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February 4, 2011

Review – LittleBigPlanet 2

Filed under: Reviews — Tags: , , , , , , , , — Brad Johnson @ 9:09 am

LittlebigPlanet 2
With the release of LittleBigPlanet 2, one might fairly ask precisely why a sequel was necessary—considering that the selling point of the original game was an infinitely expanding game world of community created maps and game-types. It delivered, with inventive creators forging a massive library of fantastic games. The sequel, however, builds impressively on the possibilities of the original entry, and brings critical new tools that expand what’s possible, with palpable results.

One could probably argue that the raw, base amusement of the campaign is designed primarily to tease players with what those game assets can be leveraged to create. However, there’s an element of charm and adventure that elevates what could have simply been a tech demo to perhaps the ultimate example of the party game. In that respect, the ideal environment is to play with friends in the same room, though online co-op is also a workable solution. Playing alone, however, noticeably diminishes the experience—it’s always more fun to laugh out loud in a group than it is sitting alone in your basement.

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January 23, 2011

Catching up with the Brotherhood

Assassins Creed: Brotherhood
It’s not easy to get behind a franchise that has made the decision to go annual. The knowledge that the machinery has aligned specifically to bludgeon every last dollar out of the property (and the consumer) is grave in its implications. As an adherent to the existing systems for emulating assassins and their creeds, Ubisoft’s decision to Call-of-Dutyerize Assassin’s Creed was, for me, an ominous sign; the gong of some distant bell signalling the end of all things, save a string of uninspired sequels.

Then, of course, there was the multiplayer. One recalls the dial-it-in multiplayer solutions for traditionally single-player games like Bioshock and Metroid Prime and would be forgiven for groaning audibly. Equally, the human capacity to defy carefully crafted mechanics and break multiplayer game design is well known. Surely, Assassin’s Creed would have no chance of maintaining a mechanic based on careful stealth and patience among the multiplayer community.

Rarely is being wrong so satisfying.

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January 18, 2011

Leaked Screenshots Unveil Terrifying X-Douche

Filed under: News Feed — Tags: , , , , , , , , — Brad Johnson @ 5:16 pm

X-Men: Destiny
The destiny you’ve always fantasized about is to play a horrible Jersey Shore reject with the mutant power of extreme douchery, if leaked screenshots from X-Men: Destiny are to be believed.

You can check out a selection of art and screenshots at Comics Alliance, featuring an X-Bro apparently ripped directly from the pages of Modern Design Cliches: 101 Bags, Tattoos, and Beard Styles, who appears strangely out of place as he battles alongside elaborate, brightly colored heroes in his wife-beater. One recalls the original design for Cole in inFamous 2 and thinks “Well, I guess that wasn’t so bad, after all.”

December 23, 2010

Demo Report – LittleBigPlanet 2

LittleBigPlanet 2
We’re back with yet another demo report, this time covering Media Molecule’s LittleBigPlanet sequel, now 87% more lethal—like a sharpened sausage. Now featuring rocket helmets, grappling hooks, and horrifying cybernetic bunny vehicles, LBP2 is gearing up to be perhaps even more preposterous than its predecessor.

The demo begins with the same silly charm as the original; here you are, strange little sackperson, in your cardboard imagination pod, ready to take on the imagination superhighway. There are three story-mode stages ready for your examination; the first introducing players to the new grappling hook.

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December 22, 2010

Demo Report – Mass Effect 2

Mass Effect 2
Alongside other heavy hitters like Dead Space 2 and LittleBigPlanet 2, yesterday saw the release of the Mass Effect 2 demo on PSN. As the resident Mass Effect addict, I took it upon myself to acquire this mystifying new software package and convert its contents into a convenient text delivery for your purposes.

The demo provides PS3 players with a short video explaining the basic premise of the original game, and then moves on to the opening scenes of Mass Effect 2. From there you’ll enter the character creation suite, where you can fully customize your demo Shepard. It probably would have been easier to simply offer the default appearance for Shepard in the demo, but including the entire creation process is a smart choice; customization is a huge part of Mass Effect 2, and this feature goes a long way towards communicating that to potential PS3 players.

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December 21, 2010

Demo Report – Dead Space 2

Filed under: Editorial Rants — Tags: , , , , , , , , , — Brad Johnson @ 7:01 pm

Dead Space 2
The demo for Dead Space 2 hits XBL and PSN today, and with it comes the opportunity to step back into the shoes of mentally imbalanced and hyper-lethal space engineer Isaac Clarke.

The demo opens with a few minutes of video covering the events of Dead Space: Extraction and Dead Space (Don’t play it if you haven’t finished Dead Space, it spoils the ending!) before dropping you onto the Sprawl, a massive space station. If you’re familiar with Dead Space, what follows is very much familiar: you’ll slink through the corridors warily, and sooner or later some monsters will explode from the walls to attack you. The dismemberment mechanic from the original is, of course, still present; careful aim can mean the difference between felling an enemy with two shots or six. Never fear, though: the demo isn’t all routine.

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December 20, 2010

Derezzing Tron: Legacy

Filed under: Reviews — Tags: , , , , , , , — Brad Johnson @ 4:59 pm

Tron Legacy
I didn’t exist when Tron hit theaters twenty-eight years ago, but elements of the film so permeate pop culture that it’s impossible not to be familiar with it, even if you’ve never seen it. When Tron: Legacy trailers began to disperse across the internets, intriguing me with their dark Daft Punk soundtrack and impressive amounts of shiny, I made it my business to go seek out the original film, so that I might be prepared to digest the sequel. Having seen Tron Guy and lightcycles and old jokes from The Simpsons and Family Guy, I wasn’t entirely sure what to expect.

It was weird. My impression was distinctly that the film would have been received very different in 1982, but now, as a twenty-something in 2010, there was a real problem. Nevermind dated effects; Tron was a film that only made sense in the loosest way, with simplistic and sometimes unclear ideas. The world of Tron was one that it wasn’t easy to grasp, because the film doesn’t really tell you what that world is. There’s no mythology there, only the bare bones of a concept to fuel a special-effects adventure.

I walked into Tron: Legacy looking for the concepts and ideas of the original film to be expanded and developed into a modern story that would satisfy my need for detail, for understanding, and for a mythology that simply didn’t exist in the original film. Sadly, Tron: Legacy makes a tradition of vagaries and half-ideas, equally unformed and unsatisfying.

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