Photo of the day
It’s always nice when your coworkers are as geeky as you.
Black Ops: Black Eye
I struggled briefly with the idea that it was me. That I was perhaps the only one out of the 7 million copies sold that really dislikes the new Call of Duty: Black Ops. Then I realized that the culture of the FPS genre had changed and that it wasn’t so much the games fault as it was a reflection of the generation of poor game-design decisions we’ve had to endure. Simply put, today’s games are designed for the 15 year old in the same way that Mario was designed for me. Feeling old and cranky however, is also a recipe for a good ol’fashion “Aggravation” post.
There are so many things wrong with Black Ops that I don’t rightly know where to begin. Multiplayer seems to contain the majority of my grievances, so it’s as good a spot as any. In all previous incarnations of CoD multiplayer, the modern ones at least, there has been a “unlock” system. Hardly something unique to the game or the genre, it’s a time honored tradition. The longer you play the game, the more stuff you unlock. In the case of CoD, it’s guns and stuff for guns, and that’s fine with just about everyone. We also rightly have to compare and contrast Black Ops with it’s Modern Warfare 1 & 2 counterparts, and that’s where things really start to fall apart.
In Modern Warefare you started with a small handful of perks and some basic guns. If you used a gun long enough, you unlocked an attachment (red dot, silencer, etc). Same with the perks. Use “Marathon” long enough and you get “Marathon Pro”, and so on. Usage + Time and Skill = More Stuff. The “rank” of your persona and weapons you had access to depended solely on your experience points (XP), which you gained by doing well and playing more. I could name dozens if not hundreds of games that use this basic system or a system very similar to it.
Black Ops decides to take the formula, wave it in front of you face, and fuck your sister with it.
Now, instead of XP alone, you get credits ($) or in-game money and XP. XP allows you to rank up and credits allow you to purchase things. The trouble is, the things you want to purchase STILL need to be unlocked. It’s like they took the worst part of the system, added in the worst part of an RPG system, and let them create some ginger headed fuck spawn.
Just like in a RPG, after days and days of questing, you finally reach a blacksmith shop. Eager to spend your coin you pick out UberSword the Destroyer. Problem is, UberSword can only be used by a level 15 Barbarian and you’re only level 12. So, back out onto the road you go, killing anything in your path until you reach level 15. You go back to the blacksmith, ready to pick up your new and well earned booty. Too bad UberSword is $20,000 and you only have $8,000. So, back out you go again, killing more dungeon baddies and looting their treasure rooms. You return to the shop a level 25 badass with $50,000 gold only to find that UberSword isn’t looking so hot any more and doesn’t really give you much of a bonus since you already increased your skills so much… but… wait, there’s UltraUberMegaSword™ and it’s only $100,000…. and so on and so forth. It’s called THE GRIND. It’s boring and a pain in the ass in RPGs, it has absolutely no place in my FPS.
IF I UNLOCK SOMETHING, I SHOULDN’T HAVE TO BUY IT ALSO!
I’ve played Black Ops for two nights now, earned $20,000 fake credits, reached level 14 and “unlocked” about 8 guns, of which I actually purchased… drum roll please…. two. Two guns. What’s worse is that I have no intention of purchasing another gun until I “unlock” the “privilege” of purchasing the gun I actually want at level 35. Half the fun of CoD was unlocking a new gun every level and trying them out. So what if you looked like an idiot running around with duel pistols and a Javelin rocket launcher, you had just unlocked them and by golly you were going to try them out. That was fun. They’ve effectively killed half the fun. Half. There’s no incentive to unlock anything you won’t routinely use.
To make things even worse, everything is both unlockable and a purchase, including the very very basic things. Grenades, a purchase, but you can’t get them until level 5. Camo, a purchase, but you can’t unlock it until level 20. Perks, the basic building blocks of the CoD franchise, a purchase at $2000 a pop. Did I mention there’s 15 of them? Player logos, gamer-cards, gun attachments, equipment, all purchases that your can’t buy right off the bat.
I don’t have any problem switching to a “credit” system instead of a XP based unlock system, but actually switch systems, don’t just straddle the fence. You can’t have it both ways. If I have the points to purchase UltraMcFuckYou™ gun, let me buy it. Don’t say I have to wait until level 40 to use it if you clearly aren’t basing my purchases on skill. If XP = Skill, then an unlock is my reward for having skill. If $ = skill, then let me spend it how I choose. If XP ≠ $ ≠ Skill, then why the fuck am I playing? Apparently my skill means nothing to purchases and my XP means nothing to my skill. You’re artificially and arbitrarily making me wait for something for no perceived reason. There’s no reason to not allow me to have a certain gun if you’re making me buy it in the first place.
It’s like walking into a store to buy blue jeans and the clerk telling me I can’t buy jeans, I haven’t worked hard enough yet, but that they have a fine selection of khakis to choose from.
They’ve even managed to make the mundane things a purchase. At level 12 you unlock “player logos” only to find out that you have to “build” you logo using various graphics pieces (numbers, letters, symbols, etc). You also have to pay for those pieces. No joke. $100 a pop. Oh, and if you want a blue star on a white background, you have to pay for two layers of your logo, $200 a layer.
It’s also a shame that they took a look at reality and said “nah, fuck that, that’s boring”. Last night, I was killed by a guy with a bright orange (paint, $200), tiger striped (pattern, $500) Uzi ($2000 gun) with a scope ($1000) that had a orange lens ($500) and a orange ($50) laughing skull ($500) cross-hair reticle ($500). I wish I was fucking joking about this.
So, somehow they’ve managed to completely fuck up a standard and basic thing. Awesome. Too bad it’s not the only problem with the game. Starting at the menus and going all the way down to level design, this game is complete crap.
The menus are easy enough to navigate, but jumbled organized by someone who clearly thinks the world is clairvoyant and will simply “know” where to look for things. Word to the wise, while it technically may be true that everything is an “option”, the only thing I expect to find there is gamma correction and controller layouts. I also don’t expect to have to enter the player editor to choose my kill-streak bonus.
Levels reflect the single player campaign. The only problem with that is that the game switches locations every damn second and there’s no consistency. You know why I liked MW2? Because although all the levels were different, each level had the same “feel”. Dirty town, dirty farm, dirty hillside mansion, dirty laboratory, it all held the theme. Going from snow covered peaks to ancient jungle ruins to missile launch pads to 1940’s American towns is not really variety, it’s fucking confusing. I can see what they were going for, but they took it a little too far. Likewise, the level layouts betray design basics. There’s no flow to them. One or two aren’t bad, I won’t condemn them all, but some of them are so jumbled and all over the place you spend 20 minutes trying to find where all the action is only to get shot and have to hike all the way back there again. Levels should be typically circular if you think about it. They might seem linear at first, one side versus the other, red vs blue, but there’s always routes around the perimeter and the balance slowly shifts and rotates around the circle as the game progresses, usually coming to a point in a skirmish for the middle ground. That’s a good level. Having a giant spaghetti bowl of confusion, mixed into rubble, broken buildings and underground passage ways means that there isn’t any flow. Teams are scattered, spawn points are random and while you might pick up a kill here and there, you never really feel like you’re playing as a, or against another, team.
So, all of this is piled on top of the problems the series already had (12 year old campers, cheaters, exploiters, aimbots, etc, etc, etc) making it really hard to actually sit down and enjoy. The series has a tremendous starting curve, it always has, meaning that your start with nothing and have to play for at least a couple hours/days before finding anything useful to use. Those little bits I actually did enjoy were also sadly overshadowed by the time period as well. Set in the cold war, the game doesn’t really have any modern weapons, just late Vietnam vintage stuff and early models of things like the M16 and the AK47. So, you’re starting out with an Enfield rifle with iron sights, no attachments, no camo, no perks and you’re expecting me to enjoy myself enough to keep coming back for hours and hours of fun?
Black Ops had so much potential that it’s really sad that they dropped the ball like this. Here’s a couple suggestions for the next game (which I won’t buy). Start everyone off with perks, a handful of acceptable guns, and access to basic customizing tools (since that’s what your touting as a feature). Make the first 10 levels easy to reach for even a super-noob and have them unlock helpful additional things that compliment the basics you already gave them. Do not lock out other playlists for lower ranked people. Even noobs like Domination and Capture the Flag. Lastly, if you’re not going to get rid of the purchase system (which you seriously should), make people pay for upgrades to things, not basic things. You want an even better version of your gun? Ok, $1000 gets you a stock that improves accuracy, or a scope that increases range. Don’t make people pay for green face paint (serious), or silly logos for their gamer cards (which are also silly). That’s just insulting.
Lastly, bring back the fun. Not once in the last two days did I think “Wow, that was awesome”. I played with crappy guns on crappy levels against crappy campers with fucking tiger painted guns. If that’s the first impression a player has to your game, they’re not going to stick around very long. Then again, there are also 7 million fucking idiots with tiger painted guns who probably disagree with me.
Fuck me… when is Battlefield 3 coming out?
Winter Forecast
So, in similar fashion to my “Summer Drought” posts, I always like to look forward to the winter gaming season and it’s usual gluttony of triple-A titles. Sure, Christmas is the most common reason given for launching major titles during Q4, but what would the reason be for Q1, Jan-Feb launches? Perceived lack of competition? Hardly. With this number of games, developers will be lucky for even a small piece of the pie.
Whatever the reason, the results are the same. Three to four months of non-stop game releases followed by nothing except the empty void of another summer and the occasional news about next years games. Let the gaming season begin, and let’s have a round up!
As always, this is hardly an exhaustive and complete list. This list really only covers my tastes and the bit of gray areas in between. If you want news on the latest Sims expansion, you’ve come to the wrong place. Also, these are in no particular order. First up…
Bulletstorm – Since Epic has pretty much given up on Unreal Tournament and focused mainly on their Gears of War franchise, a huge void has formed leaving gamers without hours of mindless shooting. The game equivalent of The Expendables, Bulletstorm, according to their own website “delivers a blood symphony of incredible gunplay and carnage on an Epic scale”. You had me at “blood symphony”. I’m not expecting anything with even a thin narrative, but if the gameplay is half of what’s promised, this could be interesting.
Release: Q1/Feb 2011
Interest Level: Medium
Crysis 2 – Given that 97% of the population was completely incapable of actually running it’s predecessor, I’m interested to see exactly where Crytek is headed with this one. FarCry 2 was a beautiful example of a more scalable game engine where-as Crysis was a system killer. If their latest engine (CryEngine 3) is capable of scaling to the Xbox 360 and PS3 as well as high-end gaming machines, I have every reason to believe it might actually run on a mid-level PC as well. I have total faith in their visual quality and graphics, gameplay however is where it all falls apart for Crytek. Somehow, even with arguably the best game engine on the market, most of their games are forgettable and bland. Time will tell if this is game of the year material, or just another benchmarking tool for graphics enthusiasts.
Release: Q1/March 2011
Interest Level: Waiting for Reviews
Star Wars: The Old Republic – Now, right off the bat, I have to admit that I’m not a huge Star Wars guy. I appreciate the finer qualities of the franchise, but the idea of playing a MMO in that universe is both intriguing as well as infuriating. How many terrible MMORPGs have we suffered through in the SW universe? Two, three? I’ve lost count. They don’t work and I’ll tell you why. Nothing, and I mean nothing, is going to live up to a Star Wars nerd’s expectations of being able to “explore” that universe. The thing about MMOs is that not everyone gets to be Luke or Boba Fett. Someone’s got to be the shop keeper. Someone has to be the swamp-rat trader. Someone has to be the droid repair man. Let’s face it, those jobs suck. Now, those lowered expectations aside, the material, movies and screenshots being shown so far do have quite a bit of promise. They might actually pull this off. The promo trailers have been incredible. Since I don’t play MMOs and I refuse to pay for video games as a “service”, I won’t be checking this out. However, this may actually be the MMO that Star Wars fans have been waiting for.
Release: Q1 2011
Interest Level: Zero
Deus Ex: Human Revolution – Now here’s an interesting concept, another trip into the world of Deus Ex, which I really enjoyed the first two times around, but this time with less RPG, more action and a healthy dose of other sci-fi elements thrown in for good measure. I would have been equally interested in simply a well done sequel but it seems they’ve decided to take it up a notch this time. We’ll have to wait until we see some gameplay rather that the (awesome) pre-rendered CG sequences, but if punching through a wall in order to snap someone’s neck is something I actually get to do, sign me up right now. I’m thinking kinda a Jack Bauer meets iRobot meets Blade Runner thing, and I’m ok with that.
Release: Q1 2011
Interest Level: High
Rage – Hmmm, I don’t actually know where to begin with this. John Carmack is without a doubt, a technical genius. He probably has the MENSA membership card to prove it. The last installment of the Carmack legacy, Rage is, for once, not based on demons from hell or bases on Mars. This one is post-apocalyptic desert. Apparently Earth gets hit by a meteor and the people that aren’t dead instantly go all Mad-Max until at some point they decide they miss NASCAR and start racing each other to death. I have, in similar fashion to Crysis 2, no doubts that this will be a game that is graphically superior to most. So much so that apparently Carmack showcased it this past week running on a PC, a 360 AND an iPhone. I wish I was making that last part up. I am not. What I’m more concerned about is if this is another Doom 3. A game so graphically awesome that it forgot where it had come from, and turned out to be a snooze fest.
Release: Jan 7th, 2011
Interest Level: Mild
Civilization 5 – It’s almost too exciting to talk about. A new Civilization descends from the gaming gods in a little over a month. What do you really say when, as a crack addict, someone offers you even better crack? Thank you? I think. Civ 5 is one of those games that, regardless of your preference for the genre, you buy. No other game, and I’ve played my fair share, has caused me to so often look up at the clock and say “holy crap, it’s 3am”. I believe the common meme now is simply “One More Turn”. I’m going to have to find that on a t-shirt somewhere. Anyway, besides the mandatory purchase requirement, it does look to offer some significant upgrades. Graphics, engine, even basic movement have been upgraded. Now the game is going to utilize a 8-sided octagon grid rather than squares. This should really make troop movements interesting. The real question is, does it have Nimoy?
Release: Sept 21, 2010
Interest Level: Already pre-ordered
Call of Duty: Black Ops – I’ve tried twice now to enjoy the COD games made by Treyarch. I simply can’t do it anymore. There was next to nothing redeeming in World At War with the exception of CTF and Zombies. I played 100x more Zombie survival mode than I played actual World At War multiplayer. I think most other people did too. The final straw was the 1200MS point map-packs. For both WaW and MW2, that’s simply too much. If this was Infinity Ward and not Treyarch, I might be interested, but neither the Cold War/Vietname era nor the lack of development time really peak my interest on this one. Given that IW has removed themselves from the Activision situation and that this may very well be the last COD game we see for a while, I think it’s safe to say “the King is dead, long live the King”. It was fun while it lasted fellas.
Release: Nov 2010
Interest Level: Negative
Medal of Honor – Talk about night and day. We go from Call of Duty strait into Medal of Honor, geez, who’s putting together this list? Oh yeah… Well, as one empire falls, another arises. I played the beta, I’ve seen the videos, I don’t really have any doubts anymore that Medal of Honor will be taking the console FPS crown this winter. With multiplayer done by DICE and in a decidedly Battlefield like fashion, and with a solid and convincing modern day story, if modern warfare is at all your cup of tea, this is what we’ll be serving up this winter. I don’t really know what else to say about it besides that it will also include early beta access to the (probably) far off Battlefield 3. That true magnum opus won’t land at least until Q4 2011 or 2012, but I’m considering MoH to be a significant warm-up in the meantime.
Release: Oct 12, 2010
Interest Level: High
Enslaved – Now here’s an interesting one. Original IP action-adventure set in a sci-fi future where jungle has overtaken the urban areas and machines have taken over us. As one Joystiq commenter put it, “the girl from Heavenly Sword and a generic tough guy fight the bad guys from Too Human in the jungle from Uncharted.” Basically, umm, yeah. Not that that’s a bad thing. The world looks bright and colorful, the game play looks reminiscent of Prince of Persia with a little Ratchet and Clank thrown in. I don’t often go for the platformers, but this actually seems to have potential. While it’s not an instant pre-order, I’m certainly keeping an eye on it and I’m interested to see what the reviews turn out to be. Could be a good Amazon Goldbox pick up later on.
Release: Oct 5, 2010
Interest Level: Medium
Fable 3 – I was a sucker for Fable 1, I really enjoyed it. Fable 2 I finished but was barely interested in by the time I did. If I remember correctly, I was more interested in collecting random pieces of bizarre clothing and weird weapons by the end than I was in the actual story in the game. Fable suffers from the problem of almost having too much stuff to do. If I wanted to, I could have stayed in one general area, played cards, had children and the game would have become a wacky British version of the Sims. Unfortunately for the franchise, I’m less and less impressed with “interaction” with random towns-people, and what color I can dye my underwear than I am with good game play. I don’t really care what sort of consequence-based system they’ve created. I don’t really care if my character gets a halo or a set of horns. I want a good, action filled dungeon crawl with lots of junk to collect and stuff to do. If they deliver more of that, I’ll be back for the 3rd installment. If they give me only a weak graphical upgrade and more fart noises to annoy the villages with, I’m afraid I’ll have to pass.
Release: Oct 26th, 2010
Interest Level: Undecided (50/50)
Brink – Brink and Bulletstorm (which I mentioned earlier) are actually going after the same audience. Both are nearly pure action-shooters with hardly any plot worth mentioning. Bulletstorm has Epic going for it which includes their engine and history of blowing shit up. Brink has a different but familiar angle. Customization and gameplay. From the dev-diary videos I’ve seen, you can pretty much create any character type/style/appearance you want. Everything from big bruisers with machine guns to nimble ninjas with blades. It’s also featuring a change in gameplay that they’re touting as interactive and adaptive. Using a single button you character interacts with the environment depending on how and what you’re looking at. Approach a railing, look up and hit the button and you vault over it. Look down and hit the button and you slide under it. That’s probably the simplest example, but you get the idea. Press a magic button and different things happen. Apparently early testers say it really works. I’d love to see a demo and give it a try before committing, but I’m actually pretty interested in Brink, perhaps even more so than Bulletstorm. It’ll probably come down to cost, reviews, and friends possibly playing one or the other for me to make a judgment call between the two. Brink hits earlier than Bulletstorm, so that may be the deciding factor right there.
Release: Sept/Oct 2010 (conflicting reports)
Interest Level: Medium
Torchlight 2 – I have to say that Torchlight was a great and unexpected surprise. Pure, old-school hack’n’slash dungeon crawling fun. I loved it. It was simple, strait forward, didn’t screw around. It had some inventory issues (as most dungeon games do, you’d think someone would have fixed that by now) but was very enjoyable. When I found out that they were making a second, I was thrilled, especially since I’m still waiting on Diablo 3. That’s two short, but complete games from these guys in the time it’s taken Blizzard to even put out a press release about Diablo 3. Note to Blizzard, with stuff this good, I’m not going to wait much longer. Oh, and it’s got Co-op. Awesome.
Release: Q1/Spring 2011
Interest Level: High
Halo: Reach – No. Please stop. Just stop. You’ve already beaten the franchise into the ground. Why continue? Listen, Halo gameplay was NEVER revolutionary, it wasn’t, get over it. The levels, enemies, themes, stories, locations, vehicles, everything is repetitive. Now, after a decade of literally the same thing, you’re going back and trying to give us a story. Sorry, I don’t by it. Epic fail, from all directions.
Release: I don’t care (Sept 14th)
Interest Level: Non-existant
Dead Rising 2 -Being a huge fan of most things zombie related, this is definitely peaking my interest. Unfortunately, it also being produced by Capcom lowers that interest quite a bit. DR1 had some significant issues, mostly the lack of saving ability, it’s horribly translated dialog and tiny, microscopic, unreadable on-screen text. Unless you had a 64″ TV, it was pretty much just dots in the corner of the screen. The downside was that the contents of the text was actually important. At one point, if you didn’t read the text, and didn’t follow it’s directions, a character died. If that character died, the story continued, but you lost the “good” ending to the game. Only thing was, you never knew about it. Huge problem. As for DR2, we move venues from a Mall to the (fake) Vegas strip. You still kill zombies with every object known to mankind, the mechanics look identical, the graphics look improved, and that’s about it. It could be fun, but it definitely isn’t Shakespeare.
Release: Sept 14th, 2010
Interest Level: Medium, but waiting for it on-sale
Dead Space 2 – I admit, I haven’t actually played the first one. Lots of people gave it their “Game of the Year” vote last year. I’m just not especially into the horron genre. However, the sequal is getting enough attention, and I’ve seen enough video to be somewhat interested. I do like sci-fi, I do like shooters, and this looks like it has a few things going for it. I see it as almost a System Shock at this point, and nothing has been able to take the “Creepiest SciFi Game” award away from System Shock 2 yet. This may come close. The first one is on sale all over the place, I plan on picking it up and giving it a try. If I dig it, this will be a purchase for sure.
Release: Jan 2011
Interest Level: Medium
Ghost Recon: Future Soldier – Now, if you want the exact opposite of Call of Duty, you’ve got Ghost Recon. Tom Clancy’s mega-opus about elite soldiers in the near future. This is one of the few franchises left that hasn’t sold out to the 12-year old Halo kiddies yet. This is war, grown-up style. Sneaky, silent, invisibility cloaked sniper war. It really depends on how much MoH I end up playing, but this could be my perfect stand in for Battlefield 3. This is the strategic, modern warfare type game I really enjoy. Plus, if you’re confident enough in your IP to make a live action short out of it, you know they’ve got a lot riding on this. I’m sold.
Release: March 2011
Interest Level: High
That wraps up what I had on my radar. I’ve left out some major titles that are also launching in the same time table, but just didn’t strike my fancy. I also left out some titles like Portal 2, Battlefield 3 and Diablo 3, since the details on those are fuzzy and this was really more focused on this winter. I’m sure I’ll be mentioning those when the time comes.
Also, I had planned on linking to some videos and news stories, but I’m currently writing this off-line, so you’ll have to pardon the lack of related media and rely on Skynet Google to find them for you.
Matt out.
Red Dead Redemption
Reviewing a game like Red Dead Redemption is no easy task. Reviewing a open sandbox game is a bit like reviewing a road trip. You start the car, pull out of the driveway and everything that happens between home and your destination is an experience. Compounded in the equation is the fact that Red Dead is set in the American Wild West, a period in history and lore that I’m especially fond of. Reviewing “the West” would be a bit like trying to tell John Wayne he needs to have “more grit”. These are things you simply don’t do.
So, if the game is defined by your experience of playing it, in a classical setting, what you’re really reviewing is mechanics and gameplay, which is fine, but doesn’t really cover the meat of the issues. I guess what I’m trying to tell you is that I can extol all the awesome virtues of this game, but you’re really going to have to play it to get that authentic feel for it.
Where I think RDR shines the most is probably in it’s environment and landscape design. This game is absolutely stunning. Beautiful landscapes, dotted with trees and underbrush, cactus. Hills and valleys that range from scorching hot desert floor to snow capped mountains. A weather system that progresses not just from day to night but from rain to shine, cloudy, foggy, and all back again. The wildlife also needs to be mentioned in the same discussion. While some of it will do it’s best to try and eat you, creatures ranging from rabbits and skunks to larger elk and horses roam free and wild and can be easily hunted, ignored, or just appreciated as part of the landscape.
There have been several instances where I’ve been roaming about the country-side, looking for some plant or animal to complete a challenge and I stop at the top of a hill and watch the sun come up. No, I’m not kidding. It’s seriously that impressive. Whoever designed that system at Rockstar needs to be given a raise, a corner office and a huge ass bonus.
An extension of the environments and the wildlife are the horses. Now, I’m not a “country guy”, I don’t own a ranch, or cattle or a large hat, but I appreciate the beauty of an animal like a horse. Rockstar certainly paid attention to detail in terms of our four-legged friends. The physics and appearance of the horses is nearly flawless. The horse AI (now that’s a phrase you don’t hear too often) is a tad jumpy and tends to wonder away from you while you’re busy doing something, but that’s hardly an issue. If I unloaded a shotgun into a group of bad guys I’d kind of expect my horse to back up a little, it’s at least a natural reaction.
Speaking of unloading shotguns, the core shooting and moving mechanics are also pretty solid. RDR uses a basic Gears of War style cover system, with a combination of zoom and lock-on firing mechanics. You can use the left-bumper to lock onto a target and you’ll stay pretty well aimed at them unless you jerk the cross-hairs in another direction. The trick is scoring headshots. Since the auto-lock feature targets the middle of an enemy, there’s a fine art to “nudging” the aim slightly further north to dispatch enemies with more efficiency. There’s also the compulsory “bullet-time” mode called Dead Eye which, while you may cringe at the thought of another bullet-time effect, actually seems perfectly in-tune with the game. A seasoned gun fighter from the old west is actually the perfect person that I’d expect to have expert and controlled aim in the blink of an eye. Slowing down time, picking your shots and then accelerating time again while the shots are fired fulfills every guys internal “cowboy” appreciation meter.
The story is also finely crafted and although it has some minor annoyances here and there, is for the most part very compelling and quite enjoyable. I sped through the majority of it rather quickly and with the exception of some minor grinding missions (collect 10 specific flowers?) the missions were well spaced and moved the main storyline along rather nicely. Again, some minor repetitive “go here and get X” sorts of things, but those are practically a staple of most open world games. I did however, really enjoy the gang hideout missions. Essentially, you’re heading into a well know hostile area, filled with gang members who don’t really welcome trespassers, and your job is simply to clear them out. These missions are fun little “horde-mode” style frag fests and can be completed over and over again should you not be able to get enough enjoyment out of blasting 50+ bandits hold up in a missionary the first time.
Characters themselves are well acted, well written and with the exception of Bonny McFarland saying “Mr. Marston” over and over again, are an excellent addition to the story. I was actually quite proud of Rockstar for not making our main character, John Marston, into a womanizing, whore-house visiting cattle rustler. Actually, the opportunity isn’t even available. When you’re in a town and a lady of the night walks by, your character says something to the effect of “No thank you, I’m a married man”. Given Rockstar’s history with that sort of topic, especially in the GTA series, I had expected the worst (or at least similar) and I was pleasantly surprised.
That brings us to the quirks. If you know anything about me at all it’s that I love to point out any little tiny negative I can get my hands on. Honestly, I had to try really hard with this one. It’s been a long long time since I’ve played a game this good.
One small annoyance was the cover system I had previously mentioned. You’re introduced to it after a couple missions and you’re told to use it but there seems to be a lack of “grab” related to it. In Gears of War or any of the hundreds of games to use a similar cover system, pressing the button near a box “sucks” you into that box, and you use it as a wall. In RDR, you need to be directly next to the object, basically already taking cover behind it. The only real advantage to using it is to toggle in and out of aiming without getting killed. Releasing the object/wall/etc is also rather tricky, sometimes it works, sometimes you jump to the next closest object, sometimes you turn around awkwardly or even start to run. Personally I think this is more a problem with games using a single button to do too many things rather than a cover-system problem, but it exists and is worth mentioning.
Also, as I mentioned before, the horses tend to be a bit tricky in tight spaces, as you’d imagine they might be, but they’re also tricky around objects in the wild. I’ve had instances where, cantering slowly towards the hitching post results in jumping over it and the reverse as well, coming in at full speed only to have you horse hit a fence like a ton of bricks rather than jumping over (which is something that’s controlled automatically). Then there are a few occasional graphics glitches. The game is loading so many models and textures when you’re out roaming the country side that occasionally you’ll get weird things like birds that spawn with the model of a rabbit. I’ve even seen videos of flying people and donkey-women.
Trust me though, if those are all I could come up with for complaints, this one is solidly in “Game of the Year” territory. It’s the kind of game you pick up regardless of your interest in the genre. Everything from the visuals to the game play to the little touches like the soundtrack and weather systems are well polished and nearly perfected, and we haven’t even talked about the multiplayer yet. I won’t bore you with the details, but it’s fun. A lot of fun. It’s slightly harder to get into when playing in a public game, but when you get a couple of your friends together and clean out a bandit hideout, it’s near co-op perfection.
You know I don’t normally assign scores or anything, but this is seriously an A++ game. 99/100, 5-stars. It’s good. Go get it!
Quality Spring
It goes without saying that video game releases come in waves. The winter holiday season is notorious for big releases, but so is the spring. Most publishers either release games early in the year to get in on a good years worth of sales, or hold them for the winter, creating what I’ve referred to before as the “summer drought”. As always, this year is no exception. The spring is jam-packed with quality titles either already released, or being released shortly.
The top two titles released in early 2010 so far are easily Mass Effect 2 and just this week, Splinter Cell: Conviction. I’ll get into them separately at another time, but both are worth picking up if you have the extra cash. ME2 is a sweeping epic space opera that, in most categories, improves over the original. Splinter Cell is, while short, pure and distilled “bad ass” in a can. It’s Jason Bourne, Jack Bower and Sam Fischer all rolled into one. The co-op and infiltration modes alone are worth the purchase.
Even more exciting is the fact that there are no fewer than ten major releases between more and June 1st. Obviously, I’m not going to get all of them, but there are several I’m excited about and even a few that I’ve got on pre-order. Chronologically would make that most sense, so, here we go.
Skate 3 – May 11
I know most of you haven’t played Skate 1 & 2. I’m not really sure why, but you haven’t. If you garnered any enjoyment out of Tony Hawk 10 years ago (especially those of us who played it until 2am sitting on Nagle’s couch), this has really been a step forward in the genre. Skate 1 completely redefined the skateboard game from “button masher” to “god-like control and finesse”. Anything you wanted to do, trick-wise, with a skateboard, was now possible. Skate 2 took that formula and improved the gameplay, the environment and built upon it’s world editor and video capturing tools from the first game. This third installment is looking to keep all those features in place but take the multiplayer to the next level. That’s really what I’m most excited about. Sadly though, since none of you guys play it, or have any interest to (and that’s ok, skateboard games are not for everyone, I get that), I’ll be playing mostly by myself. Still, I’m excited about the new and improved video tools and the addition of a “create-your-own” skatepark editor.
Red Dead Redemption – May 18
Ok. Here’s the deal. Even if you don’t want to skateboard with me, and that’s cool, we at least have to all agree that having a western, with multiplayer, and forming a “posse” is fucking cool, right? RDR is the next big thing to come out of Rockstar. Apparently all that time grandly thieving automobiles has paid off in the ability to create a large “open world” game. I have to admit, I was less excited about this title when I first heard about it. Then I watched the videos. All of them. They blew me away. I want this game. I want us all to want this game. I want to create my very own Doc Holoday, start a posse and ride through the wild-west taking out gangs and saving dusty old mining towns. I know I have a soft-spot for the genre, but I really can’t pass up the opportunity to ride, shoot and duel in a huge open world like that. Supposedly, according to the videos (go watch them, seriously), there will be quite a bit of multiplayer action. I hope you guys decide to join in on the fun.
Alan Wake – May 18
I’m not sure I can really say more about Alan Wake than what’s already known. If you take a look at the box your 360 came in (if you still have it), you will more than likely see a picture of Alan Wake on it somewhere. It was supposed to be a launch title for the 360. It’s taken that long. I’m not so much looking forward to it as I’m just glad it’s no longer vaporware. It’s kind of one of those titles that had better be good for it’s own sake. Having said that, I have a gut feeling that it will be “Game of the Year” material. I’m going to reserve judgment until I see some reviews, but it’s one to watch.
Blur – May 25
I was actually in on the beta test for Blur. I have to say, it’s kind of stupid, sort of basic, but completely addictive and fun. It’s pretty much Mariocart for grown-ups. Your average urban/street/industrial sorts of tracks, some pretty basic (although licensed brands) cars, a cheesy techno soundtrack, but power-ups galore and tons of fun. It’s gameplay is nearly identical to Mariocart. You run over a powerup, press a button to fire it. Done. They’ve replaced turtle shells with missiles and lightning-bolts, but beyond that, we’re pretty much in familiar territory. The big “but” here, is that it really is addictive in the same way that MC is. I sat down to play one Saturday at noon and when I looked up at the clock it was nearly dinner time. I might not pick it up on release day, but I’ll definitely get it at some point, even if it’s just to have something non-Halo related for my little cousins to play if they happen to come over.
Alpha Protocol – June 1
This is the one I’m most concerned about. If it’s a blend of Splinter Cell and Mass Effect, I’m sold. If however, it’s more like KotoR with guns, or Metal Gear with some RPG collecting/upgrading crap thrown in, I’m out. They’ve been working on this one for quite a while but we haven’t really seen anything in the way of a new trailer or some gameplay videos in a very long time. I’m very excited about the possibilities, but very worried about the treatment. Time will tell on this one. It’s either going to be an awesome day-one purchase, or a bargin-bin pick at Christmas, there’s really no in-between. Still, I’m usually a game optimist, so I’m keeping my fingers crossed.
There we have it. It’ll mostly be a western themed summer for me, I’m sure. There’s really nothing between those and the usual announcements during the summer, usually from E3, about games coming out for Christmas and Q1 2011. Well, unless you count Halo:Reach this fall, which I don’t. I was so turned off by Halo 3 and ODST and what they’ve done to the series (or, rather not done, the stagnation is obvious) that I’m not only not interested in H:R, but I’ll actively campaign against it. Nothing bothers me more than a game developer sitting on old IPs and not moving forward. I’m sorry, but Bungie could have done so many better games than Halo by now that it’s not even funny.
Anyway, I hope at least a couple of you will join in on the multiplayer fun this spring/summer, whatever game it happens to be. If anyone is going to pick up Splinter Cell, let me know and we can get in some co-op time.
Matt out.
Assassins Creed 2
Last night I put in a final push and finished off Assassin’s Creed 2. I can say with a good amount of certainty that it was far better than it’s predecessor. What I can’t say however, is that I fully enjoyed it or believe in where the series is headed. I can’t actually talk about it without spoiling it, so, we’re just going to go ahead and put a read more right here for the folks who have finished it already, or who don’t care…
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