Central Village

Orange Box, Uncharted, COD 4, Heavenly Sword, and Stranglehold

I'm gonna have a lot of free time this Thanksgiving, and I'm totally looking forward to catching up and finishing a bunch of games I've started/purchased over the last few months.

First off, Orange Box, which I've actually already gotten a good chunk through already. I had never played all the way through Half Life 2, despite being a huge fan of the first one. It was phenomenal, as everyone has said. One of those games that you look back once it's all complete and just marvel at what you've accomplished. You don't really appreciate what you're doing until you're done. Such an epic. Episode One was pretty great too, honestly. Felt the same way as the main game...seemed to drag a bit at times while I was playing despite blowing through it, but got a great sense of satisfaction once it was over. I'm gonna give this world a little bit of a rest for now before diving into Episode 2, which is supposed to be the best of the whole series so far. I already beat (and LOVED) Portal and I'm not much of an online gamer, so that'll be it for that box.

I covered my thoughts on Stranglehold earlier. It's a lot of fun, but there's too much else to play right now. I don't think I'll get back to this on until I'm done with the somewhat similar Uncharted...

This game is a beast. The prettiest game I've ever played, hands down. I catch myself staring at the scenery and the animations way too often. It's just...wow. The whole presentation is right in my wheelhouse. I don't need a lot to make me happy, but a well presented story, good graphics and a solid, not too complicated combat system will do the trick. The pacing in this game is great too. I'm really stoked to get through it. Out of all these games, this will probably be the next one I finish.

Call of Duty 4 is super-impressive as well, but it's a but too intense for me right now. That's not to say I won't get through it, but it's a little much at times. Non-stop action, bullets whizzing by...even the loading/cut scenes with the satellite map leaves me jittery. It's a brilliant game, I'm sure, and I expect lots of great moments out of it, but I just need to prepare myself to really get into a game like this. I'm at more of an Uncharted pace right now.

One moment, so far, that this game provides early on, that makes you realize how awful and fucked up war is...before regrouping 2 seconds later and gunning down another bad guy...That first mission on the boat, you're mostly following the computer teammates, they lead you into a darkened bunk room. You check the quiet room, then, without warning, your wingman just unloads a handful of rounds into a sleeping soldier in his cot before moving on to clear the next room. It was a lot to digest...like, that is what...you do. And it's not only acceptable, it goes without comment or hesitation. Jeesh.

So what's left? Heavenly Sword. I don't think I'll touch this game till the rest are all completely done. I got it for like 50% off used cause I heard it was a great little experience and seemed worth it at the time.

So that's what I've got. See, I don't need some 30 hour epic to keep me busy. Keep your Mass Effects, thank you. I LIKE short games. I like being able to see the end of a game as I play. Unless it's really really good, I usually start to crap out at the 8 hour mark anyway. I get much more value out of a short game I can finish, rather than a long game I'll get sick of before I can see the story through. So there.

I expect it to go like this:
Uncharted - ~6 hours left
COD4: - ~7 hours left
Episode 2: ~7 Hours
Stranglehold - ~3 Hours left
Heavenly Sword - ~6 Hours

Once these are all done (not all this weekend, I hope) then I'll look into Assassins Creed, Ratchet and Clank and Kane and Lynch to get me through till GTA IV.

Adventures in Preordering: Stranglehold

I hate preordering games. It's such a scam. I don't see the reason for it to exist, except to install fear in the consumer that somehow a game will "sell out" and a willing gamer won't be able to buy. But all that said, at some point many months ago, I preordered the Collectors Edition of Stranglehold, the long delayed John Woo/Chow Yun Fat/Hard-Boiled Sequel game for the PS3. For the first time ever, a "Collectors Edition" appealed to me, because a full, high-def version of the original movie, Hard Boiled was included in the disk. I thought that was pretty nifty. So this week I got an automated call from Gamestop to tell me that the game was in stock and I should go finish buying it. So I took a night off from Orange Box, picked up the game, and gave it a whirl. It rules.

See, I'm at a point in my life where the length of a game is not as important to me. In fact, If I can actually finish a game that I buy, I feel like I've gotten much more of my money's worth than if I get some 30 hour impossible epic that I'll never see the end of. I like a good story, but I'm easily distracted. So the biggest knock on Stranglehold that it's a pretty short game (around 6-8 hours of gameplay) did not concern me. I appreciate the focus. Regardless, the game is a ton of fun. The gameplay is enjoyable and the entire package just feels really cool. Jumping around in slow-motion, double pistols, locations getting blown to pieces, the whole bit. The game is really easy to pick up and play, the graphics...especially the detail on the characters...are very good and while the story is kinda retarded, it's presented well with cheesy voice actors and good looking cut scenes. It's just super-immersive. And despite what else you might have read, it doesn't feel too repetitive. The easiest and most obvious is the guns blasting/diving everywhere way, which is fun but could get old. It's more fun to use cover where you can, swing out from behind a column as pieces of plaster are flying through the air and take a couple slo-mo shots at the baddies before ducking back. These are the best moments. That, and diving face first on a rolling cart taking out a bunch of dudes as you slide by in...yea, slow motion. That's pretty cool too.

I just cleared the second of seven levels and throughly enjoyed it. Hope to finish it soon.

Birthdays and Bioshock

Two things...

I was the victim of a surprise birthday party Saturday night, which was not only the first time I was on the receiving end of such a thing, but turned out to be the best birthday I've had...probably since my Bar Mitzvah? Thanks everyone for coming, and Kelly for getting it all together. Fun fun times...

I made a point to sit down and finish Bioshock this weekend after over a month hiatus turning the game on, and finally did last night. My thoughts (Spoilers): It was a very very good game. My issues with the actual plot within the story was explained with the whole explanation of why you're there in the first place. In the end, Fontaine was the opportunist who would do anything for power, while Ryan held on to his beliefs till the end, choosing to kill himself by his own free will to prove a final point. Fantastic stuff. I played the game good, never harvesting a little sister, and got the "Good Ending." A couple knocks...I didn't like the voice acting for Fontaine towards the end. Very affected "Brooklyn" accent, bit too much, especially compared to the rest of the characters throughout. The final boss battle was a tad bit underwhelming. I would have hoped that there would have been a little more to it? Not necessarily harder (I don't like difficult games...) Just maybe more? A little branching gameplay after the fight? Either to get you to the surface with the little ones, or to take control of the city (and the world?)

This is, however, one of those games where you're done and you miss the characters. And the world they live in. It was a pretty spectacular vision, executed so strongly and seamlessly, it was nearly perfect.

I think, aside from sports games and Project Gotham 4, the next up will be The Orange Box. I've started Half Life 2 a couple times but I think I'll go at it ferreal this time. Then the rest of it too. The first Half Life was the Bioshock of my Highschool years, and I've been dying to get through the sequel forever now.

NBA 2K8 Review/First Impressions

In one of the best blog schwag snags of my career, I was sent a preview copy of NBA 2k8 for Xbox 360 this weekend, and have a few early impressions after playing for a bit:

First off, this is perennially the best basketball game year after year. At least I am told. I play this game for a bit year after year and always have a hard time getting into it cause the controls are a smidge too complicated. I am ok at the game, but always feel like I'm playing the game wrong. I went into this game with a clean slate and an open mind, and while the game seems more natural and realistic than ever before, I still feel like I'm struggling a but to get the game down.

Biggest issue is the post play, which I hear is great and amazing and the best part about this game, but I have no idea how to execute. There's no tutorial and the manual is pretty useless. It appears to assume you've played the game before, and plays real rough if you haven't. A quick video tutorial or training would go a long way to bring new fans into the series. I need to figure this soon, or else I'm probably gonna go back to playing NHL 08 pretty quick. (which, by the way, is the most fun sports game I've played in maybe a decade.)

So assuming I someday learn how to play this game, it looks pretty great. The animations, especially around the basket when taking it to the hole, are pretty spot on. Player contact, always an issue in basketball games, looks remarkably natural. There are clipping issues here and there, but overall it just looks so much more realistic than ever before. From the outside, every player has is own looking shot, the faces all look pretty spot on and the crowd seems fine. All that aside, the flow of the game just looks smooth. At times, real.

 

I also need to mention that this is the first basketball game I've ever played that has convinced me to run plays. Not full plays, but there's this bit where you can pick one player to run 1 of 4 simple run-offs to get open. Either have them set a screen, come off a screen, post up, or just "get open." And it looks great and works most of the time. Call come off a screen for a shooter, watch them run through traffic, hit them on their spot and knock down a J. It's quite satisfying. I think there's a big jump in these games between hardcore sim players and people like, who like a realistic looking game without it being too hard. This really helps bridge the gap.

I can't speak for the franchise or the association or online or anything else like that. So far I've just played a handful of exhibition games against the computer. Usually as the Knicks and usually against the Celtics on default difficulty. For what it's worth, I have a feeling Q and Crawford are gonna have big years. Celts ain't all that.

Bioshock Review (First Impressions)

I understand that many of my regular readers here are not into video games, so lemme start by saying this. Bioshock is like the Arcade Fire's 'Funeral' of video games. It comes out this week to an unprecedented amount of praise. As of now, the current gamerankings mark (metacritic for games) is a whopping 97%, which is just about the best ever. And not only is the game a technical achievement, but the story just about pushes the envelope farther than anything ever done in the medium before. When a video game elicits Ann Rand comparisons, you know there's something special going on.

Clearly glowing opinions of this game are not in short supply, but let me set the scene. It's 1960, and you are some dude on a commercial airplane that crashes into the middle of the Atlantic. You swim to this odd lighthouse structure to seek refuge and find yourself at the entrance to this underwater Utopian society. Now bear with me for a sec...This world was created by billionaire socialite Andrew Ryan, who gathered the best minds of Art, Science and Industry to create a world that promotes personal freedoms over government or Godly intervention. The entire world is a series of rooms, airlocks and tubes, all created in this imposing Art Deco style. It's quite brilliant, honestly.

I've barely scratched the surface of this game, but it appears, from the various clues you come across, the whole society went to shit sometime around the 1959 New Year. One of the innovations of this world was that the ability to alter your genetic code was available on the consumer level by the way of various injections. These things let you create fire and electricity from your fingers, move things with your mind...ya know. So needless to say, the abuse of all this stuff led most of the population to go mad. You find yourself in the middle of all this, with a lone, sane fella on a radio helping you through. The actual plot so far, despite all this story depth is actually pretty vague, but it seems your main goal is to get out of this place alive, while trying to meet up with and save anyone who is still sane enough to want out.

I don't think I've gotten 1/5 of the way through the game yet (just reached the mad doctor who strives to surgically create the perfect being.) And I haven't even gotten to a 'big daddy', who are these massive robots who maintains a symbiotic relationship with these little girls who apparently possess some sort of pure blood that everyone craves. But I'm already very impressed. There is a big leap, in my opinion, between a technically prefect game such as last year's Gears of War and something like this. This is more than a game. As much as Citizen Kane or The Godfather were more than just moving pictures. This is the type of game that should make people realize that video games have the capacity for depth and emotion and more than just mindless violence and shallow entertainment. It can be art.

My Madden 08 Review

So I was able to get my hands on an early copy of the new Madden this weekend. It's good. It's really good, actually. After the last two 360 versions that were absolutely awful, this one feels like the biggest improvement to the franchise since it went 3D. No joke. It's the first Madden since the Nintendo 64 that I've really been excited to play. And I don't really care about franchise modes or online play. Nice features I really don't have the time or interest to get into. The play on the field just feels fresh. It's by no means perfect, but it makes every previous 3D version seem so primative.

The last two versions were really bad. They were boring! Every game you played felt like the last, the graphics and animations were repetitive and the whole presentation just felt lame. It never felt like a Madden game at all. All the little things were gone at the expense of the better character graphics. The ball didn't wobble on an errant throw, catches were too often made out of bounds and the tackle animations were all the same. It just wasn't any fun.

This year feels like a better version of the PS2 game. The character graphics aren't as wowish necessarily, but they're crisp and perfectly fine. The biggest improvements are all the new animations. There are hundreds of different ways to make a catch, make a tackle, juke, run, throw, etc. It feels much more natural. In previous years you get used to seeing one thing happen and quickly learn to expect the same result. If a certain tackle animation was brought up, you knew you'd get a few more yards before going down, or you'd get pushed back a few yards. Most frustrating is if you got stuck into one of these animations going in the wrong direction. If for some reason you get spun around, suddenly you look like you're guy is fighting for those few extra yards backwards. This kind of stuff would happen several times every drive! This year there are far less instances where goofs like this happen.

Now, you can start a tackle, fall backwards because the running back had enough momentum, but get slowed down enough so that another defender can catch up and finish a tackle in a completely natural way. Same with catches. Receivers often (not always, unfortunately) make the effort to keep their feet in bounds. When they jump to make a catch and get hit in the air, they go down appropriately hard. Again...it doesn't always look perfect, but the effort is there, and its far far more satisfying.

The final big improvement is these "weapon" icons certain players have. Haven't fully grasped if these things really make a difference, but if nothing else, they better separate certain type of players from each other. Power Backs play much much differently than a speed back, possession receivers differently than highlight guys. Whereas most players previously would more or less do the same thing with very minor differences, this mixes it up a lot better. The difference between backs is more like the difference between a PG and a Center in a basketball game. Trying to juke with a Powerback is like trying to do a tricky ballhandling move with a big man. You just don't do it. You learn to make best use of your players.

There are other little things that I feel like I've been saying they should fix for years that they've finally gotten around to. Controlling a receiver is suddenly natural and easy doesn't automatically screw everything up. Same goes for controlling a defensive back. The 2nd stick lets you tackle high or at the legs, depending on what is the best approach. Covering punts on special teams suddenly is possible. The ball wobbles when you're hit while throwing. It's the little things that make it work. There are some week spots as well...The announcer is embarrassingly bad, there are too many interceptions thrown and every once in a while a well-meaning animation looks a bit wonky, but none of this kills the game. It's  simply the most creative and original Madden in nearly a decade. It's just fun again.

You never think it could happen to you

I was always so safe. Wasn't even totally convinced that all these flying wiimote stories were legit. But...this afternoon while bowling, the controller slipped out of my hand and the strap broke. It missed the TV, shot off the wall behind it, up off the ceiling, down against a second wall and settled next to/behind my other TV. We all just stood there silently in a stunned disbelief. Watching that thing bounce around the room was sorta terrifying. It felt like it was in slow motion. How nothing got broken and nobody got hurt is pretty amazing.

I went online right away and ordered the free, reinforced wrist strap upgrade for both remotes. I'm happy to report that the thing still works perfectly, despite some nicks and bruises.

Austin

This girl sums up Austin pretty well in my mind. Does anybody do anything there? Ever? Anything? Except react to buzz?

Sorry, but this week is all about killing zombies

Okay, that and putting in long hours at my day job. But mostly killing zombies. Dead Rising for Xbox which is serious. I haven't genuinely enjoyed playing a game like this in a really long time. The idea is you're a freelance reporter who gets a scoop that a town in Colorado is overrun by Zombies. You fly to the mall and try to figure out what's going on. So much fun.

So this and eating dinner have been what I've been doing with the 6 hours or so this week where I haven't been at work or sleeping. No shows, not much else going on. Just beating zombies with sledgehammers.

Lat Friday, however, my buddy Joey sent me this album he's been going crazy for. It's pretty swell. The band is called Peter Bjorn and John. They are Swedish. Obviously. Here is a quote from the brilliantly named section on their website called "Here's what we think are the best things right now:"

...ACCORDING TO PETER
The sun is hot these days in Stockholm, which is fab, since I’m the sunbathing kind of guy, who likes to be lazy on the cliffs with a good book or friend, a pleausure which doesn’t cost a penny.

Maybe the most delightful run-on sentence I've read in months! Also, an excellent visual description of what they sounds like. Think Hot Chip vs. The Knife doing Beatles remixes, for those who can't feel what a Swede reading in the sun sounds like. Here are two of their jams. Don't think they're coming to America anytime soon, but you never know...

Peter Bjorn and John - Amsterdam (mp3)
Peter Bjorn and John - Up Against the Wall (mp3)

UPDATE: Fluxblog coincidentally posted another song from them today as well.

Live action stop motion Videogame Videogame

Previously: Mike Tyson's Punch Out

I have an X-Box 360, but all I've played on it in the last few months is online UNO. It's in high def.

I've got nothing against videogames these days, but there hasn't been a game that has even remotely interested me for this or any system in forever. Where have the story-driven adventure games gone? Where's the next Indigo Prophesy. Looking back in hindsight, that was a great game. I don't think I really appreciated it while I was playing it. But it was good.

Here's what I want: Modern day, near future or recent past. Takes place in New York, preferably, but whatever. Has a story that is marginally interesting. Has a simple enough gameplay that I wont get frustrated and quit right away. That's all. I don't think that's too much to ask, is it? 50 movies get made like that every year. People watch them, they make lots of money, don't they? Why do all the interesting games take place in fantasy worlds with aliens and magic and all that. There's gotta be someone else besides me who would dig a game like this, right? Where's the next Police Quest 1-4? Hell, I'd even settle for a new Leisure Suit Larry. I'm sick of first person shooters. Sports games are too complicated. Fantasy RPGs are lame and Puzzle games don't hold my attention for long.

Maybe I should go back through the Hitman series and play it through the right way...clean and methodically. I doubt I have the patience for that really either, but I bet it's fun.