Heavy Rain … Or… Press –> to read this post.
After many hours and many times of screaming “No, not that way!!” and “Damnit I DID hit X” I have finished playing through Heavy Rain, the thriller mystery exclusive for the Playstation 3. It took a little longer than I had originally planned due to some frustration with the control scheme and the ever impeding life thing I have going on (I really should do something about that).
Heavy Rain takes us through the story/mystery of the Origami Killer as if affects a family, the detectives searching, and the journalist reporting on it. Unlike some of the other games of this genre, you get to play as each different character to get their point of view on the story, and ultimately drive the story to a unique ending tailored to your actions. This is one of the story points that really makes Heavy Rain stand out. It’s a cleverly disguised “Choose Your Own Adventure” story where, depending on what choices you made, you may get a completely different ending than someone else. Because of the nature of the story, I hesitate to mention any plot line specifics for fear of spoiling it. Instead we will jump to the likes and dislikes.
Likes:
Great Story - Seems like most of the games I have really gotten into as of late have been driven by a good solid story. Heavy Rain really takes the murder mystery story to a whole new level with the different ways you can drive it, including multiple different outcomes. I have said many times that story is really key to a good game so I won’t spend time on this one. The story was good.
Detailed Graphics - The detail that goes into the characters and settings in Heavy Rain is amazing (in some places). If you get the chance I highly suggest checking out some of the bonus videos on the disk that show the actors that portrayed the characters in the game. The fact that they were able to make the in game faces match so perfectly was astounding.
Innovative control scheme - Heavy Rain really takes immerse control to the extreme where you can interact with so many things and each action is meticulous in it’s implementation. The use of the Six Axis to perform tasks like sliding a door, opening a cupboard, or turning a nob worked really well.....for the first 10 min (Continued Bellow).
Multiple perspectives - As the story played out you get to jump from Ethan (The Father), to Madison (The Journalist), to Norman (The Agent), and to Scott (The P.I.). Because of this it almost felt like you were following four different stories, but they all tied together in an amazing way and it was genius to see the same story from all of the different views.
Solid voice acting - None of the voice acting really felt forced like we have seen in other games. Most of the conversation seems to flow naturally and fit the mood of the game very well. The behind the scenes videos showing how they auditioned some of the actors was a great touch. I love watching voice actors perform.
Dislikes:
Suspension of Disbelief - This stemmed from one of the first scenes in the game, hopefully not much of a spoiler, where Ethan looses track of his son in a mall. He can see him only about 30 feet in front of him but the mall is crowded and it’s hard to catch up, even though you are calling out to your son, he blatantly ignores you for the full 20 min you are chasing him (right behind him BTW). The people in the mall actually move in front of you so it makes it even more difficult to catch up. Also, you can't run so you are doing this at a walking pace. There were quite a few times in the game where I felt that the "fourth wall" was broken due to something completely unbelievable.
Graphic Glitches - So as nice and detailed as the graphics were, there were still quite a few graphics glitches that really took it from a simple glitch to a full blown annoyance. Things like fabric, the clothes they would put on or take off looked horrible. Like they could stand up on their own. Walking around the rooms made your character look like a strung out marionette. It just seemed that in free walk mode the characters had no fluid motion.
Innovative control scheme - So after the first 10 minutes the control scheme starts to really be tedius and aggravating. For example, at one point I needed to walk over to the fridge, tap the analog stick to the left to open the fridge door, tap up to grab the orange juice, shake the controller to shake the juice, tap up again to drink the juice, tap down to put the juice back and tap right to close the fridge. Now count that. That's 6 button/stick commands to do a simple act of drinking juice. Between each command there is a pause in gameplay so I can issue the next command. Towards the end of the game it wasn't quite as bad since you aren't really searching anymore.
For the most part, I didn’t hate the game. The story kept me going and the way the game played out for me was good for how I played it. I really wish that the dislikes didn’t detract from the game as much as they did because it would have made it that much better. As it was I feel like I spent 20 minutes of every hour playing just doing the control gimmicks and tedious button mashing. Overall I enjoyed playing it and would give it a Solid 7 Origami Cranes out of 10.
Naughty Bear…or….20 minutes of game play I’ll never get back
Tuesday is new game release day, and Wednesday is new comic day. Now I don't typically buy as many new games as I buy comics, but I tend to keep an eye on what's getting released in the same way. This last Tuesday saw two releases that I have been watching for a while now. Lego Harry Potter, and Naughty Bear. I knew what to expect with any Lego game, while they may tell different stories, the game play is similar across the board. The Sleeper was Naughty Bear. I had seen a number of preview videos and some of the trailers, and to be honest, they did their job well and I was enticed. It looked funny/cute in a "Happy Tree Friends" sort of way.
Sadly, I was wrong. I bought Naughty Bear at 7:30pm on Tuesday night, got home and played through the first "episode" and instantly knew that I had made a mistake. I toughed it out and finished the episode, then packed it up and headed back to Gamestop. Thankfully the gracious personnel there were nice enough to let me swap it out for Lego Harry Potter.
Side note here. I was warned, by Erin when I bought Naughty Bear, that it was going to be bad. I decided to make my own judgment.
So what made it so bad? Well, The idea was good and funny. Unfortunately that was the extent of the good. The Premise was that you played Naughty Bear, the bastard step child of this "Care Bear" style island where everything is puppies and kittens. Some of the other bears on the island have treated you unfairly and you decide to get back at them by being naughty. Being Naughty can range from scaring them, sabotaging their stuff, or even bashing their stuffed heads in with a baseball bat. Who wouldn't think that could be fun?!
What it ended up being was a series of "Challenges" where you had to sneak around and scare/kill your fellow bears while disrupting their activities. I guess that you could play the game more Sam Fisher style and sneak in the bushes then pop out and scare them, but after the first time you do that they all know you are there, so no more sneaking will help you. From there is just becomes "I'm going to run around and hit you with a bat". When you finish with the bears, you can gain a few extra points by smashing stuff. And that was it! After a while, even the narration is grating.
Now, I think the game may be not as bad as I am making it out to be if it weren't for one more glaringly bad problem, it was release at the price point of $49.99. For the same price as something like Lego Harry Potter, you get a game that may have done well as an Xbox Arcade title, for maybe $10-$12 bucks
The Graphics were just ok, the actual game mechanics were horrible. I had to maneuver myself around and fumble with the view to get into a position where I could actually scare another bear. Just Awful, one of the worst games I have tried. This may, and I emphasize MAY, be worth it when the price drops down to like $5, which I have no doubt that it will fall to that.
Red Dead Redemption
Yeah it's been a little while since the last update, mostly because I have been powering through Red Dead Redemption, the latest open world game from Rockstar Games. (There was also a little time spent down with friends in Fredericksburg, Aw Yeah GhettoCon!) So after much playing and venturing back and forth from New Austin to Mexico, I have finished the game. (and to those who know, you just lost the game)
One of the things I love about the open world games from Rockstar is that they know how to write a good story, and then they let you play it out as you like, when you like. This happened with Grand Theft Auto IV as well. The story was so engaging that I really felt for some of the characters and cared about what happened with them. When one of the characters wronged me, I felt no compunction when it came time to choose to kill them or let them live. I also became attached to certain characters and found myself wondering if there would be more missions with them or if I would even run into them again.
This happened in spades in RDR. From the very start of the story I began to meet characters that made me want to work on the story more than the side missions. I almost wish that there was some sort of random mission generator that would involve the storyline characters more instead of just standard NPC's, but I am getting ahead of myself.
The story starts out with John Marston getting escorted into a train to the middle of nowhere in New Austin to Confront one of his old Gang Member friends Bill Williams. John, not being all that smart, confronts Bill outside of a heavily guarded fort and gets himself shot. Thankfully, a local Rancher, Bonnie MacFarlane, comes to your rescue and nurses you back to health. As it turns out these Shady government types have kidnapped your Wife and Son and are holding them until you turn in your former game members. The story has you venturing all through New Austin to hunt down these gang members. Along the way you learn how to ranch, hunt down other law breakers, fuel a Mexican Revolution, and explore a number of interesting characters. So as to not spoil anything, I will stop there with the story and move to game play.
Rockstar is very well known for their open world games and with RDR they took it to the next level. The setting was absolutely stunning. Everywhere I went I found myself stopping for a moment to admire the graphics and the environment. There is something about watching the sun set over the Mexican desert while sitting on the back of your horse who just saved you by outrunning the bandits that were chasing you down. As I have stated before, the story is awesome. It engages you, it pulls at your heart strings, and even enrages you at some points. (I found myself exclaiming as certain points "Damn I hope I get to kill that guy!)
I actually had only a few issues with the game. There is an aiming system that allows you to snap to a target, kind of like Modern Warfare of Bad Company, when zooming in. This is a blessing and a curse. I found myself accidentally snapping to the wrong target a few times and shooting Lawmen instead of Bandits, Stagecoach drivers instead of Bandits, etc. This resulted in some unwanted bounties and loss of honor. I didn't bother to reload thought because. well, accidents happen! Also, watch out for bears. There is a reason why they are the Number One Threat to America. My last complaint is a little bit of a spoiler so I will do my best to talk around it. After the ending, which is very touching and I loved it, being able to continue roaming the world is great, but I felt very disconnected from the character after that point. Through all the rest of the story you really start to identify with Marsten and his troubles, after the ending, Marsten just isn't the same and I felt awkward playing as him.
Overall the game is outstanding and well worth the many many many hours spent playing it. I only wish there were more story.
Also....Poor Bonnie.
Iron Man 2
So it's about time I finally got around to writing up my thoughts on the new Iron Man movie. Seeing as how it was back on Saturday that I went to see it. Honestly there is not a lot to say since I am a big comic book nerd (cue Ogre screaming NERDS!!!) I am a little biased when it comes to comic book based movies. Even the abomination that is Spider-man 3 holds a special place in my heart...a cold dark place in my heart where hopefully no one will ever have to watch it ever again. The thing about the Iron Man movies is that, wait for it,........ I am not that big of an Iron Man comic fan!. I know I know, but I never really got that into him. If I wanted an eccentric millionaire that net his money on super hero toys I would just read Batman. Of course Tony Stark had a one up on Bruce Wayne in that he actually got drunk and didn't just fake it. But I digress.
Sarah and I met up with some friends to catch a 5pm show in Fairfax. It was originally going to be the 4:30 show but the directors hall (fancy theater where you get to pick your seats) was nearly sold out. This caused a minor panic and had me getting to the theater for the 5pm show at like 3:30 to be in the non-existent line. Go me. Needless to say there was a lot of sitting and waiting. During this time Sarah discovered Plants Vs Zombies on the iPad and came to the realization that this new gadget of mine can stay.... Of course she renamed it the iPvZ device. Anyways, movie time rolled around and we took our seats. I used the best possible time to escape for a pre-movie bio run during the new twilight trailer, oh noes, did I miss anything important?. Yeah I didn't think so.
--------Spoilers!!! Skip Ahead if you don't want to be spoiled------------
For this movie it's established that Mr. Stark is the Iron Man and now big brother wants to get his hands on the tech, but Tony isn't selling. While the Govt. is claiming that others are creating suits to match Tony proves otherwise with his super transparent phone and everyone is happy. Well, except this Russian guy who is really into whips and has the stalker wall of Tony. Oh by the way turns out that the gizmo in Tony's chest that's keeping him alive is also killing him, so he goes a little bananas. Whip dude invents a suit and comes after Tony and bam the Govt. says "I told you so".
So Tony works on getting hammered to finish himself off and Tony's competitor enlists the help of whip dude to build some new suits, like we don't see that backfiring in the future. Now Tony's friend Rhody comes in to snag a suit and tell Tony off and Shield. Swoops in to clean up the mess that is left over, mostly Tony. They tell Tony that he doesn't have to die, he just needs a good hardware based montage to find the answer. Bam just like that Tony invents a new element and he is healed!! (although the healing tastes like coconut).
Now Tony feels better, Rhody has a new and improved suit thanks to some new guns strapped to it, and whip dude has created an army of robot drones that are controlled from an orbiting space station that gets taken out by a kid and a droid....wait wrong movie. But the robot army is real. Tony receives a plot device, er, I mean phone call from whip dude boasting that he is going to blow up some of Tony's stuff, Tony swoops in and saves the day and realizes that even he needs friends. Then everyone hugs and they fly off into the night.
---------End Spoilers--------------
Ok so maybe there was a little more to it than that, but you get the picture. Now, things I loved about the movie were:
Playful banter, somehow Robert Downy Jr just knows how to do the banter shtick. It worked great in IM1 and in Sherlock Holmes, and it works great here. The playful banter between him and Pepper Potts was great.
Simple plot, there was not a lot to the story here and that's a good thing. A lot of time the superhero movies get mired down in story after story all piled on top of each other, and it just gets messy. One villain (unless you count Tony's demise as a villain) and one main plot. Simple and great.
Great action, all of the action sequences where very comic book. Nothing overly Hollywood about them.
As for the things I didn't like....there were very few. They could have explained a little more about the random cameos, the cap shield, Black Widow, etc. But it wasn't that bad without it. Really I just liked the movie. If Marvel keeps with this recipe then they will do well with the rest of the Avenger cast movies!!
Wow, I thought when I started this that I wouldn't have that much to say, I guess I was wrong. I am giving Iron Man 2 a good 8 arc reactors out of 10.
Quick Aside, this post written entirely on the iPad, and my hand kind of hurts now.
Jonah Hex
It's now secret that I am a comic book fan. (Fan is probably an understatement) I love the super hero comics and even some of the Sci fi type comics. The one odd ball in my current pull list is Jonah Hex. I don't know what it is about Jonah Hex as a comic but it really appealed to me. For those that don't know, Jonah Hex is an Old West style spaghetti western type comic. The character of Hex is a Bounty Hunter who used to fight in the civil war. He was raised by Indians and is a tough as nails, hard to kill bad ass. Imagine Batman in the old west (with no money and a scared up face). Hex has no powers and no reservations on who should live or die, as long as he gets paid. The comic is gritty and real(ish, it is a comic after all.) That's the main draw for me. Simpler time where the line between black and white was much thinner, and there were no real politics to how Hex handled situations, and no hidden motives. So two years ago I heard they were planning a Jonah Hex movie. I was elated! The story could have been pulled from any of the great runs of the comic and been amazing.
Skip ahead to the present. Many announcements were made about the movie. Josh Brolin was cast as the lead and I thought "Yeah, I can see that". Even him talking about the makeup and the limitations of doing the Eye and the Lip skin flap, and how they had to fall back on how it looks now because it was the most feasible, it's all understandable. I groaned when I heard Megan Fox was cast. (Personally I think as long as she shuts up she is ok.) I secretly wished she would be cast as Tallulah Black. (Tallulah ended up as another severely scarred up Bounty Hunter.)
So now we have the trailer launched. I see the story they are going for and I am thinking......WTF?!?! Take a look for yourself:
Seriously. Hex is not "Supernatural". He has no powers. He got his scared up face from the Apache Indians! Why did they think they needed to go with some strange powers just because it's a comic book movie?!? Look at 3:10 to Yuma. It was a great Western movie with a bad ass and it worked! That should be the same recipe for Jonah Hex! I know I will still go and see the movie because I want to see more comics made into movies but I reserve the right to be upset about the changes to a beloved character.
Sigh
Uncharted 2
Continuing with the growing supply of sequel titles that were released this year, Uncharted 2 found it's way to my very, very dusty PS3. Even thought I rarely play my PS3, I was eager to get my hands on Uncharted 2. The first game was a stunning way to show off the PS3's capabilities as well as having a great story. Naughty Dog goes the extra mile when it comes to writing for these games. Uncharted 2 is no different. Every element of the game is stunning. From graphics, to story, to music, to voice acting, oh, and also that gameplay thing. (I guess we should talk a bit about that as well.
Uncharted 2 really is only a sequel in name and characters, the story is very stand alone and that is a great draw. In this story, our Hero, Nathan Drake, finds himself chasing down the fabled treasures of Marco Polo. This time around we don't have the family tie that he had with Sir Francis Drake, but who needs more motivation than a giant Sapphire right? Through his adventures we meet new characters, new love interests, and even bring back some of the old characters. (It wouldn't be the same without Sully.)
Drake travels all over Nepal, Istanbul, and the Himalayas as he tracks down the different clues that will lead him to fortune and glory. Through tropical jungle to snowy mountain peaks, the visuals are amazing. This is what the PS3 should be touting as true Next Gen graphics and the whole reason I picked up a 1080P TV. Far too often did I find myself marveling over the distance shots and the detail taken to render the smallest details. I would encourage you to take a stroll through the snow levels just to watch the dynamic of the trails and the build up of snow on Drakes legs.
Where this game really shines is in the story. I know there was the infamous PS3 commercial where some guy can't get his girl friend to stop watching because she thinks it's a movie, well, it's believable. Except that this movie can last a week long and probably had a much longer over all script. Mixed with the extremely well done voice acting, Uncharted 2 could easily be mistaken for a big budget CGI film. Every cut scene delighted and encouraged me to just set the controller down and enjoy. I know it sounds like I am raving about these few simple elements of a game that may be considered small parts but they really aren't. You could have the best game play in the world but without a good story to guide it, it's just a shell.
Thankfully the game play keeps with the high standard set by the other elements. You step seamlessly from cut scene to game play and back so it truly feels immersive. Most of the controls were easy to use and intuitive. (Although since I come from more of an Xbox background, the trigger and aim controls being on the shoulder buttons is odd to me.) There is not a lot to say about game play when it's solid, no bad camera angles, fluid motion, and god bless the Hint system! Every game should be required to have a system like this. If you don't want to use it you don't have to, but every now and then I ended up in an area wondering "what the hell am I supposed to do next?!" Thankfully the hint system would pop up and advise "Look at that open window up there stupid!" Far too often it saved me from looking things up in a guide or just getting frustrated and walking away. That's a huge deal for me.
Another big deal that has found quite a hold on the video game industry is music. I had the chance to attend a Video Games Live concert and it really opened my eyes to video game soundtracks. (Not that I wasn't aware of them before, but I am much more keyed into it now) Uncharted 2 delivers a soundtrack that is on par with that of many major motion pictures. It feels out the mood set by the setting and graphics and delivers the punch to make you feel the entire experience. Many times I can recall pausing and taking note of the amazing music. It's almost sad to me when I look back on playing a game and realize I can't recall the music because it just faded into the background. I love when music pops and Uncharted 2 does just that.
Now that I have covered all the good, lets talk about bad. Don't worry, there isn't much. Much like many free roaming over the shoulder games, sometimes the controls don't translate well. There were certainly less instances of "Stupid Ezio (Drake)" and most of them I think were really my fault, it was still there. And the only other bad note I can think of would be Multi-player. WHY?? Seriously, with Uncharted 1 you had a solid story game that was well received. Uncharted 2 had a solid story game, why should you feel the need to add multi-player? Plus, if you are going to add multi-player to a game, make it a co-op for the main story!! Far too many games tack on a "lets run around in a map and just shoot each other" multi-player and forget why we bought the game in the first place!
So there you have it. Uncharted 2 is a very solid game and I am eagerly looking forward to Uncharted 3.
Uncharted 2 gets a solid 9.5 out of 10 Stolen Artifacts
Assassin’s Creed II
Much like everyone else, I have been looking forward to ACII ever since I played ACI . Only mostly it was hoping that they finally got it right. ACI was stunningly beautiuful and had a really good story to accompany it. Unfortunatly, the gameplay was horrible. If you managed to get through the first area, you have pretty much played the whole game. Each area of ACI involved things like pick pocket this guy, evesdrop on that guy, beat up this guy, and then kill that one. Wash, rinse, repeat. Even the collection parts of the game were mind numbing. You walked into an area and had to collect flags, but there were like eleventy billion of them. I am not sure I know anyone who actually got all of them.
But this isn’t about ACI, it’s about it’s successor….Assassin’s Creed II. It would appear that Ubisoft realized that they had a great engine but needed to fill it out with a great game. And that’s what happened with ACII. It is amazing to see that a company finally started listening to it’s fans! The gameplay has caught up to the engine and we as gamers reap the benefits.
ACII starts off where ACI left of (in the horrible WTF cliffhanger, except that now it makes sense) in the Abstergo lab but it takes no time before you jump back into the Animus (2.0 even) to start off on the real reason that we all bought the game. I am not going to explain the plot of the game for you because this is a review and you probably already know what the plot is. From start to finish this story grabbed hold of me and wouldn’t leave me be. Even Sarah enjoyed watching the story (and filling me in on all the buildings and plot lines that mirrored real life). The visuals remained just as stunning as the original which was great of course. And the actual gameplay was brought perfectly in line. Each mission was unique and played well into the story. The outside collection missions were easy and beneficial.
In ACI you had to grab flags, but in ACII, you collected chests….which had money, which you could spend. Oh and by the way, they added a mertchant system! And a real estate system. Not to mention an equipment system. All of these things would have been great in the first game. It worked simply enough, Missions and chests would net you money. You use the money to make improvements on your Villa (your home base). More money pumped into the villa would bring you more income over all, which you would use to buy new and better weapons. You could also buy maps, that would show you where the treasure chests were, which would get you more money.
Where ACII really shined though was in the story. It was engaging, from start to end. There are very few games that have such an investing story that just grabs you and makes you care about the characters. (and there should be more!!) I found myself wonder what happened with some of the characters that I had only casually met! (Where is Christina the girl Ezio was seeing in the beginning?) At the same time I was excited to go and visit with Leonardo and see what wacky thing he had going on. This is one of the reasons I was happy to hear that the upcoming DLC for the game would fill in the holes on some of the characters.
Now that I have praised the game enough, lets start talking about where it fell short. I can not tell you how many times I cried out "No, no that way, Stupid Ezio!!!" (Although Sarah probably could tell you how many times. I think she was counting. There were times that the controls just didn't do what I wanted them to do. Sometimes it was nothing but a wrong turn but too many times it resulted with death, or even worse, missing a timed event! I am not even sure if it was me or the game, but like all other gamers, I am gonna blame the game here. I am trying to communicate that I want to jump after flipping right, and if Ezio goes forward then jump then right, that's not what I told it to do. I think the problem really was in the left over animations. Ezio would still be moving after I stopped, and so it translated wrong. 
Ubisoft cut down on the collection quests but not all together. The nice thing though is that they added the collections into the story. Feathers were collected to please your mother and remember your brother. (They also added a bit to the villa's worth) There are, of course, the chests, but you can get a map for those where there is no way of finding the feathers except seeing them in your travels (or using a guide). The only other collection item would be the glyphs for "Subject 16". These symbols were found on random buildings and added to the overall story outside of Ezio. The bigest problem I had with these was finding the building, and then where on the building. I managed to run across the buildings while I was out and about, the database would let me know there was a glyph but I would rarely have the time to search for it. So I would have to re-find the building later, and then scour the building for the glyph. After about 20 min of wall crawling, I ended up using a guide for some of these as well.
I really have to say, ACII is one of the best games I have played all year. I am not sure how re-playable it is, but it certainly took many hours of my gaming time and I count those as good solid entertainment. Unfortunatly it's not a perfect game. Finicky controls and hard to find collection items added time to the game that I would have rather spent in the story. The last complaint I have isn't really a complaint so much as an overwhelming feeling. There was so much in this game that it was almost hard to keep up with! Between the Vilia improvements, the main story, the codex pages, the Armor and weapon shops, the Assassin seals, and collections, I found myself sitting down and wondering, What part of the game do I want to play now? I know I know it doesn't sound like a complaint, but when I have to ask myself "what do I want to do?" it detracts from what the game wants me to do.
Over All, I give it a good solid 8.8 Florins, out of 10.
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