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Nov 11th, 2012 at 23:53:29 - Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Conviction (360) |
Last one for this batch. I haven't played a Splinter Cell game in some time, but Sam Fisher is different than he used to be. He's faster, more Ezio with the ability to climb around on pipes and window ledges, assassinating people from various positions. He also feels a bit supernatural because of this new "marking" mechanic. So in this game, after you kill an opponent in melee, you can mark up to 4 enemies (depending on your gun). Then you push Y and Sam pops out and headshots all of them. It's really cool to do, and you use it very strategically, say, when you come upon a tough-looking room with 4 or 5 enemies. Well, find the one who is a bit isolated from the rest and melee kill him. Then mark the others, and bam, cleared room. But it feels a little impossible. Yeah, Sam is a badass agent, but really? He can pull off 4 headshots on elite super soldiers in a split second without being even shot at? Skepticism aside, the rest of it is more realistic.
There is a new cover system in Conviction. I admit to disliking it initially, but it grew on me. You hold LT to take cover. Then if you look at some other color, a contextual icon will appear showing that you can move there. So push A and Sam scurries to the next cover. It's cool, but far too constraining. For one, you can only move to the edge of cover. You can't automatically run to the center of a barrier, for example. Two, you can't move to cover unless the game says you can move to that cover. The cover must be very near. So I can't move to cover that is like 10 feet away or more. I have to get up and run there. I'm not sure why the range is so small. Third, a lot of the stuff you can take cover behind, you can't move to with the autocover button. I'm not sure why only certain cover objects were included. Fourth, if you just want to move around a corner, you can't really do it. You need to 'move to next cover' around the corner, which means looking from the right angle at the right spot at the wall 1 foot away and pushing A. So, this new cover system, it's cool when it's available. Otherwise, it's rather useless, and it would be easier just to have a more conventional cover system that incorporated the player choosing what counts as cover. Sam does crouch all the time, so he moves low. This is a plus at least.
The enemies are not particularly difficult, and they don't get much more difficult from beginning to end. Actually there are only a few different types. The game is really really short, so there's not much room for additional enemies. Basically the only thing I had to think about was 'helmet or not?' If no helmet, pistol headshot. If helmet, machine gun headshot. They'll try to flank a bit and throw the odd grenade. It's weird that they don't have more tools available to them. Meanwhile, I have sticky bombs, which you can use to scout an area with a camera, or to make noise to attract enemies, or to explode like a bomb. For my part, the noisemaker function never worked. No one was ever attracted to it and I don't know why. I also had remote mines, EMP grenades, frags, smoke and flashbang.
Sam gets his famous goggles, though improved to see through walls and detect enemies and interactable objects. These also felt a bit overpowered and superhuman to wear. Oh, hey, I can see through walls now. And I was warned, "the elite enemies will have these goggles too." Unfortunately for them, I am smarter than they are, and so even though they can see me, I kill them first. You can also mark enemies through walls with the goggles on, which made it pretty simple to keep track of where they were at all times. This worked like how I recall Far Cry working to tag enemies through binoculars. There were usually several ways around a level to take out or avoid enemies. This was fun and worked to the game's advantage for staying interesting. Often I'd die doing something one way a few times, then go try a different method to see what happened.
There is another cool thing Conviction introduced called 'last known position.' When enemies spot you, this silhouette of Sam remains in that position, your last known position in fact. You can move away and enemies will converge on where they last saw you. This allows you to flank them, slip past them, and just mess with them in general. For example, get spotted, drop a remote mine, run away and watch them gather there, detonate remote mine. One thing I spent a long time doing on an early level was hanging outside some windows, getting spotted, then sneaking up and pulling an enemy out the window, climbing somewhere else, getting spotted, pulling another enemy out the window, etc. Great fun.
Story is good, a bit less confusing than these conspiratorial Tom Clancy stories tend to be, which I appreciated. It's all about Sam's daughter and some lies and deception within Third Echelon. The game's presentation has some especially noteworthy innovations. Your objectives are shown in the environment. How to explain? Say you have to get to the White House. When the level begins, the words "Get to the White House" will be displayed on the side of a building or something. Then say you make it to the White House. You go inside, and directly ahead on the wall you see, "Rescue the Vice President." Then perhaps a little audio scene plays through your headset explaining about the VP and the situation within the White House. Bits of video, maybe what is happening to the VP or whatever, will flicker on the wall in front of you. Objectives can be on the sides of cars, anywhere. In fact you can push Select to display your current objective, and it just like plasters it onto whatever surface you're looking at. It's really neat. This isn't a HUD gimmick. It's more like an artistic touch on what's normally presented via menus. I would love to see this idea carried out in other games.
That's about it. Died a lot, yet not particularly difficult. Many deaths just due to me screwing around. However, any actual hard part was doable usually by going into a corner and shooting whoever ran around it. Felt kind of cheap, but hey. The only part I legitimately had trouble with was the end after I find the Vice President in the White House. A bunch of enemies burst through a couple sets of doors and it's just overwhelming. I tried hiding in a corner (too many enemies, got frag grenaded and flanked), tried tossing all manner of grenades (still too many enemies and they enter in waves), tried opening fire with giant machine gun (too many enemies come too fast, flanked), and finally with some luck I got them by a combination of remote mines, mad machine gun spraying, and trying to suppress one entrance.
In the end, solid enough game, not my favorite of all the Splinter Cells, also recently enjoyed the Rainbow Six: Vegas games more. Very, very short. And I didn't find anyone on Xbox Live, so I dunno how many people are playing.
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Nov 11th, 2012 at 23:09:52 - Alan Wake (360) |
The boxfront says "A psychological action thriller." I'd also describe it as "Play a Stephen King novel." Another hit for me in my week of short games, Alan Wake held me at the edge of my seat the entire time. From the serenity of the opening scenes to the darkness forming and stalking Alan, to the mysterious characters and the manuscript pages of Alan Wake's latest novel that he doesn't remember writing, every bit of this story was compelling. Alan and his wife go to an idyllic cabin in the middle of a lake for some R & R and to hopefully cure Alan's writers block. But there's an evil presence in the town that capitalizes on Alan's weakness after his wife dies (how did she die?!). Alan spends the story trying to get her back, and in doing so, follows the plot of the story he doesn't remember writing. The game is divided into six episodes with cliffhangers like chapters in a book. The pacing is excellent. Each episode has just what it needs and the game was so damn good I just played it straight through. I see that there are two additional DLC episodes, as well as some other Alan Wake fictions that expand on the story. I will consider obtaining these if they are of the same writing quality.
As far as gameplay goes, it plays like a survival horror game. The light is your main weapon. Enemies, which are people taken over by the darkness, are like maniacal versions of the small town's inhabitants - loggers, policemen, all males for some reason. They come at you with various outdoor tools, ranting about various things related to their professions. I thought it would culminate with the chainsaw guy, but the buildup to that part really wasn't as stressful for me as it should have been. I was imagining hearing the rumbling of a chainsaw getting louder and louder, and the chainsaw enemy being a cut above all the others. But he wasn't the end-all-be-all of enemies. Turns out the darkness can possess inanimate objects too, so really the wheat threshers and giant farm tractors were more intimidating than the chainsaw guy. Anyway, all these people and objects are enshrouded by darkness. You must use your flashlight to burn away the darkness before you can shoot and kill them. The flashlight has limited batteries that drain as you use it, and there is limited ammunition for your few guns, including flares and flash bombs. Flares were really useful for keeping enemies at bay. But you couldn't see them very well for the brightness, though you were protected. So like, if you want to focus on killing a chainsaw guy, toss a flare to keep the other enemies away from you while you shine your light at the target. The flash bombs do tons of damage and are good when like 7 enemies are running at you. I used the pistol the majority of the time, and pulled out the shotguns or hunting rifle in serious situations. After every episode, you lose all your weapons. Usually you fell or were attacked or something plausible. After the first time, I was like, "Oh great, lost all my stuff" because I usually hate that. However, for maybe the first time in my life, I enjoyed losing everything every time. It made sense, first of all. Second of all, it made the game scarier all of a sudden having no flashlight, or only a flashlight but no pistol, or whatever.
Great game, another brilliant story with tons of references to other horror media like the Twilight Zone and various Stephen King novels (the Shining especially). Like the last two gamelogs I wrote for Enslaved and Bayonetta, the story gets better and better as it moves along. Alan Wake provides so many good twists, and that moment of illumination near the end that straight up explains it all. Actually this moment comes somewhat in episode 4 when you learn what is actually happening to Alan on the island. This is expanded upon later. The earlier episodes are when Alan is confused, trying to figure out what is going on, etc. I really liked this. Go buy it!
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Nov 11th, 2012 at 21:00:22 - Enslaved: Odyssey to the West (360) |
Cannot say enough great things about Enslaved. I know its sales sucked and most people never heard of it nor played it, but that is not how it should be! Enslaved is easily one of the most enchanting games I've ever played. The story is so simple, yet so engaging, and in the end, so incredible. This is due to the amazing world, which is a post-apocalyptic America, barely recognizable as such for the growth of nature that has swallowed it up. Some of the landscapes are so beautiful. I recall specifically Trip's home village up in the mountains. It reminded me of screenshots from Bioshock Infinite, just being so high up in the air. The colors in the game are very vivid. All of the landscapes are huge. You feel small in comparison, and that contrast drives this overarching mood of the game, one of being on a (endless, futile) journey, being a small desperate person in a giant shell of a world.
The characters are so great together. There are two main characters, then a third in the later parts. You play as Monkey. The girl is named Trip. You are both slaves being transported by airship. Trip breaks out of her pod and disrupts the ship, causing it to begin falling. Through the mayhem she is causing, Monkey escapes his pod too, and begins chasing the mysterious Trip, trying to get to an escape pod before the ship crashes. Their relationship begins with ambivalence, and when they do both get off the ship, Monkey wakes from unconsciousness to find that Trip has put a slave headband on him, so he has to do what she says or else she can inflict all kinds of pain on him. Further, the slave headband is tuned to Trip's heart, so if she dies, Monkey dies. Their relationship develops from there. He's mad, she's apologetic, knows she's doing wrong, but just wants to get home to her village, and needs Monkey to help her. She swears she'll let him go when they arrive. Off they go.
It's a really emotional story as you learn a bit about each of their pasts and plans and hopes for the future. You watch the characters bond as they overcome trial after trial in near-death situations. Monkey is the brute while Trip is the brains. The fighting is relatively easy, and more strategic than I expected, as you can utilize Trip's various abilities, like distracting enemies so that Monkey can run and flank them or something. The enemies in the game are mechs used by the slavers, led by some mysterious organization called Pyramid, which is somewhere in the west. One thing I think is so cool about the game is its lack of living things. There is only Trip and Monkey. There are the mechs, which as a whole constitute the things you fight in their various forms. And you just travel, trying to reach Trip's home town. Trip and Monkey are plenty of character together so the world is not at all dull. Never did I think, "I wish there were more characters or more going on." It's simple and effective and engaging. I'll spare ruining the rest of the story, but it just gets better and better and better. And the end, wow. Wow.
As far as the gameplay goes, I felt a few things in particular. It's got the platforming a la Prince of Persia or Assassin's Creed games. The spots you can jump and grab are highlighted and it's very easy to see them. Monkey also rarely if ever makes a misstep, so the platforming controls are quite easy too. You just follow the lit path. There are usually a couple ways to go about getting from point A to point B, which is cool. The fighting is fairly basic too. Strong attack, weak attack, shoot energy with your magic staff. There's a guard mechanic whereby you can block damage and discharge energy to break guarding enemies' shields. You can stun enemies with electricity. It's fun. And incorporating Trip's abilities make the levels more like puzzles, figuring out how to disable that gun turret without it ripping you to shreds, for example. Monkey can pick up and carry Trip, and can throw her so she can get to places she couldn't alone. In this sense, the game obviously draws inspiration from Ico, except that your companion here is far from useless. Finally, Monkey has this hoverboard called a 'cloud' that is really fun to ride around on. It's only used in a handful of specific places though, like to fight the giant mechanical dogs whenever those fights happen, or to navigate across watery areas.
Amazing game. It's very short, maybe took me 8 hours or so. Find it for cheap and go buy it.
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Nov 11th, 2012 at 11:25:21 - Bayonetta (360) |
This game was incredible. It's very Devil May Cry/God of War -ish. But faster, funnier, prettier, and more epic. Maybe not as epic as the original God of War when that came out, but pretty close. The boss battles for sure are some of the biggest and most cool things I've ever played. Where to start...
I'll go on and talk about the character, Bayonetta, first. I like her. She's sassy. A total smartass. Besides that, she's a witch. Her hair is magical and it morphs into all kinds of beastly forms (dragon, spider, bird of prey, etc.) to devour enemies. These biggest and beastliest of forms come usually during boss fights. Otherwise, her hair mostly takes the shape of high heels and kicks and stomps enemies. Yep. The high heels come out at the end of combos, of which there is a near-endless variety. Bayonetta is also a weapons and martial arts expert and apparently a really good dancer. Her movement about the battlefield seems to be influenced most by dancing and runway modeling. She's sexy and she knows it. She struts around and blows kisses and talks dirty to bosses. It's very funny. Bayonetta doesn't like crying children. Her response to the crying little girl, Cereza, upon meeting her is hilarious. Bayonetta has a history shrouded in mystery. And that's the goal of the game.
The world of Bayonetta is really awesome. There's a whole mythology behind it. Basically, there are 3 realities - Paradiso (like heaven), Inferno (like hell), and Purgatorio (like the earthly human realm). They are not separate. There used to be a truce and reality maintenance upheld by the Witches and the Sages, but [story] happened and the 3 realities began to interfere with one another. Bayonetta can move between them, kind of like 'phasing' from one reality to another, which she has to do periodically. It's really neat how she interacts with one of the other main characters, a male journalist who has a bone to pick with her, by phasing between realities. This idea is explained really well in the game, and it's executed in a way that made me go "oh man, so smart, so smart!" so many times. Actually understanding the three realities and this phasing is integral to understanding the journalist's part in the story. What you think happened from his point of view in the beginning is not the full story of what actually happened! So you go through the game uncovering the past and learning about Bayonetta, the Witches and the Sages, the current bad people, and following the journalist and the little girl.
What does Bayonetta actually do? She kills angels. Angels are bad. She has pistols in her hands and attached to her shoes. So she's a whirlwind of death. The fighting is really really fast-paced. It was sometimes too fast for me to keep up, especially at the beginning. I'd just put the controller down and be like, ok time out. What's going on here? It's incredibly fluid and responsive and takes a good deal of skill, especially later on. But you will develop it and get better at it. Like I said, there are seemingly infinite combos. You do a normal attack with Y, a strong attack with B, shoot with X. Basically any combination of Y and B does something, up to six presses, including pauses in between. So I liked to use YBY which is a nice quick strong 3-hit combo that knocks most enemies down. I also liked YYBBB and YYYBB. But literally, almost any combination does something unique. Holding X at the end of any combo ends it with gunfire. You dodge with RT. It was brilliant in that you can dodge mid-combo and then continue your combo after dodging. You purchase other moves and items and things from a shop. If you double-tap dodge, you morph into a panther and can sprint super fast, necessary for the final boss. If you double tap in the air, you turn into a bird and can fly around and fire missiles. There are also 'torture attacks' that you can trigger once you fill your magic gauge. These are awesome and gory special moves where you smash enemies in iron maidens or pull them apart on the rack or whatever by quickly mashing one button or another. Tons of variety in the combat. It's a whole lot of fun. When I realized how much I'd improved at it since the beginning, I felt like a genius.
The boss battles deserve their own space for praise. These were seriously epic, levels unto themselves. I don't think any took me less than 10 minutes. They've all got multiple parts, checkpoints throughout, and involve some of the coolest looking angels. They are huge, for one. The multiple parts generally inivolve dismantling the boss in some way - cutting off legs, arms, smashing armor, etc. The character design on the enemies is fantastic. I mean, the art style in general, especially the Paradiso parts, is just awesome. Go google Paradiso or Bayonetta enemies and gawk. They look so freaking cool. The last boss spans like 3 parts. I tried and failed like 10 times one day, put the game down for a few days, then came back to try again and did it with only one death. One of the best parts of any boss fight was killing the...third maybe. There was this statue of a cherub earlier in the level. At the end of the boss fight, which I think involved some sort of wind/tornado, there's this big pile on top of the boss that Bayonetta has arranged. Boss is on the bottom. Gasoline tanker on top of the boss. She stuffs the statue halfway into the tanker. The gasoline flows through the statue and comes out like the cherub is peeing on the dead boss. Then she lights it all on fire. Hilarious.
The only criticism of the game is the camera. It can be really wonky at times and refuse to look at what you want to look at. The default setting is far too slow, so make sure to speed up the panning. But enemies will get you into a corner sometimes and the camera makes it a super pain to get out. I just had to try and stay in the open. And sometimes for the bosses or larger enemies, the camera can have a hard time taking it all in to show you what you want to see at any given time. There was this one motorcycle part (there are several rail shooter/arcade motorcycle type segments) where the camera or the track kept screwing up and I'd fall through a hole. I'm not sure exactly what was going on, but it killed me like 10 times. There was just this weird kink in the track and the camera would freak out and I'd die.
I *highly* recommend playing this if you like action games at all. It's not an easy game. I played on Normal, the middle one, and found it quite challenging. I'm no expert at action games, so take that how you may. But Bayonetta is one of the most interesting and likeable characters I've come across in a long time. She's smart, sexy, funny, and a complete badass. I also love the game world.
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