My Words Are On Metacritic!

When I took the internship offered to me from GameRevolution.com, I did a little digging to see just how credible and/or well-known the site was. I figured a good litmus test would be to see if GR's game reviews were picked up on the review aggregator site Metacritic. While Metacritic has become that stabbing pain in many developers' backs these days, I have to admit that I do use the site as a consumer. When you're shopping for games, and you're a college student, it pays to do a little research to make sure you're not blowing $60 on a game Gamestop will only give you $15 for when you trade it back.

Game Revolution is one of the many, many sites Metacritic draws scores from, along with such mainstays as "MS Xbox World" and "Console Monster" (as well as IGN and Gamespot, duh). I never really thought much about seeing Metacritic again until looking up reviews for Just Cause 2. Naturally, seeing Perfect Dark (XBLA) on the list of most recent Xbox 360 games, I figured I'd click over to see where my score for the game landed amongst other gaming journalists.

Little did I know that I'd landed underneath "What The Critics Said..." as GR's representative. I can't say that I'm all that proud of the pull-quotes, but I guess I have no real control over Metacritic's end of the bargain. I certainly hope there are plenty of clickthroughs from Metacritic. Maybe I can get PLAY READ WRITE on there some day? Who knows the kind of buzz I could generate from an exceptionally low or high score? How evil!

The clippings on this post are from the reviews I wrote of Perfect Dark, Greed Corp, and Scrap Metal, respectively. Do you see any other quotes from me on Metacritic?

Resonance of Fate Impressions

I was pretty excited to try out Resonance of Fate for the Xbox 360. I hadn't played a JRPG in quite some time and Final Fantasy XIII wasn't exactly appealing to me. Now I remember why it's been so long since I played a role playing game from Japan.

//I hate the grind. I hate it so much. I have little else to say about the game aside from the fact that grinding for levels in order to pass some lowly side-quest boss is the stupidest thing gaming could possibly do. It is a complete waste of time. I might decry the constant leaking of rewards and levels that other games might do, but I don't want to spend my precious gaming time feeling like a complete failure. Another big problem for Resonance of Fate's grind is the fact that it literally throwing the player against a wall from the very beginning. I'm only on Chapter 03 and I'm already tempted to compeltely give up on the game. If it weren't for a trip down south to Ventura with Jenna, and an unhealthy desire for achievement points, I'd probably be tempted to trade the game in for a copy of Just Cause 2, or maybe that other JRPG (FF XIII).
//The artwork is interesting. The back of the box item calls it a steam punk world "like no other," but I wish the backstory made more sense. Still, the overworld map is a mass of hexagonal pieces that have to be unlocked gradually, and I honestly love the tetris like aspect of it all.

//My last gripe for these quick impressions is leveled at the character design. Your party is made up of the blandest group of JRPG derivatives and the enemies are no better. All the characters take from the kind of Japanese genre tropes that are tired, stale, and overused. Please create something new! You're dying! Game development is moving westward!

Japanese devs are struggling with evolution and staying relevant, and as much as it makes me sound like a complete wuss, the difficulty and grinding and design decisions that should quickly be reversed in all Japanese RPGs. Seems to me that Resonance of Fate has taken the "evolution" Final Fantasy is attempting to make, and just laughing in it's face. Are you so determined to go down with the ship, Tri-Ace?

Perfect Dark (XBLA) Review Now Live

Ah, Perfect Dark. One of, if not the last good game for the Nintendo 64. I bought a copy of the game used for my cratridge collection, but I don't think I'll ever dare to play the game in that form now that the Xbox Live Arcade port is out.

I reviewed the game, what is it?, two weeks ago now, and that review has gone live on Game Revolution. I loved the game, and I have to admit Ray much of the review was filtered through a fine mesh of nostalgia. Frankly, of course Perfect Dark isn't going to be up to par with modern first person shooters, but let's get serious and talk about "fun."

When you're playing Perfect Dark, were you having fun? Forget how old it is. Did you have fun? Forget the graphics and how it's really only a port. Were you having fun Farsighting Meatsims for an hour?

My argument is that a review shoud have plenty of personal opinion, that is what people are looking for when they seek out one person's semi-professional opinion. I hope you enjoy reading my personal opinion on Perfect Dark (XBLA) at the following link, and if you're reading this, send me a message and a friend request (my gamertag is coolyfooly88) and we can complete some co-op achievements: http://www.gamerevolution.com/review/xbox360/perfect-dark

What Am I Reviewing This Week?

Scrap Metal Review Now Live

As part of Xbox Live's Arcade Block Party string of weeks, a lot more people have bought and played Scrap Metal when compared to the little known Greed Corp. When you get a percentage of the Microsoft Points you spent back after the promotion is over, it turns out to be quite a deal to extend your XBLA library.

Of course, at 1200 MS Points you've got to question whether or not Scrap Metal is worth shelling out for. We're not all 1 Vs. 100 Primetime winners now are we? Luckily, you can read my full review of the top-down car-combat title at Game Revolution now that it's live on the site. I wrote quickly about Scrap Metal on PLAY READ WRITE while I was in the middle of reviewing it, but you might have already read that. Are there any readers around after my long absence?

Anyways, check out my full review of Scrap Metal at the following link, and if you bother to have any choice words for me, please leave them in the comments on this post (that way I'll see them): http://www.gamerevolution.com/review/xbox360/scrap-metal

Nintendo Announces Next-Gen DS: 3DS

Gamers haven't had a new Nintendo handheld platform launch in a long time. The last was the Nintendo DS in 2004. No, I don't care what you say, the DS Lite, DSi and DSi XL were not platform launches. Still, the few details that have been revealed have me questioning whether or not the 3DS will be a true "next-gen" platform. Here's the breakdown:

//The Nintendo 3DS will offer games that utilize 3D effects "without the need for special glasses" and is also backwards compatible with Nintendo DS and DSi titles.
//The Nintendo 3DS will feature the same accelerometor technology that is currently found in today's Wii remotes and various mobile cell phone devices.
//The Nintendo 3DS is said to feature graphical abilities on par with the Nintendo Gamecube.

I just don't know. I already have enough doubt for Nintendo, Joystiq's Podcast Episode 0 reminding me of the absolute crap that lands on the Nintendo family of platforms, and fake 3D does not a new platform make. Let me refrain from too much bitching on the Internet and remind myself and the readers that more details and the hardware itself will be revealed in just a few months at E3 2010. I'll be sure to write more as more details are revealed.

Greed Corp Review Now Live

Woah! What happened there? PLAY READ WRITE sort of blanked out there for a while! I think it might have something to do with the GDC '10 or maybe some of the big announcements like Nintendo's next DS (generation). Anyways, some news:

My review of Greed Corp for Xbox Live Arcade is now live at Game Revolution. I ended up giving the game a positive review, but for the full breakdown and score, you'll have to click on over to Game Revolution. I've already written about the game on PLAY READ WRITE, but seeing the review on GR has me thinking about Greed Corp anew.

I've been playing Resonance of Fate, by Tri-Ace, for review over the past week and that game also uses hexagonal squares, albeit in a completely different way. I really like Settlers of Catan, and that (board) game along with these two video games have me pondering if the hexagonal space is the new square, when it comes to gaming at large.

What do you think? While you're pondering the space within a hexagon, you can check out my full review of Greed Corp (XBLA) at the following link: http://www.gamerevolution.com/review/xbox360/greed-corp

Splinter Cell: Conviction Demo Impressions

Splinter Cell: Conviction is the latest in the long Splinter Cell series that surrounds Sam Fisher, the human version of a Swiss army knife, always with the right tool for whatever espionage job you need done. A lot has been done to up the cinematic qualities of Splinter Cell while still maintaining that all that sneaky stuff gamers have gotten used to.

A demo is up on Xbox Live, and since I couldn't get my hands on the game at E3 2009, though there was a constant demo with color commentary on the show floor, I figured I'd check out the game at home. The demo covers a quick interrogation scene and a warehouse infiltration. Here are my thoughts:

//Brutality seems to be the soup du jour when it comes to the interrogation scenes. Sam has no problems slamming his perp's head into urinals, sinks, and the stall door. I thought these destructivle environments worked well as a sort of interactive cut scene. Of course, I haven't played the full game, but the interrogation really is little other than a cut scene with some player input attached. Why do gamers complain about the hour long cutscenes in Metal Gear Solid 4? Because we play games so that we have control, so that we have input. Obviously in giving people that control, Ubisoft is maintaining a link between Sam and the player. I'm always a fan of deepening that link and making the experience more profound in games.
//I'll be honest, I've never played a Splinter Cell game before. Maybe that allows me a clear view of things, made it clouds my opinion. I guess I just never found the patience to sit and wait, to memorize enemy movement, to strike at the proper time so as not to be seen. All of that, along with the tense situations espionage games put you in, really had me jumping too soon. Conviction's gimick is the execution manuevar, which allows you to target multiple enemies after performing a hand to hand take down. This puts a lot more emphasis on the player's movement than it does the enemy AI's. To me, and Mike Fahey of Kotaku, that's a good thing. To me, games are about activity. Players are most excited about what they do and what the results of those actions are, rather than what happens before the player makes his or her move. I count myself among those players.
//I usually don't find a reason to play a demo a second time if it doesn't hook me in any way. I played the Crackdown demo easily 10 times before that game's release in 2007. I have yet to replay the Just Cause 2 demo. I played the Conviction demo twice before removing it from my hard drive. Obviously the game play hooked me, and there's a different way of attacking enemies or messing with them before taking them down, but the demo was still extemely short and linear. Two playthroughs was more than I would think I could have spent on the demo. In a way, that says something very positive about Conviction. I'd really like to play more of the game, but I'm still not sure if I'd spend $60 on the title if there isn't a lot more to it.

Splinter Cell: Conviction lands on April 13th, 2010 and is exclusive to the Xbox 360.

Emotional Investment

More and more about Mass Effect! What else will they tell us? What other tricks are up Bioware's sleeves?

I think Mass Effect 2 was an obvious advancement of the RPG genre. Much of what made it an RPG is veiled behind action packed shooting, streamlined leveling, and absolutely NO GRINDING. If that isn't an advancement of role-playing games, I don't know what is.

Obviously now that the dust has settled around that title, there's obviously more to learn about what Bioware is doing to make games like these. Kotaku's Stephen Totilo took an opportunity at GDC '10 to bug Bioware general manager Ray Muzyka about certain levels of "emotional engagement."

"There are lots of emotions you can have interacting with other characters in a game: hatred, love, loyally, friendship, remorse, sadness, grief — all kinds of different interesting emotions. As long as you're engaging people in that level, we think that's a more compelling experience."

I think this quote speaks directly to what Bioware did with Mass Effect 2. Looking at that game, you have the same layers of character interaction as you did in Mass Effect, but you also have entire missions dedicated to individual characters and what makes them tick. Obviously, vested interest in the characters means you're going to have vested interest in the game. Why do you think people talk about their interactions with characters in Mass Effect in the first person so much? When you take the role of "Shepherd," Bioware wants you to fill those shoes as completely as possible.

I'm interested to see, or hear or whatever, how Bioware furthers that kind of experience, that kind of connection, with the characters in the video game.

Playing Mass Effect Again

I finished Mass Effect and immediately jumped into Mass Effect 2, as I had planned when buying Mass Effect with refund credit around Christmas time. The effect was, to say the least, massive (*ahem). The plot passed by at a blistering pace, characters and elements of the story flowed smoothly, special thanks to transferring my save file from one to the other.

Still, I felt like I was missing out. I played both titles as a paragon character, always ethically and morally "good." I was left wondering. Way did I miss by not being bad? What did I miss by flying through each title and not taking in as many sights and sounds, especially when Bioware's galaxy had so many stories to tell.

I immediately jumped back in to Mass Effect (the first), deciding that I would take in the scenary this time around, play as a renegade, and mop up some achievements, of course. I've now found out that I'm not so motivated by the story telling, certainly not in the capacity I was with the first time around.

Mass Effect weaves a grand tale of heroism, danger, and politics, wrapped around a galaxy as far and wide as a big stretch of the imagination, but what happens when you know how it ends? Where does the imagination go?

I don't think the imagination is gone, so much as there are so many other games to play. I have this problem with RPGs, Mass Effect is just the same as Fallout 3. As much as I may enjoy the games, I have trouble staying involved. I have a high threshold for the hooks any given role playing game can sink into me.

How long do I need? With Fallout 3 I had to have at minimum a full hour of playtime before finding any level of involvement. Mass Effect took about half an hour the first time around. Now I find ME's brand of role playing to need about 45 minutes to an hour on the second run. I'm sure I'm not the only one who needs so much time to play an RPG. In fact, I heard repeatedly that several people needed an hour to get into Fallout 3.

How long does it take for you to get into an RPG?

Just Cause 2 Demo Impressions

Having played one solitary session of the Just Cause 2 demo, I have to admit, I had a lot of fun, and the parachute-bungie-cord-vehicular madness wasn't as confusing as I thought it would be. There's still a fair amount of cheese to receive from the main character, but that's not really what I wanted to write about.

I wanted to hop on to write about the game's chaos system. I have to say, it truly felt like chaos to me. I had no idea what was going on, who I was disturbing, what kind of havoc I was causing, who was shooting at me, or even where I was. Maybe some of this is entirely back story related, and a demo is never going to fully promote the plot elements as well as the full game will.

Essentially, the Just Cause 2 demo sets you down in a small clearing with a bunch of explosives, and gives you no real direction. Of course, this has its benefits and its draw backs. An obvious draw back kind of had me griping for the first 15 minutes. Where the fuck am I supposed to go?

All of that expansive landscape is wonderful, to a point. I don't want to float around on my parachute for 30 minutes. I want to get in the bases and start mixing things up with some bad guys. I want to destroy a bunch of stuff in creative ways so I can feel like a badass. That's how I should be getting sold on this game. Instead, I was mostly confused and listless for the half hour demo time.

With about 10 minutes to go, I just figured, screw it, I should just experiment with the game's main draw, the always on-hand parachute and grappling hook. I never quite got the hang of the grappling hook's ability to chain baddies to things and watch them get dragged across the desert, but I did end the demo with a good handle on grappling to a point far ahead of me, and then pulling my chute to float up into the air. This worked rather well as I floated to a gas station and politely blew it to smithereens.

Those few explosions I did cause, including a base packed with weapons of mass destruction, were exhilarating, and certainly led the exclamation points I found in the demo. Quietly floating though the air at a high altitude was another. Despite that, there were still too few. I checked the map and gave myself some mental way points, but I was still left wondering where to go, and what would be there once I arrived.

Just Cause 2 isn't exactly on my list of must-buys, but I'll keep my ear to the ground and see what I hear about the game in the weeks leading up to its release.

Perfect Dark XBLA Impressions

Playing games a little earlier than everyone else is always fun. I've been doing a lot of that lately too, what with early XBLA titles being downloaded to my hard drive on a weekly basis. This week is a little bit more special. I can't think of anyone that was really looking forward to Scrap Metal, or Greed Corp for that matter, but I know people have their eyes on this weeks XBLA release: Perfect Dark.

For those of you not in the know, Perfect Dark, the classic FPS game from the days of the Nintendo 64, has been remade with textures fit for HD. Essentially, it's the same exact game with an HD overlay and compatibility with Xbox Live. All of the original modes are there, including co-operative and counter-operative mission modes, as well as the combat simulator which allows for all kinds of fun with sims of all different types. Here are some of my quick impressions prior to a full-fledged review that'll go up on gamerevolution.com.

//Perfect Dark was not designed with two analog sticks in mind. This much is clear. The auto-aim is heavy handed, and now, instead of that heavy-handedness dealing with the C buttons on the 64 controller, it's dealing with flighty FPS controls.

//Still, the enemy AI is on the weak side as far as modern day first person shooters are concerned. The most advanced AI tactic I've seen was a Blonde Sim darting in and out of one of the windows in a classic map from Goldeneye. I haven't been taken down by advanced enemy movements, so much as I've been taken sheer firepower.

//The graphics are certainly upgraded, but characters don't move their mouths, the geometry hasn't been updated, and most of the basic animations remain the same. That being said, the frame rate, visual fidelity, and overall look of the game has made a giant leap forward. I can't imagine going back to play the game on Nintendo 64 aside from pure nostalgia's sake.

Gamers have a reason to look forward to Perfect Dark. It still retains every bit of fun the original had. Mowing down countless amounts of meatsims will never get old in my book. Set up the laptop gun in sentry mode, kick back, and just enjoy some good old multiplayer fun like you used to, back when that kind of thing required an expansion pack.

MW2 Stimulus Package Will Be 1200 MS Points

Reactions from my friend Zach have me confused. Is 120o Points, or $15 in non-funny-money, not a ridiculous price?

How about some perspective? I think understanding everything should always be a prerequisite to complete and total internet-brand rage. We all know how people like to react to things when there's no anonymity. Of course, PLAY READ WRITE, I'm not anonymous. If you'd like to express your opinion on the price, please e-mail me or leave a comment on this post. My e-mail address is danielrbischoff@gmail.com

Here are all the details:

//The Stimulus Package map pack consists of 3 new maps and 2 maps from CoD4: MW.

//1200 MS Points equates to $15.

//The Variety Map Pack for Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare was 800 MS Points and featured 4 new maps.

//The Map Pack for Call of Duty: World at War was 800 MS Points and featured 4 new maps.

//The Halo 3 Legendary Map Pack released for 600 MS Points and featured 3 new maps.

//Perfect Dark (the XBLA remake) will be releasing this week for 800 MS Points.

So while both previous Call of Duty map packs released with four new maps at a $10 price point, Modern Warfare 2 will be getting 5 maps, two of which aren't new at a $15 price point. Something doesn't seem to add up. Needless to say, I'm not so sure I'll be buying the map pack in order to continue playing seamlessly.

OnLive Launches in June

GDC '10 was last week, and yet, the news is still rolling full steam (obviously I just haven't covered everything I'd like to write about). OnLive made a big splash last year and returned this year with a release date for the service: June 17th.

Some bare bones pricing has also been announced. The service itself will cost $15 a month. I guess this includes a lot of the community features, including: "instant-play free game demos; multiplayer across PC, Mac and TV platforms; massive spectating; viewing of Brag Clips video capture and posting; and cloud-saving of games you've purchased." This monthly cost does not include the rental or purchasing fees for any given game.

Wait, what? So the user pays $15 a month and then pays extra on top of that subscription for any games they'd like to play? That doesn't sound nearly as enticing as I once thought OnLive might have been. Obviously, even a streaming solution can't outrun the publisher's bottom line.

I just don't understand. If you want to use OnLive on your television, without hooking it up to your computer, you'll need some sort of set-top box. I'm guessing you'll be charged for that. Then the user will have to pay for a connection with the bandwith to even run the service. Afterwhich they'll add on $15 a month to even log on. Then depending on whether you want to play games or watch other people play games, you'll have to pay for those too.

Beyond that, how do you own anything on OnLive? Where does ownership fall in a subscription based model? If I "buy" a game to play over the streaming service, and then I cancel my subscription, how do I continue to play the game?

Thank God for Steam and Valve for bringing that platform to the Mac (hypothetically encouraging more developers to create Mac ports of PC games). That was a lot less concise than I was going for....

Thank God for Steam.

PlayStarion Move has me saying "Meh"

Concrete details are always nice aren't they? When Sony showed off it's own motion controller in the shape of a wand, there were some pretty bright possibilities. Obviously, with Nintendo's grip on the motion control market as firm as a wrist strap will hold it, some entering competition might just force them to up their software game right?

Honestly, nothing of the Move-supporting software has appeared appealing to me in any way. SOCOM 4 is the only core game that supports Move right now, and I would rather play it with a traditional controller. That title alone seems like the fig leaf Sony is handing to their primary audience at launch of the PlayStation Move.

Other titles look exactly like Wii Sports Resort, a light gun game, and the minigame collections that line the shelving at any old big box retailer. Motion Fighter might be the only exception, but without a proper preview of that title, I'm inclined to lump it in with the others and label the whole project a mess.

What the PlayStation Move has really got me thinking about is having "the option" to use motion controls, and having "the option" to use a standard controller. I don't have to buy every motion controlled game that comes down the pipeline, but in core games, if there's an extra incentive to use motion controls, or they add something to the overall experience, then I might buy in. That calls multiplayer balancing into question though because of the difference in controls, but that's another topic for another post.

Beyond the software, I have to admit that the Move controller looks interesting, especially thanks to its color-changing ball. There's been some confusion as to whether the ball changes to reflect on screen action or the colors the PS Eye sees, but it doesn't matter, it just looks cool. If it helps add to the overall accuracy of the device then that's awesome, it just looks neat.

The rest of the decice and the "movement" wand that it's paired with still look like PlayStation branded Wii Remotes. I can see how the overall input is different, and I can see what a developer might do with the Move is different, but I still think the overall interface will be the same.

Of course, that means a lot of the software will be the same too. Maybe I'm being an elitist asshole when I say that video games are meant to be experienced in one way, and while that way may diverge into many different ways of experiencing games, the core input device will remain a two handed controller.

There's still another motion control initiative to hear from, but I'll keep myself reserved. Ever since my fervor for the launch of the Wii, I've tried to temper my excitement with thoughts of how disappointed I was with console in the end. I hate selling my video games, and I hate selling consoles even more, but my Wii was just taking up space. How will the Move be different?