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.”

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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.

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*queue the motion sickness jokes*

Got that out of our systems?  Good.

I. Love. This. Game.

Some of you may remember the Assassin’s Creed review I did a few months ago about free running.  I thought Assassin’s Creed was already very well-done in its portrayal, concept and execution of the “sport”, but Mirror’s Edge has taken it to the next level adding a first person experience to everything.  This does NOT mean this is your average first person shooter, however.  FAR FAR from it.  FPS’s pale in comparison and really makes you realize how ridiculous it is that you can’t even see your other body parts when you look down (minus a few FPS games that actually added legs).

What impressed me the most (and subsequently made me pre-order it like a rabid fanboy) was experiencing the calm music and the deep blue sky stretched across the pristine white rooftops of giant skyscrapers as you leaped over and under multicolored obstacles highlighted by your “runner vision.”

To say that this game is poetry in motion is an understatement.

I was so enthralled with the way the game portrayed the feeling of running, something so simple yet so many games fail to accurately give a tangible feeling of.  Perhaps it was the previous lack of technology, but I was so happy that they finally added some wind resistance effects while running.  Usually when you’re sprinting or moving at any considerable amount of speed, you can’t hear very much due to the rushing of wind in your ears (or maybe it’s because of my huge geeky ears…).  Up till now running has only been portrayed as pumping your forearms (wow, that sounds very very wrong) and maybe a little head bobbing (…) on top of increased speed, but it’s mostly felt like a difference between slowly sliding to sliding a little faster.  Mirror’s Edge incorporates all of the above and adds wind effects and realistic footstep sounds to really give you an accurate sense of speed.

All this added sense of realism comes at a gruesome price, however.  For example, on the off chances that you just *barely* miss the ledge, the game doesn’t just kill you off and make you restart right away.  No, they make you actually face your consequences of failing that jump by making you watch yourself plummet to your death.  It’s actually very disturbing that they added a realistic crunching sound as you literally crumple to the ground.  It’s a very harsh reminder that you’re not invincible, and this is not the Matrix.  Every jump you make must be calculated and precise; after all, you are a just a human being.

More to come after I beat the game.

Fallout 3: Oblivion with Guns (har har)

I must say, having been a part of the “old school Fallout” crowd for quite some time, I was VERY skeptical of the new Fallout.  Much to the dismay of the “new comers” to the Fallout universe, who incessently spout that “old school gamers” should sit the fuck down and stfu, it’s NOT because Bethesda took Fallout’s gameplay in a new FPS direction.  I’m fine with that.  In fact, I’m delighted with the changes.

Nay…my skepticism arose from the tone of the game.  Fallout’s always had a wonderful writing cast, and the irony and dark humor that I love so much was never lost in the original series.  Upon hearing that they were taking out eye-shots and groin-shots and adding to the fact that Oblivion’s gameplay was utterly boring and dreadful, however, I feared the worst.

Fortunately, my fears were mostly allayed as I began to traverse the world starting as a crawling infant to a fully grown adult.  The main storyline was actually engaging, I found myself caring for many of the characters in the game.  I noticed a huge improvement in the voice acting department, and I believe they actually doubled the cast of voice actors.  Of course, “doubling” the cast of voice actors from two leaves us with merely four voice actors, and once again I felt slightly disillusioned once I realized how the voice actors were being recycled again, but it wasn’t as obviously bad as Oblivion used to be.

The level up system was much better than before as well.  I’m glad they kept the skills, but I couldn’t help but be a bit disappointed with the SPECIAL system and the perks.  In previous fallouts, your base stats actually had a huge impact on how the world would react to the player.  If you had low intelligence, you really suffered with dialogue.  If you had low charisma, people really acted like you were beaten with an ugly stick several times.  In Fallout 3, this aspect was toned down and basically the only real deciding factor in the game was your skill points.  Sure, you may get a different line to say every once in a while if you have high enough intelligence, but it’s not a deciding factor if you have enough speech or any other skill depending on the situation.  In other words, there’s multiple ways to get to the same “win” result, but not enough restrictive ways to “fail.”  That, my friends, is a mark of watered down RPG mechanics.

On a similar note, almost half the perks are utterly useless.  Of course, the previous Fallouts had useless perks as well, but instead of being useless and hollow “boosts”, they were more in line with creating a “style” with your character.  They were the tools with which to carve your David, not just extra padding on your blow up doll. 

Let’s look at an example, shall we?

The perk “Gun Nut”adds 5 skill points per rank for small arms and repair.

At first glance, it may seem like a very good choice if you are planning to create a character focusing on regular handguns and rifles(which there is always plenty of lying around in the wastelands).  However, in the grand scheme of things, taking this perk is practically shooting yourself in the foot since 5 skill points is hardly an improvement over the vast amount of skill points PER LEVEL you would get if you had max intelligence.  In the face of being able to raise your base stats (especially intelligence) which affects your skill points PER LEVEL, choosing a measly 5 points pales in comparison.

Also, like Fable 2, Fallout 3 suffers from premature ejaculation.  Bethesda created a MASSIVE world with many, many side quests, but it’s really up to you to uncover them all.  Naturally, one might think that doing the main quest would open up most of the important areas, but beware: the game actually ends before you are ready to end it.  I actually ended up not even reaching the max level of 20, stocked up thousands of stimpacks, ammo and weapons for the final battle, and ended up beating the game by accident.  Really Bethesda, would it be too much to ask to be able to continue the game after finishing the main story?  Part of the fun of RPG’s is building up a character to actually USE the perfected character, you know.

Despite these setbacks, Fallout 3 is still impressive in its own right, it’s really just a few major hitches along the way that really prevent the game from giving that “shiny polished perfect” game. 

Parkour, or l’art du déplacement, is the embodyment of freedom of both the mind and body, and having great spatial awareness. This is not to be mistaken with “free running” which differs in just trying to look flashy and possibly break a few bones in the process. Parkour is a technique that focuses more on efficiency, getting from point A to point B, in order to reach a destination and/or escape from pursuers, as shown in this clip:

Assassin’s Creed is the portal for gamers to finally see what parkour is about, without the risk of injury.

You play as a young man trapped in a futuristic scientific laboratory, forced to lie on a virtual reality machine mysteriously dubbed “The Animus”. Through the Animus, you are transported to yet another sub-universe; the universe of the character’s ancestor, Altair, in the year 1191. Frankly I just couldn’t figure out what Ubisoft was trying to accomplish by creating a world-within-a-world plot device, except for a way to introduce a “you’re not really dead, just de-synchronized from your character” concept, but since when do we really need to be reminded that when we die in a videogame (or any virtual world for that matter), it’s not real?

While we’re on the subject of the small flaws of the game, let’s move onto the actual core of the gameplay. You’re presented with various modes ranging from pickpocketing, eavesdropping(ooh, sitting on a bench and listening to npc’s, how fun), easter-egg flag hunting, saving innocents, climbing to designated “perch and brood” spots, and finally, assassination. The PC version even adds two new experiences in the mix: rooftop guard killing, and merchant shop wrecking. With the exception of eavesdropping, all of these game elements seem perfectly sensible for immersing players into the assassin’s shady world view. The reality? Well, visually, nothing could look better than it does in-game. Once again we are reminded that a pretty package doesn’t amount to very much if it has no substance.

Although these elements translate well visually, they don’t translate as well physically. Whether you’re doing fantastic parkour stunts, or fighting guards or pickpocketing, a lot of them simply involve holding down two buttons at the same time (up arrow and the action button, for example) and hardly much else. The challenge only lies upon timing, and frankly for a stealth action game, we’ve seen better sources of challenge from such big titles as Metal Gear Solid, or even Ubisoft’s other game, Splinter Cell. They involved complex mechanics to go about your missions, whereas in Assassin’s Creed, you are left with various small objectives across the map, each with what feels like very shallow gameplay. Almost all of them involve no active thought, and it seems that casual gamers would have a field day with this one. Due to this, the game only feels like it has a handful of gaming to offer divided into A,B,C,D,E, and it doesn’t matter whether you do the tasks, or which order you do them in. This creates a lack of advancement into new gameplay elements and makes one despair at the notion that this is all this beautiful looking game has to offer in the experience department.

If only the developers had the time and resources to fully flesh out the gameplay a bit more, this could have been a grade-A game.

On a brighter note, the presentation still stands strong despite the boring gameplay, and if one allows it, it can easily suck you into its immersive and expansive world. The storyline is also interesting enough to keep you going on, and uncover the mystery behind the Animus project and what it has to do with your alleged ancestor’s memories, so all is not lost in the grand scheme of things.

Grand Theft Auto 4 is a full-course meal on its own that will at least satisfy even the harshest of game connoisseurs.

Let’s begin with the appetizer. Rockstar North has done a commendable job in adding a sample of real human drama with characters that exude with an authentic sense of a “New York attitude”. As you may have already seen from previews, they are down-to-earth and generally relatable. This is why the single player portion plays like a well written novel, with themes concerning the rich and famous vs. the poor and underprivileged, morality vs. survival and other deep themes.

Visually, the game really is a true testament to the power of next generation consoles. Not only does the cityscape seem endless, but even the smallest of details have been brought to life to add an unprecedented amount of realism to the series. Details such as location-specific vehicular damage and bodily reactions to getting hit by one only add to the rich flavor of the experience.

Now we come to our main course: gameplay. The familiar mission-based gameplay has returned, and this time around, the side missions involve dating (with a side of hot coffee), and building relationships with the game’s characters. The bread and butter of driving and shooting have just had a slice of ham slapped on for good measure. The former has a tasty layer of realism, despite the slightly sour learning curve first timers may experience. Combat, on the other hand, introduces a spicy flavor of cover and blind fire ala Gears of War, resulting in a lovely gourmet meal.

The bitter hair-pulling and controller-chucking only comes in when you are forced to start from scratch if an accident occurs in the latter part of a mission, but I guess that’s what cheats and curb-stomping the flawed AI characters are for.

For dessert, we have online multiplayer. Not everything has whipped cream and a cherry on top, however. Some modes are actually simple single missions that quickly lose their flavor after completion. Rockstar could have elaborated more in the multiplayer portion; it’s a shame that there wasn’t a way to implement Kane & Lynch style bank robberies in multiplayer co-op.

The game isn’t fancy and orgasmic as the previews made it out to be, despite several improvements. Fans of previous iterations decried the missing features; for example, altering physical fitness or buying properties i.e. save points. This leads to the dilemma of just what exactly we are supposed to do with all the money we earned with our virtual sweat and blood. To really fit the storyline and the theme of “struggling for your survival in a harsh urban city”, Rockstar should have at least implemented a system of “money sinks” where you constantly need to pay rent, and basic survival needs. This way, players could actually have a sense of how desperate our protagonist’s situation is.

In the end, however, we’re still left with a solid, hearty meal that shouldn’t be missed.

Final Fantasy 7 for the playstation marked the beginning of the Final Fantasy series entering the mainstream market, allowing console-style Japanese RPGs to reach a wider audience.  It is currently the best-selling Final Fantasy game to date, and Square-Enix has been continuously milking the proverbial cash-cow through various spin-off games and two animated films.

So how does this particular spin-off hold up? 

For those of you who played FF7 before, you’d probably be able to remember certain “flashback” scenes of when Cloud (the main character of FF7) reminisces about a certain similar spiky-yet-different-colored-haired hero during his days in SOLDIER (a combative elite force working for the evil mega-conglomerate Shinra). This game follows the storyline of Zack, and the days leading up to the events in the original FF7.  Fans who know and love the FF7 world will be delighted to see their favorite characters fully rendered, but since this is a prequel, it’s not a huge minus factor to those who haven’t played FF7 at all.  The visuals and interface are fairly clean, and easy to navigate as well.

As for the gameplay, it’s difficult to pinpoint just what exactly Square Enix had in mind when they were creating this game, but considering that they decided to label the game an “action RPG” it’s easy to say that either they had an extremely liberally loose definition of what an “action RPG” means, or they just couldn’t decide what they wanted to do with this game.

So, they just threw all the ingredients in the pot randomly and hoped something playable would magically materialize and hope that the fanboys and girls could be distracted with the pretty lights and colors of their magnificent FMV sequences.

Calling it an “action RPG” would naturally make one hope that FF7:CC would end up having great action gameplay along with an interesting storyline to boot, but instead it completely and utterly disappoints in both areas.  You’re treated with what is essentially the classic menu-based combat system combined with the freedom to move around and dodge.  The whole point of the menu-based combat system was that your characters were stationary and there was some sense of a trading of hits. When you add “movement” to this, it substantially changes gameplay to the point of absurdity.  It certainly doesn’t help that all your enemies can be critically hit from behind,  making the player frantically try to circle the enemies while struggling with the auto-targeting system just to get the pointless battle sequence over with.  Add an equally game-breaking dodge button, a useless block button, a random slot machine mechanism and voila,  you have souffle-de-crapola combat system.

A couple of examples where the game really is glaringly bad come to mind through its mini-game-like sequences.  The first mini-game-like sequence appears when you are asked to chase a little boy who stole your wallet.  This basically makes you run circles around the place until you are lucky enough to find an NPC there that advances the story, but there is no real clear indication as to which NPC you’re supposed to go talk to.  This only results in the sequence feeling dragged out, and frustrating.  The “stealth” sequence/mini-game is equally torturous and pointless.  They tell you to sneak past guards while fighting with the camera to even see where the guards are, and you are also asked, taunted almost, to try and find the hidden chests that are scattered in that small tight area.  Once caught, you are promptly kicked out and lose one of the chests that you’re supposed to find.  Why they even attempted this sequence with these rough controls and a camera system simply not MEANT for a stealth game is a complete mystery.

Music and atmosphere are very essential to RPG’s, and although there are times when Crisis Core successfully blends in the background music (such as the opening intro), it really falls into bland territory.  At the height of dramatic tension between Zack and Aerith, for example, instead of toning down the music or adding a bittersweet melody, we are treated with the same campy, happy cycle of music when you are running around talking to other NPC’s.  This example is just one of many instances, and you’ll be hearing the same background music almost everywhere, to the point where it’ll be playing in your head even after you put the game down… like the infamous banana phone song.

While we’re on this subject of sounds, the quality of voice-acting depends upon your preference to Japanese or English dubbing.  The English dubbing, however, can really humiliate itself sometimes.  For example, when Zack powers up for his limit breaker moves, there are certain lines of dialogue from the corresponding character of the limit break(due to the random roulette lining up three characters) and a following line from our hero.  A few of these lines go something like:

“Show me the true power…of SOLDIER!!”
“…Mind your own business!”(in Zack’s whiny voice)

“Is it over…?”
“I’m trying, I’m trying!”(whiny voice again)

Either these were terrible mistranslations, or they were just finishing a few bottles of vodka and yelling English sentences at each other that sounded good enough to throw in there without any attempt at making sense.

All of these details only point to the fact that this is a terrible action game, mediocre at best.   But a confession must be made: something about this game makes you keep coming back for more.  It’s really a strange sensation, almost sinful in the way it draws you back for more even though you know damn well that it’s going to be a simplistic, watered down experience.  Perhaps it’s the addictiveness of collecting items and seeing what you can obtain, or perhaps it’s the beautifully rendered FMV scenes.  Either way, it still doesn’t justify a full price tag on it.

Fiery chains, mystic creatures, grotesque monsters and tales of epic proportions are what have become the staple of the God of War series.

After two tremendously successful games on the Playstation 2, it’s time to take control of the power of a god once more…and this time, take it with you wherever you go.

The game is a prequel to the first God of War game, and despite being on less capable hardware, it still does not fail to impress. Ready at Dawn studios has done a commendable job in bringing the God of War experience to the PSP and retaining most of the series’ core gameplay that made the series so successful.

Combat is still surprisingly smooth as silk, and you could easily become entranced with Kratos(our anti-hero) gracefully twirling his chaos blades in a symphony of fire and metal upon his foes. Don’t be fooled by the PSP hardware’s limits either; the scenery is very close to its older PS2 brethren; the camera often pans out to show just how massive and epic your surroundings are, almost enough to suck you into its world. There are a few scenes where the PSP struggled with slowdown, but it wasn’t enough to actually jar you from the experience, nor did it hinder any combative parts of the game. As for the controls, Ready at Dawn’s integration of the controls to PSP’s limited button layout takes a bit of getting used to for veterans of the game, but it won’t be long before it becomes second nature.

As an M rated game, it’s still got its fair share of sex and violence. The sex scene still retains its tongue-in-cheek style minigame, and the violence truly can get the adrenaline pumping when being pitted against waves of enemies.

The leveling system has returned, and upon collecting red orbs, one can customize our hero with stronger and more sophisticated attacks, or increase his godly magical powers. Save points are fairly abundant for the most part, but depending on the difficulty setting, you may have to replay certain portions over and over again.

This is THE game to get for all PSP owners out there. It is easily one of the best showcases of the PSP’s handheld power and solid gameplay controls.