One thing that any competitive gamer like myself absolutely needs in a game is the ability to view replays. Before the latest Smash Bros game killed my excitement with horrible online play and lack of options catering towards competitive players I actually toyed with the idea to start a replay sharing site for the game. So I have always wondered why more games don’t have replays integrated as a major feature. It helps foster a more educated and involved player base, which is always good for helping elevate the level of play, which of course is most crucial in more technical games.
It was one of my favorite features in the last Banjo Kazooie game because it allowed you to share ideas and get inspiration for your own creations, which was really fun in a game that encouraged such bat-shit levels of creativity. Other than that I can’t really recall a game on a console that had this feature. That is until I heard that BlazBlue had it. Read the rest of this entry »
I was pleasantly surprised when I played the demo of Trine this weekend and got a taste of the puzzle-based gameplay using 3 characters with different abilities. It reminded me a lot of Lost Vikings, which was a game that I loved, with a few twists. Trine basically takes the LV recipe and adds physics and a bit of action to the mix. With 3 player co-op multiplayer and some cool character interactions It seems like it could end up being a really good take on the genre.
Hit the jump to see the game in action and read my complete thoughts.
I need to start this article with the caveat that I am a huge UFC fan. So when this game came out and I heard it was actually pretty good it seemed like a natural purchase. For the most part I don’t regret the purchase, but there is a part of me that wishes this game was just a little sharper and offered something more for gamers like me who love competitive play.
There are several things that the game does well, and I think it deserves credit for those things, but once you experience the bad stuff in this game it takes all that good stuff and manages to make the game feel rather bland, simple, and average. I recommend trying the game out because it is fun to casually play a few times, it’s just not going to satisfy compared to other stuff out there if you try to dig in and get serious about it.
Halo: ODST is one of those games that preys on fans and the fact that Bungie has built a very strong community and fanbase surrounding the Halo franchise. So when ODST was announced it sounded mildly interesting, like an extension of Halo 3, more Halo 3 = good right? The fundamental problem that this title will run into is the value proposition. It should really be 2 $30 products instead of a single $60 one. They even have it broken up by disc already, one disc being Halo 3’s multiplayer with all the additional maps, and one being ODST’s campaign and the new co-op mode. As a Halo fan I already own Halo 3 and all the additional map packs, so I’m only interested in the ODST specific bits.
Point being that the ODST specific stuff sounds like it only adds up to about half of a game designed to squeeze as much money from the fanbase as possible.
Miracle city has been rocked by a violent explosion, a devastating plague now grips the populace and the entire metropolitan area has been placed under quarantine. Violent gangs control the streets and the police have been all but destroyed. Civilization is gone. Cole McGrath is the only person left standing from the initial explosion that triggered this horrible turn of events and his body is coursing with electricity as a result. As he looks at his city full of disease and madness he has to make a choice:
Should he bring order back to the chaos of his once beloved city? Or should he burn the refuse of humans from the face of HIS land?
Whenever I heard that Rock Band was coming to the PSP, I actually mentally dismissed the title. I figured it would be yet another edition of a music game that I would have to buy peripherals for and my PSP (which I love) is bulky enough without an add-on. It wasn’t until I got message from our very own Evil J that the title went from ’something I didn’t care about’ to ’something that I had to own’. It was explained to me that this version left out the peripherals and the multi-player and instead opted to take on a control scheme and play style akin to that of Frequency and Amplitude on the PS2.
They’ve got a decent system with decent games, it’s just that the value proposition doesn’t quite match up to the competition to most consumers. Doing a price cut might help a little, and would be what Kotick would like, but I don’t think that it’s enough. I don’t know that there is a solution, I mean ideally you just cut to the next gen and make a platform that makes sense architecturally, but that would be cutting way too deeply into the investment into the PS3 and the cell processor tech. It would also be an admission of failure which would kill the current gen and potentially poison the well on the next one.
The best thing to do is to just ride this gen out and try to recoup as much of the investment as possible and then go next-gen when it makes sense. I don’t think that strategy really benefits gamers, developers, or publishers, but it’s the only real option.
Plants vs Zombies is one of those games that I have a lot of trouble writing a review for. One the one hand I really do enjoy the game, but it’s also a smaller more casual game. PopCap has outdone themselves with their latest title and manage to blur the line on what makes a game “casual.”
Plants vs Zombies has you building a whole variety of plants to stop hordes of zombies that approach using 5 lanes. It has elements of strategy that provide good depth but is also easy to pickup and play. What really makes the game work is that it has a fairly robust economy where you find yourself constantly balancing income with offense and that you can only bring a few plants with you. Both of these elements force you to strategize and even develop build orders. It’s a perfect example of how limitations can really make a game interesting.
There’s been a few news stories about Natal in the couple weeks since it was announced on various aspects of the project, I figured it was time for me to weigh in on all this madness. First up is the news that the launch will be big, like 30 third party games big. They seem to be framing it as a new platform launch versus just a peripheral, which makes sense for the way they seem to be positioning it as a “gaming revolution.” I would assume that there is a lot riding on this and it basically is going to fill the void of an entirely new platform.
So when exactly will it launch? My prediction puts it at holiday 2010, seeing as that gives them about 18 months, including the early demo stuff shipped to devs that breaks down to about 2 years to get games done. I figure that next E3 we will get more details like the price/launch date, any changes to the hardware, and a whole bunch more demos. Seems like that timeline makes everything work out clean. Although I do agree that they would hold off if it isn’t ready, or if there’s a competitor to spoil. Keighley also gives a little creedence to this rough timeline.
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