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December 28, 2010

Case West Report – For A Few Zombies More

Dead Rising 2 Case West
Dead Rising 2’s Xbox exclusive duet, featuring the gruff talents of Chuck Greene and Frank West in a standalone epilogue to the events of Fortune City, is very much a fan driven affair. And while that earth shattering revelation sinks in and turns your world upside down, allow me a few more sentences to elaborate.

Whereas Case Zero functioned as a prequel, a release that lured players into the layered world of slapstick zombie slaying and reality TV characters that furnish the series, Case West services the expectation that the ride through Fortune City has made a fan of you, which if you have any interest in downloading this addition is a safe bet. But while Case West subsequently works to add to the experience of the retail release, the simplicity of playing to fan anticipation makes for a game that feels several shades lazy, or at the very least, far less interested in impressing the player.

A narrower path of narrative priority certainly contributes to that feeling, and the inability to play as Mr. West in single-player sessions is most certainly more likely to upset fans rather than please, and as the game unfolds it’s hard to ignore the idea that an assumption of fandom leads Capcom to believe that said fans will tolerate glaring shortcomings for another dose of Zombrex.

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December 26, 2010

The View From Felghana

Filed under: Editorial Rants — Tags: , , , , , , , — Mister Raroo @ 6:13 pm

Ys The Oath in Felghana Review
There’s a group of lovable ne’er-do-wells that frequent the library I work at. All of them are past high school-age and their ambitions seem to center on engaging in Yu-Gi-Oh! duels, reading manga, and channeling as much time and energy as possible into playing Gaia Online. Though they might not have found their niche as productive members of society yet, the library is like a home to them, and it’s rather heartwarming to know that they’ve found a place where they fit in.

One of the members of this band of misfits always has a tattered PSP in hand, and he often uses our Internet connection to download new games via “alternative” means. Though I normally frown upon piracy, I know that purchasing new games is a luxury he can’t afford, and no degree of lecturing from me is going to stop him.

Once he discovered I was a fellow gamer, he began attempting to talk shop with me on occasion. His social and conversational skills are far from exceptional, and our discussions are usually awkward, though I would argue charmingly so. I know it probably takes a decent amount of bravery on his part to even approach me, so I’ve always tried to be as friendly as possible.

Recently he marched up over to my desk with a massive grin on his face – “Whys,” he cryptically said. I raised an eyebrow to signify that I didn’t quite follow what he was getting at, “Whys,” he repeated, “I just got the new Whys game.” At this point I deciphered that he was talking about Ys.

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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 18, 2010

Other N

Filed under: Editorial Rants — Tags: , , , , , , , — Jamie Love @ 2:31 pm

Metroid Other M
Heaping scorn on Other M this year may have become one of those instances where critical analysis is undermined by a perceived wave of venom sweeping away valid points into the faux deep sea known as “haters gotta hate.”

There’s a frequent knee-jerk reaction to that perception, which encourages going against the grain, digging for the deeper importance of a game simply to prove the bastards wrong. Some people do this because human beings are creatures capable of holding different and legitimate opinions, and others do this because standing against the crowd guarantees some level of attention. And rightly so, because if you can sing against the choir to find value where so many others have not, I’ll certainly give your words a read.

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December 17, 2010

Score Rush and Decimation X3 – Lords of Indie Bullet Hell

Filed under: Editorial Rants — Tags: , , , , , , , — Chris O'Neal @ 5:00 pm

Xona
My mind seems to be a bit scrambled at the moment, so you’ll have to forgive me. I just finished eight consecutive games of Score Rush on Xbox LIVE. Imagine being a white blood cell, drifting through the bloodstream on your way to, I don’t know, say a white blood cell rave party, when suddenly a virus appears.

As a fan of science, with no technical expertise or experience, I still imagine playing Score Rush is very similar to what would occur: the white blood cell would immediately fire millions upon millions of bullets at the intruders until they died, and gave up their experience points.

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