Depending on the type of person you are, you are either excited by or dreading the upcoming Watchmen movie. If you are in the latter group then you will probably want to stop reading now. However, if you are the type of person who believes a great piece of art cannot be diminished by subsequent adaptations (Star Wars anybody?) then you just might enjoy the upcoming Watchmen game.
Let me throw two important facts about myself out there before I actually dive into this review. First, I loved Call of Duty 4. Second, I suffer from extreme World War II shooter fatigue—we’ve won the war more times than I can count. All things being what they are, I can honestly say that World at War uses the Call of Duty 4 game engine to overcome my WWII shooter fatigue quite effectively.
Every once in a while you find a game that feels like it was directly catered to your interests, almost as if the developers had peered into your brain and found the exact switches to trigger the anticipation. While I am still awaiting the release of Alan Wake, another one of those seemingly enigmatic games, Mirror’s Edge, was recently released for the Xbox 360 and the Playstation 3.
When looking at a game like this from a critical standpoint and not from my seven-year-old self, there can be some discrepancies from my expectations and the final release, however, in the case of Mirror’s Edge, my expectations remained shattered. While fault can be found in certain gameplay quirks and the occasional and often frustrating combat sequences, Mirror’s Edge remains one of the most brilliant games I have played in the last year.
Way back when the PS3 launched, Resistance: Fall of Man launched with it. The first Resistance was a solid launch title, and it attracted the coveted first person shooter fans to the PS3. Here we are just two years later, and Resistance 2 storms onto store shelves in an effort to help Sony triumph in the console war.
Resistance 2 picks up right where Resistance: FoM left off, with the main character, Nathan Hale, getting on a plane to Iceland, and that’s right about where the plot of the single player campaign fizzled out. The plot is almost nonexistent—you know there are evil aliens called Chimera, and you know you should kill them, and that’s about it. You go from place to place, and mission to mission with very little explanation of why you’re going there, or what you’re doing. Apparently, thanks to the actions of some wacky Russian scientist, a friend of yours is now a bad ass Chimera called Daedalus. Oh, and don’t forget, Nathan is going to turn into a crazy big Chimera too! OH TEH NOES!! All joking aside, this could have been an interesting plot had Insomniac put some effort into it. Still, there are a lot of good things about this game, even if the plot isn’t one of them.
Quantum of Solace puts you in the shoes of super spy James Bond, and takes you through the plots of the two most recent Bond movies Casino Royale, and Quantum of Solace, and it does it in style. There are enough action packed gun fights, and intense situations to make you feel like you’re playing a big screen blockbuster rather than a video game. Enemies even die with Hollywood flair, falling over railings, and firing off a few final rounds into the air as you put more holes in them than a pound of Swiss cheese. Throw in the likeness, and voice talents of Daniel Craig, who plays James Bond in the movie this game is named for, and you have a game just oozing with style. Unfortunately, style only gets you so far.
LittleBigPlanet is, at it’s core, a rock solid platformer. It’s got an extensive single player campaign that will keep you engaged for a good long while. Many levels contain hidden items that will require you play the level through more than once. Even after the first two play throughs, I was lacking at least a few items from many of the levels. The game, as a whole, is absolutely oozing with charm. Stephen Fry provides highly amusing, witty, and well delivered narration for all of sackboy’s many adventures, and the visual style of the game creates a whimsical tone for each and every level. Yes, at the core, this game has many good qualities, but they all pale in comparison to the mind blowing level editor.
When I first heard Bethesda was taking on Fallout 3, I was terrified. Not because I thought they’d muck it up or anything like that, but because Oblivion took up over 240 hours of my life. It damaged my interpersonal relationships, brought my productivity to a crawl, and caused my skin to lighten by several shades due to a lack of sunshine. That scenario is likely to repeat itself now that Fallout 3 is here.
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Ahh Spiderman, you and I have gone on so many adventures together. From the comic books of my youth, to the AWESOME animated series in my teen years, to the three movies… well, the first two of the three anyway. Let’s not forget games. I’ve played every one of your games since the days of the PS1. The first Spiderman game on the PS1 was a triumph. It was a beautiful blend of comic book story telling, web slinging, and beat em up fights. Then came the game based on the first movie. It took all of the fine points of the PS1 classic, and polished the hell out of them. It was truly my favorite Spiderman game - until the second movie based game came out. Great efforts were made to make NYC as big and beautiful as possible. There were a lot of places to go and things to do. Those were the halcyon days. Only a short time later came Ultimate Spiderman, which, while still fun, lacked the depth of combat, and the size and scale of the world found in it’s predecessor. Let’s not forget the third movie game, which felt even further dumbed down from Ultimate Spiderman. By the release of Friend or Foe, I lost the rose colored glasses I had viewed Spiderman games through before that point. That game was easily the worst Spiderman game I’ve ever played, and one of the worst over all. Still, I felt a sense of excitement when I first held the Web of Shadows disc in my hands. The missteps the series had taken couldn’t erase the truly wonderful memories of the finer games in the series.
So, with a heart full of hope, I put the disc into my Xbox 360, and prepared to embark on another adventure with my favorite super hero of all time.
With the recent news that Namco Bandai would be releasing DLC for SoulCalibur IV that would allow 360 owners to play as Darth Vader, and PS3 owners to play as Yoda, I thought it would be a good time to explore the topic of DLC that’s already on the retail disc - which is, in fact, the case with both vader and Yoda.
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Dead Space has been pushed as a survival horror game with an engaging plot, and unique combat system. Some of those things are true, some of them aren’t. The total package, while enjoyable, isn’t exactly what I was expecting when I sat down to review this game.
