Buddy's Film (and Game) Insights

Everyone has an opinion!

SoulCalibur V

SoulCalibur V

A mixture of fun and disappointment

 

Developer: Project Soul

Publisher: Namco Bandai Games

Genre: Fighting game

Rating: T for Teen (Mild Language, Suggestive Themes, Violence)

 

 

I was very much looking forward to SoulCalibur V. I am a big fan of the series. My favorite entry, II, completely redefined what a fighting game could be. The third and fourth entries were both very solid games but just didn't measure up to what the second accomplished. That's why I got excited when SoulCalibur V was announced. It's time to change the landscape again, I thought. I was expecting to be blown away. I was not.

The story mode is filled with dumb moments (shocker) and it can't make up its mind on whether or not it wants to be challenging or simple as simple can be. Hardly any of the playable characters available in the game are used in the story. A large majority of the opponents might as well be called [insert name here]. I got bored very quickly. Thankfully, it's also short.

Finding someone to play against online is a cross-your-fingers-and-hope scenario. It wouldn't surprise me if there were more people playing Star Wars Galaxies when it shut down than there are playing online in this game. If you can manage to find a player online, or if you are just playing against the CPU or a friend in VS., everything is good as far as combat goes. It is fast and flows smoothly, but the block button doesn't work a lot of the time and the characters' moves also begin to feel very familiar after only a short time playing with each of them.

The other modes in the game, aside from Legendary Souls, are fun to play through. Legendary Souls is just frustrating and should not be bothered with by most gamers. The arcade mode, however, is quite enjoyable. It's nice to be able to battle opponents without having to watch a bad cutscene between each fight. The difficulty in the arcade mode (as well as in the story mode) can also be tweaked to match the player's skill level. That's nice of Project Souls to allow that, seeing as how the training mode in the game is garbage.

I am utterly disappointed with this game. It is filled with pretty graphics and wasted potential. I sat the controller down after I beat the story mode and played through a couple of more single player matches and I just stared at my television screen for a minute. I felt empty. Here is the newest entry in a series that helped to revolutionize fighting games, and it settled for mediocrity. What a shame. I hope that Project Soul puts more effort into SoulCalibur VI.

 

 

Score: 3 1/2 out of 5 

Bodycount

Bodycount

The worst first-person shooter that I played in 2011

 

Developer: Guildford Studio

Publisher: Codemasters

Genre: First-person shooter

Rating: M for Mature (Blood, Violence)

 

For all those gamers that think that the Call of Duty and Battlefield games are "bad" first-person shooters, I present Bodycount. I rented it out of Redbox for $2 and I want my money back. Did Codemasters even finish making this game before they released it? If it is an incomplete game then that would explain why objects in the different environments are not there a lot of the time and why there's half a story, if the scrap metal plot in this game can be described as a story. The "plot" consists of you (I believe that the main character's name is Jackson, though I don't really care) working for a group named Network. You are tasked with hunting down members of a group named Target. That is seriously the group's name. They are bad guys. They will shoot you, unless: (1) you shoot them first; (2) you circle around behind them and shoot them (they will not turn around); or (3) you run away from them (they will not chase you).

 

Hey Bodycount: PlayStation 2 called. It wants its textures back. The environments are the very definition of vapid. The shacks in the first half of the game look like the bathrooms at a rock concert. There are strange indoor locations that look like something from a crackhead's worst nightmares. Most levels are similar in style which leads to them becoming extremely predictable and easy to manipulate. I was playing on hard difficulty and in one level I hid behind a box and shot at least twenty enemies and did not get hit once. As a matter of fact, after I was done killing the unresponsive enemies I got up and walked away unharmed. I then proceeded straight to the end of the level, unharmed. Completing Bodycount will be an extremely easy task for anyone who has played any shooting game ever. However, there are a few unfairly difficult levels because, hey, with everything else going so wrong you know better than to expect Codemasters to throw in a little balancing.

 

Try killing an enemy. It's hilarious because when you do little icons burst from their bodies like diarrhea from a horse's ass. These icons, when collected, become power-ups, which make the game even easier than it already was. These power-ups are stupid; they enhance unnecessary things like speed and firepower. The only decent thing that these atrocious round pieces of junk do is grant you the ability to call in an airstrike, but even that doesn't make this game close to fun.

 

I know that I just said to try killing an enemy but I take that back. Don't try it. Why am I changing my original statement? Well, you'd think that in a terrible game like this you could at least move around while firing a gun. GUESS AGAIN! You can't walk or run while using a weapon. You can only lean or fire from behind cover. Yippee! Codemasters wanted me to let everyone know that there is a way to move in this game while shooting: barely pull down on the trigger. Who in the hell only halfway pulls a trigger when playing a first-person shooter? What an idiotic idea.

 

Bodycount is said to be the spiritual successor of Black. Please. Bodycount is about as comparable to the enjoyable game Black as a doodoo pie is to filet mignon. I wouldn't ever, EVER recommend this game to anyone. As I said, I paid $2 to play it and I still feel like I was ripped off. I couldn't imagine anybody paying $60 for this junk and I feel only pity for those people who did. It should have sold for $15, tops. It shouldn't even be on a disc; it has all the visual quality but none of the enjoyability of an XBLA game. In my opinion, Bodycount is one of the worst games from 2011.

 

Score: 1 1/2 out of 5 

Sonic the Hedgehog (Xbox 360) - Review by Allen Dobbs

 Sonic the Hedgehog

A truly piss-poor game

 

Developer: Sonic Team

Publisher: SEGA

Genre: Platformer, Action, Fantasy

Rating: E10+ for Everyone 10 and Older (Fantasy Violence)

 

Sonic the Hedgehog for the Xbox 360 is absolutely indescribable, but I will still make an attempt at it.  Sonic the Hedgehog is absolute GARBAGE!! I pity those who play this game.  I weep for your misery; I felt the agony that you will feel as you begin the game and realize that everyone in the city of Soleanna looks as if they are from the original The Sims!! WHAT ARE YOU THINKING, SEGA?? I understand that your last system was a complete failure, but you're not supposed to allow this to be carried over into your games as well.  Shun Nakamura directed Sonic the Hedgehog and I someday want to meet this man so I can strangle him for allowing this blasphemous disgrace to video games everywhere to be released into the world. If you aren't understanding the magnitude of how bad this game is, well, I shall give you a game to compare it to.  E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (Atari 2600) is far more exciting and entertaining than this.  I suggest that anyone who owns this game take my advice and bescumber it with all your might.  This is truly an awful game.  The only reason I am not giving this game a zero is because the cutscenes have earned it some points.  This game is HORSESHIT!!!!

 

Score: 1 out of 5

 

SECOND OPINION - Review by Buddy Acker

I completely agree with Allen for the most part. The only part where we don't see eye-to-eye is pretty much in our scores. The in-game graphics in the 360 version of Sonic the Hedgehog are just plain bad. They are, like, mind-numbingly bad. Sonic and the rest of the main characters look okay but the humans in the game and the environments are more bland than a cardboard box (the buildings in the game look like cardboard boxes with windows drawn on them). This is a shame since the cutscenes are so beautiful. The less said about the gameplay itself the better. Sonic's homing attack almost makes the game far too easy and the game would be easy as a result if not for the horrible camera. I lost so many lives in Sonic the Hedgehog as a result of the camera. This caused me to turn my 360 off in frustration several times and I never finished the game as a result and don't plan on doing so. This game is such a huge disappointment to me seeing as how I used to have a fondness for Sonic. Sonic the Hedgehog 2 is one of my favorite games. If I want to play a Sonic game again, I will play that one because these new ones just aren't cutting it for me.

 

Score: 2 out of 5 

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 (Xbox 360)

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3

Change is needed, but don't give up hope just yet

 

Developer: Infinity Ward/Sledgehammer Games

Publisher: Activision

Genre: First-person shooter

Rating: M for Mature (Blood and Gore, Drug Reference, Intense Violence, Strong Language)

 

 

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 is a little bit of a disappointment to me. It doesn't have the uniqueness of Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare or the originality of Modern Warfare 2 going for it. MW3 is easily the weakest entry in the series in my opinion. There are many different thoughts out there about the MW games, but I feel like Infinity Ward has still made some great games in the Call of Duty series. I think MW3 is close to being one of them. 

I really liked the single player campaign. Spotting the Statue of Liberty in the distance and seeing New York in ruins is something that I will never forget. It's like Fallout without the mutants. The set pieces were not surprising at all but some of them were pretty cool. The collapse of the Eiffel Tower was a shocker, as well as the short level where you control a husband carrying a camcorder (that level really pushed my "going too far" button). The final level is an action-packed thrill ride of awesomeness. The campaign is way too short, as several people have pointed out (seriously, it just annoys me to hear it at this point). I know that Infinity Ward has defended themselves on this multiple times, but with games like Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood, Bioshock 2, Borderlands, Gears of War 3, and the upcoming Mass Effect 3 out there with solid and lengthy single player campaigns and multiplayer, there is really no excuse for it. Even the horrible Duke Nukem Forever has a pretty long campaign, and it has multiplayer. I know all about different styles/graphics/whatever, but all of that has nothing to do with making a game better. It's up to the developer to make that choice.

The multiplayer had some work done on it but it really feels like a lazy effort on Infinity Ward's part. It certainly is not that different from the multiplayer in the previous MW games. It has some new features but Infinity Ward did not make any major changes. Even so, if it ain't broke, don't fix it. I still like the multiplayer a lot. What I don't like is the excess of racism/profanity/idiocy that I hear coming from other players. It's because of this dumbness that I refuse to play any Call of Duty game with my headset on. I know that Infinity Ward has addressed this issue by enforcing the 5000 day bans, but unfortunately every idiot can't be singled out. There is not a single person who will disagree with me when I say that it makes the multiplayer experience less enjoyable. Seriously, some of these people should just shut up.

Spec Ops makes its return as well and it's…not that good. It's almost exactly like MW2's was. The only difference is really the maps. I enjoyed playing some of the levels co-op with my friends to begin with but I got bored very quickly, mainly because I'VE SEEN THIS STUFF BEFORE. To top it off, there are only 48 stars to gain this go-around instead of the 68 featured in MW2, which I consider a downgrade. There is one thing that I have to give enormous praise to, though, and that is the new Survival mode. I've played it several times with a couple of my friends and it hasn't gotten old yet.

Infinity Ward needs to make some changes to the Call of Duty formula. If they do not, the games are going to get worse with each release. That is a history lesson that any franchise can learn from. Infinity Ward needs to look at what SEGA is doing with the Sonic the Hedgehog series and…not do that. It's not rocket science, Infinity Ward. Make the single player campaign longer. 12 hours is not too much to ask. Tone it down on the set pieces. Rethink and redo the multiplayer. Add something new to Spec Ops. Add something new SOMEWHERE. I can visualize the perfect Call of Duty game but unfortunately I cannot make that game or I would. I don't have the skills to make that game. Infinity Ward, however, does. MW3 is not that game, but it's still a pretty good game.

Score: 4 1/2 out of 5 

 

Michael Jackson: The Experience (Xbox 360)

Michael Jackson: The Experience

Needed a little more of the King of Pop's flair

 

 

Developer: Ubisoft Montreal

Publishers: Ubisoft, Triumph International

Genre: Music, Dancing, Singing

Rating: E10+ for Everyone 10 and Older (Lyrics and Suggestive Themes)

 

 

Despite what anyone thinks, I have always been a huge fan of Michael Jackson.  Aside from the controversy that dominated the latter part of his life, there is no denying that he is one of the greatest performers in the history of music.  After his death on June 25, 2009, his supposed wrongdoings were for the most part forgotten about or pushed to the side in peoples’ minds in favor of his legendary status in the music industry.  On October 28, 2009, Michael Jackson’s This Is It, a movie documenting Jackson’s preparations for his final tour, was released and went on to become the highest grossing concert movie and documentary in the history of cinema.  Then, on April 12, 2011, Michael Jackson: The Experience was released in North America for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 consoles.  The game focuses on Jackson’s strongest point, his music, but is it worthy of the King of Pop and is it a very fun game in and of itself?

 

Graphics: For a game that didn’t have to have good graphics, Michael Jackson: The Experience for the Xbox 360 has fairly decent visuals.  The song selection menu is very crisp.  The stages are nicely designed and I loved how clean it all looked as opposed to Kinect Adventures, which made me nearly go blind in parts.  In contrast, the dancers demonstrating the moves and the actual player’s silhouette are quite ugly.  My overweight body looked completely ridiculous onstage as the game had a habit of cutting off my hands and feet on a constant basis even when I was standing at the “correct” distance from my Kinect.  The crowd is nothing impressive either.

 

Sound: The game revolves around Jackson’s music.  That’s what anybody who plays the game is going to hear, along with their vocals on certain songs.  Most of Jackson’s greatest hits are in the game except for, for some reason, "Man in the Mirror", which is a complete travesty.  What’s great is that some of his lesser-known songs are also included ("Stranger in Moscow", anyone?).  Aside from the music, the crowd reactions were cool when I was nailing certain moves (that was a rarity but I DID do the "Smooth Criminal" lean perfectly on the first try, earning me an Achievement).  The clicking noise when I was picking songs got really annoying after a while, just like it did in Dance Central.

 

Gameplay: This is where Michael Jackson: The Experience has its moments, and where it utterly fails.  Performing the moves that made Jackson famous is a blast but they are also extremely difficult to pull off.  There is only one difficulty level in the game and that is SUPER HARD.  Getting five stars on any of the songs in the game is next to impossible without practicing them many, many times, which few people will have the patience for.  I certainly didn’t and I didn’t get five stars on any of the songs.  I think the highest I got was three stars on “Beat It”.

 

Singing along to the songs was a blast until I decided to put it to the test.  I sang “Da da da da” in place of the words of “Beat It” and the game still decided that I was giving a “Perfect” performance.  I thought it was pretty hilarious and so did Shawn.  That aspect of the game is completely broken, or it never worked on in the first place.  Another thing in Michael Jackson: The Experience that does not work at all is some of the dance moves.  I have witnesses that can testify that on some songs I nailed the moves and the game did not detect them and on some songs I stood completely still and the game still registered that I did a move perfectly.  I strongly believe that some corner cutting went on in the making of this game.

 

Overall, Michael Jackson: The Experience is not worthy of Jackson’s greatness.  I liked it as a game but only by a little bit.  It needed more work before it was released.  Just because a new peripheral is released for a console does not mean that a game should be rushed in order for the developers to reap the benefits.  I’m not claiming that that is what happened, but that’s what it seems like.  This is a dancing game, and the dancing part of it barely functions.  I still like it, but with Michael Jackson’s name on it, I should have loved it.

 

 

Score:  1/2 

 

Call of Duty: Black Ops - Xbox 360

Call of Duty: Black Ops

Treyarch tries again, and succeeds again


 

Developer: Treyarch

Publisher: Activision

Genre: First-person shooter

Rating: M for Mature (Blood and Gore, Intense Violence, Strong Language)

 

The Call of Duty franchise took a big hit earlier last year after the fallout between Infinity Ward and Activision which I was able to keep up with thanks to GameInformer.  It was a crazy ordeal to say the least.  The craziest thing about it is that it almost led to the end of Call of Duty, one of the highest-selling series of all time.  I don't know about anyone else but that would have made me very sad.  Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare is one of my favorite first-person shooters in history and I also loved Modern Warfare 2.  The Treyarch Call of Duty games have had mixed success; I did not much like Call of Duty: Big Red One and Call of Duty 3 was not great.  I am a huge fan of World at War because of its inventiveness in some areas and it made me excited for Black Ops.  I have now played it and I must say that I am once again pleased.

 

Graphics: The visuals in Black Ops are not the best out there (BioShock looks about as good and it was made in 2007, and a game like Alan Wake looks much better) but here's the thing: like I said about Halo: Reach, they are pretty damn impressive considering all the shit that's happening in-game.  The levels in Black Ops are the biggest in size (not length) of any of the Call of Duty games so far and that is pretty cool.  I was blown away by the vastness of the level "Executive Order".  The characters look realistic when they speak, the explosions look fantastic, and the multiplayer levels look about as good as the ones in the single player campaign.  Still, I have seen better.

 

Sound: This is one of the areas where Black Ops shines.  Playing this game on a Samsung 32" LCD TV with the volume turned all the way up is an amazing experience.  I mentioned how fantastic the explosions look above; they also SOUND fantastic.  The guns all sound real.  Vehicles make a natural clanking noise when overheated.  The score by Sean Murray is pretty good (it doesn't hold a flame to Hans Zimmer's score for Modern Warfare 2).  The voice acting is great (the cast includes Sam Worthington, Ed Harris, Ice Cube, and Gary Oldman).  Chriss Anglin as John F. Kennedy is something that everyone needs to hear.

 

Gameplay: This is the another area where Treyarch got it right.  Black Ops features arguably the finest first-person shooter controls to date.  I think that they are.  The ease of switching between guns or from firing from the hip to firing down the scope is just incredible.  It doesn't feel as jerky as it did in Modern Warfare 2.  Controlling Alex Mason in the campaign and controlling Random Guy Who Nobody Cares About in multiplayer is no problem at all.  The only problem I had was with getting down into a prone position.  It doesn't work every time and it led to a lot of frustration for me when I was playing through the game on Veteran difficulty.

 

Speaking of Veteran difficulty, it is RIDICULOUSLY unfair.  I know it's supposed to be hard but when an enemy on the other side of a level is able to hit me in the head with a shot fired from a pistol, there is something very bullshitty about that.  Getting into cover didn't help most of the time because then the enemies would just constantly lob grenades and then kill me when I tried to get away from the explosion.  There were two levels that I can remember where, in certain areas, I was launching a very long line of obscenities at my TV.  Modern Warfare 2 and World at War were the same way (I didn't play the original Modern Warfare or Call of Duty 3 on Veteran), though, so I don't know if it's something intentional or if the games are just extremely unbalanced when it comes to that.  I'm beginning to suspect that it's the latter.

 

I'm still not a fan of the levels which required me to shoot from the back of a truck or tank.  I hate not being able to control every aspect of the game that I am playing.  I know that's wishful thinking but that's me.  I did, however, really enjoy driving the boat on the level "Crash Site" and I also enjoyed flying the Hind in the level "Payback".  My favorite part of the game takes place at the very beginning of the level "WMD" where I had to control a ground team via a thermal screen in a jet.  I loved doing that.  I actually think that a whole Call of Duty game could be made out of that concept.

 

Story: The plot in Black Ops crosses the line from daring to tasteless.  The torture scene at the beginning of the level "Numbers" is utterly appalling in my opinion.  I may be a "sissy boy" or whatever but oh well.  The story line of the game is very involving and I found myself looking forward to the ending.  Unfortunately, the twist at the end is ludicrous.  I just about choked from laughing so hard at it.  I had it figured out from about the third or fourth level but I was hoping that I was wrong and Treyarch wouldn't travel down that path.  They did.  Eat your heart out M. Night Shyamalan.

 

Modes: Zombies Mode is back and as good as ever.  The best level in Zombies Mode is "Five" in which John F. Kennedy, Richard Nixon, Robert McNamara, and Fidel Castro must fight off hordes of the undead.  It is as ridiculous, funny, and awesome as it sounds.  The other levels are pretty good but they're nothing special when compared to the ones in World at War.  Dead Ops Arcade is Geometry Wars with zombies and I absolutely love it.  I'm not very good at it because it is one of the hardest things in Black Ops (I almost shit myself when I made it to round 13 the other day) but I still love it.  Multiplayer hasn't changed much from how it was in Modern Warfare 2 but it didn't need to really; it's pretty wonderful the way it is.  I'm still a Free-for-All kind of guy but I enjoyed what I played of the other options as well.  The progression system in Black Ops has improved substantially over the previous entries.

 

I think that I liked Black Ops a little more than World at War, enough to say that it is the finest Call of Duty made by Treyarch to date.  Modern Warfare 3 is currently in development.  However, Infinity Ward is over it.  I am sort of hesitant to believe that it will be an awe-inspiring game because I think that the Call of Duty series, while very popular, is running out of steam.  Infinity Ward and Treyarch have taken us through World War II, the Vietnam War, the Cold War, and given us a glimpse of our wartime strategies in this day and age.  And now apparently, with Modern Warfare 3, they're going to give us a glimpse of World War 3.  Where else is this series going to go from here?  The American Revolution?  The Civil War?  The War of the Roses (actually, that would be pretty cool)?  There is nothing left to accomplish, and that will be the downfall of Call of Duty.  However, if Treyarch is ever tasked with making another game in the series, I will be behind their efforts 100%.

 

 

Score: 4 1/2 out of 5 

Braid - Xbox Live Arcade

Braid

Rewinding time has never been so meaningful

 

 

Developer: Number None, Inc.

Publisher: Microsoft Game Studios

Genres: 2D Puzzle/Platformer

Rating: E10+ for Everyone 10 and Older (Language and MIld Cartoon Violence).  WARNING: This game does have the phrase "Now we are all sons of bitches" in it.

 

I really miss the good old days of gaming when Mario and Sonic the Hedgehog were dominating the world in some of the best 2D platformers ever.  I always preferred the former over the latter but if I had to make a list Sonic the Hedgehog 2 would undoubtedly be in my top 20 games of all time (Super Mario World would be ahead of it; it’s my favorite Mario game).  I never really got into the 3D Mario or Sonic games as much as the 2D ones (I haven’t liked ANY Sonic game at all that I have played since Sonic Adventure 2 Battle).  Thanks to Xbox Live Arcade and a few developers who still believe in the magic of old school, there are still great 2D side-scrollers being made.

 

Braid is one of them.  What a masterpiece.  This game, as simple as it looks (it is NOT simple), invoked emotions in me that I haven’t felt while playing any game in a while.  This is due in part to its fun gameplay, charming and deceitful graphics, and amazing story.  Despite what Roger Ebert says this game is a beautiful work of art.

 

Graphics: Anybody who says that there is no way a 2D game can have good graphics is an idiot.  Braid is a painting in motion.  The level backgrounds are gorgeously drawn.  The levels themselves are well thought-out and designed almost to perfection.  The character models are a little goofy-looking to start with but because of the plot this seems intentional; I believe that Jonathan Blow (the guy who came up with Braid) wanted the characters to look like they do so that they would appear innocent and happy-go-lucky, which makes the ending of the game all the more brilliant.  Great graphics are not always determined by how much shit can be blown up or by how realistic shooting somebody in the face looks; they can be found in the most unexpected of places.  Anyone remember The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker?

 

Sound: I’ll take Braid’s music over Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2’s any day of the week.  It completely enraptured me and, in some instances, touched me.  What a great job Jami Sieber, Shira Kammen, and Cheryl Ann Fulton did on this game’s score.  The music is heaven for the earlobes.  It fits perfectly with every level, situation, and the story.  That’s about all there is to be said about it.

 

Gameplay: The gameplay in Braid is a mixture of ideas from other games.  The story involves a kidnapped princess, the main character, Tim, defeats enemies by jumping on their heads, and at the end of every level there is a flag and a creature comes out of a castle to inform Tim “I’m sorry, but the Princess is in another castle.”  Hmm, I wonder what game all that sounds like (for all those people out there who may be unfamiliar with gaming, that game would be Super Mario Bros.)?  The ability to rewind time to fix mistakes is similar to how the dagger is used in Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time except that in that game the ability is limited and in Braid it is not.  There’s no way it could be or the game would be impossible to beat.

 

Playing Braid requires using almost all of the 360 controller throughout the game but it is still quite simple.  Move the control stick to move Tim, press A to make him jump, press X to rewind time, press B to open doors, press LB to rewind time faster, and press RB to fast-forward time.  The Y button comes into play only in the last level of the game and as for what it does, I’m not telling.  It’s a secret.  I’ll say that it works and so do the rest of the controls to perfection.  There is nothing, and I mean absolutely nothing, wrong in the playability department in Braid.

 

Story: There are not enough words to describe how intriguing the plot of Braid really is.  I wish more movies were as involving as this game.  I had no clue what was going on in the beginning of the game but by the end I had it figured it, and I also did not guess the ending.  That twist at the end is one of the very best in gaming history.  It completely altered my perception of Tim’s journey and made me rethink the entire game up to that point.  The ending is so damn brilliant that it blew my mind.  I have my own theory about what was going on but as Jonathan Blow said the story is up for debate.  There is not much more that I can say other than everyone should play this game all the way through to the end so that they can see the twist for themselves (I would suggest a walkthrough for those that have trouble as long as they get to see what really went down).

 

Braid is not a perfect game by any means (there is no such thing).  Its short length will surprise a few people but I didn’t find that to be a bad thing at all.  It’s not that expensive anyway; it’s down to 800 Microsoft points now (which is about $10).  Taking into consideration the remarkable vision and scope of the game, I consider it a masterpiece.  Any game that can make me feel the way Braid did will always be a classic in my mind.  Thank goodness someone out there still has the guts to take on a 2D game.  There should be more games like Super Mario Bros. and Sonic the Hedgehog, and there should be more games like Braid.

 

Score: 

Dead Space (Xbox 360)

Dead Space

Games have no right being this scary still

 

Developer: EA Redwood Shores

Publisher: EA

Genre: Survival horror, third-person shooter

Rating: M for Mature (Blood and Gore, Intense Violence, Strong Language)

 

Thanks to the ingenuity of GameFly I finally got the chance to try out Dead Space, a game I had been wanting to play for some time. I was first introduced to it through an article in GameInformer and I knew then that it was my kind of game. When it was released I read GameInformer's review of it in which Andrew Reiner gave the game a score of 9.25 out of 10. Mr. Reiner does not hand out high scores easily so this further fueled my desire to play it. I have now done so and I'm afraid that I'm going to be the one who is stingy with my score because I feel that while Dead Space is an overall worthy experience it also has some technical issues that are slightly disappointing.

Graphics: Going by the fact that it was released in 2008, Dead Space easily has some of the best visuals of any game for the 360. There were several times where I had to stop and take in the beautifully grotesque sights around me. The human character models, especially Isaac, are extremely detailed. I'm shocked that EA took the time to put that much work into them. The...creatures, I'll call them, aboard the Ishimura are, graphically-speaking, impressive. They freaked the hell out of me. The first time I saw a Necromorph was the last time I wanted to see a Necromorph but thankfully the game threw more at me.

The Ishimura itself is also a feast for the eyes. The dimly-lit corridors of the ship are, as I said, dimly-lit without being too dark. They are the right type of dimly-lit. The shadows that extend from every surface can be deceiving and I found myself shooting an innocent chair at one point in the game (in my defense, it was a pretty big chair). The rust that covers seemingly every metal surface adds to the scary atmosphere even though I still don't understand how a ship this rusty was operational.

Sound: The music in Dead Space is nothing special. I honestly don't remember a single song from the game. That doesn't matter because the shriek of an incoming assailant, the audible crash of an unseen object, and decent voiceover work was enough to satisfy me. I jumped plenty of times during the course of the game. There are no well-known actors doing work in Dead Space but the acting felt abudantly solid several times throughout. I just wish Isaac had talked a little more, as in said anything at all.

Playability (from now on this section will take the place of "Controls" because I did not feel as if "Controls" was broad enough): This is where I ran into some problems with Dead Space. The game controls wonderfully. Moving around and shooting with Isaac was a little strange at first because I had been playing a lot of first-person shooters around the time that I popped Dead Space into my 360 but I quickly got used to it. I loved having to strategically shoot off the enemies' limbs as opposed to blasting them full-force in the face. It adds another element of skill to the game, heightens awareness, and makes the panic level go up substantially.

One thing I did not enjoy about Dead Space, or any game that I have played for that matter, is the immense amount of backtracking. I HATE BACKTRACKING and unfortunately it takes up a large amount of the game. I understand that Isaac is stuck on a spaceship so backtracking is necessary but I still did not enjoy it at all. Another thing I did not get is why enemies can attack while Isaac is upgrading a weapon or buying new equipment. Just when I thought I had cleared a room and was good to go, I was clobbered to death while in the store and completely defenseless. That was really annoying.

A holographic image pops up in front of Isaac's face when going into the map and it is a pain in the ass. It's nice to still be able to attack enemies while accessing the map but trying to find my way around from it was next to impossible. Fortunately, a click of the right stick causes a sort of blue line to emerge from Isaac's hand which points the way to the next objective. That is both a blessing and a curse because sometimes it pointed me toward a point that was many rooms away when in actuality I could have went one room over and completed the objective there first.

Jumping around in zero gravity is fun but it makes the camera do some sort of backflip over itself that was more humorous than helpful. I will be playing Dead Space 2 soon and I hope that that is one of the issues that is taken care of as well. Running around on the walls and cieling can be disorienting but it's not too bad. Blasting asteroids out of the sky, however, is HORRIBLE. Why was that in the game? I understand if EA wanted to add some diversity to the gameplay but that was the wrong way to go. That BETTER NOT be in Dead Space 2.

On my playthrough, I was going for the "One Gun" achievement so I did not get to fire any weapon besides the plasma cutter. Therefore, I cannot comment on how they handled other than to say I'm sure they worked fine because the plasma cutter itself is an extremely effective weapon. Using the Stasis ability to freeze objects and enemies is very cool and using Kinesis to throw things around never gets old. I wish I could say the same for the rest of the game.

Story: I guess I understood what was going on in Dead Space well enough although details on the Marker and the Church of Unitology were a little vague. The main point of this game is to be scary and it is scary; I jumped in fright several times while playing it. It reminded me in a lot of ways of the movie Alien, which is one of my favorite movies. There's no way that that can be a bad thing. I hope that the story is built upon more in Dead Space 2 because I want some damn answers.

To wrap all that up, I was ultimately satisfied with Dead Space. It is not the masterpiece that I was hoping for but it does stay true to its survival horror roots. There are some things that I liked a lot and some things that I did not like at all. I can't wait to play the second installment and see if Visceral fixed some of the broken (yes, broken) aspects of the first game. Until then, I walk away from my time aboard the Ishimura with a slight grin on my face.

 

Score: 4 out of 5 (my smileys aren't wanting to cooperate with me today)

Silent Hill: Homecoming (Xbox 360)

Silent Hill: Homecoming

Survival horror isn't what it used to be

Developer: Double Helix Games

Publisher: Konami (shocker)

Genre: Survival horror, third-person action game

Rating: M for Mature (Blood and Gore, Intense Violence, Language, Sexual Themes)

 

After playing through its last few levels seven times and the entire game three times (twice on normal difficulty and once on hard) in order to get all the achievements, I think I should know a little bit about Silent Hill: Homecoming.  I did not in any shape or form enjoy my last few times playing through it; in fact, I have grown to hate the game now and do not ever plan on playing it again.  However, my review will only cover my first playthrough, and I have very mixed emotions about the game as far as that goes. 

 

I am a huge fan of the Silent Hill series and have been since playing Silent Hill 2 for the PlayStation 2 which is right up there on my top 100 list along with Silent Hill 4: The Room, which I liked even better.  I like Silent Hill 3 also but not as much.  Sadly, I played through the first Silent Hill for the first time in 2009 and that game is a piece of CRAP by today’s standards but I could see how it was something in 1999.  It’s better than a lot of PlayStation games from that era.  I have not played Origins yet but wanted to and will someday but I got excited back in 2008 when I heard about Silent Hill 5 (later changed to Homecoming) being undertaken by a new developer, Double Helix Games.  Now that I have played it there are some things that I really like about it but there are some things that I can’t stand as well.

 

Graphics: The graphics in Homecoming are not that bad.  When the characters talk their facial animations can look a little goofy at times, especially their teeth, but there is also a level of realism there.  Some of the environments are boring and devoid of the horror that the game is obviously aiming for but some of them, like Hell Descent for example, made me sit up and take notice.  The first true boss of the game, Sepulcher, is snooze-worthy in design but Scarlet, Asphyxia, and Amnion are all creepy and awesome.  The other enemy designs, aside from the boring Order members and Curtis Ackers, are all cool.  Silent Hill (the town) looks as good as it ever has even though not much time is spent in the town (which is a smart decision in my opinion). 

 

My biggest problem with the graphics is not with the way they look in particular but with the lighting; it is criminal.  Some levels were so dark that I could not see which way I was going which led to some confusion on my part.  There was one part in the prison level where I could not find a simple lever on a wall and it made me smack myself in the head with the controller out of frustration.  It wasn’t because of an error on my part; it had to do with the simple fact that I could not see anything.  I already have horrible eyesight and I swear that Homecoming made it worse.

 

Sound: The music in Homecoming is a mixture of music from the previous Silent Hill games and some new tracks and I liked it quite a bit even though I became sort of desensitized to it.  I have always enjoyed Akira Yamaoka’s work.  I still find myself whistling the main theme from the game every now and then.  The creepy sound effects are nice but get old after a couple of levels.  The voice-over acting is pretty poor.  I know 0% of the actors doing work here and am not shocked at all that they are not more well-known.  The characters’ emotions feel phony as hell because of the bad acting.

 

Controls: The controls in Homecoming are decent at best.  Walking around and exploring is fine; as an enormous fan of The Legend of Zelda I’m into that sort of thing.  Anybody out there who isn’t need not apply.  Homecoming will not be an enjoyable experience in the least for that type of gamer.  Fortunately, there is a lot of action in Homecoming as well.  Unfortunately, initiating combat can be an annoying experience.  The newly-introduced timing-based dodge is a welcome addition but it just does not work sometimes and left me growling in anger during boss battles.  In other words, I know that I dodged, but according to the game, I didn’t.  I did like the combat for the most part, though.  Using melee weapons is okay and the gunplay is the best in the series so far (mainly because of the fact that it’s possible to aim).  Acquiring the laser pistol is a joyous and humorous occasion.  Be sure to get the UFO ending and beating the game on Hard will be as simple as simple can be.

 

Story: Keeping with Silent Hill tradition, the plot of Homecoming is confusing and dumbed down to make way for a predictable twist.  Double Helix must think that nobody has ever played a Silent Hill game before or something because anybody who has will see the ending coming a mile away.  Speaking of the ending, that’s where most of the plot takes place—the end of the game.  Virtually nothing (or at least nothing interesting) happens up until the last few levels.  At that point I didn’t care anymore because like I said I knew what the twist was.  It is basically the same twist from Silent Hill 2, which, by the way, has the best plot out of the entire series.  As a critic of movies as well as games I know that if Homecoming were made into a feature film it would be utter crap.  Adding in Saw- and Hostel-like elements does not help matters any at all.

 

Score: 1/2

Red Dead Redemption (Xbox 360)

Red Dead Redemption

The best video game Western ever

 

 

 

Developer: Rockstar San Diego/Rockstar North

Publisher: Rockstar Games

Genre: Open world game, third-person shooter, action-adventure

 Rating: M for Mature (Blood, Intense Violence, Nudity, Strong Language, Strong Sexual Content, Use of Drugs)

 

 

I finally, finally, finally got a chance to play Red Dead Redemption.  Wow, what a game.  I had been following it since its official announcement in 2009.  When I heard that Rockstar Games was planning on making an open world Western that was a sequel to Red Dead Revolver I said, “AH HA HA HA HA.  Yeah right.  That should turn out well.”  Rockstar San Diego (a division of Rockstar Games) made the first game and it was not that great so how could a sequel, especially one based off of the Grand Theft Auto IV design (which is great), even be considered?  Luckily, it was considered, and I’m glad the risk was taken.  Red Dead Redemption is without a doubt one of the best games I have ever had the honor of playing.

 

Graphics: I won’t lie.  There are occasional glitches and bugs and there is a lot of pop-up in the game but my gosh, with a world this big, how could there not be?  It’s still a GORGEOUS game and I do really mean that.  The landscapes are absolutely stunning.  The character models are all interesting in one way or another and beautifully designed.  I cannot fault this game for its graphics because my mouth dropped open more than a couple of times.

 

Sound: Every one of the voice actors is extremely talented.  I don’t know who Rob Wiethoff (John Marston in the game) or Kimberly Irion (Bonnie MacFarlane) are but I do know that they were in the game thanks to IMDb.com and I do know that they are both great.  Wiethoff in particular delivers a sense of realism through his character that is rarely seen in video games or any other entertainment medium for that matter.  I have to give credit to Anthony De Longis also who is quite good as Marshal Leigh Johnson.  I enjoyed walking around and just taking in the sights and hunting all the various critters in the game so the music got very repetitive to me after a while but that doesn’t mean it isn’t good because it is magnificent.  It is pure candy to the ears and I will be picking up a copy of the soundtrack.

 

Controls: I have never seen such perfect controls in an open world game and they just might be the best in gaming history.  The gunplay is really simple to understand yet challenging to master, the way it should be.  Riding a horse is as fun as it has ever been and I’m saying this after playing the Assassin’s Creed games.  There are some platforming elements to the game and they are extremely fun.  Move over, Mario.  Okay, so maybe they aren’t THAT good.  Hunting and skinning animals was oddly addicting to me for some reason.  It never got old.  Well, I take that back.  There is one achievement in the 360 version in which I had to kill and skin 18 grizzly bears and it took me forever to find them all and I got a little impatient with that.  I don’t see how anybody wouldn’t.  The annoying D-Pad on the 360 controller is rarely ever utilized, which is a good thing.  As far as I can remember, the only thing I used it for was to call my horse.

 

Story: Even with all the other goodness, the plot of Red Dead Redemption is my favorite thing about the game.  It is a sweeping epic that most movies can’t even manage.  If I made a list of my top 10 favorite gaming tales, Red Dead Redemption would be placed at least 3 or 4.  It made me laugh and, believe it or not, cry.  The ending is BRILLIANT and I have never seen anything like it.  It is also very shocking.  That’s about all there is to say about it other than I think everyone should experience it in all its majesty.

 

Score:  

Alan Wake (Xbox 360)

Alan Wake

 An interesting story makes up for minor flaws

 

 

Developer: Remedy Entertainment

 

Publisher: Microsoft Game Studios

 

Genre: Third-person shooter, psychological thriller

 

Rating: T for Teen (Blood, Language, Use of Alcohol and Tobacco, Violence)

 

 

I was instantly interested in Alan Wake after hearing only a few sparse details about the game.  As my friends on Xbox Live know I am a huge fan of third-person shooters (why play as a character that I can’t be when I can play as one that I can see?) and an even bigger fan of survival horror games.  Alan Wake is billed as a “psychological thriller” which in the gaming world is pretty much the replacement for survival horror nowadays.  Alan Wake is certainly creepy at times.  It’s a little bit Silent Hill (though far better than Silent Hill: Homecoming), a little bit Resident Evil 4, a little bit Max Payne, and a little bit Lost (the television series, not the mediocre game Via Domus).

 

Graphics: I have an eye for great graphics and let me say this: Alan Wake is pretty.  I don’t say that about a lot of games but it truly is.  The ferry scene at the beginning of the game took my breath away.  It’s still a long way away from being truly realistic (as is every other game) but when I look back on a game as recent as BioShock (my second favorite game ever) and realize that Alan Wake is better-looking than it I can’t help but be awestruck.  Visuals have certainly improved since the debut of the greatest console of all time, the Super Nintendo Entertainment System.

 

Sound: It’s unfortunate that the actor providing the voice for Alan Wake, Matthew Porretta, is not a very good actor.  He is downright annoying at times and when the actor is actually shown as the real-life Alan through several televisions scattered throughout the game, his performances are laughably bad.  Thank goodness most of the other acting ranges from okay to great.  I loved Brett Madden as Alice Wake.  She does exceptionally strong voice work.  The music in the game doesn’t particularly stand out apart from some of the songs that are played in-between episodes.  The inclusion of “Space Oddity” by David Bowie at the end of the game was a pleasant surprise.  The in-level music is fine but it’s kind of like how I felt about The Social Network winning Best Score at the Oscars: nobody cares.

 

Controls: One of my gripes in Alan Wake is in this category.  There is very little wrong with the controls in the game and that is, in the end, exactly what is wrong with them.  I know that doesn’t make much sense but allow me to explain.  The whole point of the gameplay in Alan Wake is to aim a flashlight at something or someone in order to kill it/them or to weaken it/them down enough to score the kill.  This is extremely easy to do.  For someone not to be able to hit a target with the flashlight in this game that person would have to be an idiot or their controller is broken.  Aiming with the various guns in the game is a bit more challenging but also fairly simple.  Aim and fire; that’s it.  There are a few levels in the game that require driving from point A to point B and the cars handled pretty well until I wanted to make a sharp turn.  At that point they spun wildly out of control and trying to get back on course was frustratingly difficult.  Everything else, for the most part, works.

 

Story: The plot in Alan Wake is the best thing about the game.  It is intriguing from the opening cinematic and although the game is over I am still pondering its meaning now.  As I said the game reminds me of the television show Lost.  Lost confused a lot of people and Alan Wake is likely to do so as well but I can guarantee that anyone who should play through it will be forced to think about it.  The game provides no clear answers and I love it for that.  The quote from Alan at the beginning of the game sums it up perfectly: “Stephen King once wrote that nightmares exist outside of logic, and there’s little fun to be had in explanations – they are antithetical to the poetry of fear.  In a horror story, the victim keeps asking ‘Why?’, but there can be no explanation, and there shouldn’t be one.  The unanswered mystery is what stays with us the longest, and it’s what we’ll remember in the end.”

 

Score: 1/2

Halo: Reach (Xbox 360)

Halo: Reach

The best Halo ever

 

Developer: Bungie

Publisher: Microsoft Game Studios

Genre: First-person shooter 

Rating: M for Mature (Blood, Violence)

 

 

I’m not as strong on the aspect of game critiquing (that’s Shawn’s forte) as I am on movies but I do know a great/good/okay/bad game when I play one and Halo: Reach is a GREAT game.  Bungie had their work cut out for them and they over-delivered.  Reach is a truly amazing experience.  I like all the Halo games but if I had to pick the best I would choose Reach.  Sorry Halo 2/Halo 3 fans.

 

Graphics: Graphically-speaking, Reach is not that impressive.  The graphics are the best yet in the Halo series but this game was released in September 2010 and I’ve seen way better visuals in games from as far back as early 2008.  The trees in particular disappointed me.  They look as if they were made out of construction paper.  But taking into consideration all of the crazy shit that’s happening on-screen at any given time I have to give credit where credit is due.  Basically what I’m saying is that I liked the graphics but didn’t love them.

 

Sound: The voice acting ranges from good to annoying.  Surprisingly enough and unbeknownst to some people Zachary Levi and Nathan Fillion did some voice work in Reach.  I’m sure they were good (aka I don’t remember them).  The voices that kept crackling in on the radio got on my nerves sometimes but not enough to detract from the overall experience.  The score is INCREDIBLE without a doubt.  Every piece of music in Reach is something special.  I want the soundtrack for this game.

 

Controls: The Halo series has always been known for its terrific controls and Reach only makes things better in that department.  All the right functions are placed on all the right buttons on the Xbox 360’s controller and there is never confusion over what does what in the game.  The short of it is, if it’s a gun, it fires when the trigger is squeezed, and if it’s a sword, it cuts when...the trigger is squeezed.  Anyway, the controls are right up there with the best that the FPS genre has to offer.  They just might be the best.

 

Story: Any longtime follower of the Halo series already knows how Reach turns out because it is a prequel to all the Halo games and the fall of Reach was mentioned in those games.  Bungie was aware that this may turn away some people.  So was George Lucas when he made the last three Star Wars films first.  Lucas wanted to give Star Wars fans the whole story, not just part of it, and so did Bungie.  In my opinion the script for Reach is one of the most finely crafted in video game history.

 

Modes: Reach’s single player campaign is terrific.  Bungie knows how to incorporate some new gameplay aspect into every level and there is never a dull moment.  Multiplayer is as good as it has ever been.  I especially love the updated Firefight and I am a big fan of Forge as well.  As I said, Reach is just a great game.  It is so unbelievably well-rounded that if it were a shape it would make circles jealous.

 

Score: