if they get too close. Try to make it out of Raccoon City alive!

Of course there’s also the previously announced Heroes Mode which allows fans to play as one of their favorite Resident Evil characters,including Leon S. Kennedy, Hunk or Jill Valentine.

Resident Evil: Operation Raccoon City will be available for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 on March 20 in North America.

***

If you haven't heard yet, the website for the BlazBlue Revolution (BlueRevo) has gone live last month.

BlazBlue Revolution, or BlueRevo for short, is the biggest open invitation BlazBlue team tournament in Japan. Participants from all over Japan are gathering their strongest allies and heading to their local qualifier sites for a chance to battle it out in the BlueRevo Finals. And now participants from North America have also been invited for a piece of the action!

Here in the United States, a single team of three will be chosen to participate in the prestigious BlueRevo Finals in Japan on March 24th, 2012. Aksys Games will provide full airfare and hotel accommodations to the selected players; all you need to do is prove that your team is the strongest in all of North America at the BlazBlue Revolution US Finals on Februrary 25th, 2012 in Los Angeles, CA.

Ready to battle it out? Check out the Events or Rules section for more info on BlueRevo at www.blazbluerevolution.com. Updates about the preliminary events held all over the US and the US finals will come next week!

***

Tripwire Interactive are pleased to announce the release of the modding and map making tools for Red Orchestra 2, available free to everyone that owns Red Orchestra 2. While the limited functionality preview versions of the SDK have been available to select modders for a while, this release now makes the full capabilities of the Mod SDK available to everyone. Users can now make and publish everything from simple mods and mutators, through custom maps and on to full total conversion mods.

Modders and map makers have been hard at work with the pre-release SDK and several great maps and mods are already coming together. For a preview of what is to come, check out these three total conversion mods already in production for Red Orchestra 2:

Rising Storm - http://www.risingstormgame.com/

In Country Vietnam - http://www.incountrymod.com/

Iron Europe - http://www.ironeuropegame.com/

And to check out all of the latest custom maps, mods, and content head on over to the modding section of the Tripwire Interactive forums: http://forums.tripwireinteractive.com/forumdisplay.php?f=83

The Mod SDK is available to download from Steam, completely free to anyone that owns Red Orchestra 2. Just go to the tools tab in Steam and install the SDK. And if you don't already own Red Orchestra 2 head on over to the store page now (http://store.steampowered.com/app/35450/) and get it so you can join the fun and make the level, mod, or game mode of your dreams!

The GameCritics Podcast Is In Search Of A New Host!

2012-01-10T08:44:00.000-08:00

…So you wanna host a podcast?

At the end of episode 67, the announcement was made that after more than three years and what will be 70 amazing episodes, the GameCritics Podcast is losing our inspirational host and guiding light, Timothy J. Spaeth

While he will live on in our hearts (and live on in general) he will be missed.

the end of an era

However, the show isn't over. As is often said, the end of one thing marks the beginning of the next, and that holds true here as well.

GameCritics.com is now in search of a new host to take up the reins and lead our established cast of Mike, Chi, Richard and (me) in a new direction.

Have you been a podcast host in the past and need a new show to call home?

If not… are you someone who's always dreamed of hosting a podcast?

If not… do you at least speak English and want to talk on the Internet?

If the answer to any of those questions is ‘YES’, you're a fan of the show/familiar with our format, and you're willing to commit to making podcast magic twice a month, then we want to talk to you – And by the way, a Scottish accent is a plus!

If you think you've got what it takes to become the next host of the GameCritics podcast, send an audio clip or a link to your past work. If you’re a first-timer and don't have any past work, then send us a clip and show us what you’ve got. All samples should go to Podcast AT GameCritics Dot Com, and candidates will be contacted by GameCritics staff.

Opportunities like this don't come along every day, and this chance won't be available forever. Drop us a line, tell us who you are, and who knows... *you* could be the new emcee of the world-renowned, fan favorite GameCritics podcast!

Darksiders, Gears 3, Review Links, Infernal Republic and Thistle & Shamrock

2012-01-08T20:26:00.000-08:00

Family: I worked a lot of hours last week. The bills have to be paid and that's just a fact of life, but after putting in so much time away from home, I'd been looking forward to the weekend. The goal was to get in some quality time with the wife and son to make up for being away, but life (as usual) had other plans.

I got slammed with a nasty head cold about halfway through Friday, and I spent the entire weekend dragging myself around the house and feeling miserable. We didn't get out, didn't do anything particularly fun or enriching, and spent way too much time with YouTube and videos trying to get through the days.

Now, not only do I still feel sick, I feel guilty for phoning it in this weekend and being sick-dad. Blarg.

(...And if I owe you an email or some edits, they're delayed. Apologies!)

Games: Since I worked so many hours last week, I didn't have much time to game. As a result, I'm falling a little bit behind schedule... I had hoped to have been done with Darksiders by now, but I've still got a little bit to go.

At least, I hope it's a little bit. It's been a great game, but I'm ready for it to be over and this last area (Azrael’s dungeon) has been the least entertaining and most tedious of the lot. Still enjoying it, but I greatly respect a game that knows when it needs to be over, and for Darksiders, that time is now.

In other games news, I’m also near the end of Gears of War 3 and contemplating doing a review. I've been co-opping with my wife for the entire game (and also had a brief stint with @KayinAmoh as our third) and it's been fine, but I can't say that it's been especially exciting or memorable.

Epic played it extremely safe with this third installment, and while I'm sure "more of the same" is good for some people, it feels a bit too predictable and monotonous at times. The ham-handed attempts at drama have been nothing short of laughable as well, so while it's technically fine, it really lacks in the inspiration/freshness department.

This week at GameCritics, we had several new pieces go up.

> @RichardNaik’s Skyward Sword review

>@GC_Danny’s Serious Sam: BFE and NFS: The Run reviews

>State of Play from Brandon Bales, this time talking to Jonathan Blow

> My review of the Honest Hearts DLC for Fallout: New Vegas

…And a slew of other stuff. If you've got some time, I invite you to click on over and see what we've got cooking.

In one last bit of GameCritics news, we just recorded GC Podcast episode 67 last Saturday, so expect that to be posted on Tuesday, or so.

If you’re a fan of the show, you definitely won't want to miss this particular episode... we've got a huge announcement for the listeners towards the end. I can't say any more about it now, except that it's big, big news.

I'll have more details here at the blog after the show goes live.

Books: My very good friend and talented author Marshall Moore’s most recent book has just become available for preorder. Titled The Infernal Republic, it’s up at Amazon and at Barnes & Noble.

If you’re up for something a little off the beaten path, he’s a great one to check out. That cover art is pretty sweet, too.

Radio: I guess I'm a little late to the party on this, but I used to listen to a radio program on NPR called the Thistle & Shamrock, but my local station dropped it several years ago and I just assumed that the program ended. Earlier today I was doing a random search and came across the website, and I was quite surprised to see that it's still going strong! I feel like a real knucklehead for not knowing this earlier, but there you go.

If you have a taste for Celtic music like I do, click on over and you can hear the last three podcasts for free.

Layton's Lame, Darksiders Isn't, JC Brooks, and A Japanese Invasion!!!

2012-01-03T21:18:00.000-08:00

Games: Wrapped up Professor Layton and the Last Specter (DS) a couple days ago. I'm just finishing my formal review as we speak, but the bottom line is that it was a pretty big disappointment.

The most exciting scene from the game.

The Layton series has always had a few issues, but it's so damn charming that you can't help but fall in love with it. At least, I can’t. That euro-café music, the quirky puzzle-solving Professor, and those fantastical, reality-defying storylines are just too delicious, not to mention the sort of puzzles that you can spend hours (and brain cells) on. Sadly, the developers really whiff it this time around and missed the mark on a lot of these qualities.

Well, the café music is still good, but...

Long story short, the plot was an utter bore that completely lacked in mystery or excitement, and the puzzles (while still decent) weren't as sharp as they usually are. You can read more about it when my review goes up, but I'm going on record as saying that this is the weakest of the four Layton games so far.

Games: I'm getting close to the end of Darksiders (360) and I'm still a bit in shock about what a high-quality game it is. I really can't say enough nice things about what a pleasure it's been to play.

Not the most exciting scene in the game.

The graphics, the animation, the art direction... all of it quite strong. The combat engine is complex without being confusing or clunky, there's great variety in the puzzles, and the general tone of the post-apocalyptic world and various factions is top-notch. If I had to pick something to complain about, it does feel like some of the levels go on just a bit too long, but never to the point that I started losing interest or started thinking about quitting them.

The adventure is sailing right along and it's been big-time thumbs-up all the way. I've been warned by some people on Twitter that apparently there’s some late-game collect-a-thon that drags things out unnecessarily, but I haven't had it yet, and it would have to be pretty terrible to harsh the happy buzz I've got going. I will be doing a full review of this game after completion, so look for more on Darksiders the near future.

…Oh, and I'm sure everyone already knows, but Darksiders II is coming sometime in 2012, so if you're one of those people (like me) that likes to play a series in order, you’ve still got plenty of time to grab the first game and play through in its entirety before the next one arrives. If the sequel’s as good as the original (and you like good games) you might want to think about jumping on.

Music: I'm one of those weird people who still listens to the radio when driving in the car. I like to scan through different stations and just sort of be open to new things that catch my ear. I don't know of any better way to do this than just tuning into what's new, and it works for me.

A recent discovery was The Joy Formidable, and their album The Big Roar. That was a fantastic find that I listened to for several days in a row. Still love it. I happened upon another winner not too long ago, and if you like Soul or the classic Motown sound, then you’ll want to check out JC Brooks & the Uptown Sound.

Awesome.

I heard one song while on my way to work and it sounded exactly right to my ear, so I popped for the album, Want More, that night. I'm glad I did, because every single track on it is a winner. Check out I Got High and Baaadnews and see what you think. I'm not really a music critic nor do I claim to be, but if I had to give this album a number, it’d easily be a 9/10.

RECOMMENDED.

TV: My little boy still enjoys Dora the Explorer and the Wonder Pets, but he's starting to get into other sorts of shows… things with robots, lasers, and lots of fighting. The wife and I are regulating this content pretty closely, but one morning I was reminiscing about and I decided to pop in an Ultraman DVD.

Ultramaaaaaan!

I hadn’t watched the show in years so I had forgotten how much boring talk there was, but when Ultraman finally showed up, my little boy sprang to life and instantly went nuts -- in a good way.

Ki-Kay-EE-da-AAAA!!

That was some good bonding time, so I decided to show him some Red Baron and Kikaida, and they were big hits as well. Kikaida, especially… he runs around the house now, constantly asking me to do the Double Chop and to flip him into the air as if he’s somersaulting over Purple Starfish or Hakaida himself.

Red-o BarOn!

This stuff is mega-cheesy and as low-budget as it comes, but there is something undeniably magical about sitting down with a little boy to watch faked martial arts and chunky monsters made of rubber and foam. If you've got a little one and have fond memories of this stuff like I do, give it a shot... you may just keep the legacy alive for another generation.

Majora's Mask, American McGee's Alice, and Darksiders

2011-12-29T19:40:00.000-08:00

Games: The other day on Twitter, somehow or another the subject of Majora’s Mask came up between a couple of smart people. (No, I was not one of them.) It was an interesting discussion, but one that I couldn't really participate in because I've never finished the game, nor spent much time with it. Critically speaking, it's one of "those games" that is often cited as an example of X, Y or Z, and because it's so different from the other games in the Zelda series, there is apparently much to dissect in it.

Uh... No.

I did play the game back in the day when it was new, but it's been so long (released in 2000) that I couldn't remember much about it except that I had an intense dislike for it. The details of my experience were basically lost in the mists of time, so I thought it might be a good idea to revisit the game and see if my opinion of it had changed. If nothing else, I wanted to at least finish it so that I could speak intelligently on the subject next time it came up. Shortly afterward, I went online and downloaded Majora’s Mask to my Wii and fired it up.

About an hour later, I turned it off. I now remember why I dislike it. In a nutshell, Majora’s Mask is everything I can't stand in videogames condensed down into one tidy package.

The game starts out in a town filled with people to talk to, and I generally loathe talking to villagers. After talking to people, it's clear that everybody in town has one quest or another they need your help with, and I'm not generally a huge fan of sidequests. I’m also pretty tired of Zelda, so the overly-familiar cast of characters and music does not appeal to me. I don't like blindly searching for things, and the first two quests I got were telling me to go blindly search for things. My little fairy sidekick kept reminding me that we were on the clock, and I hate timed missions. Toss in other little odds and ends like the incredibly dated graphics (wow, crude 3D really doesn't age well, does it?) and the wonky controls from way back in the day when people could not manually move the camera, and I just don't see a way that I can get through the game without losing my mind.

In a perfect world, I would like to sit down and critically explore what it is that makes Majora’s Mask such a perennial topic of discussion, but I've got to be honest here... I can put up with a lot of stuff and my tolerance for getting through certain things is probably better than most, but when a game comes along that pushes every single button I have at the same time, I've got to call it quits.

Just can't do it. Sorry.

Games: Speaking of titles from the past, I just finished American McGee’s Alice, also from 2000. I didn't have a gaming PC at that time and I've never been a big fan of PC gaming anyway, so it has always been one of those titles that I wanted to get around to, but never really did. When I heard that it was a DLC pack-in with new copies of Madness Returns, it was pretty exciting news.

I just completed the review and will be submitting it for publication later tonight. It was an interesting experience, to be sure... for much of the time, playing was monstrously painful thanks to the crude level of technical production. Slippery slopes, jumps that require too much precision, and absolutely execrable combat were all sour elements that I could have done without. On the other hand, I think the general concept and game flow were better than what we got in the sequel. Alice doesn't have the same fetish for platform jumping that Madness Returns does, and it's about 60% shorter -- both great things in my book.

I'm glad that I played it and it was especially nice to be able to compare it to the sequel, but I can't honestly say that it was a positive experience overall, and I don't think that I would really recommend it for anything other than research purposes.

Games: With both of those moldy oldies off my plate, it was time to hit the backlog that I talked about in the last update... with a good number of votes and knowledge that a sequel is coming this year, I went with Darksiders and put about two hours into that so far.

I have to say, I just about fell out of my chair when I started it.

I saw the game in an alpha-ish date at PAX ’08 or maybe ‘09, and at the time, it looked like garbage. Don't get me wrong, I knew that it was nowhere near done, but it was damned hard to imagine that what I was seeing on the screen coming together into anything I’d be interested in.

What a difference some time and polish make!

The leap in quality between when I first saw it and what I was seeing on my TV screen at home was like night and day -- it was almost unrecognizably different, and in a good way! The animation was much smoother, the detail in the environments was a thousand times better, and just everything about it screams ‘high-quality’.

Like I said, I've barely started, but so far it's scratching my itch. I'm looking forward to putting some more time into it, and I'm still trying to get over the shock of how much better everything about it is. Part of that shock is definitely on me since I should have been more willing to give the game a chance, but at the same time, I guess that's one reason why most developers don't like to show their games when they’re so early in the production process...

Press: Quick question for my readers -- lately I've been toying with the idea of running PR announcements and news here at the bottom of each new update. I might randomly add a comment or two, but basically it would just be verbatim releases from publishers and press about upcoming games, events, and so forth. If I did, would that sort of information be of interest?

Let me know!

Culling the backlog...

2011-12-25T22:53:00.000-08:00

Happy Holidays and a pre-emptive Happy New Year to everyone who reads this blog. Whether you keep up with every post or if you only pop in once in a while, I appreciate the time you take to check out what I’ve got to say. Thank you muchly for stopping by, and thanks for supporting Drinking Coffeecola.

Games: So 2011's over. What's next?

At the moment, I've fulfilled all of my GameCritics obligations and I'm just coasting for a couple of weeks. Although it feels weird to not have fifteen projects burning at the same time, it's nice to take a quick breather from the hectic pace -- especially from all the madness that happens in the fourth quarter.

Personally, I'm not playing anything substantial at the moment; just a little of this, and a little of that. However, instead of starting up something big, it's usually around this time of year that I get the urge to go through my backlog and weed through the accumulated pile. I've got quite a bit of stuff stacked up, so I need to start deciding what I'm actually going to try to play, and what I’m never going to get around to. If nothing else, that "never" stack can stop collecting dust and be put to better use by being traded in for some credit towards a 3DS or a Vita…

(note: not my actual stack of games - just a dramatic re-enactment.)

Here's what's in the stack, not counting all of the XBL/PSN/WW downloads I haven't touched yet:

Wii:
A Boy and his Blob (shelved @ 30%)
Alice in Wonderland
Boom Blox (thinking about it makes my arm hurt…)
Broken Sword
Chocobo’s Dungeon
De Blob (didn’t like #2)
Endless Ocean 2
Madworld (shelved @ 80%)
Monster Lab
Munchables
No More Heroes 2
Punch-Out (shelved @ final boss, IIRC)
Red Steel 2
Safecracker
Super Mario Galaxy 2
Super Paper Mario
Tatsunoko vs Capcom

360:
Army of Two 2
Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts (shelved @ 25%)
Batman: Arkham City (shelved after 4-5 hours)
Bayonetta (started/quit three times, never finished)
Castlevania: Lords of Shadow (wife’s 20hr save was killed by a glitch, scared me off)
Child of Eden
Conan
Darksiders
Dead Space 2 (shelved @ 50%)
Earth Defense Force 2 (shelved @ 50%)
Eternal Sonata
Fracture
Gears of War 3 (waiting for a 2nd copy to co-op with the wife)
Halo Wars (shelved @ 50%)
LA Noire
Legendary
Metro 2033
Red Faction Armageddon (shelved @ 50%)
Sherlock Holmes vs. Jack the Ripper
Singularity
The First Templar (shelved @ 50%)
Velvet Assassin
Viva Pinata 2
Wolfenstein

PS3:
Resonance of Fate
Tekken 6
White Knight Chronicles (shelved after 4hrs)
Yakuza 3
Yakuza 4

PS2:
Bard’s Tale
Baroque
Disgaea 2
Jak & Daxter: Lost Frontier
Final Fantasy XII (shelved @ 40hrs)
Manhunt 2
Okami (the wife took 65-ish hrs to finish, didnt want to commit that much time)
Sakura Wars
Scarface
Silent Hill: Shattered Memories
Spy Fiction
Summoner 2

Sooooooooo…. I’ve definitely got a few ideas about which of these titles still hold interest for me and which don't, but I figured I would throw this list out to you, dear readers, and see if you have strong feelings about any of 'em, either positive or negative.

Are there some in this list I should absolutely get to? Are there some that I can toss aside without a second thought? If you've got any feedback either way, post a comment or hit me up on Twitter and let me know. The great purge hasn't begun, but the time is coming.

(Side note: I will weep tears of blood if/when we finally move to an e-only future and lose the abiliy to trade/sell games we don't want any more. Fizzical m3dia 4 lyfe, yo.)

Writing: Games talk aside, I'm a little ashamed to say that I did not meet my deadline for the edits that were due on my book this year.

I'm not trying to make excuses because I’m big believer in personal accountability, but with everything that was on my plate, it was just too easy to keep putting the book on the back burner and tell myself I’d get to it later. That's exactly what happened, and ‘later’ was a while ago… hopefully the publisher I had lined up will still be interested, and if they are, I'll probably take this time between now and February to buckle down and get it done.

Otherwise, I've got a screenplay that I'll be shopping around and I'm considering starting a collection of short stories. The idea of starting and completing a tale in less than a year is starting to look more and more appealing these days… we'll see, though. I'm trying to be much more realistic this year in terms of time management, so I think I will have to scale my expectations back accordingly.

The Top 10 of 2011

2011-12-23T02:52:00.000-08:00

Another year, another breakdown of the year's best games… according to me.

Before getting into what made the cut, I went back and looked at what I'd picked for 2010. At the start of last year's article, here's what I wrote:

Looking back, 2010 was an odd twelve months. Catching many players and critics by surprise, a large number of the most hotly-anticipated titles ended up being unexpectedly disappointing, leaving the top honors wide open for a number of lesser-known, smaller-budget projects. Unfortunately, while many of these smaller games displayed promise and creativity, most of them were flawed or uneven enough to give pause. The result? A year where (in my view, anyway) there really was no single runaway pick for the year's best.

So, if you took ‘2011’ and switched it out for ‘2010’, I think that paragraph would be just as applicable for me now as it was back then. Some people may disagree, but for my taste, a lot of the games walking away with top honors right now just weren't cutting it. Of course, your mileage may vary (and probably does) but for me, the ten titles below were the ones that left the best impression and were most deserving.

10> Two Worlds II. review

Although I'm sure the heads of Skyrim fans will explode after seeing that this game made my list and that one didn't, for me the difference was the ease and speed of play, the variety and humor in the quests, and the quality of the characters. Although it's rough around the edges, there were several great ideas implemented in the game's formula and there is definitely something to be said for an open-world RPG that doesn't feel like a slog to play. The combat was fast and easy to get a handle on, the upgrading and modifying was satisfying, and the writers had a sense of humor that I appreciated. It's not the biggest, deepest, or most polished out there, but it did everything just right enough and came together in a package that was easy to enjoy.

9> Deus Ex: Human Revolution. review

The original Deus Ex is one of my favorite games of all time, so I was quite excited to see the franchise revived after a long period of laying fallow. Although it had issues like the absurd energy system (I need more energy bars, stat!) and a strange fetish for tinting everything yellow, it was respectful of the source material and felt like an honest continuation of those same ideas. I also admit that I'm a sucker for stealthy play when it's done well, and popping up out of nowhere to subdue guards silently just never got old.

8>Escape Goat. review

I am definitely a fan of Ian Stocker’s work, and his latest didn't disappoint. I was already intrigued by the concept of a goat escaping from a magical prison, so it was a treat to see that the implementation was just as good as the idea. The quality and craftsmanship on display are superior to the vast majority of what pops up on the Xbox Live Indie channel, and the elegant mechanics clicked with me instantly. What do you get when you combine a barnyard animal, a wall-climbing mouse and a magic hat? A damned good puzzle game.

7>Insanely Twisted Shadow Planet. review

When brilliant artwork is married to a time-tested formula, the result can only be a great thing, and in this case, that proved entirely true. Although the core Metroidvania gameplay may seem overly-familiar at first, it's soon made evident that each area in the game was hand-crafted to present a constantly fresh series of puzzles, challenges and environments. Play progression was smooth and confident, there was absolutely zero filler from start to finish, and high-intensity multiplayer modes gave gamers a reason to keep coming back after their mission was complete.

6>Rochard. review

This physics-based action/platformer was quite a surprise. With very little buzz before release, it came out of nowhere and displayed a masterful level of pacing and production. Each puzzle to be solved used the game’s gravity gun in clever ways, constantly introducing new mechanics while building upon the previous ones. The decision to make the main character a portly, Southern mechanic with a colorful, down-home personality was a great change of pace from the usual ‘hero’ stereotype, and the integration of storytelling without interrupting gameplay was spot-on.

5>Fate/Extra. review

While it's true that the PSP didn't get many strong releases in 2011, this was not only a must-play portable, but one of the better games to be released for the system overall. The unique combination of Visual Novel and JRPG genres delivered an interesting story with sci-fi and historical elements, and one which was perfectly suited for pick-up-and-play sessions thanks to a compact design and discrete structure. The new spin on paper-rock-scissors for combat was brilliant, and it was always possible to feel as though progress was made regardless of how much time was put in. Also, it earns special kudos for having an ending which felt satisfying and appropriate for the story mode -- something that's entirely too rare these days.

4>Ghost Trick. guest review

This neo-detective story stars a main character who gets murdered in the game’s opening and then has one night as a disembodied spirit to figure out who killed him and why. It's an original, engaging premise that's matched by equally creative gameplay. In order to interact with the physical world, the character must possess inanimate objects to trigger them in various ways. Figuring out the solution to each puzzle is akin to putting the pieces of a Rube Goldberg machine into place and watching it click and clank in absurd, unexpected motions. It's bizarre... yet delightful. Toss in a cast of eccentric, memorable characters and a level of art and animation that's a sight to behold, and it earns its spot on this list quite handily.

3>Catherine. guest review

It's no secret that I like the unusual and the unorthodox, and both of those labels fit this game like a glove. At first glance, it seems like utter insanity to take a 3D Q*Bert update and combine it with a love triangle that tasks the player with deciding whether to live a calm, orderly life or one that's more chaotic and hedonistic. However, that's exactly what Atlus did, and I was hooked from the start. Thanks to some great writing, memorable characters, and gameplay that was engaging (and challenging) enough to keep interest high, no one who plays Catherine ever forgets it. It is literally like nothing else out there.

2>Mortal Kombat. review

For a fighting series that's been sketchy and irreverent at best (and a pile of absurd, smoking garbage at worst) I was blown away by the incredible step up in quality here. Not only was the gameplay totally dialed-in to a level that's never been seen in this franchise before, the story mode did something that few fighters ever do: it actually took the time to tell a story and fleshed out characters that players have never known very much about. It was, bar none, the best fighting game campaign mode I've ever seen, and the game certainly wasn't hurt by an insane amount of content in the single-player mode. Flawless victory.

1>Dead Island. review

Intense, visceral combat. An open world large enough to explore, yet one that never feels empty or pointless. Fantastic atmosphere and beautiful environments. "Realistic" quests that one could imagine doing if zombies were real. Dead Island offers all of this, and more. Although dozens of games cram the undead into various modes and one-offs where they make for good target practice, very few titles attempt to create a zombie apocalypse in the way often written about in books or shown in movies -- scavenging environments for necessities, establishing safe houses, finding medicine, and so on. Although it's not the perfect simulation I think zombie fans like myself hope for, it comes closer than any other game before it and does it in fine style. For me, Dead Island was the most enjoyable, most unforgettable experience in 2011, and one of the very few that I could not put down until I'd seen and done every single thing. Well done, Techland.

…And there you have it, my top ten of 2011.

Agree? Disagree? Post a comment at the bottom and let me know what you think.

Now, bring on 2012!

Indie Protest - Game Type by Mommy's Best Games

2011-12-22T02:41:00.000-08:00

Games: My good friend Nathan Fouts over at Mommy’s Best Games has just released a new project on the XBL Indie channel called Game Type. However, it's not exactly a game, although it sort of is...

Let me explain.

As any 360 user knows, Microsoft recently updated the dashboard. However, rather than revamping it for improved functionality and ease-of-use, it seems the aim was to barrage the player with incessant multimedia advertising while kicking games squarely into second-class-citizen status.

For developers who create projects primarily available via the Indie channel, burying games deep under a mess of menus is bad enough. Adding insult to injury, Indies are buried even further in an unintuitive submenu titled ‘Game Type.’ With the average gamer barely aware of Indies to start with, deep-sixing Indies like this is basically a death sentence to their sales.

As a way of voicing his protest against this assault on XBLI developers’ ability to earn a living, Nathan’s Game Type is both commentary and criticism in videogame form that puts the absurdity of Microsoft's new design front and center. There's actually a fun little shooter included with the critique as well, but the challenge (just like on the real dashboard) is finding it.

Unfortunately, in order for anyone to see this commentary or to play the shooter hidden within, players have to be able to be able to find the Indie channel in the first place. Given what a complete morass of stupidity the dashboard is, this is a tall order.

To check out what Nathan’s done, here's what you do:

1>Jump onto the 360’s dashboard
2>Scroll over to Games
3>Pick Games Marketplace
4>Go to Games
5>Select Game Type
6>Choose Indie Games

If you manage to find it, I guarantee you'll get a laugh out of it -- and besides, anything calling attention to the new dashboard’s shortcomings is a worthwhile effort.

Podcast: The @GameCritics end-of-the-year podcast is now up! You can check it out RIGHT HERE and see what the entire crew had to say about 2011. We also select the site’s game of the year, and I'm pretty sure that it will catch quite a few of you by surprise.

If you've got a few minutes, give a listen and let us know what you think.

New Vegas, 2011 Wrapups, Sweet Tooth, Buffy and Angel

2011-12-20T00:40:00.000-08:00

Games: So, it's been a while since I've posted anything. Honestly, I blame Fallout: New Vegas. In fact, I blame it for anything else I haven't gotten done over the last couple of weeks. It's a pretty fantastic title.

My full review of the game just went up RIGHT HERE, so you can see what I had to say about it. While you're at it, feel free to compare and contrast my view with @SparkyClarkson’s writeup.

Also, for those who are interested, I will be posting full reviews for all of the DLC add-ons. At the moment, the first two are done, I'm halfway finished with the third, and I'm still playing the last. It shouldn't be too much longer now.

In other news, the @GameCritics crew finished recording our year-end wrapup looking back at 2011. It was a pretty chunky show, probably coming in somewhere near the three-hour mark.

Although I think it's a good episode overall, it's a shame that we ran out of time at the end. After we had voted to choose our overall game of the year, we had some pretty good discussion popping up that I would have loved to have gotten deeper into. Unfortunately, we had to cut it short, but I look forward to the reactions and comments... I think our pick will be a surprising one to a lot of people. In fact, I think it was fairly surprising to a few members of our own podcast!

While on the subject of wrapups, I'll be doing my own personal top ten shortly. I've played everything I felt like I needed to and the podcast is done, so all that's left is to sit down and actually do the writing. Soon, soon soon.

Comics: I've been reading a fair number of comics lately, some good, some not so good, but I wanted to give a special call-out to Jeff Lemire’s Sweet Tooth from DC’s Vertigo line. I remember flipping through the first issue when it came out, but it didn't grab me at the time. I think it was mostly the artwork that turned me off, but my local Comic Shop Guy (Hi Scott!) talked me into picking up the first collection despite my misgivings and he was right -- it was a fantastic read.

The gist of the story is that a strange virus appears and causes babies to be born as half-human, half-animal. Much of "normal" humanity dies off, and the world is left in a pretty sorry post-apocalyptic state. The main character is an innocent half-deer boy who's been raised in isolation by his father. Upon the father's death, he’s left to his own devices and soon becomes entangled in the mess of humanity that exists outside his secluded forest.

There is much, much more to it than that, but all that really needs to be said is that it's a gut-wrenching, emotional read that resonated with me on multiple levels. Although it's clear to see certain influences in the works, the writing is strong and speaks accurately about the human condition. If I had to compare it to anything, I think the closest parallel would be The Walking Dead in terms of bleak tone and focus on characters, not to mention the collapse of society.

In my book, that's pretty high praise.

TV: The wife and I have still been working our way through Buffy, and just finished Season Three yesterday.

Sorry I almost killed you with a book!

The season started off in a bizarre, everybody-hates-Buffy sort of way, but it ended well. I have to admit, I wanted to see a bit of a different ending for Faith, but I'm okay with where it ended up at the moment. If she never comes back on the show, that would be fine with me. However, I have a sneaking suspicion that we haven't seen the last of her.

Ugh. Not a fan.

We then moved on to Season Four. I was a little disappointed to see the same sort of Buffy-on-her-own thing done again, similar to the beginning of Season Three, but at least this time it didn't take several episodes before the gang got back together. Looking forward to see what trouble our heroine gets into now that she's in college.

After the first episode of BS4, we watched the first episode of Angel to find out what became of him. It was a little on the cheesy side for me, but it was nice to see Cordelia. I've heard that it spirals off into madness by the end of its run, but so far it seems like a good enough start and we're happy to see where it goes. It's a bit on the formulaic side, perhaps, but I'm reserving judgment for now.

Happy Reviews and Unhappy People - a Rant

2011-12-13T01:18:00.000-08:00

Fair warning: I'm in the mood to rant tonight, and I’ve got something to get off my chest.

By the way, this rant isn’t about any one person, game or review in particular. If you think it’s about you, IT’S NOT.

(...and if you still think it’s about you, it’s still not.)

Also, if you're easily angered or not in the mood for a strong, non-Politically Correct opinion, do yourself a favor and click elsewhere... it'll be better for the both of us.

Now that we're at the tail end of 2011, I've got to say that not only has it been a somewhat uninspiring year, it's also ending on a strange note. Recently, I've seen a number of reviews, commentaries, and editorials that seem to suggest that a writer’s “feeling" on a game is an acceptable way to review something.

From my perspective, it's not.

If you ask me what a review should be, it should absolutely include feelings, thoughts, and emotions that are stirred in the player. However, it needs to also include other factors, such as various aspects of design, how bug-free the technical side is, and how it functions overall. On top of that, a good critic will take into account a game’s content in terms of how it relates to others that have come before it. Does the game in question bring something new to the table? Are there innovations or new ideas?

While I have never believed that a reviewer should (or can) ever be objective, I do think that it's possible to temper a personal level of enjoyment with all of the other factors that go into a critical, comprehensive review. If a piece of writing or a final judgment is passed on the game with the overwhelming reasoning for the score being "feeling", then that's not a review, it's being a fan.

To illustrate the point, my game of the year for 2010 (and I repeat for emphasis, my game of THE YEAR) was Deadly Premonition. I absolutely fell in love with it game despite a wealth of problems. However, main character Francis York Morgan was one of the best-written I've ever seen, the story was mature and absolutely intriguing, and the approach by the game's director was frustrating, challenging to my expectations, and genius-level brilliant, all at the same time. What score did I give it in my review? 7.5

If I had gone with my feelings leading the way, I could easily imagine giving it an 11/10 or something equally hyperbolic and absurd. I didn't. Instead, I took note of how much it won me over in terms of emotional connection and intellectual engagement, and then contrasted that with the obvious issues in production, control, combat, and so on. I never stopped saying positive things about the game to anyone who asked, and when given the chance, I was happy to give it the highest honors available to me. In terms of the actual review, I had to be as fair as possible and there was just no getting around the fact that it had warts.

Am I a fan of Deadly Premonition? Absolutely, but taking that particular ball and running with it wouldn't have led to anything resembling what I consider to be a good review. When it comes to a number of games that have been released in the fourth quarter, I can't help but feel as though the concept of "being fair" as I just described has been tossed out the window in service to the giddy excitement that accompanies cracking open the plastic on a blockbuster game and diving in two weeks before retail release.

The biggest and most common example is (obviously) Skyrim, and the staggering number of perfect scores it's racked up - currently thirty 100’s on MetaCritic, on the 360 alone.

Is it a terrible game? No, not at all, but I certainly don't think it's deserving of top marks for a number of reasons. However, a number of paeans to its freedom and beauty beg to differ. I don't dispute the fact that people enjoy the game, but it seems to me as though quite a lot has been overlooked in order to praise it to the degree that most people do. The same can be said of Saints Row: The Third, Arkham City, Skyward Sword, Uncharted 3, and others. Although they don't enjoy the same number of perfect scores (though Zelda comes close) I saw many instances of "fun" being the gist, and short shrift given to potential problems.

I mean, don’t get me wrong – most games are meant to be enjoyed. That's not in dispute. I guess I'm just surprised at how far the tide has shifted towards giving an utterly personal and subjective feeling so much weight while strongly downplaying areas that can legitimately be seen as in need of improvement. Besides that, I can't recall another time in recent memory where people have been so defensive and quick to take offense if a comment gets made about it.

Let’s be perfectly frank here -- how many times have you read a review of a certain game that was dripping with praise, only to hear that reviewer change his or her tune a month, two months, or six months afterwards?

It happens all... the... time.

Questioning a flood of glowing reviews for any title is par for the course as far as I'm concerned, but something about this particular year felt... different. It's almost as though people became insecure about their opinions and positions, and the level of touchiness just shot through the roof. The comments I got were nastier, friends were less friendly, and people who usually seem like calm heads got hot.

It’s been some bad juju lately, man.

Anyway, if you ask me, I'm glad that 2011 is nearly over. Between some surprisingly underwhelming games and the level of sensitivity and raw nerves we’re getting here at the end, and I'm more than ready to get started on 2012. Hopefully tossing out the old calendar and putting up a new one will welcome in some fresh energy, and the gaming sphere can hit the reset button and start over.

New Vegas, FFXIII-2, A New Podcast, Containment, and Xenoblade Preorders

2011-12-08T02:08:00.000-08:00

Games: Completed Fallout: New Vegas the other day, and although it got a little buggier than I would have preferred towards the end, I still pushed on and rolled credits in support of the New California Republic.

The final segments were fairly satisfying, and the ending was excellent... I really admire how the developers took the time to cap off nearly everything I did while wandering in the wasteland. Getting a big wrap-up of every loose end like that is a pretty sweet thing, indeed. Working on the review right now, look for that before too long.

Prior to beating the game, I was a little concerned about whether or not I'd be able to keep playing after credits rolled, and I got conflicting answers from everyone I spoke to. Even the message boards over at GameFAQs weren't entirely clear, so let me just settle it right now for anyone who wants to know:

You CAN NOT keep playing after the game ends.

Again, for clarity: CAN NOT.

If you intend to start up some of the DLC or if there are still some quests you’d like to get to, then make sure you have a save before the end sequence. The game gives you a big "hold on!" warning prior to passing the point of no return, so pay attention and you'll be fine.

Speaking of the New Vegas DLC, I decided to pop for Dead Money and started that up tonight. I was only able to play for a short while, but I was very intrigued by what I saw -- it's a complete shift from the main game in terms of tone and mood, being very dark, ominous, and oppressive. Looking forward to putting some more time in on it tomorrow.

The new GameCritics Podcast is now available for your listening pleasure... CLICK HERE to see what Tim, Richard, Mike and yours truly have to say about a wide range of topics including Skyrim, Arkham City, Fate/Extra, Corpse Party, and a new segment we like to call Query The Logician.

Sharp gamer lady Anne Lee (@ApricotSushi) has penned a new article explaining why she's NOT excited for Final Fantasy XIII-2… it's a well-written, personal piece, although I daresay it may have the opposite effect of what she intended. Decide for yourself RIGHT HERE.

The excellent gentlemen over at Bootsnake Games have been working on Containment: The Zombie Puzzler for a while, and the iPad/iPad2 version is now available. I've played a good chunk of that version and the upcoming PC version as well, and I can't wait to get my hands on the full-meal deal.

In the few seconds before you click over and purchase it for yourself, you can read my hands-on preview RIGHT HERE, and here’s a YouTube VIDEO to see what it looks like in action. In addition, here's a brief press release:

Action Puzzle Games are awesome. We all love them, and we've played all of them. Why should you care about Containment: The Zombie Puzzler? Well for starters, we ditched the gems. We also got rid of match-three. Containment takes a new approach to the genre, bringing a frantic real-time pace and adding the kind of personality and graphics not normally found in a puzzler.

Containment: The Zombie Puzzler tasks players with surrounding zombies with like-colored survivors. Once surrounded, the zombies are destroyed in a spray of blood and gunfire, rewarding the player with items to be used in the fight. Take too long, and the zombies attack, infecting your survivors and turning them over to the zombie hordes!

Trust me -- Containment is a far cry from Bejeweled, and it's awesome. Don't miss it.

If you were anywhere near the Internet over the last few months, then it's pretty likely that you heard importers or players in other countries talking endlessly about Xenoblade Chronicles (Wii) and how utterly fabulous it is. You probably also heard that Nintendo was not releasing it here in the United States.

That's changed.

Apparently, Nintendo will be releasing a very limited amount of the game here in the United States next April, but only through GameStop -- or, at least, that's the most recent information. If you're interested in putting a pre-order in, you can CLICK HERE and get that done.

Based on the current word, there is a strong possibility that the game will pull a Panzer Dragoon Saga, meaning that the number of available copies will be quite small, they will sell out immediately, people who got one will constantly talk about how fantastic it is, and eBay copies will skyrocket in price.

Personally, I have no idea whether or not the game lives up to its reputation.

I haven't had the opportunity to lay hands on it and this is not an endorsement from me, but everyone who's played it speaks of the game in reverent terms, so it's got to be at least pretty good, I'm assuming. I mean, I've fallen out of love with the JRPG in large part, but I keep hearing time and again that this is the game that revitalizes it, so i'm open to seeing what it's all about.

It remains to be seen whether the game delivers or if this is another case of 'too much hype', but if you're at all curious and have no desire to break the bank on what will inevitably be a collector's item later on, then be aware that the time to pre-order is NOW.

Dear Diary...

2011-12-04T23:41:00.000-08:00

Dear Diary…

Wow, what an adventure today.

Things started off innocently enough, but that just goes to show that you never know how things are going to happen.

So crazy!

Anyway, I was getting ready to go hang out at the mall when I responded to a comment someone made to me on Twitter. It was about [THE GAME THAT SHALL NOT BE NAMED] and I said a few things about it, mostly that I felt many reviewers had gone too soft on the game and that such reviews were shameful.

Now Diary, you know that I use the word ‘shameful’ pretty commonly in discussions and it’s never a big deal.

Different story today, though!

I guess some people have a strong reaction to that word, and it seemed like they were really upset by it. Who knew, right? Well, I apologized and didn't mean it in the way some people took it, so I guess I'm going to have to move ‘shameful’ over to my “only when I'm super-serious" list.

My bad!

Afterwards though, I was really getting the vibe that it was wrong of me to have an opinion on reviewers or their reviews. I mean, people said I was the kind of troll that hates someone just because their favorite game didn't score 9.9736549, and I thought that was pretty strange.

I mean, everybody is a person, and people have opinions. If you hear some music on the radio that you think is awful, don't you criticize that band? If you order a sandwich at a restaurant and it's too disgusting to eat, don't you criticize the chef? I mean, you don't sit there and go, "Well, maybe the chef thinks this nasty sandwich tastes good, so who am I to say?"

Of course you don't, so why would that be any different for reviews or reviewers?

(And by the way, I know you know this already, but I never mentioned any review or reviewer specifically... it was just the whole “game reviews aren’t critical enough in general" thing. You know, the usual.)

There were even a few comments that were really kinda saying that I was trying to act like I was totally perfect and better than everybody else just because I had a strong opinion. I mean, what, is no one ever allowed to criticize anything, ever? Critics don't get to disagree or criticize other critics? Is there some sort of rule that I didn't hear about? Did I miss that day in class?

I don't know about that.

Anyway, mom's downstairs and she's yelling that dinner is ready, so I better go… I'll come back after I eat and fill you in on what I heard about Suzy Robbins in the cafeteria!!

XOXOXO

Loads O' Links...

2011-12-02T20:53:00.000-08:00

Games: So, I'm still playing Fallout: New Vegas.

I like this game. I like it a lot. In fact, the more I see of it, the more I like it. I might even go so far as to say that it could possibly be the best role-playing game I've ever spent time with.

Let me explain.

Can't we just talk this out? Oh, We can??

I'm not talking about the best combat system, the best skill trees, the best graphics, or any of that mechanical stuff. It all has its place, but when I'm playing a Western-style RPG, I want to actually be able to play a role. I want to make choices. I want to determine what sort of character I am, and have the world react. I want to feel like things that I'm doing matter.

In this respect, I honestly can't think of any game that accomplishes this better than New Vegas.

(…And although I like to play White Hat, I've seen some pretty despicable opportunities for those of you who like to play Black. That in itself is a fantastic choice to have.)

Besides the level of freedom, I'm just amazed at the quality of the writing and characterization. For example, I am hard-pressed to think of any game (RPG or not) that addresses homosexuality in such a mature and accepting fashion.

Love this guy.

Several characters in the game are homosexual, including a number that will join the player on their journey. In addition, I've encountered several NPCs who are gay, lesbian, or otherwise, and the game treats them as normal people worthy of respect. Their sexuality isn't played up for laughs or ridiculed… they're just people you meet, and no one in the game blinks twice about it.

(For more on this, here's a great piece by @JimSterling, and another great one from Miss Haitch at The Border House. Thanks to my Twitter folks who shared the links… You know who you are.)

This handling of the subject material is absolutely amazing, but apart from that I could also go on about the unbelievable variety of quests, the insane level of detail, and a dozen other topics worthy of celebration, but I plan on doing a full Second Opinion over at GameCritics, so I'll save some of my praise for that.

Although I'm not finished with the game, I've already seen more than enough to put it near the absolute top of the RPG genre, and I've just been endlessly impressed since starting. If you read this blog regularly or you follow my reviews, you know that I have no fear in criticizing a game that deserves it. If you put stock in my negative opinions, then put some stock in this positive one – Fallout: New Vegas isn't perfect, but it is a masterpiece.

In light of this, it's tragic that Bethesda released the game in such a buggy, unpolished state. (And yes, I know that Obsidian developed it, but the publisher is the one who's ultimately responsible for when the game is released.)

I heard several horror stories about how unplayable it was when it hit shelves, and although I did purchase a copy, I intentionally held off playing it all this time until I was sure that it had been patched. I know for a fact that other people did the same or just skipped the game altogether, and that is an absolute shame… if New Vegas had been in a polished, finished state last year, it would have been a monster contender for top honors.

Games: My good friend and colleague @RichardNaik has written a great blog post about Skyrim’s “racism” and why it doesn't ring true. He raises some good points, and it's certainly worth the read. Check it out right here. Don't mess with an Argonian, yo.

Games: Speaking of Skyrim, here are another couple of posts about it.

The first is by Nick Simberg (@TheGameLlama) and he explains why Bethesda’s latest opus is actually a Facebook game in disguise. I don't think he's entirely correct, but I think he is mostly correct and I think he's pretty brave for bringing up a particular viewpoint that I've heard a few people voice but not put into written words.

Friend meeeeeee.....

On the other side of the spectrum, Andrew Groen (@ScienceGroen) says that Skyrim is the sort of game that requires a specific kind of player participation, and that the traditional quest structure isn't really the main focus of play. Personally, I don't agree much with what he says, but Andrew is a brilliant guy and he does a good job of explaining his point. If nothing else, I think it's a good contrast with Simberg’s piece.

Podcast: Recently, I was on Big Red Potion’s end-of-the-year game show episode along with my GameCritics cohorts, @RichardNaik and @ChiKongLui. JoeDeLia (@Slamvanderhuge) also joined in, and the whole thing was hosted by the one and only Sinan Kubba. (@Shoinan.) If you'd like to hear us stumble and flounder as we prove ourselves unable to answer some extremely hard questions, you can give a listen right here.

Games: Just in time for the holidays, AbleGamers has released their shopping guide which lists both hardware and software for people who may require certain accommodations. AND HEY LOOK, New Vegas is one of their top three recommendations… wow, another point of praise. Anyway, you can click right here and take a look at what gets the thumbs up. You may even want to bookmark it for future reference.

Games: Finally, I am a huge fan of Dead Island and in case you are too, you might be interested in knowing that there's a big contest going on and there are some sweet prizes up for grabs. Click on over, take a look, and who knows... you may be dodging the undead on your own two-week tropical vacation!

If this is Christmas, I'll take the lump of coal instead...

If you win, send me a postcard and the blueprints for the Shock Mod.

Oops...

2011-12-01T02:26:00.000-08:00

I was supposed to post some stuff tonight, but I ended up playing New Vegas all night instead.

Oops.

Look for an update tomorrow, although I still need to check out two more casinos on the strip... and I've got a meeting with the Legion... and I haven't even met the Brotherhood of Steel yet... Oh, and I still gotta rescue that trooper from Vault 22... Those bounties? Still need collecting... And... And... And...

This game is not only great, it's HUGE. I weep for my productivity...

Zelda's Wacky Controls and Fallout: New Vegas

2011-11-29T02:54:00.000-08:00

Games: Game designer and low-around good guy Robert Boyd (@WereZomPire) has a nice little piece over at Gamasutra about the latest Zelda, Skyward Sword, and why the complicated controls may be more of a hindrance than helping to create an immersive experience. You can check it out here.

Games: After Skyrim bored me to the point that I did not care to continue, I felt a little disappointed... it wasn't so much that I had built my hopes up for that particular game, but now that I've played almost everything I needed to play before the end of 2011 (for review purposes) I had been looking forward to closing out the year with a bigger game -- something I could coast with for a while during my break from the hectic pace of “must review XYZ.”

I was still in the mood for a Western-style RPG, and a quick look at my backlog reminded me that I still had an unopened copy of Fallout: New Vegas that I picked up but never played thanks to the widely reported of glitches and bugs that plagued it. I got it for a song and I figured that if I waited long enough, the game would eventually be patched and playable. I did and it is, so I figured there was no time like the present to jump into it.

To give a little backstory, Fallout 3 is one of my favorite games of all time... you can even check the list on the right side of this page and see for yourself. It had a few problems and there were some things that I didn't care for, but overall it was a fantastic experience and if memory serves, I believe I put well over a hundred hours into it and never felt bored or tired of it until I got to some of the rushjob DLC additions. (Mothership Zeta is just awful…)

In any case, I wasn't expecting much from New Vegas except a lesser, repeat performance of Fallout 3. Now that I've finally started it, I've got to say that I've been loving every minute of it. I may even like it better than the previous game...

At this point I'm about twenty hours into the adventure and quite impressed. Of course, it's not as visually beautiful as the majestic trees and mountains of Skyrim’s Nord paradise, but the quality of the writing, quests, and general game design more than make up for a slightly lower graphic standard.

For example, I got to the town of Novac and was a little surprised at how well all of the various quest threads in and around the area came together to show how much care and effort the developers put into it. I don't want to spoil it for those of you who haven't played it yet, but I will say that if you take the time to talk to everyone in the town and follow up on all of the leads, just about everything there dovetails quite nicely, and in an intricate fashion.

My good buddy, ED-E. Don't piss him off.

I'm also quite pleased with the new emphasis on followers/party members in New Vegas. Although companions were present in Fallout 3, they didn't come into play until well into the adventure, and I rarely used them since I was too afraid of losing them permanently.

This time around, they see plenty of action and add a great deal of strength to my party thanks to the fact that they only get "knocked out" during battles and revive soon afterwards if you're not playing on Hardcore mode. I've only found four so far, but they're all interesting in their own way and each has much more personality and dialogue than the drones in Skyrim. They've all got their own questlines as well, which I think is just fantastic. In following one of those personal quests, I ended up triggering a series of events that altered my relationship to the entire world. It seems clear that these are just not just token additions, but substantial pieces of the New Vegas experience.

I can already tell that I'm still in the early days of the game -- I've got six or eight "main" quests open in addition to the critical path, and the game keeps "notes" of incidental or tertiary quests that are also available for completion. If the rest of New Vegas is as content-rich and as surprisingly varied as what I've already seen, then I'm guessing I'll be quite busy (and happy) in this wasteland for some time to come...

Gamer Pay, Kellee Santiago, 'Rimming Wrong, and Thanks.

2011-11-25T23:15:00.000-08:00

Games: My good friend and fellow GameCritics staffer Brandon Bales (he of the Lonely Gamer fame) has just come out with a solo video project, and it's pretty fantastic. Click HERE to see Brandon interview Kellee Santiago of THATGAMECOMPANY (fl0w, Flower) and tune in next week for part two. This is State of Play, and it's great, great stuff.

Games: My other good friend Andrew Groen (@ScienceGroen on Twitter) has just put out one of the most valuable games-related articles I've ever read -- how much money do reviewers and games writers actually make?

If you're thinking about a full-time career playing games and getting paid to write about it, definitely take the time to read this piece over at GamesRadar and see if the reality lives up to your expectations. My hat is off to Andrew for doing this piece… everybody I know has asked this question at one time or another, and very rarely have I ever heard a definite answer.

Games: So I've formally bailed on Skyrim. However, after my initial post about being tired of it after fifteen hours, I was inundated with comments from people on Twitter and elsewhere regarding my lack of enthusiasm for it.

How can this possibly be boring? Yet... It is.

There were two big themes that kept popping up from fans of the game. The first was that I was "doing it wrong" by spending time on quests and not spending more time wandering through the landscape, discovering things as I went.

The second point people made was that I "needed to see XYZ quest”, meaning that the good stuff was elsewhere and I had been putting time into parts of the game that weren’t very good.

To both of these comments, I pose the following question: if I spent fifteen hours doing it wrong and completing bad quests, why is it so hard to find the good stuff?

For a game that's ostensibly about doing things the way that you want to, it doesn't make a lot of sense to me that the way I want to do things is the wrong way. I'm also a little surprised at how much of a pass the game seems to get for having a lot of quests which are less-than-thrilling.

I'm not bringing this up just to rag on Skyrim -- it's not my cup of tea and I accept that, and I also accept that there are loads and loads of people out there who think it's pretty fantastic. That's fine, and I genuinely have no problem with that. However, I do think it's interesting that so many people were so eager to explain to me why I wasn't enjoying the game. After all, isn't it Bethesda’s job to craft a product which is well-made and appealing? Shouldn't a great game be fun and engaging without someone there to explain the "proper" way to appreciate it?

If starting the game and playing it as it's presented to me means that I'm doing it wrong, then I think that points out a fundamental flaw in Skyrim’s design rather than a problem with how I'm approaching the game as a player.

Just something to think about.

Misc: To round it out tonight, I just wanted to say that even though yesterday was Thanksgiving, I thought I would take another moment here to recognize all the great things that I have in my life.

Like anybody else, I think it would be great to have a pile of money or a house ten times bigger than where I live now... all that stuff. But, you know... not really.

I've got the best wife a man could ever hope to have, I've got two little boys that I'm proud of, and I've got a job that keeps my family warm, dry and fed.

Even more than that, I've got a car, a TV, I play games almost every day. I have three grocery stores less than three minutes away, I take hot showers whenever I feel like it, and I've always got clean clothes to wear.

As if that wasn't enough, I have fresh water to drink, I don't live in a war zone, and none of my family members are dying from a disease that could be cured with one vaccine.

I'm definitely no stranger to hard times -- not at all -- but I do recognize that even when things really aren't going my way, the situation can always be infinitely worse. I may not be the richest guy on my block and I don't foresee any tropical vacations coming up soon, but I absolutely recognize the value in the things that I do have, and those things are not only enough, but they are deeply, deeply appreciated.

Thanks for taking the time to read this, happy belated Thanksgiving to you, and I hope that you've got things in your life that you are thankful for as well.

Guest Blog: Seb Wuepper on Deus Ex: Human Revolution

2011-11-24T01:23:00.000-08:00

Games: This year’s Deus Ex: Human Revolution was quite a title in many ways, and I'm sure that it will be the subject of much discussion when the time comes for everyone to start comparing their GOTY lists… my personal take on the game is right here, but as a special treat tonight, I invited my friend Seb Wuepper to ramble at will and jot down a few words of his own.

Seb is a great guy, and quite amusing to follow on Twitter… he also blogs at Angry German Dude, which you can find right here.

Without further ado, take it away, Seb…

As a prequel to what was my favorite game of all time, this year’s Deus Ex Human Revolution had a lot to live up to. In general, it is a pretty solid and mostly enjoyable game for someone who has been waiting for a contemporary developer daring to tackle a modern take on this formula. While it’s largely well and competently executed, it is far from being a game without flaws.

Unfulfilled promises are at the core of my problems with the game. By tying it into the Deus Ex franchise, Human Revolution promises a multi-layered story with a lot of meaningful choices and how to approach them, a lot of exploration, and gameplay that lets the player chose the solutions to the problems the game throws at him.

The game starts out all right. The first missions are ripe with options and open ends. But by the time the first boss battle rolls along, I sense that something has gone terribly wrong in this game’s development. The bosses were featured prominently in the hype-inducing CG trailers, yet they are completely absent from the main game -story wise- until they start killing the player over and over again. Apparently there is a tie-in novel that gives those empty shells of disjointed gameplay moments some background, but none of that background has made it into the game.

The other characters inhabiting the game are a bit lacking themselves. Especially the antagonists. The literally elusive dragon lady is a paper thin mishmash of cringe inducing Asian clichés at best, and not an inch more in terms of character and motivation. Which feels weird since a lot of other, less important characters are much better developed, even if none of them would win the game’s authors a creative writing award. In a time when games of the caliber of DXHR have come up with quirky, believable characters of Andrew Ryan’s size, this is just not enough. And it’s not like the game hasn’t had enough space for a similar form of characterization with the tons of emails, newspapers, newscasts and other snippets of offhand information the player can stumble upon.

Another thing is the game’s mechanics. They are serviceable most of the time. However the problems only come into full view after the player has spent a good amount of time with them. I am not a fan of simulation and this is not a critique of the game’s lack of realism. But the game world tends to lack internal logic. Case in point, the distinction between “normal” and “heavy” enemies. Normal enemies go down after a few shots, heavies take a few magazines. However both can be taken out by a single round of “nonlethal” ammunition or attack. This is basically a balancing issue - after all nonlethal ammo is very scarce in the game, however in some cases the distinction between normal and heavy enemies is gratingly arbitrary, only marked by slight variations in texture and the weapon they carry. One of the qualities of the original game was that enemies tended to run out of ammo. In DXHR they don’t. Ever. Heavies don’t even seem to have to reload. The game world’s rules work differently for normal people on the street, for enemies, for heavies, bosses and the player character. All of these operate on different levels. Of course those different levels can be learned and applied as such, however they fly in the face of any attempt of the game world at feeling organic.

As does a lot of the AI’s behavior and the “rules” of stealth. Sneaking into a super high level security facility, I can openly murder one building’s staff and security without much of a repercussion in the surrounding area or the building next door. I accept this since it is a videogame trope and this critique is bordering on a demand for simulation, yet I can’t help but feel that in this day and age we should get these things in more convincing ways. Hell, Metal Gear Solid 2 did a better job of upping the ante if a player screwed up being stealthy 10 years ago.

Then there is the unraveling of the main plot. Near the very end of the game, one of the game’s main players pushes a button, and everyone in the world carrying augmentations goes crazy. The cutscene in which this happens is heavily inspired by a similar witnessed in the opening chapters of Metal Gear Solid 4, of which it is known that the lead producers of DXHR were pretty fond. But for once, this scene itself was executed much better in the Metal Gear game, and also this event - a major part of the world’s population suddenly going insane and berserk - is something that flies in the face of the franchises continuity, since such a horrific happening surely should’ve been mentioned somewhere in the games that are set later in the timeline. Of course that’s not the only thing. There is Eliza, the newscaster AI, which seems far more advanced than the AI encountered in Deus Ex. But that is just a minor point.

The main story lacks significant punch. The climax and conclusion happen too fast. A lot of the game’s smaller stories and side missions are well crafted and interesting on their own, but their leading into the main plot feels a bit clumsy in execution. Basically, DXHR excels at being an episodic story about augmentations, but those episodes lack a common plot linking them all together.

The last chapter(s) almost feels rushed. Especially the final level is something of a multi-layered disappointment, as the gigantic arctic research station had been teased all through the game’s pre-release campaigns as well as throughout the game itself. But when the player arrives on site, the game suddenly transforms into a glorified corridor shooter. As if that wasn’t bad enough, the player there is pretty much forced to mow down hordes of augmented people having been driven crazy by the aforementioned event. There is no reprimand, no judging the player’s action when he decides to rather murder all these basically innocent people who could be restored to sanity when the player’s mission succeeds.

What a lot of the game’s levels feel like are missed opportunities. Panchea, the arctic research station, would have been a lot more interesting as a level if it had been built as a final test to the player’s mastery of the game so far. Instead all the level does is pit the player against what’s basically a horde of zombies, rushing him towards the game’s final boss encounter. Which mechanically is the best boss encounter the game is offering, only the aesthetics rubbed me the wrong way, as the look and feel was a bit too much anime inspired for my taste. But that’s only me.

The hub levels suffer from the AI being useless when idle. Of course there are a lot of possibilities to engage in side missions, but the everyday civilians never do much except walking around idly, which contributes to the hubs feeling like huge, pretty but essentially empty spaces. Also, and this is probably the fault of this generation’s consoles coming to their limits, there are just too few people around most of the time. The cities of other contemporary games manage to put up a lot larger crowds of people. This is especially felt badly inside the Hengsha level’s Hive Club, which although being praised as one of the most popular spots in town has only a handful of people around any time the player shows up. I’ve not gone and done a headcount, but the feeling I get is that the Hive club has fewer patrons present than Deus Ex 1’s Lucky Money Club had ten years ago.

A rather minor point is that some AI barks are off. Especially little attention has been given to the game’s police officers, whose vocabulary in addressing the player seems awkwardly limited. “Go away! You don’t belong here!” is what the officer throws at me when my character is wanted by what amounts to the Hengsha level’s police, while walking in my direction. What he should be saying is “Hey you! Sir! Come here, I have some questions!”

Another thing is that the game has a lot of beautifully designed levels. Huge city hubs with a lot of pretty sights, back alleys, stairwells, multiple levels. What I was missing through all of the game was a good cat-and-mouse section, with a powerful force of enemies being on the lookout for the player. Actively. A section where the player has to traverse a huge part of a level without being seen, utilizing the area knowledge gained so far to the best advantage. Something similar does indeed happen, but the police are not actively looking, not sweeping the streets. Avoidance is too easy.

This ties in with another critique about the game’s level design in general. The designers just don’t too awfully much with the levels they got. There are a handful of examples where a friendly space turns into a hostile space, but those are few and far between. Most of the time, the hostile spaces are entirely separated from the friendly ones, and worst of all, this dedication towards one or the other shows. Once the player has traversed the main body of the Alice Garden Pods hotel and has made his way into the cellar, the level design rapidly changes from an open space with a plethora of approach possibilities into a narrow, long winding corridor, the possible approaches limited to a handful at best. Worst of all, this makes the game world feel disjointed and unnecessarily artificial where it should feel organic. I would have much liked to see more levels re-purposed, akin to the second visit to UNATCO in the first Deus Ex game.

Another - minor - thing that irked me was the game’s tendency to have texture only doors turning into working doors later in the game. It’s really just a minor thing that makes the world less organic. There are better ways to wall off not yet visitable places in an open game world than to just deactivate the doors that are in plain sight for any player adventurous enough to discover them.

Probably the worst offense is the very conclusion, offering the player a room with four buttons to push to decide the fate of the world. Not only is this a space that has no other purpose than being a glorified menu screen to choose one of a number of cutscene endings, it also reduces player input to, well, the push of a button. Meaningful interaction and choices with consequences reduced to that - maybe that is a commentary on a certain mode of gaming itself. Push a button to see a video sequence.

While I may have pointed out a lot of the flaws of Deus Ex: Human Revolution, that does not mean that either I dislike the game, or that it is without merit. Quite the opposite actually. Human Revolution features high points that very few other games in recent years were able to deliver.

It is the contrast between those high points and the lower ones I mentioned before that makes the worse decisions the game’s designers made stand out even more clearly.

The Hengsha hub level for one, is one of the best looking, most believable open world-ish futurepunk city levels that gamers could explore. And there is quite a lot exploring to be done there. It’s thematically very interesting, the gargantuan upper city literally overshadowing the entire level. It’s the sort of sci-fi vision that’s seen rarely with this level of intricate detail in gaming. Also, Hengsha offers the highest density of “Deus Ex moments” - the Court Garden hotel with its multiple points of entry, the ramshackle Alice Garden Pod hotel, to name a few highlights.

The adjacent Tae Yong Medical facility mission also stands out as the best designed mission level of the game. Lots of different possibilities, of which few feel too forced, too video gamy. In this level it is actually quite hard to break suspension of disbelief, though I once did that by lopping a huge vending machine around, gazed upon by sheepish onlookers, to reach a higher up balcony.

The strongest suit of the game is creating believable environments. The random AI might not be up to much, the crowds in the cities might be too small, but the stages themselves are designed and decorated so well and there is so much to do and discover in them that these minor flaws don’t matter much. The hideouts of the very poor are damp to a degree that they almost smell beyond the screen. The lairs of the very powerful so intricately decadent, that they truly are a world away from the lower ranks of life.

Once the capacity of the AI is properly understood, it can actually be played with quite well. Combat works if the player is set out to really go toe-to-toe, otherwise, combat is best avoided completely, with the occasional nonlethal takedown - these are silent and instant, nondiscriminatory between heavy and normal goons. Once it is understood that a half-assed approach doesn’t work by far as well - and is much less fun to play - the game really comes into its own.

Another thing is platform. The console version I played first had very long loading times which really hurt a game like this, where saving right before a tight spot and experimenting in approaches is a given. Now that I played the PC version, which really doesn’t have this problem, my overall experience was very different and much more enjoyable.

The best parts of the game are indeed those which offer a multitude of approaches, and there are quite a lot of those instances. The way they are set up forces the player to utilize all tools given, even if other games might have implemented this in a better way. Compared to BioShock, DXHR just isn’t designed with quite as much player agency in mind.

In conclusion I have to say, DXHR is quite the HD upgrade to the formula established by the original game eleven years ago. Eidos Montreal hasn’t changed much of this basic formula for better or worse. There are some deep flaws in the game, not just limited to the boss fights, but grating as those may be, they don’t bog the overall experience down enough to make the game not a very enjoyable experience. Seeing how well DXHR sold, I do hope it signals the industry that there is in fact a market for games using this almost forgotten formula. I also hope that Eidos Montreal gets another shot at the franchise and I am now - after my second playthrough - quite intrigued what their take on Thief will look like when that game sees the light of day somewhere in the near future.

Many thanks to Seb Wuepper for the guest writeup, and be sure to follow him on Twitter (@SebWuepper) and when you stop off at Angry German Dude, tell him I sent you.

Fifteen Hours With Skyrim... And that's Enough.

2011-11-22T00:10:00.000-08:00

Games: So, Skyrim.

Everybody's heard of it, everybody's playing it, and it's getting stellar reviews. Clearly this game is THE JAM for a whole lot of people right now, and that's pretty cool. Seriously, no hate coming from me towards those of you who dig it, at all.

For me, though... I have to say I'm just not feeling it.

At this point, I’ve put somewhere in the neighborhood of 15 hours into the game, and yes, I do realize that in the big scheme of things that's barely even scratching the surface of the ridiculous amount of content present here. However, that's still a pretty sizable chunk of time and I'm not too sure how much more (if any) I'm going to devote.

What's good?

> Content. Like I just said, the game has an unbelievable amount of content. I've got something like twenty or thirty incidental quests on my to-do list that I haven't even touched yet, and I've got at least five or six "major" quest lines going at the same time. For any gamer who is concerned about getting the most raw playtime possible for their $60, I'm guessing that Skyrim probably offers the best value of the year.

> Landscape. It's pretty damned beautiful. I've found myself looking out at tremendous vistas and often pausing just to sweep the camera around and take in the environment. Really impressive.

> Build choices. I picked a fighter-type character specializing in two-handed weaponry and heavy armor, but I could just have easily have gone the stealthy archer route or dabbled in several different kinds of magic use -- or any combination thereof. Add in all sorts of weapons, spells, and armor, and there's a lot of toys to play with.

What’s not so good?

> Character. I'm the kind of player that likes a lot of personality in my gameplay, and I'm a sucker for great writing. So far, it doesn't seem like Skyrim has much of either.

The characters I've met feel flat and unmemorable and I don't feel any investment in what's going on. Without any kind of human connection, the game comes off like a giant laundry list of quests to do because they're there to be done. Furthermore, the game introduces "companions" to quest along with you, and they could hardly be more dull. They barely say anything, they've got no discernible personality once they join you, and they don't offer much in the way of getting to know them.

Unforgettable.

In contrast, look at something like Fallout 3. Within the first hour, the player stumbles across a nuclear bomb in the middle of the beginning town and meets several interesting characters with a variety of problems. Later on in the game, there are any number of varied and diverse things going on -- two dueling superheroes, an orphan that needs a home, cannibals inviting you in for dinner, vampires, robots, and more... and the companions? Some were certainly better than others, but they were all interesting in their own way and had a ton more personality than those in Skyrim.

Although Fallout 3 has several complaints that could legitimately be leveled at it, I don't think anyone could deny that there were plenty of interesting characters and events happening there – honestly, the first hour of Fallout 3 is an order of magnitude more interesting from a story/character perspective than anything I've seen during my entire time in Skyrim.

> Quests. Now I fully admit that I've only seen a small slice of the quests available in the game, but what I have seen has not been very rewarding or entertaining, and I'm not encouraged to push forward. Almost every dungeon I've been to roughly follows the same “underground narrow hallways with some larger rooms” blueprint, and each final chamber has a very convenient shortcut door back to the surface. Whether I am clearing out a barrow, “sneaking” in somewhere to get some information, or just exploring, it all boils down to entering the dungeon and killing everything that's inside. There's nothing inherently wrong with dungeon crawling, but with a game that's so huge and so sophisticated, the variety of quests has been sorely lacking -- in fact, many are outright boring.

Where are the "tough choices" that make you sit back and think? Where are the quests that are won by tricking your opponent with clever speech, or by winning them over with your charm? Where are quests that don't involve traveling to a location and killing everything that's there? I mean, I've done a few where I'm taking an item to a certain place, but those are so piddling and forgettable that they hardly even count as quests.

> Weirdness and frustration. I've heard several reports of bugs and glitches, and I've seen more than a handful myself.

-I was walking through the countryside and a cluster of inanimate bodies fell from the sky to land at my feet. No explanation, no reason.

- A quest giver was on a staircase, and when I approached to complete the quest, they were unable to decide whether they were going up or down stairs and I could not complete the quest without reloading a save.

- I traveled to the correct location for a quest, but the person who was supposed to be there was not present. I spent several minutes trying to figure out what was going wrong and then eventually reloaded to save and tried again -- and that time the person was there.

-I was supposed to take an item to a location, and my map marker showed that it was all the way on the other side of the world. I fast-traveled as close as I could and then walked the rest of the way, committing a sizable amount of time to travel. As soon as I got to the map marker, it disappeared and reset itself to the actual location, which was fifty feet from where I orignally started.

-There have been multiple times when I've been in the middle of battle, and then an NPC quest-giver approaches me to ask for a favor. I am CLEARLY in the middle of battle, and these people end up dead without ever having given their quest, more often than not.

-I gave a large number of items to one of my followers, and then that follower was replaced with a new one that was required by a certain quest. My original follower disappeared, and I've never seen them again despite going back to the original location where we first met. All the goods he was holding? Gone as well.

Those things were clearly glitches, but there are a number of other things that I personally find irritating… things like the clunky, cumbersome menu system, having to go to different shops in order to sell different goods (yes, I know that this is a perk to be earned, but it's time-consuming and inconvenient.) It was also irritating to not have a place to store goods when over-encumbered... I eventually bought a house after much time and effort, but something so simple should be introduced to the player right off the bat, if you ask me.

Way harder than the dragons.

…Oh, and the dragons? Talk about underwhelming. At this point, I've killed at least six or eight, and each one was less than impressive. I expected that a game which features a dragon theme so heavily would make each encounter more of an awesome event, but they're just random enemies that pop up in the world, and they're not even hard to kill. More annoyances than anything else, I had a much tougher time fighting giants and mammoths than I did the dragons. These flying lizards are the definition of anti-climactic.

Is Skyrim a terrible game? No, not hardly.

I’ve played dozens of games that were far worse this year, and there’s a lot to like if you're inclined towards fantasy adventures. On the other hand, is it deserving of the 25 perfect scores (360 version) currently shown at MetaCritic? Is it going to rank as one of the years best games? For me, the answer is no to both.

To be perfectly honest, it feels too flat and dull to consider sinking as much time as it probably requires to get through even half… I’d much rather play something with more variety and better characters, and certainly something that feels less repetitive and checklist-y. I'm glad I tried it and I can understand why some people love it, but I don't think it's for me and I'm very glad that I'm not on the hook to do the review.

Probably going to move on.

NFS: The Run, Ending 2011, Consequences, and Dead Island's Bloodbath

2011-11-19T23:06:00.000-08:00

Games: I never play racing games.

There are a number of reasons for this, but part is that I'm not very interested in cars in general, and I'm even less interested in playing a game that makes me repeat sections over and over and over in an effort to get my performance exactly right.

I'm no stranger to putting out effort in games, but there's something particularly unpleasant about trying to shave off fractions of a second while dealing with AI that rubberbands at will, or frustrating myself trying to find the right line through an evil turn while watching computer-controlled cars sail through effortlessly. Damn you, SkyNet!

Anyway, my point is that I don't play racing games. Or, at least I didn't, until today. I got my hands on a copy of Need for Speed: The Run. Since it was sitting right in front of me and I had heard that it integrated some out-of-car sections, I figured it wouldn't hurt to give it a spin. It's been getting a lot of bad word-of-mouth, but to be honest, I thought it was kind of interesting... I can't speak with any authority since I am as green as green can be when it comes to the racing genre, but the concept of having an actual character in a race across the country was unorthodox.

In terms of gameplay, I found it to be more difficult than I would have liked, although I freely admit that I am absolutely terrible at racing. Apart from that, there were a few segments where the main character is out of the car and does a few QTE cinematics. They're very brief, but I appreciated them, and the developer’s efforts in trying to incorporate even small elements of humanity.

Here it is, the actual run.

Although I didn't finish the game (had to send it out to another reviewer) my time with The Run left me with the impression that although this particular game may not be the title to capture the attention of a player like me who’s most interested in story and character, I think there is definitely room for the racing genre to open itself up to more cross-genre hybrids -- after all, cars can't do much without people behind the wheel, and I'd have to imagine that there are at least a few people out there like me who would be more interested in driving if there were more to it than just driving.

A racing/RPG title, anyone?

In other gaming news, I'm trying to play the last few things that I need to check out before starting my end-of-the-year wrapup. I've got most of my top ten squared away, although the exact order of the games isn't quite concrete. However, the final two biggies that needed some time were Batman: Arkham City and Skyrim.

I started Batman a couple of days ago, and I've got to be honest -- despite being a huge fan of Arkham Asylum, Arkham City left me pretty cold. I didn't spend very much time with it, but everything just felt wrong to me. A bigger emphasis on the large group combat, more gadgets and tools to mess around with, and an open world that didn't seem to add very much to the overall experience… it just wasn't clicking with me and I put it on my shelf, unfinished. Maybe I'll get back to it later on, maybe not.

You're already playing this, aren't you? Aren't you?!?!?

After that, I moved on to Skyrim and was able to put about three hours into it before I had to take care of real-life stuff.

I realize that three hours is probably about .00027 of the total Skyrim experience, but in that time I think I got a pretty good handle on it (in general) and it's been a much more pleasant and engaging than Batman was. I don't really have much to say on it so far other than the fact that it seems like a streamlined Oblivion+Improvements, but I am looking forward to logging some more hours.

My good friend @MrDurandPierre just had a piece go up over at Eurogamer, and I think it's a pretty interesting read. Titled “Failure is not an option”, you can CLICK HERE to check it out and see what he's got to say about games that don't actually deal with consequences.

"I'm pretty sure there are some actual consequences just over that dune..."

As an added bonus, if you listened to the last GameCritics podcast, I think there are a few related themes between this piece and the discussion on the pod about Uncharted 3 and how it deals with “you've just got one chance" situations.

Finally, if you read this blog with regularity or if you caught my official review over at GameCritics, you know that I'm a big, big, big fan of Dead Island.

I've heard that there are at least two pieces of DLC coming, but only one of them has any hard details. Titled "Bloodbath Arena”, this is the add-on that was included as a bonus for buying a new copy… I know there was some confusion since it wasn't actually ready for download at the time the game was released, but according to a recent press release from everyone's favorite PR rep @Chupacaubrey, it should be ready to go on November 22.

That's a whole lotta zombies...

Here's a little excerpt, verbatim from that release:

So what is this Bloodbath Arena, you say? It's a pack of four arenas that can be played either alone (srsly?) or in up to 4 player co-op with waves and waves of zombies hunting you down for their next meal. :D On top of that, all the XP points, items and gold that are gathered while playing in Bloodbath Arena can be carried back over into the main game campaign. Oh, and of course for ultimate zombie killing bragging rights, there will be leaderboards with Bloodbath as well, so that you can be like me and go around talking shit about how you are THE best Dead Island player in the universe and then check the leaderboard and get a massive gunshot right to the temple when one of your friends has a score that you have NO idea how the fuck he got it but you and your ego are tremendously irritated about it regardless.

So I know you can't wait for this! Bloodbath Arena will be released on November 22 - next week! - and will be available as a free download with the token included for those who preordered the Special Edition from GameStop or for $9.99/800MSP to folks who didn't preorder the Special Edition.

… And there you have it, straight from the source.

Checking in...

2011-11-15T00:45:00.000-08:00

Just a quick check-in tonight...

Sorry for being MIA over the last week or so, and thanks to everybody who sent in messages asking if I was all right. Everything is totally fine, I've just been putting in a lot of evening hours at work lately.

Since I do most of my writing after my little boy is in bed, heading to a job instead of heading to my office once he's tucked in means that the writing just doesn't get done. Although working during the day and then working some more at night is not the ideal situation, being a freelancer means that you’ve sometimes got to take gigs where you can get them, and that goes double in an economy like the one we've got now.

Although it may change, my nights are looking a little more normal this week and I'm keeping my fingers crossed that I'll get the chance to burn through some of my to-do list. If i get that chance, what's coming up?

I've got a couple of brief interviews and one potentially juicy one. I've got some hands-on impressions of Skulls of the Shogun coming. I've got multiple reviews in various stages of completion (Escape Goat, Fate/Extra and Saints Row 3) and I have a whole bunch of interesting links saved up as well.

I've definitely been busy enough to post some blog entries, the problem has just been finding the time to actually sit down and do them.

Anyway, thanks again for sticking around, thanks for checking up on me, and with any luck, I'll have some interesting stuff posted before too much longer.

Fate/Extra (PSP) and Aquaman #1

2011-11-07T02:44:00.000-08:00

Games: The PNWJournos group went out to Haunted Temple Studios to get a hands-on with their upcoming XBLA/PC game, Skulls of the Shogun.

I’ll have a full write-up on it pretty soon, so keep an eye peeled for that coverage. (The short version: it looks really great!)

In other news, I recently started Fate/Extra for the PSP. I know that it's based on an anime or some other related property, but I'm not familiar with the source material. In fact, my only other exposure to anything from the Fate series was the Fate/Unlimited Codes fighting game, also for PSP. (And really, that was pretty good!)

Given that I knew basically zero about this IP, I wasn't too sure what to expect, but I'm glad that I gave it a shot -- I'm enjoying it a great deal.

Rather than another fighter, Fate/Extra is a hybrid game blending the RPG and Visual Novel genres. Essentially, a huge portion of the story is told through text that the player must read (gasp!) and the plot revolves around a war for control of a "Holy Grail." This struggle is being fought by several people referred to as Masters, and each Master has a Servant who’s a famous figure from history. These Servants do all the actual fighting, but the twist is that their identities are hidden in order to maintain the element of surprise in each battle.

As the game progresses, uncovering clues about the other Servants becomes important because the game relies on a rock-paper-scissors combat engine. Without any information, the fighting is reduced to blind luck, and the player can count on nothing but a swift defeat. However, with enough information gathered, the opponent's moves are revealed and the player can choose their own moves to counter them. It's a very interesting mix of luck and skill, but there's quite a bit that goes into it in order to tilt the odds in favor of the player.

The writing is above-average, the setting is a great blend of Japanese high school, historical figures and the Matrix, the graphics are spartan but still very appealing, and although I don't think this formula would work at all on a home console, it feels like a perfect fit for a portable.

The game has predictable rhythms and very discrete ‘systems’ that give the game a very pick-up-and-play feeling for quick sessions here and there without sacrificing its satisfying level of depth. It may seem a little dry and grind-heavy to some, but it's a very interesting project and one that strikes a lot of the right notes for me.

I wouldn't want to sit down and play it for marathon sessions, but for an hour here or two hours there, I'm down.

Comics: I had planned to do another full-scale comics run down tonight, but I ran out of time to read, so that will have to wait for another day. However, I did manage to finally get around to Aquaman #1 thanks to @Andrew_Reiner’s recommendation, and he wasn’t wrong.

I'm not an Aquaman fan, never have been, but I liked how this new #1 (part of DC’s New 52 push) acknowledged this hero's semi-joke status and really addresses the fact that no one takes him seriously, not even the characters in his own world. Beyond that, what really sold me was the quick recap/relaunch of the hero that told me everything I needed to know without getting bogged down in old continuity. There were also a few moments showing a young Aquaman with his father that I found somewhat touching, so that was appreciated as well.

I haven't read the next issue yet and I'm sure that there’s plenty of opportunity for the thing to go off the rails since, you know, Aquaman, but I'm definitely interested to see how the series proresses. I would never have guessed it, but this was a great start.

Escape Goat, Flying Pirates, Dark Soul Fixes, and Child's Play

2011-11-03T00:30:00.000-07:00

Games: I've got a couple of interviews coming up quite soon, and this weekend the PNWJournos group is going to Haunted Temple Studios to get a hands-on with the upcoming XBLA title, Skulls of the Shogun. Look for some in-depth coverage of that in the very near future.

In the meantime, @MagicalTimeBean’s latest and greatest has just become available on the XBL Indie channel. Titled Escape Goat, it's about a goat who (wait for it…) escapes.

This art style kicks ass.

Essentially, the prison where the game takes place is broken down into a series of rooms, each room being a puzzle. The goat has the ability to double jump, to dash, and also gets an assist from a very helpful mouse who’s along for the ride… I only had time to run through the demo, but I was definitely into what I was seeing.

Although it bucks the $1 trend of most XBLI titles (purchase price is $3) the quality is immediately evident, and I had no hesitation whatsoever dropping a triad of bones on it. Do yourself a favor and check it out.

In other games news, I finally started playing Two Worlds II: Pirates of the Flying Fortress on 360.

As you've probably guessed, it's a DLC add-on to TW2 which released way back in January. I liked the core game quite a bit (here's my review, in case you missed it) and this new chunk is basically more of the same. That's not a bad thing at all, but after nearly a year away from the original adventure, it feels like the window of opportunity has passed it by... it took me quite a while to get re-acclimated to the controls, and I had forgotten how rough the game can run at times.

We've got boats, people.

Also, with Skyrim just around the corner, this DLC couldn't have picked a worse time to make its way to market. TW2 was perfect as a lighter, faster, more pick-up-and-play version of Oblivion, but with the "real" thing at hand, it seems to me that most people would rather hold off for Bethesda's latest than jump back into something that's feeling pretty dated right now.

I'll be turning in a full review at GameCritics, so look for that once I've wrapped it up. Apparently, this is a pretty sizable adventure (15-20 hours is what I'm hearing) so at the very least, it should provide a healthy amount of content for those taking the plunge.

Although I'm done with it and my review has been turned in, a very interesting piece of news was released today in regards to Dark Souls. Apparently FromSoft has completed work on their next round of patches for the game, and the list of what's been tweaked is absolutely massive.

You can click here to take a look at it and see what's going to change. It's hard to tell the ultimate effect that all of these modifications will have, but right off the bat a few things jumped out at me -- the amount of souls earned from PVE has apparently been doubled, the drop rate for Humanity has been increased, many magic spells appear to be weaker, and certain incredibly useful items like Homeward Bones and Skull Lanterns will now be dropped.

SUNBRO!!!

Regardless of my feelings on the game after completion, I'm very glad to see that From is continuing to work on the experience and improve it for those still playing, or for those who have yet to jump in. Thanks to @DemonicMurry for the link!

The GTAV trailer was released today and... well, it's a trailer. I'm not going to bother to link to it here since every games-related website on the Internet has been talking about it, but as someone who hasn't really been enjoying GTA since San Andreas, I can't say that I'm very excited. Rockstar really lost me with GTA4 and Red Dead Redemption, so I sincerely doubt that a pre-order for V is in my future.

Besides, with Saints Row: the Third coming out in just a few days, I suspect my open-world driving/shooting jones will be more than satisfied.

To close out today's blog, here are a few words on behalf of Child’s Play, one of my favorite charities. There’s no commentary from me below, just information straight from the organization’s press release. Please check it out, and donate if you feel so inclined... sick kids who love video games will thank you.

SEATTLE – Nov. 2, 2011 – Child’s Play Charity has officially begun its 2011 fundraising campaign, having already received more than $450,000. This year’s goal is to raise $2 million.

Since the charity’s establishment in 2003, it has distributed more than $9 million in donations from the videogame community to entertain hospitalized children across the globe.

The annual Child’s Play charity auction will take place on Thursday, Dec. 8th, 2011 at the Meydenbauer Center in Bellevue. Tickets can be purchased at www.childsplaycharity.org. Passes will cost $145 per person and $5,000 for table sponsors.

“We are very excited to begin another year of Child’s Play and once again show the world that the video game community is altruistic as well as compassionate,” said Kristin Lindsay, Child's Play. “Since Child’s Play inception we have constantly been surprised by the generosity in both time and money of the community.”

Those wishing to contribute to Child’s Play can:

● Host a fundraising event http://childsplaycharity.org/events

● Buy or donate an item on the Child’s Play eBay Giving Works page

● Give directly via PayPal

● Become a corporate sponsor, email Kristin Lindsay

● Mail a check to Child’s Play, 123 NW 36th Street Suite 210, Seattle, WA 98107

● Text the keyword GAMERS to 50555 to make a $5 donation

For more information visit http://www.childsplaycharity.org/

Thieves Are Scum, and another Comics Rundown

2011-10-31T20:29:00.000-07:00

Misc: So last night I got home from work and I was putting my key in the door when I felt like something was a little off. I looked around the patio and it took a minute before I realized that my son’s wooden chair was gone. Stolen.

It wasn't a fancy thing, basically a handmade chair made to be just the right size for a child no more than five or six years old. It was originally made by my son's great grandfather, who is now deceased. He passed away before they ever had a chance to meet, but my mother-in-law had brought it as a gift when she came to stay with us, and my son was thrilled to have it. He sat in it nearly every day during the summer, blowing bubbles on the lawn or just chilling out when it got shady.

I never thought that it looked especially valuable, and we've had other things left out that have never been touched, so it didn't occur to us that someone would come by and steal it -- especially since it was made of real wood, it's much too heavy to just grab and go. If I had thought for a moment that someone would be tempted to take it, we would have taken some precautions, but it just didn't seem like a danger. That's what we get for being a little too trusting, I suppose.

The terrible thing is that it must've been stolen by someone who had walked by our place at least a few times. Someone casually driving by wouldn't have noticed it, and like I said, it was too heavy to be taken as a spur-of-the-moment snatch. The only thing that makes sense is someone saw it as they were passing our place on foot and then came back with a vehicle… I'd be willing to bet any amount of money the theft was premeditated. Even worse, thinking that someone with ill intent had been standing right outside our door gave my wife and I the chills, and made us both feel a little less secure in our own home.

Although it's a real loss, the chair can be replaced. That good, homey feeling that's now diminished? Maybe. Maybe not.

Comics: Now, time for another quick rundown of what I've been reading...

>Screamland, The Walking Dead and The Sixth Gun… All still great.

>Animal Man #2. Despite not having much experience with that character in the past, the recent first issue made a strong impression on me, and I'm quite happy to report that this one was just as good. The artwork by Travel Foreman is a great mix of mood and detail, and the plot by Jeff Lemire is still going strong. Although this particular issue moves perhaps a little too fast for my taste, the events reveal a new depth to the powers shared by Animal Man and his young daughter that are quite intriguing. So far, this is certainly one of the best of DC’s New 52.

>Deadman #1. Another DC character that I've heard of, yet have never read, I was quite pleased with this particular relaunch and immediately added it to my monthly list. It's a great first issue in that it clearly sets up the character in a very clear and concise way for those (like me) that have no knowledge of any backstory. Providing a good starting point seems to have been a problem for several of DC’s other new #1s, so I'm glad to see that this one knew what it was doing. In a nutshell, Deadman was a colossal jerk in life and now must atone for it by jumping into the bodies of people who need assistance. By helping them with their problems, he earns his way towards a more positive afterlife -- it seems to me a lot like Quantum Leap, with just a slightly different spin. Since I was a huge Quantum Leap fan, that's perfectly fine.

>Swamp Thing #2. I wasn't completely satisfied with Swamp Thing’s first issue of the reboot, and the second issue has flushed it even further down the crapper. Rather than giving the character a clean or mostly-clean slate to work from, the writer seems intent on keeping most of the character’s convoluted, multi-series backstory and retconning it to fit this new beginning. It's confusing, it's way too talky, and it comes off like utterly contrived stereotypical comic book crap. Throw in a standard ‘red rot monster vs. green plant life’ theme (YAWN) and I've seen all I want to see. I will not be picking up issue #3.

>I, Vampire #2. Another misfire. The first issue was very loose and impressionistic, but I decided to give it the benefit of the doubt in hopes that the story would start to make more sense, but that isn't the case. This second issue was even more abstract with scenes that make little sense, and a plot that appears to jump back and forth in time. As a reader, I have no idea who these characters are, exactly what they are about, or even what the setting is. It seems like the elements for something interesting are here, but it's been so poorly conceived that it's all a stinking mess. I’m qutting this one as well.

>Ghost Rider: Fear Itself #1,2,3,4. I used to be a huge Ghost Rider fan for many years, starting with the original Johnny Blaze stuff from back in the ‘70s, and I was pretty okay with the later reboot starring Danny Ketch, but things got too silly after a while and I had to bail. It seemed to me that the mythology was getting to complicated and too ridiculous, and I just couldn't swallow it anymore. I was really hoping that this new series would be a fresh start for the ol’ flaming skull, but despite the abilities transferring to a new female rider, it's still a pile of crap that needs to be blown up and rebuilt from scratch. I'm not even going to get into any of the details, except to say that Ghost Rider is now a joke to me, and I've got no patience for angels, devils, his personal crew of familiar faces, and a whole host of other elements that serve only to detract from what should be a fairly straightforward superhero. I bought all four issues to read at once, and after having done so, I realized that I only needed to buy one to find out that it still isn't any good.

Dark Souls is Finished (Thank God) and... Buffy the Vampire Slayer

2011-10-29T01:07:00.000-07:00

Games: So, after eighty-two hours with Dark Souls, I finally defeated the cheese-tastic final boss and completed the game.

Whoopee.

Now that all’s been said and done, I am of the strong opinion that Dark is nowhere near as finely-crafted or as enjoyable as its predecessor, Demon’s Souls. It's just not.

You want me to give it a 10? Here's your 10!!

I've just submitted my review of the game, so look for that soon at GameCritics. At the moment, it’s easiest to just say that Dark doesn't do anything that Demon’s didn't already do better, and throws in a whole host of problems, to boot.

I find this entire situation particularly aggravating for a few reasons.

Primarily, Demon’s Souls is one of my favorite games of all time, and "fixing" something that wasn't broken and then breaking it further still doesn't make a lot of sense to me.

I also take issue with the fact that it was so long. Yes, I've heard of the 90-minute Dark Souls speedrun on YouTube, but that’s so far removed from the experience of the average player that it might as well not even exist.

Worst level in the game. It's an absurd joke.

As for me, I approached the game without using any hint guides or FAQs, and the only help I got were a few key pointers from fellow players. The game gives precious little assistance, so without outside help, I think it's realistic to expect most gamers to take at least as long as I took to finish, if not longer. Considering that my first FAQ-free run through Demon’s Souls was about 50 hours, doubling or near-doubling that playtime is a lot to ask.

There were also a number of technical issues I ran into (details in the review) but the thing that pissed me off the most was that the ending was such an insulting slap in the face that I literally stood up and started yelling at my TV. After pouring so much time and effort into the adventure (not to mention putting up with all the rough edges and cheap design decisions) I could not believe that FromSoft went with such a ridiculously poor way to tie things up.

It. Was. Unbelievably. Awful.

My take on the ending.

Is Dark Souls the worst game I've ever played? No, not at all. Not even close. Would I recommend it to anyone now that I've rolled credits? In a world where Demon’s Souls exists, no, I really wouldn't.

TV: I haven't had a lot of time for TV or movies lately, but when I do have time, the wife and I have been getting in episodes of Buffy the Vampire Slayer on Netflix instant-watch.

I'd never seen a single episode when the show was still running on television, but after having such a positive experience with Firefly (another Joss Whedon show) we decided to give Buffy a whirl, and we haven't been disappointed. At the moment, we are a little past the halfway point of Season Two, and it's going swimmingly.

The funny thing about watching the show is that even though I know the program has quite a large following, I've never spoken to anyone who ever made it sound appealing or fun. Every time I asked someone their opinion on it, it never remotely sounded like my cup of tea. Now that I'm actually watching it myself, I think it's pretty great. I'm not quite sure where the disconnect was there, but maybe I was just talking to the wrong people all this time?

Anyway, despite the fact that none of the "teenagers" on the show look like they’re actually high school students, the writing is sharp, the characters are likable, and there's a good balance between larger characterization and typical monster-of-the-week action.

So far, a big thumbs up.

Interview with: Samuli Viikinen, developer of PSN's Rochard

2011-10-24T23:12:00.000-07:00

Games: So, let me guess... You haven't played PSN’s Rochard yet. In fact, there's probably a pretty good chance you haven't even heard of it -- and that's a damned shame, since it's one of the best download-only titles I've played all year.

I talked about it quite a bit via Twitter and I covered it several times here at Coffeecola. Heck, I even gave it an absolutely glowing review over at GameCritics, but a game like this deserves more. So, in my pursuit of fighting the good fight, I'd like to present this brief interview I was fortunate enough to have with the Lead Level Designer of Rochard, Samuli Viikinen…

So Samuli, Rochard is Recoil’s first title… What can you tell us about the team that put it together? Who are the people of Recoil Games?

Recoil Games is led by Samuli Syvähuoko, who in the past has been involved in creation of such companies as Remedy Entertainment, Futuremark and Fathammer. The Rochard project was directed by Kalle Kaivola, our producer who previously worked in press and TV, and Creative Director Burt Kane of Futuremark fame. Most of the remaining team members have backgrounds in many leading Finnish game development studios, including Remedy, Bugbear, Farmind, Housemarque and Frozenbyte.

Sony’s ads on PSN have described Rochard as an “anti-hero”. Personally, I don’t see how the term fits. He’s an unlikely hero perhaps, but not an anti-hero. How do you feel about this ad campaign?

We decided to play a bit with the words when making this ad. John Rochard is not your usual hero, he is your ordinary guy in an extraordinary situation. His daily work around anti-gravity machines oppose his down-to-earth character. Just like his appearance might oppose many people's perception of the mighty hero that sets out to face the gravest threats in order to protect the people he cares for.

In the gaming world of space marines and elite warriors, John represents very much the polar opposite by remaining a regular, chubby dude. He's the antithesis to pop culture's portrayal of heroism, hence his anti-hero title.

John Rochard seems to be a person of Southern US origin. How did your team come to choose this characterization, and how did you (since you’re based in Finland) characterize him in your own country? Is he still Southern to Finnish gamers?

Finland is such a northern country (no, there are no polar bears walking around) that we wanted to contradict that with something that is very far from us, but still similar in a sense. Only a few decades ago Finland was heavily dependent on agriculture just as the southern US states, and we wanted to pay homage to that.

Some people have described Rochard as being similar to Shadow Complex in some ways. Do you think that’s fair?

There are some similarities, yes. Both games are basically sidescrollers in 3D environments and feature quite a bit of action and platforming. On the other hand there are major differences in gameplay, Shadow Complex emphasizes the exploration factor while Rochard is very puzzle oriented. Also the tone of the narration is very different between the two games, Rochard being much more lighthearted and comedic.

Most of the guards have a very effeminate voice, and talk about getting pedicures and such. What’s behind this, or where did these characterizations come from?

These guys are very passionate about their personal well being and care highly for their appearance, but have taken a bit of an over-the-top turn for the effeminate at that. It's a bit of a jab at the artificially caring environment instated in over-managed work environments. Another take on not creating the standard burly videogame characters, but trying to reach for something very different instead. Obviously they are a comic relief, and should be treated as such.

What’s next for Recoil Games? I’ve heard talk of Earth No More, and I’m sure Rochard 2 must be in the works… Please tell us what we can look forward to next!

We are not working on Earth No More at the moment, our main focus is on expanding Rochard intellectual property. Rochard's story was designed to span through multiple games right from the start, so a sequel is something we would very much like to create. We are also considering various completely new game franchises, so there are many exciting things coming from Recoil Games, stay tuned!

Open mic –Your chance to say anything you’d like to the people reading this interview. Go!

It has been really exciting and fun to work on Rochard, we are extremely pleased with the end result and really hope you enjoy it as well. Thank you for your time!

Infinite thanks to Samuli Viikinen, Tommaso De Benetti (who helped facilitate the interview) and the rest of Recoil. For more information about the studio, you can check out their website right here. As for Rochard, it's available for download via PSN right now, so do yourself a favor, be one of the cool kids, and check it out!

Dark Souls, Batwoman, Animal Man and the Suicide Squad

2011-10-19T00:00:00.000-07:00

Games: I'm still putting a lot of time into Dark Souls. I decided to abandon my original Hunter and I've been focusing on my restart character, a Pyromancer. I've already surpassed the progress made on my first attempt, and it's only taken me about a third as long -- the game goes quite a bit quicker once you know what you're doing. That said, at this point I think I've put (total) a little over fifty hours into it, and I'm starting to feel as though a short break might be welcome.

When I had played Demon’s Souls, I had completed the game for the first time around the fifty hour mark. According to some people I've spoken with, my current position in Dark Souls (Anor Londo) is only halfway, or even a little bit less. I don't know if that's exactly true, but any way you slice it, that's a pretty huge increase in size, even taking into account the fact that I restarted with a new character. All of that content has come at a price, though.

The shift into open world design shown in Dark Souls certainly has value, but I miss the smaller, more focused levels in Demon’s Souls. In that game, it was more about smart combat and survival than it was about covering overly-labyrinthine areas and trying to find the correct path. There was definitely still a certain amount of exploration, but not nearly as much as is present in Dark. In exchange for smaller worlds, the developers did a fantastic job of pacing the action and guiding the adventure while never leading the player along by the nose. It all felt superbly crafted.

In Dark Souls, there are certainly some moments that call back to the greatness of Demon’s, but there were also plenty of times where I didn't know where to go or what to do, and the intensity of the game started to lag. I also think it's less exciting that the game now feels like the player is going to certain areas for no other purpose than to get a key or some item at the end in order to unlock the next area. The boss battles are still a rush for the most part and some sequences are great, but the filler/adrenaline ratio feels way off compared to the first game.

While what I've just described is certainly subject to debate, what's not is that Dark Souls has some technical issues that sully the experience. The framerate takes a dip in certain areas (especially those that have water) and most famously in the Blighttown area. I've also noticed other weird things like enemies falling through the floor and out of the world after they've been dispatched, and the most irritating thing is that there is often a brief delay between when I hit the attack button and when the attack executes. Half a second may not seem like a big deal, but when the enemies are so lethal and I'm aiming for a brief opening in their defenses, having my character sit there like a target dummy and taking hits I never should've taken rubs me the wrong way. Having less-than-total control over my character in a game such as this is flat-out not acceptable.

I'm not trying to tear the game down because I'm certainly enjoying it and I'm very grateful that a sequel to one of my favorite games of all time even exists, but I can't help but think that it needed a little more polish and a little more playtesting to really be what it should. It's really good, but it should be better.

Comics: I picked up a stack of stuff recently, and most of it was pretty good reading... Severed and Screamland (Image) continue to impress, as does Witch Doctor (Skybound).

Looking at other publishers, I've never been much of a DC Comics fan, but they caught my attention with their New 52 line and I've been giving many of them shot. I have to admit, though, I'm more than a little confused as to what the concept was.

Before the launch, I was under the impression that these 52 new #1s would be clean-slate starts, and the perfect place for new readers to jump on. While that seems to be true for some comics, I don't think it is for all… some of the books I picked up definitely build on old continuity that I am not familiar with, and I'm puzzled as to why. I mean, they caught my attention and I paid my money, but if the only thing going on is that an old series is now renumbered, I'm not going to stick around.

That complaint aside, some of these books are definitely worth checking out. The best of the bunch (so far) has been Animal Man #1. I've only been vaguely aware of this character's existence over the years, but this new book starts strong by giving a brief overview of the character, giving a quick demonstration of the character in action, and then quickly layering in a larger plot line and intrigue involving his daughter. This was some pretty adroit writing, and I'm definitely going to be following this book for while.

Another pleasant surprise was Suicide Squad #1&2. Again, this is a book I've heard of off and on over the years, but have never really read. Basically, a group of super-villains are recorded by a government agency to go on (wait for it…) suicide missions, and their cooperation is ensured by a bomb planted in all their necks. Fail to follow orders and BOOM. There is definitely a harsh edge to the writing that I appreciate, and their first mission (eradicating every single person inside a football stadium) was pretty crazy stuff.

I, Vampire #1 is apparently about a couple of vampires who have a long-standing relationship. The female of the pair seems sort of "unleashed" and embracing her nature, while the male is apparently a vampire who hunts other vampires. The narrative wasn't quite as solid as I would have liked, but I think there is the spark of some potential here.

Finally, I also took a look at Batwoman #1&2. Although I have read several Batman graphic novels, I don't read his books regularly and I don't really have much idea of what's going on in Gotham city currently. Apparently, a lot.

Batwoman is a very interesting character (competent superhero, lesbian, strong personality and unafraid to stand up to Batman) but I don't know much about her, who she is, or how she got to be Batwoman. There are several things in the book that appear to be references to past events, and I just don't know the history there.

This book is also quite interesting because the art style jumps back and forth between different modes. The coloring, specifically, goes back and forth between pages and gives the book a bit of an erratic feeling. On one page, it's vaguely watercolor-ish, on the next it seems to be Miller-esque, while Batwoman herself often has echoes of Steve Rude. Layouts of the pages are often confused as well… panel placement could be clearer at times.

I'm quite puzzled by the visually schizophrenic presentation, but I am intrigued by the character herself and I'm definitely willing to go along for the next issues to see where it leads.

Interview with: Niv Fisher, of SpikySnail Games on "The Splatters"

2011-10-16T15:46:00.000-07:00

At the most recent PAX, one of the smaller indie-sized games that caught my eye was a strange, almost unclassifiable project called The Splatters, about shooting colored blobs around small arenas and exploding them at every opportunity. It was a blast to play even if it’s a bit difficult to describe, and I’m quite pleased to share a brief interview with one of the developers, Niv Fisher of SpikySnail Games.

Thanks so much for talking with me, Niv. So, what can you tell us about SpikySnail? Who are you, what are your backgrounds, and how did you come up with the name?

SpikySnail is a new independent development studio located in Israel. It was founded by Sagi Koren and myself, but since the beginning we also had Alon Shama help iterate on the design. We all know each other from childhood so it was really fun and easy getting immediately to work. Daniel Ridner recently joined to help with coding which brings us to a total of 4 developers.

Being such a small studio means everybody needs to wear many hats, but at the core I'm a programmer with over 12 years experience doing a variety of things. Sagi is a very creative graphics artist and totally set the tone of the game visually. We all have significant contributions to the game's design.

The name SpikySnail is just one of the names we threw around but really caught on quickly. It fits our culture very well, we'd like to be a little 'extraordinary' and we also tend to do things more slowly, not because we're lazy or don't work fast - just because a lot of times if you're in a hurry the results suffer. But honestly the main criteria was we thought it had a nice ring to it and is unique enough to build a brand around.

Your game is called The Splatters. From screenshots, it’s a little tough to tell what’s happening. What’s it all about?

Yes, it's hard to know from screenshots and it's also hard to explain in words. The Splatters is a physics based action/puzzle game where you play a group of semi-suicidal, liquid filled, creatures with one purpose in life - blow up with style. The objectives of the game are very simple, you must clear out all the bombs from each stage using the Splatters you're given to use by splatting them in various ways. When the Splatters explode their liquid internals are spread and when that liquid hits a bomb it ignites. It sounds simple enough but it really is a quite challenging game.

The uniqueness of the game comes from its use of physics. We took a fairly complicated elastic/liquid physics model and designed gameplay mechanics around that system. The idea was to create a really vast possibility space for things to happen. But instead of going towards a puzzle direction, where you try various shots and directions until the physics simulation does something that works (ala Angry Birds) we wanted it to be a skill game, so we added a lot of real-time controls that you can use to manipulate the simulation as it unfolds. Of course the player is not aware of the ways he's manipulating physics, he is playing The Splatters and hopefully gets really good at it too!

When you gain some confidence with controlling the splatters you can start injecting style into your act. See, splatters have a very short life expectancy and figured their true calling in life is to put on the most spectacular splatter shows. So instead of clearing the stage in the most 'safe' or 'straightforward' way you need to get creative in the way you use the environment and the controls your are given. There are over 10 different stunts you can pull with your splatters each one is unique and each one will boost your show and your score. I'll give you a few examples to understand: If you impale your Splatter onto some spikes he immediately splats and when the liquid drips from the spikes onto the bombs you'll get what we call the "Rainy Day" stunt. If you ride a curly slippery part of the stage you get a "Slide" stunt. Or if you launch your Splatter into mid air slam him from there you get the "Air Strike" stunt.

The interesting bit here is that stunts combine in any conceivable way, so if you find that a certain slide leads you to some spikes that happen to be above some bombs. You can slam into that slide doing a "Slide" + "Rainy Day" combo. If you have enough skill you can try to "Air Strike" into that slide and generate a 3-way combo. But it's totally up to you to figure out what combos work on any given stage and we hope players will find combos we never thought about (actually, that already happened at PAX).

At PAX, you mentioned that you had learned your programming skills making medical simulators. That’s pretty unusual… How did that inform your design of The Splatters?

Most of my previous experience programming was done at a company called Simbionix where we developed 3D realtime surgery simulations for physician training. Sounds a bit dull compared to video games but actually has a lot in common on the tech side of things. Some of the algorithms we used there were quite unique and not often found in video games, there are very few video games that use elastic physics (or liquid physics) as a core game mechanic. There is reason for that, those systems are hard to stabilize and therefor risky if you want to count on them for actual gameplay, as opposed to using them merely as a visual effect.

So given I had all that experience I thought we could design a really cool game with those types of systems. It took us over a full year of design and iteration just to figure out how to do that, we wanted to deliver a game that is both fun, challenging and interesting and that is no easy task!

I think the result is quite extraordinary, basically we wanted players to feel their playing something unlike anything else - and I think we achieved that. I only hope people also see how deep and interesting this game can get and not dismiss it as a 'casual-angry-birds-with-liquids', cuz it's definitely not that -- which is also why were putting this onto XBLA, we want those hardcore gamers that enjoy a good game of skill, like Trials HD or even Pinball FX. We like to call our genre "Casual Extreme", because it combines the accessibility and relative simplicity of so called 'casual games' with a mechanic that allows for very skillful play where you can keep getting better at the game even after 20 hours of playing it.

Infinte thanks to Niv Fisher and the rest of SpikySnail Games for taking the time to talk with me. For more info, check them out at THEIR WEBSITE, and be sure to keep an eye out for The Splatters, hitting XBLA in early 2012!

Dark Souls - Hunter to Pyro

2011-10-15T02:06:00.000-07:00

Games: Just a quick Dark Souls check-in tonight.

With my Hunter character, I put about forty hours in and had just gotten to Sen’s Fortress before I decided that I wasn't happy with how my character was progressing. It wasn't terrible and it certainly wasn't awful to the point that I was unable to progress, but I just wasn't feeling great about the way I had built my character. I had a few regrets.

Starting a big, long-term RPG like this one (also see: Oblivion or Fallout 3) it's hard to know what your play style will eventually become, or what obstacles lay ahead. In fact, I've often thought that developers should give players at least one reallocation of skill points just because there are so many factors that you can't predict. Will there be a lot of locked doors, or won't there? Will I find many weapons that use STR, or is it wiser to invest in DEX? Should I take a chance on learning some Miracles, or would I be wiser to increase some other stat? Sometimes these things don't reveal themselves until several hours into an adventure, and at that point, it's entirely possible that a player has made decisions based on incomplete information that later turn out to be problematic.

Now don't get me wrong, I do think there is value in the permanence of some choices and I'm not asking for a constant do-over mode to erase every single mistake, but I think there's a difference between having good information and making an error, and having no information and making an error. With the reality being that I've got a job, a wife and family, responsibilities at GameCritics and a few other things going on, sometimes getting a little bit of respect from developers for the time I've put into their game is very appreciated.

Now, with all that stuff said, there is absolutely no re-spec option in Dark Souls that I know of. So, given that, my choices were to either stick it out or start over from scratch.

In most games, I think I would have chosen to stick it out until the end, put it on top of my ‘completed’ stack and move on, but since I'm such a huge Demon’s Souls fan and I've been looking forward to this game for quite a while, I didn't want to spend the rest of my play time with a character I wasn't 100% invested in... there is no sense in not enjoying the experience, and who knows if we'll get another sequel, so I decided to bite the bullet and start a new character just to see if that felt better.

(And just to be clear, I didn't erase my Hunter... that one is still available if I want to go back to it.)

I started a brand-new Pyromancer since I was curious about using magic, and I've been pretty happy with the choice so far. Apparently there are better spells that can be found later in the game, but at the moment, the stock fireball spell is close to what the firebomb item is. Essentially, it's a flaming grenade that you lob at an enemy for a pretty hefty chunk of damage and if any other enemies are very close by, there's a bit of splash. This ability has been very useful on the spear knights and the parrying knights, not to mention that it takes large bites out of bosses -- the first two demons went down like chumps, and most of the larger creatures are susceptible to it as well.

Interestingly, between the direct damage available from the fireball, better weapon choices and stat allocation, and my previous knowledge of the levels I've already been through with my Hunter, I was able to make it to the first Bell in about an hour -- and that was including some time to grind for souls. By way of comparison, the same journey took me about ten hours the first time due to dying, searching, exploring, and so on. I don't know that the rest of the game will continue at such a speedy pace, but I have no doubt that it will go by a lot quicker…

If you're not sick of hearing about this game and you'd like a little more, you can check out the most recent GameCritics Podcast HERE. We talk about our most secret videogame confessions, a couple of XBLI titles (Wizorb and Robotriot) and quite a bit about Dark Souls.

In addition, my good friend Sinan Kubba (@shoinan) is streaming a 24-hour playthrough of Dark Souls in an attempt to raise money for charity. You can click HERE and watch him get taken down by all sorts of creepy creatures in real-time. Better hurry, though… he's only doing it for a day.

By the way, Sinan also did our main review of Dark Souls as well. For a full review of the game from someone who's completed it, click HERE.

Dark Souls Tips, Shadow Hunters, Two DL Shows, and Occupy Wall Street

2011-10-12T01:20:00.000-07:00

Games: Still playing Dark Souls. I plan on doing the Second Opinion review at GameCritics so I'm trying not to say a whole lot about it here on the blog, but I have been putting quite a bit of time into it and I do think it's a pretty superb game. Is it better than Demon’s Souls? That's hard to say. If nothing else, I feel comfortable stating that the two are similar, yet neither one seems head-and-shoulders above the other. At least, not yet...

A couple of quick Dark Souls helpful tidbits:

- if you’re lost and you don't know where to go, open up your menu and start reading the descriptions of the keys in your inventory. Most of them give a general location, and if you are remember which you've used and which you haven't, they end up being pretty good clues as to where you should be heading to next.

- always carry a remove curse item.

- always carry a Homeward Bone (or two or three) since they can get you back to the most recent campfire instantly. If you are rich with souls and you're afraid you're about to get picked off by something lurking in the dark, use this item, level up, and then head back to where you were. The sting of death is a lot less painful if you just used up all your souls gaining a few levels.

- if you accidentally hit an NPC and they become hostile, you can leave the area without killing them and pay a certain character to turn them friendly again.

- in the Blighttown area, there are actually two campfires that can be activated. The second one is hard to spot if you're not looking in the right direction, but if you make it there and get the fire going, the area is much, much, much easier to finish since it acts as a checkpoint about half or two thirds of the way through. This particular part of the game suffers from a poor frame rate and there are lots of areas where it's quite easy to fall to your death, so save yourself some frustration and search out at second campfire.

The Instantly Twisted Shadow Planet DLC add-on called Shadow Hunters should be available on Xbox Live for 400 MSP by the time you read this. I covered it in depth HERE, so if you're a fan of this game (and really, who isn't?) make sure you check it out.

TV: I had no idea it was in the works, but apparently there is a Persona 4 anime that's pretty good. You can check out the first episode HERE for free.

I've also just discovered that the complete Torchwood: Miracle Day series is now available on Netflix for instant download. Looks like I know what I'll be doing this weekend...

Politics: I rarely, rarely talk about politics here at the blog, but @Kweenie posted this link today or two ago, and I found it a worthwhile read if for no other reason than I appreciated how clearly and distinctly the author talks about the current problem of a plutocracy ruining the United States for everyone else.

I don't have any problem with people being rich, but when small number of rich people arrange things so that they get richer while everyone else gets poorer, that's when the trouble starts. The way I see it, every empire eventually crumbles due to corruption at the top, and there's no reason in the world why our own country will be any different if the 'haves' can't rein in their greed and let other people have a chance to enjoy a decent quality of life.

Dark Souls, Rochard, The Walking Dead and Comics!

2011-10-07T20:17:00.000-07:00

Games: So after a wait that felt like forever, I finally got my hands on a copy of Dark Souls. I was waffling for a long time between the 360/PS3 versions, but after hearing framerate complaints from a few reviewers with 360 pre-release copies, I went PS3.

I'm about six hours into the game or so, and progress is relatively slow although it's been a very rich experience so far.Interestingly (and granted, I'm still quite early) it doesn't seem so much like a true sequel to Demon’s Souls, so much as it feels like a modified and expanded reboot.

Although there have been several changes to the formula, players already familiar with Demon’s will recognize several areas and situations that are extremely familiar. That's not to say it's a bad thing at all, since Demon’s Souls is one of my favorite games of all time, but I am a little surprised at how much seems lifted straight from the first game.

In any event, here’s a quick list of things that are different for those of you who haven't jumped into Dark Souls yet:

>The game’s sections have been redesigned to be one huge, interconnected world. Although there is a "starting point", there is no more hub and each level must be traveled to -- there are no warp-enabled Archstones from which to select.

>players can carry infinite items, level up and repair weapons at the campfires scattered throughout the world -- since there’s no Nexus to return to, all of those functions have been redesigned to be utilized on the go.

>Players come equipped with an “Estus Flask” that's used to restore life as needed, and it's refilled every time the player returns to a campfire.

>One semi-spoilery difference that was quite a surprise to me was that boss-level monsters often drop special weapons and/or armor depending on whether or not the player hits them in a certain area. I won't say any more than that, but be aware that it's a thing to consider when taking on the bigger bad guys.

I won't say any more for the moment, but from most accounts, the game is somewhere in the neighborhood of 50-70 hours... I'm sure I'll be mentioning it again here before long.

Games: A quick shout-out for PSN’s Rochard. I've written the review and I'm planning to try and get an interview with the development team, but in the meantime, do yourself a favor and just buy it... it's a 2D platformer using physics and gravity effects, and it's really, really well-done.

In fact, some of the puzzles are just perfect -- they definitely make you think, but none are so hard that you'll go running to GameFAQs, which for me, is just the way they should be. It's certainly one of the best download games I've spent time with this year and Sony is doing an awful job of PR with it. I'll post links to my coverage when it goes up, but trust me when I say that it is well worth the $10 asking price.

TV: If you're a Walking Dead fan (and really, who’s not?) pop on over to AMC’s website and watch the brand new six-episode web-only series.

This quickie tells the backstory of the crawling torso-only zombie that Rick goes out of his way to lay to rest way back in episode one. It's a neat callback and it's free, so when you've got twenty minutes or so, it's a good fix until the season starts.

Comics: I've been meaning to post more about comics, but it's been one thing after another and I’ve been putting it off for far too long. So, as a way of re-kick-starting my comics coverage, I've got guest blogger @Nightdreamer (a GameCritics regular for many years) covering three of the recent DC reboot titles.

@Nightdreamer sez…

Swamp Thing #1 -- Here’s one that I just could not get into.

Scott Snyder's 10-issue run in Detective Comics 871-881 -- which I recommend -- reveals his writing chops for evoking terrifying imagery. Having read Swamp Thing's legendary Alan Moore run, I was led to think that a good Swamp Thing story has to be creepy, surrealist, and full of symbolism. So, the logical conclusion is that horror-writer Snyder should fit Swamp Thing perfectly. He might, and maybe I'm just not seeing things clearly, but I could not read Swamp Thing 1 without feeling befuddled.

So let me see if I'm getting this right: Swamp Thing (originally) was a metamorphosis of the scientist Alec Holland, but Alan Moore rewrote him as a botanical creature imbued with a dead Alec Holland's memory. Then during (the excruciatingly awful) Brightest Day event, Alec Holland was revived and became one and the same with Swamp Thing. Now with the 52 relaunch, Scott Snyder has Alec Holland as independent from Swamp Thing, but they share memories?!

Sorry, but as competently done as Swamp Thing 1 is for an introduction, I don't think I have the mental capacity or the willingness to digest Swamp Thing's super-convoluted lore.

Batgirl #1

When word came out that DC Comics was reverting Barbara Gordon from Oracle to Batgirl, comic fans on the Internet went wild. So DC managed to placate the Internet - no small feat, that - by tying the Internet's favorite author, Gail Simone, to Batgirl's solo title.

This was DC's big misstep. DC has a pattern of creating diverse characters, and then removing them and/or losing whatever made them progressive. Cases in point: Ryan Choi (Asian, dead), Cassandra Cain (Asian, replaced by white Stephanie Brown), and Amanda Waller, a tough-as-nails character who lost her distinction as the rare overweight female in comics.

Babs Gordon is among the latest victims. As Oracle, the hacker and information broker vital to many other superheroes from DC, she was a prominent disabled character in comics. Having returned as Batgirl, she became another chatty female crimefighter following the same character archetype as the previous Batgirl, Stephanie Brown. While DC's reasoning for Babs regaining her role is due to her version of Batgirl being the most recognizable, why did they put her in an ugly, changed version of her iconic costume? And if DC was really trying to draw in new readers, why isn't Batgirl 1 an origin story like Batgirl: Year One?

All controversies aside, Batgirl 1 is remarkably awful.

The first error is DC's attempt to reconcile Babs' history as Oracle to the new continuity. In Alan Moore's "The Killing Joke", the Joker shot Babs and paralyzed her from the waist down. According to Batgirl 1, all that still happened, but Babs did not become Oracle due to her determination to make a difference despite her paraplegia.

What we have now is Babs restoring the use of her legs because three months after the hit, because MIRACLES! Comics are rife with them! MIRACLES are so common, in fact, that they don't even warrant a ridiculous explanation anymore! We don't see otherworldly forces interfering with history, or Bruce Wayne bargaining with the devil to get Babs to walk again. She just regains the use of her legs through positive thinking and we're expected to go along with it, because that is the power of MIRACLES!

Beyond this, Batgirl 1 is just a generic story about a new foe in Gotham. Excessively chatty Batgirl excessively chats to the readers about her self-confidence, until she freezes up when the new foe aims his gun where Joker previously shot her. While she’s shocked, the new foe tosses a different person out of the window. A policeman standing besides Babs (aiming a gun at the foe a moment ago) now aims at Babs and blames her for the murder of the newly defenestrated! Instead of, you know, shooting the bad guy!

Make sense of that if you can!

Batwing #1

Batwing first emerged from the pages of Batman Inc. #5, a comic series where Bruce Wayne expands his Bat franchise.

Among the members of the (terribly written, incidentally) Batman Inc. is an African Batman, named Batwing. DC decided to star Batwing in his own solo title, probably because he’s a perfect clean slate character -- there really is no slate to clean! Batwing exists to protect a real-world country that’s more corrupt than a fictitious Gotham City, and Gotham City's corruption is confined only by imagination. (Meaning: Africa's corruption exceeds your imagination!)

The disappointment with Batwing is its predictability. Think of stories or movies purposefully set in Africa to portray its poverty, and you'd have a good chance of predicting what you'll see in Batwing. That predictability extends to Batwing's alter ego, David Zamvimbi -- the lone person of integrity in a landscape of corruption.

Also to be expected is the uncompromising depiction of violence, and Batwing shows severed limbs and heads. Despite that, though, I liked Batwing's concept because it draws parallels between Gotham City and Africa. As a lone, incorrigible figure of authority, Batwing is a combination of Batman and Commissioner Gordon, which is interesting.

While nothing I read in Batwing blew me away (and I'm not really anxious for #2) at least it's one of DC's new 52 that shows enough promise to get me to stick to it until it starts to suck!

That’s it for tonight. Mega-thanks to @Nightdreamer for contributing!

No update tonight...

2011-10-06T00:51:00.001-07:00

...I FINALLY got my hands on a copy of Dark Souls. Check back tomorrow. ^_^

Hands-On Preview - Containment: the Zombie Puzzler (iPad/Mac/PC)

2011-10-03T01:20:00.000-07:00

Games: A while ago, I covered the Seattle Indie Expo (you can read about it here, in case you missed it) and I was blown away by the quality of the games being shown. Every one looked fantastic, but one that really caught my attention was Containment: the Zombie Puzzler.

Developed by my hometown neighbors Bootsnake Games, the good people of that studio were kind enough to invite me and several other members of PNWJournos down to their offices for an up-close-and-personal session with the title. Our verdict after two hours? Loved it. (By the way, there's a great trailer for the game on the Bootsnake site, BUT the graphics look much better now -- that's an earlier version shown.)

If you haven't heard the details yet, Containment is a brilliant new puzzler with a very unique slant: in addition to being an unusual match-type game, it's also about surviving the zombie apocalypse.

Here's how it works...

Each board in Containment takes place in a particular environment. Rather than having a standard static playfield, matches happen in the street, near gas stations, between wrecked cars, and a number of other locations.

on the roof...

Every round starts with a large group of people and zombies mixed together. The goal of the game is to eliminate all zombies from the playfield (naturally.) This is done by surrounding them on all sides with people of the same type -- effectively, “containing" them. The game offers Scientists, Policeman, Anarchists, and Military characters, each with their respective colors. When enough people of the same type make a circle around the undead, they unleash an attack and annihilate them with extreme prejudice.

This by itself would be more than enough for the average puzzle game, but Bootsnake has really gone above and beyond in adding elements that make the game stand out.

For example, each group of characters award special power-up items when they're used to make a match. Kill some zombies with the Police, and players can call in a sniper to eliminate any one zombie from the board. Eliminate the undead with the Anarchists and Molotov Cocktails are produced, exploding with flame and burning in a random pattern.

...and down below.

Further sweetening the experience are the environmental interactions that take place in each area. The player can knock over garbage cans or open dumpsters for random rewards, and there are often explosive canisters or damaged signs hanging overhead that can be knocked down into the playfield to crush zombies. Even better, the developers say that there are multiple pathways through the game depending on what action the player takes in the world. In one level I had the option to blow up a building’s structural support -- if I demolished it, no further zombies would be able to enter the playfield, but no human reinforcements would be able to arrive either. I decided to go for it, and found out that my route to the end of the level had changed since that road was now effectively "closed" due to the damage.

Another way that the game reinforces the concept of being "in" a world is at zombies will often wander into the playfield from other parts of the level. If the current puzzle is set in the street, the undead can come from any direction that a path is open. They also sometimes drop into the playfield from the rooftops above, and if zombies are left on the board for too long, they’ll attack nearby characters and turn them undead as well. Having to contend with several real-time elements in addition to the concentration that’s needed to match correct characters on the board gives the game to feel that much more intense than the average puzzler. It's almost like combat.

Although details are not final, Containment: the Zombie Puzzler is slated for release before the end of 2011 on iPad, Mac and PC, and will cost approximately $5. Players taking the plunge can expect a story-based campaign running for approximately 6 hours, including several different locations to play through and a number of boss-class zombie battles to survive. There will also be a more traditional "survival" mode for those who just want to puzzle without going through the campaign again.

at the renfaire!

If you ask me, truly unique puzzle games are few and far between, but Containment: the Zombie Puzzler caught my attention from the first time I laid eyes on it, and after getting two solid hours to put it through its paces, I can honestly say that I was not disappointed. If you read this blog with any regularity, you probably know that I'm not the biggest fan of PC gaming for a number of reasons, but I have been known to do so for special titles that shouldn't be missed. Containment: the Zombie Puzzler is absolutely on my radar, and I'm going to be there on day one.

If you read all the way to the bottom of this preview? You should be too.

[REDCATED] and Dead Space 2... DOUBLE SNOOZE!

2011-09-30T01:07:00.000-07:00

Games: I was quite surprised when a copy of [REDACTED] showed up at the office the other day. Totally unrequested and arriving out of the blue, it was a real treat to open the envelope and see what was inside… My excitement didn't last long, though.

Since the game is still under embargo, I can't share any specific info, but I will say that the way [REDACTED] turned out isn't really a surprise considering some of the comments made by people involved in its development.

Honestly, I put about an hour into it before booting it out of my 360 and calling it done. I won't be reviewing it, and I'm pretty glad about that. The thought of having to put more time in is not appealing at all.

I suppose most I can say about it is that it starts off on the wrong foot, the story is quickly shown to be an ignored afterthought, and the general design feels free of inspiration and totally by-the-numbers. If [REDACTED] had shown up two or three years ago, I probably would have been more impressed. As it stands (and based on the hour I played) it seems extremely late to the party.

After putting [REDACTED] aside, I moved on to Dead Space 2. It wasn't high on my list of things to play this year, but I've heard several people say that it was a serious contender as their GOTY, and several more say that it's going to be on their top ten of 2011. After getting through about a third of it, I can’t imagine why anyone would think so highly of it.

Of course, it's quite beautiful and very polished. Based on looks alone, it's certainly impressive. However, I've never been a critic that's been easily swayed by graphics. Once the pretty is pulled away, it's basically a predictable corridor shooter that relies heavily on jump scares and back-attacks to get the best of players.

If you read my Dead Space review, then you'll know that I wasn't too high on the first game. However, in comparing the two, I'd have to say that I think I actually prefer the first one over the sequel. Dead Space 2 (so far, anyway) feels like a retread that's heavier on the combat and doesn't significantly change or improve anything.

Like I said, I've only seen about a third of the game so my opinion may change as I get further in, but... I kind of doubt it.

Why my 4 is your 9 – A little piece on the unspoken three-tier review system.

2011-09-27T22:18:00.000-07:00

So... reviews and review scores. It’s crazy stuff, right?

Anyone who plays games has their own opinion on the right and wrong way to do a review, and oddly, it's tougher than you’d think to find two people who agree on what a good review is -- or how it should be scored. Anyone who spends five minutes on the Internet knows this to be true, but if there’s ever a need for further proof, just get a group of gamers together, pick any review, and an argument will break out in a matter of moments.

Reviews, scores, opinions, and biases... what does it all mean, how can we wrangle all of these things together into some coherent form that will make sense -- and why does talking about the subject get so many people worked up?

As someone who’s been writing game reviews and other random stuff over the last twelve years, I think it's fair to say that I've been thinking a little bit about the subject. I don't claim to be an expert by any means and I'm not trying to assert that I have the "right" answer, but I've seen the same themes and arguments brought up time and time again, and in my view, they often boil down to one common issue:

A review is not a review… except when it is.

What could that possibly mean? Well, there’s a lot of games-oriented writing out there, and it seems to me that too much of it is lumped under the catch-all category of "reviews." However, that's not a very accurate term in light of the reality, and putting apples and oranges in the same bag leads to a lot of friction when discussions arise. While I think human nature and subjective opinion play a large part of that (and always will), I think an even larger part is the fact that there are many ideas about what a review actually is, what one should be, and what the ratings numbers represent.

So, what is a review?

Looking at the types of writing that fall under that umbrella, I think "reviews" can be divided into three broad categories.

Category 1: Consumer Advice.

This is a standard list of features that most reviewers start with when they begin their writing career, and it's the sort of template that many people look for when trying to decide whether or not to purchase a game. Consumer Advice pieces tend to break themselves up into categories like Graphics, Sound, Gameplay, Replayability, and so on, each with their own score.

This is the kind of writing that I tend to call the "laundry list" because its reason for being is to act as a long-form checklist of features and content. I don't notice much critical examination in pieces like this, outside of brief, unsubstantiated judgments like "the graphics here are awesome" or "the sound effects of the guns really blew me away".

At the end, there’s usually a cumulative score which may or may not be a numerical average of the previous categories, or some sort of buy/rent/avoid summation.

Category 2: The Critique.

The Critique concerns itself with deciding whether or not a game is successful based on its own merits. This is done by examining various parts of it, why they work, or why they don't. Comparing a particular title with others in the same genre is common, and writers in this category tend to be quite knowledgeable about specific development studios and/or the developers themselves.

Critique pieces often select certain technical aspects to discuss, but they aren't burdened with the obligation of mentioning every single part of the game. Additionally, non-technical elements are often woven into the text, such as the merits and quality of characterization, overall themes in the story, and so on.

Critiques are meant to judge the success of the game itself, and are not a strict buy/don’t buy metric for purchase. These types of pieces often have numerical scores, but most authors in this vein will say that they'd rather not have them.

Category 3: The Think Piece (a.k.a – The Meditation)

Think Pieces are a different sort of beast than the previous two categories. In general, they are pieces of writing that often exist to illustrate a personal experience, or to communicate how the author related to the subject material without getting into the minutiae of framerate comparisons, number of features, multiplayer options, and so on.

These types of pieces often have some sort of intellectual conceit or trickery to them; one might be written in the voice of a character from the game being discussed, one might exist as a first-person player narrative describing a particularly emotional scene, or the author may relate a personal anecdote from their real life and draw comparisons to issues raised in what they're playing. There is a much wider range in the form and structure of a Think Piece than the previous two categories, and they are not limited to the examples I've outlined here. As a way of further illustrating the kind of free-form structure of these pieces may take, I think this piece on Infinity Blade or this one on LA Noire are great examples.

Authors who are thoughtful and creative enough to thrive in this category are usually clear in insisting that their work is not meant as a "review" or evaluation, but there are certainly times when such pieces end up with numerical scores at the end and make their way to one of the review aggregate sites. Ideally, these pieces should not carry a score.

I freely admit that the categorizations I'm putting forth here are painted with extremely broad strokes, but the conversation has to start somewhere and I see this as a first step.

If for the sake of argument these categories can be accepted as a given (at least for the time it takes you to finish reading this piece) then all the disagreements and rancor that spring up from conversations about review scores and "good" or" bad" reviews start to make a little more sense... after all, someone in need of Consumer Advice will be totally dissatisfied with a Think Piece, and someone wanting to sink their teeth into a Critique might see a Think Piece as capriciously weightless, or a Consumer Advice breakdown as ignorant of deeper examination. With these three types of writing lumped together and all of it called a "review", is it any wonder why no one can agree to a proper scoring system, or how to use one?

(…And of course, these issues are apart from the abuse of Metacritic by tying compensation to numbers, or of the pressures placed on reviewers by publishers or their employers with revenue at stake – not to mention the pervasive mindset of many that a score of 8 is ‘average’. All of these are entirely separate discussions.)

So what’s the point of all this?

The point is to say let's start acknowledging (and accepting) the fact that the giant rootball of “reviews” is actually comprised of distinctly different styles of writing catering to distinctly different audiences. They all serve their own purposes and none is inherently better than the rest, so let's stop using the word "review" to describe all of them and start operating with different expectations – under such a way of thinking, it would make total sense (and be explainable) for one game to score a 9 for a Consumer Advice breakdown and a 4 if Critiqued.

Maybe once we get our foundations laid properly, we can start to clear the air about how to properly discuss games, and in what context… In my view, any sort of action towards that goal is long, long overdue.

Back in action

2011-09-25T01:50:00.000-07:00

Well, it's been quite some time since I updated the blog... my apologies go out to all of my regular readers. I try my best to post something at least every two or three days, but the last couple of weeks have really been pretty crushing. I've heard some people say that "life gets in the way", and I suppose that's been true as of late.

Anyway, thanks for tuning back in after so much dead air. I'm hoping to get back on track and begin posting regularly again, so here we go!

Games: I just finished Dead Island a day or two ago (playing on 360) and I have to say that I had a fantastic time with it.

I'm currently in the process of finalizing my Second Opinion review, but here is @GC_Danny’s take on it in the meantime. Personally, I think he's a little too hard on it, but I see where he's coming from. My breakdown will be much more positive, and the game will absolutely earn itself a spot on my year-end Top Ten. In fact, I liked it so much that I completed every single sidequest in the entire game, and that's not something that I do very often...

In other games news, I spent some time with El Shaddai: Ascension of the Metatron today and I really did not like it.

Well, I suppose I should explain... the graphics were fantastic. The level of style and imagination was superb, and every minute spent in the worlds of that title felt like some kind of trippy hallucination. Words cannot describe the kind of visuals happening there. On the other hand, no game can exist on the quality of its visuals alone, and El Shaddai is a perfect example of that.

I have a very hard time understanding how the developers thought the overly-simplistic gameplay (one button for attack, a small number of repeated enemy types) would be enough to carry a full retail game. Within an hour, I was already tired of fighting the same opponents, and there's nothing entertaining at all about pounding on the X button to perform the same combos over and over again. Throw in level designs that are little more than long hallways and platforming that's twice as difficult as it needs to be thanks to the surreal visuals, and you've got a formula for unhappy times.

The game is stunningly beautiful, but there's just no excusing such shallow play.

Coming from the ‘OMFG’ department, I was quite excited to see that Treasure’s Radiant Silvergun finally became available for download on XBLA.

Younger players have probably never heard of it, but it was one of those "holy grail" games back in the day… it never got localized for the United States, so people in shmup circles were grief-ridden that they were missing out on what was allegedly one of the best shooters ever made.

Of course, it was available as an import for a little while, but prices soon skyrocketed and it quickly rose beyond the reach of the average gamer, including myself. Back then, it was quite common to hear of the game going for between $200-$400, and a quick peek at eBay shows that there are several copies still in that price range. At the time, I figured that it would get localized sooner or later, and being patient would pay off.

...Of course, I had no idea that it would take THIRTEEN YEARS to get localized, but hey, it's here now!

After putting a couple of hours into it, I definitely think that certain aspects of it are utterly brilliant. It's also hard as hell, and it's been quite some time since I've had to use my shmup skills in any meaningful way. I am quite rusty, so I haven't made much progress. I plan to keep at it, though.

For those of you who plan to check it out, I was tipped off by GC reader Sleeveboy that playing in Story Mode and saving to the same file lets players level-up their weapons and earn extra lives as a way of dealing with the stiff difficulty. His tip was on the money, and I would suggest that anyone else do the same.

Finally, just a quick reminder to everyone that Dark Souls will be launching on 360/PS3 on October 4.

After much back-and-forthing and a couple of check-ins with my Twitter people, I decided to go PS3… it really sucks to have to choose which console to get a game for, since no matter which one I choose, there will inevitably be a number of people who I would like to play with but won't be able to.

Argh.

Anyway, game looks amazing, etc. etc. Can’t wait!

Comics: I haven't forgotten about the second part of my comics update, but I had to put it on the back burner for the moment. If everything goes according to plan, look for that in my next post.

Placeholder Post

2011-09-22T02:28:00.000-07:00

Apologies for the lack of updates. The last fourteen-ish days have been so slammed-busy that they've allowed me the least amount of free time I think I've ever had, pretty much EVER. Ever.

Ever.

Hoping things are gonna slow down in the next few days so I can get back to a more normal schedule... The next blog update will be part two of my comics rundown with a guest blogger chipping in, and then probably more game stuff to come afterwards.

Side note: We'll be recording anther GameCritics podcast this weekend. Got any topics you're burning to hear us discuss? Let me know!

In the meantime, Dead Island is still awesome (it's been pretty well patched by now, so don't be afraid to jump in) and our family bought an annual pass to the Woodland Park Zoo, so I see a lot of penguins and elephants in our future.

Thanks for hanging in there with me. Back soon!

A Comics Rundown!

2011-09-16T01:04:00.000-07:00

Comics: For a change of pace tonight, I decided to read through my long-neglected stack of comics and see what was what. Here's the rundown...

>Invincible, The Walking Dead, Halcyon, The Sixth Gun… these are some of my most regular reads, I've mentioned them before, and they’re all still going strong. I give all four of these books a hardcore Recommend. Just buy 'em already.

>Bone. If you know anything about comics at all, it's pretty likely that you've heard about this series from Jeff Smith. It's won pretty much every award possible, has great art and characters, and is a fun read for both kids and adults. I went through large chunks of it with my oldest son and he loved it, but he would keep on reading after I put him in bed. As a result, I ended up missing out on large parts of the story. Fixing that now. Recommended.

>Witch Doctor #1,2. This is a really fun, really dark four-issue limited series about a doc who cures people of their supernatural ailments in brutal ways. The thing that really interested me were the fresh takes on things like vampires, fairies, and so on. The names might be the same, but the interpretations of these creatures are quite new. Recommended.

>Carbon Grey #1. After asking my local comic shop guy (what up, Scott!) about this book, he tells me that it's selling like gangbusters. I asked him if he knew what the hell it was about, and he couldn't say. To be honest, I can't tell you either. I took a chance due to the stunning artwork, but after a read-through, it strikes me as all-style, no-substance. There's some nonsense about a quasi-Nazi regime, matching imagery, lots of blood, loads of half-naked women... I can't really make heads or tails of it, though. Not recommended.

>50girls50 #1. I have to say, I'm a little embarrassed that I bought this. I'm a big Frank Cho fan, so the cover and his name as a writer convinced me, but it seems like a lightweight T&A sci-fi romp with little else going for it. That might have been enough back when I was sixteen, but it's not enough to convince me to pick up the next issue. Not recommended.

>Severed #1. Out of the whole stack I read, this one impressed me the most. The artwork is moody, utilizing ashen tones and a good balance between detail and impression. This book tells the story of a boy who runs away from home to join the service during (I'm guessing) the Great Depression. At the same time, a different boy is adopted from an orphanage... unfortunately, once the boy is away from the safety of the orphanage, things don't go very well... I'm eagerly looking forward to the second issue. Recommended.

> Rachel Rising #1. I've been a big Terry Moore fan ever since Strangers in Paradise, and this new series is apparently his take on a non-traditional zombie story. I love his art and he's got some of the best storytelling in the business, in terms of characters that actually display human feelings and responses. On the other hand, I have to be brutally honest and say that his work feels padded lately. As I was reading through his previous run (Echo) I often found myself waiting to read them until I had at least four or five issues in-hand since I didn't feel as though I got very much story from each issue. I still love the guy’s work, but at $4 a pop, I expect a little more substance. At this point, it's a tentative Recommended.

>Nonplayer #1. Apparently everybody in the world had heard about this book before I did, but it's an absolutely beautiful story about people playing a futuristic MMO. The artwork is just phenomenal and the story hooked me right away. Apparently it takes the creator forever and a day to craft each issue (comic shop guy Scott tells me the plan is for one new book every six months) but if all the issues are going to be of this quality, I'm down with that. As a side note, it seems as though Hollywood has already snapped up the movie rights… impressive. Recommended.

>Jennifer Blood #1, 2, 3. If you ask me who my favorite comics writer is, there's a pretty good chance that I would say Garth Ennis on any given day. However, I've been a little disappointed in this book. Telling the story of a cold-blooded assassin who masquerades as a housewife, I haven't found a lot to keep my interest. A lot of talking, some killing... nothing really stands out after three issues, so I won't be coming back for a fourth. Not recommended.

>Screamland #1. A wildly fun read, this book is based on the idea that movie monsters are real monsters, and they have ups and downs just like anyone else. In the first issue, the creature from the Black Lagoon kills himself in a hot tub full of cocaine and leaves behind a copy of a long-lost porn movie. Someone doesn't want that movie to be shown, and is willing to kill to prevent it. The art matches the subject matter perfectly, and the writers are on the mark. Recommended.

I've got a few more comics to talk about, so look for part two of my comics rundown in the next update.

Hands-On Preview: Insanely Twisted Shadow Hunters!

2011-09-13T23:01:00.000-07:00

Games: Last friday, a small group organized by @PNWJournos (pnwjournos.com) was invited to the Fuelcell Games studios for a sneak peek at upcoming DLC for one of the 2011’s best titles, XBLA’s Insanely Twisted Shadow Planet.

Hosted by Joe Olson, John Scrapper and Michel Gagne, the event gave our journos (including myself) the honor of being the first people outside the studio to try out Insanely Twisted Shadow Hunters, and it did not disappoint.

Structured as an addition to the main game similar to the already-included Lantern Run mode, Shadow Hunters changes things up by incorporating many more elements taken directly from the campaign, while still offering an experience all its own. Essentially, it can be best summed up by a comparison – if Lantern Run was about split-second reactions and speed, Shadow Hunters is about teamwork and risk/reward.

This new mode begins with a cutscene that picks up exactly where the final scene of Shadow Planet left off. Although players who completed the campaign can feel proud that they cleansed the globe of evil “shadowsauce”, as the camera pulls back, it's revealed that there is still a ring of asteroids corrupted by the darkness. Clearly, the player’s work is not done.

Up to four players can hop into their own customizable saucers and head out into the series of large rocks in orbit. Once the game begins, players must tow a large light bomb to the core of the current asteroid. It’s similar to carrying the lantern around, with a few twists; first, the bomb has a final destination. Second, the bomb has abilities, unlike the inert lanterns. After acquiring a powerup, the bomb can activate a cannon mounted on its rear for self-defense. It can also generate a large shield, rendering it (and anything within the shield) invincible for a limited time – it’s great for making a quick push towards the goal.

Structurally, each level is a small world complete with respawn points, combat arenas, and powerups to earn. However, the catch is that the light bomb has a running timer counting down towards ‘splodesville. The time can be recharged by reaching certain points, but the pressure of being on a clock never goes away. Players must balance the bomb’s impending doom with the potential reward of earning weapons, shield upgrades or other helpful items found through exploration.

Another place Shadow Hunters varies from Lantern Run is the inclusion of bosses at the core of each asteroid. It’s not enough to just get the bomb to the goal in time, players also have to finish off the guardian before claiming victory. Interestingly, the bomb loses time when hit, so even during boss battles at least one player must care for it and shepherd it around to avoid attacks. If everyone focuses on the boss, it’s all too easy for the bomb to get banged up and go kablooey before it’s desired.

Despite the differences, there’s one place where Shadow Hunters is similar to Lantern Run – it’s hard. Though the version we played was still in the process of being tweaked, Fuelcell stated that the extra modes were intended to be more ‘hardcore’ than the more easygoing campaign. Players who take the time to learn the intricacies of the design will certainly get more out of it, and more casual saucer pilots should be prepared for a stiffer level of difficulty than might be expected.

At the time of the hands-on, there was no official launch price or release date for Insanely Twisted Shadow Hunters. However, when asked, Fuelcell stated that this DLC will likely be the last addition to the game. Although they weren’t able to disclose any info on their next project, Gagne mentioned that he was ready to tackle a different visual style and leave silhouettes behind. Expect the next Fuelcell project to be a change of pace for the studio, both in terms of gameplay and visuals.

Infinite thanks to Joe Olson, John Scrapper, Michel Gagne, and the rest of Fuelcell Games. Look for Insanely Twisted Shadow Hunters to hit XBLA in the near future, and if you see me online, feel free to hit me up for some co-op!

PAX Prime 2011 - The photos

2011-09-10T02:26:00.000-07:00

Games: It’s a little overdue, but to finally close out my PAX Prime 2011 coverage, enjoy this handful of photos I took in and around the show. Comments on each pic!

This Skyrim dragon was absolutely HUGE... This picture does not do justice to the sheer size of it at all.

One of the broke-ass hoopties from Rage. They get awful mileage.

This was as much of Bioshock Infinite as I got to see. The line to get in was ridiculous.

Come on now, those little legs really can't support that fatty torso.

This is where pineapples come from.

Truly a bad-ass costume, but it had to have been hot as hell in there.

The booth for GOG.com had actual grandmas baking hot cookies for passersby. Best. Booth. EvAr.

Just one of 42,000,000 Star Wars cosplayers.

He's clearly casting an Interrupt.

GET OVER HERE!!!

This Marcus statue had a dedicated guard sitting just slightly off-camera all day long. Felt REALLY sorry for that guy. It must have been the most boring assignment in the world.

I recognize The Tick and The Moth, but the others? Uhh.....

That big piece of gear behind the figures moved and pounded LOUDLY, as though it was actually terraforming the show.

So gross.

This group had actually sent out an email blast advertising FREE BEER at their gathering. Apparently the PR company repping them didn't 'get' the whole religious connection going on. An amended email (minus the beer) came almost immediately after.

Will eviscerate for food.

Another really cool 'needs help to go to the restroom' getup.

Best MK cosplayers of the show. They didn't have the most detailed costumes, but when the middle guy busted out that Friendship, I had to applaud.

The bathroom he just came out of is now 100% free of necromorphs.

Kind of hard to tell from this angle, but this Tank from L4D2 was enjoying a mocha.

These folks were doing zombie makeup for showgoers, and they were doing an *amazing* job.

My last game came out when?

This guy's costume was much less impressive after he jumped off the third-floor balcony and his wings failed to open.

Kimahri says: THANKS FOR COMING TO PAX!!!

That's it for PAX coverage this year. As always, it was a phenomenal experience and one of my favorite times of the year. If you've never been, I'd strongly encourage you to go... There is literally nothing else like it!

Dead Island Impressions

2011-09-09T02:47:00.000-07:00

Games: Been putting some time into Dead Island, so I figured I’d throw out some random impressions for those who are curious.

To start with, there is no doubt that this game is buggy.

It's not terrible (and from what I gather, it doesn't seem to be on-par with the number of unhappy reports that plagued Fallout: New Vegas) but there are quite a few issues that crop up. To be fair, most of them are pretty minor... things like picking up a certain weapon and having that weapon’s icon replaced with a giant red pixel, or trying to track down a minor quest item and having the map direct you to the center of a swimming pool with nothing in it.

On the other hand, my comrade @GC_Danny is much further in the game than I am, and from what he's suggested, the game starts to fall apart in more serious ways as the player gets closer to completion.

That makes a fair bit of sense since not very many people ever finish games, and if the developers made sure to polish the first few hours as much as possible, that would buy them some time to come back and finish the endgame later. I can't say that I’ve seen any of the problems that Dan has reported (glitched quests that can't be completed, an escort mission that respawns players in a location surrounded by enemies, and so on.) However, I did hit a save glitch that basically erased an hour’s worth of playtime… I regained lost ground pretty quickly, but the fact remains that such issues should never occur.

So is the game all bad? Should you stay far away? No, not at all... while it might be wise to wait another week or two for the inevitable patches to come, when the game works it's a fantastic experience.

The island of Banoi is a massive location, and players are free to roam at-will. At the moment I'm still in the beach resort area, but from what I gather there are several other large chunks of real estate to be discovered. No one can say that this is a small game. Having lived briefly on an island myself, I was impressed with the way the landscape was modeled and much of the territory felt "correct," if that makes sense.

Also, as a fan of zombies in general, I've always been disappointed that no game has ever really captured the sense of being a survivor surrounded by the undead, having to scavenge for materials, canvassing abandoned buildings, or banding together with survivors. Some games have certainly captured elements of this classic zombie formula, but none have nailed it. While there are a few things I would change about Dead Island, I think it comes closer than any other game I've played to what I would imagine a "real" zombie apocalypse would be like.

It may seem tedious or perhaps a little less than exciting, but picking your way through an empty hotel lobby and searching bags for usable items helps establish a desperate atmosphere. Even better, it's great to enter an unknown area in search of supplies only to hear survivors screaming for help from a nearby bungalow. Happening upon people in dire circumstances (who are definitely worse off than yourself) and helping them out is quite satisfying, and again reinforces the feeling of banding together in times of need.

I've also really enjoyed the way the game takes some normal locations and turns them into puzzles of a sort, without completely destroying the believability of the situation. For example, I came across a fortified cabin with a non-infected person asking my help to get inside. After a bit of searching, I figured out how to get over the wall and unlocked the doors from within. In another area, power lines were down and created a deadly pool of electrified water. Although it was definitely a contrived situation put there to make the player work a little bit, it wasn't outside the realm of possibility and didn't gag me with over-the-top gamey-ness.

As far as the story goes, it's still early days but I've been quite satisfied with what I've gotten so far. As expected, the bulk of quests have been about fetching materials that are required to help send out a distress signal, finding lost relatives, or gathering food and survival supplies for survivors holed up in one of the island’s few “safe” areas. It's not Shakespeare, but it's very appropriate for the subject material and provides me with more than enough motivation to get out there and decapitate some undead. By way of comparison, if Borderlands (which some people have said Dead Island is similar to) had made even a third of the effort that Dead Island does in terms of story, maybe I’d have ended up with a better opinion of it.

A couple other quick notes:

>It's really unfortunate that one of the game’s developers exercised some exceedingly poor judgment and used the “feminist whore” title that was discovered buried in the code, but it's really not reflective of Dead Island in general. In fact, it's pretty ironic, but before hearing about this issue I was actually discussing with some friends how positive the portrayals of the game’s two female characters were. For example, I can't say that I've seen anything sexist or stereotypical about my own character (the Asian female blade user) and the fact that the game stars three non-white characters (out of four) is definitely something worth noting.

>Using money in the game is probably the one thing I've seen so far that just makes no sense whatsoever.

Since weapons degrade rather quickly through use, players must seek out workbenches and repair them. Rather than requiring metal, wires, sharpening stones or other things that someone would assume would be needed to repair a weapon, it just takes... money.

Ironically, the game throws a mountain of collectibles at the player, but those are used only to create special custom weapons (a bomb made out of deodorant, a bat studded with nails, etc.) but when it comes to patching up a cracked hammer or restoring the edge on a well-used machete, all it takes is cash. As the game goes on, a lot of cash. It doesn't make any sense and having to constantly play banker becomes a drag -- as the zombies level up with your character, it takes tougher and tougher weapons in order to keep taking them down. Higher-level weapons require more cash to repair, and before you know it, all that money you didn't know what to do at the start of the game turns into $3 and a pile of weapons that you can't afford to fix.

I think I'm done ranting for the moment, but I would like to close out by saying that despite all of the complaints that can legitimately be leveled against the game, I'm quite eager to get back to it. It's a great project stuffed full of great ideas, and I'm definitely enjoying my time on Banoi -- when I'm not losing save progress, or when the game isn't bugging out on me, that is.

More to come.

Up late talking games & writing? You're...

A Comics Rundown!!!

Yakuza 3, Preorders, and DLC in Mass Effect Action Figures.

PSP Minis, Kingdoms of Amalur, Dead Island's Ryder White, and TONS of news/info

Five Reasons You *Should* Write For Free

Gears 3, AMY, Cabela's Survival, and LOTS OF INFO!!!

The GameCritics Podcast Is In Search Of A New Host!

Darksiders, Gears 3, Review Links, Infernal Republic and Thistle & Shamrock

Layton's Lame, Darksiders Isn't, JC Brooks, and A Japanese Invasion!!!

Majora's Mask, American McGee's Alice, and Darksiders

Culling the backlog...

The Top 10 of 2011

Indie Protest - Game Type by Mommy's Best Games

New Vegas, 2011 Wrapups, Sweet Tooth, Buffy and Angel

Happy Reviews and Unhappy People - a Rant

New Vegas, FFXIII-2, A New Podcast, Containment, and Xenoblade Preorders

Dear Diary...

Loads O' Links...

Oops...

Zelda's Wacky Controls and Fallout: New Vegas

Gamer Pay, Kellee Santiago, 'Rimming Wrong, and Thanks.

Guest Blog: Seb Wuepper on Deus Ex: Human Revolution

Fifteen Hours With Skyrim... And that's Enough.

NFS: The Run, Ending 2011, Consequences, and Dead Island's Bloodbath

Checking in...

Fate/Extra (PSP) and Aquaman #1

Escape Goat, Flying Pirates, Dark Soul Fixes, and Child's Play

Thieves Are Scum, and another Comics Rundown

Dark Souls is Finished (Thank God) and... Buffy the Vampire Slayer

Interview with: Samuli Viikinen, developer of PSN's Rochard

Dark Souls, Batwoman, Animal Man and the Suicide Squad

Interview with: Niv Fisher, of SpikySnail Games on "The Splatters"

Dark Souls - Hunter to Pyro

Dark Souls Tips, Shadow Hunters, Two DL Shows, and Occupy Wall Street

Dark Souls, Rochard, The Walking Dead and Comics!

No update tonight...

Hands-On Preview - Containment: the Zombie Puzzler (iPad/Mac/PC)

[REDCATED] and Dead Space 2... DOUBLE SNOOZE!

Why my 4 is your 9 – A little piece on the unspoken three-tier review system.

Back in action

Placeholder Post

A Comics Rundown!

Hands-On Preview: Insanely Twisted Shadow Hunters!

PAX Prime 2011 - The photos

Dead Island Impressions

Five Reasons You Should Write For Free