Gameinformer Overview – November Update 2011
This months Gameinformer cover features Transformers and the Fall of Cybertron. It’s a huge month for the online gaming community as Call of Duty Modern Warfare 3 is released within a week as well as a few other large titles in the upcoming months.
Beat Hazard Ultra
The best way that I can describe Beat Hazard Ultra is to take Super Stardust HD, put all your favorite dance/electro/dubstep music behind it and put thousands of music strobing lights on the screen at the same time.
When I first looked at a gameplay video of this game I couldn’t even keep track of what was going on, but soon after I downloaded it, I was already playing on Suicidal and it was pure fun!
Gameinformer Overview – September Update 2011
Gameinformer Overview – September Update 2011
Can you believe it’s September? School has started and I hope you’re having fun in college, because I know I’m having fun while not in college! Either way, we have quite a few games to pick from today, so lets not waste anymore time and lets just jump in right away!
One of the first games listed in this months gameinformer issue is called tropico 4. Now, to be honest, this is the first time hearing of this game for me, but obviously this is the fourth installment in this series, so I suppose that would mean there are fans out there somewhere. From the looks of this game, it seems like it’s a replica of the sims games, except you’re on an island with a volcano on it. To me, this doesn’t seem interesting, but for those of you who are into this kind of thing, September 16th is the day to look forward to!
One thing that did come about early this September is Call of Duty XP! Unfortunately, I missed it this year, but rumor has it, that there will be another next year, so make sure you get signed up for this one, because I know I sure will be!
Next up on our list today is Borderlands 2! Unfortunately I never picked up Borderlands, the first one, but whenever Borderlands 2 is set to release in 2012, you can count me in, because I will not miss this opportunity this time! Graphically, it looks like the last one did, it has a very artsy and creative feel to it, so for everyone who fell in love with that look in the first edition, you should prepare yourself for some more, because Borderlands 2 is right around the corner!
One more upcoming title that has touched the hearts of all Playstation 3 owners is Resistance 3! When the PS3 system originally launched, this was one of the only games out for it at the time, so everyone who jumped on the Sony train early on, have had their fair share of gameplay in the Resistance franchise. So for everyone who liked the previous installments, get out your pens and mark September 6th on your calendars!
As always, there are a couple sports titles being released in the near future. Now, I used to be a huge fan of the NHL games back in the day, but as time progressed, I have evolved into a first person shooter beast, so I don’t play as many sports titles anymore, but I do like to keep a couple on the shelf just encase I need to break out a party game once in a while. Other than that though, I really have no use for any sports titles, for the simple fact that I’m not really a hardcore sports fan. I don’t play fantasy football and I don’t watch any sports games religiously, so as far as sports games go, they just don’t tickle my fancy.
Last, but not least, we have Guild Wars 2. Now, if you’ve been gaming for any period of time, I’m sure that you have got your hands on some MMORPG game and if you’re anything like the rest of us, you couldn’t put it down for years. This being said, when I hear about a new MMORPG being released to the public, I get a little tingly feeling inside and just as the ring called to Froto in the Lord of the Rings, every new MMORPG game calls to me and it’s not easy to resist!
Apparently, Guild Wars 2 is focusing very heavily on their storyline, which should be super interesting to see, because I think it would be fairly difficult to fluidly work in a strong storyline into any MMORPG game, but let’s hope that Guild Wars 2 doesn’t let us down and maybe GW2 will take off and we can all play it together and live happily ever after.
This just about wraps up this fairy tale, so bring up a browser and start researching some of these games a little deeper while you wait for Octobers issue of Gameinformer to be released!
Dead Nation Attacks the PSN November 30th
According to the Playstation Blog, Housemarque’s PSN zombie apolcalypse title, Dead Nation will be coming in just a couple weeks. Dead Nation will feature both online and offline two player cooperative campaign play and will also support Trophies. The game will retail for $14.99 when it releases on November 30th.
Check out below last years Gamescom trailer for Dead Nation and let us know if you will be picking this one up.
L.A. Noire Trailer Closes in on Solving It’s Own Crime…A Release Date
Rockstar Games next big hit has apparently given us a little more insight on when we can expect the long overdue title from developer Team Bondi. A recent trailer shows off some of the in-game cutscenes and gives us a brief idea on what we can expect in L.A. Noire. In case this is the first time you’ve heard of the game, L.A. Noire is a violent detective crime thriller that is set in Los Angelas during the 1940′s, that will have you solving, interrogating, and making a number of choices to solve whatever gritty crime that comes your way.
L.A. Noire is a game that I’ve been looking forward to for a while now, but gave up interest due to it’s lack of news. I’m very happy to see at least a little more progress has been made, and glad to hear that the game will “hopefully” release in 2011.
L.A. Noire is set to come out for the Xbox 360 and Playstation 3 in Spring of next year.
E3 2010: Sony Announces Playstation Plus
Sony announced today there premium service for the PS3. It will be called Playstation Plus and will run you $49 a year or $18 every 3 months. Here are some the extras you will receive for being a Playstation Plus member.
- Exclusive in-game DLC and other content
- Free full games, changing each month
- Early access to demos and betas
- Auto-patching feature, which will detect, download and install updates
One bad thing about this is that once, and if you cancel your subscription you lose all access to all the free content you have downloaded.
E3 2010: Twenty 3D PS3 Titles To Be Released By March 2011
Kaz Hirai has announced today that the PS3 will sport twenty titles that will have 3D support by March 2011. Games like Motorstorm: Apocalypse, Killzone 3, The Sly Connection, Gran Turismo 5, Crysis 2, Mortal Kombat: Fatality, ShaunWhite Skateboarding, Ghost Recon: Future Soldier, TRON Evolution, NBA 2k11, and more.
MLB 10: The Show
“People ask me what I do in winter when there’s no baseball. I’ll tell you what I do. I stare out the window and wait for spring”.-Rogers Hornsby
That’s one of my favorite baseball quotes, and as were into another season Sony Computer Entertainment has another baseball game for us and this years is better than ever.
Gameplay
The best thing about The Show in my opinion is it’s life like gameplay. It is a very sim baseball experience which may turn some people off who are just looking for a casual sports title to play. But if you want a game where every decision you make counts, The Show my friend is for you.
The Pitching works by using the face buttons to pick a pitch and throw the ball while the left analog is for ball placement. Over the Pitchers head is a pitch meter, this is used for power and accuracy, the better your accuracy the better control your pitcher will have. If he’s getting fatigued or knocked around his accuracy will decrease, which makes for tough decisions whether or not to bring in a relief from the pen, or leave your starter out there for one more.
Some will say graphics are a very big part of gaming and I tend to agree, and the visuals in The Show do not disappoint. Everything from player signature batting stances to the detail of the uniforms that actually looks like it stretches when the player swings the bat. The player animations on the field looks as if your watching a real game on TV, not to mention the amazing detail on the facial features of the players. It only makes the game that much more fun to play.
The Hitting is what separates The Show from the rest of the competition. Again you use the X to swing but my favorite part about the hitting is the “Guess Pitch.” This allows you to guess the pitch the pitcher is throwing as well as the location and will show a red indicator if you are correct. I’ve had some great chess like battles with pitchers because of this feature and it really makes you change up your style if your on the mound to keep the hitter off balance. I will say the hitting has a very high learning curve, you have to work counts and learn when to swing and when to lay off and take a pitch. But if you can master this it feels very rewarding when you start driving runs in and it doesnt make you take for granted that hey it really is hard to hit a ball in the major leagues.
Road To The Show
This mode is the games bread and butter. Road To The Show is a create a player mode. You start off in Double A and try working your way up to the big leagues. You can pick any position you’d like to play but must also pick a secondary position in case your slumping and lose the starting job at your primary position. You can add a number of features to your player, everything from what color glove and spikes you want up too what kind of hitter you want to be. By this I mean during games you earn points almost like XP by doing objectives you have during a game. For example drive in the runner from 3rd or do not strike out etc. With these points you earn you can add them to your player to increase your contact vs pitchers or power if you want to be more of a homerun hitter. These points can also be added to your defensive skills as well. There are a ton of different ways you can shape your player out to be. They’ve also added this year the ability to call the game as a catcher which is fun at first but seems to make the game drag over the duration of the season. Another nice option is only the plays your created player is involved in are shown. Everything else is in “Fast Forward” mode. It makes the game move on and I love that option they give you. Of course if you want to play every pitch this can be changed in menu settings.
Multiplayer
In past years of The Show the online aspect has been the games achilles heel. With complaints of Lag and drop outs that would happen late in the game for no apparent reason, Im happy to say this years online seems to be fixed. Out of the 20 or so games I’ve played only 3 were unplayable. Another fun addition to this years game is Online Leagues. It lets you make a season with your friends by doing either a private league or you can make a public league to set up with randoms. If you can get enough serious people for this you can have an absolute blast.
Bottom 9, 2 down
At the end of the day this is a must have if your a baseball fan who isn’t afraid of a little challenge. Between RTTS, Franchise mode, Homerun Derby and addicting online play, there are hours upon hours to be had in MLB 10: The Show and I already look forward to what they bring in 2011. Sony Computer Entertainment hit a homerun once again.
Battlefield Bad Company 2
The Battlefield franchises has always defined tactical warfare combat on the PC and has now managed to take more then a slice of the pie on the consoles. Bad Company 2 follows up the popular first game in the franchise with lots of changes and improvements that help it stand above others first person shooters. Dice has thrown down the gauntlet at the feet of other shooters that would stand opposed to it with the latest in the Bad Company series and doesn’t pull any punches. The game offers an extremely deep and tactical online multiplayer as well as a respectable single player. The game boasts unmatched ingame destructibility which really helps shape the battlefield in a different way every round, promising to keep throwing curve balls at you just when you think you have a strategy. So does Battlefield Bad Company 2 blow away the competition, or is it firing blanks?
Reshaping the Battlefield
One of the best and most talked about features of the first Bad Company game was the environmental destructibility. Blow buildings apart to their frames exposing enemies within and create new entrances to assault a position. This destructibility has been taken to the next level in Bad Company 2, including the new ability to completely level houses, with people still inside. Taking the door is now truly for the sucker. You might think this is nothing more then a gimmick, but it really does make each multiplayer match a little different from one another. If their is one complaints I can level against the Modern Warfare franchise, it’s the predictability of its multiplayer. Days after release the Modern Warfare maps have been completely picked clean for hiding spots and tactics. You are funneled down the same pipes, game after game. It’s an everyman for himself gun fight, unlike Battlefield Bad Company 2. Discovering and creating your own personalized paths to your objectives is half the fun. Taking cover in a house no longer provides you will infinite cover. You aren’t safe anywhere as walls and trees are blown away by many different kinds of explosions and ammunition. Get in a vehicle and squeeze the trigger to maximize destruction and chaos. Almost everything in Bad Company 2 can be reduced to a heaping pile of ruble, so walk with care.
Single Player
Bad Company 2 does feature an average length single player experience which doesn’t exactly blow the genre away, but it does its job nicely. The boys of Bad Company are back and this time in a much more respectable position. Asked to handle situations of the highest importance, these soldiers are no longer the rag tag pack of thieves you once knew. The game parades you to different locals all over the world, and does a fairly good job of spicing up the games pacing. Vehicle segments, flashbacks and weather related challenges are just a few ways the game keeps you on your toes. The original games insane health “needles” have been ditched in favor of the much more appropriate regeneration system. It won’t blow your doors off, but it’s a fairly enjoyable campaign that lasts an appropriate length. If you don’t have access to the online mutliplayer, this single player does not do enough to warrant a purchase.
Still King
Multiplayer is where Bad Company 2 really shines. Just like the other games in the franchise, tactical online multiplayer makes this game important among so many other similar games. This game really requires you to work as a team to win. Joining a squad is not just a suggestion. It will help you organize your efforts as a team and also help you personally progress to unlock more weapons and equipment. The multiplayer is once again broken up into classes, each with their own perks and weapons. Healing teammates is the job of the medic, while the job of repairing tanks goes to the engineer. You can also choose to be a grunt solider or stealthy sniper. A mix of all the classes is the mark of a prepared squad. Like previous Battlefield games, kills and objective points will increase your rank and unlock better weapons among other things. The game is generous with giving out points for pretty much any style of playing. Killstreaks, defensive actions and accuracy are just some examples of rewarding behavior. We have a lot to do, so get out there solider!
Bad Company 2 also features new game modes and some old returning classics. “Squad Rush” being one of the best additions and “Conquest” keeps fans of the old capture and defend Battlefield style happy. Battlefield is still the king of online mutliplayer. The vehicles and weapons just have that extra level of polish and balance that set this series apart. Teamwork is always encouraged and rewarded. The destruction and chaos form a perfect storm of fun that will keep people coming back for more. It truly does embarrass the competition in terms of scale and creativity. Long drawn out sniper fights, epic tank battles or close quarter combat sequences are all parts of one huge battle. The maps are not only large, but well designed and creative. It’s a real shining star in a genre so bogged down with average multiplayers. Unfortunately the losing side of a multiplayer match is treated to a loud air horn blast every 3 seconds for the final minute of the game, but it’s a small gripe. Bad Company 2 demonstrates how great first person shooting multiplayer can be.
Closing Thoughts
You can’t deny the impact the Battlefield games have had on the first person shooting genre, just like you can’t deny the brilliance that is Bad Company 2. Their is something here for everyone. Unfortunately the PC version was bogged down with technical issues at launch, but stick with it. Most games have their hitches, and this game isn’t one any first person shooter worth his salt should skip over.
Heavy Rain
Heavy Rain is an experiment in game design that succeeds in new and exciting ways for gaming but is also plagued with some very unfortunate flaws. It’s not a game in the typical sense as players have only some control over a characters actual movement. The game consists of small exploration segments, quicktime events and some walking around. It doesn’t sound like an exciting game, or even much of a game at all, but don’t brush it off just yet. It’s the way the game uses these simple mechanics to weave a story about murder and emotion that will hook you in. An interactive movie would be one way of describing it. Does Quantic Dream’s new title succeed in shaping a new hybrid of cinema in video games, or is this game all talk and no action?
The Presentation.
The main focus of Heavy Rain is the mystery of the Origami Killer. All the characters you control will play their own roles in the telling of this story, but how large of a role is up to you. The story takes some odd twists and turns but does arrive at a proper resolution in the end, all decided by the decisions you made earlier.
During Heavy Rain you will have the chance to control multiple characters who all have certain skeletons in their closets and demons on their backs. The game does a good job of revealing insights into characters pasts and thoughts through interesting ways. Ethan Mars was a man that had his whole life in proper order before devastation throws his entire world into disarray. Scott Shelby is a former police officer turned private investigator who struggles to balance asthma, drinking and tracking down leads on the Origami Killer. Stuff like this help separate this game from the usual terrible cliche video game characters who solve every problem with bullets. The burden lies somewhat on the player to truly reveal the characters thoughts and motivations. It’s important to investigate areas as well as remembering to check a characters thoughts by holding down a a trigger. Characters are well rounded enough to be interesting, but the voice acting is up and down. It’s actually distracting to listen as voice actors do a poor job of covering up accents. When it’s good it’s great, but when some of the more cheesy dialog meets up with bad voice acting it can really produce cringe worthy results.
The visuals of the game vary some but usually impress. The characters are beautiful as well as the environments. Some weird lip syncing animation can distract momentarily, but it doesn’t break the deal. It’s key that a game that relies so heavily on it’s story has characters that can produce proper facial expressions. In this way, Heavy Rain doesn’t let you down. Characters move in ultra realistic fashion and the effects impress as well.
Actually Playing The Game
When you get down to the meat of the gameplay, it’s really quiet simple. Onscreen prompts get everything done. Roll the stick to the right to slider a door open, or press x quickly to dodge an incoming punch. Some more complicated prompts show up later that will have you holding down up to five buttons at a time, which can really test your finger dexterity. Although quicktime events don’t seem like fun, when your characters life depends on it, it’s insanely engrossing. It’s the storyline that really matters and the quicktime events are a only a vehicle that the character must use to shape his own fate. One of the best things about Heavy Rain is the knowledge that you can die or be captured at many points in the game, and the story will roll right along. No retry. No game over screen. It’s up to you to make the right calls to keep everyone alive, but it doesn’t require you to do so. Characters might die suddenly (as was the case in my game) or get to live happily ever after. It’s an interesting experience to have to control over little things, such as opening a cupboard, pulling out a box of juice and finally lifting it to your mouth to drink. That simple task can be spread out over 4 different actions you need to fulfill. It’s a unique experience no doubt.
The dialog in the game is handled in a somewhat clunky fashion. Options swirl around your head each coinciding with a button press. It’s a little frustrating when you have little time and the option you want is shaking and moving and just generally difficult to read. I think something like the Mass Effect 2 Dialog system could have helped set this game on sturdier ground.
You can also play this game two times and have wildly different outcomes which is fantastic. It’s strange that the game does so many new things but fails at old things. Character movement is horrendous. Characters control like tanks that have lots their treads and randomly decide to take a left when you want a right. Your hands will sweat as you try to nail every button prompt on screen because someones life is usually on the line. It helps everything have a weighty feel, even if the wool is somewhat being pulled over your eyes occasionally. The game also throws in some memory testing sections that really turn things up and should have been a more heavy component in my opinion.
In The End
While the game does present itself as something new, it only delivers on half of the promises it makes. The storyline is interesting, but absolutely filled with plot holes and ham-handled red herrings. The action sequences are intense but cluttered with control and camera problems. For everything the game does right, it does something else poorly. It’s an experiment with mixed results. I would recommend you play it just for the experience, but as a game and a piece of entertainment it doesn’t transcend the medium like I had hoped for.