Destructoid posted a blog about Clint Hocking (the lead designer behind Far Cry 2, Splinter Cell Chaos Theory and the latest Prince of Persia) and his discussion at the Game Developers Conference about how, basically, his plans for Far Cry 2 failed.

Hit the jump for excerpts and my thoughts.

» Read The Rest

Hello readers!

I’ll be joining The Intellectual Gamer as an associate editor and contributor. In addition to Leo’s wordy walls of text, I will ensure that all my posts have colorful eye-catching pictures and maybe a video or two, because colors stimulate the mind and everyone likes to be stimulated.

A brief intro:

My gaming interests revolve around my gaming PC (which totally pwns Leo’s),  my Xbox 360 (which has never had a hardware problem, thankfully), and my Nintendo DS lite. Being an OCD ADHD gamer has its challenges since that means I get bored of any game after less than 2 weeks of play, so I constantly have a rotation of about 20 games on my roster and it’s quite unusual for me to completely finish a game unless it’s short and/or very good. I am biased towards shooters, strategy games, RPGs of all genres (Western, Japanese, Tactical), and puzzle games.

Are videogames deteriorating as a medium?

A good friend of mine posted on his livejournal concerning this issue.

There are several factors that amount to why gaming might feel different now than it did before back in the “good ol’ days.”

» Read The Rest

Kotaku has posted a fascinating article with a comprehensive look into why movies based on videogames will always fail.

Basically, the main reason is that stories in videogames, while important, aren’t exactly considered a “high priority,” but rather a “bonus” if the story is really engaging.  In other words, “story” in a videogame is merely meant to satisfy the “why am I doing this” question, nothing more, nothing less.

This is mainly due to the fact that making a videogame is more of a balancing act.  Not only does the story have to be at least partially engaging, but it also has to have a solid gameplay experience, which involves artwork, controls, mechanics and physics.

Movies, on the other hand, need to balance the story, acting, and maybe the effects.

What we have here is basically a constant clashing of interests, like trying to make an apple out of oranges, and oranges out of apples.  You’re just never going to strike the right taste, simply because there are tastes that are MISSING from either fruit.

Playing F.E.A.R. 2 gave me the closest experience to a cheesy television action series/movie, however.  I suspect that this may be due to Warner Bros. involvement with the game’s publishing.

The game had cheesy dialogue, but it was surprisingly witty enough to not take itself too seriously.  Some classic lines involved an anonymous radio tipster who calls himself “Snake Fist” and to which a teammate replies, “are you fucking kidding me?”

Another memorable line was, of course, “You’re like free pizza at an anime convention.”  Classic.

The scenes involing the player manning a turret, however, truly felt the closest to a cinematic experience.

The first one sets you inside a subway tunnel, enemy forces swarming in on the other side of the tracks.  Suddenly, something comes over one of your teammates and he starts to stray into the crossfire chasing after a visage of Alma (the spooky girl gimmick of the game).  From a purely gameplay perspective, it just involves haphazardly pounding the enemy soldiers into pieces with your turret, but the main focus of the scene is drawn upon the strange behavior of your teammate.  I found myself panning my first person view over to the teammate, as if the camera was “supposed” to be focusing on him.

I also had an extremely positive experience with the last turret scene, where your latino teammate cheers you on as you make enemy bodies fly left and right while cheesy heavy metal music blares in the background.  It really felt like being in a campy action flick with quick cuts to explosions and stuntmen throwing their bodies in an exhaggerated fashion.

On top of these movie-like sequences, the pacing of the story really kept me interested till the end, and there was never a moment of feeling bogged down, stuck, or just plain dumb.  It was the closest I ever felt to actually being in a movie (even if it’s still far from perfect).

So, my theory is that if we’re ever going to equivocate videogames and movies up to the same level, it will have to be videogames that encorporate movies first, simply because story/atmosphere/art is only just some of the essential elements that make a fantastic game as a whole, whereas it would be everything for a movie.

http://kotaku.com/5149650/dead-rising-2-its-real-and-its-spectacular?skyline=true&s=x

“We were pretty sure that Dead Rising 2 video was real on Friday, now we’re positive, with Capcom officially announcing the game coming to PC, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360.”

I just came. :O

That is all.

Every once in a while, there comes a time when developers take up the courage to delve into new frontiers in a market that is saturated with unoriginality. Irem is one such developer that has stepped forward with a brand new take on their classic shmup (shoot-em-up) series, R-Type.

After their previous game, R-Type Final, Irem had announced that this was to be the last iteration of their famous series, making it an instant collector’s item for fans. Little did gamers know that Irem had another card up their sleeve, and that this would shape Irem’s franchise into a completely different form.

Story has always been one of R-Type’s stronger features compared to other shmups that simply cut to the chase. In R-Type Command, players are once again immersed into the complex universe, taking the role of a first-time commander whose armada leads the way through various scenarios. The story is told through this persona, and brief logs can be read to better understand your missions. Returning fans will also welcome the familiar ships and their alien counterparts(i.e. the Bydo), just like the rekindling of old, long lost friends.

Since this is a “tactics” game, the visual department isn’t very astounding by any means, but expecting mind-blowing graphics from a tactics game would be as illogical as expecting a moped to reach supersonic speeds. In short, the game presents itself well enough for its purposes and load times can be avoided by turning extra features off in the options.

The gameplay is where this game truly shines, however, due to the ingenious blending of shmup mechanics with hardcore tactical aspects. It may seem daunting at first to learn the details of each unit, along with their individual strengths and weaknesses. Unfortunately, the tutorials aren’t much help, resulting in many initial “trial and error” attempts before players are truly able to understand the nuances of the game. After this initial grooming phase, however, the game is quite a solid and fresh take on the tactics genre that was beginning to grow stale. Units are laid across an octagonal battlefield, and combat is carried out usually on a horizontal plane. The mechanic of attaching and removing “Forces” from your ships and destructive charge beams have also been included seamlessly into this turn-based genre. Most combative encounters reward strategic players rather than those who enjoy going all-out with guns blazing; this game is not for those without patience. On top of all this, there is also an aspect of collecting resources so that players can invest in research and development of new ship types. Outside of the expansive and deep single player campaign is an ad-hoc multiplayer mode, which pits two commanders and their respective armadas against each other in battlegrounds unlocked through the single player mode, with the reward being a set amount of resources that the players can pre-determine.

R-Type Command is still a solid game for R-Type fans and especially strategy fans despite its slight flaws.

Editor’s Note: I thought this article was published a while ago, I found that it wasn’t yet.

Time to catch up on reviews.

Dead Space can be best described as a horror game that does everything right.  I haven’t been this spooked, thrilled and exhilerated all at once.  This is a harsh, brutal foray into the dark and twisted creations that lurk in the vents, under the floor and on the ceiling.

Sure enough, the premise LOOKS horrifying, but how does it PLAY?

Hit the jump to find out.

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After a slight recovery from being sucked into WoW again I decided to finish this game once and for all.

A friend of mine said, quote,

“I’m to fat to do Parkour
Mirrors Edge lets me do Parkour
I love video games.” -J1n

This basically summed up my thoughts on it as well.  At first I was appalled when reviewers gave it a “mediocre” score instead of a “great” score.  Then I encountered a lot of frustrating moments (including the portions that require the frustrating combat), especially because I really wanted to achieve the “no kills” achievement.  If I had only known what was ahead of me.

» Read The Rest

After playing it for the second time, I encountered a very disappointing aspect of the game, which led to many, many frustrations until I just turned the game off (due to lack of time and higher blood pressure).

I didn’t mention this when I played the demo, but the combat can be really frustrating.  No matter, I thought, after seeing the little help screen that said “run away from your pursuers and avoid all combat.”  Okay, so far so good.  Faith isn’t some kind of hulking beastess taking on 10 guards at a time, she specializes in OMG GET THE FUCK OUT OF HERE.  This isn’t to say that she’s completely incapable of defending herself; she HAS had some form of self defense training and is able to disarm her opponents using a Tai-chi mentality of “using your opponents force against them”.

Gameplay wise, this translates to getting close enough to the guard to provoke them to swing at you with the butt of their guns, and pressing a button to counter and disarm them when their weapon turns red.  When the demo first showed me this, I was having a lot of trouble getting the timing right.  The weapon also doesn’t turn a bright red instantly.  Apparently this “warming up to red” period of time is the wrong time to press the counter button, and since you only get two chances to get it right before you slump to the floor, it can lead to instant nerd rage.

Even WITH the slow motion button, it’s really hard to tell when exactly they expect you to press the countering button, so instead of taking your enemy out in cool-slow-motion animation, you end up getting bitch slapped in slow motion. 

Parkour is meant to be about running away efficiently, and although some parts of the game truly have the right essence, they sometimes literally lock you in a room with a group of baddies to take out.  Factor in the gameplay mechanic of only being able to take out ONE enemy at a time (more than one and you just end up getting pummelled), you end up with foolishly running around the room desperately trying to lure a guard to a corner to take him out and pray that the other guard isn’t right behind him.

It’s such a shame that the game had to be bogged down by such a terrible nuisance.  I’m up to chapter 7 now, and so far the game has been great up till this point.  Let’s hope that I either get better at the game, or the game throws me a bone instead of trapping me in a room with several guards with no means of escape.

Seriously?  Seriously???  AGAIN????

Okay America, we get it.  You like wars.  World War 2 was the greatest war ever.  Yes.  It’s time to let it go.  Drop it.

No, just because you finally decided to FINALLY bring the other half of the world war does not mean you can sneak in yet ANOTHER Russian campaign, with yet ANOTHER Enemy at the Gates reference (I wish I was kidding with that one).

I really tried my best to judge this as something more than just a re-skin of COD4, but it’s really difficult when they actually managed to not only rip off the movie, but also at the same time rip off the fantastic COD4 sniper mission to a certain extent.

It didn’t even go the route of realism, either, as you find out right off the bat that you can re-load the M1 garand on the fly (previously known as a weapon that you can only reload AFTER using up a clip).

The obligatory russian tank sequence was not only boring, but there was never a sense of being part of a whole;  rather, it felt more like picking up the ENTIRE RUSSIAN ARMY’S SLACK.  I had a tank in front of me and 3 tanks behind me, and each one promptly blew up before giving me an ounce of help.  I could not believe I had to take out an entire Nazi field base with my one (inexplicably regenerating) tank.  To top it off, I used the edges of the map and ended the sequence by accident.  To this day I’m still not sure whether I should have rejoiced at the fact that I beat it, or grimace at the fact that it felt like a rushed mission.

They even added an “airplane gunner” sequence, except it was with a pacific WW2 skin, therefore no neat heat-vision sequence either.  Also, your supposed “partner gunner” is absolutely worthless as you push and shove him away casually while you frantically move between 4 different gunner positions.  What the hell was he on that plane for?  To warm the seat up for you with his ass?  It also didn’t really seem to matter how many planes you shot down, either.

I could only count 2 missions that I found myself enjoying, and those mainly involved a tight, linear indoor sequence with a standard cover/fire procedures. 

So, to put things into perspective, they didn’t really improve anything from the COD4 formula except maybe a flamethrower aspect (which was annoying since you really couldn’t tell how far the flame reaches from your perspective) and the fact that your enemies yell BANZAI instead of ALLAH.

They even added a “bonus” zombie mode, but playing it by myself was neither thrilling nor exciting.  Definitely felt tacked on.  It’s funny…it’s almost as if they knew this game was going to be so generic that they had to try to lure gamers like me by the promise of zombies.  With something as great as Left 4 Dead being released, this “nazi zombie mode” is an EPIC FAIL.