MoeFo Podcast: http://www.gcast.com/u/moeez/main
If you want a more observant eye on games, this podcast is it.

• 28Nov 09

  Why BATMAN is my Indisputable Game of the Year!

  Let's not forget, everyone was super sceptical on this Batman videogame before it came out. There hasn't been a single good 3D Batman game. There hasn't been a single great superhero game (Spiderman* games are only good for the swinging). So, BATMAN: ARKHAM ASYLUM had a lot going against it. How will the game keep true to the Batman character? Will the gadgets have lame gameplay? Would the combat system be a generic beat-em-up? Would the story suck? Who's ever even heard of Rocksteady Studios?

  NO ADDED JUNK

  ---

  

  Thankfully, it was the exact opposite of those questions. BATMAN: ARKHAM ASYLUM is a tight experience, with game design that sticks stringently to its goals. There is no Batmobile driving sequence. There are no Quick Time Events. There is no co-op. There is no multiplayer. There is no big Gotham city open-world where you do side-quests to pad out more hours. Rocksteady was confident in its single-player campaign, to not have to add any obvious filler.

  

  That's major confidence from a fairly unknown developer studio.

  I'M THE GODDAMN BATMAN!

  ---

  So, what should a Batman game be? A platformer? A brawler? A detective game? Or, be like other clever developers, and dip into all those genres? Not many games combine different gameplay genres, or when they do, they're bloated. There's been only one game that I remember that did it well, which was BEYOND GOOD AND EVIL. Most games just rely on what they're good at, and stick to that. I think it's called the "if it's not borken, don't fix it" paradigm that has led to the most generic games ever.

  BATMAN: AA isn't that. The developers put excellent gameplay that defines every aspect of the character. Due to this, everything about the game feels fresh. From the insanely refreshing and satisfying freeflow combat system (Batman's the best at martial arts, and it shows) to the exploration of the world with your grappling hook (he's gotta perch like a bat, too) and other geekgasm gadgets (no Bat credit card), you know you're playing a Batman game.

  

  The Batman combat is just genius. Instead of combo mashing, every single face button is a tactic. Little input = big output. You must be an economical businessman with your button presses, especially when it comes to the Combat Challenges. Is it the only game where there isn't a single-button-mashing combo? The variety of moves leads into the animations, with some of the most beautiful mo-cap work I've witnessed from a protagonist. Animations never get old, because they hardly ever repeat. They're dynamic. This again is a huge achievement, to not have "animation fatigue" even in this HD era of having hundreds of animation cycles.

  

  Stealth gameplay could've been screwed up so bad. How many good stealth staple games are there really? I have to give props to Rocksteady for making the most universally simple and elegant stealth system that anyone can pick up. This is the new wave of aggressive stealth. The artificial intelligence is great, which allows you for sandbox SPLINTER CELL-like gameplay where you're toying around with the enemies, and then snapping up the last enemy who's peeing his pants. When you're on a gargoyle, you feel so Batman it's creepy. SPLINTER CELL CONVICTION is also going along this new wave of aggressive stealth (which is resonating a lot more with people who've always wanted to try these games), so let's see what grandpa Sam can muster up. Wait-and-pounce stealth is dead.

  

  Character gameplay even comes down to how Batman never kills, and so never clashes with the overall story unlike in UNCHARTED (let's face it, Drake is Marcus Phoenix in a half-tuck, and a superhero because of his unbelievable jumps of saving grace). To me, it didn't feel like the game was ripping off other games' specific minutia. Sure, if you're reductionist, you could say it's a mix of SPLINTER CELL, TENCHU, METROID but it never plays like one of those games. That's a huge accomplishment and shows Rocksteady are confident in creating Batman-centric gameplay. I want to see enemies' heartbeat in SPLINTER CELL now. I want to glide in every game now. Also, it's beaten TENCHU in the grappling hook department and is making SPLINTER CELL run for its money.
  

  LET ME TELL YOU A STORY

  ---

  

  Of course, I wouldn't forget the excellent storytelling. Notice, I didn't say the word "story". It's still a great plot, of Batman being stuck in a prison for 1 night with the Rogue's Gallery, but what shines is the multiple venues of storytelling used. There is soft storytelling through Joker on the intercom or on TVs and the audio interview tapes. Then there's the typical hard storytelling through cutscenes.

  

  Hold on though, there's a new type of storytelling too. Non-linear storytelling. This was experimented with PRINCE OF PERSIA 2008, but felt disjointed at times. Here, you're going from one part of the island to the other, and while the game's missions are not linear, there is still interactional dialogue and reactions. For example, after the Medical Pavillion mission, you can go back and find out that the Doctors haven't escaped but instead have boarded themselves up behind desks! They stay there until the end of the game! Nearly all of the characters give context-dependent dialogue too, at certain points of the game. All the personnel of the island are free to talk to, at any point of the game, so for example Aaron Cash can cheer you on to finally beat Joker when Joker's "party" starts. Because of such reactionary dialogue, it can make the Arkham Island come alive no matter how dreary it is, and showcases that Paul Dini can also write games.

  Blah, blah, ALWAYS WITH THE HERO SPEAK!

  ---

  

  Now, I won't say it's the most original game ever, but for this year, I feel it sticks out against the crowd. For such a bold game, it also excels on execution which MIRROR'S EDGE (the most original game of recent times) and other original IPs couldn't be. It is in the very rare club of a first game being nigh-on perfect on Day 1 release, like last year's DEAD SPACE. There is no need for a sequel, or any improvements needed other than very superficial ones like more bosses. It also helps that it's the best superhero and licensed game ever made. Riddick, you now have a friend.

  I'M IN CONTROL OF THE ASYLUM!

  ---

  All the reviews of the Batman game have been very favourable. The only negatives about the game are things that are very nitpicky. Batman's figure covering a large part of the screen (there is a non-Batman centred camera). Yes, the Titan bosses repeat a couple of times, and yes, there aren't 20 types of enemies, but this is par for the course with nearly every action-adventure game ever made. Plus, as long as they're fun, I don't see the criticism of some good repetition. One that everyone can agree on is that the final boss battle is shallow but it does show how unpredictable Joker really is. BATMAN: ARKHAM ASYLUM is so damn good, people are finding it hard to find legitimate criticism. Usually, with triple A games, you can bash the character gameplay or story, but here it's just damn good.

  

  You also have to remember, a great game has to be as great for newcomers. It should be as pick-up-and-play as MARIO. Because of the excellent controls and simplified systems, BATMAN: ARKHAM ASYLUM happens to be that. BATMAN: AA is definitely up there with MARIO games in terms of being accessible for everyone. Most of the games this year can have very specific audiences, like all of the shooters. Shooters are not every girl's best friend.

  THE LONGEST JOURNEY

  ---

  

  While most games up their pacing by putting more variety through newer locations or "palette-cleansing" gameplay (turret sections, vehicle sections), BATMAN: AA goes about it by completely changing the level design of Arkham Island at times. Rocksteady didn't feel the need to up the variety by letting you go to Gotham city (even though, you sort of do at one spoilerific point). Enemies appear where they weren't before, like snipers or crazed inmates. Poison Ivy's vines blocking away paths. Scarecrow, period. Batman's armour and face takes a ton of damage throughout the course of the game (for once, it's not a gimmick!). Because of such pacing and setpieces, the non-linear world never gets boring through the amount of backtracking you'll do. There's always something to look forward to.

  

  Thanks to the magnificent pacing and every single moment being memorable, the game ends just at the right moment. So, while you might spend 15-20 hours with the game, it feels you've been through a lot with the characters and the island. This is one night you and Batman won't ever forget.

  
  

  OVER? IT HASN'T EVEN BEGUN!

  ---

  Because it stands out amongst the pack of games this year and had the MOST TO PROVE, this is easily the Game of the Year.

  No sequelitis.

  Totally new gameplay, like the freeflow combat where animations never recycle.

  Most fun stealth gameplay ever.

  Non-linear backtracking that's always interesting.

  Great storytelling.

  And that it's damn memorable! Every moment in the game was given love and care, from Harley Quinn's office to the Riddler.

  Everyone loves the game, which is not something you can say for a game franchise other than MARIO. This is a great game for people not privy to Batman's loving cape. The best games are the ones where everyone finds something to love, and for 2009, it's BATMAN ARKHAM ASYLUM, in my opinion.

  

  * except for Spiderman: Web of Shadows [credit: 100th_bullet]
  

  • Posted Nov 28, 2009 3:00 am PT
  • Category: Editorial
  • 7 Comments

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• 21Nov 09

  No games to play makes Moeez a what?

  It was an inevitable decision to make. To bring the 360 over, or not. I decided not. Now that I'm 2 months into my course, DEFINITELY NOT. Medicine is intense, and fast.

  Instead, I've been writing new short stories, and watching movies. I'm not ready to show off my short stories, but I am ready to talk about the movies I have watched.

  But first, I'll comment on the state of the gaming industry, with one simple sentence. Action games have called out the death of action movies. When you have games like Prototype, Uncharted 2, and Modern Warfare 2, who needs action movies? Why bother watching a crap action movie, when you can interact with a not-so-crap one? This realisation came to me during Prototype. With a game that has so much, will all the mayhem you can cause, a movie adaptation would need a $500 million budget.

  

  

  

  Like, the most memorable part of Modern Warfare 2 is there's a scene where it's raining helicopters. RAINING HELICOPTERS!

  So, action movies have more to prove now than ever. Which is why you get something like 2012 now, where they have to destroy the ENTIRE WORLD to prove they're still one step ahead of videogame epicness. That movie was so much fun, I want to see the Washington monument fall down again and murder millions of people!

  That's all on that. I have nothing more to say about games, since the divorce.

  So, movies then?

  ---

  I've been on a comedy bent. Thanks to stagevu, I've been checking the best of them. Best teen comedies, best dark comedies (that's a favourite of mine).

  World's Greatest Dad : Perfect dark comedy, too bad it's not out in theatres. Robin Williams strikes gold. Genuinely heartfelt stuff in there too. Honestly, it's the best film I've seen this year. Just too entertaining, great soundtrack, great scenes, great performances. This is the first year where I think a comedy film deserves a Best Picture over other navel-gazing, performance-heavy Oscar bait.

  Observe and Report : Controversial dark comedy, starring Seth Rogen. His most unique film to date. This is dark stuff. An overconfident, bi-polar mall cop who just wants to prove himself as a real cop. If you like character studies of flawed characters, you'll be into it. I loved it, even if you might not be into it.

  The Proposition : Gorgeous, but boring. The pacing was dead at times, which is my main problem. The characters are amazing, though, especially Ray Winstone. It's a perfect Western film though, insane cinematography and setting. Brutal violence. But it's very hard to get through the whole film in one setting, because of the languish pacing. Not enough Guy Pearce (dude from Memento), and he's not so badass until the very end.

  There Will be Blood : Wow, PT Anderson's most ambitious film to date. It's definitely a masterpiece. A period piece around California when oil first struck big. The first 20 minutes of no dialogue with DD Lewis reminded me of 2001, but done way better. Great journey of a scrubby man going down the spiral of evil fortunes and backstabbing. My favourite part of the film is the static filming, reminding me of old-school where it was all about the actors rather than the camera.

  Happiness : Pretty tough dark comedy. I'd go to say, it's a black comedy. The laughs are very few. And I didn't like it. The paedophile story was the most intriguing and disturbing. Honestly, too many characters to flip through. It's not enjoyable until the very "I came!" ending.

  Moon : Overhyped sci-fi. Sam Rockwell is great. Cinematography is great. Story is hard to follow at times, even though it's stupidly simple. I wouldn't recommend it, there's nothing deep to it. I've seen better clone stories in a Simpsons episode. If you want a deep, low-fare scifi movie, check out Solaris instead. Even if you hate Clooney.

  Syriana : Speaking of Clooney, he's in this. With a huge beard. Intense political drama set in Middle East, all about oil and corporations. It can get kind of complex, but that's what I like about it. Not hugely memorable, but the Prince Nasir character was interesting. The unemployed Pakistani kids was a great tale. Sad ending. Had a fun time, and if you liked it, check out Tom Hank in Charlie Wilson's War.

  Antichrist : Very emotionally draining film about two characters. Willem Dafoe, and Charlotte Gainsborough. There are no other humans in the film. Great performances, great visuals. It's one of those "bad things go to worse" plots. My favourite aspect is how nature, usually a lovely thing, is made evil. "Nature is Satan's church," and you'll believe it. Very gruesome sexual violence. If you liked Hard Candy, this is right up your alley.

  The Departed : Finally saw this movie. If I hear that Irish-sounding rock song again, I'll...whatever. I saw it just to compare to the original. Prefer Infernal Affairs more, but Scorsese still holds his own in the character-building department. The ending, didn't like it. Caprio still is a great OTT actor.

  2012 : Best execution of disaster movie ever. Instead of being a flood/volcano/global warming movie, it's everything! If you like good plots or interesting characters, stay far away from this movie. But if you love great FX, great sadistic visuals of your favourite landmarks getting murdered and murdering other people, I'd recommend it. Only for cinemas, though.

  Heathers : Damn it, I love Winona Ryder in this. An excellent teen school dark comedy, about student "suicides". Won't spoil it, but surprising seeing Christine Slater actually act. I've only heard him from the terrible Uwe Boll films. If you like Mean Girls, but with more angsty narration and much darker comedy, you'll love the heck out of this.

  Election : Wow, another excellent school dark comedy with Matthew Broderick (when he was still relevant), and Reese Witherspoon. Much like World's Greatest Dad, it's a surprisingly emotional journey for the main character. Plot is about student elections, with insane rivalry. Very off-beat, and memorable. No matter how in the dumps Broderick gets, he's always lovable.

  Fast Times at Ridgemont High : This has hit number 1 of best teen comedies. After seeing it, I wouldn't agree, but it has some genius moments of rude humour. Sean Penn, as a stoner since 3 years old, is the most memorable character. Mr. Hand reminded me of my own history teacher!

  Bronson : If you want to see A Clockwork Orange for the new generation, check it out. An absolutely Oscar-worthy performance from Tom Hardy. When I say A Clockwork Orange, I mean brutal violence, clas.sical music, and psychotic characters in prison settings. And it's a TRUE STORY about Britain's most famous prisoner!

  Choke : Sex comedy, with Sam Rockwell again. He has sex addiction, and needs help. Same setting as Fight Club's opening of group therapy. Very interesting story, and it's more about the character's relation to his mom. Their history together. The Jesus turn was surprising. Hot chick. Lots of sex. So, if you're into that...

  Superman/Batman: Public Enemies : If you want an excellent DC action animated movie, this is it. Completely satisfying. Much better than the dud that was Superman: Doomsday. GO BUY THIS NOW!

  The Prestige : Even though I saw it in cinemas, I wanted to see it in 720p. If YOU haven't, you must. Absolutely mesmerising psychological thriller set in the days of magicians and scientists. Knock-out performances from Wolverine and Batman. Nolan at the top of his game. Insane script, making you pay attention very closely. I can't wait for Inception. If that trailer doesn't have you excited or give you the chills...

  ---

  So, let's review. Best movie of 2009 IMO? World's Greatest Dad, so far. Biggest disappointment? Moon. Film I still need to see? Hurt Locker. Film I couldn't care less about? Avatar.

  

  • Posted Nov 21, 2009 11:15 am PT
  • Category: Movies
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• 17Oct 09

  I Haven't Played the Game, but I Have an OPINION!

  Humans are social beasts. We thrive on communication, and feedback. However, we also thrive on gossip and information from secondary or even tertiary sources. This is why we're not journalists or news reporters. We're simply enthusiasts for the medium. Which is why, we can be misinformed very easily, when our hands are off the product. We are only going by what other people tell us.

  HANDS OFF

  The majority of us enthusiasts are not in the gaming press. So it's inevitable to bandwagon around the press' opinions as our own. Imagine if you will the analogy that we enthusiasts are represented as clouds, floating above the earth. We are just fluff. The earth is where the gaming press has their hands on concrete gaming evidence. Without concrete evidence, many variables can "cloud" our judgement. It's only when we have the game in our hands, can we become rain and hit the earth.

  THE BARRAGE

  Since the Internet, the climate of gaming has forever changed. Before with magazines, they'd be our only doors to news and information about the videogame scene. Now, everything you ever wanted to know about videogames is on the click of your fingers. So with more doors open to you at any point of time, you're bound to think that you can know everything about a videogame before it's out. You never have even touched the game, but with the amount of Internet outlets and press people's opinions, you can go off your sniff on what's good and bad.

  Which is why many gaming companies realise this vulnerability, and are architects of their own games' coverage to such a high quality with trailers/screenshots/quotes. You can be misled by the culmination of hype from gaming websites and media, and feel like when the game's reviewed, want to let out your assumptions. You want to be the better on the horse race that your choice was right.

  I KNEW IT!

  In the game's review and release window, your opinion can finally come out the closet whether it is fan-gushing or hate-mongering. You think you've seen enough to form your own hands-off impressions. You also might feel inclined to spread your propaganda to other soapboxes, without ever having concrete proof. This is when you transform into a troll, and are there to either put the game on the pedestal or sink it under the ground without ever having a grain of truth. We are all victims of this (I'm currently an Uncharted 2 and Assassin's Creed 2 troll), because we want to seem smart and be centres of knowledge even if it's not first-hand. Pretention is an eventual side-effect of knowledge. You also want to be in on the act, before the hype for the videogame dies down after its first month (which is a sad case in itself).

  MISLED BY THE PIPER

  Not exclusive to reviews, news about games is in danger to gossip because of the ability of the Internet. It doesn't matter if the news story had a first-hand journalist behind it, now websites (Kotaku, Destructoid, and other blogging outlets) can throw around headlines around the story spread through secondary and tertiary sources. Commentators will comment on such "news", and spread that around so much that eventually it will stand as gospel "truth" (e.g. Gerstmanngate). There are now places where you can watch the whole game from beginning to end (Youtube, Justin.tv), without paying a dime.

  This is the danger of the more avenues opened from the Internet, where there's less first-hand impressions and more reliance on analysts and footage. When you're relying on analyst websites, something has gone wrong, no matter how reliable they are. If you've heard/seen this much about a certain videogame, you'd think you know the whole caboodle?

  THE EMPEROR WITH NO CLOTHES

  Videogames are a unique beast of entertainment. They are interactive, through controller interfaces. Fortunately, no videos or reviews can tell you how your hands and brain would react when you're actually playing the game. No amount of discussing particular game mechanics or headless speculation on video websites can allow you to get the full dish on the game before it's released. None of these venues can sum up everything the game has to offer.

  Unfortunately, you also can't convince sceptics of a game how good/bad it is, without handing them the game yourself. You could say "Brothers in Arms have some of the most emotionally brutal moments ever in a game!", but it means jack to the sceptic who hasn't touched the game. What might impress you about a game might not impress or even make someone else hate the game. You can't know every single secret hidden in a game that may give you an amazing moment, as evidenced by the recent Batman Arkham Asylum.

  Really, who wants fanboys or trolls to fall flat on their faces for having the wrong knowledge about a game or being misled? Who wants these speculators to be made fools, post-release of a game? You have to sympathise with these gullible enthusiasts for letting hype and hyperbole take over them. So, who really wants these uninformed, hands-off humans to end up like the emperor with no clothes?

  I do.

  To conclude, what have we learned from this piece? What nugget of unpretentious knowledge can I impart to you? You shouldn't solely rely on websites or bloggers for your gaming purchases? Form your own opinion for once? That for opinions, everyone has their own and you should keep that in mind? No, you already know that by now.

  The following advice might not be new to you, but it's a universal QFT (Quoted for Truth). Whenever a person starts going crazy over a game in a forum or comment, just say...

  "HAVE YOU PLAYED THE GAME? IF NO, SHUT UP!"

  • Posted Oct 17, 2009 9:45 am PT
  • Category: Editorial
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• 10Oct 09

  (Update blog) I'll be in PRAGUE for the next 6 years!

  Yo, peeps! It's been forever, or at least it feels like it. I think everyone has now seen my darker side of when I actually talk about games I have a problem with. It's not like I'm PMSing that caused the spur of rants in my recent blogs. Anyhoo, yeah I'm in PRAGUE now.

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  It's in the Czech Republic. Just google map it. Gorgeous city. Pretty much like London. Gothic architecture. Metro underground, trams, and buses.

  

  Excellent public transport, btw, it's much easier than London's maze. Less people here too.

  Of course, I'm also ready to dish out some dirt on this beautiful city.

  

  First, what's with 1/3 of people having dogs?! That's a lot of dogs. And also, the SMALLEST ones. I haven't seen chihuahas, but it's pretty ridiculous. I saw a woman with a dog IN HER PURSE! Either people here are REALLY lonely. Or they like dog poo everywhere. Because of the so-many dogs, there's dog poo literally on every footwalk. And you know what? No PICK UP YOUR OWN DOG'S POO signs! If you walk here, you better beware. I mean it!

  

  The girls. They weren't kidding when they said that Czech girls are beautiful (I meant HOT). Every single girl here in Prague is hot. Not just Aryan blondes. They run the whole gamut. And what does having lots of hot girls in Prague mean for the exploitative ad business? This (slightly NSFW).

  

  Clubbing. I've now been to clubs for the 1st time ever. The one in the middle gets drunk hard. The one on the right always keeps his cool. Not the best of experiences. I don't drink. So when you're sober, you realise how immature and pointless clubs can be. When girls are there just to have fun by themselves or with mates, they're not trying to send signals to guys by dancing. As soon as a guy is near a girl dancing, he thinks she's interested. And it gets real awkward. Anyone sober at club probably relates to this. So, along with drunk men, comes fights. They were pretty stupid macho male territory business. But really, there's a good side to clubbing. And that's actually dancing. I did it, I'm sure my friends caught it on video. I went wild (sober). I took over the dancefloor. Yes, a nerd like me. I showed them what's what. Hehe. Maybe it was a song I liked (I usually hate trance/electronica). When you're that exhausted, you lose your inhibitions. So pretty much I knew what it must've felt like to be drunk. Anyway, I did it because I got a thrill, and I was getting mad exercise. My tongue ended up so dry. I was completely exhausted.

  But I don't feel like I want to repeat it. I've had my fill.

  So yeah, that's about it with the dirt.

  

  So why am I living in Prague now? 'Cause I'm in the medical school university here. Charles University, 1st Faculty of Medicine. Medicine might not have been my long-life dream (I know it is for everyone!), but it's the one way to get to my dream profession: PSYCHIATRY.

  And I'm having fun. 2nd week in, things are going great. Learning Czech language on the side, with another hot (I meant beautiful) teacher.

  

  As you can see above, I also have fun taking pics of the weird things around here. This grafitti is right next to our Dean's building. So it's hilarious. I guess the Soviet Union wants their Czecho-Slovakia back. Yeah, if you didn't know, Czech "Republic" used to be part of the Soviet Union.

  

  Who knew having Tescos here would be a saviour? Not many people here speak English well, so while I don't know the Czech language that much, I might as well survive on some Britishness.

  So I'm doing real well here. Know my way around. Made many new friends. Some from Canada. Oh, Canada!

  We have Internet now, in our apartment. If you want to see what our apartment looks like in shaky cam, check out this video. That's before anyone was living in it, so it was a few weeks before we settled in properly. I've been Skyping my family all the time, thanks to the Internet.

  It feels like a good challenge living away from your family, but with friends. I've been really getting into cooking. I do the dishes (and love it). All that household stuff is great for someone like me who isn't quite OCD but still got a little of it in my genes from my uncle.

  But let's forget all this life business. What about games? Ok, so my Xbox 360 isn't here. But when I go back to UK, I'll get my 360 over here.

  ---

  What games I haven't talked about yet should say a lot. While I'm not playing them, I'm constantly thinking about Batman: Arkham Asylum (done), Far Cry 2 (not done), and Prototype (done). My early GoTYs would be Plants vs Zombies, Batman, and Prototype. Yeah, I said Prototype. I'm just happy we finally have a proper anti-hero game. It's one game you have to experience yourself, before you judge it. It's the biggest adrenaline rush you'll get, and it provides a unique experience with some innovations, so it's easy to see why GoTY. Batman is one, but not for the reasons everyone else thinks. Despite what they say, it does some things new that could influence future non-linear games. I won't tell right now, that's a teaser!

  ---

  What games I haven't played, that I want to? Uncharted 2, just to check out if it's really TEH BEST SINGALPLAYA EVAR! You might remember, I didn't think too fondly of the first one. Lame platforming, tedious shooting, boring setpieces, and clearly not as cinematic/omgwtfawesome as Uncharted 2. Halo ODST, because the music sounds amazing. And it harkens back to the moods of Halo 1 with the loneliness. Brutal Legend. Yeah, that's obvious. Probably 20 reasons why. And I'm not even into metal. Borderlands. Because I love Gearbox. And Mikey Neumann's writing. And games that don't take themselves too seriously (hello, Fallout 3). And FPSRPGs. Demon's Souls. A hard combat RPG, that looks a little like Oblivion, yet is made from my childhood Tenchu-loving creators (From Software)? Hell yeah. Ninja Gaiden Sigma 2. Ninja Gaiden 2, but actually more balanced? And co-op? Plus, less of the gore which ACTUALLY became a problem in obscuring your vision and the level in the 360 version? I'm always up for supporting the series that is the king of 3D combat. Dante's Inferno. Dead Space was my GoTY last year, simple as that.

  

  ---

  What can you expect from me, in terms of game blogs? It's an editorial. That's very self-explanatoy in it's title. I Haven't Played the Game, but I Have an OPINION!

  Na shledanou. That's bye in Czech.

  • Posted Oct 10, 2009 4:30 am PT
  • Category: N/A
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• 21Sep 09

  Why Grand Theft Auto 4 is almost a Bad game (CONTINUED)

  (Author's Note: Read the first part here. There is a 20,000 character limit, so that's why this blog post is split into two.)

  Playing the Missions

  ---

  So, onto the missions themselves. There are two types: shooting, and vehicle chases. Sometimes they have both! Ooh, the variety! No, but the missions get redundant/repetitive REAL fast. Chasing people brings out how badly scripted the whole thing is, to the point where you can't even flank. The ones that stick out are extremely hard to remember, because of the amount of crap and frustrating missions. Rockstar KNEW this, because they have a "mission replay" counter, and they add extra dialogue the 2nd time around for a mission.

  Outside of Stranglehold, this is the worst cover system I've witnessed in a game. I'm actually right now trying to think of a worse one. The problem is with the inconsistency of some objects you can take cover against. In cover-based games, it's pretty obvious which objects you can take cover. However, in an open-world game like this, it's not obvious and you pay for it by dying while fiddling around with your Cover button. Most of the cover shootout areas felt very claustrophobic, and you don't have the ability to move from cover to cover, which is again outdated. Every shooting section felt like whack-a-mole, with a lock-on system no less, which made the game extremely unchallenging and more of a chore.

  Everyone made me believe that "Three Leaf Clover" would be amazing, but then I realized they must have hated all of the missions in the game that they thought it would be worth putting up the only shooting mission that is fun, on a pedestal. People even mention it's like Heat, but I don't remember going into subways in that film. I told them, "Have you played Kane and Lynch? The two bank heist missions in that game are 10x better than Three Leaf Clover or at least they haven much more variety". Kane and Lynch is already the best (and most enjoyable) interpretation of Heat or any Michael Mann movie I'll ever see. With better shooting, health, weapon switching and cover mechanics to boot.

  I'm not saying this is a bad game. I just enjoyed very little of it. The ratio of good missions to bad must be like 1:15. I can't point out specifically any part of the game I thought was more awesome in this game compared to any other game. Which just means, the game doesn't stand out against the crowd. Could Mafia II overtake it, as the best crime open world game?

  ---

  A Few Good Elements

  ---

  The Radio. That's the one overriding good factor. Listen to the Journey Station while murdering everyone on the street. Listen to healthcare issues, while someone gets chainsawed. Hear Laslow, the perfect right-wing lunatic. Hear Mr. T's law trials in the form of Judge Judy. The satire in the radio is just excellent, which is why I'm always confused why the main story and characters are so damn serious. This bi-polar split made me feel that there was no creative director for the game.

  Good writing. Nothing Oscar-level, though! The story is nothing special and lacked an overall theme or message. Is it a revenge story? An immigrant story? Commentary on the American dream? A crime epic? Since all of these themes were scattershot, I couldn't really grasp what the game had to say. But the dialogue was good. Even though the only memorable dialogue to me was from all the trailers already shown. Ookayy, eef yuu put it dat vay, I'm eeeeeeeeeen.

  Solid writing as every character is suitably over-the-top and yet believable. I won't say great characters (the few I've listed in the next paragraph), because they were all wannabe gangsters, that had nothing unique to them (you tell me the difference between Faustin, Jimmy Pegorino, Ray, that old dude in the hospital). Nothing memorable about them, except for maybe their quirks like Faustin always snorting drugs. So, I guess, what I'm meaning to say, the characters have really good mo-capping performances. Even though most of the characters in GTA 4 are way more unlikeable than Kane and Lynch (take that, Jeff!), I appreciate their great performances.

  A few great characters. Little Jacob may be a drug dealer, but he's so tolerant and lovable! Packie might be a kid gangster always getting in trouble, but his accent and positive, humorous attitude are for the win! Brucie might take bullshark testosterone and is too alpha macho for his own good, but he never tried to get into the murdering business like everyone else in the game. Roman may be annoying and frustrating and stupid and gambles too much and gets kidnapped a bajillion times, he's your conscience to move away from Niko's past and just lead a good life.

  Niko himself is actually quite deep, even though he's so stuck for revenge that not even SPAWN would care. He always need money for no reason other than to buy nice clothes. No, you can't buy expensive cars even.

  Nevertheless, he has moments of introspection after the killings he does, and even helps the pathetic Dwayne out of depression.

  Notice how I only really liked the lighter-side characters? Maybe because the serious stories and characters came off as pretentious, predictable, annoying, and pointless.

  ---

  What's Fun about Realism?

  ---

  Why was it the most unrealistic parts of the Euphoria engine I found fun? Pushing down people to death (yes, you can do this!), and standing proudly over their bodies. Dragging people down the road as they hold on to my car door? The Indiana Jones "truck hustle". The very end of the game where you jump from a flying jet ski into a helicopter!

  See, there is a debate about whether a game can be realistic and still be "fun". I can prove many already successful examples of that, and GTA 4 isn't one of them. Realism isn't meant to be fun, but it can be intense; such as your weapon jamming in the middle of a firefight (Far Cry 2), dying in a few shots (SWAT 4), and healing up your body through a detailed damage system (Call of Cthulhu).

  I mean, Grand Theft Auto games were never meant to be realistic. They were cartoony-looking for a reason, to downplay all the violence that is central to the game. And now with this 4th entry (6th? 8th?), they played exactly into the censoring crowd's hands and made the game more disturbing than it should be, just by having the Euphoria engine, realistic blood spray, and graphics. I feel really bad killing people in this game. Swearing is through the roof, which would make Kane and Lynch blush (take that, Jeff!).

  If you're going to spend a $100 million budget for a new graphics and animation Euphoria engine, why not make them fun? A realistic driving model, having to get armour for every mission, using a phone for a lot of things while not being able to pause, and having an almost unplayable framerate on top of all the action, shows they spent more time on the tech than the gameplay. Graphics over gameplay, as we call it. Just like sty.le over substance in the films business.

  The violence is taken way up to such realistic levels that it's gruesome to kill people in this game. I guess that's an artistic achievement, of making such sensitizing violence in a game. However, this doesn't make the game enjoyable. It feels like work. There is a difference between a challenge, and homework.

  Finally, my last piece of criticism and possibly the most important.

  ---

  Is this Game Bi-Polar?

  ---

  The game's bi-polar tones. It has an utterly amazing and always entertaining satire of American life on the radio and in the world through the NPCs, bundled with a pointlessly dark murderfest of a story that drags on forever to no meaning. The radio talk shows, billboard ads, NPC talk, and the world is so over-the-top that it's the only part where Dan Houser's writing shines. To be topical, they even had healthcare satire which even though kept on repeating on PLR, was just so poignant.

  However, the main story itself is so pointlessly serious, and heavy-handed, I just couldn't get into it. The gangsters are so generic, and forgettable. Niko is such a lapdog, yet he's a man of action only when he wants to be. I'm not playing this for a dramatic crime tale, because I've already experienced those (The Darkness, Max Payne, Kane and Lynch, Mafia). I thought I was in for some brilliant satire, mindless fun, and stupidly memorable missions.

  There clearly wasn't a game director or creative director behind this, to let the themes stay or have a natural conclusion. This is the problem with game development when you have 200 people working on a game, and there's no overarching auteur to steer everyone into the whole point of the game. Imagine if other games had conflicting design like this? Duke Nukem had mindless killing, but the Duke would be moping in every cutscene. Max Payne would have gritty voice-over and a tragic story, but he would have Final Fantasy magic powers, and had stupid dancing idle animations.

  ---

  Conclusion

  ---

  Hopefully, you get what I'm saying by now. Grand Theft Auto 4 is a game of missed opportunities, misleading freedom, annoying linearity, outdated gameplay, and bi-polar storytelling. Nearly all of the missions just sucked. There's not a single innovation here. There's barely anything worth writing home about. You're not missing out on much from the status quo by passing on this game. It's still a game worth playing, because of some fun with the Euphoria engine, but the focus here is not on mindless fun like previous incarnations; it's on misplaced realism. The most fun I had with this game were the lighter side such as the few characters, the few unrealistic missions, and the unrealistic lengths of the Euphoria animations.

  Every good thing I have to say about GTA 4, there is a bad point to counter-act it. I'm now scared for Max Payne 3 and Red Dead Redemption, and I'm going to check if it's not the same team. Please, Rockstar as the publisher, don't screw up the sequels to my favourite character-driven games!!!

  Grand Theft Auto 4 and Assassin's Creed are now red flags for me to not follow the design teams. Both games seem to adore creatively dry linearity and lack of choice. Both games have only 1 solid mechanic. Both games are examples of graphics over gameplay. Both are products of wasted development time for the tech, instead of the gameplay content. I'll be cautious before I play games made by these guys.

  Even if I lose some friends over this inconsequential blog post, I at least had fun writing it.

  • Posted Sep 21, 2009 8:15 am PT
  • Category: Opinion
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• 21Sep 09

  Why Grand Theft Auto 4 is almost a Bad game (Part 1)

  (Author's Note: Because of 20,000 character limit, this blog post in split into two. Read Second Part here.)

  After playing so many fast-paced sandbox games (Prototype, Crackdown, Infamous, Far Cry 2) recently, I couldn't really get into GTA 4 at first. It has a deliberately slow pace, even down to story progression. Even after adjusting to the slow pacing, I kept on noticing problems that kept popping up. Which was weird, because I heard this game was on many people's best games of 2008, and it got 10s from some reputable websites. Maybe I was missing something, maybe I hadn't gotten to the "holy frickin' awesome!" parts of the game. Sadly after 50 hours with finishing the game, they didn't come.

  ---

  Linear Murder

  ---

  Grand Theft Auto 4 is very misleading. I thought it was a sandbox game, where you can tackle missions in any way possible. Turns out, my playthrough of the game will be exactly the same as yours, since all the 100 or so missions are completely linear, down to the orchestrated car chases. What I personally consider sandbox games are the ones where you're given a lot of choice in going on about the same task, which could be through multiple gadgets (Batman: Arkham Asylum), going stealth or Rambo (Far Cry 2), pathways (Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory), or side-missions (Knights of the Old Republic). Only once do you get a choice in who to kill, which ends up in different consequences. You can not sabotage any mission like the recent Far Cry 2 or Hitman franchise. Frankly, I was getting a lot of Assassin's Creed, and I didn't like it. GTA IV felt outdated to me in this linear mission's aspect, and the fact there is no sandbox game to speak of.

  ---

  Open World?

  ---

  Not open. You get an island to mess around in, but you're locked from other islands, much like Infamous. I can't go into the police station or hospital, even if they're standing right in front of me. There are internet cafes, but they become useless when you get a laptop in your safehouse. There are restaurants, but they're pointless and take more effort than just going to a hotdog stand. Speaking of the stands, there aren't enough of them considering this is a dramatization of NYC, AND when you need more health all the time because you get hurt very easily. Some buildings have iconography of being a restaurant, but you can't go into them. So, even if Rockstar put a lot of effort into making all their buildings unique, you as the player are confused which ones you can interact with, and are therefore resigned to check the map for confirmation.

  There is no exploration. This is not Oblivion or any other game with a slightly bigger world where you can find out stuff off the beaten path. You can't discover a single shop, club, or restaurant. For weapon shops, you can't buy any of the weapons unless if the game has made you use them in a mission. Then they're "unlocked" in the weapon shop. It's a huge tease, and is another example of bad design. Why not just show weapons that you CAN access at the time?

  Another mark for GTA IV feeling outdated.

  ---

  Sandbox Variety?

  ---

  For a character who always needs more money, there isn't much to do.

  I was surprised that you could count all the types of activities outside of the missions on one hand (clubs; restaurants; indoor games; wanted criminals). You do get errands or "jobs" from people, which consist of being a taxi cab rider, assassin, or a drug runner but I barely got into them since I never needed more money. Which is ironic, because Niko in every cutscene says, "I always need more moneeeee!"

  So, if Assassin's Creed can be criticized for giving no choice in how you go about your missions or tasks, so should Grand Theft Auto 4. But hey, the game got 10s, and previous games were apparently great, so Rockstar deserves the blind love assigned to them by fans groveling at their knees.

  As a complete n00b to this franchise, I can only go by what other people tell me, and they say previous games had a lot more choice and exploration.

  ---

  Lead by the Hand

  ---

  From the moment go to the end of the game, you'll be seeing tutorial information constantly. This felt like a multiplayer-focused game that has singleplayer, just so you can become comfortable with the mechanics when you go into real battle. I don't even remember there being an option in the menus to disable the tutorials.

  Not being able to discover any single thing in the game, and the pacing of weapons/locations to unlock, felt too dishonest to me. Doing missions in a very specific way, and the mission pacing completely dictated by the designers by forcing you down missions for people you'd hate reduced all the scope of what this game should be able to do. It just reinforces how little choice you have in the game and how anti-sandbox the experience is. You're just playing the game to the designer's intentions, rather than what we expect from sandbox games. Very misleading, much like Assassin's Creed.

  ---

  Just Not Memorable Enough

  ---

  For being 50 hours long and having more than 80 missions, GTA IV is just not memorable enough. The dialogue to me wasn't either. The only memorable stuff was already in the trailers, like all of the 3 famous Niko Bellic quotes. C'mon, that's a little pathetic for a game with such a huge script. The very few memorable characters (Packie, Brucie, Little Jacob, Roman Bellic, Bernie) are outweighed by the majority of wannabe movie gangster parodies (Vlad, Faustin, Ray, Jimmy, Dmitri, etc).

  There are some damn memorable dark and emotional moments like Niko kidnapping the Anceliotti's daughter and the friends' mission where you dump a guy's dead wife (he did it) in the river. These are very few moments to justify the darker, more serious tone taken with this new GTA game. However, there's hardly any comedy bits other than the excellent Brucie, which makes the story come off as an overly heavy-handed, disengaging mess. Also, Niko's a psycho.

  ---

  Niko Bellic: The Immigrant Story That Never Was

  ---

  I'm genuinely surprised at a game involving immigrants to not explore the issues or even give you an experience of what it'd be like to be one. There aren't any immigrant jobs like plumbing, car washes, or pizza delivery. The plumbing could have been a Pipe game, the car washing could be just clean up the whole car with the analog stick, and pizza delivery fits perfectly with the bikes in the game. There are so many other vehicle jobs I'd like to do, like helicopter rides for tourists or be a bus driver temp.

  I know these activities don't really ascribe to the notion of being a gangster as what the GTA games try to be, but it would add a lot to Niko being an up-and-coming immigrant hitman. It would make you hate them and they should be boring mini-games or stale gameplay, which is a great metaphor for the real thing. So, before you're called up for a high-paying murder mission, you have to do measely tasks and live through the daily grind. That I think would be far more relevant and give more social commentary that the non-gaming public would respect. "So, these games aren't just about killing everyone? You mean there is some actual exploration of modern issues in real life through this virtual world?" I'm waiting for that GTA game.

  ---

  Gameplay of Frustration

  ---

  What about the mechanics? Combat, driving, phonebook, and health. Guess the only one of these I enjoyed. Nope, it wasn't the framerate-dipping combat. No, it wasn't moving the tank-like, unresponsive Niko around anywhere. Nope, it wasn't the flicking through the thousands of Contacts with the d-pad. Nope, it wasn't running around to the very limited amount of hot dog stands or having to fetch armor from weapon shops for EVERY single mission. All of these problems made me have to retry missions constantly, and all added to just bad experiences.

  Which leaves the driving. Apparently, this is one aspect many previous fans didn't adjust to. It became more realistic, but for me as a PGR player, it fit. If you've played those PGR games, you know it's all about the Left and Right Trigger balancing. There is actual weight to the cars, but they look like low-riders in action with the body-frame always bobbing up and down. Bikes were even more fun, because you can go so fast that you murder the motion blur and framerate. Then crash to see Niko fly in hilarious, unrealistic fashion. I'll touch the "unrealism" later on.

  I only liked driving in this game, similar to liking free-running in Assassin's Creed. Rockstar, did you purposefully try to make as bad a game as that?

  ---

  Buddies

  ---

  The whole tamagotchi Sims thing with managing friends and going with them on mundane dates got redundant real fast. Very quickly you notice the comedy or cabaret clubs don't have much content, yet the game forces you to see everything available or then you lose respect with these "friends". You only ever get to date 2 people out of a possible 20, and that's because they are actually cheat codes (Carmen and Kiki). Carmen's health boost only works OUTSIDE of missions, which just sucks.

  At least Kiki's service of clearing your Wanted level works right? Yeah, it works on missions, but in many missions, she'll keep on saying "Sorry, Niko, this time they're really out to get you". And no, going on a date with her extremely recently didn't even work. Which missions it works and doesn't is inconsistent, because it worked perfectly for "Three Leaf Clover" which is a mission where you end up with a 6-star rating but doesn't work for the Gerry mission where you get a prison snitch out of prison (no, there is no actual prison breakout like in Kane and Lynch ). Did I even mention how difficult it is to drive, and get to Kiki in your phonebook to remove the Wanted rating, when she's all the way down in the Contacts section?! Shouldn't Kiki be the first Contact during a mission? Handling the phone is very frustrating, to say the least. Again, GTA IV felt outdated in this aspect compared to other games where you handle several NPC relationships (Bioware, Bethesda).

  The reputation stuff is just another pointless mechanic. So what if Brucie likes me 70%, but respects me 90%? None of this had any effect, other than either they stay as my friend and bug me every now and then, or just un-friend me like some Facebook weirdo.

  ---

  Disconnect with Niko

  ---

  I've never been this disconnected when playing a character in a game, even compared to first-person shooters. Niko is likeable to an extent because he wants to keep on the down-low from his traumatic past, but as soon as he didn't want to let it go in the second to third Act, I just couldn't care less. The more I played, I couldn't empathise with this hired killer "off the boat" who always had a hard-on for more money. He's a man of action and I get that, but do you need to punch everyone you don't like?

  Also, I don't particularly believe that he's unwilling to do these errand-boy missions, and the money doesn't sound like a good enough excuse. The blackmailing from EVERY gangster so he did their missions was also unconvincing. He's a psychotic serial killer, deep inside. On top of all the unconvincing motivation, he has some of the most unresponsive controls I've ever witnessed. His tank-like walking and steering to rotate him, the cover mechanic being so shoddy, and him dying very easily was not very empowering or enjoyable to play as him. Dressing him up was the only hilarious fun I could have with him.

  • Posted Sep 21, 2009 8:12 am PT
  • Category: Opinion
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• 5Sep 09

  Mini Ninjas is NOT A KIDDY GAME rant

  I go on rants rarely. But sometimes a game comes, people have misconceptions about, and I need to get things off my chest.

  

  I've seen some people poo-pooing on the Mini Ninjas demo, because it looks kiddy. It doesn't have depth. The combat doesn't have gratuitous violence to stimulate the teenagers.
  
  ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!
  
  This game has more depth than all the recent action adventure games combined. The game is chock full of mechanics! So, let me list out a few. I go to 12.

  ---

  
  
  1. Change into 3 characters. If you change into the girl, her idle animation is her singing a song with her flute!
  
  2. Spirit-jack animals. This I used A LOT for stealth, when grass wasn't there. The care and attention put into each animals is unexpected; like the chicken squawking if you press the jump button!
  
  3. Fishing! I had no idea this was in here. Very Zelda-esque.
  
  4. Finding plants and flowers. Now, I couldn't make ingredients yet, but I'm excited about it in the full game.
  
  5. Hidden magic shrines. Using the butterflies to locate them, and find a completely new part of the world when you're rowing in the water and go through waterfalls into a very secluded area. It was exploration for the win!
  
  6. The charged-up power attack was very cool, made me feel like a badass ninja. I even leveled it up to 3.

  7. Doing the fetch quest for the crow, so he gives you 3 power attacks! Very handy in the battles where you want to surprise them.
  
  8. SHOPPING! You can go and shop for items and healing potions and weapons, if you're low in supply.
  
  9. Going from stealth to combat to stealth was very easy and intuitive. I'm a very stealthy gamer, and I'm glad the game's AI allows for such a play-sty.le where you can do surprise attacks on enemies.
  
  10. Surprise attacks! Stealth one-hit kills, Fireballs, lightning, the power attack, Fujo's big roll, pepper bombs, caltrops. I used them all in different situations, like the caltrops I used in the place where the boar is. Pepper bombs are excellent if you want a whole area affected, so whenever new samurai arrive there, they'll be stunned. It's kind of like a temporary mine XD
  
  11. Open world. Atmosphere is great, like when you hear the music change ambient as you come across the shop guy. The demo is huge, I probably spent 90 minutes with it. Great level design. Fishing for Sushi. Exploring every nook and cranny. Like the hidden magic shrines. Like the part where you do WALL-JUMPING.Like shaking the trees for healing items.
  
  12. Combat. It's not about combos. But it's very sandbox-y much like PROTOTYPE. You have lots of abilities at your disposal. You have 3 characters to switch between. You have power attacks, jump attacks, then the red power attacks, shurikens, fireballs, lightning storm. Before full-blown combat, you also have the "surprise attacks" mentioned on point 9 above. The great thing? Very easy to switch between all these because of the RB analog wheel. I love wheel systems in games like PROTOTYPE or CHRONICLES OF RIDDICK. They're making full use of being a console game.
  
  In conclusion, there are so many mechanics here to get into that add to the variety of the game. It's IO Interactive going back to their Hitman roots of having many mechanics to allow choice to the player. And the gorgeous art sty.le never gets me bored. This game has personality and charm, that is absent in most AAA blockbuster titles. It reminds of me the last-gen PS2 era of action-adventure games like Jak, Ratchet, Spyro, etc.
  
  The problem with most "core" gamers and this game would be: it looks KIDDY. Yes, kiddy in terms of art sty.le and lack of gratuitous violence or sex or gore. But NOT KIDDY in terms of gameplay and depth. Great level design, variety, open world, Hitman-like gameplay, art sty.le atmosphere. And this is all just from my impressions of THE DEMO! I'm amazed how much attention to detail IO has put in this game, considering everyone is just clamoring for Hitman 5 or just sequels to their other great franchises. Stop waiting for the next Zelda, it's already here. And it's all about cute ninjas.

  • Posted Sep 5, 2009 7:23 am PT
  • Category: N/A
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• 2Sep 09

  What I Had Played and Seen in the USA

  Aaakh, stupid blog errors with Gamespot so can't post here! Anway,

  LINK to my Giantbomb blog where it's still coming up. I talk about Uncharted: Drake's Fortune, (RE 4, RE 5, GTA IV, Assassin's Creed), Public Enemies, 500 Days of Summer, District 9, Mini Ninjas, Section 8, and WET.

  If none of that interests you, thennnn...I guess you won't be checking out the blog. Yeeeaah. Anyway, good gaming, and tooDAloo! Kuwabara, Kuwabara! La Li Le Lu Lo!

  

  • Posted Sep 2, 2009 2:41 am PT
  • Category: Games
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• 29Aug 09

  11 Things I Learned from my USA Roadtrip

  Ooph, been a while since I've been on here. Been a busy bee, only a couple days before I get back to UK. In short, USA was awesome. Here's a few things I learned from my roadtrip here.

  Don't worry, I'm not so green behind the years, this is probably my 5th time in the USA. First was in 1997 when we came just for DisneyWorld in Florida, and also the amazing World Trade Center. I'll never forget the awesome auditorium where you sit in seats, and watch a movie. Then you realise the seats are all moving, and it's a rollercoaster ride on a helicopter ride through Manhattan! If any of you remember it from before 2001, tell me. 2nd time we were here in USA, we actually were living for 3 years and I went to middle+high school here in Brownstown, Michigan. I still remember loving the education system here (those GPAs) more than UK, and they'd already be reading more high-level stuff than UK education. 3rd and 4th times were just visits to mostly Canada and Niagara Falls, and my cousins and relatives from Detroit to Baltimore (where I am right now).

  Why 11? Because…of some lame Spinal Tap joke. So, let's get on with what I learnt...

  ---

  

  1. NYC people rock! How much? When we went into a subway to figure out if we could get back to our parking place by train and got confused, a random HOBO came up to us. Out of his own selfless heart, helped us even when we didn't ask. NYC has the most friendly people I've ever met. There's the stereotype in media that New Yorkers are rude, short-tempered, and basically a lot like my Pakistani people. Couldn't be further from the truth. These New York City people are the nicest people ever; they'll actively help you out and ask how you're doing if you're lost or look confused. These people are more polite and friendly than British people!

  So next time you go to a foreign city and want to measure how friendly the folk are, see how many random people will help you without your provocation.

  2. NYC or Manhattan is just like London. NYC is exactly a little brother of London in UK. Same kind of narrow alleys, gothic architecture, no parking places, Times Square is just like Piccadilly Circus, buses everywhere.

  

  3. NYC, the city, sucks! It's a disaster of logistics. You'd think for being a little brother to London, they'd copy the great things we Londoners have. NYC has the worst public transportation for a metropolitan city I've ever come across. The Metro maps are a terrible mess, and makes me ache for London Underground maps. The subway is not that terrible, and the only saving grace it has over London underground is...AIR CONDITIONING! It's a huge advantage when you've been walking for 2 hours, and are sweating like hell. But the bus system is absolutely horrid.

  Worst part? Most Yankees don't even know that much about the buses! Bus stops are very vague and hard to find. Nothing is told on the bus stops in terms of useful info. I know, it's crazy! Very rarely do you get to see the bus stops for the buses, and their routes, but nothing to the level that London bus stops have.

  Moving around NYC is a pain and a half. Every part of NYC is badly organised. Road construction and blocked roads are everywhere. It has congested traffic just like London. We just wanted to get from Times Square back to near Union Square where the Statue of Liberty was, because we parked our car all the way down there. And it took us nearly 3 hours of walking, going from buses, and subway trains, and more walking. This was in the dead of the night. We walked so much into road construction and dead ends, that we even got to see GROUND ZERO! And I didn't even want to see the sorry mess of a state that the WTC was now in.

  4. NYC still has awesome places to go to, like the Statue of Liberty tour. Times Square. Central Park.Too bad we didn't get to go to Little Italy or Chinatown, because we were already having so much trouble moving around in this damn city!

  (video) The other videos I have are for the other states (Michigan fishing; Missouri caves).

  5. All of America is homogenised. You go from state to state, and everything looks the same. This is also true for England in some cases with the villages. Pennsylvania, Ohio, Missouri, or any other state we went through in the way had very similar landmarks and town structure. I'm guessing this is to make any n00b comfortable with no change. But jeez, it's freaky!

  6. The HEALTH CRAZE hasn't even started here yet! While it's going insane over in UK with the Jamie Oliver, 5-a-day, and other government schemes to cut down on fast food and other bad routines, it's barely touched down over here. You go to a McDonald's or Burger King and there are no healthy options sticking out, no nutrition charts on the back of your fries box. It's just weird, considering this is the fattest nation in the whole universe. They gotta start from school dinners, and ban that Cheezits/Cheesasaurus Rex garbage!

  7. Everything here is SUPER SIZE. I guess the documentary's name, "Super Size Me" was pretty apt. I'm not talking fast food. I'm talking ketchup bottles. Orange juice. Everything, except my favourite, apple juice. Why do you forsake me, SUPER SIZE AMERICA?!

  8. Disney and Nickelodeon made a big mistake by abandoning great 2D cartoons in favour of brainwashing kids with live-action tweenie shows. Disney is especially creepy. That Hannah Montana show's premise is more complicated than Nolan's "Memento"! She plays herself in real life (Miley Cyrus), and her music producer dad is himself, but she has an alter ego who's a pop diva called Hannah Montana. Some of these shows are just soap operas for kids, so when they grow up, they rot their brains further with reality shows! The worst part? Most of the child actors in these shows won't ever become real actors/actresses, considering their conservative fanbase and bad acting. Nickelodeon ain't that bad. The only show I've grown to like here is, "iCarly" from Nick. The main character is a smilebag, and the laugh reels are so obviously faked. But the show has 2 things right. There are no parent actors, and there is no obvious romance drama or other gooey relationship drivel. And that whenever the "Spencer" character comes on, he steals the show. Ok, I've already said enough about this show, movin' on…

  9. Dude, there are SUVs, EVERYWHERE here! You know how 4-wheelers and SUVs are despised all across the world for their carbon-mudering, fuel-guzzling needs? Yeah well, America throws morality and ethics out the window with their cars! It's like that Simpsons Krusty ad for CANYONERO!

  10. America has no problem providing you with cool vistas and unmanned beauty. We've been to so many cool places in each of the 4 states we've been through (Michigan, Missouri, Maryland, and NYC). Like the Meramec Caverns in Missouri where you go into a really cool underground cave system where Jesse James hid out apparently. Missouri also had this Arch monument with a ride in an egg, but the view from up top was kind of lame. Michigan had tons of awesome lakes and we went fishing, catching our own fish. Of course we went to the Henry Ford museum, considering Detroit is where the E3 of cars happens. We even stopped at Springfield to check out Abe Lincoln's house and learn about him. Maryland is actually pretty barebones, so no crazy places there except for many parks. I can't wait to edit my footage from the locations I just mentioned into a bad music video thingamajig!

  11. I'm more American than I care to admit! Well ok, not in terms of being a walking ad, or being obese, or loving capitalism. I love the lingo though, like "awesome", "dude", and "sucks". I'm pretty proud that my American accent has stayed. You don't know how awkward I would feel if I retained my British accent from when I was born…

  There you go! Next time I'll talk about the roadtrip would just to upload links to photos and videos from other places in our USA roadtrip. If you want to see all 257(!) of my New York City pictures, head on over here.

  

  • Posted Aug 29, 2009 2:56 pm PT
  • Category: Travel
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• 5Aug 09

  500 Days of Summer

  

  It starts as a tongue-in-cheek fairytale romance, so you're comfortable with how predictable the plot and how many coincidences might happen for the boy to meet the girl; just like last year's multi-Oscar winning "Slumdog Millionaire".

  It's not a breakthrough of a romantic comedy, but it has enough unique elements that make it stand out from some random romcom with more famous actors. There is the back-and-forth between the actual 500 days so the chronology is mixed around to paint a picture of what happened between the boy and girl before and after they separated for a while. The back-and-forth makes the witty script shine, so clearly there was some thought to the plot structure even though most of it is predictable.

  The setting of this character drama is, the boy works at a greeting card company but actually wants to become an architect. There is some biting commentary on greeting cards which was funny and truthful; when the boy is in the dumps, his boss tells him to channel his negative energy into funeral/sympathy cards! The architect side of him is never really explored, and is only given a nice moment where he draws his version of the city on the girl's arm as a tattoo. There's no payoff to that, sadly.

  The girl (Zooey Deschanel) is a unique character in herself. She's pretty much a goth, but she is commitment phobic. She doesn't believe in love, he does. The girl and boy in this film are actually more experienced in that they've been through past relationships, which is something I haven't seen in many romantic comedies. Why they break up for a while never is made clear though, or at least what event that triggered it. What eventually builds up to the ending is actually intriguing, because it's as if the fairytale Disney story grows up and becomes a sobering message. I thought it was really cool that even if the boy and girl can have exact same tastes in music, movies, and other things, that don't mean they're "soul-mates" or they're meant to be together. Relationships aren't built on such superficial circumstances, contrary to what online and other matchmaking services might have you believe .

  The supporting characters are really what sells the experience, and give some of the funniest moments. The character who steals the show is the boy's much younger sister (about 9-10 yrs old) who is a love guru to him.

  

  She even mentions that she has past boyfriends, which is hilarious for such a young girl She's going to be in the Kick-Ass comic adaptation, which is looking awesome.

  

  It's a pretty funny film, and the interplay between Gordon Levitt and Zooey is fantastic (even though Zooey's eyes are creepy). One hilarious moment is, when the couple is in Ikea and they do some role-play with the furniture. They go from the kitchen to then the bedroom, but before they get intimate, the boy breaks the ice by proclaiming, "I dunno, but there's a Chinese family in our bathroom…". That made me LOL hard. Another hilarious scene is when the boy goes to the movies and you see a parody of French new-wave artsy b+w movies. "Suffering...so much suffering" made me LOL hard again, and you'll too once you see it. Zooey does a serviceable job, but this movie is more about the coming-of-age for the boy and how excellent Gordon Levitt is as the next big Oscar actor. What might make for a somewhat melodramatic plot ends up in a really excellent ending that really speaks more to the title of the movie. It plays more to random coincidences in life that can be fruitful, rather than the fairytale romance that the movie starts with, which I thought was a great tonal shift to end on.

  The reason I won't say that this is an amazing or original romantic comedy is, you don't really get to delve into the psychology of these characters. It delves more into the relationship and the 500 days, but then you realize there is not some huge mystery to it or any big plot twist. There are some loose ends like the boy's architecture drawing on her arm. The plot becomes victim to its fairytale premise by being melodramatic (she was that angry about him punching a guy who was hitting on her in the bar?!) and predictable. It's also not the most memorable thing ever. I've always wanted some outside thinker to examine a romantic comedy or any genre, and deconstruct it. Much like what Christopher Nolan did with a crime thriller in Memento. If you do want a recent deconstructionist romcom, check out "Search for a Midnight Kiss" which pays more than enough homage to "Annie Hall". But yeah, "500 DAYS OF SUMMER" stands out as a must-watch romcom if you're annoyed by the generic romcom market saturation ("Ugly Truth"). Absolute must-watch if you're a Joseph Gordon Levitt fan like me (Brick, 3rd Rock from the Sun, Mysterious Skin).

  Yes, I do watch quite a few romcoms. Look forward to GTA IV completion impressions, and MGS 3.

  • Posted Aug 5, 2009 9:53 am PT
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• 19Jul 09

  Finished RE 4. Comparing to Prince of Persia (2008). Are they so different?

  Took me 25 hours to finish RE 4. Why? Because I, as a completionist, tried to savour and suck every joy out of this game. I wasn't a fan of ending the game with an unpredictably bad controlling jet-ski timed challenge, so that was annoying. Still, the end cutscene showed the game still had charm for the awkward relationship between Leon and Ashley, and Capcom's penchant for Ashley fanservice.

  Anyway, got me to thinking.

  

  

  These games have very similar design philosophies. I've been recently getting my cousin to play Prince of Persia (his quote: "pretty damn good"). No, don't bother if you're thinking I'm going to end up saying which game is better. Both are equal, as in being the best of their respective genres.

  Both games have an old-school chapter approach with a boss finale. Each of the 24 "fertile grounds" in PoP has a boss, as does every 2-1, 3-2, 4-3, in RE 4. RE 4 might have a leg up on variety of boss encounters, but it also likes to rehash some of them quite a bit e.g. El Gigante.

  Both games have only 1 difficulty, because they're such well-designed games. No, I don't count "Professional" in RE 4 as a main difficulty, because you only unlock it after you finish the whole game as a bonus. Both games are not super challenging, but of course not without trial-and-error e.g. Elika's double jump vs one-hit kills from RE 4 bosses. You know another well-designed game with no choice in difficulty? Mario, that's right.

  

  Both games excel in pacing, but in different ways. Both games work up to a challenge by ending the level with a boss. Both allow for exploration. While RE 4 might not be as non-linear, it still allows backtracking if you want extra treasures or going back to the Merchant. Prince of Persia is a non-linear game. There aren't many out there. There are 24 "fertile grounds", and you can pick in what order you want to do them. You can dictate the pacing. This is why the game excels in its choose-your-adventure and flexible game design. Plus, how many non-linear platforming open-world games do you know? Sorry, the platforming sandbox games like Prototype/inFamous/Crackdown don't count since they aren't only about the platforming and don't have linear platforming design.

  Both games know well to break the pacing by having optional dialogue or a hilarious Merchant. Who doesn't remember the Merchant?! "Ahh, I'll buy it at a HIGH PRICE!". He's literally a drug dealer, I mean c'mon listen to his chuckling after EVERY purchase you make!

  

  Talking with Elika at every opportunity is hard to ignore, she's so intriguing and mysterious. Who does she pray to? What's Ormazd? Why is she so sheltered? What's with her and her dad? What's with the creepy visions? Where did everyone go from this world to?

  Both games break up their repetition, and therefore can stand against other games in their genre.

  • Prince of Persia has a gorgeously designed, creative game world that helps fight the repetition. If you can't appreciate the amount of work they put into such a magical open-world, that's fine. Platforming is 80% of the game, so they might as well vary up the game world you're in. The rest of the game is combat and puzzles. This game may not be about combat unlike Shadow of the Colossus that it's inspired from, even if it does have a very clever and innovative combat scheme that I call "dial-a-combo". If you've ever heard of God Hand, you'll know what I'm talking about. My cousin was a little stunned that he could literally button-mash and still get a successful outcome, although of course you do have to block and parry for such windows of opportunity. How many games allow you to create your own combos? Another thing I love about PoP's combat is, little input=big output. Every sword slash or move in a combo is cinematic and elaborate; compare this to a Ninja Gaiden or other action games. I'm fine with people not liking the combat because you only fight 1 enemy at a time; but I'd rather have a satisfying bout with one dude instead of a clusterfudge that other action games tend to become.
  • RE 4 has various enemy encounters and accompanying level design for such encounters that help fight the repetition. Shooting is 80% of the game. So you might as well change it up, so that players can experiment with weapon loadouts. The game did feel too tedious with all the detours from the main path and Ashley being kidnapped 4 times. The Castle is the most obvious victim of this. That's due to the kitchen-sink approach the Mikami team stuck to, throwing every idea they could, trying to be as much of an Indiana Jones game as they could. Yeah, that's right, RE 4 is as good an Indiana Jones as you're ever going to get. RE 4 actually has some pretty similar puzzles to PoP, also, even if they're not as inspired or even relevant. There aren't many shooters out there that are well-designed enough to put variety in their gameplay elements like RE 4. I can only name the excellent Max Payne series, and Dead Space. You can't have shooting 100% of the time, no matter how cool a chainsaw execution move is.

  

  Both games have charm and are iconic. RE 4 has one strange charm as all Japanese media has, for fanservice, in the form of Ashley . Leon and Ashley is just an awkward relationship; even Ashley wants some "overtime" but Leon clearly is not interested no matter how funny these alternateending videos are. PoP has a magical world that you get transported to. How many games can be truly magical these days? Just the air balloon palace alone is enough crazy imagination. While the previous Prince games had a semblance of taking place in some alternate historical setting, this game makes no bones about how mystical everything is, down to explaining how Elika feeds on light orbs . Prince and Elika is IMO a more interesting bittersweet game couple than Farah and the previous Prince.

  

  Even the old Prince games sexualised their female characters, like Farah and those two other sexbots. Elika is nothing like them, except that she's a strong female lead. One dude's a down-to-earth, smart aleck and the gal is a religious fiend who needs to come off her high horse which the Prince is more than willing to do. Personally, I like the outfit for this Prince more than the weird mishmash of arabic clothes and heavy metal armour the previous Prince was going for.

  

  This new Prince looks more rogue and iconic with his raggy clothes and improvised armour, compared to this:

  

  Of course, if you're not a fan of the core mechanics of either game, then there's no debate. I myself was a stringent hater of stop-to-shoot when I first heard it in RE 5 (I was oblivious to RE 4), but since trying it out in RE 4, I had no qualms but it has its problems that are most evident in a Gears clone/RE 4 rehash like RE 5. Once you play Dead Space, you're spoiled of better mechanics, but the designers of RE 4 was smart enough to know the limitations to not overwhelm you. And if you're not a fan of the Prince's new platforming where his animations are more elaborate and where you have to let him complete his glorious animation, then there's no point arguing that the platforming is any good. He's a lot more nimble and monkey-ish; exemplified by his extra scurrying up walls or literally crawling on the ceiling. With the Gripfall, he's also versatile, in addition to Elika's jump which can lead to some interesting experimentation when getting those hard-to-reach orbs.

  

  So, if both games are great in their own genres, why is RE 4 more critically acclaimed than Prince of Persia? Simple, because of market saturation. There are so many 3rd person shooters on the market, that inadvertently help unique shooters like RE 4 and Max Payne stand out against Gears and other cover shooters. Platformers, there aren't that many, plus it's almost a niche market now. Only games like Mario, Tomb Raider, and Prince of Persia, try any more; and these are old stalwarts in a stale genre. Platformers were only ever big in the Playstation era, and they were all great like Spyro, and...okay, I didn't ever play Ratchet or Jak+Daxter :S.

  Plus, RE 4 is actually a lot more safe than Prince of Persia. Yes, some people are not fans of the more action shooter approach compared to previous RE games; although those people need to realise RE has always been that, and always had cheap scares. It's no Silent Hill/Fatal Frame. But overall, many people liked how streamlined of an action game RE 4 was, they gobbled it up on Gamecube, PS2, and finally the Wii.

  Prince of Persia already had good games in the previous trilogy. It didn't need to reinvent itself. No need for innovation, new ideas, concepts, or stories. They weren't big sellers because of their genre, and their combat wasn't the greatest, but they were critically acclaimed. Ok, that was just Sands of Time, and it all went downhill even if Two Thrones was doing some cool new ideas. Platformers are not million sellers, but I hope this new PoP is. The reason PoP is more alienating than RE 4 is because it's doing bold new ideas (storytelling; non-linear world; dial-a-combo; no game over screen) that might influence many new games.

  

  How they've managed to break up storytelling into optional dialogue and still keep coherent when you can choose whichever sections of the games to complete is a mystery to me, but it works. From the whole Concubine saga of introspection to Elika feeling more pity for these Corrupted to Prince actually liking Elika and not throwing one-liners somehow works in tandem with the non-linear game structure. There are hardly any cutscenes to the level of the previous PoP games. Very low-key, minimalist, and it's only about 2 characters. So, the storytelling is pretty different there. BUT, BUT, BUT...I don't like how you have to STOP and TALK. First, that goes against how the game should be flexible. I KNOW they put a lot of work into their facial animations, and want it to be feel like a ping-pong battle like a sitcom with the camera angles, but they should allow you to platform and talk, like in the previous PoPs. So what if you sacrifice a little of the emotional drama or whatever, some compromise has to be made for gamers who don't want to put their game pad down. Moving on,the ending is what everyone talks about now, so people clearly care if there's a good story told in a game that only has to do with 2 characters bickering over a god of darkness and whether the good god actually exists. Maybe commentary on religion in our non-believing culture?

  

  Then there's the combat. This might actually bring in more fans, because people like button-mashing and this is the one game where you're allowed to without feeling like a dirty n00b. "Dial-a-combo" is different, and not as safe as generic combo stuff in other action games, but has greater output for the player who wants immediate results. Fighting against 1 enemy might either alienate combat-heavy gamers or welcome in people who just want to focus on one dude and have a good time. Maybe I'm one of the fewer gamers who likes timing and rhythm in his combat games. Why is it that I can appreciate a Ninja Gaiden game and still like Prince of Persia's combat? Because they're completely different, and I have time in my brain for both. The combat is more about your relationship with Elika and getting a sweet rhythm than it is with crowd control or just whacking on a dude to get a 20-hit combo so he finally dies. Many times you can kill an enemy with one hit, if you're smart enough.

  

  Finally, the game's non-linear structure. This is more non-linear than a GTA game. GTA is linear in its story, and so are nearly every sandbox game. The only other truly non-linear game I know is Crackdown, and people complained it was too easy for it because you could kill the big bad boss before killing any of his minions. Some people like a linear rollercoaster ride and some people like to dictate their pacing and take their time with sandbox games. "Open world" might be the new buzzword but very few games actually achieve it, because a linear experience is still needed for a story. Now I don't really care when people say the new PoP is too easy, because honestly more people like easy games than a Ninja Gaiden. Everything about the game screams it should be easy; from the magical, uplifting world to healing the land to Elika being a helping hand. Much like any other inviting fantasy game like Okami or Zelda or Shadow of the Colossus. I'm not saying PoP is a cakewalk, unless if all of you have the "Died less than 100 times" achievement. If there was a Game Over screen, you wouldn't be saying the game's easy because it has its challenges.

  If this felt like an infomercial for Prince of Persia or Resident Evil 4, I'm sorry, I should stop writing my observations. But I had fun getting this stuff off my chest, and at least it's just a free blog post!

  • Posted Jul 19, 2009 9:01 am PT
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• 11Jul 09

  Ass Creed Take #2 (finished it)

  You know before, I used to affectionally abbreviate Assassin's Creed into "Ass Creed". How little did I know that was ironically true.

  I can now finally say Ass Creed is a bad game, with justification.

  I thought I shouldn't pass judgement on the game before I finish it, because who knows what might come up? A new challenge, a new boss, or a new type of gameplay. I waited. Then the credits rolled. It never came. This game was such a chore to finish, and you'd say don't play any more if you don't enjoy it, but I needed to so my opinion is concrete.

  This game could NOT have been made by 150 people at Ubisoft MONTREAL of all places. It's almost a disservice to the actually talented guys there. The amount of repetition is almost a really bad running joke. The same dialogue from saved citizens, the exact same missions, and more arbitrary padding out of what "game" there is into more than 1 hour. Now I hear 450 people are working on Ass Creed 2: Ass In Ass Boogaloo. Let's hope they can make a bad game into a good one. Because I don't like hating games. I only hate games when I'm not actively enjoying them.

  I can perfectly understand people "liking" the game, or even "loving" it. Those are for when you're looking from the outside, as if you're detached. However, someone saying they actually enjoyed the game would be baffling. The controls aren't even as responsive as you'd want from a pure action game. If you love the story, the graphics, the sound, or even just the controls, I'm with you there. And that's all the aesthetics. But that's not part of the "game".

  The game is a tech demo. It's literally 15 minutes stretched and padded out with stupid design. Copy and paste of the highest order. It's a perfect case of graphics over gameplay, just like Resident Evil 5. My cousin was asking the question, "If you're not enjoying the game, why are you still playing it?" I said, "FOR THE GRAPHIXXX! No but seriously, this game is a chore and I want it done with so my opinion can be concrete on this game. So the graphics are the only thing tiding me over."

  The real problem is, Ass Creed is a completely linear game with a sandbox disguise. This is not a sandbox game, and it's only open world in the way that you can choose which city you want to fast-travel to. The invisible walls might have given you an idea . Another big problem that really stuck out and become annoying was the whole puppetering. Maybe the game's giving a metaphorical ironic message by actually removing any kind of choice from the player. You're being led by the nose to do a specific mission in a very specific way. You can't even go into water, for chrissake, which is in the 2nd game, so there's some weird ret-conning going on there. "Memory Fast Forward" and whatnot.

  Unlike an open world game, you DO NOT dictate the pacing. That's the big appeal of open world games, being able to dictate the pacing, and go about it however you wish. Do a little of that, and some of that, etc. You have no choice in stealth kills, either they're in low-profile, high-profile, or death from above. The death from above kill (that you see in all the trailers) is severely limited. This is not Tenchu. You can't jump from the side of the building and drop down on a dude with your hidden blade. Nope. It's arbitrarily limited to being exactly with 2 feet above the guy in question. This is an example of how the game gives you hardly any choice, and feels more like a Metal Gear game.

  The only choice I ever got was, I could gather all the prepatory investigation (view points/interrogation/pick-pocketing) BEFORE I got to the Bureau. This part is also tedious, because you usually have to get 6 or 12 view points before you can get the investigative missions, like pick-pocketing or interrogation. Why not just one? If it was just one, it would make Altair a more Batman-like character who can scope out a place for one second and know everything!

  Doing pre-bureau investigation was especially important to combat the biggest douchebag other than Altair, Malik. You remember Malik? The douchebag in Jerusalem's Bureau who always gave you ****. Even till the game I had forgotten who he was, and apparently he was one of the guys in the temple with us at the beginning who lost his arm! Haha, who knew?! Maybe it's a sign that the plot can be kind of forgettable, or that the boring repetition had made me forget. And I thought he was being a douchebag just because this game has no likeable characters and it was another excellent running joke. I would do all the view points in an unexplored area, like the Rich District of some place, before I touched the Bureau just so I would have a comeback to Malik. I wanted to be prepared for his douchebaggery.

  One thing I hate and is so contradictory to the whole game is, killing interrogation targets. Where does it say in the Creed you can kill the poor messengers? Literally Altair will say "ok, I will stay my blade if you tell me the info", and then he'll say "can't have any witnesses! teehee so evil aren't I?!". WTF, Altair. He kills ALL of them. If the target does tell anyone else, THEN you have authority to kill him because he broke his promise. Not just because you're a sociopath, Altair?!

  The big problem with the lack of choice and puppetering in this game is, the game stops empowering you. All this arbitrary limiters like "High-Profile" and the "Synchronisation Meter" just make the game more tedious than it already is. Having to get 6 view points. Invisible walls (IW) everywhere. Worst use of IW is in the actual Assassination area. It's easy to say, this is no Hitman game where you can sabotage a place, and let a chandelier fall down on your target, and get out of there without a scratch.

  The only reason I didn't mind alerting everyone and saving citizens was because combat was so easy and actually enjoyable. It's just a unique combat system, and it's just more around timing than button combos. It's extremely barebones, but I'm glad they evolved it a lot more in Prince of Persia ( 2008 ) to add some rhythm. You get some sickly satisfying counter and kill animations, that give a great payoff. However, again the half-assed job is shown again in the combat when the game never offers you any more challenges EVER till the credits roll and instead opt to just throw more guys at you, like when you're going to Arsuf. Contrast that to Resident Evil 4 where there are new challenges at every corner, and I can already feel that you're nodding your ass off.

  The only purely good gameplay mechanic in this game that doesn't have a noticeable flaw is: the free-running. Even if the level design is super copy and paste to allow you to run through a whole city's rooftops really fast, it's the one empowerment you get from this game that's now the "in" word for games (Mirror's Edge, Prototype, inFamous). Yes, it's still very boring having to hold down Right Trigger+A the whole time, and the only control in your part is aiming the left analog stick. Nevertheless, the automatic free-running button of Right Trigger allows you to do more stuff with the rest of the gameplay. Which is where Prototype comes in, but I've already discussed that before.

  I can guess what went down at Ubi Montreal. The game was in 4 years of development, but they spent 3 years in making the Scimitar engine (the graphics are good!) and 1 year on the actual game. That's why you have a very rushed job of a game here. I'm just surprised there were some critics who were lenient on the game. Here's what blatantly copy-and-paste in the game: the cities, the missions, the NPC dialogue, the encounters, the assassination targets (3 after 3 and then the final 2). So much déjà vu for the locales, I thought I was in Acre when I was actually in Jerusalem. There's just not enough of a "game" here. Asides from the Gears of War series, this has to be the most boring high-profile game I've ever played.

  This is not just my opinion, even my cousins hate the game and so do any person on the street or gamestore. They might not articulate it as well or bother to give their opinion on some website like I do, but they are aware of the suckage as you should be. This game is not worth playing, which is why I'm glad I didn't pay $60, and you'd rather just play Crackdown or Prototype or Infamous.

  I even bothered to get the name of the guy responsible for mission structure in this game: Marc Antoine Lussier. Blame him. They've probably fired him from the 2nd game, since they said they're re-vamping everything.

  ---

  What I did like was everything that isn't the game, like I said before. The revisionist tale is handled surprisingly well with enough intrigue to want to know what the Templars want. Corey May, I tip my hat to you. Great writing in the game. Presented through terribly expositional storytelling in the form of forced cutscenes. Problem with storytelling: if it's in-game but you don't bother to actually direct a cutscene and just have Altair move around and be able to change camera angles, NO ONE will care about your story! If you want to stuff it down our necks and hope it sticks, just do a normal cutscene with close-ups.

  The music is excellent obviously since it's by Jesper Kyd again (Hitman, Kane and Lynch). Altair himself is a very iconic character design, and one I wouldn't mind cosplaying as.

  

  There you go, I dissected the game like the over-analyser I am. If you disagree at any point, start with "Speak Sense" because Altair says that all the time. If you agree completely, start with "*nodding*".

  • Posted Jul 11, 2009 9:08 am PT
  • Category: N/A
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• 6Jul 09

  Resident Nice 4

  After finishing RE 5, I thought I'd try my hand at RE 4 since I've never played it. Reason is, I never had a PS2, but now there is one here at my cousins' place.

  As soon as you start the game, there is atmosphere and drama. Which were almost completely absent in RE 5. A lot of what's wrong with RE 5 could be down to Shinji Mikami, the guy who directed RE 1 and RE 4, not being behind it. The pacing is excellent, giving you breathers after every battle, while in RE 5 it feels like Gears of War where you're moving from killbox to killbox. RE 5 felt like a chore, while RE 4 is always fun to come back to each time of the day. The only additions in RE 5 compared to RE 4 are added melee moves (back-hand slap!) and that you can stomp on downed enemies. While RE 4 does look like it was in development for >4 years, RE 5 just doesn't even though it was one of the 1st next-gen games to be announced. Everything in RE 5 was rushed, the co-op, the bosses, the pacing, the locations, and the gameplay. It was just a graphical upgrade, to be perfectly cynical. There are about 20 more things that is wrong with RE 5 compared to the RE 4 (read: map; inventory), but let's get back to topic.

  Back to RE 4. It was weird using a PS2 controller for shooting. I've never played a shooter on PS2. However, after an hour or so, I got the hang of it. And now I'm perfect at it. So much so, I usually scope out the area with my sniper rifle, pick off a target before it can trigger in enemy spawns or a cutscene. Also, I've collected pretty much everything in the game.

  7:49 hours into the game, right now. I'm taking my time with this game. I'm at the part where I used the cable cars, after killing off the 2nd El Gigante and 2 chainsaw ladies. Every encounter has been memorable, and Capcom is super nice to you in this game. They dish out enough ammo and herbs, but not too much like RE 5 so it still has some SURVIVAL horror. More nice things they do are the save points and checkpoints. Each door you pass through is a checkpoint. For some odd reason, even if RE 5 was targeted to the Western demographic (hint: Chris' bulging muscles), it's a very frustrating and cheap game with VERY bad checkpoints. Another nice thing is, they don't overwhelm you with more enemies than you can count on your both hands. Every encounter is fun and challenging, rather than a trudge to get through. I don't know why, but maybe because of what they could do with the next-gen tech, Capcom throws infinite enemies at you in RE 5 which feels they suck at scripting and enemy encounters and should take a look at good shooter encounters (hint: Halo). Last thing Mikami and the team are nice to you is the cheapness of enemies. In RE 5, there are A LOT of enemies with cheap hits. In RE 4, not a single enemy gets super cheap to make the game frustrating. Even the chainsaw guy is not so bad, because with a shotgun he gets pushed back. In RE 5, you can barely tell you're attacking the chainsaw guy, because he takes it in with no clear indicator of he's being actually harmed.

  RE 4 is more than meets the eye. It's a shooter, but much like Max Payne 2, it has more elements to it. They're adventure games, where you can explore to your heart's content. There are many off-the-beaten paths much like Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory. In combat, even if the strategy always boils down to "survey-run away-take position-aim&shoot", the level design is just so flexible that you can do so much more with your environment compared to the claustrophobic spaces in RE 5. While Ganados don't have as recognisable a cry as the Africans ("Waka Koolaid!!!"), I love that they cry out for more of their buddies if they spot you. Which is why like I mentioned earlier, I like to scope out the area first and snipe off some of them.

  The RPG upgrading system is also well-balanced, and miles better than RE 5 because of the numerical system. I've been a stubborn hater of upgrading systems in games because I think they arbitrarily limit the game's progression, but here it never felt like that (same with Prototype). While RE 5 just dumps you into the upgrading part after every single chapter, in RE 4 you can control it by manually going to the Merchant ("got some GOOD things on sale, STRRAAANGER!"). He's so excited.

  Even the cutscenes are actually fun to watch because there is drama behind them, compared to RE 5 where it feels super campy. Even though Lord Sadler has grabbed me by the throat twice for no reason since we're of the same blood and there are some repetitive parts like Indy-style boulder running, the bosses never disappoint. While RE 5 focused on EVERY single boss having tentacles and glowy bits ripped from Dead Space, in RE 4 there is actual strategy you can do and you're free to move around. Although I have to admit, Wesker boss battles were awesome because doing a Mortal Kombat 10-hit combo on him was too much campy fun. Not the last battle though, that sucked because more glowy bit rubbish. I've faced off with "El Gigante" twice in RE 4, and I love how the Ganados or Luis can leave notes for you to predict what bosses you'll encounter next.

  Nonetheless, RE 4 and RE 5 are the sole reason I hate quick-time events, in cutscenes. They're not predictable which leads to trial-and-error (Chris and Sheva Indy run), and it really feels like they're just dumping it in so there's more interactivity to an already cool cutscene. Hear me Capcom, the QTEs RUIN your good cutscenes!

  Overall, RE 4 is very nice to me. The map is so much more helpful, and tells you everything which might be a bad thing. They know what works and they've put a lot of attention to detail in everything. The sound is so much better than RE 5, if you're just standing around. Pacing, drama, encounters, level design, story progression, upgrading, and bosses are just so damn good. From someone who thought RE 4 was overrated, I can now see why RE 4 is regarded as one of the best games of last-gen along with great stuff like Riddick (which I'm playing on 360) and Chaos Theory. I can now see why so many people can gravitate to RE 4 because it's such an easy game to play (since it's a shooter) but there are many adventure elements to it so people can love it against other games. Shooters this generation have been all about the spectacle and less about their game worlds, so it's nice to play a shooter that wants to take everything into account. Even if they had to put in a schoolgirl outfit on Ashley, at least she has decency.

  Oh, you're such a pervert!

  • Posted Jul 6, 2009 6:50 am PT
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• 4Jul 09

  Update on everthing. Oh, and Ass Creed is bad.

  Exams are finished. I got admitted into Prague (Czech Republic) for MEDICINE. Very excited, already made like 8 or 9 good study buddies already that passed and going with me there, so no friends issue when going to new school.

  Blogging from my cousins' place here in America. We're here for a 2-month holiday! Been playing a couple of games.Trying to force them to get Prototype.

  Finished Prototype. 31 hours. Last boss was frustrating but still a lot of fun, must've died 30 times in a row and screamed obscenities ringing throughout the house for my uncle and aunt to hear. See, I wanted to finish it fast before I came here to USA because games are region-locked so my Prototype disc won't run here

  But yeah, super fun game. Most empowering game ever made. It's Crackdown 2, so Crackdown 2 already has competition for OTT sandbox platformer. It's also Assassin's Creed 2. I'll explain.

  Cousins have Resident Evil 5. We're nearly finished with the game, at 6-2. Playing on Veteran (I've got a thing for starting games on hardest difficulty). Super frustrating/broken/unbalanced/terrible, but still back-handing or giving a haymaker to someone never gets old. Them Japanese and their tentacles, boy did they have a field day with this game!

  Finally played Assassin Creed for the 1st time here, my cousins had a copy.

  Wow, it's a bad game. I couldn't get past the first 2 hours of tutorials and exposition-heavy storytelling. This is how you introduce the player to the game? I feel bad and hypocritical, because when I never played the game before, I'd defend this game and its repetition as just a spectator. I even have a free Ass Creed shirt I'm wearing right now while I write this.

  It's just frustration town when you finally get to play (after weapons are taken away). Can't run because of this "high profile" rubbish. The guards are surprisingly attuned if you even think of running. If you run, apparently, you're marked for killing by these guys. If you run and bump into a guy, you become a bumbling fool. Tackling is stupid, why is that a move for an assassin? When you do get caught, can't do anything because no weapons, so you end up running around for 10 minutes. The social stealth is so bad and unbalanced, I'd rather play a Hitman game. In fact, I'd rather play Prototype.

  I'm not going back to play Ass Creed, I doubt the game gets any fun later on.What is with the storytelling? Couldn't afford cutscenes? You do realise when two people are talking in-game, and I'm controlling the camera, I'm not going to bother to listen because doing exposition and talking for way too long rides on my patience. Honestly, the most fun I had with this game was the CAMERA system.

  Oh yeah, I don't think you could get any more dull than in the real-world Animus lab area. Talk about minimal interaction. Where is the "game" in this whole game, the repetition means you get no ebb-and-flow for the pacing or any variety.

  Prototype is Ass Creed 2. Why?

  1. You can do the Ass Creed Shove. Except it's way more aggressive and hella funny. Civilians have hilarious New York-like comebacks and swearing remarks if you do it to them. Do it to a military guy, and he shoves you straight back. If you're in military guise in a military base, and there's like 6 soldiers in a circle, you can make them circle-jerk you. Push one guy, and he shoves you, and if next to another soldier, he shoves you, so on and so forth. Bullying is funny. If you're a commander, you can shove and harass people all the time, without the Disguise Meter going up. They're so polite to you, they must love the pain.

  2. Parkour is also done with the Right Trigger, except there's a lot more added to it, like the gliding and airdash. Animations are fantastic, I'm always pressing Left Bumper to slow-mo to see his cool animations jumping over cars. Move over Crackdown, Prototype is the new Parkour King.

  3. You know pick-pocketing in Ass Creed? Ok, in Prototype, press Right Bumper and you get the ability to STEALTH Consume. Instead of grabbing someone's pocket just out of reach, you murder the guy in grisly fashion from the back and become them. Stealth consuming is way too much fun and super easy.

  4. Guards/Military AI. They're really inconsistent in Ass Creed, it's almost broken or unbalanced. In Prototype, you're never frustrated because you have a circle that tells you if you're being watched or not. If you're watched, you shouldn't throw a guy or consume someone. You can turn on Thermal Vision/Infected Vision to see every military guy just to see the watching AI is actually there like Hitman. If you've been spotted, just run to a good spot where there aren't military guys, like in an alley. The game tells you when you can switch to your Disguise. Then just go back to whatever you're doing. In Ass Creed, you can't see where the military guys are with just a glance, or you need Eagle Vision which is a bit weird, so that's where the frustration comes when you don't know when you're being watched.

  And that's about it, for comparisons. There's so much more to Prototype than you're being led to know. Just pick up the game, it's the most fun you'll ever have. GOTY, easy. For a game doing so much, and succeeding even at the things it shouldn't like the social stealth stuff, I gotta give it props. The game is super challenging which I like, but it's always balanced and there's always a way out of every situation with all your powers, stealth, and parkour. PSP = Parkour, Stealth, and Powers.

  C'ya.

  • Posted Jul 4, 2009 7:56 am PT
  • Category: Games
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• 6Jun 09

  Splinter Cell: Conviction and other E3 stuff, and Terminator Salvation.

  Tomorrow, I'm going on a 2-week course so I thought I might as well summarise all my thoughts on relevant topics at the moment. On June 30th, we are going on holiday to America, Baltimore! Yay!

  Anyway, here's the podcast. A short 43 minutes.

  WHAT I DISCUSS --

  E3 '09 (in order: Splinter Cell: Conviction; Heavy Rain; Alan Wake; Uncharted 2; Just Cause 2; Modern Warfare 2; Brutal Legend; Batman Arkham Asylum; Crackdown 2; God of War 3; Silent Hill: Shattered Memories; Halo ODST; Ass Creed 2; Mass Effect 2).
  
  
  WWBP -- Plants vs Zombies; Splinter Cell: Double Agent.
  
  
  Movies -- Terminator Salvation.

  Links:

  Videogames and Choice

  Just Cause 2 10min demo

  Batman Arkham Asylum -- Batmobile defense mission

  Brutal Legend footage I was sold on

  Silent Hill crazy psychological test

  • Posted Jun 6, 2009 3:35 pm PT
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• 24May 09

  Hi, I'm Moeez. Addicted to Crack, Plants, and Zombies.

  2 things I've been trying to stay away from the net on:

  • Terminator Salvation (comes out here on Jun. 3rd)
  • Heavy Rain

  In this internet age, it's so hard to go fresh into stuff. And Terminator reviews or impressions are everywhere, so it's very hard. Heavy Rain apparently had some gameplay blowout, but I'm staying far away from those pages. I just take a glance, see some Heavy Rain related news, and then close that window! Whether I get the game on Day 1 or not, I'll be getting a PS3 just for that game. Just to prepare myself, I'm trying to find a copy of Omikron: Nomad Soul (Quantic's previous game before Indigo Prophecy, that included David Bowie!).

  Onto what I've been playing. I've been addicted to 2 games. If you can't guess, they are:

  1.

  Plants vs Zombies -- If you don't already have this game, kick yourself in the pants. Buy it from Steam at 7 GBP or $10. Ever played Peggle? It's from the same PopCap guys. I want to say it's a "tower defense" game, but I've never played one of those honestly, and I'm sure that genre term would turn you off as much as me. But not when it looks like the pic above! I'll just describe with adjectives: satisfying, intense, challenging, deep, strategic, addictive, hilarous, rewarding, visually pleasing, GOTY, and catchy. Go download the demo first if you want a tease. Then after those 60 minutes, try to resist the urge to not buy it soon after.

  ---

  2.

  Crackdown -- I know I mentioned how much I love the game on the MoeFo 19 before, so I'll add a little more. I finished the game. It has a twist ending. Surprised that some people want a sequel, considering how it ends on a slightly darker note. Anyway, the game is awesome. I've never thought of grinding in a non-RPG, but this game has it with the agility, driving, grenade, and shooting orbs. How you get them? Simple, just do those things, and you get 'em. My favourite combo is using the Hothead RPG, jumping high and killing a group of gangsters mid-air. This nets you grenade+agility orbs. Driving orbs you can get by running down gangsters!

  The game feels very PC-ish, in terms of character control. You can strafe and aim super fast, like in Jedi Knights: Outcast. The framerate is STELLAR with what's going on around. You could be blowing up 5 cars simultaneously, and see individual bodies, tires, car parts, and particle effects fly. Seriously, the game has some of the best explosives since Far Cry 2. Controller shaking and all. The platforming is insane. Once you grind all your abilities to 4 stars, it really makes you feel like a supercop. I really need to get a video of me showing off in the game!

  I want to give mad props to the Crackdown level designers, because they situated every building and support within reaching distance of your insane jumps. This isn't Ass Creed where you're sucked into sticking onto anything, so you can tell they put a lot of work into the world building. And the world is very memorable. Once you've been to the 2nd island with Shai Gen gangs, and go back to Los Muertos, you remember all the good times. Oh yeah, that corner was where I blew up 20 cars, and make a traffic road jam, and looked at everyone from up above.

  No wonder everyone has fond memories of this game. It's one-of-a-kind. How many platforming sandbox games do you know? How many are there where you can jump 20 feet into the sky? Which is why I've been peeking around at 2 recent games that seem to be inspired from Crackdown and the previous sandbox platformer, Hulk: Ultimate Destruction.

  Those 2 games are obviously, inFamous and Prototype.

  

  Infamous has been getting great reviews all around the place, and I'm very impressed with how Sony almost is sticking a seal of quality to any of their PS3 exclusives (LBP, Killzone 2, MGS 4, inFamous). I'm liking the consistency of the electricity philosophy in inFamous' game world, and the platforming is suitably more Ass Creed than Crackdown, but I'm leaning more to Prototype. I admit, Prototype looks like it just doesn't have the polish or cohesiveness of inFamous' design, but after hearing things like Garnett Lee from 1UP saying:

  You go from grabbing a guy, running up the building with said guy, throwing the guy at a helicopter, jumping on the helicopter, killing tanks with helicopter, jumping out of helicopter, absorbing RPG soldier, using RPG on further helicopters, elbow slamming on another tank, and doing a killer finishing move with tentacle attack on everyone. All within the span of 2 minutes.

  

  That kind of description is exactly what I experience with Crackdown. All those game mechanics flowing with one another, depending on you the player to do, that's just very rewarding for me. In Prototype you're not playing a hero like in inFamous. No good or bad karma. You're just one ruthless anti-hero who wants to get the job done. I really want to get into this Alex Mercer's head. Why is he so indifferent to the world? Did he get spanked as a child?

  To close, there are only 2 negatives about Crackdown. The terrible driving controls, and respawning enemies. But, *bleep* the driving, you can run and jump super fast like the HULK! Who needs a cab or taxi or whatever! Seriously, jumping such huge distances in this game gives you that same rush like in Mirror's Edge.

  So, those are my 2 recent addictions. If anyone's wondering, I'm at Level 5-6 in Plants vs Zombies, and if you need any help, leave a comment. It's a challenging game, for sure.

  

  

  • Posted May 24, 2009 3:37 pm PT
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• 16May 09

  MoeFo MovieCast (Terminator 2, Star Trek, Dark Knight, and State of Play)!

  Listen to it(just click the player on the page)

  So, I wanted to do an off-the-cuff podcast about the movies I've seen recently (Star Trek, Terminator 2, Dark Knight, and State of Play). And I did it an hour ago, no prep, no script, etc. If you liked it, (just search for MoeFo Podcast on the iTunes store).

  ---

  0 to 11:10 -- I don't recommend Star Trek
  
  
  11:10 to 21:45 -- Star Trek vs Dark Knight box office? I don't think so...
  
  
  21:45 to 24:53 -- Other good action movies since Matrix Reloaded (2003)? Bourne and new Batman films...
  
  
  24:53 to 27:40 -- Terminator 2
  
  
  27:40 to END -- State of Play: A conspiracy thriller that's FUNNY?!

  • Posted May 16, 2009 3:03 pm PT
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• 12May 09

  Star Trek was OK

  If you want a fun action movie with your brain turned off, and want to see young versions of some Star Trek characters, go check this film out. This is for you. It wasn't for me, however.

  I'll probably do a full review of the Star Trek movie on the next podcast. I just found it was OK, mediocre. I didn't hate it, I didn't love it. Good, but not great. Etc, etc. Nothing special about it, only one good action scene. I hate to deconstruct, but I'm trying to understand why people are gushing over this movie? The cast were fine, but mentions should go to how great Kirk, Scotty, Captain Pike, and Bones were. Spock was not terrible, but when the real Spock comes, you see that the young Spock can't get those mannerisms or acting down.

  If you went to see this movie just to see how the cast does, it's a great movie for you. Myself, I never watched the TOS, so I could care less of how this caters to fanboys/Trekkies, but it's less alienating than recent geek adaptations (Watchmen, Wolverine).

  ***SPOILER***

  The Uhura-Spock thing was way out of left field, and I thought it was unnecessary. A better way for it to come over (I just went there) was if Spock was so devastated that they wind up doing it to show his human side in such a tragic moment, like when Neo and Trinity get it on before the war. Not an awkward elevator scene, and then later a stupid scene in the teleporter when Kirk gets jealous.

  The movie is set-piece to set-piece, like any other action movie. In fact, the whole movie felt very much an action movie happening to involve Star Trek characters. There is no time for character development except for the 2 main characters, and not much character interplay which is why Star Trek tv series is loved so much. However, I've never seen any Star Trek movie, just the tv show, so I don't know if the movies are like filler elseworlds action-packed episodes between seasons.

  The plot is really dumb. I mean, stupid. Plenty of plot holes. Coincidences and deus ex machinas up the arse. Red matter, black holes, time travelling, paradoxes. There was no thought or consistency to that stuff. This is a parallel reality, there's no continuity, none of this movie is cannon. But who cares, it's a bad sci-fi movie, and if you're going to see this as a proper sci-fi film, you'll be sorely disappointed. This movie will never be considered on a list of best sci-fi movies, but maybe JJ Abrams didn't want that.

  It's not that good of an action movie. There's only one good action sequence, and it involves skydiving onto a planet destroyer beam. It has great suspense, ups and downs. However, the rest of the movie fails at giving tension and suspense to the action, so it feels like you're watching someone play a videogame on the easy difficulty. There are no stakes raised, and it's almost comical when Kirk+Spock raid the Romulan ship as a two-man army to kill everyone and get to the final boss. Then the movie ends. The space battle scenes were serviceable, but definitely not to the level of choreography you find in the new Battlestar Galactica. There is no drama to these action scenes in the movie. It's very one-sided.

  Nero was a terrible villain, with just stupid motivations. He waits 25 years JUST to meet a dude? I couldn't believe Eric Bana was acting, considering how great he was in Munich, Hulk, and Black Hawk Down.

  The homages were fine, naturally added, didn't feel hokey when someone said "live long and prosper" or other classic lines. The humour was great, added some much needed chemistry. The kid stories of kid Kirk and kid Spock were bad. Spock having Vulcan bullies? Laughable. Kirk jumping out of a car at the VERY last second as the car falls off a cliff with "Sabotage" in the background? So dumb, should've cut that scene entirely.

  What did I find good? Like I mentioned, the cast were overall good. I loved Chekov, he was so awkward and weird, and worked great as comic relief. The opening with Kirk's dad facing death while son is born was great tragedy, and is the best scene in the entire movie.

  Which is sad, because having the best part of the movie at the start of the movie is an indicator when the movie was just not thought out or executed well. I couldn't get immersed into the movie, I didn't connect with the characters as much as I know JJ Abrams can do (Mission Impossible 3), and the cinematography was a mess. Blue Lens flares in my eyes ALL THE BLOODY TIME! It really gave me a headache, it was laughable, and I couldn't believe that it was that way throughout the movie.

  The music score was inappropriate at times, sometimes forcefully tugging emotions when there didn't need to be. For a movie this big, you expect a grand score, but this was fairly generic and not as good as the trailer. Not as terrible as Watchmen, but kind of disappointing if you're wanting an emotional score for a big blockbuster film.

  I'm sorry to say, but just like Watchmen, the trailers are better than the actual movie. You'll forget this movie in a month's time, considering how little of the movie is memorable or unique. And people comparing this to Dark Knight should watch Dark Knight again, apologise to themselves for even mentioning both in the same breath, and just admit it's a forgettable action movie involving Star Trek characters.

  This movie is only good for Trekkies to see the cast, or for n00bs who might want to get into Star Trek. It's a great intro course for those people.

  P.S. Really psyched for Terminator now!

  Fight with me in the comments section!

  • Posted May 12, 2009 10:22 am PT
  • Category: Movies
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• 6May 09

  Game Completion OR Did you finish the new Prince of Persia?

  I'm just using Prince of Persia as an example, this is not about your opinion on the game.

  Nearly every single game, I get to the point of a game where I just stop playing. I'll pick it up maybe a few weeks or months later. I'll usually come across a difficult challenge or level, then give up. "**** that noise", and I move on to some other game.

  With Prince of Persia, I completed it in like a week. No marathons, just playing a couple of hours a day. Not a commitment or anything. That's the fastest ever completion for a med student like me. With the frustration-free mechanics of the gameplay, I sailed through it in a very satisfying fashion. Never got stuck on a boss, level, platforming challenge, or puzzle.

  Many people never complete the games they have, or take years to. All our backlogs are screaming, when we buy new games.

  ---

  • So, would you like future games to have better pacing or for developers to find other ways for players to complete the game?

  • What kind of issues do you run into when you can't complete a game?

  • Would you cry foul for future games to be made frustration-free with specific game mechanics, such as the forward feature in the new Alone in the Dark game?

  

  • Did you find a particular game that you were able to sail through, like me with Prince of Persia?

  • Posted May 6, 2009 9:48 am PT
  • Category: Editorial
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• 17Apr 09

  Watchmen Movie Review Podcast

  We're a bajillion years late, but we finally discussed about Watchmen and so I cut that section out as a separate podcast.

  Watchmen Movie Review (runtime: 32 min)

  A film that's not quite as impactful as the comic, and kinda dated in this day and age of The Incredibles, Dark Knight, and other relevant superhero movies.

  Do you agree with our review? No or Yes? Go to the forum thread and discuss.

  

  • Posted Apr 17, 2009 6:53 am PT
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